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The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

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<strong>the</strong> calls <strong>of</strong> nature. <strong>The</strong>ir undoubted denial <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

resurrection <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> body seems only <strong>the</strong> logical<br />

sequence from it. If <strong>the</strong> soul was a substance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

subtlest e<strong>the</strong>r, drawn by certain natural enticement<br />

into <strong>the</strong> body, which was its prison, a state <strong>of</strong><br />

perfectness could not have consisted in <strong>the</strong><br />

restoration <strong>of</strong> that which, being material, was in<br />

itself impure. And, indeed, what we have called<br />

<strong>the</strong> exaggerated Judaism <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sect—its rigid<br />

abstinence from all forbidden food, <strong>and</strong> peculiar<br />

Sabbath-observance—may all have had <strong>the</strong> same<br />

object, that <strong>of</strong> tending towards an external purism,<br />

which <strong>the</strong> Divine legislator would have<br />

introduced, but <strong>the</strong> ' carnally-minded ' could not<br />

receive. Hence, also, <strong>the</strong> strict separation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

order, its grades, its rigorous discipline, as well as<br />

its abstinence from wine, meat, <strong>and</strong> all ointments<br />

—from every luxury, even from trades which<br />

would encourage this, or any vice. This aim after<br />

external purity explains many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir outward<br />

arrangements, such as that <strong>the</strong>ir labour was <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

simplest kind, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> commonality <strong>of</strong> all property<br />

in <strong>the</strong> order ; perhaps, also, what may seem more

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