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" Tlt ^ **« ^ fc rfetiaite <*** % teZietfeti that M * Father , Son and // o / y Ghost , \ t \ wbt ^ se name they Wer £ baptized , and whom ^ ** y tioorshlped , were equally divine ; without troubling themselves aboiit the manner of it , or the reconciling it with the belief in one God . " It is much easier to make these assertions than to prove them .
If , as Archdeacon Blaekburne observes , we read the supposed baptismal form , Matt , xxviii . 19 , as follows , "Go ye , therefore , and disciple all nations ( baptizing them ) into the name of the Father , and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost ; " there is not a single tittle altered in the text of the Evangelist , save In the pointing ; and yet a very material alteration of die sense of the passage obtained , which makes the two Evangelists { Matthew and Luke ] perfectly consistent with each , other . For as the
passage Stands above , explained by the parenthesis , the commarrd to baptize refers to no particular form at ¦ all , and leaves us to suppose , what was certainly the truth or the matter , that tke apostles being * already well acquainted with the form used in the
baptism of Jesus , it was quite superfluous to enjoin it here . St . John tells us expressly , chap . * v . 2 , that the disciples of Jesus made and baptized other disciples to their Master , and these not a few . This is a sufficient proof without any other , that the apostles of Christ were well
verged in the form of baptism prescribed by our Saviour ; upon which account ; the repetition of it in this solemn manner , is one of the last things one would look for in this particular passage .
The Archdeacon . I I need hardlv add . l he Archdeacon , need hardly add , ^ as of opinion that tlve word s in question contain * ' no baptismal form at ^ 11 . " Works , I . xxvi . Appendix B . Barclay , in his Quakerism confirmed ,
^ ys , * " That the apostles used the * ords Father , Son and Holy Chost , when they baptized , etinnot be proved ; *» r less used * hey the word Trinity , which was not invented [ till ] long after the apostles' days . " Works , IIL i ;* 9 .
An accordingly , he is entirely silent un that doctrine in 'his " Apology for ™ true Christian Divinity / ' which h : of coonree thought mi g ht well do w * lu > ut it . The Quakers have always
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held ttrat the above text hafe no refcttfoA whatever to water baptism . Dr . Watefland , &s quoted by T . I * ., adds , " Probably these plaid , honest Christians believed evert / person to be God , and yet but one God . " This is oddly enough called " the artless
simplicity of the primitive Christians , ** of which , however , the New Testament , the only , or at least the rnost authentic record of their faith , affords not even the slightest evidence . " It
seems they troubled not their heads with any nice speculations about the modus of it , till prying and pretending men came to start difficulties , and raise scruples and make disturbances ; and then , " adds the Doctor , " it was
necessary to guard , " not the purity and simplicity of the apostolic faith , as expressed in Scripture , but f € the faith of the church , " in new notions which required new terms " against such cavils and impertinencies as began to threaten it . "
How did the church act in this difficulty , as T . P . confesses it stHl is , to reconcile the doctrine of the Divine Unity , with that which he holds the common doctrine of the Trinity ? His
oracle , Dr . Waterland , says , " Philosophy and metaphysics were called in to its assistance , but not till heretics had shewn the way , and made it in a manner necessary for the Catholics to encounter them with their own
weapons . " This is , in other words , to say the Catholics adopted heretical language . I confess there is too much truth in this , whether they or others first set so had an example . " Some new terms and particular applications
came in by this means , that such as had a mind to corrupt or destroy the faith" aforesaid , " might be defeated In their purposes ; but after the heretics had invidiously represented the Catholics as asserting a division , " by the new terms they had adopted in
speaking of the one true God , instead of those used by the sacred writers , and by their Lord and Master , " it was high time , " says the Doctor , " for the Catholics to resent the , injury , and deny , " not disprove , * ' the charge . " He adds , " Then * was no occasion for mentioning of three hypostases , till such as Praxeas , Noetus and Sabcllnis , had pretended to make one hyrrostasin
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Ji&tm w tke *< 43 > WMfo * Vo&Hter * * n QttalrtrS and Uftitnriam . 44 ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/21/
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