land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God BUT ME ; for [there is] no saviour besides me.

OBSERVATIONS.

It is, we think, exceedingly obvious that the sentiments contained in the above passages emanated from ONLY ONE SUPREMELY INTELLIGENT MIND;--that the style is so framed as necessarily to exclude more than one being or person from a participation in the absolute and infinite perfections of Deity. But the Trinitarian replies, that these declarations were made in opposition to the false gods of the heathen, and not in contradistinction to the Son or to the Holy Ghost. And this we have no hesitation to acknowledge, for it does not seem to have entered into the conceptions of any one, that, even if supposed to have a present existence, these beings formed component parts of the Divinity. When such declarations were uttered, and indeed for centuries afterwards, neither Jew nor Gentile knew anything, so far as we can learn, of the doctrine of the Trinity as now held by the generality of Christians. They had no idea of a God consisting of three persons, who are each and individually a God or divine being, but are not three Gods-not three divine beings. It is therefore reasonable to believe, that the declarations of Jehovah, and of his servants the prophets, were not announced with the single aim of evincing God to be one person or being; this truth having been recognized by all who believe in the existence of one Supreme Intelligence. Yet we contend, that the language of Deity, here quoted or referred to, is that of ONE PERSON ONLY; and that the sentiments are repugnant equally to Trinitarianism, as to heathen idolatry. Indeed, we can scarcely conceive that any language could be invented that any words could be combined, which would express

more concisely, and with greater energy, the oneness of Almighty God, as maintained by the Unitarian Christian.

SECT.

V.-PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE IN WHICH GOD IS REPRESENTED AS SPEAKING OF HIMSELF, AND AS ADDRESSED AND SPOKEN OF, IN LANGUAGE INTIMATING THE STRICTEST UNITY.

(1) God represented as using Verbs and Pronouns in the Singular Number.

1. Gen. xvii. 1,2: Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I [am] the Almighty God. Walk before me, and be thou perfect; and I will make my covenant between me and thee, &c.

2. Exod. iii. 14: And God said unto Moses, I am that I am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.

3. Exod. vi. 2, 3: I [am] Jehovah: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.

4. Isa. xxxiii. 10: Now will I rise, saith Jehovah; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.

5. Isa. xlv. 7: I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil. I Jehovah do all these [things].

6. Jer. xxiii. 23, 24: [Am] I a God, at hand, saith Je

hovah, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him?.... Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah.

7. Matt. iii. 17: And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

(2) God addressed in the Singular Number. 8. 1 Kings viii. 27: But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee, &c.

Thine,

9. 1 Chron. xxix. 10–13: Blessed [be] thou, Jehovah God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. O Jehovah, [is] the greatness and the power; thine [is] the kingdom, O Jehovah, and thou art exalted as head above all, &c.

......

10. Ps. ix. 2: I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou Most High.

11. Ps. xviii. 25: With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright.

12. Ps. cxxxix. 7-14: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou [art] there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou [art there]. ... I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made, &c. 13. John xvii. 1-26: These words spake Jesus : Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, &c.

....

(3) God spoken of in the Singular Number.

14. Gen. i. 27: So God created man in his [own] image: in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

15. Deut. vi. 13: Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.

16. Deut. vii. 6: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people, &c. 17. Jer. x. 10: But Jehovah [is] the true God; he [is] the

living God, and an everlasting King at his wrath the

earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

18. John iii. 16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

19. Heb. xi. 6: He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

20. Rev. xxi. 3: He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God.

OBSERVATIONS.

To these passages might be added such as, in the preceding lists, connect the name of God with verbs and pronouns in the singular number. The catalogue might, indeed, be increased to an indefinite extent; almost every page of the Sacred Volume being replete with texts of the same kind, and all bearing their testimony to the great truth, that “GoD IS ONE." In opposition, however, to MANY THOUSANDS of this description, and in order to prove that the Godhead consists of three persons, the advocates for the doctrine of the Trinity adduce a very few instances (Gen. i. 26; iii. 22; xi. 7. Isa. vi. 8), in which God is represented as speaking in the plural number. The peculiar phraseology thus used will be afterwards explained, and shown to be perfectly consistent with the strict oneness of the Divine Being, as sustained by the general tenor of the Bible. We shall only remark here, that there is not in Holy Scripture a single example of the Deity being addressed in the plural number.

The doctrine, that God is one-one person-one mind— one intelligent agent, is so clearly revealed in the portions of Scripture which have been cited in these sections, that it seems impossible for human language to exhibit this fundamental principle of Unitarianism in characters more resplendent with light. Without the conviction of the extensive influence of early prejudices over the best-regulated understandings, it might well be deemed astonishing that any man could peruse these forcible and sublime passages, without having a strong persuasion, that the dogma of a Triune God is the invention of speculative and erring men, unsatisfied with the noble simplicity of the Bible.

SECT. VI.-PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE PROVING THAT ONE DIVINE PERSON OR BEING, NAMED JEHOVAH --GOD-THE FATHER OF CHRIST-WAS THE SOLE AGENT IN THE CREATION, AND IS ALONE EMPLOYED IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNIVERSE.

1. Gen. i. throughout: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, &c.-See chap. ii. 1-7; v. 1, 2; vi. 6, 7.

2. Exod. xx. 11: For [in] six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], &c.— See chap. xxxi. 17.

3. Deut. x. 14: Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of

heavens, [is] Jehovah's thy God, the earth [also], with all that therein [is].—See Gen. xiv. 19, 22. Exod. ix. 29; xix. 5.

4. 2 Kings xix. 15: And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah God of Israel, who dwell