21 Jan y 1814

Jug. True

Ch.3. Natural Evidence

5

What is more evidence of a better sort than this—evidence of a sort that stands clear of this objection, even according to you, did this same all-wise being afford—afford to hundreds and thousands in this very case. In proof of the ordinary and natural doings and sayings of Jesus to these same multitudes he afforded the evidence of their senses, that which he did they saw him do: that which he said they heard him say. To the inhabitants of those places and those times this immediate sort of evidence was by him deemed necessary: to them it was by him accordingly presented: to us, to the inhabitants of these our places and our times, had it been his design that we should give credence to those same facts, how can it be that in the pursuit of this same end he would of employed those same means: means which whether sufficient or no, can not at any rate be properly deemed superfluous.