TRIPERSONALISM.
THE trinity which the present Christian church has embraced and introduced into its faith, is, that God the Father begat a Son from eternity, that the Holy Spirit proceeded from both, and that each one separately is God. This trinity cannot be conceived of by the human mind except as a triarchy, or as a government of three kings in one kingdom, or of three generals over one army, or of three masters in one house, all possessing equal power. What but destruction could ensue? And if any one wishes to figure this triarchy to his mental vision, and at the same time the unity of its members, he cannot present it to his own contemplation except as a man with three heads and one body, or three bodies and one head. Such a monstrous image of the Trinity will appear to those who believe in three Divine Persons, each by himself God, uniting them in one God, and denying that God, because He is one, is therefore one Person.
[The doctrine] that a Son of God begotten from eternity descended and assumed Humanity, may be compared to the fables of the ancients, which assert that human souls were created from the beginning of the world, and enter into bodies and become men; also to the <i>absurdity that the soul of one person passes into another, as many in the Jewish church believed. . .
TRIPERSONALISM IS TRI-THEISM.
That a Trinity of Divine Persons existent from eternity is a Trinity of Gods, is obvious from the following passage in the Athanasian Creed: "There is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit; the Father is God and Lord; the Son is God and Lord; and the Holy Spirit is God and Lord; nevertheless there are not three Gods and Lords, but one; for as we are compelled by Christian verity to confess each person separately as God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say three Gods or three Lords." . .
From the words of this universally accepted doctrine of God, it is as clear as water through a crystal goblet that there are three Persons, each one of them is God and Lord; and that according to Christian verity we ought to confess and acknowledge each Person separately as God and Lord, but that the Catholic or Christian religion forbids us to say three Gods and Lords; and thus that verity and religion, or truth and faith, are not one thing but two, and contrary to each other. But it is added, that there are not three Gods and Lords, but one, in order to prevent their being exposed to ridicule before the whole world; for who does not laugh at the idea of three Gods? Yet who does not see the contradiction in this addition?
Any one may see that the idea of three Divine Persons existent from eternity, which is the same as an idea of three Gods, cannot be destroyed by the lip-confession of one God, merely from this, that it has not been destroyed as yet, and that among the celebrities [of the church] there are some who do not wish it to be destroyed; for they insist upon it that the three Divine Persons are one God, but obstinately deny that God, because He is one, is also one Person. . .
In heaven no one can utter the words, a Trinity of Persons, each of whom is separately God. The heavenly aura itself, in which their thoughts like sounds in our air travel and undulate, resists. Only a hypocrite can do so, and the tone of his voice grates in the heavenly aura like the grinding of teeth, or sounds harsh like that of a raven trying to imitate a singing-bird.
I have, moreover, heard from heaven, that to uproot the faith established in the mind by confirmation in favor of a trinity of Gods, by means of a lip-confession of one God, is as impossible as it is to draw a tree through its seed, or a man's chin through a hair of his beard.
A TRINITY OF PERSONS INTRODUCED AT THE COUNCIL OF NICE.
A Trinity Of Persons Was Unknown In The AposTolic Church, But Was Originated By The Nicene Council, And From That Introduced Into The Roman Catholic Church, And From This Again Into The Churches Separated From It.
By the Apostolic church is meant the church which existed in various places not only in the time of the Apostles, but also in the second and third centuries afterwards. But at length they began to force from its hinges the door of the temple, and like thieves to break into its sanctuary. By the temple is meant the church; by the door, the Lord God the Redeemer; and by the sanctuary, his Divinity. For Jesus says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. . . I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." This crime was committed by Arius and his followers; for which reason a Council was convoked in the city of Nice, in Bithynia, by Constantine the Great. And in order to overthrow the pernicious heresy of Arius, it was framed, decided upon and ratified by the members of that Council, that three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed from eternity, to each one of whom belonged personality, existence and subsistence of and in Himself; also that the second Person or the Son descended and assumed Humanity, and wrought Redemption; and that therefore Divinity pertains to his Humanity by hypostatic union, and through this union He has close relationship with God the Father.
From that time numerous abominable heresies respecting God and the Person of Christ began to spring up, and Antichrists began to lift their heads, to divided God into three Persons, and the Lord the Saviour into two, and so to destroy the temple built by the Lord through the Apostles, until not one stone was left upon another that was not thrown down, according to the Lord's words in Matt. xxiv. 2; where by the temple is meant not only that at Jerusalem, but also the church, the consummation or end of which is treated of in that whole chapter. . .
It is said in heaven, that when the Nicene Council had finished its work, it had come to pass as the Lord foretold to his disciples, That the sun would be darkened, and the moon would not give her light, and the stars would fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens would be shaken (Matt. xxiv. 29).
THE WHOLE CHRISTIAN CHURCH PERVERTED BY THAT NICENE TRINITY.
If any one will submit to an examination the particular doctrines [of the church in 1772], as its doctrine of God, of the person of Christ, of charity, repentance, regeneration, free-will, election, the use of the sacraments, baptism and the Holy Supper, he will see that a trinity of Gods is inherent in each one; and if it does not actually appear so, still from that Trinity as from their fountain they all issue. . .
The faith of the church respecting God is like the soul in the body, and the doctrines are like the members. . . From this faith, whatever it be, it may be seen how the Word is understood in the church. If the faith is false, it plays the harlot with every truth there, falsifies it, and in spiritual things makes man irrational. But if the faith is true, it favors the whole Word, and the God of the Word who is the Lord God the Saviour, pours light upon it, and breathes upon it his Divine assent, and makes man wise. . . (T. C. R. n. 172-177.)
LEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF TRIPERSONALISM.
From this doctrine [of tri-personality] which is actually the head of all the doctrines in the Christian churches, have sprung many ideas of God that are unbecoming and unworthy of the Christian world which ought to be and might be a Luminary on the subject of God and his unity, to all the peoples and nations in the four quarters of the globe.
All those who live outside of the Christian church, of whatever religion, are averse to Christianity solely on account of its belief in three Gods. Its missionaries know this, and are therefore exceedingly cautious not to divulge the doctrine of a trinity of Persons. . .
The discordant, ludicrous and frivolous ideas which have sprung from the doctrine of three Divine Persons existent from eternity. . . are: That God the Father sits on high over head, the Son at his right hand, and the Holy Spirit before them, listening, instantly traversing the whole world, and according to the decision [of the Father and Son] dispensing the gifts of justification, inscribing them [upon the hearts of men], changing them from children of wrath to children of grace, and from the damned to the elect. I appeal to the learned of the clergy and the erudite of the laity, whether in their minds they cherish any other than this imaginary view [of God]. . .
That a trinity of Gods occupies the minds of Christians, although from shame they deny it, is evident from the ingenuity of many in demonstrating that three are one and one is three, by various things in geometry, stereometry, arithmetic and physics, and even by foldings of cloth and paper. . . Their juggling on this subject may be compared . . with the tricks of those who work soft wax with their fingers, and mould it into different shapes, now making it triangular to exhibit the trinity, and again spherical to exhibit its unity, and asking if it is not still one and the same substance.
Nevertheless, the Divine Trinity is like a pearl of the greatest value. But when divided into Persons it is like a pearl divided into three parts, whereby it is altogether destroyed. (T. C. R. n. 183, 184.)
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