Spirit, there can be no inferiority of one person to the other in the Trinity. Neither does it imply posteriority ; for the divine essence common to the several persons is self-existent and eternal. The subordination intended is only that which concerns the mode of subsistence and operation, implied in the Scriptural facts that the Son is of the Father, and the Spirit is of the Father and the Son, and that the Father operates through the Son, and the Father and the Son through the Spirit.
2. The several persons of the Trinity are distinguished by a cer- tain " property," as it is called, or cliaractex'istic. That character- istic is expressed by their distinctive appellations. The first person is characterized as Father, in his relation to the second person ; the second is characterized as Son, in relation to the first person ; and the third as Spirit, in relation to the first and second persons. Pa- ternity, tlierefore, is the distinguishing property of the Father ; filiation of the Son ; and procession of the Spirit. It will be ob- served that no attempt at explanation of these relations is given in these ecumenical creeds, namely, the Nicene, that of Constantino- ple, and the Athanasian. The mere facts as revealed in Scripture are affirmed.
3. The third point decided concerning the relation of the per- sons of the Trinity, one to the other, relates to their union. As the essence of the Godhead is common to the several persons, they have a common intelligence, will, and power. There are not in God three intelligences, three wills, three efficiencies. The Three
mate union was expressed in the Greek Church by the word TTcpixwpiyo-ts, which the Latin words inexistentia, inhahitatio, and in- tercommunio, were used to explain. These terms were intended to express the Scriptural facts that the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son ; that where the Father is, there the Son and Spirit are ; that what the one does the others do (the Father creates, the Son creates, the Spirit creates), or, as our Lord ex- presses it, " What things soever " the Father " doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." (John v. 19.) So also what the one knows, the others know. " The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.) A common knowledge implies a common consciousness. In man the soul and body are distinct, yet, while united, they have a common life. We distinguish between acts of the intellect, and acts of the
462 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. VI. — The Trinity.
will, and yet in every act of the will there is an exercise of the in- telligence ; as in every act of the affections there is a joint action of the intelligence and will. These are not illustrations of the re- lations of the persons of the Trinity, which are ineffable, but of the fact that in other and entirely different spheres there is this community of life in different subsistences, — different subsis- tences, at least so far as the body and soul are concerned.
This fact — of the intimate union, communion, and inhabita- tion of the persons of the Trinity — is the reason why everywhere in Scripture, and instinctively by all Christians, God as God is ad- dressed as a person, in perfect consistency with the Tripersonality of the Godliead. We can, and do pray to each of the Persons separately ; and we pray to God as God ; for the three persons are one God ; one not only in substance, but in knowledge, will, and power. To expect that we, who cannot understand any- thing, not even ourselves, should understand these mysteries of the Godhead, is to the last degree unreasonable. But as in every other sphere we must believe what we cannot understand ; so we may believe all that God has revealed in his Word concern- ing Himself, although we cannot understand the Almighty unto perfection.
§ 6. Examination of the Nicene Doctrine. A. Sul ordination.
A distinction must be made between the Nicene Creed (as am- plified in that of Constantinople) and the doctrine of the Nicene fathers. The creeds are nothing more than a well-ordered ar- rangement of the facts of Scripture which concern the doctrine of the Trinity. They assert the distinct personality of the Father, Son, and Spirit ; their mutual relation as expressed by those terms ; their absolute unity as to substance or essence, and their conse- quent perfect equality ; and the subordination of the Son to the " Father, and of the Spirit to the Father and the Son, as to the mode of subsistence and operation. These are Scriptural facts, to which the creeds in question add nothing ; and it is in this sense they have been accepted by the Church universal.
But the Nicene fathers did undertake, to a greater or less degree, to explain these facts. These explanations relate principally to the subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father, and to what is meant by generation, or the relation between the Father and the Son. These two points are so intimately related that they cannot be considered separately. Yet a? the former is more com-