deny, or even to doubt of it? was there ever CHAP. a revelation interwoven with general history, VII. which had more witneffes, whofe circumftances were lefs incident to alteration and change, and where there was a lefs poffibility of mixing falfhood?

Strangers, who were either princes in their country, or philofophers, or both together, as the name of magi may import, come from a diftant country, not to an obfcure village, but to Jerufalem, and demand where the king of the Jews was born. They afk Herod himself, who instantly comprehends that they meant the nativity of the Meffiah, that is to fay, of the most interesting fubject with regard to the nation and himself, purfuant to the fufpicions which his ambition and miftruft fuggefted. He convenes the moft folemn and numerous council, where the chief of the facerdotal families, and men of the greatest knowledge in religion attend. The answer of the council is precife. The prophet Micah is quoted upon the nativity of the Meffiah at Bethlehem. The prince fends the magi or wife-men thither, after having held a private conference with them, in which he gains all the infight, that appeared neceffary to him, concerning the time when the ftar had begun to appear, and in respect to other circumftances which were not concealed from him as from us, and which served. only to render him more cautious in his wicked defign. The wife-men publicly quitted Jerufalem, but did not return thither. At firft their clandeftine retreat was imputed to the L 4 fhamę

PART shame of being deceived. But the new report IV. which was fpread at Jerufalem, that Christ was born, that an holy old man, inspired by God, had embraced him in his arms when they presented him to the Lord in the temple; and that a widow, refpectable for her eminent virtue, and gift of prophecy, had discovered him to all the congregation: this new report, I fay, and this new concourfe, made Herod imagine, that the wife-men had found out more than he intended, and that 'twas he, and not they, who was deluded. And at that time, giving himself up wholly to his jealoufy, and foolishly expecting to deftroy the Meffiah, with the reft of the infants at Bethlehem, he commanded the maffacre of them in that city, and the adjacent parts, from two years old and under, according to the calculation he had made of the appearance of the star, after having confulted with the wife-men. Such a cruelty filled the country with blood and tears. There was no doubt made, but that this was the accomplishment of the fatal prediction uttered by Jeremy: and Saint Matthew quotes the prophecy as a thing known, and which every body applied to this strange event.

After fuch a fummary, let them tell me, what circumstance can they omit, and what change can they make? the whole must neceffarily be either true or falfe. The wife-men and their ftar must be a fiction not known to Jerufalem, to Herod, to the priests, to the council of the nation; Herod must never have

thought

thought of calling the affembly, to demand CHap. where the Meffiah fhould be born; and the VII. answer of that council must have been imaginary; there must not have been a drop of blood fhed at Bethlehem; and Saint Matthew must have been withal the most impious and stupid of all men, to have falsely attributed fuch a barbarity to Herod, and to have hoped that fuch a barbarity, not only false but incredible, which no one had heard mention of, fhould contribute to authorize another * fiction equally as incredible in its kind, which no one knew of, and in which nevertheless he appealed to all the inhabitants of Jerufalem and to the whole court as witneffes.

Whom will they perfuade that so foolish a thought should enter the mind, I do not fay, of a virtuous or honeft man, but of one that had any spark of reafon? that he should dare to write it in Judea, and at the time when the imposture might have been fo eafily detected? that he wrote it in the language of the country and not in Greek, as the other apostles had done † ; and that he should place this filly fable at the beginning of an history, in which he affirmed that all the facts were indubitable, and which he laid down as the foundation of religion and piety?

The coming of the wife-men.

† Ancient tradition informs us that Saint Matthew wrote the gofpel in Hebrew, fuch as the Jews then spoke.

ARTICLE

PART

IV.

ARTICLE IV.

Jofephus's filence confirms the truth of the facts which he suppresses.

Jofe

Ofephus's filence with respect to the maffacre of the infants, and the occafion thereof, very far from being a proof to the contrary, moft clearly, methinks, establishes its truth. This hiftorian, who saw Jerufalem and the temple reduced to ashes, his country defolate, and his countrymen captives or dispersed; and who had imbibed, in common with the reft of the Jews, a wrong notion of the Meffiah; either loft his courage and despaired of the promises, or by a fordid flattery affigned the effect of them to Vefpafian, who had been elected emperor, when he commanded in Judea, and who afterwards having fubdued all the provinces, appeared to this man, who was either deluded or a deluder, to unite the two qualities of the Meffiah, who should begin to reign in Judea, and from thence to extend his empire throughout the whole world.

However it is certain, that Jofephus was not afraid to look upon Vefpafian as the king whom the prophets had foretold; and by that means he put himself under a neceffity of abfolutely fuppreffing the relation of the wife-men, and the confequence of it; because he could not have wrote it without discovering that the king of the Jews, agreeable to the prophets and the

decifion

decifion of the first tribunal of the nation, was CHAP. to be born at Bethlehem without likewife VII. difcovering that he had reasonto believe, that he was indeed born there at the time of Herod; and without informing Vefpafian that Herod's cruel precautions had proved ineffectual with regard to the Meffiah; that prince being too wife and too clear-fighted, to imagine that an infant destined by providence to reign over the whole earth, and for a long time promised by inspired men, should be involved in a general maffacre.

Instead therefore of oppofing the recital of the evangelift to Jofephus's filence, this filence on the contrary must be looked on as á confirmation of the recital of the evangelift; for the cause of this filence is now known, and this cause supposes the truth of all the facts which he fuppreffes.

ARTICLE V.

A particular folution of thofe difficulties, which can no longer be confidered but as fimple questions.

W

IT H regard to the other questions to which they give the air of objections and difficulties, there would be no inconveniency in leaving them unanswered. For difficulties of this kind are never allowed to prevail against facts, whofe certainty is demonftrated; and especially when these facts relate to religion,

and