-].I2.7,^ 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Di'viiion- stt^^r^. 
 
VvC 
 
 
 Mimm 
 
 '^^^ 
 
CHRIST REJECTED! 
 
 OR THE 
 
 TRIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ELEVEN DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, 
 
 In a Court of Law and Equity^ 
 AS CHARGED WITH 
 
 STEALING THE CRUCIFIED BODY OF CHRIST 
 Out of the Sepulchre, 
 
 Humbly dedicated to the whole nation of the Jews, which are scattered 
 abroad on the face of the earth ; and to the Deists of modem times. 
 
 DESIGNED, ALSO, AS A HELP TO WAVERING CHRISTIANS. 
 AN ORIGINAL WORK. 
 
 Written by a believer in Christ, under the assumed na?n»of 
 CAPTAIj^T 0]^ESIMUS. 
 
 " I have also spoken by the Prophets, and I have multiplied visions, 
 and used similitudes, by the ministry of the Prophets." Jlosea, xii. 10. 
 
 PHILABELPHIA . 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
 By Joseph Rakestraw. 
 
Eastern District of Pennsyhattia, to xini : J^o. 5269. 
 
 ^^S-^ig^ 3E IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-eighth 
 J^^'TT^- dav of June, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred 
 |^S5t.Al^. ^ jjj^-j thirty-two, John Hewson, of the said district, hath 
 «^^2^S» deposited in this office the title of a book, the title of 
 ■wtiich is in the words following, to wit: 
 
 " Chriat Rejected: or the trial of the eleven disciples of Christ, in 
 a court of law and equity, as charged with stealing the crucified body 
 of Christ out of the Sepulchre. Humbly dedicated to the whole 
 nation of the Jews, which are scattered abroad on the face of the 
 earth; and to the Deists of modern times. Designed, also, as a help 
 to wavering Christians. An Original work. Written by a believer 
 in Christ, under the assumed name of Captain Onesimus." 
 
 "I have also spoken by the Prophets, and I have multiplied 
 visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the Propheta.'" 
 Hosea xii, 10. 
 
 The right whereof he claims as proprietor, in conformity with an act 
 of Congress, entitled " An Act to amend the several Acts respecting 
 Copy-rights." 
 
 FRANCIS HOPKINSON, Clerk of the District. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author's apology for undulating the 
 €alni sea of the human mind, with the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection of Christ from the 
 dead, with the immortahty of the human 
 family, and their moral accountability to 
 Heaven for their words and actions in this 
 world, humbly addressed to the reader, whe- 
 ther he be a Christian, Jew or Deist. 
 
 The design of the writer, and the ostensi- 
 ble object which he has in view, in presenting 
 this Trial to the world, is to confirm the waver- 
 ing Christian, and both fairly and legally meet 
 the national prejudices of the Jews, against 
 Christ, and forcibly rebut by sound argument, 
 the philosophical objections of the human mind 
 against divine revelation, by having the whole 
 matter at issue between the parties, by mutual 
 consent, submitted to a Court of Law and 
 inquest, of what went with the body of 
 Christ, after it was crucified : it being, in the 
 view of the author, the cardinal point on 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 which the whole truth of the Gospel con- 
 verges. And also, to humbly persuade the 
 children of Israel, to calmly re-consider the 
 high claims of Jesus Christ to the lawful 
 Messiahship of the Jewish nation. 
 
 CAPTAIN ONESIMUS. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 IVesVs Picture of Christ Rejected, as exhibited in old Con- 
 gress Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, the capital of Penn- 
 sylvania, in the country of North America, April, 1830. 
 
 THE original idea of this v.ork is from Heaven, 
 and first presented itself to the author's mind, while he 
 
 Figure 1. — Captain Onesimus, viewing the Picture; and has a 
 vision from heaven. 
 
 Fig. 2.— Christ boMiul before Pilate. 
 
 Fig. 3. — The Governor on his judgment seat. 
 
 Fig. 4.— Caiaphas, the High I'riest of liie Jews, in the act of re- 
 jecting Christ. 
 
 Fig. 5. — Mount Csdvary and the three crosses, over which the sun 
 is veiled in darkness. 
 
 Fig. 6. — The heavens look arsgerly at the High Priest of the J'.nvs. 
 
 Fig. 7. — The vision containing these words: — *' Say ye, his disci- 
 ples came by night, and stole him away while we slept^*' from which 
 words» Captain Onesimus was moved by the Spirit of God, to write 
 this work, and prove to the world, that Christ is risen from the dead. 
 
 Figs. 8 and 9.— The trees of civil and religious liberty. 
 A 2 
 
'6 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 was standing in old Congress Hall, viewing West's 
 Picture of Christ Rejected; when there came a portion 
 of the divine afflatus from heaven, and presented the 
 plan of the following work to the author's view, and 
 immediately passed away. The whole time he was 
 viewing the Picture, did not exceed half an hour : ne- 
 vertheless, it returned to him at different times through 
 the same year ; and when he had light on the subject, 
 he wrote it down. So that the plan of the work was 
 from Heaven : but the language in which the vision is 
 clothed, is the author's own, as a free agent, in the col- 
 location of his words. So that, with Solomon, he sought 
 to find out the best words in his vernacular tongue to 
 clothe his ideas. 
 
 And it came to pass in process of time, by the over- 
 ruling providence of God, that Captain Onesimus ar- 
 rived in one of his master's ships of the line, in this 
 spiritual warfare, at the port of Philadelphia, when 
 he went on sliore, and undertook a pedestrious voyage : 
 and as he was ambulating the streets of that city, he 
 suddenly found himself carried by the pedestrious cur- 
 rent of its inhabitants, into Chesnut street : and, having 
 the walking breeze on his star-board quarter, a few 
 points free, and easing away his sheets, and squaring 
 his yards to the wind, when, under a press of sail, he 
 shoots his ship ahead, and soon arrived at an old edi- 
 fice, called Congress Hall : (this, Christian friends, is 
 the sacred place where our fathers raised the standard 
 and unfurled the first banner of true civil and religious 
 liberty, io our dark and oppressed world. And it was in 
 this hallowed Hall, that the Declaration of the Indepen- 
 dence of the Thirteen United States of North America, 
 was first announced to the human race, on the 4th ot 
 July, 177G,) when the Christian sailor seeing a vast num- 
 ber of the citizens of that city, gliding into the old Hall, 
 his marine curiosity drew him with the rushing current, 
 after them. 
 
 (The reader will benignly indulge the stenographer, to in- 
 form him, that it was in this hall, that the first germ (in the 
 full sense of the word,) of the unalienable rights of mankind 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 7 
 
 were planted, in our oppressed and long degraded world, 
 when " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and 
 good will toward men,'''' it took root, under the fostering agen- 
 cy of our father, Washington ; and being, at the same time, 
 benignly shielded by the God of Nations, in a congenial soil, 
 and, blessed be the name of the Lord, so that in a few years, 
 it grew up to man's estate ; and may heaven grant that this 
 plant of civil renown, may spread its healing branches, like 
 the oaks of Bashan, and rear its altitude above the cedars of 
 Lebanon, and drop its restoring fruit, like a benign catholicon, 
 over all the nations of the earth, till wars and oppression 
 shall cease.) 
 
 And it came to pass, that as the sailor stood in the 
 hall, musing in his mind for a few moments, on the 
 wonderful things that he saw, he very soon ascertained 
 that the ostensible object which drew the citizens to the 
 hall, was West's Picture of Christ Rejected. [And 
 while converging his marine vision, on that, of all 
 others the most interesting scenery, which to this day 
 has ever been presented to the physical and mental 
 vision of dying men,] Captain Onesimus paused for a 
 while, and a representation of this little work passed be- 
 fore his mind, as he stood viewing this very interesting 
 exhibition, which soon elevated his marine ideas to an 
 altitude of mental astonishment, at the pugnacity and 
 irascibility which existed in the Jews, with Caiaphas 
 their High Priest at their head, in their rejecting their 
 own legitimate and lawful Messiah. 
 
 After the vision had passed away, the Captain's 
 mind was so far illuminated that he clearlj' saw writ- 
 ten on the telegraph of the children of Israel's national 
 character, in letters of wo, the sins of their High Priest 
 exhibited before the eye of God and men, in a second 
 rejection of Christ; that is, after he arose from the 
 dead. 
 
 Now, this is the sin, which of all others doth so much 
 imbue the character of those unbelieving people with 
 the principles of the most deteriorating turpitude in the 
 sight of Heaven ; which brings on them the most con- 
 stuperating disease, and places them in the most de- 
 
O CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 grading condition ; and has spread itself as an awful 
 contagion through the whole of the Israelitish tribes, 
 which continues like an hereditary complaint, from 
 father to son, through all the tribes of Jacob, down to 
 the present time — so that this awful malady and foul 
 leprosy, has spread its insidious influence on all the 
 juvenile branches of the unbelieving family: namely, 
 the Deists and Atheists of modern times. 
 
 When the sailor left the old Congress Hall, and was 
 again ambulating the streets of the city, he found his 
 mind to be povv^erfully at work, pre-excogitating a plan 
 so as to have this strange, and at the same time most 
 unreasonable and absurd report, that from the begin- 
 ning of the world to this day, had ever been presented 
 to the audibility of intelligent and rational beings, to 
 w^it : that the disciples of Christ, who were at that time 
 only eleven in number, should be able to overpower a 
 strong Roman guard, with some deadly influence, and 
 then steal the crucified body of Christ out of the sepul- 
 chre. When the Captain in a soliloquy, solemnly be- 
 gan to excogitate — Can it be possible, that rational and 
 intelligent beings, such as the nation of the Jews ap- 
 pear to be, when you have any thing to do Vvith them 
 about the value of the gold of Ophir, or commerce of 
 any kind, they betray no lack of legal knowledge. 
 But yet they continue to this day to reject the claims 
 of Jesus Christ as their promised Messiah, on such an 
 illegal and sleepy tale: And that our wise scientific 
 gentlemen of the Deistical school, are such a set of 
 blinded beings as to follow the pusillanimous and credu- 
 lous Jews, in their deteriorating wake, (which, like 
 the antediluvian world, is every day growing worse,) 
 and deleterious course, to the sea of eternal w'o. So 
 that both the Jews and Deists of our modern times, are 
 found committing suicide on their rational powers, and 
 foolishly fighting against the mercy and benevolence 
 of God, in redeeming a sinful world, by the death and 
 atonement of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Captain continues his soliloquy or mental para- 
 ble, and said to himself, It is nothing but sheer justice 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 9 
 
 to the character, honour, and declarative glory of God, 
 and the immortal interest of all mankind, that this 
 stealing business should be thrown into some court, 
 having plenary powers within its legal purlieu^ {that 
 is full authonty within its legal circle,) and before a 
 competent tribunal, possessing sufficient judicial wisdom 
 and knowledge, so as fully to try this long undecided 
 cause, and disputed point loith the Jews, and finally put 
 to rest this sleepy tale, of the eleven disciples stealing 
 the body of a crucified man, from under the iron grasp 
 of the martial law, and strict discipline of the Roman 
 array. The Captain said to himself, such a sleepy tale 
 may answer well enough for the nation of the Jews and 
 wise Deistical philosophers; but it will in no wise be 
 satisfactory to the mind of Onesimus, the Christian 
 sailor: when by this time he arrived at the wharf, 
 nearly opposite to where his gospel ship of the line, lay 
 at anchor, and made a signal for the barge to take hiin 
 on board. April 10, 1830. 
 
 Figure 1.— The city of Philadelphia. 
 
 Fig. 2. — Captain (Jnesimus leaving the city and going on ship 
 board, to write Christ Rejected by the Jews, and Ueists of modern 
 times; and the trial of the eleven disciples, as charged with robbing 
 the sepulchre of the erucified body of Qbrist, 
 
 Fig-. 3— Gospel ship ot tti^ M^ 
 
10 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 The folloiDing plate is designed to represent the Jewish nation, 
 after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, as loos- 
 ing its national visibility ; and under a dark and mysteri- 
 ous dispensation of the Providence of God, retiring from 
 among the nations of the earth. Under the figure andper- 
 sonification of Balaam, the prophet retiring from the office 
 of premiership in the cabinet of infidelity. 
 
 The Jewish Nation's first Letter to the Deists. 
 My liege, sovereign and venerable Father — May you 
 ever live and sway a regal sceptre over all the worlds 
 of nature, in the golden age of reason and philosophy. 
 The which, great sire, your old prophet and premier sees 
 through his new telescope, (of carnal wisdom,) by the 
 light he receives from that new orb of refulgent glory. 
 
 Figure 1. — 13alaam returns from the grand court of infidelity, to 
 Aram; then goes up, on one of the high mountains in the east, and 
 offers up his burnt sacrifice to the new philosophical gods in the 
 age of reason. 
 
 Fig. 2 — Balaam on his observator}'', viewing through his telescope 
 the marvellous things in the heavens of the age of reason. 
 
 Fig. 3. — The farm-house in which he goes, after he comes down 
 from the mountain, and writes the following letter to his younger 
 brother the Deist; whom he addresses as the sovereign prince of 
 Infidelity. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 1 1 
 
 that shall appear in your philanthropic heavens, which 
 at times enables your old prophet by the powerful 
 afflatus of your gods, to see distinctly your rising 
 glory : which leads me calmly, and at the same time 
 prudently to look ahead, and wisely forecast, from the 
 marvelous signs which I see in that brilliant Phospho- 
 rus which shall arise, sire, on your kingdom, with all 
 its majestic grandeur, in those glorious times, so long 
 (by some of your faithful servants the philosophers,) 
 foretold, that you will experience, mighty prince, as 
 you descend the longitude of time, and observe the 
 evolutions of states, kingdoms, and empires, all gliding 
 away into oblivion, as they obreptitiously depart from 
 the shore of mundane glory, under a nebulous that 
 always spreads itself over the cymmerian valley of death, 
 and bidding adieu to all transactions under the sun, and 
 are lost in the blue sea of annihilation. But, sire, in- 
 dulge me to inform you, that I experience at this mo- 
 ment an indescribable degree of mental pleasure, in 
 being authorized by your new gods to communicate to 
 your Highness, that the most plenary felicity will over- 
 take your peaceful reign, so that the blessings thereof 
 shall, like pregnant clouds, rise out of the sea of human 
 reason, guided by the helm of Science, under the polar 
 star of philosophy, and by the agency of your new 
 gods, stretch themselves athwart your kingdom, and 
 like a canopy over the horizon of your vast empire. 
 After which, this new orb will burst forth with a ra- 
 diance of mental light, and pour down such refulgent 
 coruscations of philosophical wisdom and knowledge, 
 on the minds and understandings of your liege subjects, 
 followed by the perennial streams of mundane felicity. 
 So that your subjects may then sing that elegant 
 stanza, that some of your old poets have versified : " let 
 us eat and drink, for to-morrow w^e die." But espe- 
 cially, great prince, on those privileged orders which 
 constitute the partrician grades of your kingdom ; so 
 that I can irrform your benign highness, that those per- 
 ennial blessings will be most felicitously associated with 
 the pure fire on the civic altar, which are before the new 
 
12 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 gods. Now this favour will be conveyed by the hand of 
 the obedient and condescending goddess, who will gently 
 place the civic fire on the hearts and tongues of all your 
 liege subjects; the which, royal prince, will operate like 
 the magic power of the electric fluid, so that it will soon 
 communicate the most pure philanthropy and unabat- 
 ing zeal in all the benevolent minds of your liege sub- 
 jects, with the love of all mankind, to an acme, which, 
 sire, will sooner or later overflow the purlieu, and wash 
 away the line of demarcation that many a weening 
 and sanctified moralist, has, from time to time, placed 
 round the plenary fountains of the tangible happiness 
 of your subjects. 
 
 But, sire, when these golden days shall have arrived, 
 your princely vision shall behold the glowing fervour 
 of their new love, issuing forth like refreshing streams 
 in a dry and thirsty land. So, sire, shall these new 
 fountains and meandrous streams of philanthropic zeal 
 and philosophical love, fertilize the land^ and bless the 
 subjects of your empire with such new and burning 
 light, that it will very soon advance the mental energies 
 of the human mind, that has been too long, ere this day, 
 bound down by the iron bars of that slavish supersti- 
 tion, called divine worship. Yes, may it please your 
 august majesty, these glorious mental energies, that 
 before this were unknown to mankind, which your 
 felicitous subjects shall then experience, shall give them 
 herculean powers of mind, when your liege and en- 
 lightened subjects shall march forth under the unfurled 
 and flowing banners of human reason, armed with the 
 new panoply of the inexpugnable doctrine of the philoso- 
 phy of the age of reason ; which will soon cause the 
 final emancipation of all men, from the galling yoke 
 and servile bondage of what, sire, is called revealed 
 religion, which has laid its taxes so onerously on the 
 innocent congress of our passions, with every desirable 
 object that comes within the purlieu of the tangibility 
 of our felicitous nature. 
 
 May it please your benign highness, to graciously 
 indulge your premier and now humble servant, to ap- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 13 
 
 proach the lowest step of your throne, over which I see, 
 through the telescope of your new doctrine of reason 
 and philosophy f a bright cloud, indicative of all the 
 most excellent qualities of philanthropy and benignity, 
 which, sire, so richly forms the elements of your 
 princely mind. 
 
 And may your royal patience indulge your very 
 faithful, but now denuded [that is, to divest or strip 
 himself of all merit and excellency in the presence of 
 his sovereign, which by the indulgence of the reader, 
 permit the stenographer to add, is the imperious duty 
 of every dying sinner, in the sight and presence of Al- 
 mighty God :] servant, humbly to present this epistle at 
 the feet of my legitimate sovereign ; in the which, great 
 sire, I wish to ease my labouring mind, and humbly, 
 through the medium of my pen, to convey before your 
 royal mind, my unfeigned acknowledgments for past, 
 but at the same time unmerited favours: and be pleased 
 to accept, royal prince, the most profound homage of 
 my highest consideration, for the manifold benefits that 
 from time to time, under your providence, during my 
 very long but eventful life, of which I have been the 
 unmerited recipient. And now, may it please your 
 benign highness, to graciously accept the most un- 
 feigned and devout prayer of his old prophet, (the 
 Jewish nation,) for the safety and felicity of your royal 
 person ; the which shall be always most ardently asso- 
 ciated with my sincere desires and best wishes for your 
 public prosperity. And when I call into grateful re- 
 membrance, sire, that as your old prophet and national 
 premier, it was my daily duty to offer up those burnt 
 sacrifices, that your multiform gods had commanded, 
 on all the public acts, and other special emergencies 
 and great enterprises, of my sovereign's heretofore pros- 
 perous reign. You will, no doubt remember, sire, that 
 in consequence of my prophetic calling, with the func- 
 tions that are involved in a prophetic office, it became 
 my imperious duty to intercede with the gods, that 
 their special favour and over-ruling providence, might 
 foster and bless all your wise and prudent schemes, and 
 
 B 
 
14 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 laudable enterprises. But, I experience, sire, that the 
 insidious inroads of time, have passed over my head, 
 and the once glory of my meridian climax of past 
 years, is obreptitiously gliding off the northern declivity 
 of life ; so that I now begin to experience, that the oner- 
 ous duties and anxious cares of public business, is more 
 than the daily depreciating energies of my mental and 
 physical faculties will be able any longer to sustain, 
 with due fidelity to the interest of your administration ; 
 and with personal honour to my own character, these 
 few considerations lead me, as in a mirror, to observe 
 a conscientious regard to your interest ; and my own 
 credit also, leads me to see it to be my imperious duty, 
 to obediently and humbly resign into the hand of the 
 benign donor, my premiership, in order to retire from 
 the anxious cares of public life ; and go to my hermi- 
 tage, at Aram, on the mountains in the east, in the land 
 of Pithor, in order, that my bones may rest in the se- 
 pulchre of my forefathers. 
 
 A note by the Stenographerr 
 
 [This part of the allegory is intended to set forth the Jew 
 ish nation and priesthood, under a strange and mysterious dis' 
 pensation of the wisdom and Providence of Almighty God, 
 as passing under a nebulous dispensation; so that in their 
 political character, they have entirely disappeared from the 
 nations of the earth. And, as the old prophet, in his resign- 
 ing his public office to his master, with a view that his lord 
 may induct into the office (which it was his ardent desire to 
 vacate,) a more efficient person to take his place ; this fea- 
 ture of the metaphor, is designed to place before the reader's 
 mind, the overruling wisdom and knowledge of the Most 
 High ; so that by a concatenation of his Almighty power and 
 providence, over which the Jewish nation had no pliysical 
 controul, to withdraw its visibility, as the outward church of 
 God in this world, in order that the church of Christ, chiefly 
 built up of Gentile converts, might take its place. This is 
 conveyed in the idea which Balaam places before his sover- 
 eign's mind, that a younger person of more wisdom, know« 
 ledge and talents, may succeed him in office.] 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 15 
 
 August and great prince ! — As I have before said in 
 this letter, that the insidious ravages of time imperi- 
 ously admonish me that I cannot much longer sustain 
 the official duties and anxious cares, which daily involve 
 with public life; therefore, the profound wisdom and 
 knowledge of my royal master, of men and things, will 
 no doubt clearly see, with your humble and obedient 
 servant, that it is my imperious duty, from a sense of 
 honour to myself, as a public officer, as well as that of 
 a conscientious fidelity and regard which I experience 
 within the purlieu of my mind, for your national pros- 
 perity, to humbly and quietly w^ithdraw^ from public 
 "^life ; in order, sire, to give place to some one of your 
 majesty's liege subjects to fill the vacany,and discharge 
 the onerous duties incumbent on the two highest offices 
 in the purlieu of your cabinet. And, as I have already 
 said, that I experience an ardent desire to rest my 
 ashes in the urn of my fathers. 
 
 And now, august prince, indulge me to remark, in 
 the spirit of unfeigned sincerity, that if at any time 
 during your antecedent reign, my agency has, through 
 my official functions as a premier and prophet, under 
 your administration, or that my public services have 
 in the least degree, been either subservient, or instru- 
 mental in the enlargement, interest, prosperity and de- 
 clarative glory of your kingdom, a sense of the same, 
 will, I humbly trust, greatly enlarge my almost over- 
 flowing exchequer of gratitude, when I shall arrive at my 
 lonely cottage in the vineyard at Aram, on the moun- 
 tains of the east, in the land of Pithor : so that when 
 there, I trust a lively sense of those honours your pro- 
 vidence favoured me with, shall, sire, be as daily in- 
 cense rising from off the altar of my grateful heart : that 
 when I approach the ancient altars of my fathers, I 
 shall there offer up my best wishes, devout supplication 
 and fervent intercessions, for the future enlargement, 
 interest, and increasing glory of your kingdom. But, 
 I shall carry, sire, these grateful reflections along with 
 me to my lonely cottage in the east country, as a rich 
 harvest to feast my mental faculties on in my declining 
 
16 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 years ; that when the evening of life shall locate its 
 sombre shades on my earthly tabernacle, as I dwell in 
 my lonely abode; so that when, on some auspicious 
 summer's eve, as I sit in my old auguring chair, in the 
 hall of my hermitage, and the evening zephyrs in some 
 measure relieve me from the lassitude, brought on my 
 old tabernacle by the oppressive heat of a long sum- 
 mer's day ; or sire, when, during the solstice, in the long 
 evenings, a venerable sage from some neighbouring 
 vineyard, should pay me a friendly and social visit — it 
 will feast my mind to a degree of satiety, when in some 
 desultorious vocabulary, I shall be led to give a sud- 
 den turn to the colloquial entertainment. 
 
 I shall, illustrious prince, place before my neighbour's 
 mind, a thousand incidents of the marvellous things 
 which took place during that period of your reign, 
 under which I had the unmerited honour to fill the 
 office of prophet and premier ; to tell over to my listen- 
 ing friend, from a neighbouring cottage, the plenary 
 goodness that my lord bestowed on me, in return for 
 my limited talents and circumscribed capabilities ! 
 
 Yes, sire, while my pen is recording these predomi- 
 nating hieroglyphics of a social entertainment with a 
 neighbouring sage, when those soul-reviving views and 
 grateful reflections, I trust, under the most sensible af- 
 flatus from the new heavens, in which dwells your new 
 gods of human reason and philosophy ! Yes, great and 
 illustrious prince, these shall be the unfeigned reflec- 
 tions of my mind, whenever I take a humble view of 
 my plebeian birth, and an excursive survey of my low-, 
 breeding in the land of my fore fathers, among the pots ; 
 or treading out the clay, to mould the bricks that built 
 the pyramids of ancient Egypt. But these things your 
 highness well knows, without my dictatorship, in as- 
 suming the office of a prompter, to inform the wisdom 
 and good sense of your royal honour. 
 
 But, illustrious prince, I experience the want of 
 richer ideas, and a more copious language than that 
 which my vernacular tongue and poor mundane cate- 
 gories aftbrd me, in this nebulous dispensation, so as to 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 17 
 
 relieve the undulating labour, and safely deliver the 
 struggling fetus in my mind; in order to make a plen- 
 ary expose of this cardinal point of your benign conde- 
 scension, towards your old liege subject ; and indulge 
 your denuded servant to state, that often times such a 
 deep, and almost overwhelming sense of your past 
 favours, like fear and shame, in some delicate physical 
 cases, throws back my labouring mind into the elemen- 
 tary purlieu of a nascent state; so that the struggling 
 fetus stands in need of the supramundane power and 
 wisdom of some of your new philosophical gods, to come 
 and relieve the burden of my labouring mind, by be- 
 nignly bestowing some angelic vocabulary, or the lan- 
 guage which the gods make use of, in reciprocating 
 their ideas to each other. And, illustrious prince, (of 
 modern infidelity,) when I take an excursive survey of 
 the philanthrophy and grace of your philosophical gods 
 towards me, that they should have enabled me, in any 
 tolerable degree, to have sustained the outward dignity 
 of the various functions of the highly responsible offices, 
 as your chief premier, or prime minister of state, and 
 priest and prophet of your national mythology, causes 
 me to bow at the sacred altar of your gods, with the 
 most profound reverence. 
 
 And I now shall ascribe the whole of your favour 
 and kindness towards me, to be an act of your sover- 
 eign pleasure and free volition of your benign mind ; 
 and thereby, the royal indulgence of my sovereign lord 
 and master, will your very devoted and unworthy ser- 
 vant, most profoundly, and reverently leave it with you 
 forever. Amen, 
 
 Accept, royal prince, the most profound homage of 
 my highest consideration, for your personal 
 felicity and princely glory. Signed at my cot- 
 tage, in the vineyard, at Aram, on one of the 
 mountains of the east, in the land of Pithor. 
 
 BALAAM. 
 
 To faa excellency Doctor Deist, President of the coUege of the age of reason, 
 ■where modem Plulosophy, Infidelity and the plenary science ofunbeUef, 
 are all gratuitously taught, 
 
 December 31, 1831. 
 
 b2 
 
18 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED, 
 
 The Jetvish nation's second letter to the Deists of modern 
 Christendom: after a silence of eighteen hundred years. 
 
 This letter sets forth the Jewish nation, after waiting for the 
 camiig of their promised Messiah, as becoming uneasy at his- 
 I'fHg delay ; and in the language of their old prophet Isaiah, 
 asking the watchman What of the night? or,What is the latent 
 cause of this long dispensation of darkness over our nation? 
 which is set forth in this letter, under the metaphor or per- 
 sonification of Balaam the prophet, in consequence of the 
 ravages of time making some serious inroads on his constitu- 
 tion — to become a little alarmed at the prospect of death ; 
 
 V:g-iire 1 . The Jewish prophet Isaiah, on one of the higli moun- 
 tains in tlie land of Israel, looking for the dawning of the day of 
 their national prosperity, when, the Jewish nation shall suddenly 
 em'vge from under the sombre clouds of national disgrace. 
 
 Fig. 2. Balaam the prophet, who is on his watch-tower, asking 
 Isaiah the prophet, as the watchman of Israel, What of the night ? or, 
 What i^ tlie cause of this long dispensation of darkness, being loca- 
 ted over them as a nation ? When the prophet informs him, that the 
 morning star of immortality is just above the horizon, and it will soon 
 be break of day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 19 
 
 which finally leads Balaam to open and renew his epistolary 
 correspondence with his old friend the Deist. And after a 
 polite apology for not writing for eighteen hundred years, 
 the old prophet Balaam expatiates on the present condition 
 of mankind, and the immortaUty of the soul. 
 
 Dear Kinsman, 
 
 " No doubt you have thought it 
 very strange at my not sending you a few lines, ere this 
 long lapse of time ; but I shall heavily tax my friend's 
 patience, and pray him not to suffer the calm sea of 
 his philosophical mind to become undulated by the 
 blasts of impatience, so as to lead him to impugn the 
 motives of my delinquency, as rising out of the least 
 depreciation of my cordial adhesion to your new doc- 
 trines of modern philosophy ; nor any cooling of my 
 warm attachment to your person, nor the slightest di- 
 minution of my high esteem for your friendship, and 
 due respect and profound veneration for your charac- 
 ter. But suffer me once more to levy on your patience, 
 with a short history of the cause ; while I inform you, 
 that the latent cause of my neglect, in not keeping up 
 a regular interchange of ideas, through the medium of 
 epistolary correspondence with my highly esteemed 
 friend, arises out of a cause that for many years, was not 
 under my controul : that is, a severe indisposition, 
 which has of late years so entirely disqualified my mind 
 from inditing, and in a great measure embargoed my 
 hand (that once held the pen of a ready writer,) from 
 writing. But, having experienced a wish to renew 
 with my much esteemed friend, our former familiar 
 correspondence, and now having fairly stated the 
 cause that has produced my delinquency, it would 
 therefore be extremely superfluous, and almost presump- 
 tion on my part, any longer to embargo your philo- 
 sophical wisdom with a lengthy apology, for my not 
 corresponding with you for eighteeen hundred years ; 
 as I gratuitously presume that your wisdom and good 
 sense, in taking ari oblique view of the physical and 
 mental causes of my apparent aberration from re- 
 
20 CHRIST REJEC?TED. 
 
 ciprocal friendship, will lead you to make a much bet- 
 ter extenuation for my not writing till this late hour 
 in the day, or rather years of my life, than I can make 
 for myself with ink and pen. 
 
 " And now my dear kinsman, I must enter on the 
 nebulous and painful subject I have in view ; and in 
 confidence communicate to you, that as 1 draw near 
 the end of the voyage of my earthly existence, when 
 at times I see the dark and pregnant clouds of adver- 
 sity, as they stretch themselves over all the dreary 
 mountains, that are seen along the iron-bound coast of 
 death ; which admonishes me, that my days in this 
 mundane dispensation Vvill shortly come to an end. 
 
 "And indulge me to inform you, that during the many 
 years that I have withdrawn from public life, {that is, 
 the church of the Jews, which han lost its visihility in this 
 world,) that often times, the nebulous clouds have, for 
 years together, located themselves over the lofty moun- 
 tains in the east, or wherever the winds of time have 
 driven me; when at sea or on land, the pitiless storms 
 have come down on my tent; so that of late years, in con- 
 sequence of my exposure to heat and cold, wet and dry, 
 my earthly tabernacle has been for many years deter- 
 iorating, and the ratiocinating faculties have become 
 so vulnerable, that I cannot any longer hold a strong 
 argument on the abstruse points of the doctrines in your 
 new Philosophy, with that acumen I once could do, 
 when I served as the chief counsellor in your cabinet : 
 so that there is a general decay of all the radical facul- 
 ties of body and mind. I have for near eighteen hun- 
 dred years, given up my old study of Theology, of Law 
 and Government ; and time has brought a state of lassi- 
 tude on my mental powers, which has lowered its acme, 
 down to the yellow and pale elements of silver and gold, 
 and the jewels of the east ; and, indeed, almost every 
 article of commerce in this world. In these things, 
 myself and the whole of my nation that, with me, are 
 scattered abroad throughout all the nations of the 
 earth, have been our chief study ; ever keeping in mind 
 
CHRIST REJECTEU, 21 
 
 the old adage : that the Goldfinch in the hand, is worth 
 two of those speculative birds, in an extra mundane 
 bush or dispensation, (that is, the souPs interest in 
 another wWd.) 
 
 " But, kinsman, my exposure to so many conflicting 
 elements, has brought on me at times, chilling agues, 
 burning fevers, with a variety of rheumatic and other 
 pains ; so that whenever labouring under any of these 
 maladies, in long winter nights, when the balmy god- 
 dess of sleep spreads her treacherous wings, and leaves 
 me to turn from side to side on my restless bed ; par- 
 ticularly after I have come out of one of the paroxysms 
 of a high fever, which has often been the case during 
 my late indisposition. It was my friend, at these seas- 
 ons, that the soul-distressing idea of our immortality, 
 as it ivere, almost involuntarily introduced itself, so 
 very unceremoniously, into the drawing room of my weak 
 and fevered mind ; and then onerously leading me, so 
 very contrary to the natural volition of my will, to 
 think of death and take an oblique glance at the moral 
 accountability of the children of men, to the great land- 
 lord aloft, for our words and actions in this world. 
 Methink I hear my philosophical kinsman say, these are 
 nothing but physical weaknesses ; and you should have 
 taken a few drops of my catholicon of philosophical 
 materialism, and it would have eased your distress al- 
 most instantaneously. 
 
 "But ray dear philosophical brother of the new school, 
 I have long since made it my undeviating practice, 
 whenever I go to sea, or take a journey by land, to 
 have a sufficient quantity of your philosophical panacea 
 put up in my medicine chest ; and whenever any pains 
 attack me, it is the first thing I have recourse to : but 
 I have taken it so often, that of late years it produces 
 only a transcient effect. It is true, I have in former 
 days experienced great relief from your modern 
 panacea ; but on account of my frequent use of it, my 
 system has become, like those who are in the continual 
 habit of drenching themselves with laudanum — so that 
 what formerly relieved the fever in a few moments, 
 
32 CHRIST RSJECTISD. 
 
 now produces but a mere momentary suspension of 
 my pains. 
 
 I have o[ late years bestowed, as I lie restless in my 
 birth, some analytical thoughts on the various, and I 
 was ready to say, (if I thought my philosophical kins- 
 man would not view it as irrelevant,) conflicting ele- 
 ments of which your 7iew catholocon is compounded : 
 that is, I find it must be kept warm and dry, or else it 
 possesses a natural predilection to decompose, into its 
 primitive elements ; especially in cloudy days and a 
 humid atmosphere. That is to drop my trope, it does 
 not appear to be congenial to a sick-bed,^ or the hours 
 of affliction. Therefore my analytical corollary is, 
 that yo\iY philosophical panacea is better suited for the 
 complaints of a drawing-room, where there is always a 
 dry atmosphere. 
 
 •' I well remember the felicitous effects of your new 
 medicine, for many years, when I was a member of 
 your court ; but pardon me for telling the truth — that 
 your philosophical panacea of materialism, is a poor 
 medicine in a sick room, or on a dying bed ! But still I 
 can assure my philosophical friend, that notwithstand- 
 ing your new medicine has not had its desired eftect 
 on my system, I still go on, to do all I can to divest my 
 mind of the gloomy ideas and distressing images, about 
 a something that lies beyond the verge of this mundane 
 dispensation, (that is, a future state,) which awaits us 
 poor mortals, when, my honest friend, we shall slip the 
 cable of life, and pass the straits of death, into the blue 
 sea of eternity. 
 
 "I shall now take it as gratuitously granted, on the 
 part of my friend, from my long and familiar acquain- 
 tance with the elementary habits of your mind, even 
 from your infant days, when I first discovered those 
 precocious signs of the altitude of that wisdom and 
 philosophical knowledge, which the meridian of our 
 day has made manifest. 
 
 [* Reader^ whoever thou art, beware of a sick-bed re 
 pentance.ll 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 23 
 
 "And still following my old profession of a prophet, 1 
 shall augur that what I am about to ask, will be con- 
 ceded to on your part ; that is, to wit : that your good 
 sense will not be offended at my entire departure from 
 the flattering style and etiquette of courts ; but, that 
 your candour will indulge me, while I shall continue 
 to correspond on this most unwelcome subject, (that is 
 to us) of the soul's immortality — you will indulge me 
 to write with freedom ; and I shall then be at full lib- 
 erty to communicate all my ideas to you, in a confiden- 
 tial and familiar manner. Yes, my philosophical friend, 
 I experience the fullest affiance, that your good sense 
 will not only grant me this indulgence, but that your 
 wisdom will rather approve, than censure the course, 
 I have thus marked out as a polar star, to steer the 
 pen of my future ideas, while on the unpleasing subject 
 of the soul's immortality, with our moral accountability 
 to the great ones aloft. 
 
 " I now having obtained, 1 presume, your philanthro- 
 pic indulgence, to communicate my views on this very 
 unfashionable, but nevertheless, serious topic, by laying 
 aside all that altitude of court distinction, which the 
 axioms of courts, and all the nations of the earth, have 
 established, between the subject and his prince, from 
 time almost immemorial, shall, by mutual consent, be 
 dispensed with. And now, my dear friend, having 
 made all the apologies I conceive to be necessary, or 
 that appear becoming on the solemn catastrophe that 
 takes place in the article of death ; and at the same 
 time, I am well aware, that it is a subject that neither 
 kings, princes nor courts, are over-anxious to hear, nor 
 in the words of any language, to dwell long on this 
 alarming subject. And now my philosophical friend, 
 having taken my departure from a postulatory light- 
 house, (that is any argument or position without irre- 
 fragable proof,) I shall proceed to steer my ship, and 
 navigate my pen, over the undulating sea of the sup- 
 posed doctrine of immortality — by communicating my 
 views in the most apt and congruous language, and fa- 
 miliar ideas, that I have with my limited powers of rea- 
 
24 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 son and argument, the command of; while my gloomy 
 fancy shall be led to take an excursive survey of this 
 dolorous subject. 
 
 "Dear kinsman, of the deistical school, having with 
 my entering wedge, endeavoured to open the massy 
 doors of your philosophical reflection, on this subject, 
 whether true or false, it should not deter us from a calm 
 and candid investigation of the distressing idea, which 
 immortality, and our personal accountability to holy 
 ones, brings with it ; to the which, I experience a most 
 anxious desire to invite your sublime attention ; which 
 I shall first do, by placing before your view, a little in- 
 cident of my own experience, during my late distress ; 
 and the storms through which I have passed, to wit : 
 During some of the long winter nights, in my old age, 
 as I lie in my weather-beaten barque, off the dreary 
 coast of death, I dreamed that the Idng of terror sent 
 one of his piratical ships, under a heavy press of sail, 
 driven by the furious blasts from the dark clouds of ad- 
 versity, which were accompanied with the red light- 
 ning, and rumbling thunder's dismal roar, sent forth 
 from the fiery magazine of sin and death, with his 
 crimson flag flying at his royal mast head, and the 
 crew of the ship with their boarding pikes in their 
 hands, ready to board us, as soon as the treacherous 
 blast and the insidious waves of time, shall heave the 
 piratical ship with her savage crew on board, along- 
 side ; and then throw their cold grappling-irons on 
 board our poor barque of life. 
 
 " The foregoing picture of old age, with death in view, 
 said to be a dream, 1 can assure my philosophical friend, 
 is almost a fac similie of my own experience, in some 
 of the late storms through which I have passed. And 
 I can most confidently assure you, that the dream is 
 only used as a figure or metaphor, to bring to your 
 view, precisely my own case. 
 
 " Dear friend, of the deistical school, after looking 
 through the old fashioned telescope of common sense, 
 at the gloomy telegraph, which presents to our view 
 the dark and distressing condition of the human race — 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 25 
 
 in old age, I am rather led to this conclusion, that with 
 all the fine things you tell us, in your doctrines of modern 
 philosophy, and the wonderful cases of convalescence 
 which your new Panacea has effected, yet, I perceive, 
 they all deteriorate to the dust — confirming an im- 
 perious categorical dogma, of an old historical writer, 
 '* dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." 
 
 Now, dear brother, of the new philosophical school, 
 when your plenary wisdom and knowledge can com- 
 pound a healing Panacea, that can cure this universal 
 hydrophobia, called death — for the which rabid disease, 
 our surviving friends have to smother us all under a 
 bed of earth ; so that I am almost ready to say of your 
 new Catholicon, which you say is a mere compound of 
 human reason and philosophy, is too much like a " sound- 
 ing brass or tinkling cymbal;" and that the whole of the 
 human family still deteriorates till it gets into the grave, 
 in consequence of this disease : Yes ! the same as they 
 did before your schools of modern philosophy discover- 
 ed this wonderful, this universal restorative. So that, 
 my philosophical friend, your healing Panacea moun- 
 tain, has not to my knowledge, given a solitary blessing 
 to our mundane condition, in removing this rabid dis- 
 ease or hydrophobiacal distress from us, as large as a 
 dormouse. This injudicious manner of arguing on the 
 subject, you are ready to say, I do not much admire ; 
 because it simplifies the wonderful arcanum of the 
 philosophy of the human mind, almost to the low alti- 
 tude of the elements of common sense : it being the 
 elementary sea, where the great herd of plebeians swim; 
 so that I view your manner or mode of argument, ob- 
 jectionable, or at least I cannot admit its relevancy, on 
 the ground, that it is too highly seasoned with vulgar 
 ideas. 
 
 Well, dear kinsman, be that as it may, about my low 
 thoughts and plebeian ideas, one thing perhaps with me 
 you will admit : that our new philosophical gods treat 
 us, at least very unfeelingly ; and of late, while I was 
 passing under much distress, both of body and mind, I 
 was almost ready to say at times, very unceremoniously. 
 
 c 
 
35 CIIIUST REJECTED. 
 
 I think I hear you say, stop your gloomy reflections ; 
 they no doubt arise out of the acme of your fevered 
 mind; as the rabid disease plays on the sensorium 
 where all our thoughts and ideas are said to take their 
 rise. Granted — and be that as it may, I ask my philo- 
 sophical friend, if that alters the case one ioto ? for 
 whether we argue upon the subject and consequence 
 of death, in the verbose language of a philosopher, or 
 the nouns, pronouns, verbs and articles of a plebeian, 
 yet the evil and rabid malady remains ; so that all the 
 philosophical drapery of words and ideas, do not re- 
 move the hydrophobia from us. Then I shall presume 
 that my ground or position is tenable, so that I have a 
 right to onerously charge our philosophical gods, as 
 dealing hard with us ; and after we have spent, what 
 we call a long and eventful life, oftentimes almost over- 
 charged with anxiety of mind, associated with the most 
 assidious exercise of all our physical and mental ener- 
 gies. Therefore, when I seriously reflect on the hard 
 condition of mankind, which I have done during the 
 gales and other tempestuous weather that I have passed 
 through in the decline of life ; and especially in the long 
 winter nights of old age, when my chronick pains pre- 
 vented me from sleeping, I have been for hours togeth- 
 er thinking of the nature and character of our new 
 philosophical gods ; or, if your enlightened mind does 
 not admire my using the word god, then I would say, 
 my philosophical friend and brother, by whatsoever 
 name we call the grand agency, that propels and rules 
 the great and sublime works, and wonderful machinery 
 aloft, and at the same time, all the lesser, but marvel- 
 lous apparatus of nature below. 
 
 Now, brother, whether it is (as one old Moses says) 
 a wise and intelligent agent above, or what you call the 
 eternal laws of inert matter, that gives such regular 
 and consecutive movements to suns, moons, stars, and 
 to the seasons of the year, as well as to ten thousand 
 times ten thousand other beings, of which we are igno- 
 rant of, both in the physical and metaphysical laws of 
 nature; notwithstanding the transient appearance to 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 27 
 
 US, at times, of an anomalous departure and small ab- 
 erration from the fixed and general laws, that we see 
 so clearly demonstrated in the larger bodies of matter : 
 For instance, suns and worlds without number, which 
 all appear to move on in regular order. But I must 
 candidly confess, with my philosophical friend, that in 
 the condition of man, both physically and morally, there 
 is a continual mutation, from the fetus in the elements 
 and purlieu of gestation, to the dark location beyond 
 the straits of death. Notwithstanding all the sanitary 
 measures of the deistical board of health, by the advice 
 of the Cymmerian physicians. Carnal Reason and Vain 
 Philosophy have adopted. So that under all these mul- 
 tiform exhibitions,"' which our present physical, mental 
 and moral condition places us in, before the serious re- 
 flections of a sane mind, it still remains a mystery. And, 
 my philosophical brother, however richly embellished 
 our minds may be, with all the flowing drapery of 
 science ; with the unfurled banners of our new philoso- 
 phy, there still hangs over the condition of mien, in this 
 earthly state of being, a Cymmerian canopy, the con- 
 stituent parts of which it is composed, remains, to us 
 mortals, an inexplicable mystery. 
 
 But, my dear kinsman, to resume our former idea, 
 whether it be volatile chance, blind fate, or, dear 
 brother, your more favorite position ; that is, the un- 
 conscious laws of inert matter, that rules and is at the 
 head of this vast administration of beings, of worlds 
 without number, I shall not at this time, nor in this 
 letter, undertake categorically to decide. Or whether, 
 my philosophical friend, there is an all-wise, righteous 
 and intelligent being, whose wisdom, knowledge, power 
 and divine providence, is at the head of the whole ad- 
 ministration, I have not been able with my whole 
 nation, for these last eighteen hundred years, to expe- 
 rience a full aflfiance of heart to make the declaration, 
 so as to decide the case at issue. But, my philosophi- 
 cal brother, be it whom, or what it may, that steers the 
 worlds and navigates the great ship of nature, we, my 
 philosophical brother, as poor, humble wretches, have tQ 
 
28 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 go below and be well battened, (that is, barred down 
 below, in the hole of the dungeon of death,) there to 
 smell the nauseous bilge-water, in the gloomy prison- 
 ship, forever. 
 
 So you see, my deistical kinsman, we dying wretches 
 have the dead-hill of reckoning to pay, as we go down 
 through the lonely and dreary channel, and dark and 
 wintery straits of death — we know not where : as a 
 captain of the Roman Empire exclaimed, when he ar- 
 rived off the coast of death, and the current of his fever 
 being so strong, that the united skill of all his attend- 
 ant physicians could not prevent his ship-of-life from 
 being carried into the blue sea, called eternity: — when 
 in his expiring moments, just as the glory of his earthly 
 dispensation was fast receding from his vision, after 
 wielding an earthly sceptre for a few years, over the 
 largest kingdom that has to this day come under the 
 knowledge of men ; namely : the Roman Empire, in his 
 sombre condition, he groaned out this dirge, or sung this 
 canticle on board his old crazy ship of life, just as he 
 passed the straits of death : 
 
 " Whither, ah ! whither art thou flying 1 
 
 To what dark undiscovered shore ? 
 Thou seemest all trembling, shivering, dying — 
 
 And wit and humour are no more." 
 
 But, I think T hear my philosophical friend ready to 
 say, my elder kinsman, the Jew, is going fast into an 
 insane state of mind in his old days, to think so much 
 about the soul's immortality ! Say to these nebulous 
 ideas, besrone ! and let the things of this mundane state 
 give you plenary satisfaction. 
 
 True, my young philosophical brother, I would w^ith 
 the fullest altitude of pleasure, flow into the wake of 
 your counsel, if it were not for some twitches in the 
 neighbourhood of my heart, and alarming fears in the 
 region of my conscience, which often keeps me awake 
 in my birth, as I lie tempest-tossed ^ on the undula- 
 tory sea of life, in my old days. But your philosophic 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 29 
 
 cal wisdom and good sense clearly sees, that all my 
 fears rise out of the sea of mere pre-nominating conjec- 
 ture, that are entirely predicated on a postulatory foun- 
 dation ; that is, a mere problematical position, without 
 irrefragable proof — arising out of a poor affected old 
 man's dernier hypothesis, that there may be some state 
 of existence and accountability beyond the verge of 
 time. But no more at present on this unfelicitous sub- 
 ject, as the sun of my life is but a few degrees above 
 the horizon of time ; and my old weather-beaten barque 
 is now labouring in a head-sea of old age, tempest-tos- 
 sed by the contrary winds of pain and other infirmities, 
 giving a cross and crazy action to my old ship-of-life — 
 the winds at the same time blowing from every point 
 of the compass, so that writing is exceedingly unpleas- 
 ant. But if this squall should pass over without found- 
 ering my crazy barque, and my physical and mental 
 faculties, should be so far convalescent as to justify my 
 handling the pen, I will write to you again my further 
 thoughts on the postulatum of the soul's immortality. 
 
 With sentiments of the highest esteem, permit me 
 to remain your old faithful friend, and near 
 kinsman, in the rejecting the doctrine of im- 
 mortality. 
 
 BALAAM. 
 
 To Ms sublime excellency Doctor Deist, President of the college of tlye. 
 glorious age of reason ; -where modem Philosophy, Infidelity and the 
 sublime doctrine of unbelief are all benignly and gratuitotisly taught. 
 
 January 31, 1832. 
 
30 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Tlie third letter to the Deist of modern Christendom. 
 In this letter is set forth, under the metaphor of Balaam, 
 the increasing uneasiness of the Jewish nation, at the delay 
 of their promised Messiah ; under the idea, that the pro- 
 phet experiences an increase of the infirmities of old age ; — 
 and in this letter to his deistical friend, the old Jew, he 
 obliquely glances at the person of Christ. 
 
 Dear Kinsman, 
 
 I have had, since writing last, to 
 encounter many a furious blast from the dark clouds 
 that hang over the coast ; and the frightful promonto- 
 ries which stretch themselves along the dreary shore of 
 
 Fig- 1. The Prophet Isaiah standing on one of the towers of mount 
 Zion, proclaiming- Christ unto the Jews, as their promised and law- 
 ful Messiah. 
 
 Fig". 2. The Jewish nation, under the idea of a prophet, on the 
 top of his castle, on the coast of adversity ; over which is spread the 
 heavy clouds of tlie displeasure of heaven, again asking- Isaiah the 
 prophet, AVhat of thenig-ht? or, wliat is the cause that this dark 
 cloud, so indicative of the frowning Providence of the God of Israel, 
 hangs so long over iiis people ? 
 
 No. 3, The ship arrives within a few leagues of the coast of death, 
 with Balaam on board, in great distress, as a figure of the Jewish 
 nation. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 31 
 
 death, have greatly dismantled my old barque, both in 
 her sails, spars and rigging ; so that, oftentimes, my old 
 ship is wallowing in the trough of the sea — and every 
 now and then shipping a considerable quantity of sea 
 water, (that is unbelief;) so that with the crazy action 
 of the ship, it has caused the nauseous water to wash 
 about the keelson and floor timbers of my heart ; (that 
 is, the trying dispensation of God's Providence towards 
 the Jews, made them very irascible, at passing, for 
 eighteen hundred years, under so many adverse dispen- 
 sations;) so that several times during the late storm, I 
 was very near led to adopt my kinsman's soul-sleeping 
 corollary, in order to refresh my alfactory nerves, as 
 an odoriferous nosegay, to keep me from fainting, in 
 consequence of the stench of the bilge-water that floats 
 about my heart. The flowers of this philosophical nose- 
 gay, are as follows : to wit; that the sons and daughters 
 of men, are in the aggregate, nothing more nor less than 
 beings of mere circumstances ; so that, when their 
 physical and mental faculties, which they possess in 
 this earthly dispensation, in common with other ani- 
 mals, are, in consequence of the deleterious ravages of 
 time, decomposed in the analytical operation of death. 
 I have been led, in some of my wakeful and tedious 
 hours, as I lie in my birth, on ship-board, looking at 
 the doctrine of your modern philosophy, and viewing 
 the figures on your new telegraph ; which say, that 
 there is such an analogous adhesion, in what your new 
 doctrine calls the eternal laws of matter, so that the 
 once amalgamated elements, which constituted the hy- 
 }X)statical nature of man, does, at his death, under the 
 general law of mutation, return to its original elements, 
 and is lost in what your new philosophy calls 1^'qy\o\jlI 
 nal reflux of all those elements, that once cor^^ ^^ ^ 
 the individuate, and, as I have just said, the hy^^ i _ 
 cal nature of man ; of which he is but a small , pj|J|Q_ 
 nant part ; so that all the elements and faculti| ^^^ 
 constituted him, will be forever lost— like a^ minds 
 water, when it shall have become amalgam n; „c th^ 
 the vast ocean. These thmcrs hav«^ ^ 
 
32 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 passing through my mind, as I lie sleepless in my birth, 
 during the late gale ; when I was led to this conclusion, 
 that man, obreptitiously glides away in the process or 
 article of death, and is lost forever, in the cardinal ele- 
 ments that once constituted his mundane existence. If 
 this be the case, my deistical kinsman, what a most 
 happy release from all our anxious cares we experience, 
 while sailing through the voyage of life. So that my 
 friend's good sense, under the guidance of philosophi- 
 cal wdsdom, clearly sees with me, that in that case 
 man will forever end all his turmoil on earth ; and as 
 a dernier remuneration for three or four score years' 
 labour and anxiety of mind. What a glorious boon, my 
 philosophical brother, shall this be, and most desirable 
 issue, to be presented with the soft pillow, filled with 
 the finest down of eternal sleep, to lie his weary 
 head upon, so as to take his last and long doze to wake 
 no more. Which, my brother, will be a fine feather in 
 our philosophical caps, far more glorious than the white 
 ostrich feather, that Alexander wore at the head of his 
 conquering legions ! 
 
 Yes, my kinsman, it is certainly a most noble and 
 manly idea, for us wise ones of the earth, to adopt ; and 
 of course, it will give us Jews and Philosophers, if 
 true, a decided pre-eminence over the cringing devo- 
 tees at the altar of revealed religion. 
 
 And w hile my mind experiences an excursive mood, 
 another category darted through my disordered brain, 
 which I heard about one Christ, a pedestrious theolo- 
 gian, when he w^as travelling through the land of Judea; 
 who at times, called himself the Son of the most high 
 God. It is true, I never got a view of his person, but 
 
 f 1 M s*s^^ "P ^ ^^^ ^^X^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Jerusalem, and 
 Fi^. 2. "IS a continual ingress and egress of the citizens 
 top of hisngers at that place of renown, and it being my 
 heavy cl( habit to travel in disguise, and appear like an old 
 cloud *^Ldn^^"> many of them held a desultorious conver- 
 hangs'soibout the man, whom some called a prophet; 
 No. 3, '^i i he was a deceis^er; and by his magic, held 
 m?o^*^**"" "- 'th the blackest and most constuperating 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 33 
 
 of the demons : and that he was spreading a spirit of ef- 
 fervescence among the people. These conflicting ideas, 
 which the citizens and strangers at Jerusalem enter- 
 tained of this pedestrious theologian, led me to pay 
 some attention to what was said about the man ; and 
 of course, some told the most strange and marvellous 
 things about him, that were ever before reported of 
 any being in human form. Others said, he was an art- 
 ful magician, and hath a demon, or what they called a 
 devil. But as I left the city shortly after, and have 
 not paid Jerusalem a visit for many years, the man 
 with his marvellous and magic arts, whether true or 
 false, as the case may be, passed from my mind; and this 
 person whom they called a prophet, or deceiver, accord- 
 ing to the views they entertained of his works, and 
 character. 
 
 So that all thoughts of his person have, for the last 
 eighteen hundred years, slipped my memory, until 
 the late storm ; when in some of my restless hours, the 
 image of the man and his marvellous works, when the 
 paroxysms of my fever had a little subsided, came fresh 
 into my mind ; but especially,' his calling himself " the 
 lion of the tribe of Juda ;" 'Which was followed by this 
 thought, that if that be true, and he should nod his 
 lion-like head, and shake his angry curls or majestic 
 mane at us and our new Panacea of modern philosophy, 
 with all the fine things we have in view, and our 
 fine goXvn of matei^alism, and wedding garments of 
 eternal sleep, it would, in our case, my young brother, 
 be a full illustration of the moral of the poor girl and 
 her spilt milk. 
 
 But, I hope we shall never have to experience the 
 realization of the milk maid's folly : so that at last, both 
 you and I, should from the stern law of imperious 
 necessity, be coerced to admit the relevancy, in a 
 moral and religious point of view, of the poor ple- 
 beian young lady's disappointment: and Jews and Philo- 
 sophers, as the vulgar adage is, would be bringing our 
 young ones to a fine market ; and our chagrined minds 
 would, in the end, be as greatly disappointed as the 
 
34 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 little maid, when she saw that her fine gown was gone 
 forever. So in the case alluded to, if this lion of the 
 tribe of Juda should turn out to be the true Messiah, 
 and Judge of all men, we with our new robe of eternal 
 sleep, shall be fully as much chagrined as the poor dis- 
 appointed girl. 
 
 Thus endeth the moral of the young maid, as a milk 
 Panacea, to ease the stomach of our modern men of 
 wisdom. 
 
 I hope my philosophical friend will not open the 
 valve of his reprehensibility so wide, as to let the steam 
 of his risibility wash away the moral of the milk maid's 
 fable entirely from his philosophical mind. 
 
 But to return to my mournful condition off the straits 
 of death : — 1 beg my kinsman to indulge me to place a 
 little epitome of my fevered reflections in his view — 
 which are as follows : That if I could but persuade my- 
 self of the validity of your new doctrine of eternal 
 sleep, and rest plenary satisfied with what is commonly, 
 by the religious and superstitious herd of mankind, 
 called soul and body ; that in case it should be indulg- 
 ed by the fates, to take it^^Ibng dose, under the Cym- 
 merian pavilion forever/1 in ll\e. anti-chamber of his 
 royal highness, called th^dumg93f terrors. Now, my 
 philosophical brother, if I dare trust my weak and frail 
 judgment, I do most ardently wish to place the most 
 plenary affiance in your new doctrine o^ eternal sleep, 
 and the decomposition of all the elements and faculties 
 of our nature, in the cardinal elements of this mundane 
 dispensation. But, my philosophical friend, your wis- 
 dom and knowledge well knows, without my assuming 
 the office of a dictator and the almonership of a prompt- 
 er, to inform you, which I well know, is a cardinal 
 position, and undeviating hypothesis of your new Philo- 
 sophy; that man is a being or creature of circumstances: 
 This you admit to be the case — Well then, your phil- 
 anthropy will of course indulge me with my share 
 of the circumstantial prize money, and permit me to in- 
 form you, although you are well apprised of my Jewish 
 education, which by the wise and (if it is not irrelevant 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 35 
 
 to State, I would add,) crafty ingenuity of those who 
 had the care and guardianship of my juvenile years — 
 during which time they so often drenched me with the 
 salts of conscience, and other purgative powders, to 
 purify my mind from what they called idolatry; and 
 at the time to write in indelible characters on the tele- 
 graph of my heart, the belief of a holy God, who steers 
 the great ship of nature ; so that at times, in the long 
 and dark nights, when my mind takes an oblique view 
 through what I have passed for the last eighteen hun- 
 dred years of public disgrace, among the nations of the 
 earth, I am, by the pressure of the cloudy atmosphere, 
 which has located itself over and round about my na- 
 tional tabernacle, ready to exclaim : " let me die the 
 death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." 
 Thus my brother sees his own doctrine verified in my 
 case — that we are in many cases the beings or creatures 
 of circumstance. Nevertheless, my philosophical kins- 
 man, when I have the full command of the volition of 
 my mind and will, under the administration of my judg- 
 ment, which daily sits in council with the three cardinal 
 passions of my nature — his learned excellency, the 
 pride of life; and chief counsellor the desire of the eye ; 
 and his sensual highness the lust of the flesh; in these 
 seasons of the (though very often transient) convales- 
 cent state of the mind, I go to work, and take some of the 
 drops and powders you have in your philosophical eoo- 
 pose of healing medicine, and your new catholicon: 
 I shall name a few of them, from the compendious cata- 
 logue that lies on my medicine chest before me, while 
 writing this letter : namely, powder No. 1. no God; 
 (so saith the fool in his heart.) No. 2, no spit-it noi^ 
 angel. No. 3, no Immortality. No. 4, no conscien- 
 tious sense of our moral accountability to heaven, for 
 our words and actions on earth. No. 5, no Heaven. 
 No. 6, no Hell. And No. 7, which has long been Idbk- 
 ed upon as a perfect number, which I perceive is mark- 
 ed on your new and universal Panacea, no Christ of 
 Plebeian birth — for the Saviour of mankind and univer* 
 
36 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 sal judge of the words and works of all men, nor for 
 the national Messiah of the Jews. 
 
 I experience it to be my duty to inform my deistical 
 kinsman, that whenever I feel those dreadful pains of 
 conscience, I have made the most faithful application 
 of your drops, powders, and new Panacea ; which as I 
 once stated, give but momentary relief. But the ad- 
 monitions of conscience, returns sometimes with great- 
 er violence than before the use of your philosophical 
 prescriptions. Notwithstanding, my dear brother, and 
 most confidential friend, I would most cordially and 
 heartily adopt your soothing creed, as the orthodox 
 dogmas of my Jewish faith, if it were not for some 
 agency, with which I am somewhat unacquainted — at 
 least so much so, as to be able categorically to define 
 its true character ; whether it does proceed altogether 
 from my Jewish education, or from a something that I 
 cannot well describe ; the which, one old Moses and 
 the prophets, and all our rabbles, doctors and Jewish 
 theologians, call by the name of conscience : this un- 
 welcome intruder, be it what or whom it may, I find it 
 is not always, under my entire control. And as I lie in 
 my birth, tempest-tossed, in those long winter nights, 
 •my pains at times, were very acute, so that balmly 
 sleep very often spreads its wings, as I before said, leav- 
 ing me wreaking with pain, and exceedingly distressed 
 in mind. Now this troublesome agent, by whom sent 
 or from what source it came, I shall not at this time 
 take it on me, in writing to my philosophical friend, 
 dogmatically to decide. Nevertheless, I experience at 
 this moment, that this gloomy subject has already 
 brought on me such a state of both mental and physical 
 lassitude over my old tabernacle, on board the old 
 barque, which now lies in sight of the dreary coast of 
 death — so that in consequence of this small exertion of 
 my fevered mind and nervous fingers, it imperiously 
 coerces me to retire into my birth ; and if I should here- 
 after become so far convalescent as to be able once 
 more to overhaul the goose quill again, I have in the 
 purlieu of my mind, something more to say about those 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 37 
 
 things, which by some are said to be associated with 
 the grim monster death. 
 
 Suffer me to remain, with sentiments of the highest es- 
 teem for your friendship, and sincere regard for 
 your personal happiness. 
 
 BALAAM. 
 
 To his serene highness Doctor Deist, President of the College of modern 
 Philosophy, Deism and Infidelity — nohe^e the sublime science of unbe- 
 lief are berugnly and gratvitously taught. 
 
 February 2S, 1832. 
 
 Figure Xo. 1. The iron-bound mountains and dreary coast of death, with 
 the cross of Christ located at the entrance of the lonely straits, which lead 
 into the blue sea of eternity ; so that no vessel, whether she sails under Jew- 
 ish Christirtn, Atheistical or Ueistical colours can pass, without being 
 brought too, by the officers of the n yal custom-house of King Jesus. 
 
 No. 2. The Watchman on the tower, looking out for all the ships fr(Mia 
 the different nations of the earth, as they approach the straits of death. 
 
 No. 3. The custom-house boat sent off to examine the papers and cargo 
 of the vhip. 
 
 Xo. 4. The old barque, with Balaam on board, (that is the Jewish nation) 
 whic'ri through the stress of weather is almost ready to founder. 
 
 No. 5 . Mount Calvary and the three crosses. 
 
 No. 6. The dark clouds and lightning; indicative of a frowning provi- 
 dence being over the Jewish nation, for eighteen hundred years; and at last 
 through stQrms and distress, is brought to reflect on the Man that Pilate an- 
 eified. 
 
38 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 The Jewish nation's fourth letter to the Deist of modern 
 Christendom, 
 
 In this letter, the Jewish nation is set forth as becoming a 
 little more calm in their passions, and their national hostility 
 against Christ a little to subside ; and at last they experience 
 a latent desire to go into an examination with the Deists of 
 Christendom, so far as words and an interchange of ideas on 
 the subject will go to decide the claims of Christ to the Mes- 
 siahship of the Jews, and the Saviour of the world, under 
 the metaphor or idea of Balaam the Prophet's fever of mind 
 increasing, and his mental and physical indisposition, and 
 other infirmities of advanced age, making the most serious 
 approaches on his constitution : so that his sleep is often dis- 
 turbed at the prospect of death ; in consequence of some 
 dreams, in which the person of Christ is presented to his 
 view, hanging on a cross, at the entrance of the straits of 
 death. When the Jewish nation, under the personification 
 of a prophet, becomes more diffuse in his language about the 
 character and person of Christ ; and then puts his philosophi- 
 cal friend in mind of their hard speeches against his official 
 character, and their invidious opposition to his claims ; with 
 all their former insidious reflections on his person, and a vast 
 number of other witty puns and sarcasms ; which in their 
 juvenile days they did conjointly, with a rich flow of their 
 risibility, so profusely lavish on his person and character. 
 But death, and the blue sea of eternity heaving in sight, aU 
 things, but especially the Man on the cross, begin most alarm« 
 ingly to change their appearance. 
 
 Dear Kinsman ^ 
 
 Since I wrote to you last, at 
 which time my old ship-of-life was overtaken with a 
 heavy squall, not many leagues off the dreary coast of 
 death, so that it remained very problematical in my 
 mind, whether the old barque would outride the storm ; 
 however, it hath pleased the powers that are aloft, (by 
 whatsoever name we in this earthly state may give 
 them, that over-rules and directs the storm, or bids the 
 tempest cease,) to keep my old ship above water during 
 the late gale ; so that my life is given me as a prey to 
 mine infirmities a little longer. And as I have the rays 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 39 
 
 of the sun once more in this mundane state, and my 
 health is in some degree convalescent, I shall try to put 
 into practice the old country people's adage ; make hay 
 while the sun shines ; that is, I will endeavour to re- 
 deem my pledge, of renewing the unfelicitous subject, 
 which I only slightly touched on, in my last sea letter. 
 As I was then labouring under a high state of both 
 physical and mental lassitude, I had consequently to 
 throw down my pen, and retire sea-sick into my birth. 
 Since then, my mind has been greatly agitated; so that it 
 has led me at intervals, especially when the paroxysms 
 of my fevered mind were a little abated, to more 
 seriously reflect about that man who Pilate put to 
 death on the cross. Therefore, my philosophical friend, 
 indulge your once old counsellor, to be a little more 
 verbose and communicative in placing the category of 
 his mind before you; so that I may open my thoughts 
 to you on this gloomy subject, without reserve ; that is, 
 the immortality of the children of men ; and also, that 
 strange catastrophe, which is the consequent counter 
 part, on which my mind clearly sees that it is the great 
 turning point, on which the doctrine of the immortality 
 of the whole race of men, either stands or falls. But 
 methinks my friend in a soliloquy, is casting in his mind, 
 what wonderful point of the theological compass can 
 that be, which is to decide so great a controversy 
 among men ! Why, my deistical kinsman, I shall endea- 
 vour by the aid of the little share of the powers of rati- 
 ocination I possess, to satisfy the forecasting labour of 
 your mind, and say, that it appeared to me as I laid 
 in my birth, reflecting on the views, opinions and dif- 
 ferent sentiments, which mankind hold on the various 
 points of the theological compass, which points us to 
 the four quarters of the earth, and at the same time, 
 places before our view, on the telegraph of what is 
 called religion, or the worship of the gods, such an al- 
 most nameless catalogue of modes, outward forms, 
 ceremonies, doctrines and sentiments ; that at the first 
 view of the subject, it would appear to the mind to be 
 a mountain of difficulty — the altitude thereof, appears 
 
40 ^ CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 almost insurmountable for the rational powers of our 
 mind to ascend. I acknowledge, at the first glance we 
 take of the subject, this appears to be the case ; but in 
 answer to this general, though trite objection, I would 
 ask. Will any person of a sane mind, say that the sun in 
 our national heavens, is not a general benefit to all the 
 human race ? notwithstanding, a simple, honest man 
 like our Moses, should say the sun rises or sets, as the 
 case may be ; though my philosophical friend, you will 
 acknowledge from astronomical investigation, and 
 mathematical demonstration, that scientifically speak- 
 ing, the sun neither rises nor sets ; because the great 
 Cause aloft, has not set the wheels of nature to work 
 on so wild and extravagant a plan, as to force his 
 luminous servant, the sun, to run, in round numbers, 
 about six hundred millions of miles in twenty four 
 hours ; when the simple rotation of the earth, whose 
 surface does not exceed twenty-five thousand miles, 
 w^ould answer an easier and wiser purpose, and goes to 
 prove him a wise as well as a rational being. Well, 
 you are ready to say, What of all this 1 has this any 
 relation, or even remote bearing on your gloomy whims 
 and frightful vagaries, that have been passing through 
 your mind during the late storms you have had to en- 
 counter — and your dreams about the immortality of 
 the souls of the human race ? What in the name of 
 common sense, has this to do with the general received 
 opinion of the common-people, of all the nations of the 
 earth — which is, that the orb of day rises and sets on 
 our earth ! yet, my philosophical brother, if you wished 
 to set out on a journey early on the ensuing day, how 
 would you arrange your words, in order to communi- 
 cate your design to your servant, for to have your car- 
 riage in readiness for your intended journey ? Would 
 you, in order to steer clear of vulgar ideas and w^ords, 
 say to your servants, 1 want my carriage in readiness 
 before the rotation of the earth brings on our vision 
 the light of the sun ? Instead of saying to your ser- 
 vants. It is my wish or design, to set ofi* before sun-rise. 
 (This is one of the great discharges of mustard seed 
 shot, which some very wise men, as well as a number 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 41 
 
 of ignorant ones, who can scarcely read a chapter of 
 Moses five books, bring against its validity.) So that 
 my friend at once sees, that let our attainments in 
 science, wisdom and general knowledge have arrived 
 to its greatest possible acme, yet in order to communi- 
 cate our views and wants as rational beings to each 
 other, we have often times to denude ourselves of the 
 fine drapery of philosophical ideas and words, in order 
 that our servants, and the generality of mankind may 
 understand us. 
 
 One more idea on the universality of the benefits or 
 blessings of the sun. Does not the prince and his mean- 
 est subject, the philosopher, and the poor African, all 
 stand in the same need of heat, light and all other bene- 
 fits which the sun produces on the earth — the one with 
 his head full of the fine drapery of philosophical ideas, 
 the other can scarcely write his name. Now my simple 
 conclusion is this, that you will not make objections 
 against the light, heat and all other blessings and bene- 
 fits derivable, either directly or indirectly, from the 
 natural sun : Because of the discrepancy of the views 
 of the nations of the earth ; but especially, that which 
 the plebeian herd of all nations entertain of the natu- 
 ral cause of our nights and days; You are ready to say 
 to me, does not common sense answer your question? 
 the philosopher no more than the plebeian can live on 
 fine words, but needs with the sombre African, the 
 solid productions of the earth to support his existence. 
 
 Well, this concession on your part, brings us unto the 
 point of the theological compass, I wish to work my 
 ship by, over the sea of controversy of the immortality 
 of the race of men; and that is this, that notwithstand- 
 ing all the discrepancy of views, which all the nations 
 of the earth have, or do take of religion and imrnor- 
 tality, it may be brought into one simple focus ; which, 
 as I laid in my birth reflecting, during the late storm, 
 I was led to see, that all onerously rested on a few 
 hieroglyphicks, or signs on the telegraph of the cross, 
 of that man Pilate crucified ; of which, so much effer- 
 vescence has from time to time been spread through the 
 
 d2 
 
42 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 world, from that singular catastrophe: and another fully 
 as strange and singular! a circumstance connected with 
 it ; namely, that of Christ finding his way out of the 
 sepulchre, and evading the cautious mind of the high 
 priest of the Jews, and the martial vigilance of the 
 royal guards ; on which single occurrence, I must say, 
 is most incontrovertibly suspended, the doctrine of the 
 immortality of the whole human race. It does not re- 
 quire the laboured ingenuity of the profound theologian, 
 or the powerful ratiocination of the tongue of the 
 civilian, to prove a position so self' evident, which a 
 child of ten years old can prove, which is just as simple 
 in horn book mathematics, as that two and two, if you 
 put them simply together, will make four; and all the 
 wisdom and knowledge of the philosopher, civilian and 
 theologian, with all the combined tergiversation they 
 are master of, to overturn the old school lady's mathe- 
 matical position, that two and two make four, would 
 prove in vain. Well then, indulge me to inform my 
 philosophical friend, that these things have brought to 
 my fevered mind, during the late storms I have passed 
 through, that the immortality of the human family, 
 rests on a position as simple and self-evident, as that 
 two and two make four. 
 
 Methinks by this time, I have almost raised a pug- 
 nacious squall about the royal rigging of my Deistical 
 kinsman's mind; and in a soliloquy, you are just ready 
 to exclaim, What does the fevered mind of old Balaam 
 mean, by making a thing that has onerously occupied 
 the talents of so many wise men, as Hume, Gibbon, 
 Voltaire, Volney, Paine and many others ; some of them 
 spent twenty years of hard study and assiduous labour 
 of mind, by bringing in a thousand postulatory objec- 
 tions, and ten thousand tergiversations, as the grounds 
 of their arguments, to prostrate the evidence of all re- 
 vealed religion among men, that your old fevered mind 
 can rebut, with the simple mathematics of the old 
 country school lady's logic. 
 
 Is it not written by one of the greatest advocates of 
 what is called revealed theology : " And without con- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 43 
 
 troversy, great is the mystery of Godliness.'* Does it 
 not then require men of wisdom and universal know- 
 ledge, to successfully rebut a system, that in its theo- 
 logical and mysterious orginazation, has been artfully 
 and ingeniously intervolved together? And does it not 
 require an arm, nerved by the gods of battle and 
 war, to give strength to the fearless and the bold hero, 
 to cut the gordian knot asunder ? And you tell us it is 
 as easily done as madam horn book's mathematics, 
 that twice two make four! 
 
 Why, if you go on in this way with your system of 
 simplicity, nulifying the wisdom, knowledge and 
 science of men, and bring us all down to horn book 
 simplicity, you will turn out to be a more successful 
 dreamer than one Joseph, whom Moses tells us of 
 And you would have me believe, that the Saturnian 
 muse has paid you a friendly visit, as you lie sea-sick, 
 and imbued your old mind with new powers, so as to 
 make difficult things to become wonderfully easy. 
 
 And now having prepared the way, like the ancient 
 heroic queen, levelling the mountains of theological diffi^ 
 culty, and filling vallies of controversy, by making the 
 highway to truth so plain, that a wayfaring man can 
 walk therein or comprehend the same. 
 
 I perceive it is high time to present my inference to 
 your philosophical mind, which is this : that the truth 
 and certainty of the immortality of all mankind, rests 
 on this point : Was Christ stolen out of the sepulchre 
 by his eleven disciples, or by any other clandestine 
 agency? If so, then all the consequent counterpart — the 
 immortality of the human family, is like a "sounding 
 brass and tinkling symbol." This was the report of Caia- 
 phas the high priest of my people, and continues to this 
 day. But if this said Christ went out of the sepulchre by 
 a supermundane agency — that is, a power of which the 
 gods are only in the plenary possession of, then, as I 
 have said of the natural sun, we all, whether a prince, 
 a slave, a philosopher. Deist, Atheist, a wise man or a 
 plebeian, must be either blest by his benefits, as the sun 
 of immortality in the theological heavens, or burned 
 
44 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 up with the indignant rays of his hot displeasure, for- 
 ever. 
 
 But the controverted point, whether Christ did, or 
 did not rise from the dead, I shall pursue no further at 
 this time ; but shall present to the view of my deistical 
 friend, a little more of my experience during the last 
 storm I w^as in ; which ^vas as follows : During the in- 
 terregnum of my fevered spasms, in some long winter 
 nights, my mind was by some agency, beyond my con- 
 troul, onerously brought to reflect on some of our desul- 
 torious conversation, about the person of Christ; when 
 in company with you and your cabinet friends, in the 
 drawing room of state ; when our excursive fancies 
 took a keen survey of that mysterious intruder, into our 
 mundane dispensation. 
 
 The first sign we saw on the telegraph of his thologi- 
 cal character, was his loio hirth, when we viewed him as 
 the legitimate off'^pring of a poor handmaid, who in the 
 sombre hours of the imperious calls of nature, and the 
 physical emergency, of what we, in our risible satire, 
 called the maiden ladies distress. We with our croco- 
 dile tears, over the sparkling wine, overflowing the 
 purlieu of the cw^'^yMi^deo^ the gold ophir — we feigned 
 to commiserate her low condition, and wretched accom- 
 modations, of the maiden mother of a Prhice, who was 
 said to be destined to rule and govern the world ; and 
 who, at the time of his advent or birth, was destitute 
 of a house, lands, riches, honour, servants. Physician 
 and of royal shining things ; when there was brought 
 to my rememberance, a special occasion, on which my 
 philosophical friend gave a royal feast to the chief 
 princes, high captains, lords and other dignatories of 
 the empire : dinner being over, and all the royal com- 
 pany sitting around the wine and desert board ; when 
 the person and character of this intruder among men, 
 was taken up by some of the exhilarated company; 
 when you observed to us, that you had it from the most 
 indubitable source of testimony, that the plebeian 
 Prince was born in a stable ; and that his maiden 
 mother had to cradle him in a manger : at which ludi- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 45 
 
 crous trait, in the condition of an infantine Prince, pro- 
 duced a most wonderful effect on all present, and filled 
 the atmosphere of the drawing-room, with a high state 
 of humidity, and soon brought down a copious and 
 refreshing shower of risibility, from all the felicitous 
 countenances present; and soon set all the scintillating 
 elements, with all the oscillatory machinery, in plenary 
 motion : When one of the wise and happy company, 
 very opportunely observed : We see nothing more of 
 the precocious signs of this manger cradled Prince, 
 manifested for many years. This trite and shrewd re- 
 mark, I well remember, was like sweet almond nuts, 
 for the princely company at the royal entertainment, 
 to crack over the flowing glasses of the richest wine 
 this mundane state could afford. And does not my 
 friendly philosophical coadjutor well remember, that 
 when the discursive fancy of our scintillating minds, 
 rising in grandeur like the majestic trail of a comet, 
 stretching his fiery glare like a canopy over the royal 
 pavilion — when its glowing coruscation of philosophi- 
 cal light, that it came to pass, that we at that time 
 thought the herculean strength of our minds appear- 
 ed to be such, that, like the fable of some of my Jewish 
 ancestors, of one Sampson and the lion — we conceived 
 it to be mere play to take hold of the young manger 
 Prince, and rend him like a kid ; when we went to work 
 like men of wisdom, and most assiduously endeavour- 
 ed to prove to each other, that the reported w^orks and 
 miracles of Christ, were nothing but a theological de- 
 ception, or what the gallant and polite company in the 
 suavity of their style, call a pious fraud. 
 
 Now the w^itty puns and sarcastical innuendoes, that 
 put you and myself, with the transient company, that 
 would oftentimes, in the relaxation of official business, 
 when cabinet hours were over for the day — so that 
 after the reception of your princely bounty at the di- 
 ning table, how often have we spent the passing hour 
 in throwing a few of our philosophical sky-rockets, at 
 the man Pilate crucified on the cross ! Yes, my philo- 
 sophical kinsman, these things were all brought in the 
 
46 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 mDst vivid manner to my mind, as I laid, turning from 
 side to side, under tha onerous upbraiding of my con- 
 science, when a kind of spectre influence, as some say, 
 was the case with Brutus: reminding me of some of 
 those seasons, when we experience more than an ordi- 
 nary share of deistical and Jewish joy, when we would 
 call up the young lion of the tribe of Juda, which was 
 the suavity of our court style in my juvenile days ; and 
 place him, Samson like, on a pedestal in the centre of 
 our philosophical amphitheatre, for each one of the hap- 
 py guests to let fly a sharp arrow of scorn at ; while 
 Christ stood, like a pirate or sea robber, who had been 
 caught and placed in a pillory before us ; w^hile each 
 person, with the whole arcanum of our innuendos rotten 
 eggs, from the elegant bureau, in the drawing-room of 
 our cultivated minds, throw a thousand risible sarcas- 
 tic puns, at the tragical life and character of the son of 
 Joseph the carpenter. This unwelcome presentation 
 to my mind, has made me experience a more than 
 ordinary share of chagrin ; let the influence come from 
 what power or quarter it might, still it involuntarily, 
 on my part, caused me to reflect on the words and 
 actions of my whole life. 
 
 But it now behooves me, through the medium of the 
 pen, to inform you, my dear kinsman, that those once 
 to me, blissful hours, which w^e so felicitously spent in 
 each other's exhilarating society, are in my case like a 
 morning cloud spread over the mountains of Israel, 
 when the sun rises, it soon passes away; — ^just so all 
 earthly happiness disappeared from over the horizon of 
 my life, and left, me surrounded w^ith a sombre atmos- 
 phere of doubt and uncertainty, as to the future. But 
 still when the Aveather is such, that I can crawl on 
 deck, and by the aid of my best cabin spy-glass, try to 
 look into the blue sea of eternity, (as it is so called by 
 all those who navigate along this dreary coast of death;) 
 when I discover that the passage into the sea lays 
 through a narrow strait w hich I have caught with my 
 glass ; — and when the air is clear about the dawn of the 
 ^un, I think I see something like a cross, thjat I have 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 47 
 
 been dreaming about ; and the sailors of the ship, very 
 often in their night watches, are telling a number of 
 frightful sea-stories to each other, about a man that is 
 seen in dark nights hanging on a cross. These things 
 coming in contact with my weak and fevered mind, 
 may be the cause of my imagination fancying, at times, 
 that I see the spectre also. But when the storm pas- 
 ses over, and my pains and distress of mind are not so 
 acute, and I experience a slight degree of convales- 
 cence, I try to brace up my nerves by going to my medi- 
 cine chest, and looking over all your philosophical drops, 
 pills and powders, with the unitersal panacea you gave 
 me when I left your service. 
 
 These medicines, it is true, as I have more than once 
 stated in my correspondence to you, often produce a 
 transient relief; so that I again begin to think, that my 
 conscientious fever, and the frightful spectre of the man 
 on the cross, with my alarming dreams about passing 
 the straits of death, arise altogether from my religious 
 education, and that, as you say, or rather your new 
 doctrine of the philosophy of the marvellous age of 
 reason, so amply teaches, that we are indeed nothing 
 but mere creatures of circumstances ; so that when 
 these reflections pass through my mind, I go to the 
 w^indward side of the ship, and taking up the glass, I 
 endeavour to take an excursive survey on all the past 
 enjoyments of this mundane state ; but especially that 
 period of my past years, under your royal favour, when 
 I was blest with a plenary share in my juvenile days, 
 of all that is desirable to man ; to wit : a healthy con- 
 stitution — a flow of spirits — and vivacity of all my 
 physical powers, with riches and honour, which opened 
 the wide field of earthly happiness before my mind, 
 w^hen I indulged myself in all those desirable satellites, 
 that revolved round me daily. 
 
 These pleasing reflections on the past, however, are 
 but of a short duration, in consequence of a re-action 
 of my mind that they are all past — and with the re- 
 ceding shades of time, treacherously gliding away; 
 leaving me not a single piece of the wreck of the base- 
 
48 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 less vision behind, of all the tangible pleasures and 
 sensible happiness, I once so plenarily possessed; which 
 are now leaving me only a sandy arena for my tremu- 
 lous feet to rest upon ; and the once cloud-capped 
 mountains of earthly happiness, of riches, power, 
 honour and glory, are all now, as it were, presented to 
 my mind under the similitude of a female form, clothed 
 in a careless robe of changeable silk, dancing on the 
 volatile sea of earthly pleasure ; w^hen she passes my 
 sick-bed at a distance, with a smile on her countenance, 
 looking a few moments on my present affliction — then 
 by an easy inclination of her elegant, and which once 
 appeared to me, graceful form, bids me a final adieu ! 
 and I see her no more ; leaving me to grapple with all 
 the weakness and infirmities of old age, and the som- 
 bre storms that are to be met with by every voyager, 
 as they approach the dreary shore of death. 
 
 But as 1 experience the distress and former infirmi- 
 ties, which of late years I have been the dolorous re- 
 cipient of, fast returning on me, with the most sombre 
 scenery around, in whatever view I take of my present 
 condition and circumstances ; that is, in the first place, 
 my Jewish education, at times, but more particularly 
 in the hours when my pains and afiilictions are at their 
 full acme, places before my mind the awful dispensa- 
 tion called eternity ! And as my old ship-of-life lies but 
 a few leagues oflf the Cymmerian coast, on the deathly 
 promontories of which I see a gloomy telegraph, that 
 directs all strangers as they approach the shore to the 
 entrance of the channel called death, at the very mouth 
 of the straits. Sailors and all the common people on 
 ship-board, say it is reported there is a cross with the 
 man that Pilate crucified, transfixed on it. How true 
 these reports are, I do not undertake to say; nevertheless, 
 as the wind while I am writing is blowing from oflf the 
 deathly shore, I every now and then hear the furious 
 blast as it passes through the hollow and shaggy rocks, 
 that lie along this dreary and iron-bound shore, which 
 causes a kind of re-action, and long repercussive 
 sound, throughout my mournful soul, which responds 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 49 
 
 my sighs and groans, like a re-echo to the deathly 
 shore again ; and as the blasts are gathering strength, 
 and furiously roaring through the spars and rigging of 
 my old ship, splitting and tearing my sails to pieces, and 
 the crazy action of the vessel, causing the bilge-water, 
 to dash and wash about the floor- timbers and keelson of 
 my heart ; the nauseous affluvia coming in contact with 
 my alfactory nerves, so that I experience my sea-sick- 
 ness fast returning, which admonishes me to finish my 
 scrawl and turn into my berth. And should I live 
 through this dark and stormy night, and my old bark 
 outride the present gale, and the Steerman aloft (let him 
 or they, be w hom or what he may, which is the ostensible 
 object of my present correspondence to ascertain) kind- 
 ly indulge me with a small share of convalescence, so 
 as to sit up in my berth ; and the nerves of my fingers, 
 be so far reclaimed from the lassitude that has this 
 moment seized my hand, and the sea (of Jewish hard- 
 ness of heart and national unbelief) does not run too 
 mountainously high, I'll write to you once more, a 
 short scrawl on this dolorous subject of immortality, 
 Heaven, Hell, Death and the Man Pilate crucified. 
 
 So adieu, at this time. From your old sea-sick 
 friend and coadjutor, in opposing the claim of 
 that character, who by some is called Christ. 
 
 BALAAM. 
 
 To Ma excellency Doctor Heist. 
 March 31, 1831. 
 
50 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Under the metaphor of Balaam the prophet, the Jewish 
 nation sends his fifth and last letter to the Deists of modern 
 
 Figure Xo. 1. The dreary coast of death, and the cross of Christ, located 
 in the channel, at llie euti'ance of the sti'aits, which lead into the blue sea 
 of eternity. 
 
 No. 2. The old worn out ship-of-life, with the Jewish nation on board, 
 chiefly manned and navigated by Pliilosophers, Deists, and Atheists, sailing 
 under the colours of ( ai-nal Kcason and Vain Philosophy, which at last ar- 
 rive.'? close in with the straits of death : When all hopes of escapii.g the 
 wrath of God and the Lamb are at an end. 
 
 No. 3. The watchman on ihe top of the dark, lantern, on tlie iron-bound 
 coast of death— uiio gives notice of the arrival of all vessels on that coast, 
 with the colours they carry. 
 
 No. 4. Tlie old Jew lies sick in his bed, with two eminent physicians in 
 attendance, viz. Doctors C:iriial U. a<on and Vain Philosophy, — the one at 
 his feet, directing him to the bright Phosphorus (or morning star) in the new 
 heaven of the as. e of Reason, as his dernier hope, to cast the sheet anchor of 
 his soul upon, as e ]iasses the dark valley of the shadow of death. The 
 other Physician — ihat is. Car al Hea>=cn, at his htad, placing the best argu- 
 ments and most powerful reasoning, which the philosopliy of the human mind 
 can give — supported by the long prejudices and old prepossession.^ of the 
 c;irnal mind, against the doctrines of the cross, and a s])iritual Mes-^iah, as a 
 ntbulous Panacea for his old ]iatient, Balaam, (or the nation of the Jews) 
 in his expiring moments, when the Jewish nation, under the metaphor of the 
 piophet, calls for his old auguring table, and writes his last letter to tlie 
 Deist, wlioni he .again addresses as the great Prince of Infidelity. 
 
 No. 5 M.diMt Calvary and the three crosses, which are always to be seen 
 oa oae of the liij^ti promontories on the coast ot death. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 51 
 
 Christendom ; and with it closes all further epistolatory cor- 
 respondence with the Deist forever. 
 
 August Prince^ 
 
 Having in my old barque 
 of life, through the indulgence and favour of the great 
 Helms-man aloft, whether he be that being of infinite 
 power and wisdom, that old Moses describes, or the 
 gods you have newly (with your long and improved 
 telescope of modern philosophy) discovered in the age 
 of reason, my mind, at present, is too much indisposed 
 to undertake to decide. 
 
 My old ship-of-life has outridden the gale I was in, 
 when I wrote last, as my vessel lie off the highlands of 
 death, having received some help from the superior 
 skill of those two eminent physicians. Reason and 
 Philosophy, to which you had the kindness to advise 
 me to apply in my present distress, in the note you 
 sent me by the hand of your volatile servant Vanity; 
 so that I can inform j^ou, thanks to the Helms-man 
 aloft, (whether he be the solitary God of our old Moses, 
 or the gods of the age of Reason, or the family compact 
 of the christian's ; to wit : Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 
 I must confess I am at present at a loss categorically 
 to decide) still pardon my tautologous weakness in 
 naming these things — I am so far convalescent at times, 
 as to be able to sit up in my berth. When, may it 
 please your serene highness, I thought to mj^self, it 
 would be prudent to loose no time in writing my last 
 scrawl to you, in which it is my humble design to close 
 all my written communications to you, on the dolorous 
 subject of the soul's immortality forever. Therefore, I 
 humbly and most devoutly pray your benign goodness 
 and princely philanthropy, to suffer your old servant 
 and ancient premier and prophet, to once more intrude 
 on the royal locker of your princely heart, and the 
 plenary exchequer of your natural benevolence, with 
 his dernier, and at the same time, valedictory request; 
 which, great Prince, if the subject were not of the 
 highest interest and the greatest importance, as weH 
 
52 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 as of the first magnitude, that ever to this day has en- 
 grossed and elicited the most profound attention of all 
 rational and intelligent beings, in this mundane dispen- 
 sation, your obedient servant would be almost led to 
 forecast in his mind, that he should become his ovrn 
 unfelicitous agent, of drawing down his lord's high 
 displeasure, instead of a gracious answer to his vale- 
 dictory prayer. In consequence of the many requisi- 
 tions, levies and heavy taxes, w^hich my presuming 
 boldness has already presented to my legitimate Prince: 
 were it not that your humble servant, from the long 
 experience he had in your service, is fully satisfied in 
 his mind, of the plenary altitude of all those benign and 
 excellent qualities, and all the social graces which con- 
 stitute the full portrait of a benign Prince — all harmo- 
 nizing in, and about j^our royal person. Therefore, 
 indulge me, most excellent and illustrious Prince, to 
 spread the almost inexpressible sensation of a grateful 
 heart in your view, through the medium of my pen, 
 while my excursive mind takes a retrogade view, 
 through the philanthropic heavens, and benevolent 
 horizon of your serene highness, during your past reign. 
 Yes, sire, when I view the w^iole galaxy of moral and 
 social qualities, and other excellencies, that v/ere so most 
 felicitously associated, with a mind so richly cultiva- 
 ted with philosophical wisdom and knowledge, and 
 all the other ornamental sciences that adorn the 
 character, and embellishes the person of a great Prince. 
 And in addition to those brilliant hieroglyphicks, that 
 shone w^ith such splendour on the telegraph of your 
 public administration — indulge me to add your social 
 virtues, which I saw, and was in the daily habit of 
 taking special notice of, in all your private w^alks through 
 life, during the whole of my occupancy of the premier's 
 office, when I so often admired those tender conjugal 
 affections towards your amiable consort — Queen Unbe- 
 lief; and all the expressions of tenderness, towards the 
 lovely fruits of your congressional affection, the sweet 
 babes of the age of reason. The symmetry of their 
 countenances proclaimed, without a royal register to 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 53 
 
 confirm their legitimacy, as heirs apparent to your 
 large estates or principalities, in your vast empire of 
 Infidelity, in the glorious age of reason and philosophy. 
 These graces and social qualities, as a kind husband, 
 father and friend, most pre-eminently show themselves 
 in your private walks, so that they were seen by all 
 who had access to your majesty, in the social circle. 
 
 I do not distinctly remember that I ever knew a 
 solitary stranger, who visited your court, during the 
 many years that I stood behind the bureau of state, 
 but what beheld with admiration, those personal graces 
 and social qualities, they saw so congenially associa- 
 ted — with the most profound wisdom and knowledge, 
 of all the arcanum of men and things, in this earthly 
 dispensation, and, sire, greatly enlarged as your wisdom 
 must consequently be, of men and things. Therefore, 
 your humble servant takes it for granted, from all the 
 foregoing felicitous omens, that shone forth with such 
 refulgence in the civil and military glory of your past 
 reign, which has led me to this corollary, that my 
 royal master will not in the least degree impugn my 
 motives, in this dernier draught on ycur patience and 
 condescending benevolence. Therefore, sire, let your 
 princely nobleness of soul, permit your old servant to 
 entertain, in the purlieu of his mind, the most plenary 
 affiance, that this his last request shall meet a most 
 favourable issue in my lord's mind : — that the vale- 
 dictory prayer I am about to present as my last behest, 
 at the foot of your throne, shall be, by the altitude of 
 your benign clemency, gratuitously granted. That is, 
 royal Prince, that the eleven disciples, who are said, by 
 Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, and the Roman 
 guards, to have robbed the sepulchre of the body of 
 Christ, after it had been crucified. That the said 
 eleven disciples, shall have the privilege granted them, 
 in some one of the honourable high courts of chancery, 
 to be indulged with an honourable and impartial 
 trial, respecting the onerous charge, which by the fore- 
 named characters, have been, with such undeviating 
 tenacity, preferred against them ; as it has been confi- 
 
54 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 dently stated to me, that the robbers never had a trial 
 in any legal court of law and inquest, since their per- 
 petration of the deed. 
 
 This delinquency, on the part of the honour and 
 martial glory of the Roman arms, is not, please your 
 majesty, so very easily accounted for. And how it 
 was that the ecclesiastical honour and glory of the re- 
 ligion of my nation, should never have thought of 
 having the robbers brought to a court of Justice, ap- 
 pears equally strange: but as we do not know their 
 motives, I will not impugn them. 
 
 And now, most benign Prince, your old servant 
 viewing from the altitude of the mountain of your 
 philosophical glory, and royal benevolence, the most 
 overflowing fountains of your former philanthropy, 
 clemency and good will towards me, and professedly 
 towards all mankind ; — therefore, your old servant ex- 
 periences himself fully justified, in placing the most 
 plenary affiance, that I shall have my royal master's 
 most unqualified consent, that a high court of Chancery, 
 or a court of law and inquest shall be convened, first 
 over the crucified body of Christ ; in order to ascertain, 
 if possible, what went with the dead body of Christ 
 after his crucifixion ; and if the bodv is not to be found 
 m this earthly dispensation. 
 
 Then, please your majesty, let the court proceed un- 
 der the auspices of your royal authority, as a high 
 court of chancery, having plenary power over all crimi- 
 nal and civil cases — whether they be of a martial or civil 
 character ; so as to be fully empowered by your majesty, 
 to call to the bar of said court, all the parties, persons, 
 and things, associated with, and that are either direct- 
 ly or indirectly concerned with the arrest, trial, con- 
 demnation, crucifixion, and the loss or escape of the 
 body of Christ out of the sepulchre. For, may it please 
 your majesty, I do most onerously experience it to be 
 high time that this business were settled, in order that 
 this vituperating gospel were put to silence — which, 
 royal prince, has been disturbing, for so many ages 
 the elements of se^isual joys, and oftentimes undulating 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 55 
 
 the sea of mundane bliss. This gospel has been like 
 Mount ^Etna or Vesuvius, disgorging its sulphur and 
 vomiting out its flames, for near two thousand years; 
 which, like the notorius Bohan or Upas tree of the east, 
 has been const uperating the moral atmosphere with 
 spreading its effluvia, which acts like a deadly poison. 
 The theological gas has been destroying all the luxuri- 
 ant plants, and delicate flowers of our earthly felicity. 
 
 May it please your royal honour, I merely take this 
 oblique glance at these things, so as to give my lord a 
 clue to the grand and ostensible object, which his old 
 servant has in view, in praying that the subject of the 
 robbery of the sepulchre may be, by your indulgence 
 and permission, brought into court for legal adjudica- 
 tion; so that the pious fraud of the gospel, (which you 
 well know is the sauvity of court style, when that su- 
 perstitious malady, at any time, occupies the polite 
 vocabulary of courts,) may be openly detected before 
 the world. 
 
 Yes, great Prince, what a most glorious state of 
 things would then be effected for our mundane dispen- 
 sation ! Yes, sire, all that is wanting to make our 
 world like a terrestrial Paradise, is to get entirely clear 
 of that conscientious troubling malady, called the gos- 
 pel. But, I will say no more on these things, well 
 knowing that your wisdom and plenary knowledge of 
 this and every other subject, that comes within the 
 purlieu of the human mind, is fully capable of enlarg- 
 ing all the signs that will appear in the glorious age of 
 reason and philosophy. These things, I have taken 
 the humble, yet onerous responsibility of placing before 
 your princely mind. But, sire, in consequence of my 
 once being your old national prophet, I might on this 
 occasion denude myself of the robe of a court servant, 
 and array myself in the official vestments of my pro- 
 phetical office, and then be much more bold to even 
 enjoin thee that which is convenient ; yet being (as 
 one has almost said before me.) such a one as Balaam 
 the aged, and now also a prisoner by old age, on board 
 the prison-ship of timey which at this moment lies close 
 
56 ClIllIST REJECTED. 
 
 in with the straits of death. But, sir, although I thus 
 write, I still have, and do at this moment experience, 
 the fullest confidence in your gratuitous condescen- 
 sion, so that you will even do more than my prayer 
 calls for. Now, may the gods of earned reason, and 
 the new gods of philosophy of the golden age, be with 
 you and your royal consort. Queen Unbelief, and all 
 the dear children and lovely babes, which the new 
 gods have given you as a pledge of your conjugal af- 
 fection : — most benignly vouchsafeing always to spread 
 the canopy of their protecting wings over your rising 
 offspring, which the special favour of the new heavens 
 has rewarded you with, from the mutual congress of 
 reason and pthilosyphy. And now, benignly accept of 
 my most devout prayer, and solemn intercession to 
 your new divinities, which shall ever be, while I con- 
 tinue on the shores of time, that those new gods, sire, 
 may bless your future reign with a large and wide 
 spread dominion: and that your new doctrines may 
 obtain a universal conquest over Christ and his gospel. 
 Then shall be brought to pass the prenominating say- 
 ing of a great prince : to wit ; — your felicitous subjects 
 shall " be as the God's, knowing both good and evil ;" 
 and find out, independent of what is called divine reve- 
 lation , the great arcanum of nature, so that your sub- 
 jects will be fully able, by the analytical apparatus of 
 your new philosophy, to perfectly analyze both the 
 physical, metaphysical and hypostatical nature of man, 
 into its pristine component parts, when the grand 
 secret of human nature shall be fully known. And 
 when I augur those happy days, my mind, sick as I 
 am, is almost in an ecstacy of joy — when I contemplate 
 the triumph of philosophy and reason, over the gospel 
 of Christ: and my prayer is the same in substance, as 
 it was in tlie days of Balak, king of the Moabites, to 
 curse Israel. But, some influence beyond my control, 
 like the power of your modern ventriloquist, instead of 
 pitching my voice into the camp of the children of 
 Israel — the sound of my curses, as they came warm 
 from my heart, full of pugnacity — and before my words 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 5T 
 
 reached the camp of Israel, the gods or fates so meta- 
 morphosed them, as they passed through the ambient 
 air; so that when the sound reached the camp of Israel, 
 the traitorous innuendos categorily pronounced, a bles- 
 sing instead of a curse. But my devout prayers to 
 your new god^- shall be, that the glory, the honour, and 
 the riches of the nations of the earth, with the abun- 
 dance of the sea, may flow into the royal exchequer of 
 your new administration : and that your resources 
 may be ample to give plenary felicity to all your sub- 
 jects : and that all your royal sons and daughters may 
 receive a princely and finished education, in the high 
 schools o^ modern infidelity ; where hard '2 ess of hearty 
 pugnacity against the revealed will of God, (so called) 
 and unbelief of the Gospel, and he who is called the 
 Son of God, shall be taught upon the best models of 
 modern improvement, is the earnest prayer of your old 
 prophet, and once faithful and humble premier. 
 
 Accept, royal Prince, my highest consideration for your 
 personal happiness, and my most profound homage 
 for all the qualities and other excellent graces of 
 your princely nature ; and that a plenary share of 
 mundane felicity may be the lot of yourself and all 
 your royal family. 
 
 BALAAM. 
 
 To hia serene highness, and most illustrioiis Prince — -who is by proftssion 
 the President of the high College of Reason, Philosophy, and modern 
 Infidelity. 
 
 April 30, 1832. 
 
 Reader, what a candid and honest portrait of the hearts of 
 all men, who prefer earthly, to heavenly things, is this last 
 letter of the Jew's to our Deist of modern times ! who are, 
 with King David's old fool, saying in the secret of their 
 hearts, no God — Christ — nor Immortality ! 
 
58 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 U„=---_ ,====~^^^^^ _ ^-^ , -^1 
 
 ^ms^^^^^^i^^^m —7-.^^^ • sj^^^^ . .,1^ 
 
 
 
 ^^^ ii= 11= ^^^^ > if .'i^ 
 
 [Here foUoweth the reflections of Doctor Deist, on hearing 
 his private Secretary read over, in his presence, the five 
 letters which the Jewish nation sent him, under the metaphor 
 or personification of Balaam the prophet.] 
 
 And it came to pass, that when his august majesty, 
 the legitimate sovereign of the kingdom of Infidelity^ 
 and in consequence of his serene highness having re- 
 ceived a finished education, in the sublime profession of 
 modern deisniy when the college as an honorary reward 
 for the great proficiency he had made, above many of 
 his equals in his juvenile years, presented him by the 
 hands of the directors -and trustees of that high seat of 
 wisdom and knowledge, with the president's chair, in 
 
 Figure No. 1. The King's Secretary, reading the old Premier's five let-^ 
 ters to his majesty in his private drawing room. 
 
 No. 2. 'I'he King's Astronomer viewing the new heavens in the age of 
 Reason and Infidelity. 
 
 No. 3. Human Reason pointing the finger of scorn, at the idea of Justify- 
 ing mankind through the cross of Jesus Clirist. 
 
 No. 4. The gi-and marshal and sheriffs of the kingdom, having received 
 their orders from the king, thro-igli the secretary of state, goes forth to call 
 by proclamation and warrant, all the parlies concerned in the robbery of tlie 
 sepulchre together, on the day appointed by the will and pleasure of the 
 king, for the cause to be tried. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 59 
 
 that philosophical institution ; where all the embellish- 
 in gsciences o{ Deism, Atheism, and Unbelief, in all their 
 diversified branches, are gratuitously taught. And it 
 came to pass, that as soon as the king's audibility had 
 received the interesting and onerous contents of the 
 Jew's five letters, that his excursive mind began to 
 forecast at all the alarming signs painted on the gloomy 
 telegraph of the old Jew's fevered and distressed mind, 
 which some of those five letters presented to his philo- 
 sophical cogitations. 
 
 The secretary having finished reading the letters, 
 withdrew — leaving his royal master to the reflections 
 and free volition of his mind : when it came to pass, 
 that for a few moments, his majesty's serene mind was 
 much astounded with a chagrin sensation, which undu- 
 lated the calm sea in the neighbourhood of his philoso- 
 phical heart ; when a squall was seen just ready to 
 burst forth, and every moment expecting to spread 
 itself through all the elements of his soul, just like a 
 northern blast at the winter solstice, when it produces 
 a reaction on the warm quicksilver in the thermometer 
 of his unbelieving heart ; the crimson element of which, 
 was seen to condense below zero ; so that the reflux 
 of the fluid into the icy chambers of his heart, caused 
 a cadaverous appearance in the king's countenance ; 
 when the legitimate lineaments, and all the other ex- 
 pressive features of his visage^ wore a striking symme- 
 try to his old grand sire, Cain ; so much so, that the 
 very muscles of his face appeared to be agitating, with 
 the pugnacious elements of his deistical displeasure, as 
 he paused and reflected on the unexpected fears, and 
 cowardly misgivings of heart, of his once, as he thought, 
 bold coadjutor, in the noble cause of rebuting and re- 
 jecting the claims of Christ ; and his once bold and 
 magnanimous opposition to the spread of his constu- 
 perating gospel — as he had antecedently viewed his 
 old friend Balaam, (or the Jew) shielded with an inex- 
 pugnable panoply of unbelief, and standing giant-like, 
 on the grand pedestal of Jewish pugnacity; and who 
 for many years, had been with himself, rejecting the 
 
60 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 pompous claims of Christ to the Messiahship of the 
 Jews, and his (that is to the deist's mind,) volatile 
 claims of being the Saviour of all men, whether Jews 
 or Gentiles. 
 
 After this antecedent view which the deist had taken 
 of the old Jew's character, he should now at this late 
 hour of the day; that is, eighteen hundred and thirty one 
 years after, be so unexpectedly and marvellously sup- 
 prised, with those spasms of fear, which Balaam experi- 
 enced in the days of Balak, king of the Moabites ; when 
 some extramundane being, (that is, belonging to the 
 worlds beyond the verge of time,) caused the prophet to 
 exclaim, as we have once said — " let me die the death of 
 the righteous, and let my last end be like his.'' But, 
 said the king, in his own mind, I am very sensible, that 
 no one ought to be impugned for his thoughts ; as the 
 foregoing exclamation was made by his old servant in 
 his juvenile days : so that, I may, in some sense, pali- 
 ate his weakness, on the grand postolatum or hypothe- 
 sis, which we wise philosophers have placed on the 
 pedestal of our new doctrine — that all men are beings 
 of mere circumstances. But that it should now be the 
 case, after so many years of philosophical tuition at 
 my court, in all the high branches of modern and 
 ancient wisdom, knowledge and science — with a mind 
 so cultivated and enriched, with every embellishment 
 which the philosophy of my court so amply afforded 
 his mind; and at the same time, so brilliantly enlighten- 
 ed with the new doctrine of cbcumsUnias and mate- 
 rialism, that he should under all the foregoing privi- 
 leges, and sublime advantages, betray such weak- 
 ness — and so far unman himself, as to become the re- 
 creant slave of fear; is too much for me to put up with ; 
 merely because his old ship-of-life has made the high- 
 lands, of what is commonly called the coast of eternity; 
 and he dreams that he sees the old straits of death I 
 
 These things, for a few moments, much surprised 
 the king I (that is, the deists of modern Christendom ;) 
 but no sooner had these conflicting elements of his 
 majesty's mind began a little to subside, and the undu- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 61 
 
 latory sea of his passions became a little calm, than 
 his royal highness clearly saw, through the telescope of 
 common sense, that whatever were the sudden fears, 
 which the mental and physical weakness, and other 
 local infirmities of our present state bring on us, as we 
 approach the valley of the shadow of death, his deisti- 
 cal majesty began wisely to forecast in his mind, all the 
 signs and gloomy images that Balaarn's letters presen- 
 ted to his high and royal consideration ; and he soon 
 became deeply convinced in his princely mind, that 
 the valedictory prayer, and humble request of his old 
 premier, Balaam, was the result of sound reason, based 
 on the colossus of common sense. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as the heated 
 quicksilver, that raised the steam of his passions and 
 deistical displeasure, became pretty well evaporated, 
 by means of the valve of common sense, that it so con- 
 densed the warm element, in the thermometer of his 
 passions, that it suddenly fell below zero; and for a 
 short time produced a rejlux in the crimson elements 
 about his deistical heart; which greatly depreciated the 
 former bloom of his once youthful appearance : when 
 some slight shades of a cadaverous cast were seen, for 
 a few moments to overcast his princely countenance. 
 
 A NOTE BY THE STENOGRAPHER. 
 Now, by the reader's indulgence, your humble author 
 would, if he thought it were not irrelevant, to indulge his rov- 
 ing fancy, be ready to draw this conclusion, in the purlieu of 
 his reflecting mind, in a soliloquy — and say : What will be 
 the awful chagrin, and the gloomy sensation of the invidious 
 Atheist, and the shame and overwhelming confusion of the 
 scoffing Deist, in that awful day, when God shall judge all 
 the Deists and Atheists, that ever lived in the outward 
 Christain world, by that man they so cordially hate — even the 
 man Christ Jesus ! whom he hath ordained, and also given 
 the most plenary assurance to all men, in that he raised him 
 from the dead ; and has given him wisdom, power, knowledge 
 and authority, to become the only righteous Judge of quick 
 and dead. My soul come not thou into their risible and 
 scoffing purlieu, here on earth ! least you share the j^izC' 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 money of their sins, plagues, shame and everlasting contempt, 
 in the presence of God, Angels and Devils, forever ! The 
 reader will be so good as to pardon the writer's unclassical 
 manner of preaching. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as his majesty had 
 recovered a sane state of mind — when in a low solilo- 
 quy, in the court of his own conscience — w^here his 
 learned honour held with himself a kind of cabinet 
 council, with the philosophical principles in his mind ; 
 he thus said to himself: That although I do not fear 
 that artful and ingenious tale, called the gospel ; the 
 cardinal object of that obreptitious system, which is 
 admirably calculated to locate its energies and doc- 
 trines in the minds of old men and silly women, among 
 the plebeian herd of mankind ; that is, the strange doc- 
 trine of elevating a crucified malefactor on the stilts of 
 divinity, formed out of an unreasonable association of 
 ideas, entirely at war with every principle of logical 
 and mathematical demonstration, That three are one, 
 and that one is three ; and placing him on the pedestal 
 of a god : if indeed, such metaphysical beings there be, 
 in any extra mundane state, who live independent, and 
 unassociated with the eternal laws of matter, of which 
 the ratiocinating powers of my mind does entertain 
 many a serious doubt, especially when I place my 
 philosophical eye at my long telescope, and take a peep 
 at the trackless field, or rather boundless empire of 
 nature ; I am very often led to draw this conclusion : 
 That matter is all the frightful and conscience-troub- 
 ling gods, we men of wisdom and science have to fear 
 in this world. 
 
 And as for extramundane worlds, I have long, ere 
 this day, closely drilled and daily disciplined my mind, 
 so that whenever I experience the spasms of conscience 
 to give me the least pain or uneasiness, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of my heart, I then force my mind into a 
 calm acquiescence of the doctrine of materialism ; so 
 that I neither honour, fear, nor regard any solitary (or, 
 as the Jews have it,) holy God, nor any of the imagi- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 63 
 
 nary gods of the gentiles ; — much less do I fear or en- 
 tertain in my mind, that any serious consequences will 
 arise, to the least deterioration of the refulgent glory 
 of my reign and kingdom, by having the highest court 
 in my empire thrown open, and calling together all the 
 forensick wisdom and knowledge of my realm, into one 
 legal focus of operation ; — and in the most careful and 
 legal manner, to publicly, in open court, before the 
 philosophical vision of all my enlightened subjects, 
 legally investigate the robbery of this sepulchre, of the 
 crucified body of that solitary malefactor, called Christ. 
 And also, to test his pompous claims to the Messiah- 
 ship of the Jews ; as well as his being the only Saviour 
 of mankind; who, when at Pilate's bar, (and by the 
 hands of his enemies, was transfixed on a Roman cross, 
 on the summit of Mount Calvary,) manifested on the 
 whole telegraph of his character, nothing that any 
 philosophical mind, to this day could ever discover, but 
 a most repulsive exhibition of the most extreme imbe- 
 cility of human nature. 
 
 And though as a prince, philosopher and deist, it is 
 perhaps beneath my wisdom and dignity — and with 
 ancient Festus, I long doubted of all those questions of 
 religious superstition, of any of my plebeian or patri- 
 cian subjects, about matters of worship — whether it is 
 called the mythology of the heathen, or the theism of 
 the Jews, or the theology of the christians : for I have 
 looked on all these things, as a mere sleepy opiate for 
 the vulgar ; and only calculated to form a downy pil- 
 low for the plebeian herds of my subjects, in their ex- 
 piring moments, to rest their weary heads upon. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as his royal majesty 
 had ended this interlocutory soliloquy, in the cabinet of 
 his own mind — when his philosophical honour paused, 
 and came to this wise conclusion : and calling in his 
 private secretary, said to him : Although I experience 
 an utter aversion to all systems of religion, and a philo- 
 sophical detestation to the idea of a God, heaven, hell, 
 spirits, angels, and to ghosts ; yet because my old faith- 
 ful servant and former premier, so onerously prays for 
 
64 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 such an indulgence in his old days ; and as it is not de- 
 teriorating from my dignity to grant such a fovour, 
 Balaam's valedictory prayer shall be most benignly 
 granted. 
 
 And it came to pass, in process of time, that his royal 
 highness gave the most preremptory orders to the high 
 marshal of his kingdom of Infidelity, to call a special 
 court of law and inquest, to be held, first over the cru- 
 cified body of Christ ; and also, to try the eleven disci- 
 ples of Christ, for the robbery of the sepulchre. And, 
 by royal proclamation, to have all persons concerned 
 in the said loss of the crucified body of Christ, out of 
 the sepulchre, brought to trial : That is, by clothing 
 the marshal and high sheriff of his kingdom, with 
 plenary, civil and military powers, to be bi'ought forth- 
 with into the high court of Areopagus. 
 
 Done at our Palace, in the royal city of Infidelity, king- 
 dom of Deism, and land of Atheism, in the year of 
 our reign, old style, 5835, or 1831. By his royal 
 majesty's orders, and the great seal of the state. 
 
 ^sEal.^I unbelief, Sec'ry. 
 
 To Ms excellency Carnal Reason, Grand JMarshal of the empire of Un- 
 belief, and the High Sheriff of the Kingdom of Fhilosophy and Beism. 
 See' that the Marshal and Sheriff' fail not. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 65 
 
 CHAFTEa I, 
 
 The first day of the trial of the rohhery of the sepulchre of 
 the crucified body of Christ, 
 
 The author sendeth greeting — to all .whom it may 
 concern, to come to this court and hear or read for 
 themselves ; as every child of Adam has a legacy to 
 obtain, in the righteous decision of this court, if they 
 will truly seek for the same. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the day which was 
 set apart in the royal proclamation, had fully come, for 
 
 Figure No. 1. The court of Law and inquest convened, to try the disci- 
 ples, on the charge of robbing »he sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 No. 2. Justice, with its drawn sword of impartiality. 
 
 No. 3. Truth weighing all the evidence — that is, or shall be given into 
 this high court, against the prisoners; who in the course of this trial, may 
 be brought to the bar of this coui't. 
 
 No. 4. The five judges, who have been appointed by the king to try this 
 cause. 
 
 No. 5. Carnal Reason, and Vain Philosophy— the former pointing the 
 finger of scorn at the cross of Christ-— the latter viewing the heavens. 
 
 No. 6. The States-general, who opens the trial of robbing the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 7. The empty coffin, -without the body of Christ. 
 
 No. 8. The twelve jury meri pannelled, and in the box. 
 
 No. 9. The clerk's table, where the juror's and witnesses are affirraed. 
 
 No. 10. The galleries filled with spectators. 
 p2 
 
66 CimiST REJECTED. 
 
 the trial of the eleven disciples, who have been charged, 
 first, by Caiaphas and the Roman guards ; — secondly, 
 by the Jew^ish nation, for these eighteen hundred 
 years ; — and thirdly, by philosophers, and the Deists of 
 Christendom, more or less, for the last three hundred 
 years of the christian era, had arrived, for to try the 
 eleven disciples for stealing the crucified body of Christ 
 out of the sepulchre. 
 
 The appointed day, by lav^^, having fully come, the 
 grand court of Areopagus, vs^as thrown open by royal 
 orders, for the entire use and legal accommodation of 
 all the parties, that were either concerned or interest- 
 ed in the prosecution of this solemn trial. And it came 
 to pass, that early on the morning of the first day, as 
 soon as the officer of the court had thrown open the 
 doors of the court-house, the court was soon filled with 
 Deistical, Jewish and Christian spectators; and the 
 iles and areas were crowded with the plebeian multi- 
 tude. 
 
 As soon as the rush into the court was over, the 
 Chief, with his four associate Judges, from the circuit 
 courts of the kingdom, arrived and entered the court, 
 taking their seats on the bench, followed by a vast 
 number of Civilians from all the near and distant parts 
 of the Roman Empire : — many of them it is true, had 
 come out of mere curiosity, to see and hear this singu- 
 lar trial, of the eleven disciples, for robbing the old cus- 
 tom-house of sin and death. 
 
 When these forensic gentlemen had all taken their 
 seats within the purlieu of the bar — the next personage 
 of distinction that arrived, and took his location before 
 the bar, was the States-general, or crown barrister, 
 exciting the greatest anxiety in the multitude for the 
 trial to commence, 
 
 The hour of court business having fully come, the 
 clerk called silence ! — and proceeded in a graceful man- 
 ner to discharge all the legal rules of etiquette, and 
 other forensic customs of this high court of law and 
 inquest. 
 
 The chief Judge next arose, and presented an elegant 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 67 
 
 mien before the court ; and gracefully announced, with 
 a clear intonation of voice, that the bench were all in 
 obsequious waiting for this singular trial to proceed : 
 when he again resumed his seat. 
 
 The States-general then arose, (whose legal function 
 it was to open the prosecution,) and presented himself 
 in front of the bar, before the Judges and Jury, with a 
 roll of black parchment in his left hand ; containing a 
 declaration of the crimes, and other charges of malevo- 
 lence, that the Grand-jury had found in their bills, and 
 preferred against the parties implicated in the robbery 
 of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ. When 
 the crown lawyer signified to his learned honour, the 
 Chief Judge, that he was in legal readiness on the part 
 of his sovereign, and the laws of his realm, to open the 
 prosecution of i/?e cause, now pending at the bar. His 
 honour, the Chief Judge, signified to the States-attorney 
 to proceed, on the behalf of the crown ; when the bar- 
 rister read with a sonorous voice, in the audibility of 
 the court, the royal notification sent throughout the 
 vast empire of ancient Rome, to all the parties con- 
 cerned in the late robbery of the sepulchre, by the 
 hands of the chief marshal and sherifif of the kingdom — 
 in the following words: to wit; — "I, the grand marshal 
 of the empire, with the high sherifif of our sovereign lord 
 the king, sendeth greeting — unto thechief judges of the 
 circuit courts of the empire ; whose names are herein 
 asserted, this our notification, which is, by the royal 
 authority and the law of the realm, in us legally and 
 duly invested ; — that by the special orders of the king: 
 that your honours the chief judges of the high circuit 
 courts of his majesty's realm, whose names are in this 
 our declaration and notification given to the number of 
 five ; that your learned honours lay aside for the time 
 being, all other trials and legal business, whatsoever : 
 and then proceed on the day which this notification 
 points out to your honours, to the city of Athens and 
 court of Areopagus, to preside as judges on the all im- 
 portant trial of the eleven disciples, for robbing the old 
 custom-house of death of the crucified body of a dan- 
 
68 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 gerous and adventurous malefactor, by the name of 
 Christ.'' 
 
 The crown attorney, also, read to the court, the man- 
 damus, to all the witnesses and parties that were more 
 or less concerned, or in the least degree implicated in 
 this daring robbery, in the following words : "Now, I 
 the chief marshal, with the high sheriff of imperial 
 Rome, having by the special command of our sovereign 
 lord the king, taken out a special mandamus, (that is, 
 a States v,'arrant,) sendeth this our royal proclamation, 
 containing a declaration and lawful notification to all 
 the under named persons, in this our special warrant — 
 to wit : the person of Christ, whether dead or alive ; — 
 secondly, his sacred honour, Caiaphas the high priest 
 of the Jews; — thirdly, his civil honour, Pontius Pilate, 
 the Roman Governor of Judea ; — fourthly, the centu- 
 rions who crucified Christ; — fifthly, the Roman guards; 
 and sixthly, the eleven disciples of Christ. Now, there- 
 fore, w^e the marshal and sheriff of our lord the king, 
 do thus according to law, duly and legally notify and 
 command you all, whose names are written, in legible 
 characters, in this our special warrant, declaration, and 
 lawful notification to you all, the foregoing named per- 
 sons, in the name of our sovereign lord the king, and 
 under the righteous sanction of the Magna-charta of 
 his realm. We therefore command and legally notify 
 you, all and each one of you, in particular, both indi- 
 vidually, and the whole of you collectively, that you 
 do all, who are named in this our special warrant, that 
 by laying aside all your earthly business, crafts, call- 
 ings, avocations and all scientific professions whatever; 
 so that each of you do, in your proper person or per- 
 sons, appear at the grand court of Areopagus, in the 
 city of Athens, in the empire of Rome, on the day we 
 have thus legally notified you all, in this our warrant; 
 so that when you appear before his majesty's Chief 
 Judges, in his high court of Chancery, that you do most 
 strictly observe to bring with you all your witnesses, 
 and other oral testimony; with all your legal vouchers 
 in writing ; such as papers, parchment, books and every 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. OU 
 
 Other class and character of writing, that has any col- 
 lateral, circumstantial, direct or even presumptive 
 bearing on the merits of the case to be tried; with such 
 learned and legal council, as your own personal know- 
 ledge of the merits, or demerits of your own case may 
 imperiously require; so that the court may proceed 
 with the trial without any hindrance or delay. 
 
 "Therefore, we again iterate our rommand to you all, 
 that you do not fail in the fell discharge of all the moral, 
 civil and legal duties, that we by the legal power, which 
 our sovereign and his laws have invested in us, do on- 
 erously and imperiously, vby the royal authority in this 
 our warrant, have laid you a.11 under: and now see that 
 you all fail not, at tire peril of your lives, fortunes and 
 sacred honours. God save the king, and the common- 
 wealth. Amen." 
 
 The notification to the judges, and the warrant to 
 the parties in the trial being read to the court, by 
 the crown barrister, the Chief Judge rose and inquir- 
 ed if the opposite counsel, on the part of the person of 
 Christ, was in legal readiness to proceed with his 
 client's trial ; as the judge observed, that he perceived 
 it to be first on the docket of the court, and in the con- 
 secutive order of the bills, which the grand jury have 
 presented to this court. Then the judge again asked if 
 the defendant's counsel w^as ready for trial ; but there 
 was no one in court that gave an answer ; — at which 
 the judges and court greatly marvelled. 
 
 Then the States-attorney rose, and with his promp- 
 tership to the cryer of the court — who, with his usual 
 vociferous voice, in the legal form of words used in 
 courts on those occasions, called the person of Christ, 
 whether dead or alive, to make his appearance at the 
 bar. When the sheriff's officer brought in the coflfin, 
 (or sepulchre in which the crucified body of Christ had 
 been safely placed, after it was taken down from the 
 cross,) and placed the same in the open area before the 
 bar of the court and in front of the jury box. 
 
 This being done, the Chief Judge observed to the 
 court, that he augured through his forensick glasses, 
 
7P CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 and his long practical acquaintance with, and know- 
 ledge of court business, that this sombre trial, now 
 pending at the bar of this court, would be most likely 
 to occupy the court for several days ; when he [com- 
 manded the cryer (according to all the former usages 
 of this court, in similiar cases observed,) to notify the 
 court, (with his usual sonorous voice,) that all other 
 trials and suits that stood in-nonsecutive order on the 
 docket of the court, with the^arties, counsel, witnesses 
 and jurors concerned therein — that they are all dis- 
 charged from any longer durance before the bar of this 
 High court of Chancery, — until the trial of the robbery 
 of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ, should 
 be finally finished. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as all the parties 
 belonging to other suits had retired, the court proceed- 
 ed to prosecute the case of the body of Christ — which 
 was supposed to be in the coffin before its bar. And 
 as soon as silence pervaded the legal elements of this 
 court, the States-attorney ordered the under officer of 
 the sheriff", to open the cofliin ; so that the whole court 
 might see for themselves, the deteriorating body of 
 Christ. 
 
 But it came to pass, when the ofliicer had,' with his 
 hammer, broken open the coffin, behold ! there was no 
 person, either dead or alive, in the coffin! And as every 
 eye in this high court of law and inquest, were very 
 anxiously endeavouring to get the last peering view, 
 at this wonderful and mysterious prisoner; and especially 
 all the risible spectators in the galleries of the court — 
 were in anxious waiting to get the last sight of this 
 subdolous criminal ; — but when the whole court had 
 fully ascertained, that this mysterious being was neither 
 in court dead or alive— nor in any part of the kingdom, 
 that it suddenly produced a most sorrowful re-action 
 on all their risible and scoffing sensibilities ; and filled 
 their minds, for a moment, with the most chagrined 
 disappointment : — when the whole court experienced 
 something like an electrical shock of solemn fear, to in- 
 voluntarily spread itself through all the Jewish and 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 71 
 
 Beistical ladies and gentlemen, in the galleries of the 
 court. When carnal Reason, and vain Philosophy, who 
 were in the small gallery of the court, did not appear 
 near so volatile as before; nevertheless, it came to pass, 
 that when this unfelicitous sensation, which had for a 
 few moments rather embargoed the insidious faculties 
 of the spectators in court, had a little subsided, that the 
 crown barrister issued out a mandamus, (that is a writ 
 of caption, or if the reader prefers the idea, a bench 
 warrant, for the marshal and the high sheriff, who 
 had been all legally appointed and delegated, with 
 plenary powers, and legal authority, to fully execute 
 their duty,) so that the marshal and sheriff might be 
 brought forthwith into court. When the officer of this 
 high court of Chancery, holding a superior jurisdiction 
 over all the civil officers in the. realm, served the royal 
 process on the marshal with the sheriff, who were soon 
 brought in before the bar ; — and when they appeared 
 at the bar of the court, his learned honour, the States- 
 attorney rose, and closely examined both the marshal 
 and high sheriff, on the charge of delinquency, in their 
 official duty : — -repremanding them, at the same time, 
 with their shameful dereliction in not fulfiling their 
 orders, and faithfully discharging their official duties, 
 in not bringing the body of Christ into court, either 
 dead or alive. 
 
 His learned honour went on, just like all other crown 
 servants, to discharge his legal horn of vituperating 
 thunder on the heads of the officers, whom the royal 
 authority had clothed with a panoply of civil and mar- 
 tial power, to bring all the parties implicated in the 
 robbery into court ; charging the marshal and the high 
 sheriff, with a shameful remissness, in not empowering 
 suitable officers to arrest, and seize the body of Christ, 
 whenever they might find it ; whether dead or alive — 
 either in this earthly state, or in any extra-mundane 
 dispensation whatever. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as the crown law- 
 yer had in some small degree, eased his labouring cloud 
 of its foul waters, and his windy vituperating thunder- 
 
72 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 cloud had passed over the court, he sat down and said 
 no more. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as the crown bar- 
 rister had taken his seat, that the grand marshal of the 
 Roman empire rose, on behalf of himself and high 
 sheriff, who had been by the sovereign pleasure of the 
 king associated with him, to cause the parties named in 
 the special warrant to make their appearance at court ; 
 but, more especially, the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 The marshal having risen with the sheriff, turned 
 himself to the bar, and facing the judges and jury, 
 made the following wise and judicious extenuation, for 
 their not being able, in the fullest sense of the letter of 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice, with its drawn sword. 
 
 No. 2. Truth weighing- all the evidence that shall be given into 
 this court, by all the parties concerned in this trial. 
 
 No. 3. The grand court of Areonagus, with the five Judges, ap- 
 pointed to try this mysterious cause of robbing the sepulchre of the 
 body of Christ. 
 
 No. 4. The marshal and high sheriff of the empire, pleading at the 
 bar — Their faithfubiess in the full discharge of all their official 
 duties, which the laws and special command of the king had laid 
 them under. 
 
 No. 5. The twelve jurymen in the box. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 73 
 
 the law to discharge their official duties — in relation to 
 bringing the crucified body of that malefactor, who is 
 called Christ, into court this day, in the following 
 words, 
 
 " May it please your learned honours the Judges, 
 with all the other learned and honourable gentlemen of 
 this bar : — I shall humbly and obsequiously pray your 
 learned honours, to grant the indulgence, if it is not 
 irrelevant at this bar, for us to plead our own cause, 
 before this high court of law and inquest ; as I wish to 
 be permitted to place the following category of my 
 mind before the court : [When the judges signified to 
 the marshal to proceed,] which arises, please your 
 honours, out of the great sea of common sense ; and I 
 likewise experience a further boldness, in the gratuitous 
 discharge of a conscientious duty I owe to myself and 
 my associate, in viewing, at this moment, those impar- 
 tial signs that I have always seen, on the high and for- 
 ensick telegraph of this court, in all its legal acts and 
 proceedings ; which, may it please your honours, has 
 always, antecedent to this trial, led me to view this 
 court, as the most enlightened court in the empire, or 
 even in the whole world. Therefore, I shall be led to 
 consider, not only the patience and indulgence of this 
 court as gratuitously granted me ; but also, the pro- 
 found attention of your learned honours, the judges, 
 with the whole of the learned elements of this high 
 court of law and inquest, while I shall endeavour 
 steadily to lead your minds, to converge its full force 
 on a few simple facts, I am about placing before your 
 legal vision, which are as follows : That is, please this 
 court, and all whom it may concern, that in the plenary 
 discharge of our duty, there is not a city, town, village, 
 hamlet or a solitary farm-house in all the vast dominions 
 of our sovereign, whither we his very humble and obedi- 
 ent servants, have not been ourselves, or sent our under 
 officers, to search for, and diligently inquire, even into 
 the most remote part of our lord's kingdom, in order to 
 arrest and seize the crucified body of Christ ; so a« to 
 bring it before the bar of this court. 
 
74 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 **It is true, we have found the old coffin or sepulchre 
 in which the body was placed, which we have brought 
 with us, as your honours see this day, is placed before 
 us all, at the bar of this court : but who has embezzled 
 the crucified body of Christ or made a surreptitious in- 
 vasion on the sepulchre, and conveyed the body off 
 where it can never be heard of, we, therefore please 
 your honours and the jury, cannot tell where the body 
 is. Therefore all the palhation I shall present at the 
 bar of this court to day, is this, that both for myself, 
 and my associate the high sheriff; that we have faith- 
 fully discharged all our functions and official duties as 
 far as the gods and nature had given us either physical 
 or moral capabilities so to do; and my corollary is, that 
 even the gods could do no more. But I believe it 
 would be a superfluous waste of words and time, to 
 advance any thing more, by way of palliation to this 
 enlightened court : Therefore, please your honours, I 
 shall say no more ; but obsequiously leave our conduct 
 with the wisdom and learning of this impartial court: 
 when the grand marshal sat down," 
 
 The Judge's opinion of the person and character of Christ, 
 and judgment in favour of the marshal and sheriff. 
 
 After the marshal had taken his seat, the Chief Judge 
 rose, and delivered to the court his views of the con- 
 duct c^ the grand marshal, and his legal opinion ; w^hich 
 is as follows: that he, in conjunction with his associates 
 on the bench, view through the legal telescope of the 
 law, guided by the helm of truth, and polar star of 
 justice, which have always been the cardinal compass 
 and object in use in this court, and has heretofore so 
 characterized its legal proceedings, in the broad eye of 
 the world, as being always prosecuted with impartial 
 justice to all men; therefore, in unison with the legal 
 opinion of my coadjutors on my right and left, which 
 it has been the sovereign pleasure of my lord the king 
 to associate with me on this trial — we present, as our 
 legal opinion, tliat the grand marshal of the empire, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 75 
 
 with the high sheriff of Rome, have faithfully, (as the 
 civil officers of the crown,) discharged their share of all 
 the official duties, which either their sovereign or the 
 laws of this realm required at their hands. And as 
 judges of this court, we are sensible, that neither our 
 sovereign or the laws of his kingdom, demand from his 
 liege subjects, either physical, civil, or moral impossi- 
 bilities. Therefore, as the legal organ of this court of 
 law and inquest, I shall give the marshal and sheriff an 
 honourable acquittal, from all charges of delinquency, 
 in any sense whatsoever — converging on either their 
 moral or official characters. — When the marshal and 
 sheriff rose and withdrew from the court with honour. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the marshal and 
 sheriff had withdrawn, that the Chief Judge rose and 
 said — May it please the court to indulge me with its 
 patience and attention for a few moments, while I ex- 
 press my views of the character of that outlawed break- 
 jail, or in other words, that troublesome being called 
 Christ ; who appears to me, to be beyond the reach of 
 the jurisprudence of earthly laws. Therefore, this out- 
 lawed break-jail, has put to open defiance the whole 
 Magna-Charta of Roman laws ; so that from the mar- 
 shal's report at the bar of this court, it doth appear, that 
 the crucified body of Christ is not to be found in the 
 land of the living. 
 
 And may it please the court, our laws find sufficient 
 employment for its functionaries, in this mundane dis- 
 pensation, without stepping over the line of demarca- 
 tion, and perplexing ourselves with the laws and juris- 
 prudence of extramundane worlds ; or, if the court 
 please, the regions and the jurisdiction of the ghosts, 
 which the plebeian part of mankind say lie beyond the 
 verge of time. Therefore, may it please this court, 
 we must, as appears from the sheer law of mere neces- 
 sity, let the lawless break-jail go at large, for what he 
 is worth ; and that shall be, if we should ever find him, 
 within the purlieu of Roman law, an halter for his neck ; 
 if 9,ny of our police or other civil officers of our realm, 
 
76 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 may hereafter have the good fortune to arrest him. — 
 And the judge sat down. 
 
 When a very considerable chagrin of disappointment 
 was seen, like a cymmerian cloud, (that is, a land that 
 is overcast with fogs, clouds and a dispensation of 
 darkness,) to spread a sombre shade on all the once 
 risible countenances, in the galleries of this court. 
 
 And it came to pass, that during this transient sen- 
 sation of the court, in consequence of the crucified 
 body of Christ, which could not be found, either dead 
 or alive, that a very distinguished Roman attorney, 
 who had, with a large share of public eclat, persued the 
 profession of Roman law, in most of the high courts of 
 the empire, for a number of years — who perchance, 
 happened to come into court while his learned honour 
 the Chief Judge was delivering to the court his legal 
 views, of the lawless character of Christ : when the old 
 civilian rose from off his seat, and went up to the bar 
 of the courty and prayed to be heard as counsel for the 
 crucified body of Christ ; which request was, by the 
 indulgence of the court, benignly granted. When, like 
 a wise scribe we somewhere read of, he very humbly 
 asked his learned honour, the Chief Judge, Whether 
 Roman law judged any man as a lawless villain, and 
 an out-lawed break-jail, before it had heard him at its 
 impartial tribunal? And as I perceive this court, for 
 the first time, had this day departed from its inflexible 
 justice, and judicial rectitude, in the case of the lost 
 body of Christ out of the sepulchre — in that this court 
 has, without one legal witness to substantiate his guilt : 
 or, may it please your learned honours, one solitary 
 evidence to legally convict him of a single crime, either 
 of a civil or religious character — I therefore pray your 
 learned honours, to indulge me, while I humbly take the 
 liberty to ask, with all becoming deference to the legal 
 wisdom and knowledge of this high court of law and 
 inquest. Whether it has not been the uniform practice, 
 in all the antecedent judiciary proceedings of our courts, 
 under the old Roman laws, not to proceed in an illegal 
 manner to condemn a malefactor, until both the accu- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. / / 
 
 sed and the accuser are brought face to face, in open 
 court, and then, by lawful counsel, to implead each 
 other ? 
 
 Therefore, may it please your honours the judges, 
 with the jury; I shall take this long established position 
 of Roman law% as the object of my departure, on the 
 lantern of my forensick light-house, while I am naviga- 
 ting the crucified body of Christ over the bars, sunken 
 rocks, and through the quicksands, which lie in the 
 dead sea, over which, by the furious blasts of passions 
 and pugnacious squalls of Jewish hardness of heart, 
 the body of Christ has been driven, on the dreary shore 
 of death. I shall, therefore, by the indulgence of this 
 court, be led to consider my legal point of departure, 
 by your learned honours the judges, as gratuitously 
 granted me this day, as a sound axiom of Roman law: 
 Therefore, may it please the court, the signs on our 
 legal lantern, and long established position of Roman 
 law is this, That no person should be arraigned before 
 the bar of any one of its courts by proxy. 
 
 Now your honours the judges, with the jury, and all 
 the spectators in this court of law and inquest well 
 know, that the supposed dead body of Christ, my client, 
 as I shall, if the court will admit the relevancy of my 
 appellative, (for me to call that mysterious lyeing my 
 client,) but your learned honours well know, that w^e 
 lawyers, as well as the rest of mankind, are creatures ; 
 or, if the judges prefer the idea, beings of mere circum- 
 stances ; so that you are sensible, that we cannot well 
 navigate a plea at the bar of our courts, either on the 
 part of the defendant or plaintiff, when w^e are sailing 
 under a free breeze of ratiocination, (that is sound 
 reason and argument) before your learned honours, 
 without the use of the phrase, my client. Having made 
 this short apology, for presuming, on my part, to use 
 the word iny client, in relation to that mysterious 
 character, who has been arraigned at the bar of this 
 court — Therefore, please your honours, my client has 
 only been arraigned at the bar of this court by proxy^ 
 clothed at the same time, like an effigy in a black gar- 
 
 2 
 
78 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 ment, labelled with a number of immoral hieroglyphics, 
 of spreading a spirit of effervescence among the people. 
 Your honours will indulge me to particularize the pos- 
 tulatory charges, that have been by the Jews, his own 
 people, preferred against him ; such for instance, as his 
 contempt of the temple — his disrespect of Caiaphas the 
 high priest of the Jews — and his notorious neglect of 
 going and washing his hands and face, before he enter- 
 ed the feasting room of a class of the Jewish religion- 
 ists, w^ho sailed under the . colours of Scribes and 
 Pharisees ; and at other times being labelled with the 
 hieroglyphics or signs of a blasphemer of the Mosaick 
 worship ; with the institutes and dogmas of Moses, and 
 even of its divine author. But all those charges, may 
 it please your learned honours the judges, and the jury, 
 are more or less of a postulatory shade of character. 
 
 Now, may it please the court to indulge me to inform 
 them, that I experience this day the fire of Roman 
 philanthropy, to be kindling on the forensick altar of 
 my heart, on the behalf of my client ; that is, the cruci- 
 fied body of Christ ; whom I perceive is not in court, 
 at least with his tangible nature ; and as for his omni- 
 presence, it does not belong to courts of Roman juris- 
 prudence, to adjudicate in such deep and unfathomable 
 waters, or soar aloft into such untangible elements 
 among the abodes of the gods. And as the crucified 
 body of Christ is not in court to day, to plead its 
 own cause ; neither to employ legal counsel to plead its 
 case at the bar of this court : and that is not all — the 
 unfortunate circumstance of the case, for the plebeian 
 culprit, as his enemies have been gratuitously pleased 
 to characterize him, was so very low in the elements 
 of Sliver and gold, in his theological exchequer, which I 
 make no doubt, but that some of your learned honours, 
 the judges, have heard before this day — that his pecu- 
 niary affairs where very low when he was in the most 
 plenary altitude of his theological prosperity ; even at 
 the very time that his warmest friends were led to 
 augur his future greatness, from some of those preco- 
 cious (that is, any thing that appears ripe before the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 79 
 
 season of maturity, whether it be a quahty of the mind 
 or any other sign that may be seen on the youthful 
 telegraph of a person's character) signs, which his dis- 
 ciples saw in the days of his youthful ministry. Yes, 
 may it please this court, when this said Christ was 
 walking in the sunshine of his meridian glory, as a 
 marvellous teacher sent down from Heaven — and please 
 your honours, I feel satisfied in my own mind, that 
 this court of Areopagus, which is said to be in the 
 daily habit of devoting a small portion of its valuable 
 time in collecting from the four quarters of the earth, 
 every new and strange thing that daily takes place in 
 this our little world, both respecting persons and 
 things ; so that, I make no doubt, but your honours, 
 with the whole of this enlightened and intelligent court, 
 must have heard, that upon a certain occasion, my 
 client (whom some call Christ) had not enough of the 
 necessary elements of silver and gold, in his travelling 
 theological chest, to pay a small Roman toll. And 
 please this court — it was said of him, that the poor 
 man went on in his financial affairs, deteriorating 
 (that is growing worse) to the day of his demise on 
 the bloody cross. When the learned counsel paused 
 for a moment, and the chief judge rose and informed 
 the court, the sun dial at his window announced that 
 the hour of adjournment had arrived ; so the court 
 stood adjourned, to meet in this place the ensuing day. 
 
80 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The second day of the trial, of the eleven disciples, charged 
 both by Jews and our modern Deist and Atheist, of rob- 
 bing the sepidchre of the crucified body of Christ, 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court of Areopagus, or 
 high court of Chancery, met pursuant to adjournment, 
 early on the morning of the second day, and after the 
 customary routeen of court etiquette were over, the old 
 Roman lawyer rose and resumed his plea, which he left 
 unfinished the previous day, and said, May it please 
 the learned and honourable gentlemen, who this day 
 constitute the law elements of this impartial court of 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice, with its di-awn sword of impartiality. 
 
 No. 2. Truth, with its scales, weighing all the testimony, given in on this 
 all important trial. 
 
 No. 3. The five Judges who were by royal authority appointed to try this 
 cause. V 
 
 No. 4. The States-attorney sitting in his chair, listening to the arguments 
 of the old lawyer. 
 
 No. 5. The old Roman barrister, gratuitously jileading the cause of the 
 escape of, or loss of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 6. The empty coffin. 
 
 No. 7. The twelve jmymen in the box. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 81 
 
 Chancery — my object yesterday in placing the extreme 
 poverty of my client's circumstances before the view 
 of this court, was, in the first place, to relieve the court 
 from the mental labour of setting the complicated 
 machinery of its mind into too rapid motion, so as 
 to impugn my personal motives, in presenting myself 
 at the bar of this court, to plead and vindicate the 
 cadaverous body of that malefactor, who Pilate cruci- 
 fied. Therefore, be it known, please your honours and 
 the jury, that my object was on the previous day, to 
 satisfy and make manifest to this intelligent and en- 
 lightened tribunal, that in consequence of the entire 
 ebb-tide, or, if you please, low-zvater in the elementary 
 sea of his travelling exchequer, when on earth, that 
 neither gold, silver, copper nor iron, on my part, was 
 to be expected from him. And I experience a plenary 
 desire this morning, to present through the medium of 
 this impartial and enlightened tribunal, as a kind of 
 feast for the skeptical mind to revel upon — that is. 
 please this court, and through this intelligent channel, 
 as a perennial legal stream, the whole w^orld, that I am 
 not, nor never was, a recreant slave of mere circum- 
 stances, according to the sauvity of style of a number 
 of very fine, wise, and knowing gentlemen out of court, 
 who are in the daily habit of indulging themselves in 
 the use of this pleasing category ; that is, please your 
 learned honours, if a person were born in London, 
 Rome, Constantinople or Canton, he will either be a 
 Protestant, a Roman catholic, a Turk, or Heathen. 
 No: may it please your learned honours, the judges of 
 this court, with the impartial jury in the box to my 
 right, I experience a glow of Roman pride and inde- 
 pendence of mind, (let philosophers and wise men have 
 their own opinions of the weakness of all mankind) so 
 that I can this day from my own experience, which is 
 far better : — the good sense of your learned honours 
 well knows, than all the chimerical and mere theor- 
 etical knowledge in the whole world ; so that I can re- 
 but all such insidious charges preferred against me, 
 from those who may be disposed to impugn my motives. 
 
82 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 I this day stand on the colossus of Roman honour; and 
 as I have just said, with an independent mind, guided 
 by the helm of philanthropy, with the free volition of 
 all the mental and physical powers of both body and 
 mind, unbiased by either civil or religious opinions, or 
 views of any country under the sun. 
 
 And as a free Roman citizen, I this day state to the 
 court, that I experience the fire to be still flaming up- 
 ward from off" the altar of my Roman heart ; so that 
 when the civic fire ascends to the muse of our gods of 
 justice and truth, it soon returns with a re-action on 
 my mind, giving me a strong predilection to vindicate 
 the unalienable privileges and rights of the poorest 
 citizens of our world, be they either Christian, Jew, 
 Turk or Heathen. 
 
 And please your honours, if it is not at this time 
 rather presuming for me to illustrate my views at the 
 bar of this court, with the uientiun of extra-mundane 
 personages ; I shall then take the liberty to name his 
 satanick majesty — -who is said, by some people, to be 
 the chief prince of the demons — I shall, please your 
 honours, keep the object in view, on the lantern of my 
 legal light-house — that our laws condemn no one un- 
 heard, till the accuser and the accused are brought 
 face to face, in open court. Therefore, keeping this 
 polar star always in view, — please this court, by way 
 of a similie, if his cymmerian highness (that is satan) 
 were placed at the bar of this court, J should, as a 
 Roman lawyer, insist on his sable honour being entitled 
 to a full share of equity and legal justice, according to 
 the civic doctrine of our Magna-Charta. Therefore, 
 may it please your honours the judges, with the im- 
 partial jury, it is these unalienable rights, which I see 
 written on the civil telegraph, which contain the 
 glorious Magna-Charta of Roman law ; and which has, 
 as it were, almost involuntarily propelled me forward, 
 to serve as the counsel and advocate of the deceased 
 person of Christ, without a fee. 
 
 And now, to be brief in my arguments before your 
 honours the judges and jury:— ^I perceive, please the. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 83 
 
 court, that the person of Christ is the first prisoner 
 which the Grand-jury has placed on the consecutive 
 order of the bill of indictment : and is also placed first 
 for trial on the docket of the court ; and in order to 
 save time, which your honours good sense will, I have 
 no doubt, clearly see, without my promptership, is a 
 more valuable article, than the fine gold of ophir, or 
 the pearls of the east ; yea, all the wisdom, knowledge, 
 science, riches, power and glory of this mundane dis- 
 pensation, cannot purchase or command one solitary 
 moment, to obsequiously wait our pleasure. 
 
 I shall, therefore, may it please the court, now con- 
 fine my remarks to a mere epitome of the words and pub- 
 lic acts of my client, (who is called Christ,) previous to 
 his escape out of the sombre states-prison of the king of 
 terrors ; if, indeed, that dreadful catastrophe be true, 
 that this malefactor (called Christ,) broke through the 
 old massy walls of the dungeon of death — or, please 
 your learned honours, he arose from the dead. 
 
 Now the first trait in the character of my client, 
 which I seriously wish to place before the legal vision 
 of this court, is this : Did not my client, while he was 
 running at large through the land of Judea, and the 
 streets of old Jerusalem; — I say — please this court. Did 
 not my client, (who is called Christ to this day, by 
 many people, (give to Caiaphas, the then high priest of 
 the Jews, with a class of religionists, w^ho went by the 
 name of scribes and pharisees, with all the other sat- 
 ellites that daily revolved round his holiness: — I say — 
 may it please the court — Did not this Christ give the 
 most explicit, fair and unequivocal warning, of his in- 
 tention, and malice a-f ore-thought? Yes, if what his 
 enemies say of him be true, — may it please the court — 
 my client went throughout the land of Judea, and its 
 towns and villages, and to the city of Jerusalem — even 
 into the very temple of the same, announcing his pre- 
 meditated designs to break out of prison — or, dropping 
 my figure, to walk out of the old weather-beaten dun- 
 geon of sin and death. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your learned honours the 
 
S4 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 judges, when I was but a lad, I well remember to have 
 heard the people say, that there is honour, at times, 
 even among rogues. I am therefore led to think, that 
 if the adage was ever applied with truth, to any case 
 under the sun, it certainly was in the case of my client. 
 What then please your honours, can be more honour- 
 able among rogues, than for the midnight robber and 
 cruel assassin, to go and inform the good people of the 
 house, of his intentions to either rob or murder them 
 during the night ? Would not the court view such a 
 robber, as acting up to the old adage ; and that such 
 conduct is, in every sense of the word, manifesting 
 honour among rogues ? 
 
 Therefore, please your honours ; now view the con- 
 duct of my client, in regard to his breaking out of 
 prison ; and your good sense must admit, that if Christ 
 was a rogue, he came fully up to the acme of the adage; 
 he was an honourable one, and displayed the character 
 of a night chevalier, in its superlative degree ; in giving 
 Caiaphas, with the scribes and pharisees, such plain and 
 pointed warning of his nefarious designs, and clandes- 
 tine intentions. 
 
 Therefore, the court, no doubt,, clearly sees with me, 
 that this open magnanimous conduct, on the part of 
 Christ, gave to his enemies every facility they could 
 reasonably be led to ask or require of him. So that 
 Caiaphas, with the scribes and pharisees, might go and 
 take the most wise and prudent steps, and pursue the 
 most precautionary measures — so that, please your 
 honours, the judges and jury — the high priest and his 
 friends might go to work in time, before the resurrec- 
 tion storm came on, and have the hatcher of iYieprison- 
 ship of death, made secure ; and the dead-light to 
 the cabin windows well lashed in ; and all the upper 
 sails and spars of the old hulk, lowered down on deck ; 
 and boats, anchors and every other article on board the 
 floating and gloomy dungeon, made well secure— with 
 all kinds of lashing, bolts and massy bars ; so that the 
 gallant prison-ship of death, might triumphantly out- 
 ride the resurrection-storm^ with the same success she 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 85 
 
 had already displayed for four thousand years, over all 
 the mighty princes of the earth, and the rest of the 
 illustrious dead; — her unfurled banners bidding de- 
 fiance in the language of triumph to the wisdom, know- 
 ledge and powers of man, to arrest her progress or 
 tarnish her glory. 
 
 Now, may it please your honours the judges, with 
 this enlightened court — As my client was the first 
 among the sons of men, to throw out the tocsin of de- 
 fiance against the old, but gallant prison-ship of death, 
 who had never, to that day, seen nor met with an 
 enemy, that dare come in sight of her. 
 
 I would then, with all due deference to the wisdom 
 and understanding of this impartial court, ask it ; If 
 Caiaphas and the scribes, with the pharisees, who ap- 
 pear to be the warm friends of this triumphant ship, 
 would sit, with the eyes of their understanding closed, 
 and fold their arms together, after the notorious warn- 
 ings which Christ had given them ; and quietly and 
 calmly remain inactive? No, please your honour, I 
 humbly trow not. 
 
 Does not even the laws of common sense announce 
 to this court, that both Caiaphas, the high priest of the 
 Jews, with his friends, would have gone assiduously to 
 work, and by the timely application of every precau- 
 tionary measure, which either the physical, military, 
 civil and their ecclesiastical resources could afford 
 them, — which at that time they had the most plenary 
 command of, would by his open enemies be fully acted 
 out ; and that too by such a combination of wisdom, 
 art and skill on their part, went and formed such an 
 inexpugnable barrier against the threatnings of Christ, 
 and with all the aforesaid attributes of wisdom, skill 
 and strength, surround the old prison-ship of death ; — 
 or, please this court, his sepulchre, with an invulner- 
 able wall, through which all the powers of man could 
 not pass. So that all I have to say, by way of com- 
 miseration in the behalf of Caiaphas and his friends, 
 in the said loss they have sustained, if they did not 
 take care of this night-mare — this break-jail — this cru- 
 
 H 
 
86 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 cified body of my client — it was their own fault, — and 
 not my client's. 
 
 Now, may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 with the jury, Whether my client was a nefarious 
 break-jail or not ; one thing I can assure this court of, 
 that through the whole of the business, my client has 
 acted a most noble and magnanimous part. And I 
 now fondly hope, that this, which is but an imperfect 
 portrait of his person, and history of his character, will 
 entirely relieve my client, in the legal eye of this court, 
 from all those dark spots, which are seen on the dusk 
 of his character, through the dense clouds, red lightning, 
 and the rumbling thunder, which the lightning rod of 
 the States-general's tongue, with the intonations of a 
 Demosthenes's voice, endeavoured to draw down on 
 my client, before the bar of this court, clothed with a 
 panoply of mail, showing forth the strength of an Her- 
 cules, while endeavouring to clothe my client with a 
 nebulous shade of character. 
 
 The court, I presume, retains in its recollection from 
 yesterday, when his very learned honour, the States- 
 attorney, opened the prosecution, and with what legal 
 ingenuity his learned honour made use of all his mental 
 powers, by spreading over the person of my client the 
 most onerous weight of guilt, under a vast number of 
 postulatory charges. But as good fortune would have 
 it, his learned honour, on the side of the crown, could 
 not find a solitary witness to substantiate a single al- 
 legation he preferred against him; although he charged 
 him with being a ring-leader of a lawless banditti, going 
 through the land of Judea, constuperating the people, 
 by spreading a spirit of effervescence throughout civil 
 society, and by exciting the people to bring about an 
 entire change in the old doctrines of their national 
 theology, and a total nullification of all the then exist- 
 ing civil and religious ordinances, both among Jews 
 and Gentiles. 
 
 Now, may it please your honours, the judges, with 
 the court and jury — this sable portrait, which, like a 
 panoply of the wildest crimes he arrayed my client in. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 87 
 
 at the bar of this court, I now humbly ask the court, if 
 the States-attorney has, by deep and sound legal argu- 
 ment, given the court one solitary proof of guilt, in any 
 one of the onerous charges he preferred against my 
 client (who is called Christ)? 
 
 It is true, please your honours, the attorney has 
 given this court, by his careful and well timed inge- 
 nuity, of the intonation of his legal, and at other times, 
 vociferous voice ; — I say again, he has given this court 
 nothing more ! — and indulge me to add — nothing less 
 than mere pompous postulatum : that is, please your 
 honours, a windy discharge of his air-gun, loaded only 
 with some old mustard-seed shot, of noisy court vocabu- 
 lary ; and, as a matter of course, produced no greater 
 effect than just causing the wounds and sores of my 
 client to experience, in those tender parts, especially 
 the w^ounds he had recently received by the scourge of 
 the Roman soldiers, and the nails of his cross, to bleed 
 a little. — But, I will say no more in reply to the States^ 
 general's plea against my client. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours, the 
 judges, with the impartial jury of this high court of 
 law and inquest, to indulge me as counsel for the de- 
 fendant to say, that under the impartial views I have 
 conscientiously given at the bar of this courts of my 
 client's character, — deeply sensible, that my ratiocina- 
 ting powers are below mediocrity, in the presence of 
 this enlightened and intelligent court, which causes 
 me, in my retired and reflecting moments, to inw^ardly 
 sigh, and my palpitating heart to heave many an undu- 
 latory groan, for the want of the elements of some 
 supra-mundane language, to convey the sensibilities of 
 my mind in some richer vocabulary, than the vernacu- 
 lar tongue of my forefathers; in order to present to the 
 good sense and forensick wisdom of this enlightened 
 court, the struggling fetus of my labouring mind, and 
 to fully express before this court, the exalted magnani- 
 mity of my client's conduct, in all that relates to his 
 loss or escape out the sepulchre. 
 
 Now, i^ay it please your learned honours the judges, 
 
88 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 and the impartial jury of this court, Did not my client, 
 who is called Christ, freely give to Caiaphas the high 
 priest of the Jews, and his pious satellites the Scribes 
 and Pharisees, with the Jewish people at large, such 
 direct, pointed and notorious warning of his nefarious 
 and clandestine designs, (that is, please this court, 
 using the language of Caiaphas and the rest of his 
 enemies,) that if they should in their pugnacious, or if 
 your learned honours please, their quarrelsome mo- 
 ments, kill my client, and then cast his dead body into 
 the dark dungeon or gloomy bastile of death — that he, 
 the said Christ, possessed both the skill and adroitness 
 to make a new key out of some of the supra-mundane 
 elements, which my client called by the mysterious 
 name of immortality ; with which it was my client's 
 decided intention to unlock the massy doors of the old 
 states prison, that sable bastile of sin and death; which 
 prison, please this wise and intelligent court, has in all 
 ages of the world, even by the potent kings and princes 
 of the earth, with all the rich, wise and great men 
 thereof: — so that this dungeon or prison-ship of death, 
 please your learned honours the judges of this court, 
 has ever been considered as entirely invulnerable, 
 against all prisoners which the righteous and strong 
 arm of the civil and military laws of the kingdoms, and 
 states of the earth, at any time antecedently to the im- 
 prisonment of my client, which the officers of the law 
 placed within its strong and massy walls and doors in 
 safe keeping in durance for ever. 
 
 This, please your honours, being the well known 
 nature of the case, with respect to my client, w ho is 
 called Christ ; I say, then, please this court, with the 
 wisdom, knowledge and good sense, I this moment per- 
 ceive to be located in the intelligent lineaments of its 
 forensick, or, if you please, legal countenances, I hum- 
 bly appeal again to the good sense of this court, and 
 please your learned honours, through the medium of 
 this court, and all rational and intelligent beings on the 
 face of the whole earth — I ask again, for I wish that all 
 persons as well as this court, clearly to understand me. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 89 
 
 Can any person, of the mediocrity of common sense, 
 reasonably blame this ingenious key-maker, for opening 
 the old iron-bound door of the bastile of sin and death, 
 and making his final elopement, from the damp walls, 
 and cymmerian asmosphere, and sombre shades, which 
 has been for so many ages, within the walls of that 
 gloomy dungeon, in the lower hold of the old prison- 
 ship of death, that has been sailing, like the enemy of 
 Job, to and fro, in the nebulous seas of eternal night ? 
 But, please your honours the judges, with the jury, 
 by casting my vision on the dial of this court, it oner- 
 ously admonishes me, of my promise of brevity, in my 
 plea before the bar of this high court of law and in- 
 quest, in the justification of my client's conduct, in 
 breaking out of jail; but I devoutly pray the court, not 
 to impugn my motives, in my pleading, in the behalf 
 of this singular break-jail ; as if it were my design to 
 justify all malefactors in breaking out of prison, who 
 have been sent there for their crimes and manifold sins 
 and wickedness ; no, please the court, it is not my de- 
 sign to nullify the arm of the civil law, well knowing, 
 that all such nullifying doctrines are subversive of the 
 good order of civil society, as well as in direct opposi- 
 tion to the mandates of the gods, who preside over our 
 civick altars ; so that some of them have commanded 
 it to be written, in letters of brass over the altars in 
 all our civil courts. 
 
 ^^Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, (that 
 is the civil law,) resisteth the ordinance of God ;" 
 and that all those, that do so resist the arm of the civil 
 law of any land, shall receive the judgments and pen- 
 alties which are annexed to the violation of the laws 
 of their country. — But, please your learned honours, the 
 case of my client is quite otherwise, he has been merely 
 placed at the bar of this court by proxy, dressed like an 
 effigy, with the constuperating garments of the wildest 
 crimes, thrown over his shoulders, by the jealously and 
 malice of his enemies : — without a solitary witness to 
 prove a single fact or charge against him. Therefore, 
 the forensick vision of this enlightened court, clearly 
 
 h3 
 
90 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 sees the ground on which I stand this day, for the first 
 time, in all my practice of civil law, in presenting my- 
 self at its bar, as the avowed advocate for a notorious 
 break-jail. I therefore plead his cause, because I be- 
 lieve my client was seized, condemned, crucified, and 
 his dead body cast into the nauseous dungeon of death : 
 being at the time, entirely innocent of all the groundless 
 charges and allegations preferred against him. There- 
 fore, may it please your learned honours, the judges of 
 this mysterious and singular cause, and the impartial 
 jury in the box, both the sun dial and my promise of 
 brevity, compel me to close my plea ; — but permit me 
 to iterate again, that in the justification of my client's 
 conduct, in breaking out of jail, or, if the court think I 
 am somewhat irrelevant, in the use of my trope or 
 figurative vocabular, at its profound bar, I say then in 
 a more prose or simple style, that my client finding his 
 way out of the sepulchre, by some means to us mun- 
 dane beings unknown: — Therefore, please your hon- 
 ours, the judges of this high court of chancery, with 
 the impartial jury of Roman citizens, in the box, I shall 
 no longer consume the precious time of this attentive 
 court, with any further remarks, on the nature and 
 character of this young and ingenious key maker : — 
 therefore, it only remains for me in the conscientious 
 discharge of a counsel's professional duty towards his 
 client, both humbly and obsequiously to devoutly pray, 
 and onerously move your honours the judges, with the 
 wisdom and knowledge of this whole court of law and 
 inquest, over the crucified body of Christ, my client 
 that the supposed break-jail, or lost body of the afore- 
 said Christ, be, by the wisdom and clemency of this 
 court, honourably discharged from any farther durance 
 or vexatious detention before the bar of this high court 
 of law and inquest; and that this said Christ, my client, 
 be from this day forth, to the end of this mundane dis- 
 pensation — that he the said Christ, please this court, be 
 held entirely free from all kinds of reprehensions and 
 liabilities whatsoever, in the resurrection story; 
 whether, please your honours, the report of Caiaphas 
 
CHRLST REJECTED. 91 
 
 the high priest of the Jews, and the Roman watch be 
 true or false, or whether he effected his escape or went 
 out of the sepulchre by some agency beyond the con- 
 trol of mortals: when the old Roman counsellor sat 
 down and said no more. 
 
 A small note to the reader, hy the stenographer of this 
 little work. 
 
 The idea which onerously beares on the mind of the writer, 
 is this, that if Christ did indeed rise from the dead, it is the 
 sealing act of the whole truth of the bible, from Genesis to 
 Revelation; and forms at the same time, the colossean pil- 
 lar, on the which, the vast and stupendous dome of the whole 
 truth of the gospel, of the Son of God rests. Christian friends, 
 what a most extensive conosure, [that is a feast,] for all the 
 nations of the earth, that is, for that part of mankind who 
 are lovers of immortality ; — but what a re-action it will bring 
 on Jews, and Deists, on Free-thinkers, and vain Philosophers, 
 by raising the awful fountains of the wrath of God ; and at 
 the same time, forming a head, in the sea of the high dis- 
 pleasure of the Almighty ; from which a tremendous catar- 
 act shall rush forth and sweep their risible, and scoffing 
 souls into everlasting ruin. 
 
 The writer iterates again, it will make warm work for all the 
 ungodly ships and squadrons, on board of which Jews, Deists, 
 Atheists, and vain Philosophers sail. But if Christ was 
 stolen out of the sepulchre, the afore-named gentlemen, of the 
 unbelieving school, may strike their sensual lyre, with the 
 intonation of their voice, soaring upward, to the muse of the 
 sleepy goddess, just like a sky lark on a mid-summer morn : 
 Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. — A word, to the 
 wise is sufficient. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as the old lawyer 
 sat down, the Chief judge rose and informed the court, 
 that it was the opinion of himself, and his forensick 
 coadjutors, the judges, who are associated with him 
 on this mysterious trial, that the humble and obsequious 
 prayer of the old Roman barrister, in the behalf of the 
 crucified body of Christ, should be, by this court, most 
 benignly granted; by giving the crucified body of 
 
\flS CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Christ a final discharge from all cognizance, and a 
 plenary acquittal from all court charges, and from all 
 reprehension and further liabilities : — And also, from 
 all further search for the reported dead body of Christ, 
 in this mundane state for ever. 
 
 The above opinion of the judges was agreed to by 
 the jury, without leaving the box; and the same enter- 
 ed on the records of the court of Areopagus, and sign- 
 ed by order of the court. 
 
 His learned honours, Doctors Common Sense, Chief 
 Judge ; Truth and Justice, Clerks of this high court 
 of Chancery. — 1832. 
 
 When the Chief Judge adjourned this court to meet in the 
 same place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 93 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 And it came to pass, that early on the morning of the 
 third day of the trial, the court met pursuant to ad- 
 journment. The doors being opened at an early hour, 
 the galleries were soon filled to overflowing, with Jew- 
 ish and Deistical ladies and gentlemen, of high blood 
 and patrician birth; and after these the aisles and areas 
 of the court were filled with a multifarious throng of 
 plebeians of the common and lower orders of the peo- 
 ple. These low people were, many of them, lovers of 
 immortality, and secret friends to the doctrine of Christ 
 rising from the dead. 
 
 By this time, the Chief with his four associate judges 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice with its drawn sword of impartiality. 
 
 2. Truth weighing the testimony of Caiaphas, the High Priest of the Jews, 
 which he gives in at the bar of this court. 
 
 3. The philosophy of the human mind, pointing the finger of scorn at the 
 cross of Christ. 
 
 4. Vain Philosophy gazing at the stars. 
 
 5. The five judges who try this cause. 
 
 6. Caiaphas giving his evidence at the bar. 
 
 7. The States-attorney opening the prosecution against the High priest. 
 
 8. Caiaphas' counsel taking his notes. 
 
 9. The marshal and sheriff leaving the court. 
 
 10. The twelve jurymen. 
 
94 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 had arrived, and also all the other learned gentlemen 
 of the bar, who constituted the forensick elements of 
 this high court of chancery. — As soon as the officers of 
 the court were all at their proper locations, the mar- 
 shal of the empire and the sheriff of Rome, brought in 
 his holiness, the high priest of the Jews, and placed 
 him at the bar of this court. And as soon as all the 
 forensick etiquette and customary formalities of this 
 court were accomplished, the king's attorney rose, and 
 with his usual share of legal etiquette, informed Caia- 
 phas, that he had been inducted by the high officers of 
 the crown, under the sanction of the righteous arm of 
 the civil and martial laws of the realm, to the bar of 
 this high court of law and inquest, on a charge of the 
 most notorious delinquency of his professional duty, in 
 the late distressing and gloomy catastrophe, w^hich had 
 so most shamefully overcast the antecedent glory of the 
 royal bastile of sin and death, in your suffering the 
 escape of that noted prisoner, called Christ. And in 
 consequence of that serious loss, it becomes my duty, 
 as the official organ of the law of the realm, to inform 
 your grace, that by this unprecedented default in your 
 ecclesiastical duty, you have placed yourself at the bar 
 of this profound tribunal,' as being one of the unhappy 
 agents of tarnishing the penal glory of all the strong 
 holds in our legitimate sovereign's empire; and also, 
 greatly undulating the calm sea of Reason and Philoso- 
 phy. 
 
 The States-general having made those few prefatory 
 remarks, to Caiaphas, the prisoner at the bar of this 
 court, he as counsel for the crow^n, desired the high 
 priest to rise and present himself at the clerk's table, 
 in order to be solemnly affirmed in these w^ords: "That 
 the testimony which this high court of impartial law 
 and inquest, shall call on you to give in at the righteous 
 bar, whether, please your grace, it shall be of a colla- 
 teral, circumstantial, presumptive, or a positive nature, 
 shall be the truth, the w^hole truth and nothing but the 
 truth, in the sight of the civic gods, who preside over 
 the altars of truth and justice ; and also in the sight of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. ^ 
 
 that God, the signs of whose holiness your pontifical 
 robes and sacred office, this day, do so solemnly pre- 
 sent before the bar of this court." 
 
 Caiaphas rose and went to the clerk's table, and 
 was there legally affirmed ; when the high priest pre- 
 sented himself at the bar of the court, and said, May 
 it please your honours the judges with the jury, all that 
 has come officially to my knowledge, in this very un- 
 felicitous occurrence, which has spread a dispensation 
 of fogs, clouds and even cymmerian darkness over the 
 strong holds of the king of terrors, is this— to wit; that 
 after this subdolous affair took place, that part of the 
 watch which was composed of the soldiers of the royal 
 army of Rome, came into the city of Jerusalem, inquir- 
 ing for my palace ; when some of my pious friends, the 
 Scribes and Pharisees, conducted them to my residence. 
 And as I observed, please the court, an unusual pale- 
 ness in the countenances of the men, I desired one of 
 my household servants to lead the guards into my pri- 
 vate drawing room — when I desired my private secre- 
 tary to go in and inquire into the nature of their 
 business : who returned in a few minutes, and informed 
 me, that these soldiers had a secret errand to commu- 
 nicate to me : — when I left the secretary, and went in 
 unto them. The ffi^st thing I was able to discover in 
 the men, was that their minds had been under a most 
 powerful influence of fear — the cause to me being as 
 yet unknown. 1 saw that they wished to communicate 
 something of an unfortunate nature to me ; but their 
 organs of utterance appeared, for the time being, to be 
 so powerfully embargoed, that they could not articulate 
 a single word. 
 
 Seeing, please the court, their embarrassed condition, 
 I desired them to sit still for a few moments, and com- 
 pose their minds, and I would retire and return again. 
 So in less than half an hour I re-entered the drawing- 
 room, when all their countenances seemed in some de- 
 gree composed. I sat myself down in my old theologi- 
 cal chair, when the captain of the watch rose and re- 
 ported to me, "that as all the guards were standing and 
 
96 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 walking round the sepulchre, the air being serene, and 
 the stars scintillating with unusual brilliancy, in a few 
 moments the whole garden was involved in a dense 
 cloud of primeval darkness, followed by an awful con- 
 cussion of the ground, and a precursory sound in the 
 surrounding elements where we stood ; when a most 
 powerful and constuperating influence, of a deadly 
 nature, came upon us, and threw us all into a deep 
 sleep, in which all our senses were taken from us — so 
 that for the time being, or while this opiate cloud and 
 mysterious dispensation of darkness remained over the 
 garden and sepulchre, our senses were all so onerously 
 embargoed, by some power and influence, to us un- 
 known, that we neither saw, heard, or felt any per- 
 son or thing, of what transpired, either in the garden, 
 or at the sepulchre : and that it was during this strange 
 and singular interregnum, of all our physical, mental 
 and moral powers, that the eleven disciples came, while 
 this darkness remained, and stole the crucified body 
 of their master, who they call Christ, and went oflf with 
 him, we know not where." When, I observed, they 
 were not responsible for things beyond their natural 
 controul. When the captain of the watch replied — 
 "true, please your grace, nevertheless, your holiness can- 
 not be insensible of the awful responsibility this mys- 
 terious catastrophe lays the v/hole of the watch under, 
 to the strict martial discipline of the Roman army ; and 
 we humbly pray your holiness, to intercede for us with 
 the governor, that our punishment may in some way 
 be commuted, or else we are sensible, death will 
 be our doom." 
 
 And please the court, the simplicity and apparent 
 honesty of these unlettered soldiers, led me to take a 
 special interest in their behalf; when I gave the cap- 
 tain of the watch to understand, that I stood on the 
 most amiable ground with Pontius Pilate, and that I 
 should use all my influence with the governor, not only 
 that their punishment should be barely commuted, but 
 I should try to get his Roman honour to pass the whole 
 matter over, by observing a profound silence in the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 97 
 
 case altogether ; as I shall present to his enlightened 
 and reflecting mind, sufficient motives ; so that you all 
 may return to your military station, without the least 
 fear of being called up to the bar of a court martial, on 
 account of the loss of the crucified body of Christ out 
 of the sepulchre. 
 
 The guards then rose, and obsequiously tendered to 
 me their most lively sense of military gratitude, for the 
 interest I took in their deliverance from future punish- 
 ment ; when I accompanied them to my palace door, 
 and slipped into the hand of the captain of the watch a 
 piece of money, that he and his comrades might com- 
 fort their hearts together, after the fear and distress that 
 had come upon them in the garden, and also to relieve 
 them from all foreboding fears of future punishment. 
 When, please this court, the fellows left my palace, 
 with countenances expressive of joy. This, please 
 your learned honours the judges, with the impartial 
 jury of this court, is all that came officially to my 
 knowledge, of the loss of the crucified body of Christ 
 out of the sepulchre. When the Chief Judge desired 
 Caiaphas to sit down. 
 
 The crown barrister^ or States-attorney^ s plea, against 
 Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, in the days of 
 Tiberius Ceasar, and also in the days of Pontius Pilate* 
 
 And it came to pass, that when Caiaphas, the pris- 
 oner in durance, at the bar of this court of law and in- 
 quest, had taken his seat, that the learned counsel on 
 the behalf of the crown, rose and presented himself at 
 the bar, with a few notes in his hand, as a kind of pri- 
 vate prompter to assist his memory : — so when the 
 States-attorney had, by the legal apparatus of his law 
 profession, charged his mind, like a dense thunder cloud 
 labouring in great distress, and directing its course to- 
 w^ards some dry and thirsty land, in order to ease itself 
 of its burden, the crown lawyer opened the upper 
 flood-gates of his law-knowledge, so as to fill all the 
 legal fountains in the precints of his gigantic mind ; 
 
98 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 when the immediate effect that it produced was, that 
 it soon put all the complicated wheels and other delicate 
 parts of his law machinery into full locomotion. He 
 then gave this high court of law and inquest, a plenary 
 view of his legal eloquence, guided by the most masterly 
 display of the ingenuity of his highly cultivated mind, 
 as he stood at the bar, opening all the shades of Caia- 
 phas' presumed guilt, and all the bearings of the law on 
 his case, by oftentimes increasing the intonation of his 
 voice, as we have once said ; and the reader will pass by 
 all his trite acumen and legal remarks, at the bar of this 
 court; when the crown barrister went on, filling the 
 court with the scintillating fire of his law oratory, and 
 leaving all the technical words, so much in use in civil 
 courts, suffer the relevancy of my figure, when he, just 
 like the sky-lark leaving its nest, located in some hil- 
 lock of grass in a lonely meadow, on the dawn of a 
 bright mid-summer morn — so that like the natural 
 figure alluded to, he would almost rise perpendicularly 
 towards the altar of the oratorical muse, from whence 
 he would again refresh his mind, and richly embellish his 
 tongue with more of his persuasive, his harmonious 
 oratory, and graceful eloquence ; which being attract- 
 ed by the lightning-rod of the law of the realm, down 
 which the States-attorney, with his legal skill, endea- 
 voured to convey all the vituperating electrical fluid, 
 from all the collateral and circumstantial clouds, which 
 the crown lawyer's eagle-eye saw so closely connected 
 with the delinquency of Caiaphas, in the loss or escape 
 of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 And with many other words and eloquent signs of ideas, 
 did the crown attorney solemnly testify to this high 
 court of chancery, at times, in almost supra-mundane 
 language — which seemed rather to baffle the scribbling 
 dexterity of the stenographer to note down in legible 
 characters. 
 
 In order to impress the mind of the court, that some 
 of the deepest shades of suspicion, onerously con- 
 verged their sable hues on the reprehensible head of 
 Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, in the obvious 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 99 
 
 delinquency of his moral and professional duty, in not 
 preventing the escape of the crucified body of Christ 
 out of the sepulchre — seeing that all the riches of him- 
 self and nation, could not countervail the king's dama- 
 ges. 
 
 And it came to pass, when his learned honour, on 
 the side of the crown, had emptied his labouring cloud, 
 which in the sequel — it did only appear, that all his 
 fine eloquence and declamatory oratory, had only been 
 generated by the dry congress of his wind organs, 
 which he had merely drawn by his postulatory air- 
 pumpy from the windy clouds of empty suspicion; so 
 that the States-attorney's fine words made but a mere 
 transient impression on the mind of this intelligent and 
 enlightened court, which very soon evaporated, when 
 the rays of light from the sun of common-sense darted 
 through the court : and soon converged its luminous 
 coruscation, on the wisdom and knowledge of all the 
 law elements of this high court of law and inquest. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the States-general 
 had gone through with all the impugning arguments he 
 seemed to be master of, in his plea against Caiaphas 
 the high priest of the Jews, his learned honour, the 
 counsel for the crown, most onerously moved the judges 
 with the whole court, that he viewed it to be the court's 
 duty, through the eye of the law of his sovereign and 
 the realm, to find a heavy bill of censure, and also to 
 immerse Caiaphas the high Priest of the Jews, in a bill 
 of heavy penalties, for the loss or escape of the crucified 
 body of Christ, out of the sepulchre: — when the States- 
 general sat down. 
 
 And the Chief Judge rose and signified, that the hour 
 to adjourn had arrived: so the court stood adjourned to 
 meet the next day. 
 
100 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court of Areopagus 
 met pursuant to adjournment, early on the morning of 
 the fourth day of this very important trial. And after 
 the usual legal comity of this high court of law and in- 
 quest, were gone through, the counsellor employed by 
 Caiaphas to defend his cause, rose and thus addressed 
 the judges and jury, with that boldness of legal style, 
 for which the ancient civilians of Roman law were 
 highly distinguished throughout the world, and said: — 
 May it please your learned honours the judges, with the 
 gentlemen that this day constitute the legal authorities 
 of this court of law and inquest, over the loss of the 
 crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre — my con- 
 science, may it please the court to indulge me with the 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice with its draAvn sword of Impartiality. 
 
 2. Truth weighing all the testimony that may be given during this trial. 
 
 3. The philosophy of thelmman mind, pointing the finder of scorn at tiie 
 cross of Jesus Christ. 
 
 4. The five Judges who try this cause. 
 
 5. Vain Priiloso|)hy, gazing at the new heavens in the age of Reason. 
 
 6. The counsellor who pleads and advocates the cause of Caiaphas. 
 
 7. Caiaphas in the criminal's box. 
 
 8. The twelve jurymen pannelled, and in the box. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 101 
 
 free use of the name of this uncourtly stranger, although 
 such a singular, moral phenomena may appear somewhat 
 strange for a Roman civilian to bring with him into 
 court — I am, please your honours, constrained to admit 
 the relevancy of your partial surprise to be correct, and 
 oftentimes lamentably too true, as it respects many of 
 our lower courts of civil law ; yet, may it please your 
 learned honours the judges of this high court of chan- 
 cery, from the high fame which I have heard from my 
 youth up to this day, of the impartial justice that has 
 been antecedently administered from this bar, to all 
 men, whether rich or poor, wise or simple — which 
 leads me to draw these reflections of the high character 
 of this court this morning: so that it involuntarily 
 leads me to take the liberty to ask Doctor Conscience, 
 to take a seat by my side, before the bar of this court, 
 in order to correct the manifold errata of my judgment, 
 and regulate the rapsodious pendulation, of my declama- 
 tory tongue, which experience teaches me, is very 
 often set in motion by the apposite air-pump of court 
 vocabulary — emptying the mind of sound and rational 
 argument, and the dictates of common sense. These 
 are the philanthropic view^s, which the high character 
 of this court justifies me to take of its legal rectitude — 
 the court will indulge me with the doctor's company. 
 Nevertheless, may it please your honours, sensible as I 
 am that you are all gentlemen of like passions with'my- 
 self, therefore, allow me to observe, that while your 
 honours are pursuing the profession of law^ you may be 
 led, at the first sight of this uncourtly stranger, as pre- 
 senting a coindication of his illegability to appear at 
 our bar : so that at times, it may seem to elicit both 
 the surprise and risibility of your minds to a greater 
 altitude of wonder, than even the dogmatical negation 
 of the wise Solomon : " that there is nothing new^ under 
 the sun." But, please your learned honours, waving 
 all further apology for thus unceremoniously introduc- 
 ing the appellative of conscience, as my guide at the bar 
 of this court of law and inquest this morning. 
 
 I shall now, please your honours, the judges and the 
 i2 
 
103 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 gentlemen of the jury, just observe, that my conscience, 
 guided by i\\Q safety-valve of justice, under the helm of 
 the law, and the compass of truth, directing me to the 
 polar star of impartiality ; and with the chart of my 
 professional duty to my theological client, Caiaphas 
 the high priest of the Jews, laying before me ; — and 
 may it please this court, it gives me the most ample 
 satisfaction to reflect, that my conscience for once, is 
 in the most felicitous unison with all the antecedent 
 elements of truth, justice and equity, for which this 
 court has spread its eclat before the whole world, viz : 
 antecedently to this mysterious trial. These things 
 being thus premised, I am prepared to say at the bar 
 of this court, (and suffer me to extend my boldness to 
 the whale world of mankind,) that I widely differ from 
 the learned counsel on the side of the crown. And in 
 order to convince this court, that the ground I have 
 taken is firm and tenable, I shall p^ay the court to 
 charitably extend a few degrees of the longitude of its 
 patience towards me, as counsel for the defendant. 
 And although I bow with the most profound reverence 
 at the civic altars of my country, and also in the pres- 
 ence of this august court, and at ihe same time, I trust, 
 my mind is deeply imbued with a conscientious respect 
 for all your learned honours, that from my youth up, I 
 have been habitually led to highly respect. Neverthe- 
 less, I experience the most plenary affiance in my mind, 
 as a civilian of Roman laAv, and as a professional per- 
 son at the bar of this court, that I shall be able to con- 
 secutively place before your honours the judges, and 
 the gentlemen of the jury, such a sweeping flood of the 
 most indubitable testimony, and such a ponderous 
 weight of the most irrefragable argument of the entire 
 innocency of my client's conduct and character, in what 
 relates to the most faithful and conscientious discharge 
 of his duty, in order to safely secure the crucified body 
 of Christ in the sepulchre for ever, which, I humbly 
 trust, shall fully satisfy the most sceptical of the gen- 
 tlemen and ladies in the galleries, and this court. 
 Therefore, this court will be so kind as to remember. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 103 
 
 that the first member or head of my legal text, is as 
 follows : to wit : The circumstances of the high priest 
 Caiaphas, at the time of the robbery of the sepulchre. 
 Therefore, please this court, 1 have laid myself under 
 an imperious obligation to prove to this court, that the 
 conduct and character of my client shall stand in the 
 view of all men, on a colossus of theological rectitude; 
 that is, please your honours, as it respects any remiss- 
 ness on the part of Caiaphas; or, if your honours please, 
 I shall make it appear, that there were not the least 
 coindication of delinquency in any of his official acts or 
 duties, in the which my client did not pay the most 
 prompt attention, and fully identified himself with Pilate, 
 in all the lawful means within the wide range of his 
 physical, mental, civil, ecclesiastical arid moral capa- 
 bilities — ^during, please your honours, the time that 
 that subdolous cataract rushed down on the old bastile 
 of death, and swept away all the trophies of its long 
 antecedent glory. 
 
 And, please your honours, I am constrained to admit, 
 that if the report of the robbery of the sepulchre is in- 
 deed true, it certainly was one of the most villainous 
 and sacrilegious robberies, that ever was to this day, 
 presented to the view of mankind ; and I experience a 
 full assurance in my mind, that the legal sense of this 
 court, will glide down with me on the perennial current 
 of common sense ; so that your learned honours the 
 judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, of this court of 
 law and inquest will, I have no doubt, say in a legal 
 soliloquy, in your honours' minds — it certainly was 
 one of the most inauspicious circumstances, that to this 
 day has ever undulated the audibility of the childi-en 
 of men; and at the same time, disturbed the calm 
 sea of the placid minds of the princes and kings of the 
 earth. That is, please your honours, in case the sand 
 bank, which I have rather ironically rested my postu- 
 latory feet upon before the bar of this court, be true — 
 to wit : That this said Christ is, at this very moment, 
 enjoying a perfect state of convalescence ; jjidding to 
 the philosophy of the human mind the most plenary de- 
 
104 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 fiance. There is, please your honours, such a vague re- 
 port now flying through the Roman empire, that it is so. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, with the impartial jury, in order that I may 
 place my legal remarks before the bar of the court, 
 with as much congruity as possible, at the same time 
 associated with a few rays of perspicuity, at least as 
 much so as my limited talents are capable of — which 
 I intend presenting in a kind of law prospectus, before 
 the legal vision of your honours. 
 
 r shall, therefore, please the court, first take up a 
 circumstantial view of the defendant's condition, as a 
 coindication of his innocency; secondly, I shall take an 
 excursive survey of the presumptive signs of the inno- 
 cency of the prisoner at the bar; and, thirdly, and 
 lastly, lay hold of all the words and acts of the defen- 
 dant, that legally came under the character of positive 
 evidence, with all the discursive strength that my 
 forensick mind and argumentive tongue, has the free 
 command of: Therefore, please the court, the first point 
 of investigation in my promised arrangement, is the 
 notorious circumstances, associated with the office and 
 functions held by Caiaphas, which placed him before 
 his own nation, [and also before a vast number of the 
 free citizens of the greatest monarchy that has ever 
 existed, or been known among men,] in the most con- 
 spicuous point of view. 
 
 And may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 does this court of law and inquest demand of me, as 
 counsel for the defendant, to state categorically to the 
 court, what those circumstances were? And no doubt, 
 his learned honour the States-attorney, is almost ready 
 to exclaim. What in the name of common sense, and 
 of our new gods of Reason and Philosophy, were those 
 marvellous circumstances, that you so forensickly vein 
 about at the bar of this enlightened and intelligent 
 court? I can inform his learned honour, after I shall 
 with my handkerchief, made of the fine linen of Egypt, 
 spunged the flowing tears from my veining eyes, when 
 I shall the more cheerfully indulge his honour, and the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 105 
 
 whole court, with some few of the marvellous circum- 
 stances of my client, the high priest of the Jew's case, 
 at the time of the robbery of the sepulchre. 
 
 In the first place, his learned honour will notice with 
 the court, Caiaphas the prisoner at the bar was, please 
 your learned honours the judges, and the impartial 
 jury, the only chief pontiff of a national church, which 
 at that period of time did sustain the greatest altitude 
 of religious fame and notoriety in the whole world — and 
 I pray the court to indulge me to add to this \iew of 
 the theological elevation of his sacerdotal character, the 
 outward and imposing grandeur of his temple, in the 
 city of Jerusalem. On the golden altars of the same, 
 the prisoner at the bar, annually offered up his thous- 
 ands of holocust or burnt offerings. And in addition 
 to this, the scintillating glory of his holy pontifical 
 robes ; especially on the days of expiation, when the 
 prisoner at the bar of this court, the high priest of the 
 Jews, was fully attired in all his sacerdotal garments, 
 which please your honours and the jury, when fully 
 exposed to the coruscations of light from the sun of our 
 solar system, created a transient halo of glory round 
 his person, which imbued the mind of the beholder 
 with a sacred veneration, both for his person and char- 
 acter. 
 
 And in order to convince your learned honours the 
 judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, that the portrait 
 I have given the court of the imposing grandeur of his 
 temple, and the glory of his person, with the whole 
 circle of felicitous circumstances that daily more or 
 less surround the prisoner at the bar: — and in order to 
 corroborate the view I have given this court, in my re- 
 marks of Caiaphas' priestly glory, 1 have only to refer 
 your learned honours to your extensive reading ; for I 
 experience the most ample confidence in my mind, that 
 all the learned elements which this day constitutes the 
 legal functionaries of this court, have become well 
 acquainted, by reading our ancient writers — who, 
 please the court, inform us, that this was literally the 
 case : as when the Grecian hero and prostrate^ of a 
 
106 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 number of the barbarous and civilized nations of the 
 earth, set out to destroy Jerusalem, he was met by one 
 of the holy brethren of Caiaphas. And as the conquer- 
 ing prince approached the holy city, with his maraud- 
 ing mind overflowing the purlieus of all the tender- 
 lines of humanity ; and when like a rushing cataract 
 the furious and pugnacious elements of the heart of an 
 insulted conqueror, with, please your learned honours, a 
 full determination to destroy both the temple and city 
 of Jerusalem ; but, being met on the road by the high 
 priest of the Jews, richly caparisoned in his pontifical 
 robes, coming in contact with the rays of the sun, the 
 scintillating and dazzling glory thereof had such a mar- 
 vellous and powerful effect on his mind, for the time 
 being, that it turned the raging sea of his passions into 
 the philanthropic elements of a fostering guardian to 
 the temple and city of the Jews. 
 
 In justification of the foreojoing reference, of the im- 
 posing glory of the person of Caiaphas, the prisoner at 
 the bar of this court, permit me to tax your learned 
 honour's patience, with one more collateral circum- 
 stance, from our story writers, of the outward glory of 
 Caiaphas' condition. I refer the court to the illustri- 
 ous and humane conduct of one of the best of the Roman 
 generals, by the weil known name of Titus. This con- 
 quering hero, about six or seven and thirty years sub- 
 sequent to the elopement or stealing of the crucified 
 ^ody of Christ, as it is reported, out of the sepulchre, 
 our historians inform us, that as Titus stood on the 
 battle ground, in the midst of his martial legions, view- 
 ing the deleterious effects which the sanguinary rava- 
 ges of a desolating war had brought on the Jewish 
 nation, with the entire destruction of their city and 
 temple, that his philanthropic sensibilities were raised 
 by the mournful steam of human woe, to the highest 
 degree. Viewing so much art, science and riches, all 
 amalgamating together in one flaming cataract, and 
 sweeping city and temple away, by one of the most 
 awful conflagrations, to be seen no more as a people, 
 city and temple, among the nations of the earth ; — that 
 
CHRIST REJECTfiD. lOT 
 
 is, the national visibility of my client's church, temple 
 and pontifical gloiy, were all swept from the earth in 
 a few hours, by this smoky and flaming cataract ; 
 which caused Titus to undulate the battle ground, with 
 the distress and deep affliction of his noble and philan- 
 thropic soul. 
 
 These things, please your honours, I mention from 
 among a number of others that I could bring forth, 
 were it not superfluous for me to consume the time of 
 this court and the patience of your honours the judges, 
 with the gentlemen of the jury, in a long detail of the 
 most obvious collateral circumstances of the same 
 character ; which would all go to prove what were the 
 existing circumstances of Caiaphas my client, at the 
 time this subdolous catastrophe took place ; that is, 
 please this court, that the prisoner at the bar was, by 
 his ecclesiastical offices and functions, at the time of 
 the stealing the body of Christ out of the sepulchre, in 
 the full enjoyment of the theological glory of the Jew's 
 church — shining forth in his meridian splendor; and 
 round whose pontifical honour, as a sun in the midst 
 of his theological firmament, giving light and vitality 
 to all the religious satellites, that daily more or less re- 
 volve round him ; and was fully identified in all her re- 
 ligious opperations. 
 
 And may it please your honours the judges, and the 
 gentlemen of the jury of this court, I place these things 
 before your view, as a mere miniature portrait of the 
 circumstances my client was placed in, when our lord 
 the king had his old bastile of death invaded by some 
 irreptitious foe; who surreptitiously obtained out of 
 the king's custom-house, the crucified body of Christ. 
 And whoever the obreptitious and subdolous villain or 
 villains were, it appears, please your honours, hard to 
 find out or who has taken this same mysterious being 
 to some unknown w^orld, so that the marshal and 
 sheriflf of our sovereign's kingdom have reported at the 
 bar of this court, on the first day of the trial, that the 
 body of Christ is not to be found in this earthly dispen- 
 sation. 
 
lOS CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 And now, I humbly pray this court, to indulge me 
 with this conclusion, in favour of my client, which is 
 this, please your learned honours the judges and the 
 gentlemen of the jury, only let the legal wisdom and 
 knowledge, which I am fully persuaded this wise and 
 enlightened court is in the full possession of, be applied 
 to his case, as it regards men and things; and then you 
 will grant, that if the prisoner at the bar, the high priest 
 of the Jews, had only been blessed with a sane state of 
 mind, and a rational capacity, that did not even pass 
 the line of mediocrity of the multifarious throng ; or, 
 if your honours the judges please, and think a softer 
 phrase would become the bar of this high court of law 
 and inquest, I say the generality of mankind ; and then 
 the simple inference or common-sense conclusion, which 
 I shall draw from the foregoing premises, is this : that 
 the prisoner at the bar, who was the high priest of the 
 Jews, at the time of the sad loss of the crucified body 
 of Christ out of the sepulchre, was a person who had 
 only reached the acme of bare common sense. Then, 
 may it please your learned honours, Caiaphas, in the 
 very nature of the case, must have been fully awake to 
 his own interest, and saw that it lay so deeply imbeded 
 and strongly identified in all the collateral circumstan- 
 ces of his high and ecclesiastical dignity, in which he 
 was placed both before his own people the Jews, and 
 thousands of wise and shrewd Greeks and Romans. 
 
 These few very imperfect remarks, please your hon- 
 ours, when I consider the magnitude of the cause I am 
 endeavouring to vindicate before this enlightened bar, 
 I shall leave with your learned honours, the judges and 
 the gentlemen of the jury, and all the legal gentlemen 
 who this day constitute the forensick elements of the 
 wisdom and knowledge of this high court of chancery, 
 merely as a solution of the first head of my legal text, 
 to wit : the circumstantial evidence, that the prisoner 
 at the bar must naturally have been led to have done 
 his share of holy duty, to secure and keep the crucified 
 body of Christ in safe durance in the grave or sepuK 
 chre forever. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 109 
 
 Thus the court sees, how widely I am led to differ 
 from the attorney general, on the side of the crown, 
 respecting the guilt of the prisoner at the bar. His 
 learned honour was led to predicate my client's guilt, 
 by some trite remarks and mere postulatory assertions, 
 based entirely on an arena of sand, which is continually 
 shifting its position in the foul waters, in the river of 
 presumption; so that, please this court of impartial law 
 and inquest, you see that his learned honour the crown 
 barrister, was not able fo prove by sound argument, a 
 single allegation which he placed at the bar of this 
 court against my client. For he had not a single irre- 
 fragable testimony to present against my client, so as 
 to convince the court of the least shade of delinquency, 
 in the full discharge of all the duties that devolved on 
 the office and character of the high priest of the Jews, 
 in his not taking sufficient care to prevent the escape 
 of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 When, please this court, the States-general's keen for- 
 ensick vision came down, vulture-like, on some dark 
 spots, while at the same time his strong alfactory sense 
 passed by all the roses and ichite lilies that lay within 
 the purlieu of all the assiduous faithfulness of the high 
 priest's words and acts, to well secure the crucified 
 body of Christ in the sepulchre. 
 
 But I shall say no more on this head of my legal 
 text; when the learned counsellor sat down; and the 
 judge pointed to the dial of the court, which signified 
 that the hour of adjournment had arrived : so the court 
 adjourned to meet in this place the next day. . 
 
110 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The lear7ied Counsellor, for Caiaphas the high pi'iest of the 
 Jews, renetDs and continues his plea from yesterday, at 
 the bar of the high court of Chancery, 
 
 And it came to pass, that this high famed court of 
 impartial law and inquest, met pursuant to adjourn- 
 ment, on the morning of the fifth day. And as soon as 
 all the preliminary etiquette of the court were gone 
 through with, the learned counsellor for the prisoner 
 at the bar, rose and addressed the whole court, by pre- 
 senting to it his high consideration, for the singular 
 and special attention it had paid to his arguments on 
 
 Figure 1. Justice Mith a drawn sword of Impartiality. 
 
 2. Truth weighing the evidence, that has or shall be given to the oom-t 
 on this trial, 
 
 3. Miss Philosophy viewing the heavens— and is overjoyed at the discovery 
 of a system of worlds ; m- hen her enlightened mind draws this conclusion, 
 that Moses and Christ were both ignoramuses in these things. 
 
 4. Carnal Reason pointing the finger of scorn at the cross of Christ. 
 
 5. The five Judges who tiy this cause. 
 
 6. The States-general taking his notes. 
 
 7. The high priest Caiaphas in the criminal's box. 
 
 8. The counsel for Caiaphas pleading his case. 
 *i. The twelve juiymen in the box. 
 
 7. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. ' 111 
 
 the preceding day. While he was expatiating on the 
 first head of his text — although his long ratiocination on 
 the legal points of civil law have but few attractions to the 
 great mass of mankind, and no doubt it may in a great 
 measure appear so to the junior classes of gentlemen 
 and ladies in the galleries, who have been highly favour- 
 ed with a Jewish and philosophical education. The 
 natural vivacity of their minds would, of course, receive 
 my legal reasoning on the abstract points. of civil law, 
 as insipid to their refined sensibilities — as an old writer 
 observes, is the case of the white of an egg. But the 
 solemn attention of this court, during the whole of the 
 previous day, has deeply impressed my mind, that the 
 subject has been more or less interesting; not only to 
 old gentlemen and ladies, but also to young men and 
 maidens. Therefore, I present to the whole of the 
 spectators in the galleries — but more especially the 
 junior class, my warmest acknowledgments for their 
 patience, and remarkable decorum. And I pray the 
 court to accept this morning my unfeigned thanks, for 
 the profound attention which it has paid to my argu- 
 ments on the previous day. The which favourable 
 elements, of the wisdom, knowledge and patience of 
 this court, almost involuntary leads me, as it were, 
 humbly to forecast in my forensick mind, that I shall 
 be favoured this day, with the same solemn and pro- 
 found attention, while we are holding a solemn inquest 
 over the dead body of a crucified man. 
 
 When the counsel turning himself to the judges and 
 jury said — may it please your honours and the jury, I 
 shall endeavour this day, to the best of my professional 
 abilities, to place the second head or member of my legal 
 text, with some few shades of law perspicuity, before 
 the bar of this impartial court : that is, may it please 
 your honours the judges, and thegentlemenof the jury, 
 the presumptive ground that I shall this day take, for 
 the vindication of my client, the prisoner at the bar's 
 innocency — is this ; first, to arrive at the true sense of 
 the word or legal term positive evidence. Now the 
 court well know, that the root or etymology of many 
 
112 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 of our words and ideas, very often vary their sense, 
 both in law and grammar, and even theology : so that 
 many of our words bear a very different signification, 
 as they stand related to, or are associated with other 
 ideas, words, persons and things ; which no doubt, 
 please your honours, is the case with all the languages 
 in use by all the nations of the earth. 
 
 Now, with your learned honours' indulgence, I shall 
 try to explain my views to you, on the root and signi- 
 fication of the words presumptive evidence, by the use 
 of one or two small similies, by way of illustration ; 
 viz : For instance : suppose that a merchant of Rome 
 sends his ship to sea, with a valuable cargo on board ; 
 he wishes his vessel to make a safe and profitable voy- 
 age — and in order thereunto, he supplies his ship with 
 sound spars, new rigging, sails and anchors — has his 
 ship watered and provisioned well, and manned with an 
 athletic and healthy crew — under officers of the first 
 rate experience — well informed of all the dangers with 
 which the seas abound, through which his ship, in her 
 destined voyage, has to pass. Therefore, please your 
 honours, the merchant has a justifiable right, with the 
 danger of the seas only excepted, to presume in his own 
 mind, from the foregoing outfits, and the strength and 
 soundness of his vessel, in all that relates to mari- 
 time affairs, that she will make a safe and profitable 
 voyage. This is the idea I have of the words presump- 
 tive evidence, whether in a good or a bad cause. But 
 once more please your honours, as I wish to be fairly 
 understood of what I mean by the presumptive evidence 
 of the high priest of the Jews* innocency, of the loss of 
 the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. I 
 shall suppose then, by way of illustration, that one of 
 the eastern or northern provinces of the Roman empire 
 is invaded ; and that our sovereign lord, Tiberius, 
 knows the military skill and experience of his generals, 
 and the martial character and undaunte'd bravery of 
 his army, in all that region of his empire; and that his 
 troops are well supplied with arms, clothing and all 
 other munitions of war; so that our much beloved 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 113 
 
 sovereign, when his discursive mind takes an excursive 
 view of that quarter of his empire, he also, like the 
 prudent merchant, is justified in the purlieu, or if your 
 honours please, the court of his own mind, to draw this 
 presumptive conclusion, from his own knowledge of the 
 character and martiat experience of his commanders, 
 and all the minor officers of his army — and from the 
 valour and strict discipline of his troops, and all other 
 warlike supplies and munitions for a long war. 
 
 Is not, may it please your honours the judges and 
 gentlemen of the jury of this court, our legitimate 
 sovereign justified, in entertaining in his own mind, a 
 strong presumptive evidence, that the invading foe, be 
 it who or whom it may, will be either destroyed, taken, 
 or at least driven out of his coast? So that your hon- 
 ours, with the gentlemen of the jury, may clearly see, 
 that the signification of the word presumptive, is sus- 
 ceptible of more or less illustration, from almost every 
 occurrence in common life, in mercantile pursuits, as 
 well as in civil and military aflfairs — whether by sea 
 or land. These two simple, but plain similies, which I 
 have this morning placed before this court, are I hum- 
 bly trust, sufficient to arrive at the legal signification 
 and grammatical force of the words presumptive em* 
 dence. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, and all the 
 other legal elements of this high court of chancery, 
 having in my forensick sandals pursued the perennial 
 current of law knowledge, and at last arrived at a 
 legal solution of the words presumptive evidence, I 
 shall therefore venture to augur, that this court clearly 
 see, arises out of my client's personal knowledge, which 
 he had at the time of the notorious words and acts of 
 Christ, and even long before the sepulchre was robbed 
 of his crucified body. 
 
 And please your honours, I humbly presume, that 
 these things have not escaped through the valve of a 
 treacherous memory, from the minds of your learned 
 honours the judges, and the gentlemen of the jury of 
 
 k2 
 
114 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 this court, who have been so long highly famed, for so 
 wisely and assiduously employing a large portion of 
 your learned honours' valuable time, in hearing and re- 
 ciprocating to each other, all the new and strange 
 things, that have taken place throughout all the near 
 and distant provinces of the empire ; so that this dolo- 
 rous catastrophe in the land of Judea, and noted city 
 of Jerusalem, and the famous temple thereof, viz. the 
 doctrine, works and miracles of Christ; — the great 
 eclat of the same must have reached your learned 
 honours' audibility. 
 
 Now, please this court, the new doctrine this man 
 taught, filled the whole land of Israel with the most 
 popular surprise ; and at the same time elicited the most 
 profound attention of all ranks of society ; not only the 
 plebeians or common people, but even the patrician 
 part of society, among both Jews, Greeks and Romans, 
 with a host of small and large satellites, that daily re- 
 volved round my client, the then high priest of the 
 Jews. Therefore, the presumption, please the court, in 
 my client's case, is this: that the prisoner at the bar, the 
 then high priest of the Jews, must have watched Christ 
 with a jealous eye — viewing him daily, spreading a 
 spirit of effervescence throughout the whole of my 
 client's diocess, over which he held an unlimited eccles- 
 iastical jurisdiction. 
 
 Now, your learned honours are well acquainted with, 
 at least, so much of the general arcanum of human 
 nature, as to know, that rivalship, in either the profes- 
 sion of law or of theology, will at times elicit and even 
 create in the mind, the painful waters of constupera- 
 ting jealousy ; but, more especially so, if the rivalship 
 should arise out of some obscure character, presenting 
 a transient coindication of himself before men, in order 
 to individuate his person above the rest of mankind, or 
 some low-bred character and daring adventurer, sud- 
 denly endeavouring to place himself on the stilts of 
 politics, physic, law or theology. It would naturally 
 lead us in our view of men and things, please your 
 honours, by following no other guide than the polar 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 115 
 
 star of common sense, which will, no doubt, lead the 
 mind of your honours, as it were, imperceptibly to 
 glide off into this conclusion: that is, that such a plebeian 
 person, and obscure character as Christ then appeared to 
 be, in the keen theological eye of Caiaphas, my client at 
 the bar of this court. 
 
 Now, please your learned honours, the words we 
 articulate presumptive evidence, I shall now apply to 
 my client's case, the prisoner at the bar. Therefore, 
 may it please the court, these things in themselves, 
 without the agency of a prompter, were sufficient, in 
 the very nature of the case, to have fully awakened in 
 the forecasting mind of Caiaphas my client, to put 
 forth all the power he was in the possession of, as the 
 pontifical orb, in the heavens of the religious hierarchy 
 of the Jews, to have prevented the success of Christ, 
 and keep him in the low ground, in the midst of his 
 plebeian herd : to wit, his poor Galilean followers, and 
 if possible from the gaze of the public eye. 
 
 And may it please your honours the judges of this 
 court, with the jury, to benignly extend the longitude 
 of your forensick charity to my client, and indulge him 
 with the possession of a mind with a moderate degree 
 of common sense ; then, please the court, the presump- 
 tive evidence in the prisoner at the bar's case, would 
 be this : that my client would act out all the wisdom, 
 knowledge, and all other physical and mental capabili' 
 ties he possessed, so as to prevent, if possible, the future 
 success and rising glory of Christ, and his new but 
 fascinating doctrine of immortality, I would, therefore, 
 humbly ask your learned honours, the judges of this 
 court, if it can for one moment suppose, that Caiaphas, 
 with the theological telescope of justifiable jealousy, 
 for the honour and safety of his national church, and 
 the visibility of the nation, city, temple and religion of 
 his forefathers, all spread before his thoughtful mind — 
 while his keen eye is taking an excursive survey, of this 
 young phosphorus or morning star of immortality, as 
 this Christ called himself: — and then, please your 
 honours, the prisoner at the bar not doing his full 
 
116 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 share of holy and every other class of duty, which his 
 high ecclesiastical functions and office so imperiously 
 laid him under. No, please this court, it would be ten 
 thousand times more likely, that Caiaphas, the prisoner 
 at the bar, would fully act out the character of the wise 
 and prudent merchant, I have already placed in your 
 view, at the bar of this court, with regard to his ship : 
 so that, please your honours, to have his theological 
 ship, or rather national church, overhauled and 
 well manned, under experienced officers, so as to out- 
 ride the resurrection storm ; so that the emersion of 
 this star from the east, which would have a most won- 
 derful influence on the land of Judea, and at the same 
 time, overcast the religious hierarchy of Caiaphas, with 
 clouds and tempestuous weather; and bring down such 
 storms on his theological sea, that there would be great 
 danger of his national ship (or rather church) founder- 
 ing. I will, therefore, with the patience and indulgence 
 of your honours the judges, introduce at the bar of this 
 court, a short anecdote; — although, as a Roman civilian, 
 I am duly sensible that it is in some degree irrelevant 
 in the legal business of courts, to intrude on the former 
 axioms and usuages of this highly famed and impartial 
 court, and that my forensick functions and official duty, 
 ought to admonish me, not to unnecessarily consume 
 the time of this court, with hear-say testimony of this 
 character. But, before I proceed, I shall inform your 
 honours, that my client the prisoner at the bar, did not 
 communicate the anecdote to me, neither did he 
 authorize me as his counsellor, to make the statement 
 to this high court of law and inquest, lest it might ex- 
 hibit the errata of his words and acts. No, please your 
 learned honours, I obtained it from another source. 
 The anecdote is this: One day, as my client, Caiaphas, 
 was sitting in the midst of his friends, in the city of 
 Jerusalem, news was brought to him by his servants, 
 of some of the strange works and miracles of this 
 Christ ; (whether true or false, please your honours the 
 
 i'udges, with the gentlemen of the jury of this court, 
 shall not undertake to say; nevertheless, your wisdom 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 117 
 
 and knowledge, of what belongs to the profession of 
 law, well know, that it is not the province of a Roman 
 civilian to decide ; but the case alluded to is as follows : 
 And when the prisoner at the bar heard of the works 
 of this Christ, he gave such deep groans and distressing 
 sighs, which at last issued forth the struggling foetus of 
 his labouring mind, in this dolorous theological dirge, 
 to all the pious satellites as they revolved round him, 
 in the city of Jerusalem ; when the tremulous sensation 
 of his mind, was somewhat like that which undulated 
 the solid ground, during the shock of an earthquake. 
 His words, please the court, if the report be true, are as 
 follows: "What do wp— ^holy brethren! for this man doth 
 many miracles." When my client went on to observe 
 to his obsequious Servants, that if we dont put a speedy 
 stop to this morning star, that has just made his emer- 
 sion from the chaotick darkness, that had so long spread 
 acymmerian shade over the moral world, he was fully 
 persuaded in his own mind, that the subdolorous and 
 deleterious effects would be, that the mighty Romans 
 will come and put us all out of our pontifical and other 
 theological offices. 
 
 I have, please your learned honours, just glanced at 
 the words of my client, merely to show, that by way 
 of placing the grounds of the presumptive evidence, not 
 on a mere postulatory base — no, please your honours ; 
 my object this day, in the expose I have made of my 
 client's imbecility on one occasion, is merely designed 
 to show the court, that the prisoner at the bar was not 
 asleep, nor insensible of his danger ; but manifested a 
 strong predeliction to do all he could, to arrest the pre- 
 mature growth of this young theological fig tree ; or, if 
 the court disapproves of my natural figure, I shall say, 
 the public career of Christ. Therefore, dropping for a 
 while my trope ideas, which the court may conclude is 
 not so well calculated to instruct the great herd of 
 mankind, especially the plebeian spectators, who this 
 day fill the aisles of this court ; I shall therefore, please 
 your learned honours the judges, pray the further in- 
 dulgence of this court, while I draw this conclusion : 
 
118 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 that the popular doctrines and reported miracles of 
 Christ were of such an imposing character, as were 
 well calculated to excite the dormant fears, and rouse 
 every latent spark of holy jealousy, in my client's mind; 
 and also wound his tender theological sensibilities, in 
 the most vulnerable and delicate part ; so that the 
 court may clearly see, that Christ's public career was 
 not only calculated to admonish him of his danger, but 
 excite him to exercise the utmost vigilance ; while the 
 holy fire of his theological jealousy, was still burning 
 on the altar of his devotional heart — in a flame of almost 
 unsufferable durance : as my client was continually 
 more or less distressed, ^vlth hearing thp fame of the 
 words, and the reported miracles of Christ ; who was 
 daily going in his pedestrious Juurijies, through Caia- 
 phas' vast diocess ; constuperating his theological at- 
 mosphere, and spreading a spirit of effervescence among 
 his people. These things were sufficient in themselves, 
 to create, without the agency of a prompter to whisper 
 into his sacred ear, and give him timely warning of the 
 impending danger; not only for himself, but also for all 
 the great and lesser satellites, that daily revolved round 
 his holiness, as the primary orb in the theological 
 heavens of the Jews religion. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, of this high court of law and inquest, to further 
 indulge the defendant's counsel to add, in addition to 
 the remarks 1 have advanced as the presumptive shades 
 of the innocence of my client, as it regards this lamented 
 loss of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 I therefore wish to enlarge by a few more levies, on 
 the patience and profound attention of this court, on 
 all the points I have laid down on the presumptive 
 doctrine of the defendant's innocence ; therefore, the 
 next thing I shall place at the bar of this high court of 
 chancery, for your learned honours' high consideration, 
 is the taunting, and at times even insulting language of 
 that mysterious being, whose crucified body our sove- 
 reign lord, by some called the king of terrors, has so 
 recently lost out of his iron-bound prison of death, I 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 119 
 
 gay, please the court, that the almost invidious reflec- 
 tions of Christ against the prisoner at the bar, not only 
 against his personal character, but his office, functions 
 and all the mundane glory of my client, the high priest 
 of the Jews. Christ's threatnings were very often ac- 
 companied w^ith his artful and insidious innuendos ; or, 
 may it please your learned honours, the profound 
 judges of this court of chancery, to be a little more 
 chaste in my style, at the bar of this august court ; — 
 I shall say, please your honours, that his pugnacity of 
 spirit, his invidious designs and insidious reflections, 
 which that mysterious being in human form, was more 
 or less in the daily habit of openly insulting the pris- 
 oner at the bar — giving himself, as it were, an unbridled 
 liberty to that vibrating member, called by the plebeian 
 throng, the tongue. 
 
 It appears, please this court, that at certain times, 
 this mundane, or as he called himself, an extra-mundane 
 being — for if reports are in the least to be relied on, he 
 had an amphibious nature, and declared that he was 
 an aborigine of the physical and metaphysical worlds ; 
 or, please your learned honours, in the ruthless language 
 of the lower orders of society, he belonged to the world 
 of nature and spirits. 
 
 And please the court, as I have before said, this said 
 Christ, gave the most plenary latitude to the oscillatory 
 motions and pendulous vibrations of his theological 
 tongue, by throwing out the subdolous threatnings and 
 gloomy signs, in order, no doubt, to undulate the calm 
 sea of the defendant's passions : painting on his new 
 theological telegraph, as he went through the land of 
 Judea, the streets of Jerusalem, and even in the temple; 
 presenting to the view of all the people of the country 
 of Israel, the dolorous hieroglyphics, which in their sig- 
 nification were portentous of the decline and downfall 
 of the whole religious hierarchy of the Jews, with the 
 honour and glory of Caiaphas along with the same; 
 and also, the entire overthrow of his nation, city and 
 temple. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 
120 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 judges of this court, with the jury, I have not been ^ 
 placing at the bar of this court things that are mere 
 postulatory in their character, or things I have assumed 
 without a solid base to rest my arguments upon, in 
 order, may it please your honours that I should place 
 myself in a state of nudity at its bar — or at best, only 
 shrouded in a problematical panoply, and so unfor- 
 tunately fix myself on a postulatory pedestal at the bar 
 of this court, being vulnerable in every part of my 
 argument. No, may it please your learned honours 
 the judges, and the gentlemen of the jury of this court 
 of law and inquest, I have presented the foregoing re- 
 marks at the bar of this court, as a few shades of legal 
 light, on what, I humbly conceive to be the presumptive 
 evidence of Caiaphas, the defendant's innocency, as it 
 respects the sad loss of the crucifired body of Christ out 
 of the sepulchre. 
 
 And now, may it benignly please this high court of 
 chancery, to suffer me, most solemnly, in the name of 
 of all that is honourable and sacred to a Roman civilian, 
 to obsequiously and humbly pray this court, not to 
 prematurely impugn my motives, which the language 
 of my plea has this morning presented to the legal re- 
 flections of your honours ; so that I shall iterate my 
 prayer, and even beseech their learned honours the 
 judges, and jury of this supreme court of law and in- 
 quest, not to pre-judge the prisoner's counsel, as fos- 
 tering in the purlieu of his forensick mind, any latent 
 design to unnecessarily consume the valuable time of 
 this court. No, please the court, although my profes- 
 sional duty onerously leads me to place the second 
 head of my legal text before the bar, not merely to 
 charm the volatile fancy of the juvenile spectators, in 
 the galleries of this court ; — no, may it please your 
 learned honours, I have no time to indulge myself in 
 departing from the free use of prose language, only 
 when I judge I can use figurative with more force, in 
 order to charge the mind of this court, more deeply 
 and lastingly with the subject. Therefore, 1 shall gra- 
 tuitously take it as granted, that your honours will be- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 121 
 
 nignly indulge the counsel for the defendant, to humbly 
 place before the legal vision of this supreme court of 
 law and inquest, that the truth of my remarks, not- 
 withstanding they may appear at times to have only a 
 sandy or shifting foundation to rest themselves upon^ 
 being, as some may suppose, merely, if not altogether 
 problematical in their shades of evidence. And please 
 your honours, I make no doubt, but my remarks and 
 arguments appear at times to be at least a little irrele- 
 vant, in our courts of judicature, or rather too fugi- 
 tive in their nature. But, may it please your learned 
 honours to indulge me to state at the bar of this court, 
 by way of extenuation, in my free use of allegory, in 
 the first place, that I conceive this singular cause, 
 now pending before this solemn court of chancery, of all 
 trials that ever have, to this day, been brought before 
 the bar of any court, since law and courts of judicature 
 were known to the sons of men, to be the most momen- 
 tous. — Yes, may it please your learned honours, on 
 the issue of this trial, rests, as on a colossean pedestal, 
 whether the great family of mankind are a race of 
 immortals, or only earthly beings : seeing that their 
 immortality is so interwoven with this trial — and by 
 an adhesion, which all the most insidious logic which 
 the human mind is master of, cannot cut the complica- 
 ted knot asunder ; — its tenacity is so cohesive in its 
 grasp, that Hercules himself could not break its hold ; 
 that is, please this court, whether the crucified body of 
 that mysterious being in human form, called Christ, was 
 by his disciples or any other unknown agency, stolen out 
 of the sepulchre. For if this report be true, then I 
 solemnly aver, at the bar of this court, that the whole of 
 mankind have no other solid hope under heaven, deriv- 
 able from any other source or quarter, of an indubitable 
 character, to rest the sheet-anchor of our hope upon. 
 But, may it please your learned honours, if that 
 mysterious being, who is called Christ, went out of the 
 dark dungeon or old custotn-house of death ; or, in un- 
 feigned language, went out of the sepulchre by some 
 supramundane, or what his followers call divine power; 
 
122 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 then, and in that case, the gods have set their broad 
 seal to the truth of all his miracles and doctrine. This, 
 the court will no doubt grant, is a simple but fair con- 
 clusion. 
 
 Seeing, then, that the cause now pending at the bar, 
 involves the general and eternal interest of all the great 
 family of mankind, with the onerous interest of two 
 worlds ; I humbly presume, therefore, that the court 
 will benignly pardon the liberty I have taken, in as- 
 suming, in some small degree, the office and functions 
 of a theologian at its bar. 
 
 I shall now, by the indulgence of this high court of 
 law and inquest, proceed with the shades of my client's 
 innocence, in a further development of the second head 
 of my legal text ; that is, the presumptive evidence of 
 Caiaphas; being entirely innocent of the loss of the cruci- 
 fied body of Christ out of the sepulchre. In the first place, 
 it onerously devolves on me, in the faithful discharge 
 of my duty to the cause of the defendant, who is in 
 durance, as a prisoner at the bar of this court, to in- 
 form your learned honours and the gentlemen of the 
 jury, that the notorious language, and insulting sayings 
 of this Christ, associated with his ruthless manner of 
 communicating his ideas, in the presence of the humble 
 and obsequious servants of Caiaphas, the high priest 
 of the Jews — whenever, please your honours, he sent 
 any of them to demand of this mysterious being a sight of 
 his official credentials, and to let them see his theologi- 
 cal diploma from the God of Israel. Or, please the 
 court, to use language of my client's verbation, a sign 
 from heaven. 
 
 Now, please the court, suffer me to place his ag- 
 gravating replies to Caiaphas and his servants, which 
 were in substance as follows : to wit — that no catego- 
 rical answer [nor any oflicial, or authorized sign shall 
 be exhibited, in the theological heavens of the national 
 hierarchy of the Jews' religion] should be given them, 
 but the hieroglyphics of one of their old prophets. And 
 in order, please your learned honours, that I may not 
 keep your minds in suspense any longer, I'll give to the 
 
 I 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 123 
 
 court, Christ's own words verbatim : " An evil and 
 adulterous generation asketh for a sign from heaven; 
 but no sign shall be given unto them, but the sign of 
 the prophet Jonas :" for as Jonas was three days and 
 nights entombed in the body of some sea monster, 
 so this said mysterious being, who was called Christ, 
 declared to my client and his servants, that he should 
 descend into the dungeon of death, or the bowels of the 
 earth, for three days and nights; saying, at the same 
 time, in the most insulting language, [in the view of 
 my client] referring to the case of an ancient city 
 known by the name of Ninevah ; and in a kind of sub- 
 dolorous irony and sarcastic reproach, . informed the 
 servants of Caiaphas, that the men of Ninevah shall 
 rise in judgment against Caiaphas and his people. 
 When this said Christ had the further temerity to de- 
 clare, in a note of solemn attention — Behold ! a greater 
 than Jonas is here. 
 
 When, please the court, this said Christ continued 
 his impugning and irascible language, by reference to 
 the lady-like [but with all due deference to the finer 
 sensibilities of the more delicate part of creation,] aspi- 
 ring ambition, and unboundless curiosity of the first 
 lady in the ambrosial drawing-room of a mundane 
 paradise — that is, please your honours, the excessive 
 curiosity of a southern queen, who came as the Jewish 
 writers inform us, a long journey^ to see the glory 
 and hear the wisdom of their so highly famed Solomon. 
 When this said Christ exclaimed, in the midst of his 
 disciples, or twelve ministers of state, [not indeed, may 
 it please your learned honours, wisely as I should have 
 forecast in my mind, had I been about setting up a 
 new dynasty, of either a civil or ecclesiastical system 
 of government among men. But, may it please your 
 learned honours, that instead of going to either the 
 Hebrew, Greek and latin colleges, in order to make a 
 wise and judicious choice of persons, of the most pro- 
 found erudition, in all the sciences of the augustean 
 age — and to have selected such men as had taken the 
 most excursive survey of men and things — and whose 
 
124 CHUIST REJECTED. 
 
 minds, by the most plenary possession of all the elements 
 of the three cardinal languages, that were in public use 
 in the Roman empire, so as to clothe their ideas in the 
 most classical language and pure style before that age ; 
 so famed for wisdom and knowledge, as the augustean 
 age, was by some said to have been. But, it is my 
 duty this day, to inform your learned honours, that this 
 said Christ, contrary to all the wisdom and philosophy 
 of the human mind, went to the waters of Galilee — that 
 is, a small isolated lake, or rather a contuberous mem- 
 ber of the river Jordon, called by the Jewish people the 
 sea of Galilee. And please your honours, what a most 
 wild, fanciful, and romantic idea it w^as, I must confess, 
 at the bar of this court, for any intelligent being of a 
 sane mind, even as it w^ere, to conceive the idea of 
 setting himself up as the first or greatest of theological 
 teachers, in this mundane dispensation! Certainly none 
 but a wild enthuiastic fanatic, under the full acme of a 
 theological fever, and who was naturally of a warm 
 imagination — wlwse ideas rose, like steam out of the 
 valve of a boiler, when he formed the idea of taking 
 clownish fishermen as teachers of mankind.] 
 
 But, I must return, to give this court a few more of 
 the sayings or words of Christ : When, please your 
 learned honours the judges of this court, I am credibly 
 informed, from a most indubitable source of veracity, 
 that on a certain day, w^hile some of the humble and 
 obsequious servants of my client, by the illustrious 
 names of Scribes and Pharisees, and [soul sleeping] 
 Sadducees, were standing round this mysterious being, 
 called Christ ; when the steam of his imagination rais- 
 ed so high, by the fire of his enthusiastic zeal, causing 
 the rapsody of his ideas to escape the valve of his theo- 
 logical boiler — and in these excursive flights of fanatic 
 fancy, in one of his allegorical notes, he pitched his 
 words on the martial legions of the Roman army; which 
 may it please your honours, this said Christ boasted to 
 the servants of the high priest of the Jews, the defend- 
 ant at the bar of this court, when he should clothe hin^ 
 self in a lion's dress, and said : that the mighty legions^ 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 125 
 
 of the Roman army were in obsequious waiting for 
 the nod of his head, and shaking of his majestic mane — 
 and the roaring of his imperative voice, to go and put 
 my client, and his servants and friends, out of office. 
 And, please your Iionours, his language Avas so awful 
 that day, I must confess, that my forensick tongue 
 almost refuses to pronounce the same, although we do 
 not always use the most chaste words, which the 
 elements of human language do so plenarily provide a 
 lawyer's tongue with; yet, may it please your honours, 
 the judges of this court with the jury, that for me to 
 literally express his awful vocabulary, to the servants 
 of Caiaphas, does almost lay me under a sanitary quar- 
 antine, or else a kind of modest embargo ; so that it is 
 almost ready to deter me from presenting his unclassi- 
 cal style, at the bar of this learned and profound court 
 [of infidelity.] But, may it please your honours, you all 
 well know, that our profession very often subjects our 
 civilian sensibilities, to great mental pain and distress, 
 in many cases of litigation and moral turpitude, which 
 our calling often subjects us to hear. 
 
 I have made this statement to your learned honours 
 the judges and jury, and in the presence of this whole 
 court, as a kind of prefatory apology, before I place 
 the language that this wild theologean did present to 
 the pious audibility of the obsequious servants of my 
 client, the then high priest of the Jews, a few days be- 
 fore the loss of his crucified body out of the sepulchre. 
 
 I will now, please the court, proceed to give his 
 words verbatim, which are as follows : ''Fill ye up then 
 the measure of your fathers, ye serpents, ye generation 
 [or rather nest] of vipers ! How can ye escape the 
 damnation of hell?" 
 
 Thus the court may clearly perceive, on the broad 
 principles of common sense, that the repeated insults 
 that my client, Caiaphas, more or less daily received, 
 either in his own person, or else through his obsequious 
 servants, were, in the very nature of the case, sufficient 
 to put his holiness on his guard. And at the same time, 
 looking through the telescope of laudible jealousy, at 
 
 l2 
 
126 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the lofty telegraph on the mountains of Israel, with its 
 glaring hieroglyphic, forewarning my client of the dan- 
 ger of his national Church, with the finger of common 
 sense directing his keen theological eye, to look out for 
 the rocks, shoals, and breakers ahead, if the crucified 
 body of Christ should, by any agency or means what- 
 soever, find its way out of the sepulchre. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, with the impartial jury, in the solemn box be- 
 fore the bar of this court of law and inquest, I shall view 
 it from the deep impression that rests on my mind, of 
 your honours' w^isdom and knowledge — of the vast ar- 
 canum of human nature ; and being guided, I shall now 
 presume by the helm of your forensick conscience, and 
 the polar star of legal rectitude, directing your judg- 
 ment ; so that I am almost involuntarily led to presume, 
 that your honours welt consider my views, of the jore- 
 sumptive evidence of the prisoner's innocence, in the 
 loss of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre, 
 by this high court of chancery, as gratuitously granted. 
 
 And may it please your honours, Does this impartial 
 court believe it to be possible, in the nature of the case, 
 that is now passing under your view, that Caiaphas, 
 the then high priest of the Jews, with all these insulting 
 and aggravating sayings, and insidious remarks ; with 
 the deleterious threatnings of Christ whistling through 
 the royal rigging of his prenominating, or, if you 
 please, fore-casting mind — That is, if this court does^ 
 in all good conscience, believe, that Caiaphas was at 
 the time of the robbery of the sepulchre, in the posses- 
 sion of a sane state of mind — Then, may it please your 
 learned honours, the impartial view which I have this 
 day given the court, of the whole range of the presump- 
 tive evidence of the prisoner's innocence — your learned 
 honours the judges, with the jury, will no doubt benign- 
 ly indulge Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews coun- 
 sel, to say at the bar of this court, that it were physi- 
 cally, morally, and theologically impossible, for any 
 man, or set of men, thus circumstanced, to have in the 
 least degree whatsoever, neglected his or their duty, iit 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 12T 
 
 not paying the fullest attention to watch the sepulchre; 
 so as to safely secure the crucified body of Christ, in 
 durance forever. I am, as counsel for the defendant, 
 [who is this day by the arm of the civil law of our 
 sovereign realm, placed in the criminal's box, at the 
 bar of this court,] bold to aver, that my client Caiaphas, 
 the then high priest of the whole nation of the Jews, 
 must have seen, that both his personal safety — his pon- 
 tifical dignity, and theological functions, with his 
 national hierarchy, were all, please your honours, at 
 stake; and as I have once stated at the bar of this 
 court, just ready to be ingulfed in a most tremendous 
 and sweeping cataract, into the bottomless sea of ruin 
 below, and be forever imbeded, under this new theolo- 
 gical catastrophe, to rise no more. 
 
 These things, may it please this high court of law and 
 inquest, I have in my imperfect, forensick language, 
 thus thrown before your view. When, please your 
 learned honours, I for one moment consider the mag- 
 nitude of the subject, as I have before said, and the un- 
 bounded interest of the cause I have been pleading, 
 both to day and yesterday, at the bar of this high court 
 of law and inquest, in the presence of your learned 
 honours the judges, and the impartial jury, and all the 
 other law elements, which this day constitute the legal 
 wisdom of this high court of chancery ; I now, as in 
 duty bound, tender to this intelligent and impartial 
 court, my highest consideration, for its respectful and 
 solemn attention this day, while I have been placing, 
 in a kind of legal prospectus before its bar, the second 
 member or head of my legal text ; that is, the presump- 
 tive shades or evidence of my client's innocence, f 
 shall now say no more on this head of my forensick 
 text. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the counsellor had 
 sat down, that the chief judge rose, and signified to the 
 court, that the hour of adjournment had arrived. So 
 the court adjourned to meet the next day. 
 
128 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The sixth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepulchre of 
 the criicifed body of Christy as it has been reported ; — 
 firsts by the watch ; secondly^ by Caiaphasthe high priest 
 of the Jews, to this day ; and confirmed by Free thinkers, 
 Philosophers, Deists and Atheists, of modern times ; who 
 all profess to believe, that the crucified body of Christ 
 was stolen oid of the sepulchre, vnder, or during the in- 
 terregnum of a trance, by the subdolorous agency of his 
 disciples. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court of Areopagus, or 
 high court of law and inquest, met pursuant to ad- 
 journment, at rather an early hour on the morning of 
 the sixth day. And the five judges, with the jury, and 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice with a drawn sword. 
 
 No. 2. Ti-uth weighing the evidence that has or shall be given into this 
 court, during this trial. 
 
 No. 3. ^he five judges who ti-y this. cause. 
 
 No. 4. The States-attorney taking his 'notes. 
 
 No. 5. The high priest, Caiaphas, in the criminal's box, before the bar of 
 this court. 
 
 No. 6. The counsellor who pleads the cause of Caiaphas'Uie high priest 
 of the Jews. 
 
 No. 7. The twelve jurymen in the box. 
 
 I 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 129 
 
 all the other learned gentlemen of the bar, having ar- 
 rived and resumed their seats; and when the usual 
 forensick comity and law formalities of this high court 
 of chancery were all performed, the learned barrister, 
 for Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, rose, and in 
 a lucid manner, which was highly entertaining, by the 
 melodious intonations of a flexible voice, gently flowing 
 down the oral streams of his usual eloquent style ; 
 which, by the force of his persuasive reasoning, carry- 
 ing all before him into the great sea of his law know- 
 ledge ; when, w ith a graceful display of civick humility, 
 he tendered his high considerations and most profound 
 homage, to the whole court, for its solemn attention on 
 the two previous days of his pleading. And said, may 
 it please your learned honours — my professional duty 
 and legal obligations to my client — under, I trust the 
 steady helm of my conscience, and the Magna-Charta 
 of Roman law, as my compass, and truth for my polar 
 star — w^hile I w^as endeavouring to place the two former 
 heads of my legal text, before the bar of this high court 
 of law and inquest, which were the circumstantial and 
 presumptive evidence of my client's innocence. And, 
 may it please your learned honours, the judges and 
 gentlemen of the jury, I this morning experience the 
 most plenary assurance in my own mind, drawn from 
 the fav^ourable signs which I saw the two preceding 
 days, in the calm and patient lineaments of all the 
 countenances of this court, in the indulgence which the 
 whole index of the court has manifested towards my 
 defence of the prisoner's words and acts, which had 
 any bearing on the subdolorous loss, the nebulous 
 empire of death had sustained, by the late robbery of 
 the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ. There- 
 fore, may it please your honours, I shall, from these 
 favourable omens, with which 1 have been indulged 
 by the profound attention of this court ; so that, please 
 your honours, I am, as it were, involuntarily led to take 
 it as gratuitously granted, that I shall be further in- 
 dulged with its most serious attention to day, while I 
 shall proceed to embargo this court, with the last levy 
 
130 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 from my legal text, on its patience, in the defence of 
 my client's innocence, which I have pledged myself to 
 the court to finish this day, if possible. Therefore, in 
 the consecutive order I have fixed in my mind, for the 
 elucidation of my subject, is the third and last member 
 of the text, which will occupy the court's patience this 
 day, which your honours, by reference [no doubt] to 
 the notes you have taken of my proposed plan, in 
 pleading the cause of the prisoner at the bar. Caiaphas 
 the high priest of the Jews, your honours will remem- 
 ber, is the positive evidence my text binds me to pre- 
 sent to the court, of the defendant's innocence, of the 
 loss or escape of the crucified body of Christ, as the 
 case may be, out of the sepulchre. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your learned honours, be- 
 fore I enter on the ground of the argument, it will, I 
 humbly presume, be necessary for me to give the court 
 a short elucidation of my views, of the signification 
 which the words convey to my mind, of the legal term, 
 positive evidence; and I do not know, please your learn- 
 ed honours, whether it is within the province of my 
 professional talents and mental capabilities, to give the 
 court a better paraphrase on the legal term and gram- 
 matical s'lgmhcaiion of the words positive evidence, than 
 one I perchance met with, in a certain old writer, [by 
 the name of John] which is as follows : " That which 
 we have heard with our ears ; that which we have seen 
 with our eyes ; and that which our hands have handled, 
 of the word of life.'' I shall not, please your learned 
 honours, with the gentlemen of ihe jury, as a Roman 
 lawyer, undertake to elucidate or define what the 
 writer means by the idea or phrase the word of life: — 
 therefore, be his object what it may, which he had in 
 view, I shall pass it by, and only trouble the court with 
 the collocation of his word^, and his concise arrange- 
 ment of the most cardinal senses of our physical nature, 
 which this author has called forth into the theological 
 field of positive evidence. And I pray the court to in- 
 dulge me to call his little auxiliary triumvirate army 
 of ideas, into the legal field of evidence, before the bar 
 
CHRIST nEJECTED. 131 
 
 of this court, the which may be applied, with the most 
 legal safety, in any case whatsoever, at the bar of this 
 court of law and inquest. 
 
 First, then, may it please the court — it appears to my 
 view, that positive testimony can only be received as 
 valid, at the bar of this or any of our courts of civil 
 law, from the witness having heard, please your honours, 
 distinctly the words of the accused, in his individuate 
 person, without there being a wall or any other parti- 
 tion or opaque body, between the witness and the 
 accused. This kind of testimony, from the wise adap- 
 tation of these three cardinal senses, to all our law acts, 
 and the constitution of our physical existence, in our 
 courts of jurisprudence, from the imposing law of 
 sheer necessity, we are constrained to receive dispositive 
 evidence. Secondly, the waiter alluded to, in his eluci- 
 dation of the character of positive evidence, pointedly 
 marks that of vision. For instance ; may it please 
 your honours, the witness sees with his eyes, the 
 accused do an act of violence, against the person 
 or property of the plaintiff— or in an obligatory sense, 
 sees the accused sign his name on some obligation to 
 the plaintiff — or receive the plaintiff's money — or by 
 any other physical act, which, please your learned 
 honours, comes within the wide circle of our physical 
 nature, to perform against our neighbour, either in a 
 good or bad sense. Therefore, according to the 
 exposition of the writer, v,^ find that all our courts 
 of civil law, are under the same imperious necessity, 
 to receive that character of legal testimony, which 
 arrives from our sense of vision. The third class of 
 positive evidence, which the foregoing writer alluded 
 to has given us of sure testimony, to be received as 
 legal in all cases of evidence in legal transactions is, 
 please your honours, tangibility, or if the court pleases, 
 the sense of feeling to which the author referred, has 
 expressed in these words : " that which our hands have 
 handled of the word of life." This last class or grade 
 of positive evidence may, please your honours, in a 
 vast number of the affairs and legal transactions of 
 
132 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 mankind, our sense of tangibility may, with no small 
 degree of propriety, be denominated the superlative de- 
 gree of positive evidence. 
 
 And may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 "with the gentlemen of the jury, having given this high 
 court of law and inquest this concise view and brief 
 root, of what I consider to be the natural and unsophis- 
 tical derivation of the words positive testimony, there- 
 fore, I presume, please your honours, that the imperious 
 necessity, which the physical and moral laws of our 
 present mundane condition, has by a power which ap- 
 pears to be infinately above our controle — which lays 
 our transactions in civil life, as well as all our courts 
 of civil law, to be more or less ruled, governed and de- 
 cided by, at least, some one or more of the three senses, 
 this antique author I have adverted to, for a legal 
 solution of the idea of indubitable testimony. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges of this high court of chancery, and the impartial 
 jury, having arrived at the legal signification of the 
 term positive evidence, I shall proceed, in the first place, 
 to briefly endeavour to justify Caiaphas, my client's 
 character, from all direct, or indirect charges, that the 
 learned barrister, on the side of the crown, has with his 
 usual ingenuity and vociferous eloquence, Demosthe- 
 nes-like, come down with his thundering oratory, with 
 a view of prostrating the mind of this court — ^just as if 
 the oratorial muse had thrown open its wide flood-gates, 
 and the rushing elements had formed a mighty cataract ; 
 so that the overwhelming waters were sweeping the 
 views and legal judgment of this court, down into the 
 constuperating vortex of my client's guilt, and irre- 
 trievable disgrace forever. That is, please your learn- 
 ed honours, the heavy charges that the States-general 
 has preferred against the prisoner at the bar of this 
 court ; while his learned honour, the crown barrister, 
 most onerously tried to persuade this court, that the 
 prisoner at the bar, my client, and the then high priest 
 of the Jews, had been most shamefully neglectful of 
 8ome part of his professional and official duties ; but. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 133 
 
 may it please the court, that notwithstanding the 
 studied intonation of his flexible voice, in order to 
 overwhelm the court with a conviction of the defen- 
 dant's guilt, and with, at times, his almost resistless 
 current of law persuasion — so that at the first glare of 
 his trite forensick reasoning, by the glossary he spread 
 over many of the obscure and antiquated words, of the 
 ancient laws of the Romans, and applied them to im- 
 pugn the words and acts of the high priest of the Jews, 
 whom we have in charge at the bar of this court. But 
 let the court permit me to say, that this lofty forensick 
 mountain in labour, viz. my learned antagonist, has 
 only, may it please your learned honours, brought forth 
 a forensick lamb, in a state of the most piteous commis- 
 eration of ratiocinating nudity ; that is now playing 
 about the base of the pillar of my client's innocence : 
 but the puny strength, and delicate teeth of this little 
 quadruped, [this allegory is designed to set forth the 
 perfect imbecility of carnal reason, and pompous 
 philosophy, against the claims of Christ and his gospel 
 on all men,] or may it please your learned honours, in 
 the use of marine vocabulary, the attorney general 
 only raised a land or dry storm, over the horizon of 
 this impartial court; just, your honours know, like a 
 windy storm, in a hot summer's day ; which the court 
 very well know, only fills the lower atmosphere with 
 dust and gloom; but not a solitary drop of rain, to lay 
 the clouds of dust that arise, nor to refresh drooping 
 vegetation, or saturate the parched ground, so as to 
 cause pining nature to lift up its declining head with 
 joy. And I make no doubt, but your learned honours 
 the judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, well remem- 
 ber, that the transient effect which my learned oppo- 
 nent's dry storm had on this court — soon evaporated, 
 and a clear air and serene atmosphere of common 
 sense, filled this court again, and caused a re-action 
 on the mind of the court, in favour of my client's in- 
 nocence : viz. please the court, that there did not rest 
 on the person and character of my client, either from 
 his words or acts, the slightest shade of suspicion, during 
 
 H 
 
134 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the whole of that most subdolous catastrophe, of the 
 dark interregnum, from the crucifixion, to the loss or 
 elopement of the crucified body of Christ out of the 
 sepulchre. 
 
 Therefore, these things, please your honours, it shall 
 be my duty obsequiously to place, this day, at the bar 
 of this court, in the consecutive order of my plea, in 
 favour of my client's innocency ; which I have marked 
 down in short hand, in the notes I hold in your pres- 
 ence ; so as to bring them forth in due season, as the 
 positive signs of my client's innocence ; which I shall 
 undertake to prove, from mere matter of fact, indubit- 
 ably predicated on the notority of the words and acts 
 of the defendant, Caiaphas, the then high priest of the 
 Jews, in the city and temple of Jerusalem, at the very 
 time the Roman guards reported, that the most notori- 
 ous and daring act of irreptition, had been made by 
 the disciples of Christ, on, may it please your honours, 
 the royal custom house of sin and death, (by some call- 
 ed the old prostrating king of terrors.) So that, during 
 the intervening period, from the crucifixion to the dread 
 alarm, which the loss of this deathly merchandize, that 
 had been but the day before so securely bounded by 
 two of the most reputable and responsible characters 
 for security in the Roman empire, to wit: may it please 
 your learned honours the judges, and the gentlemen of 
 the jury, of this high court of law and inquest — the two 
 able and creditable sureties to which I refer the court, 
 are the nails of his cross, and the deathly blade of the 
 soldier's steel spear, with which the prisoner at the bar 
 did, it is said, in conjunction with his civil and military 
 colleagues, Pilate and the centurion, to all human ap- 
 pearance, most securely bound this young theological 
 enemy, in the old iron-bound custom house of death. 
 
 And now, pleas^e the court, suffer me to most devout- 
 ly and humbly ask your learned honours, if your minds 
 are calmly and patiently desirous to hear my specifica- 
 tions, which I have prepared to present before the bar 
 of this intelligent and enlightened court? Therefore, 
 may it please your honours, I this day experience a full 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 137 
 
 assurance in my own mind, that^ the old adage close in 
 satisfy the most skeptical -that " a bird in the hand of 
 rectitude, throughoutthn the bush of immortality;" or 
 action; to wit : plep.of mere ideal or imaginary beings, 
 ment of the crucise your honours, he came out of his 
 chre. There fi aid off his holy vestments or sacerdotal 
 such an enl'and went to work like a wise man ; — ^just like 
 it is this c" who our forecasting or auguring sages say, 
 anteced se up about the eighteenth degree of the longi- 
 impartof descending time — who shall limit their re- 
 from ches to things that are more immediately associa- 
 tary with this present dispensation, 
 pie And now, please your learned honours the judges, 
 to td the gentlemen of the jury, it is in my power to in- 
 for«rm this court, that my client, instead of being a hot- 
 thp;aded enthusiast, had, please the court, his mind rich- 
 lah imbued, and his person and faculties highly cultiva- 
 du d — and even richly embellished w^ith all those 
 anc-anches of Jewish learning, in theology and other use- 
 cas'l sciences and knowledge of men and things, which 
 plet3 imposing dignity of his office, and the altitude and 
 my ry of his national church, required; and which, also, 
 vast /functions of his pontifical office called for at his 
 the ons. 
 
 court, ong then, please your honours, that my venerable 
 about to 7as in the most felicitous possession of allneces- 
 retrogradt lom and knowledge, with a full share of physi- 
 co-ordinatei ^ntal capabilities, necessary to sustain the 
 sick saiy of his sacred person, office and character — he 
 ple.mst have done his duty. 
 
 bi And I pray the court to further indulge me, as the 
 the geniiefnfc.Cniaphas the priest of the Jews, at the time 
 court of law and inquesi, '^^he, to enter into the secret 
 rience the most entire confidence in i,:*^ ynnr honours, it 
 court will, as all our judiciary courts in the Komau^® 
 empire do, uniformly indulge the defendant's counsel, 
 m his last plea to the cause he undertakes to defend, 
 ^ n u^ ^^^ privilege to bring to the view of the court, 
 a I the cardinal points in the arguments of his former 
 pleading. And may it please your learned honours, 
 
138 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Ph/ETiiXj out of the fire and smoking ashes of this strange 
 nebulous phenomena, of a states prisoner breaking 
 through the massy walls of the bastile of death ; or, if 
 the court please, in other language, out of the conse- 
 quences of Christ rising from the dead. When, please 
 your honours, the high priest, the prisoner at the bar, 
 took an extensive survey over the descending longitude 
 of time, and with his theological penetrating head, he 
 would very naturally draw this conclusion : that the 
 grand basis, on which the colossus of Christianity, with 
 all its assumed magnitude rested, would be the doctrine 
 of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. And 
 should it, through any act of delinquency or remissness, 
 on his part, give the disciples of Christ, or any other 
 human agency, the least opportunity to remove the corpse 
 of Christ out of the sepulchre, and then report to the 
 world, that Christ their master rose from the dead ; so 
 that whether the report were true or false, yet the 
 deleterious effects and baneful consequences, that might 
 arise, would produce a most powerful reaction on 
 Caiaphas' character, person, and the national glory 
 of his religious hierarchy. 
 
 This, please your learned honours the judges, and 
 jury of this high court of law and inquest, would cer- 
 tainly have been the simple, and true cogitations that 
 would naturally exercise the forecasting mind of the 
 prisoner at the bar, during the short period of three 
 days : — being the definite time, in which Christ, who 
 was the avowed rival of Caiaphas, before his death 
 notoriously declared. to my client and his servants, and 
 through them to the whole world, that this single 
 transaction, should be the grand test of his claims to 
 the Messiahship of the Jews ; as well as his higher 
 claims, of being the only true Saviour of all the nations 
 of the earth. 
 
 xA.nd please your honours, does this court believe it 
 to be possible, that my client, the high priest of the 
 Jews, with this full prospective map of future conse- 
 quences, in ages to come, spread before his mind ; and 
 for argument sake, I will only place in his hand a pie- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 139 
 
 beian telescope, with the dull glasses of common sense; 
 the same smoky glasses would very naturally lead the 
 prisoner to see — and not only so, but to forecast in his 
 priestly mind, that the boasting of Christ, about the 
 enlargement of his kingdom in this world, and the dif- 
 fusion of his new doctrine among men, rested in a great 
 measure, on the clearness and strength of the arguments, 
 and irrefragable current of open testimony, which the 
 loss of the body would give to my client's enemies ; 
 the which would enable them to accompany, co-ordi- 
 nately, with the most indubitable weight of evidence, 
 and open the door for them to proclaim to the world, 
 by a great cloud of living witnesses, if the body of 
 Christ should obreptitiously, by the agency of some 
 subdolous foe, find its way out of the sepulchre ; and 
 then be reported to the world, by his friends and disci- 
 ples, that Christ rose from the dead! which would open 
 the portals of credulity so wide, before the lower orders 
 of mankind, that all the unphilosophical accounts of his 
 doctrines, marvellous w^orks, and miracles, which his 
 friends and disciples would, in case his crucified body 
 should, by any daring act of some adventrous foe, be 
 surreptitiously obtained from the sepulchre, before his 
 own definite time of three days should have expired ; 
 and then the friends and disciples of Christ, go through- 
 out the world proclaiming to all mankind, that Christ 
 their master rose from the dead — and that he perform- 
 ed in their presence, all those w^onderful works, so con- 
 trary to human reason, and the natural philosophy of 
 our minds. 
 
 May it please your learned honours, the judges of 
 this court, to hear me patiently. But, the wise reflec- 
 tions of my client, the high priest of the Jew^s' mind, 
 did not rest here, nor stop at the half-way house of 
 future consequences. But Caiaphas my client, wisely 
 placing the glasses in the telescope of his theological 
 mind, at proper distances, so as to bring future things, 
 with their consequences, a little nearer ; when his holy 
 and pre-excogitating mind, more clearly saw, that the 
 volatile impression and transient novelty, which the re- 
 
140 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 ported miracles of Christ [whether true or not,] did not 
 in the least degree affect the validity of my remarks : 
 which are as follows : That the solemn impression, 
 which for some ages, the doctrine and reported mira- 
 cles of Christ, at first made on the minds of vast multi- 
 tudes of his poor followers, w^ould, by the descending 
 longitude of time, lose much of their efficacy and pris- 
 tine influence. And not only so, please your learned 
 honours the judges and jury — my client, no doubt, 
 forecast in his own mind, that there would most cer- 
 tainly arise, in process of time, a thousand little discrep- 
 ancies among his numerous followers, in the obsequious 
 imitation of the queen of night, the silver moon. I 
 say, please the court, would be very liable frequently 
 to change its face, and the theological shades of its once 
 fair complexion, and all theother theological lineaments, 
 in the countenance, nature and official character of 
 Christ. But not so, may it please your learned honours 
 the judges and the gentlemen of the jury, of this high 
 court of chancery, with respect to that most awful [for 
 Jews, Deists and wilful sinners of every grade among 
 men,] and deleterious catastrophe of the said loss of the 
 crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre, or the 
 resurrection of Christ from the dead. This report, may 
 it please the court, whether true or false, as I have often 
 stated before your learned honours ; although I am 
 fully sensible it is not a lawyer's business to discuss, at 
 the bar of our courts : yet my client,. Caiaphas, fore- 
 saw, that if such a report should get into the world, 
 by the agency of his friends and subdolous disciples, 
 under the nebulous canopy of the night, irreptitiously 
 find its w^ay into a world [that is said to love dark- 
 ness,] with any degree of success — then, as I have be- 
 fore said, the re-action would be nearly the same on 
 my client's person and glory. 
 
 Andmay it please this court, it was on this single 
 point, that Christ, the great competitor of my client, has 
 fixed his legitimate claims to the true and lawful Mes- 
 siahship of the Jews. Therefore please your honours, 
 it was on this point of the theological compass, that * 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 141 
 
 this great opponent of my client's person, office, and 
 glory, that the aforesaid Christ, in the most full and 
 unequivocal sense, which human language is capable 
 of, gave my client, Caiaphas, clearly to understand, 
 that he should cause himself to be portrayed on the new 
 telegraph of his gospel, so to be seen and read by all 
 the nations of the earth, as the rising phosphorus of 
 immortality; or, in the use of such pompous vocabulary 
 as this : " I am the root and offspring of David, the 
 bright and morning star." 
 
 Thus this wise and learned court may clearly see, 
 that this decided opponent of my client, Caiaphas, the 
 then high priest of the Jews, had certainly placed him- 
 self on the stilts of ambition, as the primary orb in the 
 new kingdom of his boasted Messiahship — and as it 
 were endeavouring to concentrate the most incontesti- 
 ble arguments, in favour of his high claims to the office 
 of the king of the Jews. These sayings and declara- 
 tions of Christ, please the court, were sow^ell, and per- 
 mit me to say, notoriously known in the city of Jerusa- 
 lem, at the very time Pontius Pilate wrote these pom- 
 pous hieroglyphicks, which my client so very obse- 
 quiously and humbly prayed the Roman governor, to 
 transpose the superscription, and write the title in his 
 own category, so as to make Christ his own accuser; 
 which runs thus: ''But that he said, I am king of the 
 Jews.'^ 
 
 But, please your learned honours the judges of this 
 court, the Roman-like bold and categorical reply of the 
 governor, was — " Pilate answered. What I have writ- 
 ten, I have written." The writing of Pilate, certainly 
 was the most singular accusation, that ever was placed 
 over the head of any criminal, since men were known 
 to have existed on the earth ; in that it did not declare 
 nor specify, the least charge nor crime against the male- 
 factor ; — but the very contrary was the case; for Pilate 
 wrote an honorary title in these words, in the three 
 most cardinal languages in the Roman empire, or even 
 at that day, in the whole world — " This is the king of 
 the Jeicsf" So that the court may clearly see, that in 
 the dernier issue or final event of this subdolous cat' 
 
142 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 astrophe, to wit : that in case this strange story, of the 
 resurrection of Christ from the dead, should turn out to 
 be true, it would give the most decided testimony in 
 favour of all his acts and doctrine. 
 
 But I must candidly confess to your learned honours, 
 that my heart does most cordially detest every latent 
 idea of man's accountability, to the claims of any theo- 
 logical teacher under the sun. And I have not the 
 least hesitancy in my mind, but my anti -theological 
 views, fully accord with the views of your honours; 
 and that it is the private sentiments of all the gentle- 
 men of the bar; [of this court of Infidelity.] Your hon- 
 ours well know, that we civilians, see fit for wise and 
 prudent purposes, to keep our philosophical dislike to 
 revealed religion a secret, by wrapping it up in a nap- 
 kin, and then carefully lay it away within the drawing- 
 room of our minds. 
 
 I gratuitously experience a hope, that this court 
 will pardon this solution of my views of theology, in the 
 aggregate ; as the discussion of the subject of religion, I 
 well know, please your honours, is repulsive to the ear 
 of a civilian at the bar of any of our civil courts of law. 
 But as your honours also well know, this very singular 
 trial, from all its physical and mental features, so 
 imperiously involve the subject of theology so that I 
 have had in pleading my client's cause at the bar of 
 this high court of law and inquest, to use the words 
 Death, Heaven, Hell, Christ and Immortality, very re- 
 peatedly ; that this most dolorous of all subjects, under 
 the canopy of heaven, has in a measure become some- 
 what familiar to my tongue. Yes, please your honours, 
 and that is not all ; the gloomy eflfects which it has 
 produced, (for it has irreptitiously found its way) on 
 my mind, as well as the vibrating member called the 
 tongue, that the idea and image of Christ, is often be- 
 fore my mind — sometimes dressed in one of his pom- 
 pous sayings ; and then in another ; that is, please your 
 honours, at one time he seems to present himself to my 
 view, with a number of those miracles, guarding him 
 from the character of a deceiver of mankind ; — and at 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 143 
 
 another, with a vast host of his wise and inimitable 
 precepts, and subhme axioms, as being so very repulsive 
 to the lineaments and other features, which common 
 sense leads us to look for, in the plenary character of 
 an artful imposing hypocrite. At other times his wis- 
 dom, and to all appearance, his more than human 
 knowledge of nature, of men, and of things, passes for 
 a few moments before my mind. Then the altitude of 
 the imposing command he seems to have had, at all 
 times, over the whole empire of the passions of human 
 nature, with his self-possession, and self-command, is 
 both wonderful and singular ! so that when the cate- 
 gory of his person passes before my mind, he then bares 
 every legitimate feature of a teacher sent from God: so 
 that, if there were ever a character on earth, in the 
 which a halo of innocent glory, and a constellation of 
 moral virtues were ever found located, in a being of 
 human form, they appear to my mind, to concentrate 
 in this mysterious being called Christ, combining all 
 those divine qualities, spoken of; *' whatsoever things 
 are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things 
 are pure, v/hatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
 things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and 
 if there be any praise, think on these things." 
 
 What a most inimitable growth of grace, and per- 
 ennial spring of virtue, must the being, who fills all the 
 veins, arteries, features and other . lineaments, in the 
 foregoing portrait of moral and sublime excellence, be, 
 to support this colossus of supra-mundane virtue ! 
 But, may it please your learned honours, it would be 
 a vain attempt for me, to try to gild the refined 
 gold of Ophir ; to give purer shades of whiteness and 
 beauty to the lily ; or to throw a sweeter perfume on 
 the violet ; add another softer hue unto the colours of 
 the rainbow ; or, with the taper lights of philosophy 
 and human reason, to seek the beauteous eye of Heaven, 
 in order to garnish and illustrate this inimitable por- 
 trait of moral excellence. May it please your honours, 
 this Christ, since I undertook the cause of my client, 
 Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, is oftentimes 
 
144 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 passing before my view, even in my sleeping moments ; 
 which may it please your learned honours, the judges, 
 and the jury of this court, I never experienced to be 
 the case before, in all my past life ; so that I can assure 
 this court, that if I had known what I now do, his 
 holiness, Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, would 
 have had to employ some other counsellor. But, please 
 the court, I have began, and I must endeavour to finish 
 his cause. 
 
 But, I must return to the consecutive order of my 
 argument, at the bar of this court : that is, should the 
 disciples' report of the resurrection of Christ from the 
 dead, be true — and that this said Christ, as one of his 
 minions, by the name of Paul, says of him, in the fol- 
 lowing vocabulary : that he, the said Christ, shall be 
 revealed from heaven, with an obsequious troop of his 
 mighty angels, in flaming fire ; taking vengeance on 
 them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall be punished with 
 everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, 
 and from the glory of his pow er. When he shall come 
 to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all 
 them that believe. 
 
 This, please your learned honours the judges, and 
 impartial jury of this court of law and inquest, is, I 
 must confess, the most awful language, I have ever read. 
 And if Paul's avowed master, should in the final issue 
 of his theological career, be able to sustain the fiery 
 altitude of his burning throne, and lead in triumph his 
 obsequious troop of mighty angels ; then, and in that 
 case, may it please your honours the judges, and jury, 
 I must, with some degree of chagrin confess, that it will 
 be a gone case with my client, Caiaphas, the high 
 priest of the Jews, who forced Pilate to crucify him 
 against the convictions of his judgment, that Christ 
 was an innocent person ; — and may it please your 
 learned honours, I have some doubt whether we poor 
 lawyers, will go free of his ireful displeasure; that is, 
 always with this cautious proviso, that Christ rose 
 form the dead. But, my humble prayer to our Gods 
 
CURIST REJECTED. 145 
 
 of Reason and Philosophy shall be, that they may be- 
 nignly prevent such an awful and deleterious catastro- 
 phe, from ever being realized by us gentlemen of the 
 bar; although a kind of dolorous chagrin sensation pas- 
 ses through my mind, and almost undulates the con- 
 scientious waters of my soul, w^hile my pendulous 
 tongue announces the fiery language to the audibility 
 of this court. 
 
 And may it please your learned honours, the judges 
 and jury, if the alarming and distressing tale, publish- 
 ed by the eleven disciples and friends of Christ, of his 
 finding his way out of the sepulchre, by an agency that 
 is beyond the control of human beings, qjr w^hat is 
 ^commonly called his resurrection from the dead, be 
 true — the consequence, please the court, wdil be this : 
 That it w^ould give such a solid cement to the individu- 
 ate nature, and official offices of Christ, as shall eter- 
 nally consolidate his embedment, in the eternal rock 
 of the everlasting God of Israel : which of course, 
 would form such a powerful adhesion, and physical 
 union, of both the individuate and hypostatical natures 
 of God and Christ, so that all the dislike of the Jews 
 of modern times, and all the insidious risibility of the 
 young phosphorus, or morning star, in the heavens of 
 the Age of Reason, and pompous philosophy — however 
 powerfully assisted with the deleterious ravages of 
 time, could neither obliterate nor destroy one single 
 trait of excellence, from the nature, character and 
 glory of Christ. That is, please this court, if the re- 
 port of the escape of Christ, out of the sepulchre, be 
 true. 
 
 Your learned honours, the judges and gentlemen of 
 the jury of this court, may now clearly see, without 
 rising in logical capabilities above the acme of a way- 
 faring man, how simple the position, on which the 
 whole truth of the revelation, which God has made to 
 the children of men, rests its whole weight of evidence, 
 and converges the whole force of its indubitable testi- 
 mony, in favour of the truth of the christian religion ; 
 or the gospel of the Son of God, with his high claims 
 
146 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 to the Messiahship of the Jews, and the promised 
 Saviour of the world. All of which simply turns on 
 this single point of the gospel ; namely — may it please 
 this court of law and inquest, Whether the disciples 
 and friends of Christ, or any other subdolous foe, stole 
 the crucified body of Christ, out of the sepulchre ; — or 
 whether Christ did, by his own supernatural power, 
 raise himself from the dead. The magnitude of the 
 subject is such, that this court will admit the relevancy 
 of my tautologous remarks. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges of this court, with the impartial jury in the box, 
 to what a small point of the logical compass, is this 
 long, but inflexible controversy, of eighteen hundred 
 years, by this child-like, or simple way of reasoning 
 and arguing on the subject — in this long dispute, be- 
 tween the christian, Jews and Deists. So that the 
 court may see, that this simple rule of common sense, 
 reduces the subject of contention, between the three 
 grand divisions, which constitute the cardinal parties 
 in this long protracted, but irascible controversy r 
 namely — the Deist, the Jews, and Christian. 
 
 Why, please your learned honours, it appears to 
 Caiaphas' counsel, just as plain and simple, as two and 
 two, if you amalgamate or put them together, will make 
 four, as Balaam observes in one of his letters. And 
 now, please the court to indulge the defendant's counsel 
 to apply this simple logic to the case of Christ rising 
 from the dead; then the plain and self-evident conclu- 
 sion, and at the same time, clear and safe inference 
 that I shall draw, is this, please your honours, That if 
 Christ did surely rise from the dead, then the glory of 
 his person, the exaltation of his character, the rising 
 grandeur of his Mediatorial reign, and the plenary 
 establishment of his Messiah's kingdom, in favour of the 
 Jews, in this present dispensation, will ere long most 
 assuredly take place. Then will the glory of his per- 
 son appear before all men, and human reason and pom- 
 pous philosophy, be constuperated with everlasting 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 147 
 
 shame and moral disgrace, world without end : Amen, 
 says the writer. 
 
 At which pause of Caiaphas' counsel, the chief judge 
 rose and stated to the court, that he had once read an 
 account of a certain great king, of rather a sombre 
 complexion, that paid a friendly visit to a rural college, 
 situated on the eminence of a lofty mountain. The 
 college had but one student — when the king, who was 
 a very great promoter of the sciences, had the philan- 
 thropic curiosity to visit the same ; when he found the 
 young student alone, and so deeply immured in his 
 studies, that the young collegian had forgotten to eat 
 bread for forty days. The king, viewing the cada- 
 verous countenance of the student, and the lassitude 
 of his physical powers, after he had ascended the aclivity 
 of a very high mountain without any retinue, or even 
 a solitary servant ; he of course took nothing with him 
 to attract the laws of gravity, so as to make the ascent 
 more fatiguing to his royal highness; — therefore, in 
 order to make manifest to his princely mind, the great 
 progress this solitary abstemious student had made in 
 his new but abstract science, of the theology of the 
 soul's immortality. The king, in order to ascertain 
 the full extent of his theological powers, for some reason 
 best known to the philosophy of his majesty's sable 
 mind, imperatively ordered the starving collegian, to 
 command that the stones on the top of the mountain 
 should change their physical nature, so as to become 
 loaves of bread. When this young collegiate's answer 
 to his sable honour was, "That man," as a certain 
 writer has written, "shall not live by bread alone.; 
 but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
 of God." 
 
 But, please this court, this afternoon, the physical 
 calls of nature has laid such an onerous embargo on 
 our appetites, that with all due deference to the young 
 collegian's sententious theological opinion, I declare to 
 this court, that we judges cannot live on forensick 
 vociferous sound, or the words of our lawyers alone ; 
 
148 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 but by every article that earth produces for the sus- 
 tenance of man. 
 
 And as it is now the ninth hour of the day, I per- 
 ceive the prisoner's counsel v^ill not get through the 
 defence of his client, by the sixth hour of the evening; 
 therefore, with the advice of my associates, the four 
 judges with n^ on the bench, I shall adjourn this court 
 till to-morrow ; so as to grant the counsel another day 
 to finish his client's cause. When the court stood ad- 
 journed, to meet in the same place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 149 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The seventh day of the trial, of the robbery of the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court of Areopagus, or 
 high court of law and inquest, met pursuant to adjourn- 
 ment, on the morning of the seventh day of this all im- 
 portant trial. And after the usual preliminary forms 
 of the court, were gone through with, the learned bar- 
 rister, employed by Caiaphas to defend his cause, at 
 the bar of this court, rose and said — may it please 
 your learned honours the judges of this court, with the 
 impartial jury in the box, having experienced a great 
 degree of disappointment, in my not fully coming up 
 to my promise, in finishing the pleading of my client's 
 cause on the previous day, which lays me under the 
 
 Figure 1. Justice with a drawn sword. 
 
 Xo. 2. Truth weighing all the evidence, that has or shall be given into 
 this court, dm-ing this trial. 
 
 No. 3. The five judges who are appointed by the king to try this cause. 
 
 No. 4. The States-attorney taking his notes. 
 
 Xo. 5. Caiaphas in the criminal's box, before the bar. 
 
 No. 6. The counsellor who pleads for the high priest. 
 
 No. 7, The twelve jurymen in the box. 
 
 w2 
 
150 CHRIST EJECTED. 
 
 onerous necessity, of once more eliciting the profound 
 attention of this court, while I proceed in presenting at 
 the bar of this court, to day, some of the most alarm- 
 ing language of Christ, either to the prisoner at the bar 
 himself, or else to his humble servants. When Christ, 
 whom your honour, the chief judge, has branded with 
 the appellative of a run-a-way, from his two bonds- 
 men the nails of his cross, and the soldier's spear ; that 
 this Christ has said, in the most insulting language and 
 notorious manner, that he would come, and that too 
 without the gracious indulgence, and even the consent 
 of my client, the high priest of the Jews ; yes, may it 
 please your honours, he had the provoking audacity, 
 to publickly announce to my client, who was at that 
 time the theological shepherd of the house of Israel, 
 that he would come and cast my client (who was at 
 that time the primary orb of the Jewish church,) to the 
 earth. When this said Christ, calling himself a mas- 
 ter in Israel, or Doctor of Theology ; and at other 
 times, both a sublime chymist and profound physician, 
 informed some of the servants of Caiaphas, the high 
 priest of the Jews, that he would so sublimate the 
 whole of the gross materials of the Jewish theism, 
 or rather the Law which Moses had given to the sons 
 of Israel, about fourteen hundred years antecedent to 
 my client's days; and with those sublimated materials, 
 come at the end of only three short days. So that he 
 would not exercise^ either their physical or mental 
 patience long, in deciding the only test, that he in his 
 wisdom saw proper to give the Jewish nation, and with 
 them the whole world of dying men, as the dernier 
 evidence, that he was a teacher sent from God ; with 
 the most plenary wisdom, knowledge, power and 
 authority, to do just as he pleased : and that he should 
 execute judgment upon my client Caiaphas; and also, 
 in proper time, upon all men. And in a kind of subli- 
 mate irony, by a wonderful turn he had, in the ready 
 use of sarcastick language; — when, please your learned 
 honours the judges of this court, with the impartial 
 jury, this said Christ informed the prisoner at the bar, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 151 
 
 that as soon as he had taken a short nap in the anti- 
 chamber of the king of terrors — when, in the words of 
 one Solomon, he exclaims to his friend, meaning what 
 he in his pompous allegories set forth as his whole church, 
 ''I have put off my coat, [of my human nature, and 
 laid the same in the dark dungeon of death,] how shall 
 I put it on ?" or clothe my cadaverous and crucified 
 body, with the morning dress of immortality ; in order 
 that he might walk out of the anti-chamber of the 
 palace of his sable majesty, with renewed vigour and 
 comeliness ; and then go into the drawing room of the 
 paradise of God. 
 
 This being done, he informed the servants of the 
 high priest of the Jews, my client, that he should take 
 a few tools of the baser sort, which mostly consisted of 
 some ignorant fishermen of the sea of Galilee ; and that 
 with these insignificant tools, as the old serpent himself 
 would scarcely pick up from oflftlie dung-hill of plebeian 
 ignorance and poverty : — and that he the said Christ, 
 would go very leisurely to work, and lay the founda- 
 tion of a new theological dynasty ; or what he in his 
 pompous style called the kingdom of God. And that 
 by his own personal strength, would support the whole 
 colossus of his church, and bear the weight of this 
 spiritual building on his own shoulders ; and also place 
 himself, as the grand key-stone, in the centre of the 
 great arch ; in order to bind this stupendous dome fast 
 together ; w^hich as a theological canopy, would spread 
 itself over the whole edifice of his spiritual kingdom ; 
 or, what he in the perennial current of his metaphors, 
 called his Gospel church on earth. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, and the impartial jury of this court of law and 
 inquest, as I perceive the strangers in all the galleries 
 of the court are in anxious w^aiting, which I consider 
 as a prompter to remind me of my duty to my client ; 
 and also the declining shadows of obreptitious time 
 admonishes me, that the day of my probation, as w^ell 
 as the time which the court have allowed me to end 
 my plea, in the defence of my client, is fast wearing off; 
 
152 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 SO that it is high time for me to place the positive 
 evidence of the prisoner's innocence, of the sad loss of 
 the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre, at the 
 bar of this court. 
 
 Now, the first thing that I owe to the cause and in- 
 terest of my client, this day is, I ask this court of law 
 and inquest, whether Caiaphas the high priest of the 
 Jews, the prisoner at the bar, did perform on this occa- 
 sion his full share of duty ? I answer the court that he 
 did. When he went, please your honours the judges, 
 and the gentlemen of the jury, in company with a 
 number of his faithful servants to Pontius Pilate, the 
 Roman governor of Judea, in the days of Tiberius 
 Caesar ; and that too please your honours, and I pray 
 the court to pay particular attention unto this little 
 cog in the theological wheel, which has a great bear- 
 ing on the truth of the gospel of the Son of God : 
 Caiaphas went, I iterate, while these alarming things 
 were passing through his theological mind, as he stood 
 clad in his pontifical robes, w ith his serious and por- 
 tentious mind, eagle-like, soaring aloft with the pene- 
 trating vision of the vulture, flying over his theological 
 heavens ; while his sagacious thoughts were taking an 
 excursive flight over the vast sea of future consequences; 
 and at the same time, the high priest's mental vision 
 was, no doubt, discursively w^eighing all the onerous 
 responsibilities, which would devolve on him, if the 
 body of Christ should elope out of the sepulchre ; or, 
 the idea of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, 
 get out into the world. 
 
 These wise and timely reflections of Caiaphas, fore- 
 w^arned him of the dense and dark clouds, that would 
 soon rise out of the escape of the body of Christ from 
 the sepulchre, with the furious blasts which these 
 clouds would send forth, and cause the undulated sea 
 to run mountainously high, with the angry waves and 
 their foaming heads, just ready to break on his person 
 and office, and ingulf him with his church, city, tem- 
 ple and nation, in the yawning and enclosing trough of 
 ruin, shame and disgrace forever. Therefore, may it 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 153 
 
 please your learned honours, the judges of this high 
 court of law and inquest, with I trust the most impartial 
 jury that were ever to this day seated in the jury box 
 before the bar of this court — I can this day inform the 
 court, that the prisoner at the bar, Caiaphas the then 
 high priest of the Jews, in company with a goodly 
 number of the dignitaries of his national hierarchy, went 
 most assiduously, and let me add, faithfully to work ; — 
 First, please your honours, by wisely adopting the 
 most judicious measures, and prudently executing the 
 most cautious plans, that could be called forth on the 
 spur of the moment. That is, please your learned 
 honours, all the military, civil and ecclesiastical re- 
 sources, were called into immediate requisition, that 
 were, at the time being, within the vast range of the high 
 priest's capabilities: when he, w^ith the high dignitaries 
 of his national hierarchy, went like the wise men from 
 the east, unto Pilate, saying sir, we have seen this 
 ominous star over the garden, and are come to guard 
 the same, against the danger that threatens the escape 
 of the crucified body of Christ, out of the sepulchre. 
 When Caiaphas and his pious coadjutors, in the good 
 work of guarding the repose of the dead in the silent 
 urn, went to the Roman governor's palace and said ; 
 sir, we w^ell remember all the pompous words and 
 taunting boastings, of that wild enthusiastic character 
 we have crucified — that he, sir, was in the daily habit 
 of gratuitously throwing out among the good citizens 
 of Jerusalem, and throus^hout the land of Judea; when, 
 among a great number of his highly seditious threat- 
 nings, mostly clothed in some innuendoes language, in 
 order, sir, of spreading a spirit of malevolence among 
 the Jews, my people, against their lawful allegiance to 
 the Roman government. But, be that as it may, I have 
 come this day to inform your exeellency, that one of the 
 dark and most seditious designs of this great enemy to 
 the sensual felicity of mankind, was contained in a 
 singular threatning of this fanatick, whom you called, 
 please your excellency, on the day of his crucifixion, 
 the king of the Jews. And, no doubt, your excellency 
 
154 CURIST REJECTED. 
 
 well remembers to this day, that I humbly and very 
 obsequiously prayed your excellency, to a little trans- 
 pose the accusation on his cross — and for your excel- 
 lency to write, that this deceiver said, or called himself 
 the king of the Jews ; and that it was distressing to 
 the nation of the Jews, for the governor to use the 
 regal possessive, instead of the accusative case, in the 
 title you wrote in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. But, 
 your excellency no doubt, recollects, that you answered 
 me with the acumen of lacedemonian style — that is, 
 in categorical brevity, in these laconick words: "T^^at 
 I have written I have iv?^itten.'' When, may it please 
 your excellency, that I could not but notice, and even, 
 may it please your excellency, admire your high de- 
 cision of character ; although, sir, at that time your • 
 categorical answer greatly distressed my mind. But, 
 may it please your excellency, that I be not further 
 tedious in opening my business this morning with you, 
 I am come to communicate to your excellency, that 
 one of the deleterious threatnings, that this Christ threw 
 out, while he was in a perfect state of convalescence. 
 When Caiaphas said to Pilate, "Sir, we remember, that 
 that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, ' after three 
 days Iioill rise again.' " And now, may it please your 
 excellency, to grant me a sufficient military force, to 
 safely guard and protect the crucified body of Christ 
 in the sepulchre, till the third day shall have passed • 
 away from over his dead body — "command, therefore, 
 that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day; 
 lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, 
 and say unto the people 'He is risen from the dead;* 
 so the last error shall be worse than the first." 
 
 I shall pray the further indulgence and patience of 
 this court, while I present at its bar the answer of the 
 Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to Caiaphas the high 
 priest of the Jews, who had the sole care of the body 
 of Christ after he was crucified. And now, may it 
 please your learned honours the judges, with the jury, 
 that it was on this subdolous catastrophe — this solemn 
 and interesting occasion, that Pontius Pilate, the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 155 
 
 Roman governor, did fully fall into the wake of the 
 high priest's views and alarming fears, and acted in 
 full accordance with the prayer of Caiaphas: and said, 
 " Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as 
 ye can : So they went and made the sepulchre sure, 
 sealing the stone, and setting a watch." 
 
 I would humbly ask your learned honours, whether 
 any transaction among men in civil life, or among the 
 nations of the earth in public life, when any sudden 
 danger threatened them, of which history or the writ- 
 ings of men give us any true and indubitable account 
 of — and wherein any set of men acted with more 
 caution, prudence and union of effort, to take care of 
 any person or thing with which they were entrusted, 
 than Pilate and Caiaphas manifested on this occasion ? 
 The one — that is Caiaphas, with the threatnings of 
 Christ fresh in his memory — placing them with all 
 their alarming and deleterious consequences, before the 
 mind of the governor ; and the other, that is Pilate, 
 granting to the high priest every safe-guard and secu- 
 rity, in persons and things, w^hich the civil and military 
 power of the empire of Rome, could bring to bear on 
 any person or thing that threatened either the civil, 
 military or ecclesiastical peace and tranquillity of the 
 realm ; so that, please your learned honours the judges 
 of this court, and the gentlemen of the jury, if ever 
 men deserved well of their country, it was Caiaphas 
 and Pilate on this occasion ; — to wit : the sealing the 
 stone and setting a Roman watch. 
 
 An^d now, leaving the garden and sepulchre, it is 
 time to return into court again. And now, may it 
 please your learned honours the judges, and the gen- 
 tlemen of the jury of this high court of law and inquest, 
 to once more, before I sum up my plea, to refresh the 
 mind of this court with my solution of the term positive 
 evidence — first, that the witness or witnesses, both for 
 or against the prisoner Caiaphas, or any other defen- 
 dant, must have heard, seen and felt, either the per- 
 son or thing, as the case may be, without a vail be- 
 tween them ; and the person they bare testimony 
 
156 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 against, at the bar of this|or any other impartial court, 
 of civil or martial law, in the Roman empire, must be 
 of the foregoing character ; please your learned hon- 
 ours, in the plenary sense of legal language; to be 
 witnesses or positive testimony in the case. 
 
 I therefore pray this court, to converge both their 
 physical and mental vision, on the public acts of my 
 client Caiaphas, the prisoner at the bar, in the garden, 
 where the crucified body of Christ were deposited and 
 made secure — for a legal solution of the court term 
 positive evidence ; which please your learned honours, 
 I presume is far better etymology, than all our long 
 winded lexicographers, in this earthly dispensation, 
 can give us of the obvious sense and legal signifi'I:ation 
 of the words positive evidence. I appeal to the gods ; 
 was there ever a transaction that so fully merited the 
 character o^ positive evidence, as the sealing the stone. 
 
 And now, may it please this impartial court of law 
 
 Figure No. 1. Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, viewing the Roman 
 officer sealing the stone, at the entrance of the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 2. The centurion in the act of sealing the stone. 
 
 No. 3. The Roman guards, headed by the captain of the watch, marching 
 into the garden. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 157 
 
 and inquest, to extend the longitude of its patience, 
 while I shall sum up all I have to say, in defence of the 
 prisoner at the bar; that is, please your learned honours, 
 as far as my legal abilities, and circumscribed talents 
 may bare me out. 
 
 Your learned honours the judges and jury, will re- 
 collect, that when I first presented myself at the bar of 
 this court, as the defendant's counsel, and undertook to 
 advocate his cause, by placing before the bar of this 
 high and impartial court of law and inquest — first, the 
 circumstances in which my client were in, at the 
 time of the reported robbery of the sepulchre of the 
 crucified body of Christ ; this, I have placed before the 
 wisdom and knowledge of this court, ^s the circumstan- 
 tial evidence, of the defendant's innocence. 
 
 The next point of my legal text, in the behalf of the 
 prisoner's innocence, that 1 presented to the considera- 
 tion of this court, was the notorious knowledge the 
 prisoner had, of the reported doctrines and miracles of 
 Christ; which I have shown the court, would have 
 naturally led my client to have kept a bright look out, 
 in order to guard against the danger of rivalship, in 
 the person and works of Christ. Caiaphas's knowledge 
 of the same, I have placed at the bar of this court, as 
 the presumptive evidence of his innocence. 
 
 And thirdly, and lastly, may it please your learned 
 honours the judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, the 
 words and acts of my client Caiaphas, the high priest of 
 the Jews, from the hour that Christ was crucified, till 
 the body was missing out of the sepulchre, I have 
 placed at the bar of this court as the positive evidence, 
 of the prisoner's innocence. 
 
 And now, may it please this impartial court, to in- 
 dulge me for the last time, to once more refresh its 
 memory by saying, that the prisoner at the bar, Caia- 
 phas the high priest of the Jews did, on this truly mourn- 
 ful occasion, and sombre catastrophe, fully act out all 
 his physical, mental, moral and ecclesiastical wisdom, 
 knowledge and all other capabilities, within the range 
 of his wisdom and understanding ; both, please your 
 
158 CUllIST REJECTED. 
 
 learned honours, of body and mind, that any rational 
 and intelligent being, in this earthly state, who at the 
 same time should onerously be charged with the colla- 
 teral, and in all other cases, the same surrounding cir- 
 cumstances, would be capable of acting out ; under all 
 the emergencies, which at that time exercised all the 
 powers, both mental and physical, of Caiaphas the then 
 high priest of the Jews' mind, the prisoner in durance 
 at the bar of this court. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, and jury of this impartial court of law and in- 
 quest, I do most solemnly declare, at the bar of this 
 court, and through this open court of impartial law and 
 inquest, aver to tl^ whole world, that an angel [if such 
 supramundane being there be,] but stop, please your 
 learned honours, and pardon the rising steam of my 
 asseveration, thatis at this moment forcing open the 
 lower valve of my Roman sensibilities, and let me give 
 the most plenary vent to the warm elements in the 
 neighbourhood of my heart, by raising the altitude of 
 my declaration up to the heavens, and roundly and 
 fearlessly aver, that an angel, yea, a God could do no 
 more, than act out all his, or if there are more gods 
 than one, their capabilities, which this day, with the 
 three preceding, in which I have legally proved to this 
 court, that my client the prisoner at the bar, Caiaphas 
 the high priest of the Jews, has acted out through all 
 this nebulous and disastrous occasion, both by day 
 and night, till, please this court, the three days had 
 passed over the garden where the sepulchre was loca- 
 ted, that contained the crucified body of Christ ; in 
 order to its being kept in safe durance in the grave 
 forever. I am now done, may it please your learned 
 honours the judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, and 
 all the other law elements of this court, with all the 
 Jewish and philosophical spectators in the galleries, 
 and the plebeian spectators in the aisles and areas of 
 this court ; and have freely and fearlessly delivered, at 
 the bar of this high court of law and'inquest, all I have 
 to say, in the justification of my client's public and 
 private conduct, under the most disastrous and sub- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 159 
 
 dolous catastrophe, that ever took place since the world 
 began ; to wit — the loss of the crucified body of Christ 
 out of the sepulchre. 
 
 Please your honours, I shall now, as in duty bound, 
 humbly pray this court, that my client Caiaphas, the 
 high priest of the Jews, be honourably discharged from 
 the bar of this court ; as having no share of blame, in 
 any one instance, arising out of the delinquency of his 
 words and acts ; nor the slightest shades of suspicion, 
 either directly or indirectly, converging a sable cloud, 
 either on his person or character, in the elopement or 
 loss by robbery, or otherwise, of the crucified body of 
 Christ out of the sepulchre. When the counsel for 
 Caiaphas sat down. And it being late in the day, the 
 court was, by order of the chief judge, adjourned to 
 meet in the same place the next day. 
 
 Thus did Caiaphas' lawyer, ably support by the 
 force of his oratory, and the sweeping current of his 
 unrivalled eloquence, as he glided along the meandrous 
 waters of the letter and stamina of the law — protecting 
 his client with an inexpugnable shield of rectitude, in 
 Caiaphas' wise and prudent adaptation of every 
 cautious measure. 
 
 By the benign indulgence of Deists, Jews and 
 Christians, the stenographer presents the humble re- 
 flections of a poor sailor's mind — whose roving habits, 
 excursive fancy, and sailor-like curiosity, led him into 
 court, to hear this singular and all-important trial ; on 
 the issue of which, so onerously depends the immortality 
 of the whole world. We iterate the idea— that by the 
 reader's kind indulgence, we will place our simple 
 views of the character and legal abilities of Caiaphas' 
 counsel, while his learned honour was pleading his 
 client's cause at the bar of this high court of law and 
 inquest. 
 
 The address to the reader , by a christian sailor , now follows : 
 The sailor prays the pious reader's indulgence, to be 
 permitted to inform him, that his limited talents as a 
 writer, are entirely inadequate to describe, on the 
 telegraph of his short reports to the view of the reader's 
 
165 " CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 mind, even a miniature portrait of the following oratory 
 of Caiaphas' counsel : neither has his pen the inate pos- 
 session of the powers of a ready writer, nor the intui- 
 tive grace of either Grecian or Roman eloquence, so as 
 to fully spread before the reader's view, all the interest, 
 and a thousand other fascinating attractions, with 
 which the more than magic power of the counsel's 
 transcendent genius, with a mind richly cultivated, to 
 an altitude of classical refinement, that was not sur- 
 passed in eloquence by any civilian of his day ; which 
 invested his court oratory with a persuasive influence, 
 far beyond any of his competitors on this trial. And for 
 the reader to be able to form a just idea, and an impar- 
 tial judgment of his forensick argument, and clear ratio- 
 cinating powers, so as fully to enjoy the rich effusions 
 of his wisdom and knowledge, in the civil and martial 
 laws of the Romans ; with his rich and excursive mind 
 flying over all the forensick field of the various bearings, 
 of the most difficult and delicate points, in which the 
 states-attorney earnestly endeavoured to involve the 
 conduct and character of his client, under some of the 
 bearings of the civil and military laws of his sovereign 
 realm ; — that had, as the crown barrister stated, either 
 a near or remote influence on his client's case. When 
 Caiaphas's counsel indulged the discursive powers of 
 his mind to rise to its full majesty ; and then, seizing 
 as with the strength and paw of an old lion, in his 
 gigantic legal grasp, all the arguments of the attorney 
 general, and wrending them to peices, like the sovereign 
 of the forest would a tender kid. 
 
 At intervals of his argument, he would entertain 
 the court with his highly polished periods — his flowing 
 classical diction — gracefully associated with the melo- 
 dious intonation of his accommodating and flexible 
 voice — which created, for the time being, a kind of en- 
 chanting influence over the court ; and imperceptibly 
 charged the court with a state of humidity, like that 
 produced on the kingdom of nature, by the distilling 
 dew and small rain on the tender plant, and the show- 
 ers on the mown grass. Just so in a legal sense, did 
 Caiaphas' counsel, the high priest of the Jews, by the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 161 
 
 irresistible current of his persuasive eloquence, and the 
 overwhelming power of his reasoning, the adaptation of 
 his logick — followed by the strength of his arguments, 
 richly imbuing the mind of this high court of law and 
 inquest, with a full sense and lasting conviction of the 
 high priest of the Jews' innocency, of the sad loss of 
 the crucified body of Christ out of ths sepulchre. [So 
 reasons a poor sailor, on the idea, that Philosophy and 
 Deism is no more than a kid in the paw^ of an old lion, 
 or a pufFof W'ind from the fan of lady Vanity :] so that 
 it was impossible for the eleven disciples to have stolen 
 the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 
 Then the poor sailor humbly asks the men of wisdom 
 and knowledge — the Philosopher and the Jew, What 
 is the inference which common sense would draw, in 
 such a case ? Why, a child would answ^er. That Christ 
 rose from the dead. And the next idea, which is 
 equally as plain and simple — that the whole bible is 
 true : and sinners who reject Christ, his gospel, with 
 its doctrines, whether Deists, Atheists, Jews, and the 
 vain philosopher, except they i-epent of their sins, and 
 turn to God, must be lost and undone forever. So 
 that, except they believe his gospel, they will most 
 assuredly have the bill of fare to pay at the old custom- 
 house, in the straits of death ; which says the Son of 
 God himself, shall be eternal misery. 
 
 This, reader, is the reasoning and argument of us 
 poor christian sailors ; but perhaps it may be, that 
 Carnal Reason, and Vain Philosophy, can with their 
 powerful arguments, think they can do with the poor 
 sailor and his marine logick, as Caiaphas' counsel did 
 with the states-general's tender kid; that is, wrend the 
 sailor's reasoning and argument, on the truth of the 
 Gospel, to pieces, like a kid in the paw of an old lion. 
 So fare-w^ell old unbelieving ship-mate, till the sheriff, 
 or rather (keeping up our marine language) the custom 
 house officers, bring us too, at the straits of death. 
 
 Signed, a poor sailor, before the mast, on board a 
 Gospel ship of the line. 1832. 
 o2 
 
162 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The eighfh day of the trial of the robbery of the sepulchre y 
 of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this high court of law and 
 inquest, met pursuant to adjournment, at an early hour. 
 And when the usual formalities of court comity, had 
 been consecutivt}ly gone through, and the court called 
 to silence, the learned barrister for the crown, rose to 
 discharge in this case, his last act of legal duty to his 
 royal master, and to vindicate the inviolable sanction 
 of the Magna Charta of the realm. And it being, ac- 
 cording to court usuage, his turn as the attorney gene- 
 ral, in the behalf of the crown, to have the rebutting 
 plea against every prisoner or criminal, at the bar of 
 this and all his sovereign's courts of judicature, through- 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice with a drawn sword. 
 
 No. 2. Truth weiglnng tlie evidence given in at the bar. 
 
 No. 3. Tiie five judges who try ti»js cause. 
 
 No. 4. The States-attorney giving in his rebutting plea. 
 
 No. 5. The high priest in the criminal's box. 
 
 No. 6. Caiaphas' counsel takiiig his notes. 
 
 No. 7, Tl>e twelve jurymen in the box, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 163 
 
 out the empire ; so that his learned honour had the 
 privilege, to blow the last blast of the vituperating legal 
 horn, over the head of the high priest. 
 
 The states-attorney occupied the court about the 
 space of half a day; mostly in his law sandals, with 
 gigantick strides, going over the same beaten path of ar- 
 gument, that he went over, when he opened the prosecu- 
 tion against the prisoner at the bar. It being, for the 
 major part, a lucid epitome of the old legal ground he 
 had occupied on opening the suit ; so that the steno- 
 grapher views all that the states general advanced, as 
 a mere compendious re-capitulation, of the trite argu- 
 ments of his former plea. It every now and then ap- 
 peared, that the powerful arguments of the learned 
 counsel for Caiaphas, his antagonist, had drawn forth a 
 little more of the acumen of intellect, from this crown 
 servant; — but notwithstanding which, he raised his legal 
 steam to a little greater altitude, in his last plea against 
 the prisoner. Yet, coming as it were, immediately 
 after the learned defence of the high priest's counsel, it 
 could not keep up in the brilliant wake, w hich his learn- 
 ed honour left behind him, in the forensick sea, like the 
 scintillatinoj trail of a comet through the heavens. So 
 that the crown barrister's vituperating oratory, made 
 but a volatile impression on the wisdom and knowledge, 
 of this court of law and inquest. 
 
 And it came to pass, when the states-general had, to 
 the best of his capabilities, discharged his fealty to his 
 sovereign, and his duty to the claims of his office, the 
 states-attorney sat down and said no more. 
 
 And it came to pass, when the states-attorney had 
 taken his seat, that the chief judge rose, and delivered 
 lo this high court of law and inquest, the legal opinion 
 of himself and his associates on the bench, as follows : 
 And may it please this impartial and enlightened 
 court : — The case of Caiaphas, the prisoner in durance 
 at the bar — and as this court of chancery is the high- 
 est court in our sovereign's realm — and possessing, as 
 it does, the most plenary powers over all cases, but, 
 especially those cases and causes, which are of a deli- 
 
164 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 cate and intricate nature : so, that if the cause is too 
 difficult for the le^al wisdom and knowledore of the 
 lower courts of the realm to decide, it is thrown into 
 this court for final decision. Therefore, in consequence 
 of my office and functions, ac the chief judge of this 
 court, it devolves on me, in accordance with the opin- 
 ion and legal judgment of my leb;rned and honourable 
 colleagues with me on the bench; — which is, please 
 this court, as follows : — That we do view the charges, 
 allegations and specifications, contained in the bills of 
 indictment, which the Grand-jury, on mere postulatory 
 ground, have found against Caiaphas, the prisoner at 
 the bar ; and have been preferred against him by his 
 learned honour the states-general ; and highly coloured 
 with the vituperating category of the states-general, in 
 creating the sombre shades of the prisoner's guilt. 
 
 Figvire "N'o. 1. Justice with a drawn sword. 
 Ko. 2. Truth weighing all the evidence given in. 
 No. 3. The five judges v/ho try this cause. 
 No. 4. The States-attorney with his colours falling. 
 No. 5. The counsel for Caiaphas, with his colours flying. 
 No. 6. I he Marshal and high Sheriff with flying colours, leading Caia- 
 phas the high priest out of the court with honour. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 165 
 
 When his learned honour, with his usual acumen, in 
 the behalf of his sovereign's laws and administration, 
 came down on the guilt of the prisoner ; — not, may it 
 please this impartial court of law and inquest, that 1 
 wish to detract aught from the learning or forensick 
 talents of the crown barrister, or in the least degree 
 impugn his motives, in his oratorial zeal, which the 
 states-general has manifested at the bar of this court, 
 against the high priest of the Jews — in his so zealously 
 endeavouring to fix some dark shades of suspicion, 
 which he gathered by his very ingenious lightning rod, 
 from a few dense clouds of delinquency, which his 
 learned honour's official telescope discovered to be his 
 duty, to see more or less in every prisoner or criminal, 
 which the arm of either the civil or martial law of the 
 realm brings to the bar of this court for adjudication. 
 So that, please this court, although the crown attorney 
 and other lawyers, may with the rushing current of 
 their powerful logick raise considerable dust, by the 
 wind of their arguments, drawn from the four quarters 
 of the forensick heavens — and at times, fill our court 
 houses so full of legal dust, that we judges can scarcely 
 see whether the prisoner is covered with the sable skin 
 of theEthiopean, loaded with guilt, or the virgin robe 
 of innocence ; which, for the time being, was the case 
 in the cause now pending at the bar of this court ; in 
 consequence of the learned barrister, in the behalf of 
 the crown, almost irresistless current of legal persua- 
 sion and argument, against the prisoner at the bar, 
 Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews. But, please this 
 court, notwithstanding all the forensick labour, and 
 oratorial turmoil, in his illustrations of the penal bear- 
 ings of the law, on the prisoner at the bar's case, may 
 it please this high and impartial court, since I ordered 
 all the doors and windows of the house to be thrown 
 open, and by the rushing in of the free air of common 
 sense, which has driven up the chimney of the court 
 house all the dust of the crown attorney's arguments, 
 against the character of the prisoner, in the delinquency 
 of his duty in the sad loss of the crucified body of 
 
166 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Christ out of the sepulchre ; Therefore, as I have be- 
 fore said, notwithstanding all the thunder of the crown 
 orator, it devolves on me, with my very learned col- 
 leagues, to widely differ in our judgment and legal 
 opinions, from the attorney general. So that, after the 
 most assiduous and patient investigation that we have 
 made, during the interregnum or recess of the court, 
 in that short interval of time, we have made due re- 
 search, throughout most of the learned works, left us 
 by our most wise and able writers, and commentators 
 of civil and martial law, and at the same time, have 
 taken an excursive survey of all the w^isest and best 
 usuages of this, and all other high courts of both civil 
 and martial jurisprudence, in our sovereign lord the 
 king's empire, as it stands recorded in all the chronicles, 
 -laid up in the archieves of our ancient courts. And I 
 have the legal satisfaction this day to inform this court 
 and jury, that we do find, in all the wise and legal 
 opinions of our ancestors, the same equitable principles, 
 which we have adopted in the case of the prisoner at 
 the bar : that is, That we shall not pass judgment on 
 any person, on mere postulatory or assumed evidence. 
 And we find, that our views this day, are in the most 
 felicitous union with their views, and flow w^ith the 
 most unanimous accordance, in all our views of par- 
 allel cases, with the one now pending before the bar of 
 this court. 
 
 Therefore, it devolves on me this day to inform this 
 court, that all the judges with me on this trial, expe- 
 rience the plenitude of forensick gratification, to find 
 that our legal views and opinions, follow^ so close in the 
 wake of their legal wisdom — and as a small tributary 
 stream falls into the great sea of the law knowledge of 
 our forefathers ; that is in full accordance of the legal 
 views and opinions of those who have gone over the 
 legal ground before us. Therefore, in conjunction 
 with my able and learned colleagues on the bench of 
 this court, I do experience the most plenary assurance, 
 that both our minds and judgments, have been guided 
 by the compass of equity; which has directed us to the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED* 167 
 
 polar star of truth and justice, in forming the decisions 
 of our minds, on the case before the bar. And as we 
 have listened, without any partial bias to the lucid re- 
 marks, and irrefragable arguments of the prisoner's 
 counsel, which it is true, were at times rather too pro- 
 fusely embellished with almost all the trope and figure, 
 which the vocabulary of courts and the language of 
 civilians, is capable of supplying a counsel with, when 
 pleading at any of our bars of law and equity, that the 
 counsel for the prisoner at the bar has so lucidly laid 
 down, and spread as in a legal mirror, before the men- 
 tal vision of this court, with the most ingenious perspi- 
 cuity ; and at the same time accompanied with his 
 usual acumen, which his forensick fame has already 
 obtained throughout the courts of civil jurisprudence, 
 of our sovereign kingdom. And the vivid prospectus, 
 the learned counsel for the prisoner at the bar, has pre- 
 sented this court with, in the four days he has been 
 pleading his client's cause, during which time he has 
 so very successfully, in the consecutive plan he laid 
 down, when he first commenced his pleading : that is, 
 first the circumstantial, the presumptive, and the posi- 
 tive shades of his client's innocence, in the sad loss of 
 the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. So 
 that the mental faculties of this court were highly en- 
 tertained, in witnessing the grace of his oratory, and 
 delighted with the charms of his eloquence. 
 
 It, therefore, as part of my official duty, devolves on 
 me this day, to inform this high court of law and in- 
 quest, in conjunction with my learned colleagues, with 
 whom I have the legal honour of sitting this day on the 
 bench. That we believe the prisoner at the bar — to wit, 
 Caiaphas, who was the high priest of the Jews, at the 
 time the sepulchre was reported to have been robbed 
 of the crucified body of Christ — we therefore give 
 judgment in his favour. And that the aforesaid Caia- 
 phas, does this day stand, in the eye of the law of our 
 realm, and at the impartial bar of this court, as un- 
 reprehensible, and entirely innocent of the sad and dis- 
 tressing loss, or elopement, as the case may be, of the 
 
168 CHRIST REJECTEb. 
 
 crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. We 
 therefore give judgment, that he receive forthwith, a 
 plenary acquittal, and honourable discharge. And we 
 furthermore, pronounce him entirely free from all blame 
 and suspicion, of either aiding or abetting, in any 
 sense or manner whatsoever, of the sad and deleterious 
 loss or escape of the crucified body of Christ out of the 
 sepulchre. 
 
 The chief judge then addressed himself to the jury 
 in the box, and said : I now move the court and jury, 
 that the prisoner, Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, 
 be forthwith honourably discharged, from any farther 
 durance before the bar of this or any other court in the 
 Roman empire ; and from all legal process and distress, 
 either in his person, estate or character, forever. 
 
 When the gentlemen of the jury, and the whole court 
 rose, and unanimously concurred in the opinion and 
 judgment of the judges, without leaving the box. The 
 whole court having honourably acquitted Caiaphas, he 
 left the court with the laurels of ecclesiastical honour 
 and glory — followed by a plenary burst of applause 
 from the whole court. 
 
 The weather being rather oppressive, the chief judge, 
 in order to give the court a little relaxation for the 
 rest of the day, adjourned the court, to meet in the same 
 place the next day. 
 
 Reader, thus endeth the trial of Caiaphas, who was high 
 priest of the Jewish nation, at the time the report went out 
 into the world, that the disciples stole the crucified body of 
 Christ out of the sepulchre ; and is the corner stone and 
 cardinal truth of Christianity, and in which the immortality 
 of the soul is deeply involved. You had better read it over 
 and over again, till every argument used by the author be- 
 comes your own. Amen. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 169 
 
 ^3 
 
 ^ .j 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 llilil k^^^^^^^ ■' :liH 
 
 ™ =j;^ .i, 1 
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 The ninth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepulchre 
 of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this high court of law and 
 inquest met pursuant to adjournment, when the judges, 
 with all the gentlemen of the bar and other officers, 
 having taken their seats and locations in this court — 
 and as soon as the forensick formalities of the court 
 were gone through, the States-general rose and took up 
 his bill of indictment — and casting his legal eye on the 
 dark roll, his learned honour soon deciphered, that on 
 the docket of the court, as well as in the consecutive 
 order of this awful instrument, which he held in his 
 
 Figure Xo. 1. The high court of law and inquest. 
 
 No. 2. Justice with a drawn sword. 
 
 No. 3. Truth weighing all the evidence that is or shall be given in at this 
 court. 
 
 No. 4. The five judges who had been appointed by the king of Infidelitf, 
 to try this cause. 
 
 No. 5. The States-general opening the prosecution. 
 
 No. 6. The governor, Pontius Pilate, brought to trial. 
 
 No. 7. Pilate's counsel taking his notes. 
 
 No. 8. The twelve jurymen sworn and panelled. 
 
170 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 hand, were marked for trial this day, the procurator of 
 the land of Israel, viz. Pontius Pilate, the Roman 
 governor of Jerusalem and Judea, in the days of Tibe- 
 rius Caesar; at the very time the reported robbery 
 was said to have been committed. When the learned 
 barrister, on the behalf of the crown, called, through the 
 medium of the legal officer of the court, for the gover- 
 nor to be presented at the bar: — when the high 
 marshal of the empire, headed by the high sheriff of 
 Rome, led up to the bar of this court, Pontius Pilate. 
 
 And it came to pass, when the crown barrister had 
 read over to the court, all the charges and allegations 
 in the indictment against the governor, and had Pilate 
 solemnly affirmed, that the testimony that this court in 
 their wisdom should call on him to give in, at its right- 
 eous and impartial bar, respecting this mysterious 
 cause that is now pending at the bar of this court, shall 
 be the truth, the whole truth, and please your honour, 
 nothing but the truth, to the best of your civil know- 
 ledge, in the sight of the gods who preside over the 
 altars of civick justice, throughout the empire. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as Pilate had been 
 legally affirmed, the learned barrister, on behalf of 
 the crown, rose and said unto the governor — sir, your 
 excellency will now proceed by rising, and facing both 
 the judges and jury, and distinctly state to this court, 
 all that your honour knows, of a public and official 
 character, respecting this clandestine invasion of the 
 silent repose of the dead; that is, please your excellency, 
 the sad loss of the most valuable article of Cymmerian 
 merchandise, which you, sir, by the martial aid of the 
 bold centurion and his valiant soldiers, under the most 
 able and auspicious sureties the empire of Rome could 
 produce, had bound in the old custom-house of death. 
 
 But, please your excellency, by dropping my mer- 
 chantile allegory, I mean the nails of his cross, and the 
 blade of the spear, with which you, sir, by the advice 
 and prayer of Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, 
 had bound the crucified body of Christ in the sepulchre. 
 
 Pilate then rose, and with the manly dignity of a 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 171 
 
 Roman officer, made the following statement of this 
 subdolous case, to the court and jury; to wit — All 
 that had come officially under his immediate inspec- 
 tion and legal knowledge, respecting this mysterious 
 and unhappy catastrophe, that your honours the judges, 
 are pleased to call in your legal language, the robbery 
 of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ : — But, 
 before I proceed with the principal part of my evidence, 
 I shall pray the court, to indulge me to make a few 
 prefatory remarks, which are, please your learned hon- 
 ours — that when that singular and mysterious being, 
 who was brought to my judgment bar as a malefactor, 
 by the irascible and jealous elements of his holiness, the 
 high priest of the Jews and his people — that this said 
 Christ, did profess to belong to one of the grades of 
 extra-mundane beings ; or, if your honours and this 
 court will indulge me with your patience, I will sim- 
 plify my phraseology, and inform your learned honours, 
 that throughout that distressing trial, as Christ stood 
 bound before my judgment seat, he was every now and 
 then throwing out some hints, that he the said Christ, 
 please your honours the judges and jury, had a lord- 
 ship and kingdom over a vast country, that lies beyond 
 the verge and latitude of a time state ; and not only so, 
 please the court, but that he was of that longevity of 
 nature, that he the said Christ, had an existence, ere 
 time with men had begun to show any precocious signs 
 of future greatness. 
 
 I hope the court will benignly pardon this falling off 
 the usual mode of direct testimony, in my thus placing 
 the compound and amphibious natures, and other meta- 
 physical qualities and characters, that this malefactor 
 called Christ, gave of himself, while he stood bound at 
 my judgment seat for trial ; so that I can unfeignedly 
 inform this court, that I did experience some of the 
 most distressing sensations of mind, while in the dis- 
 charge of my legal functions on that day, as very far 
 surpassed all other examinations of prisoners, that were 
 ever before brought by the arm of the law, and the 
 officers of justice to my judgment seat, for adjudication. 
 
172 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 since Caesar gave me the office of procuratorship of 
 Judea. But, may it please your honours the judges, 
 with the jury, I shall now come, without being further 
 tedious, to the matters of fact. 
 
 Now may it please this court, all that came in a legal 
 and official manner to my knowledge — and as for flying 
 reports and vague rumors, my conscience, under the 
 guidance of the polar-star of truth, armed with the 
 sanction and panoply of my solemn affirmation at the 
 bar of this court, warns me to have nothing to do with 
 them. It is only official things and obvious matters of 
 fact, that my sovereign and his laws, demand at my hand. 
 Therefore, may it please your honours the judges and 
 jury, on the morning subsequent to what is called the. 
 robbery of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ, 
 Caiaphas the then high priest of the Jews, came to my 
 palace at rather an early hour, and desired a private 
 interview with me. And my private secretary having 
 
 Figure No. 1. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, in the door of his 
 palace, inviting Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, to come in. 
 
 No. 2. Caiaphas having alighted from his carriage, goes to the door, and 
 is received by Pdate. 
 
 No, 3. The high priest's theological carriage. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. . 173 
 
 inducted him into the drawing room — please your 
 honours, I soon observed the alternative flow of hope 
 and fear, to rise and fall (as the opposing currents rush- 
 ed on in his thoughtful mind,) on the telegraph of his 
 sacred countenance. And on viewing his distress, may- 
 it please your honours, my mind soon began to forecast, 
 that surely something of an unfelicitous nature had 
 overtaken his holiness. AVhen I signified to my ser- 
 vants and private secretary to retire. So, please your 
 honours the judges and jury, when all but myself and 
 Caiaphas were withdrawn, the high priest of the Jews, 
 in quite a low cadence of voice, informed me of a very 
 serious and singular fatality, that had overtaken the 
 Roman guards, which the centurion had, by my most 
 imperative orders to him, placed as a military guard 
 over the sepulchre, in which the body of Christ, after 
 it was crucified, had been securely placed, on the sixth 
 day of the Jewish week ; and which, please your hon- 
 ours the judges and jury, in order to make all things 
 well secure, for the permanent durance of the crucified 
 body of Christ, in the iron-bound custom-house of 
 death, forever — and after I had given the most impe- 
 rious orders, for a large stone to be placed at the mouth 
 or entrance of the sepulchre ; — and also went so far in 
 my precautionary measures, as to command the centu- 
 rion to seal the stone, at the entrance of the sepulchre, 
 with our sovereign Tiberius' great seal of state. I 
 have just given this court a small epitome of my pre- 
 cautionary conduct, and now I shall have the court to 
 judge of the chagrin of my mind, at this unforeseen 
 catastrophe, of the reported conduct of the recreant 
 guards. But, please your learned honours the judges 
 and jury, to return to the intelligence that Caiaphas 
 brought me : — -and it came to pass, that when he had 
 in some small degree recovered his physical and men- 
 tal faculties, and had become so far convalescent, as to 
 regain the oscillatory use of his theological tongue, his 
 holiness soon began to astound my audibility, with a 
 very strange account of an unheard of catastrophe, 
 that had overcast the glory of the Roman arms, and 
 
 p2 
 
1T4 • CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 had in some degree spread a sombre shade over the 
 military laurels of the Roman soldiery, which had never 
 before tarnished their military character. Caiaphas 
 proceeded to state, that he had come to inform me, of 
 the sad and distressing loss of the crucified body of 
 Christ out of the sepulchre ; — when, please your hon- 
 ours, the high priest of the Jew's quivering lips, and the 
 once natural intonation of his manly voice, were almost 
 inaudible, when he whispered in my ear, that the 
 whole of the Roman guards, who had been placed by 
 the centurion, in pursuance to my orders, as a strong 
 watch to guard the sepulchre, had, in consequence of 
 some foreign agency, or unknown fatality, under a dark 
 cloud of the dispensation of the Athenian or other un- 
 known gods, which had caused each of the royal 
 guards to fall simultaneously to sleep — and that during 
 this sleepy dispensation, or if your honours please, this 
 military interregnum of the guards avocation, the sub- 
 dolous eleven disciples came and stole the crucified 
 body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 
 And may it now please your honours the judges and 
 jury, since it belongs not to the providence of a Roman, 
 or any other civil ruler of mankind, to decide on points 
 of theology, I shall not any longer detain this court 
 with my views on the late deteriorating cata.strophe, 
 that has overcast the hierarchy of the Jews' religion, 
 and the laurels of a part of the Roman army, with a 
 degree of constuperating disgrace. 
 
 And, please your honours the judges and jury, when 
 Caiaphas had given his short history of the loss of the 
 body of Christ out of the sepulchre, his holinegs went 
 on to deeply imbue my mind with his theological re- 
 flections, on the cause, and then the probable effects of 
 this shameful military disaster. And when the high 
 priest of the Jews had ended his mournful communica- 
 tion, of the distressing loss of the crucified body of 
 Christ out of the sepulchre, that I signified to him, 
 that I would immediately send for the centurion, and 
 cause him, with his guards, to come to my judgment 
 seat, and have them all examined ; and if found guilty 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 175 
 
 of not discharging their full share of military duty, to. 
 have them all put immediately to death; so that, plea&e 
 your honours the judges and jury, in pursuance of the 
 well known martial laws, and strict discipline of the 
 Roman army* and may it please this court, as I had at 
 the time when the sepulchre was reported to have been 
 robbed of the crucified body of Christ, the most plenary 
 power, over all the civil and military officers, and ser- 
 vants of my master's government, both in the land of 
 Judea and the city of Jerusalem ; — when I informed 
 his holiness, that I would not only send for the centu- 
 rion, but have the city of Jerusalem and its vicinity, 
 with all the adjacent country, for at least twenty miles 
 round, strictly searched; in order, that if his eleven 
 recreant and knavish disciples, with the crucified body 
 of their master, were in this mundane dispensation, or 
 if your honours please, in the land of the living, I would 
 have them all brought forth, before the great orb of 
 light should have withdrawn his refulgent glory, and 
 sink his coruscations, beneath the western horizon of 
 that day. 
 
 But, may it please this court, I have the painful duty 
 to inform you, that my pious coadjutor, [that is, as he 
 professed to be,] in the examination, the condemnation, 
 and crucifixion, and bounding of the crucified body of 
 Christ in the sepulchre — that his holiness, in pious 
 imitation of his old friend Hushai, the archite, the friend 
 of king David — that Caiaphas said to me, as Hushai 
 said to Absalom, of the council of Ahithophel, Your 
 advice, sir, at this time, is not good ; for this obvious 
 reason : When his holiness reminded me of the felici- 
 tous phenomena, that was seen over the cit;/ of Jerusa- 
 lem, on the day that Christ was crucified ; — which 
 were, please your honours the judges and jury, that 
 Herod and myself, who had been for some previous 
 time dwelling under a nebulous canopy of jealousy, and 
 the pugnacious squoWs of the green-eyed monster, which 
 had, for a long season been rushing through each others 
 minds; but since the death of Christ, the calm elements 
 of peace has pervaded our reconciled souls, and pro- 
 
176 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 duced a re-action on the fell monster, called envy; and 
 as long as this leviathan lies coiled away in the calm 
 sea of our reconciled hearts, his holiness, in the usual 
 suavity of his peaceful and sanctified style, observed to 
 me, that at this juncture of time, it would be extrava- 
 gantly unadvisable, to have either the city of Jerusalem, 
 or the land of Judea searched, for either the disciples, 
 or the crucified body of Christ ; least, by pursuing so 
 incautious a measure, you might awake the old family's 
 lewidithdiW jealousy , that for the time being is fast asleep, 
 in the calm waters of Herod's heart. When Caiaphas 
 further said, please your honours — for, sir, your excel- 
 lency, I am fully persuaded, must be well a\vare of the 
 jealous disposition and irascible spirit of the whole of 
 Herod's family; the which has deeply imbued his 
 whole court, with the nebulous shades of jealousy : and 
 how little a thing, or slight an occurrence either physi- 
 cally, civilly or morally, it requires to awake the 
 green-eyed monster, that is now dozing under the peace- 
 ful canopy of personal reconciliation. So that your 
 excellency, no doubt, will see with me, how small a 
 matter might have undulated the whole sea over which 
 Herod holds a jurisdiction, as Tetrachof Galilee, under 
 our sovereign Tiberius Caesar. 
 
 And said Caiaphas to me, (please this court,) Your 
 excellency must be well aware, that the most remote 
 idea of Christ finding his way out of the sepulchre, and 
 setting up a new kingdom for himself, would arouse 
 him to action. It will then, please your excellency, be 
 our best policy, to keep hid from Herod^and not only 
 so, but if possible, from all mankind — but especially in 
 the case of this prince ; as it might so excite his natural 
 jealousy, with his progenitor called Herod the great, 
 who no doubt your excellency remembers, if not from 
 personal knowledge, yet by reading, that at the birth 
 of Christ, he caused the city of Bethelem and the adja- 
 cent country, to flow with the blood of the innocent 
 babes ; the which, sir, I make no doubt, but this young 
 sion from the old irascible and jealous stock, will follow 
 close in the wake of his old grand sire, were we to have, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. ITt 
 
 please your excellency, the centurion and the guards 
 brought up to your judgment seat, to be examined, and 
 Jerusalem and the adjacent country searched, either 
 for the disciples, or the lost body of Christ. For if that 
 sleepy leviathan, jealousy, should be wakened up from 
 off her downy chamber, on his now reconciled heart, 
 the fell monster might lash the sea of Galilee with the 
 ire of his wrathful tail ; so that he would be very 
 likely to crimson the land of Judea, and drench the 
 streets of Jerusalem with the blood of the slain : when 
 your excellency and myself, I am fully persuaded, 
 would swell the catalogue of human wo. 
 
 But it is superfluous for me to tax the good sense of 
 your excellency, who can better decipher, than my 
 words can paint, the deleterious images, on the tele- 
 graph of distress and misfortune, in order to place the 
 same before the mirror of your well informed mind, than 
 the best language of mine can possibly portray them. 
 
 And with many other words did Caiaphas, the then 
 high priest of the Jews relate, and with his long roll 
 spread on the bureau of my drawing-room, written 
 within and without, in ciphers of lamentation mourn- 
 ing and wo. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your honours the judges, 
 and jury of this court of impartial law and inquest, it 
 was for peace sake, and to spare the unnecessary 
 effusion of human blood, that my Roman sensibilities, as 
 it were, involuntarily led me, as the governor of Judea, to 
 flow into the wake of the pious views and humane sen- 
 timents of Caiaphas; so that my judgment perceived it 
 best to adopt his benevolent council ; and of course, I 
 gave up the idea of having the matter legally investi- 
 gated. So that, please this court, the whole of the re- 
 ported robbery of the sepulchre, of the crucified body 
 of Christ, has passed away, like a morning cloud in the 
 heat of a summer's day, entirely, please your honours, 
 from under my jurisdiction. 
 
 And this court, I hope, will see, that in the business, 
 both civil and military, as it relates to the loss of the 
 body of Christ, after it was crucified, I have acted on 
 
178 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the broad scale of humanity, and the philanthropic 
 principles of peace and safety — both to Caesar's interest, 
 my personal security, and that of my holy coadjutor, 
 (who voluntarily became my pious almoner,) and to the 
 nation of the Jews in general, over which I held a 
 Roman jurisdiction. 
 
 Now, that is, please your honours, the judges and 
 jury of this high court of law and inquest, all that I 
 officially and legally know, of the loss of the crucified 
 body of Christ, out of the sepulchre. When his excel- 
 lency, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor sat down. 
 
 Christian friends, the author is satisfied in his own mind, 
 that he is fully justified in the sight of God and men, in thus 
 placing Pilate's evidence before this court, in the ideas and 
 language which he has made choice of. Causing Pilate to in- 
 form the court, what Caiaphas communicated to him, when 
 the body of Christ was missing out of the sepulchre, from 
 this scripture in Matthew's gospel ; " and if this comes to the 
 governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you." See 
 Matthew's gospel, chapter 28, 14. 
 
 And when the governor had concluded his evidence, 
 the chief judge adjourned the court, to meet in the 
 same place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 179 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 i 
 
 The tenth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepulchre, 
 of the crucified body of Christ. The -plea of the States-' 
 general, against Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this high court of law and in- 
 quest met pursuant to adjournment. And when the 
 legal ceremonies of this court were all gone through, the 
 learned barrister, on the side of the crov^n, rose and 
 occupied the floor, in addressing the bar of this court, 
 about half a day. 
 
 The stenographer will only give the reader an epito- 
 mized view, of the states-attorney's plea against the 
 prisoner at the bar, as the leading feature of his argu- 
 ments were nearly the same as in Caiaphas' case; with 
 the exception of person and office ; the former being 
 ecclesiastical, and the latter civil and military. The 
 states-general observed to the court, that the legal 
 functions, both of his duty and office, onerously led 
 him, in conjunction with his avowed fealty to his legi- 
 timate sovereign, to portray on the telegraph of the 
 law of the realm, the guilt of the prisoner ; which at 
 times he did with some display of his forensick eloquence, 
 and which often drew a little of the electrical fluid 
 from the clouds of mercy; — which, as a Roman vir- 
 tue, spread itself for a few moments over the person 
 and judgment seat of Pilate ; in consequence of some of 
 the words used by him, at the time that Christ stood 
 bound as a malefactor at his judgment seat. When his 
 learned honour, the states-attorney, made some of the 
 most powerful efforts, to constuperate, with the sable 
 shades of moral disease, the few instances of the lenient 
 conduct of the Roman governor towards Christ, while 
 his trial was pending at Pilate's judgment seat — when 
 the crown barrister's forensick remarks, were every 
 now and then accompanied with a loud clap of his 
 vituperating thunder, on the reprehensible head of the 
 Roman governor. But notwithstanding all the zig-zag 
 lightning, from the dense clouds in the vituperating 
 
180 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 horizon, accompanied with a roaring discharge from 
 the legal artillery of the crown lawyer, on the legal 
 nudity of the conduct and person of Pilate, on the day 
 of the trial of Christ, at the prisoner's judgment seat. 
 
 And it came to pass, when this son of the civick 
 muse had, through the legal horn of his forensick 
 oratory, disburdened his dense cloud, of all its vitupe- 
 rating waters ; and had, by his oratorial lightning-rod, 
 conducted to the earth all the electrical fluid, that the 
 crown barrister had endeavoured to draw from the 
 conduct and words of Pilate, throughout his proceed- 
 ings, during the whole of the trial of Christ, on that 
 mournful and distressing day. But the states-general's 
 vituperating oratory, made only a transient impression, 
 on the legal wisdom and knowledge of this court, in 
 convincing it, that there was the least shade of illegal 
 clemency, shown by Pilate towards Christ, in any of 
 his words and acts, that were of a lenient aspect, on 
 the day that Christ stood bound as a malefactor, at 
 Pilate's judgment seat, that were repulsive to the 
 character of a Roman judge, to manifest towards any 
 prisoner brought to the tribunal of Roman justice ; of 
 whom the judge, from the discrepancy of testimony 
 preferred against the defendant at the bar of justice, 
 might be led to entertain doubts of the prisoner's guilt. 
 
 And it came to pass, when this servant of the crown 
 had unburdened his pregnant cloud, of the windy and 
 struggling foetus — at the birth of which, in this impar- 
 tial court, it was the states-attorney's most sanguine 
 hope, that he should prove, that Pilate was, either in 
 his words or acts, on the trial of Christ, accessary, 
 or at least a careless deliquent in his oflicial duty 
 on that day. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the learned counsel 
 for the crown, had, in his own view of his forensick 
 talents, safely accouched this mountain of legal know- 
 ledge, in the midst of this profound and enlightened 
 court of law and inquest, the crown barrister sat down, 
 leaving nothing more serious on the mind of the judges 
 and jury, and all the other legal elements of this court, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 181 
 
 than a young dormouse, in its playful manoeuvres, at 
 the base of the civick altar of the Magna-Charta of 
 Roman law. When the chief judge rose and stated to 
 the court, that he perceived by the aid of his forensick 
 telescope, that the cause now pending at the bar, would 
 be a long and arduous trial ; and in order to give the 
 parties in the suit a little relaxation from mental tur- 
 moil, he should adjourn the court for the remainder of 
 the day. 
 
182 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The eleventh day of the trial of the disciples, for the rob- 
 bery of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ, 
 The plea of a Roman bar7'ister, in the behalf of Pontius 
 Pilate, the governor of Judea, at the time the body of 
 Christ was missing out of the sepulchre. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this court of law and in- 
 quest, met in pursuance of adjournment, on the morning 
 of the eleventh day ; when the judges and jury, and all 
 the gentlemen of the bar were at their legal stations, 
 and the prisoner seated in the criminal's box. The 
 court being called to order by the legal officer thereof, 
 and the usual comity gone through, the learned barris- 
 ter, who had undertaken Pilate's cause rose, and facing 
 the bench said — May it please your learned honours 
 
 Figure No. 1. The chief and his associate judges, who were appointed by 
 the Emperor to try this all important case. 
 
 No. '2 The Stetes-attorney taking his notes. 
 
 No. 3. Pilate's counsel pleading hia eause. 
 
 No. 4. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who condemned Christ, fe 
 aOMT himself in the criminal's box. 
 
 No. 5. The twelve jurymen sworn and panelled, sitting in the jury box. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 183 
 
 the judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, of this im- 
 partial court of law and inquest, I do this morning un- 
 feignedly experience it to be my duty, to advertise 
 this court, that it is repulsive to my sense of the value 
 of time, and the legal wisdom and knowledge of your 
 learned honours — as well as the justice T owe to my 
 client's cause, not to detain this court with a lengthy 
 exhibition of my remarks, in order merely to meet and 
 rebut the specious arguments of the states-attorney 
 which he urged the previous day on the mind of this 
 court, with the more than ordinary radiance, of his 
 learned honour's forensick mind ; which, every now^ 
 and then, were accompanied with some vivid flashes of 
 his oratorial lightning, followed by the distant rumbling 
 of his vituperating thunder; the ostensible object of 
 which appeared to be, to move the mind and passions 
 of this impartial court, into his ow n professional views 
 of the prisoner's guilt. Although, please your honours, 
 when we undress the crown barrister's mode of reason- 
 ing of the tinsil of forensick figure, and the drapery of 
 well chosen and ingenious collocation of court vocabu- 
 lary, his honour's logic, please the court, when placed 
 on the colossus of sound argument and irrefragable 
 reasoning, would appear to your honours, in a state of 
 nudity ; especially, please your learned honours, if we 
 remove the barrister's band of musick — that is, the 
 harmonious intonations of a fine voice, which please 
 your learned honours, so very often charms our audi- 
 bility, at the expense of either the excursive or discur- 
 sive powers of our minds, clearly seeing the imbecility 
 and illegibility of the arguments. 
 
 A NOTE. 
 
 Oh ! how many good causes are lost, and bad ones gained, 
 for want of due attention to these things ! That when I view 
 all the arguments the states-attorney has presented at the 
 bar of this court, against Pilate, in their state of nudity, 
 standing on the pedestal of the Magna-Charta of Roman law, 
 they appear, in my view, as cadaverous and meagre, as 
 Milton's " Death and Sin.'' 
 
184 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 And may it [please your learned honours, the 
 judges and jury, the legal ground, or rather sandy 
 arena, on which the crown barrister based his argu- 
 ments, to prove Pilate's guilt in the delinquency of his 
 duty, in not retaining the crucified body in safe durance, 
 in the sepulchre forever, was a mere shifting sand bank, 
 continually, by the current of the muddy waters of 
 assumption, altering its position. But, please this court, 
 we are in some sense in duty bound, as belonging to the 
 same profession, and myself being a small limb of the 
 law, to exercise charity towards the crow n barrister, 
 and so draw this corollary in his favour; — to wit: 
 that his learned honour does, in his legal conscience, 
 believe it to be his official duty to confirm the bill, which 
 the grand jury found against Pilate, at the bar of this 
 court. 
 
 His learned honour's great anxiety, to establish the 
 governor's guilt, no doubt, arises out of the fealty he 
 owes to his sovereign, and his oath of fidelity, to legally 
 and assiduously maintain the righteous sanction of the 
 laws of the realm. These views of his professional 
 duty, please your honours, led the states-attorney to 
 pour out of his thundering clouds, densely charged with 
 his wisdom and knowledge of the law, a small vituper- 
 ating blast, on the head of every prisoner, brought by 
 the arm of the law or its officers of justice, to the bar 
 of this or any other court, which his official duties leads 
 him to attend. 
 
 Therefore, I shall proceed, by the indulgence of your 
 learned honours, and the judges and jury, to bring a 
 few matters of fact before the court, which will conse- 
 cutively arise out of the words and acts of the Roman 
 governor, the prisoner at the bar, when that very 
 mysterious and singular cause was pending at my 
 client's judgment seat for trial. I shall therefore con- 
 sider it, please this court, as gratuitously granted, by 
 their honours the judges, that the precursory elements 
 of your law knowledge, has already led you to forecast 
 in your minds, and ask me in some such language as 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 185 
 
 this ; — Pray, sir, What part of the prisoner's conduct 
 do you allude to, that so entirely disperses all the dark 
 clouds, and inauspicious shades of delinquency, from off 
 the words and acts of Pontius Pilate, in the condemna- 
 tion of Christ at his judgment seat? I shall now, may 
 it please your honours, very obsequiously proceed to 
 satisf}^ your legal anticipations on this point, and which 
 I shall endeavour to do, please the court, without fol- 
 lowing so close in the wake of his learned honour, on 
 the side of the crown ; as I experience a very serious 
 predilection at this time, not to bruise my forensick 
 shin.<i, over the classical wheels of his law eloquence, in 
 aping the melodious intonations of his flexible voice, and 
 the finer touches of the crown barrister's forensick pencil ! 
 I shall now place a few simple and plain facts, in 
 the view of the court, which I humbly presume will be 
 viewed in the eye of the law, and at the bar of this 
 wise and intelligent court, of sufficient weight and 
 notoriety, to prov^e the entire justification of Pontius 
 Pilate, my client's innocency, of the distressing loss of 
 the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. And 
 in order to convince this court of the innocency of my 
 client, I shall ask it one question : Did not Pilate most 
 graciously grant unto Caiaphas, without any kind of 
 hesitancy whatever — yea, please your learned honours, 
 Pilate did grant, with a ready mind, and it is said, the 
 holy ones " rewards a cheerful giver," more than the 
 prayer of Caiaphas asked ; even, all the phj^sical, civil 
 and military aid, both in persons and things, which 
 either the letter or spirit of his prayer called for. Yes, 
 may it please your learned honours the judges, and 
 jury — when Pilate said to the high priest of the Jews, 
 Go your way, and take with you, by my special and 
 imperative orders, one of the Roman officers, who has 
 the charge of the temple ; and with him a sufficient 
 number of his brave soldiers, as you and the centurion 
 shall judge expedient to guard the sepulchre, against 
 all the subdolous foes on the face of the earth. And' 
 also, I ^ive orders, in case of surprise or any sudden 
 
 q2 
 
186 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 emergency whatsoever, or any contingency that might 
 depreciate the security of the crucified body of Christ, 
 in safe durance in the sepulchre forever — take my 
 orders to the centurion ; and that he come to me for 
 my master's great seal of state — and seal the stone at 
 the entrance of the sepulchre— and set the watch over 
 the sepulchre, according to the strictest rules of the 
 military discipline, and the long established martial law 
 of the Roman army. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges and jury, to indulge me to ask the court one 
 plain and simple question, and that is : Whether the 
 prisoner at the bar, Pontius Pilate, did or did not do 
 his plenary share of duty, on that alarming occasion? 
 or whether our knowing ones, of the age of boasted 
 Reason, and pompous Philosophy; or, if the reader 
 please, one of the Atheists, Deists, or Jews of modern 
 times, with all the acquisitions, which the so much 
 boasted auxiliaries of modern times, of science and 
 natural philosophy, under the canopy of human reason; 
 armed with the panoply of the carnal mind, had been 
 in Pilate's place and office, he or they, as the case may 
 have been, would or could have acted with more pru- 
 dence, or have managed the safe keeping of the body 
 of Christ, with more wisdom, judgment, legal skill, 
 and personal adroitness, than Pilate manifested on the 
 spur of the moment ? 
 
 I shall, please your honours,- just glance at a few of 
 those impugning flashes of the states-attorney's orato- 
 rial lightning, on the head of Pilate, in consequence of 
 his wishing to have Christ pardoned and released, on 
 the day of his trial. Now, it is well known, please 
 your honours the judges and jury, that although my 
 client, the prisoner at the bar, manifested at the trial 
 of Christ, some of the most pungent signs of the deep 
 commiserating sensibility of a Roman officer, arising 
 out of a noble mind, embellished with all the graces 
 of civick virtue and national philanthrophy, which 
 during the whole of the time of that singular and 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 18 J 
 
 mysterious being, in human form, called Christ, was 
 arraigned at the judgment seat of Pilate. 
 
 And as the prisoner at the bar sat on his bench, 
 viewing the irascible spirit of the whole nation of the 
 Jews, with the false and unrighteous allegations and 
 groundless specifications, that Caiaphas, the well known 
 high priest of the Jews, did, on the day of the trial of 
 Christ, before the judgment seat of my client, so very 
 onerously and vehemently prefer against him. So that, 
 please this court, Pontius Pilate my client, very clearly 
 saw, that the Jews with Caiaphas at their head, had 
 in consequence of some mysterious design, constituted 
 themselves as the sworn enemies of Christ ; although, 
 may it please your honours, they could not legally prove 
 one solitary charge, nor single allegation against him 
 to be true. And that during the whole of this distress- 
 ing and singular trial, and dark and mysterious catas- 
 trophe — that is, please this court, the arrest and con- 
 demnation of Christ at Pilate's bar ; — and I can now 
 truly inform your learned honours the judges, and the 
 gentlemen of the jury, that the governor, the prisoner 
 at the bar of this court of law" and inquest, has this 
 day authorized me to communicate to this court, that 
 on the day of the trial of Christ at his judgment seat, 
 had his own philanthrophic sensibilities raised to their 
 more than natural acme, by the dolorous congress of the 
 finer and more delicate sensibilities of his consort, while 
 he sat on the judgment seat, in a short but dolorous 
 message she sent him ; in w hich his lady very onerously 
 and affectionately prayed her beloved consort, to have 
 nothing to do with that just, righteous and mystenous 
 being in human form, called Christ. 
 
 And may it please your learned honours — if w^e can 
 put the least affiance in her message, and, I know of 
 no sound argument, why a lady's testimony should be 
 thrown aside, at the bar of this impartial court of law 
 and inquest, then the governor's lady had, according 
 to the letter and spirit of her epistle, please the courf, 
 experienced many a painful exercise that day, in the 
 finer sensibilities of her distressed mind, concerning the 
 
188 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 prisoner at the judgment seat of her beloved husband. 
 Therefore, these things, please your learned honours the 
 judges and jury, of this impartial court, being so, that 
 this was at least one of the physical and mental causes 
 of raising the altitude of my client, the prisoner at the 
 bar's personal convictions, in the behalf of the inno- 
 cency of Christ. 
 
 The court may, in its legal wisdom and knowledge, 
 look upon it as possessing no relevancy on my part, to 
 place a lady's testimony at the bar of this high court of 
 chancery ; but, the judges of this court well know, that 
 we cannot well get along in our courts of justice and 
 jurisprudence, without the admission (and that too, in 
 the most solemn and serious cases, even that of life and 
 death.) of female testimony. 
 
 Now, these things, please your honours, I have placed 
 before the bar of this court, as the public and notorious 
 words and acts of Pilate, on the day of Christ's trial ; 
 in order to show this court, that the philanthropic mind 
 of Pilate, did unfeignedly manifest his personal disap- 
 probation a,nd abhorrence of the pugnacity of the Jew\s, 
 in their demanding the life and blood of Christ, in the 
 execution of his person on a Roman cross. And please 
 this court, in order that my client might make it the 
 more notoriously manifest, that the asperity and male- 
 volence of both Caiaphas and the Jews, in wishing the 
 death of Christ, were both repulsive and abhorrent to 
 Pilate's views and sentiments of the innocency of Christ ; 
 Pilate, in the presence of all the spectators before his 
 judgment seat, took w ater and washed his hands — ex- 
 claiming in a dolorous voice, / am clear of the blood of 
 this righteous inoffensive man : — see ye to it yourselves, 
 ye cruel and hard hearted .!ew^s. But, when Pilate the 
 prisoner at the bar, saw the irascible spirit of Caiaphas 
 and the Jew ish nation, against Christ, as he stood bound 
 as a prisoner at his judgment seat, he gave sentence 
 against him. 
 
 Now, please your learned honours, was it not very 
 natural for Pilate to have forecast in his own mind, 
 from the acme of their malevolence, so notoriously and 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 189 
 
 vtghemently made manifest on that mysterious trial — 
 which, please this court of law and inquest, any person of 
 common sense may gather from the plain mathematical 
 construction of the language used by his holiness, Caia- 
 phas, the high priest of the Jews, on that occasion, 
 while the cause of Christ was pending at the bar of 
 Pilate. Does the court w^ish to hear them in their 
 native dress ? Then, please your honours the judges 
 with the gentlemen of the jury, they are as follows: 
 When Caiaphas exclaimed. Is your Roman excellency 
 conscientiously tenacious — or does a civil officer of the 
 Roman government suffer his noble mind to indulge any 
 delicate scruples, in the full discharge of the regal duty 
 he owes the laws of his sovereign, in pronouncing the 
 condign punishment of the Roman laws, to be by the 
 officers of justice, duly inflicted on the notorious male- 
 factor, Christ ; whom we now accuse as the violator of 
 all laws, both human and divine, and his contumacy 
 against the doctrines of men. Therefore, may it please 
 your excellency, in order to relieve your philanthropic 
 sensibilities, of the difficulty your mind labours under, 
 in your inflicting the full weight of the condign punish- 
 ment of your laws, on the malefactor, Christ, who we 
 have brought to your judgment seat — We, sir, take the 
 whole onerous responsibility on ourselves and nation, 
 by saying, let his blood be and remain on us, and on 
 the fruits of the congress of our conjugal affections, for- 
 ever. When Caiaphas added, " if thou let this man 
 go," although thou art a Roman governor, yet " thou art 
 not Caesar's friend." 
 
 When, please your learned honours the judges and 
 the gentlemen of the jury, my client Pontius Pilate, 
 was, as it were, led from this onerous judicial requisi- 
 tion, made by Caiaphas on the official duties of the 
 Roman governor, contrary to his wishes ; being, at the 
 time, well acquainted with the articles of the covenant 
 or treaty, entered into between the humble nation of 
 the Jews, on the one part, and the gallant, and for the 
 time being, victorious empire of the Romans on the 
 other part ; — which please this court, had been reci- 
 
190 CHllIST REJECTED. 
 
 procally interchanged, between the Jews and the 
 Romans. 
 
 Now^ please this court, that one of those articles in 
 this covenant was, that the Romans shall deliver up to 
 the will, and the theological caprice of the Jewish 
 hierarchy at their annual festival, in commemoration of 
 the redemption of the Hebrews from their long Egyp- 
 tian bondage, some solitary prisoner, who had been 
 condemned to die by the civil laws of the Romans, who, 
 at that time, had entirely taken out of the hands of the 
 Jewish people, all judicatory power : so that the 
 Hebrews were so degraded as a nation, that in the days 
 of Tiberius and Pilate, they stood before the world 
 in the most pitiable and nullified state : and were 
 sensible, that their masters, the Romans, would not 
 sufier the Jews to exercise the least jurisprudence over 
 a solitary criminal's case, in the least district in the 
 land of Israel. Therefore, please your honours the 
 judges and jury, it was in consequence of this degrading 
 article, in the covenant, or rather imperious conditions 
 of peace, which the plenary power of the Romans, 
 who at that juncture of time were the prostrators of 
 almost all the civilized nations of the earth, had so oner- 
 ously imposed on the Jews, and which gave to Caiaphas, 
 the then high priest of the Jews, the legal right to demand 
 from the hand of tlie Roman governor, a noted male- 
 factor by the name of Barahhas] who had been con- 
 victed of sedition and murder ; which he the said Bar- 
 abbas had committed in the city of Jerusalem. So that, 
 please your honours, it would be rather irrelevant, 
 as well as repulsive to the wisdom of this high court 
 of law and inquest, for me to tax the time, and 
 exhaust the patience of your honours for one moment, 
 in supposing that this court does not clearly see, that 
 my client, the prisoner at the bar, Pontius Pilate, was 
 according to the aforesaid stipulation of the treaty with 
 the Jews, imperiously coerced to deliver up that mys- 
 terious being that was called Christ, to be crucified ; 
 and at the same time, set the seditious murderer, Bar- 
 abbas, free. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 191 
 
 Now, I would humbly and obsequiously inquire of 
 this court, if in its legal wisdom and knowledge, it can 
 for one moment censure, or in the least degree impugn 
 the few drops of forensick clemency, which Pilate mani- 
 fested as a Roman judge, on this singular occasion, to- 
 w^ards that mysterious prisoner, who stood bound at the 
 judgment seat. Therefore, from the delicate and peculiar 
 situation in w^hich Pontius Pilate, my client, was placed, 
 I shall please your honours the judges, with the impar- 
 tial jury in the box before me, humbly ask your hon- 
 ours and the court's indulgence, while I shall proceed 
 with all due deference to its legal wisdom and know- 
 ledge, and the long forensick experience of this court, 
 to express my legal views, merely to assist the natural 
 elements of common sense, and say, that when the mind 
 of Pilate the governor, became thus undulated by the 
 pugnacious spirit of Caiaphas, and his priests on the 
 one part, and the notorious asperity and effervescence, 
 that he saw diffusing itself through the multifarious 
 throng of the Jewish people, which the recreant fears 
 of the high priest of the Jews, had already inflamed the 
 mind of the common people with ; to call for the sedi- 
 tious murderer Barabbas to be set at liberty, and crucify 
 Christ. 
 
 And if it is not irrelevant, and I am fully persuaded 
 in my mind, it is not, I shall place at the bar of this 
 court, again, a small circumstance, which I have already 
 glanced at, please the court ; viz : while Christ stood 
 bound as a malefactor, at Pilate's bar, and as I have 
 once said, and I wish to place lady Pilate's tragical 
 part, before the court once more, please your honours, 
 that the fair consort of the governor who is now held 
 in durance as a prisoner, at the bar of this court — that 
 is, that Pilate's lady, sent him a short epistle, in which 
 she most onerously prays the object of her conjugal 
 affections, to beware of staining his legal hands in the 
 blood of that righteous and innocent man, who was 
 called Christ ; assigning as the most cogent reason, for 
 her a little stepping over the line of demarcation of the 
 * province of a lady, that her usual hours of repose had 
 
1 92 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 been much interrupted, and the purlieu of her mind, 
 unceremoniously invaded, by the most alarming pres- 
 entations of the mysterious nature and character of 
 Christ : — so that, I shall again ask the court, whether 
 my client, under all those collateral and dolorous cir- 
 cumstances before his mind — to wit : the innocency of 
 Christ, which was strongly depictured in the placid 
 expression of Christ's countenance, as he stood bound 
 at his judgment seat ; and while the prayerful letter of 
 his conjugal affections was lying on the bureau at his 
 right hand — I shall tax your learned honour's patience 
 and ask this court, (and I hope my boldness will not 
 produce a repulsive sensation, at my mode and manner 
 of reasoning, in placing the innocency of Pilate's con- 
 duct at the bar of this court) — I shall therefore, be- 
 lieving it to be relevant, humbly ask this impartial 
 court of law and inquest, if, please your learned honours, 
 as I highly appreciate all the legal elements of this 
 famed court of chancery, to be men of wisdom and 
 knowledge, of the whole arcanum of human nature, or 
 in other words, to have a perfect acquaintance with the 
 character of mankind : — therefore, 1 ask, if this or any 
 other court of Roman jurisprudence, would be led to 
 pour out the thundering vials of iis vituperation, on the 
 person and character of any judge, who presided over 
 the courts of Roman law, merely, please your honours, 
 because he manifested a few lenient sensations towards 
 some solitary prisoner at his bar ; and at the same time, 
 exhibited some small symptoms of the perturbation of 
 his philanthropic mind, in Pilate, my client : being on 
 this occasion, so onerously led by the clamours of 
 Caiaphas, and the people of Jerusalem, to pass the con- 
 dign sentence of the law, on one whom he, as a Roman 
 judge, viewed as innocent; so that I can with conscien- 
 tious rectitude aver, for my client's integrity and 
 Roman honour, on that distressing dispensation, as it 
 passed over the legal horizon of my client's mind, and 
 inform this court, that it was a thousand times more 
 likely to flow in full accordance with the dolorous sen- 
 timents of one Job I have read of, in some of the old 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 193 
 
 writers ; of whom it is said, that when that afflicted 
 sage was labouring under the most intense pains, he 
 exclaimed : " For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut 
 down, that it will sprout again ; and that the tender 
 branch thereof will not cease, though the root thereof 
 wax old in the earth, and the stalk thereof die in the 
 ground ; yet, through the scent of water it will bud, 
 and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, 
 and wasteth away ; yea, man giveth up the ghost and 
 where is he?" 
 
 But, may it please your learned honours, I once 
 more humbly ask the patience of this court and jury 
 to bear with me ; — and although I am a lawyer by 
 profession — and your learned honours well know with 
 me, as one of the lawyers has said at this bar before, 
 that a very few of our learned and forensick pro- 
 fession, believe that there is one word of truth in that 
 conscience troubling volume, called the Bible : yet, may 
 it please the judges and the gentlemen of the jury, we 
 must candidly acknowledge, that some of its civil doc- 
 trines, moral precepts, as well as its lofty style, figura- 
 tive ideas, and highly embellished language, every now 
 and then help us lawyers out with a dead lift, in our 
 courts of civil and common law; so that we can some- 
 times illustrate, and not a little embellish our pleadings, 
 with its sublime sentiments. 
 
 However, at the first view of my temerity, it may 
 appear to your honours somewhat reprehensible, and 
 not a little repulsive to the forensick wisdom and know- 
 ledge of this high court of chancery, to be troubling 
 your learned honours with the doctrines and sentiments 
 of that gloomy and conscience disturbing volume ; — 
 but since I have gratuitously introduced this strange 
 and mysterious book at the bar of this court, I shall 
 make one small levy more, on its sententious language, 
 and say, please your learned honours, that the expe- 
 rience of my client, the prisoner at the bar, Pontius 
 Pilate, after the crucifixion and safe interment of the 
 body of Christ in the sepulchre, that had been recently 
 excavated out of a solid rock, that the views of Pilate's 
 
194 CHRIST REJECTEIX. 
 
 mind, with the pungent sensations of his heart, were a 
 thousand times more likely to involuntarily flow with 
 mournful consonance, into the wake of [as the Jewish 
 writers inform us,] what they call their royal saint ; 
 that is, king David ; so that my client's mind and sor- 
 rowful tongue, would have struck the lyre of David's 
 harp, and sung with him this solemn dirge, which the 
 royal saint, as the Jew's call him, sang at the death of the 
 first child he had by the beautiful mother of Solomon : 
 I shall go said my client, Pontius Pilate, in a soliloquy 
 to the goddess of the nebulous empire of death, which 
 to this day has always remained under the iron-bound 
 administration of her consort, the king of terrors; over 
 which dreary country, nothing but dense clouds and 
 misty fogs forever dwell. 
 
 No, may it please this court, neither had my client, 
 at the time of the deleterious loss of the crucified body 
 out of the sepulchre, the least dernier desire, to be 
 either directly or indirectly, the nefarious agent — or in 
 any-wise, in the least degree, accessary, in consequence 
 of the smallest aberration of his official duty ; so that 
 not the slightest shades of delinquency were ever seen, 
 please this courts in any of Pilate's public words or 
 private acts, by the keenest vision, of either the 
 ancient or modern vultures, who are always soaring 
 with eagle's wings and peacock's plumage, in the full 
 coruscation of philosophical light. But notwithstand- 
 ing the soaring altitude of these birds of prey, not one 
 of them, please your learned honours the judges and 
 jury, can either show or prove, the least degree of re- 
 missness, in the words or acts of my client; in order as 
 I have already said to your honours, to countenance 
 either directly or indirectly, in the least degree, a noc- 
 turnal surreption on the old custom-house of death; or, 
 in other words, by the eleven disciples of Christ on the 
 sepulchre, to bring the deteriorating body of Christ, 
 back from the gloomy mansion of death ; which has 
 been appointed, from the beginning of time, to all men. 
 
 And now I pray the court to indulge me, as the ad- 
 vocate for Pontius Pilate, the prisoner at the bar, to 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 195 
 
 say by way of a summary to all my former remarks, 
 in my client's behalf^that there did not exist, in the 
 whole range of either the moral, civil or military words 
 and acts of Pilate, the prisoner at the bar, my client, 
 that either the legal wisdom and forensick knowledge 
 of your learned honours, can possibly draw so illegal 
 and unfair a corollary ; or, if the court please, so in- 
 judicious a conclusion : that is — that Pilate the prisoner 
 at the bar of this high court of law and inquest, has 
 even in one solitary instance, by any private means or 
 public acts whatsoever, in the least degree, [as I have 
 more than once said at the bar of this court, counte- 
 nanced the sad loss or escape, as the case may have 
 been — which please your learned honours, appears to 
 be, to us wise men, so very problematical, that we can- 
 not categorically decide whether he was stolen or elop- 
 ed of his own accord, out of the sepulchre. But be 
 that as it may, the crucified body of Christ is gone out 
 of the strong hold of the bastile of death :] been remiss 
 in his duty : No, may it please your learned honours 
 the judges of this court and the wise and impartial 
 jury, the forecasting mind of Pontius Pilate, the Roman 
 governor of Judea, and the city of Jerusalem, would, 
 as I have once said, be a thousand times more likely to 
 draw some such wise conclusion as this ; that since my 
 client had been the unfelicitous agent of the civil and 
 martial law of the Romans, in consequence of the pride 
 and green-eyed jealousy of Caiaphas, and the irascibility 
 of the Jewish nation, as it were, imperiously coerced 
 my client, so very contrary to the views and convic- 
 tions of his mind, and his legal judgment of the inno- 
 cency of Christ, to condemn and crucify him. There- 
 fore, may it please this court as the counsel and advo- 
 cate for Pilate, I am this day fully justified in drawing 
 this obvious and reasonable conclusion ; which is this, 
 please your honours: that in order Pontius Pilate might 
 banish forever from his mind this most unrighteous and 
 illegal phenomena, that ever before were seen to pass 
 over or go through the legal horizon of the Magna 
 Charta of Roman law, that it should now since it had 
 
196 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 receded below the western horizon of time, and gone 
 quietly beneath the clods of the valley ; so that it were 
 now the anxious desire of Pilate, that the crucified body 
 of Christ should never be brought to light again, as the 
 governor, ih his forensick mind, w^as then led to con- 
 clude would most certainly be the case with the de- 
 teriorating body of Christ, which he had so recently 
 ordered to be deposited in a new sepulchre in the gar- 
 den : which sepulchre, as I said before, had been but 
 very recently excavated out of a solid rock. And, 
 please your learned honours the judges, and impartial 
 jury of this high court of law and inquest, this mourn- 
 ful catastrophe and bloody tradegy might, as my client 
 was led to conclude, forever pass oft" from his mind. 
 Therefore, may it please your honours, my client the 
 prisoner at the bar, Pontius Pilate, experienced the 
 utmost anxiety in his mind, as he was led by the mere 
 impulse of common sense, to look through the telescope 
 of time, while his anxious mind was taking a forecast- 
 ing view, and at the same time excursively surveying 
 the whole chapter of casualties, w^ith the vast sea of 
 future consequences before his mind ; so that Pilate in 
 a soliloquy, drew this wise and prudent inference : that 
 however he viewed Christ as innocent on the day of 
 his trial, when bound before him, as he sat on his judg- 
 ment seat, yet he unfeignedly experienced the most 
 anxious solicitude on his part, that the silent cemetery of 
 the dead, or if the court please, the urn of the stone sepul- 
 chre, should retain the crucified body of Christ, under 
 the iron-bound reign, and the merciless administration 
 of death ; in ordoi' that the unfurled banners of that all 
 conquering but nebulous dynasty, might wave its black 
 colours in everlasting triumph, over his crucified body, 
 as well as it had over all the rest of the kings and 
 princes, and other illustrious personages of the earth, 
 who had slipped the cable of life, and gone the delete- 
 rious voyage of death before him. And that the silent 
 clods of the dark valley of the shadow of death, might for- 
 ever cover from the vision of men, his unrighteous blood, 
 which Pilate was, by the articles of the treaty between 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 19T 
 
 the Jews and Romans, and the asperity and pugnacious 
 clamours of Caiaphas and the Jews, forced to shed on 
 the cross : and also, to hide his unjust condemnation 
 from the audibility of all mankind, and from the vitu- 
 perating voice of insulted and incensed humanity for- 
 ever. 
 
 I am now done, please your honours the judges, and 
 the gentlemen of the jury, and have gone through with 
 the defence of my client, Pontius Pilate, the prisoner 
 at the bar. When the learned counsel moved the 
 court, for Pilate's plenary discharge ; and then sat 
 down. 
 
 And the state's attorney rose and said a few words 
 to the court and jury, as a forensick caution not to 
 suffer their sensibilities to overrule their better judg- 
 ments, in consequence of Pilate's counsel's plausible 
 arguments. Which, however, made little or no im- 
 pression on the mind and judgment of the court. And 
 it came to pass, that as soon as the crown barrister had 
 blown out his short vituperating blast, he sat down. 
 When his honour the chief judge rose, and informed 
 the court, that the hour to adjourn had arrived, and 
 that he should deliver to this court his legal opinion 
 and judgment, on the prisoner's case, the ensuing day. 
 When the court stood adjourned, to meet in the same 
 place the next day. 
 
 k2 
 
198 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The twelfth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepulchre^ 
 of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass that in pursuance to adjourn- 
 ment, that the cdurt of Areopagus or rather a high 
 court of lav/ and inquest, met at an early hour. And 
 when all the usual forms of court etiquette were gone 
 through, and the judges and all other persons who con- 
 stituted the legal elements of this court had taken their 
 respective seats, and other legal locations in the court, 
 that the marshal of the empire, and high sheriff of 
 Rome, brought in Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, 
 and placed him at the bar of the court. 
 
 The chief judge's charge^ in the case of Pontius Pilate. 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as silence pervaded 
 
 Figui'e No. 1. The court of cliancery, or court of law and inquest. 
 
 No. 2. The chief judge delivering his charge to the jury. 
 
 No. 3. The foreman of the jury presenting to the judge and court a ver- 
 dict of not guilty. 
 
 No. 4. fhe high marshal of the empire, and high sheriff of Rome, leading 
 Pontius Pilate out of the court, with civil and mailial honour. 
 
 No. 5. Pilate in the ci-iminal's box. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 199 
 
 the court, his learned honour, the chief judge, rose and 
 went into an excursive examination, of the bearings of 
 some of the abstract points, of civil and martial law^ : 
 and in a lucid manner, went over, in his legal sandals, 
 with large strides, most assiduously plodding over the 
 whole ground, of the allegations and other charges, 
 which the learned barrister, on the behalf of the crown, 
 had preferred against the prisoner at the bar. In which 
 trite expose of the law, the judge gave the court a for- 
 ensick summary, of all the shades of civil and martial 
 law, that had the least bearing on Pilate's words and 
 acts — either on the examination, trial, condemnation 
 and crucifixion of Christ ; with the sad and irreparable 
 loss of his crucified body out of the sepulchre. And 
 as the learned judge proceeded along the forensick road, 
 his long plodding strides soon brought him to that part 
 of Pilate's conduct, in the examination of Christ at his 
 judgment seat, where the state's attorney so onerously 
 endeavoured to hold up to the eye of the court, entirely 
 as derogatory to the civil honour and glory of a Roman 
 governor to have been guilty of. When the chief judge 
 said to the court, that he viewed the assiduous endea- 
 vours of the state's attorney, accompanied with the 
 usual vibrations of his eloquent tongue — no doubt, W'ith 
 a view to try to raise a few dark spots, on the disk of 
 the official sun of the governor's civil and military 
 character, as an officer under. the Roman government. 
 The chief judge then observed, that he must unfeign- 
 edly acknowledge to this intelligent and enlighten- 
 ed court, that the legal glasses in the telescope, through 
 which the learned barrister, on the behalf of the crown, 
 viewed Pilate's conduct, when Christ stood bound at 
 his bar, please the court and jury, are more transpa- 
 rent than the old fashioned court glasses which I have 
 been in the practice of using for many years. But, 
 please this court and jury, whether it is the onerous 
 density of the clouds over my mind, or the weighty 
 atmosphere of years, that is the latent cause of these 
 few shades of discrepancy in our views of the case, now 
 
200 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 pending at the bar of this high court of law and inquest, 
 I shall not at this time detain the court to decide. 
 
 I shall, therefore, pray this high court of law and in- 
 quest not to misunderstand me, nor suffer its attention 
 to obliquely glide off, into the narrow valley of unchar- 
 itableness ; so as to view the remarks 1 have made, 
 with any invidious feelings, or with any insidious de- 
 sign on my part, in the least degree to lower the fame 
 of the learned barrister's professional talents ; nor yet, 
 please the court and jury, do I intend, knowingly, to 
 either irreverently, or uncharitably impugn the legal 
 motives of the state's attorney, in the plenary display he 
 has made at the bar of this court, in the fine strokes and 
 delicate touches of his oratorical pencil, which he has 
 placed with his' usual ingenuity at the audibility of this 
 bar. I must candidly acknowledge I could not but ad- 
 mire, the glowing scintillation of his mind ascending 
 aloft, when his learned honour highly charged his for- 
 ensick voice from the thunder cloud, in the vituperating 
 atmosphere ; and then poured down his rushing torrents 
 of oratorical rain, to imbue the mind of the court, with 
 those dark sha.des of guilt, which the crown barrister 
 saw (I suppose, through the clear glasses of his legal 
 telescope,) in the words and acts of Pilate, the prisoner 
 at the bar, while the case of Christ was pending at his 
 judgment seat. When the learned barrister, as it were, 
 in rather an oblique manner, very ingeniously insinu- 
 ated, at the governor's delinquency, — in the loss of the 
 crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 
 [The official duty of a state's attorney, briefly stated by 
 the chief judge of the court of Areopagus.] 
 
 May it please this court, I shall now consider, under 
 I trust, an high pressure of the plenary principles of 
 Roman philanthropy, and it is my duty, unfeignedly 
 to pray this court, to keep in view the onerous duty, 
 which the laws of the realm do both morally and legally 
 impose on a crown lawyer, in order to fulfil the 
 various functions and legal duties of his office, with 
 forensick dignity and courtly honour. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 201 
 
 My object in this epitome is, to place before the view 
 of this court, the onerous responsibility that the learned 
 barrister, on the side of the crown, is under at all times, 
 to fully sustain the honour of the throne, the glory and 
 dignity of the government, and the sanction of both the 
 letter and stamina of the law, against all that are either 
 the delinquents, or the open violators of its statutes. 
 Therefore, the court will be led, I trust, to see, that 
 however I shall differ in my views from the crown 
 attorney, in Pilate, the prisoner's case, I shall do it 
 conscientiously; and not with a latent view, to cause his 
 pow^erful torrents of ratiocination, to appear either re- 
 pulsive or irrelevant to the legal vision of this court : 
 neither do I wish to impugn the arduous course of 
 fidelity, the states-attorney has pursued, in thus faith- 
 fully discharging his official duties to his sovereign, and 
 the Magna Charta of his realm. 
 
 It is my duty to inform this court of law and inquest, 
 after listening with calm and unbiased attention, to all 
 the matters of fact that have been given in evidence be- 
 fore its bar, that J cannot admit the relevancy, which 
 the vivid flashes of forensick light, nor yet the lucid 
 arguments of the crown barrister ; who in his powerful 
 illustrations of the various bearings of the law% gives a 
 sombreness to the words and acts of Pontius Pilate, 
 the prisoner at the bar, when he sat as a judge on the 
 trial of that very mysterious being called Christ. 
 
 I must inform this court and jury, that the barris- 
 ter's eloquence, has not as yet made an entire proselyte 
 of me, by his forensick doctrine and trite allusions of 
 the prisoner's guilt in any one of the allegations, con- 
 tained in the declaration preferred by the states-general 
 against Pilate, on the preceding days of his trial. 
 Although, it is true, the learned barrister frequently 
 accompanied his reasoning with the acumen of his legal 
 fire and usual ingenuity. 
 
 But leaving the states-general in full possession of 
 his own view's of Pilate's guilt, I shall now, by the in- 
 dulgence and patience of this court of chancery, take 
 an excursive survey of the most cardinal arguments 
 
^2 CHllIST REJECTED. \ 
 
 and general doctrines, laid down at the bar of this 
 court by the governor's counsel. Therefore, I am led 
 in my official duties, as judge of this court of law and 
 inquest, to view with Pilate's counsel, that there was 
 not the least shade of suspicion, on the sound principles 
 of clear reasoning, or if the court please, sound and 
 irrefragable argument, that can in any way or shape 
 whatever, lower its fell eye of sable suspicion, on any one 
 of the words or acts of Pilate, on that day, while the 
 case of Christ was pending before his bar, as a Roman 
 judge, in the letter, stamina or spirit of the law, 
 made against all kind of litigation and capital offences, 
 either in the Jewish or Roman laws, throughout the 
 whole of Pilate's jurisdiction ; which, at the time of the 
 loss of the body of Christ out of the custom-house of 
 death, embraced the city of Jerusalem, and the province 
 of Judea. 
 
 This court, no doubt, distinctlyrecollects, that Pilate's 
 counsel informed the court,^ that his client's mind was 
 deeply impressed with the innocency of Christ, whom 
 the pugnacious prayer of the Jews had brought to 
 Pilate's bar, in a state of nudity, quite disfranchised of 
 every civil and moral excellency, and charged before 
 Pilate as being a seditious malefactor — going through- 
 out all Judea and Galilee, and the city of Jerusalem, 
 disseminating a spirit of contumacy in the minds of the 
 people, and at the same time imbuing with the leprosy 
 of subitaneous insubordination to the civil, moral and re- 
 ligious hpibits of the people, with his new and strange 
 doctrines, of the soul's immortality, and of man's moral 
 and religious accountability to the Great Spirit above. 
 When in the wild rapsody of a weak mind, under a 
 high pressure of a theological zeal, he has been heard 
 to say, that he the said Christ, would become in pro- 
 cess of time, the chief judge of all men. But if the poor 
 harmless man did say these things, so very repulsive to 
 human reason, and the philosophy of our enlightened 
 and intelligent minds, please this court, and the gentle- 
 men of the jury, he was more to be pitied, than per- 
 secuted unto death ; for the mere escape of a little of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 203 
 
 the rapsodies gas, out of his travelling theological 
 boiler. 
 
 But, please this court and jury, with respect to the 
 postulatory charges and allegations, which Caiaphaa 
 and the irascible Jews, preferred against him, at 
 Pilate's judgment seat ; his enemies and prosecutors, 
 were not able to substantiate a single charge, by any 
 legal witness that was under his enemies physical or 
 moral control. I therefore presume, that this court 
 with myself, will clearly see the onerous responsibility of 
 Pilate, between the altars of Justice and mercy ; as his 
 office, as Roman governor of Judea, imperiously led 
 him to obey the wishes and pugnacious spirit of Caia- 
 phas, and the irascibility of the Jews on the one hand ; 
 and on the other hand, the voice of justice, through the 
 channel of truth and mercy, from the convictions of his 
 own mind, that Christ, the supposed malefactor, placed 
 by the arm of the law at the bar of his judgment seat 
 was in reality innocent. 
 
 I would therefore, if my condescension to the court 
 this day will not be viewed in a repulsive point of light, 
 for the chief judge of so vast a kingdom, as that of the 
 Roman empire, to place himself in the attitude of 
 prayer at the bar of this court, and say, What in the 
 name of common sense was Pontius Pilate, as a judge 
 of our law to do, or please this court, any other judge 
 of our sovereign realm, when thus circumstanced! I 
 iterate and ask this court : Does the official condition 
 in which a judge is placed, by virtue of his office and 
 the panoply of his legal functions, in which the law 
 presents him as a judge — before the civick altars of our 
 courts, so entirely disfranchise him, merely because he 
 is a judge, of the free exercise of justice, truth, mercy, 
 and even Roman philanthropy ? and let me add, before 
 this court, all the other delicate and finer feelings of our 
 nature ? — such as benevolence and clemency, and many 
 other latent excellencies ! I shall therefore with all due 
 deference to the intuitive and accumulative wisdom and 
 knowledge, which I view this high court to be in the 
 most plenary possession of, which involuntarily leads 
 
^04 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 me to inquire of its wisdom, whether it is reasonable, 
 that in consequence of being one of the judges of our 
 law, I must first go and entirely dismantle my heart of 
 all the softer sensibilities of our nature, and disrobe my 
 mind of all its benevolent qualities, and then appear at 
 the bar of our courts, in a nebulous canoply, standing 
 entrenched behind the bulwarks of the mere letter of the 
 law, with a heart clothed with a coat of mail, invul- 
 nerable to all the claims of innocence, and entirely cal- 
 lous to all the cries and groans of oppressed humanity ! 
 which please this court and jury, we as judges, more 
 or less behold in the persons, which either the letter or 
 the civil and military arm of the law, places at the bar 
 of our courts, for adjudication. And if we pursue the 
 doctrine of the states-attorney to its perennial source, it 
 will naturally and invariably lead to this conclusion : 
 that because I am a judge of one of the courts of Roman 
 law, and in order to fully qualify myself for the plenary 
 discharge of my duties, which my official office as a 
 judge legally imposes upon me, and I must appear be- 
 hind the f ivick altar, as an insensible image sounding 
 the deathly sentence of the letter of the law, like the 
 solemn knell from the bell, on the bastile of death ! 
 
 I will now tax the patience of the court and jury, 
 while I pHrsue my ratiocination, in the consecutive 
 wake and legal sequence of the crown barrister's doc- 
 trine and arguments ; and apply them to the case of 
 Pilate, the prisoner before the bar ; and I shall then 
 consider it as indubitably manifest, to the full convic- 
 tion of the mind of this court, that the prisoner Pontius 
 Pilate, the governor of Jerusalem, while sitting on his 
 judgment seat, and the person of Christ standing before 
 him for adjudication; — that Pilate's examination of all 
 the testimony, that Caiaphas and his satellites brought 
 against him, Pilate discovered such base discrepancy 
 in the whole of the witnesses, as that, in pursuance of 
 the legal convictions of his mind, he did, on this myste- 
 rious occasion, manifest some light indications of Roman 
 commiserati->n towards the supposed malefactor Christ, 
 as he stood bound at his bar, vehemently accused by 
 
 I 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 205 
 
 the green-eyed jealousy of the Jewish high priest, and 
 the irascible spirit of his fawning satellites. 
 
 Now, the whole postulatory stamina, of the doctrine 
 and argument of his very learned honour the states- 
 general, against Pilate, on the trial of Christ, is this — 
 please the court and jury: That the crown attorney's 
 doctrine, places Pilate, just like an old ship, which the 
 proper officer of some commercial city has condemned 
 and ordered to be dismantled of her sails, rigging and 
 spars; — ^just so this new doctrine of entire nullification, 
 which the crown barrister has placed at the bar of this 
 high court of law and inquest, in order to criminate 
 Pilate, is in its legal stamina as follows : that the pris- 
 oner, Pontius Pilate, (and we judges shall have to fol- 
 low close in Pilate's wake,) must go and dismantle him- 
 self of the free volition of his mind, and all the physical 
 and mental powers and faculties of our natures, so that 
 when Pilate sat on his judgment seat, he was in con- 
 sequence of his office as a judge of Roman law, entirely 
 deprived of the legal use, and untrampled exercise of 
 the volition of his own mind, and private judgment, in 
 all cases of legitation and crime, that might at any 
 time have come under Pilate's judicial practice for his 
 legal decision: therefore please this court and jury, I 
 experience this day an anxious predilection in my mind 
 to deeply imbue the mind of this court and jury, w^ith 
 a few of my sententious remarks; that is, if these new 
 principles, and nullifying doctrines of the learned bar- 
 rister in the behalf of the crown, should be adopted as 
 the orthodox and legal doctrine of our courts of either 
 civil or military law: I shall unfeignedly inform this 
 court and jury, that in that case I should go and im- 
 mediately resign my official office as a judge of Roman 
 law, and with repulsive disgust at the extreme weak- 
 ness and folly of mankind, entirely abandon both the 
 profession and practice of Roman law. But I am fully 
 persuaded, though I thus speak my sentiments in the 
 presence of this court, that the crown barrister's doc- 
 trine of the entire nullification of all the unalienable 
 rights and privileges of us gentlemen of the bar, with 
 
 s 
 
206 CHRIST REJECTED^ 
 
 the rest of the citizens of Rome ; I hope shall never be 
 invaded by the heterodox doctrines of some young up- 
 start or the fevered rapsody of some new theorist^ either 
 in civil law, or the mythology of our thirty thousand 
 gods ; in whose hands, w^e as wise men, have commit- 
 ted the safe keeping of our nation — to act as guardians 
 for us, against all theorists and nullifiers of old laws, 
 rules, axioms,, and the custom of our legitimate ances- 
 tors. 
 
 But, please this court and jury,^ leaving the case of 
 Pilate for a few moments, 1 shall, as it were, gratuitously 
 suppose, that if any judge of one of our courts of law, 
 should have his mind deeply convinced of either the 
 guilt or innocency of a prisoner, which either the letter 
 or arm of the law shall arraign at its bar, for trial, and 
 I as a judge should be fully satisfied, from all the col- 
 lateral circumstances of the case — and when the pos- 
 tulatory evidence were placed, by the plenary powers, 
 which the plaintiff may be in possession of, over the 
 ignorance, imbecility and poverty of the defendant ; 
 yet, please this court, I as a judge might discover from 
 the dark clouds of suspicion, which locate themselves 
 over the heads of some of the witnesses in the case, and 
 a vascillating atmosphere, that is oftentimes associated 
 wdth human testimony in other of the witnesses of the 
 same case. This view of the doctrine of the states- 
 general's nullification, goes to show this court, how 
 very absurd and unreasonable the conclusion would be^ 
 that because I am a judge of Roman law, I must be 
 solely and entirely debarred of the free volition of my 
 mind ; and at the same time disfranchised of the unali- 
 enable privileges of a Roman citizen ; so as not, please 
 this court and jury, to fully express my legal views in 
 this or any other court, on the guilt or innocency of 
 any person, who might be brought as a culprit, or ar- 
 raigned as a malefactor for trial before me. So that, 
 perhaps in some of the suspicious elements of the testi- 
 mony preferred against the prisoner, I should fully 
 satisfy myself, as the ofi[icial organ of the law, and that 
 too, after the most fair, candid and impartial investiga- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 507 
 
 tion of the legal validity of all the witnesses, that for 
 want of substantial and direct evidence in the case, I 
 should both see and experience it to be my official duty, 
 to recommend the prisoner to the court and jury for 
 mercy : and then, according to our new theorist on the 
 doctrine of nullification, that in consequence of my 
 exercising the volition and other unalienable privileges 
 of a common plebeian citizen of Rome, I should be 
 characterized by the green-eyed serpent of jealousy, 
 who lies coiled at the root of the Upas tree, disgorging 
 its constuperating venom, and most maliciously impugn 
 my conduct in the supposed case, as a delinquent in my 
 official duty, or else a party with the supposed crime of 
 the defendant at the bar. The court will indulge me 
 to say, I am not yet prepared to admit the fallacious 
 relevancy of the barrister's argument. 
 
 But, please this court and jury, to resume the case of 
 Pilate, the prisoner in durance at the bar of this court — 
 Is not the foregoing portrait, a true picture of Pilate's 
 case ? Was he not, by this new theorist and doctrine 
 of nullification of the crown barrister, placed in pre- 
 cisely the very unpropitious circumstances I have de- 
 scribed, when that (supposed) malefactor called Christ, 
 stood bound as a prisoner for trial at the judgment seat 
 of Pilate? 
 
 And now, may it please this court and jury, it de- 
 volves on me, as an imperious duty which I owe, first 
 to my conscience, and secondly to the glorious Magna 
 Charta of Roman law, and thirdly to the unalienable 
 rights and priviliges of all its free citizens, to inform 
 this high court of chancery, that if such a nullifying 
 sentiment, and new forensick axiom were to be received 
 and adopted, in all our courts of civil law; What, may 
 it please this court of law and inquest, would be the 
 inference that common sense would draw ? The court 
 and jury will no doubt indulge me to say, that it would 
 at once go to disfranchise all our judges of their per- 
 sonal and unalienable rights and privileges, with the 
 rest of the Roman citizens. And let me ask this court 
 again, What would be the demoralizing eflfects, and 
 
208 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 constuperating influence on all our courts of civil law, 
 in a forensick point of view, should this nullifying and 
 unfelicitous precedent be but once admitted in this or 
 any other of our courts of Roman jurisprudence? I ask, 
 if it is not irrelevant to embargo the patience of this 
 wise and impartial court, with my impugning remarks 
 on this new doctrine. Would it not produce the most 
 dangerous and constuperating influence, on the physi- 
 cal and moral elements, in our system of civil law 
 and government, throughout the empire? Which would 
 soon produce the most deleterious effects throughout all 
 the civil and legal channels of law and justice, between 
 the ruler and the ruled ; and between man and man 1 
 And please this court and jury, it would soon cause 
 crime and innocence, to be amalgamated in one com- 
 mon receptacle of vice and anarchy — far worse than a 
 chaotick or an uncivilized state of society. 
 
 I shall once more elicit this court to exercise its 
 patience, while I indulge myself in the use of a figure, 
 to convey the new doctrine of the states-general's nulli- 
 fication, with more force on the mental vision of this 
 court. The idea is this : Would not this unpropitious 
 doctrine, cause our judges to be located in the rear- 
 ward of all the civick altars in our courts of justice? 
 And would it not appear to the philosophy of the 
 human mind, and even to every person of common 
 sense, just like a graven image of either gold, silver, 
 wood or stone, chained by the irrevocable law of stern 
 fate? Or like insensible Egyptian mummies against the 
 walls of our court houses ; so that all our judges would 
 bear in their countenances, a striking symmetry to the 
 ancient image of Molock, not having the free volition 
 of their minds, and the exercise of their legal judgment; 
 merely with a void place or cavity, like the idol I have 
 alluded to, for the letter of the law to pass through ; 
 like an insensible channel, to convey the vituperating 
 voice of the condemnatory sentence of the letter of the 
 law,on the devoted head of the prisoner, which the foul 
 and irascible elements of green-eyed jealousy, envy, 
 hatred and malice, with all the other sable, but name- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 209 
 
 less passions of the wicked, vicious and envious part of 
 mankind, might at any time, under the cloak of the 
 mere letter of the law, through the agency of its officers, 
 be brought to the bar of our courts for adjudication. . 
 I therefore appeal to the wisdom of this court and 
 jury, in accordance with my associates, the judges on 
 the bench; and also to all our judges of courts of civil 
 law throughout the Roman empire, whether we do not 
 frequently find, in our legal practice, that after long 
 and iterate experience, even under the most free use 
 and untrammelled exercise of the whole elements of the 
 plenary volition of our minds, and private judgment, 
 that we frequently find it exceedingly difficult, at times, 
 to give a true and just judgment, in many cases, pre- 
 sented before us, for adjudication. And, my learned 
 colleagues, does it not often happen, that after we have 
 plodded with mental turmoil and legal drugery, over 
 all the arable land, and fertile fields, that are within 
 the purlieu of the whole arcanum of legal wisdom and 
 knowledge; when we judges, by a more than ordinary 
 exertion, of the almost herculean strength of our legal 
 minds, have placed the prisoner's case in the scales, that 
 hang before our civick sanctuary, which stands before 
 the altars of the gods of justice, truth and mercy; so 
 that, please this court and jury, after we (limited) 
 judges of this mundane dispensation, have with the 
 almost passive patience of a Job, as it were, patiently 
 heard, and strictly examined all the witnesses and 
 testimony, in the defendant or prisoner's case, which 
 are either of a collateral, circumstantial, presumptive 
 or of a positive character, we have added to the grace 
 of our legal patience, the industrious habits of the bee 
 and have most assidiously gathered, from all the legal 
 light which our smoky glasses of imperfection, in our 
 law telescopes, could draw down on the cases of those 
 culprits, placed at the bar of our courts, before us as 
 judges, either for judgment or acquital — so that I can 
 this day freely appeal to the reiterated experience and 
 practice of all my coadjutors, who sit with me as judges 
 on the beneh^ as auxiliary agents in the trial of Pilate^ 
 
 ^2 
 
210 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the prisoner at the bar of this court — that after we 
 have in our law sandals, with assiduous turmoil, plod- 
 ded over the whole ground of the arcanum of elemen- 
 tary wisdom and knowledge of men and things, and 
 please this court and jury we, as judges of the words 
 and actions of our fellow men, have taken the most ex- 
 cursive survey of the whole consecutive range of evi- 
 dence ; and have placed the whole collocation of their 
 words and acts before us ; yet, we find it exceedingly 
 difficult, to righteously judge, and truly weigh in the 
 golden scales of equity and justice, the true shades of 
 either the guilt or innocency, of the prisoner or defen- 
 dant, as the case may be before us. 
 
 And may it please this court and jury, having given 
 you my view of a judge's official duty, and the assid- 
 uous turmoil which more or less follows close in the 
 wake of a faithful discharge of his legal profession, 1 do 
 now, therefore, in the behalf of myself and the associate 
 judges on my right and left, deliver to this high and 
 illustrious court of law and inquest, over the lost body 
 of Christ out of the sepulchre, that our legal opinion 
 and judgment is this : That the prisoner at the bar, 
 who was at the time of the alleged robbery of the cus- 
 tom-house of death, the Roman governor of the city of 
 Jerusalem, and province of J udea ; — I therefore iterate 
 to this court and jury, that our legal judgment of the 
 charges and specifications in the indictment, which the 
 state's attorney, has preferred against the prisoner at 
 the bar, is this : That for want of indubitable testimony, 
 are nugatory and entirely defunct. And that his ex- 
 cellency the governor, Pontius Pilate, stands before the 
 bar of this high court of law and inquest, and the civick 
 altars of his national gods, innocent and entirely free 
 from all imputation of guilt, or the slightest shades of 
 suspicion, arising out of a few indications of sympathy, 
 legal clemency, and sheer justice. That Pontius Pilate, 
 openly to the world, manifested towards Christ, on the 
 day of his trial, in strenuously endeavouring to persuade 
 Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, to spare the in- 
 nocent life of Christ, instead of that notorious robber 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 211 
 
 and seditious murderer, called Barabbas; whom Caia- 
 phas had already, in a spirit of malevolence and con- 
 tumacy, demanded at Pilate's hands, as their national 
 sign, for to be written on the telegraph of a Roman 
 cross, by dipping the pen in the blood of Christ. The 
 ostensive object of the Jews, in this capricious and un- 
 natural demand appears to be, that they might exhibit 
 in the bloody hieroglyphicks of that harmless enthuias- 
 tic theologean, called Christ, their former salvation 
 from Egyptian bondage, by the sacrifice of the life of 
 that poor inoffensive man. 
 
 The judge then gave the case of Pilate, the prisoner 
 at the bar, with the papers that w^ere necessary for 
 their further information, into the hands of the jury, 
 who retired into the jury chamber; and in the space of 
 about three hours returned into court : when the fore- 
 man thereof presented to the judges and court their 
 unanimous verdict, of the prisoner not being guilty of 
 any dereliction, of either his civil duty, as the governor 
 of Judea, nor of any remissness, as the chief comman- 
 der of the military forces of the Romans, in that pro- 
 vince of the empire. 
 
 The chief judge rose, and read the verdict of the 
 jury to this high court of chancery; which report of the 
 jury, was by the five judges and whole court, most 
 unanimously received. When the high marshal of the 
 empire, and high sheriflf of Rome, conducted Pontius 
 Pilate, the governor, out of the court, under the flowing 
 banners of Roman honour; and the court adjourned 
 to meet the next day. 
 
212 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 The thirteenth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepul- 
 chre, of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this high court of law and 
 inquest met persuant to adjournment, at an early hour: 
 and as soon as the judges arrived, and were seated on 
 the bench, and the counsels for and against the defend- 
 ant at their proper locations, that the grand marshal 
 of the empire entered the court, in company with the 
 high] sheriff of Rome, followed by some of the royal 
 guards, who brought in the centurion, and placed him 
 before the bar. The crier of the court having gone 
 through his usual forms, and put up at the civick altar 
 his customary prayer, of may God save the Emperor 
 
 Figure No. 1. The five judges of this court of law and inquest. 
 
 No. 2, The centurion's counsel taking his notes. 
 
 No. S. The states-attorney opens ihe prosecution against the centurion. 
 
 No. 4. The marshal and high sheriff of Rome, with the royal guards, 
 bringing the centurion into court, to be tried for the neglect of his duty, m 
 the loss of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 5. The centui-ion placed in the crimiuars box. 
 
 No, 6. The twelve jurymen panejledr 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 213 
 
 and commonicealth, that his learned honour the states- 
 attorney rose, and had the centurion sworn by the legal 
 officer of the court, after the following form of affirma- 
 tion: when the crown barrister said, you sir, do in the 
 presence of our gods, and before the civick altars of 
 this august court of law and inquest, most solemnly 
 affirm, that you will truly and faithfully declare to this 
 court, all the matters and things you may know of the 
 loss of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre; 
 and that the testimony you shall be called upon to give 
 in before the judges and jury of this court, shall be the 
 truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, to 
 the best of your knowledge, in the presence of this 
 court, and in the sight of the gods! 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as this affirmation 
 had been administered to the centurion, the learned 
 counsel on the behpJf of the crown, with much apparent 
 show of forensick grace, desired the centurion to briefly 
 state to the court and jury, in the most easy and com- 
 municative language, the which you sir, as an officer 
 in the Roman army have the command of: all which had 
 come to your own knowledge relating to the cause now- 
 pending at the bar ; and be so good, sir, as to present all 
 the persons, things, circumstances, words and acts, that 
 may have the least coindication on the case, and place 
 the same in consecutive order before this court — that 
 came within the range of your military profession and 
 knowledge, relating either directly or indirectly, to the 
 reported robbery of the sepulchre, of the dead body of 
 that (supposed) malefactor called Christ, that the civil 
 and martial laws of the Romans, to all human appear- 
 ance, had so securely bound in the ancient custom- 
 house of death. 
 
 [The centurion's testimony given in at the solemn 
 bar of this high court of Areopagus, held on the side of 
 Mount Calvary, and within the precinct of the garden 
 where Christ's crucified body had been deposited in a 
 new sepulchre, that had been but recently excavated 
 or hewn out of a solid rock.] 
 
214 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 When the centurion arose, and with military and 
 soldier-like obsequiousness, which he possessed the most 
 plenary command of, stated to the judges as follows: 
 May it please your learned honours your prisoner was, 
 at the time of this reported robbery and surreptitious 
 invasion of the silent dormitory, and calm repose of the 
 dead, or please your honours, dropping my trope, at 
 the august bar of this court, and using a more common 
 phraseology, in order to be a little more congenial to 
 the vernacular language and ideas of a number of 
 plebeians, who I this day behold in the aisles and areas 
 of this court ; — I say, the sad and distressing loss of the 
 crucified body of Christ, out of the sepulchre, that had 
 been, please your honours, by the strict and most im- 
 perative command of the Roman governor, Pontius 
 Pilate, acting as it were, co-ordinately and in full con- 
 junction with Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, 
 placed under my military care and providence, till the 
 third day should have passed over the garden and 
 sepulchre, where Christ's crucified body had been de- 
 posited. And being at that time an officer in the 
 Roman army, by the well known rank of a centurion, I 
 had the entire command of one hundred men. Now one 
 of the special circumstances, that attended the placing 
 the body of Christ, after it had been crucified, under 
 my charge, was as follows : The day on which Christ 
 was crucified, appeared to be followed by a day, which 
 the Jews observed as a high day ; that is, please this 
 court, the day before their annual sabbath, (the chris- 
 tian may see John 19, 31,) in which the nation of the 
 Jews celebrated their redemption from their four hun- 
 dred and thirty years Egyptain bondage, (the Jew, if 
 he please, may see their going out, or what the English 
 render their Exodus, 12, 41.) Now, please your honours, 
 and just before the going down of the sun, the whole 
 interest of Caiaphas, and the Jews of the city of Jeru- 
 salem, sent a deputation to Pilate the governor, to have 
 the legs of the malefactors that I had crucified that day, 
 broken, in order that their bodies might be taken away, 
 from the place of execution ; so that the holy and pious 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 215 
 
 vision of the Jews, as they went up to the temple of 
 their God, might not be distressed with such a barba- 
 rous and repulsive sight : [the christian can find the 
 root of this idea, in that place of scripture just alluded 
 to, John 19, 31,] when Pilate sent the captain of the 
 watch, that was stationed to guard his palace, to know 
 of me, whether Christ were already dead, as there was 
 a person of distinction, a rich and eminent counsellor, 
 who was obsequiously and humbly praying, that the 
 body of Christ, might be delivered to him, in order to 
 its being interred, with what his friend thought religious 
 decency. And as soon as I had received the note from 
 Pilate, by the hand of the captain of his guard, another 
 note was presented to me, by the hand of a servant of 
 the high priest of the Jews, to brake their legs, I went 
 and commanded the soldiers, to brake all their legs ; so 
 that if there remained the least vital spark of animal 
 life in either of the three malefactors, the solemn work 
 of death might be made sure. But, please this wise 
 and intelligent court> as I went before the soldiers, who 
 were the executioners of the three criminals, I saw that 
 animal life had already taken its final departure from 
 the Lody of Christ; — so I stayed the hand of the sol- 
 diers, from breaking the bones of Christ, having the 
 fullest assurance in my own mind, that the body was 
 dead : — but a thought struck my mind at that moment, 
 when I looked at the body of Christ, as it hung on the 
 cross, and beheld the placid innocency of his counte- 
 nance, and the deathly calmness of his whole appear- 
 ance ; but still, please your learned honours the judges, 
 in order to fully comply with the stamina, as well as 
 the letter of the governor's inquiry, about the certainty 
 of the death of Christ, [the christian will find this idea 
 confirmed, by looking at Mark, 1 5 — 44,] I gave orders 
 to the captain of the band of soldiers, who had a spear 
 in his hand, to pierce the left side of the body of Christ, 
 so that it might with more facility reach and pierce 
 his heart: from which deathly incision, there issued 
 forth all the blood and water that was in his animal 
 
216 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 system.* [The christian will find this idea fully justi- 
 fied, by looking at John 19—32, 33, 34.] This being 
 done, and the legs and other bones of the other two 
 malefactors being broken, I ordered, according to 
 Pilate's request, the three bodies to be taken down from 
 the crosses : and being presented by the counsellor, 
 with an order from Pilate, written by his own hand, I 
 very obsequiously delivered to him the crucified body 
 of Christ ; and then retired to my quarters, believing 
 this solemn business, with regard to the death of Christ, 
 forever at rest. But, in this sanguine expectation of 
 your prisoner, he was shortly after disappointed : for 
 early in the forenoon of the next day, please your 
 learned honours, it appeared first from a coindication 
 of the acts of Caiaphas, the next morning, and also from 
 the most indubitable testimony of some of the most re- 
 putable servants of Pilate's household, that Caiaphas 
 came to the palace of the governor, in company with a 
 number of other priests, and some of the most influen- 
 tial of the pharisees of the city of Jerusalem, and in- 
 formed the governor, that the malefactor called Christ, 
 that had been crucified on the sixth day of the Jewish 
 week, had notoriously asserted, as he went in his am- 
 bulatory and pedesterious journies throughout the juris- 
 diction of Pilate — that is, please this court, the land of 
 Judea — and also, in the temple and streets of Jerusa- 
 lem, publicly declaring before his demise, that he the 
 said Christ, would break out of the custom-house of 
 death, on the third day ; that is, please this court, by 
 dropping his figurative style and allegorical manner, 
 that he appears to have indulged himself in, when com- 
 municatinoj his ideas to mankind. Now this hiorh and 
 
 * Physicians may say they never saw water and blood on 
 their opening the body of a dead man, who was at his demise 
 in a healthy state. We answer, that the fluids in the body of 
 Christ, had a special adaptation to produce this singular 
 phenomena, in the physical economy of the sinless and im- 
 maculate body of Christ — it being only a small cog of the 
 vast miraculous machinery. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 217 
 
 philosophical court well know, that not only military 
 gentlemen, but all other persons of a classical educa- 
 tion and good breeding, very seldom make use of a 
 figurative style, in colloquial conversation. 
 
 The reader may find the scripture that justifies the 
 foregoing plate : " But one of the soldiers with a spear 
 pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and 
 water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record 
 is true ; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye 
 might believe.'^ John 19—34, 35. 
 
 But, please your learned honours the judges and jury 
 of this court — to proceed with what Caiaphas the high 
 priest of the Jews said to Pilate, about the boasting of 
 Christ, in simple language: — I will, said Christ, arise 
 from the dead on the third day ; notwithstanding that 
 
 Mount Cah-arvand the Sun veiled in darkness at the passion of Christ. 
 And the Roman soldiers according to the sanguinary laws of that nation, 
 (which it inflicted on its slaves only) complete the work of death. 
 
 No. 1. A soldier piercing the left side of Christ. 
 
 Nos. 2 and 3. Two soldiers with iron bars, bi-eakingthe bones of the other 
 malefactors. 
 
 No. 4. The Centurion directing the soldier to pierce the left side of Christ. 
 
 No. 5. John beholding the blocdy deed. 
 
 T 
 
218 CHRIST REJECTEH. 
 
 our martial law and military discipline, had bound him 
 so fast in the dark dungeon of death, with his body- 
 transfixed to the walls of that dreary mansion, by the 
 deathly spear of one of my soldiers. 
 
 And, as I said before, believing the bloody tragedy 
 to be over, my mind appeared to be at rest. But 
 it was soon roused from its transient military slum- 
 ber, by a note which Caiaphas delivered to me ; the 
 which, when I had received it from the hand of the 
 high priest, I opened the same, and read its contents : 
 when, may it please your learned honours the judges, I 
 in a soliloquy said. If that be the case, and his boasting 
 be of that altitude of character, and he has thus cast 
 the toscin of defiance, against the whole military prow- 
 ass of the civil and military skill of my country, 
 when I said to myself, If one man, and he too a cru- 
 cified and dead man, is to take the garland off the 
 bush of military honour, and tarnish the high wrought 
 fame of our country's glory, it is high time for a 
 Roman officer to look out for the storm, that has 
 threatened to make its appearance in the civil and 
 martial heavens of the mighty empire of Rome \ When, 
 please the court, I continued the soliloquous parable in 
 my own mind, and said. It shall not be for the want of 
 soldier-like vigilance, military skill, and martial dis- 
 cipline on my part. 
 
 So, please your learned honours, I w^ent with Caia- 
 phas, the high priest of the Jews, Avithout any hesi- 
 tancy whatsoever, to the garden, where the sepul- 
 chre was located, that contained the crucified body 
 of Christ, taking a band of my best and most vali- 
 ant soldiers with me. And w^hen we arrived at 
 the garden, Caiaphas prayed that some of my people 
 should remove the large stone from off the entrance of 
 the sepulchre, so as to fully satisfy him, with myself, 
 that the crucified body of Christ was still in safe-keep- 
 ing in the solemn mansion of the dead ; when we both 
 went down and saw the body of Christ, and examined 
 it minutely ; and saw the punctures, from the crown of 
 thorns, in his temples ; the excavated channels, also, on 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 219 
 
 his scourged back ; and the ragged print of the nails 
 in his hands and feet; and the awful gash, which the 
 incision of the spear had made in his left side. 
 
 After the high priest and myself had fully satisfied 
 ourselves of the safety of that very body, we saw on 
 the previous day crucified, we placed all the little sym- 
 bols of his friend Joseph's kindness and attention, to his 
 dead body, in the exact sequence we found them, and 
 w^ent up out of the sepulchre ; when we found by that 
 time, that the governor had sent his private secretary, 
 with the royal seal of the empire : when I ordered the 
 stone, which was very large, to be placed over the 
 entrance of the sepulchre, and 1 then took the seal from 
 the hand of Pilate's private secretary, and sealed the 
 stone over the sepulchre, in the presence of Caiaphas, 
 and a vast number of his chief priests and Pharisees. 
 This being done, please your learned honours the 
 judges, I set a strong watch of Roman guards, in such 
 a careful manner, that please this court, I should not 
 have experienced the least hesitancy, in consequence 
 of any foreboding fears arising in my mind, to have 
 trusted all the treasure of Caesar's household, with his 
 military chest, crown-jewels, and please your honours, 
 my sovereign's life also, under the same watch and 
 seal of state, I set to guard the sepulchre, which con- 
 tained the crucified body of Christ. When, please 
 your learned honours, the judges of this high court of 
 law and inquest, I experienced a Roman sensation of 
 pleasure in my mind, in reflecting, that I had so fully 
 discharged my duty, in so safely mooring the crucified 
 body of Christ, on the old quarantine ground, and also 
 securely bounded him in the custom-house of death ; 
 fully as safe, as ever the conspirators in the senate-house 
 of Rome, had bound the poor cadaverous body of Julius 
 Caesar, in the old iron-bound prison-ship of death : 
 which has never been known to this day, to lose one of 
 its bounded deposits, or suffer one of its prisoners to 
 escape. 
 
 And having, please your learned honours, executed 
 «iy orders with all the mental, physical and martial 
 
220 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 skill, and capabilities, which at that time were under 
 my control, and I had given the royal guards the most 
 imperative charge to do their full share of duty, like 
 brave fellows, I and Caiaphas came out of the gar- 
 den, where his theological carriage was in readiness to 
 receive him ; — and having given him the etiquette of 
 the evening, we parted ; he to his palace in the vicinity 
 of the temple, and I to my quarters — fully believing all 
 were safe. 
 
 But, may it please your learned honours, the judges 
 of this high court of law and inquest, it came to pass, 
 that early the next morning, the watch went into the 
 city of Jerusalem, and had a pious interview with 
 Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews. After which, 
 they came out of the city, and went and reported to 
 their companions in arms, that a few Galilean fisher- 
 men, called by some, the disciples of Christ, — and only, 
 please this w^ise and intelligent court, eleven in number 
 of the poor wretches, came while some saturnine furies 
 had overcharged the laws of nature with a dense and 
 dark atmosphere, highly pregnated wdth some somnif- 
 erous or sleepy gas, which soon spread a nebulous 
 atmosphere over the garden, where the sepulchre that 
 contained the crucified body of Christ was located — 
 and that, when this strange and sleepy phenomena 
 came over the garden, it caused the whole of the guards 
 to locate themselves co-ordinately on the earth. And 
 that it was during this mysterious delinquency of their 
 military duty, that those subdolous disciples went off 
 with the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 Thus, may it please your learned honours, the judges 
 of this court of law and inquest, over the loss of the 
 crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre, I have 
 given in evidence, all that has come to pass, to the best 
 of my knowledge, of an oflicial and positive character, 
 respecting the robbery of the sepulchre of the crucified 
 body of Christ. 
 
 But, may it please your learned honours, I would 
 ask to be indulged, if it is not entirely incompatible 
 with what I have always been led to view the unalien- 
 
^CHRIST REJECTED* 221 
 
 able rights of a Roman citizen — which privilege, as an 
 officer of its army, I experience it this day to be my 
 duty to claim ; that is, to give in at the bar of this 
 court, my private views of the special acts of some 
 of the persons and things, which took place at the time 
 that the crucified body of Christ was first missing out 
 of the sepulchre. Therefore, if it will not entirely pro- 
 voke the displeasure of this court, and is not irrelevant 
 to the legal axioms and dignity of this high tribunal, 
 and the moral accountability of my aflirmation, as a 
 witness at its bar, I shall proceed ; and if not, 1 am 
 willing to stand corrected. When the chief judge sig- 
 nified to the centurion, that the court and Magna Charta 
 of Roman law^ most assuredly grants a defendant the 
 legal privilege, to express his views of persons and 
 things, that have any collateral bearing on the case 
 pending at the bar of any of our courts, of either civil 
 or martial law. The centurion then went on to make 
 the following remarks, by relating to the court, that 
 an onerous coindication passed before his view, por- 
 tentous of great distress, in the city of Jerusalem, on 
 the day of the reported robbery of the sepulchre of the 
 crucifiedbody of Christ, or while that disgraceful cloud 
 was passing over the fame of the Roman arms, and 
 constuperating the military laurels of his country's 
 glory. That is, please your learned honours the judges, 
 of this solemn court of law and inquest, I observed a 
 few collateral circumstances, that were connected with 
 this shameful theological deterioratingphenomena, which 
 to this day has not, like the phoenix, arose with that 
 soaring bird of fabulous fame, out of the ashes of their 
 military disgrace, that is, the strange and unheard of 
 aberrance from the path of duty, by Roman soldiers, 
 who I placed as guards at the sepulchre, that contain- 
 ed the body of Christ, 
 
 Now the persons and things, and other collateral 
 circumstances, that I wish to call your learned honours 
 attention unto, are as follows : that I very patiently 
 waited at my military post all that day, when the re- 
 port first came out about the robbery of the sepulchre 
 
 t2 
 
222 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 of the body of Christ, expecting every moment to re- 
 ceive the most imperative orders from Pontius Pilate, 
 the Roman governor, and also some special communi- 
 cation from Caiaphas, the then noted high priest of the 
 Jews in Jerusalem, to have the subject of the sacrileg- 
 ious robbery of the sepulchre brought to light, and 
 have all the guards, with the captain of the watch, im- 
 mediately arrested and put in strong hold, in order to 
 be brought to trial at Pilate's judgment seat ; so that, 
 after a legal and martial examination, if they should 
 be found guilty, of so disgraceful a delinquency of theiy 
 military and soldier-like duty, to have them all put 
 immediately to death, according to the well known 
 laws and strict martial discipline of the Roman army. 
 But may it please this court, after I had patiently 
 waited the whole of that day, on which the report first 
 went out into the world — and if it is not irrelevant in 
 the view o^ the court, I will add, that 1 have obse- 
 quiously waited to this day, and have not received the 
 least order or command, either from Pilatp the gover- 
 nor, or Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews ; nor any 
 communication either by word or letter. And indulge 
 me further to inform your honours, that although my 
 official duty has oftentimes, subsequent to this distress- 
 ing catastrophe, called me into the immediate presence 
 of Pilate, yet his excellency the governor, to the best 
 of my knowledge and recollection of the case, has never 
 once undulated my audibility, with a single word on 
 this dark and mysterious occurrence, which had spread 
 its sombre canopy, over the honour and character of the 
 governor, and the priest ; that is, please your honours, 
 in my view of the whole affair, in their not demanding 
 an immediate trial of the guards, at a court martial. 
 But, may it please your honours, since I have so very 
 unceremoniously trod on the toes of the patience of the 
 court, I shall take on me to gratuitously place another 
 small coindication of their conduct on that day, which 
 was as follows : the next day after the reported robbery 
 of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ, I sent 
 my servant for the captain of the watch to come unto 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 223 
 
 my tent ; when I put some close military questions to 
 the fellow, to ascertain, if possible, how it came to pass, 
 that he, and the whole of the guards under his com- 
 mand, should all fall, as he had reported, simultaneous- 
 ly to sleep, after receiving so pressing: and solemn a 
 charge from me, in the presence of Caiaphas, the high 
 priest of the Jews, to do their duty like good soldiers 
 and brave men. When, may it please your learned 
 honours, to my utter surprise, the captain of the watch 
 gave me the following statistical account, of what he 
 and his comrades believed to be the agency, by which 
 this disgraceful occurrence had overcast with a dark 
 cloud, the glory of their military character ; — when he 
 informed me, that a number of aerial beings, from some 
 distant clime, came suddenly down on the garden, and 
 so entirely dismantled their persons of their five senses, 
 that is, they were deprived of their vision, audibility, 
 tangability, of the use of their alfactory nerves, and 
 also of taste. So that this aerial agency cast them all 
 on the earth, as blind, deaf and unfeeling men — entirely 
 deprived of all the functions of this present life ; — and 
 in a word, said the captain of the watch, we were all 
 smitten to the earth, as dead rnen on the field of battle. 
 And when this mysterious dispensation passed from 
 over our persons, we opened our eyes, and found that 
 all our natural senses had returned ; when we arose on 
 our feet, and saw that the large stone was removed 
 from the entrance of the sepulchre, and the crucified 
 body of Christ taken out of the same. And this, sir, is 
 all that I can inform you, respecting this clandestine 
 surreption, on the old custom house of death, over which 
 you placed me and my comrades in arms. 
 
 Now, may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 to indulge me to relate, that when this spectre-ridden 
 captain of the watch, had finished in my audibility 
 this ghostly relation of the whole of this disgace- 
 ful affair, it filled me with a kind of repulsive displeas- 
 ure at the revolting idea, that Roman soldiers should be- 
 come the recreant slaves of such a religious efferves- 
 cence, so as to suffer themselves to be diverted from the 
 
224 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 full discharge of their military duty, from some tran- 
 sient superstitious impression, of spectres flying over 
 the garden. Nevertheless, please your honours, this 
 subaltern officer told this ghostly tale, or rather spectre 
 anecdote, with so much superstitious grace, and at the 
 same time with such an air of Roman-like sincerity in 
 his countenance, that I could not, with all the risibility 
 I was master of, laugh the spectre -ridden fellow out of 
 his army of flying ghosts, that he so strenuously asserted 
 had robbed the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ. 
 So, please your honours, I let the poor superstitious 
 subaltern go free for the time ; still anxiously waiting, 
 for Pontius Pilate the governor, and Caiaphas the higli 
 priest of the Jews' pleasure, before I proceeded any 
 further in the examination of the captain of the watch, 
 and his comrades in arms. 
 
 May it please this court to exercise its patience for 
 a few moments longer, and admit the relevancy of 
 another idea, as the last collateral incident of that day, 
 when the body of Christ was missing out of the sepul- 
 chre ; which is as follows : As my tent was pitched in 
 a large field, that lie off the main road, which led from 
 Caiaphas' palace to that of the palace of Pilate, I was 
 involuntarily led to view the conduct and movements 
 of Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, how he identi- 
 fied himself with Pilate, throughout the morning of that 
 day, when the report first came out, that the crucified 
 body of Christ had eloped by some means — which at 
 the time, really seemed to astound and fill all Jerusalem 
 with a tremulous sensation of fear and alarm ; which 
 all the sanitary rules of that day could not suppress. 
 But please this court, be that as it may ; — I observed 
 that the theological carriage of his holiness, Caiaphas 
 the high priest, was passing and repassing from his 
 palace to the palace of his excellency, the governor, 
 throughout the best part of the morning of that inaus- 
 picious day ; so that in consequence of his holiness' 
 carriage driving off* at a very early hour that morning, 
 which please the court led me to conclude, that the 
 eivil and ecclesiastical business between them, must be 
 
^ -» CHRIST REJECTED. 225 
 
 of primary importance, to cause such a close and in- 
 teresting conclajv.e between their excellencies ; so that, 
 please your learnt honours, the judges of this court of 
 law and inquest, 'ih^ high priest of the Jews' conduct 
 throughout the forepart of that day, led your prisoner 
 to seriously forecasts in his mind, that the reported rob- 
 bery of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ, 
 which had caused so much buzzing in the civil and 
 theological hives iir the city of Jerusalem, was of that 
 civil and theological character, and at the same time 
 of that mysterious and marvellous nature, as appeared 
 to me to belong entirely to a civil and ecclesiastical 
 state of things ; which led me to draw this soldier-like 
 conclusion, that my calling had nothing to do with such 
 lofty matters. So that I experienced a state of neutrality 
 in my mind, which led me to be fully reconciled to let 
 the dark and mysterious subject of the robbery of the 
 sepulchre, remain in better hands and wiser heads, as 
 it related to moral and metaphysical subjects, than 
 mine. Therefore, please this court, my duty led me to 
 draw this inference, that since the recreant conduct of 
 the guards was so blended with the interest and policy 
 of their excellencies, Pilate and his holiness, Caiaphas, 
 that my straight line of military duty was to mind my 
 ow^n profession, and continue to remain neutral ; and 
 strictly observe a profound silence; which, may it please 
 your honours the judges, of this high court of law and 
 inquest, I have strictly observed to this day. 
 
 But in concluding my testimony, may it please your 
 honours the judges, to indulge me to say, that whenever 
 1 have seriously taken an excursive survey of the whole 
 coindication and character of the persons and things^ 
 that had the least collateral association with the report- 
 ed robbery of the sepulchre, and the sleeping of the 
 Roman guards, I have ever since that distressing affair 
 took place, been led to view this sombre catastrophe, 
 as a deteriorating effect, arising from some cause to 
 military men unknown, that had taken place in the 
 wax and honey of the civil and theological hives, that 
 
i 
 
 ^126 CHRIST REJECTED. ^ 
 
 had ever been agitated in the city of Jerusalem, of 
 which Pilate and Caiaphas were the king bees. 
 
 The centurion having given in his evidence to this 
 high court of law and inquest, sat down and said no 
 more. 
 
 After which the states-attorney rose, and with his 
 usual eloquence, thus addressed the court : wherein his 
 learned honour very ingeniously endeavoured to convey 
 down the lightening-rod of that oscillatory member, 
 called in our vernacular vocabulary the tongue, all the 
 deleterious electrical fluid, from all the little dense and 
 sable clouds, which the crown barrisiter's keen foren- 
 sick eye, professed to see in the delinquency of the 
 Centurion's duty, in not guarding the sepulchre with 
 that military strictness and martial faithfulness, which 
 he conceived the nature of the case demanded at the 
 centurion's hands. But it came to pass, that all his 
 forensick turmoil and oratorial labour, to converge the 
 blame of the loss of the crucified body of Christ out of 
 the sepulchre, on the head of the centurion, made little 
 or no lasting impression on the mind of the court ; so 
 that the states-general's legal efforts and apparent hercu- 
 lean strength of sophisticating reasoning, did little or 
 no execution, against the colossean pedestal of Roman 
 honour, on which this bold and intrepid officer, stood 
 at the bar of this high court of law and inquest, in the 
 whole of the military panoply, quite inexpugnable to 
 the whole of the states-attorney's deleterious charges. 
 When his learned honour had ceased his labouring 
 thunder cloud, he sat down. 
 
 And it came to pass, when the crown barrister had 
 taken his seat, that the chief judge arose and adjourned 
 the court to meet in the same place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 227 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The plea and defence of a Roman counsellor, in the behalf 
 of the centurion. It being the fourteenth day of the trial 
 of the robbery of the sepulchre of the crucifed body of 
 Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court met at an early 
 hour, pursuant to adjournment. And when the usual 
 formalities were gone through with, and the names of 
 the jurors called, affirmed and had taken their seats in 
 the jury-box, that the grand marshal of the empire, with 
 the high sheriff of Rome, brought in the centurion, and 
 placed him at the bar. The court being called to order, 
 the centurion's counsel, who was a very eminent bar- 
 rister of Roman law, (see No. 3, on the plate,) rose and 
 said — May it please your learned honours the judges 
 of this court, and the gentlemen of the jury, with all 
 
 Figure No. The five judges of this high court of law and inquest. 
 
 No. 2. The states-attorney taking his notes. 
 
 No. 3. The centurion's counsel pleading his cause. 
 
 No. 4. The grand marshal of the empire. 
 
 No. 5, The centurion in the criminal's box. 
 
 No. 6. The high sheriff of Rome. 
 
 No. 7. The twelve jurymen panelled. 
 
228 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the gentlemen who this day constitute the legal elements 
 of this high court of law and inquest, I shall gratuitous- 
 ly take it for granted, that the good sense of this court 
 is, or at least out to be well aware, that the ground of 
 argument in which I am, from the imperious law of 
 necessity, drove on this day to plead the cause of my 
 client, the centurion — is, let the wisdom and knowledge 
 of this court make the best it can of my legal location; 
 I say, it is but a sandy arena, that is, please your hon- 
 ours, I have no positive lootimony to place before the 
 bar of this court in his case ; so that the inference is 
 this : — I shall have to do as the mariners, when driven 
 by contrary winds, among rocks and shoals ; that is, 
 steer my way through them in the best manner my 
 volatile and sandy resources will supply me with the 
 means of pleading my client's cause. And as I pre- 
 sume your honours clearly see, that all the evidence I 
 can procure in the case of the centurion, the prisoner 
 at the bar, must be drawn by a venturous levy on the 
 meagre and beggardly elements, of the mere collateral 
 circumstances of the case. And, may it please your 
 learned honours the judges and the gentlemen of the 
 jury, these things being thus premised, it of course 
 leads me to believe, that the legal wisdom and know- 
 ledge of your honours, will expect great conciseness in 
 my remarks, at the bar of this court to day, for the 
 want of sufficient legal matter, as a lawyer, to work 
 upon, in the behalf of the innocency of my client. I 
 shall, I humbly trust, experience it to be my duty, to 
 endeavour as much as lieth in my power, to cause this 
 court to realise its expectations of my professional 
 duty, so far as it shall stand legally associated with 
 a conscientious discharge of the duty, which I owe 
 to the cause and interest of my client. Therefore, may- 
 it please your honours, in entering on the defence and 
 justification of my client's person and character, with 
 this narrow line of demarcation, and dangerous straits 
 before me, I shall reduce the plea of the justification of 
 the prisoner at the bar, to a mere epitome, which I shall 
 first venture to draw from some of the bright clouds of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 229 
 
 the national glory of the Romans, in the reign of Tibe- 
 rius Caesar ; and secondly, from the brilliant chariot of 
 military honour, that was flying over the Roman army, 
 of which my client, the centurion, was an ofiicer. With 
 these two ideas, as my legal text, I shall endeavour to 
 illustrate, with as much conciseness as my limited pow- 
 ers of argument are master of. Therefore, please your 
 honours, I shall begin with the first idea of our legal 
 text ; the glory of the Romans at the time of the rob- 
 bery of the sepulchre. 
 
 Now your honours all well know, that the Roman 
 empire had almost arrived at the meridian splendour of 
 its national glory, and the plenary altitude of its mili- 
 tary fame, in the Augustean age. And it is also noto- 
 rious to the whole world, as well as to your honours, 
 that the Roman empire, in the days of Tiberius, spread 
 itself over a vast majority of the civilized and barba- 
 rous nations of the earth; and had by its conquests, 
 almost swept from the face of the earth, into the sea of 
 oblivion, the few embers and ashes, which the ravages 
 of time had spared, for many ages, of the Assyrean, 
 Chaldean, Median, Persian and Grecian monarchies. 
 To this idea, please this court, I shall add the other 
 head of my text ; that is, the discipline, and strictness, 
 throughout the martial legions, in the most distant pro- 
 vinces of the Roman empire, were such, at the very 
 time these eleven ignorant Galilean fishermen made, as 
 report goes, this marvellous surreption on the old cus- 
 tom-house of death ; or, please your honours, by drop- 
 ping my allegory, they robbed the sepulchre of the 
 crucified body of Christ ; and bid such open and noto- 
 rious defiance, to the whole power, both of the civil and 
 military laws of the triumphant empire of Rome. And 
 now, may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 and the gentlemen of the jury, of this high court of law 
 and inquest, when we seriously reflect on the insignifi- 
 cant number of this marauding banditti, that is, there 
 were only eleven of these recreant slaves of fear; who, 
 if reports are in the least to be trusted, ran away from 
 their master, as soon as the officers of civil justice had 
 
 u 
 
230 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 laid their hands on him ! That these men should come 
 and panic strike with fear, a strong watch of Roman 
 soldiers, placed by my client over the sepulchre, and 
 go off with the dead body of Christ, is indeed more mar- 
 vellous, than the seven wonders of the world! But, be 
 that as it may, the light which I daily receive from some 
 of the bright clouds of common sense, leads me to say at 
 the bar of this court, that the sealing of the stone, and 
 the setting of such a strong watch, was of that martial 
 character, that Caesar himself would not have hesita- 
 ted, for one moment, to place the civil exchequer of his 
 empire, his military chest, with his household treasure 
 and crown jewels, [as has been already said in this 
 court, by my client, when he gave in his evidence,] with 
 Caesar's own life also, with the most undeviating assu- 
 rance, under the care and guardianship of such a watch, 
 that my client, the Centurion at the bar, set to guard 
 the crucified body of this dead man ; which, please this 
 court, my client, according to the evidence he gave in 
 yesterday at the bar, in the audibility of your honours. 
 But notwithstanding his assiduous attention to his mili- 
 tary duty, he is this day arraigned as a delinquent at 
 the bar of his country. Therefore, I shall unfeignedly 
 pray your learned honours, the judges and gentlemen 
 of the jury, to be indulged with the patience of this 
 court. — And first permit me to observe, that the seal- 
 ing the stone at the entrance of the sepulchre, and the 
 stationing such military protection as the royal guards, 
 which my client, the prisoner at the bar, gave in evi- 
 dence, that he himself placed at the sepulchre, to guard 
 the crucified body of Christ, was, please this court, of 
 that strong and warlike character, that I shall confi- 
 dently presume, no one in this court, or of the whole 
 world of rational beings, I am humbly led to forecast in 
 my mind, would not even for one fleeting moment, have 
 hesitated to have trusted his life and crown under such 
 safe keeping. But in order to unite the thread of my 
 ideas, and resume the course of my argument, before 
 your learned honours — I ask, Is there a solitary char- 
 acter in this court of law and inquest this day, that 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 231 
 
 would have hesitated, for one moment, to have trusted 
 his life under the care of such bold and vigilant pro- 
 tectors, as the centurion placed over the crucified body 
 of Christ? From which, please this court, I am led to 
 draw this conlusion : and although I only stand on a 
 postulatory pedestal, when I make the declaration, yet 
 I shall consider it as a presumptive sign of my client's 
 innocency. I therefore pray this court, to benignly 
 indulge me, while I shall briefly remark, that the pris- 
 oner at the bar, was at the time of this reported inva- 
 sion on the strong hold of death, an officer of the Roman 
 army ; which at that time, with the prowess of its bat- 
 tering rams, were beating the walls and bulwarks of the 
 cities, and other strong holds, on the face of the earth, 
 into dust : and, as I have already observed at the bar 
 of this court, my client, the centurion's nation, had 
 almost reached the zenith of its martial glory ; with, 
 please your honours the judges and the gentlemen of 
 the jury, a prostrate world, bowing like a tottering wall 
 of a besieged city, in obsequious submission at the very 
 sight of the unfurled and flowing banners, from the 
 lofty standards of the numerous legions of the Roman 
 army, that had spread its conquests far and wide, over 
 the barbarous and civilized nations of the earth. I say, 
 please your learned honours, the very sight of the flow- 
 ing eagles, of the triumphant army of the Roman empire, 
 panic struck, the lesser and feeble nations of the earth; 
 just as, when an old lion roareth, when hungering after 
 his prey ; when the thunder of his voice flies off" in an 
 undulatory circle, and gives a tremulous sensation for 
 many miles round, in consequence of the intonation 
 of his terrific voice; — so that the weaker animals 
 scarcely know which way to flee for safety. 
 
 This is, please the court, a faint picture of the mili- 
 tary prowess and terror of the Roman arms, at the 
 time the crucified body of Christ was, by the high priest 
 of the Jews, Caiaphas, and the Romon governor, Pon- 
 tius Pilate, put under the care of my client. And per- 
 mit me still, as counsel for the defendant, who is a 
 prisoner this day in durance at the bar of this court, to 
 
232 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 crave its indulgence to my mode and manner of plead- 
 ing my client's cause, while at the same time I humbly 
 hope, that I shall not be viewed by this court of law 
 and inquest, over the sad loss of the dead body of Christ 
 out of the strong hold of death, as in anywise impugn- 
 ing the wisdom and forensick knowledge of this court, 
 while I am, for a few moments, endeavouring to pre- 
 sent the exercise of the centurion's mind, by placing 
 before the court, what your honours will gratuitously 
 admit, must have been the natural forebodings of my 
 client's mind, while all those sombre clouds of future 
 consequences presented themselves to his view ; and 
 while these, with his own personal responsibilities w^ere 
 passing over his official mind, as an officer of the Roman 
 army. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your honours, the first ex- 
 ercise of the prisoner's mind, if the court has the charity 
 to grant my client the possession of a state of sanity, 
 when the body of Christ was placed under his care and 
 protection, which I believe, the court will not deny 
 this Roman officer so small a natural boon ; that is, 
 please your learned honours the judges, and the gentle- 
 men of the jury, that my client was of sound mind, 
 when the body of Christ was so solemnly placed in his 
 hands, to take special care of it — only, for the short 
 space of three days ! I therefore pray the whole court, 
 to take a piercing view, of the prisoner before its bar, 
 and see if it can discover, in the whole portrait of his 
 countenance, and lineaments of his features, the least 
 coindication that will lead this high and impartial 
 court of law and inquest, to draw so unfavourable a 
 conclusion, with respect to my client's deficiency, in 
 either his physical or mental capabilities, so as to dis- 
 qualify him from being a fit and suitable person, to take 
 the onerous charge of the crucified body of Christ, 
 loaded with the massy chains of death — and that only 
 for three days ! 
 
 When a profound silence pervaded the court for some 
 moments — and every eye in court converged the whole 
 strength of its vision on the centurion ! The chief judge 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 233 
 
 then rose and stated to the court, that every lineament 
 and feature in the bold and martial countenance of the 
 prisoner at the bar, bespoke not only a state of sanity, 
 but that the index of the centurion's countenance, mani- 
 fested at the bar of this impartial court — which is in 
 search of truth, and has no desire to treat the all-im- 
 portant subject of eternal truth with that laconick eti- 
 quette, that Pilate dispensed the subject of truth with, 
 when Christ stood bound before his judgment seat. 
 [For a more perfect illustration of Pilate's short mode 
 of reflecting on the elements of truth, we refer the 
 christian reader to John 18 — 37, 38 : " Pilate therefore 
 said unto him, Art thou a king?" "Then Jesus answer- 
 ed. Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I 
 born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I 
 should bear witness unto the truth : every one that is 
 of the truth heareth my voice." Pilate said unto Christ, 
 " What is truth?'' but he did not wait the answ^er: 
 When the judge observed, that the ultimate end in view, 
 in bringing this dolorous and mysterious cause into 
 court, was not merely to ask the solitary question. 
 What is truth ? and then with a careless urbanity of 
 manners give it the indefinite go-by.] 
 
 Now, please this court, the paramount object we 
 have in view, in throwing of the cause of the robbery 
 of the sepulchre, of the crucified body of Christ into 
 court, is, that we consider it as the colossus on which 
 all revealed religion, and the immortality of the whole 
 race of the human family onerously rests. — We, there- 
 fore shall not be so overcharged w^ith such exces- 
 sive urbanity of manners, nor so very laconically 
 sparing of our words, as to merely ask the all-impor- 
 tant question, and leave the same with the silent mum- 
 mies, wdio lie entombed in one of the pyramids of ancient 
 Egypt, to response in a silent soliloquy to his sleepy 
 brethren, in those massy urns of the dead, for the echo or 
 rather the repercussive sound, to be forever flying round 
 the dark and hollow dome ; so that the answer to What 
 is truth ? might never reach the audibility of the living. 
 No, may it please this court, the object of this trial is, 
 
 v2 
 
234 CHKIST REJECTED. 
 
 I trust, to follow the very excellent advice of a certain 
 author, that is to dig deep, and lay the foundation of 
 our investigation on the rock of truth ; if it is to be 
 found in this our mundane dispensation; that is, whether 
 the crucified body of Christ was, or was not, stolen out 
 of the sepulchre. When the judge continued his re- 
 marks on the sanity of the centurion's mind, and said: 
 that the prisoner, in giving in his testimony at the bar 
 of this court, not only evinced a sane mind, but that 
 the scientific culture of it was of that elevation, which 
 made it manifest, that all who had the pleasure of hear- 
 ing him, must be convinced in their minds, that the 
 centurion had passed the line of mediocrity ; and is 
 a person of no small share of knowledge, of both men 
 and things. When the judge resumed his seat on the 
 bench, and the counsel for the centurion rose and con- 
 tinued his ratiocination, or law parable, in defence of 
 his client. 
 
 May it please this court to indulge me with the privi- 
 lege, to ask again, in order to unite my former ideas 
 with those that may follow. What must have been my 
 client's natural exercise of mind, while the military 
 glory of the Roman army, and the martial fame of his 
 country'^ arms, with his own civil and military accoun- 
 tability to his sovereign, Tiberius, and his country's 
 laws, were passing in solemn prospective before his 
 view ? Why, please your honours, it must have most 
 powerfully awakened in my client's mind, the prisoner 
 in durance at the bar of this court, every martial sen- 
 sibility of a soldier; every noble principle of a Roman 
 citizen, as well as a man of honour and an officer in 
 the conquering armies of the Roman empire, to do his 
 duty in the most plenary sense of the word. Now may 
 it please this court, these things stood like a col- 
 ossus in the relievo of my client, the centurion's honour 
 and professional duty ; and also, as I have just stated, 
 in the audibility of your honours and the jury, that 
 these high considerations, thus presenting in vivid pros- 
 pectus to the mind of the centurion, the high respon- 
 sibility of his moral, civil, and military reputation, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 235 
 
 standing before him as a lofty beacon on the summit of 
 a soldier's honour — saying to the prisoner at the bar 
 of this court, in the voice of admonition, Do not tarnish 
 the brilliant laurels of your country's fame, nor the high 
 wrought glory of its arms, by any recreant conduct on 
 the part of my client, the centurion, so as to draw down 
 the nebulous shades of constuperating disgrace, on the 
 blood bought blessings of his country's glory. 
 
 This view, please this court, which my professional 
 duty has led me this day to take, with I trust, becom- 
 ing deference to both the wisdom and forensick know- 
 ledge which it possesses of men and things, as it were 
 involuntarily emboldening me, as the counsel for the de- 
 fendant, to fearlessly venture to place this conclusion 
 before the bar of this impartial court of law and inquest, 
 and say, please your learned honours the judges and 
 the gentlemen of the jury, that it were both mentally, 
 morally and physically, and indulge me to add, honour- 
 ably impossible, for my client to have possessed by all 
 the beacons, and other warnings raised on the mount- 
 ains of a soldier honour — and I am almost ready to 
 gratuitously aver, that the wisdom and knowledge of 
 this court, fully flows into these sententious remarks, and 
 say w^ith me this day, without the least discrepancy 
 in our views — that under all the collateral circumstan- 
 ces of the case, in which the centurion was surrounded, 
 for him to have overlooked so many onerous responsi- 
 bilities ; — first, to himself; secondly, to his sovereign ; 
 thirdly, to his country ; and fourthly, to the vitupera- 
 ting voice of the whole world ; if my client, the centu- 
 rion, should by any act of delinquency on his part, 
 leave even for one moment, the sepulchre that contain- 
 ed the crucified body of Christ unguarded ; so as to 
 facilitate, by the least act of unwatchfulness, on his 
 part, as a Roman officer — and should have winked at, 
 either directly or indirectly, the loss or escape of any 
 prisoner, that was by the governor and high priest of 
 the Jews, so imperatively placed under his charge- 
 please your honours the judges, and the gentlemen of 
 the jury, as the crucified body of that marvellous and 
 
236 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 mysterious being, called Christ, was placed — please this 
 court, under my client, the centurion's care, with, may 
 it please your learned honours, the very feet and hands 
 of Christ so strongly chained down on the floor of the 
 damp dungeon of death : — and I wish this court to keep 
 in view, that there was no sham-work, about the death 
 of Christ ; — yes, may it please your learned honours, 
 no transaction that has taken place, which has to this 
 day been recorded, on the annals of the world, or the 
 page of well authenticated history, has come down to 
 us with more public notoriety, than the putting this 
 harmless man, who is called Christ, in the most inhu- 
 man, cruel, and savage manner to death, on the cross. 
 
 A few tlioughts by the writer. 
 What a most awful and horrid idea, it does present 
 to the philanthropic mind, of the pugnacious spirit of 
 the Jews, in putting this inoffensive man to death ! — 
 but it is some cause, of at least a partial triumph to the 
 friends of Christ, in the all important contest or war of 
 controversy, between the Jew, Deist and christian, that 
 the death of Christ took place under such public cir- 
 cumstances, which narrows the controversy to the 
 simple point at issue, before the bar of this court ; that 
 is, Whether the body of Christ, was stolen out of the 
 sepulchre by the disciples, or whether Christ rose from 
 the dead ? — Fellow shipmates, for if Christ went out of 
 the sepulchre hy a divine power, it will, as has before 
 been said at this bar, indeed make the most awful work 
 among Jews, Deists and Atheists. The reader will once 
 more pardon the stenographer, for falling off the wind's 
 eye of the counsellor's plea at the bar of this court. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your learned honours, the 
 judges of this impartial court of law and inquest, and 
 the gentlemen of the jury, to indulge me to conclude, 
 as with a kind of brief of what I have already advan- 
 ced, at the bar of this court, in the defence and 
 justification of my client's words and acts, throughout 
 that subdolous catastrophe; that is, this distressing idea 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 237 
 
 of Christ getting out of the sepulchre, which will ever 
 remain so, to all who hate him ; to both Jews and 
 Deists, with their near kinsmen the Atheists. There- 
 fore, it is in consequence of the loss of the crucified body 
 of Christ out of the sepulchre, that my client finds him- 
 self this day a prisoner in durance at the bar of this 
 court ; — and I pray your honours to observe, that the 
 centurion, in order to make all things secure and safe 
 forever, placed at the door of this bastile of death, a 
 sufficient number of Roman guards, after he had sealed 
 the large stone at the entrance of the sepulchre ; well 
 knowing that if the crucified body of Christ, his prison- 
 er, should make its escape, it would ruin his reputation 
 as a citizen of Rome, and constuperate with the foulest 
 shades, his honour as an officer, and blast his military 
 character in the Roman army forever. And now may 
 it please your learned honours the judges and jury, 
 and all the gentlemen who this day constitute the law 
 elements of this high court of law and inquest, over the 
 lost body of Christ out of the sepulchre, my promise 
 of brevity in the defence of the centurion's innocency, 
 in the loss or escape of the crucified body of Christ out 
 of the sepulchre, admonishes me to say no more, in my 
 client's defence. When the learned barrister sat down: 
 and the chief judge rose, and said, that he with his 
 associate judges on the bench, experienced both physi- 
 cally and mentally, no small degree of lassitude, in their 
 location on this bench, for fourteen days, and no doubt 
 the counsel, for and against the prosecution of the pris- 
 oners, that have been arraigned at the bar of this court, 
 namely, Christ, Caiaphas, Pilate and the centurion, are 
 with the judges, more or less weary in their minds, at 
 the sombreness of this deathly and ghostly trial ; — 
 and with the judges, would wish the remainder of this 
 day, to refresh and resuscitate themselves, as we are not 
 altogether aerial, nor yet supra-mundane beings ; — so 
 the judge adjourned the court, to meet in this place 
 the next da v. 
 
238 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER XV* 
 
 The fifteenth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepulchre 
 of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this court of law and in- 
 quest, met pursuant to adjournment, at an early hour : 
 and as soon as the judges were all seated on the bench, 
 and the counsellors, for and against the defendant at 
 their proper locations, that the marshal of the empire, 
 assisted by the high sheriff of Rome, and a company of 
 the royal guards of the empire, brought the centurion 
 into court, and placed him as a prisoner at the bar. 
 The crier of the court having gone through his usual 
 form, and put up at the altar of the civick gods, his 
 
 Figure Xo. 1. The cliief judge delivering his charge to the jury, in the 
 Centiu'ion's case. 
 
 No. 2. The attorney-general taking his notes. 
 
 Kb. 3. The foreman of the jury, presentingthe verdict of the jury to the 
 judges. 
 
 >io. 4. The counsellor who plead the Centurion's cause, taking his notes. 
 
 No. 5. The Centurion a prisoner at the bar. 
 
 No. 6. The twelve jurymen in their box. 
 
 No. 7. The Marshal and Sheriff leading the Centurion out of Court with 
 martial honour. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 239 
 
 customary prayer, " May the gods save the Emperor 
 and commonwealth'^ — his learned honour, the states- 
 attorney rose and gave a brief of the plea, he had pre- 
 ferred against the centurion, at the opening of the 
 prosecution ; and also, endeavoured to shake the postu- 
 latory pedestal, on which the learned barrister stood, 
 who plead the centurion's cause ; — and had, from the 
 sheer law of necessity, to elevate himself, so as to see 
 his way through his legal sea, full of shoals, bars and 
 sunken rocks, that were of the following names ; the 
 collateral shoals, the circumstantial bars, and the pre- 
 sumptive rocks. But it came to pass, that the intona- 
 tion of the states-general's vituperating voice, for about 
 an hour, did not remove a single shoal, nor shift a bar, 
 nor blow up a single rock; so that all his legal ratioci- 
 nation to rebut the arguments of the centurion's coun- 
 sel, were in vain. Having blown out this small blast of 
 his legal horn, the states-attorney sat down and said no 
 more. 
 
 The Judge's charge to the court and jury, in the Centu- 
 rion's case. 
 
 And it came to pass, after the states-general had 
 taken his seat, that his learned honour, the chief judge 
 of this court of law and inquest, rose and informed the 
 court, that it was an old axiom in Roman law, as well 
 as in all our courts of jurisprudence in our sovereign 
 realm, predicated on the noble Magna Charta, that lie 
 on the civick altars before our gods, that when our 
 courts of judicature fail to establish, by full and clear 
 evidence, the allegations and specifications, that are in 
 the bills of indictment preferred against any citizen, 
 which the officers of justice bring to the bar of any of 
 our courts of civil law, as a transgressor, that the law 
 of the Romans holds all men innocent, where there is 
 lack of substantial witnesses to prove them guilty. 
 Therefore, may it please the court and jury, I view 
 with my learned colleagues on the bench, that this is 
 precisely the case with the prisoner at the bar, the cen- 
 
!240 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 turion, who had the charge of the crucified body of 
 Christ for three days ; during which short period of 
 time, it was lost by some unknown villains or myste- 
 rious agency out of the sepulchre. 
 
 I shall therefore, in giving my views and legal 
 opinion, to this enlightened and intelligent court of law 
 and inquest, of the person and character of the centu- 
 rion, that it appears to me, in concurrence with my 
 learned associates on the bench, that the rectitude 
 manifested in all the words and acts of the centurion, 
 while the dead body of Christ was under his care and 
 control, leaves him standing like an ancient colossus, on 
 one of the pyramids of Egypt, inexpugnable to the 
 deleterious ravages of time. Yes, please the court and 
 jury, I view with my learned colleagues, that the in- 
 violability of the centurion's character, is safely guard- 
 ed from all reprehension, by the whole consecutive 
 range of his words, acts, and soldier-like conduct, during 
 the whole of that nebulous catastrophe, of that much to 
 be lamented loss of the cadaverous merchandize, out of 
 the custom-house of the king of terrors. That is, please 
 the court and jury, in plain language, the loss or escape 
 of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre, 
 [which presents to the view of Jews, Deists and Atheits, 
 a sombreness of appearance.] We, therefore, which 
 are by the law of the realm, and the sovereign pleasure 
 of our lord the Emperor, constituted the legal and 
 official judges of this court, give it this day as our 
 legal opinion and law judgment, that the prisoner at 
 the bar stands innocent in the eye of the law, from all 
 the charges in the bill of indictment against him, of de- 
 linquency in his not doing his whole share of duty, 
 which his learned honour the states-attorney has pre- 
 ferred against him at the bar of this court, in conse- 
 quence of the prisoner not fully discharging his duty. 
 But, may it please the court and jury, it appears to us 
 both presumably and circumstantially evident, that the 
 centurion acted out, in the most plenary sense, all his 
 professional, moral, and physical capabilities, in the full 
 discharge of his military duty ; which, please the court 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 241 
 
 and jury, as a Roman officer, so onerously devolved on 
 him. And let this court further indulge me to say, in 
 the language used at the bar of this court four days 
 ago, by the very learned counsel who advocated the 
 cause of Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, w-hen 
 the barrister w^isely observed, and fearlessly exclaimed 
 in the audience of this court, that an angel, yea, a God, 
 could do no more, than act out all his or their mental 
 and physical capabilities. Let the hypostatical essence 
 of the being thus acting, be either of a limited or un- 
 limited character; or in other w^ords, whether the being 
 thus acting possesses the attribute of an angel, man, or 
 those plenary attributes, w hich we believe the go~ds are 
 in the felicitous possession of. We say, please this court 
 and jury, there is a line of demarcation, beyond which 
 neither men nor angels, nor yet the gods can go ; and 
 that is, they can only act out all their capabilities and 
 attributes, w^hether they be the co-essential or coetan- 
 eous nature of the gods or men, they possess ; which it 
 appears the prisoner at the bar of this court, the centu- 
 rion, acted out, upon this pressing emergency and 
 mysterious occasion. Therefore, in full accordance 
 with the judgment and legal opinions of my learned 
 colleagues, on this bench, w^e give our decision in favour 
 of the centurion's justification and innocency. We 
 have been led, please this court and jury, to predicate 
 this our legal opinion, from the plain and obvious sense, 
 of the legal and impartial construction of the stamina, 
 or, if you please, the spirit of our laws. Therefore, as 
 the chief organ of this court, and the law of our sove- 
 reign realm, it officially devolves on me this day, in the 
 presence of our civick gods, and in the audience of this 
 wise and intelligent court of law and inquest, to declare 
 that we believe the centurion to be an upright, just, and 
 honest person, in all that related to the ever to be lamen- 
 ted and distressing loss, of the crucified body of Christ 
 out of the sepulchre. 
 
 I will say no more to the court and jury at this time. 
 When the judge placed the cause, with the necessary 
 books and papers, in the hands of the jury; who retired 
 
 X 
 
242 CHRIST REJECTED, 
 
 into the jury chamber ; and in the course of three hours, 
 came into court again, and presented to the judges a 
 verdict of not guilty, of any of the charges preferred by 
 the crown lawyer, against the prisoner at the bar. 
 
 The chief judge then rose, and in a pleasing intona- 
 tion of his commanding voice, read the verdict of the 
 jury in the audience of the court. 
 
 The judge rose the second time and said : — I there- 
 fore proclaim to the whole world, that the centurion, 
 the prisoner before the bar of this tribunal, is this day 
 at full liberty to leave this cwurt of law and inquest, 
 and return to his honorary rank in the Roman army ; 
 and also to take with him from the legal decision of this 
 court, a plenary justification, from all the charges in 
 the indictment, which his learned honour the states- 
 attorney preferred against him ; and that he leaves this 
 court with all his former honours and laurels of military 
 glory. And it came to pass, at this declaration of the 
 chief judge, the centurion rose, and with all that ur- 
 banity and military etiquette of an highly accomplished 
 Roman officer, made a very easy and handsome incli- 
 nation of his person to the judges, and then withdrew 
 under a most salubrious shower of applause. \VTien 
 the judge adjourned the court to meet in the same 
 place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TAe sixteenth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepul- 
 chre, of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass^ that early on the morning of the 
 sixteenth day of the trial of robbing the sepulchre — as 
 soon as the court doors were thrown open, a vast number 
 of chariots and other carriages, presented themselves in 
 front of the court house, very richly embellished with 
 figures of an imposing character, indicative of their 
 family escutcheons, which set forth as in a prospectus, 
 their patrician birth : these carriages were all drawn 
 with steeds caparisoned with harness, elegantly mounted. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the young gentlemen 
 of Jewish and Deistical education, noble blood andhon- 
 
 Figure No, 1. The great court of Areopagus, or high court of law and in- 
 quest, open for the trial of the disciples. 
 
 No. 2. The five judges who are appointed by the emperor to try this cause. 
 
 No. 3. Carnal Reason pointing the finger of scorn at the cross of Christ. 
 
 No. 4. Vain Philosophy, viewing the heavens of the age of ReasoQ>-.an(l 
 has no time to think of Imrnortality. 
 
 No. 5. The slates-attorney opening the prosecution. 
 
 No. 6. The twelve jurors in the box. 
 
 No. 7. The eleven disciples chained together. 
 
244 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 ourable birth, converged their juvenile vision on those 
 ladies, who scorn and despise Christ, that they rushed 
 out of court, and with Roman grace and easy urbanity 
 of manners, (always indicative of good breeding) which 
 almost, as it were, embargoes the vernacular commerce 
 of the writer's vocabulary, to describe their highly 
 polished comity — when those young scientific gentle- 
 men, gracefully conducted the ladies into the great gal- 
 lery of the court. No sooner were these legitimate 
 ladies [of the family of satan] seated, than there drove 
 up in front of this court, a carriage, that was rather of 
 a plain and modest appearance; but when those young 
 gentlemen of the philosophical school, came to the court 
 door, and casting their opticks rather obliquely, at 
 what they viewed, as having rather a plebeian appear- 
 ance, in the persons and equipage of those two ladies, 
 Reason and Philoso'phy , which led these young gentle- 
 men to forecast in their minds, from the modest and 
 plain appearance of the ladies, [Reason and Philosophy; 
 for these were their lovely names,] that they were 
 either of christian or plebeian origin. Those gentlemen, 
 therefore, were remarkably reserved, in the display of 
 their urbanity towards them. 
 
 But, reader, they were in some measure excusable, 
 as they did not know at that time, the intrinsick value, 
 of the inward jewels of their minds ; nor how valuable 
 an acquisition those ladies were, to the glorious cause 
 of self-righteousness, viz. the infidelity of the present 
 age. When these gentlemen slipped into court, and 
 left the ladies to alight from their modest carriage, by 
 the solitary aid of their servants. 
 
 And it came to pass, at this critical juncture, that 
 the chief judge drove up to the front of the court house, 
 in his forensick carriage ; and when he had alighted, 
 seeing two strange and modest looking ladies, of almost 
 angelic form, with their rolling eyes scintillating with 
 philosophical fire, flying from their sparkling vision, 
 which appeared to be elevated towards the heavens of 
 the marvellous age of Reason; and the fine lineaments, 
 and other soft and fascinating signs in their expressive 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 245 
 
 countenances, as certainly coindicative of their deep 
 wisdom, soon caught the chief judge's eye; when he 
 very politely stepped towards the ladies, and with the 
 urbanity of a finished gentleman of the Roman bar, re- 
 ceived them, and conducted them to the best seat in the 
 court : and at the same time, the judge highly compli- 
 mented them for their wisdom, in leaving their country, 
 and their father's house, and coming to this court of law 
 and inquest, to see and hear for themselves this singu- 
 lar and interesting trial, of the eleven disciples, on the 
 charge of stealing the crucified body of Christ out of 
 the sepulchre. After the judge had accommodated the 
 ladies, with their private secretaries, Unbelief and 
 Hardness of heart, in a small gallery on the right hand 
 of the court, [see Nos. 3 and 4 on the plate,] so that the 
 ladies might not be interrupted with the buzz and risi- 
 bility of the multifarious ladies who had come from all 
 the provinces of the empire 
 
 But be it remembered by the reader, that those fine 
 ladies, in their scintillating robes and valuable jewels, 
 that their minds were not over-charged with the treas- 
 ures of wisdom and knowledge; therefore, many of them 
 spent a great part of their time in raising the fountains 
 of vanity, so as to overflow its purlieus, and surcharge 
 the clouds in the deistical heavens, and then shower 
 down their risibility on Christ, his gospel, and immor- 
 tality. And let it be observed, also, that those young 
 butterflies in the great galler}^ were a very striking 
 emblem of a great majority of Deists, Jews and other 
 free-thinkers, m our dying and sublunary world; who, 
 when the sublime and momentous subject of God, Christ, 
 Heaven, Hell and Immortality, does, perchance, pass 
 under their volatile review — in order that the solemn 
 subject may make no lasting impression on their vas- 
 cillating minds, and with a view, no doubt, to prevent 
 the deathly subject from presenting a sombreness before 
 their minds, they give the great concerns of eternity a 
 mere transient discussion ; that is, next door to giving 
 God and eternity an indefinite ^0-61/; instead of acting as 
 wise and intelligent beings, and entering into a rational 
 x2 
 
246 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 disquisition of the evidences of the resurrection of Christ 
 from the dead ; which would at once settle the whole 
 point at issue, between the christian and his opponents. 
 
 But, with the reader's indulgence, we will return in- 
 to court. And in order to connect the chain of our 
 ideas together, we iterate, that at intervals, the young 
 ladies in the great gallery, would at times entertain 
 each other with a mere interlocutory discussion of the 
 soul's immortality, and Christ and his church in this 
 militant state ; whereby it was manifest, that all their 
 powers of ratiocination, could not, although assisted 
 with all their physical, mental and other capabilities, 
 reach the grand arcanum, [viz. the mystery of salvation, 
 through the blood of the cross,] of this momentous sub- 
 ject; as a certain unpolished writer, in the view of those 
 volatile fair ones of the philosophical schools, has some 
 where written for their ladyships' admonition: ''that 
 the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not 
 subject to the law of God ; neither, indeed, can be." 
 
 But, now, sailing our court business past those ele- 
 gant birds of passage, [wafted by the trade-wind, over 
 the narrow sea of life,] in the great gallery of the court, 
 we will return, and take a peering view of the ladies, 
 Reason and Philosophy, in the small gallery, [see fig. 
 3 and 4 in the plate,) where the chief judge had politely 
 inducted them, so that they might have a full view of 
 the judges on the bench, the prisoners at the bar, and 
 of hearing the powerful arguments of the counsels, for 
 and against the disciples. This indulgence was a 
 gracious grant of the court, through the special interest 
 of the five judges in their behalf; so that the ladies 
 Reason and Philosophy, might have a full view of the 
 legal process of the whole court, during this most in- 
 teresting trial, that has ever to this day, engaged the 
 intellect and intelligence of mankind. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as all the specta- 
 tors were seated, and the official agents of the court at 
 their legal stations, that an almost simultaneous impulse 
 from the muse of truth and justice, a solemn silence, 
 pervaded the whole court ; when the grand marshal of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 247 
 
 the empire, (of modern philosophy,) with the high sheriff 
 of Rome, and other civil officers belonging to the state's 
 prison, (of the empire of darkness,) brought into court 
 the eleven disciples, loaded with fetters and chains, and 
 placed them in the criminal's box, before the bar of the 
 court, (see fig. 7, on the plate,) suffer the relevancy of 
 the writer just to observe to the reader, that the tremu- 
 lous limbs and the faultering tongues, and pale coun- 
 tenances of the eleven prisoners, coming out of a damp 
 dungeon of modern infidelity, excited on the part of the 
 poor low-breed followers of Christ, who stood in the 
 aisles and open areas of this court, considerable fear 
 for the prisoners at the bar ; that when they might be 
 called on to speak for themselves, or answer any trite 
 interrogatories, by the counsel on the side of the crown, 
 in the presence of this learned and intelligent court, 
 they of course would experience the most excessive 
 embarrassment, in communicating their ideas ; — being 
 placed, as they were, in the very midst of such a bril- 
 liant constellation of law wdsdom, as the learned gen- 
 tlemen of the Roman bar were — being appointed by the 
 sovereign authority of the empire, to prosecute this 
 trial ; so that the true friends of Christ, his gospel, and 
 immortality, for the time, were much cast down in 
 their minds, for the poor disciples sakes, as well as for 
 the cause of divine truth — being thus exposed to all the 
 civil and military powers of the Roman empire, and at 
 the same time to have to encounter all the philosophical 
 wisdom and scientific knowledge of this world ; when 
 it appeared, that the whole reputation and interest of 
 the gospel, stood shivering like the aspen leaf, in a cur- 
 rent of air — as the cause of Christ, by some inexplica- 
 ble dispensation of the great helms-man aloft, which to 
 poor sailors appeared like a distressing storm at sea, at 
 a season when least expected : which remains to seamen 
 like the gordian knot, entirely inextricable. So the cause 
 of truth appeared, like the aspen leaf, in the tremulous 
 hands of these shivering disciples, just brought out of 
 the dark and damp dungeon [of sin and unbelief] of the 
 states-prison, and suspended before the bar of the high 
 
248 ClIllIST REJECTED. 
 
 court of law and inquest, in the hands of these poor 
 plebeian wretches, standing chained and loaded with 
 fetters of the rancorous unbelief of ungodly men; sur- 
 rounded on every side, with a nebulous atmosphere of 
 eternal sleep, that threatened every moment to ingulf 
 them, under the mountainous waves, in the great sea 
 of Carnal reason and raging philosophical hatred against 
 Christ rising from the dead. As the cause of Christ 
 stood shivering in the wind, and a profound silence 
 having for some time pervaded the court, the states- 
 general opened the prosecution against the prisoners at 
 the bar, in due form; first, by directing the clerk to 
 call and panel the jury. 
 
 When the clerk of the court read over a long cata- 
 logue of illustrious names, of the most learned, wise and 
 intelligent gentlemen of the age of reason : being all 
 indigenous of the Kingdom of Infidelity, and who had 
 all been legally notified by the sheriff of Rome, to pre- 
 sent themselves this morning, as jurors at the court of 
 Areopagus, for to try the cause of the eleven disciples, 
 charged with robbing the sepulchre of the crucified 
 body^of Christ. When the states-general put the fol- 
 lowing question to the twelve jurors, which the court 
 had chosen : v/hen his learned honour, the crown bar- 
 rister, examined as near as possible, consecutively, the 
 time 'vhen this glowing galaxy of philosophical wisdom, 
 first began to encircle our little earth, with a nebulous 
 halo of material and skeptical glory, which the united 
 labour oi free-thiaking love, spread over the present and 
 future destiny of all mankind ; when the states-general 
 called the jury, viz. 
 
 No. 1. Lord Edward Herbert, of Cherbury, 
 
 Boi-n at the castle of Montgomery, old England, in 1581. 
 
 No. 2. Thomas Hobbes, 
 
 Born at Malmesbury, in WiltsWre, old England, in 1588. 
 
 No. 3 Charles Blount, 
 
 Born at Upper Halloway, old England, m 1654. 
 
 No. 4. Matthew Tindal, 
 
 Born at Beer-Ferris, in Devonshire, old England, in IGSr. 
 
 No. 5. Thomas Woolston, 
 
 Born at Northampton, old England, in 1669. 
 
CHRIST KEJECTED. 249 
 
 No. 6. John Toland, 
 
 Born in Ii eland, near Londonderry, in 1669. 
 
 No. 7. Anthony Collins, 
 
 Born at Heston, Middlesex, old England, in 1676. 
 
 No. 8. Thomas Chubb, 
 
 Born at a small village near Salisbury', old England, in 1679. 
 
 No. 9. David Hume, 
 
 Bern at Edinburgli, in Scotland, in 1711. 
 
 No. 10. Edward Gibbon, 
 
 Born at Putney, near London, old England, in 1737. 
 
 No. 11. Marie Francois Arouet Voltaire, 
 
 Born at Chatenay, near Paris, France, in 1694. 
 
 No. 12. Jean Jacques Rousseau, 
 
 Boi'n at Geneva, in 1712. 
 
 The foregoing jurymen being all affirmed, to truly 
 decide and bring in a verdict to the best of their judg- 
 ment, according to the witness placed before them ; — 
 when the states-general proceeded by stating to the 
 court, that this was an action brought by the crown, 
 in the behalf of his majesty, the emperor Tiberius, [or 
 otherwise Satan and Infidelit}^] against the prisoners 
 at the bar, for the robbery of the sepulchre, of the cru- 
 cified body of Christ. The states-attorney then pre- 
 sented the bills of indictment, which the grand-jury had 
 found against the prisoners at the bar : When his learn- 
 ed honour, turning himself so as to face both judges 
 and jury, read the bills of indictment, which contained 
 a specific declaration of the prisoners' crimes. 
 
 And it came to pass, in the course of the plenary 
 discharge of the crown barrister's official duty, that his 
 very eye balls scintillated w^ith forensick fire, while his 
 legal ingenuity, being elevated like a lightning-rod, so 
 as to be able to draw every little spark of the electrical 
 fluid of crime, from the sombre clouds, that were por- 
 tentous of the disciples' guilt, to meet in a focus, to 
 enable him to surcharge the persons and characters of 
 the disciples, with a scarlet hue and crimson dye, as 
 they stood chained before the bar. While his learned 
 honour, w^ith his legal oratory, was clothing in robe« 
 of the darkest guilt, all the alleged crimes contained in 
 the indictment, against the prisoners at the bar, it was 
 
250 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 worthy of remark to notice, with what forensick em- 
 phasis, the states-general placed on all his words ; fol- 
 lowed by the distinctness in his sententious remarks, of 
 the guilt of the disciples, in order to influence the mind 
 of the court and jury, by the harmonious key of his 
 court intonations and clearness of his forensick voice, 
 and the perspicuity of his arguments, which at intervals 
 came down, like the heated thunder-bolts, from the 
 clouds of vengeance ! and the red lightning, from the 
 gods of justice, v.ere just ready to ignite them as war- 
 nings to the race of men, while a sombre dispensation, 
 of almost impenetrable gloom, seemed to envelop the 
 case of the prisoners at the bar, and that also, as a con- 
 sequence which followed so close in the wake of the 
 disciples' guilt, the resurrectionof Christ from the dead. 
 
 And it came to pass, that after the states-attorney 
 had read over the bills of indictment, he then proceed- 
 ed to call over the prisoners' names, one by one ; to 
 each name he demanded a categorical answer. Now the 
 names of the eleven disciples were thus placed in con- 
 secutive order, in the indictment, as follows : Simon 
 Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 
 Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and 
 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas the brother of James. 
 
 The names of the eleven prisoners being called over, 
 and an implicit answer being given by each prisoner 
 to his own proper name, his honour the crown barris- 
 ter rose, and said to the prisoners : You whose names 
 have been read and called over, in your audibility, and 
 also in the hearing of the whole court — Therefore, be 
 it known to you all, who are the disciples of that very 
 trouble-some and mysterious being, called Christ, that 
 you are all indicted by the Grand-jury, in this declara- - 
 tion which I hold in my hand, before you, and in the I 
 presence of this whole court, with three indictments. ^ 
 I shall therefore, may it please your learned honours 
 the judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, and all the 
 other law elements, who this day constitute this high 
 court of law and inquest, proceed in the opening of this 
 eause, before the bar of this court, by examining the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. !251 
 
 guilt of the prisoners in the consecutive order, I find 
 them placed by the Grand-jury, in the bills of indict- 
 ment. 
 
 Charge first. — I shall, may it please your honours 
 the judges, and this impartial jury in the box, begin 
 with specification the first. When his learned honour 
 the attorney-general ordered the prisoners, who were 
 loaded with fetters and chains, to rise and face 
 the judges and jury: and said — the first indictment 
 onerously charges you all, collectively, and in your in- 
 dividuate ^character, with a most daring overt-act, 
 against our liege sovereign Tiberius' regal government, 
 which the judges and jury well know, that the laws of 
 the Roman Empire justly construes the aforesaid overt- 
 act, to be high treason, and rebellion of the deepest 
 shades of character ; and the law declares all such as 
 wilful transgressors and rebels. 
 
 This part of the guilt of the prisoners, please your 
 honours the judges and jury, the Grand-jury have wisely 
 predicated, on these very prisoners going by night, and 
 attacking a strong military post, well guarded by a 
 select band of soldiers, taken from part of the royal 
 army of Tiberius, who were stationed in the province 
 of Judea, under the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, 
 governor of Jerusalem, and the region round about 
 Jordan. This act of the prisoners, at the bar of this 
 court, constitutes the character of their transgressions, 
 as one of the blackest degrees of open rebellion : so that 
 please your honours the judges and jury, if in the course 
 of their trial now pending before the bar, this court 
 shall be put in the possession of plenary and clear evi- 
 dence of their guilt, their lives Avill be all justly forfeit- 
 ed to the laws of the realm. 
 
 Charge the second. — And may it please your learn- 
 ed honours the judges of this high court of law and in- 
 quest, with the impartial jury in the box, the second 
 specification in the consecutive order in the indictment, 
 I find to be of a felonious and seditious character. And 
 the grand-jury, please your honours, are in my view of 
 
252 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the law, fully justified in forming their second bill 
 against the prisoners' guilt, in their going by night and 
 breaking open the royal seal of state. This the statutes 
 of Roman law, construes as an act of felony, of the 
 highest grade. This court holding its civick doctrine 
 in unison with the common law of all the nations of the 
 earth, well knows, that under all governments, felony 
 of such a grade, is always punishable by death. This 
 felonious act of the prisoners at the bar, is predicated 
 from that part of their conduct, that consists in their 
 undulating the calm sea of the civil laws and statutes 
 of the Roman empire, when these prisoners, who are 
 commonly called the disciples of Christ, went, and in 
 the most seditious and felonious manner, broke open the 
 imperial seal of state, and rolled the stone from the en- 
 trance or mouth of the sepulchre. And should the court 
 find clear and satisfactory evidence of the guilt of the 
 prisoners, their lives will be all forfeited a second time 
 to the laws of the realm. 
 
 Charge the third. — May it please your learned hon- 
 ours the judges with the jury, the third charge or 
 specification I find placed by the Grand-jury, in the 
 consecutive order of the indictment I still hold in my 
 hand, is, please your honours, of such a constuperating 
 character, darkened, please the court, if possible, by the 
 most sable and demoniacal designs of imposing a pious 
 fraud, on the poor unlettered and uninformed part of 
 the liege subjects of our lord the Emperor. This super- 
 stitious malady, it appears, please your honours, to have 
 been their dernier intention to carry through the whole 
 empire, in order, first, to imbue the minds of the good 
 and loyal subjects of Tiberius, with a spirit of male- 
 volence against the doctrine of all our national gods, by 
 tormenting the minds of the Roman citizens about im- 
 mortality; which, these felonious, sacrilegious and 
 villainous wretches had in view, by stealing the cruci- 
 fied body of Christ out of the sepulchre : and running 
 to and fro in the land, proclaiming that the body of 
 Christ had come to life again. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. * 253 
 
 Therefore, may it please the judges and jury, of this 
 impartial court, if it is not irrelevant in a crown lawyer 
 to indulge in the use of a small simile, in fully placing 
 the dark shades of the third allegation in the indictment 
 before the court — I would then say, please the court, 
 that this third crime in the indictment, would over-cast 
 w^ith a blush of shame, the callous countenances of some 
 fiery demon. Therefore, to satisfy the court, that the 
 shades of moral turpitude, I have placed before the 
 vision and audibility of this court, on the fegal charac- 
 ter of the third charge, in the indictment of the prison- 
 er's guilt, is not exaggerated by the Grand-jury. There- 
 fore your honours the judges well know, with the jury, 
 that either of the three crimes in the bills of indict- 
 ment, which their peers, the Grand-jury, have found 
 against them, is all-sufficient, w'ithout legal argument, 
 to draw down on their devoted heads, the vituperating 
 voice of justice, and the thundering vengeance of the 
 civil and martial laws of their country ; which pro- 
 nounces both the crime, and the condign punishment 
 on the same, to be capital — that is death, for each 
 offence. The states-attorney then sat down. 
 
 [The chief-judge states to the prisoners, their exposed 
 condition to the laws of their country, and advises them 
 to procure able counsel to defend their jeopardous per- 
 sons at the bar of this court.] 
 
 And it came to pass, after the crown barrister had 
 taken his seat, the judge, w^ho appeared to have been 
 less stoical in his forensick sensibilities, than the 
 states-general, rose and desired the prisoners to sit 
 down: w^hen his honour, with his notes on the desk be- 
 fore him, containing the names of the eleven disciples, 
 the prisoners at the bar, with the country where they 
 were born, which proved them all to be the indigenous of 
 Judea ; whose forefathers had, about fourteen hundred 
 years antecedent to their robbing the sepulchre, driven 
 out the Canaanites and their confederates, who were 
 the aborigines of the land, a small isolated province 
 of the Roman empire, in the well known days of 
 Agustus and Tiberius; the first emperors of the 
 
 Y 
 
254 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 largest monarchy that this mundane dispensation, had 
 ever before or since, presented either to the vision or 
 reflection of mankind. 
 
 The chief judge then asked the prisoners their ages, 
 calhngs, avocations and learned professions, and the 
 town or village in which they w^ere born; with the 
 moral and theological instruction they had received in 
 early life. To which wise and prudent interrogations 
 of the judge, the prisoners at the bar gave a categorical 
 and laconick reply, with so much wisdom and know- 
 ledge in the collocation of their words, and harmony 
 of their views, in their sententious answers to the chief 
 judge, that the whole court greatly marvelled, that 
 wretches of their cadaverous appearance, loaded with 
 fetters and chains, could give such trite answers. 
 
 The judge having gone through with his interroga- 
 ting the prisoners, he ordered the clerk of the court to 
 read over, very distinctly, the names of the prisoners, 
 one by one, so that each prisoner had to give a direct 
 answer to his own name. 
 
 This being done in legal form, the chief judge rose 
 the second time, and rehearsed in a very distinct and 
 audible manner, the three dark and onerous specifica- 
 tions contained in the bills of indictment, which the 
 grand-jury had found against them, and which his 
 learned honour, the states-general, had in legal and due 
 form, preferred against them at the bar of this high 
 court of law and inquest. When his honour had placed 
 the crimes of the prisoners, in his laconick expose of 
 the allegations in the indictment, before the prisoners 
 and whole court, he asked the prisoners, whether they 
 plead guilty or not guilty, to the three charges in the 
 bills of indictment ? When he paused, and resumed his 
 seat on the bench ; in order to give the prisoners time 
 to seriously reflect before they gave their reply. 
 
 The disciples plead not guilty, of robbing the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, after a few minutes silence, on 
 the part of the prisoners at the bar, that one of the 
 most unlikely of them rose, whose name was Simon 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 255 
 
 Peter, and by avocation a fisherman of Galilee, (who 
 was also of recreant memory, in consequence of the fel- 
 low being so shamefully terrified, upon a certain occa- 
 sion, by a servant maid,) and became the organ to this 
 court of law and inquest, both for himself and his ten 
 accomplices in [the supposed] guilt, in the case pend- 
 ing at the bar: when Simon Peter announced to the 
 court, that the prisoners at the bar plead not-guilty, of 
 any of the charges in the indictment. The judge then 
 asked Simon, if he and his ten brethren, who were his 
 accomplices in the three crimes set forth in the indict- 
 ment, were all ready with their witnesses and legal 
 counsel, to defend themselves ? When Simon thus ad- 
 dressed himself to the judges and gentlemen of the 
 jury: may it benignly please your learned honours the 
 five judges, who by the emperor Tiberius, are appoint- 
 ed to try us for our lives, and the impartial jury of this 
 high court of law and inquest ; — I humbly pray your 
 honours with the jury, to indulge me with its attention 
 and legal patience for a few moments, while I present 
 an answer to your query, Whether w^e as prisoners, 
 (almost without hope,) are ready wdth witnesses and 
 legal counsel, to defend ourselves ? I shall now most 
 humbly and obediently inform this court, that the som- 
 bre clouds of adversity, and the storms of misfortune, 
 have overtaken and spread its deteriorating wings 
 over our persons and estates — so that like our avowed 
 master, w^e with him, please your honours, do not hold 
 \i\ fee-simple, a bird's nest that we can legally call our 
 ow'n ; nor even the humble den of a sly fox, to retreat 
 into, to cover our defenceless heads from the pitiless 
 storm, that the dense clouds of unconscious guilt, that 
 now hanoj over our heads, threatening us with death. 
 Your honour's good sense will naturally glide off into this 
 conclusion : that silver and gold we have none; no, not 
 even to pay a Roman tole ; much less, please this court, 
 have we a sufficient supply of that precious metal, to 
 employ legal counsel to plead our cause, before the bar 
 of this court ; and be justly able to renumerate them 
 for their forensick services. 
 
256 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, and this impartial jury, we shall be coerced 
 under the imperious law of sheer necessity, to throw 
 ourselves, with our almost hopeless cause, and jeopar- 
 dous lives, as a dernier resort, on the justice and mercy 
 of this impartial court of law and inquest : — and may 
 the great helms-man aloft, guide and direct this court, 
 to do for us the things that are both just and merciful : 
 when Simon said no more. 
 
 The judge then rose, and signified to the court, that 
 the hour of adjournment had arrived ; when the disci- 
 ples, the prisoners at the bar, were remanded back to 
 prison, and the court stood adjourned, to meet in the 
 same place the next day. 
 
 And it came to pass, that during the recess of this 
 court, that the states-general went to the high marshal 
 of the empire, and high sheriff's office, and took out a 
 mandamus, or writ of caption ; that is, w4iat some may 
 call a bench warrant, for the centurion ; who, with his 
 royal guards, had the care and charge of the sepulchre, 
 at the time the body of Christ was said, by the Jews, 
 to have been stolen therefrom; to bring the guards 
 forthwith into court, for witnesses to convict the disci- 
 ples of their guilt. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 257 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The seventeenth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepul- 
 chre, of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court of Areopagus 
 was opened at an early hour, on the morning of the 
 seventeenth day. And the first vehicle that drove up 
 in front of the court, was the carriage of the ladies 
 Reason and Philosophy. These amiable and scientific 
 ladies, it appears, had minds as well as elegant forms ; 
 and did not, we humbly presume, believe that tangible 
 enjoyments were the ultimatum of human felicity. So 
 it appears, in consequence of this momentous stage of 
 the trial, these were the most anxious of all the specta- 
 tors, who condescended to visit this court, and hear for 
 
 Figure Xo. 1. The five judges of this court, sitting on the trial of (Ue 
 eleven disciples, for robbing the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 2. The states-general taking the guards' evidence. 
 
 No. 3. The twelve jurors panelled, and in the jury-box. 
 
 No 4. 'I'he disciples chained, and placed in the criminal's box. 
 
 No. 5. The table in front of the court, where the guards are aifirmed. 
 
 No. 6. Carnal Reason, pointing the finger of scorn at the cross. 
 
 No. 7. Vain Philosophy, Avith a telescope, viewing the heavens. 
 
 No, 8, The large galleiy filled with Jews and Deists. 
 
 y2 
 
258 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 themselves, this most interesting of all trials, that the 
 intelect of the human mind is capable of surveying. 
 These ladies, therefore, have set us all a laudable ex- 
 ample. And the amanuensis, humbly prays the reader, 
 whether he be a Mahometan, Jew, Christian, Deist, or 
 his dear and near kinsman and beloved cousin, the 
 Atheist, to prayerfully read this trial throughout, and not 
 to faint, as the issue of this trial will one way or other, 
 draw the great line of demarcation; whether reader thou 
 art on a level with the beasts of the earth, or whether thy 
 soul, from the sublime dignity of its elements and attri- 
 butes, and God-like qualities of its nature, is co-essential, 
 and as relates to coming time — coetaneous with God; of 
 which we have a very imperfect understanding in this 
 mundane state. But still we can gather, from the preco- 
 cious fruits, it now and then bears in this militant state, 
 which often demands at our better judgments and un- 
 derstandings — as Philip said to his son Alexander, a 
 better kingdom, than the tangible joys, which our pas- 
 sions and lusts procure for us in this world. 
 
 Reader, thy soul claims an aerial atmosphere, and 
 longs for its more sublimated inheritance ; — and often 
 inwardly sighs after its legitimate affinity to the only 
 true God, and Jesus Christ his son, who hath only 
 brought life and immortality to light, through his gos- 
 pel. Therefore, follow close in the path of those two 
 wise ladies, and come to court and hear and read this 
 trial, (as the case of your circumstances may be,) for it 
 has an onerous bearing on the happiness, and universal 
 felicity or misery of all mankind; and may be justly 
 viewed, as the greatest cause that ever appeared for 
 trial, before the bar of any court on earth to this day. 
 
 A. D, 1832. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as the ladies, 
 Reason and Philosophy, were by the high officers of 
 the court, inducted in the small gallery, in front of the 
 judges and prisoners, that the other ladies of honour 
 and distinction, of Jewish and Deistical blood and birth, 
 arrived in their elegant carriages, and were, as we have 
 
 i 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 259 
 
 once observed, most politely, by the young gentlemen, 
 with Roman comity, and fine urbanity of manners, 
 escorted into the large gallery of the court. And as 
 soon as the five judges, and the other forensick gentle- 
 men were seated, and the officers of the court were all 
 at their legal stations, that the marshal and high sheriff 
 of Rome, brought in the disciples, chained together, and 
 placed them in the old criminal's box, before the bar of 
 the court. 
 
 And it came to pass, that no sooner had the marshal 
 and sheriff left the court, than the centurion arrived 
 with his royal guards, and led them up to the bar of 
 the court: when the centurion withdrew. And it was 
 worthy of remark, that those Roman guards appeared 
 to be a set of fine healthy, athletic, and able-bodied look- 
 ing fellows, that ever the opticks of mankind converged 
 on; and at the same time, they had all the physical, and 
 martial appearance of men of valour ; so that in the 
 eye of common sense, any person might have most 
 safely ventured to have forecast in his mind, that those 
 poor looking prisoners, chained together in the old 
 criminal's box, before the bar of the court, would cer- 
 tainly never have dared to come near such invulnera- 
 ble looking soldiers ; much less to have simultaneously 
 prostrated a band of royal guards to the earth, as dead 
 men. 
 
 The examination of the Royal guards by the states-attorney j 
 and the evidence they gave against the eleven disciples^ 
 for stealing the crucified body of Christ out of the sepid- 
 chre. 
 
 And it came to pass, that on the morning of the sev- 
 enteenth-day — all the parties to this great trial being in 
 court, when the crier of the court called to order — and 
 the states-attorney called up the royal guards to the 
 table, in front of the bar; and by the official officer, 
 had the following solemn affirmation, put to each 
 man, v/ho constituted the royal guards, that had the 
 care of the crucified body of Christ, as it laid in the 
 sepulchre, under the imperial seal The affirmation 
 run in the following coljocq-tion of words : to wit ;^ 
 
260 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 You, sir, who were one of the persons who did actually, 
 identically, and in your individuate character, most truly con- 
 stitute one of the guards, over the crucified body of Christ, 
 in the days when Pontius Pilate was governor of Jerusalem, 
 and the region round about Jordan, in the land of Israel — and 
 in the days also, when his holiness, Caiaphas, was the high 
 priest of the Jews, in the city of Jerusalem — and in the days 
 when Tiberius Caesar was the sole emperor of the Roman 
 empire : and that you sir, as a man of honour, and a citizen 
 of Rome, do most solemnly declare, and truly affirm, that all 
 the testimony and witness, which this high court of law and 
 inquest, in the plenitude of its legal wisdom and knowledge, 
 of martial, civil and ecclesiastical law ; and also, its exten- 
 sive acquaintance of men and things, shall this day call on 
 you to give in, before the bar of this solemn court, relating 
 to the cause now pending at its bar, shall be the truth, the 
 whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in the sight and pres- 
 ence of all the gods of the Roman army and nation.-Amen. 
 
 And it came to pass, that after this solemn affirma- 
 tion had been legally administered by the official officer 
 of this court, to each of the Roman soldiers, who con- 
 stituted the watch over the sepulchre, which contain- 
 ed the crucified body of Christ, that the court proceed- 
 ed with the trial. 
 
 [Here folio we th the testimony of the Roman guards 
 against the disciples, for robbing the sepulchre of the 
 crucified body of Christ.] 
 
 The court of Areopagus being in solemn waiting, the 
 states-general rose and proceeded, without any moles- 
 tation from opposite counsel on the side of the defend- 
 ants, to take the guards testimony ; when the learned 
 barrister, on the behalf of the crown, desired the guards 
 to give in their evidence as distinctly as possibly, so as 
 to avoid, as far as their physical and mental qualities, 
 and other capabilities would admit, of that disagreeable, 
 and in many instances, almost repulsive incongruity, in 
 the language of a vast number of those, which the arm 
 of the law cites to the bar of our courts in the charac- 
 ter of witnesses. Therefore, gentlemen of the royal 
 guards, you may now proceed without the least diffi- 
 dence on your part, like bold soldiers and honourable 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 261 
 
 citizens of the Roman empire, to deliver your evidence 
 at the bar of this court, without the least shade of either 
 mental, or physical embarrassment ; and at the same 
 time, gentlemen of the royal guards, pitch the key of 
 your martial voice to such an altitude of intonation, 
 that all the Jewish and Deistical ladies in the great 
 gallery, and especially the ladies Reason and Philoso- 
 phy, in the small gallery, [see fig. and 7 on the plate,] 
 may distinctly hear your bold and soldier-like evidence. 
 After this direction by the states-attorney to the guards, 
 they came forward one by one, and gave in their tes- 
 timony ; which evidence was remarkably laconick, in 
 the elements of language, and exceedingly cautious in 
 the choice and collocation of their words ; so that, if 
 the royal guards had pursued the illustrious profession 
 of the law all their days, they could not have acted 
 with more sagacious caution and frugality, in the use 
 of words, than they did. 
 
 A note hy the amanuensis. — So that the numerical weight 
 of their vocabulary, or the number of their words, would not, 
 in the humble opinion of the writer, load the gospel-ship be- 
 low her bends, in the constuperating or foul waters of vnht^ 
 lief. [Glory to God, the gospel-ship will everlastingly out' 
 ride the storm.] Reader, the postulatory pedestal, on which 
 rests the colossus, and almost inexpugnable pillar of argument, 
 (in the view of Jews and Deists,) against the whole truth of 
 the gospel, ran in these words :] 
 
 May it please your learned honours the judges, and 
 the gentlemen of the jury, said the first guard, at the 
 bar of this high court of law and inquest, the prisoners 
 at the bar, commonly called the disciples of Christ, 
 came by night, while, may it please your learned hon- 
 ours, we who constituted the Roman watch, that were 
 set by our centurion to keep and retain the body of 
 Christ in the sepulchre, [the christian reader may see 
 Peter's case, when Herod put him in prison, as to the 
 number and strength of the guards, the Romans placed 
 over a notorious prisoner ; and we presume, the num- 
 ber could not have been less in Christ's than in Peter's 
 case, as Pilate and Caiaphas were both alarmed, for 
 
262 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 fear the crucified body of Christ should, by some way, 
 find its way out of the sepulchre, see Acts 12 and 4,] 
 and stole the crucified body of Christ out of the sepul- 
 chre, while we were to a man fast asleep ; and so said 
 every one of the guards, w^ho constituted the four qua- 
 ternions of soldiers, placed by the orders of Pilate, over 
 the sepulchre. 
 
 Reader, at this stage of the trial, it is worthy of care- 
 ful observation, that the whole band of Roman guards, 
 in giving their evidence against the prisoners at the 
 bar, were unanimous and precisely the same ; and that 
 too, without the least variation, in either the number 
 or etymological character of their words ; being all 
 well sifted, from the chaff of forensick tergiversation ; 
 as those bold Roman veterans were too magnanimous 
 to rest their feet on any evasive sand-bar of court 
 vocabulary ; but like men of honour and probity, they 
 gave in their evidence at the bar of this august court 
 of law^ and inquest. 
 
 When the guards had finished their testimony against 
 the eleven disciples, the prisoners at the bar, the states- 
 attorney desired the guards to be seated for a few 
 moments, while he finished and numbered his notes ; 
 and it came to pass, that as soon as his learned honour 
 had them all fairly adjusted in order, to commence his 
 pleading, the crown barrister, with his usual share 
 of suavity of style and court etiquette, politely inform- 
 ed the royal guards, that they were all at perfect liberty 
 to leave the court and return to their quarters — as he 
 perceived no predilection on the part of their learned 
 honours the judges, nor yet on the part of the defend- 
 ants, to proceed by opposite counsel, either to rebut or 
 cross-examine the sixteen Roman guards, who have just 
 been giving in their evidence, against the prisoners at 
 the bar, commonly known by the name of the disciples 
 ofChrist. 
 
 When the captain of the royal guards led them out 
 of the court, with Roman banners, under fine military 
 discipline. By this time the hour of adjournment had 
 arrived, when his honour the chief judge, adjourned 
 the court to meet in the same place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 ^m 
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 The eighteenth day of the trial of the rohhery of the sepul- 
 chre^ of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And the court of Areopagus met in pursuance of ad- 
 journment, at the usual hour : when the judges, with 
 all the other law elements which constituted this vast 
 sea of forensick wisdom and knowledge, and for the 
 which this court was so highly famed throughout the 
 world, for its impartiality towards all men — that either 
 crime, or the adverse current of distress, and the som- 
 bre clouds of misfortune might place at its bar for 
 legal decision. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the official officers 
 
 Figure No. 1. The five judges, who sit on this trial of the eleven disciples, 
 for robbing the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 2. The states-attorney pleading against the disciples. 
 
 No. 3. The twelve jurors panelled. 
 
 No. 4, The eleven disciples chained in the criminal's box at the bar of the 
 court. 
 
 No. 5. Carnal Reason pointing the finger of scorn at the cross of Christ. 
 
 No. 6. Philosophy -with her telescope viewing the marvellous things in 
 ti»e age of Reason. 
 
 No. 7. The Jewish and Deistical ladies and gentlemen, who wish the 
 downfal of Christ, his church and people. 
 
S64 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 were at their locations, and the large gallery, No. 7, 
 on the left of the court, was overflowing with Jewish 
 and Deistical spectators, mostly of the patrician [or 
 higher] orders of society — and also, the two wise ladies, 
 Reason and Philosophy, w^ere at their stations in the 
 galleries ; [the reader can take a peering view at those 
 ladies in the gallery No. .5 6l 6,] the court now being 
 in readiness, and a profound silence reigning for a few 
 minutes, the marshal of the empire, and the high sheriff 
 of Rome, with other civil officers of the law, brought 
 the eleven disciples of Christ and placed them in the 
 old criminal's box, before the bar. 
 
 The feigned commiseration and assumed sensibility 
 of the states-attorney, at the nebulous atmosphere that 
 hung over the heads of the prisoners at the bar, and 
 the almost hopeless caiise of the eleven disciples, with 
 the truth of the gospel of the Son of God, following 
 close in the deleterious wake — driven by the furious 
 blasts of carnal Reason and vain Philosophy, almost 
 out of the world. And it came to pass, that when the 
 prisoners were all in the criminal's box, and the five 
 judges waiting in solemn silence on the bench, and the 
 whole court with the spectators iif the great gallery, 
 and the ladies Reason and Philosophy in the small 
 gallery, which the benign indulgence of the judges had 
 caused to be fitted up, and also placed at the ladies' 
 entire service, and the plebeian throng, or the lower 
 orders of the Roman poople, who were more or less in 
 favour of divine revelation, and had a little enthusias- 
 tic predilection for the doctrine of the immortality, of 
 what is commonly called the human soul. Now, when 
 these poor wretches, who have but small prospects of 
 mundane felicity, (this, reader, is the polite etiquette of 
 Hume, Gibbon, A^oltaire, Volney, and a host of others, 
 against the poor followers of Christ,) had filled the great 
 areas and small isles of the court, to a state of over- 
 flowing, that the clerk of the court commanded silence. 
 And when this still element had pervaded the whole 
 court, his learned honour, the states-general, rose — and 
 first, like a fine Peacock in the rays of the sun, (or just 
 
 i 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 265 
 
 like our modern philosophy,) spread his forensick plu- 
 mage before the bar of the court; and then with the 
 urbanity of a finished barrister of the Roman bar, he 
 in an easy and handsome manner, turned himself, so as 
 to face both the judges and jury — having his notes on the 
 table before him, and the bills of indictment in his left 
 hand : then made an easy inclination of his forensick 
 form to the court, as it were, by the springs and other 
 ingenious machinery of his profession, he simultane- 
 ously surcharged his countenance with a glow of 
 Roman philanthropy. His honour being, no doubt, in 
 the felicitous possession of the arcanum and complica- 
 ted inner works of a crocodile's commiserating heart, 
 when that subdolous animal wishes to ingulph its prey 
 within its deathly jaws. [Just so, reader, Infidelittj, 
 under this figure of a state's attorney, who subdolously 
 wishes to devour the gospel of God our Saviour, in its 
 insatiable and philosophical jaws.] When the states- 
 attorney, by this crocodile eflbrt of his false and hypo- 
 critical pendulous lever, called in common language the 
 tongue, which was propelled against the poor prisoners 
 at the bar, and the sacred cause of truth in general, by 
 an high pressure of the steam of vanity : [just like all 
 the Deistical infidels in this age of Reason and Philoso- 
 phy,] which set the learned counsel's upper works in 
 full locomotion, so that he changed his ground from a 
 vituperating states-general, to that of a sympathizing 
 friend, when he threw out a few drops of law clemency, 
 which at the same time presented the altitude of his 
 forensick sensibility — as it raised the crystal fountain 
 in the neighbourhood of his legal head ; which for a 
 short season, really presented to the vision of the court, 
 a state of commiseration almost overflowing its legal 
 banks. The immediate effect was, that it soon filled 
 the whole court with the distilling dew of his forensick 
 compassion. And as those dew drops descended from 
 his crystal fountain, by the physical law of gravity, 
 when to all human appearance he was verging to a 
 legal cataract of disgrace, and at the very point to 
 
366 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 unman himself, in the presence of this high court of law 
 and inquest ; but nevertheless, as the guardians aloft, 
 or what christians call providence, would have it, the 
 crown barrister very timely bethought himself of his 
 white cambrick handkerchief; which, by the speedy ap- 
 plication of this spongy absorbent, the crocodile tears 
 were by a reaction on the perennial waters of sorrow, 
 soon dried up ; when the learned barrister fortunately 
 recovered his legal manhood again. 
 
 The states-general makes a few prefatory remarks 
 to this high court, on his commencing his pleading 
 against the prisoners at the bar, that is, the eleven dis- 
 ciples of Christ ; — when it happened, perhaps by mere 
 chance, that he made use of an uncourtly figure, [which 
 like the owl, that perched itself at noon-day on the 
 civick altar before Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, 
 as he sat upon his throne and made an eloquent oration 
 to his vain admirers ; the sight of which, caused Herod 
 to give up the ghost ; and by the obreptitious laws of 
 locomotion, under the chariot wheels of death, to change 
 his location from a throne of purple, to present the 
 worms of the earth with a rare and delicious feast.] 
 The frightful owl or terrifying hieroglyphic, his learn- 
 ed honour made use of was this, that the crown barris- 
 ter at times might be overtaken with the pangs and 
 struggles (of a sombre court monster, by the vulgar 
 name) of conscience; this uncourtly sententious doctrine, 
 coming from the tongue of the states-attorney, did, as it 
 were, greatly elicit a shower of risibility from the 
 young patrician ladies and gentlemen, in the great gal- 
 lery of this court ; when his learned honour the crown 
 lawyer, very handsomely reproved the volatile ladies, 
 the which timely admonition coming directly under the 
 accommodating agency of the locomotion of a lawyer's 
 tongue, soon produced a most powerful reaction on the 
 sensibilities of the ladies and gentlemen, and also the 
 twelve jurymen; who, it seems, had been a little car- 
 ried away with the ladies dissimulation, as they sat in 
 the jury-box, and were seen to smile. 
 
 [Here commences the plea of the learned counsel, the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 267 
 
 crown barrister, against the eleven disciples, the pris- 
 oners at the bar of this court, for their being charged 
 before the court in the bills of indictment, for robbing 
 the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ.] 
 
 And it came to pass, that the states-attorney rose, 
 and boldly facing the five judges and the gentlemen of 
 the jury, thus addressed the court, by saying, May it 
 please your honours the judges, and the gentlemen of 
 the jury, I am, your honours and the jury, very well 
 know, the legal organ of the law, at the bar of this high 
 court of law and inquest ; and also the only authorized 
 agent on the side of the crown, to legally conduct the 
 prosecution that lies imbeded in the bills of indictment, 
 before your learned honours, against the prisoners at 
 the bar, and is called up for trial this day — that is, the 
 action pending at the solemn bar of this court. There- 
 fore, may it please the court, I do this day experience^ 
 in all good conscience, [at which uncourtly idea, and 
 unusual court language, the young Jewish and Deisti- 
 cal gentlemen in the gallery, both blushed and smiled 
 at the ladies, so that the risible elements, by the laws 
 of locomotion, left the countenances of the Jewish and 
 Deistical gentlemen, and wonderfully surcharged the 
 crystal fountains of the ladies, of the same cast; when 
 as we have just said, the grave jurymen gave a smile 
 also; when there fell a copious shower of fastidious risi- 
 bility from the ladies, on the head of the crown barris- 
 ter, in consequence of his being the agent, of introducing 
 such an illegitimate oflfspring into court: when the ladies 
 in a kind of soliloquy, forecast in their minds, that cer- 
 tainly doctor Conscience must be the unlawful fruit, of 
 the congress of some strange and metaphysical amal- 
 gamation of law and theology together, born without 
 the purlieu of philosophical wedlock ;] when the states- 
 attorney iterated — I experience a willingness to show 
 the prisoners, who are called the disciples of Christ, 
 every lawful degree of court indulgence and forensick 
 clemency, consistent with the sanction of the law, and 
 the dignity and glory of my sovereign's throne; so that, 
 please this court, before I shall proceed with pleading 
 
268 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 against the prisoners, to allow them to call in, by coun- 
 sel and otherwise, the witnesses that have testified 
 to their guilt, in order to cross-examine them : so that, 
 please the court, as I have once said, I experience a 
 powerful predilection to again iterate the declaration, 
 that in all good conscience, I do desire to see the pris- 
 oners, at the bar of this court, fairly and impartially 
 dealt with. And as I am in duty bound, from the laws 
 of good breeding and the gallantry of a Roman gentle- 
 man, I shall fondly hope, that those elegant and lovely 
 patrician ladies, in the great gallery, will not nullify 
 themselves any more, in the presence of this high court 
 of chancery, of that female dignity and sensibility of 
 character, which has heretofore, aKvays presented a 
 brilliant star, in the family escutcheons of the young 
 ladies of the Roman empire. Therefore, I shall obse- 
 quiously pray the young ladies, not to smile at the soli- 
 tary idea, of a crown barrister having, at times, to en- 
 dure the pangs of an uneasy conscience. For, young 
 ladies, I can humbl)^ assure you, that we lawyers stand 
 in as great need of that tender guardian in our hearts, 
 as well as the young ladies need the guide of conscience, 
 to preserve them fi'om the deleterious fangs of those, 
 who with constuperating designs, are always seeking 
 your disgrace and ruin. But, young ladies, both of the 
 Jewish and Deistical families, I should rather have 
 thought, that as the sombre cause, now pending at the 
 bar of this court to day, is on life and death — so that I 
 was indeed, ladies, in my forensick views, led to draw 
 this conclusion, that it would be rather more becoming 
 the finer sensibilities of well educated young ladies, of 
 patrician birth and honourable blood, to have expe- 
 rienced some dolorous sensations, at the sombreness of 
 the atmosphere in court this day : and how much more 
 becoming the finer sensibilities of the young ladies, in 
 the great gallery of this court this day, would it have 
 been, for you to have let gently fall the commiserating 
 tear, till ladies, instead of volatile laughter, at my con- 
 scientious exercise of mind, those tears had formed a 
 fountain in the upper region of your minds, so as to 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. ^269 
 
 overflow its physical and mental purlieu, and the little 
 rushing currents had almost excavated channels on 
 your countenances, that vied with the rose of Sharon ; 
 or else, in the language of one of the old Jewish sages, 
 you had sung one of his dolorous stanzas: *'Let tears 
 run down like a riyer, day and night : give thyself no 
 rest ; let not the apple of thine eye cease." This sage 
 is said to have sung this sombre canticle, when with 
 his prophetic eye, he viewed the impending ruin of his 
 people. I shall therefore, ladies, in the great gallery 
 of this court, gratuitously indulge the fond hope, that I 
 shall not have my humane sensibilities disturbed any 
 more, during this solemn trial, by your volatile spirits 
 and risible "countenances, while this mysterious and 
 subdolous trial is pending at the bar of this court of 
 law and inquest. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this well timed moral phi- 
 lippick of the states-attorney, caused a sudden reaction 
 on the delicate and moral sensibilities of the ladies in 
 the great gallery, in consequence of the crow* barris- 
 ter's sensible and moral reproof, which produced a 
 simultaneous flow of tears from all the ladies in court ; 
 the humidity of which, collecting itself in a dense cloud, 
 so filled thecourt, that the light of the natural sun was, 
 as it were, in some measure obscurated ; but the at- 
 tending officer in court, by immediately throwing open 
 the windows, the damp air soon evaporated, and there 
 was no moie smiling during this mysterious trial. 
 
 After the states-attorney had sat down, in order to 
 give the prisoners time to impugn, by counsel or other- 
 wise, the evidence which the Roman guards had given 
 in against them — the disciples forecastingin theirminds, 
 that if they should even attempt to open their mouths, 
 before this high and learned court of wisdom and for- 
 ensick knowledge, it would be viewed by the court as ir- 
 relevant: when the prisoners wisely concluded, that the 
 ruthless idioms of their Galilean or vernacular tongue, 
 would very soon expose their plebeian birth, and 
 at the same time manifest to the whole court, and also 
 to the wise and philosophical part of mankind, their ej^^ 
 
 7,2 
 
270 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 treme ignorance of science, of philosophy, of law, and 
 in a word, of men and things, in general ; when the 
 poor prisoners at the bar drew this wise and prudent 
 inference, that at this critical juncture of their trial, it 
 would be most advisable for them to follow as close in 
 the w^ake of their master, when he^ stood bound as a 
 malefactor at Pilate's bar — that is : " they answered to 
 never a word," in their own vindication ; so that the 
 whole court greatly marvelled, and were somewhat 
 astounded at their stoical insensibility, of either their 
 own guilt or innocence. 
 
 And it came to pass, after the states-attorney had 
 w^aited, what he thought a reasonable time, and that 
 the disciples sat mute in the criminal's box — his honour 
 rose, and wdth an outward show of voluntary humility 
 and legal clemency, very obsequiously informed the 
 court, and also through it as a channel, the whole world, 
 of the impartiality of its legal proceedings, in the prose- 
 cution of this mysterious cause, now pending at the bar 
 of this high court of law and inquest. And as your 
 learned honours the judges, with the impartial jury in 
 the box, are all witnesses of the clemency and indul- 
 gence I have shown the prisoners at the bar, who are 
 called the disciples of Christ ; therefore, it must be 
 evident to your learned honours, that some constupera- 
 ting malady, of a superstitious and enthusiastic charac- 
 ter, has imbued their minds with the most iron-bound 
 and stoical insensibility, which leads' them to disre- 
 gard their imminent danger; and with a nebulous 
 canopy that has spread itself over their physical and 
 mental vision, to overlook their alarming situation. I 
 shall now, as a crown officer, and the humble servant 
 of my legitimate sovereign and the laws of his realm, 
 proceed in a faithful and conscientious discharge of the 
 onerous duties, which I owe to my liege sovereign, my 
 country, and the civick altars of my gods. 
 
 His learned honour, the states-general, then went 
 on to discharge that share of law service, which his 
 high office imposed on him, and said : May it please 
 your honours the judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 271 
 
 by your patience and indulgence, I shall proceed to 
 take up the allegations against the prisoners at the bar, 
 in the consecutive order I find them in the indictment 
 I hold in my hand. The learned barrister then went 
 very ingeniously to work, and placed each specification 
 before the court, in the flowing language and harmo- 
 nious notes of an ancient Cicero, and with the intona- 
 tion and herculean strength of a prostrating Demos- 
 thenes. His accumen coming down on the minds of 
 the court, with an almost irresistible force; and his 
 argumants, at intervals, accompanied with the scintilla- 
 ting fire of his forensick mind, just like the rushing 
 element of some lofty cataract, that had been gathering 
 its w^aters from the tributary streams in the surround- 
 ing country, for many years: just so was the rushing 
 and overwhelming arguments of the crown barrister ! 
 w^hich, for the moment, prostrated the legal views of 
 the court into the vortex, that seemed to establish the 
 prisoners' (that is the disciples') guilt ; in their being 
 the very persons that robbed the sepulchre of the cru- 
 cified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that his overwhelming logick, 
 and irrefragable ratiocination, came down with such 
 vivid flashes of conviction, not only on the minds of the 
 judges and jury, but also on the minds of all the Jewish 
 and Deistical ladies and gentlemen, in the great gallery ; 
 (No. 7, see the plate,) and also, the two ladies Reason 
 and Philosophy, in the small gallery. (See No. 5. & 6.) 
 When all the different characters, which constituted 
 the clashing interest of this high court of law and in- 
 quest, said in? a soliloquy, surely the most sombre 
 clouds of suspicion, and the darkest spots of crime, 
 cover the prisoners at the bar, with a sable mantle of 
 the most constuperating disgrace; and will envelop 
 both their persons and characters for ever, in the most 
 interminable ruin. They, surely, are the blackest 
 wretches in the civil and moral world ; and their crimes 
 are enough to overwhelm them in the waves of the 
 black and foaming sea of ruin and disgrace forever. 
 
 And it came to pass, when his learned honour, the 
 
372 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 crown barrister, had pointed out to the court all the dark 
 spots of guilt which laid so deeply imbeded in the three 
 allegations in the bills of indictment, which the states- 
 attorney more particularly set forth on the first day of 
 the trial of the prisoners at the bar : especially, when 
 the learned barrister touched the fraudulent designs, 
 which the prisoners had in view, in robbing the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Christ : when the states- 
 attorney said, please your honours the judges and jury, 
 I shall but just touch the moral turpitude, which lies 
 coiled, serpent-like, with its concealed venom and most 
 deadly poison, and so deeply imbeded at the bottom of 
 this obreptitious scheme and insidious design — covered 
 under a sable canopy, of the most strange and unheard 
 of falsehoods, that ever met the audibility of the human 
 ear : to wit, that a man that was publicly put to death, 
 in the presence of thousands of spectators — by being 
 crucified on a Roman cross, should come to life ! ap- 
 pears, please your learned honours, to out-toj) the very 
 climax of superstition and enthusiastic folly ! I shall 
 therefore onerously pray this court, to take an excur- 
 sive view of the vast field of future consequences, which 
 naturally forces itself on the intelligent and enlightened 
 minds of the court, in order to duly appreciate the 
 plenary acme of the prisoners' guilt, which lies so deeply 
 coiled in the black arcanum of their demoniacal design, 
 of imposing [what some call] a pious and sacrilegious 
 fraud, on the whole world of mankind, that ever since 
 the actions, words and designs of men, have been pre- 
 sented to our view, by the pen of the faithful historian. 
 Therefore, please your honours, from the mere epitome 
 I have given the court this day, of the guilt of the 
 prisoners, (who are called the disciples of Christ,) I do 
 experience the most powerful volition in my legal 
 mind, to imperatively charge the court and especially 
 the jury, to bring their verdict to the bar of this court, 
 based on the unanimous and indubitable testimony of 
 the Roman guards, which your honours well know, in 
 a collateral sense, was fully supported, in the cases of 
 his holiness, Caiaphas, and Pilate the governor, \ 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 273 
 
 therefore iterate in the audibility of your honours the 
 judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, that it will be 
 the onerous duty of this court, to find a verdict o^ guilty y 
 against the eleven prisoners at the bar, who are called 
 the disciples of Christ. Their guilt having been fully 
 confirmed at the bar of this court, by the unclashing 
 and incontesiible evidence of the royal guards : yes, 
 may it please the court, when we for a moment view 
 the world of trouble, which these subdolous wretches, 
 the prisoners at the bar, have given us, in trying to 
 spread that superstitious malady throughout the world ; 
 (called the Gospel,) tormenting the liege subjects of our 
 lord the emperor, with the enthusiastic and superstitious 
 category of the souVs immortality, and man's moral ac- 
 countability, to some invisible being, that we, rational 
 and intelligent creatures, in this mundane dispensation, 
 have never seen, and therefore are not bound to believe. 
 I will not consume the time of this court any longer, by 
 taking up the three specifications in the indictment one 
 by one ; as no doubt, your learned honours may re- 
 member, that I have already done it, before the bar of 
 this court, when 1 first called the prisoners up, and 
 read over to them, consecutively, the charges in the 
 indictment ; and legally expatiated on the altitude of 
 their guilt; which are so insidiously blended with the 
 three allegations preferred against them, in the bills of 
 indictment, that please the court, the grand-jury, in 
 their profound wisdom and knov/ledge, have found 
 against them. Therefore, in closing my remarks, 
 against the high handed crimes of the prisoners at the 
 bar, in the defence of the laws and government of my 
 sovereign's empire, I shall now press the court and 
 jury, to keep in mind my legal remarks before them ; 
 so that the mind of the court, but especially the jury, 
 may be entirely free from a state of nudity, in all 
 necessary legal wisdom and knowledge of men and 
 things ; so that the court and jury, present no weak 
 nor unclothed part, to the altars of truth and justice, 
 when the verdict of the prisoners' guilt, by the jury in 
 
274 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the box, shall be given in at the bar of this court of 
 law and inquest. 
 
 And it came to pass, when the crown barrister had 
 given a statistical prospectus of the demoralizing de- 
 signs of the subdolous prisoners at the bar, which the 
 learned counsel, on the behalf of the crown said, exhibit- 
 ed the vilest sacrilegious turpitude, infused into their 
 minds, from the venom of the basest passions, rising out 
 of the most vitiated and constuperating disease, of the 
 hearts of the vilest of men. 
 
 The states-attorney then sat down ; and the chief 
 judge signified to the court, that the hour to adjourn 
 had, according to the hieroglyphicks on the dial of the 
 court-house, fully arrived ; when the prisoners were 
 all remanded to the states-prison again, and the court 
 stood adjourned, to meet in the same place the next 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 275' 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The nineteenth day of the trial of the robbery of the sepul- 
 chre, of the crvcijied body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that early on the morning of 
 the nineteenth day of this trial, the doors of the court 
 of Areopagus being open, the plain carriage of the 
 ladies, Reason and Philosophy, drove up in front of 
 the court; and the ladies having, by the aid of some of 
 the court officers, alighted, were conducted into the 
 small gallery, which had been by the special favour of 
 the court, appropriated to their entire accommodation, 
 
 Figure Xo. 1. The chief Judge giving his solemn charge to the jury on the 
 guilt of the prisonei s, the eleven disciples of Christ, for stealing his cruci- 
 fied body out of the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 2. 1 he twelve jurymen affirmed and panelled in the hox. 
 
 Ko. 3. The eleven disciples chained in the criminal's box. 
 
 Kg. 4. Reason and Philosophy, the former pointing the finger of scorn at 
 the cross, the latter -with her telescope viewing the stars in the age of Reason, 
 and in a soliloquy, saying to her precious and immortal soul, take thine ease, 
 and be fully satisfied -with the -wonders seen in the philosophical heavens, of 
 the age of Reason. 
 
 No. 5. The Ptates-general faking his notes. '■■ 
 
 No. 6. The young ladies and gentlemen of Jewish and Deistical birth aud 
 noble blood, who hate Christ and Immortality. 
 
276 ClIllIST REJECTED. 
 
 with their two private secretaries, lady hardness of 
 heart, and lady unbelief — the ladies of honour, w^ho 
 waited on their serene highnesses. No sooner were 
 those two ladies of wisdom and knowledge seated, 
 than the almost numberless carriages of Jewish and 
 Deistical ladies and gentlemen, drove up in front of the 
 court, and were most handsomely assisted in alighting 
 by the philosophical gentlemen of the court ; and then, 
 with fine etiquette and graceful manners, inducted into 
 the great gallery ; and directly after, the five judges 
 and lawyers arrived, and took their seats at their official 
 locations; and in a few minutes after, the high marshal, 
 w^ith the sherift' of Rome, and some other oflicers of the 
 states-prison, brought into court the eleven disciples of 
 Christ, chained together, and placed them in the crimi- 
 nal's box, at the solemn bar of this court of law and 
 inquest. The crier of the court, in usual form having 
 offered up his vocal holocaust, of. May the gods save 
 the emperor and commonwealth, he then commanded 
 silence. And as soon as the peaceful elements pervaded 
 the court, his learned honour, the chief judge, asked the 
 prisoners at the bar, whether they had, by this time, 
 provided themselves wdth an advocate, or any legal 
 counsel, to plead their cause, before he proceeded to 
 deliver his charge to the jury. The prisoners replied 
 in the negative ; that they had neither money nor 
 friends, in this sombre dispensation, to obtain any legal 
 advocate to plead their cause : and as they had said in 
 the commencement of their trial, they were imperiously 
 propelled, from the lowering clouds of adversity, to cast 
 themselves once more on the justice and mercy of the 
 court. (The reader will be so kind as to bear in mind, 
 if he please, that in those early ages, the civil rulers of 
 the earth did not provide funds to remunerate an ad- 
 vocate, or counsel to defend, with the panoply of truth 
 and justice, against false witnesses, in a supposed male- 
 factor's case ; or to justify the character of an innocent 
 prisoner at the bar of civil courts, when the accused 
 had neither friends nor money to obtain counsel for 
 himself.) 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 277 
 
 The names of the jury being called over, and an 
 answer by each man given to his own name, as follows : 
 Lord Herbert, Hobbes, Blount, Tindal, Woolston, 
 Toland, Collins, Chubb, Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire, and 
 Rousseau. The chief judge, in the behalf of himself 
 and his associate judges on the bench, delivers his 
 legal opinion to the court, and his solemn charge to the 
 jury, both on the nature and forensick character of the 
 three crimes, that the prisoners at the bar, commonly 
 called the eleven disciples of Christ, are charged with 
 being guilty of; when the judge also lays down before 
 the court and jury, both the degree and character of 
 the punishment, which the law of the Roman empire 
 prescribes for the condign reward of such high hand- 
 ed transgressors. 
 
 And it came to pass, that his learned honour the 
 chief judge rose, and proceeded in the legal discharge 
 of his official duty. His honour then took up the whole 
 range of the trials; to wit — commencing from the first 
 day of the court term, and also the case of the first 
 prisoner that had been tried before the bar of this high 
 court of law and inquest — by consecutively placing 
 before the court and jury, all the prisoners that had 
 been tried, and the nature and character of the charges ; 
 and witnesses that had appeared (in each prisoners 
 separate trial) against them. 
 
 His honour first brought in the crucified body of 
 Christ to view. The second prisoner the judge re- 
 minded the court and jury of, was Caiaphas, the high 
 priest of the Jews ; — the third prisoner his honour re- 
 freshed the mind of the court w^ith, was Pontius Pilate; 
 the fourth prisoner, the judge pressed the mind of the 
 court and jury with, was the centurion. He then v/ent 
 on to show the court and jury, in a very lucid summary, 
 the clemency, and impartiality of this high court of 
 chancery, towards all the former prisoners, who had 
 been either from true or vague reports, implicated in 
 the sacrilegious robbery of the crucified body of Christ. 
 When the judge took up the case of the first prisoner, 
 which the consecutive order of the bills of indictment 
 
 2a 
 
278 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 called up to the bar of the court, viz. the crucified 
 body of Christ ; when he reminded the court and jury, 
 of the high-steam of legal rectitude, as well as the 
 milder elements of forensick clemency, which the court 
 had manifested towards the crucified body of Christ ; 
 so that when there was nothing brought against the 
 lost body of Christ, before the bar of this court, but 
 mere postulatory, or, if the court and jury prefer the 
 phraseology better, the mere presumptive evidence, 
 against the loss or escape of the crucified body of 
 Christ, out of the sepulchre — this impartial court, most 
 religiously and strictly adhering to the noble Magna- 
 Charta of the old Roman law, and the philanthropic 
 principles of all its citizens, to wit : that our law holds 
 all men innocent, till by substantial testimony and in- 
 dubitable evidence, they are proved to be guilty. 
 Therefore, I wish the court and jury to bear in mind, 
 that in the case of the crucified body of Christ, that 
 was held in durance, hy proxy, at the bar of this court, 
 was honourably discharged from any further durance, 
 either by person, proxy or otherwise, before the bar of 
 this or any other court, in the Roman empire, holding 
 judiciary power over the persons, estates, and lives of 
 Roman citizens. 
 
 The court and jury, said the judge, will permit me 
 in the case of the second prisoner examined and tried 
 at the bar of this court, to surcharge their memories, 
 in the case of Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews : 
 that after the closest and most assiduous investigation, 
 that came within the ecclesiastical purlieu of that part 
 of the theological drama, which his holiness acted, 
 while the sombre catasti'ophe passed over his religious 
 hierarchy, so that this court from the most impartial 
 examination of Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews' 
 case, was, please this court and jury, most fully con- 
 vinced, that his pontifical honour was perfectly inno- 
 cent of the charges and specifications in the bills of in- 
 dictment ; which embraced the sad and distressing loss 
 of the crucified body of Christ, out of the sepulchre. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 279 
 
 The court then gave his holiness a full and honourable 
 discharge. 
 
 I shall still embargo the retentive faculties of this 
 court, to further bear in view', that the third prisoner 
 arraigned and tried before the bar of this court, was 
 his excellency Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of 
 Judea. I wish the jury to bear in mind, in Pilate's 
 case, as well as in thatof Caiaphas', that after the most 
 sedulous and impartial investigation of Pilate's case, 
 the court was fully convinced, that there was no legal 
 or substantial evidence, against his excellency : and the 
 court gave Pilate an honourable discharge. 
 
 This court will, I shall gratuitously take it for grant- 
 ed, indulge me with its retentive patience and profound 
 attention, while I onerously charge the jury to bear in 
 mind, that the fourth prisoner who was arraigned fat 
 the bar of this court, was his military honour the Cen- 
 turion, an officer of rank in the Roman army. Now, I 
 charge the court and jury, to keep its mind staidly 
 converged in his case, so that the jury may have an 
 impartial view of the justice, mercy and clemency of 
 the court, in his case. That this high court of law and 
 inquest, did receive the most full and satisfactory 
 evidence, that the Centurion was not only innocent of 
 the robbery of the sepulchre, but that his examination 
 gave the court almost a flood of presumptive, circum- 
 stantial, and indeed substantial evidence, that the cen- 
 turion did, in the most plenary sense, which we as 
 judges can possibly form of any Roman officer — fulfill- 
 ing all the functions of his office with fidelity ; so that 
 this court was fully convinced, that the centurion acted 
 out his full share of military duty, in order, if it were 
 possible, to retain the crucified body of Christ in safe 
 durance in the sepulchre, forever. Therefore the jury 
 will be kind enough to bear in mind, that this court, 
 while it kept its legal eye on the polar star of impar- 
 tiality, was led, from an onerous sense of justice and 
 truth, to give the centurion a full and honourable dis- 
 charge. 
 
 The chief judge further said : I view it this morn- 
 
280 CHRIST REJECTED, 
 
 ing as my official duty, to place before this court and 
 jury, a summary of the trials of the four prisoners, that 
 this high court of law and inquest have most honourably 
 acquitted, before I proceed to give my judgment on 
 the case of the prisoners at the bar : so that the court 
 and jury, with the ladies and gentlemen in the great 
 gallery, and the ladies Reason and Philosophy, (which 
 some say, are two lovely twin sisters,) in the small 
 gallery, with the whole world of mankind, may take a 
 view of this court's most rigid adherence to the old 
 principles of Roman impartiality ; while at the same 
 time it tenaciously holds on the golden altars of truth 
 and justice, with the adhesive principles of old Roman 
 virtues. And I can this day, with I trust a full share 
 of legal truth, announce to the court and jury, that this 
 high court of law and inquest has, as I have already 
 hinted, held on with indissoluble firmness to the horns 
 of our civick altars, and with the full national tenacity 
 of the citizens of the old republic of Rome, during the 
 first twelve days of this mysterious trial, of the sad loss 
 of the crucified body of Christ out of the seplchre. My 
 cardinal motive, and chief object in thus placing a 
 compendious view of our legal proceedings, in the four 
 cases of the prisoners, which this court in its forensick 
 wisdom and knowledore, has justified with Roman 
 honour, is to give the jury such a view of the courts' 
 legal knowledge, in order that they might see within 
 the range of its impartiality, and have an unobstruct- 
 ed vievi^ of the whole legal ground, that this court has, 
 with the most assiduous mental labour, plodded over in 
 their law sandals, during the trials of the four prisoners, 
 who were more or less, through postulatory and vague 
 report, implicated in the robbery of the sepulchre, of 
 the body of Christ, the high priest of the Jews, Pontius 
 Pilate, and the centurion ; all of whom this court of 
 chancery have acquitted with Roman honour. 
 
 I now presume the judges on my right and left, with 
 the gentlemen of the jury, clearly see, that this high 
 court of law and inquest, did not act on a mere postu- 
 latum of their innocency; but were fully satisfied of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 281 
 
 the guiltlessness of all the before-named characters, from 
 the best testimony, and most incontestible evidence in 
 their favour. And I can inform the court and jury, 
 that as a judge, I experience the same exercise of for- 
 ensick philanthropy, towards the prisoners at the bar, 
 who are called the disciples of Christ ; but, the princi- 
 ples of truth and justice will not suffer me, as a judge 
 of Roman law, to indulge the gentle zephyrs of law 
 clemency, that are often whistling through the finer 
 rigging of human nature, at the expense of the sanction 
 of law: so that the court and jury must see, that both 
 law and fact imperiously lead me to pursue another 
 course with these malefactors, at the bar, who stand 
 fully charged, and legally indicted of being guilty of 
 three capital crimes, which the laws, both civil and 
 military, of our sovereign realm, punishes w^ith death; 
 as the learned barrister for the crown, has so ably set 
 forth in his plea against the crimes of the prisoners at 
 the bar. And although, please the jury, this high court 
 of law and inquest has acted with so much impartiality, 
 justice, mercy and clemency, towards all the other 
 parties, who were more or less implicated in this most 
 mysterious cause, yet it becomes my duty, as the legal 
 channel of thelaw% to inform this court and jury, that 
 there is an altitude in the horizon of justice, of which 
 the cardinal point on the compass of truth, does oner- 
 ously and solemnly warn us, to beware of passing the 
 line of legal demarcation. So that the court, Avith the 
 jury, will perceive, that the instructive voice of wisdom 
 and prudence, is sounding in the ears of every person 
 of common sense, that mercy and clemency cannot, 
 with safety to our legal compact, be applied to the 
 prisoners at the bar, without constuperating with a 
 demoralizing disease, the virtuous bands of civil society, 
 and at the same time, destroying the sanction of all 
 law, military, civil and divine. The court and jury 
 may clearly see, the fatal consequence of such an un- 
 guarded axiom in our courts of judicature, were society 
 to deteriorate into such a barbarous state of lawless 
 anarchy throughout the Roman empire, and the world at 
 2a^ 
 
283 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 large. Therefore, this court and jury will indulge me, to 
 place before their view, this plain and simple conclusion: 
 that if we withhold the just penalty of the law, in such 
 cases as the one now pending before the bar of this 
 court, we shall become the unfelicitous agents, of con- 
 verting our court houses into the most constuperating 
 brothels of forensick disease, and our courts of law and 
 equity, would soon become the very accomplices, with 
 the vilest and basest of mankind : which requires 
 neither the wisdom of Solon, nor any other sage, to 
 foresee the deleterious consequences. 
 
 I have already presented the same doctrine, to the 
 bar of this high court of law and inquest, in Pilate's 
 case : to wit, that the innocent and virtuous part of 
 society, have their claims on all our courts of judica- 
 ture ; and still higher claims on all the judiciary de- 
 cisions of its legal agents. So that the stamina of the 
 law, which in its cardinal elements embraces justice, 
 truth and equity, as well as lenity and mercy, towards 
 all those (who are the aborigines of our country, or in 
 any other way, cither by merit or purchase, have be- 
 come the lawful citizens of the Roman empire,) that 
 either the arm or letter of the law, brings to its bar for 
 adjudication. Therefore, this court and jury will do 
 well to bear in mind, but more especially the jury, 
 when they retire to form their just and solemn decision, 
 on this most mysterious and interesting cause that, ere 
 time with men began to this day, has been presented 
 for trial, at the bar of our civil or ecclesiastical courts. 
 The solemn and onerous duties which my profession of 
 law, and since I have been, by the appointment of the 
 government of my country, elevated to the office of the 
 chief judge, of all the circuit courts in my sovereign's 
 empire, lays me under a special duty, from the impera- 
 tive necessity of the case, to caution, and even warn 
 the jury, not to indulge the elements of clemency, nor 
 for one moment suffer their finer feelings of compassion 
 and mercy, to obtain such an ascendency over their 
 legal wisdom and knowledge of right and wrong, as to 
 vitiate and palsify the moral nerves of the Magna- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 2S3 
 
 Charta of Roman law, towards any person or citizen 
 of the empire, that as a prisoner, may be by the legal 
 officers of the law, placed at the bar of any of our civil 
 or other courts for trial, in consequence of their sombre 
 appearance, untoward spirit, wretched circumstances, 
 and dolorous condition, under which either real or sup- 
 posed malefactors may be brought, by the physical 
 arm of the law, to the judgment seat of our country. 
 Therefore, I again iterate and admonish the court and 
 jury, to take great cai'e, not to suffer yourselves as a 
 court of justice and equity, to step over the sacred line 
 of demarcation, which the holy gods of truth and justice 
 have wisely placed in our view, on all thecivick altars 
 in our courts ; calling to us, to beware that we do not 
 indulge, in moral aberrance from under the legal shade, 
 where the muse of truth and justice spreads its sacred, 
 its fostering wings, to protect the virtuous, and shield 
 the innocent, from the paws of the marauding beasts of 
 prey, and from the talons of the constuperating vultures 
 of vice. And I hope the court will admit the relevancy 
 of my arguments, as the chief judge, on this momen- 
 tous cause'; to which, as I have more than once inform- 
 ed the court and jury, that to this day, have been 
 brought before the bar of any of our courts of Roman 
 jurisprudence, for adjudication or legal decision; so 
 that I shall, in accordance with my legal and official 
 duties, press it on the mind of the court and jury, that 
 this of all trials, you as jurors had ever been entrusted 
 with, claims your calm, but firm decision. Seeing that 
 your verdict will both elicit, and interest the intelligence 
 and reflection, of all the liege subjects of our sovereign 
 Tiberius' empire, and indulge me to add the whole 
 world. Therefore, I shall indulge myself, with my 
 learned associates on the bench, in gratuitously de- 
 claring to the court and jury, that I do believe, that 
 both the mind of the court and jury, will flow into the 
 elements of a counter conclusion, that it is not the wish 
 of the gods, that our courts should administer no other 
 attribute but mercy, and of always having their ears 
 attentively listening to the soft and melodious notes of 
 
284 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the weeping goddess, over the false appearances of 
 wretchedness. No, may it please this court and jury; 
 the claims and voice of our prince, our country, our 
 Mafyna Charta, our homes, our fathers and mothers, 
 our wives and our children, with all that is dear and 
 valuable to man, calls on you this day, to stand by the 
 civick altars of justice, truth and equity, as well as by 
 the altar of mercy. So that I caution the jury once 
 more, not to suffer the muse of mercy, with his soft 
 plaintive notes, to eradicate from your minds, the 
 more sonorous notes of the muse of justice, that is 
 always rising from the base of the altar, and soaring 
 aloft, like a sky-lark on a summer's morn, singing its 
 sonorous and protecting notes to the muse of justice — 
 so that the jury may see, as before noticed, the high 
 claims of all that is dear and sacred to man. 
 
 These high considerations, will, I have no doubt, 
 sufficiently admonish this wise, intelligent and impar- 
 tial jury, not to suffer your minds and judgments, to be 
 warped out of the straight line of legal duty, which the 
 high sanction of truth and justice, have laid down for 
 the line of demarcation, to direct the decision of the 
 jury, in wisely forming their verdict. And now it be- 
 comes m}^ official duty, after placing these few prelimi- 
 nary land marks, and legal points of the law compass, 
 for the jury to steer by, to point out a few stars, in the 
 legal heavens of the great INIagna Charta of the realm. 
 
 I shall now proceed to the examining of the differ- 
 ent degrees and shades, of the prisoners' guilt who stand 
 indicted at the bar of this court, for robbing the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 1 shall once more ask the patience and attention of 
 this court, by placing before its legal vision my sanitary 
 views of legal justice, in a mere compendious view of the 
 character of the prisoners' guilt. Therefore, the jury 
 will bear in mind, that the first crime I find charged, 
 and by indubitable testimony proved against the 
 prisoners, is an overt-act against the military laws and 
 government of Caesar, which the martial laws of the 
 empire, proclaim to be high treason and rebellion of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 285 
 
 the highest grade. This specification of the prisoners' 
 crime, lies coloured with a crimson dye; which deeply 
 imbeds their guilt, by going under the sombre canopy 
 of the night, and as reported by Caiaphas, and also 
 proved at the bar of this court by the royal guards : 
 to wit — please the court, that they did under the cover 
 of the night, assault a military post, strongly guarded 
 by a detachment of the imperial guards, belonging to 
 the mighty empire of Rome. 
 
 I presume this enlightened court and impartial jury, 
 well know, from their extensive reading and general 
 knowledge of law and government, that such a daring 
 overt-act, as the prisoners at the bar have perpetrated, 
 against his majesty Tiberius, and all his liege subjects, 
 is by the full consent and suffrage of all nations, con- 
 strued to be open war. This view which I have taken 
 of the prisoners' guilt, I find to be the orthodox doctrine, 
 of all our most learned annotators of Roman law. 
 Therefore, the jury will do well to bear in mind, that 
 for this outrageous and daring overt-act, the eleven 
 prisoners at the bar, who are, if reports be true, those 
 low plebeian wretches, that have been for some years 
 past, like snails obreptitiously in sheeps-clothing, find- 
 ing their way into the farm-houses, hamlets, villages, 
 towns, and even the royal cities of the empire, spread- 
 ing a spirit of the most dangerous eflfervescence, through- 
 out the unlettered classes of society — condemning the 
 doctrines of all the divinities of our fore-fathers, and 
 the popular gods of the Roman empire ; and with a 
 kind of insidious grimace, [this is one of the insidious 
 ideas of Gibbon:] and sarcastic risibility — pouring the 
 perennial waters of their feverish contempt, on the 
 wisdom, knowledge, learning and science of our philo- 
 sophers, poets and historians, with all the pious and 
 holy priests, of our national and provincial gods. And 
 let me inform this court and jury, that these subdolous 
 prisoners at the bar, and their obreptitious followers, 
 have not limited their insults, by merely publishing 
 their wild enthusiastic doctrine, of the entire nullifica- 
 tion of the worship of mundane and tangible gods — but 
 
286 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 have carried the doctrine of their new malady, to such 
 an unsufferable altitude of endurance, which, if not 
 checked by the wholesome discipline of our laws, the 
 whole sea of mundane felicity will be undulated to the 
 very centre. For, may it please the court, these prison- 
 ers at the bar, with all the obreptitious wretches, who 
 constitute their followers — who, if my information be 
 correct " are at this moment as numerous as the locusts 
 in Upper Egypt, and the great grass-hoppers in a thorn 
 hedge, in the heat of a summer's day, in the ancient 
 land of Assyria." I say, please the court, these glow- 
 worms, these fireflies, with their little vibrating wings, 
 in the low grounds of the common people, over whom 
 the sombre clouds of ignorance and fear, have spead 
 themselves; — I iterate to the jury, that the prisoners 
 at the bar, have not satisfied themselves, with pro- 
 claiming their new doctrine of nullification, on the 
 learning and wisdom of our gods, but have been assidu- 
 ously spreading the doctrine of a re-action, to be brought 
 on all the noble, great and wise subjects of the empire, 
 in consequence of their malady, or their new doc- 
 trine of the unqiialijied immortality, of what they call 
 the human soul ; and the unreasonable idea, of the per- 
 sonal and moral accountability of all men, to what the 
 imposing wretches call, i\iQ Divine author o{ i\\\?> super- 
 stitious doctrine. But, that I be not further tedious, 
 in expatiating on the latent designs of the prisoners at 
 the bar, called the disciples of Christ, I shall just re- 
 mind the jury, that for this one overt-act, they have 
 voluntarily placed themselves under the awful penalty 
 of death. 
 
 Reader — so says all the wise gentlemen of the 
 Deistical school, both of the old and new world. 
 
 Crime the third proved, — Siga.mst the prisoners at the 
 bar of this high court of law and inquest. 
 
 The court will bear in mind, that the second specifi- 
 cation which I find in the consecutive order of the in- 
 dictment, charges the prisoners at the bar with a second 
 act of violence and high-handed crime, that is both of 
 a seditious and felonious character: and their guilt, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 287 
 
 which lies so deeply imbeded in this crime, consists in 
 their going by night, and with a second overt-act of 
 felonious violence, breaking open the imperial seal of 
 state. I experience it to be my duty this day, to 
 again impress the mind of the court and jury, with the 
 nature and character of this crime, as is by the wisdom 
 of the grand-jury predicated; first, from their act of 
 violence, in breaking open the seal ; and secondly, the 
 grand-jury were fully justified, in their wisely impugn- 
 ing the motives of the prisoners, from the latent designs 
 they had in view; which when carried out, consist in 
 the wide spread of anarchy, and the diffusion of the 
 elements of a demoralizino^ malevolence, through the 
 liege subjects of our sovereign empire. So that the 
 deleterious effects, go to agitate the civil sea of the 
 mundane security of the citizens of Rome. Therefore, 
 the court and jury will do well to bear in mind, that 
 this second crime comes more immediately under the 
 civil law^s of the realm. And lean inform this court 
 and jury, that all our learned expositors of our civil code, 
 do fully agree, that the dark shades of guilt, which so 
 strongly characterizes this second crime of the prison- 
 ers, to be, if it were not rather irrelevant to use such 
 an expression, and may perhaps, in the cautious opinion 
 of some, fall within the purlieu of a volatile phraseology; 
 but, I shall fearlessly expose myself as a judge of 
 Roman law, to the censure of the critick and say, to 
 the court and jury, that the turpitude of character, 
 justly attached to the seditious act — this outrageous 
 and daring crime of the prisoners at the bar, in the de- 
 moniacal science, (of out-lawed transgressors,) that it 
 belongs to the superlative degree of felonious acts. So 
 that the court and jury will, I trust, be clearly led to 
 see, that the prisoners, who are called the disciples of 
 Christ, could not have their punishment (which v> ill be 
 capital,) commuted — not even by Caesar himself. No, 
 may it please the court, without causing the civil and 
 military bands, that bind his government together, to 
 part asunder. The deleterious consequence would 
 soon be, that the mighty empire of Rome, would de- 
 
288 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 teriorate into a state of chaotic anarchy ; which, of 
 course, would soon sap the foundation of his kingdom, 
 and dethrone his august majesty. 
 
 As I have taken up the time of the court already, in 
 my legal disquisition of the first crime of the prisoners 
 at the bar — I will not, by the novelty of my legal ad- 
 vice, and charge to the court and jury, any longer seem 
 to impugn either their wisdom and legal knowledge, 
 nor yet intrude on the patience of the jury, in giving 
 them a lengthy exposition of this second daring act of 
 the prisoners at the bar, in their breaking open the im- 
 perial seal, in order to steal the crucified body of Christ 
 out of the sepulchre. 
 
 [The author informs the reader that the twelve jury- 
 men never took their keen philosophical vision from off 
 the judge, during the whole charge.] 
 
 Crime the third proved, — against the eleven prisoners 
 at the bar of this high court of law and inquest. 
 
 It still remains my official duty, to onerously remind 
 the court and jury, that the third and last specification, 
 which 1 find in the consecutive order of the indictment, 
 for the court and jury to bear in mind, is another most 
 awful stride, in the demoniacal science of old Beelze- 
 bub, or else of some heated Salamander, from the fiery 
 worlds ; so that the guilt of the prisoners at the bar, if 
 it is possible, is more deeply imbeded in the nature and 
 sacrilegious character of this third crime, in the indict- 
 ment, and the demoralizing turpitude of the same, has 
 been raised to a still greater altitude in the black 
 science of villanous transgression, which the grand 
 jury, in my opinion, and that of my learned associates 
 on the bench, who all fully accord in the views I am 
 about to give the court and jury; to wit — that the 
 grand jury did legally and justly predicate the guilt 
 of this third crime, of the prisoners at the bar, when 
 this lawless banditti of marauding, sacrilegious and 
 villanous robberies, went under the nebulous canopy 
 of the night, and made a subdolous surreption, on the 
 sacred cemetery and silent repose of the dead ; and then 
 surreptitiously conveyed off the bonded merchandize, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 289 
 
 out of the old custom-house of death: that is, please 
 the court, by dropping my allegory or metaphor, — I 
 with my coadjutors, the learned judges, who are asso- 
 ciated with me on this trial, are led to justify the bill, 
 which the grand jury have found against the eleven 
 prisoners at the bar: that is, these wicked and artful, 
 these obreptitious and subdolous wretches, came by 
 night, and in a most felonious manner, entered the 
 sepulchre, and conveyed off the crucified body of that 
 malefactor, which Pilate put to death on a Roman 
 cross. The gods, and their guilty consciences, with 
 those beings who have not their dwellings in the gross 
 and dense elements of flesh and blood, only know 
 where. And if it be not indecorous in a judge, to 
 indulge the indignation of his legal sensibilities, against 
 the crimes of the prisoners at the bar, I shall fearlessly 
 give to the court and jury, our opinion and legal judg- 
 ment of the prisoners' guilt, in their robbing the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Christ ; — that it has, in 
 the demoniacal science of crime, raised their guilt, far 
 above the altitude of the superlative degree of the 
 blackest transgressions of mankind, which I have placed 
 before the court this da}^ when I took but a mere com- 
 pendious view of the second allegation in the bills of 
 indictment, of the crimes charged against the prison- 
 ers at the bar of this court. The chief judge having 
 given the court and jury a mere compendious view, and 
 brief disquisition of the nature and character of the 
 prisoners' crimes from the notes he had taken down. 
 When the judge rose, and commanded the jury alsa 
 to rise, and delivered to them this solemn charge. 
 
 [By the writer. — Gentlemen of the Deistical and 
 Scofl[ing School, the Judge, in his charge, gives a fair 
 portrait of your hearts against Christ.] 
 
 Therefore, gentlemen of the jury, it devolves on me 
 as an important branch of my oflTicial duty, as the chief 
 organ of the law of my sovereign's realm, to onerously 
 and imperatively, as I stand this day within the range 
 of the martial, civil and ecclesiastical laws of my 
 country, to charge the jury, with a deep sense of your 
 
 2b 
 
29Q CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 high and solemn responsibility to your own consciences, 
 to the laws of your country, and your allegiance to 
 your sovereign, and with all that is dear and valuable 
 to the honour and high character of Roman citizens — 
 and as judges we beseech you, in the sacred fear of all 
 our national gods, that you, as enlightened and impar- 
 tial jurors, into whose hands this mysterious and 
 momentous cause is now about to be committed, for 
 your virtuous and legal decision : and our devout 
 prayers as judges, shall ascend with the incense, from 
 off the holocaust on our civick altars, to our gods of 
 truth and justice, that your minds may be so over- 
 ruled by the afflatus from our forensick divinities, that 
 you may present, at the bar of this impartial court of 
 law and inquest, a true and righteous verdict; in order 
 that you may prove to this court and the whole world, 
 that you have acted your part in this subdolous and 
 mysterious trial, like men of firmness; under the full 
 influence of a state of sanity, with virtue, wisdom and 
 knowledge. The jury will indulge me, as they are 
 about to retire, to onerously beseech them, to bear in 
 mind, that the most plenary testimony, and incontesti- 
 ble proof, has been given in by the Roman soldiers, 
 against the prisoners at the bar, of their guilt in steal- 
 ing the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 And I shall just observe, that I do not at present dis- 
 tinctly recollect, that throughout my long ofhcial prac- 
 tice in our courts of civil law, to have either heard or 
 witnessed, whtle any one trial was pending before me, 
 of so clear and distinct, and at the same time, so unani- 
 mous a testimony, as that given by the guards against 
 the prisoners at the bar ; and that too, without going 
 one step within the purlieu of tergiversation. And I 
 would further remind the jury, that I did not discover 
 one discordant word, nor even the slightest discrepancy 
 in the guards' views of the prisoners' guilt : so that 
 every thing they stated, seemed to be delivered with 
 all the accuracy of the pen of a scribe, or that of a 
 facsimile : the which singular occurrence, has led my 
 miad, with those also of my associate judges on this 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 291 
 
 bench, to believe, that it stamps the guards' evidence, 
 with all the high shades of irrefragible truth; from 
 v^^hich we give our legal opinion, and charge to the 
 jury. So that, gentlemen, under your affirmations as 
 jurors in this m5^sterious case, it will be your most 
 conscientious and imperious duty, to find three special 
 and separate verdicts, for capital punishment, against 
 each of the eleven prisoners at the bar. 
 
 The jury will now take charge of the case, and re- 
 turn their verdict to this court to morrow, if possible. 
 When the prisoners, the disciples of Christ, were all 
 remanded back to the state's prison again, and the 
 court adjourned to meet the ensuing day. 
 
292 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The twentieth day of the trial, of the robbery of the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Ch?'ist, as it tvas reported 
 to the world by the Roman guards, and Caidphas the then 
 high priest of the Jews — and by the Jewish nation at 
 large to this day, 1832; and most cordially received as 
 true, by all the self-righteous Deistical gentlemen and 
 ladies of modern times, throughout the christian ivorld ; 
 as iDell as in the days when Pontius Pilate was the Roman 
 governor of Judea ; having held the office of procurator 
 or governor of the Jews, for about nine years, at the time 
 of the reported robbery of the sepulchre of the crucifed 
 body of Christ, 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court of Areopagus, or 
 more properly, the high court of law and inquest, met 
 
 Figure No. 1. Caiaphas tlie high prkst of the Jews, full of holy glee, at 
 the verdict of the jury against the disciples. 
 
 No. 2. The Philosopher, at the time of the passion of Christ, pursuing the 
 science of Astronomy, entirely regardless of immortality. 
 
 Nos. 3. and 4. The Philosophy of the human mind, and Carnal Reason, 
 the former viewing the vast empire of nature — the latter pointing the finger 
 of scorn at the cross of Christ. 
 
 No. 5. The five judges who sat on this trial. 
 
 No. 6. The foreman of the jury. Lord Herbert, presenting their verdict to 
 the judges of this court of law and inquest. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 293 
 
 pursuant to adjournment, on the morning of the 
 twentieth day of this trial. The doors of the court 
 house being open at rather an early hour for court 
 business ; but the issue of the cause had, by this time, 
 elicited almost universal attention, from Deists, Jews, 
 
 Note. — [Reader, this robbery took place, according to 
 the foregoing reporters, in the well known days of Tiberius 
 Caesar ; the second fully acknowledged emperor, of the 
 mighty empire of Rome ; and of his reign, about nineteen 
 years — taking in about three years, that Tiberius reigned 
 conjointly with Augustus ; which is the time Luke gave of 
 his reign : although Augustus had been dead but 12 years 
 and nine days : and Luke in his gospel, calls it the fifteenth 
 year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar ; that is, Luke takes 
 into his account, not the sole reign, but the conjoint reign of 
 2 years and 356 days ; in which the said Tiberius, by the will 
 and pleasure of Augustus, was associated with him in the 
 government of the empire ; so that 12 years and 9 days, in 
 which Tiberius reigned after the death of Augustus, with as 
 before stated, the 2 years and 356 days, in which the two 
 emperors reigned conjointly together, make the fifteen years, 
 which Luke gives to the reign of Tiberius ; which may be 
 found in his gospel, chapter 3, verse 1. Deistical reafler, if 
 God in his mercy to your doubting mind gives you a simple 
 and honest heart, to deal truly and fairly with the weighty 
 claims and onerous interests of j'our poor never dying soul, 
 see with what a little mental labour, you might remove every 
 little historical and critical difficulty, that to you, from a 
 mere superficial glance at the gospel, appears as a stumbling 
 block, in the way of your believing its divine authenticity.] 
 
 Ko. 7. The great gallery of the court, full of Jewish and Deistical gentle- 
 men and ladies, wliose blooming countenances appear overflowing with 
 risibility, in consequence of the verdict of tfie jury bringing in the disciples 
 guilty of robbing the sepulchre ; and by the robbery, the cause of Christianity 
 and the Immortality of mankind, are lost forever. 
 
 No. 8. The eleven disciples in the criminal's box, chained together ; 
 having lost all hope of pardon, from the court, and in their forlorn case. 
 
 No. 9. A young Roman lawyer, at this critical crisis and fortuitous june- 
 ^re of time, (when hope had spread its wings, and just about forsaking tte 
 eleven disciples forever,) came rushing from the great gallery, and falling 
 on his kness, at the bar of the court, most devoutly jirays and beseeches the 
 judges, to be permitted to cross-examine the royal guards. 
 
 2b* 
 
394 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 and Free-thinkers, of every class ; and Philosophers, 
 and self-righteous reasoners of every grade. And it 
 came to pass, that the first carriage that drove up to 
 the portico, in front of the court house, was the plain 
 vehicle, that conveyed the ladies Reason, and her 
 empyrean born sister Philosophy, with their two private 
 secretaries, that constituted their small legation ; that 
 is, the marchioness Harchiess of heart, and a lady of 
 honour, who had for her family escutcheon, the hiero- 
 glyphicks of Unbelief. When the ladies had alighted, 
 they were, by the chief almoners of the court, with a 
 fine display of Roman etiquette, safely inducted into 
 the small gallery, granted for their ladyships' entire 
 accommodation. And immediately after, drove up a 
 very large squadron of the most superb and elegant 
 carriages, that the sparkling opticks of our modern- 
 wise and philosophical gentlemen of the marvellous age 
 of reason, had ever to this day, converged their manly 
 vision upon. 
 
 And it came to pass, when the scintillating vision of 
 these young aspirents after philosophical fame and 
 wisdom, (who were in the hot pursuit of the soul-re- 
 freshing doctrines of mateinalism and eternal sleep,) 
 caught the glowing countenances of this almost angelic 
 troop of fair ones, who surcharged those carriages, that 
 they rushed out of the court house, and most grace- 
 fully assisted the young Jewish and Deistical ladies, to 
 alight from their fine vehicles ; and w^ith Roman sauvity 
 in their colloquial address and graceful manners, in- 
 vited them to take seats in the great gallery, on the 
 scarlet sofas prepared for them, on this singular occa- 
 sion. And it came to pass, that as soon as the great 
 gallery was filled to overflowing, with the patrician 
 gentlemen and ladies, of the Jewish and philosophical 
 casts, who were all of a very philanthropic spirit, like 
 Herod and Pilate—- to wit; loving friends to each other, 
 when Christ and his rising from the dead, is set up as 
 a target on some one of the mountains of philosophical 
 vanity ; or on one of the high promontories of Jewish 
 unbelief to shoot the arrows of their pugnacity and 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 295 
 
 Deistical risibility at. After this, there came in and 
 filled the isles and areas of the court house to overflow- 
 ing, the poor plebeian wretches, who constitute the 
 multifarious herd of the Roman empire. Now, it is 
 very singular to observe, that these low bred people, 
 were more or less lovers of God and immortality, and 
 humble admirers of the plan of salvation, and great 
 friends of the doctrine of Christ rising from the dead, 
 as has been said before. 
 
 And after the court had been pretty well crowded 
 with those poor dolorous creatures, who the author 
 of the gospel calls by the name of the poor in spirit — 
 and when the five judges, and all the other law gentle- 
 men, who legally constitute the law elements of this 
 high court of law and inquest, had arrived and taken 
 their usual locations in court, that the grand marshal 
 of the empire, with the high sheriff of Rome, and the 
 officers of the state's prison, brought in the eleven 
 prisoners, chained together, and placed them in the 
 criminal's box, before the bar, with a view to hear the 
 verdict of the jury, and to receive from the judges the 
 condign sentence of the law, to be pronounced by the 
 chief judge, on their guilty heads. 
 
 The court being called to order by the cryer, silence 
 soon pervaded the whole court ; and it sat for some 
 time in the most solemn and profound suspense, wait- 
 ing the arrival of the jury, from whose verdict, on this 
 all important case, was, to all legal appearance, sus- 
 pended the immortality of the whole human race. And 
 it came to pass, that during this solemn suspension of 
 the vibrating pendulums, and other apparatus which 
 constitutes a- full set of court machinery — that is, by 
 dropping our figure,' the lawyers and judges tongues': 
 and as the deep and solemn interest, which all parties 
 in court seemed (with the solitary exception of the 
 ladies Reason and Philosophy,) anxiously to experience, 
 in their waiting with solemn patience, the verdict of 
 the jury. 
 
 And it came to pass, that during this solemn inter- 
 regnum of court business, that the stenographer of this 
 
296 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 trial, for a moment, laid down his pen, as his fingers 
 experienced no small degree of physical weariness, from 
 taking his reports of the trial, in consequence of some 
 of the lawyers being rather rapid in their ratiocination; 
 which at times made it very difficult (for a poor sailor, 
 whose hands and fingers were somewhat unpliable, in 
 consequence of handling the cable and other tarry 
 ropes, in his juvenile days :) for a dull scribe to keep 
 up with their forensick pegasus or flying scintillations. 
 But, be that as it may, it was during this relaxation 
 of the stenographer's duty, that he cast the eye of his 
 excursive curiosity, first on the Jewish and then on 
 the Deistical ladies and gentlemen, in the great gallery 
 of this court, when he saw a benign placidness on all 
 their countenances, with now and then a glowing flush 
 of prenominating joy, as they sat on their soft sofas, 
 [the cushions thereof being well stuffed with fine down, 
 taken from the goslings, that swim on the sombre 
 waters of materialism,] of carnal and sensual ease; and 
 mundane felicity — carrying on a kind of interlocutory 
 disquisition, within the circle of their own minds: 
 fondly arguing to themselves, that the wise and prudent 
 verdict of the jury, would most certainly be against 
 the disciples of Christ ; and what of course, would fol- 
 low in the auspicious wake, would be judgment against 
 the prisoners at the bar : to wit, the felicitous detec- 
 tion of the pious fraud of the gospel, by proving that 
 Christ's crucified body was stolen out of the sepulchre, 
 by the sacrilegious knaves at the bar. 
 
 But leaving this happy galaxy, in the gallery of the 
 heavens of the age of Reason, the stenographer turning 
 his vision to the small gallery, on the left of the judges, 
 (see 3 and 4 on the plate,) to discover if possible, how 
 the ladies Reason and Philosophy, spent their valuable 
 time, during this short suspension of court business ; 
 when he discovered, that the lady Carnal Reason, 
 stood fanning herself, as the weather was a little oppres- 
 sive, and at the same time engaged in some interlocu- 
 tory conversation wath her private secretary, lady 
 marchioness, otherwise Jewish hardness of heart : and 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 29T 
 
 in the course of the conversation, every now and then, 
 pointing her finger of scorn at the cross of Christ; 
 while lady Philosophy, spent her time in viewing the 
 ample field of nature, wdth her long telescope at her 
 rolling and scintillating eye — frequently holding some 
 desultorious disquisition with a lady of honour, who 
 acted as lady Philosophy's private secretary, on the 
 wild absurdity of a crucified malefactor, being by 
 the superstitious and religious part of society, set upon 
 a promontory of enthusiastic vanity, as a being, to 
 whom divine honours and worship should be demand- 
 ed, from the high-wrought philosophy of the human 
 mind, in this marvellous age of the progress of rational 
 knowledge, and wonderful philosophical discoveries. 
 
 The poor sailor, very humbly and obsequiously refers 
 the reader, to the assiduous labour of philanthropic 
 zeal, in the justification of lady Philosophy's views, to 
 her well beloved cousins, Hume, Gibbon, and many 
 others of smaller magnitude, in the heavens of the age 
 of Reason; who so very ingeniously remark, that men 
 of wisdom, learning and philosophy, in the Roman 
 empire, who in their private studies, spent much of 
 their time in the abstract science of Natural Philosophy, 
 and where the assiduous observers of all the phenomena, 
 that took place in the arcanum of nature, in their days. 
 And as they lived at the very time, that Matthew re- 
 ports the appearance of a new star in the visible and 
 natural heavens ; that it was marvellously strange in- 
 deed, that those sons of science and wisdom, did not 
 see this new phosphorus, this supernatural morning 
 star, that passed over a great part of the Roman empire, 
 to pay its obsequious etiquette to the new^-born son of 
 a lonely hand-maid, by directing a company of philo- 
 sophers to go a long journey, and pronounce to the 
 smiling babe, the title of " the King of the Jews." 
 Neither, say these gentlemen of modern wisdom, did the 
 wise and learned observers of nature, who about 
 thirty-four years after the emersion of this star, w hich 
 became their humble and obsequious guide, to the 
 plebeian and humble cottage, where the young child 
 
298 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 was. Now, says the wise and learned Gibbon, and all 
 his assiduous coadjutors, who deny, that supernatural 
 wisdom and power gave to the world any remarkable 
 evidence, by the appearance of any new and singular 
 phenomena in the visible heavens ; — when Gibbon, as 
 a Goliah or mighty champion, at the head of his free- 
 thinking brethren, asks. What was the inauspicious 
 cause, that the Astronomers, the Philosophers, and all 
 other wise men, in the Roman empire, in the nineteenth 
 year of the reign of Tiberius, and about the ninth year 
 of the procuratorship of Pilate, saw nothing of the som- 
 breness of the whole heavens, from the sixth unto the 
 ninth hour of the day, or from twelve to three o'clock, 
 as we now reckon time ? When this wise gentlemen, 
 in the sauvity of his style, of which he had made him- 
 self, [by twenty years seclusion from the world, in 
 Switzerland, and behind the altars of the outward 
 church,] master of, with the noble and manly object 
 he had in view, as his bright phosphorus, or his polar 
 star always before him ; so that, by the more than com- 
 mon sophistical ingenuity of his brethren, in the sequence 
 and classical selection of his words, by giving to many 
 of his ingenions periods every possible polish, when he 
 clothes himself in the sombre robe of a commiserating 
 and subdolous crocodile, with its wide extending jaws, 
 just ready to ingulph its unconscious prej^, in the vor- 
 tex of the doctrine of materialism, and eternal sleep — 
 when he subdoiously exclaims. What a pity ! what a 
 most irreparable misfortune, that the wise and the 
 great men of the Roman empire, had not been favour- 
 ed with the sight of the star over the cottage of the 
 babe of Bethlehem! And the shame-faced and blushing 
 Sun, when the monarch of the sky appeared in his 
 black robe, at mid-day, mourning over the passion of 
 Christ, as he hung on a Roman cross ! But, says the 
 wise and commiserating philosophical scribe, these 
 wise and great men saw neither the star at the birth 
 of Christ, nor the darkened Sun at his crucifixion ! 
 Therefore, the corollary, [or in his own opinion, wise 
 philosophical inference,] that he draws, is this : That 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 299 
 
 the whole gospel is a pious fraud, got up to enslave 
 the philosophy of the human mind, by a few subdolous 
 fishermen of the sea of Galilee. 
 
 Patient reader, indulge the poor sailor to present Mr. 
 Gibbon, and all his wise and philosophical associates, with a 
 few of his poor marine ideas, on the emersion of the star, at 
 the reported birth of Christ ; and the darkness of the Sun at 
 his passion or crucifixion. In the first place, the sailor does 
 not believe, that Matthew, in giving the account of that lumi- 
 nous appearance, which was the guide of the wise men, to be 
 understood as speaking of one of the stars belonging to our solar 
 system ; but, as he wished to be understood, that the birth 
 of Christ, Avas by the will and power of God, of a miraculous 
 nature ; so, likewise, were all the circumstances and things, 
 whether in the spiritual or natural world, that administered 
 to him at the auspicious hour of his birth, of the same miracu- 
 lous character. Then, reader, how very easy it must have 
 been, for the same supernatural or divine power, that guided 
 and governed the whole, to have created a small luminous 
 body in the lower regions of our atmosphere, in appearance 
 to the wise men of the east, similar to a star in the firma- 
 ment of heaven ; so that none but the wise men from the 
 east, should be permitted to see the same : No wonder, then., 
 Mr. Gibbon's philosophers of the Roman empire, should miss 
 the sight. So much of a poor sailor's spun-yarn, in answer 
 to Gibbon and his wise friends of old, not seeing Matthew's 
 star at the birth of Christ. And with regard to the general 
 silence of the Roman historians, of the singular phenomena, 
 of the Sun being veiled in darkness, from the sixth until the 
 ninth hour of the day — there remains not the least doubt, in 
 the mind of the poor sailor, that the national dislike, and 
 even abhorrence of the Romans, against the doctrine and re- 
 ligion of the Jews, would lead their historians to be exces- 
 sively cautious, not to notice any passing phenomena in the 
 natural world, that was in the least degree calculated to in- 
 crease the claims of the Jewish theism, over the outwardly 
 imposing mythology of the Roman empire. This, no doubt, 
 was one powerful motive, for the more than maiden modesty, 
 and prudential silence of Mr. Gibbon's old friends, in not 
 taking notice of the nebulous Sun, at the crucifixion of Christ. 
 But, as we all hands on board the gospel ship, must give in 
 
300 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 to this idea, that the philosophers and historians of the Roman 
 empire, were not always closeted in their observatories ; so 
 that they could not be insensible of the serious consequences, 
 produced over the Roman empire, that arose out of the report 
 of the obscuration of the Sun, at the passion of Christ; 
 which was giving the Jews a still higher claim to their theism, 
 over that of the mythology of the Romans ; and as they were 
 but little acquainted with the nice distinctions, between the 
 followers of Christ and the disciples of Moses, at that early 
 era of the gospel dispensation, and looked on the Jews, with 
 their only one solitary God, as so repulsive to what they 
 viewed the philanthropic elements of Roman mythology, 
 who kindly, as they conceived, indulged all the nations they 
 had conquered, to worship the gods which their fathers had 
 set up ; therefore, these, and many other prudential views, 
 that would naturally suggest themselves to their minds, led 
 them both wisely and cautiously to beware, lest they should 
 give the slightest countenance to the high claims of the Jew- 
 ish theism, over their national mythology. They were also, 
 through principles of national policy, and the native pride of 
 Roman citizens, led in general, not to give publicity to this 
 strange phenomena of the supernatural darkness, which took 
 place on the fourteenth-day of the Jewish ecclesiastical 
 month, which had been, for more than fourteen hundred 
 years, governed by the full of the moon : and as no other 
 body in the solar system can obstruct the light of the sun, 
 the inference is, that it was supernatural ; and no doubt, 
 Mr. Gibbon's friends were duly convinced of the same ; but 
 Roman, pride, as we have just said, and national policy, led 
 them, when writing the history of that period, to give it the 
 historical go-by. So fare-thee-well, Mr. Gibbon, and all thy 
 commiserating crocodiles of unbelief. These are the re- 
 flections of a poor sailor, while the jury were gone out of 
 court, with the case of the disciples robbing the sepulchre. 
 
 [The jury return into court with a verdict o^ guilty, 
 on the three charges contained in the indictment, 
 against the prisoners at the bar, called the disciples of 
 Christ, for stealing his crucified body out of the sepul- 
 chre.] 
 
 And it came to pass, that in about the space of three 
 hours, the jury, headed by Lord Herbert, its foreman. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 301 
 
 return into court, and presented its verdict to the 
 judges ; — which was, that the jury had justified all the 
 bills charged in the indictment against the prisoners, 
 for the high crime of robbing the sepulchre, of the 
 crucified body of Christ ; and that too for capital pun- 
 ishment, against them for each crime. As soon as the 
 chief judge received the verdict from the foreman of 
 the jury, he arose, and with his forensick intonation, 
 announced the solemn doom, that shortly awaited the 
 prisoners at the bar, by reading the verdict of the jury, 
 in open court ; and then informed the court, that he 
 should be prepared on the ensuing day, to pronounce 
 the condign sentence of the law, on the eleven disciples, 
 the prisoners at the bar. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the judge was about 
 to adjourn the court, his attention was suddenly arrest- 
 ed, by the rushing of a young man from among the ladies 
 and gentlemen, in the great gallery of the court, and forc- 
 ing his way through the plebeian throng, that filled the 
 large isle — and falling on his knees at the civick altars 
 of mercy, truth and justice, before the judges and the 
 whole court. This caused the judge to pause, and at 
 the same time spread a sombre canopy over the whole 
 court. But whether this small concatenation, in this 
 solemn trial, was over-ruled by the fates, or some other 
 cause, (to both free-thinkers, carnal reasoners, self- 
 righteous characters, and philosophers, as well as Jews 
 and Deists,) it was equally unknown, and was at that 
 juncture of the trial, a profound mystery. 
 
 [The stenographer, by the reader's indulgence, will 
 give a short statistical view of this young forensick 
 gentleman.] 
 
 And it came to pass, that at this critical moment and 
 alarming crisis, of the portentous issue of this trial, 
 when the immortal interests of all mankind were at 
 stake, at the bar of this high court of law and inquest, 
 that a young Roman civilian, who had but very re- 
 cently finished his studies, and just obtained his diploma 
 as an authorized practitioner in the courts of Roman 
 
 2c 
 
302 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 jurisprudence, came as it Vere, almost by what we poor 
 sailors in our vernacular and marine language, would 
 call chance — but who, it seems, had heard like the 
 queen of the south, in the case of the wise Solomon, 
 of the high fame and legal wisdom and knowledge of 
 this court of chancery ; and being at the same time, 
 prompted by a laudible ambition, to obtain some prac- 
 tical insight into his new profession, so as not to de- 
 pend altogether upon his law-books, and the theoretical 
 knowledge, which he had so lately received at the 
 law schools: and not only so, for this young lawyer ex- 
 perienced in his mind, some additional excitement to 
 gratify his private curiosity, from the various reports 
 in circulation throughout the Roman empire, with re- 
 gard to this singular and mysterious cause, that was to 
 be tried ; and from a serious coindication that presen- 
 ted itself to his view, of the different parties in the suit, 
 he was inclined to attend the grand tribunal of Areo- 
 pagus, 'so that in a few days, he made up his mind to 
 visit this high court of chancery in disguise : in order, 
 that with an unbiased mind and a calm spirit, he might 
 listen to, and observe all the features and bearings of 
 this singular trial, of robbing the sepulchre of the cru- 
 cified body of Christ. When this young barrister pre- 
 excogitated, that this singular catastrophe being brought 
 into a court of law and inquest, was worthy his serious 
 attention. He was also led, by a regular concatenation 
 of reflection, to further forecast in the excursive view 
 he took over the vast sea of future consequences, that 
 were associated with this trial : to wit — that as there 
 were so many discordant interests at issue, and also so 
 many high and low characters, who were more or less 
 implicated in this daring surreptition, on the silent 
 cemetery of the dead, he in a soliloquy thus reflected : 
 First, a high national clergyman of the Jews, by the 
 name of Caiaphas ; secondly, a Roman governor, of 
 considerable notoriety in the reign of Tiberius Caesar; 
 thirdly, a centurion of the Roman army ; and fourthly, 
 four quaternions of the royal guards of the royal army. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 303 
 
 The foregoing persons and characters were both de- 
 fendants and witnesses in this suit. 
 
 When this young lawyer viewed the defendants on 
 the other side — that they were persons of no standing 
 in society ; without honour, office, money or interest, in 
 the empire ; and without either science or philosophy : 
 to wit — the crucified body of a supposed malefactor, 
 and ten poor fishermen, and one tax gatherer, of the 
 lake or small sea of Galilee. When this young civilian 
 said in a soliloquy, the disparity of character, wisdom, 
 power and influence, in this suit is so great, that I can- 
 not refrain from going to see and hear ; so that he w-as, 
 from an almost involuntary impulse, led to say: Surely, 
 from such multiform appearances, in such a group of 
 multifarious characters, which constitute the pugna- 
 cious elements of this singular trials it certainly must 
 draw forth some very interesting acumen, from these 
 old and learned barristers of Roman law, who shall 
 engage in this cause ; for there is certainly a wide field, 
 for all the able advocates, on both the plaintiffs' and 
 the defendants' sides of this suit, to most powerfully 
 display the ingenuity and strength of their arguments; 
 which of course, would certainly become very interest- 
 ing for a young attorney to hear. And as it is rather 
 of a singular complexion, and one on which the truth 
 or fallacy of a new theology, called by some the gospel, 
 is said to be the cardinal point at issue. 
 
 These things, with his personal improvement in his 
 new profession, resting on his mind, were the latent 
 cause of bringing this young Roman civilian to this high 
 court of chancery. So when he came to court, he 
 went into the large gallery, among the young Jewish 
 and Deistical ladies and gentlemen ; and at times, was 
 very attentive to the young grandees, in the great gal- 
 lery, in helping them to the best seats. He generally 
 located himself in that part of the gallery, which fronted 
 the judges, and was often seen with a pencil taking 
 notes, and making memorandums of the things he 
 heard, during this mysterious trial. 
 
 This singular conduct, of this young stranger, often 
 
304 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 caused the judges to give him many a peering look, 
 during the antecedent days of this trial. Nevertheless, 
 this young lawyer judged it to be most prudent on his 
 part, to keep himself from public notice. And as he 
 came to this high court of lav^ and inquest incog, so he 
 kept himself in disguise to this moment : by which pru- 
 dent means, he remained a calm and private spectator, 
 of all the legal business and acts of this court, so far as 
 it had progressed. But to return : — this young lawyer 
 being on his knees, threw the judges and the whole 
 court into a forensick panick, at seeing this young stran- 
 ger, on his knees, at the base of the altar of mercy ! 
 When the chief judge rose, and held out to him the 
 sceptre of mercy, and desired him to rise from off his 
 knees : when the young man presented the judges with 
 his deplomas and other credentials, from the doctors of 
 law under whom he had received and finished his foren- 
 sick education ; and also, from the judges of one of the 
 civil courts, in one of the provinces of the empire, at 
 whose bar he had been admitted to practice. When 
 the judges of this court had read his papers or rather 
 parchments, the chief judge told the young lawyer, as 
 it was late in the day, he should defer his request until 
 the next day ; so the court adjourned to meet in the 
 same place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 305 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 And it came to pass, on the morning of the twenty- 
 first day, that this court met pursuant to adjournment. 
 And when the Deistical and Jewish ladies and gentle- 
 men had arrived, and taken their seats in the great 
 gallery, and the two wise and amiable ladies. Reason 
 
 Figure Xo. 1. The five judges, listening to the prayer and argument of a 
 young Roman lawyer, in tlie behalf of the priscnL'rs at the bar, who are 
 about to be condemned for robbing the sepulchre. 
 
 Nos. 2, 3, 4. The civick altars of Mercy, Justice and Truth, which the 
 young counsellor refers the court to, during his legal remarks before tije 
 judges. 
 
 No. 5. The young lawyer, who prays the judges to be permitted to cross 
 examine the Roman guards, on whose testimony alone, this court had con- 
 victed the eleven prisoners at the bar, who are called the disciples of Christ. 
 
 Xo. 6. The eleven prisoners chained together in the old criminal's box. 
 
 No. 7. The states-attoi-ney, on the side of the kingdom of Infidelity, view- 
 ing the weakness of this young upstart in legal ai-gument, [as his' honour 
 thought to himself,] in thus undulating the tialm sea of court business, in 
 presenting himself at the bar as an advocate for the prisoners. 
 
 Nos. 8 and 9. Mr. Gibhon'sold friends in the Roman empire, viz. ladies 
 Reason and Philosophy ; one in her observatory, and the other at her meta- 
 physick and other absti-act sciences ; so that all those marvellous things that 
 have any association -with irnmortallity, that passed over the land of Judea, 
 were quite unobserved by these two ladies : *« As one in a certain place testi- 
 fieth : that the natural man receireth not the things of the spirit of God ; 
 for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they 
 are spiritually discerned.'* 
 
 2c=^ 
 
306 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 and Philosophy, had also driven up in their plain car- 
 riage, and alighted and taken their seats,— the judges, 
 and all the other forensick elements, which constitu- 
 ted the legal association of this high court of wisdom 
 and knowledge, arrived, and took their seats ; when 
 the eleven prisoners, by the marshal and high sheriff of 
 Rome, and the officers of the state's prison, assisted by 
 four quaternions of Roman guards, brought in the 
 disciples, chained together, and placed them as usual in 
 the old criminal's box ; when the young Roman bar- 
 rister entered the court, richly clothed, in the long robes 
 of his forensick profession, girded about the loins with 
 a sash of the richest needle work, which the young 
 Roman ladies, in consequence of his wisdom, beauty and 
 the gracefulness of his person, had wrought for him, 
 as a singular mark of their intelligence and high con- 
 sideration ; drawn from their view of the coindication 
 they had of this young civilian's future greatness, at the 
 bar of his country. These things the young ladies 
 gathered, from a few precocious traits he manifested in 
 early life. The object the ladies had in view, in pre- 
 senting their young countryman with this superb sash 
 was, for him to be girded with the same, when he should 
 deliver his maiden plea at the bar of this high court of 
 law and inquest, on the behalf of persecuted innocence, 
 And it came to pass, after the isles and areas of this 
 court were filled to a state of almost overflowing, that 
 the legal officer of the court, with a commanding into- 
 nation of voice, ordered silence! When a dead calm 
 pervaded over all the vocabulary sea of this court, and 
 all the pugnacious elements became as still as death. 
 The chief judge rose and informed the young lawyer, 
 that the court was in readiness to hear what he had to 
 advance, in favour of the prisoners at the bar. When 
 this young civilian very obsequiously and humbly ad- 
 dressed the judges, and the whole court; and stated, 
 that his object was, to be benignly indulged with the 
 singular privilege, to cross-examine the royal guards, 
 who had the sole care of the crucified body of Christ, 
 at the time it was stolen or missing out of the sepulchre. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 307 
 
 Therefore, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, with the whole of this enlightened and philoso- 
 phical court, which is now, by the special mandate of 
 our liege sovereign, Tiberius Caesar, constituted into a 
 court of law and inquest, over the loss of the dead body, 
 of that supposed malefactor, called Christ. I again, 
 please your learned honours the judges, most humbly 
 and devoutly pray and beseech, first your learned 
 honours the judges, with all the other law elements of 
 this high and impartial court of law and inquest, to be 
 indulged this day, to present a few rational remarks at 
 the bar of this court, that may reach the audibility of 
 your learned honours the judges, who at the same time 
 will be graciously pleased to pardon my presuming 
 boldness on this subdolous, and also mysterious occa- 
 sion : and what, no doubt, makes my invasion on the 
 time and business of this court appear more unpardon- 
 able, is my being a perfect stranger to all the forensick 
 gentlemen of this high court of Areopagus. But seeing, 
 that by the profound wisdom and knowledge, and other 
 worthy deeds and legal acts, and most excellent rules 
 and decisions, that by the forensick providence of this 
 court, our nation has for many ages enjoyed, in the 
 most inexplicable cases of civil, military and ecclesias- 
 tical litigation, all of which have been decided to the 
 perfect and full satisfaction of all the parties, in the 
 suits that have been antecedently, to this mysterious 
 case, brought by the arm of the law to its bar for legal 
 decision. But, may it please your learned honours, 
 that notwithstanding my foregoing remarks, that 1 be 
 not further tedious unto your honours and this whole 
 court, I pray, that this court would hear me of its 
 clemency in a few words, by permiting me to express 
 the heart felt pleasure that I experience this day, as 
 well as the most entire satisfaction I enjoy, in informing 
 your learned honours the judges, with this whole court, 
 that although I am young and a stranger at its bar, 
 yet I am an authorized civilian of Roman law, as the 
 diplomas and other authentick credentials from the 
 courts in one of the distant provinces of the empire, 
 
308 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 which I handed to your honours last evening, at the 
 bar of this court, do fully set forth. 
 
 When the chief judge signified to the young advocate 
 to pause ; and the judge desired the court to be silent 
 and as composed as possible, [as this unexpected re- 
 quisition on its legal proceedings, had somewhat 
 agitated the calm sea of this court,] in order, said the 
 chief judge, that the court may distinctly hear what this 
 young gentleman has to say, on the behalf of the pris- 
 oners at the bar, why the just sentence of the law, 
 should not be inflicted on them ; or what other remarks 
 he has to make against the legal, just, and impartial 
 proceedings of this court, in the case of the prisoners 
 at the bar, called the disciples of Christ, who now 
 stand convicted, and are in waiting to be condemned 
 to suffer death, for their daring crimes and malevolence, 
 against the doctrines of our gods : so that if their physi- 
 cal existence, in the sea of suffering, had buoyancy 
 sufficient to sustain the onerous and just requisition of 
 the law against them, they ought to sutler death three 
 times. 
 
 The foregoing remarks of the chief judge, soon caus- 
 ed a most profound silence to prevail over all the spec- 
 tators in the court. When the young advocate for the 
 prisoners, thus proceeded : May it most benignly please 
 your learned honours the judges of this court, to indulge 
 me to say, that from the high consideration which my 
 mind entertains, of the high character of this august 
 tribunal, and also for the pre-eminence of all its just 
 and righteous decisions, towards all persons and causes, 
 that, please the court, have antecedently to this trial, 
 been either brought or placed at the bar of this court 
 of impartial law and inquest. Therefore, from the 
 pleasing reflection, that I this day entertain, of its past 
 rectitude, as it were, almost involuntarily leads me to 
 experience the fullest assurance, in my own heart, that 
 this court still entertains an onerous sense of its past 
 fame, with a full determination to stand firm on the old 
 impartial pedestals of Roman justice, truth and mercy, 
 safely shielded within the purlieu of all its legal acta 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 309 
 
 and decisions ; and also, of its own responsibility, to 
 honourably sustain, before all mankind, all the unfaded 
 laurels of its antecedent glory, and the wide spread 
 fame, that has ere this day, gone out into all the world, 
 respecting its profound wisdom and knowledge, of men 
 and things; as well as the impartial justice, of all its 
 legal proceedings. 
 
 And now, may it graciously please your learned 
 honours, to further indulge me to speak a few words, 
 at the bar of this court, on the behalf of the prisoners 
 in chains, called by their friends the disciples of Christ. 
 Now, your learned honours cannot be insensible, that 
 this doctrine, called the gospel, has greatly spread a 
 spirit of effervescence, [against our gods of silver and 
 gold,] more or less throughout the Roman empire; and 
 this too, may it please your honours, since the reported 
 robbery, of the sepulchre of the dead body of that sup- 
 posed malefactor, called Christ. Now, please the court, 
 on the mere supposition that this report is legally true, 
 that these prisoners did steal the cadaverous, deteriora- 
 ting body of a crucified man, out of his sepulchre, and 
 then go throughout the world proclaiming the said body 
 to be now a living God! I would first ask your honours, 
 who have had long experience at the bars of our courts, 
 and have some know^ledge of the subdolous schemes, 
 and other knavish plans and artful designs of mankind, 
 in order to obtain riches, power, honour or fame — so 
 that, I have no doubt, but your learned honours the 
 judges, have a very extensive knowledge of human 
 nature. But, notwithstanding your plenary share of 
 the knowledge of men and things, I would humbly and 
 obsequiously ask the judges of this court, whether or 
 not your honours could obtain eleven men, blessed with 
 a state of sanity, in all the courts and prisons in the 
 Roman empire, to undertake such an unreasonable 
 scheme, either to get money, power or honour — to go 
 and rob a grave of a crucified body, of some malefactor, 
 and then go through the world, telling the unreasonable 
 tale, that it had come to life again ! This, I perceive, is 
 
310 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the stamina of the crime, these prisoners are charged 
 with at the bar of this court. 
 
 In the first place, I pray and even beseech yom- 
 honours the judges, with the whole court, to take a 
 peering look at those down-cast looking prisoners, and 
 then indulge me to ask your honours, if it is possible 
 that these poor dolorous looking Galilean fishermen, of 
 the isolated sea of Galilee, !w3&re capable of carrying 
 such a wild subdolous scheme into successful operation! 
 First, may it please your learned honours, suffer me to 
 beseech you to look at their uncouth demeanor ; their 
 rustic manners ; and the blustrous intonation of their 
 voices ; all of which is still made more repulsive to good 
 sense, by their unclassical style : so that these dolorous 
 knaves, (if, indeed, knaves they be,) do not look as if 
 they possessed either the art or power of civil or moral 
 suasion, to cause the world to believe such an idle tale. 
 What, please your learned honours, a most wild, ex- 
 travagant, and preposterous idea ! That these fishmen, 
 of the sea of Galilee, should give up the lucrative busi- 
 ness [as has already been, by a learned barrister, stated 
 at the bar of this court,] of fishing, in order to go and fish 
 for the crucified body of a supposed malefactor; and 
 entirely forsake the ready market of old Jerusalem, and 
 travel over the Roman empire, with this cadaverous 
 deteriorating merchandize ; endeavouring to sell the 
 same to millions of Greeks and Romans ; many of them 
 being both wise and shrewd persons. 
 
 Now, may it please your learned honours, the judges 
 of this once high and impartial court — of the charges 
 in the indictment against the eleven prisoners at the 
 bar — the simple conclusion must be, that these down- 
 cast, simple looking prisoners, are in the possesion 
 of some surprising art, and god-like skill, which I per- 
 ceive this high court of chancery, with all its philoso- 
 phical wisdom, does not fully understand. And now, 
 may I be so bold, as to ask your learned honours. If it 
 is not a general axiom with the wisest of men, both in 
 church and state, that all men have their price? And 
 if it is not at this critical juncture of the trial rather 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 311 
 
 irrelevant, I would add, that all men have some object 
 in view, when they undertake some unwarrantable 
 scheme, to carry their sombre designs into full effect. 
 I would again ask this all-important question: although 
 I do not admire what is called tautology, either in a 
 speaker or writer : — therefore, I humbly and obse- 
 quiously ask your learned honours, the judges of this 
 court, that when any set of knavish and designing men, 
 set out on some dark, clandestine and daring enterprise, 
 are they not, may it please your honours, more or less 
 governed by some motive, or guided by some object, of 
 either power, honour, interest, or fame 1 Take, please 
 your honours, these exciting or stimulating elements to 
 action away from men, and the once ambient air which 
 gives vitality to action, either in a good or bad sense, 
 becomes a dead sea, and an elementary calm; and man 
 becomes a floating mass upon its lifeless and motionless 
 surface. My conclusion is this, may it please this high 
 court of law and inquest, that if the charges in the in- 
 dictment, against the prisoners at the bar be true, as 
 were first reported by the watch, and then by Caiaphas, 
 the high priest of the Jews, and by the whole Jewish 
 people, who are scattered abroad on the face of the 
 earth to this day — that if these prisoners did indeed 
 rob the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ, I 
 would, while I continue to float down on the perennial 
 stream of tautology, ask your very learned honours, 
 What object they could possibly paint, or in any wise 
 portray on the dull telegraph of their net-mending and 
 fish-catching minds, in their hawking the nauseous 
 body of a dead man, [that had been crucified before 
 thousands of living witnesses, on a Roman cross,] 
 throughout the world; or of hiding his nauseous and 
 deteriorating body, in some sly fox's den ; and then 
 getting up the most unreasonable and idle tale, (if it is 
 not true,) that they did not steal his crucified body out 
 of the sepulchre. But, that contrary to all the old 
 deteriorating laws of nature, following close in the 
 wake of the deleterious wake of time, on the bodies of 
 men, when once the vital spark of animal life has de- 
 
312 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 parted from its sombre tabernacle, and nauseous slaugh- 
 ter-house of flesh and blood, which renders the human 
 subject so exceedingly repulsive to our alfactory nerves ; 
 and these sheep-faced followers of their crucified shep- 
 herd, should undertake to go and present themselves 
 before the wisdom, knowledge, learning and science of 
 the greek and latin world, in their unclassical and ver- 
 nacular vocabulary, proclaiming that this said Christ 
 rose from the dead, by some mysterious and supra-mun- 
 dane agency ; that the Jews, and the whole world, 
 were at the time of this supernatural embargo, on the 
 old laws of nature, entirely unacquainted with ; that 
 is, please this court, on the supposition, that these 
 prisoners at the bar, did indeed, out of their fishermen 
 skulls, ingeniously and subdolously manufacture this 
 artful and plausible tale, called the gospel ; in order, to 
 set up a new theological hierarchy in the world. 
 
 I will for the last time embargo your honours' 
 patience, and ask, whether our liege sovereign Tiberius, 
 has got in his empire, another set of artful and ingenious 
 villains, that would gratuitously embark in such a hope- 
 less enterprise, as the charge in the indictment does 
 set forth ? that these eleven prisoners at the bar, did 
 actually steal the crucified body of Christ out of the 
 sepulchre? Your honours see, that I have gratuitously 
 taken the freedom of placing these few remarks, on the 
 telegraph of this court's good sense, as a few prefatory 
 outlines to my humble prayer, in the behalf of the 
 prisoners at the bar, who are called the disciples of 
 Christ. Therefore, may it please your learned honours 
 the judges, that since this court has, in its clemency, 
 granted me, although a stranger, the indulgence (which 
 1 shall to the end of my days always consider as a 
 special favour, to present myself at the august bar of 
 this high court of chancery, and on the present occasion, 
 constituted into a court of law and inquest over the 
 dead body of Christ. Therefore, suffer me to inform 
 this court, that my youthful sensibility prevents me 
 from keeping the views of my mind concealed any 
 longer : I therefore shall spread them before this court ; 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 313 
 
 as I have already experienced many a painful sensa- 
 tion, in smothering my disgust at the proceedings of 
 this court, during the trial of the prisoners at the bar: 
 to Avit— :may it please your honours, that the prisoners 
 at the bar, called the disciples of Christ, have not had 
 all that equal and full share of justice shown unto them, 
 in the prosecution of this singular trial, that the other 
 parties, who were more or less implicated in the base 
 robbery of the sepulchre, [if, indeed, that subdolous 
 and sombre catastrophe has any foundation in truth,] 
 have had. Therefore, for a moment, suffer me as the 
 gratuitous advocate for the prisoners at the bar, to 
 freely indulge the elevation of my former views, re- 
 specting the legal wisdom and knowledge of this court 
 in general; but especially, that of your learned honours 
 the judges, and gentlemen of the jury : therefore, your 
 honours I humbly presume, might clearly see with half 
 a legal eye, that Caiaphas, who was the national high 
 priest of the Jews; and Pontius Pilate, who was the 
 Roman procurator of Judea, and the city of Jerusalem; 
 and the Centurion, who was an officer of considerable 
 standing and notoriety in the Roman army of our liege 
 sovereign Tiberius : therefore, may it please your 
 honours, to admit the relevancy of my remarks, which 
 are as follows : that this high court of chancery, are 
 fully apprized in the elements of your legal information, 
 and must be entirely satisfied in your minds, that the 
 three foregoing gentlemen, w^ere persons clothed with 
 either ecclesiastical, civil or military power ; and tw^o 
 of them, in the most plenary sense of the word; and I 
 presume, the court cannot for a moment doubt, but 
 that they had more or less the command of silver and 
 gold ; which of course, put it in their power to com- 
 mand the very best counsel, that the bar of Roman law 
 could produce. And I humbly presupie, this court has 
 not lost sight of another cardinal point, in the over-ruling 
 compass ; the which, when w^ell charged, points by the 
 yellow magnet, always to the client's interest in courts 
 of law : to wit, that those three gentlemen, were more 
 or less persons of some wisdom, knowledge and science, 
 2d 
 
314 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 in their different professions; which embraced civil 
 and martial law in the persons of Pilate and the Cen- 
 turion; and of theology in the person of Caiaphas. 
 Therefore, suffer me lo make this appeal to your good 
 sense. And though I experience a small degree of dif- 
 fidence, on account of my youth, and being a stranger 
 at the bar of this court, and at the same time my Roman 
 education has richly imbued my mind with a due 
 reverence for the aged, which I humbly trust does this 
 day guide me, by the leading strings of my early tuition, 
 to pay that diffidence and graceful respect to the 
 onerous atmosphere of years, Avhich I behold on many 
 of the venerable heads, who constitute the bench and 
 bar of this court. Nevertheless, suffer me to make this 
 appeal to your honours the judges, and all the gentle- 
 men of the bar present — that is, that silver and gold, 
 power and science, act like the oil of the olive, on the 
 springs and wheels of some complicated pieces of 
 machinery. The moral of my mechanical simile, is 
 this : and I humbly presume by so doing, I shall not 
 undulate your honours' forensick sensibility too moun- 
 tainously high, by presenting the same in open court 
 this day : that our clients, who have plenty of the 
 precious article of silver and gold, to oil that wonder- 
 ful, and at the same time exceedingly simple, in its 
 apparent construction and outward organization, (and 
 as one has both judiciously and pertinently observed, 
 ''Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and there- 
 with curse we men, which are made after the similitude 
 of God :") I mean, that little piece of natural machi- 
 nery, which in our vernacular language we call the 
 tongue. 1 iterate, that our clients, who have a plenary 
 share of the precious metal to oil our court vocabulary, 
 which will give to us lawyers a wonderful vibration, 
 and a marvellous oscillatory motion: so that, please 
 your learned honours, the judges of this court, either 
 the plaintiff or defendant, as the case may happen, w^ho 
 has an abundance of gold dust to apply to our foren- 
 sick opticks, will sometimes, when the telescope of in- 
 terest is elevated to our legal vision, cause us to see 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 315 
 
 both plaintiff and defendant, either guilty or innocent, 
 as the legal atmosphere has been more or less surchar- 
 ged with the onerous article of gold. And if it be 
 neap-tide with the defendant in the yellow element, 
 then the pale article of silver must be embargoed, as a 
 commutation for the delinquency of the yellow g<^l<^> to 
 remunerate us for our labour of love and kindness in 
 our client's case. Then, I say, please your honours, 
 we very justly expect, that the mathematical dimen- 
 sions of the silver will be enlarged ; so that, we keep in 
 view our court adage, " that an honest man is the 
 noblest work of God :" which, in many of our lower 
 courts of common law, our forensick weakness at times 
 is such, that legal light experiences a momentary 
 obscuration, of the moral sun of truth and justice ; 
 especially, when the gold dust flies in every direction 
 in our courts, and is apt to settle on our legal glasses, 
 when we look either at the interest or guilt of our 
 client's person. So that this yellow dust, will cause 
 us to see either a plaintiff, defendant, or prisoner's 
 guilt — when in our conscience, law and equity, we are 
 sensible they are innocent. And I may reverse the 
 case — for I wish to be honest before the bar of this 
 court : — How often is it to be seen, in our petty courts 
 of civil law, that the yellow dust blinds our minds, 
 warps our judgments, and let me add, palsies with a 
 sleepy opiate our consciences— so that we can defend 
 the guilty, and plead against the innocent — and as 
 much as in us lieth, help to bring about the condemna- 
 tion of the guiltless. 
 
 These things, my forensick friends, brethren and 
 fathers, ought not so to be ; which I am sorry to say, I 
 have often seen to be the case, in many of our lower 
 courts of judicature. But, may it please your learned 
 honours the judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, I 
 therefore humbly inform this court, that the foregoing 
 remarks I have made, are only designed to be general; 
 and where the shoe does not fit, no gentleman at this 
 bar will bruise his corns, by putting my impugning 
 shoe on his tender and delicate feet. Therefore, I pray 
 
316 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 your honours the judges, with this whole court, not to 
 impugn my motives, from the foregoing hints, which I 
 have this day thrown out in the audibihty of your learn- 
 ed honours the judges. But as a matter of course, may 
 it please your honours, I am led to look for more purity 
 of acts and motives, in the legal practice and decision 
 of this highly famed court. And I can assure your 
 honours, that I experience no latent desire on my part, 
 at this time, to throw out any uncharitable reflections 
 at the bar of this court, respecting its antecedent pro- 
 ceedings; neither do I wish, irreverently to impugn 
 the wisdom of its legal acts ; nor is it my design, this 
 day, to place any gentleman at the bar of this court, 
 on an innuendo's rack, in order to let fly my arrows of 
 sarcastical and fastidious ingenuity at him, with aview^ 
 to torture his forensick sensibilities. 
 
 But with respect to the legal decisions of this court, 
 toward the other parties in this trial, which your learn- 
 ed honours the judges, in full unison of judgment, with 
 the forensick wisdom and knowledge of all the other 
 law elements of this profound and august court of law 
 and inquest, who have so very honourably cleared the 
 foregoing gentlemen — to wit : Caiaphas, Pilate and the 
 Centurion ; all being, both in point of law and fact, 
 entirely innocent of the sad loss ; which is, I perceive, 
 the phraseology employed by your honours when speak- 
 ing on that ever to be lamented catastrophe, the elope- 
 ment of the crucified body of Christ out of the sepul- 
 chre. 
 
 And may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 with the gentlemen of the jury, will this court be so 
 kind as to indulge me to draw this plain and simple 
 conclusion — to wit: that since your honours the judges, 
 in unison with the other law elements of this court, 
 have so graciously indulged Caiaphas, Pilate, and the 
 Centurion, with a full opportunity of obtaining and 
 employing the most able and learned counsel, which the 
 bar of our country doth so amply aflford ; therefore, 
 my inference, please the court, would be this ; will it 
 not leave in the eye of an impartial world, and also in 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 317 
 
 the view of all future generations, at least an oblique 
 impression on their minds, that in this all-important 
 trial of the prisoners at the bar, for robbing the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Christ, the prisoners have 
 not been fairly dealt by. So that, please your honours, 
 when men of good sense, having a sane mind, and at 
 the same time possessing a small share of legal dis- 
 cernment, shall in ages to come, canvass over and 
 dispassionately view, and calmly take an excursive 
 survey of all the proceedings of this court, on this in- 
 teresting trial, and view the large share of legal indul- 
 gence, that this court has shown towards the three 
 rich, honourable and influential parties, in this singular 
 trial, who through the ascendency, which their elevated 
 stations in office, their riches, with the civil, military 
 and ecclesiastical powers, which were associated with 
 their functions, under, the Roman government: I say, 
 please your honours, will not persons of discernment 
 say, that Caiaphas, Pilate and the Centurion, had every 
 possible advantage over the prisoners at the bar, which 
 was within the range of mental, scientific, ecclesiasti- 
 cal, civil and military wisdom and knowledge, and all 
 other capabilities, that untrammelled power and author- 
 ity could possibly give to any order of men, as defend- 
 ants of their own words and acts, on one side of a suit 
 or trial at law. And I have no kind of hesitancy in 
 believing, that your honours will gratuitously grant us, 
 were the case with Caiaphas, Pilate and the Centurion. 
 Well then, by your honours' leave, Pll give this court a 
 small synopsis, or if you please, a statistical relation 
 of the other side of the case, now pending at the bar of 
 this court. These prisoners, who are chained fast 
 together in the old criminal's box, who, please your learn- 
 ed honours, (I will gratuitously answer on the side of 
 this court,) are a set of plebeian, money-less wretches, 
 made up of a .tax-gatherer, and ten fishermen, as I 
 have once stated, of the small lake or little sea of 
 Galilee, and are now in the most forlorn condition — 
 entirely destitute of wisdom, knowledge, science, power, 
 honour and office, under our sovereign; without friends, 
 
 2d* 
 
318 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 in either church or state ; and in a word, they are all 
 entirely destitute of the yellow, and pale elements, and 
 other influential capabilities, which the good sense of 
 your learned honours well know, is so admirably cal- 
 culated to give a propelling principle, and successful 
 agency to a barrister's tongue, so as to be employed in 
 these eleven prisoners' behalf. Yes, please your learn- 
 ed honours, it is a most notorious fact, that these eleven 
 prisoners at the bar, called the disciples of Christ, had 
 not in this court, during their trial, to their knowledge, 
 a solitary friend — nor power, nor riches, nor science at 
 their command; neither, please your honours, had they 
 ecclesiastical, civil or military influence on their side. 
 Therefore, this small synopsis, or rather statistical 
 statement, I have given the court, I presume the notes 
 which your honours the judges, with the states-attorney 
 and other forensick gentlemen of this court, have taken, 
 of all that has been presented for and against the 
 prisoners at the bar, will go fully, I shall gratuitously 
 take it for granted, to justify my statement of their 
 case, and the outward condition of the prisoners at the 
 bar. But, that I be not further tedious with my re- 
 marks, on the antecedent prosecution of this trial, now 
 pending at the bar of this court, I would just say, 
 please your honours, my conscience following close in 
 the wake, of what I experience to be my duty to these 
 poor hopeless, pennyless and friendless prisoners at the 
 bar, onerously propels me, to somewhat impugn the 
 proceedings of this court, in condemning the prisoners 
 at the bar, from the mere outward gloss, that your 
 honours the judges and jury, have given to the guards' 
 evidence : and that this heretofore wise and profound 
 court, and intelligent, and heretofore impartial jury, 
 who have merely glanced at the merits of the witnesses' 
 testimony, say that from a very superficial investigation 
 of the volatile elements of which their evidence was 
 composed, the jury have brought in their verdict to this 
 court of the guilt of the prisoners ; and from which 
 superficial verdict of the jury, I perceive your honours' 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 319 
 
 minds are prepared to flow into the condign wake of 
 the jury, and pass the sentence of death upon them. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges of this trial, with the jury, I humbly pray and 
 most devoutly beseech you, as the highest court of the 
 empire, to pause for a few moments, and stop the rum- 
 bling wheels of the iron chariot of death, before it 
 reaches the verge of a most tremendous law cataract, 
 and the rushing current suddenly precipitate the char- 
 acter and glory of this court, into the constuperating 
 vortex of legal disease ; and this far-famed court be 
 overwhelmed in disgrace forever. And it perhaps may 
 be the case, please your learned honours, the judges of 
 this high court of chancery, through the want of clear- 
 ness in your legal vision, or perspicuity, in your reas- 
 oning on the testimony, on which you have formed your 
 opinion and judgment of the prisoners' guilt — or what- 
 ever other physical or mental cause has, during the 
 trial of the prisoners at the bar, located itself on your 
 persons, which please your honours, 1 charitably hope 
 may be the Case, has undesignedly led you to become 
 the unfelicitous agents, of disrobing this high-famed 
 court of Areopagus, or on this special occasion, the 
 high court of law and inquest, over the dead body of 
 Christ, of all its antecedent glory. Therefore, I once 
 more exclaim in the audibility of this court, stop the 
 rumbling wheels of the chariot of death, by command- 
 ing its pale, its cadaverous charioteer, to rein up his 
 pale steeds, and command the postillion to suddenly 
 turn the fore-horses round, from the awful precipice, 
 and the gapping gulf of interminable disgrace and ruin 
 below. 
 
 A NOTE BY THE STENOGRAPHER. 
 
 Wilful and ungodly sinner, hear what this young lawyer 
 says to the judges and court of Areopagus, but especially to 
 the Jews and Deists ! Stop the wheels of the iron-bound 
 chariot, of the hardness and unbelief of your hearts, and rein- 
 tip the fiery steeds of your sinful lustSj and call out to the 
 postillion of mercy, to suddenly turn t\\Q fore-horses in the 
 
320 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, with this whole court, my devout prayer to the 
 gods of the empire, who are said to always preside over 
 the civick altars of justice, truth and mercy is, that 
 they will, by their united wisdom, power and influence, 
 on vour honours, and the whole mind of this court, even 
 at '' the eleventh hour," in this most critical stage of 
 the trial, most graciously and benignly grant you, 
 all that legal wisdom and knowledge, which the onerous 
 nature of the subject andcase> demands at your serious 
 responsibility. 
 
 And I now obsequiously and humbly pray this w^hole 
 court, to be indulged to place before its solemn bar, my 
 plenary and most cordial approbation, of all its legal 
 proceedings, in the examination and acquital of their 
 honours Caiaphas, Pilate and the Centurion. The 
 court will indulge me to state to their honours the 
 judges, in a few words, the altitude of the heart-felt 
 satisfaction, which I experienced, at the just and im- 
 partial proceedings of this court, towards those three 
 gentlemen last named ; which has made an indelible, 
 and I humbly trust, a lasting impression, on my mind; 
 which the ravages of time will never be able to eradi- 
 cate. Yes, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, I do experience, while standing in the presence 
 of your honours, on. whose venerable heads, as I have 
 once said, I see the silver locks, that have been bleach- 
 ed by the onerous atmosphere of past years. Then 
 suffer me to inform you, that in viewing the rectitude 
 of this court, in the three cases already alluded to — in- 
 dulge me to say, that I do experience, that the element 
 of my vernacular tongue, and the poverty of the Roman 
 language, is too inadequate to fully describe what I 
 now experience ; which for the passing moment, causes 
 me to desire the aid of some supra-mundane language, 
 . — .» — ■ — - — ■ — ■ ■ " — ■ ' 
 
 chariot of your transgression, before you reach the awful and 
 tremendous verge of interminable ruin, and are suddenly 
 precipitated into the vortex of the high displeasure, and the 
 wrath of Almighty God forever. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 321 
 
 or the vocabulary we are led to believe the holy gods 
 employ, to communicate their category [that is, ideas] 
 to each other : I say, please your learned honours, the 
 poverty of my language has, as it were, laid a kind of 
 iron-bound embargo, or rather a sanitary quarantine, 
 on the softer and finer emotions of my heart. There- 
 fore I once more unfeigned ly, and most devoutly pray 
 your learned honours, the judges of this high court of 
 law and inquest, to graciously indulge me with a con- 
 tinuance of those perennial waters of legal justice and 
 mercy, so that I may ever enjoy those indescribable sen- 
 sations of mind, while this court shall continue to dis- 
 play its unfurled banners over the ancient altars of our 
 country — and let a share of the sacred elements of 
 justice, truth and mercy, be impartially shown towards 
 the eleven prisoners at the bar of this court, who are 
 called the disciples of Christ. 
 
 And that 1 be not further tedious, I shall now make 
 my dernier request, and present my valedictory prayer 
 to this court, that it will indulge me, with the legal 
 privilege, to- cross-examine the watch, who stood guard 
 over the sepulchre, on the night the crucified body of 
 Christ was said to be taken out of the same. I have 
 now^ done, please your honours the judges. When the 
 young lawyer sat dow^n and said no more. 
 
 The young lawyer having taken his seat in a chair, 
 before the bar of the court : when it came to pass, that 
 this sudden and very unexpected prayer from this young, 
 but noble hearted civilian, threw the whole court into 
 a serious dilemma; when the chief judge rose and in- 
 formed the court, that the judges would have to retire 
 to a private room in the court, for a few hours ; and as 
 it was the sixth-hour of the day, the officers and spec- 
 tators had full liberty to leave the court, in order, if 
 they felt so inclined, to i-efresh themselves. When the 
 court was soon vacated, and the judges went into the 
 upper chamber. (See No. 2 on the plate,) w here their 
 learned honours had much deep reasoning with each 
 other, on what would be the most prudent measure to/^ 
 pursue, and the wisest steps to be adopted, in order, 
 
322 
 
 CillllST REJECTED. 
 
 like wise men, to meet the emergency of this nebulous 
 and very mysterious concatenation, which the inexpli- 
 cable providence of the gods has permitted to perplex 
 and embarrass their proceedings : when the legal fever 
 of their heads would rise to such an acme, that the 
 ordinary movements of the rational machinery of their 
 
 No. 1. The bench of this court is vacated by the five judges, in 
 order to deUbei^ate, what answer to give to the prayer of the young 
 lawyer. 
 
 No. 2. The up]ier chamber of tlie court, where tlie five judges 
 retire, to consult together on this unforeseen procrastination of the 
 trial. 
 
 No. 3. The Jewish and Deistical gentlemen and ladies, leave the 
 great gallery, and go to refresh themselves, during the vacation of 
 court business. 
 
 No. 4. The ladies Reason and Philosophy, retire also, with a small 
 depreciation in the bloom of their rosy countenances, and rather a 
 sombre cast in their once scintillating and rolling eyes. 
 
 No. 5. The young lawyer in his chair, writing his notes, and 
 making his memorandums. 
 
 No. 6. The poor prisoners in durance in the old criminal's box, 
 •without even bread or water. But God was with them, and was in 
 this marvellous concatenation of his providence, about to lose their 
 fetters and break their chains asunder. 
 
 And now suffer the christian sailor to exclaim, Glory to God the 
 Father ! God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost ! for ever and ever 
 men. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 323 
 
 minds, would every now and then increase its velocity: 
 and their tongues would very often leave the line of 
 demarcation, which logic and sound legal argument 
 have laid down, as a helm and polar star to guide a 
 civilian in times of danger. So that the spasms of this 
 forensick fever, caused their minds and tongues to fall 
 oft' into some interlocutory, and at times incongruous 
 vocabulary with each other, till their ideas became 
 rapsodous and wild : then recovering themselves, the 
 judges would rationally and reciprocally interchange 
 their legal views and opinions, oil the best measures ot 
 forensick prudence to be pursued, in order to preserve 
 the ancient honour and glory of this court, that had 
 been so lonoj famed throughout the world for its unde- 
 viating principles in law and equity. So that this un- 
 expected interference in this trial of the disciples, for 
 their (supposed) robbery of the sepulchre, of the cruci- 
 fied body of Christ, by this young civilian, went like a 
 powerful shock of electricity, throughout the whole 
 court : and to use a marine figure, it was like the sails 
 of a ship, that were suddenly struck with ahead squall 
 of wind, when it throws the sails back on the mast ; 
 and the effect produced is, that it gives to the vessel, 
 what mariners C3\\ stem-way : just so in a legal and 
 moral sense, this sudden breeze from the prayer of this 
 young civilian, which had a similar effect on this court, 
 as it threw all the wisdom and legal knowledge of the 
 five judges, back on the forensick mast of their minds ; 
 so that for a short season, all was confusion aloft, in the 
 legal sails and running rigging of the judges' minds : 
 all was uproar and perplexity, at this unexpected in- 
 terference of this young lawyer — which gave an un- 
 precedented crisis to the trial. But as good fortune 
 would have it, this sudden legal squall soon passed 
 away : and when the flying sails of the judges' minds 
 had been taken in, and the running rigging of their 
 understanding all i^ove in their proper blocks, and be- 
 laid to the pins and Meets of legal prudence, on deck; 
 and the forensick ship once more righted ; so that the 
 judges' minds became in a state of sanity — it came to 
 
324 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 pass, that after the five judges had run out several 
 fathoms of desultorious law arguments, on the serious 
 effects which this unexpected embargo, or rather levy, 
 that this youth had laid on the illegal proceedings of 
 the court, in his so suddenly arresting the condign sen- 
 tence of the law, against the prisoners at the bar : that 
 they saw that the crisis demanded decision, energy and 
 activity on their part, in order to fully sustain the legal 
 character of this high court of chancery. They also 
 saw it was imperiously necessary, that some healing 
 balm, soothing specific, and law restorative, in some 
 way or other, and that too, by the best skill, of the most 
 experienced law physicians, should be immediately 
 applied; so as to heal the wounds, and cover the illegal 
 sores on the body of this court. When it soon came 
 to pass, that the minds of the five judges came to this 
 wise point, on the law compass, to wit ; that should 
 this court entirely pass over, or reject the humble and 
 philanthropic prayer of this young forensick gentleman, 
 in the behalf of the eleven prisoners at the bar, then we 
 may augur in that case, that the whole world of com- 
 mon sense, would be fully justified hereafter, in view- 
 ing this court of law and inquest, who have instituted 
 this trial, in search of what has become of the body of 
 Christ, after it was crucified, have acted with the most 
 strange and unprecedented and unjustifiable partiality, 
 on the side of the Roman guards, [or, in undisguised 
 phraseology, on the part of the Jews and Deists, 
 against the truth of the gospel of the Son of God :] 
 against the eleven prisoners, at the bar of this court, 
 called the disciples of Christ : who, said, the chief 
 judge to his four learned associates and coadjutors on 
 this trial, we all well know, are the only positive [if 
 the nature of the case will justify the assertion,] and 
 substantial witnesses, against the prisoners robbing the 
 sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ. And as the 
 chief judge's mind became more calm and sane, he said, 
 I have no doubt in my mind, nor do I experience the 
 least degree of hesitancy, to communicate the same to 
 you in confidence, while we are in this private hall of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 325 
 
 legal deliberation, that you all clearly see with myself, 
 that this is the only converging point, on which the 
 whole colossean superstructure of the gospel rests. 
 Yes, my learned friends, we clearly perceive, that 
 after all the endless disputations among men, whether 
 they are Jews, Deists, Turks, Heathen, or Christians, 
 the pugnacious controversy, by the mathematical rules 
 and simple principles of common sense, is suspended on 
 this point of the argument ; that is, if Christ went out 
 of the sepulchre, after he was crucified and his body 
 savagely butchered to death on a Roman cross — and 
 he, by some supernatural or divine power, which was 
 latent in himself, rose from the dead, it then requires 
 neither the strength of the prostrating arguments of a 
 Grecian orator, nor the harmonious suavity and per- 
 suasive eloquence of a noted latin orator, to prove either 
 the truth of the gospel, or the distressing [to them who 
 belong to the philosophical and scoffing schools,] doc- 
 trine of the soul's immortality. So that we this day 
 clearly see, that if this young civilian should be suc- 
 cessful, in proving the innocency of the eleven prison- 
 ers at the bar, there will need no other argument to 
 prove the truth of the christian religion, far above the 
 claims of any system of mythology or theology, in the 
 whole world. 
 
 When the chief judge proceeded thus, by continuing 
 his forensick parable to his four associate judges, and 
 said : My legal friends, I experience in my mind a de- 
 sire, which causes a reaction on my conscience, so that 
 to be honest to my own heart, for once then, the philo- 
 sophical desire of my mind is this : that 1 could at this 
 moment most devoutly pray to our national gods, that 
 in their wisdom and benign goodness towards us, when 
 we were in the plenary possession of the full cup of all 
 mundane bliss, that they had never suffered that trouble- 
 some and mysterious being called Christ, with his 
 alarming and soul-distressing doctrine of the soul's im- 
 mortality and mankind's personal accountability to him, 
 for their words and actions — whether they be good or 
 bad: Yes, my friends, I most ardently wish, and could 
 
 2e 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 devoutly pray, that those amiable ladies, Reason and 
 Philosophy, had sent down their heated thunder-bolts, 
 and red lightning, with their roaring artillery issuing 
 fire and smoke, and pouring forth the double-headed 
 shot of their anathema maranatha, accompanied with 
 the furious blasts and prostrating whirl-winds, from 
 those dense and sombre clouds, which are at times seen 
 in rather an angry mood, rolling themselves under the 
 flying chariots of Reason and Philosophy — when the 
 two amiable ladies took their winter tour, from the icy 
 regions of this mundane state, up to the aerial regions, 
 where carnal joys and tangible pleasures, constitute 
 the ambient air of that buoyant atmosphere. Yes, my 
 learned coadjutors in this troublesome and perplexing 
 suit, I could heartily have wished, that the wise ladies* 
 vituperating breath, and the more alarming intonations 
 of their imperative voice, had ordered this young theo- 
 logian off, to some inter-mundane location, where tangi- 
 ble and intelligent beings have no resting place ; and 
 then this conscience-trouhling character, might have 
 been safely transported, and firmly fixed, from coming 
 to disturb our courts of civil law, and agitating the 
 calm elements of jurisprudence, and other municipal 
 ventilations of justice, in our towns and cities ; by 
 laying his conscience-alarming embargo on all our 
 physical passions, and mundane joys, or in any other 
 way of spreading a spirit of effervescence throughout the 
 empire; so very repulsive to the reason of civilians, 
 and the deep philosophy of the human mind; as you, my 
 forensick brethren, see is the unfelicitous case with us, 
 by these prisoners being suffered to run at large through 
 the Roman empire, greatly undulating the fears of the 
 plebeian orders of society, about an hereafter. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the learned judges having 
 spent about two hours in their Jegal disquisition be- 
 tween themselves, on this (to them,) very unexpected 
 crisis, of this trial, that they became all harmo- 
 nious in their views, and unanimous in their legal 
 opinion, as to the best scheme or plan, for them and the 
 
 I 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 327 
 
 court to pursue ; which would be, to grant the prayer 
 of this young civilian. 
 
 And it came to pass after this decision in the minds 
 of the five judges, that the chief judge for a few 
 moments, further continued his forensick parable — and 
 raising a little the intonation of his legal voice, above 
 its ordinary key, he thus said, or rather addressed his 
 associate judges : Your learned honours, I make no 
 doubt, clearly see with me, that this wary youngster 
 has caught us old civilians, in the purlieu of his foren- 
 sick guile, by his insidious net : the ingenious meshes 
 thereof, he has made, I perceive, of the thread and 
 twine of his vaunting Roman justice and impartiality. 
 The ostentatious philanthropy and voluntary humility, 
 by which this insidious youth has caught us old birds, 
 who have been so long roosting on the civick altars of 
 our country, with his moral and philanthropic chaff, by 
 which your learned honours may see, w^ith half the 
 vision of a Roman civilian, that he has both literally 
 and legally, as it were, transfixed us to the civick altars 
 of truth, justice and mercy. So that if the court re- 
 fuses to grant his prayer, then the high fame and 
 universal credit of this court of chancery, will be, in 
 consequence of our refusal, universally depreciated in 
 the broad eye of the world. And your learned honours 
 who act with me on this mysterious trial, will no doubt 
 experience it to be our imperative duty, in order to get 
 through the meshes of his insidious net, in the best way 
 we can — and the course he has left us to steer, while 
 sailing through the legal sea, which this youngster has 
 so ingeniously decoyed us into, by the rushing of the 
 perennial waters — therefore, in order to keep our court 
 from foundering its fame and antecedent glory, on 
 either the sunken rocks, sand bars, and chevaux-de- 
 frise, that this wary civilian has placed in the channel 
 of our legal waters, it remains our duty, from the im- 
 perious law of sheer necessity, as our dernier effort, to 
 save the character of this court, to grant this young 
 lawyer his prayer, by letting him cross-examine the 
 
328 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 guards, To this prudent and wise conclusion, all his as- 
 sociate judges did cordially agree. 
 
 The report of the Judges, to the court of Areopagus, on the 
 prayer of the young lawyer. 
 
 And it came to pass, that by the ninth-hour, the 
 ladies and gentlemen, both of the Jewish and Deistical 
 schools, had returned into court, with ladies Reason 
 and Philosophy, with all the plebeian spectators. When 
 the officer of the court called silence ; and in a few 
 minutes the judges presented themselves at the bar of 
 the court ; when the chief judge rose, and made the 
 following short communication : May it please this high 
 court of law and inquest, over the loss of the crucified 
 body of Christ, that in order to make it manifest to the 
 whole world of mankind, that this high court of chan- 
 cery, does this day experience the most ardent desire 
 to retain all its former character, of important equity 
 and legal justice, to all orders and classes of men; and 
 likewise, to fully sustain the altitude of all the legal and 
 wise decisions, which have, like the helm and polar star 
 to the mariner, antecedent to this trial, marked the 
 course, and guided the acts and legal decisions, in all 
 cases of litigation and crime, that heretofore have been 
 brought by the arm of the law, and the agency of its 
 officers, to the bar of this court ; even to such a degree 
 of impartiality, that the most obscure persons in society, 
 may experience that an equal share of justice, is both 
 shown and fully administered to them — as well as the 
 wise, powerful, rich and influential orders of Roman 
 citizens. Therefore, I inform this court, this afternoon, 
 that from this calm and dispassionate view, which I and 
 my learned coadjutors, the four judges, who are asso- 
 ciated with me on this mysterious trial, which has 
 taken this sudden and unexpected turn, and also pro- 
 crastinated the regular, and what we in our associated 
 law knowledge, conceived to be the legal proceedings 
 of this court, in the trial of the eleven prisoners at the 
 bar, charged with the horrid and seditious crime of 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 329 
 
 stealing the crucified body of Christ out of the sepul- 
 chre. Therefore, from a deep conviction of our minds; 
 that although elevated on the bench of civil, martial, 
 and even ecclesiastical law, to be the judges of the 
 words and acts of our fellow men — yet, please this wise 
 and intelligent court, we are not so highly elevated 
 above our fellow men, as to be entirely insensible, that 
 our forensick judgment is, at times, a little out of the 
 way, and have a few grains of imperfection, in our view 
 of a malefactor's guilt : for we have not the omniscience 
 of the holy ones, to see at all times into the hearts of 
 witnesses — who testify against the guilt of a prison- 
 er, which the arm of the law presents to the bar of our 
 courts for adjudication. Therefore, we inform the 
 court, that we this day bow in the most obsequious 
 homage, to the civick altars of impartial justice, to all 
 men ; and therefore do recommend to this court, to in- ' 
 dulge the ardent desires, and grant the humble prayer 
 of this young stranger ; who, according to the creden- 
 tials he has brought with him, and presented last even- 
 ing at the bar of this court, as a full credited civilian 
 of Roman law — therefore, I move the court, that his 
 request to this high court of law and inquest, be forth- 
 with fully complied with ; and that he shall have the 
 legal privilege to cross-examine the guard who stood 
 watch over the crucified body of Christ, on that same 
 night it was lost out of the sepulchre. And I further 
 move, that the most free use of all the legal privileges, 
 forensick capabilities, and law apparatus of this court, 
 may be placed at his full command : in order, if the 
 young gentleman has within the purlieu of his youthful 
 wisdom and knowledge, that singular sagacity to rec- 
 tify and ventilate the foul air, and purify the muddy 
 waters, which the obreptitious ravages of time have in- 
 truduced into the once pure elements of this court — 
 we, as a court in that case, shall be under an infinite 
 obligation to this young civilian, for his maiden plea 
 at this profound bar. For we, who have been the 
 senior judges of this court for many years, experience 
 that Roman nobleness of soul, which would give to the 
 2e=^ 
 
330 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 gentleman plenty of forensick sea-room, to sail his 
 argumentative ship in, with flying colours — with his 
 royals and sky-capers and studding-sails set under a full 
 ratiocinating breeze ; in order that this court may have 
 a full display of his legal skill, and a clear view of the 
 whole arcanum of his legal wisdom and knowledge — 
 flying off in every direction, as the luminous scintilla- 
 tions of his youthful understanding before this ancient 
 bar. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this wise decision from the 
 five judges on the bench, caused the countenances of 
 the poor plebeian spectators, to flush with a slight 
 radiance of joy ; but the judges' declaration rather pro- 
 duced an unfelicitous re-aciion on the gentlemen and 
 ladies of patrician blood and birth; especially, those 
 who were of Jewish and Deistical education : and not 
 only so, but the opinions of the judges made a visible 
 impression on Reason and Philosophy, who were seen 
 at intervals, if we might judge from the index of their 
 pale countenances, as the once rosy bloom thereof 
 would suddenly give place to the almost cadaverous 
 shades of a dying person lying in state, in the drawing 
 
 A thovght by the amanuensis of the report of this trial. The 
 suddenness and impetuosity of the judges' sensibilities, 
 agitated by the flowing and ebbing blast of hope and fear, 
 rising at times like a whirlwind, from the surcharged cloud 
 of their passions, which appeared like a water-spout ready to 
 burst ; which would sweep in its momentary fury, all the 
 antecedent glory from this highly famed court of Areopagus ; 
 and causing in its deleterious wake, ruin and wide spread de- 
 vastation all around, on all its illustrious deeds of ancient 
 date. Therefore, ungodly sinner, the foregoing is but a very 
 faint idea of the chagrin, agitation, and wild uproar of the 
 minds and passions of both Jews and Deists, should this trial 
 prove, that Christ indeed rose from the dead. Then wo, wo, 
 to all the scoflers at Christ and his gospel ! Therefore, my 
 scoffing shipmates, keep a bright look-out; if so be that 
 Christ did rise from the dead, your eternal ruin is, in itself 
 inevitable, except you repent ! 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 331 
 
 room of the king of terrors ; and at the same time, ex- 
 hibiting a strong symmetry of features in the finer 
 lineaments of their countenances, to their great grand 
 sire Doctor Cain. When the chief judge had commu- 
 nicated the views of himself and his coadjutors in this 
 trial to the court, he sat down for a few moments. 
 
 When the chief judge rose and informed the court, 
 that in consequence of this sudden and very unexpect- 
 ed crisis, in the trial of the prisoners at the bar, called 
 the disciples of Christ, the court stood adjourned to 
 meet in this place the next morning. 
 
332 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The twenty -second day of the trials of the robbery of the 
 sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ, 
 
 And it came to pass, that this grand court of law and 
 inquest, met at rather an early hour of the twenty- 
 second day ; and after the usual formalities of the court 
 were all gone through, and a solemn silence pervaded 
 the same, his learned honour, the chief judge, rose and 
 informed the court, that he had with the counsel and 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice -with a sword in one hand, and his scales in the 
 other, weighing the guai-ds' evidence. 
 
 No. 2. Mercy pleading the cause of innocence. 
 
 No. 3. Truth brings the false witness of the guards to light, when tUey ai-e 
 cross-examined. 
 
 No. 4. The chief judge delivering the cause into the hands of this youi^ 
 lawyer. 
 
 No. 5. Carnal Reason no longer points the finger of scorn at Christ and 
 his cross; and vain Philosophy has laid down her telescope, in consequence 
 of a lowering cloud almost obsourating the Sun in the empyrean of the ag« 
 of Reason. 
 
 No. 6. The young lawyer cross-examining the guards. 
 
 No. 7. The eleven disciples in the old criminal's box. 
 
 No. 8. The Jewish and Deistical gentlemen and ladies, in the great gal- 
 lery, rather in a solemn mood, in consequence of the court's granting the 
 young lawyer the privilege to cross-examine the Roman guards. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 333 
 
 advice of their learned honours, with whom he had the 
 most inexpressible pleasure co-ordinately to co-operate, 
 in this very alarming crisis of this mysterious cause, 
 which is now pending at the bar. My object in rising, 
 is to give legal notice to all the parties and counsellors 
 present, that belong to or have any share of interest in 
 the case now pending at the bar, that I do this morn- 
 ing officially publish from this bar, that I shall imme- 
 diately place this court, with all its facilities and capa- 
 bilities, with the legal and obsequious attendance of its 
 officers, books and other papers and records, into the 
 hand of the young barrister, who is in waiting before 
 the bar : who, may it please this high court of chancery, 
 appears to have caught his brother's mantle, like the 
 fable I have read of in some of the old books of an 
 ancient sage — or what we in Roman mythology would 
 call a magician flying in a chariot of fire unto the 
 empyrean regions, where the holy ones are said to have 
 their abode ; and as he triumphantly rose, he let fall 
 his • auguring robe to this mundane state, when his 
 freed-man took it up, and became almost as great a 
 magician as his old master. Just so with our young 
 civilian; for he really appears to have seized the foren- 
 sick garment, and caught the fire, and philanthropic 
 zeal of his elder brother, who this court may well re- 
 member, at the commencement of this mysterious trial, 
 gave his argumentative labour of love, w^ithout money 
 or price, to plead and advocate the almost hopeless 
 cause of the deceased person, (of that mysterious being) 
 who is called Christ. Therefore, since our young friend 
 has so ardently elicited to be permitted by this court, 
 clothed in the falling mantle of his elder brother, and 
 fired with his youthful zeal for the cause and interest 
 of the eleven malefactors before the bar, I fondly hope 
 also, from the coindication which the young ladies of 
 his native province saw of his future greatness, when 
 they made him a donative of the fine sash, wherewith 
 he is now girted before the bar ; and the court is no 
 doubt sensible, that even we aged judges and civilians, 
 have still at times a predilection to pay some deference 
 
334 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 to the wisdom and opinions of the ladies ; so that their 
 forecasting views may be felicitously associated with 
 our anxious desires, of beholding those early signs by 
 his maiden plea, at the bar of this court, ripening into 
 summer fruit, in order that he may attain the full alti- 
 tude of legal success, which his elder brother had in 
 clearing the character of the crucified body of Christ ; 
 so that he may obtain for the prisoners at the bar, an 
 honourable discharge, if in law and fact they are inno- 
 cent of robbing the sepulchre of the crucified body of 
 Christ, in order, that this high court of law and inquest 
 may experience a superior degree of pleasure, in pluck- 
 ing a few of his prodromas or early ripe figs, from oflf 
 his forensick fig-tree, which we fondly hope he will 
 place in a golden casket, in full view of the whole court. 
 
 And now, please the court, having discharged this 
 pleasing part of my official duty, I shall, with the most 
 plenary altitude of legal pleasure, as 1 stand before the 
 altars and Magna Charta of my country, and sovereign 
 Tiberius, resign this court into the hands of our young 
 civilian, to proceed in his own way to cross-examine 
 the Roman guards, and justify, as I before said, the 
 prisoners at the bar, if they are innocent : when the 
 judge sat down and said no more. 
 
 [The young barrister returns his high consideration 
 to his learnfid honour the chief judge, for his court 
 politeness.] 
 
 And it came to pass, after his honour the chief judge 
 had resumed his seat on the bench, that the young ad- 
 vocate for the prisoners at the bar, rose [and with his 
 flowing sash, sparkling with the gems of the east, with 
 which the young ladies of his country had richly adorn- 
 ed it,] and made a very polite inclination of his person 
 to the judges and the whole court, for its legal indul- 
 gence towards him; and also, for its act of lenity to- 
 wards the prisoners at the bar — and said, that he should 
 now most devoutly pray to the great ruler of the 
 empyrean regions, who presides over the altars of justice, 
 truth and mercy, that he might benignly and gracious- 
 ly enable him, to fulfill those precocious signs the ladies 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 335 
 
 saw of his future success, at the bar of his country ; 
 which the keen opticks of his venerable father, has con- 
 verged on ; and in his wisdom and knowledge of the 
 stamina of the law, had the condescending goodness 
 to notice. And my admiration is the more excited, at 
 the judge's philanthropic grace toward me, when I re- 
 flect on my inexperience, for the want of practice at 
 the bars of our courts ; nevertheless, may it please your 
 learned honours, I do experience a humble and distant 
 hope, that before this trial shall come to its final issue, 
 that his learned honour the chief judge, shall have his 
 alfactory nerves pleased, with the odorous perfume 
 from the violet of our maiden plea ; and that the deli- 
 cate palate of the judge's refined sensibility, shall be 
 satisfied to a degree of satiety, in his, obsequiously 
 stretching forth his hand, in the felicitous imitation of 
 a certain lady, in the drawing-room of a mundane 
 paradise, and plucking our summer fruit, or please 
 your learned honours, a few of those prodromas, from 
 off our young fig-tree. 
 
 And it came to pass, that after this small display of 
 legal civility, between the chief judge and the lawyer, 
 on his maiden plea, were gone through, that this young 
 counsellor, having previously taken from the high 
 sheriff's ofl^ce a mandamus fram the emperor's bench, 
 (or what, in our courts, is called a writ of caption, or 
 bench warrant,) for the Roman guards : when the 
 marshal brought them into court, headed by the centu- 
 rion, who had the charge of the temple. When this 
 young advocate rose with a paper in his hand, con- 
 taining the names of four quaternions — that is, sixteen 
 Roman guards, who stood watch at the sepulchre, on 
 the very night it was reported to have been robbed — 
 or this very singular and strange surreption had been 
 made, on the silent repose of the dead, by the prisoners 
 at the bar. This young counsellor then called the 
 guards, by the proper officer of the court, each man by 
 his proper name ; [and if the stenographer were near 
 enough, and his vision did not wonderfully deceive him, 
 he read the appellative thus: they are all false witness- 
 
336 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 es,] one by one, up to the bar ; and then had them all 
 affirmed, in the presence of the whole court. 
 
 The form of the affirmation which this counsellor adminis- 
 tered to the royal guards. 
 
 Sir, you are a Roman soldier by profession, and did, 
 in your individuate character, constitute one of the 
 watch, who were, by the orders of Pontius Pilate, the 
 Roman governor of Judea and Jerusalem, in conjunc- 
 tion with Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews, obtain- 
 ed from the centurion, who had the charge of the 
 temple, who by the authority and military agency of 
 the centurion, did truly constitute one of the sentries 
 at the sepulchre, after the crucified body of Christ had 
 been taken down from the cross, by the special order 
 of Pilate — presented to your officer, and was faithfully 
 and truly conveyed to the garden, and placed in a new 
 sepulchre, which had been but very recently excavated 
 out of a rock : and that you saw his body lie in the 
 aforesaid described sepulchre, with the five wounds he 
 had received on the cross, on the day he was crucified. 
 And, sir, you did receive the strictest and most impe- 
 rative charge to watch, guard, and safely keep secure, 
 the aforesaid crucified body, in his sepulchre, until the 
 third day had passed over his lifeless and deteriorating 
 remains. To which form of words the guards, each one 
 for himself, answered the young attorney in the affir- 
 mative — that they were the very identical persons. 
 
 Therefore you do all collectively, and each one of 
 you in particular, say, that these prisoners, who are 
 now before the bar of this court, chained in the crimi- 
 nal's box, are the very persons that came by night, and 
 stole the very self same body of Christ, that you saw 
 crucified on a Roman cross, out of the sepulchre, while 
 you sixteen Roman guards, were all at one and the 
 same time fast asleep. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when this solemn affirma- 
 tion had been, by the young lawyer, administered to 
 the whole of the guards, that he said to the watch, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 337 
 
 thaVs all very good, and I thank you, citizens of the 
 guards, for the minuteness and the particularization of 
 all your replies to my legal interrogations. And now, 
 citizens guards, you do all personally and collectively, 
 most truly and solemnly declare and affirm, before the 
 solemn bar of this court, in the presence of our judges, 
 and the law agents that this day doth form and consti- 
 tute all the legal and lawful authorities, of this high 
 court of law and inquest, over the loss of the body of 
 Christ out of the sepulchre; and also, as in the presence 
 of the gods of the Roman nation and army, that the 
 solemn testimony and witness that you have this day 
 given in at the bar of this court, is the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth : Amen — so may the 
 gods of our national mythology help us. 
 
 The foregoing form of affirmation being duly admin- 
 istered by the young civilian, through the legal officer 
 of the court, to the whole of the sixteen guards, they 
 were, by the young attorney, all desired to sit down, 
 till they should be further called for. 
 
 [Here folio weth the cross-examination of the royal 
 guards, or the emersion of Christ, the bright and morn- 
 ing star and Sun of righteousness, from under the dense 
 and dark clouds of carnal Reason and vain Philosophy, 
 and Jewish unbelief.'] 
 
 And it came to pass, after the young lawyer had 
 taken his notes of the soldiers' evidence, that he com- 
 menced the cross-examination of the guards' testimony, 
 by putting the following queries to them: Pray, citizens 
 of the watch, be so kind as to inform their learned 
 honours the judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, 
 and also for the information and satisfaction of all the 
 spectators in court, but especially the gentlemen and 
 ladies of Jewish education, in the great gallery ; and 
 also for the entire satisfaction of the amiable ladies 
 Reason and Philosophy, in the small gallery, on the 
 right of this court ; to wit—Whether you, as soldiers, 
 had been overcharged with duty, previous to your 
 being placed on guard by the Roman officer, over the 
 sepulchre, that contained the crucified body of Christ, 
 
 2f 
 
338 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 on the evening before the robbery of the same ? The 
 reason, Roman soldiers, ^vhy I ask you these rife 
 questions, is, because I wish to ascertain, for the entire 
 satisfaction of this court, whether any one of you, or all 
 of you, had recently encountered more than an ordinary 
 share of labour, in your profession of arms : such, for 
 instance, as the turmoil of long and forced marches, 
 or the more fatiguing labour in the field of battle; either 
 pursuing your enemies, or else perhaps, by being over- 
 charged with superior numbers, by your foes, you were 
 under the imperious necessity of flying before them : 
 or w^hether, citizens of the guards, you were from any 
 other physical, civil or military cause, or effect what- 
 soever, brought under a state of lassitude. And I wish 
 to know from you citizens soldiers, for the still further 
 and entire satisfaction of this court, whether any one 
 of those sudden turns and emergencies, which very 
 often arise out of a military life, and the professions of 
 arms, so that if any one of you have been in any way 
 whatsoever, deprived of your usual hours of natural 
 rest ; or whether, soldiers of the guards, any of you 
 have through camp fevers, or any other disease, which 
 I know in your profession is oftentimes too prevalent 
 in military life : or in a word, citizens of the watch — 
 has any other, either physical or mental distress, caus- 
 ed you, in the least degree to have experienced a more 
 than ordinary state of weariness, either of body or 
 mind? When this young lawyer paused, and gave the 
 guards time to reply. 
 
 The guards' answer to the court. 
 And it came to pass, that the guards rose, and to a 
 man gave the following reply: May it please your learn- 
 ed honour, and through you as a perennial channel of 
 communication, we inform the whole world of man- 
 kind, that we have neither been on the battle ground, 
 nor under the turmoil of forced marches ; neither have 
 we been pursuing nor flying from the face of our 
 enemies ; neither were we in our physical habits, in any 
 degree afflicted by camp fevers, or any other disease 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 339 
 
 that brings a state of depression, on our physical or 
 mental energies ; neither have we, in any otherwise, 
 been deprived of our usual hours of sleep; neither please 
 your honour, have we been for some months past, the 
 unfelicitous subjects of weariness. No ; may it please 
 the court, our condition, since we arrived in the land 
 of Judea, has been for the most part, very remarkable 
 for Roman soldiers to be favoured with; as the governor 
 stationed us under our centurion, as the guards about 
 the temple. But, please the court, being changed to 
 the different towers on the walls of Jerusalem, and to 
 the old castles of the city, every three months, we were 
 removed by another centurion and his men, who came 
 and relieved us, and took charge of the temple. The 
 object of the Roman governor, no doubt, please your 
 learned honour, in keeping up this evolution, from one 
 military station to another in the royal army, that 
 were placed by our liege sovereign Tiberius over Judea, 
 was to prevent the Roman soldiery from forming affian- 
 ces, or contracting too great a familiarity with the in- 
 habitants in the vicinity of our locations. So that upon 
 the whole, our duty has been very moderate. This, 
 please the court, is all we have to say in answer to the 
 young lawyer's rife, and were it not almost irrelevant, 
 we would say, rather severe questions he has put to us, 
 relating to our physical and military conditions as 
 Roman soldiers, previous to the robbing of the sepul- 
 chre of the crucified body of Christ: when the guards 
 said no more. 
 
 The royal guards having resumed their seats, the 
 young advocate for the prisoners at the bar, highly 
 complimented the guards, for the distinctiveness, and 
 in a small degree, the perspicuity of their answers ; and 
 also, their rife, moral and political remarks, before the 
 bar of this court. And having taken his notes of the 
 same, he said to the court : No doubt their learned 
 honours the judges, with all the forensick gentlemen of 
 this court, with myself, do by this time experience, that 
 our physical powers stand in need of some refreshment; 
 and our mental faculties, equally demand a few hours 
 
340 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 relaxation, from the turmoil of court business. And 
 may it please your learned honours the judges, if it is 
 the pleasure of the court to indulge me, I wish to have 
 a little time to examine our best law authorities, on the 
 nature and character of the guards' testimony : there- 
 fore, please your honours, I shall humbly and obse- 
 quiously pray the judges, to adjourn the court till to- 
 morrow. Which motion was unanimously agreed to. 
 So the chief judge adjourned the court, to meet in the 
 same place the next day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 341 
 
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 ■Hliii 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court of Areopagus 
 met pursuant to adjournment, early on the morning of 
 the twenty-third day. And when the superb carriages 
 
 Figure No. 1. Justice with a drawn sword in one hand, and scales 
 in the other, weighing the guards' evidence. 
 
 No. 2. Mercy, pleading- the cause of innocence. 
 
 No. 3. Truth brings the false witness of the Roman guards to light, 
 as they are cross-examined. 
 
 No. 4. The five judges on the bench, listening with great attention 
 to the young lawyer's artful manner of cross-examining the guards. 
 
 No. 5. Tlie sun of the age of Reason, almost obscurated, and the 
 two amiable ladies. Reason and Ph[iosophy, in a serious mood, 
 listening to the guards' answer to che young attorney. 
 
 No. 6. The young counsel/or cross-examining the Roman guards. 
 
 No. 7. The eleven disciples in the old criminal's box, at the bar. 
 
 No. 8. The Jewish and Deistical gentlemen and ladies in the great 
 gallery ; who every now and then turn pale, at hearing the guards 
 convicting themselves, as they are cross-examined. 
 
 No. 9. The attorney general's chair is vacated ; he being highly 
 displeased with the court, in its showing any further e:^tension of 
 mercy towards the prisoners, after it had obtained the verdict of the 
 jury against them : so he would not stay to have his law knowledge 
 impugned, and, (as he thought) insulted by the ebulitions of a 
 youngster, spouting his maiden plea, at the bar of this high court of 
 chancery. 
 
 2f* 
 
342 ClIllIST REJECTED. 
 
 had arrived before the portico of the court, having a 
 vast number of Jewish and Deistical young ladies, the 
 young gentlemen of honourable blood and birth, with 
 much etiquette and highly finished urbanity of man- 
 ners, helped the ladies to alight, and politely inducted 
 them to the scarlet sofas, that had been, by the 
 munificence of the government, prepared for them. As 
 soon as this squail -on of carriages had drove off from 
 before the court, the plain vehicle, which had on board 
 the amiable ladies Reason and Philosophy, arrived also 
 at the portico; when the high almoner of the court 
 stepped up to the door of their carriage, and for an old 
 gentleman, displayed a high share of philosophical 
 etiquette, and handsomely assisted the ladies to alight; 
 and then inducted them into the small gallery. No 
 sooner were the ladies all accommodated, than the five 
 judges, with the other learned gentlemen, who consti- 
 tuted the legal elements of this high court of law and 
 inquest, arrived and took their usual locations in court; 
 when the prisoners were, by the high marshal of the 
 empire, and the high sheriff of Rome, with the officers 
 of the state's prison, brought into court, chained to- 
 gether, and placed in the old crimmal's box before the 
 bar; when the judge signified to the clerk, to offer up 
 the forensick prayer of God save the emperor and the 
 commonwealth. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the law holocaust 
 had been oflTered up, and silence pervaded the court, 
 that the young barrister rose, and very leisurely pro- 
 ceeded with the cross-exaniination of the royal guards, 
 who had charge of the sepulchre, when it was reported 
 to have been robbed by the prisoners at the bar; and 
 said : citizens of the watch, you have all most solemnly 
 aflSrrned, that these prisoners before you, are the very 
 identical persons, who came while you were all fast 
 asleep, and stole the dead body of Christ out of the 
 sepulchre ? Stop for one moment, valient soldiers of the 
 Roman army ; — has not my treacherous audibility in 
 some way deceived me? In the name of the great ruler 
 of the empyrean world, who is said to dwell over the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 343 
 
 altar of truth — Was it possible for sixteen Roman 
 soldiers to fall asleep at one and the same time? 
 
 When the guards replied, that the audibility of the 
 young lawyer did not deceive him, that they were 
 indeed, all fast asleep, w^hile the prisoners at the bar 
 went off with the crucified body of Christ. Well, 
 citizens of the guards, I am now legally satisfied, that 
 I did not misunderstand your evidence ; therefore, you 
 justify me in saying in my notes, which I now^ take of 
 your testimony, that you do all, royal soldiers of the 
 watch, positively say, without any kind of hesitancy or 
 mental reservation whatsoever, that you all laid fast 
 asleep, in every direction on the ground, about the 
 sepulchre, while the prisoners came, and first broke 
 open the royal seal of state, and rolled away the large 
 stone, without coming in contact with your lifeless 
 bodies ; and then went, you say, down into the sepul- 
 chre, and took out the crucified body of Christ ; and 
 that too, citizens soldiers, without the stench of his 
 cadaverous remains, being in the least degree offensive 
 to your alfactory nerves — and then went off w ith the 
 same, the gods, and themselves only know where ? 
 When the guards answered in the affirmative, and said, 
 that the prisoners in the criminal's box before them, 
 were the very men, who robbed the sepulchre of the 
 crucified body of Christ. 
 
 A note by the Stenographer. — [Sensible reader, pause 
 for a moment, before you pass the verge of time, and 
 your never-dying souls pass the straits of death ; and 
 your naked ghost launches into the blue sea of eternity ! 
 Now, all who oppose the high claims of Jesus Christ 
 and his gospel, stand on a rope of sand, with the whole 
 of the Jewish nation ! yet, it is on this sleepy tale, that 
 millions of persons, born in what is called a christian 
 land, consisting of Jews, Deists, Atheists, and Philoso- 
 phers, do reject the w^hole flood of evidence, which is 
 in favour of the truth of the holy gospel of the Son of 
 God. This is the way that a poor christian sailor 
 reasons on the evidence of the Gospel.] 
 
344 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 When the young lawyer replied, you have given the 
 court, as we]\ as myself, a very categorical answer. 
 And indeed, Roman soldiers, I am led to very much 
 admire you, for the clearness and remarkable precision 
 of all your answers, before the solemn bar of this court, 
 in the chaste synopsis you have given of the robbery 
 of the sepulchre. And now, be so good, citizens soldiers, 
 since you have identified them collectively, as in a mass, 
 be so kind, for the entire satisfaction of the judges and 
 the whole court, and for the plenary satisfaction of the 
 Jewish and Philosophical spectators in the galleries, to 
 be a little more verbose in your testimony : that is, 
 citizens soldiers, do please to exercise your tongues a 
 little more, in order to particularize, either their words 
 or acts ; therefore, do any of you, in the least degree, 
 recognize the features of those prisoners before you, so 
 that you can, in any one or more instances, be able to 
 • describe some one or more particular expression, in any 
 of the lineaments of their villainous looking countenan- 
 ces, whereby, citizens guards, you can, as it were, 
 identify the particular part, that either of these prison- 
 ers before you took in this thieving tragedy ? or have 
 you any knowledge, of any other coindication, about 
 their persons ? such for instance, as the height of their 
 stature, the different shades of their complexion, or the 
 provincial intonation of their voice ; or any other par- 
 ticular cadence of their words ? or does any of the 
 watch call to remembrance at this time, any other sign, 
 either in their physical or mental natures, which can 
 enable you to satisfy this high court of law and inquest, 
 which of these eleven prisoners in the criminal's box 
 before you, it was, that first lifted the felonious and 
 seditious arm of rebellion, and broke open the royal 
 seal at the entrance of the sepulchre ? or can you re- 
 collect which of them it was, who rolled the large stone 
 from the mouth of the sepulchre '? or, pray citizens 
 guards, can you inform this court, how many out of 
 these eleven prisoners, went down into the sepulchre, 
 and first took the winding sheet from oflf his dead body, 
 and the bloody napkin from oflf his head, that had been 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 345 
 
 punctured in a thousand places with a crown of thorns; 
 and then laid them both carefully aside, as it was said, 
 to be found after the body was missing out of the sepul- 
 chre, the next day? or, can you inform this court, 
 whether these prisoners brought a vehicle with them 
 to the grave, to put the dead body of Christ into, when 
 they brought it up out of the sepulchre, in order to 
 convey it through the streets of the holy city ? There- 
 fore, citizens guards, if you cannot satisfy the court on 
 all the foregoing particulars, then be so good as to give 
 the court a partial satisfaction, on at least some one or 
 more of these things ; as it certainly would give a deep 
 shade of legal veracity, to the flood of categorical tes- 
 timony, you have already given in at the bar of this 
 court. 
 
 The royal guards' answer to the young lawyers 
 queries, which he put to them; so that the Roman 
 soldiers, just like our modern Jews, Deists, Atheists, 
 Free-thinkers and carnal Reasoners, who quarrel with 
 the wisdom, power, grace and providence of Almighty 
 God, because he has sent them life and immortality, 
 through his only begotten Son. Just so the royal 
 guards, became very irascible at this young civilian, 
 because he intended ironically, to impugn their testi- 
 mony, by putting these rife queries to them. 
 
 When the young counsellor for the prisoners at the 
 bar, paused to give the Watch time to reply to his 
 legal queries — the captain of the watch rose, in the be- 
 half of his comrades, and said, in reply to the last request 
 of the young attorney, turning himself, at the same 
 time, towards the bench — said. May it please your 
 learned honours, the judges of this court — I with the 
 rest of my comrades in arms, who were entrusted with 
 the body of Christ, after it had been crucified, do per- 
 ceive, please your honours, it to be the latent design of 
 this young stranger, who, with his fine sash, the young 
 ladies of his country gave him, which has operated on 
 his mind as a kind of forensick magick, and has brought 
 him to this court, to impugn the features, and the very 
 elements of the solemn affirmation we have just given, 
 
346 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 in your learned honours' presence, and in the presence 
 of our gods. Therefore, as citizens and soldiers, we 
 feel our military honour invaded, that our Roman 
 veracity should be so onerously impugned, in the pres- 
 ence of this court ; especially the ladies and gentlemen 
 in the great galleries — in being, may it please your 
 learned honours, after we have so solemnly affirmed to 
 all the matters of fact, in general — that we should be 
 by this young barrister, who appears, please your 
 honours, if you ever took special notice, just like 
 a large bird, commonly called a peacock, when on a 
 mid-summer morn he spreads his plumage of many 
 colours, in the rays of the sun, and in a soliloquy says, 
 that the Great spirit, that made the aerial inhabitants, 
 has not so fine a bird, in the vast empire of nature, as 
 himself But this fine dressed bird, they say, never 
 looks down at his black and ugly feet : just so this 
 young gentleman appears with his fine plumage, which 
 the charity of the ladies has bestowed upon him: so 
 that, if we knew his family and plebeian origin, it is 
 very likely to be as black and muddy as the feet of the 
 vain bird I have referred to. Therefore, let you learn- 
 ed honours make the very best it can, of the prisoners' 
 young advocate; — he seems to us, to be merely trying, 
 as he has promised your learned honour the chief 
 judge, to display, under the plumage wherewith the 
 ladies have adorned his new and fine sash of many 
 colours, the youthful scintillation of the mind of a 
 young collegian, whose knowledge of men and things, 
 consists merely in an excursive view, hastily taken 
 from an oblique glance, over the countless volumes in 
 the library of the college where he was educated; so 
 that when our young forensick bird of passage, presents 
 himself before the time bleached heads of the venerable 
 judges on the bench, he fondly wishes to appear wiser 
 than all the law, wisdom and knowledge, of this famed 
 court of Areopagus, in pompous exhibition of his for- 
 ensick wit; no doubt, please your honours, with a latent 
 view of obtaining a brisk sale hereafter, in some of our 
 master Tiberius' courts, for some of those delicious 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. ^47 
 
 prodromas, or if your honours please, those precocious 
 summer fruits, he so ingeniously, with his oblique oral 
 telegraph, promised your honours as a forensick repast, 
 when you so graciously indulged him with the privilege 
 to cross-examine us, who were the guards stationed at 
 the sepulchre. Therefore, may it please your learned 
 honour, if I and my comrades are not out of order, and I 
 hope it is not irrelevant for a Roman soldier to claim the 
 privilege of citizens at the bar of this court ; — 1 would 
 then take the gratuitous liberty to say, in the use of a 
 soldier's ruthless language, in the presence of your 
 honours, that this zealous young advocate for the pris- 
 oners at the bar, seems by his obreptilious ingenuity in 
 the elements of gross flattery, to be making a deep im- 
 pression in his own favour on your unguarded sensibili- 
 ties, so that he appears bent, may it please your honours, 
 on making us poor Roman soldiers pay the bill of fare, at 
 the bar of this solemn court of law and inquest, with a 
 latent design, no doubt, of forming a kind of stepping 
 stone to raise himself [in the use of marine phraseology] 
 to be a first-rate officer on board your law ships. There- 
 fore, from the view we, as Roman guards, take of this 
 young forensick gentleman, feel much disposed to make 
 no reply to his rife and impugning queries. But, may 
 it please your learned honours, the judges, out of sheer 
 respect which we owe to this court, and the altars and 
 laws of our sovereign and country — therefore, we shall 
 inform this court, that we the Roman soldiers, being 
 sixteen in number, and as a watch, had the entire charge 
 of the garden and sepulchre, that contained the body of 
 Christ, after it was crucified — do once more declare 
 and affirm, that we neither saw, heard, felt, smelt, nor 
 tasted any person or thing, of the whole subdolous 
 transaction : for, please your honours, as we reported 
 the next day after the robbery of the sepulchre, of the 
 dead body of Christ, and have also affirmed in this courts 
 that we were to a man, all fast asleep ; therefore, the 
 simple inference, which our soldier-like judgments draw, 
 and the conclusion we have come to, in this mysterious 
 catastrophe, is this : that our physical and mental 
 
348 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 natures were altogether nullified, under the dark shades 
 of the night ; so that all our faculties lay completely 
 moored, under the nullifying embargo of the sleeping 
 goddess ; so that, please the judges of this solemn court 
 of law and inquest, we were as unconscious and insen- 
 sible, as the tender and delicate foetus, that never saw 
 the coruscation of the morning light, while that delete- 
 rious catastrophe passed over the heads of sixteen 
 Roman soldiers; or, if your honours the judges please, 
 while these prisoners in the criminal's box, at the bar 
 of this court, made a clandestine surreption on the 
 sepulchre, and went off with the crucified body of 
 Christ out of the same. Therefore, indulge us once 
 more for the last time, in the presence of this court, and 
 if necessary, in the presence of all mankind, we as the 
 soldiers, who formed and constituted the watch over 
 the sepulchre, do very truly, humbly and obsequiously 
 pray the judges, with the jury, and the whole court, 
 and likewise, as we have just hinted, the whole world 
 of rational and intelligent beings, to receive this as our 
 ultimatum and valedictory testimony, at the solemn 
 bar of this court : and we again most devoutly pray 
 this court, to receive the same as our categorical 
 answer, in the presence, and in the name of all the gods 
 of the mighty armies of the Roman empire. Amen. 
 
 Here followeth a few rational and serious reflections 
 by the five judges, in consequence of the valedictory 
 testimony of the royal guards. 
 
 And it came to pass, that this manly, and in some 
 respects honest confession, and categorical reply of the 
 sixteen Roman soldiers, that composed the watch, 
 caused a forensick re-action on the judges' minds; 
 [which, however, they as much as possible endeavoured 
 to conceal from the view of the philosophical ladies and 
 gentlemen in the galleries of the court;] when they began 
 for the first time during the lapse of eighteen hundred 
 years, of this singular and mysterious trial, to have a 
 few shades of legal light, to pass through their minds, 
 with respect to the vulnerableness of the guards' testi- 
 mony : most seriously excogitating in their minds, why 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 349 
 
 it was, that they did not see before this late hour of 
 the trial, that there was a most flagrant defect in the 
 watch's evidence. When the judges, said in a soliloquy, 
 Why, the royal guards' testimony, at the bar of this 
 solemn court of truth and justice, goes most certainly, 
 like the curses of Balaam, to bless rather than convict 
 the disciples, and also to prove the resurrection of 
 Christ from the dead ; than to disprove that soul-dis- 
 tressing doctrine to us, who, either by education or 
 choice, belong to the Jewish, Deists, Atheists casts, or 
 the philosophical schools of the age of Reason. Surely, 
 some very unfelicitous fatality, has spread a nebulous 
 dispensation over our legal judgment, during the time 
 of this mysterious trial ; in that we did not see, ere this 
 time, that blind, deaf and lifeless persons, ought not in 
 any case whatsoever, to be admitted as witnesses in 
 any of our courts of ecclesiastical, civil, or even military 
 laws : so that we have been guilty of a very great 
 oversight. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as the guards had 
 delivered in their ultimatum to the court, that the 
 young advocate for the prisoners rose, and very hum- 
 bly and obsequiously observed to the judges, and court, 
 that he had gone through the cross-examining of the 
 guards : and as I observe that the chair of the state's 
 general is vacated, and his learned honour is not in 
 court — therefore, if their honours the judges or any 
 other forensick gentleman in court this day, have any 
 further questions to put to the guards, he should pause 
 for a few moments, to give them an opportunity. After 
 he had waited a reasonable time, and no person asked 
 the watch any further questions, the young attorney 
 rose, and very prudently and politely observed to the 
 judges and court, that he did not wish, by any means, 
 to detain the Roman soldiers in durance any longer ; 
 therefore, with the indulgence of the court, he should 
 move that they now be discharged from any further 
 detention in court; so that they may return to their 
 respective locations, in order to faithfully discharge 
 their share of military duty to the interest of their 
 
 2g 
 
S50 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 sovereign. The court then freely assented to the » 
 prudent prayer of the young advocate in favour of 1 
 the soldiers' discharge. 
 
 When the chief judge rose, and signified to the court, 
 that the hour of adjournment had arrived ; and that 
 it stood adjourned, to meet in the same place the 
 ensuing day. 
 
tHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 351 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The twenty -fourth day of the trial of the robbery of the 
 sepulchre, of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 And it came to pass, that soon after the judges and 
 other legal gentlemen were all at their locations, that 
 the marshal of the empire, and the sheriff of Rome, 
 with the officers of the states-prison, brought in the 
 prisoners, and placed them as usual, in the old criminal's 
 
 Fig-Lire No. 1, 2, 3. Directing" the legal vision of the court to the 
 gods, who are, by the Roman mythology, said to preside over the 
 altars of justice, truth and mercy. 
 
 No. 4. Carnal Reason, or the philosophy of the human mind, loses 
 its former convictions, and is again pointing the finger of scorn at 
 the doctrine of the cross; with her secretary. Hardness of heart, noting' 
 down her views of Christ. 
 
 No. 5. The heavens of the age of Reason, shine forth with un- 
 usual splendour, and lady Philosophy in her observatory, taking an 
 excursive view of the planetary system ; but more especially the 
 galaxy or milky way : — pleased almost to death at the new doctrine 
 of a plurality of worlds ; so that the character of Christ with his 
 gospel, that teaches the certainty of the soid's immortality, has be- 
 come entirely repulsive to the high-wrought sensibihty and view of 
 the lady : while her private secretary, Hardness of heart, is noting 
 down her observations, on every new star or world she discovers : 
 
352 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 box before the bar; when the crier offered up the 
 forensick holocaust of, God save the emperor and com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 [The young barrister's polite compliments to the 
 court, for its past attendon and decorum, during this 
 mysterious trial.] 
 
 And it came to pass, when silence pervaded the 
 court, that the young counsellor for the prisoners at 
 the bar, arose and thus addressed the court : May it 
 please your learned honour the chief judge, with your 
 learned associates, and all the gentlemen who have 
 been the forensick agents in the case that has been 
 pending so long at the bar of this court, with the pro- 
 found, and I humbly hope, impartial jury in the box ; 
 and also the spectators in the galleries — I rise, please 
 your learned honours, to tender to this legal conclave of 
 w^isdom and knowledge, the warmest thanks of my 
 heart, and the highest considerations of my mind, for 
 the deep and serious attention of this court yesterday, 
 while I went through with the cross-examination of the 
 witnesses, against the prisoners at the bar ; therefore, 
 may it please your honours, I gather from the coindi- 
 cation of the past attention of this court, that I shall 
 this day, be the humble and obsequious agent, of again 
 eliciting the same serious attention, while I shall, in my 
 weak and simple way of legal argument, which the 
 imperfect talents, and other limited capabilities which 
 
 -while the vineyard about her onvn never-dying soul, in this mundane state, 
 is all over-grown with cockle, thorns and tares of philosophical vanity ; till 
 her short life of three score years and ten, is passed away like a dream — and 
 she dies at the opening day. This will be the last end of ail those wise 
 philosophical ladies, who forget God, and in their little hearts des- 
 pise the inimitable gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 No. 6. The five judg-es listening to the young lawyer's arguments. 
 
 No. 7. Tlie young advocate reasons and argues like a man of com- 
 mon sense, before the judges ; and g'oes into a translation of the 
 guards' testimony. 
 
 No. 8. The eleven disciples in the criminal's box at the bar of 
 this court. 
 
 No. 9. The twelve jurymen in the box. 
 
 No. 10. The states-general's chair vacated; his honour being highly 
 displeased with the indulgence of the court towards the prisoners. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. ^ 353 
 
 your humble servant possesses, proceed to discharge 
 my duty. Therefore, please your learned honours the 
 judges, I shall be no longer prolix, in apologizing at 
 the bar of this court, for the want of plenary capabili- 
 ties to vindicate the cause of innocence, and fully justify 
 the calumniated character of the prisoners at the bar, 
 who have been charged with robbing the sepulchre, of 
 the crucified body of that wonderful being, called 
 Christ. 
 
 I shall, therefore, please this court and jury, in the 
 first place, go into a few common law explanations, on 
 the nature, character and validity of the guards' 
 evidence, against the prisoners, which your honours 
 know, has been given in at the bar of this court, under 
 the solemn sanction of their oaths. When the young 
 barrister turning himself to the bench, said, May it 
 please your learned honours, the judges of this court, 
 over the case of the dead body, of one of the strangest 
 characters that ever appeared among men — who in- 
 volves in his own decease, the highest interest of all 
 mankind ; namely, if the prisoners are innocent, then 
 Christ rose from the dead : and as a plain and natural 
 consequence, he is the source of life and immortality, to 
 the whole world of mankind. But, please your learn- 
 ed honours, if so be, that the prisoners at the bar stole 
 his crucified body out of the grave, then [for there is 
 no middle ground to be taken with regard to his char- 
 acter,] I say again, please this court, that Christ is one 
 of the most awful beinfis, and vilest characters, and at 
 the same time, the most artful and insidious deceiver, 
 that ever presented himself to the view of mankind. 
 The court will pardon those few prefatory remarks. 
 Therefore, please your honours, from the auspicious 
 coindication that I have already seen, in the horizon of 
 your honours' attention, while the guards were under- 
 going a cross-examination, which causes me to expe- 
 rience a full assurance in my mind, that I shall be 
 highly gratified this day, with the further patient at- 
 tention of this court, while I shall humbly endeavour 
 to dissect the guards' testimony against the prisoners 
 
354 , CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 at the bar ; called the eleven disciples of Christ, over 
 whose dead body, this court had been, by the pleasure 
 and authority of our sovereign, convened as a court of 
 law^ and inquest. Therefore, I shall ask this court to 
 favour me a few moments with its indulgence, while I 
 am putting a keen edge on my dissecting instruments. 
 I shall also, before I proceed to the dismemberment of 
 the body of the guards' evidence, first observe, with all 
 due deference to the legal wisdom and knowledge of 
 his learned honour the chief judge, of this high court 
 of chancery, that in the luminous charge he gave to the 
 jury, on the case of the prisoners at the bar — 
 
 Now the particular feature, and special item, in the 
 charge I allude to, is this : his learned honour's high 
 commendation of the marvellous symmetry, that there 
 was in the guards' evidence, given in at the bar of this 
 court. That is, please your honour, that sixteen per- 
 sons giving in their evidence against the prisoners at 
 the bar, should do it with such cautious exactness, and 
 with all that minuteness, so as to lay a sufficient empha- 
 sis on every accented point and pause, in the punctua- 
 tion of their testimony, delivered entirely extemporan- 
 eously ; although their witness against the prisoners 
 was so entirely verbatim, that the most ready scribe, 
 that ever undertook to transcribe for the use of the fol- 
 lowers of Moses, a copy of the five books, that contain 
 the theism of the prophet, has not exceeded them in 
 the exact use of every article, noun, pronoun, verb, and 
 all the resi of the adding and qualifying words and 
 points of punctuation, which they have called to their 
 aid, to form that wonderful fac-similie, which so imbued 
 the mind of the learned judge, to an acme of almost 
 supra-mundane surprise — when his learned honour the 
 chief judge, with a plenary share of forensick eloquence, 
 informed the court and jury, that the guards' witness 
 was the most correct testimony, that his honour ever 
 before, during all his long and extensive practice, as a 
 chief judge of the courts of Roman law, had the pleas- 
 ing satisfaction to witness. But, please the court, I 
 shall claim the unalienable right and privilege of a 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 355 
 
 Roman citizen, to widely differ from his learned honour 
 the chief judge, in what my conscience onerously leads 
 me to surname, an illegal corollary. I would humbly 
 ask his learned honour, whether his deep learning and 
 long practice, at the bar of our courts, and his eleva- 
 tion on the bench as a judge, has not, ere this time, 
 made him more perfectly acquainted with the natural 
 philosophy of the human mind ; so as to know, that the 
 physical construction of the organs of sense, in the 
 human subject, are so variously constructed, with re- 
 spect to capacity, that no two persons, left to the free 
 exercise of the volition of their own words and 
 thoughts — I say, please your honour, on the hypothesis, 
 that those individuals shall stand or sit together, and 
 see the same occurrence or tragedy pass before their 
 vision, or under their audibility — that when they came 
 as legal witnesses at the bar of our courts, who ever 
 heard two men use exactly the same words, in deliver- 
 ing their evidence ; except they had formed a collision 
 before they came to court ; and had learned from each 
 other by rote, their story ? so that we see the relevancy 
 of his honour's fac-similie would only apply in such a 
 case, without comprehending either the sense or signi- 
 fication of the language they employed, when they gave 
 in their testimony before any of our bars. 
 
 His learned honour the judge will pardon those few 
 strictures, on the verbatim language and fac-similie of 
 the watch's evidence. 1 have made the foregoing re- 
 marks, in order that I may keep my conscience clear 
 from forming such an illegal conclusion; at least while 
 I am under the guide of the polar star of legal truth : 
 steering my course by the use of the helm of common 
 sense, which will lead me rather to clothe the guards' 
 evidence, in the black robes of one of the most deliber- 
 ate collision — to affect one of the most deleterious con- 
 spiracies : clothed with one of the most vicious and de- 
 praved falsehoods, that were ever uttered by the tongue 
 of man ; and at the same time, deeply surcharged with 
 lying venom of the vilest principle of human nature — 
 under the nocturnal influence of some of our demo^. 
 
356 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Therefore, may it please the court, by the indul- 
 gence of his learned honour the chief judge, I ex- 
 perience a willingness to compliment his honour's fac- 
 similie of the guards' evidence. Yes, please the court, 
 I feel disposed to go so far, as even to eulogize his learned 
 honour, in an ironical sense, on the symmetry and ver- 
 batim language of the guards' testimony, before the 
 solemn bar of this court of chancery. 
 
 [Here foUoweth a few prefatory remarks by the 
 young lawyer, to the judges, previous to his translating 
 the guards' evidence, into the elements of common 
 sense.] 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, and the gentlemen of the jury, of this high court 
 of chancery, to indulge me with your serious attention, 
 while I proceed to take a view of the guards' evidence, 
 which has been given in before your honours, against 
 the eleven prisoners at the bar, for robbing of the 
 sepulchre of the body of Christ. My duty to my 
 clients and my conscience, propels me onerously to 
 solicit the undeviating attention of the judges and jury, 
 while I shall endeavour to prove to the mind and under- 
 standing of this court, that there was not one particle 
 of evidence, nor the least shade of legal truth in the 
 testimony which the guards have given in on oath, 
 before your honours the judges, and the jury, that 
 either in law or equity, or even common sense, could 
 be received as legal evidence in the less than the least 
 degree of veracity, to prove even the slightest shades 
 of the prisoners' guilt, in the soul-distressing loss of 
 the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. No, 
 may it please your learned honours, there is not in the 
 evidence of the guards, from first to last, even one 
 solitary shade of mere parole or exparta testimony,^ on 
 which, please your honours, I presume the most credu- 
 lous in the galleries of this court, will place the least 
 confidence in. Yes, I'll even go so far on the ground 
 of rational and argumentative defiance, as to cast the 
 tocsin and challenge this court to prove, that any court 
 formed of rational beings, would be led to receive the 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 357 
 
 guards' evidence in any of our courts of judicature, 
 where civil laws are administered, and say that our 
 courts dare not admit, this worse than volatile and 
 fugitive evidence ; which this court through the agency 
 of its judges and jury, have admitted against the 
 prisoners at the bar; with this proviso, that the judges, 
 lawyers and jurors, are at the time blest with a state 
 of sanity; then, and in that case please your honours, I 
 experience a plenary share of assurance, that they will 
 all agree with me, that the lowest principles of evidence 
 that our courts, of either civil or ecclesiastical law, 
 can find bills of indictment, in order to proceed with 
 legal process against any person, is that of a collateral, 
 circumstantial and presumptive testimony. Therefore, 
 I humbly and obsequiously presume, that the legal 
 vision of the judges and jurors of this court, do clearly 
 see, without looking through my legal telescope, that 
 the guards' evidence against the prisoners at the bar, 
 was entirely defunct, in all points of legal and admis- 
 sible testimony, in the foregoing character and princi- 
 ples of evidence, which I have referred this court to, in 
 relation to the prisoners at the bar, being the very 
 identical persons who stole the crucified body of Christ 
 out of the sepulchre. 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, I would humbly 
 ask, in the name of the gods of our forefathers, what 
 in the name of common sense, have your honours the 
 judges, with the jurors, been spending the revenue, and 
 wasting the time of our sovereign, about ? as well the 
 legal talents of the judges, and all the other gentlemen 
 who constitute the law elements of this court ! There- 
 fore, please your honours, I shall not be so tenacious of 
 foundering on the anti-grammatical rocks of tautology, 
 as to deter me from asking the solemn question again. 
 What has the money and time of this court been squan- 
 dered for, with the unnecessary prodigality of its foren- 
 sick wisdom and knowledge? Will the court gratui- 
 tously permit me, with all due deference to its legal 
 sensibilities, to give the answer, and say — they have 
 
358 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 neither been listening to collateral, circumstantial, pre- 
 sumptive, nor positive evidence, against the prisoners 
 at the bar. No, may it please your honours, and this 
 once profound and intelligent jury, it most evidently 
 appears to the serious reflection of my mind, when 
 calmly listening to the vs^atch's testimony, w^hich they 
 gave in before your honours ; — when my mind became 
 almost surcharged with legal pugnacity, so that with 
 the utmost difficulty I forced a silent embargo on my 
 tongue ; when I had to endure the sad disappointment, 
 and legal mortification, of beholding my once venerable 
 fathers, the judges of this profound and high famed 
 court, with, I am sorry to say, a vitiated jury, in obse- 
 quious waiting, to bring in a verdict, on so volatile and 
 fallacious a charge, which your honours gave against 
 the prisoners at the bar, for their supposed robbery of 
 the sepulchre. But, my sense of order and legal de- 
 corum, kept me fast moored under a sanitary quarantine 
 of legal prudence: when I said in a soliloquy, Certainly 
 some of the demons from the land of cymmerian shades; 
 or else, some of the flying salamanders from the old 
 heated furnace of Vulton, had spread a spirit of the 
 most dangerous effervescence, through all the legal 
 elements of this once wise and impartial court ; and as 
 a fatal and unpropitious cause, has produced the most 
 shameful effect ; the which, please your honours, has 
 located an illegal malady, on all the legal faculties of 
 this court ; which has unhappily led it off", into a most 
 lamentable, and let me add, shameful dereliction, from 
 the imposing altitude of its former glory, and old-hon- 
 ourable cause of truth, equity and justice — which it 
 anciently professed to manifest ; and which has elicited 
 the high opinion of the whole world. 
 
 But, please your honours, by the use of a figure, in- 
 dulge me to say, that this once highly famed court, has 
 spread its shameful, its gadding, its constuperating feet, 
 over the maiden line of legal virtue ; and then, by some 
 unfelicitous aberration from all its impartial and legal 
 principles, with a deteriorating heart, has impercepti- 
 bly glided down the declivity of disgrace. And may 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 359 
 
 it please your learned honours, the judges of this ill- 
 fated court, which has gone off into some strange lati- 
 tude, where dwells neither wisdom, knowledge, pru- 
 dence nor science ; into a wild inter-mundane dispen- 
 sation — under whose sombre clouds, neither law, truth, 
 justice nor equity, ever show their heads, above the 
 surface of the foul waters, into which the whirl-w inds, 
 from the surcharged clouds of ignorance, have driven 
 this court, on a dreary lee-shore, among the rocks of 
 legal folly, and the quick-sands of forensick shame and 
 disgrace : and at the same time, please your learned 
 honours the judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, 
 overcasting all the law agents of this once renowned 
 court, with such a degree of legal darkness ; so that a 
 strange aberrating fatality has, as I have before obser- 
 ved, led oft^ this court into some dark and choatick re- 
 gion, where its once forensick light, has become dark- 
 ness : and a certain teacher once said, in one of his 
 ethicks, if the moral, and let me add, legal light, that is 
 in thee, become darkness, how dense, or keeping close 
 to the language of the character referred to, how great 
 must that darkness be. And if it is not too repulsive, 
 and at the same time too provoking to your honours' 
 sensibilities, for me again to observe, that the illegal 
 proceedings of this court, against the prisoners at the 
 bar, has in my humble opinion, caused the once legal 
 light, that was within the range of its former glory, to 
 become darkness indeed ! And the dense clouds are so 
 impenetrable, that they are no longer pervious to th« 
 coruscations of legal light. And suffer me to observe, 
 that the illegal proceedings of this court, against the 
 prisoners at the bar, by the agency of your honours, and 
 the maleable jury, whose good sense by the hard blows 
 of your illegal tilt-hammers, must have made them 
 as flat as a certain fish, called a flounder ; so that at 
 the bar of this once enlightened court, truth and false- 
 
 NoTB. — The foregoing allegory, is designed to show how 
 man has fallen from that perfect state in which God created 
 him. 
 
360 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 hood, right and wrong, guilt and innocence, vice and 
 virtue, light and darkness, are now the moral price- 
 current of this once famous court. Therefore, the ap- 
 peal I shall make to your learned honours the judges, 
 is this : that any court and jury, that at the time when 
 a cause is pending before its bar for legal adjudication, 
 and the court is labouring under the acme of such an 
 illegal and contagious fever, I presume the court is not, 
 in consequence of the periodical paroxysms of the dis- 
 ease, [of sin,] at all times in a state of sanity. There- 
 fore, may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 and gentlemen of the jury, that the inference 1 draw, 
 is this : that any court, or other conclave of civilians 
 and ecclesiastical gentlemen, labouring under so many 
 legal, moral and mental disabilities, is not a competent 
 tribunal, to try the cause of the prisoners at the bar, 
 who are called the disciples of Christ ; until, please 
 your honours, the court entirely disrobes itself, of all 
 its foul and constuperating garments ; in order, that 
 the acme of its deleterious fever, may be by the mild 
 catholicon of common sense, lowered to a state of 
 sanity. Then, and not till then, will this court of law 
 and inquest, be led in the glorious leading strings of 
 justice, truth and equity, and be fully prepared, with 
 the principles of mercy and impartiality, fairly to try 
 the cause now pending before its solemn tribunal. 
 When the young lawyer paused, and said, by the 
 pleasure of the court, the jury might retire for an half 
 hour — which was by the judges immediately granted. 
 
 A NOTE BY THE STENOGRAPHER. 
 
 By the reader's indulgence, the stenographer will, 
 by way of a short rational refreshment, while the jury 
 are by the usual indulgence of our court, privileged 
 with their half-hour to refresh themselves, with those 
 
 Note. — This part of the allegory is designed to show, the 
 entire imbecility of unconverted men, to fairly examine the 
 evidences and truth of the gospel of the Son of God. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 361 
 
 things that are of a tangible nature; therefore, in order 
 to improve the time, we shall humbly ask the reader 
 to turn over the pages of his past life, and see whether 
 there has not been an almost fac-similie in the reason- 
 ings, groundless objections, and self-extenuations, of 
 his w^ords and acts, against God and the gospel of his 
 dear Son ; in your entire neglect of that volume, which 
 by way of special distinction, is called the bible: the 
 truth of which, your good sense, as a being which God 
 has so highly, and pre-eminently distinguished you, 
 with the high faculties and powers of reason, and in- 
 telligence. Therefore, thoughtful reader, whether thou 
 art a Jew, Deist, Turk, or Christian, you may clearly 
 see, that the whole truth and validity of that volume, 
 which is called a special revelation coming from God, 
 converges its whole force of evidence on this dernier 
 point of the gospel compass : pid, or did not, the eleven 
 disciples of Christ, steal the dead body of their master 
 out of the sepulchre ? The reader will pardon my tauto- 
 logous use of the same ideas. Now this hypothesis is 
 very simple, and the conclusion is as simple also, as 
 that H T U R T, when reversed, will convey the coindi- 
 cation of Truth. Just so, thoughtful reader, if Christ 
 rose from the dead — then his gospel is true. And then 
 in that case, there remains another simple premise and 
 conclusion; and that saith Almighty God, wo unto 
 the Deist and Atheist. Therefore, thoughtful reader, 
 can any man, truly and unfeignedly believe, that Christ 
 actually and in very deed, rose from the dead, and that 
 this said rising Christ shall stand in a pillory of dis- 
 grace, for Deists, Atheists, and vain Philosophers to 
 throw the rotten eggs of their scorn and risibility in his 
 face forever ? (while the Devil convenes his band of 
 music, in the great gallery of Hell, and sings his old 
 canticle, for their diversion, that sinners shall never 
 die ; although both God and Christ hath declared, that 
 " except all men repent and believe the gospel," they 
 shall be damned :) And that too, while they bring forth 
 Christ like the Philistines did poor blind Sampson, in the 
 midst of a theatre of Carnal Reason, and Deistical 
 
 2u 
 
S63 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 scorn, to make them sport, during the time these wise 
 characters hold him in a pillory of vanity ; and that 
 they shall cause him to suffer all his promises to his 
 church and people, to go unfulfilled ? No, says the 
 Almighty Father of this risen Christ! The heavens and 
 the earth shall first pass away, before even one solitary 
 promise shall fall to the earth, unfulfilled. But, thought- 
 ful reader, in vain shall the Deist, Atheists, and vain 
 Philosophers think to escape the ire of the wrath of 
 Almighty God I When once the lion of the tribe of Juda 
 shall be roused from the thickets of Jordan, by this in- 
 sulting triumvirate of ungodly men, and nod his head, 
 and shake his shaggy mane, and cause them to hear 
 the intonation of his thundering voice — when his last 
 loud roar shall give the earth a tremulous sensation, 
 in this awful language : For the great day of his long 
 delayed wrath, has at last come on the earth : and the 
 vain Philosopher, insidious Deist, and the scorning 
 Atheist, shall not be able to stand ! When the soul- 
 chagrin interrogatory of God, will overwhelm this tri- 
 umvirate with shame and everlasting contempt. 
 
 Reader, whoever thou art, whether of patrician or 
 plebeian blood or birth ; whether a Philosopher, or a 
 way-faring man ; a rich or a poor man ; a master or 
 slave ; and by profession a Deist, Atheist, Heathen or 
 Turk; hear Christ's words by the agency of the Holy 
 Ghost, through the ministry of his beloved servant the 
 apostle Paul ; which, if the natural and grammatical 
 sense of the language is or can be comprehended, by 
 rational intelligent beings, then pardon, thoughtful 
 reader, the writer's frequent tautology, by saying, that 
 the language of Christ's servant, by the name of Paul, 
 is enough to seriously alarm all the Philosophers, and 
 carnal Reasoners on the face of the whole earth. And, 
 thouorhtful reader, indulge the writer to illustrate his 
 view of your awful and jeopardous condition, by the 
 simple use of a marine figure, which is. That the writer 
 may be justified in calling the language of Paul, the 
 fire-ship of the gospel squadron ; loaded down to her 
 bench with the great magazine, which contains the hot 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 363 
 
 displeasure and fiery indignation, of the wrath of 
 Almighty God ; especially against Carnal Reason and 
 vain Philosophy. 
 
 I'll give the captain of the fire-ship^s own words ; 
 which are enough to set on fire all the strong holds of 
 the lying serpent, the Devil and Satan — that he has, 
 in this mundane dispensation, commanded by his obse- 
 quious and humble servants the Atheists, Deists, carnal 
 Keasoners, Free-thinkers, and wise philosophers, and 
 sinners of every class — Hear captain Paul's own words; 
 and then judge for yourselves: '-And to you who are 
 troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be re- 
 vealed from heaven, with his mighty angels in flaming 
 fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, 
 and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 
 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
 from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his 
 power." But, reader, time is short, and I cannot spare 
 any more of the precious article, on board captain 
 VsiwVs fire-ship, blowing through the speaking trumpet 
 at this time, to warn you of your danger ; as the half- 
 hour's indulgence, to the court and jury, has expired, 
 and I see them all rushino^ into court again. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the young counsellor for 
 the prisoners at the bar, resumed his plea, and said : 
 May it please your learned honours the judges, and 
 the gentlemen of the jury ; I am bold this day in your 
 profound presence; although I shall, no doubt, draw a 
 small shower of your honours' risibility, at my sailing 
 my forensick ship, so frequently, through the waters of 
 tautology, at the bar of this court ; so that if my audi- 
 bility does not greatly deceive me, I perceive your 
 honours in a soliloquy saying. What our youngster 
 with his fine sash, the young ladies of his country gave 
 him to plead his maiden-plea in at the bar of this court, 
 w^ants in sound and legal argument, he seems bent by 
 filling up his errata or manly cavities of his argument, 
 by pestering the court with his tautologous remarks ! 
 Be that as it may, please your learned honours, your 
 
364 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 risible sprinkles shall not deter me from exposing the 
 folly and weakness of this court, and discharging the 
 onerous responsibility 1 owe to my conscience, and the 
 interest and character of the eleven prisoners at the 
 bar. Therefore, I shall solemnly aver, that the wis- 
 dom, knowledge, time, treasure and talents of this court, 
 has all been shamefully spent, and wastefully consumed, 
 in listening to the sporting phantoms of soldiers' dreams; 
 or rather the fanciful vagaries of the sleepy guards, in 
 the presence and audibility of your learned honours 
 the judges, [or the perfect state of the human mind, 
 before the sin of Adam.] Yes, may it please your 
 honours, it was with the greatest violence on my legal 
 sensibilities, that I kept my tongue silently embargoed, 
 within the sanitary regulations and quarantine laws of 
 forensick decorum, when I saw and heard your honours 
 and this court, listen to, and receive the guards' vile 
 and unreasonable lies, as a substitute for legal evidence 
 against the prisoners at the bar, as I before said. And 
 now, will the court be so indulgent as to bear with me, 
 while I shall endeavour to relieve my mind from the 
 onerous element of astoni'^hment, that has located on it, 
 in consequence of listening to the irrational arguments 
 and illegal logic of this court ; by making a small sur- 
 reption, on the sententious merchandize of an old 
 author, and say to your learned honours, how is the 
 faithful court become a harlot ! that in its former days 
 the vision and voice of God saw, and pronounced it very 
 good — and righteousness, jud.irment, truth and justice, 
 lodged in it ; but now murderers ; so that its forensick 
 silver and gold has become dross, and the choice wine 
 of its antecedent wisdom and knowledge, is now mixed 
 with the foul waters of disgrace and ignorance ; so 
 that it has become defunct, in the waters of the dead 
 sea of lying vanity. These reflections passed in quick 
 succession through my mind, during the examination 
 of the prisoners at the bar. Yes, may it please your 
 learned honours, my young mind, was at times, as it 
 were, almost astounded, with the tergiversations that 
 this court, so often legally resorted unto, in its false 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 365 
 
 ratiocination ; flying first to one shifting sand bank, 
 and then unto another; just like the marine figure I 
 shall take the presuming boldness of placing before 
 your honours, of a sporting Dolfin, playing and spring- 
 ing after the little flying fish of vanity and falsehood ; 
 or, dropping, may it please your learned honours, my 
 similie, in your legal presence ; I shall then say, that 
 the shifting ground of reasoning and argument, that 
 this court has lowered its dignity to make use of, in 
 order to convict and condemn the prisoners at the bar, 
 called the eleven disciples of Christ, for robbing the 
 sepulchre ; 1 say, please your learned honours, were 
 onh" laid on a baseless foundation, just like the delusive 
 vision of an hungry man, who dreams he is seated at 
 the festive board, where the cornucopiae is surcharged 
 from the revenues of nature, and had discharged itself 
 on the hungry man's table. But, behold! may it please 
 your honours, the starving man awakes from his 
 bacchanalian vision, but his soul, with the starving 
 prodigal, had not filled his belly with the empty husks 
 of his night vision. 
 
 Now, may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 and the gentlemen of the jury ; pray, has not this court 
 been fulfilling the character of my sleeping bacchana- 
 lian — ^just like the delusive dreams of the starving man? 
 so that the court has been feasting with its fevered 
 mind, from the illegal horn surcharged with falsehood, 
 gathered from the empty husks of the sporting vagaries 
 of the sleeping soldiers ? 1 say, may it please your 
 honours, my mind at times has been almost chagrined 
 while I sat incog, in this court, and silently beheld 
 your learned honours the judges, w^th the jury, listen- 
 ing with profound attention to the visonary testimony 
 of the Roman guards ! And for this court to carry the 
 climax of its illegal folly to its utmost acme, in admit- 
 ting the watch's lying dreams, as a legal evidence at 
 the bar of this once solemn court, on the side of the 
 crown, against the prisoners at the bar, the disciples 
 of Christ. I shall therefore humbly inquire of his 
 learned honour the chief judge, with his learned asso- 
 2h* 
 
366 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 ciates at his right and left : Pray, sirs, what are the 
 legal characters of the witnesses, and the forensick 
 shades of their testimony, which this high and hereto- 
 fore honourable court, has admitted in evidence against 
 the prisoners at the bar? 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours, I shall, 
 as it were, gratuitously venture to humbly persuade 
 myself, that I shall still be favoured with the profound 
 attention of this court, while I levy a small tax on the 
 judges and jury's patience ; and also indulge me to lay 
 a transient sanitary quarantine on the patience and 
 clemency of all the spectators in this court, while I 
 shall obsequiously endeavour, with my surgical instru- 
 ments of common sense, to dissect the head, body and 
 
 Note. — A word to the reader, in plain and unfigurative 
 language : What are the overwhelming arguments, by which 
 the Deists, the Atheist and vain Philosophers set at naught 
 and indefinitely reject the Son of God, and his sublime and 
 inimitable gospel? Why, reader, it is this, "His disciples 
 stole him while we slept." Now, reader, is it not marvellous- 
 ly strange, that all the Jews, Deists, Atheists and Philoso- 
 phers, who in general seem to be wise, sensible, rational, and 
 some of them intelligent beings, on any subject in this mun- 
 dane state : yes, reader, they can both think, speak, and act 
 like social and intelligent beings ; but if you bring them on 
 that dignified subject, of the souVs immortality^ they then 
 seem to have lost, as in^ moment of time, all their powers 
 and faculties of ratiocination ; and gape on you, like the wild 
 man of the wilderness ; who can only make a few hierogly- 
 phical signs, to convey his ideas to his fellows. And as for 
 sound and rational argument, on Heaven, Hell, Eternity, 
 Christ, and the soul's immortality, they are subjects for which 
 they have no ideas: so that, like the short-sighted judges of 
 this court, they can believe any tale of wicked men and the 
 Devil — no matter how absurd the idea may be, if it only has 
 God, and Christ, and Immortahty, and their moral accounta- 
 bility to heaven, for the object of their impugning strictures, 
 and insidious risibility ; they can then use their ideas and 
 tongues to the best possible advantage. But no more from 
 the poor sailor at present. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 367 
 
 all the members of the guards' oath, which his learned 
 honour the state's attorney, on the behalf of the crown, 
 administered to the royal guards. 
 
 And now, by the indulgence of their honours the 
 judges, I shall pursue my surgical operations, in order 
 to give this court of law and inquest, and through it 
 the whole world, the most open and indubitable evidence, 
 that I have at least a latent desire, to steer clear of 
 those heavy charges, that Reason and Philosophy have 
 so very often obliquely, although at the same time 
 gratuitously thrown out at the words and works of the 
 prisoners at the bar, with those of their master : that is, 
 please your learned honours, that they were very much 
 in the cautious habit of performing all their dissecting 
 operations with closed doors, with a view of keeping 
 the keen eye of Reason, and the eagle vision of Philo- 
 sophy, from having a clear view of their mysterious 
 operations. Now, the ladies insidious charge ran in 
 those w^ords : that is. Reason and Philosophy, who have 
 said, through the agency of the tongues and pens of 
 their dear offspring the young swains, who in after 
 ages affianced the lovely nymphs, the daughters of the 
 old goddess of the Age of Reason and Philosophy — 
 that these things were all done in a corner. There- 
 fore, may it please your honours, it is my anxious de- 
 sire, to keep out of the reach, if possible, of their in- 
 vidious mustard seed shot from the risible rifle of the 
 ladies' dear offspring, while I am translating the 
 guards' oath into the language of common sense. 
 
368 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Here foUoweth the translation of the guards' testi- 
 mony, by the young lawyer ; who advocates the cause 
 of truth and innocence, against the false reason, and 
 the vain philosophy of the human mind, as it stands 
 [in the year 1832, August 11th, while the Asiatic 
 Cholera was raging in New- York and Philadelphia,] 
 opposed to Christ and his gospel ; or in the similitude 
 used in this trial, translating the guards' evidence into 
 the language of common sense. And according to the 
 usual custom of courts, the jury having been indulged 
 
 No. 1. The altar of truth ami justice. 
 
 No. 2. The great gallery over-flowing with spectators. 
 
 No. 3. Tlie five judges on the bench. 
 
 No. 4. Lady Reason, and her private secretary, Hardness of hectrt, 
 greatly astounded at the translation of the guards' oaths. 
 
 No. 5. Lady Philosopljy has thrown down her telescope, and is with her 
 left hand showing her secretary, Unbe'ief, that the Sun in the Age of 
 Reason is almost again obscurated ; — and with her right hand directing the 
 vision, and soliciting the attention of her private secretary, to listen to the 
 young advocate's artful manner of translating the testimony of the guards ; 
 which they gave in against the eleven prisoners at the bar. 
 
 No. 6. The young attoi-ney before the writing table, on which he mad« 
 his translation of the w atch's aflirmation into common sense, and reading 
 the eame to the jury ; wlto, with all the spectators in coui't, are listening with 
 great attention. 
 
 No. 7. The eleven disciples in the old criminal's box. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 369 
 
 with an half-hour's grace, for various physical purposes 
 of relief and refreshment, had now returned into court; 
 when the young barrister rose and said — May it please 
 your learned honours the judges, and the gentlemen of 
 the jury, it devolves on me this afternoon, as I have 
 brought my dissecting instruments with as keen an 
 edge, as my poor hone of legal argument, can at this 
 time put on them. Therefore, in the first place, I shall 
 just observe, that the four quaternions, that is, sixteen 
 Roman guards, who were placed by the centurion as 
 guards over the sepulchre — who, please your honours, 
 acted immediately under the imperative orders of 
 Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea ; which embraced 
 within its jurisdiction, the old and noted city of Jerusa- 
 lem, as w^e have so often said at the bar of this court, 
 with its wonderful and magnificent temple : this your 
 honours well know ; that this sad loss took place, in or 
 about the nineteenth year of the reign of Tiberius 
 Caesar, as has been once observed to this court, count- 
 ing from the time that Augustus took him as a princi- 
 pal wnth himself in the government of the empire. 
 
 I wnll now, please your learned honours, read in your 
 audibility, and that of the whole court, my translation 
 or rather dissection of this w^onde^ful and marvellous 
 testimony, w^hich please the court, I view as more re- 
 markable for its sleepy stolidity, than for any other 
 quality: it runs thus : '*We, may it please this court, 
 who were placed as a military watch over the sepulchre, 
 that w^as located in the garden, hard by the place that 
 was called Mount Calvary, w^here Christ was publicly 
 crucified ; therefore, we the royal guards, who had 
 committed to our care and safe keeping, the aforesaid 
 crucified body of Christ, and that too, under the solemn 
 charge of his holiness, Caiaphas the high priest of the 
 Jews, and the more imperative orders and commands 
 of our officer, the centurion : therefore, be it remember- 
 ed, that we this day, in the 19th year of the reign of 
 our sovereign lord, Tiberius; and in the days of the 
 aforesaid Pontius Pilate, also in the days of his holiness 
 Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, and as we are 
 
370 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 now in the presence of the judges of this court of law 
 and inquest, over the loss of the dead body of Christ ; 
 and also, before the sacred altars of our country ; and 
 in the heart-searching presence of all our national gods: 
 We do this day, for ourselves, first personally ; and 
 secondly, collectively, most solemnly declare and affirm, 
 that we are no evidence, nor any kind of witnesses in 
 this mysterious case, now pending for trial at the bar 
 of this solemn and impartial court : For, may it please 
 your learned honours the judges, for this very obvious 
 reason : for we were to a man fast asleep : so that, no 
 doubt, the wisdom and knowledge, associated with the 
 good sense of your learned honours, doth plainly see, 
 that we who were the guards placed over the dead 
 body of Christ, had neither eyes to see, nor ears to 
 hear, nor tangibility to the touch : nor were our alfac- 
 tory nerves, at the time of the robbery, in sensitive 
 operation, to smell the nauseous effluvia, arising from 
 the dead body of Christ ; when the prisoners at the bar 
 drew the crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre : 
 for we were all fast asleep. Therefore, your honours 
 the judges, will, we presume, in your wisdom and 
 knowledge of men and things, be legally led to give us 
 our full discharge, in consequence of the foregoing 
 reasons, which we have this day educed in the audi- 
 bility of this court, and most indubitably assigned, of 
 our entire physical and moral disqualifications, as 
 witnesses, given in under our solemn affirmation at the 
 bar of this court : so that we do again repeat and say, 
 that we do once more most solemnly declare and affirm, 
 that, please your learned honours the judges, with the 
 whole court, that we were neither positive, presump- 
 tive, circumstantial, nor even collateral witnesses, in 
 the case at issue at the bar : for we iterate again, that 
 not one of us, who stood watch at the sepulchre, at the 
 time the robbery was committed, either saw, heard, 
 felt, or smelt, any person or thing, of the whole myste- 
 rious transaction. Amen. And further the witnesses 
 saith not." Court of Areopagus : sworn before me, one 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 371 
 
 of the Justices of the Peace, of the empire of sound 
 Reason. Signed, 
 
 .iu£^st 15, 1832. COMMON SENSE, Alderman. 
 
 The young barrister of Roman law's humble and very 
 obsequious apology to the Jew, Deists, and their dear 
 kinsman, the profound Atheist, for his new mode of 
 translating the report, or affirmation of the Roman 
 guards, at the time the crucified body of Christ w^as 
 lost or stolen out of the sepulchre. 
 
 Now, may it most graciously please your learned 
 honours, the five judges of this court of law and inquest, 
 with the intelligent and enlightened jury : profound 
 gentlemen of the law, and conservators of civil virtue, 
 and the guardians of legal truth, before the civick 
 altars of our national gods^ — I do humbly and obse- 
 quiously ask, does not your natural views of truth, and 
 its malignant counterpoise falsehood, fully justify my 
 plain, and yet very simple translation of the guards' 
 testimony, which has been given in — and also, received 
 as full and indubitable evidence against the prisoners 
 at the bar of this court, famed throughout the world in 
 its antecedent days, as an impartial tribunal. There- 
 fore, the legal indulgence and favour I am this morn- 
 ing about to crave, of this impartial court, is this : that 
 his serene highness. Alderman Common-sense, be by 
 the legal etiquette and forensick urbanity of this w^ell 
 bred court, specially invited to take the chair for a 
 few moments, while he passes a righteous, and equita- 
 ble sentence, on my simple mode of translating the 
 watch's evidence. Now, may it please your honours, 
 all the favour T ask, seeing you have granted me the 
 indulgence of inducting Alderman Common-sense on the 
 scarlet cushion, in the sensorium of your honours' legal 
 understandings, and indulge me to associate as his col- 
 league, his caustic reverence. Doctor Conscience ; and 
 let me ask your honours and the jury, is not the legal 
 explication and open, and I trust, fair dissection, which 
 I have given of the phraseology employed by the 
 guards, in solemn testimony against the lives of the 
 
372 ClIllIST REJECTED. 
 
 prisoners at the bar, in full consonance with the natural 
 organization of letters, which the guards very leisurely- 
 first associated into words, and then, to the marvellous 
 astonishment of your learned honours the judges of this 
 court, formed that almost supra-mundane sentence, 
 which like the interwoven, and complicated knot, that 
 the young Grecian hero severed asunder, with the keen 
 edge of his sabre, which had perplexed the mind, and 
 puzzled the wit of this court, for upwards of twenty 
 days : And also, Jews, Deists, and Atheists, and pro- 
 found Philosophers, for these last eighteen hundred 
 years,] to either untie or unravel this knot. There- 
 fore, I crave the indulgence of this court, to place this 
 marvellous, sententious knot, in the full relievo of your 
 learned honours' wisdom and legal knowledge, so that 
 you may, if the gracious condescension of the learned 
 judges of this court, pleases to wet the edge of their 
 legal sabres, on this old fashion hone of common sense, 
 they may then cut this colossus, this marvellous lying 
 hydra of unbelief asunder, with the same adroitness, as 
 the young subdolous conqueror cut the gordian knot, 
 " His disciples came by night, and stole him while we 
 slept." 
 
 And now having, please your learned honours, hung 
 up this knot, [that has so unmercifully perplexed the 
 nation of the Jews, and ferreted out all the Philosophy 
 of the wise and great men of the outward christian 
 world,] on the civick altar, full in the relievo of the bar 
 of this court, I shall now undulate the audibility of 
 every gentleman present, by expressing the unfeigned 
 conviction of my mind before the court, by calling to 
 the aid of my repulsive sensibilities, [at the folly of my 
 fellow men,] as auxilliaries to alleviate the moral dis- 
 pleasure of my mind ; and the language I shall now 
 employ is this : that the idle tale, and self-contradictory 
 report of the guards is, please your honours, one of the 
 most fallacious stories, that was ever uttered by the 
 tongue of man. I must once more iterate the pithy 
 annunciation of my fellow dying men, as a marvellous 
 sententious knot, to frighten the world out of the be- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 373 
 
 lief of their own immortality, and the resurrection of 
 the crucified body of Christ from the dead: although, 
 your learned honours have once pounded my head 
 with your tilt-hammer of cutting sarcasm, before all 
 the ladies and gentlemen present, for my plenary use 
 of the elements of tautology : therefore, I once more 
 repeat the sleepy catholicon, gratuitously given by 
 Jews, Deists, Atheists, and profound Philosophers, as 
 a downy pillow and soul-conservator of the sons and 
 daughters of Adam : " His disciples stole him while we 
 slept ! ! !" The which declaration, as I have once said 
 in the presence of your honours, is more remarkable 
 for its sleepy stolidity, than any other quality. 
 
 A short note by the Stenographer. — Ye sons of Jacob, be- 
 nignly indulge the writer to dolorously exclaim, in the gra- 
 tuitous use of the language of one of your own prophets : 
 " Hear, O heavens ! and give ear, O earth ! I have nourished 
 and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." 
 Yea, they have deteriorated so far from the elements of in- 
 telligence and clear ratiocination, or the powers of legal argu- 
 ment, that even common sense has spread its wings and de- 
 parted from the house of Israel ; and the once glorious 
 tabernacles of Jacob ! so that their own God has fully justi- 
 fied himself before angels and men, in giving their full por- 
 trait on the telegraph of his Word, by his servant the prophet, 
 of all the features and depreciating lineaments of their char- 
 acter : that is, in a moral sense, they stood below the feet of 
 the ox and the dumb ass, in the slough of ignorance ; wallow- 
 ing in the mire of sin ; and with a spirit surcharged with the 
 elements of pugnacity and unbelief — rejecting their own 
 national Messiah ; on the luke-warm and nauseous lying 
 element, generated by the oviparous spawn of the old ser- 
 pent, Satan, in the caldron of the guards' dreams : who 
 seem on this occasion, to have put the modesty of Moses' old 
 serpent to the blush, in the science of falsehood : for he was 
 wide awake, when he introduced himself into the drawing- 
 room of the fair lady Eve : but never once insulted her high 
 wrought intelligence, with the sporting vagaries of his sleep- 
 ing moments. No, ye sons of Israel ! if the Devil had not 
 
 2i 
 
374 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 We will now return into court. — But, may it please 
 your learned honours the judges, to graciously indulge 
 me to remark in your presence — although I am, it is 
 true, both young in years and the practice of the law, 
 at the bars of our higher courts of judicature — this 
 beino- my maiden plea in this high court of chancery. 
 Yes, please your honours, when my want of age, 
 knowledge and practice of the law, is compared with 
 the time-bleached hair on the heads of the venerable 
 judges; [I stand like an ignis-fatuus, faintly glimmer- 
 ing before the flambeau] who have this day the legal 
 honour to occupy the bench. Nevertheless, says a 
 certain writer, " there is a stamina in man, and the 
 empyrean conservatories of justice and truth, gives him 
 understanding." Therefore, may it please your vener- 
 able honours, I still experience a Roman boldness, in 
 throwing the toscin, and bidding a legal defiance to any 
 young or venerable gentleman of the law, that either 
 
 used more sensible and rational arguments, than the spurious, 
 vague, and let me add, worse than cob-web testimony, and 
 the sleepy stolidity of the guards, on which, O house of 
 Israel ! you have with a spirit surcharged with the elements 
 of effervescence ; so that your irascible fever, has led you in 
 a rage of unbelief, to sell, barter, bargain, and dispose of 
 your own legitimate and lawful Messiah, Saviour, and 
 Redeemer, for a Roman soldier's dream. Is it not then high 
 time, ye sons of Jacob, for you to lament with David and 
 say : How is the beauty and intelligence of Israel fallen ! 
 tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon ; 
 lest the offspring of the ox and the ass rejoice, and triumph 
 over God's worse than brutish and besottish children ! who 
 have cast off and forsaken their true and only Messiah, the 
 Lamb of God, who beareth away, in his own body on the 
 cross, the sins of a guilty and rebellious world. O, ye sons of 
 Israel ! I say, you have sold your Messiah for less value than 
 Judas Iscariot ! For he, it appears, covenanted, contracted, 
 bargained and sold him to your high priest, Caiaphas, and 
 his irritable coadjutors in crime, for tiiirty pieces of silver. 
 But, O house of Jacob, ye have solemnly covenanted, con- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 375 
 
 forensick duty, curiosity or chance, may have this day 
 brought into court. And while I experience the stamina 
 of forensick zeal to flow in my youthful veins, I'll in- 
 crease the acme of my challenge, and throw my toscin 
 of defiance against the whole world, and bid human 
 reason and pompous philosophy, with all its fastidious 
 and insidious auxilliaries of serpent-like wit and inge- 
 nuity, propelled with the perennial currents of deisti- 
 cal risibility, which the most vitiated nature of man 
 has the plenary possession of, to give, may it please 
 your honours, any other translation of the guards' tes- 
 timony, against the prisoners at the bar. Should your 
 learned honours, the judges of this impartial court, 
 subject yourselves to the assidious turmoil of transla- 
 ting the guards' evidence, into all the languages which 
 are spoken on the face of the earth ; if, at the same time, 
 your honours will gratuitously invite Alderman Com- 
 mon-sense on the forensick binacle before them, while 
 your honours are making the translation. — And before 
 I put my sabre [or the sword of the spirit] into the 
 sheath, I will cast my toscin of defiance, and roundly 
 challenge the whole vvorld, for any man, whether he 
 be a Jew, Deist, Atheist, a wise Philosopher, Turk, 
 or Heathen, to give any other solution of the elemen- 
 tary sounds of the guards' oath ; or any other explica- 
 tion to the legal character of the language employed 
 
 traded, bargained and sold him, for to serve the Gentiles, as 
 their high priest, prophet, king and Saviour, at a more 
 moderate price, even for a Roman soldier's dream ! Look, 
 ye sons and daughters of Israel, at the superscription on the 
 base coin, that you received in payment for your Lord and 
 Master, " his disciples stole him while we slept." 
 
 The thoughtful reader, will, I hope, be in the possession 
 of at least so much of the element of mercy, as to forgive the 
 aberrance of the Stenographer, who has been guilty so often, 
 during the course of this trial, in his gadding so frequently 
 out of court, after those collateral and circumstantial objects, 
 and things which he humbly thought, had either a remote or 
 near bearing on this trial. 
 
3T6 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 by the watch, when the crucified body of Christ was 
 first missing out of the sepulchre ; than, please your 
 honours, I have given to the same, to day, at the bar 
 of this high court of law and inquest. When the 
 young lawyer paused : at which the chief judge rose 
 and signified to the court, that the hour to adjourn 
 had again arrived. So the court stood adjourned to 
 meet in the same place the ensuing day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 377 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The twenty -fifth daij of the trial of the robbery of the 
 sepulchre^ of the cruclfed body of Christ. 
 
 And it cam3 to pass, that early on the morning of 
 the twenty-fifth day of the trial, the doors of the court 
 house being thrown open at an early hour, the court 
 met pursuant to adjournment ; when the first carriages 
 that arrived in front of the portico, brought a large 
 squadron of Jewish and Philosophical ladies : but their 
 
 Nos. 1. & 2. Jii slice and Trullioflcring up their respective burnt offering, 
 on tlieir alt-trs. 
 
 Nos. 3. & 4. Reason ami Pliilosop'iy, with black veils over their faces ; and 
 their la(]ys!iii)s are rnucli in the diiip.ps tliis mornir.s:, at the youn;; lawyer so 
 unmercifully iin;)Ugniiio;the guai'ds' lestiraoiiy, against the prisoner?. 
 
 No. 5. The five jud.u;es avIio try this cause. 
 
 No. 6. Tlie marshal and sheriflT kading into court the large stone, shubbcry 
 and trees of the garden, as being, on the principles of common sense, far less 
 exceptionable witnesses against the prisoners at the bar, than the sleepy 
 guards. 
 
 No. 7. The young Roman barrister, pleading the cause of the prisoners 
 at the bar, chaiged with stealiiig the dead body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 No. 8. I he eleven disciples placed in the'old criminal's box to be tried 
 for their lives, for robbii g the sepulchre. 
 No. 9. The twelve jurymen. 
 
 2i* 
 
378 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 words were few ; for the young lawyer's translation of 
 the guards' oath, the day before, had in a great meas- 
 ure anchored their oscillatory members of speech, under 
 a silent sanitary quarantine ; so that it put the specta- 
 tors in mind of a saying that is written, " there was 
 silence in the empyrean regions for about the space of 
 an half hour." And when the young gentlemen went 
 out of court to assist them to alight, their words, like 
 the iron money of one of the old Grecian states, were 
 ponderous and few : neither were there any display 
 of that volatile gallicism of style, nor near so many 
 deistical idioms in their vocabulary to these ladies in 
 order to distress the fearful audibility of the sheep- 
 hearted friends of Christ, this morning : for the young 
 attorney's new and simple mode of dissecting the 
 watch's testimony, and then throwing the elementary 
 parts of their evidence into the language of common 
 sense, had so marvellously dismantled the young gentle- 
 men of their usual urbanity, that the pleasing sauvity 
 of their style towards the ladies, appeared to us this 
 morning, who are sailors on board the gospel ships, as 
 if our young Deistical gentry, were either sailing under 
 their courses or close-reefed topsails ; in consequence of 
 the contrary winds from the clouds and arguments of 
 the prisoners' advocate ; which had caused a head and 
 pitching sea: and that was not all, for the young 
 lawyer's air-pumps had raised clouds of dust, through 
 the once transparent and empyrean regions of the age 
 of reason ; when there suddenly appeared rising out of 
 the sea of Jewish unbelief, and Deistical and Atheisti- 
 cal infidelity, a few little ominous clouds, like "a man's 
 hand ;" which their forecasting minds did but dimly 
 see, through the smoky glasses in their telescopes. 
 
 Now, these ugly little clouds, appeared to be rising 
 out of the false sea of the guards' testimony; which, in 
 process of time, might, for Vv e know, shipmates, there 
 is neither confidence nor certainty to be placed in those 
 angry looking aerial prophets: just so the young 
 lawyer's translation of the guards' evidence, had spread 
 clouds and darkness over the whole horizon of infidelity ; 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 379 
 
 lest, in the issuing of the case pending at the bar, the 
 artful and insidious young lawyer should, indeed, in- 
 validate the guards' evidence, which is all that is 
 necessary to give the gospel scheme pre-eminence. 
 
 And it came to pass, that these young Deistical 
 gentlemen, walked with a kind of dead march, up to 
 the carriage doors, and viewing the sombreness in the 
 deathly cholera of eternal damnation, which laid for the 
 time being a sanitary embargo on their tongues, they 
 reached forth their hands to assist the ladies to alight ; 
 and in solemn silence, inducted them into the great 
 gallery. 
 
 And it came to pass, that as soon as the young ladies 
 of the Jewish and Deistical families, of high blood and 
 noble birth, were all accommodated with seats in the 
 great gallery, that the plain vehicle arrived at the por- 
 tico in front of the court-house, having on board the 
 two most wise and scientific ladies of this mundane 
 dispensation ; that is, Reason and Philosophy : but, 
 these aerial sisters were rather neglected ; for neither 
 the judges nor the chief almoner of the court, paid 
 them that special attention this morning, they had pre- 
 viously done ; as all the forensick officers of this court 
 were either musing, or else deeply forecasting in their 
 minds, on the sombre appearance of the alarming vul- 
 nerableness of the guards' testimony; for fear it would 
 not stand the fire of this youngster's argumentative 
 ordeal, when he came to put the spurious coin into this 
 new crucible, to undergo the melting heat of Hell fire, 
 and the wrath of God, with this superscription: "His 
 disciples stole him while we slept." So that it appear- 
 ed, that this young lawyer with his fine sash and maiden 
 plea, at the bar of this court of chancery, lowered the 
 acme of the judges' finer sensibilities towards those 
 amiable ladies, Reason and Philosophy : and that the 
 former manifestations of respect which the judges and 
 other officers of the court had publicly paid to the fair 
 part of this mundane dispensation, did for the time 
 being, condense the mercury in the thermometer of 
 their once [to all outward appearance,] unfeigned 
 
380 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 affection to these two blooming roses, in the garden of a 
 transient paradise, that had sprung up under the genial 
 warmth, and luminous influence of the Sun, in the 
 empyrean region of the age of Reason, when our young 
 barrister's arjrumentative breath, raised so many little 
 clouds, which were fast spreading themselves over the 
 court ; which, at the same time, caused a state of de- 
 terioration to take place in the once almost surcharged 
 affections of the officers of this court, towards the once 
 superlative graces of the ladies Reason and Philosophy; 
 to lower itself down to stoical indifference of three 
 score years and ten, quite in another region, under the 
 solstice of a lono; winter's ni^^ht. 
 
 A £ew reflections by the stenographer, on the state of the 
 judges' mind, at the young lawyer's maiden plea at the bar 
 of this court. Respected friend and thou;i;htful reader, of 
 this mysterious and at the sarpo time all-important trial, I 
 humbly ask with all due and becoming deference, to the 
 national and theological prepossessions and prejudices of the 
 Jew, and the sensual secret dislike of the Deist, with his 
 pleasing system of sublime ethicks, drawn down from the 
 bright clouds, that float in the high atmosphere of the age 
 of Reason, by the lightning rod of unbelief, which he has 
 written on the telegraph of vanity, against the high claims 
 of Christ and his gospel. And the wise Atheist I will not 
 forget ; but with that humble and becoming respect for his 
 ideal gods of im^rt matter, or that our mundane system and 
 dispensation are eternal. I say, this wonderful triumvirate 
 of profound wisdom may, if the three wise Doctors please, 
 carry their opposition to Christ and his church on earth, to 
 the most plenary acme of the pugnacious fever, of their 
 minds and hearts against him. But with all due respect to 
 the three Doctors we have alluded to : to wit — Messieurs 
 Jew, Deist and Atheist, let the poor sailor who has taken 
 up the goose-quill to be the amanuensis of this trial, humbly 
 ask these three gentlemen, What will the icy feelings of 
 your chagrined hearts and astounded souls be, if in the final 
 issue of this trial, this young lawyer should be fortunate 
 enough to prove beyond mathematical demonstration, and also 
 by the most irrefragable testimony and indubitable evidence : 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 381 
 
 And it came to pass, that the ladies' footman had to 
 assist them to alight out of their plain carriage, with 
 their two secretaries ; which were all the retinue that 
 formed their private legation : when the ladies, Reason 
 and Philosophy, went attended only by their two ladies' 
 honour. Unbelief and Hardness of heart, into their 
 small gallery, and quietly took their seats, lowering 
 their royals, or if our marine simile by our modern 
 ladies is not perfectly comprehended, they let fall their 
 black veils, in order to conceal their expressive counte- 
 
 if, I say, (the reader may indeed smile at my many tautolo- 
 gous premises and categorical corollaries,) this young stran- 
 ger should, in the sequel of this trial, before this court of law 
 and inquest, make it manifest to all men, that the eleven 
 disciples, the chained prisoners at the bar, did not steal the 
 crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre : but, that this 
 said Christ did go out of the silent grave, by a latent and 
 divine power, which he had (in his hypostasis nature) in- 
 herent in himself, independent of any other being ; therefore, 
 from this hypothetical position, I shall again most unmerci- 
 fully impugn the wisdom and knowledge of these three afore- 
 named gentlemen ; to wit : the Jew, Deist, and their dear 
 kinsman the Atheist, with another of my tautologous con- 
 clusions : and humbly ask my three scoffing and risible old 
 shipmates, on board the ship of time, while you are sailing 
 over the boisterous seas of this mundane dispensation, my 
 simple inference is this : That if Christ rose from the dead, 
 for I wish to pester the reader's mind with my monstrous re- 
 marks on this point, and no other of the theological compass 
 of the gospel ; that the whole colossus of the truth of the 
 bible, or revealed religion, rests : so that its grand and car- 
 dinal truth is no more affected, with the multiform formularies 
 in use in the christian church, and the multifarious views 
 which mankind have taken of the nature, attributes, and 
 character of Christ ; nor the discrepancies of the views, that 
 the various divisions into which the outward church of Christ 
 has fallen, in their theological disquisition on shades or points 
 of doctrine : We say, shipmates, these trifling and minor 
 syllogisms of the schools, which the imperfect views, that 
 the poor plebeian followers of Christ have taken, during the 
 sombre ages of a dense and cymmerian dispensation, of the 
 
382 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 nances. And it is worthy of special notice this morn- 
 ing, that neither the finger of scorn by lady Carnal 
 Reason, nor the telescope of philosophical vanity, by 
 her dear sister lady Philosophy, were to be seen this 
 day in court. And no sooner were the ladies and 
 gentlemen in the galleries all seated, than the five 
 judges, and all the other forensick gentlemen, with all 
 the other civil officers had arrived and taken their legal 
 stations, when the chief marshal of the empire, and the 
 high sheriff of Rome made their appearance before the 
 
 clouds of ignorance and gross darkness, so that when the 
 church first began her emersion from behind this dense 
 bank of the clouds of superstition, which so long obscu- 
 rated the radiant light of the true Son of righteousness, from 
 his spiritual church : I say, is it any wonder then, thought- 
 ful reader, that some of his followers should have made 
 choice of one mode of outward worship, and others draw 
 different corollaries respecting the nature and character of 
 his person ; and that others, also, should be led to form diff- 
 erent views of the ethicks, dogmas, and design of the gospel ? 
 But these minor things, however we mourn over and lament 
 them ; yet, they no more, as we have just said, affect the 
 grand question of the truth of the gospel, and the immortality 
 of the whole world, than the different languages spoken by 
 the tribes and nations of the earth, go to prove that they are 
 not intelligent and rational beings ; or that the different com- 
 plexions of the human race, with the discrepancies in their 
 modes, customs and habits of living, would be a mathematical 
 demonstration, that their physical existence is not derived, 
 and daily supported by the same natural sun in our heavens : 
 we say, the same sun, as a creature of God, gives life and 
 vitality to all mankind ; let their geographical location on 
 the face of the earth be where it may ; and their condition, 
 as it regards civilization or not, be what it may : just so with 
 regard to the cardinal point at issue in this trial. For if 
 Christ rose from the dead, as Paul says ; then, and in that 
 case, the solemn seal of Heaven is set on his person and 
 character, that he is the only true and laivful Messiah of the 
 Jews ; and is ordained of God to open the flood-gates, and 
 pour out an overflowing cataract of the wrath of Almighty 
 God, on all the risible Deists and Atheists, in the christian 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 383 
 
 portico, and entered the court — bringing in the state's 
 prisoners, for the last time they were to be jeopardized 
 for their lives. And when they had placed the eleven 
 disciples of Christ in the old criminal's box, before the 
 bar of the court, the marshal and sheriff withdrew. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court now being all in 
 solemn session, and silence for some time having embar- 
 goed the vibrating apparatus of the young Jewish and 
 Deistical gentlemen and ladies, in the great gallery, and 
 also laid a solemn levy on the more delicate oscillatory 
 members, and the argumentative powers of ladies 
 Reason and Philosophy, in the small gallery — w^hen 
 the young attorney rose and resumed his former plea 
 against the guards' testimony; and facing the judges 
 and the jury, with a glow of scintillating fire in his 
 
 world ! And then, ye scoffing gentlemen, with one of the per- 
 secutors of his church, you will in your dying moments, or 
 when your once risible ghost awakes in eternity, exclaim, 
 Thou Gahlean, hast in all points of the moral compass, the 
 most decided pre-eminence. 
 
 The intelligent and thoughtful reader will once more par- 
 don the poor sailor's falling off the wind^s eye of court busi- 
 ness, and easing away the sheets and slacking the bow lines, 
 and squaring his yards, in order to give chase to a large 
 fleet, commanded by admiral Jew, vice-adrfjiral Deist, and 
 real-admiral Atheist. But, as most of their ships were fast 
 sailers, the poor sailor on board the gospel ship, which in 
 consequence of many storms, during a long voyage of 
 eighteen hundred years, had collected a number of barnicles 
 and other small sea-shells, with no small quantity of 
 sea-grass on the bottom of the ship, which greatly retard- 
 ed her way through the water ; therefore, when he had 
 given chase a few hours, and found he could not overhaul 
 them, he fired his lonnr bow-chasers, loaded with the amuni- 
 tion from the arsenal of Hell fire ; and then hauled his wind 
 and sailed into court again ; and now promises the reader, 
 that he will not give chase any more, till this trial shall come 
 to an issue, one way or the other ; that is, till the prisoners 
 at the bar, charged and indicted with robbing the sepulchre, 
 are either condemned or finally acquitted. 
 
384 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 forensick countenance, which the lightning rod of un- 
 sophisticated logick, had drawn from off the hallowed 
 altars of truth and justice: said, may it please your 
 honours the judges, with the wise and I trust impartial 
 jury, which by the indulgence of all the parties con- 
 cerned in this trial, I have, to the best of my legal 
 judgment, selected from the different citizens of the 
 empire : to wit — two Doctors of the Jewish theism ; 
 two Deistical Doctors of natural Philosophy ; two 
 Doctors who have received a finished education in the 
 sleepy school of inert matter ; who are by some people 
 surnamed Doctor Atheist ; two Doctors of the Turkish 
 amphibious theology ; two of Heathen mythology ; and 
 two of christian Divinity. Thus the court may see, in 
 the selection of a new jury to try this mysterious cause, 
 (that has rather perplexed mankind so long,) I have 
 acted with as little partiality as possible, under the 
 pressing difficulties and emergencies of the case : and 
 please your honours, having obtained a jury affirmed 
 and panelled, somewhat satisfactory to my mind ; 
 therefore, I shall proceed a little out of the tract of 
 forensick argumentation, at the bar of this high court 
 of law and inquest, and if it is not rather a little inde- 
 corous at this serious stage of the trial, when the lives 
 of eleven of the citizens of the Roman empire are pend- 
 ing at its solemn bar, I do, please your honours, expe- 
 rience as the counsellor in the behalf of the prisoners at 
 the bar, a powerful predilection, to indulge the volatile 
 scintillations of my mind, and the flowing vivacity of 
 my spirits, in the presence of this court in the use of 
 oblique irony. But, may it please your honours, the 
 latent object I have in view, in my legal levity at the 
 bar of this solemn court is, that I may press home with 
 the ironical screw of my forensick jokes, the imperious 
 necessity ^f removing this deteriorating dispensation 
 of legal imbecility, which has overcast with a sombre- 
 ness the antecedent fame of this high court of Areopa- 
 gus, which it is this day labouring under. Therefore, 
 in order to shore up the tottering walls cf its former 
 colossean glory, and its tenacious adhesion to inviolably 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 385 
 
 administer impartial justice to all men; therefore I shall, 
 in order to place the illegal aberrance of your learn- 
 ed honours, from the obvious path of duty, during the 
 time of the past session of the court, Avhich has been 
 occupied in the case of the prisoners at the bar, 
 proceed in the use of my ironical category, both hum- 
 bly and obsequiously pray the judges of this court, to 
 immediately issue out from the bench, a writ of caption 
 or bench warrant, and forthwith place the same in the 
 hands of the marshal of the empire, and the high sheriff 
 of Rome, and that they be duly empowered to take 
 with them all the small satellites of the law, that re- 
 volve round them, as the two primary orbs. And may 
 it please your honours the judges, that this civil trium- 
 virate be sent to the garden, hard by the cross on 
 which this strange and mysterious being called Christ, 
 was crucified; and let the foregoing officers of justice 
 serve legal process, first on the large stone which had 
 been sealed on the entrance of the sepulchre ; secondly, 
 on the fruit and other large trees where the new sepul- 
 chre is located ; and, thirdly, on the small shrubbery 
 in the garden. And now may it please your learned 
 honours the judges, with this wise and profound jury, 
 to indulge me to say, that this small triumvirate of 
 irrational things, from out of the garden where the 
 sepulchre, and the crucified body of Christ were, by 
 the sanitary laws of Jewish unbelief, quarantined in 
 the foul waters of death — would, please your honours, 
 constitute a far more legal and indubitable witness 
 against the prisoners at the bar, than the testimony of 
 the Roman soldiers. And as I have no doubt, but that 
 your honours' minds, are calmly viewing the character 
 and nature of my irrational evidence, and perhaps are 
 ready to object to the relevancy of my unforensick 
 remarks ; which may, at the first sight, appear like a 
 wild uncourtly monster. But, please your honours, be 
 that as it may ; yet, I experience it to be my duty to 
 pray the indulgence of this court, to calmly and dis- 
 passionately hear, and weigh the reason and argument 
 
 2k 
 
386 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 which I am prepared humbly to submit at the bar, in 
 the behalf of the three harmless witnesses, which con- 
 stitute this innocent band of evidence ; to wit : the 
 stone, trees, and the shrubbery of the garden. And 
 please your honours, from the patient aspect which I 
 this morning behold in the countenances of the judges 
 and jury, I shall consider it as a gratuitous expression 
 of the rife desire of your honours, that both the time 
 and patience of this court will be cheerfully granted ; 
 while I shall illustrate and explain this singular pheno- 
 mena, or if your honours please, new forensick testi- 
 mony. 
 
 And now, may it please your honours the judges and 
 jury, that my argument in favour of these harmless 
 witnesses, that is : that the stone, trees, and shrubbery, 
 would be at the bar of this court, more legal witnesses, 
 than the guards' story, which we prove as follows ; to 
 wit — That this small association of animate and in- 
 animate things, which under some special and peculiar 
 circumstances are admitted at the bar of our courts, 
 either as collateral or circumstantial evidence, in many 
 cases where positive evidence is wanting. And in 
 order to refresh' the memory and audibility of your 
 honours the judges, with this wise and learned jury of 
 doctors, from all the systems of theism, of theology, 
 and mythology in the world, I am once more bold in 
 saying, that this little tribe of the stone, the trees, and 
 the shrubbery, have not acted like the Roman guards, 
 viz. come into court and before our altars, in the 
 presence of our empyrean rulers, at the bar of this high 
 court of chancery, under the sacredness and solemn 
 sanction of their affirmation, and in the presence of 
 
 A note to the reader. — The young attorney on the side of 
 the truth of the gospel, by the rules of common sense, does 
 most indubitably prove, both to Jews, Deists, and Atheists, 
 that the stone, trees, and shrubbery of the garden, are a far 
 more substantial and reputable witnesses against Christ rising 
 from t\ie dead, than the guards, Caiaphas, and the whole 
 nation of the Jews' report to this day. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. *i07 
 
 your honours and the gentlemen of the jury ; and in the 
 most absolute language, entirely disqualify and dis- 
 franchise themselves as Roman citizens, from being any 
 kind of evidence whatsoever, either of a positive, pre- 
 sumptive, circumstantial, collateral, parole, or even 
 exparta character, against the prisoners at the bar. 
 Therefore, the conclusion is this, that this little animate 
 and inanimate association of harmless witnesses, of the 
 stone, trees, and shrubbery, would be a thousand times 
 more substantial testimony at the bar of this court, who 
 were the artful knaves, or the notorious and sacrilegious 
 villains, that robbed the sepulchre of the crucified body 
 
 of Chriat, thanH;bo al^epy etolidity of the blind guards, 
 
 and Caiaphas the high priest of the Jews. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, and this enlightened jury, my legal conclusion 
 is, and I shall humbly persuade myself, that the united 
 wisdom and profound knowledge of this court, will 
 most candidly flow into the same just conclusion, in 
 order to allow me sufficient sea-room and depth of legal 
 water, to sail my maiden plea safely past the hidden 
 rocks, false sand bars, and the barbed heads of their 
 insidious sunken chevaux-de-frise ; w'hich, may it please 
 your honours, the judges and the jury, the guards have 
 placed in the way of the innocency of the prisoners at 
 the bar of this court. 
 
 Therefore, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, with this profound jury, Caiaphas the high 
 priest of the Jews, by taking him at his own words, 
 and public declarations to the whole world — that is, as 
 his holiness, from the sleepy stolidity of the guards' 
 testimony, affirm, were all asleep, or in an entire state 
 of insensibility. Then, please your honours, the simple 
 inference I shall draw, is this : that neither his holiness, 
 the guards, nor the whole of the Jewish people, knew 
 not, from their own words and solemn testimony, 
 whether or not it were a hungry and ferocious leopard, 
 that sprung from off* one of the large trees in the garden, 
 and carried off" the crucified body of Christ into his den, 
 at the base of one of the rocky mountains in the land 
 
388 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 of Israel ! I beseech the court to patiently indulge me 
 with a few moments time, in order to give a few more 
 turns to my ironical screw. Therefore, I shall humbly 
 ask your learned honours the judges, with thiswise 
 and scientific jury, whether, perchance, it were a poor 
 solitary half-starved jackal, whom his hungry master 
 the lion, had sent out early that morning, to look through 
 the vineyards and pasture grounds of the husbandmen 
 of Israel, for a lamb or kid, or a tender calf, that laid 
 at a little distance from the farm-houses ; so that he 
 might come and carry it off to dine on that day ; when 
 this marauding little servant, seeing this solitary garden, 
 mistook the same for a vineyard : and observing a vast 
 number of trees and shrubbery in it, when this nefa- 
 rious, or, if your honours please, nightly pedestrious 
 servant of the monarch of the forest, crept in under the 
 garden gate, just at that very auspicious moment, when 
 
 Nos. 1. & 2. Truth and Justice offering up their respective burnt offerings 
 on their altars. 
 
 Nos. 3. & 4. Reason and Pliilosophy, witli black veils over their faces, and 
 the ladies are ratlier in low spirits, at the new manner the young lawyer 
 undertakes to settle this long war of controversy. 
 
 No. 5. The five judges who try this cause. 
 
 J^o. 6. The young attorney, who pleads the prisoners cause^ 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 389 
 
 the guards had, to a man fallen asleep ! when the 
 little jackal, please your honours, seeing sixteen Roman 
 soldiers, gently placed by the nebulous queen, in a state 
 of somnolency, in every direction round the sepulchre ; 
 when, at the same time, the oderous effluvium of the 
 dead body of Christ, came immediately in close contact 
 with his alfactory nerves ; when the little animal in a 
 soliloquy reasoned thus : What a most delicious feast 
 this crucified man would make, for the king, my old 
 master ! who, like one Isaac, is extravagantly fond of 
 savoury meat : when the jackal crept out of the garden, 
 and then with the fleetness of a hart, flew to the old 
 lion^s den — when his master rushed down from the 
 mountain, and springing over the wall of the garden, 
 where he found the guards fast asleep : when the old 
 lion broke the royal seal, took off the stone, entered the 
 sepulchre, and went off with the crucified body of Christ, 
 leaving the watch as he found them all fast asleep ! ! ! 
 And when he arrived at his den, he like Isaac, ordered 
 his servants to make savoury meat of this valuable 
 prize. And after this monarch of the forest, with his 
 beloved consort the lioness, or otherwise, lady Belzebub 
 and her two daughters, Reason and Philosophy, had 
 dined and drank their wine, and offered up of the same 
 in a libation to the sleepy muse, as their acknowledg- 
 ment to the goddess for this act of her special provi- 
 dence, in sending this dispensation of sleepy stolidity 
 on the guards : and also her directing the wandering 
 feet of his servant the jackal, to the garden and sepul- 
 chre, at this auspicious moment. And when the royal 
 family had feasted themselves, on the body of this sweet 
 and delicious (Lamb of God, who beareth away the 
 sins of the world,) prize, the lion's old faithful servant, 
 the jackal, was benignly indulged to partake of the 
 fragments that remained of this feast. 
 
 But, to continue pressing the subject, by turning my 
 ironical screw a few times more, I again ask your 
 learned honours the judges, with the twelve Doctors 
 who are in the jury box, (who represent all the wisdom 
 of this world,) whether, perchance, it might not have 
 
 2k* 
 
890 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 been an obreptitious, or if the court prefer the idea as 
 more forensick, a sly Hyena, of whom naturalists in- 
 form us, please your honours, is both in its habits and 
 profession, a perfect Anthropophagi; and that this 
 grave digging Hyena came, while the watch were all 
 fast asleep, and with its long excavating claws had re- 
 duced the stone to a perfect state of pulverization ; and 
 then forced the crucified body of Christ out of the 
 sepulchre, and went off with the same to its lurking 
 place, in the midst of the solitary mansions of the dead: 
 and then called his friends and neighbours of the Hyena 
 family together, to feast on the most delicious fare, that 
 were ever before caught in the trap of sin and death, 
 within the dark purlieu of the king of terrors. 
 
 But to proceed, as I am sailing along the iron bound 
 coast of death, in chase of these marauding pirates, who 
 have committed this horrid deed ; and at the same time, 
 please the court, viewing all the sable wonders that are 
 more or less located along this dreary shore, and sur- 
 veying the diflferent agents by which this surreption, 
 perchance, might have been made, [which has confound- 
 ed the philosophy of the human mind,] for all that the 
 guards, Caiaphas, and the Jews know, of the soul-dis- 
 tressing loss of the crucified body of Christ out of the 
 sepulchre. Therefore, by turning my screw a few 
 rounds, may it please the court, perhaps this insidious 
 surreption were made by a flock of hungry vultures! 
 As your honours well know, that naturalists inform 
 us, that their vision and scent is said to be very keen ! 
 Now, these vultures might, in humble imitation " of the 
 leprous men at the gate of Samaria, have entered into 
 some loquacious remarks on their starving condition ; 
 or more forensickly speaking, they went into some in- 
 terlocutory discussion with each other, and said. Why 
 set we here on these barren mountains of the land of 
 Israel, till we die with hunger!" let us fly to the garden, 
 where the sepulchre is, that at this very moment con- 
 tains the dead body of Christ ; and, peradv^enture, we 
 shall find the watch all fest asleep ; and then my hun- 
 gry brethren, [scoffing sinner, says God, " ask the fishes, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 391 
 
 of the sea, and the birds of the air," and they will teach 
 you how to reason like men,] we'll feast ourselves to a 
 degree of satiety, on that delicious fare, viz. the cruci- 
 fied body of Christ, which, Pilate, Caiaphas, and the 
 centurion, have placed in the sepulchre : for there is no 
 doubt, said the king of the flock of vultures, but we 
 shall find the royal guards, all fast enclosed in the 
 soothing embrace of the sleepy goddess ! ! 
 
 But, lest I should weary the patience of the court, 
 and through it, as a forensick channel, the audibility 
 and refined sensibilities of modern infidelity, with my 
 puns and ironical levies on its legal indulgence, I shall 
 only lay one or two more short sanitary quarantines on 
 your honours the judges and jury's patience, and hum- 
 bly pray the court, in the rife but borrowed language 
 of a Jewish patriarch, to the empyrean ruler, and say : 
 " behold now, I have taken on me the onerous responsi- 
 bility to speak unto your learned honours the judges, 
 and this learned and scientific jury, who are but dust 
 and ashes ; therefore, be not angry, peradventure," it 
 might have been some one or more of the Anthropo- 
 phagi club of ancient epicures, who are a set of gor- 
 mandising gentlemen, whose highest felicity consists in 
 feasting on human flesh : I say, these gentlemen, who 
 sail under the flowing banners of this rife motto, " let 
 us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," hearing of so 
 rich a boon as the crucified body of Christ ; might (for 
 all the watch knew,) have come while they were all fast 
 asleep, and made this surreptitious invasion on the 
 sepulchre, and went off* with this delicious repast ! ! 
 But, lastly, whether, please this court, it were not some 
 of our physicians, who belong to the butking-club; 
 indulge my impugning parable at the bar of this court, 
 of law and inquest, over the sad loss of the crucified 
 body of Christ out of the sepulchre ; to say that it might 
 happen in the course of events, tjiat a small company 
 of modern resurrection gentlemen, viewing through 
 their auguring telescope the flight of this flock of starv- 
 ing vultures, might perchance have taken the wise and 
 timely hint, by steering in the wake of their flight with 
 
392 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 their canvass-bag to the garden, and put the crucified 
 body of Christ in the same : and under the canopy of 
 the empire of darkness, went off with the deathly prize, 
 into the dissecting-room of philosophical vanity ; and 
 then send a polite card of assignation to carnal Reason 
 and vam rulosophy, to come with all possible speed 
 to the glorious sight of this conquered enemy, in order 
 to dissect their prize. 
 
 And now, please this high and impartial court of 
 law and inquest, I have gone through with my impugn- 
 ing parable, and shall lay aside my onerous screw, on 
 the wonderful evidence that the guards gave in at the 
 bar of this court. 
 
 And now, it only remains for me in the faithful dis- 
 charge of my official duty, in the behalf of the disciples' 
 innocency, for me to pray your honours the judges, and 
 the learned jury in the box, that infidelity may be for 
 ever driven out of this court. 
 
 I shall now, please your learned honours the judges, 
 with this wise and scientific jury, and all the other 
 learned gentlemen who constitute the law elements of 
 this court, both humbly and obsequiously pray, that 
 these poor illiterate fishermen, who were by their old 
 master taken from the sea, or rather lake of Galilee, 
 and who are now held as prisoners in durance at the 
 bar of this court, charged first by the guards ; and 
 secondly by the high priest of the Jews, with his whole 
 nation to this day ; and lastly by the Deists, and Philo- 
 sophers of modern times, with the sacrilegious robbery 
 of the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ. There- 
 fore, may it please this court, to indulge me as the 
 advocate and counsel for the defendants, the prisoners 
 at the bar, to declare to your learned honours the 
 judges, with the gentlemen of the jury, that I do most 
 seriously believe, both in law^ and equity, that the 
 eleven disciples of Christ are all entirely clear and in- 
 nocent, of all the groundless charges, allegations and 
 specifications, that the states-attorney had so onerously 
 endeavoured, on the side of the crown, to charge 
 against them; and which your learned honours, with 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 393 
 
 this enlightened and scientific jury, and all the rest of 
 the legal wisdom and knowledge of this court, do this 
 day, no doubt clearly see with me, that the states- 
 general's charges in the indictment, is merely predica- 
 ted on a baseless fabrication — having no other solidity 
 than the postulatory declaration of the sleeping guards; 
 or, if it is not irrelevant in the case before the bar of 
 this court, I shall say this nonsensical report of the 
 sleepy guards. 
 
 And please your learned honours, as it is somewhat 
 oppressive, by the unusual heat of a long summer's day, 
 and I experience a little exhaustion through much 
 eppnkino[, which I perceive is obreptitiously entering 
 within the purlieu of my physical nature — so that I 
 perceive a state of collapse, or at least a state of lassi- 
 tude, will very soon place me on a consopiation throne, 
 in order to relieve my system : therefore, I shall now, 
 please your honours, move this court, that a plenary 
 discharge, and a full acquittal be forthwith given to . 
 thfi prisnnprs at the bar, the eleven disciples of Christ; 
 and that their plaintiffs, the Jews, Deists, and Atheists, 
 who love the coindication of the nubiferous dispensa- 
 tion, be by this court fully immersed with the costs of 
 prosecution, and all other court charges. And I further 
 beseech this court, that this bill, that contains this pos- 
 tulatum, this groundless and illegal charge, first against 
 the prisoners at the bar, the eleven disciples of Christ; 
 secondly, against the divine nature and person of Jesus 
 Christ ; and thirdly, against the christian theology at 
 large. — My prayer this day, to this court of law and 
 inquest is, that this foolish and nonsensical bill, be by 
 the wise and learned judges of this court, entirely 
 ignoramused, and then thrown under the table for the 
 dormice, (who frequent the ephemeral barns of Doctor 
 Deist, and the sleepy Doctor Atheist — for those dear 
 little animals) to feast on, to a degree of satiety, for- 
 ever : whose rife and daily motto, please your honours 
 and the jury, is written on their unfurled banners by 
 the tangible pen of sensuality, in glowing colours; 
 ^' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," 
 
394 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 And now, may it graciously please your learned 
 honours the judges, and I trust impartial jury, with all 
 the learned civilians of the Roman bar, that are this 
 day within the purlieu of this high court of chancery : 
 I shall humbly beseech you collectively, as you are all 
 in solemn session, to grant the devout and unfeigned 
 prayer of your humble and obsequious civilian; who, if 
 the empyrean ruler knows his heart, and he is in the 
 plenary possession of old Roman conscientiousness, to 
 wit : please this court, that I have acted in the cause 
 that has been so long pending at the bar of this court, 
 purely on the high principles of Roman charity and 
 legal philanthropy, in the behalf of so good and so just 
 a cause ; and the which, after so long cind arSuoiis a 
 trial, 1 hope vvill issue in fully sustaining the antecedent 
 glory of this court of Areopagus. And from the 
 auspicious coindication, which the expressive index of 
 clemency, I have the almost inexpressible pleasure of 
 beholding this day, in the placid countenances of this 
 c^urt ; which gives me a legal connaence, which I per- 
 ceive is as it were rising almost to the acme of affiance ; 
 so that I shall gratuitously persuade myself, that my 
 arduous forensick labour at the bar of this high court of 
 law and inquest, has not been in vain : and that it will 
 ultimately eventuate, in proving the rectitude of the 
 prisoners at the bar — in obtaining the full justification 
 of their persons and characters, in my having fully 
 satisfied this court, and indulge me to add, the w^hole 
 world of intelligent and rational beings, of the innocency 
 of the eleven disciples of Christ Therefore, I have 
 but one small request to make, on the justice and equity 
 of this court : the motion I shall now present to the bar, 
 is this : that it may proceed forthwith to honourably 
 discharge the eleven prisoners at the bar, called the 
 disciples of (/hrist, from all future vexation and legal 
 distress, either in their persons, characters, or estates ; 
 or in any longer durance at the bar of this or any other 
 court of law and equity in the Roman empire, or 
 throughout the whole civilized world, from this time 
 henceforth, and forevermore. When the young advo- 
 cate sat down. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 395 
 
 When the chief judge rose and taking the young 
 lawyer by the hand, paid him a very handsome com- 
 pliment, for his rife activity in his legal profession, 
 in placing his maiden plea before the court : and said he 
 had illlustrated the precocious signs which the young 
 ladies of his country foresaw of his future abilities, in 
 the able defence of the innocence of the prisoners at 
 the bar ; and that he had fully feasted the judges and 
 court, with a basket of those rich prodromas, from off 
 his early figtree, in consequence of the new ground of 
 his impugning logic, and sarcastical remarks, which 
 
 Nos. 1. 2. & 3. Justice, Mercy and Truth, ascending into the fire of their 
 respective altars to the empyi'can regions, where they meet together and re- 
 joice that the disciples are all true men, the sons of one common Father, "who 
 is the God of Truth, and are closely related by adoption to Joseph their 
 younger brother in the flesh; but who, in the essence of his divine nature, is 
 co-eval and co-equal with God : that is Jesus Christ. 
 
 No. 4. The chief judge compliments the young lawyer, for having cleared 
 the eleven disciples from the charge of stealing the crucified body of Clirist 
 out of the sepulchre. 
 
 No. 5. The lightning from Heaven coming down on carnal Reason and 
 vain Philosophy. 
 
 No. 6. The scofl[ing Deists and Atheists in the great galler}', filled with 
 chagrin, and overwhelmed with fear, at the issue of this trial. 
 
 No. 7. The marshal of the empire, and the high sheriff of Rome, leading 
 the eleren disciples of Christ out of court in triumph under flying colours. 
 
396 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 he had taken to clear the disciples from the false charges 
 that had been preferred against them ; and also, his so 
 very ingeniously exposing the imbecility, and almost 
 unpardonable oversight of this court, in its not seeing, 
 that if the evidence of the Roman guards went to prove 
 any thing under the sun, it rather proved the innocence 
 than the guilt of the disciples. 
 
 When the judge informed this high court of chancery, 
 that without any replication to the young barrister's 
 justification of the disciples' case, that the prisoners at 
 the bar, without committing their case to the learned 
 jury in the box, were are all discharged from any 
 longer durance at the bar of this, or any other court in 
 the empire ; and that this court of chancery, doth give 
 them a most plenary and honourable acquittal from all 
 the charges contained in the indictment, that has 
 been preferred against them, at the bar of this court. 
 At which annunciation from the bench, the whole court 
 made a simultaneous rise, with the exception of the 
 Deistical gentlemen and ladies, in the great gallery, 
 with ladies Reason a^nd Philosophy in the small gallery ; 
 who appeared much in the dumps — and many of the 
 ladies had to make a speedy application of their vials 
 of hartshorn, to prevent what the vulgar call the lock- 
 jaw. And when the judge had finished, the court gave 
 a salubrious shout of praise, for there was exceeding 
 great joy in the court. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the disciples went out of 
 court, headed by the marshal and sheriflf, with their 
 colours unfurled, with this motto, " In the white field 
 of the gospel banner, Christ is risen from the dead ;" 
 which motto, when the Deist, and their first cousin, the 
 Atheist, cast their invidious eye, or fastidious visions 
 on, this soul-chagrin, and to them awfully alarming 
 motto, their pugnacious and scoffing honours, all slunk 
 out of court filled with amazement, and astounded with 
 disappointment, and overwhelmed with shame ; each 
 singing this mournful soliloquy in their minds, and con- 
 sciences : " Thou, O Galilean, hast in Jill things the 
 pre-eminence." 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 397 
 
 And it came to pass, when the disciples of Christ 
 had left the court, that the young barrister rose and 
 tendered to the judges and court, his most grateful 
 acknowledgments, for the favour granted him in the 
 untrammelled use of the court, in order to vindicate the 
 character and justify the persons of the disciples of 
 Christ. And I now humbly and obsequiously pray the 
 court, to accept the sincere homage of my highest con- 
 sideration, for its patient attention while I endeavoured 
 to advocate the cause of truth and innocency : and 
 presuming on the past clemency and indulgence of 
 this court, I am, as it were, almost involuntarily led to 
 embargo this court one day more, in order to give me 
 an opportunity to present to the bar and vision of this 
 court, a short portrait of the persons and acts of Caia- 
 phas and Pilate, after the crucified body of Christ was 
 taken, or went out of the sepulchre. 
 
 When the chief judge rose and informed the young 
 barrister, that the court experienced the highest feel- 
 ings of clemency and legal indulgence towards him; 
 and therefore, the court is at your service ; and at the 
 same time praying, that your learned honour will not 
 exceed the longitude of another day, as the court in 
 general experiences a considerable degree of lassitude, 
 from the length of the trial. The chief judge then 
 announced, that in consequence of the wish and prayer 
 of the young attorney, this court stood adjourned to 
 meet in this place the next day. 
 
 2i. 
 
398 
 
 CmilST REJECTED. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the court met pursuant ta 
 adjournment, on the morning of the twenty-sixth day 
 of the trial. During the recess of the court, the young 
 attorney took out a mandamus or writ of caption, from 
 the high court of the empire, and had it served on 
 Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, and on Caiaphas, 
 the high priest of the Jews. And as soon as the judges, 
 and all the other learned gentlemen of the bar had 
 arrived and taken their seats, the spectators also 
 came very early, and took their seats in the galleries ; 
 when the marshal and high sheriff, and their satellites 
 of the law, brought the governor and high priest into 
 court, and placed them before the bar; when the 
 plebeian orders, rushed in and filled the isles and areas 
 to a state of almost overflowing. The legal officer of 
 
 No. 1. The five judges of the court of Areopagus. 
 
 No. 2 The Horaan gi.veriior, a prisoner at the bar, charged with the 
 i^lect of his duty, m not bringing the guards to trial : nnd also for his not 
 appreliending tlie disciples, as soon as the cinicified body of Christ was 
 
 i^o. S. Caiaplias chnrged with the neglect of duty. 
 
 ^o. 4. The young lawyer pleading f^ainst the governor and Caiaphas. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 399 
 
 the court offered up the usual offering of God save the 
 emperor and Commonwealth. 
 
 And it came to pass, that when the ceremonies and 
 formalities were all gone through with, and silence per- 
 vaded the court, the young advocate for the cause of 
 truth and justice, rose and in a most solemn manner, 
 thus addressed the judges and the whole court : May 
 it please your honours, who constitute the legal elements 
 of this heretofore honourable and impartial court, and 
 ancient tribunal of truth and justice — I once more most 
 humbly pray the court for a few moments, to conde- 
 scend to denude itself of its postulatory panoply of false 
 sophistry and vain philosophy, and lay aside its flimsy 
 drapery of modern philosophical ratiocination; or please 
 your honours the judges, let this high court of law and 
 inquest, throw over its shoulders the old ruthless cloak 
 of truth and impartiality, armed with the vigorous 
 panoply of Roman justice, and clothed in the imperish- 
 able garment of Roman virtue, richly embellished with 
 the gems of temperance and the embroidery of old 
 Roman legal chastity, while, may it please your learn- 
 ed honours, I take the gratuitous freedom, of placing 
 some of the latent acts and dark clouds, which I see 
 rising out of the shameful delinquency of the prisoners 
 at the bar. 
 
 Now may it please your honours, I v/ould inquire 
 by way of information, on this point of the law com- 
 pass, if it is not viewed by your honours, as irrelevant 
 for a young civilian to presume to make a small levy on 
 the time and patience of the court, and ask your learn- 
 ed honours. What in the name of common sense would 
 you say, ought to have been the obvious and straight- 
 forward line of duty, for these two notorious prisoners 
 at the bar, (that is, please your honours, Pilate and 
 Caiaphas,) to have pursued, when first the guards' re- 
 port undulated their audibility : — to wit, '- that his 
 disciples stole him while we slept?" May it please your 
 learned honours to indulge me with your patience and 
 legal clemency, while my forecasting mind takes the 
 forensick liberty, in consequence of the coindication I 
 
400 CHllIST REJECTED. 
 
 see in the ominous features of wisdom and legal saga- 
 city, which I have this morning the high-wrought 
 pleasure of beholding in the countenancesof this court: 
 Then, please your honours, as your forensick prompter, 
 I would answer : Why did not Caiaphas, the prisoner 
 at the bar, upon first receiving the guards' report, call 
 his servants, and give immediate orders for his theolo- 
 gical carriage to be made ready, and command his 
 postillion to drive off with all possible speed to the 
 palace of Pilate, the other prisoner at the bar, and then 
 devoutly pray the governor of Judea, to have imme- 
 diately sent for the centurion and his guards, to make 
 their appearance before his regal honour, in order that 
 Pilate might closely examine the centurion and his 
 guards, on this heretofore unheard of recreant conduct 
 of Roman soldiers, going all simultaneously to sleep : 
 [when placed on duty,] and then, if Pilate was convin- 
 ced of the validity of the watch's report, please your 
 honours, it would have been Pilate's obvious line of 
 duty, and also straight-forward course, for his excel- 
 lency to have pursued, first as a duty which the gover- 
 nor owed to his legitimate sovereign ; secondly, to the 
 honour and military glory of the Roman army ; thirdly, 
 to his own character as a governor of one of the pro- 
 vinces of the empire, for to have given on this myste- 
 rious catastrophe, this unexpected and pressing emer- 
 gency of the case, his most imperative orders to have 
 had Jerusalem, with all the regions in the vicinity of 
 that noted city, in every possible direction, most faith- 
 fully searched for the crucified body of Christ : so that, 
 please your honours the judges, if the disciples, with 
 the dead body of their master w^ere in the land of the 
 living, to have had them all, with their fraudulent mer- 
 chandize, immediately arrested, so that the crucified 
 body of Christ might have been once more safely lodg- 
 ed in the sepulchre. And please your honours the 
 judges, if the recreant disciples, had by any means 
 whatsoever destroyed the body of Christ, then Pilate 
 should put the notorious robbers in hold, under safe 
 durance, by the strong arm of the civil and military 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 401 
 
 laws of the empire, till the day should be fixed for their 
 trial — which this court well know, would eventuate in 
 their immediate death, by the act of crucifixion. 
 
 Your learned honours the judges of this court, with 
 the whole world, may clearly see, how very easy it 
 would have been for Pilate, the prisoner at the bar, by 
 doing his duty at this momentous crisis, to have set the 
 whole of that deleterious catastrophe forever at rest: that 
 is, please your learned honours, whether the eleven 
 disciples stole the crucified body of Christ out of the 
 sepulchre ; or, whether Christ did indeed rise from 
 under the dark empire of death, by his own latent or 
 divine power. 
 
 I make no doubt, but your honours clearly see with 
 me, that my corollary, or if you please, my simple 
 conclusion, is really so very easily comprehended, that 
 any child of ten years of age, of common capacity, and 
 blest with a state of sanity, could give the answer; 
 which would have saved our wise men of 183'2, a world 
 of assiduous turmoil, in deciding this long irritable con- 
 troversy — whether the theism of the Jews, or the 
 theology of the Christians, Deism, or Philosophy is 
 true. But, I will not detain the court with my simple 
 argument any longer. This, no doubt, appears to your 
 learned honours the judges of this court, to have been 
 the legal, and what our country people would have 
 said, [had they been asked,] the straight-forward road: 
 and our marine friends, the straight course and the 
 legal point of the compass, for Pilate to have shaped 
 his official conduct by ; which, please your honours, 
 would have eventuated in the governor's honour, and 
 have saved our sovereign, [that is, satan, sin, and vain 
 Philosophy,] and his government, both the time and 
 expense of this singular and mysterious trial. 
 
 Now, this line of conduct on the prisoner's part, at 
 the very moment the news of the reported robbery of 
 the sepulchre met Pilate's ear, would have been praise- 
 worthy. And who would have thought, please the 
 court, that it were possible for a Roman governor to 
 h^ve acted otherwise ; especially, when we all know 
 
402 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 that Pilate was well acquainted with all the wise axioms 
 of the civil and martial courts of law : and that the 
 principles of duty, and just allegiance to his sovereign 
 and his laws, would have propelled Pilate, if guided by 
 the steady helm of common sense, to have straitly pur- 
 sued, and legally acted out, such an easy and obvious 
 line of duty; which the imperious emergency of the 
 case demanded at his hands. 
 
 And may it please your learned honours the judges 
 of this high court of law and inquest, as well as every 
 other person in court, who may be blest at this time 
 with a state of sanity will, I presume, gratuitously fol- 
 low in the simple, and no doubt in some people's views, 
 my almost childish manner of reasoning, and say that 
 my logic and argument, is altogether too puerile ta 
 be presented at the bar of such a profound court. 
 
 Well, I shall, by way of legal courtesy, admit the 
 relevancy of some people's impugning remarks, on my 
 childish logic. But, may it please your honours, the 
 sententious declaration of a certain theologian, is of 
 sufficient buoyancy, to keep my head above the waters 
 of scorn : to wit — " Out of the mouths of babes and 
 sucklings, thou hast ordained praise :" therefore, armed 
 with this childish panoply, I shall out-brave the pitiless 
 storm of those fastidious people's risibility, and proceed, 
 please your honours, and say, that both Pilate and 
 Caiaphas' own personal responsibility, which the high 
 dignities of their official station, both in church and 
 state called for, would lead, and even have roused them 
 to such a simple and obvious line of straight-forward 
 duty : and not only so, I should have thought, that 
 both the prisoners would have taken up the simple 
 telescope of common sense, and then at least take an 
 oblique view of the general opinion of all mankind — 
 which certainly would have had some powerful influ- 
 ence on their minds, in legally and theologically pro- 
 pelling them, Mobile sailing, or rather labouring under 
 such a weight of public and personal responsibility, 
 for them to have done their respective duties. 
 
 But, may it please your learned honours the judge« 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 403 
 
 of this court, Pilate the Roman governor, and Caiaphas 
 the high priest of the Jews, the prisoners at the bar, in 
 their most shameful and total neglect of obvious duty, 
 and entire delinquency, of all those wise and prudent 
 measures, and at the same time precautious, civil and 
 military steps, when overtaken by such an unexpected 
 catastrophe, spreads an inexplicable cloud, which the 
 vulture's eye cannot pierce through : and at the same 
 time, such sombreness locates, like a dark suspicion over 
 their persons and characters, that will overwhelm them 
 with the deepest moral disgrace forever. So that, your 
 learned honours, I make no doubt, see with me, that 
 the line of conduct I have presented at the bar of this 
 court, as a reasonable way -mark on the public telegraph 
 of their duty, and please your learned honours, indulge 
 me to place a synoptical view of the prisoners' case be- 
 fore the court, by just observing, that if Caiaphas and 
 Pilate had acted as men of rife activity, how marvel- 
 lously easy it would have been for them to have at once 
 detected the robbery of the sepulchre. And indulge 
 me once more to ask the court. Whether such a line of 
 duty was not imperiously necessary, to defend their 
 own heads from becoming reprehensible to the vitu- 
 perating voice of all mankind? 
 
 And now, may it please your learned honours the 
 judges, to extend the clemency of your indulgence, 
 while I assume the office of a prompter in your honours' 
 behalf; so that what I should naturally conceive to be 
 the full acme of the forensick fever of your legal dis- 
 pleasure, at the disgustful view, which the wisdom and 
 good sense of your honours' take, at the shameful de- 
 linquency and pusillanimous conduct of Caiaphas and 
 Pilate, the prisoners at the bar. Therefore, I am now 
 led, from the calm expression I behold in the counte- 
 nances of this court, to believe, that in consequence of 
 the few law explanations, and small, coruscations of 
 legal light, which I have in my very imperfect reason- 
 ing placed in the view of your learned honours ; so that 
 I presume, your honours see with me, that the darkest 
 shades of legal guilt and just suspicion, converges itself 
 
404 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 on the heads of the prisoners at the bar : so that both 
 Caiaphas and Pilate must have had some latent and 
 black design, which laid deeply imbeded in their strange 
 conduct, that they so publicly manifested in their- 
 studied aberration from the well known path of their 
 duty, which was so obviously written in the most 
 glaring signs, on the telegraph of the law — in the 
 characters of justice, truth, honour and personal char- 
 acter, for them to have steered by, while they were 
 sailing under that dark and cloudy dispensation, to 
 them, of the sad and soul-distressing loss of the cruci- 
 fied body of Christ out of the sepulchre. 
 
 Now, may it please your learned honours, there 
 certainly hangs a profound mystery over the prisoners' 
 conduct : to wit — in that they have acted with the 
 most profound wisdom, and civil, military, and eccles- 
 iastical skill, to secure and safely guard the body, when 
 first deposited in the sepulchre; and yet, that the self- 
 same persons should, from the very moment the report 
 came out, that the sepulchre was robbed, alter their 
 conduct, and become like a set of pusillanimous, ^Aos^ 
 ridden and superannuated old ladies — as if they were 
 afraid to go near the solitary mansions of the dead! so 
 that both the governor and his pious coadjutor, should 
 in the course of thirty-six hours, become the recreant 
 slaves of the greatest acme of spectre fear ! But, I pray 
 the court to bear with the relevancy of my logical 
 screw, to press the subject home, while I endeavour to 
 analise the spectre conduct of the governor and priest ; 
 so as to resolve its fearful principles into its immoral 
 parts. Then, may it please your learned honours, I 
 do believe and declare, at the bar of this impartial 
 court, that there certainly lies at the door of the prison- 
 ers' moral accountability, the deep sin of one of the 
 most nefarious designs and diabolical collusions, in their 
 thus obreptitiously gliding off from the straight path, 
 which common sense placed before them, in their 
 shamefully and silently passing by their obvious, duty : 
 and then, please the court, countenancing, under a base 
 policy, the lying and sleepy report of the guards — th^t 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 405 
 
 the disciples of Christ, only eleven in number, came 
 and over-awed a band of Roman guards, and ran off 
 with the bleeding body of Christ ; and that too, please 
 your learned honours the judges, with all the sensible 
 and intelligent part of mankind, while a noble watch 
 of the imperial soldiers of the Roman army, had the 
 charge of the same, under the awful penalty of imme- 
 diate death ! And that these men should all fall simul- 
 taneously to sleep under the foregoing circumstances ! 
 And now, may it please your honours, what person 
 in a state of sanity, would ever have believed, that 
 Pilate and Caiaphas, the prisoners at the bar — that is, 
 please your honours, if you are disposed to admit the 
 relevancy of my views, you will then be led to say, 
 from the deep expression of wisdom and science you 
 this day behold in their vivid and scintillating counte- 
 nances, at the bar of this court, which in my humble 
 view, characterizes them as enlightened and intelligent 
 gentlemen. Now, please this court, from the imposing 
 appearance of these tw^o prisoners. Who in the sacred 
 name of the divinities of our mythology, w^ould ever 
 have once indulged the latent thought, that Pilate and 
 Caiaphas would, please your honours, have had the ' 
 bold and daring effrontery and bare-faced temerity, 
 and let me add, shameless audacity, to make such an 
 outrageous surreption on the long established usuages 
 and axioms of the principles of common sense ; and like 
 the loquacious ladies of ancient Tyre, Pilate and Caia- 
 phas should follow a reci^ant banditti of unprincipled 
 Roman soldiery, and sing as a certain writer has said, 
 ike a harlot of Tyre, this epithalamium ode, or this in- 
 congruous stanza : " His disciples stole him while we 
 slept !" For your learned honours must w^ell remember, 
 that these prisoners let the lying fox peep his red head 
 out of the bag, before the bar of this court, when they 
 gave in their personal evidence, to prove that all their 
 prudent and legal measures were adopted, in order to 
 secure and safely guard the body of Christ in the 
 sepulchre; if his honour the chief Judge will have the 
 goodness to refer to his notes in Pilate's case. Your 
 
406 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 honour, without any rife logick of mine, will see, that 
 when Caiaphas was in the private drawing-room of 
 Pilate — how that, through the base principles of fear, 
 and personal interest, they agreed with each other, to 
 give the lying hydra of the guards' report ; which ap- 
 peared for a short season, to be struggling in their con- 
 sciences, in a nascent state ; that is, please your learn- 
 ed honours, a state, in marine language, between wind 
 and water; or, in unfigured language, a doubtful state y 
 between life and death : when the prisoners at the bar 
 mutually agreed, to call in their old family couching 
 physician, of private interest, who soon prescribed a 
 gentle emolient, which gave a vigorous birth to the 
 guards' report. Therefore, your honours' notes do,1 
 without a synoptical illustration, from the rife activity 
 of my argument, in order to prove, that the prisoners 
 at the bar, by becoming through a base policy, acces- 
 sary to publish to the world such an absurd story ; 
 which does, please your honours the judges, deeply de- 
 moralize their character forever. And I hope your 
 honours will not be alarmed, at the fever of my mind, 
 from the remarks I have made, when I add, that they 
 have most shamefully blasted before the altars of our 
 gods, and in the eye of truth, their reputation; by 
 stamping the broad seal of lying infamy on their char- 
 acters, in thus publishing to the world, one of the basest 
 falsehoods that ever undulated the audibility of man- 
 kind. So that, please your honours, it appears, I hum- 
 bly presume, relevant to the wisdom and good sense of 
 this court, for me, to say, that one of the most sable 
 collusions between these two prisoners at the bar — to 
 wit: Pilate the Roman piocurator of Judea, and Caia- 
 phas the high priest of the Jews, to give publicity to 
 such an incongruous, base, vile, and diabolical report, 
 must, may it please your learned honours, have had its 
 rise and progress from the fiery worlds ; by the agency 
 of some flying salamander, with a heart and conscience 
 as callous as the heart of ancient Molock : which, if, 
 reports are to be relied on, had a hot oven in its breast, 
 to burn infants alive. And the which figure I have 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 407 
 
 alluded to, please your honours, is but a feeble idea to 
 set forth the lying and burning lava, that issued forth 
 from the labouring volcano of their lying hearts. And, 
 please your honours, were it possible, that Caiaphas, a 
 learned high priest of the Jews ; and Pontius Pilate, a 
 person of some science at least, sufficient to fit him for 
 the high office of a governor, over a large province of 
 the Roman empire — so that these two, once honourable 
 gentlemen, if it is not irrelevant to use the appellative 
 of a gentleman, when referring to the prisoners at the 
 bar, I shall iterate again, is it not self-evident, in the 
 conduct of the prisoners, that they entered into one of 
 the most pusillanimous collusions with the lying guards, 
 in (as I have before said,) publishing one of the most 
 incongruous and unlikely tales, that, please this court, 
 draws in its wake all the black and diabolical lying 
 satellites, that revolve round the prince of demons ; 
 which, please your honours the judges, leads me to 
 draw this conclusion : that the prisoners at the bar, 
 Pilate and Caiaphas, must in the very nature of the 
 case, have made an onerous levy on the vilest and most 
 diabolical principles, of the constuperating hearts of the 
 basest of mankind, which in the very nature of the case, 
 please your honours, have run the lying exchequer of 
 the prisoners at the bar of this court entirely dry ! 
 But, may it please your learned honours the judges, 
 which has, by the benign indulgence of our sovereign 
 lord the emperor, been constituted into a court of law 
 and inquest, over the crucified body of Christ ; — but, 
 indulge me, please your honours, as a category, is now 
 passing before my view, while at the same time, I ex- 
 perience no small degree of hesitancy, of expressing 
 those ideal birds of passage in words ; least I should, in 
 the selection of my vocabulary, cause my language to 
 appear repulsive to the refined audibility and chaste 
 language in use at the bar of this court. But, may it 
 please your honours, a deep sense of duty onerously 
 propels me, to fearlessly venture to place my views be- 
 fore your learned honours : to wit — that Pilate and 
 Caiaphas must have, by some means unknown to this 
 
408 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 court, crept into the anti-chamber of old Beelzebub's 
 royal consort, at a special season of physical distress, 
 and then made a surreption on the exurbiant secundine, 
 in order to give a vigorous birth to this lying hydra of 
 hell ; as the offspring of the blackest demons, to insult 
 the good sense and intelligence of mankind, with this 
 lying excresence : " His disciples stole him while we 
 slept ! !" 
 
 And now, may it please your honours the judges, to 
 indulge me with its legal patience for a few minutes, as 
 I see that the dial of the court admonishes the humble 
 and obsequious advocate on the side of truth, that this 
 is the last day of the court's indulgence toward me ; 
 and that its obreptitious hours and minutes, are fast 
 coming to an end : that the benign favour this court 
 has granted me to finish this all-important and myste- 
 rious cause : therefore, I shall trouble this court with 
 but a very few more sententious remarks, on the char- 
 acter of the prisoners' guilt ; and I now experience in 
 my own mind, the most plenary affiance, that the 
 judges and whole court see with me, that the artful 
 and demoniacal policy of Caiaphas, the high priest of 
 the Jews, in collusion with his fawning satellite, Pon- 
 tius Pilate, the Roman governor, in consequence of 
 their base and venal policy and vile collusion together: 
 I therefore move the court, that Caiaphas and Pilate, 
 with the guards, be in the first place disfranchised, and 
 then out-lawed, from ever being citizens of the Roman • 
 empire ; and that they be immediately banished to some 
 out-landish country and nebulous dispensation — into 
 some one of the distant provinces, in the demoniacal 
 regions of old Beelzebub's empire : where neither 
 justice, honour, veracity, wisdom nor knowledge and 
 legal light, and sound reason, nor even common sense, 
 ever dwelt : so that the lying wretches may be for- 
 ever banished from the abodes of men. And, may it 
 please your learned honours the judges of this court, I 
 am now done. When the young barrister sat down 
 and said no more. 
 
 P. S. Christ and Bible despisers — see in Caiaphas 
 and Pilate's portrait, your own picture. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 409 
 
 The chief judge passes sentence of banishment on Caiapha^f 
 Pilate and the Guards. 
 
 The chief judge then rose, and delivered the condign 
 sentence of the law, against the prisoners at the bar, 
 as follows : that it was his opinion and judgment, in 
 conjunction with his learned associates, with whom he 
 had the legal pleasure co-ordinately to co-operate with 
 through the whole of this arduous trial, which has last- 
 ed twenty-six days, without intermission, which is, 
 may it please this high court of law and inquest, that 
 both Caiaphas and Pilate, in not doing their full share 
 of ecclesiastical, civil and military duty, after the cru- 
 cified body of Christ was missing out of the sepulchre: 
 therefore, their great default lies in their not searching 
 Jerusalem, and the adjacent country round about, early 
 on the forenoon of the day of the reported robbery of 
 the sepulchre, of the crucified body of Christ ; and 
 cause the eleven disciples, with the stolen merchan- 
 dize from the old custom-house of death, to be arrested 
 and brought before Pilate's bar, as it has appeared to 
 this court, during the pending of this mysterious cause 
 at its bar, both by exparta and parole testimony, 
 that the eleven disciples never left the city of Jerusa- 
 lem, from the day Christ was crucified, nor for many 
 days after ; and some of those very eleven disciples, 
 not for many years after. And I now charge this court 
 to distinctly observe, that Caiaphas had in his own 
 hand, the plenitude of ecclesiastical power over the 
 whole Jewish nation, with the diocess of the temple ; 
 and his pliant coadjutor, Pontius Pilate, at the same 
 time, the civil and military power and government of 
 the province of Judea ; including the noted city of 
 Jerusalem, at his entire command. 
 
 Now, may it please this court of law and inquest, to 
 indulge me in the solemn name of the great empyrean 
 ruler, to make this asseveration at the bar of this court, 
 and before all the intelligent and enlightened part of 
 the Roman citizens : Why, in the inexplicable names 
 of our multifarious and multiform divinities, did not 
 these two prisoners at the bar do their duty, by follovr- 
 
 2m 
 
410 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 ing the well known adage of our old mothers, "a stitch 
 in time saves nine?" The court will pardon my ladies 
 figure ; but the base and recreant conduct of the prison- 
 ers at the bar, in not pursuing the sanitary measures 
 they had the full command of, at the time the body 
 of Christ was missing, has located such a sombre cate- 
 gory in my view, which has led me to the choice of the 
 most simple, and to our old country ladies, the most 
 familiar idea, to set forth the most pusillanimous de- 
 linquency of the prisoners at the bar, in their entire 
 and total aberrance, from all their direct and most 
 obvious line of duty. Therefore, may it please this 
 wise and impartial court, and the scientific jury in the 
 box, that in all the references which I and my learned 
 associates have been able to make, by a sedulous search, 
 or, as our mariners say, overhauling the mental rigging 
 of the long usages and axioms of our courts of law 
 and legal justice — that after calmly weighing, in the 
 impartial scales of our legal wisdom and knowledge, 
 the best and most distinguished doctrines of all our 
 courts of civil and martial law, with the rife auxiliarious 
 aid of the category, which at times, the doctrines of 
 our ecclesiastical courts spread before our view ; 
 therefore, from all the foregoing elements of mundane 
 wisdom and knowledge, which as auxiliaries, we as 
 judges of this high court of chancery, have called unto 
 our aid, to assist and shore up our own judgment : we 
 therefore fearlessly, under the sanction and panoply of 
 so many forensick almoners, give to this court, and to 
 the whole world of rational and intelligent beings, 
 that the prisoners at the bar, Caiaphas and Pilate's 
 shameful and mysterious conduct, is in all the points 
 and bearings of law, justice, truth and equity, a most 
 collateral, presumptive and circumstantial confirmation 
 to this court, that there is no confidence to be placed 
 in either of their words. And that the stealing story 
 about the crucified body of Christ, being by bis disci- 
 ples stole out of the sepulchre, while a Roman watch 
 was placed to guard the same, under the awful penalty 
 of the forfeiture of their lives, most, please this court, 
 in the very nature of the case itself, be a most flagrant. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 411 
 
 lying overt-act, against all the modest bulwarks of 
 truth : carrying with it in its desolating current, all 
 the once perennial waters of civil and moral virtue. 
 And, please this court, who does not see in its deteriora- 
 ing wake, a most deliberate malice afore-thought, in 
 their uttering, and being accessary to the utterance of 
 such a diabolical falsehood to the world, with a callous 
 heart, malicious design, and felonious intention of 
 blasting the reputation, and ruining the character of 
 these eleven harmless, and to the laws of Caesar, they 
 are inoffensive men. 
 
 Therefore, the judgm.ent of this court is this, that 
 both Caiaphas and Pilate, are in the eye of the law, 
 worthy of death : but, in consequence, that the acme 
 of their contumacy did not reach the lives of the eleven 
 disciples, it is the benign indulgence of this court, that 
 this crime be commuted, as follows: first, that Caiaphas, 
 Pilate and the guards be, what the language of mari- 
 ners call dismantled; but in our legal technicalities, we 
 say, the solemn judgment of this court is. That the 
 prisoners at the bar, be disfranchised of their citizen- 
 ship ; then be out-lawed the empire, and banished to 
 some outlandish dispensation ; so that this lying trium- 
 virate — to wit : Caiaphas, Pilate and the guards, may 
 be transported to some inter-mundane location, where 
 neither wisdom, knowledge, science, philosophy, nor 
 even common sense, ever dwells : far, very far, beyond 
 the abodes of intelligent beings: when the jury rose, 
 and fully assented to the judge's charge. 
 
 The marshal and sheriff, were, by the court, ordered 
 to take out a mandamus : and having executed the 
 same, the marshal and sheriff led the prisoners out of 
 court, with an order from the king to the lords of ad- 
 miralty, to have one of the fast sailing ships of war 
 immediately well manned, and got ready for sea, in 
 order to ship off this small triumvirate to some distant 
 and cymmerian region, where folly, ignorance, lying, 
 thick fogs, clouds and darkness forever dwell. 
 
 Done at the high court of law and inquest, Augtist 24, 1833. 
 His forensick Honour, COMMON SENSE, Chief Judge. 
 ALDERMAN TRUTH, Secretary. 
 
412 
 
 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Captain^ Onesimus' humble and obsequious respects to the 
 ^ reader. 
 
 Pi is presumable that the cairn and reflecting reader 
 W'lll clearly see, that the obvious design of the author, 
 hi bringing this trial into this high court of chancery, 
 was to test either the truth or fallacy of the gospel of 
 the Son of God ; and also, the true Messiahship of 
 Jesus Christ — by laying hold of the only weapon that 
 the Jews and Deists have, to this day, been able to 
 bring into the field of controversy, from the grand 
 
 No. 1. The chief judge pronouncing the condign sentence of the law, on 
 Pilate and Caiaphas with the guards. 
 
 No. 2. The young Liwyc-r having obtained judgment against Pilate, Caia- 
 phas and the guards, sitting in his chair, listening to the sentence of the 
 law against them. 
 
 No. 3. The marshal and sheriff leading Pilate, Caiaphas, and theguar<Is 
 on ship board. 
 
 No. 4. The ship of war, transporting f'ilate, Caiaphas and the guards. 
 
 No. 5. The darlc mountains in tlie land of Nod — on one there is a burn- 
 ing volcano, that has been disgorging its lying lava against Christ and iiis 
 gospel, for near eighteen hundred years. But glory to our God, the gospel 
 ship has outrode the storm, for Christ is risen indeed from the deacl : and 
 our very simple conclusion lathis, Christian friends, that the gospel is true, 
 and that its bulwarks are inexpngnable; so that both Jews, Deists, and 
 Atheists, must either denude themselves before Christ, or be cast into Ileli 
 fire forever. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 413 
 
 arsenal of sin and death, against the person and Mes- 
 siahship of Jesus Christ, and his true church on earth: 
 which, attentive reader, is nothing more than a mere 
 postulatum : that is, a mere groundless hypothesis, or 
 position in logic, without a solitary proof to substan- 
 tiate the premises, which the enemies of the gospel have 
 laid down : That is, '* that his disciples stole him out 
 of the sepulchre while we slept." 
 
 Now this, the reader will see, is fighting the enemies 
 of Christ with their own weapons ; or, if the reader 
 pleases, it is laying hold of the negative side of this 
 long controversy ; and which, no doubt, every candid 
 and impartial person will be led obviously to view, that 
 the whole truth of the gospel, and the dernier test of 
 the christian religion, rests on this rock. And at the 
 same time, onerously converges its whole colossean 
 weight of evidence, on either the fallacy or validity of 
 the guards' report — in their adhesive and invidious 
 collusion with Caiaphas and Pilate. This, christian 
 friends, your good sense at once discovers, is a very 
 simple way of bringing this long protracted war of con- 
 troversy, between Jews, Deists and Atheists, as the 
 belligerant triumvirate on the one side of this irritable 
 struggle — and the solitary christian sailor on the other 
 side. And although the enemies of the gospel have the 
 numerical advantage of three to one on their side ; yet, 
 glory to God in the highest, we will still sing our 
 marine stanza : " Hearts of Oak, is the timbers of our 
 gospel ship ; — hearts of Oak, are our men," and our 
 captain's heart is formed out of the root of the old 
 royal oak, that grows in the royal forest of the King 
 of Zion ; whose name " is called faithful and true ; and 
 in righteousness he doth judge and make war :" and 
 his military dress and sailor-like uniform, on the days 
 of battle, are by one of his old mid'shipmen, by the 
 name of John, thus described, as he walks the quarter- 
 deck in the hour of battle : — 
 
 " And he (that is Christ) was clothed with a ves- 
 ture dipped in blood : and his name is (by the authority 
 of heaven) called the word of God :" and in letters of 
 
 2w* 
 
414 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the richest gold of Ophir, it is written on all the royal 
 telegraphs in the land of Bulah, and on the walls of 
 the new Jerusalem : and also on the royal pendant, on 
 board the admiral of the white ; as well as on his ves- 
 ture, and on his thigh : '' King of kings, and I^ord of 
 lords." Therefore, having so bold and courageous a look- 
 ing officer for our Captain, on board our gospel ship of 
 the line, we will give our enemies the artillery from the 
 main battery of our lower gun-deck, surcharged with 
 the canister, chain, grape, bar and double headed shot, 
 from the magazine of the wrath of God : when we 
 meet this belligerant triumvirate, and sing, that hearts 
 of oak is our ship, captain and men, so that we shall 
 fearlessly run our gospel ship into the midst of the 
 enemies, and receive all their cross and raking fire ; 
 and, glory to God, we shall win the day, and sink our 
 belligerant foes in the black sea of interminable wo ; 
 except they lower their peaks and settle their top-sail 
 yards, on the caps, in token of humble and obsequious 
 submission to Jesus Christ, the high admiral of the 
 white, and post captain of our salvation. 
 
 All these things, shipmates, the high admiral has 
 fully made known to poor christian sailors, through the 
 officers of the board of admiralty, in a posthumous 
 communication or sea letter, shortly after he left our 
 mundane shores; viz. the book of Revelation! But, 
 attentive reader, indulge us to lay aside our marine 
 ideas for a few moments, which have been floating be- 
 fore our mind ; and also, our war-like vocabulary, 
 and in plain language say, that our argumentative para- 
 ble is this : If the guards and Caiaphas, with the whole 
 nation of the Jews, and all the Deists and yVtheists' 
 story of the eleven disciples, stealing the crucified body 
 of Christ out of the sepulchre, is true — then the simple 
 inference and conclusion is this : that the Gospel, or 
 what we call the New Testament, is the most marvel- 
 lous production in the world ! And laying aside the 
 fairacles, which it records of its author's performing, 
 in the presence of his friends and inveterate enemies, 
 which has been transmitted down to us with as much 
 
CHRLST REJECTED. 4i5 
 
 historical faithfulness and accuracy, if not infinitely 
 more so, than the most prominent occurrences of any 
 of the greater kingdoms of the earth, by the most faith- 
 ful and sedulous historian : so have the supra-mundane 
 works, or what are more commonly called the God- 
 like miracles of Christ, been with the most conscien- 
 tious integrity and assiduous faithfulness, handed down, 
 by almost countless millions of those, that have ventur- 
 ed their eternal interest on this cardinal point of the 
 gospel ; to wit, that Christ rose from the dead : — com- 
 pared with this sublime key-stone, in the centre of the 
 arched rainbow of the mercy of God to a lost world. 
 We sailors say, that doctrines, childish creeds, modes 
 of worship, with the almost endless discrepancies, in- 
 formularies of what is called the christian church, in 
 this mundane dispensation, by way of a sailor's com- 
 parison, just like a dear little flying fish to the Levia- 
 than, or a great whale of the northern ocean : or, in our 
 land category, like the small scintillations during the 
 transient vibration of the wings of the fire-fly, on the 
 lawn in front of the Deist's palace, on a mid-summer's 
 eve — when contrasted with the glorious coruscations of 
 light we receive from the natural sun of our system 
 at meridian day. 
 
 But, reader, while the poor sailor has, with his har- 
 poon of argument, and sea figures on board a whale 
 boat in the north sea, been dashing through the moun- 
 tains of ice, in order to harpoon his hypothetical whale, 
 or catch it with the delicate bait of a sweet \'\ii\e flying 
 fish, which, like the phantom of a soldier's dream, it has 
 been dancing on the lawn before the palace of Doctor 
 Deist, viewing the vibration of the wings of a fire-fly, 
 till he had almost lost sight of the New Testament. 
 
 Now this book, as we have already hinted, is the 
 most marvellous production in the world, irrespective 
 of its miracles, and by way of argumentative courtesy, 
 we lay them all out of the question: but still admire 
 the purity of its doctrine, the sublime simplicity of its 
 language, chaste style, and holy precepts, exalted 
 axioms : all richly embellished with the flowing drapery 
 of the most exalted philanthropy ; and highly tinctured 
 
416 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 with the empyrean shade of universal benevolence, that 
 has ever before, or since been presented to the vievs^ of 
 mankind, in the walks of life. And when we do but 
 glance at the foregoing category, of the excellencies 
 which the gospel presents to our mind, we pause ; we 
 often as it were hesitate, which is the most brilliant 
 gem in the crown of Christ ; or, as Solomon says of his 
 apples of gold, in a basket of silver — which the glorious 
 casket of the gospel presents to the alfactory nerves of 
 our never-dying souls ; or which of them we would be 
 led to give the decided preference to, when we take a 
 calm view of the plenary nature of the promises of 
 Christ: to wit, the remuneration of eternal felicity to 
 all those who truly believe and humbly obey his reason- 
 able commands ; contained in his most holy and inimit- 
 able gospel ! We are ready to exclaim with John, when 
 the Son of Man passed before him, out of the felicitous 
 element of language that was floating before his mind, 
 he made choice of this idea : " Behold the Lamb of 
 God, who taketh away the sin of the world !" 
 
 Now, christian friends, indulge me to educe, by 
 placing in your view, the altitude of his claims, to more 
 honour than Abraham, Moses, the prophets, and 
 Angels ; none of whom ever dare claim divine honours 
 of any of God's intelligent beings: to wit, all our oflTer- 
 ings, prayers and petitions to heaven, must be present- 
 ed to Almighty God in no other name, but that of 
 Jesus Christ. And that in case of delinquency, and 
 lack of the most plenary affiance in his promises, and 
 disobedience to his commands, when this same Christ, 
 from the altitude of his authority, has threatened the 
 unbelieving sinner, the fastidious philosopher, the insi- 
 dious Deist, and the invidious and scoffing Atheist, to 
 lay an embargo of Hell-fire on this belligerant squadron, 
 by sending his torpedoes among them, that will be- 
 numb their scofl^ing tongues ; so that they will not have 
 one word to say. The motto on board the fire-ships 
 i*eads thus : *' Knowing this first, that there shall come 
 in the last days, [to wit, 1832,] scoffers; saying, Where 
 is the promise of his coming 1 For since the fathers fell 
 asleep, all things continue as they were from the be- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 417 
 
 ginning of the creation !" But the old captain, in his rife 
 language, gives us a synoptical view of their last end : 
 " The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same 
 word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the 
 day of judgment and perdition" of Deists and Atheists. 
 And that this said Christ, will embargo these scofhng 
 sinners in the last days, in the royal-port of Satan : 
 where no cautious quarantine laws will bj suffered to 
 keep off the gnawing Cholera, of Hell-fire, forever. 
 
 Now, what a most heaven-daring and awful deceiver 
 Christ must have been, if he, as the guards reported, 
 was stolen by his disciples out of the sepulchre ! But, 
 if the final verdict of the court of Areopagus shall be 
 confirmed by Almighty God, and that this very Christ, 
 whom scoffing Philosophers, Atheists, Deists, and un- 
 godly men so cordially despise, has indeed risen from 
 the dead by his divine power, and gone into heaven, 
 till he shall conie to judge the world in righteousness : 
 then, we write the awful and dolorous motto, for the 
 foregoinf]^ gentlemen: The hieroglyphics of their ban- 
 ners will be : Wo unto us forever, if Christ rose from 
 the dead ! ! ! Then what horror, what yelling and how- 
 ling there will be hetween decks, and screeching aloft, 
 in the tops, yard arms and ringing on board the ships, 
 which constitute the Atheistical, Deisticai and Philo- 
 sophical squadrons, when they see the sign of the cross 
 in the haven of glory, by which captain Omnesimus 
 obtained the complete victory, over the combined 
 squadrons of the three belligerants' enemies; that had 
 been waging this long unbelieving war, against the 
 works, providence, mercy, grace and kindness of God; 
 towards a sinful and dying world, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. But this once indissoluble lying hyra, shall 
 then be cut asunder, bv the power and wraitifshaQod 
 and Christ. ^ <; ^hallr-c< 
 
 Our inference is this : that heaven, hell, c. *Vd feli- 
 city, or everlasting wo, with the immortality of all the 
 human family, does most onerously converge on this 
 simple conclusion, or single point: to wit, did or did 
 not Christ find his way out of the sepulchre by his 
 divine power? 
 
418 
 
 Christ rejected. 
 
 No. 1. The ship of war, of the first rate, 120 guns ; commanded 
 by captain Atheist. 
 
 No. 2. The ship of war, second rate, 90 guns ; commanded by 
 captain Deist. 
 
 No, 3. The ship of war, third rate, 75 guns ; commanded by 
 captain Rabbi the Jew. 
 
 No. 4. The g-ospel ship of war, fourth rate, 44 guns ; commanded 
 by captain Onesimus, tlie christian sailor. 
 
 No, 5. An ang-el from the clouds presents to Captain Onesimus, 
 a vivid coindicaiion of the cross, in the hour of battle ; and tells him 
 tofig-ht on and conquer; and in the use of the language of Caesar, 
 **I came, I saw, I overcame." 
 
 No. 6. The Gospel ship having gained the victorj' over the com- 
 bined sl)ips of the enemy, with her colours flying ; with the sig-n of 
 the cross in its Tvhite Jiehl,v\d'\ug at anchor in the port of Zion. 
 
 No. 7. The Jewish ship dismantled in the battle, and in great dis- 
 tress, with her colours falling ; in token of submission to Christ. 
 
 No, 8. The Deistical ship dismantled in the battle, and in great 
 distress ; in a sinking coiichtioii. 
 
 No, 9. The Atheistical ship dismasted, and sinking, to rise no 
 more. g]5{\e motto on her colours is : " let ua eat and drinky for to- 
 mor* " J. ^'s," but to their surprise they open their eyes in helljire/ 
 
 isSi'.IOing ,nt Calvary and the three crosses. 
 
 No. lUBir tf»dark mountains, covered with fogs and clouds for- 
 ever. 
 
 No. 12. The sun and stars, in the hcave'ns of the age of Reason, 
 afford neither light nor aid to the Deist, in the hour of battle. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Captain Onesimus, sendeth greeting to the remnant of the 
 twelve tribes, which are scattered abroad on the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 May it benignly please your grace, Rabbi Jew, and those 
 of your people, who are at this moment scattered over the 
 earth ; Now our old weather-beaten shipmate, we are glad 
 
 No. 1. Represents the Jewish nation, offering up their national 
 sacrifice or burnt offering. 
 
 No. 2. Moses standing on Mount Nebo, gives the Jewish nation the 
 following rife answer : '• And the Lord said unto me, they have well 
 spoken : I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, 
 like unto thee, and it shall come to pass, tliat whosoever will not 
 hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will re- 
 quire it of him." Deuteronomy, chap. 18. ver 17, 18, 19. 
 
 No. 3. Isaiah standing on the mount of prophecy, in the land of 
 Israel, with one liand directing the Jewish nation to Christ crucified, 
 on mount Calvary, and informs them, that the Lord himself shall give 
 you a sign from Heaven . to wit, " Behold a virgin shall conceive 
 and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel :" that is, God 
 with us, in human form. Isaiah chap. 7, verse 14. 
 
 No. 4. The boat belonging to the gospel ship, carrying captain 
 Onesimus' farewell letter onshore. The officer of the boat de- 
 livers the letter to the Jewish sentinel, who stands on a small moun- 
 tain, near mount Sinai in Arabia. 
 
 No- 5. The gospel ship, on board of wliich Onesimus writes his 
 valedictory letter to the Jewish nation. 
 
4*20 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 to hear that you are still in this mundane dispensation, and 
 among the living ; although, all your old acquaintances, the 
 Assyrians, Chaldeans, the Medes and Persians, Grecians and 
 Romans, with many other minor nations and small kingdoms 
 of the earth, who were your old friends and neighbours, 
 if 1 have been correctly informed, have left the shores of time, 
 and been transported over the blue sea of death ; so as to 
 lose their visibility among the nations of the earth: and in 
 the lamentable language of one of the servants of Job : your 
 national nudity mourns to the whole world. You only, of 
 all your old friends, neighbours and acquaintances, are left to 
 tell the dolorous tale, of the many storms and distresses 
 through which you have passed, during a tempestuous voyage 
 of eighteen hundred years. 
 
 What a miracle of mercy, old shipmate, hath God mani- 
 fested towards you as a nation, as well as a literal fulfilment 
 of your own Scriptures, and a striking co-indication of the 
 truth of the Gospel, that you have not been destroyed by the 
 edge of the sword, and the ravages of time, that has so en- 
 tirely laid waste the kingdoms and visibility of ail your old 
 neighbours, we have referred you unto. And when you, 
 Rabbi, do for one moment reflect, on the many deleterious 
 revolutions that have passed over the nations of the earth, 
 in which your grace, with your people, have been by a sin- 
 gular and mysterious providence, scattered abroad on the face 
 of the earth: And old shipmate, art thou still alive? Seeing 
 then that this is the case, in the great chapter of the mer- 
 cies of God, towards you and your people ; then venerable 
 friend, pray possess an equanimity of spirit; be calm in your 
 mind, for a few moments, while we shall humbly and simply 
 state, a few of the ideas of a poor Christian Sailor, before 
 your view, in our sailor-like v/ay of treating theological 
 matters, or if you please, religious things. Item the first, — 
 There is one small thing about the person of Jesus Christ, 
 whom we Christians call the Son of the most high God, that 
 was so very notorious, that the greatest enemies of Christ, 
 who are in a sane state of mind, and at the same time pos- 
 sessing the ordinary means of historical information, will not, 
 we humbly presume, be so entirely skeptical, as to catego- 
 rically deny: To wit — that the awful tragedy, of the suf- 
 ferings and death of Christ, and that too in the most possible 
 public manner, by the act of crucifixion, in the well known 
 days of Tiberius Caesar, by the agency of Pontius Pilate, the 
 then Roman Governor of your country, — having the civil 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 421 
 
 and military authority of the province of Judea, in the full- 
 est sense of the word, under his immediate control. 
 
 Now, may it please your grace and with you, your people 
 the Jews, who are still scattered abroad on the face of the 
 earth, to indulge us to state before your good sense, that the 
 crucifixion of Christ, as a most notorious malefactor, in con- 
 sequence of his being by your forefathers, falsely charged 
 with spreading a spirit of effervescence among the people, 
 against the true worship of the God of Israel, as command- 
 ed by Moses : and the rife spirit of your zealous forefath- 
 ers, also charged him with being an enemy to Caesar's per- 
 son, and of exciting a contumacy throughout his govern- 
 ment, because at times, he called himself a king : which 
 brings to our mind the case and conduct of the Grecian con- 
 queror, to the bold and magnanimous Porus : for although 
 Alexander had by the physical grasp, and muscular strength 
 of his lion-like paw, torn his crown and kingdom from him ; 
 yet the philosophy and energy of his noble mind, remained 
 unconquered. So that when this prowling lion, through the 
 nations of the earth, signified (by the agency of his fawn- 
 ing satellites and servile minions) to Porus, to go in person 
 to the royal tent of the proud conqueror, and crave his Prince- 
 ly favour and clemency towards him. He at first sternly 
 refused to go : but being onerously solicited by the servants 
 of this tilt-hammer, who broke the small and large na- 
 tions of the earth to pieces — after some hesitation, Porus 
 was prevailed on to go, and meet this vain demagogue, 
 who placed himself at the head of the Princes of the 
 earth : and when the two unconquerable heros met, Alexan- 
 der desired to know of Porus, in what way or manner he 
 wished to be treated ? As a king, replied the robbed, but un- 
 conquered Porus. But, said the plundering lion, [of the feebler 
 nations of the earth,] desirest thou no other favour of me ? 
 When Porus iterated again and again — as a king. When it 
 came to pass, that Porus, by the repeated strokes of his stern 
 andunpliant philosophy, made the dull brains of Alexander, so 
 far at least, to dilate, that there was at last, sea room enough 
 in his understanding to engrave this sententious idea on his 
 mind, that to be treated as a king, embraced all the honour, 
 power and glory of a kingdom, in the most plenary sense of 
 the word. 
 
 Now, venerable friend, this is the moral of the foregoing 
 anecdote I have referred your grace unto : what a great pity, 
 
 2if 
 
422 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 your forefathers did not treat Jesus Christ as a king, after 
 you had, by the sword of the Romans, taken away his hon- 
 our, power and glory, as an earthly Prince from him ! But, as 
 in the case of Porus, his soul still remained an in expugna- 
 ble empire within himself, irrespective of his loss of earth- 
 ly glory, which your pugnacious forefathers could never 
 conquer. Then, old shipmate, go thou and do as Alexander 
 did, in the case of Porus; restore to Jesus Christ all his di- 
 vine rights, honours and glory, and help to enlarge his king- 
 dom on the earth. Therefore, it was this part of the con- 
 duct of your forefathers, that was the cause of giving so 
 great a share of notoriety, to the passion and death of Christ ; 
 so that no one act of mankind, since the words and acts of 
 men have, through the medium of the historical page, and 
 assiduous pen of the scribe, been handed down to our times, 
 brings with it so great a flood of collateral, circumstantial, 
 and positive evidence, as the death of Christ has come down 
 to us, under a cloud of witnesses. 
 
 Now, may it please your grace, as the death and passion 
 of this said Christ,was so well known to all men in and about 
 the old city of Jerusalem, and not only so, but to a vast num- 
 ber of both Jews and Gentiles, from most of the distant and 
 noted provinces of the Roman Empire, which leads us to 
 admire the wisdom, and what we believe to be the special 
 providence of God, in the whole arrangement of the bloody 
 tragedy — for the following obvious reasons : therefore. Rabbi, 
 we christians, v/ithout the least hesitancy, believe that both 
 the mode and the exact manner and character of the death 
 of Christ, was by an inexpugnable concatenation of the di- 
 vine wisdom, designed on the part of a gracious and cove- 
 nant-keeping God, to give unto us poor Christian Sailois, on 
 board the gospel ship, a full assurance in the physical reality 
 of the passion of Christ, in this public and notorious manner 
 of putting a malefactor to death, by the act of crucifixion. 
 For, may it please your grace, if Christ had died for our 
 sins in any other manner or way whatsoever, and his body 
 had not been so publicly and 'savagely butchered to death on 
 a Roman cross; but, instead of his being crucified, he had 
 been visited with death by poison, or strangled or died after 
 the manner of all the earth, whether by lingering or the 
 awful spasmodic Cholera, or by any other constuperating dis- 
 ease, or old age ; then. Rabbi, you might with some small 
 degree of plausibility, on your side of our long controversy, 
 have in one of your risible moods, with a fastidious sm,i]e a ^ 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 423 
 
 the weakness of our understandings, and the imbeciUty of 
 our faith — in that case, have come down upon us with a co- 
 lossus reaction, and said to us poor ignorant Christians, 
 Why, your Christ only passed under a slight dispensation — 
 a nebulous trance ; and that his death was a mere sham. 
 But, venerable friend, the Man Christ Jesus, as you and your 
 whole nation well know, was publicly slaughtered to death on 
 a Roman cross. 
 
 Now, Rabbi, the crucifixion of Christ is nothing more nor 
 less, than a full countersign of an exclamation of one of your 
 own prophets, seven hundred years before this said Christ 
 was born. The language employed by your own prophets, 
 in relation to your promised Messiah, is sufficiently clear, to 
 to show to any rational and intelligent being, that dose not 
 suffer his notional views of earthly glory, and religious pre- 
 possessions, with the private legation of his lusts and passions, 
 to put out the eye of his understanding, that the Mes- 
 siah, which the God of our fathers promises your nation, 
 must die ; and that too, by some savage mode of putting a 
 malefactor to death : which we believe, at the time of the 
 delivering his prophesy, was both unknown and unpractised 
 by the most despotic governments on the earth : for, as yet, 
 the ingenious elements of the minds of the princes of the 
 earth, had not arrived at the meridian climax of penal re- 
 finement in the science of cruelty. Now, Rabbi, the char- 
 acter which your prophet hung otTt, on the prophetical tele- 
 graph, on the mountain of Israel, is in the following very 
 significant and glaring coindication of his passion : " He is 
 brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before 
 her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth," Isaiah 
 53. 7. Now, Rabbi, go to one of the Psalms, and see what 
 your royal saint, king David, has to say, who wrote about 
 three hundred years antecedent to the days of Isaiah : where 
 he gives you the same countersign, and exclaims, also in ac- 
 cordance with the prophet Isaiah, in the 16th verse of the 23d 
 Psalm : ■' They pierced my hands and my feet :" Now, ven- 
 erable friend, both David and Isaiah are fully justified in their 
 views and declarations, by a much later coadjutor in the pro- 
 phetical office and ministry : Zechariah gives you the third 
 countersign, and exclaims in full accordance with David and 
 Isaiah : " And they shall look upon me whom they have 
 pierced." Now, Rabbi, with your whole nation, this is the 
 simple, but plain and straight-forward corollary, or if you like 
 
424 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 the idea better, the obvious conclusion that we draw — to wit : 
 that the Jewish prophets, with their unanimous voice (that 
 is, David, Isaiah and Zechariah,) declare, and with one and 
 the same sign, set forth and point, as with the finger of Heav- 
 en, the Jewish nation to a crucified, holy and spiritual Mes- 
 siah ; whosoever he is, or when he shall make bis appear- 
 ence in this world. That he, their predicated and long pro- 
 mised Messiah, must have both his hands and his feet pierc- 
 ed. And we both ask and humbly solicit your theological 
 honour's good sense, what other mode we would humbly pray, 
 of putting a malefactor or human being to death, will answer 
 as a countersign to the coindication your own prophets have 
 given you, of the awful and tragical death of your promised 
 Messiah, but the solitary mode of crucifixion, in which both 
 the hands and feet of Jesus Christ were pierced on a Roman, 
 cross ? 
 
 Well, Rabbi, w^e will say, that both Jews and Gentiles, in 
 the offerings and signs they use, with the four gospels of the 
 Christian theology, all point to one and the same sign, in the 
 tragical life and death of your Messiah ; so that. Rabbi, you 
 may, if your grace pleases, take up the telescope of com- 
 mon sense, and if in your old days you should only retain 
 half the vision of a theological eye, you may read and see 
 for yourself, that the four gospels, written by Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke and John, do all invariably direct your theolo- 
 gical grace, with that of^our whole nation, to the very self 
 same signs, which your own Kings and Prophets have writ- 
 ten, on all the telegraphs of prophesy, they set up in the 
 land of Israel. So you see. Rabbi, that the four gospels 
 have only published to the world the history of the synopsis, 
 which your own prophets have written of the tragical life, 
 and death of your Messiah on earth. So that if your pro- 
 phets had dipped their pens in his blood, in a literal sense, as 
 your Messiah hung and bled on a Roman cross, they could 
 not have been more plain in their describing the same. And 
 now, with all due deference to the Jewish people, with their 
 Rabbi, (that is, the whole priesthood) we do obsequiouly and 
 humbly inform you, that our conclusion and inference is this, 
 that the predictions of your own prophets, do all converge 
 their colossus weight, of the most irrefragable testimonj^, on 
 your calm, and [we would charitably believe] reflecting 
 mind, and say, that we hope you will seriously admit, and re- 
 ceive our humble, but rational conclusion, so clearly granted 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 425 
 
 by your own prophets; to wit, That if David, Isaiah, and 
 Zechariah in particular, and all the rest of your prophets in 
 general, with 3*our Moses at their head, have all, when re- 
 fering to the life and death of your long promised Messiah, 
 whether the prophets in their reference to him, called in to 
 assist the category which God promised to your lathers, their 
 own figurative language, as the natural signs of what, by the 
 afflatus of the holy spirit of God, caused to pass before their 
 minds, or they were commanded by the God of Israel, to call in 
 to assist the imbecility of their understandings, respecting the 
 true nature and character of your promised Messiah, the 
 exhibition of types and ceremonies, which in the major part, 
 consisted in the offering up of sacrifices and burnt offerings ; 
 so that if your forefathers, with all your prophets, had been 
 located under the Roman cross, on which the man Christ 
 Jesus was crucified, which leads us to admit the relevancy 
 of the foregoing remarks, from a rife synopsis which one of 
 your own prophets has given us of his own tragical end, viz. 
 "he poured out his soul unto death," just as if your prophet 
 had dipped his pen in the crimson fluid, that rushed in a cur- 
 rent of mercy, to wash away the sins of a guilty world, as 
 he hung on the cross. 
 
 Now the simple and straight forward question, we young 
 Christian sailors put to the venerable post captain of the 
 Jewish ship, both to himself and all his ship's crew, or, if our 
 marine ideas are rather repulsive to your theological sensi- 
 bilities, we will say your grace ; and your nation, we iterate 
 the question, and ask you, venerable friend, that if your pro- 
 phets had been favoured with a special location under the 
 cross of Christ, whether they would have been able to have 
 given you, as a people, a more vivid and animated portrait ? 
 and at the same time, to come under the class of type, figure, 
 metaphor, and prophesy, a more literal, as well as a natural 
 description of the passion of Christ — with all the dolorous 
 and deleterious circumstances, that closely followed in the 
 wake of that awful catastrophe. So that, please your grace, 
 we are involuntarily led to this conclusion : that it is one of 
 the most incontestible evidences, and at the same time a most 
 irrefragable proof, that the pens of your holy prophets, were 
 all under the helm and steerage-way of the holy spirit of the 
 God of Israel : so that, even one of your prophets should, 
 within the small compass of one short chapter, namely — the 
 fifly-third of Isaiah, be able to give us a rife synopsis, or 
 2n=* 
 
426 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 concise history of the death of Christ, seven hundred years 
 before his tragical sufferings on a Roman cross, and to plainly 
 educe before our view, such a natural and literal fac-simile 
 of his expiatory sacrifice, with all the expressive features 
 and dolorous lineaments, of the pale and cadaverous coun- 
 tenance of Christ, in the hour of his passion. This prophet, 
 sir, in the same chapter, gives us poor short sighted Chris- 
 tiansj a most lively and glowing portrait of his Divine person, 
 just as he was entering under this nebulous and mysterious- 
 canopy of the Providence of that God, whose judgments are 
 unsearchable, and the way which he takes to save a lost and 
 ruined world, past finding out — when Christ, the Lamb of 
 God, thus entered upon his mediatorial work, as the only Sa- 
 viour of Jews and Gentiles. We are led, therefore, to draw 
 this conclusion; that the four histories, more commonly call- 
 ed the four Gospels, written by the followers of the Son of 
 God, have not added a single lineament to his redeeming 
 features, nor one cardinal doctrine to his vicarious sufferings 
 and atoning work, which are not found noted down by your 
 own seers, concerning that bloody tragedy and awful ca- 
 tastrophe, of the sufferings and passion of Christ. 
 
 Therefore, Rabbi, with your whole nation, we pray you 
 kindly for once, back your inain topsail against the masts of 
 your Jewish ship, so as to deaden her way ; as we preceive she 
 is still under a heavy press of sail — driven by the furious blasts 
 of unbelief, and dashing through the tempestuous sea of life ; 
 while we poor Christian sailors humbly ask your grace and 
 his nation, this very plain and simple question: Why did 
 not your forefathers contradict Matthew, who wrote his Gos- 
 pel in Jerusalem, not more than twenty 5 ears after the pas- 
 sion or crucifixion of Christ 1 who, in the same gospel, does 
 so most onerously and notoriously charge the Jews of that 
 great cit}^, with the priesthood and nation at large, with hav- 
 ing been the irascible agents of procuring at the hand of 
 Pilate, the then Roman governor of Judea, the cruel and 
 savage murderer of their own legitimate and lawful Messiah ? 
 We ask the simple question again : Why then, in the name 
 of common sense, did not your nation and priesthood, with 
 the ecclesiastical power they had at that time the most plena- 
 ry possession of, bring a reaction on Matthew's historical, 
 synopsis, he calls his gospel, and nip the evil in the bud ! and 
 publish to the world, that the Jews, as a church and nation, 
 with their holy priesthood, were all entirely innocent of the 
 charges, that Matthew and his little history, which he has, 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 427 
 
 published to the world, of the asperity and cruelty of the 
 Jewish nation and Priesthood, towards their own Messiah ? 
 But, Rabbi, the entire silence of your nation, and your re- 
 ligious hierarchy, in the days of your forefathers, looks like 
 the dirge of your national guilt; in their not seizing this 
 yearling, or young gospel Lion, (of falsehood as you call it,) 
 by the rnane, in his almost nascent state, before it issued into 
 life, while the national Lion of the Jewish priesthood, was at 
 the same time at the age of maturity ? and then fully expose 
 to the world, the glaring falsehoods, with which I\Iatthew in 
 his gospel had charged the Jews as a nation, as acting against 
 their own Messiah. 
 
 Now, Rabbi, suffer us to say, at least in a soliloquy,, 
 these things have_ what we christian sailors call a squally 
 look, under the lee bow, as if there were some dangerous 
 theological rocks, along the ironbound coast of your unbe- 
 lief, where you have in your old Jewish theological ship, 
 been as it were beaten on and ofF, for lo ! these eighteen hun- 
 dred years ; and captain, while the ship rides easy, with her 
 topsails a back on her mast, we poor christian sailors 
 will present to the audibility of our old shipmate, that is the 
 Jewish Rabbi, one more idea relating to the person of Christ, 
 which is as follows ; to wit — that no other person or being in 
 human form, either among the Jews or gentiles, that has to 
 this day condescended to come and pay a friendly or an offi- 
 cial visit to our world, has shown forth in every collateral 
 circumstance, such direct and obvious signs of his being 
 your national IMessiah, which Christ Jesus has placed before 
 both Jews and gentiles, and the whole world, in every parti- 
 cular thing, that Vrere directly or indirectly, associated with 
 his birth, life, doctrine, works, or what are more commonly 
 called, his miracles. So that, please your grace, there is 
 such a complete symmetry in every expression of his fea- 
 tures and lineament, in both his person and character, as to 
 answer every sign, metaphor and mysterious hieroglyphick 
 of your prophets, to a perfect counter-sign and most plenary 
 fac-simile of the whole — which Moses and all the prophets 
 have, either by signs or words, spoken or vvritten about your 
 Messiah ; all concentrating in the person, acts and character 
 of Jesus Christ ; which has never to this day met in any 
 other individual than the person of the Son of God. 
 
 And now, may it please your grace, who has the comnaand 
 of the theological ship of the Jews, to brace her yards and 
 und fill her sails ; so that we may press ahead under easy 
 
428 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 sail, till we get out of these gloomy latitudes of the passion 
 of Christ, and the soul's immortality, into the more tangible 
 latitudes of silver and gold ; which, venerable friend, no doubt 
 will be a more felicitous and congenial subject, to hold for a 
 few moments a desultorious conversation : We think we hear 
 you say, with all my heart, young friends. Well then, if 
 you will indulge us minors, who at times experience a pre- 
 dilection to let our vibrating member, called the tongue, in- 
 dulge freely, when we happen, at sea, to fall in company with 
 a strange sail, and the captain has a little etiquette and ur- 
 banity about him, so as to indulge in a new latitude of con- 
 versation. — I will begin, venerable friend, by remind- 
 ing you, that when your forefathers left the land of bondage, 
 that they borrowed all the gold and silver, and gems of the 
 ladies of ancient Egypt: well, be that as it may. Rabbi, we 
 only give it as we find it. Now, the simple question we wish 
 to put, both to yourself and your whole nation, is this, and by- 
 way of bringing down and accommodating our views to our 
 old shipmate, on this interesting subject : suppose, venerable 
 friend, you had lent without interest, to your friend, [as you 
 supposed,] a small sum of money ; but in order to give it a 
 definite valuation, we will say five English guineas, and as 
 we know of no better way to illustrate our subject, please 
 your grace, than doing as Balak, king of the Moabites did, 
 when he sent for Baalam : and that was, to place before the 
 prophet's mind, the powerful arguments and prostrating ora- 
 tory, which the elements of silver and gold are, more or less 
 calculated to produce an irresistible influence on the mind of 
 your grace and his people : therefore, indulge us to carry 
 our logic into those mundane seas, where the precious arti- 
 cles of silver and gold swim on the surface of those ephe- 
 meral waters. — Now, venerable friend, suflTer or rather in- 
 dulge us to say, while we perceive your grace is in a serious 
 mood, if you had only the small sum, which our hypotheti- 
 cal text has named : to wit — five guineas, pending as a suit, 
 in any of our courts of English or American civil law ; and 
 when your suit, being marked on the docket of the court for 
 trial that day, was called for at the bar, and your counsel 
 should answer ready for trial — and you. Rabbi, at the same 
 time, were sensible that you had no other, nor more legal 
 testimony to give in evidence before the bar of the court. — 
 Then, please your grace, that vague kind of evidence, on 
 which your reverence with your whole nation, do to this day 
 reject Jesus Christ with such inflexibility of mind, asperity 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 429 
 
 of spirit, and tenacity of principle, to your old national views 
 of a princely Messiah, with the most plenary command of 
 ecclesiastical, civil and military power — swaying an earth- 
 ly sceptre of universal dominion over the whole world : but, 
 your own God, Rabbi, says in his word and providence to- 
 wards you as a disobedient and pugnacious people, this child- 
 ish and ephemeral toy, be will never indulge his own people 
 the Jews with. You must, says God, receive the manna or 
 spiritual bread, which I have given you in the person of my 
 son Jesus Christ, or perish in your sins forever. 
 
 We Christian sailors, once more humbly and very obse- 
 quiously, pray the Rabbi, with his whole nation, who are 
 now scattered over the nations of the earth, to be calm in 
 their minds for a few fleeting moments, and lay aside that 
 very unfelicitous asperity of spirit, with which your fore-fa- 
 thers rejected Jesus Christ at Pilate's bar. But, Rabbi, your 
 forefathers' second rejection of Christ, after he rose from the 
 dead, marks their greater sin. Yes, Rabbi, and that too on 
 the evidence of witnesses who were so honest and candid as 
 to inform you, that they were all fast asleep, when Christ 
 went out of the sepulchre. 
 
 But, to return again to the five guinea case, we are led on by 
 the sheer principles of truth and equity, to suppose then, that 
 in order to prove the justness and legality of your claim 
 against the defendant, or the person you lent the five gui- 
 neas to, who now denies the debt in your suit against him: 
 and when your counsel rose to address himself to the judge 
 and gentlemen of the jury, [we. Rabbi, for argument sake, 
 to bring the subject right home to your heart and con- 
 science,] your counsel should employ the self same lan- 
 guage, in his plea against the fraudulent debtor, who ^yishes 
 to wrong you out of your five guineas, which the Rabbi and 
 his people, to this day, do employ in order to reject the clear 
 evidence of the resurrection of Christ from the dead: that 
 is, may it please your grace, that your counsel should have 
 to say to the judges and jury, my client's witnesses, in the 
 case that is now pending before your learned honours, the 
 judges and gentlemen of the jury, of this impartial court, it 
 is true, they laboured at the time my client lent the defend- 
 ant the money, under some small physical and legal disabi- 
 lities ; that is, please your honours and the jury, my client's 
 witnesses were all either blind, deaf, or dumb, who were pre- 
 sent at the time my client lent the defendant the sum charged 
 in the indictment, or in any other way the defendant migh^ 
 
430 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 have contracted the debt of the five guineas with my cUent. 
 That is, may it please the court, my client's witnesses were 
 all fast asleep at the time the contract between the parties 
 was made ; nevertheless, please the court, I believe it to be 
 my duty to my client, to humbly pray this court, to over rule 
 all the physical and legal disabilities under which my client's 
 witnesses laboured ; and permit me to educe, by presenting 
 this answer to the court in favour of my chent, that, in con- 
 sequence of the high standing of his person and character 
 throughout all the higher order of society, the court will 
 be so kind as to grant him judgment against the defendant, 
 on the sheer veracity of his own testimony before the bar 
 of this court, that he lent the defendant the money, which is 
 the debt in the suit, now pending at the bar of this court. 
 Now, Rabbi, what would you or any one or more of your 
 people, who well, [we humbly presume,] know the value of 
 money, and also the just character of a legal claim to the 
 same, before the bar of any of our civil courts, possessing 
 plenary jurisprudence over all cases of right and wrong, be- 
 tween man and man, so as to pass judgment on the side of 
 tiuth and equity ; we humbly ask the Rabbi and his people 
 again, and I wish to put the question within the precints of 
 your own conscience, that is, What you would be willing to 
 give to any attorney at law, to plead and advocate the five 
 guinea cause, that is labouring, Rabbi, under all the fore 
 going circumstances and legal disabilities, which we have 
 signified to your grace the small debt referred to in the alle- 
 gory, has so onerously to labour under. 
 
 Now, elder shipmate, or if it is more congenial to your 
 grace's theological views, to use our land vocabulary, we say 
 venerable friend, who has had a long, and at times a very 
 boisterous passage on board the old, almost at times water- 
 lugged ship, built by the orders of Moses, which for a long 
 season in a visible and national point of view, has almost lost 
 the powers of locomotion, so that you, Rabbi, with your peo- 
 ple, have been, through the undulatory waves of time, tossed 
 to and fro on the sea of time ; or, as one of your own pro- 
 phets gave us a vivid portrait of your condition, lying be- 
 calmed in the midst of the nations ; since you wilfully reject- 
 ed your true Messiah, to wit — that the providence of God 
 shall provide against losing, like your old neighbours, your 
 visibility as a distinct people, from all the nations of the 
 earth : yet, at the same time, you should be tossed from na- 
 tion to nation, without a regal port of entry, to anchor your 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 431 
 
 theological ship in, built by Moses, during all the storms that 
 have passed over you : and permit us to educe to your grace's 
 view, that the masts, sails and rigging, of your old ship, for 
 the major part, consisted of meats, drinks and divers wash- 
 ings, and other outward ceremonies, which we are led to dis- 
 tinguish by the surname of carnal ordinances, which Moses, 
 by the imperative command of God, imposed on your nation 
 till the time of reformation. That is. Rabbi, if we Chris, 
 tian sailors have any understanding of navigating the gos- 
 pel ship, and can by the telescope of faith, at meridian hours, 
 take the sun; we are led to conclude, that Moses meant till 
 such times as our high Admiral had built the fast sailing ship 
 of the line, called the Gospel. 
 
 But, your nebulous condition as a nation, and your strano-e 
 and mysterious pugnacity as a people, — with your unyielding 
 spirit to the voice of heaven, through Moses, the prophets, 
 and your own scriptures, places such a dark portrait of your 
 sins before our mind during this long trial, so that we almost 
 forget that we are in court, listening to the five guinea suit 
 before the bar. We hope our old shipmate will graciously 
 overlook the want of etiquette and gentlemanlike urbanity in 
 writing this serious letter to his grace. 
 
 But, Rabbi, keep self possession of the equanimity of your 
 spirit, and we will return to the five guinea case in a court 
 of civil law. The very plain and simple question we were 
 about placing before the good sense of our venerable friend, 
 who now sails on board the old ^losaic ship of the line, al- 
 though she appears, as before observed, to have lost her com- 
 pass, quadrant, and, at the same, her helm and polar star 
 is unshipped and obscurated from her sight, by a mysterious 
 dispensation of Almighty God : and the Jewish ship lavs 
 rolling on the dead sea of time, without the fire of the Spirit 
 of God to burn upon the altars of their hearts : and we pray 
 that the breath of the Almighty might fill their sails, and 
 once more give unto the Jewish nation, the principle and 
 power of locomotion ; in order that with Abel, Enoch, Noah, 
 Job, and many others of their old ship's crew, they may be 
 blest with the power and grace of those worthies we have 
 named or referred the Rabbi and his people unto. 
 
 And we now most devoutly pray, that the God of I&rael, 
 in his mercy, providence, and grace, will so far restore unto 
 his ancient people the Jews, their lost power of their theolo- 
 gical locomotion, in order that the whole ship's crew, officers 
 and all, may onoe more walk with God through the riches 
 
4t^2 CHRIST REJECTfiU. 
 
 of his grace ; and that the God of Israel would be gracious'- 
 ly pleased to grant them, through Jesus Christ, his only be- 
 gotten son, their Lord and national Messiah, the plenitude of 
 his power. 
 
 And now, if the Rabbi and his people will indulge us with 
 their patience, we will give an answer to our rather imper- 
 tinent interrogatory: the reply which we are about framing, 
 which is this — Notwithstanding, Rabbi, you boast so much of 
 the longevity of the Mosaic ship, yet we are inclined for once 
 to be your private almoner, and from the simple locker of 
 the gospel ship of the line, to take a little of the salt of com- 
 mon sense, and then gratuitously place this idea before our 
 venerable old shipmate, that we think we hear the Rabbi 
 and his people, in a soliloquy in their own judgment and con- 
 science say, that they would not give an English farthing, 
 nor an American half-cent, to any lawyer or barrister under 
 the sun, to plead and advocate so illegal, so unreasonable and 
 so hopeless a cause. Then, old shipmate, take the cabin 
 spy-glass, and look well in the wind's eye of common sense, 
 and then reason like a man and an intelligent being, in a kind 
 of private soliloquy; and then, for a few moments, hold an 
 interlocutory disquisition with your own good sense : and 
 then. Rabbi, let you and your people say to yourselves, is 
 this the rife argument with which we as a nation, have been 
 waging this unprofitable war with the God of our fore-fa- 
 thers, against ourselves ; for lo ! these eighteen hundred years! 
 and at the same time, witli the most tenacious asperity of 
 words and virulence of temper, we, as a nation, have been 
 rejecting the high claims of Jesus Christ, the son of the 
 most high God, on the sleepy stolidity of the guards' testimo- 
 ny! Now, Rabbi, look with your nation, at the spurious and 
 baseless character of the evidence with which you have reject- 
 ed your lawful and legitimate Messiah ; even such kind of evi- 
 dence as when applied to your five guinea case ; that for ar- 
 gument sake we have placed at issue in a court of civil law; 
 and again, we think we hear you say. Rabbi, in the behalf 
 of yourself and people, in a soliloquy in the purlieu of your 
 enlightened and intelligent mind ; VVhat would I give a young 
 attorney, or an old barrister to plead so hopeless a cause, in 
 which you have placed my five guineas : (young shipmate, 
 that calls himself the Christian sailor,) why, my young 
 friend, I nor none of my people, would give an English far- 
 thing, or an American half-cent, to any civilian under hea- 
 ven, to expose our illegal folly at the bar of any court of law 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 433 
 
 and equity, under the sun. Well, we are happy to find, that 
 notwithstanding the many storms and tempestuous seasons, 
 the Rabbi and his people have passed through for eighteen 
 hundred years, that the rigging about your top-galiant and 
 royal, is so little chafed : and if. Rabbi, our marine metaphor 
 is a little charged with ambiguous words and signs — then, 
 to be simple and plain, we are glad to find the powers of your 
 mind are so little impaired, and that you still can both rea- 
 son and argue with accuracy and perspicuity, on those things 
 that relate to your earthly interest, and indeed, all subjects 
 that are of a sublunary character. Having, then, our elder 
 brother and shipmates on board the old ship of the line, com- 
 manded by Moses, for once found you calm and rational in 
 your mind ; — then, Rabbi, we will fill our theological sails, 
 and pass by the five guinea suit, and leave the same with 
 the potsherds of the earth ; that is, please your grace, the 
 men of this world, who place all their happiness, and wea- 
 ther-bound all their hopes and prospects of felicity, to the 
 short span of a time state. 
 
 Suffer us to indulge a rife temper of mind, and pray you not 
 to let it be repulsive in your grace's view, for your young 
 friend and shipmate, to beseech and humbly pray you to take 
 up that unpliable, and very often, irascible rule of infidelity 
 against Christ, by which you have worked all your dead 
 reckoning during the cloudy days of your long voyage, in 
 which the ship of your national prosperity has been entire- 
 ly, by a nebulous atmosphere, obscurated, during the whole 
 passage of eighteen hundred years — and your being unac- 
 quainted with lunar navigation, have lost your way. 
 
 Now, our prg,yer to you is, that in case you shall, after so 
 many fruitless experiments, find that your Jewish rule will 
 only work the dead reckoning, or if you please, measure the 
 theology of the gospel one way, and that too only on the un- 
 believing line : whenever you apply this very irritable and 
 unpliable rule to the person and character of Jesus Christ, 
 the only begotten son of the most high God. 
 
 But, Rabbi, when I, by way of figure or metaphor, have 
 brought the rule of your good sense and intelligent mind, 
 to the five guinea case, the same rule of your understanding 
 appears to be immediately divested of all its unpliableness 
 of nature and asperity of temper ; therefore, our humble ad- 
 vice and prayerful counsel to your grace, with that of your 
 people, if, Rabbi, you think it is worth an English farthing, 
 
 2o 
 
434 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 would be this :— go, venerable old shipmates, the Jewish na- 
 tion, and first denude yourself of all the rusty trammels of 
 your Jewish education ; which has been handed down to you 
 by the vain, and also vague traditions of your fbre-fathers, 
 since the days of your Babylonish captivity ; and now, Rabbi, 
 take up the rule and plumb-line of your old Jewish theology, 
 as the day appears to be dawning on your nation, and give 
 the subject of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, a 
 calm, fair, and at the same time, RaJ^bi, I pray you, an im- 
 partial investigation. Go to work, sire, like a man, with the 
 full command of the equanimity of your spirit, and as a gen- 
 tleman of an enlightened and intelligent mind ; and if you 
 still discover that your old rule is entirely formed of those 
 unbending elements, which t^till retains its old irascibility of 
 spirit, so that your rule, in consequence of its unyielding na- 
 ture, will only work on the retrograde line, or the backward 
 point of the theological compass, then we humbly pray the 
 Rabbi in that case, to go and humble both yourself and na- 
 tion in the dust before the Lord God of Israel, and cast off, 
 as we have just said, all the false trammels wherewith your 
 fore-fathers have so closely bound you to the cold iron cha- 
 riot of unbelief, lo ! these eighteen hundred years. 
 
 Go! your poor brethren, the Christian sailors of the gospel 
 ship, humbly praj^s to the carpenter's son, [as the high priest, 
 Caiaphas, and his irritable and captious satellites, in their 
 taunting language were wont to call him, when they rejected 
 him at Pilate's bar,] both yourself and people, and in the 
 mournful language of one of your prophets, look on him whom 
 your personal and national sins and heavy transgressions, have 
 pierced and put him to open shame ; and mourn in his Al- 
 mighty and royal presence, as a fond mother laments over 
 the death of her first born son. For it is said of him, (that 
 is, Christ,) that all power, both in heaven and on the earth, 
 are in his hands. Go then to him whom your fathers in a 
 taunting mood, called the son of Joseph, and be so kind, ve- 
 nerable friend, although thou art a Rabbi of Jewish theolo- 
 gy, and still remain adhesively orthodox to your old theism ; 
 we still pray you to remember, as you approach him, that 
 there is not only a striking symmetry of the family elements 
 in the orthography which constitutes the coindication of their 
 names — 
 
 But, venerable sire, with your nation, remember that our 
 gospel Joseph, as you approach him, that he bears all the 
 other amiable shades of character, and is in the plenary pos- 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 435 
 
 session of all the compassionate and finer feelings of the be^ 
 nevolent heart of his type ; so that the very lineaments of 
 his redeeming and gracious countenance, is expressive of the 
 universal philanthropy of his holy soul. So that in the fullest 
 sense, Jesus Christ rises above the altitude of his type, who 
 was the younger son of your father Israel — in the kindness 
 which he manifests towards his iron-bound and hard-heated 
 brethren, who sold him into Egypt. 
 
 Go then, venerable friend, both you and your people, to 
 this young Joseph, the carpenter's son, and humbly ask 
 him, to make you a new and a more pliable rule, out of the 
 theological elements of his gospel, called faith ; which will 
 enable the Jewish captain and his whole ship's crew, with 
 the most perfect ease to yourselves, to measure the acme 
 of his Messiahship with the altitude of his redeeming sta- 
 ture, and the wonderful elevation of his divine nature, even 
 rising in grandeur to the God-head, which Moses and your 
 prophets worshipped ; and by this new rule of faith. Rabbi, 
 you and your people may also see, and behold in all the di- 
 versified lineaments, and other striking features of his per- 
 son and character, a perfect symmetry, and a full fac-simile, 
 of what your Moses and your prophets have written on their 
 prophetical telegraph of his mysterious hypostatical nature; 
 that is, your Joseph, or rather Messiah, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, is a perfect God, and a oerfect man. 
 
 Yes, Rabbi, as we have already said, both you and your 
 nation, by this new rule of faith, with the telescope of a sin- 
 gle eye open to the glory of God, will be led to see, as we 
 have before said in this letter, in the wonderful life and cha- 
 racter, the sublime doctrine, holy precepts, inimitable wis- 
 dom and exalted axioms of Jesus Christ, all associated with 
 the most pure disinterested philanthropy, and universal be- 
 nevolence to all mankind, [but especially to your nation. See 
 the rife coindication of Paul to the Jews first,] that are dis- 
 posed to receive him. And as it is time to part, and we do not 
 wish to wear out our welcome in this friendly, although in 
 some respects, it may be viewed our first desultorious conver- 
 sation with our old shipmate, the Jewish nation. Therefore, 
 we will no longer at this time, press the gloomy subject of 
 your unbelief and hardness of heart on the Rabbi ,* and 
 the children of Israel, who are now, while we are writing 
 this letter, scattered abroad upon the face of an unfriendly 
 world. We shall now leave the trial of the disciples of 
 
436 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 Christ, and this long letter, with the Rabbi and his nation, 
 your consciences and your God. 
 
 The writer having communicated what God hath shown 
 him, in a vision, concerning the unbelief of his ancient peo- 
 ple, the children of Israel. The author first saw these 
 things in a vision, in the month of April, 1830; when the 
 Spirit of the Lord, as he was viewing West's picture of 
 Christ rejected, for about half an hour. During which short 
 time the Lord gave him the plan of the trial of the disci- 
 ples, charged by the nation of the Jews, with stealing the 
 crucified body of Christ out of the sepulchre. Which work 
 I commend to God and to the grace of our Lord and Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ, to whom with God the Father, and God the 
 Holy Ghost, be glory, honour, power, and everlasting domi- 
 nion. Amen. 
 
 From on board a Gospel ship of the line, on a voyage of 
 discovery over the tempestuous sea of life, to the kingdom 
 of immortality. 
 
 Signed by order, and in behalf of the whole ships crew. 
 
 CAPTAIN ONESIMUS. 
 
 October l^th, 1832. 
 
 To his grace, Rabbi Jew and his whole nation. 
 
 [One word to the wise men of this mundane dispensation, 
 ^nd then, Christian shipmates, I will quit the gloomy tale of 
 of a crucfied Christ, and the distressing idea of the soul's 
 immortality, in a sea letter to his learned excellency.] 
 
 Honoured Sir, 
 
 May it benignly please your excellency, — Having, in my 
 rather ruthless, or at least unpolished sea-faring manners, 
 given you a little credit in the log book of your ephemeral 
 barque of life, as you are sailing over the sea of time, on ac- 
 count of the altitude of your wisdom, and extensive know- 
 ledge of the great arcanum of nature : or, if you please, this 
 material world. 
 
 Still, I make no doubt, sir, but that your excellency, at 
 times experiences your embellished mind almost embargoed 
 with perplexity, that oftentimes brings on a state of mental 
 lassitude, in consequence of your fiery steeds flying through 
 your new discovered empyrean regions, in the glorious age 
 of reason ; and especially when you rise in your flights unto 
 the milky way, or what your scientific honour, in your tech- 
 nical style, calls a galaxy of material glory. 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 437 
 
 But, may it please your excellency, does it not often hap- 
 pen, that after some of your long morning rides through the 
 cold regions aloft, that breathing, in consequence of the rare- 
 fied state of the ambient atmosphere, is at times attended with 
 difficulty ; the thinness of the air in those lofty regions, not 
 possessing sufficient buoyancy to give expansion to the lungs, 
 so that lassitude often ensues. When, please your soaring 
 honour, I may be justified in the use of a simple metaphor, 
 
 No. 1. The temple of the New Jenisulem, and the Son of God, 
 clothed in h^s prlesily garnier.ts, in the dtjor of the holy temple. 
 
 No. 2. The g"ospel ship of the lint.-, with the Christian sailor on 
 board, after hnving' encountered many storms, g-ales, hig-h seas and 
 contrary winds, at hist arrives in sight of the kini^dom of neaven, 
 and sees the I.ord Jesas Christ, in the door of the g-i-eat temple, 
 ready to receive hiin. 
 
 No. 3. Rabbi Jew and his nation. Their colours are fdiingto the 
 earth, indicative that tiiey, as a nation, have yivea up all hopes of 
 a Princely Messiah, 
 
 No. 4. Carna! Reason and vain Philosophy, The former is with 
 her soul surcliarged with ch-igrin, and confounded in her- mind, when 
 she discovers the doctrine of the cross and a risen Saviour are now 
 too true, to make an insidious joke of any long'er. The latter, vain 
 Philosophy, with her colours failing- to the earth, when her hope is 
 as pervious to the wraih of a sin-hating God, as a spider's web; and 
 the ire of the lion of the tribe of Juda, drives the philosophical 
 dunce in lier chariot of vanity, drawn with her flying steeds, down 
 from her starry neavens, like the falling stick of a sky-rocket, to 
 IieJp to kindle the fire of hell, forever. 
 
 2o* 
 
438 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 and say, that you have to descend, like the smoky stick of a 
 sky-rocket, [down into the gloomy mansion of death, to feast 
 the worms ;] after it has expended all its ephemeral sparks, to 
 earth again, in order to breathe a more dense air, by which 
 you become so far convalescent, as to enable your lungs to 
 dilate, when your serious views may perchance lead your ex- 
 cellency in a kind of prenominating, or if you please, fore- 
 casting frame of mind, to pause, when for one moment a pro- 
 found category presents itself to your view ; which led your 
 excellency's mind, as an act of great condescension on your 
 part, to take an excursive survey, of what your scientific ho- 
 nour views, in both the physical and moral government of 
 this little world — a thousand disorders, and ten thousand of 
 what you sir, conceive to be irregularities on the outer sur- 
 face of this world ; and ten thousand perplexing discrepances 
 in the various lots and outward conditions of the children of 
 men ; which sir, I make no doubt, does almost imperceptibly 
 lead your wise and reflecting mind, to be auguring through 
 the fashionable telescope, so much in use in these days, of 
 what the poor Christian sailor, in his ruthless vocabulary, 
 would call the age of vain Philosophy and deistical risibility, 
 aided by the natural unbelief and hardness of your heart ; 
 which sin has most deeply involved all men, whether we be 
 rich or poor, wise or sim|)le : yet may it please your excel- 
 lency, both at our birth and death, we are all by the well 
 known laws of gravity, which is the king who wears a sombre 
 crown, and is surrounded by a nebulous atmosphere ; who 
 is called by the plebeian orders of society, the King of Ter-^ 
 rors, seeks and finds a common equilibrium : and how soon 
 does the philosopher, and the way-faring man, by the obrep'^ 
 titious invasion of time, flow into one common level at last, 
 notwithstanding all the pride, which carnal Reason assumes 
 and arrogates to itself, as it reclines on a sofa of vain Phi- 
 losophy, under a cymmerian canopy of annihilation, like the 
 Romans in the days of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero; who 
 in order to regain the tone of their overcharged appetites, 
 as they lay inclined on their sofas, often took an emetic, in 
 order to provoke a vacation of the delicious articles of diet 
 they had just received ; so that those vain and foolish epicures, 
 might have the swinish pleasure o( gormandising another 
 meal ; which is, wheq moraUz;ed, a just prototype of vain and 
 fastidious philosophy, that is continually taking its emetic 
 pills, in order to renew the tone of your excellency's con- 
 science, bv the application of this sleepy stoliqlitj^, in ofder tQ 
 
CHRIST REJECTEtr.- 439 
 
 produce a speedy vacation of all serious reflecti^Qg Qf God, 
 of eternity, heaven, hell, Christ and immortality ; bv^t jq the 
 case alluded to, the swinish expedient soon destroyed the 
 laws of digestion, by bringing on them the most deleterious 
 fevers, and the awful cholera, which soon put a speedy end 
 to all their locomotion in this mundane state. You may, 
 please your excellency, clear your stomach for a short sea- 
 son, by your new or wonderful catholicon of the age of Rea- 
 son, and other emetics of vain Philosophy ; as was the case 
 of the gormandizing Romans, I have referred your excel- 
 lency unto. 
 
 But, vain and soaring shipmate, over the short voyage of 
 life, my word for it, the man Christ Jesus will come and lay 
 an embargo on thy tongue, and take away the buoyancy of 
 thy mind ; when you will experience, that the power of lo- 
 comotion, is by the strong paw of the lion of the tribe of 
 Juda, taken away from you, — yes, sire, like the stick of the 
 sky-rocket, you will fall from the acme of philosophical 
 glory, into the fiery vault of hell ; where in company with 
 Satan, you may set up your fastidious risibility at Christ, his 
 gospel, and his church : that is with this proviso, that Christ 
 does not place thee in the dark drawing room of the devil, 
 in a perfect state of nudity, and lay an indefinite embargo on 
 the locomotion of thy scoffing tongue and risibility forever. 
 Then, honoured sire, your vain philosophy, your sly, your 
 obreptitious, and your invidious opposition to Christ, the bible 
 and immortality, will soon be at an end. And you know 
 the country peoples' adage, " It is a long lane that has no 
 turn or end unto it." I think I see you smile at the irrele- 
 vancy of my foolish adage ; in placing this point of the theo- 
 logical compass before your excellency's mind, in the free us© 
 I have made of the tautologist elements of vulgar language, 
 in my impugning attack on vain Philosophy. But, sire, when 
 you remember my profession is that of a sailor, you will ex- 
 cuse my weakness in the choice of my missiles ; for we are 
 in the habit, when going to engage a pirate, and expect no 
 quarters — and if our artillery on the main battery has but 
 one calibre, we then gather up whatever comes at hand ; and 
 if we have a number of young cadets on board, we lell them 
 to leave their books and pens, fighting in the lower cabin for 
 fine weather, and a calm sea, and to come upon the main 
 deck of the gospel ship, for a black and bloody flag is in 
 sight ; and load the guns with grape, canister, bar, chain, 
 mi double headed sbotf with old spikes, crowi-bars, and 
 
440 CHRIST REJECTED. 
 
 whatever "'^"^es to hand :— for young gentlemen, we nnust 
 either ^^estroy, and sink the pirate, or he will destroy us. 
 So ^ftat we had better leave grammatical rules, goose quill 
 missiles, your burning glass, for a clear sun, fine weather, 
 and an enemy: who, like Archimedes, when the adversary 
 was about to slay him, was making his diagrams on the sand ; 
 for old black beard, the devil, smiles at our mustard seed 
 shot doing any material damage to old ironsides — that has 
 been firing at all the ships from the port of Zion, for almost 
 six thousand years. 
 
 I sav, Christian shipmate, if we ever mean to make a 
 breach in the sides of the devil's ship or kingdom, we must, 
 in this deleterious and sanguinary war, dispense with our 
 grammar rules, and also give up the idea of sinking the pi- 
 rate, by blowing the gospel through a goose quill ; but, ship, 
 mates, we must bring forward the heavy artillery, surcharged 
 with a living faith, in the promise of God, and with the bat- 
 tering-ram of holy zoal, propelled by the powder of the 
 Holy Ghost ; — then, and not till then, will the gospel ship, 
 or the church in her militant state, be plenarily prepared to 
 give to old ironsides, commanded by old blue beard, the devil, 
 the fire as hot as he can sup it. So much, please your excel- 
 lency, I have written as a palliation m my falling off the 
 wind's-eye of grammatical accuracy, into the monotonous sea 
 of tautology : but, by your excellency's indulgence. I will 
 pursue my parable. Now the poor sailor truly pities your 
 poor dving bodies, that are daily like some poor obsequious 
 slave, bowing down with base and servile homage, to that 
 mandate, which no other book but the bible, ever yet as- 
 sumed the awful responsibility to announce in the ears of all 
 men : — " Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." 
 Therefore your excellency may, it is true, at your own res- 
 ponsibility, pour down a few more summer shov/ers of your 
 fastidious and insidious risibility, on the idea of a revelation 
 from God ; but old Moses and his solitary God, brings us all 
 into the bull-ring in the slaughter-house of death — in the vo- 
 cabulary of Moses, " Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt 
 return." 
 
 But your excellency can, if you please, pursue your morn- 
 ing ride, through your new discovered empyrean regions, in 
 the age of reason, peering with your deistical eye at a thou- 
 sand unexplicable omens, which the altitude of your wisdom 
 and knowledge, discovers on the mysterious telegraph of the 
 government of this world j when eagle-like, your keen eye 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 441 
 
 gets so near the bright orb in the solar system of your new 
 philosophy — so that like that soaring king of birds, you both 
 renew your strength and vision, and then you descend to 
 earth again, when your eagle vision experiences a perfect 
 state of convalescence, like that king of birds ; when, please 
 your excellency, you see a vast number of small and great 
 discrepances, in the works and providences of the great land- 
 lord aloft, or the ruler of the spheres : — when your excel- 
 lency thinks you see on the undeciphered telegraph of the 
 providence of God, which, may it please your excellency, 
 is perchance either below, or perhaps above your philosophi- 
 cal understanding. So that you have suffered yourself to be 
 led through the path of life, in the leading strings, [by the 
 use of prosopopoeia, we shall give the name] of lady chance, 
 till your excellency were fully inducted into the blind lady's 
 drawing-room, when this sombre queen comes forth with 
 super-angelic form, and invites you to take a seat on one of 
 her sable sofas ; the cushion of which is stuffed with the down 
 of materialism, the frame thereof of the elements of decom- 
 position, surrounded with the ambient air of eternal sleep ; 
 which often fills the drawing-room of the sombre queen with 
 an aromatic perfume. When this lady of the muse, who 
 presides over all the sacred altars of blind chance, presents 
 to your excellency, by the agency of her delicate hand, one of 
 her cymmerian posies, which her slender nnger» had plucked 
 off from some of the shrubbery that grow in the cloudy valley 
 of eternal sleep ; and then, please your scientific excellency, 
 this sombre queen places her posy, when she experiences 
 one of her felicitous moods, at your olfactory nerves. So 
 that your learned honour, by the timely aid of the lady's 
 odoriferous refreshment and enchanting sauvity of style, your 
 eagle eye and vulture's vision, discovers the gospel to be 
 what your excellency, by a postulatory carollary in your fe- 
 lictious and almost, (indulge me to say,) amorous moment, 
 with the swarthy queen, is gratuitously pleased to call a 
 pious fraud : and we will give the rest of the conclusion, for 
 please your excellency, I am full of my little sea or sailor 
 like puns, so I will try to help the lame philosophers over the 
 style of their wilful unbelief, so as to heel-tap their inference 
 or philosophical corollary for them ; that is of course, that 
 Jesus Christ, whom his followers call the Son of God, was 
 an artful and a vile deceiver. So that this swarthy queen of 
 the cymmerian muse, makes your excellency, whom she 
 claims as one of her natural, but darling prating little boys, 
 
442 CURIST REJECTED. 
 
 born, it is true, without the purlieu of wedlock : in early 
 life, during an unguarded moment in a cloudy and dark even- 
 ing, when the queen was overtaken with a sudden thunder 
 shower of pride and vanity, and had to put up in the draw- 
 ing-room of old satan ; when a congress took place, of which 
 vain Philosophy and carnal Reason, were the twin darlings 
 of that season of sable felicity: and now the queen benignly 
 condescends to grant you, as one of her honorary sons, to 
 wear her family escutcheon, the diploma of a full doctor of 
 a deistical school. 
 
 And now, will your excellency suffer your very humble 
 and obsequious, and at the same time in a scientific sense, a 
 very unworthy poor Christian sailor, with all becoming def- 
 erence to tiie overflowing fountains of your wisdom, with 
 the upper and nether springs of your scientific knowledge; 
 yet your philanthropic clemency, will be kindly disposed, no 
 doubt, to indulge your poof Christian sailor, to inform your 
 excellency, that although you may, for an ephemeral season, 
 suffer 3'curself to be highly diverted, with what you may in 
 your excursive fancy, view to be the highest altitude of phi- 
 losophical glory, as you stand elevated on one of the loftiest 
 mountains of carnal reason; with the telescope of vanity at 
 your right eye ; viewing your new comet, with its scintil- 
 lating glory flying off its trail, as it pursues its evolutions 
 round the brig tit orb in me wOiiueiful age of reason. \Yheil 
 I have not the least doubt, but that the vivid glare of your 
 soaring mind, as it mounts aloft, with the proud prince of 
 ancient Babylon, amoDJjf the stars on the side of the north; 
 with your buoyant mind and soaring imagination, drawn by 
 a flying steed, (said by some to be the legitimate descendant 
 of old Pegasus,) through a galaxy of undiscovered worlds ; 
 and at the same time, your excellency, having your spirit so 
 richly imbued with an over anxious solicitude for the interest 
 and high concerns of your extramundane neighbours' felicity. 
 So that, please your excellency, you are so surcharged with 
 the pure fire of disinterested philanthropy for your distant 
 friends, that you have bccoine entirely delinquent in seeking 
 the eternal interest of your own soul: while, may it 
 please your excellency, you remain a tenant in our little 
 wig-warn called the earth. So that please your excellency, 
 Christ and immortality, heaven and hell, God and a day of 
 posting the accounts of the voyage of life, or a day of judg- 
 ment, are in your philosophical calendar, far beneath your 
 honour's notice. Then the conclusion of the whole matter 
 
CHRIST REJECTED. 443 
 
 is this, that your learned excellency has no time in this mun- 
 dane dispensation, to suffer the subject of Christ and his gos- 
 pel, to pass in a solemn category before your view : as the 
 whole of what is called divine revelation, appears utterly 
 unworthy the manly dignity of your star-gazing mind : so as 
 to lower your philosophical telescope, in order to take an 
 oblique glance at the low regions, over which the clouds, 
 which are more or less surcharged with the dispensations of 
 the grace, mercy and love of God, are said to locate them- 
 selves in every direction round our little satellite called earth ; 
 therefore, as a fair corollary, I am justified in forecasting in 
 my mind, that your excellency has far less time to spare from 
 the happy society and delightful company of those more than 
 patrician ladies, who constitute that purblind queen royal's 
 household, by some called lady chance. 
 
 So that, please your excellency, you have not a few mo- 
 ments to spare during the voyage of life, for to give Caia- 
 phas and the Roman guards' most unreasonable and foolish 
 report, to wit : — His liisciples came by night and stole him 
 while we slept. I iterate the sententious thought to your 
 rich and noble mind, that you have no time to spare from 
 your high philosophical pursuits and starry avocations, to let 
 your rich and embellished mind, retire within the purlieu 
 of common sense. And now, for the last time, suffer me to 
 beseech your excellency to stop your four horses, that take 
 the lead in your flying chariot, by calling to your posti- 
 lion to reign up the flying steeds, while your excellency takes 
 a few moments, and calmly for once, during the short voy- 
 age of life, put forth like a man and an intelligent being, all 
 your noble powers of ratiocination, with which the great 
 landlord aloft has blest you with ; and then give this sleepy 
 stolidity or childish tale, of the disciples stealing the crucified 
 body of Christ out of the sepulchre, a fair, candid and im- 
 partial investigation at the bar of common sense; and hold 
 like a man of wisdom and knowledge, a solemn court of in- 
 quest in the private drawing-room, or rather court, of your 
 own conscience, and before the bar of the supreme judge of 
 all the earth. 
 
 But, please your excellency, least I should rather weary 
 you with the prolixity of marine and other figurative voca- 
 bulary, by presenting so sombre a category, which the death 
 of Christ, his rising from the dead, and the immortality of 
 the soul ; all which your excellency's good sense sees, are 
 inseparably connected with, as well as indissolubly associated 
 
444 CMRISt REJECTED. 
 
 with the stealing the body of Christ out of the sepulcure* 
 And indulge me to close my valedictory admonition to your 
 philosophical excellency, by obliquely hinting, that if Christ 
 has surely risen from the dead, What, my star-gazing ship- 
 mate, most awful work it will make, and most deleterious 
 havoc throughout all the ships, that constitute the philoso- 
 phical and the deistical squadrons, who sail over this mun- 
 dane sea of life ! So fare you well, young shipmate, (Doc- 
 tor Deist,) till perhaps we may meet at the straits of death. 
 Your excellency, seated in your richly mounted chariot of 
 philosophy, drawn by the flying steeds of vanity, while your 
 poor plebeian servant, the Christian sailor, is sailing, in con- 
 sequence of the many storms he has had to pass through 
 during the voyage of life, under at times his courses, and 
 close-reefed top-sails, on board his gospiH ship, wfth his 
 colours flying at his main-royal mast head, written with this 
 motto, Christ is risen from the dead ; and in this let the poor 
 Christian sailor overcome. So fare thee well, forever, in this 
 mundane state, my young star-gazing friend. 
 
 And I shall ever remain, please your excellency, your very 
 humble and obsequious, but very unworthy servant ; on 
 board a ship of the line, in the actual service of King Jesus, 
 now riding off* Cape Look-out. 
 
 CAPTAIN ONESIMUS. 
 
 To his serene highness, Doctor Deist. 
 
 " Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people be 
 not afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath 
 not done it ? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he 
 revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The 
 lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath 
 spoken, who can but prophesy ?" Amos Sd chap. 6, 7, 8. 
 
 P. S. The author, in his sarcastical war against the infi- 
 delity of the times, has adopted the counsel of the wise Man, 
 or rather the Spirit of God : 
 
 " Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also 
 be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest 
 he be wise in his own conceit." Proverbs 26, 4 4* 5. 
 
 FIXIS. 
 
A SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF THIS LITTLE WORK. 
 
 Page 5. A view of West's picture of Christ Rejected. 
 
 Page 10. The Jewish nation. 1st Letter to- the Deists of 
 modern Christendom, setting forth God's ancient people after 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, as loosing their national visi- 
 bility. 
 
 ^ Pi^E 18.^'Jlae Jewish nation. 2d Letter to the Deists of 
 Christendom' ; when the Rabbi goes into a more lucid discus- 
 sion on the present condition of the human family, and also 
 expatiates on the immortality of the soul. 
 
 Page 30. The Jewish nation. 3d Letter to the Deists of 
 modern Christendom. In this letter, the Jew to his deistical 
 friend, goes into a more metaphysical discussion of the hy- 
 postatical nature of man, and obliquely glances at the person 
 of Christ. 
 
 Page 38. The Jewish nation. 4th Letter to the Deists 
 of Christendom ; when the old Jew is led to farther indulge 
 himself, in a rife capitulation to his friend, respecting their 
 former invidious and insidious reflections on the person of 
 Christ. 
 
 Page 50. The Jewish nation. 5th Letter to the Deists of 
 modem Christendom ; when the old Jew delivers his perora- 
 tion to his friend, under the appellation of a Prince of mo- 
 dern Infidelity, and prays the Deist to have the claims of 
 Christ, duly and legally tested, by having the eleven disci- 
 ples tried in a court of law and inquest, as they stand charged 
 with robbing the sepulchre of the crucified body of Christ. 
 
 Page 58. The Deists under the idea of a king of modem 
 infidelity. After a rife disquisition on the weighty import- 
 ance of the subject, when he cordially acquiesces with the 
 valedictory prayer of the old Jew. 
 
 Pace 65. The court is called by royal proclamation ; whea 
 2p 
 
A SYNOPTICAL VIEW OP THIS LITTLE WORK. 
 
 the crucified body of Christ is tried by proxy, for breaking 
 out of the old dungeon of death. 
 
 Page 93. The trial of Caiaphas, the high priest of the 
 Jews. 
 
 Page 169. The trial of Pontius Pilate, the governor of 
 Judea. 
 
 Page 212. The trial of the Centurian, who had the charge 
 of the sepulchre. 
 
 Page 243. The trial of the Eleven Disciples, as they stood 
 charged with robbing the sepulchre of the crucified iody of 
 Christ. ^o •• # 
 
 Page 293. The proceedings of the Court of Infidelity in- 
 terrupted by a young laA^yer of the Roman bar, who finally 
 arrests the illegal verdict of the court, from b'eing pronounced 
 against the eleven disciples. 
 
 Page 398. The trial of Caiaphas and Pilate, with their 
 condemnation and banishment. 
 
 Page 419. A valedictory letter to the Jewish nation — 
 who are scattered abroad on the face of the earth. 
 
 Page 436. A farewell letter to the Philosophers and 
 Deists of modern times. 
 
THE NAMES OF MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL 
 WHO HAVE SUBSCRIBED TO THIS WORK, 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 B. W. Richards, Mayor of Philadelphia. 
 
 Rt. Rev. William White, D. D. 
 
 Rev. G. T. Bedel, D. D. 
 
 Rev. George Boyd. 
 
 Rev. Gilbert R. Livingston, D. D. 
 
 Rev. William T. Brantly. 
 
 Rev. John Chambers. 
 
 Rev. George G. Cookman. 
 
 Rev. William M. Engles. 
 
 Rev. Wilham E. Ashton. 
 
 Rev. Manning Force. 
 
 Rev. Michael Hurley, D. D. 
 
 Rev. William Mann, A. M, 
 
 Rev. John L. Grant. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Helfenstein, 
 
 Rev. G. B. Perry. 
 
 Rev. George Chandler. 
 
 Rev. James Patterson. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Holditch. 
 
 Rev. Thomas J. Kitts. 
 
 Rev, Albert Helfenstein, jr. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Rusling. 
 
 Rev. Peter WoUe. 
 
 Rev. Bartholomew Weed» 
 
 Rev. Joseph Kennard. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Huggins, 
 
 Rev. J. W. Holman. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Porter, 
 
 Pennsylvania f 
 
 Bev, Albert Jadson. 
 
 Eev. P, H, Comming, PoitmlU, 
 
SUBSCBIBEBS NAMBS. 
 
 Rev. David Jonefs, 
 Rev. William Hall. 
 Rev. Levi Tucker. 
 
 Wilmington, Del. 
 
 Rev. J. P. Peckworth. 
 
 Baltimore. 
 
 Rev. John Healey, M. D. 
 
 Kentucky. 
 
 Rev. James R. Burcli. 
 
 NeiD Jersey. ^ 
 
 Rev. Joseph Maylin, 3Iount Holly. 
 ^Rev. Charles J. Hopkins, Salem. 
 Rev. John Sisty, Haddonfield. 
 Rev. Joseph Shepherd, Mount Holly. 
 Rev. C. R. Mulford, Pemberton. 
 Rev. Richard W. Pctherbridge. 
 Rev. Daniel Dodge, Neiv Brunswick. 
 Rev. Henry Smalley, Roads Town. 
 Rev. Ethan Osburn. 
 Rev. William Bacon. 
 Rev. Enoch M. Barker, Canton. 
 Rev. Samuel Smith, Cape May. 
 Rev. Solomon Higgins. 
 Rev. Ambrose Garrett, Cape May. 
 
 New York, 
 
 Rev. Joshua Lewitt. 
 
BS2427.H61 . . ^.u 
 
 Christ rejected; or, The trial of the 
 
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