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Untitled Article
eases it may be innocent , in a moral point of view , may yet in its actual results be greatly injurious , and % vhere we have no cause to censure , we may see much to commiserate . Guilt , no doubt , is the most tremendous evil in the whole circle of things , but misfortune , though devoid of guilt , raay >" t be extremely pitiable .
And he who will not assist in preserving the traveller in his right path , or in restoring him to it , ¦ when he has once deviated , merely because he did net lose his way from any criminal cause , will be justly esteemed to possess the feeblest sense of benevolence and
humanity . Under this conviction , I have considered myself as bound in duty to request your insertion of a tew observations explanatory of a paragraph which I noticed in ypur paper of the 17 th of June . I will first transcribe the passage and then subjoin the comment .
" The sermon yesterday was delivered by the Rev . Mr . Watts , Vicar of Ledbury , from Acts x > x . v . 20 , 21 . From this passage the preacher ably enforced the great duties of faith and , repentance ,
noticed that a partial or spurious edition of the scriptures was circulating by the Deists and those who deny the Divinity of our Saviour , and ufged his brethren to increased vigilance in the discharge of fheir duties , at a period when a laxity of morals too generally prevailed in all classes of society . " Now , Sir , it is af first sight exceedingly improbable that Deists should take the trouble of circulating any edition whatever of the
"• scriptures . They say there neither are nor ever » were any scriptures , i . e . recordjs containing Vonimtinications to mankind by
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inspiration or a divine afflatus * They&deny all revelation from heaven , and believe that God i » to be known only by the marks and signs of his existence exhibited in
the works of the creation . Ht-nce they are called Deists , or simply believers in God , not in his Word . And the circulation of an edition
of the scriptures , by them antecedently so improbable in itself , the public may be assured h ^ g never taken place . But it seems to be insinuated that those
Christians who deny the Divinity of our Saviour , are of the same stamp as Deists , an $ that they are not worthy of being placed in a higher class . The Unitarians , however , who f eely and unreservedly deny
the Divinity of Jesus Christ , it by Divinity is meant the Divine nature or Godhead of Jesus'Christ , most solemnly protest against being classed with Deists . So
far from disbelieving the revealed writings , it is their most anxiuuf study and desire , to clear them from all foreign additions and admixtures , and to piesent them to their brethren in thtir Jairest and
purest form . They have , it is most true , circulated an tdjjion of the Christian sciiplures and ibey rerojee in their lab <> iH > , bui they with one voice assert that so lar
from being either & partial or a spurious edition , it is dot only an impartial and genuine ,. but an improved edition , and so far improved lhat however iihpitrfeet ( for they have never laid--claim * to
perfee tion ) it is , yet the moat improved and the most correct arid jus * t to the original of any edition that has ever been published . A » the discussion o £ this point would far exceed the li m its oi your Journal , the Unitarians * . p * a QQlm&&y * th **
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496 Letter of the Rev ,. Theophilus Browne to the Hereford Jouffta t .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1812, page 496, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1751/page/20/
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