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mation of simple Unitarianism aimmg the Gentile Christians for the two first centuries : on the contrary , in referring to those writers , to prove that Unita- * rians were not accounted here $ | gs in those early times , he has also proved
by the same authority , that they were in fact SabeUians . * For instance , in the History of Early Opinions , ( L 292 , ) he says of Origen , if In one place he evidently considers the heretics and Unitarians separately , &c . ; but supposes the Unitarians conr * founded the person of the Fatlier and
Son . " II . 10 / , referring to something said by Tertullian , he says , * This respected the Sabellians , who laid great stress on Christ saying , ' I and my Father are one . ' These were the
philosophical Unitarians . " III . 348 , he speaks of Cyril of Jerusalem , as saying , " There is an apostacy ; for men have departed from the right faith ; some confounding the Son with the Father : meaning , " says the Doctor , " the Unitarians . " P . 293 . he
says , " Eusebius , in his controversy with Marcellus , says , Some , for fear of introducing a second God , make the Father and Son the same ; Marcellus , for fear of saying there are two Gods , denies the Son to be a separate
person /* P , 346 , speaking of Austin , he says , It is also the Unitarians that he refers to in the following passage : Let us not hear them who say , &c , that the Father himself is sometimes called the Son , and sometimes the Spirit . "
It even appears that some , if not all of these , whom the Doctor calls Unitarians , so nearly approximated to the opinions of the orthodox , as to allow the Logos a distinct personality 9 only
differing from Trinitarians in not allowing the personality to be permanent , independent , and a mode of existence proper to the divine Logos ; hut continuing only during its prolation or extension from the Father .
This will be better understood by a reference to the Doctor ' s own words . II- 45 , speaking of the principles of Philo , he represents them as follows : " That the divine Logos could assume * apply the name to persons who lived before Sabellius , because it has since « w time been generally used to distinguish their doctrine .
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occasional personality to answer particulaar purposes ; and then be resorbed into the Divine Being again / 7 Pp . 46 , 47 * he further says > " The doctrine of the occasional emission of this
divine principle , preceded that of the permanent personality . " He then adds , concerning the occasional emission , "The opinion , &c , was the same that was held by Marcellus of Ancyra , and other learned Christians , ranked
among Unitarians . " He further says , * ' On this scheme it might have been said the divine Logos would have been a person at the creation of the world - , and again , when it was employed in the divine intercourse with the patriarchs - f in the interval of which it was deprived of its personality , and
recovered it again at the baptism of Christ , &c . This , therefore , " ( adds the Doctor , ) < s may be called philosophical Unitarianism" In his second volume , p . 275 , he says , " Athenagora 3 considered the Holy Spirit as an efflux from the Deity , flowing out , and drawn into him again at pleasure , &c . This was that kind of existence which
some persons ascribed to the Son , and which constituted what may be called the philosophical Unitarianism of that age . " In Vol . III . p . 386 , he quotes Epiphanius , as saying , " The babellians say that the Son was sent from the Father , as a beam of light
from the sun , to administer every thing relating to the gospel dispensation , and then drawn up into heaven as a beam of light which returns to its source . " Page 388 , the Doctor says , " IV ^ arcellus is generally described as being what I call a philosophical Unitarian ; but he is not said to be a
patripassian . According to Theodoret , he held that Christ came as an extension of the Father ' s divinity : this he called God the Logos ; but after all the oeconomy ( that is , the gospel dispensation ) shall be accomplished , it will again be drawn into him and centred iu God , from whom it had beeu
extended . " Such , according to the Doctor's own representation , were the opinions of the learned part of those whom lie considered as the early Unitarian . Christians . The passages he has quoted , to prove they were not heretics , are so interwoven with proofs of their Sabellian notions , that he could not have concealed it had he been dis-
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Difficulties on the Unitarian Hypothesis ' * 521
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vol . xvt . 3 y
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1821, page 521, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2504/page/17/
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