Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1840-01-22
Religions MISCELLANY,
EVIDENCES OF CuRrSr..vrCx,
Chapter v.
ON THE TESTIMONY OF StrEsEoy,p,.-,,,
WITNESSES.
Con Ciuded.

vi all the miracles Of the GOSPEL. it
was to be supposed, that the resurrection
oil our Savior would be ofenesl appealed
to; not as an evidence OF his being i
teacber,-tor thu was q point so settled
IN The mind Of every Christian, that
Wrltten exposition of the argument was
no longer hecessarv,-but as motive to
roaSt'ncy IN the Christian profession, and
as the great pill ar Of hope in our own
immortllty. We accordingly meet with
the most tree and confident aIIusions to
this fact in the early fathers. We meet
with live intitnations of this fact in the
undoubted epiStle Of Polycarp t. the
Philippians father who had been edu.
Gated by the apostles, and conversed with
many who had seen Christ.
1t is quite unnecessary to exhibit mas.
sages from the epistIes of Ignalius to the
same effect, or to pursue the examination
downwards through the series of written
testimonies. 1t is enough 10 announce it
as general fact, thai, in the very first
age OF the Cnristlan church, the eachers
OF this religion proceeded as confidently
upon the reality of Christ's miracles and
resurrection in their addresses to the peo-
pie, as the teachers of the present day -
Or, In other words, that they were as it,
tie afraid of being resisted hv the incre-
dulty OF the people, at time when the
evidence OF the facts was accessible to al
and habit and prejudice were against
them, as we are Of being resisted by the
Incredibly Of an unettered multitude,
who listen to us with all the veneration Of
a hereditary faith.
There are five apostolic fathers, and a
series of Christian writers who follow af
ter them in rapid succession To give ar
: idea to those who are not conversant ir
the study of ecclesiastical antiquities, how
well sustained the chain Of testimony i;
from the first age of Christianity, We
Shall give passage from a letter of Ire
neu>, preserved by Eusebius. We hav,
= no less than nine compositions from dill
ferent authors, which fill up the interva
| between him and Polycarp; and yet tbi
is the way in which he speaks. in his OK
r age, of The venerable Polycarp, in a lei
y Ter 10 Forinus. Il saw YOU, when
. was very young, in the Lower Asia wit
J. Polvcarn. For | better remember tn
J. affairs OF that time than those which nav
= lately happened; the things which W
learn in our childhood growing up in tn
" soul, and uniting themselves to it. Iusc
y much, that [ can tell the place in whic
a The blessed Pol ycarp sat and taught, an
Al his going out, and coming in, and III
ID manner of his lie. and the form of h
lie person, and his discourses TO the people
t ana bow he related his conversation wit
OF John, and others who had seen the Lord
5; and how he related their sayings, an
what he had heard from them concernin
" the Lord both concerning his miracl,
70 and his doctrines, as he had received the
ce from the eyewitness of the Word
Ike Life: all which Polycafp related agree
NC by to the Scriptures. These things
then, through the mercy Of God towar
me me, dilioentlv heard and attended to,
he cordng them not on paper, but upon Z
,ur heart
D a Now is the time TO exhibit to fall :
a vantage the argument which the differt
ng epistIes of the New Testament afford
They are. in fact, so many distinct a
EN-, additional testimonies. If The testimon
rhe drawn from the writings Of the Christ
leir fathers are caIcalated to make any
reth preston, then the testimonies Of ii