[297] Acts xxvi. 26.
[298] Τοσοῦτός ἐστι τῶν ὑπ’ αὐτῶν γεγραμμένων ὁ γέλως, ὥστε ἀφανισθῆναι καὶ τὰ βιβλία πάλαι, καὶ ἅμα τῷ δειχθῆναι, καὶ ἀπολέσθαι τὰ πολλά. Εἰ δέ που τὶ καὶ εὑρεθείη διασωθὲν, παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς τοῦτο σωζόμενον εὕροι τις ἄν. Tom. II. p. 539. Ed. Bened.
[299] “The Christian religion,” says the finest of our English writers, whom I need not therefore stay to name, “made its way through paganism with an amazing progress and activity. Its victories were the victories of reason, unassisted by the force of human power, and as gentle as the triumphs of light over darkness.”
[300] This effect of inquiry upon the Gentile religions was foreseen by men of sense—Non sunt ista [the traditionary tales of the heathen Gods] vulgo disputanda, ne susceptas publicè religiones disputatio talis extinguat. Cic. Frag. Olivet. T. III. p. 586.
[301] The substance of this Discourse was delivered in a Sermon at Lincoln’s-Inn, May 15, 1768.
[302] Luke xii. 14.
[303] L. iv. c. 5.
[304] And to the same purpose, our excellent Archbishop Tillotson—“His [Christ’s] whipping of the buyers and sellers out of the temple, the only action of his life in which there appears any transport of anger, was no other than a BECOMING ZEAL for the honour of God’s house, which he saw so notoriously prophaned; which zeal was WARRANTED, after the example of Phinehas, by the extraordinary occasion of it.” Works, vol. iii. § 136. p. 222.
[305] Numbers, ch. xxv.
[306] Josephus, De Bello Judaico, l. iv. c. 12.