Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 452

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Defense of an Essay, &c.

AUG.

"The

These attributes are then considered in the following order, Spirituality of God;"" the Eternity and Immutability of God;" &c., &c. Are not these essential attributes? If Dr. Legge, when he pre- dicates these attributes of Jehovah, does not call Him God, will he in- form us what word he uses as the name of this Being, when discoursing of His attributes?

But this work is a recent one, and Dr. Legge fortifies his position with the great name of Newton; we shall therefore exhibit at some length the usus loquendi of the word. We do this not merely for the interests of this controversy, but for the cause of truth in general, for if Dr. Legge's position be correct, our formulas, which teach us the orthodox faith on the doctrine of the Trinity, are worth nothing, and our systems of divinity, which use the word God, when affirming the eternity of Jehovah, affirm also the eternal existence of its correlative the creature.

The first quotation we shall cite to show the usus loquendi of the word, is from Tertullian. IIe distinguishes the words God and Lord as follows:----

"Dei nomen dicimus semper fuisse apud semetipsum et in semetipso Dominum vero non semper. Diversa enim utriusque conditio. Deus substantiæ ipsius nomen, id est, divinitatis; Dominus vero non sub- stantiæ, sed potestatis, substantiam semper fuisse cum suo nomine, quod est Deus; postea Dominus, accedentis scilicet rei mentio. Nam ex quo esse cœperunt in quæ postestas Domini ageret, ex illo, per accessionem potestatis, et factus et dictus est Dominus. Tertull. contra Hermog. cap. 3, quoted in Waterland's Works.

Council of Nice. Πιςεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεόν, πατέρα παντοκράτορα

καί εἰς ἕνα κυριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν τὸν υιόν τοῦ Θεοῦ γεννηθέντα ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς μονογενῆ Ἰουλέςτιν ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ πατρὸς ὁμοούσιαν τῷ πατρί, &c.

....

The Athanasian Creed. "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. For the right faith is that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man: God of the sub- stance of the Father, and Man of the substance of his mother: who although he be God and man, yet he is not two but one Christ; one altogether; not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person."

The Protestant churches at the Reformation, without a single ex- ception, I believe, define the word God in their standards as an abso- lute, not as a relative term; and in direct opposition to Dr. Legge af- firm that the word God does "indicate essence, and express something about the being of Jehovah."