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IX. Celadion, ten; but in Eusebius's computation, fourteen. X. Agrippinus, fourteen; according to Eusebius, twelve. 310 b XI. Jalianos, fifteen; though Eusebius allows but ten. 9154 Boll XII. Demetrios, twenty-one; according to Eusebius, forty-three.g XIII. Heraclas, a man of philosophical genius and way of life. He sa sixteen years; though Nicephorus of Constantinople, by a mistake, we suppose, for his predecessor, makes it forty-three.

XIV, Dionysius, seventeen. He was one of the most eminent bishops of his time. He died in the twelfth year of the emperor Gallineas.

XV. Maximus. Of a presbyter he was made bishop of Alexandria, He sat in that chair eighteen years, according to Eusebius's computation though Nicephorus of Constantinople assigns him bat eight.

XVI. Theonas, seventeen; or according to St. Jerom's version of Eusebius nineteen, to him succeeded,

XVII. Petrus, twelve. He began his office three years before the last persecution. A man of infinite strictness and accuracy. and of indefatigable industry for the good of the church. He suffered in the ninth year of the persecution, gaining the crown of martyrdom with the loss of his head.

XVIII. Achillas, nine; though Nicephorus of Constantinople allows bim but one year. By him Arins, upon his submission, was ordained presbyter, XIX. Alexander, twenty-three. Uuder him Arius began more openly to broach his heresy at Alexandria, and shortly after condemned by the fathers of the council of Nice. Nevertheless, his abominable tenets have infected the church more or less, to the present day, and are openly avowed by the enemies of the gospel of JESUS, who is God over all, blessed for ever.

Upon which CHRISTIANITY is founded; including a Complete Defance of Christianity, together with plain and satisfactory Answers to all Objections made against our Holy Religion by Jews, Atheists, DeFists, Infidels, Free-Thinkers, &c. &c. datos deste

AMONGST other undoubted authorities concerning our Saviour and his miracles, extant among Pagan writers, the particulars which follow, are all attested by some one or other of those Heathen authors, who lived in or near the age of our Saviour and his disciples. vor we

That Augustus Caesar had ordered the whole empire to be censed and taxed," which brought our Saviour's reputed parents to Bethlehem this is mentioned by several Roman historians, as Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dion.

That a great light, or a new star appeared in the East, which directed the wise men to our Saviour this is recorded by Chalcidius. That Herod, the king of Palestine, so often mentioned in the Roman history, made a great slaughter of innocent children," being so jealous of his successor, that he put to death his own sons on that account; this character of him is given by several historians, and this cruel fact mentioned by Macrobius, a Heathen author, who tells it as a known thing, without any remark upon it. That our Saviour had been in Egypt" this, Celsus, though he raises a monstrous story upon it, is so far from denying, that he tells us our Saviour learned the arts of magic in that country. That Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea that our Saviour was brought in judgment before him, and by him condemned and crucified:" this is recorded by Tacitus. That many miraculous cures and works, out of the ordinary course of nature were wrought by him." This is confessed by Julian the apostate, Porphyry, and Hierocles, all of them, not only Pagans, but professed enemies and persecutors of Christianity. That our Sav jour, foretold several things which came to pass according to his predic

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Mons:" this is attested by Phelegon in his annals, as we are assured by the learned Origen against Celsus. That at the time when our Saviour died there was a miraculous darkness, and a great earthquake:" this is recorded by the same Phelegon the Trallian who was likewise a Pagan, and freeman to Adrian the emperor. We may here observe, that a native of Trallium, which was not situate at so great a distance from Palestine, might very probably be informed of such remarkable events as had passed amongst the Jews in the age immediately preceding his own time, since several of his countrymen with whom he had conversed, might have re ceived a confused report of our Saviour before his crucifixion, and probably lived within the shake of the earthquake, and the shadow of the eclipse, which are recorded by this author, That CHRIST was worshipped as a God amongst the Christians; that they would rather suffer death than blaspheme him; that they received a sacrament, and by it entered into a vow of abstaining from sin and wickedness," conformable to the advice given by St. Paul;" that they had private assemblies of worship, and used to join together in hymns:" this is the account which Pliny the younger gives of Christianity in his days, about seventy years after the death of CHRIST, and which agrees in all it's circumstances with the accounts we have in holy writ, of the first state of Christianity after the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour. That St. Peter, whose miracles are many of them recorded in holy writ, did many wonderful works," is owned by Julian the apostate, who therefore represents him as a great magician, and one who had in his possession a book of magical secrets left him by our Saviour. That the devils or evil spirits were subject to him," we may learn from Porphyry, who objects to Christianity, that since Jesus had began to be worshipped, Esculapius, and the rest of the gods did no more converse with men: nay, Celsus himself affirms the same thing in effect, when he says, that the power which seemed to reside in Christians proceeded from the use of certain names and invocation of certain dæmons. Origen remarks on this passage, that the author doubtless hints at those Christians who put to flight evil spirits and healed those who were possessed with them; a fact which had been often seen, as he declares in another part of his discourse against Celsus. But at the same time, he assures by the use of no other name but that of Jesus, to which were, added several passages in his history, but nothing like any invocation to dæmons. Celsus was so hard set with the report of our Saviour's miracles, and the confident attestations concerning him, that though he often intimates he did not believe them to be true, yet knowing he might be silenced in such an answer, provides himself with another retreat, when beaten out of this, namely, that our Saviour was a magician. Thus he compares the feeding of so many thousands, at two different times, with a few loaves and fishes, to the magical feasts of those Egyptian impostors, who would present their spectators with visionary entertainments, that bad in them neither substance nor reality which, by the way, is to suppose, that an hungry & fainting multitude were filled by an apparition, or strengthened & refreshed with shadows. The unconverted Heathens, who were pressed by the many authorities that confirmed our Saviour's miracles, as well as the unbelieving Jews, who had actually seen them, were driven to account for them after the same manner; for to work by magic, in the Heathen way of speaking, was, in the language of the Jews, to cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Our Saviour, who knew that unbelievers, in all ages, would put this perverse interpretation on his miracles, has branded the malignity of those men, who, contrary to the dictates of their own hearts started such an unreasonable objection, as'a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and declared e not only the guilt, but the punishment of so black a crime. At the same time, he condescended to shew the vanity and emtiness of this objection against his miracles, by representing, that they evidently tended to the deVatraction of those powers, to whose assistance the enemies of his doctrine then ascribed them. An argument which, if duly weighed, renders the ob

jection so very frivolous and groundless that we may venture to call it even blasphemy against common, sense. It would be absurd to imagine that evil spirits would enter into a combination with our Saviour to cut off all their correspondence and intercourse with mankind, and to prevent any for the future from addicting themselves to those rites and ceremonies, which had done them so much honour. We see the early effect which Christianity had on the minds of men in this particular, by that number of books which were filled with the secrets of magic, and made a sacrifice to Christianity by the converts mentioned in the Acts of the apostles. We have likewise an eminent instance of the inconsistency of our religion with magie, in the history of the famous Aquila. This person, who was a kinsman of the emperor Trajan, and likewise a man of great learning, notwithstanding be bad embraced Christainity, could not be brought off from the studies of magic, by the repeated admonitions of his fellow Christians; so that at length they expelled him their society, as rather choosing to lose the reputation of so considerable a proselyte, than communicate with one who dealt in such dark and infernal practices. Besides, we may observe, that all the favourers of magic were the most professed and bitter enemies to the Christian religion; not to mention Simon Magus and many others, we shall only take notice of those two great persecutors of Christianity, the emperors Adrian and Julian the apostate, both of them initiated in the mysteries of divination, and skilled in all the depths of magic. We shal only add, that evil spirits can not be supposed to have concurred in the establishment of a religion, which triumphed over them, drove them out of the places they possessed, and divested them of their influence on mankind; nor would we mention this particular, though it be Christian authors, did it not appear from the authorities above cited, that this was a fact confessed by Heathens themselves.

When a man is born under Christian parents, and trained up in the profession of religion from a child, he generally guides himself by the rules of Christian faith, in believing what is delivered by the evangelists; the learned Pagans of antiquity, before they became Christians, were only guid ed by the common rules of historical faith; that is, they examined the nature of the evidence which was to be met with in common fame, tradition and the writings of those persons who related them, together with the number, concurrence, veracity, and private characters of those persons; and being convinced upon all accounts, that they bad the same reason to believe the history of our Saviour, as that of any other person at which they themselves were not actually eye-witnesses, they were bound by all the rules of historical faith, and of right reason to give credit to this histo ry. This they did accordingly, and in consequence of it, published the same truths themselves, suffered many afflictions, and very often deatly itself, in the assertion of them.

A learned man of our nation, who examined the writings of our most ancient fathers, refers to several passages in Irenæus, Tertullian, Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, and Cyprian, hy which he plainly shews, that each of these early writers, ascribed to the four evangelists by name their respective histories so that there is not the least room for doubting of their belief in the history of our Saviour, as recorded in the gospels. We shall only add, that three of the five fathers here mentioned, and probably four, were Pagans converted to Christianity, as they were all of them very inquisitive and deep in the knowledge of heathen learning and philosophy.

Several of these, therefore, when they had informed themselves of our Saviour's history, and examined with unprejudiced minds the doctrines and manners of his disciples and followers, were so struck and convinced, that they professed themselves of the fact; notwithstanding, by this profession in that juncture of time, they bid farewell to all the pleasure of this life, renounced all the views of ambition, engaged in an uninterrupted course of severities, and exposed themselves to the public hatred and contempt, to sufferings of all kinds, and to death itself. Of this sort we may reckon

those three early converts to Christianity, who each of them was a member of a senate famous for it's wisdom and learning, Joseph the Arimathean, was of the Jewish Sanhedrim: Dyonisius, of the Athenian Areopagus; and Flavius Clemens, of the Roman senate; nay at the time of his death, consul of Rome.

Tertulian tells the Roman governors, that their corporations, councils, armies, tribes, companies, the palace, senate, and courts of judicature were filled with Christains; as Arnobius asserts, that men of the finest parts and learning, oratory grammarians, retoritians, lawyers, physicians, philosophers, despising the sentiments they had been once fond of, took up their rest in the Christian religion; and who can imagine, that men of this character did not thoroughly inform themselves of the history of that person whose doctrines they embraced ?

Besides innumerable authors that are lost, we have the undoubted names works, or fragments of several Pagan Philosophers, which shew them to have been as learned as any unconverted Heathen authors of the age in which they lived. If we look into the greatest nurseries of learning in those ages of the world, we find in Athens, Dionysius, Quadratus, Aristi des, and Athenagoras; and in Alexandria, Dionysius, Clemens, Ammonius, and to whom we may add Origen; for though his father was a Christian martyr, he became without any controversy, the most learned and able philosopher of his age, by his education at Alexandria, in that famous seminary of arts and sciences.

"

Heathens of every age, sex, and quality, born in the most different climates, and bred up under the most different institutions, when they saw men of plain sense without the help of learning, armed with patience and courage, instead of wealth, pomp or power, expressing in their lives those excellent doctrines of morality, which they taught as delivered to them from our Saviour, averring that they had seen his miracles during his life, & conversed with him after his death; when they saw no suspicion of falsehood treachery, or worldly interest, in their behaviour and conversation, and that they submitted to the most ignominious and eruel deaths. rather than retract their testimony, or even be silent in matters which they were to publish by their Saviour's especial command, there was no reason to doubt of their veracity of those facts which they related, or of the divine mission in which they were employed.

A few persons of an odious and despised country, could not have filled the world with believers, had they not shewn undoubted credentials from the divine Person who sent them on such a message. Accordingly, we' are assured, that they were invested with the power of working miracles, which was the most short and the most convincing argument that could be produced, and the only one that was adopted to the reason of all mankind, to the capacities of the wise and ignorant, and could overcome every cavil and every prejudice. Who would not believe that our Saviour healed the sick, and raised the dead, when it was published by those who themselves often did the same miracles, in their presence, and in his name? Could any reasonable person imagine, that God Almighty would arm men with such powers to anthorize a lie, and establish a religion in the world' which was displeasing to him, or that evil spirits would lend them such an effectual assistance to beat down vice and idolatry.eks. tauhan ngh When the apostles had formed many assembles in several parts of the Pa gan world, who gave credit to the glad-tidings of the gospel, that, upon their departure, the memory of what they had related might not perish, they appointed out of these new converts, men of the best sense and of the most unblemished lives, to preside over these several assemblies, and to insulcate without ceasing, what they had heard from the mouths of these eye-witnesses.

We cannot imagine, that there was a single person arrived at any degree of age or consideration, who had not heard and repeated above a thousa times in his life, all the particulars of our Saviour's birth, life, death

surrection, and ascension; especially if we consider that they could not then be received as Christians, till they had undergone several examinations. Persons of riper years, who flocked daily into the church during the three first centuries, were obliged to pass through many repeated instructions, and give a strict account of their proficiency, before they were admitted to baptism. And as for those who were born of Christian parents and had been baptized in their infancy, they were, with the like care, prepared and disciplined for confirmation, which they could not arrive at till they were found upon examination to have made a sufficient progress in the knowledge of Christianity.

We must further observe, that there was not only in those times this religious conversation amongst private Christians but a constant correspondence between the churches that were established by the apostles of their successors, in the several parts of the world. If any new doctrine was started, or any fact reported of our Saviour, a strict inquiry was made amongst the churches, especially those planted by the apostles themselves, whether they had received any such doctrine or account of our Saviour, from the mouths of the apostles, or the tradition of the Christians who had preceded the present members of the churches; which were thus consulted. By this means, when any novelty was published, it was immediately detected and censured.

St. John, who lived so many years after our Saviour, was appealed to in those emergencies, as the living oracle of the church; and as his oral testimony lasted the first century, many have observed, that, by a particu fat providence of God, several of our Saviour's disciples, and of the early converts of his religion, lived to a very great age, that they might personally convey the truth of the gospel to those times, which were very remote from the first publication of it. Of these, besides St. John we have a remarkable instance in Simeon, who was one of the seventy sent forth by our Saviour, to publish the gospel before his crucifixion, and near kinsman to our Lord.

This venerable person, who had probably heard with his own ears, our Saviour's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, presided over the church established in that city, during the time of its memorable siege, and drew his congregation out of those dreadful and unparalleled calamities which befell his countrymen, by following the advice our Saviour had given, when they should see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, and the Roman standards, or abomination of desolation, set up. He lived till the year of our Lord 107, when he was martyred under the empero Trajan.

Irenæus very aptly remarks, that those barbarous nations, who in his time were not possessed of the written gospels, and had only learned the history of our Saviour from those who had converted them to Christianity before the gospels were written, had amongst them the same accounts of our Saviour, which are to be met with in the four evangelists; an incontestable proof of the harmony and concurrence between the Holy Scrip ture and the tradition of the churches in those early times of Christianity. Thus we see what opportunities the learned and inquisitive Heathens had of informing themselves of the truth of our Saviour's history, during the three first centuries, especially as they lay nearer one than another to the fountain-head; besides which there were many uncontroverted traditione, records of Christianity, and particular histeries, that then threw fight into these matters but are now entirely lost.

We cannot omit that which appears to us a standing miracle in the three first centuries, namely, that amazing and supernatural courage or patience which was shewn by innumerable multitudes of martyrs, in those slow and painful torments that were inflicted on them. We cannot conceive a man placed in the burning iron chair at Lyons, amidst the insults and mockeries of a crowded amphitheatre and stil keeping his seat; or stretched upon a grate of iron, over coals of fire, and breathing out his