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Untitled Article
expectants of a prince and conqueror to acknowledge the pretensions of a crucified Messiah , But suppose it had been otherwise , and that they had still persevered in their pertinacious opposition , and at least pretended unbelief , with what triumph would the scoffer of the present time have then urged that the pretensions of Jesus had been fully tried at the time and found wanting ; that the evidence had been examined and rejected by those who were upon the spot , and had the best opportunities of judging of its
truth ! And there are many reasons which render it highly improbable that the result of a public appeal to the Jewish leaders would have been successful . It is , on the contrary , almost certain that they would have continued immoveable in their rejection of Jesus . They could not possibly suppose that they would ever be the favoured adherents of such a Messiah , with whom they had always been on terms of the most bitter hostility , and whom they had themselves so recently brought to a most cruel and ignominious end .
To acknowledge him to be the Messiah would , therefore , have been to convict themselves of a most foul and atrocious murder ; and estimating , as they naturally would do , his character and dispositions by their own , they could expect nothing less from his vengeance than that he would make it the first act of his kingly power to bring them to exemplary and merited punishment * They would consequently have sought for every possible excuse for refusing their own assent , and would have used all their influence to induce the
people to do the same . And under the guidance of such passions , such invincible prejudices , and such powerful motives , from a regard to their own safety , the excuses would not be long in presenting themselves . It was an apparition ; it was sorcery ; it was some vile trick of the disciples , who had attempted to bring about an apparent fulfilment of his prediction , by stealing his body from the grave , and putting forward another , somewhat resembling him , to personate their Master . Why , indeed , should we suppose that they
who had already witnessed , unmoved , the most stupendous and undeniable miracles , should now give up their evil heart of unbelief ? If the resurrection of Lazarus produced no impression , why should we expect any different result from that of Jesus himself ? If they had already blasphemed the Holy Spirit , by ascribing the mig hty works of God to the influence of Beelzebub , what possible reason can we have for supposing that they would believe in one who had risen from the dead , when that belief implied a surrender of their long-cherished prejudices , of their bad passions and worldly interests ?
We have been considering this subject merely on the ground of its connexion with the evidence on which our Christian faith is founded ; otherwise it mig ht seem not unreasonable to inquire what ri ht had they to the sort of notice from our Lord which is implied in a public appeal to them to attest the } reality of his resurrection—they to whom the decisive proofs from
prophecy and miracles had already been offered in vain ? But it is enough to have shewn that the immediate , and still more the permanent , interests of mankind at large , as connected with the success and general diffusion of the gospel message , would have been little promoted by entrusting it to the charge of such unsuitable and incompetent witnesses .
Untitled Article
ChrUsf * Appearance after his Resurrection . 239
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 239, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/23/
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