DISSERTATION VI.. 369 literal sense, bothwith regard to the deity and to the personality, lest we run into tritheism, and make three gods ; I esteem it much safer to construe the terms of personality in a figurative sense, than to construe the terms of deity in that manner, and to allow only a figurative godhead to the Word and Spirit : For the proofs of their true and proper deity seem to me stronger than the proofs of their literal and proper personality. And, indeed, most, if not all, the common orthodox Trini- tarian schemes, as I said before, agree with me in this, that the word person is not applied to all the sacred three in the full and literal sense of it, though the word God is attributed to them in theliteral sense. If somehave supposed a particular manner of subsistence, to be a person in the godhead ; and others say, a person is the divine being in a particular manner of subsistence, and that the three divine persons are the samenumercial divine being repeated in three manners of subsistence, it is much the same in this respect ; for every one perceives, that neither of these are three distinct persons in the literal and proper meaning ofthe word ; therefore it is plain the word person is there usedby them figuratively or analogically, though they use the word God in its proper and literal sense. VII. If the personal characters which are attributed to Christ in scripture are too strong, and proper, and literal, to be solved by such a figurative personality, then let it be observed, that Christ had a distinct human nature, a soul and body in union with the divine Word ; and surely this assumption of human na- ture strengthens the personal characters of I, thou, and he : This will abundantly solve the attribution of personal ideas to Christ. If the divine Word, in the sense and explication which 1 have given, be not sufficiently distinct from the Father, to be called a person, yet surely it may be allowed that the man Christ Jesus is a proper person, and his union to the divine Word does not abate or destroy his personality. The whole complex being, or God-man, may have a sufficient claim to per- sonality, and all the personal pronouns I, thou, and he, are pro- perly applied to him. And as this sufficiently solves the personal ascriptions to Christ, since his incarnation, it will solve such personal ascrip- tions before his incarnation also : For I think there are many reasons to believe, that the divine nature of Christ formed and assumed his human soul into union with itself before the creation : That the soul of Messiah was the first of all creatures, was per- sonally united to the divine Logos or wisdom before the world was, and continued so through all the ancient ages of the church, often appearing as the angel of the covenant, till at last he veiled himself in flesh and blood, and took upon him the likeness of man, which I have endeavoured to prove in another discourse. Vol. vi. A it
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