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THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF THE FATHER, THE SON,

AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.

A Treatise,

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A LETTER ON ORTHODOX
OPINIONS AND SAVING FAITH.

THE WHOLE BEING A REPLY TO REV. E. H. BICKERSTETH'S
RECENT TREATISE, ENTITLED "THE ROCK OF AGES."

BY

THOMAS SADLER, PH.D.,

MINISTER OF ROSSLYN HILL CHAPEL,

HAMPSTEAD.

"Whilst we are wrangling here in the dark, we are dying, and passing to the
world, that will decide all our controversies; and the safest passage thither is
by peaceable holiness."-BAXTER.

LONDON:

E. T. WHITFIELD, 178 STRAND, W.C.

1859.

101. c. 157.

As to what I have said respecting the position I have taken in reference to the controversies, which are every day waxing fiercer, and distract an age that longs after a new creation, I can only reassert that, if it please God, I hope to abide faithful to these principles to my latest breath! The ground beneath our feet may be shaken, but not the Heavens above. We will adhere to that theologia pectoris, which is likewise the true theology of the spirit. -NEANDER.

BIBL

ILLUMEA

NUS TIO

DOMIMINA

To Dear Friends

TO WHOM IT HAS BEEN HIS PRIVILEGE TO MINISTER

IN SACRED THINGS

FOR NEARLY THIRTEEN YEARS,

AND MOST OF WHOM ARE DESCENDANTS OF THOSE

NOBLE PRESBYTERIAN FATHERS,

WHO WERE EVER READY TO MAKE PERSONAL SACRIFICES

FOR TRUTH, FREEDOM, AND CHARITY;

And to those Protestants

WHO ARE NOT YET WILLING TO TRUST THE FREE AND

EARNEST SOUL TO LEARN

THE TRUTH DIRECTLY FROM THE SAVIOUR,

BUT WHO, FORSAKING

THE GRAND PRINCIPLE OF THE REFORMATION,

INSIST UPON ORTHODOX DOCTRINE AS ESSENTIAL TO

SAVING FAITH

These Pages,

WITH FERVENT PRAYER FOR THE DIVINE BLESSING,

ARE DEDICATED BY

THE AUTHOR.

Where the cold name of sect, which sometimes throws
Unholy shadow o'er the heaven-warmed breast,
Doth melt to nothingness—and every surge
Of warring doctrine, in whose eddying depths
Earth's charity was drown'd, is sweetly lost
In the broad ocean of eternal love.-SIGOURNEY.

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PREFACE.

MANY of the questions discussed in the following pages I could myself have been content to pass over in reverent silence, till that great day, when we shall no longer know only in part: but a direct and earnest appeal, from a highly-respected clergyman of the neighbourhood, having rendered a reply necessary, I trust that what I have written will be read, in a candid and not unfriendly spirit, by those who differ from me.

The title I have chosen for this Treatise is completely justified by the most ancient form of the Doxology, from which it is taken. My desire has been to state calmly, but honestly and freely, my own religious convictions, and their grounds; and I hope that, in my way of doing this, nothing will be regarded as said in a hostile spirit. Believing, as I do, that all sincere Christians, of whatever denomina

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