Its God to man, and completes the canon of inspiration. teachings are designed for all nations, to encounter and destroy all religious delusions, to banish all idolatry from the earth, and to give to the whole universe the brightest manifestations of God's nature, character, and will. It gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now if the views of the ancient heathen had been radically erroneous in maintaining a distinction in the Godhead, they would, doubtless, have been utterly denounced in the New Testament; and if the sentiments of the ancient Jews on this subject had been erroneous-had been founded upon mistaken interpretations of the Old Testament, they would doubtless have been corrected in the New Testament. If there be no distinction in the Godhead, the doctrine which holds that distinction is a grossly corrupt doctrine; if there be no Trinity of persons, than the worship rendered to the Son and Spirit is idolatry, and the prevalence of a notion thus pregnant with mischief could not have been unrebuked by the teachings of Christ and his apostles. Errors, superstitions, and sinful customs, neither so fatal nor so prevalent as this, were exposed and denounced with a loud and decisive tone; and surely this would not have been uncondemned. But was it condemned? Are the doctrines, the precepts, and the phraseology of the New Testament such as to rebuke and discountenance the belief that there is a distinction of persons in the godhead? Marvellous to say, they are just the reverse. They everywhere encourage and sanction the doctrine of the Trinity. The New Testament is full of this doctrin, as the hypercriticism, evasions, and distorted interpretations of the Unitarian confess. If the doctrine of the Trinity be an error, the New Testament is just adapted to perpetuate that delusion where it previously existed, and to diffuse it where it was not already known. But the doctrine is true, and the New Testament confirms and establishes it by the clearest evidence, as a doctrine taught by the authority of God. At our Saviour's baptism the doctrine of the divine THREE presents itself; for, at the close of that ordinance, the Spirit of God descends upon the Son, and the Father's voice proclaims from the parted sky, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Thus the doctrine stands before us at the very threshold of the christian system. Baptism is enjoined as a christian rite upon all, as an introduction to the christian church; but this holy ordinance is to be performed in the name of the glorious ThreeBaptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Thus the very first truth a disciple had to hear and to learn on being admitted to the church was the distinction of the Godhead into Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He could not enter the portals of the christian edifice without being acquainted with the glorious Trinity. The knowledge of many other truths might be reserved to a future period, but the babe in Christ must be taught to lisp the name 66 of the Triune God. In the apostolic benediction the personalities of the Godhead are made prominent: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen."-(II. Cor. xiii. 14.) Here the glorious Three are addressed in prayer, as the united fountain of grace and love. But we need not multiply passages, as the very phraseology ofthe New Testament is constructed upon the distinction of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and every page attests it. Thus, the representations given of the Deity in the New Testament harmonise with the teachings of the old. As might be expected, in the latter dispensation the truths of the former are expanded, and set forth with clearer lustre. The plurality of the name Aleim, so constantly used in the venerable records of Moses and the prophets, becomes merged into the clearer manifestation and emphatic declaration of Father, Son, and Spirit, in the teachings of Christ and his apostles. It is to be observed, too, that the distinction of persons in the Godhead never exceeds a Trinity. In some passages one divine person only is named; in others two; and in others three; but neither by direct statement nor implication is this number ever exceeded; and this is another evidence that the distinction is real, and not merely nominal or apparent. Trinal are the names assigned to them, and trinal the relations they sustain to each other, and to man, in the economy of redemption; trinal the doxologies ascribed to them in heaven, and trinal the benedictions implored from them by the church on earth. Yet these three are ONE JEHOVAH-one in essence, and equal in glory, as their name Jehovah Aleim imports, and their union in our worship and our baptism proclaims. If, then, the scriptures be our guide, our first proposition is established by their authority; "that while God is truly one in essence, he is truly and really distinguished by a threefold personality." To render our argument complete, we have yet to demonstrate, from the holy scriptures, that each personal distinction in the Godhead is described as possessing true and proper divinity; but this belongs to our second proposition, and must form the subject of our next chapter. The SECOND PART, on the HOLY TRINITY, will be published shortly. Tract No. 1, on "The Province of Reason," and No. 2, on "The Inspiration and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures," 2d. each, may be had from Booksellers, and from the Ministers in the Connexion. RECOMMENDATION OF THE TRACT NO. 1. "We feel pleasure in recording, that we never read a treatise which afforded us greater satisfaction. It is powerful in argument, logical in arrangement, and felicitous in illustration. Wherever it is circulated and studied, it will oppose a powerful check to the career of the unbeliever in his descent to Socinianism and infidelity. It would be the misfortune of any Methodist family to be without a copy of this Tract."-Irish Christian Monitor. RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TRACT No. 2. "A supremely important subject is here handled in a very perspicuous and satisfactory manner. The arguments adduced are most conclusive. A large amount of valuable information, not accessible to the generality of readers, is brought within a very small compass, and at a price which places it within the reach of all. We anticipate very important and beneficial results from the circulation of the series of tracts which the esteemed author is now issuing."-New Connexion Magazine. "The Tract before us lucidly explains the nature of the Divine influence afforded to the writers of the Holy Scriptures, and brings into a small compass a mass of evidence demonstrative of the Divine authority of the several parts of the sacred volume. The author is fully entitled to receive the assistance of the friends of truth and righteousness in the circulation of his tracts. This may be claimed on account of the ability with which they are written, and the important purpose which they are so well adapted to serve."-Wesleyan Association Magazine. NOTICE. The Tracts are designed to form a work, embodying a Scriptural defence and illustration of the great doctrines, &c., of the Christian Religion, and will be published monthly, or more frequently as the author may have opportunity for his task. At present their circulation is considerable, such as indemnifies the author from loss, but that the work may have a wider diffusion amongst the humbler classes of society, and any Christian family may have, on terms adapted to their circumstances, the means of being enlightened and established in the great truths of the Gospel, he is willing to reduce the price to 1d. per number, provided the circulation can be increased to justify that reduction. A generous friend in the Potteries, desirous to aid in this object, has ordered two hundred copies of each, which he is to have for £1. Any Christian friend actuated by the same purpose may be supplied with one or two hundred on the same terms. The author would thank ministers and friends to make these facts known, and to favour him with their views as early as convenient, in order that he may know what to determine. J. BLACKWELL AND CO., PRINTERS, NEWCASTLE. SERIES OF TRACTS ON CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. THE DEITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BEING THE SECOND PART ON THE HOLY TRINITY, BY WILLIAM COOKE, (MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL.) LONDON: JOHN BAKEWELL, METHODIST NEW CONNEXION BOOK MAY BE HAD FROM THE WESLEYAN ASSOCIATION BOOK ROOM, |