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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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pr # tei * # d . £ fe *! uttft r ^> j ^^ cl -tbin gac ^ f wfei € fe tfes $ cJMl -lArtUn ^ eirtfjwis ^^ e ^ i This pretension Luke verbally sets aside as a falsehood , by saying that the transactions of Jesus bad been
accomplished not among them * but af ^ ongiU 8 % meaning , by us , the people of Judea , in the nridst of whom our Lord fulfilled his ministry , and of wl * om Luke makes himself one . Thus
avTOKTai , eye-witnesses , marks the apostles , who in their discourses gave a faithful narrative of Jesus to their countrymen , when preaching the gospel , in opposition to the pseudo-evangelists who pretended to have been eye ^ vitnesses of him in Egypt .
When Luke asserts that the things which he relates respecting Christ were accomplished in the midst of us , he intimates , and that not obscurely , that he himself was-one of those who
had witnessed them ; and this he positively asserts in the clause that follows : "It seemed gopd ^ tp me als o to wri te , as having from the very first scrupulously investigated every particular . " Sfl $ 7 tb $ ^ Sife ^ a ^ tc ^ im means , to
tf *^ f ?* f !* rfftp 4 $$ * $ W $ elyto follow y so a ^ to ^ pect Aud examiue what is cari ^ e ^ jq % , tiSf ^ i itji mplies that he was ^ in the number of those who accompanied their IJivMi ^ Master during the
performance of the things related of him . It is observable , that it is not the present or future participle that is here used , as if the author meant that he was about , when going to write , to follow the train of events which had
been delivered to him by eye-witnesses ; but the past participle , thus intimating that he had already accompanied the particulars which he was going to record ; and his reason for the determination was the ;
circumstance that he had so accompanied them ^ lu ring their accomplishment . Thus Luke sets forth his competence as an historian with unexampled force and precision . He had from the very first attended , the facts and
sayings iphich he records , and investigated their nature and truth with scrupulous accuracy- He had heard the same focte jrel ^ ed to the Jewish people by p t * her persons , who , us well as
himself , had been eye-witnesses , and officially cUuseii . to attend the , ministry of Je& » £ ; so tha&he corroborates his own testimony by a virtual appeal to the testimpny of the apostles and the
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whole body of the Jewish believers . And if we makei tbr ^ appeal to his Gospel , we there meet witli many proofs that he wrote not what had beea related to him-by others , 3 | iit what he had himself seen and heard
from the lips of Christ . T ? fte as&ertlon , therefore , made by the author of tfe New ^ Trl ^ iofe iflife Witnesses , trbat Luke i& oot to be bftlieTed ; because he vy ^ B not b » ' ^ 0 ofeiBpHnq' * & what he wrote , fei b * lik ^ a dead weight , totKe ground * ' -r ; ,. ^ An H- ^ htj : 5 i ^ -r Pauli id preaebjrir the gospel , must
have had frequent occasion to refer " to the sayings and miracles of Jesus ; and it was of high importance to be accompanied in his travels by one who had attended his ministry , and could furnish
the necessary information on the best possible authority—his own personal knowledge . This yseems to have beeii the reason which Jed the Apostle to select Luke as the companion of his labours . Soon after our Lord ' s
resurrection , many erroneous accounts of him appear to have been in circulation ; and this rendered it expedient that Luke , as soon as possible , should compose his Gospel , aiid leave a copy of it , as the best security against
impostureand misrepresentations ^ n every church founded by hhri and his iMus * trious Principal . Now « , what we might thus expect or infer , is fully verified by the following passage - of Paul : " We have sent with hiin < our ' brother ,
whose praise , by means of his Gospel , is throughout all the churches . ^ 2 Cor- viii . 18 . This brother means Luke , whom , in the next verse , * he calls his fellow-traveller : and if in all
the churches he was praised on account of his Gospel , he must have left a co ^ y of that Gospel ( thbugh yettprobably not published t 6 ^ the w 6 rld at large ) with each . This , in return , endeared him to the several Christian
societies which he had hblped iu forming . They regarded the work given them as a treasure of high valtie , and they unanimously praised the author ; thus indirectly bearing their tefclhnony to his accuracy , fidelity and truth , as the historian of Jesus Christ . This is
a most important fact ; and it is surprising that it should have been overlooked by learned men . We learn from it that the Gospel of Luke was extant— ' -was deposited in ail the churches , within twenty years after
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Dr . J . Jones in Proof of St . Luke being a Companion of our Lord . 587
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1825, page 587, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2541/page/11/
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