Tacitus, who says, that it spread to Rome, and had there great multitudes of converts, all within thirty years after its commencement.

Q. What inference do these facts afford in behalf of our proposition ?

A. That with this example, the disciples could not have been without a full sense of the peril of their enterprise.

Q. Do the histories agree in representing Christ as foretelling the persecution of his followers?

A. Yes. Numerous quotations from each of the Evangelists prove

it.*

Q. What are we entitled to

sages ?

argue

from these pas

A. Either that Christ so spoke and the event corresponded, or that the Evangelists so represented him to predict, because existing events were so.

Q. Can no other conclusion be formed?

A. Two others, but highly incredible; viz. that Christ filled his followers with fears, without reason or authority, or that, although Christ had never foretold such things, and the event would have contradicted him if he had, historians who lived when the event was known, falsely ascribed such predictions to him.

Q. Do not these books abound with exhortations to patience, and with consolatory topics ?

A. Yes. They are found repeatedly in the Epistles of Paul, James, and Peter.+

* See p. 55; 8vo edit. 2 vols. + See p. 57, 58, 59, 60.

Q. What could these texts mean if the state of the times did not require patience, constancy, and resolution ?

A. Nothing; since it cannot be pretended that these exhortations were put in, that after-ages might suppose that Christians had suffered what they really did not undergo. As the books certainly did appear in the age to which they lay claim, this cannot be supposed for a moment.

CHAPTER IV.

Q. STATE the account of the treatment of the religion, and the exertions of its first preachers, as given in our Scriptures.

A. This account is not given in a professed history of persecutions, but dispersedly and occasionally in a mixed general history. It relates the ministry and death of the Founder, upon which, agreeably to his instructions, his disciples met, and began to preach the religion at Jerusalem, asserting that he was the Messiah, appointed by God to be the future judge of mankind, and that all anxious for future happiness must believe in him, and be baptised in his name. It also states that many accepted this proposal, which drew the attention of the Jewish government, who threatened the teachers with punishment, and on their disregarding those threats they were punished,

notwithstanding which they still persisted in publishing the doctrines.

Q. Does it appear why the Jewish rulers did not proceed to greater extremities?

A. Hitherto it seems the Christian preachers had the common people on their side. But this was only for a short time; their enemies soon induced the people to join in stoning a very active preacher of Christianity, by representing that the system was intended to degrade their lawgiver and dishonour the temple.

Q. What followed this execution ?

A. A general persecution, which raged with such fury as to drive most of the new converts from Jerusalem except the twelve apostles.

Q. What event of importance to the religion now took place?

A. The conversion of a young man (Saul) dis tinguished by his hostility to Christianity; and who thus incurred the double enmity of his former party.

Q. How is the cessation of persecution about this time explained?

A. It arose, probably, from some public danger which engrossed the general attention, but the direct reason is not mentioned.

Q. When did this interval of repose occur, and how was it employed by the disciples ?

A. At most seven or eight, perhaps only three or four years, after Christ's death. They did not relax their activity, but preached at Phænice, Cyprus, and

Antioch, returning from their excursions to Jerusalem, as the centre of their mission.

Q. By whom, and how was this tranquillity disturbed?

A. By Herod Agrippa, who beheaded one Apostle and seized another in order to put him to death; who, however, was miraculously liberated.

Q. Are these events related in general terms only? A. No; with the utmost particularity of persons, places, and circumstances, and without any discoverable propensity in the historian to magnify the fortitude or the sufferings of the party. When they displayed fear, it is mentioned, and when mild treatment was shown he notices it.

Q. What inference may reasonably be formed from this?

A. It may be concluded that when he states heavier persecutions and actual martyrdoms, that he ates them because they are true, and not from wishing to exaggerate the sufferings of the Christians. Q. How does the history proceed?

A. Leaving the original associates of Christ, it proceeds with the history of that eminent teacher, Paul, who, in conjunction with another, an adherent of the Apostles, spread the Gospel in Asia Minor, whence, having encountered various perils, they returned to Jerusalem.

Q. Did this deter the Apostle from prosecuting his ministry?

A. No. He extended his travels, which had been

confined to Asia, in his second journey, to Greece. At Philippi he was judicially punished; but, not deterred by this, he proceeded to Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth. In all these cities he experienced persecution, but after having returned to Jerusalem, and again traversed the northern provinces of Asia Minor, he repaired once more to Greece, which he left to be present at the feast of Pentecost.

Q. What followed his return to Jerusalem ?

A. More violent and repeated persecutions, which having driven him to the Roman tribunals, he appealed from their decision to the judgment of the emperor. In his passage to Rome he encountered shipwreck, and the history leaves him in custody in that city.

Q. What was his conduct there?

A. Notwithstanding his long-continued sufferings, his imprisonment, and impending fate, he persisted in preaching the religion.

Q. How is the narrative that relates to St. Paul corroborated? •

A. By the strongest testimony history can receive, that of letters written during the period of the history; or if after, referring to the transactions of that period, and unintentionally confirming the account, in many particulars.

Q. What coincidences refer to our present purpose?

A. Those descriptive of Paul's sufferings. The whipping at Philippi, the tumult at Thessalonica,