TRINITY (trrn'T-ty(), the union of three in one; generally applied to the ineffable mystery of three persons in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This doctrine is rejected by many because it is incomprehensible; but, if distinct personality, agency, and divine perfections, be in Scripture ascribed to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, no words can more exactly express the doctrine, which must unavoidably be thence inferred, than those commonly used on this sub ject, viz., that there are three distinct Persons in the Unity of the Godhead. The sacred oracles most assuredly teach us, that the One living and true God is, in some inexplicable manner, Triune, for he is spoken of, as One in some respects, and as Three in others (Gen. i:26; Gen. ii:6, 7; Is. xlviii:16; Is. xxxiv:16; 2 Cor. xiii:14; John xiv: 23; Matt. xxviii:19; 2 Thess. iii:5; I John v: 7; Acts v:3, 4). The Trinity of Persons in the Deity consists with the Unity of the Divine Es sence; though we cannot explain the ntodus of it, as the modus in which any being subsists accord ing to its distinct nature and known properties, is a secret to the most learned of men, and prob ably will always Continue so. But if the most com mon of God's works, with which we are the most conversant, be in this respect incomprehensible, how can men think that the modus existendi (or manner of existence) of the infinite Creator can be level to their capacities? The doctrine of the Trinity is indeed a mystery, but no man has yet shown that it involves in it a real contradiction. Many have ventured to say,
that it ought to be ranked with transubstantiation, as equally absurd. But Archbishop Tillotson has shown by the most convincing arguments imagin able, that transubstantiation includes the most pal pable contradictions ;and that we have the evidence of our eyes, feeling, and taste, that what we re ceive in the Lord's supper is bread, and not the body of a man; whereas we have the testimony of our eyes alone, that the words "This is my body," are at all in the Scriptures. Now this is intelligible to the meanest capacity : it is fairly made out, and perfectly unanswerable. But who ever attempted thus to prove the doctrine of the Trinity to be self-contradictory? What testimony of our senses, or what demonstrated truth, does it contradict? Yet till this be shown, it is neither fair nor convincing, to exclaim against it as con tradictory, absurd and irrational. Buck.