written, in the times and places where they are said to have been done, while there were thousands of people alive who could have exposed and confuted them, if they had been false; and therefore, unless the apostles were quite deprived of their senses, they could never have made such appeals to them, unless they had known them to be true. It is natural to expect, that if the apostles did really give witness of the resurrection of Christ with such great power, they would do it also with great success; and that men would readily be persuaded to assent to that testimony, in confirmation of which they saw such miracles wrought, as were scarcely inferior to that, which they were taught to believe. Accordingly we find that this was the case; numberless converts flocked in from every quarter, and the labours of these poor persecuted preachers were so successful, that their faith at length was not only spoken of, but received in every region of the then known world. This, as it is a sort of standing miracle, is a lasting argument for our cause, lying level even to our own experience and observation; and must force the gainsayer into this unhappy dilemma, either to allow that some miracles were wrought in order to propagate Christianity, or that otherwise the propagation itself was supernatural and miraculous.

I hope the proposition I undertook to evince has been in some measure made good; viz. that the apostles were proper and credible, were powerful and successful witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. I shall therefore only further draw a conclusion or two from what has been advanced.

1. And first, if we have such evidence for this fact as is proper, credible, and sufficient, it is unrea

sonable to expect, and absurd and impertinent to call for more. The persons concerned in this remark are not so utterly void of shame and reason, as to say that Christ should appear personally to them, or to some men of every age and nation, in order to convince them that he is risen again. If the fact was well proved and attested once, it is well attested and proved for ever. But they pretend there is a defect in the original evidence, because he did not appear to his enemies the Jews. It may not be altogether improper to observe upon this occasion, that Christ did appear to more persons than those who were properly his witnesses; he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once. And yet so little stress is laid upon their testimony by writers of the gospel history, that it is plain they thought the qualifications of witnesses were much more to be regarded than their numbers. And I conceive this conduct of theirs is founded in sense and reason. But to let this pass, why must Christ appear to the Jews? was he to provide only for their conversion? or were not his views to be extended to the whole world, and to all the succeeding generations of mankind? And if these, though not seeing, were yet to believe, why must he afford better evidence, even to his very murderers, than that, upon which the faith of the rest of the world was necessarily to be founded? If upon this supposition the Jews had been actually converted, and unanimously embraced Christianity, it may be justly questioned, whether this would have been any advantage to it with regard to other people. It would probably have been looked upon as a sort of national plot and conspiracy, only to throw

t I Cor. xv. 6.

off the Roman yoke, and erect an universal empir of their own. The new converts, as yet entirely un acquainted with the true nature of Christ's kingdom would have given all imaginable grounds for such suspicion; and perhaps might have raised such commotions, as would have terminated in their utter ruin, or at least have excited such a spirit of prejudice and opposition against both them and their religion, as they should never afterwards be able to remove. Their ruin indeed did shortly follow upon other accounts; and perhaps that, and their continued dispersion, afford to considerate men a much stronger argument for the gospel of Christ than their supposed conversion to it could have done. But we are by no means satisfied that they would have been effectually converted to Christ, upon his appearing to them. They had seen him work miracles before his death, even the miracle of raising the dead; they saw his poor disciples continue to do the same after his resurrection; they had seen all nature as it were in convulsions at his crucifixion, and their own watch related to them what amazing circumstances accompanied his rising from the grave; they had survived the day of Pentecost unconverted; so that it scarce seems to have been in the power of God himself to work upon them, unless he had turned their hearts, as he does the rivers of waters, with that resistless arm which is never used in the direction of moral agents. If Christ then had appeared to the Jews, and they had still rejected him, (as it is almost demonstrable that they would,) what disservice would this have done to the Christian cause! what an obstruction would have been thrown in the way of our faith! and with what difficulty

would it have been surmounted! Leaving therefore the Jews to clamour for such evidence as they of all men had least reason to expect, such evidence as was in itself highly unnecessary and improper,-evidence, to which they had no right, which in all probability would have done them no good, and which, upon every supposition, might have done much hurt; let us rest satisfied with the evidence which we have at present, as it is such as will justify us to our own consciences here, and, I trust, will justify us at last before God, and angels, and men.

2. If this evidence should be further objected to as defective, because it is only that of professed friends; let it be considered, that the testimony of enemies can by no means be reasonably expected in a case of this nature: because should they attest and believe the fact of Christ's rising from the dead, it is scarce conceivable how they could continue to be his enemies any longer. Their testimony therefore would argue their conversion, and their conversion it seems would invalidate their testimony; so that it would be of no more account, and have no greater effects, than the other testimonies which we have already. This is evident from the known case of Josephus; in whose history, as it stands at present, there is an ample testimony to our purpose. But is this at all regarded? is not the force of it easily, and therefore always evaded, either by supposing that the passage itself is an interpolation, or else that the author was secretly, and in his heart, a favourer of the Christian religion? It is sufficient for us, that, over and above the evidence of those who were properly the witnesses of the fact, we have the testimony of numberless others, who were originally ene

mies, and would have remained so, if they had not met with such proofs as they were unable to resist. And yet they lived in such times, as afforded them all the means of information, and all the opportunities of confuting the gospel history, if the facts reported in it had been false. Nay, even those who would not believe and be converted, yet were so distressed by plain evidence in the point of Christ's resurrection, that they had nothing better to offer against it than some idle talk upon the subject of spectres and apparitions. A refuge which has been before laid open, and which, if any man be content to take up with now, he is too ridiculous to deserve any further notice.

3. The only remaining conclusion is, that if Christ rose from the dead, his religion must be true; a religion indeed established not only by this, but by numberless other miracles; and which is so excellent in itself, that if men did but consider their own best interests, nothing could more effectually recommend it than its own intrinsic goodness. Considered as a rule of life, it is calculated to promote the happiness of mankind both in their social and private capacities; and as a rule of faith, it extends our views infinitely beyond the present transitory scene of things, and introduces us to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven,-to the spirits of just men made perfect,-to an innumerable company of angels,-to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to God the Judge of all". It teaches us, that the resurrection of Christ is the pledge and assurance of our own,

u Heb. xii. 22, 23, 24.

× See I Cor. xv.