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This is t \ ie prescription ; in reading the Gospel of John , in order to keep out , if y ou are out , and to get out , if you are in , the errors of Socinianism , you must bear constantly in mind that " Jesus Christ is nothing more than the son of Mary , a mere mortal man . " This being the teaching of Socinianism , the gospel will be in perpetual collision with the heresy , and you will pass
safely through all penis and temptations . Now , can we admit with any app earance of probability , that the Reviewer was so ignorant as to believe that the description he has given of Jesus fairly represented the views entertained of him by Socinians ? He might believe that they thought him the son of Mary ; could he believe that they held him to be nothing more than the sou of Mary ? nothing more in office ?—nothing more in union with God ?—nothing more in respect of divine favours?—nothing more in being set apart to a
work of stupendous importance , in being filled with all the communicable qualities of Deity , in being raised from the dead , exalted to the right hand of power , appointed ruler of his church , until all enemies be put in subjection ? Was it possible that any professor could be so ignorant as to represent Unitarians as holding , that he who has partaken of the immortality of the Father of the universe , was a mere mortal man ? Yet it is said that this opinion was held by Socinus—Socinus , who worshiped Christ . We cannot , without
hypocrisy , ascribe to a writer of no despicable talents ignorance so gross . Whether he meant his representations to be taken as of Socinians or of Unitarians , he must , we really think , have known better . Otherwise , what blind leaders of the blind are permitted to write in the chief organ of the episcopal church ! But in this case , so plain , we cannot bring ourselves to think that blindness in part even hath happened to the reviiers of the brethren . Well then the alternative follows that the Reviewer has knowingly and wilfully misrepresented our opinions .
E ' en ministers they hae been kenn'd In holy rapture A rousing whid , at times , to vend Aud nail ' t wi' Scripture . If , as we fear , the British Critic has in this case in part verified the Poet ' s declaration , pity and not expostulation is our only resource ; not expostulation , we say , for this would be set down to the account of a mind not spiritually discerning .
We dispute not , therefore , the assertion , that the gospel would be in perpetual conflict with the statement of the Reviewer . But then , be it remarked , it is his , not our statement . To the plan which he proposes , if he will allow us the liberty of setting forth our own creed , we have no objection ; and let the reader take , instead of the groundless representations of the Reviewer , the following exposition of Unitarian doctrine , touching the person and office of the Redeemer . The Reviewer , we hope , will think none the worse of it
( or of us ) for being in the very words of Holy Writ : " Jesus of Nazareth , a man approved of God , by signs and wonders which God did by him . " This is our creed—this and nothing less . Will this be in perpetual conflict with the language of St . John ? If so , it is not Unitarians and the Scriptures , but Peter and John that are in opposition . For our own parts , we should desire
nothing more than that the merits of that part of the Unitarian doctrine which teaches the supremacy of the Father and the subordination of the Son , should be tried by an appeal to St . John ' s Gospel ; for it is our firm belief , that of all the sacred writings this gospel contains the most numerous and the most satisfactory proofs of the truth of Unitarianism . St . John ' s Gospel is emphatically the Unitarian Gospel . As to the brave words which the Re-
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Tlie Watchman . 273
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VOL . III . U i
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 273, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/49/
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