POSTHUMOUS SERMONS*. SERMON I On the TRINITY. 1 Epiftle general of St. JOHN, v. .7. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and theje three are one. T HIS day being fet apart to acknowledge our belief in the eternal Trinity, I thought it might be proper to employ my prefent difcourfe entirely upon that fubject; and I hope to handle it in fuch a manner, that the most ignorant among you may return home better in * These fermons are curious, and curious for fuch reafons as would make other works defpicable. They were written in a careless hurrying manner; and were the offspring of neceffity, not of choice: fo that one will fee the original force of the Dean's genius more in thefe compofitions, that were the legitimate fons of duty, than in other pieces that were the natural fons of love. They were held in fuch low efteem in his own thoughts, that, fome years before he died, he gave away the whole collection to Dr. Sheridan, with the utmolt indifference: Here," fays he, "are a bundle of my old fermons. "You may have them if you pleafe. They may be of use to you, "they have never been of any to me." The parcel given to Dr. Sheridan confiftet, as I have heard, of about thirty nve fermons. Three or four only are publish'd; and those I have read over with attention. Orvery VOL. II. A for formed of your duty in this great point, than probably you are at prefent. It must be confeffed, that by the weaknefs and indifcretion of bufy (or, at beft, of well-meaning) people, as well as by the malice of those who are enemies to all revealed religion, and are not content to poffefs their own infidelity in filence, without communicating it to the difturbance of mankind; I fay, by thefe means, it must be confeffed, that the doctrine of the Trinity hath fuffered very much, and made Chriftianity fuffer along with it. For thefe two things must be granted: First, That men of wicked lives would be very glad there were no truth in Christianity at all; and, fecondly, If they can pick out any one fingle article in the Chriftian religion which appears not agreeable to their own corrupted reafon, or to the arguments of thofe bad people who follow the trade of feducing others, they prefently conclude, that the truth of the whole gofpel muft fink along with that one article. Which is juft as wife, as if a man fhould say, becaufe he diflikes one law of his country, he will therefore obferve no law at all; and yet that one law may be very reafonable in itfelf, although he does not allow it, or does not know the reason of the lawgivers. Thus it hath happened with the great doctrine of the Trinity; which word is indeed not in fcripture, but was a term of art invented in the earlier times, to express the doctrine by a fingle word, for the fake of brevity and convenience. The doctrine then as delivered in holy fcripture, though not exactly in the fame words, is very fhort, and amounts only to this: That the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, are each of them God, and yet there is but one God. For as to the word perfon, when we fay there are three perfons; and as to thofe other explanations in the Athanafian creed, this day read to you, (whether compiled by Atha Athanafius or no, they were taken up three hundred years after Chrift, to expound this doctrine; and I will tell you upon what occafion. About that time there fprang up a herefy of people called Arians, from one Arius the leader of them. Thefe denied our Saviour to be God, although they allowed all the rest of the gospel, (wherein they were more fincere than their followers among us). Thus the Christian world was divided into two parts, till at length, by the zeal and courage of St. Athanafius, the Arians were condemned in a general couneil, and a creed formed upon the true faith, as St.. Athanafius hath fettled it. This creed is now read at certain times in our churches; which although it is useful for edification to those who understand it, yet fince it contains fome nice and philofophical points, which few people can comprehend, the bulk of mankind is obliged to believe no more than the fcripture-doctrine, as I have delivered it; becaufe that creed was intended only as an answer to the Arians in their own way, who were very fubtile difputers. But this herefy having revived in the world about an hundred years ago, and continued ever fince; not out of a zeal to truth, but to give a loose to wickedness, by throwing off all religion; feveral divines, in order to anfwer the cavils of thofe adverfaries to truth and morality, began to find out farther explanations of this doctrine of the Trinity by rules of philofophy; which have multiplied controverfies to fuch a degree, as to beget fcruples that have perplexed the minds of many fober Chriftians, who otherwife could never have entertained them. I must therefore be fo bold to affirm, that the method taken by many of those learned men to defend the doctrine of the Trinity, hath been founded upon a mistake. It must be allowed, that every man is bound to follow the rules and directions of that measure of A 2 reafon reafon which God hath given him. And indeed he cannot do otherwife, if he will be fincere, or act like a man. For inftance, if I fhould be commanded by an angel from heaven to believe it is midnight at noon-day; yet I could not believe him. So if I were directly told in fcripture, that three are one, and one is three, I could not conceive or believe it, in the natural common fenfe of that expreffion; but muft fuppofe, that fomething dark or myftical was meant, which it pleased God to conceal from me, and from all the world. Thus, in the text, There are three that bear record, &c. Am I capable of knowing and defining, what union and what diftinction there may be in the divine nature,which poffibly may be hid from the angels themselves? Again, I fee it plainly declared in fcripture, that there is but one God; and yet I find our Saviour claiming the prerogative of God, in knowing mens thoughts; in faying, He and his Father are one; and, Before Abraham was, I am. I read, that the difciples worshipped him; that Thomas faid to him, My Lord and my God; and St. John, chap. i. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I read likewife, that the Holy Ghost bestowed the gift of tongues, and the power of working miracles; which, if rightly con fidered, is as great a miracle as any, that a number of illiterate men fhould of a fudden be qualified to fpeak all the languages then known in the world; fuch as could be done by the infpiration of God alone *. From these feveral texts it is plain, that God *In defending the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, perhaps it is always best to infift upon the pofitive evidence, as the Dean has done in this formon: for in every quefion, he who undertakes to obviate objections, mut neceffarily be foiled by him who puts them By the human intellect, little more than the furface of things can be known, and therefore fpeculative objections, which would puzzle an able phi-, lofopher, may be eafily raifed even against thofe truths which admit of practical demonftration. It was once objected to a philofopher who |