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
and that much of his declamation and argument derived their "whole force from the supposition that the doctrine of the pre-existence of Jesus Christ necessarily included in it that of his possessing a super-human or
Buper-angelic nature ; that he was a being of extraordinary powers , a subordinate Jehovah , a delegated Creator , under God the maker and upholder of all things . Upon the
discovery of such ' amazing facts , ' Would not the mind of a Jew , " exclaims Mr . Belsham , " who had never Tieard of delegated Creators and subordinate JehovaliSy have been overwhelmed witn astonishment when
this new and strange doctrine was first discovered to him ?** These ideas opened to him a wide field for declamation , but to me , believing they had no foundation in scripture or any connexion with the pre-existence of Jesus Christ , they furnished strong
objections to his hypothesis , and laid liim open to much animadversion , and this gave rise to the following interrogations in my first letter , M . Rep . Vol . iii . p . 381 : — Is not Mr . * B . guilty of the same fault which
he would be ready enough to charge on the opposers of Christianity , that they attack its corruptions and not Christianity itself as left in the New Testament ? Will he say in reply , that he finds this new and strange doctrine maintained as a doctrine of
scripture by his learned friend to 'whom he is writing ? So may they say , that these corruptions , as we call them , are maintained as Christianity by its advocates . " These considerations determined
me , by a reply to Mr . Belsham , to bring the subject before the public in order to obtain some further light upon it , and to settle my own mind which had been in a measure unsettled by Mr . B . ' s Letters . Mr . Belsham , however , for reasons best known to himself , did not think
proper to take any notice of my arguments in reply to him , leaving me in possession of the field . He probably thought my arguments too contemptible to merit any notice , and his own
so perfectly clear , conclusive and convincing as to stand in no need of correction , explanation or defence . Secondly . I considered the doctrine of Christ ' s pre-existence as n ^ e-4 £ 0 » arily involving ip it that of hi ?
Untitled Article
miraculous conception , although his miraculous conception does not necessarily imply his pre-existence ; because had he pre-existed his conception must have been preternatural ; but it might have been preternatural
if he had not existed before ; as was the case respecting Isaac and Samuel . If then it should appear that his conception was not miraculous , I was fully convinced that the doctrine of his pre-existence must necessarily be given up . Under these impressions
a work published in 1813 , * feli into my hands , in which , I think , the author lias proved that the accounts of the miraculous conception , as they now stand in the beginning of Matthew and Luke , are spurious ; and he has stated some facts as taking
place , not at Bethlehem , but at Rome , from which the stories , recorded in the two first chapters of Matthew and Luke , probably originated . These circumstances , together with the
improbability of their truth which appears upon the face of the accounts themselves , led me to conclude that they were not the genuine productions of those Evangelists to whom they are ascribed .
Thirdly . The inconsistency of those accounts with each other—with historical fact—and with the current language of the New Testament , furnish additional evidence that those accounts were not written by Matthew and Luke . With respect to their
inconsistency I shall mention but one circumstance . The flight into Egypt recorded by Matthew , is not only unnoticed by lAike 9 but his account evidently , as I conceive , contradicts it . He tells us , ch . ii . 22 , that , " When the days of her ( i . e . Mary ' s )
purification according to the law of Moses , were accomplished ( that is when Jesus was forty days old ) they brought him to Jerusalem , to present him to the Lord . ' * And after relating what passed in the temple , hs says , 39 th and following verses , "And when
they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord , they returned into Galilee to their own city , " not Bethlehem , but "Nazaretji . And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit , filled with wisdom and the grace of God , was upon him . Now
* Jone& ' a Sequel to his Ecclesiastical Research ^* . ' '
Untitled Article
76 Mr . Marsom on the Pre-existence of-Jesus Christ .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1816, page 76, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2449/page/12/
-