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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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suppose this , would be to suppose a moral miracle worked upon their minds , much more extraordinary , deviating much further from the usual operation of motives upon the human mind , than the miracles actually performed by Jesus and the apostles deviate from the usual course of Divine Providence . No ; all that we can with any reason suppose , is simply , that they would have conformed to the outward profession of the Christian faith , and that in doing so , they would have remained in spirit and character Pharisees . Like
too many of their successors , the Grecian philosophers , who afterwards , in similar circumstances , continued under the influence of the same prejudices , the same worldly views , the same overweening pride of human learning , the same dislike or contempt of the simplicity of the gospel , which had distinguished them while Heathens , The consequence would hav « been , that the pure gold of the divine word would have been corrupted from the beginning with that base alloy of human traditions by which , in the later ages of the Christian church , it has been so grievously debased and disfigured .
But again , if such would probably have been the pernicious effect of a successful appeal to the Jewish rulers on the doctrine and character of the church , what would have been the effect on its evidence } I mean , of course , not as to its intrinsic validity , for that would have remained the same , but . its influence ; the impression it might be expected to produce on the generality of mankind , and especially on the enlightened and reflecting . Let it be supposed that the chief priests and other leading men had been converted , and that in consequence the whole Jewish nation had admitted the claims of Jesus to the character of their Messiah : how would these
claims have appeared to us at this distance of time ? If Christianity had existed from the first in the form of a national establishment , might not the sceptic of the present day have had a plausible pretence for representing the whole as a politic manoeuvre , got up under the auspices of the state ? Whereas , we have now the best possible grounds for relying on the fact of our Saviour ' s resurrection , because , independently of the high credibility of the witnesses , we see that there were not wanting those who , with all the power in their hands , were animated by the strongest motives to detect and expose an imposture , if any such had been attempted .
Besides , if our Lord had presented himself to the chief priests or the assembled multitude , from their concurrence , under such circumstances , we , in later times , could have derived no perceptible addition even to the direct testimony . None of the Jewish rabbis , or of the populace , could have been to us equally credible witnesses with the apostles . How were they to know that the person whom they saw was indeed the Jesus who had been crucified ? They could only judge , as we do now , from the testimony of those who had
known him . For most of them had probably seen him only occasionally , for a short time , in a crowd , at a distance ; so that they were much less likely to be familiar with his person , or to be competent to judge after bis resurrectiori whether it was indeed the same , or only another somewhat like him . After all , therefore , the real effective testimony , that upon which alone any reliance could now be reposed , would still have been that of the very persons whose evidence is now before us , namely , the apostles and evangelists .
Hitherto we have argued this question upon the supposition , apparently most favourable to the objectors , that the effect of a public appeal to the nation and government of the Jews , would have been to convince them of the reality of the fact ; and not only so , but to compel those worldly-minded
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238 Christ ' s Appearance after his Resurrection .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 238, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/22/
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