Article in The Unitarian Defendant, 1823
Those passages in the New Testament, in which the Father is styled One, or Only God, are in number 17.
Those passages where he is styled God, absolutely, by way of eminence and supremacy, are in number 320,
Those passages where he is styled God with peculiarly high titles and epithets or attributes, are in number, 105.
Those passages wherein it is declared that all prayers and praises ought to be offered to Him, and that every thing ought to be ultimately directed to his honor and glory, are in number 90.
Passages wherein the Son is declared, positively and by the clearest implication, to be Subordinate To The FATHER, deriving his being from Him, receiving from Him his divine power, and acting in all things wholly according to the will of the Father, are in number, above 300.
Jesus Christ is 85 times called the Son of man, and still further, he is about 70 times called a Man.
Of 1300 passages in the New Testament, wherein the word of God is mentioned, not one of them expresses or necessarily implies a plurality of persons.
Now let us see how the case will stand, by drawing a parallel of like authority from Scripture in favor of the Trinity.
Texts, wherein God is spoken of as three distinct equal persons or Beings, and yet but one Being or person,—not one.
Texts, in which God is spoken of as three, and yet but one, but affording no authority as to their perfect equality, are in number, one. (1 Epistle of John, 5 Chap. 7 verse.) And this only one is proved by Sir Isaac Newton, Professor Porson, Griesbach, and other learned men, to be spurious; and is now generally admitted to be so, by all parties.
Texts, in which it is argued that the three Persons of the trinity are spoken of, are innumber one. (Matt. xxviii. 19.) And this Text is wholly silent as to the requisite distinction of their perfect equality and perfect unity. Yet insufficient as it evidently is, it is the only text, that can be adduced which is, in any sense, capable of being admitted as a parallel with the many hundred plain passages in favor of the Unity of God.
Is it not almost incredible that, in this amazing and endless controversy, nearly all the testimony which is direct and intelligible, should appear to stand on one side only? Looking at the number of texts as favoring the doctrine of the Trinity, and the defective evidence of even these, when compared with the number and weight of those the Bible affords to uphold the Unitarian faith, surely they may be said scarcely to appear as dust in the balance.
Grundy's Lectures.
Note. We do not say that Tiinitarians produce but one text in support of their doctrine, for we know they allege many in which they see proof of the Deity of the Son, and a few in support of the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit; but we say that Matt. xxviii. 19. is the only text in which the three persons of the Trinity are spoken of.
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