CHAP. V.

THE MAN BORN BLIND.

HE interrogatories contained in the

ΤΗ evidence of the witnesses continually

awaken my attention.

It is there chiefly that I must fearch for the fources of the probability of the facts attefted. If these interrogatories, as I have already observed, have never been formally confuted by those whofe greatest interest it was to contradict them, I must allow the confequences which naturally result from them. Amongst these interrogatories there is one especially which claims my attention, and which I cannot read without feeling a fecret pleasure; I mean that of the man born blind, and cured by the divine meffenger (n). This miracle becomes the cause of great af

tonishment to all those who had known the blind man. They are at a loss what to think, and are divided in their opinions. They bring him into the presence of the doctors; who question him, and afk him, how he came to receive his fight? He anfwers, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and I do fee.

The doctors are not yet convinced of the fact; they doubt and reafon among themfelves; they wish to fix their doubts; and, fufpecting that the man was not born blind, they fend for his father and mother.-Is this your fon, whom ye fay was born blind? How then does he now fee? His parents anfwered them, and faid, We know that this is our fon, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now feeth, we know not, or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age, afk him, he shall speak for himself. The doctors therefore queftion again this man who had been blind from his birth; they again call him a fecond time before them, and say, Give God the praise; we know that this man who hath opened thine eyes is a finner. He answered, and faid, Whether be be a

finner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I fee. On this ingenuous answer the doctors recur again to their first question-What did he do? They again afk him-How opened be thine eyes? I have told you already, he answers, with the fame firmness and candour-wherefore would you bear it again? Will ye alfo be his difciples? This anfwer irritates the doctors-They revile him-As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.-Why! herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, again replies this man, full of candour and good sense, and yet he hath opened my eyes, &c. What ingenuousness, what fimplicity, what precifion, what well-connected reafoning! If fuch as these are not the characteristics of truth, by what marks shall we ever discover it?

CH A P. VỊ. .

THE RESURRECTION.

F all the proceedings contained in this

book, there are none affuredly of greater importance than that one which concerns the person of the divine meffenger; and on that very account it is alfo the most circumstantial, the most frequently repeated, and that to which the witneffes most directly and most frequently allude. It is always the centre of their teftimony. I find it in the chief parts of the narrative; and on a fair comparison of the paffages which refpect this important point, they appear to me to be perfectly harmonious.

The divine teacher is taken, examined, and queftioned by the judges of his nation; they call upon him to declare who he is; he declares himself; his anfwer is deemed blafphemy; falfe witneffes are produced against

him, who exhibit a misconstruction of his words. He is condemned, and led before a fupreme and foreign tribunal. There he is again questioned, and makes nearly the same reply. The judge, confcious of his innocence, wishes to release him. The magiftrates, who have condemned him, perfevere in requiring his death: they intimidate the chief judge, who delivers him up to them. He is crucified and buried. The magiftrates seal the ftone of the fepulchre, and fet a watch over it; and, a short time after, the witneffes atteft in the capital, and in the prefence of the magistrates themselves, that he who was crucified is rifen from the dead.

I have brought together the most essential facts: I compare, I analyse them, and I can form only two hypothefes which can poffibly account for the conclufion of this affair-either the witneffes have carried off the body, or Jefus is really rifen. I must decide between these two hypotheses, for I cannot make out a third. And first, I weigh the particular opinions, the prejudices, the character of the witneffes: I obferve their conduct, their circumftances, the fituation of their

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