The Evidences of Christianity

own time. His celebrated letter to Trajan was written about seventy years after Christ's death; and the information to be drawn from it so far as it is connected with our argument, relates principally to two points: first, to the number of Christians in Bithynia and Pontus, which was so considerable as to induce the governor of these provinces to speak of them in the following terms: Multi, omnis ætatis, utriusque sexus etiam ; —neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam et agros, superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est.' There are many of every age, and of both sexes ;-nor bas the contagion of this superstition seized cities only, but smaller towns also, and the open country. Great exertions must have been used by the preachers of Christianity to produce this state of things within this time. Se. condly, to a point which has been already noticed, and which I think of importance to be observed, namely, the sufferings to which the Christians were exposed, without any public persecution being denounced against them by sovereign authority, For, from Pliny's doubt how he was to act, his silence concerning any subsisting law on the subject, his requesting the emperor's rescript, and the emperor, agreeably to his request, propounding a rule for his direction, without reference to any prior rule, it may be inferred, that there was, at that time, no public edict in force against the Christians. Yet from this same epistle of Pliny it appears that accusations, trials, and examinations, were, and had been, going on against them in the provinces over which he presided; that schedules were delivered by anonymous informers, containing the names of persons who were suspected of holding or of favouring the religion; that in consequence of these informations, many had been apprehended, of whom some boldly avowed their profession, and died in the cause; others denied that they were Christians; others, acknowledging that they had once been Christians, declared that they had long ceased to be such.' All which demonstrates, that the profession

a of Christianity was at that time (in that country at ■least) attended with fear and danger: and yet this took i place without any edict from the Roman sovereign, commanding or authorizing the persecution of Christians. This observation is farther confirmed by a rescript of Adrian to Minucius Fundanus, the proconsul of Asia: from which rescript it appears that the custom of the people of Asia was to proceed $ against the Christians with tumult aud uproar. This disorderly practice, I say, is recognized in the edict, because the emperor enjoins, that for the future, if the Christians were guilty, they should be legally brought to trial, and not be pursued by importunity and clamour.

Martial wrote a few years before the younger Pliny; and as his manner was, made the sufferings of the Christians the subject of his ridicule.t Nothing, however, could shew the notoriety of the fact with more certainty than this does. Martial's testimony, as well indeed as Pliny's, goes also to another point, viz. that the deaths of these men were martyrdoms in the strictest sense, that is to say, were so voluntary, that it was in their power, at the time of pronouncing the sentence, to have averted the execution, by consenting to join in heathen sacrifices.

The constancy, and by consequence the sufferings, of the Christians of this period, is also referred to by Epictetus, who imputes their intrepidity to madness, or to a kind of fashion or habit; and about fifty years afterward, by Marcus Aurelius, who ascribes it to obstinacy. Is it possible (Epictetus asks), that a man may arrive at this temper, and become indifferent to those things, from madness or from habit, as the Galileans?' 'Let this preparation of the mind (to die) arise from its own judgment, and not from obstinacy like the Christians.'§

*Lard. Heath. Test. vol. ii. p. 110.
In matutinâ nuper spectatos arenâ
Mucius, imposuit qui sua membra focis,
Si patiens fortisque tibi durusque videtur,
Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes;

Epict. 1. iv. c. 7.

Marc. Aur. Med. 1. xi. c. 3.

CHAP. III.

here is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct.

Or the primitive condition of Christianity, a distant only and general view can be acquired from heathen writers. It is in our own books that the detail and interior of the transaction must be sought for. And this is nothing different from what might be expected. Who would write a history of Christianity, but a Christian? Who was likely to record the travels, sufferings, labours, or successes, of the apostels, but one of their own number, or of their followers? Now these books come up in their accounts to the full extent of the proposition which we maintain. We have four histories of Jesus Christ. We have a history taking up the narrative from his death, and carrying on an account of the propagation of the religion, and of some of the most eminent persons engaged in it, for a space of nearly thirty years. We have, what some may think still more original, a collection of letters, written by certain principal agents in the business, upon the busi ness, and in the midst of their concern and connexion with it. And we have these writings severally attesting the point which we contend for, viz. the sufferings of the witnesses of the history, and attesting it in every variety of form in which it can be conceived to appear directly and indirectly, expressly and incidentally, by assertion, recital, and allusion, by narratives of facts, and by arguments and discourses built upon these facts, either referring to them, or necessarily presupposing them.

I remark this variety, because, in examining ancient records, or indeed any species of testimony, it is, in my opinion, of the greatest importance to at

Nam cum dicatur, tunicâ præsente molestâ,
Ure manum: plus est dicere, Non facio.
Forsan 'thure manum.'

tend to the information or grounds of argument which are casually and undesignedly disclosed; forasmuch as this species of proof is, of all others, the least liable to be corrupted by fraud or misrepresentation.

I may be allowed, therefore, in the inquiry which is now before us, to suggest some conclusions of this sort, as preparatory to more direct testimony.

1. Our books relate, that Jesus Christ, the founder of the religion, was, in consequence of his undertaking, put to death, as a malefactor, at Jerusalem. This point at least will be granted, because it is no more than what Tacitus has recorded. They then proceed to tell us, that the religion was, notwithstanding, set forth at this same city of Jerusalem, propagated thence throughout Judea, and afterward preached in other parts of the Roman empire. These points also are fully confirmed by Tacitus, who informs us, that the religion, after a short check, broke out again in the country where it took its rise; that it not only spread throughout Judea, but had reached Rome, and that it had there great multitudes of converts; and all this within thirty years after its commencement. Now these facts afford a strong inference in behalf of the proposition which we maintain. What could the disciples of Christ expect for themselves when they saw their Master put to death? Could they hope to escape the dangers in which he had perished? If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you, was the warning of common sense. With this example before their eyes, they could not be without a full sense of the peril of their future enterprise.

2. Secondly, all the histories agree in representing Christ as fortelling the persecution of his followers:

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all na tions for my name's sake.'*

When affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.'t

"They shall lay hands on you, and persecute you, Matt. xxiv. 9.

+ Mark iv. 17.

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