at a Festival, where Men from all parts of the World were met together; fo that they could attempt to fpeak in no ftrange language, but fome prefent would have difcover'd them, if they had not been able to fpeak it. But they would leaft of all have pretended to enable others in an instant, to work the fame Wonders, and fpeak the fame Tongues, only by laying their hands upon them. Men that would attempt all this, though they were unable to perform it, must be fo far from being capable of difcourfing and writing as the Apostles did, that they must be void even of common Senfe: and if they could fucceed in their defigns, and make the World believe that they did act and fpeak in this manner, when they did not, they must have a Power over the Understandings and Senfes of all with whom they convers'd; which is as ftrange even as this miraculous Power it felf. They muft work Miracles either upon the Objects of Senfe, or upon the Senfes themselves: for in this cafe, they could never have been able fo much as to deceive without a Miracle; and finçe God would never have empower'd them to work Miracles to deceive, we are certain that their Miracles were all wrought for that intent and purpofe, which they made profeffion of, and to confirm that Doctrine which they taught.

And this Power of Miracles, which now defcended from Heaven upon the Apostles, and was convey'd by them to others, continued for fome Ages in the Church, and approv'd it felf to the worft Enemies of our Religion in fuch Inftances, as must make them moft concern'd to examine it. For as the Chriftians had the Gift of Tongues, caft out Devils, and thereby converted thofe, out of whom they had been driven; as they oretold things to come, and cured Diseases, and rais'd the Dead, who liv'd many years afterwards: feveral of the Primitive Writers witnefs, that

e

Iren. 1. 2. c. $7. v, c. 6. e Minut. Fælix. Lactant. 1, 2. c. 15. nothing

nothing was more notorious, than that the Devils were wont to cry out for very Anguish and Torment, when they were adjur'd by the true God, and Tertullian made publick Challenges to the Heathens, that if they would but admit them to this Trial, the Chriftians would undertake to make their most famous Deities acknowledge the Power of Chrift, and to make their very Gods confefs themselves to be wicked and feducing Spirits, or else they would be contented to be flain upon the place; and this he wrote under Perfecutions, and in Apologies dedicated and prefented to their Perfecutors themselves.

And indeed, the Oracles in all parts of the World foon began to fail, fo as they had been never known to do before for their Power began to abate and decay upon the Approach of our Saviour's Birth into the World, till by degrees they quite ceas'd, which the Heathens wonder'd at, and were much perplex'd about it, as we learn from what they have left written upon that Subject. And tho' Julian the Apostate ufed all the ways that he could think of, to bring them into credit again, he was never able to effect it, but the most famous of them confefs'd to him, when he confulted it, that a miraculous and Divine Power refiding in the Remains of a Christian Martyr after his Death, would fuffer no Answer to be given. And it is fo remarkable, that I must mention it once more, that when the fame Apoftate Emperor, in Hatred and Despite to the Chriftian Religion, became a great, Patron of the Jews, and encourag'd them to re-build their Temple, great Balls of Fire broke forth near the Foundation, and deftroy'd both the Work it felf and the Perfons employ'd in it. And this we have related, not only by feveral Chriftian Writers that liv'd about that time, but by an " Heathen Hiftorian, who

f Apolog. c. 23. Cicer. de Divinat. Plutarch. de Oracul. de

fectu.

Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxiii. c. Iạ

was

!!

was then living, and wrote the Hiftory of those times, and has fhewn himself in no respect over-favourable to the Christians, but was a Soldier under Julian, and had no Inclination to fay any thing that might feem to diminish his Character. The Judgments alfo which befel several of the greatest Perfecutors of the Chriftian Religion, were fo miraculous and fo terrible, as to extort a Confeffion from fome of them, of God's Justice in their Punishment, and to force them to recall their perfecuting Edicts, and change them for others in favour of Christianity. The Edicts of Maximianus and Maximin, to this purpose, are to be feen in Eufebius: and the Judgment upon Julian was fo fudden and fo remarkable, that fome of the Heathen cavill'd, that the God of the Chriftians had not shewn that Mercy and Forbearance, which they reported of him, in it.

i

And when the Power of Miracles which came down on the day of Pentecoft upon the Apostles, and was continued in the Church after them, thus manifested it felf in oppofition to the Pretences both of the Jews and Heathens, in fuch a manner, as muft provoke them to make all the Discoveries they poffibly could, concerning it, when it thus triumph'd over all the Gods of the Heathens, whilft its poor and perfecuted Profeffors were under the Feet of the Heathen Emperors, and lay continually expofed to their. Cruelties, and at the peril of their Lives, proffer'd in publick Apologies, by a miraculous Power, or, as the Apoftle fpeaks, by the Power and Demonftration of the Spirit, to prove their own Religion true, and theirs falfe, and its cruelleft Perfecutors were by miraculous Judgments forced to become its Protectors; this was all that could be defired towards the fulfilling the Pro

+ Eufeb. Hift. lib. viii. c. 17. ix. c. 10. Lactant. de Mortib. Perfecut. c. xxxiv. xlix.

k Hieron. in Hab. c. iii.

mife of our Saviour to his Apostles, that they should become his Witnesses to all Nations. But,

3. The Gospel could not have been thus propagated, unless this Power of the Holy Ghost had been still farther manifeft, by the Courage and Refolution, and Patience of the Apoftles under their Sufferings. Our Saviour tells them, that they should receive power after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them, to become witnes fes unto him, both in Jerufalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria; these were the places where our Saviour himself had wrought his Miracles, and where he had been hated and perfecuted, and at last crucified; and there is reafon to believe, that the Apostles went not from Jerufalem and the parts adjacent, till twelve years after his Afcenfion: and when they had teftified his Refurrection, and preach'd his Gofpel to the Jews, their Work was not yet at an end, but they were to be his Witneffes unto the uttermoft parts of the earth; and even thither several of them went, fearing no Dangers, and being difcouraged at no Sufferings.

1

There is a natural Boldness and Courage in fome Men, by which they are often carried both to do and to endure a great deal more than others: But it was! not fo with the Apostles; they were naturally very timorous and faint-hearted, they all forfook their Mafter and fled, when he was first apprehended, and they were very backward to believe his Resurrection; and when they and the rest of the Disciples were convinced of it, they did not preach it to others; but after he had been feen of them forty days, and difcours'd with them of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, they ftill had mistaken Notions and Expectations concerning it: when they therefore were. come together, they asked of him, faying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Ifrael? And when Christ was taken up from them, into Heaven,

Eufeb. Hift. lib. v. cap. 18.

they

they stood gazing up after him, not knowing what to think of it, till two Angels admonish'd them, that it was in vain for them to stand looking thus any longer: And after his Afcenfion, they ftay'd ten days, before they ventur'd to publish any thing of what had come to pafs, till on the day of Pentecoft, in a visible and audible manner, the Holy Ghost defcended upon them, and quite changed their Temper, and of the most timorous, made them the most couragious and refolute, infpiring them with a Divine Vigor and Prefence of Mind.

For of all their Miracles, few feem to have been more wonderful, than that Firmness and Conftancy of Mind, which Men fo low, and mean, and abject, and before fo fearful, as the Apostles were, now fhew'd, upon all occafions. When our Saviour spoke to these his poor Disciples, and commanded them to go and teach all nations, Matt. xxviii. 19. it was fuch a Command as no King nor Law-giver ever prefum'd to give, in the Height of all his Power and Greatness : And when God himself fent Mofes to the Children of Ifrael only, Mofes fear'd the Succefs, and would fain have declin'd the Meffage. And how might the Difciples have reply'd to our Saviour, how fhall we preach to the Romans, and difpute with the Grecians, and discourse with the most remote and barbarous Nations, who have been bred up in the Knowledge only of our own Native Tongue? How can we compel all Nations to for fake the Worship of the Gods of their feveral Countries, and to obferve all things whatfoever we are commanded to teach them? With what force of Eloquence are we fitted for fuch a Defign? What Hope can we have to fucceed in an Attempt to fet up Law's in oppofition to the Laws established for fo many Ages, in behalf of their own Gods? What Strength can we have to overcome fuch Difficulties, and to accomplish fuch an Enterprize? But they made no Objections; our Saviour had convers'd with

them