The Book of Religions / Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical Sketches

by John Hayward

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, coëqual and coëternal 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.

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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 [pg 292] 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.”

Millenarians.

The Millenarians are those who believe that Christ will reign personally on earth for a thousand years; and their name, taken from the Latin mille, a thousand, has a direct allusion to the duration of the spiritual empire.

The doctrine of the millennium, or a future paradisaical state of the earth, it is said, is not of Christian, but of Jewish origin. The tradition is attributed to Elijah, which fixes the duration of the world, in its present imperfect condition, to six thousand years, and announces the approach of a Sabbath of a thousand years of universal peace and plenty, to be ushered in by the glorious advent of the Messiah. This idea may be traced in the Epistle of Barnabas, and in the opinions of Papias, who knew of no written testimony in its behalf. It was adopted by the author of the Revelation, by Justin Martyr, by Irenæus, and by a long succession of the fathers. As the theory is animating and consolatory, when it is divested of cabalistic numbers and allegorical decorations, it will no doubt always retain a number of adherents.

However the Millenarians may differ among themselves respecting the nature of this great event, it is agreed, on all hands, that such a revolution will be effected in the latter days, by which vice and its attendant misery shall be banished from the earth; thus completely forgetting all those dissensions and animosities by which the religious world hath been agitated, and terminating the grand drama of Providence with [pg 293] universal felicity. We are not unmindful of the prophetic language of Isaiah, (49:22, 23,) together with a sublime passage from the book of the Revelation, (11:15,) with which the canon of Scripture concludes—“Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers, [they shall become good themselves, and be the protectors of religion and liberty,] and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (See Matt 13:29, 30; 27:32. Luke 17:29, 30. Acts 3:21. Heb. 1:12. Phil. 3:9, 11. 2 Pet. 3:13. Rev. 20:1-6, and chaps. 21, 22. Apoc. chap. 21. Ezek. chap. 36.)