וויד View (for in this View it ought to be confidered) and then tell me, whether the Evidence don't amount to more than a strong Probability.--And confider what Evidence of this Kind you yourself can poffibly imagine, that would bring your Mind into a full Acquiefcence in this Truth, as certain and undoubted. If there can be any reasonable Doubt remaining, it must be for one of these following Caufes: Either, 1. It must be fuppofed, that the Jewish Prophets had no fuch Events in their Eyes; that the quoted Predictions had a Reference to something else; or perhaps no Reference to any Thing at all, but were the cafual Sallies of the feveral Authors fruitful Fancies or Imaginations. But then, if this be fuppofed, how comes it to pafs, that they are all fo exactly verified?—Certain it is, that the Jews fuppofed all thefe Predictions to be divine Infpirations, kept up stated Memorials of them, and longed for their Accomplishment. And it is equally certain, that at the very Time when they ought to be expected, they were all fulfilled, in every Circumstance. This is an Affair that demands your Attention.Here are Predictions of most wonderful amazing Events; fuch as no Appearances, that ever had been in the World, could any Way lead the Minds of the Prophets to think of, or imagine.Thefe Events were foretold as to Time, Place, and many other particular Circumstances; fo that you fee a History of our Saviour's Birth, Life, Death, Refurrection, Afcenfion, and future Kingdom, could be made up out of these Prophecies; and, to crown the whole, they have all been exactly fulfilled. Now then, I have a Right to demand, Were thefe from Heaven, or of Men? Can the moft licentious Imagination gination apprehend thefe very numerous and various Predictions to be the Effects of capricious Fancies; and their Fulfilment a Matter of mere Chance or Cafualty? Then may the Epicurean Philofophy take Place again; and the World, in all its Glory, Order and Symmetry, be reasonably believed to be the Effect of a fortuitous Concourse and Jumble of Atoms. I hope, this Doubt is cleared out of Way, and I know of but one more that can remain: Which is, your 2. That there never were any fach Predictions of these Things in the Jewish Prophets : But that all of them were written fince the Events. But then, you must fuppofe, that this was done by the Chriftians, without the Privity of the Jews and others, who had thefe Books in their Hands; or that it was done by a joint Confederacy of Chriftians and fers.-If the former, you must imagine, that the whole Nation of the Jews, and all the other Nations who had the Greek Tranflation of the Jewish Bible in their Hands, must be perfuaded to believe, that they always had, and always read thofe Things in their Bible, which were never there; or elfe all of them to a Man must be prevailed upon, out of Complaifance to their greatest Adverfaries, to interpolate their Bibles, by inferting thefe Predictions; and not leave to Pofterity a fingle Copy unadulterated, to discover and correct the Fraud. -But if you chufe the latter of thefe Suppofals, that these Prophecies were added to the Jewish Bibles by a joint Confederacy of Chriftians and Jews, you must imagine, that the whole Jewish Nation, in all their moft diftant Difperfions, united in a Confederacy to furnish the World with Armour against their own Infidelity; and to reprefent themfelves as the most unreasonable and wicked of all Mankind.. -These Absurdities are (I am sure) too grofs gro's for you to entertain; and yet I may venture to challenge you to think of any other Way, in which it is poflible this could be done. But you tell me, "It yet appears the greatest "Difficulty to you, to come at any Certainty of "the Truth of thofe Facts, upon which the Evi"dence of Christianity depends." And I readily acknowledge, that if thefe Facts are not true, all our Reafonings from Prophecy, and Miracles too, will come to Nothing. It is therefore proper to confider this Cafe more particularly.And in order that this may be brought into the closest View, and the Conclufion neceffarily force itself upon our Minds; let us confider what Confequences must follow upon the Suppofal, that thefe Facts are not true. You can have no rational Doubt of thefe Things, but upon one of these Suppositions: Either, --- 1. That the Apofiles, and other Reporters of thefe Facts, did themfelves certainly know that their Narratives of the Miracles were all of them mere Fictions and Falfhoods; and that they never did in Fact fee any fuch miraculous Works performed by Jefus Chrift; they never did fee and converse with him after his Refurrection; and that they never had those miraculous Gifts and Powers thểmfelves; nor ever inftrumentally conveyed them to others. Or, 2. That the Reporters of these Facts, and many thousands of others, had their Senfes and Imaginations impofed upon; and were made to believe, that they did fee, hear, and feel, fuch miraculous Operations, as were never performed.Or else, 3. That this whole History was an After-Game, and a mere Piece of Forgery, obtruded upon the World after the Facts were pretended to be done. These are all the Suppofitions that can possibly be be made in this Cafe. And I have already, in my fecond Letter, offered you fome Proof, that they are all of them unreasonable and abfurd.. However, for your Satisfaction, I will endeavour to fhew you, under each of thefe Suppofitions, fome of thofe Abfurdities that will neceffarily follow from them. In the first Place, if it be fuppofed that the Reporters of these Facts did themselves certainly know that they were falfe, then it will follow, that thoufands of others, before whom thofe Miracles were faid to be done, did alfo certainly know that they were made Fictions and Fables. For they were as capable of Certainty, whether they had feen thofe Multitudes of plain, open, visible Facts, which are reported, as the Apoftles were themfelves.-Upon this Suppofal, all Judea and Jerufalem muft certainly know, that they never faw any such Defcent of the Holy Ghoft in cloven Tongues upon the Apostles and Company; and that they knew nothing of thofe Gifts of Languages, which were pretended. The feveral Churches throughout the World, among whom the Apostles went, did certainly know, that they faw no Miracles wrought by them in Confirmation of their Miffion; that they never had, nor knew any Thing about thofe miraculous Gifts, which were faid to be fo common among them. And yet that all these confpired in the Deceit (Jews as well as Gentiles) to the utter Subversion of the Religion in which they had been educated; and Multitudes of them, at the Expence of their Honours, Eftates, and Lives, not one Perfon among them all appearing to detect the Villainy; the Jews tamely fubmitting to the Lofs of their Religion, and to the Imputation of the blackest Crime that ever was committed; and the Chriftian Churches as tamely fubmitting to all that all that is fhocking and terrible to Nature, rather than contradict and difprove what they knew to be falfe. Nay, what is more furprizing ftill, all of thefe, even the greatest Enemies of Christianity among them, have not only allowed, but actually afferted the Truth of thefe Facts; which, upon this Suppofal, they might have fo easily difproved, to the utter Ruin of the Chriftian Cause. And, to erown all, there can be no Motive in the World imagined, to put any of them upon acknowledging fuch notorious and abominable Falfhoods.-As I know, on the one Hand, that you cannot fwallow fuch grofs Abfurdities as thefe; f I also know on the other Hand, that you have no Way to avoid them, upon the Suppofition before us. It may be further obferved, that if the Reporters of these Miracles did themselves know, that their Narratives were fictitious and false, it will also follow, that the most vile and wicked Men that ever were in the World, and the most abandoned to all Senfe of Virtue and Piety, did draw up the best Syftem of practical Religion, the most worthy of God and Man that ever was known; that they, contrary to their inward Principles, fet the beft Examples, and walked according to the Rules of this Religion themselves; yea, without any known Motive, spent their whole Lives in a continued Courfe of the greatest Toil, Fatigue and Mifery, that ever Men did, to promote this Religion, to impress it upon the Minds of others, and to teach them, according to it, to live in the Love and Fear of God. It will also follow, that these Enemies of God and Godlinefs (who were fo profane, as against their own Light to propagate this Impofture, in the Name of God Almighty) did not only give up the Hopes of future Happiness, but all the Comforts of this Life alfo, in Vindica |