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his malignant shafts are levelled . Yet still charity will make some allowance even for the uncharitable . This angry critic was smarting under the lash of a well-informed and ingenious
layman , who had written an unanswerable reply to the c * Trinitarian ' s Appeal ; " and who , in the course of his argument , had exposed the futility of some bitter remarks which the Trinitarian had made upon the Improved Version . Writhing under the agony
of this stinging castigation , it is no wonder that the wounded author should give vent to his angry feelings ; and being too prudent again to exasperate his acute opponent , like the Esquimaux dog , which , when it feels
the lash , instead of turning upon its assailant , snaps at its nearest neighbour , this valiant critic exhausts all his fury upon the unoffending Editors of the Improved Version . * ' You see , Sir , " says he to the Layman to whom his Letters are
addressed , I have not spared the Version f though I have wished to be civil to you , * How far animadversions , so unfounded and intemperate , are calculated to injure the character of the Improved Version or its Editors , the reader of these Letters is competent to judge .
This worthy gentleman expresses his firm belief , that the Version and its Notes deserve both odium and neglect , and it is no doubt his ardent wish that they may meet with what they deserve . And truly , as to the
former , his wishes must be gratified to as great an extent as he can reasonably desire \ for never was any publication so universally reprobated , or so bitterly anathematized by all ( and their number who can recount ?) who " love darkness rather than
light . " But as to neglect , thanks-to the inveterate and purblind enemies of Truth and unadulterated Christianity , that is not likely to happen yet . For , no sooner has the Barnpton Lecturer of one University ceased to fultirinatc his anathemas , than the
Christian Advocate of another responds to the peak And lest the artillery of the allied powers should not be sufficient to crush the adversary , the Dissenting minister of Witham aids with his pop-gun the grand , explosion . And if all does not succeed in keeping down the hydra of this hated Version ,
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it is not owing to a want of good-will in any one of the parties . But to what extent the attacks of these gigantic adversaries actually succeed in producing that neglect at which they profess to aim , the publisher of the Improved Version can best satisfy the curious inquirer . I cannot conclude , these Letters
without expressing my regret that the Author of the" Trinitarian ' s Appeal , " whose abilities are respectable ^ and whose character is in many respects worthy of esteem , should have
degraded himself so far as to have set his name to so intemperate and unprovoked an attack upon the Editors of the Improved Version . As a minister of the orthodox church , Mr . Newton
might well be excused in expressing , in strong terms , his dislike , and even his horror at this open and undisguised attack upon principles which he had always been accustomed to regard < as sacred ; and in warning his readers of the danger of giving up what he holds to be primary and fundamental truths . And if his zeal had carried
him somewhat beyond the limits of sound discretion , the importance of the subject might have been accepted
as an excuse . But no apology can be made for his constant vulgar and contemptuous abuse of the Editors of the Improved Version , who , for any thing that Mr . Newton knows , are as serious , as diligent , and as impartial in their inquiries after revealed truth as himself :
and who , however erroneous their own conclusions may be , have at least abstained from all unbecoming and uncharitable reflections upon thosfe whose opinions are different .
The misfortune is , that this gentleman having determined to place himself in the chair of criticism , seems to have fallen into the strange mistake , that , because arrogance and illiberality have too often been the infirmity of great scholars , therefore to be violent and intemperate would secure him
the character of a profound and sagacious critic . But the time is past when lofty pretensions and sarcastic sneers were competent to supply the place of calm reasoning and accurate discrimination . And something more is now necessary to prove a man to be a scholar , than reviling his adversary as a blockhead .
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On the Rev * Samuel Newton ' s Objections to the Improved Version . & % 9
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vol . xiv , 4 o
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1819, page 629, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1777/page/41/
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