Page 223 - New English Book L

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2. What the early Fathers of the Nasara (Christianity)
say about the Holy Spirit

(a) Hermas (Similitude v. 5, 6) understands, by the
“Holy Spirit,” the divine element in Christ, namely
the Soncreated before all things. Without entering into
the useless or rather meaningless discussion whether
Hermas confounds the Holy Spirit with the Word, or if
it is a distinct element belonging to Christ, it is admitted
that the latter was created before all things -that is to say,
in the beginning- and that the Spirit in Hermas’ belief is
not a person.

(b) Justin –called the “Martyr” (100? 167? A.C.) and
Theophilus (120?-180? A.C) understand by the Holy
Spirit sometimes a peculiar form of the manifestation
of the Word and sometimes a divine attribute, but never
a divine person. It must be remembered that these two
Greek fathers and writers of the second century A.C. had
no definite knowledge and belief about the Holy Ghost of
the Trinitarians of the fourth and the succeeding centuries.

(c) Athenagoras (110-180 A.C.) says the Holy Spirit
is an emanation of God proceeding from and returning to
Him like the rays of the sun (Deprecatio pro Christianis,
ix, x). Irenæus (130?-202? A.C.) says that the Holy Spirit
and the Son are two servants of God and that the angles
submit to them. The wide difference between the belief
and the conceptions of these two early father about the
Holy Spirit is too obvious to need any further comment.
It is surprising that the two servants of God, according to
the declaration of such an authority as Irenæus, should,
two centuries afterwards, be raised to the dignity of God
and proclaimed two divine persons in company with the
one true God by whom they were created.