DISSERTATION VI. 371 the bible where any word that directly signifies person is attribu- ted to the Holy Spirit, and therefore the personal characters attributed to him may he supposed to be only figurative, and such as may be attributed to a divine power. IX. If it, should be granted, that the powers of a human soul, a finite being arenot substantial and distinct enough to ad- mit such personal ascriptions as belong to the divine Word and Spirit in scripture, yet the powers of a divine and infinite being may be substantial and distinct enough to supportsuch ascriptions. We know little of the divine essence but by way of analogy to human souls : And as the divine nature, or God, has something in him transcendently superior to all our ideas of human souls, so the powersof a God, which, incondescension to our weakness are called his Word and his Spirits may have something in them, even in this respect, so transcendently superior to the powers of a human soul, as to bé more proper subjects of such personal characters and ascriptions as the holy scripture has attributed to them ; and yet their distinction or difference may not be so great as to make them distinct conscious minds. X. I add in the last place, that if there be any expressions in scripture, either relating to the eternal divine Word, or the holy Spirit, which cannot be construed, or interpreted, concern- ing a particular power of the divine nature represented in such a figurative personality, 1 would then enquire, whether it may not be interpreted concerning the divine nature itself exerting that particular power : And in this sense the personality will appear more complete and more literal. In this view of things the Logos, or Word, may signify God acting by his Word ; as Heb. iv. 12. " The Word of God is living and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts." And the Spirit of God may signify God acting by his Spirit, as when Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost ; Acts v. 3, 4. He lied to God acting by the Holy Ghost, God residing and operating in the apostles by his Spirit. Now this representation of things approaches very near to the common orthodox explicationof the Trinity, wherein the Son and Spirit are represented as having the same numerical divine essence with the Father, but considered in a particular manner of subsistence, or vested with peculiar personal properties. Yet at the same time, the scheme which I have proposed is free from the heaviest difficulties thatlie upon the common orthodox scheme, viz. The eternal communication of the same individual divine essence from the Father to the Son and Spirit : For my hypo- thesis supposes the generation of the Son to refer to his pre-exis- tent human soul, or to his body, or tohis mediatorial office ; and the procession of the Spirit to refer to his mission rather than to his existence. A a 2
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