While the Latin Church was corrupting the preceding text, the Greek Church was doing the same to St. Paul’s 1st Epistle to Timothy iii. 16. _Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh._ According to Sir Isaac, this reading was effected by changing σ into ΘΣ, the abbreviation of Θεος, and after proving this by a learned and ingenious examination of ancient manuscripts, he concludes that the reading should be _Great is the mystery of Godliness who_ (viz. our Saviour) _was manifest in the flesh_. As this learned dissertation had the effect of depriving the defenders of the doctrine of the Trinity of the aid of two leading texts, Sir Isaac Newton has been regarded as an Antitrinitarian; but such a conclusion is not warranted by any thing which he has published;[105] and he distinctly warns us, that his object was solely to “purge the truth of things spurious.” We are disposed, on the contrary, to think that he declares his belief in the doctrine of the Trinity when he says, “In the eastern nations, and for a long time in the western, the _faith_ subsisted without this text; and it is rather a danger to religion than an advantage, to make _it now_ lean upon a bruised reed. There cannot be better service done to the truth than to purge it of things spurious; and therefore, knowing your prudence and calmness of temper, I am confident I shall not offend you by telling you my mind plainly; especially since it is no article of faith, no point of discipline, nothing but a criticism concerning a text of Scripture which I am going to write about.” The word faith in the preceding passage cannot mean faith in the Scriptures in general, but faith in the particular doctrine of the Trinity; for it is this article of faith only to which the author refers when he deprecates _its_ leaning on a bruised reed. But, whatever be the meaning of this passage, we know that Sir Isaac was greatly offended at Mr. Whiston for having represented him as an Arian; and so much did he resent the conduct of his friend in ascribing to him heretical opinions, that he would not permit him to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society while he was President.[106] The only other religious works which were composed by Sir Isaac Newton were his _Lexicon Propheticum_, to which was added a Dissertation on the sacred cubit of the Jews, and _Four Letters addressed to Dr. Bentley, containing some arguments in proof of a Deity_. The _Lexicon Propheticum_ was left incomplete, and has not been published; but the Latin Dissertation which was appended to it, in which he shows that the cubit was about 26½ Roman unciæ, was published in 1737 among the Miscellaneous Works of Mr. John Greaves.