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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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many of our orthodox brethren , but almost their Bible . I have heard it quoted from the pulpit and referred to in private conversations with as much veneration , and often apparently with more effect , than even the Bible itself :
and , from its simple , pleasing-, pious and popular style , I have no doubt but that it will long continue to be so read . I am persuaded , therefore , that if it should be reprinted with some such alterations as those alluded to by Mr . Howe , it would be made highly useful
in the dissemination of Unitarian principles ; and should the respectable gentleman referred to by Mr . Howe , and who has the honour of being ranked amongst the number of bis friends , undertake the work , I am satisfied he
would additionally entitle himself to the thanks of the Unitarian body , as I know of nothing more likely to obtain general circulation , especially with the juvenile reader , and particularly coming before the public through so able and respectable a channel . B . MARTEN .
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Lewes , Sir , March 9 , 1821 . YOU will do me a favour if you will allow me , through the medium of your liberal publication , to seek from some of your ingenious and
learned correspondents a solution of certain queries which have considerably perplexed my mind as a professor of the Unitarian faith . They are as follows :
The phrases " Logos / ' or " Word of God / ' " Only-begotten image of God / ' " Brightness of Iris glory , " * Beginning" or origin " of his works , " " First-born of every creature , ' and other similar expressions , T understand
to have been in use , by Platonic and other philosophers , before and in the time of the apostles ; and that those philosophers meant by such phrases a properly divine principle or power ( not to say person ) belonging to the Deity , by which he effected the creation of the whole universe . I also understand
the apostles to have adopted the language in question , applying it in the New Testament to Jesus Christ . Now if the apostles did not intend by so doing to be understood as meaning that Jesus Christ was he b y whom the ^ universe was made , why did they apply
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language to him which , in its original ana ( in their day ) current meaning , was used of that divine principle by which the creation of all nature was effected ? Or rather , I would ask , is not their application of the said language to Jesus Christ a proof that they considered him as the maker of the
universe ? I am aware that it is said they used the language in a new or figurative sense ; and I must confess there are some passages where it occurs in the New Testament which are plausibly explained as figurative . But as the apostles have given no notice
that they did not speak according to the common acceptation of the phraseology in question , I think nothing can warrant a figurative explanation of it in their writings but its being self-evident in the passages where it occurs that it cannot there be otherwise than
figuratively used . There should be one passage , at least , of this description , to fix the meaning of the rest . 1 am not aware that there is one . On the other hand , I think there is one , if not more , which will not admit of any other than a literal sense , and which thus determines the meaning of all others of the same class to be literal ,
if , indeed , that point be not previously decided by the original meaning of the language used in the passages referred to . The particular place to which I now allude is in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews , where it is
said , " Unto the Son he saith , Thy throne , " &c \ , and , " Thou , Lord , in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth , and the heavens are the
work of thy hands . " Here the creation of the natural heavens and the eartfc is ascribed to the Son in language as clear and definite as can be used > and I am persuaded that any principle of explanation which imposes Upon this passage ( or any other ) a meaning different
from what it decidedly expresses , can never be jw ? tly admitted as a legitimate principle of interpretation . With de * ference to the learning and integrity of the Editors of the Improved Version of the New Testament , I must dissent
from their note or paraphrase upon the place alluded to , as being liable to the above objection , in that , by the introduction of a perfectly gratuitous sentence , it imposes upon the p&ssage a meaning altogether arbitrary and
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394 Difficulties on the Unitarian Hypothesis
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1821, page 294, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2500/page/38/
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