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Untitled Article
appeared , claiming divine authority and attesting that claim by the evidence of miracles . With Christ , therefore , commenced , as it were , a new series of miraculous agency : and the very attempt , subsequently to the apostolic age , to perpetuate that series by fictitious miracles , seems almost to imply that it must have had its origin , after so long a suspension , in those which were true . The miracles of Christ , moreover , were all performed for purposes ,
and in support of views , directly contrary to the received opinions and strongest prepossessions of his countrymen . The miracle of the resurrect tion , in particular , had the singular fate of being most strongly opposed to the views , and most revolting to the feelings , that were generally entertained by the disciples during the Jife-time of Jesus , and of producing , after his
death , precisely that change in their minds which fitted them to be the preachers of his religion . There was no predominant prejudice in the public mind which could have encouraged Jesus to excite the expectation of such an event taking place , or which could have induced his disciples to hope for ready belief and general favour from spreading the rumour that it had actually occurred .
Besides , how unique , how unaccountable , is the whole language and conduct of Christ in regard to this event ! A man foretells his own death and resurrection ; grounds his whole claim to divine authority on the fulfilment of this prediction ; and constitutes it the basis on which the whole superstructure of his future religion is to be reared . Surely nothing parallel to this can be found in any one of the miracles that are recorded in the succeeding ages of the church . AH the apostles , wherever they preached , and whatever
might be their other views , had but one story respecting their Master's resurrection from the dead . Their testimony was borne , not to what they believed to be the correctness of opinions , but to what they knew to be the truth of facts : and in consequence of this conviction , so coptrary to their previous expectation , they renounced their former opinions , changed their mode of life , and conceived the extraordinary project of going forth to proselytize the world .
Here , then , is a most extraordinary chain of events , a most unaccountable accumulation of testimony . On what does that chain hang ? What can be the nucleus of that accumulation ? Those who reject the resurrection are bound to assign some probable , at least some possible , cause of events , so sudden in their origin , so peculiar in their character , and so lasting in their consequences * Till that be done , we may rest , without any great presumption , in the fact of the resurrection , as affording the most sa ~ tisfactory solution of all the phenomena of the case .
It never can be sufficiently repeated , that what we require from the apos ~ ties is their testimony to this fact . Incalculable difficulties are entailed on Christianity by expecting from it more than it is intended to furnish . The essential truths of Christ ' s religion are to be gathered from the spirit of hi 3 teachings , combined with all the inferences deducible from the fact of bis resurrection . With their steadfast testimony to this fact , the apostles join , in the further exercise of their divine commission , the most solemn
announcements of a judgment to come , and the most affectionate exhortations to repentance towards God , and the cultivation of vital holiness and spirituality of mind : but they reason upon , apply , and illustrate the facts and doctrines included in their commission , in their own way : the actual exhibition of them to the world passes through the medium of their peculiar views , and is adapted to the existing opinions of their age * Their minds were the earliest vehicles through which the spirit of Christianity was trans
Untitled Article
On the Evidence of the Resurrection , 101
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1831, page 151, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2595/page/7/
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