Part 22 (1/2)

Here's as little Reason in this Answer as in either of the two former.

Who knows not, that many Errors in Philosophy, and as many Frauds in Religion have been sometimes accidentally, sometimes designedly espoused and palm'd upon Mankind, who in Process of Time become so wedded to them thro' Prejudice and Interest, that they will not give themselves Leave to enquire into the Rise and Foundation of them.

False Miracles have been common Things among Christians; and as the Resurrection of _Jesus_ is their grand and fundamental one, so it is not at all difficult to account for the Rise, Propagation and Continuance of the Belief of it.

Why it has been believed thro' these latter Ages of the Church, is no Wonder at all. The Priests had their Interest in it; the ignorant and superst.i.tious had their Comfort in it; and the wise and considerate, for fear of Persecution, durst not enquire into the Grounds of it.

The only Difficulty here is to know, upon what Principle, the Project and Story of _Jesus_'s Resurrection was at first devised. And whether it was Ambition or Revenge upon our ancient and Pharisaical Priesthood, that prompted the Apostles to it, is all one to me. Such bad Principles too often put Men upon desperate Attempts. But however, an Imposture it was, for the Argument above. To say the Apostles and Confederates in the Fraud, would not have stood to it, and have dy'd for it, if the Resurrection had not been real Fact, signifies nothing. Many Cheats and Criminals, besides them, have a.s.serted their Innocencey, and deny'd their Guilt in the utmost Extremity of Death, without the like Views of Honour and Fame. The only Thing that's surprizing and astonis.h.i.+ng in this Sham-Miracle, is, that tho' it was the most manifest, the most bare-faced, and the most self-evident Imposture that ever was put upon the World; yet it has been the most fortunate and successful, having past thro' many Ages and Nations with Reputation and Renown; and might have continued for as many Generations to come, but for the Argument above, that perfectly and clearly overthrows its Credit.

But some may say here, where was the Wisdom and Providence of G.o.d, all this while, to suffer so many Ages and Nations to labour under such a Delusion? Why, I'll tell you; The Providence of G.o.d in it was, ”To humble Mankind, in the End, for their vain Ostentation of Wisdom, Learning and _Science falsly so call'd_; ”To shame them for their Madness and Wickedness to persecute one another for different Opinions in that Religion, whose very Foundation is false and groundless; ”To caution them against a blind and implicit Faith for the future; against believing any thing out of the Sight and Reach of their Understandings; ”To admonish them of the Necessity of Liberty to think, speak and write freely about Religion, for the Correction of Errors and Discovery of Truth; and, lastly, ”To reduce the World, when it should be ripe for it, to the golden Religion of Nature, which upon the Testimony of our old _Cabalistical_ Doctors, and of your _Jesus_ himself, is the _End of the Law and the Prophets_.

And thus have I spoken to the _Answers_, which your _Christian Priesthood_ may be presumed to make, to the foresaid Argument of Fraud in _Jesus_'s Resurrection, drawn from the Design of our _Chief Priests_ in sealing of the Stone of his Sepulchre. I should not have concern'd my self to speak to these their supposed _Answers_, but to save them the Trouble of making them, and the Imagination of there being some Force in them.

As to the Stories in your _Evangelists_ of _Jesus_'s several Appearances after his pretended Resurrection, sometimes to the Women, and at other Times to his Disciples, I am not at all obliged to refute them. If these Appearances had been more frequent, better circ.u.mstanced, and more solemnly averr'd, they would have wanted no Confutation. There's no Doubt on't, but the Disciples, who, for the Argument above, unquestionably stole _Jesus_'s Body away, in order to pretend a Resurrection, would talk much of his appearing to them, and of the Conversation afterwards, they had with him. And if they had told better and more plausible Tales of their Sight of and Conversation with him, it would be nothing to the Purpose; _better_, I say, _and more plausible Tales_ than those upon Record, which for Absurdity, Nonsense and Incoherence carry their own Confutation along with them.

Whoever blends together the various History of the four _Evangelists_, as to _Jesus_'s Appearances after his Resurrection, will find himself, not only perplex'd how to make an intelligible, consistent, and sensible Story of it; but must, with _Celsus_[317] needs think it, if he closely think on't, like some of the confused and incredible womanish Fables of the Apparitions of the Ghosts of deceased Persons, which the Christian World in particular has in former Ages abounded with. The Ghosts of the Dead in this present Age, and especially in this Protestant Country, have ceas'd to appear; and we now-a-days hardly ever hear of such an Apparition: And what is the Reason of it?

Why, the Belief of these Stories being banish'd out of Mens Minds, the crafty and vaporous forbear to trump them upon us. There has been so much clear Proof of the Fraud in many of these Stories, that the wise and considerate Part of Mankind has rejected them all, excepting _this_ of _Jesus_, which, to Admiration, has stood its Ground. It's no Wonder indeed, that the _Clergy_, who are more incredulous than other Folks as to Stories of Apparitions, do stick to _this_ of _Jesus_, the only one excepted out of all others. It is a sweet Morsel of Faith, and they readily swallow and digest it, because they live by it; otherwise this Story of _Jesus_'s Appearances after Death had hardly escaped the Fate of other Apparitions; nay, would have been rejected one of the first of them; there being hardly one, I dare say it, among all the Stories of Apparitions, were they to be collected together; that's more absurd and incredible than _this_ of _Jesus_.

I have not Room here to make any Remarks on your Evangelical Story of _Jesus_'s Apparitions after his Death; and if I had, I durst not do it, for fear of an offensive Ludicrousness, and of transgressing the Rules of _Decency_, _Sobriety_ and _Sedateness_ of Argument, you have confined me to. But however; I can't read the Story without smiling, and there are two or three Pa.s.sages in it, that put me in Mind of _Robinson Cruso_'s filling his Pockets with Biskets, when he had neither Coat, Waste-coat, nor Breeches on. Sometimes I think your _Evangelists_ wanted Wit to adapt their Tale to Sense, and to accommodate the Transaction to Nature; and sometimes I think them crafty, and were minded, like _Daniel de Foe_ in his aforesaid _Romance_, to put the Banter upon the Credulity of Mankind, with some disguised and latent Absurdities, that, in the Conclusion and Discovery, they might be heartily laugh'd at for the Belief of them. I dare not, I say, so much as hint at one of these Absurdities, lest I should be unwarily tempted to crack a Jest on it.

But the Time, I hope, is coming, when I shall use more Freedom. And should your Priesthood, in Proof of _Jesus_'s Resurrection, urge any of these Stories of his corporal Presence and Appearance after it, then I trust, they'll permit me to make as merry Descants on them, as your _Bishops_, when Academical _Jesters_, used to do on other Men's Bulls and Blunders.

In the mean time I depend on the foregoing single, sober and sedate Argument of Fraud in this grand Miracle, which I found on the Nature and Design of sealing the Sepulchre; and for Confirmation of my Opinion and Proof of Fraud in it, will conclude this Letter with a parallel Case and Story. Not many Years since, one Dr. _Emms_, of the Society of the _French_ Prophets, who in their Inspirations were, like _Jesus_ and his Disciples of old, Declaimers against the Pharisaical Priesthood of this Age, did by himself, or some of his Fraternity did for him, predict his Resurrection on a certain Day, when there was a Concourse of People about his Grave in vain to behold the Miracle, as there would have been about _Jesus_'s Sepulchre, if he had lain in it, his full Time. But supposing in this Case, that the Magistrates and Priesthood of this City, to prevent a Cheat and Delusion of the People, had interr'd the _Doctor_ in a Church-Vault, and seal'd the Door of it against the Day appointed for his Resurrection, commanding a _Night-Watch_ to look to the Vault, that no Violence or Deceit be used: This would have been a wise Precaution against Fraud, as was in the Case of _Jesus_. But what if his Fraternity, having a Mind, like _Jesus_'s Disciples, to bambouzle the People and Priesthood, had, some of them drawn the Watch aside to a _Gin-shop_, whilst others carry'd the Body off, pretending a Resurrection? What would all reasonable Men have said here? That it was an impudent and bare-fac'd Imposture. But to carry on the Farce; supposing, the _Doctor_'s Fraternity had afterwards averr'd that they had seen and convers'd with him alive, several Times, as before his Death; and had told particular Stories of their Conversation with him; as _first_ of all, how he appear'd to some of their Women (who were admonish'd of the Certainty of his Resurrection by a Youth or an Angel or two, they could not tell whether, but they were as like to Angels, which they never saw before in their Lives, as Youths could be) who knew him, not by his Countenance, for _their Eyes were holden_, but by his Talk on Scripture Prophecy, which was his usual Cant before his Death. And at another Time he appear'd to his old Acquaintance, who knew him, not by the Features of his Face, but by an habitual Motion and Action of his Hand in _breaking of Bread_. And at another Time he was corporally present, but _they thought, they saw a Spirit_. About _eight Days after that_, he appear'd among more of his old Friends, but for all their former Intimacy with him, some of them _doubted_ whether it was the _Doctor_ or not. At another Time he came to them in _another Form_ and Shape, unlike to his pristine one, but they were sure it was _He_ by his Exposition of the Scripture. At another Time, when they were a.s.sembled together and the Doors were lock'd, _for fear of the Clergy_, the _Doctor_ slipt unexpectedly into their Company, either from behind a Curtain, or miraculously enter'd at the Key-hole. And the last Time he appear'd, there was one of his intimate Friends had not known him, but by a _Sore_ in his Breast, which the Power of G.o.d, in his Resurrection, did not heal: After which, they said, he _vanish'd away, was taken up into Heaven_, and they saw him no more.

Supposing, I say, the _French_ Prophets had told such like Stories of _Doctor Emms_'s Resurrection and of his Appearances to them; what would your Priests and all other wise Men have said to it? Why, that it was all idle Tales, manifest Lyes, Sham, and Imposture; and that if the _Doctor_, in Confutation of the Errors of our Priests, had risen to Life, G.o.d would have kept him in his Sepulchre, his full time, and have rais'd him in the Presence of Priests, Magistrates and People; and that he would have walk'd afterwards publickly in the Streets without Danger, to the Satisfaction of all, who knew him, that he was the same _Emms_ who died and was bury'd: _Without Danger_, I say, from the Populace, who would have been so far from affronting him, that they would have almost adored him for the miraculous Favour G.o.d had done him, in his Resurrection from the Dead; and that he would never have skulk'd about, and absconded himself for _forty Days_ together, before he was pretendedly translated; and therefore there was nothing but notorious Deceit and Imposture in all these Pretences.

I need not make the Application of this Case and Story, which your _Priests_ know how to do for me. To say here, that there's none would be so desperate to engage in such a Fraud, as is the supposed Case of Dr. _Emms_ above, is a Mistake. Many Thousands for their Diversion would enterprise it; and the Stories of the Apparitions of Ghosts, which are almost all the Frauds of the Crafty to delude the Ignorant, do prove it. I my self would be forward to concert such an Intrigue, if it were but to put the Banter upon the _Clergy_, to ruffle their Tempers, and secretly to laugh at them. Nothing would deter me from it, but Fears of the Civil Magistrate, which was not the Danger of the Disciples of _Jesus_, because _Pilate_, for the Sake of Rule over the _Jews_, was a Countenancer of every Faction amongst them; and particularly[318] _Tiberius_, upon _Pilate_'s Representation of the Matter, soon commanded that the Disciples of _Jesus_ should not be molested, nor call'd into Question: So the Disciples stood to the Fraud, told the Story of _Jesus risen_ so often, till they believed it themselves, and drew Mult.i.tudes into the Belief of it: Which Belief must have continued thro' all Generations to come, but for my Argument of Fraud, before urg'd and argued.

Here, Sir, before I conclude this Letter, I think it my Duty however to give you my Opinion of the Religion, that _Jesus_ and his Disciples were for introducing into the World. Tho' I believe, what I have proved, his Resurrection, to be a Piece of Fraud, and his other Miracles to have been all Artifice; and tho' our _Chief Priests_ and ancient Nation are justifiable in the Sentence, that was pa.s.s'd and executed upon _Jesus_; yet I must do him and his Disciples the Justice, to own, that the Doctrine they taught was, for the most Part of it, good, useful and popular, being no other than the Law and Religion of Nature, which, all Nations being wearied with their own Superst.i.tions, and sick of the Burthen of their Priests, ran apace into. Accordingly one[319] of your ancient Fathers says, that they _who lived according to the Law of Nature, were true Christians_. And I must needs say, that if Christians, in Process of Time, had not sophisticated this primitive Religion of _Jesus_; if they had not built their systematical Divinity upon him, and brought strange Inventions of Men into his Wors.h.i.+p; if, lastly, they had not again subjugated and entangled themselves with another and worse Yoke of Bondage, to an intolerable and tyrannical Priesthood of the Church, the World might have enjoy'd great Happiness under _Jesus_'s Religion, even _that Happiness_ which is now only to be expected upon a Disproof of his miraculous Resurrection, that has been the Foundation of a most confused Superstructure of wild Doctrines and Opinions: Or more truely speaking, _That Happiness_ of the State of Nature, Religion and Liberty, which may be look'd for upon the coming of our _Messiah_, the allegorical Accomplisher of the Law and the Prophets; whose Advent, upon the Tradition of our _Cabalists_, will be towards the latter End of the _Sixth_ grand Age of the Creation, to remove from our Faces and our Hearts the Veil of the Letter; and in the mean while I adhere to the umbratical Rites, Ceremonies and way of Wors.h.i.+p, derived from our Forefathers.

Thus, Sir, have I finish'd my _Letter_ on _Jesus_'s Resurrection; and whether I have not said enough to justify our _Jewish_ Disbelief of that Miracle, let your _Chief Priests_ judge. I don't expect my Argument against it will be convincing of any of your Preachers. They have a potent Reason for their Faith, which we _Jews_ can't come at; or I don't know but we might believe with them.

I trust you'll meet with no Molestation for the Publication of this _Letter_; neither do I think, it was any thing of mine, inserted in your Discourses, that at any time brought Trouble on you. It was your own Imprudence to rave, as you do, against _Ecclesiasticks_. What need had you to talk of the Mischiefs and Inconveniences of an Hireling Priesthood? What Occasion had you to call them Ecclesiastical Vermin, and to speak of the Happiness of Mankind upon their Extinction? These things are very provoking. And here's the true Source, in my Opinion, of all your Troubles!

Tho' I have here shewn, that _Christ is not risen_, yet I have more Wit than to make the Inference of St. _Paul_, that _their Preaching is vain_. Their Oratory is still useful, if it be but to tickle the Ears and amuse the Understandings of the People about Doctrines they underhand not, whether true or false. And such an Order of Men, as are your Priesthood, are, by their Habit of long Robes, an Ornament to Society; and it is an Honour to the Country to have them well fed and clad. Had I Room for it, I could write a curious _Encomium_ in Praise of them, and tell the World of what Use and Advantage they have been, in all Ages. O what Wars and Persecutions might have been rais'd in the World, but for their pacifick Tempers! How would Sin and Immorality have broke in upon Mankind, like a Deluge, but for the Goodness of their Lives, and the Excellency of their Precepts! How has the Increase and Mult.i.tude of their warm Sermons been the Ruin of _Satan_'s hot and divided Kingdom of Darkness and Error! It's owing to their Pains and Labours, that every Age, for many past, has been improving in Virtue, till the present, which for Piety and good Morals is that perfection of Time, which is not to be meliorated but by the Rest.i.tution of the golden Age.

So could I enlarge in Praise of your _Clergy_; and so should you have done; and then you might have disputed, as you do, against any Doctrines, Miracles and Articles of Faith, without Molestation. Try, if you can't correct that fundamental Error, you have committed. a.s.sert still, if you can, with Dr. _Rogers_, the Necessity of an establish'd Priesthood, well paid, for the Service of the _King_ and the Country, under all Changes of Religion; which may be a Means to retrieve their Favour, and will beget in me a better Opinion of your Prudence, than at present is entertain'd by your _a.s.sured Friend_ N. N.

So ends the Letter of my Friend, the _Jewish Rabbi_, in which, to my Comfort, he has conform'd himself to the Rules of _Sedateness_, _Decency_ and _Sobriety_ of Argument, prescrib'd by the two great _Bishops_ of _London_ and St. _David_'s. If the Weight and Solidity of his Argument don't grieve the _Clergy_, I am in no Pain for the Levity and Ludicrousness of it. And whether the Weight and Nature of his Argument against _Jesus_'s Resurrection will at all startle and surprize them, I know not; but I profess for my self, that I might have study'd long enough for such an Argument against it, as this _Rabbi_, with his great grey Beard, has presently hit of. He told me beforehand, that his Thoughts on _Jesus_'s Resurrection should be out of the common Road of thinking; and I must needs say, he has been as good as his Word, or no Man ever kept his Promise.

There are two Things very remarkable in his Argument: The _one_ is, the Use and Design of sealing the Stone of _Jesus_'s Sepulchre, which he lays great Stress on, to the Proof of Fraud in his Resurrection; and the _other_ is, his Application of these Words, _the last Error_ (or as he reads Deceit or Imposture) _will be worse than the first_ or former, in which he makes the _Chief Priests_ in their Speech to _Pilate_, to refer to _Lazarus_'s Resurrection as the former known Imposture. If his Application be just and true, the Consequence is, that the Resurrections of _Jesus_ and _Lazarus_ are both Impostures.

It grieves me to the Heart to think of this Consequence, which our _Divines_ are to see to, and evade, if they can. No sooner did I read his Application of the foresaid Words, but I run to our _Commentators_ for another and better Exposition of them: But alas! to my Sorrow, they made nothing of them, but a sort of a _proverbial Expression_, which the _Chief Priests_ must have spoil'd and knock'd out of Joint.

Being then under great Trouble for the Truth of Christianity, and the Certainty of these two grand Miracles, I refer the Matter to our Learned _Clergy_, desiring them to be as speedy as they can in another and more proper Interpretation of the foresaid Words, or _Jews_ and _Infidels_ will run away with them in the _Rabbi_'s Sense, to the Confutation of our holy Religion.

I consider'd lately, that _Easter_ drew nigh, when it was usual for our _Divines_ in their Pulpits, to insist on the Proof of _Jesus_'s Resurrection; and therefore I hasten'd the Publication of this _Discourse_, that they might have these two peculiar Texts, _viz._ of _sealing the Stone_ of the Sepulchre, and of _the last Error_ or Imposture _will be worse than the first_, to treat on. He that produces a Sermon or Sermons, wresting the foresaid Texts out of the Hands of my _Rabbi_, and putting another Sense on them, to the Credit of _Jesus_'s and _Lazarus_'s Resurrection,

_Erit mihi magnus Apollo_,

and by my Consent shall be the next _Arch-Bishop_ of _Canterbury_.

But my Heart aches a little for our _Divines_, and I almost despair of their clean Solutions of the foresaid two Difficulties. What must they do then? Why, they must give up their _Religion_ as well as their _Church_, or go along with me to the Fathers for their mystical Interpretation of the whole Story of _Jesus_'s Resurrection.