A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 11
XI. The Divine Trinity.
HAVING in the preceding pages considered the Lord as the Father, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit; and having identified these essentials as one undivided God; it follows, that there is a Divine Trinity in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, similar to the human trinity of soul, body, and proceeding operation in every individual man. And as the three essentials, which constitute a human trinity, do not in the smallest degree derogate from the unity of man's nature, perception, and life; so neither do the three essentials, which constitute the divine trinity, in the smallest degree violate the divine unity, but on the contrary they rather exalt, illustrate, and confirm it. To assert, as some do, that the Father is one person, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit a third, each one distinct from the other, each one by himself a complete God and Lord, though to one are ascribed properties which are denied to the others, and all three co-eval with each other, that is to say, all three co-existent with each other from eternity, is such a manifest and yet contradictory avowal of a Trinity of Gods, that no after-palliation, no lip-confession of there being still only One God, can ever be admitted as any apology for the insult offered both to the Sacred Scriptures and to sound reason. The most that can be allowed to the professors of such a faith is, that the three Gods, whom they affect to acknowledge, may occasionally be unanimous. And yet it appears, that they have not always been so, since the one has required an atonement for sin on his part, which the two others did not think necessary on their's. But, not to dwell on the absurdities of a doctrine, which has completely overturned the church, and introduced a species of refined heathenism in the place of the true christian religion, it is sufficient to observe, that in the apostolic age no such faith was known, and that for hundreds of years christians were satisfied with acknowledging and worshipping Jesus Christ as the true God; the doctrine of a trinity of persons not having been invented for so long a time after the first publication of christianity.
This deplorable state of the christian church is clearly predicted by our Lord in the 24th chapter of Matthew's Gospel; and it's dangerous principles, now so universally prevalent, are called by him the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, or church. But at the same time a promise is made, that, on the consummation or end of this church, a new one shall be raised up, which will both in doctrine and in life acknowledge only One God, in One Divine Person, in whom nevertheless is a Divine Trinity, as already explained; the Father or Divine Essence being the soul, the Son or Divine Humanity being the body, and the Holy Spirit being the proceeding influence or operation, all belonging to one and the same God, who is no other than our ever-adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To confirm this doctrine in all it's fulness, would be to transcribe a great part of the Sacred Scriptures. But as without such authority it may possibly still be a matter of doubt with some readers, let the following passages be consulted, and the truth will be manifest.
That our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father, is proved from Isa. ix. 6. John x. 30. Chap. xii. 45. Chap. xiv. 7, 9. Chap. xvi. 15. Chap. xvii. 10. Apoc. i. 8, 11, 17. Chap. xxii. 13. Besides a multitude of other passages, which declare that the Redeemer and Saviour of the world is no other than the great Jehovah.
That he is the Son, is universally acknowledged: nevertheless see Matt. i. 23. Chap. iii. 17. Luke i. 31, 32, 35. John i. 18; &c. &c. &c.
And that he is the Holy Spirit, is proved from John vii. 39. Chap. xiv. 18. Chap. xvi. 14. Chap. xx. 22. Apoc. ii. 7, 11, 17, 29. Chap. xv. 4.
From all these passages, and numberless others, compared together, it is most manifest, that there is only One God in One Person, in whom is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that One God.
