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
immediate Author and Architect of all things made , and , least of all , such a 3 are to be seen of men . It could not be clearly understood thence or known by them , neither by any effect ad extra , nor the style of Creator in Scripture , nor instance of fact , ( such as Gen . ii . 3 , &c ,, ) no more than from his appropriating to himself the style of quickening the dead , or every thing effected by men , &c . I contrarily can't but think otherwise , and that Christ meant it ( Mark xiii . ID ) himself , and so it must rest with us . I take that instance , 2 Cor . iv . 14 , to be immediate : and what think you of
Heb . iii . 4 ? For that , Acts ii . 34 , I being then aware of what you object , meant not to draw from it more than 'tis not true in proper speech , the contrary being * as true in figurative speech secundum quid , but neither true of the
whole person , neither fit to be predicated commonly of it by the name of the contrary nature , as when men say that Grod was killed . But what I would insist on with them and you , is what I said , that no instance can be given in Scripture , or in nature , to warrant the attribution to a person by
the name of such a species of being , any act or doing that was acted or done , while he confessed he then was none of that nature of being . ( It would not hold true , supposing the transmigration of souls continuing the species of being , to be denominated of the next man fry name . ) But to you I observe , that neither the Arian , who , after Justin first made use of that trite ( so they call it ) distinction or salvo by a communication of properties , would offer at it , till first they undertook to prove otherways the
preexistence of the one nature distinct with its previous acts and doings ; and then , again , to prove by itself that person ' s incarnation and assumption ° f the otber nature into an hypostasis con junctive . Nor yet the Trinitarian uid
^ vo do it ; but both essay it from John i . 14 , &c , as being aware that no text that you rely upon will amount to any proof at all , till the iorn ; er be made good 3 ' tis not enough to say the sence of such texts can ' t he adjusted without the concession ( if that would do it ) . If any one can prove the preexistence or the one , l or three natures , ' awl the after as-
Untitled Article
sumption of another to constitute one being with all or either of them , df that person I will not stick to predicate the properties of either nature of it in concrete , or the achievements of
it to him by that name , whatever was acted or effected in it , tho' since dead . And further I have no instance that can be shown for it . Then as to what you allege of no prophet being said to come down from heaven , it may be so ; only to come or
be sent from God as a word is , Isa . ix . 8 , an Hebraism , then , and ours translate another word so , 1 Pet . i , 12 ; and I own it to agree to the signification of the word properly . But yet I might take it possibly but for an
Hebrew idiotism . I left it to you to examine , tho' I take it that when His used , John iv . 47 , 49 , 51 ; Acts xvi . 8 , xxiii . 16 , &c ., it might not import more than simply to go or come * However to the point . I reckon that those words of Christ , John . viii . 14 ,
42 , and xiii . 3 , import the very same with what those texts speak that you insist upon , and are rendered by a word used for a local descent . But the other text , chap , xvi ., that you argue the most from , ver . 28 is but exegetical to ver . 27 , with his resolve added to their former doubt , ver .
17 ; the question is of the antithesis , touching his coming forth and going 3 that the latter means a local ascent none doubt ; but that the former was intended by him of his preexistence and consequent local descent , I can hardly believe that . 1 rind the Trinitarians themselves at a stand about it ,
as about the ascent , John iii . 13 , that it could not be meant local . They grant that those to whom lie spake understand Christ speaking of his coining forth from God , not at all of his preexistence and local descent ;
and 1 think with them , else they would have noticed it in their reply , ver . 30 . But now Christ twice recognizes , ver . 17 , and chap . xvii . 8 , that they did surely know and believe what he had so often said to them , that he came out ( or down ) from God , Cor heaven , ) as sent from thence . Nor is his
origination from God , Luke 1 . 34 , that I know of any where witnessed unto by him unless within those expressions , as John vi . 42 , 51 . It was a common question , too , Whence is he ? Whoever shall compare the Evangelists in their
Untitled Article
Correspondence between Mr . Emlyn and Mr . Manning * 333
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1826, page 335, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2549/page/19/
-