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are mot ¦ entitle * to * credit ; and that from these , two Gospels have been derived and defended , some of the worst and most corrupt doctrines of the orthodox church .
la the first place , there is no satisfactory proof that they were written by Matthew and John , but strong internal evidence that they were not written by those two early disciples of our Lord . If Matthew ever wrote any Gospel , the only testimony we have of it is from
Papias ; but this Gospel he tells us was written in Hebrew about eight years after the death of Jesus . There is no account of any person who ever saw this book : and , notwithstanding the
fanciful hypothesis of Dr . Marsh , now Bishop of Peterborough , ( though not his own , ) that " from this original Gospel all the others were copied /' it is the opinion of Lardrier and other eminent scholars and critics , that the
book we now have is no translation , but was written originally in Greek about 25 years later , by whom , I beiieve , nobody knows . Besides the maii ^ fictions and fables contained in both these books , some of tihe grossest
and most corrupt doctrines * by which the pure religion of Jesus has been , so defiled and disgraced , have been founded on passages , in them , and those books are constantly referred to
in proof of them . Matthew begins with a string of fables and fictions ; the astrologer and the star , the murder of the infants , and the miraculous conception , from which has proceeded the idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary . ( Of this fable , however , the author ,
whoever he was , has not even the merit of the invention , for the same story was propagated by the philosophers at Athens on the birth of Plato * 400 years before . ) On this book exclusively , I believe , is founded the blasphemous doctrine of eternal
torments , one of the greatest Kbels that ever was published against the benevo lent character of God , by the folly or wickedness of < caan . Upon the form of baptism , said to be commanded by
our Lord in the last chapter , Xa form which , as it appears , the apostles never wade use of , ) i * founded the uniateU iigible andi inexplicable doctrine of the Trinity *
There is no satisfactory , external evidence that the totter Gospel was written by John the Apoetie , but ateong
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internal pcoof to the . € fmftraj $ * Who ; , ever the writer was * it appears probaWe that he was a Greek , £ Onv < erted to Christianity ,, and previously well versed in the Platonic philosophy of that time : the whole style of the botok ,, but particularly the introduction ; , plainly discovers that it « o « ld not be writtea
by John , the aon of Zebedee , the Galilean fisherman . The beginning of this book is in such metaphysical and undefined language , that from it the orthodox undertake to prove suad defend the doctrine of the Trinity ;
Unitarians , though not agreeing aancwagst themselves about the meaning of it , defend the doctrine of the Divine * UfitUy ; and the Arians , with much greater plausibility , establish tli ^ e fo undation of their own peculiar hypothesis . Op this book alone the Church of Rome has
established the monstrous doetriae of transubstantiation , and the Church of England the kindred : doctrine of consubstantiation . Upoa the pretended dialogue between , our Lord and Niqodemus , has been founded the mysterious rite of baptism of the orthodox
church ; and our own church , in its form of baptism * declares , " that our Saviour Christ saith , none can enter into the kingdom of God , except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost . " Now oui ?
Saviour Christ realty says , ao such thing ; but , on the contrary , offers to mankind very different terms for obtaining eternal life , Luke x . 25—29 . Some of the jaairacles in this book are of the most fabulous and marvellous kimL
The resurrection of Lazarus , if true * was a miracle the most distinguished of any that Jesus wrought , ajvi could scarcely have failed of being noticed by Luke ; but it is not j ^ oticed by any other writer in the New Testament *
3 jk 1 from the circumstances , both , previous and subsequent , is improbable 1 a a very high degree * . The standing miracle of the Pool ot Bethesda in &o public a past of the city of Jerwalew , fc certainly a mo $% improbable fiction , Jejrusalerra wa *
thea wade * the Roman gwrn «^ t # and yet a *> Hoj&an hfcttjxrian $ ver msiv two * it , » or doss it appear tkot a » y Jew ever hoard of it- $ Ht & **• WRtofc whoev ^ v h 0 was * 4 $ tm&im < l to > a ^ tonud us with etiW « re # tw w « ft 4 er ^» < wlw ^ I am iiiQflimhfc of dt > ing ju ^ tu ^ t » w&hflKtf jpvtoglw < wwtt w « 4 » ji toUs w *
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jfti&Hpt to dhstmg : ui * fc between Genuine andSpurioup C / tristianiti / . 522
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1820, page 527, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2492/page/27/
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