furrection, unless the dead man could have been exhibited alive, which it was certainly out of their power to do.

If a few of the difciples of Jefus had been so abandoned, and at the same time so stupid, as to have attempted an impofition of this kind, an imposition from which they could not have derived any imaginable advantage, how could they have made others believe a refurection of which they faw no evidence? Would the mere abfence of the body have fatisfied Thomas (who, though one of the twelve, was certainly not in the fecret) the five hundred who went by appointment into Galilee, or the thousands who were converted by Peter immediately after this event; and would none of them have abandoned fo groundless a faith in time of perfecution? Would not torture, and the prospect of death, have extorted a confeffion of the cheat from fome of those who were in the fecret.

Lastly, what prospect could the disciples of Jefus have had of being able to carry on the scheme that was begun by their master, without his power of working miracles, of which they must have known themselves to be destitute. It was, no doubt, the poffeffion

of

of this power, and this alone, that emboldened them, disappointed and difpirited as they had been before, to perfift in the fame scheme, and without this they would certainly have abfconded, and have been no more heard of. They were neither orators, nor warriors, and therefore were deftitute of all the natural means of fuccefs.

3. The objection that has been urged in the strongest manner, and to which I muft, therefore, give the more particular attention, is, that, after his refurrection, Jefus fhould have appeared as publicly as he had done before his death, and especially in the presence of his judges, and of his enemies. This, they fay, would have fatisfied them, and the whole country, and of course all the world, fo that no doubt would have remained on the subject.

But the refurrection of Jesus himself might not have conciliated those who were only the more exafperated at the refurrection of Lazarus, at which themselves were present, from whatever fource their obftinacy and incredulity arofe. The whole ftory, how well foever attested, might have been laughed at in Greece and at Rome, where the Jews and every thing relating to them, were, without

any

any examination into the subject, held in the greatest contempt. Befides, there would have been a want of dignity, and an appearance of infult, unworthy of our Saviour's character, in thus oftentatiously exhibiting himself before his enemies, and as it were mocking at their attempts to kill him.

I would farther observe, that though Jefus did not appear to all his enemies, he did appear to one of them, and one whom no perfon will doubt to have been as prejudiced, and as inveterate, as any of them, viz. Paul. Now, as this enemy of christianity was convinced of the truth of the refurrrection, by Jefus appearing to him in person, we cannot doubt but that, if it had fuited the plan of divine providence, all the Jews might have been convinced by the fame means, and have become chriftians.

But admitting that the confequence of such a public appearance of Jefus would have been the conviction of all that country, and of all that age, it would have been an unfavourable circumstance with respect to the evidence at this distance of time, and still more fo in remoter ages. And the great object certainly

was,

was, that this important event should be fo circumstanced, as that it fhould preferve its credit unimpaired to the end of time.

If we suppose that mankind in the moft diftant ages of the world had been afked, What kind of evidence would fatisfy them, with respect to the reality of an event which took place feveral thousand years before they were born, they would certainly fay; that, to give fatisfaction to them who had no opportunity of examining into the fact themselves, it fhould have been fo circumftanced, as that befidesa fufficient number of perfons attesting the truth of it, friends and enemies, believers and unbelievers, should clearly appear to have been fufficiently interested to examine into the truth, while the fact was recent, and therefore while it was in their power to investigate it thoroughly. And this could only be in circumstances in which some should believe it and others not, and in which the believers should have every temptation to renounce their belief, and their enemies every motive to detect the impofture. But this could not have been the cafe if the refurrection of Jesus had been universally believed

at

at the time, or in that age, and confequently there had been no early perfecution of chriftians.

In these circumstances, it might have been faid by unbelievers in remote ages, that, as no oppofition was made to the progress of chriftianity, it did not appear to them that the reality of those facts on which the belief of it is founded had been fufficiently enquired into at the time, that it might have been found convenient (for reasons now unknown, and at this distance infcrutable) to make a change in the religion of the country; and that, as the rulers of it adopted the measure, it might, for any thing that appeared, have been originally a fcheme of theirs; and that when the governors of any country intereft themselves to promote any measure, it is always in their power to impose upon the vulgar; that private orders, for example, might have been given, that Jefus, though fufpended on a crofs, fhould not be much hurt; that the fepulchre, being under ground, might have proper apartments adjoining to it, where there might be every accommodation that was requifite for his complete recovery and refresh

ment;