Part 21 (1/2)

IF _your_ Lords.h.i.+p, _upon reading this_ Discourse, _should be of the same Mind with me, I beg of you to stroak the_ Clergy _into Temper, Patience and Compliance: Tell them, they have been long orthodox and glorious Victors over_ Infidels, _and that it would be now an Act of Generosity to yield to them in a_ small Point; _upon which such a Pacification would ensue, as nothing hereafter would be able to dissolve_.

BUT _I have another Favour_, my Lord, _here to crave of you_, viz.

_that you would be pleas'd to persuade my old Friend, the_ Bishop _of_ London, _to stay at Home this_ Lent, _and keep to his_ Prayers _and_ Fasting, _for the casting out a certain_ Kind _of ----, that by Fits he's unhapily troubled with; or upon the Publication of this_ Discourse, _I shall be in Danger of being soon knapp'd for it_.

IF _your_ Lords.h.i.+p _will do me that Favour, then I will do you as good a Turn; and praise you for your Doctrine of_ Pa.s.sive Obedience, _preach'd at the_ Coronation: _Tho' many may laugh at your Revival of that Doctrine, saying the_ Clergy _upon an Occasion, which our most excellent_ Sovereign _will never give them, would again have Recourse to their_ Reserves _and_ Distinctions; _yet I say it was well done of your_ Lords.h.i.+p _to preach it, that the Tongues and the Hands (to say nothing of the Hearts) of the_ Clergy _might go together in Subscriptions to_ Articles _and_ Homilies; _and so avoid that Prevarication and Inconsistency, which some now have no more Wit than to charge them with_.

SO _not questioning your_ Lords.h.i.+p's _Approbation of this_ Discourse _and the_ Dedication; _nor doubting but you'll make me as bountiful a Recompence for it, as any of my other Episcopal Patrons have done; I subscribe my self_,

[Sidenote: _Feb. 15th 1728-9_]

My Lord, The Admirer of your Pa.s.sive Obedience Sermon, _Thomas Woolston_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A SIXTH DISCOURSE ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR _SAVIOUR_, &c.

Here goes my sixth and last _Discourse_ on _Jesus_'s _Miracles_; the Subject whereof is the literal Story of his own Resurrection; which, according to the Proposition in Hand, I am to shew to consist of Absurdities, Improbabilities and Incredibilities. And I hope our _Bishops_ will quietly permit the Publication of this _Discourse_, especially if I a.s.sure them that I mean nothing worse by it, than to make way for the understanding what the Fathers write of the mystical Resurrection of _Jesus_ out of the Grave of the Letter of the Law and the Prophets; of which mystical Resurrection of our _spiritual Jesus_, the Evangelical Story of the Resurrection of a _carnal Christ_ is but mere Type and Shadow.

I am so far from designing any Service to Infidelity by this _Discourse_, that I aim at the Accomplishment of some of St. _John_'s Apocalyptical Visions. The Fathers say that a _Church_, built on the Letter of the Scriptures, particularly on the Letter of _Jesus_'s Miracles, is _Babylon_; and that antiliteral Arguments and mystical Interpretations will be the Downfal of her. Whether there is any Truth in this Opinion of the Fathers, I am minded to make the Experiment; and tho' I should bring the old House of the Church over my Head, and be crush'd to Pieces in its Ruins, I can't forbear it: But however, I would advise the _Clergy_ to make Haste and _come out of Babylon_, for Fear of the worst; or they, who upon the Authority of the Fathers are _the Merchants of Babylon_, will _weep_[309] _and mourn_ upon her Fall, because _none will buy their Merchandize_ of the Letter _any more_. Dear _Jesu_, that such a _Student_ as I am in the _Revelations_ of St. _John_, and an Interpreter of them too, upon the Authority of the Fathers, should be charg'd with Blasphemy and Infidelity!

So to Work I went; and I had not been long musing by myself, how to sap this Foundation of the Church, before I was sensible of my own Insufficiency for it. Whereupon I sent to my old Friend, the _Jewish Rabbi_, for his Thoughts on this grand Miracle of _Jesus_'s Resurrection, which he gave me some Promise of. But I desired him to forbear all Ludicrousness, Satire and Banter, for fear of Offence: For tho' our _Clergy_ liked Volumes of Jests and Facetiousness, if they were discharg'd against _Jews_, _Turks_, and _Infidels_; yet when they were levell'd at _Ministers_ of the _Letter_, the _Case was alter'd_, as quoth _Plowden_, and they were not to be borne with. Therefore he was to remember that Decency, Seriousness and Calmness of Argument, required by the _Bishop_ of _London_[310] or I durst not print it.

In Compliance with my Desires he sent me the following _Letter_, which, having purg'd it of a few _Puns_ and _Cunundrums_, because all Appearance of _Wit_, as of _Evil_, was to be abstain'd from, I here publish, and it runs thus.

_SIR_,

According to your Request, I here send you my Thoughts on _Jesus_'s Resurrection, in which I shall be shorter than I would be, because of the customary Bounds of your _Discourses_.

The Controversy between us _Jews_ and you _Christians_ about the _Messiah_ has. .h.i.therto been of a diffusive Nature: But as the Subject of _this_ is the Resurrection of your _Jesus_; so, by my Consent, we'll now reduce the Controversy to a narrow Compa.s.s, and let it turn intirely on this grand Miracle and Article of your Faith. If your _Divines_ can prove _Jesus_'s Resurrection against the following Objections, then I will acknowledge him to be the _Messiah_, and will turn Christian, otherwise he must still pa.s.s with us for an Impostor and false Prophet.

I have often lamented the Loss of such Writings, which our _Ancestors_ unquestionably dispers'd against _Jesus_, because of the clear Sight they would give us, into the Cheat and Imposture of his Religion. But I rejoice and thank G.o.d, there is little or no Want of them, to the Point in Hand. For I had not long meditated on the Story of _Jesus_'s Resurrection, as your _Evangelists_ have related it, but I plainly discern'd it to be the most notorious and monstrous Imposture, that ever was put upon Mankind. And if you please to attend to my following Arguments, which require no Depth of Judgment and Capacity to apprehend, I am persuaded that you and every one disinterested, will be of the same Mind too.

To overthrow and confute the Story of this monstrous and incredible Miracle, I was thinking once to premise an Argument of the Justice of the Sentence denounc'd against and executed upon _Jesus_, who was so far from being the innocent Person, you Christians would make of him, that, as may easily be proved, he was so grand a _Deceiver_, _Impostor_ and _Malefactor_, as no Punishment could be too great for him. But this Argument (which I reserve against a Day of perfect Liberty, to publish by it self in Defence of the Honour and Justice of our _Ancestors_) would be too long for the Compa.s.s of this Letter; and therefore I pa.s.s it by, tho' it would give Force to my following Objections; it being hard and even impossible to imagine, that G.o.d would vouchsafe the Favour of a miraculous Resurrection to one, who for his Crimes deservedly suffer'd and underwent Death.

But waving, I say, that Argument for the present, which of itself would be enough to prejudice a reasonable Man against the Belief of _Jesus_'s Resurrection; I will allow _Jesus_ to have been a much better Man, than I believe him to have been; or as good a one in Morals as your _Divines_ do suppose him; and will only consider the Circ.u.mstances of the Evangelical Story of his Resurrection; from which, if I don't prove it to have been the most bare-fac'd Imposture that ever was put upon the World, I deserve for the Vanity of this Attempt, a much worse Punishment, than he for his Frauds endured.

I have sometimes wonder'd, considering the Nature and Heinousness of _Jesus_'s Faults, for which he dy'd, that our _Chief Priests_ and _Pharisees_ had any Regard to his Prediction (which was so like a Bambouzlement of the Populace) that he was to rise again the _third Day_ after his Crucifixion. There's no other Nation in the World, which would not have slighted such a vain Prognostication of a known Impostor. Let him foretell with ever so much Confidence his speedy Return to Life, I dare say, any other Magistrates of ordinary Prudence would have despised him for a presumptuous _Enthusiast_: But, when I reflected on the Imposture of _Lazarus_'s Resurrection, and of what pernicious Consequence it had like to have proved to the Peace and Welfare of our Nation, if it had not been happily discover'd, my Wonder here ceas'd; and I as much admire now the Wisdom, Caution and Circ.u.mspection of our _Chief Priests_ against all possible Fraud and Deceit in the foretold Resurrection of _Jesus_. Tho' _Jesus_ himself, the Head of the Confederacy, and prime Projector of the design'd Cheat in the Case of _Lazarus_ was cut off, yet his a.s.sociates were still numerous; and it was not impossible, but they might concert a Project of a counterfeited Resurrection of him, in Accomplishment of his Prophecy, that might be of more fatal Consequence, and tend to such Confusions and Distractions among the People, as would not be soon quell'd and quieted. Whereupon our _Chief Priests_ very prudently consider of Precautions against Cheat here, and wisely make Application to _Pilate_ the _Governour_, that proper and effectual Measures may be taken against a false and feign'd Resurrection, for Fear of the ill Effects of it. And one of them, as the _Spokesman_ of their Company, seems, according to _Matthew_, Ch.

xxviii. to have made the Speech following.

_SIR_, ”We remember that this Deceiver and Impostor _Jesus_, who was yesterday crucified, and justly suffer'd Death for his Blasphemy and many Delusions of the People (that were of bad Consequence, and might have been of much worse, if he had not been timely brought to condign Punishment) said repeatedly before, that notwithstanding the Death he was to undergo he should rise again to Life the _third Day_ after. It is not that we are at all apprehensive of such a wonderful and miraculous Event, which knowing him to have been a false Prophet as well as a deceitful Juggler, we have no Fears nor Belief of. But as it is not long since, that the Inhabitants in and about _Bethany_ had like to have been fatally deluded and imposed on by him, in the pretended Resuscitation of _Lazarus_, one of his Disciples and Confederates in Iniquity; so it is not altogether impossible nor improbable but his Disciples and Accomplices, who are many, may project a feign'd Resurrection of _Jesus_ (in Accomplishment of his Prediction) by stealing his Body away, and pretending he is risen from the dead.

Should such a Sham-Miracle be contrived amongst them, and cunningly executed, it would be p?a?? (_not an Error but_) an Imposture of worse Consequence to our Nation and Religion, than the former in _Lazarus_ could have been, if it had never been detected: We crave therefore the Favour of your _Excellency_, to give Command for the making his Sepulchre sure, till the _third_ Day is past, that neither his _dead_ Body may be taken away, and a Resurrection pretended; nor a _living_ one slipt into its Place, and a Miracle counterfeited on that Day, when we will be present at the opening of the Sepulchre, and give Satisfaction to the People of his being a false Prophet.”

Whether _Pilate_ was at all intent on the Prevention of Fraud in this Case, or would not willingly have connived at it, to increase the Divisions and Distractions of our then unhappy Nation, may be question'd: But the Request of our _Chief Priests_ was so reasonable, and their Importunities so urgent, that he could not resist them; and therefore order'd them a _Watch_ for the Sepulchre, which they might make as sure, as they could, against Fraud and Imposture, till the _third Day_.

Whereupon our _Chief Priests_ deliberate, what Measures were fittest to be taken to this Purpose. And as I can't, and don't believe any Man else can, devise any better for the Security of the Sepulchre against Fraud, than what they took; so I admire and applaud their Prudence, Circ.u.mspection, and Precaution in the Case. They _seal'd the Stone_ at the Mouth of the Sepulchre, and placed a Guard of Soldiers about it; which were _Two_ such certain Means for the Prevention or Detection of Cheat in a Resurrection, as are not to be equall'd by any other.

They _seal'd the Stone_ of the Sepulchre, which, tho' it was no Security at all against Violence, yet was an absolute one against Fraud. How the _Stone_ which fitted the Mouth of the Sepulchre, as a Door does the Entrance into a Room, was seal'd, I need not describe. The Use and Manner of sealing the Doors of Closets, of Chests, and of Papers is common; and as it is an obvious Expedient, for the Satisfaction of the Signators, against Deceit; so it has been an antient as well as a modern Practice. _Darius_, King of _Babylon_,[311] seal'd the Door of the Den of Lions, wherein _Daniel_ was cast, with his own Signet: And wherefore did he so? For the Satisfaction of himself and of his Courtiers, when he came again to open and compare the Signature with his Signet, that no Art nor Artifice had been used for the Preservation of _Daniel_. So our _Chief Priests_ seal'd the Stone of _Jesus_'s Sepulchre, which they design'd to be present at the opening of, on the _third Day_, the Time appointed by _Jesus_ for his Resurrection, and then give ample Satisfaction to the People, that there was a real, or could be no Resurrection of his Body. Wherefore else did they _seal_ the Stone of his Sepulchre?

Your _Grotius_[312] thinks, that _Pilate_'s Seal was affix'd to the Stone of the Sepulchre; but, as I believe, _Pilate_ little concern'd himself about the Prevention of Deceit here; so I much question it. It is more reasonable to think that the _Chief Priests_ and other Civil Magistrates of _Jerusalem_ with their several Seals, which could not be open'd, but by themselves, without Suspicion of Fraud, sign'd the Stone, and intended to be present, on the Day appointed, at the opening of the Sepulchre; not doubting, what no body could question, but _Jesus_ would wait their coming, and arise to Life, if he could, in the Sight of themselves, and of a vast Concourse of People, that were sure to attend on them to behold the Miracle. Such a Resurrection would have been of Satisfaction to the whole Nation; and such a Resurrection, reasonably speaking, _Jesus_ would, if he could, have vouchsafed in Accommodation to the _sealing_ of the _Stone_.