ed the Gospel in much affiction." If the command of the governors, and departed ou history deliver an account of an insurrection of the world, and went unto his holy place, beat Ephesus, which had nearly cost the apostle ing become a most eminent pattern of patience his life; we have the apostle himself, in a let- unto all ages. To these holy apostles were ter written a short time after his departure joined a very great number of others, who, from that city, describing his despair, and re- having through envy undergone, in like manturning thanks for his deliverance. If the his- ner, many pains and torments, have left a glotory inform us, that the apostle was expelled rious example to us. For this, not only men, from Antioch in Pisidia, attempted to be ston- but women have been persecuted; and, haved at Iconium, and actually stoned at Lystra; | ing suffered very grievous and cruel punishthere is preserved a letter from him to a fa- ments, have finished the course of their faith vourite convert, whom, as the same history with firmness"." tells us, he first met with in these parts; in Hermas, saluted by Saint Paul in his episwhich letter he appeals to that disciple's know- tle to the Romans, in a piece very little conledge" of the persecutions which befell him at nected with historical recitals, thus speaks : Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystrat." If the his-"Such as have believed and suffered death for tory make the apostle, in his speech to the the name of Christ, and have endured with a Ephesian elders, remind them, as one proof ready mind, and have given up their lives with of the disinterestedness of his views, that, all their hearts+." to their knowledge, he had supplied his own and the necessities of his companions by personal labour§; we find the same apostle, in a letter written during his residence at Ephesus, asserting of himself, "that even to that hour he laboured, working with his own hands]." These coincidences, together with many relative to other parts of the apostle's history, and all drawn from independent sources, not only confirm the truth of the account, in the particular points as to which they are observed, but add much to the credit of the narrative in all its parts: and support the author's profession of being a contemporary of the person whose history he writes, and, throughout a material portion of his narrative, a companion. What the epistles of the apostles declare of the suffering state of Christianity, the writings which remain of their companions and immediate followers, expressly confirm. Polycarp, the disciple of John (though all that remains of his works be a very short epistle,) has not left this subject unnoticed. "I exhort (says he) all of you, that ye obey the word of righteousness, and exerciseall patience, which ye have seen set forth before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Lorimus, and Rufus, but in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles ; being confident in this, that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness; and are gone to the place that was due to them from the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world, but Him who died, and was raised again by God for us‡." " Ignatius, the contemporary of Polycarp, recognises the same topic, briefly indeed, but positively and precisely. "For this cause, (i. e. having felt and handled Christ's body after his resurrection, and being convinced, as Ignatius expresses it, both by his flesh and spirit,) they (i. e. Peter, and those who were present with Peter at Christ's appearance) despised death, and were found to be above it§." Clement, who is honourably mentioned by Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians, hath left us his attestation to this point, in the following words: "Let us take (says he) the Would the reader know what a persecution examples of our own age. Through zeal and in these days was, I would refer him to a cirenvy, the most faithful and righteous pillars cular letter, written by the church of Smyrna of the church have been persecuted even to soon after the death of Polycarp, who, it will the most grievous deaths. Let us set before be remembered, had lived with Saint John; our eyes the holy apostles. Peter, by unjust and which letter is entitled a relation of that envy, underwent, not one or two, but many bishop's martyrdom. "The sufferings (say sufferings; till at last, being martyred, he they) of all the other martyrs were blessed and went to the place of glory that was due unto him. generous, which they underwent according to For the same cause did Paul, in like manner, the will of God. For so it becomes us, who receive the reward of his patience. Seven are more religious than others, to ascribe the times he was in bonds; he was whipt, was power and ordering of all things unto him. stoned; he preached both in the East and in And indeed who can choose but admire the the West, leaving behind him the glorious re-greatness of their minds, and that admirable port of his faith; and so having taught the whole world righteousness, and for that end travelled even unto the utmost bounds of the West, he at last suffered martyrdom by the I Thess. i. 6. + Acts xix. 2 Cor 8-10. patience and love of their Master, which then appeared in them? Who, when they were so flayed with whipping, that the frameand structure of their bodies were laid open to their very Clem. ad Cor. c. v. vi. Abp. Wake's Trans. + Shepherd of Hermas, c. xxviii, Pol, ad Phil. c. ix. 19 Ep. Smyr. 6, iij inward veins and arteries, nevertheless endur-| number imprisoned and beaten"; soon aftered it. In like manner, those who were con- wards, one of their adherents stoned to death, demned to the beasts, and kept a long time in and so hot a persecution raised against the sect, prison, underwent many cruel torments, being as to drive most of them out of the place; a forced to lie upon sharp spikes laid under their short time only succeeding, before one of the bodies, and tormented with divers other sorts twelve was beheaded, and another sentenced of punishments; that so, if it were possible, to the same fate; and all this passing in the the tyrant by the length of their sufferings, single city of Jerusalem, and within ten years might have brought them to deny Christ." after the Founder's death, and the commencement of the institution. CHAPTER V. II. We take no credit at present for the miraculous part of the narrative, nor do we insist upon the correctness of single passages of There is satisfactory evidence that many, profes-it. If the whole story be not a novel, a rosing to be original witnesses of the Christian mance; the whole action a dream; if Peter, miracles, passed their lives in labours, dan- and James, and Paul, and the rest of the aposgers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone tles mentioned in the account, be not all imain attestation of the accounts which they de- ginary persons; if their letters be not all forlivered, and solely in consequence of their be-geries, and, what is more, forgeries of names lief of those accounts; and that they also sub-and characters which never existed; then is mitted, from the same motives, to new rules of there evidence in our hands sufficient to supconduct. port the only fact we contend for (and which, I repeat again, is in itself highly probable,) On the history, of which the last chapter that the original followers of Jesus Christ excontains an abstract, there are a few observa-erted great endeavours to propagate his relitions which it may be proper to make, by way gion, and underwent great labours, dangers, of applying its testimony to the particular pro-and sufferings, in consequence of their underpositions for which we contend. taking. III. The general reality of the apostolic history is strongly confirmed by the consideration, that it, in truth, does no more than assign adequate causes for effects which certainly were produced, and describe consequences naturally resulting from situations which certainly ex which this history sets forth the cause, and origin, and progress. It is acknowledged on all hands, because it is recorded by other testimony than that of the Christians themselves, that the religion began to prevail at that time, and in that country. It is very difficult to conceive how it could begin, or prevail at all, without the exertions of the Founder and his fol I. Although our Scripture history leaves the general account of the apostles in an early part of the narrative, and proceeds with the separate account of one particular apostle, yet the information which it delivers so far extends to the rest, as it shows the nature of the service. When we see one apostle suffering persecution isted. The effects were certainly these, of in the discharge of his commission, we shall not believe, without evidence, that the same office could, at the same time, be attended with ease and safety to others. And this fair and reasonable inference is confirmed by the direct attestation of the letters, to which we have so often referred. The writer of these letters not only alludes, in numerous passages, to his own sufferings, but speaks of the rest of the apos-lowers, in propagating the new persuasion. tles as enduring like sufferings with himself. The history now in our hands describes these "I think that God hath set forth us the apos- exertions, the persons employed, the means and tles last, as it were, appointed to death; for endeavours made use of, and the labours unwe are made a spectacle unto the world, and dertaken in the prosecution of this purpose. to angels, and to men ;-even unto this pre- Again, the treatment which the history represent hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are sents the first propagators of the religion to naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain have experienced, was no other than what nadwelling-place; and labour, working with our turally resulted from the situation in which own hands being reviled, we bless; being they were confessedly placed. It is admitted persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we that the religion was adverse, in a great deentreat: we are made as the filth of the world, gree, to the reigning opinions, and to the hopes and as the offscouring of all things unto this and wishes of the nation to which it was first day.+" Add to which, that in the short ac- introduced; and that it overthrew, so far as count that is given of the other apostles in the it was received, the established theology and former part of the history, and within the worship of every other country. We cannot short period which that account comprises, we feel much reluctance in believing that, when find, first, two of them seized, imprisoned, the messengers of such a system went about brought before the Sanhedrim, and threatened not only publishing their opinions, but collectwith further punishment‡; then, the whole ing proselytes, and forming regular societies of proselytes, they should meet with opposiActs v. 18. 10. Rel. Mor. Pol. c. ii. t Acts iv. 3. 21. +1 Cor. iv. 9, et seq. tion in their attempts, or that this opposition | sanctified *." In like manner, and allud. should sometimes proceed to fatal extremities. ing to the same change of practices and senOur history details examples of this opposition, timents, he asks the Roman Christians, "what and of the sufferings and dangers which the fruit they had in those things, whereof they emissaries of the religion underwent, per- are now ashamed+?" The phrases which fectly agreeable to what might reasonably be the same writer employs to describe the moexpected, from the nature of their undertaking, ral condition of Christians, compared with compared with the character of the age and their condition before they became Christians, country in which it was carried on. such as 66 newness of life," being "freed from sin," being " dead to sin;" "the destruction of the body of sin, that, for the future, they should not serve sin;" "children of light and of the day," as opposed to "children of darkness and of the night;""not sleeping as others;" imply, at least, a new system of obligation, and, probably, a new series of conduct, commencing with their conversion. IV. The records before us supply evidence of what formed another member of our general proposition, and what, as hath already been observed, is highly probable, and almost a necessary consequence of their new profession, viz. that, together with activity and courage in propagating the religion, the primitive followers of Jesus assumed, upon their conversion, a new and peculiar course of private life. The testimony which Pliny bears to the beImmediately after their Master was withdrawn haviour of the new sect in his time, and which from them, we hear of their "continuing with testimony comes not more than fifty years after one accord in prayer and supplication*;" of that of St. Paul, is very applicable to the subtheir "continuing daily with one accord in ject under consideration. The character which the temple +;" of "many being gathered to- this writer gives of the Christians of that age, gether praying." We know what strict in- and which was drawn from a pretty accurate junctions were laid upon the converts by their inquiry, because he considered their moral printeachers. Wherever they came, the first word ciples as the point in which the magistrate was of their preaching was, "Repent!" We know interested, is as follows:-He tells the emper. that these injunctions obliged them to refrain or, "that some of those who had relinquished from many species of licentiousness, which the society, or who, to save themselves, prewere not, at that time, reputed criminal. We tended that they had relinquished it, affirmed know the rules of purity, and the maxims of that they were wont to meet together, on a benevolence, which Christians read in their stated day, before it was light, and sang among books; concerning which rules, it is enough themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as a to observe, that, if they were, I will not say god; and to bind themselves by an oath, not completely obeyed, but in any degree regarded, to the commission of any wickedness, but that they would produce a system of conduct, and they would not be guilty of theft, or robbery, what is more difficult to preserve, a disposition or adultery; that they would never falsify their of mind, and a regulation of affections, differ- word, or deny a pledge committed to them, when ent from any thing to which they had hither-called upon to return it." This proves that to been accustomed, and different from what a morality, more pure and strict than was ordithey would see in others. The change and nary, prevailed at that time in Christian sociedistinction of manners, which resulted from ties. And to me it appears, that we are authotheir new character, is perpetually referred to rized to carry this testimony back to the age in the letters of their teachers. "And you of the apostles; because it is not probable that hath he quickened, who were dead in tres- the immediate hearers and disciples of Christ passes and sins, wherein in times past ye walk- were more relaxed than their successors in ed, according to the course of this world, ac- Pliny's time, or the missionaries of the religion, cording to the prince of the power of the air, than those whom they taught. the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others §."-" For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries; wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot ." Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, after enumerating, as his manner was, a catalogue of vicious characters, adds, "Such were some of you; * Acts i. 14. Eph. ii. 1-3. CHAPTER VI. There is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings,voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct. When we consider, first, the prevalency of but ye are washed, but ye are the religion at this hour; secondly, the only † Acts ii. 46. See also Tit. ii. 3. ↑ Acts xii. 12. 1 Pet. iv, 3. 4. • 1 Cor. vi. 11. + Rom. vi. 21 éredible account which can be given of its ori- vine lawgiver. A young man of mean con. gin, viz. the activity of the Founder and his dition, of a private and simple life, and who associates; thirdly, the opposition which that had wrought no deliverance for the Jewish activity must naturally have excited; fourthly, nation, was declared to be their Messiah, the fate of the Founder of the religion, attested This, without ascribing to him at the same by heathen writers as well as our own; fifthly, time some proofs of his mission, (and what the testimony of the same writers to the suffer- other but supernatural proofs could there be?) ings of Christians, either contemporary with, was too absurd a claim to be either imagined. or immediately succeeding, the original settlers or attempted, or credited. In whatever deof the institution; sixthly, predictions of the gree, or in whatever part, the religion was arsufferings of his followers ascribed to the Foun-gumentative, when it came to the question, der of the religion, which ascription alone" Is the carpenter's son of Nazareth the perproves, either that such predictions were deliv-son whom we are to receive and obey?" there ered and fulfilled, or that the writers of Christ's was nothing but the miracles attributed to life were induced by the event to attribute such him, by which his pretensions could be mainpredictions to him; seventhly, letters now in tained for a moment. Every controversy and our possession, written by some of the principal every question must presuppose these; for, agents in the transaction, referring expressly however such controversies, when they did to extreme labours, dangers, and sufferings, arise, might, and naturally would, be discusssustained by themselves and their companions; ed upon their own grounds of argumentation, lastly, a history purporting to be written by a without citing the miraculous evidence which fellow-traveller of one of the new teachers, and, had been asserted to attend the Founder of the by its unsophisticated correspondency with let-religion, (which would have been to enter upters of that person still extant, proving itself on another, and a more general question,) yet to be written by some one well acquainted with we are to bear in mind, that without previously the subject of the narrative, which history con- supposing the existence or the pretence of such tains accounts of travels, persecutions, and martyrdoms, answering to what the former reasons lead us to expect: when we lay together these considerations, which taken separately, are, I think, correctly, such as I have stated them in the preceding chapters, there cannot much doubt remain upon our minds, but that a number of persons at that time appeared in the world, publicly advancing an extraordinary story, and for the sake of propagating the belief of that story, voluntarily incurring great personal dangers, traversing seas and kingdoms, exerting great industry, and sustaining great extremities of ill usage and persecution. It is also proved, that the same persons, in consequence of their persuasion, or pretended persuasion, of the truth of what they asserted, entered upon a course of life in many respects new and singular. evidence, there could have been no place for the discussion of the argument at all. Thus, for example, whether the prophecies, which the Jews interpreted to belong to the Messiah, were, or were not applicable to the history of Jesus of Nazareth, was a natural subject of debate in those times; and the debate would proceed, without recurring at every turn to his miracles, because it set out with supposing these; inasmuch as without miraculous marks and tokens, (real or pretended,) or without some such great change effected by his means in the public condition of the country, as might have satisfied the then received interpretation of these prophecies, I do not see how the question could ever have been entertained. Apollos, we read, “mightily convinced the Jews, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ;" but unless Jesus had exhibited some From the clear and acknowledged parts of distinction of his person, some proof of supernathe case, I think it to be likewise in the tural power, the argument from the old Scriphighest degree probable, that the story, for tures could have had no place. It had nowhich these persons voluntarily exposed them- thing to attach upon. A young man calling selves to the fatigues and hardships which they himself the Son of God, gathering a crowd endured, was a miraculous story; I mean, that about him, and delivering to them lectures of they pretended to miraculous evidence of some morality, could not have excited so much as a kind or other. They had nothing else to stand doubt among the Jews, whether he was the upon. The designation of the person, that is object in whom a long series of ancient proto say, that Jesus of Nazareth, rather than phecies terminated, from the completion of any other person, was the Messiah, and as which they had formed such magnificent expecsuch the subject of their ministry, could only tations, and expectations of a nature so oppobe founded upon supernatural tokens attribut-site to what appeared; I mean, no such doubt ed to him. Here were no victories, no con- could exist when they had the whole case bequests, no revolutions, no surprising elevation fore them, when they saw him put to death of fortune, no achievements of valour, of for his officiousness, and when by his death the strength, or of policy, to appeal to; no discoveries in any arts or science, no great efforts of genius or learning to produce. A Galilean peasant was announced to the world as a di evidence concerning him was closed. Again, the effect of the Messiah's coming, supposing Jesus to have been he, upon Jews, upon Gen Acts xviii, 28. tiles, upon their relation to each other, upon of this the following proofs may be deduced their acceptance with God, upon their duties from general considerations, and from consiand their expectations; his nature, authority, derations prior to any inquiry into the particuoffice, and agency; were likely to become sub- lar reasons and testimonies by which the aujects of much consideration with the early vo- thority of our histories is supported. taries of the religion, and to occupy their attention and writings. I should not however expect, that in these disquisitions, whether preserved in the form of letters, speeches, or set treatises, frequent or very direct mention of his miracles would occur. Still miraculous evidence lay at the bottom of the argument. In the primary question, miraculous pretensions, and miraculous pretensions alone, were what they had to rely upon. That the original story was miraculous, is very fairly also inferred from the miraculous powers which were laid claim to by the Christians of succeeding ages. If the accounts of these miracles be true, it was a continuation of the same powers; if they be false, it was an imitation, I will not say, of what had been wrought, but of what had been reported to have been wrought, by those who preceded them. That imitation should follow reality, fiction should be grafted upon truth; that, if miracles were performed at first, miracles should be pretended afterwards; agrees so well with the ordinary course of human affairs, that we can have no great difficulty in believing it. The contrary supposition is very improbable, namely, that miracles should be pretended to, by the followers of the apostles and first emissaries of the religion, when none were pretended to, either in their own persons or that of their Master, by these apostles and emissaries themselves. In the first place, there exists no trace or vestige of any other story. It is not, like the death of Cyrus the Great, a competition between opposite accounts, or between the credit of different historians. There is not a document, or scrap of account, either contemporary with the commencement of Christianity, or extant within many ages after that commencement, which assigns a history substantially different from ours. The remote, brief, and incidental notices of the affair, which are found in heathen writers, so far as they do go, go along with us. They bear testimony to these facts:-that the institution originated from Jesus; that the Founder was put to death, as a malefactor, at Jerusalem, by the authority of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate; that the religion nevertheless spread in that city, and throughout Judea; and that it was propagated thence to distant countries; that the converts were numerous; that they suffered great hardships and injuries for their profession; and that all this took place in the age of the world which our books have assigned. They go on further, to describe the manners of Christians, in terms perfectly conformable to the accounts extant in our books; that they were wont to assemble on a certain day; that they sang hymns to Christ as to a god; that they bound themselves by an oath not to commit any crime, but to abstain from theft and adultery, to adhere strictly to their promises, and not to deny money deposited in their hands; that they worshipped him who was crucified in Palestine; that this their first lawgiver had taught them that they were all brethren; that they had a great contempt for There is satisfactory evidence that many, pro- the things of this world, and looked upon them fessing to be original witnesses of the Chris-as common; that they flew to one another's tian miracles, passed their lives in labours, relief; that they cherished strong hopes of dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone immortality; that they despised death, and in attestation of the accounts which they de- surrendered themselves to sufferings."+ This is livered, and solely in consequence of their be- the account of writers who viewed the subject lief of those accounts; and that they also sub- at a great distance; who were uninformed and mitted, from the same motives, to new rules of uninterested about it. It bears the characters conduct. CHAPTER VII. IT being then once proved, that the first propagators of the Christian institution did exert activity, and subject themselves to great dangers and sufferings, in consequence and for the sake of an extraordinary, and, I think, we may say, of a miraculous story of some kind or other; the next great question is, Whether the account, which our Scriptures contain, be that story; that which these men delivered, and for which they acted and suffered as they did? This question is, in effect, no other than whether the story which Christians have now, be the story which Christians had then? And See Pliny's Letter.-Bonnet, in his lively way of expressing himself, says,-" Comparing Pliny's Letter with the account of the Acts, it seems to me that I had not taken up another author, but that I was still reading the historian of that extraordinary society." This is strong: but there is undoubtedly an affinity, and all the affinity that could be expected. of their friends are known to be in trouble. In a word, |