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that the canon of the New Testament was not absolutely set . tied throughout the church" till
a late period . * Yet even this delay is a proof of the care em . ployed to distinguish between genuine and spurious books ; or , in other words , of the veneration
with which fhe Scriptures were regarded ; and it has been not a a little favourable , in many views , to the cause of tiuth and knowledge , ( 29 . )
His concluding observation on this subject merits the attention of those Protestants who forget upon what principles the Bible should be examined and interpreted :
" A great part of our mistaken brethren argue , as if they had received the modern Bible , in the English language , from the hand of God himself , in the same
manj ) er as Moses received the tables of tlje law on the top of mount Sina */ ' ( Ib . ) He then urges the following argument against the sufficiency of the Scriptures , and the JProtestant principle ;
" Finally , I 'will ask you my brethren , whether you ever heard of a state or legislator , find whether you . think such a one ever exibted , that , having composed a rule or code of laws , left every subject at liberty to explain it
according to bis own private opinion ?* ' ( lb- ) Now , our reply to this reasoning will he in a narrow cornpaSs . Kdigion is , in fact , despribed in ijie Scriptures as a subject of
per-* Lardner ' s Works , vi . 31 . t Rora *• 9 * t Transl . of the Four Gospels , vol . i . ( 4 to . ) p . 63 . Speaking of scripture and tradition , he adds , «« We are already in ' possession of the former , if we can but expound it . We cannot say so much of the latter , which , like Nebuchadnezzar ' s dream , we hayc iirst to find , and then to interpret , "
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sonal interest : every man must give an account of himself to God t let every man be fully persuaded in his own mindz and theBerearis are commended for examining for themselves whether Paul ' s
statements corresponded With the prophecies , . Not only so : if religion , be considered as a law of moral conduct , tUere is no dispute about its precepts ^ sanctions and prohibitions ^ among any set
of Christians , \ vho moreover ^ all agree in admitting the Messiah - ship of Jesus , on the evidence of his resurrection ^ Then , as to other points of faith and discipline ^ even in these the agreement is more general in proportion as the Scriptures are attentively read ; and , for the rest , the diversities of opinion that we
perceive , are no more valid against revealed , than diversities of another class are against natural re ~ ligion- ( 30 . ) But , repeats Dr . M . u that same universal tradition which has handed down to us the Scriptures themselves , as likewise some
of the clearest passages in these very Scriptures , testify , that there is a living interpreter , a speaking tribunal , viz . the concurring voice of the chief pastors of the churc h throughout the whole of her -extent / ' ( Ib . )
Of his argument to this effect from tradition , the nature and the value have been , in sopie degvcey already estimated . " As for tradition / ' says Principal CampbclljJ " what it is ^ how
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Review . *—Df . Milner ' s Consecration Sermon * 141
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1810, page 141, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2402/page/37/
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