ALL this while (fays Mr. W. pag. 58.) where was the Good Man of the Houfe? He was prefent, we may fuppofe; but if fo little mifchief was done by the Entrance made for the Sick Man and his Bed, the Good man of the House had not all the Provocation, which the Queftion fuppofes: in Crowds and Throngs Men are content to bear fome fmall Inconvenience: it is generally in vain for them to complain of a Mob, whofe Eagerness is too great to be reftrain'd by the Outcry of One Man and perhaps this Mafter of the House might be fo attentive to Jefus's preaching that he might not perceive what was doing above at the Door, till it was done and the Entrance made; especially if the Door and the Stairs leading up to it were without the Room where Jefus and He were: or (it may be) he was Unwilling to disturb fuch heavenly Doctrine upon fo flight an Occafion as the breaking Open a Door, by thofe, whofe only Motive was to bring a Sick Man before Jefus, that he might be heal'd by a Miracle: or (for what Mr. W. knows to the contrary) he did call out to forbid their forcible Entrance into his Houfe, tho' to no Purpose: These and many other Suppofitions may be made, and any one of them (I think) is an Over-match for Mr. W's Question.

THE laft Demand which he has to make on this Head, is, Why did not Jefus, to prevent this Trouble and Damage to the Houfe, afcend thro' the Door-way to the Top of it, and there heal the Poor Man? To which Queftion he requires an Answer that will confift with the Wisdom, the Goodness and Honour of Jefus, p. 60. But if the Trouble of the Bearers, and the Damage done to the Houfe was fo fmall as I have reprefented it, no Objection can be form'd from hence to the Difadvantage of any of these Qualities in Jefus: For his healing the Paralytick was equally an Act of Goodness, whether he went up to the Man, or the Man was fuffer'd to come down to Him: The Pains, that the Sick Man and his Bearers took to get at Jefus, fhew'd the Strength of their Faith, and on that Account it was not Improper to permit them to shew how fit Objects they were of Jesus's Compaffion. But I may ask this Author, Whether if Jefus had gone up to the Top of the House, and had wrought the Cure there, Mr. W. would have had the Crowd follow him there too? if not, then the Miracle would have been wrought upon the Paralytick before a very few Witneffes: Whereas Jefus by fuffering the Sick Man and his Bed to be brought down into the Room, gave an Opportunity to all that were Present of feeing a Real and Great Miracle wrought: In this View then Jefus certainly did what was confiftent with his Wifdom and his Honour too, for he thereby manifefted his Glory, and made a greater Display of the Divine Power that was with him: Nor can it be doubted,

G 2

but

Part IV. but that, if Jesus had taken the contrary method, and had gone up to the Roof, as Mr. W. expects he fhould have done, Mr. W. would have found a much greater Difficulty in that, and have ask'd with more colour of Reafon, Why Jefas depriv'd fo many of his Hearers of the Opportunity of feeing fo ftupendous a Miracle wrought? and probably he would have concluded, that his healing the Man not before the Company, but upon the Houfe-top, where only the Sick Man's Friends were prefent, carried with it ftrong marks of Fraud and Impofture.

UPON the whole then of this Story, it appears to be fo far from being the most monstrously Abfurd, Improbable, and Incredible of any, according to the Letter (as he calls it, p. 51.) that I can find no one Abfurdity in it, but what arifes from his Mifreprefentations of it,

IN the fame manner, in which I have confider'd thefe Two Miracles, I might proceed to confider the Reft: but I have not Leifure enough for the Work, and perhaps the Reader by this time may be fatisfied with the Controverfy: The Miracles, which I have fingled out for Enquiry in This and the Preceding Parts, are fuch as I judg'd to have fomething of Difficulty in them, and not to have been fufficiently explain'd in all their Circumftances by our Ableft Commentators; who in fo large an Undertaking, as Theirs commonly is, had neither Room nor Time to enter into the minuter Difquifitions. But I have examin'd every Particular of the Literal Account of thofe Miracles, and I can affure the Reader, that in all the Teftimonies of Authors, which I have made ufe of, to fupport and confirm my Opinions, the Original has always been confulted, and no Truft has been given to Quotations at the fecond hand : I have feen enough to convince me, that Writers of Great Repute for Learning are not always to be depended upon in this Cafe, and therefore to the Fountain I went; for which reafon, if at any time I quote Authors in a different manner, or a different Senfe from what the Reader may have found them elsewhere quoted in, it is hoped, that he will give me Credit fo far as to take my Word, or refer himfelf to the Original for greater Certainty.

AT prefent I have no Intention to purfue this Subject any farther; I would only request the Reader to confider two Things: The one, that the Reality of Jefus's Refurrection having been prov'd by unconteftable Evidence, by all the Evidence that a Fact is capable of, nay, by fuch as no other past Fact in Nature ever could receive, it requires no Stretch of Faith to believe, that he wrought other Miracles, which are to all human Appearance of a lefs Difficult Nature; for to heal a Lame or a Blind man, or to raise a Dead man, has nothing

fo Inconceivable in it, as for a Man to raise Himself from the Dead: And if This be prov'd to have been done, the Other must be readily admitted for a Truth, whatever little Circumftances there may be in the Story, which an Ignorant Man may not understand, or a Perverse one may be able to mifre. prefent.

THE other thing, which I wou'd requeft the Reader to confider, is This; Mr. W. has fet before him fifteen of the Miracles afcrib'd to Jefus, and by his Management of them has represented them as the moft Abfurd, Improbable, and Incredible Stories that ever were deliver'd. Now let the Reader take all of them in this one View ; and confider whether it be in the leaft Probable, that fuch Authors as the Evangelifts are (certainly neither downright Fools nor downright Mad-men), in their Accounts of what they declare upon their own Knowledge and Eye-fight, could poffibly be guilty of fo many Abfurdities as Mr. W. has charg'd their Narrations with. They either meant to write the Truth of Facts, or they did not: If the Firft, then we may ask, whence it happen'd that Men, writing about what they faw, could fall into fuch Miftakes as Mr. W. fuppofes they did? But if they knowingly wrote Falfhoods, it may be ask'd again, how it came to pafs, that they, who intended to deceive, took no more care to fecure their Credit, and make their Account Probable? Deceivers (one would naturally think) fhould contrive to make their Story hang together, and should mention no Circumstances but what they know to be confiftent with the Customs and Manners of those, who were concern'd in it. The ordinary way to detect Men of this Character, is to find out that their Contemporaies, who might be as well acquainted with the Facts mention'd as Themfelves, have given Accounts, either Inconfiftent with or Contradictory to Theirs: But he must be a wetched Impoftor indeed, whofe Story fo plainly confutes itself, as Mr. W. thinks thofe of the Evangelifts do To fuppofe this, is to fuppofe them the very Weakest of Writers and of Men too. And how far they deferve that Character, muft be left to the Judgment of every Impartial Reader of their Writings. We fee then that Mr. W. overthrows all Probability on his Side of the Question, by endeavouring to prove too much: he allows nothing to be Right, all is Falfhood, all is Abfurdity; and yet there can be no greater Abfurdity in Nature (I think) than in believing, that Men of Senfe, who intended to Deceive, took no more pains to give a Colour to their Story, but left it Open and Expos'd to all the Objections which the Pen of Mr. W. has made against

them.

THIS I mention as a strong Prefumption against what he has advanc'd: But when it is farther confider'd what Answers I

and

and others have given to his fuppos'd Abfurdities, I hope that every Unprejudic'd Infidel will give a Fair hearing; and that every Serious Chriftian will be the better confirm'd in his Belief, that the Literal Account of all the Miracles of Jefus is True, and that they are a Demonftration, that the Power of God was with him.

FINI S.