head."* When the deity of Christ had become established, the philosophers easily constructed a trinity out of the three principles of Plato, by yielding to their well known propensity to make as many parts as possible of the new religion conform to their old opinions; and it is not a matter of surprise, that within a century after the council of Nice, another council should decree the deity of the Holy Spirit. LETTER III. Moral Tendency of a Belief in the Trinity. SIR, As the doctrine of the trinity embraces no moral precepts, nor immediate rules of action, its good or evil tendency must depend on the power it exerts in giving a tone and bias to the mind favourable or unfavourable to just notions of the Deity, to the reception of moral truth, a reverence for the known laws of God, a respect for the voice of conscience, and a habitual frame of piety and benevolence. It has a very remote bearing, if any at all, on the clearness and obligation of the preceptive and practical part Second Appeal to the Christian Public, in Defence of the Precepts of Jesus, p. 170; printed at the Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, 1821. of religion. Trinitarians and Unitarians are equally convinced of the divine origin, and absolute truth of every thing which the Saviour taught; they equally consider all his ordinances and precepts as imposing commands, which must be implicitly obeyed. Hence it is, that neither a belief, nor disbelief of the doctrine has any tendency to diminish or strengthen the authority of the christian religion, as it relates to the necessity of obedience, repentance, reformation, and a holy life. We are not hence to infer, that the trinity is an error of no consequence. All error is injurious. Of truth we can say with certainty, that it will always lead to good ends; error, on the contrary, however innocent in itself, must be pernicious in its results. It cannot be doubted, that many christians have been good and pious with erroneous creeds, but it is a case equally indubitable, that they would have been better with true ones. The criminality, and the evil of error are very different things; a man is compelled to believe according to his convictions; he may be deceived; many evils may follow from this deception, but no crime can be attached, unless there has been a culpable indolence, or a perverted will; or some unhallowed purpose in forming opinions. A belief in the trinity involves no crime; its iniquity consists in its evil consequences; it obscures the perfections of the Deity, obstructs the current of devotional feeling, perplexes the humble inquirer after truth, and thus essentially impairs the means and motives of a rational worship, practical piety and vital godliness. In the first place, the notion of the trinity destroys the simplicity of worship, and essentially weakens all the good effects, which we may expect to derive from a pure and spiritual devotion. If there be one precept in the Scriptures, more positive than any other, it is, that the undivided homage of men is due to ONE BEING, to the Supreme God alone. It was the command of our Saviour himself, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." "True worshippers," he tells us, "shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."* We are to adore and reverence him as our Creator, to praise him as the source of all good, to love and thank him for his paternal care and kindness. As he is the sole author of all things, he is to receive our sole homage, submission, gratitude. In the dispensations of providence, and in the christian religion, no feature is so striking, as that which manifests the existence of one supreme object of worship, one God of infinite perfections, who claims all our services. How do we retain this great characteristic of our religion, in what respect do we obey the commands of Christ, when we make three objects of worship, when we lift up our voices in adoration and prayer to three separate beings, and address them each as the supreme, self-existent, independent God? When you offer prayers to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, let it be admitted, that you do not consider them three Gods, although each is * Matth. IV, 10.-John IV, 23. called God; you must, notwithstanding, have a notion of three distinct beings at the time of your devotions, and address them as such. You worship three Gods in form and imagination, that is, in reality, so far as your conceptions of the Deity present an object to the understanding. You do not see God, and you must worship him under such properties, as you are able to conceive and combine to form his nature and character. If you have in your mind three separate beings, possessing each the same properties as the others, and address them as separate, equal beings, and under different titles, it is certain, that the nature of your worship, and its effects on the mind and character, will be precisely the same, as if you acknowledged yourself to be worshipping three Gods. From this kind of worship, two evils of no common magnitude follow; first, the crime of disobeying a divine command, in not acting the part of "true worshippers," who, our Saviour tells us, worship the FATHER; secondly, all the practical ill consequences, which flow from having three objects of religious worship instead of one.* *The following extract is from the Litany used in the Episcopal Church. "O God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners. "O God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners. "O God, the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners. "O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners." If we are to understand language in its common acceptation, the above exfract inculcates the worship of four Gods. The Father, the Son, the Holy Unitarians avoid these evils by adhering rigidly to simplicity and unity in their worship. With them, God is believed to be one being; they worship him in his undivided and infinitely perfect character; their love and gratitude, adoration and reverence, confidence and joy, all centre in him. They dare not ascribe to any other being the honours and glory, which the Scriptures every where command us to render to the Father. They adore his goodness for the means, which he has provided for our salvation through the instructions of his Son. They honour Christ as the appointed Saviour, whom God endowed in an eminent degree with the gifts of his spirit, with the strength of his power, with the light of his wisdom and truth; they feel towards him all the veneration, gratitude, and affection, which his heavenly office, his sublime instructions, his trials and sufferings justly demand; but they do not worship him as God, because the Scriptures teach, and reason verifies the truth, that there is but "ONE GOD, the FATHER," who requires our unceasing and undivided service. Jesus himself always prayed to the Father, and said to his disciples in terms which it would seem impossible to mistake," in that day ye shall ask ME nothing; whatsoever ye shall ask the FATHER in my name, HE will give it you."* Can you have a plainer declaration, that the Father only is to be worshipped? From views like the above, Unitarians Spirit, and the Trinity, are here worshipped separately, and respectively, under the title of God. *John xvi. 23. |