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Untitled Article
the rules of just criticism , gives no countenance to those strange and unworthy notions which pass with many for evangelical truths , and which if they were really articles
of Christian faith must prove to all rational inquirers an insurmountable obstacle to the reception of Christianity , So far the editors may thank their Reviewer
for the increased publicity which he has given to their principles and to their work ; and to this no doubt they may in part ascribe the late increased demand for the
Improved Version . The Reviewer pretends to believe that the Unitarians , regarding what he calls " the great doctrine of our Saviour ' s incarnation
as a fatal obstacle to the establishment of Unitarian tends / ' have for that reason struck off the prefaces of Matthew and Luke . But the fact is quite otherwise . And it is difficult to believe that a
person of common understand - ing can be serious in representing the miraculous conception of Jesus as an argument for his prc
existence or divinity . Many proper Unitarians , ancient and modern , have admitted this fact , without ever dreaming of such a conclusion frofn it . The
Reviewer will not allow the cases oF Isaac and Samuel and John the Baptist , to have been analogous to that of Jesus , because they were born in the regular course of nature , " but he will not say this of
Adam and of Eve \ were they then incarnate superior spirits , and not proper human beings ? The question concerning the authenticity of th «» prefaces nf Matthew and Luke , in a doctrinal point of view is trifling , it has little or no bear , ing upon the controversy con-
Untitled Article
cerning the person of Christ . In fact it is a question purely critical . The Reviewer professes ( p . 320 ) , that by investigating the argu- ' ments of tKe editors of I . V . upon this subject he 4 C shall exhibit no improper specimen of their critical ability , of the fairness of their representations , and of their pre
tentions to honest dealing . ** — cj Upon this question he girds up his loins , and summons ail Lis powers . Let us watch his progress and mark his success .
He first observes , that Ci the writers begin with distinctly admitting that these pa * sages arc to
be found in all the MSS . and versions now extant /' This , methinks , looks something like hottest dealing , in men who axe charged by this amiable and candid Reviewer with "
mutilating and perverting the sacred
code of Christian faith , with the most uhsparing violence ; ** - cc with violating every allowed rule of fair criticism } ' * — * with being guilty of artifice , falsehood , and fraud ; and " as being determined at all events lo make the
scriptures support their opinions by some means or other / ' It will be allowed that in this instance , at least , the editors of I . V . were ' disposed to state the case and the argument fairly , and to leave the decision with their readers . The Reviewer goes on : " The
annotators might have carried their admissions further . They might have told us that the most ancient fathers allude to these passages , and that the earliest op * posers of Christianity never appear to have doubted their genuineness / ' Hold , gentle Sir If by fathers you mean orthodox
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The Quarterly Review and the Improved Version * 417
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1809, page 417, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1739/page/3/
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