1.  Judea became a Roman province some years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and the Jews, who had hitherto been conspicuous for their attachment to their native land, were induced, by the spirit of trade, to spread themselves over the empire. 2.  The exclusive nature of their religion kept them in a marked state of separation from their fellow subjects; the worshipper of Osi’ris scrupled not to offer sacrifices to Jupiter; the Persian, the Indian, and the German, bowed before the Roman altars; but the sons of Abraham refused to give the glory of their God to graven images, and were regarded by their idolatrous neighbours at first with surprise, and afterwards with contempt. 3.  The appearance of the Messiah in Palestine, and the miraculous circumstances of his life, death, and resurrection, did not fill the world with their fame, because his preaching was principally addressed to his countrymen, the first object of his mission being “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

4.  The disciples, after their Divine Master was taken from them, proceeded to fulfil his last commandments, by preaching the gospel “to every nation,” and an opportunity of spreading its blessings was afforded by Jewish synagogues having been previously established in most of the great cities through the empire.  Independent of the sustaining providence of its Almighty Author, there were many circumstances that facilitated the progress and prepared the way for the final triumph of Christianity. 5.  In the first place, Paganism had lost its influence; men secretly laughed at the fabulous legends about Jupiter and Rom’ulus, the sacrifices had become idle forms, and the processions a useless mockery.  Philosophers had not scrupled to cover with ridicule the whole system of Heathenism, and there were not a few who professed themselves Atheists. 6.  Without some system of religion society cannot exist; for a sanction stronger than human laws is necessary to restrain the violence of passion and ardent desires.  The innate feeling that our existence is not dependent on our mortal frame, disposes men to search for some information respecting a future state; the heathen system was at once obscure and absurd; the philosophers avowedly spoke from conjecture; but by the Gospel, “life and immortality were brought to light.” 7.  The influence of a purer faith was discernible in the lives and actions of the first Christians; they lived in an age of unparalleled iniquity and debauchery, yet they kept themselves “unspotted from the world;” those who were once conspicuous for violence, licentiousness, and crime, became, when they joined the new sect, humble, temperate, chaste, and virtuous; the persons who witnessed such instances of reformation were naturally anxious to learn something of the means by which so great a change had been effected. 8.  A fourth cause was, that Christianity offered the blessings of salvation to men of every class; it was its most marked feature, that “to the poor the gospel was preached,” and the wretch who dared not come into the pagan temple, because he had no rich offering to lay upon the altar, was ready to obey the call of him who offered pardon and love “without money and without price.”