know He is the same God with the Father. "Jesus "saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, "and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that "hath seen me, hath seen the Father. --- Believest "thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in "me?" These words import a Trinity, at least a plurality, of persons in one godhead.

x. 2dly, It is admitted, that there is no hope of salvation without the knowledge of the true God. But he only is the true God, who, while he is One in essence, subsists in Three persons. Whoever entertains any other view of God than this, does not represent to himself the true God, but a figment of his own imagination, and an idol. "Whoever," says Augustine, "thinks that God is such a being as he is not, enter

tains a conception, in reality, of another and a false "God."* On this account, the heathen, who knew in general that there is some infinite Deity, but were ignorant of the Trinity, which is the foundation of the covenant of God with elect sinners, are said to have been "without God in the world." The true God, whom Paul preached, was to them UNKNOWN. "The Gentiles," it is said, "knew not God;"y that is, they did not know him as a Tri-une God. They knew, indeed, that there is some Supreme Being; and thus far, the same Apostle affirms that "they knew God;"z but they were ignorant of what God is; as if one should know there is a certain King in the realm, but be unacquainted with the person of the King.

XI. 3dly, When the Trinity is not known, the ne

cessary consequence is, that the principal foundations of our faith and comfort, are unknown. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, are hid in the mystery of God,32 and of the Father, and of Christ. I cannot know how God can show mercy to a sinner in a manner worthy of himself, unless I know he has a Son whom he could send to make satisfaction for sin, and a Spirit who can apply to me the merits of the Son. If I know not that the Father is God, I shall be ignorant that I am a Son of God,-which is the sum of our felicity. If I know not that the Son is God, I shall not form a right estimate of the love of the Father who has given him to me, nor of the grace of the Son, who, though possessing inconceivable majesty, humbled himself so wonderfully for my sake;-nor shall I be able to place a firm dependance upon his satisfaction, which could not be sufficient unless it were of infinite value, or to rely securely on his power, which cannot save me unless it be evidently omnipotent ;-it will be impossible for me, in short, to regard him as my Saviour and my Chief Good, because none excepting the true God of Israel is Israel's GOD and Redeemer. If, in fine, I am not sure that the Holy Spirit, to whose direction and government I ought to commit myself, is God, I shall not be able to esteem my subjection to him as true liberty, to maintain a holy acquiescence in his protecting care, or to rely on his testimony respecting my salvation as a most ample security. Christian faith is of so delicate a character, that it can firmly acquiesce in none but the Most High God. It must, then, be of the first importance and necessity for us to know a doctrine, on which the knowledge of so many necessary

points depends. This argument is confirmed by experience; for, as we see in the Socinians, the same men who deny the Trinity, deny, also, the satisfaction of Christ, the invincible power of the Spirit in our regeneration and conservation, the certainty of salvation, and the full assurance of faith. The mystery of our salvation through Christ is so intimately connected with the mystery of the Trinity, that when the latter is unknown or denied, the former cannot be known or acknowledged.

XII. 4thly, It is indisputably manifest, that he who does not honour God the Father cannot be saved; for his own words are as follows: "Them that honour me, "I will honour; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." No one, however, rightly honours the Father, who does not, also, honour the Son. "The Father hath committed all judgment unto the "Son, that all men should honour the Son, even as

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they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the "Son, honoureth not the Father who hath sent him."d Further, no man can honour the Son who does not know him, and who does not know him even in his true character as the Only-begotten, of the same substance with the Father, and, therefore, worthy of the same divine honour with the Father. For what is honour but a reverential acknowledgment of the excellency possessed by the person whom we honour? It follows, then, that without the knowledge of Christ as one God with the Father, there is no salvation.

XIII. 5thly, It is necessary to salvation, to know him of whom all that are about to be baptized according to Christ's appointment, ought to make a profession. No one can profess what he does not know. But ever since. the commencement of the Christian dispensation, it has с 1 Sam. ii. 30. d John v. 22, 23.

been incumbent on believers to make a profession of that Trinity, into whose name they are baptized. To be baptized into the name of any one, is to surrender ourselves to him, in order to yield him such homage as is due to God. It, therefore, involves or supposes a confession of his Divinity. It is not, indeed, expressly mentioned in Scripture, that a confession to this effect was demanded in these very terms. But neither is it explicitly affirmed, that the Apostles baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: yet, without doubt, they observed the institution of our Lord with the most scrupulous exactness. When the Apostles, too, baptized in the name of Christ, which Luke, in his account of their labours, testifies that they did; the whole Trinity, as Ambrose ingeniously observes,* is intended by that name: for when Christ, that is, the Anointed, is mentioned, the expression includes the Father, by whom he was anointed; Christ himself, who received the anointing; and the Holy Ghost, the oil with which he was anointed. In this remark Ambrose has followed Basil, whose words are these: "The naming of Christ is the confession of "the whole; for this word denotes, at once, him who anoints, viz. God; the Anointed, viz. the Son; and "the unction, viz. the Spirit." Besides, when our Lord says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be "saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned," what is more consonant to reason than that the object of faith to which he referred was that very doctrine which is delivered at baptism? Hence all the ancients, with hardly any exception, made a solemn recognition

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* Lib. i. De Sp. S. cap. 3.

+ De Spir. Sanct. Vide Vossium de Baptismo, p. 51.

• Acts ii. 38. viii. 16. xix. 5.

f Mark xvi. 16.

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of the Trinity at the administration of baptism. "You were asked," says says Ambrose,* "Do you believe in God. "the Father Almighty? You replied, I believe; and you were immersed, that is, you were buried. You "were asked, in the second place, Do you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ? You said, I believe; and

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you were immersed, and thus buried together with "Christ. ---- You were asked, in the third place, Do

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you believe in the Holy Ghost? You answered, I "believe; you were immersed 33 a third time, &c." "We ought," says Basil," to be baptized as we have "learned, to believe as we have been baptized, and to "honour the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost as 66 we have believed." See several other testimonies of the Fathers in Forbes ;† to which I here add the expressions of Nazianzen in the speech which he delivered in the Council of Constantinople, the 6th General Council, held in the year of our Lord 381. "We be"lieve in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, "of the same substance and the same glory; in whom, "also, baptism has its perfection: for in baptism, AS "THOU WHO ART INITIATED KNOWEST, there is both "in word and deed, a renunciation of atheism and a "confession of the Deity." Thus it appears that the pious ancients believed, that when a man makes a profession of the Trinity in baptism, he passes from atheism to an acknowledgment of the true God.

XIV. It will not be unseasonable here to inquire, WHETHER THE MYSTERY OF THE TRINITY WAS KNOWN TO ADAM IN THE STATE OF INNOCENCE?

* Lib. ii. De Sacramentis, cap. 7.

+ Instruct. Histor. Theol. lib. i. cap. 17.

+ Orat. xxxii.

53 See NOTE XXXIII.