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{ History of Corruptions , Vol . I . p . 32 ) says , " we find nothing like divinity ascribed to Christ before Justin Martyr . " While , therefore , he admits that divinity was ascribed to Christ by Justin Martyr and others of the fathers , he does , in the foregoing sentence and in other places , exclude from this admission the fathers termed apostolic . Here the Reviewer and himself are really and properly at issue . While the one contends , that from the writings of the apostolic fathers , in consequence of the very doubtful authenticity of
some , and the interpolated state of others , no inference can be fairly drawn in proof of their acknowledgment of the proper divinity of Jesus Christ ; the other contends that such an inference may and must be drawn . This dispute , it is clear , resolves itself into the question , What , of the existing writings of the apostolic fathers , are genuine , and what are not ? The Reviewer discourses about Hermas and Barnabas as if no serious and weighty objections to the genuineness of their writings existed ; or as if , from
writings so suspected , it were fair to draw any argument involving their authenticity ; a conduct which ( if we were to use his own language ) we should say , is at once a proof either of his extraordinary ignorance , or most unaccountable perverseness . Of the writings of Ignatius , Dr . Priestley may have spoken too loosely and unguardedly when he said " that their genuineness was generally given up by the learned . " But to found upon this vague and inaccurate mode of expression the charge of " presumptuous falsehood , " is a piece of daring , the like to which was scarcely ever before exhibited . It
is a monstrous accusation , and the man who preferred it must have known that , in doing so , he was " the bearer of false witfiess . " When it is notorious that many of the learned have given up the writings of Ignatius altogether , the shorter * as well as the longer epistles ; when it is remembered that that opinion is constantly gaining strength , and when we reflect that serious doubts concerning them have been expressed by Michaelis and Marsh , the
error committed by Dr . Priestley is simply that of an exaggerated form of expression , the employment of too general and extensive a term . This is an error of frequent recurrence in the writings of the best and honestest of men—and one which it is extremely difficult entirely to avoid . And if for every such inadvertence writers are to be branded with the odious epithets of " presumptuous liars , " it would not be easy to name any one who could escape the disgraceful imputation .
It is not worth while to enter now upon the question of the authenticity of the works of the apostolic fathers . Many of them are almost univerword , what , though not strictly correct , it is yet most frequently understood to mean , those who hold the doctrine of the inferiority and subordination of the Son to the Father . And in this sense of the word , notwithstanding all that the Reviewer haa said to the contrary , I believe that Mr . Lindsey was right . For the general reader , who may wish for information upon this subject , a reference to Dr , Clarke ' s " Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity" may perhaps be sufficient .
* On which side the majority of the learned incline it is not easy to say . A great many , no doubt , have advocated the genuineness of the shorter epistles . But if great names are to be cited in their favour , names equally great may be produced against them . If not altogether spurious , however , they have been altered and Interpolated , so as to be deprived of all authority . Lardner considered them to have been tampered with and corrupted . So thought Mosheim , and also Michaelis and Marsh . Semler entirely rejects them , and in this is powerfully supported by Dr . Campbell in his Lectures on Ecclesiastical History . Jortin declares , that in no writings are there more evident marks of interpolation than in the genuine epiwtlen , as they are called , of Ignatius . " What need have we of further witnesses" to shew the want of authority belonging to these writings ?
Untitled Article
94 Opinions of the Early Fathers on the Person of Christ .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 94, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/22/
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