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in tUeir judgment . " There were others then among the wise , who did not thus expect a temporal deliverance ; and who therefore were mistaken in their judgment . These were the followers of the Prince of Peace , who
interpreting the prophecies in a spiritual sense , considered them as fulfilled in Jesus ; who is already come to deliver them from sin , to conquer death , and will hereafter come to establish on the earth the kingdom of God . These listened to the warning
voice of their Divine Master ; and it is evident that Josephus here ranks himself with that number ; and as he avoided the impiety and madness of the refractory , he in common with the followers of Christ , escaped in a great degree the calamities and ruin which overtook the rest of his countrymen . J . JONES .
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Sir , February 16 , 1825 . HAVE read with considerable plea-I sure , a paper in the last number of the Repository [ pp . 20—23 ] , on the subject of Anti-supernaturaiism . I cannot , however , help thinking that the candid spirit of your correspondent has in some measure misled him .
The passage referred to is the following : "I would be far from asserting , with Mr . Belsharn , that anti-supernaturalists , when they assume the name of Christians , are guilty of ' . base hypocrisy / or * downright falsehood / " An excess of candour is so
amiable a fault , that one scarcely knows how to condemn it , yet I will venture to dissent from your correspondent on this point , and to vindicate the language which he hesitates to adopt .
Mr . B . has long been in the habit of using " great plainness of speech . " His language here is certainly strong ; but let us examine a little into the circumstances of the case , and it may not perhaps be found too severe . What is this anti-supernaturalism of which we talk ? Is it something entirely new , that needed a new name to
characterize it ? Is it not rather the adoption of a name to gloss over what before existed under a more odious designation ? The name is indeed recent , but we have long been acquainted . with the thing , as infidelity or unbelief . We have long heard , and read , and spoken
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of unbelievers , always understanding by the word , persons who do not believe in the supernatural in religionin the miraculous origin of Christianity—in one word , in Revelation . The
anti-supernaturalist is characterized b y precisely the same kind of unbelief . To speak therefore of an anti-super naturalist Christian , is quite bs absurd as to speak of an unbelieving Christian . To be a Christian is not to believe that
the gospel is good ; but , that it is divine . And however highly any person may admire certain of the doctrines and precepts of Jesus ; however loudly he may profess to reverence the gospel morality as a rule of life ; unless he admits Christ to have been
a divinely-inspired teacher , sanctioned as such by evident miracles , he is not a Christian . He may call himself by what names he pleases , but he is all that is usually meant by an unbeliever . Now , when anti-supernaturalists adopt the Christian name , are they
acquainted with the ideas , generally attached to it ? Do they know what that community of Christian believers with which they associate , mean by it 2 If they do , and publicly adopt it ,
without publicly explaining their own peculiar meaning , Mr . BelshanVs language is not greatly to be complained of . Let the man who has rejected all that is supernatural in Christianity , inform the members of that Unitarian
Church with which he has connected himself , that he thinks the divine mission of Jesus to have been nothing more than a pretence , either on his part , or that of his disciples ; that he considers the miracles to be idle tales , and the resurrection to be altogether
destitute of proof ; let him do this plainly , and they will inform him that they do not consider him to be a Christian . They will tell him that , in their view , an anti-supernaturalist Christian , is a contradiction in terms . And , again , if those anti-supernaturalists who , calling themselves
Christians , now exist in our societies , were to avow their sentiments , in their naked reality , and call themselves by their old designation , could they expect the same cordiality which they now meet with from the members of
the Unitarian congregations ? Could they then form a part of our Christian churches , or appear to the world as fellow-unitarians ? If they could
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88 On Anti-supernaturalism *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 88, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/24/
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