On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Art . VI .- —* A Comparative View of : some of Mr . Drew ' ' s Scriptural and Philosophical Arguments to prove the Divinity of Christ and the Necessity of his Atonement ; in a Letter
to that Gentleman . 8 vo . pp . 24 . .. Gale and Co , 1815 . WE exhibited these two combatants in our last volume , [ ix . 497 —500 . ] and assigned the victory to Mr . Prout - Our judgment is supported by Mr . Drew ' s present pamphlet ; for he writes with the soreness of one who
is mightily discomfited . Not satisfied with his arguments , and herein we give him credit for discernment and taste , he falls into a strain of abuse , and in reading his pamphlet it
sometimes appears doubtful whether his object be to prove the divinity of Christ , or to shew that Mr . Prout is , if not the same person , yet , almost the same writer as Thomas Paine . It is
quite amusing to perceive how the Methodist preacher of St . Austell tries to feel and shew contempt for tlie unpretending writer of Flush ing j but the most pleasant thing of all is , that Mr . Drew ventures beyond his
depth , and flounders into gross literary errors : he is witty ( p . 24 ) upon " the spectacles which Socinins has mounted , " attributing a singular species of handicraft to the noble Pole , whom by a natural blunder , he presents to the reader with two i ' s instead
of one , and he makes free , even to calumny , with " the editors of the Unitarian New Testament , '' if he means the Improved Version , when he says ( p . 57 ) that they have " denied the first chapter of St . John edtogetiwrV * Has Mr . Drew no friend in
his own connexion who reads the authors on whom he himself animadyerts without having read them , to save him from these disgraceful errors ? Mr- Prout , apparently feeling that
lie stands on safe ground , preserves his good humour , and calmly meets his antagonist upon his own arguments . The following passages are a fair sample of the Sequel : —
" In p . 6 , you have introduced a quotation from Pliny , in order to prove that it vrai the practice of the primitive Christians to , render divine honour to Christ . Surely , Sir , you must have discovered a very great tcarcity of proof , or you would not have heen under th « necessity of having recourse to the testimony of this Pagan writer , who
Untitled Article
professes ( in his Letter to ihz Ernperor of Rome ) to have received his in fo rmation from a set of infidels , who had recently abandoned the Christian relig-ion . We freely give you this Pagan ; his testimony is lighter thau dust in the balance * To the scriptures * e make our appeal , which is the only proper standard of decision in religions contro versy . " Pp . 11 , 12 .
" In Matt . ii . 11 , you say , we read that the wise men ' fell down and worshi ps him . The first clause of the verse read * thus : And when they were come into the house , they saiv the young child with Mar ?
his mother , and fell down and worshiped him . ' I will not affirm , that you intentie * . ally curtailed this passage to give it a Trinitarian turn , hut I am of opinion that if you had quoted the whole , ninety-nine out of a hundred of your readers would Imre discovered that it was a child which thei
worshiped , and therefore it must have been hy some marks of-civil respect . Can you really think , Sir , that those philosopher who saw the young child with his mother . could conceive the idea that he was Ik omnipotent Creator of the Universe , and consequently ' the proper object of religious worship ?* If you did not think so , io \
what reason did you make the quotation Mr . John Wesley , the founder of Methodism , intimates in the Preface to his Notes on the New Testament , that it was his opinion that the Greet copies from which our English Translation wfts made , ar € not
the most correct ^ and that it is capable of being brought , in several places , nearer to the original ; and if you refer to Matt . ii . 11 , you will £ nd fcliat lie has translated it thus : For we have seen his star in the
East , and are come to do him homage ; and he explains it by saying , that they paid that respect by bowing to the earth before him , which the eastern nations used to pay to their monarchs . ' I have no objection to adopt Mr . Wesley ' s translation in preference to the public version * , me it appears more reasonable j and you are at liberty , Sir , to overthrow it , if you are
able . " Pp . 47 , 48 . The third article is a short but com plete refutation of Mr . Drew ' s mam arguments . From his own statements , the author of the " C omparative View , " by a successful example of the Reductio ad absurdum , proves thai
the deity of Christ and the doctn »« of atonement cannot both be true . This author has considerable controversial acuteness : should his pampas come to a second edition , we wow recommend him to amplify the aig ment , and to giv « more point to application .
Untitled Article
376 Review Cornifk Unitarian Controversy .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/48/
-