But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father. How brightly are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-in their distinct Personality, brought here before us! While the 'procession' of the Holy Spirit, as it is called, was by the whole ancient Church founded on this statement regarding Him, that He "proceedeth from the Father," the Greek Church inferred from it that, in the internal relations of the Godhead, the Spirit proceedeth from the Father only, through the Son; while the Latin Church insisted that He proceedeth from the Father and the Son: and one short word (Filioque), which the latter would exclude and the former insert in the Creed, was the cause of the great schism between the Eastern and the Western Churches. That the internal or essential procession of the Holy Spirit is the thing here intended, has been the prevailing opinion of the orthodox Churches of the Reformation, and is that of good critics even in our day. But though we seem warranted in affirming-in the technical language of divines-that the economic order follows the essential in the relations of the Divine Persons-in other words, that in the economy of Redemption the relations sustained by the Divine Persons do but reflect their essential relations-it is very doubtful whether more is expressed here than the historical aspect of this mission and procession of the Spirit from the Father by the Agency of the Son.
He shall testify of me - referring to that glorious Pentecostal attestation of the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus which, in a few days, gave birth to a flourishing Christian Church in the murderous capital itself, and the speedy diffusion of it far and wide.