SERM." fingle Senfe was lefs fallible than the joint XV. "Experience of such a Number. But thus "did the wife Pretence of avoiding too easy a

Credulity, betray Thomas into Irreverence,

Uncharitableness, Absurdity, and Irreligion; "and all under the Colour of defiring a ra"tional Conviction. These extravagant Ef"fects could Niceness in believing produce in "him: And who can queftion, but that it

may be likely to produce the fame in any "one else *." For with the fame Way of reasoning might every Man fince, and may every Man now, require ocular Demonftration for every Article of his Faith; he may require that Jefus fhould fhew himself from Heaven, before he believes any thing that the Apoftles and Evangelists have related concerning him. So just is the Charge of Incredulity upon Thomas, and fuch, as you have heard, the Aggravations of it: No better Reason has he to urge for the Demand he makes, or for the Satisfaction he requires to be given him : From the Rudeness of which let us now pass on to contemplate, in the

II. Second Place, the gracious Condefcenfion of our Bleffed Saviour. After eight Days

* Dean YOUNG's fecond Sermon on Rom. i. 22. p. 41, 42.

again his Difciples were within, and Thomas s ER M. (perfuaded by the other Apoftles, perhaps, in XV. Hopes of another Appearance) was with them: Then came Jefus, the Doors being shut, and ftood in the midft; and faid, Peace be unto you. Then faith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy Finger, and behold my Hands; and reach hither thy Hand and thruft it into my Side; and be not faithless but believing. And we need not doubt, but Thomas made ufe of those Methods for his Conviction, to which our Lord was now pleased to invite him. To content himself now with the View only of his crucified Body, would have been as unbecoming, as his infisting upon handling it before was rude. For now his Master, who knew, though abfent, the Demands he had made, takes him at his Word; not for his own Satisfaction only, but for the Satisfaction of every Chriftian in every Age, that ever did, or fhall, fucceed him. Thomas therefore now, not only faw his Mafter alive, and beheld the Scars in his Hands and Side, which were made by the Nails and Spear on the Cross; but, out of Obedience to his Lord's Command, muft we fuppofe him to examine and Search them with his Hands, and fo to receive all the Satisfaction that his Senfes could yield:

VOL. III.

Bb

And

SERM. And by this Condefcenfion did our Bleffed XV. Saviour not only remove all Remains of Tho

mas's Doubting and Unbelief; but he left full Evidence to all that should live afterwards of the Truth of his Resurrection: Since no Proof of it was now wanting, which the Nature of the Thing was capable of bearing. He not only had fuffered one of his Apostles, that is, one of those who was to atteft his Resurrection, at first to doubt of, and miftruft the Fact; but he vouchsafed to give him, before them all, and therefore, for the greater ftrengthening and Confirmation of them all, fuch a convincing Proof of it, as should enable both him and them to filence all Cavils and Difputes about it. Believe upon Testimony, all Men muft, as to any Fact that is done at a distant Time or Place, from the Age or Country in which they live: And therefore, in the Point of our Lord's Refurrection, we in this Age, at this Distance from the Time it happened, can't, in the Nature of the Thing, expect better Proofs, than what the Eye-Witnesses of it have left us. But certainly the Credit of those Eye-Witneffes must be so much the greater, by how much they appear free from Credulity and Haftiness to believe. When therefore it appears (as from their Hi

story

ftory it does) that all the Apostles were mif- sER M. trustful at firft; and that one of them especi- XV. ally was a downright Unbeliever, and yet had at last as thorough a Conviction, as the greateft Infidel now would afk; who will dare to disbelieve, or doubt, what upon fuch compulfive Evidence they preached. For what better Evidence would we defire of the Truth of the Resurrection of Jefus, than that of a doubting, mistrustful Man, who, in the Pre-fence of ten more, who witness what he did, felt and handled him after he was rifen, and, by all the Experience Human Senfes could give, found his Body to be the very fame, and that it could not poffibly be any other, than that which had been wounded, and put to Death upon the Crofs? But this, fhould we purfue it, would run us out into a Subject proper to another Seafon : It is not what Evidence we have of the Truth of Jesus's Refurrection, which we are now to confider; but how unreasonable Thomas was in the Proof which he required; and yet how graciously Jefus condescended to comply with his Demand. But having thus far entered into the Foibles of the Apostle's Character, let us next furvey the bright Part; which we shall do if we proceed to obferve in the

SERM. III. Third Place, What Effect our Lord's XV. Compliance had upon the Disciple, and what

Change it wrought in him. Thomas answered and faid to him, MY LORD And my God. The Answer is fhort, and feemingly abrupt: But it contains, notwithstanding, a Confeffion as noble, as his Doubting and Mistrust before was mean. He, who before came behind the Apostles, now outstrips them. Upon his receiving this Teftimony which our Saviour vouchfafed him, he not only acknowledges Jefus for the Meffiab, for the very fame Lord, to whom he had been a Servant and Companion during the Time of his Ministry, for three Years and a Half before he was crucified; but he moreover owns him now to be God, as well as Chrift, he fees the Divine Hand he had now displayed, and forthwith draws the fame Inference from it, as St Paul did afterwards; viz. that Jefus Chrift our Lord, who was made of the Seed of David according to the Flefb, was declared to be the Son of God with Power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, i. e. with refpect to his Holy Spirit, or, Divine Nature, by the Refurrection from the Dead; Rom. i. 3, 4. "So mighty, fo "fudden a Change do we find in this Apo"ftle; that the Perfon whom fo lately, he "could