glory to himself, though there fhould have been a fenfe in which each of them was truly God, and yet there was, properly fpeaking, only one God; at leaft the more obvious inference would have been, that if each of the three perfons was properly God, they would all together make three Gods. Since, therefore, nothing of this kind is faid in the Old Teftament, as the objection is never made, nor anfwered, it is evident that the idea had not then occurred. No expreffion, or appearance, had at that time even fuggested the difficulty.

If we guide ourselves by the fenfe in which the Jews understood their own facred books, we cannot but conclude that they contained no fuch doctrine as that of the christian trinity. For it does not appear that any Jew, of ancient or modern times, ever deduced fuch a doctrine from them. The Jews always interpreted their scriptures as teaching that God is fimply one, without distinction of perfons, and that the fame being who made the world, did alfo Speak to the patriarchs and the prophets,

without the intervention of any other beings

befides angels.

Christians have imagined that the Meffiah was to be the second person in the divine trinity; but, the Jews themselves, great as were their expectations from the Meffiah, never fuppofed any such thing. And if we confider the prophecies concerning this great perfonage, we shall be fatisfied that they could not poffibly have led them to expect any other than a man in that character,, The Meffiah is fuppofed to be announced to our firft parents under the title of the feed of the woman, Gen. iii. 15. But the phrase born of woman, which is of the fame import, is always in fcripture fynonymous to man. Job fays, ch. xiv. 1. Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble; and again, ch. 25. 4. How can he be clean that is born of a woman?

God promifed to Abraham, Gen. xii. 3. that in his feed all the families of the earth fhould be bleffed. This, if it relate to the Meffiah at all, can give us p other idea than that one of his feed or pofterity, should

be

be the means of conferring great bleffings on mankind. What elfe, alfo, could be fuggefted by the defcription which Mofes is fuppofed to give of the Meffiah, when he faid, Deut xviii. 18. I will raise them up a prophet, from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I fhall command him? Here is nothing like a fecond perfon in the trinity, a perfon equal to the Father, but a mere prophet, delivering in the name of God, whatever he is ordered fo to do. By Ifaiah, who writes more diftinctly concerning the Meffiah than any of the preceding prophets, his fufferings and death are mentioned, ch. liii.

Old. To the scribe who inquired which was the first and the greatest commandment, our Saviour answered, Mark xii. 29. The first of all the commandments is, Hear, o Ifrael, the Lord our God is one Lord, &c. and the scribe answered to him, Well, Mafter, Ybou haft said the truth; for there is one

, God, and there is none other but he, &c.

Christ himself always prayed to this one God, as his God and Father. He always' spake of himself as receiving his doctrine and his power from him, and again and again disclaimed having any power of his own, John v. 19. Then answered Jejus and faid unto tbem, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself. Ch. xiv.10. The words which I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he dotb the works. Ch. xx. 17. Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and unto my God and God. It cannot, surely, be God that uses such language as this.

The apostles, to the latest period of their writings, speak the same language; representing the Father as the only true God,

and

.

your God.

and Christ as a man, the fervant of God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him all the power of which he is poffeffed, as a reward of his obedience, A&t ii. 22. Peter fays, re men of Ifrael, hear these words; Jefus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and figns, which God did by him, &c. whom God bas raised up. Paul alfo fays, 1 Tim. ii. v. There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Chrift Jefus. Heb. ii. 9. We fee Jefus, who was made a little lower than the angels, i. e. who was a man, for the fuffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, &c. For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many fons unto glory, to make the captain of their falvation perfect through fufferings.

ge

Such, I will venture to fay, is the neral tenor of the fcriptures, both of the Old and the New Teftament; and the paffages that even seem to speak, or that can by any forced conftruction be made to speak, a different language, are comparatively few. It will alfo be feen, in the courfe of this