thinking, that it could be attained without special assistance from on high? The truth is, we meet with no parallel case in the entire history of the world. If it be said that Mahommedanism was propagated to an immense extent through Asia, Africa, and Europe, from the seventh to the fourteenth century, the answer is ready: Mahommedanism is a religion of pleasure and sensual indulgence. There can be no conceivable difficulty in driving a man into a bed of roses at the point of the sword. Protestantism, was propagated extensively through Europe in the sixteenth century, without other propelling influence, than the energy and talents of the Reformers? No doubt it was; but to the sensualists of those days Protestantism presented itself as the Catholic religion shorn of everything that is difficult in belief and practice; while to men of austere lives and scanty religious knowledge it appeared in the guise of a reformation. Then Protestantism kept many of its principles in abeyance at first, in order not to provoke opposition; it made a special aim to acquire the prestige of learning and superior genius and information; it compromised, retracted, pleased every one; it forced itself on some nations by fire and the sword, where there was no chance of success by conciliation and gentleness. In a word, it appeared to act upon the maxim that the "end justifies the means," and it left no means, however questionable, untried, and no expedient unresorted to in order to disseminate its doctrines, and to extend its flock. But in the history of the world, there is no case similar to that of the Apostles. Poor, as they were, and looked down upon, they offered but one inducement, namely, the happiness of the next life, to attract men to the difficult doctrines and practices of Christianity. But the same inducement was held out by philosophy and paganism; and, in addition, they offered pleasant days in this world, or they did not prohibit the unfettered freedom of the mind or the licentious indulgence of the body.

The position of Christianity, at its first propagation, was unique. The circumstances of the Apostles were equally so; they were despised men. Their doctrine was, to a

Jewish or Pagan community, more despicable than themselves. The world was guided by principles antagonistic to Christian morality. If they had been left to their own efforts alone, if failure or success depended upon what they could do as mere human beings, it is philosophically clear from our knowledge of agency and result, of cause and effect, that they would never have succeeded in bringing the proud nations of the universe captive under the sceptre of Christ. But the assistance of God was promised them, and Divine co-operation was enlisted on their side: and it is to this point, namely, the influence of the Divine action in the propagation of Christianity, that we must now direct our attention, if we would fully understand the nature of the conflict and the victory.

§ 2. Divine co-operation by grace.-Somewhere in one of his epistles St. Paul attributes all the success of his ministry, as well as of the other labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, to the influence of the Holy Spirit. have planted (the Gospel seed), Apollo watered, but God gave the increase." 1 And though, at first sight, the apparent exaggeration of the sentiment would appear to be traceable to the humility of the Apostle, if we calmly examine it by the combined light of other passages of revelation, we will find that it contains nothing but strict and unquestionable truth. It is a fact, that without the Divine assistance and co-operation, the labours of the Apostles must have been without any solid fruit; it is equally incontrovertible, that it was the power of the Divinity exercised in favour of their ministry, that enabled them to bring forth so many children to the Gospel. God co-operated with his Apostles in the "building up of the body of Christ" in two ways principally, that is to say, by external operation and internal action; or in other words, by grace on the one hand, and by prophecy and miracles on the other. He gave them the power to work many and wonderful miracles as a confirmation of the truth of their

11 Cor. iii. 6.

doctrine. He also enlightened the minds of their hearers to see the truth, and he attracted them to it by sweet and secret impulses; and it is to such causes as these, and not to any natural qualifications or efforts of the Apostles, that we are to attribute the triumphs of Christian morality and the diffusion of Christian faith during the first century of

our era.

He

Faith is not merely an external profession of the doctrine of Christ, and an outward aggregation to the community of his followers. Faith is even something more than such a profession, associated with an inward belief in the truth of such doctrine, natural and uninfused. How vain it is for conflicting parties of modern religionists to endeavour to diffuse faith through the medium of their wild theories. How unwise the conceits of the ministers of the reformation, who imagine that they constitute the soul in faith by exciting its natural affections towards the Redeemer! Divine and saving faith is not a fancy of the imagination, or a feeling of affection, or an opinion, or even a conviction merely. If faith were any of these things, the Apostle could not say of it, that "it is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." could not again and again point so clearly to the gratuitous nature of faith, nor insist so strongly on the operativeness of Divine vocation. "For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And whom he predestinated; them he also called." No! faith is undoubtedly a gift of God. A wanderer may come into the fold of Quakerism, attracted by the external propriety of that sect; or, by the startling eloquence of a camp-preacher, or the puritanical arguments of a follower of Knox, he may be added to the congregation of the Methodists or Presbyterians. But does he thereby become a believer? No! unless he has been attracted by the grace of God first, and faith has been subsequently infused. He has a conviction, I may perhaps

:

admit, that he is believing in God salutarily. It has been demonstrated to him that Christ is among the sellers of plaided stuffs in Edinburgh, or the serious manufacturers of Manchester, and he believes it, and becomes a follower of John Wesley or John Knox. But is his state of mind that of the man who has Divine or Christian faith? If it be, there is much faith upon the earth; for everyone has, or persuades himself he has, or feels a conviction of his own orthodoxy. Faith, then, is a gift of God, superadded to the conviction arising from the rational consideration of the motives of credibility of the Christian religion; and hence, in modern times, no one can have salutary faith in a false human system, no matter what his convictions may be hence too, in the Apostolic age, we attribute the principal glory in the triumphs of the Church, not to man, but to God.

We suppose the disciples of the Apostles, and the first converts to the Christian faith, to have been genuine believers. They came to Christ, not by outward aggregation to his Church only, but really and in fact, so as to believe in him salutarily; and coming to him in this way they were attracted by the grace of the Father. The necessity of this attraction or vocation to the faith had been affirmed by Christ in the clearest terms. No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him." And again, "Every one that hath heard of the Father and hath learned, cometh to me." And lest we should have any doubt that Christ, in the words coming to him, meant believing in him, the evangelist added a commentary to the passage that removed all ambiguity from it. "For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe, and who he was that would betray him. And he said: therefore did I say to you, that no man can come to me unless it be given him by my Father." 3

The Christian religion would never have been propagated through the entangled mazes of sin and error which met

1 Gospel of St. John, vi. 44.

2 vi. 45.

3

V.

65, 66.

it at every step, unless God had co-operated substantially with its preachers by an action on the minds of their auditors; and to this co-operation the Redeemer pledged himself in the words that he addressed to his Apostles when bidding them a final farewell. "Going therefore, teach ye all nations. and behold I am with you

all days even to the consummation of the world.” 1

§ 3. By Miracles.-The second means by which God co-operated with His apostles in the propagation of the Christian religion, was by producing miraculous effects at their command in proof of the truth of their doctrine. It is not necessary for me to enter into the difficult controversy as to the nature and properties of a miracle. There is no assignable reason why God, who framed the laws of nature, might not suspend their operation in particular cases, and produce effects superior to them or contrary to them; and it will be enough for me to say, that the miracles of which the Sacred Scripture speaks, were such effects, produced at the bidding of the Apostles as an evidence of their mission from on high, and as a seal to the truth of their teaching. I likewise decline discussing here the question whether an effect, which in the circumstances of the parties before whom it is produced, may and probably will be regarded as miraculous, should be regarded as a voucher for the truth and morality of those at whose command it begins to exist. It is easy to conceive, that an effect may appear miraculous because unusual; thus an eclipse of the sun would be a sort of miracle in the eyes of a savage witnessing it for the first time: an effect too, such as a galvanic shock, the result of scientific discovery, will appear miraculous to the simple peasant whose life has been spent in the fields. If an eclipse calculated to the hour, were adduced by a wandering impostor as a proof of his favour with the Ruler of the universe; or, if galvanic or electrical effects were exhibited to a crowd of savages as an evidence of the truth of the "revelations" of Joe

3 Gospel of St. Matthew, xxviii. 19, 20.

D