tion of the Eastern and Western churches, continuing to the present time. The addition of the viovAfdioque to the creed of the Western Church first appears in the acts of the Synod of Braga (A.D. 412), and in the third Council of Toledo (A.D. 589). See Procter, On Common Prayer, p. 234; Harvey, History of the Three Creeds, p. 452 ; and the article Filioque.
The scriptural argument for the procession of the Holy Ghost is thus stated by bishop Pearson : " Now the procession of the Spirit, in reference to the Father, is delivered expressly in relation to the Son, and is con- tained virtually in the Scriptures. 1. It is expressly said that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father, as our Saviour testifieth, ' When the Comforter is come, whom I wDl send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Fatlier, he shall testify of me' (John xv, 26). This is also evident from what has already been asserted ; for inasmuch as the Father and the Spirit are the same God, and, being thus the same in tlie unity of the nature of God, are yet dis- tinct in the personality, one of them must have the same nature from the other; and because the Father hatli already been stiown to have it from none, it follow- eth that the Spirit hath it from him. 2. Though it be not expressly spoken in the Scripture that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son, yet the substance of the same truth is virtually contained there ; because those very expressions which are spoken of the Hoi}' Spirit in relation to the Father, for the very rea- son that he proceedeth from the Father, are also spoken of the same Spirit in relation to the Son, therefore there must be the same reason presupposed in reference to the Son which is expressed in reference to the Fa- ther. Because the Spirit proceedeth from the Father, therefore it is called ' the Spirit of God,' and ' the Spirit of the Fatlier.' ' It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of yoiu- Father which speaketh in you' (JMatt. x, 20). For by the language of the apostle, ' the Spirit of God' is the Spirit which is of God, saying, ' The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God; and we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Ppirit which is of God' (1 Cor. ii, 11, 12). Now the same Spir- it is also called ' the Spirit ol' tlie Son :' for ' because we are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts' (Gal. iv, G). ' The Spirit of Christ :' ' Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his' (Rom. viii, 9) ; ' Even the Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets' (1 Pet. i, 11). ' The Spirit of Jesus Christ,' as the apostle speaks : ' I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the sup- ply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ' (Phil*, i, 19). If, then, the Holy Ghost be called ' the Spirit of the Father' be- cause he proceedeth from the Father, it follov.'eth that, bemg called also * the Spirit of the Son,' he proceedeth also from the Son. Again : because the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father, he is therefore sent by the Father, as from him who hath, by the original commu- nication, a right of mission ; as, ' the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send' (John xiv, 26). But the same Spirit which is sent by the Fa- ther, is also sent by the Son, as he saith, ' When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you.' There- fore the Son hath the same right of mission with the Father, and consequently must be acknowledged to have commiuiicated the same essence. The Father is never sent by the Son, because he received not the Godhead from him ; but the Father sendeth the Son, because he communicated the Godhead to him : in the same man- ner, neither the Father nor the Son is ever sent by the Holy Spirit, because neither of them received the divine nature from the Spirit; but both the Father and the Son send the Holy Ghost, because the divine nature, common to the Father and the Son, was communicated by them both to the Holy Ghost. As, therefore, the Scriptures declare expressly that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father, so do they also virtually teach that he proceedeth from the Son" (Pearson, On the Creed).
HOLY GHOST
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HOLY GHOST
II. Personality of the Holy Ghost. — 1. Definition ami History of the Doctrine. — A person is " a thinking, intelligent being that has reason and reflection;" "a singular, subsistent, intellectual being ;" " an inteUigent agent." As personality implies thought, reason, reflec- tion, and an individual existence, distinct from that of other beings, when we speak of the personality of the Holy Gliost we mean his distinct and individual exist- ence as an intelligent and reflecting being. He is rep- resented throughout the Scriptures as a personal agent, and the earlier Christian writers so speak of him, though ■ without any aim at dogmatic precision. It is the habit of some writers, opposed to the orthodox doctrine, to as- sert that not only was the doctrine of the Holj' Ghost not precisely defined in that early period, but that it was not received. -On the contrary, the thorough investi- gations (if recent times show plainly that the ante-Ni- cene fathers, with the exception of the Monarchians, and perhaps Lactantius, agreed in the two fundamental points that the Holy Ghost, the sole agent in the appli- cation of redemption, is a supernatural divine being, and that he is an independent person ; closely allied to the Father and the Son, yet hj'postatically different from them botli" (Schaff, Cfu History, i, § 80). The first positive and dogmatic denial of the personality and de- ity of the Holy Ghost seems to have been made by Arius, who applied the doctrine of subordination here, and placed the same distance between the Son and the Spirit as between the Father and the Son. According to him, the Holy Spirit was only the first of created be- ings, brought into existence by the Son as the organ of the Father. Later anti-Trinitarians represent the Holy Spirit simply as an operation of the divine mind, as the " exerted energy of God," or as an attribute only of the divine activity.