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plicity andl clearness , frequently upon siiBjepts * m tben ^ selves abstruse and dhficiilt , ^ hat by , comparing one part of their writings with another * and applying to them the same rjules of fair and just criticism , Which we do to other ancient
writings , we should be able to ascertain their meaning so well , as in ninety-nine cases ^ out of a hundred we find we do , — and in so many instances to detect and repudiate the false glosses and erroneous opinions , which these fathers had fastened upon them ?
In the profession of the ^ law we have a rule , which appears to me to be a very sensible and judicious one , namely , To interpret , whenever it is in our power , one part of an act of parliament by another ; and when we can ascertain , by the context or otherwise , the sense in which any given words are made use of
by the legislature m one part of an act , to conclude , unless the contrary appears , that they intended to make use of them in the same sense in other parts of it ; or , if the words do not occur in any other parts of the same act , we endeavour to discover in what sense they are used in other acts made in pari materia .
Pursuing this course , which is not only sanctioned by legal experience , but by the principles of sound criticism , it appeared to me , that we could not do better than to interpret the Scriptures by the Scriptures , and particularly each
Scripture writer and teacher by himself , where it was in our power ; as this would enable us to arrive at their meaning with quite as much certainty , as any of the fathers , who happened to live two or three hundred years after their publication . " - —Pp . 9—11 .
After many luminous observations upon this place of Scripture , the Barrister says , " It is a most singular fact , that there
is scarcely any part of this celebrated passage , so often quoted by Trinitarians in f support of their doctrine , which will not be found , when attentively considered , to be in direct opposition to it . I shall give one more instance of it from the
conclusion . Our Lord says that he was sanctified , and sent into the world by the Father . His sanctification and mission , we perceive , are mentioned together ; as if both took place , at the same time , or the forfcner immediately , or shortly ,
preceded the latter , and took pla . ce with a view to it , in order to qualify him for it . But what occasion could there be for him to J > e sanctified , who , according to the Trinitarian hypothesis , was' from all eternity most holy , wise , just and good ? If he was sanctified at , or just before , his
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mission , or at any other time whatever , it follows , that during the whole of an antecedent eternity he must have , been unsanctified . If it should be said by the Trinitarian , contrary to our Lord's words , ( who never speaks of himself by parts
and parcels , but as one entire being , ) that it was only his human nature that was then sanctified , —this , though it agrees perfectly with the Unitarian system , that at a certain period of his life he was by the Father sanctified and sent
into the world—that is , sent among the people to preach the gospel to them , — will not correspond at all with the Trinitarian doctrine , which represents the divine Logos , the second person in the Trinity only , as having been sent from heaven into this world to unite with the
human nature , which previously to the supposed miraculous conception had no existence . Supposing it , however , to have been the divine Logos , that was sanctified and sent into the world by the Father , there are other unavoidable inferences which are utterly irreconcileable with the Trinitarian scheme . He that
sanctifies must , whilst language has any meaning , be considered as greater or holier than he who is sanctified by him , as our Saviour himself says , ' Which is ? greater , the gift , or the altar which sanctifies the gift ? ' Matt , xxiii . 19 . In like manner , he who sends his messenger to finish certain work which he had given
him to do , ( John xvii . 5 , ) will always be deemed to be superior to the messenger he has dispatched to perform it . How is it also upon the Trinitarian hypothesis , that the Holy Ghost had no concern with our Lord's sanctification ; and that he is never represented v as having been sent by the Holy Ghost , but by the Father only ?" —Pp . 27—29 .
On the Incarnation , or union of the Divine Logos , the supposed second person of the Trinity , with the human nature of our Lord , so as to constitute together with it one person , having two distinct natures , he says , " Is it not most extraordinary , if the divine Logos was inseparably united to
the human nature of our Lord , so as to constitute with it but one person , that it does not appear to have enabled him to * perform one miracle , to impart one divine revelation , or to bear one suffering ? That it did not enable him to perform
any miracles is undeniable , not only from the absence of all proof , or assertion to this effect , but also from nfe own express declarations so often alluded to : c can of mine own self do nothing * The Father who d . welieth in me , he doth the works / That it did not enable him
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Review * - * A Barrister ' s Letters in Defence of Unitarfanism . 361
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1820, page 361, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2489/page/37/
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