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Sir , IN ray last paper ( pp . 146—152 ) I have shewn that the Nicene Creed originated in a text of Scripture which , connumerates three Divine Persons , and asserts those persons to be one . The subscribers to that Creed
interpreted this to mean one in essence This is the substance of the Orthodox Creed . The Arian counter creed goes farther , and asserts one to mean one in agreement . Here we have the controverted verse of John complete y as it implies three persons — three
persons who bear testimony— three persons who agree in testimony , that is , who bear testimony to one and the same thing . The disputed verse connumerates the three persons , the Father , the Son or the Word and the Holy Ghost , in common with the
close of Matthew ' s Gospel , but the two clauses , Who bear testimony , and These three are one , are peculiar to the text of the Apostle John : nor is there any other verse in the whole of the New Testament to which they can be said to refer with any shadow
of truth . The supposed spurious text of John is beyond contradiction the foundation of the Nicene Creed ; and the meaning of it was the subject of dispute between the learned throughout the whole Christian world , about two hundred and fifty years
after the death of its author , when all the earliest manuscripts , and even the autograph of the Apostle , were in the possession of those who thus disputed the sense of the text , without calling its authenticity in question . Constanline attempted to extinguish the
controversy in the commencement ; but having failed , lie convoked a council at Nice to form a creed which , by being universally subscribed , might create peace , and put an end to
dispute in all the churches . In pursuance of the same design , he caused copies of the New Testament to be provided for the public use . This commission , we learn from Theodorit , was entrusted to Eusebius : and as the emperor appears from his own words to have considered the verse as
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dangerous , and the cause of the dig-, turbances , which he was most anxious to suppress , no doubt can be entertained but that it was suppressed m
all those copies . Had we no mare evidence for the text , the authenticity of it must appear established for ever . But the sheet-anchor of that authenticity yet remains to be noticed .
About the latter end of the fourth , century , Jerome was engaged by Pope Damasus to revise the Septuagint and the Christian Scriptures . For this arduous work he was eminently qualified by talents and skill in the Hebrew and Greek languages . In spite of every impediment thrown in
hisway , he persevered in the glorious task , his illustrious patron having died before its completion . Nearly thirty years had elapsed before he reached the seven canonical epistles . To his revision of these he prefixed a , prologue , of which the following is a faithful translation : " The order of
the seven Epistles ( meaning the Epistles of Peter , James , John and Jude ) in those Greek copyists who think soundly and follow the right faith , is not the same as it is found in the Latin copies . As Peter is first , so his Epistles are placed in the former before the rest . But as I have long
since corrected the evangelists according to the rule of truth , so these epistles I have restored to their proper order , which , if arranged agreeably to the original text and faithfully interpreted in Latin diction , would neither cause perplexity to the readers nor would the various
readings contradict themselves , especially in that place where we read of the unity of the Trinity laid down in the Epistle of John . In this I found translators ( or copyists ) widely deviating from the truth , who set down in their own editions the names only of
the three witnesses , that is , the Water , Blood and Spirit , but omit the testimony of the Father , the Word and the Holy Spirit , by which above all places the divinity of the Father , Son and Holy Spirit is proved to be
one . How far my edition differs from those of others I leave to the discernment of the reader . But whilst thou % O Virgin of Christ , demandest of me the truth of Scripture , thou in a manner exposest my old age to the rancorous teeth of those malt-
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whatever lessons they had heard at their ordination , they still need to be practically taught that " before honour is humility . " Z .
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214 Ben David on 1 John v \ 7-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1826, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2547/page/26/
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