[510]. See the Rev. D. James’s acknowledgment of the Subordination of the Son and the Holy Spirit to the Father—of their official inferiority: and the illustrations of the King and the Duke of Wellington, which Trinitarian Theology thinks apposite.
[511]. We were told, indeed, in Christ Church, by the Rev. D. James, that there might exist any number of persons in the divine Essence, three thousand as well as three, and that only because Scripture had revealed no more had Christians fixed upon that number as making up the divine Unity. And this is so clear a consequence of the principles of Trinitarian Theology, that the view must be ascribed to all Trinitarians. Scripture, however, though it has only revealed three, has not declared that there are no more persons in the Godhead—so that it is being wise above what is written to limit the divine Monarchy to the Economy of three Persons.
But farther than this it was declared by the Rev. D. James that nature contained no evidence of One God, not even in the Trinitarian sense of Oneness, for that many Gods might unite to build the world, as many men had united to build the Liverpool Custom House. What would the Architect of that building say to this invasion of the unity of his designing mind? Mr. James repeatedly informed his audience that he always appealed to reason! Such is Trinitarianism when it reasons. But I suppose this view must be considered as a peculiarity of the individual preacher.
[512]. Who are the competent Critics, of whom Mr. Byrth speaks as retaining the text of the three Heavenly Witnesses? The Bishop of Salisbury, I suppose. If this had been Unitarian Criticism, Mr. Byrth would have called it defective Scholarship or dishonesty. He can discriminate in favour of those who err upon his own side. See a curious statement of the external evidence affecting this text, 1 John v. 7, in the second volume of Burton’s Theological Works, p. 114, 2nd part.
[513]. “It is reasonable to expect, that those doctrines, which form the leading articles of any system, should be plainly stated in the book which professes to make that system known.”—Wardlaw.
[514]. “‘Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ That is, ‘Go ye therefore into all the world, and teach or disciple all nations, baptizing them into the profession of faith in, and an obligation to obey the doctrine taught by Christ, with authority from God the Father, and confirmed by the Holy Ghost.’”—Lardner.
[515]. John x. 34.
[516]. John xvii. 20, 23.
[517]. Rom. ix. 5.