the tomb consistent with the hurry and trepidation of thieves, stealing when an armed guard is at hand, and in a moonlight night?

(5.) But, observe the conduct of the rulers. Why did not they order the Apostles to be seized? Why did they not command the soldiers to be punished? Why did they not bring the whole to a judicial determination? Why is this neglect in men who had been so anxious to have a guard placed upon the sepulchre? Why did they never after charge the disciples or apostles themselves with having stolen the body?

OBJECTION. Christ did not show himself to the Chief Priests and Jews.

ANSWER.-For this various satisfactory reasons may be as

signed.

[i] It is not probable that the Jews would have submitted to that evidence.

[ii] If Jesus had appeared to them after his resurrection, and they had acknowledged him to be the Messiah, it is most probable that the persons who made this objection would not have been satisfied, but would have suspected, and would have represented, the whole as an artifice and im. posture. Or, it might have been said that they were haunted with spectres, and consequently that their testimony was of no value.

[iii] If they had remained unconvinced, the fact would have been questioned: if they had been convinced, without honesty or resolution to declare the truth, the fact would still have been doubtful; and, if they had been convinced, and had acknowledged Jesus to have been the Messiah or Christ, loud would have been the clamour of a combination, and the progress and prevalence of Christianity would have been ascribed to the secular influence of its advocates.

3. The CHARActer of the WITNESSES also proves the truth of the Resurrection of Christ. Observe,

(1.) The Condition of these witnesses.

They were mean, despised, and unlearned men, and consequently were unequal to the task of imposing upon others.

(2.) Their Number, and also the number of the different appearances of Jesus Christ, which was more than sufficient to establish any fact.

Seven different JEWISH WRITERS have related or mentioned not fewer than eleven distinct appearances of Jesus Christ at different hours of the day and at different places; and on one occasion to "above five hundred" persons.

(3.) The Incredulity of the witnesses, and their slowness in believing the resurrection of Christ.

(4.) The Moral Impossibility of their succeeding in palming an imposition upon the world. Because,

[.] It is inconceivable that a man should willingly expose himself to all sorts of punishment-even to death itself-on purpose to testify a matter of fact which he knew to be false.

[ii] Although there should have been one person so disposed, it cannot be imagined-indeed it would be the height of absurdity to imagine,-that NUMBERS Would have formed the same resolution.

[iii] Though a great number of persons should have agreed together to attest a falsehood, yet it is incredible that they should bear witness to it, who considered perfidy and lying as sins utterly inconsistent with their salvation: neither could it be supposed or expected of those, who, if they allowed the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be a fiction, must also allow that they had followed an imaginary Messiah.

[iv.] Such a mutual concert or agreement could never have been so carried on, but that some of them, in order to avoid punishment, or to gain reward, would have disclosed the whole intrigue.

[v.] The very same principles, which had dissolved their mutual fidelity, would more probably break off their mutual treachery. It cannot reasonably be supposed that those disciples, who were scattered when their master was crucified, would afterwards conspire to affirm a bold and unprincipled falsehood.

(5.) Observe the Facts, which they themselves avow.

Their testimony relates to facts, in which it was impossible that they could have been deceived; such as the seeing, touching, sitting at table and conversing with, their risen master.

(6.) Consider further the Agreement of their evidence. They all unanimously deposed that Christ rose from the dead.

Observe also the Tribunals before which they gave evidence, and the multitude of people by whom their testimony was scrutinised, by Jews and heathens, philosophers and rabbis, and by a vast number of persons who went annually to Jerusalem: for Providence so ordered those circumstances, that the testimony of the apostles might be unsuspected.

(8.) Take notice also of the Time, when this evidence was given.

Only three days after the crucifixion, they declared that Christ was risen again, as he had foretold. Would impostors act thus?

(9.) Consider likewise the Place, where the apostles bore their testimony to the resurrection.

They preached a risen Saviour, in the synagogues, and in the prætorium, at Jerusalem, the very city where he had been ignominiously crucified.

(10.) Consider the Motives, which induced the apostles to publish the fact of Christ's resurrection.

It was, not to acquire fame, riches, or glory, but to found on this fact a series of exhortations to repentance, faith, and holiness:-topics these which were never proposed by an impostor. At the same time, they lived as no impostor ever did, and were enabled to appeal to their converts for the sanctity, justice, and unblamable tenour of their own lives.

(11.) Lastly, the MIRACLES performed by these witnesses in the name of Jesus Christ, after the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the success which attended their preaching throughout the world, are God's testimony to the fact of Christ's resurrection from the dead, as well as to their veracity in proclaiming it.

On the miraculous fact of Christ's resurrection, the first four of the Criteria above noticed (see p. 29. supra) are most clearly to be discerned. With regard to the last two, (see p. 30,) we may remark, that the Lord's Supper was instituted as a perpetual memorial of the death of Jesus Christ; and that the weekly festival of the Lord's Day (or Sunday) commemorates the miraculous fact of his resurrection. These memorials, it must be observed, were

instituted at the very time when the circumstances to which they relate took place, and they have been observed throughout the Christian world, in all ages, to the present time.

X. A Comparison of the Scripture Miracles with pretended Pagan and Popish Miracles.

Counterfeit miracles are no proof that the miracles, related in the New Testament, are not real: the more strictly such pretended miracles are investigated, the more defective is the evidence adduced for them.

For,

1. The scene of most of them is laid in remote countries and in distant ages.

2. They were performed in ages of gross ignorance, when the common people were likely to be deceived, and were wrought in secresy.

3. They were performed by persons of high rank, who were held in the profoundest veneration by the common people, and were never subjected to any scrutiny.

4. The heathen miracles were designed to support the established religion, and were engrafted upon the superstitious notions of the vulgar.

5. They are not vouched to us by any credible testimony. 6. They were not credited by the intelligent and judicious even among the heathen.

The same remarks are equally applicable to the pretended popish miracles.

But the contrary is the case with respect to the miracles recorded in the Scriptures, the reality of which is substantiated by the most positive and irresistible evidence.

SECTION III.-On Prophecy.

1. PROPHECY defined.

Prophecy is a miracle of knowledge, a declaration, or description, or representation of something future, beyond the power of human sagacity to discern or to calculate; and it is the highest evidence, that can be given, of supernatural communion with the Deity, and of the truth of a revelation from God.

II. DIFFERENCE between the pretended predictions of Heathen Oracles, and the Prophecies contained in the Scriptures.

The oracles of the ancient heathens were delivered either for the purpose of satisfying some trivial curiosity,

or to abet the designs of some ambitious leader. They uttered no spontaneous predictions. Those, who conducted them, threw various obstacles in the way of inquiry by sacrifices, &c. Sometimes, the gods were not in a hu mour to be consulted: at other times, when no means of evasion remained, the answers given were ambiguous or delusive; and whenever the oracles failed, there was always some subterfuge, to which the priests had recourse. If an evil event took place, when an auspicious one had been promised, this was ascribed to the fault of the inquirer. Something defective in the sacrifices was discovered, when too late; or the gods were averse to him. If the contrary proved to be the case, this was ascribed to the intercession of the priests.

Widely different are the prophecies contained in the Scriptures: for,

1. They were delivered without solicitation, and were pronounced openly before the people: and the prophet knew himself to be exposed to capital punishment, if any one of his predictions were to be overthrown. The events foretold were often complicated and remote ; depending on the arbitrary will of man, and arising from a great variety of causes, which concurred to bring them

to pass.

2. Some were accomplished shortly after they were delivered others somewhat later; and others had a still more distant object. But the different events foretold were so connected with each other, that the most distant bordered pretty nearly upon some others, the accomplishment of which was preparatory to the fulfilment of the last. The fulfilment of the first served to raise an expectation of those which were distant, and the accomplishment of the last served to confirm the first.

3. A large portion of the scripture-prophecies was committed to writing, and left open to public examination : this is a test, which the spurious predictions of the heathens could never endure.

III. The USE and INTENT of Prophecy was,-to raise expectation, and to soothe the mind with hope; to maintain the faith of a particular providence, and the assurance of a promised Redeemer; and to attest the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.

IV. Of the CHAIN of PROPHECY.

The scripture-prophecies respect contingencies too wonderful for the powers of man to conjecture or to effect. Many of those, which are found in the Old Testament, foretold unexpected changes in the distribution of earthly power: and, whether they announced the fall of flourishing cities, or the ruin of mighty empires, the event has minutely corresponded with the prediction. These prophecies form a regular chain or system, which may be reduced to four classes, viz.

1. Prophecies relating to the Jewish Nation in particular.

2. Prophecies relating to the neighbouring nations or empires.

3. Prophecies directly announcing the Messiah.

4. Prophecies delivered by Jesus Christ and his apostles.

CLASS I.-Prophecies relating to the Jewish Nation in particular.

1. Predictions concerning the Posterity of Abraham. Gen. xii. 1. xlvi. 3.; Exod. xxxii. 13. Gen. xiii. 16. xv. 5. xvii. 2. 4-6. xxii. 17. xxvii. 4. xxviii. 14. xxxii. 12. xxxv. 11.

See the fulfilment of these predictions, as it respects the Jews (to omit the increase of Abraham's other posterity,) in Exod. i. 7. 9. 12. Numb. xxiii. 10. Deut. i. 10. x. 22. Ezek. xvi. 7. Heb. vi. 12. In less than five hundred years after the first of the above predictions was delivered, the number of the Israelites amounted to six hundred thousand men, besides women and children.

2. Prophecies concerning Ishmael.-Compare Gen. xvi. 10-12. xvii. 20, and xxv. 12-18.

From him descended the various tribes of Arabs, whose numbers and manner of living have ever since been, and to this very day are, a verification of the predictions respecting them.

3. It was foretold that the Posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, should possess the land of Canaan: so that, though they should be expelled thence for their sins, yet their title should endure, and they should be resettled in it, and there continue in peace to the end of the world. (See Gen. xii. 7. xiii. 14, 15. 17. xv. 18-21. Exod. iii. 8. 17. Gen. xvii. 7, 8.)

Accordingly, the Jews enjoyed this land for above a thousand years: and when the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were carried into capti