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the charge of propagating his doctrine in the world . Spectators first , ministers afterwards . ' Now , here is not only no allusion to the account which immediately follows of transactions at the birth of Christ , hut if words
have meaning , in a writer , for whose distinguished accuracy we may safely appeal to the general tenor of his narratives , in acquainting us with his authorities for a history vvhich certainly required the most incontestable vouchers , it is expressly confined to the facts immediately relating to the public ministration of Jesus ; and if it be inquired what previous or subsequent particulars our author considered as necessarily connected with that
ministration , and within what precise period the testimony to which he makes his appeal was circumscribed , we may again refer to his recitation from Peter : " Beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us . " If it be
necessary farther to confirm this sense of the Evangelist , and to shew that liis history actually was included within that period > we may appeal to the two introductory verses of his " Acts of the Apostles , " in which he states its contents : " The former treatise
have I made , O Theophilus , of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach , until the day in which he teas taken up" I caimot conceive how an author could give a more definite account in general terms of the contents
of his book , and of the sources from whence it was derived , or more clearly mark the period to vvhich it was confined ; nor can I conceive how it can be supposed to have embraced a minute description of events thirty years anterior to the epoch from whence the
testimony ot his witnesses expressly commences , without a plain departure from his avowed object . And as that object was of the most vital importance , requiring that the particulars testified should by no means be confounded with others by no means included in it , it is not in the least
credible , that so accurate and faithful an historian would have been guilty of such a deviation . If , however , he actually had thus represented the testimony of his witnesses as extending to such extraneous matters , or related them in that intimate connexion with Jheir testimony in which we now find
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them , how could he , in a subsequent reference to this history , vvhen writing to the person to whom it was addressed , have again described Jt onlyaSa relation of the " teachings" and " -daings" of Jesus , that is of his ministry ? Let the preface to his Gospel be placed in immediate connexion with the third
chapter , and we are introduced to an appropriate commencement of an accurate and consistent history , formed on the basis of the apostolic testimony , which is not more distinctl y anticipated in that preface , than the whole intervening passage is in all logical fairness excluded by it . With respect to the internal marks of piety and beaevolence apparent in the sentiments of this passage , will it be maintained that thev are of a
character equally chaste , rational and exalted as those which are so uniformly manifested in the subsequent narratives ? That a recent convert to Christianity , probably in the very age of the apostles , should be considerably under the influence of Christian
principles , even amid his attempts , by means of fiction , to render them more palatable to the converts in general , is not more than might reasonably he expected . But can it be said to preserve consistency in its representations , either with itself , with the
nature and progress of the Christian character , as represented by Christ and his apostles , and indeed with the gradual and progressive nature of the human mind in general , or with the actual fate of the Jewish people ? Is it agreeable to the manner in which the mind is formed , and makes its
attainments under the influence of religious and moral principles , that the Holy Spirit should be represented as infusing its influences , even in their plenitude , before the mind can have
any capacity of receiving it ? What analogy is there between the tale of the babe " tilled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother ' s womb , " and the modest account of the Evangelist ,
that " the word of God came to John , the son of Zaceharias , in the wilderness" ? Understanding by the " Holy Spirit" those miraculous gifts and influences which , when used on siniilar occasions , it appears , uniforroly to include in its meaning * in the undisputed portion of the Nevy Testament , it doe * not appear ever to have been wani-
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340 On the Passages ascribed to Matthew and Luke .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1826, page 340, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2549/page/24/
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