DISSERTATION VLI. 377 In order to explain in what sense three persons may be one God, we should first enquire, whether these personalities be intrinsic to godhead, or no. A late ingenious writer maintains, that though the scripture plainly reveals the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, to be three distinct persons, and to be one God, yet that the scripture does no where determine, that these three are distinct persons in the divine essence itself. He supposes also, that the Son and Spirit may have inferior natures, but being intimately united to the godhead of the Father, they may be said so far to participate of deity as to have all divine names, titles, and characters, ascribed to them, without the supposition of any manner of intrinsic distinctions in the godhead itself. See " the Scripture Trinity intelligibly explained bya Divine of the Church of England, Dr. Thomas Burnet, Prebendary of Salisbury," particularly pages 139-145. Though the hypothesis of this author is formed with 'much ingen uity, and has some' plausible appearances in it, yet I can- not give up my assent to it, for I freely declare it is my opinion, that the AoVS and the rrttopca, that is, the Word and the Spirit in scripture are described as properly divine in their own natures, and yet in their divine characters are distinguished from God the Father. There is another reason also, why Icannot give in to this hypothesis, and that is, we know from scripture that the Son has a nature inferior to godhead, but there is no sufficient evidence that the blessed Spirit has any such inferior nature, even while itis'granted there are several economical inferiorities ascribed to him. The Spirit never seems to be represented as a complex being, or person formed of God and a creature united, though the Son be thus exhibited to us. Though there be not therefore.any express assertion in scrip- ture, that there are three distinct personalities in the godhead itself, yet I cannot hitherto find any method of explication suf- ficient to adjust all the parts of this sacred doctrine according to scripture without supposing some distinctions in the divine nature. Then the enqùiry follows, what sort of distinction is sufficient to answer the scriptural account of the blessed Three The distinctions, or differences which we can suppose inthe godhead, are these which follow : 1. A distinction of names, and external relations derived from creatures ; this is drawn fromGod's relation to the works of his hands, as when the same divine essence, or God is called the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier, because of the different operations and relations of God to men. By this some have explained the holy Trinity. 2. A distinction of names, and internal relations, which is drawn from different relative properties in the divine nature itself,
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