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Untitled Article
it implies an erroneous view of the proper object of inquiries into historical evidence ^ We make the ; inquiry La order to ascertain not whether this ot that kind of evidence wouid ; have been stronger , —but simply , whether we
have what is sufficient . Are die witnesses actually brought forwards worthy of credit , op are they not ? in requiring om assent tatheir testimony , is any demand made upon our faith which is . inconsistent wkh out character as rational and intelligent beings } If not * the qpasstaon * whether witnesses oi m different description would bave been befteir > is altogether irrelevant and out pf place . If we have already enoogh * it is HBcawlid and taareasanaMe to
require moreu We may observe , in the second place , that the objection proceeds upon a statement of facts which is indeed nearly correct , but not exactly so . It is not altogether true that our Lord confined his appearance after his resurrec tion exclusively to those who had been his friends and disciples . St . Paul was not only not a disciple , but a bigoted , persecuting : unbeliever * The sudden and remarkable change in hi& professions and conduct after his
interview with Christ is reported to > have taken place , can he accounted for on no other principle than , the reality of that remarkable event . la him , therefore , we really have , what is so often demanded ,, the testimony , of an unbeliever— - ^ nay , more , of a persecuting foe converted by proofs , which he was unable to resist , of the troth , of those facts oa which our religion is founded * How * is . it , then , that those objectors who profess to doubt of the resurrection , because , as they allege , it is attested only by friendly and
interested witnesses , nevertheless refuse their credit to the testimony of Paul > Perhaps it may be awing : to * the very circumstance which ought to give to this testimony its highest value ; namely , the manner in which his zealous and unwearied exertions , in the Christian cause decisively proved that the witness himself was eve ? after fully convinced of its truth . The name suggests the disciple , not of Gamaliel , but of Jesas * They think only of Paul the apostle , and forget that the proof of the resurrection was originally addressed to Sauli , the persecutor .
But the most , important consideration is * that whatever effect we suppose to have been produced by such a method ! of publishing the gospel as these objectors recommend , upon the minds of the Jews at that period , what is of much greater consequence , namely , its effect upon the njuFtitwie * in every age and nation to whom that gospel has since been addressed ,, would hare been materially injured * If , immediately after bis resurrection , Jestwhad appeared to the assembled Jewish nation wkh the same openness and
publicrty as before , either they would have been converted by such an * extraor dinary proof of his divine commission ,, or they wottki hare persisted in refusing their assent * Let up . assume tribal seems at first to be the most favourable supposition ; , that , nQtvk&Btandsng the continued influence of the same prejudices , passions , and interests , which had before led then to refuse their allegiance to a spiritual Mesdalv they had acknowledged that he was in reality naca from that grave to which their owa barbarity had c on *
signed him , and > in consequence , admitted the validity ol fan pretension What , in the first place , would bare been the irnmeduUa result £ That the worldly-minded Sadducee , the haughty priest , the hypocritical self-righteous Phari see ^ , would enrol themselves as genuine disciples of the Galilean * , the meek and lowly Jejus ? Thaty in the task of propagating ht » frith they would have become the eaUeagu € » , or rather the subordinate asMrtants ^ of the obscure and , unlearned men whom he had chosen for his ap < wtk »? To
Untitled Article
Chriaf * Appearance after his Reftirvection . 237
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 237, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/21/
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