should forsake him, yet would not he. Jesus, who knew the weakness of man, and also the power and malignity of Satan, who at this time desired to have Peter, that " he might sift him as wheat," informed him, that before the cock should crow, he would deny him thrice. But, after his resurrection, having himself undertaken for Peter's adherence to his cause, which by his divine influence he would now secure, he intimated to him, that, so far from denying him, Peter would lay down his life in his cause. "When thou wast young," said he, “thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.”

Such were the prospects as to this world held out to the apostles, both by the fact of their Master's crucifixion, and by his declarations to them; yet they persevered; and they were so far from considering his crucifixion any reproach, or a reason for relinquishing his service, that it was the subject in which they gloried most. "God forbid," says Paul, who had forsaken all for his sake, "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world." This is that same apostle who, not insensible to the painful trials to which his situation as a follower of Jesus Christ exposed him, says, in another place, "I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.... If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."

The only apparent worldly motive that could be

supposed to influence the apostles, was that authority among the disciples with which they were to be invested. Of preeminence, at first they were, like others, desirous, and were on different occasions sharply reprehended for their unseemly ambition. But when better instructed, they uniformly disclaimed the exercise of any superiority over their followers which could yield them sinful gratification. All the honour and power, in the most unqualified manner, they ascribed to their Master, as their writings demonstrate, and this was the especial duty they anxiously inculcated upon others. To this, indeed, they were conducted by the doctrine they taught, every part of which reminded them of the admonition they had received from the Lord. "Be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren."

But, besides all other considerations, the character of the religion they promulgated stood awfully opposed to every idea of deception. The view they exhibited of the holiness of God, of his infinite abhorrence of sin, and of those tremendous sanctions by which his authority is guarded, was carried by them to the utmost extent. Having deliberately renounced every prospect of ease in this world, and every expectation from the religion in which they had been brought up, is it according to the principles of human nature to resort to a system which, while they relinquished every other hope, condemned them without remedy, if on any pretence they continued to be guilty of habitual deception? The idea of doing evil that good may come, they have stigmatized in the severest terms. Of persons who accused them of acting on this principle, they declare that their" damnation is just,"—" Knowing," say they, "the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." The sup

position, then, that while at the expense of their blood they taught and exemplified so holy a religion, they were wilfully and deliberately practising deception, is as incompatible with the known principles of human nature, as it is to choose pain for its own sake in preference to pleasure. But supposing this possible in an individual, could a number of men at one time be found thus to act? And if they commence the work, will they all persevere in it? Will each one act his part faithfully and uniformly, till a violent death removes him from his painful situation? Shall there be no struggling for preeminence, no mutual crimination, no quarrelling, no separation, no recantation in the prospect of death, which might conduce to the overthrow of the common cause? Some of them did quarrel and separate; but so far was this from leading to the detection of hidden evil, as it infallibly would have done had any deception existed, each continued to pursue his own course, endeavouring, by every means in his power, to promote that work in which he had been previously engaged.

Still, if there be any deception and imposture in the case, shall not one at least be found to break the unhallowed combination, and reveal the wicked imposture? Shall not one be found willing to recommend himself to the favour of the men in power, while at the same time this temptation is rendered irresistible by. the opportunity presented of at the same moment liberating himself from trouble and disgrace, from guilt and death. One of the apostles did indeed prove a traitor. Judas had accompanied Jesus Christ from the beginning, and had been admitted, like all the others, to the same opportunities of observation. If, then, any plot were known to the rest, he was acquainted with it; if

any underhand combination existed, he was privy to it. He then, at least, would have discovered every thing. For a bribe he betrayed his Master. What, then, did he disclose? When he saw the result of his treachery, in the condemnation of Jesus, overwhelmed with insufferable remorse, he flung away the bribe, and exclaimed in bitterness of spirit, " I have betrayed innocent blood," and went and hanged himself.

Turn, on the other hand, to the case of Paul of Tarsus. Brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, encouraged by the rulers on account of his violent persecution of the disciples, and invested with a commission of authority against them, he is suddenly arrested in the midst of his career, and becomes at once a most zealous supporter of that cause which he had laboured to destroy. In the situation of favour in which he stood, and fully acquainted with the distressed circumstances of those whom he was persecuting to death, nothing can account for this sudden, complete, and lasting change, if we reject the explanation which he himself has given, when he declares that Jesus Christ met him on his way to Damascus. The uniform allegiance he afterwards yielded to him, the zeal he displayed, and the sufferings, even unto death, which he endured in his service, sufficiently attest the full conviction he entertained of the truth of that religion which he had once so violently opposed. Several of his epistles to his Christian brethren are written from prison, and he styles himself " a prisoner of Jesus Christ,"-" for whom," says he, " I have suffered the loss of all things." Finding fault with the church at Corinth, he says, "We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and

thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you." In his second Epistle to the same church, when cautioning them against false teachers, he says, "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep: in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." This is the man who was at one time

exceedingly mad" against the disciples of Jesus, while he basked in the sunshine of power and priestly favour; but who now "preached the faith which once he destroyed." For so great a change, at so vast an expense, there must have been an adequate cause. Such sufferings as are above described, Paul and his fellow-apostles endured in that service in which at last they laid down their lives. From these considerations we have positive certainty, that the apostles were not deceivers of others. They could not be impostors; they were