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toy searching can find out God ? ' " If again you venture to appeal to human reason , and ask this man of mystery how it is possible that two or three can be one ; he stands aghast at your impious question , and shudders at the bare thought of seeing reason , carnal
reason , dragged within the pale of the sacred controversy , and quickly replies , by saying , "It is enough for me that it is revealed ; I take the words as I find them , without setting up my frail corrupted reason against the oracles of God . " But , my good
friend , allow me to say , that if you take the preceding texts literally as you find them , I see no reason why you should not take the following passages in a literal sense also . Paul says in precisely the same language , that the planter and waterer are one . And why should not the following also be
taken as it stands : " This is my body j " and ** except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man , and drink his blood , ye Jhave no life in you" ? I perceive now , says the theologian , the defender of the doctrine of the Trinity , who is by 4 his time become a little angry , that vou are a decided Socinian ; and as a
Sociman , a heretic of the worst class , condemned to . everlasting punishment for denying the Lord that bought him : I do not think it to be consistent with the holy character of my orthodoxy to have any further conversation with you , lest I also should become contaminated by the breath of your nostrils . G . F .
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JPorson and Wahefield on Gibbon s Attack on Christianity . Sir , Dec . 7 , 1817 . OBSERVE in the Preface of the I late Professor Porson ' s " Letters to Archdeacon Travis , " now a scarce
book , the following strictures on Mr . GibborTa History , chiefly with reference to the indecencies in which that popular historian too often indulged himself . As the opinion * of an acute observer , and one never accused of being righteous over much , these remarks may
be worthy of more general circulation , especially as they are connected with the learned Professor ' s judgment on the literary execution of the History . Having refuted a weak objection which might be offered against him , for writing on the same side with an
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infidel historian , Mr . Porson thus proceeds : — « c An impartial jndge , I think , must allow that Mr . Gibbon ' s History is one of the ablest performances of its kind that hag ever appeared . Mis industry is indefatigable 5 his accuracy scrupulous ; hk which indeed is
reading * , sometimes ostentatiously displayed , immense ; his attention always awake ; bis memory retentive ; his style emphatic and expressive ; his periods harmonious . His reflections are often just and profound ; he pleads eloquently for the rights of mankind and tbe duty of toleration ; nor does his humanity ever slumber , unless when women are ravished ( Ch . lvii . Note 54 , ) or the Christians persecuted ( Ch . xvi . ) . " Mr . Gibbon shews , it is true , so strong * a dislike to Christianity , as visibly disqualifies him for that society of which he lias created Ammianus Marcellinus presi-1
dent . I confess that I see nothingwrong in Mr . Gibbon ' s attack on Christianity . It proceeded , I doubt not , from the purest and most virtuous motive . We can only blame him for carrying * on the attack in an insidious manner and witb improper weapons . He often makes , when he cannot readily tind , an occasion to insult our he
religion ^ winch hates cordially , that be might seem to revenge some personal injury . Such is his eagerness in the cause , that he stoops to the most despicable pun , or to the most awkward perversion of language , for the pleasure of turning the Scripture into ribaldry , or of calling * Jesus an impostor . ( Ch . lix . Note 32 , and Ch . xi . Note 63 . )
" Thougb his style is in general correct and elegant , he sometimes draws out the thread &f his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument . ( Shakspeare . ) In endeavouring to avoid vulgar terms , he too frequently dig-nifies trifles , and clothes
common thoughts in a splendid dress , that would be rich enough for the noblest ideas . In short , we are too often reminded of that great tnan ^ Mr . Prig , the auctioneer , whose manner was so inimitably fine , that he had as much to say upon a ribbon as a Raphael .
—( Foote . ) " Sometimes in his anxiety to vary hi * phrase , he becomes obscure ; apd instead of calling his personages by their names , defines them by their birth , alliance , office or other circumstances of their nistor ) - Thus an honest gentleman is often
described by a circumlocution , lest the same word should be twice repeated in the same page . Sometimes , in his attempts at elegance , he loses sight of English , » n » sometimes of sense . ( Ch . xlvii . near Note 19 , and Ch . 1 . near Note 153 . ) " A less pardonable fault is that rage for indecency which pervades tb $ vrhole war ,
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Y 14 Porson and Wahefield on Gibbon
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 714, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/18/
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