364 THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTHODOX FAITH. jects, which are so much superior to our common ideas, to bor- row the word person from familiar and common language, and use it in a sense that has some analogy to the common meaning of it, though it be not entirely the same. In explaining this article of the Trinity it is well known that thereare two special cases wherein we make use of the word per- son ; and both of them may require such a sense of the word as is a little different from the common usage ; for human languages have not furnished us with words sufficiently distinct and appo- site to express divine ideas ; and therefore men have borrowed those words from common speech, which, in their opinion, come near to those divine ideas which they would express. The two cases are these : The first is, when we apply the word person to three dis- tinctions in thedivine nature, and call the Word and Spirit per- sons as well as the Father ; all these being represented in scrip- ture as intelligent agents, or principles of action, we call them three persons. The second case is, when we apply the word person to the human and divine natures of our Lord Jesus Christ united, and call this God-man, this compound or complex being, one person. In the first case we suppose three distinctions in one divine nature to be represented in scripture, under three personal cha- ractersor as three persons, who are all employed in our creation and salvation. In the second case we suppose two natures united into one personal character, for the scripture represents Godmanifest in the flesh as one person ; i Tim. in. 16. "He was seen of angels, and received up into glory. The application of the word person toChrist as God.man, has been largely vindicated in my second "Dissertation on the Trinity," where I have made it appear, that as any two ma- terial beings which are united together, as two houses, trees, or fruits, may be called one complex house, one complex tree, &c. So the human and divine natures of Christ, though possibly each of them may becalled one single person, yet when intimately united, may be called one complex person, or one complex prin- ciple of intelligent action and passion. I refer the reader to that discourse. But when weconsider the distinctionsin thedivine nature, and call theFather, theWord and Spirit, three persons, it requires a little farther explication in what sense the characters of personal agents may be attributed to the Word and Spirit as, well as to the Father, and that shall be the subject of the present dis- sertation.
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