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and consent is meant in the seventh . " This is the vefy argument which t $ e ninety-seven bishops used at Antioch . Let us now take a brief retrospect of what has been already disclosed . Bengelius writes that a secret doctrine was introduced into the Christian
Church in the second century * which caused the text of the three heavenly witnesses to be excluded from the copies of the New Testament used by the public . The same doctrine ,
according to Casaubon , rendered the ancients extremely cautious in teaching the Trinity . They trusted it only to the faithful ; but withheld it , or declined to insist upon it , before the uninitiated . Catechumens , and even
infirm Christians , were not entrusted with the knowledge of it . It was submitted only to those who were to be baptized , before their admission as members of the church , and after cliey had undergone a severe trial of forty days . At that ceremony all strangers were dismissed , and the doors closed
then , and not till then , this great mystery was recited . These facts are stated on the authority of Chrysostorn , Jerome , Gregory Naziftnzen and others , and the learned men who produce their testimonies , were
themselves Trinitarians . Tliese are strange things , and must be accounted for . Now , readers , look back to my preceding papers , and you will perceive that they naturally follow from the facts there developed
The Apostle wrote the verse against certain impostors , who denied the simple humanity and divine mission of Christ . In conformity to a maxim in the law of Moses , that three witnesses were sufficient evidence , John divides this evidence into three
testimonies , each affirming one and the same thing . The first learned converts from among the Heathens , being themselves strongly biassed in favour of the divinity of our Saviour , became eager to introduce that
doctrine as the means of reconciling the Pagan world to the gospel ; and to answer this end , they had only to allege those whom John cites in proof of the divine mission of Jesus , as
witnesses for his divinity , and even his union with the Father . But this perversion ^ though not violent , was so obvious , that the authors could not conceal It , without concealing the verse
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itself : and this is the true origin of the secret doctrine , tfatd b ^ BfengelWte to have been introduced into the Cfcrfe ^ - tian Church ; and the real cause btf the great precaution , which was ne > - cessary to prevent its being detected and exposed .
The manner ia which Bede quotes the verse is a remarkable confirmation of this inference . He quotes it not in its proper place ; but puts in the room of it an anathema upon those men against whom John wrote it . After transposing the text , he cites it
but in part , omitting whatever seeooed likely to bring the true meaning * of the Apostle to light ; and the only comment he makes upon it , is the creed which prevails to this day respecting the two-fold nature of Christ . The early Unitarians understood the
text in its proper sense ; and these the orthodox party persecuted with deadl y hatred . They stigmatized them as heresiarchs , as if their sentiments were then new ; ascribed to them , as they did to Sabellius , opinions which were false and ridiculous , but which in reality were erroneous inferences dt'aWh
and ascribed to them by their acfreff series ; and , finally , they suffered to perish , or caused to be destroyed , all the writings of the Unitarians ; so that not a single work has been permitted to come down to future ages , whereby we might now be able to discover the real state of things .
But the orthodox , while they agreed to persecute those who differed from them , quarrelled among themselves respecting the verse ; apd the disputes ensuing became , in the hands of God , the means of preserving It for ages , and in the end of restoring the truth . Alexander , Bishop of Alexandria , and Arius , one of Vis
clergy , were the first to make it the' subject of public discussion . The flames of controversy , which thus broke out in Egypt , soon spread with the fury of a mighty conflagration through all the provinces of the Roman empire . Constantine interposes , and endeavours to put them out , but in vain He calls the text on which the Tri
nity was founded , " a certain pas 8 ag < of our law , " without venturing t ( specify it more particularly . Here proves Alexander for his temerity ii br inging the discussion before th world , and says that it ought to b
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Ben David on I John v . 7- 151
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1826, page 151, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2546/page/23/
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