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Observe , the question is not , wilt thou not cease to oppose /* but " cease to pervert" the way of the Lord . It seems , then , that the gospel was at that time , and seemingly had been before this , an instrument in his hand to gratify his sinister purposes . It is under this character that Paul ad *
dresses him as ' * the enemy of all righteousness , * ' intimating that he was really the enemy , and not , as he pretended , the friend and teacher of the gospel . Bar-Jesus means the son of Jesus : and the impostor seems to nave thus interpreted his own name , to shew
that , in a peculiar manner , he possessed the power and favour of Christ . And it is to this interpretation that the apostle alludes , when he says , " O thou full of all subtilty and all mischief , thou son of the devil , " that is , " son of the devil , and not as thou pretendest , the son of Jesus . "
The blindness here inflicted on the impostor was not vindictive . The object of it was to reform him , and at the same time to warn others against his pretensions to superior wisdom , by making his loss of sight a symbol of his mental blindness . He was
insensible to the light of the sun only " for a season . " This implies that the chastisement ended in the reformation of the offender ; and Origen has recorded the pleasing fact , that Bar-Jesus in consequence became a good man , and a faithful member of the Christian
church . If this statement be just , the case of J 3 ar-Jesus is as different from that of modern sceptics , as imposture is from mere ignorance . As an impostor guilty of fraud and falsehood he deserved exposure and punishment . And the example of Paul , in visiting
him with severity , is no more a precedent to the civil magistrate for punishing unbelievers , than it would be for me to prosecute , as a swindler , a man who merely differs from me in opinion .
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in my opinion , of such importance , that I cannot help earnestly wishing that all sects and parties would judge of the truth and value of their opinions by this test : —Do they tend to make me more like my Goa and my Saviour ? Do they enable me to perform
the various duties I owe to society in such a manner as habitually to prepare rne for an exchange of worlds whenever my God shall call me ? I have that charity for almost all , if not for all denominations of Christians , as to hope that they have so much genuine Christianity in their respective systems ,
as , were it practicall y attended to , would make the majority much better Christians than the general course of their lives proclaims them to be . I should not , therefore , have troubled you , Mr . JJditor , on this occasion , had it not been for the danger I apprehend to the cause of truth , and to that
disposition indispensably necessary to be preserved in the examination of revealed truth , arising from the fancies and the dogmas of learned men when criticising the Sacred Writings , and which , if great care is not taken , may tend to injure the minds of young persons
more particularly , leading them to scepticism , if not to infidelity . Two or three of those fancies and dogmas displayed in the Strictures of Dr . J Tones on the Introductory Chapters of Matthew and Luke * inserted in your last number , [ pp . 82 , 83 , ] I beg leave
to notice . How often must the serious reader have with pain remarked the love of hypothesis discovering itself in theological controvertists , who , instead of
examining with impartiality the credibility of the sacred writers , first lay down their own preconceived opinions as the test of that credibility ! This sad mistake appears to me to be the characteristic of the " Strictures . "
The writer , it is evident , has an aversion to the account given of the birth of Christ by Matthew and Luke , and therefore draws his inferences from his own hypothesis as confidently as if he were inspired . " The peculiar object /' he remarks . of the miraculous birth
ascribed to Jesus , to prove his divine nature , 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
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208 Mr . B . Flower on Dr . % / . Jones ' s Hypothesis .
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Dais ton , Sir , ^ March 10 , 1821 . ALTHOUGH I have occasionally troubled your readers on different subjects , I have very seldom even glanced at the peculiarities of any of the various systems which divide the Christian world . The experimental and practical parts of Christianity are ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1821, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2499/page/16/
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