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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
26. Part 2, Section 26: Of the Descent of the Holy Ghost
The Lord Jesus Christ, after his ascension, sent to the apostles, and to all believers, the Holy Ghost, by whose blessed influence man is saved.
1. It has been said above, that the Saviour, before his ascension into heaven, promised to send to his apostles the Holy Spirit, who should lead them into all truth, which also was fulfilled on the fiftieth day after his resurrection, as Luke the Evangelist has informed us; Acts ii. This sending of the Holy Ghost was a divine descent; for the Holy Spirit is not one of the ministering spirits, such as angels are; but he is Lord and God, the third person of the consubstantial Trinity, having the same worship and glory with the Father and the Son, but proceeding from the Father alone. The Papists, or the Roman church, daringly added, without any foundation, and in opposition to all antiquity, and from the Son. We do not wish to pry into this, for it is an unsearchable mystery, and we ought not to engage much in disputation upon it. However, the Holy Scriptures have clearly affirmed, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone, and not from the Son also. “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me;” John xv. 26. In conformity to this, all the ancient divine fathers have written, not only those of the Eastern but also of the Western church, not daring to add any thing clearly in opposition to the word of God, just quoted.
2. Jesus Christ, through the apostles, sent the Holy Spirit to his whole church, or to all believers, in fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel ii. 28. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” The operations of the Holy Spirit, by which the salvation of men is perfected, are various. The man who is wandering in error, and hardened in sin, or rather dead in sins, he calleth to the faith by the word, granting him different opportunities to turn from his evil ways. By his internal operations, he softens the heart, kindles in the mind the light of the knowledge of God, regenerates and cleanseth from sin in baptism, renews in repentance, and unites unto Christ mysteriously in the communion; and spiritually, through stedfast continuance in the faith, he directs to every work of godliness; comforts and supports in temptations and trials, and internally assures us of that great love wherewith our heavenly Father encompasseth us.
The operations of the Holy Spirit are called grace, and as these operations are various, so grace has different denominations; thus predisposing grace, awakening grace, justifying grace, co-operating grace, &c. because by these gracious operations of the Holy Spirit upon man, who of himself is spiritually dead, spiritual life is again restored. Hence the Holy Ghost in the symbol, as the giver of grace, is styled the life-giving Spirit; and in Isaiah he is called “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” Hence it is not difficult to know why he is called the Spirit that spake by the prophets; because what they preached and wrote in books was not of their own will or invention; “but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” On this account, the books of the Old and New Testaments ought to be held by every Christian as the word of God, and writings divinely inspired; as the only perfect and unerring rule of faith, and of a course of life well pleasing to God. According to the apostle Paul, the following graces are the signs and fruits of the Holy Spirit dwelling in man. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Gal. v. 22.