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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
ties undergo , on being read in the Meetings without more attejntioq on th % paTt of those who prepare them , to sound and scriptural distinctions , arid to the definite application of the words they use . Another instance of similar Carelessness and ambiguity of
expression ^ occurs in the following passage ? and , like the foregoing , from an incorrect use of the pos . sessive pronoun , c < his . " In the one * the antecedent noun ,
according to the rules of grammar , is , c * God 9 9 W when it ought to have been Christ * In the other , the antecedent to the last pronoun , in the following paragraph , should have been God . as the sense and
coherence of the passage plainly require ; instead of which it is " Christ . " But of this let the reader judge . The Epistle says , Ci Many are the duties incumbent en the followers of Christ , and all
require the support of his presence , for their due performance . * Without me , ' they are his own words , * ye can do nothing / We feel inclined at this time , ere we close
the present salutation of our love , to remind you of that indispensable duty , the acknowledgment of our dependence on his power , by duly assembling at the seasons appointed for waiting on , and worshipping God /' v rcannot imagine the compilers
of this Epistle , or any intelligent Friend , on their behalf , will venlure to say , it was their intention to hold up the obligation of waiting on , arid worshipping God , not lift acknowledgment of our depenoehce on \ his power , but on that oj" bis JielbvedL Son , gervanf and igesseti ' get ^ whb , it should be re-J ^ ertifiered ^ 1 * . was not the cause , Wt iHei ^ ct pf God ' s loveto man . "
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Injlb&mst part of the abeve paragraph * we are emphatically reminded , that the words quoted therein , from the 15 th chap , of John , are Christ ' s " own words /' Granted : but they are not more certainly his own words , than others recorded as such by the evangelists . Those words it may also be remarked , relate to the
parable of the vine and the branches , and are therefore to be appreciated , as their connection therewith requires . Nor is their import more clear , or less liable to be variously understood , than other parts of his discourse on this occasion . Having just before
said to his disciples , for their com . fort , I go unto the Father : for my Father is greater than I , " he introduces the parable thus , "I
am the true vine , and my rather is the husbandman . '' Pursuing the same figure , he represents the husbandman , as the cause of the fertility of those branches which bear fruit , and as having the disposal of those which did not .
After some farther explanation of the consequences of adhering to , and also of wilfully disregarding the doctrines he taught , he adds ; — " I am the vine , ye are the
branches . He that abideth in me , and I in him , the same bringeth forth much fruit : for without nit ye can do nothing . " That is , without obedience to in } ' commands , ye cannot be fruitful towards God .
He adds ; " Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit , so shall yt be my disciples . — -If ye keep nay comnqiandments , ye shall abide in tny love : even as I have kept ray Father ' s commandment * , and abide in his love . —Ye iareroy
friends , if ye . do whatsoever I com ^ mand yqu . —< I hme called yotf . IT I Jl •'
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720 Remarks on the Qua £ ers *\ Ye&rly Epistle .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1811, page 720, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2423/page/16/
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