Canons (Whitehead) n. 36

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36. CHAPTER IV.

THENCE IT PASSES THROUGH MEN TO MEN, AND IN THE CHURCH CHIEFLY THROUGH THE CLERGY TO THE LAITY.

1. No one can receive the Holy Spirit except from the Lord Jesus Christ, because it proceeds from God the Father through Him. And by the Holy Spirit is meant the Divine proceeding. 2. No one can receive the Holy Spirit, that is, the Divine Truth and the Divine Good, unless he goes to the Lord immediately, and at the same time is in the love [of Him]. 3. The Holy Spirit, that is, the Divine proceeding, never becomes man's; but it is constantly the Lord's with him. 4. Therefore the Holy, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, does not inhere; neither does it remain, except so long as the man who receives it believes in the Lord, and at the same time is in the doctrine of truth from the Word, and in a life according to it. 5. The Holy, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, is not transferred from man to man, but from the Lord through man to man. 6. God the Father does not send the Holy Spirit, that is, His Divine, through the Lord into man; but the Lord sends it from God the Father.* 7. The clergyman, because he is to teach doctrine from the Word concerning the Lord, and concerning redemption and salvation from Him, is to be inaugurated by the promise, [sponsionem] of the Holy Spirit, and by the representation of its transfer; but it is received by the clergyman according to the faith of his life. 8. The Divine, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Lord through the Clergy to the laity by preaching, according to the reception of the doctrine of truth thence.** 9. And by the sacrament of the Holy Supper, according to repentance before it. * [ANNOTATIONS FROM THE MARGIN WHICH PERHAPS BELONG HERE.] The Holy Spirit is the Divine Operation and virtue proceeding from the one God. It proceeds out of the Lord and from God the Father. It proceeds out of the Lord from God the Father and not contrariwise. ** It proceeds to the clergy and from them to the laity. It flows into men who believe in the Lord, and if according to order, into the clergy, and thus through them into the laity.


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