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Christ is to prove his divine authority , his mission from God to preach the gospel- A few of these miracles , well defined and well attested , would be sufficient to prove this object , to establish his claim as a teacher from
heaven ; and Mark would have proved nothing more than he has actually proved , had he minutely recorded every thing said or done b y * his divine Master ; but the end of his miraculous birth was to prove not his divine mission but his divine nature—to prove
that , as he was born m a supernatural manner , he must have been a supernatural being . This peculiar object of the miraculous birth ascribed to Jesus , rendered it imperative on every one of his biographers , to record it as essential to the gospel ; and nothing could
have induced any one of them to omit it , but either a total ignorance of the story , or a conviction that it was not true . Secondly , The four Gospels being now combined into one volume , a person who peruses the narrative in Matthew , is not apt to be struck with the absence of it in Mark . But this is
a prejudice which Griesbach , and such men as the correspondent N , instead of taking the lead in misleading modern readers , should be the first in dissipating . Mark wrote his Gospel in consequence of the establishment of a Christian church at Rome , who wanted
an authentic document respecting Christ , and who , by the omission of that Evangelist , were left in ignorance of his supernatural birth , and consequently of the doctrines of his divinity grounded upon it : and this , we may l > c assured , no historian of our Lord
would have done . Mark , tliereforey was either a total stranger to the story of the miraculous birth of Jesus , or being acquainted with it lie considered it as a fiction unworthy of notice-Thirdly , the fact was first taught by men who aimed at setting aside the Gospel , by assimilating it with
Heathenism a'few-years after the resurrection of Christ , and that in the very sj ) ot where Mark first published his Gospel . This Evangelist was therefore fully aware of its existence and circulation and he took care in the introduction and * conduct of his Gospel to set it aside as a falsehood . . His Gospel o ^) ens thus : " ' The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ , the Son of
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God , ( as it is written in the prophets , behold , I ' send "my Messenger before thy face , who shall prepare thy way in thy presence , ) was a voice crying in the wilderness / ' &c . Here itie Evangelist says positively and unequivocally ,
that the good news respecting the Son of God originated with John the Bap ^ tist , no intimation being given of him till he was pointed out by his forerunner : thus inculcating On his readers thai ! the story of his birth , with all its wonders , had no foundation in truth .
It is essential to the story of our Lord ' s miraculous birth , that his mother should have been acquainted with his destination as the Messiah ; and to shew that she did not know this , Mark represents her as thinking her son mad for pursuing a conduct which implied that he considered himself in that light . Markiii . 21 .
I have said that the object of the supernatural birth of Christ was to prove his divine nature ; accordingly the first teachers of this cunninglydevised fable , as Peter calls it , consistently enough supposed that Jesus had a supernatural power when he was a * child , and represented him as actually
having wrought many miracles in his infancy . Now Mark was called upon by his peculiar situation to set aside these things as false , by stating some well-attested facts that proved them so . Such facts he does state in chap . vi . 2 , 3 . Here he holds forth his divine
Master as a common mechanic , and not only the people of Nazareth , but his own relations , as utterly perplexed as to the source of his divine power . Had Jesus been supernaturatry born ,
and thus proved that he was a superior being , his early title would have been very different from that of a carpenter , and the people of Naaareth would h&ve been at no loss as to the source of his
supernatural power . And Mark brings forward the circumstance that he was a carpenter , and the astonishment of those who knew him from his birth _ , as a complete refutation of the miraculous birth ascribed to him . 1 shall
continue these remarks : and I hope that N , to whom th # Repository is so much indebted , will take the trouble to set me right , if I be found mistaken in any of my positions . J . JONES .
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Dr . •/ . Jones on the Introductory ( JTtaptets of Matthew and Luke . S 3
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/19/
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