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    " Passages like these admit properly but of one interpretation ; and yet tlie Ingenuity of criticism has invented other

    senses as remote as possible from their natural and obvious meaning . ' Every text which affirms the Divine Unity / says the Rev . R . Wardlaw , a writer of orthodox celebrity , * must be interpreted as meaning that God is one indeed—but

    one according to the peculiar modification of unity which belongs to Deity ; and hence he infers , in consistency with this favourite principle of interpretation , that < every text which affirms the unity of God , involves an affirmation of the Trinity . ' It is in vain that the Unitarian

    adduces his proofs by hundreds and thousands . His adversary , with this happy principle of interpretation at hand , can instantly disarm them of all their force , however numerous and explicit ; for , by this grand secret of the polemical art , he is enabled to assign a variety of new

    senses to the term unity , and instead of regarding the Deity as strictly and numerically one , he may regard him as one in three , or any indefinite number of persons . "—Pp . 13 , 14 .

    Mr . W . proceeds to prove from Scripture the sole Deity of the Father , the inferiority and subordination of the Son , and his simple humanity . On the same authority he shews , that the Holy Spirit is not an intelligent being distinct from God the Father . In the illustration of these points our author

    is concise , but perspicuous and forcible . Of the practical importance of viewing Jesus of Nazareth " asa man approved of God , " he seems to be fully sensible . The following observations on tlus subject ( p . 26 , Note ) are extremely just ; and the same reference to a valuable criticism of Dr .

    S . Johnson ' s , had been made by Mr . Bransby : * " In reflecting on the orthodox system concerning the divine nature of Christ , I have often been struck , " declares Mr . W ., « f with the language of Johnson respecting * the plan of Paradise Lost /

    and which will apply at least with equal force to the subject before us . Had Jesus been possessed of such a nature , his life , as it appears to me , < would have comprised , neither hutoan actions nor human manners ;* We should have found no transactions in which we could be engaged ; beheld no condition in which we could , by any effort of imagination , have

    —r ^ rv . ^~~ ;—¦ " ' ; * See hi » Discourse on Jbove to Christ , delivered , at Coventry , in January 1811 ,

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    placed ourselves ; and should , therefore , have had little natural curiosity or sympathy . ' " : The second general division of Mr . W / s letter greats of the grounds of difference between the canon and ^ ecot adopted by the editors of the Improved Version and those of the authorized translation . ' . *

    To the " commonly urged ' accusation " against Unitarians that they have not the same reverence for the Bible which is found among other denominations of Christians - and that they alter passages which do not accord with their own views , so as to

    make them convey a sense entirely foreign from that of the original auv thors , " he thus replies : * ' No denomination of Christians , I will venture to affirm , has done more ,

    in proportion to its numbers , to establish the genuineness of the books of Scripture , and shield them from the attacks of Infidels , than Unitarians . Let the appeal be made to facts , and where will you find a person , among the ranks of orthodoxy , who has laboured to confirm

    the truth of the Christian religion with as much assiduity and success as Lardner ?" —P . 41 . As to < e the genuineness of the books of the New Testament , " the writer before us expresses himself

    with that " discriminating judgment which is the effect of thought , inquiry and knowledge . He thinks , that in the case of every one of these books the question of its genuineness " demands a separate investigation / ' And , as the issue of such an examination , he receives all tjie historical books of the N . T ., the thirteen epistles almost universally ascribed to Paul , the first of those which are attributed to John ,

    and the first of the two of which Peter is said to be the author . c * For various and weighty reasons , " however , he cannot , " with the same confidence , affirm , that Paul was the author of the

    Epistle to the Hebrews ; " while he deems it " Jhighly probable" that the epistle commonly ascribed to James is genuine , " because it appewm to jjj / been known to Clemens Rom&nus and

    Hermas , two of the earliest apostolical fathers , and because it is found in the cauQn of the first SyriacTNTew Testament , which is decidedl y the most ancient version of the Christian Scriptures . " With Lardner md many

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    Review . — -Wallace ' s Plain Statement of the Doctrines of Unitarianism . 45

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1820, page 45, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2484/page/45/