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tion with regard to the person and office of Christ , viz . that he was not a man born as other men are , but by the miraculous intervention of the
Supreme Beia # , and therefore , in a peculiar as well as emphatical sense , denominated his Son : that , so born , he , like Adam , was not by the necessity of his nature subjected to death ;
or , in what I conceive to be the full meaning of his own very remarkable declaration , that , when he died , he abdicated , in obedience to the will of God , a life which it was not in the
power ot men , at any time , to take away : that the death of such a second Adam , in point of nature , was the means appointed by God , in the good pleasure of his justice and mercy , to redeem mankind from the penalty passed on the whole human race for the transgression of their progenitor ,
viz . the grave ; thus being made not only " a living soul , " but also " a quickening spirit : " and that faith in the efficacy of this sacrifice is the distinguishing tenet between the Jew and the Christian *
It is not ray intention , at present , to appeal , in confirmation of this opinion , to the unquestionable faith of the apostles in the entwety , the unity , the individuality of their f Son of God , on the one hand ; nor to the almost overwhelming sense they
manifestly entertained of his love in dying for the sins of mankind , on the other . As little am I disposed , just now , to remark on the probability , derived from analogy , of such a mode of redemption , or the complete apology which alone it seems to afford for
that otherwise apparently anomalous extreme of horrors with which the most intrepid , as well as the meekest , of mankind contemplated an event so perilous to the apprehension of every mortal human being , and , in his own case , divested of every terror but its concomitant pain . My sole object in these few lines is to inquire whether
* Mr . Wardlaw talks of " a key . " If the doctrine of " keys" is to determine the question , I know not one that fits all the wards so well as this . + * " Come , see the place where the
Lord Jay . ' They would not have crucified the Lord of glory . It was the Lord that died . " ( Not , according to the orthodox hypothesis , the suffering man , while the Impassible God looked on . )
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one of the strongest objections to the narrative of the miraculous conception of our Saviour , viz . its not being referred to or hinted at by any of the apostles , be as well founded as some of its patrons suppose ; or rather , perhaps , to submit to their reconsideration the two following texts , which appear to me to militate against such a conclusion :
Rom . i . 3 , 4 : "Made of the seed of David according to the flesh ; and declared to be the Son of Ofod with power , according to the spirit of holiness ** ( in the holy spirit , ) " by the resurrection from the dead . " What are we to understand here by the
phrase , " the Son of God with power , according to the spirit of holiness" ? Coupled with the preceding member of the sentence , my imagination or my understanding descries in it no less than an express and obvious
reference , to the fact , in question . The resurrection from the dead testifies , it is said , that he who was of the seed of David , &c , was the Son of God , &c . Translated into other words , the testimony seems to my mind to be , that the roan Jesus was in a peculiar sense
the offspring of the Spirit of God , in the sense here described in terms by the apostle . This only is the full extent of the deposition- There is a remarkable coincidence seemingly in the phraseology of the disputed narrative and the supposed allusion to it in this
place . " The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee , " ( the Virgiu Mary , ) " and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore , " ( the verse proceeds , ) ** that holy thing which shall be born of thee , shall be called the Son of God . " " It was not possible" that such a descendant of David
" should be holden of death ; " and thus his almost immediate resurrection from the grave attests the miraculous conception and birth of the Messiah . Such a person was " our Lord Jesus Christ "
The other text to which I would recall the attention of Unitarians is Gal . iv . 4—7 : " God sent forth—his Son made of a woman . " Does not this statement remarkably correspond with the former ? If the fact were
undisputed , would it not be considered as a precise and exact description of the Christ ? Is it not , then , a strong presuuiption in favour of the authenticity
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84 Jesus the Son of God in a peculiar Sense .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/20/
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