maliel *; and if he had been fo candid as to have given the opinion of this Jewish doctor, respect ing them, his argument would have fallen of itself. The Samaritans feem to have followed the wife maxim of this doctor, refpecting Dofithea, and Simon, magicians of this place, the former of whom pretending that he was the Meffias, of whom Mofes prophefied; and foon perceived, that their doctrine was no less abfurd than infamous, and that it fell of itself.-On the contrary, when Cel fus wrote, he saw the doctrine of Jefus Chrift, fupported by an invifible power, modeftly combating against all the oppofition and perfecution, not only of the Jews, but of the whole Gentile world, and extending its benign influence to the utmost parts of the earth.

Our author now proceeds, of himself, to accufe Jefus with being accompanied only by ten or eleven ignorant and infamous fellows, publicans, and fifhermen, the lowest and most abandoned of mankind, with whom, after quitting his occupation, he wandered about from place to place, as a vagabond, and as an infamous perfon.-I have already obferved, that Jofephus, in his hiftory of the Jews, mentions one of those infamous perfons, as Celfus was pleased to call them, as a juft and virtuous man, although he was ignominiously put to death at Jerufalem; and that the greateft part of the Jews attributed the ruin of this city as the vengeance of God upon them, because they had destroyed

* A&ts v.

this juft and innocent man :-And, if we may judge of the Four Evangelifts by their writings, and by the history of their lives, we must conclude, that they were of a very different character from what our author is pleased to give them. There is fuch an air of majefty, fublimity, candor, and fimplicity, in their writings, that none of the Greek philofophers could ever imitate; and which will make every unprejudiced reader perceive, that their words are the words of truth.

It is furprizing that this Epicurean never formally attacked St. Paul, and his writings, who established the Chriftian religion in Greece; and who ought moreover to have been the particular object of his hatred, because he attacks the Epicurean order, and indeed all the Grecian philofophers, with fuch force, and at the fame time, with fuch truth and modefty, that all which they have faid in anfwer tends only to expose their ignorance, and to make after-ages regard their pretended wisdom as foolishness: But the whole hiftory of this Apoftle was fo unfavourable to our author's defigns, that he ftudiously avoids entering into it.

This great Apoftle*, fpeaking of those philofophers, fays, "That the wrath of God is re"vealed from heaven against thofe ungodly and unrighteous men, who hold the truth in un"righteousness. Because that which may be "known of God, is manifeft in them; for God

* Romans i.,

"hath

of a Jew, who regarded the miracles of Mofes as the effects of the power of God; but declares thofe of Jefus Chrift, the truth of which he never attempts to deny, to be worked by the power of magic, and to have nothing divine in them: thereby imitating the Egyptians, who declared that all the miracles that Mofes did in Egypt, were done by the power of magic, although they confess that their magicians could not ftand before him. However, if we may judge by the fuccefs, we cannot avoid saying, in favour of Mofes, that he was guided by the power of the Divinity, without which he could not have drawn the Ifraelites out of Egypt, and established them in the land of Canaan; especially as he had to do with an obftinate and rebellious people, who were defirous to adopt all the idolatry and wickedness of the neighbouring nations. Jefus Chrift likewife, who came into the world to declare the will of his heavenly Father to mankind, which they could not discover clearly by the lights of nature, had to combat against all the idolatrous cuftoms of the Gentiles, the obftinacy and hypocrify of the Jews, and the imaginary systems of the different fects of philofophers, which had been many centuries a forming, and which were become like a fecond nature among those people refpectively. If, therefore, Mofes was obliged to work miracles to make known his Divine miffion, not only to the leaders of the Ifraelitish nation, but alfo to the people in general; why fhould this Jew think it ftrange,

that

nor by the artifices of rhetoric and language, which were taught in the Grecian schools, that they converted their auditors. If Jesus Christ had chofen perfons who were in great reputation. for their eloquence, wifdom, and learning, to be the preachers of his doctrine, our author would have had great reafon to fay, that the fuccefs of the Chriftian Religion was owing more to the men, than to the power of the doctrine. But, when we see a number of illiterate and ignorant men, as the Apostles declare themselves, by the Evangelifts, to have been, and Celfus makes no difficulty to receive this part of their testimony, entering upon the most difficult points of argument, with the most learned men, and the greatest disputers of those days, whom they not only obliged to retire, as not being able to stand the force of their arguments, but frequently converted them to the belief of the doctrine of Christianity, we cannot avoid declaring, that they must have been actuated, and supported, by fome invifible and fupernatural power.

*

Afterwards Celfus introduces his Jew again,' fpeaking to Jefus Chrift, as if the former had been bred up in the Grecian schools, and had adopted all their ideas; The ancient fables, fays he, which fuppofed that Perfeus, Minos, and others, were of divine original, as being defcended directly from the gods, although we are not bound to believe them, at leaft attempt to give fome colour to their arguments, by representing the actions of those men as great, mar

vellous,

vellous, and more than human: But you, what have you done that is either remarkable, or extraordinary? What is there uncommon in your actions, or in your difcourfes? Although you were often folicited, in the temple, and in other places, to make it appear, by Some convincing proof, that you were the Son of God.If Celfus had been fo well informed in the Jewish history, as a celebrated French critic, of our days, who is his profeffed admirer, and who has literally copied, and reprinted, a great number of his arguments against Christianity, he would have feen the abfurdity of putting an argument of this 'kind in the mouth of a Jew, who must have treated all the Greek fabulous hiftory, as he had treated the hiftory of Mofes.-But, among all the Greek heroes and lawgivers, whofe great actions are recorded in their fables, I would afk Celfus, and his admirers, which of them it was, whofe mighty works were of fuch extent, and of fuch general good to mankind, as to be capable of perfuading fucceeding generations, that his birth was fuch as the fables have defcribed it to be? Those very extraordinary men would have us believe the Greek hiftory in every particular, and receive the Greek fables as our creed; and at the fame time they reject the history of the Evangelifts, which carries the evidence of truth upon the face of it; and which is better attefted than any history, perhaps, that was ever wrote in the world. Moreover the power of Jefus Chrift has been fuch as to fpread his doctrine over the whole

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