the Son, and the Holy Spirit are no more three distinct intelligent persons, than the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob are three Gods and let Dr. Sherlock and his partisans believe, if they like, that the three persons of the Trinity are as much three, distinct, infinite minds, as Peter, James, and John are three men*. -Let the Athanasian believe that the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty, and yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty: while Dr. Burnet and his followers maintain that the Son and the Holy Ghost are created beings, and are Gods only by the indwelling of the Father's Godhead +.-Let Bishop Horsley and his admirers contend that the Father produced the Son by contemplating his own perfections, and refuse to assign a reason why he produced no more than one‡.--Let Bishop Gastrell and Dr. Moysey believe, if they can,

❝ment." Dr. Taylor. The allusion is to a ship in full sail, moving without any impediment. See Doddridge in loc. and Bennet's Irenicum, App. p. 120.

* Vide supra p. 29.

+ Burnet's (Dr. Thomas) Script. Doctrine of the Trinity, p. 173, 174.

66 A principle common to all the Platonic fathers, and seems to be founded in Scripture, that the existence of the Son "flows necessarily from the Divine Intellect exerted on itself; "from the Father's contemplation of his own perfections. But

that the Father" includes the whole idea of God, and something more;" that the Son" in"cludes the whole idea of God, and something

more;" and that the Holy Ghost" includes "the whole idea of God, and something more;" while, all together, they make up One complete God, and nothing more*. And let Bishop Burgess, on the contrary, believe, if it be possible, that the Father is a person, but "not a being;" the Son is a person, but "not a being;" and the Holy Ghost is a person, but "not a being;" and that these three personal non-entities make

66

as the Father ever was, his perfections have ever been, and "his intellect has ever been, active. But perfections which "have ever been, the ever-active intellect must ever have " contemplated; and the contemplation which hath ever been, "must ever have been accompanied with its just effect, the personal existence of the Son."-Horsley's Charge, in Tracts, &c. p. 61.

This curious morceau of superlative nonsense, which unwittingly escaped the learned polemic, his acute and active adversary seized eagerly, and rallied him upon it without mercy. But in the fourth Disquisition annexed to his Collection of Tracts in reply to Dr. Priestley, the wary prelate, who had learned wisdom by experience, though he very prudently declines to defend the doctrine, very successfully shows, in opposition to Dr. Priestley, who charged him with being the original inventor of the absurdity, that other learned men, espe cially about the time of the Reformation, had broached the same nonsense before him.

* Vid. supra, p. 32.

1

One perfect Being*.-Let Mr. Heber maintain, if he pleases, the extraordinary position, that the Father is the first person in the Trinity, the archangel Michael the second, and the angel Gabriel the third+.-Let Dean Magee teach us, that Cain was the first Unitarian, that the sin of Cain consisted in offering a vegetable instead of an animal sacrifice to his Maker, and that without respect to the atonement of Christ; and let him be rewarded with a bishoprick for his pains-Let

*The Scripture declares that there is only one God."The same scriptures declare that there are three omnipre"sent PERSONS, but there cannot be two omnipresent BEINGS, "therefore the three omnipresent persons can be only one "God." Bishop Burgess's Brief Memorial on the Repeal of the Statutes 9 & 10 of William III. p. 21.

+ Heber's Bampton Lectures, No. IV. The learned writer assures us that "the Mahometan doctors all understand the 66 angel Gabriel to mean the Holy Ghost." p. 295. Their authority, no doubt, is great. What would have been said if an Unitarian writer had appealed to them?

"The sacrifice of Abel was an animal sacrifice. This sa"crifice was accepted. The ground of this acceptance was "the faith in which it was offered. Scripture assigns no other "object of this faith but the promise of a Redeemer. And of "this faith the offering of an animal in sacrifice appears to "have been the legitimate, and consequently the instituted, "expression. The institution of animal sacrifice then was co"eval with the fall, and had a reference then to the sacrifice of "our redemption." Magee on Atonement, vol. i. p. 54.

"Cain-disdaining to adopt the prescribed mode of mani

Dr. Hales, the learned rector of Killesandra, who declares himself to be "a priest after the Order of "Melchisedec," the third, I presume, in the succession; let this learned Hierophant demonstrate

66 festing his belief, possibly as not appearing to his reason to 66 possess any efficacy or natural fitness, thought he had suf"ficiently acquitted himself of his duty in acknowledging the "general superintendence of God, and expressing his grati"tude to the Supreme Benefactor, by presenting some of "those good things, which he thereby confessed to have been "derived from his bounty." Surely there was no great harm in this. But the pious Dean proceeds to express his holy indignation: "In short, Cain, the first-born of the fall, exhibits "the first fruits of his parents' disobedience, in the arrogance "and self-sufficiency of reason, rejecting the aids of Revela"tion, because they fell not within its apprehension of right. "He takes the first place in the annals of deism (q. unita"rianism); and displays, in his proud rejection of the ordi66 nance of sacrifice, the same spirit which, in later days, has "actuated his enlightened followers in rejecting the sacrifice "of Christ."-Ibid. p. 52, 53.

Fine words truly! One would wonder how the very reverend writer obtained all his information. But as further inquiries might be deemed officious and troublesome, it may be best to receive this addition to the Mosaic history with humble docility, and a dutiful "prostration of the understanding," which always saves a great deal of trouble to both parties.

* In the "Inspector," published in London, 1799, and attributed to Dr. Hales, is the following curious passage, p. 37: "I now entreat, I now beseech, I now supplicate the atten❝tion of all that have ears to hear, while I enter my formal written protest, in the most solemn and impressive terms

by his critically accurate skill in Greek, that the spirits of the deep have all been muzzled since our Lord stilled the tempest; and, what is of far greater consequence, that Satan himself is become a Methodist at last*.-Finally, let the learned and

"seriousness itself can dictate, as a servant of the most high “God, as a PRIEST AFTER THE PATRIARCHAL AND EVANGELICAL ORDERS OF MELCHISEDEC and Jesus Christ, as a bene❝volent citizen of the world, and as a faithful, a loyal, and 66 a willing subject of the British empire," &c. &c.

"A storm being suddenly raised while our Lord was "asleep," by Satan, in revenge for what was said of him in the parable of the Sower, "our Lord, roused from sleep ❝in indignation at such a treacherous attempt to compass

his destruction unawares," exclaims, Mark iv. 39,Zwα, Tεdiμwσo, "Hush, wind: Be instantly muzzled, sea: and "the wind was lulled, and there fell a great calm." The author conjectures, "with all due diffidence and humility, that "these words were addressed not to the inanimate elements "themselves," which, to be sure, did not want a muzzle, "but to the impure spirits of the wind and the waves," who might, no doubt, by this happy contrivance, be kept from doing mischief, like so many dancing bears. See Inspector, p. 81-84.

The ingenious writer "is strongly of opinion (p. 85), that "the critically accurate Mark has given the original words ut"tered by Jesus" upon this occasion. It appears, therefore, that our Lord addressed the impure spirits upon this occasion in Greek perhaps they might not understand Hebrew.

After all, though Satan was very near playing our Lord an unlucky trick upon this occasion, there is great reason to believe