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to my own reflections , or been suggested by others . And , 1 , It has been asked , how upon my scheme I can account
for the evangelists having given the appearance of a history of literal facts to their narratives of the temptation . My answer is , that I lake those
narratives to contain , m every thing of consequence , a literal and cor reel copy of our Lords own representation of the three trials upon record .
2 . It may be thought very difficult upon my scheme , to account for the evangelical narratives having been drawn up in the form of a dialogue between our Lord and the devil , my hypothesis not admitting any intercourse personal or visionary to . have taken place bet wen them .
I do not think this difficulty insuperable . Though , with Mr . Dixon and Mr . Cappe , I suppose our Lord's trials to have been merely thoughts , which in a natural way presented themselves
to his mind , in consequence of the circumstances he was in , and of his modes of thinking , vet I at the same time suppose them tohave appeared to him to be suggestions ofsatan . These imagined suggestions of the devil are spoken of in
the history as proposals . Our Lord seems plainly to have regarded them in that light ; and immediately perceiving their tendency ^ and recollecti ng some passages of scripture , which proved compliance with them to be inconsistent with the submission and
obedience due to the will and appointments of his heavenly father , drove away the insidious proposer with a contempt of his
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462 On the Temptation of Christ . — Letter V .
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flattering offers and assura nces . Now Christ , seeming to himself to have been engaged in something like a short discussion with another about the lawfulness of
certain actions , recommended by a display of the grand objects attainable by the performance of them might , in strict consistency with his own ideas , impart an account of what had happened to him , while he was experiencing a momentary opposition in his mind
between contending principles , in the form of a dialogue or conversation with his reputed tempter . In this conduct I do not percene any thing unnatural , or different from what was to be expected .
without a very sudden and even miraculous change produced in his notions concerning the being , disposition and agency of satan —This leads me to the consider * . tion of a
3 . Difficulty , which , in tbe estimation of those pious and learned writers , who have attempted to disprove the being
and agency of a devil , and , notwithstanding our Lord ' s use of language which seems to imply the contrary , do not suppose him to have believed in the existence
of such a being , may be a very great one . I frankly own , that it docs constitude a part of my hypot hesis , that our Lord did believe in the
existence , and entertain the cut . rent notion of the interference of the devil , with- human concerns , held by the generality of Jews in his . days ; and I p rofess myself unable , till better enlightened , reconcile his language on sevcra important occasions , with c opinion of his having entertained
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1811, page 462, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2419/page/14/
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