doctrine; wherein, if he had failed, the one would have been justly accounted impostures, and the other lies and falsehoods.

Secondly. We should yet be in our sins, because the propitiatory sacrifice, which he offered upon the cross, would have been of no avail to the acquitting of us from our guilt, had not Christ risen again from the dead, to apply unto us, by his Spirit, the virtue of that oblation, for our righteousness and justification.

So that the whole weight and moment of Christian Religion depends upon the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, as its only basis and support. All those mysterious truths, which either he himself taught his Church in his own person or inspired his Apostles to deliver to the Church in his name, are therefore to be received, therefore to be believed, because they are clearly attested to us by innumerable miracles wrought by him, and by virtue of his name and faith in it. For God, who is Truth itself, will never set the seal of his omnipotence to a lie. And the most miraculous of all those miracles, that, which gives them the firmest obsignation that they were wrought by God, is his raising himself from the dead. So that, how abstruse soever the doctrines themselves seem to be, how unaccountable soever to the disquisition, how incomprehensible soever to the sphere and extent of our reason; yet we have still the same certain grounds to believe the most mysterious articles of our faith, as we have to believe, that he, who taught them, rose again from the dead.

I. Whence it appears, that THE ULTIMATE RESOLUTION OF ALL OUR RELIGION IS MADE INTO THIS OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. And, for the truth of this, our Saviour is content to leave himself to the unerring, yea infallible, judgment of human senses.

Lo here the infinite wisdom of the economy and dispensation of the Gospel! that those sublime truths, which far transcend the highest pitch of our reason, should yet be founded upon the certainty of our very senses; so that we have as much reason to believe them, as we have to believe the reality and existence of what we see, and hear, and feel. They hear his salutation: they see his person: he shews to them his hands and his side: he bids them handle and feel him; and speaks to Thomas to search his wounds: he eats, and drinks, and converses with them: and these evidences he gives, not only to single persons, but some

times to whole multitudes of them; not in one single instance, but several times, and in several places, for forty days' continuance.

This, therefore, is the first and great thing, which Thomas was to believe, even the Resurrection of his Saviour, confirmed to him by the infallible evidence of his sense; and, upon the belief of which, depends the belief of all the mysteries of our religion.

i. Against this report, which the Gospel gives us, of the Resurrection of our Saviour, there can lie but TWO DOUBTS.

The one is, Whether the relaters of it might have had no design to delude us:

The other, Whether they were not deluded themselves. For, if it can be evinced, that they were neither deceivers nor deceived, it is clear, in spite of all seeming impossibilities, that our Lord really and corporally rose again from the dead. Both these, therefore, I shall endeavour to make good,

1. As to those Atheists, who do not so much question the infallibility of sense, as the credit of the relaters: not whether what they saw or felt were truly such as their sense dictated it to be; but whether they did, indeed, see and feel, and had the sensible trial of those things, which they give out to the world, and did not rather conspire together to revive their lost credit and their sinking religion, by reviving him, whose doctrine they embraced and whose person they admired: to persons, who may be assaulted with such doubts as these, I shall, to remove such vain surmises, offer these following considerations.

(1) Let them consider, That it is not the custom or interest of liars, to appeal unto the testimony of many witnesses, for the truth of what they assert: since it is most likely, that, among a great company and number of them, some one may be found, who, either out of honesty, interest, or weakness, may afterwards detect the fraud and all the mystery of the combination. Had there been but one or two, to have avouched the Resurrection of Christ and asserted his appearance to them, there might have been some more colourable pretence for the Atheist to be suspicious, that they had complotted together to delude the world with fables, and reported what they never saw. But, the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ was not like those apparitions of saints and angels, with which the Popish Legends

are so nauseously stuffed; vouchsafed to a solitary, melancholy monk, or two: but, at several times, to several persons; and, oftentimes, to very many of them together. St. Paul speaks of a whole cloud of witnesses; so many, as cannot leave the least surmise in the most scrupulous mind, that they should all attest his resurrection by confederacy: 1 Cor. xv. 6. He was seen by above five hundred brethren at once; of whom, he tells us, the greater part were then alive, when he wrote this Epistle: and this famous appearance to so numerous a company may either be that mentioned Matt. xxviii. 7. where he promiseth, to meet them in Galilee; or, else, that at the Mount of Olives, when he ascended gloriously into heaven. Now, had there been any forgery or falsehood in the joint testimony of so many hundered witnesses, doubtless, the unbelieving Jews and Heathens, who neglect no occasions to discover the defects of a hated doctrine, would have had advantage enough to detect it among some of them for it is not reasonably to be imagined, that so many should combine together, in an unprofitable design to delude the world; or, if they should, yet that they should all persist in it to their death, without ever giving the least sign of the uncertainty and vacillation of their testimony.

(2) Suppose there had been no other witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ, but only the Eleven Apostles: yet, who is it, that would be so wicked, as to abuse mankind by forged stories, in a matter of such vast moment and consequence; especially, when they could expect no reward nor advantage by it? For, though human nature be most miserably depraved; yet we shall find few or none, that will be wicked gratis.

And, what could they propound to themselves, that might rationally be thought sufficient to induce them to such a grand cheat? Either it must be supposed to be riches; or fame; or, lastly, a barren and unprofitable design of keeping up the credit of their religion.

[1] But the First is altogether incongruous, both to their profession and practice.

For the preaching of the Gospel and a Raised Saviour, instead of enriching them, only exposed them to hunger, and thirst, and nakedness; or, to the shame of having these necessities relieved by the charity of others. Nor could they say, with that profane Pope, Quantas divitias peperit nobis hæc Fabula Christi! And,

[2] As for Fame, their simple and homely education, free

from the pride and ostentation of the world, could never have permitted them to undergo so many sharp miseries, only to be talked of.

Besides, what Grotius very well observes, (De Ver. Christ. Rel. they could not be moved to what they did, out of a desire of fame and propagating their name and renown to afterposterities; for they did not then believe their names or memory should be long lasting for it appears, that God, for wise ends, kept his purpose secret from them, concerning the consummation of the world; and, that they verily thought, the dissolution of all things would immediately follow upon their preaching the Gospel. It is, therefore, altogether incredible, that they should contrive to delude the world out of hope of being famous: since they thought their names should certainly die with them; or, at farthest, soon after them, in the death and last funeral of the world itself.

(3) The only supposition, therefore, that remains, is, that they feigned this story of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, only to keep up their religion, and to add a greater Confirmation and Authority to their Doctrine.

But this, likewise, is utterly absurd to imagine. For, either they did believe the doctrine and religion, which they taught, to be true; or, they did not.

[1] If they did not believe it true, yea if they did not believe it the best and the only divine and heavenly religion in the whole world, what should move them to embrace it, to the hazard of their lives; and to reject other religions, which they thought to be better, and which they knew to be safer and attended with greater worldly advantages?

Can it be conceived, that men should be so far lost to reason and that inbred principle of self-preservation, as to thrust themselves upon all the injuries of an enraged world, yea upon most certain and cruel deaths, for the maintenance of a doctrine, which they themselves knew to be false, and from which they could expect no future benefit to compensate their sufferings? Either the Atheist must suppose them to be Atheists, or not: but, if they were Atheists, it is mere madness for an Atheist, who believes no religion, to die for any doctrine or opinion; and I remember, I have somewhere read a story of one condemned for Atheism, that recanted upon that very reason: and, if they were not Atheists, but did believe a God and future rewards and

punishments, as it is most evident they did, then it were worse than madness, to die for a religion, which they knew to be false; since they could expect nothing else, but that their dying for a lie should be punished with eternal death. It is, therefore, most clear and certain, that they did believe their religion and doctrine to be true; yea, to be infinitely the best in the world.

[2] Wherefore, if they did believe their religion to be true, then it follows:

1st. That they did not join together in a design to delude and cozen the world with tales, which they knew to be false and forged. And,

2dly. If they did believe their religion to be true, they must needs also believe the Master, Teacher, and Author of it, not to have been himself a deceiver.

But, unless they had been verily persuaded, that Christ did rise again from the dead, how could they account of him otherwise than as a deceiver? for he had promised them, that, after three days, he would rise again. And, of this promise they anxiously and solicitously expected the performance, after his death: for we find, that, when the third day was come, they began to entertain sad and misgiving thoughts concerning their hopes of his being the Messiah; as we may see, Luke xxiv. 21. where the two disciples, who were going to Emmaus, tell Christ a very sad story of one Jesus of Nazareth, who had been latelycrucified at Jerusalem; and declare, with a seeming mixture of shame and diffidence, that they trusted, that it had been he, which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, say they, to-day is the third day, since these things were done. Certainly, if their faith began to stagger, before the time for the accomplishment of Christ's promise was fully expired, only because he had not publicly and openly appeared to them, although they had heard, as they confess, rumours from others concerning his resurrection; had he not risen at all, they would quickly have renounced their ill-grounded faith, and fallen from the profession of that new religion, as soon as they had discovered the author of it to be no better than a foul deceiver and impostor. So that, I think, I have now made it demonstratively clear, that the Apostles, in reporting the resurrection of Christ, were not combined together, in a design of deluding the easy world." But,

2. That they were not deluded themselves, nor imposed upon