Samuel Drew’s Incipient Trilemma
Remarks on "The Age of Reason" (S. King: 1831), p. 32.You affect, indeed, in the page I have last quoted, to speak highly of the personal character of Jesus Christ; yet, strange as it may appear, his apostles and disciples, who trod in his steps, and followed his example, inculcated the same morality, and preached the same doctrine, have the honourable misfortune of meriting your censure, and your scorn. "Jesus Christ," you say, "appears to be a virtuous and an amiable character;" but, how you will be able to reconcile this, with his own assertion, "I and my Father are one," it will be somewhat difficult to discover. For, if the sentiment, contained in this assertion, be true, all your attempts, to invalidate the evidence of the New Testament, are founded in falsehood; and, if this assertion be false, you must impeach his morality, by allowing a man to be virtuous, who could aspire to an equality with God; and, in either case, you evidently convict yourself.