lowers have been astonished, wheir they heard the dumb and passive account of his death! What less, than a public harangue; what less, than an

1

exposition of his principles and views could his disciples expect? And what a-field for his own feelings? The man might have brought his whole soul into the eyes of his enemies. An emanation of his own virtue might have passed over, and purified, for a moment, all his judges. His life was public, and would it have been derogatory to have appealed to his public life? Might he not have proclaimed his own innocence; or at least, have reasoned on the charges alledged against him? Yet this eloquent man was dumb; he pre

served to the last his mysterious cha

1

racter, and seemed to die his natural death. Nor does the mystery end here, his disciples neither complained of his conduct, nor sympathised in his fate. His own disciples still carried their faith beyond their senses, and adored the man in heaven, who, they confessed had died on a cross! Him they had followed; for him they had forsaken all them he had apparently deserted, and left to the contempt of all men. Yet they followed this man beyond the grave, to place him on the throne of God! Yes, those who knew him best, who had been for three years his bosom companions, when the man was dead, worshipped him as the only true God, persisted he was a divine being, and not only suffered martyrdom in the

cause of this reputed malefactor, but in the moment of their sufferings sometimes converted their enemies to their own faith!

HERE, an objection, indeed a powerful one, presents itself; and that freedom of remark, which pervades these pages, requires a serious notice. If the disciples of JESUS were, at first, credulous, and afterwards fanatic, their conduct after his death, was not only natural, but politic. After the crucifixion, the disciples were on the point of becoming the laughing-stock of all men. If, during the life of JESUS, they were not only contented, but gloried in the humility of disciples, how deeply must they have been disheartened,

after his strange and unexpected death! If their pride and self-love: had not been greatly weakened under his disci. pline, their dubious feelings would with the help of a warm imagination redden to the fiercest fanaticism. Peter seems to have been the most violent of any of the disciples, and most capable ofi leading an adventure. Is it not possie ble then, is it not within the limits of probability, that some one of these zealous partizans,, when they saw the Gon whom they had worshipped, deadand buried, should propose the bold design of establishing their novel <sys tem on its own ruins?" Let us tell the

46

world, and let us persist in it, that "JESUS CHRIST, the crucified: GoD, "finished his career agreeably to an

"eternal dictate, that his death shall "prove the salvation of all who will be

lieve in his divinity: and to inspire "the world with new hopes of immor"tality, let us proclaim his resurrec

tion from the grave, and his ascen"sion to heaven, amidst a host of an"gels. This doctrine of faith, so agree"able to the laziness of mankind, and "this doctrine of immortality, so flat"tering to their pride, will gain upon ❤ the world in proportion to our own

“apparent faith. The ignorant and " abandoned we shall gain first: their sincerity will supply new zeal; after"ward, the wise will follow from self*interest.".

In like circumstances with the dis