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Now, it is allowed on all hands, that the idea of Trinity, in the unity of the Godhead, is a matter of pure revelation; even an idea which could never have entered into the heart of man, but by means of the word alone; but the idea of Trinity being necessarily implied, if the testimony of God be true, in the idea of God, they are plainly condemned of themselves, and condemned of God, who maintain, that we can attain to the knowledge of God by some other means, besides the word of revelation: seeing God has declared, and they themselves allow, that the Trinity cannot be known, but by that word; and if the Trinity is not known, God is not known; for God is that Trinity, and that Trinity is God, the one Lord or Jehovah.

Where are now your pretended investigations, and boasted demonstrations of the Being of God; wherein ye have left out the distinct personality of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost? Go, ye wise men in your own conceit, ye Scribes and disputers of this world, who by all your wisdom have not known God, and learn to become fools for Christ's sake, that ye may be wise to salvation; and confess to your own shame, and God's glory, the foolishness of your wisdom, when you thought you had found out God without finding out the Father, or the Father without the Son, or the Father and Son without the Spirit.

How vain man would be wise, wise even about God, yea, even wise without what is written! No doubt, ye are the people! and wisdom shall die with you! in the compass of your enlarged hearts, ye can comprehend what ye never found out, and find out what ye yourselves allow can only be known by the revelation which cometh from God himself! Such, all men allow, is the doctrine of the Trinity.

So the doctrine of the Trinity stands or falls with the doctrine maintained in this essay. A point to be considered this by all the advocates for the natural knowledge of God, who yet do not mean to renounce

the Son and the Spirit; which if they do, they renounce the Father also. What gross inconsistency! to pretend you hold the conclusion, while you destroy and deny the premises! to pretend you uphold the superstructure, when you blow up the foundations! you may defy antichrist, with all hell, to overmatch your absurdity and falsehood, in pretending to hold these three points together,

1. That there is a Trinity of persons in the one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

2. That this matter of Trinity, is a matter of pure revelation, and impossible to be known otherwise.

3. That, at the same time you are able to attain, and have attained, to the knowledge of that same God, without the revelation of God, and consequently without the knowledge of the Trinity; which Trinity is not only essential to, but even the whole (so to speak) of that very Godhead which you pretend to know. How hard it is to knit those points together will farther appear in the sequel.

THEY ARE ATHEISTS, ANTICHRISTS, AND LIARS, WHO DENY THE SON.

Q. 5. Does not the Scripture, in express terms, hold them out for atheists, that is, persons who deny God, antichrists, and liars against God, who do not know and acknowledge, but deny the Son; and do they not also deny the Spirit, and, consequently, the Father also?

A. Yes. For it is written, "That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, which sent him.-Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth

him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds.-Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also."

Now it appears from the whole scripture, and these contexts in particular, that we cannot have the knowledge of the Father, nor of the Son, in any other way but by the knowledge or belief of their own word or testimony, concerning themselves, dwelling in us; by which we continue in the fellowship of the Father and of the Son, and without which we are in no fellowship, as we are in no knowledge of the Father and of the Son. For "Christ dwelleth in the hearts of his saints by faith-Behold he stands at the door and knocks, if any man hear his voice and open to him, he comes in and sups with him and he with him.-And Jesus said, if a man love me he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall abide in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And even as the anointing hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

What shameless assertors, then, are those men who affirm, that a person may and does attain to the knowledge of God without the word of revelation; that is, though he attain not to the knowledge of the Son, which is attainable only by means of revelation! and if one know not the Son, the Holy Ghost stands good for it, you see, that he knows not the Father; nor (by the same consequence) does he know the Holy Ghost himself. What God is that, pray, which they talk of knowing, the knowledge of whom is neither the knowledge of the Son, nor of the Father, nor of the Holy Ghost? Is there indeed any other God but these Three, who are One?

How remarkable to this purpose is that declaration of the apostle, that the devil himself is the god of those men from whose view he has hid the gospel, even the knowledge of the glory of God, shining in the face, or rather person (роowry) of Jesus! O the energy of that Spirit who ruleth in the hearts of the children of disobedience! What need have we of this inscription on our hearts, "Avoid thee Satan!" Beware of men, who lie in wait to deceive, deceiving and being deceived, who privily bring in damnable heresies among the people, even denying (or, which is the same thing, explaining away) the Lord that bought them, viz. the people.

Yet, evil though they be, let us wish them no worse, than that the Lord would open their eyes, that they may see the Son, and know the Father: as it is written from the mouth of the Son, "He that hath seen me, hath seen my Father-and if ye had known me, ye had known my Father also-for I and my Father are One."

As concerning the necessity of including the knowledge of the Spirit, as an essential in the idea of God, it is further proved thus from the Lord's words; "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."

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By the world here, who knoweth not the Spirit of truth, we are plainly to understand the whole multitude of unbelievers in the world, who are lying in wickedness, or rather, as the words may be rendered, in the wicked one, (v T Tovhpw,) without God, without Christ, without hope in the world; whereby they are distinguished from believers, who are given to Christ out of the world; who are not of the world, though they be in the world, but are sanctified through the belief of the truth, justified and washed in the name of the Lord Jesus, and through the Spirit of their God,

given to them, and dwelling in them; as it is written, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Know ye not, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?"

Hence, upon the whole, we may perceive that all those men, of whatever name or profession, who believe not as the apostles of God have preached by the Holy Ghost, are evidently of the world, sensual, not having the Spirit: consequently, all their pretended knowledge of God, without the Spirit, and without the word, by what they call the mere light of nature, or, as they explain it, their reason, is a lie-and they in that respect are atheists, antichrists, and liars against God; and it would be to become so ourselves, to call or think them any thing else, than what the Holy Ghost hath called them, who hold it for a truth, that we, according to our present circumstances, under sin and misery in this world, can come to any knowledge of God at all, save by means of the word alone, and that which is inseparably connected therewith, even the operation of the Spirit, opening the heart to understand the Scriptures; seeing it is in this way alone, as we have already proved, that we can have any knowledge of the Son, and of the Spirit, and of the Father, besides whom there is no God. All which, if the Lord will, shall more fully be evinced by the demonstration of the Holy Ghost, and the power of God; I mean by Scripture evidence, in the answers to the next and following questions.

FATHER AND SON REVEAL ONE ANOTHER.

Q. 6. The knowledge of the Son being essential to the knowledge of God, and included in the knowledge of the Father, can any man come to the knowledge of the Son, save by the Father revealing him?

A. No. For thus saith the Son, "No one knoweth the Son but the Father-No man can come to me, ex

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