At the time of the public appearance of Jefus, the Jews were in a ftate of fubjection to the Romans, not having the power of life and death, and being governed by Roman officers, refiding at Cæfarea, but who attended at Jerufalem at the three great feflivals; at which time there was always a great concourfe of people in that city.

With refpect to the religious state of the country, the Jews were divided into two great fects, the Pharifees, and the Saducees; of whom the former, which confifted of the bulk of the people, and especially the more religious of them, were firm believers in a refur rection; whereas the latter, who were in general the richeft, and alfo the more profligate, difbelieved that great article of faith. The Pharifees alfo held many traditions which had been added to the laws of Mofes, and were the foundation of much fuperflition; and an attention to fupernumerary duties derived from this fource, took off from their attention to the moral precepts of the law.

But the most remarkable circumftance in the state of the Jewish nation at the time of Chrift's appearance, was their expectation of the Mefiah, a perfon announced by the prophet Daniel under the character of the Son of Man, who was to come in the clouds of heaven, and to whom God would give a kingdom that should have no end.

It was alfo generally underflood to be foretold that the Meffiah fhould be cut off, and that his appearance was to be feventy weeks (or as the Jews themselves interpret it) four hundred and ninety years, after an or

der

der (which must have been given by fome of the kings of Perfia) to restore and rebuild Jerufalem. The Jews must therefore have been fenfible this time was expired about the time of Jefus ; and in fact, overlooking what was faid about his being to be cut off, which they might think to have fome figurative meaning, the whole nation of the Jews, though in a more flourishing and happy ftate under the Romans than under any of their own princes fince the Babylonish captivity, bore with great impatience their subjection to foreigners, and eagerly expected the appearance of their Meffiah, who they thought would refcue them from their fubjection; and many of them from the prohibition in the laws of Mofes (Deut. xvii, 15) to make themselves a king of any but one of their own nation, confidered fubjection to foreigners to be unlawful; and fome time before Chrift's appearance in a public character there had been a rebellion in the country, headed by Judas, furnamed Gaulonites, on this very account, and much blood had been shed in the fuppreffion of it.

The life of Jefus was written by four perfons generally called Evangelists, of whom two, Matthew and John, were apoftles, and the other two, Mark and Luke, early difciples. Mark was the fon of Barnabas's fifter the companion of Paul and Barnabas in their first journey to preach the gospel, but afterwards he is fupposed to have attached himself more particularly to the apofle Peter; and he was certainly well informed concerning the hiftory which he undertook to write. Luke was a phyfician of Antioch, the companion of Paul

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Paul in his later travels, and probably alfo well acquainted with the other apoftles. In the introduction to his gofpel he mentions his ability to collect and arrange the most authentic accounts that he could collect for his undertaking.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are faid to have written their gospels about the year A. D. 64, when written accounts of the life of Chrift would be particularly wanted as the great actors in the scene were then going off the stage, and the principal church at Jerufalem was about to be broken up, and the members of it difperfed, by the approaching Jewish war.

John wrote after the reft, and is faid to have intended his gospel to be a fupplement to the others, which being compofed when he was old, and being probably written in detached parts, was perhaps put together by other perfons. The greatest part of his gofpel confifts of difcourfes and incidents not recorded by any of the other evangelifts, but other parts are very circumftantial details of events related by them; being perhaps taken from his mouth before he had feen the other gofpels; and in fome cafes in which his account differs from that of the other evangelifts, he feems to have intended to be more exact than they were.

The ftyle of John is very peculiar, and highly figurative, and he reprefents our Saviour as ufing a language of which we fhould have had no idea from the writings of the other evangelifts. On this account his Gofpel, and his other writings, are difficult to be underfood,

Tho'

Tho' we have only four original writers of the life of Jefus, the evidence of the history does not rest on the teftimony of four men. Chriftianity had been propagated in a great part of the world before any of them had written, on the teftimony of thousands, and tens of thousands, who had been witnesses of the great facts which they have recorded; fo that the writing of these particular books are not to be confidered as the cause but rather the effect of the belief of christianity; nor could thofe books have been written and received as they were, viz. as authentic histories, of the subject of which all persons of that age were judges, if the facts they have recorded had not been well known to be

true.

Two of the gofpels, viz. thofe of Luke and John, have introductions, or obfervations previous to their entering on the history, that of Luke being defigned to fhew his competency to the undertaking, and that of John indirectly animadverting on fome opinions concerning the person of Chrift, which were very prevalent at the time of his writing, and which feem to have been the occafion of all that he wrote. I fhall begin with that of Luke.