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    ( Continued from p . 471 . ) Dr . S . s third book , which occupies the whole of his second volume , is employed in considering the " Information to be obtained concerning the Person of the Christ from the Narratives of the Evangelical History , and from our Lord's own Assertions and Intimations . " It is not possible for us to enter as minutely into the examination of the remaining as we have done of the preceding parts , nor do we think that it is at all required . We shall produce sufficient specimens relating to important points , and bringing into

    view , in some instances at least , the claims of Mr . Belsham , as well as the general merits of the controversy . Among Dr . S . 's introductory observations we find the following : " That Jesus Christ was and is really and properly a man , is maintained by the orthodox as strenuously aa by the Unitarians . To bring evidence in proof of this point is , on either side , unnecessary ; unless it were conceded that proper humanity implies necessarily a mere humanity ; or in other

    words , that it is impossible for the Deity to assume the human nature into an indissoluble union with himself . Such a union , let it be carefully remembered , is not a transmutation of either nature into the other ; nor a

    destruction of the essential properties of either ; nor a confusion of the one with the other . The question of such a union is a question of fact : and its proper , its only evidence , is Divine Revelation . " The question of such a union is a question of fact : by Unitarians it is always so treated . They cannot be blind to the strangeness and antecedent

    improbability of the doctrine , but their difficulties will be overcome by the clear and direct evidence of Divine Revelation . What they allege is , that no such evidence has been or can be produced , that in fact the contrary doctrine is as plainly taught in Scripture as any thing can be taught which had never been denied , and can therefore only be incidentally recognized as true . When they quote passages in which our Lord is spoken of as a man , they produce them not merely as testimonies to real and proper humanity , but as instances in which , from the nature of the case , it is

    impossible to conceive of one who believed him to have also had a divine nature , having withheld jthe expression of that belief , and therefore as proofs that no such belief was entertained by those to whom alone we can look for information . The argument is not merely that Jesus is called a man , but that , whilst God-man and all equivalent expressions are unknown to Scripture , he is called a man in immediate reference to his most extraordinary powers and most exalted offices , without a hint being added in those places of any superior nature united with the human ; and this we contend is absolutely inconsistent with the reputedly orthodox doctrine . We may distinguish as nicely as we please what is or is not implied in the union of

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    ( 585 )

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    DR . J . P . SMITH ' S SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY TO THE MESSIAH *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1831, page 585, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2601/page/9/