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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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4 g 4 Reply to Dr . l $ agce *—To the Inquirers after Christian Truth *
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tion in believing the testimony which he bears to the prevalence of Unitarianism among the great mass of Christians in his own time , so clearly stated by Dr . Priestley , in his History of Early Opinions . Nothing can be easier than to believe or to disbelieve in the gross ; and very convenient , indeed , is such a faith , to those who are to gulp down the bitter potion of
thirty-nine Articles , before they can lay hold of the golden prize which glitters before them . But the serious inquirers into divine truth , such as those to whom these observations are addressed , will
learn , from the apostle , to distinguish between things that differ , to prefer those which are excellent and to value truth abr > ve all price . 3 . The next objection which tbe learned writer makes against the editors of the Improved
Version , is 3 cavil unworthy of a man of sense and an honest inquirer after truth . The editors state , from Ep iphanius , that the Ebion . ite G' > spel began with these words : ** In the days of Herod king of Judea , John came baptizing ; ' *
and because some early transcriber has erroneously written Judea for Galilee , Dr . Magtje contends that the Ebionite gospel taught
that Herod the Great , who died , as all ajlow within a few years before or after the birth of Christ , was living thirty years afterwards , at the tirne of our Loral ' s
crucifixion ; * jind he triumphantly and a , bsurdly argues , p . 13 , that the editors are inconsistent ii ^ t rejecti ng the first chapters of Matthew , because they represent Herod as living when Christ was born , and at th $ fame time ** admit , as unquestionable , tfcje gospel of the Ebion-** &t m \ & B&WtP&t W ^ od W
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be living at the commencement of the baptist ' s ministry . " DfV Magee well knows , that no child that wa $ taught to read , ever mistook Herod the king , or tetrarch of Galilee , who beheaded John , and who was living at the time of our Lord ' s , crucifixion , for that Herod who died in the reign of Augustus , and who was the father of Herod the
tetrarch . Upon whom does Dr . Magee think to impose by such miserable sophistry ? 4 . Dr . Magee reviles the editors of the Improved Version , because
they agree with the Carpocratians in retaining the genealogy of Christ , Nothing will satisfy this Irish theologian , short of his great maxim of universal indiscriminate
belief . The editors , in vindication of their judgment , state , that th $ author of the genealogy could not have been the author of'the
remainder of the chapter ; for the object of the genealogy is to prove that Jesus , being the Son of Joseph , was the descendant of David ; but the design of the succeeding narrative , is to prove that Jesus was not f the son of Joseph , and , consequently , to contradict the genealogy .
They also observe , that the doctrine of the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ , if true , would hot militate at all against his proper humanity , as maintain **} by ibe ^ 1
Hebrew Christians , Ue ^ vis ^ Hwad analogous to the birth of lsa # cy Samuel , ajid other em friend perpersons , mentioned in the OW Testament , who wej-e tjtiere hiirttan
beings . Wbat inconsistency can any person of common sen $ e discover between these statements ? But Dr . Magee , flb ^ lrq ' hr ap 4 per-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1813, page 494, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2431/page/6/
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