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    the more educated of the Wesleyan Methodists , denylhe eternity of the Son ' s generation / and thus make him inferior to the Father as having been begotten in time , and devoid therefore of that eternal existence which the dictate of ordinary reason declares to be the peculiar attribute of Deity . those assert

    ^ S . cacceIfei sJjLn ^^ who the Trinity from the pulpit or the pressv . re than here and there one who maintains any thing approaching to the Athanasian Trinity . The learned seem divided into two classes , those who employ but will not explain the term , and those who hold that modification of it which differs from Unitarianism in little more than words . Of

    the first class we remark , that the cause cannot be a good one , the advocates of which use words that have no meaning , or , which is much the same , no meaning that can be assigned . Such a resource appears to indicate both the existence and a sense of weakness . It would seem that Trinitarians had been beaten on every position they had assumed , and to avoid further defeat had burrowed in the earth . But however good for defence SO inglorious a resource may be , it will not , they may be sure , enable them

    to regain the ground they have lost ; for certainly , if they desire to proselyte , they must needs tell those whom they address , what it is they wish them to believe . A modal Trtnity"is now in vogue among both Churchmen and Dissenters . What else are the < three characters' which the Trinity sustains , according to Dr . Whately , the present Archbishop of Ireland ? "What else ' the threefold manifestation of himself of

    the present learned but pragmatical Bishop of London ? What else is the « triplicity of distinctions' which has received the sanction of the congregational Dissenters ? or the three * modes of consideration , ' * plurality of distinctions , ' a threefold manner of existence , ' a ' combination of distinction with unity / patronised by the learned , amiable , but cloudy-minded Dr . Pye Smith ? Easy ,

    if necessary , would it be to allege other proofs of the prevalence of a modal Trinity . Now , whaf is this modal Trinity , but a means of being reputed orthodox , at the cheap cost of a little mysticism ? The Deity is one , however he may have manifested himself , under whatever distinctions he may be known , in whatever mode of consideration regarded . Neither a manifestation , nor a consideration can affect the nature of God . He * remains in himself the same ;

    however known , however considered . Nor is the language such as an Unitarian would object to were it not that it serves by false shows to keep still lingering in the mind of the people , errors once honoured but now exploded . Malte-Brun informs us , in his valuable work on geography , that the Rousniacs in Poland have suspended from each of their churches three bells of different dimensions , ' thus indicating the three persons of the Trinity ; the large bell represents the Father , the second represents the Son , and the third and least the Holy

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    356 THE TRUTH TELLER .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 1, 1833, page 356, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2627/page/4/