The testimony of the younger Pliny belongs to a later period; for although he was contemporary with Tacitus and Suetonius, yet his account does not, like theirs, go back to the transactions of Nero's reign, but is confined to the affairs of his 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; institution was put to death; 2dly, that in the same country in which he was put to death, the religion, after a short check, broke out again and spread; 3dly, that it so spread, as that, within thirty-four years from the author's death, a very great number of Christians (ingens eorum multi-own time. His celebrated letter to Trajan was tudo) were found at Rome. From which fact, the two following inferences may be fairly drawn: first, that if, in the space of thirty-four years from its commencement, the religion had spread throughout Judea, had extended itself to Rome, and there had numbered a great multitude of converts, the original teachers and missionaries of the institution could not have been ille; secondly, that when" Multi, omnis ætatis, utriusque sexus etiam;the Author of the undertaking was put to death neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam et as a malefactor for his attempt, the endeavours of agros, superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est." his followers to establish his religion in the same "There are many of every age and of both sexes; country, amongst the same people, and in the nor has the contagion of this superstition seized could not but be attended with danger. cities only, but smaller towns also, and the open Suetonius, a writer contemporary with Tacitus,country." Great exertions must have been used describing the transactions of the same reign, uses these words: "Affecti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novæ et maleficæ. -"The Christians, a set of men of a new and mischievous (or magical) superstition, were punished." same age, Since it is not mentioned here that the burning of the city was the pretence of the punishment of the Christians, or that they were the Christians of Rome who alone suffered, it is probable that Suetonius refers to some more general persecution than the short and occasional one which Tacitus describes. by the preachers of Christianity to produce this state of things within this time. Secondly, to a point which has been already noticed, and which I think of importance to be observed, namely, the sufferings to which 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, Juvenal, a writer of the same age with the two former, and intending, it should seem, to commemorate the cruelties exercised under Nero's go-trials, and examinations, were and had been, vernment, has the following lines:t "Pone Tigellinum, tædâ lucebis in illâ, "Describe Tigellinus (a creature of Nero,) and 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 fa vouring 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 If this passage were considered by itself, the ceased to be such." All which demonstrates, that subject of allusion might be doubtful; but when the profession of Christianity was at that time (in connected with the testimony of Suetonius, as to that country at least) attended with fear and danthe actual punishment of the Christians by Nero,ger: and yet this took place without any edict and with the account given by Tacitus of the species of punishment which they were made to undergo, I think it sufficiently probable, that these were the executions to which the poet refers. from the Roman sovereign, commanding or authorising the persecution of Christians. This observation is further 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 and uproar. This disorderly practice, I say, is recognised 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. These things, as has already been observed, took place within thirty-one years after Christ's death, that is, according to the course of nature, in the life-time, probably, of some of the apostles, and certainly in the life-time of those who were converted by the apostles, or who were converted in their time. If then the Founder of the religion was put to death in the execution of his design; if the first race of converts to the re- Martial wrote a few years before the younger ligion, many of them, suffered the greatest ex-Pliny: and, as his manner was, made the suffertremities for their profession; it is hardly credible, that those who came between the two, who were companions of the Author of the institution during his life, and the teachers and propagators of the institution after his death, could go about their undertaking with ease and safety. ings of the Christians the subject of his ridicule. ment 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 conclusion of this sort, as preparatory to more direct testimony. Nothing, however, could show 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. 1. Our books relate, that Jesus Christ, the The constancy, and by consequence the suffer-founder of the religion, was, in consequence of ings of the Christians of this period, is also refer- his undertaking, put to death, as a malefactor, at red to by Epictetus, who imputes their intrepidity Jerusalem. This point at least will be granted, to madness, or to a kind of fashion or habit, and because it is no more than what Tacitus has reabout fifty years afterwards, by Marcus Aurelius, corded. They then proceed to tell us, that the who ascribes it to obstinacy. "Is it possible religion was, notwithstanding, set forth at this (Epictetus asks) that a man may arrive at this same city of Jerusalem, propagated thence throughtemper, and become indifferent to those things out Judea, and afterwards preached in other parts from madness or from habit, as the Galileans? of the Roman empire. These points also are "Let this preparation of the mind (to die) arise fully confirmed by Tacitus, who informs us, that from its own judgment, and not from obstinacy the religion, after a short check, broke out again like the Christians." 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 maintain. What could the disciples of Christ exinference in behalf of the proposition which we pect for themselves when they saw their Master put to death? Could they hope to escape the persecuted me, they will also persecute you, was dangers in which he had perished? If they have the warning of common sense. With this exa full sense of the peril of their future enterprise. ample before their eyes, they could not be without CHAPTER III. There 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 apostles, 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 business, 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. 2. Secondly, all the histories agree in representing Christ as foretelling 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 nations for my name's sake."* "When affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended."+ "They shall lay hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake:—and ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren, and kinsfolks and friends, and some of you shall they cause to be put to death." "The time cometh, that he that killeth you, will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them."§ I am not entitled to argue from these passages, that Christ actually did foretell these events, and that they did accordingly come to pass; because that would be at once to assume the truth of the religion: but I am entitled to contend, that one side or other of the following disjunction is true; either that the Evangelists have delivered what Christ really spoke, and that the event corresponded with the prediction; or that they put the prediction into Christ's mouth, because, at the time of writing the history, the event had turned out so to be: for, the only two remaining suppositions appear in the highest degree incredible; which are, either that Christ filled the minds of his followers with | nothing in the circumstances of the times which fears and apprehensions, without any reason or authority for what he said, and contrary to the truth of the case; or that, although Christ had never foretold any such thing, and the event would have contradicted him if he had, yet historians who lived in the age when the event was known, falsely, as well as officiously, ascribed these words to him. 3. Thirdly, these books abound with exhortations to patience, and with topics of comfort under distress. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."* required patience,--which called for the exercise of constancy and resolution? Or will it be pretended that these exhortations (which, let it be observed, come not from one author, but from many) were put in, merely to induce a belief in after-ages, that the Christians were exposed to dangers which they were not exposed to, or underwent sufferings which they did not undergo? If these books belong to the age to which they lay claim, and in which age, whether genuine or spurious, they certainly did appear, this supposition cannot be maintained for a moment; because I think it impossible to believe, that passages, which must be deemed not only unintelligible, but false, by the persons into whose hands the books upon their publication were to come, should nevertheless "We are troubled on every side, yet not dis- be inserted, for the purpose of producing an effect tressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; per-upon remote generations. In forgeries which do secuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body;-knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For which cause we faint not; but, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."+ Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."+ not appear till many ages after that to which they pretend to belong, it is possible that some contrivance of that sort may take place; but in no others can it be attempted. CHAPTER IV. There 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 altestation 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. "Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflic-in tions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used; for ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves, that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward; for ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."§ "So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom for which ye also suffer."ll We rejoice in hope of the glory of God; and rot only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope."¶ 'Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings. Wherefore let them that sufler according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithfulCreator."** What could all these texts mean, if there was THE account of the treatment of the religion, and of the exertions of its first preachers, as stated our Scriptures (not in a professed history of persecutions, or in the connected manner in which I am about to recite it, but dispersedly and occasionally, in the course of a mixed general history, which circumstance alone negatives the supposition of any fraudulent design,) is the following: "That the Founder of Christianity, from the commencement of his ministry to the time of his violent death, employed himself wholly in publishing the institution in Judea and Galilee; that, in order to assist him in this purpose, he made choice out of the number of his followers, of twelve persons, who might accompany him as he travelled from place to place; that, except a short absence upon a journey in which he sent them, two by two, to announce his mission, and one of a few days, when they went before him to Jerusalem, these persons were steadily and constantly attending upon him; that they were with him at Jerusalem when he was apprehended and put to death; and that they were commissioned by him, when his own ministry was concluded, to publish his Gospel, and collect disciples to it from all countries of the world." The account then proceeds to state, "that a few days after his departure, these persons, with some of his relations, and some who had regularly frequented their society, assembled at Jerusalem; that, considering the office of preaching the religion as now devolved upon them, and one of their number having deserted the cause, and, repenting of his perfidy, having destroyed himself, they proceeded to elect another into his place, and that they Hitherto the preachers of the new religion seem to have had the common people on their side; which is assigned as the reason why the Jewish rulers did not, at this time, think it prudent to proceed to greater extremities. It was not long, however, before the enemies of the institution found means to represent it to the people as tending to subvert their law, degrade their lawgiver, and dishonour their temple. And these insinuations were dispersed with so much success, as to induce the people to join with their superiors in the stoning of a very active member of the new community. The death of this man was the signal of a general persecution, the activity of which may be judged of from one anecdote of the time:-"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison." This persecution raged at Jerusalem with so much fury, as to drive most of the new converts out of the place, except the twelve apostles. The converts, thus "scattered abroad," preached the religion wherever they came; and their preaching was, in effect, the preaching of the twelve; for it was so far carried on in concert and correspondence with them, that when they heard of the success of their emissaries in a particular country, they sent two of their number to the place, to complete and confirm the mission. were careful to make their election out of the number of those who had accompanied their Master from the first to the last, in order, as they alleged, that he might be a witness, together with themselves, of the principal facts which they were about to produce and relate concerning him;* that they began their work at Jerusalem by publicly asserting that this Jesus, whom the rulers and inhabitants of that place had so lately crucified, was, in truth, the person in whom all their prophecies and long expectations terminated; that he had been sent amongst them by God; and that he was appointed by God the future judge of the human species; that all who were solicitous to secure to themselves happiness after death, ought to receive him as such, and to make profession of their behef, by being baptized in his name." The history goes on to relate, "that considerable numbers accepted this proposal, and that they who did so, formed amongst themselves a strict union and society; that the attention of the Jewish government being soon drawn upon them, two of the principal persons of the twelve, and who also had lived most intimately and constantly with the Founder of the religion, were seized as they were discoursing to the people in the temple; that, after being kept all night in prison, they were brought the next day before an assembly composed of the chief persons of the Jewish magistracy and priesthood; that this assembly, after some consultation, found nothing, at that time, better to be done to- An event now took place, of great importance wards suppressing the growth of the sect, than to in the future history of the religion. The persethreaten their prisoners with punishment if they cutions which had begun at Jerusalem, followed persisted; that these men, after expressing, in de- the Christians to other cities, in which the authocent but firm language, the obligation under which rity of the Jewish Sanhedrim over those of their they considered themselves to be, to declare what own nation was allowed to be exercised. A they knew, to speak the things which they had young man, who had signalized himself by his seen and heard,' returned from the council, and hostility to the profession, and had procured a reported what had passed to their companions; commission from the council at Jerusalem to seize that this report, whilst it apprized them of the any converted Jews whom he might find at Da danger of their situation and undertaking, had no mascus, suddenly became a proselyte to the reliother effect upon their conduct than to produce in gion which he was going about to extirpate. The them a general resolution to persevere, and an new convert not only shared, on this extraordinaearnest prayer to God to furnish them with assist-ry change, the fate of his companions, but brought ance, and to inspire them with fortitude, proportioned to the increasing exigency of the service."s A very short time after this, we read "that all the twelve apostles were seized and cast into prison; that being brought a second time before the Jewish Sanhedrim, they were upbraided with their disobedience to the injunction which had been laid upon them, and beaten for their contumacy; that, being charged once more to desist, they were suffered to depart; that however they neither quitted Jerusalem, nor ceased from preaching, both daily in the temple, and from house to house; and that the twelve considered themselves as so entirely and exclusively devoted to this office, that they now transferred what may be called the affairs of the society to other hands."** upon himself a double measure of enmity from the party which he had left. The Jews at Damascus, on his return to that city, watched the gates night and day, with so much diligence, that he escaped from their hands only by being let down in a basket by the wall. Nor did he find himself in greater safety at Jerusalem, whither he immediately repaired.-Attempts were there also soon set on foot to destroy him; from the danger sions, and laid down the prices at the apostles' feet. Yet, so insensible, or undesirous, were they of the advantage which that confidence afforded, that we find. they very soon disposed of the trust, by putting it into the hands, not of nominees of their own, but of stew temporalards formally elected for the purpose by the society at large. it was sold, was it not in thine own power?" We may add also, that this excess of generosity, which cast private property into the public stock, was so far ⚫ Acts i. 21, 22. † Acts xi. 1 Acts iv. 32. from being required by the apostles, or imposed as a law Acts iv. Acts v. 18. T Acts v. 42 of Christianity, that Peter reminds Ananias that he **I do not know that it has ever been insinuated, that had been guilty, in his behaviour, of an officious and the Christian mission, in the hands of the apostles, was voluntary prevarication; for whilst," says he, "thy a scheme for making a fortune, or for getting money.-estate remained unsold, was it not thine own? and after But it may nevertheless be fit to remark upon this pas. sage of their history, how perfectly free they appear to have been from any pecuniary or interested views what. ever. The most tempting opportunity which occurred, of making a gain of their converts, was by the custody and management of the public funds, when some of the richer members, intending to contribute their fortunes to the common support of the society, sold their posses. 2 N Acts viii. 1. "And they were all scattered abroad:" but the term "all" is not, I think, to be taken strictly as denoting more than the generality, in like manner as in Acts ix 35 "And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord." § Acts ix. 24* of which he was preserved by being sent away to Cilicia, his native country. For some reason, not mentioned, perhaps not known, but probably connected with the civil his tory of the Jews, or with some danger* which engrossed the public attention, an intermission about this time took place in the sufferings of the Christians. This happened, at the most, only seven or eight, perhaps only three or four, years after Christ's death.-Within which period, and notwithstanding that the late persecution occupied part of it, churches, or societies of believers, had been formed in all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; for we read that the churches in these countries "had now rest, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied."+ The original preachers of the religion did not remit their labours or activity during this season of quietness; for we find one, and he a very principal person among them, passing throughout all quarters. We find also those who had been before expelled from Jerusalem by the persecution which raged there, travelling as far as Phoenice, Cyprus, and Antioch; and, lastly, we find Jerusalem again in the centre of the mission, the place whither the preachers returned from their several excursions, where they reported the conduct and effects of their ministry, where questions of public concern were canvassed and settled, whence directions were sought, and teachers sent forth. ening the apostles, and commanding them to be beaten with stripes, without urging at that time the persecution further, the historian candidly and distinctly records their forbearance. When, therefore, in other instances, he states heavier persecutions, or actual martyrdoms, it is reasonable to believe that he states them because they were true, and not from any wish to aggravate, in his account, the sufferings which Christians sustained, or to extol, more than it deserved, their patience under them. Our history now pursues a narrower path. Leaving the rest of the apostles, and the original associates of Christ, engaged in the propagation of the new faith (and who there is not the least reason to believe abated in their diligence or courage,) the narrative proceeds with the separate memoirs of that eminent teacher, whose extraordinary and sudden conversion to the religion, and corresponding change of conduct, had before been circumstantially described. This person, in conjunction with another, who appeared among the earlier members of the society at Jerusalem, and amongst the immediate adherents of the twelve apostles, set out from Antioch upon the express business of carrying the new religion through the various provinces of the Lesser Asia. During this expedition, we find that, in almost every place to which they came, their persons were insulted, and their lives endangered. After being expelled from Antioch in Pisidia, they repaired to IcoThe time of this tranquillity did not, however, nium. At Iconium, an attempt was made to continue long. Herod Agrippa, who had lately stone them; at Lystra, whither they fled from acceded to the government of Judea, "stretched Iconium, one of them actually was stoned, and forth his hand to vex certain of the church.'s He drawn out of the city for dead. These two men, began his cruelty by beheading one of the twelve though not themselves original apostles, were original apostles, a kinsman and constant com- acting in connexion and conjunction with the panion of the Founder of the religion. Perceiving original apostles; for after the completion of their that this execution gratified the Jews, he pro-journey, being sent on a particular commission to ceeded to seize, in order to put to death, another of the number, and him, like the former, associated with Christ during his life, and eminently active in the service since his death. This man was however delivered from prison, as the account states, miraculously, and made his escape from Jerusalem. Jerusalem, they there releed to the apostles and elders the events and success of their ministry, and were, in return, recommended by them to the churches, "as men who had hazarded their lives in the cause." The treatment which they had experienced in the first progress, did not deter them from preparing for a second. Upon a dispute, however, arising between them, but not connected with the common subject of their labours, they acted as wise and sincere men would act; they did not retire in disgust from the service in which they were engaged, but, each devoting his endeavours to the advancement of the religion, they parted from one another, and set forwards upon separate routes. The history goes along with one of them; and the second enterprise to him was attended with the same dangers and persecutions as both had met with in the first. The apostle's travels hitherto had been confined to Asia. He now crosses, for the first time, the Ægean sea, and carries with him, amongst others, the person whose accounts supply the information we are stating. The first place in Greece at which he appears to have These things are related, not in the general terms under which, in giving the outlines of the history, we have here mentioned them, but with the utmost particularity of names, persons, places, and circumstances; and, what is deserving of notice, without the smallest discoverable propensity in the historian to magnify the fortitude, or exaggerate the sufferings of his party. When they fled for their lives, he tells us. When the churches had rest, he remarks it. When the people took their part, he does not leave it without notice. When the apostles were carried a second time before the Sanhedrim, he is careful to observe that they were brought without violence. When milder counsels were suggested, he gives us the author of the advice, and the speech which contained it. When, in consequence of this advice, the rulers contented themselves with threat-stopped, was Philippi in Macedonia. Here him self and one of his companions were cruelly whipped, cast into prison, and kept there under the most rigorous custody, being thrust, whilst yet smarting with their wounds, into the inner |