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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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The phrase thus mterpreted , \ # wever , is not without its difficulties . The exfre ^ sians , •* justified by the gpirit aad received up into glory , " seem 4 o ideate that the w $ ter is speaking not Vpf a quality but a person ; # »< J it Is not easy to conceive
how God could be justified or how-God could he received up into glory . It is thierefpre necessary to Jook for some other method *> f clearing the passage from the obscurity in which it is involved , and rendering the apostle intelligible and consistent with himself and with the other writers of
the New Testament . In this part of his discourse , Mr . Wellbeloved explains with admirable perspicuity how errors have found their way , from time to time , into the Scriptures , in their original languages , by being
often transcribed , in many instances by careless or ignorant copyists , and by other circumstances incidental to the multiplication of copies , prior to the invention of printing , and points out the means bv which such
corruptions of the original text may be detected . He then states that , from an examination of the most ancient and valuable manuscripts , from the important evidence furnished by the best and oldest versions and the writings of the earliest Christian fathers , there is abundant reason to believe
that the clause in question , as written by the apostle , was no other than this , " He who was manifested ( or appeared ) io > the flesh . " In shewing , for the sake of the
unlearned , how easily that important change might have been introduced " by a trifling accident or a slight touch of the pen , " the preacher is singularly happy .
' * Figure to yourselves , a small word composed of two letters , exactly similar to the capital letters O and C of the English alphabet . You will then have the exact representation of a Greek word , a& it is found in ancient Greek
manuscripts , which , translated into English , would be who , or , He who . Suppose , bow , that by accident or deaign , any transcriber should place a dot or a very small horUoutal line in the middle of 7 O ; this would be a very slight
change in the form of the word , and "ught easily take place , but it w <* uld niake a momentous change in the meanl of the passage . For we have thus the two letters which , In almost all an-
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cient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament , exhibit the contracted form of the worn which signifies God . To render this form perfect , a very small line above the letters is necessary j and as it easily might , so it certainly would , be added , when the letter O had undergone
the change supposed , either through design or accident . Such is the change which I suppose to have taken place in this passage , four or five hundred years after the days of the apostles ; and hence has been derived the declaration , falsely attributed to the apostle , that « God was manifest in the flesh . '"—Pp . 23 . 24 .
If the reading * tlras proposed be adopted , every semblance of mystery , as that word is usually understood , immediately vanishes ; . and Mr . Wellbeloved goes on to consider with what eminent propriety the terms employed in the latter part of the text may be applied to Jesus Christ ; and how
these facts relating to him may be justly called * the mystery of godliness . " We regret that our narrow limits forbid our following him through ah examination , in the course of which many passages of Scripture are most clearly and beautifully illustrated * We must content ourselves
with quoting * a single paragraph . Cf Such was the mystery of godliness . Such the mighty and gracious effects , resulting from the ministry of Jesus , though exercised in poverty arid amidst a perverse and unbelieving generation , and terminating in apparent ignominy and
discomfiture : effects which no tfrie , tminstructed by God , could have foreseen ; which no one , though endowed with the most extraordinary sagacity , could have anticipated ; yet effects provided for , by all the preceding dispensations of
Providence , and destined , in the secret counsels of the Most High , to be finally produced . The stone which th $ builders rejected , now became the head of the corner : it was the Lord ' s doing , and it is justly wonderful in our eyes . "—P . 34 .
The discourse concludes with earnestly exhorting those to whom this " mystery of godliness ? ' is made known , to shew in the whole of their teoiper and deportment , that they are not unworthy of their distinguished privileges .
"? You know that by the principles of the gospel you must her ^ Aft ^ r be j udged ; by thd principles of the gospel , therefore , be ever studious to live /'
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v 0 L . XXI . 4 T
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Revtew ^ yPeltbetoved * Sermon ' on the Mystery of Godliness . 685
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1826, page 685, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2554/page/49/
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