because it was wholly founded upon his • Refurrection.

Accordingly therefore when Peter and John had cured the lame man at the beautiful gate of the Temple, and had thereby raised a wonderful expectation of themselves among the people, the Priefts and Sadducees, Acts 4. clapt them up, and fent them away for the first time with a fevere reprimand. Quickly after, when the deaths of Ananias and Saphira, and the many miracles ' wrought after those severe inftances of the apoftolical power had alarmed the Priefs, who looked upon the Temple worship, and confequently their Bread, to be ftruck at, thefe Priefts, and all they that were with them, who were of the fect of the Sadducees, imprisoned the Apostles, intending to examine them in the great Council the next day. Where, when the Council met, and the Priests and Sadducees propofed to proceed with great Rigor against them, we find that Gamaliel a very eminent Pharifee, St. Paul's mafter, a man ⚫ of great Authority among the people,

• many of whofe determinations we have 8

• ftill

'ftill preserved in the body of the Jewish 'traditions, commonly called the Tal 'mud, opposed their heat, and told them, for ought they knew the Apoftles might be acted by the Spirit of God, and that in fuch a cafe it would be in vain to 'oppofe them, fince if they do so, they would only fight against God, whom they could not overcome. Gamaliel was fo confiderable a man amongst his own Sect, that we may reasonably believe he spoke the fenfe of his party as well as his own. St. Stephen's martyrdom came on presently after, in which we do not find the Pharifees, C as fuch, had any 'hand; it is probable that he was profecuted by those who had before imprisoned Peter and John. One Novice indeed of that Sect was 'fo zealous that he kept the clothes of those that ftoned him. This Novice, whose zeal went beyond all bounds, was the great St. Paul, who was peculiarly honoured with a Call from Heaven by which he was converted, and he was afterwards, by God himself, appointed to be the Apoftle of the "Gentiles. Befides him, and him too reN • claimed

claimed in fo glorious a manner, we find no one Pharifee either named or hinted at by St. Luke, as an opposer of Christianity in thofe earliest days. What others might do we know not. But .6 we find the Sadducees purfuing St. Paul even to death at his coming to Jerusalem, in the 21ft of the Acts. He then, 6 upon all occafions, owned himself to be a Pharifee. In the 22d Chapter he told the people, that he had been bred up at the feet of Gamaliel after the ftrictest manner, in the Law of his Fathers. In the 23d Chapter he told the Council that he was a Pharifee, the fon of a Pharifee, and that he was accufed for afferting the Hope and Resurrection of the dead, which was their darling doctrine. Hereupon the Pharifees ftood by him, and though they did not own our Saviour to be the Meffiah, yet they would not deny but fome Angel or Spirit might have spoken to him, and then if they oppofed him they fhould fight against God. This was the very argument Gamaliel had used before. The Refurrection of our Lord, 4 which they faw fo ftrenuously afferted

by

by the Apostles, whofe miracles they alfo faw and owned, (Acts 4. 16.) 'feems to have ftruck them, and many of them were converted (Acts 15. 5. ' even without a miracle, and the reft ' stood still and made no oppofition.

We fee here what the part was which the Pharifees acted in this important conjuncture. Of the Sadducees, we meet not with one in the whole apoftolic history that was converted. 'We hear of no miracles wrought to 'convince any of them, tho' there was an ' eminent one wrought to reclaim a Pharifee. St. Paul, we fee, after his con ' verfion, always gloried in his having 'been bred a Pharifee. He did so to the people of Jerufalem, to the great Council, to King Agrippa, and to the 'Philippians. So that from hence we may justly infer, that it was not their inftitution, which was in itself laudable, which our bleffed Saviour found fault with, but it was their hypocrify, their 'covetousness, their oppreffion, their overvaluing themselves upon their zeal 'for the ceremonial Law, and their adding to that yoke by their traditions, N 2

6

all

all which were not properly effentials of their inftitution, that our Lord

• blamed.

But I must not run on. What I would observe, Sir, is, that Atheism is more dreadful, and would be more grievous to human fociety, if it were invefted with fufficient power, than Religion under any fhape, where its profeffors do at the bottom believe what they profefs. I defpair not of a Papift's converfion, tho' I would not willingly lie at a zealot Papift's mercy, (and no Proteftant would, if he knew what Popery is) tho he truly believes in our Saviour. But the Free-thinker, who scarcely believes there is a God, and certainly disbelieves Revelation, is a very terrible Animal. He will talk of natural rights, and the just freedoms of mankind, no longer than 'till he himself gets into power; and by the inftance before us, we have small C grounds to hope for his falvation, or that God will ever vouchfafe him fuf'ficient grace to reclaim him from errors, which have been fo immediately levelled against himself.