2. The Father and the Son are persons distinct from the Spirit.
(a) Jesus distinguishes the Spirit from himself and from the Father; (b) the Spirit proceeds from the Father; (c) the Spirit is sent by the Father and by the Son.
(a) John 14:16, 17—“I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth”—or “Spirit of the truth,” = he whose work it is to reveal and apply the truth, and especially to make manifest him who is the truth. Jesus had been their Comforter: he now promises them another Comforter. If he himself was a person, then the Spirit is a person. (b) John 15:26—“the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father.” (c) John 14:26—“the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name”; 15:26—“when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father”; Gal. 4:6—“God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.” The Greek church holds that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only; the Latin church, that the Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from the Son. The true formula is: The Spirit proceeds from the Father through or by (not “and”) the Son. See Hagenbach, History of Doctrine, 1:262, 263. Moberly, Atonement and Personality, 195—“The Filioque is a valuable defence of the truth that the Holy Spirit is not simply the abstract second Person of the Trinity, but rather the Spirit of the incarnate Christ, reproducing Christ in human hearts, and revealing in them the meaning of true manhood.”
3. The Holy Spirit is a person.
A. Designations proper to personality are given him.
(a) The masculine pronoun ἐκεῖνος, though πνεῦμα is neuter; (b) the name παράκλητος, which cannot be translated by “comfort”, or be taken as the name of any abstract influence. The Comforter, Instructor, Patron, Guide, Advocate, whom this term brings before us, must be a person. This is evident from its application to Christ in 1 John 2:1—“we have an Advocate—παράκλητον—with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
(a) John 16:14—“He (ἐκεῖνος) shall glorify me”; in Eph. 1:14 also, some of the best authorities, including Tischendorf (8th ed.), read ὄς, the masculine pronoun: “who is an earnest of our inheritance.” But in John 14:16-18, παράκλητος is followed by the neuters ὁ and αὐτό, because πνεῦμα had intervened. Grammatical and not theological considerations controlled the writer. See G. B. Stevens, Johannine Theology, 189-217, especially on the distinction between Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is another person than Christ, in spite of Christ's saying of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “I come unto you.” (b) John 16:7—“if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” The word παράκλητος, as appears from 1 John 2:1, quoted above, is a term of broader meaning than merely “Comforter.” The Holy Spirit is, indeed, as has been said, “the mother-principle in the Godhead,” and “as one whom his mother comforteth” so God by his Spirit comforts his children (Is. 66:13). But the Holy Spirit is also an Advocate of God's claims in the soul, and of the soul's interests in prayer (Rom. 8:26—“maketh intercession for us”). He comforts not only by being our advocate, but by being our instructor, patron, and guide; and all these ideas are found attaching to the word παράκλητος in good Greek usage. The word indeed is a verbal adjective, signifying “called to one's aid,” hence a “helper”; the idea of encouragement is included in it, as well as those of comfort and of advocacy. See Westcott, Bible Com., on John 14:16; Cremer, Lexicon of N. T. Greek, in voce.
T. Dwight, in S. S. Times, on John 14:16—“The fundamental meaning of the word παράκλητος, which is a verbal adjective, is ‘called to one's aid,’ and thus, when used as a noun, it conveys the idea of ‘helper.’ This more general sense probably attaches to its use in John's Gospel, while in the Epistle (1 John 2:1, 2) it conveys the idea of Jesus acting as advocate on our behalf before God as a Judge.” So the Latin advocatus signifies one “called to”—i. e., called in to aid, counsel, plead. In this connection Jesus says: “I will not leave you orphans” (John 14:18). Cumming, Through the Eternal Spirit, 228—“As the orphaned family, in the day of the parent's death, need some friend who shall lighten their sense of loss by his own presence with them, so the Holy Spirit is ‘called in’to supply the present love and help which the Twelve are losing in the death of Jesus.”A. A. Hodge, Pop. Lectures, 237—“The Roman ‘client,’ the poor and dependent man, called in his ‘patron’ to help him in all his needs. The patron thought for, advised, directed, supported, defended, supplied, restored, comforted his client in all his complications. The client, though weak, with a powerful patron, was socially and politically secure forever.”
B. His name is mentioned in immediate connection with other persons, and in such a way as to imply his own personality.