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Paley, William, 1743-1805

"Evidence of Christianity"

Whatever force therefore there may be
in the objection, we have numerous miracles which are free from it; and
even those to which it is applicable are little affected by it in their
credit, because there are few who, admitting the rest, will reject them.
If there be miracles of the New Testament which come within any of the
other heads into which we have distributed the objections, the same
remark must be repeated. And this is one way in which the unexampled
number and variety of the miracles ascribed to Christ strengthen the
credibility of Christianity. For it precludes any solution, or
conjecture about a solution, which imagination, or even which experience
might suggest, concerning some particular miracles, if considered
independently of others. The miracles of Christ were of various kinds,*
and performed in great varieties of situation, form, and manner; at
Jerusalem, the metropolis of the Jewish nation and religion; in
different parts of Judea and Galilee; in cities and villages; in
synagogues, in private houses; in the street, in highways; with
preparation, as in the case of Lazarus; by accident, as in the case of
the widow's son of Nain; when attended by multitudes, and when alone
with the patient; in the midst of his disciples, and in the presence of
his enemies; with the common people around him, and before Scribes and
Pharisees, and rulers of the synagogues.


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