25. It is mouch to be wished, that some of our spiritual directors, who have leisure time and large incomes, would be at the pains to rectify and adjust to the standard of holy writ, the many errors and omissions of profane historians.

When Christ was baptized by John, the heavens were, opened, and a voice was heard, declaring his divine origin. Such a prodigy must have awakened the attention of all Judea; yet we find the historians totally silent on the matter. It is strange, that the horrid massacre of the children by the command of Herod should be totally unnoticed by Josephus, and even by the evangelists, Mark, Luke, and John.* Matthew alone mentions it; but his authority is fully sufficient to justify an interpolation (like many others) into the text of the other three evangelists, who are defective in that particular.

* If such an act of cruelty had been committed, it could not
by any contrivance have been concealed, and Josephus, the
inveterate enemy of Herod, and many of the most impartial
historians of the Romans, living at that period, would have
taken care to record such a public act of barbarity on the
part of Herod.
Editor.

It is well known with what success the primitive Christians began the holy work of interpolating, suppressing, forging, and altering profane histories; but as we believe their piety always prevented their meddling with the sacred text, notwithstanding the arguments of infidels, who attempt to prove the contrary, these holy frauds have been found of infinite service in establishing the cause of Christianity. Why do we forbear to pursue their great and laudable example? The modesty or the mistaken candour of these antients* have allowed them to interpolate no more than one paragraph concerning Jesus into the text of Josephus. Would it not shew our superior zeal, and be of infinite service to posterity, if some divine of the present age would incorporate the whole narrative of Matthew into the same text? But, alas, the sneers of our adversaries, the unbelievers, have prevailed too much, and good works, like these, are now no more!

26. About eighteen centuries ago, (according to the prophecy of Christ and his apostle Paul,** the sun was darkened, the moon ceased to give light, and the stars fell from heaven; the sign of the Son of Man was seen, the Lord himself descended from heaven with a shout, the trumpets of the archangels were heard, the dead in Christ arose, St. Paul and others of the elect, who were then living, were caught up in the clouds, went to meet the Lord in the air, and have been with him ever since. It is truly astonishing, that a phenomenon so awful as the destruction of the system of nature should have made no interruption in the state of nations and affairs at that time, that all the historians should omit to record so dreadful an event, nay, that they should survive it; and that the primitive fathers should forbear to mention a circumstance which was so well calculated to establish the Christian religion, and confute all the arguments of the Jews, heathens, and unbelievers. When your Lordships set about the great work of rectifying antient histories, you will doubtless be careful to insert an account of this tremendous occurrence; for Christians can have no doubt but that it really happened, since it was so directly foretold both in time and circumstances, by Christ and his apostle Paul.

* Josephus, de Antiq. Jud. lib. xviii. cap. 4.
** Matt. xvi. 27, 28.—Matt. xxiv. 29, 34.—Mark xiii. 24,
31.—Lukexxi. 25, 33.—1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.

27. The oracles of Delphos were obscure and capable of various interpretations, but the prophecies of sacred writ are all so clear and obvious, they shine so bright by their own native lustre, that no one has ever pretended to doubt their divine origin, except those infidels who are unfortunately blinded by the too great suffusion of light, which the Scriptures so continually emit. If the gift of curing the blind be not entirely lost among the apostles of the present day, it must be Christian charity to describe the symptoms of their disorder, that your Lordships may attempt the cure. These unfortunate people observe, that God said to Adam concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil,* "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die;" he transgressed, and, nevertheless, lived at least eight hundred years afterwards. They observe, that the great evangelical prophet Isaiah,* could foresee the downfall of Babylon by Cyrus, but could not tell the name of the Messiah, though his coming was an event of infinitely greater consequence; nay, they even charge him with a blunder, if we admit the opinion, that Christ was intended by the names, Mahershalal-hash-baz and Immanuel,** since he was never called by them. But they impiously solve this, difficulty, by affirming, that Isaiah might take the advantage of writing his prophecy concerning Cyrus after the events took place, but could not avail himself of the same pious cunning in the affair of the Messiah. And, in fact, we, the true believers, are in great want of evidence to overthrow their supposition. They demand, if the prophecies be so evident and clear, so different from those of the Heathens, how happened it that the whole Jewish nation, then living, together with the angel Gabriel, should mistake, and suppose the kingdom of the Messiah to be temporal; and that it should not be discovered that his kingdom was not of this world, until his enemies, the unbelievers, had prevailed and sent him out of it? They ask, whether those inspired writers who prophesied concerning things of no consequence, as the thirty pieces of silver, and the casting lots for his garments, could not, with equal certainty, have predicted the more important circumstances of his death and resurrection? In short, they beg to be shewn a single prophecy concerning which divines are agreed, and desire to know why, in the days of gospel light, the great prophecy of John the Divine should be more obscure and enigmatical than any which was written during the typical and shadowy dispensation of Moses? All which absurd questions your Lordships will, no doubt, answer, overthrow, and expose in the most palpable manner, to the great joy of us weak Christians.

* Isaiah xiv. and xlv.
** Iaiah
*** Luke i. 32.

28. How came it to pass, say our enemies, the cavillers and unbelievers, that Jesus, the Son of God, should curse a fig-tree* for being without fruit in March; was he, by whom the world was made,** ignorant that it was not the season for figs? They likewise demand, whether it was by design or mistake that he affirmed*** that wheat does not produce fruit unless it first die? If Scripture was not meant to instruct philosophers, yet why should it mislead them? But though these infidels may please to assert, that wheat in our days is governed by laws directly contrary to these, as all naturalists indeed acknowledge, yet who can affirm that it was so eighteen hundred years ago? On the contrary, since these things are recorded in the sacred writings, we ought to submit and believe that the system of Nature is changed from what it was in ancient times. This event probably came to pass when the sun was darkened, and the stars fell from Heaven, as mentioned in a former question.

* Matt. xxi. 18. Mark xi. 13, 20.
** John i. 3.
*** John xii. 24. |
**** Quest. 26.