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acknowledged tbat there is gome part of the constitution of the complete person o # our Lord Jesus Christ which existed throughout all ancient ages , and had an existence early enough to create this world . We have plain
directions from scripture to suppose that this second person , or this man Jesus Christ , has the true Godhead united to him and dwelling * in him in a peculiar manner - y the man Jesus Christ is assumed by the great God into so near and intimate an union with
himself , that they are often represented as one complex person or personal agent ; he is the agent or medium of the great God , who acteth by him . " Dr . Watts observes of the Holy
Spirit , that " the best idea we can obtain is that of the ancient and irlodern Jews , that the Spirit of God is a real , almi g hty , operative power , or principle 01 knowledge or action , in the true Godhead . For I do not find
they ever agreed to carry their idea so far as to make him a real , distinct person in the Deity : " and he supposes that ** the notion of the Spirit which was ehtertained when Christ came into
the world , was the same nation which tlie Jews had received from all ages $ and that our blessed Lord used these words in the same sense as that in which the Jews of his day used them , without reproach or blame . " He then states what was the idea with them of
the spirit of a man and the spirit of a beast , and concludes by declaring that '" the Spirit of God > according to this analogy , must be that all-wise , almighty and eternal principle of
consciousness and of powerful operation which is in the Godhead ; and that the Holy Spirit need not any where be construed into a real , proper , distinct person . "
I perceive that both Dr . Watts and this new sect object to the term person being applied to the Spirit at all $ and when I see the vacillating manner in which so good a man as Watts ex * - presses himself , the evident fear that he may say too much , and the tenacity
with which these persons hold to the ancient modes of expression , while yet they evidently are tempted to give up the doctrine altogether which the words were coined to maintain , I think of the glorious liberty with which we , Sir , are made free , arid I rejoice that
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while © i } r views are clear arid bright as the meridian sun * we have no words to employ which are shrouded in the cobwebs of a false philosophy , but , in plain words , which he that runneth may both read and understand , can teach our doctrine , which is according to godliness .
What would that pious and virtuous man , Dr . Watts , have raade of the other evangelical doctrines , as they are called , if he had published the second part of the modest but cautious little work with which Mr , Eaton
has furnished us an edition ? Would he , like these followers of Mr . Baring , have held the Calvinistic doctrines in all their extent > and maintained , as they do , the utter inability of man to work out his own salvation , and with it the doctrine of eternal punishment because he does not work it out ? I
suspect he would not : and I do suppose that amongst the manuscripts which remained after his death was found the second part of this humble Inquiry into the Christian doctrines , which his executors thought it prudent
not to publish , because it was too honest an avowal that , through a long and a valued life , the amiable Doctor had been in a great error as to the truths that Jesus and his apostles taught . If this be the case , what have those executors to answer for ? At
all events , they must have known that the religious world would hare been gratified with the last thoughts of so good and so wise a man , and they have been guilty of a manifest injustice in withholding any thing he had written on the Christian doctrines . The
striking similarity between the language of W atts in the tract referred to and that of the new sect , leads one to believe that the latter may have taken their opinions from the perusal of the former ; and had the second part which he promised to the world appeared , they might have been led still farther from error . It may be hoped they will soon be so . I . W .
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- ~ ¦¦¦^¦¦^»—Sir , Pancras . AS the " Spirit of Despotism /' which has been recently nub * lished by Mr . Hone , has been noticed by one of your correspondents , who signs himself H . T ., [ p . 108 , ] perhap s
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i 64 Author of " The Spirit of Despotism ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/36/
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