TRINITY

My dear S.,

I invite your attention to a subject the most exalted and sublime in its nature, and the most important in its relation to the whole scheme of redemption. The doctrine of a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead is so closely interwoven with every part of the sacred volume, and feature of Christian experience, that every new creature in Christ Jesus might be expected to admit, although he cannot comprehend it. Indeed, if we determine to admit no more than we can comprehend, we shall soon find ourselves on the high road to atheism; but allowing Jehovah’s testimony of Himself to be true, and attending to its influence in every Christian’s heart, we shall flee from the regions of scepticism, and take up our abode in the pure air of Gospel truth. The whole testimony of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation maintains this doctrine. In the 1st of Genesis we have this striking phrase, “Let us make man:” and in the last of Revelation we have a description of the throne of God and of the Lamb which corroborates the same truth: yea, the whole of the sacred pages form one grand volume of the covenant engagement and work of the Triune God, making known the sovereign love of God the Father — the voluntary suretyship of God the Son — and the efficacious grace of God the Spirit.

But, “He that believeth,” said an inspired Apostle, “hath the witness in himself:” and I need only refer you to your own experience for a satisfactory evidence of the fundamental doctrine which is the subject of this letter.

When first your eyes were opened to spiritual things, and your ruin by sin was discovered, was not the idea of approaching Diety terrific to your mind? did you not feel conscious that you must obtain pardon at His hands, or perish for ever? And yet were you not afraid to draw nigh to Him for it, lest His vengeance should consume you? And could you ever look up to heaven with confidence until you discerned the way of access through the Person of Christ? Then, like the holy Psalmist, you exclaimed, “Behold, 0 God our Shield and look upon the face of Thine Anointed.” Assured from God’s own word, that all men are required to honour the Son even as they honour the Father, you felt encouraged to adore Him as “over all, God blessed for ever,” trusting your eternal all in His hands, believing His personal and official declaration, “No man can come to the Father but by Me.”

Take a retrospective view of those sacred moments of delightful emotion when Jesus first manifested Himself to you as the sinner’s Friend and Surety, “mighty to save,” having all the fulness of the Godhead treasured up in Himself, yet, proving His distinct personality by being sent forth from the Father; and ascending again to the Father; stooping to earth to rescue you from hell, and ascending to heaven to prepare you a mansion, and to secure your entrance into it. Have you not trusted your soul with all its vast concerns in His hands, under the sweet assurance that He is able to keep that which you have committed to Him against that day? And upon what can that assurance be founded, but His eternal power and Godhead?

“Though guilty, and helpless, and cursed,
By nature a rebel and slave;
In Jesus your God you can trust,
Because He is ‘mighty to save.’”

Precious Jesus! how Thy glories, personal and official, delight the souls of Thy ransomed family, and call forth their best affections, their strongest confidence, and their highest adoration. But no man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, whose express office it is to testify of Jesus; and, you will at once perceive that the office of the Holy Ghost proves His personality and His Godhead. You had never known your guilt and ruin, so as to mourn over it and escape from it, but for His divine teaching; you had never melted into contrition before God, but for His mighty operation upon your heart: you had never seen any beauty in Jesus, but for His heavenly illumination; nor would you ever have hated sin and loved holiness, but for His transforming power. What power but omnipotence could effect what has been effected in your soul? Once you were darkness, and now are you light in the Lord — once you were enmity against God, but now, love to God is the reigning principle in your breast — once you were dead in sin, but now you are alive to God through Jesus Christ: and how was all this effected? “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”

Thus you have the witness in yourself, as a believer, that the Spirit is Jehovah, or He could not have wrought such a work in you — that the Redeemer is Jehovah, or He could not have been your Saviour — that as God-Man He is your Mediator, and without a Mediator you dare not approach an offended God.

Moreover, your daily communion with Heaven confirms this glorious doctrine; you do not always find yourself in a devotional frame of mind, when the seasons of retirement return. No, you have often found it difficult, yea, impossible to glance a thought half way to God; and even while you have used the language of prayer, your heart has been full of unbelief, or wandering like the fools eye to the ends of the earth; but when the Spirit has helped your infirmities, and made intercession for you, with what holy fervour have you wrestled with God — with what sacred delight have you communed with the Father — with what strong- confidence have you relied on the merits and intercession of the Son — and what a rich supply have you obtained of the comforts of the Holy Ghost! Then how contemptible did all earth’s objects appear, and how precious did Jesus become to your soul, “Through whom you found access by one Spirit to the Father,” “And rejoiced in hope of the glory of God;” Then you knew what is meant by “Praying in the Holy Ghost.” Take encouragement from these things, to look for greater discoveries of the divine Persons and perfections of the Godhead to your soul.

It is promised that “When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth;” and Christ’s declaration of Himself, is, “I am the truth;” it becomes, therefore, the express office of the Holy Ghost to lead our minds into the fulness of Christ, and through Him up to the convenant love of God the Father; so that under His immediate influence we exclaim, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

The Father sheds His love abroad in our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost — the Son manifests Himself to us as He does not to the world, by the discoveries of the Holy Ghost — and the Holy Ghost Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God: here are personal acts performed in the believer’s experience by each of the Persons of the Deity. Can any man, who is the recipient of these divine favours, want further evidence of the doctrine which they establish? If more were necessary to be said, I might refer to the promises of God, and show you, that though they are spoken by God the Father, and are said to be yea and amen in Christ Jesus, yet you never enjoy their preciousness, but as they are applied to your heart by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Again, the blessings of the Gospel are all covenant blessings, and as the gifts of God the Father, they are received by God the Son as our Covenant-Head, who is said to have received gifts for men; and of God the Holy Ghost, Christ says “He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you.” Moreover, the distinct offices and relations which the triune-Jehovah sustains, are further confirmations of this important doctrine, which will find an echo in your experience. The filial affection with which you have approached Jehovah as your Father — the paternal kindness which you have received at His hands — yea, the very corrections with which He has visited you, are proofs of His eternal love to you. The vital union formed by faith between your soul and Christ, as your elder brother, (who is not ashamed to call His people brethren,) the sweet correspondence you hold with Him in this endearing relation, and the soul-reviving communion, you have been enabled to keep up with Him, as your brother, forbid your calling in question either His personality, or His eternal power and Godhead. And the unction of the Holy One resting upon you, in His quickening, comforting and illuminating influences are standing and experimental proofs, that “there are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.” That you may live in the enjoyment of the Father’s everlasting love, upon the fulness of Christ treasured up in the Son, and under the special influence of the Holy Ghost,

is the prayer of yours in the Lord,

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