OF OUR
SAVIOUR, &c.
ccording to Promise in my last Discourse, I am in this to take into Examination the three Miracles of Jesus's raising the dead, viz. Of Iairus's Daughter[270]; of the Widow of Naim's Son[271]; and of Lazarus[272]: The literal Stories of which I shall show to consist of Absurdities, Improbabilities and Incredibilities, in Order to the mystical Interpretation of them: And because some of our Bishops and Clergy were a little disgusted at the ludicrous Treatment of the Letter of some foregoing Miracles, I will handle these with the more Caution; being as unwilling, as any Man of my primitive Faith can be, to offend weak Brethren.
Whether Jesus rais'd any more from the dead, besides the foresaid three Persons is uncertain from the Evangelical History. St. Augustin[273] thinks, he rais'd many others; and he founds his Opinion on the modest Hyperbole of St. John, who supposes[274] the World it self could not contain the Books that might be Written of Jesus. And Eusebius Gallicanus, of whose Mind entirely I am, says[275] the Reason lies in the Mystery, why these three, and no more than these three Miracles of this Kind are recorded by the Evangelists. But since our Divines are averse to Mysteries on Miracles, I would gladly know their Opinion, whether Jesus rais'd any others from the dead, or not: I have made some search into modern Writers for their Opinion in this Case, but can't find it: And unless I knew their Opinion, it would be lost Labour to argue against either Side of the Question, and much more against both Sides of it: But I can assure our Divines, that, which Side of the Question soever they should hold, the Consequence upon the Argument would be neither better nor worse, than that they must of necessity espouse the mystical and allegorical Interpretation of these Miracles, or grant that Jesus literally rais'd none from the dead at all.
But waving that sort of Argument for the present against the Letter; these three Miracles are reputed the greatest that Jesus wrought: And I believe, it will be granted on all hands, that the restoring a Person, indisputably dead, to Life again, is a stupendous Miracle; and that two or three such Miracles well circumstanced, and credibly reported, are enough to conciliate the Belief of Mankind, that the Author of them was a divine Agent, and invested with the Power of God, or he could not do them. But God knows, (and for the sake of the Mystery, I am not sorry to say it) this is far from being the Case of these three Miracles before us, or of any one them.
That these three Miracles are not equally great, but differ in Degree, is visible enough to any one, that but cursorily reads, and compares theirs Stories one with another. The Fathers of the Church[276] have taken Notice of such a Difference amongst them. The greatest of the three, and indeed, the[277] greatest Miracle, that Jesus is suppos'd to have wrought, is that of Lazarus's Resurrection; which, in Truth, was a most prodigious Miracle, if his Corps was putrified and stank; or if there were no just Exceptions to be made to the Credibility of the Story. Next to that, in magnitude, is Jesus's raising of the Widow's Son, as they were carrying him to his Burial: And a great Miracle it was to bring him to Life again; if none before or since had been mistaken for dead, and carried to their Graves alive; or if no Impostor and his Confederates could frame such a seemingly miraculous Scene, as is that whole Story, to his own Glory. The least of the three is that of his raising Jairus's Daughter, which in Appearance is so far from a Miracle, that according to the Story itself, she was but asleep, or by the Shrieks of By-standers frighted out of her Senses for the present.
But however it really might be with these three supposed dead and revived Persons; the Case of none of them was well enough circumstanced to serve the Purpose of our Divines. I am apt to believe with the Fathers, that Jesus actually did raise the dead; but then, as these Miracles are only recorded for the sake of the Mystery, I affirm that none of them, as to the Letter, will abide the Test of a critical Examination, nor stand its Ground against such Exceptions as may be made to them. If Jesus was to raise any dead Bodies to Life, for a Testimony of his divine Power and Authority, he would and should have made Choice of other dead Persons, under other Circumstances of Death; and the History of their Resurrection should have been more credibly and carefully transmitted to Posterity, so as there should have been no Room left to make a reasonable Doubt of the Truth of it. But this, I say, is not the Case in the Resuscitation of any of these Persons, as will appear from the following Remarks and Observations upon them. And
1. Observe, that the unnatural and preposterous Order of Time, in which these Miracles are related, justly brings them all under suspicion of Fable and Forgery. The greatest of the three is indisputably that of Lazarus's Resurrection; but since this is only mention'd by St. John, who wrote his Gospel after the other Evangelists, and above sixty Years, according to the best Computation, after our Lord's Ascension; here is too much Room for Cavil and Question, whether this Story be not entirely his Invention. What could be the Reason that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who all wrote their Gospel's before John, and many Years nearer to the Death of our Saviour, should omit to record this remarkable and most illustrious Miracle of Lazarus? They could not forget it, nor be ignorant of it, if the Story had been really true; and to assign any other Reason than Ignorance or Forgetfulness, is hard and impossible. To aggrandize the Fame of their Master, for a Worker of Miracles, was the Design of all the Evangelists, especially of the three first, who may be presumed to make a Report of the greatest, if not of all, that Jesus wrought: But that there should come after them an Evangelist with an huge and superlatively great Miracle, and meet with Credit for it, is against all Sense and Reason; neither is there any Story, so disorderly told, in all History, that Critics will admit of the Belief of. The first Writer of the Life of an Hero, to be sure makes mention of all the grand Occurrences of it, and leaves no Room for Biographers afterwards, but to enlarge and paraphrase upon what he has written, with some other Circumstances and Additions of less Moment. If a third or a fourth Biographer after him shall presume to add a more illustrious Transaction of the Hero's Life, it will be rejected as Fable and Romance, tho' for no other Reason than this, that the first Writer must have been appris'd of it, and would have inserted its Story, if there had been any Truth in it. And whether St. John's Story of Lazarus's Resurrection, that Miracle of Miracles, ought not to be subjected to the like Criticism upon it, Christians may consider, and Infidels will judge.