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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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importunate calls of hunger , to Teuew his attack a second and a
third time upon , piety , resignation , and fortitude , which his past
experience : 3 > p < i a little reflection might hay e convinced him to be . pore than a match for all bis , . artifice ^ and cunning ? Farther , isjt at # ) l probable that oar Lord , when tie had seen through tho
cipracter and designs of his ad . vfirsary , and baffled his sivbtle attempt to , draw him off from the jduty which he owed to his heavenly father , should so far listen to the suggestions of a tried and
known foe as to submit to accompany him to the temple and to some high mountain , whither he could liardly avoid being aware that his eijemy must have sonje itiaiignant design to accomplish by conducting him ? Would not such conduct have . directly
opposed the precept delivered by him to his disciples , " Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation /' , and the spirit and object of a petition inserted in the prayer intended to teach his followers what to pray for , " lead us not into , temptation ?" Of the two common hypotheses , the one of which m ^ kes the temptation to have been an outward transaction , the other a diabolical . delusion , I thought it unnecessary to take separate ^ iQtice , after the . masterly r ^ $ ocin § employed by Mr ,. F . to overthrow them . 'J [ he ^ readers of the Mon thly Repository , if they vouchsafe to howour my letters \ yit < h a perusal , ittVpt . obsferve \ hat Mr . 1 ^' s also is
very far frop affording me satisfaction , as w ^ H as the two brought i ^ w ^ flA ii > the present . let-* te ^ , Wheth ^ cl bgsi f ifc these , any other can be framed except
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the one which occurred to my thoughts many years ago , and which I had afterwards the pleasure of finding to bear a striking resemblance to Mr . Dixon ' and
Mr . Cappe ' s , I shall not venture to deny or affirm . But , leaving that point to be determined by others , I would observe , that the resemblance just alluded to ha ^ emboldened me to make some at .
tempt to call more attention to an hypothesis which some studious gentlemen I have conversed with decidedly prefer to Mr . F ' s . However I must at the same time own , that the hypothesis , as exhibited in the tracts of Mr . D . and
Mr . C . seems to me not quite complete in . all its parts * Where the defect lies , in my humble opi * nion 5 an attentive reader will not find it very difficoH to discover .
It is easier to pull down than to build up . The former has constituted the principal part of my business hitherto : the latter and more difficult remains to be
attempted ,. The method I mean to pursue isj to endeavour to shew , 1 . That our Lord himself was probably : the first who disclosed what had befallen him in the
desert : 2 . That the accounts transmitted to us in the gospels arc probably in every thing material the same with what was originally communicated by Jesus himself 3 . That Mr . Dixon ' s and Mr .
Cappe ' s interpretations , though founded upon a principle which appears to me the most rational which has been laid before the public , are nevertheless in one
rejs pec ^ tt defective : 4 . Thai an interpretation founded upon the same principle , and having the defect alluded to pupgHed , adds weight to the evidence of our Lord ' s du
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448 On the Temptation of Christ * —Letter 3 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1810, page 448, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2408/page/24/
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