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AN

ESSAY

ON THE

Doctrine of the Trinity:

ATTEMPTING TO PROVE IT BY

REASON AND DEMONSTRATION,

FOUNDED UPON

DURATION AND SPACE :

AND UPON SOME OF

THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS; SOME OF THE POWERS OF THE
HUMAN SOUL; THE LANGUage of scrIPTURE; AND

TRADITION AMONG ALL NATIONS.

BY THE

REV. JAMES KIDD, A. M.

MINISTER OF THE CHAPEL OF EASE, GILCOMSTON, AND PROFESSOR OF
ORIENTAL LANGUAGES IN THE MARISCHAL COLLEGE AND
UNIVERSITY, ABERDEEN.

השמים מספרים כבוד אל ומעשה ידיו מגיד הרקיע: יום ליום
יביע אמר ולילה ללילה יחוה דעת: אין אמר ואין דברים בלי

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Διοτι το γνωσον τε Θες φανερον εσιν εν αυτοις· ὁ γαρ Θεος αυτοίς
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Τα γαρ αόρατα αυτά απο κτίσεως κόσμος τοις ποιήμασι
νομενα καθοραται, ήτε αιδιο αυτό δυναμις και θείοτης εις το είναι
αυτές αναπολογήτους. Rom. i.

-

London:

PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD; OLIPHANT, WAUGH, & INNES,
EDINBURGH; M. OGLE, GLASGOW; AND

A. BROWN & CO. ABERDEEN.

THECA

Cuter in Stationers' hall.

D. CHALMERS & Co. Printers, Aberdeen.

ADDRESS

ΤΟ

THE ELDERS AND THE MEMBERS

OF

THE CONGREGATION,

WHO WORSHIP IN THE CHAPEL OF EASE,

GILCOMSTON, BY ABERDEEN;

BRETHREN,

FROM the day in which the good providence of God brought us together in the relation of pastor and people, it has been my constant aim and effort to instruct you as particularly as possible in the doctrine of the Trinity, or of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, whose thrice holy name you bear in baptism, as the foundation of all the doctrines of revelation, of all true religion, and of all faith and practice, according to the Scriptures. As this doctrine is the most difficult of all others, it requires great patience and perseverance to obtain any considerable knowledge of it: lying so far out of the general comprehension of common capacities, it requires a particular turn of mind, and mode of thinking, to enter fully into it.

Besides those instructions from the pulpit, in order to carry forward the knowledge of the subject in your minds to greater perfection, I have drawn up the following Essay, with much care, and as much perspicuity as the nature of the subject would admit; for the express purpose, that a present and permanent help might remain among you, after I go the the way of all the earth.

I have availed myself of every assistance that I could obtain, and have spared neither labour nor expense to render the work as worthy of the subject as possible. When my manuscript was finished, I shewed it to the Rev. Mr. M'Allum of Aberdeen, who most kindly and obligingly read it, and was pleased to express a favourable opinion of the design of it, and, in the most disinterested and friendly manner, signified his readiness to recommend it to the notice of some of his brethren in London. I then sent it to St. Austell, Cornwall, to my very worthy friend and correspondent, Mr. Samuel Drew, author of the Essay upon the Immateriality and Immortality of the Human Soul, and also of the Essay on the Identity and General Resurrection of the Human Body, who perused it with his keen and piercing

penetration, and was pleased to write me several letters upon his views of it, in general favourable.

I went to London, to consult with my friends there relative to publication, and carried Mr.. M'Allum's letters of introduction with me.. His friends at once entered into my views of the subject, and, with a cordiality which I never before experienced, kindly offered their support.,

The Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke entered into it with an ease and readiness peculiar to himself, and very rare to find. The Rev. Mr. Benson also perceived my theory, and expressed a favourable opinion of it. ·

Dr. Clarke opened his own house for me to deliver private lectures on my manuscript; collected his friends and others; and gave all the countenance and encouragement that I could have expected from a brother.

These private lectures were attended by gentlemen of different denominations: among the rest, the Rev. Dr. Simpson of Hoxton Academy was pleased to attend one; so were the Rev. Mr. Belsham and Mr. Broadbent, with frankness and great

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