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Untitled Article
Mr . D . ( to the best of my recollection ) does not enter into the consideration of difficulties , &c . nor could examine the difficulties attending Mr . Farmer ' s hypothesis ,
room is left for the following treatise . " This observation was , I suppose , recorded there under an apprehension , that I might not
enjoy a favourable opportunity of sending into the world what had been primarily drawn up to be delivered to a small society of Christians in the form of an exposition . As you have now condescended to introduce part of it into your
valuable miscellany , indulge me , Sir , with the hope of being permitted to bring to some termination or other , in the same work , what is there begun . This it is on every account , my wish to do in
as narrow a compass and as short a time as I can , without neglecting private and personal business , which may not admit of being postponed . Ey your leave I will now proceed to the consideration of
difficulties attending my scheme , the force of which I will endeavour to destroy , or at least to prove insufficient for overthrowing the icheme itself . The latter of these two things I shall attempt to do
first h and in the following manner . 1 . 1 take for granted , that Christens , ( for whom alone I am now writing , ) do not deny the reality ° f the temptation .
2 . If every possible x&ay of cxpkiijing the history of the temptation be among tho ^ e which have been mentioned in the course of this correspondence , which ( as far as 1 can conceive ) is the case , then the right one must be iti the number . 3 * Those Christians , who may
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On the Temptation of Christ . —Letter V . 46 l
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agree with me , in rejecting all ex « ceptthe one I embrace , must adopt that one , if they be convinced , that the gospel account is genuine , and that it coincides in every material circumstance with our Lord ' s own
report of what befel him in the wilderness . This they must do upon a principle not controverted as far as I know by any one viz . that , where there is but a certain number of ways of accounting for
a particular phenomenon , and it is found necessary to reject all of them except one , that one is of course to be received , the reality of the phsenomenon being , by
supposition indisputable , arid every thing which has had a beginning , evidently requiring some adequate cause of its existence .
By such a mode of reasoning has my mind been brought to acquiesce in the scheme which I have preferred for a long series of years , though not without perceiving it to have its difficulties . Difficulties
would probably attend even the scheme ( could such be discovered ) to which there appeared not a single opponent . However , as opinions relating to subjects of no inconsiderable importance , though the truth of them will not allow of
strict mathematical demonstration , may up 6 n repeated and impartial examination , appear to be supported by such evidence , as entities them to a cordial recep
tion , it is obviously desirable in such cases to lessen , as far as it can be fairly and * honestly done , the number or weight of remain-, ing difficulties , in ordei" to increase the satisfaction which the mind
feels in its decisions . I shall now , therefore , proceed to examine the principal difficulties attending my scheme , which have occurred
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1811, page 461, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2419/page/13/
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