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purpose to convince the world of sin, and righteous- | reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where ness, and judgment. To enlighten them who were in he has not strowed." His law is, however, unchangedarkness, and turn the disobedient to the wisdom of able in its demand upon man for universal obedience, the just, to strengthen its converts to true religion, unto because man is considered in it as a creature capable all obedience, and long-suffering, and patience, to en- of yielding that obedience; but when the human race able them to resist temptation, to abound in the fruits became corrupt, means of pardon, consistent with rightof righteousness, and perfect holiness in the fear of eous government, were introduced, by the atonement God."(1) for sin made by the death of Jesus Christ, received by faith; and supernatural aid was put within their reach, by which the evil of their nature might be removed, and the disposition and the power to obey the law of God imparted. The case of heathen nations to whom the gospel is not yet preached may hereafter be considered. It involves some difficulties, but it is enough for us to know, that "the Judge of the whole earth will do right;" and that this shall be made apparent to all creatures, when the facts of the whole case shall be disclosed," in the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Since, then, it is so manifest, that "the Lord loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity," it must be necessarily concluded, that this preference of the one, and hatred of the other, flow from some principle in his very nature. "That he is the righteous Lord.-Of purer eyes than to behold evil,-one who cannot look upon iniquity." This principle is holiness, an attribute which, in the most emphatic manner, is assumed by himself, and attributed to him, both by adoring angels in their choirs and by inspired saints in their worship. He is, by his own designation," the HOLY ONE of Israel;" the seraphs, in the vision of the prophet, cry continually" HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, is the Lord God of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory," thus summing up all his glories in this sole moral perfection. The language of the sanctuary on earth is borrowed from that of heaven-" Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art HoLY."

If, then, there is this principle in the Divine mind, which leads him to prescribe love, and reward truth, justice, benevolence, and every other virtuous affection and habit in his creatures which we sum up in the term holiness; and to forbid, restrain, and punish their opposites; that principle being essential in him, a part of his very nature and Godhead, must be the spring and guide of his own conduct; and thus we conceive, without difficulty, of the essential rectitude or holiness of the Divine Nature, and the absolutely pure and righteous character of his administration: "In him there can be no malice, or envy, or hatred, or revenge, or pride, or cruelty, or tyranny, or injustice, or falsehood, or unfaithfulness; and if there be any thing besides which implies sin, and vice, and moral imperfection, holiness signifies that the Divine Nature is at an infinite distance from it."(2) Nor are we only to conceive of this quality negatively, but positively also, as "the actual perpetual rectitude of all his volitions, and all the works and actions which are consequent thereupon; and an eternal propension thereto, and love thereof, by which it is altogether impossible to that will that it should ever vary."(3)

This attribute of holiness exhibits itself in two great branches, justice and truth, which are sometimes also treated of as separate attributes.

JUSTICE, in its principle, is holiness, and is often expressed by the term righteousness; but when it relates to matters of government, the universal rectitude of the Divine Nature shows itself in inflexible regard to what is right, and in an opposition to wrong, which cannot be warped or altered in any degree whatever. "Just and right is he." Justice in God, when it is not regarded as universal, but particular, is either legislative or judicial.

Legislative justice determines man's duty, and binds him to the performance of it, and also defines the rewards and punishments, which shall be due upon the creature's obedience or disobedience. This branch of Divine justice has many illustrations in Scripture. The principle of it is, that absolute right which God has to the entire and perpetual obedience of the creatures which he has made. This right is unquestionable, and in pursuance of it all moral agents are placed under law, and are subject to rewards or punishments. None are excepted. Those who have not God's revealed law, have a law" written on their hearts," and are " a law unto themselves." The original law of obedience given to man was a law, not to the first man, but to the whole human race; for if, as the Apostle has laid it down," the whole world," comprising both Jews and Gentiles, is "guilty before God," then the whole world is under a law of obedience. In this respect God is just in asserting his own right to be obeyed, and in claiming from the creature he has made and preserved the obedience which in strict righteousness he owes; but this claim is strictly limited, and never goes beyond justice into rigour. "He is not a hard master,

(1) ABERNETHY's Sermons. (2) TILLOTSON. (3) HowE.

Judicial justice, more generally termed distributive justice, is that which respects rewards and punishments. God renders to men according to their works. This branch of justice is said to be remunerative, or præmiative, when he rewards the obedient; and vindictive, when he punishes the guilty. With respect to the first, it is indeed reward, properly speaking, not of debt, but of grace; for antecedently, God cannot be a debtor to his creatures; but since he binds himself by engagements in his law," this do and thou shalt live," express or tacit, or attaches a particular promise of reward to some particular duty, it becomes a part of jus tice to perform the engagement. On this principle also, St. Paul says, Heb. vi. 10, " God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love.-And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." "Even this has justice in it. It is, upon one account, the highest act of mercy imaginable, considering with what liberty and freedom the course and method were settled, wherein sins come to be pardoned: but it is an act of justice also, inasmuch as it is the observation of a method to which he had bound himself, and from which afterward, therefore, he cannot depart, cannot vary."(4)

Vindictive or punitive justice consists in the infiiction of punishment. It renders the punishment of unpardoned sins certain, so that no criminal shall escape; and it guarantees the exact proportion of punishment to the nature and circumstances of the offence. Both these circumstances are marked in numerous passages of Scripture, the testimony of which on this subject may be summed up in the words of Elihu ; " for the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways, yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment."

What is called commutative justice relates to the exchange of one thing for another of equal value, and is called forth by contracts, bargains, and similar transactions among men; but this branch of justice belongs not to God, because of his dignity. "He hath no equal, there are none of the same order with him to make exchanges with him, or to transfer rights to him for any rights transferred from him." "Our righteousness extendeth not to him, nor can man be profitable to his Maker." The whole world of creatures is challenged and humbled by the question, "Who hath given him any thing, and it shall be recompensed to him again?"

Strict impartiality is, however, a prominent character in the justice of God. "There is no respect of persons with God." As, on the one hand, he hateth nothing which he has made, and cannot be influenced by prejudices and prepossessions; so, on the other, he can fear no one, however powerful. No being is necessary to him, even as an agent to fulfil his plans, that he should overlook his offences; no combination of beings can resist the steady and equal march of his administration. The majesty of his Godhead sets him infinitely above all such considerations. "The Lord our God is the God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible, which regardeth not persons, neither taketh rewards.-He accepteth not the person of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands."

There are, however, many circumstances in the ad

(4) Howe's Post. Works.

ministration of the affairs of the world, which appear irreconcilable to that strict and exact exercise of justice we have ascribed to God, as the supreme Ruler. These have sometimes been urged as objections, and the writers of systems of "natural religion" have often found it difficult to answer them. That has arisen from their excluding from such systems, as much as possible, the light of revelation; and on that account, much more than from the real difficulties of the cases adduced, it is, that their reasonings are often unsatisfactory. Yet if man is, in point of fact, under a dispensation of grace and mercy, and that is now in perfect accordance with the strictest justice of God's moral government, neither his circumstances, nor the conduct of God towards him, can ever be judged of, by systems which are constructed expressly on the principle of excluding all such views as are peculiar to the Scriptures. In attempting it, the cause of truth has been injured rather than served; because a feeble argument has been often wielded, when a powerful one was at hand; and the answer to infidel objectors has been partial, lest it should be said, that the full and sufficient reply was furnished, not by human reason, but by the reason, the wisdom of God himself, as imbodied in his word. This is, however, little better than a solemn manner of trifling with truths which so deeply concern men. But let the two facts which respect the relations of man to God as the Governor of the world, and which stamp their character upon his administration, be both taken into account;-that God is a just ruler,-and yet, that offending man is under a dispensation of mercy, which provides, through the sacrifice of Christ meritoriously, and his own repentance and faith instrumentally, for his forgiveness, and for the healing of his corrupted nature; and a strong and, generally, a most satisfactory light is thrown upon those cases which have been supposed most irreconcilable to an exact and righteous government.

ness, by that man whom he hath ordained," and since also the final rewards of the reconciled and recovered part of mankind are equally delayed, it is folly to look for a perfect exercise of justice in the present state. We may learn, therefore, from this,

1. That it is no impeachment of a righteous government, that external prosperity should be the lot of great offenders. It may be part of a gracious administration to bring them to repentance by favour, or it may be designed to make their fall and final punishment more marked; or it may be intended to teach the important lesson of the slight value of outward advantages, separate from holy habits and a thankful mind.

2. That it is not inconsistent with rectitude, that even those who are forgiven and reconciled, those who are become dear to God, should be afflicted and oppressed, since their defects and omissions may require chastisement, and since also these are made the means of their excelling in virtue, of aiding their heavenlymindedness, and of qualifying them for a better state. 3. That as the administration under which man is placed is one of grace in harmony with justice, the dispensation of what is matter of pure favour may have great variety and be even very unequal without any impeachment of justice. The parable of the labourers in the vineyard seems designed to illustrate this. To all, God will be able, at the reckoning at the close of the day, to say, "I do thee no wrong;" no principle of justice will be violated; it will then appear, that "he reaps not where he has not sown." But the other principle will have been as strikingly made manifest, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own?"

With nations the case is otherwise. Their rewards and punishments, being of a civil nature, may be fully administered in this life, and, as bodies politic, they have no posthumous existence. Reward and retribution, in their case, have been therefore in all ages visible and striking; and, in the conduct of the Great Ruler to them, "his judgments" are said to be "abroad in the earth." In succession, every vicious nation has perished; and always by means so marked, and often so singular, as to bear upon them a broad and legible punitive character. With collective bodies of men, indeed, the government of God in this world is greatly concerned; and that both in their civil and religious character; with churches, so to speak, as well as with states; and, in consequence, the cases of individuals, as all cannot be of equal guilt or innocence, must often be mixed and confounded. These apparent, and sometimes, perhaps, from the operation of a general system, real irregularities, can be compensated to the good, or overtaken as to the wicked, in their personal character in another state, to which we are constantly directed to look forwards, as to the great and ample comment upon all that is obscure in this.

The doctrine of a future and general judgment, which alone explains so many difficulties in the Divine administration, is grounded solely on the doctrine of redemption. Under an administration of strict justice, punishment must have followed offence without delay. This is indicated in the sanction of the first law, "in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," a threat which, we may learn from Scripture, would have been executed fully, but for the immediate introduction of the redeeming scheme. If we suppose the first pair to have preserved their innocence, and any of their descendants at any period to have become disobedient, they must have borne their own iniquity; and punishment, to death, and excision, must instantly have followed; for, in the case of a Divine government, where the parties are God and a creature, every sin must be considered capital, since the penalty of death is, in every case, the sentence of the Divine law against transgression. Under such an adininistration, no reason would seem to exist for a general judgment at the close of the world's duration. That has its reason in the circumstances of trial in which men are placed by the introduction of a method of recovery. Justice, in connexion with a sufficient atonement, admits of the suspension of punishment for offence, of long-suffering, of the application of means of repentance and conversion; and that throughout the whole term of natural life. The judgment, the examination, and public exhibition of the use or abuse of this patience, and of those means, is deferred to one particular day, in which he who now offers grace shall administer justice, strict and unsparing. This world is not the appointed place of final judgment, under the new dispensation; the space of human life on earth is not the time appointed for it; and however difficult it may be, without taking these things into consideration, to trace the manifestations of justice in God's moral government, or to reconcile certain circum- (4) The accomplished Quinctilian may be given as stances to the character of a righteous governor, by an instance of this, and also of what the Apostle calls their aid the difficulty is removed. Justice, as the their sorrowing without hope." In pathetically laprinciple of his administration, has a sufficiently awful menting the death of his wife and sons, he tells us, manifestation in the miseries which in this life are that he had lost all taste for study, and that every good attached to vice; in the sorrows and sufferings to parent would condemn him, if he employed his tongue which a corrupted race is subjected; and, above all, in for any other purpose than to accuse the gods, and testhe satisfaction exacted from the Son of God himself, tify against a Providence. "Quis enim bonus parens as the price of human pardon: but since the final pun- mihi ignoscat, ac non oderit hanc animi mei firmitajshment of persevering and obstinate offenders is, by tem, si quis in me est alius usus vocis, quam ut incuGod's own proclamation, postponed to "a day ap- sem deos, superstes omnium meorum, nullam terras pointed, in which he will judge the world in righteous-despicere providentiam tester ?"-Instit. Lib. 6

For the discoveries of the word of God as to this attribute of the Divine nature, we owe the most grateful acknowledgments to its Author. Without this revelation, indeed, the conceptions which heathens form of the justice with which the world is administered, are exceedingly imperfect and unsettled. The course of the world is to them a flow without a direction, movement without control; and gloom and impatience must often be the result:(4) taught as we are, we see nothing loose or disjointed in the system. A firm hand grasps and controls and directs the whole. This governing power is also manifested to us as our friend, our father, and our God, delighting in mercy, and resorting only to severity when we ourselves oblige the reluctant measure. On these firm principles of justice and mercy, truth and goodness, every thing in private as well as public is conducted; and from these stable foundations, no change, no convulsion, can

shake off the vast frame of human interests and con

cerns.

God which are distinctly revealed to us in his own word; in addition to which, there are other and more Allied to justice, as justice is allied to holiness, is general ascriptions of excellence to him, which though, the TRUTH of God, which manifestation of the moral from the very greatness of the subject, and the impercharacter of God has also an eminent place in the in- fection of human conception and human language, they spired volume. His paths are said to be "mercy and are vague and indeterminate, serve, for this very reatruth," his words, ways, and judgments, to be true son, to heighten our conceptions of him, and to set beand righteous. "His mercy is great to the heavens fore the humbled and awed spirit of man an overand his truth to the clouds. He keepeth truth for whelming height and depth of majesty and glory. ever. The strength of Israel will not lie. It is im- God is perfect. We are thus taught to ascribe to possible that God should lie. He is the faithful God him every natural and moral excellence we can conwhich keepeth covenant and mercy: he abideth faith-ceive; and when we have done that, we are to conful." From these and other passages, it is plain that clude, that if any nameless and unconceived glory be truth is contemplated by the sacred writers in its two necessary to complete a perfection which excludes all great branches, veracity and faithfulness, both of deficiency; which is capable of no excess; which is which they ascribe to God, with an emphasis and vi- unalterably full and complete-it exists in him. Every gour of phrase which show at once their belief of the attribute in him is perfect in its kind, and is the most facts, their trust and confidence in them, and the im- elevated of its kind. It is perfect in its degree, not fallportant place which they considered the existence of ing in the least below the standard of the highest exsuch a being to hold in a system of revealed religion. cellence, either in our conceptions, or those of angels, It forms, indeed, the basis of all religion, to know the or in the possible nature of things itself. These vatrue God, and to know that that God is true. In the rious perfections are systematically distributed into Bible this must of necessity be fully and satisfactorily incommunicable, as self-existence, immensity, eterdeclared, because of the other discoveries which it nity, omniscience, omnipotence, and the like, because makes of the Divine Nature. If it reveals to us, as there is nothing in creatures which could be signified the only living and true God, a being of knowledge in- by such names; no common properties of which these finitely perfect, then he himself cannot be deceived; could be the common terms, and therefore, they remain and his knowledge is true, because conformable to the peculiarly and exclusively proper to God himself: and exact and perfect reality of things. If he is holy, communicable, such as wisdom, goodness, holiness, without spot or defect, then his word must be conform- justice, and truth, because, under the same names, able to his knowledge, will, and intention: on this ac- they may be spoken of him and of us, though in a count he cannot deceive others. In all his dealings sense infinitely inferior. But all these perfections with us, he uses a perfect sincerity, and represents form the one glorious perfection and fulness of excelthings as they are, whether laws to be obeyed, or doc- lence which constitutes the Divine Nature. They are trines to be believed. All is perfect and absolute vera- not accidents, separable from that nature, or supercity in his communications. "God is light, and in him added to it; but they are his very nature itself, which is is no darkness at all." and must be perfectly wise and good, holy and just, almighty and all-sufficient. This idea of positive perfection, which runs through the whole of Scripture, warrants us also to conclude, that, where negative attributes are ascribed to God, they imply always a positive excellence. Immortality implies "an undecaying fulness of life;" and when God is said to be invisible, the meaning is that he is a being of too high an excellence, of too glorious and transcendent a nature, to be subject to the observation of sense.

God is all-sufficient. This is another of those declarations of Scripture which exalt our views of God into a mysterious, unbounded, and undefined amplitude of grandeur. It is sufficiency, absolute plenitude and fulness from himself, eternally rising out of his own perfection; for himself, so that he is ALL to himself, and depends upon no other being; and for all that comwhich the whole universe of existent creatures depends, and from which future creations, if any take place, can only be supplied. The same vast thought is expressed by St. Paul, in the phrase "ALL IN ALL," which, as Howe justly observes, (5) "is a most godlike phrase, wherein God doth speak of himself with divine greatness and majestic sense. Here is an ALL in ALL; an all comprehended, and an all comprehending; one create and the other uncreate; the former contained in the latter, and lost like a drop in the ocean, in the all-comprehending, all-pervading, all-sustaining, uncreated fulness." "In him we live, and move, and have our being."

His FAITHFULNESS relates to his engagements, and is confirmed to us with the same certainty as his veracity. If he enters into engagements, promises, and covenants, he acts with perfect freedom. These are acts of grace to which he is under no compulsion, and they can never, therefore, be reluctant engagements which he would wish to yiolate; because they flow from a ceaseless and changeless inclination to bestow benefits and a delight in the exercise of goodness. They can never be made in haste or unadvisedly, for the whole case of his creatures to the end of time is before him, and no circumstances can arise which to him are new or unforeseen. He cannot want the power to fulfil his promises, because he is omnipotent; he cannot promise beyond his ability to make good, because his fulness is infinite; finally, "he cannot deny himself," because "he is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of manmunication, however large and however lasting, on that he should repent ;" and thus every promise which he has made is guaranteed, as well by his natural attributes of wisdom, power, and sufficiency, as by his perfect moral rectitude. In this manner the true God stands contrasted with the "lying vanities" of the heathen deities; and in this his character of truth the everlasting foundations of his religion are laid. That changes not, because the doctrines taught in it are in themselves true without error, and can never be displaced by new and better discoveries; it fails not, because every gracious promise must by him be accomplished; and thus the religion of the Bible continues from age to age, and from day to day, as much a matter of personal experience as it ever was. In its doctrines, it can never become an antiquated theory, for truth is eternal. In its practical application it can never become foreign to man, for it enters now, and must ever enter into his concerns, his duties, hopes, and comforts, to the end of time. We know what is true as an object of belief, because the God of truth has declared it; and we know what is faithful, and, therefore, the object of unlimited trust, because "he is faithful that hath promised." Whether, therefore, in the language of the old divines, we consider God's word as "declaratory or promissory," declaring "how things are or how they shall be," or promising to us certain benefits, its absolute truth is confirmed to us by the truth of the Divine Nature itself; it claims the undivided assent of our judgment, and the unsuspicious trust of our hearts; and presents, at once, a sure resting-place for our opinions, and a faithful object for our confidence.

Such are the adorable attributes of the ever blessed

God is unsearchable. All we see or hear of him is faint and shadowy manifestation. Beyond the highest glory, there is yet an unpierced and unapproached light, a tract of intellectual and moral splendour, untravelled by the thoughts of the contemplating and adoring spirits who are nearest to his throne. The manifestation of this nature of God, never fully to be revealed, because infinite, is represented as constituting the reward and felicity of heaven. This is "to see God." This is "to be for ever with the Lord." This is to behold his glory as in a glass, with unveiled face, and to be changed into his image, from glory to glory, in boundless progression and infinite approximation. Yet, after all, it will be as true, after countless ages spent in heaven itself, as in the present state, that none by "searching can find out God," that is, "to perfection." He will then be "a God that hideth himself;" and widely as the illumination may extend, "clouds and darkness will still be

(5) Posthumous Works

round about him.-His glorious name is exalted above all blessing and praise.—Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head over all.-BLESSED be the LORD GOD of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things; and BLESSED be his glorious NAME for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with his GLORY. Amen and Amen."

CHAPTER VIII.
GOD.-The Trinity in Unity.

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trated the trinity of persons in the same Divine Nature by the analogy of three or more men having each the same human nature; by the union of two natures of man in one person; by the trinity of intellectual primary faculties in the soul, power, intellect, and will, "posse, scire, velle," which they say are not three parts of the soul, "it being the whole soul quæ potest, quæ intelligit, et que vult ;" by motion, light, and heat in the sun, with many others. Of these instances, however, we may observe, that even granting them all to be philosophically true, they cannot be proofs; they are seldom, or but very inapplicably, illustrations; and the best use to which they have ever been put, or of which they are indeed capable, is to silence the absurd objections which are sometimes drawn from things merely natural and finite, by answers which natural and finite things supply; though both the objections and the anelevated and peculiar to be approached by such analogies. Of these illustrations, as they have sometimes been called, Baxter, though inclined to make too much of them, well enough observes,-"It is one thing to show in the creatures a clear demonstration of this tri

eth it, and another thing to show such vestigia adumbration, or image of it, as hath those dissimilitudes which must be allowed in any created image of God. This is it which I am to do."(7) This excellent man has been charged, perhaps a little too hastily, with adopting one of the theories given above, as his own view of the trinity, a trinity of personified attributes rather than of real persons. It must, however, be acknowledged, that he has given some occasion for the allegation, but his conclusion is worthy of himself, and instructive to all : -"But for my own part, as I unfeignedly account the doctrine of the Trinity the very sum and kernel of the Christian religion (as expressed in our baptism), and Athanasius his creed, the best explication of it that ever I read; so I think it very unmeet in these tremendous mysteries to go farther than we have God's own light to guide us."(8)

We now approach this great mystery of our faith, for the declaration of which we are so exclusively in-swers often prove, that the subject in question is too debted to the Scriptures, that not only is it incapable of proof a priori, but it derives no direct confirmatory evidence from the existence, and wise and orderly arrangement, of the works of God. It stands, however, on the unshaken foundation of his own word: that testimony which he has given of himself in both Testa-nity of persons, by showing an effect that fully answerments; and if we see no traces of it, as of his simple being and operative perfections, in the works of his creative power and wisdom, the reason is that creation in itself could not be the medium of manifesting or of illustrating it. Some, it is true, have thought the Trinity of Divine persons in the Unity of the Godhead demonstrable by natural reason. Poiret and others, formerly, and Professor Kidd, recently, have all attempted to prove, not that this doctrine implies a contradiction, but that it cannot be denied without a contradiction; and that it is impossible but that the Divine Nature should so exist. The former endeavours to prove that neither creation nor indeed any action in the Deity was possible, but from this tri-unity. But his arguments, were they adduced, would scarcely be considered satisfactory, even by those whose belief in the doctrine is most settled. The latter argues from notions of duration and space, which themselves have not hitherto been satisfactorily established, and if they had, would yield but slight assistance in such an investigation. This, however, may be said respecting such attempts, that they at least show, that men, quite as eminent for strength of understanding and logical acuteness as any who have decried the doctrine of the Trinity as irrational and contradictory, find no such opposition in it to the reason, or to the nature of things, as the latter pretend to be almost self-evident. The very opposite conclusions reached by the parties, when they reason the matter by the light of their own intellect only, is a circumstance, it is true, which lessens our confidence in pretended rational demonstrations; but it gives neither party a right to assume any thing at the expense of the other. Such failures ought, indeed, to produce in us a proper sense of the inadequacy of human powers to search the deep things of God; and they forcibly exhibit the necessity of Divine teaching in every thing which relates to such subjects, and demand from us an entire docility of mind, where God himself has condescended to become our instructer.

More objectionable than the attempts which have been made to prove this mystery by mere argument, are pretensions to explain it; whether, by what logicians call immanent acts of Deity upon himself, from whence arise the relations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; or by assuming that the Trinity is the same as the three "essential primalities, or active powers in the Divine essence, power, intellect, and will,”(6) for which they invent a kind of personification; or by alleging that the three persons are "Deus seipsum intelligens, Deus a seipso intellectus, et Deus a seipso amatus." All such hypotheses either darken the counsel they would explain, by "words without knowledge," or assume principles, which, when expanded into their full import, are wholly inconsistent with the doctrine as it is announced in the Scripture, and which their advocates have professed to receive.

It is a more innocent theory, that types and symbols of the mystery of the Trinity are found in various natural objects. From the Fathers, many have illus

(6) "Potentia, Intellectus, et Voluntas," or "Potentia, Sapientia, et Amor." Campanella, Richardus, and others. L

The term person has been variously taken. It signifies in ordinary language an individual substance of a rational or intelligent nature.(9) In the strict philosophical sense, it has been said, two or more persons would be two or more distinct beings. If the term person were so applied to the trinity in the Godhead, a plurality of Gods would follow; while if taken in what has been called a political sense, personality would be no more than relation arising out of office. Personality in God is, therefore, not to be understood in either of the above senses, if respect be paid to the testimony of Scripture. God is one Being; this is admitted on both sides. But he is more than one being in three relations; for personal acts, that is, such acts as we are used to ascribe to distinct persons, and which we take most unequivocally to characterize personality, are ascribed to each. The Scripture doctrine therefore is, that the persons are not separate, but distinct; that they "are united persons, or persons having no separate existence, and that they are so united as to be but one Being, one God." In other words, that the one Divine Nature exists under the personal distinction of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

"The word person," Howe remarks, "must not be taken to signify the same thing, when spoken of God and of ourselves." That is, not in all respects. Nevertheless, it is the only word which can express the sense of those passages, in which personal acts are unequivocally ascribed to each of the Divine subsistences in the Godhead. Perhaps, however, one may be allowed to doubt whether, in all respects, the term person may not be taken to signify "the same thing" in us and in God. It is true, as before observed, that three persons among men or angels would convey the idea of three different and separate beings; but it may be questioned whether this arises from any thing necessarily conveyed in the idea of personality. We have been accustomed to observe personality only in connexion with separate beings; but this separation seems to be but a circumstance connected with personality, and not any thing which arises out of personality itself. Dr. Waterland clearly defines the term person, as it must be understood in this (8) Ibid.

(7) Christian Religion. (9) It is defined by Occam, "Suppositum intellectuale."

controversy, to be "an intelligent agent, having the dis- | tinct characters, I, THOU, HE." That one being should necessarily conclude one person only, is, however, what none can prove from the nature of things; and all that can be affirmed on the subject is, that it is so in fact among all intelligent creatures with which we are acquainted. Among them, distinct persons are only seen in separate beings, but this separation of being is clearly an accident of personality; for the circumstance of separation forms no part of the idea of personality itself, which is confined to a capability of performing personal acts. In God, the distinct persons are represented as having a common foundation in one being: but this union also forms no part of the idea of personality, nor can be proved inconsistent with it. The manner of the union, it is granted, is incomprehensible, and so is Deity himself, and every essential attribute with which his nature is invested.

It has been said, that the terin person is not used in Scripture, and some who believe the doctrine it expresses, have objected to its use. To such it may be sufficient to reply, that provided that which is clearly stated in Scripture, be compendiously expressed by this term, and cannot so well be expressed, except by an inconvenient periphrasis, it ought to be retained. They who believe such a distinction in the Godhead as amounts to a personal distinction, will not generally be disposed to surrender a word which keeps up the force of the Scriptural idea; and they who do not, object not to the term, but to the doctrine which it conveys. It is not, however, so clear, that there is not Scripture warrant for the term itself. Our translators so concluded, when, in Heb. i. 3, they call the Son, "the express image" of the "person" of the Father. The original word is hypostasis; which was understeod by the Greek Fathers to signify a person, though not, it is true, exclusively so used.(1) The sense of vroσracis in this passage must, however, be considered as fixed by the Apostle's argument, by all who allow the Divinity of the Son of God. For the Son being called "the express image" of the Father, a distinction between the Son and the Father is thus unquestionably expressed; but if there be but one God, and the Son be Divine, the distinction here expressed cannot be a distinction of essence, and must therefore be a personal one. Not from the Father's essence, but from the Father's hypostasis or person, can he be distinguished. This seems sufficient to have warranted the use of hypostasis in the sense of person in the early church, and to authorize the latter term in our own language. In fact, it was by the adoption of the two great theological terms oposatos and unoσraois that the early church at length reared up impregnable barriers against the two leading heresies into which almost every modification of error as to the person of Christ may be resolved. The former, which is compounded of ouos the same, and soia substance, stood opposed to the Arians who denied that Christ was of the substance of the Father, that is, that he was truly God; the latter, when fixed in the sense of person, resisted the Sabellian scheme, which allowed the Divinity of the Son and Spirit, but denied their proper personality.

Among the leading writers in defence of the Trinit there are some shades of difference in opinion, as to what constitutes the Unity of the three persons in the Godhead. Doddridge thus expresses these leading differences among the orthodox:

"Mr. Howe seems to suppose, that there are three distinct, eternal spirits, or distinct intelligent hypostases, each having his own distinct, singular, intelligent nature, united in such an inexplicable manner, as that upon account of their perfect harmony, consent, and affection, to which he adds their mutual self-consciousness, they may be called the one God, as properly as the different corporeal, sensitive, and intellectual natures united may be called one man.

“Dr. Waterland, Dr. A. Taylor, with the rest of the Athanasians, assert three proper distinct persons, en

(1) Nonnunquam υποςασις pro eo quod nos ουσιαν dicimus et vice versa vox ovota pro eo quod nos vrоgacy appellamus, ab ipsis accepta fuit."-Bishop Bull. Yogaris, it ought, however, to be observed, was used in the sense of person, before the council of Nice, by many Christian writers, and, in the ancient Greek Lexicons, it is explained by ooownov, and rendered by the Latins persona.

tirely equal to, and independent upon, each other, yet making up one and the same being; and that, though there may appear many things inexplicable in the scheme, it is to be charged to the weakness of our understanding, and not to the absurdity of the doctrine itself. "Bishop Pearson, with whom Bishop Bull also agrees, is of opinion, that though God the Father is the fountain of the Deity, the whole Divine Nature is communicated from the Father to the Son, and from both to the Spirit, yet so as that the Father and the Son are not separate, nor separable from the Divinity, but do still exist in it, and are most intimately united to it. This was also Dr. Owen's scheme."(2)

The last view appears to comport most exactly with the testimony of Scripture, which shall be presently adduced.

Before we enter upon the examination of the Scriptural proofs of the Trinity, it may be necessary to impress the reader with a sense of the importance of this revealed doctrine; and the more so as it has been a part of the subtle warfare of the enemies of this fundamental branch of the common faith, to represent it as of little consequence, or as a matter of useless speculation. Thus Dr. Priestley, "All that can be said for it is, that the doctrine, however improbable in itself, is necessary to explain some particular texts of Scripture; and that, if it had not been for those particular texts, we should have found no want of it, for there is neither any fact in nature, nor any one purpose of morals, which are the object and end of all religion, that requires it."(3)

The non-importance of the doctrine has been a favourite subject with its opposers in all ages, that by allaying all fears in the minds of the unwary, as to the consequences of the opposite errors, they might be put off their guard, and be the more easily persuaded to part with "the faith delivered to the saints." The answer is, however, obvious.

1. The knowledge of God is fundamental to religion; and as we know nothing of him but what he has been pleased to reveal, and as these revelations have all moral ends, and are designed to promote piety and not to gratify curiosity, all that he has revealed of himself in particular must partake of that character of fundamental importance which belongs to the knowledge of God in the aggregate. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Nothing, therefore, can disprove the fundamental importance of the Trinity in Unity, but that which will disprove it to be a doctrine of Scripture.

2. Dr. Priestley allows, that this doctrine "is neces sary to explain some particular texts of Scripture." This alone is sufficient to mark its importance; espécially as it can be shown, that these "particular texts of Scripture" comprehend a very large portion of the sacred volume; that they are scattered throughout almost all the books of both Testaments; that they are not incidentally introduced only, but solemnly laid down as revelations of the nature of God; and that they manifestly give the tone both to the thinking and the phrase of the sacred writers on many other weighty subjects. That which is necessary to explain so many passages of holy writ; and without which, they are so incorrigibly unmeaning, that the Socinians have felt themselves obliged to submit to their evidence, or to expunge them from the inspired record, carries with it an importance of the highest character. So important, indeed, is it, upon the showing of these opposers of the truth themselves, that we can only preserve the Scriptures by admitting it; for they, first by excepting to the genuineness of certain passages, then by questioning the inspiration of whole books, and, finally, of the greater part, if not the whole New Testament, have nearly left themselves as destitute of a revelation from God, as infidels themselves. No homage more expressive has ever been paid to this doctrine, as the doctrine of the Scriptures, than the liberties thus taken with the Bible, by those who have denied it; no stronger proof can be offered of its importance, than that the Bible cannot be interpreted upon any substituted theory, they themselves being the judges.

3. It essentially affects our views of God as the object of our worship, whether we regard him as one in essence, and one in person, or admit that in the unity of this Godhead there are three equally Divine persons.

(2) Lectures. (3) History of Early Opinions.

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