strengthened the very Doubts they were meant to overcome; and by forcing the sacred writings to countenance such distracting Positions, they have converted the Light into Darkness, and unhappily sometimes brought in question that authority and truth which would otherwise have continued clear and invincible. It is remarkable, and in the end will prove highly advantageous to genuine Christianity, that Those who have been used to distinguish accurately, can scarcely ever read the defensive Books. abovementioned, without discovering in them nearly as many manifest contradictions as there are pages; a strong symptom of the Unsoundness of the Doctrines they contain. There is a great gulf fixed, by God himself (though we cannot always discern it), between the bounda ries of Truth and Error; and the most ingenious struggles to remove the Barrier will be ever found vain and ineffectual *.

IF then it can be distinctly proved both from Scripture and the rational deductions of Men, that the Worship of a Trinity of divine Persons

* A veteran Writer has lately reminded us that the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is as clear as the proposition that," Three equilateral lines mude One triangle," and in consonance with this demonstration, we have seen the Godhead represented, in the first leaf of a very excellent reli

is contradictory, and the worship of only One God, consonant both to Scripture and Reason, it may be greatly hoped, that an Union of Faith in this most important point, will follow amongst rational Christians, however we may choose to differ in the manner of performing our Religious Duties.

It may be premised, that as the Christian Religion was certainly not intended for the learned and penetrating only, but, happily, for all ranks and conditions of men; it, therefore, doth not appear at all probable, that a Doctrine, of such magnitude and consequence as that of the Trinity is made to be, should be involved in deep obscurity by Those who were sent to give us Light; scattered (as some think they perceive) by piecemeal, as it were, in their Records; and left to be discovered, explained, and reconciled by the weak and discordant faculties of men; while the Doctrine of one God, even the Father, is enforced throughout, by a testimony equally clear and uniform. If the Sal

gious publication, by a Triangle, surrounded with a Glory, &c. This piece of unworthy Artifice (though it borders a little on blasphemy) has flourished long; and the same miserable sophistry might be used to persuade us that there are eight Gods in One. Why? Because eight angles conjoined make only One octangle!

vation of Christians depended on the belief of a Trinity, may we not think that so very Interesting an Article, calculated to influence and direct our Practice, would have been as distinctly revealed to us; elucidated by Those who were most capable; and a discriminating Worship formed accordingly, and invariably insisted on by Them and also plain and repeated Rules and Examples given of such Worship (like those appropriated to the Father), that there might be no easy occasion left for doubt, error, or neglect in any, even in the meanest, who should become sincerely desirous of knowing the Truth, on so fundamental a point, and Obeying it? But, as the received Doctrine stands," it must needs be a very learned, and a very subtile, and a very ingenious thing to "be a good Christian*.

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Our Saviour marks it as one of the peculiar blessings of the Gospel, that it was preached to the Poort (Matt. xi, 5); who would, however,

*The words between commas are Dr. Jortin's.-Remarks on Eccles. Hist. Pref. p. xli.

+ This happy event was foretold by Isaiah in a beautiful figure, c. xxxv, 1, &c. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose! God, by Christ his chief and benevo

C

have been but little benefited by it, if its principal (saving) Doctrines had really been (not such as wayfaring men, though simple, should not err therein, but) such as the most skilful in Science or Literature have never been able to understand.

We shall now present some of the plainest deductions of Reason to elucidate the positive Unity of the Almighty, and to shew that no other Being can be Equal with Him; by which we have no other intention than to vindicate the solemn Declarations which follow from the Bible.

lent Ambassador, did gladden the heart of the poor destitute, and heal in the Wilderness in a literal sense. But the Prophet had a further and more Important meaning; namely, that the spirit of useful Knowledge and Truth, through the preaching of the Gospel, should be poured upon the uncultivated Minds of the poor and the simple: ver. 8.

AFFIRMATIVE PROPOSITION.

Two, or more, All-Perfect Beings (or Persons), are not only unnecessary, but also incon

sistent.

PROOF.

Unnecessary. Because, admitting an Independent Being, existing and acting eternally, of unlimited Power, Wisdom, Goodness, Knowledge and Justice*; there can be no possible necessity for any other of equal Perfection.

Inconsistent. For, supposing there were two, or more, such Infinitely Perfect Beings in the Universe; it would follow that, All but ONE of them, must necessarily desist from the EXERCISE of their Powers UNIVERSALLY: which unavoidable suspension, directly contradicts the possi

* The Reader may, if he pleases, see this Point (respecting the Unlimitedness of the divine Attributes) demonstrated, in Bishop Law's Notes to Archbp. King's Origin of Evil, 2d edit. from p. 46 to 52. In Duncan's Baxter (a most excellent publication), sec. i, p. 4; and, indeed, in many other Authors.