Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 451

1850.

Defense of an Essay, &c.

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without anything extrinsic to Himself, out of nothing made the heavens and the earth; then he only differs from us in maintaining that this Being could not properly be called God when viewed thus absolutely ; and the question is reduced to one of the usus loquendi of the word, which happily is so uniform that it is easily settled.

The Psalmist says, “O LORD, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world; even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." Ps. xc. 2.—“ I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are through- out all generations; of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth” &c., &c. Ps. cii. 24. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When the Evangelist tells us here that the Word “ was God," does Dr. Legge understand him to say that the Word merely sustains a relationship to God the Father or to men? When stating the doctrine of the Trinity, does not Dr. L. say, "there are three Persons and one God?" Is the word God here used as a relative term? Dr. Legge says the correlative of God is creature; from which we infer the word God means Creator: can he adhere to this explanation of the word, and point out to us what relationship is affirined to exist between the three Persons of the blessed Trinity when we say "there are three Persons and one God?" We also speak of "our Savior Christ" as "both God and man.” Do we by the words "God" and "man express our belief in the existence of two natures, the Divine and human, in one Christ; or merely mean thereby, that Christ sustained two diverse relations, i. e. creator and creature, to other beings? If Dr. Legge can be induced to forget for a moment his thesis, "God is a relative term, not abso- lute," which, to sustain the cause of Nhángti, “Supreme Ruler," he has incautiously undertaken to defend, he will I have no doubt acknow- ledge, with the orthodox of all ages of the Church, that by the word God when so used, we affirm that the three Persons are of one divine essence or nature-of one substance. This is undoubtedly the mean- ing the word God bears, and has borne in the Christian Church from the beginning, as can be shown from its usus loquendi.

I open a work on Systematic Theology, which lies before me, that of Knapp, and turn to the heading; "General names applied to Deity, without distinction of true or false." The first given is Eloah, Elohim. I turn to the next article; it is headed, “Of the nature and attributes of God." The writer tells us, "the nature of God is the sum of the divine perfections, the attributes of God are the particu'r distinct perfections or reuaties which are predi able of the divine nature.”