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ing absurdities in relation to the disciples of Christ; he is forced to admit "that a great number of people on a sudden, and without any reason, upwards of seventeen hundred years ago, took it into their heads to believe, that they were eye-witnesses to many miracles which never happened that they were even themselves the subjects of miraculous operations which they never experienced, and that they persuaded thousands of others to believe the same," and this notwithstanding they all knew, at the same time, that it was false !

17. But we need not press this farther. The astonishing progress of Christianity under all the disadvantages which have been named, and in the face of persecution, chains, imprisonment, and death, can never be accounted for, except upon the truth of the Gospel history. And it is believed, that any one who will divest himself of all prejudice, and look upon these things with the calm eye of Reason and true Philosophy, cannot turn away without the conviction that there was at work here a more than human Power, that the spirits of these poor peasants and fishermen of Judea were baptized into the wisdom of God, their tongues unloosed, and their hands strengthened with the might of miracles.

SECTION III.

ARGUMENT FROM THE SUFFERINGS OF THE FIRST

CHRISTIANS.

1. THE sufferings of the early Christians almost exceed belief; for it is difficult to bring ourselves to credit the unwelcome fact, that men could be so nearly transformed into demons as were the persecutors of the meek and unoffending followers of Christ. No evil that can be imagined, no punishment which it was possible for the most fiendish to invent, was left untried against these poor people, and every engine which the hatred and vengeance of their enemies could command, was set in motion to crush them and their detested religion.

2. The Jews, according to Justin Martyr, sent persons into all parts of the earth to denounce the Christians as impious and heretical. Their Rabbis pronounced curses against them in the synagogues, and solemnly charged the people to hold no intercourse with them. They seized every opportunity to accuse them that they might be put to death, and hesitated not at all to swear to the most abominable falsehoods against them. At the hands of the heathen they fared no better. They were described as the most abandoned of men; the most unnatural and revolting crimes were charged upon them, as feeding upon

human flesh, and after the horrible repast, extinguishing the lights and indulging in the foulest deabuchery.* Domestics were solicited to give evidence against them, and murders were purposely committed by others that the Christians might be accused; and for this purpose their children and wives were put to the torture, that in their agony they might drop something to furnish matter of charge. But they went farther than this.

3. Mr. Gibbon, who will not surely be charged with exaggeration, holds the following language:-" If the empire had been afflicted with any recent calamity, a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tiber had, or the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks; if the earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced that the crimes and impiety of the Christians, who were spared by the excessive lenity of the government, had at length provoked the Divine Justice. The impatient clamors of the multitude denounced them as the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the severest tortures, and required with irresistible vehemence that their leaders should be apprehended instantly and cast to the lions." This testimony of Mr. Gibbon is fully established by the testimony of the heathen writers themselves, as will be seen in the following.

4. Tacitus tells us that when the calamity of the great fire fell upon Rome, Nero "inflicted the most exquisite tortures upon the Christians.” "They died in torments, and their torments were embittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others were sown up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smeared over with combustible materials,

*Lardner's Jewish Testimonies, c. ii. Works, vol. vi. pp. 388 -392.

were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the spectacle, which was accompanied with the games of the circus, while Nero mingled with the multitude as a charioteer." And all these horrible sufferings were heaped upon them, he says, "not so much for the crime of burning the city, as for their hatred of human kind." To these punishments to which the Christians were subjected, the poets Juvenal and Martial are supposed to allude, as they both speak of the garments of pitch and sulphur, which the latter calls "the troublesome coat," making himself merry with their torments. Epictetus, the philosopher, and Marcus Antoninus, the emperor, speak of the obstinacy with which the Christians died; that is, their firmness. Pliny bears witness also to the sufferings and death of the Christians.*

5. The whole matter is thus thrown together by Horne: "By the magistrates they were subjected to heavy fines, their property was confiscated, and they made to suffer a variety of ignominious punishments, which to generous minds are more grievous than death itself. They were imprisoned and proscribed; they were banished, they were condemned to work in the mines; they were thrown

* Some notion of the terrible slaughter of the Christians by their heathen persecutors may be gathered from the startling fact that in the persecution under Diocletian, which commenced in the year 303,"not fewer than 17,000 suffered death in one month! In the province of Egypt alone, no less than 144,000 are said to have died by the violence of their persecutors, and 700,000 through the fatigues of banishment, or of the public works to which they were condemned." See Townley's Intro. p. 33, and especially Mosheim, cent. iv. P. I. c. i. For further particulars see Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. xvi. Paley's Evidences. Horne's Intro. v. i. 350. Christian Examiner, v. ii, pp. 330-332, New Series. Gro tius de Veritate, l. ii 19.

to be devoured by wild beasts, or made to fight with them in the theatres for the diversion of the people; they were put to the rack; they were placed in red-hot iron chairs; they were crucified, impaled, burnt alive;-in short, they were subjected to all the torments which cruelty and barbarity, refined and inflamed by revenge, could invent ;— torments, the bare mention of which, excites horror in the human mind."

6. Now suppose the Gospel history a fiction, and the disciples impostors, and we have before us another problem which no human ingenuity can solve. How can it be accounted for, that these men should fearlessly and with unshrinking firmness, encounter such dreadful and tremendous sufferings, unless the facts of the Christian religion be true? Can it be possible that the disciples would have submitted to be tortured, and put to death in every way, and with all possible cruelties, if they knew that they were testifying to falsehood, and confession would save them? Would they have endured all this long train of evils and horrors for the purpose of keeping up an imposition, for the support of which they could have had no earthly motive? an imposition which from the beginning had brought them only stripes, imprisonment, chains and racks? Would they affirm what they knew to be utterly false, that Christ had risen from the dead, and die in attestation of the falsehood, when truth would have secured to them life, and wealth, and honors ? And would thousands of their followers declare that they had seen them work miracles, and submit to the terrible tortures inflicted by Nero, and to a death of the most excruciating agonies, rather than reject what they were satisfied from the beginning was a base and wicked lie? Have impostors ever before or since done the like? We ask the unbeliever to pause here also, and see if he can reconcile this conduct of the Apostles and first Christians with the known

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