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

    thinks , injured it greatly ; and pronounces , that were it reduced to its original purity , it would be unexceptionable , and for the great body of Christians , ^ ven at this day , useful . A passing remark discloses his small valuation of the creed " called of St . Athanasius" ( pp . 17—19 ) , his full judgment on

    which we shall hereafter have the pleasure of laying before the reader . He complains of the tediousness of the Liturgy of the Church of England , in which the frequent repetition of the Lord ' s Prayer , objected to by some churchmen , is to his mind a relief ( pp . 20 , 21 ); an exculpatory observation , for which the regular eulogists of " the best-constituted church in the world , " will , assuredly , not thank him .

    The lllrd Section is " Of the Lord's Prayer , ' * a subject partly anticipated in the conclusion of the Second , where he quotes some of the sentiments of Socrates , who , in one of his well-known prayers , nearly approached the spirit and even the language of this admirable form . The several phrases of the Lord ' s Prayer are here commented on and shewn to teach the justice and goodness of the Almighty ; and the use of the whole of " this short but comprehensive prayer , declaring our belief in Almighty God , to whom it is addressed , implies also" ( says the annotator ) " our faith in the birth , doctrine , death and resurrection of Jesus Christ , as related in the Gospels which give us the prayer . " ( Pp . 31 , 32 . )

    The heads of Section IV . are " The Old Testament . History of the Creation . Probation the Purpose of Man ' s being on Earth . Fall of Man . " The author speaks his mind freely concerning the book of Genesis : < e If , then , under all the circumstances known of a book so old as that describing the creation and the immediately following events , order occasionally fails ; if repetitions here and there seem to mark some derangement of the narrative ; if omission or transposition of some words may appear indicated ; if the sense of a word or a phrase is occasionally disputable ; I esteem these to

    be proofs of the honesty of those who , having found a work , so altogether valuable , in that state , scrupling to use their ingenuity for its correction , have given it to posterity exactly as they found it . With the great critic of antiquity , ( supposed a heathen , though how fa r , or whether at all , disapproving the better doctrine of Christianity , which must have been known to him , none can tell , ) I can admire the occasional sublimity of the account of the creation , and say with him , that ' its author was no ordinary man , ' notwithstanding that the very first words , ' In the beginning / as they stand in the English and Septuagint translations , are to me unintelligible . "—Pp . 36 ,

    37-On the origin of evil , Mr . Mitford could not be expected to throw any light . He is in doubt whether the account of the fall of our first parents should be taken according to the letter , or as allegory and parable . What is clearly stated by the historian , and confirmed by frequent reference to it iri following passages of Holy Writ , is ( he says , pp . 44 , 45 ) , " that our first parents were subjected to trial , in which they were found failing ; and for their failure were punished in this life . "

    Section V . is entitled " Death of the Body . Institution of Sacrifice . ' Mr . Mitford understands the threatening against tbe disobedience of Adam and Eve to imply only natural death . He observes , " that in Sebastian Castellio ' s Latin Translation of the Bible , made for King Edward the Sixth , the expression ( Gen . ii . 17 ) * on the day' is omitted , so that the sense is simply , * thou shalt die , ' without declaring when . " He says that , not being versed in Hebrew , he knows not what may warrant the omission , but the context satisfies him that the historian meant , *« On the day on which thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely become mortal . " ( Note , pp . 46 , 47 . ) This is a proof of Mr . Mitford ' s sagacity : he repeats , without being aware of it ,

    Untitled Article

    Heview . —Mitford s Observations on Christianity . 218

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 213, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/53/