ridiculous.

Chrift's riCred. There is a Complication of Miftakes Philologus, ding upon upon which you ground this Calumny against our blessed an Afset Lord. For you think it an odd Thing ct to ride upon an Afs, becaufe Men don't ufually do fo in our Western Coun tries; and the Eastern People, in thofe Times, perhaps, would have laughed as much at our being fuch Cavaliers in the Time of Peace, as to mount Horfes upon all Occafions, which they did very rarely, but in order to Battle. It was no comical Thing, as you Wits would make it, to fee a Man in those Ages, and in that Country, to ride upen an Afs; for Balaam, who was a great Courtier to one of the Kings of thofe Countries, rode upon one, Numb. xxii. 28.

A Token of

ty, and Na

Neither was it any Affectation of Popularity which moved Lis Humit our Lord to this Action, for that was a Thing which he ure of his upon all Occafions avoided, forbidding the Miracles which Kingdom. he did to be divulged, and hiding himself from the Peo

ple, when they would have made him a King. But he
was pleafed to make ufe of this mean Sort of Triumph,
as a kind of Hieroglyphical Reprefentation of the Humility
which his Religion taught, and which, by this, he recom-
mended to them. For this was the ufual Way of the
Oriental People to reprefent Things by, as Micajah's push-
ing with Horns, and Ezekiel's boiling the Pot. By this,
he likewife reprefented the spiritual Nature of his Kingdom,
which was not of this World; for when the Jews ex-
pected, that their temporal Meffias fhould have rode in all
the triumphal Glories of a Roman Proceffion, with a Cha-
riot drawn by Horses of the nobleft Breed, and captive
Princes chained to it; He, to fhew them their great Mif-
take in this Matter, made a Triumph of another Kind,
upon a common Beaft, borrowed of an ordinary Man, and
not plundered from a dethroned King; he did not tram-
ple, like the Roman Victors, upon Scarlet and Gold, but
only upon the mean Garments of the common People; and
chose the weak Attendance of his poor unarmed Difciples,
rather than the armed Guards, which furrounded the im-
perial Perfon. He might, if he pleafed, have commanded
to himself these, and a thousand Times greater Glories:

But,

་

But, when he fuffered Honours to be paid him, he chofe
even at that Time to teach Humility, and a Contempt of
the Glories of this World.

as well as a

Befides, He permitted this Honour to be paid him, to Tofhew him demonftrate his Kingly Office, which it was neceffary the to be a King People fhould be informed of; and he having now, by Prophet, Preaching a confiderable Time, almoft perfected his pro- &c. phetick Office, by his fubmitting to this Triumph, Providence made Way for his entring upon his Sacerdotal, or his being a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World. If Chrift had fuffered the People to have proclaimed him a King before, the Jews would have laid hold of him, and hin dered his Preaching; and if he had not once fubmitted, though in the humbleft Manner, to accept the Honours of that Dignity, they would not have known him to be a King as well as a Prophet, which the Meffias was to be. And now his Preaching being finished, he acknowledged his Kingdom, not out of any ambitious Defign, (for what Pleasure could fo wife a Perfon take in fuch poor Honours?) but to fulfill the Will of God, and the great eternal Designs of Providence; and thereby to give an Occafion now at last to the Jews to murder him, that his innocent Life might be offered up to God for a Sacrifice for our Sins. This, Philologus, is no Matter of Scoff and Ridicule, but is a Train of the moft wife and adorable Providence, which fome Time or other you will praise and admire, or elfe will eternally grieve and tremble at.

But if this was any indecent Action of our Saviour, Jews interthe Jews would have been forwardest to expose it. But pret this of they know very well, that the fame was prophefied of the the Meffias. Meffias by Zachary the Prophet, quoted by the Evangelift*. And the most learned Jews, R. Eliezer, Nachman, Farchi, Abarbanel, &c. own, That Prophefy to belong to the Meffias, Behold! the King cometh unto thee lowly, and riding upon an Afs, &c. Zach. ix. 4. A Prophefy by which the Jews, as Theodoret fays, were uno, ftruck with Thunder; and therefore fome of them were forced to de

★ Vid. Bochar. An. Sacr. p. 113.

E e 2

fert

420

fert the ancient Interpretation of their Schools, which ap
plied it to the Meffias, and to explain it of Zerubbabel,
who was a poor Prince. But thefe are modern Fetches,
made out of defpight to Chriftianity, and which fome of
the latter Jews are too generous to agree with. And
therefore Grotius is not to be pardoned, for taking Part
with Aben Ezra, who applies this to Zerubbabel, and
gives our Saviour only the poor Come-off of a fecundary
Senfe. The Comment of Rabbi Solomon looks much
this of any
other
more Chriftian, It is impoffible to interpret this of
than the Meffias, when we fee it fulfilled in no other Per-
fon.

Phil. To be yet plainer with you, I cannot think that thofe Miracles which he is faid to have done were true; but only he, being cunninger than the reft of the People, made them believe that ftrange Things were done by his Power, which either were never done at all, or elfe would have been done without him. If a fick Man who was naturally in a hopeful Way of Recovery, was feen accidentally by Chrift, it was then given out that he cured him. And, if the Man had an Opinion of his miraculous Power and Holiness, his Fancy might contribute a great Deal towards it; and therefore we find that a good strong Faith is always requifite for the Support of a Miracle. Nay, the Evangelift himfelf owns, That Chrift could do no Miracles in his own Country, because of their Unbelief, Mat. xiii. 58. That is, they were acquainted with him from the beginning, and were not prejudiced with that extraordinary Opinion Men had of him, in other Places; and fo would not let thofe Things pafs upon them for Miracles, which deceived others.

Cred. It is not to be expected, but that Men of your Principles fhould disbelieve the Truth of our Saviour's Miracles; for if you were fatisfied upon this Point, you muft neceffarily own the Truth of his Doctrines; and therefore, I don't wonder that they lay out all their Wit and Malice, to weaken the Belief of these. But to give

Celfus apud Orig. Blunt's Notes in Philostr.

you

you
Satisfaction, that the Miracles of our Saviour were
not fuch crafty juggling Tricks, as you pretend, I defire
you would confider a few Reafons, which I thall propofe

to you.

and there

1. By the whole Character and Tenor of our Saviour's Chrift a Life, he appears to be a very good Man; and therefore good Man, could not be guilty of an Imposture, which no Body, but fore no Imvile Rogues and Cheats, will be concerned in. Who can poftor. believe, that fo good a Perfon as JESUS CHRIST, who, all along his whole Life, made it his Business to do Good, to inform Men of their Duty, and to teach them the exacteft Rules of Virtue; who executed his miraculous Power, not for Oftentation, and the Aggrandizing his Fame, but to do Good both to the Souls and Bodies of Men; who defpifed all profered Honours, and manifefted a perfect Contempt of the World; who was fo Kind and Obliging, fo Meek and Patient, in all his Converfation; who prayed for, and laid down his Life, for his Enemies : What Man can believe (I fay) that a Perfon, of fuch wondrous Goodness, would make ufe of fuch bafe Tricks, as you fuggeft? This may be fuppofed of an ambitiousMan, or one of an ungodly Life, who had no Regard to Virtue, or who would do any Thing to gain a popular Applaufe; but can never be reasonably thought of fo good, and innocent, a Perfon as our bleffed LORD. You cannot fuppofe, that he counterfeited this Goodness; for, fome Time or other, fuch an hypocritical Vizor would have dropped off, in his whole Courfe of Life. For fuch Men cannot always ftand upon their Guard, and, in Converfation, they will now and then display what they really are, do what they can. And if this had been the Cafe 'of JESUS CHRIST, he having fo many Enemies, fome of them would have been fure to have catched hold of the Slip. Or if we can fuppofe him to have been ever fuccefsfully Cautious, after he fet up for his fuppofed Imposture, yet how can we imagine him to have acted fuch a Part for thirty Years before his Preaching? There is no Ground for fuch a Sufpicion, and the plain Openness of his Conversation, oftentimes with Publicans and Sinners,

does demonftrate that he was not acting the Hypocrite's Part, who would have industriously avoided fuch Acquaintance to gain himself a better Reputation.

Because his z. Men that fet up for this Trade of Imposture, take Miracles Care to have as few Witnesses as ever they can in what done fo of- they do, for a Multitude of Eyes will be apt to prie too fore fo ma- nearly into their Tricks; and if the Cheat happens to

ten and be

ny,

fucceed once or twice well, they are afraid of repeating it, for fear of fome unlucky Mifcarriage. But there is nothing like this, in our Saviour's Miracles. He repeated them over and over, as often as there was Occafion for them, and cured Multitudes of Blind and Lame in the fame Place. The Miracles, which he frequently did, were fo publickly to be difcerned, in the Face of fo many Witneffes, that they were not, like strange Hear-fay Stories, done I know not where, and before I know not whom, but before Multitudes of Spectators, many of which bore him a great Deal of Ill-will. If he had any covert Way of Curing thefe difeafed Perfons by natural Means, he would have chofen to have done it in private, but he only fpake the Word in the Face of the whole Multitude, and diftemper'd Perfons became whole. And this the Pharifees oftentimes faw him do, and durft not queftion the Truth of his Performances; they owned them to be performed by a fupernatural Power, but maliciously attributed them to a diabolical one; and at another Time when he cured the Man of the Palfy, they could not deny but that he really did cure him, finding Fault only for his doing it upon the Sabbath-day. He raised a dead Man to Life in the open Streets, as he was carrying to his Funeral, with all the Attendants about him; fo that if any Trick was play'd in this Matter, there were Witnesses enough to discover it. He increased the Loaves and Fishes at one Time for the Feeding four Thoufand, at another five Thousand Men, Mat. xv. 38. Now 'tis a ftrange Thing, that none of all these should discover the Imposture, if there was any. Nay, it is not to be imagined, that any Impoftor could be fo fimple, as to go to put a Trick upon fuch an Army of People, and yet hope that none of them fhould find out the Cheat.

3. The