of the Trinity in ourselves ; as we are formed in the image of God, we have the right to conceive of God according to the analogy of our own nature. As distinction of persons is necessary to self- consciousness in us, so also in God. Therefore, if God be not a Trinity, He cannot be a person. How, lie asks, can God from eternity be conscious of Himself as Father, without distinguishing Himself fi'om Himself as Son ?» In other words, how can God be eternally self-conscious, without being eternally objective to Him- self? That with us the objective Ego is merely ideal and not a different person from the subjective Ego, arises from our nature as creatures. With God, thinking and being are the same. In think- ing Himself his thought of Himself is Himself in a distinct hypos- tasis. Dr. Shedd ^ has given a similar exposition, " in proof that the necessary conditions of self-consciousness in the finite spirit, furnish an analogue to the doctrine of the Trinity, and go to prove that trinity in unity is necessary to self-consciousness in the God- head."
Pantheistic Trinitarianism.
In all that precedes, reference has been made to those who have had for their object to vindicate the doctrine of the Trinity, by showing that it is not out of analogy with other objects of human thought. There are, however, many modern systems which pro- fess to be Trinitarian, which are in fact mere substitutions of the formulas of speculation for the doctrine of the Bible. Men speak of the Trinity, of the Father, Son, and Spirit, when they mean by those terms something which has not the least analogy with the doctrine of the Christian Church. Many by the Trinity do not mean a Trinity of persons in the Godhead, but either three radical forces, as it were, in the divine nature, which manifest themselves in different ways ; or three different relations of the same subject ; or three different states or stages of existence. Thus with some, the absolute power or efficiency of the Supreme Being considered as creating, upholding, and governing the world, is the Father ; as illuminating rational creatures, is the Son ; and, as morally educat- ing them, is the Spirit. According to Kant, God as creator is the Father; as the preserver and governor of men. He is the Son; and as the administrator of law, as judge and reWarder, He is the Spirit. With DeWette, God in Himself is the Father; as manifested in the world, the Son; and as operating in nature, the Spirit. Schleierma- cher says, God in Himself is the Father ; God in Christ is the Son ; God in the Church, is the Holy Spirit. The avowed Pantheists
1 History of Christian Doctrine, vol. i. p. 366. VOL. I. 31
482 PART I. - THEOLOGY. [Ch. VI. — The Trdbtt.
also use the language of Trinitarianism. God as the infinite and absolute Being is the Father ; as coming to consciousness and ex- istence in the world, He is the Son ; as returning to Himself, the Spirit. Weisse attempts to unite Theism and Pantheism. He pronounces the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity the highest form of philosophical thought. He professes to adopt that doctrine ex animo in its commonly admitted sense. There is a threefold per- sonality (Ichheit) in God necessary to the constitution of his na- ture. When the world was created the second of these persons became its life, merging his personality in the world and became impersonal, in order to raise the world into union and identity with God. When the curi'iculum of the world is accomplished, the Son resumes his personality.^
1 C. H. Weisse, Idee der Gottheit ; Dresden, 1833, pp. 257 fi , 273.
The Literature of the doctrine of the Trinity would fill a volume. Bull's Defence of the Nicene Creed, Pearson On the Creed, Waterland On the Trinity, Meier's Geschichte der Lehre von der Trinitat, Baur's Geschichte der Lehre von der Trinitaf, Dorner's History of the Person of Christ, in five volumes, one of the series of Clark's Foreif/n Theological Library, a very valuable collection of important modern works, Shedd's History of Christian Doctrine, and the other historical works on the doctrines of the Church, open the whole field for the theological student.