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Untitled Article
these alternatives be conceded * Iber ? t Is no mode of escaping from the absurd consequences that follow , such as that one essence may be the third part of two or more . "—P . 89 .
He proposes to discard reason or human hypothesis , and to follow the doctrine of Holy Scripture exclusively . He forbears to " introduce all that comnaonly-received drama of the per sonalities in the Godhead ; " since k is moat evident from numberless passages of Sccipture " that there is in
reality but onV tr ^ te , independent and supreme OocV ^ ^ a , " According to the testimony of the Sop , delivered in the clearest terms , the Father is that One Tru , e God , by whom are all things . " Having quoted and explained Mark xii . 28 , &c . ; Dent . vi . 4 ; John viiL 41 , 54 , and iv . 21 . he concludes ,
€€ Christ therefore agrees with the whole people of God * that the Father is that one and only God . For who can believe that the very first of the com * m ^ ndments would have been so obscure ,
and so ill understood by the Church through such a successiou of ages , that two other persons , equally entitled to worship , should have remained wholly unkuown to the people of God , and debarred of divine honours even to that
very day ? especially as God , where he is teaching his own people respecting the nature of their worship under the gospel , forewarns them that they would have for their God the , one Jehovah whom they had always served , and David , that is , Christ , for their King and Lord . Jen
xxx , 9 : They shall serve Jehovah th # ir God , and David their King , whom I will raise up y , nto them . In this , passage Christ , such as God willed that he should be known or served by his people under the gospel , is expressly distinguished from the one God Jehovah , both by nature and
title . Christ himself therefore , the Son of God , teaches us nothing in the gospel respecting the one God but what the law had before taught , and every where clearly asserts him to be his Father . John xvii . ' S : This is life eternal ^ that they might know thee , the only true God , and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent . xx .
17 : / ascend unto my Fattier and your Father ; and to my God and your God ; if therefore the Father be the God of Christ , and the same be out God , and if there be none other God but one , there can be no God beside the Father . "—Pp . 90 , 91 . He next produces many / passages from the apostolic writings to prove
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the sole Deity of the Father , and then remarks , u Though alltKfe be so self-evident a * to require no explanation , —namely , that
the Father alone is a self existent God , and that a being which is not self-existent cannot be God , —it is wonderful with what futile subtleties , or rather with what juggling artifices * certain individuals have endeavoured to elude or obscure the plain meaning of these passages £ leaving no atone unturned , recurring to every shift , attempting e re * y meai * s $ s $ tijejtr object were not to preach the pure and unadulterated truth of the gospel to tb $ poor and simple , but rather by dint © f vehemence and obstinacy to sustain some absurd paradox from falling , by the treacherous aid of sophisms and verbal distinctions , borrowed from the barbarous ignorance of the schools *" - —Pp . 93 , 94 .
He examines John x . 30 , and explains it , not of unity of essence , but only of intimacy of communion ; and also 1 John v . 7 > the spuriousness of which he suspects , but which lie shews , after Beza , may be interpreted ! " of an unity of agreement and testimony /' In answer to those that assert that
the name and attributes and works of God , as well as divine honours , are habitually ascribed to the Son , he proceeds to prove , ** 1 st , That in every passage each of the particulars above-mentioned is attributed in
express terms only to one God the Father , as well by the Son himself as by his apostles . Secondly , that wherever they are attributed to the Son , it is in sack a manner that they are easily understood to be attributable in their
original and proper sense to the Father alone > and that the Son acknowledges himself to possess whatever share of Deity is assigned to him , by virtue of the ^ peculiar gift and kindness of the Father ; to which the apostles
also bear their testimony . And lastly , that the Son himself and his apostles acknowledge throughout the whole of their discourses and writings , that the Father is greater than the Soa in ail tilings , "
The gloss of the " orthodox" commentators upon our Lord ' s answer to * ' the mother of Zebedee ' s children , ?' that w ^ en he said , ft is not mine to give , he spoke in his mediatorial capacity , draws from Miljon the following admirable remarks : " But questionless when the ambition
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690 Review . *—Milton * * Treathe of Christian Doctrine .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1825, page 690, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2542/page/50/
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