I thought it proper also, to publish it at this season, to let the world know, that though I have entered into some further enquiries on this divine subject, and made humble attempts to gain clearer ideas of it, in order to vindicate the truth and glory of this sacred article; yet I have never changed my belief and profession of any necessary and important part of it, as will here appear with abundant evidence. In this sermon I have followed the track of no particular scheme whatsoever; but have represented the sacred Three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in that light in which they seem to lie most open to the common view of mankind in the word of God: And I am glad to find what I have drawn out in this manner in seventeen propositions, appears so agreeable to the general sense of our fathers in this article, that I do not think any one of these propositions would be denied or disputed by our divines of the last or present age, who have had the greatest name and reputation of strict orthodoxy[21]. If I may express the substance of it in a few words, it is this: It seems to me to be plainly and evidently revealed in scripture, “That both the Son and the Holy Ghost have such a communion in the true and eternal God-head, as to have the same names, titles, attributes and operations ascribed to them, which are elsewhere ascribed to the Father, and which belong only to the true God: And yet that there is such a plain distinction between them, as is sufficient to support their distinct personal characters and offices in the great work of our salvation.” And this is what has been generally called the Trinitarian Doctrine, or the doctrine of Three Persons and one God. At the end of the latter sermons I have endeavoured to assist christians in the devout collection of what they hear or read in a way of pious converse with their own hearts, and with God. In most of those meditations, the reader will find the principal heads of the foregoing sermons rehearsed. Where the sermons are too long to be read in a family at once, I have marked out proper pauses, that the religious service may not be made tedious. May the great God vouchsafe to send his own Almighty Spirit, wheresoever his providence shall disperse these weak labours of mine in the world, and attend them with his sovereign power and blessing for the welfare of immortal souls! _Amen._ Footnote 17: In the fifth edition the three volumes in 12mo were reduced into two in octavo, and the prefaces abridged and united by the author. Footnote 18: 21st February, 1720-21. Footnote 19: 25th March, 1723. Footnote 20: They were first published 25th March, 1727. Footnote 21: In this complete collection of the author’s works there are large additions, as well as many alterations inserted in this sermon ‘On the Doctrine of the Trinity,’ from the author’s manuscripts. 1734. SERMONS.