considerations to examine the conduct and cha

racter of the apostles, he finds them worthy of their master. They were plain uneducated men, except the apostle Paul; they were pious and virtuous men, and in their attachment to Jesus they were faithful, except the traitor Judas; they were men prepossessed with the general persuasion of the Jews, that their expected Messiah would be a temporal Deliverer, to whom they must look for the recovery of their independence, and for the aggrandisement of the nation. But better instructed by Jesus, and fully satisfied by what they had seen and heard, that he had the words of eternal life, and came commissioned by heaven, not to be a conqueror but to be the moral deliverer of Jews and Gentiles, they renounced their ambitious hopes of greatness and renown; devoted themselves to a suffering Redeemer; for him took up

the cross; and after lives spent in promoting the Gospel, willingly suffered death to confirm it, after their master's example. The traitor Judas had nothing to witness against Jesus; and by his silence and his subsequent despair bore testimony to his innocence. And the learned Paul was, in his character, as unexceptionable as his eleven unlearned colleagues. His prejudices against the Gospel were overcome by means truly miraculous; his zeal was suitably ardent; it was the zeal of an acute man, indeed; but of one deeply penetrated with the charitable spirit of our religion, who had renounced every prospect of worldly advancement, and devoted all his faculties to support the cause of the Gospel. By his bodily toil, and by his mental exertions, he laboured indefatigably to spread its salutary truths; yet he refused every recompence from converts, earned his subsis

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tence by the labour of his hands, and at last confirmed by his death the faith he had so generously preached.

But the sincere inquirer, however deeply he may be struck by this wonderful combination of proofs, may still hesitate; and for his complete satisfaction require an answer to one inquirymore. The Gospel was preached, by Jesus and his apostles, to the Jews and to the Gentiles-to nations depraved by their prejudices and their vices, or sunk in ignorance and gross superstition. With what avowed design was it preached to them? Expressly for accomplishing the moral improvement and happiness of mankind by their conversion to the Gospel. Now the reformation of mankind is a design of the greatest magnitude, and of the most exalted benevolence; and to effect it, a miraculous

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interposition by God may well be thought a fit employment of his power. Some of the sages of antiquity, conscious of their inability effectually to promote that necessary reformation, actually expressed their hope, that in the course of time, such an interposition, for that purpose, might be afforded by the Almighty. On a comprehensive view of the doctrines, precepts, and sanctions of the Gospel; of the conduct of its founder and his apostles; and of the supernatural evidence by which the truth of it was attested, it has appeared worthy of the high origin it claims; and every way fitted to accomplish that great work, which was its declared design; viz. the conversion and reformation of the world. The questions, therefore, which the inquirer may here ask, without incurring the blame of unreasonable scepticism, are these: 1. Has the proposed work been ac

complished in any age of Christianity? 2. Or if not, has there been a conversion of some great portion of mankind, from Judaism and pagan superstition to the Gospel, effected by the promulgation of it by Christ and his disciples, in the first three centuries, to the age of Constantine? 3. And in the subsequent ages, has there been a continual extension and a still greater prevalence of the Gospel, though less signally rapid than in the former period, over ignorance, vice, and prejudice, over imposture and learned infidelity, sufficient to authorise the expectation, that Christianity will ultimately become the religion of the world?

1. The answer to the first of these questions, it is evident must be, an acknowledgement that the professed design of the mission of Christ has not yet been completely fulfilled. But this