rom the inception of the
Church chivalrously defended and maintained the article against every
sect, we are not to dispute as to how God the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit are one God. This is an incomprehensible mystery. It is
enough that God in his Word gives such testimony of himself. Both his
nature and its revelation to us are far beyond our understanding.

PHYSICAL LIFE INEXPLICABLE TO REASON.

13. And why should you presume to comprehend, to exactly understand,
the sublime, inconceivable divine essence when you are wholly
ignorant of your own body and life? You cannot explain the action of
your laughter, nor how your eyes give you knowledge of a castle or
mountain ten miles away. You cannot tell how in sleep one, dead to
the external world, is yet alive. If we are unable to understand the
least detail of our physical selves, anything so insignificant as the
growth of a mere hair, for instance, can we, unaided by the
revelation of God's Word, climb by reason--that reason so blind to
things within its natural realm--into the realm of heavenly mysteries
and comprehend and define God in his majesty?

If you employ reason from mere love of disputation, why not devote it
to questions concerning the daily workings of your physical nature?
for instance, where are the five senses during sleep? just how is the
sound of your own laughter produced? We might without sin occupy
ourselves with such questions. But as to the absolute truth in a
matter such as this, let us abide patiently by the authority of the
Word. The Word says that Christ is the express image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of all creatures; in other words, he is God
equally with the Father.

14. Again, John 5, 23 testifies that all should honor the Son as they
honor the Father. And in John 12, 44 we read: "He that believeth on
me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me." Also, John 14, 1:
"Believe in God, believe also in me." And again, John 16, 15: "All
things whatsoever the Father hath are mine." These and similar
passages are armor that cannot be pierced: for they are uttered by
God, who does not lie and who alone is qualified to speak the truth
concerning himself. Thus the dogma of the Trinity is thoroughly
founded upon the holy Scriptures.

THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY.

15. Now, having established the existence of Christ in the Trinity,
we must next consider the third person, the Holy Spirit, in Scripture
sometimes termed