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- v . \ ' ¦ sight seem to imply , nor deemed it necessary to do any thing to prcyeni others from embracing or
retaining it , I btg leave to ask what reason can be assigned for his not refraining upon various occasions from the use of language which rm ° ht seem to countenance it , when other lan ^ ua ^ e- fre e from all ambiguity and equally well suited to his purpose , might have been so easily found , and is sometimes employed in the very passages where the former occurs . But , if there were occasions on \ vInch for certain reasons he preferred the use ... of ambiguous
language ., how are we to account for not finding him . at any time cautioning bis hearers against mistaking his , meaning ? Were the minds of all who ever attended upon his preaching so enlightened as to be in no danger of misunderstanding him , or so vigorous as to be
capable without difficulty of inferring his true meaning , from comparing his language with the great truths which he repeatedly and earnestly inculcated ? Was he so happy as to have hearers possessed ot such minds at a ! l places and time * in winch he
taught?—1 , 1 . It was one of the declared ends of the Christian revelation \ o apprise mankind that there is no devil , or ; that , if there be one , lie has not the power ascribed to b' « i . or it was not . . If it wcrt ^ why was it not e&pressly declared to be so ? Was it because it was not of sufficient importance to be explicitly and Juily stated to be oue ? But , if thett were the case ;
how dp $ s it appear that it was one in fact ? If it we re n&t one , where is the-necessity fpr ^ wpposing that wjiat Was not of consequence enough to be incorporated with
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the doctrines which our Lord was feent on purpose to teach , was so necessary to be known by him as to require that he should himself be made acquainted with it by particular revelation ? And if he had been himself favoured with particular information about it because on some account or other it was necessary that he should be so . how are we to shew that it _
was not necessary for his apostks also to be put in possession of the like knowledge ; or how are we to reconcile his not impartingthat knowledge to them with his de . claratidn ; ii All things that I
have heard from rny Father , I have made known unto you" ? John xv . 15 . 5 . I remember to have had a question of the following nature put to me by a learned and esteemed friend deceased , by way
of objection to my scheme : How are we to ascertain that our Lord could not be deceived with respect to the real author of those com . rnunications reputeoVdivine , which he is supposed to have receivedm the wilderness , if it be admitted that he mioht labour under
amistake as to the origin of his temptations , which occurred during the period of his retirement and in the same situation ? ' * My answer was to the following effect : 1 . Perhaps it is impossible for any but those who have received immediate communications
from God , to say by what - terion such communications are infallibly distinguishable in ail cases from thoughts , ideas , 'or images excited in the mind by other means .--2 . The mintfer in which divine communications were inadci to the mind of Jfeu ^« " 8 J be such as to render it absolute
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466 On the Temptation of Christ . — Letter V . ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1811, page 466, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2419/page/18/
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