Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/193

 Testament: (1) Because God said, “Let us make,” and not “Let me make:” that was so because he spoke with his Son and the Holy Ghost. (pp. 165, 166.)

(2) Because he said, “Adam, one of us.” By “us” are meant the three: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. (3) The Bible says: “Let us confound their language,” and not, “Let me confound;” consequently the three Gods wanted to confound it. (4) Because three angels came to Abraham,—those were the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who came to see Abraham. (pp. 169, 170.)

(5) Because in the Book of Numbers it is commanded that the word “Lord” should be repeated three times. (6) Because in David’s Psalter it says, “Their whole host.” “Their” proves the Trinity. (7) A proof of the Trinity is found in the fact that Isaiah said three times, “Holy, holy, holy.” (8) Proofs are found in all those passages of the Old Testament where the words “son and spirit” are used (Psalm ii. 7; Is. xlviii. 16, xi. 2, lxi. 1; Job xxxiii. 4). “The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. The Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,” and so forth. Those are all the proofs from the Old Testament. I have not omitted a single one. The author sees himself that the proofs are poor, and that it is possible to find as many or even more proofs in any book you please, and so he thinks it necessary to give explanations. Later on he says:

“And why they are not entirely clear, why it has pleased God to disclose in the Old Testament the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity only to a certain degree,—that is concealed in the plans of his infinite wisdom. The godly teachers assumed for this two main causes: (a) one lay in general in the property of human nature, which was limited and impaired, and had to be led to the knowledge of the highest mysteries of revelation only by