The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 56

INTRODUCTION

i6

mode

characteristic of the Eternal Being, His

deepest foundation be absurd.

to think of

;

Him without

Indeed, in the divine and eternal

Son, and Holy

Spirit,

of subsistence,

that distinction

economy

His

would

of Father,

each of the divine Persons lives and loves and

lauds according to His

own

personal characteristics, so that the

Father remains Father toward the Son, and the Son remains Son toward the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both. It is right to

ask

how this

agrees with the statement

that the indwelling works of

God

made above,

belong, without distinction of

Persons, to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and are therefore the

works of the divine Being.

The answer

is

found in the careful works of God.

dis-

tinction of the twofold nature of the indwelling

Some

operations in the divine Being are destined

in time ; others will

cern the creation

;

remain forever

unrevealed.

to be

revealed

The former

con-

the latter, only the relations of Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit. Take, for instance, election and eternal generation. Both are indwelling operations of God, but with marked difference. The Father's eternal generation of the Son can never be revealed, but must ever be the mystery of the Godhead; while election belongs as decree to the indwelling works of God, yet is destined in the fulness of time to become manifest in the call of the elect. Regarding the permanetitiy indwelling works of God that do not relate to the creature, but flow from the mutual relation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the distinctive characteristics But with those that of the three Persons must be kept in view. are to

become manifest, relating to the Here the rule applies that

creature, this distinction

indwelling works are Being without distinction of Person's. To In the home there are two kinds of activities one flowillustrate ing from the mutual relation of parents and children, another pertaining to the social life. In the former the distinction between parents and children is never ignored in the latter, if the relation disappears.

all

activities of the divine :

;

be normal, neither the father nor the children act alone, but the Even so in the holy, mysterious economy of the fajnily as a whole. divine Being, every operation of the Father upon the Son and of

both upon the Holy Spirit

is distinct

;

but in every outgoing act

it

always the one divine Being, the thoughts of whose heart are for all His creatures. On that account the natural man knows no more than that he has to do with a God. The Unitarians, denying the Holy Trinity, have never reached

is

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