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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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sible during the interval between his resurrection and asceusion , excepting on particular occasions in which he manifested himself to his disciples , appears from the periods of time which are specified between his manifestations ; thus he was not seen by the Apostles till the evening of the day of his resurrection ; nor again till eight days had elapsed ; afterwards by the sea of Galilee ; then ,
by appointment , on a mountain in that country ; and , lastly , near Jerusalem , at his ascension . As he was usually invisible , so the peculiar modes of his introduction to , and withdrawing from , their presence , were adapted to the proof and illustration of this his ordinary state of being . 1 shall particularly notice the circumstances of his first appearance , which was to Mary Magdalene , at the sepulchre , shortly after it had been forsaken by the guards .
The sepulchre was now closely examined by Mary , and by the Apostles Peter and John , who found it empty , nothing remarkable appearing but the grave-clothes of Jesus , and the stone , by which he had been enclosed , rolled from its place . But that two angels were rron actually in the sepulchre was , just after , shewn to Mary on her again looking into
it , when that which had just before presented only vacancy , now offered them to her view , " the one sitting at the head , and the other at the feet , where the body of Jesus had lain . " On turning , she was in a like unexpected manner accosted by Jesus . From the immediately preceding examination it appears evident that these personages had not been
absent , but invisible , up to the moment of their presentation . Jesus had now become the companion of celestial spirits , who only on special occasions offer themselves to the view of mortals . A solitary angel , by the terrors of his aspect aloue , overrules the martial energies of the Roman baud , aud neither their searching
vision , nor their anticipating apprehensions , image out any traces of the body or person of Jesus ; so completely was he withdrawn from human cognizance ; au 4 tfaflp , signally was both the power at » 4 tke vigjyUttce of his enemies defeated ! But tun > of the heavenly spirits benignly vouchsafe their consoling presence to this
affectionate friend of Jesus , and he introduces himself to her unsuspecting notice ; all with thai ease aud gentleness , that her delicate frame suffers no alarm or trepidation from , these unexpected celestial vifiitauta . Absorbed by the mournful wish of discovering the loat body of Jesus ^ she neither noticed the glorious
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appearance of the angels , nor recognizes his person ; and , as his familiar address was necessary to this last object , so an indication of his celestial destiny seemed requisite to open her sense to the perception of the extraordinary phenomena attending all the personages who were , in a manner so evidently supernatural , introduced to her observation . The presentation of Jesus with his celestial
associates from invisibility , therefore , could not be the figments of an imagination which was wholly absorbed by an object of precisely the opposite description , but was forced upon the observation of Mary by the gentle but irresistible influence of manifest realities , effecting an entire re » volution in her previously fixed persuasion . For had a gleam of hope crossed her that Jesus might be risen from death , her soul would not thus have been
absorbed by grief at the loss of his body , which she sought with no other view than that of conferring upon it the last sad honours of sepulture . Jesus , having been withdrawn from the sight of the watchmen , continued invisible when the attention of Mary and the two apostles
was drawn to the spot ; but , sufficient evidence having been afforded of his disappearancey he returns to the ordinary form of humanity , together with two of his spiritual associates , foe the purpose of making known the reaHty of his resurrection , and of his celestial destiny .
From this time forward our Lord seems to have embraced suitable opportunities of making the great facts of his resurrection and ordinary existence in a superior state , fully known to a competent number of suitable witnesses . In the evening of the same day he fell into the company of two of his disciples , in a mauner apparently incidental , and ,
assuming the air of a stranger , held a long and interesting conversation with them ; but so little disposition had they to anti - cipate his presence , that they continued to regard him as a stranger , till , at supper , their eyes being directed towards him , they recognized his person , on which " he vanished out of their sight . " Again that evening , " when the doors were * hut y *' where the apostles aud their companions si
were assembled for fear of the Jews , " a porter being probably placed at the door , as was usual ou such occasions , he was found " standing in the midst of them ^* in a manner so evidently miraculous that , though at that moment their minds must have been fully occupied with the idea of his living person , they mistook him for an " apparition / ' and nothing but the solid evidence of their sense
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264 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 264, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/48/
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