Meditations on the Holy Spirit 3
Meditations on the Holy Spirit 3
In our last Paper on the Person, work, and covenant offices of the blessed Spirit, we brought to a close our scriptural proofs of his eternal and essential Deity. We shall now, therefore, endeavor, with God's help and blessing, to unfold a point very closely and intimately connected with his essential Deity, that is, the Holy Spirit's divine Personality ; in other words, we shall attempt to show from the word of truth that he who in Scripture bears the sacred name of the Holy Spirit is not a breath, or an emanation, or a quality, or an energy, an operation, or an influence of God, from time to time put forth by him--but a distinct Person in the Triune Jehovah.
But as on these important points clearness of thought and of expression is eminently desirable, for often, like the mob at Ephesus, "some cry one thing and some another, until the whole assembly" of writers and readers "is confused, and the most part know not why they came together," (Acts 19:32,) let us, at the very commencement of our argument, first explain and define what we understand by a Person, and show how such a one differs from a breath, a power, or an influence. Nor let any one think that this doctrine of the distinct Personality of the Holy Spirit is a mere strife of words, an unimportant matter, or an unprofitable discussion, which we may take or leave, believe or deny, without any injury to our faith or hope. On the contrary, let this be firmly impressed on your mind, that if you deny or disbelieve the Personality of the blessed Spirit, you deny and disbelieve with it the grand foundation truth of the Trinity; and "if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" You may talk of your deep and long experience,* or of your consistent practice; but "does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" (James 3:11.) If your doctrine be unsound, your experience must be a delusion, and your practice an imposition. You, then, who desire to be right and fear to be wrong, who prize the truth of God more than thousands of gold and silver, "make straight paths for your feet," and look and see whether you have been taught of God that precious doctrine of a Triune Jehovah, and have a personal knowledge and experience in your own soul of each of the Three Persons in the Godhead. "Look," we repeat it, "to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward." (2 John 8.)
* There is a sect, if we may so call it, of Socinian Baptists in some of the eastern counties, who will talk glibly and seemingly well of their experience, of convictions of sin, and of mercy received; but if you touch them upon the Deity and eternal Sonship of Christ, or the Deity and Personality of the Holy Spirit, they will hiss like vipers! It is these to whom we allude, as speaking of their experience.
But as we write more to establish truth than to refute error, though we cannot well do the one without at the same time doing the other; and as many true believers in the Trinity may not have considered the strong grounds on which their faith rests, or may even have confused ideas on these high and heavenly doctrines, we shall endeavor, as clearly as we can, to unfold the testimony of God on this point for their instruction and edification.
By a Person, then, as a term applicable to the blessed Spirit, we understand a living, intelligent Agent, one who has a distinct spiritual subsistence, and is possessed of a will and power of his own, which he exerts and manifests so as to show that he has a real, substantial existence. Now compare with this living, breathing, intelligent, active Person an influence proceeding from God, and observe how widely they differ. You, I, we all are persons, and as such we exert a certain influence upon our families, our dependents, our friends.
A minister, for instance, exerts an influence upon his Church and congregation. His words, or actions, or spirit issuing from him carry with them a certain power, and are impregnated with a peculiar influence. But this is not the man. His person and his influence are as distinct as the sun and the warmth of the sun, or as the moon and the light of the moon. Now see the craft of those subtle heretics who deny the Personality of the Holy Spirit, and resolve all that is said of the Spirit in Scripture into an influence exerted by God, as the sun exerts an influence upon vegetation by his light and heat, or into an act of power, as when a magistrate exerts his legal authority. It may seem, at first sight, a matter of no great importance, or a mere subtle distinction of learned divines, or a theological quibble, or that it all comes to the same thing in the end. But penetrate through these crafty devices, and then you will see how the denial of the Personality of the blessed Spirit is a deadly poison, an error of the first magnitude,* for it strikes at once a Person out of the Trinity; and what is this but to nullify and destroy the doctrine of the Trinity altogether? Men of God, in both ancient and modern times, knew well the sacred blessedness of truth and the damnable nature of error; and this deep conviction led them to fence off the one from the other by using expressions such as the Trinity, Personality, etc., which, if not precisely Scripture words, are so far scriptural language that they clearly and definitely express Scripture truth.
* The late Mr. Gadsby would never allow any man to stand in his pulpit who objected to the expression, "God the Holy Spirit;" for there were at one time in the North Calvinistic Baptist ministers, and some, we believe who had been in connection with him, who would not use the words. Mr. Gadsby was perfectly right; and in this, as in all other points, manifested his hatred of error, and his faithfulness and decision for the truth.
But to bring this point to a simple and easily intelligible test, and to help you to distinguish between a person and a thing, take a quality, so to speak, or what is more commonly called an attribute of God, as his holiness, or his justice, or his mercy, or his love. These attributes of Jehovah have no personal subsistence distinct from himself, though sometimes, speaking figuratively, we assign to them personal acts. Thus when we say that "Justice draws its awful sword;" or, "Mercy smiles;" or, "Grace superabounds;" or, "Love draws," we do not mean that these attributes of God are so many distinct Persons in the Godhead, though the strong language of metaphor and figure invests them with a kind of temporary personality. But as we easily distinguish between the kindness of a person and the person himself who is kind, so we can similarly distinguish between the kindness of God and the Person of God himself.
Thus when we speak of the Personality of the Holy Spirit, we mean that he is not a certain power or influence, virtue, energy, or operation which God puts forth, as when in the first creation he created all things by the word of his mouth, or as he now manifests his sensible presence to the soul; but that the Holy Spirit is as much a distinct Person in the Godhead as the Father and the Son, and as such possesses all the peculiar attributes of Deity. Has the Father power? Yes; for "power belongs unto God." (Psalm 62:11.) So has the blessed Spirit, for "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." (Luke 4:14.) Has the Father love? Yes; for "God is love." "God so loved the world," etc. So has the Spirit. "Now I beseech you for the love of the Spirit." (Rom. 15:30.) Does the Father give commands? Yes; for "this commandment have we from him, that he who loves God love his brother also." (1 John 4:21.) So does the Spirit; for the Spirit bade Peter go with the servants of Cornelius, nothing doubting. (Acts 11:12.) But we are rather anticipating a line of proof, which we shall presently have occasion more fully to dwell upon. We have, therefore, merely adduced these two or three instances to explain, more clearly and fully what is intended by the expression the Personality of the Holy Spirit, and to show the distinction between a person and a quality, power, or influence.
We shall now, therefore, proceed to show from the firm word of truth that the blessed Spirit is truly and really a divine and distinct Person in the eternal, self-existent Godhead.
I. Our first class of proofs, for they may be conveniently arranged under two leading heads, shall be taken from those passages in which the Holy Spirit is spoken of in conjunction with the Father and the Son; and as these are by general admission Persons—the Person of the Father being spoken of Heb. 1:3, and the Person of Christ,* 2 Cor. 2:10—the Holy Spirit is a Person also. The first proof shall be taken from the words which our blessed Lord spoke to his disciples when he said to them--"Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Let us examine these solemn words of our blessed Lord with a view to the Personality of the blessed Spirit as distinctly expressed in them. Baptism, all admit, is the outward sign of admission into the visible Church of Christ, an ordinance of the Lord's own institution. In its administration, the believer is baptized "in the name," that is the authority,** of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Now does not this formula of baptism express, 1. A plurality of Persons? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each distinctly named; and 2. Unity of Essence? for it is not in the names, but "in the name" of the Three Persons, clearly implying that the Persons are Three, but the name, the nature, the essence, the being, the authority but One. But to establish this point as bearing upon the distinct Personality of the Spirit more clearly, try and substitute a quality, a breath, an influence, a virtue of God for the word "Holy Spirit." Such plain, simple tests are often more convincing, at least to some minds, than direct positive arguments. "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of love." How flat, how uncouth, confused! How unworthy of the divine majesty of the blessed Lord who spoke the words! "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the divine breath." Still the same flat, uncouth, confused mixture, so that the veriest babe in grace could tell it was not such heavenly language as ever fell from him into whose lips grace was poured. It is hardly worth while to pursue the argument by making another trial of "energy," "power," "authority," or "influence." The result would be still the same, that all such terms at once betray themselves by their own nakedness and nothingness, as unfit to stand side by side with the name of the Father and of the Son. But now view the truth in its own pure and heavenly light, and read the words in the brightness of their own grace and glory. Read them as a believer in the blessed Trinity. Then how clear to faith is it that "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" declares that these are three distinct co-equal, co-eternal Persons in one undivided Essence.