of the three other Evangelifts were publifh'd.

IV. That the hiftory of our Saviour, as recorded by the Evangelifts, was the fame with that which had been before delivered by the Apoftles and Difciples, will further appear in the prosecution of this discourse, and may be gathered from the following confiderations.

V. Had thefe writings differed from the fermons of the first planters of Chritianity, either in history or doctrine, there is no queftion but they would have been rejected by thofe Churches which they had already formed. But fo confiftent and uniform was the relation of the Apostles, that these hiftories appeared to be nothing else but their tradition and oral atteftations made fixt and permanent. Thus was the fame of our Saviour, which in fo few years had gone through the whole earth, confirmed and perpetuated by fuch records, as would preferve the traditionary account of him to afterages; and rectify it, if at any time, by paffing through feveral generations, it might drop any part that was material, or contract any thing that was falfe or fictitious.

VI. Ac

VI. Accordingly we find the fame Fefus Chrift, who was born of a Virgin, who had wrought many miracles in Paleftine, who was crucified, rofe again, and afcended into Heaven; I fay, the fame Jefus Chrift had been preached, and was worshipped, in Germany, France, Spain, and Great-Britain, in Parthia, Media, Mefopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Afia and Pamphilia, in Italy, Egypt, Afric, and beyond Cyrene, India and Perfia, and, in fhort, in all the islands and provinces that are vifited by the rifing or fetting fun. The fame account of our Saviour's life and doctrine was delivered by thoufands of Preachers, and believed in thoufands of places, who all, as faft as it could. be conveyed to them, received the fame account in writing from the fourEvangelifts.

VII. Irenæus to this purpofe very aptly remarks, that those barbarous nations, who in his time were not poffeft of the written Gospels, and had only learned the hiftory of our Saviour from those who had converted them to Christianity before the Gospels were written, had among them the fame accounts of our Saviour, which are to be met with in the four Evangelifts. An uncontestable proof

of the harmony and concurrence between the holy fcripture and the tradition of the Churches in those early times of Christianity.

VIII. Thus we fee what opportunities the learned and inquifitive heathens had of informing themfelves of the truth of our Saviour's hiftory, during the three firft Centuries, especially as they lay nearer one than another to the fountain-head: befide which, there were many uncontroverted traditions, records of Chriftianity, and particular hiftories, that then threw light into thefe matters, but are now entirely loft, by which, at that time, any appearance of contradiction, or feeming difficulties, in the hiftory of the Evangelifts, were fully cleared up and explained though we meet with fewer appearances of this nature in the hiftory of our Saviour, as related by the four Evangelifts, than in the accounts of any other perfon, published by fuch a number of different hiftorians who lived at fo great a distance from the prefent age.

IX. Among thofe records which are - loft, and were of great use to the primitive Chriftians, is the letter to Tiberius, which I have already mentioned; that

of

of Marcus Aurelius, which I fhall take notice of hereafter; the writings of Hegefippus, who had drawn down the hiftory of Christianity to his own time, which was not beyond the middle of the fecond Century; the genuine Sibylline oracles, which in the first ages of the Church were eafily diftinguished from the fpurious; the records preferved in particular Churches, with many other of the fame nature.

SECTION. VIIA

I The fight of miracles in thofe ages a further confirmation of Pagan Philofophers in the Chriftian faith..

II. The credibility of fuch miracles.

III. A particular inftance.

IV. Martyrdom, why confidered as a ing miracle.

Stand

V. Primitive Chriftians thought many of the Martyrs were fupported by a miracu-lous power.

VI. Proved from the nature of their fufferings.

VII. How Martyrs further induced the Pagans to embrace Chriftianity. D. 5.

I. THERE

-I.

ΤΗ

HERE were other means, which I find had a great influence on the learned of the three firft Centuries, to create and confirm in them the belief of our bleffed Saviour's hiftory, which ought not to be paffed over in filence. The first was, the opportunity they enjoyed of examining thofe miracles, which were on feveral occafions performed by Chriftians, and appeared in the Church, more or lefs, during these first ages of Christianity. Thefe had great weight with the men I am now fpeaking of, who, from learned Pagans, became fathers of the Church; for they frequently boast of them in their writings, as atteftations given by God himself to the truth of their religion.

II. At the fame time, that these learned men declare how difingenuous, bafe and wicked it would be, how much beneath the dignity of Philofophy, and contrary to the precepts of Chriftianity, to utter falfhoods or forgeries in the fupport of a caufe, though never fo just in it felf, they confidently affert this miraculous power, which then fubfifted in the Church, nay tell us that they them