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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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§ er £ it as an indisputable fact , that it was unknown to them . 9 . If then the Greek manuscripts now extant are without the apostolic text , all those from the first to the fifth century contained it . This Important conclusion is supported by the direct authority of Jerome , by the testimony of ail the bishops and clergy , Orthodox and Arian , who immediately preceded him , and by that of the four hundred who assembled about the close of his life at Carthage .
10 .. The arguments which prove the authenticity < of the verse fully account also for those which press against it apparently with irresistible weight . Its opponents say , that it was forged to prove the Trinity , and then argue that the silence of men in
ancient tunes respecting a text so much to their purpose is a conclusive proof that it was unknown to them . To this the proper answer is , that the text proves the very reverse , namely , the simple humanity of Christ ; and that all the ancient writers to a man
understood its real import . And tne various artifices which they have used to disguise the true sense of the text , furnish satisfactory evidence botlx to its genuineness " and to the object which the Apostle had in writing- it . If then the Greek and Latin Fathers
did not produce the passage , it is because they had the strongest motive for not producing it , because they knew that if fully and fairly produced it would for ever destroy their system . Aware of this , tthey passed it over , for the most part , in silence , and even excluded it from the copies in public use : and the motive which accounts
tor its exclusions in the second century and afterwards ^ accounts for its omission in the MSS . and versions taken irom these in succeeding ages . I now conclude this discussion with the paragraph which closes my Three Letters to the Quarterly Reviewer .
The providence of God , which watches over the interests of the gospel , is singularly displayed hi the history and preservation of this verse . An artful scheme , suggested by Heathenism ,
was formed to undermine Christianity . Its prevalence called forth the writings ° t John : the controverted text , containi ng , as it does ., the sum and substance of the gospel , presents a triangular figure corresponding in shape
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to the base of the orthodox church . The accidental coincidence suggested the idea of converting it into a pillar to support the Trinity . The attempt was hazardous , for the Apostle erected
the verse as a column to the simple humanity of Christ ; and it was found by experience impossible at the time to conceal the true meaning of the verse without concealing" the verse itself . Hence the founders of
orthodoxy , though they would have beea happy to quote the passage , if they could have quoted it without detection , were compelled , as opportunity offered , to erase it from their copies , to omit it in their versions and
writings . In more favourable circumstances they felt themselves free to allude to it or to paraphrase it , but they were still forced to have recourse to the expedients of mutilating it * transposing * it , and of tacking upoo it their own interpretation * But lo !
a consequence ensued which was never contemplated by the pious advo ~ cates of the Trinity . The ages of darkness drew to a close . The reign of ignorance and imposture , the usurpations of priestcraft , received
successive shocks by the invention of printing , the revival of learning , and the reformation from Popery ^ and the very means which had been adopted to disguise the verse brought it under
the suspicion of forgery- Learned men in England and on the Continent for two centuries eagerly engaged in the dispute , and were divided in their opinions . The arguments against it were more and more felt . The
number of its advocates daily diminished till it was abandoned , except by a few , as a gross interpolation . The pantomime , which pious fraud had for a thousand years been acting' oii the Christian stage , at length readied its crisis . The mask dropped , and
the verse , after a long incarceration , emerged with proofs of genuineness written in letters of gold upon its forehead . The catastrophe is sudden and surprising . The verse promised to establish the Trinity ,, but it is found to level it in the dust for ever .
The perversion of its meaning caused its concealment * and its concealment brought on the suspicion of forgery ; and it is cut off as a rotten member from the very church of which it is the main pillar and ornament . It h
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nndfof the Authenticity of 1 John v . f . 3 $ i
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1826, page 321, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2549/page/5/
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