DISSERTATION VI, - 363 image of his Father's person ;" And though the Greek word hypostasis sometimes signifies substance, as it is translated Heb. xi. 1. yet in this place it seems to intimate such a distinction of the Father, from the Son, as isstrong enough to answer the word person. Thenext place is 2 Cor. iv. 6. The glory of God shines forth in the face, or person, of Jesus Christ ;" for the Greek word wtoavuov signifies also person. In the first of these texts person is applied to God the Father, and in the second to Christ incarnate : Though it must also he confessed, that the critics in the learned languages, will hardly allow either of these words, hypostasis, or prosopon, among the ancient Greeks, to signify properly a person in the sense inwhich it is used in this contro. versy*. I confess, I am not aware of any text, where any term that expressly signifies person is applied to the Holy Spirit, or tothe divine nature of Christ, considered apart from the man Jesus ; yet since the sacred three have such sort of distinct actionsand characters attributed tothem in scripture; as we usually ascribe to three distinct intelligent agents, we make no scruple to call them all persons, and think there is sufficient foundation for it in scripture. Yet let it be noted, that though the word person may be fitly used, and applied to the doctrine of the Trinity, we are not to imagine that it should be always taken here exactly in the same sense and include precisely the same ideas, as when we call three men, or three angels, three distinct persons. This Í gave notice of in my " Christian Doctrine of the Trinity.". In almost all arts and sciences as it been ever accounted a very lawful andpractical thing to borrow several terms from fa- miliar language andcommon speech, and to use them in a sense peculiar to some one art or science, though it be different from their vulgar and more usual signification. We may borrow a plain example from every mechanic trade ; as for.instance, a watch-maker talks of a balance, a pinion, a hand, a spring, a barrel, a key, &c. and affixes ideas to those words very diffèrent from their original or common meaning. So when a metaphy- sician speaks of simplicity, passion, substance, subject, a patient, matter, form, &c. hegives those words a different meaning from what they have in common life. And why should it not be law- ful in theology, while we are treating of sacred and divine sub- *Wpoomxov is supposed to signify a person; 2 Cor. i. I1. a The gift bestowed on -vs by the prayersof many persons ;" and I think this is the only text where it necessarily signifies a distinct intelligent agent, and this does not refer to any of the sacred three, but to men only. As for a aemust .ç some critics say, it must rather signify substance; in !deb. i.-3. because in ,the apostolic age they think it was never used to express person.
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