pernatural cures was enjoyed by Jefus Chrift, the Jews never deny --but ridiculously attribute the poffeffion of this fecret to the right pronunciation of the ineffable name, which, they say, he clandeftinely ftole out of the temple‡or, they impute it to the magic art, which he learned in Egypt, and exercifed with greater dexterity than any other impoftor ever did. Lampridius informs us that Alexander Severus would have erected a temple in honour of Jefus Chrift, had not fome of the Senators remonstrated against it. In Nero's time,

*

which

"In

The story is in Toledoth Jefhu, and is as follows. that time there was Shemmaphorefh (the ineffable name of God) engraved in the holy houfe (temple) upon the foundation-ftone. For as king David dug the foundation, he found there a ftone over the mouth of the abyfs, and upon it was engraved the name; and he took it up and depofited it in the holy of holies― And he [ Jefus] entered the temple, and learned the name of the holy letters, and writ the name upon paper, and pronounced the name that it fhould not hurt him, and he cut open his flesh, and hid the paper with the name. See Dr. Sharpe's firft Argument, p. 33, 34.

* The fon of Satda [Jefus Chrift] brought with him magic arts from Egypt, inferting them in his flesh. Dr. Sharpe's firft Argument p. 41. not.

+ Auguft. Hiftor. Tom. i. Cap. 29. 43. Edit. Var. Tertullian informs us that Pilate tranfmitted accounts of thefe tranfactions to the emperor Tiberius. He and Juftin Martyr appeal to these accounts. Ea omnia fuper Chrifto Pilato, et ipfe jam pro fuâ confcientià Chriftianus, Cefari tunc Tiberio nunciavit. Tertullian Edit. Rigalt. 1641. p. 22. Tertullian alfo acquaints us, that Tiberius, upon receiving from Judæa, Pilate's account of this divine perfon,

59 which was a little more than thirty years after our Saviour's crucifixion, Tacitus fays there was a + great multitude of Chriftians in Rome-and he gives a circumftantial and shocking account of the ingenious torments, and excruciating deaths, to which they were* fubjected. Even Lucian

bears his teftimony to the influence the gospel principles had in making its profeffors despise death, and fays that Christ, an illustrious perfon, who was crucified in Palestine, was the original publisher of this new religion. Thus all the inveterate enemies of Chriftianity unite in giving an honourable fuffrage to the character of Chrift,

to

moved the fenate for enrolling him among the gods. Tiberius ergo, cujus tempore nomen Chriftianum in feculum intravit, annunciata fibi ex Syriâ Palestinâ, quæ illic veritatem iftius divinitatis revelârant, detulit ad fenatum cum prærogativâ fuffragii fui. ibid. p. 6. This propofal of the emperor the fenate rejected, ibid. And Suetonius informs us that fome decrees were paffed in the fenate that were contrary to his private fentiments. Quædam adverfus fententiam fuam decerni ne queftus quidem eft. Suetonius in Tib. p. 364. Edit. Var. 8°. L. Bat. 1662.

+ Multitudo ingens. Taciti Annal. 15. 2 Vol. p. 286. Dublin.

* Pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contecti, laniatu canum interirent, aut crucibus affixi, aut flammati, atque ubi defeciffet dies in ufum nocturni luminis urerentur. ibid.

+ Καταφρονεσι το θάνατες · Τον μεγαν εκείνον ετι σεβέσιν αν Έρωπον, τον εν Παλαισίνη ανασκολεσπισθεντα, ὅτι καινην ταύτην τε RETY BONDYED For Co Lucian. Mors Peregrini.

to the reality of his miracles, the authenticity of the writings of the evangelifts, and to the rapid progress of the Chriftian religion.

SECT. XIII.

The gofpel is enforced by the most venerable authority.

HE authority alfo, by which this fyftem of

TH

religion and morals is enforced, is the most venerable, and was abfolutely neceffary to give its injunctions their proper weight and moment with mankind. When our Saviour had ended his fermon on the mount, it is obferved, that the multitude was aftonished at his doctrine; and the reafon of this effect is alledged--because he taught them as one having authority, cloathed with a divine commiffion, and folemnly addreffing them in the name and authority of the great God. It is not enough to crowd together in a volume a number of detached maxims and moral fentiments, to be the rule and guide of life, and from various authors to compile a number of fayings and reflections into a body of theology and morals-all this is ufelefs and infignificant, if this fyftem, at laft, is not recommended by an authority proper to give it its due weight and validity as the flandard of human conduct. For does the faying of fuch a philofopher ftamp it with any authority? Is it enough to enforce it, as an univerfal principle of conduct, that fuch an eminent Sage faid fo

and

and fo, when others, as wife, faid and did the very contrary? All the didactic precepts and leffons of useful inftruction the wife antients ever delivered, in a great meafure lofe their efficacy, in the reformation of mankind, by their having no other authority to feal and fanctify them but what was merely human.* Socrates was fo convinced of this, that he paffionately wifhes for a future meffenger from heaven, authorized with proper credentials, to teach men morality with greater efficacy than he had done.† A well attefted divine authority was greatly wanting to give the dogmata of human philofophy their proper feal and fanction. The Platonic, the Peripatetic, the Stoic, the Epicurean 'philofophy widely differed. Where muft the common people in heathen countries go for inftruction? Their wife and eminent Sages were divided-their affertions and names

did

See this argument moft excellently reprefented and largely difcuffed by the great Mr. Locke, in his Reasonableness of the Christian Religion Vol. 2d of his works p. 575— 579, fourth edition.

† Αναγκαίον ουν εςι περιμενειν έως αν τις μαθῃ ὡς δεν προ θεες και προς ανθρωπες διακεισθαι. ΑΛΚ. ποτε ουν παρέσαι ὁ χρονο δυτω, @ Σωκρατες; και τις ὁ παιδεύσων ; ἡδισα γαρ αν μας δοκω ιδείν τε τον

Platonis

τον άνθρωπον τις εσιν. ΣΩΚ. Ουτα ετιν ο μελεί περί σου. Alcib. ii. p.150. Vol 2. Edit. Serrani. A declaration fimilar to this, concerning the reasonableness of believing that the gods would defcend from heaven to inftru& mankind, Ariftotle is reported to have made a little before his death. Vid. Fabricii. Bibl. Gr. Tom. ii. Lib. 3. p. 166. Bayle's Dict. Art. Aristotle, and Stanley. Vit. Phil.

did not give their respective systems any proper validity. Some of their fyftems were atheistical and deteftable: fome, vifionary and romantic. What power had thefe philofophers to reclaim and reform the world? What authority could they plead, except the authority of their fpeculative dreams and ideal reveries, to enforce their doctrines, and gain them a general reception among men? What good effects did the philofophy of Socrates, Plato, Cicero, and Antoninus produce in the lives and morals of the bulk of mankind ?* Did they ever make converts of a single country, or a fingle village. We find that most of the philofophers and lawgivers of antiquity were obliged to have recourse to pious frauds, and to fal

Sify

This is well reprefented by Theophilus Antiochenus. To δε ωφέλησε ἡ κατ' αυτο, παιδεια ; τι τους λοιπες φιλοσοφες τα δόγμα τα αυτών, ἵνα μη τον αριθμον αυτων καταλεγω πολλων οντων. ταυτα δε φαμεν εις το επιδείξαι την ανωφελη και άθεον διάνοιαν αυτων. δοξης γαρ κενης και μάταιε πάντες αυτοι ερασθευτές, ούτε αυτό το αλη θες έγνωσαν, ούτε μεν αλλες επι την αλήθειαν προέτρεψαντο. και γαρ α έφασαν α τα ελέγχει αυτές, η ασύμφωνα ειρηκασι· και τα ιδια δόγματα οι πλείους αυτων κατελυσαν. οὐ λαρ αλληλους μόνον άνε τρεψαν αλλ' ηδη τίνες και τα ἑαυτῶν δογματα ακυρα εποίησεν. ωςε ἡ δόξα αυτών εις ατιμίαν και μωρίαν εχώρησεν. Theophilus ad

Autolycum Lib. iii. p. 118. Paris 1636.

*The different effects which the doctrine of Socrates and Jefus produced in the world are excellently remarked by Fuftin Martyr. Εωκράτει μεν γαρ ουδεις επιτευθη ὑπερ τουτου του δόγματα αποθνησκειν· Χρισῳ δε- ου φιλοσοφοι ουδε φιλολογοι με τον επείθησαν, αλλά και χειροτέχναι, και παντελώς ιδιωται, και δόξης και φόβου και θανάτου κατα καταφρονήσαντες. F. 125. Edito Thirlby,