"The Laying on of Hands." It is by far the best theological treatise on the subject with which we are acquainted: only of course its title limits to a considerable degree the range of its circulation.

And this want is the more to be regretted, because erroneous notions respecting the influence of the HOLY SPIRIT are now, as they have been for some centuries, the real spring from which all low opinions among religious people about the Sacraments take their rise. The most ordinary idea respecting this important subject is we conceive this, that GOD the HOLY GHOST has, by His Presence in the Church, become the substitute for the Presence of our LORD JESUS CHRIST; and that the perfection of our Christian state on earth is attained, in proportion as we realize His direct Intercourse with our souls. This was the leading idea of Methodism, as we all know; and we know too that the Methodism of the last century did but revive in this idea, the principle of inward illumination on which the Puritanism of the seventeenth century was based. It is, again, the one point on which the more evangelical sects of our own day would not be found to disagree. And we do not think it can be entirely disclaimed by a large number of those who hold and teach most Catholic doctrine respecting the Holy Sacraments; although these would not, of course, hold it in the broad form which we have stated to be the doctrine of those who non-sacramentalists.

may be called

Now, we cannot but think that if any of our modern theologians deeply read in the Holy Scriptures, and familiar with patristic interpretations, were to undertake the task of writing a treatise on the subjective relation between GOD the HOLY GHOST and Christians, they must at once declare that this theory is altogether inconsistent with the doctrine of the Incarnation, and so far as it is not a relic of the ancient Macedonian heresy, a novelty to the Catholic Church. But beyond this, as it seems to us, they would come to the conclusion that our general teaching respecting the office of the Third Person in the HOLY TRINITY, even when it did not in this plain way contradict or set aside the present work of our LORD JESUs, is of a character unwarranted by the ancient Creeds, or by our more modern formularies: that it tends to create wrong opinions and feelings as to the absolute necessity of mediation in our intercourse with GoD: and that it too often represents the SPIRIT of GOD as an instrument rather than an Almighty Person.

Believing that there is this great defect in our theology, we propose to devote a few pages to the subject, not with the hope of filling up the hiatus, a task for which we are very far from considering ourselves competent; but in the conviction that a service will have been done to the clergy and the Church, if by our humble means the attention of more competent writers has been drawn thereto.

And the first consideration that strikes us in reflecting on this subject is, that there is a vast discrepancy of proportion between the statements of the Catholic Creeds, and our modern teaching. It would not be difficult to select some writers, at least, from each class of divines, in the Church and out of it, since the Reformation, who make a very large part of practical religion to depend for its vitality on our relation to the HOLY SPIRIT. That there are exceptions we hope in the end to show; but upon the whole it will hardly be denied, that the exceptions are very few when reckoned against the general stream of teaching-both Church and Protestant. Among those who did not admit at all, or not fully, the doctrine of the New Birth by the Sacrament of Baptism, the whole work of the inner life has been considered as the result of the personal indwelling of "the Spirit" in the soul. While others who were better enlightened as to the doctrine of Holy Baptism, have framed a system of Divinity in which Justification and Sanctification are the most prominent terms: the first being connected with the regeneration wrought by the initiatory Sacrament; the second meaning something very little if at all different from the doctrine of the non-Sacramentalists,-a life-long work of GOD the HOLY GHOST upon Christians: a work in which the Holy Eucharist, preaching, meditation, prayer, the reading of the Holy Bible had their place and share; but which was supposed to be not so tied down to any means of grace as to work chiefly and directly through them, but rather to operate in some mysterious manner, for the most part unindicated by external means. Hence our hortatory theology abounds with references to sanctification by the indwelling of the HOLY SPIRIT. And in forms of prayer for private, domestic, or public use, Christians are directed to seek this from GOD as the highest blessing which they can have.

Some of our readers will no doubt be startled that we should for a moment think of throwing a doubt over the doctrine thus so generally recognized; or of indicating a wish that less were said in our sermons about that of which the Homily for Whitsunday declares, "O what comfort is this to the heart of a true Christian, to think that the HOLY GHOST dwelleth within him." And there are several texts of Holy Scripture which will immediately occur to their minds, as justifying to a great extent if not entirely, the prominence given to the doctrine. But remembering how many, even within the last twelve months, have come to receive as a theological verity that which until they saw the arguments in its support fairly drawn out they looked on as a mere private interpretation; we shall endeavour, without much apprehension on the score of being in a minority, to show that such doubts and wishes are not altogether so very unreasonable.

As we said before, Where is there foundation for this sort of teaching in the Creeds? In the Apostles' Creed, the only words

concerning the Third Person in the Blessed TRINITY are, I believe in the HOLY GHOST." In the Creed which goes by the name of S. Athanasius again, the expansion of this article of the Apostles' Creed is wholly objective. In the Nicene Creed, we have indeed a statement of the subjective relation, in the term "rò (wood" added by the Constantinopolitan fathers, and every Christian is bound to receive this as the key to the whole doctrine; but we imagine there is very little countenance for the teaching to which we have alluded in the designation of GOD the HOLY GHOST as the LifeGiver. Take for instance the interpretation of S. Basil, (as quoted by the Bishop of Brechin, for we have not his works at hand):"By the HOLY SPIRIT is given the restoration of paradise, the return into the kingdom of Heaven, the restoration of the adoption of sons, the confidence of calling GOD our FATHER, the communion of the grace of CHRIST, the appellation of sons of light, the participation of eternal glory in a word, the plenitude of benediction, both in the present time, and in the future of good things prepared for us." Again of S. Ambrose :-"The world hath not eternal life, because it had not received the SPIRIT; for where is the SPIRIT, there is eternal life for the SPIRIT is He Who worketh eternal life."1

Now all that relates to the work effected by the Life-Giver in the individual, or upon him, or for him, (use what form of expression we may) during his state of probation, is in the above passage from S. Basil, connected with the two Sacraments-" the restoration of the adoption of sons . . . the communion of the grace of CHRIST," are "given by the HOLY SPIRIT." Does not our modern teaching go very far beyond this?

From the Creeds to the Prayer Book at large is a natural step, and let us see to what it leads us. There is no concordance to the Book of Common Prayer, by means of which we could at once direct the reader's attention to all the passages in which God the HOLY GHOST is named, or His Influence alluded to in its pages; we shall therefore be under the necessity, for the purpose of making our meaning more clear, of extracting such passages, and making our remarks upon them as we proceed.

First of all then, in the daily Order for Matins and Evensong, we have the following expressions,-omitting one in the Te Deum, and one which forms the last response in the Versicles after the Creed, as both of these are simply quotations from the Holy Scrip

tures:

1. Absolution: "Let us beseech Him to grant us true repentance, and His HOLY SPIRIT, that those things may please Him"

...

2. Prayer for the Queen: "And so replenish her with the grace of Thy HOLY SPIRIT, that she may alway incline to Thy will"

1 Forbes on the Nicene Creed, p. 256, a most excellent manual.

3. For the Royal Family: "Endue them with Thy HOLY SPIRIT; enrich them with Thy heavenly grace"

4. For the Clergy and People: "Send down upon. ... the healthful SPIRIT of Thy grace."... [In the Sacramentary of Gelasius prætende... spiritum gratiæ salutaris.]

:

It is unnecessary to remind those of our readers who are acquainted with the history of our Prayer Book, that all these expressions and they are all that bear on our subject in the daily services of the Church-are contained in prayers which were not included in the original offices of the Reformed Church; that the Absolution owes at least its origin to Calvin, and that the fourth only is derived from an ancient source. These circumstances alone might go far to prevent us from attaching any great weight to the expressions themselves as fixing any doctrine for that of the English Church, which is not elsewhere indicated; but it may be doubted whether any except the first were intended to convey more than a petition for the general help of GOD by His grace. Comparing for instance, the separate expressions in the prayers for the Queen and the Royal family with similar words used in the second Ember Collect" Replenish them with the truth of Thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency of life," it can hardly be thought that the expressions in the one case mean more than they do in the other; or that they do not, with redundancy of words indeed, mean petitions for grace, rather than for the Advent of GOD the HOLY GHOST to the particular individuals indicated. In the Litany there is an expression of a similar character, which with the Scripture phrase, "fruits of the Spirit" in the twenty-fifth clause, contains the only allusion in that ancient office, to the subjective relation of the HOLY GHOST to men.

5. Litany. "Endue us with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit." In the "Prayers and Thanksgivings on several occasions" there is one such allusion, and we beg the reader to notice that it comes in in a prayer attributed to the pen of Bishop Sanderson. 6. Prayer for all conditions of men...

"The Catholic Church; that it may be guided and governed by Thy good Spirit."

Next to the Daily Services and Litany, we take that for the Holy Communion.

7. Collect for purity. "Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit."

8. Proper Preface for Whitsunday. An historical allusion to the descent of the HOLY GHOST on the Apostles.

Added to which are nine references of one kind and another to GOD the HOLY GHOST, in the eighty-two collects used in the daily prayers and Communion Service.

9. Christmas Day.

"that we being regenerate

may daily be renewed by Thy Holy Spirit."

10. Circumcision.

"Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit." ["Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter;" Rom. ii. 29.]

11. Quinquagesima. "Send Thy HOLY GHOST, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity."

12. First Sunday in Lent. "That our flesh being subdued to the Spirit."

13. Second Collect on Good Friday. "By Whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified."

14. Sunday after Ascension. "Send to us Thine HOLY GHOST to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our SAVIOUR CHRIST is gone before."

15. Whitsunday.

grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort.

16. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

Mercifully grant that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts." 17. S. Barnabas. "Who didst endue Thy holy Apostle Barnabas with singular gifts of the HOLY GHOST; Leave us not, we beseech Thee, destitute of Thy manifold gifts, nor yet of grace to use them always to Thine honour and glory

[The antithesis here can hardly refer the manifold gifts' to the 'septiformis gratia' of the HOLY GHOST, since it is succeeded by a prayer for grace to use the gifts always for good. May it not be an allusion to the season of the year, and the gifts of God's Providence?]

Of the nine Collects from which these extracts are made, those indicated by the numbers 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, come down to us, through the Sarum Missal, from the ancient Sacramentaries of Gelasius and S. Gregory; the others are of a date subsequent to the Reformation of the English Church. In 10 and 12, the word "Spirit" is probably used in the sense so often found in the Epistles of S. Paul, as antagonistic to the cap-the unsanctified man-of which we shall have to speak hereafter; 13 contains a reference to the whole Church as a body, not to individual Christians; 9 refers to the Sacramental work of GOD the HOLY GHOST in Baptism; and the remaining five, if they can be said to have any definite reference to a relation between the Blessed Spirit and individuals; do not define anything as to His Indwelling in particular souls, in the sense of an intercourse separate from His Sacramental Influence.

The Offices for Holy Baptism, and some others, remain yet to be noticed. There is a quotation from S. John iii. in the Exhortation which it is not necessary to enumerate; and besides this, three other allusions of much importance to our argument.

18. First Prayer before Baptism . . . . "wash him and sanctify him with Thy Holy Spirit."