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wrong in saying that they did , and in the authority to which , for that purpose , he appealed ? He does not attempt to deny or conceal that this claim of the Unitarians was not admitted by Eusebius , for he replies to Eusebius ' s objections . All that he asserts is , that it was a claim every where advanced by the Unitarians , and , as Dr . Priestley considers , justly advanced . This is the head and front of his offending , and for which he is courteously charged by the Reviewer with " extreme dishonesty , —a just specimen , " it is added , ** of the conduct of Unitarian commentators . "
Why the testimony of an anonymous author , cited by Eusebius , ( for Dr . Lardner will not allow , as the Reviewer asserts , that it is Caius , J should be preferred to the testimony of Artemon , or Paul of Samosata , or of the Unitarians of that period generally , I know not , except that the one was orthodox and the other heterodox , a circumstance , I am well aware , quite sufficient , in the estimation of some people , and probably of the Reviewer himself , to determine the judgment , —though , no doubt , there are others who will not hesitate to prefer the positive assertions of heretics , of fair and
respectable character , to the anonymous statements of an orthodox writer recorded , in a subsequent period , in the writings of another . For the same purpose , as that last mentioned , the Reviewer cites again a passage in the Philopatris , " a satirical dialogue , " says he , " ascribed to Lucian , but probably the work of some contemporary writer . " Triephon , a Christian , in reply to the question of his Heathen catechumen , " By whom
shall I swear , " answers , ( I give , instead of the Greek , the English of the passage , ) " By the most high God , great , immortal , celestial , Son of the Father , the Spirit proceeding from the Father , one of three and three of one . These account Jupiter , reckon this your God . " " This passage , " says the Reviewer , " almost persuaded Socinus that the doctrine of the Trinity was the received belief of the Christians of the second century . " Whether this was the case or not , whether Socinus was so easily persuaded as we are told he was , I have not at this moment the means of ascertaining ; but if he were ,
he must have been in a singularly credulous state of mind , and strangely wanting in his accustomed judgment . The whole force and pertinency of the Reviewer ' s observation depend entirely upon the age of this anonymous work . It is clear that when the dialogue was composed something like the doctrine of the Trinity was entertained by the writer ; but before we can regard it as furnishing any testimony in favour even of the partial reception of this doctrine in the middle of the second century , we must first be satisfied that it was written at about this period ; but for this there is not only no sufficient
evidence , but the greatest weight of learned opinion inclines the other way . Dr . Lardner , * after mentioning the opinions of Bishop Bull , ( who placed it as early as the reign of Marcus Antoninus , ) and the sentiments of Moyle , Dodvvell , and Gesner , f who ascribe it to the third and fourth , century , decides in favour of the later date , viz . the fourth century . In this case any argument derived from it as to the state of opinions in the second century is perfectly nugatory . It may seem strange that a writer , thus betraying carelessness or prejudice at every step , should have ventured upon occupying ground which he has shewn himself to be altogether incapable of maintaining . It would not have
• Works , Vol . VIII . pp . 77 and 81 . f Gcmicr composed a dissertation expressly on its age and author , and supposes it to have been written in the time of Julian , after the middle of the fourth century .
Untitled Article
Opinions of the Early Fathers on the Person of Christ . 97
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/25/
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