hot have &en corrupted afterwards by Ham (of whorii ire (hall fpeak prefently), fince we find no new Revela- tion of it conceded to his Father, and there certainly couldTiot have been any made toHimfelf. Befides, if the Unity of the Godhead (or that the plural Word Alehíni or Elohim * meant but one fingle Perlon in the divine Effence) had comprized the whole Knowledge of Adam' and the firff Believers concerning this important Point ; the Notion of a Trinity would not have been an Abufé or Corruption of a Term exprefling Unity, but an abfo- lute Denial and Perverjion of it. The Senfe muff have been wholly changed, and altered from the original Ideas The Enemies of this DoEfrine would do fomething, if they could prove, that this Word, in its plural Form, was never intended to exprefs more thanfingle, undiffin guifhed, Effence. But, admitting the Point to have been revealed to the firff Believers, and to have been inculcated by them upon their Succefiors ; we may ea- lily guefs, how the depraved Underffanding of Man might pervert it to Polytheifm, and how Superffition could abufe a DoEtrine, which it was by no Means able to invent. An ill-conceived Opinion, refpeEfing a Plu- rality in the one divine Effence, might indeed Elide into the Notion of a Plurality of Gods. But if it had been underftood from the Beginning, that there was only one infinite Mind, or Mode of Exiftence, in the Deity, and that all the Titles and CharaEters given it imported no more the very Reafon and common Senfe of Man- kind muff have exploded the firft Principles of Idolatry, ,which are fo entirely repugnant-to that Reafon and com- mon Senfe, and laughed them out of the World. " The yews would perfuade us not to confider this Word as a " plural Noun, but on fome particular Occafions. Whoever will " be at the Pains to examine their Reafoning, will find it to be very " childifh and inconfittent, wholly owing to their Hatred againft " the Divinity of 7ejus Chrifi, and the Notion of a Trinity. But " when theyew is become a Cbri/lian, and the StumblingBlock of " the Crofs removed out of his Way, he can allow the Name Ele- " him to beplural as readily as other Men." See The Catholic Doc- trine of a ?Trinity, p. 51. 3d. Edit. It
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