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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.
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a « d&j * fcev ^ if llN ^ dif tpft&uYtt ^ < « W' WfcjM&rius took jjtr up of Gxid Ae San as weli as Eutyehes , ) Ood in some sense by nature * very God *> f ve * y God , saith the Nicene Creed , before it comes to the
consubstantial , not after it , neither asserting the coeternity or coequality so early , at which you also stick , as also at the one essence or substance , whether in number or kind , denying the omniscience of Christ de facto , but owning the omnipotence of the derivative God Christ Jesus , as John v . 26 , fcko * uot it # e , as ver . 30 ; a * creative power speaks it , as having
nothing beyoad it attributed to the Su-Sream God to demonstrate his power t . And why may he not be as weli omniscient too at the Father's will , as well know as do ali that God the Father can , do \ Dr . Fow Icr holds
that God can and may beget his kind , yet dependent oa and inferior to the begetter , tiio * of the same nature . You wilt not positively say how op of what Christ was originated , only that he is not of the same kind with
the Father , nor proceeding from him as aa eternal necessary emanation , but was voluntarily begotten * I should not contest with Dr . Fowlerj if but of your mind so far in all the rest . By denotes oft the principal efficient and the sole too , Rom . » . 26 , CoU . 16 , 1 Gor . i , 9 .
The sun top communicates life to animals , or vivifies disposed matter capable of it , in the course of nature . Sine Deo nihil is true , bat is it so sine Christo £ Or that the operation of the second cause doth denominate him distinct or conjunctly , as to ereation , Providence , or any efficiency I
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jSknEJtavid on I John . v . J . 9 U
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mission and simple humanity of Christ , in opposition to the Gnostics , who maintained his divinity . The design of the text lies on the surface of the whole Epistle ; and must
inevita-SlR , IN my former letter , ( pp . 15—20 , ) I have shewn that the text of the three Heavenly Witaesses is a summary of the evidences for the divine
hly have been known to all men in the first and succeeding centuries . The advocates for the divine nature of the Saviour , such as the Greek and A ^ tin fathers were , had therefore a
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pow ' erful motive ^ either to suppress tl ^ ^ r ^ : w <| iper , or to . is ^ sent itjoa inQ ^ ificd or mutated «**»•" The text of the tliree Heavenly Wit * , nesses , uewJy modified and mutilated ,, is fc&e foundation , and the only foundation , © f the Trinity . There are ,
indeed * passages winch have been alleged , as favouring the deity of Christ and his jinity with the Father ~ r but Trinitarians never have referred , nor * ever can refer , to a single place .
throughout the whole NewTestament * which could even suggest the idea , not to say countenance or prove , the doc ^ trine of thuee persons in one essence , besides the contnoverted verse . And
it is to this same verse that the very name of Tr&iity ( Tmnitas , Tri-unitas , three in unity ) owes its existence . Such was the genius of Heathenism that its votaries , when fully assured of the miracles of Jesus , irresistibly
inferred that he , was a , supernatural being . The early Greek and Latin fathers , on emerging from the Pagan superstition , were strongly tinctured with the same predilection . They knew that the Gnostics had formed
the artful scheme of destroying Chris- * tianky by insisting on the divinity ol its Founder . They knew also that the apostles gave to this scheme the most decided opposition : but their early
prejudices flattered them into the belief , that th ^ e Gnostic creed , if modified and cleared of its most offensive parts * might be made an instrument to remove the scandal of the cross , and induce the Heathen world to embrace a
divine Saviour in the person of the crucified Jesus , This would be to combat the , prince of , darkness with his own weapons , which niig'ht be thrown aside as soon as he should be
defeated , or the end of this pious fraud accomplished by the universal establishment of the gospel . The dis ^ puted text itself readily suggested the modification required , and thus be * came the basis of a system which it was the immediate object of its author to overthrow .
The Gnostics distinguished b etwee a Jesus and the divinity within him , and withal represented that divinity as not only independent of the Creator , but directly opposite to him in character and object * These impostors had their Trinity : it consisted of the unknown
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 91, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/27/
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