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14
THE PARACLETE

this purpose. But at least they may be used to rebut the charges of incredibility or improbability.[1]

When we turn to the contents of the Old and New Testaments, we are on surer ground. As has already been remarked, we must not expect to find any clear testimonies to the doctrine in the Old Testament, whilst at the same time we shall find there many expressions which entirely harmonize with the doctrine taught in the Creeds of the Church.

Thus, on the very first page of the Book of Genesis, we have an account of the creation of the world, which not merely corresponds with later narratives, but which may reasonably suggest to us the doctrine of the Trinity. We cannot, indeed, go so far as to say that the words, "Let us make man in our own image," and other similar expressions can be held to suggest a plurality in the Godhead. Such inferences are manifestly unsafe and may even tend to create a prejudice against the doctrine. But we may reasonably find an indirect testimony to it in the

  1. "The Socinians may do well to reflect whether that opinion, which was espoused by the deepest thinkers of the ancient world, can be, in itself, so repugnant to natural reason or natural religion as its opponents would have us believe." Heber, Bampton Lectures, Ed. 2, page 122.