cunningly devised fable, the falsehood of which they could not detect, in consequence of the power which superstition and fanaticism had upon their minds.

This, I reply, is utterly impossible. I have before observed, that they were neither fanatics nor enthusiasts: the very supposition strikes at the root of all testimonial evidence, and involves an absurdity which needs no contradiction. I therefore do not hesitate unequivocally to assert, and will maintain the assertion, that the uprightness and integrity of their conduct, is a satisfactory confirmation of the truth of the Christian Scriptures. If it can be proved that they were honest and sincere men, then Christianity, (involved as it is in the integrity of their conduct,) is likewise equally proved to be, beyond all doubt, the true, and the only true religion. The apostles and first preachers of Christianity could not possibly be labouring under a delusion---the circumstances in which they were placed utterly prevented it. It was no hearsay story which they propagated, but that which had come under their own immediate observation. They were eye-witnesses of the facts which they record: it was not that which they had heard, but that which they had seen with their eyes, which they had looked upon, and which their hands had handled of the good word of life. (1 John, i. 1.) Let the objector, therefore, turn which ever way he will, it will be impossible for him to find any ground on which to suspect the veracity of the apostles, or doubt the truth of their testimony. If this conclusion is admitted as just and correct, there is then no flaw whatever: the mystery which otherwise hangs over their conduct is immediately removed; and the motives which induced them to labour, and by which they were supported through such a series of trials, are on this principle evident and clear; and the difficulties which they patiently underwent rationally accounted for. But, on the other hand, if the truth of this position be denied, inexplicable difficulties and clashing principles meet us at every turn. We are, therefore, on the ground of

all experience, and of all moral, rational, and testimonial evidence, compelled, as a necessary and unavoidable conclusion, to admit the truth of what the sacred writers have asserted; and to receive the Bible, on the testimony which they have given us, as a book which is given "by inspiration of God, and which is profitable for doctrine, for re· proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, and which is able to make men wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. iii. 15, 16.)

SECTION 2.

On the Sufferings and Persecutions which the Apostles underwent in the Cause of Christianity.

In the foregoing section, an allusion has been made to the situation in which the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ were placed at the introduction of the gospel dispensation, and to the impossibility of their being deceived as to the truth of his mission, and the indubitable manner in which the divine authority of the doctrine which he taught was corroborated. This point being, as it is, incontrovertibly established, the argument for the truth of Christianity is thereby made to rest upon the satisfactory nature of the proofs which are adduced of their own honesty as witnesses and historians; and of the sincerity of the motives by which they were actuated in their endeavours to propagate it. I have already enlarged upon their disinterestedness, and their freedom from sinister motives, but have only made a few distant allusions to the actual sufferings which they underwent in their career of Christian exertion. I shall now therefore proceed, from this view of the subject, to direct the reader's attention to the positive proofs of the integrity of their characters→→ the sincerity of their motives-their veracity as witnesses -and their faithfulness as historians, which arise from the detailed account we have given us, both in Scripture and history, of the persecutions, privations, and trials which they perpetually underwent in the noble cause of disin

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terested benevolence and laborious philanthropy in which they embarked.

We learn from the records of the Acts of the Apostles, that no sooner had the servants of Christ, in obedience to their Master's commands, entered upon the great work to which he had designated them, than a heavy storm of painful and discouraging persecution overtook them. We shall find, if we read the former part of Acts iv., that almost on their first attempt to preach the gospel, they were seized by officers appointed for the purpose, and carried before the Jewish Sanhedrim. It is also stated, chap. v. 10, that but a short period after this event had elapsed, ere they were again called to appear before the same high tribunal and on this second appearance, they were ordered to be beaten, and received a command from the court, that they should no more speak to the people in the name of Jesus. A third summons shortly after overtook them, and they were once more compelled to present themselves at the bar of this iniquitous tribunal. The result of this their third appearance is recorded in Acts chap. vi. ver. 7, where we are informed, that one of their number was on this occasion put to death in the most unjust and cruel manner. In the 3d verse of the following chapter, we are told that Saul, who was a notorious persecutor, (though he afterwards became a preacher of the faith he was then labouring to destroy,) made havock of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. The 12th chapter of the same book states the death of James, who was killed by the sword, and the imprisonment of Peter, who would have met with the same fate, had he not been miraculously delivered. In the following chapters of the same inspired records, we have various detailed accounts of the sufferings, perserutions, and dangers, to which the apostle Paul was perpetually exposed; and the truth of those statements is abundantly confirmed by his own testimony, which we have in the numerous Epistles which he addressed to the Asia

tic and other churches*. It is, however, but a short ac-. count with which the sacred oracles furnish us, of the sufferings of the apostles and others of the first converts to Christianity. The principal information which we have on this subject, is derived from the works of various contemporary historians, who have written the history of these eventful ages. Josephus, Celsus, Tacitus, and Pliny, with several other of the writers who lived about this period, were decidedly hostile to Christianity. They were not (as is frequently objected to Christian authors) of the prejudiced party. On the contrary, they wrote with a view to injure and impede the cause of the gospel, and not with a design to increase the weight of that impregnable body of satisfactory and convincing evidence by which it is supported. The testimony, therefore, of these men may be confidently relied on; as it cannot be supposed that they would write more favourably of a religion which they thoroughly despised, than what they were compelled to do, out of respect to their own characters as faithful and correct historians.

From these various sources of information, we learn that the majority of the first preachers of Christianity were put to death by its hostile and malicious enemies, in a most unnatural and cruel manner. Mark, it is related, was dragged by a cord fastened to his feet through the streets of Alexandria, until life became extinct, and his body mangled in the most inhuman way. Luke was hanged in Greece. James was slain by the sword at Jerusalem. Peter was crucified, and Paul was beheaded, at Rome: and Thomas, who came to preach the gospel to the inhabitants of this country, was persecuted and slain by the Brahmunst. Neither were the sufferings and trials of which I am here speaking confined to the apostles and other active propagators of Christianity. Every man who

See 1 Cor. i. 4-9; and 2 Cor. xi. 24; also chap. vi. 4th and following verses, which passages are quoted at length in the first part of this work. See a little work on the evidences, entitled "A Father's Gift to his Children," page 78.

renounced the religion of his ancestors, and became a convert to its sacred truths, was liable to be thus treated in those days of injustice and cruelty. It was not in one place, neither for a short space of time, but in every country where the gospel made its way, and through a long series of years, that Christians underwent, in a thousand different forms, these inhuman and unheard of trials. In some places they were whipped until all the flesh was torn from their bodies. In others they were dressed in the skins of beasts, and mercilessly exposed in the theatres of popular amusement, to be devoured by dogs, tigers, and other kinds of ferocious beasts. They were in some instances bound upon iron spikes, and compelled to remain in that painful position until the lamp of life was extinguished. Some were roasted alive before slow fires; whilst others were dipped in pitch and oil, and fire being put to them, were used as torches to illuminate public roads, gardens, and other places of general resort. In fact, so great were the sufferings and trials to which they were perpetually exposed, that the apostle has justly declared, in referring to them, (1 Cor. xv. 19,) that if in this life only they had hope in Christ, they were of all men the most miserable.. .

On this view of the sufferings of the apostles and first converts to the Christian cause, I ask the candid reader to solve the difficulty, by explaining, if he can, on what principle, and by what motives these noble sufferers could possibly be induced to deceive others, or suffer themselves tamely to be deceived, by receiving a religion which exposed them to such accumulated trials, without enquiring into (or in fact being any thing less than positively convinced of) its truth and divine authority. Too many painful instances frequently occur, in which it evidently appears that men are adepts in hypocrisy, deception, and lies: no such wickedness, however, can rationally be attributed to the men whose sufferings I have here described. Fire and sword, rack and tortures, imprisonment, banishment, and death are not things to be trifled