T I I K D I V I N E O R I G I N CHRISTIANITY A H I S T O R I C A L F A C T . Ü itoti A Ê K i i W T H E D I V I N E O R I G I N OF C H I ^ Ï S T I A N I T Y Ä H I S T O R I C A L F A C T BT Rev. L. Besse, S.J. TBICHINOPOLY : ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE PRESS 1897. PERMISSU SUPERIORUM T H E D I V I N E O R I G I N OP C H R I S T I A N I T Y A HISTORICAL FACT. ONE of the most striking features of Chris- tianity is its historical character. Christianity is above all a historical fact: the whole of it is founded on divine facts. The Prophecies which foretell the advent of the Messiah or Christ, upon earth, the prodigies wrought by Moses, the promulgation of the Decalogue on Mount * Sina, the birth of Jesus Christ, His miracles, the conversion of the world to Christianity by the Apostles, are so many facts ; they belong to history. Our demonstration of the divine origin of Christianity may be summed up in the follow- ing syllogism. Is „Speefei 1 l^wfecflans J 4 1. A religion the origin of which is due to a series of divine facts that cannot be denied without denying historical certainty itself, is manifestly a divine religion. 2. Now, the origin of Christianity is due m which the latter sums up the mam customs and 20 Clement of Alexandria, (A.D. 2 I 7 ) W R O T E commentaries on the Books of the New Testament, and a kind of concordance of the Gospels. In those of his writings which are still extant, we find 5 7 7 quotations from the Gospel, 19 from the Acts, 488 from St. Paul Ammonias of Alexandria, (F A. D . 2 ? Q ) wrote a concordance of the four Gospels. Tertullian, a priest of Carthage (f A D 245) speaks at length of the four Gospels, and quotes them 1550 times, the Acts 9 7 times, o. Paul 1124 times. Now what is the conclusion that imposes itself upon the mind of the thoughtful and doctrines of Christianity in his dava ^ s r a & B e S ^ writings, dating from t h ? e T o f he firtt or ^ mmsm. early as thTs." 7 ' f * a n d ^ f in i te ly afc Tablet. ' 21 unprejudiced reader, after such testimonies coming from men commendable both by thek learning and their holiness of life, some of whom sealed their faith: with their blood, amidst the most dreadful torments; from men, I say, whobelonged to different countries, many of whom had never seen or known the others, and nevertheless -spoke in precisely the same way of ' the Four Gospels, whether at Rome or in Gaul, in Syria or Asia Minor in Alexandria or Carthage ? The obvious conclusion is that thè Gospels are authentic. And if We consider that in the very' first age of the Church there were countless here- tic»;'who attempted to found their errors upon thè Gospels interpreted by private judgment; thàt 'there wére infidels, sophists, such as Celsus, Porphyrias, Tucian, Julian the Apos- tate, etc., who made the most" violent attacks upon the Christian religion, and in order to discredit its followers appealed to the contents of their sacred Books, without ever questioning 22 their genuiness, our demonstration becomes overwhelming. At that early period, both Christians and non-christians, faithful and heret.cs, agreed together to admit the authen- ticity of the Gospels. Such is the argument which St. Augustine H o o years ago urged upon- his infidel or heretical opponents. " O ye unfortunate enemies of your own souls, what writings will ever have any weight of authority, if the writings of-the Evangelists: and of the Apostles are destitute of,it? What will be the book the authorship of which is certain, if the writings which, the Church established by the Apostles themselves and' so conspicuously made known ' among* all- nations, pronounces and holds to be of the Apostles may be doubted to be of the Apostles? How do we know that the books, of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Varron, and other similar authors, ate rightly ascribed to them, but by the non-interrupted evidence of 23 successive ages ? Many have written copiously on the ecclesiastical letters, not with a canoni- cal authority, it is ¡true, but with the scope of either aiding their" brethren or acquiring learning. How do we know wh'af are thé books which are of such authors, except by the fact that af-nhe time each one of them wrote his bodies, he devulged them and made them known to as many people as he could, and thence by this notice uninterrupted and more widely communicated from one to another to posterity, they came down even to our own age; so that if we were asked to whom does each book belong, we would not be at a loss to give the proper answer ? Such being the case, who could be so obstinately blind as to say that the Church of the Apostles, so trustworthy, and the consent of so many brethren, do not deserve that their writings should be faithfully handed down to posterity, even though they have occupied the sees of the Apostles by a most certain succession 24 down to the present bishops, and since this privilege is so easily granted to the writings of any author whatever, both out of the Church and in the Church?" (Contra Faust 1 33, c. 6.) II. INTERNAL ARGUMENTS. In the first part we have quoted the evi- dences of contemporary or subsequent writers irt b e h a l f of the authenticity of the Gospels. These are confirmed'by the fruitless attempts ¿iade by'critics to find in them arguments to the contrary. Nay their contents themselves, the style and the way iri which facts are related exhibit all those characteristics which betray writers of that p e r i o d . ' The style is full of hebraic idioms, which fact shows that the writers were all Hebrews, although they wrote in Greek. The narrative is simple, full of details, as becomes eye or ear-witnesses. In a word their contents wojiderfully agree with all that is known to us from profane and sacred history, ethnology and archoeology, about the re]igi.ous and civil customs of the Jewish nation at the period referred to. n . The Four Gospels have been handed down to lis in their INTEGRITY, i.e. without any substantial corruption. i • A boojc is said to be entire and without corruption, when nothing has been added to, nothing taken away from, and nothing mixed with what was originally written by its author: m other words, when in the course of time it has undergone no change, either by addition,„ by suppressive or by interpolation. 2. 'When we affirm the integrity of the four Gospels, we mean o.nly the substance of the narrative, as that is quite sufficient for our purpose. For it cannot be denied that as time went on, npt a few slight and accidental alterations were introduced into the primitive text, such has the dropping of words, changing of synonyms, etc., at a time when printing was unknown, and copies of the holy writings could be had only by means of amanuenses, or copiysts. In order to prove our second assertion, therefore w e ' m u s t " establish (a) that the Gospels could not possibly be corrupted in their broad lines, (b) and as a matter of fact, that they were not corrupted. I. The corruption of the Gospels was not possible. There are three reasons for it : ( i ) the nature of the Gospels; ( 2 ) the time in which these alterations would have to have been made (3) the persons by whom they might be supposed to have been made. A . NATURE OF THE FOUR G O S P E L S . — W h a t are they? They are sacred writings of the greatest importance to the whole of the Chris- tian society as well as to individuals. From the outset of Christianity, they were looked upon as the celestial archives and the divine constitutions of the Church, containing a doctrine revealed from on High and the rule of Christian life. Upon them depended the nature of those most sacred and difficult duties which the first Christians were to accustom themselves to. In those early times, there were no, so to speak, born Christians as now 29 all who embraced Christianity were converts from Judaism or Heathenism. Therefore, they needed strong reasons to give up their first religion and adopt the new one, with its doctrines so contrary to their prejudices, and its moral prescriptions so hard to nature, so opposed :to their inclinations, such as chastity*, love of enemies, .etc. Mark. that not seldom they had to practise heroic acts of virtue and to endure martyrdom rather than renounce their faith. Is it credible that the new converts would have voluntarily submitted to their new obligations) imposed upon them in the name of God, if they had not had the evidence that the facts related tn the Gospels were true, and therefore that the Gospels were authentic and without any substantial alteration ? Again, what weré these Books? Sacred •writings looked upon by all Christians as Holy Scripture inspired by God, an object of veneration for the faithful, of the most zealous 4 ? a r e for the Pastors of the Church. They 30 were books well known to all, since they were read publicly in the Meetings, on Sundays. Their text was so familiar to all that the writers of the primitive Church, seem naturally to weave into their speech and their writings innumerable passages of the Gospels, quoted from memory. A s to the faithful they were able to correct the mistakes of the reader, and to protest against any change made in the translation used by the Latin Church. * They were books to which all Catholics, heretics and pagans alike, were accustomed to appeal in their controversies, either to defend the truth, or to attack the Christian * We have of this a remarkable instance in the opposition the new translation of the Scriptures by St. Jerom, met with every where, merely because though the meaning was the same, many new words had been introduced. The same is evinced by the fact tha t the Christians of Hippo in Africa, though mostly fishermen, were able to correct St. Augustine, while preaching, when he used one word for another. 31 religion. Was then any alteration of moment possible in such books, upon which the de- fenders and the foes of Christianity alike had their eyes ever jealously fixed to find in them a ground for their respective claims ? B . T H E VARIOUS PERIODS OF T I M E . — N o epoch can be assigned when the supposed change could have taken place, the alteration been made. In the first century and the be- ginning of the second, the Apostles and their immediate disciples, the authors of the Books and their successors, would have raised an outery against the falsifiers. In the second century, the Gospels were already disseminated throughout the whole world, in all the Christian Churches, and any alteration, in order to be universal, would have required the connivence of all the Churches, which owing to the special care of the Pastors, the countless copies made of the originals, and their numerous translations is simply impossible. 32 Later on the corruption would have been still more impossible. In the great persecu- tions of the third century, many martyrs, lay as well as ecclesiastics, gave their lives rather than betray the sacred Scriptures, whilst those who by fear of torments handed them over to the tyrants, were covered with infamy, called traitors, deprived of their functions, and excommunicated. C. T H E PERSONS :to whom the custody of the Holy Scriptures was entrusted, afford fresh guarantee of their being preserved from corruption. For it is not credible that men who considered the Gospels as sacred Books written under the inspiration of God, and who were ready to suffer death rather than ¿How them to fall into the hands of infidel tyrants would have deliberately consented to the least alteration in them. But further, the heretics, who were always on the look out to attack the true Church would not have failed to accuse the Catholic of corrupting the Gospels, if they had attemp- ted to do so, for they themselves more than once were charged with doing so for the purpose of giving an inspired ground to their errors. So by the very fact that the Gospels were in the hands of both Catholics and heretics, no change was possible, without its becoming at once detected. An additional proof is supplied to us in the fact that the Church has always been extremely careful in admitting books into her catalogue or canon. Many books were written after the first century, bearing the names of some of the Apostles, and quite a literature sprang up with the pretension of dealing with the life of Jesus Christ, and the foundation of the Church. But the Church rejected them all as apocryphal, preserving only the four Gospels received at the begin- ing. This watchfulness shows how impossible any change in their text was. II. As a matter of fact the Gospels never were corrupted. According to the rules laid down by critics, a book I said to be without notable corrup- tion ( i ) when the most recent copies of it compared with the most ancient oifer no serious difference; ( 2 ) when the number of copies thus compared is very great, (3) when the copies are compared not only with other copies, but also with numerous versions and commentaries in various languages, and are found to agree substantially. Now this work of comparison has been very carefully done in respect of the four Gospels in this centmy. Learned critics, mostly Germans and English have with indefatigable patience, ransacked old libraries for ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, and not without success. It would take a volume to relate all the discbv- eries made in the last fifty years. The names 35 of Tischendorf, Cureton, and others are well known, and the result has been that no subs- tantial difference -has been found between the texts already known and the ancient manus- cripts newly discovered. III. The Authors of the Gospels are TRUSTWORTHY. T o be trustworthy an Author needs two conditions, science and veracity. In other words, we are bound to give credit to an author when we find that he ( i ) could not have been deceived about the facts he relates, (2) he would not have deceived if he could, and (3) could not have deceived even if he would. Now the authors of the Four Gospels knew so well the facts related or alluded to by them, that they could not have been deceived; they are so candid in their writings that they could never have intended to deceive any body; and they wrote at such times and in such places, that their fraud would have been detected at once, if they had but attempt- ed to deceive the world. Therefore, the authors of the Gospel are trustworthy. j . They knew the facts which they reported, and could not have been deceived ahout them. i . For the writers of the New Testament are eight in number, viz.. four Evangelists, SS. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and four writers of the Epistles, viz., SS. Peter, Paul, James and Jude. (We mention here all the writers of the New Testament, as the veracity of the Evangelists receives an additional proof from their testimony). They agree together so substantially in their relation of the same events that no con- tradiction can be pointed out. Is there any tribunal in the world who would refuse to admit the testimony of eight witnesses who thus agree together? and such witnesses? They are exceptionally serious m e n ; their prudence and wisdom is manifest in their very writings, and what history teaches us of 38 their personal character and judgment places them above ordinary witnesses. Five of them SS. Matthew, John, Peter, James and Jude, as being Apostles of Jesus' Christ were eye-witnesses of the chief events they record, and the three others SS. Luke Mark and Paul, were immediate disciples of the Apostles, their contemporaries, and heard from their mouth, and from those who had lived with Jesus, as for instance from Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, such facts as they may not have witnessed personally. Let us add that the narrative of each, although brief and concise, is nevertheless accurate and exact, and often corroborated by Others. No wonder therefore, if they confidently put forward their quality of witnesses, for instance St. Joim, 19. 35: " He that saw it hath given testimony, and his testimony is true, and he knoweth that he said true, that you also may believe," and 31. 34: " T h i s is that disciple 39 Who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things, and we know that his testimony is true," i. Epistle of St. John, I. 1 3 : " T h a t which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of. the Word of life That which we have seen and have heard we declare unto you." That constant preoccupation that they were speaking as witnesses of the facts narrated in the Gospels and alluded to in other books, is visible throughout the New Testament« See St. Peter, 2 Ep. 1-16; St. Luke, 1, 1 -2; Acts, 1, 21;—2, 32 - 3 , 15,-4, 20;—5, 32; - 1 0 , 39, 41,-13, 3 1 - 9 , 28;—1 Cor. 11, 22; —15, 5—8., etc. 2 . W e know the witnesses.' Let us consider the facts themselves to which they give evi- dence. These are neither trifling nor hidden facts, such as may easily have given room for 40 aecepnon. They were obvious, sensible and easily perceptible by any one who enjoyed the right use of his senses. They were mostly public and of the widest notoriety; they were not observed, in p a s s i n g or by chance but of set purpose and during several years, and they were of the mightiest importance, as the salvation of mankind depended upon them. It is impossible that eye or ear-witnesses, be mistaken about such facts. II. These witnesses would not have deceived us, if they could. This character of theirs is illustrated chiefly by the holiness of their life, their candour, their unanimity, their self-denial, and their martyrdom. 1. Their life. As we know from their history, these witnesses were not only honest, in the vulgar sense, of the word, but they reached a high degree of sanctity, and recom- mended by their examples the sublime doctrine they preached to the world. 2. Their candour shows itself in their writings. Their narrative breathes throughout a wonderful sincerity, simplicity, humility, modesty. They candidly confess even things that might bring shame upon themselves, such as their ignorance, ambition, jealousy, cowardice, fear, abandonment of Christ, the triple denial of St. Peter, the incredulity o { the Apostles, especially of St. Thomas, their 42 sins whatever they be, as the reader can easily understand by recollecting a few passages of the Gospel. On the other hand, the events are related with great clearness and ingenuity. There is- no rhetorical display; no appeal to the imagi- nation and the senses. Everything is address- ed to the intelligence. They speak of the marvellous and surprising actions of Jesus . Christ, of His incredible sufferings, with such equanimity and calmness that they seem to be free-from human passion. Are these the characteristics of witnesses capable of deceiv- ing voluntarily? 3- Their unanimity. This is the crucial test of the veracity of witnesses. If they are numerous and agree together, without any probability of a previous understanding, we may rely upon their deposition. Now such previous understanding is alto- gether improbable and we may say never took place. The Authors of the New Testament, 43 eight in number, wrote their Books at differ- ent periods of time, in different places and for various purposes. Nevertheless they agree in the main facts, and differ only as to the style, the elocution and the order of the narrative. St. John Chrysostom judiciously remarks about the four Gospels, that " if the four Evangelists had said the same things to a word, nobody would have believed they had written at different times and places. Had they been at variance so as not to relate any- thing common, the enemies of Christianity would have charged them with telling lies." Therefore this agreement which does not exclude all diversity is a sign of their veracity. 4. Their self-denial. Fraud and forgery always originate from self-interest. Now the Authors of the New Testament had no interest in deceiving the world by giving a false history of Jesus Christ. Nay, their very interest would, under ordinary circumstances have deterred them from such a fraud. For, in publishing 44 their writings they knew but too well whaj opposition they would encounter both from the Jews and the Heathen. For, the Jews looked upon themas blasphemous and impious men, whereas in the eyes of the Heathen they were but contemptible fools. They were therefore by their writings as the sequel indeed has shown but too evidently, courting per- secution. The instinct of self-preservation ought therefore to have dictated to them quite an opposite course of action, when they saw how dangerous it was to preach and write as they did. 5- -Their martyrdom. But, on the con- . trary, far from giving up the preaching of the Gospel, all of them endured the most dreadful torments and death itself, in confirmation of the facts they preached. Now there is no stronger mark of the veracity of a witness, than his dying to corroborate his testimony. III. These Authors could not have deceivd the world, even if they would. For the motives to inquire into the deceit and the means to discover it were at hand, and in sufficient number. Motives. The J e w s , the Heathen and the Christians were equally interested in discard- i n g all false statements and erroneous records about the origin of Christianity. The Jews, because it was to them a ques- t J of a most important event, the turning point of their national history, v i , „ the coming nHhe Messiah whom they had been expecting f o r ^ t e e n centuries, ^ d to this that having been the authors of the death of J ^ . C h m t they had every interest , in contradicting the N a t i v e of the Gospel, and « M M » * * they had sentenced to death, not a God a s * said in the Gospel, but a mere man, a false prophet, an impostor. Finally they expected 46 a ~ Mess,ah who would rid them of the Roman j o k e , and give them sway all over the world How could they have consented to admit of a « e d God, and of . h a t S , P a u , c a . L l ' scandal of the C m « ? u o s s • ai>d however, this it E : ; ; e r t o a d m i t M t h e a u t ^ o f ^ r , t ' S t 0 , t h e H e a t h ^ - ^ e y had to believe that t h e , S a l v a , d e p e n d e d o n t h e a t G o d crucified as a criminal by a R o m a n th R P e °ple in the eyes of the Greeks and the Romans. Before admitting what St Paul he div,n i ty 0 f a crucified man, before placing their hope of salvation in a Jew whose doctrine was preached by ignorant people, before con forming ^ l i v e s t o doctrine taught b y his man and his disciples, they would certain- £ have sat,sfied themselves of the truth of the G o s p e , ; otherwise, in no other case wouW they have consented to become Christians. 47 The Christians themselves looked upon those Sacred Books as their code of doctrines and morals. Therefore, if they were careful not to receive books written by others than the disciples of Christ, much more must have they have been satisfied that their contents were true. Means. The means of detecting the false- hood were at hand. x. The facts recorded in the Gospel were altogether recent and contemporary. They were also public and known to thousands of men. Consequently innumerable witnesses were still alive among both the Heathen and the Jews who could have borne testimony to the massacre of the Innocent children, the adoration of the Kings, the public life of Jesus Christ, His Passion, death and Resur- rection.. Had all these been untrue, it would have been denied and contracdicted on all sides.* * Read X Cor. 15. 48 2. These writers did not publish their books in secret, but in the face of the world, before Christians, Jews, heretics, heathen, priests, philosophers, politicians, magistrates. The language they used, except St. Matthew, was the Greek, which was then spoken throughout the whole Roman Empire, at Rome, Lyons, Alexandria and in Asia Minor; and soon after their books were translated into the vernaculars. They were so sure of their statements that they appealed to the testimony of their readers themselves, as in their addresses to the Jews, they sometimes appealed to the evidence of their hearers. See Act. 2. 22; 26. 26. etc. 3. Finally, they published their books be- fore a highly cultured generation, in the age of Augustus, so famous in the history of Letters and Arts. The consequences of the high doctrine and of the moral teaching of the Gospel were so important, bearing on what is most opposed to human passions, entailing 49 the most difficult duties, that it could not but be desirable to reject thehi by proving the insincerity and falsehood of the writers of the Gospel. But nobody contradicted them, nobody accused them of being at variance with history. On the contrary the world on ex- amination was convinced and believed them. " T h e f e are, says St. Augustine, three things quite incredible, which however have actually taken place. It is incredible that Christ should have arisen from the dead with His flesh, and with His flesh ascended into heaveh;-^it is incredible that the world should have believed a thing so incredible;—it is incredible that men of mean condition, men of nothing, few in number, ignorant, should have so efficaciously persuaded the world at large, even the learned, of so incredible a thing. Of these three things, our opponents refuse to admit the first, but they are compelled to witness the second, without being able to account for it, unless they believe the third." D A P P E N D I X . In order to make our demonstration moré complete, let us add a strong confirmation given to the truth of the events related in New Testament. i . Everybody admits that the sublimity of the Gospel has no parallel in any other book whatever. In the assumption that all the facts related therein aré false, how could they have been invented ? How could rude fishermen, Jews without learning, have conceived and described the person of Jesus Christ, a charac- ter so beautiful, sublime and divine that to its likeness no ancient philosopher ever ap- proached? How could they have hit upon such pure and admirable moral doctrine ? " Shall we say that the history of the Gospel is a pure invention ? My friend, it is not so that tales are invented, and the facts about Socrates which nobody calls in doubt, are less attested than the facts about Jesus Christ. 51 Indeed to admit this is to postpone the diffi- culty, without resolving it. It would be more inconceivable that several men of their Own accord, should have forged this book (the Gospel), than that one man should have supplied the subject thereof. Never would Jewish writers have hit upon such tone and such-moral doctrine. T h e Gospel exhibits such characteristics of truth, so great, so striking, so perfectly inimitable, that the inventor thereof would be more astonishing than its hero." (J. J. Rousseau, Emile, IV). 2. Profane books, written even by Jews and Pagans, confirm many of the facts men- tioned in the New Testament. Tacitus, (Annals, 1. 15. n. 44) relating the martyrdom of many Christians at Rome under Nero, says: " T h e author of this name Christ was, under Tiberius Emperor, put to death by the Procurator Pontius Pilate." Thalus, a Greek writer of the same century, attests that in the eighteenth year of Tiberius, 82 in which Christ died, a sudden darkness was seen at full noon. Phlegon, the favourite of Adrian, bears witness to the same fact. " In the fourth year of the two hundredth and second (202) Olympiad (the eighteenth year of Tiberius, in which Christ suffered), there was an eclipse of the sun, surpassing all those which had taken place previously. T h e day at noon was so changed into the darkest night, that the stars appeared, and an earthquake destroyed the city of Nice." (Tertul., Apol. c. 21). Suetonius, vita Claudii c. 25., vita Nerpnis, c. 16. P l iny the Younger, 1. xp, Ep- 97j in his letter to Trajan- Maerobius, Saturaal. 2. 0. 4, relating the murder of the holy Innocents mentions the judgment passed by Augustus on king He- rod's cruelty " that it was better tp be the swine of Herod's than his son." 53 Chalcidius, in Timaea, mentions the appar rition of a star when Jesus Christ was horn, k and the adoration of the Kings. Celsus, Julian the Apostate, and others speaking of the miracles of Jesus Christ, do not call them in doubt, but they ^tribute them to magic, or try to find contradictions between the four Gospels, Flavius Josephus, Antiquities U 18. c. 3 ; 1. 17. c. 7 ; 1. 20. c. 8. speaks of St. John the Baptist, of Jesus Christ and several other facts mentioned in the Gospel. These facts were so notorious that the first Christian apologists, in their Apologies offered to the Emperors on behalf of the Christians, were not afraid to appeal to the public archives of the Empire in order to confirm their statements. St. Im- cien priest of Antioch, in his interrogatory before he endured martyrdom, said to his judges: "Requirite in annalibus vestris: inye* nietis, temporibus Pilati, Christa patiente, fugato sole, interruptum tenebris diem." " In,-- 54 quire in your annals: you will find, that in the time of Pilate, when Christ suffered, the , sun vanished and the day was interrupted by J darkness." Tertullian in his Apology, with the same boldness sends his contradictors to the archives of Rome to ascertain both the birth and the death of Jesus Christ. Of the death he says: " Et tamen eum mundi casum rela- tuni in arcanis vesiris habetis." However that event of the world (the eclipse of the sun that took place at the death of Jesus Christ) is related in your secret archives." Of His birth he says: " De censu denique Augusti, quatn testem fidelissimum Dominica nativitatis Ro- mana archiva custodiunt." " The Roman archives preserve the census made under Augustus as a most faithful witness of the birth of the Lord." (Tert. 1. cont Marcion," c. 7.) St. Justin appeals to the Acts of Pilate, ist.Apol. n, 34 and 35. _ V- v 55 After relating Christ's Passion and death, he adds: " Atque hcec ita gesia esse ex Actis sub Pontio Pilato confectis discere potestis" " and that these things thus happened, you may learn frOm the Acts written under Pon- tius Pilate." Shall we add that all the monuments of that-period that are still extant give a full con- firmation to the narrative, of the Evangelists ? old coins, medals, stones, inscriptions, slabs, sculptures and pictures of the Catacombs, narrate in their way the same facts. But that proof would lead us too far. Let it be enough to say that the learned Bultet wrote a book to prove the divinity of Christianity by its found- ation, borrowing his testimonies only from pagan and Jewish authors of the four first centuries. We shall quote the last words of his work which shall be the conclusion of ours :•-- " Jews and pagans make a twofold avowal: they acknowledge expressly the prodigies of 56 Jesus Christ and His disciples, and supply us with the facts with which we have composed the history of the establishment of Christianity; but these facts suppose of necessity the reality of those miracles. " N o w facts acknowledged by those who have the greatest interest to deny them, must be considered as indisputable. The miracles of Jesus and His disciples attain therefore the highest degree of certainty. " I t is pr6ved that God is the author of these miracles. God therefore has authorized and founded the Christian religion, arid a religion that is approved by God, and is the work of God Himself, is Certainly true. Therefore the Christian religion is true."