e 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.

From the clear and acknowledged parts of the case, I think it to be
likewise in the highest degree probable, that the story for which these
persons voluntarily exposed themselves to the fatigues and hardships
w