CHAP. V.

There is fatisfallory evidence, that many, profeffing to have been original witnesses of the' Chriftian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and fufferings, voluntarily undergone in atteflation of the accounts which they delivered, and folely in confequence of their belief of thofe accounts; and that they alfo fubmitted, from the fame motives, to new rules of conduct.

UPON the history, of which the last chap

ter contains an abstract, there are a few obfervations which it may be proper to make, by way of applying its teftimony to the ticular propofitions for which we contend.

par

I. Although our scripture history leaves the general account of the apostles in an early part of the narrative, and proceeds with the separate account of one particular

apostle,

apostle, yet the information which it delivers fo far extends to the reft, as it fhews the noture of the fervice. When we fee one apostle fuffering perfecution in the discharge of his commiffion, we fhall not believe, without evidence, that the fame office could, at the fame time, be attended with ease and safety to others. And this fair and reasonable inference is confirmed by the direct attestation of the letters, to which we have fo often referred. The writer of thefe letters not only alludes, in numerous paffages, to his own fufferings, but fpeaks of the reft of the apofiles as enduring like fufferings with himself. "I think that God hath fet forth us the apo Atles laft, as it were, appointed to death; for we are made a fpectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men-even unto this prefent hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being perfecuted, we fuffer it; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and as the offscouring of all things

unto this day." Add to which, that in the short account that is given of the other apostles, in the former part of the history, and within the fhort period which that account comprises, we find, firft, two of them feized, imprisoned, brought before the Sanhedrim, and threatened with further punishment; then, the whole number imprisoned and beaten : foon afterwards, one of their adherents ftoned to death, and so hot a perfecution raised against the fect, as to drive most of them out of the place; a fhort time only fucceeding, before one of the twelve was beheaded, and another sentenced to the fame fate; and all this paffing in the fingle city of Jerufalem, and within ten years after the founder's death, and the commencement of the inftitution.

II. Secondly; We take no credit at prefent for the miraculous part of the narrative, nor do we infift upon the correctness of fingle paffages of it. If the whole ftory be not a novel, a romance; the whole action a

* 1 Cor. iv. et feq. † Acts iv. 3. 21. Acts v. 18. 40.

dream; if Peter, and James, and Paul, and the rest of the apoftles, mentioned in the account, be not all imaginary persons; if their letters be not all forgeries, and, what is more, forgeries of names and characters which never exifted; then is there evidence in our hands fufficient to fupport the only fact we contend for (and which, I repeat again, is, in itself, highly probable), that the original followers of Jesus Christ exerted great endeavours to propagate his religion, and underwent great labours, dangers, and fufferings, in confequence of their undertaking.

III. The general reality of the apoftolic history is ftrongly confirmed by the confideration, that it, in truth, does no more than affign adequate causes for effects which certainly were produced, and defcribe confequences naturally refulting from fituations which certainly exifted. The effects were certainly there, of which this history sets forth the cause, and origin, and progress. It is acknowledged on all hands, because it

is recorded by other teftimony than that of the Chriftians themselves, that the religion began to prevail at that time, and in that country. It is very difficult to conceive how it could begin, or prevail at all, without the exertions of the founder and his followers in propagating the new perfuafion. The history now in our hands defcribes thefe exertions, the perfons employed, the means and endeavours made ufe of, and the labours undertaken in the prosecution of this purpose. Again, the treatment which the history represents the firft propagators of the religion to have experienced, was no other than what naturally refulted from the fituation in which they were confeffedly placed. It is admitted that the religion was adverfe, in a great degree, to the reigning opinions, and to the hopes and wishes of the nation to which it was first introduced; and that it overthrew, fo far as it was received, the eftablished theology and worship of every other country. We cannot feel much reluctance in believing that, when the meffengers of fuch a system