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« $$ | ii ^ 4 * fife / ' siykMirriWWc , * ? oFmy Bristol bookseller , that 1 anfopposing the firlorious i > eculiaritie 8
of the gospel , and that he cannot , in conscience , give circulation * o such a ¦ BiAAlf ' i V : ' > ' ' ¦ ¦ UUVSM ' While lie was employed in the preparation of this little work , doubts begraa to suggest themselves to his mind on some of the opinions which he had hitherto entertained , as to the € t
person and offices of Christ . I intended /* he observes , in a letter addressed to me on the 31 st December , 1804 , ** to insert a note at the beginning of my account of the birth of Christ , stating that the chapters in which it is found , there is great reason
to think , were not written by the Evangelists . On your suggestion , however , I have omitted it entirely , and commenced the history at our Lord ' s entrance on his public ministry . " It was about this time that he entered
upon a more careful study of the Sacred Scriptures , under a deep sense of his responsibility , with frequent prayers to the throne of grace , and in the spirit of sound , cautious and enlightened criticism , comparing the phraseology of one passage with that of another , and 4 € making / ' as he expresses it ,+ •* due
* In a letter to me , dated October 8 , 1808 * f In his Sermon before the Western Unitarian Society , p . 23 , note . In a letter written to me a few weeks after this sermon was printed , Mr . Hovre says , " Though the general strain of our preaching be plain and practical , we do
right m frequently calling the attention of our people to our principles , as Unitarian Christians . It tends to cherish the spirit of free inquiry into the Sacred Scriptures , and is , thus , favourable to truth and virtue . This spirit much prevails in Bridport . Works for and against Unitarianism are iu constant circulation
amongst us . Many copies of a popular tract in favour of the Godhead of Christ , and an admirable Answer to it , are most industriously dispersed . Our Trinitarian and our Unitarian Mends € run to and foo , * and the result will hk 9 I I hope , that fipo , * and the result will be , hope , that 9
« knowledge shall be increased . Between them , it is so managed , that those who read * the one * pamphlet , are under a land Of necessity of reading * the other ' also . This is surely as it should be . A worthy Cklrihistic neighbour , whom you
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^ UoWante for the highly figurative mode of speaking whfchvvas common in the East " and whidi was adopted by our Lar 4 and bis apostlea . " The result
was a conviction , which all his subse quent inquiries Served to strengthen and establish , that Jesus / the Mediator of the new covenant , is strictly and literall y of th ^ human race . The terms in which he wrote to make me acquainted with : the change that his religious sentiments ( had undergone , were
these : < I have entirely given up Arianism , I adhered to it as long as I could , till the force of evidence drove me from it into strict Unitarianism . This is the little leaven which I now
think will eventually leaven the whole lump . For this purpose there must be the union of serious piety and candour , and the wisdom of the serpent must be blended with the harmlessness of the dove . "
Towards the close of the year 1808 , Mr . Howe was attacked by a fever , from which , during several weeks , ( here was no expectation that he could recover . He was himself fully aware of his imminent danger , and those who watched , with so much kindness and assiduity , around his bed , can bear
witness to the humble confidence and the pious resignation which . lie then displayed . At length it pleased the Almighty to raise him up ; and how often have I heard my excellent friend expatiate , in strains of holy gratitude and wonder , on the glorious hopes and promises which supported him in that most awful scene I He cast himself
on the goodness and mercy of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ , and he experienced the efficacy of his views , as an Unitarian Christian , to enliven the gloom of sickness , and to scatter the darkness of the grave * These feelings he has himself described with touching
simplicity , in a note to his Sermon , preached before the Western Unitarian Society , at Taunton , on Wednesday , July 14 , 1813 . In a letter which I received from him in the spring of 1809 , and which can neither be
transcribed nor read without emotion , he says , " What cause have I for thbnk-1 ¦ " ' !" ¦ "" ¦ - ¦¦ - ¦ know , has been firing his great guns at my little sermon . WKat execution he will effect , time must shew , ' Our friends areiby no means discouraged . " '
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720 A Tribute to the Memoryt of theRev ' . Thomas H * vbe .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1820, page 720, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2495/page/32/
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