that Peter made, though all should be offended he would not, Mark xiv. 29. was agreeable to the forwardness and zeal he had shown upon divers other occasions. And are not the scoffs of the people, and the triumphs of the pharisees, said to be delivered by them against our Saviour when hanging upon the cross, just such as might be expected upon the occasion from the cruel insolence of one and the malicious satisfaction of the other?" And they that passed by, reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself; if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save; if he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God," Matt. xxvii. 39-42. And though I pass over many particulars, I must not omit to refer you to his compassionate lamentation of the miseries of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation, when the prediction of their destruction by him is related, which could proceed from no other but one who was really the person the evangelists have represented our Saviour to be. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not," Matt. xxiii. 37. "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes," Luke xix. 41, 42.

If we proceed to the history of the Acts of the Apostles, we shall find still the same just and natural representation of things. The charge said to be made against Stephen by the leading men of the Jewish nation, was the most popular that could be imagined, and most likely to reconcile the people to his destruction, which they aimed at. "And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him before the council, and set up false witnesses against him, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this place and the law," Acts vi. 12, 13.

The reception Barnabas and Paul met with at Lystra is as agreeable to the sentiments of superstitious heathens, surprised at first into such a high veneration for them, upon account of a miracle they had seen them work, that they

were ready to pay them such honours as they gave their deities, and were as soon enraged against them when they disdained their idolatrous honours and denied their gods. "When the people saw what Paul had done, (he had cured a man impotent in his feet, who had been a cripple from his mother's womb,) they lift up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," Acts xiv. 11. But " when there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, they stoned Paul, and drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead," ver. 19. And the uproar at Ephesus, upon the progress Paul had made, in drawing off some persons from the received superstition, was no other than might be expected in a city where the livelihood of a vast number of persons depended upon the sale of images and shrines of the goddess Diana, Acts xix. This just and natural representation of things is an argument of the truth and credibility of any history; when the reflections, objections, and whole behaviour of persons of the better and meaner sort are all conformable to their several characters, the opinions and sentiments that obtain among them, and the circumstances they are supposed to be in.

6. The impartiality of the history of the New Testament is another argument of its truth, and makes the whole appear credible. This is a rare and uncommon character, and I think is not more conspicuous in any history than in this. I would give you some few instances of it under these three heads.

1. Many things are here mentioned, that were in appearance, and in the eye of the world, disadvantageous to our Saviour.

2. The writers have not omitted those things that were really disadvantageous to themselves, and their companions, some of them in the eye of the world, and others really so; their own faults and miscarriages.

3. There are many disorders and miscarriages mentioned among the first converts to christianity.

As to the first head, things that were to outward appearance, and in the eye of the world, disadvantageous to our Saviour, are, the low circumstances of his parents; the mean accommodations of his birth; that when he appeared publicly to the world, his townsmen and near relations despised and rejected him; that among his followers, there were few who were considerable for their knowledge of the law, for wealth or dignity; that the rulers, the scribes, and phari

sees, disowned his pretensions, and opposed him continually; that some, who for a time followed him, afterwards went off from him, and deserted him; that he was betrayed into the hands of the high priest and rulers, by one of those who had been chosen out for his constant companions, and had had an intimacy with him; that he was crucified in the most ignominious manner with two malefactors. Had it been a story invented, these particulars had never been part of it. Had it been a contrivance, they would never have thought of recommending to the generality of the Jews, a person, whom their rulers, and that sect which had the highest veneration among them, condemned and rejected; nor to the Gentiles, a person disowned and crucified by his own nation. Had the whole been a fiction, a crucifixion had certainly never been a part of the story. Had not they heard of the translation of Enoch? Was not the assumption of Elijah, who was carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, 2 Kings ii. 11, a model they might easily have followed and improved? Would not this have been much more glorious than a crucifixion, though afterwards succeeded by an ascension? Was it possible this fact should have been overlooked by any one person; much less by a college, or number of persons, who had attempted an agreeable story to be recommended to mankind? Certainly their view could be no other than the relating of real matter of fact.

Another proof of their impartiality is, what they have mentioned really, or to appearance, disadvantageous in their own character and conduct, and that of the other chief followers of Christ. They have inserted in this account the mean original and occupation of several of themselves; that they were but fishermen; and the infamous employment of Matthew, who was a publican. Many of their own faults and failings are mentioned in such a manner, that one would not imagine they had concealed any of the aggravating circumstances of them; nor do they seem to have softened the harshness of the reprimands their Master gave them; and many of them are such as they might have kept a secret among themselves. Some of them were originally known only to Christ and the twelve; and divers of them, but two or three of the number could be privy to. This account represents the twelve infected with ambitious views of honour in a temporal kingdom; they had a contention which of them should be the greatest: it was a dispute they had one with another as they were travelling without other company. The importunate ambition of the two sons of Zebe

dee, and their mother, for the first and second post in the Messiah's kingdom. Their fears and diffidence when they were in a storm, though Christ was with them. How se

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vere a rebuke have they given us an account of, which they received from Christ, when they had understood him to speak concerning temporal provisions, and he had been admonishing them concerning the leaven of the pharisees? "Why reason ye, because ye have brought no bread? Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember?" Mark viii. 17, 18. And what a contemptible figure did they make, whom Christ had left behind him when he went up into the mountain with Peter, James, and John? For when he came down again, he found a great multitude about them, the scribes and pharisees questioning with them, and a man hasting to him, bringing his son to him with a dumb spirit, telling him, "I spake to thy disciples, that they should cast him out, but they could not," Mark ix. 15-18: upon which they received that just reprimand of their unbelief even before the multitude; "Then Jesus answered, saying, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me,' Matt. xvii. 17. And what could be more shameful than their forsaking Christ, and leaving him when he was apprehended by the officers of the high priest? except only the denial of Peter, repeated again and again, with circumstances unbecoming a man of honour, a worshipper of the true God, and much more a companion and disciple of Christ. Indeed, if the honour of any of them were to be consulted, it was Peter's; yet we find he is not spared at all, any more than the rest. He was one of them whom Christ called to be with him at the first; had made the most express declaration of his character; had been the first instrument of opening the gospel after our Saviour's resurrection, both to Jews and Gentiles: and yet we have as many shameful miscarriages mentioned concerning him, as concerning any of the rest. When "Jesus began to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day," Matt. xvi. 21; then Peter took upon him to rebuke his Master, as if what he said proceeded from melancholy fears that arose in his mind, and not from a certain knowledge of what was to befal him, saying, " Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee," ver. 22; upon which he received

the severest reprimand recorded, as given to any of the twelve: "But Jesus turned and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things which be of God, but those that be of men," ver. 23. He was doubtless engaged with the rest in the contention for precedency; he was guilty of diffidence when Christ called to him to come to him upon the water; he was drowsy and overcome with sleep when he was with Christ in the garden, where he was in an agony that might have filled those present with him with the highest concern, and tenderest compassion for him; he disowned Christ in a most hardy and peremptory manner, when his master was in his view, under an unrighteous persecution, immediately after the warmest and most confident professions of zeal and affection; and we have notice taken of a dissimulation he was afterwards guilty of, in favour of the christians that were of the uncircumcision, to the prejudice of the simplicity of the gospel, Gal. ii. 11, 12. I might observe the contention between Paul and Barnabas, which is recorded in the Acts; so that though for a long time they had been companions in preaching the gospel, they separated, and went asunder for the future.-But enough has been said.

Lastly. The impartiality of the history appears in the accounts that are given of the first converts to christianity after our Saviour's ascension. If we should read the history of any particular reign, filled with high encomiums of the posture of affairs, and find it represented as a time wherein the arts of peace and war flourish; in which all arts and sciences are promoted and encouraged by a wise and prudent administration: the government just and mild; the people tractable and obedient; no impediment in the counsels, nor miscarriages in the execution; the negotiations abroad, as well as counsels at home, managed with the utmost sagacity; armies ever victorious; no interruption of commerce, nor disasters in war: no wonder if posterity judge such a performance a panegyric, a romance, or any thing rather than a history: or, if the accounts given of the state of christianity in its infancy had resembled the pictures which have been since drawn by some modern representations of the manners of the first converts: that they were universally eminent prodigies of virtue and piety, scarce any tokens of human frailty, with now and then a rapturous exclamation on the unanimity and harmony of sentiments and affections that prevailed among them: one might very well have suspected matters of fact must have been falsified