{b) The Personality of the Holy Ghost. — This needs careful consideration. Is He but an In- fluence of the Father ? The NT writings negative this idea ; for, though they join together the Spirit with the Fatlier and the Son, as above, 5 (c), yet they represent the Spirit as being in a real sense distinct from both. In Jn 14'* our Lord says : ' I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another (dWov) Comforter.' He is sent by the Father (14-*), proceeds from the Father (15^*), and is sent by the Son from the Father (15-* 16^). He is called by St. Paul in the same context ' the Spirit of God ' and 'the Spirit of Christ' (Ro 8*). The Father is not the same Person as the Son, and if the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of both, He must be distinct from both. This is seen also, though in not quite so close and striking a context, in many other passages. He is called ' the Spirit of God ' also in 1 Co 2""- '■* 7^*, Eph 430, Ph 33, 1 Th 48, 1 Jn 42- '», as in Mt 12-'8 (wliere the 1| Lk IP" has ' the finger of God ' instead, the meaning being that God works through the Holy Ghost) ; He is called ' the Spirit of your Father ' in Mt lO^** ; and ' the Spirit of Christ ' or 'of Jesus' or 'of the Son' in Ac 16' RV, Gal 4*, Ph 1'9, 1 P 1"; note especially Gal 4*: 'God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.' Again, that the Sj)irit is distinct from the Son is clear from Jn \& ('if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I go I will send him unto you') and v.'* ('he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you ').
Personal acts are frequently predicated of the Holy Ghost. In Ac 13-- •'we read: 'They minis- tered to the Lord, and the Holy Ghost said. Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. ... So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost,' etc. In Ac 15"^ the formula which became the common usage of later Councils is used : ' It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.' So we read that the Spirit wills (1 Co 12"), searches (1 Co 2'*), is grieved (Eph 4^), helps and intercedes (Ro 8^'), dwells within us (above (a)), and distributes gifts (1 Co 12").
In the sub-apostolic period there is found some confusion between the Son and the Spirit : e.g. Hernias, Sim. v. 6, ix. 1 ; pseudo-Clement, 2 Cor. ix., xiv. ; Justin, Apol. i. 33. Thus Justin says: 'The Spirit and the Power which is from God must not be thought to be aught else but the Word who is God's First-begotten.' Hermas seems to identify the Spirit with the pre-existent Divine nature of Christ: 'The holy pre- existent Spirit which created the whole earth God made to dwell in flesh. . . . That Spirit is the Son of God.' But the meaning of these writers seems to be merely that the pre- existent Logos was spirit and was Divine. Swete {Holy Spirit in the Ancient Church, p. 31) remarks of this period that ' there was as yet no formal theology of the Spirit and no effort to create it ; nor was there any conscious heresy. But the presence of the Spirit in the Body of Christ was recognized on all hands as an acknowledged fact of the Christian life.'
8. Subordination. — This is the term by which Christian theology expresses the doctrine that
there are not three sources in the Godhead, but that the Son and the Holy Ghost derive their Divine substance from the Father, and that, while they are equal to Him as touching their Godhead, yet in a real sense they are subordinate to Him, This, however, does not involve the Arian con- ception of a Supreme God and two inferior deities. It must be remembered that human language is limited, and unable to express fully the Divine mysteries ; so that just as the technical terms ' Trinity,' ' Person,' may be misused in the interests of Tritheism, so ' subordination ' may be misused in the interests of Arianism.
It is noteworthy that the 'spiritual Gospel,' as Clement of Alexandria calls Jn. (quoted in Eusebius, HE VI. xiv. 7), though it insists so strongly on the Godhead of our Lord, yet equally emphasizes the doctrine of subordination. It is the Father who, having 'life in himself,' gave 'to the Son also to have life in himself,' and 'gave all judgment unto the Son' (Jn 5---^^). Jesus says: 'I live because of the Father ' (e^^ ; cf. W% It has been disputed whether Jn M^** (' the Father is greater than I ') re- fers to Jesus' humanity, as the Latin Fathers ordin- arily explain it, or to His Divinity, as the Greek Fatiiers interpret ; if to the latter, we have here a striking instance of subordination (see Liddon, Bampton Lectui-es, 1866^, 1878, lect. iv. p. 199 f.). We find the same thing in St. Paul : ' The head of Christ is God' (1 Co IP); 'then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all ' (1528); cf. 1 Co 86, 'of whom are al"l things.' Sub- ordination is also suggested by the frequent phrase ' the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ' and the words ' my God ' used by our Lord in Rev 3^ RV 3^^, and especially in Jn 20^'', where Jesus dis- tinguishes 'my God' and 'your God' just as He distinguishes 'my Father' and 'your Father' (above, i (a)).