pany, and bread and fish to fuffice feveral thousand perfons, and those after they had long fafted, and this in a defert, in the open air, where no fuch fupply could either have been procured, or fecreted, was beyond all the power of legerdemain. Besides, it is evident from the whole ftory, which is related with the most perfect fimplicity, that Jefus had no affiftants; the apostles themselves having no knowledge of what he intended, and expreffing their surprise at his proposal in the most artless manner.

4. It is equally evident that, in the greater part of his miracles, Jefus could not have availed himself of any affiftance, and that there could not have been any collufion between him and the persons on whom he operated. The difeafed perfons were usually presented to him as they happened to come in his way, and the cures were frequently performed in the presence of enemies, who would be attentive, we cannot doubt, to every circumstance that could afford any handle for fufpicion.

The man who had been blind from his birth was known to have been fo by his parents,

parents, whofe teftimony was extorted from them in a court of judicature. Of the ten lepers who were cured at one time, nine did not fo much as return to give him thanks; whereas an impoftor would, no doubt, have engaged them all, not only to return, but to accompany him in his future progrefs, as trophies of his power.

But

in no one inftance was this the cafe with Jefus. In him there was nothing of that oftentation, which is infeparable from the character of an impoftor; who would naturally endeavour to make the most of every feat that he could contrive to exhibit with fuccefs. The demoniacs that Jefus reftored to the ufe of their understanding had, in general, been long known to all the neighbourhood to have been really infane, and incurably fo, efpecially that in Gadara.

Can it be fuppofed that the young daughter of Jairus, the widow's fon (in a place where Jefus was, to all appearance, a perfect ftranger) or Lazarus, who had been in his grave four days, many mourners from Jerufalem, evidently no friends of Jefus, attending all

the time, only counterfeited death, to favour his views? In the laft cafe Jefus was at a confiderable diftance when Lazarus died, and the whole hiftory is fo circumftantially and naturally related, as to vouch for its own truth. Befides, in the prefence of so many enemies, what could the affiftance of his apoftles, had they been on the spot from the beginning, have availed him?

How could Jefus have contrived, by any affiftants, to produce a voice that should appear to come from heaven, with the farther appearance of the heavens opening, and fomething lighting upon his head. And, though on one of the occasions of a voice from heaven, Jefus was in the temple, it could not, at the most, have been more than under a portico; and as the place was always crowded, and the different apartments above him, or any where else, were not at his disposal, any attempt at an impofition in fuch a place as this, must have been desperate in the extreme.

But that there was no collufion between Jefus and the apostles, is most evident from

the

the hiftory of Judas, who betrayed him to his enemies. If there had been any collufion, he must have been privy to it, or have seen reason to fufpect it; for, as far as appears, he had the fame opportunity of knowing the fecrets of the little fraternity as any other of the company, and yet he not only acknowledged the perfect innocence of Jefus, but, from remorse for what he had done, went and hanged himfelf.

5. With respect to many of the miracles of Jefus, it is evident that no human affiftance could have availed him at all, as in ftilling the tempeft, walking on the sea, and causing the barren fig-tree to wither in a night. No knowledge that we now have of the powers of nature could encourage any person to attempt any thing of the kind, especially the two first.

It may, indeed, be faid that the mani with his afs, or with the pitcher of water, might have been in the places where the difciples would find them by particular appointment; but this could not have been the cafe with the fish that had the piece of

money in his mouth. And how could Jefus have fo peremptorily foretold Peter's denial of him, contrary to his own fixed refolution? Will any one fay that when the lives of both were in fuch imminent danger, they had agreed to fay, and do, what they did? But more especially, by what human means of any kind could Jefus have been enabled to foretel fo particularly as he did the fate of Judea, Jerufalem, and the temple, forty years before the event, when no other perfon had any apprehenfions of the kind. The modern Jews pretend that he did it by his interpretation of the prophecy of Daniel. how came Jefus to be more fagacious in the interpretation of prophecy than even the most learned Jews, the scribes and Pharifees of his time?

But

I fhall now make a few observations of a more general nature on the improbability of fuch men as Jefus, and his firft followers, being impoftors. If we only confider their condition, and education, we may be convinced that they were by no means likely to come within the influence of fuch am

bition,