and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. 425 affairs ; but in the three firft centuries of Chriftianity, men, who embraced this reli- gion, had given up all their interdis in this world, and lived in a perpetual prepara- tion for the next, as not knowinghow foon they might be called to it: fo that they had little elfe to talk of but the life and doedrines of that divine Perfon, which was their hope, their encouragement, and their glory. We cannot imagine, that there was a fingle perfon arrived at any degree of age or confideration, who had not heard and repeated above a thoufand times in his life, all the particulars of our Saviours birth, life, death, refurreedion, and afcenfion; efpe- cially if we confider, that they could not then be received as Chrifians, till they had undergone feveral examinations. Perfons of riper years, who flocked daily into the church during the three firft centuries, were obliged to pats through many repeated in- ftruftions, and give a flri& account of their proficiency, before they were admitted to baptifm. And as for thole who were born of Chriïlian parents, and had been bap- tized in their infancy, they were, with the like care, prepared and difciplined for con- firmation, which they could not arrive at, till they were found upon examination to have spade a fuflicient prdgrefs in the knowledge of Chriflianity. We mull further obferve, that there was not only in thole times this religious con- verfation amongff private Chriflians, but a confiant correfpondence between the churches that were efiablilhed by the apoftles or their fucceilors, in the feveral parts of the world. If any new doctrine was ftarted, or any faét reported of our Saviour, a {Ilia inquiry was made amongff the churches, efpecially thofe planted by the apoftles themfelves, whether they had received any fuch doftrine or account of our Saviour, from the mouths of the apoftles, or the traditionof thole Chriflians who had preceded the prefent members of the churches, which were thus confulted. By this means, when any noveltywas pub - lifhed, it was immediately detected and cenfured. St. John, who lived fo many years after our Saviour, was appealed to in thefe emer- gencies, as the living oracle of the church ; and as his oral teftimony hafted the firth century, many have obferved, that, by a particular providence of God, feveral of our Saviour's difciples, and of the early converts of his religion, lived to a very great age, that they might perfonally con- No. 36. vey the truth of the gofpel to thole times, which were very remote front the firit publication of it. Of thefe, befides St. John, we have a remarkable inffance in Simeon, who was one of the feventy tent forth by our Saviour, to publilh the gofpel before his crucifixion, and a near kinilnan to our Lord. This venerable perfon, who liad pro- bably heard with his own ears, our Savi- our's prophecy of the defiruction ofJerm. falem, prefided over the church eflabltfhed in that city, during the time of it's memo- rable liege, and drew his congregation out of thofe dreadful and unparalleled cala- mities which befell his countrymen, by fol- lowing the advice our Saviour had givens when they Mould fee Jerufalem encornpaf- fed with armies, and the Roman flandards, or abomination of defolation, fet up. He lived till the year of our Lord 107, when he was martyred under the emperor Trajan. Irenmus very aptly remarks, that thofe barbarous nations, who in his time were not p.olléfled of the written gofpels, and had only learned the hiflory bfour Saviour from thole who had converted them to Chriftianity before the gofpels were written, had amongft them the fame accounts of our Saviour, which are to be met with in the four evangelills ; an inconteftable proof of the harmony and concurrence between the Holy Scripture and the tradition of the churches in thole early times ofChriftianity. Thus we fee what opportunities the learned and inquifitive Heathens had of informing themfelves of the truthof our Saviour's hif- tory, during the three firft centuries, efpe- cially as they lay nearer one than another to the fountain -head ; befides which, there were many uncontroverted traditions, re- cords of Chriftianity, and particular hiflo- ries, that then threw light into thefe natters, but are now entirely loft. We cannot omit that which appears to us a {landing miracle in the threefirft cen- turies, namely, that amazing and fuperna- tural courage or patience, which was {hewn by innumerable multitudes of martyrs, in thole flow and painful torments that were iniliéled on them. We cannot conceive a man placed in the burning iron chair at Lyons, amidfl the infults and mockeries of a crowded amphitheatre, and Ilill keeping his feat ; or ftretched upon a grate of iron, over coals of fire, and breathing out his foul amonglt the exquifite fufferings of fuch a tedious execution, rather than renounce his religion, or blafpheme his Saviour. Such 5 L trials
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