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Lectures Upon the Ecclesiastical History of the First Century (of the Second and Third Centuries).
Lectures Upon the Ecclesiastical History of the First Century - of the Second and Third Centuries Author:Edward Burton General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1839 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: LECTURE II. W E have now to trace the history of the gospel, when the earthly presence of our Saviour was withdrawn, and when eleven men of obscure rank and little education were left, humanly speaking, to themselves and their own exertions, to spread a new religion throughout the world. In order to form some notion of the difficulties which they had to encounter, we will consider the treatment which our Saviour received from three descriptions of persons ; the generality of the people throughout the country; the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem ; and the representatives of the Roman government. If we view the Jewish populace at different periods, we shall see them at one time anxious to make Jesus a king, at another compelling Pilate by their clamours to put him to death. The former was their own spontaneous impulse : they were excited to the latter by their priests. From both we may perhaps argue, that their feelings towards Jesus had little connexion with religion. They had seen his miracles ; they knew him to be kind and beneficent; they heard him expose the vices of their superiors; all which excited their curiosity; and wherever he appeared, they could hardly fail to listen to him with pleasure. As many of them as were zealous for political freedom, might think that this was the endwhich he had ultimately in view; but when he came up to one festival after another, still with the same few obscure followers; when he put himself at the head of no party, and manifested no resistance to foreign interference, the attachment which such persons had been inclined to feel would naturally subside : they mi...« less