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68

GENERAL PREVALENCE OF SCEPTICISM. [CH. 1

sation. On public occasions the philosophic part of ma kind affected to treat with respect and decency the religio institutions of their country; but their secret contempt netrated through the thin and awkward disguise; and ev the people, when they discovered that their deities we rejected and derided by those whose rank or understandi they were accustomed to reverence, were filled with doub and apprehensions concerning the truth of those doctrine to which they had yielded the most implicit belief. T decline of ancient prejudice exposed a very numerous po tion of human kind to the danger of a painful and comfor less situation. A state of scepticism and suspense ma amuse a few inquisitive minds; but the practice of supe stition is so congenial to the multitude, that if they are for cibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasin vision. Their love of the marvellous and supernatural, the curiosity with regard to future events, and their strong pri pensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits the visible world, were the principal causes which favoure the establishment of Polytheism. So urgent on the vulga is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any system mythology will most probably be succeeded by the intro duction of some other mode of superstition. Some deitie of a more recent and fashionable cast might soon have occu pied the deserted temples of Jupiter and Apollo, if, in the decisive moment, the wisdom of Providence had not inter posed a genuine revelation, fitted to inspire the most rational esteem and conviction, whilst at the same time, it was adorned with all that could attract the curiosity, the wonder, and the veneration of the people. In their actual disposi tion, as many were almost disengaged from their artificial prejudices, but equally susceptible and desirous of a devout attachment, an object much less deserving would have been sufficient to fill the vacant place in their hearts, and to gra tify the uncertain eagerness of their passions. Those who are inclined to pursue this reflection, instead of viewing with astonishment the rapid progress of Christianity, will perhaps be surprised that its success was not still more rapid and still more universal.*

It has been observed, with truth as well as propriety, * Gibbon has here glanced at what he ought to have made the first and chief natural cause of the success of Christianity.-ED

CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS.

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[14. v.] that the conquests of Rome prepared and facilitated those Christianity. In the second chapter of this work, we ve attempted to explain in what manner the most civilized provinces of Europe, Asia, and Africa, were united under the dominion of one sovereign, and gradually connected by e most intimate ties of laws, of manners, and of language. The Jews of Palestine, who had fondly expected a temporal liverer, gave so cold a reception to the miracles of the rine Prophet, that it was found unnecessary to publish, at least to preserve, any Hebrew gospel.+ The authentic

*

The reception was not so cold as Gibbon seems to think. In the ace of two days, eight thousand Jewish converts were baptized. (Acta ii, 27-40; iv, 4.) They formed the first Christian church.GIZOT. [This was before the reception of the new religion among the Greeks. Subsequently to that change, Christianity, as is well own, made little progress in Judæa, but, on the contrary, was everyThere resisted by the Jews, while the Gentiles welcomed it gladly. The Apostles soon quitted their own country, and foreign lands were the theatres of their exertions and the scenes of their triumph.-ED.]

The modern critics are not disposed to believe what the fathers most unanimously assert, that St. Matthew composed a Hebrew pel of which only the Greek translation is extant. It seems, howrer, dangerous to reject their testimony. [This testimony is strongly ported. Papias, who was a contemporary of the apostle John, says itively, that Matthew wrote the discourses of Jesus Christ in Hebrew, and that each one interpreted them for himself as he could." This Hebrew as the Syro-Chaldaic dialect, then used at Jerusalem. This is corrobonted by Origen, Irenæus, Eusebius, Jerome, and Epiphanius. It was in this language that Jesus Christ himself preached, as may be seen in many Fords employed by him and translated by the evangelists; and it was also used by Paul when addressing the Jews. (Acts xx, 2; xvii, 4; vi, 14.) The opinions of some critics prove nothing against evidence so incontestible. The principal objection raised by them is, that Matthew quotes from the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament. This is not correct; for out of ten such quotations, which are found in his gospel, seven are evidently taken from the Hebrew text; and in the three others, there are no material variations; but these last are not quoted literally. Jerome says positively, that in a copy which he had seen at Cæsarea, the quotations are in Hebrew. (In Catal.) More modern writers, among whom is Michaelis, have no doubt on this subject. The Greek version appears to have been made in the time of the apostles, as Jerome and Augustin affirm, perhaps by one of them.-GUIZOT.] [The concurrent testimony of so many early writers leaves no reasonable ground to doubt the fact, that there was a Hebrew original of Matthew's gospel. Eusebius repeats it no less than six times; and all assert it so positively, that to question it is, as Gibbon hints, to shake the very foundation of all primitive ecclesiastical history. Papias, who is the chief authority for it, har

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CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE GENTILES.

[CH. I histories of the actions of Christ were composed in th Greek language, at a considerable distance from Jerusalen and after the Gentile converts were grown extremely rum rous.* As soon as those histories were translated into th Latin tongue, they were perfectly intelligible to all the sub jects of Rome, excepting only to the peasants of Syria an Egypt, for whose benefit particular versions were afterward made. The public highways, which had been constructe for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain; nor did those spiritual conquerors encounter any of the obstacles which usually retard or prevent the introduction of a foreign religion into a distant country. There is the strongest. reason to believe, that before the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, the faith of Christ had been preached in every province, and in all the great cities of the empire; but the foundation of the several congregations, the numbers of the faithful who composed them, and their proportion to the unbelieving multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or disguised by fiction and declamation. Such imperfect circumstances, however, as have reached our knowledge concerning the increase of the Christian name in Asia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, and in the west, we shall now proceed to relate, without neglecting the real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire.

The rich provinces that extended from the Euphrates to the Ionian sea were the principal theatre on which the apostle of the Gentiles displayed his zeal and piety. The seeds of the gospel, which he had scattered in a fertile soil, were diligently cultivated by his disciples; and it should seem that, during the two first centuries, the most considerable body of Christians was contained within those limits. Among the societies which were instituted in Syria, none were more ancient or more illustrious than those of Damas

een called a weak man and of small capacity. Yet he was considered in his days competent to be a bishop; he is confidently quoted by those nearest to his time; and Eusebius not only praises his abilities, and particularly his knowledge of the Scriptures (lib. 3, c. 36), but devotes also a long chapter (39) to the information derived from him.-ED.] *Under the reigns of Nero and Domitian, and in the cities of Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and Ephesus. See Mill, Pro legomena ad Nov. Testament, and Dr. Lardner's fair and extensive

XV.]

THE SEVEN CHURCHES.

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of Berea or Aleppo, and of Antioch. The prophetic troduction of the Apocalypse has described and immortaed the seven churches of Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, Perga s, Thyatira, Sardes, Laodicea, and Philadelphia: and eir colonies were soon diffused over that populous country. a very early period, the islands of Cyprus and Crete, the rovinces of Thrace and Macedonia, gave a favourable recepa to the new religion: and Christian republics were soon unded in the cities of Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens.† The antiquity of the Greek and Asiatic churches allowed a fficient space of time for their increase and multiplication; nd even the swarms of Gnostics and other heretics serve to splay the flourishing condition of the orthodox church, ce the appellation of heretics has always been applied to the less numerous party. To these domestic testimonies пе may add the confession, the complaints, and the apprebensions of the Gentiles themselves. From the writings of Lacian, a philosopher who had studied mankind, and who describes their manners in the most lively colours, we may learn, that, under the reign of Commodus, his native country of Pontus was filled with Epicureans and Christians.‡ Within fourscore years after the death of Christ,§ the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of the evil which he inly attempted to eradicate. In his very curious epistle to the emperor Trajan, he affirms, that the temples were almost deserted, that the sacred victims scarcely found any purchasers, and that the superstition had not only infected

collection, vol. xv. The Alogians (Epiphanius de Hæres. 51) disputed the genuineness of the Apocalypse, because the church of Thyatira was not yet founded. Epiphanius, who allows the fact, extricates himself from the difficulty, by ingeniously supposing, that St. John wrote in the spirit of prophecy. See Abauzit, Discours sur l'Apoca lypse. The epistles of Ignatius and Dionysius (ap. Euseb. 4, 23) point out many churches in Asia and Greece. That of Athens seems to have been one of the least flourishing.

Lucian in Alexander.

25. Christianity, however, must have been very unequally diffused over Pontus; since in the middle of the third century, there were no more than seventeen believers in the extensive diocese of Neo-Cæsarea. See M. de Tillemont, Mémoires Ecclesiast. tom. iv, p. 675, from Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, who were themselves natives of Cappadocia.

According to the ancients, Jesus Christ suffered under the consul. ship of the two Gemini, in the year 29 of our present era. Pliny was Bent into Bithynia (according to Pagi) in the year 110. [Clinton F. R. i. 89) has corrected this date to 10.-ED.1

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NUMBERS OF THE CHRISTIANS.

[сн. – the cities, but had even spread itself into the villages ar the open country of Pontus and Bithynia.*

Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the e pressions, or the motives, of those writers, who eith celebrate or lament the progress of Christianity in the eas it may in general be observed, that none of them have le us any grounds from whence a just estimate might be forme of the real numbers of the faithful in those provinces. On circumstance, however, has been fortunately preservet which seems to cast a more distinct light on this obscur but interesting subject. Under the reign of Theodosiu after Christianity had enjoyed during more than sixty year the sunshine of imperial favour, the ancient and illustriou church of Antioch consisted of one hundred thousand per sons, three thousand of whom were supported out of th public oblations.† The splendour and dignity of the quee of the east, the acknowledged populousness of Cæsarea, Se leucia, and Alexandria, and the destruction of two hundred and fifty thousand souls in the earthquake which afflicted Antioch under the elder Justin.‡ are so many convincing proofs that the whole number of its inhabitants was not less than half a million, and that the Christians, however multi plied by zeal and power, did not exceed a fifth part of that great city. How different a proportion must we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant church, the west with the east, remote villages with popu lous towns, and countries recently converted to the faith, with the place where the believers first received the appellation of Christians! It must not, however, be dissembled, that, in another passage, Chrysostom, to whom we are indebted for this useful information, computes the multitude of the faithful as even superior to that of the Jews and Pagans. But the solution of this apparent difficulty is easy and obvious. The eloquent preacher draws a parallel between the civil and the ecclesiastical constitution of Antioch; between the list of Christians who had acquired heaven by baptism, and the list of citizens who had a right to share the public liberality. Slaves, strangers, and infants,

Plin. Epist. 10, 97.

+ Chrysostomi Opera, tom. vii, p. 658, 810. John Malala, tom. ii, p. 144. He draws the same conclusion with regard to the populousness of Antioch. § Chrysostom, tom. i, p. 592. I am indebted for these passages, though not for my inference,

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