and taught among them, and had done many wonderful Works, and that he was at length crucified and flain, viz. the concurring Testimony of all their Senses; their Seeing, Hearing, Feeling, Converfing, Eating, and Drinking with him, after his Refurrection. And therefore St. Luke's Manner of expreffing himself on this Occafion is very just and well founded, viz. that he, Jefus, shewed himself to them alive, after his Paffion, by many infallible Proofs, being seen of them forty Days, and speaking of the Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Acts i. 3. And it was an additional mighty Confirmation of the Truth of his Refurrection and Afcenfion into Heaven, of which they were also Witnesses, that they themselves, in a few Days after his Afcenfion, received the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost, as he had promised them. It is manifest, therefore, that the Things related by the Apostles concerning Jefus, and which are recorded in the Gospels, were Things which they themselves fully acquainted with, and of which they had a perfect Knowledge and Afsurance: They were Things in which they could not be deceived, and which they were as fure of as any Man can be of what he hears and fees.

were

And

And accordingly that they themselves were absolutely perfuaded of the Truth of what they relate admits of the clearest Evidence: No Man can impartially consider the Accounts they give, without being sensible of this. They relate these Things plainly and circumftantially, with an Openness and Simplicity, and Confidence of Truth: They all along represent Christ's whole personal Ministry as a public Thing well known throughout all Judea; that his admirable Discourses and Instructions were, for the most Part, delivered in the Hearing of his own Disciples, and of Multitudes of People; and, in like Manner, his wonderful Works were done, not in a private and fecret Way, but in the Prefence of great Numbers of Persons, and even of his Enemies, those that were most strongly prejudiced against him. They inform us, that he went about through the Cities and Villages, teaching and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all Manner of Sicknesses and Diseases among the People; that Multitudes followed him from Galilee, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and they about Tyre and Sidon; and even that his Fame went through all Syria, and they brought to him, from all Dd 3 Parts,

Parts, fick Persons that were taken with divers Diseases and Torments, and be healed • them all. See Matt. iv. 23, 24, 25. Mark. iii. 7, 8. vi. 56. They tell of his miraculous Feeding five thousand Men at one Time, and four thousand at another, befides Women and Children; and they represent many of his Miracles as done at Jerufalem, at the Times of their public Feftivals, when there was a vast Concourse of People from all Parts of the World. To relate Facts of this Kind, and as done in so public a Manner, that the whole Country must have known whether these Things were so, or not, was in Effect to appeal to Thousands of Witnesses, and plainly shews, that they perfectly knew the Facts were as they represented them, and that they were Things so well known, that their bitterest Enemies, of whom there were many, could not deny them.

To this may be added, as a farther Proof that the Apostles were themselves perfectly affured of the Truth of the Things they relate concerning Jefus, that nothing lefs than a firm Perfuafion of this can possibly account for their Adhering with fuch inviolable Zeal and Constancy to him as the Meffiab, after his Crucifixion and Death. They were without all Doubt prodigioufly

shocked

shocked and scandalised, when they saw him, whom they looked upon as the Christ, treated as the vilest of Malefactors with the utmost Ignominy and Contempt, crowned with Thorns, Scourged, and at length expiring upon the Cross. If the Matter had rested here, and he had not rifen again, all their pleasing Hopes of his Messiabship, and of his Kingdom, had been blasted at once: Nor can it be conceived, that in that Case they would have concerned themselves farther about him, any more than the Jews did about others of their pretended Messiahs, after they had been put to Death. How could it have entered into their Heads to think of Persuading the Jews to acknowledge and receive one for the Meffiah who had been publicly condemned as a Deceiver and Blafphemer by the chief Priests and the great Council, for whose Decisions the whole Nation had fo great a Veneration ? Much lefs could they ever have hoped to perfuade the Gentiles to receive a crucified Jew for the Son of God, the Saviour of the World; and to place their Trust in him as the Author and Giver of eternal Life, who had himself been put to an ignominious Death. This, at first View, would feem so strangely abfurd that, if they had not been themfelves

Dd 4

folves perfuaded, both that what they related concerning Chrift's Miracles and Refurrection was true, and that they could produce Evidences fufficient to convince Mankind of The Truth of these Things, they must have been abfolutely out of their Senfes, (a Character which any one that reads their excellent Writings must be convinced doth by no Means belong to them) to suppose that fuch a Scheme could poffibly take either with Jews or Gentiles. What Hope could they poffibly have had from Jefus Christ, when he was dead, if he had not rifen again, as he foretold ? It is evident that on that Supposition all their Expectations from him, as to worldly Advantages to be obtained in his Kingdom, were perished. If it was the Hope of obtaining eternal Life through him that was the prevailing Inducement, this very Hope is the strongest Proof of the firm Perfuafion they had of the Divinity of bis Miffion, and of the Truth of the Facts by which it is supported, especially his Resurrection from the Dead: For what Hope could they have of eternal Life from one who, they muft, in that Cafe, have been sensible had deceived them? Or what Happiness or Reward could they expect from God, even according to their own Notions, for

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