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    '• ¦ [ Taken with some slight alterations from the fjnitarian Advocate . ] Mystery has a power to charm the finest understandings . Some are attached to the doctrine of the Trinity , not so much because they are struck with the strength of argument in its favour , from revelation or from reason , as because their imaginations are fascinated by its very indefiniteness and

    obscurity . In their minds the same grandeur is associated with the mystery of the Trinity , which belongs to the mysteries of our own being , of the operations of Providence , of the system of nature . But , I confess , that to me the Trinity recalls no such emotions . Instead of classing it with those sublime subjects of thought which are suggested by our condition in this world , and our hopes of a future , I should place it among those fictitious creations of a strange fancy of which the dark ages were fertile .

    I have always thought that the doctrine of the Trinity bore a striking analogy to the doctrine of Transubstantiation . I proceed to point out some particulars in which , it appears to me , the two doctrines are very similar . 1 . The statement of each involves an apparent contradiction . The doctrine of Transubstantiation is , that the bread and wine employed in the

    ordinance of the Lord ' s Supper , are converted , after consecration by the priest , into the real body and blood of Jesus Christ . The elements retain the same outward appearance , but in reality are entirely changed . To the senses they still seem to be common bread and wine ; but faith regards them as the body pnd blood of our Lord . The Protestant acknowledges the impossibility of believing this . He confesses that no evidence could prove it to his mind . But is there not the same contradiction in the statement of the Trinity ? The statement is , 1 . That there is but one God . 2 . That the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , are three separate persons , each having his own mind , consciousness and will , —each sustaining different offices in the work of redemption . 3 . That the Father is God , the Son is God , the Holy Ghost is God . Now to my mind this statement appears to present as palpable a contradiction as the former . I cannot torture my intellect to perceive the possibility of either of these propositions . It is as easy for me to admit that what the evidence of my senses teaches me is wine , is , in reality , the blood shed

    on Calvary eighteen hundred years ago , as to perceive , that the Father can be God ; the Son , God ; and the Holy Ghost , God ; and yet that there is but one God . Both the propositions I cannot help regarding as contradictory and impossible . 2 . The doctrine of Transubstantiation is defended by passages of Scripture which , if admitted in their obvious and literal sense , are certainly indubitable proofs . Indeed , the language of-our Saviour is more explicit on this

    point than it is on the doctrine of the Trinity , as its warmest advocates , I presume , confess . The doctrine of Transubstantiation * unless we bring reason to our aid in interpreting Scripture , is supported by direct quotations from the New Testament . " Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man , ye have no life in you . " " And he took the bread and said , This is my body , which is given for you . " In like manner "he took the cup and said , This is my blood . " By these texts the believers in Transubstantiation think they demonstrate their doctrine . But the man who permits his common sense to operate , refutes them on the principles of criticism and

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    ¦ v ANALOGY BETWEEN THE DOCTRINES OF THE TRINITY AND OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1828, page 812, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2567/page/12/