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that was addressing to him these insidious suggestions P- ^ -who it was that proposed to the Creator of heaven and earth to fall down and worship him in order to receive in return the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them ? If he did , how could he be affected by any such-temptations ? If he did not , what becomes of his omniscience ? But how was it possible for such a being to be under any temptation to try the love of God to him by turning stones into bread , or by casting himself down from a pinnacle of the temple ? How could all the glories of this world be any temptation to him who ( according to the Arian scheme ) had made all things , under the direction of the Supreme Being ? Had he forgotten the power and glory which he once possessed ? Above all , how can we conceive that any of these things should be temptations to the second person of the Trinity , himself equal to the Father ? In fact , there seems something so strange ^ so inconsistent with all our notions of the character of the blessed Jesus , in the
supposition that a being so pure and so holy—so free from every thought of worldly glory or aggrandizement—could really be tempted by the prospect of such things as these , that it seems to present an almost insurmountable objection to all modes of interpreting this narrative , which proceed on the hypothesis that any actual temptation was presented to his mind . The notion of a dream or vision of some kind , though liable to objection upon
other grounds , is free from this difficulty ; for we know , from constant experience ^ that the mind , under these circumstances , is not affected or disturbed by inconsistencies either natural or moral , which would be altogether revolting at other times . The same character evidently applies to many of the prophetical visionary
representations in the Old Testament ; and Dr . Hartley has even suggested that an argument for the genuineness of these prophecies might be derived from this very circumstance . So that its utter inconsistency with the real character of our Saviour is no reason why he may not be supposed in a dream to have imagined
himself really influenced by the petty and sordid inducements supposed to be held out by the devil in this story . Nor , again , does our entire disbelief in the real existence of such a being , as the devil or Satan is usually described , oppose any obstacle to the conjecture , that in a . dream he might suppose himself to be really
holding a dialogue with this imaginary personage . The supposition of Mr . Cappe and others , that Jesus actually repaired to a pinnacle of the temple ( a place which there is no reason to think was accessible to persons not officially connected with the temple service ) , and that in that situation the idea suggested itself to his waking thoughts , * What a magnificent thing it would be to throw myself down from this height to commence my ministry among the people below V seems to me fraught with insurmountable difficulties . Did he travel alope to Jerusalem , from
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41 Wy Scripture Criticism .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 496, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/64/
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