indulgence, without any change of what is called historical faith, according as the imagination, the judgment, or the affections have been alternately impressed by the one class of objects or the other. The permanency with which these causes may operate is traceable to principles, altogether extrinsic, and which it is not necessary here to adduce. It is sufficient to affirm that the agency of these causes will account for every phenomenon in the conduct of the early Christians-whilst the faithful perseverance of the Apostles in the promulgation of the Gospel, can only be attributed to their settled unhesitating and indestructible conviction of its divine authority: and such a conviction, on their minds, necessitates the truth of the system to which it was attached.

So far then as regards the testimony of the Apostles, every thing appears plain on the belief of their sincerity; every thing full of difficulty on the supposition of fraud. The extent to which the latter has here been proved does not depend altogether on the correctness of that exhaustive process by which the sceptical hypothesis was made to resolve itself into the operation of social obligation and social attachment. That process has appeared to the writer of this Essay fully warranted by the circumstances of the case, whatever sus

picion its evident adaptation to his subject may have thrown upon it. The inadequateness of such motive, to the phenomena under review, is certainly no bar to its adoption, for such an objection would go to exclude the examination of any motives whatever, save those which arise from sincere conviction: nor is its conclusiveness impaired by the possible existence of some other inducements besides those here noticed, though it would be difficult to instance any that are worthy of regard, which are not more or less involved in some of these; nor even by the continuance of some which have been here disposed of, as insignificant or extinct; although whatever has been assumed on this point, or very concisely demonstrated might be satisfactorily made out, were our limits less circumscribed. The question that would remain after all would be-not, whether the conduct of the Apostles at the period referred to was exclusively the result of their mutual obligations, for such obligations alone would be ridiculously disproportionate to such phenomena; but, whether all the circumstances implicated in the rupture of those ties can be reconciled by any stretch of credulity, or any exertion of speciousness, with the supposition of their being engaged in a fraudulent connection. The manner in which the case has here been put may

be deemed artificial. It was adopted for the sake of distinctness, and to bring the question to issue on a point confessedly critical. Some other arrangement of the particulars might possibly have been chosen, had the subject of this Essay been less precise-but the merits of those particulars would not have been thereby altered; nor has any intentional or conscious violation of them been allowed in adapting them. to the present instance. The objections of infidels are varied and incoherent. We must meet them, therefore, on their own grounds; and consent sometimes to forego a comprehensive method, for the sake of one that is apt and determinate.

The vague charge of collusion against the testimony of the Apostles, may be deemed, after all, a wretched subterfuge, the specific and circumstantial statement of which, even by those who advance it, would alone suffice for its refutation. It is, however, all that infidelity can attempt, short of doing away with the moral facts on which it pretends to proceed; and this it is manifestly impossible to effect. And because prejudice is not unwilling to shelter itself any where, rather than stand forth to conviction and shame, and will always shun a scrutiny which must end in discomfiture; it may not be amiss to force it to the trial, either by

compelling a minute induction of particulars, or reducing its generalities to some practical test. The record of a "dispute between Paul and Barnabas," will be found available for both purposes, whenever this senseless imputation is resorted to. Its unsophisticated narration evinces the candour of the Christian historian; and its undesigned, but inevitable inferences prove the sincerity of the Christian martyrs.

The subject is replete with other considerations, without which its developement would be altogether imperfect. Their full exposition would be incompatible with the limits of this Essay, and perhaps uncongenial with the design it subserves. One or two of them, therefore, shall be briefly noticed, by way of conclu

sion.

It is obvious to remark, that lessons of Christian morality may be deduced from the "dispute between Paul and Barnabas." We should be blind indeed to its plainest suggestions, were we to disregard the inculcation of humility deriveable from the infirmities of the wise and good-of watchfulness over our constitutional frailties, and a patient endurance of those of others-of moderation in our hopes of general concurrence, even in the prosecution of laudable designs-and of a prudent fear of giving offence, lest the imperfections of our

nature should disgrace our profession, and occasion "our good to be evil spoken of."

But the subject connects itself with others of more general and extensive import. One of them is the narration, so frequent in Scripture, of the failings and inconsistencies of excellent men. The deviations of such individuals from the path of wisdom have been made, not unfrequently, occasions of abuse and misconstruction-a stumbling-block to the feeble, a wonder to the ignorant, and a source of triumph to the senseless profane. It has been asked, what was the sincerity of that holiness, which was compatible with such infirmities as thesewhat the efficacy of that grace, which could admit the admixture of such pollution-what the effect of that example, so imperfect and incongruous, for which the characters of Saints have been delineated and preserved-and even, what the purpose for which these details, some of them revolting to natural decency, should defile the pages, and connect themselves with the morality, of a volume that professes a heavenly origin?

It were, perhaps, a sufficient answer to some of these enquiries, that the Divine Inspirer of Holy Writ is not amenable to his fallible creatures for any of the dispensations of his own wisdom. But, because there are many who