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means succeed for any length of time; for the truth proved and recommended itself, and with the progress of time shone forth daily with more lustre. The contrary happened to the inventions of its enemies, which bearing with them their own refutation, were immediately extinguished; sects upon sects growing out from the first, whilst the former continually dissolved themselves, and each one in divers manners dwindled away into multifarious species of errors; but the Catholic church, which only is true, always like unto herself and constant in her belief, was by new accessions every day increased, striking, by her grave and sincere comportment, by her noble freedom, and finally, by her modesty, and the sanctity of a certain divine life and philosophy, the eyes not only of all the Greeks, but also of the barbarians."*

Third class of Sectarians that impugned the Divinity of the Holy Ghost.

XCVI. St. Ignatius of Antioch, in his Epistle to the Trallians, remarks, that at the very time of the Apostles, there were some that erred about the Holy Ghost. The same is related of the Sadducees, by St. Epiphanius, hæres 14, of Valentin, by St. Athanasius, in his oration against the Arians.

XCVII. But the chief rebel against the divinity of the Holy Ghost, was Macedonius, who, through the favour of the Arians, whose heresy he followed, was thrust into the See of Constantinople, after having thrown out of it its lawful bishop Paul, not without much slaughter and bloodshed, from which he was afterwards deposed by the same Emperor Constantius,

* Euseb. lib. 4, cap 7. Ουκ εις μακρον γε μην αυτῷ ταυτα προχωρεί, τησ αληθείας αυτής εαυτην συνεστώσης, επι μέγα τε φῶς κατα τον προΐοντα χρονον διαλαμπέσης εσ βεστο μεν γαρ αυτικά, προς αυτής ενέργειας απελεί χόμενα τα των εχθρων επιτεχνηματα, άλλων επ' αλλαις αιρεσεων καινοτ ομεμένων, υπορρεάσων αει των προτέρων, και εις πολυτροπες και πολυμορφος ιδεας άλλοτε άλλως φθειρομένων στρεπει δ' εις αύξησιν καὶ μέγεθος, αει κατα τα αυτα και ωσαυτως εχέσα, η της καθολς και μονης αληθές εκκλησίας λαμπρότης, το σεμνον και ειλικρινες και ελευθεριου, το, τε σωφρον καὶ καθαρον της ενθες πολιτείας τε και φιλοσοφίας εις άπαν γενος Ελληνωντε καὶ Βαρβάρων αποστιλβεσα.

on account of a sedition which he raised among the people, and then it was that he set about forging a new heresy, in the year of our Lord 360; viz. he stript the Holy Ghost of his Divinity, asserting that he was a mere creature or minister of God, far inferior to God, as to nature, dignity, and honour. This heresy was proscribed in various councils at Alexandria, after the return of St. Athanasius in the year of our Lord 362; two synods, held at Rome under Pope Damasus; and lastly, in the second Ecumenic council, which was the first general council of Constantinople, in the year 381, whose definitions we shall produce in its proper place.

The Socinians, and in our days the Unitarians, have espoused the same error. Such were the irreligious systems which proud reason, left to itself, and emboldened by the spirit of darkness has contrived since the Apostolic age down to this present day, against the most august mystery of the blessed Trinity. Such is the venerable pedigree of the ancestors of the Unitarian family. Not to speak of their personal character, which, as it undeniably appears from the above sketch, did very little honour to their new systems, it is a fact, that their profane innovations excited, at all times, a general horror throughout the whole Christian world, and that they all met with a solemn condemnation on the part of the universal church, which one fact proves to a demonstration that the uniform belief of the church of Christ was ever in direct opposition to the Unitarian doctrines.

CHAPTER II.

XCVIII. As the age in which we live, is incessantly boasting of being, by way of excellence, the age of reason, and as our opponents would fain make the present generation believe, that it is in conformity with the dictates of sound reason, that they disbelieve the mysteries of revelation, it will not be amiss to come to close quarters with these gentlemen, and by meeting them in the entrenchments of a false philo

sophy, in which they deem themselves impregnable, to make it appear, that, as both the light of reason, and the light of revelation, are gifts equally descending from one and the same original source, the Father of Lights, there exists an admirable harmony between reason and revelation, and that it is impossible to attack the one without becoming inconsistent with the other. For, "God is a God of peace and concord, and not of confusion."* In the present chapter, therefore, we shall investigate, what reason alone, left to its own light, says on the ineffable mystery of the Trinity, and see, whether sound logic, even without the aid of revelation, will not force the Unitarian, willing or unwilling, to admit the possibility and reasonableness of this mystery.

XCIX. Far be it from me, however, to presume to dive into, and to fathom the infinite depths of the ineffable and incomprehensible nature of God, or to pretend to explain what infinitely surpasses all created understanding. For I am not ignorant of what the most brilliant geniuses have left written on this very subject. St. Hilary, in discoursing on the generation of the divine Word,† says, "I am ignorant, of the manner and mode of this generation, I do not enquire into it, and still I console myself. The archangels know it not, the angels have not heard it, the ages possess it not; it was not revealed to the prophets, the apostles did not interrogate about it, the Son himself did not inform us of it. Let there be an end to our painful complaints. How, therefore, do the ungodly not blush to babble of such matters, adds St. Athanasius, to search into which is iniquity? They, I say, who are but men, and who are not even able to unravel the nature of those earthly objects that surround them? Nay, let them explain to us even what belongs to their own persons, and see whether they understand their own nature. It is impossible,

"Non enim est dissentionis Deus, sed pacis." 1 Corinth. xiv. 33.

"Ego nescio, non requiro; et consolor me tamen. Archangeli nesciunt, angeli non audierunt, sæcula non tenent, propheta non sensit, apostolus non interrogavit, filius ipse non edidit. Cesset dolor querelarum." St. Hilarius, lib. 2. de Trinit. N. 9.

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continues St. Ambrose,* to understand the secret of the generation of the divine Word. The mind fails, the voice is silent, not mine only but also that of the angels; this mystery is above the powers, above the angels, above the cherubs, above the seraphs, above all conception."

"What kind of disputation, says St. Augustin, what strength or power of understanding, what keenness of reason, what acuteness of thought will be able to show, how the Trinity exists ?"" "This mystery is great, it is to be revered, not to be scrutinized. How is plurality in unity, and unity in plurality? To search after this, is rashness, to believe it, is piety, to know it, is the way and life eternal."‡

This being premised, let us approach the mystery of the blessed Trinity with the most profound adoration, and, if we consult reason on a mystery that exceeds all created un derstanding, let it be with a view, not of comprehending what of its nature is incomprehensible, but with a view of showing the profane reasoner, that our faith is a reasonable faithrationabile obsequium nostrum."||

SECTION I.

The production or the creation of this universe, out of nothing in time, furnishes us with some kind of proof of the exist ence of another hidden and eternal production, out of the sery nature of God from all eternity.

PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS.

C. In reflecting on the infinite essence of God, we easily conceive that God, from all eternity, exists immutable and

*"Impossibile est generationis, (verbi divini,) scire secretum: mehs deficit, vox silet, non mea tantum, sed et angelorum; supra potestates, supra angelos, supra cherubim, supra seraphim, supra omnem sensum est." St. Ambrosius, lib. 1. de Fide ad Gratian: Augustum, cap. 10.

+"Quis disputandi modus, quænam tandem vis intelligendi et potentia, quæ vivacitas rationis, quæ acies cogitationis ostendet-quomodo sit Trinitas?" St. Aug. lib. 15. de Trinitate, cap. 16. N. 9.

"Sacramentum hoc magnum est, et quidem venerandum, non scrutandum quomodo pluralitas in unitate, aut ipsa in pluralitate? Scrutari hoc temeritas est; credere pietas; nosse, via et vita æterna." St. Bernardus lib. 5. de considerat: cap. 8.

Rom. xii. 1.

immoveable in himself, i. e. in his own adorable essence; but although God be thus immoveable, still he is all in action, in activity, in vigour; he peoples the heavens with his creatures, he preserves them, provides for them, and rejoices them, in pressing continually to his amorous and paternal bosom those myriads of beings, whom he draws out of nothing by his life-giving power, and he himself is delighted, in beholding in the beautiful features of those beings, a reverberation of his uncreated and eternal splendours. But, pray, what is this omnipotent activity, this incessant creation, this provident preservation of his creatures? What else but an atom, when compared with the immensity and the infinite energy of God?

O supreme intelligence! O ineffable wisdom! O inexhaustible power, are these perchance all thy works? Where is, O my God, the magnificence of thy infinite grandeur ? But if thou be well pleased at beholding in thy creatures a faint and limited reverberation of thy uncreated and eternal splendours, how much more delighted wilt thou feel in contemp. ting in themselves those very same splendours, those very same substantial eternal and uncreated beauties? If thou operatest in time, wilt thou not likewise operate in eternity? If thou makest show of so great, so extensive a vigour in this created universe, wilt thou be without strength in the uncreated universe of thy essence?

CI, In contemplating man and the innumerable species of animals, insects, birds, fish, and quadrupeds, among the many and different endowments, with which we find them enriched, two peculiar qualities which are common to all, arrest our attention. We are struck at observing how all these creatures are gifted with two qualities, the one natural, the other artif cial. From the sight of the admirable work of a cobweb, of a bird's nest, of the retired cell of the hornet, gradually ascending to the skillful cabin of the beaver, stupor and astonishment seize our mind. But when the works of men, so variegated, so original, so grand, are presented to our view, then No. IV.

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