78 STATISTICS OF CHRISTIANITY. [св. an imperfect knowledge of the gospel among the tribe Caledonia, and among the borderers of the Rhine, Danube, and the Euphrates. Beyond the last-mentio river, Edessa was distinguished by a firm and early a rence to the faith.‡ From Edessa the principles of CH tianity were easily introduced into the Greek and Sy cities which obeyed the successors of Artaxerxes; but t do not appear to have made any deep impression on minds of the Persians, whose religious system, by labours of a well-disciplined order of priests, had been c structed with much more art and solidity than the uncert mythology of Greece and Rome.§ From this impartial though imperfect survey of 1 progress of Christianity, it may perhaps seem probał that the number of its proselytes has been excessiv magnified by fear on the one side, and by devotion on t other. According to the irreproachable testimony of O gen, the proportion of the faithful was very inconsiderab when compared with the multitude of an unbelieving wor but, as we are left without any distinct information, it impossible to determine, and it is difficult even to co jecture, the real numbers of the primitive Christians. TI most favourable calculation, however, that can be deduc from the examples of Antioch and of Rome, will not perm * sion of Iberia and Armenia, may be found in Moses of Chorene, lib. c. 78--89. According to Tertullian, the Christian faith hi penetrated into parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman arm About a century afterward, Ossian, the son of Fingal, is said to ha disputed, in his extreme old age, with one of the foreign missionaries and the dispute is still extant, in verse, and in the Erse language. St Mr. Macpherson's Dissertation on the Antiquity of Ossian's Poem p. 10. + The Goths, who ravaged Asia in the reign of Gallienu carried away great numbers of captives, some of whom were Christian and became missionaries. See Tillemont, Mémoires Ecclesiast. tom. iv p. 44. The legend of Abgarus, fabulous as it is, affords decisive proof that many years before Eusebius wrote his history, thi greatest part of the inhabitants of Edessa had embraced Christianity Their rivals, the citizens of Carrhæ, adhered, on the contrary, to the cause of Paganism, as late as the sixth century. § According to Bardesanes, (ap. Euseb. Præpar. Evangel.) there were some Christians in Persia before the end of the second century. In the time of Constantine, (see his Epistle to Sapor; Vit. lib. 4, c. 13), they composed a flourishing church. Consult Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Mani chéisme, tom. i, p. 180, and the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Assemanni. ¶Origen contra Celsum, lib. 8, p. 424. EARLY REPROACHES. 79 (0 π. etto imagine that more than a twentieth part of the subRits of the empire had enlisted themselves under the banner the cross before the important conversion of Constantine. But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union, seemed to ultiply their numbers; and the same causes which con buted to their future increase served to render their ctual strength more apparent and more formidable. Such is the constitution of civil society, that whilst a few persons are distinguished by riches, by honours, and by owledge, the body of the people is condemned to obscu ty, ignorance, and poverty. The Christian religion, which ddressed itself to the whole human race, must consequently ollect a far greater number of proselytes from the lower han from the superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural circumstance has been improved into a very odious imputation, which seems to be ss strenuously denied by the apologists, than it is urged the adversaries of the faith; that the new sect of Chrisans was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace; of peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves, the last of whom might sometimes troduce the missionaries into the rich and noble families to which they belonged. "These obscure teachers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public as they are loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philo sophers, they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and nsinuate themselves into those minds, whom their age, their sex, or their education, has the best disposed to receive the impression of superstitious terrors."* This unfavourable picture, though not devoid of a faint resemblance, betrays, by its dark colouring and distorted features, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith of Christ diffused itself through the world, it was embraced by several persons who derived some consequence from the advantages of nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent apology to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher. Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras, • Minucius Felix, c. 8, with Wouwerus's notes. Celsus ap. Origen 18, p. 138-142. Julian ap. Cyril. 1. 6, p. 206; edit. Spanheim Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 4. 3. Hieronym. Epist. 83. 80 LEARNING OF THE EARLY FATHERS. [CH.: ཟླ and of Plato, before he fortunately was accosted by the man, or rather the angel, who turned his attention ተላ study of the Jewish prophets.* Clemens of Alexandr had acquired much various reading in the Greek, and Te tullian in the Latin, language. Julius Africanus and Orige possessed a very considerable share of the learning of the times; and although the style of Cyprian is very differer from that of Lactantius, we might almost discover that botes those writers had been public teachers of rhetoric. Evers the study of philosophy was at length introduced amonta the Christians, but it was not always productive of the mos salutary effects; knowledge was as often the parent o heresy as of devotion; and the description which wa designed for the followers of Artemon may, with equa propriety, be applied to the various sects that resisted the successors of the apostles. "They presume to alter the Holy Scriptures, to abandon the ancient rule of faith, and to form their opinions according to the subtile precepts of logic. The science of the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects of their admiration; and they express an uncommon reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidels; and they corrupt the simplicity of the gospel by the refinements of human reason."t Nor can it be affirmed with truth, that the advantages of birth and fortune were always separated from the profession of Christianity. Several Roman citizens were brought before the tribunal of Pliny, and he soon discovered that a great number of persons of every order of men in Bithynia had deserted the religion of their ancestors. His unsus pected testimony may, in this instance, obtain more credit than the bold challenge of Tertullian, when he addresses * The story is prettily told in Justin's Dialogues. Tillemont, (Mɛm. Ecclesiast. tom. ii, p. 324), who relates it after him, is sure that the old man was a disguised angel. none, except the heretics, gave Origen. 1. 2, p. 77), that the altering their gospels. amentiæ, cives Romani Eusebius, 5. 28. It may be hoped that occasion to the complaint of Celsus, (ap. Christians were perpetually correcting and Plin Epist. 10. 97. Fuerunt alii similis Multi enim omnis ætatis omnis ordinis striusque sexûs, etiam vocantur in periculum et vocabuntur. .... .] STATION OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 81 lf to the fears as well as to the humanity of the proof Africa, by assuring him, that if he persists in his intentions, he must decimate Carthage, and that he find among the guilty many persons of his own rank, ator and matrons of noblest extraction, and the friends relations of his most intimate friends. It appears, se, that about forty years afterwards the emperor an was persuaded of the truth of this assertion, since, e of his rescripts, he evidently supposes, that senators, ar knights, and ladies of quality, were engaged in the tian sect.t The church still continued to increase its ard splendour as it lost its internal purity; and in the of Diocletian, the palace, the courts of justice, and the army, concealed a multitude of Christians who oured to reconcile the interests of the present with of a future life. ad yet these exceptions are either too few in number, recent in time, entirely to remove the inputation of ance and obscurity which has been so arrogantly cast e first proselytes of Christianity. Instead of employtullian ad Scapulam. Yet even his rhetoric risos no higher claim a tenth part of Carthage. +Cyprian, Epist. 79. this imperfect list ought to be added the names of many whose conversion, in the very dawn of Christianity, lessens free of the historian's imputation. Among these are the proSergius Paulus, converted at Paphos. (Acts, c. 13, v. 7 and 12). us the Areopagite, who, with many others, was converted l, at Athens (Acts, c. 17, v. 34). Several persons in the court ero (Philipp. c. 4, v. 22). Erastus, the revenue officer at Corinth, ans, c. 16, v. 23). Some Asiarchs, (Acts, c. 19, v. 31). To the phers may also be added Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus of ch, Hegesippus, Melito, Miltiades, Pantoenus, Ammonius Saccas, others, all distinguished by their talents and acquirements.[M. Guizot's own list is far from complete. He has omitted names as Polycarp, Hippolytus Africanus, and Irenæus. He ht also have inserted in it the two brothers, Theodorus and enodorus, whose conversion by Origen, through the influence of Platonic philosophy, is fully related by Jerome, (De Vir. Ill. c. 65), ad the former of whom became Gregory Thaumaturgus, the zealous hop of Neo-Cæsarea. It is a very erroneous notion, that Christity was the "most favourably received by the poor and simple." acte prove that its earliest friends were rich and educated, urch of Antioch, while yet only a year old, had funds to spare for poor at Jerusalem; and the rapid growth of ecclesiastical wealth, ready noticed, could not have taken place if the first proselytes had TOL II. The 82 LEARNED HEATHENS. [CH. THE ing in our defence the fictions of later ages, it will be moment that prudent to convert the occasion of scandal into a sbjecturing.* edification. Our serious thoughts will suggest to 18, thaast doub the apostles themselves were chosen by Providence amon apologi the fishermen of Galilee, and that the lower we depess the published temporal condition of the first Christians, the more eason but it is we shall find to admire their merit and success. Its inded by cumbent on us diligently to remember, that the kingdor and el minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankin their in of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit; and that our con cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future happine the divine while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with dy on th possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt which dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge. We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us to co the loss of some illustrious characters, which in our might have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly Their fa owledge liged, w sent. The names of Seneca, of the elder and the young their a Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Es much tetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the to those in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of hum nature. They filled with glory their respective stationer, in either in active or contemplative life; their excellent unde, colle d Galen, of standings were improved by study; philosophy had purl whethe their minds from the prejudices of the popular superstitio e new sect and their days were spent in the pursuit of truth, and && 13. anity was Yet all these sages (it is no less e Apologie object of surprise than of concern) overlooked or rejected and other the perfection of the Christian system. Their language of practice of virtue. obsecr their silence equally discover their contempt for the grow martyr, i ing sect, which in their time had diffused itself over the Roman empire. Those among them who condescende redd the contex mention the Christians, consider them only as obstinate a perverse enthusiasts, who exacted an implicit submission to clea And would their mysterious doctrines, without being able to produce before the been mostly ignorant and obscure. The Gnostics, who, thoug heretics, were Christians, are admitted to have been generally the higher orders. The eminent men, to whom Gibbon points as st Adhering to heathenism, prove nothing in any way, but the comm force of accidental contingencies or habitual adherence to pinio dopted in early life.-ED.] ine any alons evid ascribed a so prev My against th chy widow both of ceived fr |