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given by him , was so framed as tc exclude simple Unitarians from the church ; yet we do not find the multitude of believers was excluded , therefore they could not be simple Unitarians . This creed is given as follows ( I . 308 ) : "He" ( Irenaeus ) " represents all Christians as believing in one God , the maker of heaven and earth , and all
tilings that are therein , by Jesus Christ , the Son of God , who , from his great love to his creatures , submitted to be born of a virgin , and by himself united God to man , " &c . P . 311 , the Doctor insinuates that this could not
he the proper creed , to which all Christians in the Catholic Church subscribed , because it would not suit Unitarians , of whom he says it is universally acknowledged there were many in the church . Here again appears his error in confounding Sabellians with simple Unitarians . The creed might
and did suit Sabellian Unitarians , and of these it was acknowledged there were many in the church , but not of simple Unitarians . Thus his argument against the creed appears to be founded on an error ; and this creed , as given by Irenaeus , remains a legitimate historical proof , that no simple Unitarians could , in his day , be in the church .
Fourthly . With respect to the passages before noticed , which the Doctor qu 6 ted as direct proof of the simple Unitarianism of the common people , I have now to remark , that the authors themselves of those passages actually spake of the simple , the ignorant and
unlearned , whom they mention as holding Sabellian doctrine . Tertullian , as referred to , History of Early Opinions , III . 268 , says concerning him , " The tares of Praxeas grew up , while many slept in the simplicity of doctrine /* We have already seen the
doctrine of Praxeas was , that " Jesus Christ was God the Father , omnipotent . " Athanasius , we have also seen , considered the common people as easily taken with the assertion , that " God the Logos suffered in . the flesh " and
that Origen considered them as believing in " a Logos akin" to that of the orthodox . I am , therefore , at a loss to understand with what propriety these writers can be considered as ever
speaking of the common people as simple Unitarians . Fifthly . What I have hinted respecting the dates of the above authors ,
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would be a serious objection against their testimony of the simple Unitarianism of the primitive Christians , even if they had asserted it in the passages which have been considered ( which , however , I believe they have not ) , Tertullian , the earliest of them , died twepty years after Theodotus is said to have " first" advanced the doctrine " that Christ was a mere man - "
Origen , 54 years after , or later - 7 and Athanasius , 171 years . Now allowing , for the sake of argument , that these writers really did complain of the common people of their time being simple Unitarians , vet we need not admit , as the tariansyet we need not admitas the
, , Doctor requires , that all the common people throughout the Christian world had always been such : it is not a necessary consequence . For if simple Unitarian doctrine prevailed considerably in the neighbourhood of the above writers , it would be natural for them
to complain of its generally affecting the people , and to ascribe its prevalence to their simplicity and ignorance ; and it might even , as a new doctrine , thus considerably prevail in the course of twenty , fifteen , or even ten years ; that is , in the time of Tertullian , after
the excommunication of Theodotus ; much more in the later times of Origen and Athanasius , especially after Sabellianisrn ( which appears to me to have led to its being advanced by Theodotus ) . Zealous teachers , under circumstances by no means miraculous , though favourable , have been known
to make a very general impression upon the jnind of the multitude in the course of but a few years . I have noticed that Theodotus himself had been a Sabellian , and that , forty or fifty years after his expulsion , Sabellians themselves , who had taken an active
part in that deed , began also to be generally expelled from the church , which is a presumptive argument , at least , that Sabellianism , which had long been tolerated , be ^ an to be viewed as dangerous , in that it had led to the entire denial of the divinity of Christ .
Not presuming to determine whether these objections against Dr . P s History , which seem weighty to me , may appear so to others , I commit what I have written to the impartial judgment of your readers ; not anxious for the fate of my arguments , but only for truth , R . MARTIN ,
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524 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 524, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2504/page/20/
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