Quadratus, of the fame age with Ignatius, has left us the following noble teftimony: "The works of our Saviour were always confpicuous, for they were real; both they that were healed, and they that were raised from the dead: who were feen not only when they were healed or raised, but for a long time afterwards. Not only whilft he dwelled on this earth, but also after his departure, and for a good while after it, infomuch that fome of them have reached to our times*"

Juftin Martyr came little more than thirty years after Quadratus. From Juftin's works, which are ftill extant, might be collected a tolerably complete account of Chrift's life, in all points agreeing with that which is delivered in our fcriptures; taken indeed, in a great measure, from thofe fcriptures, but ftill proving that this account, and no other, was the account known and extant in that age. The miracles in particular, which

* Ap. Euf. H. E. l. iv. c. 3.

form

form the part of Christ's history most material to be traced, ftand fully and diftinctly recognized in the following paffage:-" He healed those who had been blind, and deaf, and lame, from their birth, caufing, by his word, one to leap, another to hear, and a third to fee; and by raising the dead, and making them to live, he induced, by his works, the men of that age to know him*."

It is unneceffary to carry these citations lower, because the hiftory, after this time, occurs in ancient Chriftian writings as familiarly as it is wont to do in modern fer+ mons; occurs always the fame in fubftance, and always that which our evangelists reprefent.

This is not only true of thofe writings of Christians which are genuine, and of acknowledged authority, but it is, in a great measure, true of all their ancient writings which remain; although some of these may have been erroneously afcribed to authors to

* Juft. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 288 ed. Thirl.

whom they did not belong, or may contain false accounts, or may appear to be undeferving of credit, or never indeed to have obtained any. Whatever fables they have mixed with the narrative, they preferve the material parts, the leading facts, as we have them; and, fo far as they do this, although they be evidence of nothing else, they are evidence that these points were fixed, were received and acknowledged by all Christians in the ages in which the books were written. At least, it may be afferted, that, in the places where we were moft likely to meet with fuch things, if fuch things had exifted, no reliques appear of any story fubftantially different from the prefent, as the caufe, or as the pretence, of the institution.

Now that the original ftory, the story delivered by the first preachers of the inftitution, should have died away fo entirely as to have left no record or memorial of its existence, although so many records and memorials of the time and tranfaction remain; and that another story should have stepped into

its place, and gained exclufive poffeffion of the belief of all who profeffed themselves difciples of the inftitution, is beyond any example of the corruption of even oral tra dition, and ftill lefs confiftent with the experience of written hiftory: and this improbability, which is very great, is rendered ftill greater by the reflection, that no such change, as the oblivion of one story and the fubftitution of another, took place in any future period of the Chriftian æra. Christianity hath travelled through dark and turbulent ages; nevertheless it came out of the cloud and the ftorm, fuch, in fubftance, as it entered in. Many additions were made to the primitive history, and thefe entitled to different degrees of credit; many doctrinal errors alfo were from time to time grafted into the public creed, but ftill the original ftory remained, and remained the fame. In all its principal parts it has been fixed from the beginning.

Thirdly, The religious rites and usages that prevailed amongst the early difciples of Christianity,

K 3

Christianity, were fuch as belonged to, and fprung out of, the narrative now in our hands; which accordancy fhews, that it was the narrative upon which these persons acted, and which they had received from their teachers. Our account makes the founder of the religion direct that his difciples fhould be baptized we know that the firft Chrif tians were baptized. Our account makes him direct that they should hold religious affemblies: we find that they did hold religi ous affemblies. Our accounts make the apoftles affemble upon a stated day in the week; we find, and that from information perfectly independent of our accounts, that the Chriftians of the first century did observe stated days of affembling. Qur hiftories record the inftitution of the rite which we call the Lord's Supper, and a command to repeat it in perpetual fucceffion: we find, amongst the early Chriftians, the celebration of this rite univerfal. And indeed we find concurring in all the above-mentioned observances, Christian focieties of many different nations and languages, removed from one another

by