On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ftll suppose that individual to be Christ . This is an incongruity that would -betray in th ^ apostle a gross ignorance of the language he used , and a strange don fusion
in his ideas * Literally rendered his words would be the ^ e , I * Without controversy great is the inystory , of godljness , who was manifested in the flesh . ' ? Is it credible that
the inspired penman could have written in this manner ? The reading of Grifsbach perverts the meaning of the apostle , which here , as in all other obscure places is , founded on the adverse tenets of the impostors . Those men concealed their
doctrines in mystery , and thus imparted them for large sums to their followers . They maintained that Christ being really a god and in appearance only a man , was exempt from the corrupt
nature of matter ; that he was not really crucified ; that he did not rise from the , dead , and that if he rose , he ought to have triumphantly shewn himself to his enemies , and be received by , the ivhole nation . In allusion to the
notion of the deceivers that Christianity was a mystery \ the apostle says to this effect : The gospel which inculcates a-
vixlu-<> us and godly life , and is therefore by way of eminence called godliness , may I allow with the deceivers who corrupt it and who make it but a cloak of vngodliness ^ be regarded as a great mystery . " He then proceeds to
Untitled Article
give an example of this concessi , on ; and taking mystery to mean a Jigure of speech , he places it in those very points , which his op . poaents denied . Adopting the ideas of the objectors- as a basis
in his min < l he constructs upon it the metaphorical language to which he has here given the name of mystery . Thus , " If Christ , by having a real llesh and blood , inherited , as the false brethren say ,
a corrupt and perishable nature , yet by his triumph over death , he proved himself divine ^ if his judges condemned him as a malefactor , the spirit of God acquitted him , justifying his claims
by raising him from the grave ; if he was not triumphantly seen by the men who killed him , he was seen by angels *; if he \ vas not embraced by the Jews at large
as a saviour , he was proclaimed and believed as such by the Gentile world ; and finally , if in disgrace he ascended the cross , he ascended to"heaven in glory . "
Here it is to be admitted that the apostle gives to Christ the title of Sreof God 9 but by this he marks him in opposition to craf £ Jlesh ( the principle of corruption and decay , ) as triumphant over death and immortal : and this is 0
a meaning which the term w Greek often bears . It is further to be remarked that the apostle prefixes to this application of § eo $ the word mystery , and thus leads his readers to consider the language as metaphorical , and
w * Meaning the apostles and others who having embraced and become ministers of the gospel , are here called angels . The sense of the apostle is , " Though Christ did not shew himself after ' his resurrection to all his enemies , he shewed himself to all those whom he had chosen and commissioned to preach the gospel . And these were sufficiently numerous and competent to verify the fact . "' The writer chose angeh to aggrandize his subject , and tg give jit that mysterious air , which he wished to illuiisrut * . His design is reversed by ren 4 ering it messengers fisin the I . V . "
Untitled Article
214 Strictures on the Improved Version .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1809, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1735/page/38/
-