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
viewer lavishes in the latter part of his remarks , we make small account of them . They prove only his ignorance of the nature of evidence , or the nature of the human mind . To heat him talk , one would imagine that the deity of Christ was taught in the first fourteen verses of John ' Gospel as plainly as any proposition in Euclid is demonstrated . So clear , full and express is the evidence , that he who sees it not must be actuated by malice prepense , or impassive to every weapon of reason . Nay , a miracle could not add force to the proof—St . John might rise from the dead and yet fail to
convince of the deity of Christ him who had deemed the first fourteen verses of the Gospel obscure , or inadequate for the purpose for which they are alleged . Such pretensions have one effect—not to convince gainsayersnot to resolve doubts—hardly , we should think , can they confirm the initiated ; but they expose the barrenness of the land and the poverty of the cause which they are fabricated to serve . No wise , no candid man would make them ; for the mere fact of the diversity of opinion which prevails respecting
the meaning of the introduction to John ' s Gospel—diversity which has existed in all ages of the Church , and amongst men of all varieties of opinion — proves , beyond a doubt , that the force of demonstration , that the certainty of moral evidence , that these at least are entirely wanting in the words of the beloved disciple . Nor , in order to complete the exposure of the Critic ' s
pretensions , need I mention more than that the name of Jesus is not once mentioned in the fourteen introductory verses . If this can be disproved , we are content to be deemed dishonest men—if scriptural evidence , amounting to moral certainty , can be adduced to prove that reference is made to our Lord in the term Logos , we shall be thankful for information which we have sought for in vain ; and further , this being effected , our Reviewer is invited to the equally difficult task of hence deducing the doctrine of the deity of Christ .
To enter and expose in detail all the bad-spirited speeches , allusions and statements that are made by the orthodox against Unitarians , would require more of our space than we can spare , and more of our readers 1 patience than we can claim . A constant fire is kept up against us all along the line of orthodoxy . From the elevation of the pulpit the signal is given , and every tiny member of the church militant that has a missile to cast , aims at the illfated Unitarians . True it is that we live and breathe notwithstanding , for most of the missiles prove a telum imbelle sine ictu . Yet , though life is
safe , comfort is diminished . It is no pleasant thing to be bespattered with mud , nor can we , nor ought we , silently to endure the diminution of our influence which continued misrepresentation cannot fail to occasion . Under the lash of evil tongues we have long remained—in silence almost total we have borne the numberless petty attacks of those who think no epithet too harsh for an Unitarian ; and we have gained nothing by forbearance . Misrepresentation has only become , on that account ,, the bolder . We may adopt the words of the ancient Britons on complaining of the severities they had to endure at the hands of the Romans :
Nihil profici patientia , nisi ut graviora , tanquam ex facile tolerautibus imperentur . But it is natural and it is necessary for the injured to reply . For this it must , on the present occasion , and in reference to a few minor delinquencies , suffice to trust to the justice of our readers . We shall , therefore , do little more than transcribe one or two instances of injustice , hoping that publicity will serve for an exposure , and exposure be attended by a prompt reprobation . One of the first infant-schools in Dublin was chiefly founded by
Untitled Article
274 The Watchman .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 274, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/50/
-