PART.
V.

ARTICLE IV.

Oppofitions of every kind to the success of the gospel increased in the times of the apoftles, who triumphed over all, and were fully convinced they fhould be victorious.

IN

N the fourth place I confider, that from a firm perfuafion that Christ crucified had occafion only for himself and his cross to fubdue the world; the apoftles made no doubt but their preaching would prevail on all hearts and empires to embrace their doctrine, notwithstanding the credit and power of idolatry, which was never more predominant; notwithftanding the falfe philofophy which had paffed from Greece to Italy, and which being divided into two fects, the Epicureans and the Stoics, both at that time in great reputation, opposed either voluptuoufnefs or pride to the progress of the gofpel; notwithstanding the corruption of an age funk by luxury, and an implacable enemy to the predication of the cross; notwithstanding the general difpofition of men of parts and education, who relished nothing but what was agreeable, and was expreffed in an ingenious manner, more proper to feed than to extirpate curiofity and the other vices of the mind; notwithstanding the general contempt the Jews were fallen into, and the prejudice against

against them at Rome, in Greece, and every CHAP. where elfe, and of every thing that came IV. from them; in fine, notwithstanding the little regard almost all men of parts at that time had for religion, having fenfe enough to discover the falfe, without giving themselves the trou ble of finding out the true, changing from the extreme of believing every thing to that of believing nothing.

ARTICLE V.

The apostles in a very little time made a furprizing progress, without making ufe of any human means.

IN

N the fifth place, I confider that in an age too learned to be feduced, and too obsti-. nate to be converted, the apoftlès made in a fhort time a moft amazing progress, without deviating from their character; without uniting with the gospel any human science; without paving the way for the philofophers, by meeting them half way, as fome chriftian doctors have fince very imprudently done; without foftening the feverity of the gospel to great perfonages; without complimenting men in power; without promifing their difciples other than invifible goods; without preparing them against perfecutions, but by invincible patience; without fuffering them in the greatest extremities to use any disguise or equivocations in order to be released: I confider, I fay, all this, which VOL. III. deferves

PART deferves to be strictly and minutely examined; V. and I declare, I cannot help seeing the

powerful hand of him who performed those wonderful things by fuch difproportionate means, and by fuch incompetent inftruments.

ARTICLE VI.

God's defign in employing only weak men, who 'were confcious of their dif ability, to conduct a work infinitely above buman ftrength and wisdom.

G

OD hath chofen the foolifh things Tof the world to confound the wife; + and he hath chofen the weak things of "the world to confound the things which are "mighty. And base things of the world, and "things which are defpifed, hath God chofen;

yea, and things which are not, to bring to "nought things that are that no flesh fhould glory in his prefence. He would not share his glory, of which he is jealous, either with man, or with the means he was pleafed to chufe. He would appear alone, that our faith might not become doubtful, and not to leave us under an uncertainty, whether it was he, or fome other, who had performed what we admire.

The more the means would have appeared effectual to us, the more they would have concealed the hand that employed them. It was "neceffary for our good that the obftacles fhould

1 Cor. i. 27.

+ Rom. iii. 19.

be

be chofen, and converted afterwards into means. CHAP. It was neceffary that the crofs and ignominy, IV. things of themselves capable of fhocking mankind, fhould have the virtue of conquering them and rendering them believers. It was neceffary that the apoftles should be poffeffed of nothing which the world admires, fears, or hopes for, and that by this very means they fhould fubdue it.

It was neceffary that all worldly obstacles fhould concur to oppose the gofpel, fuch as authority, threatnings, torments, human wisdom, falfe virtue, luxury, delicacies, atheism, an abhorrence of the truth, an horror of the crofs, a contemptible opinion of the preachers and their doctrine; and that all these obftacles fhould give way to the fecret virtue of the gospel, and to the feeming weakness of those that proclaimed it.

It was neceffary that the chriftian religion, being of divine inftitution, fhould have God alone for its protector and witness. He alone was worthy to attest it, and make it refpected. It belonged only to him to prove it, and mark it with his own feal. And he never did it in a more auguft manner, and more becoming himself, than in refufing every thing that could offufcate his prefence or majefty, and in employing only weak men, and fuch as were confcious of their infirmities, in a work fuperior to all human wisdom and power, a work in which they could not effectually affift, but by acknowledging their own weakness and impotence.

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ARTICLE

PART

V.

ARTICLE VII.

Invincible force of the demonftration founded upon the plan and defign of Chrift, on the means he chofe, on his predictions contrary to all probability, and on the events which clearly juftified them.

HAT can now hinder the incredulous

from feeing our Saviour Chrift, when he has taken fo much precaution that they might fee nothing but him? Will they deny the converfion. of the world? will they attribute that converfion to any but the apostles? will they pretend that the apoftles had eminent qualifications in a worldly fenfe? and do they think they can thus invalidate what men well inftructed and cotemporaries, men who were otherwife, as is fuppofed, of superior merit according to our ideas, have attested and fealed with their blood?

Will they refuse to difcern the age of Auguftus and Tiberius in the picture we have drawn of it, or will they imagine that there was at that time a happy difpofition in the hearts and minds of the Greeks and Romans to worship a Jew, crucified at Jerufalem his fellow citizens, and condemned by all the courts of judicature?

How