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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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the doubts left upon s ' onie minds only transient , though our unpretending historian , probably from a consciousness that a circumstantial narration was unnecessary to those for whom he was writing , has left this part of his history in a state which , to subsequent genera ^ tions , upon the supposition of their being
unacquainted with the other books of the New Testament , might have been attended with uncertainty . So remote is he from that apprehension and mistrust , and solicitude to set in a prominent point of view . scenes of the most imposing description , which are the uniform attendants of i in posture !
Though we are not expressly informed that this was the meeting at which Jesus was seen by more than five hundred brethren at ouce , yet it appears to have furnished by far the most probable occasion of that assemblage . At any rate , as , according to Matthew , a meeting with him was held , by special appointment , in the country in which he was well known , and where he must have had many , either actual disciples , or from the effects of
his miracles and discourses , strongly inclined to become such ; so , according to Paul , a large body of persons afterwards acknowledged as disciples , and retaining their attachment to the Christian faith , were witnesses to his personal manifestation after his revival . Aud when we take into consideration the peculiar nature of the -fact to be attested , and the general passion of the Jewish people in favour of atemporal Messiah , who should effect their deliverance from the Roman
yoke , and from servile degradation conduct them to universal conquest and superiority , instead of a purely spiritual and ordinarily invisible Deliverer , we must , I conceive , admit that the nuniber selected , at that moment , was not only ample , but very considerable . They must hare been all well acquainted with his
person , must have known much respecting his mind and character ¦ , and , together with a freedom from that " blood-guiltiness" which had infected so large a portion of the people , must have been capable of greatly restraining that passion which had become so universal , and , upon his appearance from the grave to the thousands who had been accustomed
to follow him , might have been so liable to transport them into a sudden revolt ; an effect which , instead of operating in favour of Christianity , must have proved extremely injurious both to its evidence and its benign influences . That he should , at so early a period , have engaged by . his presence , and ultimately have secured to
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his cause , so large a body from a nation actuated by prejudices and passions diametrically opposed to the spiritual and celestial nature of his existence and sovereignty , could only have proceeded from the strong force of reality , by ' which the faith and affections of his converts
were transformed from earth to heaven * The testimony of such a body of moralized believers , faithful subjects of that invisible Sovereign who had vanquished siu and death , is infinitely more valuable than any that could have been extorted by forcing his presence upon enemies who either hated or dreaded the sight of
him ; and the reduction of whom to a spirit-of obedience , would have too much confounded the operation of those moral causes by which the best energies , and the most elevated purities , of the mind are promoted , with that of physical compulsion . Those Jews , who acquiesced in the priuciple that Jesus is risen from
death and exalted to the office of the Messiah , though crucified and withdrawn from the ordinary cognizance of mankind , must have relinquished that bliud prejudice and wild enthusiasm which impelled so large a portion of them to follow implicitly the grossest impostures ; they must have entered on a deliberate examination of facts opposed to all their preconceived opinions , whether as it
respected the peculiar expectations of their countrymen , or the generally-received ideas of matter and spirit , of life , death , and immortality . An effect which could only have been produced either by a cool and deliberate examination of the person and mind of Jesus , after his miraculous removal from the grave to a state of invisibility , or by the testimony and miracles of those who were favoured with
these opportunities . But previous to this general meeting by appointment , for which considerable time seems to have been allowed for collecting the witnesses from alL quarters , and preparing their minds for the interview , seven of the disciples , among whom
were rive of the more distinguished apostles , including him who had been the most incredulous , were favoured with an interview of a peculiarly familiar and interesting nature with their great Master . * He meets them , as if incidentally , on the well-known shore of the Galilean lake . But the season was
appropriate as \ t recalled Peter ami his companions from their humble occupation to the great pursuits of their apostol ic office , and gave them ample grounds
* John xxi . throughout .
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VOJL . iv . 2 V
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . 633
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1830, page 633, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2588/page/49/
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