fons of State you must condemn. A Man crys Our upon the Rack, I am a Chriftian; you hear him proclaim to the World what really he is, and you would fain have him fay what really he is not. That ever Judges, who are commiffion'd to torture for the Confeflion of Truth, fhou'd abuse it upon Chriftians only, for the Extortion of a Lye! You demand what I am, and I fay I am a Chriftian; why do you torture me to unfay it? I confefs, and you rack on; if I confefs not, what will you do? If other Malefactors deny, 'tis with Difficulty you believe'em; but if Chriftians deny, you acquit 'em at a Word. Certainly you must think your felves in the wrong for fuch Proceedings, and be confcious of a fecret Biafs upon your Judgments, that makes you run thus counter to the Forms of Court, the Reasons of Juftice, and the very Intent of the Laws themfelves. For, if I min ke not, the Laws are very express, That Criminals fhou'd be difcover'd, and not conceal'd; and that upon Confeffion they Thould be condemn'd, and not acquitted. The Acts of the Senate, and the Edicts of the Emperors prescribe this. Thefe are the Maxims of that Government you are Minifters of, and your Power is defin'd by thefe Laws, and not arbitrary and tyrannical or fi

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Tyrants indeed have no refpect to the Propor tions of Justice, in the Distributions of Punithment, but apply Tortures at Pleasure. But you are reftrained by Law; and to apply 'em only for the Confeffion of Truth, preserve this Law in full Vigour, and for the end it was

made.

made. For if the Accus'd confefs, 'tis abfurd to put 'em to the Question; the Law of Tortures is answer'd, and you have nothing to do in this Cafe, but to confider the Nature of the Fact, and punish it accordingly. For every Malefactor is a Debtor to the Law, and to bee wip'd out of the publick Accounts upon paying his Punishment, and not discharg'd merely upon the Confeffion of his Fault. No Judge attempts openly to acquit a Criminal barely upon his pleading guilty, nor can he justifie a thought of fo doing; and therefore no one can be justly serv'd with Torments to deny, when the Law was defigned only to make him confefs.

You look upon a Chriftian as the Sum total of Iniquity, a Despiser of the Gods, Emperors, Laws, Morality, and in one Word, an Enemy of humane Nature; and yet this is the Man you rack, that you may abfolve, because without racking him into a denyal of his Name, you cannot abfolve him. This, or nothing, is prevaricating with the Laws; you would have him plead not guilty, for you to pronounce him innocent, and discharge him from all past Crimes, whether he will or no. But how can Men be fo perverfe, as

• Debito pœnæ nocens expungendus eft.] This is a very familiar Phrafe with our Author, and the Ground of it is this, The Executioner had a Roll of the Names of the Condemned, and the Pu nishment they were to fuffer; and a Criminal being a Debror, when he had pay'd his Punishment he was expung'd, or crofs'd out of the Roll: And fo dare Panas is to pay the Pain an Offender owes to the Publick.

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to imagine, that he who confeffes a thing freely, is not more to be credited, than he who denies it by Compulfion? or cannot a Man speak Truth, without the help of a Rack? And being abfolv'd upon a forc'd denyal of his Religion, he muft needs conclude fuch external Applications of Cruelty, very foolish things for the Converfion of the Mind, when in spite of all these Impreffions upon his Body, he finds himself still a Christian in his Confcience,

Since therefore you treat us differently in every thing, from other Criminals, and what you chiefly push at, is the Destruction of our Name (and we our felves destroy this, by doing what the Heathens indulge themselves in) fince this, I fay, is the main thing you contend for; you cannot but fee, that our Name is the greatest Crime in our Indictment; in the Perfecution of which Name, Men vie Hatred, and are ambitious to excel each other in Malice: And this Emulation is the chief Reason why they are so stedfast in Ignorance; therefore they devour all Reports of us without chewing, and are fo averfe to any legal Inquiry, for fear thefe Reports fhou'd prove to be falfe, which they would have pass for true, that the hated Name of Chriftian might be condemn'd upon Prefumption, without the Danger of a Proof; and that the Confeffion of this Name might ferve for a fufficient Conviction of the Crimes charg'd against it. Hence it is, that we are tortur'd against Law for confeffing, and tormented on for perfifting

in that Confeffion; and against Law abfolved for denying, because all the Dispute is about our Name only.

But after all, when you proceed to Judgment, and read over the Table or Catalogue of Crimes you pass Sentence againft, why do you mention the Christian only? Why don't you mention the Murther, the Inceft, and the reft of that Train commonly imputed to us? We alone are the Perfons you are asham'd to condemn, without fignifying the Actions you condemn us for; if a Chriftian is accus'd of no Crime, the Name furely must be of a strange Nature to be criminal in it self only.

CHA P. III.

Concerning the odious Title of Chriftian.

HAT an unaccountable Thing is it,

WHAT for fo many Men to blindfold them

felves on purpose to fall foul upon Christianity? and to fuch a Degree, that they cannot talk about the noted Probity of any Christian without allaying his Character with a dash of his Religion. Caius Sejus (fays one) is a very good Man, but-he's a Chriftian. I'll tell you what, (fays another) I wonder that Lucius the Philofopher is all of a sudden turn'd Christian. And none has Senfe enough in his Paffion to put the Question right, and argue in this manner. Is not Caius fo good, and Lu

cius fo wife, merely from the Influence of their Religion? or was it not the Probity of the one, and the Wisdom of the other, that prepar'd the way, and brought 'em over to be Chriftians?

Thus indeed they praise what they know, but vilifie what they know not; they blot the fairest Examples of Virtue fhining in their very Eyes, because of a Religion they are intirely in the dark about; whereas certainly, by all the Rules of Reason, we ought to judge of the Nature of Caufes we fee not, by the Effects we fee, and not pre-condemn apparent Goodness for Principles we understand not. Others, difcourfing of fome Persons whom they knew to be Vagrants, and infamously lewd before they came over to our Religion, drop their Praises upon 'em in fuch a manner, that they ftigmatize 'em with their very Compliments; fo darken'd are they with Prejudice, that they blunder into the Commendation of the thing they would condemn. For (fay they) how wanton, and how witty was fuch a Woman! how amorous and frolickfome was fuch a young Gentleman! but now they are Christians: Thus undefignedly they fix the Amendment of their Lives upon the Alteration of their Religion.

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Some others are arriv'd to that pitch of Averfion to the very Name of Christian, that they feem to have enter'd into Covenant with Hatred, and bargain'd to gratifie this Paffion at the Expence of all the Satisfactions of humane Life, acquiefcing in the groffeft of Injuries, rather