eternity, the father, the son, and the holy ghost.

It is necessary therefore, before we examine the proofs of this mystery, that we should entertain a profound reverence for the holy volume, and be ready to believe every assertion, contained in it, merely because it is found there. The authenticity and the genuineness of its several parts have already been discussed by us; and, though the examination has been necessarily brief, I trust the result has been satisfactory. If any one however should doubt concerning any part of it, he should be careful to satisfy that doubt, before he pretends to investigate the evidence of a truth, which rests altogether upon its sole authority.

However, without embarking a second time upon this inquiry, I may be permitted to repeat, that the single fact of the resurrection of Christ, circumstanced as it was, is sufficient to give credibility to all his assertions, even to that, which declared him to be one with the father. God however is revealed to us not only by the words of Christ, but in the whole of the bible: and, if that inspired book

reveal him to us in his own absolute perfections, it would be idle and unreasonable not to be prepared to expect, that we shall find in it many things, which are at variance with our preconceived notions: for how should a weak, uninstructed mortal conceive aright of deity? There must be many mysteries in infinity, which transcend our poor apprehensions: and hence, were a revelation of him offered to our notice, which contained nothing in it mysterious or surprising, that very circumstance would be a presumption against its truth.

Let us therefore not be startled or shocked at the word, mystery, but examine candidly, what ground there is in scripture for receiving the doctrine of a trinity in the divine unity! and let us do this with the greater earnestness, because it is a matter of prime importance in religion, that we should entertain right notions of God!

The first argument to be adduced upon this subject requires a slight knowledge of the first elements of grammar. It requires nothing

more than this. But its force will be at once felt by all, who are acquainted with the most

ordinary principles of construction in language. To such persons it cannot but appear a very remarkable fact, when they are told, that the very name of God in the original Hebrew, which is the language of the old testament, indicates a plurality in his nature; for it is a plural noun: and it indicates moreover an unity in that plurality; for it constantly agrees with singular adjectives and verbs. Nor was this occasioned by any idiom of the language. It is a peculiarity, which occurs in no other instance, and which was not necessary in this; for there is a singular number to the noun in question, which is occasionally used, as if to shew, that the plural form, when it occurs, is adopted purely by design: and so convinced were the Hebrew doctors of some mystery, concealed under this peculiar phraseology, that some of them had actually, before the coming of our saviour, deduced the doctrine we are now considering from the obscure hints of it, which are scattered throughout the old testament.

The

But the peculiarity of scriptural phraseology is not confined to the name of God. language, occasionally ascribed to him, justifies

the same inference. Thus in the first chapter of Genesis he says- Let us make man in ' our image, after our likeness!'-, and in the eleventh-'Let us go down, and confound 'their language!'-, speaking, of himself, as more than one person, though still maintaining his unity of essence and action. The first of these passages in particular is decisive of a plurality in the godhead: for if it be objected, that he used the plural number, as kings now use it in speaking of themselves to their subjects, it is answered, that such was not the regal style in the time of Moses, nor can any trace be found of it in any part of the old testament; if it be alleged, that he associated the holy angels with himself in the creation of man, it is answered, that man was not made in the image or after the likeness of angels: and this answer will serve still further to clear off all doubt from that other declaration in the third chapter of Genesis, where the lord, God, said—' Behold! 'The man, is become like one of us, to know "good and evil!'-; for undoubtedly it is a very different thing to know good and evil, as

God knows them, and to possess a knowledge of them, like that of created angels.

But this plurality is also limited to a trinity in various parts of the old testament. The sixth verse of the thirty-third psalm, for instance, is, as follows. By the word of the lord were 'the heavens made, and all the host of them by 'the breath of his mouth.' Here the father is expressed under the name of the lord, as is universally allowed, the son under that of the word, as appears from the declaration of saint John in the first and fourteenth verses of his gospel, where he says- The word was God, ' and the word was made flesh'-, and the holy ghost by the breath of his mouth, as may appear from the twenty-second verse of the twentieth chapter of the same gospel, where our saviour breathes on his apostles, and saith unto them— 'Receive ye the holy ghost!' Thus too the solemn blessing at the close of the sixth chapter of Numbers is pronounced three times in the name of the lord; and the cherubic vision in the sixth chapter of Isaiah address the throne of glory with that thrice repeated invocation'Holy, holy, holy is the lord of hosts.'