manists themselves difapprove, the temporal punishment of fuch herefies as must be left to a more awful Tribunal, we agree in one point, That whatever is revealed in Scripture, is required to be believed by every Chriftian upon pain of the heavy wrath of God, and a final condemnation, in cafe of obftinate perseverance. If Transubstantiation, Prayers for the dead, Indulgences, Purgatory or any other part of their Inftitution, which Proteftants reject, had been found in the facred writers, our oppofition would not be warrantable, we fhould be found to fight against God. Having confidered the damnatory claufe as a general propofition, we are in the fecond place to confider how it is applied in the Creed itself. We must ever lament that the mifapplied curiofity of men fhould have made it at all neceffary to enlarge upon mysterious doctrines. It might have been fortunate for the peace and tranquillity of the Chriftian Church, if the Apostle's Creed had been fufficient. But fince men will be wife above what is written, some remedy must be found out, which may either fatisfy or reftrain their curiofity. And who ever ever peruses the several parts of the Creed before us, will find, that fo far from creating minute enquiries concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, it is more efpecially calculated to discountenance and prevent them. When the mind enters into a laborious and minute investigation of things which it cannot comprehend, infenfible of the narrow limits of its own powers, it will be led to substitute fome vague or visionary idea in the place of folid and useful truth. The union of the divine and human nature in the perfon of Chrift is not to be explained; and when we are inftructed to fay, that "as the reasonable foul "and flesh is one man, fo God and Man is "one Christ," the manner of union is not explained, for we know not how the foul is united to the body. Unity of person and character in the bleffed Jefus is asserted and enforced against all those who have been led to deny a mystery which they could not explain, the mystery of God manifest in the flesh, a mystery which even the Angels defired to look into, and which could not at all have existed, if he had been a mere martyr and a mere man. That every person in the ever bleffed Trinity is God and Lord, no one denies, who be believes in the Trinity, but to speak of them collectively as three Gods and three Lords, has an air of Polytheifm. Sublime truths require modefty and caution in our expreffions, and whatever checks presumption, prepares the mind for the reception of found and useful doctrine. The abufe of Scriptural language firft occafioned a deviation from it in Creeds, and common candour will compel all parties to acknowledge the difficulty of finding proper words to exprefs fo much as it was intended for us to know, and no more. This difficulty increases when the sense of what originally was delivered in one language, is to be expreffed in another. Incomprehenfible does not convey to the English reader the idea of immenfus; and effence might probably have been more proper, or lefs liable to misconstruction, than fubftance, as the latter may appear to fome to carry with it an idea of materialifm. If it be faid that men in general know nothing of the errors alluded. to, that many of them are forgotten or difregarded, and that peaceable minds ought not to be perplexed, we may anfwer, that it is perfectly confonant to the nature of all elementary instruction, to ftate negatively, what is is not to be maintained, and pofitively what is; and that he, who adheres to the affirmative part, virtually renounces the negative. The learned can read the Scriptures in the original language; they can confult the annals of the Church; they can trace out every fect to it's original founder. They can, except in cafes of grofs contradiction and abfurdity, give regular and confiftent accounts of each, they can fee the dangers to which others have been expofed; but, with respect to a particular knowledge of the doctrine of the Trinity, what great difference is there between the learned and the unlearned ? Canft thou, by fearching, find out the Almighty? Verily he is a God, that bideth himself. Now, admitting that fome part of this Creed is calculated only for more improved underftandings, the less enlightened part of Chriftians can leave out what is minute, and acquiefce in general terms. And from the very nature of the inftitution, this confeffion of Faith is deemed of lefs general use than the Nicene and the Apostles' Creed, upon both of which it may be confidered as a comment, As the effential points inculcated in all are the fame, it is difficult to fay how he who disbelieves difbelieves one fhould not disbelieve another. The truth is, that Unitarians, Arians, and Socinians, will be content with nothing short of an univerfal renunciation of the whole doctrine of the Trinity; and, in the mean time, feel great indignation to be excluded from miniftring in holy things. Some, indeed, have been admitted into the ministry upon conditions which they themselves openly and avowedly difapprove. The pretence of performing fubftantial fervice to the Church is alledged in their vindication. But such a pretence is an instance of vanity and folly. It is an instance of vanity, to suppose that, after fo much has been written, and when fo many persons of real knowledge are daily admitted to the facred function, the adherence of a few individuals to the pastoral care should be of fo much importance. Without diminishing their number, or depreciating their abilities, great, and, we trust, successful, would be the company of preachers, notwithstanding their departure. It is an inftance of folly to suppose that their flock have fuch a peculiar veneration for them. For what ought to be imagined concerning those who can enter the Holy Temple, and offer fupplications to God the Son, and God the I Holy |