it first made its appearance was at once the most enlightened and the most corrupt: the ruling part of every nation looked upon it as a sort of faction, which from political motives they were concerned to suppress the philosophers despised it as a silly superstition, destructive of learning and science: and the sensual and vicious, which comprehended almost all mankind, considered it as an utter enemy to their pleasures and their vices. The men, that set this project on foot, were a few illiterate Jews, hated at home, and with the rest of their countrymen despised abroad. Yet these men went out, and preached every where, that one Jesus, whom their own rulers had slain and hanged on a tree, was risen again, and exalted by God to be the Judge of quick and dead; that men were therefore obliged to believe in him, and to repent of all their sins, if ever they hoped for the pardon of them. A story this, not very likely to have gained either credit or attention, if it had had no greater recommendation than the bare assertions of those who told it. Their sufferings indeed in its behalf might perhaps have procured it, amongst some few of their hearers, a greater degree of regard; yet these alone were not able to make such numbers of converts, and, it is plain, could influence none of those who were brought over before these sufferings commenced. On the day of Pentecost there were added to the faith about three thousand souls, by means of the miraculous gift of tongues, and St. Peter's sermon on the occasion". Soon after, the same Peter and John performed a miracle of healing, on a person lame from his mother's womb°; upon which, preaching to them again Jesus and the resurrection, many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. So mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed at its first publication, before it could receive any advantage from the sufferings of those who preached it. This last miracle, indeed, and its consequences, so alarmed the Jewish rulers, that they commanded the apostles, with threats, to speak henceforth to no man in the name of Jesus. Still however they went on to preach, and to work miracles, in such an extraordinary manner, that the sacred historian, despairing as it were to number them, tells us only in general, that believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women 9. And the next time we hear of them before the council, the complaint is, that they had filled Jerusalem with their doctrine". They behaved themselves with so much resolution and spirit upon this occasion, that their judges were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them; and Gamaliel's advice to dissuade them from this rash attempt is the conclusion I would now enforce: Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against Gods. The sentiments of this celebrated doctor have been fully justified by the event; this counsel and this work so far prospered and prevailed, that not only Jerusalem, but the world, was soon filled with that doctrine, which at first was every where 。 Acts iv. 4. r Acts v. 28. P Acts xix. 20. q Acts v. 14. spoken against. If the hand of God was not in this, it is impossible to discover any marks of it in any transaction that ever happened since the creation, or probably ever will come to pass till the end of the world. Let us see then, in short, how our evidence stands; a number of men, sufficient to attest any matter of fact, declare that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. We have seen that these men could not possibly be deceived themselves, unless their senses may be all imposed on in an affair which is unquestionably the object of them. We have seen that it is morally impossible that they designed to deceive the world, since they shewed all possible marks that they were honest, sincere, disinterested men; gaining no advantages to themselves, but meeting with all imaginable discouragements and opposition, and losing every thing that was valuable and dear to them. So far therefore, considered as mere human witnesses, their testimony is credible, and such as we should make no scruple to submit to in other cases. But because the case now in view was of an uncommon and peculiar nature, it was not left to rest solely upon human testimony, how credible soever, but God himself gave witness to it, and confirmed the word with signs following. These miracles were so publicly performed, and so often repeated, that the ancient enemies of the name of Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles, could not deny them. And for any man to pretend to deny them now, is to shake the faith of all history in so terrible a manner, as to render all testimony of distant facts utterly uncertain and of no account. The reports of them were published, and the histories of them 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. |