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and evidences of them , which are therefore fit subjects of attentive , dispassionate investigation . It is no reproach to us to say that we are not insensible to
distinctions usually looked upon as fair objects of a man ' s and a Briton ' s wishes , A Dissenter , nevertheless , who is true to his principles and profession , would nut exchange them for these or any considerations : and he owes it to himself and his country to shew that his dissent is rational . N .
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Oh Pictures of the Trinity , in Dr . Clarke ' s Travels . 3 Q 9
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On Pictures of the Trinity , in Dr . Clarke s Travels
-Sir , May . 14 ,, 1811 . Dr . Clarke , in his Travels , has given us ( in plate 3 . facing page 24 , ) a representation of the ' Virgin with three hands , ' which he
tells us is * held in the highest veneration throughout Russia , ' and which he calls a c barbarous type of the Trinity : ' but he does not say of what Trinity . Many of your readers however well know , and those who do not should be
told , that the church has had many different Trinities in different stages of her idolatry * For the first 200 years no such word was ever heard , nor any such thing ever thought of among Christians . For a long time after this , though the word was used
occasionally , it was used only to denote a trinity of attributes , or qualities , in the one person of the Father . In process of time the orthodox , that is , the chief priests and the rulers , who are always the orthodox let their doctrine be what
Jt willj introduced a second person into the godhead : and then the reproach cast upon them by their o pponents was , and long continued to be , not that they believed ll three , ( for neither party yet
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dreamt of three ) but that thev believed in two Gods , And when it was at last determined to have a trinity of three persons , it was
a long while before the orthodox could settle it among themselves whether the third person should be the Virgin Mary or the Holy Gho ^ t . Even so late as the
seventh century , we find Mahomet in several of those passages of the Koran in which he so justly exposes the monstrous absurdity of a Trinity , reminding the Christians that Jesus was mi more than the son of Mary , and that Mary herself was no more than a righteous . self was no more than a righteous
, or good woman ; without taking the least notice of the Holy Ghost , or of any other Ghost , as composing any part of the Trinity \ a clear proof that , in the days of the Arabian impostor , the parti-, zans of the Virgin were a more
numerous party of Trinitarians than those of the Holy Ghost ; in that country at least . Now it appears to me that it is this trinity of Father , Son and Virgin , that the picture given us by Dr . Clarke was originally intended to represent . The third hand proceeds from d , stronger and more mighty arm than cither of the other two ; an arm not visiblv
connected , like those with the body of the Virgin , but proceeding from a Being that is invisible . By its position with respect to the body of the Virgin , and by its embracing the feet at the child , I
think the painter meant to insinuate not only ' the power * of the
• In the Hebrew and the Greek , and indeed in most other languages the words arm and hand are often used as synonymous terms for power . Instances of this will readily occur to any one conversant wth the ;> criptures . And n paintings , the arm and the hand are common symbols of power .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1811, page 399, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2418/page/15/
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