John the
Evangelist gives exclusively to the Son of God.
Neither do they often make use of the word "Trinity." This expression
they can no where find in the sacred writings. This to them is a
sufficient warrant for rejecting it. They consider it as a term of mere
human invention, and of too late a date to claim a place among the
expressions of primitive Christianity. For they find it neither in
Justin Martyr, nor in Irenaeus, nor in Tertullian, nor in Origen, nor in
the Fathers of the three first centuries of the church.
And as they seldom use the term, so they seldom or never try, when it
offers itself to them, either in conversation or in books, to fathom its
meaning. They judge that a curious inquiry into such high and
speculative things, though ever so great truths in themselves, tends
little to Godliness, and less to peace; and that their principal concern
is with that only which is clearly revealed, and which leads practically
to holiness of life.
Consistently with this judgment, we find but little said respecting the
Trinity by the Quaker writers.
It is remarkable that Barclay in the course of his apology, takes no
notice of this subject.
William Penn seems to have satisfied himself with refuting what he
considered to be a gross notion, namely, that of three persons in the
Trinity. For after having shown what the Trinity was not, he no where
attempts to explain what he conceived it to be.
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