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    ¦ r Review . —Ben David * s Reply ft Two Deistieal Works , fj&f

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    \} S that Christ , at the impeachment of the leading men , was condemned to the cross ; and that notwithstanding he appeared to his followers after three days

    again alive ; and that these , with other marvellous things concerning him , had b ^ en predicted by the divine prophets : and this is precisely the history of Christ and his religion , as far as we can gather them from the New Testament .

    " But it is said that this testimony of Josephus was not quoted hy any Christian writer before the days of Eusebius in the third century . True : but the more early Greek and Latin fathers had -sufficient reason for not quoting it . Josephus was an apostolic believer ; he received and

    embraced the religion of Jesus in its purity . And he not only excludes the doctrines of his divinity and miraculous birth from the Jiistory which he gives of our Lord , —and by this exclusion he shews them to be foreign to his Gospel , —but in the context he brings to light the

    origin of those doctrines , and brands the base authors of them with infamy to the end of time . Justin Martyr , Origen and others , knew this to be a fact , and they passed over the testimony of the Jewish historian in profound silence , lest in an age when the transactions were fresh in

    the memories of men the secret should transpire , and the very foundations of the orthodox faith be blown up as with gunpowder by the illustrious historian of the Jews . Time , however , removed the events to which Josephus refers from the knowledge of men ; and after three centuries ecclesiastical writers feel

    themselves safe to quote the authority of Josephus . " The objections made agaiust this disputed passage would never have been made , had these things been known : they originated in misconception ; and the real character and views of ^ Josephus

    beirig at length brought to light , they fall like a dead weight to the ground ; and there they will remain , a monument of the temerity and mistaken views of those who urged them . Nor should I omit to mention that the style of the passage is in exact unison with the very peculiar

    style of Josephus ; the same conciseness and comprehension , the same dry and unvarnished detail of facts , distinguish it , which distinguish all his other works . Nor can any suspicion arise against its genuineness , from the want of authentic evidence . The same historical testimony authenticates it which authenticates all

    the works of Josephus , no manuscript , no version , HO copy being ever known to exist without this celebrated paragraph . When men talk of . forging a passage in Josephus ,. ; ' they surely talk without due

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    consideration . A spurious paragraph might have been inserted in those copies which the Christians possessed ; but could they do the same with those in the possession of the Jews ? And what Jew ever possessed the works of Josephus which did not contain tfte testimony he bears to Jesus Christ ?"—Pp , 87—90 .

    The object of Chapters VIL VIII . IX . arid X ., is to shew that the antickristian system was introduced into the several churches established by the Apostle Paul . Some of the principal arguments here introduced have

    been already submitted by the author to the readers of the Monthly Repository , which , renders it unnecessary for us to attempt an abridgment of them * They are besides critical and consecutive , and no epitome scarcely could be rendered intelligible .

    Chap . XI . is designed to shew that the writings of Paul have been and are perverted in support of antichristian doctrines , and is in our judgment a most important and

    valuable part of the work . It contains an examination of passages , in relation to the doctrines of the divine nature of Christ , of justification by faith and not by good works , of the effect of Christ ' s death as an

    atonement for sin , of election and predestination , of original sin and the natural depravity of man , and of the gospel being a mystery incomprehensible by human reason ; all which the author contends the apostle so far from supporting , endeavours to set aside .

    We must content ourselves with one extract : " > of the principal features in the character of God , 1 repeat , is exemption from death or immortality ; and the purest Greek writers often use © £ <> £ ,

    Gody in this sense . Thus Biou . Idyl . I . 53 : K < X * ® £ 0 £ CjUjOU , K 0 H- 8 § Vl / OCfACCl < J £ Sigokbiv , I am a God , and cannot follow thee . It is the language of Venus to Adonis now dead , and means that being immortal she cannot die . See Acts

    xxviii . 6 . Sophocles , QEd . Tyr . 871 » wishing to express that the laws of Jupiter are eternal , says , f * £ ya <; bv raroig ® £ o < , in these there is a great God . It is

    thus that we get at the : real meaning of the following much-disputed passage : * Without controversy great is the inystery of godliness : God was manifest in the flesh . ' 1 Tim . iii . 16 . On tltis pas-

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1824, page 557, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2528/page/45/