CH. XV.]

THE CHRISTIAN APOLOGIES.

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single argument that could engage the attention of men of sense and learning.*

It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers perused the apologies which the primitive Christians repeatedly published in behalf of themselves and of their eligion;t but it is much to be lamented that such a cause as not defended by abler advocates. They expose with superfluous wit and eloquence the extravagance of Polytheism; they interest our compassion by displaying the innocence and Buffering of their injured brethren; but when they would demonstrate the divine origin of Christianity, they insist much more strongly on the predictions which announced, than on the miracles which accompanied, the appearance of the Lessiah. Their favourite argument might serve to edify a Christian, or to convert a Jew, since both the one and the her acknowledge the authority of those prophecies, and Both are obliged, with devout reverence, to search for their ense and their accomplishment. But this mode of persion loses much of its weight and influence, when it is ddressed to those who neither understand nor respect the

Dr. Lardner, in his first and second volumes of Jewish and Christestimonies, collects and illustrates those of Pliny the younger, o Tacitus, of Galen, of Marcus Antoninus, and perhaps of Epictetus (for is doubtful whether that philosopher means to speak of the Chrisans). The new sect is totally unnoticed by Seneca, the elder Pliny, ad Plutarch. The emperors Hadrian, Antoninus, &c., read with under the Apologies for their faith, which Justin Martyr, Aristides, eito, and and others addressed to them. (See Hieron. ad Mag. and rosins, lib. 8, c. 13. p. 488). Eusebius says expressly, that the cause Christianity was defended in the presence of the senate, by Apol is the martyr, in a very elegant oration. "Cum judex multis precibus obsecrasset petiissetque ab illo, uti coram senatu ratiofidei suæ redderit, elegantissima oratione pro defensione fidei nuntiata, &c. (Euseb. Latine, lib. 5, c. 21. p. 154).-GUIZOT]. is not very clear, either from this Latin version, or the original eek, or the context, when carefully considered, whether this oration as held before the senate or the judge. The latter seems the most Probable, and would get rid of some doubts and difficulties. It ought ot to excite any surprise, that the Apologies insisted so little on e miraculous evidence of the writers' faith, in an age when hostile sputants ascribed all such works to magic, and when the belief in this ency was so prevalent, that Apuleius was obliged to defend himself adicially against the charge of having employed it, to win the affections a wealthy widow. All the early defenders of Christianity insist on its alization both of prophecy and philosophy. That which the emperor adrian received from Aristides is described by Jerome, as "contextum

84

INATTENTION TO THE MIRACLES

[CH. XV Mosaic dispensation and the prophetic style. In the un skilful hands of Justin and of the succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant types, affected conceits, and cold allegories; and even their authenticity was rendered suspicious to an unen lightened Gentile by the mixture of pious forgeries, which under the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine inspiration of heaven. The adoption of fraud and sophistry in the defence of revelation too often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets, who load their invul nerable heroes with a useless weight of cumbersome and brittle armour.

But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world, to those evidences which wer presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of hi apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, demons were expelled, and the laws of natur were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral or physical government of the world. Under the reign of Tiberius, the whole earth, or at least a celebrated

philosophorum sententiis." Gibbon estimated Christianity too low, and ancient philosophy too high, to take correct views of their mutual bearings and concurrent action.-ED.] * If the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks had been alleged to a Roman philosopher, would he not have replied in the words of Cicero: "Quæ tandem ista auga ratio est, annorum potius quam aut mensium aut dierum?" (De Divi natione, 2. 30.) Observe with what irreverence Lucian (in Alexandro c. 13,) and his friend Celsus (ap. Origen lib. 7, p. 327,) express them selves concerning the Hebrew prophets. The philosophers, who derided the more ancient predictions of the Sibyls, would easily have detected the Jewish and Christian forgeries which had been triumphantly quoted by the fathers from Justin Martyr to Lactantius When the Sibylline verses had performed their appointed task, they nke the system of the millennium, were quietly laid aside. The Chris tian Sibyl had unluckily fixed the ruin of Rome for the year 195, (A.U.C. 948). The fathers, as they are drawn out in battle array by Dom Calmet, (Dissertations sur la Bile, tom, iij. p. 295–308,) seem

[1 CH. XV.]

WHICH ACCOMPANIED CHRISTIANITY.

85

province of the Roman empire,* was involved in a preternatural darkness of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curioesity, and the devotion of mankind, passed without notice in an age of science and history. It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest intelgence, of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a Laborious work, has recorded all the great phenomena of nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the globe.§ A distinct chapter of Pliny is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and unusual

cover the whole earth with darkness, in which they are followed by most of the moderns. * Origen (ad Matt. c. 27) and a few modern critics, Beza, Le Clerc, Lardner, &c. are desirous of confining it to the hand of Judea. The celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely bandoned. When Tertullian assures the Pagans that the mention of the prodigy is found in arcanis (not archivis) vestris, (see his Apology, 21,) he probably appeals to the Sibylline verses, which relate it actly in the words of the gospel. Seneca, Quæst. Natur.

1, 15; 6, 1; 7, 17. Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. 2. § Some learned teologians maintain, that this part of Scripture has been misinterpreted, and that the error has involved industrious commentators in hbours, which Origen had done his best to spare them. They say that the phrase okóros lyévero (Matt. c. 27. v. 45) does not mean an eclipse, or any extraordinary darkness, but an obscuration of any kind, caused in the atmosphere by clouds or other objects. Such a darkening of the

being a rare occurrence in Palestine, where in the middle of April the sky is generally serene, would be regarded both by Jews and Christians as an important event, and they were accustomed to fear it as a presage of evil (Amos, c. 8, v. 9-10). The word σkórog is ofter used in this sense by contemporary writers. In Revelations, (c. 9 7.2.) where darkness is caused by smoke and dust, the words are, Orion Los, "the sun was concealed." In the Septuagint, σkóros is employed, to express the Hebrew ophal, which designates any kind of darkness: the evangelists, who modelled their language on that of the Septuagint, gave without doubt the same latitude to the expression. Such an obscuration of the heavens usually precedes an earthquake. (Matt. c. 27, v. 51). Many examples of this occur in Pagan authors, who at the time considered the event to be miraculous. (Ovid, lib. 2, v. 33, lib. 15, 785; Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. 2, c. 30). Wetstein has collected these in his edition of the New Testament (tom. i. p. 537). We must not then surprised, that heathen writers make no mention of a phenomenon

be

which took place only at Jerusalem, and probably was no departure

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POLITICAL TREATMENT OF

[CH. XV duration; but he contents himself with describing the sin gular defect of light which followed the murder of Cæsar when, during the greatest part of the year, the orb of th sun appeared pale and without splendour. This season of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the preternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already celebrated by most of the poetst and historians of tha memorable age.

CHAPTER XVI.-THE CONDUCT OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT TOWARD THE CHRISTIANS, FROM THE REIGN OF NERO TO THAT OF CONSTAN TINE.

IF we seriously consider the purity of the Christian reli gion, the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the innocent, a well as austere, lives of the greater number of those who during the first ages, embraced the faith of the gospel, wi should naturally suppose, that so benevolent a doctrine would have been received with due reverence, even by the unbelieving world; that the learned and the polite, however they might deride the miracles, would have esteemed the virtues, of the new sect; and that the magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protected an order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws, though they declined the active cares of war and government. If, on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Poly. theism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new offence the Christians had committed, what new provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion from the laws of nature, although regarded by Christians and Jews as a presage of evil. See Michaelis's Notes on the New Testament, vol. i, p. 290. Paulus, Comment. vol. iii, p. 762.-GUIZOT. [We are involved in darkness, too, while criticising the words of a translation, without the original. At every step we are sensible how much we want Matthew's Hebrew record. -ED.] 1. 466. Tibullus, lib. 1. Lucan. Pharsal. 1. 540. before the civil war. Antiq. 14. 12. Plutarch

*Plin. Hist. Natur. 2. 30. + Virgil. Georgie. Eleg. 5. ver. 75. Ovid. Metamorph. 15. 782 The last of these poets places this prodigy See a public epistle of M. Antony in Josephi in Caesar, p. 471. Appian. Bell. Civil. lib.

CH. XVI.]

THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.

87

subsisting in peace under their ge le sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular, but an inoffensive, mode of faith and worship.

The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a more stern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of Christianity. About fourscore years after the death of Christ, his innocent disciples were punished ith death by the sentence of a proconsul of the most miable and philosophic character, and according to the laws of an emperor distinguished by the wisdom and justice of his general administration. The apologies which were repeatedly addressed to the successors of Trajan are filled with he most pathetic complaints, that the Christians who obeyed the dictates, and solicited the liberty of conscience, were one, among all the subjects of the Roman empire, excluded from the common benefits of their auspicious government. The deaths of a few eminent martyrs have been recorded ith care; and from the time that Christianity was invested with the supreme power, the governors of the church have been no less diligently employed in displaying the cruelty, than in imitating the conduct, of their Pagan adversaries. To separate (if it be possible) a few authentic, as well as interesting, facts from an undigested mass of fiction and error, and to relate in a clear and rational manner, the causes, the extent, the duration, and the most important circumstances of the persecutions to which the first Christians were exposed, is the design of the present chapter.*

Dion Cassius, lib. 45, p. 431. Julius Obsequens, c. 128. His little treatise is an abstract of Livy's prodigies. * The history of Christianity, in its earliest stage, is only to be found in the Acts of the Apostles; from no other source can we learn the first persecutions inflicted on the Christians. Limited to a few individuals and a narrow space, these persecutions interested none but those who were exposed to them, and have had no other chroniclers. Gibbon, by going no farther back than to the time of Nero, has entirely omitted all the preceding persecutions, recorded by Luke. This omission could only be justified by questioning the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles, for if they are authentic they must be consulted and quoted. Among the works transmitted to us from past times, few are so well attested, as Lardner has shewn in the second part of his Credibility of the Gospel History. Gibbon had no just plea then for passing over in silence Luke's recital, and this chasm in his history is full of meaning. -Guizor. [Gibbon did not question the authenticity of the