move.

off the Roman yoke, and erect an universal empire of their own. The new converts, as yet entirely unacquainted with the true nature of Christ's kingdom, would have given all imaginable grounds for such suspicion; and perhaps might have raised such commotions, as would have terminated in their utter ruin, or at least have excited such a spirit of prejudice and opposition against both them and their religion, as they should never afterwards be able to reTheir ruin indeed did shortly follow upon other accounts; and perhaps that, and their continued dispersion, afford to considerate men a much stronger argument for the gospel of Christ than their supposed conversion to it could have done. But we are by no means satisfied that they would have been effectually converted to Christ, upon his appearing to them. They had seen him work miracles before his death, even the miracle of raising the dead; they saw his poor disciples continue to do the same after his resurrection; they had seen all nature as it were in convulsions at his crucifixion, and their own watch related to them what amazing circumstances accompanied his rising from the grave; they had survived the day of Pentecost unconverted; so that it scarce seems to have been in the power of God himself to work upon them, unless he had turned their hearts, as he does the rivers of waters, with that resistless arm which is never used in the direction of moral agents. If Christ then had appeared to the Jews, and they had still rejected him, (as it is almost demonstrable that they would,) what disservice would this have done to the Christian cause! what an obstruction would have been thrown in the way of our faith! and with what difficulty

would it have been surmounted! Leaving therefore the Jews to clamour for such evidence as they of all men had least reason to expect, such evidence as was in itself highly unnecessary and improper,-evidence, to which they had no right, which in all probability would have done them no good, and which, upon every supposition, might have done much hurt; let us rest satisfied with the evidence which we have at present, as it is such as will justify us to our own consciences here, and, I trust, will justify us at last before God, and angels, and men.

2. If this evidence should be further objected to as defective, because it is only that of professed friends; let it be considered, that the testimony of enemies can by no means be reasonably expected in a case of this nature: because should they attest and believe the fact of Christ's rising from the dead, it is scarce conceivable how they could continue to be his enemies any longer. Their testimony therefore would argue their conversion, and their conversion it seems would invalidate their testimony; so that it would be of no more account, and have no greater effects, than the other testimonies which we have already. This is evident from the known case of Josephus; in whose history, as it stands at present, there is an ample testimony to our purpose. But is this at all regarded? is not the force of it easily, and therefore always evaded, either by supposing that the passage itself is an interpolation, or else that the author was secretly, and in his heart, a favourer of the Christian religion? It is sufficient for us, that, over and above the evidence of those who were properly the witnesses of the fact, we have the testimony of numberless others, who were originally ene

mies, and would have remained so, if they had not met with such proofs as they were unable to resist. And yet they lived in such times, as afforded them all the means of information, and all the opportunities of confuting the gospel history, if the facts reported in it had been false. Nay, even those who would not believe and be converted, yet were so distressed by plain evidence in the point of Christ's resurrection, that they had nothing better to offer against it than some idle talk upon the subject of spectres and apparitions. A refuge which has been before laid open, and which, if any man be content to take up with now, he is too ridiculous to deserve any further notice.

3. The only remaining conclusion is, that if Christ rose from the dead, his religion must be true; a religion indeed established not only by this, but by numberless other miracles; and which is so excellent in itself, that if men did but consider their own best interests, nothing could more effectually recommend it than its own intrinsic goodness. Considered as a rule of life, it is calculated to promote the happiness of mankind both in their social and private capacities; and as a rule of faith, it extends our views infinitely beyond the present transitory scene of things, and introduces us to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, to the spirits of just men made perfect,-to an innumerable company of angels,-to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to God the Judge of all". It teaches us, that the resurrection of Christ is the pledge and assurance of our own*,

u Heb. xii. 22, 23, 24.

1

× See I Cor. xv.

that believers, as the members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, are already risen in their head; that at last he will actually change their vile body into the similitude of his glorious body, and make them, in his own more immediate presence, partakers of that life and immortality which he has brought to light through the gospel". How then can men prevail with themselves to reject this gospel, which appears to be so worthy of God, and so beneficial to mankind! Surely if they impartially weigh the grounds upon which it stands, together with the advantages which it proposes, they cannot think the Author of it was an impostor, or a wicked man; but must conclude, that he was a Person of the greatest goodness, as well as a Prophet of the greatest dignity; and in truth what he pretended to be, even Jesus the Son of God, declared to be so with power, by the resurrection from the dead.

y Ephes. v. 30. and Col. ii. 12. * Phil. iii. 21. and 2 Tim. i. 10.

a Rom. i. 4.

SERMON III.

MATT. vii. 16.

Ye shall know them by their fruits.

IN the verse before the text, our Lord gives his disciples a caution to beware of false prophets. And as he adds, that these prophets would come with great appearances of innocence, and great pretences to sanctity, would come in sheep's clothing, professing only to promote the cause of truth and virtue, and the happiness of their followers, while inwardly they were ravening wolves, intending only to promote the ends of their own avarice and ambition; it was necessary for him to annex some rule, in order to enable his disciples to judge in the case; because deceivers, with these qualifications, and these pretences, might easily impose upon the simple, who are not always upon their guard. The rule therefore he lays down in the text; Ye shall know them by their fruits. You judge not of a fruit-tree immediately by its fair outside and flourishing appearance, but suspend your opinion till you see what it produces; do the same in the case before us; trust not immediately to fair words and plausible pretences, but wait a while, till you see what these new teachers design, and what are the effects and consequences of their doctrine; for by their fruits ye shall know them.

By the word fruits some understand the lives and conversation of these false prophets; but others, the