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    ( Continued from p . 600 . ) [ We regret being obliged to mutilate this critique by the omission of two dissertations , the one on the supposed testimony of the book of Acts to the worship of the Saviour by the first Christians , and the other on the

    use of the Greek Article . The whole series will , however , appear , early in next year , as a separate publication , when we intend , by extracting those passages , to put our subscribers in possession of the entire argument of the writer . Ed . ] The fourth part of Dr . Smith ' s work , to which we now proceed , is

    devoted to the consideration of " the doctrine taught by the Apostles in their inspired ministry , concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ . " The subjects of the four chapters are , the book of Acts ; the testimony of the Apostle John ; the testimonies of the Apostles Peter , Jude , and James ; and the testimony of the Apostle Paul . The anxiety shewn by Dr . S ., lest the book of Acts should be expected by the reader to contain a body of Christian doctrine , appears to us a strong extorted testimony to the impossibility of finding , in this important portion of Scripture , any thing like a satisfactory expression of his favourite sentiments , though he does not fail afterwards to adduce passages which he seems to regard as affording countenance to them .

    " The annunciation of his design , which Luke gives in the preface to his Gospel , seems very justly to comprehend both parts of his work : and if this be admitted , it will supply us with a sufficient reason why the book called the Acts was drawn up in its particular manner and order ; and it will prevent our disappointment at not meeting with those statements in either history of doctrine , which an incorrect estimate of its intention might lead us to expect . Whoever Theophilus , to whom the two books are inscribed , was , it is plain that the writer ' s design was , not to make him acquainted with the fundamental truths of Christianity , for in them he had been already instructed ; but to furnish him with a selection of facts relative to the actions , discourses , and sufferings of the Lord Jesus , and the diffusion of his religion in some particular places , and by some particular persons . Those places

    and persons , it is highly probable , had some connexion with Theophilus more than other places or persons would have had : and thus some specialty of circumstances was the principle which guided the selection / ' * ' As we are not to regard the book of Acts in the light of a regular history , so this view of its design will prevent our expecting from it a body of Christian doctrine . It supposes the reader to be x like Theophilus , already ac ~ quainted with the great principles of that doctrine , and it is therefore occupied in giving him the facts which formed the basis of evidence for those principles , or which were examples of their diffusion and influence among men . "—Script . Test . Vol . III . p . 6 .

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    £ > R . J . P . SMITH ' S SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY TO THE MESSIAH .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 812, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/16/