§ 128. THE DOCTIilNE OF THE UOLY Srilirf. 605
tioB, as well as the traditional triuitarian doxologies, put the Holy Ghost on an equality with the Father and the Son, and require a divine tri-personality resting upon a unity of essence. The divine triad tolerates in itself no inequality of essence, no mixture of Creator and creatm-e. Athanasius well perceived this, and advocated with decision the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit against the Pneumatomachi or Tropici.* Basil did the sanie,^ and Gregory of Nazianzuni,' Gregory of Nyfrsa,* Didynius,^ and Ambrose/
This doctrine conquered at the councils of Alexandria, A. D. 362, of Rome, 375, and finally of Constantinople, 381, and became an essential constituent of the ecumenical orthodoxy.
Accordingly the Creed of Constantinople supplemented the Nicene with the important addition : " And in the Holy Ghost, who is Lord and Giver of life, who witli the Father is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets." '
This declares the consubstantiality of the Holy Ghost, not indeed in words, yet in fact, and challenges for him divine dignity and worship.
The excgetical proofs employed by the ]S"icene fathers for the deity of the Holy Ghost are chiefly the following. The Holy Ghost is nowhere in Scripture reckoned among creatures
' In the four Epistles to Serapion, bishop of Tmuis, written in 362 (Ep. ad Serapionem Thmuitanum episcopum contra illos qui blasphemant et dicunt Spiritum S. rem creatam esse), in his Opera, ed. Bened. torn. i. Pars ii. pp. 64*7-714; also in Thilo's Biblioth. Patr. Grcec. dogmatica, vol. i. pp. 666-819.
' De Spiritu Sancto ad S. Amphilochium Iconii episcopum (Opera, ed. Bened. torn. iii. and in Thilo's Bibl. vol. ii. pp. 182-343).
" Orat. xxxi. Ue Spiritu Sancto (Opera, tom. i. p. 556 sqq. and in Thilo's BibL eol. ii. pp. 497-537).
* Orat. catech. c. 2. Comp. Rupp, Gregor v. Nyssa, p. 169 sq.
* De Spiritu S., translated by Jerome. « De Spiritu S. libri 3.
' Similar additions had already been previously made to the Niccne Creed. Thus Epiphanius in his Ancoratus, c. 120, which was written in 374, gives the Nicene Creed as then already in general use with the following passage on the Holy Spirit: Kai eis rb hjiov ■nvivjj.a, TriaTevofxeu, rh KaKriaav ii/ vdixw, koi KTjpv^af eV rots ■npo(bii' TttJS Koi Karafiav eVl -rhv 'lopSar'Tji', \a\ovv iv airoar6\oti, oIkovv iv ay'iois • ovrus 6J mcrrevofiev iv aurw, on i<7rl -irvev/xa aytop, Trytt'/xa ©eoO, irveDjUO reAeiov. rryeS/ua rrapofcArjTOf, &kti(ttuv, (K rod Trarpbj iKnopfvnjuevovy Kal e/c tov viuv f.ai.ifiav6ueyoP ital irnjTtvSfieuov. His shorter Creed, Auc. c. IIP (in Mitcne's cd. tom. iii. 231), cv(r
666 Tiirao PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
or anp;el8, but is placed in God liimsclf, co-eternal witlt God, afi tliat which searches the depths of Godhead (1 Cor. ii. 11, 12). He fills the universe, and is everywhere present (Ps. cxxxix. Y), while creatures, even angels, are in definite places. He waa active even in the creation (Gen. i. 3), and filled Moses and the prophets. From him proceeds the divine work of regeneration and sanctification (John iii. 5; Rom. i. 4; viii. 11; 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; Tit. iii. 5-7 ; Eph. iii. 16 ; v. 17, 19, &c). He is the source of all gifts in the church (1 Cor. xii). He dwells in believers, like the Father and the Son, and makes them partakers of the divine life. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is the extreme sin, which cannot be forgiven (Matt. xii. 31). Lying to the Holy Ghost is called lying to God (Acts v. 3, 4). In the formula of baptism (Matt, xxviii. 19), and likewise in the apostolic benediction (2 Cor. xiii. 13), the Holy Ghost is put on a level with the Father and the Son, and yet distinguished from both ; he must therefore be truly divine, yet at the same time a self-conscious person.' The Holy Ghost is the source of sanctification, and unites us with the divine life, and thus must himself be divine. The divine trinity tolerates in itself nothing created and changeable. As the Son is begotten of the Father from eternity, so the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. (The procession of the Spirit from the Son, on the contrary, is a subsequent inference of the Latin church from the consubstantiality of the Son, and was unknown to the Nicene fathers.)
The distinction between generation and procession is not particuLirly defined. Augustine calls both inefiable and inexplicable.' The doctrine of the Holy Ghost was not in any i-espect so accurately developed in this period, as the doctrine concerning Christ, and it shows many gaps.
literally agrees with that of C()n8tantinoi)le, but in both he adds the anathema <if tlu original Nicene Creed.
' The well-known passage concerning the three witnesses in heaven, 1 John y. 7, is not cited by the Nicene fathers : a strong evidence that it was wanting in th« manuscripts of the Bible at that time.
' "Ego distinguere nescio, non valco, oon sf.fficio, propteea quia sicut generath ita processio menarrabills est.'