Though I do not generally recommend the Internet as a place to obtain, develop, or refine your theology, there are some sites with helpful resources. One site some of you may be familiar with is the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (http://ccel.wheaton.edu). With resources ranging from the Church Fathers, Bunyan, Wesley, Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Dorothy Sayers and many others, the site contains a wealth of important historic Christian works (including sermons, devotional works, poems, and commentaries), many of which are interesting and edifying. I recently found one article on the site to be particularly interesting and helpful. This was Jonathan Edwards' "Unpublished Essay on the Trinity." This work is also available in a book entitled Jonathan Edwards: Representative Selections on pages 375-381. The book is edited by Clarence H. Faust and Thomas H. Johnson. The Internet version is longer, since the book contains selections. The work was evidently not completed (or at least polished for publication) by Edwards, as the note in the aforementioned book states that the essay is "given in the unrevised form in which it was left by the author" with only minor alterations. The essay can be accessed via the Internet at http://www.dallas.net/ ~trigsted/text/Trinity.htm, http://www.JonathanEdwards.com/text/trinity.htm, and at http://ccel.wheaton.edu/e/edwards/trinity/trinity.html.
In the essay, Edwards, the great Puritan pastor, prominent Great Awakening leader, and first true theologian of America attempts to make the concept of the Trinity more comprehendible to the reader. I read this essay with great interest, since the Trinity is one of the more difficult essential teachings of the Christian faith to conceive of and understand, as well as the fact that many unbelievers scoff at the notion of one God manifested distinctly in three Persons. Edwards certainly does not completely and thoroughly explain the Trinity in the article. He writes, "I am far from pretending to explaining the Trinity so as to render it no longer a mystery. I think it to be the highest and deepest of all Divine mysteries still, notwithstanding anything that I have said or conceived about it." He also states that when explaining a mystery like the Trinity, "some difficulties are lessened, others that are new appear, and the number of those things that appear mysterious, wonderful, and incomprehensible, is increased by it."
Edwards' begins the essay primarily discussing the second Person of the Trinity, arguing that the "idea which God hath of Himself is absolutely Himself." He states that God's understanding, or reason, is distinct from His mere existence. God's view, image, conception, understanding, idea, or thought of Himself is the second Person of the Trinity. This is confirmed in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Greek word translated as "word" is "logos," the same word we derive "logic" from. Jesus Christ is the very Reason of God. This Reason, while not the same as mere existence, is contingent on God's existence, but is inseparable from God. This is that same Wisdom (as Edwards also states in his "Essay on the Trinity") referred to in Proverbs 8, "set up from everlasting," and with God in the beginning. Edwards argues that this Divine Idea is the same as the image of God, which Christ is called in II Corinthians 4:4, Philippians 2:6, Colossians 1:15, and Hebrews 1:3.
After demonstrating the second Person of the Trinity, Edwards explains the third, the Holy Spirit. He says that the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God in action, which is love. He writes, "The Godhead being thus begotten by God's loving idea of Himself and shewing forth in a distinct subsistence or person in that idea, there proceeds a most pure act, and an infinitely holy and sacred energy arises between the Father and the Son in mutually loving and delighting in each other, for their love and joy is mutual, (Prov. 8:30) 'I was daily His delight rejoicing always before Him.' This is the eternal and most perfect and essential act of the Divine nature, wherein the Godhead acts to an infinite degree and in the most perfect manner possible." He uses I John 4:8, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love," to show that the Godhead "does subsist in love." He also states, "The Scripture seems in many places to speak of love in Christians as if it were the same with the Spirit of God in them, or at least as the prime and most natural breathing and acting of the Spirit in the soul." He gives several examples, including Philippians 2:1, II Corinthians 6:6, Colossians 1:8, Romans 5:5, and Galatians 5:13-16. He also states that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the basis on which Christians have fellowship with the Father and Son. He writes, "We are said to have fellowship with the Son and not with the Holy Ghost, because therein consists our fellowship with the Father and the Son, even in partaking with them of the Holy Ghost."
Edwards then proceeds to clarify and distinguish the Persons of the Trinity. He writes, "The Father is the Deity subsisting in the prime, un-originated and most absolute manner, or the Deity in its direct existence. The Son is the Deity generated by God's understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that idea. The Holy Ghost is the Deity subsisting in act, or the Divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's Infinite love to and delight in Himself. And I believe that the whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are properly distinct Persons." So, the Father is the essence, the Son the idea, or understanding, and the Spirit is the act of love proceeding from the Father and Son. Edwards demonstrates that the three Persons of the Trinity all have understanding and will, stating, "There is understanding and will in the Father, as the Son and Holy Ghost are in Him and proceed from Him. There is understanding and will in the Son, as He is understanding and as the Holy Ghost is in Him and proceeds from Him. There is understanding and will in the Holy Ghost as He is the Divine will and as the Son is in Him.ö He shows they are each in one another, and that "the Father understands because the Son Who is Divine understanding is in Him, the Father loves because the Holy Ghost is in Him and proceeds from Him, so the Holy Ghost or the Divine essence subsisting is Divine, but understands because the Son the Divine Idea is in Him."
Edwards moves on to explain the equality of the Persons of the Trinity. God the Father "is the fountain of the Godhead" and has "as His office to uphold and maintain the rights of the Godhead and should be God not only by essence, but as it were, by His economical office." The Holy Ghost proceeds from both the Father and the Son, and the Son is begotten of the Father. The Persons, equal in essence, are also equal in honor, though their honor pertains to the distinct functions and characteristics associated with each. The Father is "the Author of perfect and Infinite wisdom," the Son is "that perfect and Divine wisdom itself the excellency of which is that from whence arises the honor of being the author or Generator of it." Edwards goes on to state, "The honor of the Father and the Son is that they are infinitely excellent, or that from them infinite excellency proceeds; but the honor of the Holy Ghost is equal for He is that Divine excellency and beauty itself."
The equality of the Trinity in redemption is also set forth. This is especially important. Many Christians rightly praise Christ for His vital role in redemption, but Edwards demonstrates that the roles of the Father and Spirit are just as important. The Father and Son are to be praised because "they so greatly loved the world: to the Father that He so loved that He gave His Only Begotten Son: to the Son that He so loved the world as to give up Himself." But the Spirit is equally important because "He is that love of the Father and Son to the world." All three Persons have a vital role in redemption. Edwards explains, "The Father appoints and provides the Redeemer, and Himself accepts the price and grants the thing purchased; the Son is the Redeemer by offering Himself and is the price; and the Holy Ghost immediately communicates to us the thing purchased by communicating Himself, and He is the thing purchased. The sum of all that Christ purchased for men was the Holy Ghost: (Gal. 3:13,14) 'He was made a curse for usāthat we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith'...it is God of Whom our good is purchased and it is God that purchases it and it is God also that is the thing purchased." Therefore, "All our good is of God the Father, it is all through God the Son, and all is in the Holy Ghost as He is Himself our good. God is Himself the portion and purchased inheritance of His people. Thus God is the Alpha and the Omega in this affair of redemption."
Edwards goes on to make a few more observations about the Trinity. He compares the Trinity to "the spiritual creation, the soul of man," with its distinct mind, understanding, and will. He also compares the Trinity to the sun, with the Father being like the substance "as to its internal constitution", the Son "as the brightness and glory...under which it appears to our eyes" and the Holy Ghost as "the action of the Sun which is within the Sun in its intestine heat, and, being diffusive, enlightens, warms, enlivens, and comforts the world."
I found Edwards' "Essay on the Trinity" to be very helpful and would highly recommend it. The essay does an excellent job of explaining a teaching that is, for many, both difficult to understand and difficult to explain. The study of this essential teaching will be helpful in the interpretation of the Scriptures, as well as our understanding of God. It is my hope that this article provokes the reader to read Edwards' essay and to study this doctrine, but, even more importantly, to be like the Christians at Berea (Acts 17:11), "searching the Scriptures daily."