no man of sense and reason can reject.  One would naturally think, that the foretelling his resurrection, and giving such publick notice to expect it, that his keenest enemies were fully apprised of it, carried with it the greatest mark of sincere dealing.  It stands thus far clear of the suspicion of fraud.  And had it proceeded from enthusiasm, and an heated imagination, the dead body at least would have rested in the grave, and without further evidence have confuted such pretensions:  and since the dead body was not only carried openly to the grave, but there watched and guarded, and yet could never afterwards be found, never heard of more as a dead body, there must of necessity have been either a real miracle, or a great fraud in this case.  Enthusiasm dies with the man, and has no operation on his dead body.  There is therefore here no medium:  you must either admit the miracle, or prove the fraud.

Judge.  Mr. A. You are at liberty either to reply to what has been said under this head, or to go on with your cause

Mr. A. My Lord, the observations I laid before you, were but introductory to the main evidences on which the merits of the cause must rest.  The Gentleman concluded, that here must be a real miracle or a great fraud; a fraud, he means, to which Jesus in his lifetime was a party.  There is, he says, no medium.  I beg his pardon.  Why might it not be an enthusiasm in the master which occasioned the prediction, and fraud in the servants who put it in execution?

Mr. B. My Lord, This is new matter, and not a reply.  The Gentleman opened this transaction as a fraud from one end to the other.  Now he supposes Christ to have been an honest, poor enthusiast, and the disciples only to be cheats.

Judge.  Sir, if you go to new matter, the council on the other side must be admitted to answer.

Mr. A. My Lord, I have no such intention.  I was observing, that the account I gave of Jesus was only to introduce the evidence that is to be laid before the court.  It cannot be expected, that I should know all the secret designs of this contrivance, especially considering that we have but short accounts of this affair, and those too conveyed through hands of friends and parties to the plot.  In such a case it is enough if we can imagine what the views probably were; and in such case too it must be very easy for a Gentleman of parts to raise contrary imaginations, and to argue plausibly from them.  But the Gentleman has rightly observed, that if the resurrection be a fraud, there is an end to all pretensions, good or bad, that were to be supported by it:  therefore I shall go on to prove this fraud, which is one main part of the cause now to be determined.

I beg leave to remind you, that Jesus in his lifetime foretold his death, and that he should rise again the third day.  The first part of his prediction was accomplished:  he died on the cross and was buried.  I will not trouble you with the particulars of his crucifixion, death, and burial; it is a well known story.