"But whether any of the Apostles, (besides James who was slain by Herod,) died a natural, or a violent death, the learned Christians do not certainly know.

For there is extant no authentic history of the Apostles, besides the Acts.

There are indeed many fabulous narrations published by the Papists, called Martyrologies, stuffed with the most extravagant lies, which no learned man now regards; and who therefore will credit what such books say of the Apostles?
Peter is said in them to have been put to death at Rome by Nero, nevertheless most of the learned men of the Protestants assert, that Peter never was in Rome, and as for Paul, no one certainly knows where, when, or how ho finished his days.

So that if we were even to allow the feeble argument of Martyrdom, all the influence and weight given to it, it would not apply to the Apostles, who, we are sure, derived some benefit, by preaching the gospel, and are not sure that they came to any harm by it.
I will conclude this long chapter, by laying before my reader some extracts from the book written by Celsus, a heathen philosopher, against Christianity, preserved by Origen in his work against Celsus.

That the entire work of Celsus is lost, is to be regretted; as he appears to have been a man of observation, though too sarcastic to please a fair inquirer; and from the picture given by him of the first Christians, their maxims, and their modes of teaching, and the subjects they chose for converts, it appears, that they were the exact prototypes of the Methodists and Shakers of the present day, both sects which contain excellent people, with hardly any fault but credulity.
"If they (i.e.the teachers of Christianity,) say 'do not examine,' and the like: it is however incumbent on them to teach what those things are which they assert, and whence they are derived." "Wisdom in life is a bad thing, but folly is good." "Why should Jesus, when an infant, be carried into Egypt, lest he should be murdered?
God should not fear being put to death." "You say that God was sent to sinners: but why not to those who are free from sin?
What harm is it not to have sinned?
"You encourage sinners, because you are not able to persuade any really good men: therefore you open the doors to the most wicked and abandoned." "Some of them say 'do not examine, but believe, and thy faith shall gave thee.'" "These are our institutions, say they, let not any man of learning come here, nor any wise man, nor any man of prudence: for these things are reckoned evil by us.