And it nor otherwise, than they do in all cases. cannot be denied, but that truth may be received through prejudice, (as it is called,) that is, without examining the proof, or merits of the cause, as well as falsehood. What general truth is there, the merits of which all the world, or the hundredth part, has examined? It is smartly said somewhere, that the priest only continues what the nurse began. But the life of the remark consists in the quaintness of the antithesis between the nurse and the priest; and owes its support much more to sound than to sense. For is it possible that children should not hear something of the common and popular opinions of their country, whether those opinions be true or false? Do they not learn the common maxims of reason this way? Perhaps every man first learned from his nurse, that two and two make four; and whenever she divides an apple among her children, she instills into them this prejudice, that the whole is equal to its parts, and all the parts equal to the whole and yet Sir Isaac Newton, (shame on him!) what work has he made, what a building has he erected on the foundation of this nursery-learning? As to religion, there never was a religion, there never will be one, whether true or false, publicly owned in any country, but children have heard, and ever will hear, more or less of it from those who are placed about them. And if this is, and ever must be the case, whether the religion be true or false, it is highly absurd to lay stress on this observation, when the question is about the truth of any religion; for the observation is indifferent to both sides of the question. : We are now, I think, got through the commonplace learning, which must for ever, it seems, attend on questions of this nature; and are coming to the merits of the cause. And here the gentleman on the other side thought proper to begin with an account of the people of the Jews, the people in whose country the fact is laid, and who were originally, and in some respects principally concerned in its consequences. They were, he says, a weak superstitious people, and lived under the influence of certain pretended prophecies and predictions; that on this ground they had, some time before the appearance of Christ Jesus, conceived great expectations of the coming of a victorious prince, who should deliver them from the Roman yoke, and make them all kings and princes. He goes on then to observe, how liable the people were, in this state of things, to be imposed on, and led into rebellion, by any one who was bold enough to take on him to personate the prince expected. He observes further, that in fact many such impostors did arise, and deceived multitudes to their ruin and destruction. I have laid these things together, because I do not intend to dispute these matters with the gentleman. Whether the Jews were a weak and superstitious people, and influenced by false prophecies, or whether they had true prophecies among them, is not material to the present question; it is enough for the gentleman's argument, if I allow the fact to be as he has stated it, that they did expect a victorious prince; that they were on this account exposed to be practised on by pretenders, and in fact were often so deluded. This foundation being laid, it was natural to expect, and I believe your Lordship and every one present did expect, that the gentleman would go on to show, that Jesus laid hold of this opportunity, struck in with the opinion of the people, and professed himself to be the prince who was to work their deliverance. But so far, it seems, is this from being the case, that the charge on Jesus is, that he took the contrary part, and set up in opposition to all the popular notions and prejudices of his country; that he interpreted the prophecies to another sense and meaning than his countrymen did; and by his expositions took away all hopes of their ever seeing the victorious deliverer so much wanted and expected. I know not how to bring the gentleman's premises and his conclusion to any agreement; they seem to be at a great variance at present. If it be the likeliest method for an impostor to succeed, to build on the popular opinions, prejudices, and prophecies of the people; then surely an impostor cannot possibly take a worse method, than to set up in opposition to all the prejudices and prophecies of the country. Where was the art and cunning then of taking this method? Could any thing be expected from it but hatred, contempt, and persecution? And did Christ in fact meet with any other treatment from the Jews? And yet when he found, as the gentleman allows he did, that he must perish in this attempt, did he change his note ? did he come about, and drop any intimations agreeable to the notions of the people? It is not pretended. This, which, in any other case which ever happened, would be taken to be a plain mark of great honesty, or great stupidity, or of both, is in the present case art, policy, and contrivance ! But, it seems, Jesus dared not set up to be the victorious prince expected, for victories are not to be counterfeited. I hope it was no crime in him that he did not assume this false character, and try to abuse the credulity of the people: if he had done so, it certainly would have been a crime; and therefore in this point at least he is innocent. I do not suppose the gentleman imagines that the Jews were well founded in their expectation of a temporal prince: and therefore when Christ opposed this conceit at the manifest hazard of his life, as he certainly had truth on his side, so the presumption is, that it was for the sake of truth that he exposed himself. No. He wanted, we are told, the common and necessary foundation for a new revelation, the authority of an old one to build on. Very well. I will not inquire how common, or how necessary this foundation is to a new revelation; for, be that case as it will, it is evident, that in the method Christ took, he had not, nor could have the supposed advantage of such foundation. For why is this foundation necessary? A friend of the gentleman's shall tell you, "Because it must be difficult, if not impossible, to introduce among men (who in all civilized countries are bred up in the belief of some revealed religion) a revealed religion wholly new, or such as has no reference to a preceding one; for that would be to combat all men on too many respects, and not to proceed on a sufficient number of principles necessary to be assented to by those on whom the first impressions of a new religion are proposed to be made.'* You see now the reason of the necessity of this foundation it is, that the new teacher may have the advantage of old popular opinions, and fix himself on the prejudices of the people. Had Christ * Discourse of the Grounds, p. 24. any such advantages? or did he seek any such? The people expected a victorious prince; he told them they were mistaken: they held as sacred the traditions of the elders; he told them those traditions made the law of God of none effect: they valued themselves for being the peculiar people of God; he told them, that people from all quarters of the world should be the people of God, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom: they thought God could be worshipped only at Jerusalem; he told them God might and should be worshipped every where: they were superstitious in the observance of the Sabbath; he, according to their reckoning, broke it frequently in a word, their washings of hands and pots, their superstitious distinctions of meats, their prayers in public, their villanies in secret, were all reproved, exposed, and condemned by him; and the cry ran strongly against him, that he came to destroy the Law and the Prophets. And now, sir, what advantage had Christ, of your common and necessary foundation? What sufficient number of principles owned by the people did he build on? If he adhered to the old revelation in the true sense, or (which is sufficient to the present argument) in a sense not received by the people, it was in truth the greatest difficulty he had to struggle with: and therefore what could tempt him, but purely a regard to truth, to take on himself so many difficulties, which might have been avoided, could he have been but silent as to the old revelation, and left the people to their imaginations? To carry on this plot, we are told, that the next thing which Jesus did was to make choice of proper persons to be his disciples. The gentleman has given us their character; but, as I suppose he |