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JOHN MILTON'S

LAST THOUGHTS ON THE TRINITY.

EXTRACTED FROM HIS POSTHUMOUS WORK ENTITLED

“A TREATISE ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, COMPILED FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ALONE.”

LATELY PUBLISHED BY ROYAL COMMAND.

PRINTED FOR THE

American Unitarian Association.

BOSTON:

WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS,

118 WASHINGTON STREET.

MARCH, 1847.

Price 6 Cents.

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PREFACE.

THIS tract forms the fifth and sixth chapters of Milton's "Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone." The original work was discovered in the year 1823, in the State Paper Office. The treatise was written in Latin, and by order of George the Fourth, then king of England, was not only published, but was also accompanied by a translation, executed by the Rev. Charles R. Sumner, at that time "His Majesty's Librarian," and since, Bishop of Winchester. The part which treats of the Trinity is republished, not only because it presents in a very strong light the insuperable difficulties which encompass that doctrine, but also because it is agreeable to know the view taken of it by such a mind as that of Milton.

JOHN MILTON,

TO ALL THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST, AND TO ALL WHO PROFESS THE CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGHOUT THE WORld, Peace, AND THE RECOGNITION OF THE TRUTH, AND ETERNAL SALVATION IN GOD THE FATHER, AND IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

SINCE the beginning of the last century, when religion, having been defiled with endless corruptions for more than thirteen hundred years, began to regain somewhat of her original purity, many treatises of a purer theology have appeared, in which almost every point of Christian doctrine hath, one by one, been set forth, sometimes in brief, sometimes in a more enlarged and detailed form. Why, therefore, I have not been deterred from a like attempt, - -on the one hand by resting satisfied in what hath hitherto been done, supposing the subject to have been skilfully handled, or, on the other, by the failure of those who have gone before me, it is right that I should in

the first place explain.

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If I were to say that I had given myself up to the study

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