Chapter 16

§ 1. Definition of the Church Doctrine. § 2. History of the Doctrine. § 3. Errors in the Church Doctrine of the Trinity. § 4. The Trinity of Manifestations founded in the Truth of Things. § 5. It is in Harmony with Scripture. § 6. Practical value of the Trinity, when rightly understood. Appendix. Critical Notices. § 1. On the Defence of Nescience in Theology, by Herbert Spencer and Henry L. Mansel. § 2. On the Defence of Verbal Inspiration by Gaussen. § 3. Defence of the Doctrine that Sin is a Nature, by Professor Shedd. § 4. Defence of Everlasting Punishment, by Dr. Nehemiah Adams and Dr. J. P. Thompson. § 5. Defence of the Trinity, by Frederick D. Huntington, D. D. Footnotes

PREFACE.

The Protestant Reformation has its Principle and its Method. Its Principle is Salvation by Faith, not by Sacraments. Its Method is Private Judgment, not Church Authority. But private judgment generates authority; authority, first legitimate, that of knowledge, grows into the illegitimate authority of prescription, calling itself Orthodoxy. Then Private Judgment comes forth again to criticise and reform. It thus becomes the duty of each individual to judge the Church; and out of innumerable individual judgments the insight of the Church is kept living and progressive. We contribute one such private judgment; not, we trust, in conceit, but in the hope of provoking other minds to further examinations.