The scheme proposed is on a broad foundation, and promises to be extensively useful. The general concerns of the Society are managed by trustees, who are chosen annually, and the business of selecting and publishing is submitted to a committee appointed for the purpose. The officers for the present year are George Bond, Treasurer; John S. Foster, Secretary; Rev. J. Tuckerman. Rev. J. G. Palfrey, and George Ticknor, Pubtishing Committee.

Original Hymn from Sewall's Collection.

Trust in the Divine Goodness.

MY GOD, I thank thee! may no thought
E'er deem thy chastisements severe;
But may this heart, by sorrow taught,
Calm each wild wish, each idle fear.
Thy mercy bids all nature bloom;
The sun shines bright, and man is gay;
Thine equal mercy spreads the gloom,
That darkens o'er his little day.
Full many a throb of grief and pain
Thy frail and erring child must know;
But not one prayer is breathed in vain,
Nor does one tear unheeded flow.

Thy various messengers employ;
Thy purposes of love fulfil;

And mid the wreck of human joy

May kneeling faith adore thy will.

THE Articles of Association of the Charleston Unitarian Society for the Distribution of Books, will appear in the next number.

Supposed Scripture Proofs of the Trinity.

A WRITER in a late number of the Presbyterian Magazine, speaking of the doctrine of the Trinity, has thus expressed himself; "It is taught by the Saviour and his apostles in the clearest manner, and in the most express terms, that language can supply."

If this position can be maintained, it necessarily follows, that to deny the doctrine of the trinity is to reject some of the clearest and most express declarations of our Lord and his apostles, and that it would require a large portion of charity to exculpate antitrinitarians from the suspicion of wilfully rejecting an undoubted doctrine of holy scripture. Perhaps it is not therefore wonderful, if those who "think thus of the trinity" should be reluctant to acknowledge the deniers of it as christian brethren, and if they should regard their situation as extremely dangerous, since it cannot be a light matter to speak and act in opposition to the clearest evidence, and to refuse to embrace the faith taught in the New Testament "in the most express terms, that language can supply."

Such conduct would manifest great perverseness and deep rooted depravity, with which we should expect to meet only among the dregs and refuse of mankind. It

is inconsistent with every great and noble quality; particularly with integrity and the love of truth. Persons, who should evince such a total destitution of all sound and good principles in matters relating to religion, would justly forfeit every claim to confidence and respect in the common concerns of life. The only plea, that could be urged in their favour, would be, that they laboured under an unhappy defect of comprehension; but to render this plea a valid one, the defect must be so great as to incapacitate them for perceiving what was stated in the clearest manner, and in terms the most direct. Now, I ask, would such persons be fit to manage the most ordinary concerns of life, or be able to take any part in a connected and rational conversation? Yet we do not find, that those who disbelieve the trinity, are either abandoned characters, or in a state approaching to idiotism.

Suspicion therefore arises, that the language quoted in reference to the trinity may be too strong, and that it cannot stand the test of an accurate examination. Every serious believer in the christian religion would readily admit the doctrine of the trinity, or any other doctrine, on being satisfied that it was taught by our Lord and his apostles; and if they have taught the doctrine of the trinity, "in the clearest manner, and in the most express terms that language can supply," nothing can be easier than to produce such passages. Let them be produced, and conviction must inevitably take place in every ingenuous mind; there can be no room for doubt or hesitation. I therefore call on believers in the trinity, and more especially on such as are willing to hazard assertions like the one above quoted, to favour the public with the texts, which teach that doctrine in the most clear and explicit manner.

Is it taught by our Saviour and his apostles, “in the clearest manner, and in the most express terms that language can supply," that "there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory?" If no single text contains thus much, let two, three, or a greater number be produced, in which the different members of this proposition are distinctly contained. The question at issue is not whether the doctrine is supposed to be taught in the Scriptures. That this is the prevailing opinion among christian professors at the present day, is a well known fact; but an opinion, however generally received, or however long it has prevailed, is not scripture authority.* It is matter of equal notoriety, that a few texts have been collected, which, taken in the aggregate, have been supposed to authorise the conclusion expressed in the language just quoted from the Presbyterian Catechism; although, when these texts are separately examined, it instantly appears, that not one of them contains the doctrine, which is said to be so clearly taught in scripture. It rests, therefore, on the assumption of those who have imagined, that it was fairly deducible from such passages when compared with each other. But, is this evidence? Would such a species of proof be regarded as the clearest and most express in any matter involving life, character, liberty, or property? Rather, would it not be inadmissible; or only admissible after satisfactory proof had been received, that nothing better could be obtained?

To save time, I will only advert to the baptismal commission, Matt. xxviii. 19. "Go ye therefore and teach

* Non theologia vera est theologia, quia constanter retinetur, aut diu durat; millerioria theologia potest esse omnium pessima.

all nations, baptizing them in (es into) the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This is the passage, which is principally relied on to prove the doctrine of the trinity. But it is perfectly silent as to the Deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The preceding verse, with which it is evidently connected, contains a declaration by our Lord expressive of his inferiority and dependence, and which is assigned as the reason why he commissioned his apostles to preach, and to baptize all nations. To infer a trinity on account of the manner in which baptism was here directed to be administered, is not to prove any thing. It simply declares the opinion held by the party making such an inference. By means of the same species of logic, a Jew might, with equal propriety and success, prove the deity of Moses; for we read that the Israelites "were all baptized unto (es into) Moses in the cloud and in the sea." I forbear to enlarge, because this text has been already considered in the Miscellany.

It is not a little wonderful, that those, who assert the doctrine of the trinity to be a scripture doctrine, do not appear to have been able to give their sentiments respecting it in the words of scripture. Were such a call to be made on Unitarians, they could be at no loss to answer it. Out of a multitude of texts, which contain their alleged heretical opinions, they would only find it necessary to select such as convey their sentiments to their brethren in the most concise and distinct manner. I will mention two, which would be amply sufficient. "To us there is but one God, even the Father,there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Let believers in the trinity produce passages equally explicit, then they can talk with a little more propriety of the express terms of scripture in their favour.