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The only difficulty here , arises from inattention to the Jewish idiom , in which the mark of distinction is omitted where the connexion requires it to be supplied . Thus Judges ^ xvi . 7 « . Sampson said if they shall bind me , I shall become weak , and
be as a man ; where the public version very properly supplies the word another , as it also does , v . l i . 13 , 15 , and ought unques ^ lionably to have supplied it here . My friend declines pursuing the argument any further , " Many other passages of scripture /* ( says he ^ p . 171 . ) " might be quoted , but I have produced only those which
appear to me most decisive and sufficient to establish the doctrine of the pre-existence of Christ . ' * I am happy to agree with my friend that these are the passages in which his great strength lies , and that if these do not establish the pre-existence of Christ , and that he is the creator and supporter of all things , no
other passages will prove it . How far they are conclusive to thia point , every reader must judge for himself . In my estimation , as arguments for Arianisnx , they are empty as the bubble , and lighter than air * .
My worthy friend , though he has read Dr . Priestley ' s works , has not condescended to notice an argument , which that learned and indefatigable inquirer has advanced , and which , in the opinion of many competent judges , is fatal to the Arian hypothesis . It is , that Arianisni , by which I mean the
doctrine , that the spirit which animated the body of Qhrist was a creature of God , and employed by him as his ? instrument in making and governing the world , was absolutely unknown in the Christian church till the beginning of the fourth century , when to the amazement and dismay of the whole orthodox world , it was first broached by a subtle and learned
presbyter of Alexandria . I will venture to say that few facts in history are better authenticated th&n this , nor has it to my Lrct it be remembered , that it is not at all incumbent upon the Unitarians to produce a formal proof of the simple humanity of Jesus Christ . For who is so unreasonable as to expect arguments to prove a man , to be a man , and not a superhuman being ? But if any one asserts that a person who appears in a human form
and subject to all the incidents 6 f human nature is the creator of the world , it testa with him to prove this extraordinary assumption , and if the arguments are not clear and decisive , it follows of course , that the being who appears , and feels , and acta * and suffers as a man , is a proper human being . It is however remarkable that the author of the epistle to the Hebrews , in the second c hapter , sets him
self professedly to prove that the JLcadcr q £ salvation could not be a spirit of superior order , but must be a proper human being , a man in all respects like to his brethren ; though superior to all former prophets and messengers «> f God , who are called upon , chap , % , o , to pay hpmage to Christ , upon his resurrection from the grave , by a figure similar to that by which the 4 eparted heroes , ha . xiv . are Him * Cloned to meet and address the kiu £ of Babylon upon his descent to Hade * , the grand receptacle of the mighty dead .
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Mr . , Belshatn * $ Strictures on Carpenters Lectures . b § %
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1807, page 595, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2386/page/31/
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