same constellations which we now behold in the nightly firmament. Thus all things, so far as our knowledge extends, present to our view a single design, regularly executed by a single agency. But unity of design is a proof of one designer; and unity of agency, of one agent. DR. TIMOTHY DWIGHT: Sermon 4; in Theology Explained, vol. i. pp. 115-16, 119.

To prove the unity of this great Being, in opposition to a plurality of Gods, it is not necessary to have recourse to metaphysical abstractions. It is sufficient to observe, that the notion of more than one Author of nature is inconsistent with that harmony of design which pervades her works; that it explains no appearances, is supported by no evidence, and serves no purpose but to embarrass and perplex our conceptions. . . .... There is but one such Being. To affirm there is more than one, without reason, must, by the very terms, be unrea-sonable. But no shadow of reason can be assigned for believing in a plurality of such beings; because the supposition of one accounts for all that we see, as well, and even much better than the supposition of more. That there must be one underived, self-existent, eternal, and intelligent Cause, must of necessity be allowed, in order to account for what we know to exist; but no reason can be assigned for supposing It is with the utmost propriety established as an axiom, that we ought in no case to assign more causes than will account for the effects. ROBERT HALL: Modern Infidelity considered, and Notes of Sermons; in Works, vol. i. p. 26; iii. pp. 14, 15.

more.

It has been urged that unity of plan [in the laws of physical action] might result from the co-operation of several minds, powers, or agencies. But to suppose many causes, when one will suffice, is clearly unphilosophical; and, besides this, the objection, however plausible when stated merely in an abstract form, will vanish the moment we reflect on the actual case of the material creation. When we consider

the immense multiplicity of physical arrangements, all so admirably harmonizing together; the infinite combination of adjustments, each arranged in exact relation to the other, as well as complete within itself, we cannot but feel overwhelmed with the conviction, that to One Omniscient Mind alone can be correctly attributed such infinite forethought, and such boundless comprehensiveness of arrangement. BADEN POWELL: The Connection of Natural and Divine Truth, pp. 188-9.

STUART (in Miscellanies, p. 42) well remarks, that the proposition, " God is one," means "that there is in him only one intelligent agent."

§ 3. THE UNITY OF GOD REVEALED IN THE SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD AND THE NEW TESTAMENT.

"Unto thee it was showed,"..."that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God: there is none else beside him," Deut. iv. 35. And, as the law, so the gospel teacheth us the same: "We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one,” 1 Cor. viii. 4. This unity of the Godhead will easily appear as necessary as the existence; so that it must be as impossible there should be more Gods than one, as that there should be none. . . . The nature of God consists in this, that he is the prime and original cause of all things, as an independent Being upon which all things else depend, and likewise the ultimate end or final cause of all: but in this sense two prime causes are unimaginable; and for all things to depend of one, and to be more independent Beings than one, is a clear contradiction. This primity God requires to be attributed to himself: "Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel my called! I am he; I am the first, I also am the last," Isa. xlviii. 12. And from this primity he challengeth his unity: "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God," Isa. xliv. 6. If there were more Gods than one, then were not all perfections in one. . . . “He doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth" (Dan. iv. 35), said Nebuchadnezzar out of his experience; and St. Paul expresseth him as "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." If, then, there were more supreme Governors of the world than one, each of them absolute and free, they might have contrary determinations concerning the same thing; than which nothing can be more prejudicial unto government. God is a God of order, not confusion; and therefore of unity, not admitting multiplication. If it be better that the universe should be governed by one than many, we may be assured that it is so; because nothing must be conceived of God but what is best.... Now, God is not only one, but hath a unity peculiar to himself, by which he is the only God; and that not only by way of actuality, but also of possibility. Every individual man is one, but so as there is a second and a third; and consequently every one is part of a number, and concurring to a multitude; ... whereas in the divine nature there is an intrinsical and essential singularity, because no other being can have any existence but from that; and whatsoever essence hath its existence from another is

not God. "I am the Lord," saith he, "and there is none else; there is no God besides me: that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else," Isa. xlv. 5, 6. Deut. iv. 35, and xxxii. 39. Ps. xviii. 31. He who hath infinite knowledge knoweth no other God beside himself. "Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no God; I know not any," Isa. xlv. 18, 21, 22, and xliv. 8. And we who believe in him, and desire to enjoy him, need for that end to know no other God but him. "For this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God" (John xvii. 3), as certainly one as God.... If we should apprehend more Gods than one, I know not what could determine us, in any instant, to the actual adoration of any one; for where no difference doth appear (as, if there were many, and all by nature Gods, there could be none), what inclination could we have, what reason could we imagine, to prefer or elect any one before the rest for the object of our devotions? . . . Without this acknowledgment [of the unity of God], we cannot give unto God the things which are God's; it being part of the worship and honor due unto God to accept of no compartner with him. When the law was given, in the observance whereof the religion of the Israelites consisted, the first precept was this prohibition, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me” (Exod. xx. 3); and whosoever violateth this, denieth the foundation on which all the rest depend... This is the true reason of that strict precept by which all are commanded to give divine worship to God only: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," Matt. iv. 10. ... Upon this foundation the whole heart of man is entirely required of him, and engaged to him: "Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one God: therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," Deut. vi. 4, 5. . . . If there were more Gods than one, our love must necessarily be terminated unto more than one, and consequently divided between them. BISHOP PEARSON: Exposition of

the Creed, Art. I. pp. 32–5.

There is one God, that is, but one; as St. Paul elsewhere expresseth it, "There is none other God but one," 1 Cor. viii. 4. And Moses lays this as the foundation of the natural law, as well as of the Jewish religion, "The Lord he is one God, and there is none besides him (Deut. iv. 35); that is, besides Jehovah, whom the people of Israel did worship as the only true God. And this the prophet Isaiah perpetually declares, in opposition to the polytheism and variety of gods among

the heathen, "I am the first and I am the last; and besides me there is no God," Isa. xliv. 6. And again, ver. 8, "Is there any God besides me? There is no God; I know not any:" He who hath an infinite knowledge, and knows all things, knows no other God. And our

blessed Saviour makes this the fundamental article of all religion, and the knowledge of it necessary to every man's salvation. "This," says he, "is life eternal, to know thee the only true God." ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON: Sermon 48; in Works, vol. iii. pp. 279–80.

The unity of the Godhead is a truth not barely founded on a few places of Scripture that expressly assert it, but it may be deduced from every part thereof. DR. THOMAS RIDGLEY: Body of Divinity,

vol. i. p. 194.

That there is one Supreme God, the Scriptures uniformly teach. . . . No one at all familiar with the books of the Old Testament can be ignorant, that Moses and the other prophets proposed it as the end of all their ministrations to impress indelibly upon the hearts and understandings of the Jews a proper conception of the one true God, Jehovah; and that the same essential truth, which lay at the foundation of the Jewish faith, was fully sanctioned and confirmed by Christ and his apostles, is evident as well from their acknowledging, in general terms, the divine legation of the ancient prophets, as from their more explicit declarations on this very point in various parts of the New Testament. J. F. FLATT: Dissertation on the Deity of Christ; in Biblical Repertory, new series, vol. i. pp. 35–6.

The doctrine of the unity of God is taught in the most clear and explicit manner in the Old and New Testaments. "Jehovah is God, Jehovah is ONE," i.e. one God, Deut. vi. 4; iv. 35, 39; xxxii. 39. “I am God, and there is none else," Isa. xlv. 5, 21, 22; Ps. lxxxvi. 10. The doctrine of the unity of God was at the foundation of the whole Mosaic religion and institute, and also of the Christian religion. "And this is eternal life, that they might know thee," тòv μóvov åλn¤ivòv Dedv ["the only true God"], John xvii. 3. 'Huiv els veòç ó πaτÒρ, "We believe in one God," 1 Cor. viii. 4-6; James ii. 19, seq. — DR. G. C. KNAPP: Christian Theology, sect. xvi. I.

The theology of Judaism was pure, sublime, and devotional. The belief of one supreme, self-existent, and all-perfect Being, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, was the basis of all the religious institutions of the Israelities; the sole object of their hopes, fears, and worship. It was the avowed design of that law [the law of Moses] to teach the Israelites that there is only one God, and to secure them

from that polytheism and idolatry which prevailed among all the nations round about them. Jesus Christ and his apostles... retain all that is excellent in the Old-Testament revelation; for Christ came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and to carry the scheme of religion there laid down to a still higher, degree of excellency. — T. HARTWELL HORNE: Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures, vol. i. pp. 143, 149.

If we follow the guidance of Scripture, we are to conceive of God as one; one Being or existence; one Mind, creating, directing, controlling, all things; possessing the faculties and attributes essential to all mental or spiritual existence, as consciousness, understanding, will, affections, &c. JOSEPH HAVEN, Jun., in New Englander for Feb.

1850; vol. viii. (new series, vol. ii.) p. 17.

In the Old Testament, God is distinctly announced as the one living and true God.... The unity of God is made especially prominent, and contrasted strongly and variously with the idolatrous notions prevalent among men. It is a pure system of Theism, allowing not the slightest departure from the strict idea of one God only, supreme on earth and in heaven, and alone entitled to the homage and adoration of men. God is distinctly an individual, not an abstract power. DR. SETH SWEETSER, in Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1854; vol. xi. p. 88.

These extracts are given, not as implying that any Trinitarian professedly believes in a plurality of Gods, but as pointing out the immense weight of evidence in favor of the Divine Unity over that for a Trinity of persons in the Godhead, evidence so strong and irresistible that scarcely any Christian can deny the existence of only one underived, self-existent, and eternal Cause. It is, however, for the believer in the perfect equality of three divine persons seriously to consider, whether this doctrine does not infringe on the unity of God; and for him who advocates the derivation of the Son and Holy Spirit from the Father to reflect, whether this notion is not entirely incompatible with that of eternity and self-existence, which are acknowledged attributes of Deity. To adopt the language of MOSES STUART (in Biblical Repository for July, 1835, vol. vi. p. 113), we would ask, "To what good purpose can it be that Christians strenuously assert their belief in the unity of God, while they continue to make representations which, when strictly examined, prove to be altogether inconsistent, in a theoretical point of view, with numerical unity of substance and essential attributes? I am filled with unwelcome apprehension, whenever I perceive that a far greater proportion of zeal is maintained, in any metaphysical school of theology, for the personality than for the unity of the Godhead, — just as though 'Hear, O Israel! Jehovah our God is ONE JEHOVAH,' were expunged from the Sacred Record, or put in the background! This should not be so."