their conversion in view, is demonstrable from the prophecy which he cites, and of which he considers that conversion to be the accomplishment," And again, another Scripture saith, They shall look upon him whom they have pierced." That is, "They shall now love him, whom they before hated without a cause; they shall regard with regret and compassion the Saviour whom they had cruelly slain; or, in the words of Zachariah, whence the Evangelist has copied this prophecy, "They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one is in bitterness for his first-born." Zach. xii. 10.

That the soldiers whom the Jewish rulers intrusted with the execution of Jesus, did, after they had put him to death, receive him as their Saviour, is a fact very probable, from the Evangelists Mark and Luke, who represent the leader of those soldiers, as openly declaring his belief in the divine mission of the illustrious sufferer, while yet standing at the foot of the cross: "And when the centurion which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God,"" Mark xv. 39. Lastly, it is not only handed down as a vague tradition in the Christian church that the centurion and the soldier became converts, but the Greek and Latin churches have a festival instituted in memory of their martyrdom, which surely could not have taken place, if their conversion had not been a notorious fact.

I now proceed to set aside the objections made by unbelievers to the resurrection and ascension of Christ; and I will suppose one of the Evangelists, Matthew for instance, to be present, and thus examined in a court of justice*.

* The following is a specimen of the manner in which the Author of the New Trial of the Witnesses reasons:

"Now after what we have heard of witnesses of the resurrection, it is surely natural to expect that some one or more individual should have come

Q. You say, Matthew, that the Sepulchre was sealed, that a guard was stationed there; that an angel having descended, and causing a great earthquake, rolled away the stone; that the watch, though become like dead men, through fear, went and informed the high priests and Pharisees; that these men nevertheless prevailed on the soldiers to circulate the report that the disciples stole the body from the grave. These extraordinary events are related by you alone, and are left unverified by the other Evangelists. State the cause of this peculiarity in your narrative.-A. I published my Gospel in Judea,

forward to declare what they knew of this affair; and if we dispense with this declaration being on oath, are we not entitled to look for something of the same positive, public, and personal testimony that Paul gives respecting the light which he saw when going to Damascus ? Instead of which, we have no one individual who saw Jesus rise from the tomb, nor have we one individual who says expressly, and for himself, that he saw him ascend into heaven. And here I earnestly solicit the attention of the reader; for though the subject has been so often discussed, and the texts which I shall have occasion to quote are familiar to every Christian, yet the present view of the subject, I am persuaded, will be found as new as it is interesting, and little more will be necessary, on my part, than merely to bring the words of the Evangelists under the eye of the reader."

"Now here we cannot but admit there is a very material difference; three out of the four say there were no witnesses; the other, Matthew, says there were; but what is still more worthy of notice is, that the witnesses to which he refers deny the fact, saying, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away;' for none of the other three say a single word about the guard, the sealing of the stone, or the angel descending and rolling it away.

"But silence, says a great author, is no contradiction: well, then, we shall admit for a moment that Matthew is correct, that the guards of which he speaks were actually present on this occasion; we shall even suppose they are ready to come forward and declare, that 'an angel descended from heaven and rolled away the stone.' Yet what use can we make of this? Would any court in Christendom receive it as a proof of Christ's miraculous resurrection, when they had already said, that his disciples came by night, and stole him away?" Therefore, whether present or absent, 1 apprehend the evidence of these men is entirely out of the question. At the same time we may observe, they never evinced the least disposition to retract, so that we are still left to inquire who is the witness who declares that an angel came down from heaven, and rolled away the stone. Who is he? What is the name of the person who witnessed the great agitation of this guard, ' who became like dead men? There was nobody present but themselves, and

where these things took place. My motive principally was to furnish the Hebrew believers with a concise history of what Jesus said and did, and thus to check the misrepresentations respecting him circulated in that country. The story of the body being stolen was propagated in Judea; and, as writing among that nation, I alone was called upon to contradict it. This I could not have done, if it had not been true and I should have left the other Evangelists to contradict it in distant places. But I contradict the tale in the face of its base

by the account of Mark, Luke, and John, they have no existence; or by Matthew's own account they are perjured men, and cannot be listened to; yet one of these men would have been a most important witness; his single, his candid, honest testimony would have been of more value than the report of the whole four Evangelists who were not present; and if the evidence of one be so important, what shall we say if the whole guard had come for ward? and instead of saying that his disciples came and stole him away, while they slept, they had unanimously declared that an angel descended from heaven, and in great majesty rolled away the stone? We are told they were bribed but had they not witnessed a most imposing sight? Paul's vision was not more striking; yet, what bribe would have induced him, what bribe could have induced any man, much less a company of men, one and all, not only to conceal this terrible truth, but even to lie to the Almighty, while they yet trembled at the remembrance of his awful visitation ?"

"Judas, be tranquil, lay not violent hands upon thyself; thou knowest not that thou hadst betrayed the Lord of glory: let thy wounded spirit rest, But conscience, faithful monitor. He goes and hangs himself! but these men feel no remorse; they sin against the clearest light; for while prostrate on the earth, which yet quaked under them; and while the rays of glory that darted from the heavenly messenger, yet dimmed their sight; they dared to meditate the horrid treason! Not treason against an earthly mo narch, but against the Majesty of Heaven. But let us not terrify our imagination with phantoms; such men never existed; let us approach them once more, and try if they be tangible, we are not on fairy ground. Is I say then, had these guards actually witnessed this scene, for it is impossible to conceive they could either conceal or disguise it, their testimony would have been of more importance than even that of Paul, not only because several witnesses are less liable to be imposed upon than one; not merely because each man was a check upon the other, but because the question to which their evidence refers, is of infinitely more importance in itself; for let this point be established, the miracles are all established, and the ascension into heaven may reasonably be expected as the consequence !"

authors; and my brother Evangelists are silent, because in their respective situations it did not call for contradiction.

Q. Who informed the chief priests and Pharisees of the occurrences at the tomb?-A. The priests and elders, being informed by the guard, assembled and came to a resolution to give large money to the soldiers for saying that the disciples came and stole away the body while they were asleep. So they took the money, and did as they were taught.'-Q. But what bribe could induce a body of men, one and all, not only to conceal the terrible truth, but even to lie to the Almighty, while they yet trembled at the remembrance of his awful visitation?-A. These soldiers being Heathens, had as yet no idea of one Almighty Being, but believed in the existence of many gods, who, though not all powerful, 'were yet able to produce supernatural effects. Having heard of the miracles of our Lord, they were led by their false theology to suppose him inhabited by some great demon, to whose wrath they ascribed the convulsions at the tomb. The power of allaying or expelling those demons, was thought to be vested chiefly in the priests : and they doubtless might hope to provide for their security, as well as their avarice, by complying with the offer of the chief priests on this occasion.

Q. But does not the circumstance of the women going to the grave, imply that no guard was placed at, no seal put upon it?-A. The seal was put to the tomb for the sake not of security, but of form, to make the breaking of it a capital crime; and the watch were directed to act with the usual precaution of police officers, when expecting thieves to break open a house. They therefore fixed the seal, and guarded the sepulchre with all possible secrecy, hoping to surprise us in the act of breaking it open; and thus to have pretence for putting us to death as rebels against the authority of Cæsar.

Q. Who were the persons that witnessed the earth

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stone, and the coming Were they not the very

quake, the rolling away of the forth of Jesus from the grave? men, who were afterwards bribed to propagate the story of his having been stolen by his disciples?—A, You seem to labour under a great mistake with regard to the watch: they did not go one and all with the information to the Pharisees. While some of them went on this errand, the rest remained behind; and of this number was the centurion who commanded the guard. This officer and some of his companions became sensible during his crucifixion, that Jesus was a righteous man and the Son of God; and the wonders at the grave more fully con vinced them of the justice of his claims. They therefore declined to go to the chief priests, and to have no share in the impious falsehood propagated by their comrades, but afterwards deserted, and joined the Apostles.

Q. You say that the report of the body being stolen prevailed only among the Jews: but do you mean to say that it prevailed among the Jews only, and was not credited in Heathen countries ?-A. It was doubtless heard of in all countries, but it was kept alive only in those places where the authority and agency of the priests and Pharisees were exerted in its support. Nor did those enemies of truth themselves believe it, for its gross absurdity. Of what use could the body of our honoured Lord, being now dead, be to us? If it could be shown that we had some project of ambition or interest to secure by it, the tale might have some probability. But it supposes that we sacrificed our homes and our comforts; that we led a life of fatigue, of danger, of hardship and suffering, to accomplish no reasonable end. It supposes that we stole a dead body to cheat the world with the hope of eternal life; that we lied against God, in order to reform society; that we voluntarily became agents of the prince of darkness, that we might translate mankind to the kingdom of light. The Apostles brought a solemn charge against our enemies as the unworthy