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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
eeived that all this was exceedingly irrelevant to the object of a Bible Society . Why can they not , with , equal clearness , perceive that what is written in favour of the Trinity , &c ., is just as irrelevant to that object as what is written against it ? One more remark on this extract . The writer of the letter affirms , that ff there are many among us even , to whom it ( the Trinity ) is * a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling . '"
The language of prophecy here quoted is used by the apostles of Christ in reference to those Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah : it would be difficult to say in what sense it is here employed . If it is used by this writer in the same sense in which the
apostles used it , and if , therefore , the " many" spoken of are those who reject Christianity altogether , theh how serious the responsibility of those who support a doctrine which , not only its enemies contend , is unscriptural and unreasonable , but which even its
friends admit is attended with the most fatal consequences in driving w many" into infidelity ! But if the language here employed is meant only to describe those Christians who reject the Trinity , then , whilst we are glad to learn from such a quarter that
there are so " many" of this description , we can consider it in no other light than as holding up this confessedly numerous class of fellow-christian 9 to public odium , and that too where all party distinctions should be unknown , and all party feelings banished . 0 The only other passage upon which
we will stop to animadvert is an explanatory note by the translator of Dr . Van Ess's circular , already mentioned , found in the Appendix , No . III ., p . 22 . The Catholic Professor having expressed his hope that those Protestant Christians who differ from
each other in more than external matters will reunite themselves to the one God and Saviour revealed in the Bible , his translator explains this rather obscure phrase in the following manner : —
c He alludes here to the prevalence of Socinian and Deistical principles in Germany among such as call themselves Protestants . " It this is < x just interpretation of the allusion , uud we see no reason to
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question it * then it is one other proof that the zeal for which this Roman Catholic clergyman lias been so much lauded in Bible Society * Reports is directed not merely to the dissemination of the Scriptures ., the only legitimate object of Bible Societies , but
also to the spread of his own peculiar views of the Christian system . We would be the last to do any thing to prevent him from using his utmost endeavours in diffusing what he believes to he divine truth ; but we think that these endeavours would be more
honourable to himself if they were not made under the covert of the Bible Society ' s name , and in the character of a Bible Society agent ; and that the Bible Society , if it would secure to the Christian world the entire and
unalloyed advantages which it is fitted to impart , should discourage in those whom it aids every such aberration from its genuine principles and spirit . But it is with the Translator of Van Ess ' s circular , whom we understand to
be the Rev . D . Schmid , and with the Association which has incorporated his explanatory note into its Report , jhat we are at present principally concerned . The language of the circular was sufficiently general to have escaped the notice of most readers , and ,
therefore , to rescue this hidden allusion from neglect , and to give full point to it $ sectarian meaning , the Translator , a Bible Society Secretary , must needs append a note which contains as much misrepresentation an the one hand , and concession on the other , as
could reasonably be expected in so brief a notice . We happen to know a JittJe more of the state of religion in Germany than can be learned from this note ; but let us suppose that we know nothing more than it informs us . What then is the amount of the
information we receive ? We are told that there is a " prevalence" of certain principles in Germany " among such as call themselves Protestants . " It is admitted , then , that those who have embraced the principles referred
to are numerous , and that they profess to be Christians , Protestant Christians . These are very plain and important concessions . And in what way is this numerous body of Protestant Christians described ? It is in the first place insinuated by the Translator that they call themselves Pro-
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Culcuita Bible jfawtnutivfy . 101
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 101, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/37/
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