MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA. TREATISE II. 5. THE RELATIONS OF THE DIVINE PERSONS.
TREATISE II.
5. THE RELATIONS OF THE DIVINE PERSONS.
I. The distinction of the personalities in the Trinity is
constituted by the relations resulting from the intrinsic
activity of the One God. Life, in modern language, is responsiveness to environment ; or, action produces relativity.
How is this ? Action is a kind of movement ; movement
involves a thence and a thither; it must have a subject, an
object, and a point of communication between them. Thus
human activity is composed of our relations to God, men,
and things. Relation is the connecting together of distinct
things. A complete drawing together would be unity ; a
complete separation would be plurality ; perfect relation
consists of the two things ; it is plurality in unity. For
instance our bodily life is unity of action in plurality
of organs ; intellectual life is unity of consciousness with
plurality of thoughts ; a State is unum e pluribus. The
relation becomes more perfect as the unity is founded on
a fuller similarity of nature between the two things related.
The internal activity of God involves internal relationships,
and those of the most perfect kind, i.e. with a most perfect
community of nature. God is Life ; the highest activity of
life is fecundity ; and this is the chief source of plurality
in unity. God is Goodness ; and goodness, communicating
itself, involves unity and plurality. God is Beauty ; and
beauty arises from harmony in multiplicity. All this involves that there be in God some form of supreme plurality
in unity. Your relations are with God and your neighbour.
Religion is the regulation of these. Charity is your highest
activity, binding you to God and men.
II. The perfection of the divine life and activity involves
the existence of relations within the Godhead itself, that is,
of plurality in unity. God must be supremely one and in
divisible. There cannot be two infinite beings ; the fact of
multiplication would be in contradiction to the idea of
supremacy and infinity. What kind of plurality, then, is
possible simultaneously with this unity ? Only a plurality of
relationship arising from the action of the one Being within
His own substance. We must not then conceive of the
Trinity as resulting from the coalition of three separate individuals into a higher unity, but as a supreme unity which
produces within itself the terms of its operations. Such a
plurality, far from being a contradiction of unity, requires
for its perfection that there be absolute unity of substance.
There is a sort of parallel in nature. A body has three
dimensions, length, breadth, thickness. These are distinct
from one another ; they are not, however, separate beings
combined into one ; they are relations existing in the one
substance. The plurality of relations requires the unity of
the one solid body. So in the Divinity, a supreme unity is
necessary in order that there be an intrinsic activity producing relationships within it. Adore this incomprehensible
mystery and thank God for granting you some indication,
however obscure, of the grandeurs of His Divine Nature.
III. The relations arising from the activity of the divine
intellect and will result in three distinct conscious personalities. There are terms or objects of the activities, and
reciprocal relations between those terms making them
separate, though within the same unity of substance. Each
of the terms is a Person conscious of His individuality.
The Divine Essence communicates all its attributes in its intrinsic productive action, and each Person therefore is God.
The Divine Essence, as the source of the activity and the
relations, is the Father; the same Divine Essence, as the term
of the action of the divine intellect, is the Son ; the Divine
Essence, as the term of the love of Father and Son, is
the Holy Ghost. There are parallels to this in man. Man
generates a son, who is a separate personality ; he generates
an idea, and this exists in the unity of his substance. God s
one activity combines the two things. Its term is separate
as a personality and is one in the same substance. Adore
and admire.
MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES BELLORD, D.D.
Comments
Post a Comment