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<head>PENAL LAW TRIN.<hi rend='superscript'>Y</hi></head>

<p>"My Father is greater than I" <note>But this [<gap/>] is a gift of a precious and peculiar nature; which <add>happy are those that have but which</add> a man may want, nor be less honest, nor less wise nor less brave, nor less zealous <add><unclear>prayed</unclear> God <gap/> for</add> for the <add>in the</add> happiness of his <del>fellows</del> creatures nor less able to promote it.</note><lb/>
Should any man utter the very <add>self-</add>same proposition, with only a grammatical conversion<lb/>
adapting it to the person of the speaker, (I mean peremptorily and not in the way of argument<lb/>
as I do,) should he say, God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is greater<lb/>
than he, he is <add>becomes that moment</add> unfit <del><gap/></del> (so the Legislature hath adjudged) to serve <add>or to defend</add> his country with<lb/>
his head or with his hand, but above all things to preach that Gospel in which<lb/>
this proposition is contained<lb/>
But <del>if</del> should this inexcusable temerity break out a second time <note>Whenever a <del><gap/> of this</del> <add>Sentence of</add> this sort is produced, <add>secures</add> an Orthodox Divine knows <add>sees</add> without difficulty that it was said not <foreign>simpliciter</foreign> but <foreign>secundum quid</foreign>; that a certain <add>unthought of</add> mental reservation always accompanied it; that it <del>was <gap/></del> <add>dropped</add> as it were inadvertently <del>by</del> from the Divine spokesman or his historians, not sufficiently considering the duplicity of his nature.+ <foreign>Ut sit et mors solatium &amp; vita supplicium</foreign></note></p>

<p>I know there are many texts in the same scriptures, by virtue of which when rightly understood<lb/>
<add>and applied</add> it appears that greater means greater, <del><gap/></del> but equal: but in short some men's faculties<lb/>
are duller about <add>with relation to</add> these points than <add>those of</add> others; <note>who yet may not want altogether that Judgment which may enable them to conceive <add>determine</add> what is useful to their country; and <del>that</del> <add>the</add> eloquence <del>which</del> to make it appear to be so: nor the Courage to risk his life to arm it.</note> &amp; it is hard to be punished for not doing<lb/>
what men <add>scarce</add> find not in their power to do, without that inspiration of the holy Spirit which<lb/>
the prospect of a comfortable settlement on earth so conveniently <add>seasonably</add> draws down from heaven.</p>

<p>I am far from contending that men <hi rend='underline'>ought</hi> not to believe that greater means equal:<lb/>
but God has no where expressly commanded us to believe it: and <hi rend='underline'>that</hi> I alledge as one amongst<lb/>
other reasons, why Man should not <hi rend='underline'>command us</hi> <del>to believe it</del> <add>not to say that we do not believe it</add> <hi rend='underline'>under an outrageous penalty</hi><lb/>
or under any penalty, our saying so neither doing good nor <del>harm</del> <add>mischief</add> to Society: but our<lb/>
<add>thus having our mouths stopped from saying as being thus debarred by force from saying so neither doing grievous harm to it</add> by loading it with the <del>sense</del> <add>consciousness</add> of<lb/>
servitude to a <del><gap/></del> <add>2 degrading</add> and <add>1</add> capricious domination. <add>mandate prohibition</add></p>    

<p>I myself for one should find myself no ways disposed to say any thing about the<lb/>
matter were it not for <add>I not galled by</add> this standing provocation which every one must feel who <add>when without cause,</add><lb/>
at feeling [without cause] <add>causeless</add> his reason insulted and his Liberty attacked.</p>

<p>I say God has no where expressly commanded <add>any thing about the matter</add>: <sic>tho'</sic> men <sic>chuse</sic> to make no<lb/>
difference between expressly commanding a thing to be believed to be, and the permitting certain<lb/>
sentences to be recorded from which some men with great sincerity doubtless form<lb/>
conclusions that it was so, while others with equal <sic>sinceritty</sic> form conclusions <add>opposite ones</add> that it was no<lb/>
such thing</p>   


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