say, Do not believe these Infidel writers! And the most suc→ cessful method, adopted by many of those, who are now, at this very time, carrying into operation the worst of purposes, is done by persuading the multitude NOT TO READ or examine for themselves; but implicitly believe ALL that their ministers tell them. And yet the orthodox condemn, and now are stirring up the most unhallowed persecution against the Roman Catholics, because the Catholic priests' do the same things! In view of such things, I confess my charity cannot hide the multitude of sins, which I see committed by the orthodox* throughout these United States. I shall present in the course of these pages, nothing but undeniable FACTS, and the public must read and decide for themselves. It is to be feared, there are many under the cloak of religion, at this time, who will be found answering to the description given below, of the hypocrite, in Pollok's Course of Time. Some of their fruits will be given in proof of these assertions. Before I proceed any further, I must observe, and wish to have it constantly borne in mind, that I am not speaking one word against true, spiritual and EVANGELICAL Religion. I am engaged in exposing the ABUSES and VIOLATION of religion, not opposing, or ridiculing, or condemning, the spiritual life of

God in the soul.

I will here give Pollok's description of the hypocrite:

"He was a man

Who stole the livery of the court of heaven,

To serve the devil in; in virtue's guise

Devoured the widow's house and orphan's bread;

In holy phrase transacted villanies

That common sinners durst not meddle with.

At sacred feast, he sat among the saints,

And with his guilty hands touched holiest things.
And none of sin lamented more, or sighed
More deeply, or with graver countenance,
Or longer prayer, wept o'er the dying man,
Whose infant children, at the moment, he
Planned how to rob. In sermon style he bought,
And sold, and lied; and salutations made
In scripture terms. He prayed by quantity,
And with his repetitions long and loud,

All knees were weary. With one hand he put

A penny in the urn of poverty,

And with the other took a shilling out.

On charitable lists,-those trumps which told

The public ear, who had in secret done

The poor a benefit, and half the alms

They told of, took themselves to keep them sounding,-
He blazed his name, more pleased to have it there
Than in the book of life."

* See Chapter on the persecution of the Quakers by the orthodox Puritans.

Let us now give particular attention to some of the inexpli cable doctrines of orthodoxy. In the inspired book, we read:

Thou shalt not make unto thee

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me. any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." Exodus, xx. 3-5.

IN Scott's Family Bible, the reader will find these remarks on the above commandments

* *

"The commandments are addressed in the singular number to each person, because every one is concerned in them on his own account; and each prohibition implies a positive duty. This first commandment requires a disposition and conduct suited to the relation in which we stand to Jehovah as our God. He alone is the adequate object of our love, and able to satisfy our capacity of happiness: all we are and have, is derived from him, and he posseses an unalienable right to prescribe the use which we should make of all his gifts. He has so clear a title to our love, gratitude, reverence, adoration, submission, credence, confidence and obedience, that we cannot withhold them from him, without the most palpable injustice. * To the disgrace of the human understanding, the grossest idolatry has been very general; and that ambitious proud spirit,* who is the enemy of God and man, has been gratified in the success of his presumptuous attempts to become, by these means, the god of this world; and a more refined and plausible kind of idolatry has often supplanted it, in the few places where something more rational* has prevailed. This worship of creatures, whether actually existing, or only supposed to exist, is the principal violation of the commandment: as it ascribes to them the glory of those attributes which Jehovah incommunicably possesses, and seeks those blessings from them which he alone can confer. The immensely varied idolatries of the Gentiles, which the Israelites were constantly disposed to imitate, are always in Scripture spoken of with decided abhorrence, as flagrant transgressions of the letter of this command: and it is impossible for those professed Christians who render religious worship to saints and angels, to show that their practice is not so too, or to disprove the charge of ascribing the glory of the divine perfections to mere creatures.

"All pretences to witchcraft, likewise, or to magic, fortune telling, charms, astrology, or enchantments, partake of the same guilt, as in these ways men expect that information or assistance from other beings, which God alone can afford.-* Meaning the Devil. *Liberal Christianity, probably,

The

But this spiritual precept reaches much further. To love, desire, delight in, or expect good from any forbidden indulgence, even in the smallest degree, is evidently a violation of it; and to suffer the most valuable and excellent creature to rival God in our affections, must be a proportionable contempt of him. By atheism and irreligion, men set up themselves as gods, aspire at independence, reject subordination, and refuse to render homage, worship, love, or praise, to any superior or benefactor; as if they had created themselves, and were sufficent for their own happiness! The proud man idolizes himself, offers incense to his own deity, and expects others to do the same: therefore "God resists him" as his rival. ambitious pay homage to the opinions of men, and seek happiness in their applause, or in such distinctions as they can bestow. The revengeful usurp the throne of God, and invade the prerogative of him to whom vengeance belongeth. The covetous man deifies his wealth; the sensualist his vile appetites; and the rapturous lover his mistress: he lives on her smiles, his heaven is placed in her favour, and her frown would make him the most miserable of creatures. Nay, the doating husband and fond parent may deify the objects of their affections: for though they ought to love them tenderly; yet this affection, and the manner in which it is exercised, should be absolutely subordinate to the will and glory of God.

"The second commandment requires us to render the Lord our God a worship and service, suited to his perfections and honorable to his name. His incomprehensible* nature cannot be represented by any similitude. The most exquisite painting or sculpture can only give an external resemblance of a Inan: even animal life, with its several functions, cannot be thus exhibited, much less can a likeness be made of the soul and its operations. How dishonorable then must every attempt be to represent the infinite God, "by silver or gold graven by art and man's device!" The general disposition of mankind, to form such similitudes of the deity, proves that low apprehensions of him are congenial to our nature; and the practice has exceedingly increased the confusion and grossness of men's conceptions* concerning him. The more stupid of the heathen alone worshipped the picture or image itself; others used it as a visible representation of the invisible Numen, or Deity: and all that ingenious papists have urged in behalf of their images, is equally applicable to Israel's worship of the golden calves, or to that rendered by the Ephesians to the image of Diana "which fell down from Jupiter." A material image of the deity is likewise an affront *Solemn truth. Unitarians fully believe this, and prove it.

to the Person of Christ, the only adequate "Image of the invisible God:" and the worship of saints and angels, as mediators and present deities, by images, in every respect robs him of his mediatorial glory. The prohibition includes every kind of creature, because all are utterly unfit to represent the infinite Creator: and there are some devices common among us, as emblematic of the Trinity, which seems not to accord to the strictness of this injunction. But the spiritual import of the commandment reaches much further. Superstition, and human inventions in religious worship, when at all relied on as acceptable with God, are evident violations of its spirit and intent."

In these extracts from Mr. Scott's commentary, we have the true sentiments of all Trinitarians. I believe this work of Scott, is as common as Watts' psalms and hymns-they are in nearly every orthodox family; for this reason I quote from them, that none may say I misrepresent them, or apply my own words to them. Every man can judge whether all of this long extract is free from superstition, and enjoy his own reflections.

The reader will observe, Mr. Scott speaks of 'the person of Christ,' and of 'devices common among us as emblematic of the Trinity,' and says, "superstition, and human inventions in religious worship, when at all relied on as acceptable with God, are evident violations of the spirit and intent" of these commandments. This I firmly believe. Now, to apply this rule, which is universally received by Calvinist Baptists', the Methodists, Presbyterians, Orthodox, and all other Trinitarians, they must plead guilty-and found to be IDOLATORS! for "the general disposition of mankind, to form similitudes of the deity, proves that low apprehensions of him are congenial to our nature; and the practice has exceedingly increased the confusion and grossness of men's conceptions concerning him," and this practice is common among Trinitarians. I shall say no more--but offer extracts from Trinitarian books to prove this idolatry--and leave every man, woman and child, to judge for themselves. Remember, "Superstition," and "human inventions," if "relied on," is idolatry! If this is true, we need not be concerned about the destitute heathen, for our own New-England is filled with idol temples, and our good people really worship an image-inary God. Let FACTS speak for themselves. What can you make out, of all this superstitious, visionary, and contradictory matter, which follows, taken from the works of those, who believed that Jesus Christ was truly and really our God, and a man, or Mangod.

See how these witnesses agree in building the Trinitarian Babel. Read for yourselves the following

Extracts from various authors in support of three persons in one God.

I freely grant," says Mr. Saurin, "that had I consulted my own reason only, I could not have discovered some mysteries of the gospel.--Nevertheless, when I think on the granduer of God, when I cast my eyes on that vast ocean, when I consider that immense ALL, nothing astonishes me, nothing stumbles me, nothing seems to be inadmissible, however incomprehensible it may be. When the subject is divine, I am ready to believe all, to admit all, to receive all, provided I be convinced that it is God himself who speaks to me, or any one on his part. After this, I am no more astonished that there are three distinct persons in one divine essence one God, and yet a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost. Either religion must tell us nothing about God, or what it tells us must be beyond our capacites, and in discovering even the borders of this immense ocean, it must needs exhibit a vast extent in which our feeble eyes are lost." [Saurin's Ser. vol. i, p 78.]

"Had I con

Here is an honest confession; Saurin says; sulted my own reason, I could not have discovered some mysteries of the gospel." This fact, from an honest man, is worthy of our highest regard. Hear another

"The doctrine of the Trinity appears to me to be so interwoven with Christianity in general, and the plan of apostolic preaching in particular, as to make an essential part of it. The Father is represented as choosing, the Son as Redeeming, and the Holy Ghost as calling and sanctifying." (Stillman's ser. p. 145.)

Again, the same writer says, on p. 146, "We do not find that the apostles ever made a single attempt to explain how it is that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are three persons yet one God, nor how the divine and human natures were united in Jesus Christ. They maintained this threefold distinction in the Godhead, and assure us that "God was manifest in the flesh;" but confessed the mystery, and submitted their reason to divine revelation, in which God's "design is to make known realities and facts, not the manner of them."

Dr. Stillman, was an eminent, and a good man; and was for many years, pastor of the first Baptist church, in Boston. With Saurin, he has left his testimony against the trinity, and in favor of reason. He says, "We do not find that the apostles ever made a single attempt to explain how it is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are three persons, yet one God;" very true, for the apostles never heard of such an outrage on common sense. This monstrous doctrine was invented by men in the dark ages. It is the work of darkness, like many other religious superstitions. We find that trinitarians invariably receive their doctrines in an implicit manner, not suffering their Reason to assist them in searching the scriptures. Hear another trinitarian: