In short, the Apostles, when they wanted to encourage their desponding proselytes, they usually did it with such words as these,—­“Be anxious for nothing, the Lord is at hand.”—­“Behold! the Judge standeth before the day.”—­“Be patient, therefore, brethren, (says James) for the coming of the Lord cometh nigh.”  And this persuasion did not end, as might be expected, with that century; for we find that the heathens frequently laughed at the expec-tations of the Primitive Christians, who, till the fourth century, never gave up the expectation of the impending advent of their master.  Nay, so rooted was the idea in their minds, that, understanding the words of Jesus concerning John, “if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee,” to mean that that disciple should not die, but survive till the glorious appearance of his lord, so far were they from being convinced of the vanity of their expectations by that Apostle’s actual decease, that they insisted, that, though he was buried, he was not dead, but only slept, and that the earth over his body rose and fell with the action of his breathing!!

It is now hardly necessary to add, that Jesus did not at all answer the character of a true prophet, when tested by the criterion laid down in Deuteronomy for ascertaining the truth of the claims of a prophet to a divine mission.

Let us now see, whether he taught the worship of other beings beside the Eternal, for if he did, the other test laid down in Deuteronomy will also decide against him.  Now, did he not command the worship of himself in these words, “All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father?” This, certainly, commands to render to Jesus the same homage which is rendered to God.  I might prove that his disciples did worship him, by referring to many passages in the New Testament, especially in the Revelations, in the latter part of which, Jesus is represented as saying, “I am the Alpha, and the Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first, and, the last,” terms applied to the Eternal in Isaiah, where God says, (as if in express opposition to such doctrine) that “there is no God with him:  He knows not any; there was none before him, neither shall there be any after him.”  I could also adduce many passages relating to the Eternal of Hosts, quoted from the Old Testament, and applied in the New to Jesus.  Witness “the following:—­John xii. 41, alludes to Isaiah vi. 5; Revelations i. 8,.11, 17, and ii. 8, to Isaiah xli. 4, xliii. 11, and xliv. 6; John xxi. 16, 17, and Revelations ii. 23, to 1st Kings viii. 39; John vii. 9, Jeremiah xi. 20, and xvii. 20, Revelations xx. 12,. to Isaiah xl. 10; and, to crown all, Jesus, in Revelations i. 13, 14,15, 16, 17, is described in almost the same words as is the Supreme God; “the Ancient of Days” in Daniel, 7th chapter; and were there not other proofs in abundance to this purpose, this resemblance alone would decide me.

I now leave it to the cool judgment of the reader, whether Jesus prophecied truly, or did, or did not, teach the duty of paying religious homage to other beings besides God? and, if so, it is consequent, according to the tests by Christians acknowledged to be given by God himself in Deuteronomy, that if Jesus was not sent by, or from, him; for if he was—­God’s own words would be contradicted by God’s own deeds.