1

If his crying to Lazarus with a loud Voice is thought a Circumftance of fome Sufpicion, it fhould be remember'd, that, when a Miracle is wrought for the Proof of the Character, or divine Miffion of any Perfon, it ought always to appear to be done by him, that it may not be reputed a cafual Event. i For this Reafon it is, that we find the Prophets, and other extraordinary Meffengers of God, at the fame time that they performed any Miracle, always making ufe of fome external Action, though that Action was in itself of no real Virtue. Thus when the Red-Sea was to be open'd to give a Paffage to the Children of Ifrael, God faid unto Mofes, Lift up thy Rod, and ftretch thine Hand over the Sea, and divide it. The firetching the Hand, it is plain, did not divide the Sea, but the divine Power, that accompanied that Action; and yet that Action was of great ufe to convince the People, that the dividing and returning of the Waters (which immediately follow'd thereupon) was not a cafual natural Event, but a plain Indication of God's abetting the Pretenfions of their Leader Mofes. And, in like manner, the Tone of our Saviour's Voice, whether low, or loud, availed nothing to the dead Man's Refurrection,

k

'Lardner's Vind. p. 65.

k Exod. xiv. 16.

rection, but fince the Hiftory affures us that a great Number of Jews, and, among thefe, Foes as well as Friends, were come to condole with the two Sifters upon this forrowful Event, common Reason will inform us, that it was highly proper, that all, who were prefent, fhould be equally Witneffes of the whole Procefs; and, confequently, that an elevated Voice was more fuitable to this Occafion, than when the like Miracle was done, either in a private Room, or before a fmaller Number of People.

If the Napkin, which Lazarus came The Napout of the Grave with, is thought to give kin on his any fufpicious Umbrage, it may not be Forehead no fufpiimproper to obferve, that the Text fays, cious Cirthat Lazarus's Face was bound about cumwith a Napkin; but it does not say, that ftance. it was cover'd with it, fo that the Spectators could not behold his Countenance. m The fame Evangelift, fpeaking of our Lord's Refurrection, uses the fame Expreffion, and tells us of the oápsov, & ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αυτέ, the Napkin, that was upon his Head, by which it would feem that the Sudarium was part of the Burial-drefs, bound about the Head, and covering only the upper-part of the Face or Forehead, like a Night-Cap; and

John xi. 44. Defence of Script. Hift. f. 29.

and if fo, this Circumftance can be no Proof that his Face was not open to the view of the Company. But allowing that his whole Face was covered with this Napkin, yet, fince, among all civiliz'd Nations, the Custom is reputed decent, to cover the Face of the Corpse with something or other, as this was a Proof that Lazarus was fuppofed by his Friends to be dead, when they buried him; fo, instead of any Bodies going into the Tomb to occafion the leaft Sufpicion of any clandeftine Practices, the proper Demonftration was to fee him come forth fairly alive, in the presence of the numerous Spectators, without any Change or Alteration of his Funeral Habit, but what was made before the People themselves, by our Saviour's faying, loofe him, and let him go. That fome or other in the Company was ready enough, upon this Occafion, to obey our Lord's Command, can hardly be doubted; and therefore it is very wonderful, that (had there been any Fraud or Collufion in this Refurrection) among fo great a Multitude, no one should have Sagacity enough to find it out. But the Truth of the Matter is," they none of them fufpected any fuch thing; they none of them thought, that, when a Man had been

Defence of Script, Hift, p, 28.

been four Days buried, there wanted any Proof of his being dead; they none of them thought that Chrift was only a pretended worker of Miracles, for, how' unwilling foever they were to own him for their Meffias, by long Experience they were convinc'd, that he was a Perfon mighty in Word and Deed.

Some few of the Company (as the History tells us) who were not convinc'd, even by this Miracle, went to the Chief Priefts and Pharifees; but what was it that they told them? "That they had "detected Jefus in an Impofture, and "found out how the whole Business of "this pretended Refurrection was trans"acted?".Quite otherwife, as appears from what themselves faid, when, in Confequence of this Information, they were affembled in Council, What do we do, for this Man doth many Miracles; if we let him thus alone, all Men will believe on him, and the Romans fhall come and take away both our Place and Nation, and thereupon they resolve that both he and P Lazarus fhould be put to death.

were fo

The Romans fhall come, and take away Why the our Place and Nation, was the publick Few's and Specious Reason given for the fan- enrag'd guinary Measures taken against our Sa- against Fefus. viour, but it was far from being the true

one.

John xi. 47, &c. ? Chap. xii. 10.

one. The Jews, indeed, were very impatient of the Roman Yoke, and, upon all Occafions, prone enough to Rebellion: But, fo far was our Saviour, either by Example or Precept, from giving any Disturbance to the Civil Government; fo far from affecting any fecular Dominion among them; that we find him very frequently ftrictly charging the very People, that he cur'd, not to divulge the Miracles he had wrought, 4 on purpose to discourage the pernicious Conceit, which had then obtain'd among the Jews, that their Meffiah was to be a temporal Prince. Here then was the true Caufe, that raised their Malice and Indignation against him, viz. a Defeat given to their Expectations, in a Doctring abhorrent to their corrupt Notions. For it was a fad Disappointment and Mortification to them, after the fond Conceits, they had fo long cherish'd, of a temporal Deliverer in the Perfon of the expected Meffiah, to be put off with one, who made fo little Figure in the World himself, and who, inftead of raifing his Followers to any Eminence of earthly Honour and Dignities, made it his Bufinefs to beget in their Minds a juft Contempt of the World, and all the fading

Vid. Whitby in Matth. ix. 39.