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me to offer a somewhat more detailed explanation of my own views . The nature of the resurrection of the dead , and that of Christ in particular , has not , I conceive , been investigated in modern times with that attention which its vast importance , as the great subject of the Christian revelation , demands . In
treating of the particulars of our Lord ' s resurrection , it has been the practice to select such facts as relate immediate ]/ to the preset ) tationa of his person , or which prove its substantial reality . And undoubtedly this is a point of essential moment , the proofs of which require the most scrupulous examination ; but were it the whole of what is meant and
intended to be proved in the case , what evidence would the resurrection of Jesus afford of a future immortal life , beyond what is afforded by the resurrection of Lazarus , or by any other miracles which were wrought by Christ or his apostles , none of which were proofs in kind , or instauces of that great event which was the principal subject of their predictions ?
His resurrection , however , was the fact which the apostles announced to the world , as the first fruits from the dead ; that is , the first commencement of an immortal state , to which the rest of mankind might look forward with expectation , in proportion as , by the culture of
their spiritual and moral powers , they should become prepared for so glorious an elevation . Now , in order to discover the proofs of the actual exaltation of Jesus to so transcendent a state , it seems to be necessary to take into consideration all the circumstances attending his ma . infestations to the observation of
mortals ; and not those only which prove his substantial or visible presence . The truth of the case appears evideutly to have been , that , though he continued through the course of forty days to afford many convincing evidences of his presence among his disciples , and of Ms iutimate acquaintance with their
proceedings , yet he only occasionally ' * sftewed " himself to them or any persons o > u this side the grave ; being ordinarily as wholly withdrawn from mortal inspection as those angelic spirits who also occasionally both shewed themselves and gave substantial evidences of their presence ; but who , like him , withdrew , and presented themselves in a supernatural
manner . There are , it must be admitted , considerable difficulties attending the proof <» f facts of this last description , in the particular instances ; but if the doctrine preached by the apostles was , that Jesus
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was raised from the grave to an immortal and celestial state , its attestation to mankind at large rests principally on the many public and palpable miracles which were wrought in his name , on their persons , and through their instrumentality It cannot , however , but be productive of satisfaction to be enabled , from a careful
examination of the circumstances of his several manifestations , to conclude that in each case they bear upon them the stamp of reality , in contradistinction from those innumerable illusions of the fancy which have so long and so grossly deceived and misled mankind . It is true , indeed , that the doctrine of the homogeneity of man , and especially of the person of Jesus , and that the same person , alternately , became substantially present ,
and was withdrawn from the cognizance of mortals , is little accordant with the ideas which have generally prevailed in relation to these points . But the views concerning the nature of " matter and spirit , " so ably advocated by Dr . Priestley in his " Disquisitions , " or sentiments nearly approximating to the same con * elusions , are , I believe , making considerable progress with the general advances of knowledge ; chemical discoveries , in union with other branches of natural
philosophy , have shewn that the ordinary ideas of contact are erroneous , that what was supposed to be solid substance is , in fact , nothing more than resistance , which , of course , can be modified or removed at the will of Him by whom it is produced . It is also becoming continually more apparent that the vital functions in man , as in all other animated beings , are the
result of the organization of his frame and of the influence of the air , the light , aud other surrounding objects upon it ; that perception is no less dependant upon the structure aud operations of the brain and nervous system , than respiration is upon those of the lungs , or auy other of the functions of life on their respective organs ; and consequently that in death , every vital function ceasing , and the
whole frame being disorganized , life is utterly extinct;—a conclusion which entirely coiucides with the dqctrince of the proper resurrection of the whole person from death , and its elevatiou above the liability to dissolution ; which , judgiug from all the facts of the case , as related by the Evangelists , appears to have been completely exemplified in the case of our great Master .
The great object of the Christian revelation is to ** abolish death aud spread abroad the light of aa incorruptible life . " The Heathens rested «* 11 their notions of
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . 460
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 469, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/37/
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