from Judea, and the letter was written but a little more than seventy years after the death of Christ. "They affirmed," says he, that is, those who said they had once been Christians, but were not then, "that the whole of their fault, or error, lay in this, that they were wont to meet together on a stated day before it was light, and sing among themselves, alternately, a hymn to Christ, as God, and bind themselves, by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them when called upon to return it. When these things were performed, it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again to a meal, which they ate in common without any disorder." This account seemed so extraordinary to Pliny, that he applied torture to two women, but discovered nothing more. The passage in regard to numbers is is" Suspending, therefore, all judicial proceedings, I have recourse to you for advice; for it has appeared to me a matter highly deserving consideration, especially on account of the great number of persons who are in danger of suffering; for many of all ages and every rank, of both sexes likewise, are accused, and will be accused. Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country." Here we find the testimony given in our books of the progress of the religion fully confirmed. Pontus and Bithynia were remote provinces, and it does not appear that the Christian religion had spread more rapidly there than elsewhere. How strong must have been that primitive evidence for Christianity which could induce these persons, persons of good sense, in every walk of life, to abandon the religion of their ancestors, and thus, in the face of imperial power, to persist in their adherence to one who had suffered the death of a slave! Besides Pliny, we have Celsus, and Lucian, and Epictetus, and the Emperor Marcus Antoninus, and Galen, and Porphyry, who all throw light on the early history of Christianity, and all confirm, so far as they go, the accounts of our books. - There is a single species of evidence more, that I will just mention that which is derived from ancient coins, medals, and inscriptions. The most striking of these relate to the credibility of the Old Testament; still, valuable confirmation to the New is not wanting, and I mention it because it shows how every possible line of evidence converges on this point. Luke gives to Sergius Paulus a title belonging only to a man of proconsular dignity, and it had been doubted whether the governor of Cyprus had that dignity. A coin, however, has been found, struck in the reign of Claudius Cæsar, (the very reign in which Paul visited Cyprus,) and under Proclus, who succeeded Sergius Paulus, on which the very title applied by Luke is given to Proclus. Luke speaks of Philippi as a colony, and the word implies that it was a Roman colony. It was mentioned as such by no other historian, and hence the authority of Luke was questioned. But a medal has been discovered which shows that this dignity was conferred upon that city by Julius Cæsar. It is implied, in the nineteenth of Acts, that there was great zeal at Ephesus for the worship of Diana; and a long inscription has been found there, by which it appears that, at one time, a whole month was set apart to games and festivals in honor of her. There have also been found, in the catacombs at Rome, inscriptions which show, in a touching manner, in opposition to the insinuations of Gibbon and of some later writers, the cruelty of the early persecutions, and the number of those who suffered martyrdom.* Much evidence of this kind might be added. Thus have we every conceivable species of historical proof, both external and internal. Thus do the very stones cry out. And, my hearers, if there may be such a thing as a weak and obstinate credulity, may there not also be such a thing as a skepticism equally weak and obstinate? * Wiseman's Lectures. 41 LECTURE XI. PROPHECY. NATURE OF THIS EVIDENCE. THE GENERAL OBJECT OF PROPHECY.-THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. THE subject of prophecy, upon which we now enter, is a great subject. It involves many questions of difficulty, and of deep and increasing interest; and I find myself embarrassed in the attempt to say any thing respecting it in a single lecture. The term 'prophet' meant, originally, one who spoke the words of God, not necessarily implying that he foretold future events; but, when I speak of prophecy as an evidence of revealed religion, I mean by it a foretelling of future events so contingent that they could not be foreseen by human sagacity, and so numerous and particular that they could not be produced by chance. To foretell such events, and bring them to pass, is among the most striking of all possible manifestations of the omniscience and omnipotence of God, "To declare a thing shall come to be, long before it is in being," says Justin Martyr, "and then to bring about that very thing according to the same declaration-this, or nothing, is the work of God." Hume was fully aware of the force of this kind of evidence, and justly, though for an obvious reason, classed prophecies with miracles, as furnishing proof of a revelation from God. Indeed, a prophecy fulfilled before our eyes is a standing miracle. Let it once be made out that a religion is sustained by genuine prophecies, and I see not how it is possible that evidence should be more complete or satisfactory. In claiming prophecy as a ground of evidence, Christianity again stands entirely by itself. Miracles and prophecy those two grand pillars of Christian evidence—are neither of them even claimed by Mohammedanism, and are neither of them the ground on which it has been attempted to introduce any other religion. Impostors have pretended, and still do, to work miracles in support of systems of paganism and of superstition already established; and, in the same way, juggling oracles have been uttered, which seem to have resembled modern fortune-telling far more than Scripture prophecy. Indeed, the contrast is not greater between the Christian miracles and the ridiculous prodigies of paganism, than it is between the prophecies of the Scriptures and the heathen oracles. Those oracles were given for purposes of gain, on special application, to gratify curiosity, or to subserve the purposes of ambition, political or military; all the circumstances under which they were given favored imposture, and the responses were generally so ambiguous, that they would apply to either alternative. "Thus when Croesus consulted the oracle at Delphi, relative to his intended war against the Persians, he was told that he would destroy a great empire. This he naturally interpreted of his overcoming the Persians, though the oracle was so framed as to admit of an opposite meaning. Croesus made war against the Persians, and was ruined, and |