dicate the commands of the God of Israel; and challenge the efforts of convicted superstition'-and further, that intelligent beings may be variously interested with regard to the revelation they communicate; sometimes announcing what they have themselves experienced, like the Apostle, who affirms, "that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life, declare we unto you": or witnessing to some distant and unparticipated event, like the hapless son of Beor, prophesying of the promised Star of Jacob, "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh."--And, not needlessly to accumulate examples, human beings may even be found agents of a revelation, to the dread authority of which they are themselves faithless; like the prophet who cried against the altar of Jeroboam, and anon fell a victim to a disobedient credulity.

But, beyond all this, the disproportion, evidently subsisting between the principles of revelation and the qualifications of its advocates, is made in Scripture the turning point of an argument for the truth and authority of our holy religion. "We have this treasure," says 2 1 John i. 1. 3 Numb. xxiv. 17.

1 Exod. viii. 18.

St. Paul, "in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of man :" as if he had said-so needful is it to refer this system to heaven, and so natural to connect it with the inventions of earth, that God has been pleased to publish it by the instrumentality of agents full of human infirmity, and subject to the workings of human vicissitude-not that the treasure may lose its importance-not that it may suffer from its earthly association-not that it may be despised as light and worthless, because it has but partially enriched its possessors-but in order that the inequality between the treasure and its receptacle may testify to the bounty of its heavenly Giver that man may perceive at once its lofty origin, when they observe the agents of its communication betraying the weakness and infirmity of their fellow men-that its diffusion by such means may manifest the superintendence of an almighty Providence-that when enquirers contrast the "excellency of the power" with the insignificance of the means, they may recognize at once the finger of God writing "in fleshy tables of the heart" these dictates of his love and mercy, and may learn to believe them with reverence, accept them with gratitude, and obey them with cheerful and unhesitating fidelity.

42 Cor iv. 7.

If it be asserted that the conduct of the original witnesses of Christianity implicates the authenticity of the system, because we must receive that system on the ground of their testimony; the assertion is true: but fails to substantiate the objections in dispute. The question immediately arises, How far, and in what manner, does the conduct of those witnesses affect their credibility; and this question may be answered with sufficient precision to decide the fate of the objections from which it springs. The objects to which their evidence is essential, are certain facts, which they report to have transpired in their presence, on the existence of which facts, or their non-existence they had ample opportunities of judging aright, and which if they did actually occur, established the truth of the Christian Religion. Now the material point to be ascertained is the sincerity of their assertions; and of this, certainly the most natural proof is the correspondence of their conduct, so far as it is known, with what might be demanded of them as the consequence of their sincerity. If they could be shewn to have pursued measures manifestly incompatible with their own personal belief, we could not but suspect them of gross hypocrisy, and dismiss from our minds all reliance on their testimony. Does the occasional

1

exhibition then of human infirmities, amidst a course of persevering obedience to Christian principles, at all invalidate that testimony? Is there any thing recorded in any document of any one of the Apostles which does invalidate it? Does the transaction before us induce even a suspicion that the parties engaged in it had any wavering of conviction or suspension of interest as to their mutual profession? There can be no infidel so blind or so bold as either to affirm or to think, that the testimony of Paul and Barnabas can be so impeached. But it is time to examine more particularly the record of their dispute.

Christianity professes to come immediately from Heaven. It contains some portions altogether elusive of our investigation, many that coincide not with anterior opinions, and every thing within it, peculiar to itself, confessedly beyond the limits of human discovery. A system such as this admits, it should seem, of one only firm infallible ratification, the evidence of miraculous credentials. At its first announcement, by its necessary connexion with facts, palpable to the observation of competent witnesses, unsusceptible of any possible mistake or

1 The treachery and remorse of Judas are a mutual comment confirmatory of the truth of Christianity. See Matt. xxvii. 310. and Acts i. 18, 19.

delusion, and capable of no solution that did not involve the truth of the system. In succeeding times, by the repetition of such miraculous facts: or the recorded narration of the original ones by the original witnesses, traced to them through the medium of the strictest scrutiny, and free from all subsequent addition or change. The confirmation of miracles having been withheld from us, we are left to the authenticated records of those which have already occurred; and of these records, the work from which our subject is selected, is by no means the least important or interesting. Embracing as it does, the period in which Christianity arose, and preserving the leading features of its early establishment, its truth affects a large portion of the arguments, by which the truth of Christianity itself is supported. It advances moreover the essential claim of its author's personal connexion with the subjects of which he treats: and it can be traced with unquestionable certainty to the times, in which the writer must have lived in order to the validity of such a claim.

Nothing therefore is unattended with interest that regards the merits of such a work. And of all questions relative to it, that which concerns the author's integrity is of the last importance. This quality forms, in fact, the