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1st. And, as I conceive, the fundamental one, on which their chief reliance is placed, is, That the doctrine of the Trinity, or of Three Persons in One God, is self-contradictory.

This objection, therefore, merits a particular answer.

Those, who make this objection to the public, express themselves in such language as the following: The Father, according to the Trinitarian doctrine, is God; The Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. Here are three, each of whom is God. Three cannot be One, three units cannot be one unit. Were this objection made professedly, as it is actually, against the inconsistency of Tritheism with the unity of God, it would be valid and unanswerable. Equally valid would it be against the Trinitarians, if they admitted the existence of three Gods; or if their doctrine involved this as a consequence. But the former of these is not true; and the latter has not been, and, it is presumed, cannot be, shown. Until it shall be shown; every Trinitarian must necessarily feel, that this objection is altogether inapplicable to his own case; and, although intended against his faith is really aimed against another, and very distant object. Until this be shown, this objection will, I apprehend, be completely avoided in the following

manner.

1st. The admission of three infinitely perfect Beings does not at all imply the existence of more Gods than one.

This proposition may, perhaps, startle such persons, on both sides of the question, as have not turned their attention to the subject; but can, I apprehend, be nevertheless, shown to be true. It is clearly certain that the nature, the attributes, the views, the volitions, and the agency of three Beings, infinitely perfect, must be exactly the same. They would, alike, be self-existent, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and possessed of the same boundless moral excellence. Of course, they would think exactly the same things, choose the same things, and do the same things. There would, therefore, be a perfect oneness of character and conduct in the three; and to the universe of creatures they would sustain but one and the same Relation; and be absolutely but one Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, Ruler, and Final Cause. In other words they would be absolutely One God. This radical objection, therefore, is, even in this sense, of no validity.

2dly. The Doctrine of the Trinity does not involve the existence of Three Infinite Beings; and therefore this objection does not af fect it.

The Scriptural account of JEHOVAH as received by every Trinitarian, is, that He is one perfect Existence, underived and unlimited; and that this one perfect Existence is in the Scriptures declared to be, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These, in the usual language of Trinitarians, are styled Persons, because, in the Scriptures, the three personal pronouns, I, Thou, and He, are on every proper occasion applied to them. As this is done by the Father and the Son, speaking to each other, and of the Holy Ghost; and by the Holy Ghost, speaking of the Father and of the Son; we are perfectly assured, that this language is in the strictest sense proper. Still, no Trinitarian supposes, that the word, Person, conveys an adequate idea of the thing here intended :—much less that, when it is applied to God, it denotes the same thing, as when applied to created beings. As the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are distinguished; some term, generally expressing this distinction, seems necessary, to those, who would mark it, when speaking of the Three together. This term, therefore, warranted in the manner above mentioned, has been chosen by Trinitarians, as answering this purpose, so far as it can be answered by human language.

But If I ask in return,

If I am asked, as I probably shall be, what is the exact meaning of the word Person in this case; I answer, that I do not know. Here the Unitarian usually triumphs over his antagonist. the triumph is without foundation, or reason. "What is the human Soul ?" or "the human Body?" He is obliged to answer, that he does not know. If he says, that the soul is Organized Matter, endowed with the powers of thinking and acting. I ask again, what is that Organization? and, What is that Matter? To these questions he is utterly unable to furnish any answer.

Should he ask again, to what purpose is the admission of the term, if its signification is unknown? I answer; To what pur pose is the admission of the word Matter, if its signification is unknown? I further answer, that the term in dispute serves to convey, briefly and conveniently, the things intended by the doctrine; VOL. II.

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viz. that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; that these are Three in one sense, and One in another. The sense, in which they are three, and yet one, we do not, and cannot, understand. Still we understand the fact; and on this fact depends the truth, and meaning, of the whole Scriptural system. If Christ be God, he is also a Saviour; if not, there is no intelligible sense, in which he can sustain this title, or the character, which it denotes.

In addition to this, He is asserted in the Scriptures to be God, in every form of expression, and implication; from the beginning to the end; as plainly as language can admit; and so fully, and variously, that, if we deny these assertions their proper force, by denying that he is God, we must, by the same mode of construction, deny any thing, and every, thing, which the Scriptures contain. If the declarations, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and Christ, who is over all things, God, blessed for ever; do not prove Christ to be God: the declaration, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, does not prove, that there was a Creation; or that the Creator is God. The declaration, All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made which is made, is as full a proof, that Christ is the Creator, as that, just quoted from Genesis is, that the Creator is God. An admission, or denial, of the one ought, therefore, if we would treat the several parts of the Bible alike, and preserve any consistency of construction, to be accompanied by a similar admission, or denial, of the other. Here, then, is a reason for acknowledging Christ to be God, of the highest kind; viz. that God has declared this truth in the most explicit manner.

The Mysteriousness of the truth, thus declared, furnishes not even a shadow of Reason for either denial, or doubt. That God can be One in one sense, and Three in another, is unquestionable. Whatever that sense is, if the declaration be true; and one, which God has thought it proper to make in the Scriptures; and one, therefore, to which he has required our belief; it is, of course, a declaration, incalculably important to mankind, and worthy of all acceptation.

The futility and emptiness of this fundamental objection of

Unitarians, as applied to the doctrine of the Trinity, is susceptible of an absolute and easy demonstration; notwithstanding the objection itself claims the character of intuitive certainty. It is intuitively certain, or in other language, self-evident, that no proposition can be seen to be either true, or false, unless the mind possess the ideas, out of which it is formed, so far as to discern whether they agree, or disagree. The proposition, asserted by Trinitarians, and denied by Unitarians, is, that God is Tri-personal. The ideas, intended by the words God, here denoting the infinite Existence; and Tri-personal; are not, and cannot be, possessed by any man. Neither Trinitarians nor Unitarians therefore, can, by any possible effort of the understanding, discern whether this proposition be true, or false; or whether the ideas, denoted by the words God and Tri-personal, agree, or disagree. Until this can be done, it is perfectly nugatory, either to assert, or deny, this proposition, as an object of intellectual discernment, or Philosophical inquiry. Where the mind has not ideas, it cannot compare them; where it cannot compare them, it cannot discern their agreement or disagreement; and of course it can form out of them, no proposition, whose truth, or falsehood, it can at all perceive. Thus this boasted objection is so far from being conclusive, or even formidable; that it is wholly without force, or application.

After all that has been said, it may still be asked; "Why, if this proposition be thus unintelligible, do Trinitarians adopt it as an essential part of their creed?" I answer, " Because God has declared it." Should it be asked, " Of what use is a proposition, thus unintelligible?" I answer, " Of inestimable use:" and this answer I explain in the following manner. The unintelligibleness of this doctrine lies in the nature of the thing, which it declares, and not in the fact declared. The nature of the thing declared is absolutely unintelligible; but the fact is, in a certain degree, understood without difficulty. What God is, as One, or as Three in One, is perfectly undiscernable by us. Of the existence, thus described, we have no conception. But the assertions, that He is One, and that He is Three in One, are easily comprehended. The propositions, that the Father is God, that the Son is God, that the Holy Ghost is God; and that these

Three are One God; are equally intelligible with the proposition, that there is One God. On these propositions, understood as facts, and received on the credit of the divine Witness, and not as discerned by mental speculation, is dependent the whole system of Christianity.-The importance of the doctrine is therefore supreme.

The utmost amount of all, that can be said against the doctrine of the Trinity, is, that it is mysterious, or inexplicable. A mystery, and a mystery as to its nature wholly inexplicable, it is cheerfully acknowledged to be by every Trinitarian: but no Trinitarian will, on that account, admit, that it ought to be less an object of his belief. Were the faith, or even the knowledge, of man usually conversant about objects, which are not mysterious; mysteriousness might, with a better face, be objected against the doctrine of the Trinity. But mystery envelopes almost all the objects of both. We believe, nay, we know, the existence of one God; and are able to prove him self-existent, omnipresent, omniscient, almighty, unchangeable, and eternal. But no more absolute mysteries exist, than in the being, nature, and attributes, of God. The Soul of Man, the Body of Man, a Vegetable, an Atom, are all subjects filled with mysteries; and about them all a Child may ask questions, which no Philosopher can answer. That God, therefore, should in his existence involve many mysteries, inexplicable by us, is so far from violating, or stumbling, a rational faith, that it ought to be presumed. The contrary doctrine would be still more mysterious, and far more shock a rational mind.

"As to the doctrine of the Trinity," says a Writer * of distinguished abilities and eloquence," it is even more amazing, than that of the Incarnation: yet, prodigious and amazing as it is, such is the incomprehensible nature of God, that I believe it will be extremely difficult to prove from thence, that it cannot possibly be true. The point seems to be above the reach of Reason, and too wide for the grasp of human understanding. However, I have often observed, in thinking of the eternity and immensity of God; of his remaining from eternity to the production of the

Skelton. Deism Revealed; Dial. 6.

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