Of the name of the Holy Spirit — Various uses of the words רוּחַ and πνεῦμα — רוּחַ for the wind or any thing invisible with a sensible agitation, Amos iv. 13 — Mistakes of the ancients rectified by Hierom — רוּחַ metaphorically for vanity, metonymically for the part or quarter of any thing; for our vital breath, the rational soul, the affections, angels good and bad — Ambiguity from the use of the word, how to be removed — Rules concerning the Holy Spirit — The name “Spirit,” how peculiar and appropriate unto him — Why he is called the “Holy Spirit” — Whence called the “Good Spirit,” the “Spirit of God,” the “Spirit of the Son” — Acts ii. 33, 1 Pet. i. 10, 11, explained — 1 John iv. 3, vindicated.
Before we engage into the consideration of the things themselves concerning which we are to treat, it will be necessary to speak something unto the name whereby the third person in the Trinity is commonly known and peculiarly called in the Scripture. This is the “Spirit,” or the “Holy Spirit,” or the “Holy Ghost,” as we usually speak. And this I shall do that we be not deceived with the homonymy of the word, nor be at a loss in the intention of those places of Scripture where it is used unto other purposes: for it is so that the name of the second person, ὁ Λόγος, “the Word,” and of the third τὸ Πνεῦμα, “the Spirit,” are often applied to signify other things; I mean, those words are so. And some make their advantages of the ambiguous use of them. But the Scripture is able of itself to manifest its own intention and meaning unto humble and diligent inquirers into it.
It is, then, acknowledged that the use of the words רוּחַ and πνεῦμα in the Old Testament and New is very various; yet are they the words whereby alone the Holy Spirit of God is denoted. Their peculiar signification, therefore, in particular places is to be collected and determined from the subject-matter treated of in them, and other especial circumstances of them. This was first attempted by the most learned Didymus of Alexandria, whose words, therefore, I have set down at large, and shall cast his observations into a more perspicuous method, with such additions as are needful for the farther clearing of the whole matter.1 First, In general, רוּחַ and πνεῦμα signify a wind or spirit, — that is, any thing which moves and is not seen. So the air in a violent agitation is called רוּחַ: Gen. viii. 1, וַיַעֲבֵר אֱלֹהִים רוּחַ עַל־הָאָרֶץ; — “And God made a wind,” or “spirit,” that is, a strong and mighty wind, “to pass over the earth,” for the driving and removal of the waters. So πνεῦμα is used, John iii. 8, Τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ κ.τ.λ., — “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth;” which is a proper description of this first signification of the word. It is an agitation of the air which is unseen. So Ps. i. 4. And in this sense, sometimes it signifies a “great and strong wind,” — that is, רוּחַ נְּדוֹלָה וְחָזָק, 1 Kings xix. 11; and sometimes a cool and soft wind, or a light easy agitation of the air, such as often ariseth in the evenings of the spring or summer. So Gen. iii. 8, “God walked in the garden” לְרוּחַ הַיּוֹם, “in the cool of the day;” that is, when the evening air began to breathe gently, and moderate the heat of the day. So in the poet, —
Virg. Geor.iii. 336.
“At the going down of the sun, when the cold evening tempers the heat of the air.” And some think this to be the sense of that place, Ps. civ. 4, “Who maketh his angels רוּחוֹת, spirits,” — swift, agile, powerful as mighty winds. But the reader may consult our Exposition on Heb. i. 7.
This is one signification of the word רוּחַ, or this is one thing denoted by it in the Scripture. So, among many other places, expressly Amos iv. 13, “For, lo,” יוֹצֵר הָרִים וּבֹרֵא רוּחַ, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the spirit,” that is, “the wind.” The LXX. render this place, Στερεῶν βροντὴν καὶ κτίζων πνεῦμα· — “Who establisheth the thunder, and createth the spirit;” though some copies read, τὰ ὄρη, “the mountains.” And the next words in the text, וּמַגּיד לְאָדָם מַה־שִּׂיחוֹ,2 — “And declareth unto man what is his thought,” they render, Καὶ ἀπαγγέλλων εἰς ἀνθρώπους τὸν Χριστὸν αὐτοῦ, — “And declareth unto men his Christ,” or his Anointed, or his Messiah; for they took מַה־שִּׂיחוֹ for מְשִׁיחוֹ by inadvertency, and not for want of points or vowels as some imagine, seeing the mistake consists in the casting out of a letter itself. And thence the old Latin translation renders the words, “Firmans tonitruum, et creans Spiritum, et annuncians in homines Christum suum;” which Hierom rectified into “Formans montes, et creans ventum, et annuntians homini eloquium suum,” discovering in his comment the mistake of the LXX. But it is certain that, from the ambiguity of the word רוּחַ in this place, with the corrupt translations making mention of Christ in the next words, some who of old denied the deity of the Holy Spirit mightily insisted on it to prove him a creature; as may be seen in Didymus, Ambrose, Hierom, Hilary, and the ancients generally. But the context determines the signification of the word beyond all just exceptions. It is the power of God in making and disposing of things here below, whether dreadful for their greatness and height, as the mountains; or mighty and effectual in their operations, as the wind; or secret in their conceptions, as the thoughts of men; or stable in their continuance, as the night and day, the evening and morning, without the least respect to Christ or the Spirit, that it treateth of.