But I fancy, I hear some one object that religion is a mysterious subject, which cannot be understood, and, moreover, was never intended to be understood. It
is therefore to be taken upon authority, without examination. Let us examine this objection more closely.
Religion, the objector acknowledges, has been made the subject of a revelation. But if it cannot be understood, now it is revealed, then one of two things follows, either that God undertook to do a thing, which cannot be done, or that he did it in such a way as not to answer his purpose. What is an unintelligible revelation, but a thing made known and not made known at the same time?
You wish to reveal a secret to a friend, and you write to him in a language that he does not understand. Is that any revelation ? Will your friend know anything more about your secret than he did before? So if your secret is of such a nature,
that it cannot be communicated, do you not trifle with your friend, if you make the attempt, if you puzzle and confound him by reference to things, which he knows
nothing about, and by language which he cannot comprehend ? Every thing that God has revealed, must be intelligible and consistent.
If we adopt the hypothesis of a tripersonal God, then a difficulty will be presented every day of our lives, how we are to pray. There
are not only great intellectual perplexities presented in admitting into the mind the conception of a Being who is three and yet one, but the difficulties are but begun.
As soon as you admit three Persons, each equally God, an important duty follows. Three persons are not only to be believed in, but worshipped, and worshipped equally, the one as much as the other. If you address them all as one God, without distinction of person, then all idea of a Trinity is lost, and becomes a dead letter. It is retained in the creed, and neglected in the prayer. The word, God, conveys to most minds the idea, not only of one Being, but one Person, as is proved by the singular personal pronouns, thee and thou, which always accompany it. Can any conscientious man satisfy his own mind in the practical neglect of so important a truth, and believe in three
Persons, and pray only to one ? The fact is, that to frame a prayer consistent with his creed; the Trinitarian must invent a new language,
the words of which must have the power of expressing unity and plurality at the same time.
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