That this work of the Spirit is a real work, and not a mere imagination of enthusiasts, may be shown (1) from the words of Scripture to which reference has been made, which are too definite and clear to be exfdained away by any such hypothesis; (2) by the experience of intelligent Christians in every age, who are ready to specify the marks and tokens of his operation in tliem- selves, and even to describe the manner in which they believe he works (on this see Barrow, Sermons, Ixxvii and Ixxviii, towards the end ; Waterland,A>?-nio?w, xxvi, vol. V, p. 686) ; (3) by the superiority of Christian na- tions over heathen nations, in the possession of those characteristic qualities which are gifts of the Spirit, in the establishment of such customs, habits, and laws as
are agreeable thereto, and in the exercise of an enlight- ening and purifying influence in the world. Christian- ity and civilization are never far asunder. Those nations which are now eminent in power and knowledge are all to be found within the pale of Christendom — not, indeed, free from national vices, yet, on the whole, manifestly superior both to contemporary unbelievers and to pa- ganism in its ancient palmy days. See Hare, Mission of the Comforter, serm. 6, i, 202 ; Porteus, On the Bene- ficial Effects of Christianity on the Temporal Concerns of Mankind, in Works, vi, 375-460.
It has been inferred from various passages of Script- ure that the operations of the Holy Spirit are not limit- ed to those persons who, either by circumcision or by baptism, have entered into covenant with God. Abim- elech (Gen. xx, 3), Melchizedek (xiv, 18), Jethro ( Exod. xviii, 12), Balaam (Kumb. xxii,9), and Job, in the Old Test., and the IMagi (Matt, ii, 12), and the case of Cor- nelius, with the declaration of Peter (Acts x, 35) there- on, are instances showing that the Holy Spirit bestow- ed his gifts of knowledge and holiness in some degree even among heathen nations; and if we may go beyond the attestation of Scripture, it might be argued from the virtuous actions of some heathens, from their as- cription of whatever good was in them to the influence of a present deity (see the references in Heber's Lect- itres, vi, 446), and from their tenacious preservation of the rite of animal sacrifice, that the Spirit whose name they knew not must have girded them, and still girds such as they were, with secret blessedness.
III. Doctrinal Theories. — Thus far it has been at- tempted to sketch briefly the work of the Holy S])irit among men in all ages as it is revealed to us in the Bi- ble. But after the closing of the canon of the New Test, the religious subtlety of Oriental Christians led them to scrutinize, with the most intense accuracy, the words in which (lod has, incidentally as it were, re- vealed to us something of the mystery of the being of the Hoh' Ghost. It would be vain now to condemn the superfluous and irreverent curiosity with which these researches were sometimes prosecuted, and the scanda- lous contentions which thej- caused. The result of them was the formation as well as the general acceptance of certain statements as inferences from Holy Scripture which took their place in the established creeds and in the teaching of the fathers of the Church, and which the great body of Christians throughout the world continue to adhere to, and to guard with more or less vigilance.
1. The Sadducees are sometimes mentioned as pre- ceding anj' professed Christians in denying the personal existence of the Holy Ghost. Such was the inference of Epiphanius (I/ceres, xii), Gregory Nazianzen {Oratio xxxi, § 5, p. 558, ed. Ben.), and others from the testi- mony of Luke (Acts xxxiii, 8). But it may be doubted whether the error of the Sadducees did not rather con- sist in asserting a corporeal Deity. Passing over this, in the first youthful age of the Church, when, as Nean- der observes (Ch. Hist. ii. 327, Bohn's ed.), the power of the Holy Spirit was so mightily felt as a new creative, transforming principle of life, the knowledge of this Spirit, as identical with the Essence of God, was not so thoroughly and distinctly impressed on the understand- ing of Christians. Simon INIagus, the Montanists. and the Manichivans are said to have imagined that the promised Comforter was personified in certain human beings. The language of some of the primitive fathers, though its deficiencies have been greatly exaggerated, occasionally comes short of a full and complete a<'knowl- edgment of the divinity of the Spirit. Their opinions are given in their own words, with much valuable crit- icism, in Dr. Burton's Testimonies of the A nte-Nicene Fa- thers to the Doctrine of the Trinity and the iJirinily if the Holy Ghost (1831). Valentinus believed that the Holy Spirit was an angel. The Sabellians denied that he was a distinct person^from the Father and the Son. Eunomius, with the Anomasans and the Arians, reganl- ed him as a created being. Macedonius, with his fol-
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lowers the Pneumatomaclii. also denieii liis divinity, and re^jarilod liini as a creati'd beinji attcmlin}^ on tlie Son. His |)n>i-f>sic.n from ilie Son a.i well as from till' Father was ilic Lircat imini of omirovfrsy in tho Middle AiCfs. In modern limes the Socinians and Spinosa have alto- jjetlier denied the personality, and have rei;arded him a8 an influence or power of the Deity. It must siittiee in this article to tjive the principal texts of Scripture | ill which these erroneous opinions are contradicteil, and to refer to the principal works in which they are dis- cussed at length, 'i'lie docnnienis in which various ex- istin;; communities of Christians have stated their be- lief are specified by \\'iner, Comparatice Darstellung des Le/irftrf/rifs. etc. p. 41, 8(1.