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and prayer , &c , I can't admit of . If of any , it must be a proper phytiieal efficiency denominated of the Author or Maker of all things . Now I would not burden you witfi repetition , ( as I am too apt to do , ) but I can ' t get off
where I vvas . The light of nature and reason I take to be sure , incontestable dictates in the point , touching the Godhead , ( on whieh all natural religion is founded , Heb . xi . 6 , ) but never did any by the light of it , reasoning from the creation or things
seen , ( as * they must do , ) argue him to be God who made the world ; if or except there was another first cause or higher agent unknown to them superior to him ; but did positively conelude the opifex mundi , the immediate architect of it , giving being and order to it , to be the very God , known
by them . The Old Testament witnesses to it also , I take it , thro ' out , as I have told you , in as plain words as I cou'd frame no plainer , he , by himself , alone , his hand , his finger , did it . Himself appeals to men , Isaiah xl . 26 , xlii . 5 , xliv . 24 , &c . Do we any where find in Scripture such a claim of Godhead made from the
work of any man ' s hand or creature effect f The New Testament , where we are sure the old creation is meant , speaks the same , Heb . xi . 3 , 10 ; 2 Pet . iii . 5 ; and more plainly of the manner ( as Psa . xix . 1 ) of our arriving
to the evidence not only of the being of God , but also of the necessary existence and infinity of his power , Rom . i . 20 , viz . from the creation derived from things made and seen . The Gentiles that owned ( as all might )
the Divine Being , centered in the immediate opificer of the universe , and owned none higher , when yet the apostle avers their knowledge of . him that was the very God , ver . 21 . And Christ to me speaks the same himself , viz . that not he but God made the
world ; Mark xiii . 19 , created it . I have only this more to add than I have hinted to you before of my thoughts upon the matter of a subordinate instrument , the efficient of the creation . I have scan'd Mr .
Bidie ' s opinion ( in hia Confession of faith ) in the point pro and con against your notion of Christ , aftd for bis own of the Spirit ' s agency therein . Hi * ( if any at all ) seems to me the < n » ore accountable for , and af proof no
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less looking that way . TheTl .-Spi * rit non < e doubt of his preexfetence * His agiency in the formation of fch £ birth of the Virgin Mary most own * His miraculous operations attributed to him as of his own immediate
efficiency none will deny , and the Spirits incubation on the face of the deep is as plain , Gen . i . 2 ( the old creation we are sure ) : besides what else
we find of the like aspect , Job xxvi . 13 , xxxiii . 4 , Ps . civ . 30 , &c . Now I note that the Spirit is said only fe cherish and dispose of the preexistent matter said to be created of Gad sim *
ply ; but of Christ ( if in the New Testament meant of that ) 'tis said ^ that without him was not any thinyj made , John i . No not angels or powers , ( all out of nothing , ) 'but all were made by him . That is higher ! If then I could admit of the latter j I can't see reason to refuse the
former ; much less to me appears against it . Now then , if my former arguments with me will hold that a creative power wjll prove not a God only , but
the immediate efficient to be Omnipotent and very God , and your and Mr . Bidle ' s will hold of two such Creators , neither of them the Father Almighty , when I can discern of the latter I may incline to entertain of the B . of
Gloucester's notion , ( consonant to the Nicene Creed of a God of Gad , ) viz . that the divine nature is communicable , procreative of two other intelligent agents , of the same substance in kind , nature and properties , however subordinate in their agency too , and not in all respects equal . While it sticks with me that Creators and
Gods speak the same thing , equally as three omnipotents and three Gods do the same . And this arguing reduces me to that dilemma . The Arians all generally issued into it , having espoused tke / brmer , after cen * - tred in the latter , and so do to this day . But that God and Christ are
membra dividentia , I can't doubt ( 1 Tim . ii , 5 ) on the notoriety of it , nor could I ever find a begotten Son so called in the Godhead . Aftfef all , while not only you ( who may see farther than I ) but so many other eminent person 8 for learning and piety and moderation and communion with God , I find confidiently differing from us both , it stounds me ; and I am
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Correspondence between Mr . Etntyn and Mr . Manning ' . 205
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vol . xxi . 2 e
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1826, page 205, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2547/page/17/
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