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 fo abandoned, and at the fame time fo ftupid, as to have attempted an impofition of this kind, an impofition from which they could not have derived any imaginable advantage, how could they have made others believe a refurrection 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 so groundless a faith in time of perfecution? Would not torture, and the profpect 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 deftitute. It was, no doubt, the poffeffion of this power, and this alone, that emboldened them, difappointed 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 beeh urged in the strongest manner, and to which I muft, therefore, give the more particular attention, is, that, after his refurrection, Jefus should have appeared as publicly as he had done before his death, and especially in the prefence 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 fubject.

But the refurrection of Jefus himself might not have conciliated those who were only the more exafperated at the refurrettion of Lazarus, at which themselves were

prefent,

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prefent, from whatever fource their obfti nacy and incredulity arofe. The whole ftory, how well foever attefted, might have been laughed at in Greece and at Rome, where the Jews and every thing relating to them, were, without any examination into the fubject, 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 obferve, 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 Chrif tianity was convinced of the truth of the refurrection, by Jefus appearing to him in perfon, 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 Y 2 fuch

fuch 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 circumftance with respect to the evidence at this distance of time, and ftill more fo in remoter ages. And the great object certainly was, that this important event should be fo circumstanced, as that it should preferve its credit unimpaired to the end of time.

If we fuppofe that mankind in the most diftant ages of the world had been asked, 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 should have been fo circumstanced, as that befides a fufficient number of perfons attefting the truth of it, friends and enemies, believers and unbelievers, fhould clearly appear to have been sufficiently interested to examine into the truth, while the fact was recent, and therefore while it was in their power to investigate it thoroughly.

thoroughly. And this could only be in circumftances 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 Jefus had been univerfally believed at the time, or in that age, and confequently there had been no early perfecution of Chriftians.

In these circumftances, it might have been faid by unbelievers in remote ages, that, as no oppofition was made to the progrefs of Chriftianity, it did not appear to them that the reality of those facts on which the belief of it is founded had been sufficiently enquired into at the time, that it might have been found convenient (for reafons 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 scheme of theirs; and that when the governors of any country interest Y 3 them