It is not, however, alone in folemn acts of INEDICTION and THANKSGIVING that the umber THREE is repeated; a facred Triad is, the following paffage, the immediate object : PRAYER, the prayer of the pious Daniel'; nd we may reft affured, that, in making it, e prophet used no vain repetition: O LORD, ar; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, hearken, and ; defer not for thine own fake, O MY GOD! Dan. ix. 19. In this paffage the TRINITY ppears to be as plainly intimated, by the inocation of the three perfons who compose it n the former part of the fentence, as the JNITY is by the addrefs to the collective. Godhead in the latter portion of the sentence. A fimilar paffage and a kindred mode of hrafeology occur in Ifaiah: THE LORD is our udge, THE LORD is our law-giver, THE LORD is our king: HE will fave us. Ifaiah xxxiii. 22. In the very fame evangelical prophet, the Immortal Being, who, at verse 12 of chap. xlviii. had denominated himfelf PRIMUS et NOVISSIMUS, THE FIRST AND THE LAST; and who, confequently, was the Redeemer of Ifrael; in the 16th verfe of that chapter, declares, And now the LORD GOD and his SPIRIT bath fent ME. In this verse, either each perfon in the Trinity is exprefsly particularifed, or we we must allow the idiom to be very fingular indeed; for, it is an idiom unprecedented before in any known language of the earth. The paffages cited above are fufficient to prove that this doctrine, if not revealed, for a reafon given before, in so many express terms, is at leaft very forcibly intimated in the Old Teftament; and, on an impartial examination, we shall find it plainly inculcated, where no such reason for fhading it under a mysterious veil fubfifted, viz. in the New Teftament. The three perfons in the Holy Trinity are there clearly brought before our view in the following promise of the Meffiah to his inquiring difciples: The COMFORTER, which is the HOLY GHOST, whom THE FATHER will fend in MY NAME, HE shall teach you all things. John xiv. 26. It was here neceffary to explain to them who was the promised Comforter, but not who was the Holy Ghost; nor yet that the Holy Ghost was a person, and not a quality or attribute; for, it was HE who was to TEACH them all things. The fame auguft perfonage, in another place, declares, When THE COMFORTER is come, whom I will fend unto you from THE FATHER, even the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, who proceedeth from the FATHER, HE fhall testify of me. John xv. 26. A 1 A celebrated Greek fcholar having urged the poffible fpuriousness of the text allufive to the three beavenly witneffes, I fhall not here cite it, becaufe the laying any ftrefs upon evidence in the leaft degree difputable would be injudicious. In fact, this doctrine needs not the fupport of any dubious text whatfoever, when there are fo many others corro borative of it in the New Teftament, full as pointed as that omitted, and of authority that cannot be difputed. The best evidence, it will be still allowed, that can poffibly be brought upon this fubject, is that of our bleffed Saviour himself, and his exprefs teftimony has been already produced; but his language is even still more decided in the following paffage, where he folemnly commands his difciples to go and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the FATHER, and of the Son, and of the HOLY GHOST. Matt. xxviii. 19. There is a very remarkable paffage, not I think fufficiently attended to, in St. Paul to the Corinthians, in which not only the perfons, but the operations more peculiarly appropriate to each of those perfons, feem to be diftinctly fpecified: Now there are diverfities of GIFTS, but the SAME SPIRIT; and there are diverfities of ADMINISTRATIONS, but the SAME LORD: and there are di verfities verfities of OPERATIONS; but it is the SAME GOD, who worketh all in all, 1 Cor. xii. It is unneceffary to fwell this increafing volume with an enumeration of all the various texts upon a point so obviously manifest in the New Teftament; and, therefore, I fhall clofe this part of the evidence by an infertion of another paffage of the fame inspired apostle in this epistle, which, indeed, may well serve in the place of a host of them. The grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the love of GOD, and the communion of the HOLY GHOST, be with all! 2 Corinth. xiii. 14. you CHAPTER |