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Facts relating to the Unitarian Controversy; and Serious
Questions to all Lovers of Christian Truth.
PART I.

1. TRINITARIANS cannot produce a single passage of the Bible, in which the doctrine of the Trinity is stated, although it is very plainly defined in the Thirty-nine Articles, the Athanasian Creed, and the Westminster Con fession of Faith.

2. Griesbach, the learned and impartial Editor of the Greek Testament, who completed his invaluable work A. D. 1806, rejects, from the 1st Epistle of St. John, (ch. v. 7, 8,) the words, "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth." The critical evidence upon which this passage is maintained to be spu rious, is held to be satisfactory by the generality of com petent judges of all churches. Many of the theological writers of the present day, though avowed Trinitarians; have expressed their belief in its spuriousness; among whom are Dr. Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough;* Dr. Tomline, Bishop of Winchester;t Dr. Adam Clarke, the Wesleyan Methodist ; Mr. Charles Butler, the Roman Catholic; the Electic Reviewer, a Calvinist :|| Dr. Ward low, of Glasgow, avoids this and the other supposed Tri+ nitarian passages that are affected by Griesbach's emenda. tions in his controversy with Mr. Yates; and the Quarterly Reviewer has twice written expressly against the text.

3. Griesbach's reading in Acts xx. 28, instead of "church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood," is, "church of the Lord," &c., which is a common appellation for Jesus Christ.

4. Griesbach's reading, 1 Tim, iii. 16, instead of" God manifest in the flesh," is, "He who was manifest in the flesh."

5. Griesbach's reading, Rev. i. 8, is, I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord God, &c., and i, 11, the words I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and, are omitted by him.

*Translation of Michaëlis, Notes; and very lately in his Theo, logical Lectures, Part VI.

+Elements of Christian Theology, Vol. II. p. 90.

Commentary on the Passage.

§ Horæ Biblica.

January, 1809.

6. The words printed in italics in our Common Version denote that there is nothing corresponding to them in the original, e. g. the word God, Acts vii. 59, and of God, 1 John iii. 16.

7. Neither the word Trinity, nor any equivalent word, nor the pharses, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, Eternal Son, or Two Natures in Christ, occur in the Bible.

8. The Holy Spirit is never in the Bible proposed as á distinct object of religious worship. God is himself a spirit; and the true worshipers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth. John iv. 23, 24.

9. The powers of Christ are never, in the Bible, referred to God the Son, but invariably to the Father, or his Spirit.

10. Our blessed Saviour, in his solemn prayer, recorded in the 17th chapter of St. John's Gospel, declares the Father, to whom he is praying, (vers. 1, 5, &c.) to be the only true God, and (ver. 3) with the same breath claims for himself the character of him whom the Father (the only true God) had sent.

11. Luther, the celebrated Reformer, seriously objected to the use of the word Trinity. He observes, "The word Trinity sounds oddly, and is a human invention; it is better to call Almighty God, God, than Trinity." Calvin, in reference to a prayer of the Romish Missal, which has been copied into the Liturgy of the English Church, exclaims, "I like not this prayer, O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity; it savours of barbarity: the word Trinity is barbarous, insipid, profane, a human invention, grounded in no testimony of God's word; the Popish God, unknown to Prophets and Apostles."

12. Catholic writers, of great celebrity, who have believed in the Trinity themselves, have yet confessed that, without having recourse to tradition, they could not prove their doctrine.

PART II.

1. If I had never seen any religious book besides the Bible, and had no other opportunity of gaining religious information, should I have known any thing of the threefold nature of God, called the Trinity?

2. If so, from what text in the Bible should I have derived my information?

3. At any rate, is the doctrine expressed so plainly, and so frequently there, as the importance now attached to it would seem to require ?

4. Is there a single verse in the Bible that condemns the worship of the Unitarians, who worship the Father as the only true God? John xvii. 3.

5. Does not the name Son of God, given to Jesus Christ; lead many to believe that he was God himself? and yet, upon consideration, will not this appellation prove the contrary? See Luke i. 35; John i. 49, v. 19; 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28, &c.

6. Do the best books in English, in defence of the Christian religion, e. g. Paley's Evidences, or Maltby's Illustrations, both written by clergymen of the Church of England, prove any thing more than that Christ received authority from heaven?

7. Does Christ ever command his disciples to pray to the Trinity, to God the Son, or to God the Holy Ghost? 8. Does not Jesus Christ describe the Father as the only true God, and command his disciples, when they prayed, to say, Our Father? John xvii. 3; Luke xi. 2.

9. Does he not represent himself as "him whom the Father hath sent"? (John xvii. 3;) and as "a man whỏ told the truth which he had heard of God"? John viii. 40. 10. Was not Jesus Christ's death an act of obedience? Phil. ii. 8.

11. Whom did he obey? And how could the death of an obedient creature (Luke i. 31) make an infinite satisfaction?

12. Do not the blessings of Christ's death proceed from the Father's tender mercy? Rom. v. 8; John iii. 16.

13. When the text of the Heavenly Witnesses is expunged from the First Epistle of St. John, is there a vestige or shadow of the real doctrine of the Trinity remaining in the Bible?

14. But if the Scriptures be so destitute of evidence for this doctrine, is it not the duty of every Protestant, who loves his Bible, to disavow that doctrine, and attend Unitarian worship?

15. Am I prevented from such a disavowal by any worldly motive?

16. But will such motives appear indifferent to me at the hour of death, or can they be acceptable to God?

17. Has not Jesus Christ denounced his displeasure against those who are ashamed of him before men? Mark viii. 38.

18. Is not the cause of the Gospel in its purest form the cause of Jesus Christ?

19. Can the majority of Trinitarians be said to have derived their conviction from patient examination and mature consideration?

20. Am I allowed to follow a multitude to do evil, and, because it is the prevailing worship, to worship “a Popish God"?

Go, my fellow-christian, and answer these questions to thyself in thy closet, as thou lovest truth, and desirest the favour of thy Maker. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with thee. Amen. 2 Cor. xiii. 14.

Let the serious inquirer examine attentively the follow ing additional passages of the Bible; Exodus xx., Deut. vi. 4, compared with Mark xii. 29; Isaiah xliv. 6, xlv., compared with John viii. 41-54, and Acts iv. 21-31; also Mark xiii, 32; 1 Cor. viii. 6; 1 Tim. i. 17, ii, 5.

The Messiah weeping over Jerusalem.

B. M.

(From a volume of Poems, by HENRY ROGERS, a youth of 19.) THE Persian Monarch, when he led

To Greece, in proud array,

His thousand thousand warriors, shed
A tear, to think that they,

Ere one brief hundred years had sped,
Should all be numbered with the dead.
He wept and bade his army go

To fight with Greece again :

A few short months, and Greece laid low-
His warriors on the plain.

Thus his ambition gave the lie

To his own false humanity.

The haughty-minded Roman wept

At mighty Carthage fall;

But still the scenes o'er which he slept,
Himself had wrought them all;

He wept o'er scenes his sword had brought,

He wept o'er ruin he had wrought.

Not such as these were those blest tears
Which from Messiah fell,

When in the view of coming years,

His heart foreboded well
The misery of Salem's lot,

The desolation of that spot.

Oh! they were foes for whom he mourned,

And foes he sought to save,

But they his pitying mercy spurned,

And all that mercy gave.

Such tears no human eye bedewed

With Godlike love they were imbued.

Scripture and Scripture perverted.

"For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God.”—Paul,

Scriptural expressions.

Holy Father, John xvii, 11,

I am the Son of God, John x. 36,
God is a spirit, John iv. 24,
The only true God, John xvii. 3,
The only wise God, 1 Tim. i. 17,
The son of man, John v. 24,
Lamb of God, John i. 36,

Of one soul, Acts iv. 32,

Perverted into.

Holy Trinity.
God the Son.
God is three persons.
Three-one God.
Triune God.
God-man.

Atoning lamb.

Immortal soul.

Grace the gift of God, Ephes, ii. 8, Purchased grace.

Jesus Christ, Gal. i. 12,

God is one, Gal. iii. 20,
Jesus Christ is Lord, Phil. ii. 11,
Doeth righteousness, 1 John iii. 7,
Son of the Father, 2 John i, 3,
Is righteous, John ii. 7,
For our God, Heb. xii. 29,
The atonement, Rom. v. 11,
Christ is God's, 1 Cor. iii. 23,
The poor in spirit, Matt. v. 3,
Election of God, 1 Thess. i. 4,
To save sinners, 1 Tim. i. 15,
The Holy Ghost, Acts x. 38,

Jehovah Jesus
Three coequal Gods.
Divinity of Christ.
Imputed righteousness.
Eternal Son.
Self-righteous,
God out of Christ.
Atoning blood.
Christ is God.
Poor sinners.
Absolute election.
Original sin..

God the Holy Ghost.

"If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." 1 Pet. iv. 11.-Reader, are any of the phrases or expressions contained in the right hand column, to be found among those oracles?

R. W. W.

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