Tenets of all terminate in a common Point, and are only fo many different Evafions of the fame great Truths, the Divinity of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.—If these great Truths may be fufficiently evinced by that very Authority of Scripture which these our Enemies pretend to submit to, and be judged by, (as indeed their above-mentioned Leaders, and other Hereticks have done before them) all Tenets whatsoever, and in what manner foever impugning the Force of them, will equally and utterly vanish into nothing; and therefore I fhall proceed in a general Method of Enquiry, and only touch upon any particular Doctrine or Notion as the occafional Review of it serve to illustrate the Subject Matter before me.

may

The Question at present to be resolved then is— Whether the Holy Scriptures are not fufficiently clear and explicit upon these great Articles of our Faith, to overthrow the Pleas and Pretences of Scepticism and Infidelity?

Now without producing all the Texts which have been repeatedly, and indeed unanswerably, quoted in Support of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, they are, it may be in general remarked,

fo many, and fo express, that did they contain any thing but a Mystery, no poffible Difputes could arise concerning the Sense and Meaning of them. Most of

the

the Paffages in Scripture déclarative of a Trinity of Perfons in the Godhead are fo clear, that they are only liable to wilful Mifinterpretation: The Benediction of St. Paul at the End of the fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians, and the Scripture Form of Baptism for inftance, are as plain as Words can make them; and therefore though a general and fuperficial View of the Doctrines of Religion, which require an implicit Faith, may difpofe the Wifdcm of this World, to call in queftion the Authority of Religion itself, (which has been already, 'tis hoped, cleared up) yet for Men to difpute, or tacitly to doubt, the Doctrines of our Religion, while they allow it's Authority, seems to be as whimsical a kind of Compofition, as human Pride can well be conceived to offer.

It is true, Infidels have attempted to explain away many Places of Scripture which most infallibly prove the Divinity of the Son, or of the Holy Ghost; to charge fome with Corruption and Ungenuineness; and to oppose to others, by way Counterbalance, certain Paffages which seem to imply the Inferiority of the Second Perfon, and the Imperfonality of the Third in the Bleffed Trinity.

of

But the first Attempt may be obviated by obferving, that if the Texts appealed to in the present Question can be explained away, the Infidel is defied

F 2

defied to produce any Paffage in any Author that cannot *.-Granting further, for Argument's fake, the Truth of the fecond Objection in every Instance pretended, the accidental, or even defigned Corruption of particular Places, cannot affect the Senfe and Signification of those that are undeniably genuine and true; and lastly, though fome Expreffions neceffarily and vifibly referring to the Humanity and Miffion of the Son, or describing the Operations and Effects of the Holy Spirit, must be couched in Terms correfpondent to the Ideas defigned to be conveyed by them, yet they cannot poffibly invalidate the Force, or leffen the Importance, of such as directly and evidently express the Divinity and Perfonality of both: For in the prefent fuppofed Cafe of a Revelation from God himself, all, and every Article and Paffage must in fome Sense be true; and if any particular Paffage will bear no Sense but a literal, though mysterious one, according to the general Rules of understanding all Writings, that Sense is without doubt to be put upon it.

Indeed if we do not understand and interpret the Scriptures by general and acknowledged Rules; if we may put a literal or a figurative Sense upon any Expreffion, as our Argument may be beft ferved by it, without regarding the manifest Design of the whole, we may difprove by fcriptural AuI. I Cor. viii. 6. John v. 21. x. 30. xiv. Heb. i. 3. Rev. i. 17, 18, &c. &c.

* See John i. 11. Col. i. 17.

thority,

thority, not only the Divinity, or Personality of the Son and of the Holy Ghoft, but of God the Father alfo. We may prove God to be a mere Quality; for God is Love; (1 John iv. 8.) We may prove him to be nothing but the Ether, or a fubtler kind of Matter; for God is Light; (1 John i. 5.) We may demonftrate him to be a Rock, a Fortress, a Tower, &c. (Pfalm xviii. 1.) the Abfurdity of all which Conftructions is too grofs to be enlarged upon. In fhort, the Texts relative to the human Nature of Christ, and the Commiffion he had to discharge on Earth, are easily reconcileable with those that declare his Divine; but the Properties, Powers, and Attributes of Divinity afcribed to him, cannot with any Colour of Propriety be affirmed of a mere Man, or any created Being.

After all, 'tis no uncommon Thing to find Men making Mysteries, though they will not believe them, and industriously removing Difficulties, by establishing Impoffibilities. If the facred Theory be in fome effential Particulars incomprehenfible, the Inventions and Hypotheses of human Wit to subvert it, are at least equally so, and require the fame Degree of Faith, without any thing like the fame Foundation. It would be endless to enumerate the feveral Schemes which the Extravagance of Imagination has devised to evade the Force of the many clear Paffages which evince the Doctrine

the Trinity: And the Abfurdity of thefe Schemes is equal to their Prefumption. They, who would make us believe with Socinus, that Jefus Christ had no Existence before he was born of a Woman, fhould acquaint us in what tolerable Senfe he exifted before Abraham, or by what Means he made the World; or, if he himself was made for this Purpose, and is only the Inftrument, the Favourite, or the Deputy of God Almighty, (as fome of his Followers, and others have held) we ought to have explained to us the Nature of a Created Creator, or a God by Delegation.-If the Holy Ghoft be no more than a Quality, a Motion, or a Grace, let those whom it concerns afcertain to us the Idea of a Motion teaching, bearing Witness, making Interceffion; or of a Quality defcending in a bodily Shape from Heaven.—It is easy indeed, were it but as rational, to refolve every Expreffion in Scripture that is either too excellent for our Conceptions, or too delicate for our Paffions, into Figure and Allegory: But this is an Expedient that plainly refolves away the very Principles and Vitals of Religion itself, and in it's Confequences muft involve the Scope and Tendency not only of the fpeculative, but alfo of many of the practical Points of Chriftianity.

n

m

1 1 Cor. ii. 13. Luke iii. 22.

Heb. x. 15.

n Rom. viii. 26, &c,

Befides,