ed Jews had never been interested by Christianity, till so
long after Jesus, that the memory of him, and his, was almost
entirely lost among that nation. And it appears from the last
chapter of the Acts, that when Paul was received by the Jews at
Rome, he had not been considered by the Jews of Jerusalem as of
sufficient importance, as to cause them to warn their brethren of
the Dispersion concerning him; for these Jews tell Paul, on his
enquiring, that they had not received any letters concerning him
from Jerusalem. So that we can offer nothing but conjecture, to
solve the difficulty.

It has been said by some, (and it is by no means an hypothesis
destitute of plausibility) that Jesus was indeed crucified, but did
not actually die on the cross. It is evident that Pilate was extremely
desirous to save his life; and is it impossible that the Roman
soldiers, who crucified him, had secret orders? Consider the
ciscumstances. He was crucified at our nine in the morning, and
was taken from the cross at about three in the afternoon. Now,
crucifixion is not a death which kills men in six hours, and men
have been known to have lived fastened to the cross for more than
two days. Consider, besides, that when the soldiers gave the coup
de grace to the two robbers, that they did not break the legs of
Jews. This, the author of the Gospel according to John says, they
did, in order to fulfill a prophecy; but I leave it to my reader,
whether it is not more likely that they did so in order to fulfill
secret orders? But to make up for that omission, the author adds,
that they pierced Jesus with a spear. Now, besides that this is not
mentioned by the other Evangelists, the very manner in which this
circumstance is mentioned, and eagerly affirmed by him, looks as
if the author was aware of the likelihood of a suspicion of the fact
we are trying to prove probable, and that he wrote this in order to
obviate it. And after all, the gospel according to John was certainly
not written by him, and, therefore, what the author of it observes,
may be true, or not. You will observe also, reader, that the body of
Jesus was given by Pilate to his friends immediately; a favour
never vouchsafed by the Romans in such a case, except "speciali
gratia." You will observe also, that the body was taken down by
his friends, no doubt with great care; probably was washed from
the blood, and rubbed perfectly dry; and was deposited in the cave
or sepulchre, with a la