facts of the case would imagine, that the Catholic Church either denied or explained away, the doctrine of the unity of God. And, no doubt, it is for the purpose of producing an impression of this sort on the minds of those (unfortunately they are at all times too numerous a class) who are apt to receive impressions, without examining their truth and justice, that the opposers of the Faith have assumed to themselves the name of Unitarians. As if, forsooth, they alone maintained the unity of God, and the Church denied it. Whereas the divine unity is the first and fundamental article in the Creeds of the universal Church'. It is plain, therefore, that as the Church does not merely assert the divine unity as one amongst other doctrines of equal or greater importance, but does insist upon it as the prime article of faith, and the foundation of Christianity; what is to be proved by our opponents is this, that we do not hold the doctrine of the divine unity in its proper sense: namely, in

the sense in which it is propounded in Holy Scripture. For, between the doctrine of the unity, and the doctrine of the Trinity, as these doctrines are taught in the Catholic Church, there is no contradiction; either in terms or in the nature of things. Consequently, to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is contrary to the tenor and design of the Holy Scripture, is simply to beg the question. It is to assume, that the mode in which the doctrine of the divine unity is taught by the Scripture, is contradictory to the mode in which it is taught by the Church in other words, it is to take for granted the precise point which is to be proved.

The unity of God is, in several parts of Scripture, asserted, in opposition to the idolatry and polytheism by which religion had been corrupted by the heathen and by the Jews. Thus, for instance, in the appeal of Moses to the Israelites. "Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the

midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else besides him Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God, in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; there is none else'." Again, in the book of the prophet Isaiah: "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me: I guided thee, though thou hast not known me; that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides me: I am the Lord, and there is none else.2" "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take 1 Deut. iv. 33-35, 39,

2 Is. xlv. 5. 6.

counsel together; who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else besides me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides me; Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else 1." "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god; they fall down; yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove; yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Remember this and show yourselves men ; bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me 2." "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God

Is. xlv. 20, 21.

2 Is. xlvi. 5—9.

himself that formed the earth, and made it; he hath established it; he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord, and there is none else 1."

In these, and in similar passages, containing distinct and formal assertions of the unity of God, the doctrine inculcated is plainly, unity as opposed to polytheism and idolatry. It is obvious, that it must be wholly beside their meaning and purpose, to extract from them any assertion whatever, concerning the nature of the true God, considered in itself, and without reference to the false gods of the heathen, His eternity, omniscience, and almighty power, are, in such passages as these, contrasted with the lifeless, senseless image, that could save neither itself nor its besotted worshipper. But what has this to do with the question? In order to this objection having any just relation to the matter in hand, the declarations of Scripture, must not be against polytheism, but against Trinity: the unity of God must be