according to the Scriptures, (a.) Thcat the Father is first, the Son second, and the Spirit tliird. (5.) Tlie Son is of the Fatlier
(e/c Beov, the Aoyos, dKwv, aTravyaa/xa, rov 6env) ; and the Spirit is of the
Father and of the Son. (<?.) The Father sends the Son, and the Father and Son send tlie Spirit, (c?.) The Father operates tiirouoh the Son, and the Father and Son operate through the Spirit The converse of these statements is never found. The Son is never said to send the Father, nor to operate through Him ; nor is the Spirit ever said to send the Father, or the Son, or to operate through them. The facts contained in this paragraph are summed up in tlie proposition : In the Holy Trinity there is a subordination of the Persons as to the mode of subsistence and operation. This proposition again adds nothing to the facts themselves.
5. According to the Scriptures, the Father created the world, the Son created the world, and the Spirit created the world. The Father preserves all things ; the Son upholds all things ; and 'the Spirit is the source of all life. These facts are expressed by saying that the persons of the Trinity concur in all acts ad extra. Nev-. ertheless there are some acts which are predominantly referred to the Father, others to the Son, and others to the Spirit. The Fa- ther creates, elects, and calls ; the Son redeems ; and the Spirit sanctifies. And, on the other hand, there are certain acts, or conditions, predicated of one person of the Trinity, which are never predicated of either of the others. Thus, generation belongs exclusively to the Father, filiation to the Son, and procession to the Spirit. This is the form in which the doctrine of the Trinity lies in the Bible. The above statement involves no philosophical element. It is simply an arrangement of the clearly revealed facts bearing on this subject. This is the form in which the doc- trine has always entered into the faith of the Church, as a part of its religious convictions and experience.
To say that this doctrine is incomprehensible, is to say nothing more than must be admitted of. any other great truth, whether of revelation or of science. To say that it is impossible that the one divine substance can subsist in three distinct persons, is certainly unreasonable, when, according to that form of philosophy which has been the most widely diffused, and the most persistent, every- thing that ejxists is only one of the innumerable forms in which one and the same infinite substance subsists ; and when, according to the Realists, Avho once controlled the thinking world, all men are the individualized forms of the numerically same substance called generic humanity.
446 PART I.— THEOLOGY. [Ch. VI.— The Trinity
B. Scriptural Proof of the Doctrine. No snch doctrine as that of the Trinitv can be adequately prc-ed by any citation of Scriptural passages. Its constituent ele- ments, are brought into view, some in one place, and some in an- other. The unity of the Divine Being ; the true and equal divinity of the Father, Son, and Spirit ; their distinct personality ; the rela- tion in which they stand one to the other, and to the Church and the world, are not presented in a doctrinal formula in the Word of God, but the several constituent elements of the doctinne are as- serted, or assumed, over and over, from the beginning to the end of the Bible. It is, therefore, by proving these elements separately, that the whole doctrine can be most satisfactorily established. All that is here necessary is, a reference to the general teachings of Scripture on the subject, and to some few passages in which every- thing essential to the doctrine is included.
The Progressive Character of Divine Revelation, 1. The progressive character of divine revelation is recognized in relation to all the great doctrines of the Bible. One of the strongest arguments' for the divine origin of the Scriptures is the organic relation of its several parts. They comprise more than sixty books written by different men in different ages, and yet they form one whole ; not by mere external historical relations, nor in virtue of the general identity of the subjects of which they treat, but by their internal organic development. All that is in a full- grown tree was potentially in the seed. All that we find unfolded in the fulness of the gospel lies in a rudimental form in the earliest books of the Bible. What at first is only obscurely intimated is gradually unfolded in subsequent parts of the sacred volume, until the truth is revealed in its fulness. This is true of the doctrines of redemption ; of the person and work of the Messiah, the prom- ised seed of the woman ; of the nature and office of the Holy Spirit ; and of a future state beyond the grave. And this is specially true of the doctrine of the Trinity. Even in the book of Genesis there are intimations of the doctrine which receive their true interpreta- tion in later revelations. That the names of God are in the plural form ; that the personal pronouns are often in the first person plural (" Let us make man in our image ") ; that the form of benediction is threefold, and other facts of like nature, may be explained in different ways. But when it becomes plain, from the progress of the revelation, that there are three persons in the God-