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Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance to ́"wards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus "Christ. And now, behold I go bound in the "spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things "which shall befal me there: Save that the

Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, "that bonds and imprisonments abide me. But "none of these things move me, neither count "I my life, dear unto myself, so that I might "finish my course with joy, and the ministry "which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" "Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears"—" I "have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or "apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that "these hands have ministered to my necessi"ties, and to them that were with me. I have "shewed you all things, how that so labouring

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ye ought to support the weak; and to re"member the words of our Lord Jesus, how "he said, It is more blessed to give than to "receive."-Is this the language of an interested man? and above all of an interested man at such a moment? We will not multiply passages in which similar protestations are used relative to their own conduct; and you are bound to believe them, because neither their

lives nor their doctrines were those of persons who are actuated by interested motives. Other wise they would soon have relinquished so hopeless a scheme. At the very commencement of their labours, one was stoned*, another beheadedt, the greater part of them scattered over strange cities, and their cause. and their sect every where spoken against||. You see them, nevertheless, steadfast, immoveable, abounding in the work of the Lord, preaching Jesus with all diligence, knowing that their labour was not in vain in the Lord. Surely, we must admit, that they were actuated by the best of motives, in all that they did and wrote. Observe,

VII. THAT THEY THEMSELVES BELIEVED, AND WERE GUIDED BY THE TRUTHS WHICH THEY TAUGHT.

This proposition stands allied to the preceding one, and the same train of reasoning will fairly establish it. They suffered death for the cause which they attempted to promulgate, and this was a decisive evidence that they believed it.

* Acts vii. 59.

Acts viii. 1-4. xi, 19.

+ Acts xii. 2.
|| Acts xxviii. 22.

It is readily granted that martyrdom is no evidence of the goodness of a cause, or of the truth of the religion which the man believes, and for which he dies. Many have suffered in a bad cause; and many have died for a false religion. The enthusiasm of a Roman more than once led him to sacrifice himself for his country; and superstition has also boasted her martyrs— still boasts them on the plains of Indostan, and among untutored savages. Martyrdom, however, we may fairly assert is a proof of sincerity in the person who suffers; and this is all that we wish to prove in the present instance. We urge the sufferings and the death of the apostles upon you, not as an evidence of the truth of their religion (it is founded on stronger arguments than these), but as a decisive proof of their sincerity, and as an invincible demonstration that they really believed what they taught. You may add to this the simplicity of their manners, of their narratives, of their preaching, and of their lives, strongly presumptive, to say the least, of their unaffected sincerity. Nor will any man be able to investigate their characters and deportment, without acquitting them of all design to deceive. The same arguments will hold good in favour of the writers of the Old Testament. The prophets suffered death for their predictions, and those who did

not, manifested, by their lives, their belief of the truth which they taught.

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They not only believed but were guided by these things. Those only can enter into the argument by which we establish this assertion, who are accustomed to read the Bible; and indeed he who opposes Revelation, ought, in reason and in justice, to be as well acquainted with the sacred writings, as the man who professedly maintains it. Upon a comparison between the lives of the apostles and prophets, and their writings, we are persuaded it will be found, that the one is an exact transcript of the other. The benevolence and charity which they recommended to others, they felt themselves. The love to Jesus Christ which they taught, warmed their own bosoms. He was the object of their faith, of their hope, of their joy, of their worship. In him all their wishes and expectations centred; and for him they were willing to live or to die. They exemplified the christian patience and meekness, which they recommended to their hearers, in their own resigna tion and uncomplaining sufferings. They could make their appeal to their conversation and say, "Brethren, be ye followers of us, even as we "are also of Christ." Upon every investiga tion of their lives and writings, it will be found that they themselves were guided by the truths

which they taught to others. One more proposition will conclude what we have to advance respecting the writers of the Bible; and indeed it may be considered as a concluding inference from all the foregoing series of reasoning. It is,

VIII. THAT IT APPEARS UPON THE WHOLE, THAT THEY NEITHER COULD BE DECEIVED, NOR WOULD DECEIVE, IN ALL THAT THEY WROTE AND ASSERTED.

We have said that

That they could not be deceived, is evident from the nature of the case. they were for the most part eye-witnesses of what they recorded; this was eminently the fact in respect of the apostles. They conversed with Jesus Christ-they saw all the miracles that he wrought-they were present when he expired on the cross. When he rose from the dead, he appeared to them, and to "above five "hundred brethren at once." He ascended to heaven in their presence. He afterwards appeared to Paul in the way to Damascus, and to John in the Isle of Patmos.-We have proved the same respecting the writers of the Old Testament, and particularly Moses. We have shewn, that what they did not see, they derived from the most certain evidences, and

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