n early part of the narrative, and proceeds with the
separate account of one particular apostle, yet the information which
it delivers so far extends to the rest, as it shows the nature of the
service. When we see one apostle suffering persecution in the discharge
of this commission, we shall not believe, without evidence, that the
same office could, at the same time, be attended with ease and safety to
others. And this fair and reasonable inference is confirmed by the
direct attestation of the letters, to which we have so often referred.
The writer of these letters not only alludes, in numerous passages, to
his own sufferings, but speaks of the rest of the apostles as enduring
like sufferings with himself. "I think that God hath set forth us the
apostles last, as it were, appointed to death; for we are made a
spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men; even unto this
present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are
buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with
our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it;
being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the earth, and as
the offscouring of all things unto this day." (I Cor. iv. 9, et seq.)
Add to which, that in the short account that is given of the other
apostles in the former part of the history, and within the short period
which that account comprises, we find, first, two of them seized,
imprisoned, brought before the Sanhedrim, and threatened with further
punishment; (Acts iv. 3, 21.) then, the whole number imprisoned and
beaten; (Acts v. 18, 40.) soon afterwards, one of their adherents stoned
to death, and so hot a persecution raised against the sect as to drive
most of them out of the place; a short time only succeeding, before one
of the twelve was beheaded, and another sentenced to the same fate; and
all this passing in the single city of Jerusalem, and within ten years
after the Founder's death, and the commencement of the institution.

II. We take no credit at present for the miraculous part of the
narrative, nor do we insist upon the correctness of single passages of
it. If the whole story be not a novel, a romance; the whole action a
dream; if Peter, and James, and Paul, and the rest of the apostles
mentioned in the account, be not all imaginary persons; if their letters
be not all forgeries, and, what is more, forgeries of names and
characters which never existed; then is there