for. But the President at Lyons issued public orders, that strict search should be made for them. Attalus was a Roman citizen, and ought to have been beheaded; but, being a Christian, this privilege was not granted. The multitude demanded that he should be tortured, and thrown to wild beasts; and the President yielded to their request, relying undoubtedly upon impunity, though he acted contrary to law. Such was the condition of Christians at that time.*

The attestation furnished to the truth of the Gospel by these sufferers, in that early age, is very important. Irenæus, an elder in the church at Lyons, was in his younger days acquainted with Polycarp, the disciple. of John the Apostle; and Pothinus, Bishop at Lyons, was older than Irenæus. We have here, too, a proof of the great progress of the Christian religion in a short time. The number of Christians at Lyons and Vienne must have been very considerable. There were among them men of distinction for knowledge and understanding. Attalus, and several others, were Roman citizens.

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*We have here a melancholy exhibition of "the persecuting spirit of Pagans,” and are reminded of Mr Gibbon's declaration, that during the whole course of his reign, Marcus despised the Christians as a philosopher, and punished them as a sovereign." And we are again brought to recollect Mr Hume's assertions respecting Pagan toleration, which, in connexion with the above facts, may prove a useful warning to those who read his Essays, and convince them that no dependence whatever is to be placed on his most confident assertions when the Christian religion is concerned. "The intolerance," he says, "of almost all religions which have maintained the unity of God, is as remarkable as the contrary PRINCIPLE of Polytheists.” And again," The tolerating spirit of idolaters, both in ancient and modern times, is very obvious to any one who is the least conversant in the writings of historians or travellers"!

The testimony of the first Christians is the more valuable, as it is given by men of all ranks in society, and of all the different countries through which they were scattered. It is the testimony of men who had the deepest interest in not being deceived, of men who were not guided by any civil authority, or worldly consideration, in the religion they embraced, but solely by the force of truth and irresistible conviction. It is the testimony of those who were competent to judge of the evidence by which they were convinced—evidence presented to them in facts of which they were eyewitnesses, and in which they could not be mistaken. It is testimony transmitted to us from the most enlightened period of the Roman empire,-from a multitude of men whose integrity is acknowledged by their enemies, and from among whom individuals may be selected, in all respects as enlightened as any of their contemporaries.

CHAPTER V.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES AND FIRST CHRISTIANS IS NOT OPPOSED BY ANY CONTRA'DICTORY TESTIMONY.

THE Christian religion is founded on facts. With these it was inseparably connected at its first appearance; and if they could be proved to be false, the whole system would fall to the ground. The advent and life of Jesus Christ, the miracles publicly performed by him while on earth, together with those wrought by his apostles after his death, are matters of fact, not only asserted, but also so indubitably believed by his first followers, that they shed their blood in attestation of the sincerity with which they were persuaded of their truth. Immediately after the death of Christ, these facts were publicly and boldly asserted by his servants in the very city where they had taken place. At length being driven from Jerusalem, they published the report of them without delay, and with great effect, through every corner of the Roman empire. Within a few years, the apostles likewise dispersed abroad a number of writings, containing a full account of these facts, and also of the means they had employed to propagate them, declaring both their own success and the opposition they had encountered. The subject was of the greatest importance, both to the

present and future interests of mankind. If the report of the apostles was true, all the other religions in the world were false, and even the Jewish economy must be set aside. The interest, therefore, which would be felt in every country to oppose and suppress this new religion, is sufficiently manifest.

Accordingly, the most violent opposition was everywhere excited. Jews and Heathens joined hand in hand in ridiculing and defaming, in reasoning against and persecuting, in imprisoning and putting to death, those who propagated and adhered to the faith of Christianity. But one method they did not employ,they did not contradict the facts. So far from being contradicted, the facts and the miracles on which the evidence of Christianity rests were on all hands admitted, and reasoned on both by Jews and Gentiles.

Nothing, in such circumstances, but truth, could have commanded such acquiescence. A contrary statement, by authority of the Jewish or Roman governments, to the writings of the apostles, which were so widely circulated, would have done more to check the progress of the Christian religion, and its future increase, than all the reasonings of the philosophers, and all the persecuting edicts of the Roman emperors. We are therefore certain, that such a contradiction would have been attempted if, in opposition to facts so well established, it could have been expected to obtain any weight, without recoiling upon its authors with disgrace. But nothing of this kind appeared. In none of the public edicts for suppressing Christianity; in none of the controversies or disputes concerning it, is the falsehood of the Gospel history ever for a moment surmised. The philosophers, who avowedly wrote against the Christian religion, had recourse to the

Gospels themselves, which they allowed to be authentic, for confuting the opinions they contain. And NOT

THE SMALLEST VESTIGE OF ANY CONTRADICTORY STATEMENT, EITHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, IS TO BE FOUND IN ALL ANTIQUITY.

Thus the four Gospels were acknowledged, from the beginning, by friends and foes, as the authentic and genuine productions of the persons whose names they bore, when it was so easy a matter to have proved them spurious and false, had they been so, especially as all the civil power was in the hands of enemies.

The Scriptures, too, were so written, that detection, in case of error or fraud, was inevitable. The events they relate are detailed with the greatest minuteness as to time, place, and circumstances, connected with numerous public facts, and names of public men. The occasions also on which the miracles were wrought are stated, and the names of the persons who were the subjects of them,-some of them well-known characters, with their places of abode, are often given,— while the general facts respecting Jesus Christ, as claiming to be the Messiah, were of the most public nature, connected with the government, and involving the interests and characters of the whole Jewish nation, especially of the chief men and rulers.

Every thing, besides, was carried on openly, not in remote countries, among ignorant and barbarous people, but first in Jerusalem, which was the principal scene of action, and afterwards in Rome, and the chief cities of the empire. As this is the acknowledged fact, we may here borrow some assistance from Mr Hume, to show what would certainly have been the issue had there been any fallacy in the case. Speaking, in his Essay on Miracles, of the impostor Alex