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
of two diverse natures of the same subject , will prove an union of those two natures into one person , because those predications , may one of them be metonymicall ( else it were a good proof ) as in the case of angels , called Jehovah in the Old Testament ; but
in the case of the preexistence of Christ ' s spirit to his incarnation or jlesh there is much more to be said , because what is attributed to Christ in relation to his preexistence , or is said to be done of old by him , can never be interpreted of another person in him or repfesented by him : it cannot be meant of the Father in him ,
because he is therein distinguished frojtn the Father , as John xvii . 5 , and other places ; and as to any other figurative sense of such places , I cannot see , as I have said , but that they are too forced . I wonder not if you find
none before Justin Martyr among the fathers who speaks of his preexisteace , he being one of the first that has left us any Writings of bulk not dubious , though the writings which we have under the name of earlier
authors , even Clemens himself in his second epistle , ( which , for ought I find , sopae think of as good autority as the other , ) do clearly intimate it , and I can scarcely think that
Tertullian , Irenaeus , Origen , Lactantius , &c , should so soon forsake Christianity in such a point ; how came they all to conspire to * be the disciples of Plato and none to contradict them ? I find
it difficult to interpret first chapter of John of the new creation , ( as also Col . i . 16 , ) for whatever different senses the Jewish writers had for the Logos , sometimes taking it for a principle of Divine Wisdom , otherwhiles for an inferior person , yet I think there is no doubt but they all agree
in attributing to the Logos the old creation , as appears in Philo's writings contemporary with St , John , and His hard to conceive he wou'd have spoken in their usual dialect , if he would not be understood in their
known sense , while he no way expresses any caution against it . Let roe further add , that I find such invincible objections against the two ways according to which the original ° f our souls is usually accounted for ,
ws by traduction or immediate creation , that the preexistence of human § its ( if they be immaterial ) is a
Untitled Article
disputable problem with me . J £ syou hSve ever iread GlanviFs Lux Orientates , you see what fair pretences there be for this opinion , and yet I doubt npt , but what was done to , or by , a preexistent soul ( supposing that notion ) , may most properly be said of the whole present person incarnate ; ' tis still the same man . as much as
one of us is the same in childhood and in our grown age : 'tis peculiar to the personal union that it be a foundation for such predications in the most proper sense . I mean , that things be attributed to the per so a that did primarily belong to any one part ,, —The Scripture you say reveals no nature of Christ but what was
derived from the loyns of Abram and David , but then it must be considered that it only speaks of his flesh , still there is nothing said of the origination of his spirit , how that came into being or when .
I grant indeed , after all , that there is nothing absurd to reason , that Christ should be caught up into heaven , but only His unproved , and 'tis more unaccountable that the history of his life and mission shou'd be silent
of such an important matter that wou'd have established his autority beyond any thing mentioned , ( when yet his carrying about by the tempter and the voice from heaven are so particularly spoken of , ) than that no
more shou'd be said of his preexistent state , which is not the subject of that history . And yet if that ascent to heaven were allowed , it wou'd not solve those places that speak of his being before Abntin , before the foundation of the world , and of his
creating it . So that all these controversys will yet remain , after such a concession , so that I shou'd think the Arian scheme will greatly narrow the controversy we have with our adversarys , and doubtless it appears prima facie , the most plausible , and according to the most obvious letter of Scripture .
I have read Mr . N . V late book , turning the Trinity into an allegory , of three facuitys or principles , as tho' Arius or Sabellius or any others had ever deuyd God to have life and intellect and will . 1 suppose it will be thought trifling to insist on a Trinity which none deny , and which he cannot suppose to be the Scripture
Untitled Article
wiih Mr Manning * * Nfoes . : _ 767
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 707, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/3/
-