Evidences of Christianity by William Paley

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The treatment which they had experienced in the first progress did not
deter them from preparing for a second. Upon a dispute, however, arising
between them, but not connected with the common subject of their
labours, they acted as wise and sincere men would act; they did not
retire in disgust from the service in which they were engaged, but, each
devoting his endeavours to the advancement of the religion, they parted
from one another, and set forward upon separate routes. The history goes
along with one of them; and the second enterprise to him was attended
with the same dangers and persecutions as both had met with in the
first. The apostle's travels hitherto had been confined to Asia. He now
crosses for the first time the Aegean sea, and carries with him, amongst
others, the person whose accounts supply the information we are
stating. (Acts xvi. 11.) The first place in Greece at which he appears to
have stopped, was Philippi in Macedonia. Here himself and one of his
companions were cruelly whipped, cast into prison, and kept there under
the most rigorous custody, being thrust, whilst yet smarting with their
wounds, into the inner dungeon, and their feet made fast in the
stocks. (Acts xvi. 23, 24, 33.) Notwithstanding this unequivocal specimen
of the usage which they had to look for in that country, they went
forward in the execution of their errand. After passing through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica; in which city the
house in which they lodged was assailed by a party of their enemies, in
order to bring them out to the populace. And when, fortunately for their
preservation, they were not found at home, the master of the house was
dragged before the magistrate for admitting them within his doors. (Acts
xvii. 1--5.) Their reception at the next city was something better: but
neither had they continued long before their turbulent adversaries the
Jews, excited against them such commotions amongst the inhabitants as
obliged the apostle to make his escape by a private journey to
Athens. (Acts xvii. 13.) The extremity of the progress was Corinth. His
abode in this city, for some time, seems to have been without
molestation. At length, however, the Jews found means to stir up an
insurrection against him, and to bring him before the tribunal of the
Roman president. (Acts xviii. 12.) It was to the contempt which that
magistrate entertained for the Jews and their controversies, of which he
accounted Christianity to be one, that our apostle owed his
deliverance. (Acts xviii. 15.)

This indefatigable teacher, after leaving Corinth, returned by Ephesus
into Syria; and again visited Jerusalem, and the society of Christians
in that city, which, as hath been repeatedly observed, still continued
the centre of the mission. (Acts xviii. 22.) It suited not, however, with
the activity of his zeal to remain long at Jerusalem. We find him going
thence to Antioch, and, after some stay there, traversing once more the
northern provinces of Asia Minor. (Acts xviii. 23.) This progress ended
at Ephesus: in which city, the apostle continued in the daily exercise
of his ministry two years, and until his success, at length, excited the
apprehensions of those who were interested in the support of the
national worship. Their clamour produced a tumult, in which he had
nearly lost his life. (Acts xix. 1, 9, 10.) Undismayed, however, by the
dangers to which he saw himself exposed, he was driven from Ephesus only
to renew his labours in Greece. After passing over Macedonia, he thence
proceeded to his former station at Corinth. (Acts xx. 1, 2.) When he had
formed his design of returning by a direct course from Corinth into
Syria, he was compelled by a conspiracy of the Jews, who were prepared
to intercept him on his way, to trace back his steps through Macedonia
to Philippi, and thence to take shipping into Asia. Along the coast of
Asia, he pursued his voyage with all the expedition he could command, in
order to reach Jerusalem against the feast of Pentecost. (Acts xx. 16.)
His reception at Jerusalem was of a piece with the usage he had
experienced from the Jews in other places. He had been only a few days
in that city, when the populace, instigated by some of his old opponents
in Asia, who attended this feast, seized him in the temple, forced him
out of it, and were ready immediately to have destroyed him, had not the
sudden presence of the Roman guard rescued him out of their hands. (Acts
xxi. 27--33.) The officer, however, who had thus seasonably interposed,
acted from his care of the public peace, with the preservation of which
he was charged, and not from any favour to the apostle, or indeed any
disposition to exercise either justice or humanity towards him; for he
had no sooner secured his person in the fortress, than he was proceeding
to examine him by torture. (Acts xxii 24.)

From this time to the conclusion of the history, the apostle remains in
public custody of the Roman government. After escaping assassination by
a fortunate discovery of the plot, and delivering himself from the
influence of his enemies by an appeal to the audience of the
emperor, (Acts xxv. 9, 11.) he was sent, but not until he had suffered
two years' imprisonment, to Rome. (Acts xxiv. 27.) He reached Italy after
a tedious voyage, and after encountering in his passage the perils of a
desperate shipwreck. (Acts xxvii.) But although still a prisoner, and his
fate still depending, neither the various and long-continued sufferings
which he had undergone, nor the danger of his present situation,
deterred him from persisting in preaching the religion: for the
historian closes the account by telling us that, for two years, he
received all that came unto him in his own hired house, where he was
permitted to dwell with a soldier that guarded him, "preaching the
kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus
Christ, with all confidence."

Now the historian, from whom we have drawn this account, in the part of
his narrative which relates to Saint Paul, is supported by the strongest
corroborating testimony that a history can receive. We are in possession
of letters written by Saint Paul himself upon the subject of his
ministry, and either written during the period which the history
comprises, or, if written afterwards, reciting and referring to the
transactions of that period. These letters, without borrowing from the
history, or the history from them, unintentionally confirm the account
which the history delivers, in a great variety of particulars. What
belongs to our present purpose is the description exhibited of the
apostle's sufferings: and the representation, given in our history, of
the dangers and distresses which he underwent not only agrees in general
with the language which he himself uses whenever he speaks of his life
or ministry, but is also, in many instances, attested by a specific
correspondency of time, place, and order of events. If the historian put
down in his narrative, that at Philippi the apostle "was beaten with
many stripes, cast into prison, and there treated with rigour and
indignity;" (Acts xvi. 23, 24.) we find him, in a letter to a
neighbouring church, (I Thess. ii. 2.) reminding his converts that,
"after he had suffered before, and was shamefully entreated at Philippi,
he was bold, nevertheless, to speak unto them (to whose city he next
came) the Gospel of God." If the history relates that, (Acts xvii. 5.)
at Thessalonica, the house in which the apostle was lodged, when he
first came to that place, was assaulted by the populace, and the master
of it dragged before the magistrate for admitting such a guest within
his doors; the apostle, in his letter to the Christians of Thessalonica,
calls to their remembrance "how they had received the Gospel in much
affliction." (1 Thess. i. 6.) If the history deliver an account of an
insurrection at Ephesus, which had nearly cost the apostle his life, we
have the apostle himself, in a letter written a short time after his
departure from that city, describing his despair, and returning thanks
for his deliverance. (Acts xix. 2 Cor. i. 8--10.) If the history inform
us, that the apostle was expelled from Antioch in Pisidia, attempted to
be stoned at Iconium, and actually stoned at Lystra; there is preserved
a letter from him to a favourite convert, whom, as the same history
tells us, he first met with in these parts; in which letter he appeals
to that disciple's knowledge "of the persecutions which befell him at
Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra." (Acts xiii. 50; xiv. 5, 19. 2 Tim. 10,
11.) If the history make the apostle, in his speech to the Ephesian
elders, remind them, as one proof of the disinterestedness of his views,
that, to their knowledge, he had supplied his own and the necessities of
his companions by personal labour; (Acts xx. 34.) we find the same
apostle, in a letter written during his residence at Ephesus, asserting
of himself, "that even to that hour he laboured, working with his own
hands." (1 Cor. iv 11, 12.)

These coincidences, together with many relative to other parts of the
apostle's history, and all drawn from independent sources, not only
confirm the truth of the account, in the particular points as to which
they are observed, but add much to the credit of the narrative in all
its parts; and support the author's profession of being a contemporary
of the person whose history he writes, and, throughout a material
portion of his narrative, a companion.

What the epistles of the apostles declare of the suffering state of
Christianity the writings which remain of their companions and immediate
followers expressly confirm.

Clement, who is honourably mentioned by Saint Paul in his epistle to the
Philippians, (Philipp. iv. 3.) hath left us his attestation to this
point, in the following words: "Let us take (says he) the examples of
our own age. Through zeal and envy, the most faithful and righteous
pillars of the church have been persecuted even to the most grievous
deaths. Let us set before our eyes the holy apostles. Peter, by unjust
envy, underwent not one or two, but many sufferings; till at last, being
martyred, he went to the place of glory that was due unto him. For the
same cause did Paul, in like manner, receive the reward of his patience.
Seven times he was in bonds; he was whipped, was stoned; he preached
both in the East and in the West, leaving behind him the glorious report
of his faith; and so having taught the whole world righteousness, and
for that end travelled even unto the utmost bounds of the West, he at
last suffered martyrdom by the command of the governors, and departed
out of the world, and went unto his holy place, being become a most
eminent pattern of patience unto all ages. To these holy apostles were
joined a very great number of others, who, having through envy
undergone, in like manner, many pains and torments, have left a glorious
example to us. For this, not only men, but women, have been persecuted;
and, having suffered very grievous and cruel punishments, have finished
the course of their faith with firmness." (Clem. ad Cor. c. v. vi. Abp.
Wake's Trans.)

Hermas, saluted by Saint Paul in his epistle to the Romans, in a piece
very little connected with historical recitals, thus speaks: "Such as
have believed and suffered death for the name of Christ, and have
endured with a ready mind, and have given up their lives with all their
hearts." (Shepherd of Hermas, c. xxviii.)

Polycarp, the disciple of John (though all that remains of his works be
a very short epistle), has not left this subject unnoticed. "I exhort
(says he) all of you, that ye obey the word of righteousness, and
exercise all patience, which ye have seen set forth before your eyes,
not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Lorimus, and Rufus, but in others
among yourselves, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles;
being confident in this, that all these have not run in vain, but in
faith and righteousness; and are gone to the place that was due to them
from the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this
present world, but him who died, and was raised again by God for us."
(Pol. ad Phil c. ix.)

Ignatius, the contemporary of Polycarp, recognises the same topic,
briefly indeed, but positively and precisely. "For this cause, (i. e.
having felt and handled Christ's body at his resurrection, and being
convinced, as Ignatius expresses it, both by his flesh and spirit,) they
(i. e. Peter, and those who were present with Peter at Christ's
appearance) despised death, and were found to be above it." (19. Ep.
Smyr. c. iii.)

Would the reader know what a persecution in those days was, I would
refer him to a circular letter, written by the church of Smyrna soon
after the death of Polycarp, who it will be remembered, had lived with
Saint John; and which letter is entitled a relation of that bishop's
martyrdom. "The sufferings (say they) of all the other martyrs were
blessed and generous, which they underwent according to the will of God.
For so it becomes us, who are more religious than others, to ascribe
the power and ordering of all things unto Him. And, indeed, who can
choose but admire the greatness of their minds, and that admirable
patience and love of their Master, which then appeared in them? Who,
when they were so flayed with whipping that the frame and structure of
their bodies were laid open to their very inward veins and arteries,
nevertheless endured it. In like manner, those who were condemned to the
beasts, and kept a long time in prison, underwent many cruel torments,
being forced to lie upon sharp spikes laid under their bodies, and
tormented with divers other sorts of punishments; that so, if it were
possible, the tyrant, by the length of their sufferings, might have
brought them to deny Christ." (Rel. Mor. Pol. c. ii.)

CHAPTER V.

There is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be original
witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours,
dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the
accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief
of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives,
to new rules of conduct.

On the history, of which the last chapter contains an abstract, there
are a few observations which it may be proper to make, by way of
applying its testimony to the particular propositions for which we
contend.

I. Although our Scripture history leaves the general account of the
apostles in an early part of the narrative, and proceeds with the
separate account of one particular apostle, yet the information which
it delivers so far extends to the rest, as it shows the nature of the
service. When we see one apostle suffering persecution in the discharge
of this commission, we shall not believe, without evidence, that the
same office could, at the same time, be attended with ease and safety to
others. And this fair and reasonable inference is confirmed by the
direct attestation of the letters, to which we have so often referred.
The writer of these letters not only alludes, in numerous passages, to
his own sufferings, but speaks of the rest of the apostles as enduring
like sufferings with himself. "I think that God hath set forth us the
apostles last, as it were, appointed to death; for we are made a
spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men; even unto this
present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are
buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with
our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it;
being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the earth, and as
the offscouring of all things unto this day." (I Cor. iv. 9, et seq.)
Add to which, that in the short account that is given of the other
apostles in the former part of the history, and within the short period
which that account comprises, we find, first, two of them seized,
imprisoned, brought before the Sanhedrim, and threatened with further
punishment; (Acts iv. 3, 21.) then, the whole number imprisoned and
beaten; (Acts v. 18, 40.) soon afterwards, one of their adherents stoned
to death, and so hot a persecution raised against the sect as to drive
most of them out of the place; a short time only succeeding, before one
of the twelve was beheaded, and another sentenced to the same fate; and
all this passing in the single city of Jerusalem, and within ten years
after the Founder's death, and the commencement of the institution.

II. We take no credit at present for the miraculous part of the
narrative, nor do we insist upon the correctness of single passages of
it. If the whole story be not a novel, a romance; the whole action a
dream; if Peter, and James, and Paul, and the rest of the apostles
mentioned in the account, be not all imaginary persons; if their letters
be not all forgeries, and, what is more, forgeries of names and
characters which never existed; then is there evidence in our hands
sufficient to support the only fact we contend for (and which, I repeat
again, is, in itself, highly probable), that the original followers of
Jesus Christ exerted great endeavours to propagate his religion, and
underwent great labours, dangers, and sufferings, in consequence of
their undertaking.

III. The general reality of the apostolic history is strongly confirmed
by the consideration, that it, in truth, does no more than assign
adequate causes for effects which certainly were produced; and describe
consequences naturally resulting from situations which certainly
existed. The effects were certainly there, of which this history sets
forth the cause, and origin, and progress. It is acknowledged on all
hands, because it is recorded by other testimony than that of the
Christians themselves, that the religion began to prevail at that time,
and in that country. It is very difficult to conceive how it could
begin without the exertions of the Founder and his followers, in
propagating the new persuasion. The history now in our hands describes
these exertions, the persons employed, the means and endeavours made use
of, and the labours undertaken in the prosecution of this purpose.
Again, the treatment which the history represents the first propagators
of the religion to have experienced was no other than what naturally
resulted from the situation in which they were confessedly placed. It is
admitted that the religion was adverse, in great degree, to the reigning
opinions, and to the hopes and wishes of the nation to which it was
first introduced; and that it overthrew, so far as it was received, the
established theology and worship of every other country. We cannot feel
much reluctance in believing that when the messengers of such a system
went about not only publishing their opinions, but collecting
proselytes, and forming regular societies of proselytes, they should
meet with opposition in their attempts, or that this opposition should
sometimes proceed to fatal extremities. Our history details examples of
this opposition, and of the sufferings and dangers which the emissaries
of the religion underwent, perfectly agreeable to what might reasonably
be expected, from the nature of their undertaking, compared with the
character of the age and country in which it was carried on.

IV. The records before us supply evidence of what formed another member
of our general proposition, and what, as hath already been observed, is
highly probable, and almost a necessary consequence of their new
profession, viz., that, together with activity and courage in
propagating the religion, the primitive followers of Jesus assumed, upon
their conversion, a new and peculiar course of private life. Immediately
after their Master was withdrawn from them, we hear of their "continuing
with one accord in prayer and supplication;" (Acts i. 14.) of their
"continuing daily with one accord in the temple" (Acts ii. 46.) Of "many
being gathered together praying." (Acts xii. 12.) We know that strict
instructions were laid upon the converts by their teachers. Wherever
they came, the first word of their preaching was, "Repent!" We know that
these injunctions obliged them to refrain from many species of
licentiousness, which were not, at that time, reputed criminal. We know
the rules of purity, and the maxims of benevolence, which Christians
read in their books; concerning which rules it is enough to observe,
that, if they were, I will not say completely obeyed, but in any degree
regarded, they could produce a system of conduct, and, what is more
difficult to preserve, a disposition of mind, and a regulation of
affections, different from anything to which they had hitherto been
accustomed, and different from what they would see in others. The change
and distinction of manners, which resulted from their new character, is
perpetually referred to in the letters of their teachers. "And you hath
he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times
past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in
times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even
as others." (Eph. ii 1-3. See also Tit. iii. 3.)--"For the time past of
our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when
we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings,
banquetings, and abominable idolatries; wherein they think it strange
that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot." (1 Pet. iv. 3,
4.) Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, after
enumerating, as his manner was, a catalogue of vicious characters, adds,
"Such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified." (1
Cor. vi. 11.) In like manner, and alluding to the same change of
practices and sentiments, he asked the Roman Christians, "what fruit
they had in those things, whereof they are now ashamed?" (Rom. vi. 21.)
The phrases which the same writer employs to describe the moral
condition of Christians, compared with their condition before they
became Christians, such as "newness of life," being "freed from sin,"
being "dead to sin;" "the destruction of the body of sin, that, for the
future, they should not serve sin;" "children of light and of the day,"
as opposed to "children of darkness and of the night;" "not sleeping as
others;" imply, at least, a new system of obligation, and, probably, a
new series of conduct, commencing with their conversion.

The testimony which Pliny bears to the behaviour of the new sect in his
time, and which testimony comes not more than fifty years after that of
St. Paul, is very applicable to the subject under consideration. The
character which this writer gives of the Christians of that age, and
which was drawn from a pretty accurate inquiry, because he considered
their moral principles as the point in which the magistrate was
interested, is as follows:--He tells the emperor, "that some of those
who had relinquished the society, or who, to save themselves, pretended
that they had relinquished it, affirmed that they were wont to meet
together on a stated day, before it was light, and sang among themselves
alternately a hymn to Christ as a God; and to bind themselves by an
oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but that they would not
be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery; that they would never
falsify their word, or deny a pledge committed to them, when called upon
to return it." This proves that a morality, more pure and strict than
was ordinary, prevailed at that time in Christian societies. And to me
it appears, that we are authorised to carry his testimony back to the
age of the apostles; because it is not probable that the immediate
hearers and disciples of Christ were more relaxed than their successors
in Pliny's time, or the missionaries of the religion than those whom
they taught.

CHAPTER VI.

There is satisfactory evidence that many professing to be original
witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours,
dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the
accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief
of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives,
to new rules of conduct.

When we consider, first, the prevalency of the religion at this hour;
secondly, the only credible account which can be given of its origin,
viz. the activity of the Founder and his associates; thirdly, the
opposition which that activity must naturally have excited; fourthly,
the fate of the Founder of the religion, attested by heathen writers,
as well as our own; fifthly, the testimony of the same writers to the
sufferings of Christians, either contemporary with, or immediately
succeeding, the original settlers of the institution; sixthly,
predictions of the suffering of his followers ascribed to the Founder
of the religion, which ascription alone proves, either that such
predictions were delivered and fulfilled, or that the writers of
Christ's life were induced by the event to attribute such predictions
to him; seventhly, letters now in our possession, written by some
of the principal agents in the transaction, referring expressly to
extreme labours, dangers, and sufferings, sustained by themselves
and their companions; lastly, a history purporting to be written
by a fellow-traveller of one of the new teachers, and, by its
unsophisticated correspondency with letters of that person still extant,
proving itself to be written by some one well acquainted with the
subject of the narrative, which history contains accounts of travels,
persecutions, and martyrdoms, answering to what the former reasons lead
us to expect: when we lay together these considerations, which taken
separately are, I think correctly such as I have stated them in the
preceding chapters, there cannot much doubt remain upon our minds but
that a number of persons at that time appeared in the world, publicly
advancing an extraordinary story, and for the sake of propagating the
belief of that story, voluntarily incurring great personal dangers,
traversing seas and kingdoms, exerting great industry, and sustaining
great extremities of ill usage and persecution. It is also proved that
the same persons, in consequence of their persuasion, or pretended
persuasion, of the truth of what they asserted, entered upon a course of
life in many respects new and singular.

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