was memorably displayed, when the Spirit descended like a dove, and lighted on the head of Jesus; while the voice of the Father was heard, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. "The grace of the LORD JESUS CHRIST," said Paul," and the love of God, and the communion of the HOLY GHOST, be with you all, amen.”† There is no passage, however, which throws more light on this subject than the following; "Howbeit" (said Jesus) "when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak ; and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and show it unto you." Here the Spirit is spoken of as the guide and teacher of the Lord's people, who applies to their understandings and hearts the doctrine of Christ administers to them of his love and grace- and thus glorifies the Son, by whom he is commis * Gen. i, 26. Comp. Gen iii, 22. † 2 Cor. xiii, 14. Comp. Eph. iv, 4-6. 1 Cor. xii. sioned. On the other hand, the mercies of the Son are identified with those of the Father, to whom he is himself subordinate, and from the boundless depths of whose compassion, springs the whole mighty system ordained for man's salvation. Behold then the goodly order of truth. The Son is of the Father, the only-begotten of God. The Holy Spirit is the Father's and the Son's. The Father sends the Son. The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit. Nor can it be denied that in the economy of grace and salvation, they have severally distinct offices which the sacred writers never confuse. The Father originates and elects. The Son mediates and atones. The Holy Spirit regenerates and sanctifies. While however the Scriptures afford us abundant evidence that the Father is God, that the Son is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God, and plainly indicate their order and their respective offices, there is nothing in the sacred volume which in the least degree supports the notion that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are separate deities. So blasphemous and absurd an opinion has probably never been enter tained, even for a moment, by any serious reader of the Bible; for it is abhorrent from the whole scope and meaning of the book. The sacred writers ascribe to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit respectively, the names and attributes of the only true God· the immutable Jehovah: and at the same time, the doctrine that "there is no other God but he," is not only clearly declared, but is presumed and understood in every page and almost in every verse of the sacred volume. 1 What then is the conclusion to which a comprehensive view of Scriptural truth inevitably leads? It is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are essentially and eternally ONE. The distinction to which the Scriptures bear testimony as subsisting in the Deity, is so far from underinining the doctrine of his oneness, that it imparts to that doctrine a fresh energy and a peculiar glory. Certain it is, that where the unity of God is admitted, and this distinction is nevertheless denied, as among the Mahometans and modern Jews, religion loses much of its practical influence and vital power. Yet while the Christian rejoices in the distinct characters and offices of the Father, the Son, and | the Spirit, so graciously revealed to us for our instruction and edification, he probably never finds his soul bowed down with so deep a reverence, or filled with so pure a delight, as when he contemplates the Almighty as an ineffable glory — an incommunicable name an infinite and incomprehensible UNITY. We must now apply these remarks to the argument before us. Were that union and distinction in the divine nature, which is so plainly declared in Scripture, contrary to reason— that is, naturally impossible-we should be driven to the conclusion, that the Bible is so far from being the book of God, that it can be ascribed only to ignorant and erring man. But God is an infinite and unsearchable Being, and the least degree of reflection may suffice to satisfy us that there is nothing which reason can disprove in the doctrine of Scripture, that in a certain respect he is THREE, and in another respect, ONE. far out Yet that doctrine is beyond reason of the reach of our intellectual powers; and this is the very ground on which we hail it as another internal evidence of the divine origin of the Holy Scripture. While it bears upon us with a native strength and harmony which plainly indicate its truth, and while, when rightly understood, it is found to be full of unutterable blessings for our fallen race, it relates to the unfathomable secrets of the divine nature, and could not possibly have been discovered by the unassisted discernment of man. To whom then can we ascribe the revelation of this doctrine, but to the Supreme Being himself? It is not, however, to the fact of its revelation only, but also to the manner in which it is revealed, that we may safely make our appeal. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are presented to us in the Scriptures as severally God, and as the distinct objects of our faith; and at the same time we are perpetually reminded by the sacred writers that God is ONE. Yet these writers offer no apology whatsoever for this apparent diversity of statement; nor do they make the slightest attempt to explain the mode in which these truths consist. The most mysterious of all doctrines is revealed in their writings with a perfect simplicity; and on the apparent presumption, that no doubts could be entertained, and no casuistry exercised, on the subject. |