transcendent divine nature. Thus in the Gospel the Lord Jesus Christ says, 'God ¹ is a spirit,' that is to say absolute spirit: ² and elsewhere it is written that 'God ³ is love,' that is to say absolute love. The title of Son of God is applied to the Word of God, that is to say to the eternal wisdom and reason by means of which God reveals His invisible and mysterious nature. Accordingly in the New Testament by the inspiration of God it is written that the Son is the effulgence of His glory and the very image of His substance.⁴ Hence He may be fitly styled the revelation (تجلي), of the divine nature, the divine manifestation (مظهر), the Revealer of the Father. The Holy Spirit is not the angel Gabriel, as our Muhammadan friends fancy, nor is He any created being. The name is applied in the New Testament to the Divine Spirit who is the enlightener and strengthener of the consciences and the spirits of men, through whose holy instrumentality God Most High influences men for good, and illumines and cleanses the hearts and lives of His true and faithful servants. Therefore Christians regard God the Father as the author of all created things and the bestower of all good gifts and of every blessing. They worship Him accordingly, believing that the Father bestows upon us all grace and all things good solely through the

instrumentality of His only Son (ابن وحيد), as we learn from the holy Scriptures. Thus the Father not only created the universe through the Son, and through the Son preserves and guards it, but through Him also does He deliver His servants from sin and eternal destruction and bestow upon them everlasting salvation and true happiness hereafter. Through the Holy Spirit God enlightens and purifies them, guides them to the true knowledge of Himself, leads them to belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and enables them to do good.

The name by which Christians entitle this teaching is the doctrine of the Trinity. It is true that the word Trinity does not occur in the holy Scriptures, but the doctrine which is expressed thereby most assuredly does. It should be understood that, although we Christians have learnt, through the revelation of God given unto all men in the holy Scriptures, that between Father, Son and Holy Spirit there is some distinction, because of which they are three Hypostases (اقانيم), and not merely one Hypostasis (اقنوم), yet we have also learnt that they are not three distinct natures. There is but one divine nature, and only one God, as we have already proved from both the Old and the New Testament; hence to say that there are three Gods would be blasphemy. Such a doctrine is contrary to the holy Scriptures and is abhorred by all Christians.