CHAPTER XVIII.
SUFFICIENCY OF THE PROOFS (FALSE ASSUMPTIONS).
Evidence which ought to convince a reasonable man should be deemed sufficient.
The standing objection from the days of Celsus, that Jesus should have shown himself after his resurrection to his enemies, is unreasonable. It is as if one should refuse to believe the transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus, or the agony in the garden, because not witnessed by the multitude, and by only Peter, James, and John of the Apostles.
His humiliation and sufferings were ended. Not again was he to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified. Those who had wilfully rejected him, would have been no more convinced than before. They had said he cast out devils through the prince of devils. They had plotted to put Lazarus also to death, whom he had raised up before their eyes. They had bribed the soldiers to report that his body had been stolen. They would have proclaimed that he was not dead, or else that his return to life was by the agency of Satan. To return to those who had put every insult upon him, and were ready to renew the attack, could only have been to their swift destruction, and the time for this had not come.
And even if some of them had believed, it would have added nothing to the proof. Any one who now refuses to accept the genuineness of the Gospel, or the credibility of the writers, or, accepting both, refuses to believe upon the testimony of his disciples, would not be convinced by any amount of evidence. There would remain every question of credibility, and, in addition, that of personal identity, as to which only those intimately acquainted with him were fully qualified to judge.
The proofs will be found sufficient by those who are disposed to lay aside preconceived adverse opinions, and believe the fact when it is proved.
PROOF IS POSSIBLE.
The event may have occurred. By this is meant that it cannot be said that its occurrence is, in the nature of things, an impossibility.