A

BRIEF STATEMENT

OF

REASONS FOR DECLINING TO RECEIVE

THE

DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY.

BY REV. JOHN CORDNER.

PRINTED FOR THE

American Unitarian Association.

BOSTON:

WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS,

118 WASHINGTON STREET.

AUGUST, 1846.

Price 4 Cents.

[The following tract was written to serve a temporary and local purpose. It was published originally in the Montreal "Bible Christian." This much it may be necessary to say, in order that certain allusions which appear in it may be readily understood.-J. C.]

BRIEF STATEMENT.

THE belief in a tri-personal Deity is a fundamental point in the popular theology. As faith in a God, or great First Cause, must lie at the bottom of all religion, so a faith in the threefold nature of the Supreme Being may be regarded as the basis of what is conventionally termed Orthodox Christianity. According to that system, each of the three alleged "persons" of the Godhead has an appropriate and peculiar function to fulfil in relation to man.

Now this distribution of the Supreme Being into three persons," "hypostases," "subsistences," or "somewhats," (as they have been variously designated by Trinitarian theologians,) is declined by a large and constantly increasing class of Christian believers. These maintain that the one God who is acknowledged by all Christians is personally one, one in the proper and absolute sense of that term, undivided and indivisible. Thus, while the bulk of the Christian world believe in God's threefold nature, or the Trinity in Unity, this class of believers hold to the doctrine of God's uncompounded nature, or simple Unity. Designated with reference to their ideas of the Godhead, the former should, in strictness of language, be called Trinitarian-Unitarians, or, as believers in a triune

God, Tri-Unitarians; while the latter should be named simply Unitarians. But, for the sake of convenience, it has been adopted as a custom to style the former Trinitarians simply, their belief in God's unity, in the sense they put upon it, being all the while understood. It is likewise usual to style the latter Unitarians simply, always meaning by that term those who maintain the strict unity of the Supreme Being.

Both classes are Christian believers, though in different senses. Both classes maintain that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Saviour of men, the Lord and Lawgiver of the Christian Church, the Mediator between God and man. But on each of these terms they respectively put different constructions. The Trinitarian conceives that the term "Son of God" is to be understood as conveying the idea of a strict identity of essence or nature with God, so that Christ is on a perfect equality with the Supreme Being, or, in fact, is the Supreme Being himself. He considers that the term "Son of God" has an equivalent or synonyme in "God the Son." The Unitarian, on the other hand, conceives that the term "Son of God" denotes a being distinct from that God whose Son he is, proceeding from him, and therefore posterior to him in point of time, and subordinate to him in point of rank. The Trinitarian conceives that Christ was the Saviour of men by virtue of his Supreme Deity, in consequence of which he was enabled to offer an infinite sacrifice on the cross, to expiate the sins of mankind. The Unitarian, on the other hand, conceives that Christ was the Saviour of men by virtue of his office as a teacher of divine truth, by the sinless and perfect example he set before us, by the pro

foundly interesting spectacle of his death upon the cross, endured on account of our sins, and by which the heart should be moved to reverence, repentance, obedience, and love. Unitarians generally consider that Jesus is the Saviour of men by establishing a system of motives, means, and influences, to act upon the human mind and heart, to turn man from sin, and thus save him from the consequences of sin, to bring him into the way of holiness here, and thus, through the great mercy of God, secure him a heaven of happiness hereafter. The Trinitarian conceives that Christ is Lord and Lawgiver of the Christian Church by virtue of his own inherent and underived authority. The Unitarian, on the other hand, conceives that Christ is Lord and Lawgiver of the Christian Church in consequence of the power and " commandment he received from his Father." He conceives that "God made Jesus both Lord and Christ." The Trinitarian conceives that Christ is Mediator between God and men; but that his office and individuality as such are to be regarded as distinct from his alleged Supreme Deity. Hence he speaks of his mediatorial character and capacity as something different and distinguishable from that superior nature which he assigns to him. The Unitarian, on the other hand, recognizes no such distinction of two natures in Christ. As he believes God to be one uncompounded being, so likewise he believes Christ to be one uncompounded being. He regards Christ as the Mediator between God and men, because God raised him up as a divine messenger, and qualified him by extraordinary gifts to perform an important work for humanity. According to the Unitarian view, God and man were at variance. No. 229.

VOL. XIX,

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