"We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard!" Acts iv. 20. What shall we say,

Thirdly, Of their success?

It is a fact, that the apostolic testimony obtained credit. In Judea, Greece, Italy, and many other countries, vast numbers of persons, of different ages, characters, and circumstances, professed to believe it; so that, in a few years, a change was produced, in the moral and religious state of society, far more astonishing, all things considered, than any other revolution which history records. Now, this extraordinary revolution must have a cause. What, then, is this cause? Shall we seek it in the charms of eloquence, in the attraction of riches, in the splendour of dignities, or in the influence of worldly power? No; for the cause we are examining operated without even their concurring aid: what is more, it produced its effect in opposition to their united force. The belief of Christ's resurrection was the cause of the prevalence of his religion; and the demonstration of the Spirit was the cause of the belief of this fact.

That the fact would not have obtained such credit, if it had not been well authenticated, we may infer from these two considerations;

1. It would have been easy, in this case, to have proved it false; and there were not wanting powerful motives, to induce the enemies of the gospel, to make the most rigid inquiry.

If the Jewish magistrates had no benevolence to men, no attachment to their own law, nor any zeal for the honour of their nation; yet a regard to their own reputation would have stimulated them to exert every endeavour to prevent the propagation of a story which loaded them with infamy, as the murderers of the Lord of life. Nor will it be denied,

that they possessed every possible advantage for detecting the fraud, if any fraud there had been. But what did they? Instead of bringing those whom they affected to consider as impostors to a public trial, that their extraordinary story might undergo a fair investigation, they imprison, they threaten, they command them to speak no more in the name of Jesus. Would they, in the first instance, have had recourse to violent measures, would they have adopted such absurd expedients, if they could have invalidated the apostolic testimony?

But the public testimony which the apostles gave to the fact of which they were witnesses, tended, not only to fix an odium on the grand sanhedrim, but also to destroy the authority of Jewish and heathen priests, to annihilate the superstitious regard paid to deified emperors, to pour contempt on the boasted wisdom of philosophers, and to expose the prejudices, the idolatry, and the fanaticism of the people. Whithersoever, therefore, the witnesses directed their course, the miracles they wrought in proof of the fact which they testified, must have undergone the severest scrutiny. This will more evidently appear, if we consider, that

2. It was easy for those who then embraced Christianity to ascertain the truth of this fact; and, circumstanced as they were, we cannot suppose they would profess faith without previous inquiry.

that

Did the witnesses affirm, in proof of our Lord's resurrection, that he sent his Holy Spirit to enable them to work miracles? How natural the inquiry, Do they work miracles? Do they cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear? Do they raise the dead? Did they declare that they communicated supernatural gifts to those who embraced their doctrine ? How could men, before they pro

fessed to believe, avoid asking, Is this a fact? Are there any proofs of such communication? If there were no evidence of these things, how could the apostles impose upon their followers? Or by what means could they persuade thousands of Jews and Gentiles to enter into confederacy with them to cheat the rest of the world?

That such numbers of persons of all descriptions, as composed the primitive churches, should declare their belief of the resurrection of Christ, if they were not convinced of its reality, will appear highly improbable, if we consider what were then the consequences of this profesion. A new religion, of which this great fact is the grand support, was, necessarily, embraced. This new religion, espoused by those who believed that Jesus arose from the dead, is of a peculiar character, adapted in no respect to captivate those evil dispositions which are predominant in the depraved heart. It has no charms for those who mind only earthly things. This religion is not calculated, like the Jewish, to gratify the love of pomp; for its spiritual worship requires no magnificent temple nor costly sacrifices. The religion of Christ does not, like some of the ancient heathen religions, provide gratification for the senses, by rich perfumes, and grand processions. Unlike the religion of Mohammed, it promises no sensual pleasures. No: for it declares, "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world," I John ii. 16. It counteracts pride in all its forms. It mortifies the pride of birth, of riches, and of station, by revealing God as no respecter of persons, and by teaching, that no religious prerogative is attached to descent, that no superiority in the church is associated with wealth,

and that elevated rank confers no right to dominion over conscience. The pride of virtue it mortifies, by showing that, in point of acceptance with God, all men are on a level; that as all have sinned, all are equally at the disposal of mercy; and that all who are saved, are alike indebted to sovereign grace, reigning through the righteousness of Christ. It mortifies the pride of genius and of learning, by requiring us to receive, on Divine testimony, what reason could not discover, and what, though revealed, reason cannot fully comprehend. In a word, the religion of Christ mortifies the love of sin, strikes at the root of every evil passion, requires the exercise of self-denial, and demands incessant watchfulness. It prohibits every vice, and inculcates every virtue. Those who, in the apostolic age embraced this religion, suffered persecution. It appears, not only from the New Testament, but from other ancient records, that their profession exposed them, without any worldly advantage, to the loss of all those things which are naturally most dear to the heart of man, and to the danger of enduring what is most terrible to nature, reproach, imprisonment, and death.

If, then, we deny the resurrection of Christ, we must admit other miracles; for the prevalence of his religion, without any evidence to support it, and under circumstances the most inauspicious is as totally incompatible with those laws which govern the moral world, as the resurrection of a dead man is with what are called the laws of nature. For it is absolutely impossible to account for the conduct of the primitive Christians, on those principles which generally regulate human conduct, if Christ did not arise from the dead; but if this fact be admitted, those difficulties, which would otherwise overwhelm the mind, entirely disappear.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE IMPORT OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION.

THE resurrection of Christ, once established, supplies us with a new principle of reasoning. It opens for us a new path, plain, safe, and pleasant, which leads to the discovery of many capital truths. It affords firm ground for every step we take in the investigation of religious sentiments. For we set out in our inquiries, not from doubtful conjectures, not from any assumed hypothesis, but from a certain fact-a fact, pregnant with consequences of the most interesting nature; for most of the doctrines we are required to believe, and of the duties we are commanded to practise, are so many inferences naturally deducible from this one fact. On this rock, against which the gates of hell shall never prevail, rests the whole system of Christianity For if Christ be not risen, the preaching of the apostles was vain; our faith is, therefore, vain; we are yet in our sins, 1 Cor. xv. 14, 17.

But, though reasonings conducted on evident facts are the most easy, the most clear, and the most conclusive, yet so liable are we to err, through the weakness of our intellects, the false medium through which we often behold objects, the passions which frequently agitate us, and the prejudices we are apt to imbibe; that it becomes us to be diffident of ourselves, and to examine the original witnesses of the resurrection that we may learn what were their ideas of the import of the fact which they testify.

Now we find from their writings that they advance it in proof of the following important par