1MSCOURSR T. 191 posed upon in any, thing of that importance; which was clone in his own country, and the chief city ofit, in his own day and time, and when he liad abundant opportunitiesto have searched into the truthor falsehood thereof, and his whole nation was set upon the search and severest scrutiny into it. Now that he was aman of parts and knowledge, the good. sense' and reasoning which ap- pears in his writings, sufficiently testify this character. He was a youngman when he wasconverted, and he was brought up in Jerusalem, at the feet of Gamaliel : He must have great oppor- tunities of enquiring concerning the history of the life, doctrine, and death of Christ, and of the report of his resurrection, among his own countrymen. 2. He seems to be a very sincere and faithful honest.mad: This his whole conduct shews, if we consider : He appears to have an honest zeal for his religion whilst he was a pharisee, as well as afterward ; diligently and openly pursuing what he pro- feisèd ; No flaw was found in his morals : No charge of hypo- crisy; Acts xxiii. 1. I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. Nor are his morals impeached by his worst adversaries. 3. He was once a fierce and violent enemy to Jesus Christ, andhis name, andhis gospel, and his followers. Gal. i. 13. Iper- secuted the chureh of God and wasted it. Acts xxvi. 11. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. 1 Tim. i.13. Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. This was sufficiently witnessed by his own countrymen the Jews. It hath been sometimes said byun- believers, that testimonies of the resurrection of Christ came only from his friends, and that you have none of the heathens, or professed Jews, bear witness to it. Here is a professed Jew, and a violent enemy to christianity, who bears strongand constant witness to it. Butit couldnever be supposed that he should con- tinue au enemy and an unbeliever ofchristianity, after lie believed that Christ was risen from the dead; and thereby so evidently proved that he teas the true Messiah. 4. He spent his whole life afterwards with much zeal and fatigue, in publishing this truth, that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, and the doctrines which depend on it. He preached this gospel to a multitude of towns and cities among the heathens, who were utter unbelievers, besides his vindicating this doctrine always among the unbelieving Jews. 5. He exposed himself to perpetual dangers and.difficulties, and to many persecutions, by affirming it, and even to death itself ; and that without any hope of riches, honours, or pleasures in this world; Acts xx. 23, 24. The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and a, ictions abide me. But none
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