424 The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED LORD matters which they were to publilh by their Saviour's efpecial command, there was no reafon to doubt of the veracity of thofe falls which they related, or of the divine million in which they were employed. A few perfons of an odious and defpifed country; could not have filled the world with believers, had they not (hewnundoubt- ed credentials from the divine Perlon who fent them on fuch a meffage. Accordingly, we are allured, that they were invelled with the power ofworking miracles, which was the molt fhort and the molt convincing argument that could be produced, and the only one that was adapted to the reafonof all mankind, to the capacities of the wife and ignorant, and could overcome every cavil and every prejudice. Whowould not believe that our Saviour healed the lick, and railed the dead, when it was publifhed by thofe who themfelves often did the fame miracles, in their prefence, and in his name? Could any reafonable perfon ima- gine, that God Almighty would arm men with fuch powers to authorize a lie, and eftablifh a religion in the world which was difpleafing to him, or that evil fpirits would lend them fuch an effefual affiflance to beat down vice and idolatry ? When the apofiles had formed many af- femblies in feveral parts ofthe Paganworld, who gave credit to the glad-tidings of the gofpel, that, upon their departure, theme- mory of what they had related might not perifh, they appointed out of thefe new converts, menof the belt fenfe, and ofthe molt unblemifhed lives, to prefide over thefe feveral affemblies, and to inculcate without ceafing, what they had heard from the mouths of thefe eye-witneffes. The fucceflion of bithops was quick in the three firft centuries, becaufe the bilhop very often ended in the martyr: for when a perfecution arofe in any place, the firft fury of it fell upon this order ofholy men, who abundantly teftified by their deaths and fufferings, that they did not undertake thefe offices out of any temporal views, that they were fincere and fatisfied in the belief of what they taught, and that they firmly adhered to what they had received from the apoftles, as layingdown their lives in the fame hope, and upon the fame prin- ciples. None can be fuppofed fo utterly regardlefs of their own happinefs, is to expire in torment, and hazard their eter- nity, to fupport any fables and inventions of their own, or any forgeries of their pre- deceffors who had prefsled in the fame church, and which might have been eafily 3 detePed by the tradition of that particular church, as well as by the concurring tefti- mony ofothers. To this purpofe, we think it is very refnarkable, that there was not a fingle martyr amongll thofe many Here- tics, who difagreed with the apollolical church, and introduced. feveral wild and abfurd notions into the doElrines of Chrif- tianity. They durit not flake their prefent and future happinefs on their own chimeri- cal imaginations, and did not only fhun perfecution, but affirmed, that it was un- neceffary for their followers to bear their religion through fuch fiery trials. Amongfi the accountsof thofe very few, out of innumerable multitudes who had embraced Chriftianity, we (hall fingle out four perfons, eminent for their lives, their writings, and their fufferings, that were fuc- ceffively cotemporaries, and bring us down as far as to the year of our Lord 254. St. John, who was the beloved difciple, and converfed the moll intimately with our Sa- viour, lived till A.D. too. Polycarp, who was the difciple of St. John, and had con- verfed with others of the apoftles and dif- ciples of our Lord,'lived till A. D. 167, though his life was fhortened by martyr- dom. irenmus, who was the difciple of Polycarp, and had converfed with many of the immediate difciples of the apoftles, lived, at the loweft computation ofhis age, till the year 202, when he was likewife cut off by martyrdom ; in which year the great Origen was appointed regent of the cate- chetic fchool in Alexandria, and as he was the miracle of that age, for induftry, learn- ing, and philofophy, he was looked on as the champion of Chriflianity, till the year 254, when, ifhe did not fuffèr martyrdom, as Tome think he did, he was certainly ac- tuated by the fpirit of it, as appears in the whole courfe of his life and writings ; nay, he had often been put to the torture, and had undergone trials worfe than death. The Chrifiians, who carried their reli- gion through fo many general and particu- lar perfecutions, were inceffantly com- forting and fupporting one another with the example and hiftory of our Saviour and his apoftles : it was the fubjefl not only oftheir folemn affemblies, but of their private vifits and converfations. " Our virgins," fays Tatian, who lived in the fe- cond century, " difcourfe over their diftaffs on divine fubjefs." Indeed, when reli- gion was woven into the civil government, and flourifhed under the proteéliòn ofthe emperors, men's thoughts and difcourfes were, as they are now, full of fectilar affairs 5
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