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    eeptioA of a divinity in the Messiah independent and underived . The assumption of Mr- Guraey , that jfce j ^ icase ' * Son of God" implied , in the understanding of the Jews , divinity , is too vague to be tangible :

    if he mean , as he no doubt does , independent or absolute divinity , the assertion is confuted by the whole tenor of the Jewish Scriptures : and he might as well contend that Ephraim was God , because Jehovah spe ^ lfiipf him as his son . : H % ^ ; Justin Martyr , in his dialogue with

    the Jew Tryphx * , expressly ascribes to him the opinion , which he endeavours to refute , that the Messiah would be simply , as to his . nature , man , The early Jewish eonverts , called Ebionites , thought the same : and so did

    those among- the later Christians , who are styled by their enemies heretics , but who boldly appealed to antiquity against the confusion introduced into church theology , by identifying the Word with the Son of God . The

    Word , said they , is not the Son of God ; he is only an attribute , a faculty , a property of the Divine nature . It is the man Jesus Christ who became the Son of God by the communication

    of the word . The appellation of Son of God agrees only to the man Jesus , mere man as to his nature , how great soever he was by his gifts . —Beausobre , Hist , de Maniche ' es , Tom . I . 539 .

    It is owing to this confusion that modern theologists , and such of the Jews as reason themselves out of the belief that Jehovah is a God , with whom and beside whom there is no God , fancy they discover a Trinity in

    the writings of the old Rabbins . That Christ should be called by the name of Jehovah , or that he should be called the Word of God , is so far from affording a proof that the Jews would therefore consider him as Jehovah or

    the Word , in the sense of personal existence or natural identity , that it justifies the directly contrary inference . "It is well known that in the Chaldee paraphrases , " says Lardner ,

    " it is very confmon tc * put Mimra Jehovah , the Word of the Lord , for Jehovah or God : " and he observes , " that the Jewish people , more especially those of them who were most zealous for the law , and niost exempt from foreign and philosophical specu-

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    lations , used this way of speaking conamoniy ; and by the Word , ox the Word ^^ 6 W ^ juiiderstood not a spirit separate fiomitted , but God hixnself >* aa * St . John ctaes . "—History wf the jfpostles and Evangelists . What then is proved by the statement , that " when Hosea says , ' And Jehovah shall save his people by Jeliovah their Gted - T / the arguaa paraphrases it , ' Jehovah shall save his people by the Word of Jehovuh' ¦?" They mean precisely the same thing . No Jew , with his eyes open , could

    light on the passage of Isaiah , * ' Behold my servant whom I uphold , mine elect in whom my soul delighteth , I have put my spirit upon him , " and conceive that it was any other spirit but that of God himself , or that the

    elect , who had it put upon him , or was anointed with it , was himself that spirit . But he would naturally , from the metaphorical and figurative genius of his language , and the custom of speech familiarized to him in the writings of the prophets , consider the anointed servant of Jehovah as one

    and the same with him , not in nature , but in operation and authority . If Moses was made God to Pharaoh , the Messiah , with far stricter propriety * as to him the spirit was given without measure , would be regarded by the Jews as God to them : his Angel , his Son , and bearing his name : but to say that because Messiah is denominated by the title Jehovah , that he is so denominated " in his pre-existing character , " unless it have a reference to his pre-existence in the Divine mind or counsels , is to beg the question .

    The thing proved , therefore , by the sentiments and phraseology of the old Rabbins , is simply the use of the idiom Word of God , as identical with God ' s power or spirit , or general attributes ; and when the writer speaks of this opinion as so different from that " entertained by Unitarians , " his observation can only apply to modern Unitarians , nor to them , indeed , without many exceptions . He has only to look into Lardner ' s Observations on

    • Lardner refers to Numbers tfxlii . 8 , rendered in the Targum , •* How shall I curse the house of Israel , when the word of the Lord has blessed them ?*'

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    1 %€ i Jewish Rabbins no Believers in a Trinity . 686

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1823, page 685, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1791/page/5/