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enable the reader to judge , with precision , of their meaning . But who is there that does not see , upon the slightest inspection of the gospel history , that it is the grand object of the whole of it , to prove the truth of our Lord ' s original
declaration that the kingdom of heaven , " or of the Messiah * was at hand '*—or in oiher words , that the gospel history is an history of the controversy whether Jesus was the Messiah or not ? Who does not see the extreme propriety of the question of the disciples , when , bv
his prediction of " the destruction of Jerusalem / ' he had been anni - hilating the very foundation of all their hopes of his being the Messiah , and who in such circumstances ,
does not see the equal propriety of his declaration ^ hat ' the kingdom of heaven was at hand , " notwithstanding his prediction ? This is , if any thing can be , genuine historical evidence , commanding the assent of every rational mind .
But it seems , there is another question which Bishop Horsley considered as decisive that the enquiry of the disciples related to the < nd of the world * " What ' said
« wy , " shall be the sign of the end « f the world ?" . Expositors , the Bishop says ,, suppose that by " the <*<* of the -world / ' the apostles Keant , the end of that particular during which the Jewish tijjrch Y and state were destined to € J <* ure . But he ridicules this ldea as a puerile refinement of
1 criticism > founded upon y » t -they calj the idioms of «* Jewish language ; which , howin er ? he says , sire jio i ' dionis < tf the nf F fr P enmen bu , t the idioms desn ^ niCaI divines > «< set of cone l 6 writexs who strove to ce their poverty of mean-
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ing by the affected obscurity , of a mybtic style . 4 But St . Paul was certainly no Jewish Rabbin—and yet he says . u Now o&ce in the
end of the world / ' or age , as it ought to have been translated , '' hath Christ appeared to take away sin . " In another place he savs , the ends of the world are
come . " Besides , where should we expect to find Jewish idioms but in Jewish writers ; and the writers of the New Testament , by abounding in these idioms , so far , at least ,
prove the credibility of their narratives . In fact , as a reference to our Lord ' s original language and the consequent con troVersy whether Jesus himself sustained the
character of the Messiah / ' compel us , by all the rules of sound criticism , to understand the question of the disciples— what shall be the sign 4
of thy coming ? % of' his coriiing as the Messiah / ' and not as " the the judge of the world ; " so by a similar reference , an easy , ahd
surely not an unnatural soli / tioft of the phrase , the end of the world ^ ^ ' or age , will be affbrded / ais relating to the -conclusion of u the Mosaic age' *—or u the Com - mencement" of that of the JVTessiafa .
Who will deny that it was as natural to ask ^ u when he should come /' as " what would befthesl gd * of his coming ? " In a word * , if such a reference did not afford
means of distinguishing thegferiuihtt meaning of this language ) , the gos - pel history ^ would , ih tny humbks opinion , be essentially defective . But that it is not so , thfe slight view of the subject , must , I flhink convince every dispa ^ ioilate enquirer ; totid if he wishes to see more
upon it , I must refer him to my Triumphs of Christianity otfctf Infidelity—or in a narrower com pass
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Mr . Nisbett on Bishop Horsley ' s Sermons . 2
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1811, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2416/page/37/
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