her Ipt4 Ivatiao y the ist iy or sii! srcello sis gaspi radeln C anothe,; Nth odd acuity passihlsl erim illp ing8rr oldmre Is1d ;pH eli noinleds bodilydq see led lee I sis ssedTri hebliss love, d Go pi! se ofSsi r aie ill e sou si 28. "1 her gills and brai dd oslo ¡o wale oui -fromll e Falls, %sordid s' the i rsake,od! Ir me, is? n ace cosrmoee ne 9py rit, ootV PROPOSITIONXIII. 163 one God and Father of all." 1 Pet. 1. 2. " Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling ofthe blood ofJesus Christ. Jude verses 20, 21. " Praying in the Holy Ghost, keep your- selves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." I think the plain and express scripture contained in these citations, sufficiently distinguishes three personal agents, without any further comment upon them. A Turk, or an Indian, that reads themwithout any prepossession, would certainlyunderstand most of them so. Paór. XIII.=Therefore it has been the Custom of the Christian Church in almost all Ages, to use the Word Person, in Order to describe these Three Distinctions of lather, Son, and Spirit ; and to call them Three distinct Persons. The word person signifies, in the common language of mankind, one single intelligent voluntary agent, or a principle of action that has understanding and will. So three men, or three angels, are properly called three distinct persons ; and the Father, the Son and Spirit, who are all one God, yet having three such distinct sort of actions and characters attributed to them, as may properly be ascribed to three distinct intelligent agents, we make no scruple to call them three persons. For it is sufficiently evi- dent, that three mere names, three attributes, three modes or manners of being, three relations, or three sorts of conception of one and the same single or individual being, are not sufficient to sustain the three different offices, or to perform the three differ- ent sorts of actions, which are attributed to Father, Son, and Spirit : Nor can we account for them, without supposing three distinct intelligent agents. It might be also mentioned to confirm this proposition, that the scripture itself used the word person, in one or more places, to distinguish the Father from the Son. Heb. i. 3. Christ is called the express image of his Father's person. And though the Greek word " hypostasis," which we well resider person, sometimes signifies substance, as it is translated Heb. xi. 1. yet in that very place the word seems to intimate a distinction from the Father, strong enough to answer the word person in our language. Again in 2 Cor. iv. 6. " The knowledge of the glory of God shines forth in the person of Jesus Christ ;" which perhaps is a better translation of the Greek word lapoo -Waor " pro- sopon," then when we render it the face of Christ. Though the word person be fitly used and applied in this . case, yet we generally suppose it is not to be taken exactly ip the same sense, as when we apply the word to three men, or or three angels, and call them three distinct persons; for they L2
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