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Untitled Article
to whom the cause of intellectual , political and religious truth is more substantially indebted , ) an opinion
has gained ground among critics and divines , that scripture is the bqst and only legitimate expound . jut of scripture . Though the num . her of those who receive and illus .
tr $£ e this sentiment is extremely small , when contrasted with the multitude of persons who never think about it or by whom it is practically denied , yet we do not recollect that the proposition itself
has been called in question : and even were it opposed , as we know that it is disregarded , the opposition would not be more respectable , or ultimately more successful , than what has been given to the
philosophy of Newton ; it would npt be more deserving the notice ofreai scholars . The single distinction , and assuredly a very im . pqrtant , one , between the cases , is this ; errors as to the philosophy
of . the universe are far less injurious than the application of false criticism to the scriptures . From the works of Voltaire , Gibbon and same other unbelievers , we learn that infidelity does not scruple to avail itself of current and mistaken
interpretations' of passages in the Bi , ble t in order to arraign with more plausibility the evidences of revelation . Not less notorious is it , th ^ t me n have attempted to support A nti-christian doctrines by the habit of detaching texts from
whatever precedes and follows , and then citing them as irrefragable proofs of Sfome favourite tenet . Qur Saviour ' s words , Matt . iv . 7 f " Thou shalt not teigpt the Lord tby Qod , " ^ ave , ! # * en gravely ur ? <** * a de ^^ str ^ loft of his ° * # ffiWal , 4 q «| f ^ n fltfs ^ e *^ c ? j 8 ° f f « W $ * km feeeja < tffCt * d ©»
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11 Job n v * , 20 , . < * : We ? ara for hi ra ? that is true , even in . his Son , Jesus Christ . This is the true God and eternal life . ** Upon points of conduct , too , unwarrantable priru ciples of sacred criticism have uxercised an infioetice . Sometimes
a highly figurative ^ sometimes a rigorously literal K exposition of the scriptures , has given birth to practices which , it is generally agreed ,
no fair explanation of these writ , ings can sustain , and even to acts which the precepts and the spirit of them are understood by most persons to condemn .
Such being the evils that flow from the wrong criticism of scri p * ture , and such , by consequence , the value of solid principles of interpretation in reference to this volume , we must acknowledge the obligations which , in common with all consistent friends of the i Bible .
we owe to the author of these Essays , SfC » for his very meritorious labours . Few men are better qualified for such researches ^ Having , in early lifey enjoyed signal advantages , which he well
improved , for appreciating the 4 no * ment and drawing from the sources of scriptural criticism , * he has happily possessed sufficient leisure for prosecuting his inquiries into the records of revelation , together
with a , fortune and a spirit which have both prompted and enabled him to lay the ' result of those in * quiries before the public in th « most disinterested manner . An
excellent little tract , which he printed a few years since , on the Impropriety of tie usual Method of teazling TAcology , * nd in which he admirably shews ihal > Protestants should take their views' ; of ' i . -1 it in
—. * Moo- Repot . VoU viw . x <^> ** 9 '
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60 S Uttoiqw " . ** Swtpsvn ' s JE $ sm $ s m , the Language of Scripture .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1813, page 602, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2432/page/42/
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