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of all Christian communions , acknowledging each other as professors of one religion , can meet together in peace as friends , as brethren , as being all of the same mind in every essential
point , and engage with one accord to glorify that one God and Saviour revealed in the sacred Scriptures > to know him as the way , the truth , and the life , and to trust in the crucified
God-inan , as our propitiation and peace with God , both in the course of our life and in the hour of death /' The above is part of an extract from a circular addressed by the Rev . Dr . Leander Van Ess , a Roman
Catholic Clergyman in Germany , < to all Bibte Societies throughout the world ; " and in the present instance , "to all Bible Committees in the East . " The whole of the circular , translated from the German , is
contained m the Appendix , and the extract from which the above quotation is taken , is introduced into the body of the Report by the Committee , who " hail with delight , as a highly ausoicious si ^ n of the times , the rmblic spicious sign of the timesthe public
, utterance of such truly Christian and Catholic sentiments - " and who confidently hope that this lovely spirit will increasingly prevail , that true believers of all denominations will more
and more approximate to each other , both in a mutual reciprocation of love and affection , and in a co-operation of Christian labours . " We are at a loss what language to adopt in remarking upon these extracts , which contain at once
professions of the most unbounded liberality , and proofs of a narrow party spirit . The writer of this circular , and the authors of this Report , could not be iguorant that all Unitarian Christians , including those in Calcutta , several of whose names we observe in the list of
contributors and members , consider the compound phrase , a " God-man , " as a solecism in language $ the being it is intended to describe as impossible in fact , not less than absurd in idea ; and the doctrine which it involves as
not only unscriptural and Heathenish in its origin , but as anti-biblical and anti-christian in its tendency . Yet " the crucified God-man" is the phrase employed , in an official communication , by this accredited agent and correspondent of the Parent Society , and a belief in this doctrine is represented
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as one of the links of that chain ** by which the Bible Societies have united tfie great family of Christians . " Nor is this all . It is these sentiments , containing such a gross and palpable violation of tke fundamental principle and comprehensive spirit of the Bible Society , that are pronounced by the Committee of the Calcutta
Association to be " truly Christian and Catholic . " It is the utterance of these sentiments that is hailed with delight •' tis-a highly auspicious sign of the times . " And it is the ' * lovely spirit " they display which , it is confidently Sloped , " will increasingly prevail / 5
We do not at present object to this language , considered in itself , but as being wholly unsuitable to the character and professions of the Institution that adopts it . To meet with it in a Church , or Independent , or Baptist Missionary Report would neither
surprise nor offend us : but to give place to such language in a Bible Society Report is to prostitute to sectarian purposes an Institution which claims , and deserves , and , but for this and similar deviations from its principles , ty-ould obtain , the universal suffrages of Christians We do not , therefore ,
consider that we are unreasonable in demanding either that the Calcutta Bible Association shall publicly avow that it has been formed for the express purpose of propagating Trinitarian
and Calvinistic doctrines ; or that in its future proceedings and Reports it shall refrain from the use of language which many Christians , and even some
who have liberally contributed to its funds , can regard in no other light than as an attack upon the denomination to which they belong . It will perhaps be replied that Unitarians are not reckoned among those " true believers of all denominations "
who , it is confidently hoped ,. " will more and more approximate to each other , " and that , therefore , no defe ^ rence is due to their scruples , no compromise is to be made with their
errors . It is to be hoped that bigotry and uncharitableness have not gained so firm a footing in Calcutta as such a defence would imply ; but if such a defence should he made , it would at
once determine the real character of tlie Calcutta Bible Association . Unitarians , indeed , might urge that , if they chose to imitate a bad example ,
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CUlcuttct Bible Association . 99
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/35/
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