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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.
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Untitled Article
" Grace , mercy , and peace , from God the Father , and the Lord Jesu 9 Christ our Saviour ! " Tit . i . 4 . " Our Lord Jesus Christ himself , and our God and Father , ( who hath loved us and hath given everlasting consolation and good hope by grace , ) comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work ! " 2 Thess . ii , 16 , 17 , All that can be inferred from
these passages is , that God and Christ are two beings , from both of whom something is to be expected respecting the desired gifts . He who believes what is elsewhere abundantly declared , knows that from God all blessings proceed , and that through Christ the inestimable blessings of the gospel were communicated , in the first age at least , by his express intermediation . To him , therefore , these passages present no difficulty ; and he wonders at
those who infer any thing from the distinction between the author and communicator of the gift , so often clearly marked , and naturally so little subject to doubt , not being repeated every time the blessing is thankfully celebrated or earnestly desired . We must here notice a most uncandid and unjust reflection on Mr . Belsham , introduced in connexion with the article we have been
examining : " Mr . B , " says Dr . S ., " does indeed , ( i . e . in his work on the Epistles , ) as his plan necessarily required , give his interpretation of the passages which have been above quoted . He adopts various methods of altering their meaning' or evading their application . " ( This , reader , is said of a man of
known and tried integrity , respecting a work which professes to expound to the best of his judgment the true meaning of the Apostle , and in which he was bound by the most solemn obligations of public duty and of personal fidelity to the Master whom he professed to serve , to introduce nothing * whicb he did not conscientiously believe would conduce to . that object 1 But such accusations are easily made , and by the majority of Dr , S . ' a readers
will be readily believed , without much inquiry , as to their foundation , ) " In one ' pl ^ ce , he ( Mr . B . ) takes into his text a different reading , upon evidence which Griesbach did not think amounted to even his lowest degree of probability , and which Heinrichs , Knapp , and Vater , have not thought worthy of noticing : " viz . as stated in a note Col . iii . 13 , " The Lord freely forgave you , " instead of Christ .
Now , it is intended here to insinuate that Mr . Belsham made this alteration to serve a controversial purpose , whereas it is evident that no material point is gained hy the change , and that Mr . B . could not have felt at all embarrassed hy the reading of the received text . It is declared ( Eph . iv . 32 ) , that M God , through Christ , hath forgiven us . " Whether , therefore ,
God or Christ , at the suggestion of the context , is named as affording us forgiveness , we know what is meant . But Mr B . exercises his own judgment freely . He does not profess to follow GriesbachV text ; he somelimes ( and we regret it , as an incautious and unjustifiable course ) even adopts conjectures which have recommended themselves to his own mind .
Untitled Article
818 Dr . J . P . Smith ' s Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 818, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/22/
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