his
command, to such a degree, as to suffer an entire guard of soldiers
avowedly to sleep upon their station, without any notice being
taken of it! and to say "his disciples came and stole him away
whilst we slept." This incredible story is another instance how
necessary it is, that those who do not adhere closely to the truth,
should have extraordinary good memories to enable them to keep
clear of absurdities, or palpable contradictions in their narrations.
For, consider the circumstances. How were the tongues of these
soldiers to be restrained among the inquisitive inhabitants of a
large city, (at that time too, greatly crowded on account of the
paschal feast,) not only in their way to the chief priests; but also
during the whole time while the priests assembled the Sanhedrim,
and were deliberating what was to be done? And if that part of the
watch, who, the author says, came to inform the chief priests, were
poltroons enough for the sake of a bribe to undergo so shameful a
disgrace to themselves, as well as to hazard the resentment of their
General, how could they undertake that all their comrades who
remained at the sepulchre would do the same? and to what
purpose could the Jewish council bribe some, without a possibility
of some one knowing how the rest of the corps would act? And
even supposing all these difficulties surmounted, and that the
whole guard had agreed, and persisted in saying, "his disciples
stole him away while we slept," of what service could that be to
the Jewish rulers? For if the guards were asleep, they could be no
evidence to prove that the body was taken away; and it might be
just as probable that he might rise to life again while the watch was
asleep, as it was if no watch had been set.

In a word, it appears from the numbers of Latin words in Greek
characters, which this book contains; from the numerous
geographical blunders; and the author's evident ignorance of the
customs of the Jews: from the form of Baptism enjoined at the
conclusion, which was not in use in the first century, as appears
from the form mentioned as then used in the Acts; from the Roman
Centurion's being made to call Jesus "a Son of a God," which
words in the mouth of a Pagan could only mean that he must be a
Demigod, like Bacchus, Hercules, or Esculapius: it is clear that this
Gospel is the patched work composition of some convert from the
Pagan schools. At any rate, his gospel flatly contradicts the others
in severa