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does not appear, but it is probable they did not. For still their chief expectations were confined to the honour and advantage that would accrue to themselves, without attending to any obligation they would be under to promote the good of others. Whatever was meant by this kingdom, in the honours of which they were to partake, he never gave them any information concerning the time of its commencement. Nay, he expressly told them that this was not known even to himself. After his resurrection he professed the same ignorance, and, repressing their curiosity on that subject, he said "it was not for them to know the times and seasons "which God had reserved to himself. Acts I. 9.

Reflection, however, on the death of their master, on his resurrection and ascension, without.his having given them any promise of his speedy return, and the recollection of the persecutions to which he had constantly apprized them they would be exposed, as that "they would be hated of all men for "his name's sake, and that they who should kill "them would think they did God service," could not fail to satisfy them that they had nothing of adyantage to look for in this life; and therefore that the kingdom which he had promised them, and of

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the certainty of which they entertained no doubt, must be in another after death. And when, after this, they found themselves impowered to work miracles as Jesus had done, in confirmation of his doctrine, they, naturally timid as they had been before, assumed the courage of the antient prophets, no more overawed by men in power than they or their master had been, and making light of, nay glorying in, all the sufferings to which they were exposed.

This natural effect of their new situation, and new and more enlarged views, astonished their adversaries, who wondered how men in some of the lower classes of life, without fortune or education, should appear so fearless; and, without respecting any human authority, despising their threats, and their punishments, boldly preach what they thought themselves authorized by God to do, though in the most peremptory manner forbidden by them.

From this time, also, so far were they from envying one another, or contending, as they had done before, about the chief places in their master's kingdom; having now no distinct idea of any difference that would be made among them hereafter, they considered one another as brethren, standing in the same relation to their common master; and being

equally

equally exposed to persecution on that account, their attachment to one another was such as the world had never seen before. Remembering at the same time the great stress that their master had laid on brotherly love, and the mutual kind offices that flowed from it; and considering all the things of this world as wholly insignificant in comparison with their glorious expectations in another, many of them made no difficulty, in the first ardour inspired by their situation, of giving up all their worldly property to those of their brethren who stood in need of it, in sure expectation of receiving their reward in heaven.

This most remarkable and sudden, and yet per, manent, change in the temper and disposition of the apostles, and other primitive christians, furnishes no inconsiderable evidence of the truth of christianity, as it implies the fullest possible conviction in their minds of the truth of the great facts on which it depends; the facts which immediately preceded this change, and must have been the pro per cause of it, and they were certainly the best judges in the case. If they had not all known, to the greatest certainty, that Jesus was actually risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and that the powers

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powers with which he had been endued were trans ferred to them, they must have been the same men that they were before, acting upon the same principles, and in the same manner, especially as they were not very young men, and some of them pretty far advanced in life. Consequently, their worldly ambition, and their envy and jealousy of each other, must have been the same that it had been before. Whereas now we find every thing of this kind quite changed, and this change was not momentary, but continued through life with them all. The low passions and narrow views, and their consequent envy and jealousy, never returned, but they continued to the latest period of life what they appear to have been presently after the remarkable events. above mentioned.

That such men as they evidently were, and especially in the middle and lower classes of life, unlearned, and so many of them, should concur in any imposture, and one so suddenly formed as their's must have been, whatever had been its object, cannot be supposed, and much less an object that had no. thing in it that mankind in general value in this life; and especially that they should all act in such perfect harmony so long. That not one of them should, though urged by the fear of death, or the hope of reward,

reward, should have made any discovery to the prejudice of their former associates, and that none of their enemies, sagacious and inveterate as many of them were, should have been able to detect their imposture, adds infinitely to the improbability of its being one.

When these new and great views first opened

upon the converts to christianity, when they saw their cause to be that of God, by the evidence of the mi racles which supported it, and they were themselves occasionally under supernatural influence, this extraordinary fervour, and the effects of it, especially in acts of beneficence to their brethren, was natural. But as first impressions are always the warmest, this zeal would in a course of time as naturally abate, especially as miracles became less frequent, and their intercourse with the world would gradually tend to produce the same attention to the things of this world by which other persons were influ

enced.

In this situation many of them would require to be reminded of their great views and expectations in another world, by which they had at first been so much impressed, and to be exhorted to the virtues to which they lead. Accordingly, the apostles,

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