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grofs for you to entertain; and yet I may venture to challenge you to think of any other Way, in which it is poffible this could be done.

But you tell me, 66 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 Chriftianity depends." And I readily acknowledge, that if these Facts are not true, all our Reasonings 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 these Facts are not true.You can have no rational Doubt of thefe Things, but upon one of these Suppofitions: Either,

1. That the Apofiles, and other Reporters of thefe Facts, did themfelves certainly know that their Narratives of thefe 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 thofe miraculous Gifts and Powers themfelves; 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.

Thefe are all the Suppofitions that can poffibly

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 those 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, vifible Facts, which are reported, as the Apoftles were themselves.Upon this Suppofal, all Judea and Jerufalem mult certainly know, that they never faw any fuch 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 anyThing about thofe miraculous Gifts, which were faid to be fo common among them. And yet that all thefe confpired in the Deceit (Jews as well as Gentiles) to the utter Subverfion 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 blackett Crime that ever was committed; and the Chriftian Churches as tamely fubmitting to all

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 eafily difproved, to the utter Ruin of the Chriflian Caufe. And, to crown 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 these; fɔ 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 best Examples, and walked according to the Rules of this Religion themfelves; yea, without any known Motive, fpent their whole Lives in a continued Courfe of the greatest Toil, Fatigue and Misery, 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 alfo follow, that these Enemies of God and Godliness (who were fo profane, as against their own Light to propagate this Imposture, 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

tion of this known Falfhood; that to this End they ventured upon every Thing that is most terrible and affrightning to human Nature, and even upon the moft cruel and barbarous Death, without the leaft poffible Hopes of Advantage, either in this Worid or that to come.—For they did know, and could not but know, that they were going themselves, and leading their Followers, upon the Pikes of their numerous and potent Adverfaries, without any Profpect beyond the Grave (upon the Suppofition before us) but of eternal Damnation.-And what still increases the Abfurdity of this Suppofition is, that not one of these ever retracted this known Falfhood, even in the Article of Death; but boldy encountered the most shameful and painful Death their Adverfaries could inflict, rather than confefs the Truth. What, Sir, can you poffibly imagine of fuch Conduct as this?-That thefe Men were not mad and distracted appears evidently by their Works; which, though plain and familiar, were the molt confiftent, divine, and rational, that ever appeared in the World.-Here must therefore be a continued Scene of Miracles, one Way or other. It mult at least be allowed miraculous, for fo many Men, knowingly and continually, to act in direct Oppofition to all their Interefts, Comforts and Hopes, and run counter to all the Principles of Humanity, to all the Springs of Action that were ever known among Men.

Let us now try the fecond Suppofal, and enquire, whether 'tis poffible, that the Reporters of thefe Facts, and all other Spectators of them, had their Senfes impofed upon, by any legerdemain Trick, Juggle or Deceit ?-Whether, for Inftance, the Senles of the Apostles were impofed upon for fome Years together, while there were daily Miracles wrought by their Master before their Eyes? Whether the

Senfes

Senfes of whole Multitudes were impofed upon, that they really thought they faw the Sick healed, the Deid railed, &c. and thefe Things repeated again and again for a long Tract of Time, when there was indeed nothing at all in it ?-Whether the Witnesses of our Lord's Resurrection were impofed upon, when they fuppofed they faw him after his Death, eat and drank, and conversed familiarly with him for forty Days together, and beheld him taken up to Heaven before their Eyes?-And whether all the first Churches were impofed upon, when they imagined that they faw Miracles repeatedly wrought among them, and had themselves miraculous Gifts and Powers?-If thefe extravagant Sup pofitions are allowed, of what Service can our Senf es be to us, and how can we any Way be certain of any Thing whatsoever?-We may as reafonably imagine, that our whole Life has been one continued Dream, and that in Reality we never faw, heard, felt, thought, fpake, or acted anyThing at all. Here likewife you must neceffarily allow a continued Courfe of Miracles, one Way or other. At least it must be allowed miraculous, that fo great a Part of the World fhould all lofe their Senfes together, and yet all of them imagined, that they had all this Time their Senses in their full Exercife.

Let us next confider, whether the last of the Suppofitions, that the whole Hiftory of the Miracles, wrought by our Lord Jefus Chrift, and his Apoftles, was an After-Game, a mere Piece of Forgery, obtruded upon the World in fome diftant Time, after the Facts were pretended to be done, will appear more reasonable than the others already confider

ed.'

I have spoken fomething to this in my second Letter, to which I refer you; and shall now only

add

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