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Untitled Article
the unsought honour . Nothing in the ? Scripfti * fc £ prevent ther £ having been as many Gods as ^ attributes . Not th& assertion of the Unity ? No . For if that may consist with $ hree > it may consist with thirty . Not the tenor of the language used Respecting the Holy Spirit ? No ; for it is frequently such sis to exclude the idea of Deity . And scarcely at all , when of a personal na *
ture , is it different from the language in which other attributes of God are mentioned . But the limit not found in the Scriptures was supplied by superstition and ignorance ; Three was a sacfed number . Among the Gentiles more than one Trinity was foiihd . Many of the heretics , imbued with eastern philosophy , held three distinct Gods . From these sources , the Trinity , both iii word and reality , was introduced into the Christian church .
Grafted on the Gospel tree , it must go Car to change the nature of the fruit which that tree had previously brought forth . In the earliest writers of the church , the language used , respecting the Holy Spirit , is so exclusively that of Scripture , and so free from human refinements and additions , that they , it is clear , knew nothing of the distinct personality of the Spirit . Justin Martyr speaks in a manner by no means easy to be understood . White
he ' honoured-God in the first place , the Son he honoured in the second , and the Holy Spirit in the third . If > then , he had learried to regard the Spirit as a person , he held that person to-be inferior to the Father and the Son . But he nowhere calls the Holy Spirit God . Nor does he speak of a Trinity—a Trinity as hia must have been , if he had one—of unequal Gods . But the fact that the orthodox of this century wete reproached with making
not three but two Gods , is a sufficient proof that as yet the distinct Deity of the Holy Spirit had not been introduced . The moment that the Deity of the Holy Spirit was added to that of the Son and the : Father , every objector exelaimed against thg impiety of making three God el . To these remarks , we must add the concession of one who worshipped the Spirit as God , and who was every way fit to give an opinioti on the subject . Dr . Clarke
declares—what indeed all know who are acquainted ' with Christian antiquities—that there is no example , in the three first ceti *> turies , of worship being offered to the Holy Spirit . How different would have been thfe fact , if the primitive Christians had believed it to be a person of the D 6 ity ! Either they were culpably negli- * gent , or they were not Trinitarians . But their practice is the best exposition of their sentiments . In * their comment on' the wor d ^
baptize in the name of the FatheF , the Son ; and the Holy Spirit , — -that iSj ' baptize into that religion which was given by the Father through the Son , and confirmed by- miraculous power , they show clearly what were ^ he views they entertained respecting the Holy Spirit . Not even so late as the council of Nice do the ! learned corruptors of the Gospel , much less- their simple-minded floeke r appear to have had tfny idea ! of the distinct . Deity of thtf
Untitled Article
BUI Rise and Progress of { Re Doctrine &f ( he Trinity *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1832, page 318, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1812/page/30/
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