SECTION III.

I. TO this list of heathen writers, who make mention of our Sa∣viour, or touch upon any particulars of his life, I shall add those Authors who were at first Heathens, and afterwards converted to Christianity; upon which account, as I shall here shew, their te∣stimonies are to be looked upon as the more authentick. And in this list of evi∣dences, I shall confine myself to such learned Pagans as came over to Christi∣anity in the three first centuries, because those were the times in which men had the best means of informing themselves of the truth of our Saviour's history, and because among the great number of phi∣losophers who came in afterwards, under Page  21 the reigns of christian Emperors, there might be several who did it partly out of worldly motives.

II. Let us now suppose, that a learn∣ed heathen writer who lived within six∣ty years of our Saviour's crucifixion, af∣ter having shewn that false miracles were generally wrought in obscurity, and be∣fore few or no witnesses, speaking of those which were wrought by our Sa∣viour, has the following passage.

III. I dare say you would look upon this as a glorious attestation for the cause of Christianity, had it come from the hand of a famous Athenian Philosopher. These forementioned words however are Page  22 actually the words of one who lived about sixty years after our Saviour's crucifixi∣on, and was a famous Philosopher in A∣thens: but it will be said, he was a con∣vert to Christianity. Now consider this matter impartially, and see if his testi∣mony is not much more valid for that reason. Had he continued a Pagan Phi∣losopher, would not the world have said that he was not sincere in what he writ, or did not believe it; for, if so, would not they have told us he would have em∣braced Christianity? This was indeed the case of this excellent man: he had so thoroughly examined the truth of our Sa∣viour's history, and the excellency of that religion which he taught, and was so entirely convinced of both, that he became a Proselyte, and died a Martyr.

IV. Aristides was an Athenian Philoso∣pher, at the same time, famed for his learning and wisdom, but converted to Christianity. As it cannot be questioned that he perused and approved the apolo∣gy of Quadratus, in which is the passage just now cited, he joined with him in an apology of his own, to the same Em∣peror, on the same subject. This apolo∣gy, tho' now lost, was extant in the time Page  23 of Ado Viennensis, A. D. 870, and highly esteemed by the most learned Athenians, as that Author witnesses. It must have contained great arguments for the truth of our Saviour's history, because in it he asserted the Divinity of our Saviour▪ which could not but engage him in the proof of his miracles.

V. I do allow that, generally speak∣ing, a man is not so acceptable and un∣questioned an evidence in facts, which make for the advancement of his own party. But we must consider that, in the case before us, the persons, to whom we appeal, were of an opposite party, till they were persuaded of the truth of those very facts, which they report. They bear evidence to a history in de∣fence of Christianity, the truth of which history was their motive to embrace Christianity, They attest facts which they had heard while they were yet hea∣thens, and had they not found reason to believe them, they would still have con∣tinued heathens, and have made no men∣tion of them in their writings.

VI. When a Man is born under chri∣stian Parents, and trained up in the pro∣fession of that religion from a child, he Page  24 generally guides himself by the rules of Christian Faith in believing what is deli∣vered by the Evangelists; but the learned Pagans of antiquity, before they became Christians, were only guided by the com∣mon rules of Historical Faith: That is, they examined the nature of the evidence which was to be met with in common fame, tradition, and the writings of those persons who related them, together with the number, concurrence, veracity, and private characters of those persons; and being convinced upon all accounts that they had the same reason to believe the history of our Saviour, as that of any other person to which they themselves were not actually eye-witnesses, they were bound by all the rules of historical faith, and of right reason, to give credit to this history. This they did accord∣ingly, and in consequence of it published the same truths themselves, suffered ma∣ny afflictions, and very often death itself, in the assertion of them. When I say, that an historical belief of the acts of our Saviour induced these learned Pagans to embrace his doctrine, I do not deny that there were many other motives, which conduced to it, as the excellency of his Page  25 precepts, the fulfilling of prophecies, the miracles of his Disciples, the irreproach∣able lives and magnanimous sufferings of their followers, with other considera∣tions of the same nature: but whatever other collateral arguments wrought more or less with Philosophers of that age, it is certain that a belief in the history of our Saviour was one motive with every new convert, and that upon which all others turned, as being the very basis and foundation of Christianity.

VII. To this I must further add, that as we have already seen many particular facts which are recorded in holy writ, attested by particular Pagan Authors: the testimony of those I am now going to produce, extends to the whole histo∣ry of our Saviour, and to that continued series of actions, which are related of him and his Disciples in the books of the New Testament.

VIII. This evidently appears from their quotations out of the Evangelists, for the confirmation of any doctrine or account of our blessed Saviour. Nay a learned man of our nation, who examin∣ed the writings of our most ancient Fa∣thers in another view, refers to several Page  26 passages in Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, and Cyprian, by which he plainly shows that each of these early writers ascribe to the four Evangelists by name their respective histories; so that there is not the least room for doubting of their belief in the history of our Sa∣viour, as recorded in the Gospels. I shall only add, that three of the five Fa∣thers here mentioned, and probably four, were Pagans converted to Christianity, as they were all of them very inquisitive and deep in the knowledge of heathen learning and philosophy.