Under-Agents and Workmen; a Character, SERM. I. to which ambitious Men are not willing to ftoop: They every where make our Saviour the immediate Fountain-Head of that Knowledge which watered and enriched the World; they only pretend to be the Channels, through which it was conveyed.

There are few or no other public Ac tions, but what a witty Malice may put fome finifter Interpretation upon; and the beft Deeds in Appearance may, and often, no Queftion, do, proceed from a Principle of Vanity: But the Actions of the Apostles will ftand the Teft of the fevereft Scruti

ny. For they could not act upon any indirect and interefted Views of worldly Honour, Ambition, or Gain; they must have been fupported by a determined Refolution of Mind, to bear the utmoft Preffures of Mifery and Torment, in the Caufe of Truth, founded upon a Profpect of future Happiness. So far are they from confulting the Dignity of human Nature who deny the Truth of Chriftianity, that they do, what in them lyes, to rob us of the moft inconteftable Examples of human Virtue, and confequently, to depreciate our Na

ture.

It

SERM. I.,

It is objected indeed, whereas the pri mitive Witneffes fealed their Testimony with their Blood; that Confideration does not weigh much, fince feveral Criminals, have perfifted to the laft in the Denial of known Facts.

To this I anfwer, that thefe Wretches generally do it with the Profpect of a Pardon or a Reprieve. But pray, which of these hardened Creatures would perfevere to atteft, what he knew to be false; provided a Pardon was offered, if he would confefs, the Truth? Yet this was the Cafe of the Apoftles: They might at any Time have preferved their Lives, by laying open the Cheat, if it had been one: Nay, in the first Council, that of the Jews, before which they were convened, all that was defired of them was, that they should preach no more in the Name of Jesus.

He that can produce one Inftance of a Man that would rather part with his Life, than retract, what he knew to be false, when he might fave his Life by retracting; must find fome History as yet unknown to the learned World. Much lefs can a Number of fuch Men be produced, who all, with an inflexible Stubbornne fs, with an uncon-. querable

1

querable Spirit, were confiftent from first SERM. I. to laft, till Death clofed the Scene, without one of them throwing off the Mask. I have often heard that Terrors and Torments have made a Man abjure what he, knew to be true; but I never heard, that they had fomething fo inviting in them, as to make a Man, much lefs a Number of Men, maintain what they were conscious was a Falfhood, a Falfhood unprofitable to them, when they might have been refcued. from Death by recanting. There is then this material Difference: Criminals either, in the first Place, falfify with an Intention to fave themselves from the Stroke of Juftice: whereas the Apostles brought their, Lives, knowingly and wilfully, into imminent Danger; nay, actually loft them, for nothing but perfevering to atteft the Truth, unawed by any Terrors, unallured by Hopes of Pardon: Or fecondly, Malefactors have died, as they lived, under an Infenfibility of each good and virtuous Impreffion. Grofs and heavy Minds, that think of nothing in this World but what ftrikes their Senfes, may think of nothing. beyond this World: But the Apoftles must have lived an exemplary Life, and in an uninter

VOL. II.

S

SERM. I. uninterrupted Tenour of Virtue. For a profligate and immoral Life would have blasted their Credit as much, as the Detection of a notorious Falfhood. And is it not to be fuppofed, that Men of exemplary Lives, who in their Writings inculcate the justest and therefore the nobleft Sentiments of the Deity, and a strict Regard to Truth, would die with a Falfhood in their Mouths.

I own that Enthusiasm will put Men upon desperate Attempts. But then the Apoftles could not have been Enthufiafts. For they must have had an absolute Certainty, whether our Saviour was rifen, after fuch oft-repeated, lafting, fenfible Evidence of his being alive, after having seen, handled, and felt him: They must be intimately confcious (the highest Degree of Certainty) whether they could fpeak all Languages, agreably to his Promife after his rifing from the Dead, viz. that they fhould be endued with Power from on High. If they then afferted thefe Things without any Foundation, they knew what they afferted to be falfe. Now he is not an Enthusiast, who afferts what he knows to be false; he is fomething worse.

That Charge being difmiffed, the only

tolerable Motive that can be affigned, is SERM. I. that of Vain-Glory, which I have already difproved. For it is plain to the Force of a Demonstration, that they were not influenced by other worldly Views; when they knew, that renouncing Eafe and Pleafure, their Country and Friends, they were to face Poverty, Bonds, and Death, under their most forbidding and frightful Appearances. I think, fays St. Paul, that God bath fet forth us the Apoftles laft, as it were appointed to Death: For we are made a Spectacle to the World and unto Angels and Men.even unto this prefent Hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and are buffeted, and have no certain Dwelling-Place, and labour working with our own Hands we are reviled, perfecuted and defamed 3 we are made as the Filth of the World, and the Off-fcouring of all Things. 1 Cor. iv. 9, &c.

Hear what Clemens Romanus, Contemporary with the Apoftles, fays, in his first Epiftle to the Corinthians, the most valuable Monument of Chriftian Antiquity, next to the infpired Writings. "It was of unjuft Envy, that Peter fuffered, not "one or two, but feveral Pains; and hav

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