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    of Ihv W . «* To this end was I born , and for this cause came I into the * world * that I should bear witness to the truth * " " I am the way , the ' truth and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me . " " The words which I speak , they are spirit , and they are K& * " " I am the light of the world ; he that folioweth me shall not walk in darkness , but shall have the light of life ** ** God , who at sundry tinges and in divers manners , spake in

    times past unto the fathers by the prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Sfon , " who is " " the author and finisher of our faith . " ** Christ , the power of God and the wisdom of God . " ' * I must preach the kingdom of God , for therefore am I sent . " " All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you . " " Lord , to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life . " " The word that I have spoken , the same shall indge him in the last day . " But , says Div Whateiy , " the Gospels do not

    contain an account of the Christian religion , but chiefly memoirs of the life of its Founder . " Nowhere we have another gratuitous assumption . Where did Dr- » W . learn that the Gospels do not contain an account of the Christian religion ? This we have shewn , that they contain the things believed among Christians—those we should think constitute no mean part of the Christian verity—they contain also the doctrines essential to salvation—and more than this we need not seek . Let us , however , bear the account which Dr . W . gives of their contents— < c they are memoirs of the life of its Founder . " The founder

    of what ? Of Christianity . Is not that biographer miserably deficient in his duty who does not , in the detail of the events of his hero ' s life , state distinctly and fully that for which the subject of his narrative was distinguished ? The evangelists could not well give a history of Christ without also giving a statement of Christianity . And the fact is—^ a fact 'Which even "ignorant Christians" ate awate ofr—that the books called the Gospels are filled , not with the events of the life of Jesus , so much as with his preachings and doctrines and wonderful works ; in other words , with a detail of the Christian religion .

    In estimating the amount of instruction conveyed in the Gospels , we should always bear in mind that they were written long after the completion of the work which his Father had given Jesus to do ; long after his death and resurrection , the day of Pentecost , the conversion of Paul , and the opening of the kingdom to the , Gentiles ; and consequently , however imperfectly the waiters may have originally understood the mission and object of their Master , they had now , from comparing events with predictions , and receiving

    the illuminations of the Spirit , learnt the full nature and end of the Gospel of Christ . In the Gospels we may * therefore , find the compositions of men whose minds were thoroiighly imbued with the whole Christian system , and who could not fail to set before their readers , either in express statement or by implication , what was associated and blended with all their mental and moral feelings . Even unconsciously , they would be led , white wrhfhg . of Christ , to speak of Christianity , and to set forth its chief features ^ Their narra ti ve

    would take its colour not so much from the days \ of their ignorance as from their actual state of perfect knowledge , and accordingly we find in the Gospels many exegetical statements which could have been given only after the fulfilment of prophecy and the completion of the system . Bat it is not to these that we refer so much as to the general tenor of mind which the writera must have derived from a perfect knowledge of Christianity . This tenor of mind would be transfused into their compositions ^ except it be thought that they would forget what they had fully leamt and gladly received —rthen , and then only , when a full knowledge was most desirable , viz ., when writing for the instraction and edification of others . But Luke repre-

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    538 WhateUfs Essays on the Writings of Si . Pduti ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 538, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/18/