This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ... THIRD DIVISION. HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. IT only remains for me, in this last division, to subjoin as briefly as possible a historic outline of the development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and a sketch of the discussions which it has undergone in the course of centuries. The history of this doctrine touches theology at so many points, sometimes in connection with the Trinity, sometimes with inspiration, sometimes with the doctrines of grace, at other times with the Person and mediation of Christ, that, were we to attempt a survey of all these debates, there is scarcely a point in the whole field of polemical theology or Church history which we should not be compelled to traverse. We must fix our eye on the salient points, therefore, and on the marked epochs in the history of the doctrine, that we may not be engulfed in details personal, dogmatic, or ecclesiastical. History, with its parallel testimony to Scripture, has a great importance which is not to be ignored; and it must be borne in mind that certain points of the doctrine at one time come more prominently into view, and others at another; that this topic at one time acquires interest, and that it falls again comparatively into abeyance. In the very earliest Christian literature, --that is, in the Apostolic Fathers, --and in the Epistle of Clemens especially, we find that the allusions to the Holy Spirit are all in the interest of spiritual religion, and by no means polemical (Clem. chap. xlvi.). The circular letter issued by the Church of Smyrna after Polycarp's death is of the same nature. The whole doctrine of the Spirit was at that time practical. The doctrine of the Spirit was accepted from the earliest age as an elementary truth in connection.