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posed to do so ; he endeavours , however , to soften this fact in favour of hi& main argument , by calling these persons philosophical Unitarians ; and often intimates , that the common people , who were the majority of believers , were simple Unitarians , holding the pure truth , undisguised by the
prevailing philosophy of the age . I would just remark here , that the writers he has quoted make no such distinction : they do not inform us that the unlearned Unitarians differed in
doctrinal notions from their learned leaders . The Doctor ' s distinction I consider as mere hypothesis , unsupported by facts , and indeed opposed by them . Some persons may , perhaps , be surprised that I should venture to make such a declaration ; thev may
be ready to ask , ' * Has he not adduced plain proof , in two or three quotations at least , that the common people , or majority of believers , in the times referred to , were really simple Unitarians V * I answer , No ; those authors are of too late a date for the purpose .
I know of only three to whom he appeals for direct proof , and two of them , if not all , ( besides being too late , ) although they do 3 peak of the common people , yet say not a word which implies simple Unitarianism . I will give
their words as quoted in the History of Early Opinions , in Vol . III . p . 265 , is the following passage from Tertullian : " The simple , the ignorant and the unlearned , who are always the greater part of the body of Christians , since the rule of faith transfers the
worship of many gods to the true God ^ not understanding that the unity of God is not to be maintained except with the oeconomy , dread this oeconomy , imagining that this number and disposition of a trinity , is a division of the Unity .
They , therefore , will have that we are worshipers of two and even three Gods ; but that they are the worshipers of one God only . We say they hold the monarchy . Even the Latins have learned to bawl out for the monarchy ; and the Greeks themselves will not
understand the oeconomy . " P . 268 , Athanasius is quoted as saying , * ' It grieves those who stand up for the holy faith , " that the multitude , and especially persons of low understanding , should be infected with those blasphemies . Things that are sublime and difficult are not to be apprehended
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except by ^ faith , and ignorant people must fall if they cannot be persuaded to rest in faith and avoid curious questions . * ' In these quotations I cannot see any thing but what may be as properly referred to Sabellians as to simple Unitarians . That the " multitude , ' called by Athanasius , persons of
low understanding , and by 1 ertullian , " simple , ignorant and unlearned /* must , because thus named , be simple Unitarians , is mere gratuitous inference , and nothing like a fact expressed by those authors . Sabellians might with propriety distinguish themselves from Trinitarians , as " worshipers of
one God only , " and < c bawl out" ( as Tertullian says ) " for the monarchy . * And also the common people might prefer Sabellianism , as more easily understood and less liable to objections than the Trinitarian doctrine .
In pages 263 and 264 , are the following passages from Origen : € < Some are adorned with the Logos itself , others with a Logos which is akin to it , seeming to them to be the true Logos , who know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified , who look
only at the word made flesh . " " There are who partake of Logos which was from the beginning , which was with God , and which was God , &c , that speak of him as the Logos of God , and the Logos that was ivith him ; hut there are others who know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified , the
Logos that was inadu flesh ; such is the multitude of those who are called Christiana /* To * ' know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified , the Logos that was made flesh : " to
" acknowledge Christ ** only " according to the flesh , ' may be thought to imply a denial of his divinity , and a belief , that in his person he was no more than man : but it is not evident
to me , that Origen meant more than that the people he mentions knew nothing of the Logos as distinct from the Father , except in its humble state of incarnation , or of prolation from the Father , they being ignorant of its personal pre-existence with the Father before the world was . It is
remarkable that Origen says , " Some are adorned with the Logos itself , others with a Logos that is akin to itj" for the Logos of the SabeMSans mig ht truly be considered as akin to that of the orthodox , both believing the Logos
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522 Difficulties on the Unitarian Hypothesis .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1821, page 522, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2504/page/18/
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