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lead in it, and who went on corrupting the doctrine of Christ, in this point, more and more; till it ended in the worship of him as being the supreme God, and of saints and of images, together with him; which lasted throughout the whole christian world, for very many ages, when, in some respects, a reformation took place in our own and some other countries. But in all this period, there were unitarian christians, sometimes fewer, sometimes in greater numbers.-No more however of this now. I have detained you too long from the sequel of the conversation at our friend's, which you are so desirous of seeing.

THE SECOND DAY.

Volusian declares himself to be convinced, thai Jesus Christ is NOT God, nor to be worshipped; but only the creature, and highly favoured servant of God.

Soon after what had passed, as related in iny last rescript, Volusian was obliged to quit the party on a call of business to his own house, which was at some distance; but expressed his hopes, with some earnestness, that they would not separate before he came back.

Upon his return within about a week, the next morning, when the same company were assembled in the library as usual, after breakfast, Volusian took up Griesbach's edition of the New Testament, which lay upon the table, and turning to the preface to the epistles, could not refrain from commending the integrity of the worthy and learned editor; who, although a believer in the divinity of Jesus Christ, had not allowed

allowed two of the passages commonly alleged for it to be genuine; but had observed, that Acts xx. 28. should be read, not feed the church of God, but feed the church of the Lord, which he hath purchased with his open blood; and that 1 Tim. iii. 16. should be, not God, but which, was manifest in the flesh; and moreover, had cast out of the sacred text as spurious, the passage 1 Joh. v. 7, of the three heavenly wit

nesses.

VOLUSIAN. I expect, my friends, proceeds he, you may be somewhat surprized to hear from me an elogium of this kind; who, although never speaking but with reverence of the scriptures, have not been wont to throw out such free criticisms upon them. But indeed there has been a great revolution in my mind, since we were last together, and I am eager to acquaint you with it.

When all of them expressed, that they had no less earnest a desire to hear what he had to tell them, Volufian resumed the discourse.

You can have no idea, says he, of the strong impression made upon me by what Photinus observed, of some even sensible and decent characters, having never once seriously taken the scriptures into their hands to examine for themselves, what they teach of God; whether there were three divine persons, each of them God, and to be worshipped; or the Divine Being was one person only, and who alone was to be worshipped. I was conscious to myself, that I had never done this with that attention it demanded; and I felt inwardly ashamed and self-condemned, that

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should have perused other books with so much care and exactness, and spent so little time and thought on this, which professes in many parts to speak directly from God.

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I was also much moved by what was said, of the important matter in debate, not being merely a speculative point, of which I became most fully convinced, but what I was every day called out to act upon, viz. whether I was to look up for aid and protection to Í three divine persons, or to one only; and if to three a difficulty now for the first time started into my mind, to which of them I was to give the preference, and then to invoke each. What was remarked likewise of the easiness of searching the scriptures for this purpose, and the dispatch with which it might be accomplished, gave me encouragement; and I resolved to make the trial.

I alleged at parting, that I had some necessary business to transact, which was indeed the case; but I had also another more pressing errand that you little suspected; which was, to sequester myself, for a few days, to attend to this most important inquiry that could engage my thoughts, as I viewed it; and as it really is.

No sooner then was I arrived at *****, and had finished the affair, which had called me away from you, when, with great avidity, I took the Bible into my hands, and spent a great part of the night and the three following days, before I had satisfied myself, and digested my thoughts upon what I found there. For enjoying the benefit of a large and valuable assortment

of

of books, not all of my own collection, and many among them being of a freer cast than I had hitherto troubled myself with; upon any obscurity presenting itself in any passage of the scriptures, about which I could not satisfy myself, I could not think that I did myself or the subject justice, if I did not see what had been advanced on all sides. And this took up no small time.

I began with the books of Moses, and then went on through the other parts of the Old Testament, perusing them in order, and with all the impartiality I was capable of; endeavouring not to carry along with me any bias or prejudice one way or the other, but to be as indifferent about the result of my inquiries, as if I was reading. any other book to which I was an intire stranger: for this I thought to be the only fair way of proceeding, and of coming at the truth.

When I expected to have easily found the doctrines I had been taught in early youth, and had believed upon good grounds, as I thought; particularly that of a second god, who afterwards became the man Christ Jesus; I was struck with intire astonishment in perceiving now the utter silence of those divine writings concerning any such second divine person, who was God, or any third divine person, or god, called the holy ghost, or holy spirit. I perceived on the contrary, that throughout, God speaks of himself by the personal pronoun, I, me; He is always addressed by prophets and holy men in the same way, Thou, thee; and spoken of by the third person singular, He, Him: 60 that if their be any power or use in words to signify

any

any thing, or any credit to be given to the scriptures, God is ONE, one single person and no more.

I was however restrained in immediately making this conclusion, by some arguments, which I recollected to be used to prove the doctrine of the trinity from the Old Testament, and which formerly had weight with me; but which I confess, appeared to me now yery trifling.

One of them was, in speaking of the creation, God said (a), Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And soon after (b); Behold, the man is become as one of us. From which sayings it is concluded, that the Divine Being addressed himself to some persons upon a rank of equality with him, one of which they suppose was the person, who afterwards became a man.

But, to say nothing more against such an arbitrary construction, and mere supposition; this plural way of speaking is thus naturally accounted for, as many learned trinitarians have acknowledged; viz. that Moses used it for the greater solemnity, to dignify his subject, when about to treat of man's creation, the chief of the works of God. Or, it may be, according to the jewish interpretation, that there is an allusion to the ancient doctrine of God being always surrounded with angelic spirits, to receive his commands and execute his purposes; to whom he now addressed himself.

Another argument, from the books of Moses, for

(a) Genesis i. 26.

(b). Gen. iii. 22.

the

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