A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

The Spirit of the Lord spake by me—the God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake (2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3). That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke i. 35). She was found with child of the Holy Ghost (Matt. i. 18). Why—lie to the Holy Ghost—thou hast lied unto God (Acts v. 3, 4). Born of the Spirit (John iii. 6). Be born of God (1 John v. 4). Consider, too, no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God (Heb. v. 4). Pray the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers (Matt. ix. 38).—The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.—So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed (Acts xiii. 2, and 4). They shall be all taught of God (John vi. 45). Not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth (1 Cor. ii. 13). Ye are the temple of God (1 Cor. iii. 16). Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (vi. 19). The hand of the Lord God fell there upon me, and he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head, and the Spirit lifted me up (Ezek. viii. 1–3).

See also the following passages, as respectively explaining each other: Luke ii. 26, with John xiv. 16, 17, and 1 Cor. xiv. 25.—Matt. iv. 1, with Luke xi. 4.—2 Cor. i. 3, with Acts ix. 31; John xiv. 26, &c.—1 Cor. ii. 11, with 14.—Matt. iv. 7, with Acts v. 9.—Gen. vi. 3, with 1 Pet. iii. 20.—Luke xi. 20, with Matt. xii. 28.—Acts iv. 24, 25, with i. 16,—and Luke i. 68, 70, with Acts xxviii. 25; and various others that might be noticed.

That the Father, under whatever names he is described and addressed, is God, is not disputable. That the Son is also God, it would seem much of rashness to doubt; since he was foretold by prophecy before his manifestation in the flesh, to be God, and appeared as God to the patriarchs.—God the Son, the angel and guardian of his people; for “God”—the Trinity in unity—“no man hath seen at any time.” That he must be a God who has such titles applied to him, such Divine attributes and offices, and to whom Divine worship is paid, the Arian allows, and the Socinian did not always deny; but that he is another—an inferior God, thus making more Gods than one, the voice of revelation expressly contradicts.

The Divinity of the Son is in fact proved both directly and incidentally; but the personality and Divinity of the Holy Spirit are less decisively expressed and treated of—apparently because the Holy Ghost was never incarnate, nor appeared in a bodily form upon earth, and therefore we have not his frequent declarations, as we have those of the Son, nor direct addresses to him, as we have to the Father, to illustrate this point, but are left to gather the truth from the mouths of the prophets—the holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. From their preaching we sufficiently learn that he joined in the work of creation—that he dwells in the temple of the body, (1 Cor. iii. 16; vi. 19, 20; 2 Cor. vi. 16,) and the faithful are therefore dedicated to him—that he is eternal, omnipresent, infinite in power and knowledge—that obedience is due to him, and the sin against him considered unpardonable—and that he is to be worshipped is implied by the apostolic form of benediction. That the Holy Spirit is a person is proved, independently of analogous reasoning, by a clear personal distinction between him and the Father and the Son.

The term God, when used in Holy Scripture in relation to the Father of our Lord Christ, is evidently used in a personal sense; and in such sense the Church also speaks of God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. But when it is announced that there is but one God, though he is the Father of all, the term is used essentially, and comprehends the sacred three. The unity of the Godhead is so unequivocally declared in Holy Scripture, that we dare not deny it: but neither, it is presumed, can we safely deny that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are each of them God, without either impeaching the authenticity of most of the passages cited in this article, or making the word of God (itself) of none effect, by strifes of words, not to say profane and vain babblings.

GODFATHER. (See Sponsors.) He that holds the child at the baptismal font, and answers for him. The custom of godfathers or sponsors is very ancient in the Church. We find them mentioned by Tertullian, the Apostolical Constitutions, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine. There were three sorts of sponsors: 1. For children. 2. For adult persons, who through sickness were not able to answer for themselves. 3. For such as could answer. The sureties for the first were obliged to be guardians of children’s Christian education; and indeed at first they were the parents of the children, and it was in extraordinary cases, either when the parent could not or would not, that others were admitted to be sureties. Sureties of the second sort were such as engaged to the Church that the adult person, who was grown incapable to answer for himself, did, when he was capable, desire to be baptized. But those of the third sort, who appeared with the person to be baptized, obliged themselves to admonish the person of his duty, as they had, before baptism, instructed him in it. Anciently deaconnesses were the sponsors for women, and the deacons were for the men. Parents were not forbidden to be sponsors for their children, before the Council of Mentz, A. D. 813. In the Church of Rome it is not lawful to marry any person to whom one stands related in this spiritual way; and this occasions numberless disputes, and numberless dispensations, which ring great sums of money to the exchequer of Rome.

Rubric. “There shall be for every male child to be baptized, two godfathers and one godmother; and for every female, one godfather and two godmothers.”

Canon 29. “No person shall be urged to be present, nor be admitted to answer as godfather for his own child; nor any godfather or godmother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech, than by the Book of Common Prayer is prescribed in that behalf. Neither shall any person be admitted godfather or godmother to any child at christening or confirmation, before the said person so undertaking hath received the holy communion.”

Rubric. “And the godfathers and godmothers, and the people with the children, must be ready at the font, either immediately after the last lesson at morning prayer, or else immediately after the last lesson at evening prayer, as the curate by his discretion shall appoint.”

GOLDEN NUMBER. By referring to the astronomical tables at the beginning of the Prayer Book, it will be seen that a large proportion of them are simply calculations of the day on which Easter will fall in any given year, and, by consequence, the moveable feasts depending on it. In the early Church, it is well known that there were many and long disputes on this point, the Eastern and Western Churches not agreeing on the particular day for the celebration of this festival. To remove these difficulties, the Council of Nice came to a decision, from which the following rule was framed, viz. “Easter day is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st day of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after.”