fioned to "turn the eyes of men from darknefs to light, from the power of Satan unto God:" and this they did, by not only difplaying at large the doctrine of our bleffed Saviour to mankind, but alfo by enforcing, by their own words and works, the imitation of his divine example; and at that time the Christians were not more eminent for the purity of their faith than for the integrity of their lives. How wicked and profligate were the people of Corinth before their converfion! for when the apostle had reprehended fome wicked doers, he could not avoid faying to the Corinthians, "And fuch were fome of you; but ye are washed, but ye are fanctified, but ye are justified in the name

of the Lord Jefus,

and

by the Spirit of

our God," I Cor. vi. II.

Now the greater

the wickedness of mankind, the greater was the power of the Gospel that reformed it; for the more violent, the more malignant any disease be, the greater must be the skill of the physician that can cure it. How divine, how powerful then was the Gospel, that could reclaim the moft diffolute, and raise the most fordid and mean-fpirited perfons to fuch a difinterested, fuch a generous.

frame

frame of mind, as to despise, for its fake, all the immoral pleasures of the world! No human means could have effected this, because no human means could have the aid of ftupendous miracles, which were actually done, and which were never denied, in any age of the church, by the most inveterate enemies of the Gofpel. How mightily then did the word of God grow and prevail, turning the hearts of the fome time difobedient to the wisdom of the juft! But let us confider,

3dly, That the Gospel prevailed, even under perfecution, and it gloriously triumphed over the strength and policy of its enemies. The Jews, by every means in their power, strove to suppress this new religion. The priests and rulers, with injuries and reproaches, perfecuted the apoftles and difciples of our Lord, and in the most irregular and lawless manner they condemned them to varieties of pain and death. The murder of Stephen, of James the fon of Zebedee, and of James, furnamed the Juft, bishop of Jerufalem, are dreadful proofs of their inveteracy and malice.

But if the Jews were cruel, yet as their power was limited, their hate was more tolerable

rable to the Chriftians than the enmity of the Romans, who, for a long time, put in force every coercive means to destroy them and their religion. Nero, and many of the fucceeding Roman emperors, with the full concurrence of the empire, in many more than ten general perfecutions, wherein thoufands of Christians were flain, ftrove to abolish the Christian faith, because, doubtless, it was hostile to the fuperftitious and idolatrous worship of the empire, which was closely interwoven into the political conftitution of the ftate. But notwithstanding this violent and continued oppofition from the reigning powers of the civilized world, the Gospel flourished more and more, and it prevailed. By its own divine power it at laft furmounted all difficulties, and it fhone forth as a glorious light to a crooked and a perverfe generation. The religion of Mahomet, indeed, won its way by fire and fword, by force and violence; but innocence and truth fecured the success of the Gospel. And to fhew that it could not fucceed by force of arms, we need only to obferve, that in the time of the Crufades, the victories of the Christian princes in Palestine rather re

tarded

tarded than quickened the progress of the Gospel.

To conclude. If the book of the Acts of the Apostles be a real history of facts, as it unquestionably is, the Chriftian religion muft, confequently, be the true religion. Being once well convinced of this truth, let us fix it fo deeply in our minds, that although we may happen at any time to forget the reasons of our belief, yet we may ever keep the profeffion of our faith without wavering, although affailed by the whimsical opinions, or the fubtle arguments of Deifts and irreligious men. A man of parts and learning, with a wrong bias upon his mind, may, doubtless, have such an influence over a person of less abilities than himself, as to throw ridicule over the sublimest truths: but let it be duly noted, that all his art cannot prevail to overturn, or even to wrest the faith of an honest man of clear and impartial judgment; for he must first destroy the proofs of the Gofpel, before he can argue with fuccefs against it. Let us then "continue ftedfaft in the faith grounded and fettled, and not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel," Col.i. 23. which is establish

ed

ed on such fubftantial, such incontrovertible evidence, as will ever ftand the teft of rational and fair enquiry. Let us be like the "wife man, who built his house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock; and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock," Luke vi. 48. Now to God the Father, &c.

SER