Green on Article V: Of the Holy Ghost

This Article seems to have been added to make the dogmatic statements of the Church against the Arians more complete.1 Considerable danger, we know, threatened the Church from this quarter in the earlier years of Elizabeth’s reign. See, e.g., a letter of Archbishop Parker in which he says, “ They say that the realm is full of Anabaptists, Arians, Libertines, Free-will men, &c., against whom only I thought ministers should have needed to fight in unity of doctrine” ( Parkers Correspondence , p. 61).

§ 3. — EXPOSITION.

(1.) The Twofold Procession of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son.

The title “ Holy Spirit” is used by our Lord Himself of “the Comforter” Whom the Father would send (S. John xiv. 26), and is also found twice in the Hew Testament in the mouth of an angel from heaven (S. Matt. i. 20 ; S. Luke i. 35), in each instance with reference to the Incarnation.

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That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father is clear from the words of our Lord in S. John xiv. 1 6, xv. 26, and elsewhere. For the Procession from the Son we may refer to S. J ohn xvi. 7 ; Acts xvi. 7 ; 1 Rom. viii. 9 ; Phil. i. 19;

1 S. Peter i. 1 1 ; see also S. John xx. 22, where the Holy Spirit is bestowed by the Son upon the Apostles.

The Creed of the Council of Nicaca (a.d. 325) simply said, “ I believe in the Holy Ghost.” The Council of Constantinople (a.d. 381) added the words, “ the Lord and the Life-giver, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the prophets.” The Western Church has further added the famous Filioque clause, which is traceable as far back as the Council of Toledo (a.d. 589), but did not win general acceptance in the Latin Church until the middle of the ninth century, when, during the Pontificate of Nicholas I., it was adopted at Rome. The controversy upon this ended, in the eleventh century, in the schism between East and West, not yet healed.2 While we hold that the word Filioque expresses a Scriptural truth, at the same time we are bound to admit that its insertion in the Nicene Creed, without CEcumenical authority, is on no ground justifiable.

(2.) The Divinity of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Ghost … is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.

The true and proper Divinity of the Holy Spirit is indicated by the fact that Divine homage is rendered to Him in the formula of Baptism (S. Matt, xxviii. 19) and in S. Paul’s Benediction in 2 Cor. xiii. 14. There are not wanting, moreover, passages in Holy Scripture which directly testify to His Godhead; see especially 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; Acts v. 3, 4.

1 In this passage the correct reading is T6 J\vevp.a T rjaov ; so Revised Version following the oldest extant MSS., KABCDE. ; and Vulgate, “Spiritus Jesu.”

2 With regard to the Procession of the Holy Spirit, the Orthodox Confession of the Greek Church speaks thus, StfacrKe i (scil. eK/iX-pcria) 7ru)s TO 7 rvevp.a TO ayi ov eKxopeueTcu £k /x6rov too n rctTpos cos ir’pyrj’i /cat apxh s r??s dedTr/TOS.

Notes

• That at the Reformation period some denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost appears from Ridley’s letter, quoted pp. 23, 24.