the word with readiness, "but searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so."

The discourses, and much more the epistles, which they addressed to their converts, abound with appeals to recent facts, to acknowledged prophecies, with historical deductions, and close inferences, answers to objections, and solutions of difficulties, which senseless fanatics would have wanted both inclination and capacity to supply.

But the writings of the apostles, considered as criterions of their freedom from fanaticism, will form the object of further discussion. For the present it is sufficient to observe, that had their success depended on the impulse of enthusiasm—were men to have been converted by a silent whisper, or an irresistible light from heaven, that flashed conviction on their souls, it should seem that miracles and prophecies would have been useless, arguments impertinent, and instructions superfluous. Thus every page of the New Testament appears to confute those rash and superficial declaimers, who attribute to wild fanaticism the origin and success of a scheme, which every where lays its foundation on plain facts, and vindicates its truth by sober reasoning.

Here then I might with safety rest the decision of this question, and contend that enthusiasm could not have been the source of the zeal with which the apostles maintained the resurrection, and divine authority of their crucified Lord; or of the success which they obtained in the promulgation of the Gospel; because the proofs of miraculous power on which their own conviction was founded, as well as those by which they convinced their converts, were such as excluded the possibility of mistake or delusion-plain facts, submitted to the deliberate examination of the senses-facts various, repeated, permanent, and decidedly supernatural and divine. And because the arguments derived from the prophecies which our Saviour delivered or fulfilled, were rational, clear and satisfactory; while in the apostles we discover the strongest marks of sobriety of mind, from their advancing no claim to a prophetic character, further than was strictly supported by truth, and their delivering only such predictions, as it was most likely should have been dictated by divine inspiration; predictions, not applying to immediate or

private circumstances, but to events of most signal importance and of remote accomplishment.

But though these are the great principles on which we should fix our attention, it may yet be satisfactory to pursue our inquiry somewhat further; and vindicate the apostles and evangelists from every suspicion, that they did at all distort the facts they relate, or corrupt the doctrines they deliver with any mixture of fanatic extravagance, by showing that this sobriety of mind appears so strongly predominant in the uniform tenor of their conduct and of their writings, that we must confess them wholly free from those weaknesses that give rise to enthusiasm, and from all the follies and extravagancies which attend and expose its influence.

CHAPTER III.

THE CONDUCT OF THE APOSTLES, SHOWN TO BE INCONSISTENT WITH THE SUPPOSITION OF THEIR HAVING BEEN ENTHUSIASTS.

SECTION I.

The general Conduct of the Apostles in their private capacity, inconsistent with Enthusiasm.

In the first chapter we examined the strength of that evidence, by which the apostles had been themselves assured of their divine mission; and in the second, the clearness of the proofs which they adduced to convince their proselytes; and it has, I trust, appeared, that these first teachers of our holy faith cannot justly be charged, either with that rash credulity, which is itself the easy dupe of delusion, or that presumptuous dogmatism, which imposed its delusions on others, both which seem to be primary and essential characters of genuine fanaticism. Let us in the next place compare the conduct of the apostles with that which enthusiasm would naturally produce.

Now, we ever find that, so far as this prevails, reason and judgment are proportionably laid aside. The mode in which this weakness displays itself will necessarily vary with the peculiar temper and character of him who labours under it; but in every temper and character extravagance and folly will appear. Is the enthusiast naturally gloomy and despondent? We shall find him overpowered by religious melancholy and abstraction, devoted to excessive mortification and fantastic penances. Is he sanguine and violent? We shall see him rush forward in the hot pursuit, to which he conceives himself driven by a divine impulse, without any regard to reason or discretion, perpetually trampling on the restraints of order and decency; not only ready to sustain, but impatient to search out

and court persecution, danger and death. In both cases he is alienated from, and unfitted for the relations and offices of common life. Such men will not labour; it is unworthy their sanctity: they will despise all human distinctions as beneath their notice. Thus, though the end pursued may be religious and praiseworthy, the means employed to attain it will be found, in some respect or other, extravagant and absurd. Now the conduct of the apostles, as it is incidentally disclosed to us by the artless historian, who has described the first establishment of Christianity, appears entirely free from those various weaknesses.

We discover in their mode of life no melancholy, no abstraction from society, no aversion to labour, In the interval between the resurrection of their Lord and the commencement of their own public ministry, we find they had returned to the calin and humble pursuit of that laborious industry which had originally formed their sole occupation. They were employed in fishing on the lake Tiberias, * when our Lord appeared to them, and by the miraculous success, which at his word they obtained, convinced them he still retained the same divine power which they had seen exercised on a similar occasion in the commencement of his ministry. Such a situation and employment were as remote from enthusiasm as can be imagined.

They were commanded by their Lord to wait at Jerusalem, before they published his † resurrection "till they should receive power from on high," and they waited patiently for forty days. Enthusiasm is violent and sudden-their faith was rational, and therefore their conduct deliberate. But even after they received this promised power, and in consequence of the sacred commission dedicated their whole lives to preaching the Gospel of Christ, they yet were not elevated above the common relations; they did not undervalue the common duties of life. The very reverse; they frequently recalled men to observe, but never

The following passages shew that the apostles, both in their practice and preeepts, attended to the natural relations of life. "Have we not power," says St. Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 5. to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas;" and Tim. iii. 2, 4. "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach-one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God."

encouraged them to neglect such duties, to abandon business or industry, and to retire to the cave or the desert, for the purpose of indulging indolence or spiritual pride beneath the mask of devotion, and thus becoming a burthen to others for their support, without contributing any thing to the general good.

We observe in their conduct no unnecessary austerities, no self-inflicted sufferings, no habitual melancholy. Not even St. Paul, whose conduct is more particularly detailed, and whose remorse for having persecuted the church of Christ, had made the deepest impression on his soul-even he did not attempt to atone for his offence by solitude and penance, but by indefatigable activity in the service of that Christ whom he had persecuted :—this was sincerity, not enthusiasm.

Addressing himself to the Thessalonians he has this remarkable appeal, *" For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us; for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for nought, but wrought with labour and travail, night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you; not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example to you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat; for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy-bodies: now them that are such we command, and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread." How totally remote this from the self-interest of imposture, or the wildness of enthusiasm.

What St. Paul asserts of himself and his immediate companions (Silvanus and Timotheus) he in another place declares of all the apostles. Addressing the Corinthians, he tells them, "I think God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed unto death; † even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, having no certain dwelling-place, and labour, working with our own hands." Impostors would not adhere to a religion attended with such difficulties. Enthusiasts would not endeavour to exhibit an example of active, humble industry, even in the midst of the † 1 Cor. iv. 9, 12.

2 Thes, iii. 7—12