When we confider farther how the Apostles afterwards confirmed the truth of his refurrection, how many miracles they wrought, teaching the fame holy doctrines as their Mafter had taught, and imitating his good example, and how innocent and virtuous the behaviour of the first Christians was, it seems alfo ftrange that the Jewish nation fhould not have yielded to fuch evidence. And though the Apostles had great fuccess in the heathen world, and brought over multitudes to the faith, yet it appears unaccountable that more of the Gentiles were not moved to receive the Gospel by the miracles which they wrought in its behalf, and that few of the rich, of the great, and of the learned were at first converted. We are inclined to think that if we had lived in those days, and feen what the Jews and Gentiles then faw, we fhould readily have embraced the Gofpel, and that if any perfon in our fight should heal all distempers, and remove all infirmities, and raife the dead, we fhould fubmit to any thing that he taught, unless it were plainly abfurd and contrary to common fenfe. They who who reject the Gospel, object to the miracles recorded in it, that the bulk of the Jewish nation was not converted by them, and that in the Pagan world the poorer and meaner fort of the people were chiefly the first profelytes to the Chriftian religion, and the learned and powerful for the most part stood out; till at length the Roman Emperors became Christians, and what by force, what by example, brought their opinion into fashion, and established it in the world. But whofoever fhall well confider the many causes concurring to keep the Jews and Gentiles from embracing the Gospel, will ceafe to judge it strange that fo many of them perfevered in their unbelief. One great and general cause to which the infidelity of the Jews fhould be ascribed, is their wickedness; and that certainly is a cause sufficient to produce fuch an effect. If a man is vitious, he is difpofed to reject evident truths, and to embrace ridiculous opinions. That vice weakens the under a See Limborch Collat. cum Judæo, p. 63. where the Jew afes this kind of argument. standing, infatuates the judgment, and hinders it from difcerning between truth and falfehood, especially in matters of morality and religion, is affirmed conftantly in Scripture, is highly agreeable to reason, and perpetually teftified by experience. That the Jews were then very wicked is plain from several paffages of the New Teftament, and Jofephus informs us of enormous villanies practised by many of them, of which no Pagan nation was perhaps ever guilty. "To give a particular account of all "their iniquities, would be endless: thus "much, in general, it may fuffice to say, " that there never was a city which suffered "fuch miferies, or a race of men from the "beginning of the world who fo abounded "in wickedness. " I verily believe that if the Romans had delayed to destroy these wicked wretches, "the city would either have been fwal"lowed · Καθέκασον μὲν ἔν ἐπεξιέναι τὴν παρανομίαν αυ]ῶν, ἀδύνατον· συνελόντα δ' εἶπεν, μήτε πόλιν ἄλλην τοιαῦτα πεπονθέναι, μήτε γενεὰν ἐξ αἰῶνος γεγονέναι κακίας γοviμaleegv. Josephus B. J. v. x. 5. Οἶμαι Ρωμαίων βραδυνόντων ἐπὶ τὰς ἀπεζαρίας, ἢ κατα ποθῆναι ἂν ὑπὸ χάσματος, ἢ κατακλυθῆναι τὴν πόλιν, ἢ 185 "lowed up by the earth, or overwhelmed by the waters, or ftruck with fire from "heaven as another Sodom; for it produced a far more impious generation than those "who fuffered fuch punishment." Suppose a man fenfual and debauched, proud and conceited, uncharitable and malicious, unjust and worldly-minded, fuppofe him not to have been educated in grofs ignorance of his duty, but to have had fufficient opportunities of acquiring fome degrees of facred knowledge, and by his evil difpofition to have been led either to disbelieve plain truths, or to continue in fin against the dictates of his own conscience, or to find out fome ways of reconciling his religion with his vices; suppose fuch an one hath the Gospel preach'd to him by an Apostle, and confirmed by signs and wonders, there is no reafon to conclude that he will receive it, that he will fubmit to a religion which is attended with many temporal inconveniences, and which upon Τὲς τῆς Σοδομηνῆς μεταλαβών κεραυνός· πολὺ γὰρ τῶν Ταῦτα παθόντων ἔνεγκε γενεὰν ἀθεωτέραν. v. xiii. 6. Ed. Haverc. Vid. B. J. iv. v. vi. passim. B 3 all 1 all accounts he defpifes and hates, that he will alter his whole courfe of life, and become a poor and perfecuted difciple of Chrift, and enter into his Church. "If с any one, fays Origen, will can"didly confider us Christians, we can pro"duce him more who have been con"verted from a life not the worst, than " from a very wicked courfe. For they "whofe confcience fpeaks favourably in "their behalf, are disposed to wifh that "our doctrine concerning the future re"wards of goodnefs may be true; and more ready to affent to the ' fo are I know, it may be faid that among the firft Chriftians there were feveral who had led bad lives before; but there are many degrees in wickednefs, and there is no reafon to fuppofe that these finners were for C Ἡμεῖς δὲ, στις κατανοήσαι ἡμῶν ευγνωμόνως τὸ άθροισμα, πλείονας ἔχομεν παραςῆσαι τὰς ἐκ ἀπὸ χαλεπα πάνυ βίε επερ τὰς ἀπὸ ἐξωλεςάτων ἁμαρτημάτων ἐπισρέψαντας, καὶ γὰρ πεφύκασιν οἱ τὰ κρείττονα ἑαυτοῖς συνεγνωκότες, ευχόμενοι ἀληθῆ εἶναι τὰ κηρυσσόμενα περὶ Τῆς ὑπὸ 18 Θεῖ τοῖς κρείτοσιν ἀμοιβῆς, ετοιμότερον συγ καταλίθεθαι τοῖς λεγομένοις, παρα τις πάνυ μοχθηρώς CECIWNOTAS. Contr. Celf. iii. p. 150. the |