In addition to the testimony of the apostles to the truth of the Gospel, we have the corroborative evidence of the first Christians. The testimony of many of these is of the same nature with that of the apostles. It is the evidence of men who did not receive on tradition what they believed, but were eyewitnesses of its truth. This was more particularly the case with that numerous body of disciples who resided at Jerusalem; but it was not confined to them. The Lord Jesus Christ not only conferred on the apostles the power of working miracles, in attestation of his divine mission, but that also of imparting miraculous gifts to the other disciples, by the laying on of their hands. John, who survived all the other apostles, did not leave the world till some time about the year 101. If persons of twenty years of age received these gifts by the imposition of his hands, and lived, as some of them in common course must have done, till they were seventy years old, this would carry us down to the year 150; and if others of twenty years of age saw them in possession of these gifts, and in their turn survived till they were seventy, this will bring us to about the year 200; but as that may be considered nearly the utmost limit, the general

period to which eyewitnesses of the possession of miraculous powers might survive, may be reckoned about the year 150. In this way, from the time of the ascension of Jesus Christ, we have a period of above 100 years, during which miraculous gifts existed in those churches which the apostles had gathered or visited. Here, then, the testimony adduced is that of men who witnessed, and many of whom possessed, miraculous powers; so that they had the evidence of their senses in attestation of the truth of the Christian religion. Many of them, like the apostles, laid down their lives for that truth, and all of them endured the brunt of the fiercest persecution.

By the Book of Acts, published in the same age in which the transactions it records took place, we are informed, that when the apostles, at the feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, began openly to publish at Jerusalem that he was the Messiah, every effort was employed to repress them, and all Jerusalem was greatly agitated. The apostles wrought many miracles, and the success of their doctrine was very considerable. About three thousand persons immediately joined themselves to them, and were baptized. Soon afterwards," the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."

One of the disciples, named Stephen, who had been chosen to the office of Deacon in the church, was now publicly put to death, and a general persecution was raised, by which the rest of the disciples, except the apostles, were scattered from Jerusalem. But so far from suppressing, this proved the means of propagating more widely the doctrine of Jesus Christ; and, within a few years after his death, there were numerous

bodies of Christians collected in most of the principal cities of the Roman empire. That such societies existed in the apostolic age, and that they had been collected and were regulated by the doctrine taught by the apostles, is a fact beyond the reach of controversy.

Owing to the manner in which the New Testament Scriptures were at first published, as has been already detailed, the testimony given by the first Christians to the truth of their contents is placed in the strongest light. For nothing can stamp such a character of authenticity on writings, as their being addressed to, and acknowledged by, persons, who themselves have been witnesses of the transactions that are appealed to, and which are so interwoven with the facts they are called to believe, that it is impossible to separate the one from the other. The facts recorded in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, form the basis of all that the Epistles to the churches contain.

These Epistles are addressed to the churches on particular occasions, conveying, as was needful, exhortation, instruction, reproof, or consolation. They enter into a detail of errors into which they had fallen, of faults which they had committed, and of various particulars' in their conduct. Individuals are spoken of by name, sometimes to their honour, and at other times with disapprobation. The writer frequently refers to their immediate situation, and to his own conduct and circumstances while dwelling in the midst of them. Sometimes he is compelled to remind them of the treatment he had experienced, and of his own upright and disinterested behaviour, without any temporal remuneration. They are appealed to as eyewitnesses of the miracles he performed, and of the miraculous gifts bestowed upon some among themselves. Could societies of men

be deceived in regard to these things? Could they be imposed on by being summoned as witnesses of what they never saw, or as being subjects of trials and sufferings they had never felt? Would they bear to be reprehended for faults they had never committed; to be admonished as to errors into which they had never fallen? The supposition is absurd; the very nature of the Epistles to the first churches carries at once irrefragable evidence of the integrity of those who wrote them, and of the competency of the persons to whom they were addressed to judge of the truth of their con

tents.

For the sincerity of the persons who thus received and acknowledged these Epistles, we have the most unequivocal pledges that human nature can afford. All of them, in consequence of adopting the truths contained in these writings, had changed their several religions in which they had been brought up, had renounced their former habits and modes of living, and had incurred the risk of the loss of life, property, and every thing dear to mankind. Many of them had joyfully submitted to the spoiling of their goods, and all of them had, in one way or other, become " partakers of the afflictions of the gospel." When men thus renounce their strongest prejudices, and act in opposition to their best immediate interests, they will carefully examine the grounds on which they are proceeding.

One thing more may be added, which, affording the strongest corroborative evidence, precludes all possibility of collusion. Divisions from the beginning obtained in the churches. In the first Epistle of Paul to the church at Corinth, he tells them he had been informed there were contentions among them, and that every one of them said, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and

I of Cephas, and I of Christ; and he charges them with envying and strife. In this situation, when all were watching each other, is it to be imagined that reproofs or instructions would be submitted to, without the strictest examination, or that the integrity of the writings they received would not be scrutinized with the utmost vigilance? Various sects also soon sprang up, who separated from the first churches, but who received as divine truth the same writings, to which, in their disputes, they all appealed. It furnishes a melancholy view of human nature, that such divisions, in almost endless variety, have continued to the present day. But nothing can be imagined that would be equally efficacious in stamping the character of truth on facts, which all in the first churches had a full opportunity as well as the deepest interest to ascertain, and which, both in their agreements and in their discords, they all unanimously attest.

But the 3000 disciples who first joined themselves to the apostles at Jerusalem, in the face of the opposition that was then raised, are witnesses especially entitled to the fullest credit. Peter, in his first address, charged them with having taken, and with wicked hands crucified and slain the Messiah. From what they afterwards heard and saw, they were convinced of their guilt, and became themselves the disciples of Christ. They were eyewitnesses of the miracles which the apostles performed "in the temple," and in " the streets" of Jerusalem, where multitudes of sick people, brought from the neighbouring country, were publicly healed. Soon after, on account of their adherence to the faith, "a great persecution" was raised against them, and "Paul made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women, committed them