Page images
PDF
EPUB

distortion. On the other hand, there is only the found of one text, which feems to fet forth Christ's equality with the Father, and the found is intirely owing to a falfe tranflation; (viz. Philip. ii. 6.) Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; the words fhould be rendered thus, who being in the form of God, (i. e. endowed with divine powers) was not eagerly defirous to be like unto God; (i. e. to display those powers.) Be pleased to read the eleventh verfe, and then determine, by the principles of common fenfe, whether a perfon equal to the fupreme God, can be raised to higher dignity than he was before?

Again; what demonftrates the falsehood of the athanafian doctrine, beyond a poffibility of doubt is, that there are about forty paffages, wherein the three perfons of the trinity are mentioned together, who are fometimes ftiled the Father, Son, and holy Spirit; or, the Father, the fon, and the spirit;-the living God, Chrift, the fpirit; God, the fon of God, the boly Spirit ;-God, the lord, the fpirit: but not one paffage appears, where the Father, the fon, and the holy fpirit, are faid to be the one God, as determined by the athanafian creed. On the other hand, the Father is called God, the living God, and fometimes the one God, expressly diftinguished from the You muft, in this place, either give up the plain declarations of scripture, or the athanafian doctrine, they being, when fairly com

fon and holy fpirit.

pared

pared together, abfolutely inconfiftent with each other.

I will conclude with a plain feripture fact, relating to the character of the supreme God. There are in the new Testament four hundred and forty one paffages, wherein God, the Father, is ftiled the one, or only God, or God abfolutely by way of eminence and supremacy; or God with fome peculiar high titles, epithets, or attributes. Upon the whole, the facred writers have taken all imaginable care to maintain the supremacy of the one God, and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all; it proceeding entirely from his boundless love and mercy, that our lord was appointed to teach his mind and will to mankind, and that he bestowed his fpirit, or extraordinary power, upon him for that purpose.

ATHANASIAN. I heartily thank you, my good friend, for the pains you have taken to set me right on this important point. I cannot help acknowledging that you proceed in a rational way, and that your arguments feem juftly drawn from fcripture, interpreted by reason. If there be such a number of texts in the new Teftament, clearly setting forth the fense you have contended for, under the three laft heads of your difcourfe, the athanafian caufe is certainly demolished. Surely it must have cost you a vaft deal of time and labour to collect fuch a number of texts, and range them in proper order.

I am determined to give the new Teftament a serious review, and to take particular notice of all those paffages, that refer to God the father, the fon, and the holy fpirit. And if upon fuch impartial examination, as I fhall be able to make, I find your facts truly represented, and your reasoning conclufive, I fhall think it my duty to profefs my conviction, though it should contradict the practice and fentiments of wife and learned men, whofe authority, has hitherto had too much influence on my

I

own,

mind.

UNITARIAN. My dear resolution is wife and good.

chriftian friend, your Nothing is of greater

confequence, in the grand business of religion, than that every person, to whom God has given common sense and reason, fhould judge and determine for himself, in all points, wherein his duty is concerned. I have the particular fatisfaction to reflect, that the more carefully you examine the subject of our debate, the ftronger conviction you will receive of the truth of the fcripture facts, I have faithfully fet forth. And, as to the reafoning part, it is certainly founded on the principles of common fenfe, which is the beft method of interpreting fcripture; or for what end was our reafon given to us? or how can it be better employed, than in exploring the revelation of God?

With respect to the authority of wife and learned men, and the argument drawn from the established

liturgy;

liturgy; I find, upon inquiry, that many wife, learned, and good men; and fome, whose judgment, upon any question, is of more value than that of thousands, have embraced the unitarian doctrine : and what deferves particular notice, fome of them, who had been educated in the ufual athanafian scheme, afterwards profeffed the right opinion of God, and his holy worship, in opposition to their worldly intereft; and even, fince the reformation, fuffered imprisonment, banishment, and death.

The memory of our first reformers, ought, without doubt, to be held in very high efteem, upon account of what they did and suffered, in the glorious work of freeing religion from the foul corruptions of popery but certain it is, that they did not fufficiently examine the grofs opinion of three persons in one God. They too readily took for granted, what had been settled and determined by the fathers and councils of the fourth and fifth centuries, after the time of Chrift; when perfons, acquainted with church-history, affure us, the unity of God, in the plain and literal fenfe, was firft corrupted: and that a fuperftitious veneration of relicks, and the invocation of faints immediately followed the corruption.

To speak my mind freely, it is certainly matter of ferious lamentation, that such a grofs corruption in the pure religion of the holy Jefus, and which laid the foundation of the grand apoftacy, has not been

long

long ago banished from the church of England; which, in the most folemn manner, profeffeth the fcripture as the only rule of faith and practice; and, that nothing fhould be impofed on the confciences of men, but what is warranted by the word of God. It is well known, that this very fubject was recommended to the confideration of the most eminent perfons in church and ftate, about eighty years ago, by two very learned and very eminent divines, viz. Mr. Whiston, in his Primitive Christianity revived, and Dr. Clarke, in his Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity. The latter I procured, and was there completely furnished with all the texts relating to the doctrine of the trinity, reduced under proper heads : and how any christian can withstand the evidence arifing from fuch a number of texts, (viz. twelve hundred and fifty-one,) is to me astonishing. Again; there was a particular application made to the governing powers in the juftly famous Free and Candid Difquifitions, about forty years ago, in an humble, calm, and christian manner, in order to get the liturgy reformed, according to the ftandard of the scripture: but nothing has yet been attempted in that glorious caufe. And, in the year 1772, application was made to parliament for relief from subscription to human articles of religious faith and doctrine : fince which, feveral of the clergy of the established church have refigned their preferments and miniftry therein, rather than continue to officiate, in the

« PreviousContinue »