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    ligious privileges and knowledge . " " And that every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father . " These last words teach plainly enough that whilst Christ was to be honoured and acknowledged as a Prince and a Saviour , he was not to be thought of as equal with God his Father , by whom his dignity was conferred , and whose glory

    was displayed in his elevation . In reading the whole passage , we find it so strongly expressing those opinions which we receive as scriptural and true—that the exaltation of Christ is derived from the Father's power , and acknowledged to his glory—as to be led to inquire with some curiosity how it could happen to be quoted in support of opposite doctrines , and the result of our reflection on the subject leads us to notice a very common fallacy which we must attribute to Dr . S . He never appears to us to make it

    his consideration , whether a text necessarily implies or directly teaches a certain doctrine ; but , supposing the truth of Ihe doctrine , how it will a PPty to tne text « He sets out with a general conviction that his views are scriptural , and then applies as certain truths to the interpretation of each passage what he supposes that he has found in a number of others , though when distinct assertions are required , he is unable to produce them . His general convictions , which may not—for he is , like all men , liable to

    prejudice—have been originally derived from the study of the Scriptures , but from education and the influences of those around him , constitute the chief reason for the application he makes of each text , and suggest those strained and fanciful philological criticisms , and those developments of the supposed sense of a passage in which so many matters are introduced , unconnected with the words , that we wonder whence they were obtained , or why they were placed where they stand rather than any where else , which characterize his work . On the contrary , the true method of scriptural

    investigation appears to be , as we read the successive portions of the Sacred Volume , to observe what each book and each remarkable passage teaches , considered in itself alone , or with reference only to other plainer uses of the same phraseology , or expressions of the same thoughts , and having thus arrived at a general conclusion , to interpret the ambiguous or difficult passages in conformity with those which are liable to no misapprehension . Had Dr . S . pursued this method , he would hardly , we presume to think , either have thought so much to be derived from many passages he has quoted , or , in what professes to be a collection of all the testimonies of

    Scripture respecting the person of Christ , have omitted so many of those which are most intelligible and most decisive . Conscious as we are of having already exceeded the limits which convenience would prescribe for this paper , we must say a few words on Dr . S . ' s mode of treating that celebrated text , considered as " the principal passage in Paul's Epistles which treats on the Deity of Christ , " * and which * Michaeliy , Anmerkungen . apud Smith , Script . Test . Vol . 111 . p . 377 .

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    Dr . J . P . Smith ' s Scripture Testimony to the Messiah . 821

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 821, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/25/