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Untitled Article
though he was civil and kind to such characters it does not . ap *; pear that he was intimate with them . According to Matihevsf and Mark this tribute of respect was paid Jesus not long before his last sufferings , but neither of these Evangelists has
mentioned that the woman was a sinner . In what her sin had con- ^ listed cannot now be known , yet it does not seem wholly improbable , that as the Greeks and Romans , vain of- their science or of their prowess , called all other nations barbarians , so bigots ; among the Jews arrogantly presuming on their better acquaint ^
ance with religion , might call those sinners who were not sq well informed , or who were of heathen origin . However this may be , John has recorded that it was Mary the sister of Laza- *
rus , not Mary Magdalene , yet certainly a good character , who anointed the feet of Jesus . This is not merely a nice point of scriptural criticism ; for the groundless supposition , that
afterhaving been a licentious character Mary Magdalene became a
penitent and was received into peculiar favour with Jesus Christ , is not only an act of injustice to her memory , but hath encouraged others to hope that even after lives of profligacy and pollution they can easily wash away the stains of their guilt * Penitence or sorrow may do much good , but repentance , or a
change of mind for the better , must necessarily be a work of
time , "and vet cannot efface the remembrance of sin * There is tfeen every reason to conclude that Mary Magdalene was a most excellent character , who on that account , and because she had been so kind , generous , attentive , and faithful to Jesus Christ to his very last hour on the cross , was permitted first to behold
him on the morning of the resurrection , when she came with other women to render complete the honour which oseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had begun to do to his memory , and which on the evening before the Sabbath they had not been able to finish . When , however , she looked into the tomb , the heavenly messengers whom she saw there , like courteous strangers , might in some degree prepare her for the surprise which she was likely to feel when she was acquainted with the resurrection of Jesus Christ . But not finding his body , she fancied perhaps that some one had anticipated her in paying the last sad offices to her instructor and friend . She would be disposed to weep still more bitterly , by the fear that Christ ' s body
niiirht have been conveyed away by his enemies and exposed to cruelty and insult . Blinded by her tears , or overwhelmed by her sorrow , she knew not Jesus , Who was behind her ; she took him for the keeper of the garden , / and asked him for the body of her friend . But no sooner did he address her in his well-kpowja voice than . she recognised him , &nd was probably going to embrace hb ; Jesus checked her by sayings u Touch me not .
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S 6 Cappe r s Discozirses .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1806, page 96, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1721/page/40/
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