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Untitled Article
When we consider these parti - culars ., and reflect on the occasion that gave rise to this forced , unnatural and inapplicable term of tvind : what a lamentable instance
do we contemplate of men s torturing and wresting scripture , in order to serve a present turn , or to support any hypoihelical or preconceived opinion ? Although it is of groat importance to ascertain and settle the
just and precise meaning of any particular text or portionof scripture , it is so more especiaLy respecting such as have frequently been introduced in support of particular doctrines , which may
have no very good foundation , either in any one text or part of scripture , when fairly and impartially considered . —Such I humbly apprehend to be the case , respecting the particular portion of the sacred writings now under
consideration ; and the doctrines which some -serious and even learned Christians have built on them . We find nothing in this -whole discourse of our Saviour , to countenance the doctrine , which some have contended it contains ,
of sudden , divme and irresistible impulses , and instantaneous illumination and conversion . No preter-natural , inward ,
undefincable st nsations , and those violent emotions , < Jescribed so pathetically by some , as the pangs and throes , attendant on regeneration or the ; n « --w birth . The-calm
emanations , the mild and persuasive influences of the spirit of God , are never represented as descending or operating like a tempestuous torreiit of wind . All is calm and orderly , though great
Untitled Article
and sublime ; easily to be congt * prehended ( as our Lord remarks ) by the spiritual , though , not b y the carnal mind * . ? Nor does the mysterious and
inexplicable , not to say incomprehensible doctrine ot the p ^ r ^ sonality of the holy 1 spirit , dexive any proof or support from the whole , or from any part of our Lord ' s discourse . tie is here
speaking of the spiritual nature of the kingdom of God , or kingdom of heaven % which he , as the promised Messiah , was to es * . tablibh . And the spirit here
mentioned , must , as in other places , mean the spirit of God ; by whose assistance alone our Lord declares most expressly , he was enabled to work the miracles
he performed : saying , "that of himself he could do nothing . * ' That spirit which spake to and by the mouths of Moses , the patriarchs and prophets of old ; and , in the
latter ages , by the great Messiah . That spirit which , with respect to the universe , is the creating , all sustaining ; in Providence the great superintending , controlling and d \ recting spirit ; and , in the glorious ciiul extensive plan of
redemption and salvation , is , by way of eminence , justly denomu
nated the holy spirit , and spirit of God ; which is of him alone ; and the ways of which , We alone knoweth , and directcth ; but which , by a common figure of speech , is said to breathe on whomsoever he will . " *
Thus is all in nature , providence and grace properly resolved into the divine energy of God alone ; that mighty , pure , undivided , incommunicable essence
" * . On this important subject , consult Cappe ' s learned and satisfactory discourse in his Crit . Reraar&s > vol . i . p . 131 , &c .
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92 Observations on the use of the Word TIvsutAtz .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1809, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1733/page/36/
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