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
such an anomaly . We have also a right to complain of the unworthy suspicions which such a proceeding implies . We have conceded the point of circulating a version , not in our estimation correct , because , to use Mr . Wilks ' s own words , we would not tarry from ' lustrum to lustrum , till criticism is exhausted , and
scholarship satisfied , '—because , * if we wait till immaculate versions can be procured , we may wait till many generations have passed into eternity ; ' and , in so doing , we have surely given a pledge of willingness to make the less yield to the greater . Grant that , in one or two cases , a solitary Unitarian has felt it incumbent on him to call a Calvinist to order for bringing forward what he considered doubtful and controverted doctrines on the platform , — -we cannot
enter into the merits of the particular cases , because the words of the speakers are not before us , —but , generally , we think that the Unitarian , who has made the concession above alluded to , will consider it as more consistent to allow his co-operators to utter their own thoughts on Christianity , provided they do it without direct attack upon his principles ; and we are sure that the general feeling will be against any insidious or open violations of the rules of the society they have joined .
With Mr . Wilks , indeed , we are very unfortunate—in or out , we are sure to displease him—we join the Bible Society , and we are hypocrites for circulating the received version—we leave it , and he therewith falls into a comment on the known indifference of Unitarians to the -circulation of God ' s word . This charge against the Unitarians of tampering with their consciences , in giving a sanction to the circulation of the received text , is one
which has been made among ourselves , and variously answered . It is our individual opinion , that conscience is less compromised by giving , than it would be by withholding—the knowledge of a life beyond the grave , the consolations , the instructions of Christianity , more especially the knowledge of the glorious character of our Lord and Master , seem to us infinitely to outweigh , in
importance , the fact of occasional mistranslation , or the erroneous heading of a chapter . Let the bible be translated as it may , we remember it may still be misunderstood—for in most of our controverted passages , it is not so much the actual text , as the consideration of the context , of the bearings which different parts of the
scriptures have upon one another , that we are divided about : and we cannot see any objection toour giving this version , which willnot more or less apply to any other—and which will not bear , with some , though not with equal force , on the fact of the scriptures being in every age a source of dispute , and a subject on which the most wild and erroneous opinions have been entertained .
There are some Unitarians , we believe , who , perceiving that they are a source of contention in the Bible Society , would rather withdraw for the sake of peace—and this , of all the lights in which
Untitled Article
336 The Bible Society Question *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1832, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1812/page/48/
-