III, Of this fort we may reckon thofe three early converts to Chriftianity, who each of them was a member of a fenate famous for its wisdom and learning. Jofeph the Arimathean was of the Jewish Sanhedrim; Dionyfius, of the Athenian Areopagus; and Flavius Clemens, of the Roman Senate; nay, at the time of his death, conful of Rome. These three were fo thoroughly fatisfied of the truth of the Chriftian religion, that the firft of them, according to all the reports of antiquity, died a martyr for it; as did the fecond, unJefs we difbelieve Ariftides, his fellow-citizen and contemporary; and the third, as we are informed both by Roman and Chriftian authors.

IV. Among thofe innumerable multitudes who in most of the known nations of the world came over to Christianity at its firft appearance, we may be fure, there were great numbers of wife and learned men, befides thofe whofe names are in the Chriftian records, who without doubt took care to examine the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, before they would leave the religion of their country and their forefathers, for the fake of one that would not only cut them off from the allurements of this world, but fubject them to every thing terrible or difagreeable in it. Tertullian tells the Roman governors, that their corporations, councils, armies, tribes, companies, the palace, fenate, and courts of judicature, were filled with Chriftians; as Arnobius afferts, that men of the fineft parts and learning, orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, phyficians, philofophers, defpifing the fentiments they had been once fond of, took up their rest in the Chriftian religion.

V. Who can imagine that men of this character did not thoroughly inform themfelves of the hiftory of that perfon whofe doctrines they embraced? for, however confonant to reafon his precepts appeared, how good foever were the effects which they produced in the world, nothing could have tempted men to acknowledge him as their God and Saviour, but their being firmly perfuaded of the miracles he wrought, and the many atteftations of his divine miffion, which were to be met with in the hiftory of his life. This was the groundwork of the Chriftian religion; and, if this failed, the whole fuperftructure funk with it, This point, therefore, of the truth of our Saviour's history, as recorded by the Evangelifts, is every where taken for granted in the writings of those who from Pagan philofophers became Chriftian authors, and who, by reafon of their converfion, are to be looked upon as of the ftrongest collateral teftimony for the truth of what is delivered concerning our Saviour.

VI. Befides innumerable authors that are loft, we have the undoubted names, works, or fragments of feveral Pagan philofophers, which fhew them to have been as learned as any unconverted Heathen authors of the age in which they lived. If we look into the greatest nurseries of learning in thofe ages of the world, we find in Athens, Dionyfius, Quadratus, Ariflides, Athenagoras; and, in Alexandria, Dionyfius, Clemens, Ammonius, and Anatolius, to

whom

whom we may add Origen; for though his father was a Chriftian martyr, he became, without all controverfy, the most learned and able philofopher of his age, by his education at Alexandria, in that famous seminary of arts and sciences,

SECTION V.

1. The learned Pagans had means and opportunities of informing themselves of the truth of our Saviour's history.

II. From the proceedings,

III. The characters, fufferings,

IV. And miracles of the perfons who published it.

V. How thefe firft Apoftles perpetuated their tradition, by ordaining perfons to fucceed them.

VI. How their fucceffors in the three first centuries preserved their tradi

tion.

VII. That five generations might derive this tradition from Chrift, to the end of the third century.

VIII. Four eminent Chriftians that delivered it down fucceffively to the year of our Lord 254.

IX. The faith of the four abovementioned perfons the same with that of the churches of the Eaft, of the Weft, and of Egypt.

X. Another perfon added to them, who brings us to the year 343, and that many other lifts might be added in as direct and short a fucceffion.

XI. Why the tradition of the three first centuries more authentic than that of any other age, proved from the canverfation of the primitive Chriftians ; XII. From the manner of initiating men into their religion;

XIII. From the correspondence between the churches

;

XIV. From the long lives of feveral of Chrift's difciples, of which two inftances.

I. IT now therefore only remains to confider whether these learned men had means and opportunities of informing themselves of the truth of our Saviour's hiftory; for, unless this point can be made out, their teftimonies will appear invalid, and their inquiries ineffectual.

II. As to this point, we must confider, that many thousands had feen the tranfactions of our Saviour in Judea, and that may hundred thousands had received an account of them from the mouths of those who were actually eye-witneffes. I fhall only mention among these eye-witneffes, the twelve Apoftles, to whom we must add St. Paul, who had a particular call to this high office, though many other difciples and followers of Chrift had alfo their share in the publishing of this wonderful hiftory. We learn from the ancient records of Chriftianity, that many of the Apoftles and Difciples made it the express bufinefs of their lives, travelled into the remoteft parts of the world, and in all places gathered multitudes about them, to acquaint them with the hiftory and doctrines of their crucified Mafter. And indeed, were all Chriftian records of thefe proceedings entirely loft, as many have been, the effect plainly evinces the truth of them; for

G 4

how

how elfe during the Apoftles lives could Chriftianity have fpread itfelf with such an amazing progrefs through the several nations of the Roman empire? How could it fly like lightning, and carry convic tion with it, from one end of the earth to the other?

III. Heathens therefore of every age, fex, and quality, born in the moft different climates, and bred up under the moft different inftitutions, when they faw men of plain fenfe, without the help of learning, armed with patience and courage, inftead of wealth, pomp, or power, expreffing in their lives thofe excellent doctrines of morality, which they taught as delivered to them from our Saviour, averring that they had feen his miracles during his life, and conversed with him after his death; when, I fay, they faw no fufpicion of falfehood, treachery, or worldly intereft, in their behaviour and converfation, and that they fubmitted to the moft ignominious and cruel deaths, rather than retract their teftimony, or even be filent in matters which they were to publish by their Saviour's especial command; there was no reafon to doubt of the veracity of those facts which they related, or of the divine miffion in which they were employed.

IV. But even thefe motives to faith in our Saviour would not have been fufficient to have brought about in fo few years fuch an incredible number of converfions, had not the Apoftles been able to exhibit ftill greater proofs of the truths which they taught. A few perfons of an odious and despised country could not have filled the world with believers, had they not fhewn undoubted credentials from the Divine Perfon who fent them on fuch a meffage, Accordingly we are affured, that they were invefted with the power of working miracles, which was the most short and most convincing argument that could be produced, and the only one that was adapted to the reafon of all mankind, to the capacities of the wife and ignorant, and could overcome every cavil and every prejudice. Who would not believe that our Saviour healed the fick, and raifed the dead, when it was published by those who themfelves often did the fame miracles, in their prefence, and in his name? Could any reasonable pérfon imagine, that God Almighty would arm men with fuch powers to authorife a lie, and eftablish a religion in the world which was difpleafing to him, or that evil fpirits would lend them fuch an effectual affiftance to beat down vice and idolatry?

V. When the Apoftles had formed many affemblies in several parts of the Pagan world, who gave credit to the glad tidings of the Gospel, that, upon their departure, the memory of what they had related might not perish, they appointed out of thefe new converts men of the beft fenfe and of the most unblemished lives, to prefide over these feveral affemblies, and to inculcate without ceafing what they had heard from the mouths of thefe eye-witnesses.

VI. Upon the death of any of thofe fubftitutes to the Apoftles and Difciples of Chrift, his place was filled up with fome other perfon of eminence for his piety and learning, and generally a member of the fame church, who after his deceafe was followed by

another

another in the fame manner, by which means the fucceffion was continued in an uninterrupted line. Irenæus informs us, that every church preferved a catalogue of its bishops in the order that they fucceeded one another; and (for an example) produces the catalogue of those who governed the church of Rome in that character, which contains eight or nine perfons, though but a very small remove from the times of the Apostles.

Indeed the lifts of bishops, which are come down to us in other churches, are generally filled with greater numbers than one would expect. But the fucceffion was quick in the three first centuries, because the bishop very often ended in the martyr; for when a perfecution rofe in any place, the firft fury of it fell upon this order of holy men, who abundantly teftified, by their deaths and fufferings, that they did not undertake thefe offices out of any temporal views, that they were fincere and fatisfied in the belief of what they taught, and that they firmly adhered to what they had received from the Apoftles, as laying down their lives in the fame hope, and upon the fame principles. None can be fuppofed fo utterly regardless of their own happiness as to expire in torment, and hazard their eternity, to support any fables and inventions of their own, or any forgeries of their predeceffors who had prefided in the fame church, and which might have been eafily detected by the tradition of that particular church, as well as by the concurring teftimony of others. To this purpose, I think it is very remarkable, that there was not a fingle martyr among thofe many heretics who difagreed with the apoftolical church, and introduced feveral wild and abfurd notions into the doctrines of Chriftianity. They durft not ftake their préfent and future happiness on their own chimerical operations, and did not only fhun perfecution, but affirmed that it was unneceffary for their followers to bear their religion through fuch fiery trials.

VII. We may fairly reckon, that this firft ftate of Apostles and Difciples, with that fecond generation of many who were their immediate converts, extended itself to the middle of the second century, and that several of the third generation from thefe laft mentioned, which was but the fifth from Chrift, continued to the end of the third century. Did we know the ages and numbers of the members in every particular church which was planted by the Apoftles, I doubt not but in most of them there might be found five persons who in a continued feries would reach through these three centuries of years, that is, till the 265th from the death of our Saviour.

VIII. Among the accounts of thofe very few out of innumerable multitudes who had embraced Christianity, I fhall fingle out four perfons eminent for their lives, their writings, and their fufferings, that were, fucceffively, contemporaries, and bring us down as far as to the year of our Lord 254. St. John, who was the beloved Disciple, and converfed the most intimately with our Saviour, lived till Anno Dom. 100; Polycarp, who was the difciple of St. John, lived till Anno Dom. 167, though his life was fhortened by martyrdom; Irenæus, who was the difciple of Polycarp, and had converfed

with

with many of the immediate difciples of the Apoftles, lived, at the lowest computation of his age, till the year 202, when he was likewife cut off by martyrdom; in which year the great Origen was appointed regent of the catechetick school in Alexandria; and as he was the miracle of that age, for induftry, learning, and philofophy, he was looked upon as the champion of Chriftianity, till the year 254, when, if he did not fuffer martyrdom, as fome think he did, he was certainly actuated by the spirit of it, as appears in the whole course of his life and writings; nay, he had often been put to the torture, and had undergone trials worse than death. As he converfed with the most eminent Chriftians of his time in Ægypt, and in the East, brought over multitudes both from herefy and heathenifm, and left behind him feveral difciples of great fame and learning, there is no queftion but there were confiderable numbers of those who knew him, and had been his hearers, scholars, or profelytes, that lived till the end of the third century, and to the reign of Conftantine the Great.

IX. It is evident to thofe who read the lives and writings of Polycarp, Irenæus, and Origen, that these three fathers believed the accounts which are given of our Saviour in the four Evangelifts, and had undoubted arguments that not only St. John, but many others of our Saviour's difciples, published the fame accounts of him. To which we muft fubjoin this further remark, that what was believed by these fathers on this fubject was likewife the belief of the main body of Chriftians in thofe fucceffive ages when they flourished; fince Polycarp cannot but be looked upon, if we confider the respect that was paid him, as the reprefentative of the Eaftern churches in this particular, Irenæus of the Western upon the fame account, and Origen of thofe established in Egypt.

X. To these I might add Paul the famous hermit, who retired from the Decian perfecution five or fix years before Origen's death, and lived till the year 343. I have only discovered one of those channels by which the hiftory of our Saviour might be conveyed pure and unadulterated through thofe feveral ages that produced thofe Pagan philofophers, whole teftimonies I make ufe of for the truth of our Saviour's hiftory. Some or other of these philofophers came into the Chriftian faith during its infancy, in the feveral periods of these three first centuries, when they had fuch means of informing themfelves in all the particulars of our Saviour's hiftory. I must further add, that though I have here only chofen this fingle link of martyrs, I might find out others among those names which are ftill extant, that delivered down this account of our Saviour in a fucceffive tradition, till the whole Roman empire became Chriftian; as there is no queftion but numberless feries of witneffes might follow one another in the fame order, and in as fhort a chain, and that perhaps in every fingle church, had the names and ages of the most eminent primitive Chriftians been tranfmitted to us with the like certainty.

XI. But, to give this confideration more force, we must take notice, that the tradition of the first ages of Christianity had several circumstances