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eorrtain all that it would be necessary to know and believe concerning tlieir venerated Master , absolutely forget to mention the stupendous fact , tliat Jesus Christ was the iiving and true God , and they take no more notice of this awful ' distinction than if he were a man like themselves . And one oi these sacred historians ( Luke ) continues his
liistory for thirty years after the ascension of Christ , and relates the travels , the labours , the doctrine , and the success of the apostles and first teachers of the gospel . but not a syllable does he mention of the divinity of Christ , or the doctrine of the trinity , and no one would know or suspect from Luke ' s history that the apostles bad ever beard of
any such doctrine . Is this credible ; is it even possible if the doctrine itself were true ? Certainly not . Let every trinitarian lay his hand upon his heart and declare upon his honour and in the presence of God , whether he could himself have been guilty of such
an unpardonable omission . How then can they believe that the evangelists would have been so unfaithful to their trust , if they really had it in charge to record , or if they were even apprized of this extraordinary event ?
"Again : Jesus Christ ( say they ) was the Creator , Preserver , and Governor of this and of all worlds . This also would be a most novel and astonishing doctrine , especially to Jews , who had never heard of any Creator but God . This then is a doctrine which we might expect to be blazoned in erery page of the New Testament . But
* vhat is the fact ? It is omitted by Matthew , Mark , Luke , James , Peter , and Jude , and V the apostle Paul in ten out of fourteen epistles . Is it possible , then , that these writers should have given credit to this doctrine ? No , No . The thought of it never entered into their minds , and if it had been proposed they would have rejected it with horror .
"And what is there , continues the man ° f sound understanding and honest mind * ''th King James's version before him , to ^ but these weighty considerations , and to command my assent to these astonishing and ^ ost improbable propositions , so contrary to all just conceptions of the Unity of God , 80 contradictory to the most explicit
declarations of the Jewish Scriptures , and to the toain and avowed object of the Mosaic dispensation , and so inconsistent with the general tenour of the evangelical and apostolic Writings themselves , viz . that Jesus Christ ls the true God , the Creator of all things , with the
^ ual Father , and that the Father , s , and Spirit , being three distinct pers , are only one Being , one God ? I am interred indeed to one passage here , and to pother there " , in which it is said that Jesus J ^ mt is called God , equal to or one with e Father ; to two or three more in which e is supposed to he represented as the fcaker of the world : and to a few other
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texts , in which it is thought that divine attributes are ascribed to Christ . And when I ask for the texts which prove the Trinity , I am referred to the form of baptism as if baptizing ? into the name of st person , of < Paul or Moses for example , was an acknowledgement of their divinity . I am sent to St . Paul ' s valediction to the
Corinthians , 2 Cor . xiii . II , that the grace of Christ , r . e . the btessing-s of the gospel , the love of God , and a plentiful participation of spiritual gifts , may be communicated to his Corinthian friends—and lastly ,
I am referred to the exploded text of the heavenly witnesses , which the good Bishop of St . David ' s so fondly cherishes , though never appealed to in ancient controversy till it was foisted into the catholie epistle by a notorious ecclesiastic of the fifth ,
century , to serve as as fulcrum to his newlj-invented Athanasian Creed . * Upon evidence so feeble and unsatisfactory rest the amazing doctrines of the divinity of Christ and of the holy Trinity ! And these detached texts being- frequently cited by the ad vocates for these mysterious doctrines , are for that reason believed to be of frequent occurrence in the Scriptures ; and in contradiction to the most notorious fact , though not to their
sincere pesuasion , they represent the N « w Testament as full of these mysteries from beginning to end ; though it is plain that not a shadow of them exists in many of the books , and particularly in those in which we should most naturally expect to find them , the history of our Lord ' s ministry and of the preaching of the apostles . I conclude
therefore , will this man of understanding and integrity be disposed to add , that these passages , which only occur incidentally , and which pass without comment , in whatever way they are to be accounted for or
explained j were not and could not possibly be understood , or * intended , by the sacred writers , in the sens ** in which believers in the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity now understand and explain them because these doctrines did not make that
impression upon then minds , nor produce that visible effect iu their teaching ixnd writings , which they now do in all who receive them ; and which they necessarily must and would have done in the apostles and evangelists , and their readers ajid
hearers , if they had believed these doctrines , and if their language had been originally understood , and by them intended to be understood , in the sense in which they are now understood by . those who profess the popular creed . 46
The intelligent and honest inquirer annod with such considerations as these , which must , one would think , find their way to * Vigil ins of Tapsum , the reputed forger of a Creed from the < l <> etriu of vvhtrh the supposed author of ii would ha , ve revolted with honor .
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Review . —BeWianis Reply to Bnfgess . 513
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v o '" * . a u
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1815, page 513, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1763/page/49/
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