In either interpretation it cannot be proved from this text that the Apostles were to be confirmed in grace after the descent of the Holy Ghost, for it is enough for the fulfilment of the promise here made that the Holy Ghost was to be, as far as in Him lay, an enduring Comforter, though the Apostles, on their part, might expel and banish Him. This verse proves the personality of the Holy Ghost, for He is sent in the place of Christ (see also verse 26). It proves also His Divinity, for only a Divine Person would be thus compared to Christ, and spoken of as _another_ Comforter. Moreover the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father is here implied in the fact that the Father is said to send the Holy Ghost. For the sending of one Divine Person by another, implies the Eternal Procession of one from the other with a relation to some term in time.(97) Finally, the three Persons of the Trinity are shown to be distinct, for the Father will send the Holy Ghost at the request of the Son. 17. Spiritum veritatis, quem 17. The Spirit of truth, whom mundus non potest accipere, the world cannot receive, quia non videt eum, nec scit because it seeth him not, nor eum: vos autem cognoscetis knoweth him: but you shall eum, quia apud vos manebit, et know him; because he shall in vobis erit. abide with you, and shall be in you. 17. *The Spirit of truth.* The Holy Ghost is so called not only because He is essential Truth, but also because He was to come to the Apostles as a teacher of truth (verse 26). In the following words the Apostles are told that the wicked world (i. 10; xiv. 30; xvii. 9, 16) cannot receive the Holy Ghost, for as St. Paul says: “the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand: because it is spiritually examined” (1 Cor. ii. 14). *It seeth him not, nor knoweth him.* Some take the meaning to be: seeth Him not with the eyes of the body, nor discerneth Him by spiritual vision; others, and with more probability, take both clauses as synonymous and in reference to spiritual vision. The sense is that because the wicked world will refuse to recognise the Holy Ghost, it will be incapable of receiving Him at His coming. Want of vision shall be a hindrance to possession. *But you shall know him; because he shall abide with you, and shall be in you.* Reversing the order of thought, He now says that the presence of the Holy Ghost abiding in the Apostles shall bring them still fuller knowledge. Such seems to be the sense of the verse according to the Vulgate reading. But in the latter part of the verse, instead of “shall know” and “shall abide,” we have in both instances the present tense in the Greek, and many authorities also read the present instead of “shall be.” The clause would then run: “but you know him because he abides with you and is in you.”