'This solemn form of blessing, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost': Daniel Waterland, The Grace, and 'Trinitarian minimalism'

Daniel Waterland was the champion of Trinitarian orthodoxy in the early- and mid-18th century Church of England, challenging those divines promoting non- and anti-Trinitarian theologies. Despite what we might assume, his weighty theological works in defence of Trinitarian doctrine do provide evidence of what I have inelegantly termed 'Trinitarian minimalism'. For example, in his The Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity Asserted (1734) he stated that "the right faith in the Trinity is short, and plain"; he praised "common Christians" on the matter of the Trinity, contrasting them with "the bolder and more inquisitive, because they are content to rest in generals"; and declared that belief in the Holy Trinity is one of those "Scripture Verities, prime Verities" which, for Christians, "is under Precept, is express Duty". In other words, the Trinitarian confession is not a matter of scholastic speculation but of Scriptural faith, nor is scholastic speculation and terminology required for saving faith in the Trinity. 

In his Trinity Sunday sermon 'A Familiar Discourse upon the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity', Waterland demonstrated how such characteristics of Trinitarian minimalism could be proclaimed from the pulpit. He began by introducing his text, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 'The Grace', very familiar indeed to his listeners:

This solemn form of blessing, or benediction, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, laid down by St. Paul, and from him derived into the common liturgies, may be a proper subject for our meditation upon the festival of the Holy Trinity, which we this day celebrate.

Waterland's choice of text is itself significant. The Grace, of course, was a very common prayer for those who heard the sermon: it was, as the sermon states, known in "common liturgies". The fact that it is the words of Saint Paul only further emphasised that Trinitarian faith was no scholastic, philosophical concept but, rather, the teaching of holy Scripture.

As for those anti-Trinitarians who would gleefully point out that the Apostle's blessing does not use the term 'God the Father', Waterland sees no obstacle at all. This is "the Scripture style" in which Trinitarian faith is - to use words from his great work cited above - "interwoven with the very Frame and Texture of the Christian Religion":

God the Father has particularly and eminently the name of God given him, in the Scripture style, because he was first made known to the world, and because God the Son and God the Holy Ghost (though one God with the Father) are yet represented as submitting to inferior offices, and to be sent by the Father: and one of them is his Son, and the other his Spirit, referred to him, as being the first in the Godhead, and fountain of both the other.

Note here the absence of technical doctrinal Trinitarian terminology: the Son and Spirit are "sent by the Father", thus avoiding speculations about the meaning of 'begotten' and 'procession'; likewise, God the Father is the "fountain" of the Son and Spirit, again removing the need for speculative description of this eternal relationship.

He then expounds how The Grace is inherently Trinitarian, for in it the saving acts and grace of God are diversely known to us through the offices of Three Persons of the Holy Trinity:

God the Father giveth grace, and the Holy Spirit likewise giveth grace, and is particularly called the Spirit of grace; and grace is the common gift of the whole Trinity: but yet here it is peculiarly attributed to Christ, as his gift and blessing, and denoting the special grace of redemption. The next words are, "the love of God" that is, of God the Father. We read of the "love of Christ," and of the "love of the Spirit;" and love is common to the whole Trinity, for " God is love." But here one particular kind of love, the love of the Father in sending his Son to redeem us, the Holy Ghost to sanctify us, is intended. The last words are, "and the communion of the Holy Ghost." Now there is a communion both of the Father and the Son with every good man; according to what our Lord says, "If any man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Every good man is a temple of the whole Trinity, which has communion with him, and abides in him; as is plain from innumerable texts of Scripture. But, in this text, one special and peculiar kind of communion, appertaining to the Holy Ghost, is signified.

Grace, love, fellowship, these are "the common gift of the whole Trinity", but are revealed and brought to us through the respective offices and work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is this which gives The Grace its inherently Trinitarian texture. As Waterland goes on to say:

One thing however is observable, that though St. Paul might have indifferently applied grace, or love, or communion, to either Father, or Son, or Holy Ghost, or to all together; yet he chose rather to make the characters several and distinct, to keep up the more lively sense of the distinction of persons and offices.

That Saint Paul did not simply say 'The grace, love, and fellowship of God be with you all' is, as Waterland emphasises, profoundly significant and revealing. The Apostle employs Trinitarian grammar to convey what it is for Christians to know and dwell in God's grace, love, and fellowship. The Grace, therefore, witness to the Trinitarian faith of the Scriptures and proclaimed by the Church:

the Son and the Holy Ghost are no creatures, but strictly Divine, and of the same true and eternal Godhead with the Father himself. In this faith was the Church founded; in this faith have the renowned martyrs and confessors of old lived and died; in the same faith are all the churches of the Christian world instructed and edified at this day.

Waterland's sermon is an important example of 'Trinitarian minimalism', delivered by a divine whose scholarly works robustly defended orthodox Trinitarian doctrine. As the sermon demonstrates, saving faith in the Holy Trinity does not require the language of dogmatic discourse, beyond 'Trinity' and 'Persons'. Above all, Trinitarian faith is Scriptural precisely because the Scriptures of the New Testament - as seen in 2 Corinthians 13:14 - are inherently Trinitarian. The grammar of the Trinity is woven deeply into the text of holy Scripture. And this is sufficient for our salvation, for the "common Christian", and for our "common liturgies".

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Waterland's sermon 'A Familiar Discourse upon the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity' is found in The Works of Waterland, Volume V, edited by Van Mildert.