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in the divine decree , " a clamour is immediately raised that the plain words of Scripture are perverted to accommodate a preconceived system .
" Philology , " they cry with this worthy Author , p . 33 , " knows no system - —language and grammar submit to no Unitarian synods—we do not want a Unitarian Bible—we ask for no Bible
but that which is from God . " But for one text which is strained to an unusual sense by the Unitarians , there are ten which are distorted in a much greater degree by the Trinitarians , in order to force them to a sense consistent with their hypothesis , The Trinitarian holds that Christ is
equal with the Father : but how then does he explain that he knew not the day of judgment * - —that he could do * The writer of the " Trinitarian ' s Ap ,-peal defended , " who professes to be a great enemy to the interpretation of Scripture by system , nevertheless expressly asserts , p . 95 , that when our Lord
declares , Mark xiii . 32 , that " of , that day and hour knoweth no man , no not the angels that are in heaven , neither the Son , but the Father only ; " he did not mean to exclude the Holy Spirit , neither , we believe , did he mean to exclude himself as the eternal Word .
Now , had Peter or any other of the apostles been as wise as this writer , they would have had far better ground than upon any other occasion " to take him , and to begin to rebuke him . " They might have said , Sir . your language is not
correct , and it tends to mislead . You know that as the Son you are as well acquainted with the day of judgment as the Father himself , and that it is only in your human nature that you are ignorant of it . A nd whereas you declare that it was known to
the Father only , you cannot but be apprized that there are two other persons , the Son and the Holy Spirit , who are equally well-informed upon the subject with the Father . So that what you have so solemnly announced , cannot easily be reconciled to the simplicity of truth .
Tins the apostles might have said , and perhaps would have said had they suspected their Master to have been guilty of so gross an equivocation . But , poor souls , they were , no doubt , at that time as ignorant as the Unitarians now are , or even as tlie Editors of the Improved Version ; and Were simple enough to believe that our Lord meant what he said . Our
reverend Author could , no doubt if he pleased , solve the difficulty , and shew how consistent it is with the simplicity and sanctity
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nothing- of himself : how could our Lord affirm , my Father is greater than I ? Such passages as these clearly teach that the holy and humble Jesus never thought of arrogating to himself the powers and attributes of the great Supreme . Oh , but says the expert and systematic Trinitarian , all
these expressions are to be understood of our Lord ' s human nature only . Softly , my good friend ; do not trouble me with your mysterious and unintelligible systems : " Philology knows no system—language and grammar submit to no Trinitarian synods , nor oecumenical councils—we ask for no
Bible but that which is from God- * - we , do not want a Trinitarian Bible . "
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404 Mr . Coffanon the Moral System of Cafoinists .
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Walthamstow , Sir , June 25 , 1819 . UPON perusing Mr . Hutton ' s excellent sermon lately delivered at Bradford , [ see Mon . Repos . p . 400 , ] I was led to ask myself upon what principle our Calvinistic brethren can refuse to yield to the force of his reasonings ; and the answer was , that it
can only be by persisting to view morality through a medium of their own ; a medium which , it may be observed , annihilates the moral agency of man . Their system is founded on the position that the human heart is altogether depraved , and that man ,
in an unregenerate state , can do nothing which will be of any avail towards acceptance with God . If this be so , man is not a moral agent according to any imaginable definition by which the notion of moral agency
can be conveyed . Not only the knowledge of what is good , but the power to do what is good enters into the very essence of moral action ; and this power is by the Calvinistic hypothesis excluded .
But the freedom of the will may constitute man a moral agent . Let the will be as free as freedom can make it , as long as the human heart remains totally corrupt , it can only choose between different forms of evil ; and since every sin is an infinite evil , it can signify nothing , as to the moral
of our LprcPs character , that he should mean the very reverse of what his language expressed . " Alps are no ' Alps tQ bun"
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1819, page 404, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1774/page/4/
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