DISSERTATION VI. 373 trecessary to meliorate our temper andpractice, or promote our salvation. Let it be further observed, that though the term person has been long and generally used in the christian churches to express the distinctions in the divine nature, yet it has not been univer- sally made use of for this purpose; nor has the doctrine been confinedonly to this word, either in elder or in later times; Se- veral centuries had run out after the beginning of christianity, before this word was publicly and frequently used. Justin Mar- tyr, a very early writer, calls the distinctions in the Trinity, dif- ferent manners of being, , oao4 ooragiEw;. Others of the Fathers call the Logos, or eternal Word, a power of God, according to the language of the ancient Jews. The " programme" of the emperor Justin, to which all the churches gave their consent, as Evagrius witnesses, " Ilis- toriæ Ecclesiastic, librn v. capite 4." saith, " We adore the Trinity in unity, and the unity in Trinity ; an unity as to essence, or godhead, a Trinity as to properties or persons, ,S401maç vie ?;goo-ars. Here person is explained by property. St. Austin, whp uses the term person, explains the Trinity by modes or powers of the divine nature ; representing the Father, Son; and Spirit, as mind, wisdom, and love ; or God considered as an original eternal mind, knowing and willinghimself. J. Da- mascene, the first of the fathers that collected a regular sys- tem of divinity, defines a person in the holy Trinity, to be an eternal mode of eternal subsistence ; o avapx Tpoorl i'u CGIL3 Thus also later christian writers, use the words mode and property, to describe a divine person, and that sometimes even in confessions of faith. The Wirtemberg confession calls the Sacred three, properties as well as persons. The confession of the Greek church, 1453, calls the Father, Son, and Spirit, three properties, which are as it were the principles of all the other properties of God, and which are named three subsistences or persons. The Polish confession, 1570, says, " They are three in their subsisting properties and dispensatoryoffices, yet these three are one." The same divine essence considered in a particular, mode of subsistence, is the common way where- in a divine person hath been represented by most of our modern theological writers. The sacred Trinity is usually described by them as the divine essence with three relative properties. The great Calvin, one of the chief glories of the reforma- tion, describes the Son and Spirit as the wisdom and power of God the Father; and yet hecalls them persons. But he resolves not to quarrel with any man merely because he will not admit word person: See " Institutiouum, libro i. capite 13." I might cite many authors to this purpose, who, though they use ea3
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