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    Rtpty td ^ Dr . Magice . —To the Inquirers after Christian Truth . 493

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    Only , let him permit us on this side of the water , to exercise a little common sense in judging of a report , and to discriminate what is worthy of belief from what appears to be incredible in the works df the same author *

    I must just notice an instance of extreme disingenuousness in the passage cited above , from p . 9-Dr , Magee represents ihe editors of the Improved Version , as maintaining that " the tlbionite wit . nesses ought to be relied upon , in opposition to all the manuscripts , &tid all the versions of the New

    Testament in the whole world . " The learned Professor knew , or tfugfot to have known , ( hat there is no opposition at all in the evidence as stated by the editors * He knew , or ought to have known , tfeat they admitted that the dis .

    pUted chapters were to be found in all existing manuscripts . And fte knew , oro ugh t to have known , that the sole object of the editors , in citing the Ebionites and Marcron , was to show that these

    chapters were wanting in manuscripts which were much older than any now existing ; and that the possessors of these manuscripts main , tained that they were genuine , and and not corrupted copies . Whether the earlier or the later

    manuscripts ar £ most authentic , is quite & different question . r Tbele&Yried Professor applies his nfcw ppincifile , believe all or none , to thi 6 testimony of Marcion . " This Marcron " says he , we find rejected the Old Testament , and every part of the New . which contained

    quotations from the Old ; and that he used no Gospel but thatof Luke , expunging from this also whatever he did not approve . Why , then , toave not these admirers of Mar-

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    cion and the Ebionites , received the testimony of ihese unimpeached witnesses throughout ?" With respect to this Marcion , of whom we know nothing , but from the writings of his opponents , who anathematizing him as a

    heretic , probably misrepresented his meaning , as grossly as ihe Unitarians are now misrepresented by the orthodox ; the editors of the Improved Version only appeal to his testimony for a single fact , viz . that certain manuscripts of Luke existed in his time which

    did not contain the disputed chapters . His enemies accuse him of wilfully corrupting the sacred text , but he denies , the charge ; nor-is it probable , that he would presume to interpolate the only Gospel which he believed authentic * But the Dublin Professor is not

    content unless we believe in the lump . Admit any one thing that Marcion says , though ever so well supported by external or internal evidence , and you must be a Marcionite throughout . Marcion was one of the philosophic Christians who contributed to the corruption

    of the Christian doctrine , by blending it with absurd and mysterious speculations . But he never advanced any thing so absurd and incredible as that three Almighties make but one Almighty ! And yet will any reasonable man say , that Athanasius , the great Athanasius , is not to be believed when he

    bears testimony to a fact , because he maintained a wild opinion ? Gross as were the errors of Atha * nasius in points of speculative doctrine , and had they even been as absurd and contradictory as those of the famous symbol which has been so unjustly imputed to him . I should still have no hesita-

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1813, page 493, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2431/page/5/