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ingenuous, for they do not even dissemble their own weakness; but I am still more astonished, when they do not even dissemble certain circumstances of the life and sufferings of their master, which have no tendency to enchance his glory in the eyes of the world. Had they been silent as to these circumstances, their adversaries assuredly could never have discovered them, nor consequently have taken any advantage from them. They have, however, not failed to relate them, and with all their minutest circumstances. It is impossible, therefore, not to feel that the purport of their writing was to bear testimony to the truth.

Is it possible, I say to myself, that these fishermen, who are supposed to perform actions not less astonishing than those of their master; who say to the lame man Rise up and walk! and he walked, is it possible that these fishermen should be so destitute of vanity, that they should disdain the applauses of the people who were spectators of these prodigies?

My surprise and admiration, therefore, are equal, when I read these words,* Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? In so characteristic a mark, can I mistake the expression of humility, disinterestedness, and truth? When I read these words my affections are raised, and they excite emotions in my soul.

Who then are these men, who, whilst nature is obedient to their voice, are fearful that this obedience should be attributed to their power or piety? How should the mind refuse its assent to such witnesses? How is it possible to suspect such narrations to be mere inventions? And how many more circumstances of the same nature do I discover, which are inseparably connected with these, and which were not at all more likely to present themselves naturally to the minds of these men?

*Acts iii. ver. 12.

CHA P. II.

REFLECTIONS ON THE

NARRATIVE OF THE

WITNESSES.-WHETHER IT HAS BEEN FORMALLY CONTRADICTED BY EVIDENCES OF THE SAME WEIGHT, AND MADE AT THE SAME TIME.

I

KNOW that several parts of the nar

rative appeared a very short time after the events attested by the witnesses. If these parts are the work of some impostor, he ought undoubtedly to have been cautious not to make his recital too circumstantial, lest he should be more easily detected. And yet what can be more particular than the narrative'now before me? I meet with the names of the persons, their qualities, office, habitation, and diseases. I observe the places, the time, the circumstances, pointed out, and numberless minute details, all concurring to describe the event in the most precise manner. In a word, I must

be conscious, that had I been in the place, or existed at the time, when the narrative was published, it would have been perfectly easy for me to have satisfied myself with respect to the truth or falsehood of the facts. And is it natural to imagine, that the obstinate and powerful adversaries of the witnesses neglected doing that which I should have done, had I existed in those times and places? I must therefore search after some evidences, in the history of those times, which formally contradict those of the witnesses: but all I can meet with are vague accusations of imposture, magic, or superstition: I therefore ask, Is it thus that the most circumstantial accounts are to be overturned? But perhaps (I again say to myself) the accounts are lost which formally contradicted those of the witnesses? But 'why then is not the account of the witnesses lost also? Because it has been most carefully preserved, and transmitted to me, by a numerous society which still exists. But, on the other hand, I observe another society* equally numerous, and still more

*The Jews.

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ancient, which, descending by an uninterrupted succession from the first adversaries of the witnesses, and inheriting the hatred which those adversaries bore towards them, as well as their prejudices, might have preserved as easily the evidences against those witnesses, as it has preserved so many other monuments, which they still produce with complacency, and many of which serve to betray them. I even see several weighty reasons, which ought to have engaged that society to preserve carefully all the proofs contradictory to those of the

witnesses.

What particularly occurs to me is, that accusation, so odious, so pointed, and so often repeated, with which the witnesses. had dared to charge the magistrates of that society, and the astonishing success of the testimony that the witnesses bore to the facts on which they built their accusation. How easy would it have been for the magistrates to contradict this testimony! How much was it their interest to do it! And how great must have been the effect of a juridical and circumstantial deposition,

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