king of are most vulgar
errors and popular superstition: most, for instance, of the current
reports of apparitions. Nothing depends upon their being true or false.
But not, surely, of this kind were the alleged miracles of Christ and
his apostles. They decided, if true, the most important question upon
which the human mind can fix its anxiety. They claimed to regulate the
opinions of mankind upon subjects in which they are not only deeply
concerned, but usually refractory and obstinate. Men could not be
utterly careless in such a case as this. If a Jew took up the story, he
found his darling partiality to his own nation and law wounded; if a
Gentile, he found his idolatry and polytheism reprobated and condemned.
Whoever entertained the account, whether Jew or Gentile, could not avoid
the following reflection:--"If these things be true, I must give up the
opinions and principles in which I have been brought up, the religion in
which my fathers lived and died." It is not conceivable that a man
should do this upon any idle report or frivolous account, or, indeed,
without being fully satisfied and convinced of the truth and credibility
of the narrative to which he trusted. But it did not stop at opinions.
They who believed Christianity acted upon it. Many made it the express
business of their lives to publish the intelligence. It was required of
those who admitted that intelligence to change forthwith their conduct
and their principles, to take up a different course of life, to part
with their habits and gratifications, and begin a new set of rules and
system of behaviour. The apostles, at least, were interested not to
sacrifice their ease, their fortunes, and their lives for an idle tale;
multitudes beside them were induced, by the same tale, to encounter
opposition, danger, and sufferings.

If it be said, that the mere promise of a future state would do all
this; I answer, that the mere promise of a future state, without any
evidence to give credit or assurance to it, would do nothing. A few
wandering fishermen talking of a resurrection of the dead could produce
no effect. If it be further said that men easily believe what they
anxiously desire; I again answer that in my opinion, the very contrary
of this is nearer to the truth. Anxiety of desire, earnestness of
expectation, the vastness of an event, rather causes men to disbelieve,
to doubt, to dread a fallacy, to distrust, and to examine. When our
Lord's resurrection wa