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passage . But surely , Sir , it is now too late in the day for such an attempt . Riveted as the attention of the religious and learned world has been for ages on these few verses , at once so simple in language and in ideas , it cannot reasonably be expected that any materially new conception of their sense will ever be suggested , and it therefore only remains to us , out of
those interpretations which have long been candidates for public approbation , to select that which our judgment deems the best . — The Reviewer appears to approve to a certain extent the ancient Photinian interpretation , espoused among modern Unitarians by Lardner and Priestley ; that , namely , which considers the fVord as an impersonal divine
principle , existing from the beginning , and at length embodied or manifested in the person of Jesus Christ . His introductory remarks on this subject , and those which he makes on the opening verses of John ' s general Epistle , appear to me very just as well as perspicuous . They certainly led me to expect a more noble and elevated conception of " the
TVord" than that which , with disappointment , 1 found they were designed to introduce . When at length he brings us to the touchstone of his interpretation , his explication of the term Logos , what is it ? The fVord or scheme of religious truth . Your correspondent does not enlarge on this expression , but it may be presumed to be about equivalent to the doctrine of
the gospel . According to this interpretation , therefoie , the sense of the passage will be , that the doctrines of our religion were , as it were , laid up with God from the beginning , and were in due time communicated to Jesus Christ , by him to be made known to the world . Now , Sir , I ask , can any reader resist the feeling that this is a poor , frigid , and almost insignificant interpretation of one of the most grand and mysterious passages in all the
Scriptures ? The meaning thus assigned to the words is , no doubt , perfectly true ; but it is equally certain that the truth thus conveyed is very plain and , as we say , common-place , and by no means corresponding in importance with the imposing dignity of the words with which it is delivered . But this insignificance is not the only objection to which this interpretation is liable : one of a more direct and untractable character is close at hand .
Your correspondent , indeed , with a facility which 1 own appeared to me somewhat surprising , assumes that he may take the word < dab <; , God , in the phrase , " tVord was God , * ' as an defective ; rendering it , " and the fVord was divine .
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This assertion , like the former , is unquestionably true , which is also all that can be said for it ,: but unfortunately &eb <; is not &e 7 o $ 9 nor are substantives adjectives . Crellius felt this point a much greater difficulty , and took the pains to write a very thick and a very useless volume to shew that SeToq was the right reading . But he could not make ten converts to this his whimsy , and has only afforded
an illustration of the sagacious remark of Griesbach , " Conjectural in hac re pleruznqiie solis auctoribus suis placu&re . " I cannot but regard it as a further illustration of the self-pleasing powers of conjectural criticism , when the Reviewer says of the 14 th verse , that he is hardly sensible of any harshness in his interpre tation there . To me , at least , the expression of a scheme of religious truth or doctrine " becoming flesh ' ' is something very uncouth indeed .
But why , Sir , in order to defend Unitarianism , should we descend to this low and disadvantageous position ? Why not keep on the high ground which was selected for us by the great names which I have mentioned ? " By the Word , " says Lardner , ( Letter on the Logos , ) "John does uot mean a being separate from God and inferior to him , but God himself , or
the wisdom and power of God , which is the same as God . " Perhaps the simplest and least objectionable way of treating this subject is to determine neither to know nor think any thing further about the Word , as spoken of in this passage , than exactly so much as the writer himself declares . What , then , does this amount to ? What is his own account of the
Logos or Word ? It is brief and simple . It was in the beginning , which nfust at least imply antecedently to the gospel dispensation : it was with God , hidden or involved in the Divine nature : in fact it was Gud , \ t was a form , principle , or agency , of the Divine nature—a manifestation of the
Divine Being ; it was nothing else than God himself , in a certain mode of operation or emanation . By it all things were : it was the immediate agent by which all thiugs were produced : that this should be asserted concerning the word of God is by no means wouderful . In it wa * life : it was the very principle of all life to the
whole creation . This agrees with the Epistle , where it is called " the word of life ; " yet I think that in the Epistle the writer has his attention more exclusively directed to the Christian economy than in this passage of the Gospel . At length , in verse 14 , we read , the Word became fl esh and dwelt among us : this divine principle , yea God himself , entered into a
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . 285
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 285, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/61/
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