By this term we are to understand those who believe that there are three distinct, persons in the Godhead, the FATHER, SON, and HOLY SPIRIT, the same in substance, equal in power and dignity, and that these three are one. Hence it is said they believe in a triune God. (See Deut.6:4.2 Kings 19:15. Ps.19:1; 83:18; 139:7. Isa.6:3, 9; 9:6; 11:3; 14:5, 23, 25. Jer.17:10; 23:6. Ezek.8:1, 3. Matt.3:16, 17; 9:6; 18:20; 23:19. Luke 1:76; 24:25. John 1:1; 2:1; 5:19, 23; 10:30; 16:10, 15. Acts 5:4; 28:23, 25. Rom.1:5; 9:5; 14:12, 19.1 Cor.2:10; 8:6.2 Cor.13:14. Phil.2:5, 6, 7, &c.; 3:21. Heb.1:3, 6, 10, 11, 12; 9:14; 13:8.1 John 5:7, 20. Rev.1:4, 5, 6, 8; 3:14; 5:13, &c.) The Unitarians believe that there is but one person in the Godhead, and that this person is the Father; and they insist that the Trinitarian distinction of persons is contradictory and absurd. The unity of God is a doctrine which both parties consider the foundation of all true religion. Although the doctrine of the Trinity is ostensibly the main subject of dispute between Trinitarians and Unitarians, yet it is in reality respecting the character of Christ. Those who believe in his proper deity very easily dispose of all the other difficulties in the Trinitarian system; while anti-Trinitarians find more fault with this doctrine than any other in the Trinitarian creed; and the grand obstacle to their reception of the Trinitarian faith is removed, when they can admit that Jesus Christ is God, as well as man; so that the burden of labor, on both sides, is either to prove or disprove the proper deity of the Son of God. In proof of this doctrine, the Trinitarians urge many declarations of the Scripture, which, in their opinion, admit of no consistent explanation upon the Unitarian scheme; they there find that offices are assigned to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit, which none but God can perform; particularly the creation of the world, and the grand decisions of the day of judgment. As they read the Scriptures, the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, unchangeableness, and eternity, are ascribed to Jesus Christ; and they infer that a being to whom all these perfections are ascribed must be truly God, coequal and coeternal with the Father. The Unitarians, on the other hand, contend that some of these passages are interpolations, and that the others are either mistranslated or misunderstood. The passage in John, in particular, respecting the three that bear record, &c., has been set aside by such high authority, that they consider it unfair to introduce it in the controversy. -- -- -- -- -- -- - The excellent and learned Stillingfleet, in the preface to his Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity, says, "Since both sides yield that the matter they dispute about is above their reach, the wisest course they can take is, to assert and defend what is revealed, and not to be peremptory and quarrelsome about that which is acknowledged to be above our comprehension; I mean as to the manner how the three persons partake of the divine nature." |
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