proof, that it was derived from some surer source of information than human tradition.

III. The miracles, by which the writers of the Scriptures confirmed their divine mission to their contemporaries, afford us also a most convincing proof in this matter. The accounts of these miracles may be evidently shewn to have been published, very soon after the time, and at the places, in which they were said to have been wrought in the most conspicuous manner, and before vast multitudes, enemies as well as friends: yet this publick challenge never called forth any man to deny that they were really performed; nor was an attempt of this kind ever made till long afterwards. Can any man of common sense think, that Moses and Aaron could possibly have persuaded the whole nation of Israel, that they had witnessed all the plagues of Egypt, passed through the Red Sea with the waters piled on each side of them, gathered the manna every morning, and seen all the wonders recorded in their history, had no such events taken place? If then, that generation could not thus be imposed on, when could the belief of these extraordinary transactions be palmed upon the nation? Surely, it would have been impossible in the next age, to persuade them that their fathers had seen and experienced such wonderful things, when they had never before heard a single word about them in all their lives; and when an appeal

must have been made to them, that these were things well known among them! What credit could have been obtained to such a forgery at any subsequent period? It would have been absolutely necessary, in making this attempt, to persuade the people, that such traditions had always been current among them; that the memory of them had for ages been perpetuated by days and ordinances, observed by all the nation; and that their whole civil and religious establishment had thence origi nated and could this possibly have been effected if they all knew that no such memorials and traditions had ever before been heard of among them?

The same might be shown concerning the other miracles recorded in Scripture; especially those of Christ and his apostles: and it might be made evident that the man, who denies that they were actually performed, must believe more wonderful things without any evidence, than those are which he rejects, though established by unanswerable proof. But brevity will only allow me to insist on one miraculous event, viz. the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: for this being once proved, the substance of the whole Scripture is evinced to be a divine revelation. His doctrine and authority establish the authenticity of the Old Testament, and the witnesses of his resurrection wrote the New Testament.

Almost all human affairs are conducted by testimony: the concurrence of two or three unexceps

fact,

tionable witnesses is sufficient to prove any that is in its own nature credible: and the resurrection of a dead person, by Omnipotence, and for the most important purposes, cannot reasonably be deemed incredible. The ancient prophets had predicted the resurrection of the Messiah;' and indeed every pre-intimation of his glorious and perpetual kingdom, when compared with the prophecies of his suffering and death, implied that he would rise again from the dead. His very eneinies knew, that he had foretold his own resurrection within three days, and they took precautions accordingly: yet the body was gone, and they could give no ratignal account what was become of it. The whole authority was vested in them, and their reputation was deeply concerned: yet they rather chose to bear the open charge of the basest murder and prevarication imaginable, than to excite any further enquiry, by bringing either the soldiers who guarded the sepulchre, or the disciples who were said to have stolen the body, to a publick trial, though they had the latter in their custody. The eleven apostles (to whom a twelfth was soon added,) were a sufficient number of competent witnesses: being men of plain sense and blameless lives, they could not but identify the person of their Master whom they had so long attended; they unanimously testified, that they had received the fullest assurances of their senses to

i Ps. xvi. 10. Is. lii. 10-12.

his resurrection, and at length beheld him ascend up towards heaven, till he was received out of their sight; and they persisted invariably in this testimony for many years. They were evidently intimidated to a great degree by the crucifixion of their Lord, and backward to credit his resurrection; and they could have no possible secular motive to invent and propagate such a report; for, ignominy, sufferings, and death must be the probable consequences of espousing the cause of one, who had been crucified as a deceiver. In all other things, they appeared simple, upright, holy men: yet, if in this they deceived, the world never yet produced a company of such artful and wicked impostors; whose schemes were so deeply laid, so admirably conducted, and so extensively and permanently successful. For they spent all the rest of their lives in promoting the religion of Jesus, renouncing every earthly interest, facing all kinds of opposition and persecution, bearing contempt and ignominy, prepared habitually to seal their testimony with their blood; and most of them actually dying martyrs in the cause, recommend-. ing it with their latest breath as worthy of universal acceptation. It is likewise observable, that when they went forth to preach Christ as risen from the dead, they were manifestly changed, in almost every respect, from what they had before been ; their timidity gave place to the most undaunted; courage; their carnal prejudices vanished; their

ambitious contests ceased, their narrow views were immensely expanded, and zeal for the honour of their Lord, with love to the souls of men, seem to have engrossed and elevated all the powers of their mind. There were also many other competent witnesses to the same great event, even to the number of five hundred; these too concurred in the same testimony to the end of their lives; and neither fear, nor hope, nor dissension among themselves, induced so much as one of them to vary from the testimony of the rest: nay, the very apostates from christianity, however malignant, never openly charged the apostles with an imposition in this respect. A more complete human testimony to any event cannot be imagined: for if our Lord had shown himself, " openly to all the "people" of the Jews, and their rulers had persisted in rejecting him; it would rather have weakened than have confirmed the evidence: and if they had unanimously received him as the Messiah, it might have excited in others a suspicion, that it was a plan concerted for aggrandizing the nation.

But God himself was also pleased to add his own testimony to that of his servants; conferring on them the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and enabling them to impart the same miraculous powers to others, by the laying on of their hands. Thus the number of witnesses continually increased, the testimony was more widely diffused, and no enemy