an unsuccessive eternity is ever present.-Ps. ii. 7, with Isa. xliii. 13; Micah v. 2. Nor is the generation of his Son there represented as an event decreed, but as antecedent to, or fundamental of, God's grant of the Gentiles to him for his mediatorial inheritance."*

The evidence at which we have glanced, abundantly establishes the position that the name, Father, is that by which the First Person of the Trinity is designated, in respect ? 12. The Doctrine of the to his distinctive personality, in the unity of the Trinity. Godhead;-that, reciprocal to this, the name, Son, is appropriated in like manner to the Second Person;—and, that the relation which they sustain to each other is appropriately described in terms of the phenomenon of begetting or generation. It is not questioned, by any who believe in the Trinity, that the name, Holy Spirit, is the distinctive title of the divine nature as subsisting in the Third Person of the Godhead. Thus we have the mystery of the blessed Trinity clearly set forth, to our apprehension and worship, in the names here considered; by the use of which, in the ordinance of baptism, we profess and seal our faith.

As to the meaning of these names and of the corresponding phraseology of Scripture, we can say but little. Man's darkened understanding only comes to any adequate sense of its own ruin, in the presence of the questions concerning the nature of that holy and glorious One, in whose likeness he was originally made; of whom he is now able to understand so little. And, although this is eternal life, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ his Son,-the knowledge enjoyed by the believer here, consists rather in an affectionate embrace, than in large intellectual conceptions respecting the nature of Him who is thus known. In heaven it will be otherwise:-"We shall see as we are seen, and know even as also we are known." Yet are there two or three points so plainly revealed, that it is our privilege to believe and assert them as truths; however dull our apprehensions, as to their meaning.

1. Such is the relation which the First and Second Persons

* Brown's Natural and Revealed Religion, Book II. ch. ii. § 2.

sustain to each other, as to the manner of their subsistence, that the one infinite nature is communicated from the Father to the Son, in a generation, not voluntary, but of the very nature of the divine essence;-a generation which is not occasional, but continual; which does not originate, but is from everlasting and to everlasting; and in which, each of those blessed Persons possesses the whole infinite fulness of the divine essence, not jointly, but in common and undivided.*

2. Whilst this wondrous generation of the Son does indicate a priority of the Father, in the order of subsistence and of operation, yet is it so far from implying any essential or real inferiority in the Son, that it involves directly the reverse. A superficial view might suggest the idea that analogy is opposed to the equality of father and son. But in fact, even among men, the difference is merely one of order and precedence of action, dependent upon temporal relations, and reasons of social convenience. Essentially, they are equal; possessing the same nature, and endowed with the same attributes. The Jews, seeking to kill Jesus, "because he said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God,"-John v. 18, were correct in the conclusion which they derived from the language of Christ; and fully sustained by analogy, in coming to that conclusion.

3. As to the Holy Spirit, the mode of his subsistence is by a necessary and eternal communication of the same divine essence, which is in the Father and Son, not by generation, but by a spiration or breathing forth, from them; through which the Third Person has communion in the divine nature coequally with the First and Second. Here the remark, already made respecting the Son, is to be applied;-that the relation thus subsisting is one of essential equality; inasmuch as it involves the possession by each of the whole fulness of the one divine essence, in which each Person equally and wholly subsists.

"Ut omnis generatio dicit communicationem essentiæ a parte gignentis genito, per quam genitus fiat similis gignenti, et eandem cum ipso naturam participet; ita generatio ista admirabilis recte exponitur per communicationem essentiæ a Patre, per quem eandem cum illo essentiam Filius indivisibiliter possidet, et illi sit simillimus."-Turrettin., Loc. III., Quæst. xxix. 4.

4. Not only are these Persons of the Godhead coequal, but coeternal. Although the phenomena of generation and spiration, as observed in men, intimate-as do all phenomena of creatures-finite origin and temporal succession, this suggestion is precluded in the cases here considered, by the fact that the phenomena are predicated of the very nature of God. And as every idea of beginning or change is incompatible with true conceptions respecting that nature, it follows, that the Three are equally and alike unoriginated and eternal,-a conclusion abundantly attested by the Scriptures.

5. From the whole doctrine here stated, it will be seen that it would be improper to speak of any one of the Persons as Whilst each one is God, in contradistinction to the rest. God, it is by a common and not a several divinity; by virtue of the common possession of the one undivided divine essence. It is objected that the assertion of three divine Persons is equivalent to saying that there are three Gods. But the objection is groundless. A person is a several subsistence, endowed with a moral nature. And although there be three several subsistences in the divine nature, and therefore three Persons, this is perfectly consistent with the unity of the Godhead; since the nature or essence in which these Three subsist is a unit. There is "one Lord, and his name one."-Zech. xiv. 9.

Should any object to the phraseology employed in this discussion; and insist that the various expressions used, such as, 'communication," "begetting," "generation," "spiration," are expressive of finite and human relations; and, by the very force of the terms, involve the supposition that the relations so described are of a finite nature and temporal origin, our reply is,—that if the nature of God were described in terms peculiar to it alone, the result would be to render the account utterly unintelligible;—that most of the objectionable expressions are the very words of the Scripture; and all of them abundantly authorized by scriptural usage;—and that, as we have sufficiently seen, the manner in which they are introduced, and the subjects to which they are applied, obviate any danger of misapprehension on the part of the candid and teachable. In fact,

there are very few words employed in the Bible, to designate divine perfections, which do not require to be understood in a sense different from that recognised in their application to other things. We are justified, by the usage of the sacred writers, in attributing thought, deliberation and decision, to God. Yet a moment's reflection must satisfy the intelligent reader, that it is as impossible for our finite capacities to conceive of these, divested of relation to time, as so to conceive of generation. The attempt is vain by searching to find out God.

The object of this discussion has been,-not so much a full exposition of the doctrine concerning the nature of God,―as, a notice of some of the aspects of that nature, which, commonly, are less insisted upon, and which sustain very important relations to the doctrines of the following pages.

The Three whom we have here seen, in revealed, yet mysterious relations to each other, are that one God whom we adore,

-a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable: in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; by whom all things were created, and for whose pleasure they are, and were created. Unto Him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

demands an object.

CHAPTER II.

THE ETERNAL PLAN.

"His ways are everlasting."-HABBAKUK iii. 6.

It would be extreme folly, or madness, were an individual to expend toil and money, in the construction of a vast and com1. Wisdom plicated piece of mechanism, without having fixed on any specific object to be accomplished by it. The same charge would apply, if, having a purpose in view, he should proceed, without careful consideration so as to adapt his means to the proposed end; or should he devise a suitable plan and place it in the hands of the superintendent, whilst individual workmen are permitted to act independently of that plan, and to use such materials and work to such a model as may happen to suit their convenience or strike their fancy. In short, no intelligent person will bring his resources to task, without setting before himself some specific and suitable end; it is the part of a wise man, proposing to himself such an end, to devise a plan as perfect in all its parts as possible, and in its execution to use such materials, labourers and machinery, and such only, as are precisely suited to the end in view; and, to secure success, strict attention is as requisite to the minutest details as to the more extensive features. Not only so, but, where an enterprise has been undertaken, failure in any of its parts is proof either of ignorance or of want of forethought and deficiency of resources; as it is certain that he who has fully comprehended the obstacles which lie in his way, unless he is conscious of resources adequate to surmount them, will abandon the plan as sure to fail.

These principles are as applicable to the works of God, as to those of man. "Known unto God are all his works from the be

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