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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.
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36 Dr ^ John Jones aft his Proptokibn thdt th * £ > tem&y of € * rfc * was
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them , being detetmlned to prfeffehre t )* eir pnmieges . as Jew » iitrioiate * refiiBed to beeoaae soldiej * s andrweife put
to death . And thus far the wiek « di * ess of four men , the Jews were driven from the city / ' Antiq . Jud . lib . xviii . cap . 3 , 6 ,
. Now , if we compare the narratives of TertuJHan > Philo and Josephus , the whole affair will become plain , consistent and credible . The Jewish believers at Rome , hating the despotic character of Setanus , and penetrating
his ambitious project of becoming earipexQr , in the robiri of Tiberius , opprosed ^ his cruel measures , and arraigned him as a conspirator . Feeling their enmity against himself , he * with the usual adroitness of wicked
ministers , represents them as enemies to tlie emperor and to the state . This , at first , Tiberius must have been ready to believe ; and , actuated by reseat- ' £ * ent , quickened by the complaint of Saturjiious , he cruelly banishes all the Jews resident in Rome ,
compelling such young men as were of age to become soldiers , in direct violation of the rights which they had hitherto enjoyed . But the mask soon fell from tfoe faee of Sejanus , the great enemy stfid accuser of the Christiana ; and the deadly hatred which rose in the breast of Tiberius towards the
detected traitor , was now necessarily followed by a change of sentiments aad conduct towards the persons who had previously opposed him . Thus tke emperor , from a persecutor , beuame inevitably the friend and protector of the Christiana . The evidence ,
brought borne to his own bosom , of t * be falsehood of the charge urged against t&e followers of Jesus , disposed him to consider their master as a victim of a similar calumny in Jude » ; aiid taking into consideration has . miraculous power , of which he had , through various channels , vt n *
questionable evidence , he pitied his unmerited sufferings , and wished ta atone for them , by consecrating him among * the gods of the Pantheon . The Christian fathers , for obvious reasons * left the first impression of Tiberius / s resentment unnoticed , mentioning . only hi ® subsequent conduct in behalf of the Christians . * Henc €
the iuiprabal > ility which loads theit narrative , and sinks it almost below rational belief ;
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The Jew * wikami Josephs stlgmtu tise * aft m every way wicked , was , as we s-hall s £ e herfea&er , one of the framers ami teacheua of the Gnostic system , the principal object of which was to sink Christianity in
Heathenism , by placing the foundet wilh the Heathen gods . Tiberius , though a fatalist , was extremely superstitious ; and Jewish magicians , Egyptian priests and Chaldean astrologers formed his most intimate associates . These men
he consulted respecting Jesus ; . and there is no room to doubt , bat at their instigation he proposed his deification to the Senate . It was very natural that the Senate and people of Rome should form their ideas of Jesus
from those impostors who pretended to abet his cause . This circumstance led his enemies to speak of hkn as if he were a magician , and ah artftfl deceiver . It was thia inapirtatiori which induced tb € Jewish historian to state ,, in the context , the real character and ciakns & £ Jesus Christ . With a
comprehension yet brevity characteristic of this writes , he giv ? es the whole substance of the fon « Gbsj>e m one short paragraph ,. He sets aside the doctrine of his beiiig a god , and stigmatises , the attempt at his deification by calling him & man ? if indeed he might be called a man ; thus using the language which he uses of Moses ,
and meaning that be was a man eminently endowed with power from God . He farther passes by in silence the 8-tory of his miraculous bitth , as forming bo part of his real history , a strong presumption in itself of the authenticity of the passage . Nor did the writer rest in this negative testimony to the falsehood of the miraculous
conception ,, but exposes , hi the subsequent paragraph , the abominable deed , which , on inquiry * wilt be found to be the orig in of it ,, and which in those times all readers knew to be the origin of it .
The advocates of Christianity maintained , and maintained with truth , that the vices and superstition which had hitherto debased the Pagan world , and which the erroneous philosophy of the limes imputed to the demons .
were , in a great rcveas'ure , swept away hy thfe religion of J ^ sus . The ene - imes of . the gospel f&tft the weight of tehis argument ,. and Plutarch wvote lus treatise concerning the cessation
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1823, page 36, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1780/page/36/
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