that it could be fuppofed to have had, admitting his divine miffion. Great numbers of those who were of an ingenuous difpofition, on whom evidence could produce its proper effect, did become the difciples of Chrift, notwithstanding he perfifted in difclaiming all worldly honours, and that character which they imagined to be infeparable from the promifed Meffiah; an effect which nothing but the fulleft and beft grounded conviction can be fuppofed to have produced.

With refpect to the reft of the Jews, and especially the chief priests and rulers, it fhould be confidered how incredulous ftrong prejudices, and especially thofe which arife from vicious habits, ufually make men. It was with the bulk of the Jews a fixed, though an erroneous perfuafion, that the Meffiah would affume temporal power, and deliver his country from the yoke of the Romans. This they imagined to be the fpecific character of the Meffiah, as deduced from prophecies which they were convinced

came from God. To the evidence of miracles, therefore, they would oppose that of the fcriptures, and, confequently, the miracles of Mofes and the prophets, with which they feemed to be irreconcilable; and this, joined to their vicious habits, which rendered them extremely averfe to the pure doctrines of the gofpel, (having no idea that repentance was at all neceffary to their being intitled to the bleffings of the Meffiah's kingdom, which they thought belonged to all the children of Abraham) must have rendered them extremely obdurate, with respect to the evidence of the divine miffion of Chrift; fo that it is not to be wondered that fo many of them perfifted in their hatred and oppofition to him, notwithstanding all his miracles.

Unhappily, alfo, the Jews were at that time infected with the notion of the power of demons, and evil fpirits, and thought it poffible, that by a confederacy with them, Chrift might heal thofe difeafes which were ufually afcribed to their power over man

kind;

kind; and they had probably fome fimilar method of accounting for the reft of his miracles.

After the Pharifees and rulers of the Jews had obferved how thoroughly exasperated Jefus was against them, how he expofed all their pride and hypocrify, and how little difpofed he was to fhew them any favour, it is no wonder that they were determined to reject him in any character, thinking the Romans better mafters than fuch a Meffiah as he would be with respect to them. Thus their fears and their intereft together would lead them to oppofe Jefus at all events, whether he was the Meffiah or not. The more reasonable and confiderate among them might, however, be fatisfied that God could not contradict himself, and that it was more probable that they had mifinterpreted the scriptures, than that the undeniable miracles of Jefus were not proofs of an authority to which they ought to submit.

With the modern Jews it fhould be a fufficient answer to this objection, that their ancestors

ancestors frequently oppofed Mofes and the prophets, even perfecuting and killing fome of them, notwithstanding their allowed character of meffengers from God.

To affift us to form a right judgment in this cafe, let us confider what would be the probable effect of preaching against popery, even with the power of working miracles, in Spain or Portugal, for the space of a year and a few months, which appears to me to have been the period of Chrift's public ministry. In these circumftances, I should think, that to expect the immediate reformation of the whole country, ftrongly prejudiced as the people are known to be, would be to expect more than a just knowledge of human nature, and of the hiftory of mankind would warrant. How many would there be who, not being in the way of the preacher, and not feeing the miracles themfelves, would give no attention whatever to any reports concerning them; and who, being fatisfied within themfelves that the reports could not poffibly be true, would obftinately perfift in rejecting all evidence in their fa

your;

your; and if thefe perfons, as would probably be the cafe, were men of rank, and diftinguished for their knowledge, it could not but have great influence upon the common people.

Upon the whole, it will hardly be thought improbable, that after fuch a perfon had oppofed the fuperftition of an ignorant and vicious people, and had laboured to throw down the falfe foundation of their hopes of future happiness, they would endeavour to do by him as the Jews did by Chrift. At most, his fuccefs could not be fuppofed to be much greater in proportion.

As to the miracles of the apoftles, the fame motives, whatever they were, that led the Jews to oppofe thofe of Chrift, would lead them to oppofe theirs alfo; and the more, as they were now irritated by oppofition, though the power of truth would make its way by degrees.

It is evident, that many of the most intelligent of the Heathens, efpecially Marcus Antoninus,