a. The race of superhuman created intelligences. Such beings are denominated spiritual beings because ihey have no bodies like ours. To both the holy and the sinning angels the term is applied. In their orig- inal constitution their natures were alike pure spirit. Tlie apostasy occasioned no change in the nnture of the fallen angels as spiritual beings. In the New-Test. da;monology Cat^uiv, Catfinviov, TTi'ivfia aKa^aproi', iri'ti'iia TTOvqpov, are the distinctive epithets for a f:i\\e\\ spirit. Christ gave to his disciples power over unclean spirits (^irviv^auov aKa^'ipTiov, Matt, x, 1 ; Mark i, 23; Lukeiv, 3G; Acts v, IG). The hoh^ angels are termed spirits: "Are they not all ministering spir- its?" (XnTuvpyKi't TTPivfiUTa, Heb. i, 14). " And from the seven spirits (tTrrd nvivpaTtuv) which are before Lis thnme" (Kev. i, 4).
7. The term is applied to the Deity, as the sole, ab- solute, and uncreated Spirit. " God is a Spirit " (Tri'ti'- fia 0 Hn'ic). This, as a predicate, belongs to the divine nature, irrespective of the distinction of persons in that nature. But its characteristic application is to the third person in the Divinity, who is called the Holy Spirit (Ui'fi'fin iiyioii) because of his essential holiness, and because in the Christian scheme it is his peculiar work to sanctify the people of God. He is denominated the Spirit by way of eminence, as the immediate author of tiftiritual life in the hearts of Christians. The New- Test, writers are fidl and explicit in referring the prin- ciple of the higher life to the Spirit. In the Old Test. the reference is more general. The Spirit is an all-per- vading, animating [irinciple of life in the world of nat- ure. In the work of creation the Spirit of God moved upon, or broddeil over, the face of the waters ((Jen. i, 2; Jolt xxvi, 13). This relation of the Spirit to the natu- ral world the ancients expressed as /ui.i ertrd-, h'lis sii- j>rr-, Kim iiilrii-innndiiniini. The doctrine of the Spirit, a» the omnipresent life and energy in nature, differs from Pantheism, r>n the one hand, an<l from the Platonic wpul of the world, on the other. It makes the Spirit the immanent ilivine causality, working in and through natural law'*, which work is called nuliire; as in the Christian life He is the imlwclling divine causalitv, operating upon the »»iul, anil iliniugh divine ordinances; and this is termed ifrace. The Spirit in the world may be couHidered as the divine omnipresence, and be classed among the doctrines which are more (lecidiarly theo- logical. Hut the indwelling and operation of the Spirit in the heart of the believer are an essential <loctrine of Cliriiiianiiy. The one province of the Spirit is nature, the other i;race. I'pon llie dill'i rence heiween the two, in reitpect to the .Spirit's work, rests the Christian con- »ciou<(nei.«. The general presence'and work of the Spirit ill nature are not a matter of coll^ciousllC8S. The 8|iccial
presence and work of the Spirit in the heart of the be- liever, by the effects which are produced, are a matter of which, from consciousness, there may be the most consoling and delightful assurance. — Kitto. See Spik-
ITL'AL.
II. Dortrinal DiKlinctioiis and Queries. — The lexical usage thus [ii)inlcd out gives rise to (piestions concerning the constitution of the nature of man. Does it; consi.-t of two or three elements? Must we accept a dichotomy or a trichotomy? The dichotomy is untpiestionably es- tablished if it can be shown that soul and sjnrit designate only different aspects of the same subject. The passage of Scripture which is fundamental in this inquiry (Gen. ii, 7) seems, however, to distinguish three constituents in human nature — the chiy ("E^"), the breath of life (a""!! r^"r3), and the /ii-i«5^tej;(^ (rrn "C^t'). Some understand in the first of these elements the material substance, flesh or body ("ib3), out of earth; by the second, the spirit (T1'S3), out of God , and by the third, the soul (nil), as resulting from a combination of the other elements. The soul would accordingly' be the per- sonality, as constituted of spirit and body, and is both soul and body united into one being. Q\oA forms the body, breathes into it the spirit, and the soul results from them both. But the careful reader will note that in the foregoing analysis the proper sovl (H^^) has not been brought into view at all. It is only the introduc- tion of the vitalizing element (rT2Tl"3) into the material organism (^S" = ^t,"3) that constitutes the composite being or animal (CB3) — a term which is frequently ap- plied likewise to the low orders of creatures ((4en. i, 20, etc.). Vet, as in Scripture universally this last distin- guishing element is manifestly attributed to man, it still follows, under either view of the above passage, that Scripture teaches a trichotomy, and several passages explicitly sustain the same doctrine — e. g. Luke i, 4G, 47; 1 Cor. XV, 45 sq.; 1 Thess. v,23; Heb. iv, 12. To sum up the conclusion reached, the spi?it is not soul simply, nor yet identical with the bodi/, but a thir<l somewhat which originates in the body that was formed and the soul that was inbreathed, but which itself is neither formed nor made, but simply becomes (nTl). If this be true, then the spirit itself becomes a powerful argument in behalf of a future resurrection of the body. See Resukhection.