because we cannot see the manner, which is veiled still? "Especially when we consider that what God has been pleased to reveal upon this head, is far from being a point of indifference; is a truth of the last importance. It enters into the very heart of Christianity: it lies at the root of all vital religion. 'all men

"Unless these three are one, how can honor the Son, even as they honor the Father?' 'I know not what to do,' says Socinus, in a letter to his friend, 'with my untoward followers: they will not worship Jesus Christ. I tell them, it is written, 'Let all the angels of God worship him.' They answer, 'However that be, if he is not God, we dare not worship him.' For it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.'

It is objected that this doctrine is contradictory. This objection is founded upon the supposition that being and person are the same; and upon this begged supposition it is argued that it is a contradiction to say that three persons can exist in the Godhead.. But, before this objection will have any force upon the minds of reflecting persons, Unitarians will have to prove that person and being are the same, and that God cannot exist in three persons. This they have as yet failed of doing. While it has been demonstrated from the sacred Scriptures that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and that these three are one. We are, therefore, not to understand by the word persons, when applied to the Godhead, some separate existences of a different nature, but united persons in the same nature. The persons in Jehovah are co-equal in all his perfections and attributes; but, with regard to the redemption of man, there is a gradation, or succession, in their respective operations. In these operations, they personally act, yet unitedly concur. The Son, for instance, redeemed by his incarnation and death: But the Father and Spirit were in Christ, co-existent at the same time. The

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Spirit also is the Comforter sent from the Father by Christ; and yet Christ, by union of nature with him, is always present with his people, in whom that Spirit dwells with himself, to the end of the world. Thus, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself; thus Christ is in the Father, and the Father in him; thus God dwelleth in his people, and they in God, because of the Spirit, which (as one with himself) he hath given them. Hence, these divine persons are not merely of like essence, but of the same essence; not separate existences, but one co-equal and co-eternal existence. They are distinguished from each other in manifestation, or person, but not in nature, substance, divinity, power, or glory. Viewed in this light, all appearance of contradiction disappears, and the above objection looses all its force. Besides, it should be remembered that there are facts which appear to be contradictory, when compared to other subjects, which in themselves are perfectly consistent.

"In the course of the blood, which runs upwards as well as downwards, through the human system, we witness a fact which is contrary to the general laws of nature, but consistent in itself. It would be a contradiction to say that a man can go ten miles as soon as one; but it would not in speaking of thought, which can ascend to a star as soon as to the top of a spire, or light upon Hindoston as soon as upon the Hudson. And it would be such also, for any one to say I am in the house and the house in me, but it would not be, were he speaking of iron and fire; for the iron may be in the fire and the fire in the iron; nor yet would it be when speaking of God and christians, for the Bible says, "They that dwell in love dwell in God and God in them." If natural things, when compared together, may appear to be contradictory, and yet not be really so, how obvious is it that the reputed contradiction, that it is said consists in comparing the Trinity with corporeal substances, is visionary and false.

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"Our opponents intimate that the contradiction consists in our saying that three times one are one. This is a false representation of our sentiments. Our doctrine requires of us only to maintain that, three, or any other number more than one, may exist in one.

"Of the possibility of this, we have examples in very ordinary things. In the study of letters it appears that marks make letters and letters syllables, words, &c. Instance the letter H which is constituted of two strait marks connected by a hyphen. These three marks make one letter; also the English spelling of the word GOD, which depends on three letters for its existence, though it is but one word. These remarks are not made to convey an idea that these things represent the nature of the Deity, for, as I have said, I think it ex-> tremely preposterous to attempt a representation of his nature, by any thing in the circle of the universe. He has told us in his word what he is, and it is our duty to believe him but they are made merely to show that THREE may exist in ONE, and our language of "three PERSONS in ONE GOD," is not so inconsistent as our opposers represent it to be.

"Should it be said, that, if the three persons constitute but one God, it would be improper to apply the word God to either of them separately, I would remark, that in the scriptures, the word is applied to them, and what God has said we cannot justly alter; but it is impossible to use it in reference to one without viewing it in relation to the others, who are as really God as the one to whom we directly apply it, as the union of persons, if it exist at all, has a permanent existence, and cannot be dissolved without destroying the very existence of Deity."-Luckey.

Unitarians have also objected to this doctrine because the terms which are now used to express it, such as Trinity and person, are not found in the Scriptures. If this proceeded from a real regard to what the Scriptures revealed, it would deserve the more attention; but when

the objection is raised merely for cavillation, as without breach of charity, it may be affirmed has often been the case, it is sufficient to say, that if men will abide only by terms of Scripture, it will be absolutely necessary for them to use the Scripture only in the two languages of Hebrew and Greek, in which they are written. For if there be any force in such an argument, it lies against every translation in the world, because these alter the terms, and sometimes impose a sense upon them which not only is contrary to the sense which other men may affix, but in some instances wide enough from the original. In such a case, there would be no allowable divinity but what might appear in Greek and Hebrew, to the great edification, no doubt, of the common people, who happen to have souls as well as rabbies and philosophers, and who in general are at least as desirous of their salvation. The truth is, the terms used in this and other cases would not offend, if the things which the terms signify were not disagreeable to those who make the above objection. We know, as well as these objectors, that the words trinity, incarnation, person, essence, and such like, are not to be found in the Bible; but we also know that the truths which these words relate to are not only to be found there, but are the very sum and substance of it. If these terms convey the notion of these truths, they answer the use of all terms, which is to communicate the knowledge of things. And as to the terms themselves, they were first employed in opposition to the various heretics by the fathers of the Church, for a clearer and more full expression of their doctrines, and have been very properly retained to this day.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN.

Having, in the preceding chapters, confined ourselves mostly to the all important subject of the Trinity, we now pass from that to another, in which we are all in like manner deeply interested, viz: the Character and Condition of Man. In the present chapter, however, we shall confine ourselves to a consideration of his character in his primeval state, in which it will be our object to show that he was created holy; a point which is denied by many Unitarians.

1. “Man was the effect of a holy cause. God creted man; and as man was passive, and not active, in his own creation, he could have possessed no nature, powers, nor even tendencies of powers, which he did not receive from the plastic hand of his Creator. God imparted to man all that he possessed when he first awoke to conscious being, even the first breath he drew; hence if man contained in his nature any moral evil, God must have been its author. Man's body, which was formed of the earth, must have been a lifeless and irrational form of matter; and could not have possessed moral quality, before it was animated by a rational soul; all, therefore, that man possessed in his first existence that was moral was imparted to him when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and constituted him a living soul; therefore, if man was morally corrupt, or contained in his nature any propensity to evil, it must have been infused by Jehovah's breath! Now as God is holy, nothing but holiness could have proceeded from him; man, therefore, must have been holy in his first existence, as he came from the hands of his Divine Author.