BT 122 Vi/891o Vi/ORDS WORTH ON THE PROCESSION A OFTHE HOLY SPIRIT A^ en = c = ^^ D3 = == 33 6 = 1 = > 8 - 1 — 9 - 8 zz 9 ^ 8 * THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES i ON THE Procession OF The Holy Spirit WITH A PROPOSAL FOR A SYNODICAL DECLARATION THEREUPON ^trmon PREACHED IN LINCOLN' CATHEDRAL ON WHITSUNDAY, 1S72 BY THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN ?iotttJon RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO TLACE TRINITY STREET CamliiitJgc HIGH STREET AND J. WILLIAMSON, LINCOLN 1872 ON THE , , ^ q I _ PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 3Joi)n jrb. 26. " W/ien the Co^nforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, ei>cn the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.'' To-day is a day of love, joy, and peace. These are fruits of the Spirit.* Whatsoever therefore tends to produce them is congenial to this day's festival, on which we render thanks to God for sending the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, to abide with us for ever.f The day of Pentecost in Sion is the antithesis and antidote of the confusion of tongues at Babel. True indeed it is that the Nations of the earth will never return to their primeval unity in one language ; but, by the Coming of the Holy Ghost, as on this day, the living waters of the one Gospel of Christ have been made to flow in the streams of the languages of innumerable Nations, from the heavenly well-spring in the City of God. Such being the case, all faithful children of Christ's universal Church will earnestly desire and devoutly pray, especially on this day, that her divisions may be healed, and that her members in all parts of the world may be brought into a closer union with one another in the holy bands of truth and love. * Gal. V. 22. t Jolm xiv. 16. A 2 1372244 4 Oil the Procession of the Holy Spirit. About a thousand years have passed away since a rent was made in Christendom between the Eastern and Western Churches, by the Bisliop of Rome * making an addition to the ancient Creed of the Church, and asserting that the Holy Spirit issues forth from the Son as well as from the Father,! and enforcing that doctrine as an Article of Faith, and as a term of Christian communion. Thus it has come to pass, that by the wiles of the Evil One the doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit of Truth, Love, and Peace, has been made an occasion of division and strife in the mystical Body of Christ for ten centiiries. Brethren, on February 1st, 1870, a learned Archbishop of the Eastern Church J visited this cathedral and was present at Evening Prayer ; and before that service, being here with a few friends, he mounted the steps of this pulpit, and standing here and looking round him he said in his own language, " It is the earnest prayer of my heart that the God of truth and peace may vouchsafe to join us together in one ; and that the day may * Pope Nicolas I., who occupied the Papal Chair from a.d. 858 to 867. t By tlie insertion of the word Filioque into the Niceno-Constantino- politan Creed : although one of his predecessors (Pope Leo III., a.d. 795-816) protested against such an insertion, and had ordered that Creed to be engraven in Greek and Latin on two silver shields, and placed in S. Peter's Church at Eome. See the authorities in Bishoi^ Pearson on the Creed, Art. viii., note. % Alexander Lycurgus, Archbishop of Ryra and Tenos, acconij anicd by other Greek Ecclesiastics. On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. 5 come when the Gospel of Christ may be preached from Greek lips to English ears and hearts in this place." On the following day we went together to Nottingham, for the consecration of my right reverend brother here present,* whom, after the consecration, he greeted with a fraternal embrace, and with words of Christian affection. I now stand here before you in this sacred place, in the presence of Almiglity God, on this great festival of the Church, to make a response of peace and love to that Christian appeal. Surely a thousand years of strife are more than enough. By God's gracious providence, and by means of recent synodical deliberations on the Athanasian Creed, when this question was brought promi- nently forward, the time seems now to have arrived, in which, if we pray earnestly to Him for the outpouring of the gracious influences of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and if we approach the consideration of this subject in a spirit of wisdom and charity, this difference may be healed. Let there be loving intercourse on both sides, enlightened and guided by learning and judg- ment, and then by the blessing of God the cause of sacred truth may be advanced even by means of former controversies, and the truth itself may be placed in a clearer light. Brethren, it cannot be denied, and ought to be * The Bibliup Suffragan of Nottingham. 6 07i the Processio7i of the Holy Spirit. publicly confessed, that Christendom owes to the Grreek Church, under Grod, a deep debt of grati- tude for having carefully guarded, and steadfastly maintained, a fundamental article of the Christian Faith — that there is one Eternal Fountain of Deity, namely, in God the Father, and in God the Father alone ; * and that from this one, eternal origin of Deity, God the Son was begotten from eternity ; and that out of this same Fountain of Deity in the Father, God the Holy Ghost issued forth from eternity, as a stream issues forth from its source.f This fundamental doctrine was delivered by our Blessed Lord Himself when He said, " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeih from the Father," or, as the words would be better translated, "which issueih /(/rthX from the Father." * See S. Atlianasius contra Sabellianos, cap. xi. p. 35, ed. Bened. 1777 : 'O TvaTrjp piCo^ kcli Trrjyr) tov vlov Koi tov irvfVfiaTos. S. John Damascene (p. 148, ed. Veuet. 1748), 'O TraTrjp Trqyr] koi alria vlov koX TTVfvfjiaTos ay'iov . . . povos airtos 6 iraT-qp, and the statements of Mark, Bishop of Ephesus, at the Council of Florence ; Labbe, Concil. xiii. 1091-3. Cp. Bishop Bull, 'Defensio Fidei Nicsense,' ii. 3, 10, " Fatemur ultro Patrem solum esse aliquo respectu summum Deum, quia/oHs Deitatis Ipse sit, hoc est, solus a Se-ipso Dens, a quo divini- tatem suam accipiant Filius et Spiritus Sanctus ;" and ibid. ii. 3, 17 ; ii. 4, 9. t This oneness of origin of Deity in the Father was called Monarchia, concerning which TertuUiau thus writes (contra Praxeam, c. 4) " Tertius est Spiritus a Deo et Filio, sicut tertius a foute rivus ex flumine . . . ita Trinitas per consertos et connexos gradus a Patre decurrens monarclme nihil obstrepit." Cp. Bishoji Bull, Defens. Fid. Nic. ii. 4, 10; ii. 8, 5; iv. 4, 2. X (KTTopevoptvov. § Jnhn XV. 26. 0?i the Processio7i of the Holy Spirit. 7 The word which our Lord used here * is adopted by the Greek Church, in the Nicene Creed, and in the Athanasian Creed,| where it declares that the Holy G-host issues forthX from the Father, with no mention of the Son as a co-ordinate origin with Him. It is a sure and certain truth, capable of clear demonstration, that this fundamental doctrine was held by the greatest Teachers of the Eastern Church in ancient times. This doctrine was in great jeopardy in the fifteenth century, at the Council of Florence, by reason of the domineering influence of the Roman Papacy, and of the pusillanimity of the Greek Emperor, desirous to prop up a tottering throne by means of a Western alliance against the aggres- sions of Turkish invaders, and through the tem- porizing vacillation of the Greek Patriarch and other leading personages of the Greek Hierarchy. The Truth was bartered away by them for a time, * fKTToptvoiiai, to issue forth, or out of, as a stream issues forth from its source. See the use of the word in the Septuagint version, Gen. i. 10; Ezek. xlvii. 1; cp. Rev. xxii. 1. t eKTTopfVTov. See the Greek Horologium, p. 495, ed. Venet. 1868. :j: fKiTop€V€Tai. As Bishop Pearson says, on the Creed, Art. viii: " The word eKnopfvcns or the verb iKnopivofxai was not used by the Greeks in reference to the Son, but only, as the Scriptures speak, in relation to the Father ; and to the issuing forth of the Holy Spirit from Him." And again, iUd., "The ancient Greek Fathers, speaking of this Procession, mention the Father only, and never, I think, express the Son ; as sticking constantly in this to the language of the Scrip- tures." And again, ibid., " It is much to be lamented that the Latins should force the Greeks to use that language in the expression of this doctrine which Avas never used by any of the Greek Fathers." 8 071 the Procession of the Holy Spirit. from motives of worldly expediency ; and an erroneous dogma, contravening this fundamental doctrine^ was promulgated in the year a.d. 1439 in a decree of the Council of Florence, which affirmed that the Son as well as the Father is the Cause and Origin of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit issues fort] i^ from the Father and tlie Son as from a source.f In this same decree the Council of Florence laid the Eastern Church prostrate at the feet of the Bishop of Eome.J The Council of Florence is regarded as a General Council by the Church of Rome.§ But the decrees of that Council have never been accepted by the Eastern Church || nor by our own Church ; * fKiropfverai. See the Decree of the Council (a.d, 1439, July 6tli), in the ninth year of the Pontificate of Pope Eugenius IV. in Labbe, Concilia, xiii. p. 510-518. At the same time, in order to conciliate the Greeks, the Council affirmed that it did not intend to do, what virtually it did, namely, " to exclude the Father from being the Fountain of the Deity of the Son and the Spirit." Indeed, as might be expected in an act of compromise, the language of the decree of the Council of Flo- rence on this subject is equivocal and ambiguous. One of the best apologies on behalf of the decree of that Council is to be found in the 'Oratio Dogmatica' of Bessarion, (afterwards Cardinal) Archbishop of Nic£ea (Labbe, Concilia, xiii. 394, 459). The most able and unflinching champion on the other side was Mark, Metropolitan of Ephesus, whooc argmnents may be seen, ibid. pji. 1090-1102, f ojs OTTO fiias dpxrjs, p. 514. X See ibid. p. 515 : " We define that the Eoman Pontiff is the Head of the Church, and the Father and Teacher of all Christians." § It is reckoned, by that Church, as the eighteenth General Council. II Romanist writers attribute the capture of Constantinople by the Turks on Wliitsunday, May 29, a.d. 1453, to the Divine retribution upon the Greek Church and Empire for rejecting the decrees of that Council concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost ; see Cabassutii ' Concilia,' p. 519, ed. Lovan. 1776 ; and Cardinal Bellarmiue and others. On the Procession of the Holy Spirit, 9 and the doctrine of the one Fountain of Deity in the Father has continued to be held by the Eastern Church to this dav. But, brethren^ although that doctrine was obscured by the Council of Florence, which de- clared that the Holy Spirit issues forth eternally from the Father and from the Son, and thus that Council appeared to countenance the erroneous and heretical notion of two Causes or Priuciples, and two Fountains of Godhead,* yet we in the Church of England, who are not bound by the trammels of Roman vassalage, and who do not acknowledge the Council of Florence to be a G-eneral Council, as the Church of Rome does, are providentially enabled to hold the true doctrine of the relation of the Holy Spirit to the Father, as that doctrine is tauglit in Holy Scripture and by the great ancient Doctors of the Eastern Church, and even of the Western itself; and we are also able to do, what the Church of Rome cannot do^ quoted by Dr. Cave, Life of S. Greg. Nazian., sect. v. 3. It might with at least equal truth and charity be said, that the capture of Con- stantinople was due to the tergiversation of the Greek Emperor Constantine Palsologus appealing to Eome for help in 1452, and relapsing into the errors promulgated at the Council of Florence ; see the ' History of the Council of Florence,' translated by Basil Popoff, pp. 178-180, London, 1861 ; and Gibbon, Hist. chap. Ixviii. * Dr. Berriman, in his ' Historical Account of the Trinitarian Con- troversy,' well observes (p. 3'J5, ed. 1725) that, " at the Council of Florence the Latins were thought to introduce two Causes or Principles, and two Fountains of Deity, and to teach a compound instead of a simple act of production." A 3 I o On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. namely, to approach the Eastern Church with a message of peace. But here it may be asked — Have we not on this day prayed to Grod the Holy Ghost in the Litany, and have we not there invoked Him as ''''proceeding from the Father and the Son" ? Have we not joined in the Athanasian Creed, in which it is said that " the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son : neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding " ? Have we not just professed in the Nicene Creed* our belief in "the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son' ? May it not there- fore be said, that we ourselves acknowledge two Fountains of Deity, namely, in the Father and the Son, and that the Holy Spirit issues forth from them both ? In replying to these questions, let us carefully analyse the meaning of this word proceed, which we use in the Litany and in the two Creeds, and of its cognate substantive, procession. They are derived from the Latin word procedo ; but this word is by no means synonymous with the Greek word f which is used in S. John's Gospel and by the Girek Church in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, to describe the relation of the Holy Ghost * Or rather, the Niceno-ConstantinopoUtcm Cieed. The portion concerning the Holy Ghost was added to the Nicene Creed in the General Council of Constantinople, a.d. 381. t (Kiropdnfiai. Sec above, p. 5. On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. 1 1 to the Father. That Greek word signifies to issue forth J as a stream issues forth from its source ; but the Latin word procedo and the EngHsh word proceed have a much larger signification and do not necessarily mean to issue forth, as from a spring. Let us illustrate this statement by reference to the case of an epistle — S. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. That Epistle issued forth from the mind of the Apostle S. Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost. It issued forth from that source, and from that source alone. But it proceeded not only from the mind of S. Paul, who dictated it, but, from the pen of Tertius, who " wrote the Epistle " at S. Paul's dictation ; * and it also proceeded to the Romans from the hand of Phoebe, " the servant of the Church at Cenclirea3," who was commissioned by S. Paul to deliver it to the Church at Rome.f So, again, in a chain it is the first link alone which issues forth from its origin ; but any succes- sive link in the chain may be said io proceed from the previous links in the series.J Therefore we may safely conclude that our own use of this ^oxdi proceed in the Litany, and in the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, does not involve us in the erroneous notion which was put forth as an Article of Faith by the Roman Church in the * Kom. svi. 22, t Rom. xvi. 1. % Dr. Johnson defines the word proceed as meaning " to pass from one person or place to another." 1 2 On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. Council of Florence, and which appears virtually to assert two eternal^ co-ordinate fountains of deity, in the Father and in the Son, and to affirm that the Holy Spirit issues forth concurrently from them both. But we must not stop here : we must go on to say that this word proceed^ rightly interpreted and applied to God the Holy Grhost, in relation to God the Son, represents certain great theological truths, which are the complement of that fundamental doctrine which the Greek Church has been a providential instrument in maintaining, that there is but one Fountain of Deity, namely in God Father. These great subsidiary truths are as follows. By reason of the eternal consubstantiality of the only-begotten Son with the Father, the Holy Ghost may be said to proceed eternally from the Son, though not to issue forth from Him as from an original source of Godhead. Our Lord Himself declares this truth when He says, " He " (the Holy Spirit) " shall glorify Me : for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I, that He " (namely, the Holy Spirit) "shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you." * And therefore the ancient Greek Fathers, while steadfastly maintaining that God the Father is the * John xvi. 14, 15. On tJie Procession of the Holy Spirit. 1 o only orig'Inal Fountain of Deity,* did not hesitate to acknowledge that God the Son, as being eter- nally consubstantial with the Father, is mediately and derivatively a fountain \ of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit flows to us eternally through\ God the Son, although He does not flow forth or out of God the Son. The ancient Latin Fathers also declare that the Son receives from the Father this very attribute and prerogative, that the Holy Spirit proceeds I'rom Him as well as from the Father, who is the j^rincijMl § origin of deity. * See above, p, Q, note ; and below, note, p. 23. t So S. Athanasius de Incarnatione et contra Arianos, § 9, vol. i. p. 701, cd. 1777 : OtSt ivapa tS Bea Trarpl ovra rov vlov TTTjyrjv tov ayiov TTPevfiaros. S. Cyril Alex, sub Assert. 34: ck rfis ovaias tov TTarpos KOL TOV vlov TO TTvevfjLa TO ayiou. S. Epiphan. Ha;res. 62, p. 515. 'Ael TO TTvevfiu avv Trarpl Koi via, eK TraTpoa iKiropevofxevov kol tov vlov 'Kap.^dvov, ex Ttjs avTTJs ovcrias, e'fc rj;s avrrjs GeoTrjTog, ex nuTpos koi vlov, (Tvv iraTpl Koi via fvvTToaTaTOV aei to Trvevpa to dyiov, irvevpa X.picrTOv, TTvevpa TTUTpos. Cp. S. Augustin. de Triu. v. 14, "Pater et Filius priu- cipium Spiritus Sancti, non duo principia." X The Greek Fathers taught the eKnopeva-ii of the Spirit SidroO vlov but not eK tov vlov. So S. Cyril Alex, de Adorat. lib. i. : 'Ek rrarpos Si' vlov Trpoxeofievov rrvevpa. S. John Damascen. de Fide Orthodoxa, i. c. xii. p. 1-48 : to Trvevpa to ayiov, ivvevp-a tov iraTpos, as €K TraTpos eKTTopevopevov, Koi vlov 6e rrvevpa, ovx as i^ avTOv, dXX' as fit' avTov €K TOV TTorpos fKTTopevopevov • povos yap a'lTios 6 jraTrjp. See ibid. pp. 497, G64, and Georg. Scholar, p. 371, avyxapovpev d'idias fK naTpos fit' vlov Trpo'ievat kol elvai to nvevpa to ayiov, and among the Latins S. Hilary de Trin. lib. xii. 57, expresses this very clearly : " Con- serva banc oro fidei meaj incontaminatam religionem, et usque ad excessum spiritus mei dona mihi banc conscientia^ mea3 vocem, ut quod in regenerationis me£e symbolo, baptizatus in Patre et Filio et Spiritu Saucto, professus sum, semper obtineam, Patrem scilicet Te nos- trum, et Filium Tuum una Tecum, adorem; Sanctum Spiritum Tuum, qui ex Te per Unigenitum Tuum est, promerear." § So S. Augustine, Tract. 99 in Johan. : " A quo " {i. c. Patre) "habet Filing ut sit Deus (est ciiiin dc Deo Deus), ab Illo etiam habet 14 On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine, that the Holy Spirit has an inti- mate relation to the Son as well as to the Father, and 'proceeds to us ministerially from the Son, as well as issues forth from the Father, is clearly revealed in Holy Writ.* There we read that our Lord, after His resurrection, breathed on His Apostles and said, " Receive ye the Holy Grhost." f There our Lord says that the Father would send the Comforter in His name.| There He says, " / ivill send unto you ' the Comforter ' from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which issueth forth from the Father.§ There we read, "Because ye are sons, Grod hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son ut etiam de lUo (Filio) procedat Spiritus Sanctus ; ac per hoc Spiritus .■anctus ut etiam de Filio procedat, sicut procedit de Patre, ab Ipso habet Patre." '■'■ Pater Solus de alio non est." And De Trinit. iv. 20, " Totius deitatis ];>Tincipium Pater est." Ihid. xv. 17, " Non frustra in hilc Trinitate non dicitur Verbum Dei nisi Filius, nee Donum Dei nisi Bpiritus Sanctus, nee de quo genitum est Verbum, et de quo procedit princijpaliter Spiritus Sanctus, nisi Deus Pater." Cp. Novatian. de Trinitate, cap. xxxi., where he speaks of the Father as the fountain and first principle of all essence. The testimony to this effect of Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century concerning the Latin Fathers is very remarkable: "The Romans (i.e. the early Latin Fathers) do not affirm that the Son is the cause of the Spirit, for they knew that the cause of the Spirit is the Father, but only show that the Spirit is sent through the Son." (Hist, of Council of Florence, translated by Popoff, p. 116 ; and see Labbe, Concil. xiii. pp. 430, 431.) * Hence Epiphanius says, Ancorat. §§ 67 and 72 : to Trveifxa eipai Trap' diM(poT€pa)v (rov Trarpo^ Koi rod vtoC) cos irapa tov warpos e k- nopevopevov koi eK rov vlov Xap^dvov. Cp. ibid, de Haeres. Ixii. § 4 and Ixix. § 52; S. Cyril Alex. vi. p. 229. But what the Greeks reasonably complain of is, that the Latins say, and would require all to say, TO TTvevpa to ayiov ovk eK tov Trarpos povov, aKXd ye Ka\ ex tov vlov eK TTopeveadat, KaivoXoyrjaavTes. See Photii Epist. ii. § 8 and Theophylact. ad Joann. c. iii. Cp. Confessio Orthodoxa in ' Libri'Sym- bolici EcclesiEB Orientalis,' ed. Kimmel, p. 142. t John XX. 22. J John xiv. 26. § John xv. 26. On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. 1 5 into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." * There it is written, "Ye are not in the flesh, bnt in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christy \\q is none of His."f There the apostle says, "I know tliat this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Sijirit of Jesus Christ.'' J There S. Paul teaches us that the Spirit which spake in the prophets was " the Spirit of Christ.'" ^ Therefore, brethren, although we do not, and cannot, justify the forcible insertion of the words '"''from the Son " in the Nicene Creed by tlie Church of Rome without the consent of the Church Universal, yet, inasmuch as those words rightly understood contain a most true and salu- tary doctrine, conducive to Christ's honour and to our comfort, we could not consent to e^ect those words from the Creed, for by so doing we should appear to deny the doctrine itself. And though we do not, and cannot, defend the declaration made by the Council of Florence that the Holy Spirit issues forth from the Father and from the Son, as from a composite origin of Deity, yet we think that we should be closing our eyes to the clear revelations of Holy Scripture concerning the relations of God the Son to God the Holy Ghost, if we did not affirm that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Son in such a sense as * Gal. iv. 6. t Rom. viii. 9. X Phil. i. 19. § 1 Tet. i. 11. 1 6 O71 the Processio7i of the Holy Spirit. to be the Spirit of the Son as well as the Spirit of the Father, and that He issues forth from the Father, through the Son, though not out of the Son as from a distinct source, both in works of nature and of grace ; and tliat thus the Three Persons of the ever blessed Trinity are seen united together in a mysterious intercommunion of power, and in a holy society of love. Hence therefore when we read in the beginning of Genesis that the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters at the creation ; * and in the Book of Job, " By His Spirit God hath garnished the heavens ; " | and in the language of the Psalmist, " By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host of tliem by the breath of His mouth ;" \ — we are reading what is in perfect harmony with the declaration of the beloved disciple S. John concerning the eternal Son of God, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." § So again in the world of grace. When we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews that " God . . . spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets," || and in the Second Epistle of S. Peter that " holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," ^ we are reading what is in comjolete * Gen. i. 2. f Job xxvi. 13. % Ts. xxxiii. 6. § John i. 1, 3. II HeK i. 1. 5 2 Pet. i. 21. On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. 1 7 accordance with the declaration of tlie same apostle that the prophets searched " what the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify ;" * and this again is blended in beautiful and harmonious analogy with what we know from Holy Scripture concerning the co-operation of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity in the mission of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. The Comforter, being a distinct Person from the Father and the Son, is said to come, by His own free-will and love to us. " When the Comforter is come,''' is the language of Christ Himself. And He is said to he sent by the Son as well as by the Father, as by two distinct Persons ; for our Lord adds, " Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which issueth forth from the Father." And in another place Christ says that the Holy Grhost is " the Spirit of the Father." f And our Lord says that the Father will send Him in His name,J; and that He Himself will pray the Father and that He will give them another Comforter to abide with them for ever, even the Spirit of truth ; § and He calls His coming " the promise of the Father which, said He, ye have heard from Me." II Thus our Lord draws our thoughts upward to * I. Pet. i. 11. t Matt. x. 20, % John xiv. 26. § John xiv. 16, 17. II Acts i. 4; cp. Acts ii. 32, 33, "This Jesus hath God raised up, .... therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." 1 8 On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. God the Father as the fountain of all power and might, and as the well-spring of all truth and love ; and consequently S. James says, " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and Cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning « Dearly beloved in Christ, the meditation on these truths is full of blessedness. They inspire us with holy admiration, devout awe, and ardent love. They reveal to us the one Eternal God- head, not as a cold, ideal, heartless abstrac- tion, without tenderness and sympathy ; nor as a mechanical automaton, ruled by rigid laws of a fatal necessity; nor as an Oriental despot seated alone in jealous suspicion and dread of companion- ship, and veiled in the inner recesses of a dark and selfish solitude. No ; they display to us an eternally blessed and glorious Being, radiant with light, and love, and beauty. And in this one eternal and glorious Godhead we contemplate the three divine Persons working together everlast- ingly in perfect harmony and order, for the accomplishment of the most beneficent purposes, — purposes upon which every j^art of the universe and all created beings depend for their happiness and joy, whether they be angels and archangels and celestial principalities and powers, or constel- lations in the material heavens and the natural "', James i. 17. 071 the Procession of the Holy Spirit. 19 elements, with all their glorious equipage ; or whether they be beasts of the field, or birds of the air, or fishes of the sea ; or whether they be creatures like ourselves, endued with reason and intelligence, in every nation under heaven ; and upon which purposes every immortal soul hangs for its supply of grace here, and for its hopes of glory hereafter, in the countless ages of eternity. And truly " God is love," * not only in the tender care of the Godhead for all Its creatures and Its works, but in the mutual amity and unin- terrupted concord of the Three Persons of the Godhead, one toward another from eternity. " The Father loveth the Son. He loved Him before the foundation of the world." f And the "Son loveth the Father," J and with reverence be it said, the Son speaks in terms of affection and veneration of the Person and Office of the Holy Ghost. § There is no discord there. If there were even the least failure, flaw, interruption, or disturbance in the reciprocal love and harmonious working of three eternal and almighty Persons of the ever blessed Trinity, then the whole framework of nature would be paralysed, and the whole economy of grace would be dissolved. Here is a pattern of union, love, and co-operation, for the imitation of all Christian churches and of all their members ; and here also is a worthy object * I. John iv. 7, 8. f John x. 17; xvii. 24. % John xiv. 31, § John xiv. 16, 26 ; xvi. 7, 13 ; Mark iii. 29 ; Luke xii. 10. 20 On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. for our devout adoration. Here we may take up in the Christian Church the seraphic Trisagion heard by the prophet Isaiah in the Temple of Jerusalem, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of His glory." * Here we may prepare ourselves to join for ever in the angelic hymn of the Church triumphant, which the beloved disciple heard in the Apoca- lypse, " They rest not day and night, saying. Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Thou art worthy, Lord, to receive glory and honour and power : for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." \ Lastly, may we not say that the Cliurch of England, holding these divine truths, has a special mission of peace and love to the great, ancient Church of the East? We maintain with the Eastern Church that God the Father is the sole Fountain of Deity ; and if we were to rehearse the Nicene or the Athanasian Creed in the Greek language, we could not speak otherwise than the Greek Church does ; we could not venture to say that the Holy Ghost issues forth from out of the Son as well as from out of the Father. If we did thus, we should be liable to the charge of making two fountains of deity. | * Isaiah vi. 3. f Eev. iv. 8, 11. X I^et me be allowed to offer a reply here to some who have charged me with oinitting the Filivqiie in llie Nicene Creed, on the occasion of the visit of the Archbishop of Syra to Ixiseholnie, and of his presence 071 the Procession of the Holy Spirit. 21 But in reciting those Creeds in our own verna- cular tongue, we use another word, of Latin origin, which has a much larger sense. We use the word proceed ; and we not only have no scruple in saying that the Holy Qpiiit j^roceeds from the Son, but we also affirm that this profession proclaims some im- portant truths concerning the relation of God the Son to God the Holy Grhost, which were held by the ancient Church of God, both in the East and in the West, and which ought never to be for- gotten or concealed by the faithful. And we entertain a hope, that, if we were clearly to ex- plain the sense in which we use the word p)^"oceed in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, the Eastern Church herself would not be reluctant to acknow- ledge the importance of those truths, and would approve us for professing them. What, therefore, appears now to be desirable is, that the Anglican Church* should put forth an authoritative declaration f in her Provincial and at our family prayers in the chapel there. I omitted nothing in the Creed. I recited the Creed in the Greek language, in order that the Greek Ecclesiastics present might join in it ; and I did not, and could not, interpolate the Creed with the words kul eic tov vlov, which never were in the Greek Creed, and could not therefore he added by me to it ; or omitted from it. * In which term I mean to include the Irish, Scottish, American, and Colonial Churches. t In the Upper House of Convocation in this Province, on Friday, May 3rd last, the Bishop of Lincoln gave notice of the following declaration on this subject, with reference to the Greek Church and the clause Filioque in the Creed : — " This House declares that, while it believes and professes in the Athanasian Creed as Avell as in the Nicene Creed, and in the Litany, , that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as fi'om the Father 22 0?i the Procession of the Holy Spirit. Diocesan Synods, as to the meaning in which she uses the word proceed in speaking of the relation of God the Son to God the Holy Ghost.* We should thus be renewing the pious endeavour of- our forefathers more than one hundred and eighty years ago, f and we might cherish the blessed hope inasmucli as Holy Scripture testifies tliat the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son (Rom. viii. 9; Gal. iv. 6 ; 1 Pet. i. 11), and receives of what is Christ's (John xvi. 14), and is sent by Him from the Father (John XV. 2G), as well as is sent by the Father in the name of the Son (John xiv. 26) : yet, inasmuch as the Greek word which the Greek Church uses in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed to signify the coming forth of the Holy Spirit is eKiropevofiai, a word of more limited sense than the Latin word p?'ocefZo and its derivations, and signifying the issuing forth as a stream from a source, and inasmuch as this Greek word fKiropevofiai is the word used in Holy Scripture, to express the issuing-forth of the Holy Spirit from the Father (John xv. 26) ; and inasmuch as (to quote Bishop Pearson on the Creed, Art, viii,) the word eWopevo/iat was not used by the ancient Greek Church concern- ing the Holy Spirit in reference to the Son, but only as the Scriptures speak with reference to the Father; and inasmuch as in the words of S, Athanasius (contra Sabellianos, c, xi. p. 35, ed. Bened, 1777 ; Cp. Bishop Bull, Defens. Fid. Kicaan. ii. 3, 10, 11, and ii, 4, 10), there is but one Fountain of Deity which the ancient Church called Monar- chia (Tertullian contra Praxeam, cap. ii.-iv.), namely, in the Father : Therefore this House declares its agreement also with the Greek Church, speaking the Greek language, concerning the issuing-forth of the Holy Spirit from the Father, as the sole Fountain of Deity." I am thankful to be able to add that a committee of the Lower House of Convocation has been appointed to consider this subject. * It may of course be said that the truth of a doctrine does not justify its insertion in a Creed of the Church LTniversal by any par- ticular Church. This is readily allowed. We do not justify the mode of insertion, but we defend the doctrine inserted ; and we think that, on the whole, it is better to retain it than to eject it. Let it also be remembered that the Constantinopolitan Council, which framed that portion of the Creed, consisted wholly of Eastern bishops, and that the West was not represented in it. The West has shown much deference to the East in receiving that portion of the Creed at its hands, and may justly claim some forbearance from the East in return. t In the year 1689, the Royal Commissioners for the revision of the English Liturgy (p. 47) made the following recommendation on the words of the Nicene Creed, " proceedeth from the Father and the Son" : — " It is humbly submitted to the Convocation, whether a note On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. 23 that the unhappy schism might be healed, which has separated the East, from the West for a thou- sand years ; and that the Grreek Church miglit be joined with the Church of England in contending against dangerous errors and deadly sins, and in maintaining the true faith " once delivered to the Saints,"* and that the glorious fulfilment of Christ's prophecy might be hastened, " I say unto you that many shall come from the East and West, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven." f ought not here to be added with relation to the Greek Church, in order to our maintaining Catholic Communion." Among the commissioners were, Tillotson, Tenison, Patrick, Stillingfleet, Beveridge, and Burnet. It was the great glory of S. Athanasius, the champion of the faith, (who is characterized by S. Gregory Nazianzen as hard as "adamant to assailants and attractive as a magnet to separatists,") that he reconciled the Greek Church to an admission of the orthodoxy of the Latins, using the word Persona in their doctrine concerning the Trinity ; and that he also brought tlie Latins to acknowledge the soundness of the Greek term hypostasis, for what they designated by Person. As S. Gregory says, " He listened with gentleness to both parties, and having examined the meaning in which they used those terms re- spectively, and having found that both were orthodox and did not differ in sense, he conceded to them their words, and thus joined them together in deed." (S. Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. xxxi.) Why should not this example be imitated with regard to the Filioque ? * Jude 3. t Matt. \'iii. 11. Note to page 13. Testimonies of S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Gregory Nyssen. The testimonies of two Greek Fathers, S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Gregory Nyssen, are reserved for this place on account of their intimate connection with the Council of Constantinople (a.d. 381), by which the Article concerning the Holy Ghost was added to the Nicene Creed. S. Gregory Nazianzen was present at Constantinople, and was Patriarch of that See at that time. S. Gregory Nyssen (the brother of S. Basil), is supposed to have drawn up that Article. S. Gregory Nazianzen thus writes (Orat. ii. p. 30, ed. Bened. Paris, 1778) : — " The Father would only in an unworthy manner be said to be the first principle iapxr}) unless He were regarded as the cause of that deity, 24 On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. •which wo contemplate in the Son and in the Holy Ghost : in the former as the Son and Word ; in the latter as a Forth-coming and In- dissoluble." His testimony in Orat. xl. pp. 379, 380, is full and precise. The following pai'agraphs are extracted from it. Having delivered a protest against Arianism, as introducing the heresy of three first princi[)les (a/3;^ay), consequently of three Gods, he asks, " Of Whom could the Son be a Son, unless with relation to the Father as the CrtMse (of Sonshij^) ? The doctrine of the Divine unity can only be maintained by referring the Son and the Holy Spirit to one Cause in the Father ; not, however, by composition, or commixture ; for we cannot hold three Persons (vTrocrrdcreij) unless we avoid all notion of coalition, or solution, or confusion. The distinct properties (of the Persons) are, that of the Father, to be the first Principle, and Cause, and Fountain; that of the Son, to have been caused from Eternity, and to bo the Cause of the Universe." See also, Orat. xxxi. p. 561, where he s]3eaks of the issuing forth {iK-nopevais) of the Holy Spirit from the Father. S. Gregory Nyssen thus speaks (torn. ii. p. 455, ed. Paris, 1615) : — " The essence of the (Divine) virtue of Omniscience and Superinten- dence is one, in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and this virtue springs forth from the Father as the Fountain, and energizes by the Son, and consummates grace by the power of the Spirit, and is not separated by the distinct proj^erties of the three Persons." And, p. 459, " But if any one should take occasion to charge us with making a mixture and confusion of the Persons, we say that we do not deny a distinction between that which is a cause, and that which is caused by it. There is also a distinction between that which is caused im- mediately by a cause and that which is caused mediately by it. The property of the Son is to be immediately begotten of the Father; but the property of the Holy Spirit is to be from the Father — in such a way that the Son, Who is between the two, does not obstruct the Holy Spirit from His proper relation to the Father. But when we speak of cause, and of what is caused, we do not impair identity of essence thereby." And again, p. 463 : — "There is virtue which exists without genera- tion, and which is the cause of all generation. From the Father the Son is begotten, through Whom are all things. All things were made through the Son, with Whom the Holy Ghost is to be contemplated as having existed from Eternity. No one can behold the Son unless he is illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Since therefore the Holy Spirit, from Whom all ability and supply of grace flows to the creature, depends indeed on the Son, with Whom He is inseparably comprehended, but has His existence originated by, and, as it were, hanging on to its cause in the Father, from out of Whom He issues forth ((KTropfverai), He has this characteristic mark of the property of His Person, that He is known together with the Son and by His help, and that He has his existence from the Father ; and the Son has also this property, that through Himself and with Himself He makes known the Holy Spirit, Who issties forth from the Father.'''' It cannot, I think, be said that either of these two Fathers of the Church, or any of their contemporaries in the East, would have accepted the statement that the Holy Ghost issues forth from the Son, as well as from the Father, as from an original or distinct foimtain of Deity. 7)1 III 3 1158 007 III 8714 / 'J UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIUTY AA 000 618 989 8