of their own systems of infidelity, are more credulous than ordinary, and believe that which is much harder to believe than simply to receive the truth.

CHAPTER XXIII.

INCONSISTENCY AND CREDULITY OF THE REJECTERS OF THE GOSPEL.

REJECTERS of the gospel are exceedingly credulous, and in support of a false system, receive that which is harder to believe than the truth.

Case of a Schoolmaster.-An aged man, who had spent much of his life in teaching a Latin school, had read at times fractions of history, until he had become somewhat acquainted with a few of the facts we have named. This knowledge seemed to detract somewhat from that quietude which he had once possessed in scorning holy things. His restlessness evinced itself occasionally by his impatience and fretfulness under preaching; but he thought himself entirely tranquil, and hated the word Christianity. It so happened that from his intercourse with his books, and with his acquaintances, he learned something of the moral character of the early Christians.-We will pause here long enough to inform the young reader how he may get the same knowledge if he wishes it. As to what kind of persons they were who were baptized in the apostolic age, it is not hard to get an idea, because he may gather the account from friends and enemies. If we hear the character of a noted individual from those who love him, and are not entirely satisfied, we may ask further. Should we

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receive the same account from a number of those who cordially hate him, we feel that this is all the testimony we could have on such a point. It is now (for the point before us) necessary that we should have some correct estimate of what kind of men and women those were who have been called primitive Christians. It may be that if I should refer the reader to the acts of the Apostles, to the writings (or to extracts from the writings) of Clement, Irenæus, Justin, Barnabas, Polycarp, or others, there are some who might enquire after other evidence, saying, that although these had been either Jews or Pagans, yet they were Christians at the time they wrote, and who knows but their partialities blinded them, or induced them to say things of their brethren more favourable than were deserved. If so, then the reader can seek elsewhere for testimony. Let him take the word of those who hated them and put them to the torture. may gather from the brief remarks of Pagan adversaries, the same facts, more circumstantially related by friends to Christ. For example: If we consult the celebrated letter of the younger Pliny to the emperor Trajan, we shall find his statement sufficiently decisive. This Pliny became governor of Pontus and Bithynia, not far from the time of St. John's death, but he had been in public life elsewhere long before. Pliny informs the emperor that he sometimes made the Christians confess under the torture. (Two young females thus tried, he mentions particularly.) He speaks of threatening with death, and ordering away to punishment for their inflexible obstinacy, until we begin to wish for the confession of those who were tortured. We begin to desire an account of their characters and their actions thus obtained. Reader, if you will consult the narra

tive given by Pliny, you will find that the Christians were brought to confess :

1. That they were wont to meet together, on a stated day, before it was light, and sing among themselves, alternately, a hymn to Christ, as God;

2. And bind themselves by an oath (the word sacrament meant oath in the Roman tongue) not to the com mission of any wickedness s;

3.-And not to be guilty of theft; 4.-Not to be guilty of robbery; 5.-Not to be guilty of adultery; 6. Never to falsify their word,

7.-Nor to deny a pledge committed to them when called upon to return it.

The dullest reader, we suppose, has mind enough to see that if it is an enemy's testimony, collected from tortures and laborious research, that the aggregate of their criminal practices amounted to the following, viz. repeated and solemn engagements never to speak falsely, to act dishonestly, or to commit any manner of wickedness, &c., it is certainly praise as loud as though a friend had written, that they were honest and upright in their ways.

Once more, we may gather from the writings of a hearty adversary just the same. Lucian was born a few years after the death of the oldest apostle.

"Lucian, the cotemporary of Celsus, was a bitter enemy of the Christians. In his account of the death of the philosopher Peregrinus, he bears authentic testimony to the principal facts and principles of Christianity; that its founder was crucified in Palestine, and wor. shipped by the Christians, who entertained peculiarly strong hopes of immortal life, and great contempt for

this world and its enjoyments; and that they courageously endured many afflictions on account of their principles, and sometimes surrendered themselves to sufferings.

"Honesty and probity prevailed so much among them that they trusted each other without security. Their Master had earnestly recommended to all his followers mutual love, by which also they were much distinguished. In his piece entitled Alexander or Pseudomantis, he says, that they were well known in the world by the name of Christians; that they were at that time numer. ous in Pontus, Paphlagonia, and the neighbouring countries; and finally, that they were formidable to cheats and impostors." Horne's Introduction. 1 vol.

Reader, these statements, from the haters of the gos. pel, would be amply sufficient (if no one else had written) to furnish us with all the information we desire concerning the meekness and integrity of the early disciples. Go and collect and condense that which has been writ. ten by friends and enemies until you are satisfied; then come and follow on with us to notice what they must believe who cast away the Bible.

Before we proceed, however, we have still another preparatory remark or two to make. As it regards the number of the early Christians, any one who wishes, or who chooses, may inform himself in the same way we have mentioned. For instance, if I read the pagan his. torian, Tacitus, concerning the persecution at Rome, during which St. Paul was put to death, and find him calling those who were burned ingens multitudo, (a vast crowd,) I have testimony concerning the church in that city. For if those martyred were ingens multitudo, then it is no tortured inference to suppose the congregations

from which they were taken, considerably numerous. Again, if we read from Pliny that the heathen temples had been almost deserted, that this superstition (he calls it) had seized, not cities only, but the lesser towns and open country, we may make some inference regarding the number and strength of Christian congregations there and then. The same information may be had from other authors, either friends or foes, or both; but at present we must proceed with our narrative—

We have said that the aged school teacher had picked up some information concerning the Augustan age and the times which followed it. He had a particular friend with whom he was willing at times to converse on the subject of religion, without growing angry, (but not long at once.) This friend made to the old man a certain statement, and asked his belief on several different points. The following is as near the substance of that statement, and of those inquiries, as recollection will restore.

"My friend, I am about to ask you to draw a picture, then to look at it, and to meditate on it calmly, for a few minutes. I am not about to ask you to describe, and then observe, all the churches and congregations of the Roman empire in the time of Nero or of Trajan. I will only ask you to notice closely for a time one or two hundred churches, or Christian assemblies; these you may select wherever you choose; from Greece, Asia Minor, or from Africa, or collect some from every portion of the mass. No matter, only fix your eye on one or two hundred of these congregations. Let them be neither the larger nor the smaller, but churches of the medium size. You know that as it is now, so it was then, these congregations were not composed of any one