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Page 78
Douglas, in his famous �Criterion,� gives us, as infallible tests, by
which we may distinguish when written accounts of miracles are
fabulous, the following marks:--
1. �We have reason to suspect (he says) the accounts to be false,
when they are not published to the world till after the time when
they are said to have been performed.�
2. �We have reason to suspect them to be false, when they are not
published in the place where it is pretended the facts were
wrought, but are propagated only at a great distance from the
supposed scene of action.�
3. �Supposing the accounts to have the two fore-mentioned
qualifications, we still have reason to suspect them to be false, if in
the time when, and at the place where, they took their rise, they
might be suffered to pass without examination.�
These are the marks he gives us as infallible tests by which we
may distinguish the accounts of miracles in the New Testament to
be true; and accounts of miracles in other books (though supported
by more testimony than the former,) to be false; with how much
justice, may be evident from the following observations:--
1. If �we have reason to suspect the accounts to be false, when
they are not published to the world till long after the time when
they are said to have been performed,� then we have reasons to
suspect the accounts given in the four gospels; for we have no
proof in the world, that any of them were written till nearly one
hundred years after the supposed writers of them were all dead.
2. If �we have reason to suspect them to be false, when they are
not published in the place where it is pretended the facts were
wrought, but are propagated only at a great distance from the
supposed scene of action,� then it is still further evident that the
accounts in question are not true. For they were apparently none of
them published in Judea, the scene of the events recorded in them.
But it is pretty clear that they were written in countries at a
distance from Palestine. And the facts recorded in them were-no
where so little believed as in Judea, among the people in whose
sight they are said to have been wrought, where they ought, if true,
to have met with most credit. It is, however, evident from the
histories themselves, that these stories were laughed at, by the
learned and intelligent of the Jewish nation, and disbelieved by the
great body of the people. In truth the first Christians were merely
one hundred and twenty Galilaeans, who asserted to their
co-religionists, that Jesus of Nazareth was the ejected Messiah. It
was a mere national quarrel between the great body of the Jews, and a
few schismatics. This is evident from the Acts, where we find that
for several years they confined their preaching to Jews only. Till
the conversion of Cornelius, they do not appear to have thought the
Gentiles any way interested in their dispute with their countrymen.
So that it is not improbable, (as the Jewish Christians dwindled
very rapidly,) that had it not been for the Gentile proselytes to
Judaism, Christianity would have perished in its cradle. These
people were very numerous, and formed the connecting link
between the Jews and the Gentiles. And it was through the medium
of these people, that Christianity became known to the heathens.
For we find that after the apostles could make nothing of the
stubborn Jews �they shook their garments, and told them that from
henceforth we go to the Gentiles.�--Accordingly, when the
apostles preached in the synagogues, and the Jews contradicted,
and blasphemed,� and made fun of their mode of proving from the
prophets, �that Jesus was the Christ; yet the �proselytes and devout
women� listened, and believed.
3. If �supposing the accounts to have the two foregoing
qualifications, we still may suspect them to be false; if, in the time
when, and in the place where, they took their rise, they might be
suffered to pass without examination,� we have still less reason to
believe the gospels. For one reason why they might be suffered to
pass without examination is, where the miracles proposed
coincided with the notions and superstitious prejudices of those
whom they were reported, and who, on that account, might be
prone to receive them unexamined. Now, we have documents in
plenty, which abundantly prove, along with the virtues, the
extreme credulity and simplicity of the Primitive Christians, whose
maxim was, �believe, but do not examine, and thy faith shall save
thee.� Another very good reason why they might be suffered to
pass without, examination is, that the miracles of the gospels were
entirely unknown to, or at least acknowledged by, any heathen or
Jew of the age in which they are recorded to have happened.
Nobody seems to have known a syllable about them but the
apostles and their converts. Even the books of the New Testament
were not generally known to the heathens until some hundred years
after the birth of Jesus; and it seems from the few fragments of
their works come down to us, that the only notice they did take of
them, was to accuse them of telling lies and old wives fables. And
as for the Jews, the origin and early propagation of Christianity
was so very obscure, that those who lived nearest the times of the
apostles, do not seem to have known any thing about them, or their
doctrines.
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