but so far confecrated their perfons, even in their life-time, as to erect altars to their names, to place their ftatues among thofe of the Gods, and to offer to them facrifices and incenfe. Though thefe impious honours were conferred upon all alike, without any dif tinction of good or bad; yet the latter, not being able from their own merit to acquire to themselves any respect or veneration, had nothing to ftand upon but the power and prerogatives of their office; of which, therefore, they became fo jealous, as to make it dangerous for any one to neglect paying them thofe outward honours, however extravagant and profane, which either the laws or their own mad pride required. And hence adoring the image of the emperors, fwearing by their names, &c. became a mark and test of fidelity, with which all who fought their favour, or feared their power, moft religiously complied; all thofe efpecially who held any magistracy under them, or governed the provinces. And thefe, by their offices, were yet farther obliged to take care that, within the limits of their jurifdiction, that most effential part of the duty of fubjects to bad princes, exterior refpect and veneration, was most punctually paid. Now, as the doctrines of Chrift were entirely oppofite to all kinds of idolatry, Chriftians were by this teft, with which they could by no means comply, rendered liable to the guilt of that kind of treafon which tyrants and their minifters never pardon, how apt foever they may be to overlook crimes against religion or the ftate. And that this teft was among others made ufe of against the profeffors of Chriftianity, even in the best reigns, is evident from a paffage in the famous epiftle of Piiny to Trajan, in which he relates his manner of, proceeding with thofe who offered to clear themselves of the charge or fufpicion of being Chriftians, in the following words *: Propofitus eft libellus fine auctore, "multorum nomina continens, qui negarent fe effe Chriftianos, aut fuiffe cum præeunte me Deos appellarent, & imagini tuæ "(quam propter hoc jufferam cum fimulacris numinum afferri) "thure ac vino fupplicarent; præterea maledicerent Chrifto; quo"rum nihil cogi poffe dicuntur, qui funt revera Chriftiani. Ergo "dimittendos putavi. Alii ab indice nominati, effe fe Chriftianos "dixerunt, & mox negaverunt; fuiffe quidem, fed defiiffe; qui"dam ante triennium, quidam ante plures annos: non nemo etiam "ante viginti quoque. Omnes, & imaginem tuam, deorumque "fimulacra, venerati funt; ii & Chrifto maledixerunt.-A. paper "was fet forth, without a name, containing a lift of many people, "who denied that they either were or ever had been Chriftians. "Now thefe perfons having, after my example, invocated the Gods, and with wine and incenfe payed their devotions

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your image, which I had caufed to be brought forth for that purpose, with the images of the Gods'), and having moreover "blafphemed Chrift (any one of which things it is faid no real "Chriftian can be compelled to do'), I thought proper to difmifs Others, who had been informed againft, confeffed that

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"they were once Chriftians, but denied their being fo now, fay"ing they had quitted that religion, fome three years, others more, "and fome few even twenty years ago. All these worshipped "both your image, and thofe of the Gods, and did also blaspheme "Chrift."

To thefe powerful patrons of fuperftition, and enemies of the gofpel, may be added others, whofe authority, though inferior and fubfervient to the former, at leaft within the limits of the Roman empire, was, however, of very great and extenfive influence; I mean the priests, diviners, augurs, and managers of oracles, with all the fubordinate attendants upon the temples and worship of almoft an infinite number of deities; and many trades, if not entirely depending upon that worship, yet very much encouraged and enriched by it, fuch as ftatuaries, fhrine-makers, breeders of victims, dealers in frankincenfe, &c. All of whom were by intereft, to fay nothing of religion, ftrongly devoted to idolatry.

It may not be improper alfo, under the article of religion, to mention the Circentian, and other fpectacles exhibited among the Romans,. the four great games of Greece, the Olympian, Pythian, Ifthmian, and Nemean; with many others of the fame kind, celebrated with great magnificence in every country, and almost in every city of Greece both in Europe and Afia; all of which were fo many religious fellivals, which by the allurements of pomp and pleafure, not to mention the glory and advantages acquired by the conquerors in those games, attached many to the caufe of fuperftition.

But fuperftition, univerfal and powerful as it was, by its union with the interefts and pleafures of a confiderable part of imankind, was not the only nor the greateft obftacle that Chriftianity had to contend with. Vice leagued against it a ftill greater number. The ambitious and luxurious, the debauched and lewd, the mifer and extortioner, the unjuft and oppreffive, the proud and the revengeful, the fraudulent and rapacious, were all focs to a religion that taught humility and moderation, temperance and purity even of thought, liberality and clemency, juftice, benevolence, and meeknefs, the forgiving of injuries, and the doing that only to others, which we would have "them to do to us." Virtues agreeable indeed to reason, and difcoverable in part by the clear light of nature; but the difficulty lay in the bringing thofe to hear reafon, who had abandoned themtelves to fuperftition. And how was the almoft extinguished ray of nature to be perceived, among the many falfe and glaring lights of religion, opinion, and philofophy, which recommended and fanctified many enormous vices? The Gods, like diffolute and defpotic princes, who have often been very properly compared to them, were themselves the great patrons and examples of tyranny, lewdnefs, and revenge, and almoft all kinds of vice. And opinion had magnified Alexander, od deified Julius Cæfar, for an ambition, which ought to have er Jered them the object of the deteftation and curfes of all man

Neither was philofophy fo great a friend to virtue, or enemy to vice, as the pretended to be. Some philofophers, on the contrary, denied the being, at leaft the providence of God, and future rewards and punishments; and, as a juft confequence of that opinion, placed the felicity of mankind in the enjoyments of this world, that is, in fenfual pleasures. Others, affecting to doubt and question every thing, took away the diftinction of virtue and vice, and left their difciples to follow either as their inclination directed. Thefe were, at leaft indirectly, preachers of vice. And among those who undertook to lead their difciples to the temple of virtue, there were fo many different, and even inconfiftent opinions, fome of them fo paradoxical and abfurd, others fo fubtilized and mysterious, and all of them fo erroneous in their first principles, and fo defective in many great points of religion and morality, that it is no wonder that philofophy, however venerable in her original, and noble in her pretentions, degenerated into fpeculation, fophiftry, and a fcience of difputation, and from a guide of life became a pedantic prefident of the fchools, from whence arose another kind of adverfaries to the Gofpel; a fet of men, who, from fecing farther than the vulgar, came to fancy they could fee every thing, and to think every thing fubject to the difcuffion of reaton, and carrying their inquiries into the nature of God, the production of the univerfe, and the effence of the human foul, either framed upon cach of thefe, or adopted fome quaint or myfterious fyftem, by which they pretended to account for all the operations of nature, and measure all the actions of God and man. And as every fect had a fyftem peculiar to itself, fo did each endeavour to advance their own upon the ruins of all the reft; and this engaged them in a perpetual war with one another; in which, for want of real frength and folid arguments, they were reduced to defend themfelves and attack their adverfaries with all thofe arts which are commonly made ufe of to cover or fupply the deficiency of fenfe and reafon; fophiftry, declamation, and ridicule, obstinacy, pride, and rancour. Men of this turn, accustomed to reafon upon topics in which reafon is bewildered; fo proud of the fufficiency of reafon, as to think they could account for every thing; fo fond of their own fyftems, as to dread conviction more than error; and fo habituated to difpute pertinaciously, to affert boldly, and to decide magifterially upon every question, that they were almost incapable of any inftruction; could not but be averle to the receiving for their mafter a crucified Jew, and for teachers a parcel of low obfcure perfons of the fame nation, who profeffed to "glory in the crofs of Chrift, to know nothing but him crucified," and to neglect and defpife the fo-much-admired wisdom of this world, and who morcover taught points never thought of by the philofophers, fuch as the redemption of mankind, and the refurrection of the dead, and who, though far from forbidding the due exercise of reafon, yet confined it within its proper bounds, and exhorted their difciples to fubmit with all humility, and to rely with all confidence upon the wifdom of God, inftead of pretending to

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arraign his proceedings, "whofe judgments are unfearchable, and whose "ways are paft finding out."

From this view of the Jewifh and Gentile world, it is evident that every thing that most strongly influences and tyrannizes over the mind of man, religion, cuftom, law, policy, pride, intereft, vice, and even philofophy, was united against the gofpel; enemies in their own nature very formidable and difficult to be fubdued, had they even fuffered themselves to be attacked upon equal ground, and come to a fair engagement. But not relying upon their own ftrength only (for prejudice and falfehood are always diffident and fearful), they intrenched themselves behind that power which they were in poffeffion of, and rendered themselves inacceffible, as they imagined, to Chriftianity, by planting round them not only all kinds of civil difcouragements, but even torments, chains, and death; terrors, which no one could defpife, who had any views of ambition or intereft, and who was not even contented to refign what he might otherwife have enjoyed in peace, and without a crime, his reputation, his ease, his fortune, and his life. Thefe were the difficulties which Chriftianity had to ftruggle with for many ages, and over which the at length fo far prevailed as to change the whole face of things, overturn the temples and altars of the gods, filence the oracles, humble the impious pride of emperors, thofe earthly and more powerful deities, confound the prefumptuous wildom of philofophers, and introduce into the greatest part of the known world a new principle of religion and virtue: an event apparently too unwieldly and ftupendous to have been brought about by mere human means, though all the accomplishments of learning, all the infinuating and perfuafive powers of eloquence, joined to the profoundeft knowledge of the nature and duty of man, and a long practice and experience in the ways of the world, had all met in the apoftles. But the apoftles, excepting Paul, were ignorant and illiterate, bred up for the moft part in mean Occupations, natives and inhabitants of a remote province of Judea, and fprung from a nation hated and defpifed by the reft of mankind. So that allowing it poffible, that a change fo total and univerfal might have been effected by the natural powers and faculties of man, yet had the apostles none of those powers, St. Paul alone excepted, who was indeed, eloquent and well verfed in all the learning of the Jews; that is, in the traditions and doctrines of the Pharifees (of which felt he was); a learning, which, instead of affifting him in making converts to the Gospel, gave him the ftrongeft prejudices against it, and rendered him a furious perfecutor of the Chriftians. Yet of this eloquence, and of this learning, he made no use in preaching the Goipel: on the contrary, "When I came to you,' fays he to the Corinthians, "I came not with excellency of speech, or of wifdom, declaring to you the teftimony of God for I determined not to know any thing among you, fave Jefus Chrift, and him crucified; and I was with you in weakness and in fear, * I Cor. ii. 1-4.

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and in much trembling; and my fpeech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wifdom." And in the preceding chapter, comparing the infufficiency of the preachers of the Gospel with the fuccefs of their preaching, he attributes the latter to the true caufe, the wisdom and power of God, in these expres five words: "For Chrift fent me to preach the gofpel, not "with wifdom of words, left the cross of Chrift should be made of --- none effect. For the preaching of the crofs is to them that perifh foolishness; but unto us, who are faved, it is the power of "God. For it is written, I will deftroy the wisdom of the wife, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wife? Where is the fcribe? Where is the difputer "of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this "world? For after that in the wifdom of God the world by wil"dom knew not God, it pleafed God by the foolishness of preaching to fave them that believe. For the Jews require a fign, and the Greeks feek after wisdom. But we preach Chrift crucified, "unto the Jews a ftumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Chrift the power of God, and the wisdom of God; because the foolishness "of God is wifer than men, and the weakness of God is stronger "than men: for you fee your calling, brethren, that not many "wife men after the flesh, nor many mighty, nor many noble, are called. But God hath chofen the foolish things of the world to confound the wife, and God hath chofen the weak things of "the world to confound the things that are mighty; and bafe things "of the world, and things which are defpifed, hath God chofen ; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flefh fhould glory in his prefence."

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This is a true reprefentation of the condition of the first preachers of the Gospel, and their oppofers. The latter were poffeffed of all the wifdom, authority, and power of the world; the former were ignorant, contemptible, and weak. Which of them, then, according to the natural course of human affairs, ought to have prevailed? The latter, without all doubt. And yet not the apoftles only, but all history and our own experience affure us, that the ignorant, the contemptible, and the weak, gained the victory from the wife, the mighty, and the noble. To what other caufe, then, can we attribute a fuccefs fo contrary to all the laws by which the events of this world are governed, than to the interpofition of God, manifefted in the refurrection and afcenfion of Jefus Christ, and the miraculous powers conferred upon his apoftles and difciples? a caufe adequate to all the effects, however great and aftonishing. For, with these ample credentials from the King of Heaven, even a poor fisherman of Galilee might appear with dignity before the high priest and fanhedrim of the Jews; affert boldly that "God had made that fame "Jefus, whom they had crucified, both Lord and Chrift ;" and make good his affertion by proving that he was rifen from the dead, strange 1. Cor. i. 17, 18. + If. xxix. 14.

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