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account for Jehovah's saying , « Behold the man is become as one of us . " One of the things , which has ever excited in my mind a strong suspicion of the unsoundness of Socinianism , is the laborious painfulness of its advocates in explaining away those texts , which , if taken in their plain and obvious
raeari-| iig , directly militate against their system . A pregnant instance of this occurs in J . M . ' s exposition of Isaiah ix . 6 . an exposition , which I will venture to say would never have entered into the head of any man , who had riot to
support a previous system that required it . J . M . has predetermined that the divinity of Christ is an impossibility . Let a text therefore assert his divinity as plainly as it may , the legerdemain of J- M . will quickly make it speak quite a different language . That his exposition of the present text is not the natural one , it is almost superfluous to observe . Even Dr . Priestley , if I mistake nx > t , has the candour to
acknowledge , that Sociman interpretations are note always the , most obvious ones . In the text " the child born ! * is called El Gibbor or " the mighty God / ' To get rid of this , J , M . resorts to a mere conjecture of the ingenious , though , sometimes fanciful Parkhurst , respecting the ideal meaning : of El
considered as a radical . Now , even granting that its ideal meaning is interposition ( which after all is simply a conjecture , for' many will think it equally probable , judging from some of its cognates , that that meaning is strength , ) where will J . M . find any authority for translating El Gibbor by the interposing man ? Scripture itself will afford him none . Wherever the singular compound appellation El Gibbor occurs , it is ( unless I greatly mistake ) invariably applied to the supreme Being : and surely , before we admit J . M / s new translation , he ought , at least , to produce one instance wherein it is used to denote a mere created being , or where
it can ( respect being had to common sense ) be translatedt the interposing man . Let the reader consult Deut . x . 17 . Nehem . ix . 32 . Isaiah x . 21 . and Jerem . xxxii . 18 . in all which passages El Gibbor occurs ; and then judge of the merits of the proposed version . The inspired writers are chargeable with a most unaccountable laxity of style , upon the JSocinian hypothesis . Is it credible , that one of the exclusive titles of Jehovah should here be bestowed upon a mere man ?
Can we believe , that the Almighty would lay snares to delude his creatures into idolatry , and then punish them for being guilty of it ? u Gods there are many : " nay even the gods pr mighty men of the gentiles might have been styled
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410 The Clergyman ' s Answer to J . M .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1807, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2383/page/14/
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