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Trinity . Dr . Moysey takes up the scheme of Bishop Gastrell , which is expound ed in the words of the bishop , and then animadverted ou , in the following passage : <* 'These three names , of God the Father , Son and Holy Ghost , must denote a threefold difference * or distinction
belonging to Hod , but such as is consistent with the unity and simplicity of the divine nature ; for each of « lhese includes the whole idea of God and something more : So far a « they express the nature of God , they all adequately arid exactly signify the same . It is the additional signification which makes ali the distinction between
them . u , then , according' to this newly-discovered or more properly revived hypothesis of the Trinity , the Father includes the whole idea of God and something * more : the Son includes the whole idea of God and something- more : and the Holy Ghost includes the whole idea of God and
something' more : while altogether , the Father , the 8011 and the Holy Ghost make bat one entire God and no more . " This is indeed the mystery of mysteries : Cecilte Romani scriptores ^ cedite Graii . It transcends transubstantiation
itself . It is a mystery at which reason stands aghasty aud faith herself must be more than 4 half confounded * Weil might the learned Lecturer so > earnestly and repeatedly call for and enjoin the lowest prostration of the understanding * before he divulged so awful a secret . Well
might he cry avauitt ! to > the busy and meddlesome Unitarians , who are so notorious for their profane habit of prying into holy mysteries , and their troublesome opposition to implicit faith .
" But for uiy own part , I must profess , that however I may be branded by the learned Lecturer as a Deist , an infidel , a heretic , a blasphemer , or with any other term of reproach which may be drawn from bis copious vocabulary ; if the penal code itself were to be restored , so that I might no longer speak truth with impunity ; nay , even if the wholesome statute de htarelico
tomburendo were again to be called into action , and I were absolutely bound to the stake ; yet with all these powerful aids to unlock the understanding and to support ine taitb , 1 could never be brought to beheve
the doctrine of the learned Bamptonian Lecturer ~ m be ti ue , viz . that the father , the Son and the Holy Spirit , eac , h of tlu > include the * whole idea of God and something * more , * and yet when taken together tliafc they make up one entire God and nothing more . " —Pp . 32 , The zealous . Lecturer ' s biblical
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learning strikes his opponent with as little awe as his theological metaphysics . In reading the extract which we are now about to give * the least impartial reader will be ready . to cry out for mercy on the Bampton divine :
41 There is , however , one text which appears to have fallen tinder the learned Lecturer " * hi ^ h displeasure , and which lie marks repeatedly with tokens of disappro - bation . Nor , to say the truth , do I greatly wonder at it , for it is full in the teeth of his favourite doctrines . 1 he author of
the * Letters to the Bishop of London * has staled , that the Unitarians * believe Jesus Christ to be a proper human being * , in ail respects like unto his brethren . ' * This the learned Lecturer cites as a very obnoxious doctrine , in direct opposition to the doctrine of the church : and ( p . 64 ) he marks 6
the words in all respects' hy italics , as being particularly offensive . These words , he tells us , ( p 65 , ) assert that 6 our Saviour waa a mere human being—and they lose none of their impiety by the subsequent admission of Christ ' s divine mission . * To this unfortunate text the learned
Lecturer recurs again aud again , and always with some note of disapprobation , particularly p . 92 : 4 They seek to degrade our Lord to a mere man' in all respects , ' like unto his fellows * But the falsehood of that blasphemy has been shewn . ' This is strong * language : but to do justice to
the learned Lecturer , I do not believe that lie knew that it was a passage of Scripture against which he was fulminating * the charges of falsehood , impiety and blasphemy . But if he will take the trouble to open his New Testament at the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews , he Mill find , at the 17 th verse , that the writer
a ( firms that ' in alt things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren . ' I quite agree with the learned Lecturer , that this doctrine is utterly irreconcileable to that of the Church of England : but for this discrepancy the members of that communion , and not the Unitarians , are responsible . "—Pp . 41 , 42 .
In a different style , different because equally suited to the subject , Mr . Belsham expresses his thoughts upon the Scripture doctrine of the judgment of the world by Jesus Ch rist :
u Upon the whole , it cannot he disputed that the Scriptures represent our Lord as the man by whom the world is to be judged —they speak of his proper humanity , as that which peculiarly qualifies him for this high office : ' God has given him authority to execute judgment because he . is the
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Review . —Belsham " s Reply to Dr . Moysey . 497
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1819, page 497, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1775/page/37/
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