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Untitled Article
the persecutor ; whose conversion was not the slow result of inquiry and progressive conviction , but complete and instantaneous ; inexplicable , with
all its attendant circumstances , on any other supposition than that of his having been favoured with a manifestation of the personal presence of the risen Jesus , to which he himself continually referred as the cause of his conversionand the circumstance
, as which qualified him for exercising the apostolic office . Now , let us reflect , for one moment , on the peculiar nature of this testimony : from whom does it proceed ? From men of the most widely-different temperaments , and of views , in some points , almost conflicting—from men , taking the most opposite direction in the labour of propagating the
new religion—from Peter and James , who were connected with the Jewish party , and the latter of whom presided in the infant church at Jerusalemfrom Paul , the eloquent and enlightened opponent of the invidious distinction of Jew and Gentile—from John , the rapt and contemplative seer , whose enthusiastic spirit loved to range amongst the sublime , but vague , abstractions of the oriental school — from men , who , however much they disagreed on minor points , were unanimous in their testimony to the resurrection of
Christ—a fact , of which their senses had been the judge , and which was made by each of them the basis of reasonings , illustrations , and inferences , shaped and modified by the peculiar bias and tendency of their respective minds . It is impossible to resist the acute and learned arguments with which Dr .
Middleton * has shewn that the same reasoning and the same testimony by which the Christian miracles of the second and third centuries are attempted to be proved , might equally well be alleged on behalf of the numberless miracles asserted by the Catholic Church down to the present day ; and it may , perhaps , be thought that his arguments are capable of being extended to the miracles of the New Testament , notwithstanding the line which he
has himself clearly drawn between the apostolic age and that which ensued . The sole fact , be it remembered , with which we are now concerned , is the fact of the resurrection ; and we may fearlessly assert , that this fact stands on ground peculiar , to itself , and is entrenched within a pile of evidence , with which that of no other miraculous incident , not only of the times subsequent to the apostles , but we may even add of the apostolic age itself , will admit of being compared .
When the fashion of miracles , so to speak , had been once introduced , and when the system , on behalf of which they were alleged to be wrought , was previously believed to be true , there was a general readiness among believers to admit them on very insufficient evidence ; and even men of learning and character , partly perhaps deceived , and partly perhaps in accordance with the mistaken morality of those times , inclined to stretch a point in support of influences which they thought might be useful—too easily lent
the sanction of their names to marvellous narratives , the correctness of which they had not taken sufficient pains to examine , and which possibly they might not be over-anxious to find untrue . But we may appeal to the candour of every reader of the New Testament , whether these circumstances are at all applicable to the great miracle of Christ's resurrection . When Christ appeared , there had been a long cessation of miraculous interpositions . John the Baptist wrought no miracles . From the days of the last of the prophets up to the advent of Christ himself , no religious teacher had
Free Inquiry , &c , Work * , 8 vu ., Vol . I .
Untitled Article
150 On the Evidence of the Resurrection .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1831, page 150, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2595/page/6/
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