cruel persecutors because they are the greatest hypocrites, and conse quently the worst of men. "I will not cease to declare," says Rousseau, "that persecutors who profess a religion of charity, and torment unbelievers, as though they wished to damn them in the present life, and so become the devil's harbingers, are not believers, but villains." What numbers of persons have been entangled with, or confirmed in their incredulity by this difficulty, the solution of which we here present. REMARKS ON THE TRINITY, TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE REV. J. FLETCHER. BY THE LATE REV. MILES MARTINDALE. SING nature's SIRE, sing his redeeming SoN, Of this thrice holy God proclaim the love. Those who think Arius and Socinus more rational than St. Paul and St. John, will perhaps say this doxology is contrary to the second dogma of natural religion, which establishes the unity of the Godhead. But if candour and honesty oblige us, either to renounce revelation, or admit that God has revealed his extraordinary essence, eternal and perfect, existing without separation under the distinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; it is evident, we cannot believe the whole Gospel without adoring the holy trinity in unity, as appointed by Jesus Christ and his apostles in the baptismal form. Moreover, if God has revealed his essence to us by the terms of Fa. ther, Son, and Holy Spirit, the generation and the procession, it is because they are the best that man's imperfect language can furnish to convey ideas of a mystery altogether Divine. Let us not forget that the ideas we attach to these words, in speaking of God, ought to be as much ele. vated above our common ideas, as the Supreme Being is above imperfect and finite beings. In the meantime this imperfect knowledge, like that which an infant in the cradle has of his father, mother, and nurse, may be sufficient for our present condition, as we are not called to speculate, but earnestly desire, as new-born babes, the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby. This made St. Paul say, "For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face." We can in some measure conceive that an infinite and eternal Father has necessarily an infinite and eternal Son: if the Father be eternal, and if the Son be his eternal and perfect image, we can also comprehend that, as it would be absurd to admit of two infinities, the Father and Son are united in the most perfect manner by an eternal Spirit of peace, power, and love. And thus being equally removed from Deism and Tritheism, we adore the sacred trinity to whom we have been consecrated in baptism. If Christians adored three gods, they would adore three separate beings; but they abhor Polytheism, and say with St. John, "There are three that bear record in heaven : και ουτοι οι τρεις εν εισι :* et hi tres unum sunt. And these three [hypostases, substances] are one:" the same one and perfect God. Those who consider the different nature of the words three and one used by St. John, will see the unreasonableness of those who say, "The Gospel calls us to believe three persons are only one." Never was charge more false: the care taken by the apostle to change the words by which he expresses the unity of the substance, and the trinity of the substances, if I may use the term, is an incontrovertible proof. The whole difficulty then lies in believing that God, who knows his own nature, (to give us a view of the greatness of our salvation, and the price of redemption,) has condescended to inform us that, in his adorable nature, there are three principles so perfectly united that they form a trinity of substances, without breaking the unity of the substance, or Divine essence. Thousands of intelligent persons are so far from find. ing any contradiction in this proposition, that, to reject it in opposition to the irrefragable evidence of Scripture and the catholic Church, they conclude they must suffer themselves to be blinded by the grossest pride, or unreasonable philosophy. Those who worship only the Father, reject in part the Christians' God, who does not exist without his Son and Spirit, any more than the sun exists without his light and heat. The Scriptures declare, that those who have not the Spirit of Christ believe not in the Son; and that such as receive not the Son, reject the Father, Rom. viii, 9; 1 John ii, 23. It follows then that Deists and their associates worship a being created by their proud reason, rather than the only true and living God, who particularly reveals himself in the Gospel, and who is called Thrice Holy, to show that the same perfect holiness shines in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If we name the distinctions given to the Father, Son, and Comforter, or Holy Spirit, the principles, it is with reference to the creatures. For to these the Father is particularly a principle of life, the Son is a principle of light, and the Holy Spirit is a principle of charity. For in the Supreme Being these three distinctions are always in the most perfect unity, and never admit of the smallest shade of division. The existence of a Supreme Being is the first truth in religion, and the unity of this Being is the second. This unity is not denied here, but we blame those who reject the distinction between the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, because they judge of this distinction by the diver. sity of three human persons. The enemies of the Christian religion would undoubtedly be right, if the personality in Divine nature was in 1 John v, 7. This passage is so decisive that the enemies of the trinity have used all their efforts to render it suspected. But Mr. Travis has demonstrated its authenticity in a manner sufficiently clear to remove the doubts of the most scrupulous critic. all respects the same as personality in human nature. But good sense informs us, that the manner in which the Supreme Being exists is as much superior to our manner of existing, as eternity is to time, or the omniscience of God to the feeble light of a mortal. It is hoped, how. ever, that the word person, used by divines, has not produced any thing equivocal from which the Deists can take occasion to call us Tritheists, and thereby render the doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ridiculous in the eyes of men. It is true, in some sense we admit a trinity in the Supreme Being, and we shall always be regarded by the Deists as superstitious; because we believe what we have no clear and precise idea of. But, if the Deist's mode of judging be reasonable, will not he himself be obliged to renounce Deism, and must not the Atheist renounce his Materialism and Fatalism? Where is the Deist who has a clear idea of a Spirit, and of an infinite unity, that pervades all and divides nothing? Where is the Atheist who has a just conception of that chance, which, according to his doctrine, fixed the order of the world? Or how does he comprehend that fate which regulates all events? And what idea has he of those atoms which, after wandering at random in chaos, have at length formed the system of the universe, and which suddenly became so wise and regular in their motions, that the revolutions of sun, moon, the great planets and their satellites, of summer and winter, the flux and reflux of the ocean, are never wanting? We therefore see, that the great objection these gentlemen have to revelation, equally militates against all the systems which they can substitute. "God is an infinite Being," says true philosophy. A being which I can comprehend, does not merit the name of infinite. He is no longer my God, but my equal, or my inferior: for, according to metaphysics, that which comprehends is greater than that which is comprehended; the same as in physics, that which contains is greater than that which is contained. When the hollow of my hand can hold all the water of the ocean, I may flatter myself that I can comprehend the essence of the Supreme Being: and for this reason I conclude, that true philosophers will never reject the doctrine of the trinity in the Supreme Being, under a pretence that this doctrine is surrounded with difficulties which they cannot clearly unravel. Some readers will perhaps demand why the trinity is so frequently mentioned in this work. Of what advantage is the doctrine? Dr. Priestley wished to know its use in morality and piety. "Does it ren der men more holy and happy?" An- answer to this question shall be my apology. In proportion as God has withheld the revelation of his trinity, the nations, not excepting the Jews, have abandoned themselves to their passions, and men in general have neither been good nor happy; and St. Paul draws their portrait in these words: "Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known," Rom. iii, 16, 17. In this fallen and corrupt condition in which human nature finds itself, the general knowledge of God, as a Creator, is insufficient to secure peace. Witness those who have no desire to behold the light; those who destroy themselves through an excess of despair; and those who would make their own exit, did not fear bind their impatient hands! But things are soon changed, when the creating God reveals himself as Immanuel in believers; as soon as God, by the manifestation of his sanctifying Spirit, has re-established his image in their souls. Then the trinity being clearly revealed, God is adored in spirit and in truth, with a zeal like that which burned in the bosoms of the primitive Christians; then men begin to love and help each other with a charity which the world never saw before. The multitude who believed in God manifested as Creator, Saviour, and Comforter, or (what is the same thing) those who truly believed in a trinity," were all of one heart, and of one soul. Walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost; and receiving their food with singleness of heart, they rejoiced in God the Saviour, with joy unspeakable and full of glory." The God of hope filled them with joy and peace in believing, so that they abounded in hope through the Holy Ghost. Full of faith, like Stephen, they saw the glory of the Saviour, as with uncovered faces; by the Spirit of the Lord they were transformed into the same image, from glory to glory. Conducted by the Son to the Father, and sustained by the Spirit of adoption, they call God their Father with unshaken confidence, and praise him on the scaffolds with a transport of joy which the Deists never knew. If we insist upon the knowledge and adoration of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the three eternal principles that compose the Divine essence, it is not through superstition, as Dr. Priestley imagined, but because Scripture and experience concur in showing this to be the only mean of bringing sinners to that happy condition, in which they said, "We have access to the Father, by Jesus Christ, through the same Spirit being justified by faith, we have peace with God, [the Father,] by our Lord Jesus Christ: we rejoice in hope of the glory of God; and we glory in tribulation, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit given unto us." It is sufficient to read this two-fold evidence in the Epistles and Acts of the apostles, to see that the holiness and happiness of the first Christians depended on the experimental knowledge of the mystery of the holy trinity: or of God manifested in their souls as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; or as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. It is allowed things shortly changed; but this change is a proof that the doctrine of the trinity cannot be attacked without sapping the foundation of Christian piety. The Gnostics, who, like Dr. Priestley, prided themselves on being more enlightened than other Christians, by refinements contrary to the simplicity of the Gospel corrupted the doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and the corruption of manners among the ancient heretics was the consequence of their first revolt. The Arians soon followed the Gnostics, tearing the Church on one hand, and the Sabellians on the other; during that time the greatest part of the Catholics, occupied in disputes with their adversaries, instead of growing in holiness, by a more lively knowledge of the Redeemer, and Sanc tifier, contented themselves with repeating forms of faith; and they shortly substituted the repetition of orthodox creeds for true Christian faith, which works by love, and is always fruitful in good works. The Church will remain in this state, until the ministers preach with zeal, and the people embrace with ardour, the sacred doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which includes repentance toward God the Father, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit: love, the mother of good works, and the distinguishing badge of true Christians. From hence it follows, that Christian virtues flourish or decay, in proportion as the doctrine of the trinity is rendered clear, or obscured among men; for it is on this foundation that the Gospel becomes the power of God to salvation to all who believe. And it should be remembered, that faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, of which we speak, is the gift of God, Eph. ii, 8, and not the word of a nurse, or the dictate of a catechist. It is a Divine energy, which is "the substance of things hoped for, a cordial demonstration of things not seen;" for we believe with the heart unto righteousness, before we can make confession with the mouth unto salvation. THE SUPERNATURAL DARKNESS AT THE CRUCIFIXION OF OUR SAVIOUR. "AND it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth, [or country,] until the ninth hour, and the sun was darkened," Luke xxiii, 45, and Matt. xxvii, 45. This event is recorded, not by the evangelists only, but by Phlegon, of Tralles or Seleucia, in Asia. This learned author flourished soon after the death of Christ, about the middle of the second century. He was one of the freed men whom Adrian the emperor caused to be taught the sciences; he wrote several works worthy of the learned and polite court where he resided. That in which we are the most interested, is a Universal History in twelve books. It is in these annals that Origen, and the learned defenders of Christianity, found the evidences of the circumstance here in question. The words of Phlegon are these :-" In the fourth year of the 202d Olympiad, there was the greatest eclipse of the sun that had ever been beheld. About the sixth hour of the day, it produced a night so dark that the stars in the heaven were visible, and it was attended-with a terrible earthquake." M, de Cheseux, Calmet, and others, have proved, by their judicious observations, that the fourth year of the 202d Olympiad, mentioned by Phlegon, was exactly the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, and consequently the same year in which Jesus Christ was crucified. Those who wish to see some judicious remarks on this passage, may consult Mr. Addison's excellent Treatise on the Christian Religion; translated by M. Seigneux de Corevon, (vol. i, p. 82.) This learned translator concludes, that Phlegon used the word eclipse to express the mira. culous darkness, either because he was ignorant of the real sense of the |