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Untitled Article
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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.
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Untitled Article
when they proceed to do that , they do not resign to authority ) , whom then must they call Rabbi ? Whose authority must they follow ? If that of the church for the first
thousand years , they must reject transubstantiation : if for some hundred years after , they must reject every other sense . So that 3 . I conclude either that it is , not necessary for an unleajned Christian to understand the Certain
meaning , © f these words , and yet discharge his duty in an acceptable manner : or . that he , is able to judge of the meaning of the words . I do not say , be will need no help ; but there is a wide difference
between understanding a proposition by the assistance of another person > and receiving the sense of it upon his authority , or saying so without understanding it at all . 1 am thankful for the assistance of
the learned and would attend to their reasonings ; tut all the ufce I ought to make of them is , to help me to understand and judge for 2 IS 5 . II- If v I cannot , after my best care and endeavours , I must desist , I believe the text contains
a truth j but what that truth is I know not . N > " But once more J remark , 5 . That there arejno points of religion relating either to faith or practice , 01 l ^ E ° Xt ar 2 C 0 <) r 5 Lg ££ HL ? i [» ^ which Christiana need to depend on auinonty . The great and necessary things arc * plain and easy . If God has -required that * we must know them , it is certain he would
propound them to us in § uCh axpqntier that we might know them . That Christians of ordinary capacity are bo und to rely on human authority ^ ven for the fidelity of the translation of scripture , I shall Venture t 0 <*« ny ; and only desire the read-
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er ' s patience a minute pr two , and then I hope he will see that it js not without a reason . Though the unlearned cannot judge of the translation by comparing it with the original , cannot determine
whether this or that particular text be a just translation , yet they dc > not depend on authority in receiving the translation ^ but , as to all essential points of faith and practice , have a moral certainty of the truth of the translation , resulting from the harmony and agreement of learned men in it . That there
an agreement in every necessary point will not , I presume , be denied : for if some questj |§ i the translation in this text , and some in another , yet , I presume there is no fundamental point but may be found 4 a some or other , if ijot
m many , places of the translation that are undisputed . It is granted the unlearned cannot iud&e whether this , or that , or any , text be truly translated , that is , they cafcno ( know it by comparing the
translation with the original ; but they do know or m ^ y know so much of learned men , as , to know , they can never have agreed in the translation , had there been room
for dissent . Suppose some of the translators unskilful , some unfaittu ful , some mistaken , would , not others have detected their treachery or weakness ? Might not this be expected from the care and ze ^ I of
so many critics , of different opinons , parties and interests , who have , from age to age , employed their time and pains in examjbing the several copies and translations of
the original ? So that I say the mu learned do not , in this particular , rely on authority , but Have a m ^ aj certainty ; a certainty in a rational way as great as matters of this na-
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On Believiftg without Ideas . \ 5 j
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1811, page 157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2414/page/29/
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