palpably impossible for the disguise of any colouring the former supposition, therefore, alone

Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was to come to pass." St. Luke xxiv. 10, 11, 12. The account that follows, of Christ's appearance to the two Disciples at Emmaus, though strikingly apposite, is too long for quotation. The historian goes on to report, that whilst these were relating to the eleven, and them that were with them," the particulars of this unexpected event, "Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he had thus and his feet, and while

spoken, he shewed them his hands

they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? and they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb, and he took it, and did eat before them." Verse 36-43.

St. John, after relating his own visit, and that of Peter, to the sepulchre of Jesus, which Mary Magdalene had found empty, informs us (chap. xx. 9.) that "as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." This ignorance is evinced with great simplicity by Mary Magdalene, in her interview immediately after with Jesus himself. it is still more manifest in the conduct of Thomas, who appeared so little prejudiced by any expectation of a resurrection, that he obstinately resisted the testimony of the other Apostles; replying to their concurrent report, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." (Verse 25.) The conviction of such a witness is not to be resolved into enthusiasm or credulity. And as the indisposition to believe, or at least the want of all anticipation as to the resurrection of Christ, is spoken of as universal amongst his disciples, the supposition

is left; and in giving to it the appearance of an indistinct plausibility, the infidel cannot but be conscious of a difficult task.

He must suppose that these individuals associated at first with better hopes, in the confidence that they could succeed in converting to their purpose, whether of ambition or emolument, those expectations of a Messiah, which their nation had been long and fondly indulging -that on the death of their leader they were still so infatuated as to cling to their project of imposture, and artful enough to adapt to its advancement the seeming failure of their original design. What that design really was, or how they could be induced to engage in it, the infidel will contend, that he is under no necessity of shewing. The history of the world, he will plead, is not without instances of equal madness; and the period, in which they lived, was fertile in abortions of a similar nature. The difficulty with him is, not to that they were themselves deceived with regard to this most important of the Christian miracles, would lead us to the phenomena of a fraud without a fabricator-an enterprize successfully atchieved in opposition to insuperable obstacles, without any known or conceivable agents; and a party of men persuaded into the belief of an imposture, which they had the most abundant means of detecting; persuaded against their prepossessions, and in spite of their fears; and so persuaded, as to induce the sacrifice of every thing humanity holds dear, to its publication and support throughout the world.

imagine how the Apostles may have set out on some plan of deceit; but to shew how they could have been induced to adhere to it through a series of disasters, and without any apparent motive. He must go on, therefore, to suppose, that when once embarked on their frantic enterprize, they were either surrounded with insuperable obstacles to retreat, or impelled to perseverance by some such motives as the following. The love of notoriety, so powerful when once excited into a ruling passion-the astonishment they spread wherever they appeared-the air of importance with which they found themselves suddenly invested-the veneration awarded them by the converts to their faith-the fondness they would soon begin to cherish, even for a falsehood of their own invention, with whose dissemination their hopes and fears, their passions and interests, their every feeling and every thought was become identified—the mutual engagements, by which they were bound-the attachments which arose from community of sufferings, and stimulated them to a rivalry of effort and endurance-the dependance of ultimate success on their present fortitude the inevitable shame, and probable danger of faultering on their course-the animation inspired by the publicity of their actions -the energy, which opposition never fails to

arouse in the bosom of the resolute; together with that pitch of lofty and enthusiastic courage which draws nourishment from the elements of danger, and catches a wild satisfaction amidst the hurricane of conflict.

Strange, and absolutely unnatural, as such a combination must appear, when compared with all the circumstances of the case before us, it contains nothing superfluous to the exigencies of the infidel: for, whatever may be deemed as to its sufficiency to meet them, nothing short of this can come near the phenomena. Such, then, is an abstract from the creed of those philosophers, who disbelieve Christianity on the principles of reason, and who contend that they are right in doubting what exceeds credibility, and in rejecting that which they cannot understand. Our present object does not permit us to enter on a formal exposure of its absurdities, but affords an opportunity of applying to it a simple and practical test. Without offering violence, therefore, to truth, by indifferently putting such an hypothesis to issue, on the supposition of its being correct, we will follow it through those particulars which form the subject of this Essay. In submitting it to this criterion, it will be necessary to detach from the experiment whatever considerations can be shewn to be unconnected with it, and

calculated, by their association, to impair the correctness of its result. And for this purpose we assume the accuracy of those parts of the Christian Scriptures, which relate to the condition of the early Christians-an assumption, which our present limits oblige us to make; and against which no reasonable objection can be advanced; because, in this particular, they are consistent with every expectation we should have formed from the nature of the case; because they are confirmed by all the independent accounts, of which we are in possession, that have any reference to the subject; and because they can be proved to have existed and to have been generally received in those times, when their correctness in this respect was indispensible to their reception.

In the first place, then, it is evident that all hopes of aggrandizement, if any such had attended their entrance on the scheme, must have been by this time entirely at rest. The tenor of their history, up to the period under review, had been of too distinct a nature to leave them still deceived on this head. It is true, they had met with extensive success-but what had been the result of this success to them? It had but widened the sphere of their troubles, and inflamed proportionably the malice of their foes. They were deriving no