force of evidence.

And I cannot but be aware,

that although this religion is countenanced by the State, and defended by the laws, and cordially believed by many; yet it is also disbelieved by many, neglected by more, and openly assaulted by some.. So that it appears, on a cursory view, to be placed in much the same circumstances, as most other religions which have prevailed in different countries and different ages of the world.

For these reasons, I must have a stronger ground for believing Christianity, than that it is the established religion of my own age and country. This fact, together with its obvious utility to the public morals, may secure my respect to its institutions, and my compliance with its forms: Socrates and Cicero offered sacrifice to the deities of their ancestors. But if I am required to go further, I must inquire deeper, and have a surer foundation of my faith. And the slightest consideration shows me, that I am bound to make this inquiry; and that if I neg

lect Christianity unexamined, I neglect it at my

peril.

I must, therefore, trace back this revelation to its origin. It may not have had the origin to which it pretends. But it must have had some origin. As there are those who deny its origin to have been divine, what other account is given of its existence?

The common account is of a general nature; and speaks of the New Testament as an imposture, a fiction: and so, if not true, it must have been. But an imposture must have had designers: a fiction must have been framed. Who and what were those who framed it? And how did they succeed? how prevail to get their fabrication recognised?

Pursuing this inquiry, I find that the origin of Christianity, as declared in its own records, is briefly this. About eighteen hundred years ago, a person, born in one of the provinces of Judea, went through that country, and attracted

attention by the exercise of miraculous powers. He affirmed, that he had descended from heaven, to recal men from ignorance and sinfulness, and to bring them to the knowledge and service of their Creator. He instructed those who flocked to him in the rules of life which they should obey, and the dispositions they should cultivate; and promised to all, who should believe and obey him, everlasting happiness in a future state. After a short period of time, probably three years, passed in this manner, he was put to death, at the instigation of the chief persons among the Jews; but not until he had predicted this event, and declared it to be an essential part of the mystery of his incarnation; and not until he had attached to himself a certain number of disciples, and taken measures for their disseminating and establishing in the world the religion which he had introduced and founded.

Now, is there any certainty that this indeed took place at the time and in the manner which the history records? Antichristian writers, I obsérve, affect to throw an air of obscu

rity over the first appearance and promulgation of the religion. One of them asserts, that the system was gradually formed out of what he calls the chaos and anarchy of the three first centuries. And others generally assume, that the testimony to the introduction of Christianity is confined to the Church itself, which must not be solely trusted in its own cause.

The grand point is, to obtain something definite: we cannot lean upon a shadow. At what time did the religion of Jesus Christ supersede what was believed before? We know that it exists, and is established, now; but we know likewise, that it did not always exist; that it gradually took the place which had been occupied by Judaism and Paganism, and flourished upon their ruins.

There is, however, indisputable testimony, that the religion was first preached and received at a time which exactly corresponds with the death of its Founder, as related in the Scriptures. We have no occasion, on this head, to

appeal to the Church: that is, to rely on Christian writers alone. The foreign and collateral testimony fails in no point where it can be reasonably demanded. It has, indeed, been the fashion to complain of the silence or inattention of the contemporary historians, as to what has since assumed such vast importance. But the truth is, that they are not silent. They are not, indeed, full but they tell us all that we require, and all which they could be expected to tell. As early as the time of Claudius, who died within twenty years of the crucifixion, Christians. had occasioned some confusion, by preaching, and prevailing on men to quit the worship of the heathen gods; and they were so numerous, that Claudius judged it most advisable to check them, by ordering what he thought would be most effectual for this purpose, and forbidding their religious meetings. This we learn from the Roman historian of the age '.

I See Suetonius in Claud. 25. The emperor, he says, banished the Jews from Rome; who, impulsore Chresto, made continual tumults. Christianity passed at first among the heathens for a sort of Judaism; a mistake easily accounted for: as also the error of the common word for the

χρηστος,

uncommon χριστος.