SERMON XXII.

CHRISTIANITY BEGAN IN THE EARLY PART OF THE FIRST CENTURY.

THAT WORD (I SAY)

ACTS X. 37.

YOU KNOW, WHICH WAS PUBLISHED JUDEA, AND BEGAN FROM GALILEE, AFTER THE BAPTISM WHICH JOHN PREACHED,

THROUGHOUT ALL

WHITSUNDAY, the day which we now observe, is one of the three great festivals of the year; and its design is to commemorate the effusion of the holy Spirit on the primitive disciples. By this event they were qualified to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, to extend it beyond the limits of Judea, within which it had been hitherto confined. The subjects proper to be treated on these occasions, relate to the Christian religion, and particularly to its commencement and progress. The text asserts that the gospel began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; that is, in the year twenty-seven of the Christian era. This date is properly the origin of the religion; for before that period our Saviour had lived in retirement at Nazareth, and had not appeared before the eyes of the public. About eighteen hundred years ago, then, the religion commenced; and no fact is more certain than that it is of great antiquity. This

can be demonstrated by a chain of events, which can be traced back, without one broken link, to the beginning of the second century. We have received this religion from our fathers; who have committed to us the Scriptures, which they received from their fathers: and our ancestors did not invent these books; but they were handed down to them by the disciples who preceded them. Though the world has suffered many revolutions during the past seventeen hundred years; yet the Scriptures, through the whole of the period, have never been lost; nor has any one pretended, in any part of this series of time, that the religion was lately introduced, that the writings, which contain it, had just been brought to light. These facts are known to all, who are acquainted with ecclesiastical history.

There is no doubt, nor does the most prejudiced infidel deny, that the Christian religion existed in the age of Trajan; that there was then a numerous body of its disciples in several parts of the Roman empire. Among other proofs of this point is the celebrated epistle of the younger Pliny to that emperor, written not long after the commencement of the second century. From this epistle, the authenticity of which cannot be questioned, it appears that there was then a great number of Christians in Asia Minor; that consequently the religion had then begun to exist; and consequently that its author, or authors, must have lived at least several years before that period.

As these two conclusions are nearly self-evident, it requires not many words to prove, that they are justly drawn. It will be sufficient to say, that effects cannot take place without a cause. So great a number of persons, in every part of the Roman empire, could not have

become Christians, unless Christ had existed, or at least, unless his history had been written, several years before. Instead of several years, we have a right to say many years; because all, who are acquainted with human nature, know that great changes in the opinions of men do not suddenly take place. Pliny wrote his letter in Bithynia; and he informs the emperor, that the contagion of this superstition, as he styles the Christian religion, had pervaded, not the great cities only, but even villages and the country, so that the temples of the Gods had become nearly desolate. Now to have spread the religion from Jerusalem to Bithynia, and to have gained so great a number of converts must have required a length of time. The conclusion therefore is just, that the author of Christianity lived before the second century.

In what part of the first century the Christian religion began, ought to be the subject of dispute between those who believe, and those who disbelieve it. I say, this ought to be the subject of dispute, not that it always is. For there are infidels, who allow that Jesus was born at the commencement of the first century; that he and his followers made many disciples and that the books of the New Testament are as ancient as his friends pretend ; and yet there is no truth in his religion; that Jesus himself was an impostor; that he neither worked miracles, nor arose from the dead; and that his disciples were either deceived by him, or his abettors in the fraud. In a word, they affirm, that the most pious and virtuous of men, for that such was the character of Jesus Christ, they are compelled to acknowledge, was a hypocrite and deceiver; and that his disciples, if not fools, were artful men, though it is not pretended that they obtained any advantage by their art.

If these assertions had not been often confuted, I might stop to demonstrate their fallacy and absurdity; but I may safely leave them with you, not apprehending that you are in danger of being infected with their poison, as there are antidotes at hand to preserve your minds from injury.

That they cannot with reason be maintained, is now confessed by several unbelievers. They have therefore taken other ground: There was never such a person as Jesus Christ, say they: the actions attributed to him did not take place: the Christian religion began, not at the time which is pretended, but at a later period; before the reign of Trajan, we acknowledge, but not long before: the books of the New Testament are forgeries, not of those who are styled apostles, for no such persons ever existed, but of writers at the close of the first century, and whose names are now unknown.

The dispute then between Christians and this class of infidels is, at what time did the religion commence? Was it about the year thirty, when Jesus began to teach, as believers maintain? or was it at the close of the century, as these unbelievers assert ?

That the Christian religion commenced at the first of these periods has been demonstrated by several authors; among others by Paley, whose popular book is in many hands; and most fully by Lardner, in his Credibility of the Gospel History, and in his Jewish and Heathen Testimonies. The latter author in particular has produced several writers, living in the first century, and testifying to the existence of the Christian religion. Unless therefore the books which he quotes, are also forged, as well as those of the New Testament, the Christian religion

must have commenced before the age of Trajan, and at least as early as the reign of Nero.

Now against this argument it is objected, that a great number of the writers of that age do not mention the Christian religion, or take notice of its disciples. As this objection may appear of weight to those, who have not examined it, I purpose to attend to it in this discourse. Acknowledging the fact, I will endeavor to account for it. It is probable that I shall not do justice to the subject; but I reflect that I am addressing the wise; and I hope that the hints, which I shall offer, will induce them to give the question a more thorough examination

From the year twenty-seven of the Christian era, at which time our Saviour was baptised by John, to the year one hundred and seventeen, the end of the reign of Trajan is a period of ninety years. Though the Augustan age was passed, and learning, it is generally supposed, was beginning to decline; yet eloquence, poetry, history, and philosophy were still cultivated with success. Authors were numerous; and several of the most valuable works of antiquity were produced within that period. But the depredations of time have never been more fatally exercised than upon that age. The authors, of whom any works remain, amount to no more than fortyfour. Of many of them we have nothing but fragments : the rest are irrecoverably lost. When we consider that Europe produces at present, in a single month, as many authors as remain of the whole of that long period of ninety years, we ought not to be surprised at the darkness which hangs on it. The history of that age is indeed very obscure. It resembles a manuscript, of which