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to observe , that these persons were the great body of Jewish Christians , who continued to adhere to the plain doctrine of the apostles , and would not receive the fabricated accounts of the miraculous conception . Observe also , that Justin does not uefuse the name of
Christian to those who said that the Messiah was a mere man , aor does he even call them , heretics . — ' < To this reasoning of Justin , Trypho replies , What they sat / , who affirm that he was born a man , and teas selected to be anointed , and thus became Christ- i appears to me more credible than what is said by them who talk as you do . For we all expect that the Christ will
be born a man from human parents , and that Elias wxtt come and anoint him . If , therefore , this Jesus appears to be the Christ , be assured that he was a man born of men ; but as Elias has not yet come , I affirm that he was not the Christ . We must either say that Trypbo does not express the opinion of the Jews of his day , or that their belief was not that the Messiah , who was to come , was God . ' *
Modern Christians of different sects and communions are very eager to deiive countenance to their doctrines and ceremonies from the works of the Fathers . But however valuable their works may be in enabling us to verify certain facts , or to trace the existence and history of certain opinions , they are not to be
considered as persons who were authorized to propound any Christian doctrine , not mentioned or sanctioned by any of the writers of the New Testameut ; they are entitled to no authority in matters of faith ; and few , indeed , will admire them throughout either as reasoners or expounders of the Scriptures .
Those who are called the Christian Fathers are the very persons who began , and almost completed , the attempt , which proved , but too successful , of corruptiug the Christian doctrine . In pursuing this object they had two ends in view—to assimilate Christianity as much as possible to the heathen systems of belief and philosophy , and to increase their own personal influence as an order of priesthood .
Is it not a subject of sincere regret to the wise and reflecting , that men in general should possess so powerful a predilection for the mysterious and the sacred in religion , and that they are so easily duped , through the medium of their love of excitement ? These were
strong features of the heathen systems ; they distinguish Mahometanism and all Idolatrous systems throughout the world at the present period ; and , proh dolor !
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they are the characteristics of the prevalent systems of modern Christianity . But the Christianity of Christ and his apostles was altogether free from them . —disdained — denounced them * Compare the longest and most important discourses or sermons in the New Testament with those of the modern Evangelicals or Methodists , and who will not be struck with the difference ? What a
departure too from the Christian spirit and models of prayer I To this corruption of the Christian system too , the Fathers led the way . A zeal for the truth , came to be much more admired and applauded than the truth itself . The forms of religion were more regarded than the great end which religion itself was designed to subserve- — " good works . " The shadow remained , the reality vanished .
One cannot but admire the ingenuity and regret the perverseness with which Justin Martyr distorted the real meaning of the Scriptures to set up and support something like the modern Tri nity . He is the founder of that building , though the superstructure has beep improved since and ornamented . But he did not
build it " upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets , Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone . " No , he reared the building of heathen materials , and roughcast it with broken fragments of the sacred text . We always see too much of this perverse adaptation of the meaning of Scripture , and we deplore the effect of it exceedingly—the want of concern to understand the real import of Scripture language .
It has been often confessed , and not unfrequently boasted by Trinitarians , that their sublime doctrine is found in Plato , and illustrated by him ; but what real grounds there are for this opinion , to which the Bishop of Lincoln ' * caunot yield his assent , " is an inquiry too extensive to be entered upon here . I have no time at present to work in the mine of Plato .
The Jupiter , Neptune , and Pluto , of the Heathens , is a trinity . In the Pagan religiou we have the notion of the Defc triformis * and the expressions rptKafirjwq , TptfAop < pQ ( , Tp \< ra )[/ . a , TQq . Nothing was more common among the Pagans than the deification , of men , and of Jupiter begettiug children by mortals . Hence Livy says of Romulus , " Deo prognatup , Deus ipse "—Begotten by God , himself God . Those of your readers who are Greek scholars will also remember the
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . 71 #
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1829, page 719, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2577/page/47/
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