Epicurus, the wickedness of the worst, the wisdom of the best.

But in one respect it is impossible now to conceive the extent, to which the apostles of the crucified Jesus shocked all the feelings of mankind. The public establishment of Christianity, the adoration of ages, the reverence of nations, has thrown around the cross of Christ an indelible and inalienable sanctity. No effort of the imagination can dissipate the illusion of dignity which has gathered round it; it has been so long dissevered from all its coarse and humiliating associations, that it cannot be cast back and desecrated into its state of opprobrium and contempt. To the most daring unbeliever among ourselves, it is the symbol, the absurd, and irrational, he may conceive, but still the ancient and venerable symbol of a powerful and influential religion: what was it to the Jew and to the heathen? the basest, the most degrading punishment of the lowest criminal! the proverbial terror of the wretched slave! it was to them, what the most despicable and revolting instrument of public execution is

to us. Yet to the cross of Christ, men turned from deities in which were embodied every attribute of strength, power, and dignity; in an incredibly short space of time, multitudes gave up the splendour, the pride, and the power of paganism, to adore a being, who was thus humiliated beneath the meanest of mankind, who had become, according to the literal interpretation of the prophecy, a very scorn of men, and an outcast of the people.

I know not how to conclude, but in the words of Origen: "If we must give a pro"bable reason for the first establishment "of Christianity, we must say, it is in"credible, that the apostles, ignorant and "unlearned men, should have trusted in

The punishment of the cross was so proper unto servants, that servile supplicium in the language of the Romans signifies the same, and though in the words of Vulcatius before cited, they both go together, as alsó in Capitolinus: "Nam et in crucem milites tulit, et servilibus

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suppliciis semper affecit." In Macr. XII. Yet either is sufficient to express crucifixion, as in Tacitus, "Malam "potentiam servili supplicio expiavit." Hist. IV. 11. And again, "Sumptum de eo supplicium in servilem modum." Note to Pearson on the Creed, art. IV. See Plautus passim.

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any means of preaching Christianity, except the miraculous powers conferred

upon them, and the grace of God, which "avouched their doctrine: or that their "hearers should have abandoned the an"cient rites of their forefathers, and have "been converted to tenets so strange and "opposite to those in which they had been " educated, unless moved by some miracu“ lous power, and by preternatural won6 ders b.”

Η Καὶ γὰρ εἰ χρῆ καὶ τῷ εἰκότι χρῆσθαι λόγῳ περὶ τῆς ἀρ χῆθεν Χριστιανῶν συστάσεως, φήσομεν ὅτι οὐ πιθανὸν, οὔτε τοὺς Ἰησοῦ ἀποστόλους, ἄνδρας ἀγραμμάτους καὶ ἰδιώτας, ἄλλῳ τινὶ τεθαῤῥηκέναι πρὸς τὸ καταγγεῖλαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὸν Χριστιανισμὸν, ἢ τῇ δοθείσῃ αὐτοῖς δυνάμει, καὶ τῇ ἐν τῷ λόγῳ εἰς τὰ δηλούμενα πράγματα χάριτι· ἀλλ ̓ οὐδὲ τοὺς ἀκροωμένους αὐτῶν μετατεθεῖσθαι ἐκ πατρίων πολυχρονίων ἐθῶν, μὴ ἀξιολόγου τινὸς δυνάμεως αὐτοὺς καὶ τεραστίων πραγματῶν μετακινησάντων ἐπὶ τὰ οὕτω ξένα καὶ ἀλλότρια τῶν συντρόφων αὐτοῖς δογμάτων. Orig. c. Cels. VIII. 47.

LECTURE VII.

MATTH. X. 16.

Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

I HAVE endeavoured to describe the situation of the apostles when they commenced their undertaking in one of the heathen cities; the hatred and obloquy to which they were immediately exposed among their own people, the improbability that they would obtain a hearing from the Gentiles, whose vices, and not their vices alone, but whose daily occupations, amusements, and pleasures, it was their first duty to proscribe. Instead of mingling in the processions, partaking in the festivals, enjoying the spectacles of his fellow citizens, the Christian proselyte became a secluded, scrupulous, and isolated being. Life was literally commenced anew in all its habits, occupations, thoughts, and feelings, often in its connections and attachments. For