three days before, they mockingly told our Saviour, that if He would come down from the cross, they would believe Him to be the Messiah. Alas! we do not know what will convince a mind averse to the truth.

For though God was not pleased to gratify the demands of those wicked men, and to satisfy them after their own way (because He knew nothing would convince them); yet when He did that very thing, which they said would satisfy them, after a more wonderful way; when He had suffered Him to die upon the cross, and to be buried in their sight; when their malice and their caution could go no further; then God took Him out of their hands, raised Him to life, made their own watch witnesses of His resurrection: which was a much greater miracle than they demanded, and yet they did not believe, but very wickedly attempted to pervert the truth, by bribing the watch.

II. And we have another instance, in this watch, of the corruption and deceitfulness of all our hearts. It was but just before that they were so terrified with the sight of an angel, that they became as dead men. And one would have thought they should not so soon have forgotten their fears, or be tempted with the greatest reward to set about a lie, which they very well knew to be so. But while we wonder at this, we do not consider that this is too often acted by ourselves.

The providence of God brings us into troubles, terrifies us with His judgments, and yet no sooner are we recovered of our fears, but we return to our old ways, and are ready for any wickedness the tempter shall lead us into.

When therefore, we resent the hard-heartedness either of the Jews or their watch, when we wonder at them, let us look to ourselves, lest we be guilty of the same crimes of which we accuse them; let us consider, that the Son of God may be crucified again, and put to open shame; that this [Heb. 6. 6.] is often done, not by the Jews, His professed enemies, but by Christians, who are called by His name.

Let us consider, that if we live as if we were never to rise again, we do, as much as in us lieth, baffle all the arguments and proofs which God has given us of our Saviour's and of our own resurrection.

LXVIII.

SERM. It is true, Christ is risen from the dead, and will come again to judge the world in righteousness; this is true, and will come to pass, whether we believe it or not. But yet we may, by our wicked lives, very much hinder the effects this truth ought to have upon all that hear of it; and so far we are guilty of the same sin the Jews are branded for; we endeavour to persuade men, that Christ is not risen, and that they need not fear the consequences of a resurrection.

III. But truth will get the better of falsehood, let who will combine to stifle it. And God will be glorified in the destruction of those who shall despise the means He has ordained for their salvation. We see this very plainly in the instance before us; and while God (the God of truth) governs the world, it must be so.

And here we cannot but admire the wonderful simplicity of the Gospel, as if the holy penmen were not concerned what the world would think of what they had left upon record. If any of us were to have written this part of the history, how should we have been tempted to have reflected upon the elders of the Jews for this base practice, in acting contrary to their own consciences, drawing other people into the sin and snare, and imposing a lie upon posterity, which they themselves had forged! How should we have endeavoured to have exposed the folly of these people, who, after taking counsel too, advised the most absurd thing to be told, advised people to say what was done while they themselves were asleep!

But, however agreeable this would be to our reason and inclinations, this is not the way of the Spirit of God, who only relates the matter of fact, and lets us know that this story was current amongst the Jews, even till the time when this Gospel was written, which was about eight years after these things happened.

And indeed this is exactly agreeable to the way of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. When He gives us, for instance, an account of the creation, He is not solicitous to prove that there is a God; He justly supposes that those people, who cannot see God in His works, will not be convinced by all the arguments that can possibly be made use of; and that none do ever make it a doubt whether God

made the world, but those who think it their interest to question His being.

And in very deed, we seem over careful and wise, when we are very solicitous to prove, by arguments drawn from human reason, the great truths of religion, which from the beginning were effectually secured and established by the providence of God, and will ever be received and embraced by all such as are ordained to (that is, disposed for) eternal life.

IV. Unbelievers, it is true, there are many, but not for want of sufficient proofs, but chiefly for want of good dispositions, and a just sense of their condition. It is with many of us at this day, as it was with the rulers of the Jews: a miracle they own was done by the Apostles; but the consequence of being convinced of this was not, that they embraced the Gospel, or believed in Him by whose name and power that miracle had been wrought; instead of that, they strictly charged the Apostles not to preach or teach any more in that name. Here was no want of means, but want of a will

to be converted.

And indeed the severest truths, and most contrary to our corrupt nature, will be received, when the grace of God meets with an humble, teachable disposition. Those, for instance, who live like men that hope for advantage by a resurrection, will willingly receive that article as well as any of the rest; they will easily perceive, for example, that it could not be the interest of any body to preach a doctrine so contrary to flesh and blood, and which obliged the teachers themselves to a very strict life and conversation, and to a perpetual watchfulness over their words and actions. They will easily perceive, that the Apostles of Jesus Christ could not affirm that they saw the Lord, and conversed with Him, after His resurrection, for many days together, if they had not been truly certain of this, and were convinced that it was their duty to publish this to the world. For what did they get by bearing this testimony? Nothing but scorn and contempt; at least, from the greatest part of their hearers.

And let us here observe, that this case of the Apostles and disciples of Christ is very different from those persons, who, in all ages, have suffered reproach and punishments for set

SERM. ting up doctrines of their own invention, for the commandments and ordinances of God.

LXVIII.

A man may (for instance), prejudiced by education, or heated by passion, or possessed by an evil spirit, embrace falsehoods for truths, propagate them zealously, and suffer for them; believing himself, all this while, in the right, and suffering for a righteous cause, and bound in conscience to propagate the things he has thus embraced for truths at the hazard of his life: but this was not the case of those that bare testimony, and suffered for the truth of the Gospel. They declared and suffered for a matter in which they could not possibly be deceived. They affirmed (for instance) that Jesus Christ, with whom they had conversed some years, and who had taught them the way of salvation; after He had been crucified in the face of the world, the third day rose again from the dead, and conversed with them for many days together, and instructed them in the things concerning His kingdom. This was a matter in which neither prejudice, nor pride, nor worldly interest, nor any other passion, could have any place. They only affirmed what they could not but know, if it was true; and they suffered death rather than conceal or deny giving their testimony to what they knew for certain.

This was what every wise, and good, and honest man ought to do; and such a man will never countenance those, who embrace errors without reason, and suffer rather than forego them, or leave off to propagate them to the world.

In short; to suffer for a truth, which is plainly contained in the Holy Scriptures, which Scriptures have been attested by matters of fact, and confirmed by miracles; to suffer for righteousness' sake; that is, for not consenting to, and complying with customs and manners plainly forbid by the Gospel; this is to suffer as a Christian, and such sufferings will certainly be rewarded at the resurrection of the just.

But to suffer for matters in themselves indifferent, which neither set forth the glory of God, nor, in truth, set forward the salvation of men, by leading them to faith and virtue; this is to suffer, not for conscience, but for humour's sake; it may therefore deserve pity, but not reward.

To conclude the whole: we see, by this act of the elders

of the Jews, how far people may be led by self-love, worldly interest, vain-glory, and prejudice, to do very abominable things, which they would hate and condemn at another time, and in other people. We see in them, how one wickedness does almost necessarily draw on and make way for another. We here learn, how going against reason and conscience does blind the heart, and so darken the understanding, that it destroys at last good sense, natural modesty, and common honesty.

After all, we are very much mistaken, if we imagine, and conclude from hence, that they were the most blinded and obstinate people that ever lived, or, in Christ's words, that they were sinners above all people.

It is matter of fact, that the same steps, the same selflove, the same love of the world, the same consenting to known iniquity, will lead any of us to the very same blindness, to the same hard-heartedness, to the same unreasonable wickedness, which we see and condemn in them.

We learn from hence, that it is not worth our while to contend for any thing, however grateful to our passions, except the truth. We may persuade ignorant people; but the providence of God will at last scatter the mist with which we darkened their eyes, and they will see their error, and the vile wickedness of those that imposed upon them, as plain as we now see the malice and the folly of these people.

In one word; the great care and caution of the Jews, in sealing the sepulchre, in setting a watch, and afterwards in bribing that very watch to set about a lie; all these methods, which they took to discredit our blessed Saviour's doctrine and resurrection, by the providence of God, were made to serve the better to confirm this important article of the Christian faith.

Let us then leave them, and come to ourselves.

The very same God, who has given us so great an assurance, and so plain a testimony, that there will be a resurrection, and a life to come, has given us the same proof, that there is something on our part to be done, to make that life a blessing.

[Luke 13. 2, &c.]

It is not to repeat the Creed that makes a Christian, but to add to our faith virtue; to make a conscience of our ways; [2 Pet. 1.5.] to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

If we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus, and believe [Rom. 10.

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