CHRISTIANITY. 



369 



ekritiani- by the mild and equitable toleration of the Roman go- 

 y- vernment. The truth is, that there was nothing in the 



S """Y"^' habits or character of the Jews, which was calculated to 

 give much disturbance to the establishments of other 

 countries. Though they admitted converts from other 

 nations, yet their spirit of proselytism was far from being 

 of that active or adventurous kind, which could alarm 

 the Roman government for the safety of any existing in- 

 stitutions. Their high and exclusive veneration for their 

 own system, gave an universal disdain to the Jewish cha- 

 racter, which was not at all inviting to foreigners ; but 

 still, as it led to nothing mischievous in point of effect, 

 it seems to have been overlooked by the Roman govern- 

 ment, as a piece of impotent vanity. 



66. But the case was widely different with the Chris- 

 tian system. It did not confine itself to the denial or re- 

 jection of every other system. It was for imposing its 

 own exclusive authority over the consciences of all, and 

 for detaching as many as it could from their allegiance 

 to the religion of their own country. It carried on its 

 forehead all the offensive characters of a monopoly, and 

 not merely excited resentment by the supposed arrogance 

 of its pretensions, but from the rapidity and extent of 

 its innovations, spread an alarm over the whole Roman 

 empire for the security of all its establishments. Accord- 

 ingly, at the commencement of its progress, so long as 

 it was confined to Judea, and the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, it seems to have been in perfect safety from the 

 persecutions of the Roman government. It was at first 

 looked upon as a mere modification of Judaism, and that 

 the first Christians differed from the rest of their country- 

 men, only in certain questions of their own superstition. 

 For a few years, after the crucifixion of our Saviour, it 

 seems to have excited no alarm on the part of the Ro- 

 man emperors, who did not depart from their usual 

 maxims of toleration, till they began to understand the 

 magnitude of its pretensions, and the unlocked for suc- 

 cess which attended them. 



67. In the course of a very few Tears, after its first 

 promulgation, it drew down upon it the hostility of the 

 Roman government ; and the fact is undoubted, that 

 some of its first teachers, who announced themselves to 

 be the companions of our Saviour, and the eye-winesses 

 of all the remarkable events in his history, suffered mar- 

 tyrdom for their adherence to the religion which they 

 taught. 



68. The disposition of the Jews to the religion of 

 Jesus was no less hostile ; and it manifested itself at a 

 still earlier stage of the business. The causes of this 

 hostility are obvious to all, who are in the slightest de- 

 gree conversant with the history of those times. It is 

 true that the Jews did not at all times possess the power of 

 life and death, nor was it competent for them to bring 

 the Christians to execution by the exercise of legal au- 

 thority. Still, however, their powers of mischief were 

 considerable. Their wished had always a certain con- 

 troul over the measures of the Roman governor; and we 

 know, that it was this controul, which was the means of 

 extorting from Pilate the unrighteous sentence by which 

 the very first teacher of our religion was brought to a 

 cruel and ignominious death. We also know, that under 

 Herod Agrippa, the power of life and death was vested 

 in a Jewish sovereign, and that this power was actually 

 exerted against the most distinguished Christians of that 

 time. Add to this, that the Jews had, at all times, the 

 power of inflicting the lesser punishments. They could 

 whip, they could imprison. Besides all this, the Chris- 

 tians had to brave the frenzy of an enraged multitude ; 



TOT,. VI. PART I. 



and some of them actually suffered martyrdom in the Chrisjiiint- 

 violence of the popular commotions. _'? 



69. Nothing is more evident than the utter disgrace *"Y~ 

 which was annexed by the world at large to the profes- 



sion of Christianity at that period. Tacitus calls it " su~ 

 perstitio exiliabilis," and accuses the Christians of enmi- 

 ty to mankind. By Epictetus and others, their heroism 

 is termed obstinacy, and it was generally treated by the 

 Roman governors as the infatuation of a miserable and 

 despised people. There was none of that glory annexed 

 to it which blazes around the martyrdom of a patriot or 

 a philosopher. That constancy, which, in another cause, 

 would have made them illustrious, was held to be a con- 

 temptible folly, which only exposed them to the derision 

 and insolence of the multitude. A name and a reputa- 

 tion in the world might sustain the dying moments of 

 Socrates or Regulus, but what earthly principles can ac- 

 count for the intrepidity of those poor and miserable out- 

 casts, who consigned themselves to a voluntary martyr, 

 dom in the cause of their religion ? 



70. Having premised these observations, we offer the 

 following alternative to the mind of every candid enquirer. 

 The first Christians either delivered a sincere testimony, 

 or they imposed a story upon the world which they knew 

 to be a fabrication. 



71. The persecutions to which the first Christians vo- 

 luntarily exposed themselves, compel us to adopt the 

 first part of the alternative. It is not to be conceived, 

 that a man would resign fortune, and character, and life, 

 in the assertion of what he knew to be a falsehood. The 

 first Christians must have believed their story to be true j 

 and it only remains to prove, that if they believed it to be 

 true, it must be true indeed. 



72. A voluntary martyrdom must be looked upon as Thcyprotre 

 the highest possible evidence which it is in the power of l ' ie ""- 



man to give of his sincerity. The martyrdom of Socra- J7 f 



' , f , first vrit- 



tes has never been questioned, as an undeniable proof of nesses 



the sincere devotion of his mind to the principles of that 

 philosophy for which he suffered. The death of Arch- 

 bishop Cranmer will be allowed by all, to be a decisive 

 evidence of his sincere rejection of what he conceived to 

 be the errors of Popery, and his thorough conviction in the 

 truth of the opposite system. When the council of Geneva 

 burnt Servetus, no one will question the sincerity of the 

 latter's belief, however much he may question the truth of 

 it. Now, in all these cases, the proof goes no further, than 

 to establish the sincerity of the martyr's belief. It goes 

 but a little way indeed, in establishing the justness of it. 

 This is a different question. A man may be mistaken, 

 though he is sincere. His errors, if they are not seen to 

 be such, will exercise all the influence and authority of 

 truth over him. Martyrs have bled on the opposite sides 

 of the question. It is impossible, then, to rest,on this cir- 

 cumstance, as an argument for the truth of either system, 

 but the argument is always deemed incontrovertible, in 

 as far as it goes to establish the sincerity of each of tlie 

 parties, and that both died in the firm conviction of the 

 doctrines which they professed. 



73. Now the martyrdom of the first Christians, stands And the 

 distinguished from all other examples by this circum- 'ruth of 

 stance, that it not merely proves the sincerity of the thclr tc ' t; " 

 martyr's belief; but it also proves, that what he believed monT ' 

 was true. In other cases of martyrdom, the sufferer, 



when he lays down his life, gives his testimony to the 

 trutli of an opinion. In the case of the Christians, when 

 they laid down their lives, they gave their testimony to 

 the truth of a fact, of which they affirmed themselves to 

 be the eye and the ear witnesses. The sincerity of both 

 3 A 



