that the information, which we possess regarding the lives and sufferings of the Apostles, is sufficient for the establishment of our faith.

1. Some persons may ask; how can our faith, depend in any way whatever, on either the lives or the sufferings of the Apostles? The answer is obvious. Faith is nothing more than the assent of our minds to the truth of a certain testimony. Consequently, the certainty of faith must depend, on the degree of certainty we have, of the honesty and competency of the witness. By this rule we act in all the transactions of life; on this are conducted the proceedings of our courts of justice. The question, in all such cases, is simply this; whether the witness has been imposed on, or is attempting to impose on us. If we are satisfied, that he is neither the one nor the other; that he has deposed neither what he knows to be false, nor what he does not know to be true: we believe his testimony, and act accordingly, in all instances where the facts deposed require us to act at all.

Now the fact, on which our faith as Christians mainly depends, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Apostles themselves avow this to be the foundation of Christianity, "If,” saith St. Paul, “Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." The reason is manifest. It is the resurrection of Jesus, which proves him to be the Messiah, and the Son of God. It is this, which demonstrates, that His death has procured the forgiveness of our sins, and that we are bound to obey his commandments, as our Master and our Judge. It gives assurance of our own resurrection; and thus imparts certainty to his promises, and sanction and authority to his laws.

The question, therefore, on which the belief or the rejection of Christianity turns, is this :—are the Apostles to be believed, when they testify, that Jesus has been raised from the dead? If their story be not, from beginning to end, a wilful falsehood, they have had such opportunities of

knowing whether he rose or not, that it is utterly impossible they could have been deceived in the matter. The only remaining supposition is, that they have attempted to impose upon mankind, by a story which they knew to be a fabrication. Now the brief and scanty particulars which are supplied by the New Testament,-incidentally recorded, and evidently without any effort to make out a case, are perfectly sufficient to place their integrity beyond all possibility of suspicion; even if we had not the corroborating testimony of their enemies and persecutors; even if the mere existence and prevalence of the Christian name, were not sufficient, to prove everything that can be called in question. I do not mean to dwell on this part of the subject. The veracity of the Apostles, is not to be questioned in an assembly of Christians. But, besides this, their truth has been vindicated, so often and so triumphantly, that it requires the credulity of an infidel, to entertain a doubt on the subject. All I need to observe is, that, small as is the information which the New Testament gives, it is

enough to prove, that the Apostles' practised that piety and charity, which they inculcated on others; that they passed their lives in almost super-human exertions to propagate Christianity; that their labours were attended with a success so rapid and so complete, as to be wholly unaccountable, on any other supposition than that their statements were incontrovertible: in fine, that, so far from gaining, or seeking to gain any thing for themselves by inducing men to embrace their religion, they, deliberately, and with abundant forewarning of the event, gave up everything they possessed on earth; exposed themselves to abject poverty, contempt, and suffering; put themselves forward in the fore front, to receive every assault of persecution; and stood ready, at every moment, to confirm their testimony, by enduring a violent and ignominious death. All this is demonstrable from the New Testament. It is on the very face of the apostolical history. It is wrought up and interwoven, in the whole contexture of their letters, their precepts, and their consolations.

I repeat, it is utterly impossible, that the apostles could have been ignorant whether their statements were true or false. The stability of our faith, therefore, and, by consequence, the whole fabric of our religion, depends, on our being ascertained, that they believed these statements to be true. This is the whole question: and, brief and incomplete as our information is, it is answered, with such overwhelming weight of testimony, and such accumulation and variety of proof, that he who is not convinced of their integrity by what the scripture has recorded, would remain unconvinced still, if every circumstance of their lives had been engraven in monuments of brass and marble; if every word, and action, and suffering, had been enrolled and registered in ten thousand volumes.

2. But, not only is the quantity of our information regarding the lives of the Apostles, sufficient for the confirmation of our faith; its very scantiness is in itself an additional proof of the truth of their testimony. The silence of the Apostles is one of the evidences of Christianity. Had