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all these things, when they are considered with the mode of pre-eminence, the Perfection of God has its existence. Not that by which He has every single thing in a manner the most perfect; for this is effected by Simplicity and Infinity: but it is that by which, in the most perfect manner, he has all things which denote any perfection. And it may fitly be described thus: "It is the interminable, the entire, and, at the same time, the perfect possession of Essence and Life." (Matt. v, 48; Gen. xvii, 1; Exod. vi, 3; Psalm 1, 10; Acts xvii, 25; James i, 17.)

LXXXVIII. This Perfection of God infinitely exceeds the perfection of all the creatures, on a three-fold account. For it possesses all things in a mode the most perfect, and [non aliunde] does not derive them from another. But the perfection which the creatures possess, they derive from God, and it is faintly shadowed forth after its archetype. Some creatures. have a larger portion [of this derived perfection] than others; and the more of it they possess, the nearer they are to God and have the greater likeness to Him. (Rom. xi, 35, 36; 1 Cor. iv, 7; Acts xvii, 28, 29; 2 Cor. iii, 18; 2 Pet. i, 4; Matt. v, 48.)

LXXXIX. From this Perfection, by means of some internal act of God, his BLESSEDNESS has its existence; and his GLORY exists, by means of some [respectu] relation of it [ad extra] extrinsically. (1 Tim. i, 11; vi, 15; Exod. xxxiii, 18.)

ON THE BLESSEDNESS OF GOD.

XC. Blessedness is through an act of the understanding: is it not also through an act of the will? Such is our opinion; and we delineate it thus. It is an act of the life of God, by which He enjoys his own perfection, that is fully known by his Understanding and supremely loved by his Will; [cum acquiescentia in eadem ;] and by which He complacently reposes in this Perfection with satisfaction. (Gen. xvii, 1; Psalm xvi, 11; 1 Cor. ii, 9, 10.)

XCI. The Blessedness of God is so peculiar to himself, that it cannot be communicated to a creature. (1 Cor. xv, 28.) Yet, in relation to the object, he is the beautifying good of all

creatures endued with understanding, and is the Effector of the act which tends to this object, and which reposes with satisfaction in it. In these consists the blessedness of the creature.

THE GLORY OF GOD.

XCII. The Glory of God is from his Perfection, [cum respectu ad extra,] regarded extrinsically, and may in some degree be described thus: It is the excellence of God above all things. God makes this glory manifest by external acts in various ways. (Rom. i, 23; ix, 4; Psalm viii, 1.)

XCIII. But the modes of manifestation, which are declared to us in the scriptures, are chiefly two: the one, by an effulgence of light and of unusual splendor, or by its opposite, a dense darkness or obscurity. (Matt. xvii, 2-5; Luke ii, 9; Exod. xvi, 10; 1 Kings viii, 11.) The other, by the production of works which agree with his Perfection and Excellence. Psalm xix. 1; John ii, 11.)

But ceasing from any more prolix discussion of this subject, let us with ardent prayers suppliantly beseech the God of Glory, that, since He has formed us for his Glory, He would vouchsafe to make us yet more and more the instruments of illustrating his Glory among men, through Jesus Christ our Lord, the brightness of his Glory, and the express image of his Person. AMEN!

DISPUTATION V.

ON THE PERSON OF THE FATHER AND THE SON.

Respondent, PETER DE LA FITE.

I. We do not here receive the name of "Father," as it is sometimes taken in the Scriptures in regard to the adoption, according to which God hath adopted believers to himself as sons: (Gal. iv. 6 :) Nor with respect to the creation of things,

according to which even the Gentiles themselves knew God the Father, and gave Him that appellation: (Acts xvii, 28.) But by this name we signify God according to the relation which He has to his only-begotton and proper Son, who is our Lord Jesus Christ: (Eph. i, 3:) And we thus describe Him: "He is the First Person in the Sacred Trinity, who from all eternity of himself begat his Word, which is his Son, by com municating to Him his own Divinity."

II. We call Him "a Person," not in reference to the use of that word in personating, [appearing in a mask,] which denotes the representation of another; but in reference to its being defined [subsistens individuum] an undivided and incommunicable subsistence, of a nature that is living, intelligent willing, powerful, and active. Each of these properties is attributed, in the Holy Scriptures, to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. SUBSISTENCE: "Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." (Rev. i, 4.) LIFE: "As the living Father hath sent me," &c. (John vi, 53, 57.) INTELLIGENCE: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Rom. xi, 33.) WILL: "And this is the Father's will," &c. (John vi, 39.) PoWER: "Thine, O Father, is the Power." (Matt. vi, 13.) AcTION: "My Father worketh hitherto." (John v, 17.) We do not contend about words. Under the term "Person," we comprehend such things as we have now described; and since they agree with the Father, the title of "Person" cannot be justly denied to him.

III. We call Him "a Person in the Holy Trinity," that is, a Divine Person, which with us possesses just as much force as if we were to call Him GOD. For though the Deity of the Father has been acknowledged by most of those persons who have called in question that of the Son; yet it is denied by those who have declared, that the God of the Old Testa ment is different from that of the New, and who have affirmed that the Father of Jesus Christ is a different Being from the Creator of heaven and earth. To the former class we oppose the word of Christ: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth," &c. (Matt. xi, 25.) To the latter we oppose another saying of the same Christ: "It is my Father that hon

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oreth me; of whom ye say, that He is your God." (John viii, 54.) To both of these classes together we oppose that joint declaration of the whole church at Jerusalem: "Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said," &c. And in a subsequent verse, "For of a truth against thy holy Son Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, &c., were gathered together." (Acts iv, 24-27.)

IV. We place Him "first" in the Holy Trinity: for so hath Christ taught us, by commanding us to "baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt. xxviii, 19.) "The First," not in relation of time but of order; which order has its foundation in this: The Father is the fountain and origin of the whole Divinity, and the principle and the cause of the Son himself, which the word "Father" implies. (John v, 26, 27.) Pious Antiquity attempted to illustrate this [mystery] by the similitude of a fountain and its stream, of the sun and its beam, of the mind and its reason, of a root and its stalk, and by similar comparisons. On this account the Father is called "unbegotten," and the Christian Fathers ascribe to Him supreme and pre-eminent authority. It is on this account also that the name of God is often attributed in the Scriptures peculiarly and by way of eminence to the Father.

V. We attribute to Him "active generation," which is likewise comprised under the word "Father;" but of its mode and ratio, we willingly confess ourselves to be ignorant. But yet, since all generation, properly so called, is made by the communication of the same nature which He possesses who begets, we say with correctness that "the Father of himself begat the Son," by communicating to him his Deity, which is his own nature. The principle, therefore, which begets, is the Father; but the principle by which generation is effected is his nature. Whence the Person is said to beget and to be begotten. But the nature is said neither to beget nor to be begotten, but to be communicated. This communicati when rightly understood, renders vain the objection of the

Anti-Trinitarians, who accuse [Catholicis] the members of the church universal of holding a quaternity (of Divine Persons in the Godhead.)

VI. We say "that from all eternity He begat," because neither was he the God of Jesus Christ, before he was his father, nor was he simply God before he was his Father. For as we cannot imagine a mind that is devoid of reason, so we say that it is impious to form a conception in our minds of a God who is without his word. (John i, 1, 2.) Besides, according to the sentiments of sacred antiquity, and of the church universal, since this generation is an internal operation and ad intra, it is likewise from all eternity. For all such operations are eternal, unless we wish to maintain that God is liable to change.

VII. We have hitherto treated of the Father. The Son is the second person in the Holy Trinity, the Word of the Father, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and [egressus] proceeding from Him by the communication of the same Deity which the Father possesses without origination. (Matt. xxviii, 19; John i, 1; Micah v, 2.) We say, "that he is not the Son by creation." For what things soever they were that have been created, they were all created by him. (John i, 3.) And "that he was not made the Son by adoption:" for we are all adopted in him. (John i, 12; Ephes. i, 5, 6.) But "that he proceeded from the Father by generation." He is the Son, not by creation out of nonentities, or from uncreated elements-not by adoption, as though he had previously been some other thing than the Son; (for this [illi primum] is his primitive name, and significant of his inmost nature; but IIe is by generation, and, as the Son, he is by nature a partaker of the whole divinity of his Father.

VIII. We call the Son "a person," with the same meaning attached to the word as that by which we have already (§ II) predicated the Father. For he is an undivided and incom municable subsistence. John says, (i, 1,) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." Of a living nature: "As I live by the Father." (John vi, 57.) Intelligent: "The Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has de

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