Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.6

380 THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTHODOX FAITH. thisanalogy so far as reason and scripture allowus. Now it it evident, that a human soul, in its nature, is one conscious mind ; and it is utterly inconsistent with the nature of it to have twoor three distinct conscious principles, or natures in it, that is, to include two or three different conscious beings ; and since we are told, that God is one, and God is a spirit, it would be something strange if we must believe that God is twoor three spirits. And as the nature of our souls teaches us to conceive the nature of God, so the powers of our souls, by the same dictates of nature and scripture, teach us to conceive the powers of- God. Since the human soul has two distinct powers, viz. the knowing power, called the mind, and the active power, called the will, why may we not suppose the blessed God to have two distinct powers, called the Word, and the Spirit,* the one cog- noscitive, and the other active ? Or, as the human soul has in it intelligence, volition, and a power of moving the body, so if there were any single term which signified both intelligence and volition together, I would chuse to apply that to the divine Wordy : And if any single term signified the power of operation, or moving the body, I would apply that to the Holy Spirit ; because I think this analogy and resemblance would come something nearer to the scriptural ideas of the Word and Spirit ; the one being represented rather as an intelligent, volitive power, the other as an intelligent effective power. But since we haveno such terms ready made, and-since my design here is not so presuming, as to express what the powers of deity are in themselves, but only to exhibit a sort of distant humanresemblance of them, I shall content, myself with the terms mind and will to express this analogy and resemblance, always supposing the termwill to imply an active efficient faculty. Here let it be observed, that in explaining these distinctions in the divine nature itself, I chuse to call the second person the Word, rather than the Son ; for as some late writers suppose, that the sonship of Christ rather refers to his human nature, or * Though the names Word and Spirit, or speech and breath, are borrowed originally, some from the body, and some from the soul of man, yet the divine ideas which are represented by these names in scripture, are entirely spiritual, and therefore we must derive our best conceptions of them by their analogy to our own souls. I The Logos, or divine Word, in scripture, sometimes signifies a word of knowledge, or manifestation, and sometimes a word of command or volition, and therefore if we liad one single term for the intellect and will in a human soul,, perhaps it would more exactly represent the divine Logos. Let it be noted also, that some of the ancient fathers call the Logos, the vo trisMo, or will of God, as well as the lotse, or wisdom. And Calvin, in his commentary on the first verse 'of the gospel of St. John, says, a The Son of God is called the Logos, sermo, that is, word or speech, because he is first the eternal wisdom, and will of God, " Dei sapieutia et voluntas," and then the express image. of his tiuusel.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=