'The modesty of Christians is contented in Divine Mysteries': Tillotson and Trinitarian minimalism

In his 1693 sermon 'Concerning the unity of the divine nature and the B. Trinity', Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson, repeated a critique of scholastic definitions of the Trinity also seen in the works of the Cambridge Platonists, Jeremy Taylor, and other Latitudinarians:

I desire it may be well considered, that there is a wide difference between the nice Speculations of the Schools, beyond what is revealed in Scripture, concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity, and what the Scripture only teaches and asserts concerning this Mystery. For it is not to be denied but that the Schoolmen, who abounded in wit and leisure, though very few among them had either exact skill in the H. Scriptures, or in Ecclesiastical Antiquity and the Writings of the ancient Fathers of the Christian Church: I say, it cannot be denied but that these Speculative and very acute men, who wrought a great part of their Divinity out of their own Brains as Spiders do Cobwebs out of their own bowels, have started a thousand subtleties about this Mystery, such as no Christian is bound to trouble his head withal; much less is it necessary for him to understand those niceties which we may reasonably presume that they who talk of them did themselves never thoroughly understand; and least of all is it necessary to believe them. The modesty of Christians is contented in Divine Mysteries to know what God hath thought fit to reveal concerning them, and hath no curiosity to be wise above that which is written.

It is a good expression of what laudable Practice has previously - and rather inelegantly - termed 'Trinitarian minimalism'. Excessive speculation about the inner being and workings of the Holy Trinity undermines the doctrinal confession, not least because it seeks to probe into and speculate about that which is beyond Scripture. This encourages both anti-Trinitarian thought and a sentiment within churches that the doctrine of the Trinity is too abstract and obscure to have any significance for ordinary, routine Christian faith.

By contrast, a Trinitarian minimalism recognises that there "a thousand subtleties about this Mystery, such as no Christian is bound to trouble his head withal". Instead, we can rest in what is necessary, that which is revealed in Scripture. As Tillotson declares in his sermon:

Let it be further considered, That though neither the word Trinity, nor perhaps Person, in the sense in which it is used by Divines when they treat of this Mystery, be any where to be met with in Scripture; yet it cannot be denied but that Three are there spoken of by the Names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose Name every Christian is baptized, and to each of whom the highest Titles and Properties of God are in Scripture attributed: And these Three are spoken of with as much distinction from one another as we use to speak of three several Persons.

So that though the word Trinity be not found in Scripture, yet these Three are there expresly and frequently mentioned; and Trinity is nothing but three of any thing. And so likewise though the word Person be not there expresly applied to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; yet it will be very hard to find a more convenient word whereby to express the distinction of these Three. For which reason I could never yet see any just cause to quarrel at this term. For since the Holy Spirit of God in Scripture hath thought fit in speaking of these Three to distinguish them from one another, as we use in common speech to distinguish three several Persons, I cannot see any reason why, in the explication of this Mystery which purely depends upon Divine Revelation, we should not speak of it in the same manner as the Scripture doth: And though the word Person is now become a Term of Art, I see no cause why we should decline it, so long as we mean by it neither more nor less than what the Scripture says in other words.

One of the most significant strengths of Trinitarian minimalism is the confidence with which it proclaims the doctrine of the Trinity as scriptural grammar: that One God, Three Persons is not the result of scholastic and philosophical speculations, but is the God witnessed to in the holy Scriptures. In preaching and catechesis, nothing is required beyond this. Perhaps, then, a renewal of such Trinitarian minimalism - in place of both a de facto unitarianism and a very speculative, tenuous social Trinitarianism - would be appropriate for our times, providing both a reinvigorated confidence in Trinitarian faith and nurturing "the modesty of Christians ... contented in Divine Mysteries"