In a letter to Arsacius, high priest of Galatia, referring to the impiety of the Heathens, Julian recommends the example of the Christians: " Why do we not look to that which has been the principal cause of the augmentation of impiety, humanity to strangers, care in burying the dead, and that sanctity of life of which they make such a show? all which things I will have to be really practised by our people. It is not sufficient that you are unblameable yourself, all the priests in Galatia ought to be so likewise. I will, therefore, that you persuade, and even compel, all the priests in Galatia to live soberly, otherwise do you depose them from the priestly office, unless they, and their wives, and children, and servants, do religiously worship the gods, and also forbear to converse with the servants, children, and wives of the Galileans, who are impious towards the gods, and prefer impiety to religion. You are likewise to order them not to frequent the theatre, nor to drink in taverns, nor to exercise any mean or sordid employments. Such as hearken to your directions, you are to encourage; others you are to reject. You are also to erect hospitals in every city, that strangers also may share in our humanity; and not only those of our own religion-but others likewise, if they are necessitous." Julian then tells him what allowance he had made for that purpose. "For," says he, “ it is a shame, when there are no beggars among the Jews, and the impious Galileans relieve not only their own people, but ours also, that our poor should be neglected by us, and be left helpless and destitute."

"After all," says Julian, "these (Galileans) have in some degree a proper sense of religion, for they worship no abject and vulgar deity, but that God who is truly all-powerful and all-good, by whose direction the

sensible world is conducted; the same I am persuaded that we also worship, under different names. They therefore seem to me to act very consistently, as they are not transgressors of the laws, but only err in paying their worship to this one God, in neglect of all the rest, and in thinking that we only, whom they style the Gentiles, are precluded from his influence."

These last are honourable testimonies to the spirit and influence of Christianity, which Julian, when he had a different object in view, has furnished. On the other hand, he is not able to produce any fact opposed to the Christian religion. His misinterpretations can easily be refuted.

If the authenticity of the Scriptures be admitted, as we find it was by all these early opposers, nothing more is wanted from them. Their testimony is therefore peculiarly valuable. They were the most learned and able early opponents that appeared against Christianity. Living near its origin, they had every opportunity of examining and making use of all the evidence that could be alleged against it. Yet what have they produced? Compelled to admit the facts and the miracles, they admit all that is required. It has been observed, that especially the Emperor Julian, with the command of the whole Roman empire, had every means and opportunity, as he had the greatest inclination, to detect forgeries in the Gospel histories had there been any, or to bring forward opposing testimonies if any such existed. But, at the same time, it is also clear, that with the whole world on their side, the first opponents of Christianity, as Trypho the Jew, and Celsus the Epicurean, had likewise all means in their power to obtain any opposite facts or statements. And, from the nature of the case, the enmity of all men, and

the interest they felt in suppressing the new religion, had such ever existed, they could not have been lost. Being the most effectual weapons, as well as the easiest wielded, they would have been eagerly laid hold of, and assuredly preferred to such flimsy reasonings, and attempts to prove contradictions, as have been quoted.

The difference between the grounds of opposition to the Christian religion of the ancient and of the modern infidels, is striking and important. They mutually destroy the authority of each other. The modern infidels deny the miracles, and would willingly cast a doubt on the facts, which, however, they dare not openly assert to be false. This implies an admission that the facts and miracles, if real, would prove the truth of Christianity. Were not this their impression, they would not attempt to deny what antiquity hands down with the fullest testimony, and what their own ancient brethren themselves fully admitted. Had they any other way to defend their cause, they would not betake themselves to a mode of defence so very unreasonable. This tacit admission, then, on the part of the moderns, condemns the ancients for admitting the facts, and denying the doctrine founded on them. is a deliberate testimony that the facts and miracles, if admitted, would prove the truth of Christianity. On the other hand, the admission of the ancient infidels condemns the modern infidels, for it proves incontrovertibly that the facts and miracles are real. Had they not been so, the early opposers of the truth founded on them, could easily have detected their imposture. They must have admitted them, because they could not be reasonably denied. It is absurd, then, at this time, to question facts and miracles which were admitted to be true by those who were enemies to the religion esta

It

blished on their authority, and who had every means of ascertaining their truth or falsehood. But if these be true, modern infidels being judges, the Christian religion must be true, for they evidently see no other way consistently to deny its truth, than by denying the facts on which it is founded. Infidelity then destroys itself.

It was not want of evidence in ancient times more than now, that prevented men from becoming Christians it was the natural opposition of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and to which the things of God are foolishness.

The supreme divinity of Jesus Christ, who, as Julian says, the Christians "will have it, made the heaven and the earth," was, we see, a constant stumblingblock to those heathen opposers; and is a topic on which every one of them greatly insists. But in their opposition to it, we have incontestable evidence of the firm and uniform judgment of the first Christians on this point, which is the grand foundation and cornerstone of the whole revelation of God. "The Jews," says Paul," require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”

CHAPTER VII.

TESTIMONY TO FACTS RECORDED IN THE GOSPEL HISTORY, AND TO THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL, BY JEWISH AND HEATHEN HISTORIANS, AND BY THE PUBLIC EDICTS OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT.

JOSEPHUS, the Jewish historian, was contemporary with the Apostles, having been born in the year 37. From his situation and habits, he had the best means of becoming acquainted with all that took place at the rise of the Christian religion.

Respecting the founder of this religion, Josephus has thought fit to be silent in his history. The present copies of his work contain a passage which speaks very respectfully of Jesus Christ, and ascribes to him the character of the Messiah.*

But as Josephus did not

*

"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was (the) Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these, and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."-Edin. Edit., 1826, vol. iii., 62.