fading and perishable Glories of it. And whoever confiders the prodigious Force of worldly Intereft upon the greatest part of Mankind; how much they are under the Influence and Impreffion of temporal Motives; and what Regret and Impatience they discover, when they meet with any thing, that controuls their ungovernable Lufts and Paffions; will not wonder, that a Doctrine of fo much Purity and Simplicity, as our Saviour came to establish, fhould meet with so much Oppofition from fuch a corrupt Generation of Men, as the Jewish Rulers were. f Had he indeed taught no Doctrine at all, or no Doctrine contrary to the Opinions commonly receiv'd, his healing the Sick, and raising the Dead to Life, would queftionlefs have every where gain'd him a great Efteem, and a general Confent, that the Power, by which he was enabled to do fuch Miracles, was Divine: But when the Cafe was fo, that they could not acknowledge the Hand of God in these Things, without acknowledging, at the fame time, the Truth of a Doctrine, to which they had an irreconcileable Averfion; it is eafy enough to conceive, how this might have the Effect which we find it had, of blinding their Eyes against Conviction, and of

Defence of Script. Hift. p. 35.

Why he

from

their

of putting them upon contriving the Deftruction, both of Jefus himself, and of every one else, who was inftrumental in supporting his Authority among the People.

And if fuch was the Rage and Maretir'd lignity of the Jewish Rulers against him, who can think it strange, that an innoMalice. cent Perfon fhould endeavour to take care of his own Life and Safety, and prudently avoid (as much as was confiftent with Juftice and Honour) the bloody Defigns of wicked and outragious Men. A time there was indeed (and that near approaching) appointed in the Decrees of God, when he was to be offer'd up on the Crofs for the Sins of the World; but till that time was fully accomplish'd, he was to be preferv'd, not by any miraculous Interpofition, but by the ordinary Methods of Providence. Had he fummon'd his Legions from Heaven, and overthrown his Enemies by a vifible Exercife of his fovereign Power, How then (as he himself obferves) should the Scriptures have been fulfilled, that thus it should be? And fince, for this Reafon, it was improper for him to employ his miraculous Power for his Protection, what had he to do, but to decline, for the present, the Storm that was gathering,

Defence of Script. Hift. p. 40. John xii. 1, 10.

ing, by retiring into a Place more private than Jerufalem. In this Retirement, however, his continuance was not long; for the next News we hear of him was at Bethany, in the Houfe of Lazarus, where he was entertain'd at Supper pub. lickly, in the Presence of a great Number of the Jews, who came, not only for Jefus's fake, but that they might fee Lazarus alfo, whom he had raised from the

dead.

Miracle

ons.

Bethany was a Village w about two No Fraud Miles diftant from Jerufalem, where, in this * within fix Days the Paffover was to be from his celebrated. Here our Saviour (whofe After-ActiDefign was to be at the Feaft) took up his Quarters, and, during this fhort interval, went every Day to Jerufalem, where he appear'd in the moft publick and frequented Places. The first time of his going thither, he was met, upon the way, by great Throngs of People, who, with loud Acclamations, and other publick Marks of Honour, ufher'd him into the City. After this we find him in the Temple, driving out the Buyers and Sellers, difputing with the Scribes and Pharifees, rebuking them fharply with his Parables, and expofing them openly in his Difcourfes to the People.

W

John xi. 18. Matth. xxi. 12.

Now

* Ibid. xii. 1.

! Ver. 12.

Now had our Saviour been confcious of any Fraud in the Cafe of Lazarus, how can we think, that he would have come to Bethany again, and into the House of the very Man, who was the principal Actor in the Cheat; that he would have gone to Jerufalem, into the very Teeth of his Enemies; been receiv'd, by the Populace, with fuch Marks of Diftinction, or allow'd to treat the great and leading Men of the City with fuch Freedom of Speech? Above all, how can we think, that, in the Course of this Freedom, or in the Course of his Trial, no one fhould be found to upbraid him with what had paffed at Bethany, which (confidering the great Weight of the Objection, fuppofing it to have been a Fraud, the short time that had pafs'd fince the thing was done, and that feveral were to be found, who must have been Eye-witneffes of it) would have avail'd more to disgrace him with the People, than all the little Artifices they used to entangle him in his Talk; and have juftify'd his Condemnation better, than the falfe Accufations, which fuborn'd Witneffes alledg'd, of his having a Defign to pull down the Temple, and deftroy the Law? These things, I fay, can no ways be accounted for, without admitting in our Saviour a Consciousness of his own Innocency of

any

any juft Imputation of Fraud, and on the part of the People, a general Perfuafion that he wrought his Miracles by the Power of God.

And now to look back upon what has The Sum been faid in Vindication of these three

of the

whole

Refurrection-Miracles. Since the Di- Anfwer. ftinction of greater and lefs Miracles is deftitute of all real Foundation, and, confequently, the raifing of one Perfon from the Dead, is as much a Miracle as raifing another; fince the Evangelifts, in their Accounts of our Saviour's Miracles, are fo far from relating every one, that they omit feveral, which the intended Brevity of their Gofpels, and the multiplicity of Matter neceffary to be compriz'd in them, oblig'd them to do; fince, upon these Confiderations, and perhaps in point of Prudence, that they might not exafperate the Jews againft Lazarus, the three first Evangelifts have pass'd by that Period in our Saviour's Life, wherein Lazarus was raised from the dead, and contented themselves with relating the Hiftory of others fo raised; fince the Gofpel of St. John was profeffedly written to supply the Defects of these other Evangelifts, and accordingly has done it in many remarkable Inftances; fince the three Perfons, whofe Refurrections are recorded by these faB b cred