little likely to have been fabricated in order to deceive; and if invented, either by fraud or enthusiasm, very little likely to have obtained attention and credit, without overpowering evidence.

III. The peculiar death of Christ opposed an additional barrier to the reception of his religion. "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ 45" So Peter affirmed, in a full assembly of his countrymen. But was it probable, that he should be believed in this, on his bare and unsupported assertion? Neither would the apostles, we must imagine, be listened to abroad, when they came to declare among foreign nations, that he who was now held up as the Saviour of the world, and who was to become the object of universal faith and trust, was a Jew, who had been crucified at the instigation of his countrymen. Such a death was certainly an essential part of

45 Acts, ii. 36.

the whole system; but it was long before that system could be explained, and longer still before it could be understood and comprehended by Gentile hearers, to whom every thing relating to the Jewish law, its rites, and typical sacrifices, was new. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world 46" Such a sentence fills the Christian with love and admiration; and even to the sceptic of the present' day, the idea which it conveys is familiar; and from the effect of early association, and popular reverence, carries with it so much that is venerable, that we are unable to judge how strange, not to say revolting, the doctrine must have appeared to the minds of a Grecian or Roman audience.

The plan of redemption disclosed in the Gospel, comes to us united with the Jewish Scriptures and Jewish history; many circumstances of which concur to introduce it gradually to our minds. But, to a Jew, the Cross was

46 John, i. 29.

They had a

"Cursed is

Their firm

an object of peculiar abhorrence. proverbial sentence in their law, every one that hangeth on a tree." belief that the Messiah should be a prince and a conqueror, sufficiently disinclined them to receive any one in that character, who had no outward splendour that man should admire. But a disgraceful death was a still more decided disqualification. And they seemed to themselves to have given a death-blow to his pretensions, when they had succeeded in contriving for him a punishment so mean and degrading. "Come down from the cross, if thou be the Son of God."-" He saved others, himself he cannot save."

Among the other nations to which Christianity was first proposed, this obstacle would be no less invincible. That one who had been condemned by his own countrymen to death : that one who had actually suffered that death, by an execution reserved for the vilest malefactors; which it was not permitted to inflict on the most notorious offender, if a Roman citizen:

H

that he should be now proclaimed as one sent from God to call the world to repentance, and through whom alone was an opening of acceptance with God: all this would appear so contradictory to the natural feelings and habitual associations of the persons to whom it was addressed, that it could not be received on any common authority. It seems impossible that men should venture to propose it, without some strong confirmation, to which they might appeal. The difficulty is acknowledged in the history itself. The whole matter is there represented as quite inexplicable, even to the Apostles, till the entire system of the Gospel was laid open to them; and they were enabled to perceive, that the expected Messiah " ought to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory 47." During their Master's life-time, all intimations from him of what he was about to undergo were met with an indignant or incredulous repulse. "Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not happen to thee."-" And if to men so prepossessed as were the Jews, this doc

47 Luke, xxiv. 26.

trine could not fail to appear impious and execrable; to men so prepossessed as were the Gentiles, it could not fail to appear nonsensical and absurd. In fact, it is manifest from the writings of the apologists for Christianity, in the second and third centuries, that this doctrine long continued to be a principal matter of offence to the enemies of Christianity, and was regarded by such as an insurmountable objection. They treated it as no better than madness, to place confidence in a man whom God had abandoned to the scourge of the executioner, and the indelible reproach of the cross 48."

Now, if the followers of Jesus had been conscious that they were promulgating an un

48 Campbell. Serm. ii. v. 2, p. 23. Λογον ἐπαγγελλομενον υιον είναι τα θες, αποδεικνυμεν & Λογον καθαρον και ἅγιον, άλλα αν θρωπον αλιμόλαιον, απαχθενία και απολυμπανισθενία. Cels. ap. Orig. p. 79. Ed. Spencer.

Νεκρό τινος φημην εις τον ὑμέτερον (sc. Deorum) ἐγκαλέστησε xλnpov. Libanius, de Constantino loquens, Paneg. Julian. 253.

Επειτα ο νομοθέτης ο πρώτος έπεισεν αυλες, ὡς ἀδελφοι πάντες ἐδεν ἀλληλων, ἐπειδαν άπαξ παραβαλες Θεός μεν τας Ελληνικες ἀπαρνησωνται, τον δε ανασκολοπισμένον ἐκεινον Σοφιστην αυλων προσκυνώσι. Lucian de Morte Peregrini.