witneffes of the refurrection of Lazarus, and all the other miracles of Chrift, would only have been rendered still more inveterate by any other miracles, wrought in favour of a perfon, who would have done no more than he did in a temporal respect. Befides, it is plain, that they actually had fufficient evidence of the refurrection of Chrift, which is all that can reafonably be required, and yet did not become chriftians.

Admitting, however, that the consequence of Chrift's appearing in this public manner had been the conversion of the body of the Jewish nation, and of fuch ftrangers as fhould have happened to have been refiding at Jerufalem, or in Judea, at that time; would it not have been faid, by the unbelievers of this remote age, that the rulers of the Jews and the Roman governor were in the fecret; and that, having the management of the whole affair, they could cafily make out the ftory of a refurrection, or any thing else, which they might have thought better fuited to answer their purpose; and that all the prophecies which fpeak of a

fuffering

fuffering Meffiah had been undoubtedly forged by them. Thefe things might eafily have been faid, even in the fame age, and at no greater diftance than Rome, and much more plaufibly than many things that are objected to chriftianity at this day.

Had Chrift himfelf, after fuch an event, made his appearance in Rome, accompanied by a folemn deputation of the Jewish elders, he would probably have been treated with ridicule, as the people of Rome might have faid that he had never been dead. But let us farther admit, that the Roman emperor, his court, all the chief men in the empire, and the bulk of the people in that age had embraced chriftianity, and confequently that no chriftian had been perfecuted to death for his religion, how would the thing have looked at this diftance? Would it not have been faid by fceptical people, that it had all the marks of a fcheme of worldly policy, and that all the great men of thofe times had agreed to frame a better kind of religion, when the old fyftems were worn out? They would have

faid, that there was no body in those times who had properly inquired into the truth of the facts, or that all the contrary evidence had been fuppreffed, and that the rapid progrefs of the new religion was the effect of worldly encouragement.

Had the witneffes of the refurrection been not the whole Jewish nation, but a number of perfons of high rank in life, it might have been faid that they had availed themselves of their power and influence with the people, to gain credit to their scheme.

At prefent, the witneffes of the refurrection of Chrift, and of all the great events on which the truth of chriftianity is founded, are fuch as fhew that the wisdom of God is fuperior to that of men, being the most unexceptionable that could have been thought of. They were men of middling circumftances, neither defperate through poverty on the one hand, nor peculiarly within the influence of ambition on the other. They were men of plain understandings, neither fo weak as to have been eafily imposed upon,

nor

nor fo cunning and crafty as to have had it in their power to impofe upon others. They were men of fuch irreproachable characters, as to afford the leaft poffible fufpicion of fuch a defign. They were alfo in fufficient numbers.

Such men as thefe were induced, by the evidence of what they faw and heard, in favour of the doctrines and pretenfions of Christ, to act counter to the ftrongest prejudices to which mankind can be subject, they rifked every thing that was valuable to them, their ease, their honeft reputation, their little fortunes, and their lives. Having been men of low occupations, and timid natures, they boldly preached the doctrine of their master, notwithstanding the most determined oppofition from all the powers of the world; and, perhaps, what is the hardest trial of all, they were every where exposed to the greatest ridicule and infult. circumftances was chriftianity profeffed through the whole Roman empire, for the fpace of three hundred years.

24

In these

What

What confiderably. ftrengthens this evidence, with refpect to the world at large, is that the Jews are ftill the inveterate enemies of christianity; fo that they cannot be fufpected of having ever acted in concert with christians; but should they be gained over even at prefent, or in any period of time before the gospel shall have been fufficiently preached through the whole world, it might have an unfavourable afpect with refpect to thofe nations who should not then be converted, or their remote pofterity; fo important a circumftance to the evidence of chriftianity is the general unbelief of the Jews; agreeable to the ideas of the apostle Paul, He hath fut them up in unbelief, that he might have mercy

on all.

On the other hand, when the gofpel fhall have been fufficiently preached through the whole world, the general converfion of the Jews, and their reftoration to their own country, after being fo long a difperfed, but a diftinct people (which is the subject of fo many prophecies) will be fuch an additional

confirmation