REVEREND AND WORTHY THE

VICE-CHANCELLOR,

THE HEADS OF HOUSES,

AND

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY

OF OXFORD,

THE FOLLOWING DEFENCE

OF THE

DOCTRINE OF THE EVER-BLESSED-TRINITY

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

MY Bookseller having solicited me to republish

this little Treatise, I have corrected the typographical errors of the last edition, and enlarged some passages of the work itself.

The attempt of a late Bishop of Clogher to propagate Arianism in the Church of Ireland, induced me to keep the Doctrine of the Trinity in my thoughts for some years; and I had a particular attention to it as often as the Scriptures, either of the Old or New Testament were before me. This little book was the fruit of my study; of which I have seen some good effects already, and ought not to despair of seeing more before I die.

Many other observations have occurred to me since the first publication, which I should willingly have added. But some readers might have been discouraged, if I had presented them with a book of too large a size: and the merits of the cause lie in a small compass.

The

be

The republication of this work, though merely accidental, is not unseasonable at this time, when we are taught from the press, (and the author seems to very much in earnest) that the only sure way of reducing Christianity to its primitive purity, is to abolish all Creeds and Articles. But the great rock of offence with this writer is the Trinity; to get rid of which, he would at once dissolve our whole ecclesiastical constitution and form of worship.

This wild project furnishes a melancholy confirmation of the censure passed upon us by some learned Protestants abroad; who have reflected upon England as a country productive of literary monsters; where some old heresy is frequently rising up, as old comets have been supposed to do, with new and portentous appearances. And the reader whose sight can penetrate through the vehement accusations of Popery, Bigotry, Persecution, Imposition, and other fiery vapours with which this author hath surrounded his performance, will discover little, if any thing, more than Arianism at the centre.

The Scripture is the only rule that can enable us to judge, whether that or the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity is more agreeable to truth: therefore I have

a In a new work, intitled The Confessional.

a Carpzov. Pref. in Pseudo-Critic. Whistonii.

con