Athenagoras, in replying to the same charge, says: "Who would not wonder when he knows that we who call upon God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, showing their power in the unity and their distinction in order, should be called atheists."
Tertullian says: "There are three of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, because there is one God." And he further adds: "The connection of the Father in the Son and of the Son in the Comforter makes three united together, which three are one thing, not one person, as it is said, I and the Father are one thing with regard to the unity of substance, not of the singularity of numbers." And he adds: "The Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God." Tertullian asserts that this doctrine was in the Church prior to any heresy.
Cyprian says, after reciting the form of baptism: "By it Christ delivered the doctrine of the Trinity, unto which mystery or sacrament the nations were to be baptized."
In the charge and commission which our Savior gave to his disciples—Matthew xxviii, 19—he said: "Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Gospel was a covenant or conditional offer of salvation to men. Baptism was the appointed ordinance by which men were to be admitted into that covenant, by which that offer was made and accepted. This being to be made with God himself, the ordinance must, of course, be made in his name; but Christ directed that it should be performed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and therefore we conclude that God is the same as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Since baptism is to be performed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, they must be all three persons. And since no superiority or difference whatever is mentioned in this solemn form of baptism, we conclude that all three of these persons are of one substance, power, and eternity. The Apostolic benediction teaches the same doctrine. Paul uses this language: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you." The manner in which Christ and the Holy Ghost are here mentioned clearly implies that they are persons, for none but persons can confer grace or fellowship, and these three great blessings of grace, love, and fellowship being respectively prayed for by the inspired apostle from Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Ghost, without any intimation of disparity, we conclude that these three persons are equally divine. This solemn benediction is certainly a clear proof of the doctrine of the Trinity, since it acknowledges the divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost.
1. God's names have, in Hebrew, plural forms,
and are connected with plural modes of speech.
Gen. I, 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen. III, 22. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.
Gen. XI, 7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
2. Three persons, and three only,
are spoken of under Divine titles.
Num. VI, 24. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: