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Untitled Article
fact of his undertaking to prove it in the laborious manner in which he applies himself to the task- —all tends to show the novelty in his day of the doctrine of the deity of Christ , and his consciousness that it was not only novel but unpopular . Since Justin Martyr has had so much to do in corrupting the purity of the Gospel , it is desirable to know who and what he was—what
claims he has to our respect—what right he had to exercise authority in the church of Christ , so far even as to introduce novelties in doctrine . Justin Martyr was born in Samaria , at the beginning of the second century . Before his conversion to Christianity , he had gone through all the schools of the philosophers , searching chiefly for an intimate and transcendental knowledge of God . Justin was a visionary , and fond chiefly of what was lofty
and mysterious . Justin had been a philosopher , when converted to Christianity he retained the name and the garb of a philosopher . Justin had been a Platonist , and when he had become a disciple of Christ , he found that the doctrines of his new master were * not of a different nature , but only not altogether similar * to those of his old master ; he laboured to discover points of resemblance between the Platonic and the Christian doctrines ,
and , like many other fathers of the church , created them by imagination when they existed not in reality . i Plato and the Christians are both of the same mind about a future judgment ; he affirms only they differ as to who is to
exercise the functions of judging . The birth of Jesus of a virgin , he compares with the birth of the sons of . Jupiter ; ' there is Mercury , Jove ' s interpreter , in imitation of the logos ^ in worship among you ( the heathen ) , and your chief teacher—there are Pollux and Castor , the sons of Jove by Leda , and Perseus by DanaeV * As to the son of God called Jesus , should we allow
him to be nothing more than man , yet the title , son of God , is justifiable on account of his wisdom , for is not God styled by your own writers , Father of Gods and men ? But if we say that the logos is begotten of God by a generation different from that of men , this you might tolerate , since you ( the heathen ) have your Mercury worshipped under the title of the word and messenger of God . As to his being crucified—suffering was common to all the sons of Jove ; as to his being born of a virgin , you have your Perseus to balance that—as to his curing the lame and the paralytic , this is little more than you say of your Esculapius . ' Justin taught that demons were produced by the intercourse of angels with the daughters of men ; that the demons , as soon as
they heard the prophecy of Moses respecting the coming of Christ , —* The sceptre shall not depart from Judah , nor a lawgiver from between his feet , till Shiloh come , and unto him shall the gathering of the people be ; binding his foal unto the vine , and washing his garments in the blood of the grape / - — ( thus he quotes ) * set up Bacchus for the sou of Jove , and make him in >
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Rise and Progress of the Jboctrine of the Trinity . 281
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 261, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/45/
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