SECTION II.

ARGUMENT FROM THE RAPID PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY

ON ITS FIRST APPEARANCE.

1. In the consideration of the subject of this section we shall have several particulars which, for the better understanding of the matter, will require a separate examination. The unparalleled progress which the religion of Jesus Christ made on its first promulgation, is a fact of great interest to our inquiry, and it is a fact, we believe, which can be accounted for on no ground whatever but that of the truth of the Gospel history. If what is stated in this concerning the miracles of Christ and the Apostles be mere fiction, then have we a mighty and wonderful effect, for the existence of which no cause adequate to its production can be assigned. This will be shown in what follows, which, to render it more distinct, we shall divide into three parts or particulars.

2. First-The character and situation of the disciples. As we have already made some observations on this head, a few words will answer our purpose. The disciples and Apostles, with the exception of Paul, were men of low estate, their employments were of the most humble kind, as tax-gatherers and fishermen, and they could of course have had but little time for the acquisition of knowledge, or the improvement of their minds. They had been all

their lives, previous to becoming followers of Jesus, employed in supporting themselves and their families by their honest industry. It will be seen by the reader, therefore, that they could have known but very little of men and things, and that they were the last persons to be thought of for undertaking such an enterprise as the conversion of the world to any religion, much less to such as they taught. And it would seem that any person who is disposed to weigh the matter, will admit that if they were prospered to any great extent it was surely remarkable, and contrary to all that we know of the history of man: any one would admit this, we think, if he would not admit that their success must have been owing to some other power than that of their own ignorance and obscurity. Let it be remembered, then, that the first instruments employed in the promulgation of Christianity, were men of humble birth and condition, who had neither influence, power, nor knowledge of themselves, to aid them in the mighty work which they had undertaken. We come next to consider the nature of the religion which they offered to the world, and of the facts connected with it, from which it took its rise.

3. Second-The materials with which they had to work. In the very outset of their undertaking, the disciples met with an insuperable difficulty, provided they had no means of establishing their cause but their own powers of persuasion. The life and death of their leader, and especially the manner of his death and crucifixion, at once threw up in their pathway a barrier of no small magnitude. The views of the Jews and Romans with regard to cruci. fixion, will explain our meaning, and show the strong feelings which these first preachers of the faith had to combat. Among the Jews, death by crucifixion was held in absolute horror, and they regarded him who was crucified, not only as an object of execration from men, but as

abandoned and cast off of God. The saying of their law, "Cursed is every one that is hanged on a tree," rang in their ears as the death-knell of hope and mercy to all who fell within its application. Hence they took every opportunity to cast reproach and odium upon the Christians and their religion, on account of the death of its author on the cross. "The person whom you call your Messiah," says Trypho, the Jew, in his debate with Justin Martyr, in 140,"incurred the last disgrace and ignominy, for he fell under the greatest curse in the law of God he was crucified! And we hesitate with regard to believing one who perished so ignominiously." Such was the feeling which Christianity had to encounter on the part of the Jews.

4. The heathen views of crucifixion were equally opposed to the success of Christianity, and were calculated in every way to prevent its reception among the different people composing the Roman empire. It was a punishment inflicted only on the most notorious criminals and malefactors, and on slaves. And it is said by some, that it was not inflicted on criminals unless they were slaves ; for it was thought too infamous a punishment for freemen, be their crimes what they might. It was considered by all as the most shameful and ignominious death to which a poor wretch could be exposed. In the minds of these people it was a combination of every circumstance of "odium, disgrace, and public scandal."* Hence comes the expression of the Apostle Paul, "We preach Christ crucified-unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." To the nations of Greece and Rome, the idea of making one who had suffered the dis

* Horne's Introductien, v. iii. pp. 140-152. A. Clarke on Matt. xxvii. 35. Adam's Roman Ant. p. 230

+1 Cor. i. 23.

graceful and infamous punishment of a slave, the author of a religion for the world, was indeed foolishness in the ́superlative; and they looked with pity and contempt upon the Apostles for engaging in such a ridiculous and hopeless enterprise. "From this circumstance," says Justin Martyr," the heathen are fully convinced of our madness for giving the second place after the immutable and eternal God, and Father of all, to a person who was crucified." Such were the feelings with which the heathen looked upon the disciples of Jesus, and such the strong prejudice against which they had to contend at every step of their progress. And with such a foundation as this to begin with, we leave the unbeliever to decide what prospect there was of success, while we proceed to point out another difficulty.

5. The religion of Jesus Christ was in the very commencement at war with the long-cherished opinions, the deeply-venerated superstitions, and all the ancient and hallowed practices and rites, both of the Jews and the heathen. It began by sweeping down every other religion upon the face of the earth; it admitted of no compromise, it professed to build itself on the ruins of all others, and in unequivocal language denounced all other gods but One, and all other worship but that of the heart.

6. To the Jew it came in condemnation of his long prayers, repeated fasts, and tithes of annis, cummin, and mint, while weightier matters were omitted. Yea, more than this-it came to him with the startling annunciation that the dispensation of his great and honored prophet was at an end; that the law which he reverenced above all things was to be abolished, and with it all their proud pre-eminence as the chosen of God. The glory and the splendor of the temple service were to give place to the unadorned and simple worship of the humble Nazarene.

All form and ceremonies were to be done away, and broad phylacteries, and greetings in the market, were to be as forgotten things. And they were to look upon the despised Gentiles as their brethren, as children of Abraham, and heirs of the promise through faith. "All this must be done," was the language. which the new religion addressed to the narrow and prejudiced Jew. Let the reader ask himself how far, by human persuasion alone, under these circumstances, the master or the disciples would be likely to advance, with a people who have been famed for their bigotry and exclusiveness, and for a strong attachment to their religious institutions.

7. To the heathen did this religion come in a like habiliment. It commanded them to away with their gods of brass, and wood, and stone,-to cast down their temples, and altars, and shrines, and "turn from these vanities unto the living God." It told them that all their deities were false, that they were creatures of the imagination, and that all their past worship had been folly and absurdity. The most sacred superstitions were denounced as abominations, and the practices which their fathers had honored, and which themselves had known from their youth up, their religious games, their offerings, and sacrifices, and omens, and oracles, were all given to the winds by this upstart religion. The philosophy and learning of the sages, the subtle speculations of their Platos and Ciceros, and a host of other luminaries, were given over to a like fate, and their teachers and wise men were pronounced "blind leaders of the blind." And by whom? Why, by a band of poor mechanics and fishermen from Judea! by a few obscure individuals from a nation universally despised and detested! Was such a presumption in such men to be endured by the lofty spirits of Greece and Rome? Were they to bring all their learning and philosophy, and lay it down as worthless trash at