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duction to the gospel we must not touchy because w& cannot now occupy the space necessary for doing any thing like justice to the subject . After all that has been . written upon if , much may prdbably yet remain to reward farther investigation . We acknowledge that there is difficulty * but we sincerely think that the difficulty presses harder , on the whole , upon the orthodox than the Unitarian methods of interpretation , and we feel no doubt as to the general tendency of the passage * ,
But we turn at present to our author ' s remarks on a text in the ist Epistle of John v . 20 : c < And we know that the Son of God is come , and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true : and we are in him that is true , even in his Son Jesus Christ . This is the true God and eternal life . " On the reference of the demonstrative pronoun this * in the last clause , to its nearest possible antecedent , Jesus Christ , a favourite argument for his deity is constructed . Our author commences by stating that the interpretation of the words " is attended with considerable difficulty . " He , however , decides with sufficient confidence in favour of orthodoxy . We follow , without feeling that we have much ground for hesitation , the interpretation usually given by Unitarians , and supported as being the
most natural and suitable construction by not a few writers of unquestioned orthodoxy of sentiments . On the first part we adopt the paraphrase of Dr . Bloomfield , who leaves the application of the pronoun in the last clause doubtful , but clearly admitting the possibility and propriety of referring it to the Father . t € We , moreover , assuredly know that the Son of God ( the Messiah ) is come , and hath given us this understanding that we may know him that is true ( i . e . the true God , and the most acceptable way of obeying and worshipping him ) . And , indeed , we are in union with the true God , by means of his Son Jesus Christ . " As to the remaining clause , since the reference of the pronoun to the more remote antecedent is acknowledged
by all to be allowable when necessary to the sense * and since our blessed Lord himself , as recorded by the very apostle who writes this letter , addressed his Father as " the only true God , " consequentl y * cannot himself be here so called without the most direct contradiction , we hardly need seek any better authority for the only construction which frees us from the contradiction . Dr . S . objects to the translation , " We are in (< ? *) the true God , by or through ( kv ) his Son Jesus Christ . " He cannot say it is inadmissible , but he likes the other best , and he thinks it " harsh to suppose
that a change" ( of the sense of iy ) ** was intended in so close and continuous a clause . " In truth , it hardly is a change of sense : it is a slight modification of the same sense required by the connexion , which we happen to express in English by a different word . Dr . Bloomfield says , " The h in iv t $ vl $ is by most rendered in , as in the former clause . But the beat commentators , from Grotius to Rosenniiiller , assign to it the sense per ( through ) . And so Tyndal . Certainly this sense is more apt : and
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Dr . J . P . Smith * s Scripture Testimony to the Messiah . Sl 5
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 815, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/19/
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