but think there was fome miraculous power to fupport the fufferer. We find the church of Smyrna, in that admirable letter, which gives an account of the death of Polycarp, their beloved bishop, mentioning the cruel torments of other early martyrs for christianity, are of opinion that our Saviour flood by them in a vifion, and perfonally conversed with them, to give them ftrength and comfort during the bitterness of their long continued agonies; and we have the ftory of a young man, who, having suffered many tortures, efcaped with life, and told his fellow chriftians that the pain of them had been rendered tolerable, by the presence of an angel who stood by him, and wiped off the tears and sweat, which run down his face, whilst he lay under his fufferings. We are affured, at leaft, that the first martyr for chriftianity was encouraged in his last moments, by a vifion of that divine person, for whom he suffered, and into whofe prefence he was then haftening. Let any man calmly lay his hand upon his heart, and after reading the terrible conflicts in which the antient martyrs and confeffors were engaged, when they paffed through fuch new inventions and varieties of pain, as tired their tormentors, and ask himself, however zealous and fincere he is in religion, whether, under fuch lingering tortures, he could ftill have held faft his integrity, and have profeffed his faith to the laft, without a fupernatural affiftance of fome kind or other. For my part, when I confider that it was not an unaccountable obftinacy in a fingle man, or in any particular fet of men, in fome extraordinary jun&ture; but that there were multitudes of cach sex, of every age, of different countries and condi F F tions, who, for nearly three hundred years together, made this glorious confeffion of their faith, in the midst of tortures, and in the hour of death: I muft conclude, that they were either of another make than men are at present, or that they had fuch miraculous fupports as were peculiar to thofe times of chriftianity, when without them, perhaps the very name of it might have been extinguished. It is certain, that the deaths and fufferings of the primitive chriftians had a great share in the converfion of those learned pagans, who lived in the ages of perfecution, which, with some intervals and abatements, lafted nearly three hundred years after our Saviour. Juftin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius, Arnobius, and others, tell us, that this first of all alarmed their curiofity, roused their attention, and made them seriously inquifitive into the nature of that religion, which could endue the mind with so much ftrength, and overcome the fear of death, nay, raise an earnest defire of it, though it appeared in all its terrours. This they found had not been effected by all the doctrines of those philofophers, whom they had thoroughly ftudied, and who had been labouring at this great point. The fight of these dying and tormented martyrs, engaged them to fearch into the hiftory and doctrines of him for whom they fuffered. The more they fearched, the more they were convinced; till their conviction grew so strong, that they themselves embraced the fame truths, and either actually laid down their lives, or were in readiness to do it, rather than depart from them. Addifon's Evidences of the Chriflian Religion. THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. THE apoftles themselves declare, that their mafter announced to them, that they would be perfecuted in preaching his law; and that they had nothing to expect from men but injuries and death. See John xv. xvi. &c. Could the apoftles have invented a prediction, which, if it had not been accomplished, would have destroyed all their doctrine; and which could not be accomplished, but by their being conftantly perfecuted, injured, and at length led to torments and an ignominious death? They persevered in their belief, although it actually drew upon them the most horrid perfecutions; and to fupport, and propagate it, they fuffered joyfully tortures and death; and at the fame time implored Heaven for those who deprived them of life. It is therefore impoffible to rationally believe, that they could be deceived; or that they wished to deceive; and this one point granted, it is impoffible to doubt of the truths, which religion teaches us. Genlis on Religion. THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. Mr. BONNET, fpeaking of the chriftians of the firft centuries, obferves, that they increafed in the midst of the most horrid perfecutions. Yet, fays he, it is not this natural effect of perfecution which engages my attention, fo much as this new fpecies of martyrs. Violent contradictions may irritate and exalt the foul. But thefe thoufands of martyrs, who expire in the most cruel tortures, are not martyrs of opinion; they die voluntarily to atteft facts. I know there have been martyrs to opinion. Such have existed almoft in every age, in every country. There are even now some unhappy regions where the wildest superftition tyrannizes; but the difciples of the Meffiah are the only perfons, whom I ever heard had given up their lives for the atteftation of facts. I ftill farther observe, that those who die fo courageoufly in fupport of these facts, are not attached to their belief, either by birth, education, authority, or any temporal intereft. On the contrary, this belief fhocks every principle they had received from birth, education, or authority, and affects ftill more their temporal interest. There is nothing, then, but the ftrongeft conviction of the certainty of the facts, that can furnish me with an adequate caufe for fuch unexampled fortitude, in voluntarily fubmitting to torments, and frequently to a moft cruel death. Bonnet's Inquiries. SECTION XX. The General Characters of the Oppofers of Christianity afford an Argument in Favour of its Truth. С6 As all moral truth is fairly tried by its influence on mankind, nothing can be more forcibly contrafted than the tendency of the doctrines of the fcriptures, and that of infidel philofophy, and nothing can more forcibly illuftrate this contrast than the oppofite lives of christians and infidels. The early chriftians, in general, even as reprefented by many of their moft refpectable enemies, had no parallel in the annals of infidelity." As the benign effects of religon are apparent in the lives of its fincere profeffors, the pernicious influence of deistical principles is obvious, from the conduct of thofe who have embraced them. For, if we examine the pages of biography, we find that the moft celebrated infidels have, in general, been immoral. And we have a striking instance of the fatal tendency of infidel philofophy, in the horrid cruelties recently perpetrated in France. Robefpierre and * Should the lives of thofe eminent laymen, who are mentioned in the first part of this work, be contrafted with those of Shaftesbury, Hobbs, Bolingbroke, Voltaire, Rouffeau, and others of the most celebrated infidels, how greatly would the advantage be on the fide of the former. + See Dr. Dwight's excellent Difcourfes on the Nature and Dan ger of Infidel Philofophy, |