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as a poor , sorry , contemptible sinner , in the eyes of the world ; . they scorned him . " ' This fellow said / Matt . xxvi . 61 . Hereby * he made himself of no reputation / Phil . ii . 2 . It blotted his honour and reputation . By reason hereof he lost all esteem and honour from those who saw him . Matt . xiii . 55 : € Is not this the . Carpenter ' s son ?* To see a poor man travelling up and down the country in hunger , thirst , weariness , attended with a company of poor men ^ " one of his com ~ pany bearing the bag-, and that vrt&ch was put therein , ( John xiii . 3 % ) vfho that had see » him , would ever have thought this had been the Creator of the world , the Prince of the kings of the earth ? ' He was despised and we esteemed him not / Now which of you is it that would not rather choose to endure
much misery as a man , than to be degraded into a contemptible worra ^ that every body treads upon , and no man regards it ? Christ looked so unlike a God m this habit , that he was scarce allowed the name of a man ; a worm rather than a man . "— Works , I . 94 , 95 .
How far Mr . Belsham may be shielded from the charge of " obdurate impiety , " and others of a darker shade , which Dr . Smith has , I hope incautiously , sanctioned , by the language of the learned Casaubon , as quoted in Mr . Foster ' s Narrative , ( p . 198 , ) the reader may judge . He declares ,
" That the best and most learned of the Fathers have been so bewildered in palpable contradictions , whether the Lord and Governor of the world who fills the universe , was concealed in the body of an infant , that it contains an objection against Christianity , the most
considerable that ever waa made , and which has kept more people * from embracing the Christian faith , , 4 hafT any that he knew ; that this doctrine , when it came to be explained , produqejcl many divisions which were called her ^ sjgS fc and looked upon as crimes ; and these divisions produced persecutions .
Claude , in a Sermon pn Luke ii . 8 —11 , thus exclaitns : € C Ineffable mystery ! in which we behold two natures , the divine and human , united in one person . Amazing
oeconomy ! in which the Creator becomes a creature , the Father of eternity submits to the revolutions of time , the Master of the world , he who thought it not robbery to be equal with God , takes upon him the form of a servant , and is made in the likeness of men . I know not which to
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" * * ' torn % ^ M in his . " Scripture Testimony . " e 71 /
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truly and properly be called the Man Christ Jesus , 1 Tim . ii . 5 . It was a wonder to Solomon that God would dwell in that stately and magnificent temple at Jerusalem . 2 Chron . vi . 18 : But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth ? Behold , the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; how much Jess this house which I have built ! But it is a far greater wonder that God should dwell in a body of flesh , and pitch his tabernacle with us , John i . 14 . It would have seemed a rude blasphemy , had not the Scriptures plainly revealed it , to have thought or spoken of the eternal God , as born in time ; the world ' s Creator as a creature ; the Ancient of Days , as an Infant of Days . ' -The Heathen Chaldeans told the
king of Babel , that the * dwelling of the gods is not with flesh , ' Dan . ii . II . But now God not only dwells with flesh , but dwells in flesh ; yea , was made flesh , and dwelt among us . " For the sun to fall from its sphere , and be degraded into a wandering atom ;
for an angel to be turned out of heaven , and be converted into a silly fly or worm , had been no such great abasement ; for they were but creatures before , and so they would abide still , though in an inferior order or species of creatures . The distance betwixt the highest and lowest species of creatures is but a finite distance . The angel and the worm dwell not fkr asunder . But for the infinite
glorious Creator of all things , to become a creature , is a mystery exceeding all human understanding . The distance betwixt God and the highest order of creatures , is an infinite distance . He is said to humble himself to behold the things done in heaven . What a humiliation is
it to behold the things in the lower world ! But to be born into it , and become a man ! Great , indeed , is the mystery of Godliness . * Behold , ' ( saith the prophet , Isa . xl . 15 , 17 , ) the nations are as a drop of a bucket , and are counted as the small dust of the balance ; he taketh up the isles as a very little thing , —All nations before him are as nothing ,
and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity ! ' If , indeed , this great and incomprehensible Majesty will himself stoop to the condition of a creature , we may easily believe , that being once a creature , he would expose himself to hunger , thirst , shame , spitting , death , or any thing but sin . " .. ..
" And yet more , by this his incarnation he was greatly humbled , inasmuch as this so vailed , clouded and disguised him , that during the tune he lived here , lie looked not like himself , as God , but
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1821, page 717, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2507/page/21/
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