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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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as others think , I t him be reserved for punishment to the coming of Qhrist . 1 Tim . i . 19 , 20 : ' " Holding faith and a good conscience , which some having put away , concerning faith have made shipwreck ; of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander , whom I have delivered unto Satan , " excluded them from our societies" that they may learn not to
, blaspheme . " And in chap . v . 6 , Timothy is to withdraw himself from men of corrupt minds , or who are destitute of the truth . In the Second Epistle , ( iii- 1 >) the apostle desires Timothy to be prepared for great
opposition to the gospel , by its enemies , who would of course be unbelievers , and especially as they were to resist the truth . What is Timothy to do with these men ? Is he to punish them ? No . Is he to deliver them over to the civil power to be punished << r under the limitation of Christian
benevolence" ? No : but , in ver . 9 , Paul desires they may be left to themselves , and their folly would soon become sufficiently manifest unto all
men " . Paul , peculiarly the apostle of the Gentiles , and to whom we naturally look for a precedent in the treatment of Unbelievers , " has given us four , at least , each of which must be greatly superior to that which the Inquirer appears so solicitous to adopt , becsiusfe each is unencumbered with the
difficulties which necessarily attend a miraculous case ; and they have each th . 6 advantage of being perfectly compatible with " Christian benevolence . " They are superior in another point of view . Each of these four is an exhortation to a duty to be performed , and is recorded by the apostle himself . The case of Bar-Jesus is merely the narration of a circumstance which
occurred , and to which Paul never afterwards alluded , nor is it probable that he even knew of its being placed on record . The history of the Acts of the Apostles is generally acknowledged to have been written in Greece , and about the time that Paul was
imprisoned at Rome , previously to his death . This history was avowedly written for the use of an individual , and to whom it was in the first instance undoubtedly sent . It must have been some time , therefore , before it would get into circulation , and much longer before a
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copy would reach Rome , where Paul suffered martyrdom . Luke mentions this miracle , as he states other facts , with a view to confirm the faith of his friend Theophilus in the divine authenticity of the gospel , to convince him that it was established on miracles , and to assure him that the Gentiles
were equally to be participators of its advantages and blessings with the Jews . The Inquirer therefore appears desirous of attaching a degree of authority to the narration of this miracle which the occasion will not justify , and " has been carried further in this
instance than scripture , when fairly interpreted , can warrant . " " I ana inclined to think , " says the Inquirer in the second paragraph of p . 14 , " that political or sectarian prejudices , or perhaps a mixture of both , has in this instance carried him further
than scripture , when fairly interpreted , can warrant . " I am at a loss to conceive what could have induced the Inquirer to refer in this way to my political principles , and to insinuate that they have influenced my opinion in the case of Bar-Jesus . It is
somewhat singular that the advocates of religious coercion should attribute the views of those who think differently from them to political prejudices ; for this , Sir , is not a solitary instance in
your pages , I lik € not the ; scowling aspect of this insinuation ; I will not , therefore , trust myself any longer in its company , but , in taking leave , ju # t whisper in its ear , " O ! full of all subtilty and of all mischief !"
With regard to the ' * invidious remarks in pp . 26 , 27 / ' of the Sefrpon , I have only to observe , that , as they are founded on fapts and established on the public conduct of the different ? sects there mentioned , I cannot see
how they can justly be considered a , s envious or malignant . And if the truth is not to be spoken , pf the public conduct of such large bodies of Christians , we may , on the same principle ,
stigmatize with the epithet " invidious , " the remarks of oixjr Lord on the public conduct of the PhariseeB ; he may be declared envious and malignant when he told them , that if he did not
exhibit to the people those points in which lie thought they violated the law of Moses and disgraced their desert frou * Abraham , hie should be a , liar
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f Mr . Scott in Reply to Remarks on his Setfoon . 107
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 107, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/43/
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