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Thomas Emyln (1663-1741)
by bro.Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim
Thomas Emyln was born on the 27th May 1663. He went to Cambridge in 1678 ; and having concluded his studies there, returned to Dublin, where he soon became a very popular preacher. This Presbyterian Minister preached his first sermon in 1682, and for the next ten year his reputation as a good preacher grew. In about 1702, a member of his congregation observed that Emyln avoided certain well known pulpit expressions and the arguments usually employed in support of the dogma of Trinity. This lead to his being questioned as to what he thought about the concept of the Trinity, since he was asked so pointedly, Emyln found himself bound to express his views openly and without reserve :
He admitted that he believed in One God. He declared that God was Alone the Supreme Being and that Jesus derived all authority and power from Him alone. He added that if the congregation found his views obnoxious, he was quite walling to resign to enable them to choose a minister who supported their own opinions. The majority of the congregation did not want this, but the situation was such that he resigned, much to their sorrow. He was advised to go to England for a short while to let things calm down. This he did.
After staying in England for ten weeks, he returned to Dublin in order to collect and bring his family back to England. Before do so, he was arrested in 1703 and charged being a heretic. It had been found that he was responsible for publishing a book on Unitarianism entitled "An humble Inquiry into the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ", and this provided the prosecution with the evidence they needed. The entire book if fundamentally based on the text in John 14:28 in which Jesus says, "The Father is Greater than I". Emyln sought to establish that Jesus was a mediator between man and God. Thus, in a subtle way, he separated Jesus from God; and, in so doing, demolished the idea of the Trinity.
On account of the difficulty felt by his opponents in wording the indictment against him, trial was differed for a few months, which he spent in prison. When the trial finally commenced, a "gentlemen of the long robe" informed him that he would not be permitted to defend himself, but that is was designed "to run him down like wolf without law or game"1. It is not surprising that he was convicted and found guilty of "Writing and publishing an infamous and scandalous bible declaring that Jesus Christ is not the Supreme God"2. He was given the choice of being imprisoned for one year, or of paying a fine of one thousand pounds. HE was to remain in prison until the fine was paid. In the appeals which followed this sentence, he was dragged from court to court and paraded as a heretic before the public. This disgraceful treatment was described as being merciful for if he had been in Spain, he would have been burned alive. Due to a great deal of pressure on the government, the fine was reduced to seventy pounds. It was paid and Emyln left the prison and Ireland. An eminent priest commenting on the treatment meted out to heretics, declared that "the enlightening faculty of a dungeon and fine is very convincing"3
Emyln was one of the first among the Protestant dissenters who had the courage to publicly pronounce their disbelief in the doctrine of the Trinity. The number of Presbyterian ministers who joined him, and who embraced Arian and other unitarian beliefs at the beginning of the eighteen century was considerable. Ten years after Emyln's trial, the muffles unrest of the questioning of Jesus's supposed divinity, exploded with the publication of Samuel Clarke's "Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity" in 1712. In this book , he cited 1,251 passages from the Scriptures to prove that God the Father was supreme, and Christ and the Holy Spirit were subordinate. Clarke later published an edited version of the Book of Common Prayer omitting the Athanasian Creed and other Trinitarian features.
Thomas Emyln died in July 1741.
reference
Anti-Trinitarian Biographies 111, A. Wallace, p.517
Anti-Trinitarian Biographies 111, A. Wallace
Anti-Trinitarian Biographies 111, A. Wallace
from the Book : Jesus - A prophet of Islam
Author : Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim
(ICRA)