On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
deuces , place that authenticity and that sense beyond contradiction to the end of time . 7 . The doctrine of Christ ^ diviliity was suggested by the genius of Heathenism . " All the early heathen
converts , however sincere , were therefore prejudiced in its favour , and adopted it as a happy expedient of removing the scandal of the cross and expediting the progress of his religion in the world at large . But as the sense of this celebrated text , at that
early period , was most obvious , and the object which the Apostle had in writing it universally known , the learned pagan converts could not hope to conceal the meaning of the verse without concealing the verse itself . For this reason they avoided to make
it the subject of public discussion , and , whenever opportunities occurred , excluded it from the copies of the Scriptures in general use . The same learned advocates soon perceived that the latter part of the text might ,
without much violence , be represented as inculcating not only that Christ is God , but that he is one in essence with the Father , and thus laying a foundation for the mystery of the Trinity .
8 . That a doctrine so opposite to the spirit and object of Christianity should be generally received even in heathen countries till time had removed the apostles and their immediate converts , and till a knowledge of the events which called forth the
writings of the New Testament had been effaced from the public mind , appeared , doubtless , impracticable . But by keeping the verse and its new interpretation concealed from the generality of Christians , the corrupters
of the gospel might hope gradually to introduce the mystery which it was intended to support into the churches in general , one after another , till the majority regarded it as an essential article of the Christian .
faith . Now we arc assured that measures , which had this object in view , were adopted and put m force for many iiges after the second century .
From this period to the fifth century , the I satin Church had its disciplinu nrcanx ; and the ( ircck its k ( jv < jhov foyfj . cL , or accrqt doctrine , which was withheld from the public at large , and communicated only to the initi-
Untitled Article
ated , and that after a prepar £ titiii : © f great severity and a l < mg tritil of ttreir fidelity . The fathers who suppon these facts , are Origen , Clement , < rf Alexandria , Eusebius , Chrysostom Jerome , &c , and the writers among the moderns who have brought them to light are not such men as Lardner
and Priestley , who might be dis posed to trace the mysteries of Christianity to corrupt sources , but Casauban Bengelius and the Bishop of Salisbury , whose known orthodoxy could could not fail to prompt them to reject facts so suspicious and unfriendly to their system , if they could consistently with truth .
9 . The motives which induced tie first advocates of the divinity of Christ to exclude the disputed text from the copies in general use , induced also the Greek and Latin fathers to
pass over it in silence . Yet there is a large proportion of them who have quoted it either partially or altogether . And it is to be noted as a remarkable fact , that their mode of
quotation is characterized by two circumstances of a peculiar nature , which stamp the authenticity of the verse and its true interpretation with the very impress of truth . The earliest writers had the most powerful
motives to be on their guard in this respect : those motives diminished with the lapse of time , that is , with the prevalence of corrupt Christianity . Accordingly , Tertullian , about the close of the second century , is
the most sparing in his quotation , as he cites only the last clause , Qui tres sunt unurn , and is careful to annex his own interpretation of unms ' su 6 sta ? itice . Fifty years after , Cyprian goes a step farther , adding , nt scrip turn est , thus shewing that the
words of lertullian were some portion of Scripture . At the interval of a century , Cyprian was followed by Athanasius , who quotes the verse more fully , giving us the important information that John was the
author of that scripture . In the fifth , an orthodox emperor gave the ascendancy to that faith : the Disch Tfllna Arcani was dissolved , and the
verse was henceforth produced without restraint . But though the verse was fully produced from this period , it was never produced without some artilice to keep out of sight its true
Untitled Article
754 Concise P * i ew of the Evidence for the Text of the Three ,
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 754, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2555/page/54/
-