covered or not, they are without any badge of their ancient religion, to which it is evident they never difcovered any attachment.

The kingdom of Judah having the temple within its limits, and other advantages, adhered better to the worship of the true God, but with feveral remarkable departures from it, as in the reign of Rehoboam the fon of Solomon, who, as we read 2 Chron. xii. 1, forfook the law of the Lord, and all Ifrael with him; in that of Jehoram, the fon of Jehoshaphat, of Ahaziah, of Joash, after the death of the pious high-prieft Jehoiada, of Ahaz, of Manaffeh, who made ufe of the temple itfelf, for the worship of other gods; and of Amon, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, whose reign was put an end to by Nebuchadnezzar taking Jerufalem, deftroying the temple, and carrying the people into captivity to Babylon.

If this hiftory, of which I have only given a faint outline, do not fupply fufficient and redundant evidence of the diflike which the Ifraelites had to the inftitutions of Mofes, and confequently of the reluctance with which they must have received, and conformed to them, nothing can be proved concerning the difpofition and turn of thinking of any people whatever.

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whatever. It cannot, therefore, be denied, that all the miracles wrought to establish this religion, and confirm them in it, may be confidered as exhibited before enemies, perfons predifpofed not to receive, but to cavil at, and reject it. This is the more remarkable, as there is no other inftance in all hiftory, of any nation voluntarily abandoning the religion of their ancestors till the promulgation of Christianity, before which they all gradually disappeared, like clouds before the fun.

The Babylonish captivity having been foretold, together with its exact duration, by the Hebrew prophets, and the overthrow of Babylon, famous for its addictedness to idol worship, effectually cured thofe of the Jews who returned to their own country, and no doubt, many others, of any difpofition to the worfhip of foreign gods, but they were not by this means the more, but in fact, the lefs difposed to receive the miracles of Jefus. Indeed it is evident that they had not been previously disposed to believe any miracles. For before the appearance of Jefus, there had been no pretensions to a power of working miracles in the country, a circumftance which by no means agrees with the charge commonly ad

vanced against the Jews as a credulous people. It is well known, however, that when Jefus appeared, the nation in general, then in a ftate of fubjection to the Romans, a fituation which they ill brooked, were in anxious expectation of the appearance of the Meffiah announced by their prophets, and who they took for granted was immediately to affume the character of a temporal prince, rescue them from their fubjection to the Romans, and give them the dominion of the whole world; and certainly to this character that of Jefus bore no resemblance.

Befides, Jefus's free cenfure of the priests, and leading men in the nation, foon made. them his most bitter enemies. They feeing that whatever he was, they had nothing to expect from him, fpared no pains to destroy him, and did not reft till they had actually compaffed his death. All the miracles of Jefus, therefore, were exhibited before enemies. Even the most virtuous and best difposed of the Jews were as much attached to the idea of a temporal prince, for their Meffiah, as any of their countrymen, fo that even this part of the nation must have been exceedingly indifpofed to receive Jefus in that character; and

when they did it, it was with the idea that, though he did not affume it then, he would at fome future time. Even after his refurrection, the apostles afked him whether he would at that time reftore the kingdom to Ifrael, Acts i. 6; and their minds were not fully enlightened on this subject till after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

The refurrection of Jefus, though the most pleafing event to all his difciples, was a thing of which, it is evident, they had no expectation after his death, fo that it was not, without the greatest difficulty and the most undeniable evidence, that of their own fenfes, that they were brought to believe it. The manner in which the apoftie Thomas expreffed his incredulity on the fubject, is very remarkable. He was not prefent at the firft appearance of Jefus, and when the others, as we read John XX. 25, faid unto him, We have feen the Lord, he faid unto them, Except I fee in his hands the prints of his nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thruft my hand into his fide, I will not believe. In this particular, however, Jefus, the next time that he appeared to his difciples, gave him the fatisfaction that he demanded. For he faid to Thomas,

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Reach hither thy finger, and behold my bands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my fide, and be not faithlefs, but believing. No doubt all the rest of the apostles were, at firft, in the fame ftate of mind with respect to this event. In this case, therefore, even the dif ciples of Chrift may be confidered as prejudiced against the reception of this great miracle, and are by no means to be charged with credulity.

The apostles, and all the first preachers of Christianity, were in the fame fituation with refpect to the great body of the Jews, that Jefus had been in before them; and nothing could be more violent than the oppofition they actually met with. One of the most remarkable converfions, was that of Paul, and in the history of it, we fee, in the ftrongest light, the extreme prejudice which even the better kind of Jews entertained against Christianity. Nothing less than the appearance of Jefus himself was able to effect his converfion. Of the miraculous circumftances attending this converfion, his chofen companions, men who, no doubt, were actuated with as much zeal as himself, against the new religion, and who probably continued enemies to it, were wit