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    from which it appears thai Mr . Mitford did not hope entirely to escape censure on account of the freedom of the foregoing strictures * He acknow ^ ledger with p leasing simplicity of manner his obligations to his friend for putting into his hands Dr . Mead ' s Medica Sacra : € S Among laymen , then , who have so deserved well , I cannot but reckon

    that eminent physician , and scholar , and Christian philosopher , Mead ; and I feel especial obligation to you : for having made me acquainted with that little publication which , in my mind , gives him complete claim . to the latter title , ms Medica Sacra . It is highly relieving and encouraging to me to find that , on a subject so hazardous as that of the human disorder , so frequently described by phrases implying possession by unclean spirits , his authority , high certainly , if high reputation for medical science might make it so , was ,

    unknown to me , prepared for my support . So warranted in my previous belief , that all those symptoms , mentioned by the Evangelists , of persons called possessed , are ordinary symptoms of human disorders , I remain quite satisfied with having dilated on the subject , beyond what was within the able and worthy physician ' s purpose . "—Part ii . pp . 5 , 6 . It is well known that Mead , who wrote in Latin , professedly for the use of proficients in either theology or medicine , deprecated the publication of any

    translation of his work . A regard to the religion of the common people was the alleged plea of the learned and pious physician for this prohibition : the very same religious benevolence , Mr . Mitford reasons , ( ii . 6—TO , } justifies him in pursuing , in a different state of things , the opposite course . Infidelity has crept in amongst the common people , and no effort should be spared to shew them that the narratives of the gospels are credible and their doctrine agreeable to common sense .

    His friend had warned Mr . Mitford of the wasp's nest roused by Mead , but in vain : he proceeds , in spite of the foreseen buzzing and sting of bigots , to disclose freely his inmost thoughts upon a review of the books of Scripture . One avowal of doubt and difficulty may alarm some of our readers and even contributors . Mr . Belsham little expected , we will venture to say ,

    when he was penning his objections to the introduction to the Gospel of Matthew , that he should be hereafter supported in his theory by the Historian of Greece * the brother of the noble Lord that has been as a right han « J to the present orthodox Lord Chancellor . Having remarked that the New Testament * taking the history and the doctrine combined , bears within

    itself evidence of the impossibility of its having been altogether the invention of man , he adds this exceptive passage :

    " But asserting this of the history and doctrine altogether , I deem it right to avow that , for one passage in St . Matthew ' s Gospel , as that Gospel lias been transmitted to us , a passage merely historical , though not proposing to controvert it , I cannot assert so much ; I mean the account of the flight into Egypt , and the slaughter of infants in Galilee . I understand this account h

    found in all the oldest known manuscripts of St . Matthew ' s Gospel , and thence is intitled to great consideration from Christian churches , ana , perhaps , all that it has ^ obtained . But as it had a $ brded more opportunity for the oppo * nents of Christianity ^ and more difficulty for its defenders , than perhap s any other , I have thought it altogether unbecoming wholly to avoid declaring what

    had 66 cured to me on the subject . It will We been observed by all who read the New Testament , that not a syllable relating to it is found in any one of the other threfe Gospels j ev&i St . Luke's , who is largest on the early part of our Saviour ' s life , and professes to have had information of all from the beginning . Thfc narrative , thtjn , it may farther deserve observation , not only affects not in the le « st the history given by the other Evangelists ,, tan , if oiaitted evettffl tlw

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    362 Remeu ) . —~ M \ t' ' fQrd s Observations on Christianity .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/50/