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Section xviii . Isa . vi . 1—5 . This passage relates a vision of Isaiah , by means of which he was commissioned to the prophetic office , and which consisted in a visible manifestation of the Divine presence , so that he said ( ver . 5 ) , " Mine eyes have seen the King , Jehovah of hosts . " In John xii . 41 , after quoting two passages from Isaiah , the last of them , respecting the obstinacy of the Jews in rejecting Christ , taken from this chapter , the
Apostle writes , " These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him , " the person spoken of being apparently Christ , whence it has been concluded that Christ was Jehovah . The argument is generally employed by the defenders of the deity of Christ , and has been variously replied to by different Unitarian writers . The truth is , that if we believe on other grounds in the identity of Christ with Jehovah , this passage will appear to us to confirm that opinion , but a reference of this kind * which might so naturally and
easily have been made without intending to teach such a doctrine , will never convince any one who finds that doctrine repugnant to the general tenor of Scripture , Dr . S . speaks severely of the Unitarian interpretations , as " invented in order to serve . a system , " ' « evasive , arbitrary , incongruous , and inadequate to the intention . " The first charge means that a full conviction , arising from the careful study of other parts of Scripture , that Christ and Jehovah were distinct beings , disposed the minds of Unitarian commentators
to seek and accept a sense of the words , not implying their identity : which may be true , but is far from being a reproach to them , or an objection to the interpretation . The other charges are no more than unsupported assertions expressing the feeling of a writer on one side of the question . We quote an expression of feeling on the other side , from the note on Isa . vi ., of the learned and excellent Michael Dodson . He gives the words of Bishops Lowth and Pearce , affirming Christ to be called Jehovah , and goes on thus :
" How absurd ! Is Christ , who suffered death on the cross , the king Jehovah , God of hosts ? Did the seraphims address themselves to him when they cried , saying " , Holy , holy , holy Jehovah , God of hosts ! The whole earth is full of his glory !
" It is wonderful , indeed , that such learned and good men should have satisfied themselves in shutting their eyes against the clearest light ; and in thus offering to the world an interpretation which they must have known to be liable to great objections . How easy and natural is the interpretation of John vii . 41 , given by Dr . Clarke , in his ' Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity' !"
He then gives the passage from Clarke , whom Unitarians in general follow : " The true meaning is ; when Esuias saw the glory of God the Father revealing to him the coming of Christ , he then saw the glory of him who was to come in the glory his Father CMatt . xvi . 27 ) . Esaias , in beholding the glory of God , and in receiving from him a revelation of the coming of Christ , saw , ( i . e . foresaw ) the glory of Christ , just as Abraham saw ( that is , foresaw ) his day , and was glad . "—Clarke's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity , No . 59 / .
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I > R . J . P . SMITH ' S SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY TO THE MESSIAH . ( Contiuued from p . 168 . )
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/24/
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