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
Archdeacon , wlio has laid aside the candour and courteousness natural to his disposition ; in or 4 er to p in his faith on the authority of those intrepid creators of facts and sophisticators of quotations , Bishop Magee and Mr . Rennet , I would ask him whether he means to describe the prayer of Jesus to the Father , * the only true God / John xvij . 3 ; the prayer of iPetef and John and the believers , Acts xiv . 24 ; the sernion of Peter on the day of Pentecost , Acts ii 14 the of Peter in SolomonPorch
. ; sermon ' s , Acts iii . 12 ; the oration of Peter for the Apostles before the High-Priest , Acts v . 29 ; the sermori of Peter to Cornelius , Acts x . 34 ; the sermon of Paul at Athens , Acts xvii . 22 ; and the collective Apostolic doxologies , all of which , without a single redeeming exception , are systematically excluded from the liturgy of the Church of England , —I would ask whether he means to describe these as mutilated passages' which ' bear a sound' and ' have a seeming' ? Yet these ( how perverse !) are simply and altogether Unitarian . " *
Before we dismiss this class of Mr . Elton ' s charges we must advert to a canon which he states to be adopted by Unitarians in disposing of the " doctrines received by the Church as those peculiar to Christianity . " He arranges this canon under four heads , but the statement is too long to be transcribed . It is , however , in its spirit and tendency , among the most reprehensible portions of the book , as a fallacious and a gross misrepresentation . The fourth division is expressed as follows : " That the writings most opposed to Unitarian simplicity , are either spurious , or probably so , or that it would be better ' if they were so . * P . 19 . To such an insinuation
we shall not deign a reply beyond what the writer may find in his own language on another occasion . j " A man who has general fixed principles , whether they be the fruit oi habit and education , or of voluntary study and reflection , would naturally expect that the book on which he believes these principles to be grounded , should coneur , when appealed to , with his previous views . He would naturally see passages in a different light from a man whose pre-established notions are different : but there is no want of candour or docility in this ; it is
conslstent with perfect sincerity , and an honest desire to know the truth . Nothing can be conceived more puerile , superficial , and captious , than your accusing such a man of purposely culling such proofs as make for his hypothesis , and , refusing his assent to those that oppose it . " " It is mere vulgar and ignorant sophistry to call this admitting or rejecting Scripture , according as it favours a system ; it is admitting or rejecting a sense ascribed to Scripture , according as that particular sense appears ^ in the judgment of the individual , consistent with , or contradictory to , the collected evidence of the Scriptures at lars-e . " " evidence of the Scriptures at large .
" The heat of controversy , ! like the fumes of wine , often surprises a man into an unintended betrayal of his own weaknesses ; and we generally suspect others of what we are secretly conscious of being prone to ourselves . This ready inference , that in their textual interpretation Unitarians are guided by the measure of congruity or discordance in a particular text , could only have occurred to a man accustomed , himself to look on isolated texts aa complete and oracular authorities . We d p not , Sir , regard a text here or a text tWe as deciding the nature of Christian doctrine ; but perhaps you are acquainted with those who do . "f
Mr . Elton has graced his work with a few other controversial embellishments , which ; like some already quoted , are not recommended by their novelty or originality , $ ny more tfian by their candour and truth . Our readers will have seen that he has revived the designation u SoCinian , "
¦ W-HM li » i i , > . p . . i ^ . -. ... . — Ww ili-WW ^ ' " "" * ¦ '¦ ¦ " ¦ " " ¦ - — ' — ' ' ¦>¦»¦¦¦ " — . — ¦¦¦ — ¦¦¦ " — —¦¦¦ ' ¦¦ »¦ ' " * Plea for the Unitarian * , pp . 61 , et seq . f Plea , &c > as aboVe , pp . 52—54 .
Untitled Article
Jleview . —Recessions from Unitarianism . 66 $
Untitled Article
2 x 2
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 667, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/35/
-