he changes his courfe of life, runs to the other extreme, and patiently fubmits himself to be reviled, fcourged, beaten, ftoned, and put to death. Suppofe now neither St. Luke nor St. Paul had disclosed the true reafon of this fudden alteration, would not any one naturally conclude, that fome extraordinary internal impulfe had induced him to fuch apoftacy? But here it may be faid, we daily find by experience, that men alter their opinion upon very flight and trivial occafions.-None furely, fools or mad excepted. But St. Paul weighs the matter maturely; firft argues the cafe, lays down axioms, and draws undeniable conclufions from them. The most learned of his enemies pity him, indeed, for the mifapplication, as they call it, of his learning, but admire his writings. Moreover, he knew that his preaching would be by fomc accountedfolly; but as great a folly as it appeared to worldly minds, it was the wisdom of the Almighty-that the continuation of it would reduce him to poverty, and the worst of worldly misfortunes ;but yet he boldly and refolutely perfifts therein; and he who efteems him an ignorant perfon, reflects on his own understanding; fince all men of genius ftand confounded at his words and actions. Now, if he was a wife, a learned, and judicious perfon, as moft certainly he was, it naturally follows, that the alteration fo made must proceed from fome caufe; and as it was great, it must be owing to fome great caufe; and as it was fudden, furprifing, and preternatural, fo the cause must be preternatural too. Now, that reafon which induces us to draw this general conclufion, ought to prevail on us to make this inference in particular, that fince it was fome great, fupernatural caufe that wrought this fudden alteration, it can be no other than that, which St. Luke expressly mentions, and St. Paul himself, in various places, acknowledges. He efteemed it, we find, an happiness to undergo thofe various tortures which he had prepared for others; and after after a thousand anxieties and afflictions chearfully and triumphantly laid down his life for the fake of it. But to proceed to a new objection. THE DEATH OF HEROD likewife, as recorded in the Acts of the Apoftles, is another difficulty that perverse men have frequently cavilled at; for which reason, we cannot forbear obferving, that a more particular account of that awful fact has been tranfmitted by Jofephus than by St. Luke himself. "Herod, fays he, attended "in perfon at the celebration of the fports in Cæfarea, and on "the fecond day of the folemnity, early in the morning, entered "the theatre dreft in a robe of filver of moft curious workmanfhip. The rays of the rifing fun, reflected from fo fplendid a garb, gave him a majestic and awful appearance; upon which, "fome fawning parafites began to dignify him with the title of a "God, and paid him divine homage and adoration: but his proud heart accepting, at least not rejecting fuch fordid adu"lation, he presently efpied an owl perching over his head, " felt himself all on a fudden wrecked with unufual and inexpreffible torments; and, after he had languished for fome few days, expired in a most deplorable condition, having first openly acknowledged to thofe impious fycophants, that he justly deferved the judgment which the Almighty God had inflicted "on him for his boundless pride and ambition." Now, this particular accident is only just touched upon by St. Luke. "And " 66 upon a fet day, Herod arrayed in royal apparel, fat upon his "throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a fhout, faying, it is the voice of a God, and not of a man. "And immediately the angel of the Lord fmote him, because "he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and the ghoft." gave up 66 These are the principal difficulties, the most exceptionable paffages which are objected against our New Teftament-and yet thefe these were so far from being private transactions, that St. Paul, in his defence before King Agrippa, afferts, that his life, behaviour, and miraculous converfion, were things well-known at Jerufalem, and that he declared nothing but what Mofes and the prophets had foretold ;—" Namely, that Chrift should suffer, and "that he should be the first that should rife from the dead, and "fhould fhew light unto the people and to the gentiles." And as a further demonftration how public these were, he concludes in the manner following;-" the king knoweth of these things, "before whom I fpeak freely; for I am perfuaded that none of "these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done "in a corner." The king's answer thereupon was very remarkable, and plainly fhewed, that St. Paul had not afferted an idle fable." Then Agrippa faid unto Paul, almost thou perfuadest "me to be a chriftian." Moreover the greater part of the tranfactions recorded in the New Teftament are confirmed by the writings both of Jews and Gentiles, who mention them with the utmoft furprise and admiration, and dress them up in the most pompous descriptions; whereas our Evangelists relate them with an air of plainness and fimplicity peculiar to themselves.-Now, fince in these transactions, which are supernatural, they have proved very just and impartial historians, what reasonable grounds have we to suspect their fidelity, in tranfmitting to us the doctrines of the bleffed Jefus ? Efpecially, fince as we have fhewn already, they were miraculously affifted by the fpecial influence of the holy spirit, according to the promises made unto them; and fince they underwent the forest torments, that the cruelty of man could poffibly devise, and death itself to justify the truth of what they wrote.-What better proof can we defire of the validity of the christian religion?-Or, indeed, can any facts be better fupported, or any caufe produce ftronger and more fubftantial evidence? To To conclude, if the New Teftament contains the true doctrine of Chrift Jefus, as fure we are you have good reafon to be convinced that it does, and that it was wrote by the immediate aid and influence of his Holy Spirit, with what grateful acknowledgments ought we to embrace those facred books, as containing the words of life and eternal falvation; as being the will of the Father, fignified to us by his Son, and live up to the divine precepts contained in them?-How readily ought we, if occafion should require to lay down our lives, as the holy apostles and bleffed martyrs did, in vindication of the truth of our most holy religion, through a firm and lively hope, that we fhall one day rise again in glory, and inherit those ineffable joys which are promised in the Gospel. |