But let us for a moment take for granted, what is to me plainly absurd, and suppose it posible, that the Apostles might, during the life of Christ, have been imposed upon; that he might have disappointed them, in their expectations of his being a great temporal prince, who was to make the Jews the most powerful people in the world; that the miracles they saw him perform, were not real, but fictitious; that the divine sanctity of his manners was assumed, not genuine; and that the excellency of his doctrine, the authority that accompanied all his words, and the veneration which his presence inspired, were the effect of mere human eloquence and address: yet, surely his death, had it put an end to his being, would have at last opened their eyes, and have satisfied them, that he was not what he had declared himself to be. And after such conviction, they unquestionably would not, they could not, in opposition to every temporal, and every immortal felicity, have persisted in, and sealed the falsehood with their blood.

The amazing, and if I may so style it, supernatural courage, which was shewn by the Apostles in those slow and painful torments that were inflicted upon them, is to me, a proof

proof convincing and incontrovertible. I cannot believe that man guilty of falsehood, who, amid the insults and mockeries of a crowded amphitheatre, and with an uncomplaining carriage and aspect, can resignedly suffer himself to be torn limb from limb; or who, stretched upon a grate of iron, over coals of fire, can breathe out his soul among the exquisite sufferings of such a tedious execution, rather than renounce his religion, or blaspheme his Saviour. Such trials seem to me above the strength of human nature, and able to overbear duty, reason, faith, nay, almost conviction itself. Humanity, unaided by the sacred energy of truth, must have shaken. off the present pressure, and have delivered itself out of such dreadful distress, by any means that could have been suggested. To expire leisurely among the most exquisite tortures, when it was in their power to be released from them, even by a mental reservation, or an hypocritical declaration, which was not without a possibility of being followed by repentance and forgiveness, has something in it so far beyond the natural strength of mortals, that I cannot but think their conduct grounded on a certainty, which ought to afford conviction to every reasonable being.

Yet,

Yet, is it to be credited, that in the attempts to invalidate the evidence of the gospel, these most affecting calamities of the first Christians are recounted with indifference, and sometimes even represented, as rather objects of contempt than of compassion and respect? Do writers, indeed, forget, or wish to forget, that those who endure misfortunes with magnanimity, are among the most edifying, as well as the most interesting subjects of history? Ignorance of the best feelings of the human heart can alone apologize for misrepresentation; and an uncommiserating perversion of the understanding, for the oblivion of sentiment. I do not, however, by this mean to insinuate, that there are not dissenters from Christianity, who, though they admire the doctrine, may yet have the misfortune to be dissatisfied with the evidence of the gospel. But charity itself forbids one to suppose, that this can be the case with those who labour to subvert, by uncandid distortion and insidiousness, the faith of others. Can that man, let me ask you, wish the gospel, or its precepts, to be true, who employs his life in labouring to prove it false?

The Apostle of the Gentiles, I believe it is generally allowed, was not a weak man.

I

Those

were

were not weak men, who taught a system of opinions, which even the sovereigns of the world, and some of the least cruel, the most learned, and the most politic, thought it their interest to bear down and destroy. Those were not weak men, who, in defiance of persecution, and in opposition to all the power, policy, and learning of the Roman empire, brought in, though unarmed and defenceless, a new religion, which continues to this day, is gradually extending itself over the earth, and by the gentle voice of reason, puts to silence, or confutes at least, its most inveterate adversaries. Were those weak men, who taught that which has given wisdom and happiness to millions of mankind, and has, without violence, introduced into the manners and policy of a great part of the world, changes the most important and beneficial, and likely to be as durable as the world itself? Could those, in fine, be weak men, whom the most inquisitive and most enlightened minds, that have been on earth since their time, have held in the highest veneration ? Either, then, it must be admitted, that the publishers of Christianity were not weak men, or that the innumerable great and illustrious characters of every country Europe, who have followed, and most faithfully adhered

Beatie.

adhered to this doctrine, have been of inferior understandings, compared with the luminous body of past and present latitudinarians, and anti-christian philosophers.

Not only the Jews, but all other nations, for a considerable time before the coming of Christ, expected a Messiah; and even about the time when he was born, it was currently believed, that a great person of an extraordinary and unknown character would come into the world. Something of this was even supposed to be found in the Sybilline books. Suetonius says, " Percrebuerat oriente toto vetus & constans opinio, esse in fatis ut Judæâ profecti rerum potirentur." And in addition to this eastern and constant opinion, that the fates had decreed, that some one coming out of Judea should govern the world, Tacitus cc says, a great many were persuaded, it was recorded in the ancient books of the priests, that at that particular time the east should prevail, and some one coming out of Judea should have the sovereignty of the earth."

Of this great person it was foretold, that he should be, in a peculiar sense, the son of a woman; that he should be a sufferer, but that he should

Genesis iii.