The Doctrine Of The Trinity, by Dr. John Gill

CHAPTER 9 95 Proving The Personality And Deity Of The Holy Ghost 4. We must remove every thing that carries in it imperfection from the divine generation and Sonship of Christ; such as divisibility, or multiplication of essence, priority and posteriority, dependence and the like. We are not to make natural or carnal generation the rule and measure of divine generation, which is hyper physical, or above nature; nor to run the parallel between these two in every respect; It is enough that there is some kind of analogy and agreement between them, which occasions the use of the terms, generation, sonship, etc. for instance, as in human generation, person begets person, and like begets like; so it is in divine generation. But, 5. The modus or manner of it, is not to be conceived of, or explained by us.

Nor need we wonder that so it should be: We cannot account for our own generation, much less for Christ’s. We “know not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child.” ( Ecclesiastes 11:3) The regeneration of the saints is a riddle to the natural man. He says, with Nicodemus, ( John 3:9) “ How can there things be ?”

And it need not be surprising, that the divine generation of Christ should be so, even to a spiritual man. If the incarnation of Christ, and the union of two natures in one person, are, without controversy, a great mystery of godliness; we should also be content to have Christ’s eternal filiation so accounted.

CHAPTER 8 Concerning The Personality Of The Son. Having considered the character of the Word, which the second person bears; proved his Deity, and inquired into his Sonship, I proceed, IV. To establish his divine and distinct personality.

The definition of a person agrees with him. He is an individual that subsists of himself, lives, wills, and understands. He has life in himself, and is the author of life in others. He has a will distinct from his Father’s, though not opposite to it; and knows his Father as perfectly as his Father knows him.

To go about to prove Christ to be a person, and a distinct person from the Father, and the Holy Ghost, is just such another undertaking, as to prove that there is such a glorious and luminous body as the fun, when it shines at noon day, and we are encompassed with its dazzling beams and light. To give the whole proof of this truth in its utmost compass would be to transcribe great part of the New Testament, where it is to be met with in almost every verse