The minds of men have been fadly perplexed, with respect to the very object of their homage. To be clear in the conception, and firm in the perfuafion of one God over all, is a thing of the utmost importance: it is a firft principle, and of the greatest confequence to well-directed worship, and the juft exercife of devout affections. The idea of one God, the maker and governor of the whole universe, is the foundation of true religion. And God is alfo to be conceived of, as one fingle, all-perfect, intelligent agent, absolutely diftinct from, and infinitely fuperior to all other beings. The divine unity is fo obvious a dictate of reafon, fo clearly and expressly taught, so earnestly and emphatically inculcated, both in the Old and New Teftament, that it is furprising chriftians should ever have admitted fentiments inconfiftent with it but fo it has been, for the doctrine of three perfons in the godhead, is abfolutely inconfiftent with it. Trinity and unity are contradictory ideas, and cannot, poffibly, fubfift together: the attempt to reconcile them is vain and abfurd, and has produced nothing but the most contemptible jargon and mysterious nonfenfe. One of the two doctrines must be given up: they cannot both be true. But the divine unity is a fundamental point and that there can be but ONE SUPREME BEING, is clear as a fun beam: absolute unity indeed arifes from the idea of God: we must on no account, admit any thing inconfiftent with this:

and whatever contradicts it, ought to be difcarded. Would chriftians lay afide prejudice, examine the fcriptures with unbiaffed minds, in the free exercise of their reafon; they might certainly difcern that the trinity notion has no real foundation there. One God is the plain indifputable doctrine of both the Old and the New Teftament. Would we impartially attend to all that the fcriptures fay concerning our bleffed faviour and the holy ghoft; we should not find any real ground to confider one as, a fecond, the other as a third perfon in the divine nature.

What appears clearly to my own mind to be the true fcripture doctrine concerning our bleffed faviour, I have laid before you, afferting his real humanity in a way entirely exclufive of all reference to a trinity. I would now, briefly fhow what we are to understand by the holy ghoft, as ufed in fcripture.

Could chriftians be once generally brought to a juft difcernment of the real humanity of our bleffed faviour, and to a clear perfuafion that we are not to attribute diftinct perfonality to the holy ghoft, or to confider it as intending a spiFitual being different from God, but to understand it as fignifying, in general, the miraculous exertion of the divine power in confirmation of the gofpel; it would, I cannot but apprehend, be of vaft advantage to the chriftian religion, and produce a great and happy alteration in the chriftian

system:

fyftem: it would clear us of many, great difficul ties which have arifen from different conceptions: it would reduce chriftianity to a noble plainnefs and fimplicity: it would bring us more directly to God: and it would place us more fully and immediately under the moral power and influencé of the gospel. Till this be the cafe, as it seems to me, the gospel cannot spread and profper in the world. It is not poffible chriftianity should flourish, while the fhocking perplexities of a trinity remain they are a dead weight upon it. Nor do I perceive how they can be entirely and effectually removed, otherwife than by the prevalence of the above-mentioned fentiments. It will, I fuppofe, be no difficult matter to fatisfy reasonable perfons, that there is no neceffity to attribute real diftinct being to the holy ghoft.

I am perfuaded, that from an examination of the fcriptures, we shall find, that by the Spirit, the jpirit of God, the spirit of the Lord, the holy spirit, the holy ghoft, we are to understand, either God himself, or fome extraordinary effect or effects of his immediate influence, power and agency.

It is not uncommon in fcripture to denote, man himself by his fpirit. It is faid with regard to Mofes, that the Ifraelites provoked his spirit, i. e. provoked him. One of St. Paul's valedictory wishes is this, the grace of our lord Jefus Chrift be with thy fpirit, i. e. with thee. According to this mode of expreffion, the spirit of God is fre

quently used in scripture, to fignify, not a being diftinct from God, but God himself. Whither fhall I go from thy fpirit? Whither shall I flee from thy prefence? Spirit here is evidently the fame as God himself. They rebelled, and vexed his holy fpirit, i. e. they displeased the righteous God: the fame thing is elsewhere thus expreffed, they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his teftimonies.

Creation is attributed to God, and expreffed in this manner in the thirty-third Pfalm: By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hoft of them by the breath, or spirit of his mouth. Here the breath, or fpirit of his mouth, intends the fame thing as the word of the Lord, even divine power all things were formed and difpofed by the almighty will and energy of God. By his fpirit he has garnished the heavens his hand hath formed the constellations. Here his Spirit is the fame as his hand, and most evidently means the divine power.

St. Luke, giving an account of the angel's declaration to Mary concerning the miraculous formation of the fon of God, fays, And the angel answered and said unto her, the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the higheft fhall overshadow thee. How plainly and expressly does the evangelift here fhow, that by the holy ghoft is to be understood the power of the higheft? St. Matthew thus expreffes a declaration of our fa

viour's

viour's to the pharifees," If I caft out demons

by the spirit of God, then is the kingdom of "God come unto you." That by the spirit of God here we are to understand not a being diftin& from God, but divine power, or God himself, is moft clearly manifeft from the parallel place in Luke, where the fame thing is expreffed in this manner: "If I with the finger of God caft out "demons: no doubt the kingdom of God is come "among you." Thefe are plain, undeniable inftances, showing that the holy ghoft, or the fpirit of God, does not intend a great fpiritual agent, different from the Deity, but means the power of God, or God himself. And though the phrase is used in fome more particular fenfes; yet they are all reducible ultimately to this general

one.

By the holy ghoft, we are often particularly to understand miraculous powers and gifts, or immediate infpiration and divine revelation, in an efpecial manner, the infpiration of the ancient prophets, the inspiration of Chrift, the infpiration of the apoftles, is fo called: but this infpiration is every where afcribed to God, not to a being diftinct from God: prophecy, in ancient time, did not come by the private fuggeftion of man's will, but holy men fpoke, as they were moved by the holy ghøft (2 Pet. i. 21.). And, fays St. Paul, all fcripture is given by infpiration of God." (2 Tim. iii. 16.). Stephen, in his fpeech