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providence of God would watch over and supply their wants. This required some confidence in their master; and unless they had good grounds for thinking that it was in hist power to engage Providence on their side (or, in other words, that he was actually the Son of God) they would scarce have run the risk of so unpromising an expedition. But this conclusion grows infinitely stronger when we come to the declaration in the next and following verses. "Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the councils; and they will scourge you in the shall be brought and synagogues; before governors and kings for my name's sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles; and the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death; and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake*"

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*Matth. x. 16, 17, 18. 21, 22.
Q 2

What

What now shall we say to this extraordinary and unexampled declaration?

When a sovereign sends his ambassadors to a foreign country, he makes an ample provision for their journey, he assigns them a liberal allowance for their support, and generally holds out at the same time the prospect of a future reward for their labours and their services to their country on their return from their embassy. And without this few men would be disposed to undertake the commission.

But here every thing is the reverse; instead of support, they were to meet with persecution; instead of an honourable reception, they were to experience universal hatred and detestation; instead of reward, they were to be exposed to certain ruin and destruction, and to be let loose like so many sheep among wolves.

Can we now conceive it possible that any men in their senses would, without some very powerful and extraordinary motive, voluntarily undertake such a commission as this, in which their only recompence was to be affliction, misery, pain, and death; in which all

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the natural affections of the human heart were to be extinguished or inverted, and their nearest relations, their parents, children, or brethren, were to be their persecutors and executioners? Is it usual for human beings wantonly and needlessly to expose themselves to such evils as these, without the least prospect of any advantage to themselves or their families? You may say perhaps that simple, ignorant, uneducated men, like the apostles, might easily be deluded by an artful leader, and betrayed into very dreadful calamities, and that we see multitudes thus deceived and ruined every day. It is very true; but where in this case is the art of the leader, or the delusion of his followers? In the cases alluded to, men are induced to embark in perilous undertakings, and to run headlong into destruction, by fair promises and tempting offers, by promises of liberty, of wealth, of honour, of popularity, of glory. But here, instead of employing any art, or making any attempt to deceive his followers, our Saviour plainly tells them they are to expect nothing but what is most dreadful to human nature. Whatever they suffered therefore

Q 3

therefore they suffered with their eyes open, and with their own free choice and consent It is true they were plain ignorant men; but they could feel pain, and they could have no more fondness for misery and death than other people. Yet this they did actually and chear fully undergo at the command of their Lord, How is this to be explained and accounted for? Is there any instance upon record before this in the annals of the world, where twelve grave, sober men, without any reason, and without being misled by any artifice or delusion whatever, voluntarily exposed themselves at the desire of another person to persecution, torment, and destruction! There must havé been some most cogent reason for such a conduct as this; and that reason could be nothing less than a full and perfect conviction, arising from the miracles which they saw with their own eyes, and which they themselves were enabled to perform, that Christ was what he pretended to be, the Son of God; that all power was given to him in heaven and on earth; and that he was able to fulfil the promises he had made them of a recompence

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in a future life, infinitely surpassing in mag→ nitude and in duration all the sufferings they could experience in the present world.

This is the only rational account to be given of their conduct, and it presents to us in a short compass a strong convincing evidence of the truth of the Christian revelation.

In order to fortify the minds of his disciples against the severe trials they were to undergo, our blessed Lord, in the 28th verse, adds the following exhortation: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

This passage contains a decisive proof of two very important doctrines, the existence of a soul distinct from the body, and the continuance of that soul after death (both of which, in direct opposition to this and many other passages of scripture, some late writers have dared to controvert); and it plainly refers the apostles to the consideration of a future life, in which all their views, their hopes and fears, were to center, and by which their conduct in this world was entirely to be regulated. The worst their enemies could do to them in

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