On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    inieht restore tlie text' to 1 &e copies of the New Testament in general , and tjuote it without fear- «> f detection ia favour of orthod&xtf . This was the

    opinion of ax least one , ftoy far the tBOst enunenfe atnong them . A vit > - lent dispute thence ensued , in which the . contending parties abused each ^ ther . The individual I allude to ,

    towever , prevailed , and triumphantly restored the verse on the authority o £ the © reek manuscripts , laying against -his adversaries the very charge which I point out from their own writings , namely , their excluding the text from theit editions and supplying its place

    by a mystification of the eighth verse-* These propositions are so involved in one another , that they cannot he supported by independent evidence in the order here stated , but I hope the arguments which I shall briefly adduce , will be sufficient to satisfy every competent judge of their truth .

    8 . The verse with its context is the following : ct And the spirit is that which beareth testimony , because the spirit is the truth : for there are three in heaven which bear testimony , the Father , the Word , and the Holy Spirit 3 and these three are one * And there are three on the earth wto bear

    testimony , the Spirit , the Water , and tbeiBlood : and these three agree ia one . " According to the law of Moses two or three witnesses were sufficient to

    verify the thing attested by them . In allusion to this maxim , it is here said , that three witnesses in heaven bear testimony , the Father , the Word and the Holy Spirit , and that these three are one . that is , one in testimony

    or consent . t , Hie subject of this testimony is , that Jesus is tfye Christ or the Son of God . This indeed is not mentioned , but it is obvious , frora the whole Epistle , where it is repeatedly stated , and stated even ia the verses

    preceding- the disputed text . Besides , the subject alluded to must have been frequently discussed by the people to whom John addressed his Epistle , and therefore well known to and understood by them , even in circumstances

    where it is not distinctly expressed . Farther , the proposition that Jesus is the Christ , the Apostle grounds on these three testimonies in opposition to the Gnostics , who maintained that Jems was not the Christ ; but that

    Untitled Article

    the Christ was a Ood , dweHing for & season in the man Jesus , or mt empty phantom assuming the foroi of the tnan Jesus * That men existed in the days of the Apostles and afterwards ,

    who pretended to believe these absurd notions , is a fact beyond all controversy ; as the English reader may satisfy himself by consulting the accounts which Mosheira , Lardner and Priestley have given of the Gnostics .

    If it be true that the Father , the Word and the Holy Spirit bear their joint testimony , that Jesus is the Christ , or the Son of God , it must be

    found in the records of his ministry ; and the truth thus ascertained will go to prove the genuineness of the disputed verse , in which the same truth is asserted . While his forerunner was

    proclaiming the approach of the kingdom of heaven ^ when surrounded by an immense concourse from Judea , Jerusalem and all the country round about , many of the Pharisees and Sadducees also being in the number , on

    this public occasion Jesus came to be baptized . A scene , solemn , sudden and surprising , ensued . High in the heaven , beyond the reach of all human power or imposture , the clouds , which had hitherto darkened the sky , dispersed : a commission from the

    Sovereign of the universe , assuming a visible appearance , descended on the man Jesus , at the same time accompanied with an audible voice , saying , * ' This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased . " Thus it is proved true , that the Father bore testimony in heaven that the man Jesus is the

    Son of God . Again , in the beginning of his Gospel , John relates that the Logos of God incorporated with the man Jesus . This Logos , whom God sent , as the Apostle Peter farther says , preached peace through Jesus Christ to the

    children of Israel , enabling him to go about doing good , and to heal all manner of diseases among the people , and thus proving him to be the Son of God . Accordingly , the Evangelist , after stating in the commencement

    that the Logos became flesh , states also at the close , that his object in writing was to prove Jesus to be the Christ or the Son of God . Finally , Jesus , according to his promise before he yet had suffered , sent the Holy Spirit on his apostles , enabling them

    Untitled Article

    16 Men David on I Jvhn .- / .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1826, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2544/page/16/