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his power.' 'And 1 I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgement is come.' 'As 2 the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgement unto the Son; that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.'

From these and many similar passages we learn that the One Almighty God reveals Himself and effects His mighty works of creation, preservation, redemption, restoration, judgement and mercy, only in His Eternal Word (كلمة) the Son, and through His Holy Spirit. As there is in the one true God only one nature, so in Him there can be but one will manifesting itself in ever harmonious working. Thus the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are truly and indeed One Almighty, All-Just, All-Wise, All-Saving and All-Merciful God, to whom be honour and glory dominion and praise, now and ever. Amen.

It has been already said that in the Old Testament the teaching given concerning the Trinity of Hypostases in the divine unity is not so clear


1 Rev. xiv. 6-7. 2 John v. 21-3.
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as it is in the New Testament, and that in this as in other respects God's revelation was gradual and progressive, as men were able to bear it. The Israelites were living among heathens, and during a long time they were themselves prone to idolatry and polytheism: hence, had the doctrine of the Holy Trinity been clearly revealed in early times, and before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, there would have been very great danger of their misunderstanding it and worshipping three Gods. Hence God in his wisdom did not reveal this doctrine clearly in the Old Testament. Yet the books of the Old Testament contain not a few references to this great truth. Such passages cannot be explained or understood apart from what the New Testament teaches on this subject. To a large class of these passages we have already referred in the first chapter 1 of this Tractate, showing that the Old Testament bears witness to the Deity of the promised Messiah. Besides these, however, there are other passages which seem to imply a plurality of Hypostases in the unity of the divine nature.

Among these may be numbered those verses in which the plural number of a pronoun or verb is employed with reference to God Most High. For example, in the Taurat God says: 'Let 2 Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness': and then in the next verse the singular is used, and it is written


1 Section iii. pages 102-6. 2 Gen. i. 26-7.