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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.
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SCHLBIERMACHER AND MH . BELSHAM . ( Continued from p . 176 . ) Mr . Belsham urges that the Ebionite GospeLof Matthew "Jand the Marcionite Gospel of Luke did not contain these accounts , and that both these sects maintained their own to be the uncorrupted , unmuti-Jated copies of these evangelical histories . " Now how ingenuous as well as ingenious all this is ! Who can refuse implicit credence to the pure
authenticity of such high and immaculate authorities as the Ebionite and Marcionite copies ? Who can hesitate , for an instant , to spurn from him as spurious and base all which either of those sects refused to admit ? What signifies it , that , in point of fact , they admitted or rejected just what suited their peculiar tenets ; that each of them was stigmatized with the charge of mutilating and adulterating the gospels which they respectively used ? What signifies it that such alterations in and additions to Matthew were made by the
Ebionites , that their copy soon lost all authority ? What doth it signify , that the Marcionites , in their edition of Luke , excluded not the two first chapters only , but all the third and part of the fourth ; and in the third , of course , that part relating to the age of Jesus , which formed the pivot of Mr . B . ' s above-noticed operations against the miraculous conception ? What does it signify , that the Ebionites excluded all the Gospels , ( except Matthew ' s *) as well as the whole of Paul ' s Epistles—that the Marcionites rejected the Old Testament
jin toto ; together with four of Paul's Epistles and all the Gospels but Luke ' s ( Marcionite edition ) ? What signifies it , that the Deist or the Infidel might with equal consistency and success avail himself of the Christian Divine ' s high and spotless authorities , to rid himself at " one fell swoop" of all the Old Testament and the greatest part of the New ?—seeing , that if Marcion be an authority , away would vanish all the Old Testament with Matthew , Luke and John ; and then would be brought up the Ebionites to the charge ,
sweeping off Luke and all Paul ' s Epistles . What did all or either of these things in the least signify ? The various manuscripts and versions of unexceptionable reputation did not suit the purpose which our " Inquirer" had in hand , and therefore recourse was had to the Ebionite and Marcionite copies- ; which , instead of being " uncorrupted and unmutilated , " have been for centuries reprobated as being replete with adulteration and
impurity ! That the learned writer invoked the ancient Ebionites to his aid , was , perhaps , nothing more than natural , since he labours strenuousl y in other parts of his work ( pp . 8 , 257 , &c . &c . ) to identify them with those moderns who profess the same creed with himself ; but that Marcion should be warped into the service—he who , according to Priestley , first said that there were three Gods—is absolutely ludicrous .
It is true that Mr . Belsham hath not ventured to assert that he himself believed either the Ebionite copy of Matthew , or the Marcionite copy of Luke , to have been uncorrupted and unmutilated ; but it is true also , that he , from his mode of introducing them , plainly anticipates that his reader may draw that conclusion !
In saying this , the writer most positively and sincerely disclaims any intention to impute any unworthy motive whatever ; but assuredly , such sinister reasoning bears a much stronger resemblance to the pious frauds of the zealot , than to the honest and philosophic exposition of a " Calm Inquirer , ' * anxious only to arrive at , and to disseminate , truth !
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OBSERVATIONS ON THE GOSPEL OP LUKE , IN REPLY TO DR .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 257, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/25/
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