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so far from being similar to theirs , were of a quite different nature . Indeed it appears so from the language used by them : the prophets in addressing the people say , ' thus saith the Lord ?* but our Saviour speaks from himself , as a son invested with the
authority of his father . In the customary language of the world we perceive a distinction in terms , according to the dignity of character supported b y persons in office . Thus he , who is charged with an important mission from -one sovereign to
another , is called an embassador ; the ordinary people who carry dispatches to him are called messengers ; and embassadors themselves differ in rank , and are sometimes designated by inferior titles , as envoys , &c . Now , it may be said , that all these , being in
fact employed on a message from the sovereign , may be called messengers ; yet surely there would be great impropriety of language in saying , the messenger from England made his entry into Paris on such a day , and had an audience from his most Christian
Majesty , by whom he was very graciously received . The same impropriety appears to be in the test of the Unitarian Book Society . The term me&senger is improperly chosen , and is derogatory to the character of our Saviour ; and
I cannot persuade myself , that it would have been used , but from the fears in the persons who framed the test , that , if they used th : i terms of dignity , so frequently applied by the apostles to our Saviour , they should countenance the errors of those who have
overstrained those terms , and given to him a character which he was the farthest in the world from assurhing . Thus by avoiding one , they have fallen into the opposite extreme . In saying this , however , I may perhaps be supposed to countenance the opinions of those Unitarians who believe our Saviour to have existed iil a
superior state , or , in other words , to have beeti a pre-existing being . But when I left the Sect established by law , which I did from an examination of the Holy Scriptures , tmd without
any regard to the opmioks or traditions of men , I left it on the conviction , that our Saviour was & man like to ourselves , sin only excepted , but distinguished from ail who wettt before or will follow after hifn , in being the &p ^
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pointed mean under God for the salvation of mankind ; that through him God bestows eternal life on his disciples ; that we are bound to reverence
him as our Saviour ; and that all the titles we bestow on the messengers or prophets who preceded him , rail far short of the dignity of his character , and of the glory justly assigned to him for his active obedience to the will of
his and their heavenly Father and God , and his submission to the most disgraceful death for our benefit . The prophets came with a message from God , and from the earliest records they unite in foretelling the humiliation and glory of him who should bruise the
serpent ' s head . In that glory none of the prophets or messengers can participate with him , and when we look to the writings of the Apostles , and observe the exalted terms in which they speak of our Saviour , I cannot but think , that they would entertain a very
mean opinion of the Christianity of those persons who should speak of our Saviour only as a messenger , and keep out of sight the more appropriate parts of his character . In fact , the term so often applied to him in Scripture , Our Saviour , carries with it
enough to shew the impropriety of the test laid down by the Unitarian Book Society . At ajiy rate this was the opinion of us at Cambridge , and the experience I have since had serves only to convince me , that that opinion was well founded .
Indeed , it appears to me , that the language used by the Unitarian Book Society , is calculated to produce , and has produced veiy pernicious effects . It has a tendency to lead persons away frorti the spirituality of our holy religion . It has been my fate to hear sermons and players , in neither of which has been the least allusion to
our Saviour ; and they might have been addressed to , and received by a Deistical as well a& a Christian audience . And this puts me in mind of the only sermon I ever heard fretffc fc celebrated preacher , Mr . RowUmtt Hill , which , with very slight exception ^ might be termed a trul y eva » Mifc 6 I discourse . In it he trMdte a ramafrk , on which he laid a becoming stress , and which , whenever a fit' Gpipoitumty occurs ; I endeavdu * " to fcttfbrce on the minds of all wjto gtet iritd thfc pulpit ; namely , that a didcGtirse ifithotrt the
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Mr . Frend on the Articles of the Unitarian Society . 29
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1820, page 29, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2484/page/29/
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