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his father ? and the devil the father of the Jews , because they did , what they had seen with their father . A little attention to this
mode of speaking , would have saved the world an infinity of controversy . If God was the father of Christ from generation , the devil was the father of the
Jews in the same manner . If Christ meant literally , that he liad seen with his own eyes ( a thing impossible in itself , ) God , his father , the Jews must have Seen with their eyes also the devil .
their father . Both suppositions are so excessively absurd , that nothing but the zeal of orthodoxy could adopt them . God is called the father of Christ , and the devil the father of the Jews , in
a figurative sense , which was plain to the hearers at those times , and is to the readers of the present , whose minds are not warped by prejudice .
But it is said , that the Jews took up stones to stone him , for pretending to be God ; and this in two places . Their intention does not prove , that he said any thing like it : and before we condemn
our Saviour of so horrid a charge as blasphemy , let us hear his own answers * In the first place , so far from pretending to be God , he tells them , that he can do
nothing of himself , and that God had sent him to do the works , which they saw . In the second place , Jesus denies entirel y ^ that he called himself God . Hence
we see , that otir Saviour vindicates himself from the charges , which , if they had been just , must have been brought against bwn at' his trial . ¦ > - * But he Said at one time , land my hither are xme « 1 afo asto-
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nished , that a Greek scholar should bring this verse in proof of his doctrine * especially , when the term one is so repeatedly used by our Saviour of himself , and
his disciples . I and my father are one- —one what ? Your knowledge in the language forbids you to repeat the nonsensical words of your church , one God . The meaning is evident . He and his
father arc one , exactly in the same sense , in which he prays , that he , his father , and his disciples , may be one . I could scarce refrain from
smiling at your remark on the expression , no man knoweth who the son is but the father , and who the father is , but the son—namely , that Christ must have referred to
some invisible nature distinct from his human nature . For you have omitted an essential part of the verse , namely , that no man knoweth the father but the son .
and those to whomsoever the son will reveal him * Now I should hardly imagine , that the- nature of the son is more difficult to be apprehended than that of the
father ; yet Christ was to reveal the father to many . The fact is that you have confused yourself , like many other divines , with . the metaphysical term , nature ; to which there is no reference at all
in the words of our Saviour . You should consider . first the meaning of the word know in scripture , and this wilLlead you to understand , . that a Christian may know
and does know , in the present day , both the father and the son ,, without perplexirig himself with investigating , what you are -pleased to call the nature of either . . . I am * &c
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544 On ( he Testimony of the Jexvs to the Person of Christ . Letter f .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1808, page 544, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2397/page/20/
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