natural, that Jesus, who, before he was ap prehended, had been praying his Father, that "that cup might pass from him," yet with such a pious retractation of his request, as to have added, "If this cup may not pass from me, thy will be done;" it was natural, I fay, for the fame person, when he actually was apprehended, to express the refignation to which he had already made up his thoughts, and to express it in the form of speech which he had before used, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" This is a coincidence between writers, in whose narratives there is no imitation, but great diversity.

A second similar correspondency is the following: Matthew and Mark make the charge, upon which our Lord was con demned, to be a threat of destroying the temple; " We heard him say, I will destroy this temple, made with hands, and, within three days, I will build another made without hands *;" but they neither of them in

form us, upon what circumstance this ca lumny was founded. St. John, in the early part of his history*, supplies us with this information; for he relates, that, upon our Lord's first journey to Jerusalem, when the Jews asked him, "What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? he answered, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This agreement could hardly arise from any thing but the truth of the cafe. From any care or design in St. John, to make his narrative tally with the narratives of the other evangelifts, it certainly did not arife, for no such defign appears, but the abfence of it.

A strong and more general instance of agreement, is the following. The three first evangelists have related the appointment of the twelve apostles; and have given a catalogue of their names in form., John, without ever mentioning the appointment, or giving the catalogue, supposes, through

* ii. 19.

† Mat. x. 1. Mark iii. 14. Luke vi. 12.

out

out his whole narrative, Christ to be accom panied by a select party of disciples; the number of these to be twelve *; and whenever he happens to notice any one as of that number, it is one included in the catalogue of the other evangelists; and the names principally occurring in the course of his hiftory of Christ, are the names extant in their list. This last agreement, which is of confiderable moment, runs through every gospel, and through every chapter of each.

1

:

CHAP. V.

Originality of our Saviour's character,

THE Jews, whether right or wrong, had
understood their prophecies to foretell the
advent of a person, who by some fuperna-
tural afsistance should advance their nation
to independence, and to a fupreme degree
of splendour and prosperity. This was the
reigning opinion and expectation of the
times.

Now, had Jesus been an enthusiast, it is probable that his enthusiasm would have fallen in with the popular delusion, and that, whilst he gave himself out to be the person intended by these predictions, he would have assumed the character to which they were universally supposed to

relate.

VOL. II.

K

Had

Had he been an impostor, it was his bu siness to have flattered the prevailing hopes, because these hopes were to be the inftruments of his attraction and success.

But, what is better than conjectures, is the fact, that all the pretended Meffiahs actually did fo. We learn from Josephus that there were many of these. Some of them, it is probable, might be impostors, who thought that an advantage was to be taken of the state of public opinion. Others, perhaps, were enthusiasts, whose imagination had been drawn to this particular object, by the language and sentiments which prevailed around them. But, whether impostors or enthusiasts, they concurred in producing themselves in the character which their countrymen looked for, that is to say, as the restorers and deliverers of the nation, in that sense in which restoration and deliverance were expected by the Jews.

Why