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fod wade part of the design oi that revelation which our Lord was sent to publish . —6 . The morai character at Christ cannot be any way aff < cied by the eivor ; nor d'J I see how the truth of the doctrines be was commissioned to
teach can b' impaired by it . Among those doctrines I do not gnd him declaring it to be one , either that the devil has some power ovor the minds and bodies of men , or that there is such a being s though that both are facts seems to have been his privateopinion ; neither do I find him declaring that he was Cbmmissinned to teach the contrary doctrine . As to the doctrines which
he declared himself sent to teach ,, the truth oi them , so far as it rests on his affirmation , depends on the validity of those proofs of his enjoying a divine mission and authority , to which he appealed . — 7 As what he was commissioned
to teach may be gathered from the records ot his declarations on that bead ^ and any special Information relating to the existence or power tf the devil does not appear to t&v * YAixde part of it , his- private opinion respecting those subjects ou ^ ht no more to weaken our belief of what he declared himself sent to teach , than a misapprehension under which a person
happens to labaur with respect to fc particular subject , ought to excite a susrpicaon of his being in w error with respect to others on w * ich he gives satisfactory evi-* nc < f of his judging rightly . This a pprehend to be precisely the c&se with respect to our Lord , if ^ be supposed to have entertain * ^ erroneous i dea * concerning the S stance or ^ gency of Satan , | e the evidence which i * sufli-
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cient to prove him to have b ^ en sent by God , must also be suf . ficient to establish the truth of what he professed to teach by authority shewn to have been derived irom him . —8 L One reason
why Jesus might ^ be permitted to remain in t-he foremen ! ioned Csupposed ) error , might be , that he should not appear to have greater knowledge or discernmem in matters of natural philosophy , or metapliyMcs , or other abstruse sciences , than some of his countrymen enjoyed , that thus th& acknowledged superiority of
the manner in which he taught , and the superior comprehensiveness , purity , and perfection of his religious and moral instructions might appear the more extraordinary , and powerfully cooperate with other evidence of his teaching by the authority and under the direction of his heaven * ly Father *—9- J leave those who think the opinion respecting the devl , ascribed to our Lord by my
hypothesis ^ not to be erroneous , to dispose df rhe consequences as they can ; but not without U ' - commending to their deliberate consideration Mr . Gilbert Wake * field ' s long note on Matt . iv . 1 . in his New Translation of Mat * thew , 4 to . aJid Mr . John Simp , son ' s Essay on the meaning of the word Satan , &cc . —10 . If that idea bt an erroneous one , and to correct it made one of the ends ofc the Chilian revelation / I wish
to be informed bow it appears to be so . Does our Lord any where say or intimate that it was ? If it be said , so evidently erroneous is the idea , that the probability is , that our JLord neither himself reall y entertained it , whatever some of his language mav at fix $ t
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&n the Temptation of Christ . —Letter fc 48 &
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v «* vj . 3 o
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1811, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2419/page/17/
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