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that committee . This appears to me calculated to narrow the beneficial effects contemplated by these institutions , viz . the communicating interest and information to all . If there be permanent officers , such as president , secretary and treasurer , there appears
no necessity for a committee ; and it maybe desirable to invite and induce mil to attend the meetings of the subscribers , it is surely desirable that « verv subscriber should have a vote ; arid where it has been thought advisable to nominate a committee , would
it not be well to have that committee open to all subscribers ? I confess , however , the leaning of my mind is against having any committee * It is * ra > t to he feared that these assemblies
will foe too large for individual personal representation . Should that be the case , a committee might then be adopted . I have observed with regret , that the funds of sortre of these
institutions ( judging by the rules ) may be applied to purposes certainly not in the contemplation of the proposer , such as repairs of the chapel , &c . Perhaps in a fixture Kumber of the Repository , you will give a list of these
institutions ; and in the mean time , annual reports , in imitation of the example of our brethren at Swansea , stating briefly what has been done during the year , would probably be useful .
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rative frorii argument . The judgement of the writers of the New Testament , in interpreting passages of the Old , or sometimes , perhaps , in receiving established interpretations , "
is not , he thinks , necessarily connected * ' with their veracity , or means of information concerning what was passing in their own tmies , so that a critical mistake should overthrow their
historical credit . " As to demoniacal possession , however erroneous the opinibn , he does not see that we need be alarmed at the concession , " that the writers of the New Testament , in common with other Jewish writers of that age , fell into the manner of thinking and speaking upon the subject , which then
universally prevailed- " To sanction his opinions on this subject , he quotes the following passage from Bishop Burnet : ** When divine writers argue upon any point , we are always bound to believe the conclusions that their reasonings end in , as parts of divine revelation ; but we are not bound to be able to
make out , or even to assent to > all the premises made use of by them , in their whole extent , unless it appear plainly , that they affirm the premises as expressly as they do the conclusions proved by them . "
Now this appears to me all very good , and to relieve the difficulty completely . But it is a curious fact , that Dr . Priestley was cried down as a most wicked heretic , for asserting something of the same kind ; perhaps he expressed himself in rather a broader manner ,
about the reasonings of the apostles on some topics \ for he was not at all accustomed to mince his opinions or language . And consistent Unitarians still are charged with most irreverent insinuations and assertions respecting the sacred writings . But Dr . Paley , and
even Bishop Burnet , may withhold their assent from the reasonings of these writers , and believe that they were in many instances mistaken , together with the rest of their countrymen , and yet remain profoundly orthodox , the ornaments and pride of
the purest church in Christendom !! Rtsum teneatis amid ? I conclude with an old English proverb , Mr . Editor , " One man may more safely steal a fiorsfc , than another look over a hedge . JR . LITTLE ;
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Paley ? Burnet and Priestley * Sir , Gainsborough , April 4 , 1818 . HA PPENING to glance over the second volume of Paley ' s Evidences of Christianity , I was amused with a marginal remark , which it
appears I had made some years ago , but had completely forgotten . It is in the 2 nd chapter of Part III ., entitled , Erroneous Opinions imputed to the Apostles . He refers to such as the quotation of passages from the Old Testament , and applying them in a sense quite different from thieir original design
the expectation of the speedy approach of the day of judgment ;—the notions about demoniacal possession , and the like . Paley meets the objections urged flrfcm thence against the credibility of the apbstles , irj what I think a very rttisfactory manner . He says , we fiftdttW ** separate facts from opinion * , testrnKWyfrotttL observation , mid nar-
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&Q 2 Pafe y * Burnet and Priestlhyl
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1818, page 302, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2476/page/14/
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