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"The fundamental principle of Protestantism is, the Bible is the only rule of faith and practice."-Professor Stewart. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."-Isaiah. 'If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions, and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings."-St. Paul.

In regard to difficult passages, we admit such comments as best comport with the scriptures generally. All expositions which contradict plain unequivocal scripture testimony, we unhesitatingly reject. If we find any passages which we cannot understand, we leave them unembarrassed by a false or doubtful interpretation. These cannot materially affect the terms of our acceptance with God, or the rules of our duty to ourselves or others. The road to heaven is a HIGHWAY, SO well defined that the way-faring man, though illiterate,. need not err. We are taught, in plain words, easy to be understood, both what we are to believe, and what we are to do, to be saved. He that comes to the Bible with no other view but to learn his duty, and to practice it, will find no invincible difficulty with doubtful or obscure passages. A plain but pious man, who had, for several years, pursued this course with great comfort and safety, at length met with a book which pretended to explain a great many difficulties and mysteries in religion, which, hitherto, he had not observed. He presently fell in with another book which gave quite a different account of the matter. As they seemed contradictory, and he understood neither so well as the bible, he took down a long list of their hard words and learned phrases in order to examine what the scriptures said of them. But, to his astonishment, he could find no such

expressions in the bible; nor did he find such obscurity or difficulty in the doctrines as in the pretended explanations. "The fools," said he, “are fighting about their own fictions; and the water that was pure is soiled by their footsteps. I will leave their polluted streams to themselves, and return again to the fountain."

How plain and well defined are the terms of salvation in the Bible, may be seen by the following quotations.

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"What must I do to be saved?......Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."-Acts xvi. 30, 31. But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.'" Matt. xvi. 15-17. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ?" -I John v. 5. "But these things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."

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So plain and easy of comprehension are the terms of salvation as defined by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. If Trinitarians were as well satisfied as we are with the terms of salvation, as defined by our great Master, there would be no cause of complaint - there would be no difference between their preaching and ours. We are so well satisfied, that we neither desire nor admit any others. We teach that " Jehovah is one.' 77* They assert that God is three." We teach that "there is one God, and there is none other but He- There is one God, the Father." They contradict us by asserting that, besides the Father, there is "God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost."t We teach that there is "one JEHOVAH, and his + Creed or Discipline.

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* Bible.

NAME one. They assert that "JEHOVAH's name is Father, Son and Spirit."

THREE

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We teach that They assert that he is Jesus Christ is "the

They assert that he

is very God and very man.Ӡ We teach that the real sufferer on the cross was "the Son of God;" and that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."* They assert that "the very and eternal God suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his Father to us."+

These contrasts exhibit a wide difference between the doctrine we preach, and that of Trinitarians. But who is responsible for this difference? It does not arise from our withholding any part of the word of God. And here I solemnly aver, that I know of no difference between the doctrine which we preach, in reference to the person and nature of Christ, and that of Trinitarians, but what necessarily arises from THEIR UNSCRIPTURAL PHRASEOLOGY. When, according to apostolic injunction, they publish the gospel, "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth," we are with them in every thing. But when they leave the Scripture, we leave them - or, to speak more properly, they leave us.— “When men are shy of the words the Holy Ghost teacheth,' we are always afraid," says Mr. Jay, "they are beginning to be ashamed of the things."

Are we to believe that phrases, construed by uninspired men, have a better meaning, or convey a more important truth, than the words of him who spake as never man spake? In this human method of defining the terms of salvation there appears to be something analogous to the conduct of the ancient Jews, who were required to offer in sacrifice, lambs, and other clean beasts. They preferred *Bible. + Creed or Discipline. Jay's Works. Lectures, p. 15.

the flesh of other animals, and consequently they substituted the unclean for the clean. They were so dissatisfied with the manner in which God had defined their duty, that they defined it for themselves by offering swine's flesh.

But is it true that the definitions of doctrine, as given by Trinitarians, are better than those given by Christ? We think not. Promises of salvation are expressly made to all who embrace the gospel as it is defined by Christ and the Apostles. But no promise is made to the Trinitarian as such. There is no scripture which asserts that whosoever believes in the Trinity, or in the two natures, or in the Son's equality with the Father, or in the divinity of Christ, shall be saved. Nor does any scripture assert that whosoever believeth not these doctrines shall be damned. But if no promise is made to him who embraces the gospel as it is defined by Trinitarians, and no threatening against him who does not embrace it as thus defined, is not this sufficient evidence that their definitions are not correct? All who believe on Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, have an assurance from Christ himself, of everlasting life. All who do not believe Jesus to be the Son of God, are assured, by the same authority, that they life; but the wrath of God abideth on them. does the true believer gain by admitting the doctrine of the Trinity? If it does not secure to him a single promise, nor shield him from a single threatening, of what use can it possibly be to him? It cannot make one hair either white or black.

shall not see

What, then,

But it would be well for christianity if the human fixtures which have been appended to it, were merely useless. But this is far from being the case. The new definitions which Trinitarians have given of the way to heaven, instead of making it more plain, have greatly

obscured it. With their pretended improvements, it is no longer a HIGHWAY cast up. It has become private prop

erty, full of gates, and bars, and intricate windings.

Previous to the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour, but one article of faith was made essential to the believer, viz. that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Subsequently the doctrine of the resurrection was added. Hence St.

Paul says, "that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." These two articles were all which the apostles required as the terms of christian character and eternal salvation. And they contain plain and simple propositions, which every body can understand. But now, in some churches, there are not less than thirty or forty articles of faith, all purporting to be essential to salvation. And some of them involving such nice distinctions as scarcely to be comprehended by any created mind. Take, for example, the doctrine of the Trinity, as described by the learned, the pious, and the orthodox Bishop Beverage.

'We are to consider the order of those persons in the Trinity described in the words before us, Matt. xxviii. 19. First, the Father, and then the Son, and then the Holy Ghost; every one of which is really and truly God. A mystery which we are all bound to believe, but yet must have a great care how we speak of it, it being both easy and dangerous to mistake in expressing so great a truth as this is. If we think of it, how hard it is to imagine one numerically divine nature in more than one and the same divine person? Or, three divine persons in no more than one and the same divine nature? If we speak of it, how hard it is to find out words to express it? If I say, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be three, and every one distinctly God, it is true; but if I say, they be three, and