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perfectly unappropriate . Your correspondent , too , must hare been suffering uuder an extraordinary Japse of memory when he attributed to Creliius the blame of my interpretation ; and wrote , * Crellius took the pains to write a very thick and a very useless volume , to shew that & £ ioc was the right reading . " That is
not the reading which Creliius took such unnecessary pains to establish , bat Qes , a reading , howerer , which the clearjudging and impartial Griesbach did not disdain to notice in his margin . With much respect ; howerer , for the critical acumen of Creliius , I cannot but think those pains unnecessary which might have been superseded by an allowable
latitude of interpretation of the reading found in all the Greek copies of St . John ' s Gospel which have come down to us , with the exception of owe uncial MS ., written in the eighth or ninth century , which prefixes the article to 0 « o $ in the last clause , judging that necessary to
strengthen the argument which Triuitarians would derive from the passage . I cannot but think those pains unnecessary , because in no other sense than an adjective sense can a word which usually denotes a person be applied to that which is not a person , and because such usage is an undoubted law of the Hebrew
language , which influences every page of the Greek of the New Testament . See Schrseder ' s Syntax , § 16 . In the wellknown and useful work of Glassius , de Philologist Sacr 4 , the seventh canon of nouns is thus expressed : Ssepius ab « stractum pro concreto , seu substantivuin
pro adjectivo cum insigni emphasi et energia ponitur . The following are among the examples which Glassius gives of the application of this rule . Gen . xlvi . 34 \ 1 Sam . xxv . 6 ; Psa . v , 10 , xxxv . 6 ; Luke xvi . 15 y ffieXvyjAoc , h . e pdehvyrov , abominable . 2 Cor . v . 21 : God hath
made him who knew no sin , to become sin , dfjLaprioty , that we may become the righteousness , &c , Sotaioervyij . Eph . v . 8 : Ye were once darkness , < ncoro $ , but are now light , £ « $ , in the Lord . 4 . I cannot agree in the principle of interpretation which T . F . ' B . seems to lay down , that we are to attach ««
imposing dignity * ' to the words of St , 'John ; because I believe that simplicity of expression , as well as of sentiment , is the characteristic of the evangelists . St , John , in recording our Lord's ' discourses , particularly those contained in the third and sixth chapters of his Gospel , is certainly led to record many enigmatical expressions ; but the circum-
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stances in which those discourses were delivered . will go far to explain the phraseology used on those occasions : whereas the style of St . John himself is as simple as that of any of the evange . lists , of which his epistles may be regarded as evidences . The doctrine of the last paragraph but one in your
correspondent ' s letter did , I own , appear to me as a surprising departure from the prevailing sentiments of the Monthly Repository . I complain not by any means that it has found a place there , because the freest interchange of theological sentiments is both desirable and useful ; but , in my apprehension , Unitarians would retrograde from that point which they
have so advautageouslyheld , and obscure the light which has been kindled by the eminent theologians who have laboured among them , if they , too , become enamoured of the epithets " mysterious" and " incomprehensible ; " and if they regard this incomprehensibility as " enhancing both the probability and interest" of a scriptural interpretation . < c An
interpretation of John which divests him of all mysticism , has , from that very circumstance , a presumption against it ; and one which strips the highest doctrines of holy writ of all obscurity and sublimity , so far deprives religion of its interest and its power . " For myself , I
can say , that I have not so learned Christ « The reasonableness of religion is with me one of its grandest recommendations . The aphorism of Dr . James Foster conveys an eternal truth , " Where mystery begins , religion ends . " And who can shut his eyes to the fact , that some of the wisest and best Christians
who have ever lived , have been most attached to rational interpretation and the simplicity of Christian doctrine ? The words of the great Sir Isaac Newton are so appropriate to the present occasion , that I cannot avoid transcribing them here . Having shewn from an examination of the chapter in which , according to the received text , the three heavenly witnesses are found , that the insertion of them " interrupts and spoils the
connexion ; " this great master of reasoning continues , " Let them make good sense of it who arc able . For my part I can make none . If it be said that we are not to determine what is Scripture , and what not , by our private judgments , I confess it in places not controverted ; but in disputable places I love to take up with what I can best , understand * | t * the temper of the hot and superstitious part of mankind in matters . of religion , qver to be fond of mysteries , and for that
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573 Miscellaneous Correspondence *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 578, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/58/
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