On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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
believe all concerning it that is found in Scripture clearly affirmed . Its effect , in the confession of all , I think , has extended , if to make , yet not to keep the Scripture perfect . The Raman Church , has assumed authority , claiming it to be divine , to decide on all points . It may become Protestants , I would humbly suggest , rather to believe it to have been for the purpose of our trial , the ultimate purpose of our being on earth , that difficulties have been allowed ; which are however not such but that , the imperfections of human language ,
and the hazard of translation from languages no longer spoken , practice is so commanded that little is left to human reason for either objection or doubt ; though , of belief , much is found remaining open for controversy . The zeal of believers to assert divine authority for the whole of the Old and New Testament , under necessity to admit that its influence , if ever producing perfection , has not been so exerted as to maintain it in any of the copies of either Testament which have reached us , has afforded great opportunity for their opponents . In truth , none can say from scriptural authority , hardly then ,
unless m very general terms , from human reason , where , with regard to . the matters for which it is claimed , the inspiration has begun , or how far gone . I will venture to add , however , none can say , from authority of either Scripture or human reason , how far under God ' s providence , it may not have gone , or may not go , unknown to those directed by it . The Almighty Author of the human mind cannot but have power to dispose that mina as he pleases . The inferior animals we see he disposes to love , guard and feed their younff
while needful ; the need ceasing , that disposition of the animal's mind ceases . It appears to me to be quite consonant with what we are enabled to see of God's providence , that he should , as may seem to him good , " occasionally enlighten or direct the minds of men , when they may be no more conscious of it than the male bird that assists its incubant mate . Scripture assures us that , in the early ages of the world , and after the ascension of Christ , many were made sensible of such divine direction . Where clear information in
Scripture fails , supposition > with just respect for the Divine attributes , may be allowed ; but certainty , and of course all right of man to impose belief , ceases ; and with much satisfaction I have observed some of our most eminent ecclesiastical writers of the English Church , of former times , and of the present day , to the utmost that , under human restrictions imposed on them , might be , teaching so . "—Pp . 131—136 . Regarding the gospels as literary compositions , the author makes some free remarks upon their style and method . He appears to have been most
deeply impressed by the perusal of Matthew , of whom he says , ( p . 129 , ) that , like the writers of the Old Testament , he is " strong in detached sentences , " but " utterly unhabituated to arrange thought for advantageous communication . " He observes , ( p . 131 , ) that John had been less qualified by education for a writer than any of the other three evangelists : " nevertheless , " he adds , " though Luke had more of Grecian learning , and wrote in better style , yet there is in all the other three Gospels , but especially in Matthew ' s , often a superior energy , and , with it , sometimes , a grace beyond art , the more striking for the abruptness with wnich they are introduced , and the uncouth diction and rugged arrangement of all around them . "
The whole of Sect . III . is " Of the Gospel by St . Matthew , " consisting of critical and expository remarks upon some passages of this Gospel . The author compares ( pp . 140—142 ) our Lord's mode of teaching with that of the philosophers and poets . Of these last , having named Virgil and Horace , he says ,
¦* ' The latter , in youth licentious , in advanced years , with whatever remaining disposition to sensuality , which no authority known to him restrained , giving himself anxiously to speculation on the condition and duties of man , seems to have been prepared to rejoice in such light , might it have reached
Untitled Article
3 $ 0 Revi € ic *—Mtfford ' y 8 Observations on Chrktianitg *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 360, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/48/
-