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this respect ^ we may say it presents a Unitarian ground with Trinitarian patches . Purpureus , late qiri splendeat , unus et alter
Assuitur pannus . Unitarianism is the rule , Triiptarianism the exception . This consideration does not appear to have been sufficiently attended to by my neighbour Mr , Le Grice , who , in tlhe papers
which he has communicated to you , charges with inconsistency * ^ ad even insincerity , Unitarians who attend what he calls Trinitarian worshi p * For my part , I call that Trioitariaa worship which is addressed to the Trinity , or to the Father , the Son and
the Holy Ghost : that which is addressed to the Father only , in the name of Christ , I call Unitarian worship ; and I appeal to all who are familiar with tt ^ e Church ritual , to say which of these two modes of worship is the more prevalent there . They must needs answer in favour of the
latter , as , indeed , a mere glance at the Prayer-book is sufficient to evince * To whom does the Church lead us in the confession of our sins ? From whom does she declare that the penitent receive absolution ? Is it not the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ? And is not the far greater part of all the prayers and thanksgivings addressed to the same Almighty Being , mentioning the name of Christ only as that of the Mediator , through whom
we approach his throne ? If we pass from the prayers to the praises , and consider the devotional hymns which the Church in general uses , these too will be found to be almost exclusively
Unitarian , being plain and scriptural versions of the Psalms , savouring nothing of the dogmas of the creeds and articles . But we may boldly say , that even the creeds themselves are not
consistently Trinitarian . The principal creed , the most ancient , and that which alone is required to be believed by lay communicants , is positively Unitarian , and such as no consistent
Trinitarian can subscribe . The Apostles' Creed , ( as it is called , ) runs thus : / believe in God , the Father Almighty , maker of heaven and earth . Haw can such a declaration consist with the opinions of those who might as
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w $ U say th $ t they helieve in God tlie Son , maker of heaven and earth ? The ptahl sense of the Creed identifies God witti the Almighty Fattier , and
with him exclusively . The Creed proceeds : And in Jesus Christ his onfy Son our Lorck y who was conceived by the Holy Ghost , &c . Here we see such an account of our faith in Christ
as no honest Trinitarian would ever giv $ : it begins aud ends with his humanity : of the stupendous doctrines jof his deity and pre-existence it says nothing-: this , in the mouth of a Trinitarian , would afford a striking instance of that sort of prevarication which , though it tells the truth , does not tell the whole truth . But let us
pass to those symbols which were made in later ages , when the glory of the Christian church was already waxing dim , when her miserable di * vines were groping in the darkness which their own sophiatry had pro- *
duced , and when the arrogance of childish folly conceived the vain attempt of binding * the faith of all future generations , by the decisions of a noisy and intriguing council * The faith whteb was carried by vote \ r \ this manner stands recorded in what
we call the Nicene Creed ; but , according to more modern notions , even this Creed is not orthodox , for as it declares the Son ? to be only a derived and secondary God , it does not represent him to be equal to the Father ,
but manifestly inferior to him . And what shall I say more ? To the eternal confusion of all those who presumptuously endeavour to forge shackles for the understandings and conscience 3 of others , it is undeniably true-that not even the Athanasian Creed itself
is consistently Erinitarian ; nay , there i $ a clause in it which is irretrievably Unitarian . It vy ^ rns us that we must believe in the Trinity , neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance . The word hete translated
substance , is in the original Greek ticripc , that is , being ox essence . According to this Creed s therefore , the three persons form but one being , whence it most plainly follows that
the word person , ( uttoV ^ csO as here used , signifies not what it does in common acceptation , a distinct , intelligent agent , but merely a character or uaode of existence : so that the
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1824, page 540, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2528/page/28/
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