the most simple and unlearned, who are not wont rashly to bear witness and determine on things not sufficiently known to them; or if he did understand their greatness and excellency, then he showed himself much more base and disingenuous, in charging upon them what he knew to be false, and concealing his inward sentiments and convictions, for fear lest he should be suspected of being a Christian."*

Neither can our author complain with justice, that our Scriptures, the authority of which he denies, are made the test of truth on this occasion, as it is the theory established therein, which he charges with idolatry and falsehood. There can be, therefore, no other criterion or evidence of the truth or falsehood of the assertion, but from those Scriptures, let them be true or false. They must afford the exclusive testimony of what is contained in them, and to which alone we can appeal; and they contradict the charge in every page.

Our author indeed seems to plume himself on his imaginary idolatry of the Christian church, "in substituting a trinity of Gods, as a reduction of the twenty or thirty thousand of the heathen mythology.” Could he have shown a single instance of a Christian church acknowledging a trinity of Gods in their worship, it would then have been necessary for him to have shown, that this was countenanced by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, while that teaches the mysterious doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it never fails to inculcate as a truth, essential to his religion, that these three are but one inconceivable Jehovah.

* Cave's Prim, Christianity, vol. i. føl. 7.

Can our author be so ignorant as to suppose, that the doctrine of the Trinity is peculiar to, and the invention of, the Gospel? Had he read the Jewish Scriptures, or the heathen mythology in its first principles, with care; or attended to the known doctrines and principles of the Jews as a religious people, and the primitive religion of many of the heathen nations, he would have known, that a trinity in unity, was a doctrine taught many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, and indeed from the beginning of the world.

As to the doctrine of the Trinity, it is not my design to enter into a dispute of so important a nature. It will suffice to show, as well his ignorance as his malice, in the charge, " That the theory of the Christian church sprang out of the tail of the heathen mythology -and that the trinity of Gods that then followed, was no other than a reduction of the former plurality, which was twenty or thirty thousand."

This may be done by barely evincing it, whether true or false, to have been the doctrine of the earliest heathen mythology, derived by tradition from the first patriarchs; and also that of the Jews, before the coming of Christ.

If the Christian religion is true, and was really a revelation from God, by Jesus Christ, then it must always have been essentially the same, from the beginning of the world.

God having formed man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into him a rational soul, it was impossible on his first starting into existence, that he should, by his natural powers, ever have attained to the true knowledge of his Maker, or become acquainted with his will, otherwise than by an express

revelation from Heaven; for as Tertullian justly observes, "What is infinite, can only be known of itself." God, as a wise and good Creator, could not have left his creature under this incapacity of rendering him the homage due to his name. All the attri butes of the Divine Majesty required that this should be done; and there can be no doubt, but that the beneficent Creator did instruct Adam in that knowledge of his will, which was necessary to his well-being, by the revelation of the divine nature and attributes, and the mode of worship he required of him.

It clearly appears from the Mosaic history, that the Messiah, who was to come, the second person in the Christian Trinity, was early made known to Adam, by God himself, as the seed of the woman. The Spirit of God, the third person in the same trinity, is expressly said to have moved upon the face of the waters, at the creation; and the language made use of on that great occasion, is there said to be, "Let us make man in our image"-from which short account we may safely conclude, that Adam was not left without divine instruction.

Hence also, in the Mosaic account of the creation before the fall, we find God frequently and personally communing with Adam, whose mind, in that pure and sinless state, was better calculated to receive the communication of spiritual and divine knowledge, and to bear a constant contemplation of the perfect attributes of the Divinity, than any of his fallen race. And after the fall, we are told of Cain and Abel, worshiping the God of Heaven; one in an acceptable manner, by offering his devotions through victims slain on the altar, before man fed on the flesh of beasts; thus pre-figuring him who was to

come, as the great propitiary sacrifice. The other, in a very unacceptable manner, by refusing obedi ence to the revealed will of his Maker, and preferring the bloodless productions of the earth, raised by his own labour, as at least equal in the sight of God. The issue was answerable to the tempers and con. duct of the men, and one sinful act begat another; impiety in principle, soon producing extreme cruelty in action; a brother was found shedding a brother's blood.

Adam then, being instructed in the will of his Creator, in a much higher and more spiritual manner than any of his descendants, must have taught his children, and his childrens' children, for many generations, with anxious solicitude, the words and expectations of eternal life.

If we proceed a step farther, we shall find Enoch walking with God-the children of Seth distinguished from the children of Cain, by the appellation of the sons of God.

Noah receives an express revelation from God, relating to the flood, when he complains that his Spirit should not always strive with men.

As a good man, Noah must have carefully instructed his children in the principles and knowledge of the true worship of their Maker; and at the dispersion of Babel, this knowledge must have been carried by every separate party to the several nations of the earth, which were founded by them, especially in the line of Shem.*

Sanchionathan calls Shem, by the name of Magus, as the prince of the order of the Magi, or wise men, who were the first, and patriarchal priests after the flood.

Hence if we examine into the first principles of every religion in the world, before they were deba sed and profaned by the ignorance, arts or designs of those men who were intrusted with the public instruction, we shall discover evident traits of the true religion as revealed to Adam, Enoch, Seth, and Noah.

Their posterity did certainly receive by tradition and hieroglyphics, (the only modes of perpetuating facts and events known to the world before the invention of letters) many of the essential truths of revelation.* Abraham is agreed by all parties, both sacred and profane, to have been a holy man, and taught the worship of the only one living and true God. He lived early enough to converse with Shem, the son of Noah, who lived in Methuselah's day. Abraham's children, with their posterity, preserved this knowledge and worship, and instructed all the neighbouring nations in it, both by precept and example, till the coming of the Saviour.†

Mr. Henry, in his History of Great-Britain, speaking of the ancient Druids, says, "The first and purest principles of their religion, at least descended to them, together with their language, and many other things, from Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet, from whom the Gauls, Britons, and all the other Celtic nations, derived their origin. For it is not to be imagined that this renowned parent of so many nations, who was only the grandson of Noah, could be unacquainted with the knowledge of the true God, and of the most essential principles of religion; or that he neglected to communicate this knowledge to his immediate descendants, and they to their posterity, from age to age. But unhappily, the method by which this religious knowledge was handed down from Gomer to his numerous posterity in succeeding ages, was not well calculated to preserve it pure and uncorrupted. This was by tradition, which however limpid it may be near its fountain head, is, like other streams, very apt to swell and become turbid in its progress." Vol. i. fol. 92.

†The name of Abraham hath, for many ages past, been had in great veneration all over the east, and among all sects, so that every one of