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call in question the antiquity which the Hindoos ascribe to such practices- —how those ceremonies or doctrines which existed previ . ous to Christianity itself , can be
called a vestige of that which follows , I am at a loss to account , and must leave the learned Doctor , and the advocates of vicarious and human sacrifice to solve this difficulty .
Nothing is more evident than this conclusion , that which existed previous to a system cannot be a vestige of that system . If this be admitted , and I think it cannot be denied , it would be well if the
next Christian researches made by the learned Doctor , would be an inquiry , if these idolatrous notions and practices of the worship of a triune god , vicarious sacrifice and an incarnate God , be not more antient than Christianity itself , and have been injudiciously ,
nay , criminally incorporated into Christian creeds , and may be accounted amongst the worst corruptions of Christianity . —Amongst the various teachings of our Lord , he has directed us how and who
to worship , and I would certainly ask the Dr ., or the advocate of the triune worship , where our Lord taught this doctrine ? was it 'in the conversation with the woman of Samaria , which was
di-, rected immediately to this subject ? , was it when he taught his disciples , to pray , and lefc on record an example of prayer , which one would h ^ ye supposed would never bave f been mistaken . Or is the worship of a triune Goji , to be found in the devotional exercises of our
Lord himself , or in aijy of the ' teachings f the apostles on that » subject ?—/ £ his simple enquiry is surely of importance enough to
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engage any one whose time is devoted to Christian research . The Doctor ' s notion of the worship of a triune God , necessarily leads him into difficulty , and
before the reader proceeds three pages he finds in a note a recommendation of Idolatry . In giving an account of the places of worship and their appendages , he describes as the most
remarkable , the Caves of the Elephanta , in an island , near Bombay , and 4 < containing a triad of three faces /* each face of the triad , being five feet in length ; the whole of the statue and the
spacious temple which contains it , is cut out of the solid rock of the mountain . In the the note , page 265 , afteradescriptionofthisgraven image and the ancient temple of which he recommends a repair , is added— " every Christian travel
ler can assign a reason for wishing the emblem of a Trinity in Unity , existing in an ancient heathen nation , should remain entire during the ages of the world / 1 —Surely every Christian sees a reason why this idol ought not to be continued ; and even the pious Jew , instructed
by the less perfect system of Moses , must see the reason : bow will it square with the second commandment , ' Thou shalt not make unto thyself a graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven or earth ! If in the repair and embellishment of the
Elephanta , some new convert should be employed by an EpibCapalian divine , in restoring the hideous idol of three faces and one body , and had at first ornamented the wall with the inscription of the Decalogue , after the manner of the English churches r surely whe / i he recollected the 3 d command-
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Mr . R . Flower , on Dr . Buchanans Christian Researches . Sll
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1812, page 311, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1748/page/31/
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