HOLY GHOST (hOly gost), the third person in the trinity.
1. Scriptural Designations (Heb.V7.11%. roo'akh el-o-heent' , spirit of God; or '1.';7'7 roo' akh yeh-ho-vaw', spirit of Jehovah; Gr.rei irvoIp.a trylov, Pnyoo' man to hag' ee-on, "the Holy Ghost," or the "Holy Spirit").
(1) Frequently the term is simply "the Spirit," or "the Spirit of the Lord," or "the Spirit of God," or "the Spirit. of Jesus Christ" (Matt iii: 16; Luke iii :22 ; iv :18; Acts v:9; Phil. i :19). (2) He is called "seven Spirits," because of His per fect and diversified fullness of gifts, graces, and operations (Rev. i :4). (3) lie is called the "Spirit of God ;" His nature is Divine, and He is sent by God to perform His economic operations (2 Chron. xv :1). (4) He is the"Spirit of Christ," as He proceeds from Him as the Son of God, qualifies Him, and rests on Hint as Mediator. and is sent by Him to execute the application of our redemption (Rom.
2. Theological Statements.
(1) Procession from the Father and Son. (a) The orthodox doctrine is. that as Christ is God by an eternal filiation, so the Spirit is God by procession from the Father and the Son. "And I believe in the IIoly Ghost," says the Nicene Creed. "the Lord and Giver of life, who procced eth from the Father and the Son, who, with the Father and the Son together, is worshiped and glorified." And with this agrees the Athanasian Creed, "The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, bin proceeding." In the articles of the English Church it is thus expressed : "The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance. majesty and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God." The Latin Church introduced the term spiration, from spiro, "to breathe," to denote thc manner of this pro cession ; on which Dr. Owen remarks: "As the vital breath of a man has a continual emanation from him, and yet is never separated utterly from his person, or forsaketh him, so doth the Spirit of the Father and the Son proceed from them by a continual divine emanation, still abiding one with them." On this refilled view little can be said which has clear scriptural authority; and yet the very term by which the third Person in the Trinity is designated, I-Vind or Breath, may, as to the third Person, be designed, like the term Son applied to the second, to convey, though im perfectly, some intimation of that manner of be ing by which both are distinguished from each other, and from the Father ; and it was a remark able action of our Lord, and one certainly which does not discountenance this idea, that when lie imparted the Holy Ghost to his disciples, "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John xx :22). (b) The direct scriptural doctrine rests on such passages as John xv :26: Matt. X:20; I COr. ii:II, 12; John xiv:
26, etc.
(2) Ferso:aality and Deity. (a) In establish ing the proper personality and deity of the Holy Ghost, the first argument may be drawn from the frequent association, in Scripture, of a Person under that appellation with two other Persons, one of whom, the Father, is by all acknowledged to be Divine; and the ascription to each of them, or to the three in union, of the same acts, titles, and authority, with worship, of the same kind, and, for any distinction that is made, of an equal degree. (b) The manifestation of the existence and divinity of the Holy Spirit may be expected in the law and the prophets, and is, in fact, to be traced there with certainty. The Spirit is repre sented as an agent in creation, "moving upon the face of the waters," and it forms no objection to the argument, that creation is ascribed to the Father, and also to the Son, but is a great con firmation of it. That creation should be effected by all the three Persons of the Godhead, though acting in different respects, yet so that each should be a Creator, and, therefore, both a Person and a Divine Person, can be explained only by their unity in one essence. On every other hy pothesis this scriptural fact is disallowed, and therefore no other hypothesis can be true. (c) If the Spirit of God be a mere influence, then he is not a Creator, distinct from the Father and the Son, because he is not a Person ; but this is refuted both by the passage just quoted, and by Ps. xxxiii:6: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath (Heb. Spirit) of his mouth." This is fur ther confirmed by Job xxxiii:4: "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Al mighty hath given me life:" where the second clause is obviously exegetic of the former; and the whole text proves that, in the patriarchal age, the followers of the true religion ascribed crea tion to the Spirit, as well as to the Father ; and that one of his appellations was, "the Breath of the Almighty." Did such passages stand alone. there might, indeed, be some plausibility in the criticism which resolves them into a personifica tion; but, connected as they are with the whole body of evidence, as to the concurring doctrine of both Testaments, they are inexpugnable. (d) Again: If the personality of the Son and the Spirit be allowed, and yet it is contended that they were but instruments in creation, through whom the creative power of another operated, but which creative power was not possessed by them—on this hypothesis, too. neither the Spirit nor the Son can be said to create, any more than Moses created the serpent into which his rod was turned, and the Scriptures are again contradicted.