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important nature peculiar to those times . These I will Tiere state with all possible brevity . The reputed wise in Egypt and other Pagan countries believed , or affected to believe , Christ to be some God or a great demon , and referred his miracles and his resurrection to demoniacal agency . This was the obvious dictate of Heathenism , and the natural tendency of it to overturn Christianity was soon perceived by its enemies . The Almighty delegated his Son Jesus to
announce to the world the glad tidings of eternal life . To prove the truth of his delegation , his heavenly Father gave him power to work miracles , and raised him from the grave as a proof and pledge of the resurrection of mankind . This proof , this pledge , to be valid , supposes his simple
humanity : for the survival of death , on the part of a being who by nature is superior to death , furnishes no solid grounds of faith in the resurrection of beings who by nature are subject to death . Hence the divinity of Christ became an artful pretext in the hands of bis enemies to set aside the
doctrine of a future state , and to neutralize the purifying influence of his gospel . This was the object of the Pag-an philosophers in acknowledging the divine nature of Christ ; and it was still more directly the object of the Gnostics , who made his divinity
the fundamental article ot their system . Anil this is the precise state of things which gave the writings of Philo and Josephus tlicir peculiar character . The adversary accounted for the miracles of Christ by referring them to a superior nature , or to the
arts of magic , or to demoniacal agency . The vulgar superstition enabled the opponents of Christianity with some speciousness to prevent those means which " , in the eye of enlightened reason , demonstrated the divine mission
of Jesus , and consequently the truth of his gospel , into an instrument to destroy its end , namely , the deliverance of mankind from ignorance , vice , and misery . The proper course which a judicious advocate was calkd upon
to pursue in circumstances like these , was to sink the means , and insist on the end , that is , to overlook the miracles on which the gospel was founded , and describe its happy effects on the lives of those who embraced it ,
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and thus to hold it forth to the worM as a gift descended from the Father of lights alone—as incompatible with the character of demons or the arts of magic , and as worthy of acceptance by all the human race . The course
which wisdom thus dictated , was actually pursued by Philo and Josephus . They recommended Christianity by representing its divine influence / and , meeting its enemies on their own ground , wrenched from their hands the artful weapons which they wielded to destroy it . And if in these days
they do not appear to be fighting under the banners of Christ , in the same field with the apostles , and with that magnanimity which characterized the early believers , it is because they
concealed themselves in an ambuscade , attacking the advancing foe with masked batteries , and making him feel the force , without hearing the noise , of their powerful artillery . The nature of the service thus done to
Christianity , though it prevented them from being conspicuous in the ranks of its friends , supposes a complete convietion and undisguised avowal of its truth 3 and to suspect them of false
shame or indecision , while they actually displayconsummate skill and intrepidity in many parts of their writings , would be as absurd as if we suspected the sun of not emitting his usual rays , because he is withdrawn from our
view by the clouds that are just above us and bound our horizon . We , in modern days , have been misled by our very imperfect knowledge of the state of things at the first promulgation of the gospel , and still more by the prejudices of education . What is here advanced is not new : Philo and
Josephus for ages were known to be historians and apologists of the Christian religion . The Greek and Latin fathers , as I shall shew , were fully aware of this important fact . On some occasions , which did not interfere with their corrupt views , they claim them as Christian writers : but
in general they denied their claims to this character , fearing lest their writings should prove the means of blowing up their peculiar tenets as the offspring of Paganism , and wishing them to descend along the stream of time , only as not enemies to Christ and his cause . J . JONES . a ^^^^^^^^^^ ph ^^^^^^^^^^^* ¦ *
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2 & 6 Peculiarities of Philo and Josephus as Defenders of Christianity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 286, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/30/
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