cileably inconsistent with every one of them, than the ample and round number, thus added by the effrontery of this uninformed stranger, to the most ample that can be deduced from any of the accounts, thus stated as given by the only description of persons, whose situation would give to their testimony the character of the best evidence.

Behold now the account of the number and of the persons in Paul's own words. It is in the fifteenth chapter of the first of his two letters to his Corinthians*. "Moreover, brethren (ver. 1.), I declare unto you the "Gospel, (the good news,) which I preached unto you, "which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. "2. By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in "memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have "believed in vain.-3. For I delivered unto you "first of all that which I also received, how that Christ "died for our sins, according to the Scriptures:"4. And that he was buried, and that he rose again "the third day, according to the Scriptures:"5. And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the "twelve:--6. After that, he was seen of above five "hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part "remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. "--7. After that he was seen of James, then of "all the Apostles.-8. And last of all he was seen "of me also, as of one born out of due time.

"9. For I am the least of the Apostles, which am "not meet to be called an Apostle, because I perse"cuted the church of God."

* 1 Cor. xv.

Follows a sample of Paul's logic, wrapt up as usual in a cloud of tautologies and paralogisms, the substance of which amounts to this:-Jesus resurrects; therefore all men will do the same. Admitting the legitimacy of this induction, what will be the thing proved? That every man, a few days after his death, will come to life again, and eat, drink, and walk in company with his friends.

As to the five hundred brethren at once, with the additions in petto, the more closely the Gospel accounts are looked into, the more entire will be a man's conviction of the extravagance of this account. In addition to the eleven Apostles that remained after the death of the traitor Judas, it may be matter of question, whether so much as a single individual can be found, who, in any one of the Gospels, is stated as having, after the death of Jesus, received from the testimony of sense, the demonstration of his presence. Of the percipient witnesses in question, not to waste space and time in needless discussions, taking a round number, and including both sexes taken together, no number approaching to twenty can be made out from any one of the four Gospel accounts, nor from all of them taken together. To what end then substitute, to less than twenty, more than five hundred? To what, but to supply by falsehood the deficiency left by truth. The thing to be done was the coming up to the expectations, whatever they might be, of his Corinthians. Number twenty,-said he to himself,-may perhaps fall short: well then, strike out the twenty, and set down five hundred. Thus did the self-constituted Apostle take a leaf out of the book of the unjust steward.

Now then as to mutually contradictory numbersthat given by the four Evangelists, and that given by this one stranger,-to which shall we give credence? As to the Evangelists,-whether, in the situation in which they were, and writing for the purposes for which they wrote,-these most intimate of the associates of the departed Jesus, and percipient witnesses of the several facts in question,-all of them spoken of in the same narration, all of them so fully apprised of the whole real number,-could have been disposed, any one of them, to set down a number short of the truth,-may be left to any one to

imagine. But, according to Paul's calculation, the truth would not come up to his purpose:-to his particular purpose: a number, such as could not fail of doing so, was therefore to be substituted.

Five hundred was as easily written as twenty. Had Jerusalem, or any place in its neighbourhood, been the place, to which this letter of his was to be addressed, some caution might have been necessary. But Corinth-a place so remote from the scene of action -being the abode of the disciples, to whom this letter of his was addressed,-and the letters themselves, not destined to be seen by any other than devoted eyes,-Invention found herself at ease.

Meantime, while Jesus was thus magnified, Paul was not to be forgotten. Insufficient still would be the cloud of witnesses, unless himself were added to it. "Last of all" (says he, 1 Cor. xv. 8.) "he" (Jesus)" was seen of me also." Seen by him Paul? at what place? at what time? At the time of his conversion, when hearing a voice and seeing light, but nothing else? But the whole constellation of his visions will here be crowding to the reader's view, and any more particular reference to them would be useless suffice it to observe, that on no other occasion, either does Paul himself, or his historiographer for him, take upon himself to say, that he had ever seen Jesus any otherwise than in a vision, whatsoever may have been meant by this so convenient term. On no occasion is it so much as pretended, either by him or for him, that in the flesh Jesus was ever seen by him. By no fingers of his murder-abetting hand, had ever been so much as pretended to have been probed, the wounds of Jesus. Yet, what are the terms employed, by him, in speaking of the sight, he pretended to have had of Jesus? exactly the same, as those employed by him, when speaking of the evidence, vouchsafed to the Apostles.

SECTION 2.

FALSE PROPHECY,-THAT THE WORLD WOULD END IN THE LIFE-TIME OF PERSONS THEN LIVING.

THE unsatiableness of Paul's ambition meets the eye at every page: the fertility of his invention is no less conspicuous. So long as, between this and the other world, the grave stood interposed, the strongest impression capable of being made by pictures of futurity, even when drawn by so bold a hand, was not yet sufficient, for stocking it with the power it grasped at. This barrier, at whatever hazard, he accordingly determined to remove. The future world being thus brought at both ends into immediate contact with the present, the obedient, for whom the joys of heaven were provided, would behold the troubles of the middle passage saved to them, while the disobedient would see the jaws of hell opened for their reception, without any such halting-place, as might otherwise seem to be offered by the grave. In particular, by a nearer as well as smoother road than that rugged one, he would make his way to heaven: nor would they, whose obedience gave them a just claim to so high a favour, be left behind.

His Thessalonians were the disciples, chosen by him for the trial of this experiment. Addressed to them we have two of his Epistles. In these curious and instructive documents, the general purport-not only of what had been said to the persons in question on a former occasion, but likewise of the observation of which on their part it had been productive, is rendered sufficiently manifest, by what we shall find him saying in the first of them. "Good," (said they,) "as to some "of us, whoever they may be: but, how is it to be "with the rest? in particular, with those who have "actually died already: not to speak of those others

"who will have been dying off in the mean time: for "you do not go so far as to promise, that we shall, all "of us, be so sure of escaping death as you yourself "are." "Make yourselves easy," we shall find him saying to them: "sooner or later, take my word for "it, we shall, all of us, mount up together in a body: "those who are dead, those who are to die, and those "who are not to die-all of us at once, and by the "same conveyance: up, in the air, and through the "clouds, we shall go. The Lord will come down and "meet us, and show us the way:-music, vocal and "instrumental, will come with him, and a rare noise "altogether there will be! Those who died first will "have risen first; what little differences there may be "are not worth thinking about. Comfort yourselves" (concludes he) "with these words." Assuredly, not easily could more comfortable ones have been found: -always supposing them followed by belief, as it appears they were. But it is time we should see more particularly what they were.

I Thess. iv. 10 to 18.-10. "And indeed ye do it" (viz. love one another,ver.9.) "toward all the brethren "which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, "brethren, that ye increase more and more ;"11. And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, "as we commanded you;-12. That ye may walk "honestly toward them that are without, and [that] ye may have lack of nothing. 13. But I would "not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning "them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as "others which have no hope.-14. For if we be"lieve that Jesus died and rose again, even so them "also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. "15. For this we say unto you by the word of "the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto "the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which