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out considerable resistance to the strong and irresistible conviction of my mind, on the insufficiency of the arguments on which the Athanasians ground their persuasion. I cannot find better authority in the Scriptures for asserting that Jesus Christ is the God who created the world, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, than for defending Transubstantiation. Nay, there is not a passage so strong in favor of the Divinity of Christ, as that literal declaration on which the Romanists ground their peculiar tenet. This is my body: this is my blood. Now, if the testimony of our senses is a sufficient reason to justify our giving a metaphorical sense to those expressions, the palpable contradictions which follow from the Athanasian system should, I think, lead us to a similar mode of interpretation respecting the passages which are brought forward as the strongest foundation of that doctrine. What I see to be bread cannot be the body of Christ. In the same manner, He who declares himself to be a man cannot be God. The school language, under which the Athanasians wish to avoid this plain inference, is not better than the Aristotelian distinction of substance and substantial forms, by which the Romanists evade the arguments against Transubstantiation. A man is an intelligent agent; a person conveys the idea of an intelligent agent, or that word has no meaning at all. If, therefore, Christ is a man, he cannot be one in person with another intelligent agent, either limited or infinite. No more can three persons in the Trinity, that is, three intelligent agents, be one intelligent agent, i. e. one God. According to the Athanasians, there is a Man who is not a Person; but though he possesses an active intelligent principle, namely,

his human soul, yet this intelligent principle, and another intelligent agent, who is one of the three in God, form only one intelligent principle or person, and these two agents, blended into one, together with the two other agents which they (the Athanasians) conceive in the Godhead, make not four agents or persons; they make only three, while the three make, in their turn, only one agent or principle which they will not call person, but essence. Am I to believe all this, and yet deny that what appears to me bread and wine may be flesh and blood?-Perhaps the patrons of the Athanasian system will dispute the accuracy of my definition of Personality. But let us appeal to common sense instead of using words to which no definite meaning has ever been applied by divines. When Christ prays to God, I may say, He prays to God. He prays to Him. But now, according to the Athanasian system of the two intelligent beings expressed by the pronoun, the first is one of the three intelligent agents who together make up the second or Him to whom the prayer is addressed. If this has any meaning in human language, let it be proposed as one of the essentials of Christianity; but if it amounts to a contradiction in terms, no less than when I say one and one and one are three, and one and one and one are one, let us at least be silent upon the subject."

-I did not intend to

"But I feel tired and bewildered. write controversy. I wished only to collect my ideas concerning my own circumstances, which I perceive to be 'very awkward and difficult. It is very probable that my change upon this point will be looked upon by some of my best friends as a very dangerous falling off from the

faith. But what can I do, when, after a long struggle, I find that my understanding will not submit to my earnest desire of acquiescing in the reception of these doctrines? The very suspicion of error, mixed with religion, produces a baneful effect on my mind. It casts a cloud upon the whole system, and deprives my faith of its vital influence. I give my most humble and hearty thanks to God, that during this struggle I have not lost sight of my Saviour, and though doubts innumerable have crowded upon my mind, so as to deprive me of all sensible comfort from religious acts (practices), I have steadfastly adhered to my Christian profession. But notwithstanding my firm persuasion that Christ (Jesus) is the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, I cannot but very strongly suspect that there are still some more errors intimately blended with Christianity. Fortunately the practical doctrines of the New Testament are undoubtedly pure, as they proceeded from our Saviour. May God's grace support me in that faith which produces obedience to his will, as revealed through his blessed Son! May he enlighten my mind, that I may not fall into error, through pride or any other sinful motive! I hope my love of God, and of my Saviour, through whom I know him, are not on the decline. Since I have yielded assent to the dictates of my understanding against the Athanasian doctrines, I feel relieved. I think I can see the Christian religion in a clearer and more advantageous light. May God, of his mercy, forgive me if I am in error! I really am not conscious of any improper bias upon my mind. On the contrary, my situation is very difficult and perplexing. I have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles.

My best friends would be grieved to know my change. I cannot think of ever taking preferment in the Church, even if my health were to improve. I must avoid giving offence, by speaking freely on the state of my mind, — at least, I think that such is my duty, though I have not yet fully examined that very complicated point. But, supposing the general obligation of giving whatever weight every individual possesses to what he conceives to be the truth, I am placed in such circumstances, that another public change of denomination would, as far as I am concerned, bring nothing but obloquy and ridicule upon religion, on the part of her enemies; while, amongst her friends, the greatest part would consider me as an apostate from the gospel; and those with whom I agree in opinion would look upon me as, at best, a man without steadiness and judgment, carried away with every breath of doctrine.

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I humbly pray to God that he may have mercy upon me; that he may direct my mind, and that his grace may lead me through the difficulties in which I find myself involved. May he do it for the sake of his Son, my Saviour. Amen."

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III. HIS CREED IN 1818,

AFTER VIRTUALLY REJECTING

ORTHODOXY.

My mind is so greatly unhinged, owing to the weak state of my nerves, and the many doubts upon religious subjects which every moment crowd upon it, that, after trying to pray to my Almighty Father, I wish to attempt

collecting my thoughts, in order to ascertain the extent of my belief, and the points on which it is unshaken.

"I firmly believe in one God, the Creator of the universe, the Father of all mankind.

"I believe that, as his wisdom and power are visibly employed in the direction of the material world, so his providence governs the intellectual and moral part of the creation.

"I believe that he has, at different times, made extraordinary communications concerning his own nature, his will, and the future destinies of man. By the word extraordinary, I mean communications independent of the common progress of the human understanding. But I do not know in what manner such communications were made.

"I believe that the Old and the New Testament contain the substance of these extraordinary communications; but I must confess that I cannot persuade myself that there is nothing in the Bible but what God has been pleased to reveal to mankind. I suspect that, together with revealed truths, there is in it a considerable portion of human error. But at the same time, I believe, because I see it to be a clear and positive fact, that the mixture of error which I suspect in the Bible has never deprived the Divine truths contained in it of a most salutary influence on the moral improvement of mankind. To comprise all in a few words: I believe that the Bible is the clearest and best rule of morality, the supreme code of virtue, and the chief treasure of Divine knowledge. This is all I can, at present, believe concerning inspiration.

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