SECTION I. 475 it is evident that scripture hath more directly and ex- pressly laid our salvation upon the special divine characters or offices which the. Father, Son, and Spirit sustain in the bible, and upon the peculiar blessings which we derive from them, and the .peculiar honours to be paid to them, rather than upon any nice explication of their intimate essence and union, their nature and difference ; and therefore such a nice explication is not of necessity;to salvation. It is evident to me, that divine and reli- gious ascriptions and honours are paid to the Fattier, Son, and Holy Spirit in scripture, and I think theyare due to them all. Now how these divine honours can be paid by any who deny them to have some trite and propercommunion in the eternal godhead, I cannot wellunderstand. But I can easily conceive that divine honour may be given them without knowing exactly the precise points and boundaries of their union and distinction. See more in the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity, Proposition XXI. Do we not find it sufficient in all the common affairs of life, to manage a thousand concerns wisely with regard to the human soul and body, and with regard to each particular being of the animal, the vegetable, and the intellectual world, if we do but just know whether it be an animal, a vegetable, or an intellec- tual being, without any determinate, philosophical notions and ideas of the essences and specific differences of all, or any of these, and without determining how far they agree, and how far theydiffer ? And why may it not be so in the affairs of religion I He may be a very wise man, and dispose and direct his affairs admirably well with regard to his king, his bishop, his father and his friend, by that common and general knowledge which he bath of their capacities and powers, their several offices and the relations they stand in to him, without any precise acquaintance with their particular natural constitutions, or the relations they stand in to one another. He may be a most discreet manager of his affairs, and speak and do all things in proper time and place, without knowing philosophically what place is, or What is time and he can be contented with this ignorance, and be a wise man still. And whymay he not be a christian with the same degrees of knowledge of the things of christianity, that is, without phi- losophical science Of the abstract nature of God andChrist. A poor labourer or a shepherd believesJesus Christ to have the proper divine powers of knowing, managing and governing all things ; therefore he prays to him, and trusts in him as his Lord and his God, without any nation either of self existence and independency, or without the least thought of consubstantial generation, eternal sonship, and necessary emanation from the Father all which ideas some writers include in the divine nature of Christ, though perhaps without any sufficient authority from scripture. He believes him to be the true God,, and Son of
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