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by the traditions of the church, and the writings of the Evan⚫ gelifts?

IV. Under this head, I cannot omit that which appears to me a ftanding miracle in the three first centuries, I mean that amazing and fupernatural courage or patience which was fhewn by innumerable multitudes of martyrs in those flow and painful torments that were inflicted on them. I cannot conceive a man placed in the burning iron chair at Lyons, amid the infults and mockeries of a crowded amphitheatre, and ftill keeping his feat; or ftretched upon a grate of iron, over coals of fire, and breathing out his foul among the exquifite fufferings of fuch a tedious execution, rather than renounce his religion, or blafpheme his Saviour. Such trials feem to me above the ftrength of human nature, and able to overbear duty, reason, faith, conviction, nay, and the most abfolute certainty of a future ftate. Humanity, unaffifted in an extraordinary manner, must have shaken off the prefent preffure, and have delivered itself out of such a dreadful diftrefs by any means that could have been fuggefted to it. We can eafily imagine, that many perfons, in fo good a caufe, might have laid down their lives at the gibbet, the stake, or the block: but to expire leisurely among the most exquifite tortures, when they might come out of them, even by a mental refervation, or an hypocrify which was not without a poffibility of being followed by repentance and forgiveness, has fomething in it fo far beyond the force and natural ftrength of mortals, that one cannot but think there was some miraculous power to fupport the sufferer.

V. We find the church of Smyrna, in that admirable letter which gives an account of the death of Polycarp their beloved bishop, mentioning the cruel torments of their early martyrs for Christianity, are of opinion, that our Saviour flood by them in a vifion, and perfonally converfed with them, to give them ftrength and comfort during the bitterness of their long-continued agonies; and we have the story of a young man, who, having fuffered many tortures, efcaped with life, and told his fellow Chriftians, that the pain of them had been rendered tolerable, by the prefence of an angel that ftood by him, and wiped off the tears and fweat which ran down his face whilft he lay under his fufferings. We are affured at leaft that the first martyr for Christianity was encouraged, in his laft moments, by a vifion of that Divine Perfon for whom he fuffered, and into whofe prefence he was then haftening.

VI. Let any man calmly lay his hand upon his heart, and after reading these terrible conflicts in which the ancient martyrs and confeffors were engaged, when they paffed through fuch new inventions and varieties of pain, as tired their tormentors; and ask himself, however zealous and fincere he is in his religion, whether, under fuch acute and lingering tortures, he could ftill have held faft his integrity, and have profeffed his faith to the laft, without a fupernatural affiftance of fome kind or other. For my part, when I confider that it was not an unaccountable obftinacy in a fingle man, or in any particular set of men, in fome extraordinary juncture; but that there

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were multitudes of each sex, of every age, of different countries and conditions, who, for near 300 years together, made this glorious confeffion of their faith, in the midst of tortures, and in the hour of death. I must conclude, that they were either of another make than men are at present, or that they had fuch miraculous fupports as were peculiar to thofe times of Chriftianity, when without them perhaps the very name of it might have been extinguished.

VII. It is certain that the deaths and fufferings of the primitive Chriftians had a great share in the converfion of thofe learned Pagans who lived in the ages of perfecution, which, with fome intervals and abatements, lafted near 300 years after our Saviour. Juftin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, Arnobius, and others, tell us, that this firft of all alarmed their curiofity, roused their attention, and made them ferioufly inquifitive into the nature of that religion which could endue the mind with so much strength, and overcome the fear of death, nay, raise an earneft defire of it, though it appeared in all its terrors. This they found had not been effected by all the doctrines of those philofophers, whom they had thoroughly ftudied, and who had been labouring at this great point. The fight of thefe dying and tormented martyrs engaged them to fearch into the history and doctrines of him. for whom they fuffered. The more they fearched, the more they, were convinced; till their conviction grew fo ftrong, that they themfelves embraced the fame truths, and either actually laid down their lives, or were always in readinefs to do it, rather than depart from

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1. The completion of our Saviour's prophecies confirmed Pagans in their belief of the Gofpet.

II. Origen's obfervation on that of his disciples being brought before kings and governors.

III. On their being perfecuted for their religion;

IV. On their preaching the gospel to all nations;

V. On the deftruction of Jerufalem, and ruin of the Jewish economy.
VI. Thefe arguments ftrengthened by what has happened fince Origen's

time.

I. THE fecond of thofe extraordinary means, of great ufe to the learned and inquifitive Pagans of the three firft centuries, for evincing the truth of the hiftory of our Saviour, was the completion of fuch prophecies as are recorded of him in the Evangelifts. They could not indeed form any arguments from what he foretold, and was fulfilled during his life, becaufe both the prophecy and the completion were over before they were publifhed by the Evangelifts; though, as Origen obferves, what end could there be in forging fome of thefe predictions, as that of St. Peter denying his matter, and all his difciples forfaking him in the greateft extremity, which reflects fo much fhame on the great Apoftle, and on all his companions? Nothing but a ftrict adherence to truth, and to matters of fact, could have prompted the Evangelifts to relate a circumftance VOL. V.

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fo difadvantageous to their own reputation, as that Father has well obferved.

II. But to pursue his reflexions on this fubject. There are predictions of our Saviour recorded by the Evangelifts, which were not completed till after their deaths, and had no likelihood of being fo when they were pronounced by our bleffed Saviour. Such was that wonderful notice he gave them, that they should be brought before governors and kings for his fake, for a teftimony against them and the Gentiles,' Matt. x. 28. with the other like prochecies, by which he foretold that his difciples were to be perfecuted. • Is there any other doctrine in the world,' fays this Father, whofe followers are punished? Can the enemies of Chrift fay, that he knew his opinions were falfe and impious, and that therefore he might well conjecture and foretel what would be the treatment of those perfons who fhould embrace them? Suppofing his doctrines were really fuch, why fhould this be the confequence? What likelihood that men fhould be brought before kings and governors for opinions and tenets of any kind, when this never happened even to the Epicureans, who abfolutely denied a Providence; nor to the Paripatetics themselves, who laughed at the prayers and facrifices which were made to the Divinity? Are there any but the Chriftians, who, according to this prediction of our Saviour, being brought before < kings and governors for his fake, are preffed to their latest gasp of death, by their respective judges, to renounce Chriftianity, and to procure their liberty and reft, by offering the fame facrifices, and taking the fame oaths that others did?"

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III. Confider the time when our Saviour pronounced these words, Matt. x. 32. • Whofoever shall confefs me before men, him will I alfo confefs before my Father which is in heaven: but whofoever 'fhall deny me before men, him will I alfo deny before my Father which is in heaven.' Had you heard him speak after this manner, when as yet his difciples were under no fuch trials, you would certainly have faid within yourself, "If these speeches of Jefus are true, and if, according to his prediction, governors and kings undertake to ruin and deftroy thofe who fhall profefs themselves his difciples, we will believe, not only that he is a prophet, but that he has received power from God fufficient to preferve and propagate his religion; and that he would never talk in fuch a peremptory and difcou raging manner, were he not affured that he was able to fubdue the moft powerful oppofition that could be made against the faith and doctrine which he taught."

IV. Who is not ftruck with admiration, when he represents to himself our Saviour at that time foretelling, that his Gospel should be preached in all the world, for a witnefs unto all nations, or, as Origen (who rather quotes the fenfe than the words), to ferve for a conviction to kings and people, when at the fame time he finds that his gospel has accordingly been preached to Greeks and Barbarians, to the learned and to the ignorant, and that there is no quality or condition of life able to exempt men from fubmitting to the doc

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trine of Chrift? As for us,' fays this great author, in another part of his book againft Celfus, when we fee every day thofe events exactly accomplished which our Saviour foretold at fo great a distance, that his Gospel is preached in all the world," Matt. xxiv. 14. that his difciples go and teach all nations," Matt. xxviii. 19. " and that "those who have received his doctrine are brought, for his "fake, before governors and before kings," Matt. x. 18. we are 'filled with admiration, and our faith in him is confirmed more and more. What clearer and ftronger proofs can Celfus afk for the truth ' of what he spoke?'

V. Origen infifts likewife with great ftrength on that wonderful prediction of our Saviour concerning the deftruction of Jerufalem, pronounced at a time, as he obferves, when there was no likelihood nor appearance of it. This has been taken notice of and inculcated by fo many others, that I fhall refer you to what this Father has faid on this fubject in the first book against Celfus; and as to the accomplishment of this remarkable prophecy, fhall only obferve, that whoever reads the account given us by Jofephus, without knowing his character, and compares it with what our Saviour foretold, would think the hiftorian had been a Christian, and that he had nothing else in view, but to adjuft the event to the prediction.

VI. I cannot quit this head, without taking notice that Origen would ftill have triumphed more in the foregoing arguments, had he lived an age longer, to have feen the Roman emperors, and all their governors and provinces, fubmitting themselves to the Chriftian religion, and glorying in its profeffion, as fo many kings and fovereigns ftill place, their relation to Chrift at the head of their titles.

How much greater confirmation of his faith would he have received, had he feen our Saviour's prophecy ftand good in the deftruction of the temple, and the diffolution of the Jewish economy, when Jews and Pagans united all their endeavours, under Julian the apoftate, to baffle and falfify the prediction! The great preparations that were made for rebuilding the temple, with the hurricane, earthquake, and eruptions of fire, that deftroyed the work, and terrified thofe employed in the attempt from proceeding in it, are related by many hiftorians of the fame age, and the fubftance of the ftory teftified both by Pagan and Jewith writers, as Ammianus Marcellinus, and Zamath David. The learned Chryfoftom, in a fermon against the Jews, tells them this fact was then fresh in the memories even of their young men, that it happened but twenty years ago, and that it was attefted by all the inhabitants of Jerufalem, where they might ftill fee the marks of it in the rubbish of that work from which the Jews defifted in fo great a fright, and which even Julian had not the courage to carry on. This fact, which is in itself so miraculous, and fo indifputable, brought over many of the Jews to Chriftianity, and fhews us, that, after our Saviour's prophecy against it, the temple could not be preferved from the plough paffing over it, by all the care of Titus, who would fain have prevented its deftruction; and that, instead of being re-edified by Julian, all his endea

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vours towards it did but ftill more literally accomplish our Saviour' prediction, that not one ftone fhould be left upon another.'

The ancient Chriftians were fo entirely perfuaded of the force of our Saviour's prophecies, and of the punishment which the Jews had drawn upon themfelves, and upon their children, for the treatment which the Meffiah had received at their hands, that they did not doubt but they would always remain an abandoned and difperfed people, an hiffing and an astonishment among the nations, as they are to this day; in fhort, that they had loft their peculiarity of being God's people, which was now transferred to the body of Chriftians, and which preferved the church of Chrift among all the conflicts, difficulties, and perfecutions, in which it was engaged, as it had preferved the Jewish government and economy for fo many ages, whilft it had the fame truth and vital principle in it, notwithstanding it was fo frequently in danger of being utterly abolished and deftroyed. Origen, in his fourth book againft Celfus, mentioning their being caft out of Jerufalem, the place to which their worship was annexed, deprived of their temple and facrifice, their religious rites and folemnities, and fcattered over the face of the earth, ventures to affure them with a face of confidence, that they would never be re-stablished, fince they had committed that horrid crime against the Saviour of the world. This was a bold affertion in the good man, who knew how this people had been fo wonderfully re-eftablished in former times, when they were almost swallowed up, and in the most desperate ftate of defolation, as in their deliverance out of the Babylonifh captivity, and the oppreffions of Antiochus Epiphanes. Nay, he knew that within lefs than a hundred years before his own time, the Jews had made fuch a powerful effort for their re-establishment under Barchocab, in the reign of 'Adrian, as fhook the whole Roman empire. But he founded his opinion on a fure word of prophecy, and on the punishment they had fo juftly incurred; and we find by a long experience of 1500 years, that he was not mistaken, nay, that his opinion gathers ftrength daily, fince the Jews are now at a greater diftance from any probability of fuch a re-stablishment, than they were when Origen wrote,

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I. The lives of the primitive Chriftians, another means of bringing learned Pagans into their religion.

II. The change and reformation of their manners.

III. This looked upon as fupernatural by the learned Pagans;

IV. And ftrengthened the accounts given of our Saviour's life and hiftory.

V. The Jewish prophecies of our Saviour an argument for the Heathens belief:

VI. Pursued:
VII. Purfued.

I. THERE was one other means enjoyed by the learned Pagans of the three first centuries, for fatisfying them in the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, which I might have fung under one of the fore

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