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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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qguu *} ** I will take a favourite text of some of the people called Unitarians , witit whom , ere this , I have tad to do , far a definition of omnipotence , vix . Matt , xxvui , 18 , * All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth / ' * What
this allusion to the doings of Breviloquus with Unitarians means , unless it he intended to intimate that he i £ no novice in the walks of controversy , brief as he is on this occasion , in unison with the
came he bas to appropriately cho . % en , it is not easy to develope . But his idea that the above is a favourite text with Unitarians , is , I conclude , rather a recent disco * Very . Sopie time ago it was said ,
by Viiidex , ' ' as orthodox a writer ^ at all even ts , as Breviloquus , to be ^ " with its context not the niost proper for an Unitarian , according to modern acceptation , to allude to : * whereas , it is now
represented as one of their favour * ite texts ; and that by a writer who quotes it as " a , definition of omnipotence !—So far is this text from suggesting any idea of omnipotence , or underived pewer over
all , in our great Master , that it describes him , after his ' resurrec tion , when about to take leave < if bis disciples , as solemnly assuring them that all the power he poslessed was given unto him ; and the context plainly confines the
meaning of the terms used , to uch power as was adequate td accomplish tbe great objects there poken of . Thfe text bas been gene-** H y so understood * I believe , even by professed Trinitarians . See Cmden ' s Concordance for an orthodox
• xposition of this text on those princ > ples # and for his explanation of t \ te various scriptural meairiagpof *« ward «« power /* Speaking ef * # U ru »
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import in this text , the author defines it to be not only given or conferredy but limited , ** as ** to be commensurate with the attainment of the ends for which it wasbestowed . To understand tha
text with Breviloquus , as a 44 de » finition of omnipotence , ** is in effect to maintain , that omnipotence is a communicable attribute . And bis reference to this tekt by way of explaining the sense in which Christ maybe called omnipotent ,
evidently shews that he understands it of imparted and not of underived , unlimited power . The one is an essentialy inseparable attribute of the Most High God , and can never be justly ascribed to any other Being , however ex * cellent or exalted : the other is
distributed to numberless orders of beings , and to every individual throughout the boundless empire of the great Creator , in such dif * ferent proportions as bis infinite wisdom has seen fit .
My conjecture was therefore , perhaps ^ not improbable , that the compilers of th ^ s Epistle , in , the use of the term on&ipotent meant little more than *? that Christ wai
an all-sufficient Saviour , as be * ing perfectly qualified to accomplish the great work which his Father gave him to do , * ' especially if Breviloquus was one of the committee , by whom this Epistle was drawn up , and presented
to the meeting : nor can I suppose he would think of ascribing omnipotence , to u the man of sin , because bis " coming" is said in scripture to be , " after the work- » ing i of Satan , * mtk all power *** 2 Tfeess , 2 * P .
Breriloquus concludes with saying , " as to the Epistle , while it turns out . ( m I should kar # * Xm
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Quakers * Yearly Epistle . $ f ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1811, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2413/page/33/
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