_First_ then, observe that _Jesus_ is said to have _wept_ and _groan'd_ for the Death of _Lazarus_: But why so, says[295] St. _Basil_? Was not this an _Absurdity_ to weep at all for the Death of him, whom he could, and was about to recover to Life again? Another Man may as reasonably grieve for the Absence of his Friend, whose Company and Presence he can retrieve in an Instant, as that _Jesus_ should shed Tears for _Lazarus_ in this Case. If _Jesus_ could not or would not raise him from the dead, he ought not, as a Philosopher, who knows Man is born to die, to betray so much Weakness as to weep for him. Patience and Resignation unto God upon the Death of our dearest Friends and Relations is what all Philosophers have rightly taught; and _Jesus_, one would think, should have been the most Heroical Example of these Graces; and how came he to fail of it here? A Stoical Apathy had better became him than such childish and effeminate Grief, which not only makes him a mean and poor-spirited Mortal; but is a gross _Absurdity_ and _Incredibility_ upon Consideration of his Will and Power to fetch _Lazarus_ to Life again. If there be not, according to the Fathers, Mystery in these Tears of _Jesus_, they are a foolish and unnatural Prelude to a Farce, he was acting in the pretended Resuscitation of _Lazarus_. Some antient Catholicks, not being apprised of the Mystery, were so offended at these Words, _Jesus wept_, that, as _Epiphanius_[296] says, they expung'd them out of their Bibles; and I wonder, they have not, before now, disturb'd the Faith of Ministers of the Letter, to the utter Rejection of the Miracle. _Secondly_, Observe that _John_ says, it was with _a loud Voice_, that _Jesus_ call'd _Lazarus_ forth out of his Cave. And why, I pray, a louder Voice than ordinary? Was dead _Lazarus_ deafer than _Jairus_'s Daughter, or the Widow's Son? Or was his Soul at so great a Distance from his Body, as he could not hear a still and low Voice? Some such silly Reason as _this_ must be given for this _loud Voice_ here; but how absurd it is according to the Letter, Infidels will judge, till Christians can assign a better. The dead can hear the Whisper of the Almighty, if Power go along with it, as soon as the Sound of a Trumpet. St. _John_ then should not have written of a _loud Voice_, unless he meant to adapt his Story to the Capacities and Conceptions of the Vulgar, who have no Apprehensions of God's Power, out of sensible and human Representations of it.