which arises from the character of many of the converts to the Christian faith, who examined anxiously its pretensions, met its claims at first with prejudice and hatred, and yet ended in yielding to the undoubted facts and the holy doctrines derived from them. I enter not now on the subject of the propagation of the gospel; I merely say, that men of the finest talents-philosophers, orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers-persons of every rank and station in society, from the humble slave to the attendants on the imperial court, examined the facts of our history, and yielded to the force of conviction, and persevered in acting on that conviction, in spite of strong previous prejudice, and subsequent opposition, ridicule, persecution and death-and I affirm, that the credit which they gave to these facts, and which was the ground of their conversion then, is a strong confirmation of our faith in them now.

5. Nor can I pass unnoticed the circumstance, that the impostor Mahomet, who professed to deliver a new revelation, (A. D. 612,) and who was filled with the bitterest hatred of Christianity, ventured not to question the facts on which it rests. He speaks of John Baptist and our Lord by name, mentions our Lord's miraculous works, his ascension, his apostles, and the unbelief of the Jews. Can concurring testimonies be pushed further?

*

6. I appeal, again, to the religious rites and usages springing out of the facts of Christianity, as recorded in the New Testament, and which have subsisted from that time to the present among all the nations of Christendom. I dwell not on them in this place, as they will be stated more largely in the following lecture, but the argument of the credibility demands of us the recollection that Baptism, the Lord's Supper, religious assemblies, charitable contributions for the poor, the celebration of the first day in the week, in remembrance of our Lord's resurrection, are memorials of the facts of Christianity, and arose from them.

7. I add only, that several ancient and authentic monuments of the events recorded in the gospels, have survived the wrecks of time, and attest the credibility of our history. Amongst the most striking and important proofs of early history, are coins, medals, inscriptions, marbles, struck or formed at the time, or soon after the time of the respective events, and extant still for the examination of mankind.

* Lect. vii.

Authentic testimonies of this nature are sought for with eagerness by antiquaries, and are allowed to have the greatest weight in all historical inquiries. Medals are struck to commemorate great events. Inscriptions record facts. Now, it is the glory of Christianity, that during eighteen centuries every genuine relic of antiquity has confirmed the facts of her history. Take one or two examples: St. Luke terms Philippi a colony, using a word which implies that it was a Latin colony ;* but as this betokens a favor which such a city had little reason to expect, critics were embarrassed to account for the title, till some coins were brought to light, which expressly mention, that Julius Cæsar himself had bestowed the dignity on it. Thus, though no author extant, but St. Luke, has mentioned it under that character, these coins corroborate the fidelity of the sacred writer.

Again, the town-clerk of Ephesus, (states our sacred author, Ácts xix.) in order to quell a tumult, thus addressed the Ephesians: "What man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a WORSHIPPER of the great goddess Diana?" The original word is NENKOPOE, literally, temple-sweeper, equivalent to our church-warden, an appellation taken by cities which were dedicated to the service of some god or goddess. Now there are medals still extant, on which the front of the temple of Diana is exhibited. In the centre is an image of the goddess; and around the side and bottom is an inscription, in which the Ephesians are called by this very term ΝΕΩΚΟΡΟΙ. Besides the testimony furnished by this medal, there is now extant at Ephesus an ancient Greek inscription, which not only confirms the general history related in Acts xix., but even approaches to several sentiments and phrases which occur in that chapter. These coincidences are so striking and conclusive, that they are sufficient of themselves to establish the credibility of the work in which they are found.t

It is in this way that circumstances of our gospel narratives have been explained, difficulties removed, titles of governors vindicated, names of places illustrated, the whole series of the facts of Christianity established beyond all reasonable doubt. What accessible sources, then, have not confirmed, and do

*Acts xvi. 11, 12. "We came to Philippi-a colony"-xoloviaoriginally a Latin word, colonia. See Calmet, Frag. i. p. 53-6. T. H. Horne, i. 242.

not confirm, the credibility of the gospel history? Where can we look for testimonies of ancient events, which are not included in those we have cited? What history is true, if ours be false? Can any thing human be more certain, than the fidelity of the New Testament? Can the exuberance of the divine goodness itself be asked to provide further arguments for those who can harden their hearts against the force of these?

But I shall be reminded that an appeal was made to a third class of proofs of the credit due to the evangelical records.

III. THE CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SACRED WRITERS THEMSELVES.

For we judge, in all other cases, of the weight of testimony, by considering the character and circumstances of those who depose it. We examine the testimony itself; we inquire whether the natural and unerring signs of veracity are apparent in it; whether there is that honesty and consistency in the different parts of the account which are the sure marks of truth. We next examine the character and circumstances of those who give the testimony, whether they were in a situation to know the real truth, whether their moral and religious conduct gives a pledge of sincerity, whether their temporal interests, previous prejudices and habits, and subsequent conduct, throw any light upon their governing motive.

If there are more witnesses than one, we inquire into their number, the agreement or otherwise of their accounts, their conduct towards each other and before the face of the world.

Upon principles like these, human life is governed. We act continually, in the most important concerns, and in every department of human knowledge, upon testimony. The word of one man whom we know to be of unimpeachable sincerity, determines us every day. But if two persons of undeniable veracity, who have no apparent motive to deceive us, and who are evidently seeking our welfare, bear witness to a plain fact occurring under their own knowledge, we consider it a most reasonable ground of confidence. Testimony may, indeed, deceive, that is, some testimony under some circumstances may deceive-but the infinitely larger portion of all testimony is true; and it is upon the footing of that immense majority of true cases, that the few-the comparatively few-false ones obtain credit. Indeed, the solemn declaration of two or more individuals of character as to facts of which they are compe

tent judges, persevered in under every suffering, sustained by unvaried consistency, and accompanied by a pure, beneficent and holy life, never yet deceived-no case was ever produced in which such testimony was untrue.*

Let us apply these remarks to the sacred writers. We have appealed to the authenticity of their books, and to all other accessible sources of information. These prove the credibility of the principal facts of their writings. Let us appeal now to themselves, in order to see whether we may repose that implicit confidence in them, as to be able to rely also upon the WHOLE OF THEIR STATEMENTS IN EVERY PARTICULAR; in other words, whether the external testimony adduced to the chief facts, is supported by the number, character, circumstances, and manner of writing and acting of the witnesses themselves, so as to prove ALL THEIR FACTS AND STATEMENTS to be credible.

1. We have here twelve separate witnesses of the specific facts of the gospel history-to whom three more (St. Mark, St. Luke and St. Paul) may be added. Of these fifteen witnesses, eight composed writings, in twenty-seven several works, published within a few years of the events which they record; and works read and examined by their contemporaries, both friends and foes, in every part of the known world. Such is the number of agreeing witnesses to every one of the facts, all harmonizing in their testimony to them, and especially to the fact of the resurrection of their Lord.

2. These persons had a full knowledge of the things they attested. They were eye-witnesses, or the companions of those who were. Of the four evangelists, one probably wrote his account within six or eight years of the crucifixion; (A. D. 38 or 40 ;) a second, following his steps, but publishing his history at a distance and under the eye of St. Peter,t came about A. D. 61, at an interval of twenty or thirty years. The evangelist St. Luke, from whom my text is taken, appeared soon after (A. D. 63) to set in order "the things then most surely believed"-to gather them from those "who had been eye-witnesses from the beginning;" and, having a "perfect understanding of all things from the very first," to afford a "certainty" to Christians of the "things in which they had been instructed." After an interval again of about

* Paley.

+ So Papias, Clemens Alexandrinus, Caius, Eusebius, &c. testify.See p. 99, supra.

thirty years, (A. D. 97,) the last surviving apostle completes the sacred story.

In the mean time, the history of the first propagation of the gospel is given by St. Luke, a companion of one of the greatest of the apostles, and numerous epistles are addressed to the infant churches. If any witnesses, then, were ever fully acquainted with what they relate, they are these.

3. The testimony which they bear, is to facts of which they were perfectly competent to judge the life, discourses, miracles and resurrection of their Master-events which passed before their eyes, and were the objects of their continual and most familiar observation. If Plato is deemed a competent witness of the events of the life of Socrates, his master; or any modern biographer of the actions of an illustrious person with whom he has constantly conversed-Boswell, for instance, of his friend, the great moralist, Johnson-then surely the evangelists are competent witnesses of the life of Christ.

It is an extraordinary, but singular fact, that no history, since the commencement of the world, has been written by so great a number of the friends and companions of an illustrious person as that of our Lord.* One contemporary history is a rarity-two is a coincidence scarcely known-four is, so far as appears, unparalleled.

4. These witnesses were persons of transparent integrity of character: whether you regard the apostles generally, or the eight writers of the New Testament, or merely the four evangelists; simplicity, honesty, good faith, are apparent in all they say and do and write. The style and manner of their books have been mentioned. But it is peculiarly appropriate to this place to notice the inimitable artlessness and impartiality which are on the very face of all their testimony. It never enters into their minds to consider how this or the other action may affect their own reputation or appear to mankind. They lay the facts before the world. If the reader will not credit their testimony, there is no help for it; they tell the truth, the whole truth, just as it happened, and nothing else. Who can avoid noticing, for example, the honesty with which they record their own failings, the dulness of their apprehension, their unbelief, their pride, their emulations, their disputes, the rebukes they brought upon themselves, their disgraceful flight and cowardice, the treachery of one of their number, and the

*T. H. Horne.

+ Ibid,