3. The Nature of Chrift's Miracles were fuch, that they Not capable could admit of no Collufion. Jugglers may play abun-of Colton, dance of ftrange Tricks, because they are Mafters of an artificial Slight of Hand, and ufe a great Deal of cunning Gefticulation to keep People's Eyes from an exact Sight of what they do, which if narrowly lookt into, would not at all be wondrous,

But our Saviour's Miracles can never be accounted for, this Way. No Juggler can make a fick Man believe, he is well; or a blind Man fancy, he fees ever afterward. It is poffible, by fome fecret Cunning, that Chrift might make five Loaves to appear to be ten; but he could never by fuch an Art mike five thoufand People think they filled their Bellies with them. Legerdemain might put a Fallacy upon thefe People's Eyes; but fuch travelling People's Stomachs could never be cheated, after this Rate. What Trick could be play'd, when the Woman that touched but the Hem of his Garment, had her Iflue of Blood dried up? Or what Juggling could there be, when he raised up Lazarus from the Dead, when the Corps ftank, and the Spectator's Nofes, as well as their Eyes, were Witneffes of the Miracle?

A Man that would fet up for a Counterfeiter of N Cheat, fuch Miracles, which would coft a Man fo much Pains to be he coill get perform, and fo much Danger, if found out, muft needs nothing by expect fome temporal Advantage by it. No Body could it. be fo fimple, to forfeit his Honesty, his Fame, and his Neck for nothing. He would expect fome Recompence or other, for fuch an hazardous Undertaking, and not cheat for pure Cheating fake. But what Advantage did Our Saviour make, or could he expect, from that Impofture, which you would fuppofe him to have carried on? As for Fame, and Riches, and Honour, which are the Baits that fet all your Impoftors agog, it is plain he defpifed, and undervalued all thefe Things. There is no Doubt. to be made, but that if his Eyes had been upon Gain, he might have drawn confiderable Wealth from fuch a Number of People, which every where followed him; or at

Ee 4

great

leaft

leaft he might have raised himself above that Poverty, he

chofe to live in.

So many religious Men and Women, and some of them of confiderable Fortune, would have been very proper Subjects, for a Man of fuch Defigns to have worked upon; but this was never objected, or fufpected of him ; and he was fo little Mafter of Riches, that he was forced to be at the Expence of a Miracle, to pay a fmall Tax. If Fame or Honour had been his Aim, he would have endeavoured to have fpread and propagated the Glory of his miraculous Works; but he rather endeavoured, upon all Occafions, to ftifle them; and, when the Multitude would have made him a King, he conveyed himself away from them. The other Mock-Meffias's were fpurred on to their Impoftures, by the Hopes of that Kingdom, which our Saviour refufed; but it does not appear, that our Saviour had any other Aim, but to do Good to Men's Souls ; and, when ever they talked to him of a temporal Kingdom, he always told them His Kingdom was not of this World. If our Saviour had had any Spark of Ambition in him, That favourable Opportunity would have tried him; for the Jews, at that Time, were full of Expectation of a temporal Meffias, and he might have carried the whole Nation after him, if he had but fet up for a fecular Prince. For that, which difgufted the Jews moft, and made many of his Followers leave him, was his Croffing their Notions with a fpiritual Kingdom, which they had no Idea of. 'Tis plain, therefore, if our Saviour had defigned any fecular Advantage to himself, he would have clofed with their fond Opinions, to have gained an Intereft among them; but contrariwife, he loft the Favour of many of their great ones, by Reproving them for their Faults, and, at laft, flighted the Kingdom, they would have conferred upon him. Therefore (I fay) no Honour could be a Bait to him to carry on an Imposture, who could fo bravely defpife the greatest of Honours. All that you can fay, is, That he looked upon it as the greatest Honour, to be the Ring-leader of a Sect.

5. But then we must confider, that though this has Because of been the Inducement for feveral Impoftors, to deceive the great the People, yet this has been, when they thought they impoftors. Penalty on were able to do it without any great hazard, efpecially of their Lives. Every one, who lived in the Jewish Com mon-wealth, muft needs know what a capital Punishment was to be inflicted upon Falfe Prophets, or Impoftors, and therefore no one in his Senfes would venture his Life, for the fake of fuch a Cheat, where there was not an extraordinary Advantage attending. As for thofe that fet up for Temporal Meffias's, the Cafe is widely different; they gathered after them a Number of Men in a hostile Way, who could defend them from the Power of the Law; but those who propagated a falfe Religion, in a peaceable Method, were left naked to the Sword of Justice, and therefore they could no otherwife but expect, to facrifice their Lives for their Doctrine: And, according to your Suppofition, this must be our Saviour's Cafe; and therefore, how can you fuppofe him to be fo fimple, as to expofe his Life for the fake of a wild Imposture, and for the Honour of being a Ring-leader to fome few giddy. Followers? Indeed, in thofe Places, where Liberty of Opi-: nion is tolerated, Men may venture upon fuch an impudent Defign; but this is not to be fuppofed in a Nation, where the Laws were fo fevere upon Innovators..

Every one, who reads our Saviour's Sermons, muft allow him to be a Man of common Senfe; but he must have been a Man out of his Wits, to have gone about to carry on an Impofture, which he must have been certain to be executed for. Or, if he had any Hopes to evade the Rigor of the Laws, it must be by foothing the Men in Authority; but our Saviour did not in the leaft attempt this, when by his daily Reproof, he provoked the Scribes and Pharifees, who only were able to fupport him; and therefore you must make him downright mad, to have managed an Imposture after that Rate.

6. If all thefe Miracles were Cheats and Delufions, tho' Such Numthey had the good Luck to pafs upon the People at firft, bers could yet fome Time or other the Fraud must be difcovered,

efpe

not conceal a Cheat

efpecially, fince, if they were Cheats, they must be managed by a Combination of feveral People. Suppofe, that 'twas agreed between Lazarus and Chrift, that he fhould appear only to be dead, and to be raised by him again; that the Widow's Son plaid the fame Trick; that the blind Men could fee before; that the lame Men pretended only to halt, and that the Five Thousand Men gave only out a falfe Story, that they had their Bellies full out of fuch a fmall Provifion, &c. Now if thefe Miracles were only pretended, and there being fo many Men confcious to the Cheats, how fhould it come to pafs, that none of all thofe fhould ever difcover them? When a Number of Men are concerned in a Secrecy, even where the Caufe is moft juft, fome Traytor or other betrays the Intriegue; and therefore you cannot think, there would be more Fidelity in fuch a vile Impofture, as you fuppofe this to be. Chrift had one falfe Difciple among the Twelve; and therefore, to be fure, all thofe Five Thousand Men could never agree to be Vouchers for fuch a lying Miracle. Or if they kept his Counsel in his more profperous Eftate; yet when he fell into Trouble, if they had any Infincerity to accufe him of, to be fure fome or other would have been brought to his Trial to accufe him; which would have given in more material Evidence, than any thing his Adverfaries then objected against him. There is hardly one fingle Imposture advanced, but that fomething or other is started up in a little Time, which, by comparing of Circumftances together, difcovers the Cheat: But for fuch a Multitude of Impoftures, (which our Saviour muft upon your Account be guilty of) carried on by a Confederacy of fo many People, and in the fpace of fo many Years never to be difcovered; and for want of this, that the Jews fhould be forced to take up with fuch poor Evidence against our Saviour; and that all the Infidels, down from the Apoftolick Age to this Time, fhould have never been able to make any fuch unfair Dealings appear; this is perfectly incredible, and more mira, culous, let me tell you, than any thing that we fay he did.

7. But 7:

own'd his

7. But is it not a little unreasonable, Philologus, that All Chrift's you should question the Truth of our Saviour's Mira- Enemies cles, which have been owned for fo many Ages, and Miracies. which the greatest Enemies of the Chriftian Religion never could be fo hardy as to queftion? The Unbelievers, in the Time of Chrift and his Apoftles, and in the next following Generations, were the beft able to examine into the Truth of these Matters; but they, after all the Inquifition their Wit or Malice could make, could not find but that our. Saviour did thefe miraculous Works, which are attributed to him; and therefore they fet themselves only to give an Account, how he came to do them otherways, than by the Power of God, which they were unwilling to own he was affifted with. The Jews, who were contemporary with our Saviour, attributed them to a diabolical Power, faying, He caft out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils. The Heathen Infidels, as Hierocles, Celfus, Julian, &c. do contend, that they were done by Magick; and the modern Jews never pretend to difown the Matters of Fact, but only fay, thefe extraordinary Things were done by a right Pronunciation of the Shem Hamphoras, or the inexpreffible Name of God, which Chrift having, by Cunning got out of the Temple, enabled him, (as they tell us) to do all the Miracles which he did. And befides, the modern Jews are fo far from difowning the miraculous Power of Chrift, that they have feveral Stories of it in their Talmud; as Mahomet himself, in his Alcoran, has the fame. Therefore, methinks, it has a little too much the Air of Confidence, for the Unbelievers only of this Age, to deny his miraculous Power, which has conftantly been allowed, by the most inveterate Enemies of Chriftianity, for fo many hundred Years; fome of which lived fo nigh the Time, when thefe Matters were tranf acted, and were fo fharp-fighted withal, and ow'd fuch a Spight to Chriftianity, that they would have detected the Juggle, if there had been any, altogether as well as our Eagle-eyed Wits now a-days pretend to do.