had fo thoroughly examined the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, and the excellency of that religion which he taught, and was fo entirely convinced of both, that he became a profelyte, and died a martyr. IV. Ariftides was an Athenian philofopher, at the fame time famed for his learning and wifdom, but converted to Chriftianity. As it cannot be queftioned that he perufed and approved the apology of Quadratus, in which is the paffage juft now cited, he joined with him in an apology of his own, to the fame emperor, on the fame subject. This apology, though now loft, was extant in the time of Ado Vinnenfis, A. D. 789, and highly efteemed by the most learned Athenians, as that author witneffes. It must have contained great arguments for the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, because in it he afferted the divinity of our Saviour, which could not but engage him in the proof of his miracles. V. I do allow that, generally speaking, a man is not so acceptable and unquestioned an evidence in facts which make for the advancement of his own party. But we must confider, that, in the cafe before us, the perfons to whom we appeal were of an oppofite party, till they were perfuaded of the truth of thofe very facts which they report. They bear evidence to a hiftory in defence of Chriftianity, the truth of which hiftory was their motive to embrace Chriftianity. They atteft facts which they had heard while they were yet Heathens; and, had they not found reafon to believe them, they would ftill have continued Heathens, and have made no mention of them in their writings. other VI. When a man is born under Chriftian parents, and trained up in the profeffion of that religion from a child, he generally guides himself by the rules of Chriftian faith, in believing what is delivered by the Evangelifts: but the learned Pagans of antiquity, before they became Chriftians, were only guided by the common rules of historical faith; that is, they examined the nature of the evidence which was to be met with in common fame, tradition, and the writings of thofe perfons who related them, together with the number, concurrence, veracity, and private characters of thofe perfons; and being convinced, on all accounts, that they had the fame reafon to believe the hiftory of our Saviour, as that of any perfon to which they themselves were not actually eye-witneffes, they were bound by all the rules of hiftorical faith, and of right reafon, to give credit to this hiftory. This they did accordingly, and in confequence of it publifhed the fame truths them felves, fuffered many afflictions, and very often death itfelf, in the affertion of them. When I fay, that an hiftorical belief of the acts of our Saviour induced thefe learned Pagans to embrace his doctrine, I do not deny that there were many other motives which conduced to it; as the excellency of his precepts, the fulfilling of prophecies, the miracles of his difciples, the irreproachable lives and magnanimous fufferings of their followers, with other confiderations of the fame nature: but, whatever other collateral arguments wrought more more or less with philofophers of that age, it is certain that a belief in the hiftory of our Saviour was one motive with every new convert, and that upon which all others turned, as being the very basis and foundation of Chriftianity. VII. To this I must further add, that, as we have already feen many particular facts, which are recorded in Holy Writ, attefted by particular Pagan authors, the teftimony of those I am now going to produce, extends to the whole hiftory of our Saviour, and to that continued series of actions which are related of him and his difciples in the books of the New Teftament. VIII. This evidently appears from their quotations out of the Evangelifts, for the confirmation of any doctrine or account of our bleffed Saviour. Nay, a learned man of our nation, who examined the writings of our most ancient fathers in another view, refers to feveral paffages in Irenæus, Tertullian, Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, and Cyprian, by which he plainly fhews, that each of thefe writers afcribed to the four Evangelifts by name their refpective hiftories; fo that there is not the leaft room for doubting of their belief in the hiftory of our Saviour, as recorded in the Gofpels. I fhall only add, that three of the five fathers here mentioned, and probably four, were Pagans converted to Chriftianity, as they were all of them very inquifitive and deep in the knowledge of heathen learning and philofophy. 1. Character of the times in which the Chriftian Religion was propagated, 11. And of many who embraced it. III. Three eminent and early inftances. IV. Multitudes of learned men who came over to it. V. Belief in our Saviour's hiftory, the first motive to their converfion. verts. I. IT happened very providentially to the honour of the Chriftian religion, that it did not take its rife in the dark illiterate ages of the world, but at a time when arts and fciences were at their height, and when there were men who made it the bufine fs of their lives to fearch after truth, and fift the feveral opinions of philofophers and wife men concerning the duty, the end, and chief happiness of reasonable crea tures. II. Several of these therefore, when they had informed themselves of our Saviour's hiftory, and examined with unprejudiced minds the doctrines and manners of his difciples and followers, were so struck and convinced, that they profeffed themfelves of that fect; notwithftanding by this profeffion, in that juncture of time, they bid farewell to all the pleasures of this life, renounced all the views of ambition, engaged in an uninterrupted course of severities, and exposed themselves to public hatred and contempt, to fufferings of all kinds, and to death itself. III. Of this fort we may reckon thofe three early converts to Chriftianity, who each of them was a member of a fenate famous for its wifdom and learning. Jofeph the Arimathean was of the Jewish Sanhedrim; Dionyfius, of the Athenian Areopagus; and Flavius Clemens, of the Roman Senate; nay, at the time of his death, conful of Rome. Thefe three were fo thoroughly fatisfied of the truth of the Chriftian religion, that the first of them, according to all the reports of antiquity, died a martyr for it; as did the fecond, unlefs we difbelieve Ariftides, his fellow-citizen and contemporary; and the third, as we are informed both by Roman and Chriftian authors. IV. Among thofe innumerable multitudes who in most of the known nations of the world came over to Chriftianity at its firft appearance, we may be fure, there were great numbers of wife and learned men, befides thofe whofe names are in the Chriftian records, who without doubt took care to examine the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, before they would leave the religion of their country and their forefathers, for the fake of one that would not only cut them off from the allurements of this world, but fubject them to every thing terrible or difagreeable in it. Tertullian tells the Roman governors, that their corporations, councils, armies, tribes, companies, the palace, fenate, and courts of judicature, were filled with Chriftians; as Arnobius afferts, that men of the fineft parts and learning, orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, phyficians, philofophers, defpiing the fentiments they had been once fond of, took up their reft in the Chriftian religion. V. Who can imagine that men of this character did not thoroughly inform themfelves of the hiftory of that perfon whofe doctrines they embraced? for, however confonant to reafon his precepts appeared, how good foever were the effects which they produced in the world, nothing could have tempted men to acknowledge him as their God and Saviour, but their being firmly perfuaded of the miracles he wrought, and the many atteftations of his divine miffion, which were to be met with in the hiftory of his life. This was the groundwork of the Chriftian religion; and, if this failed, the whole fuperftructure funk with it. This point, therefore, of the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, as recorded by the Evangelifts, is every where taken for granted in the writings of thofe who from Pagan philofophers became Chriftian authors, and who, by reafon of their converfion, are to be looked upon as of the ftrongest collateral teftimony for the truth of what is delivered concerning our Saviour. VI. Befides innumerable authors that are loft, we have the undoubted names, works, or fragments of feveral Pagan philofophers, which fhew them to have been as learned as any unconverted Heathen authors of the age in which they lived. If we look into the greatest nurseries of learning in thofe ages of the world, we find in Athens, Dionyfius, Quadratus, Ariftides, Athenagoras; and, in Alexandria, Dionyfius, Clemens, Ammonius, and Anatolius, to whom whom we may add Origen; for though his father was a Chriftian martyr, he became, without all controverfy, the moft learned and able philofopher of his age, by his education at Alexandria, in that famous feminary of arts and sciences. 1. The learned Pagans had means and opportunities of informing themselves of the truth of our Saviour's biftory. II. From the proceedings, III. The characters, fufferings, IV. And miracles of the perfons who published it. V. How thefe first Apostles perpetuated their tradition, by ordaining perfons to fucceed them. VI. How their fucceffors in the three first centuries preferved their tradi tion. VII. That five generations might derive this tradition from Chrift, to the end of the third century. VIII. Four eminent Chriftians that delivered it down fucceffively to the year of our Lord 254. IX. The faith of the four abovementioned perfons the fame with that of the churches of the Eaft, of the IV eft, and of Egypt. X. Another perfon added to them, who brings us to the year 343, and that many other lifts might be added in as direct and fort a fucceffion. XI. Why the tradition of the three first centuries more authentic than that of any other age, proved from the converfation of the primitive Chriftians; XII. From the manner of initiating men into their religion; XIII. From the correspondence between the churches; XIV. From the long lives of feveral of Chrift's difciples, of which two inftances. I. IT now therefore only remains to confider whether thefe learned men had means and opportunities of informing themfelves of the truth of our Saviour's hiftory; for, unless this point can be made out, their teftimonies will appear invalid, and their inquiries ineffectual. II. As to this point, we must confider, that many thousands had feen the tranfactions of our Saviour in Judea, and that may hundred thousands had received an account of them from the mouths of thofe who were actually eye-witneffes. I fhall only mention among thefe eye-witneffes, the twelve Apostles, to whom we mu add St. Paul, who had a particular call to this high office, though many other difciles and followers of Chrift had alfo their fhare in the publishing of this wonderful history. We learn from the ancient records of Chrif tianity, that many of the Apoftles and Difciples made it the exprefs bufinefs of their lives, travelled into the remoteft parts of the world, and in all places gathered multitudes about them, to acquaint them with the history and doctrines of their crucified Mafter. And indeed, were all Chriftian records of thefe proceedings entirely loft, as Many have been, the effect plainly evinces the truth of them; for G 4 how how elfe during the Apoftles lives could Chriftianity have fpread itfelf with fuch an amazing progrefs through the feveral nations of the Roman empire? How could it fly like lightning, and carry conviction with it, from one end of the earth to the other? III. Heathens therefore of every age, fex, and quality, born in the most different climates, and bred up under the moft different inftitutions, when they faw men of plain fenfe, without the help of learning, armed with patience and courage, inftead of wealth, pomp, or power, expreffing in their lives thofe excellent doctrines of morality, which they taught as delivered to them from our Saviour, averring that they had feen his miracles during his life, and conversed with him after his death; when, I fay, they faw no fufpicion of falfehood, treachery, or worldly intereft, in their behaviour and converfation, and that they fubmitted to the moft ignominious and cruel deaths, rather than retract their teftimony, or even be filent in matters which they were to publish by their Saviour's efpecial command; there was no reafon to doubt of the veracity of thofe facts which they related, or of the divine miffion in which they were employed. IV. But even these motives to faith in our Saviour would not have been fufficient to have brought about in fo few years fuch an incredible number of converfions, had not the Apoftles been able to exhibit ftill greater proofs of the truths which they taught. A few perfons of an odious and defpifed country could not have filled the world with believers, had they not fhewn undoubted credentials from the Divine Perfon who fent them on fuch a meffage, Accordingly we are affured, that they were invefted with the power of working miracles, which was the moft fhort and moft convincing argument that could be produced, and the only one that was adapted to the reafon of all mankind, to the capacities of the wife and ignorant, and could overcome every cavil and every prejudice. Who would not believe that our Saviour healed the fick, and raifed the dead, when it was published by those who themfelves often did the fame miracles, in their prefence, and in his name? Could any reasonable perfon imagine, that God Almighty would arm men with fuch powers to authorise a lie, and eftablish a religion in the world which was difpleafing to him, or that evil fpirits would lend them fuch an effectual affiftance to beat down vice and idolatry? V. When the Apoftles had formed many affemblies in feveral parts of the Pagan world, who gave credit to the glad tidings of the Gofpel, that, upon their departure, the memory of what they had related might not perish, they appointed out of these new converts men of the beft fenfe and of the most unblemished lives, to prefide over these several affemblies, and to inculcate without ceafing what they had heard from the mouths of thefe eye-witneffes. VI. Upon the death of any of thofe fubftitutes to the Apoftles and Difciples of Chrift, his place was filled up with fome other perfon of eminence for his piety and learning, and generally a member of the fame church, who after his deceafe was followed by another |