It is supposed by many, indeed, that in Mt 2819 we have a formula from a later theology, dating from the post-apostolic period, and interjjolated into the Gospel. We must bear in mind, however, that the teaching of Jesus certainly contained the statement that He would work through the Spirit, and that He would do so by imparting the Spirit to His people. It is inconceivable that in primitive Christian times there could have been a form of baptism in which the Spirit was not named. Moreover, even if in that age the Gospel still clung closely to the Jewish expectation of the Messiah, dissociating the working of the Spirit from the present, and assigning it wholly to the coming dispensation — the idea being that the Spirit would raise from the dead all who had been baptized into Christ— yet, even on that hypothesis, the preaching of Christ must still have embraced the promise of the Spirit.
Of a formulistic use of the Trinitarian designa- tion of God the NT shows no trace. Thus, v hen the Christian community is questioned regarding the nature of its Deity, it may give a complete answer by saying that beside the one Father it sets the one Lord (1 Co 8'^) ; and in baptism it was only necessary to invoke the name of Christ (Pio 6^ 1 Co 1'^, Gal 3-^). But in such cases it is always implied that Jesus manifests Himself to men as Lord by acting upon them through the Sj^irit (cf. Ac 238 816 10^8 105). Primitive Christianity, how- ever, felt the overt recognition of the Spirit to be of the utmost importance, because it saw the crowning work of Divine grace, not in its general action upon human beings through the invisible government of God, or in its manifestation in the earthly work of Christ, but rather in its operations in man himself — in its quickening of his thoughts and his love, and in its enrichment of the inner life.
5. The relation of the Holy Spirit to the hutnan spirit. — The relation of the Holy Spirit to the sjiirit of man is not dealt with separately in the NT. The principles which here guided the thoughts of the apostles sprang directly from the distinctive characteristics of Divine action. Tlie intense desire to clothe the knowledge of God in clear and pregnant words never tempted them to seek to solve tlie mystery that veils the creative operations of God. Hence, too, they never tried toex]ilain how the Spirit of God acts upon the human spirit, how
it enters into and becomes one with it. St. John, in intentionally placing near tlie beginning of his Gospel Christ's reference to birth from the Spirit as an insoluble mystery (Jn 3-), is but adhering to a principle which the apostles in their teaching never departed from. But the Divine action has the further characteristic that it frames its perfect designs with absolute certainty. Hence the action of the Spirit likewise is set forth in unconditional statements. The Spirit endows man with no mere isolated gifts, but creates him anew. The Spirit gives life ; by it men are born of God (Jn 3' 7^^ 1 Co 15^^ Tit 3^). Man's knowledge is guided by the Spirit in the way of perfect truth (1 Co 2i°- ^*, 1 Jn 2-'). The faith, hope, and love which the Spirit bestows are enduring gifts (1 Co 13^^). As the Spirit makes the human will perfectly obedient to the Divine will, the entire demand which is set before believers may be summed up in the precept, ' Walk by the Spirit ' (Gal 5^*'). Thus the operation of the Spirit is not restricted to any particular function, as, e.g., the increase of knowledge, or the arousing of joy, or the strengthening of the will. On the contrary, the Spirit lays hold upon human life in its entire range, and brings it as a whole into conformity with the ideal : it gives man power and knowledge, the word and the work, faith and love, the ability to heal the sick, to raise the fallen, to institute and regulate fellow- ship. It is in virtue of the efflux of the Divine action out of the Divine grace that the work of the Spirit reveals itself in the endowment which raises man to his true life and true autonomy. Thus the thought of the Spirit is associated with the idea of freedom (2 Co 3'^, Ko 8"^, Gal o'^), inas- much as man receives from the Spirit a power and a law that are really his own. It is this tliat dis- tinguishes the operations of the Spirit from morbid processes, which impede the proper fimctions of the soul. The mental disturbances and the sus- pension of rational utterance which may be con- joined with experiences wrought by the Spirit are not regarded as the crowning manifestation of the Spirit. Its supreme work consists not in rendering the human understanding unfruitful, but in en- dowing it with Divine truth, and permeating the human will with Divine love(l Co W*^-, Bo PZ^S^). Hence the apostolic doctrine of the Spirit in- volved no violation of human reason, as would have been the case had it absolved the intellectual processes from the laws of thought ; nor did it assign a mechanical character to the will, as it would have done if the prompting of the Spirit had superseded personal decision. The Spirit gives man the jjower of choice, makes his volition effect- ive, and induces him to bring his will into sub- jection to the Divine Law. The thought of the Si)irit does not do away with the sense of responsi- bility, but rather intensifies it, and the Law now lays upon the soul a sterner obligation. As ' the conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit ' (Ko 9^), its authority is inviolable. Those who live in the Spirit are therefore required to walk after the Spirit by submitting to its guidance (Bo S*- '^ Gal 5^). Nor does the Spirit lift one above the pos- sibility of falling away. If man receives the gifts of the Spirit in vain, refusing its guidance, and in selHsli desire applying these gifts to his own ad- vantage, his sin is all the greater (Eph 4"'', He Q*'^). To this line of thought attaches itself quite con- sistentlj' the fact that the community sutlers no loss of liberty through the doings of those who speak and act in the Spirit. The Spirit gives no man the right to assume despotic power in the community. Hence the injunction not to quench the Spirit is conjoined with the counsel to test all the utterances that flow from the Spu'it (1 Th d'''---, 1 Co 1429-si, 1 Jn 41).