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same terms are applied to so ma * . any other persons . Do the tends iir $ uborn » or first begot tent ,- of fcnly begotten convcj this notion' ? This question can bo answered
only by an examination of tbfc passages in the scriptures ; in which these terror are uSed ' , and if vfc find them" to be indiscriminately applied to other persons , it would be absurd to raise an argument upon them to be applied to Christ , and to exclude the rest of mankind * - I need not observe
here , that it is not only ludicrous to refer to the first cause of all things , any actions analogous to the ideas contained in the term begotten ; i 3 Ut every chasle ear revolts at the indecencies , which on this subject stain the pages of the earty Christain Fathers * . Israel , Ephraim , arid David are called the first-born of 'Gttd * The term is by our translators 'rendered in one piace ^ chie f s and the rneamng , of the hofy writers is sufficiently clear ; that nation and "their king were the chosen $ the beloved of God . It would be
rery bad English , to talk of a / number of first- born children , \ vhrn many were younger children , or in a figurative sense to call a multitude of persons an assembly of first-born : yett his used the new
Jan ^ ua ^ e is in testament , and when we read of the assembly of the first-born , we understand at ; oifce the assembly of Christians . Hence I inter , that the term first-born does not in itself tend to establish your notioh ; of ibe tquality of Christ with God *
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God is said in the * old te $ tarnen $ to bava begotten ^ the . children pf Israel ; and ari apostle speaks the same language . qJ life early Christians , God had begotten thern *
There is no impropriety in the phrase to beget the drops of dew ^ or , the hoary frost fc > f Iieay $ ft ; and a wicked man may be said to beget and bVing forth iniquity ot trouble : but to translate the
metaphor literally , would shew a strange perversion 6 f taste . So , if you sbfoftid argj , ue , that becaifs ^ God is said to hate begotten Christy he differs in his nature from other men , you would pervert the metaphor , and sit the same time labour under this
difficulty , that whatever quality you attribute to our Saviour , vou ark bound by parity of reasoning , to ascribe to the whole nation of Israelites , and the early Christian
church-Your oil t-works being destroyed ^ I flatter myself , that I shall in a few moments demolish your citadel . The term ' only begot tenf is not imfrequently used either in the old or the new testament ; but perhaps you are not aware , that it does not necessarily mean
one single person , or that the idea of genera ti an is not necessarilycontaincd in \ t r and that it is used , when we have proofs that the ' peraon of whom it was spoken , was not the only begotten * of ; his father . A father speaking of his * ( daughter and her husband , calls them hi »
two onJy begotten , nieaniog by these terms only hb two beloved children : and < % he author of thfc Epidtie to the . Hebrews . culb fcaac ¦) t r
? The language of the fathers of the Cbur ^ . the . » psti »^ 9 rs o ^ t ^ ^ Orthof }^ of the . rv *«« W d '* y > -h su (* h > %$ w
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306 . Ontfte Te&tiWiohy ofjhfj&ns fe the Perttin a / Cfout . Let . 5 .
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1808, page 366, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2394/page/14/
