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| The Paraclete, or Holy Ghost. He is Distinct from the Father and the Son as to Their Personal Existence. One and Inseparable from Them as to Their Divine Nature. Other Quotations Out of St. John's Gospel.
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Chapter XXV.—The
Paraclete, or Holy Ghost. He is Distinct from the Father and the Son as
to Their Personal Existence. One and Inseparable from Them as to Their
Divine Nature. Other Quotations Out of St. John’s
Gospel.
What follows Philip’s question, and the
Lord’s whole treatment of it, to the end of
John’s Gospel, continues to furnish us with statements of
the same kind, distinguishing the Father and the Son, with the
properties of each. Then there is the Paraclete or Comforter,
also, which He promises to pray for to the Father, and to send from
heaven after He had ascended to the Father. He is called
“another Comforter,” indeed;8111
but in what way He is another we have already shown,8112
“He shall receive of mine,” says
Christ,8113
just as
Christ Himself received of the Father’s. Thus the
connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete,
produces three coherent Persons, who are yet distinct One from
Another. These Three are one8114
| 8114 Unum. [On this famous
passage see Elucidation III.] | essence, not
one Person,8115
as it is said,
“I and my Father are One,”8116
in
respect of unity of substance not singularity of number. Run through
the whole Gospel, and you will find that He whom you believe to
be the Father (described as acting for the Father, although you, for
your part, forsooth, suppose that “the Father, being the
husbandman,”8117
must surely have
been on earth) is once more recognised by the Son as in heaven, when,
“lifting up His eyes thereto,”8118
He
commended His disciples to the safe-keeping of the Father.8119
We have, moreover, in that other Gospel a
clear revelation, i.e. of the Son’s distinction from the
Father, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”8120
and again, (in the third Gospel,)
“Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”8121
But even if (we had not these passages, we
meet with satisfactory evidence) after His resurrection and glorious
victory over death. Now that all the restraint of His humiliation is
taken away, He might, if possible, have shown Himself as the Father to
so faithful a woman (as Mary Magdalene) when she approached to touch
Him, out of love, not from curiosity, nor with Thomas’
incredulity. But not so; Jesus saith unto her, “Touch me
not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my
brethren” (and even in this He proves Himself to be the Son; for
if He had been the Father, He would have called them His
children, (instead of His brethren), “and say unto
them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your
God.”8122
Now, does this
mean, I ascend as the Father to the Father, and as God to God? Or
as the Son to the Father, and as the Word to God? Wherefore also does
this Gospel, at its very termination, intimate that these things were
ever written, if it be not, to use its own words, “that ye might
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?”8123
Whenever, therefore, you take any of the
statements of this Gospel, and apply them to demonstrate the identity
of the Father and the Son, supposing that they serve your views
therein, you are contending against the definite purpose of the Gospel.
For these things certainly are not written that you may believe that
Jesus Christ is the Father, but the Son.8124
| 8124 [A curious
anecdote is given by Carlyle in his Life of Frederick (Book xx.
cap. 6), touching the text of “the Three Witnesses.”
Gottsched satisfied the king that it was not in the Vienna ms. save in an interpolation of the margin “in
Melanchthon’s hand.” Luther’s Version lacks this
text.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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