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| On Whitsuntide, I.
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Sermon LXXV.
(On Whitsuntide, I.)
I. The giving of the Law by Moses
prepared the way for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.
The hearts of all catholics, beloved, realize that
to-day’s solemnity is to be honoured as one of the chief feasts,
nor is there any doubt that great respect is due to this day, which the
Holy Spirit has hallowed by the miracle of His most excellent
gift. For from the day on which the Lord
ascended up above all heavenly heights to sit down at God the
Father’s right hand, this is the
tenth which has shone, and the fiftieth from His Resurrection, being
the very day on which it began1138
| 1138 In eo (Sc.
die) a quo cœpit (Sc. festum),
apparently an obscure way of saying that the first Whitsunday was the
same day of the week (viz. the first) as the first
Easter-day. | , and
containing in itself great revelations of mysteries both new and old,
by which it is most manifestly revealed that Grace was fore-announced
through the Law and the Law fulfilled through Grace. For as of
old, when the Hebrew nation were released from the Egyptians, on the
fiftieth day after the sacrificing of the lamb the Law was given on
Mount Sinai, so after the suffering of Christ, wherein the true Lamb of
God was slain, on the fiftieth day from His
Resurrection, the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles and the
multitude of believers, so that the earnest Christian may easily
perceive that the beginnings of the Old Testament were preparatory to
the beginnings of the Gospel, and that the second covenant was founded
by the same Spirit that had instituted the first.
II. How marvellous was the gift of
“divers tongues.”
For as the Apostles’ story testifies:
“while the days of Pentecost were fulfilled and all the disciples
were together in the same place, there occurred suddenly from heaven a
sound as of a violent wind coming, and filled the whole house where
they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as
of fire and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Holy Spirit gave them utterance1139
.” Oh! how swift are the words
of wisdom, and where God is the Master, how
quickly is what is taught, learnt. No interpretation is required
for understanding, no practice for using, no time for studying, but the
Spirit of Truth blowing where He wills1140
,
the languages peculiar to each nation become common property in the
mouth of the Church. And therefore from that day the trumpet of
the Gospel-preaching has sounded loud: from that day the showers
of gracious gifts, the rivers of blessings, have watered every desert
and all the dry land, since to renew the face of the earth the Spirit
of God “moved over the waters1141
,” and to drive away the old darkness
flashes of new light shone forth, when by the blaze of those busy
tongues was kindled the Lord’s bright
Word and fervent eloquence, in which to arouse the understanding, and
to consume sin there lay both a capacity of enlightenment and a power
of burning.
III. The three Persons in the Trinity are
perfectly equal in all things.
But although, dearly-beloved, the actual form of
the thing done was exceeding wonderful, and undoubtedly in that
exultant chorus of all human languages the Majesty of the Holy Spirit
was present, yet no one must think that His Divine substance appeared
in what was seen with bodily eyes. For His Nature, which is
invisible and shared in common with the Father and the Son, showed the
character of His gift and work by the outward sign that pleased Him,
but kept His essential property within His own Godhead: because
human sight can no more perceive the Holy Ghost than it can the Father
or the Son. For in the Divine Trinity nothing is unlike or
unequal, and all that can be thought concerning Its substance admits of
no diversity either in power or glory or eternity. And while in
the property of each Person the Father is one, the Son is another, and
the Holy Ghost is another, yet the Godhead is not distinct and
different; for whilst the Son is the Only begotten of the Father, the
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, not in the way
that every creature is the creature of the Father and the Son, but as
living and having power with Both, and eternally subsisting of That
Which is the Father and the Son1142
| 1142 For this
statement of the doctrine of the Trinity, esp. in regard to the Twofold
Procession of the Holy Ghost, cf. Lett. XV. chap. 2. Bright
quotes Swete’s History of the Doctrine, p. 157. | . And
hence when the Lord before the day of His
Passion promised the coming of the Holy Spirit to His disciples, He
said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear
them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth shall have come, He
shall guide you into all the Truth. For He shall not speak from
Himself, but whatsoever He shall have heard, He shall speak and shall
announce things to come unto you. All things that the Father hath
are Mine: therefore said I that He shall take of Mine, and shall
announce it to you1143
.”
Accordingly, there are not some things that are the Father’s, and
other the Son’s, and other the Holy Spirit’s: but all
things whatsoever the Father has, the Son also has, and the Holy Spirit
also has: nor was there ever a time when this communion did not
exist, because with Them to have all things is to always exist.
In them let no times, no grades, no differences be imagined1144
| 1144 Cf. Serm. XXVIII.
chap. 4, cum gradus in vera Divinitate esse non possit, and
Serm. LXXII. chap. 5, nec Unitatem gradibus dividat, and
Bright’s notes 29 and 116 on the subject. | , and, if no one can explain that which is
true concerning God, let no one dare to assert
what is not true. For it is more excusable not to make a
full
statement
concerning His ineffable Nature than to frame an actually wrong
definition. And so whatever loyal hearts can conceive of the
Father’s eternal and unchangeable Glory, let them at the same
time understand it of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any
separation or difference. For we confess this blessed Trinity to
be One God for this reason, because in these
three Persons there is no diversity either of substance, or of power,
or of will, or of operation.
IV. The Macedonian heresy is as
blasphemous as the Arian.
As therefore we abhor the Arians, who maintain a
difference between the Father and the Son, so also we abhor the
Macedonians1145
| 1145 “Arianism
had spoken both of the Son and the Holy Spirit as creatures. The
Macedonians, rising up out of Semi-arianism, gradually reached the
Church’s belief as to the uncreated Majesty of the Son, even if
they retained their objection to the Homoousion. But having, in
their previously Semi-arian position, refused to extend their own
Homoi-ousion to the Holy Spirit, they afterwards persisted in regarding
Him ‘as external to the one indivisible
Godhead.’” Newman’s Arians, p.
226. Bright’s n. 129. Macodonius, from whom the sect
was named, was bp. of Constantinople alternately with his rival, the
orthodox Paul, between 342 and 351, and from that date he held the See
in full possession till 360, when he was finally deposed. | , who, although
they ascribe equality to the Father and the Son, yet think the Holy
Ghost to be of a lower nature, not considering that they thus fall into
that blasphemy, which is not to be forgiven either in the present age
or in the judgment to come, as the Lord
says: “whosoever shall have spoken a word against the Son
of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but he that shall have spoken against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in
the age to come1146
.” And
so to persist in this impiety is unpardonable, because it cuts him off
from Him, by Whom he could confess: nor will he ever attain to
healing pardon, who has no Advocate to plead for him. For from
Him comes the invocation of the Father, from Him come the tears of
penitents, from Him come the groans of suppliants, and “no one
can call Jesus the Lord save in the Holy
Ghost1147
,” Whose Omnipotence as equal and
Whose Godhead as one, with the Father and the Son, the Apostle most
clearly proclaims, saying, “there are divisions of graces but the
same Spirit; and the divisions of ministrations but the same
Lord; and there are divisions of operations
but the same God, Who worketh all things in
all1148
.”
V. The Spirit’s work is still
continued in the Church.
By these and other numberless proofs,
dearly-beloved, with which the authority of the Divine utterances is
ablaze, let us with one mind be incited to pay reverence to
Whitsuntide, exulting in honour of the Holy Ghost, through Whom the
whole catholic Church is sanctified, and every rational soul quickened;
Who is the Inspirer of the Faith, the Teacher of Knowledge, the Fount
of Love, the Seal of Chastity, and the Cause of all Power. Let
the minds of the faithful rejoice, that throughout the world One
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is praised
by the confession of all tongues, and that that sign of His Presence,
which appeared in the likeness of fire, is still perpetuated in His
work and gift. For the Spirit of Truth Himself makes the house of
His glory shine with the brightness of His light, and will have nothing
dark nor lukewarm in His temple. And it is through His aid and
teaching also that the purification of fasts and alms has been
established among us. For this venerable day is followed by a
most wholesome practice, which all the saints have ever found most
profitable to them, and to the diligent observance of which we exhort
you with a shepherd’s care, to the end that if any blemish has
been contracted in the days just passed through heedless negligence, it
may be atoned for by the discipline of fasting and corrected by pious
devotion. On Wednesday and Friday, therefore, let us fast, and on
Saturday for this very purpose keep vigil with accustomed devotion,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who with the
Father and the Holy Ghost lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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