soning on this matter. He,
if you recollect, says that Paul seems to have rested the belief of
Christ's resurrection very little upon evidence, which he received
very credulously, upon very insufficient proof, and in a manner which
would have moved the laughter of Paley; that, in short, he cared very
little about the evidence, and arrived mainly at his convictions in
virtue of his 'spiritual aspirations'; that it was rather his strong
aspirations after immortality which made Paul believe the supposed
fact, than the supposed fact which gave strength to his aspirations
after immortality. Now it is very clear (from texts which, for
whatsoever reasons, are not quoted by Mr. Newman), that the Apostle
Paul made his whole argument depend on the alleged fact of Christ's
resurrection, whether carelessly received or not: 'If Christ be not
risen, then is your faith vain, and our preaching is also vain ....
Then are we of all men most miserable.'"

"But you recollect that Mr. Newman alleges that Paul deals very
superficially with the evidence,--with that of the 'five hundred,' for
example. He observes that Paley would have made a widely different
matter of it."

"See how variously men may argue," replied Fellowes, candidly. "I was
talking on that very point with one of the orthodox the other day, and
he reasoned in some such way as this:--

"On the supposition, he said, that the possession of miraculous powers
was notorious in the Church,--that many of those whom Paul addressed
had actually witnessed them,--that the Gospel, when preached by him
and by the other Apostles, was confirmed by 'signs and wonders,'--nothing
could be more natural than the very tone which the Apostles employed:
that, so far from its being suspicious, it was one of the truest touches
of nature and verisimilitude in their compositions; so much so, that,
supposing there were no miracles, that very tone required itself to be
accounted for as unnatural; he said that it is, in fact, just the way
in which men talk and write of any other extraordinary events which
notoriously happened in their time. They never think of posterity, and
what it may think; of anticipating either future doubts or charges of
fraud. It is natural that men should speak in this, as we should call it,
loose way, of what is transpiring under their very noses. If, on the
other hand, there had been no miracles to appeal to, so as to render
this style as natural as, on the contrary suppositio