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cav i * the Mediterranean islands , in Greece , in Rome , and in other places . lltf * . quotation * therefore ^ Tittusdty presents the united testimony of ail tfee learned throughout the whole Christian world to the genuineness of the text of the three Heavenly
Witnesses . The king , who summoned them to appear at Carthage , was a furious Arian , bent on exterminating the orthodox . They produced the Terse , tbtey said , as placing the divi * nky of Christ in a point clearer than tight . Conld they hope by forging
it , to impose upon a powerful enemy , surrounded by all the Arian bishops * who were ready to refute or expose any unfair dealings in their opponents ? The thing is impossible : they all knew that , though their interpretation of the verse was opposed ,
the authenticity of it could not be called in question . They knew , too , that the very Ariaa bishops now preparing to put down the Homoiisian doctrine of the Trinity , had assembled only forty years before at Antioch , and interpreted the unity spoken of
in the apostolic verse as meaning unity of testimony , and thus their very opponents in a body sanctioned ks genuineness . The Reviewer erroneously assumes that Augustine was unacquainted with the text ; from his silence < he infers , that it was equally unknown t 6 the African Church .
Jfiheu assumption , if true , involves facts « titferiy unaccountable , and at variance with all that we know of kutti&n nature ; and this shews that a etfitic , if so foolish as to close his eyes on the broad meridian light of truth , may be vain enough to believe , that his readers will follow his
example and become as blind as himself I . shall now conclude with one observation , to which I invite the attention of rny readers . Jerome restored the verse on the authority of Greek MSS . about the middle of the fifth
century . The writers before Jerome , such as Tertullian , Clement , Origen , Cyprian ^ Phoebadius and others , though familiar with the verse , quote it only partially—quote it with their own
gloss—in a word , they quote it under covert of the disciplines Arcanu But the authors who succeeded Jerome , such aa the four hundred African Bishops , Jiucheruw , CuasiodoruB , Vi » -
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gitiusThap $ ensisandF » l ^ emi mi , q ^ the verse fally and wkhmit $ ggg % < k though they aceatn&my < H * v $ fa ° > m $ fa fices ttrtJisgaise its : tr ** $ fctfcepfatfcfe Thi& is a very striking distiaetioifcc and to what cause ' is it ta : be- ascribed ) Plainly , to the conduct of Jerome in
restoring the verse , to the trut-t * and genuineness of the prologue prefixed to the Canonical Epistles . The restoration of the text dissolved the Disciplina Arcani for ever , and the
ecclesiastical authors who came after Jerome , finding all farther disguise ineffectual , cite it fully , though not without contrivance ? to pre-occupy the public with their own construction of it .
Here another coincidence , of a delicate nature , which ever accompanies truth , and lijes beyond the reach of fraud and falsehood , presents itself *
The Latin writers before Jerome , in ftUuding to the verse or quoting it , always use Films instead of Verbum > as it is ia the original , But those who came after him as uniformly use the latter in lieu of the former * To
what is this deviation from Tertullian , their Great Master , to be a&eribed * I answer again , to Jerome , who had corrected the text and restored Verbum as the true reading . The change , as endangering the orthodox faith , was the effect not of choice but of
necessity : for whenever they accompany the text with their own comment , they adopt their favourite FUius instead of the long disinherited Verbum * In my next paper I will exhibit in one concise view the evidence for the
authenticity of thia celebrated text , and contrast it with the arguments alleged agaiast it , and then conclude the subject . BEN DAVID .
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London * Sir , Feb . 2 , 1826 . HOWEVER trite the observation , it will be found no lees just and important , that names have a great and lasting influence on the every-day
occurrences of life , and that the misapplication of terms produces extensive misconceptions of things ; as we frequently see that individuals and even large bodies of persons are l ) y a single appellation held in higher estimation , or are covewl wilii derision and contempt ; attd multitudes of people by
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$ m On the Influence d / Wafa& *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1826, page 280, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2548/page/28/
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