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'Let the doctor's premises be allowed, fays. Mr. Hopkins; let all the verbs through the bible, when the true God is denoted by Elohim, be granted to be used in the fingular number, I abfolutely deny the argument deduced from hence, to prove a plurality and unity in the divine being: or, to express it in the language of the Athanafian creed, One God in trinity, and trinity in unity.

'But to confider more particularly the nature of the argument, on which the learned doctor seems to lay fo great a stress; let it be observed, that nothing certain can be concluded from the hebrew word Elohim being plural, in favour of a plurality of perfons in the godhead, because all languages have words in the plural number of a fingular fignification.

With regard to Elohim, it unquestionably in many inftances fignifies one perfon, fo that no argument can be drawn 'from it, as neceffarily fignifying more persons than

one.

And as the word Elohim has confeffedly a plural termination, though often used in a fingular fenfe, it is no wonder that the facred

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facred writers should apply a plural verb to Elshim, when ufd of falfe gods, and a fingular verb when ufed of the one true God; which is certainly done with the strictest propriety.

The greek tranflation of the bible, which was made near 300 years before our Savour's time, always ufes the word God, (Theos,) which anfwers to Elohim in the hebrew, in the fingular number, when it fignifies the one true God. The fame may be faid of the Syriac tranflation, which was made fcon after the days of the apoftles, from the beginning of the Old, to the end of the New Teftament.

Our bleffed Saviour was fo far from blaming the jews for their ufing the word Elohim to fignifiy ONE perfon, that he has exprefsly confirmed that fenfe by his own authority, John viii. 54. xviii. 3, with many other paffages to the fame purpose. Accordingly, every penman of the New Teftament, from the beginning to the end, conftantly uses the word Theos, which answers to Elbim in the hebrew, in the fingular number, or to fignify one perfon, when it is

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ufed of the one true God. And who the perfon intended by GoD is, appears (not to mention several hundred paffages to the fame purpose) from the unanswerable words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 6. though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth-yet to us there is but one God, (Theos or Elohim) even the Father, of whom are all things, and we by him; and one Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom are all things, and we him.

On fuch weak grounds of an idiom of Speech merely, and on the mistaken meaning, and construction of an hebrew word, does Dr. Horne's trinity of the Old Teftament stand. And yet on this, which is a nonentity, he fays, the economy of man's falvation is founded: on this, he afferts, that the human race, from the beginning, worshiped fuch a trinity as he himself worthips; and that, the God of Adam, (p. 13) of Noah, and of Abraham, confifted of three

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perfons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' When the foundation is thus of fand, the fabric must give way and fall.

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In his viith difcourfe (p. 191 of the fame vol.) upon John i. 14. The word was made flesh, &c. he immediately obferves, that in the exordium of his gofpel, John · firft publishes, ver. 1. the divinity, and then, here, the incarnation of his most adora⚫ble and beloved master.'

But the real fact is, that he publishes neither the one, nor the other; being, as I trust you will eafily be able to fee, an absolute ftranger to both.

In going on to prove, that Chrift is the word fpoken of in the first verse of John's gofpel, our author is equally unfortunate, as he has appeared above, in miftaking the language of the Old Testament. For he afferts, p. 195, "that the word of Jehovah, is frequently and evidently the tile of a perfon, who is faid, to come, to be ⚫ be revealed or manifefted, and the like. As in Gen. xv. 1. 4. after these things, the ' word of (Jehovah) the LORD • Abraham in a vifion, faying,

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came unto fear not,

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• Abraham! I am thy field, and thy ex

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ceeding great reward. And Abraham faid LORD God, what wilt thou give me, &c.'

But you will eafily perceive that the word of the LORD came to Abraham here, only in the fame way, that the word of God came to John, Luke iii. 2, in the wildernefs. In neither cafe are we to understand, that a perfon different from God, called the word of God, or the word of the LORD appeared to them; but by the term word, we are to understand a message, or revelation that was given to them, and the perfon who spoke to Abraham was Jehovah, God, the Divine Being himself; and if Luke had entered into the particulars of the divine meffage to John, he would have told us, that it was God who spoke to him. So that it is mere prepoffeffion, and ignorance of the phrafeology of fcripture, that makes any one imagine Chrift to be the word of the LORD that spoke to Abraham.

Our author's next proof of Christ being the word spoken of in the entrance of John's gofpel, is, p. 196. The LORD (or Jeho

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