That distinguishing mode of existence which constitutes the one divine essence coordinately three separate persons, is of course an infinite mystery which we can not understand, and therefore can not adequately define, and which we can know only so far as it is explicitly revealed. All that we know is, that this distinc- tion, which is called personality, embraces all those incommuni- cable properties which eternally belong to Father, Son, or Holy Ghost separately, and not to all in common ; that it lays the foundation for their concurrence in counsel, their mutual love and action one upon another, as the Father sending the Son, and the Father and Son sending the Spirit, and for use of the personal pronouns I, thou, he, in the revelation which one divine person gives of himself and of the others.
7. What is meant by the terms upoovoiov (of the same substance), and ofioLovatov, (of similar substance) ?
In the first general council of the church which, consisting of three hundred and eighteen bishops, was called together by the Emperor Constantine at Nice, in Bithynia, A. D. 325, there were found to be three great parties representing different opinions concerning the Trinity.
1st. The orthodox party, who maintained the opinion now held by all Christians, that the Lord Jesus is, as to his divine na- ture, of the same identical substance with the Father. These insisted upon applying to him the definite term d{ioovaiovy (ho- moousion), compounded of 6fi6gy same, and ovaia, substance, to teach the great truth that the three persons of the Godhead are one God, because they are of the same numerical essence.
2d. The Arians, who maintained that the Son of God is the greatest of all creatures, more like God than any other, the only- begotten son of God, created before all worlds, through whom God created all other things, and in that sense only divine.
3d. The middle party, styled Semi- Arians, who confessed that the Son was not a creature, but denied that he was in the same sense God as the Father is. They held that the Father is the only absolute self-existent God ; yet that from eternity he, by his own free will, caused to proceed from himself a divine person of
132 THE HOLY TRINITY.
like nature and properties. They denied, therefore, that the Son was of the same substance (homoousion) with the Father, but admitted that he was of an essence truly similar, and derived from the Father (homoiousion, b\ioiovoiov^ from, ofiotog, like, and ovuia^ substance).
The opinions of the first, or orthodox party, prevailed at that council, and have ever since been represented by the technical phrase, homoousian.
For the creed promulgated by that council, see Appendix A.
8. What are the several propositions essentially involved in the doctrine of the Trinity $
1st. There is but one God, and this God is one, i. e., indivisible.
2d. That the one indivisible divine essence, as a whole, exists eternally as Father, and as Son, and as Holy Ghost ; that each person possesses the whole essence, and is constituted a distinct person by certain incommunicable properties, not common to him with the others.
3d. The distinction between these three is a personal distinc- tion, in the sense that it occasions (1.) the use of the personal pronouns, I, thou, he, (2.) a concurrence in counsel, (3.) a dis- tinct order of operation.
4th. These persons are distinguished as first, second, and third, to express an order indicated in Scripture ; (1.) of subsist- ence, insomuch as the Father is neither begotten nor proceedeth, while the Son is eternally begotten by the Father, and the Spirit eternally proceedeth from the Father and the Son ; (2.) of opera- tion, insomuch that the first person sends and operates through the second, and the first and second send and operate through the third.
In order, therefore, to establish this doctrine in all its parts by the testimony of Scripture, it will be necessary for us to prove the following propositions in their order :
1st. That God is one.
2d. That Jesus of Nazareth, as to his divine nature, was truly God, yet a distinct person from the Father.
3d. That the Holy Spirit is truly God, yet a distinct person,
4th. That the Scriptures directly teach a trinity of persons in one Godhead,
SYNOPSIS OF ARGUMENT. 133
5th. It will remain to gather what the Scriptures reveal as to the eternal and necessary relations which these three divine per- sons sustain to each other. These are distributed under the fol- lowing heads : (1.) The relation which the second person sustains to the first, or the eternal generation of the Son ; (2.) the relation which the third person sustains to the first and second, or the eternal procession of the Holy Ghost ; and, (3.) their personal properties and order of operation, ad extra.
I. God is one, and there is but one God. The proof of this proposition, from reason and Scripture, has been fully set forth above, in chap, vii, on the Attributes of God, questions 5-10.