person of the crucified Saviour, the pierced hands and the wounded side, were submitted to the closest scrutiny; and his reality and identity were proved by that specifick trial of the senses, which Thomas, instead of being satisfied with the general testimony of his brethren, sufficient as that testimony might well have been esteemed by any rational inquirer, had so unreasonably prescribed for the rule of his belief.

What support and strength must have been thus administered to the faith of those, who had previously believed! What conviction must have prevailed over the doubts of him who had believed not! What an expressive comment does the transaction supply upon the language of the Evangelist in the commencement of his first epistle, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life; ***** That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you." And what "confirmation of the faith" can we possibly desire more perfect than this; namely, that a fact so important as the event of our Lord's resurrection, in common with the other facts of the Gospel history, should have been unreservedly witnessed and carefully weighed and examined by

competent and unexceptionable observers, and afterwards should be delivered unto us by them "who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word." It has been well observed upon this transaction by Dr. Doddridge, that one of the most subtle of modern objectors "could find out no more plausible objection against this evidence of the resurrection of Christ, than to say that the disciples were deceived in what they imagined they saw, heard, and felt: which, if granted, would be in effect to allow, that no men could be competent judges of any fact whatsoever relating to their own sensations, and consequently would overthrow all human testimony in courts of judicature and elsewhere."

But how amiable, how venerable, how adorable were the benignity and condescension of our Lord in vouchsafing to the incredulous Apostle the very proof which he required! Truly, had he chosen to leave him to the consequences of his incredulity, who could have found fault? who could have wondered? He had given him evidence enough to convince him in the plain and unbiassed testimony of his brethren; such testimony, as was judged and as was proved sufficient for the conversion of an unbelieving

u Luke i. 2.

world. If Thomas failed of being convinced, the defect was on his part, not on that of our blessed Lord. Nevertheless he graciously

helped the unbelief" of the weak Apostle. He gave him the evidence, all that he desired and more than he deserved, to banish from his mind all scruple and doubtfulness. He reached forth his hand, marked as it was with the signs of the price paid for our salvation, to rescue and to save him, sinking and about to perish in the waves of unbelief, and brought him safe unto the haven where he would be. O! let us therefore praise the Lord for his goodness; and magnify that mercy which pitied the error and infirmity of his froward servant, and has assured us by this example, as he perpetually assures us by his word, that " it is not his will that any of his little ones should perish."

The effect is an abundant source of satisfaction and delight. The sight and address of Jesus; the sight, whereby he was identified with the Apostle's well-known Master; the address, which by a repetition of the very words uttered by the Apostle testified the omniscience of the speaker; convinced the doubtful disciple. They at once dispersed his scruples; they caused him to be "no longer faithless, but believing;" they filled him at once with a holy faith, and they prompted him to pour forth his faith in the

language of humble confession or devout adoration; for "Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God."

No mere expression this of astonishment and surprise; no fond ejaculation of admiration; no extravagant effusion of feeling, indistinct and indefinite. It was an "answer" to the person, who in the preceding words had addressed himself to the Apostle: it was an address in return to that very person himself: it was an invocation, of which that person was the object, or an affirmation, of which he was the subject: so that whether we understand the Apostle as saying, O Thou my Lord and my God, or, Thou art my Lord and my God, the words are a most illustrious acknowledgment of the dominion and deity of the person to whom they are addressed. 66 "I call this the noblest confession," observes Dean Stanhope, "because the Catholick interpreters of Scripture have understood by it, that St. Thomas did not only recognise Jesus for the Messiah, the very same Lord to whom he had been a servant and companion during the space of his ministry; but that he moreover owned his divine nature, and drew the consequence to himself, which St. Paul did afterwards to the Romans, that 'the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and the power' he exerted in it, did abundantly 'declare

him to be the very Son of God.' *** So mighty, so sudden a change do we find in this Apostle, that the person, of whom so lately he could not be prevailed upon to think otherwise than as a dead man, lost to all hopes, all possibility, of returning, he now admires and adores, as the Almighty and the Everliving God."

But what was our Lord's conduct, what was his language, upon this momentous occasion? Does he reprove the Apostle for addressing to him these lofty appellations? Does he reject the application of the appellations to himself? Does he say, "See thou do it not;" see thon speak not to me in such terms as these: I am not thy Lord; I am not thy God: I am a mere man as thou art; at the best I am but a celestial, an angelical creature? We hear no approach to reproof of the Apostle for the extravagance of his salutation: we hear no traces of a rejection of the salutation in our Saviour's reply we hear no denial of his claim to the titles thus attributed to him. On the contrary we perceive him listening with complacency to the tribute of veneration tendered by the Apostle, and we hear him remarking upon his conversion with a dignity, and pronouncing a benediction upon others with an authority, well becoming (as we humbly suppose) his communion in the divine nature. "Thomas, because thou