be

for contemplation; and the pious believer will have, in many cases, the most exemplary patterns presented before him for the regulation both of his faith and practice, as well in every scene of peaceful life, as in every severe trial to which he may called. The conflicts even of pious men, which he will meet with in the page of Church History, he will pass easily over. He will condemn indeed the heresy and the schism; he will even weep over the inveterate error; but he will not tarnish his charity, or let go his integrity. Above all, he will behold with complacency the portrait of Christian virtue, which he will find abundantly displayed in those writings, most intimately connected with, and most immediately succeeding, those marked by the finger and inspiration of God.

The evangelist St. John was the last of our Saviour's apostles. called to his reward. He was not required to glorify God, like the rest of his brethren, by a violent death, but by an happy and peaceful old age. He lived till after the whole canon of scripture was completed. The history of his life, therefore, which was prolonged almost to the concluding year of the first century, forms a very prominent feature in that of primitive Christianity. Some anecdotes of peculiar interest respecting him will be found in the early writers of the Church. His exhortation of love to his church at Ephesus, when he had nearly attained the conclusion of his earthly labours, will particularly arrest our attention, and shew how well he merited the title of Beloved. When extreme age and weak

ness had disabled him from his usual exertions in his public ministry, his attendants carried him to his church, or to assemblies of Christians, where he constantly addressed them with this short, but comprehensive epitome of Christian duties: "Little children love one another." This emphatic sentence, we are told, he repeated so often, that his hearers, too much resembling those Athenians who spent their time in nothing so much as in telling or hearing something new, informed him that they were tired of the repetition. St. John's answer was worthy of the beloved disciple-" This is what our Lord commanded, and if we can do this, we need do nothing else." As if he had said, This is the surest proof that any Christian can give of a stedfast and well grounded faith, and he who possesses this, possesses all that man can desire.

After this picture of pastoral affection and true primitive Christianity, I will not draw aside your attention to any new subject. You will not, I cordially expect, be weary of this blessed precept: "Little children! love one another." Did we but seriously consider the influence which this holy principle has on our lives, and how closely it presses upon us even on the bed of death, so far from being weary of hearing the repetition of it, it ought to be the first object of our morning's care, and the last of our evening's reflection. Forgiveness of our enemies is the test of our Christianity. "God is love: and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the

day of judgment'." An awful time! for who will, who can have boldness, to meet an unforgiven enemy in the presence of Almighty God? “If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother,” (and we are all brethren) is he not pronounced a liar? for "this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also?."

Such are the treasures to be found in the rich mine of Ecclesiastical History; treasures, such as no other history, however valuable, can afford. For "what is there in the history of any nation, or of all nations, of any certainty or distinctness of the origin of the world, and the most ancient times? It reaches not so high as the history of the first men; it hath no revelations of God, or promises concerning the Messias; it is plainly ignorant of the government of the Church, and of its preservation. These things, and many other of this nature, are only to be found in the sacred and Ecclesiastical History. Why do you, (exclaims a professor of this science, whose words I use, in an apostrophe to the great orator of Rome,) why do you extol history as the discoverer of antiquity, which with you was not very ancient, and yet was sometimes corrupt? You cry her up as a witness of times, but then with you she was not very rich in that, and sometimes was not an allowable witness. It is the sacred history alone, which gives a faithful testimony of the succession of times, from the very beginning of all things, without one fault. She

11 John iv. 16, 17.

21 John iv. 20, 21.

alone is the most shining light of the eternal truth. And to conclude, she alone is the best mistress of life, and absolutely perfect: for tell me where else you can hope to find the unquestionable precepts of true and solid virtue, O ye hearers and readers of history! You will certainly be deceived if you seek any other guide than the sacred or Church history. Do you desire to have sincere examples of true piety? Search then the sacred and ecclesiastical histories, and you will find them there, and no where else; there only are the monuments of the knowledge, of the invocation of him, of faith and repentance preserved; there only shall you ever meet with the wonderful instances of perfect fortitude, of pure obedience, of unspotted chastity, of an easy beneficence, of ready goodness, because performed on the motives of true Christianity. If you meet (in profane history) with any brave and generous action, it was undertaken for the sake of glory, which is a mere shadow, or of revenging an injury, which ought to be condemned; but the things which are represented here, are not attempted to be accomplished in the pursuit of popular fame, but for the obtaining true glory; not out of a desire of revenge, but out of the love of Christ; not for the defence of a perishable country or transitory riches, but for the obtaining the heavenly Jerusalem, a kingdom not made with hands, eternal in the heavens1."

1 Wheare (first Camden reader of history at Oxford) on the Order, &c. of reading Church Histories. Dodwell's Edition.

C

LECTURE II.

Reflections on Primitive Christianity. Proofs of the Authenticity of the History of the Acts of the Apostles.

With

WHEN a bust or a statue is dug up from the foundation of some ancient city, once celebrated for the cultivation and perfection of the fine arts, with what admiration do we behold its beauties! what zeal for such an exquisite model of taste do we praise the work of a Phidias or a Praxiteles! What a sensation of wonder and delight is excited in our breasts, when we examine the gracefulness and proportion of the figure, the expression of the features, and the delicacy of the execution! And shall we be less impressed with admiration, feel less rational pleasure in the discovery and contemplation of a moral portrait, selected from the almost forgotten works of Christian historians, than in the remains of a lifeless marble?

Among many fragments, broken and defaced by the destructive hand of time, how pleasing and instructive is it to discover the venerable features of an EARLY CHRISTIAN, graceful in every line of cha