TRINITY. This is the Term that Divines, and all true Christians make use of, to express the greatest of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion; which is, that one only God is distinguished into three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Word Trinity is not to be met with in Scripture; but these three divine Persons are very plainly expressed and distinguished. For example, God created the heaven and the earth: Here is God the Father. The Son is expressed through the whole Scripture, by the Name of The Word, The Wisdom, The Saviour, The Deliverer. The Holy Ghost, which inspired the Prophets, is called in the Gospel, The Comforter, or Paracletus. The Father and the Son are represented in Psalm cx. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, &c. In the New Testament the three Persons are distinctly expressed in many Places. For example, Go Matth. xxxviii. 19.and teach all nations, baptizing them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And when Jesus Christ came out of the Water after his Baptism, the Heaven was opened, and the Spirit of God was seen to descend upon him in the Form of a Dove, and a Voice was heard from Heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. See again the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, plainly distinguished. The whole Gospel of St. John, especially his First Chapter, marks distinctly the Father, the Word, which is God, and the Holy Ghost, to whom John the Baptist gives his Testimony, saying, that he saw the Holy Ghost John i. 32, 33, 34.descend upon Jesus in the Form of a Dove. He adds, that the same Spirit that sent him to baptize, said to him, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. ‘Tis needless to heap together a multitude of Passages, which prove and confirm the Doctrine of the Trinity. ‘Tis no part of this Undertaking, to write a Treatise of Divinity or Controversy.
It has been thought, that the Distinction of the three Persons of the Trinity was not unknown to Plato and his Disciples; and some of the Moderns have even dared to affirm, that it was from their Writings that the Fathers of the Church borrowed the greatest part of their Expressions concerning the Trinity. The Reader may see the Book called Platonism Unveiled, and Father Baltus’s Defence of the Fathers unjustly accused of Platonism. See also M. Basnage’s History of the Jews, Tom. 4. lib. 6. Chap. 4. Edit. Paris.
It cannot be denied that some of the ancient Jews, who lived before Jesus Christ, and those also that lived in his time, were ignorant of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. This Mystery is so clearly revealed in the Old Testament, and makes so considerable a part of the Creed of true Believers, that it could not be unknown to the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and the more enlightened of the ancient Hebrews. Raymund Martin,1 Galatine,2 and several others, have undertook to shew, that the Chaldee Paraphrasts, and the ancient Rabbins, have made express mention of the Trinity, and of the Three Persons. We find indeed in their Writings the Words Shalishith,3 which signifies Trinity, and Memar,4 which signifies The Word, and Ruach Hakkadoshah,5 which signifies the Holy Spirit. We also find God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Lastly, the Tri-une, Three in One, and One in Three6; and Jehovah, to express the Father, Memara-jah for the Word of the Father, and Shechinah for the Holy Ghost.
‘Tis true, that the modern Rabbins disclaim part of the Books in which these Words are found, maintaining that they were not written by Jews: Others they explain in another Sense: And they not only do not acknowledge the Trinity, but they expresly deny it, and declare against it; either because they have departed in this from the Sentiments of their Forefathers, or that their Antipathy and Hatred to the Christians has excited them to dispute this Truth, which is so clearly revealed by Christ and his Apostles; or that this Mystery from the Beginning was unknown to the generality of the Jews, and the People had but a very imperfect Idea of it. And indeed the Conceptions of the Jews were so very gross, and they were so little acquainted with abstract Speculations, that from the belief of the Trinity, it would have been very easy to them to have passed to that of the Plurality of Gods. For which reason, perhaps, the Wisdom of God might have thought fit not to discover this Mystery so plainly to them. Upon this Subject the Reader may consult M. Basnage, and the Authors which he quotes, in his History of the Jews, t. 4. l. 6. c. 4, 5. Edit. Paris; and the Lexicon of Suicerus, under the Word Trias; and Mr. Cudworth’s Intellectual System of the Universe, l. 1. c. 4. and Joshua Arndi, Diatriba de mysterio Trinit. è scriptis Rabb.
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