A striking instance of this truth occurred to myself, when a really conscientious and excellent man had repeatedly attended to a full explanation of all the preceding arguments, and admitted them to be irrefragable; yet, when they trenched upon the TRIUNE ESSENCE of the Divinity, every thing in the shape of application to the Deity by way of personification became totally inadmissible, and the whole train of reasoning was rebutted by this observation: "All your principles, as far as regards nature, are indisputably true; but, until you can prove to my satisfaction that Three Persons Tom Jones, Harry Piper, are ONE Person, I never can be convinced that three Gods are ONE God!" This is a sad perversion of the personification of principle, and a lamentable proof of the inveteracy of prejudice. I further added that the demand was so gross an absurdity, that none but a madman would propose it—nor, indeed, was such an inconsistency ever attempted to be taught in the "Scriptures."-For Christ says: "The Doctrine I teach is not from myself, but from my Father, who is in heaven; and it came from him to me, his Son, who now manifest it to you on earth." When we apply the epithet, Father, to our own parent, we merely imply that he is the AUTHOR of a being in some respects similar to himself. And, in applying the same expression to the AUTHOR of the word, the λóyos, or REASON, we only personify a power, and indicate that this power has made a Being in his own likeness, which personification generates the following Can any thing be more rational than this exposition of the sublime primitive, permanent, and necessary, Principle of the Divine Essence! How consoling and satisfactory to find that the most profound investigation of the Rational Faculty really furnishes results in such perfect harmony with the "HOLY GOSPEL," that to doubt the one would be to give up the other! So that if we are real "Christians," we may exclaim, in conviction of the perfect truth of that divine doctrine preached by Jesus" that God is in us, and we are in him." Under the influence of such a conviction, the highest motive that can actuate man is "reverence for the sanctity and purity of the Moral Law," which is implanted in his REASON, and which forms the direct communication between man and his Maker; and absolute obedience to this Law actually admits us into the holy fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ; through whose mediation we are earnestly invited to deposit our souls, amended by this sacred course, in that blissful, exalted, and ever-during abode, Heaven! We hope we have now accomplished our task, and proved the Divinity of Christ, the Rationality of the Athanasian Creed, and the truth of the "HOLY TRINITY,' not only to the entire conviction of the Infidel, the Jew, the Gentile, and the Unitarian, but to the absolute conviction of every being endowed with REASON. The term Unitarian seems to imply one who objects to the Triune Essence of the Deity, as being both incomprehensible and absurd. But surely, if the arguments here adduced in support and confirmation of this divine doctrine are duly and attentively weighed, such a sect can no longer exist. Then this great and glorious good results that "Christians” will in future have one firm and indissoluble bond of union-that they all worship "ONE God in Trinity and TRINITY IN UNITY." : I am eternally bound to the reviewers of my work, for affording me this opportunity of enlarging on the arguments of the Introduction to the first edition. Having fully felt the force of the reasoning which produced the results there stated, and to which these leading steps will be found to conduct, I had considered that they would have been generally comprehensible; but the kind hints of these critics have determined me to go the present length in showing the foundation on which they have been progressively raised in support of the Divarication of the "Scriptures" into DocTRINE and HISTORY, the solution of the supposed mystery of the "HOLY TRINITY," and the personification of the three " Holy Persons" of the Godhead; which will, I presume, be perfectly satisfactory to the reflecting mind. Yet, should any doubt as to the legitimacy and accuracy of first principles, from which all the subsequent reasoning flows, still remain in the mind of the most sceptical critic that ever entered the lists, I have great satisfaction in assuring him—to borrow an expression from another science that I am so charged with proofs for the support of the principles advanced, that let the doubter only come within the sphere of the influence of my Jar, and he shall receive such a shock as will, for ever, discharge all his doubts. After what has preceded, it would be as absurd to expunge that most perfect, rational, and complete, ex position of the TRIUNE GOD, the "Athanasian Creed," from our Liturgy, as it would be impossible to nullify the Omnipotent and Eternal Being, or to deprive him of his Triune Essence. We must ever bear in mind that oneness is noneness; and this fact is the foundation of that ever-memorable AXIOM. The root of ONE is three. Whoever admits that his progenitor was his Father, excludes, for ever, Atheism, and allows the personification of the Deity as the only possible mode of conversing about Spirits. Who can free himself from this acknowledgment! The curious searcher into the records of man's advances in enlightenment will be able to trace a high veneration for the number three among all mankind, and in all religions; as well as a never-ceasing effort to unite these three into a mystical ONE, as far back as the flood. Traces are even now to be witnessed of the gigantic Trimurti, or the three-formed God of the Hindoos Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva-whose colossal figure is still to be seen carved in the solid rock, which constituted a Temple of their worship, in the Island of Elephanta. The Theologian will also confirm the truth of this statement, by proving that a TRINITY IN UNITY |