cles put to filence, the Demons and evil fpirits forced to confefs themselves no Gods, by perfons who only made ufe of prayer and adjurations in the name of their crucified Saviour; how could they doubt of their Saviour's power on the like occafions, as reprefented to them by the traditions of the Church, and the writings of the Evangelists?

IV. Under this head, I cannot omit that which appears to me a ftanding miracle in the three firft Centuries, I mean that amazing and fupernatural courage or patience, which was fhewn by innumerable multitudes of Martyrs, in those flow and painful torments that were in-. flicted on them. I cannot conceive a man placed in the burning iron chair at Lyons, amid the infults and mockeries of a crouded Amphitheatre, and still keeping his feat; or ftretched upon a grate of iron, over coals of fire, and breathing out his foul among the exquifite fufferings of fuch a tedious execution rather than renounce his religion, or blafpheme his Saviour. Such trials

feem to me above the ftrength of human nature, and able to over-bear duty, reafon, faith, conviction, nay, and the moft

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abfolute certainty of a future ftate. manity, unaffisted in an extraordinary manner, must have fhaken off the prefent preffure, and have delivered itself out of fuch a dreadful distress, by any means that could have been fuggefted to it. We can easily imagine, that many perfons, in fo good a caufe, might have laid down their lives at the gibbet, the ftake, or the block: But to expire leifurely among the moft exquifite tortures, when they might come out of them, even by a mental refervation, or an hypocrify that was not without a poffibility of being followed by repentance and forgiveness, has fomething in it fo far beyond the force and natural strength of mortals, that one cannot but think there was fome miraculous power to fupport the sufferer.

V. We find the Church of Smyrna, in that admirable letter, which gives an account of the death of Polycarp their beloved Bishop, mentioning the cruel torments of other early Martyrs for Chrif tianity, are of opinion, that our Saviour ftood by them in a vifion, and perfonally converfed with them to give them ftrength and comfort, during the bitter

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nefs of their long continued agonies; and we have the ftory of a young man, who, having fuffered many tortures, efcaped with life, and told his fellow Chritians, that the pain of them had been rendered tolerable, by the prefence of an Angel, who stood by him and wiped off the tears and fweat which ran down his face, whilst he lay under his fufferings. We are affured at leaft, that the first Martyr for Chriftianity was encouraged in his last moments, by a vision of that divine person, for whom he fuffered, and into whofe prefence he was then haftening.

VI. Let any man calmly lay his hand upon his heart, and after reading thefe terrible conflicts in which the ancient Martyrs and confeffors were engaged, when they paffed through fuch new inventions and varieties of pain, as tired their tormentors; and ask himself, however zealous and fincere he is in his religion, whether under fuch acute and lingering tortures he could ftill have held faft his integrity, and have profeffed his faith to the laft, without a fupernatural affistance of fome kind or other. For my part, when I confider that it was not an unaccountable

countable obftinacy in a fingle man, or in any particular fet of men, in fome extraordinary juncture; but that there were multitudes of each fex, of every age, of different countries and conditions, who for near 300 years together made this glorious confeffion of their faith, in the midft of tortures, and in the hour of death: I must conclude, that they were either of another make than men are at prefent, or that they had fuch miraculous fupports as were peculiar to those times of Chriftianity, when without them perhaps the very name of it might have been extinguifhed.

VII. It is certain, that the deaths and fufferings of the primitive Chriftians had a great fhare in the converfion of those learned Pagans, who lived in the ages of Perfecution, which with fome intervals and abatements lafted near 300 years after our Saviour. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, Arnobius and others, tell us, that this firft of all alarmed their curiofity, roused their attention, and made them feriously inquifitive into the nature of that religion, which could endue the mind with fo much strength, and overcome the fear of death, nay, raise an ear

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neft defire of it, though it appeared in all its terrors. This they found had not been effected by all the doctrines of those Philofophers, whom they had thoroughly ftudied, and who had been labouring at this great point. The fight of these dying and tormented Martyrs engaged them to fearch into the history and doctrines of him for whom they fuffered. The more they fearched, the more they were convinced; till their conviction grew fo ftrong, that they themfelves embraced the fame truths, and either actually laid down their lives, or were always in a readiness to do it, rather than depart from them,

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SECTION VIII.

1. The completion of our Saviour's prophecies confirmed Pagans in their belief of the Gospel.

II. Origen's obfervation on that of his Difciples being brought before Kings and Governors;

III. On