their work, which the Father, the Supreme Wisdom, had assigned to them respectively to do, in heaven and in earth, return to the bosom of the Incomprehensible, that as it was in the beginning, Wisdom, Power and Holiness, glorified God and were glorified in and by him, that so shall it thenceforth ever be, world without end.

Wherefore, if to believe in the co-existence, uncreate essence, eternally divine nature and essential oneness of the Son of God! in his spiritual essence, with the Father and Holy Spirit: if to worship the Trinity in Unity," the one only living and true God, as the Father, in and through the person of his only begotten Son, our Mediator, Redeemer and Saviour; by the influence and operations of the Holy Spirit on our hearts: If to believe and maintain, that God made a Trinity in one person, as the image of himself; that this one person is Emmanuel (God with us;) that he is the God! in whose image man was made: If for these, we are denounced by men like ourselves, that with all our wisdom and knowledge, are, nevertheless, conscious of how much we are ignorant of divine things; though they call us Idolators; we nevertheless, conceive it our duty so to worship the God of the whole Universe, through the Son and Spirit, in and by the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, content to leave the question of Idolatry to the decision of the Supreme Judge of all the earth.

While on this subject, we consider the following remarks on Sceptical Philosophy, from the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, of Glasgow, as strictly appropriate to our design:

"Those Philosophers of whom I speak, possess, in more than ordinary energy, a principle common to them with all, an aversion from having any thing authorita

rit radically considered, the same is understood as by the phrase, "the fulness of God!"-To this we have no objection, it is no more than an expression of our meaning by other words, than those we have adopted and used. We understand and include all the essenial properties of Deity, in their united influence, as constituting all the fulness of God! [See page 82, and elsewhere.]

tively presented to them. They cannot bear to be dictated to. They like to exercise their own powers of invention and discovery; to have their own systems, their own distinguishing tenets, and their respective followers and admirers. They must have the liberty of thinking for themselves."

And, do not imagine that I am for denying them this liberty. It is right, that they, and that every man, should enjoy, and should use it. But still, if the Bible be once admitted to be the word of God, it follows of necessity, that it requires the submission of every mind to its dictates. Whatever it reveals, must be received as truth whatever it commands must be practised as duty. This restrains the high minded spirit of Freethinking, It represses the "airy wing" of a bold and lofty speculation. It sets down the Philosopher, at the feet of the Apostles and Prophets, in the humble capacity of a learner and asker of questions. For if these men really spoke and wrote " as they were moved by the Spirit of God," then, the sole inquiry, in consulting their writings, must be, "What is the meaning of their words?" When that is ascertained, there can be no liberty left to take or reject at pleasure,-to select what we may deem worthy of adoption, and to refuse what meets not our liking, or approval. There can be no liberty to alter and amend, to add or to diminish. The testimony of God must be taken as it is; it must be received, in humble simplicity of mind, as he has given it. And this submission of the understanding to its implicit and authoritative dictation, is a demand which the self-sufficient spirit of the wisdom of this world finds it especially difficult to brook. "It is a hard saying, who can bear it ?"*

"And one reason it is to be feared, why the divine authority of the bible does not, as it ought, engage their first and most anxious inquiry, is the secret consciousness, that if it do possess such authority, it must bind them down, it must command their assent, it must

* Two Sermons, entitled, man responsible for his belief.—Ser. 2d,

P 52.

destroy, as they conceive, their freedom of thought; and they cannot bear this; they feel, in the native vanity of their minds, a higher pleasure in moving at large on the sea of sceptical speculation, troubled as it is, and strewn with wrecks, than in the peaceful security of the harbor of faith."+

We now prepare to bring to the notice of our readers the Articles of our Christian Faith. We think it scarce necessary to premise, that they have now, for the first time, been selected and embodied in their present form, from the works of the several authors quoted in this Essay; and that as Protestants, we have preferred as a precedent, the articles of the Protestant Episcopal Churches of America: But while we acknowledge the arrangement to be perfectly new, in its present form; we rigidly adhere to our claims to antiquity, having shewn in the first section, that the substance of all the articles have been promulgated and believed in, by every faithful Universalist from Adam to Moses-and from him to this age; and we aver, that it will be more and more believed in, even to the " age of ages."

ARTICLES OF FAITH,

Of the Evangelist, or Primitive, Apostolic and Catholic Church of TRINITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS, in the City of Charleston, with copious Remarks and Illustrations.

ART. I. Of God.-We believe in one supreme eter. nal, uncreate, self-subsisting and invisible Spirit, or Being, one only true and living God, who, in and by, the union of his essential essences, whose qualities, are Wisdom, Power, and Holiness, in one undivided whole, is that complete, full, perfect, holy Being: First Principle; the cause, source or origin of all things; and who hath revealed himself and his glorious properties in the

Ib. id. pp. 56, 57.

Scriptures of his Truth, as the Lord God Almighty! that there is "no God else beside him, a just God and a Saviour:" and that "the Lord our God is one Lord."

ART. II. Of the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit.We believe, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! to be the only begotten Son of God! a manifestation of the Wisdom, Power and Holiness of the Supreme, in a sanctified body of flesh! begotten not according to ordinary, but by a spiritual generation, as predetermined in the Immense Mind from everlasting.

That the Godhead dwelling in all its fulness, in the person of Jesus Christ, is expressive of the union of the integrant essences of the Deity; so that as Jesus is the manifest Saviour, the Godhead being invisible; God in Christ, is still the Lord God Almighty! and there is no God else beside him, a Just God, (in his invisible essences) and a Saviour, (in his manifested properties) in his Son. In Christ therefore who is the Lord, and the Godhead in him, we understand, "the Lord our God is one Lord!"

We believe in the Holy Ghost, as the third integrant essence or essential property of the Deity or Godhead, as the Spirit of Holiness, existing in, and one with the Father, dwelling in all their fulness in the person of the Son, is thus manifest in the flesh, a Trinity in Unity, the one only true and living God! the Creator, Saviour and Sanctifier, or Jehovah! in whose self-subsistence existed from everlasting in one infinitely great and undivided union; as the essential properties of his being, illimitable Wisdom, Power and Holiness; and to whom with the Father and the Son, be glory in the highest-Amen.

ART. III. Of the Immutability of God.-We believe in the immutability, and unalterable character of God! that he is all wise, all powerful, all holy! Perfect in all his essential properties, and boundless in all his natural properties; that he can suffer no loss, nor have any augmentation, to his illimitable nature and perfections; wherefore "He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forevermore," and that "He changeth not." Wherefore,