SYNONYMES, DEFINITIONS, AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PHRASE,
IN THE ONE GODHEAD.

Three independent and co-ordinate individuals, as GREGORY NYSSEN and CYRIL OF
Peter, Paul, and John
ALEX., apud Cudworth.

Three numerically distinct natures or subsistences, all AsCUSNAGE and PHILOPONUS, perfectly alike

!}

Three subsistences, each disting. by a peculiar property CALVIN: Inst. bk. i. c. xiii. 6. Three distinct individuals

A threefold manifestation to mankind of the one God WHATELY: Sermons, p. 200.

Characters standing in three relations to us.

Manifestations of the Godhead

Distinet and separate beings

Three distinct subsistences; Creators

Three divine beings or persons

Not three infinite beings

The meaning of the word " person" I do not know
The Holy Ghost a divine person; a percipient being
The Holy Ghost a living agent

Same, p. 203.

MILMAN: H.of Ch. vol.ii.p.425.

Same, vol. ii. p. 431.

HOPKINS: Works, vol. i. p. 62.

DWIGHT, Ser. 71, near end.
Same, Ser. 39, in vol. ii. p. 8.
Same, p. 9.

Same, pp. 371–2.

Same, p. 375.

POND: Review of Bushnell.

Three impersonations existing under finite conditions Same, p. 173.
Ineffable personal distinctions

A threefold distinction, out of which arises a threefold
manifestation to man

HAVEN, in New Eng. for 1850.

TITLES, ATTRIBUTES, AND FUNCTIONS OF THE THREE PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD.

The divine nature thinking in one) The divine nature thinking in an- The divine nature thinking in an- ( LE CLERC, apud Flatt, in Bib. Repert.

Acts in subordination to the Father The Son expresses .

§ 14. THE APOSTOLIC OR UNITARIAN TRINITY (resumed).

As a brief escape from the labyrinth of darknesses and contradictions in which we have been groping, we would again advert to the simple and more scriptural Trinity mentioned in pp. 260-2, and, with the liberal writers whom we quote, breathe an atmosphere of a purer and a more sacred kind.

He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity, and does it by words and names of man's invention, or by such which signify contingently, if he reckons this mystery by the mythology of numbers, by the cabala of letters, by the distinctions of the school, and by the weak inventions of disputing people; if he only talks of essences and existences, hypostases and personalities, distinctions without difference, and priority in co-equalities, and unity in pluralities, and of superior predicates of no larger extent than the inferior subjects, — he may amuse himself, and find his understanding will be like St. Peter's upon the mount of Tabor at the transfiguration; he may build three tabernacles in his head, and talk something, but he knows not what. But the good man that feels the "power of the Father," and he to whom "the Son" is become "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; " he in "whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spread;" to whom God hath communicated the "Holy Ghost, the Comforter," this man, though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible, yet he only understands the mysteriousness of the holy Trinity. — JEREMY TAYLOR: Via Intelligentiæ; in Works, vol. vi. pp. 402–3.

Let it be remarked, that apostolic Trinitarian doctrine so utterly. unlike the crabbed definitions of a wrangling and unevangelic age brings the inscrutable mystery of the divine nature to bear immediately upon the affections, under an aspect of pleasurable emotion. How little has this been regarded by angry disputants! How grievously have those misunderstood apostolic orthodoxy who have pursued each other to the death, because not consenting to the same jargon as themselves! We cannot too attentively regard the apostolic method of teaching this great truth, - of shedding it into the heart. Our creed, if derived from the Scriptures, speaks to us of "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the love of God, and of the communion of the Holy Ghost." This is the orthodoxy which, when cordially entertained, impels Christians to love each other and all men, and to abound in good works, at sacrifices and offerings, with which "God is well pleased." — ISAAC TAYLOR: Lect. on Spir. Christianity, p. 173.

The author of these catholic and Christian views unquestionably means to speak of the "apostolic Trinitarian doctrine," not only in contrast with an orthodoxy, which, while wrangling in unintelligible terms about evangelic faith, is found wanting in the first duties of morality, but also in oppo sition to Unitarianism. There is, however, no Unitarian who would not cordially admit the apostle Paul's method of teaching Trinitarianism, here recommended; a Trinitarianism which, speaking of Christ, God, and his spirit, restricts the usual name of the Deity to one being or person, in connection with the spiritual benefits of the gospel.

Both John and Paul place the essence of Christian theism in worshipping God as the Father through the Son, in the communion of the divine life which he has established, or in the communion of the Holy Spirit, the Father through the Son dwelling in mankind, animated by his Spirit, agreeably to the triad of the Pauline benediction, the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. xiii. 14); and this is the basis of the doctrine of the Trinity in the connection of Christian experience. It has an essentially practical and historical significance and foundation: it is the doctrine of God revealed in humanity, which teaches men to recognize in God not only the original Source of existence, but also of salvation and sanctification. — NEANDER: History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church, vol. ii. p. 56.

or

We quote the remainder of our author's paragraph, which, though exhibiting his approval of the full development of the Triune doctrine, rather, as we should express it, of a gradual change from Theism to Tritheism, shows at the same time that that development, or that change, was the product, not of "revelation," but of a prying and a diseased intellect: "From this Trinity of revelation, as far as the divine causality images itself in the same, the reflective mind, according to the analogy of its own being, pursuing this track, seeks to elevate itself to the idea of an original Triad in God, availing itself of the intimations which are contained in John's doctrine of the Logos, and the cognate elements of the Pauline theology." Had the monotheistic Trinity of Paul and John, so well depicted by NEANDER, been the only Trinity that had prevailed in the church of Christ, what an amount of logomachy, of error, of strife, and of persecution, would have been avoided! But, unhappily for the interests of Christian truth and love, the professed disciples of Jesus, not content with the practical simplicity of the gospel, sought to "elevate" their minds "to the idea of an original Triad in God," by "availing" themselves of the supposed "intimations which are contained" in the writings of Paul and John, and by blending them with the reveries of heathen philosophers, and the tendencies of the people to give a false direction to their feelings of reverence for moral and spiritual worth.