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THE

Monthly Repository.

No. CCI.]

SEPTEMBER, 1822.

[Vol. XVII.

Address of the Eastern Unitarian Society to the Bishop of Norwich, with the Bishop's Answer.

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were,

The Rev. T. Madge, the Rev. T. Drummond and Mr. Thomas Martineau, of Norwich; the Rev. - Beynon and Thomas Hurry, Esq., of Yar mouth; Meadows Taylor, Esq., of Diss; George Watson, Esq., of Saxlingham (the Chairman of the Meeting); J. L. Marsh, Esq., and Mr. Edward Taylor, the Treasurer and Secretary of the Society.

They were received with that kindness and cordiality which so strongly mark the Bishop's character, and the following Address was read by Mr. Madge:

To Henry Lord Bishop of Norwich.

MY LORD,

In consequence of a resolution unanimously adopted at the last Annual Meeting of the Eastern Unitarian Society, held at Diss, we beg leave to tender to your Lordship the thanks of that body of Christians, for your Lordship's uniform attachment and marked devotion to the cause of religious liberty.

Dissenting, as we conscientiously do, from the Established Church, of which your Lordship is so distinguished a member, distinguished, may we add, not less for your learning and piety, than for your benevolence and liberality, we feel how deeply important to us is the liberty of acting agreeably to our religious convictions, how much of our peace and coinfort and happiness is involved in the exVOL. XVII.

3 x

ercise of this liberty, and how greatly therefore we are indebted to your Lordship, not only for the courtesy and kindmess which on all occasions have charac terized your general conduct, but for the open and public and persevering manner in which you have advocated and defended the common rights of Christians.

To that name and to those rights, however much we may differ from your Lordship and your Lordship from us, we are sure you will not refuse to admit our claim. We therefore take the opportunity, while conveying to your Lordship our high sense of the value of your labours in behalf of Christian charity, of testifying our entire agreement and cordial sympathy with the avowed opinions of your Lordship upon the nature and extent of religious liberty. We unite with you in reprobating every enactment which renders a man's condition in civil society worse than it otherwise would be, on account of his religious opinions. We agree with your Lordship, that liberty and not toleration is the claim of conscience; and further, that Christianity would be a great gainer, and the cause of justice and humanity be essentially promoted, by the total repeal of every law which would in

flict, or which has a tendency to inflict, upon the sincere professor of any religious opinions, either pain or penalty, obloquy or reproach. To do as we would be done by, whether it relates to matters of faith or to matters of practice, to our inward belief or to our outward avowal, appears to us to be the Christian rule of right, and to have been the uniform measure of your Lordship's conduct.

Considering, therefore, your Lordship's high station, and what is more, your Lordship's high character, and knowing as we do, the value of their influence upon the great cause to which they have been so steadily and powerfully dedicated, we trust that your Lordship will allow us to offer to you, on behalf of the Christian Society which we represent, our most sincere, respectful and grateful acknowledgments. And permit us also to express our auxious hope, that long as your life has been, it may be still further and happily lengthened, and that you may yet live to witness the complete tri

umph of that cause for which you have made so many efforts, and we believe we may add, so many sacrifices.

After Mr. Madge had read the Address and delivered it to the Bishop, his Lordship replied in the following words:

Having always considered the favourable opinion of wise and good men as the best reward which, on this side of the grave, an honest individual can receive, for doing what he deems to be his duty upon all occasions, I cannot but be highly gratified by the approbation of so respectable a body of my fellow-christians as those are, an address from whom has been this moment read to me. most certainly a very sincere, though a very humble friend to the cause of Religious Liberty, and have uniformly been so from the first moment I was capable of

I am

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Brief Notes on the Bible.
No. XXI.

"God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John iv. 24.

Fragment of a Dialogue. TRINITARIAN. I do not attempt

distinguishing" Quid sit pulchrum, quid Ty explication of the doctrine,

turpe, quid utile, quid non." In early life, an attentive perusal of the immortal works of Locke and Hoadly, and particularly the arguments of the former in behalf of Toleration, and of the latter on the expediency of repealing the Test and Corporation Acts, deeply impressed upon my mind this important truth, that every penalty, every disability, every restriction, every inconvenience even, to which any good Civil subject is exposed, merely on the score of his Religion, is, in its degree, persecution; because, as the great Lord Mansfield justly observed, 66 conscience is not controulable by human laws nor amenable to human tribunals," actions, not opinions, being the province of the magistrate. Such is, as it seems to me, the clear voice of reason; and reve-. lation, I am sure, confirms this voice, when it enjoins persons in authority to "restrain" with the civil sword "evil doers," and still more decidedly, when it warmly expostulates with those who are fond of interfering in matters of conscience: "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own

master he standeth or falleth."

Let us all then be content to leave our

fellow-christians to stand or fall by the judgment of our common Lord and Master, to whom both we and they must hereafter give an account: and, in the mean time, should we, upon reflection, regard it as a duty to convert others to our own peculiar opinions, let us never cease to remember that reason and argument are the only weapons of spiritual warfare, and even in the use of these, we shall do well constantly to bear in mind, that revealed religion was graciously

any

or affect to understand it.

Unitarian.-I did not expect one, or suppose the other; but, is it very unreasonable to require consistency in an opponent?

T-I am aware of no inconsistency in referring to God what He has not given me a capacity to comprehend. He, no doubt,—

U-He! Who?
T.-God, certainly.

U. You do, it seems, admit that there is one only God; but represent that God to consist of three persons! How, therefore, can you permit yourself to speak of the Deity as He or Him? Does not consistency require the use of They or Them, when discoursing of such a threefold Deity? You, Trinitarians, would have us believe that "Let us make man" was an address by one person of the Mystery to the others. Upon your own principles, therefore, and upon such an authority, ought you not to use the plural pronoun; and ought it not, upon your hypothesis, to have been used in a famous passage, thus-"God is three spirits, and they that worship Them must worship Them in spirit and in truth"?

T-It is not so in the Bible.

Would you presume to vary the language of revelation?

U-Heaven forbid! But, why is it not so?

T. I receive the word of God as it

Passages from Tindal's Translation of the Bible.

is expressed, with a prostrate mind and understanding, neither suggesting nor answering questions of that nature.

U.-It is not every question that expects an answer; but, you will not deny that the use of the plural pronouns would be consistent with the fact you assume of a plurality of per

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EETING by accident, a few

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above Version, the Introduction of St. John's Gospel, to the 14th verse, as it may amuse some of your readers, and as a part of it seems to be not reconcileable with the translator's considering the Word there mentioned as, strictly speaking, a person.

"In the beginninge was the Worde, and the Worde was with God: God was the Word. The same was in the beginninge with God. All thinges were made by it, without it was made nothinge that was made. In it was life, and the life was the lighte of menne; and the light shineth in darknesse, and the darkness comprehended it not.

"There was sente from God a man whose name was John. The same came as a witness, to beare witness of

M days since, with an old English can light, that all men thrugh him

translation of the Bible, bearing the date of 1553, I was led to examine some parts of it; and particularly the passage in 1 John v. 7, respecting the three witnesses. It appears to be Tindal's translation, although it has not his name. What, indeed, is called Cranmer's Bible, appears to have been only this translation of Tindal's, revised and corrected by the Archbishop, and afterwards by Tonstal and Heath, Bishops of Durham and Rochester; but these versions appear to have been at that time promiscuously used in

churches. The Psalter in the Common Prayer-Book is taken verbatim from Tindal's. The chapters are not divided into verses, but into short paragraphs.

Respecting the words above referred to, I found the following printed in a different and much smaller character or type from the rest of the chapter:

66 (For there are three which beare recorde in heaven, the Father, ye Word and the Holy Gost, and these thre ar one:)" and, as I have done, put in a parenthesis; an intimation, I conclude, that the translator considered the passage as at least doubtful, if not spurious. This is the more valuable as the translation was made in the infancy of the Reformation. Query: Does Wickliff's translation make the same distinction?

Church is invariably translated congregation. In 1 Tim. iii. 6, 7, Devil is translated evil speaker. In 1 Cor. xiii., charity is translated love throughout. This is the rendering of the Improved Version.

Allow me to give you, from the

but was sente to beare witness of ye might beleve. He was not the light: lighte. That light was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the worlde. He was in the

worlde, and the worlde was made by him; and the world knewe him not.

"He came among his owne, and But as his own received him not.

manie as received him, to them gave he power to be the sonnes of God:

even them that beleved on his name: the will of the fleshe, nor yet of the which were borne, not of bloode nor of will of men, but of God.

"And the same Woord became fleshe and dwelt among us and we saw the glory of it, as the glory of ye only begotte Sonne of the Father, full

of

grace

and truth."

I have strictly adhered to the spelling, and have only to observe farther, that the same Greek verb in the above which is translated made in the 3rd verse, and born in the 13th, is applied in our Saviour's conversation with Nicodemus to the New Birth, John iii. 3.

How will the 14 verses of the 1st chapter read, as applicable to the new moral creation of the world by Christ Jesus in righteousness and true holiness! "Behold, I make all things new." Rev. xxi. 5.

L. HOLDEN.

SIR, Penzance. 211, 212,) you were so good as to [N your number for April last, (pp. admit a paper of mine relating to the remission of sins: according to an intimation I then gave, I will now, with

in the Christian plan of redemption, is proved by these words of the apostle, which I quoted before: "Whom God fore-ordained as a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." And again, "He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

your permission, resume the subject. I then contended, in effect, that the mediation of Jesus Christ, especially his sufferings and death, were set forth in Scripture as the way or method in which it had seemed good to the Divine Wisdom to grant to mankind remission of sins, that is, deliverance from the consequences of transgression, and restoration to the privileges of the Divine favour. I disclaimed entirely the hypothesis of vicarious punishment for the satisfaction of Di- Thus I have briefly retraced the vine justice, and maintained that the chief points of my former argument, reasons and advantages on account of and I think with some additional plainwhich this method of redemption has ness and simplicity. That the views been adopted, at least as far as our here represented are not without conknowledge extends, are derived from siderable practical value, is renderedits tendency to promote repentance probable from the fondness with which and lasting righteousness. But I was they are entertained, and the influence anxious that this should not be under which is ascribed to them, even though stood in too limited a sense, as if no- in a distorted form, by great numbers thing further were considered than of very pious and intelligent Christhat repentance which immediately tians. For, where great and good precedes and procures forgiveness. effects are produced by any opinions For I thought that the sentiments with which people entertain, we may suswhich the knowledge of Jesus tends pect that there is, as it were, a nuto inspire the pardoned, had at least cleus of truth in them, though disas much concern in this matter as the guised by a thick crust of error. But call which it gives to the unconverted; I and that the views of the Divine cha racter and government which the his tory of redemption unfolds, might be as proper an accompaniment to the forgiveness of sins as any change in the dispositions of man. In short, I wished to prove that the value of the mediation of Jesus, as a propitiation før sins, depended not only on its tendency to awaken the sinner to repen tance, but also on that which it has to confirm the saint in righteousness, and to illustrate certain features of the Divine government and character. In admitting a penitent sinner to a covenant of pardon and privilege, the state of the penitent's mind may not be the only thing which it is proper for the Judge of the world to consider, (though that alone may determine him to pardon,) but also the way or me thod of proceeding that is most suitable to the case, and least liable to attendant evils. And we may easily conceive, that the great points to be secured in the selection of such a method will be two: to secure the Divine authority, one; to secure the lasting repentance and amendment of the transgressor, the other. That these were the great objects really aimed at

think a consideration of the opinions themselves will shew that they have much tendency to promote both Christian holiness and comfort. The history of redemption displays most strikingly the dreadful consequences which sin tends to produce, and the deep corruption with which it can infect the human heart; it shews the difficulty of deliverance from its consequences; we behold both the goodness and severity of God; we see the bright reward of perfect obedience in the exaltation of Jesus, while we ourselves are humbled, as sinners, by being obliged to receive salvation through the mediation of our righteous brother. Now, when we consider, that such lessons as these were what ap peared to God especially necessary to be taught us, in connexion with the pardon of our sins, and our admission to be children of grace, we are the more convinced of the propriety and importance of most seriously attending to them, and imprinting them deeply on our hearts: and thus our holiness is promoted. And when we see such a plan as this adopted expressly for the purpose of dispensing mercy to sinners, when we see all objections which we might conceive to our free

On Objections to Bible-Society Meetings.

pardon thus anticipated and provided for, we receive a greater assurance that it is really the counsel of God to receive sinners to his favour, and that no difficulty will obstruct or delay the course of his mercy. That there are hours in which an awakened conscience will feel the greatest consola tion from this view, is abundantly proved by Christian experience. Comfort will thus be administered when we are most in need of it.

In answer to your intelligent correspondent Mr. Cogan, (p. 288,) I beg to say, that I have not read the work of Mr. Kenrick's to which he alludes, but the sentiment which he derives from it appears to me very judicious and valuable. I think, however, there is not so much difference between the common sense of the forgiveness of sins and that which he contends for, as he seems to imagine.

SIR,

A

T. F. B.

Leroes,
May 10, 1822.

Sa confirmed Unitarian, and

those views of the Divine administration I have been led to embrace, I cannot but regret, in common with my Unitarian brethren, that our religious sentiments are not more generally received, understood, and I might say enjoyed; and that our comparative deficiency in number, added to the strenuous exertions and ardent zeal of our more orthodox brethren, leave us but little hope of their yet making any very rapid progress in the Chris tian world. This regret is particularly felt by the believer in the unri valled supremacy of Jehovah, when he beholds the gospel, in which he has revealed his glorious and endearing attributes, with the benevolent design and end of all his providential dealings towards his earthly offspring, through time and in eternity, making its rapid way (through the extensive co-operation of Bible Institutions) over the more remote and unenlightened regions of the globe, defaced by what he considers many false interpretations, to tally at variance with the general tenor of the Scriptures, and decidedly opposed to the truth as it is in Jesus. Yet, surely, he must be but little ac quainted with the human heart, with the nature of its motives and springs

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of action; its susceptibility of hope and fear, joy and sorrow; with the elevating and ennobling effects of immortal prospects, compared with the debasing influence of mental apathy or degrading superstition; in short, with the appaling difference between living without God in the world, and rejoicing in the light of his countenance; who does not see ample reason to rejoice in this extensive distribution of the word of life, although not thoroughly purified according to his perceptions, from some erroneous comments and translations, the off spring of a less enlightened age. He knows that these comparatively trifling spots in the glorious sun of righte ousness, but partially, very partially obscure its heavenly effulgence; and that an ample sufficiency of moral and religious light still remains to guide the wandering probationer on his way, and conduct him in the paths of pleasantness and peace. What! Are no other views of Divine Providence, save those he has himself embraced, capable of leading the erring soul to hea

the long extent of eighteen centuries, notwithstanding the unhappy mutila tion of some of its sublimest truths, been of such contracted efficacy, as only to guide to future bliss, in proportion to the just conceptions by its followers, of what we term its speculative truths? Oh, no! Perish the unwelcome thought! Millions of souls of every denomination have already felt its power, and so shall millions more. Providence, in its own good time, that time which unerring wisdom knows to be the fittest and the best, will, if necessary to the fulfilment of its merciful decrees, ordain that truth, unclouded truth, shall be acknowledged and received by all. It is not for us to scan the ways of Him whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, and whose ways are not as ours, in having so long permitted such a diversity of opinion among the followers of his Son: but this we know, that through all the darksome mists of bigotry and ignorance, and during their most arbitrary sway, the declared will of the Almighty has blazoned forth in characters of undiminished light, to be seen and known by all who chose not to close their eyes against its commanding influence, the will of Him

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