Perception, and had the fame fort of Knowledge of, as they had of their own Existence.

ALLOWING then that they were fure of This, it follows that they were Sure of Jesus's having been rais'd from the Dead, and of their having convers'd with him after his Refurrection; for it was in one of their Converfations with him, during that period of Time, that he promis'd them this Gift of Tongues; and the fulfilling of the Promife was a full Proof of his having been truly prefent with them, when he made it.

SO that this Objection will not ftand the Enquiry: But ftill it is faid, that the Apoftles and Evangelifts were Cheats and Impoftors, and that they knowingly Deceived Mankind in the Accounts which they have left in Writing.

II. YET, as in the former Cafe it was proved (I think) to be Abfolutely Impoffible that they fhould be Deceived in this great Fact, fo in This Cafe it will appear to be Morally Impoffible. that they should be Deceivers.

FOR they were at first twelve in Number, one of which Betray'd their Mafter, and was the cause of his Death; another Deny'd him thrice at his Trial, with Oaths and Curfes declaring that he did not know him; and all of them fhew'd so much want of Courage, fuch an Abject Fear, as that they forfook him and fled for their own Safety: Is it then probable in the leaft degree, that after fuch Proofs of the Bafenefs of fome, and of the Weakness of all of them, they should be fo far from being Sufpicious of one another, nay fhould fo far throw their whole Welfare into each other's hands, as all to agree and unite in carrying on a publick Impofture? Could they hope to be more Secure against being betray'd by each other than their Mafter was, who was the Centre of their Union, and for whose fake they had af fociated together? Could they be fure that there was no Judas ftill left among them; or that Peter's Cowardife, or their own ftrong Fears would not revive again upon fome fresh Occafion? In a word, is it not against all Reafon and Experience, that a Confederacy among wicked Men, when once broken thro Treachery and Cowardife, fhould ever be renew'd among the fame Perfons, and cemented again? fo that in this view, if they had been Impoftors, they must have been the Weakest of Men too; and That (we know) is no part of the Character of fuch as can carry on an Impofture.

BESIDES it is to be confidered, that no Motive can be af figned for their Combining in fuch a Falfhood: It is (I think) univerfally own'd, that neither Grandeur, nor Riches, nor Pleasure, were what the Apoftles aimed at ; the marks of the Contrary are too plain to be denied: but yet there are fome who think, that they may fairly afcribe it to Vanity and the Love of being Singular; a Paffion which, if they find to be ftrong in Themfelves, they may be led to conclude, that it might have been as

B 2

ftrong

Part I. ftrong in the Apoftles: But even that Vanity and that Singularity cannot be fuppofed to have a place Here, for this plain reason; be-, caufe the Doctrine which they taught, they taught not as their Own, but as their Mafter's: they were only his Messengers; and therefore, if it fucceeded to their Heart's wifh, they could expect no Reputation as the Inventors or first Discoverers of it, and they were too many in Number to affect to be Singular in this point: Here then is a Confideration of great Weight in the Enquiry, for if the Objection be ftrip'd of this fuppos'd Motive, it will be Morally Impoffible to affign any other.

BUT above all things, it must be infifted upon as a Proof of their Sincerity, that the whole Number of the Apostles unanimoufly afferted this Fact of Jefus's Refurrection, and of their having feen him in all the Circumftances before related. This they did All of them, if Hiftory may be believed, in spite of every Oppofition and Perfecution, even with their Dying breath, and when expiring under the Cruelest Tortures.

THIS is naturally as ftrong a Proof as a Fact is capable of; for Death is the utmoft Trial, the fureft Teft which human Nature can be expos'd to.

AND it is no Abatement to the force of this Proof to say, (a)" that many Cheats and Criminals have afferted their Innocence

and denied their Guilt in the utmost extremity of Death;" for the two Cafes are fo far from being Parallel, that they are exactly Contrary; fuch Cheats and Criminals being tempted to this Denial of their Guilt by the hope of Saving their Lives; whereas in the Apoftles cafe the Only hope, that they could have, of Saving their Lives was by owning the Falfhood (if it was one), and acknowledging themselves to be Guilty, which is just the Reverse of what they did.

NOR can the abovementioned Proof be weaken'd by faying, that there are Inftances of Men, who have died for Errors as well as for Truths, and have given up their Lives in a Stubborn defence of Points, which others fo heartily Abhorr'd, that they died rather than Receive them.

FOR tho' all this be True, yet of what is it True? of Opinions and Doctrines only, in which Men may be fully perfuaded in Contrary ways: but the Teftimony of the Apostles concern.. ing Chrift's Refurrection is a Teftimony concerning a Fact, whereof they declared themfelves Eye-witneffes; and let any Unbeliever produce one Inftance (in all the Records of Time) of a fingle Man, much more of Twelve Sober and Serious Men, all chearfully undergoing the most violent Deaths rather than Recant what they Knew to be a direct Falfhood. The Author of the Difcourfes on the Miracles of our Saviour, Part I. pag. II. quotes St. Auftin as telling us, that fuch Works as Jefus did might be imputed to, and effected by Magick Art; but this Author muft

(a) Mr. Woolfton's Difcourfes, &c. Part 6. pag. 27.

(I

(I think) have known, that St. Auftin fays no fuch thing, and that we may not doubt about This, he has plac'd that Father's Words at the bottom of his page, (b) from whence it appears, that St. Auftin fays not one word of the poffibility of their being effected by Magick Art: But only, that there were fome Men of fuch an odd turn, as to afcribe them, tho' well attefted, to the Power of Magick. Here now is an Atteftation of a Fact, made by Mr. W. when he probably knew it to be Falfe: but would he perfift in This, if a Rope were about his Neck, and he going to fuffer for This Falfhood? efpecially, if to Recant, would fave his Life, and his Refufal would certainly put his Sentence in Execution I don't fpeak this as my With, but for Argument's fake only. And we may truft Him to answer the Queftion, and be Sure that the Reply would be, What? do you take me for a Madman? And do You take the Apostles for Madmen? Their Writings furely fhew it lefs than His; and therefore we may conclude that Human Courage, or Obftinacy (let them call it which they pleafe), cannot go fo far: at leaft, we are fure, that the Refurrection has nothing near fo Incredible in it, as this Suppofition has which fome have made against the Belief of it.

UPON the whole it may be faid, that there is no Fact in Nature, that can be fo well proved and fupported as This is; for to suppose the Apostles to have been Deceived, is to suppose a thing Abfolutely Impoffible; and to affirm that they were Deceivers, is to affirm a thing which is Morally impoffible, i. e. Improbable in the higheft Degree.

THUS I have laid before the Reader a direct Proof of this Fact, the Refurrection of Jefus; and if a thing be once prov'd in this way, Objections drawn from the Circumstances and Expreffions of the Hiftory have very little weight againft it; because the Ignorance or Inattention of Men may be the foundation of thefe Objections, and plain Proofs are too stubborn to give way to fuch little Oppofitions as these are.

HOWEVER fince Objections have been rais'd against the Reality of our Saviour's Refurrection, and they feem to deserve an answer, because they are drawn from the Circumstances of the Story as related by the Evangelifts, I fhall endeavour to give a full answer to each of them.

ALL that has been offer'd on this head, may be reduc❜d to these four Objections:

THAT Jefus did not rife at the time he had foretold. THAT fome of his Difciples did not Know him when he appear'd to them, or they Knew him by fuch Signs as could be no Sure Marks of its being Him.

(b) Etfi atteftabantur Miracula, non defuiffent (ficut & nunc mufitant) qui Magica potentiæ cun&ta illa tribuerent. Contr. Fauft. L. 12. c. 4, Tho the Miracles were attefted, there would not be wanting Men, who would afcribe them all to the Power of Magick, as fome even now-a-days pretend to do.

B 3

THAT

THAT he did not perfonally appear to the Chief Priefts and Elders after his Refurrection, as (they fuppofe) he ought to have done for their Conviction. And lastly,

THAT the Stone at the mouth of the Grave being Seal'd, and the Seal being broken open, when the Sealers were not prefent, here is room to fufpect a Fraud and Imposture.

EACH of these shall be confider'd in its order.

IS. FIRST it is faid, that Jefus did not rife at the time which he had foretold; it was not (fay they) on the third day, for that would have been on Monday, not upon Sunday or the firft day of the week: much lefs was it after three days, as one Evangelift expreffes it; and leaft of all is it True (as they pretend) that he was in the heart of the Earth three Days and three Nights, which Yet he declar'd he wou'd be, as another Evangelift reports it.

BUT in answer to all this it may be prov'd (as it often has been), that all these Expreffions, which are fo many Jewish ways of fpeaking, are exactly agreeable with the Event, when they are rightly explain'd.

FOR doing which it must be obferv'd, that the Jews counted their Days (I mean their Natural Days, or Days of 24 hours) very differently from what We do; for We reckon them from 12 O'Clock at Night to 12 the next Night; but They reckon'd from one Sunfet, to the next Sunfet, and all the time between them They called a Day, juft as Mofes did when he said, the Evening and the Morning were the first day, Gen. i. v. and from Even unto Even fhall ye celebrate your Sabbath, Lev. xxiii. 32. See alfe Acts xxvii. 27, compared with ver. 33. And the Greeks feem anciently to have done the fame thing; for with them a Day and Night was called vuxnusev, in which compounded word the Night is named before the Day.

ANOTHER thing to be obferv'd on this head is, that they reckon'd (as indeed all Nations do) any Part of a Day of 24 Hours for a whole Day: to this purpose an eminent Jewish Writer (Aben-Ezra on Levit. xii. 3.) fpeaking of the Law for circumcifing an Infant on the 8th Day, fays, that if the Infant was born but one hour before the first Day was ended, it was counted for one Whole Day: And fo for the fame reason, the Part of the Day that was pafs'd, when it was circumcis'd, was reckon'd a Whole Day, if it was only one hour, that was pafs'd, of the Evening with which that Day begun. Reckoning then that the first Day began on our Thursday at Sunfet, and ended upon Friday at Sunfet; and (because our Lord died about three in the afternoon of That Day) reckoning that part of a Day for a whole Day, by this means we have one Day; and Saturday is on all hands allowed to be another Day; and as the third Day began on Saturday at Sunfet, and our Saviour rofe on the morning following, that Part of a Day is fairly computed for the third Day, and thus the Prediction was fully accomplished.

IT

IT is no wonder indeed, that the Gofpel fhould be contradicted by fuch Cavillers as thefe; but there is one, who might have expected better Quarter from them, and that is Porphyry, as great an Enemy to Chriftianity as the Heart of an Unbeliever could wifh; and yet this Objection of Theirs, against Sunday's being the third Day, contradicts their Favourite Porphyry, who in his Treatife call'd de Homericis Quæftionibus fays, "anyons ἡμέρας επιδημήσας, καὶ ε τείτης έωθεν ἐξιῶν, τῇ τείτη Σποδημῶν λέγεται. καίτοι μίαν * μέσω ὅλων ἐτέλεσεν. He that is at home in the Evening, and goes abroad on the Morning of the Third Day, is faid to be from home on the Third Day; tho' there be only One Day compleat, which is the Middle one (c). But we want neither Porphyry, nor any other Author to prove the Propriety of this Expreffion; for it is a way of fpeaking, which We and all other Nations of the World/ufe: What I have faid on this head, was chiefly to lead the way to what follows.

THE Expreffion on the third Day is about ten feveral times us'd in the New Teftament on this occafion, and therefore muft ferve for explaining the other Phrases but once or twice at most made ufe of fuch is that of Chrift's rifing after three Days; Mark viii. 31. the meaning of which Expreffion is fairly fhewn by what we read in 2 Chron. x. 5. where Rehoboam fays to the People, Come again unto me after three Days, and yet ver. 12. we read that the People came to Rehoboam on the third Day, as the King commanded, faying, Come again to me on the third Day: A plain Inftance, you fee, that both the Phrafes mean the fame thing (d).

AS to the Expreffion of our Saviour's being three Days and three Nights in the heart of the Earth, Matt. xii. 40. from the foregoing Obfervations the Account of that is very Eafy; for the Jews (like Us) had no One word by which to express a Day of twenty four Hours, or a vuxenpeper as the Greeks called it, i. e. a Day-night as We might call it. They fometimes ftyled it a Day, as We do, but at other times a Day and a Night. So that we are to understand by the Expreffion of three Days and three Nights no more than that Jefus was to be in the Grave three Days (as We should exprefs it), reckoning inclufively the firft and the last for two Days, and counting the pieces of Days for Whole ones. And of this way of fpeaking there is a remarkable Inftance in the Book of Efther; for tho' in chap. iv. 16. fhe declares that fhe would faft with her People the Jews three Days Night and Day: yet we find her in chap. v. 1, 4. upon the

(c) Quæft. 14. Edit. Argentor.

(d) So in Ciceron. Tufc. Difp. i. 47. we read, Apollo fe id daturum oftendit poft ejus diei diem tertium; qui ut illuxit, mortui funt reperti: and fo fofephus ufes the Phrafes en dúo and dтdép Te as fynonymous, which may be seen by comparing p. 643, and p. 986 of Hudfon's Edition.