was fulfilled during his life, beeaufe both the prophecy and the completion were over before they were publifhed by the Evangelifts; though, as Origen obferves, what end could there be in forging fome of these predictions, as that of St. Peter's denying his Master, and all his Difciples forfaking him in the greatest extremity, which reflects fo much fhame on the great Apoftle, and on all his companions? Nothing but a ftrict adherence to truth, and to matters of fact, could have prompted the Evangelifts, to relate a circumftance fo difadvantageous to their own reputation; as that father has well obferved.

II. But to purfue his reflections on this fubject. There are predictions of our Saviour recorded by the Evangelifts, which were not completed till after their deaths, and had no likelihood of being fo, when they were pronounced by our bleffed Saviour. Such was that wonderful notice he gave them, that they should be ⚫ brought before governors and kings for his fake, for 6 a teftimony against them and the Gentiles,' Mat. x. 28. with the other like prophecies, by which he foretold that his Difciples were to be perfecuted. Is there any ⚫ other doctrine in the World,' fays this father, whole followers are punished? Can the enemies of Chrift fay, that he knew his opinions were falfe and impious, and that therefore he might well conjecture and foretel what would be the treatment of those persons who should embrace them? Suppofing his doctrines were really fuch, why fhould this be the confequence? What likelihood that men fhould be brought before kings and governors for opinions and tenets of any kind, when this never happened even to the Epicureans, who abfolutely denied • a Providence; nor to the Peripatetics themselves, who laughed at the prayers and facrifices which were made to the Divinity? Are there any but the Chriftians, • who, according to this prediction of our Saviour, being brought before kings and governors for his fake, are preffed to their latest gafp of breath, by their respective judges, to renounce Chriftianity, and to procure their liberty and reft, by offering the fame facrifices, and taking the fame oaths that others did?'

III.

III. Confider the time when our Saviour pronounced thefe words, Matt. x. 32. Whofoever fhall confefs ⚫ me before men, him will I alfo confefs before my Father which is in heaven: but whofoever fhall deny me before men, him will I alfo deny before my Father which is in heaven.' Had you heard him fpeak after this manner, when as yet his Difciples were under no fuch trials, you would certainly have faid within yourfelf, if thefe fpeeches of Jefus are true, and if, according to his prediction, governors and kings undertake to ruin and deftroy thofe who fhall profefs themfelves his Difciples, we will believe, not only that he is a Prophet, but that he has received power from God fufficient to preferve and propagate his religion; and that he would never talk in fuch a peremptory and difcouraging manner, were he not affured that he was able to fubdue the moft powerful oppofition that could be made against the faith and doctrine which he taught.

IV. Who is not struck with admiration, when he reprefents to himself our Saviour at that time, foretelling that his Gospel fhould be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, or, as Origen (who rather quotes the fenfe than the words) to ferve for a conviction to kings and people, when at the fame time he finds that his Gofpel has accordingly been preached to the Greeks and Barbarians, to the learned, and to the ignorant, and that there is no quality or condition of life able to exempt men from fubmitting to the doctrine of Chrift? As for us, fays this great author, in another part of his book against Celfus, when we fee every day thofe events exactly ac'complished which our Saviour foretold at fo great a distance, that "his Gofpel is preached in all the world,' Matt. xxiv. 14. that "his Difciples go and teach all "nations," Matt. xxviii. 19. and that "thofe who "have received his doctrine are brought, for his fake, "before governors and before kings," Matt. x. 18. < we are filled with admiration, and our faith in him is • confirmed more and more. What clearer and ftronger 'proofs can Celfus afk for the truth of what he spoke?'

V. Ori

V. Origen infifts likewife with great ftrength on that wonderful prediction of our Saviour concerning the deftruction of Jerufalem, pronounced at a time, as he obferves, when there was no likelihood nor appearance of it. This has been taken notice of and inculcated by fo many others, that I fhall refer you to what this father has faid on the fubject in the first book against Celfus; and as to the accomplishment of this remarkable prophecy, fhall only obferve, that whoever reads the account given us. by Jofephus, without knowing his character, and compares it with what our Saviour foretold, would think the hiftorian had been a Christian, and that he had nothing elfe in view but to adjust the event to the prediction.

VI. I cannot quit this head without taking notice that Origen would still have triumphed more in the foregoing arguments, had he lived an age longer, to have feen the Roman emperors, and all their governors and provinces, fubmitting themfelves to the Chriftian religion, and glorying in its profeffion, as fo many kings and fovereigns ftill place their relation to Chrift at the head of

their titles.

How much greater confirmation of his faith would he have received, had he feen our Saviour's prophecy ftand good in the deftruction of the temple, and the diffolution of the Jewish economy, when Jews and Pagans united all their endeavours under Julian the apoftate to baffle and falfify the prediction? The great preparations that were made for rebuilding the temple, with the hurricane, earthquake, and eruptions of fire, that destroyed the work, and terrified thofe employed in the attempt from proceeding in it, are related by many hiftorians of the fame age, and the fubftance of the ftory teftified both by Pagan and Jewish writers, as Ammianus Marcellinus, and Zamath David. The learned Chryfoftom, in a fermon against the Jews, tells them this fact was then fresh in the memories even of their young men, that it happened but twenty years ago, and that it was attefted by all the inhabitants of Jerufalem, where they might still

fee

fee the marks of it in the rubbish of that work, from which the Jews defifted in fo great a fright, and which even Julian had not the courage to carry on. This fact, which is in itself fo miraculous, and fo indifputable, brought over many of the Jews to Christianity, and fhows us, that after our Saviour's prophecy against it, the temple could not be preferved from the plough paffing over it, by all the care of Titus, who would fain have prevented its destruction, and that, instead of being re-edified by Julian, all his endeavours towards it did but still more literally accomplish our Saviour's prediction, that not one ftone fhould be left upon another.'

The ancient Chriftians were fo entirely perfuaded of the force of our Saviour's prophecies, and of the punishment which the Jews had drawn upon themselves and upon their children, for the treatment which the Meffiah had received at their hands, that they did not doubt but they would always rernain an abandoned and dispersed people, an hiffing and an astonishment among the nations, as they are to this day. In fhort, that they had loft their peculiarity of being God's people, which was now transferred to the body of Chriftians, and which preferved the church of Chrift among all the conflicts, difficulties, and perfecutions, in which it was engaged, as it had preferved the Jewish government and economy for fo many ages, whilft it had the fame truth and vital principle in it, notwithstanding it was fo frequently in danger of being utterly abolished and destroyed. Origen, in his fourth book against Celfus, mentioning their being caft out of Jerufalem, the place to which their worship was annexed, deprived of their temple and facrifice, their religious rites and folemnities, and fcattered over the face of the earth, ventures to affure them with a face of confidence, that they would never be re-established, since they had committed that horrid crime against the Saviour of the world. This was a bold affertion in the good man, who knew how this people had been fo wonderfully re-eftablished in former times, when they were almost swallowed up, and in the most desperate ftate of defolation, as in their deliverance

deliverance out of the Babylonifh captivity, and the oppreffions of Antiochus Epiphanes. Nay, he knew that within less than a hundred years before his own time, the Jews had made fuch a powerful effort for their re-eftablishment under Barchocab, in the reign of Adrian, as fhook the whole Roman empire. But he founded his opinion on a fure word of prophecy, and on the punishment they had fo justly incurred; and we find by a long experience of 1 500 years, that he was not mistaken, nay that his opinion gathers ftrength daily, fince the Jews are now at a greater diftance from any probability of fuch a re-establishment, than they were when Origen wrote.

SECTION IX.

I. The lives of primitive Chriftians, another means of bringing learned Pagans into their religion.-II. The change and reformation of their manners.-III. This looked upon as fupernatural by the learned Pagans ;-IV. And frengthened the accounts given of our Saviour's life and history.-V. The Jewish prophecies of our Saviour, an argument for the heathen's belief.—VI. Pursued.— VII. Purfued.

THERE was one one other means enjoyed by the

learned Pagans of the three firft centuries, for fatisfying them in the truth of our Saviour's history, which I might have brought under one of the foregoing heads; but as it is fo fhining a particular, and does fo much honour to our religion, I fhall make a distinct article of it, and only confider it with regard to the fubject I am upon: I mean the lives and manners of thofe holy men, who believed in Chrift during the first ages of Chriftianity. I fhould be thought to advance a paradox, fhould I affirm that there were more Christians in the world during thofe times of perfecution, than there are at prefent in thefe which we call the flourishing times of Chriftianity. But this will be found an indisputable truth, if we form our calculation upon the opinions which prevailed in thofe days, that every one who lives in the habitual practice of any voluntary fin, actually