The power displayed in the
miracles did not alone refute the Jewish solution, because the
interposition of invisible agents being once admitted, it is impossible
to ascertain the limits by which their efficiency is circumscribed. We
of this day may be disposed possibly to think such opinions too absurd
to have been ever seriously entertained. I am not bound to contend for
the credibility of the opinions. They were at least as reasonable as the
belief in witchcraft. They were opinions in which the Jews of that age
had from their infancy been instructed; and those who cannot see enough
in the force of this reason to account for their conduct towards our
Saviour, do not sufficiently consider how such opinions may sometimes
become very general in a country, and with what pertinacity, when once
become so, they are for that reason alone adhered to. In the suspense
which these notions and the prejudices resulting from them might
occasion, the candid and docile and humble-minded would probably decide
in Christ's favour; the proud and obstinate, together with the giddy and
the thoughtless, almost universally against him.
Pages:
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553