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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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Untitled Article
Creator . Some Unitarians , however , are members of these societies , and they may chance to take the Repository , and be able , through its pages ,
to inform me , how they can acquit themselves of duplicity , while they circulate the common version of the Scri ptures , for pretending that they circulate the Scriptures without note
or comment . I think no book can be more fit for circulation than the Scriptures ; and , at a meeting of an auxiliary Bible Societv , not long since held in Sussex , on hearing one of the orthodox orators expatiate on the necessity of all men having the words of eternal life
iii their hands , that they may not be seduced by false commentaries , but may be ever able to see the innate depravity of our nature , in the language of the prophet himself , that " the heart is deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked / ' I was almost going to enrol my name among the other members , for I felt anxious to
have some hand in circulating the antidote to this tenet , in the words of him who was greater than previous prophets , who regarded with kindness little children , because of such ( notwithstanding , of course , their wicked hearts ) was the kingdom of heaven .
Unfortunately for my incipient resolution , the next orator largely expatiated on the excellence of the institution , in uniting in its support all parties , by circulating the Scriptures without note or comment . I instantly felt paralized , as to any exertion in
helmlfof the Society , from what appeared to me to be duplicity in the reverend pleader , and I believe my nerves or senses have not recovered from the shock they then received , for 1 still h ' . til ii sort of horror at the ignonmc-e or want of principle of the man who would send our received version
° i the Scriptures among the Kams-( 'hatr ; tns , as the genuine \ revealed trora of ( lody irithout note or comment . fo send , under such a title , Scriptures containing , as does the commonly received version , the famous text of the Heavenly Witnesses , appears to me
f ° 1 >( X unpardonable ; for , notwithstundln Hiahop Burgess has volunteered llls amices in defence of an old friend , "We is littj e reason to believe that he J ™ 1 be able to tear from the front of u friend the word " impostor , "
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which Porson and his learned associates have indelibly affixed there . If this text be not genuine , it is in effect a note and comment to all intents and purposes ; nay , it is infinitely worse , because it does not appear with the modesty of a note or comment , but as a legitimate member of the sacred
volume . But , surely , not to insist on doubtful passages , the < c heads of chapters " act in some cases as notes and comments : they do not belong to the revealed word of God : where can be the honesty of circulating them as such ? We are decidedly led by the summary prefixed to the first chapter of the . Gospel by John , to consider Jesus as a Divine Being , but whether the
chapter teaches this doctrine or not , remains as yet quite undecided among the learned . I cannot say I have seen any observations leading me to think that by the term logos or word , the personal nature of our Lord was intended . It probably does refer to that growing revelation , or gospel , of
which he was the conveyer from the bosom of his Father to mankind . When the apostle talks of the word or logos of God , not being bound - when he commends the converts to the word or logos of his grace , he can hardly be considered as in the least having in his mind the personal nature of Jesus nor do I perceive
that there is any solid ground for imagining it as being referred to in the first chapter of the Gospel . Be this as it may , the summary of contents takes upon itself to solve this difficulty ,, and to dispel this doubt . Hence it has all the tendency of a note and comment , the professed object of which is to render more intelligible , than it otherwise is , the text ; though it sometimes happens , as may , perhaps , be the case with the summary atvove referred to , that it darkens counsel with words without knowledge .
Jf , Sir , any of your intelligent correspondents can convince me that my feelings as above stated are erroneous , I shall- be very thankful ; and as I see tliis week , by the Hampshire
Telegraph , a . Ladies' Bible Society has been established lately at Newport in the Isle of Wight , which some Unitarians , if I mistake not , patronize , cind where their ears heard from a Mr . Dudley , from the Parent Society , the
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Objections to Bible-Society Meetings . 223 ~
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 223, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/31/
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