portant of all that are contained in the Gofpel; becaufe, if they be denied, all the Divine worship given to Jefus Chrift, by the Apoftles, and a great number of Jews and Gentiles, who received him for their mafter in matters of religion, is abfolutely unlawful; fo we ought folidly to prove, that they are indifputably true. Of which we fhall be fully convinced, by making fome obfervations upon the relation which the Evangelifts give us concerning them; and we fhall eafily find therein

all the characters of truth.

There is no neceffity of obferving, that a refurrection from the dead is a fact which can hardly be believed, and that, though the Jews did not all of them look upon it is an impoffible thing, yet there were Sadducees amongst them, whofe doctrine was publicly taught. It is certain that though the Difciples had feen Jefus Chrift railing three perfons from the dead, and amongst others Lazarus, a little before his death, yet we find that they were not thereby more difpofed to believe that Chrift was to rife from the dead.

In fhort, though the Evangelifts tell us, that Jefus Chrift himself had foretold that he was to rife again the third day, which was a thing fo commonly known, that the priests, to elude the prophecy, defired of Pilate, that a guard might be fet on Jefus's grave; yet they exprefsly tell us, that the Difciples, none excepted, were in fuch a confternation at the death of Jefus Chrift, that they had entirely loft the hopes of feeing the accomplishment of that prophecy. Some pious women, who had accompanied him to the crofs, and were defirous to fhew fome marks of their veneration after his death, came indeed to his fepulchre, but with Spices to embalm his dead body; fo far were they from expecting to find him rifen from the dead. Though thefe holy women were convinced of the refurrection of Jefus Chrift, by the apparition of an angel, by the difcourfe of our Saviour himfelf, and by the repetition of his order, that they fhould go to Galilee, where they fhould fee him, yet the relation which they give of thefe things is accounted fabulous; fo that two only ' of all the Apoftles had the curiofity to go to the grave, and inform theinfelves. Here is a great unbelief amongft the Apoftles, which was to be cured this was a condition wholly inconfiftent, if we fuppofe then impoftors, and that they intended to impofe upon the world.

1

A fecond thing we may obferve is, That as the incredulity of our Saviour's own Difciples was extraordinary, fo we cannot imagine any more efficacious means than were employed to overcome this their doubtfulnefs. If one joins the relations of the Evangelifts together, one may find feveral degrees of evidence in thofe proofs which confirm the truth of the refurrection of our Saviour.

The firft is, the manner of their being informed of the refurrection of Jefus Chrift. Angels at firit declare his refurrection to fome women; Jefus Chrift afterwards appears to Mary Magdalen, all alone; afterwards he appears only to two of his Difciples, then to St. Peter; afterwards he appears to feven of them at once; then, to all his Difciples, except Thomas; and foon after, to the eleven, Thomas being one of them. After all this, he appears to a greater number of his followers; til at laft, having been feveral times feen of them all, he appears to them all aflembled together, and is taken up into heaven in their fight. It is evident, that

as

as they were informed of this truth one after another, fo they were more obliged to examine the fact more attentively when Jefus Chrift appeared to them.

The fecond degree has relation to thofe marks and characters by which they were affured that it was Jefus Chrift himself. The Angels repeat to the women the command which Jefus Chrift, before his death, had given to his Difciples, to go into Galilee; Jefus Chrift, appearing to Mary Magdalen, repeats the fame to her, and gives her a particular commiffion for St. Peter, to comfort him in his affliction, for having denied his mafter. Appearing to his Difciples, as they went to Emmaus, he refers them to the prophecies which spoke of his death and refurrection; and morcover, when he broke bread with them, they hear the fame prayers which he ordinarily ufed at the bleffing of it. He appears to them the fame day the fifth time, and fhows them his feet and his hands; he repeats the grant of the authority which the Father had given him; he breathes upon them, faying, Receive the Holy Ghost; a week after, he lets Thomas touch him; he appears afterwards to feven of his Apoftles upon the lake of Tiberias, where he confirms St. Peter in his charge, from which his denying of Chrift might feem to have excluded him, after he had wrought a miracle in the draught of the fishes, which was like fome miracles which he had wrought before his death. Afterwards, he appears upon the fame mountain in Galilee, where, in all probability, he had been transfigured before, and is there feen of five hundred of his Difciples at once. And laft of all, he appears to them at Jerufalem, after their return from Galilee; and from thence goes with them to Bethany, where, after he had told them of the abfolute power which God had given them, he commands them to go and baptize in his name, he foretels the miracles which they fhould work, and the gifts which they fhould receive at Jerufalem. All thefe fo very different circumftances were only defigned to affure their eyes, their hands, their minds, their confciences, that was the fame Jefus whom they had always followed.

It is worth our taking notice of the diverfity of thefe circumftances, for the certainty of this fact, which abfolutely prevent all pretences of doubtfulness. Jefus Chrift appears ten feveral times after his death: he appears five times on the very day of his refurrection; he appears at feveral hours, to different perfons, in feveral places, but always to perfons to whom he was familiarly known, to those who were not at all credulous. The first news they had of his refurrection feemed only to raise their fcruples, if the teftimony of their fenfes, which faw him and touched him, had not removed all fufpicions. Jefus Chrift appears to them in places where he had wrought many miracles, and where he hadoften before converfed with them.

But one may make another more important reflexion, upon the time and the day wherein our Saviour rofe again. Of the ten feveral times in which he appeared to his Difciples, he appeared five times on the day of his refurrection; he appeared to them eight days after; and after that, the eighth day, which he fignalized by his frequent appearing to his Difciples, was confecrated to celebrate the memory of this event every week: one finds certain tokens hereof in the writings of the Apoftles; and it is known that all Chriftians after them did inviolably obferve this law.

Now,

Now, let any one confider, whether it would have been poffible to intro duce this cuftom in the time of the Apoftles, if the refurrection of Chrift had not been a fact confeffed on all hands. Can any one conceive, that the Apofties and their Difciples, who were witneffes of the death of Jefus Chrift, and who celebrated the memory thereof by a facrament, could have been fo ftupid as to establish a custom which would put people upon examining the fact, and have convinced them in a little time, fince none of thofe that followed them would have fubmitted to this practice, if they had not been convinced by their eyes, and their other fenfes, and by a thousand other proofs, of the truth of fo capital a fact, which was fo much difputed by the Jews, of which they were obliged to make a folemn commemoration two and fifty times every year, as long as they lived?

Let us add to this remark, which we have elsewhere urged, with reference to the creation, another reflexion upon a fact which the Evangelifts tell us they tell us, that though the refurrection of Chrift was accompanied with very peculiar circumftances, fufficient to convince both Jews and Gentiles of the truth of it, being ufhered in with an earthquake, with apparitions of angels to the foldiers that guarded the fepulchre of Jefus, and were frightened thereby, yet the council of the Jews contrived, with the foldiers, a moft impudent lie to outface it; and accordingly the foldiers, coming before Pilate, tell him that the Disciples had ftolen away the body of Jefus whilft they flept; and his Difciples tell us, that, fince, this hath been the common opinion of the fews.

I will not fo much as take notice here of the palpable falfity of this depofition; for, if the foldiers were afleep, how could they depofe concerning a fact which was done at that time? if they were not asleep, why did not they hinder the Difciples from taking the body of their mafter away? How could they affirm that thieves had taken him away, when the linen clothes wherein his body was fhrouded being left in the grave, and the napkin that was about his head being folded up in a place by itself, fo abfolutely evince that he was not taken away by perfons that were in fear of a furprife? What probability is there, in fhort, to fufpect that his Difciples, who forfook Jefus Chrift whilft he was yet alive, who fled from him at that time, fhould undertake fuch a hazardous attempt, to have his body only?

Neither will infift upon a reprefentation of the Apoftle's fincerity, which made them give us in their hiftories a plain account of the report which was fpread againft the belief of the refurrection of Jefus, before ever that the Difcipies had attefted the fame.

But I obferve another very particular character in their relation, which is, that it was impoffible for them to establish this fact of the refurrec tion, without accufing thereby the whole council of the Jews, of the moft fhameful and crying impofture that ever was: to write a thing of this nature against the heads of that religion, was to facrifice themfelves to the hatred of the public, and to expofe themfelves to inevitable ruin. In fhort, let us imagine whether, after a charge of this nature, it was eafy for the Apoftles to publifh their books, and preach publicly that Jefus Chrift was rifen from the dead? And yet this was what they did with a furprifing diligence, when they inferted this terrible accufation

into their books and fermons; which alone is fufficient to demonftrate that they were infinitely convinced of the refurrection, and alfo in a condition to convince all gainfayers, as we fhall fhew hereafter.

One may add to this proof the converfion of St. Paul, and the care which he afterwards took to confirm the truth of the refurrection of Jefus Chrift. He was a declared enemy of Jefus Chrift, and of the Chriftian religion; and yet, foon after the death of Chrift, he preaches him up for the Meffiah. How came this fudden change? He afferts that he had seen in heaven this Jefus who was rifen from the dead, and received from him the Apoftlefhip; accordingly we find him preaching by these orders, without any communication had with the firft Difciples of Jefus Chrift. He relates these matters in a manner fo little affected to advance his miniftry in the minds of the Galatians, who preferred St. Peter and the other Apoftles before him, that there is no ground left to doubt of them.

One ought to make a like reflexion upon the converfion of Cornelius the centurion: he was a profelyte, that is, a Gentile by birth, but a Jew by profeffion; and by the employment he was in, he had occafion of being more particularly informed of the depofition of the foldiers, who probably were not unknown to him, for he was in the garrifon at Casarea, which was not far from Jerufalem. Yet, however, this Cornelius, after he had a vifion which commanded him to fend to Joppa, a place made famous, because Jonah the Prophet fet fail from thence, who was a type of the Meffiah in his death and refurrection; this Cornelius, I fay, embraced the Chriftian religion, becomes the firft bishop of Cæfarea, and died a martyr for the refurrection of Jefus Chrift.

The great affection which St. Luke had for St. Paul, confirms the fame truth. St. Luke had never feen our Saviour; he was born at Antioch, where in all probability he exercifed his profeffion of phyfic; yet he was converted to Chriftianity, and followed St. Paul in all places, and writ the hiftory of his miracles and preaching. Who doubts but that the reafon hereof was, because he had feen the dead whom Chrift had raised to life, and had feen St. Paul, whom Jefus Chrift had dignified with the Apostleship, raise others alfo from the dead?

It is certain that those who were first convinced by the relation of the Apoftles, muft needs have had very evident proofs of the truth of it.

The Jews had Sadducees amongst them, who denied the poffibility of the refurrection in general: the council of the Jews efpecially had made it their business to decry the conduct, the doctrine, and the miracles of Jefus Chrift, and in particular to make the belief of his refurrection fufpected; and fo much the more, because Jefus Chrift had foretold it, and his Apoftles maintained that it was come to pafs accordingly. If, in oppofition to these ftrong prejudices, there had only been the depofition of two or three perfons to confirm this fact, there would have been reason to doubt of it; but we find that this thing, which of itself feems hard to be believed, and was otherwife fo much contefted, is, 1. Proved by ten several apparitions; 2. It is attefted by above five hundred Difciples; 3. It was publicly preached by the Difciples of Chrift at Jerufalem itfelf, and throughout all Judea, where it was most of all difputed; 4. It was received by the very enemies of Jefus Chrift, as St. Paul and Cor

nelius,

nelius, and by thoufands of thofe who, having demanded his death, were converted by the preaching of the Apoftles; 5. It was confirmed by the martyrdom of the greatest part of them; and 6. It was not only authorifed by the prefence of the three perfons whom Chrift had raised to life, and who lived, one of them at Bethany, fifteen furlongs from Jerufalem, where Jefus afcended to heaven, another at Naim, &c. but it was further verified by feveral refurrections wrought by the Apoftles, to whom Chrift had vouchfafed that aftonifhing power.

It was also a very confiderable thing, that the commonwealth of the Jews continued near forty years after the time that the Apoftles undertook openly to preach up the refurrection of Jefus Chrift as the capital article of their religion; and yet in all that time it was never oppofed by any public writing either of the Jews or Gentiles. If the Jews, in their unjuft intrigues again Jefus Chrift and his religion, endeavoured to abufe the world, in this matter, with calumniating ftories, neither have the Apoftles been wanting to accufe the principal men of their nation of impofture; and they have defpifed their moft cruel of the punishments, to maintain the juftice of their charge; and yet none of them would undertake to juftify the calumnies of their council, though they faw Christianity fpreading itfelf not only over all Judea, but in all parts of the world. To fpeak of it as it is, this conduct of theirs was a manifest betraying of their caufe, or rather an open acknowledgment that what they had published against the innocency of the Difciples, and the truth of the refurrection of Jefus, was without all ground.

I forefce only one probable difficulty which can be oppofed to the folidity of thefe reflexions. A few may demand, why Jefus Chrift after his refurrection did not converfe as openly amongst the Jews as before, that fo he might have been known by thole who had crucified him, which would have put the truth of the refurrection out of doubt?

But, to fpeak truth, this objection is not reafonable: for, 1. Jefus Chrift had threatened the unbelieving Jews, they fhould fee him no more; and he ought to make good his threatening. 2. Who fees not that they would have looked upon his appearing amongst them as a fantastic apparition, after they had feen him work fo many miracles, and had attributed them to the devil? 3. I fay, that fuch an apparition was not agreeable to our Saviour's doctrine in the parable of the rich man: They have Moles and the Prophets; if they hear not them, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the dead z). 4. Jefus Chrift having for the most part converted in Galilee at Nazareth and Capernaum, it was to the Galileans and his Difciples that he was chiefly to thew himself, to be acknowledged by them, as being the perfons who were particularly to bear witnefs of this truth. After fo ftrong a prefumption as the governors of that people had of Chrift's refurrection, founded upon the earthquake which accompanied it, and upon the depofition of the foldiers to whom the Angels had appeared, had not they all the reafon in the world to believe the teftimony of the Apoftles concerning this truth, which they heard feveral times attefted by them in full council, and faw confirmed by miraculous cures which they could not question in the leaft? Laflly, Is not this objection the moit ridiculous thing in the world?

(x) Luke xvi. 29, 31.

For,