SECTION VII.

THE TRINITY, AS CENTERED IN THE PERSON OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

PART IV.

The True Doctrine confirmed from the Texts most relied on for the Proof of the contrary.

We have seen in the preceding Parts of this Section, that the affirmative of the Grand New Church tenet, of the Sole Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, his Oneness with the Father, and the concentration of the whole of the Divine Trinity in his Single Person is easily proved; that an acquaintance with the truths relating to his assumption and glorification of the Humanity, takes away the ground of all the objections that can be raised against it, and proves its certainty by another process; and that these proofs, impregnable in themselves, still receive a great access of confirmation, when it is seen, that the only proper alternative of this genuine doctrine, is that of Tritheism, and that its opponents cannot resist it without_betraying, that, when contending for three distinct Divine Persons, they mean, in the the thoughts of their hearts three distinct Gods. Nevertheless, there unquestionably are passages, which to those who read them without understanding, may seem to favor that doctrine; it may tend, therefore, more fully to satisfy the minds of some, to pass the chief of such texts under review, to apply to them the principles for solving objections developed in Part II., and to show, as is the truth, that they in reality teach, not the separation as to Person between Jesus and the Father, but their union. As then the writer whom I chiefly follow, after making the objections considered in the preceding Part of this Section to some of the texts which prove the true Doctrine, has selected those which he regards as the strongest for supporting his erroneous views, I will, in the present Part, place those passages in their proper light, point out the inapplicability of his conclusious from them, and evince that, like every other text in the Bible, rightly understood, they illustrate the grand truth, that the whole Trinity is centered in the Single Divine Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The writer I follow undertakes to shew," that whilst Baron Swedenborg has removed the mystery of the Trinity, in his way, he has created above a hundred other mysteries by doing "The way this is attempted to be shewn, is, by "joking

So.

and jesting" on the subject to such excess, that the joker deems it necessary seriously to assure his readers, "that whatever appearance of levity there may be in his remarks, they are not in any wise to be even suspected of being levelled at the Divine Being, or the Divine Character, but wholly and entirely against Baron Swedenborg and his system."

As, however, we consider joking not very appropriate to such a subject, and to be but a poor substitute for argument, I shall not repeat or take notice of this witty gentleman's facetiæ, after citing at length his "remarks" on his first Scripture quotation, as a specimen of the spirit in which not a few of our adversaries, both rigid Dissenters and clergymen of the Establishment,t have deemed themselves justified in indulging, when commenting upon the most sacred truths.

1. "When Jesus was baptised in the river Jordan, 'lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God decending like a dove, and lighting upon him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' Here," says the adversary, § "we find the Son of God, the Spirit of God, and a voice from heaven; and yet, according to Baron Swedenborg, there is but one Person in all these. Now, reader, didst thou ever know a man that begat himself, and of course, was his own father; and then proclaimed himself his own beloved Son; and then told the world that he was very well pleased with himself? Methinks thou wilt say, why this is perfect absurdity and downright nonsense. So I think; but it is Swedenborgian sense. Did not I tell thee, that the Baron, in getting rid of one mystery, in his way, had bred a hundred, each of which are far greater than the one he pretends to remove?

The whole of this railery proceeds upon the assumption, that Swedenborg admits no distinction whatever in the Divine Nature; whereas, as has been abundantly shewn in Part II. of this Section, we regard the terms, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as denoting really distinct Principles in the Godhead, though not forming three several Persons. It has also been shewn that we do not consider the person or Humanity of Jesus Christ to have been Divine, and thus to have been the proper Person of the Father, at his birth, but to have been in progress towards becoming so during the whole course of his life in this world, and not to have been completely so till his ascension.-Thus all the above "joking" about a man that begat himself, and was his own father, and proclaimed himself his own belov ed Son, &c., is only applicable to what the author is pleased to * Anti-Swedenborg, p. 25. Such as the Rev. W. Ettrick. § P. 26.

‡ Matt. iii. 16, 17.

put forth as our doctrine, but not, in the slightest degree, to our doctrine itself.

The arrival of a certain state in the Lord's progress towards union with the Essential Divinity is what is described in this text; and it is described by appropriate representative appearances and expressions, such as are always employed in Scripture for the expression of purely divine and spiritual subjects. By the Son is meant the Lord as to his humanity, including not only the outward body, but all the nature belonging to him as a man. By the Holy Spirit's descending as a dove, and lighting upon him, is meant the open communication between the Divine Essence and the Human, by the outpouring, from the former into the latter, of the Emenating Sphere of the Divine Life. A dove is the proper symbol of purification and regeneration, and of the marriage-union of goodness and truth: the work of regeneration in man is an image of that of glorification in the Lord, and the union of goodness and truth in man is an image of the union of Divinity and Humanity in him and as the whole of this transaction was representative of the accomplishment of an important stage of his glorification, or of the union of his Divinity with his Humanity, therefore the Holy Spirit communicated was represented by the appearance of a dove. By the voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," is described, the manifest perception now enjoyed by the Lord in his external part, by communication from his internal, that his Humanity, so far as glorified, was derived solely from his Divinity, and was its Form and Organ.

Now may I not appeal to every reader possessed of candor and rationality, and ask, whether this, instead of being ludicrous, is not a truly rational and consistent view of the subject? But can the same be said for the adversary's representation of it? According to him, we have here a manifest exhibition of the three Persons which he assigns to the Godhead. As this notion is taken from the literal sense of the passage, he must in maintaining it adhere to the literal sense only: he must not take, first, the doctrine from the letter, and instantly tell us that the letter does not give a true account of it. According to the letter, then,-of the three Persons of this gentleman's Trinity, only one has the human form: the form of the Holy Spirit is that of a dove, and the form of the Father is that of a voice! Is it not evident that this mode of describing the three Divine Essentials is here adopted, to prevent us from supposing that they are three separate Persons? Were there any truth in such doctrine, here, certainly, was a fair opportunity of placing it beyond doubt? Why might it not have been said, "and God the Holy Ghost descended and hovered over him; and God the

Father looked down from heaven, and said, "this is my beloved son," &c. Can the Tri-personalists offer a shadow of a reason, why some such form of description as this was not employed! These are the ideas supposed to be intended: why then were they not expressed? Why, but because they are totally foreign to the truth?

Whenever the three Essentials of Deity are representatively exhibited, the same caution is observed, of not using any symbols which would give the idea of three divine Persons.Thus, in the sublime vision in Rev. iv., the Lord, as a Divine Man, is seen sitting on the throne of heaven, and his holy spirit, or the Emenation of his Love and Wisdoms is represented by, seven lamps of fire burning before the throne," which are said to be "the seven Spirits of God." Will any one make a separate Person of this representation of the Holy Spirit? Whoever does so, must not merely make him one Person, but seven. In the next chapter, the divine writer has occasion to advert specifically to the Human Nature of the Lord is this exhibited as another Divine Man? This would necessarily have conveyed the idea of two Divine Persons: to avoid which, therefore, an appearance of a Lamb is presented, having seven horns and seven eyes; and these eyes are now declared to be the same Divine Principle as was before represented by the seven Lamps, for they, also, are said to be the "seven Spirits of God." Will any one infer, from this representation, that the Lord Jesus Christ is actually a separate Divine Person from the Father? Whoever does so, must assert him to be in the form of a Lamb, and to have seven horns and seven eyes. And after all, the seeker for three Persons will quite lose the separate personality of the Holy Ghost; for this Divine Principle is now declared to be inseparable from the person of the Lamb,-to be his "seven eyes." Here then are plenty of mysteries for the Tri-personalist to solve, if he is resolved to go on, arguing from such passages as that which relates the descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove, in favor of his notion of a Trinity of Persons. But all becomes clear when we observe, that in no divine representation of the subject is there ever exhibited more than one Person which can possibly be regarded as the proper Person of Deity; and that the three great Essential entering into the composition of this One Person, when considered distinctly, are symbolically represented by voices, or doves, or lamps, or lambs, or eyes.

That at the time when the appearance occurred at the Lord's baptism, though his external frame was yet unglorified, the interiors of his nature were actually Divine, is a fact which may be illustrated by an event which is recorded sometime afterwards, when the glorifying process had passed upon the whole of his Human Nature except the mere body. When he ex

hibited himself to the three apostles at his transfiguration, though his outer frame was still composed of natural flesh and blood, "his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment, was as white as the light.”* What was this, but his Divine Human Form, which was strictly one Person with his Divine Essence, and to which he referred when he said, "I and my Father are one?" the Divine Love in which gave to his face the appearance as of the sun, and the sphere of Divine Truth encompassing which was representatively exhibited by garments white as the light, according to the description of Jehovah by David, "Who coverest thyself with light, as with a garment." This Exhibition of himself in his truly Divine Person, as this exist ed within, and in a sphere above, his yet unglorified outward frame, was made to the disciples by opening, for the time, the sight of their spirits, and closing that of their bodies; in which state they beheld the Lord in his Divine Human Form, and no longer in the material human form with which the former was yet invested; hence also they saw at the same time Moses and Elias, who were purely spiritual beings the inhabitants of a purely spiritual world and hence, when they returned into their natural state again, "they saw no man save Jesus only; and him no longer in his Divine. but only in his natural, yet unglorified outer form. Here is demonstrative evidence of his possessing an internal and external personal form, in the former of which he was a Divine Person complete, independently fof the latter, whilst the latter was not a person at all, independently of the former, since without the former it would not even have possessed life. An attention to the important truth thus obviously presented, will illustrate many particulars connected with our Lord's glorification, and his oneness with the Father.

2. "If thou be the Son of God," said the devil, "cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee;" &c. This text is abundantly explained by our observations on the former. The Son is the Lord's Human Nature, not yet wholly glorified, and therefore liable, as to the merely human part of it, "to be tempted of the devil." HeGod--is the Divine Essence, not yet wholy united to the Human Nature. The union was to be affected by expelling from the Human Nature all that partook of human infirmity, and by renewing it from the Divine Nature: and the means were, by suffering the Human Nature to be attacked by the infernal powers, and by its resisting their suggestions; by which, at the same time, hell was conquered and removed from man. Could the infernal powers have prevailed in any one conflict, the Human Nature could not have been united with the Divine, and the work of redemption would have failed of its accomplishment. This *Matt. xviii. 2. † Ps. civ. 2. Matt. iv. 6.