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called that of the dtetnoniacs , employed in the endeavour to remove the supernatural character from what , in their
eyes , was no more than a natural appearance . " This is true : by means of a sound and legitimate interpretation , they have evinced that " the case called that of the demoniacs was a
case of insanity under various modifications . " But these justly celebrated scholars and divines admitted with the utmost distinctness that Jesus Christ performed miracles * in curing those unhappy persons . There is a wide difference between historic facts and
verbal and physiological investigations . Our author looks upon the dissensions and consequent mischiefs which have existed among persons professing Christianity , as originating in the words , not of Jesus , but " of Paul , and of Paul alone . " That Mr . G—h
S —// should hazard this statement , is astonishing . Surely he knows that passages even of the Sermon on the Mount have been the subjects of theological discussion , of opposing interpretations . And did he never read the first , the sixth and the seventeenth
chapters of the Gospel by John , to pass in silence at present many other portions of the evangelical history ? Beyond doubt , more words of Paul than of Jesus have given rise to dissensions . The fact is readily explained by the nature of epistolary
compositions , by the education and circumstances of the apostle , by the topics of which he treats , and by the state of the church at the period when he wrote . In his letters , many and great difficulties occur : yet most , if not all , may be removed by the application of
fair and candid and judicious criticism . Were the assertion that they are the words " of Paul , and of Paul alone , " which have produced dissensions among Christians , less exaggerated than it is ,
we should , notwithstanding , resist the principle of this gentleman's argument . In ascertaining what are and what are not the Scriptures of the New Covenant , our fancies and our prepossessions , our ease , our hopes and our
* Semler , too , Comment , de Demoniac . &c ., ( ed , 4 , ) p . 96 , observes , " Negari non potest , Jesum fecisse miraculum , licet ejus objectum non credatur fuisse daemon , " &c .
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fears , ought in no degree to be con suited . Writers of one class imagine that the historical memoirs ascribed respectively to Matthew , Mark and John have produced dissensions among Christians , and occasioned a corrup . tion of our Saviour ' s doctrine : and
we are told that we must therefore reject these gospels . A most illustrious man denounced the Epistle of James , because he conceived it to militate against the tenet of justification by faith : and now we are called upon to part with the history and the
letters * of Paul , on account of Mr . G—l S—h's perceiving that they have given rise to many a volume of tedious and bitter controversy . Where is this rage for blotting out from the canon of Scripture what we do not like or do not understand , to stop ? How long are the maxims of true criticism to be
defied ? If the author of " Not Paul , but Jesus , " be permitted to question the genuineness or the authority of this apostle's writings on the ground which has been described , surely , in turn , it may be allowed us to say that we cannot lightly surrender epistles containing so many weighty and cogent
reasonings , and such charming devotional and moral lessons ; exhibiting-, too , such delightful and interesting features of a most accomplished character , as well as attesting the claims of the gospel , defining its purity and illustrating its spirit . And we presume that Truth would be on our side
did we declare thus much . But we waive at present these considerations , The point at issue between Mr . G—I S—h and ourselves , must be determined by appropriate evidence ; fi ^ t
by the voice of history , and afterwards by a critical examination of the writings impugned , yet not either by his antipathies or by our attachments . We have made all the remarks that
we judged essential on his Introduction : his summary of the Plan of his Work , next demands our notice . He proposes to divide this work into five parts . The first is to occupy two chapters , and will bring together the five accounts of Paul's conversion ^
* As the letters of an apostle of Jesus Christ . t " Acts ix . 1—18 ; Acts xxii . 3- ~ l <> J Acts xxvi . 9—20 : Gal , if 11—17 ; 1 Cor ,
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232 Review . — " Not Paul , but Jesus . "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1821, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2499/page/40/
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