On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
a different belief . In this" opinion j am not singular , some among the living with whom I have conversed on the subject , having the same , and two at least among the venerable dead , if I do not unfortunately misunderstand the drift of what I have read in the posthumous works of the latter and am < mincr to extract . The two
alhided to were the Itev % Tim . Kenrick and the Rev . Thcophilus Lindsey , both justly held in high estimation , hy those who best knew them , for the most valuable qualities of head and heart . The former appears to
have regarded it as matter more of curiosity than importance , whether Jesus thought differently concerning the devil from the rest of his countrymen , though he supposed it probable that he did not . Exposition , vol . ii . p . 384 , In the same page he adds , tc I have no
scruple in saying that the existence of such a being as the devil , possessed of the powers usually ascribed to him , is highly improbable , " and immediately subjoins his reason for thinking so . The latter ( the Rev . Theoph . Undsey ) as we are -informed by the Rev- T . Belsham , who so ably supplies his place , ' always kept Ws mind open to conviction , and never thought it too late to learn . And as he changed some opinions rather late in life , it was thought advisable to subjoin to each
Discourse the date of its composition , that , if any differences of sentiment should incidentally appear in the discourses themselves , or between ^ ese Discourses and any other of Mr . Lindsey ' s publications , it may he known which was his latest jud gment . "—Advertisement preyed to two volumes of Mr . Lind-
Untitled Article
On the Temptation of Christ . —Letter V . 463
Untitled Article
sey ' s Discourses , p . vii , viii . Accordingly such a change seems to have taken place , in his opinion , concerning our Lord ' s ideas as to the existence of a devil . In a
Disc , dated May 3 , 1778 , he seems to have thought that our Lord could have corrected the errors of the Jews on that subject , but was not permitted to do it . v . i .
p . 139 , Very nearly , if not exactly , the same opinion seems to have been retained by this diligent and honest inquirer after truth to the time of his composing another sermon , dated June 14 , 1789- p .
489 "—491 . But in a sermon composed just a week after , ( June 21 , ) his opinion , which might have
been wavering for sometime before , seems to have become moresettled . After having remarked , that for reasons that might be assigned , and for many unknown to us , it may have pleased Divine Providence that mankind should not
have any light upon this subject , ( the existence , &c . of a devil ) by an extraordinary revelation from Christ or his apostles , he proceeds , u I would now add upon this same point , that , as to the apostles , there is no reason to think that
they were not in the general persuasion of their countrymen , the learned Scribes and Pharisees upon these subjects , and believed the accounts they have given of possessions . iQ > With regard to our Saviour
Christ , there is more difficulty . < c But no one would think it any disparagement to him , that he was ignorant of mathematics , of natural philosophy , of the true
system of the world , of the nature of the air we breathe , and many other things , which have onl y of late been discovered ;— -why then
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1811, page 463, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2419/page/15/
-