The divine paraclete

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Preface

THE four sermons of this volume are, in substance, the same as those delivered to the congregation of St. Ann on the Sunday evenings of this Advent. There is, however, much in them which could not well be contained in a short series of popular discourses. The subject treated of is so vast and intricate, that I have only sought plainly and briefly to touch upon the most essential points in the doctrine of our sanctification. The work of the Holy Ghost, in the church and in the hearts of the faithful, is the great study, as it is the great joy, of the enlightened intellect. The better we understand it, the more entirely are we brought under the gracious influence of "the Lord and giver of life,"

iv PREFACE.

who draws true souls to Himself more and more. The world of faith is His kingdom, where the realities of divine revelation are felt and appreciated. By Him we are taken out of the world of sense, and taught to live the true life which is in God. To Him we owe all our supernatural being, from its first beginning to its glorious end. Deep should be our gratitude and ardent our devotion to this blessed Spirit, by whose breath we are new born, and by whose strength our souls are made meet for the inheritance of light. The whole economy of grace is found in this devotion, and in the knowledge which flows from it. The church, with all its gifts, is the sphere of the sanctifying energy of the Holy Ghost ; and no one can properly believe in the person and office of the divine Paraclete who does not receive the Catholic Church as the body of Christ, and enter by the open door

PREFACE.

V thereof into the pastures of life eternal. The argument of this brief series of sermons, while it shows the wonders of salvation through the Word incarnate ; also demonstrates the divine mission of the church, which is "the pillar and ground of the truth."

The immediate occasion which led me to preach upon this theme was the establishment of " The Confraternity of the Servants of the Holy Ghost" in the parish of St. Ann. This Confraternity was erected by His Eminence Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, on the 26th of August last, and was aggregated to the Arehconfraternity at Bayswater, London, on the 23d of September. The object or end of the devotion which it seeks to propagate, is indeed a renewal of our whole Christian life.

In the impressive words of His Eminence, Cardinal Manning: "It seeks to vi

PREFACE.

awaken in us a consciousness of the presence and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, not only in the church as a whole, but in each one of us. St. Augustine says that those who saw the miracle of the loaves in the wilderness wondered ; but that they had no wonder at the daily miracles of the natural world, because by habit they had become unconscious of them. So we are unconscious of the internal presence of the Spirit of God. We speak of grace, but we forget the divine Person whose presence and power confer grace upon us. The object, then, of this devotion is to awaken our consciousness with a personal love, with fidelity of conscience, and with the fervor of punctual and exact obedience. The motives of this devotion are these. The Holy Ghost is the fountain of all divine Truth to the church and to us. The church which teaches is guided by His assistance ; the

PKEFACE.

vii church which believes can therefore never err in faith. Pastors and people, by the active and passive infallibility which comes from the Holy Ghost, are for ever kept from error. He is also the sole source of our sanctification. The Sanctifier dwelling in the church gives it the note of sanctity, and, dwelling in us, makes us partakers of His sanctifying grace. He is also the author of our supernatural life, which, in our regeneration and our renewal, elevates us to union with God. Lastly, He is the giver of all grace to the innocent and to the penitent. The innocent are kept by Him in their baptismal purity and piety, and the penitent by miracles of grace are raised again by Him from spiritual death. For all these motives we owe to Him love, worship, and obedience."

I humbly hope that this little volume may, in the divine mercy, aid the members of this Confraternity in their devo-

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tion to the Blessed Spirit, and be a means of exciting new and more intelligent piety in many hearts. With the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, the spiritual life will deepen, and the love of God grow stronger in our souls. I have added a brief collection of prayers which, if constantly used, will be more efficacious than any exhortations. They are taken principally from the Handbook published in London, by the Very Eev. Dr. Rawes, the rector of the Archconfraternity, to whose untiring zeal, under the kind patronage of Cardinal Manning, the Confraternity owes its existence and growth. I have been impelled to make my offering, and to do my humble part in the work of spreading the devotion, which, although by no means new, is nevertheless a revival of true faith and sincere, piety. In this I have had the constant encouragement of His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, who is earnestly

PREFACE.

ix desirous that the Confraternity should increase and multiply in his diocese. No one knows better than myself how unworthy is my offering, but I only beg the divine Paraclete, to whom I owe everything of light and faith, to sanctify and bless that, which without Him is nothing, but wiiich with His grace may in some way redound to His glory and the salvation of souls.

T. S. P.

New York, Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, 1879.

Contents

Page

Sermon First, . . . 13

Sermon Second, . • . • • 57

I. Who Is The Holy Ghost ?

1. He is a divine Person. He possesses all the attributes of personality, and being God, equal to the Father and the Son, He is a divine Person.

In created intelligences we define personality to signify "an individual substance possessed of a rational nature." In applying this term to God we do not speak of three separate and individual substances. Our language is too imperfect to express exactly the nature and attributes of the divine Being. In God nature, existence, and essence are one, since He Himself is His own essence, existence, and eternity. Persons, among created intelligences, have a distinct subsistence, but also a distinct and separate entity, which by its own limitation can make but one individual. In God, however, the divine Persons have only a distinct mode of subsistence, since they possess each, and in common the whole divine essence. Hence we say that there are three persons in God, not three individuals;

since the term individual signifies a distinct nature, which is impossible to the divine hypostases, in whom there is one essence and nature, and therefore one natural or essential mind, will, and operation. Nothing can be added to the clearness of the words of the Athanasian creed: " Such as the Father is, such is the Son and such is the Holy Ghost." The three Persons are uncreated, immense, eternal, and almighty. Yet they are not three eternals, three almighties, three uncreated, nor three immense. There is only one eternal, almighty, immense, and uncreated God. "The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. Yet they are not three Gods, but one God." The personality of the Holy Ghost is contained in this : that He is not the Father nor the Son, although one with them in essence. Thus our Lord says: "When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of me." * Here are mentioned three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Paraclete. The Father is one person. The Son is another, and of the same nature with the Father, because His Son. The Paraclete is another person, who proceedeth from the Father, and who is to give testimony of the Son. He could not give such testimony if He were not a distinct person.

The divinity of the Holy Spirit is evident from the nature of His personality in the eternal Trinity. He is proceeding from the Father and the Son as one principle, and so has His distinct mode of subsistence, while He possesses the whole of the divine essence. In the Sacred Scriptures the name, properties, and operations of God are attributed to

* St. John xv, 26.

Him. He bears the incommunicable name of God in the same manner as the Father and the Son. Omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence are attributed to Him.

"The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world." * "The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. The things that are of God, no one knoweth but the Spirit of God."f "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of His mouth." X

Thus it is the Holy Ghost who creates, renews the face of the earth, works the miracles of grace, and will, by His power, raise the bodies of the dead. "Thou shalt send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created ; and Thou shalt renew the face of the

X Psalm xxxii. 6. * earth." * "Ye are the temple of God, for the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." f u If the Spirit of Him, that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you ; He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you. 5 ':}: So the words of the text clearly sum up the whole doctrine : " There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit." If, therefore, there are three witnesses, they are distinguished from each other. "I am one," says our Lord, "that give testimony of myself ; and the Father that sent me, giveth testimony of me." § "The Spirit of truth shall not speak of Himself. He shall glorify me, because He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto yon." J

* Psalm ciii. 30. t 1 Cor. iii. 16. J Rom. viii. 11.

§ St. John viii. 18. 8 St. John xvi. 13, 14.

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The Word, therefore, and the Holy Spirit, who concur with the Father in giving testimony, are not two energies or attributes of the Father. They must be distinct persons, else there would not be three witnesses. They cannot be distinct in essence, else there would be three Gods, which is impossible. They are therefore distinct in personality, h& we have already seen. But " these three distinct persons are one" The unity of essence in the divine Persons is manifest. It is a necessity of God's being, which can suffer neither change nor division. The very notion of such change would destroy the fundamental idea of deity. If there were not one and the same essence in the Word and Holy Spirit as in the Father, they would be at an infinite distance from the Father, and could not be one with Him. "I and my Father are one"*

* St. John x. 30.

says our Lord to the Jews, who stoned Him for the assertion of His divinity. And to Philip, His disciple, He thus speaks : " So long a time have I been with you, and have you not known me ? He that seeth me, seeth the Father also." * "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word w^as with God, and the Word was God." f As the Word was God by unity of essence with the Father, so also, from all eternity the Holy Ghost is God. Thus the divine Three who bear testimony in heaven are one.

The Holy Ghost is in all things equal to the Father and the Son, from whom He eternally proceeds, and with whom He is consubstantial. "In this Trinity nothing is prior or posterior, nothing is greater or less ; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal to one another and co-equal." %

* St. John xiv. 9. t St. John i. 1. % Creed of St. Athanasius.

In speaking of the nature of God's being we necessarily transcend the powers of reason, but we in no sense contradict reason, which in its finite sphere can predicate" nothing of the Infinite. While there might be contradiction in the idea of three human persons in one human being, there cannot be the slightest in the mystery of the Trinity which reveals to us the mode of God's existence. To attempt to see contradiction here would be to reason from things made and imperfectly comprehended to the uncreated and incomprehensible. Here the one office of right reason is to hear, believe, and adore.

2. There is still another truth to be presented before we finish our brief exposition of the Christian doctrine concerning the divine Spirit. He is called the third Person of the eternal Trinity, because they are three who bear testimony in heaven, and they are as distinct in person as they are one in essence. The terms first, second, and third are only to mark such distinction. It is manifest that there can be no first in any dignity of nature or power. In the unity of the Trinity there is, however, a marvellous order expressed as clearly as our poor language will admit, and revealed to us as far as our finite intellects may bear it. "The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is from the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." * The Father from all eternity communicates the divine essence to the Son, and this communication we call generation, by which there is a true filial relation between the Father and the Son. Thus the Second Person is eternally begotten, and is of necessity consubstantial

* Creed of St. Athanasius.

with Him by whom He is begotten. The Father and the Son eternally communicate the divine essence to the Holy Spirit by a process which we call procession. In this act they are one principle, and there is one spiration. The Father is the principle of the Son in the eternal act of generation. The Father and the Son are the principle of the Holy Ghost in the eternal act of spiration. We say principle intrinsic, since all is within the essence of Deity. We use not the word cause, since this term may imply an extrinsic agency, and the cause may also produce an effect which shall in nature be distinct from itself. Thus in the holy Trinity we admit two origins, generation and procession. From these flow the four relations which exist between the divine Persons. Paternity truly belongs to the Father, because He begets His eternal and consubstantial Son. The filial relation of the Second

Person responds to the paternity of the Father. And as the Father and Son together breathe forth the Spirit there are the relations of procession and spiration. These wonderful relations in God are true and real.

We call, therefore, the Holy Ghost the Third Person of the undivided Trinity, because He eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is the clear confession of our creed. Thus the General Council of Florence defines "that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son as from one principle and by one spiration." In the Sacred Scriptures He is called the Spirit of Christ, as well as the Spirit of God ; and He is the Paraclete sent by the Son- to accomplish His work on earth. He glorifies the incarnate Word on earth, since He takes of that which is His and shows it unto us. He then proceeds from the Father and the Son as from

34 THE DIYIXE PAEACLETE.

a fountain and origin, and has all things common with them.

Such is the mystery of the Trinity which declares the divine personality of the Holy Ghost. While there is perfect distinction, so that in regard of personality there is no confusion ; there is also the intimate existence of one Person in the other by reason of unity of essence. Thus, according to St. Fulgentius, u the Father is wholly in the Son and Holy Spirit ; the Son is wiiolly in the Father and Holy Spirit ; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and the Son." To this end are the words of Christ, twice repeated: u l am in the Father, and the Father in me." * When the apostle is transported at the sight of the ways of God in the works of His hand he cries out in wonder: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of

* Sr. John xiv. 11.

THE DIVIXE PARACLETE. 35

God ! how incomprehensible are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!" Much more will the Christian soul tremble and exult at the thought of the greatness of his Maker. Wonderful in His ways, how far beyond all the reach of finite intellect is He wondrous in Himself ! There from things created, from things conceivable, the mind ascends where clouds and darkness are the outskirts of the throne, where cherubim and seraphim veil their faces before the uncreated light, and all the universe, poised on the divine hand, bows down in adoration. Such is our God, a Trinity in unity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in their supreme rest and unspeakable bliss.

II. The Office Of The Holy Spieit

In our contemplation of God and the divine Persons we may reverently look

36 THE DIVIJSTE PARACLETE.

at the Deity within itself and at the Deity in its action outwards upon things created.

1. Within the sacred Trinity each Person may have His office, as each has His place and relations. The Father, who is of none, and who is called by spiritual writers " the root and fountain of the whole Divinity," begets the eternal Son, and is to Him, in the truest sense of our inadequate language, a father. All that this relation involves belongs to Him with the full rights of paternity. He is, in the figures of prophecy, the " Ancient of days." He sits upon the throne, sending forth the streams of light and grace, and holding in His hands the scales of impartial justice, according to the law which is the expression of His will. What He is to the Son eternally begotten by Him, "the brightness of his glory and the figure of His substance," let no one but that Son presume to tell.

If paternity mean anything of strength, and care, and tenderness in our speech, in the divine tongue it must mean much more.

The Son, from all eternity generated by the will of the Father, comes forth, with the fulness of the divine essence, to express the glory of Deity and the power of that Deity within itself. To paternity filiation responds, and the Son gives back the love that He receives in the might of a divine filial affection. G-od only can know Himself. God only can worthily love Himself. Here all that sonship signifies is real in the immensity of Deity. Its loyalty, its consecration, its expression of likeness are all here, and all heightened to infinity ; because the Son begotten is equal to the Father, and the eternal generation presents a coequal and consubstantial Son. He is not only the likeness of His Father ; He is in all things equal to Him, having His whole substance and the whole indivisible divine essence. Oh ! what joy is here in the unapproachable felicity of the Trinity : the Father contemplating the Son ; the Son contemplating the Father ; God loving Himself ! Perhaps it may be part of the beatitude of saints to know something of this joy, and to be filled with some faint impulses of this gladness, when they see God as He is, and are borne into the sphere of the attractions of His being.

The spiration of the Holy Ghost is the last of the divine processions. Here, as some of the Fathers reverently say, the Father and the Son, as one principle, by an act of supreme love breathe forth the co-eternal Spirit. It is the act of their mutual love, and the Spirit of Father and Son proceeds from both, the pledge of their mutual affection and the expression of beatitude. This completes, if we may so speak, the circle of the divine

THE DIVIXE PARACLETE.

productiveness, and the Spirit, being one in substance and equal in power and glory, is, in the words of St. Bernard, "the sacred kiss of the Father and the Son, as their imperturbable peace, their firm co-inherence, their undivided love, their indivisible unity." "The Holy Ghost proceeds from both and embraces both, as the indissoluble bond of charity, the sweetest kiss of peace, the most blessed embrace of mutual love." Thus in the Trinity " there are two origins, the first by the way of knowledge and the other by the way of love. By the first is a Son co-eternal with His Father, who comes forth from the bosom of the Father, but leaves it not ; who receives all from Him, but is not dependent on Him. By the second is the Holy Ghost produced like the Son, but not, like Him, begotten. The Son proceeds from the Father as the ray from the sun; the Holy Ghost from the Father and the

Son as heat from the ray and the sun ; the Son as the word, the Holy Ghost as the breath ; the Son as the river from the fountain, the Holy Ghost as the lightning from the cloud. These expressions are all good, but all defective. The ray wants equality, the heat substance ; the word wants reality, the breath solidity, the river stability, the lightning duration and life. But here the ray is eqn; 1 to the sun; the heat consubstantial with its principle ; the word says all, and is all that it says ; the breath goes forth unceasingly, and never breathes its last; the river flows continually, and abides ever in its source ; the fire of heaven burns always, and never burns away."* If the divine Spirit may be called the expression of the eternal mutual love of the Father and the Son, what must be the transport of His being when, in response to the spiration of that love, He

* Nonet, Meditations.

gives back the affection by which He proceeds! Who can venture to speak of that love which in its immense tide inundates the bosom of the Trinity ? Yet may we reverently think of that unspeakable bliss where we behold our God in the boundless reach of His attributes, a unity and yet a Trinity ; alone and yet not alone ; in solitude and yet in glad communion with Himself; one in essence, and so alone in His immeasurable distance from things created ; three in person, and so not alone in that inner life where Father, Son, and Holy Ghost embrace each other, and know each other, and are lost in felicity at this knowledge of the Divine perfections. Here is all knowledge, all speech, and all love. Here are the Unbegotten, the begotten Word, the prolific Spirit. Love divine gushes in its eternal fountain, and the light of Deity burns everlastingly in its source. So, following the steps of the Fathers, we may think of the Holy Spirit as the active and passive affection of the Godhead, the spring of peace, the tranquillity of order, the harmony of the Infinite in the grandeur of His being. Oh ! how it adds to our adoring wonder of the Divinity thus to contemplate the eternal Three in the distinctness of personality and the perfection of unity. Thus they give testimony in heaven, each in His place, and where the " Sanctus" of angels resounds, God, in three persons, knows, enjoys, and glorifies Himself. There the Word speaks the language which Divine ears alone can hear ; there the Spirit " searches out the deep things of God."

2. The office of the Holy Ghost in and towards created things is called His work outwards, though, strictly speaking, there is nothing without the Trinity.

There was an eternity when there was nothing but God ; and Father, Son, and

Holy Ghost were alone in their supreme and unapproachable rest. When it pleased the infinite will to create ; things possible became existences, and in the order and sphere eternally appointed. Light dawned upon material worlds. The spheres rolled in their orbits, and the beauty of the visible creation bloomed beneath the divine touch. The voice of things made broke the silence of eternity, and the morning stars sang in joyful chorus. Angels assembled around the throne, and cherubim and seraphim knelt in mute adoration before the consuming fire. So towards creatures the Holy Spirit hath a special office, and, in harmony with His work within the bosom of Deity, He comes forth to complete, beautify and sanctify the whole creation. u Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created ; and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. "*

* Psalms ciii. 30.

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"In the beginning God created heaven and earth : and the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters/' * When God spoke, the Word went forth, and " all things were made by Him." f Yet it was the office of the Spirit to brood upon the shapeless mass of chaos, that from His fecundating energy, order and beauty might come forth. When, in the new earth created for our use, the race of man was to take its place, the Three Persons communed together. "Let us make man to our image and likeness." J Then was man made with the royal mark upon him, with an intelligent soul, with memory, will, and understanding, in the image of the eternal Three who formed him. Upon our first father, Adam, the Holy Ghost descended, and so was 14 he made into a living

* Genesis i. 1.2. t St. John i. 3. t Genesis i. 26.

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soul." * Reason ruled within him, and, by the power of the sanctifying Spirit, there was harmony between soul and body. There was peace, which is " the tranquillity of order," and no war was known between the rational and irrational natures. We attribute to the Third Person of the Trinity the special office in creation of establishing order, of harmonizing elements that might be in conflict, of causing life and beauty to bloom where, without His celestial touch, all would be dead and shapeless. He is the uncreated beauty shining in the things He touches ; the divine order leading created intelligences up to the living Unity, wnich is God. He is "the living spring, the living fire, sweet unction and true love."

So, gazing over the face of the material universe, where there are wonders far above our comprehension and beau-

THE DIVINE PARACLETE.

ties above our capacity of appreciation, we see everywhere "the finger of God's right hand." In every ray that illumines the earth ; in the glory of the forests ; in the grandeur of the mountains ; in the order of the firmament with its myriad spheres ; in the flowers that exhale their sweet odor ; in the human face and form, that speak of a world unknown ; in all we behold the finishing touch of the eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son ; in creatures, as in the bosom of Deity, showing forth the beauty of God, and telling, as human ears may be able to hear, of His perfections. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." *

The Holy Trinity hath another work, undertaken of His free mercy and to show the riches of His grace. When our race fell from God by the prevarica-

* Psalm xviii. 3.

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tion of its will, and in our father, Adam, lost Eden and the graces of paradise, the same power which magnified itself in creation glorified itself more mightily in redemption. " God so loved the world as to give His only -begotten Son." * The Second Person took upon Himself the work of expiation and redemption. To this end He became man and made Himself the second Adam, that through a divine humanity He might pay our debt and heal the wounds of sin, which had corrupted and enfeebled our nature. In this work the Three Persons of the Trinity co operate, and here the Holy Ghost has His peculiar office.

Directly does He concur to the incarnation of God the Word. By His power the immaculate Virgin conceived. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," said the archangel Gabriel to her, "and the power of the Most High shall oversha-

* St. John iii. 16.

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dow tliee; therefore tlie Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."* The Word was, then, " conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary." By His touch her pure substance was formed into the spotless body of Jesus Christ ; and by His breath the soul of God Incarnate was created. Upon that humanity, the greatest and most beautiful work of God, the energies of the divine Spirit, with all His gifts, were put forth. His all-perfecting fingers were ever upon that humanity to fashion and mould its features, as the Man-God "grew in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men." f Through all the steps of His earthly work the Redeemer w^as "led by the Spirit" from height to height of oblation. The Paraclete watched witli protecting wings over the humanity conceived by His energy. He filled the