fault is charged upon God, and not upon themselves, who ought to have gone another way to work; as they will certainly find.

We conclude, therefore, because Christ has affirmed it, that every degree of doubt and disputation against the words of God, is just so much unbelief; proceeding not from the head or understanding, but from the heart and affections. And the world is filled with the vain jangling of uncertainty, for this short reason "all men have not faith "."

IN all the Texts which are compared together in the following work, those particular words, whereon the stress of the comparison lies, are printed in Capitals; that the argument obtained from them may shew itself to the reader upon the first inspection. And I hope, after what has been observed to him in the foregoing discourse, that this is the only admonition he will stand in need of. The arguments I have drawn from the Scripture are, to the best of my knowledge, most of them new; and, if I may judge from my own mind, the manner in which they are laid down, is more likely to convince, than any I have yet seen. Had I thought otherwise, I could easily have forborn to trouble myself or the world with the transcribing and printing them. The end I have proposed is not to obtain any reputation (to which this is not the way) but to do some little good, of which there is much need. I do therefore sincerely recommend the following work, and every reader of it, to the grace and blessing of Almighty God, well knowing, that "un"less the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh "but in vain."

THE

THE

CATHOLIC DOCTRINE.

OF A

TRINITY.

CHAP. I.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

I.

Isa. VIII. 13, 14. Sanctify the LORD OF HOSTS HIMSELF, and let HIм be your fear, and let HIм be your dread: and HE shall be for a Sanctuary but for a STONE OF STUMBLING and ROCK OF OFFENCE to both houses of Israel.

1 Pet. II. 7, 8. The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a STONE OF STUMBLING and ROCK OF OF

FENCE.

VOL. I.

B

Instead

Instead of reasoning upon these words of the Prophet Isaiah, according to any private Interpretation, I add another passage of Scripture, wherein they are expressly applied to the person of Christ; and then shew what must be the result of both. If the Scripture, thus compared with itself, be drawn up into an argument, the conclusion may indeed be denied, and so may the whole Bible, but it cannot be answered. For Example,

The Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence, as the former text affirms, is the Lord of Hosts himself; a name which the Arians allow to no other but the one, only, true, and

God".

supreme

But, this Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence, as it appears from the latter text, is no other than Christ, the same stone which the builders refused; Therefore,

Christ is the LORD OF HOSTS HIMSELF: and the Arian is confuted upon his own principles.

Isai. VI. 5. Mine Eyes have SEEN the King, the LORD OF HOSTS.

See an Essay on Spirit, p. 65. Clark's Doctr. of the Trin. C. I. § 3. 402.

John

John XII. 41. These things said Esaias, when he SAW HIS (CHRIST'S) GLORY, and spake of HIM.

Jesus is the person here spoken of by St. John; whose Glory, Esaias is declared to have seen upon that occasion, where the Prophet affirms of himself, that his Eyes had seen the Lord of Hosts: Therefore,

Jesus is the LORD OF HOSTS.

III.

Isai. XLIV. 6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD OF HOSTS, I am THE FIRST, and I am THE LAST, and BESIDES ME there is NO GOD.

Rev. XXII. 13. I (Jesus) am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, THE FIRST and THE LAST.

These Titles of the first and the last are confined to him alone, besides whom there is no God. But Jesus hath assumed these Titles to himself: Therefore, Jesus is that God, besides whom there is no other. Or thus There is no God besides him who is the first and the