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disciples , to denote the character or nature which he claimed to himself ; it was previously in use among" the Jews , and employed to describe tljte Messiah , whom at the time of our Lord ' s advent , they were eagerly expecting-. "
The question , " whether the Jews in our Saviour's time expected their Messiah to be something more than a human being * , " is ably considered by our author . Commenting on the memorable passage in Luke xx . 41 , he shews that it is decisive against the reputedly orthodox tenet : —12 .
«_ they [ the Scribes ] could not be ignbrant that the Son of David was also the Son of God ; and had they attached to this phrase the ideas which have since been annexed to it , what difficulty could there have been in replying , that , as
touching his human nature , he was the Son of David , hut , as touching * his divine , he was the very being wh © m the Psalmist worshiped in all the strains of his rapturous devotion , the Creator not of himself alone , but of earth and heaven ? They had no such answer ready , and consequently they had no such opinion respecting the
Messiah . On another fact in our Saviour ' s history , Mr . Kenrick reasons with great vigour and success : —13 , " Jesus had confessed before the tribunal of the high-priest , that he was the Son of God . Had he been understood in doing *
so to claim a divine nature , would the bitter malice of the Pharisees have contented itself with saying , as he hung upon the cross , He trusted in God , let him now deliver him if he will have him , because he said , I am the Son of God ? Would
they have failed to reproach him with irony as cutting * as that with which Elijah overwhelmed the priests of Baal , if he whom they saw expiring on the cross , had just before claimed to be the God of the universe ?"
Dr . Peter Allix ' s arguments to shew that the Jews in our Saviour ' s time expected their Messiah to be of a divine nature , are concisely and satisfactorily answered , 15 , 16 . Whatever be thought of certain expressions occurring in the Chaldee paraphrases
of the Scriptures , yet the writings of the evangelists , which are the faithful living picture of the sentiments and passions of our Lord ' s contemporaries , not only contain no traces of the Jews of his time entertaining the expectation of a * diviue Messiah , but fully prove that it did not prevail . And
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the fact is , that in those of the Chaldee paraphrases , which may claim a nearly equal antiquity with the New Testament , the expression , the word of Jehovah , is never in a single instance
used but as a synonyme for Jehovah himself ; the notion of the word as a substance , &c . not being found in any of the Rabbinical writings till about the sixth century of the Christian
sera " . But may not our Lord and his apostles have used the title Son of God in a high ^ nd mys . terious sense , unknown to the rest of their
countrymen ? " This preacher is ignorant of any passage of Scripture which can justify such a suspicion : until one caa be produced , he justly contents himself with Peter ' s doctrine on this
subject in Acts ii . QQ * The precise meaning of the scriptural appellation Son of God , Mr . K . endeavours to ascertain in the third part of his discourse . He perceives the germ of - this phraseology in the
second Psalm : ** T have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion f and he strongly evinces that Son of God is one of the-kingly * titles of the Messiah :
"As an earthly sovereign delegates to his son the province of liis kingdom , which he wishes to distinguish by the most mild and honourable government ; so the mildness and equity of that revived theocracy of which the Messiah was to be the
viceroy , would very naturally be described by representing him "who exercised it as the favoured Son of God . "—22 . We refer to the sermon itself for the proofs and illustrations of this position , and for some remarks ( 24 ) which develop the reason why the appellation Son of God , in the epistles , has a less decided reference to the
kingly office of the Messiah than in the gospels . ii The doctrines of orthodoxy , " this writer pronounces to iC have a tendency which authorizes us to oppose them by every weapon of a spiritual warfare .
—32 . At the conclusion of his discourse , he balances with a skilful and steady hand the evils and the advantages of civilization : with the strictest equity * Sec Eiehhorn ia Apocalypsia , Tom . I . 111 . Kev .
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574 Review . —KenriciCs Scriptural Meaning of the Title Son of God .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 574, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/50/
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