understanding preserve for a series of years the distinct recollection of all the concomitant circumstances of a multitude of different but resembling facts. It would exceed the powers of memory in the wisest of unassisted men thus for a series of years to keep separate what was so much alike; and however frequently the particulars might be repeated, yet would there be a constant and unavoidable tendency, were it only from the mere act of repetition, to mingle and confound those points in which the similarity was strongest. But the Apostles, instead of being the wisest of unassisted men, were altogether undisciplined in the schools of philosophy and learning. They were poor and uneducated fishermen. Whatever, therefore, may have been their honesty and sincerity, and however strong their memory, we cannot be justified in relying upon all their details as absolutely and infallibly correct, unless we can shew that they wrote in some measure under the assisting influence of divine inspiration; for we are ignorant of the existence of any original and authentic document from which they could copy, and they wrote too long after the events which they relate, to have retained, if uninspired, so clear and circumstantial a remembrance. The Gospels, as mere human compositions, may be reasoned upon as generally and substantially true, but an absolute

and undeviating accuracy can spring only from a source superior to the errors of mortality.

The first reason, then, for the inspiration of the Apostles is to be derived from its utility in confirming their infallibility as historians. A second may be drawn from its necessity in establishing their character as the authorised interpreters of ancient prophecy, and the authorised expounders of the doctrines of Christianity.

"Know this first of all," says the Apostle St. Peter," that no prophecy is of any private interpretation; for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The will of man, therefore, and the mere critical conclusions of private individuals, however plausible, can never be exalted into an authorized and infallible guide in the exposition or application of any difficult and doubtful prediction. Where the intention of the Holy Ghost has been plainly revealed, where, as in the prefiguration of Cyrus or of Josiah, the name and the actions to which the prophecy refers are directly and distinctly pointed out, in language such as prevails in the common intercourse of life, there the

*2 Pet. i. 20, 21.

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human and unassisted understanding of the commentator may be permitted to determine the mind of the Spirit. But where the designation is incidental and dark, it requires something more than the deductions of unaided reason to stamp an interpretation with the seal of an absolute authority from which there is no appeal; and we can only be assured beyond the possibility of mistake that the will of God, as it is signified to us in the obscurer and more ambiguous predictions of holy Writ, has been correctly deduced, when the interpretation as well as the words proceed from a holy man of God; or where the ambiguity and obscurity are removed by the event. For, says the Apostle St. Paul," "as no man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of a man that is in him, even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God;" and upon this ground he claims expressly for himself the possession of "the Spirit, which is of God; that he might know the things which are freely given unto us of God." God," he declares, "hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God;" an argument which may be applied alike to the deep things of doctrine and the deep things of prophecy, and bears equally upon the character of

1 Cor. ii. 10-12.

the Apostles as infallible expounders of the principles of the New, and authoritative interpreters of the predictions of the Old, Testament. Nay, it applies to them with more than common force, when we reflect upon their unlearned character as fishermen, and their perverted and erroneous opinions as Jews. Under such circumstances, their authority as mere men in the interpretations of prophecy and the explications of doctrine falls too low to permit any one to embrace their creed merely upon the strength of their own unconfirmed and uninspired assertions. The demonstrations of power, and the possession of the Spirit, are what alone can justify an entire and unreserved deference to their declarations.

2. From the preceding observations it appears that the proper period for introducing a proof of the inspiration of the Apostles into a systematic inquiry into the truth of Christianity, is, when any question arises which involves, as a previously established fact, their unerring and universal accuracy as historians, or their absolute and infallible authority as teachers, both of which depend upon their being in possession of the Spirit. Our object therefore must be, to determine what is the first branch of Christian evidence which involves in its establishment these two important considerations.

Now, it is evident, that the character of our Saviour's miracles, the tendency of his doctrines, and the colour of his life, when regarded in a moral and physical point of view, are what must decide upon the justice of his claims to be admitted as a prophet; as one of those to whom the counsels of the Almighty upon the duties and doctrines of man were communicated. If the miracles he performed were beyond the strength of any human arm, if his doctrines were conducive at once to the peace and holiness of the world, and if his life corresponded in all its parts with the majesty of his works and the purity of his words, then may we safely rank him amongst the prophets of the Most High: and that these things were so, we may be sufficiently assured by the testimony of the Evangelists, when considered only as human and uninspired witnesses, giving their evidence with integrity and to the best of their recollection. For we cannot but perceive from their own account of their feelings and frequent doubts, that they looked with such a careful and jealous eye upon all the proceedings of our Lord, that had any thing inconsistent with the interests of piety or morality escaped his lips, or had his performances fallen short of his promises or their expectations, they would have all forsaken him and fled, with the same readiness with which they afterwards deserted his cause, when shocked