(>) The coming of the Spirit, like the coming of the Son, manifested itself at first by supernatural
signs. To regard the gifts of tongues as unl is- torical (Zellor, Weizsiieker), is permissible only to tho.se who deny the possibility of the niiraculoiig. That the fact is recorded by so careful a historian as i,uke, writing within half a century of the event, and with opiiortunilies of investi'jating the truth of the story wliich reached back at least twenty yean further, m.ay lead us to hesitate before we assent to the.se views. The y\uij<ro\a\la. of Ac 2 may have been, like the wind and the fire, rather a sign of the Spirit's coming and a symbol of His work, than a gift intended to supersede the acquirement of foreign tongues, or even an actual assistance to tho apostles in their subsequent preaching. But if we may trust the primitive fragment ajipended to St. Mark's Gospel, the Lord Himself had promised His disciples some manifestation of this kind ('Mk' 16") ; and one of St. Paul's undoubted Epistles leaves no doubt that some form of the manifestation existed in the Church of Corinth ( 1 Co 12^ 13'- * 14"'-). Further, we have the witness of Irena^us (ap. Eus. HE V. 7) that he h.-id himself heard the gift exercised in its Pentecostal form (ttoXXuk dKovo/iev doiXtpuiv , , TavTodairaU \a\ovvr<jtv 5ia roO Trvfv/xa.Toi yXiiiraats). The gift was, however, singularly open to abuse, and St. Paul seems to ha\e felt that it had nearly fullilled its purpose, and might soon disappear (1 Co 13'). Propliecy, another Pente- costal gift, if le.s3 novel and impressive, fills a larger place in the earl}' history of the Church. On the day of Pentecost, St. Peter claimed that the words in which Joel foretold a great revival and extension of prophecy in the latter days had been fulfilled by tne coming of the Spirit (Ac 2'"'-). Prophets accordingly arose in the Apostolic Church (Ac II-'' 13' 15^- lit" 21"), and took rank next after apostles (1 Co 12^, Eph 2-'" 3» 4"), in some localities surviving as an order into the second or third genera- tion (ZJiV/ufAe, 10-13). The new prophecy surpassed in St. Paul's esteem all other spiritual gitts, because of its ethical value (1 Co 14'- '^- ■■). The NT prophet was the inspired teacher of the first age : if he left no literary remains which can be compared with the writings of the Hebrew prophets, it is ditticult to exaggerate his importance in the infancy of the Church, when the local bishops or presbyters were as yet but little qualified to instruct their congre- gations in the mystery of the gospel, and the apostles' wTitings were as yet incomplete or im- perfectly circulated. But the institution, as St. Paul saw (1 Co 13'), lacked permanence, and it was gradually superseded, notwithstanding the Mon- tanist reaction, by the local ministry, strengthened by the growth of the Episcopate.
One invaluable monument of the spiritual gifts of the first generation has survived to our own time. It was promised that the Holy Spirit should brinL; to the remembrance of the ajiostles the words and acts of Christ, and that He should lead them into the whole cycle of Christian truth. The Gospels witness to the fulfilment of the first of tlie.se promises; the Acts, ICpistles. and Apoc- alypse correspond to the second. The literature of the first generation, preserved in the Canon of the NT, bears the impress of an inspiration which we miss when we pass to the Epistles of Clement and ' Barnabas.' It is a standing proof of tho :«»\lity of the miracle of Pentecost that tho first age of the Church should have produced a series of writings which, in the elevation of their spiritual tone and the fruitfulne.ssof I heir teaching, remain absolutely alone. Side by side with this monument of the Spirit's work must bo placed another — the Christian Society, or Catholic Church. As the idea of the Cliurdi rose before the mind of St. Paul, he saw- in its external form a Inidy which the .Spirit o( God animated and iiiiido one (1 Co 12", Eph 4*). History has proved his words true. The vilalit]
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HOLY SPIRIT
HOLY SPIRIT
of the fjreatest and oldest comimiiiity in the worhl witnesses to the divine power whioli br<)n;,'ht it into bein''. Tlie Church on her part has marked her sense of her dependence on the Spirit by the order of her creed : she believes in her own pernmnence and life, because she believes in the Holy (Uiost. Cvdo . . in S/>irUums(i>iitum, srinctam Kcrlcsi'im.
iii. We turn now from the historical facts c<mnected with the coming of the Spirit to the teaching of Christ and tlie apostles in reference to the nature and work of the Holy Spirit.
(a) (a) With one conspicuous exception, here- after to be stated, the teacliing of Clirist upon this subject, so far as it is reportc<l by the Syn(>i)tists, goes but a little way beyond that of the Ul. He recognizes the inspiration of the OT Scriptures (Mt 22", Mk 12^, Lk 24-»'-«) and His own Messianic unction (Lk 4", Mt 12^) ; to ascribe His works to Buelzclnil is to blasplieme the Sjiirit, and therefore to commit an 'eternal sin' (Mk 3-"). This saying, viewed in the light of its context (Mt 12^-), attributes Deity to tlie Holy Spirit, but does not on that account exceed the limits of the OT revelation (see above, p. 404). Occo-sionally, the Synoptic Gospels represent our Lord as look- ing forward to a fuller comin" of tlie Spirit. The apostle.s will be inspired to defend tliemselves before the world (Mt lU-'") ; nay, the Holy Spirit will be given by the Tat her in heaven to all who ask Him for the gift (Lk 11"). A remarkable reading in St. liUke's recension of the Lord's Prayer gives the petition, iXd^roj rd dyiov ir»'fO/Mi cou ^(p'ijfidi Kal KuBapiaaTiji tj^S? (Chase, The Lord's Prayer, etc., 24 f. ; Kescli, Arjrnpha, p. 398) ; but it is valuable only as showing the interpretation which the Church put upon the opening clauses of the Prayer.