standing in an incommunicable relation to cach and to both themselves. And whether we consider this third person necessarily arising in the Divine Essence, from the union of personality, in giving and receiving a divine promise; or whether we consider the necessary communication by the first and second, in one joint active principle, constituting the third;-neither the one nor the other of these views implies the smallest inequality among the divine persons, as we have often argued for the whole, according to the foregoing Propositions, is founded upon the law of the constitution and economy of the Divine Essence and perfections, every way necessary to the absolute consummation of the perfection and happiness of the Divine Being, within its own essence, before creation and providence began, and entirely independent of all created beings.

And as the divine goodness is the same in the mode or person making the promise, which it is in the mode or person receiving the promise, and the same which it is in the mode or person receiving the joint communication of the promise from the other two; and these persons stand in the distinct and incommunicable relations to one another, already mentioned;-therefore, by this train of reasoning also, the Divine Essence must, according to its own nature, subsist in three, and can subsist in neither more nor less than three, distinct, not separate, modes or persons.

8. Now as, in the foregoing Proposition, it was satisfactorily proved, that there must be a Trinity of persons in the Divine Essence, in order to the creation of all things; so, upon the very same principle, we argue, that it was impossible that the work of providence could be carried on upon any other principle; and revelation clearly supports this "The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high; who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth?" And as providence could not be carried on without the subsistence of the Divine Essence in three distinct persons, so it was impossible that redemption could have been effected upon any other principle. If the divine promises have been revealed to the human race, according to a particular modification in the divine moral government, they are only the small glimpses of those necessary, eternal, immense, and immutable promises, which, according to their own nature, are signified by one divine person to another, from everlasting to everlasting, every way adequate to the Divine Nature, before creation and providence began. And hence it undeniably follows, that, unless the Divine Essence necessarily subsist in three coequal, co-eternal, co-immense, and co-immutable persons, it was, and would have been, for ever impossible for the Divine Being to have made

the smallest revelation of itself to the sons of How strikingly does revelation correspond with this! "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."

9. It is upon the principle of the doctrine of a Trinity of persons in the Divine Essence, that the plan of redemption shines forth in all its glory. And we observe particularly the relation it has to this divine perfection, which is capable of making, receiving, and ratifying a divine promise, according to its own nature, in the Divine Essence, without beginning and without end, unceasingly. Hence the mysterious scheme of revelation has been exhibited among the sons of men, and the interesting plan of redemption made known in the glorious prophecies and promises of the sacred oracles.

Every view of this Proposition, taken in connection with all the foregoing, is consistent with reason, with revelation, and with the necessary and essential perfections of the Divine Being. Therefore it must be true; and it evidently establishes the doctrine of the Trinity, in defiance of all opposition, from whatever quarter.

The reasoning which we have used, it is hoped,

will be found legitimate; and the grand scope of this Proposition is, both to establish the doctrine of the Trinity, and the plan of redemption, according to that doctrine. Whatever establishes the one, establishes the other; and we rest the whole force of all upon the divine efficiency, intelligence, goodness, love, a power of expressing the divine will, and of making a promise.*

* See Note M. on the preceding Proposition.

Q 3

PROPOSITION XIII.

PROVING THE DOCTRINE FROM THE POWER WHICH THE HUMAN SOUL HAS TO BEAR WITNESS.

[Some of the organs of sense were given for the purpose of bearing witness-There must be in the Divine Essence a perfection answering to, or corresponding with, the power of bearing witness-If not, the Divine Being is imperfect-This perfection must have been as absolute, in its own nature, before creation, as since, and would for ever continue perfect, were creation and providence annihilated-If the Divine Being could not exercise one of its own necessary perfections, according to its own nature, before creation, then this perfection, before creation, was of no use-The very same mode of subsistence cannot bear witness to itself—It cannot be both agent and object in the very same act-Unless there were three distinct persons in the Divine Essence, the rational intelligent creatures could render no worship to the Divine Being.]

1. ALL the foregoing Propositions are still more strongly supported, and more fully and clearly established, by another train of reasoning, founded upon the social powers of the human soul; and, in particular, upon that power which it has of bearing witness.

That this is an essential power in the constitution of the human soul, will not be disputed.Bearing witness, in a certain sense, is a moral