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
haul told them the truth which he had heard of God , " viii . 40 . In John we meet with clear illustrations of such expressions as " being sent into the world , " ' * being not of the world , " " being one with the Father , " xvii . 16 , 21 . In John we have the solid
authentication of the Unitarian sense attached to the prophetic titles of Isaiah , " that they were called gods to whom the word of God came , " x . 35 . Yet this is the gospel which is described as " an extraordinary book , " as < c being so much of a piece , beginning , middle and end , " as to discredit the tradition
of its having been written by the apostle , as " having been the means of introducing corruptions into the pure religion of Jesus , " as frustrating all expectation of the possibility of " converting an enlightened unbeliever , " and as meriting to be joyously " expunged from the sacred volume . "
As the writer saysr nothing of Mark * , I am ignorant what offence is laid to the account of this Evangelist ; but as we are told r that " had there been no ^> ther books extant tha n Luh ^ s Gospel and the Acts of thv Apostles * we should have had in them every < thing we could want , "" ( the resurrection of Lazarus being a matter of no interest , and tlifc Sermon on the Mount , as well
as the hortatory reasonings of the Epistles , descending perhaps too much into particidars , ) we are , I suppose , to remain satisfied with JLuke and the
Acts , although the reason stated for wanting no mo lie than Luke is , it must be owned , a little singular ; namely , that in " one chapter only , and even a few passages of that chapter , are the terms and conditions of the new
covenant clearly and distinctly laid down . " Let not the reader , however , imagine that he is to have even the whole of Luke . A ' * few gross interpolations , which may easily be detected , " ( according to this writer ' s canons of criticism , ) are to be first * ' expunged , " in ord to having ? thing
er our " every we can wish * , and nothing contrary to our ( query his /*) conceptions of the Divine character . " In another place he mentions " the pretended dialogue between our Lord and Nieodemus ?* and he here tells us Qf ** the pretended mlro ,-« lfc of the Gadarene demoniac and ' the
herd of swine . " The narrative of the rssurreqtiaa of Lazarus displeased him because no other evangelist had noticed
Untitled Article
it ; the present miracle happens to he recorded by all the four Evangelists ^ but the concurrence of testimony is now discovered to be nothing to the purpose . The miracle is 4 € too absurd in itself not to be immediately ffcjected . " Very summary and eonckisive 1
The transfer of the human madness to the swine is , I suppose , to be pronounced absurd , because the popular literal transmigration of devils is to be considered as justly founded ; for the same reason the " temptation of Jesus by the devil" is to be rejected as " worse than doubtful : " in other
words , the vulgar acceptation must naturally be more consonant with the spirit and meaning of the Jewish writers , when occupied with highly spiritual and mysterious subjects , than the conclusions of the learned and judicious Farmer . * The transfiguration is also
dismissed as of a €€ very doubtful character , " probably because the splendour reflected on the person of Christ , which , as on other occasions , symbolized the local presence of God , is thought by the orthodox to reveal his latent deity ; If Moses was in the Mount with God , and if on descending
he put a veil on his face , which " shone , " I cannot see the incongruity of Jesus ascending up into a * ' high mountain" in the wilderness , to be prepared for his great mission , or beings visibly distinguished in the presence of his disciples by the glory of the Shekin ah .
In 2 Peter i . 18 , there is a corroboratory allusion to this transaction : " And this voice , which came from heaven , we heard , when we were with him in the holy mount . " It will be said that many of the churches did not
receive the second Epistle general of Peter > but many believe in the genuineness of this glorious chapter , ( con * - taining , be it observed , a direct testimony to Unitarianism , vers . 16 , 17 , )
who reject the second ; and be this as it may , though not consistently with the rule , that no writing , not ascertained to be the work of an apostle , should be considered as of authority in matters of precept or doctrine , the work of an
* " Inquiry intothe Nature amd Design of Christ ' s Temptation in the Wilderness . "
Untitled Article
The Canonical Gospels the support of Unitarian Christianity . 67 t
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1820, page 671, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2494/page/43/
-