On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
he used was genuine and authentic , and that other copies had been interpolated arid corrupted . And whether he wais welkin-. formed or not , I see no reason to believe that he was insincere . His copy did not contain the history of the miraculous conception : this narrative therefore he rejected : though there was nothing in his system that we know of which was inconsistent with
it . And he like other philosophers of his day would have been glad to have redeemed Christianity from the reproach of deriving its origin from a despised and crucified Nazarcne . But what says my worth }/ friend to rebut this testimony of Marcion ? First , he was u an ancient heretic . * Good ! This ¦
argument may very probabkOiave its weight With my friend , whose reputation for orthodoxy must be irrucb raised by his late publication . And certainly it will appear ' fully ' convincing to the mass of readers . For , who would believe any thing because an old heretic had affirmed it ? But as to myself ^' A ^ hose orthodoxy is not in such high repute ., I confess I cannot feel quite satisfied with the objection ; but on the contrary I must acknowledge a consciousness of something like a bias in favour of a
heretic , whether ancient or modern . But Marcion , it should seem , was a notorious , obstinate and irreclaimable heretic : who rejected all the Old Testament , ' the . whole of St . Paul's writings ,, and perverted several other passages of scripture . " ( p . 118 . ) All this arid a great deal more may , for any thing I know , be true of Marcion and his followers . But where does my friend learn this account of Marcion and his tenets ? Not from Marcion himself : for none of his writings are now extant . But from the representation of him and his principles by his orthodox antagonists . But surely my friend will not call this a very impartial rule of judgment . I will put a case , that shalt bring the matter home to my worthy friend ' s own feelings ^ to his own business and bosom . Suppose that fifteen or sixteen
centimes from this time , the Unitarians and their works should all be extinct , and-that nothing should be known concerning a sect which at present challenges some distinction , but what might be learned from a book which had been published early in the nineteenth century entitled Lectures on the works ofCreation and the Doctrines of Revelation , by the Rev . B . Carpenter , in which the author undertakes to combat the opinions of
that obnoxious sect . What idea would posterity in the thirtieth century entertain of the Unitarians from reading this book , written in professed hostility to their opinions ? From this work , which woultl indeed appear to be the production of a very respectable author , who acts out with great professi-
Untitled Article
37 O Mr . Belsham ' s Strictures on Carpenter ' s Lectures .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1807, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2382/page/30/
-