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picion of being no other than illusions of their minds . I confess it appears to me a circumstance deserving of the highest admiration , that no reports should have arisen among that numerous body of conscientious offenders , who were ' * pierced to the heart ' with compunction at the testimony of Peter , concerning any appearances of that grossly-injured * Son of Man , * ' in the fulfilment of whose predicted resurrection they had so much reason to believe frotn the moment
of his disappearance from the sepulchre . The same miraculous power which so frequently presented his person to the view of unapprehensive , and ou this and other accounts suitable , witnesses to his resurrection , must have interposed to prevent his being seen , or imagined to be seen , by those who were strongly dis * posed to anticipate and apprehend his
appearance . Aud it seems to have been almost as necessary that no fallacious or dubious reports should have been circulated respecting his having been seen , as that a sufficient number and vaiiety of his personal manifestations under circumstances of the most unexceptionable description , should have been presented , and placed upon record by faithful his * torians .
The proofs that the disciples of Jesus had no anticipations of his resurrection previous to its beirig brought home to the evidence of their senses , are do less manifest than that his enemies strongly appreheuded it . After having committed his body to the sepulchre , the attention of his female disciples was directed wholly to conferring upon him some
additional "honours of sepulture , while the minds of the apostles were absorbed with sorrow at his unexpected destruction . The first person to whom he was presented was , as we have seen , one whose thoughts were intent oti no other object than the discovery of the body , from the search after which his living person could with the utmost difficulty withdraw her attention ;* and he was soon
afterwards most unexpectedly met by some of her companions , who , indeed , had , in a like unexpected manner , been informed of his resurrection , but whose mincfe were wholly occupied with the expectation of meeting him not there but in Galitee . f The minds of the two disciples goittg to Etnmaus were , frotn the operation either of natural or miraculous causes j in a state the reverse of that of anticipating his appearance ; and it was
* John xx . 14—16-f Matt . xKviii . 7—V .
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only by dropping the sur of a stranger and assuming his wonted office at the table , that their attention wag sufficiently drawn upon him to enable them to recognize his person . * Had he continued with them afterwards , and parted with them in an ordinary manner , they would have made no other conclusion than that
he was restored to the present state ; but this was precisely what they must have expected ; and nothing conld have been more remote from their anticipations , than that the person who had so long accompanied them , and whom they now clearly recognized to be Jesus himself , the same who had been deposited
in the sepulchre , and , after having left it , now presented himself to them alive , could have suddenly become invisible . Their thoughts could have been intent on no other subject than that of offering their joyful homage to their re-anima . ted Master who had just revealed himself to their observation . That he should at
this interesting moment cease to be an object of their sight could have been no work of their imagination , any more than his previous appearance and the long and instructive conversation by which he had before opened their miuds to the understanding of some predictions applying to his sufferings and resurrection in the ancient prophecies .
Unexpected , however , as so extraordinary a circumstance must have been , and surprising and inexplicable as it may appear even at the present day , it entirely coincides with the miracle of his disappearance from the sepulchre , and with his re-appearance to Mary Magdalene ; forming with them a necessary part of the proof of his translation to a state in which he is no more liable to death or
corruption . It is observable that , when the two disciples reached Jerusalem to acquaint the apostles with the facts they had witnessed , they found them already arrived at the conviction that " the Lord was risen indeed , " and consequently their narrative up to his being " known to
them in breaking of bread , " where it broke off , by his sudden appearance , must have tended to con firm the same conviction ; nor would any circumstance appear more probable to the apostles than that he would shortly arrive and unite with them in company . * f \ This would have entirely coincided with their ideas at the moment , nor would his arrival in the ordinary manner have excited any
• Luke xxiv . 13—31 . f Ibid . vcr . 33—36 ' .
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550 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1830, page 550, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2587/page/46/
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