nature of the TRINITY, notwithstanding the dogmas and anathemas of councils, Trinitarians themselves differ; some, with Dr. Sherlock, holding that the three persons are three distinct infinite minds 6 or intelligences; others, with Dr. South, that there is only one infinite mind, with three MODES, or attributes, or offices, manifested under the different states or relations of Father, Son, and Spirit. The former scheme retains the Trinity, but loses the Unity; as it makes distinctly three Gods, which indeed the Catechism of the Church EXPRESSLY AFFIRMS. The latter retains the Unity, and loses the Trinity; but it is now generally considered the orthodox doctrine. It certainly avoids Tritheism; but falls upon Sabellianism, or the Patripassian heresy.

EXAMINATION

OF THE

Passages adduced to prove the modern Doctrine of the Supreme Divinity of Christ, and the Economy of a Trinity in the Godhead.

ISAIAH ix. 6. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

It is not declared that Christ shall be the mighty God, but that he shall be called so, consistent with Jeremiah xxiii. 6: "And his name shall be called Jehovah our righteousness." Though this passage is also quoted in favour of Christ being Jehovah; yet the same figure is used of Jerusalem: Jer. xxxiii. 16: "Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name wherewith she shall be called: THE LORD Our righteousness."

Luke uses the some phraseology, as to the sonship of the Messiah: i. 32. "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest.

The above passage of Isaiah varies in different copies. Some ancient versions read, "the Angel of mighty Counsel," or of the great design. The words have been translated, "Wonderful, Counsellor of God;" and this with exquisite absurdity has been turned against the advocates for the supremacy of Jehovah, as if they supposed that Christ was a counsellor to God, instead of from him; but they neither have invented the reading, nor do they so interpret it. The Alexandrine copy reads, "the Mighty," and omits God. But even according to the present text, the literal version would be "Wonderful, Counsellor, MIGHTY GOD, FATHER of the age to COME, Prince of Peace."

God, in the Jewish idiom, was a titular distinction of persons who had commission from God, or were appointed by him. John x. 35: "Ye call them gods to whom the word of GOD came.' Exod. vii. 1: "I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet."Exod. xxii. 28; "Thou shalt not revile the gods, [the judges,] nor curse the ruler of thy people.". Ps. Ixxxii. 1: "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty he judgeth among the gods [magistrates]." Names were employed with a similar meaning. Elijah is "God-Jehovah;" Elihu, "my God himself." Thus in the accommodation of the passage in Isaiah to Jesus, vii. 14, “A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel;" which Matthew interprets, i. 23, "God with us."

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ZECHARIAH Xiii. 7. Awake, O sword! against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts.

The words may be rendered" him that is near to me;" but even as they are, they prove nothing as to Christ's original or essential equality with the Lord of Hosts, any more than those other passages of Scripture which speak of his co-ordinate power. Christ, doing "the works which the Father had given him to finish," was in his ministry and cooperation the fellow of God; and in the same sense he affirms, "I and my Father are one."

ZECHARIAH xii. 10. And I will pour upon the house of David the spirit of grace, and they shall look on ME whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son.

This text is urged in proof that Christ was Jehovah; which is the Patripassian heresy. If the bias to system had not blinded the critical judgment, it should seem impossible to suppose that me and him referred to one and the same person. He, who pierced the representative of God, might be said to have pierced God. Dr. OWEN, however, shows

that Ignatius, Irenæus, and others, countenanced the reading" him whom they have pierced;" and it is adopted into the text by Archbishop Newcome: "Attempt towards an Improved Version."

ISAIAH xl. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a high way for our God.

9-11. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! The Lord God will come with strong hand. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.

The JEWS were accustomed to describe the appearing of a prophet as the appearing of GoD among them.

Luke vii. 16. "There came a fear on all, and they glorified GOD, saying, ‘A great prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited his people."" And they who believed on Jesus as the Christ, did not suppose him to be himself God, but only that he was commissioned from God. John xii. 13: "Hosanna!' blessed is the King of Israel who cometh in the name of the Lord." Mark ix. 8: "When the multitude saw it, they marvelled and glorified GoD, who had given such power unto

men."

"He that receiveth you," said Jesus to his Apostles," receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me."

ISAIAH viii. 13, 14. Sanctify the LORD of Hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Here also it is on the same principle assumed, that because the Lord of Hosts, as revealed by Christ in his gospel ministry, was a rock of offence to the Jews, who" in despising Christ, despised him that sent him;" therefore Christ was the LORD of Hosts.

ZECH. xi. 12, 13. They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them.

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This is brought to prove that Jehovah is the person prized at thirty pieces of silver, and that Jehovah is therefore Christ. But, in the usual manner, the text is separated from its context. The preceding verse has, "I (the Prophet) said unto them, if ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver." And it is the Prophet who says, "a goodly price that I was prized at of them." HEB. i. S. But unto the Son he saith, "Thy throne, O God! is for ever and ever."

This is the application to Christ of a passage in the Psalms of David, xlv. 6, entitled, "A Song of loves," and originally addressed to Solomon, the future king of Israel, on his marriage with the princess of Egypt. The inferior sense in which the word God is here used appears from the succeeding verse, which is equally accommodated by the Apostle to Christ. "Therefore GOD, even THY GOD, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness. above thy fellows." If from this style of address the Jews did not infer that Solomon was God, neither could they infer from it that Christ was God.

It was the opinion of Grotius and Dr. Clarke, that the words might equally be rendered "God is thy throne:" the stay of thy throne.

ROM. ix. 5. Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

As the ancient copies of the Gospels were not pointed, the pauses must be regulated by the sense. The charge of altering the punctuation, in order to make the text conform with a system, is therefore absurd. The received pointing is suspicious, because, notwithstanding the obstinacy of Trinitarian writers in defending it, the most obvious grammatical construction is at variance with it.

In the English version the position of the original words is changed, in order to bring Christ into