On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
The book of Acts can certainly pretend to no more than being a faithful narrative of some interesting and important particulars respecting the first
preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles and their companions after their Lord ' s resurrection . Our author ' s conjecture , as to the principle on which the facts were selected , appears to us arbitrary and fanciful , but it is not material to the argument whether it be true or false . Whether chosen from amongst others , on account of some peculiar power they possessed , from incidental associations , of interesting Theophilus individually , or , as seems far more probable , on account of their intrinsic value , and their suitableness for convincing men ' s minds , and giving them just views of the religion of Christ , it seems abundantly certain that the facts and discourses
recorded by the Evangelist must be sufficient means of making known to any body the fundamental truths of Christianity . It is true , Theophilus had already acquired some knowledge of the Gospel from other sources , but the purpose of the Evangelist was to confirm and establish him in the truth , and to give him a record on which he might rely of authoritative instructions and remarkable facts , containing the principles and the evidence of the religion he had received . No book of Scripture contains any thing which can be called " a body of Christian doctrine . "
Our divine religion has been , by the wisdom of God , conveyed to us historically : we are to collect its principles and their influences from the study of the discourses and actions of our Lord and his chosen followers . But that there should be a single narrative of any considerable portion of the public ministry of Christ himself , or of his apostles , which should not exhibit the leading and essential truths of his religion , seems altogether
incredible and almost inconceivable . All the evangelists wrote their histories for the immediate information of those who had already been convinced of the truth of Christianity and instructed in its doctrines , but it was necessary to give them an authentic record , and it is not to be for a moment supposed that what were esteemed sufficient , though very imperfect , memoirs of the words and actions of Christ , could leave untouched any
peculiar and characteristic doctrines of his religion . The same reasoning applies to the book of Acts . It contains only specimens of apostolic instruction , but they are fair and sufficient specimens , and we must expect them to put us in possession of the substance of Christian teaching : not to re-state all which was adopted from Judaism , and assumed , as known by Christian preachers , but to give us the peculiarities of the gospel , and to
explain the opinions of its promulgators on those points which , from their novelty , their extensive influence , or the prevalence of erroneous views , they deemed it most important to press upon the attention of their hearers . Are the doctrines respecting the person and work of Christ , which now assume the name of orthodoxy , to be classed in this number ? If they are , let the plain fact that they are not made the subjects of instruction in any part of the book of Acts be accounted for ; if they are not , then , even
Untitled Article
Dr . */ . P . Smith ' s Scripture Testimony to the Messiah . 813
Untitled Article
VOL , V . ON
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 813, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/17/
-