144 TIE 'DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY, [SEAM. XLIV. could not be self-sufficient, nor all- sufficient; each of ¡Item could not be a God, if they could want any help from another: Thence it follows, that there cannot be two Gods; for since each of them must be self- sufficient, that is, suffi- cient for himself, and all-sufficient, that is, sufficient for all other purpóses whatsoever, one of these two Gods would be Utterly needless anduseless : But it is ab- surd tò imagine, that a God is an useless, or needless being ; therefore there canbe no other God but one. This is the great and universal dictate of the light of nature, and this is the constant doctrine of the scripture in the Old and New Testament : And indeed, this unity of the godhead, is, a peculiar glory of all the religions,. that God bath given to men, and whereby they are dis- tinguished, from the false religions of the heathen nati- ons, who did generally profess more gods than one. God bath always taken care to secure to himself an unrivalled dignity and majesty, in all his dispensations. This is the language of God by Moses, .Near, O Israel, the ,Lord oùr God is one Lord, Dent. vi. 4. And Christ confirms this doctrine, most abundantly, in the New Testament, trn'd that in the very same words, Mark xii. And be commends the scribe for affirming, There is one God, and there is none other but he. This is the foundation and basis of all that can be called true religion, in every nation and in every age since the world began. And when a multitude of nations had lost this doctrine of the one God, and fell into the worship of many, whom they called gods, it was one great design of christianity, to 'destroy polytheism, or the doctrine Of many gods, among the nations of the world, and to reduce them more uni- versalIy to that ancient and eternal truth, which some of their, own philosophers professed, viz. that there is but one true God. Hence it follows,' by plain consequence, from these two propositions, that since God is a Spirit, eternal, all - wise, and almighty, &c: and since there cannot be more gods than one, there cannot be more than one eternal, ail-wise, and almighty Spirit there can be but one eter- nal and almightyBeing. Latins then be fixed as an un- changeable truth. Proposition III. This one God hash revealed himself by the light of nature, as well- as by "scripture, to be the
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