Pagans in the truth of our Saviour's history, that being the view in which I am to confider them.

II. But left fuch a tradition, though guarded by fo many expedients, fhould wear out by the length of time, the four Evangelifts within about fifty, or, as Theodoret affirms, thirty years, after our Saviour's death, while the memory of his actions was fresh among them, configned to writ ing that hiftory, which for fome years had been publifhed only by the mouth of the Apofiles and Difciples. The further confideration of thefe holy penmen will fall under another part of this discourse.

III. It will be fufficient to obferve here, that in the age which fucceeded the Apoftles, many of their immediate Difciples fent or carried in perfon the books of the four Evangelifts, which had been written by Apoffles, or at leaft approved by them, to most of the Churches which they had planted in the different parts of the world. This was done with fo much diligence, that when Pantanus, a man of great learning and piety, had travelled into India for the propagation of Chriftianity, about the year of our Lord 200, he found among that remote people the Gofpel of St. Matthew, which upon his return from that country he brought with him to Alexandria. This Gofpel is generally fuppofed to have been left in those parts by St. Bartholomew the Apo» ftle of the Indies, who probably carried it with him before the writings of the three other Evangelifts were publifh'd.

IV. That the hiftory of our Saviour, as recorded by the Evangelifts, was the fame with that which had been before delivered by the Apoftles

and

and Difciples, will further appear in the profecu tion of this difcourfe, and may be gathered from the following confiderations.

V. Had these writings differed from the fermons of the firft planters of Chriftianity, either in history or doctrine, there is no queftion but they would have been rejected by thofe Churches which they had already formed. But fo con-' fiftent and uniform was the relation of the Apofiles, that thefe hiftories appeared to be nothing elfe but their tradition and oral atteftations made fixt and permanent. Thus was the fame of our Saviour, which in fo few years had gone through the whole earth, confirmed and perpetuated by fuch records, as would preferve the traditionary account of him to after-ages; and rectify it, if at any time, by paffing through feveral generations, it might drop any part that was meterial, or contract any thing that was falfe or fictitious.

VI. Accordingly we find the fame Jefus Chrift, who was born of a Virgin, who had wrought many miracles in Palestine, who was crucified, rofe again, and afcended into Heaven; I fay, the fame Jefus Chrift had been preached, and was worfhipped, in Germany, France, Spain, and Great-Britain, in Parthia, Media, Mefopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Afia, and Pamphylia, in Italy, Egypt, Afric, and beyond Cyrene, India, and Perfia, and, in fhort, in all the islands and provinces that are vifited by the rifing or fetting fun. The fame account of our Saviour's life and doctrine was delivered by thoufands of Preachers, and believed in thousands of places, who all, as faft as it could be conveyed to them, received the

fame

fame account in writing from the four Evange lifts.

VII. Irenæus to this purpose very aptly remarks, that thofe barbarous nations, who in his time were not poffeft of the written gofpels, and had only learned the hiftory of our Saviour from thofe who had converted them to Chriftianity before the Gospels were written, had among them the fame accounts of our Saviour, which are to be met with in the four Evangelifts. An unconteftible proof of the harmony and concurrence between the holy Scripture and the tradition of the Churches in thofe early times of Chriftia

nity.

VIII. Thus we fee what opportunities the learned and inquifitive heathens had of informing themselves of the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, during the three first Centuries, especially as they lay nearer one than another to the fountain-head: befide which, there were many uncontroverted traditions, records. of Chriftanity, and particular hiftories, that then threw light into thefe matters, but are now intirely loft, by which, at that time, any appearance of contradiction, or feeming difficulties, in the hiftory of the Evangelifts, were fully cleared up and explained: though we meet with fewer appearances of this nature in the hiftory of our Saviour, as related by the four Evange lifts, than in the accounts of any other perfon, published by fuch a number of different hiftorians who lived at fo great a diftance from the prefent age.

IX. Among thofe records which are loft, and were of great ufe to the primitive Chriftians, is the letter to Tiberius, which I have already men

tioned;

tioned'; that of Marcus Aurelius, which I fhall take notice of hereafter; the writings of Hegifippus, who had drawn down the hiftory of Chriftianity to his own time; which was not beyond the middle of the second Century; the genuine Sibylline oracles, which in the firft ages of the Church were eafily diftinguifhed from the fpurious; the records preferved in particular Churches, with many other of the fame nature.

SECTION VIII.

I. The fight of miracles in thofe ages a further confirmation of Pagan Philofophers in the Chriftian faith.

II. The credibility of fuch miracles.

III. A particular inftance.

IV. Martyrdom, why confidered as a standing miracle.

V. Primitive Chriftians thought many of the Martyrs were fupported by a miraculous power: VI. Proved from the nature of their fufferings. VII. How Martyrs further induced the Pagans to embrace Chriftianity.

I.

T

HERE were other means, which I find had a great influence on the learned of the three firft Centuries, to create and confirm in them the belief of our bleffed Saviour's hiftory, which ought not to be paffed over in filence. The firft was, the opportunity they en

joyed

joyed of examining thofe miracles, which were on feveral occafions performed by Chriftians, and appeared in the Church, more or lefs, during these first ages of Chriftianity. Thefe had great weight with the men I am now fpeaking of, who, from learned Pagans, became fathers of the Church ; for they frequently boaft of them in their writings, as atteftations given by God himself to the truth of their religion,

II. At the fame time, that these learned men declare how difingenuous, bafe and wicked it would be, how much beneath the dignity of Philofophy, and contrary to the precepts of Chriftianity, to utter falfhood or forgeries in the fupport of a caufe, though never fo juft in itself, they confidently affert this miraculous power, which then fubfifted in the Church, nay, tell us that they themfelves had been eye-witneffes of it at feveral times, and in feveral inftances ; nay, appeal to the heathens themselves for the truth of feveral facts they relate, nay challenge them to be prefent at their affemblies, and fatisfy themfelves, if they doubt of it; nay we find that Pagan Authors have in fome inftances confeffed this miraculous power.

III. The letter of Marcus Aurelius, whofe army was preserved by a refreshing shower, at the fame time that his enemies were discomfited by a ftorm of lightning, and which the heathen hiftorians themselves allow to have been fupernatural and the effect of magic: I fay, this letter, which afcribed this unexpected affiftance to the prayers of the Chriftians, who then ferved in the army, would have been thought an unquestionable teftimony of the miraculous power I am speaking, of, VOL. III.

had