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Untitled Article
very tenets and dogmas which are now appealed to as the ' peculiar doctrines of Christianity / are so far from deserving that title , thai , to him , they appear heathenish , unscriptural , anti-christian , and the like ; that they were held by the heathens generally long before the era of Moses ; and that certain verbal and other
coincidences were eagerly seized on by those to whom the gospel simplicity was a stumbling-block and a scandal ; and that thus , these heathenish absurdities were laboriously interwoven into the variegated creeds of our present patchwork scheme of orthodoxy .
A Unitarian—we do not charge our * Investigator' with being a Unitarian in the technical sense of the word , as one of a sect bo called , but a believer in the divine unity—has this main advantage over all others , that , in controversy , he seeks not periphrases or circuitous illustrations . He goes at once , and confidently , to the straightforward and literal meaning of Scripture . He can fling his English and authorized version at the moon ,
and dive promptly into the profundities of the original , untroubled by any fear of what Greek , or Hebrew , or Syriac , can do unto him . f I am a disciple of Christ , ' says the Investigator ; * I believe that Christ personally taught all that is necessary ; and I believe that all is necessary which Christ personally taught to be so / This , on the face of it , seems sufficiently reasonable , but it is not enough for those who have a taste for peculiar doctrines . ' They hold , ' says our author , * that our salvation was obtained by the omnipotent God of the universe being made flesh , ' and , by * the sufferings of the flesh of this God or Christ ;* that * atonement is made by the flesh , or the human body of God or of Christ suffering on the cross . ' Whereupon he declares , that the most perfectly distinctive appellations for such persons are * carnefidists , sarcopists , or flesh-trusting Christians , ' in opposition to those of simpler faith , who believe that the snirit
quickeneth , ' and whom he calls ' spiritual Christians . ' Having declared in general terms his opinion of the nature of the orthodox faith , our Investigator proceeds through his subsequent chapters to dissect closely his doctrines . Quoting from Faber and others , he adduces the fact , that Trinitarian worship , in the strictest sense of the term , the adoration of one God in three persons , was practised long before the time of Moses , ( p . 13 . ) These particulars are familiarly known to the theological student , but they are not often placed before the general reader ; the coincidences , however , are too remarkable to be accidental , and we are glad to see them brought forward . This divinity , worshipped under different titles , said the heathen teachers , the Great Father , Adonis , Hessus , or Chrishna , was born of a virgin : his life was sought by a huge serpent , he was slain by the monster , but he finally conquered his adversary , and crushed his head beneath his heel . He was the mild and benevolent reformer of mankind , but was also the God of vengeance . He was prophet , priest , and king ; the sacrificer a& well aa the sacrifice ; being slain , he de-
Untitled Article
The Trinitarian Investigator . IBS
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 183, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/39/
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