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Review . —' Ben David ' s Reply to Two Deistkai WoVkn . 479
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Tares and other passages . He interprets John Baptist ' s severe language to the Pharisees and Sadducees ^ of the same sect , whpse system is the Antichrist of the New Testament . The Vth Chapter , which contains the Reply to the Author of " The New
Trial of the Witnesses , " is in our view of great merit . It contains " the Proofs of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ / ' The author lays great and
just stress upon our Lord ' s having predicted his own sufferings . He finds such predictions where a common reader would not discover them , and we are pleased with his ingenuity even when we are not wholly convinced by
bis argument . i ( At first , Jesus only hints at the sufferings that awaited him , as they were brought to his mind by the appearance and language of those around him . Thus T . _! . _ -..- ! 4 . » , ¦» S . « OQ t \ 7 r + nmtZIl + sill « v » r » uke riteiv 23 3 « Ye will tell
„ L ws , . me this parable , Physician , by all means heal thyself / The Evangelist considered this saying as having an immediate reference to the request which the Jews made to our Lord , to do such things in his ad
own country , as they heard l ^ e h performed in Capernaum ; but the use of epeTTE , ye will sag , in the future tense , demonstrates that he at the same time alluded to some saying that was yet future ; and if we turn our eyes to chap *
xxlii . 37 , we shall find the very words addressed to him by his enemies , which he here anticipates , ' And they mocked him , saying , If thou be King of the Jews , save thyself J Near the close of his ministry , or , according to the arrangement
of John , near the commencement of it , Jesus foretold his destruction b y the Jews , and his subsequent restoration to life , in terms suggested by the sight of the temple , which terms , as implying the demolition of that temple when literally taken , became deeply rooted in the
memories of those present , in consequence of the astonishment which they excited , and of the offence which they occasioned . € Destroy this temple , and in three days I will raise i ^ up . ' John ii . 20 . John is the only one who has recorded this incident ; yet that Jesus did actually deliver these words be / ore they
were accomplished in his sufferings and resurrection , we have the indirect but sure testimony of his enemies , recorded hy Matthew ; * And those who passed by blasphemed him , shaking their heads and saying , Thou who destroyest the tepiple and buildcst it in three days , save thyself : —Pp . 37 , 38 . Amongst other testimonies to the
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resurrection pf Christ , Dr . Jones cites the case of the soldier that pierced his body upon the cross * € C If a candid and enlightened sceptic were asked , what circumstance , connected with the death and subsequent resurrection of Christ , would , if proved to be true , be most likely to remove his
doubts of the divine origin of Christianity , and secure his own practical faith in its fundamental points , he perhaps would reply , that nothing could so effec tually answer this end , as that the very soldiers employed by the Jewish rulers in his execution , and especially that soldier who drove the spear into his side , should themselves soon after become converts to
the faith , and attest the truth of the wonders which they had beholden , though urged by tortures to their denial . And this is a circumstance which the wisdom of Providence caused to have taken place , and even to be recorded by apostolic
authority , in order to remove the objections of infidelity in all succeeding generations . The passage to which I allude is as follows : * Then came the soldiers , and brake the legs of the first and of the other which were crucified with him .
But when they came to Jesus , and saw that he was dead already , they brake not his legs . But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side , and forthwith came thereout blood and water . And he who saw it bore testimony , and his testimony is true ; that man , too , knoweth
that what the writer saith is true , that ye might believe . For these things were done , that the Scriptures might be fulfilled , A bone of him shall not be broken * And again , another Scripture saith , They shall look on him whom they pierced . * John xix . 32—37 . t €
It is supposed that by the person here said to have seen this event , and borne testimony to it , is meant the Evangelist himself . But a little attention to the original will be sufficient to convince us that the historian means the soldier
who had pierced him . The two actions ' bore testimony , ' and i saith , * though expressed by two distinct verbs , one in the past tense , the other in the present , must , on the supposition that John meant himself , be the same : which is absurd .
The original jutepatpTt ^ Ke mean s , when employed by early Christian writers , to bear testimony to the faith in circumstances of torture or of death ; and this acceptation is so generally given to it
that the corresponding noun fi&ptvp 9 which before simply signified a witness , came to denote a martyr to the truth . It Is to be observed , too , that the writer has employed the perfect tensej and he could not therefore so property intend
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 479, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/31/
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