But what is better than conjectures is the fact, that all the pretended
Messiahs actually did so. We learn from Josephus that there were many of
these. Some of them, it is probable, might be impostors, who thought
that an advantage was to be taken of the state of public opinion.
Others, perhaps, were enthusiasts, whose imagination had been drawn to
this particular object by the language and sentiments which prevailed
around them. But whether impostors or enthusiasts, they concurred in
producing themselves in the character which their countrymen looked for,
that is to say, as the restorers and deliverers of the nation, in that
sense in which restoration and deliverance were expected by the Jews.
Why therefore Jesus, if he was, like them, either an enthusiast or
impostor, did not pursue the same conduct as they did, in framing his
character and pretensions, it will be found difficult to explain. A
mission, the operation and benefit of which was to take place in another
life, was a thing unthought of as the subject of these prophecies. That
Jesus, coming to them as their Messiah, should come under a character
totally different from that in which they expected him; should deviate
from the general persuasion, and deviate into pretensions absolutely
singular and original--appears to be inconsistent with the imputation of
enthusiasm or imposture, both which by their nature I should expect
would, and both which, throughout the experience which this very subject
furnishes, in fact, have followed the opinions that obtained at the
time.
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