ubles which we observe the
propagators of new sects to undergo; that the attempt must necessarily
have also been in a high degree dangerous; that, from the subject of the
mission, compared with the fixed opinions and prejudices of those to
whom the missionaries were to address themselves, they could hardly fail
of encountering strong and frequent opposition; that, by the hand of
government, as well as from the sudden fury and unbridled licence of the
people, they would oftentimes experience injurious and cruel treatment;
that, at any rate, they must have always had so much to fear for their
personal safety, as to have passed their lives in a state of constant
peril and anxiety; and lastly, that their mode of life and conduct,
visibly at least, corresponded with the institution which they
delivered, and, so far, was both new, and required continual
self-denial.

CHAPTER II.

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.

After thus considering what was likely to happen, we are next to inquire
how the transaction is represented in the several accounts that have
come down to us. And this inquiry is properly preceded by the other,
forasmuch as the reception of these accounts may depend in part on the
credibility of what they contain.

The obscure and distant view of Christianity, which some of the heathen
writers of that age had gained, and which a few passage in their
remaining works incidentally discover to us, offers itself to our notice
in the first place: because, so far as this evidence goes, it is the
concession of adversaries; the source from which it is drawn is
unsuspected. Under this head, a quotation from Tacitus, well known to
every scholar, must be inserted, as deserving particular attention. The
reader will bear in mind that this passage was written about seventy
years after Christ's death, and that it relates to transactions which
took place about thirty years after that event--Speaking of the fire
which happened at Rome in the time of Nero, and of the suspicions which
were entertained that the emperor himself was concerned in causing it,
the historian proceeds in his narr