Unitarianism Incapable of Vindication; A Reply to James Yate's Vindication of Unitarianism (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1816 Excerpt: ...Christ, they ought surely to be understood in the same sense. That the expression " / am The First," should mean "I am contem"porary with the earliest events of the Christian dispensation," is a specimen of Socinian ingenuity; but it furnishes evidence of nothing else. "I am the first," suggests the question, "the first of what?--of creatures?" It cannot mean this when applied to Jehovah; and neither, on principles of fair interpretation can it mean this when applied to Christ. "I "am the first,"--is, "I am the first or Beings." It is difficult to repress indignation at the singular disingenuousness of such a remark as the following. Speaking of the two passages, Rev. i. 17, 18. and Rev. xxi i. 13., Mr. Yates says, " In both cases, the application of the words first "and last' to our Lord, is so guarded as to exclude the idea of "his supreme Divinity. In hejirst chapter, after being describ"ed as ' the first and the last, ' he is immediately stated to have "died. This shows, that he is not the Being who alone hath im"mortality." (Page 201.) With such obstinate determination does Mr. Yates presist in forgetting the simple principle, that the same person, possessing two natures, may speak of himself, nay cannot but speak of himself in terms that will seem contradictory, if the distinction of natures is not kept in view. It so happens, however, that in this passage of the first chapter, Jesus applies to himself a third epithet, which fixes the meaning of the other two, and renders still more striking and conclusive the correspondence between what is thus said of Him, and what is said of Jehovah in the Old Testament Scriptures, as before referred to: --" ...