will put an end to all controversy on the subject of the Trinity. On the other hand, we need not be anxious about the validity of this individual passage, as though the doctrine of the Trinity rested upon it ; since, if the text were expunged from the Bible, there are a multitude of others which maintain most unequivocally the same important truth.
To establish the mysterious doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, we shall lay down, and substantiate, three positions :
1. There is but one God—
[The unity of God may be deduced even from reason itself: but it is repeatedly affirmed in Scripture"; nor must a doubt of it ever be suffered to enter into our minds. It is true, that in a subordinate sense there are gods many, and lords many ; because angels, and magistrates, and the idols of heathens, are sometimes called by these names on account of the resemblance they bear to God in the authority vested in them, and the respect paid to them : but there is One Supreme Being, who alone is self-existent, and from whom all other beings, whether in heaven or earth, derive their ex- istence. He, and he only, is God ^]
2. Though there is only one God, yet there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead —
[In reference to this subject, we use the term persons, because there is no other so suitable : but we mean not that these persons are in ail respects as distinct from each other as Peter, James, and John ; but only that in some respects they are distinguished from each other, though they subsist together in one undivided essence.
It is certain that there are three persons mentioned in (he Scripture : for baptism is ordered to be administered, not in the name of God merely, but in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost '.*' These three arc represented as di'.t'imt frnm each other ; for the Son has told us, that "he will send the Holy Spirit from the Father**." They are more- over spoken of as performing separate offices in the uork of redemption; the Father elects* ; the Son redeems^; the Spirit sanctifies'^; and St. Peter, comprising in few words the whole mystery of redemption, ascribes to each of these persons his
proper
' Compare Deut. vi. 4. with Mark xii. 29. *• 1 Cor, viii. 5, 6.
" MiUt. xxviii. 19. •• John xv. 26.
' Eph. i. 4. ' Eph. i. 7. * Horn. XV. 16.