barian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in tribes, or live in tents, where the religion was not triumphant"-they state that "the Moors and Gætulians of Africa, the people on the coasts of Spain, several nations of France, the parts of Britain which had been inaccessible to the Romans, the Sarmatians, Dacians, Germans, and Scythians," abounded with Christians. Between seventy and eighty years after Origen, the Roman empire became Christian, under Constantine the Great (A. D. 312,) and in twenty years more, Heathenism was only like a relict. Let the testimony of Jerome, borne about ten years after this last date, close this account: "Until the resurrection of Christ, in Judah only was God known, and his name was great in Israel. The men of all the earth, from India to Britain, and from the cold regions of the north to the warm climates of the Atlantic Ocean, with the numberless people dwelling in that large tract, were no better than beasts, being ignorant of their Creator. But now, the passion and resurrection of Christ are celebrated in the discourses of all nations. I need not mention Jews, Greeks, and Latins. The Indians, Persians, Goths, and Egyptians, philosophise and firmly believe the immortality of the soul, and future recompenses; which before, the greatest philosophers had denied or doubted of. The fierceness of Thracians and Scythians is now softened by the gentle sound of the gospel; and every where Christ is all in all."e

for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be frequented, and the sacred solemnities, which had long been intermitted, are now attended afresh; and the sacrificial victims are now sold every where, which once could scarce find a purchaser. Whence I conclude, that many might be reclaimed, were the hope of impunity, on repentance, absolutely confirmed."

Trajan to Pliny.

"You have done perfectly right, my dear Pliny, in the inquiry which you have made concerning Christians. For truly no one general rule can be laid down, which will apply itself to all cases. These people must not be sought after:-If they are brought before you and convicted; let them be capitally punished, yet with this restriction, that if any renounce Christianity, and evidence his sincerity by supplicating our gods, however suspected he may be for the past, he shall obtain pardon for the future, on his repentance. But anonymous libels in no case ought to be attended to; for the precedent would be of the worst sort, and perfectly incongruous to the maxims of my government."

The question then is whether this success does not form a triumphant argument in favor of the truth of the religion? Can it be accounted for on any other hypothesis?

3. For observe the nature of the doctrine thus propagated. It was no speculative theory, cradled in the retreats of philosophical inquiry. It was a practical and holy doctrine, demanding an entire change of heart and conduct, enforcing a pure and virtuous life, inculcating many awful and mysterious truths, and allowing of no compromise with idolatry or superstition. It taught the unity and perfection of God, the fall and alienation of man by sin, the condemnation and ruin in which he lay, the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ, the renewing influences of the Holy Spirit, the duties of prayer, faith, humility, spirituality of mind, mortification of the principles of evil in the heart, and universal purity, justice, and benevolence to our fellow-creatures. In short, it was diametrically opposed to all the theories of the philosophers, and all the passions and habits of the common people amongst the heathen; and to the pride, the fond notions of a temporal kingdom, the reliance on birth and external religious privilege, and the corruption of manners, amongst the Jews. Neither the Heathens nor Jews could understand, without a serious inquiry, the very terms chiefly used in the Christian doctrine, such as faith, righteousness, grace, salvation, the flesh, contrition, humility; whilst the things themselves were in contradiction to their whole intellectual associations and moral habits. Christianity was a new and spiritual religion, in a corrupt and idolatrous world. It is not the propagation of a religion merely that we have to consider, but the propagation of such a religion with such rapidity, and to such an extent as Christianity, which marks the immediate finger of God.

But, proceed we to mark more particularly,

II. THE OBSTACLES SURMOUNTED in this rapid diffusion of Christianity.

1. The persons by whom the religion was propagated, and propagated without human aid, were feeble and un

(f) Sumner's Reception of Christianity.

known. For who were the first apostles of Christianity? Were they sages of Greece and Rome, clothed with the reverence, and protected by the usages, of the nations to whom they came? Were they philosophers or augurs? Was it another Socrates, who proclaimed his intercourse with a guardian angel, and founded his doctrine upon the instructions of his celestial monitor? Was it another Numa, who asserted his communication with the deity of some sacred fountain?s No. The apostles were unaided, and for the most part unlearned, as well as unknown men. Of all countries which could have been selected for the origin of a religion, Judæa was the most inauspicious and improbable. The Jews were a nation despised and hated by the whole Greek and Roman world.

And what better hope had the apostles from their own countrymen, by whom the Galileans were as much despised as the nation generally were by the Gentiles; and who saw the apostles, a poor, friendless, unconnected body, without education and without support, betrayed by their very dialect, going forth to condemn them for the crucifixion of Christ, to abolish all their ceremonies and privileges, and admit the heathen to an equality with them in the new religion.

Further, how do these despised apostles enter upon their hopeless errand? Do they begin the work by gradual insinuation, by imperceptibly introducing their religion to persons of authority and talent, by entering upon long disputations, and working their way by reasonings, confutation, and human rhetoric? Do they come down into the arena of philosophic disceptation, and meet the wise, and the scribe, and the disputer of this world, upon his own territory? Just the contrary: they proceed in a way of direct authority: they renounce all the craft and policy of former teachers, and in the simplicity and openness of truth, assert the doctrines and duties of the Christian religion, and rest their whole cause on the divine aid and power.

(g) Benson's Hulsean Lectures.

Not only so. They had themselves no previous plan of converting the world. They had yielded to fear and pusillanimity at their Master's sufferings, they were filled with misapprehensions on the spiritual nature of the gospel, they had strong prejudices against the admission of the Gentiles into the church, they cherished false expectations of a temporal, and had no preparations for a spiritual kingdom of Messiah. Their courage and fortitude were the effects of the descent of the Spirit. And their errors and prejudices were, at last, only dissipated by degrees, as new circumstances arose. It was, in fact, persecution which scattered them abroad, and led them to propose the gospel to the Gentiles. And yet these men subdued the world.

On

And observe, also, in their manner of preaching, their open appeal to the main facts of Christianity and the immediate power of the Holy Ghost. Read St. Peter's discourses to the Jews, and St. Paul's to the Gentiles. what does the doctrine rest? Upon man, or upon God? Can any thing be more artless, more unassuming, more evidently referring every thing to a divine operation, especially as to the resurrection of their Lord? How strong and unbending are their demands upon their hearers' faith and obedience? How uncompromising their condemnation of polytheism and vice when addressing the heathen; and of the pride and misinterpretation of the prophecies, when addressing the Jews? They rely on a divine operation. Even in the records of their actions they relate only a part of their wonderful successes, and those relations are often only incidental. It is obvious that events as they arose, and not human design and foresight, conducted the steps of the apostles; and that the fact of the resurrection, and their miraculous powers, not human suasion, were the strength of their discourses. And with these peaceful arms they conquer. The most unlikely persons, with the most unlikely doctrine, in the most undesigned and artless manner, con

(h) This may be traced throughout the Acts of the Apostles. Events of immense magnitude come out incidentally. The Epistles abound with similar discoveries by intimation.

vert the world. A divine interposition can alone fill up the chasm between such disproportioned means and the immense effects produced. If the resurrection of Christ were not true, if the Holy Ghost had not descended upon them, if the gifts of tongues and of healing had not been conferred, how could such a doctrine, in the hands of such men, have gained a single convert?

The conclusion of Eusebius (A. D. 270-339) seems unavoidable, "When I consider," he says, "the power of this doctrine, and that great multitudes of men were persuaded, and numerous societies formed by the mean and illiterate disciples of Jesus; and that not in obscure and ignorant places, but in the most celebrated cities, in Rome itself, the queen of all other cities, in Alexandria, and Antioch, throughout Egypt and Lybia, Europe and Asia; and also in villages and country places, and in all nations; I am obliged and even compelled to inquire after the cause of this, and to acknowledge that they succeeded not in their great undertaking any otherwise than by DIVINE POWER surpassing all human ability, and by the co-operation of him who said unto them, Go, teach all nations.”i

2. And bear in mind the additional obstacles to their enterprise which arose from the time and place of the propagation of Christianity.

The time when Christianity was promulgated, was just that which would have presented the greatest obstacles to any religion that was not protected by a divine arm. The time was one of high cultivation, of literary and philosophical inquiry, of art, science, elegance, refinement, luxury, vice. It was the period when Rome, the mistress of the nations by her arms, had become their instructress by her arts and laws. It was the polished and enlightened age of Augustus, when the empire was filled with philosophers, orators, poets, and historians.

It was a time of profound peace, when the temple of Janus was shut, and all nations kept, as it were, a state of watchful silence, waiting for the appearance of the divine

(i) Lardner iv. 220.