What then was the Reason, I ask again, that the three first Evangelists neglected to record this renown'd Miracle of Lazarus? And why too (may I enquire here) did not Matthew and Mark mention the Story of the Widow of Naim's Son, as they could not but know of it, if true, more certainly than Luke, the Companion of Paul, who alone has made a Report of it? Grotius says,[278] it may seem strange that this illustrious Miracle of the Widow's Son was omitted by Matthew and Mark: And what is the Reason that Grotius gives for this strange Omission? Why, he tells us[279] that these two Evangelists were content with one miraculous Instance of this Kind, by which Christians might judge of Jesus's Power in others also. And is this Reason sufficient? True it is, they were content with one Instance; but if they had made a Report of two or three more of the same sort, no body would have thought their History of Christ overcharg'd with impertinent and tautological Repetitions. But one Instance of a Person rais'd from the dead, they were, says Grotius, content with: And I'll grant one to be sufficient: But which then should they, as wise and considerate Historians have made Choice of, the greatest or the least Miracle? The greatest, to be sure, and that was of Lazarus, or of the Widow's Son, if they knew of either. But instead of either of these, they tell us the Story of Jairus's Daughter, that is[280] an imperfect and disputable Miracle, in Comparison of the other two, which consequently they knew nothing at all of, or they would have preferr'd the Report of them.
If Matthew, the first Writer, had recorded only the Story of Lazarus, whose Resurrection was the greatest Miracle; and if Luke had added that of the Widow of Naim's Son; and John lastly had remember'd us of Jairus's Daughter, which the other Evangelists, not through Ignorance or Forgetfulness, but studying Brevity, had omitted, then all had been well; and no Objection had hence lain against the Credit of any of these Miracles, or against the Authority of the Evangelists: But this unnatural and preposterous Order of Time, in which these Miracles are recorded (the greatest being postponed to the least) administers just Occasion of suspicion of the Truth and Credibility of all their Stories. And it is lucky for Christianity, that Jews and Infidels have not hitherto hit upon the Absurdity of this preposterous Narration, or they might have form'd a cogent Objection against these Miracles thus, saying;
"Jesus, it is manifest, rais'd not the dead at all. The only Person, that Christians can reasonably pretend, he did raise, was Jairus's Daughter, whom Matthew writes of; and she, according to the Story was only in a Sleep, or an Extacy, when Jesus revived her. But the Galileans, who were after a Time call'd Christians, finding their Account in a Resurrection-Miracle; Luke, for the former Advantage of the Cause, devised another Story of better Circumstances, in the Widow of Naim's Son: But this not being so great a Miracle, as the Church still wanted; John, when no body was alive to contradict and expostulate with him for it, trumps up a long Story of a thumping Miracle, in Jesus's raising of Lazarus, who had been not only dead, but buried so long that he stank again. But to prove the Story of this Miracle to be false and fabulous, we need say no more than that it was last recorded. If there had been any Truth in it, the first Evangelist would have remember'd us of it.
"We don't suppose, that you Christians, because of your Prejudices, will subscribe to this Account, that we thus give of the Rise of these Miracles: But this is certain, that if these three Miracles had not been reported of Jesus, but of Mahomet, in the same disorder of Time, by three different Historians, you would presently have scented the Forgery and Imposture: You would justly have affirm'd that the three Stories were apparently three Fables and Falsehoods; and that the three Historians visibly strove to outstretch each other: That the first was sparing and modest in his Romance; and the second, being sensible of the Insufficiency of the former's Tale, devises a Miracle of a bigger Size; which still not proving sufficient to the End proposed; the third Writer, rather than his Prophet's Honour should sink for want of a Resurrection-Miracle, forges a Story of a monstrously huge one; against which it is, and always will be Objection enough, that it was not related by the first Historian. So would you Christians argue against these three Miracles in another Impostor's Case; and there is not a judicious Critic in the Universe, that would not approve of the Argument, and applaud the Force of it, tho' you will not endure the Thoughts of it in the Case of your Jesus.
"But to come nearer home to you; supposing John (who was then above a Hundred, and in his Dotage) had not reported this Miracle of Lazarus; but that Clement (joining it with his[281] incredible Story of the Resurrection of a Phœnix) or Ignatius, or Polycarp, or the Author of the Apostolical Constitutions had related it; would not your Christian Critics have been at work to explode it? There is not an antient extra-evangelical Tradition of any Note about Jesus, that some or other of your Critics have not boggled at; but such a Story as this of Lazarus would have been received by none. I question, whether Mr. Whiston would not have rejected the Constitutions upon such a Story in them; or if his Fancy for some other Things in them had overcome his Reason against this; yet Bishop Smallbroke, who has written against the Canonicalness of the Constitutions, with his judicious Animadversions upon this Story, would absolutely have overthrown their Authority. And what would he have said here? Not only that the Miracle smells rankly of Forgery and Fraud, or the Evangelists, especially Matthew, had never forgotten to record it; but he would have reminded us of intrinsic Notes (hereafter to be mention'd) of Absurdity, and Incredibility, that would for ever have cashier'd the Belief of it. And whether we Infidels ought not to take the same Liberty to criticize on John's Gospel, which you do on your Apostolical Fathers, who wrote before him, let the impartial and unprejudiced judge: If in justice we ought to take it; we are sure we could give two or three notable Reasons (but that We will not now put Christians out of Temper with them) why John may be suspected of a Mistake or Fraud in this Miracle, rather than any other Christian Writer of the first or second Century."
To such an unhappy Objection, arising from the unnatural and preposterous Order of Time, in which they are recorded, are these three Miracles before us obnoxious. And I am thinking how Ministers of the Letter will be able to get over it. As for my self, who am for the mystical Interpretation of these Miracles, I have a solid and substantial Answer at hand to the foresaid Objection, an Answer that curiously accounts for the Order of Time in which these Miracles are related; but my Answer will not please our Divines, nor stand them in any stead; therefore they must look up another good one of their own, that will comport with the Letter; or the said Objection, improved with another presently against Lazarus's Resurrection, will be too hard, not for Christianity it self, but for their Ministry.
Grotius, being aware of the foresaid Objection, has given us such a[282] Solution of it as then occurr'd to his Thoughts. Dr. Whitby, not being satisfied with Grotius's Solution, has given us[283] another: But how weak and insufficient both their Solutions are, I will not spare Time to consider, till some Writer shall appear in Defence of the Sufficiency and Strength of one or other of them. And so I pass to a
2. Second Observation, by Way of Objection to the Letter of these Miracles, and that is, by enquiring, what became of these three Persons after their Resurrection? How long did they live afterwards? And of what Use and Advantage were their restored Lives to the Church or to Mankind? The Evangelical and Ecclesiastical History is entirely silent as to these Questions, which is enough to make us suspect their Stories to be merely romantick or parabolical; and that there were no such Persons rais'd from the dead; or we must have heard somewhat of their Station and Conversation in the World afterwards. It's true, that Ephiphanius[284] says, what he found among Traditions, that Lazarus lived thirty Years after his Resurrection: But how did he spend his Time all that while? Was it to the Honour of Jesus, to the Service of the Church, and Propagation of the Gospel? Of that we know nothing; tho' in Reason and Gratitude to Jesus, his Benefactor, it ought to have been so spent; and if it had been so employ'd, History surely would have inform'd us of it. According to the Opinion of Grotius, in a Citation above, Lazarus for the rest of his restored Life absconded, and skull'd about the Country for Fear of the Jews, who lay in Wait for him; which is a Suggestion, not only dishonourable to Jesus, as if the same Power, that rais'd him from the dead, could not protect him against his Enemies; but reproachful to Lazarus himself, who should have chosen to suffer Death again, rather than not bear an open Testimony to Jesus, the Author of his Resurrection. However it was, we hear no more of Lazarus, than that he lived thirty Years afterwards, which Tradition, without other Memorials of his Life, brings the Miracle more under suspicion of Fable, than if he had dy'd soon after it. And of Jairus's Daughter, and of the Widow of Naim's Son, which is astonishing, we read nothing at all. Does not this Silence in History about them, make their Miracles questionable, and but like Gulliverian Tales of Persons and Things, that out of the Romance, never had any Being.
Jesus did but[285] call a little Child, and set him in the midst of his Disciples; and that Act was remember'd in the Piety and Zeal[286] of Ignatius, who made a renown'd Bishop. But the Favour and Blessing conferr'd on these three rais'd Persons was exceedingly greater; and one might have expected, that Lazarus and the Widow's Son would have been eminent Ministers of the Gospel. But instead of that, their Lives afterwards were pass'd in Obscurity, or, what's as bad, Ecclesiastical History has neglected a Report of them. What can any one hereupon think less, than that the Favour of the Miracles was lost on undeserving Persons, which I abhor the Thoughts of; or that their Stories are but Parables, which I rather incline to.
Ministers of the Letter may here say, "That the Ecclesiastical History of the Apostolical Age is very scanty; and that many Memorials of other Persons and Transactions are lost and buried in Oblivion: Which unhappy Fate has attended the after-Lives and Actions of these rais'd Persons, or undoubtedly we should have had a famous Record of them." This is not impossible; tho' in the Wisdom of Providence it is hardly probable, but that some more Remembrance must have been left of one or other, if not of all the three Persons; in as much as such a Remembrance of them would now-a-days have no less gain'd a Belief of the Miracles, than this Historical Silence tends to the Discredit of them.
It's somewhat strange, that we hear no more of the after-Fame and Life of any of the diseased Persons, whom Jesus miraculously cured; excepting of the Woman, heal'd of an Issue of Blood; who, tho' she spent ALL she had, even ALL her Living upon Physicians; yet out of the Remains of it erected, says[287] Eusebius, at Cæsarea Philippi, two most costly Statues of Brass, to the Memory of Jesus and of herself, and of the Miracle wrought by him; which Dr. Whitby[288] as if he was tainted with Infidelity, endeavours to make an idle Tale of. But excepting, I say this Story of this Woman, we hear nothing of any other heal'd Person; which is Matter of some Speculation: But that the Persons rais'd from the dead should not at all be mention'd in History for their Labours and Lives afterwards to the Honour of Jesus, is absolutely unaccountable. Whether such a profound Silence in History about them be not shocking of the Credit of the Miracles, let our Divines consider. I am of Opinion that if Jesus really rais'd these Persons from the dead; this and no other Reason, in the Providence of God, can be given for the Silence of Ecclesiastical History about them afterwards, than to make dead-letter'd Stories of their Miracles, in order to turn our Heads entirely to the Consideration of their mystical Signification, without which the Letter, for the Argument before us, is deserving of no Regard nor Credit. But
3. By way of Objection to the Letter of these three Miracles, let us consider the Condition of the Persons rais'd from the dead; and whether they were at all proper Persons for Jesus to work such a Miracle upon, in Testimony of his divine Power. If they were improper Persons according to the Letter, it's not credible that He, who was the Wisdom of God, would raise them; or if he did, it was because they were the properest to make mystical Emblems of their Stories.