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both ancient and modern , have taken a disingenuous advantage . This also is the frequent practice of sceptics and infidels , * n their allusions to the phraseology of Scripture . But all such men , and « ape-Yialiy those who wish to retain the
HChristian name , must be either pitied or blamed ; because , if they are free from lamentable ignorance , they are chargeable with criminal perversity . Whether the language of our author be not too often tinged , we may say strongly tinged , with this species of pollution , let the -Christian reader judge for himself . * The
incarceration of the Creator of the world in the body of a helpless , puling infant , is a fact , the credit of which must rest , like that of all other facts , not upon grammatical subtilties , but upon evidence direct , presumptive or circumstantial , upon the validity of which every person of con&mon sense is competent to decide . '
** In what an awful state of obdurate impiety must the miner / of that man . be , who could pen such a paragraph as this ; The sentiment , indeed , is worthy of an infidel , but for the credit of our nature , we hope that the bad eminence of being able to express it with the same degree of coarse and vulgar levity belongs to Mr . Belsham . "—I . 146 .
< c It will be readily granted , that a critical knowledge of the niceties of language contributes but little towards an accurate perception of celestial truths . ( 1 Cor . i . 19 , &c . ) * A sound understanding and an honest mind' are , doubtless ^ , of greater moment ; but it is not easy
to convince any man that his understanding is not sound , that his heart is not honest : and many will suspect that the short passage , last quoted , does not proceed from sources quite so respectable . * The incarceration of the Creator of the world in the body of a helpless , puling
infant ! ' What could produce this profane effusion , but strong and unrestrained prejudice at the commencement of the inquiry ? The latter of these marked expressions will appear to most i calm * inquirers , as an exuberant ebullition of
contempt against the doctrine itself , which is here impiously ridiculed , and against myriads of Christians of unquestioned virtue , talents , learning , piety and integrity . The former expression indicates either a want of knowledge or a culpable misrepresentation . It conveys
to most readers , and to al !> in its plain construction , that the Creator is inclosed or circumscribed by the human nature of Jesus , as a man is by the walls of a prison ! Is it possible that this representation can proceed from a mind imbiied with the slightest tincture of candour or decency ? What Trinitarian was ever
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absurd enough to entertain for a moment the sentiment here imputed to the whofc body ? Do they , wtien they with reven-. ejice represent the Deity as assuming the essential principles of our nature for the
purpose of expanding them to the utmost limits' of which that nature is capable and of illustrating before adoring myriads , the harmony and grandeur of divine perfections in the salvation of countless multitudes of the human race , —do they
deserve to be outraged with the low ribaldry we have quoted—a mode of expression , we will venture to say , which is much more appropriate to the character of a renegade , than a Christian ? Mr . Belsham would do well to reconsider
what he has written , with s a sound understanding and an honest mind r " - ^ I . 148 , 149 . Now , Sir , my principal object is to offer to your readers , and to bring to the recollection of Dr . Smith a few quotations from some of the most ce * lebrated orthodox writers in which the
sentiment is advanced , which , coming from Mr . Belsham , is deemed worthy an infidel , and advanced with similar accompanying epithets , for the use of which he is represented as something very like a monster of impiety . * Without wishing to be considered as
an apologist for the phraseology of Mr . Belsham , I think it must be admitted , that so far as the orthodox have adopted the same language , justice requires that the anathemas denounced against him be reversed , or the whole included in the same
condemnation . If , farther , it should appear that they have expressed themselves in even stronger terms than Mr . Belsham , he must retire from the " eminence" assigned him , and give place to his orthodox rivals . Should the question of pre-eminence remain
undecided , Mr . Belsham need not feel himself degraded in beinff found in the ranks with such names as Bacon , Hall , Hopkins , Charnock , Flavel , Claude , Saurin , Watts , Clayton , Simeon > with illustrious Episcopalians , Puritans and Nonconformists of a former age , and
* I have not thought it necessary to follow the Reviewer's ( example in the use of italics to . flirect the reader's attention to wbat is most offensive in the above paragraphs , nor shall I In any futurq extracts from othsr authors , but produce them in the form in Which the authors themselves have presented them to the public .
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640 Uncharitable Spirit of Dr . J . P . Smitfi towards Mr . Belsham ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1821, page 640, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2506/page/8/
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