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deFends , are most true , and may be proved from other parts of Scripture ; but the method by which he illustrates them , is manifestly conformed to the custom of those times , as we see it in Philo , whose works abound in this sort of accommodations of passages of Scripture , and in reasonings derived from them , in which there is no regard paid to the grammatical sense , nor is any thing else attended to but the truth of the principle thus illustrated . "
This passage is quoted with approbation by Rosenmiiller ; the same principle is defended by Sykes ; and Paley's opinion may be gathered from what he says of the epistle of Barnabas : " It is in its subject , and general composition , much like the Epistle to the Hebrews ; an allegorical application of divers passages of the Jewish history , of their law and ritual , to those parts of the Christian dispensation in which the author perceived a resemblance . "—( Evidences of Christianity , B . iii . Ch . v . )
But although we do not admit the Epistle to the Hebrews as an authority with respect to the original sense or prophetic character of the portions of ancient Scripture which it quotes , it should still , according to the principles we bave laid down , be authoritative in favour of the Christian doctrines which by means of these quotations it conveys , and if it applies unreservedly to Christ the names God and Lord , ( representing Jehovah , J there is at least the testimony of the Christian writer , if not of the passages from the Old
Testament , to the deity of our Saviour . This is readily granted : but the very means which the writer employed to attract and conciliate those whom he immediately addressed have thrown such obscurity over his style that , perhaps unavoidably , we , in these distant times , are influenced in our mode of understanding him by the opinions we have formed on the great subjects of Christian doctrine from the study of other parts of Scripture . We have
endeavoured to the utmost of our power to divest ourselves of prejudice , and to consider what is the most natural , consistent , and suitable sense : we are ourselves well satisfied that we have chosen the right interpretation , but we have little hope of convincing those who come to the subject impressed with a firm belief of doctrines which we do not find in Scripture , but which the ambiguity of some of the language here employed may naturally enough seem to them to favour .
The first proposition of the writer seems to be the superiority of Christ ' s office to that of all previous messengers of God ' s will to his creatures , which he illustrates by fanciful applications of passages from the Old Testament , availing himself for this purpose of the double meaning of the word angel , " sometimes applied to human , sometimes to spiritual messengers ; sometimes to the elements executing the purposes of the Almighty ; sometimes to an order of superior intelligences ever ready to fulfil his commands .
We shall give what we apprehend to be the sense of the passage ( ch i . 4—14 ) which contains the quotations now under our consideration . " Being made so much better than those messengers , ' * ( the prophets by whom God had previously spoken , ) " inasmuch as he hath by inheritance obtained " ( acquired , as belonging naturally to his office ) 4 < a more excellent name than they" ( they being only called messengers or servants , his superiority
being marked by the name of SonJ . ' « For unto which of those messengers , said he , at any time , * Thou art my son , this day have 1 begotten thee ?' And again , * I will be to him a father , and he shall be to me a Son . '"—( An appeal to the prevalent Jewish opinion that these words , taken from Ps . ii . and 2 Sam . vii . 14 , were applicable in their hi g hest sense to the Messiah , an opinion which , so far as relates to the last-mentioned passage , we can have no difficulty in pronouncing to be erroneous . ) " And when he introduces again
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164 Dr . •/ . P . Sfnith ' s Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1831, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2595/page/20/
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