Imatges de pàgina
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blown up Skin of Anaxarchus, for you do not beat him. Now this Anaxarchus was no more than a natural Philofopher. What did Epictetus do? Why, when his Mafter was torturing his Leg, without Concern he smiled in his Face, and faid, You will break my Leg: And when he had broken it, he only faid, Did not I tell you that you would break it? But what did your God fay comparable to this? Nay, I will add farther, That his praying that the Cup might pafs from him, and his complaining of God's Defertion of him upon the Crofs, feem to thew a Fear and Defpondency, unworthy of any great Mind under Afflic

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Cred. Any one, who is acquainted with the Lives of Heathen the Philofophers, knows it was a chief Part of their Study Philofoto invent fmart Sayings to be talk'd of, which was the phers not more patiThing they principally aimed at; but then it is obferva→ ble, that thefe Sages who faid fo many fine Things, fel- rageous dom did any good ones. They did not fet half the Va- thanChrist. lue upon a good charitable Action, as they did upon an Apothegm; and Men of the moft vicious Lives, have utter'd fome of the finest Flowers of the Pagan Morality. 'Tis the Character of our Saviour, and his true Followers, Non magna loquimur, fed vivimus: Not to talk great Things, but to live them. And one good Action of Chrift and his Apostles, was worth an hundred of the Philofophers Sayings. If a Man had been to look into the Heart of one of thefe Philofophers, when he was afferting one of thefe Sentences, he might have read there a great deal of Pride reflected upon himself for the witty Thought, a great deal of impotent Malice against his Enemies, and a great deal of Fear and Impatience, tho' a predominant Pride made him carry off all, with a Jeft. But when Celfus fays, What did Chrift fay comparable to thefe? Origen anfwers admirably well, His Silence under the Whips and the Torments, fhewed a greater Courage and Patience than the most eloquent Greek could fhew, by speaking in thofe Circumftances. To which we may add one thing more, but fuch an one as eclipfes all the Glory of the Heathen Phi Lofophy, which is, that our Saviour, under his Sufferings, Ff

prays

Reafon of

our Savi

our's pray

ing that the

Cup, &c.

prays for his Enemies, Father forgive them, for they know
not what they do. Here is the greatest Degree of Love
and Charity difcovered towards the most inveterate Ent-
mics, whilft the Sayings of your fuffering Philofophers
carry in their Face an unregenerate Malice, and fpightful
Reflection upon their Adverfaries.

Patience.

As to what you object againft our Saviour's Praying, That the bitter Cup might pass from him; I cannot tell, why you fhould impute that to his Want of Courage of He made not paffionate Exclamations, he fhew'd no defponding Grief, nor any other indecent Pa fion, under his Torments, but bore them all with as much Mildness and Patience, as human Nature is capable of. Suppofe, one of your Heathen Philofophers had been in our Saviour's Place, and endured as much Pain in Mind and Body, as He? He would perhaps have faid, that Pain was no Evil, and that his Mind was fix'd upon fuch a fim Bafis, that his Torments were infenfible; though, at the fame Time, every Groan and Shrug would have given the Lie to his Principles. But our bleffed Lord, with all the Truth and Modefty of an innocent Perfon, own'd the Imperfection of human Nature, and its being fhocked at fuch a direful Paffion, but then, by the Affiftance of Grace, he quickly overcoming thofe natural Strugglings, with the greatest Meeknefs and Patience, refigns himfelf perfectly to the good Pleasure of God. O my Father, if it be poffible, let this Cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, Mat. xxvi. 39.

Nor does Chrift's crying out, Eli, Eli, lama fabthani, make any thing for what you affert. affert. For our Sa viour there repeats only a Part of a Pfalm, which was a Prophefy of him, and applicable to his prefent Circumftances; and therefore it cannot be expected that every Word of it fhould as exactly agree to our Saviour's Condition, as if the Expreffions had been framed by himsel Befides, we freely own, that our Saviour, when he used thefe Words, was under the Preffure of the greateft Pai and Grief that ever was known; he not only felt the Tor ments of the Crofs in his Body, but had his Soul weigh

ed!

ed down with the Grief of the whole World's Sins upon it; and, if the Senfe of a Man's own Sins are apt, oftentimes, to raise a Defpondency in him; how like a perfect Dereliction muft our Saviour's Grief appear, whofe Soul, at one Time, was oppreffed with Grief, for the Sins of so many Millions of Offenders?

Phil. My next Exception is against the Story of Christ's Refurrection. If it were true, it would not be fuch a wondrous Miracle, as you make of it. For it would not be the first Time, that an executed Malefactor has come to Life again.

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And Hiftories make mention of feveral others, who have returned to Life again a confiderable Time after they were feemingly dead. As Arifteas Proconnefius mentioned by Herodotus; Hermotimus Clazomenius, whose Soul did frequently go out of his Body, and return again; Epimenides of Crete, who flept in a Cave for fifty Years together; and Harmonius's Son, who lay dead for ten Days, and revived upon the Funeral Pile. But, for my Part, I do not find any Ground to believe this Relation of his Refurrection; for the Matter is attefted only by the Followers of Chrift, whofe Intereft it was to make him alive again, or elfe People would have laughed at them, for their believing a dead Man to be the Meffias, befides, fome of the Witnesses were filly Women, one of which had been a crazed Demoniack. Now, who can believe a Matter of Fact, attefted after this rate? Befides, what fhould be the Reafon of Chrift's being fo fhy of 1. being feen after the Refurrection? And why did he not converfe as freely with his Difciples, as he did before? The Relation of his dropping in fo accidentally upon them, and sometimes not to be known by them, and his giving them only fome imperfect Views and Glances of himfelf, over what he had done at other Times, fhews fomething in this Matter more than ordinary.

Celfus apud Orig. lib. 3. Ed. Cant. p. 125.

Id. Lib. 2. P. 94. & p. 101.

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Cred. I

Chrift re- Cred. I wonder, Philologus, you should be fo afraid of ally dead. believing a Matter fo well attefted as our Saviour's Refur

rection, and yet you can fwallow down all the Improbabilities and Contradictions, which the contrary Opinion includes in it. What a Jeft is it to compare the Refurrection of Chrift with the Recovery of fome hang'd Malefactors? Do you think feriously, that the Death upon the Crofs was any thing like our ordinary Sufpenfion? You know in that Punishment, the miferable Criminal was well nigh whipt to Death with Rods or Scourges; the tendereft Part of his Body, the Palms of his Hands, and the Soles of his Feet, were pierced thro' with Nails, and fo fuffered to linger out the little Remains of Life in extreme Pain and Anguifh; and was never taken down from the Crofs, till he was dead, which the attending Executioners did make fure of, by breaking his Bones,

ftabbing his Body. Now, though it may fometimes happen, that, when a Man is executed only by Strangulation, the Conftriction of his Throat may be abated, and his Blood, when it is not quite cold and ftagnated, may come to circulate again; yet this is impoffible naturally to happen in a Perfon, that was almost expiring under the Lashes of the Whips, that for feveral Hours was torn by the Nails of the Cross, and had at last his Heart pierced through by a Soldier's Spear. The Executioners, who were used to thefe Matters, knew very well, when the Perfon was fully dead, and understood the great Severity they muft undergo, if they did not inflict the utmost of the Sentence upon the Criminal. Or if this was poffible to have happened, it must be by great Care of the Body, by keeping it warm all the while, and cherishing it; but our Saviour's Body had the Funeral Rites immediately beftow'd upon it, and laid only in a cold ftony Grave. The Chill and Damps of fuch a Place would, probably, in all that Time, have killed any one that was not of the hardieft Constitution; but a Body fo miferably wounded and torn, as our bleffed LORD's was, could never have revived.

But

But what are thefe Inftances of Arifteas Proconnefius, &c. Inftances of to the Purpofe? Arifteas was a Man, who, Herodotus fays, c. confuAriiteas, dropt down dead in a Fuller's Houfe. The Fuller went red. to tell his Friends what happened, and when he 'came back, no Arifteas was to be found, and feveral Perfons faid they faw him at the fame Time at a diftant Place Seven Years after he appeared at Proconnefius, and made Verfes. Many Years after, he appeared among the Metapontini in Italy, and advised them to build an Altar to Apollo and him. Now is not this worthy Stuff to be compared with the Hiftory of our Saviour's Refurrection? Origen argues very well againft the Silliness of this Story; because there could be no manner of Ufe in this Prodigy; But our Saviour's Refurrection was, to confirm an excellent Inftitution of Religion. But it was not worth while to come into the World to write Verfes, and to occafion the building of an Altar or two. And we need not take any great Pains to confute this Fable, which is difcarded by the moft judicious of the Heathens, by Pliny, Plutarch, Iamblicus, and A. Gellius; and is a monftrous Story cither of Herodotus's coining, or the Pythagoreans, who as Heinfius, in his Notes upon Maximus Tyrius, has fhewn, were above all the Philofophers, most pleased with fuch Stories. As for the Story of Hermotimus, Lucian looks upon it as a Fable, and Pliny fays, his Body only lay half dead. And as for the long Sleep of Epimenides, Pliny and Diogenes Laertius fay, it is an idle Tale; the Truth of which is, that all this Time he was abfent, to ftudy the Nature of Plants: And Maximus Tyrius fays, this was only a moral Fable of Epimenides's own coining, to fhew forth, that Man's Life is only like a long Dream. And fo laftly, as for Harmonius's Son, it is plain that Story, as it is told in Plato, was defigned only as a Phyfiological Fable, Plato himself calls it μúdos, ao, &c. and the Way of telling it imports as much; for he mentions there the Sirens, and the Parca, and fuch other Mythological Romance, which he would never have done in a true Story. But Plutarch owns this to be only a Fable, of which there is an allegorical Senfe to be given; for when Plato

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