114 THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF THE TAINITY. admission. We are baptized with this form of words, according to the institution of Christ ; Mat. xxviii. 19. " Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost." Thus though the ancient Jews andpatriarchs might be saved without an explicit knowledge of the. special methodsof this salvation, and the divine persons concerned in it, because they were not rtlearly'rcveaied'; yet since these are clearly revealed to us by Christ and his apostles in the New Testament, and appointed to be a part both of our faith and our profession, it is evident that some knowledge of these divine persons, the Fa- ther, the Son, and the Spirit, and their several sacred offices, or an acquaintance with : the doctrine of the blessed Trinity, is now become a necessary part of our religion : So that I know not how anyman can properly be called a christian with- out it. It is certain, indeed, and must be confessed, that this sacred doctrine of the Trinity has some great and unsearchable diffi- culties which attend the full explicationof it, such as the wisest men in all ages have found toohard and too high for their com- prehension ; and yet it is as certain, that so much of this doc- trine as is necessary to salvation, is plainly revealed in scripture, and easy to be understood ; that the unlearned, and persons of the meanest capacity, may attain the knowledge of it : For the high way to "heaven,,which was to be revealed under the gospel, must be marked out with such plainness and evidence, ":that the way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein;" Is. xxxv. 8. It shall bemy business therefore, at present, to lead the un- learned "christian, by soft and easy steps, into this mystery, so far asmay furnish him with a sufficient knowledgeof it for his own salvation, and shew him how to confirm and maintain his belief of it by the plain evidence of scripture, and to secure him from making shipwreck of his faith in the day of temptation. And I shall attempt to do all this without perplexing and embarrassing his mind with any of those various mazes of scheme and hypo -' thesis, whichmen of learning have invented to explain and de- fend this sacred article of the christian faith. The way wherein I shall pursue this design is by laying down the following propositions : I. There is a God. II. This God is the Creator of all things, the first and the eternal Being, the greatest, the wisest, and the best of beings, the sovereign Lord and Disposer of all his works, the righteous Governor of his intellectual creatures, and the proper object of their worship.
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