A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

This notion of the Father’s begetting the Son, by communicating his essence to him, I ground upon the Son’s own words, who certainly best knew how himself was begotten: “For as the Father,” saith he, “hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” (John v. 26.) To have life in himself is an essential property of the Divine nature; and, therefore, wheresoever that is given or communicated, the nature itself must needs be given and communicated too.

Now here we see how God the Father communicated this his essential property, and so his essence, to the Son; and, by consequence, though he be a distinct person from him, yet he hath the same unbegotten essence with him; and therefore as the Father hath life in himself, so hath the Son life in himself, and so all other essential properties of the Divine nature, only with this personal distinction, that the Father hath this life in himself, not from the Son, but from himself; whereas, the Son hath it, not from himself, but from the Father; or, the Father is God of himself, not of the Son; the Son is the same God, but from the Father, not from himself, and therefore not the Father, but the Son, is rightly called by the Council of Nice, God of God, Light of light, yea, very God of very God.—Beveridge.

What we assert is, that God the Father from all eternity communicated to his Son his own individual nature and substance; so that the same Godhead which is in the Father originally and primarily, is also in the Son by derivation and communication. By this communication there was given to the Son all those attributes and perfections which do simply and absolutely belong to the Divine nature; there was a communication of all the properties which naturally belong to the essence communicated; and hence it is that the Son is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and the like, in the same infinite perfection as his Father is. The natural properties were thus communicated; but we cannot say the same of the personal properties, it being impossible they should be communicated, as being inseparable from the person: such are, the act of communicating the essence, the generation itself, and the personal pre-eminence of the Father, founded on that generation. These were not communicated, but are proper to the Father; as, on the other hand, the personal properties of the Son (filiation and subordination) are proper to the Son, and do not belong to the Father. And although in this incomprehensible mystery we use the term generation, (the Scripture having given us sufficient authority to do so, by styling him God’s Son, his proper Son, and his only begotten Son,) yet, by this term, we are not to understand a proceeding from non-existence to existence, which is the physical notion of generation; nor do we understand it in that low sense in which it is agreeable to creatures; but as it is consistent with the essential attributes of God, of which necessary existence is one. Nor, further, are we in this generation to suppose any division of the essence, or any external separation. The communication of the nature was not a separate one, like that of finite beings, but merely internal: and, though the Son be generated from the substance of the Father, (and thence be a distinct person from him,) yet he still continues to be in the Father, and the Father in him; herein differing from the production of all created beings, that in them the producer and the produced become two distinct individuals, which in this generation cannot be affirmed. The term used by the Greek Fathers to express this internal or undivided existence in the same nature, ἐμπεριχώρησις that of the Latin Fathers, circumincessio; and that distinction of the schoolmen, generatio ab intra; are terms which are as expressive as any words can be of a mystery so far above our comprehension. The Father and the Son by this communication do not become two Gods, (as Adam and Seth are two men,) but are only one God in the same undivided essence. The communication of this nature neither did, nor could, infringe the unity of it, because the Divine essence is simply one, and therefore cannot be divided; is absolutely infinite, and therefore incapable of being multiplied into more infinities. And this, by the way, sufficiently shows the weakness and falseness of that charge which has been so often thrown on the orthodox scheme of the Trinity, namely, that it is downright tritheism, and that to maintain that the three persons are each of them God, is in effect to maintain three Gods; a charge which is so far from being a just consequence of our principles, that it is manifestly inconsistent with them, and impossible to be true upon them. We hold the Divine essence to be one simple, indivisible essence; we assert that the Father communicated to the Son, without division, this his individual substance; and therefore, upon these our principles, the unity of the Divine essence must still unavoidably be preserved; and upon this scheme the three distinct persons neither are, nor can be, (what is falsely suggested against us,) three distinct Gods. This communication of the Divine substance to God the Son was not a temporary one, but strictly and absolutely eternal; eternal in the proper sense of that word; in the same sense in which eternity is ascribed to the Divine nature itself; and eternal, in the same sense as God the Father himself is so.—Stephens.

GENESIS. The first book of the Bible. The Hebrews call it ברשית, Bereschith, which signifies, in the beginning; these being the first words of the book. The Greeks gave it the name of Genesis, or Generation, because it contains the genealogy of the first patriarchs from Adam to the sons and grandsons of Jacob; or because it begins with the history of the creation of the world. It includes the history of 2369 years, from the beginning of the world to the death of the patriarch Joseph. Besides the history of the creation, it contains an account of the original innocence and fall of man, the propagation of mankind, the rise of religion, the invention of arts, the general defection and corruption of the world, the deluge, the restoration of the world, the division and peopling of the earth, the original of nations and kingdoms, the history of the first patriarchs down to Joseph, at whose death it ends.

GENTILE. (From Gentes.) All the people in the world, except the Jews, were called Gentiles.

GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL. The lay singers of the Royal Chapel are so called; and their duty is to perform with the priests, in order, the choral service there, which was formerly daily. According to the present rule, they attend in monthly courses of eight at a time. In ancient times this body was more numerous: Edward VI.’s chapel had thirty-two gentlemen; Queen Elizabeth’s thirty; James I.’s twenty-three.

GEOMETRICAL. The style of Gothic architecture which succeeded the Early English about 1245, and gave place to the Decorated about 1315.

In this style window tracery was first introduced, and it is distinguished from the tracery of the succeeding style by the use of simple geometrical forms, each in general perfect in itself, and not running into one another. (See Tracery, and the engravings there given.) From the use of tracery large windows naturally followed, sometimes even extending to six or eight lights; and from these larger openings in the walls some constructive changes followed, especially in the greater weight and projection of the buttresses. The doors are very often, as in the Early English, divided by a central shaft. The piers very soon lose the detached shafts, and are rather formed of solid clusters. In early examples the triforium is still retained as a distinct feature; in later, it is treated as a decorative band of panelling. Arcading is either discontinued, or increases very greatly in richness. Vaulting hardly advances upon the simple forms of the preceding style. All decorative features are of the very highest order of excellence, and are far more natural than either before or after, without losing in grace, or force, or character. There is no single decoration peculiar to this style, but crockets first appear in it, as also the ball-flower; on the other hand, the dog-tooth is quite given up.

GHOST. (See Holy Ghost.) A spirit. The third person in the blessed Trinity is spoken of as the Holy Ghost. Giving up the ghost means expiring, or dying.

GIRDLE. A cincture binding the alb round the waist. Formerly it was flat and broad, and sometimes adorned with jewels; in the Roman Catholic Church it has been changed into a long cord with dependent extremities and tassels. The zone is regarded as a type of purity.—Jebb.