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of God,' as representing His personal action, and unconsciously prepared the way for a gospel of the Incarnation.1 "

But, further, there was, under the Old Covenant, yet another mode in which God disclosed Himself to man, through what may be termed an "internal" revelation. God is frequently spoken of as acting or working in man by means of His Spirit, a power proceeding from Him, not yet revealed as a distinct person, though in some passages there is an approximation to this, which must have led men's minds in the direction of the revelation afterwards made. Thus, throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of Jehovah, is represented as the principle of the life of man's soul, and every natural and intellectual gift in man is traced back to it. (See Job xxvii. 3, xxxiii. 4; Gen. xli. 38; Ex. xxxi. 3, xxxv. 31.) It is the Spirit which is the source of inspiration (Numb. xi. 25; Isa. lxi. 1), and the principle of sanctification (Ps. li. 10-12, cxliii. 10). Even the special title given to the Third Person of the blessed Trinity under the New Dispensation is prepared for under the Old Covenant, for in two passages the Spirit of God is spoken of under the name of God's Holy Spirit.

"Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy holy Spirit (LXX. τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιόν σου) from me" (Ps. li. 11). "But they rebelled, and grieved His holy Spirit (тò πνеûμа тò аylov avтov): therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them. Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and His people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? where is He that put His holy Spirit (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον) in the midst of them" (Isa. lxiii. 10, 11).2

Westcott on S. John, p. xvii.

* Outside the canonical books the title occurs again in Wisdom ix. 17.

Thus, although it would be an error to read the complete doctrine of the New Testament into the Old, yet it is undeniable that the way was prepared for it under the Old Covenant, and that the teaching of Holy Scripture on the Angel of the Lord and God's Holy Spirit foreshadows distinctions within the Godhead, which were subsequently revealed as Personal.

(b) The revelation of the mystery in the New Testament. -When we pass from the Old Testament to the New we find that we no longer have to content ourselves with faint adumbrations of the doctrine, but that it is clearly indicated that the distinctions within the Godhead are personal. And yet, as it has been truly said, “there is no moment when Jesus Christ expressly reveals this doctrine. It was overheard rather than heard. It was simply that in the gradual process of intercourse with Him, His disciples came to recognise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as included in their deepening and enlarging thought of God." 1 Almost the earliest intimation was that made at our Lord's baptism, when there came from heaven the voice of the Father, testifying to the beloved Son, upon whom the Spirit descended like a dove (S. Matt. iii. 13-17). And from this time onwards we can trace the gradual disclosure of the truth throughout our Lord's teaching. All through His ministry He taught His disciples to regard His relation to His heavenly Father as unique, showing that His Sonship was something peculiar, different from the sonship which they themselves could claim. His language implied that, though personally distinct from the Father, He was yet one with Him, and so Himself divine. So with increasing clearness,

"And Thy counsel who hath known, except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy Holy Spirit from above." See also Wisdom i. 5 and Ecclus. xlviii. 12, where Codex A reads, Ελισαῖς ἐπλήσθη πνεύματος ἁγίου.

1 Gore's Bampton Lectures, p. 131.

towards the close of His ministry, He spoke much of the Holy Spirit, and in terms which can only be satisfied if the Spirit be a divine Person. This is seen above all in the discourses spoken in the upper chamber on the eve of the Passion (S. John xiii.-xvi.), where the fullest revelation of the Person and work of the Spirit is given. And, finally, the doctrine is summed up and handed on to the Church in the great commission given after the resurrection, "Go ye, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" (S. Matt. xxviii. 19). The passage forms the central declaration,1 and contains our Lord's complete revelation of the doctrine. The first two titles,

the Father and the Son, are plainly personal titles; they speak of a personal relation, and would be misleading did they not imply that those to whom they are applied are personally distinct. And if the first two titles are personal, it will be felt that the third must be personal too.2 Again, it is inconceivable that any but divine titles could be so joined with the title of the everlasting Father, while the fact that baptism is into the name, not names, implies the unity of the Three. Thus in this text are involved these three great truths-(1) The unity of God, (2) the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and (3) their distinct personality; and these three truths go to make up the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity in Unity.

It is impossible to give an adequate summary of the

1 The removal of 1 John v. 7 from the Revised Version makes it unnecessary to refer further to this text, the spuriousness of which is now almost universally acknowledged.

The force of this will be easily estimated by substituting the name of an attribute of God for one or other of the words used by our Lord. It is inconceivable that we should be bidden to baptize into the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the providence of God. A personal title is a necessity.

scriptural evidence for the Divinity of the Son and Holy Spirit without anticipating what properly belongs to the commentary on Articles II. and V. It will, therefore, not be attempted here. Nor does it seem necessary to prove that the apostles were not Tritheists. The unity of God is assumed throughout the New, as throughout the Old Testament.1 All, therefore, that it will be needful to do in this place is to indicate various passages where the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are mentioned together as personal agents, performing distinct offices, leaving the reader to gather the full scriptural proof of the doctrine from what is said later on concerning the Second and Third Persons of the Holy Trinity.

Reference has already been made to S. Matt. iii. 13– 17; xxviii. 19, and the discourses in S. John xiii.-xvi. Besides these, attention should be drawn to the closing benediction of 2 Cor. xiii. 14, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." Such language seems quite inconsistent with any belief save that which the Church has always held. Again, S. Paul writes to the Romans: "I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me (Rom. xv. 30). To the Ephesians he declares: "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. iv. 4). Passages such as these -and they might easily be multiplied to a great extent

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-are sufficient to show not merely that there are distinctions of some sort in the divine nature, but that

1 See S. Mark xii. 32; 1 Cor. viii. 4; Gal. iii. 20; 1 Tim. ii. 5; S. James ii. 19; S. Jude, 4, 25.

these distinctions are personal. The Spirit whose "love" and "communion" and "fellowship" are spoken of can only be a person; and of none but divine Persons could the language just cited be used. It finds its only adequate explanation in the belief that "in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

To conclude this part of our subject. The witness of Scripture to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity has never perhaps been better summed up in a short compass than in the opening words of the prayer with which St. Augustine concludes his great treatise "On the Trinity." "O Lord our God, we believe in Thee, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. For the truth would not say, 'Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' unless Thou wast a Trinity. Nor wouldest Thou, O Lord God, bid us be baptized in the name of Him who is not the Lord God. Nor would the divine voice have said, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,' unless Thou wert so a Trinity as to be one Lord God. And if Thou, O God, wert Thyself the Father, and wert Thyself the Son, Thy Word, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit your gift, we should not read in the book of truth, 'God sent His Son'; nor wouldest Thou, O only-begotten Son, say of the Holy Spirit, 'Whom the Father will send in My name'; and 'whom I will send to you from the Father.'"1

(c) The doctrine agreeable to reason.-The doctrine of the Holy Trinity must always be based on the teaching of Holy Scripture. The only questions we are at liberty to ask relate to the evidence for the

1S. Aug. De Trinitate, bk. xv. ch. xxviii.

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