Section IV.
Man in Union with God.

Chapter I.
The Trinity.

The Persons in the Godhead.—When we examine into the account which Scripture gives us of the nature of the Deity, we find no truth more clearly revealed than the unity of the God­head, and no doctrine represented as of greater, or rather, we should say, as of equal importance. At the same time, we find the names and attributes of God sometimes ascribed to "the Father," sometimes to "the Son," and sometimes to "the Spirit;" while these three are spoken of as distinct one from the other, and are represented as performing different offices, and as standing in different relations to each other, and to their creatures. They have, therefore, been called the "Three Persons in the Godhead." The term "person" is not, however, found in Scripture; and though the want of a more appropriate word may justify our employing it, we must be careful lest we be thereby led into the error of supposing that they are distinguished from each other by marks and characteristics similar to those by which one man is distinguished from another. The use of the expression must, in short, be regarded as simply intimating the fact, that in one sense they are three, while in another they are but one.

There is no subject so mysterious, and so utterly beyond the reach of our powers, as the doctrine of the Trinity. The constitution of our own mind is an enigma which no man as yet has been able to solve; we need not wonder, therefore, that we cannot comprehend the nature and constitution of God. Those branches of science which treat of the faculties and affections of man may fitly be described as a labyrinth, in which many have wandered, but which no one has been able fully to explore. We, therefore, may well exclaim, "Who by searching can find out God?" The utmost that we can attempt is to set forth those particulars in which the Father, Son, and Spirit are spoken of in Scripture as one; and those again, in which they are described as distinct; and while we limit our attempt to the simple enunciation of the truth revealed, we must humbly confess that, even in this, we are apt to darken counsel by words without knowledge.

When we direct our attention to the means by which we distinguish one man from another, we find that the most permanent and important distinctions are those mental peculiarities which produce the wide diversity of character and disposition which we find to prevail in all ranks and classes of society. But there are no such distinctions between the persons in the Godhead. Deity implies the infinitude of power and wisdom. The word of Omnipotence commands, and it is done; the eye of Omniscience beholds, and "all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do." These perfections, essential to the nature of God, are ascribed alike to the Father, to the Son, and to the Spirit. Of the Father, for example, it is said, "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins;" of the Son we are told, that "He needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man;" while we are informed that "the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Similar remarks might be made in regard to the attribute of eternity. The Father claims the title of "I am," as His "name for ever, and his memorial to all generations;" while the Son is called the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come;" and the third person in the Godhead is designated "the Eternal Spirit." With respect to their faculties, or properties of mind, these three are in every particular the same. These perfections, moreover, are all employed in the same manner, and are all occupied in advancing the same design. In their boundless benevolence towards their creatures, they all are one. In holiness, justice, and truth, they are essentially and eternally the same. They have all the same object before them; they pursue an undivided plan; in every faculty, in every feeling, in every desire they entertain, and in every purpose they form, "these three are one."

Diversity in outward appearance affords us another means by which we distinguish one man from another. But no such diversities are found among the persons in the Three-one God. We read of the saints of old having seen "the glory of God," and we are told of the Holy Spirit descending, "like a dove," on the head of the Redeemer; but though the great Jehovah sometimes made known His presence by the miraculous display of a visible brightness, these appearances were only temporary. He has no abiding form or bodily frame. "No man hath seen God at any time;" nor does it seem to be possible for any crea­ture whatever to discern His likeness, or see His shape. The second person in the Godhead is permanently united to "the man Christ Jesus," and in this wondrous union constitutes the Immanuel— "God with us." As a man He sits on the throne around which the hosts of heaven are assembled; but though He is "God manifest in the flesh," and we may "see his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," yet it is as man that He is beheld; as God he is removed alike from our intellectual comprehension and from our bodily view.

The Offices of the Father, Son, and Spirit.—The only distinc­tion between the persons in the Godhead, of which we can form an intelligent idea, is found in the relation in which they are represented as standing to each other, and in the office or work which they are severally described as performing. As men pursue various occupations, and have assigned to them peculiar departments in the general division of human labour, so, in the work of Creation and Redemption, the Father, Son, and Spirit are represented as performing separate offices; though all are one in heart and purpose, and all combine in the most perfect harmony of design.

The Father is spoken of as forming the plan, or counsel, by which all events are directed. In pursuance of this plan He is said to send the Son, and to send the Spirit; while He chooses those that are to be saved, and gives them to the Son to be a "holy and peculiar people to himself." The Son is represented as willingly uniting with the Father in the work of man's redemption. He is the active agent in carrying out the Father's counsel of love; and, in performing this work, He acts as the Prophet, Priest, and King of His people. The Holy Spirit is spoken of as sent by the Father, at the request and for the sake of the Son. In all men, whether believers or unbelievers, He restrains the perversity of the corrupt heart, while the day of forbearance lasts; in the children of God, He implants and nourishes holy affections while the state of probation continues, and perfects them in eternity.

The execution of these offices, severally appropriated to the Father, Son, and Spirit, is the only characteristic by which the persons in the Trinity are distinguished from each other, in so far, that is to say, as the volume of inspiration has made known, and forms the foundation on which all the peculiar doctrines of revealed religion depend.

We cannot, therefore, overestimate the importance of a clear and accurate acquaintance with the doctrine of Scripture in regard to them. At the same time, we must keep in mind, that the information communicated to us, is but limited, and that any attempt to pry into that over which the Lord has been pleased to draw a veil, would not only be chargeable with folly, as indicating an overweening confidence in our own understanding; but might, with propriety, be accused of profanity, as manifesting a forgetfulness of the majesty and incomprehensible perfection of God. On such a subject, we limit our statements to a simple enunciation of that which has been revealed.