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confounding both the writer and the reader,- and 

 perplexing that great article of our faith, the Tri- 

 nity : which, as it lies in the scripture, is, so far as 

 we are to believe it, the plainest thing in the world. 

 All this pompous affectation of being more knowing 

 in the Christian mysteries than the scriptures can 

 make men, tends only to propagate absurd and in- 

 consistent notions, which a plain rational man would 

 be ashamed of. Such as these, 



That the Son of God was produced by an exter- 

 nal act of the Father's power, but was not made or 

 created : 



That there are Three Persons truly Divine ; one of 

 them the true God, the Second, truly God, the 

 Third, no God at all : 



That we may, and must pay divine worship to 

 Two Gods, and divine honour to a Third Person, 

 who is no God : 



That by the term Trinity we must mean, a Tri- 

 nity of Two Gods, and a Divine Person, but no 

 God. 



These, and many such positions, are either ex- 

 pressly, or by plain consequence, containedr in some 

 of our modern systems of religion, and are set down 

 here, not as they are a total subversion of the Chris- 

 tian faith, but as they are a bold and arbitrary im- 

 position on the common sense and reason of man- 

 kind. 



The relation we bear to God as our Creator, 

 which was partly discovered by the light of nature, 



