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    searches into the testimony of the Fathers to the text of the Heavenly Witnesses , &c . &c , one is inclined to assent to his propositions ; but , on reflection , the texture of his argument proves too subtile and complicate to retain the lasting- acquiescence of the mind in his ingenious hypothesis . Thus it fared with a reader of Plato ' s

    dialogue on the immortality of the soul When Hector lay prostrate in the dust , every Grecian warrior rushed forward to thurst his spear at the Trojan hero . Porson concludes his examination of this topic with the following decisive observations : — "In short , if this verse be really genuine , notwithstanding its absence from all

    the visible Greek MSS . except two ; one of which , awkwardly translates the verse from the Latin , and the other transcribes it from a printed book ;

    notwithstanding its absence from all the versions , except the Vulgate , and even from many of the best and oldest MSS . of the Vulgate ; notwithstanding the deep and dead silence of all the Greek writers down to the

    thirteenth , and most of the Latins down to the middle of the eighth century ; if , in spite of all these objections , it be still genuine , no part of Scripture whatsoever can be proved either spurious or genuine ; and Satan has been

    permitted , for many centuries , miraculously to banish the finest passage in the New Testament from the eyes and memories of almost all the Christian authors , translators and transcribers . " Vain are the subtilties of

    sophistry , and even the surmises of probability in comparison with the " positive facts of this historical deduction . " Geram tibi morem , et ea , quae vis , ut potero , explicabo : nee tamen quasi Pythius Apollo , certa ut sint et fixa quae dixero : sed ut homunculus unua e multis , probabilia

    j-onjectura sequens . Tusc . Quaest . i . Finally , to revert to the beginning of John ' Gospel , the Evangelist is not chargeable with the indulgence of s uch an extravagant hyperbole as to announce the metamorphosis of a

    speech into a living agent , the speaker ; or to insinuate that the Logos was transformed from im attribute into the being of the immutable Jehovah ; ^ uile in reality his principal design Nv to introduce the new dispensation ,

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    in its native * dignity , as the offspring of heaven , " endued with the sanctity of reason ; " and the oracle of eternal truth , pronounced with divine authority by the Son of God , WILLIAM EVANS ,

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    On Unbelievers joining Unitarian Congregations * 409

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    Todmorden , Sir , July 10 , 182 C . WRITER in the last Number A of the Monthly Repository signing himself J . G ., ( pp . 341 , 342 , )

    has assumed a position to me quite unexpected , and I think untenable . If ( as he says ) I am mistaken in my premises and wrong in my conclusions , my error is very perfect and

    complete . I have asserted that " If there be two things in nature utterly incompatible with each other , they are the genuine spirit of Christianity and the spirit of Infidelity ; between the man who receives the word of

    revelation and him who rejects it * there can exist no religious sympathy . Our blessed Master and his disciples drew the line of separation between them in the strongest manner / ' No , replies J . G ., they did

    not do any such thing , they could not , for there were no such people then in existence as the present class of Unbelievers—I mean conscientious , inquiring Unbelievers . Now it is to me wholly incomprehensible how he became acquainted with this circumstance , whence he obtained his

    information that there were no inquiring , conscientious Unbelievers in the time of Jesus and the apostles . I am strongly inclined to be of the contrary opinion . We read of some who said , in the time of our Lord ' s personal

    ministry , " He is a good man . " The hearers of Paul at Athens brought him unto Areopagus , that he might have a fair and public hearing . Agrippa confessed , " Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian / ' What

    are the indications of character here given ? I cannot imagine that these persons were less anxious or less conscientious in their inquiries than those gentlemen in our enlightened times , who , not satisfied with the credit of superior sagacity , wish to arrogate to themselves likewise all the sincerity and honesty of their party .

    * Vide Lowth ' s Isaiah lv . 10 , 11 .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1826, page 409, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2550/page/29/