THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. A Sermon, BY THE REV. GEORGE TREVOR, S. C. L., "How can these things be?" SUCH was the question of the astonished Nicodemus when our blessed Lord declared to him the certainty and necessity of a belief in things whose manner of existence he was unable to comprehend. The reply of our divine Teacher shews us the way in which such questions must be treated. We find in him no attempt to gratify the curiosity, or assist the speculation of this master of Israel, as to the mode of regeneration; still less did he exhibit any inclination to compromise or veil the truth which was so humbling to the intellect of his auditor. On the contrary, he re-affirms his assertion with a solemnity worthy of the occasion; and, having before shewed him the insufficiency of his boasted intellect to comprehend the mode of one of the commonest events of nature, he here teaches him to receive divine truth as becomes a dependent creature, simply on the authority of the divine word, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.' With this example prepared by the church for our guidance this day, I am to call your attention to the doctrine of the holy Trinity: which I purpose first briefly to state; then, to consider the solitary objection which is urged against it; and lastly, to adduce some of the divine testimony on which the doctrine is grounded. And may the same eternal God on whose perfections we are about to meditate, fill us with adoring awe and love, and bless the ministration of his word to our increase in faith and holiness! I. The doctrine of the holy Trinity, collected from all parts of scripture, and acknowledged by the Catholic church in every age as the foundation of Christianity, is briefly this; "That there is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible." That the mode of existence, the nature, and substance of this eternal Spirit is beyond the comprehension of our finite minds. Nevertheless, acknowledging and adoring the divine Unity, we believe that his word has revealed certain facts connected with his essence, which could no otherwise be known, and which, since he has deigned to reveal them, it must have been necessary for man to know. These facts we express by the word "Trinity;" wherein we understand, that in the unity of the Godhead (by a union, the mode of which is neither explained, nor, since it relates to infinity, could possibly be explained to us) there do subsist three co-equal Persons; by which name we understand no difference of parts, counsel, or knowledge, such as exists between different persons on earth, but only such a distinction as renders the Father not the Son, nor the Holy Ghost; the Son not the Father, nor the Holy Ghost; and the Holy Ghost not the Father, nor the Son: each in himself very and eternal God, and yet not "three Gods, but one God." We use the word Person (in the poverty of language to express spiritual things), because we find ascribed in scripture to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost severally, all the actions of making, governing, and upholding, which could indicate the existence of a personal agent. We say that each is perfect God, because the proper name and attributes of God are in scripture predicated of each; and we believe that those three are one God, because the same unerring scripture affirms, and reason readily assents, that the Lord our God is one God: thus, in all things, making the revealed word of him who cannot lie the measure and standard of our faith. If we be asked, "how can these things be?" we attempt not to satisfy the question; we appeal simply to the plain positive evidence of our eyes and ears (in the reading and hearing of holy writ); and we have no desire to go beyond what is written: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever." But further: we think not that even so much of the divine essence has been revealed as to nourish speculation, or gratify a vain curiosity. The doctrine of the Trinity is eminently practical : for it goes on to teach, that when all mankind were alienated from God by their own sin, and justly liable to his eternal condemnation, the second Person in the triune Deity took upon himself man's nature; whereby, by a union as inexplicable as that of the Trinity, God and man became one Christ. That this blessed Person, by the virtue of his divine nature, did, in the flesh, not only fully satisfy the law of God himself, but, by his voluntary meritorious death upon the cross, did atone to the offended Majesty of heaven for the sins of all mankind: that then he rose from the grave, leading captive the powers of death and hell, and with his human body returned to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, where in this his glorified state as Jehovah Jesus, the God-man, he sits on the right hand of the Father, until all his enemies be made his footstool, till not a soul of man stands out against his love. This mediato- being or matter whose nature and number it rial kingdom shall cease, only because there is within the province of reason to judge of. shall be none for whom to mediate, for all But if, from this, you attempt to argue, that shall know the Lord. That meantime, the it must be equally contrary to reason that third divine Person, the Holy Spirit, pro- three Persons are one God, the inference is ceeding from the Father and the Son, carries manifestly unsound; for neither the nature on the work below, brings lost souls to a of the divine Persons, nor the unity of the sense of their condition, stirs them up to Godhead, is in any shape within the comseek to be washed in his blood; kindles love, prehension or power of reason; and theresupplies grace, establishes faith; and so, fore no assertion whatever, with respect to working in us both to will and to do of his their union or distinction, can be properly good pleasure, enables us, by the aid of such termed contrary to reason. Again; as to the preventing and co-operating grace, to "work other form of the objection, that no man can out our own salvation." Thus the doctrine believe what he does not understand: if this of the holy Trinity comprehends those of ori- means that we cannot assent to the truth of a ginal sin, the atonement, election, regenera- proposition until we understand its meaning, tion, sanctification, and the prevailing inter- it will not assuredly be denied. But if, under cession and priesthood of Christ-doctrines as- cover of such an obvious truth, it is intended suredly of number and importance enough to to say that no man can believe a proposition justify language the most explicit, unceasing to be true until he understands the whole watchfulness, and uncompromising defence. nature of the subject matter, and perceives "The faith of the holy Trinity," says bishop its agreement with what is asserted of it, the Sherlock, "is so fundamental to the Christian statement is manifestly and positively false. religion, that, if Christianity be worth con- That the Father is God, the Son God, and tending for, that is. For if God have not an the Holy Ghost God, and that there is eternal Son and an eternal Spirit, the whole but one God, are propositions, the meanmystery of our redemption by Christ, and of ing of which is perfectly apparent, and our sanctification by the Spirit, which, in its which, therefore, can be readily believed, consequences, is the whole of the gospel, and when asserted on sufficient evidence. But distinguishes it from all other religions, is when nothing more is affirmed, it is quite utterly lost." To which I add one more irrelevant to ask how these three can be one; quotation from another divine. "The di- and to suspend our assent to the fact on an vinity of Christ is a scripture truth as much explication of the mode (with respect to which as the divinity of the Father; and one is no mode nothing is attempted to be taught), is more a metaphysical speculation than the an abuse of words undeserving the name of other. It is strangely improper and absurd, reason. The greater part of our notions, even to call these principles pure speculations, of those most strongly entertained, are based which are of so great importance for the on authority, are believed without the least regulating our worship, that we can neither knowledge of the mode of existence, or naomit to worship Christ, if they are true, with- tural law, which makes the thing to be what out the greatest impiety, nor perform it, if we believe. Ask the labourer if he believes they are false, without being guilty of ido- that a grain of wheat thrown into the ground, latry." after rotting and perishing, will spring up again into numbers of such grains, and he will smile at the simplicity of the question. Ask again how this can be? how so many perfect grains, with blade, and stalk, and ear, can be contained in the rotten fragments of a single corn? and the wisest philosopher on earth need not be ashamed to confess his ignorance. So also with the other operations of nature. How many of those I now address could tell me how it is the magnetic needle points to the north; how it is that the planets circle round the sun, as their centre; how it is that heavy bodies fall to the earth more rapidly than light ones? yet who disbelieves the facts? And shall we firmly believe that which we see and know of the things around us, though beset with a thousand difficulties, and refuse assent to what God tells us of himself, because exact mode, and manner and II. To this doctrine it has been opposed (and I have called it a solitary objection, because, in truth, all others may be resolved into it, and are only sought out to second and support it), that it is contrary to reason, to say that three are one, and therefore it cannot be the teaching of scripture, or, as it is sometimes stated, that no man can believe what he cannot comprehend. Various and conclusive are the arguments by which the great body of Christian believers have ever exposed and defeated this arrogant and presumptuous objection; yet it continues to have weight with some, owing to a confusion of ideas, which it may be worthy of a few minutes to unravel. If this objection means, that to assert that three men are one man, is contrary to reason, we readily admit its truth; and so, in like manner, of any place are not explained to us? Are these mysteries in the works of creation, which yet stop not our faith, and must we have all so very plain in the nature and existence of the Creator? The demand is not that of reason, but of dispute and cavil. Let such objectors be consistent. Take those attributes of the Deity, which they will themselves admit, and try them by the same rule. Let us reckon, for example, backward thousands and thousands of years before the creation of the world; or forward, for millions of centuries after the destruction of all we can imagine most durable, till our faculties sink beneath the effort, and we are no whit nearer to the beginning or the end of God's being; and the attempt will only serve to shew the impossibility of finite creatures comprehending the idea of infinite duration: yet who there fore disbelieves that God is eternal? Again; let us walk abroad at midnight, and survey the hosts of heaven: suppose, what no astronomer will venture to call a fanciful enthusiasm, that every planet we perceive is inhabited by millions of intelligent beings; that every star is another sun, round which a myriad of worlds beside revolve, whose distance hides them from our sight; that, further, those mysterious depths hold systems innumerable, the beams of whose suns are lost in space before they reach our globe; and then add to all, the mighty thought that God is with every one of those created beings at the same moment, undivided and indivisible; and though the brain may soon be bewildered with the vastness of the idea, the mind will not have advanced a hair's-breadth towards the comprehension of his ubiquity. But do we therefore disbelieve the omnipresence of God? It is the same with all his other attributes which we can only speak of negatively as possessing no limit, and can only picture to ourselves as transcending every power but himself. On what ground, then, is it, that we believe that God is of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, without body, parts, or passions, while we confess that we are unable to realize the ideas which such words attempt in the same measure to suggest? Obviously, in the first place, because these things are affirmed of him in holy scripture; and, in the second, because, while it is confessed beyond our reason to comprehend eternity, omnipresence, omnipotence, or omniscience, yet it is agreeable to reason that the being and attributes of God should have no limit of time or place. And precisely the same are the grounds of our faith with respect to the Trinity in unity. We believe that there are three divine Persons, because holy scripture speaks of three; and it is agreaable to reason, that what the record of truth says of each severally, should severally be true: and it is with equal submission to the authority of scripture, and assuredly in no less accordance with reason, that we believe there is but one God; whence the inference is rational, or rather inevitable, that the three Persons are one God, though we frankly admit the incompetency of reason to tell us how, or even to understand it if told. Yet let not this discompose us: so long as we find our opponents, with all their talk of reason, falling into such lamentable absurdities as the following: "We have, indeed," they say, "been baptised in the name of the God of the Christians, that is, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; but we, who know nothing of the Father's essence, or even of the essence of an insect, we are nevertheless so perfectly acquainted with the divine essence, as to decide that it is absolutely inconsistent with the nature of the Father to have a living Word, or a proper Son, and a rational Spirit, and therefore reforming our God himself, we strike the Word and the Holy Ghost out of the number of the divine Persons, whom, at our baptism, we and all the Catholic church vowed to serve jointly for ever." Sect. 2.) (Simpson's Deity, Part I., But to proceed a step further-and I wish it to be considered whether the objection, whose futility I have endeavoured to shew, is not in fact a strong argument for the truth of the doctrine we are maintaining-take the case as it would present itself to a reflecting mind before the book of God was opened: suppose it to be said, This book professes to be an account of the dealings and will of God with respect to his creatures, revealed by himself for the purpose of informing and directing their lives here, and bringing them to the joy of his presence hereafter. What might we expect from such a title? Assuredly that all points which affect the duty and personal conduct of man, should be revealed with clearness sufficient to be comprehended and obeyed by him; but that if there were anything else, as doubtless there would be in a communication from an infinite to a finite being, the knowledge of which was neither possible to his capacity, nor profitable to his edification, that such points should be left in mystery. Open now the book, and this antecedent view is exactly realised in the doctrine of the Trinity. The several deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is clearly asserted, because it is obviously a fundamental part of our faith and worship. The unity of the Godhead is no less necessary in procuring worthy notions of his spirituality and holiness, and so therefore is revealed for the informing and directing our devotion. I was God." Again, to shew without a doubt But the method in which these two proportions harmonize, the exact amount of distinction which constitutes the several personality, and the precise manner in which the unity of the Godhead is preserved, these are points which especially belong to the infinite essence of God, the knowledge of which, if possible to be imparted, cannot be shewn to have a practical effect, so is it not revealed. "The secret things," to quote again the true philosophy of the inspired writer, "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children for ever." III. It is time that we should proceed to some of the scriptural evidence, on the strength of which the Catholic church affirms the doctrine of the Trinity. These evidences, as I have observed, may be gathered from every part of scripture: they have been found by the industry and ability of learned commentators in various places, which, satisfactory as they are, require, to be properly understood, a knowledge of the original languages, together with greater application and closeness of reasoning than is suited to this place-passing over, then, for these reasons only, these less obvious proofs, I shall content myself with producing some plain passages, where the name, actions, and attributes of God are ascribed as fully to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as to the Father. And first, we find the Son and the Holy Ghost expressly called God and Lord; "My God and my Lord," was the well-known exclamation of the astonished Thomas when convinced of his Master's resurrection-words which can never be explained away, as some have at tempted, by imputing to the apostle in the very moment of his penitence, the awful sin of profane swearing: for this vice, however familiar in countries called Christian, was almost unknown to the Jews, and assuredly would not have passed without a rebuke from the meek and lowly Jesus. Hear, again, the testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved, delivered (as we learn from authentic authors) at the request of the Christian church, for the express purpose of vindicating the dignity of his Master's person: "In the beginning was the Word" (John i.), a term which the ancient Jews understood of the Messiah, and which is nearly equivalent to "wisdom" as used by Solomon. The plainest reason of this appellation seems to be, that as our words are the interpretations of our minds to others, so was the Son of God sent to reveal his Father's mind to the world. "This Word, then," says St. John, "was in the beginning," before creation was called into existence; "The Word was with God, and the Word of whom it is the evangelist speaks, he writes in the fourteenth verse; "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory; the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." John bore witness of him, and cried, saying, "This is he of whom I spake; he that cometh after me is preferred before me." In the twenty-ninth and thirtieth verses of the same chapter, we learn that, he of whom the Baptist bore this testimony, was Jesus: "The next day John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world: this is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man who is preferred before me." It is undeniable, then, on a comparison of these places, that the evangelist speaks of Jesus by the title of the Word, and asserts that he was in the heginning with God. But to adduce another passage from this evangelist (xii. 41), he writes; "These things, said Esaias, when he saw his glory and spoke of him." The context proves St. John to be writing of Jesus, while, if we turn to the place quoted from Isaiah, it is equally clear that the prophet spoke of Jehovah, and consequently that Jesus is truly God. The passage is in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and is introduced with these unequivocal words: "In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high, and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." And in the fifth verse, the prophet thus expresses his sense of the glory which he had seen; "Woe is me, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." The testimony of St. Paul is no less explicit: "by whom all things was made, and without him was not any thing made that was made." In the hundred and second psalm, which is entitled a prayer of the afHicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord, from the 24th to the 27th verse, we find the following address: "I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days! Thy years are throughout all generations: of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old, like a garment: as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." Is it possible, we ask, to read these words, and not believe them to be addressed to God? Then turn to the first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, from 10th to the 13th verse, and you find them expressly interpreted of the Son; "Unto the Son, he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever;" which is a quotation from the forty-fifth psalm; and, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth," and so on to the end of the passage which I have read. But, "what need we any further witness, for we ourselves have heard of his own unouth :" "I and my Father are one:" "Before Abraham was, I am-" where the peculiar appellation of Jehovah, "I am that I am," is unquestionably appropriated by Christ, and was so understood by his hearers, for they "took up stones to cast at him"-the punishment of the blasphemy of which they considered him guilty, in making himself equal with God. Hear, again, his plain, simple language to Philip, desiring to see the Father; "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou, then, shew us the Father? Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me" (John, xiv. 9). And no less explicitly is the name and title of God given in scripture to the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God is said to have moved on the face of the waters at the creation. The prophets and holy men of old, are said to have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. "The Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me," says Isaiah, probably speaking in the person of the Messiah. Referring to the perverseness of the Israelites, the psalmist says, "they provoked the Most High in the wilderness, and tempted God in their hearts;" while Isaiah, speaking of the same thing, says, "They rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit." Again, (Heb. iii. 7, 8), the language of God is ascribed to the Holy Ghost; "the Holy Ghost saith, to-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." In the New Testament, also, the conception of Christ is thus announced by the angel Gabriel: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." It was revealed to Simeon by the Holy Ghost that "he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.' By the Spirit he is said to have come into the temple, and there taking the child Jesus in his arms he addresses the same Spirit, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word." Those who are born anew of water and the Holy Ghost are styled the children of God. The Holy Ghost dwells in the hearts of the faithful--the same thing which our Lord expresses elsewhere by saying that the Father and himself will take up their abode in us: while the psalmist declares it to be the end of Christ's ascension and session at the right hand of the Father, that the Lord God might dwell among us. Lying to the Holy Ghost is declared by St. Peter to be lying unto God (Acts v. 3, 4). And the Holy Ghost is every where represented as directing the apostles. "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us," is the language of the apostles and elders and the whole church assembled at Jerusalem. The Holy Ghost said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul." The Spirit said to Philip, “Go and join thyself to this chariot." The Spirit again caught away Philip. The Spirit it was who said to Peter, thinking on the vision, "Behold three men seek thee." When Paul and his companions had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, and assayed to go into Bithynia, it was the Spirit who suffered them not. In short, though the time will not suffer us to enter fully on this branch of evidence, we affirm without hesitation, that all the actions, attributes and glory of God are in the plain natural sense of the words ascribed in scripture to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, no less than to the Father; for in the words of a writer, who has carefully examined and substantiated every branch of his summary. "Is the Father called in scripture God? So is the Son, and so is the Holy Ghost. Is the Father called Lord? So is the Son, and so is the Holy Ghost. Is the Father eternal, almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, uncreated, incomprehensible? So is the Son, and so is the Holy Ghost. Was the Father concerned in the work of creation? So was the Son, and so was the Holy Ghost. Is the Father the upholder of the universe? So is the Son, and so is the Holy Ghost. Is the Father engaged in the regeneration of human souls? So is the Son, and so is the Holy Ghost. Is prayer addressed to the Father? So likewise to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. Are we baptized and blessed in the name of the Father? So likewise in the name of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Did the Father conduct the Israelites to the Holy Land? So did the Son, and so did the Holy Ghost. Is Jehovah the name of the Father? So is it of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Is holiness, goodness, wisdom, power, worship, praise, and glory, ascribed unto the Father? So are they in equal fulness and perfection to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." To this true Catholic faith may we all have grace and strength stedfastly to adhere! may we cleave to it with the deep, solemn, soul-filling simplicity of the ancient martyr, Irenæus, who, but three removes from Christ himself, yielded Simpson's Deity, Part V. Sect. 2. |