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Untitled Article
heretics ; for their models and authorities , have been busy with exscinding and italicizing of entire inconvenient chapters , and the wholesale condemnar tion of entire epistles . " In the recUa . l ; jG > f these passages we are almost tempted to put it to the author , in his o , wn temperate and polite language ; whether such flimsy efforts to fiX v Upoji . lJni ^ arians an odious and criminal acc usation , " be
calculated to impose , § venj ? n a savage" ! Mr . Elton has himself been an Unitarian , and aji Unitarian critic and apologist . * We appeal to him whether , whilst he susjained those characters , it was his practice to " pare dp \ vn , " and to " tamper" with , the sacred writings , and to fix the sense of passages by the sole consideration that " they squared with the Socinian hypothesis" ? Would he not have repelled such an insinuation , if directed against himself , with unmingled disdain ? Nay , has he not applied £ he scourge to a false accuser who had anticipated him in this ungenerous and reprehensible mode of attack ? We will quote his words ; he may , if he so p lease , transfer the Just castigation to others whom it will equally suit .
" With this comparative method of Unitarian criticism staring you in the face , and after thus riveting your eyes on the letter of a single text , and refusing to look an inch beyond it , you modestly observe that it is ' one part of the Unitarian system not to take the whole sense of Scripture as it stands , and to believe it ( I suppose without examination ) reconcileable with itself in every part , but to take only a portion , and make the rest give way to it ; ' and you say , we have also a strong * objection to that syllogistic faitli which builds itself up upon single texts of Scripture . The Christian should feel that the
whole Bible is . his creed : whether obscure or clear , mysterious or simple , his faith should comprise all : he should be able to lay his hand upon the book and say , ' I believe in this : ' and he should see the peculiarities of Christianity not merely gasping for existence in single texts , but livirig , burning ^ breathing throughout . ' 'Nothing short of this approaches either to the 'full assurance of faith / or the full assurance of understanding ! ' What you exactly mean by the latter clause I do not pretend to guess . " " But I would
observe , on the general statement , that you need not fear ( perhaps I should say , you will be disappointed in the hope ) , that the Unitarians will withhold their concurrence with these postulates , since they have uniformly asserted them and acted upon them for themselves ; with this proviso , that the Bible on which they are to lay their hands is the Bible itself ; not a favoured translation only , but the Bible itself , unsophisticated , uninterpoj lated , and pure . Whether the disciples of the Trinitarian or those of the be
Unitarian school of vhristi ^ nity more notorious for * taking portions of Scripture , and making Qie rest bend to them / for that' syllogistic faiths ( an odd expression in the mouth of an Athanasian ) which builds itself dn ' single texts / or for supposing the peculiar truths of faith to 'gasp for existence in those single texts / let the tenor and texture of their respective writings determine . " "The Unitarian replaces these single texts in the context from whence they are * torn live-asunder / and he collates that context itself with other corresponding parts of Scripture : he permits Jesus and the evangelists and apostles tot : be their own interpreters . " To this passage the following note is appended :
" It is somewhat venturously observed b y Dr . C . A . Moysey , Archdeacon of Bath , in a Bampton Lecture , that ' against the general and harmonious evidence of the whole gospel , the Unitarian arrays a few selected aiadmutu l&ted pdssages r vr \ i \ ch , if taken singly , may bear a sound which shall seem to concur with his favourite opinions ; and he rests his whole system on them , without taking into account the tenor of our Saviour ' s doctrine in general , as delivered b y himself and Ills ajpostles . ' Jf the word Trinitarian were st * J > stitu $ ed for Unitarian , would not the cap fit as Well ? lypulcl ask the Rev .
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£ 66 J % epiew . -r 8 ecet $ sjon 8 from Unitarianism .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 666, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/34/
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