tains allusions to subsequent controversies concerning the person of Christ, it is naturally referred to some period between the mid- dle of the fifth and the middle of the sixth centuries. Although not issued with the authority of any Council, it was soon univer- sally admitted in the West, and subsequently in the East, and was everywhere regarded as an ecumenical symbol.
The Doctrine of the Trinity as set forth in these three ancient creeds, — the Nicene, the Constantinopolitan, and Athanasian (so- called), — is the Church Form of that fundamental article of the Christian faith. There is no difference, except as to amplification, between these several formulas.
§ 5. Points decided by these Councils. A. Against Sahellianism. These Councils decided that the terms Father, Son, and Spirit, were not expressive merely of relations ad extra^ analogous to the terms, Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor. This was the doctrine known as Sahellianism, which assumed that the Supreme Being is not only one in essence, but one in person. The Church doctrine asserts that Father, Son, and Spirit express internal, necessary, and eternal relations in the Godhead ; that they are personal des- ignations, so that the Father is one person, the Son another person, and the Spirit another person. They differ not as aXXo koX aAAo, but as oA-Aos Kol a\Xo<; ; each says I, and each says Thou, to either of the others. The word used in the Greek Church to express this fact was first -irpoa-oj-n-ov, and afterwards, and by general con- sent, vTroo-rao-ts ; in the Latin Church, '''■ persona,^^ and in English, person. The idea expressed by the word in its application to the distinctions in the Godhead, is just as clear and definite as in its application to men.
B. Against the Avians and Semi- Avians. The Councils held that the Father, Son, and Spirit are the same in substance, and equal in power and glory. Whatever divine perfection, whether eternity, immutability, infinity, omnipotence, or holiness, justice, goodness, or truth, can be predicated of the one, can in the same sense and measure be predicated of the others. Tiiese attributes belonging to the divine essence, and that essence being common to the three persons, the attributes or per- fections are in like manner common to each. It is not the Father as such, nor the Son as such, who is self-existent, infinite, and eter- nal, but the Godhead, or divine essence, which subsists in the
460 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. YI. — The Trinity
three persons. The Greek words used to express that Avhich was common to the three persons of the Trinity were, as we have seen, ovcria, ^wts, and at first, vTroo-Tacris ; to whicli correspond the Latin words substantia^ or essentia, and 7iatura; and the English, sub- stance, essence, and nature. The word selected by the Nicene fathers to express the idea of community of substance, was, o/xoou'- crios. But this word, as we have already seen, may express either specific sameness, or numerical identity. In the former sense, all spirits, whether God, angels, or men, are o/xoovo-toi. They are similar in essence, i. e., they are rational intelligences. That the Council intended the word to be taken in the latter sense, as ex- pressing numerical identity, is plain, (1.) Because in its wider sense o/xoovVtos does not difi'er from o/xotovVtos, which word the Coun- cil refused to adopt. The Arians were willing to admit that the Father, Son, and Spirit were o/xotouViot, but refused to admit that they were oixoovaiot. This proves that the words were used in radically different senses. (2.) Because this Council declares that the Son was eternal ; that He was not created or made, but begotten e/< t% ovo-tas tov Trarpo?, " of the very essence of the Fa- ther." (3.) This is implied in the explanation of " eternal gen- eration " universally adopted by the Nicene fathers, as " the eter- nal communication of the same numerical essence whole and entire, from the Father to the Son." (4.) If the term o/xooL'o-tos be taken in the sense of specific sameness, then the Nicene Creed teaches Tritheism. The Father, Son, and Spirit are three Gods in the same sense that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are three men, for all men in that sense of the term are o/xoouo-toi. It is the clear doc- trine of these Councils that the same numerical, infinite, indivisi- ble essence subsists in the three persons of the Trinity. This is still further evident from the inadequate illustrations of this great mystery which the early fathers sought for in nature ; as of the h'ght, heat, and splendor of the sun ; the fountain and its streams ; and especially from memory, intelligence, and will in man. In all these illustrations, however inadequate, the point of analogy was unity (numerical identity) of essence with triplicity.
C. The Mutual Relation of the Persons of the Trinity. On this subject the Nicene doctrine includes, — 1. The pi'iiiciple of the subordination of the Son to the Father, and of the Spirit to the Father and the Son. But this subordina- tion does not imply inferiority. For as the same divine essence with all its infinite perfections is common to the Father, Son, and