The champion of the prefent year, in the Bampton-field, thinks himself particularly fortunate, in having chofen more advantageous ground than many of his fellow-foldiers in this warfare, and boafts of having conducted the fight, in the fpirit of candour and impartiality, without any undue warmth, or unwarrantable refentment. We are much miftaken, if the world will be of the fame opinion. He certainly could not have chofen a subject lefs promifing for the display of ability, or more perfectly exhaufted, than the doctrine of the Trinity: and we do not perceive that he has been fo happy, as to convert the difficulty of the undertaking into an occafion of triumph. When he has condefcended to make use of old weapons, he has discovered no extraordinary skill or addrefs in handling them: and his new arms are too flight to do much execution. One circumftance, however, there is, in favour of our combatant: he poffeffes the better part of valour, DISCRETION; for we obferve, that he chufes to fight with the dead, rather than the living.

We shall lay before our readers two or three specimens of the new arguments which Mr. Hawkins has produced in defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, and which he feems to think perfectly conclufive.

The fin against the Holy Ghost is pronounced by our blessed Lord himself to be of ail fins the most damnable. I say unto you, all manner of fin and blafphemy fhall be forgiven unto men; but the blafphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whofoever Speaketh a word against the Son of Man it fall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghoft, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come Now without

ftaying to inquire here into the precife nature of this fin, or how far it may be abfolutely incapable of remiflion, or in what fenfe our Saviour's audience understood him, or he meant to be understood, it will be fufficient for our purpose to remark, that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in general, and particularly of the personal existence, and coequal divinity of the Holy Ghost with that of the Father, and of the Son, is plainly and truly though covertly comprehended in the above texts, and in their parallels in the other Evangelifts. For otherwife we shall be unavoidably driven into the following abfurd and exccrable conclufions, viz. that the higheft degree of impiety and profaneness against God the Father is a mere venial fin; and that a blafphemy, or a fin, a fin, humanly fpeaking at least, without hope, or poffibility of pardon, may be committed against a Being lefs than the Supreme God; and even against a kind of spiritual chimera, a motion, a virtue, a quality, or an operation.

Again. As touching brotherly love, fays St. Paul, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. Now that by him who in this place is abfolutely ftyled God, we are to understand Jefus Chrift, I have little or no difficulty to pronounce, for the two following reafons; firit, becaufe, though

*Matt. xii. 31.

†Thef. iv. 9.

we

we may very properly be faid to be taught of God, when we are inftructed by the mouth, or by the preaching of his prophets, or apostles, or others commiffioned by him, yet the doctrine of univerfal love and charity was more immediately and peculiarly the doctrine of our bleffed Saviour: A new commandment, fays he, I give unto you, that ye love one another ;-by this fhall all men know that ye are MY difciples, if ye have love one to another; this is MY commandment, that ye love one another + and fecondly, because the Apoftle feems to regard this great duty as a principle recently taught, and particularly enforced by the precept and example of our Divine Master.

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Again. He that bath feen me hath feen the Father †, fays our Lord, and he that feeth me, feeth him that fent me. Now in what fense are these declarations true? Not in the literal; for the Father could not be vifible in the human perfon of the Son; because God is a Spirit, and no man hath seen God at any time; whom no man bath Jeen or can fee: and by neceffary confequence our Saviour hereby in effect afferts, that, notwithstanding his appearance in the flesh, he himself really and truly partook of the Divine nature; that, according to his own expreffion, the Father dwelt in him; or, in the language of the Apostle, in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, or fubftantially.

Again. In the Gospels St. John the Baptift is called the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths ftrait : but in the evangelical prophet the style is at once more explicit and more majestical; prepare ye, fays he, the way of the Lord, make ftrait in the defart a high-way for our God ¶. In the courfe of the fame fublime chapter Jerufalem is called upon to lift up her voice with frength, to lift it up and fay unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. And then the prophecy proceeds in the following words. Behold, the Lord God will come with ftrong hand, and his arm fhall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a fhepherd, &c. Now, unless it can be demonstrated, that thefe paffages do not refer, ultimately at leaft, to the coming, and to the perfon of the Meffiah, he is manifeftly here announced under the different characters of a good Shepherd, a righteous judge, and the Lord God. Befides, if there is no fuch reference, the feveral apoftolical citations from the prophet are most impertinently ridiculous.

• Once more. The first and fecond perfons of the bleffed Trinity are expressly diftinguished, and refpectively characterised as equal, in a paffage wherein the Apoftle occafionally afferts the unity of effence in the Godhead. We know, fays he, that there is none other God but one; for though there be that are called Gods, to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom are all things, and we by him **. It may be pretended, indeed, that the terms under which the Son is here characterised are not of equal weight and fignificance with those

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which are defcriptive of the Father; but I will take upon me to aver, that the fame might have been pretended, had these terms been tranfpofed, and the paffage had run thus; to us there is but one God, the Father, by whom are all things, and we by him; and one Lord Jefus Chrift, of whom are all things, and we in him. And in many places the three divine Perfons are feverally specified and referred to, as jointly concurring in the wonderful fcheme of man's redemption; particularly in the following. St. Peter infcribes his first epiftle to the ftrangers fcattered through Pontus, Galatia, &c. elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through fanaification of the Spirit unto obedience, and Sprinkling of the blood of Jefus Chrift and St. John falutes the churches of Afia with wifhing them grace and peace from him which is, which was, and which is to come, and from the feven Spirits which are before his throne, and from Jefus Chrift. I am fenfible indeed that by the Seven Spirits, just mentioned, interpreters do not univerfally understand the Holy Ghoft; but this at leaft, I cannot help remarking, may be offered in favour of the fenfe in which I have taken the expreffion, that it is a fenfe of which the words are full as capable as of any other whatever; and that by the prefent conftruction a very confiderable dif. ficulty is removed which clogs a different interpretation. For admitting the Holy Ghoft to be fignified by the feven Spirits, there will be nothing fingular or unprecedented in this inverfion of the order of Perfons in the Trinity; but why angels, according to the sense of fome commentators, fhould be mentioned before Jefus Chrift (who' is higher than the angels even in many of our adverfaries' conceptions), feems accountable only by forced and unnatural expli

cations.'

This explication of the feven fpirits is fomewhat fingular, as it increases the difficulty attending the doctrine of the Trinity, by making one of the perfons feven spirits.

In another place, Mr. H. proves the doctrine of the Trinity from the term The Lord's Day; and calls in the authority of the Koran (what no one ever yet doubted), that this doctrine was held by Chriftians, at the time of Mahomet, in the feventh century.

In confirmation of what has been offered, I defire to add one or two more facts, which, if I mistake not, have more weight in them than is commonly apprehended; as, for inftance, the appointment of the Lord's day; and the ftyle or title Kuga ra 0122 by which churches were in the primitive times diftinguished. For can we do lefs in common reafon than worfhip him with the Supreme God, and as the fupreme God, to whofe particular honour one day in the week is for ever to be kept holy; on whofe particular account the most facred obfervances of religion were transferred from the feventh day of the week to the first; and whofe peculiar houfe is now the only house of prayer for all people?

I shall conclude this difcourfe with reminding you of a circumftance, if poffible, ftill more decifive: I mean the Unitarian doctrine

which is fo copiously, and fo emphatically inculcated in the Koran of Mahomet Of the perfon of Jefus Chrift, in his prophetical character, this arch impoftor fpeaks in terms the moft refpectable, God.' fays he, gave miracles to Jefus, the fon of Mary, and ftrengthened him with the Holy Spirit, &c. Jefus faid in the cradle, verily I am the fervant of God. This was Jefus the fon of Mary, the word of truth, &c. Verily God promifeth thee a fon, named John, (fays the angel Gabriel to Zecharia, according to the Koran,) who thall bear witness to the WORD, which cometh from God, an honourable perfon, chafte, and one of the righteous prophets.' To do honour to the author of Christianity in this capacity, Mahomet pofitively afferts, that they (the Jews) flew him not, neither crucified him; but that he was reprefented by one in his likeness. They did not really kill him,' fays he, but God took him up unto himself.'

But with refpect to our Lord's Divinity, or equality with the Father, you have, among a thoufand parallel ones, the fentiments following. They (viz. the Chriftians) fay, God hath begotten children; God forbid, It is not meet for God that he fhould have any fon; God forbid. Bleffed be he that hath revealed the Forkan, (Koran,) to whom belongeth the kingdom of heaven and earth; who hath begotten no iffue, and hath no partner in his kingdom, &c. Yet have they taken other Gods befides him, which have created nothing, but are themselves created, &c. Fejus is no other than a fervant whom we favoured with the gift of prophecy, &c. When Jefus came with evident miracles, he faid, now am I come unto you with wifdom, and to explain unto you part of thofe things concerning which ye difagree; wherefore fear God, and obey me. Verily God is my Lord, and your Lord; wherefore worship him. He is God, befides whom there is no God, &c. Far be God exalted above the idols which they aflociate with him. The 112th ch. of the Koran is entitled the declaration of God's Unity, and the whole runs thus: Say God is one God; the eternal God; he begetteth not, neither is he begotten; and there is not any like unto him. In the 6th ch. is the following question: How should he have iffue, fince he hath no confort?'

That thefe carnal fentiments, this grofs language, (the language of infidels and fcoffers every day,) is directly levelled, not at a new or ftrange thing; not at a peculiar tenet of a few enthufiafts; or a particular fect of Chriftians; but at the leading article, the fundamental principle of our religion, may be affirmed in utter defiance of the united powers of effrontery and equivocation. The doctrine of the Trinity was most indifputably the standing doctrine of the Chriftian church at the time this falle prophet broached his impofture, in the beginning of the feventh century. All thefe confiderations combined, demolish in a moment the feveral forts of infidelity in early corruptions, in Monaitic fuperftition, in Gothic barbarifm, Scholaftic fubtilty, and Papal innovation.'

We shall next give a few examples of the candour of the Author's cenfures.

Befide the general charges of audacity, diffimulation, concealment and infidelity, which Mr. H. on every occafion liberally beftows on heretics, he employs an entire Difcourfe in accufing individual writers of prefumption, perverfenefs, and prevarication; on no better ground than that they have prefumed to put a conftruction on controverted paffages of Scripture, which is inconfiftent with the Trinitarian hypothefis. Among other fevere cenfures which we meet with in this Difcourfe, and in the notes, are the following. Dr. Clarke is faid to have been guilty of fine artifice in his paraphrafe of St. John's introduction to his Gospel. We find inftances,' fays our Author,' of perverfe interpretation in the work of a fpecious Writer, Mr. Taylor, who fmothers himself in a duft of his own raifing!'

Mr. Locke is charged with cavilling, capricioufnefs, and quibbling, and with taking refuge in pitiful evafions. Dr. Sykes he speaks of, as capable of all the effrontery of quackery, and as ufing more art than honefty.

Mr. Hawkins is not entitled to higher praife for the candour of his fentiments, than for the propriety and elegance of his language. Human wifdom,' fays he, has fatigued itself to no purpose in the ventilation of these fubjects.'' Squeamish gentlemen, who know not how to digeft the wholefome doctrine of the Gofpel, expect us to fwallow with greediness a kind of fpiritual noftrum, prepared by human imagination.'-' Dr. Sykes, with all the effrontery of quackery, would make us believe his dofe may be taken without any fort of inconvenience.'This paffage [Rom. ix. 5.] is a rankling thorn in the eyes of unbelievers, which Dr. C. wifhed to extract with the poultice of a devifed ambiguity.' Noftrum! dofe! poultice !-Can the Author fetch his metaphors only from the apothecary's fhop? In controverfy, it is neither unufual, nor is it bad policy, to cry f―l first.'—Shall a Bampton Lecturer condefcend to use words, which he does not chufe to print at length?

But, that we may not tire our readers, we will only add one farther remark: Mr. Hawkins has, we obferve, written almoft an entire volume to establish a fingle point, without taking the precaution to inform his readers, what that point is. Toward the clofe of the work, indeed, the reader is told incidentally, and by way of note, that by a Trinity, we ought in reason to understand, a Trinity of three efficient, living, intelligent perfons, the fovereign CAUSES and RULERS of all things: But, what will logicians fay to a definition, in which the term to be defined is introduced? or what will even found Athanafians fay, to the doctrine of three Caufes and Rulers of all things? Dr. Croft

* N. B. Mr. Hawkins means DOCTOR John Taylor, the Author of An Hebrew Concordance, a Key to the Romans, and other valuable pieces.

himself,