and the sea, and the fountains of waters ;" and they spoke of Jesus as his "holy child" or servant.

He further tells us that the "redemption of mankind from the dominion and punishment of sin could never have been accomplished, if Christ had not been God as well as man; because it is declared, by an inspired writer, none can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him."

This is forced out of its connexion, and wrested from its meaning, according to the usual method of orthodox explication and proof. David is speaking of "them who boast themselves of the multitude of their riches:" xlix. 6. The redemption of their soul" is, as any one who reads the Bible in the original could tell Mr. Dennis, "the redemption of their life." David afterwards says, (15,) "GOD will redeem my soul [life] from the power of the grave.' But the objection of Mr. Dennis falls powerless against the shield of Unitarian faith: for we hold that God is our Redeemer, our Saviour, and that He saved us by Jesus Christ.

We maintain, in the words of AMORY, that "those systems which have an outward orthodox soundness, given to them by their eloquent defenders, within are mere corruption and apostacy." Mr. Dennis says, (and it is easily said,) that it was the doctrine of the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Martyrs; and it will be the doctrine of all true believers, to the end of time;" and "all," he might have added, "who do not keep this doctrine whole and undefiled, shall, without doubt, perish everlastingly."

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Yet, if the word of God be true, the TRITHEISTIC HERESY must fall; for the ONE JEHOVAH, who is also THE FATHER," and who "will not give his glory to another," has said, "I have sworn by myself, that unto ME every knee shall bow, every tongue shall

The enlightened members of the Church of England, her Taylors, her Hoadleys, and her Watsons, regard the creed of her Saint, Athanasius, as the scandal of their faith and ritual; but these are looked upon among their brethren with an evil eye, and the praise

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of orthodoxy is engrossed by men of a different stamp -by the Horsleys and the Burgesses, the Lauds and the Whitgifts of their generation. Archbishop TILLOTSON, Who" wished the Church were well rid of it," is honoured by the Rev. Prebendary Dennis with the title of "Judas."- "Blessed are ye, when men revile you."

A respectable theologian, who has chiefly employed his talents in defence and illustration of the ritual of his church, felicitates himself on belonging to a Christian society whose faith is guarded against innovation by creeds. The forms of the Papal Church (of which these very creeds make ́ a part) erect a similar barrier against innovations; and the Mother of God still disputes with Jesus of Nazareth the claims of Jehovah to the adoration of his creatures. By this principle the writer begs the question, that the creeds which he makes the rule of doctrine contain no mixture of error, and betrays the affinity of his church to that in which she forms a schism, by affirming the all-sufficiency of synodical decrees, and the insufficiency of the Scriptures. The three creeds are, by these principles, assumed to be infallible, and to have equal authority with Scripture; and this is Popery. Yet these infallible creeds are each contradictory to the other. The first and most ancient, which the Spanish Jesuits reprobated as a Unitarian symbol, acknowledges Gon, the FATHER ALMIGHTY, as the maker of heaven and earth, and Jesus Christ as his only Son. The second makes Jesus Christ GoD of God, and himself the maker of, all the worlds. The third makes Jesus, Christ GOD with GoD, and equal in power and eternity to his own Father. These three creeds, in fact, mark the progress of Trinity; but the writer who congratulates himself in belonging to a church that possesses these three creeds, congratulates himself that he holds three faiths.

It is better that variations of doctrinal belief should arise, and that the agitation and collision of opinions should keep inquiry alive, than that error, if there be error, should be locked up in antiquated formularies,

which usurp the sanction of holy writ, and impose a barbarous scholastic jargon for the simple and authorized language of the Scriptures.*

He who finds his religion in systems of theology, examines the Scriptures for the purpose of reconciling their contents with his own pre-established formularies. "He despiseth prophesyings." The creeds and articles of his church, to him, are spirit, and they are life." Defendantur symbola, ruat evangelion.

NOTE 6, p. 18.

"It is against the sacred texts to ascribe to Each Person of Three the nature and all-essential attributes and properties of the One only true God, and yet make the Three the One true God only, when considered conjunctly; for if each has all possible perfections and attributes, then each must be the same true God as if and when conjoined; and of consequence there must then be Three One true Gods, or One Three true Gods Three One Supreme Beings, or One Three Supreme Beings; since to each of the Three must be ascribed, as the orthodox say, any thing and every thing that is most peculiar and appropriated to the divine nature, without any difference. In short, by concocting matters of faith in this manner, we have three distinct selfs or intelligent agents, equal in power and all pos-sible perfections, agreeing in one common essence, one sort of species (like a supreme magistracy of distinct persons, acting by a joint exercise of the same power); and so the three are one, not by a numerical

* One of the Articles, indeed, provides that the dogmas and definitions of the church-divinity are no farther binding than as they are proved to be warranted by holy writ; but it is assumed that they are warranted by holy writ, and to doubt them is heresy.

but specific identity; three Omnipotents, and one Almighty, in a collective sense. We discover upon a fair examination, and laying aside our old prejudices, that there is nothing like this in the New Testament. In the Bible we obtain a just idea of the Eternal Cause: God the Father, almighty, all-wise, unchangeable, infinite; and, in the plainest language, we are ordered to pray to this "blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone hath immortality."-Amory.

Leslie (Short and Easy Method with the Deists) professes to reconcile the Trinity with reason; and, in his explication of it, is at direct variance with himself. He explains the three persons by analogy with the understanding, memory, and will; which are yet one soul; and says, that what we call faculties in the soul, we call PERSONS in the Godhead. This is the Sabellian Trinity of qualities or modes. But in another place he says there is no contradiction in one being three; for that one may be three or three thousand; and he compares the Trinity of persons, three yet one, to an army, which may consist of many thousand men, and yet is but one army. There is but one human nature, yet multitudes of persons partake of that nature. that the three qualities are here supplanted by three beings, distinct, and independent, as men are distinct. and independent; and only ONE collectively, or by a common nature. This is the Athanasian Trinity of three separate Intelligences: and, as the army is one army, though its individuals are many, and yet all these individuals are severally men; so, although there be one Godhead in this Trinity, the persons who compose it must be severally Gods. To make the parallel subservient to his purpose, the writer should have shown that the thousands of individual men made collectively, not one army, but one man.

So

NOTE 7, p. 18.

The British Reviewer, who appears actuated by a liberalised spirit of Christianity towards all but the "worshippers of the Father," is obliged to confess that

a child cannot understand what is meant by the triune nature of the Divine Essence; but he may nevertheless learn to love God as a father, Jesus Christ as a Saviour, and the holy Spirit as a teacher"—that is, to confuse his intellect with a plurality of beings, to one of whom he is to look for one sort of benefit, u another for another, and with technical distinctions of personified attributes and offices. The mathematical contradiction of Three being One, can no more be understood by a person of mature age, than by a child; but the child would have no occasion to perplex his understanding about it, if he were taught from the Gospel; where he would find nothing of triune, and where he would learn that GOD was his SAVIOUR. The child might certainly be made to learn the habit of separate worship to a Father, a Saviour, and a Teacher, as he is distinctly taught by his catechism that there are THREE GODS; but that he will love the Father, after learning to transfer all gratitude to the Son, may be doubted. An anecdote will illustrate this:-A mother, who was a widow, had taught her child the faith of the Gospel from the Gospel. The child understood and believed that "God was love," and he therefore loved God. The rigid orthodoxy of the grandfather interfered, and the child was advanced from religion to theology; from pardon on repentance, to inherited sin and guilty infancy; to the wrath of a vindictive God, and the interposing love and vicarious suffering of his Son. The child was teachable, but his cheerfulness in Christianity was gone for ever. The mother asked him, "Tell me, my child! you know that God is good; do you not love God?" The boy paused a few moments, and then replied in a subdued voice, " No, mother! I do not love GOD, BUT I fear Him!"