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isome show of probability , but that , in the first place , the Holy Scriptures are decidedly opposed to them ; and there are extant many writings of the brethrenj more ancient than the times of Victor , which they wrote to the Gentiles in defence of the truth , and against the then existing heresies . I speak of Justin , Miltiades , Tatian , Clement , and many others , in all of ^ vhich the divinity of Christ is maintained . And who is ignorant of the books of Irenaeus , Melito , and the rest which proclaim that Christ is both
God and man ? And whatsoever psalms and songs were written from the first by the faithful brethren , they all ascribe divinity to Christ , and celebrate him as the word of God . How , then , " he asks , " can it be pretended that the doctrines which they ( the Artemonites ) inculcate were received till the time of Victor ? And how is it that they are not ashamed to throw out this calumny against him , since they perfectly well know that Victor excommunicated Theodotus , the inventor and father of their God-denying apostacy , the first who asserted the mere humanity of Christ . "
" In this passage , " says the Reviewer , " Dr . Priestley could perceive nothing but a plain acknowledgment that the ancient Unitarians themselves constantly asserted that their doctrine was the universal opinion of the primitive church . " Certainly , in this passage Dr . Priestley saw , what every one must see , that the Unitarians of the time of Victor contended that theirs was , generally , the faith of the primitive church . That in the above passage of Eusebius Dr . Priestley saw nothing but this , is what the Reviewer had no
right to say . For Dr . Priestley * has taken particular notice of all the statements contained in this said passage , and has attempted distinctly to answer every one of them . He was fully aware that Eusebius and others set up the claim of antiquity for their opinions , as the Unitarians did for theirs . He mentions and combats it . He notices expressly what is said about Theodotus and the novelty of his doctrine , and observes that a direct contradiction to it may be found in the writings of Eusebius himself , and
cites a passage from Bishop Pearson in corroboration of the same opinion . As to the hymns used by Christians , and said to have been from the beginning , Dr . Priestley argues , f that no inference can be safely drawn from them , because divinity may be ascribed to persons in very different senses ; and as to their antiquity , the historian not having particularly mentioned their age , it . is very possible , for any thing that appears to the contrary , that they might have been those very hymns which were rejected by Paulus Samosatensis on account of their novelty . This very nearly agrees with
what Dr . Lardner % says of them . " Possibly , " observes he , " those hymns were partly ancient , partly modern , having been altered and interpolated since their first original , and some of them might be entirely modern . " It appears , then , that Dr . Priestley saw in this passage every thing that was to be seen , and has noticed every thing that it became him to notice . The question , however , with which we are now most concerned is , did the Unitarians of the time of Victor , or did they not , contend that theirs was t } ie faith of the general body of primitive Christians ? And was Dr . Priestley
? Early Opin . Vol . UI . pp . 295—302 . + And in my opinion justly . These hymns are no longer in existence ; if they were , it might , perhaps , be found that their language admitted of a different interpretation from that put upon it by the anonymous author referred to in Eusebius . Many persons argue the divinity of Christ , for instance , from words and phrases whlchjin the estimation of others , justify no such doctrine . % Works , Vol III . p , 94 .
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96 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 96, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/24/
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