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JOHN WXSLEYAND BENGELI 0 S ON l JOHN V . 7 . To the Editor of the Monthly Repository . Sir , Viewing your Magazine with pleasureas the only
chan-^ nel of free inquiry , I have a question to ask your learned correspondents , which is , the truth of the following quotation from Mr . John Wesley ' s Sermons , vol . v . page 32 ? After speaking on 1 John 5 , vii . he says as follows : < Was this
text originally written by the Apostle , or inserted in later ages ? Many have doubted of this : and in particular that great light of the Christian church , lately removed to the church above , Bengelius ^ the most pious , the most judicious ^ and the most laborious of all the modern Commentators on the New
Testament . For some time he stood in doubt of its authenticity because it is wanting in many of the ancient copies . But his doubts were removed by three considerations : l . That though it is wanting in many copies , yet it is found in more , and those copies of the greatest authority : 2 . That it is cited by a whole train of ancient writers , from the time of St . John to that of
Constantme . This argument is conclusive : for they could not have cited it , had it not then been in the sacred canon 3 . That we may easily account for its being after that time wanting in many copies , when we remember , that Coixstantine ' s successor was a zealous Arian , who used every means to promote his bad cause , to spread Arianism throughout the empire : in particular , the erasing this text out of as many copies as fell into his hands . "
This is widely different from what I have learned from Clarke , Dodd , Wakefield , Undsey , Priestley , Belsham , and the Rev . John Pope , of Hackney , who says in his work on Public Worship , page 180 , " That it was not found in any MSS . except in one of the 15 th century , the Dublin . The Berlin MS , which also has this verse , is a copy from a printed edition . "
If Mr . J . WVs assertion be true , I think it evidently must show that St . John was its author ; even then I do not conceive it in the least to teach the doctrine of the Trinity , although this assertion of Mr , J . W . is thought to decide the controversy , I hope an answer will be given ; meantime ^ permit me , Mr . Editbr , to subscribe myself , Your constant reader , ' March 9 , 1806 , S- N . R ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1806, page 186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1723/page/18/
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