Doctrine · The Articles of Religion

Article IV — Of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.

well-settled

What it says

“The Holy Ghost — proceeding from the Father and the Son — is of one substance, majesty, and glory with them: very and eternal God.”

The stake
The full deity of the Spirit, in the Western *filioque* form, made a constitutional standard.
Why it matters
It completes the Trinitarian wall (Articles I–IV) and quietly commits Methodism to the Western, not the Eastern, doctrine of procession.
The Wesleyan take
Wesley kept it without a word of edit, yet the Spirit he confessed here is the experiential heart of his whole theology — the Witness, the means of grace, sanctification. The article states the deity; the sermons supply the life.
Original English
The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. Thirty-Nine Articles Article V (1571), 'Of the Holy Ghost,' kept by Wesley verbatim. It is itself a latecomer: the Holy Ghost had no separate article in Cranmer's original Forty-Two; Article V was added to the Thirty-Nine in 1563 — O'Donovan's chapter on it is titled 'The Spirit as an Afterthought.' Wesley kept the Western *filioque* ('proceeding from the Father and the Son') without comment, the same Augustinian double procession the Nicene filioque annotation treats at length; cf. [[nicene-creed/who-proceeds-from-the-father-and-the-son]].
VersionRendering
United Methodist Book of Discipline (¶104) The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.
Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), Article V The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. kept verbatim by Wesley; itself added to the Articles only in 1563.
Eastern Orthodox use — (not received): the Spirit proceeds from the Father (alone). the *filioque* is precisely the clause the East does not confess; the full dossier is at [[nicene-creed/who-proceeds-from-the-father-and-the-son]].

Traditions cited patristic ·eastern orthodox ·anglican ·wesleyan ·modern ecumenical

Article IV — Of the Holy Ghost

The Text

Article IV finishes the Trinitarian wall. Having confessed the one triune God (I), the Son’s full deity and saving work (II), and the Resurrection (III), the standard now states the third person: the Holy Ghost “proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.” It is one sentence, doing one job — asserting that the Spirit is fully and equally God against any reduction of the Spirit to a force or an influence. Wesley kept it verbatim. The article is spare to the point of austerity, which is itself worth noting: the constitutional confession of the Spirit is a single line, while the Spirit is, in Wesley’s actual theology, everywhere.

Translation Notes

“proceeding from the Father and the Son.” The Western filioque — “and the Son,” the double procession of Augustine and the medieval West. Its presence here quietly settles, for Methodism, the question that split East and West: the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, not from the Father alone. Wesley made no comment and no edit; he simply carried the Western form forward. The full history and the Orthodox objection are set out at [[nicene-creed/who-proceeds-from-the-father-and-the-son]]; the article assumes that whole debate and lands, by inheritance, on the Western side.

“of one substance, majesty, and glory.” Homoousios applied to the Spirit — the Constantinopolitan (381) confession that the Spirit is not a lesser divinity but God with the Father and the Son. “Very and eternal God” closes any Macedonian or modern door to a sub-divine Spirit.

Historical Context

O’Donovan titles his chapter on this article “The Spirit as an Afterthought,” and the phrase is exact: Cranmer’s Forty-Two Articles had no separate article on the Holy Ghost; Article V was added to the set in 1563, after the fact, to complete the Trinitarian sequence. So the article on the third person is, in the Anglican formularies’ own history, a later supplement — the doctrine never in doubt, but the article a filling-in. Wesley inherited and kept it without remark, and renumbered it IV.

The deeper historical irony belongs to the Wesleyan reception. The Articles give the Spirit one terse line about deity and nothing about work. Yet the work of the Spirit — assurance, the new birth, sanctification, the means of grace — is the most distinctive territory of the whole Wesleyan tradition. The Discipline’s own historical statement (¶103) concedes that the Articles “lacked several Wesleyan emphases, such as assurance and Christian perfection,” precisely the Spirit’s operations. Article IV confesses that the Spirit is God; the entire Wesleyan corpus exists, in effect, to say what that God does.

Lines of Interpretation

The disputed question is the filioque; the deity of the Spirit is not contested among the traditions annotated here.

Patristic / Western

Tradition: Augustine, De Trinitate; the double procession

The Western Fathers ground “from the Father and the Son” in the Spirit as the mutual love and gift of Father and Son. Article IV is that Augustinian settlement made subscribable.

Strengths

  • Coheres with Article I: the Spirit’s procession from the Son underwrites the Son’s full deity (only God spirates God)
  • Theologically rich — the Spirit as the bond of the triune communion

Weaknesses

  • The Western tradition added filioque to the creed unilaterally; the article inherits that procedural wound
  • Compression to one line loses the Augustinian depth the doctrine needs to avoid sounding like a power

Eastern Orthodox

Tradition: the Cappadocians; procession from the Father alone

The East confesses the Spirit proceeds from the Father (the sole archē), through the Son. Article IV is, on this reading, the Western error written into a Protestant constitution.

Strengths

  • Names honestly that Methodism here takes a side in the church-dividing question, by inheritance and without argument
  • Guards the Father’s unique role as source within the Trinity

Weaknesses

  • Modern ecumenical convergence (“from the Father through the Son”) has narrowed the gap the bare article cannot show
  • The Wesleyan tradition’s pneumatology is so experiential that the procession dispute rarely touches its actual life

Anglican

Tradition: the Thirty-Nine; the article as completion

Anglicanism reads Article V/IV as the Trinitarian sequence’s necessary closing panel — added in 1563 to leave no person unconfessed — and treats the filioque as the received Western text, while many modern Anglicans favor dropping it from the creed ecumenically.

Strengths

  • Honest about the article’s “afterthought” origin without diminishing the doctrine
  • Holds the Western form while open to ecumenical revision

Weaknesses

  • The article’s terseness gives the church little to teach about the Spirit, only to assert
  • Inherited, not argued, so it cannot itself resolve the dispute it embodies

Modern / Ecumenical

Tradition: the filioque dialogues; the pneumatological revival

Modern theology both questions the filioque’s creedal status and recovers the Spirit from “afterthought” to the agent of communion, mission, and the Christian life — exactly the recovery the Wesleyan sermons already embody.

Strengths

  • Reconnects the bare article to the Spirit’s actual work, which is where Methodism lives
  • Treats the procession question with the ecumenical care [[nicene-creed/who-proceeds-from-the-father-and-the-son]] details

Weaknesses

  • Can use “afterthought” to relativize the deity the article exists to fix
  • Over-correction risks a Spirit untethered from the Son the article binds him to

Wesleyan Voice

Wesley kept Article IV without changing a word, and the silence is revealing in both directions. He did not touch the filioque — the Eastern question simply was not his question; he received the Western form as the catholic faith and moved on. And he did not expand the article, though no theologian in the tradition had more to say about the Holy Ghost. That asymmetry is the key to the Wesleyan reception: the constitutional standard fixes the deity of the Spirit (the boundary, the wall against any Socinian reduction — ¶103’s concern), while the work of the Spirit is carried, by Wesley’s own design, in the Sermons and Notes, not the Articles.

This is exactly the structure the document essay describes: the Articles are a deliberately minimal floor, and the distinctively Wesleyan content lives in the standard sermons. Article IV is the clearest single instance. Stand it beside Wesley’s The Witness of the Spirit I and II, his teaching on the new birth, the means of grace, and Christian perfection, and the division of labor is plain: the article says the Spirit is very and eternal God; the sermons say what that God does in a believer — assures, regenerates, sanctifies, conveys grace through the means. To read Methodist pneumatology from Article IV alone is to mistake the boundary stone for the field. The Wesleyan voice here is therefore not a gloss on the article’s words (Wesley added none) but the recognition that this one austere line is doing constitutional, not expository, work — and that the church told us so itself in ¶103.

The one substantive Wesleyan note within the words is the link back to Article I and forward to the Christian life: because the Spirit is “of one substance” with the Father and the Son, the Spirit’s inward witness (Romans 8:16) is God’s own testimony, not a feeling; and because the Spirit proceeds from the Son, the Spirit’s work is never other than conformity to Christ. That keeps the experiential Wesleyan pneumatology — so easily caricatured as mere emotion — tethered to the Trinity the article confesses. The fruits that the General Rules require to be evidenced ([[general-rules/evidenced-by-its-fruits]]) are the fruits of this Spirit, who is God.

Hymnody

The Wesleys gave the Spirit the rich hymnody the article withholds. Charles Wesley’s “Spirit of faith, come down, reveal the things of God” is Article IV’s deity turned to petition — only God can reveal God. “Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire” and “Come, Holy Ghost, all-quickening fire” confess the very and eternal God precisely by asking him to do what only God can do — quicken, indwell, sanctify. And the Whitsun hymns and “Love divine, all loves excelling” (“let us all thy grace receive… Spirit of life and love”) supply exactly the Spirit’s work the article omits. The hymnody is the standing proof of the Wesleyan reading: what the constitutional article states in eleven words, the church sings as the whole atmosphere of its life — the afterthought of the formularies is the air of the hymnal.

Pastoral and Liturgical Use

The first pastoral use is to refuse the article’s own austerity as a model. Article IV is a boundary, not a doctrine of the Christian life, and a church that knows the Spirit only as the eleven words of its constitution has the wall and not the field. Preach the article with the Wesleyan sermons it presupposes: the Spirit who is “very and eternal God” (the article) is the Spirit who bears witness, regenerates, and sanctifies (the Sermons). The pastoral failure is not heresy about the Spirit’s deity (rare) but functional neglect of the Spirit’s work (common), and the cure is the hymnody and the sermons, not a better gloss on the article.

The second use is the filioque, handled with the ecumenical care the corpus has shown throughout. Most Methodist congregations have no idea their constitution takes a side in the great East-West dispute; fewer still are troubled by it. Used in teaching, the clause is a doorway to catholic humility: [[nicene-creed/who-proceeds-from-the-father-and-the-son]] lays out why the East dissents and why modern dialogue has softened the edges. The pastoral note is Wesley’s own temper from Article I — the fact of the Spirit’s deity is non-negotiable; the precise grammar of eternal procession is not a thing to divide a parish over.

The third use binds the Spirit to Christ and to fruit. Because the Spirit proceeds from the Son and is one substance with him, the test of any claimed work of the Spirit is conformity to Christ and the fruit the General Rules require ([[general-rules/evidenced-by-its-fruits]]). Article IV is the doctrinal guard against the perennial congregational error of a “Spirit” detached from Christ and from holiness: the God confessed here does only what the crucified and risen Son does, and his presence is known, as Wesley insisted, by witness and fruit together.

Further Reading

  • John 15:26; 16:13–15; Romans 8:9–16; 2 Corinthians 3:17–18 — the Spirit’s deity and work
  • Constantinople (381); Augustine, De Trinitate — the deity and the double procession
  • Thirty-Nine Articles, Article V (1571; added 1563) — Wesley’s verbatim source
  • Oliver O’Donovan, On the Thirty-Nine Articles, “The Spirit as an Afterthought” — the article’s late origin
  • John Wesley, The Witness of the Spirit, Discourses I & II — the Spirit’s work, which the article omits
  • Charles Wesley, “Spirit of faith, come down”; “Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire”
  • The filioque in full: [[nicene-creed/who-proceeds-from-the-father-and-the-son]]
  • The wall this completes: [[articles-of-religion/article-1-of-faith-in-the-holy-trinity]]
  • The fruits of this Spirit: [[general-rules/evidenced-by-its-fruits]]

Related

The Articles of Religion

Article I — Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Article II — Of the Word, or Son of God, Who Was Made Very Man. The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men. Article III — Of the Resurrection of Christ. Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body, with all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day. Article IV — Of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. Article V — Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation. The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. Article VI — Of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and Man. Although the law given from God by Moses as touching ceremonies and rites doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral. Article VII — Of Original or Birth Sin. Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually. Article VIII — Of Free Will. The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will. Article IX — Of the Justification of Man. We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. Article X — Of Good Works. Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit. Article XI — Of Works of Supererogation. Voluntary works — besides, over and above God's commandments — which they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. For by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than of bounden duty is required; whereas Christ saith plainly: When ye have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants. Article XII — Of Sin After Justification. Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as they live here; or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent. Article XIII — Of the Church. The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. Article XIV — Of Purgatory. The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God. Article XV — Of Speaking in the Congregation in Such a Tongue as the People Understand. It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people. Article XVI — Of the Sacraments. Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him. There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Article XVII — Of Baptism. Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth. The Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church. Article XVIII — Of the Lord's Supper. The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death… The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith. Article XIX — Of Both Kinds. The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people; for both the parts of the Lord's Supper, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be administered to all Christians alike. Article XX — Of the One Oblation of Christ, Finished upon the Cross. The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in the which it is commonly said that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphemous fable and dangerous deceit. Article XXI — Of the Marriage of Ministers. The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness. Article XXII — Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches. It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Every particular church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done to edification. Article XXIII — Of the Rulers of the United States of America. The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by the Constitution of the United States and by the constitutions of their respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. Article XXIV — Of Christian Men's Goods. The riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right, title, and possession of the same, as some do falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability. Article XXV — Of a Christian Man's Oath. As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his apostle, so we judge that the Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth. Of Sanctification (appended 1939; legislative, not constitutionally protected). Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement cleanseth from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are washed from its pollution, saved from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts and to walk in his holy commandments blameless. Of the Duty of Christians to the Civil Authority (appended 1939; legislative, not constitutionally protected). It is the duty of all Christians, and especially of all Christian ministers, to observe and obey the laws and commands of the governing or supreme authority of the country of which they are citizens or subjects or in which they reside, and to use all laudable means to encourage and enjoin obedience to the powers that be.