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a most happy barrier to stop the mnodatton- of Socinianlsm . ( Stirring up all his brethren to contest for that faith and to rivet it into the understanding of the people on all
occasions , ) as in service for them , whose opinions ( making nothing of Scripture but of Reason ) border upon Deism and tend unto Atheism . . . Pool on John xvii . 8 , saith
that the belief there was not of the Eternity or Godhead of Christ meant , hut of his being tbe Messiah only , and that ch . xx . 28 , is the first time that in the Gospel the name God is given to Christ . Rorn . i . 4 , and the evangelists use not the same words in other their reports .
[ This letter has no other date than June 8 th . It could not have been written during his confinement , since he speaks of going abroad on the Lord ' s-day . I suppose it was written after his release , during his residence in London in 1706 . I do not
well understand the post-mark of that day , but the charge appears to have been two-pence , and that of each of the other letters 8 d . The direction is also different , being without the p . London . H . R . B . ]
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On the Passages ascribed to Matthew and Luke ; Matt . i . 18 to ii . 23 , and Luke i . 5 to ii . 52 . Letter II . Sir ,
fl ^ HE inconsistency of the above JSL passages with the ensuing narratives , Is no less a proof that they were not written by the same authors , than that the particulars they relate did not actually transpire . Matthew as an Apostle must have written for
the purpose of recording his testimony ; but that testimony , as has been shewn with regard to the apostles iu general , commenced from the preaching of John the Baptist , nor is there any reason to imagine that the
testimony of this Evangelist , as founded on his personal observation , could have an earlier commencement than that or . the other apostles . Previous to the call he received from Jesus to
become his follower , he was engaged ll \ an employment little congenial w Hh that to which he now became destined ; an employment whi < tk .-probably engrossed most of bis attention ,
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and afforded him few opportunities of acquainting himself with the history of Jesus . If it be admitted that Matthew actually began his narrative from tbe period assigned by the early Hebrew Christians both to that and to
the miraculous part of our Lord ' s life , his undertaking * will entirely accord with his office and qualifications as an Apostle ; it being evident that he would not have been called by Jesus to so distinguished an office , nor have yielded that read y obedience
to the call—changing * an employment by which lucre might be obtained , but perhaps not without the sacrifice of patriotism and virtue , for pursuits of an opposite description—if some important revolution had not been newly effected in his mind by a
knowledge of the recent facts of our Lord ' s ministry and that of his precursor . Now when an apostle expressly chosen for the purpose of witnessing the ministry , death , and resurrection of Jesus , and of afterwards devoting his life to the publication of the facts and
discourses which he had personally witnessed , commits that testimony to writing , he acts strictly in character , and faithfully discharges the trust reposed in him . Such a history is just what might be reasonably expected
from such a person under particular circumstances . But that the person so qualified and so commissioned in consequence of his qualifications , should relate a variety of extraordinary facts and conversations of which he
had no personal knowledge whatever , in such close connexion with those which appertained to his testimony as to leave the reader every reason to conclude that he meant the whole to be regarded in the very same light , and intended the particulars which he had not witnessed to be as confidently
received on his authority as those of which he was the divinely-appointed witness , appears the reverse of what might reasonably be expected . What vastly increases the improbability of this conclusion is , that the particulars which he is represented as thus ,
without apology or intimation of any such design , mixing up with his personal testimony are so inconsistent with it , so unknown and estranged from those who should have been acquainted with and enlightened by them , that it seems quite impossible they could ever have
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On th 4 Passages ascribed to Matthew and Luke , 337
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1826, page 337, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2549/page/21/
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