that He is the Son of God Incarnate? That He is still present with his
Church through his Holy Spirit? These are only other forms of putting
the question, What is the Trinity? The various answers given to this
question in the eighteenth century form an important part of the
ecclesiastical history of the period.

The subject carries us back in thought to the earliest days of
Christianity. During the first four centuries, the nature of the
Godhead, and the relation of the Three Persons of the Trinity to each
other, were directly or indirectly the causes of almost all the
divisions which rent the Church. They had been matters of discussion
before the death of the last surviving Apostle, and the three centuries
which followed his decease were fruitful in theories upon the subject.
These theories reappear with but little alteration in the period which
comes more immediately under our present consideration. If history ever
repeats itself, it might be expected to do so on the revival of this
discussion after an abeyance of many centuries. For it is one of those
questions on which modern research can throw but little light. The same
materials which enabled the inquirer of the eighteenth century to form
his conclusion, existed in the fourth century. Moreover, there was a
tendency in the discussions of the later period to run in an historical
direction; in treating of them, therefore, our attention will constantly
be drawn to the views of the earlier thinkers. With regard to these, it
will be sufficient to say that their speculations on the mysterious
subject of the Trinity group themselves under one or other of these four
heads.

1. The view of those who contend for the mere humanity of Christ--a view
which, as will be seen presently, is often claimed by Unitarians as the
earliest belief of Christendom.

2. The view of those who deny the distinct personality of the Second and
Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity. This was held with various
modifications by a great variety of thinkers, but it passes under the
general name of _Sabellianism_.

3. The view of those who hold that Christ was something more than man,
but less than God; less than God, that is, in the highest, and indeed
the only proper, sense of the word God. This, like the preceding view,
was held by a great variety of thinkers, and with great divergences, but
it passes under the general name of _Arianism_.

4. The view of those who hold that 'there is but one l