themselves, nay, which they secretly ridiculed? Where did they, who precipitated so many thousands of the human race into those most fearful evils which the profession of Christianity drew after it, learn to feign such a great and ardent love to mankind ? The character of those who must be called the inventors of the miracles we are considering, as far as we can discover it from their numerous sayings and writings, is, in an astonishing degree, opposed to an imposture the blackest that has been since men began to exist. But let us further inquire what could induce them to frame it. What did Jesus intend by that fable which they ascribe to him? If this question were put respecting Mahommed, the answer would be easy. His intention was to establish by imposture a power and dominion which continue to this day. But it would be difficult to tell what was the object of Jesus. A kingdom ? Yes, but one not of this world, in which he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister to others. Did he seek honours, riches, or pleasures ? He who wished to teach men by his own example to despise all these, whose whole life was humble, mean, destitute, temperate, laborious, afflicted! We cannot suppose that Jesus had any other object in view than that which he has gained ; that after his death he should be honoured by men as the Messiah and the Son of God, which he said he was. It is incredible that such an object should have entered the mind of the son of a carpenter; still more incredible that he should seriously have desired it; and most incredible of all that he should have hoped to attain it, and to attain it by those means which he did employ, and those co.. adjutors whom he did select. Did he hope to secure so high a pre-eminence without resources, power, authority, nay, by making all who were eminent for wisdom, authority, riches, and power, his enemies? Did he believe that his doctrine would prove highly acceptable to the people, and pleasant to carnal men, that it was peculiarly agreeable to the genius of Jews and Gentiles, and suitable to the prejudices of both ? Did he believe that these fishermen and artificers were such powerful coadjutors as are requisite in great designs ? or if he believed that they were qualified for this work, did he hope that they, whose timidity and fickleness he had learned by frequent experience, would, though frustrated in their expectation of a carnal kingdom to be erected by the Messiah, adhere steadfastly to him even after he had suffered an ignominious death ; that for his sake they would assert the most shameless false > hoods; that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, and ascending to heaven ; that they would speedily convince many thousands of men of the truth of these and other things, that they would not cease to propagate them throughout the whole world, whatever they should suffer on that account from Jews and Gentiles, men of all ranks conspiring for their destruction; nay, that they would seal these falsehoods with their blood, that their example in this would be followed by many others, and that at last his sect would triumph, possess extensive authority in the earth, and endure even to the end of time? Surely if Jesus was not what he claimed to be, it cannot be imagined how he could even dream that in prosecuting such an object he would in the slightest degree be successful. But what were the great advantages which Jesus promised to his coadjutors, who were so constant, so faithful after his death, so resolute in persevering, even to their last breath, in the imposture which they had commenced? What could a man of no authority, so destitute that he “ had not where to lay his head," have promised ? What must he have promised who wished his disciples to despise all things, riches, honours, pleasures, every thing, in a word, but heaven? And if he had promised them any thing else, they would have discovered, when he died, that they had been most basely deceived. But he promised nothing to his disciples on earth but poverty, contempt, persecution, imprisonments, tortures, and death. And the event showed that these were not vain promises. Did he hire them by such rewards as these to engage in this impious imposture, and so courageously to fulfil their engagement? He set before them, I acknowledge, a great and eternal blessedness in heaven. But the apostles were not altogether so simple, they were not so very foolish as to seek to gain heaven by deceit. We can, therefore, perceive nothing which could urge either Jesus or his disciples to so detestable an imposture; but, on the contrary, we see many strong motives which both could and should have deterred them from commencing it, or powerfully and effectually have prevented them after it was begun, from persevering in it even to death. But we will discuss this subject elsewhere. Let us now proceed, according to the plan we have laid down, to consider, in the second place, the miracles themselves which are ascribed to Christ; whether they are of such a na • Matt. x. 16. John. xv. 18—20., and xvi. 2, 33 and xxi. 18. + See Note VI ture that they could easily be forged. It would be too tedious to consider all their circumstances ; but he who may do so will observe many things which he will find could not have been forged in any way at the place, and during the period, in which they must be said to have been forged. I will touch upon the chief heads only. A few particular facts are more easily forged than a great many. But the miracles of Christ in themselves were so numerous that they followed in rapid succession, and so connected too with other facts, that along with the miracles many other things must necessarily be supposed to have been forged. Common events are more easily forged than miracles, which men are naturally reluctant to believe; which, like Thomas, they wish to be visible and palpable to themselves ; which universally, while they call forth admirers, call forth also diligent investigators, and inquisitive scrutinizers of every thing. Miracles which cannot be examined are more easily forged than those which can be subjected without difficulty to examination. Clandestine miracles, performed when none but accomplices are present, are thus more easily forged than public ones ; remote, than those that are nigh; ancient, than recent ; devoid of circumstances, than completely circumstantial. But the miracles of Jesus were public, performed in the presence not of his disciples alone, but for the most part in that of others also, the individuals on whom and before whom they were wrought being frequently very numerous, amounting to many thousands. They were forged, if they be forgeries, in the very places, and at the very time in which they occurred. They are related with all their circumstances, the country, the city, the village, the time in which, the occasion on which, and the persons on whom and before whom they were performed. In a word, a tale, the belief of which is agreeable, is more easily forged than one which is disagreeable. "But if the miracles of Christ were forged, they are a tale the hearing of which, if you consider their consequences, is naturally disagreeable to all Unite all these difficulties, and they will of themselves constitute what the schoolmen denominate a moral impossibility. This difficulty will be increased if you consider, in the third place, who they are who must here be regarded as having been deceived, or with whom these miracles first obtained credit. It is more difficult for such facts to obtain credit with many than with few. The miracles of Christ in a very short time obtained credit with I know not how many thousand individuals, nay I know not how many nations. It is more difficult for impos men. tors to obtain credit with those to whom they are well known, than with those who are unacquainted with them. But the disciples of Christ obtained credit with those to whom they were most intimately and completely known, among whom they had lived from their infancy, from whom they could not have concealed a malicious and fraudulent disposition, who, in a word, could not fail to detect the imposture. It is more difficult to impose miracles on those who are acquainted with the persons on whom and before whom they are said to have been performed, and who are acquainted with the places in which it is affirmed they were wrought, than with those who know nothing of these things. But the miracles of Christ obtained credit with the fellow-countrymen, the fellow-citizens, the friends, the neighbours, the brothers, the children, &c. of those on whom and before whom they are said to have been performed ; at least with those who, as they went three times every year to Jerusalem, could frequently converse with the eye-witnesses of these miracles, who frequently saw the places in which they are said to have taken place, and often visited them even after they had heard of the facts. It is more difficult for miracles to obtain credit with those who are averse to the belief of them, than with those who are prepared and inclined to believe them. But the miracles of Christ went to establish a doctrine, which those to whom they were first related greatly disliked. The covetous, the ambitious, the intemperate, the impure, and the idolatrous could not regard these miracles as divine, without einbracing a doctrine completely opposed to their vices. Now if the miracles of Christ seem hard to be believed to many in the present day, for the reasons specified in a former chapter, they were much more hard to be believed by those to whom they were first announced. They do not oblige us to abandon those prejudices which had to be abandoned by the Jews and the Gentiles on their first conversion to Christianity, concerning the carnal kingdom of Messiah, the perpetuity of the ceremonial law, the observation of the traditions of the elders, the sufficiency of mere external worship; they do not oblige us to abandon that Jewish pride, which was cherished by the seed of Abraham, the nation, as they called themselves, beloved of God, and which has not been relinquished by the Jews in their present low condition ; to lay aside that mad desire of vengeance which reigned in the whole people of the Jews, and the gratification of which was almost the only reason which made them long for the coming of the Messiah ; to renounce those vices and abuses tolerated, and of long continuance among Jews and Gentiles. We have been long accustomed to hear the doctrine of Christ; it does not now appear to us, to use the words of an apostle, such a stumbling-block or foolishness as it appeared at first to the Jews and the Gentiles. In a word, we can without danger believe the miracles of Christ, we cannot without danger disbelieve them.* They, on the other hand, could, without hazard, ridicule and laugh at them; they could not, without hazard, believe them to be divine ; innumerable evils, bonds, tortures, death, were the consequences of this faith. But how could these miracles obtain credit both with Jews and Gentiles, the malicious enemies of Jesus and his doctrine ? Why durst not those who deny their divinity, deny also their reality? Who can doubt that the rulers of the Jews inquired into the truth of these facts with the utmost, diligence? Who can believe that the most powerful, wise, crafty, and vigilant men of their nation could be ignorant of any of those events which were said to be daily taking place in their country? What was there of which they could not have been informed by Judas Iscariot, the accomplice of the imposture, if there was any imposture in the matter? But, unless these miracles had been believed even by them, Christ would not have dared before his enemies to appeal so confidently as he does appeal to his works.+ Why, moreover, do the evangelists, who relate with the greatest openness every thing with which the enemies of Christ upbraided him, and all the calumnies with which he was assailed, never intimate, that it was objected to him by any one that he had falsely pretended to have performed or to be performing miracles? Why was not this brought forward among the grounds of accusation advanced against him? Why durst none of the suborned witnesses affirm this ? Nay, indeed, the very crimes which the Jews laid to the charge of Christ show that they were convinced of the truth of his miracles ; as when they said that he profaned the Sabbath by healing men on that day, and that he cast out devils by the prince of the devils. This latter calumny, by constant tradition transmitted from the Jews to their posterity, has at length given birth to a variety of fables, concerning the performance of miracles by Jesus, through means of the four-lettered name, secretly stolen, I know not how, from the temple ; or by magic which he had learned in Egypt ; and other fables Joha v. 16. Ib. x. 25. • See Note VII. # Matth. xii. 10, 24. |