. DISSERTATION I 219 XV..Since the 'modern refiners of the Arian. scherne have granted, that there is a peculiar, strict -and perfect union and communion, between the Father and the Son, andcannot deny, but that several of the texts! have cited may have a secret refer- ence to some mysterious, incomprehensible instances of union, and communion between them, see Dr. Clarke's Scripture'Doc- trine of the Trinity, part the first, number.594 and 600. Where is the inconvenience, or difficulty, of allowing this to be called a personal union, whereby what is, proper to God may be attri- bitted to Christ, and what is proper to the man Christ may be attributed to God, and what is proper to either part of the com- pound person may be applied to the whole'? Thus God manfelt an theAsk was seen of' angels, and ascended to heaven, may signify the same, as that Jesus Christ, or the man united to godhead, was seen of angels, and ascended to heaven; 1 Tim, SCOT. tii Suppose a person, who liad before indulged. the Arian error, and denied the proper divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, should by these steps of enquiry be led on thus far, to believe that Christ is called God, Jehovah, the great God, and the blessed God, in the true, proper, and exalted sense, he mightyet be led farther onward into this doctrine, and quickly learn how to explain in clear ideas, several other propositions which are asserted and maintained in the orthodox scheme, that is, in the common explication of the Trinity : viz. how the Son of God may be also God of one substance, power, and eternity, or of the same substance with the Father, and in some sense equal with him in power and glory. Audit may be explained also by this means, how Christ becomes the Son of God by an ineffable communication of the divine nature to him from the Father, and thus he may be the image of the invisible God, and the express imageof his Father's person ; thus also all the divine characters which are ascribed to Christ in the New Testament, may be properly said to be derived from the Father. Observe the following method : 1. If the essence of God which is in the Father, and in the Son Jesus Christ, be the same numerical essences, then it is ,evident that the Son bath the same substance with the Father. * It is generally granted by the greatest and best Trinitarian' writers, that ,opposingwe believe the Father, Son and Spirit, to be really; truly and properly, one God, the particular manner of explaining the internal distinctions in the divine essence is of much less importance. Upon this concession I take leave to say, that though the doctrine of the same numerical essence belonging to the sacred three, has been opposed by some learned.and pious writers, yet this is the opinion which is certainly most consonant to the light of nature, which has been for many centuries past counted the orthodox doctrine, and which seems.most agreeable to the unity of God, where that is represented in scripture 'and there- fore I rather incline to believe it: And 'I think the personal representations of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, may be explained in a foil consistency therewith, as I shall endeavour to shore hereafter,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=