As for the man who can hold such a notion, he must certainly be very
ignorant either of Plate or of Christ. As the best apology for Mr.
Foxton's offensive folly we may, perhaps, charitably hope that he is
nearly ignorant of both.--Equally absurd is the attempt to identify the
metaphysical dreams of Plato with the doctrinal system of the Gospel,
though it is quite true, that long subsequent to Christ the Platonising
Christians tried to accommodate the speculations of the sage they loved,
to the doctrines of a still greater master. But Plato never extorted
from his friends stronger eulogies than Christ has often extorted from
his enemies.
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It is amazing and amusing to see with what case Mr. Foxton decides
points which have filled folios of controversy. 'In the teaching of
Christ himself, there is not the slightest allusion to the modern
evangelical notion of an atonement.' 'The diversities of "gifts" to
which Paul alludes, Cor. i. 12. are nothing more than those different
"gifts" which, in common parlance, we attribute to the various tempers
and talents of men.' (P. 67.) 'It is, however, after all, absurd to
suppose that the miracles of the Scriptures are subjects of actual
belief; either to the vulgar or the learned.
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