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or dominions , or principalities , or powers , all these things are made by him , and for him , and he is before them all , takes precedence both in time and dignity , and by him do all these things consist . Yet who would infer from such
language as this , that the present ruler of France is a being of superior order to mankind , much less that he is the maker of the world ? The language which is true of Bonaparte , in a civil sense , is applicable to Jesus Christ in a moral view ; but it no more implies
preexistence , or proper creative power in one case than in the other . " The learned divine , as if struck with pious horror at the blasphemy of the paragraph , with all due
solemnity , adds , " This comment of Mr . Belsham ' s requires no comment from me , ' ' and contents himself with the easy process of marking his disapprobation by three notes of admiration ! ! !
Btit , after all , will any one deny the truth of the analogy ? And is it not obvious even to the understanding of a child ? Jesus Christ , as the sovereign of the Christian dispensation , appoints the officers
of that dispensation , communicates their qualifications , and assigns them their respective spheres of action , which the apostle , in allusion to earthly monarchies , expresses by the creation of thrones , and dominions , principalities and
powers : just as , in the present state of Europe , the Emperor Napoleon is , in a political sense , the head of those principalities and powers , which have derived their political existence from him . Where is the harm of this
illustration ? And what occasion is there for that awful silence , and those portentous notes of admiration ,
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which express so much more than the most learned comments of our learned theologian ? It may , perhaps , be alleged , that it was indecorous in the author of the Letters on Arianism , to compare Jesus Christ to Bonaparte .
Had it been called inexpedient ^ perhaps the objection might have been allowed . Considering how apt ignorant and weak persons are to take oflFence where none was
intended , and how eager artful and malignant men are to lay hold on every occasion to do mischief , arid to pervert the most innocent language to excite the bad passions of fools and bigots , it might have been prudent in the writer to have omitted the offensive
compa-. But that the use of such a similitude is far from implying disrespect to the object of it , is evident from the example of our Lord himself , who , in a well-known parable #
compares his heavenly Father to an unjust judge , who neither feared God nor regarded man : —• and likewise from the example of the apostles , who in their
writings frequently compare our Lord to Satan , representing them as two sovereigns who divide the world between them , and who are perpetually at war with each other ; sometimes winning and sometimes
losing , in the eternal contest . But certainly our Lord had no design to disparage the character of his Father ; nor his disciples , that of their Master . Let not then , the author of the Letters , &c .
be suspected of an intention to disparage the character and dignity of the great prophet of the Most High , by illustrating his moral government in the Chris- * tian dispensation , by comparing
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Reply to Dr . Magee . — To the Inquirers after Christian Truth . 499
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1813, page 499, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2431/page/11/
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