DISSERTATION I ¢l N'ow I ask leave to try whether it is not possible to lead one who has favoured the Arian sentiments toward a belief of the chief parts of this doctrine, which for some ages past has obtain- ed the name of.orthodoxy, though I confess there are some other parts of it w1h are not sodefensible. SECT. 'Y.The method which I shall pursue in my present' attempt, is to propose these following queries Query I. Is it not a principleof natural religion, anduniver- sally confirmed by reason and scripture, that there is but one God, one true and living God, one eternal and Almighty Crea-' for and supreme Governor of all things, one infinite being, who is the first cause and last end of all ? II. Have you not always believed this God to be one Spirit, one single Spirit, one conscious mind, and not macle up of two or three conscious minds or spirits ? Nor am I going to lead you into any other idea of the great and blessed God, or to give you anyoccasion to imagine that we believe two or tree Gods. III, Has not this great and blessed God assumed to him- self in his word some peculiar names, 'titles, characters and prerogatives, whereby he will distinguish himself from every thing which is beside and beneath him, that he ,might give his people a distinct knowledge of himself, and secure them from the danger. of paying divine honours to any thing that is not God ? See " Christian Doctrine of the Trinity," Propositions iv. v. vi. IV. Are not Jehovah the true God, the great God, the mighty God, and God blessed for ever, the God of Abraham, the Lord of Hosts, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, thé first and the last, some of these distinguishing names and titles IV God ? Are not the searching of the heart of man, omnipresence, omnipotence, and the works of creation, and the conservationof all things, some of these divine characters or prerogatives ? See "Christian Doctrine," Propositions vii. viii. which propositions, with the greatest part of their explication, may be vindicated against all reasonable objections. Let it be observed, that the enquiry here is not, how far, or in what degree some of these titles, characters, powers, and operations may possibly belong to an exalted creature, in the abstracted nature of things, or by the favour of God ? But whether God in bis word has not made these titles, oper- ations, and characters, his own appropriate prerogatives, to distinguish himself from inferior beings ? And has lie not ex- pressed himself with a divine.solicitude and sacred jealousy in this matter, that Jehovah is his naine, and he will not give his glory to another ? r.
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