sages which were very unlikely to have
presented themselves to the mind of a forger or a fabulist.

Matt. xxi. 21. "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto
you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is
done unto the fig-tree, but also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be
thou removed, and be thou east into the sea, it shall be done; all
things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, it shall be done."
(See also chap. xvii. 20. Luke xvii. 6.) It appears to me very
improbable that these words should have been put into Christ's mouth, if
he had not actually spoken them. The term "faith," as here used, is
perhaps rightly interpreted of confidence in that internal notice by
which the apostles were admonished of their power to perform any
particular miracle. And this exposition renders the sense of the text
more easy. But the words undoubtedly, in their obvious construction,
carry with them a difficulty which no writer would have brought upon
himself officiously.

Luke ix. 59. "And he said unto another, Follow me: but he said, Lord,
suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the
dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." (See
also Matt. viii. 21.) This answer, though very expressive of the
transcendent importance of religious concerns, was apparently harsh and
repulsive; and such as would not have been made for Christ if he had not
really used it. At least some other instance would bare been chosen.

The following passage, I, for the same reason, think impossible to have
been the production of artifice, or of a cold forgery:--"But I say unto
you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca,
shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool,
shall be in danger of hell-fire (Gehennae)." Matt. v. 22. It is
emphatic, cogent, and well calculated for the purpose of impression; but
is inconsistent with the supposition of art or wariness on the part of
the relator.

The short reply of our Lord to Mary Magdalen, after his resurrection
(John xx. 16, 17), "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my
Father," in my opinion must have been founded in a reference or allusion
to some prior conversation, for the want of knowing which his meaning is
hidden from us. This very obscurity, however, is a proof of genuineness.
No one w