Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

SECT. XII.-OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE FOR THE DOCTRINE OF A TRINITY OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD.

In the preceding Sections we have shown, that the absolute or unrivalled Supremacy of One Divine Person is clearly, explicitly, and repeatedly taught in the Sacred Writings; and hence, like all the other important truths of the Bible, it may justly be deemed a doctrine, not of mere inference or allusion, but of express revelation. Now, if the doctrine of the Trinity, as is generally received, were equal in importance to that of the Unity of God-if, as is confidently asserted, man's salvation depends in a great measure on its belief-if, according to the language of reputed orthodoxy, the great saving truths of the Gospel are built on, and cannot subsist without it, that doctrine must be stated, with the utmost clearness, in the volume which professes to contain a disclosure of God's will. But it is unnecessary to argue this point; for if any opinion be not plainly stated in the Scriptures, it cannot be a doctrine of revelation, this term being properly expressive of those truths which are clearly made known.

Is the doctrine of a Triune God thus manifested in the Bible? Is it derived from the express and unequivocal teachings of divine revelation? We answer, No. Some of the most celebrated advocates of the popular belief have admitted that the Trinity is a doctrine of mere inference, and that the very words employed to express it are "a human invention, unknown to the prophets and apostles;" while others, who warmly contend for the Deity of Christ, do not profess to adduce a text from Scripture to prove that there are three persons in one God. (See Appendix, No. I. Chap. I.) And well may they shrink from the vain attempt; for never has existed a Trinitarian who, whatever learning and ingenuity he might possess, has been able to quote a passage from the sacred writers declaring the only true God to consist of "three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; the same in substance, and equal in power and glory."

In many and various forms have the reputedly orthodox made a statement of their belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. It is to be found in the Mass-book of the Roman Catholic-in the Liturgy and Articles of the English Episcopalian-in the Confession and the Catechisms of the Scottish Presbyterian-in the Hymns and Doxologies of the Arminianin thousands and tens of thousands of tracts, and sermons, and ponderous tomes. Now, we affirm that nothing approaching in explicitness to the declarations of such writings can be found in the pages of the Bible. Never did Moses, or Job, or David, or Isaiah, or any other of the Jewish prophets—never did a greater than they-the Lord Jesus Christ, or any of the inspired apostles of Christianity, even once declare that there are three persons in the Godhead; God the Father, God the Son, and

God the Holy Ghost. How this is this great omission to be accounted for? Are Trinitarians more able to express their ideas of the nature of the Almighty, than Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles? Can Athanasius and his followers explain any doctrine better than God himself, through the agency of his inspired messengers? Is the infinite Source of human intelligence and human language not qualified to communicate, in terms direct and unambiguous, a doctrine which has been expressed by uninspired man himself in all the forms perhaps of which such a dogma is susceptible? To these questions every rational mind must answer in the negative. Why, then, exists this discrepancy between the Sacred Records, and the decisions of councils and of synods?-For this simple reason: The messengers of the Deity, and the writers of the Holy Scriptures, were totally unacquainted with the doctrine of a "Trinity in Unity," which was introduced in aftertimes by the vain speculations of falsely philosophizing Christians.

In these observations, we have shown that Trinitarianism, to be made known, requires the united assistance of uninspired men, unsupported by the clear, decisive voice of Divine Revelation. Not so with Unitarianism, which "has God for its author" and revealer. It was proclaimed by the Hebrew legislator-reiterated by the inspired poets of Palestine-sanctioned by the teachings, and recommended by the example of Him of Nazareth and beautifully expressed by the great apostle of the Gentiles. To have just and honourable conceptions of the nature and character of the Deity, it is unnecessary to inquire of a Lindsey, a Price, or a Priestley, great and good as these individuals were, and much as they have done for the cause of Unitarian Christianity: we need only peruse our Bibles with sufficient attention to such direct and explicit declarations as the following, which are scattered with a liberal hand in many portions of the Sacred Volume: "Hear, O Israel! Jehovah our God is ONE Jehovah.-I, even I, am HE, and there is NO GOD WITH ME.— -Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be ONE JEHOVAH, and HIS NAME ONE.-Jesus answered, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is ONE LORD.-FATHER, this is life eternal, that they might know THEE, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ whom THOU hast sent. When ye pray, say, OUR FATHER.To us there is but ONE GOD, the Father.”

Such is a specimen of the Scriptural evidence which we have presented, in the preceding Sections, for general Unitarianism; a mass of evidence so strong and complete as to stand unshaken by all the arts of sophistryall the verbalities of criticism-all the ambiguities and mysteries of orthodoxy; a mass of evidence that presents its mighty front against all the puny assaults of Trinitarianism-that, with trumpet-tongue, proclaims the God of nature and of revelation to be UNEQUALLED BY ANY BEING IN THE UNIVERSE-ABSOLUTELY SUPREME-STRICTLY ONE.

53

CHAPTER II.-OF CHRIST.

SECT. I.-PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE EVINCING THAT JESUS CHRIST DOES NOT POSSESS THE ESSENTIAL ATTRIBUTES OF DEITY.

(1) Christ not Self-existent or Eternal.

1. For he was born of a woman,

-Luke ii. 33: "And Joseph and his

mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him."

And his father and mother, &c.-Griesbach, Carpenter, Imp. Ver.

See Matt. i. 18-25; ii. 11—21; xii. 46, 47; xiii. 55. Mark iii. 31, 32; vi. 3. Luke i. 26—38, 42, 43; ii. 4—20, 41, 51; viii. 19, 20. John ii. 1-5; vi. 42; xviii. 37; xix. 25-27. Acts i. 14. Gal. iv. 4.

2. And descended from David and Abraham.-See Matt. i. 1; ix. 27; ix. 27; xii. 23; xv. 22; xx. 30, 31; xxi. 9, 15; xxii. 42, 45. Mark x. 47, 48; xii. 35, 37. Luke i. 32; iii. 23-34; xviii. 38, 39; xx. 41, 44. John vii. 42. Acts xiii. 22, 23. Rom. i. 3. 2 Tim. ii. 8. Also, Rom. xv. 12. Rev. v. 5; xxii. 16.†

[blocks in formation]

Isa. xi. 10:

[blocks in formation]

i.e. a rod from the stem of David; a scion from his roots ..... Carpenter. the shoot+ of Jesse, i.e. the expected king of the race of David. Gesenius.

[ocr errors]

3. He was the Son of God;-Matt. xvi. 16: And Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

See page 27, No. 4; page 28, Nos. 26, 28; page 29, No. 35.

4. Indebted to the Father for the support of his existence;

-John vi. 57:

"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father," &c. -2 Cor. xiii. 4: "Though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.”—See John v. 26.

* We omit Heb. ii. 16, "Verily he took not on him [the nature of] angels, but be took on him the seed of Abraham;" because this rendering has been generally disapproved of by the most learned critics.

[ocr errors]

He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold Marg.Tran.; Christie.
He lays not hold of (or, helps not) angels, but the seed of Abraham........ S. Clarke, Whitby.
He helpeth not angels, but he helpeth the seed of Abraham
It (i.e. the fear of death) layeth not hold of angels, but it layeth hold of the
posterity of Abraham

[ocr errors]

..............

Newcome, Carpenter.

Belsham.

Pia, by metonymy, that which shoots forth and grows up from a root; and, figuratively, one descended from a stock, a race, offspring, posterity, those or one coming after.-Schleusner.

ww, 2. what springs up from the root, a shoot, branch, Isa. liii. 2; xi. 10.Gesenius.

5. And, after his crucifixion, was restored to life by Almighty God.— Rom. x. 9: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.-See Rom. iv. 24; vi. 4; viii. 11. 2 Cor. iv. 14. See also page 29, No. 42.

(2) Christ not Invisible.

6. For he lived upwards of thirty years on earth, during which time he associated in the most familiar manner with his parents, his relatives, his disciples, and his countrymen.

See the Gospels, passim.

(3) Christ not Ever-blessed or Impassible.

-Isa.

7. For he was subject to the wants and sorrows of mortality.liii. 2, 3: He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,

and acquainted with grief;
him," &c.-See Phil. ii. 7.

and we hid as it were [our] faces from Heb. iv. 15.

8. He possessed the appetites of human nature.

-Heb. ii. 14, 16, 17:

"Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same," &c.

etiam ipse eodem modo communicavit in iisdem

ipse quoque consimiliter particeps factus est eorundem

he also in the very same manner participated in the same ...............

Tremellius.
Beza.
Belsham.

partook. Macknight, Wakefield, Carpenter, Scarlett, Smith, Eyre, Imp. Ver.

9. He was, therefore, liable to the claims of hunger and thirst.

-Matt.

...

iv. 2: "When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered."-See Matt. ix. 10, 11; xi. 19; xiv. 19, 20; xv. 36, 37; xxi. 18; xxvi. 17-29. Mark ii. 15, 16; vi. 41, 42; viii. 7, 8; xi. 12; xiv. 3, 12—25. Luke iv. 2; v. 29, 30; vii. 34, 36, 37; ix. 16, 17; xi. 37, 38; xxii. 7—30; xxiv. 30, 41-43. John iv. 7, 31; xii. 2; xiii. 2, 4, 26; xix. 28; xxi. 20. 1 Cor. xi. 23–25. 10. His bodily frame, which often became exhausted by his labours of love, required the necessary repose of nature.John iv. 6: "Jesus, wearied with [his] journey, sat thus on the well." Luke viii. 23: "As they sailed, he fell asleep.”—See Matt. viii. 24. Mark iv. 38. 11. His lot, indeed, was one of toil, and of almost uninterrupted exertion in the cause of religion and human happiness.- Matt. viii. 20: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air [have] nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay [his] head." Acts x. 38: "Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good." See the Gospels, passim. 12. He felt virtuous indignation at the hypocrisy, sacrilege, and wilful unbelief of his countrymen.- -Mark iii. 5: He looked round about on them with anger."-See Matt. xi. 20; xii. 34; xxi. 12; xxii. 18; xxiii. 13-33. Mark xi. 15, 16. Luke xi. 39-52; xix. 45. John ii. 15; viii. 55.

13. Yet did he sincerely pity the depravity of their hearts, and fervently pray for the forgiveness of their sins.-Luke xxiii. 34: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."-See Mark iii. 5. 14. With the deepest pathos he deplored the unhappy fate of his beloved country.Matt. xxiii. 37, 38: "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! ... how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!" &c.-Par. Pas. Luke xiii. 34, 35. See chap. xix. 41-44. 15. He commiserated the wants of his disciples, and the distresses of the people.-Matt.ix. 36: “When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted."-See Matt. xiv. 14; xv. 32; xx. 34. Mark i. 41; v. 19; vi. 34; viii. 2. Luke vii. 13. 16. Though he loved the whole human race, his heart was delicately sensible to the purest partialities of friendship.John xi. 35, 36: "Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!" Comp. ver. 5, 32-34; chap. xiii. 23, 25; xix. 26, 27; xx. 2. 17. And no one ever evinced a holier spirit of filial piety than Jesus of Nazareth.- -Luke ii. 51: And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." John xix. 26, 27: "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!” 18. He was denied by one of his disciples, betrayed by another, forsaken by his friends, mocked and scourged and crucified by his enemies; all of which, with the native sensibility of his heart, operated to render him extremely unhappy.-Luke xxii. 44: "Being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."-See Matt. xxvi; xxvii. 1— 50. Mark xiv. 10, throughout; xv. 1—37. Luke xxii; xxiii. 1—46. John xii. 27; xiii. 21–38; xvi. 32; xviii; xix. 1—30.

(4) Christ not Immutable.

19. For he was once an infant at his mother's breast, grew in stature, and at length reached the state of manhood.- -See Luke ii. 7,

12, 16, 40, 52; iii. 23.

20. He "waxed strong in spirit," and "in favour with God and man.”

-See Luke ii. 40, 52.

21. At one moment he seemed reluctant to enter on the most arduous and trying scenes of his sufferings; at another, he submitted himself unreservedly to the will of his Father.Mattt. xxvi. 39, 42, 44: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou [wilt]," &c.-See John xii. 27.

« PoprzedniaDalej »