the idea of three Gods, from which idea it results, that his Divine in the Human is from the Divine of the Father, who is the first person, when yet it is his own proper Divine, which descended from heaven and assumed the Human. If man does not rightly perceive this, he may possibly be led to suppose, that his begetting Father was not one Divine, but threefold, which yet cannot be received with any faith. In a word, they who separate the Divine from his Human, and do not think that the Divine is in his Human as the soul in the body, and that they are one person, may fall into erroneous ideas concerning the Lord, even into an idea as of a man separated from a soul; wherefore, take heed to yourselves, lest you think of the Lord as of a man like yourself, but rather think of the Lord as of man who is a God. Attend, my reader! when you are perusing these pages, you may be led to suppose, that you have never, in thought, separated the Divine of the Lord from his Human, thus neither the Human from the Divine; but, I beseech you, consult your thought, when you have determined it to the Lord, whether you have ever considered, that the Divine of the Lord is in his Human as the soul in the body? rather have you not thought, yea, if you are now willing to make the inquiry, do not you at present think of his Human separately, and of his Divine separately? And

when you think of his Human, do not you conceive it to be like the human principle of another man, and when of his Divine, do not you conceive it, in your idea, to be with the Father? I have questioned great numbers on this subject, even the rulers of the church, and they have all replied that it is so; and when I have said, that yet it is a tenet taught in the Athanasian creed, which is the very doctrine of their church concerning God and concerning the Lord, that the Divine of the Lord is in his Human as the soul in the body, they have replied, that they did not know this: and when I have recited these words of the doctrine, "Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, although he be God and man, yet they are not two but one Christ; one altogether by unity of person; since as the reasonable soul and body are one man, so God and man is one Christ;" they were then silent, and confessed afterwards, that they had not noted these words, being indignant at themselves for having so hastily, and with so careless an eye, examined their own doctrine: on this occasion, some of them departed from their mystic union of the Divine of the Father with the Human of the Lord. That the Divine is in the Human of the Lord, as the soul in the body, the Word teaches and testifies in Matthew and in Luke; in Matthew thus: Mary being betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, was

found to be with child by the Holy Spirit: and an angel said to Joseph in a dream, fear not to take Mary thy bride, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. And Joseph knew her not until she brought forth her first-born Son, and he called his name Jesus,' i. 18, 20, 25: and in Luke: The angel said to Mary, behold thou shalt conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. Mary said to the angel, how shall this thing be, since I knew not a man; the angel said in reply, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the virtue of the Highest shall overshadow thee, whence the Holy Thing which is born of thee shall be called the Son of God,' i. 31, 32, 34, 35: from which words it is evident, that the Divine was in the Lord from conception, and that it was his life from the Father, which life is soul. We shall now proceed to shew, that even the things contained in the Athanasian doctrine, which give an obscure idea of the Lord, are in agreement with the truth, when the trinity, viz. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is conceived and believed to be in the Lord as is one person without such thought and faith, it may be said, that christians, in contradiction to all people and nations in the universal globe, who have rationality, worship three Gods; as indeed it is asserted by these people and nations; when yet the christian orb both may and

ought to excel all others in the brightness of the doctrine and faith, that God is one both in essence and person.

13. It has been shewn, that the doctrine of faith, which has its name from Athanasius, leaves a clear idea, whilst it is reading, that there are three persons, and hence that there are three unanimous Gods, and an obscure idea that God is one, and so obscure, that it does not remove the idea of three Gods and further, that the same doctrine leaves a clear idea that the Lord has a Divine and a Human, or that the Lord is God and Man, but an obscure idea that the Divine and Human of the Lord are one person, and that his Divine is in his Human as the soul in the body. It has been also said, that nevertheless, all things contained in that doctrine, from beginning to end, both such as are clear and such as are obscure, agree and coincide with the truth, if instead of saying that God is one in essence and three in person, it be believed as the real truth is, that God is one both in essence and in person. There is a trinity in God, and there is also unity; that there is a trinity may be manifest from the passages in the Word where mention is made of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and that there is unity, from the passages in the Word, where it is said that God is one. The unity in which is a trinity, or the one God in whom is a threefold, is not given in the Divine which

is called the Father, nor in the Divine which is called the Holy Spirit, but in the Lord alone, for in the Lord alone there is a threefold, viz. the Divine which is called Father, the Divine Human which is called Son, and the Divine Proceeding which is the Holy Spirit; and this trine is one, because it is of one person, and may be called a triune. In what now follows, may be seen the agreement of all things of the Athanasian doctrine with what is here asserted: First, concerning the trinity: Secondly, concerning the unity of person in the Lord: Thirdly, that it has come to pass of the Divine providence, that that doctrine was so written, that although it disagrees, still it agrees with the truth. Afterwards, in general, will be proved the trine (or threefold principle) in the Lord and next, specifically, that the Divine, which is called the Father, is he, that the Divine which is called the Son, is he, and that the Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit, is he.

14. We shall now proceed to the agreement of all things of the Athanasian doctrine with this truth, that God is one both in essence and person, in whom is a trinity (trinum); and to establish and prove this agreement, it may be expedient to proceed in the following order. The Athanasian doctrine first teaches thus: "The catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither