be abused in all his concerns and relations, be scourged, spit upon, mocked, and at last crucified. All are passages which lie extremely cross to the notions and conceptions that reason has framed to itself, of that high and impassible perfection that resides in the divine nature."-South's Sermons, Vol. iii. p. 299, 6th ed. 1727.

Dr. Watts describes the difficulty of believing the doctrine of the Trinity, thus:

"Reason could scarce sustain to see
The Almighty One, the Eternal Three,
Or bear the infant Deity;

Scarce could her pride descend to own
Iler Maker stooping from his throne,
And dressed in glories so unknown.
A ransomed world, a bleeding God,
And heaven appeased by flowing blood,

Were themes too painful to be understood."

This is an extract from a poem written by Dr. Watts after the death of Locke, on his Annotations, in which, on account of the wavering and cold assent,' which Watts supposed Locke to have given to 'themes divinely true,' he invokes the aid of charity that he may see him in heaven. What were the themes divinely true,' appears in the lines quoted.-See Norton's Statement of Reasons, p. 82-85. Dr. Watts in one of his hymns says:

"This infant is the Mighty God,

Come to be suckled and adored.”—B. i. 13th h.

A doctrine that quite confounds reason, and half confounds faith; that proclaims an infant Deity and a bleeding God; that asserts that the unchangeable Jehovah turned carpenter; and that God came to be suckled, must be admitted, if at all, with inconceivable difficulty. That the difficulty of believing such a doctrine, if true, should never have occurred to any of the inspired penmen, is incredible. Why, then, did they not plainly state it, as they did the easy and analogous doctrine of the Unity of God? Why

did they not, somewhere, expressly state that God is Three, or that he is Triple, or Trinity, or Triune, or Triad, or Tri-something, by which our faith might be assisted in embracing the doctrine? I can assign no reason but this most important one, that no inspired writer ever believed the doctrine of the Trinity.

There is no example in the Bible of God's being worshiped in Trinity.

There is not a doxology, or prayer, or any other form of worship, recorded in the Bible, addressed to Father, Son, and Spirit, or to a Trinity in any form. The custom of singing doxologies, and of concluding prayers, by ascriptions to Father, Son, and Spirit, is without a shadow of support from Scripture, either by precept or example.

In some churches, the manner of the verbal address in prayer, is regarded as the test of orthodoxy. If a stranger whose tenets are not known, addresses prayer to the Father only, as Jesus commanded, he is suspected of being unsound in the faith. But if, contrary to the express injunction and example of the Saviour, and his Apostles, and of all the Prophets of the Old Testament who have left us either precept or example, the minister offers prayer to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, his hearers are satisfied that he is orthodox. I have often heard prayers objected to, because the manner was scriptural because the verbal address was like that of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles. To pray in a scriptural manner is indicative of heresy; to pray in an unscriptural manner is indicative of orthodoxy!

SECTION VI.

SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE THAT THE FAther of our LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD.

If there should be in the minds of any a doubt whether JEHOVAH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the same Person whom Jesus calls his God and Father, it is believed they may obtain entire satisfaction on the subject by considering the following passages. The Apostle Peter says, "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our Fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus."Acts iii. 13. The Jews said, "We have one Father, even God: Jesus said unto them, if God were your Father, ye would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.... It is MY FATHER that honoreth me, of whom ye say, that he is YOUR GOD."-John viii. 41, 42, 54. Here Jesus clearly proves that his Father was the God of the Jews. He does not intimate that the Triune God, (Father, Son, and Spirit) was the God of the Jews, but the FATHER only, He whom they worshipped as JEHOVAH, He who declared by his Prophet Isaiah, "I am GoD, and there is NONE ELSE; I am GoD, and there is NONE LIKE ME."-Ch. xlvi. 9.

The doctrine that GoD, even the FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ, is JEHOVAH, the GoD of the Jews, seems to me too plainly taught in the New Testament to admit of a doubt. There are more than a hundred passages in the New Testament, in which the FATHER "is styled GoD with some peculiar high titles, epithets, or attributes, which,

though most of them are not absolutely incommunicable, yet in the New Testament are (generally if not) always, by way of supreme eminency, ascribed to the Person of the FATHER only." There are also more than three hundred in which the appellation GoD is used in such connexions as necessarily confine it to the FATHER only. Of these, many are totally incompatible with the Trinitarian hypothesis; as they not only show that GOD, the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ, is another Being distinct from the Lord Jesus Christ, but also that the appellation GoD is, in its absolute sense, appropriate to the FATHER only. Let us examine a few of these passages, beginning with the testi mony of Jesus Christ himself.

This is life eternal, that they might know thee, (the Father) the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."-John, xvii. 3. If the Father is the ONLY TRUE GOD, neither Jesus Christ whom God hath sent, nor the Son, nor any other person, is the TRUE GOD.

"But of that day and that hour knoweth no one, (oudeis) no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only."-Matt. xxiv. 36: Mark xiii. 32. If the Son, or any other person besides the FATHER, either in the Trinity or out of it, were GoD, he would know the day and hour. But as no one knows but the FATHER, it is certain that no one is God but the FATHER. Let us now examine the testimony of the Apostles.

"One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all."-Eph. iv. 5, 6. If the FATHER is the ONE GOD of ALL, who is above the ONE LORD, and above ALL, it is certain that neither the One Lord, nor any other one, either in the Trinity or out of it, is the Father's equal-The same in substance, equal in power and glory."

66

For though there be that are called Guds, whether in

heaven or on earth, (as there be Gods many and Lords many;) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.”—I Cor. viii. 5, 6. Here we are taught the five following important truths—

1. That there are, in heaven and on earth, many, besides JEHOVAH, that are called Gods. These are not idols, for no such are in heaven; but images of the invisible God. Christ may be one. See John x. 35.

2. That God is "but one," but one Person, the FATHER. 3. That this one God, the Father, is the Source of all things" of whom are all things."

4. That Jesus Christ, the one Lord, is, in his highest nature (I speak as a Trinitarian) as distinct from the being of God, as he is from the Person of the Father. If Jesus were a mere man in any nature, it could not be said, in regard to that nature, that we and all things are by him. Will the Trinitarian say that we and all things are by the human nature of Christ, which had no existence till the Augustan age? As many things existed before that period, we and all things are by the pre-existent Christ, who is the first born of every creature-the beginning of the creation of God.

5. That the one Lord, Jesus Christ, is the intermediate minister, or agent, by whom God displays his power in the production of events. By whom are all things, and we by him."

Again The Scriptures teach that the Father is the only True God, by pointing him out as the only proper object of supreme worship. As the Father is the ONLY True God, and as he has thus commanded, 'Thou shalt worship no other God,' it seems to be an unavoidable conclusion that He alone is the object of supreme worship. But we are not left to inference merely. He who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, who has set us an example that we

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