to us the clearest and most satisfactory information, on these important subjects. This would be indispensably necessary respecting a dogma like that of the Trinity, concerning which confessedly Natural Religion could give us no information. If therefore it be true, that in the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost, who are each of them God, and as such require severally our religious worship, we might surely have expected that a fact, concerning which it was of so much importance to mankind to be correctly informed, would, in such a revelation, have been stated with a clearness and precision, which would have rendered it plain to the meanest human intellect.

Now let us enquire how this matter stands.Anterior to the advent of ist, it pleased God in his mercy, to reveal himself at sundry times, and in sundry ages to mankind, either by the ministry of Angels, or of Prophets divinely inspired. In the books of the Old Testament we have a record of all these revelations; and what do they teach us? Do they inform us that in the Godhead there are three distinct Persons, who are each of them God, and as such entitled to our supreme homage? Do they even so much as mention the names of God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost? No such thing. But there we every where find the supreme Ruler of the universe revealed to us, as a Being of simple unity, who has no equals. We open the sacred volume and read: 'I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.' Exd. xx. 2, 3. 'Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.' Deut.. IV. 35. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above,, and upon the earth be

neath: there is none else.' Deut. iv. 39. 'Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.' Deut. VI. 4. "There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee.' 1 Sam. 11. 2. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.' Ps. LXXXVI. 10.. "Thus saith the LORD, the king of Israel, and his Redeemer the LORD of Hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.' Isa. XLIV. 6. 'I am the LORD and there is none else; there is no God beside me.' Isa. XLV. 5. 'Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isa. XLV. 22. 'Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us.' Mal. 11. 10.And the prophet Zechariah, speaking of a day which probably has not yet arrived, but of which, we believe that the morning is dawning on us, says: 'In that day there shall be one LORD, and his name one.' Zech. xiv. 9.

Explicit as. these texts are, yet the light they throw on the interesting subject of our inquiry, is darkness, to that which we derive from a perusal of these sacred books in their whole context.There we find the great, fundamental dogma, that there is but ONE God, a Being of simple unity, every where written as with a ray of light; and in fact, to preserve the knowledge of this great truth among mankind, appears to have been the principal object of the whole of the old Testament dispensation. For this purpose, we see God calling Abraham away from his idols, his kindred and country, and revealing himself to him as the only true God. For this purpose, we find the descendants of Abraham, as soon as they began to multiply, placed in a situation, where, abandoning the erratic life of the Patriarchs, they could be kept together, and thus preserve among themselves the knowledge of God. Here they multiply beyond example, and the moment they have

become sufficiently numerous to exist as an independent nation, God raises up for them a leader, and directs them to quit the land of Egypt, and to remove to the country of Canaan. Hardly have they set out on their journey, when the Deity himself condescends to become their lawgiver, and the first of his Laws is: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. To preserve them from the contagion of the idolatrous example of the neighbouring nations, they are forbidden to intermarry with strangers, and they are themselves set apart as a peculiar people, by the imposition of a pompous but burdensome ritual worship, which should effectually seperate them from the surrounding nations. Notwithstanding these precautions, we find the children of Israel repeatedly abandoning themselves to idolatry, but as often as they do so, the punishment of the Deity overtakes them, and recalls them to their duty. In fact, the whole of their history, previous to the Babylonish captivity, is little else than the recital of the misfortunes which were sent upon them in consequence of their idolatry, and of a return of better days, the moment they repented of their transgression, and returned to the worship of the one true God. At length this training proved effectual. After their return from Babylon, we read no more of their committing idolatry, and from that period of time the belief in the one true God, appears to have been persevered in by the whole Jewish nation, with their characteristic pertinacity. Hence, when Jcsus asserted to the Scribe the unity of God, Mark XII. 29, the latter answered him: "Well Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God, and there is none other but he." Hence too, we find the Jews, even in our days, though scattered over the whole earth, and every where oppressed, still

adhering with a fidelity of which we have no other example, to this great and fundamental truth of the religion of their fathers,—that God is ONE.

Now to us it appears impossible, to reconcile these facts with the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity. Of that doctrine we are told, that a belief in it is absolutely necessary to salvation, and yet here, we find God revealing himself, during a series of ages, to a whole nation, as ONE God, as a Being of simple unity, and in all these revelations we find not the slightest intimation, that there are any but ONE, which are the objects of religious homage.

WE are not ignorant, that Trinitarians have pretended to find in the Old Testament a few texts from which they think that, if not a Trinity, at least a plurality of persons in the Deity, may be inferred. We are well acquainted with these texts, but shall not at this time enter into a particular examination of them. (a) The whole supposition rests on certain expressions, common to the Hebrew and other languages, wherein a superior is represented as expressing himself in the plural number in speaking of himself; and on a couple of passages, taken from the Prophets, and misapplied. The only answer we shall here give to these inferences, is that none of the Jews ever understood these passages in that manner; and that we, as Christians, cannot without irreverence, attribute to God, a Revelation which was not understood by any of those to whom it was made.

THERE are some among the Trinitarians, who have advanced the opinion, that though the body of the Jewish nation were unacquainted with the doctrine of the Trinity, yet that their inspired writers were not, but were fully informed with

(a) We intend doing this when we come to examine the Trinitarian proof texts.

respect to it, and firmly believed in it. We would charitably hope that those who advance this opinion, have never considered the dangerous consequences to which it leads. We have no other security for the authenticity of the Scriptures, than the integrity of the men who composed them. If we for a moment admit, that these men had one set of religious opinions for themselves, and promulgated another set of religious opinions to the multitude, the Bible loses all its value; for what we find recorded there, is only what was communicated to all.

WE think, therefore, that we must take for granted, that the doctrine of the simple unity of the Deity, is the doctrine of the Old Testament; and that the doctrine of the Trinity was totally unknown to mankind, previous to the advent of Christ. Whether this dogma is revealed to us in the new Testament, shall be the subject of our next inquiry.

ON THE UNITY OF GOD- -NO. III.

HAVING in our preceding number examined the proofs for the simple unity of the Deity, resulting from natural religion, and the revelations made to us in the old Testament, we should now proceed to the production of the proofs, drawn from the New Testament, by which the unity of God is established. But before we do so, we wish to examine a scheme of human invention, by which those proofs are attempted to be neutralized and invalidated.

In reading the works of the Evangelists and Apostles, every one must be struck with the numerous passages we meet with there, in which the inferiority of Jesus to, and his dependence on, his God and Father, are laid down, with all the distinctness of which human language is capable. We