IV. APIARENT PROBABILITY OF THE EVENT. 33 cal causes; by its deep caverns, beds of sulphur, and erous volcanoes, of which those of Ætna, of Vesuvius, of Lipari, exhibit a very imperfect representation. The pest and most intrepid sceptic could not refuse to acknow. e, that the destruction of the present system of the id by fire was in itself extremely probable. The Chriswho founded his belief much less on the fallacious ments of reason than on the authority of tradition and interpretation of Scripture, expected it with terror and idence as a certain and approaching event; and as his nd was perpetually filled with the solemn idea, he conered every disaster that happened to the empire as au lible symptom of an expiring world.* The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the gans on account of their ignorance or disbelief of the ine truth, seems to offend the reason and the humanity the present age. But the primitive church, whose faith of a much firmer consistence, delivered over, without tation, to eternal torture, the far greater part of the man species. A charitable hope might perhaps be inged in favour of Socrates, or some other sages of antiity, who had consulted the light of reason before that of gospel had arisen. But it was unanimously affirmed, of futurity with great spirit and eloquence. * On this subject fery reader of taste will be entertained with the third part of Burnet's ered Theory. He blends philosophy, Scripture, and tradition, into the magnificent system; in the description of which he displays a Irength of fancy not inferior to that of Milton himself. + And t, whatever may be the language of individuals, it is still the public octrine of all the Christian churches: nor can even our own refuse @admit the conclusions which must be drawn from the eighth and be eighteenth of her articles. The Jansenists, who have so diligently tudied the works of the fathers, maintain this sentiment with disinguished zeal; and the learned M. de Tillemont never dismisses a értnous emperor without pronouncing his damnation. Zuinglius is erhaps the only leader of a party who has ever adopted the milder entiment; and he gave no less offence to the Lutherans than to the atholics. See Bossuet, Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, 2, c. 19-22. Justin and Clemens of Alexandria allow that eme of the philosophers were instructed by the Logos; confounding a double signification, of the human reason, and of the divine word. Both these fathers were prepa ed for the Christian faith by Platonism, and could not be so ungrateful to their eminent heathen teachers, as to exclude them from the mansions of the blest. Clemens, who was half a century later than Justin, has been censured for the use which VOL. II. D that those, who, since the birth or death of Christ, obstinately persisted in the worship of the demons, neit deserved nor could expect a pardon from the irritated tice of the Deity. These rigid sentiments, which had b- There unknown to the ancient world, appear to have infuse spirit of bitterness into a system of love and harmony. ties of blood and friendship were frequently torn asun by the difference of religious faith; and the Christians, in this world found themselves oppressed by the power the Pagans, were sometimes seduced by resentment spiritual pride to delight in the prospect of their fut triumph. "You are fond of spectacles," exclaims stern Tertullian, expect the greatest of all spectacl the last and eternal judgment of the universe. How she I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I beh 30 many proud monarchs and fancied gods groaning in lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates who per rare cuted the name of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires th they ever kindled against the Christians; so many s scholars; so many celebrated poets trembling before the philosophers blushing in red-hot flames with their deludes tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedia more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; 66 be b many dancers-!" But the humanity of the reader wes an permit me to draw a veil over the rest of this infernal del se scription, which the zealous African pursues in a lon variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms.* R. Sima ther he made of his philosophy in his religious writings, some part of whita Sentimen Cassiodorus suppressed in his translation on that account. Tertullian, de Spectaculis, c. 30. In order to ascertain the degravers of authority which the zealous African had acquired, it may be suBOSTAR * "Ille dies, nationibuwing the cient to allege the testimony of Cyprian, the doctor and guide of CH. XV.] SUPERNATURAL GIFTS. 35 Doubtless there were many among the primitive Christians of a temper more suitable to the meekness and charity of their profession. There were many who felt a sincere compassion for the danger of their friends and countrymen, and who exerted the most benevolent zeal to save them from the impending destruction. The careless Polytheist, assailed by new and unexpected terrors, against which neither his priests nor his philosophers could afford him any certain protection, was very frequently terrified and subdued by the menace of eternal tortures. His fears might assist the progress of his faith and reason; and if he could once persuade himself to suspect that the Christian religion might possibly be true, it became an easy task to convince him that it was the safest and most prudent party that he could possibly embrace. III. The supernatural gifts, which even in this life were ascribed to the Christians above the rest of mankind, must have conduced to their own comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. Besides the occasional prodigies, which might sometimes be effected by the immediate interposition of the deity, when he suspended the laws of nature for the service of religion, the Christian church, from the time of the apostles and their first disciples,* has claimed an uninterrupted succession of miraculous powers, the gift this treatise, was employed for the purpose of deterring the Christians from attending the secular games, given to the Roman people by the emperor Severus. Sentiments of good-will and charity towards infide's may be found in other passages, where the spirit of the Gospel repressed the violence of human passion. In his Apology (c. 31) he Bays, "Qui ergo putaveris nihil nos de salute Cæsarum curare, inspice Dei voces, literas nostras. Scitote ex illis præceptum esse nobis ad redundationem benignitatis etiam pro inimicis Deum orare et persecutoribus bona precari. Sed etiam nominatim et manifeste orate, *inquit (Christus) pro regibus et pro principibus et potestatibus, ut 'omnia sint tranquilla nobis."-GUIZOT.] [Tertullian, in a former note, was denounced by M. Guizot as an untrue exponent of early Christian sentiments. The first sentence, as given by him at full length, is far more violent and revolting than it is in Gibbon's abridged version. To make good his second charge of "exaggerated exclamations," he has himself had recourse to a most unpardonable mutilation. The "so many," which he censures as an amplifying interpolation, is actually in the original, and if used only once, it is applied to all by conjunctive particles.-ED.] * Notwithstanding the evasions of Dr. Middleton, 26 DIVINE INSPIRATION. [CH. X of tongues, of vision, and of prophecy; the power of expe ling demons, of healing the sick, and of raising the dea The knowledge of foreign languages was frequently commi nicated to the contemporaries of Irenæus, though Irenæ himself was left to struggle with the difficulties of a ba barous dialect whilst he preached the gospel to the native of Gaul.* The divine inspiration, whether it was conveye in the form of a waking or of a sleeping vision, is describe as a favour very liberally bestowed on all ranks of the faith ful, on women as on elders, on boys as well as upon bishop When their devout minds were sufficiently prepared by course of prayer, of fasting, and of vigils, to receive th extraordinary impulse, they were transported out of thei senses, and delivered in ecstacy what was inspired, bein mere organs of the holy spirit, just as a pipe or flute is him who blows into it. We may add, that the design these visions was, for the most part, either to disclose th future history, or to guide the present administration of the church. The expulsion of the demons from the body those unhappy persons whom they had been permitted t torment, was considered as a signal though ordinary tri umph of religion, and is repeatedly alleged by the ancien apologists as the most convincing evidence of the truth a Christianity. The awful ceremony was usually performe in a public manner, and in the presence of a great numbe of spectators; the patient was relieved by the power of skill of the exorcist; and the vanquished demon was hear to confess, that he was one of the fabled gods of antiquity it is impossible to overlook the clear traces of visions and inspiration which may be found in the apostolic fathers. *Irenæus adv Hæres. Proem. p. 3. Dr. Middleton (Free Inquiry, p. 96, &c.) observes that as this pretension of all others was the most difficult to support by art, it was the soonest given up. The observation suits his hypo thesis. [The attack first made by Mr. Davis on this passage repeated by Dean Milman in milder terms. They both misconceived Gibbon's meaning. He does not say that Irenæus made "any allusion to the gift of tongaes;" but on the contrary, that he was silent on the subject; that whi'e this miraculous faculty was asserted to be in the church, the bishop of Lyons had acquired, by the natural course of tudy, the means of conversing with the Gauls of his diocese. His words: "non didicimus," "non affectavimus," clearly denote this.—ED.] Athenagoras in Legatione, Justin Martyr, Cohort. al Gentes Tertullian advers Marcionit. 1. 4. These descriptions are not ver CH. IV.] MIRACLES. 37 who had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind. But the miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate or even preternatural heir can no longer occasion any surprise, when we retini that in the days of Irenæus, about the end of the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an uncommon event; that the miracle was frequently performed on necessary occasions, by great fasting and the joint supplication of the church of the place; and that the persons thus restored to their prayers had lived afterwards among them many years. At such a period, when faith could boast of so many wonderful victories over death, it seems difficult to account for the scepticism of those philosophers who still rejected and derided the doctrine of the resurrection. A noble Grecian had rested on this important ground the whole controversy, and promised Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, that if he could be gratified with the sight of a single person who had been actually raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace the Christian religion. It is somewhat remarkable, that the prelate of the first eastern church, however anxious for the conversion of his friend, thought proper to decline this fair and reasonable challenge. The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining the sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a very free and ingenious inquiry ;§ which, though it has met with the most favourable reception from the public, appears to have excited a general scandal among the divines of our own as well as of the other Protestant churches of Europe. Our different sentiments on this subject will be much less influenced by any particular arguments, than by our habits of study and reflection; and, above all, by the degree of the unlike the prophetic fury, for which Cicero (de Divinat. 2. 54) expresses so little reverence. Tertullian (Apolog. c. 23) throws out a bold defiance to the Pagan magistrates. Of the primitive miracles, the power of exorcising is the only one which has been assumed by the Protestants. Irenæus adv. Hæreses, 1. 2, 56, 57; l. 5, c. 6. Mr. Dodwell (Dissertat. ad Irenæum, 2. 42) concludes, that the second century was still more fertile in miracles than the first. Theophilus ad Autolycum, 1. 1, p. 345, edit. Benedictin. Paris, 1742. § Dr. Middleton sent out his Introduction in the year 1747, published his Free Inquiry in 1749, and before his death, which happened in 1750, he had prepared a vindication of it against his numerous adversaries. The University of Oxford conferred degrees on his opponents From the indignation of Mosheun, (p. 221) we may dis |