On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    neation which shows what society was , but in the philosophy which proves what it must have been . That the deficiency of which we speak should diminish the interest of his theological writings , that it should unfavourably influence their manner , will be readily admitted by all ; but it may not be at once obvious how it could affect their matter , and lessen their intrinsic soundness and truth . It is , however , evident

    that , catena paribus , in proportion as an interpreter of ancient writings can place himself in sympathy with his author , can plant himself by his side and look round on his position , can even take occupancy of his very mind , and discover how all things are tinged by the hues of his peculiar intellect and feelings , the chances are multiplied that the interpretation will be correct . Indeed it is merely as aids to this transmutation of mind on the

    part of the student that the labours of the scripture naturalist , the traveller , and the archaeologist are valuable . Now Dr . Priestley appears to us to have been incapable of thus laying down his own personality ; at the foot of Sinai , among the captives of Babylon , in audience of the minstrelsy of Israel , on the pavement of the temple , in the hired house of Paul , or with the exile in Patmos , he is the good , plain , speculative Dr . Priestley

    still . He moves like a foreigner through all the scenes which he visits * too restless to take up his abode in them , and grow warm beneath their suns , and find a home among their people , and learn the spirit of their joys and sorrows , and be ranked as one who ' loveth their nation . ' Accordingly his theology is too much an occidental system transplanted into the East ; he sees vastly too much philosophy , and vastly too little piety in the Scriptures .

    He shows too much disposition to change their beautiful histories into imperfect ethics ; and perhaps , by missing the object which the writers had in view , estimates their logic with real injustice . Whether illustrations of these peculiarities may not be found in his extensive use of the Gnostic philosophy as a key to the writings of the apostle John , in his interpretations of the Jewish prophecies , in hi $ anticipations with respect to the mode of transition

    from this life to another , and in his appreciation of the letters of Paul , we leave to be decided in the court of enlightened biblical criticism . Let not our admissions with respect to Dr . Priestley ' s theology be unfairly used ; a name like his is indeed in little danger from such concessions ; let it be remembered that they

    leave unimpeached the correctness of the processes by which he proved and proved again the great truths which form the definition of Unitarian Christianity ; and until the time shall come ( and it will not be soon ) when the absolute unity of God , the universality and paternity of his government , and the simple humanity of Christ , shall need no more defence , recourse will be had to the storehouse of perspicuous proof which his works contain * ( To be continued . )

    Untitled Article

    88 * On the Life % Character , and Writing * of Dr . Priestley .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 88*, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/20/