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THE PARACLETE

(3) The Divine Spirit is also spoken of as the worker of miracles. He is the Agent of the miraculous conception of our Lord. The angel who appeared to S. Joseph told him concerning his betrothed, "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Our Blessed Lord Himself professed to work miracles by the power of the Holy Ghost: If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of God come upon you;"[1]and S. Paul, when speaking of the diversities of gifts which God bestows upon men, declares: "All these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally as He will."[2]

These passages, and many others of like character which might be adduced, prove sufficiently the Divine nature of the Blessed Spirit. On this aspect of the subject, however, there is the less need to dwell from the fact that, in some sense, it is commonly admitted. That which we are more particularly required to consider, and to give satisfactory reasons for believing, is the Personality of the Spirit, a doctrine which is but loosely held by a considerable number of devout and reverent Christians.[3]Now, we must repeat,

  1. S. Matthew xii. 28.
  2. Cor. xii. II.
  3. Kahnis (Die Lehre vom heiligen Geist) roundly declares that "modern (der neuere) Protestantism has given up the Personality of the Holy Spirit."