TRIAL OF JESUS.

REFUTATION OF THE CHAPTER OF MR. SALVA

DOR, ENTITLED THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF JESUS."

THE chapter, in which Mr. Salvador treats of the Administration of Justice among the Hebrews, is altogether theoretical. He makes an exposition of the law that things, in order to be conformable to rule, must be transacted in a certain mode. In all this I have not contradicted him, but have let him speak for himself.

In the subsequent chapter the author announces: "That according to this exposition of judicial proceedings he is going to follow out the application of them to the

most memorable trial in all history, that of Jesus Christ." Accordingly the chapter is entitled: The Trial and Condemnation of Jesus.

The author first takes care to inform us under what point of view he intends to give an account of that accusation: "That we ought to lament the blindness of the Hebrews for not having recognised a God in Jesus, is a point which I do not examine,” (There is another thing also, which he says he shall not examine.) "But, when they discovered in him only a citizen, did they try him according to existing laws and formalities?"

The question being thus stated, Mr. Salvador goes over all the various aspects of the accusation; and his conclusion is, that the procedure was perfectly regular, and the condemnation perfectly appropriate to the "Now," says he, (p. 87,) "the Senate, having adjudged that Jesus,

act committed.

the son of Joseph, born in Bethlehem, had profaned the name of God by usurping it himself, though a simple citizen, applied to him the law against blasphemy, the law in the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy, and verse 20th, chapter 18th, conformably to which every prophet, even one that performs miracles, is to be punished when he speaks of a God unknown to the Hebrews or their fathers."

This conclusion is formed to please the followers of the Jewish law; it is wholly for their benefit, and the evident object is, to justify them from the reproach of deicide.

We will, however, avoid treating this grave subject in a theological point of view. As to myself, Jesus Christ is the Man-God; but it is not with arguments drawn from my religion and my creed, that I intend to combat the statement and the conclusion of Mr. Salvador. The present

age would charge me with being intolerant; and this is a reproach which I will never incur. Besides, I do not wish to give to the enemies of Christianity the advantage of making the outcry, that we are afraid to enter into a discussion with them, and that we wish to crush rather than to convince them. Having thus contented myself with declaring my own faith, as Mr. Salvador has let us clearly understand his, I shall also examine the question under a merely human point of view, and proceed to inquire, with him, "Whether Jesus Christ, considered as a simple citizen, was tried according to the existing laws and formalities."

The catholic religion itself warrants me in this; it is not a mere fiction; for God willed, that Jesus should be clothed in the forms of humanity (et homo factus est), and that he should undergo the lot and sufferings of humanity. The son of God,