asion of a miracle which persons of all
sorts are represented to have acknowledged as real. One sort of men
thought that there was something very extraordinary in all this; but
that still Jesus could not be the Christ, because there was a
circumstance in his appearance which militated with an opinion
concerning Christ in which they had been brought up, and of the truth of
which, it is probable, they had never entertained a particle of doubt,
viz. That "when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." Another
sort were inclined to believe him to be the Messiah. But even these did
not argue as we should; did not consider the miracle as of itself
decisive of the question; as what, if once allowed, excluded all further
debate upon the subject; but founded their opinion upon a kind of
comparative reasoning, "When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles
than those which this man hath done?"

Another passage in the same evangelist, and observable for the same
purpose, is that in which he relates the resurrection of Lazarus;
"Jesus," he tells us (xi. 43, 44), "when he had thus spoken, cried with
a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth: and he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was bound about with
a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." One might
have suspected, that at least all those who stood by the sepulchre, when
Lazarus was raised, would have believed in Jesus. Yet the evangelist
does not so represent it:--"Then many of the Jews which came to Mary,
and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him; but some of
them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus
had done." We cannot suppose that the evangelist meant by this account
to leave his readers to imagine, that any of the spectators doubted
about the truth of the miracle. Far from it. Unquestionably, he states
the miracle to have been fully allowed; yet the persons who allowed it
were, according to his representation, capable of retaining hostile
sentiments towards Jesus. "Believing in Jesus" was not only to believe
that he wrought miracles, but that he was the Messiah. With us there is
no difference between these two things; with them there was the
greatest; and the difference is apparent in this transaction. If Saint
John has represented the conduct of the Jews upon this occasion truly
(and why he should not I cannot tell, for it rather makes against him
than for him), it shows c