398 VIE ARIAN INVITED TO.OaTIIO3OX FAITH. of the very primitive fathers of thecht'istian church, when they speak of they things, describe the divine Logos, or eternal rea- son, or wisdom of God, as a personal power, or as a divine power under a personal character ; and represent the Logos, or Nas, or zoom, that is, the divine wisdom, or mind, as a counsel- lor, with whom God consulted, in the formation of his works,, and who was with God before all worlds, even, from all eternity. And whosoever will read those early authors will find the Logos, or second person in the blessedTrinity, frequently so described, . that every reader would imagine a proper divine power, rather than a, proper literal person to be there represented ; though sometimes also they figuratively affix personal names to this Logos, this eternal Word, or wisdom. See the Dissertation on thename Logos. The common and usual explications of this sacred doctrine which have been esteemed most orthodox among the protestant churches, both at home and abroad, have supposed the distinc- tions of the sacred three in the divine nature not to arise to the complete, proper, and literal idea of person among men ; be- cause they generally make the essence of all the three to be nu- merically the, same. Therefore it can be but a metaphorical or, figurative personality which they allow ; and they call them three persons, only by way of analogy to three men, or three angels, since there are not in their opinion, three distinctconscious beings in the godhead. The most ingenious and learned Dr. Wallis, in bis Letters on the Doctrine of the Trinity, makes no scruple at all to say, that the word person, when applied to the distinctions of the Word and Spirit in the divine nature, is metaphorical, analogi- cal, and figurative : And he frequently uses this manner of speech, supposing that three literal personswould not consist wills the divine unity, and yet I think, he has always been esteemed an orthodox. Trinitarian. " We mean no more, says he, by the word person, but somewhat analogous thereto ; thewords per- son and personality here are but metaphorical, and so are the words Father, Son, generate, &c." See his Third Letter, pages 31, .39.. I might cite many other writers who have been known and approved authors in this controversy in the .last age, who make the distinction of divine persons to be a distinction of in- ternal relative properties, in the self-same individual essence ; which can never arise to the idea of a distinct, literal, and proper personality. VI.. To vindicate this metaphorical sense in which the word person is attributed to the sacred three, consider, that godhead, or.deity, is ascribed in scripture to the Word, and to the Spirit ; and there are also personal characters ascribed to -them : Now if this sacred doctrine cannot be well explained iu a proper and
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