DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9552#0240
210 SECOND APPEAL
(Paul) should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly'
but after they had looked a great while, and saw n°
harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said
he was a God." Ch. xiv. ver. u : " The gods are com6
down to us in the likeness of men." Mosheim, Vol. I'
p. 25 : "Many who were not willing to adopt the whol^
of the doctrines of Christianity were nevertheless, 3s
appears from undoubted records, so struck with th*
account of his life and actions, and so charmed with th^
sublime purity of his precepts, that they numbered hin1!
(Jesus) among the greatest heroes, nay even among th£
gods themselves." Page 46 : " So illustrious was the fani^ 1
of Christ's power grown after his resurrection from th<?
dead and the miraculous gifts shed from on high upon h
Apostles, that the Emperor Tiberius is said to ha
proposed his being enrolled among the gods of Rom
which the opposition of the Senate hindered from takin,
effect." If some of the heathens, from the nature
of their superstitions, could rank Jesus among their fal
gods, it is no wonder if others, when nominally con
verted to Christianity, should have placed him on an equal-
ity with the true God, and should have passed a decre
constituting him one of the persons of the Godhead. The:
facts coincide entirely with my own firm persuasion
the impossibility, that a doctrine so inconsistent wit
the evidence of the senses as that of three persons if
one being, should ever gain the sincere assent of any one
into whose mind it has not been instilled in early educa-
tion. Early impressions alone can induce a Christian to
believe that three are one, and one is three; just as by the
same means a Hindoo is made to believe that millions are
one, and one is millions ; and to imagine that an inani'
(Paul) should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly'
but after they had looked a great while, and saw n°
harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said
he was a God." Ch. xiv. ver. u : " The gods are com6
down to us in the likeness of men." Mosheim, Vol. I'
p. 25 : "Many who were not willing to adopt the whol^
of the doctrines of Christianity were nevertheless, 3s
appears from undoubted records, so struck with th*
account of his life and actions, and so charmed with th^
sublime purity of his precepts, that they numbered hin1!
(Jesus) among the greatest heroes, nay even among th£
gods themselves." Page 46 : " So illustrious was the fani^ 1
of Christ's power grown after his resurrection from th<?
dead and the miraculous gifts shed from on high upon h
Apostles, that the Emperor Tiberius is said to ha
proposed his being enrolled among the gods of Rom
which the opposition of the Senate hindered from takin,
effect." If some of the heathens, from the nature
of their superstitions, could rank Jesus among their fal
gods, it is no wonder if others, when nominally con
verted to Christianity, should have placed him on an equal-
ity with the true God, and should have passed a decre
constituting him one of the persons of the Godhead. The:
facts coincide entirely with my own firm persuasion
the impossibility, that a doctrine so inconsistent wit
the evidence of the senses as that of three persons if
one being, should ever gain the sincere assent of any one
into whose mind it has not been instilled in early educa-
tion. Early impressions alone can induce a Christian to
believe that three are one, and one is three; just as by the
same means a Hindoo is made to believe that millions are
one, and one is millions ; and to imagine that an inani'