Vaillant; I call him meritorious, not for the excellence of his private character, nor for the talents displayed in his official one, but that, amidst his professional duties, he has diligently studied the Holy Scriptures, not only to his own heartfelt conviction and satisfaction, but has, in a most clear and simple manner, published the unanswerable grounds of that conviction to the world. The malicious declaration of the ignorant and the uncandid is hardly worth notice, that the clergy write in support of their tenets from worldly and interested motives; we reject, with feelings more of pity than disdain, such intemperate and injudicious calumnies. No, Sirs, we may, though we ought not, when out of our churches, be silent; but the very nature

sary induction and consequence) of the Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost, and of the Divinity of our blessed Saviour equal to the Father in the Unity of the Godhead in a Letter to a Friend: by John Vaillant, Esq. M.A. late of Christ Church, Oxon, Barrister at Law. Sold by Rivingtons.

of our studies must impress upon our minds a most awful fear of that Creator, unto whom all hearts are open, and we dare not "6 66 touch the ark of God" in so unhallowed a manner; we dare not utter or write a sentiment on sacred subjects, which does not proceed from humble, but firm conviction. Still it is peculiarly pleasing to see a layman voluntarily writing on the grand doctrine, in defiance of those who love to "sit in the seat of the scornful;" to see a layman, whose publication will prove "he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." I hope and trust, therefore, that "his leaf will not wither, and that whatsoever he doeth, it will prosper."

Innumerable are the texts which have been collected and compared together by the different writers, whose names I have specified, and by hundreds of others, from the apostolical times to the present, which either allude to, or clearly point out, the Doctrine of the Trinity; but, as

Mr. Vaillant's pamphlet consists of only sixty-two small octavo pages, and he has introduced brief arguments on his selected texts, I refer to his work rather than reproduce the proofs there substantiated: it will be seen that he has, towards the end, given an index of all the texts cited, and that he has added a new and most useful index of texts in the Old Testament, which are either cited, or referred to, or unquestionably alluded to, in the New. This list exceeds three hundred, a circumstance which will surprise the ignorant and the careless reader of the Scriptures; and which surprised the author himself till he made (as he tells us) the diligent research.

The text which I brought forward at the commencement of this Letter, viz. the form of our Baptism, ought to preclude the necessity of producing any other; but when aided and enforced by numerous other striking passages in Scripture, they together, form an overwhelm

ing mass of evidence, which seems to leave infidelity unjustifiable: but it is not on any particular texts upon which the doctrine is founded; it is founded on the whole tenor of Scripture taken together, and a comprehensive view of the declared scheme of God's providential operations. By this, which is the only rational process, the Primitive Christians collected their ideas respecting the Trinity. That the early Christian writers did maintain this doctrine, no one can possibly doubt, who will take the pains to examine their writings, or even the writings of the divines I have already alluded to, who have proved the “antiquity of the faith." Bishop Stillingfleet says, "Where the sense of Scripture appears doubtful, and disputes have been raised about it, inquire into the sense of the Christian church in the first ages, as the best interpreter of Scripture."

The Socinians are fond of denying that the faith is ancient, and hope their as

sertion will be taken for granted by the generality, without the pains of investigating the truth. For they cannot but be aware that those writers, who lived nearest to the apostolical times, must necessarily be more competent than we are to interpret the true meaning of Scripture, when many of them had opportunities of collecting the sentiments of the Apostles themselves, some by personal intercourse, and others by not very remote tradition. If, then, it could be proved (which is directly contrary to the fact) that the earliest writers never attributed the divine nature to the Son and the Holy Ghost, we might pause before we considered our interpretation to be true. Still, as I have before hinted, (did we reject the Doctrine of the Trinity,) there would be infinitely more difficulty in understanding the Bible.* It is very

*It appears how conscious the Socinians are, that all antiquity is against them. There is no set of men in the world who use such endeavors, and some