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into ridicule a and says it is derived •* from a sophism , Sli p- * |» ng into the argument by a logical legerdemain , the term infim
wife , without any thing to introduce or authorize it . '^ It was eas ier for . him to declaim thus , than | t was to show the necessity of more than one infinite person to enable us to account for the
phenomena of nature , ^ or to prove the rationality of his own hypothesis , of a plurality , of infinite persons * Legerdemain tricks are wrapped in mystery , as trinitari-Simsm is , and have no affinity to the simplicity of Unitarianism .
5 . My opponent finds fault with me for confounding the terms being and person ; and that , truly , t > ecause Trinitarians have said , tfoat three persons make but one
}> eing , though themselves say the subject is a mystery , and must J&e believed without being understood , and have not attempted to define the difference between a
Seal being , and a person who is an intelligent agent . Yet , because J cannot perceive the specific diflej : enc : e between a being and a
peTspn , which our opponents have pot explained , and never can ex . plaip , this writer concludes I am only fit for " logomachy . '' Let me ask him , whether each of the
persons in his supposed trinity , be not * i real being ? A whole and entire being ? Will he say , the Father is only the third part of a being , the Son only the third part pf a . oeing , and the Holy Ghost only the third part of a being , and
( that the three raken together make ipne being ? But I suppose he wljl shield his * darling hypothesis , in the first title given to the mother frlF Harlots , mystery : and , indeed , tvhat he contends for has ever been
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part of the creed 4 > t the Apodu lyptical strampet * However , fee ought to deiirte the specific differ * ence between person aiid being , before he blames others for not perceiving it . I really think , that those who make it an essen .
tial article of religion , to beliere that one is three , and that tb ^ ee are one , are more fit for logomachy than I am . 6 . Under his sixth head , this writer has aimed at showing , that a plurality of divine persons can do more than one ; but we have
barely his word for it : he has quoted no Scripture , nor made even an attempt at argument : he has indeed said , that " the Tri * nity has infinite advantages" in the
plan of human repemption , and he has assigned to each of the divine persons his sphere of action ; but he ought to have proved ^ that one infinite person could not car *
ry into effect the whole plan of redemption * by such agents as he chose to employ , as well as the three persons of his Trinity . If he denies that he co&kl , he limits
his powers , denies his infinity . 7 * Instead @f this writer ' s aeU mitting the impossibility of forming distinct ideas of three iiifioite persons in one divine essence , to
be any objection to the Tnnity , he regards it ^ rather as a proof , that it accord ^ with every thing in Deity ; because we e&n form no ideas of the abstract nature of
God , or the manner of his exisU ence ; but these are very different subjects : the abstract nature of Go d * and the manner of his existence , are not revealed , con $ e « . quently are not ob > fccts of foith ; but the doctrine of the Ttinity » assumed to be a doctrine of reve * latilin . of coiiPse lit * cfptri to W
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# 16 A Constant Re& 4 eP * & Mepty fatih Inconstant Re ® d&n
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1809, page 616, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1742/page/30/
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