into their books and fermons; which alone is fufficient to demonftrate that they were infinitely convinced of the refurrection, and alfo in a condition to convince all gainfayers, as we fhall fhew hereafter.

One may add to this proof the converfion of St. Paul, and the care which he afterwards took to confirm the truth of the refurrection of Jefus Chrift. He was a declared enemy of Jefus Chrift, and of the Chriftian religion; and yet, foon after the death of Chrift, he preaches him up for the Meffiah. How came this fudden change? He afferts that he had feen in heaven this Jefus who was rifen from the dead, and received from him the Apoftlefhip; accordingly we find him preaching by these orders, without any communication had with the firft Difciples of Jefus Chrift. He relates thefe matters in a manner fo little affected to advance his miniftry in the minds of the Galatians, who preferred St. Peter and the other Apoftles before him, that there is no ground left to doubt of them.

One ought to make a like reflexion upon the converfion of Cornelius the centurion: he was a profelyte, that is, a Gentile by birth, but a few by profeffion; and by the employment he was in, he had occafion of being more particularly informed of the depofition of the foldiers, who probably were not unknown to him, for he was in the garrifon at Cafarea, which was not far from Jerufalem. Yet, however, this Cornelius, after he had a vifion which commanded him to fend to Joppa, a place made famous, becaufe Jonah the Prophet fet fail from thence, who was a type of the Meffiah in his death and refurrection; this Cornelius, I fay, embraced the Chriftian religion, becomes the firft bishop of Cæfarea, and died a martyr for the refurrection of Jefus Chrift.

The great affection which St. Luke had for St. Paul, confirms the fame truth. St. Luke had never seen our Saviour; he was born at Antioch, where in all probability he exercifed his profeffion of phyfic; yet he was converted to Chriftianity, and followed St. Paul in all places, and writ the hiftory of his miracles and preaching. Who doubts but that the reafon hereof was, because he had feen the dead whom Chrift had raised to life, and had feen St. Paul, whom Jefus Chrift had dignified with the Apoft lefhip, raife others alfo from the dead?

It is certain that those who were firft convinced by the relation of the Apoftles, muft needs have had very evident proofs of the truth of it. The Jews had Sadducees amongst them, who denied the poffibility of the refurrection in general: the council of the Jews efpecially had made it their bufinefs to decry the conduct, the doctrine, and the miracles of Jefus Chrift, and in particular to make the belief of his refurrection fufpected; and fo much the more, becaufe Jefus Chrift had foretold it, and his Apoftles maintained that it was come to pafs accordingly. If, in oppofition to thefe ftrong prejudices, there had only been the depofition of two or three perfons to confirm this fact, there would have been reafon to doubt of it; but we find that this thing, which of itself feems hard to be believed, and was otherwife fo much contefted, is, 1. Proved by ten feveral apparitions; 2. It is attefted by above five hundred Difciples; 3. It was publicly preached by the Difciples of Chrift at Jerufalem itfelf, and throughout all Judea, where it was moft of all difputed; 4. It was received by the very enemies of Jefus Chrift, as St. Paul and Cor

nelius,

nelius, and by thousands of thofe who, having demanded his death, were converted by the preaching of the Apoftles; 5. It was confirmed by the martyrdom of the greatest part of them; and 6. It was not only authorifed by the prefence of the three perfons whom Chrift had raised to life, and who lived, one of them at Bethany, fifteen furlongs from Jerufalem, where Jefus afcended to heaven, another at Naim, &c. but it was further verified by feveral refurrections wrought by the Apoftles, to whom Chrift had vouchfafed that aftonishing power.

It was alfo a very confiderable thing, that the commonwealth of the Jews continued near forty years after the time that the Apostles undertook openly to preach up the refurrection of Jefus Chrift as the capital article of their religion; and yet in all that time it was never oppofed by any public writing either of the Jews or Gentiles. If the Jews, in their unjuft intrigues again Jefus Chrift and his religion, endeavoured to abuse the world, in this matter, with calumniating ftories, neither have the Apoftles been wanting to accufe the principal men of their nation of impofture; and they have defpifed their moft cruel of the punishments, to maintain the juftice of their charge; and yet none of them would undertake to juftify the calumnies of their council, though they faw Chriftianity spreading itfelf not only over all Judea, but in all parts of the world. To fpeak of it as it is, this conduct of theirs was a manifest betraying of their caufe, or rather an open acknowledgment that what they had publifhed against the innocency of the Difciples, and the truth of the refurrection of Jefus, was without all ground.

I forefce only one probable difficulty which can be oppofed to the folidity of thefe reflexions. A few may demand, why Jefus Chrift after his refurrection did not converfe as openly amongst the Jews as before, that fo he might have been known by thofe who had crucified him, which would have put the truth of the refurrection out of doubt?

But, to speak truth, this objection is not reafonable: for, 1. Jefus Chrift had threatened the unbelieving Jews, they fhould fee him no more; and he ought to make good his threatening. 2. Who fees not that they would have looked upon his appearing amongst them as a fantastic apparition, after they had feen him work fo many miracles, and bad attributed them to the devil? 3. I fay, that fuch an apparition was not agreeable to our Saviour's doctrine in the parable of the rich man: They have Mofes and the Prophets; if they hear not them, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the dead (z). 4. Jefus Chrift having for the moft part converfed in Galilee at Nazareth and Capernaum, it was to the Galileans and his Difciples that he was chiefly to thew himself, to be acknowledged by them, as being the perfons who were particularly to bear witnefs of this truth. After fo ftrong a prefumption as the governors of that people had of Chrift's refurrection, founded upon the earthquake which accompanied it, and upon the depofition of the foldiers to whom the Angels had appeared, had not they all the reafon in the world to believe the teftimony of the Apoftles concerning this truth, which they heard feveral times attefted by them in full council, and faw confirmed by miraculous cures which they could not question in the least ? Laftly, Is not this objection the most ridiculous thing in the world? For,

(x) Luke xvi. 29, 31.

For, let us fuppofe that thefe confiderations are not ftrong enough to juftify our Saviour's conduct when he gave thefe proofs of his refurrection, doth it follow, because he did not make choice of means (in order to perfuade the Jews) which they preferred before others ufed by him, without any folid reafon, that therefore we must reject the depofition of fo many witneffes who unanimously atteft it? Since Jefus Chrift had raised three perfons to life again, which then lived in Judea; fince Jerufalem had continued forty years after the death of Chrift; fince fixty folemn feafts were celebrated in that time, where all the Jews had an occafion to examine the truth of these facts, and the truth or falfity of the accufation charged upon the Apoftles by the council of the Jews; and that multitudes of Jews and Gentiles were converted at the preaching of the Apostles, who reduced all to this question of the fact of the refurrection of our Saviour; is not this an invincible proof against all the accufations and fufpicions of the Synagogue?

Forafmuch as the witnefles who maintain the refurrection of Chrift, are the very fame that atteft his afcenfion into heaven, and that they affert it with the fame proofs, and the fame zeal, the reflexions here fet down may serve for that alfo; and the rather, because I am next to confider the fending of the gifts of the Holy Ghoft, which is an undeniable proof, both of the refurrection of Chrift and his afcenfion; and that these very gifts of the Holy Spirit enabled the Jews to write, preach, and publish throughout all the world, the truths of that Christianity which we now profefs.

CHA P. XIV.

That JESUS CHRIST fent to his Apostles, and to the Primitive Chriftians, the miraculous Gifts of his HOLY SPIRIT, as he had promifed in the An cient Prophecies.

I

HAVE fhewn that the prophecies of the Old Teftament speak very plainly of this fending of the Spirit, as a preliminary to the calling of the Gentiles, which was the great defign of God. The Prophet Joel fpeaks of it as fuch, and makes this wonder to precede the deftruction of Jerufalem, as St. Peter obferves in the fecond of the Acts. Isaiah speaks very particularly of it as fuch, in the eleventh chapter of his prophecy, where he fufficiently intimates that the fpirit of prophecy fhould from thenceforward fo reft upon Jefus Chrift, that it would not be found any longer among the Jews, whofe city and temple fhould be deftroyed.

At prefent my bufinefs is to fhew that this thing has been exactly fulfilled, according to the defign which God had laid down in the Prophets. To be convinced of this, we need only make fome reflexions upon the relation which St. Luke gives us of it in the Acts.

Te

He tells us therefore, that fifty days only after the death of Jefus Chrift, the Apoftles having continued at Jerufalem, and being affembled there, they received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghoft, that is, the power of fpeaking all forts of languages, to make them fit to preach the Gospel to all nations, and to explain the most sublime myfteries of our Saviour's religion.

Every thing is confiderable in this relation of St. Luke: 1. That he relates this fact as happening fifty days only after the Jewish paffover, when Chrift was crucified; the whole nation of the Jews having been witneffes of his death. 2. That he relates it as happening in the fame city where Jefus Chrift was condemned, that the fame multitude who after fifty days were again affembled there at this feaft, might be witneffes of this miraculous event. In fhort, it plainly appears that this-new law from mount Sion, was folemnly promulged in the prefence of all the Jews, who were affembled from all parts of the world; as the old law was, when all the people affifted at the foot of mount Sinai. 3. That thefe gifts were granted to all the Difciples of our Saviour: gifts which till that time had been wholly unheard of, and whereof fome part only had been granted for fome Prophets, and to fome Priefts, and of which none had been made partakers fince the time of Malachi; God having fo ordered it, that the defires of the Jews might be the more inflamed for the Meffiah's coming, as alfo that upon his coming he might the more eafily be difcerned. 4. That this was a fact openly known amongst the Jews, and differently interpreted by them; fome faying, They were full of new wine. 5. That the Apoftles afferted, by the mouth of St. Peter, that this was an accomplishment of the ancient oracles, as well as of the promises of Jefus Chrift. 6. That they declared that the refurrection of Jefus Chrift, his afcenfion into heaven, and this miraculous donative, had been foretold by David and Joel. It is certainly therefore very natural to make thefe following reflexions upon the relation of fo confiderable an event.

The firft will confirm the truth of this miraculous fact, if we confider that it is abfurd to fuppofe that St. Luke, a wife man, fhould be so rafh as to relate a matter of this nature, if he had not been fully convinced of it, and if it had not been an eafy thing to have convinced his readers thereof alfo; nothing more being required for their conviction, but the prefence of one of thofe first Chriftians, and to make a trial of this fupernatural virtue beftowed on them, for which there were frequent occafions. 2. We must observe that this relation of St. Luke is, as it were, the foundation which he lays down, to make his book of the Acts to appear juft and reasonable, and to juftify the Apoftles conduct in preaching the Gofpel to the Gentiles, not only contrary to the opinion of the Jews, who looked upon them as wholly excluded from the privileges of the covenant; but also contrary to the feeming maxim of Jefus Chrift, who acted only as the minifter of circumcifion; and contrary to the pretenfions of many Chriftians, who, after the miffion of the Holy Ghoft, took it very ill that St. Peter had preached to the Gentiles.

3. St. Luke fuppofes that this fact came to pafs in fuch a manner, that it was followed by confequences as illuftrious as they were incredible. Twelve poor fishermen undertook to go and preach to all the world,

that

that their mafter, who fifty days before was crucified at Jerufalem, at the profecution of the whole fynagogue, and by order of one of the magiftrates of the Roman empire, was not only living, not only afcended into heaven, but that he alfo had given them the power of speaking all forts of languages, of curing all difeafes, and even of raifing the dead.

4. They go yet further; they boldly maintain that Jefus Chrift had given them a privilege of cominunicating the fame power to all thofe who would believe that he was the promised Meffiah; and this, without any other mystery but the bare laying-on of their hands, after they had received them by baptifm into the profeffion of Chriftianity.

Nothing could have been more eafy than to convince them of the contrary, unless they had confirmed the truth of their affertion by the miraculous confequences of that firft miracle. The fact was publicly acknowledged: Simon Magus is convinced thereof; and he who had made himself famous by his forceries, becomes a Difciple. St. Luke, in a hiftory of the actions of thirty years, relates the continual miracles wrought by the Apostles, and particularly by St. Paul, whom he constantly followed.

It seems to me, that if one confiders the hiftory itfelf, and the perfon who made it, it will appear to be a true and faithful relation; however, there are other teftimonies which invincibly eftablith the fame

truth.

1. The Gospel was, in effect, established in most of the provinces and great cities of the Roman empire. St. Paul writes to the Chriftians of Theffalonica, Corinth, and Ephefus, to the Galatians, Coloffians, &c. which is an evident argument that there were Chriftians every where, that is, Difciples of thefe twelve fifhermen, who understood nothing but their native Syriac language. How then were all thefe nations converted, without fuppofing the truth of the miracle at the Pentecoft?

2. The Apostles fpeak to them of thefe miraculous gifts as of a common thing; St. Paul employing fome part of his firft epiftle to the Corinthians, to regulate thofe diforders which arofe in the church, by reafon of the abufe of thofe gifts. St. James fpeaks of the power that the priests had to cure the fick; and St. Paul withes for an opportunity of going to Rome, to communicate thofe gifts to the Romans.

3. They take occafion to raise the dignity of the Gospel above that of the law, in calling i the miniftry of the Spirit, in oppofition to the letter of the law, notwithstanding the tables of the law had been given to Mofes in fo very illuftrious a manner.

It is of great moment here to confider three things, which alone are fufficient to confirm the truth of the Chriftian religion.

The first is, That this miffion of the Spirit is alone fufficient to convince mankind of the Divinity of Jefus Chrift. God gave to Adam a power of fpeaking one language; and afterwards he divided the fame, to make a confution among the builders of Babel: and Jefus Chrift doth the fame thing, to confirm the glory and belief of his Divinity. God vouchsafes the power of miracles to fome, Jefus Chrift communicates it to a far greater number; miracles not having been fo generally wrought, becaufe no people ever had that power in all the foregoing ages. The Tr wrought fo few miracles, that he might leave to the Son thi

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