senses, and stifle the very firmest convictions of their mind. They were tempted to a denial of their Master by every motive which usually influences the actions and opinions of men; by the sense of difficulty and danger, by the love of ease, and the little prospect which they enjoyed of success. They were tempted to unbelief by the various prejudices they had to combat both in themselves and others, by the persecutions to which they were liable, the self-denials to which they were called, the disappointment of all their favourite schemes, hopes, and ideas, and by the poverty and wretchedness, the stripes and death to which they were doomed, both by the nature of the case and the prophecies of their Lord. Yet did they resolutely maintain that Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified Jesus, was the great and promised Deliverer of Israel, and voluntarily submitted to a strict and rigid system of morality, to every variety of fatigue and suffering, in the laborious and, to all human probability, the hopeless undertaking of propagating his religion. It is true, indeed, that for once they all forsook him and fled. But that confirms instead of weakening their testimony, because it arose from a want of adequate and correct views into the nature and dignity of his doctrines. They beheld him only with the eyes of the flesh. They looked to him as the Redeemer of Israel, not from the

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bondage of sin, but the sorrows of servitude; not from the power of Satan, but the authority of Cæsar. They trusted that he would be the Conqueror of the world, and they themselves called to sit down upon his right hand and upon his left to become the rulers of provinces and wield the sceptre of dominion in some tributary kingdom. This charm of the imagination was, however, quickly broken by his death. Reflection came to the aid of reason, and cheered by his resurrection, and illuminated by his Spirit, they went on from virtue to virtue, and from faith to faith. They at once assumed a new character and new dispositions. Their own views had been graciously corrected, and with the benevo→ lence of upright and honest men, they endeavoured zealously, but without enthusiasm, to correct the errors and the prejudices of others. In the confidence of their integrity, and the mild firmness of their sincerity, they proclaimed remission of sins through faith in Christ Jesus-that Jesus whom the Jews had crucified and slain, but whom God had raised from the dead. They every where preached the Gospel of peace, till either the force of truth triumphed over the blindness of error, or they themselves fell victims in the cause, and sunk under the malice and persecution of their enemies. Their trials were deep; but in all their trials they ever spoke and acted as those

who thought it better to obey God than man, and as those who could not but testify the things which they had heard and seen and as in the hour of his distress they had all forsaken their Saviour and fled, so did they afterwards endeavour to expiate their crime, by forsaking all, to return to him again, and follow him in the face of terror and of misery, even through the valley of the shadow of death. If this be not sincerity, I know not where sincerity can be found. It may be, that some, besides the Apostles, have died rather than retract the false assertions which they had previously made; and hence we may infer the possibility, at least, of a similar occurrence in the present case. But where are those that have died as the Apostles died, to be found? I know of none. If there be any who have entered into the gates of the grave rather than retract testimony which they had borne to what was false, it has been for maintaining the truth of false opinions and not of false facts that they so suffered. Or if there be any, and I deny not that there are some, who have suffered for bearing testimony to facts, which we are persuaded are false, it has been under circumstances where a renunciation of their testimony would not have saved them from death. It has been with criminals alone in the hour of execution and the hopelessness of pardon from a confession of guilt,

that a perseverance in a false assertion of innocence has been found. But there is an important difference and a manifest superiority in the case of the Apostles, to both of them. They suffered not for stubbornness of opinion so much as the assertion of facts, and not for the mere assertion of facts alone, but for the continued and undeviating assertion of facts, of which if they would have renounced their belief, they might have lived and been rewarded. Such were the followers of Jesus Christ; and even their persecutors when they viewed their patience under suffering must have felt and acknowledged their sincerity in their fortitude-must have perceived that they spoke of what they knew, and thought, at least, that they had seen the wonders which they recorded.

But have we not here introduced a circumstance which vitiates the credibility of at least some portion of their evidence? If the works of Christ were of such a wonderful nature, is it not possible that the understandings of the Apostles might have been so confounded by the awfulness, and unsettled by the glory of the scenes to which they were admitted, as to make them think that they had seen what they never saw, and so to

The Ashtons at Lancaster, and two criminals at the last assizes at Carlisle, died declaring their innocence against the clearest proof of their guilt.

mistake and misrepresent the mighty acts of the Lord, as to render their testimony admissible only to a certain extent? In answer to this question, let us contemplate for a moment the character of the facts themselves.

One of them is this. "There arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but Jesus was asleep." Now who is there, with the common senses of mortality about him, that could not give a clear and decided testimony to an occurrence so usual and yet so striking as this? Again, it is said, that his " disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish.'" And who that has the feelings and memory of a man, would not recollect to the latest hour of his life the fears he had experienced, and the words he had uttered, in a moment so trying and so terrible? Lastly, it is observed, that Jesus" arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still.' And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." And who, I would ask, that had ears to hear, would not remember the answer of his Master in such an hour? Or who that had eyes to see, could refuse to mark the change which had been wrought upon the waters of the deep?

* Matt. viii. 24, &c.