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sally given up . Of some , stronger doubts are entertained than of others * In the least disputed of them , viz . Clement ' s first epistle to the Corinthians , the only expression that has been quoted as clearly implying a belief in the divinity of Christ , is the phrase , " sufferings of God $ " but , even here , the true reading is suspected by many learned critics to have been , (/ . a&viftaTa , instead of sraSty / xam , " the precepts , and not the sufferings of
God , " as the context manifestly shews . Of this the Reviewer takes no notice , but cites the passage as if the present reading were altogether unquestioned . Upon this or any other passage , however , extracted from the writings of the apostolic fathers , whether making for or against our opinions , I would not lay the smallest stress . It would not , as it seems to me , be fair
to do so , when it is recollected what suspicions are attached to them by men of undoubted erudition , and when a theological scholar , in every way so accomplished as Bishop Marsh , speaks of them generally in the following manner : " Not only the adversaries , but also the friends , of Christianity have suspected the authenticity of the writings ascribed to the apostolic fathers , notwithstanding the immense erudition bestowed on them by Cote-Her , Usher , Pearson , Le Clerc , and others , at the end of the last and
beginning of the present century . Lardner has clearly shewn that all the works of Clement are spurious , except his first Epistle to the Corinthians ; but even that is suspected by one author , ( i . e . Michaelis ) ; and Dr . Semler , who has made a more particular study of ecclesiastical history perhaps than any man that ever lived , doubts the authenticity of all the writings ascribed to the apostolic fathers . This , at least , " continues Bishop Marsh , " is certain , that passages are found in these writings which , from the nature of the sub
jects , could not have existed in the first century ; and if they prove not the whole to be spurious , they prove at least that these writings have been so interpolated as to make it difficult to distinguish what is genuine from what is false . " * Surely of writings , so many of which are acknowledged to be spurious , and the whole of which are believed to have been interpolated , and where it is so difficult to distinguish what is genuine from what is false , it behoves all parties , whether orthodox or heterodox , to be
particularly cautious in the use which they make , and not to rest any thing of weight upon so uncertain an authority . In spite , therefore , of the air of confidence assumed by the Reviewer , I have no hesitation in saying that , as evidences of the real sentiments of the apostolic fathers , the writings now bearing their name atford no satisfactory ground of decision , and that Dr . Priestley has not been proved to have been incorrect in his assertion , that before Justin Martyr nothing like divinity was ascribed to Jesus Christ .
The Reviewer finds great fault with Dr . Priestley for appealing to a passage in Eusebius , in proof of the assertion that the Unitarians in the time of Victor , about the end of the second century , contended , as the Unitarians oT the present day contend , that theirs was the faith of the first Christians * The passage , as quoted by the Reviewer , proves the correctness of Dr . Priestley ' s statement . It is this : «? They" ( says the author to whom Eusebius refers ) " maintain that all the first Christians , and the apostles
themselves , received and taught those things which they ( the followers of Artemon ) now hold ; and that the true doctrine , which was preserved till the time of Victor , the thirteenth bishop of Rome in succession from St . Peter , was first corrupted by his successor Zephyrinus . Their assertion might have * See Marsh's Michaelis , note to Vol , I . C . ii . S . vi .
Untitled Article
Opinions of the Early Fathers on the Person of Christ . 95
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 95, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/23/
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