SERM. I. kind; and Chriftianity in that Cafe would have been like the Grafs growing upon the House-Top; by lying fo open and expofed, and wanting a fufficient Depth of Soil, it would have withered away of itself, and prevented the Violence of any hoftile Hand.

But fuppofe, through fome unaccountable Enthufiafm or Madness which then feized and poffeffed the Minds of the People, it had fpread far and near; yet in this Cafe the Jewish Rulers and Magiftrates could never have ftood by unconcerned, as idle Spectators. They were highly interefted to detect the Falfhood, and to do themselves Juftice, as being charged with the Murder of an innocent Perfon. They were obliged in Duty to their Law, in Charity to their own Nation and the World, to fupprefs, as far as they could, the Belief of the Resurrection, and the subsequent Miracles wrought in Confirmation of it. By their Authority they could, and by their Inclination they would have exploded the Impofture: they would have invalidated all the Teftimonies relating to thefe falfe Facts, if false they had been, by producing ftrong Counter-Evidence.

The Apostles on the other Hand, fuppofing the Truth of the Refurrection, had all the Reasons that worldly Prudence could fuggeft to have concealed it; fince they could not but foresee, that to maintain it

would draw upon them a Train of fatal SERM. I. Confequences. But fuppofing the Falfhood of it, all the Motives both of this World and the next confpired against their Propagation of it. They could not think that the Chiefs of the Jewish State would let them publish every where throughout the World, that they had fhed innocent Blood, the Blood of the Prince of Life, whom God had raifed up, without calling them to an Account for it.

A long continued Succeffion of wonderful Works, many of them faid to have been performed in Places of the greatest Resort, (as any one that reads the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles may find) must have laid open to public Examination; and, if falfe, to public Detection. The chief Men among them, as their Reputation, Religion and Intereft were ftruck at, had all the Motives to detect and suppress Chriftianity (which were wanting for the Propagation and Succefs of it) and they had all the Advantages imaginable to compass their End. And had the Men of Power and Policy, who were extreme to mark any Thing amifs in their Conduct, convicted, the Apostles of one Falfhood; their Credit must have been for ever after blafted. Truth itself would have been suspected from Perfons proved guilty of a folemn and deliberate Villainy, yet pretending to

act

SERM. I act it in the Name of God: but Falfhood could not have been credited. Impofturé is like that Kind of Animal, which does a great deal of Mischief; but then it is only while it works in Secret and under Cover: As foon as it appears above Ground and is discovered in Day-Light, it is rendered incapable of doing any further Detriment. Their Enemies, right or wrong, would endeavour to fully the Brightness of their Characters. And when one confiders them in their exalted Situation as Ambaffadors of God, a Spectacle to Mankind on the open Theatre of the World, they muft (plain and unlearned as they were) have acted their Parts with uncommon Addrefs not to have been difcovered. Like Statues placed on an high Pedestal, they must have been fomewhat bigger than the Life, not to look less than it; I mean they must have been better than the common run of Men, not to have appeared worse than them; when their Actions and Characters would be scanned with all the Quick-fightedness of Malice, ever vigilant to seek Occasion against them.

In short, the Facts thus circumftanced prove themselves; and the only Reason why, at the Time and Place when and where they were faid to be done, they were believed to be true by Perfons tenacious of another Religión, is, that they were true; as the only Reason why a self-evident Propofition

pofition which draws after it a Train of SERM. I. unacceptable Confequences is admitted to be true, is, that it cannot be denied. All other Suppofitions are forced and unnatural, and fuch as would not be endured by any Man of common Senfe in any other Cafe.

Nay, no Account can be given, why the Chief Priefts and Rulers, who could fuborn the Soldiers to tell a fenfeless Falfhood about the Refurrection, did not attempt to disprove the other marvellous Facts, though convinced that they were true, but this; that they were fo notoriously true, it would have been of no Avail to have denied them. It would have been as ridiculous, at that Time and in that Place, to have set about a Confutation of fuch overbearing Evidence, as it would have been to have denied a felf-evident Propofition. They might as well have afferted that the Feaft of Pentecoft was not observed at Jerufalem, as that the Miracle of the Gift of Tongues was not wrought publickly at that Feftival, when there were fo many living Witneffes from every Nation under Heaven to atteft the Truth of it.

Nay, fo far were the Ancient Jews, however virulent, from confronting the Evidence for Chriftianity, that the Jerufalem Talmud*, which contains a Collection of * See Bp. Chandler's Defence of Christianity, pages 429, 430.

SERM. I. the Traditions of their Fore-fathers, and

was compofed about three hundred Years after the Birth of our Saviour, has preferved the Memory of fome of our Saviour's Miracles; as that he walked on the Sea, and that he raised the Dead; and it mentions the very Perfons by Name with particular Circumftances, whom St. James miraculously cured, though their Diftempers were mortal, by the Name of Jefus Chrift. The State of the Question is now changed; in thofe early Times they did not (and the only Reason was, they could not) conteft the Reality of the Miracles; what they contefted was, the Inference from thence; the Truth of the Doctrines: The ableft of our modern Adverfaries own, the Doctrines must be allowed to be true, fuppofing the Miracles actually wrought; but deny that they were wrought. For thus One of the most fagacious of them fays, (and what he fays is very true) "God can never be fup"pofed often to permit Miracles to be done "in Confirmation of a falfe or pretended "Miffion."

Add to this, that several thousands, who must be privy to the Impofture, if there was one, fealed the Truth of Christianity with their Blood. They, like Sampson, and like him too with a Strength fuperior to their own, attempted to pull down the Temple of Heathenifm; and to lay the

Edifice,