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MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE.
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Untitled Article
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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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Additional Remarks on the Nature end Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus , Letter II . To the Editor . Sir ,
If the belief in shades or apparitions had no foundation in external reality , it must have been the effect of certain excitations of the fancy under particular circumstances ; aud in order to produce substantial evidence of realities , in some respects bearing a resemblance to those illusions , it must be requisite that the mind should be so circumstanced and pre-occupied , that the objects presented
to it could not be the figments of its imagination , but must have been produced by actual appearances . Now ., it is evident that the general state of mind of those who were well acquainted with Jesus , without being in . any degree accessary to his crucifixion , was much more suitable for witnessing any manifestations of his person , after his resurrection , than that of those who had concurred in his
destruction . His disciples , in particular , besides a far more intimate acquaintance both with his person and mind than any of his enemies , had . no expectation of again beholding him alive , at least within so short a period , and were under the influence of none of those guilty apprehensions which , in the minds of his enemies , were liable to create the injured
form of him whose murder they had instigated . These latter , on the other hand , were aware that .-he had predicted his resurrection , on the third day after his decease , and were perhaps in no instance so exempt from the apprehensions of beholding either his living person or his injured shade , as to be in no degree liable to mistake appearances of one or both for realities . The supernatural
darkness which intercepted the beams of the sun during the three closing hours of his earthly existence , and the entire resignation and firm reliance on God which he manifested up to the moment of his exit , together with the rending of the sacred veil on the occasion , were circumstances sufficiently awful to give pause to the most unreflecting , and to shake the stoutest spirits ; and accordingly they drew forth from the chief of
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his executiouers a concession in the highest degree honourable to his character ; and " all the people" who witnessed the manner of his decease , and the scenes with which it was accompanied , " smote their breasts" with conscious guilt and horror at the outrage to which the great body of them , at least , had been accessary . It is difficult to conceive that the
Chief Priests and Pharisees themselves , in bringing to recollection his prophecy , that < c in three days he would rise again , " should , under all the circumstances , have been free from apprehension of the accomplishment of the prediction . The circumstance of their so far giving credit to the very extraordinary and unsatisfactory statement of the guards as to bribe them to circulate a report most
disgraceful , not only to those employed , but to themselves as their employers , in inventing it , could only have proceeded from a conviction of their inability to deny the truth of the original statement , and must surely have proceeded from some of the facts , at least , being too well known , not only to the guards , but to many others in the crowded city , whose observation would be attracted to
the spot at the time predicted , and whose attention would be summoned by the earthquake , or shaking of the eleuqents , which preceded the resurrection . All these causes must have concurred to put the minds of the enemies of Jesus , in general , in a state of extreme apprehension ; they must have been disposed to
anticipate the sight of him from whose indignant aspect and keen reproofs they wished to escape ; and any temporary manifestations of his person to men in this state of mind , must have been extremely liable to be confounded with the creations of their guilty consciences , brooding over the memory of their murdered benefactor , now miraculously with '
drawn from their power , and ready , perhaps , at every moment , to present himself to their observation . Indeed , it was perhaps impossible that any such appearances of Jesus could have been presented to persons under the influence of the apprehensions which must have been in uo slight degrees universal among his enemies , for a considerable period subsequent to his resurrection , without falling strongly under the sus-
Miscellaneous Correspondence.
MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1830, page 549, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2587/page/45/
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