6. The ambassadors of Christ, leaving these fabulous stories sprang up after the Jerusalem, travelled over a great part of days of Charlemagne, when most Christhe world, and in a short time collected tian churches contended as vehemently numerous religious societies in various about the antiquity of their origin as ever countries. Of churches founded by them, did the Arcadians, Egyptians, Greeks, and not a small number is mentioned in the other people. sacred books, especially in the Acts of the Apostles. Besides these, there can be no doubt they collected many others, both by their own efforts and by the efforts of their followers. But how far they travelled, what nations they visited, or when and where they died, is exceedingly dubious and uncertain.3 The stories often told respecting their travels among the Gauls, the Britons, the Spaniards, the Germans, the Americans, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Russians, are too recent and fantastic to be received by an inquisitive lover of the truth.3 A great part of

The names of these churches are collected by Hartmann, De Rebus gestis Christianor. sub Apostolis, cap. vii. p. 107; and by Fabricius, Lux Evangelii, cap. v. p. 83, &c.

7. Many who were unwilling to adopt entirely the religion of Christ, were induced, nevertheless, by the fame of his deeds and the sublime purity of his doctrines, to rank him among men of the highest excellence, and even among the gods, as numerous documents evince. With great veneration, many preserved pictures of Christ and of his apostles in their houses.* It is said that a Roman emperor, Tiberius, proposed to have Christ enrolled among the gods of the empire, but that the senate rejected the proposal. Though many at

the transactions of the apostles, their travels, miracles, and deaths, if we except what was gathered from the New Test. and a few other ancient monuments, a large part is dubious and uncertain. Some things, however, have more credibility and verisimilitude than others. Í 2 It is a very ancient and current report, confirmed would not reject all that is clearly attested by Origen, Euby many witnesses, that all the apostles suffered public sebius, Gregory Nazianzen, Paulinus, Jerome, Socrates, martyrdom with the exception of John, who died a and some more ancient writers quoted by Eusebius; but natural death at Ephesus. That Peter, Paul, and what is attested only by authors subsequent to these, or James died violent deaths, I believe on the testimony of unknown, I would not readily believe, unless facts offer the numerous ancient authors; but that the other apos- themselves to corroborate the testimony." Following tles did so, I cannot feel so certain. As my first ground these judicious rules of Mosheim, we may believe that of doubt, a very ancient writer of the second century, Peter, after preaching long in Judea, and other parts Heracleon, a Valentinian indeed, but no contemptible of Syria, probably visited Babylon, Asia Minor, and man, cited by Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. iv, cap. ix. denies finally Rome, where he was crucified.-Paul's history that Matthew, Philip, Thomas, Levi, and others, con- is given in the Acts to about A.D. 64. He was probafessed Christ before magistrates, and were put to death bly released from captivity, visited Judea, Asia Minor, for so doing. He is urging that the public confession and Greece, and returning to Rome, was there beheaded of himself required by the Saviour, Matt. x. 32, may be about A. D. 67 or 68. John remained many years in made by a holy and Christian life, as well as by a public Judea, and afterwards removed to Ephesus, where he avowal before a persecuting magistrate; and he states lived to a very advanced age, dying about A.D. 100. as proof, Ou yàp Távτes di σwsóμevol wμodóynoav Thy He was banished to Patmos about A.D. 95, and was δια τῆς φωνῆς ὡμολογίαν, καὶ ἐξῆλθον. Εξ ὧν Ματθαῖος, greatly revered. James the elder (brother of John) PLATTROS, Owuâs, Aevis, kai ao mooi, for not all that was put to death by Herod Agrippa, about A.D. 44. were saved made that confession in words (before ma- Acts xii. 1. James the younger, the son of Alphæus, gistrates), and so died. Of this number were Matthew, spent his life in Judea, long presided over the church Philip, Thomas, Levi, and many others. Clement, of Jerusalem, and there suffered martyrdom, a little bethough he disapproves several things in the passage he fore the destruction of Jerusalem. Andrew probably quotes, leaves this statement to stand as it is; which is laboured on the shores of the Black Sea, near the proof that he had nothing to allege against it. Philip modern Constantinople, and perhaps in Greece. Philip, is expressly declared not to have suffered martyrdom, either the apostle or the evangelist, is reported to have but to have died and been buried at Hierapolis, so says ended his days at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. Thomas Polycrates, in his Epistle to Victor, in Eusebius, Hist. seems to have travelled eastward, to Parthia, Media, Eccl. v. 24. Baronius, indeed (Annales, A. D. 35, sec. Persia, and India. Bartholomew took, perhaps, a more 141), and after him many others maintain, that this southern course, and preached in Arabia. Matthew is was not Philip the apostle, but Philip, one of the seven also reported to have travelled east, in the modern Perdeacons of Jerusalem. But Polycrates says expressly, sia. Of Simon the Canaanite nothing to be relied on that he was one of the twelve apostles. A still stronger can be said. Thaddeus, Lebbeus, or Jude the brother argument is, that all the writers of the first three cen- of James, the author of an epistle, is reported to have turies, and among them such as contended for the preached at Edessa, in the north of Syria. Of the comhigh dignity of the martyrs, in opposition to the Valen- panions of the apostles, Timothy, after accompanying tinians, viz. Tertullian, Clemens Alex. and Origen, Paul many years, is said to have been stationed at never mention but three of the apostles as being mar- Ephesus, where he suffered martyrdom under Domityrs; namely, Peter, Paul, and James the elder. See tian or Nerva. Titus, another companion of Paul, is Tertullian, Scorpiace, cap xv. I am therefore led to reported to have been stationed in Crete, where he died. believe that the common reports respecting the suffer- Mark, or John surnamed Mark, attended Paul and ings of Christ's ambassadors were fabricated, after the afterwards Peter, and probably preached the gospel in days of Constantine. And two causes might lead to Egypt. Of Luke little can be said, except that he such reports. (1) The extravagant estimation in which accompanied Paul, and wrote his history, viz. the book martyrdom was held, made it seem necessary to rank of Acts and a Gospel. Of Barnabas nothing can be the apostles among the martyrs. (2) The ambiguity of said worth relating, except what is learned from the the word uáprop martyr, which properly signifies a New Testament See Fabricius, Luz Evangelii, &c. witness, in which sense Christ himself called his apostles &c. cap. v. pag. 95-115. From this account, imperHáprupes (Acts i. 8; see also Acts ii. 32), might lead fect as it is, we may conclude that the apostles and the more ignorant to believe, and to amplify these their companions scarcely extended their labours befables. Mosheim, De Beb. Christ, ante C. M. pag. 81-yond the boundaries of the present Turkish empire.— 84, abridged considerably-Mur. Mur.

3 Mosheim, in his Comment. de Reb. Christ. 4 Eusebius, Historia Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xxviii. Irepag. 80, 81, says: "As to what we are told respecting næus, Hares. lib. i. cap. xxv, p. 250, ed. Massuet, é byty

band.

9. To all this must be added the ability which these ambassadors of God possessed, of transferring the power of working miracles to their disciples. Many, as soon as they were baptized according to Christ's directions, and consecrated to God by prayer and the imposition of hands, were able immediately to express their thoughts in foreign languages which they had never learned, to foretell future events, to heal the sick by pronouncing the name of Jesus, to call the dead to life, and to perform other deeds above the power of man." What must have been thought of the men who had ability to confer such wonderful powers on others!

the present day think this to be improbable, of Christianity by so small and feeble a yet there are distinguished men who are led by weighty reasons to a different opinion.' 8. The causes must have been divine which enabled men, destitute of all human aid, poor, friendless, neither eloquent nor learned, fishermen, publicans, and, moreover, Jews--that is, persons odious to all other nations-in so short a time to persuade a great part of mankind to abandon the religions of their fathers, and to embrace a new religion which is opposed to the natural dispositions of men. In their very words there was an amazing and a divine power of controlling the minds of men; to which may be added miracles, prophecies, the detection of men's secret designs, magnanimity in the midst of perils, contempt for all the objects of ordinary ambition, a patient, cheerful endurance of sufferings worse than death, as well as of death itself, and finally, lives of the most unblemished character. That the ambas sadors of Jesus Christ were thus furnished for their work, is a truth perfectly clear and obvious. And if these holy men had not been so furnished, no probable reason could be offered for this rapid propagation

10. Those who pretend to assign other causes for this surprising revolution in the religious state of the world, recite fictions which will never satisfy an attentive observer of human affairs. Some conjecture that the kindness of Christians to the poor, induced a multitude of idle and vicious persons to embrace Christianity. But they forget that such as embraced this religion exposed their lives to imminent danger; nor do they reflect that vicious, lazy per1 "Of the favourable disposition of the Roman em- sons, who would not work, were not toleperors towards Christianity, there is a remarkable testi-rated among Christians. 2 Thess. ii. 6— mony in the Apology of Mellto Sardicensis, addressed to Mar. Antoninus which is preserved by Eusebius, Hist. 12. Equally groundless is the representaEccl. iv. 26. Melito here informs the emperor that his tion of others, that the profligate and flapredecessors not only tolerated Christianity among the religions, but also honoured it: και οι πρόγονοι gitious lives of the pagan priests caused σοῦ πρὸς ταῖς ἄλλαις θρησκείαις ἐτίμησαν, which sect many to turn Christians. But the vile your progenitors treated with equal respect as the character of these priests, though it might other religions. He adds, that Nero and Domitian were the only emperors who allowed the counsels bring the ancient systems of religion into of certain adversaries to influence them to make Chris- contempt, could not produce attachment tianity a criminal thing. If what Melito here says of Nero be true, namely, that he was influenced by the to Christianity, which exposed its votaries counsels of malevolent persons to persecute the Chris- to the loss of property, character, and life. tians, then there may be some foundation for what John The man must be beside himself who could of Antioch says, in Excerptis Valesianis, p. 808, &c. that Nero was favourable to the Christians and to reason thus: "The priests of the religion Christ in the beginning of his reign.. Tertullian, in which I was educated lead profligate Apologet. cap. v. p. 57. ed. Havercamp, speaks of Tiberius's desire to have Christ enrolled among the gods, as of a thing universally known. Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. ii. 2), Orosius (Chron. Pascal. vii. 4), and others afterwards repeat the story, relying chiefly on the authority of Tertullian. See Baldwin, Comment. ad Edicta Veterum Principum Rom. de Christ. pages 22, 23; and Fabricius, Lux Evangelii, &c. p. 221. But very learned men in this age have deemed this wholly incredible, and not at all compatible with the character of Tiberius and with the state of the empire at that time. In what manner men equally learned and ingenious have repelled their arguments, may be seen in the Essay of Theod. Hasæus, De Decreto Tiberii, quo Christum referre voluit in numerum deorum. Erfurt, 1715, 4to; and in the French letter of J. C. Isellus on this subject, in the Bibliothèque Germanique, tome xxxii. p. 147, and tome xxxiii. p. 12; Moshelm, De Reb. Christ. &c. p. 91, &c. See also Altmann, Disquisitio historico-critica de Epistola Pilati ad Tiberium, &c. Berne, 1775, 8vo. In this Essay Professor Altmann maintains: (1) That Pilate was actually informed of the resurrection of Christ by the guard. (2) That he did really send to Tiberius an account of the death and resurrection of Jesus, though not such an account as the one now extant. (3) That Tiberius actually proposed in the senate that Jesus should be honoured

lives; I therefore will join myself with those who are universally despised, and by the public laws condemned, and thus put my life and fortune to the most imminent hazard."3

as a god. This subject is also examined by Lardner, Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 599, &c. Ed. Lond. 1815, 4to.-Mur.

2 Soc, among others, Pfanner, De Charismatis, sive donis miraculosis antiquæ ecclesia. Francf. 1683, 12mo. 3 See also Mosheim, Comment. de Reb. Christ. pages 90-92. [Since the appearance of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Rom. Emp. in the fifteenth chapter of which he endeavoured to account for the rapid spread of the Gospel by referring it solely to se condary causes, many excellent works have appeared on this subject, in support of the argument founded on the early propagation of Christianity, in favour of its divine origin and character. See Milman's Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 259, &c. and the several answers to Gibbon by Bishop Watson, Sir D. Dalrymple, and others. See also Lardner's Heathen Testimonies, Bullet's Hist. of the Estab. of Christianity, translated by Salisbury. London, 1776.-R.

L

3

religion, and as they suffered the Jews in credited. What they were may be learned
particular to live according to their own from the writers of apologies for Christianity
laws, it is not improperly asked, what could in the early ages. The same persons cun-
have induced them to inflict so many evils ningly persuaded the multitude, that all
on the Christians, whose religion was so the calamities, wars, tempests, and diseases,
holy, and so friendly both to public and which afflicted mankind, were sent upon
private happiness? The first cause of this them by the angry gods, because the Chris-
cruelty I conceive to be, that the Christians tians, who contemned their authority, were
contemned and abhorred the public religion everywhere tolerated. Other less weighty
of the state, which was so closely connected causes are here omitted.
with the form and administration of the

Roman government. For though the
Romans tolerated all the religions from
which the Commonwealth had nothing to
fear, they would not suffer the ancient reli-
gion of their nation, as established by the
laws, to be derided and the people to be
withdrawn from it. Yet both these the
Christians dared to do. Nor did they assail
only the Roman religion, but likewise the
religion of every other nation. Hence the
Romans concluded, that the Christian sect
was not only arrogant beyond all measure,
but was also unfriendly to the public peace
and tranquillity, and calculated to excite
civil wars. This, if I do not mistake, is that
hatred of the human race with which Taci-
tus taxes the Christians, and is the true
ground of his denominating Christianity a
pernicious superstition, and of Suetonius
styling it malignant.'

9. The various kinds of punishment, both capital and corrective, which were inflicted on those who venerated Christ, are described by learned men, in works professedly on that subject.5 The manner of proceeding before the tribunals may be seen in the Acts of the Martyrs, in the letters which passed between Pliny and Trajan, and in other ancient documents. But it is clear, that the mode of proceeding in the courts was not always the same; for the laws and the rescripts of the emperors, by which the magistrates were to be guided, were very different at different periods. Thus, at one time the Christians were carefully sought after; at another, the judges waited till some one came forward to accuse them. Sometimes the confessing or convicted Christians were hurried forthwith to execution, if they did not renounce their religion; at other times, the magistrates 7. Another principal cause of the Roman laboured, by various species of torture and hostility to Christianity was, that the Chris-cruelty, to induce them to apostatize. tian worship had nothing of what was com- 10. Those who fell in these perilous mon to other religions. For the Christians days of the church, being put to death in had no sacrifices, no temples, no statues, no different ways, were called Martyrs; a term oracles, no order of priests; and the incon- borrowed from the sacred writings, and siderate multitude deemed those who were denoting that they were witnesses for Christ. without these, to be destitute of all religion; Those who were bold to profess Christ and by the Roman laws, those who seemed before the magistrates, and for his sake to deny the Deity or the national gods incurred the loss of health, or goods, or were regarded as the pests of human society. honours, were denominated confessors. Besides, the worship of so many deities Both obtained immense veneration and afforded support to a countless throng of influence among the Christians; and they priests, augurs, soothsayers, merchants, enjoyed prerogatives and honours which and artists-all of whom were in danger of coming to want, if Christianity should pre-xix. 25. Pliny, Epist. lib. x. ep. 97. "The temples, vail; and therefore, with united strength, which were almost deserted, begin to be frequented they rose up against it and wished to ex-glected, are again performed. The victims which again; and the sacred rites, which had been long neterminate its followers.2

8. They whose interest it was to arrest the progress of Christianity, in order to effect their object the sooner, disseminated among the vulgar the basest calumnies against the Christians and their religion. These slanderous stories, the people, who were fickle and credulous, too easily ac

hitherto had found almost no purchasers, begin to come again to the market," &c.

3 This subject is nearly exhausted by Kortholt, Paganus Obtrectator, seu de Calumniis gentil. in Christ. Kilon. 1698, 4to; to which add Huldrich, De Calumner's Calumnies on the primitive Christians accounted niis gentil. in Christ. Zur. 1744, 8vo. [See also Turfor. London 1727, 8vo.-R.

4 See Arnobius, Adversus Gentes. [and Tertullian, Apologet. cap. xl.-Schl.

5 Gallonius and Sagittarius, De Cruciatibus Martyrum; the latter printed at Jena, 1673, 4to; the 1 See Tacitus, Annal. lib. xv. cap. xliv.; Suetonius, best edition of the former is, Antw. 1668, 12mo. [Both Nero, cap. xvi. Because such as could not endure the contain mixtures of the doubtful with the true; for the sacred rites and the religion of the Romans, nor those Acta Martyrum now extant cannot be relied on. of all the world, seemed to be the foes of mankind and-Mosheim, De Reb. Chr. &c-Mur. to indulge hatred towards all nations.

See the account of Demetrius the silversmith, Acts

6 See Boehmer, Jus Eccles. Protest. tom. iv. lib. v. Decretal. tit. i. sec. 32.

were altogether peculiar and extraordinary; for trial. Persons in the humbler condiand such as would furnish matter for a tions of life were generally more safe, while volume which would be useful in various greater danger impended over the rich, respects. These prerogatives were un- whose wealth had charms for the judges, doubtedly conferred on the martyrs and over the learned, the doctors and heads of confessors, to induce others more readily churches, the witty and the eloquent.3 to encounter evils of every kind for Christ's 12. The words and actions of the marsake. But as all peculiar privileges, by tyrs, from the time of their arrest till their the fault of men, degenerate into sources last moments, were carefully committed to of evil, so these were conferred not un-writing, in order to be read on certain days frequently on the undeserving; and they as examples to posterity. But only a few served to encourage superstition and other evils.

2

11. That a great number of persons of every class and rank, suffered death for the cause of Christ, during the first three or four centuries, no impartial person acquainted with those times can entertain a doubt. But since Dodwell's attempt to invalidate this ancient opinion, many have agreed with him, and have maintained that only a few actually suffered death on account of the Christian religion; but they have met with strenuous opposers, who regard this opinion as derogatory to divine grace. Those who take the middle path between these two extremes, will probably come nearest to the truth. The martyrs were not so numerous as they were anciently supposed to be, and as some still account them; but they were more numerous than Dodwell and his friends suppose. Into this opinion, I think, they will most readily come, who learn from the ancient writers, that even in the most calamitous times of the Church, not all the Christians, everywhere, were persecuted and arraigned

This seems quite too philosophical an account of this matter. The early Christians did not thus coldly calculate distant consequences and effects, in order to determine what place in their affections and what rank in the church, they should give to their brethren and pastors who suffered and died for their religion. Natare, religion, and all the ties which united them to

Christ, to the church, and to one another, combined to render these holy men and consistent Christians venerable and lovely in their eyes, and of course to procure them a rank and privileges in the church altogether peculiar. Whoever reads the most authentic accounts of the ancient martyrs, of Polycarp, for instance, will

see abundant evidence of the operation of these causes; but nothing of that calculating policy of which Mosheim speaks-Mur.

2 In his noted dissertation, De Paucitate martyrum, which is the eleventh among his Dissert. Cyprianicæ. [Gibbon eagerly seized on Dodwell's conclusions in this dissertation; and in the sixteenth chapter of his Decline and Fall, &c. he endeavours to extenuate the cruelties of the Roman authorities against the Christians, and to depreciate their sufferings in the cause of truth. See Milman's excellent notes on this chapter; and some judicious remarks in that most interesting work, Maitland's Church in the Catacombs. Lond. 1846, in the fourth chapter, entitled "The Martyrs of the Catacombs." This work contains numerous pictorial illustrations of the sepulchral remains of the primitive Christians in Rome, many of them now published for the first time; and I can vouch, from personal observation, for the extreme accuracy with which they are executed.-R.

of these Acta Martyrum have reached us;1 much the greater part of them having been committed to the flames, during the ten years' war of Diocletian against the Christians; for that emperor required all the books and papers of Christians at that time to be collected and burned. From the eighth century, both the Greeks and the Latins took great pains to compile lives of the ancient martyrs; but the more discerning even in the Romish Church now admit that the greater part of these accounts are mere fables, dressed up in a style of affected oratory. Nor is more credit due to those catalogues of saints called Martyrologies, which were either compiled by ignorant and incompetent men or have since been much falsified. Hence this part of ecclesiastical history enjoys very little light.

of

13. Nero was the first emperor who persecuted the Christians, and his cruelty was extreme. He accused those innocent people of a crime which he himself had committed; namely, that of setting fire to the city of Rome.5 And to make the punishment correspond with the crime, he caused the streets of the city to be illuminated through the night by the burning bodies of many them, whom he had sewed up alive in garments covered with pitch. Others were put to death in a different manner. persecution began in the middle of November, A.D. 64. In it, the ancients tell us, Paul and Peter suffered death at Rome; but many cannot bring themselves to believe this, because of its repugnance to chronology." This persecution terminated at

This

3 See Martyrium Polycarpi, sec. 12; Acta Pructuosi, in Ruinart's Acta Martyr. p. 219; Cyprian, Epist. v. and xiv. p. 10 and 23 ed. Benedict, and many others; Mosheim, De Reb. Christ. ante C. M. p. 106. -Mur.

4 Such of them as are not wholly unworthy of credit were collected in a moderate sized folio, by Ruinart, Acta primorum Martyrum sincera et Selecta. Amster. 1713, folio.

5 See the two French dissertations of Alph. de Vignoles, on the cause and the commencement of Nero's persecution in Masson's Histoire critique de la République des Lettres, tome viii. pages 74-117, and tome ix. pages 172-186. See also Toinard on Lactantius, De Mortibus persecutorum, p. 398.

6 Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tome i. p. 564, &c.; and Baratier, De Successione Romanor. Pontif. cap. v. p. 60. [All agree that both these apostles, Paul and