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and the mode in which the divine and human natures were allied in one person , occasion again three diversities . It would be easy to multiply points of disagreement . We have , however , here twelve sources of diversity . Now these are mingled together in the minds of professors in all their possible varieties * and , as may easily be ascertained , amount to _ jyioj 3 sjJ 3 jdg ^ JiixQJuihausands--Qi ^
Trinities . Of these varieties which shall we take as truly orthodox ? The Council of the Lateran , held in 1215 , decided in favour of Sabellianism , while the creed of Athanasius favours Tritheism . Between , these two extremes divines are found of every possible shade pf difference , and orthodoxy vacillates from horn to horn of the dilemma , —now alighting on mystified Unitarianism , and the of
now on heathenish Polytheism ^ as authority some noted divine , or learned-body , alternately prevails . ^ For some time , however , there has been proceeding a gradual declension from the towering and adventurous definitions of the pseudo-Athanasian creed , However much the Church by law established may have sanctioned it by their adoption , however much the Dissenters may have constructed their confessions after so choice a model , and
however much , in consequence , the influence of its fabricators may have been extended over that flock which-Jesus only has"a right to govern , certain it is that the majority have , long left it in the cloudy heights which seem to be its appropriate dwelling- place . There was a time when it was said , ' Athanasius against the world , and the world against Athanasius . ' We may again take up a part of the words- —for the Christian world , and those who once we , re of it , but whom the saint has , alas 1 expelled- —the Christian world is now , and for ever , we trust , against Athanasius / True it is , that as there is no cause too bad to find an advocate ,
so the voice of a defender of the creed does here and there , and from time to time , make itself heard ; but long has it been under the ban of the intelligence of the Christian community . The first great change which took place , within a recent date , preparing the way for-the state of'ttmigs-which we shall speak of imn 3 ej ! lately , was the indwelling scheme , Which maintained that Christ was God by the indwelling divinity of the Father . The Holy Ghost , which was the last to come in , hqs been tjie first to go put of fashion .
For a long period , his divinity , as all evanescent things , has been passing from Christians' heads , hearts , and lips , till now , under the prevalent designation of ' JHoly Spirit , ' it rpeans , in the mouths of ministers and-people , whatever creeds may say , littlernoret than the Divine influence . This change is the more remarkable among Dissenters than in the Church , because , whatever they may have in the closet , they possess not in the reading-desk any established forms of teaching or prayer , to keep in old errors and keep out still older truths . There is another feature in which the well and
full proportioned Trinity , ascribed to Athanasius , has of late been mutilated . A large and an increasing body , found chiefly among
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THE TRUTH TELLER . 355
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 1, 1833, page 355, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2627/page/3/
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