it be imagined, that men would easily be persuaded, merely on the credit of their affirmation, or in compliance with their importunity, to believe things which to their prejudiced minds would appear so improbable, and to submit to impositions to their corrupt inclinations so insupportable? And if they could not persuade them to it, what could the apostles then expect? What but to be insulted as fools or madmen by one sort of people; and by another to be persecuted with the most savage and outrageous cruelty, as blasphemers of their gods, as seducers of the people, and disturbers of the public peace? All which we know happened accordingly. Nay, they assure us, that their Lord had often warned them of it; and they themselves expected it; and thought it necessary to admonish their followers to expect it too. And it appears, that far from drawing back upon that account, as they would surely have done, if they had been governed by secular motives, they became so much the more zealous and arduous; and animated each other to resist, even at the price of their blood.

Now, as this is a great evidence of the integrity and piety of their characters, and thus illustrates the former head, so it serves the purpose now immediately in view, that is, it proves how improbable it is that any person of common sense should engage in an imposture, from which, as many have justly observed, they could on their own principles have nothing to expect, but ruin in this world, and damnation in the next. When we therefore consider and compare their characters and circumstances, it appears utterly improbable, on various accounts, that they would have attempted in this article to impose upon the world. But suppose that in consequence of some unaccountable, as well as some undiscoverable frenzy, they had ventured on the attempt, it is easy to shew,

That, humanly speaking, they must quickly have perished in it; and their cause must have died with them, without ever gaining any credit in the world. Common sense must have suggested to them that the report of a circumstance most extraordinary in its nature, if not attested by the most convincing evidence, must have exposed their cause as base, absurd, and contemptible.

One may venture to say this in general, on the principles which we have before laid down. But it appears still more evident when we consider the nature of the fact they asserted, in conjunction with the methods they took to engage men to believe it; methods, which, had the apostles been impostors, must have had the most direct tendency to ruin both their doctrine and themselves.

Let us a little more particularly reflect on the nature of that grand fact, namely, the death, resurrection, and exaltation of

Christ; which, as already observed, was the great foundation of the Christian system, as first represented by the apostles. The resurrection of a dead man, and his ascension unto, and abode in the upper world, was so strange a thing, that a thousand objections might immediately be raised against it: and some extraordinary proofs might justly be required as a balance to them. Now the rejectors of the Gospel, it might be supposed, would set themselves to invent some hypothesis, which should have some appearance of probability, how such amazing circumstances should ever gain credit in the world, if they had not some very convincing proofs. But this, with all their endeavors, is totally impracticable; and consequently, the most convincing proof that can be given of the great truth of the whole.

When the Christian seriously considers the horrid but vain attempts these enemies to the Gospel make, to pervert that religion on which the redemption of the human race is founded, how natural is it for him to ask, Is it possible that even the most impious and obstinate atheist can read with attention, the various and astonishing circumstances that attended the divine Redeemer from his birth to his crucifixion, and yet disbelieve? Does not even the minutest circumstance and transaction fully evince the great truths of his mission? And shall the atheist continue even to doubt, merely because himself was not an eye-witness to the facts recorded by those who were ?

The celebrated Dr. Watts has very justly pictured the character of the atheist in the following stanzas:

Fools in their hearts believe and say,

That all religion's vain,

There is no God that reigns on high,
Or minds the affairs of men.

From thoughts so dreadful and profane,
Corrupt discourse proceeds;

And in their impious hands are found
Abominable deeds.

Their tongues are us'd to speak deceit,
Their slanders never cease:
How swift to mischief are their feet,
Nor know the paths of peace!

Such seeds of sin (that bitter root)
In all their hearts are found;

Nor can they bear diviner fruit,

Till grace refine the ground.

But let us pursue the argument a little further, and we shall easily discover what must destroy every observation made by the Infidel, and confirm his opponent in the incontrovertible and glorious cause of the Christian religion.

The manner in which the apostles undertook to prove the truth of their testimony to these facts; and it will evidently appear, that instead of confirming their system, it must have been sufficient utterly to have overthrown it, had it been itself the most probable imposture that the wit of man could ever have contrived. It is evident that they did not merely assert that they had seen miracles wrought by this Jesus, but that he had endowed themselves with a variety of miraculous powers. And these they undertook to display, not in such idle and useless tricks as slight-of-hand might perform; but in such solid and important works as appeared worthy of a divine interposition, and entirely superior to human power: restoring sight to the blind, soundness to lepers, activity to the lame, and, in some instances, life to the dead. Nor were these things undertaken in a corner, in a circle of friends or dependants; nor were they said to have been wrought on such as might be suspected of being confederate in the fraud; but they were done often in the public streets, in the sight of enemies, on the persons of such as were utter strangers to the apostles; but sometimes well known to neighbors and spectators, as having long labored under those calamities, which, to human skill, were utterly incurableWould impostors have made such pretensions as these or, if they had, must they not immediately have been exposed and ruined?

Nor is there any room at all to object, that perhaps the apostles might not undertake to do these things on the spot, but only assert that they had done them elsewhere; for even then it would have been impossible that they should have gained credit; and they would have seemed less credible, on account of such a pretence. Whatever appearance there might have been of gravity, integrity, and piety, in the conversation of Peter, for instance, very few, especially such as had known but little of him, would have taken it upon his word, that he saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead at Bethany: but fewer yet would have believed his affirmation, had it been ever so solemn, that he himself raised Dorcas at Joppa, unless he had done some extraordinary work before them, correspondent at least, if not equal to that. One may easily think of invincible objections, which otherwise might have been made; and undoubtedly the more such assertions had been multiplied, every new person, scene, and fact, had been an additional advantage given to the enemy, to have detected and confuted the whole system, which Peter and his brethren had thus endeavored to establish.

But to come still closer to the point: If the New Testament be genuine, as we have already proved it, then it is certain that the apostles wrought miracles in the very presence of those to whom their writings were addressed; nay more, they like

wise conferred those miraculous gifts in some considerable degree on others, even the very persons to whom they wrote; and they appeal to their consciences with regard to the truth of it. And could there possibly be room for delusion here? It is exceedingly remarkable to this purpose, that Paul makes this appeal to the Corinthians, and to the Galatians, when amongst them there were some persons disaffected to him, who were taking all opportunities to sink his character, and to destroy his influence. And could they have wished for a better opportunity than such an appeal? An appeal which, had not the fact it supposed been certain, far from recovering those that were wavering in their esteem, must have been sufficient utterly to disgust his most cordial and steady friends. The same remark may be applied to the advices and reproofs which the apostle there gives, relating to the use and abuse of their spiritual gifts; which had been notoriously absurd, and even ridiculous, had not the Christians to whom he wrote been really possessed of them. And these gifts were so plainly supernatural, that, as it had been observed, if it be allowed that miracles can prove a divine revelation, and that the First Epistle to the Corinthians be genuine, (of which, by the way, there is at least as pregnant evidences as that any part of the New Testament is so) then it follows, by a sure and easy consequence, that Christianity is true. Nevertheless, other arguments not to be forgotten in these observations. And therefore, as we have proved, that had the testimony of the apostles been false, it is not to be imagined they could have gained credit at all; especially when they had put the proof of their cause on such a footing as we are sure they did. We shall now proceed to shew,

are

That it is a certain fact, the apostles did gain early credit, and succeeded in a most wonderful manner; from whence it will follow, that their testimonies were true.

That the apostles did, indeed, gain credit in the world, is evident from what we before offered, in order to prove the early prevalence of Christianity in it, and this may be farther confirmed from many passages in the New Testament. And here we insist not so much on express historical testimonies, though some of them are very remarkable; especially that of the brethren at Jerusalem, who speak of vast numbers of believing Jews assembled at the feast of Pentecost, mentioned in chap. ii. of the Acts. But I argue from the Epistles written to several churches, which plainly prove, that there were congregations of Christians in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colosse, Thessalonica, Philippa, Laodicea, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Crete, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bythinia, and many other places; insomuch that one of the

apostles could say, "That Christ had so wrought by him to make the gentiles obedient not only in word or profession, but in deed too; that from Jerusalem, even round about into Illyrium, he had fully preached the Gospel of Christ:" or, as the word imports, "had accomplished" the purposes of it. And there is a great deal of reason, both from the nature of the thing, and from the testimony of ancient history, to believe that others of the apostles had considerable success elsewhere. So that St. Paul might with reason apply to them and their doctrine, what is originally spoken of the luminaries of heaven, and the instruction they communicate, "their sound has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."

So great was the number of those who were made proselytes to Christianity by the preaching of the apostles. And we have all imaginable reason to believe, that there were none of all those proselytes, but what were fully persuaded of the truth of the testimony they bore; for otherwise, no imaginable reason can be given for their entering themselves into such a profession. The apostles had no secular terror to affright their proselytes; no secular rewards to bribe them; no dazzling eloquence to enchant them; on the contrary, all these were in a powerful manner pleading against the apostles; yet their testimony was received; and their new converts were so thoroughly satisfied with the evidence they gave them of their mission, that they encountered great persecutions, and cheerfully ventured estate, liberty, and life itself, on the truth of the facts they asserted; as plainly appears from the many passages in the Epistles, which none can think the apostles would ever have written, if those first Christians had not been in a persecuted condition.

Nor will it signify any thing to object, that most of these converts were persons of a low rank and ordinary education, who therefore might be more easily imposed upon than others. For not to mention Sergius Paulus, Dionysius the Areopagite, or the domestics of Cæsar's household, (with others of superior station in life) it is sufficient to call to mind, that the apostles did not put their cause on the issue of labored arguments, in which the populace might quickly have been entangled and lost, but on such. plain facts as they might judge of as easily and surely as any others; indeed, on what they themselves saw, and, in part too, on what they felt.

Now this might be sufficient to bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion. It has been shewn, that there is no reason to believe, that the apostles, who certainly knew the truth, would have attempted a fraud of this kind-so, if they had attempted it, they could not possibly have succeeded; nevertheless, they did succeed in a very remarkable manner. Whence it plainly follows, that what they testified was true.