This question is, in effect, no other than, whether the ftory which Christians have now, be the story which Chriftians had then? and of this the following proofs may be deduced from general confiderations, and from confiderations prior to any enquiry into the particular reafons and teftimonies by which the authority of our histories is supported. In the first place, there exifts no trace or veftige of any other ftory. It is not, like the death of Cyrus the Great, a competition between opposite accounts, or between the credit of different hiftorians: There is not a document, or scrap of account, either contemporary with the commencement of Chriftianity, or extant within many ages after that commencement, which affigns a history subftantially different from ours. The remote, brief, and incidental notices of the affair, which are found in heathen writers, fo far as they do go, go along with us. They bear teftimony to these facts; that the inftitution originated from Jefus; that the founder I 2 founder was put to death, as a malefactor, at Jerufalem, by the authority of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate; that the religion nevertheless spread in that city, and throughout Judea; and that it was propagated from thence to diftant countries; that the converts were numerous; that they suffered great hardships and injuries for their profeffion; and that all this took place in the age of the world which our books have affigned. They go on further, to describe the manners of Christians in terms perfectly conformable to the accounts extant in our books; that they were wont to affemble on a certain day; that they fung hymns to Christ as to a god; that they bound themselves by an oath not to commit any crime, but to abftain from theft and adultery, to adhere strictly to their promises, and not to deny money deposited in their hands * ; that they worshipped him who was crucified in Palestine; that this their firft law-giver had taught them * Vide Pliny's Letter. Bonnet, in his lively way of expressing himself, fays-"Comparing Pliny's Letter them that they were all brethren; that they had a great contempt for the things of this world, and looked upon them as common; that they flew to one another's relief; that they cherished strong hopes of immortality; that they despised death, and furrendered themselves to fufferings *." This is the account of writers who viewed the subject at a great distance; who were uninformed and uninterested about it. It bears the charac with the account in the Acts, it seems to me that I had not taken up another author, but that I was ftill reading the hiftorian of that extraordinary fociety." This is strong; but there is undoubtedly an affinity, and all the affinity that could be expected. any "It is incredible what expedition they use when of their friends are known to be in trouble. In a word, they spare nothing upon fuch an occafion-for thefe miferable men have no doubt they shall be im mortal, and live forever; therefore they contemn death, and many furrender themselves to fufferings. Moreover, their first law-giver has taught them that they are all brethren, when once they have turned and renounced the gods of the Greeks, and worship this mafter of theirs who was crucified, and engage to live according to his laws. They have alfo a fovereign contempt for all the things of this world, and look upon them as common." Lucian. de Morte Peregrini, t. i. P. 565, ed. Græv. I 3 ters ters of fuch an account upon the face of it, because it defcribes effects, namely, the appearance in the world of a new religion, and the converfion of great multitudes to it, without defcending, in the smallest degree, to the detail of the tranfaction upon which it was founded, the interior of the inftitution, the evidence or arguments offered by those who drew over others to it. Yet ftill here is no contradiction of our story; no other or different ftory fet up against it; but fo far a confirmation of it, as that, in the general points upon which the heathen account touches, it agrees with that which we find in our own books. The fame may be obferved of the very few Jewish writers, of that and the adjoining period, which have come down to us. Whatever they omit, or whatever difficulties we may find in explaining the omiffion, they advance no other hiftory of the tranf action than that which we acknowledge. Jofephus, who wrote his Antiquities, or Hiftory of the Jews, about fixty years after the com commencement of Chriftianity, in a paffage generally admitted as genuine, makes mention of John under the name of John the Baptift; that he was a preacher of virtue; that he baptized his profelytes; that he was well received by the people; that he was imprisoned and put to death by Herod; and that Herod lived in a criminal cohabitation with Herodias his brother's wife*. In another paffage, allowed by many, although not without confiderable queftion being moved about it, we hear of " James, the brother of him who was called Jefus, and of his being put to death †." In a third pasfage, extant in every copy that remains of Jofephus's hiftory, but the authenticity of which has nevertheless been long disputed, we have an explicit teftimony to the fub. stance of our history in these words :-" At that time lived Jefus, a wife man, if he may be called a man, for he performed many wonderful works. He was a teacher of fuch |