If twenty men were to come into England with such a report from a
distant country, perhaps they might not find twenty more here to
believe their story. And I rather think the Gentleman may be in the
right, because in the present case I see clearly, that the credit of
the resurrection of Christ was not trusted to mere human evidence. To
what evidence it was trusted, we find by his own declaration: The
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of
me. And ye also (speaking to his apostles) shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning [John 15:26,27]. And
therefore, though the apostles had conversed with him forty days after
his resurrection, and had received his commission to go teach all
nations; yet he expressly forbids them entering upon the work, till
they should receive powers from above [Acts 1:14] And St. Peter
explains the evidence of the resurrection in this manner: We (the
apostles) are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy
Ghost, whom God hath given to them who obey him [Acts 5:32].

Now, what were the powers received by the apostles? Where they
not the powers of wisdom and courage, by which they were enabled to
appear before rulers and princes in the name of Christ; the power of
miracles, even of raising the dead to life; by which they convinced the
world, that God was with them in what they said and did? With respect
to this evidence, St. John says, If we receive the witness of men, the
witness of God is greater. [I John 5:9] Add to this, that the apostles
had a power to communicate these gifts to believers. Can you wonder
that men believed the reality of those powers of which they were
partakers, and became conscious to themselves? With respect to these
communicated powers, I suppose, St. John speaks, when he says, He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: [I John 5:10]
appealing, not to an inward testimony of the Spirit, in the sense of