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spread them , if they , are , as we believe , those delivered by Christ and his apostles . Permit me to say a few words more , on the great impropriety , to give it no harsher a term , of ordering the servants who attend carriages to go out in order to prepare them , before the service is completely finished . I will put it to the hearts and
consciences of all concerned , whelher it is acting as the humble and pious followers of the meek and lowly Jesus , thus openly to avow that they prefer the avoidance of a slight inconvenience to themselves , to the spiritual welfare of those who dwell under
their roofs , and every day minister to their comforts ; and respecting whose opportunities for instruction , they inust hereafter give an account ! I would not be thought morose or austere ; 1 wish to speak " the truth as it is in Jesus , " and to do it in love . The evil which I have now dwelt
upon , must be acknowledged as such by all , and how honourable to Unitarians would it be , to remove this subject of just reproach from their congregations ! I am accustomed , Mr . Editor , to affix my name to the articles which
1 offer for insertion in your most interesting Miscellany , but for obvious reasons I now hesitate to do so , and with ardent wishes that the subject of this may be taken into serious consideration , I beg leave to subscribe mysel A ZEALOUS UNITARIAN .
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540 On Pagan and Christian Trinities .
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Sir , YOU indulged me a few months since [ pp . 246—248 ] with a column or two in your Miscellany ; at the close of that paper 1 threw out a threat of farther trespass . My thoughts were then running on Pagan Trinities , and I was not a little amused to observe
the different inferences which different supporters of the same doctrine , drew from the same premises . Because , says one , the Trinity is so far from human reason , and so unlikely to occur to any speculatist , therefore it must be true ,
for it can only be known hy revelation . Because , says another , all nature speaks of Trinity , ( fi re , light , heat , &zc , J and every Pagan religion hath some trace of it , therefore it must be true ; for all mankind would not
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be unanimous in a falsehood . I will grant our opponents that they may find many Pagan Trinities , though J will not allow lo Mr . Parkhurst , that Apollo was the second person , in the Roman Trmit \ , unless as beinj $ God , the Sun : but when this is granted , it must be no more con tended th ;» t the Trinity is a peculiar doctrine of the gospel ; if it be common to ail , it can .
be peculiar to none . 1 will also grant , that such a Trinity as the moderns idolize , could never have occurred at first as a whole to any mind , being sane ; hut it might be , and was built upon a good old philosophical
foundation ; and the incongruity of this modern Trinity arises from the discordancy of its materials , and tint blessed irresistible truth , that God is one ; and thus it stood with its first
fabricators . Our philosophy and fancyand prejudice must have three , but our religion gives us only one : so we will introduce the Trinity , and leave untouched the unity : it is three , they are one . The Hindoo Trinity seems from internal evidence to be the first of all :
founded upon very natural principles , such as vvere easily stumbled upon iu the dark . Observing creation , a creator must be su pposed : but why should a creator destroy his own works- ? And if he does not , who does ? The
destroyer . But here is a difficulty yet : are these two equal in power or not ? If equal , they neutralize each other . If the destroyer be most powerful , creation must perish ; if the creator , the destroyer will cease to be , and is ttot infinite . This introduces a third
•—a third in order of speculation , but a second in order of action . Each does his own p ;> rt . Bramha creates , Vishnu preserves , Siva destroys . It is worth notice , that the Hindoos themselves make the arrangement very frequently thus : Braniha , Siva and
Vishnu , jmtting the destroyer in . the second place , the order of speculation . Now the modern Trinity is very remote from this \ there is no difference iu the persons , except as to their moral relations . The Father is the Creator ,
( of . men as moral *) the Son the Redeemer , the Spirit the Sanctifier ; but as to material things , one and all create , uphold , destroy ; and the Siva of Hindostan becomes in this systern a fourth black god , the devil , not concerned a £ to the material , but solely confined to
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 540, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/16/
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