On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
host , endeavours to fix upon the whole Unitarian body the imputation of ignorance . It is amusing , at the same time , to observe , that whenever a champion of Trinitarian ! sm sallies forth against these unlearned adversaries , he never fails to buckle on his whole college armour , and to display it with glittering ostentation . Dr . Magee would not , we presume to think , have overlaid his text with such cumbrous erudition in his notes ; if he had believed liia own account of his opponents . After all , as Dr . Carpenter justly remarks , ( p . 54 , ) the question is not what authority is due to the assertions of the Unitarians in matters of pure learning , but what weight there is in the evidence which they adduce from Scripture on behalf of their principles . Let the Unitarians be as illiterate as any bishop can wish to represent them , and the Athanasian Creed will not
become thereby a jot less unscriptural , absurd , presumptuous and uncharitable . Dr . Carpenter meets the charge temperately but boldly : " If by learnbig be exclusively meant , a minute and intimate knowledge of the canons of the Greek metres , skill in detecting and correcting the errors of our present copies of the ancient authors ,
facility in the composition of Greek and Latin verse , readiness of allusion to the energetic thoughts and splendid beauties of the classic writers , and fluency in the citation of them , —in these respects , most of those Unitarians who have pretensions to a literary character , must yield the palm , not only to the giants in literature who have devoted to it their whole time
and all the powers of a vigorous intellect , but also to many of less exalted reputation , who have enjoyed advantages from which we are often debarred , and are still able to employ in literary pursuits , an almost uninterrupted leisure . But if
we may regard an extensive and familiar acquaintance with the best Greek and Roman writers , sound information as to the general principles of language and the laws and idioms of the classical
languages in particular , and the conse-rquent ability to investigate the difficulties of an ancient author , to draw from his intellectual fountain , and to feel and estimate his beauties , as sanctioning a claim to the possession of learning , ( and , in my judgment , they constitute the most useful , though not the most honoured # pecies of it , ) we have among us those whose claim is indisputablp , and in num-
Untitled Article
bers , probably , proportioned to the extent of our sect *" - £ -Pp . 56 , 57 . There follows a statement of the course of biblical study , pursued in the academical institution at York , copied from the critique on Mr . WaineWright ' s
account of the Literary and fcclentific Pursuits of Cambridge , inserted in our Xlth Volume , pp . 404—411 ; and , conjecturing aright as to the author of that article of Review , Dr . Carpenter says ,
" f wish it had fallen m with the object of the able Writer of the critique on the Pursuits of Cambridge , to detail the course of Classical Study at York ; but , as he himself says of his respected colleague , * justice will never be done him but by some other hand than his own / In fact , to detail without comment .
would have been to praise . By the soundness , extent and accuracy of his erudition , by his persevering earnestness and perspicuous simplicity in communicating knowledge , his judicious method of elucidation , and his depth of research , and , with all , his enlightened and conscientious views as to the ends of the
course of instruction m which he takes a share , he is eminently qualified for his important station . Those who are engaged with him in the study of the Greek Tragedians , Historians and Philosophers , have no cause to envy the more splendid advantages of the halls of learning . "Pp . 60 , 61 .
The reader will be pleased with Dr . Carpenter ' s judicious and candid remarks ( § 2 of ch . iv . ) on the Bishop ' s outrageous abuse of Unitarians , as conspirators against Divine revelation . They are instructive and admonitory to
Unitarians , as well as pertinent to the accusations of their opponents . It is stated to be the peculiar privilege of the Unitarian , that he can express his system in the precise language of the New Testament . This would seem
to be the best criterion of its Christian chax-acter . " But that which he feels injustice towards himself , the Unitarian must not practise towards others . He sees his fellow-christians uniting with him , in
maintaining the divine origin of the gospel ; and he knows that though they widely separate from him , it is not bocause they reject , but because they misunderstand , that Revelation , to whose authority lie also bow « . He perceives that the apostolic confession wan , simply *
Untitled Article
1 ' 72 Review—Dr . Carpenter ' s Examination of Bkhop Magee .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 172, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/44/
-