sought his life, and was sentenced to SERM. the painful and ignominious death of VI. the cross: He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. But on the third day he rose again from the dead, and appeared to his Disciples, whom he had chosen to be the Companions of his travels, the Wit nesses of his miracles, and the future Apostles of his doctrines. And having staid upon earth forty days to satisfy them that he was risen indeed, he gave them a command to go and preach the gospel to all nations; and then in the presence of a multitude of amazed speetators he ascended into heaven. On the tenth day after his ascension they were visited by a miraculous effusion of the holy Spirit, and found themselves endowed, as their Lord had promised, with supernatural powers from on high. In consequence of which they went forth every where, preaching the doctrine of their lately crucified, but now exalted Lord. And by their patient and unwearied labours the sound of the gospel was conveyed into all lands, SERM. lands, its words were diffused unto the ends of the world. VI. In the beginning of their ministry their preaching was limited to the house of Israel; and notwithstanding the prejudice entertained among the Jews against the doctrine of a crucified Redeemer, yet there were daily added to the Church great multitudes of souls. But in a little time it was signified to them by the Spirit, that this was too confined a field for so great and beneficial a work. In consequence of which they dispersed into different regions of the Gentile world. Wherever they went, they were diligent in planting and in watering this divine seed, while God himself gave an abundant increase. Hence in spite of the philosophy of the learned and the superstition of the common people this Branch from the Root of Jesse made its way in the earth: and though persecution in every form was attached to the profession of it, it throve and prospered in the face of heaven. The Roman Historians record one severe persecution under the Emperor Nero, in which the Christians were exposed to 8 Psalm xix. 4. such VI. such miserable torments, as we might SERM, have hoped for, the credit of human nature that man could not inflict on man. And in this persecution the Apostles Peter and Paul are believed to have suffered martyrdom. But the seed of the divine word had by this time gained too deep a root in the world to be eradicated by violence. The opposition that it met with seems rather to have promoted than retarded its growth. Under the Emperor Trajan the Christian Religion engaged the particular notice of the civil Magistrate. The younger Pliny, then a Governor of one of the Provinces of Lesser Asia, complains in his epistle to the Emperor, that on account of this new Faction the temples were deserted; and though disposed to treat them with severity for their contempt of the national worship, yet he bore testimony at the same time to their moral character, that they assembled on certain days to pray to Christ as to God, when they bound themselves by a sacrament or oath, that they would commit no murder, no theft, no adultery, and that they would be true and upright in their dealings in society. Thus SERM. Thus without molesting or disturbing VI. either the private or the public peace, it continued to establish its root in the world, till it had attained a more powerful dominion than had ever been exercised by the greatest Potentates of the earth. After it had struggled against the powers of the world for three hundred years it reached the throne of Kings; and under Constantine it was adopted on the ruins of the ancient superstitions and idolatries for the established religion of the Roman Empire. The short opposition it encountered under Julian served only to try it, and to give it a firmer establishment. And when the Roman Empire was invaded, and in the end overpowered by those various hordes of Barbarians, which the fertile North poured forth in abundance, the Christian Empire still remained triumphant: the Faith of Christ interrupted them in the midst of their victorious career, and bowed the Conquerors of Rome to the banners of the Cross. It was not long indeed before it suffered a considerable defalcation by the rise and progress of the Mahometan Faith, which at an early period overrun Arabia and the Holy Land, and in a little space of time extended along the $ERM. whole Northern coast of Africa, and vI. penetrated into Spain: yet even in these countries a great many continued true to the Christian cause. But what it lost in the South and East, it gained in the North and West. Not confining its dominion to the various Colonies of Goths and Vandals, who had esta blished themselves on the ruins of the Roman Empire, it penetrated into the original seats of these ferocious Conquerors; and the worship of Odin, the God of War, every where yielded to the milder dominion of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. In this our Isle, where the sound of the Gospel had been heard at an early period among the ancient Britons, it was again respected on the conversion of the Saxons: and afterwards it was rapidly diffused over all the Northern Continent of Europe. In later times, if it lost by the encroachment of the Turks and the overthrow of the Eastern Empire, it gained in the West by the reduction of the Moors in Spain. The progress of navigation and discovery, though chiefly undertaken out of a principle of ambition or of avarice, was by the secret direction of divine Pro |