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torturing ingenuity of heretical interpretation . " It is not > however , by means of names or of epithets that the point at issue can be determined . " The select preacher , before the University of Oxford / ' had previously
spoken of " ingenuity of heresy . " From the pulpit whence he uttered these expressions , such criminations may be looked for , even after they have been generally banished from spots , where no heretic was consigned first to the secular arm , and then to
the stake . Those days , happily , are past : and we submit to our readers , whether in this country , and at this advanced period of the world , it may not be as well to lay aside these vague yet obnoxious appellations . When Dr . Spry speaks of heretical interpretation , all which can , in reason , be
understood is , that he adverts to an interpretation differing from his own . Of heretics , in the scriptural acceptation of that word , he , undoubtedly , is silent . He must be perfectly aware that in the judgment of the Church of Rome all Protestants , and therefore the members of the church to which
lie himself belongs , are heretics . If , then , he persist in so denominating us , we must remind him of Michaelis' unquestionable maxim : " We may be assured , that whoever condemns another as a heretic , because he is of a different opinion , is wholly ignorant of the art of criticism / 1 *
Let us now attend Dr . Spry in his examination of Gal . iv . 4—7 [" When the fulness of time was come , " &c . ] . He discovers the pre-existence of Jesus Christ in the clause , " God sent ""forth his Son : sent him from
himself , to take upon him our nature , to be made of a woman" [ p . 20 ] . The original word is e ^ ocTre ^ -etXe ; and there ' nay be an advantage in considering some passages of the LXX ., and of the New Testament , in which it occurs .
la Micah i . 14 , the Greek translators of the Jewish Scriptures use the term in the sense of something bestowed : and a similar import it certainly has in Gal . iv . 6 , "God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts '" P * hath communicated it to you" ] . * This verb frequently means to dismiss
* lutrod . &c , ut sup ., II . p . 461 . t Schleusncr , in verb . [ No . 3 . ]
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wit , h contempt and ignominy 3 as in Deut . j xx . \ 9 , 29 ; Luke i . 53 . But in Acts xxii . 21 , and in the text under our immediate consideration , its force is that of ccTtoriKku ; and it is equivalent with send .
Stress appears to be placed by Dr * Spry on the language , " made of a woman . " Perhaps he will not deny that the original should be translated , " born of a woman : " scarcely can he be ignorant that the patriarch Job applies this phraseology to himself ; * and he unquestionably will admit that neither was Job ' s nature divine nor
his state pre-existent . Upon the clause , % < to redeem them that were under the law , " the select preacher ' s comment is most extraordinary : " If the Son of God had no existence
prior to . his nativity at Bethlehem ; if he partook of no nature but that of man , it Would follow that he was sent forth from God for a purpose which we have the authority of God himself for saying that he coaid not effect .
" No truths are more plainly set forth in Scripture than these ; that man cannot be the redeemer of man ; and that God has reserved this great office of mercy for his own especial performance . * None / says the Psalmist , ' can by any means
redeem his brother , nor give to God a ransom for him ; that he should still live for ever , and see no corruption . But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave : for he shall receive me . ' " Psa . xlix . 7 , 9 , 15 . And Hosea xiii . 9 , 14 . —Pp . 21 , 22 .
Doubtless , the natural doom of an individual man to death , by the operation of disease , or other similar causes , no fellow-man , can set aside * No one can thus die in his brother ' s room , or so avert from him ultimately " the mortal hour / ' Substitution is here impossible . But this
must be exclusively the case , of which the Psalmist speaks . As an universal * or even a general , as an unqualified and abstract , proposition , it is not true , and is not asserted , that " no man can redeem his brother . ' Such a proposition the Scriptures do not contain , and reason and facts do not . warrant . Our readers , on consulting * Job xiv . 1 .
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Spry ' s Twa Sermons before the University of Oxford . 29 &
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 295, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/39/
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