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traordinary arts, that what was done by the apoftles exceeded any powers that they were acquainted with. And yet the apoftles had had no education, or inftruction, that could have given them this fuperiority. This too was the confeffion of the Egyptian magicians, that the miracles of Mofes were performed by the finger of God, whereas what they did was fomething of a different kind.

The hiftory of the converfion of Corne lius, the first Gentile Chriftian, is particularly worthy of attention, efpecially with respect to the correfpondence between the vifions of Cornelius and of Peter, the one at Cæfarea, and the other at Joppa. But as it does not immediately relate to the evidence of Christianity in general, fo much as to the circumftance of extending the benefits of it to the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, I do not enlarge upon it. But the manner in which Peter addreffed Cornelius, and his friends on that occafion, is much to my purpose, as it fhews the notoriety of the great facts on which the truth of Christianity is founded. Acts x. 36, The

word

word which God fent unto the children of Ifrael, preaching peace by Jefus Chrift; that word ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptifm which John preached. He had no occafion to direct them to any evidence with which they were not acquainted. He took it for granted that no perfon could be ignorant of the facts, or require any proof of them. Paul alfo fuppofed the fame in his addrefs to Agrippa. Acts xxvi. 26, For the king knoweth of those things, before whom alfo I speak freely. For I am perfuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a

corner.

It pleafed God that this exhibition of miracles fhould be confined to the age of the apostles, and be inftrumental in the planting of Christianity. For this important purpose they were neceffary. Otherwife the teftimony of the apoftles, and others, to the refurrection of Jefus, might pot have been fufficient to insure the credibility of fo very extraordinary a thing to future ages. But the evidence of the nu

merous

merous miracles performed by the apostles, added to thofe performed by Christ, certified by common human teftimony, is abundantly fufficient for the purpofe. For what can any reasonable man, who must be fenfible of the inconvenience of the courfe of nature being perpetually violated (as it must be if every man fhould be gratified with the fight of miracles) require farther, than that a fufficient number of perfons, conftituted of courfe as they themselves are, fhould have had every motive to inquire into the truth of the facts, and have been fully fatisfied with refpect to them. For then he could not but be convinced, that if he himself had been in their fituation, he would have been fatisfied as well as they. Nay the conviction that fuch a number of perfons, in the circumftances of the apoftles and other primitive Chriftians, that real miracles were performed, in attestation of the facts in the gospel history, is even more fatisfactory than any that could have been exhibited to himself; because he might fay, that his fenfes, or his ignorance, might be impofed upon, through fome affection peculiar

peculiar to himself; but that so many thousand perfons, as good judges as himself, and as much interested in the discovery of the truth as he could have been, could not have been impofed upon, without a much greater miracle than any of those to which they gave their affent.

On this firm bafis, my Christian brethren, stands our faith; and furely it ftands upon a rock. It only requires an unbiaffed mind, and especially a freedom from those vicious difpofitions and pursuits which chiefly indispose men to the duties enjoined by the gofpel, to perceive its evidence, and embrace it with joy.

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE XI.

On the Refurrection of Jefus.

But now is Chrift rifen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that flept.

I COR. XV. 20.

WE cannot imagine any queftion more interefting to man, than whether he shall furvive the grave, fo that he shall live, and efpecially live for ever, after he has been dead. Every question relating to our condition here is of no moment at all when compared to this.

Nothing that we fee in nature can lead us to form any fuch expectation. I fay expectation. For though fome appearances may lead us to indulge a wish, and in some perfons perhaps encourage a hope, of another life after this, yet if we were left to the mere light of nature, it would remain improbable upon the whole; fo that we

could

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