8. I am, however, at a loss to understand
how our opponents with all their ingenuity can adduce the title of
Godhead in proof of nature, as though they had never heard from
Scripture that nature does not result from institution and
appointment. χειροτονητή. Moses was
made ἐχειροτονήθη. a god of the
Egyptians when the divine voice said, “See I have made thee
a god to Pharaoh.
Ex. vii. 1. The
title therefore does give proof of a certain authority of
oversight or of action. The divine nature, on the other
hand, in all the words which are contrived, remains always
inexplicable, as I always teach. We have learnt that it is
beneficent, judicial, righteous, good, and so on; and so have been
taught differences of operations. But we are, nevertheless,
unable to understand the nature of the operator through our idea
of the operations. Let any one give an account of each one
of these names, and of the actual nature to which they are
applied, and it will be found that the definition will not in both
cases be the same. And where the definition is not identical
the nature is different. There is, then, a distinction to be
observed between the essence, of which no explanatory term has yet
been discovered, and the meaning of the names applied to it in
reference to some operation or dignity. That there should be
no difference in the operations we infer from the community of
terms. But, we derive no clear proof of variation in nature,
because, as has been said, identity of operations indicates
community of nature. If then Godhead be the name of an
operation, we say that the Godhead is one, as there is one
operation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; if, however, as is
popularly supposed, the name of Godhead indicates nature,
then, since we find no
variation in the nature, we reasonably define the Holy Trinity to
be of one Godhead.