have been no evidence of a resurrection, unless the dead man could have been exhibited alive, which it was certainly out of their power to do.

If a few of the disciples of Jesus had been so abandoned, and at the same time so stupid, as to have attempted an imposition of this kind, an imposition from which they could not have derived any imaginable advantage, how could they have made others believe a resurrection of which they saw no evidence? Would the mere absence of the body have satisfied Thomas (who, though one of the twelve, was certainly not in the secret) the five hundred who went by appointment into Galilee, or the thousands who were converted by Peter imme. diately after this event; and would none of them have abandoned so groundless a faith in time of persecution? Would not torture, and the prospect of death, have extorted a confession of the cheat from some of those who were in the secret.

Lastly, what prospect could the disciples of Je sus 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 possession of this power, and this alone, that emboldened them, disappointed and dispirit.

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ed as they had been before, to persist in the same scheme, and without this they would certainly have absconded, and have been no more heard of, They were neither orators nor warriors, and therefore were destitute of all the natural means of suc

cess.

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3. The objection that has been urged in the strongest manner, and to which I must, therefore, give the more particular attention, is, that, after his resurrection, Jesus should have appeared as pub. licly as he had done before his death, and especially in the presence of his judges, and of his enemies. This, they say, would have satisfied them, and the whole country, and of course all the world, so that no doubt would have remained on the subject.

But the resurrection of Jesus himself might not have conciliated those who were only the more exasperated at the resurrection of Lazarus, at which themselves were present, from whatever source their obstinacy and incredulity arose. The whole story, how well soever attested, 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 subject, held in the greatest contempt. Besides, there would have been a want of dignity, and an appearance of insult, unworthy

of

of our Saviour's character, in thus ostentatiously exhibiting himself before his enemies, and as it were mocking at their attempts to kill him.

I would farther observe, that though Jesus did, not appear to all his enemies, he did appear to one of them, and one whom no person 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 resurrec tion, by Jesus appearing to him in person, we cannot doubt but that, if it had suited the plan of divine providence, all the Jews might have been convinced by the same means, and have become christians.

But admitting that the consequence of such a public appearance of Jesus 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 so in remoter ages. And the great object certainly was, that this important event should be so circumstanced, as that it should preserve its credit unimpaired to the end of time.

If we suppose that mankind in the most distant ages of the world had been asked, what kind of evidence would satisfy them, with respect to the reali

ty

ty of an event which took place several thousand years before they were born, they would certainly say; that, to give satisfaction to them who had no opportunity of examining into the fact themselves, it should have been so circumstanced, as that besides a sufficient number of persons attesting the truth of it, friends and enemies, believers and unbelievers, should clearly appear to have been suffi ciently 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 and others not, and in which the believers should have every temptation to renounce their belief, and their enemies every motive to detect the imposture. But this could not have been the case if the resurrection of Jesus had been universally believed at the time, or in that age, and consequently there had been no early persecution of christians.

In these circumstances, it might have been said by unbelievers in remote ages, that, as no opposition was made to the progress of christianity, 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

been found convenient (for reasons now unknown, and at this distance inscrutable) to make a change in the religion of the country, and that, as the ru lers 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 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 Jesus, though suspended on a cross, should not be much hurt; that the sepulchre, being under ground, might have proper apartments adjoining to it, where there might be every accommodation that was requisite for his complete recovery and refreshment; and that a few leading persons being in the secret, the rest might be imposed upon to believe the story of a resurrection, or any thing else.

Thus the origin of christianity, it might have. been said, did not materially differ from that of the several species of heathenism or Mahometanism, which the people first believed without any proper enquiry, and to which their descendants adhered because they had been received by their ancestors. before them.

But the circumstances attending the actual pro-.

mulgation.