On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
individual principle of rational or of animal existence , there is not one single world in that expanse which teems with them , that his eve does Dot discern as constantly \ and his hand does not guide as unerringly , and his spirit does not watch and care for as vigilantly , as if it formed the one and exclusive object of liis attention . " And is this very argument of the constant universal providence of God to be brought forward to prove that lie could abandon the charge of all bis works , to devote himself for a season to the concerns of this single world ? Again I repeat that we cannot think too highly of the perfection of the Divine attention and concern towards every the smallest creature ; but we must remember that he so
attends to each as not to neglect any other , much less to forego his charge of the whole , even for the twinkling of an eye . But , perhaps , Dr . C . would concede this point , although , as far as the person of the Son is concerned , the
expressions which occur in his work make this - . doubtfuL But supposing it conceded , that the attention of the Deity to his works cannot be supposed to have been intermitted for a single instant , with what view of Christian doctrine can this concession be
reconciled ? That which calls itself orthodoxy must take refuge in , one of these two alternatives , which I think will be found no better than the two horns of a dilemma—it must either be
supposed that God the Son , in becoming incarnate , remained still unchanged in his divine condition and functions ; or , as is the more popular opinion , that he for a season laid his divine
condition and glory and operations aside , at least in very great measure , and . was reduced to the obscure and feeble state of humanity . One of these alternatives must , as far as 1 see , of necessity he embraced . If we assume the first , we must admit that Jesus ,
in his incarnation , laid nothing aside , nor abandoned any glory : he merely superadded the circumstances of his humanity to his previous divine condition . This supposition , indeed , gets rid of the objection of his neglecting the universe in order to attend to this
world ; but it exposes us to others not less formidable . These arise from the absolute incompatibility of the con-
Untitled Article
ditions , of humanity and deity at ope time in the same individual person or being . Nothing can appear to us absurd or impossible , if it does not appear so to suppose that Jesus was , at one and the same moment , filled
with all the unutterable bliss of deity , and distressed with pain , and sunk in anguish and dismay ; or that he who was at the moment regulating the universe , could in any sense have been truly tempted by the offer of an earthly
kingdom ; or that he who possessed at that very instant the omniscience of deity , could with any honesty have declared himself ignorant of the day when his own predictions would be fulfilled . If our faith is to embrace
such incongruities as these , then all objection to religious doctrines or practices , whether Christian or Heathen , on the ground of their intrinsic absurdity , must be at an end . It is in vain to urge , as is often done , that Christ united these contradictory qualities by virtue of his two natures ; that argument only recoils upon itself , and manifests the impossibility of two
incongruous natures existing at one time in the same person . If these absurd consequences result from this supposed union of natures , the only inference is , that such supposed union is itself absurd . Turning from this hypothesis , which indeed makes the Whole life of Christ
look more like a piece of theatric hypocrisy than a faithful reality , an empty show of infirmity and suffering affected by one who was throughout the whole potent and blissful—turn ,
I say from this—let us consider the more popular doctrine . According to this , God the Son really emptied himself of his pre-existent glory _ , and reduced himself to the condition of a
man of sorrows . Having really assumed the nature and state of man , he was for a season really feeble , ignorant and afflicted . He ' had - resigned his part in the Divine government not to resume it till his work on earth
was accomplished . But this hypothesis , sufficiently appaling from its absolute inconsistency with the immutable perfection of the Divine nature , is also open to the force of that objection already noticed , and which it is the scope of Dr . Chalmers ' work to combat . It represents one to whom belonged , by virtue of his essential
Untitled Article
680 On Dr . Chalmers Astronomical Discourses ^ .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1825, page 680, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2542/page/40/
-