those who do assent to them, have taken occasion from thence to object against the use of it altogether.

It is not, however, so much from a dislike to these clauses, that a great proportion of Trinitarians, viz. the Presbyterians, &c. have not formally adopted this and the Nicene Creed; as from the difficulty, in their minds, of reconciling some passages in them to the scriptural doctrine of Three Persons in one Essence: particularly, "Light of Light, God of God," as, say they, "there can be no communication of the divine essence,-no derivation of essence, but of personality only."-By following up these expressions far beyond their original design, they further observe, some have fallen into Arianism, even when writing against it,

For the history of the doctrine of the Trinity itself, the various doctrines propagated relative to it in the early ages after Christ, and the contests which have not ceased to agitate the Church, from the 3d century to the present day, the reader may consult Bishop Bull, particularly his Defensio Fidei Nicana, Dr. Mosheim, and its most successful modern defender, Bishop Horsley.

DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINE.-The doctrine of the Trinity, as professed in the Christian Church, is briefly this:-That there is one God, in three distinct Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: the term Person here characterising the mode of subsistence in the Essence, which the Greek Fa

thers called Hypostasis:

The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are believed to be three distinct persons in the divine nature, because the Holy Scriptures, in speaking of these three, do distinguish them from one another, as we use, in common speech, to distinguish three several persons; and each of these three persons are affirmed to be God, because the names, properties, and operations of God, are, in Scripture, attributed to each of them.

The Athanasian Creed makes the Supreme Being to consist of three persons, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. The first of those three persons it makes to be the Father; the second person is called the Son, and is said to be descended from the Father, by an eternal generation of an ineffable and incomprehensible nature in the essence of the Godhead; the third person is the Holy Ghost, derived from the Father and the Son, but not by generation, as the Son is derived from the Father, but by an eternal and incomprehensible procession.

Each of these persons is very and eternal God, as much as the Father himself; and yet, though distinguished in this manner, they do not make

* "By Person is not meant," says Bishop Burnet, when speaking on this subject, "such a being as we commonly understand by that word, a complete intelligent being, distinct from every other being; but only that every one of that Blessed Three has a peculiar distinction in himself, by which he is truly different from the other two."-Four Discourses, 8vo. 1694, p. 96.

three Gods, but one God.*

"The Catholic faith

is this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity: For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.”+

This system also includes in it the belief of two natures in Jesus Christ, viz. the divine and human, subsisting in one person.

The doctrine of the Trinity is called a mystery, because we are not able to comprehend the particular manner of the existence of the three persons in the divine nature. But though a doctrine be above reason, Trinitarians observe, it is not, therefore, contrary to reason; and the divine nature being infinite, must consequently be above our comprehension. As to the seeming contradiction of an Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, i. e. of One being Three, and Three One, they answer, that it is not affirmed, they are one and three in the same respect; -that the divine Essence can be but one, and, therefore, there can be no more Gods than one; but because the Scriptures, which assure us of the Unity of the divine essence, do likewise with the Father

* "Tres non Statu sed Gradu; nec Substantia, sed Forma; nec Potestate, sed Specie: Unius autem Substantiæ, et Unius Status, et unius Potestatis, quia Unus Deus," &c. -TERTUL. Advers. Prax. cap. ii.

† Athanasian Creed, which see in the Common PrayerBook of the Church of England.

join the Son and Holy Ghost, in the same attributes, operations, and worship, therefore they are capable of number, as to their relation to each other, though not as to their essence, which is but one.

But notwithstanding all that is revealed on the subject of the ever Blessed Trinity, (and it must be admitted on all hands, that enough is revealed for our necessary information, in our present state of existence,) all Trinitarians are ready to allow, that there is still much above our comprehension; and they insist, that whatever may be inexplicable should be charged to the weakness of our understandings, and not to the absurdity of the doctrine itself.*

"He," says Bishop Taylor, "who goes about to speak of the mystery of the Trinity, and does it by words and names of man's invention, talking of essences, and existences, hypostases, and personalities, priorities in co-equalities, and unity in pluralities, may amuse himself, and build a tabernacle in his head, and talk something he knows not what; but the good man, that feels the power of the Father, and to whom the Son is become wisdom, sanctification, and redemption, in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is shed abroad, this man, though

* "God is pleased to reveal the fact; man insists upon apprehending the mode: in his present state he cannot apprehend it; he therefore denies the fact, and commences unbeliever."-Bishop HORNE.

See Bishop Gastrell's Considerations on the Trinity, 4to, 1696; or in Dr. (now Bishop) Randolph's Enchiridion Theologicum.

he understands nothing of what is unintelligible, yet he alone truly understands the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.*

Much information on this subject in general, may be found in the second volume of Dr. Doddridge's Lectures; and in Part VII. Prop. 132., a brief account of some of the most celebrated of the opinions among the moderns, concerning it, especially of the English writers.

WORSHIP, NUMBERS, AUTHORS PRO AND CON., &c.-While Unitarians address God in the person of the Father only, Trinitarians and Athanasians pray to one God in three persons; and they, in general, look for acceptance, and an answer to their prayers, only through the merits and mediation of Christ.†

Almost all professing Christians, the Sabellians, Arians, and Socinians, excepted, believe in the Trinity; but the Greek Church, as already observed, differs from other Trinitarians, in maintaining, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only, and not from the Father and the Son.

* Bishop Taylor on St. John, vii. 17.

† I have said, in general, for it is quite consistent, both with the principles and the practice of the members of the Church of Rome, to pray to angels and saints, and to as cribe victory, &c. to particular saints, and especially to the miraculous interposition of the Virgin Mary, "the Lady of Battles!"-See the public newspapers of last July (1808.) See Vol. I. p. 333.