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Biographical Sketch of J. S. Semler.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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FRIEND , whose contributions A to your valuable Miscellany prove his own acquaintance with the best authors in the department of biblical criticism , has suggested to me , that , having furnished to the Monthly Repository some years back a biographical sketch
of Michaelis , [ Vol . VI . 1 and 6 b 9 ~ ] I might perhaps gratify some of your readers , by giving a similar account of Semler , the lumen alterum of German theology in the eighteenth century . I would willingly have resigned to him
the office of making Semler known to the English theological student , on the ground that he was as well acquainted as myself with the sources whence his biography must be drawn , and much more conversant with those studies in
which Semler excelled . As , however , I have not been able to prevail on him by these arguments , I have sent you the subjoined sketch for insertion in the Repository . My principal , though by no means nay only guide , has been an article in the Allgemeine Bihliothek der Biblischen Litteratur of Eichhonr , Vol . V . Part I . pp . 1—202 .
K . John Solomon Semler was born on the 18 th of December , 1725 , at Saalfeld , in Thuringia . His father was a clergyman in this little town , but , though enjoying the dignity of Archdeacon , his € t couch of preferment " was a much humbler one than that of
his brethren who bear the same title in our English hierarchy . His son learnt from him , however , if not the art of acquiring wealth , one still more valuable to a member of a profession
which , above all others , should be independent of the favour of the world , —the art of dispensing with wealth , by moderate expectations and simplicity of habits . He is said to have owed
much to his mother , who instilled into him sound principles of conduct , and a real regard for religion , while she carefully guarded him from the influence of that pietism which then prevailed as much in Germany , as similar ex-
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cesses and perversions of the religious principle do in this country , under the names of Methodism and Evangelical Religion . The Duke of Saalfeld himself was strongly tinctured with pietism ; and , after his mother ' s death , JSemler
was persuaded by his father and elder brother , both of whom were already converted , to attend the rector of the school in his religious exercises , or Hours of the Heart , as they were called . The consequence was such as might have been foreseen : Semler ,
who did nothing in moderation , lost all his former cheerfulness , became a prey to the most distressing fears about his own salvation , and was seen perp e * tually weeping and on his knees , and , the new birth having succeeded in due time to the previous stages of his
disorder , was invited to court along with some of his school-fellows , to give proof of it before the Duke in extemporary prayer . The literary part of hemlerV education was not neglected during this period of his life : but
being left to himself too much in the choice of books , he read without discrimination and patient attention , and never acquired the power of arranging his own ideas with method , and developing them with accuracy .
In 1 / 42 , he was removed to the Orphan-House in Halle , and became a student at the University . The same religious influences to which he had been exposed at Saalfeld , continued for a time to operate here . The founder of the Orphan-House , August Hermann Franke , though one of the most benevolent of men , had a kind of
Moravian mysticism in his piety , and this spirit continued to prevail amongthe directors of the institution after his death . At the time of which we are speaking , John Anastasius
Freylinghausen , son-in-law of Franke , presided over it ; and his Manual , though honoured by the approbation of the late Queen , and translated into English at her command , will sufficiently explain what is meant by pietism . Those
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THE # TOi 0 iwiH 6 ) fe M ^ ifii Mtip iriw ^
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No . CLXXXII ] FEBRUARY , 1821 . [ Vol . XVI .
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VOL . XVI . K
Biographical Sketch Of J. S. Semler.
Biographical Sketch of J . S . Semler .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/1/
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