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fire * ( P * , 38 & ) Thaw * frn » raipfloQf ther Bishop does not adduce , because he cannot . The Bishop quotes ae decisive , Ui the controversy , the phrase ' * the only begottm > Son . " ( P . 396 . ) " To express the three-fold subs latency of the Deity , the word Trinity ha $ been adopted ; and the objection which some ignorant
persons have made , that because the word Trinity does not occur in Scripture , the doctrine of the Trinity cannot be a Scripture doctrine , is as reasonable as it would "be to argue , that because the word omnipresent is not found in the Bible , the doctrine of God ' s omnipresence is false ; a doctrine of which we are perfectly assured , although the mode of it utterly surpasses our comprehension " ( P . 387 . ) We think the omission of the word
Trinity in the Bible is a good reason for its omission in the prayers of Christians , and so thought Luther and Calvin . Whether the same objection will lie against a similar use of the word
omnipresent our readers may judge . That neither the word Trinity , nor any equivalent word , nor one definition of the doctrine ^ occurs in the writings of the sacred pea men , are , we think , difficulttie ^ on the Bishop ' s hypothesis , which , with all his ingenuity , he neve ; can get
over * To this sermon there are elaborate notes at the end of the volume . Iur one of these , ( p . 462 , ) the Bishop maintains that the damnatory clauses " am not * strictly speaking , part of the Creed itself . " " The objectionable clauses in the Athanasian Creed are declaratory ouly , and not judicial . " ( ibid , ) This
palliation amounts to very little . They could not be judicial in the strictest aense of the word , and they evidently are so in the sense ; i * i which it is forbidden ue to judge . The most that the worst bigot can do , as to another world , i& to declare tha * God . shall ther ? eternally torment those who will not swallow his dogmas * He cannot actually pass
the atrocious sentence . He can only ca ~ luminously ascribe it to his Maker . ** I am persuaded , " says the Bisjiop , p ^ 464 , " that the disrepute into which tbU farnpulacy has beeu brought , is to notbiug more owing than , to > its habitual omission by many cif the parochial clergy /'
And hence we may understand the recent ondei fon enforcing thq reading < af it in the Church of St . Andrew '* , Hoibom . But the Bishop has mistaken the effect for the cause . The disrepute has occasioned the omission , not the owiseipn the disrepute , it is tuo , bad for even repetition u > make the hearc * r be-
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lieve it * Let it bo sM or sung , how * ever , by all means ; we are greatly mistakea if ,, instead of increased reverence , the effect be not ,, in many cases , to produce doubt , disgust , and secession . The Bishop has- a fling at the mode in which Unitarian : ministers are appoint * ed fp . 467 ) :
" The congregation which elects or calls a person to be their minister , as in the case of Unitarian ordination , so named , are of course the judges of hi » fitness for the office , and have power to displace him if he be not compliant with their hamotir . "
May we be allowed to retort , that perhaps the majority of the members of Unitarian congregations are at least as well qualified to judge as those on whom the appointment of bishops devolves , and have certainly usually discovered quite as much sincerity and purity of motive in the election ?
To the account of criticism , we place the Bishop ' s quotation of God manifest in the flesh , as a part of Scripture , and the following translation of 1 John i . 1 , " We have heard , have seen with our eyes , have looked upon , and with our hands have handled the Word of life' * And . this is the translation of k ^ rr { Ka ^ rf < ra . v irep * rou Xoyov t # s £ o ? $ f See M . R . Vol . 111 . 121 .
Thus it is very possible to be a better critic in Heathen tragedians than in Christian apostles , even with all the ad * vantages of an episcopal ordination .
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Aut . II . —Library of Ecclesiastical Knowledge . No . II . Christ the only King of his Church . Feb . 1830 . However various may be the interpretations of the metaphorical language of Scripture concerning the kingdom of
Christy it is generally agreed that such language is metaphorical ; and in deducing principles from it , for universal adoption > it is desirable to dismiss the metaphor , and set forth the principle in that form which will least admit o £
misapprehension or perversion . To a neglect of this method of common prudence may we ascribe , in a great degree , the prevalence of many erroneous doctrines , the attachment to numerous false conceptions which subsist amotig the body of the religious people ill this country , and in every other . By an appeal to the imaginatioi } , by the display of a train of pompous imagery , the political orator of a . mob may sway tfe « minds of his hear-
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182 Critical Notices . — Theological .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1830, page 182, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/38/
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