ber that I told you of them." (John
xvi. 4. See also chap. xv. 20; xvi. 33.)

I am not entitled to argue from these passages, that Christ actually did
foretell these events, and that they did accordingly come to pass;
because that would be at once to assume the truth of the religion: but I
am entitled to contend that one side or other of the following
disjunction is true; either that the Evangelists have delivered what
Christ really spoke, and that the event corresponded with the
prediction; or that they put the prediction into Christ's mouth, because
at the time of writing the history, the event had turned out so to be:
for, the only two remaining suppositions appear in the highest degree
incredible; which are, either that Christ filled the minds of his
followers with fears and apprehensions, without any reason or authority
for what he said, and contrary to the truth of the case; or that,
although Christ had never foretold any such thing, and the event would
have contradicted him if he had, yet historians who lived in the age
when the event was known, falsely, as well as officiously, ascribed
these words to him.

3. Thirdly, these books abound with exhortations to patience, and with
topics of comfort under distress.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us." (Rom. viii. 35-37.)

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed,
but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body;--knowing
that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus,
and shall present us with you---For which cause we faint not; but, though
our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, 10, 14, 16,
17.)

"Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the
Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold,
we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job,
and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of
tender mercy." (James v. 10, 11.)

"C