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min&nt among the Gentiles , and , in some measure , among the Jews . An ability of controlling the laws of nature , was claimed by many who had studied in Heathen schools : magical practices , impious and irrational as they were , formed a part , nevertheless ,
of Heathen superstition and philosophy . But an early , and a memorable triumph was obtained by the gospel over gainful imposture and pretended learning " . Ephesus , where Paul , for some time , resided , in prosecution of his impQrtant labours , was so notorious for the attachment of the
inhabitants to these arts that the expression , ' Ephesian books /'/ was used by their neighbours to signify spells . * In this city signal miracles had been wrought by the apostle : and one class of them , the instantaneous cure of mental
derangement , some impostors had tried to imitate , by employing the name of Jesus ; although the attempt had ended in nothing but their own bodily harm , their mortification and disgrace . The success of Paul and the defeat of the
exorcists , attracted the attention of the whole population of Ephesus , both Heathen and Jewish , and procured for Christianity a high and deserved respect . No longer was the name of Jesus used there as a charm : for it
was found to be inefficacious when unaccompanied by his authority . A further and still nappier consequence of the transaction was , tliat several of the Enhesians were converted to the
gospel ; while many of those that practised magical arts brought together the books containing their incantations and rules , and publicly burned them . What must have been the influence of
that doctrine which engaged them to extirpate prejudices so deeply rooted , and to relinquish occupations so eminently profitable , and which would not even suffer them to sell , but urged them instantly to destroy , their books Of the costliness of this sacrifice we
may judge from the computed price of the mass of writings which they committed to the flames : this amounted to rtiore than sixteen hundred pounds of
* Iiesych . Lex . in verb . E jecr : ( ed . Albert ., ) and Hammond ' s Note on Acts xix . 19 , 20 ; together with Biscoe on fche Acts , &c . 293 . . ' ... ; w ¦;
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our money . Such was the vietory gained by the religion of Jesus- Christ over spurious knowledge , over & de > basing and criminal superstition I Had these books possessed an intrinsic value , I could not reason from the destruction of them in proof of the
alliance of Clyistianity with Learning . But the fact was altogether the reverse ; the science which they contained not meriting the name . To the professors of pretended and unsubstantial knowledge , whether they were idolatrous
Gentiles or styled themselves Christians , the gospel was avowedly hostile : for its spirit was that of a sound mind ; and wherever it has prevailed , false views of Nature and its laws have gradually disappeared , as the mists of morning vanish before the radiance of the orb of day .
To the growth of the human intellect the progress of Christianity gave direct assistance . That knowledge and literature were cultivated by the friends of the gospel , even in unfavourable circumstances , and that its enaEtij £ & were sensible of the great adv ^ ijll ^^ Sliich it hence derived , we V ^^^ m ^ & ^ from a memorable passg ^^^ l ^ pife of the Emperor Julian ^ : ^| f&fiorDade the Christians either to leach or acquire polite learning , and excluded their children from the schools where this instruction was afforded . *
After the sixth century , Ignorance and Ecclesiastical Tyranny were daily gaining ground till the Reformation , t The corruption of the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ , was likewise the corruption of taste and knowledge . Yet , amidst national revolutions and disasters that were extremelv
inauspicious to letters , " amidst the inundations of the Scythians , on the one side , from the north-west , and the Saracens from the east , " the Christian Church " did presejrve , in the sacred lap and bosom thereof , the precious relicks even of heathen learning , which otherwise had been extinguished , as if * such thing had ever been . "t But ,
* Lardner \ s Works , ( 8 vo . ) VIH . 3 ? l : Gibbon ' s Hist . &c , Chap , xxiii . ;'^ ora Bacon ' s Works , ( 1819 , ) I . 45 . t Jortin ' s Sermons , ( 3 rd edition , ; vu-365 X . Lord Bacon , ubi sup .
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146 Essay on the mutual Relation of Christiaititg and Learning .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1820, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2486/page/18/
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