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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.
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A proper question on this subject is , can h human nature exist without a human person ? If not , then there is a whole person of Christ without the addition of a divine nature : again , can a divine nature truly and literally exist
without a divine person ? If not , then there is a complete person of Christ without the addition of a human nature ; and if the two be united , he has not only two natures , but two persons , and therefore two natures in one person is as absurd as two natures in one
nature , or two persons m one person . Be it remembered also , that what is called the Deity of Christ is said to be the second person of the Trinity ; hence it follows , that either his humanity is nothing , or that he himself is more than a single person , for he had
( according to Trinitarianism ) a complete person before he possessed humanity ; and if the man Christ Jesus be truly a person , and if this person be united with the second person of the Trinity , then it follows as plainly as that one and one are two , that
Jesus Christ is not one person but t \ yo persons . Again , if one of the natures comprehended in the person of Christ be the second person of the Trinity , then there is a person within a person ; nay a divine person is in this cas ! e
comprehended in a person neither wholly divine nor wholly human , but made up of both . And if the second person of the Trinity forms part of the person of Messiah , then the Messiah must be not only more than a complete person ,
but greater than either of the natures or persons of which he is supposed to consist : that is , a person neither wholly God nor wholly man , must be greater , not only than man , but also than God .
It must be evident that the same mode of reasoning must be perfectly fair when applied to the Trinity . If there be three persons in God , then consequently , God is equal to all the persons , and greater than any one of them taken separately : thus God is
freater than the third person of the ' rinity , or Holy Spirit , and greater than the Son , the second person , and greater than the Father , the first person * , that is , God is greater than himself , for the Father ( it is said ) is God , the Son is God , and the Holy Ghost is God . It is unnecessary to add more , we conceive , to prove tU&t three divine
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persons in one divine essence is equivalent to three persons in one person , three essences in one essence , or three beings in one being 5 and that two natures in one person is equivalent to two persons in one person , two natures in one nature , or two somewha U in one somewhat , which is equivalent to absurdity .
If it be said , this is reasoning , not scripture , we reply that it is better first to reason and then to quote , than first to quote and not to reason ; and that unless we bring our reason to scripture , we shall only turn scripture into absurdity . DOULOSCHRISTOU .
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30 Marriage service of the Established Church Trinitarian
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Sir , Jan . 2 , 5 , 1815 . PTP 1 HE marriage service , as conduct-A ed by the Established Church , has of late been frequently the subject of discussion among the Protestant Dissenters ; and as they have more clearly understood the nature , or been
impressed by the importance , of religious liberty , has excited a proportionate degree of hesitation , as to the consistency of a compliance . These scruples have more particularly taken place among Unitarians 5 who are apprehensive that they depart here from
their great leading principle $ a part of the service being undeniably Trinitarian . They have also to observe , that their Irish Dissenting brethren are exempt from this obligation , by the legality of their marriages among themselves . By an Act of the Irish
Parliament , Dissenting Ministers may legally perform this service ; which is , of consequence , in itself legal and binding . We should conclude , therefore , that there can be no just reason for refusing it to Protestant Dissenters of the sister Island * The Quakers ,
also have long enjoyed this privilege . It may indeed , be observed by some , that marriage is a civil contract . But if so , religious principles and opiuions are blended with it , and a clergyman performs the ceremony . We refer your readers to the service itself for further information .
Unitarians have indeed , by a late Act been brought more immediately under the protection of law ; but they persuade themselves that the Legislature will not consider them as needlessly multiplying claims with the grants they have received * , but h ere also discover that liberality which ha * HUHrked their late proceedings .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 80, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/16/
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