number of disciples, and these were from the lowest class of the people. Have we not already told you that he was put to death by order of the magistrates? What do you say, gentlemen? Was not his doctrine believed by the people he attempted to instruct? No. His miracles, have they not persuaded those who were witnesses? No. And why should you believe them; you who came seventeen hundred years after him? O, Sir, all things require an explanation. Know then that God sent his Son among this people whose hearts he had hardened, purposely that they might not believe in him. Well explained! I am quite delighted with your mode of reasoning; but pray what name do you give this people? Jews.--Jews? Jews! I never heard of them? No, I believe you. They occupied such a small territory that their reputation did not extend far; nevertheless they were formerly God's favourite people. God chose them from among all the nations of the earth; he governed them himself, and often conversed with their chiefs. Sometimes through tenderness for his people he ordered them to massacre each other; and at one time twenty three thousand were put to death by their own citizens at the express command of God. God ordered one of their kings to murder every man of a nation they had vanquished; the king had the audacity to spare some who were not in a state to defend themselves and was punished for it. A son of this king was condemned to die for eating honey on the day of battle, and God, who was justly irritated at the father as well as son, proscribed them both, and made choice of a new king. This king (whom God had expressly chosen) committed adultery with the wife of one of his generals, and massacred her husband. By the adultress he had a son who kept seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines in his seraglio; but you must know these two kings were cherished by our God; both had heavenly benedictions heaped on their heads. The father was the man after God's own heart, and the son was the wisest of men. The Son of God, who became a man, descended in a direct line from this _wisest of men_, and from the adultress of whom we have just spoken. O, gentlemen, exclaimed I, you make me shudder at your impious ideas. They resumed. Have we not told you that the conduct of this God was always mysterious, purposely to humble our weak reason? The first legislator whom God gave to his favourite people was an assassin; but he had nevertheless the gift of performing a number of miracles. He composed a body of civil and religious rites and laws which we still revere as having been inspired by the Deity. And yet, you do not observe them? No; truly. We hold those people in horror who do so. It is true, that this was formerly the favourite people of God, and all other nations were rejected; afterwards the other nations were chosen, and this favourite people rejected. Do you not admire, Sir, the wisdom of the God we adore?