CENT. PART I. The pro gress of ty in the pire. II. This lenity of the emperors was singularly advantageous to those Christians who lived under the Roman sceptre; it suspended sometimes their sufferings, and alleviated the burthen of their distresses. For though edicts of a severe nature Christiani- were issued out against them, and the magistrates, Roman em- animated by the priests, and by the multitude, shed their blood with a cruelty which frequently exceeded even the dictates of the most barbarous laws; yet there was always some remedy that accompanied these evils, and softened their severity. Trajan, however condemnable in other respects, on account of his conduct towards the Christians, was yet engaged, by the representations that Pliny the younger gave of them, to forbid all search to be made after them. He also prohibited all anonymous libels and accusations, by which the Christians had so often been perfidiously exposed to the greatest sufferings [a]. Antoninus Pius went so far as to enact penal laws against their accusers [b]. And others, by various acts of beneficence and compassion, defended them from the injurious treatment of the priests and people. Hence it came to pass, that in this century, the limits of the church were considerably enlarged, and the number of converts to Christianity prodigiously augmented. Of the truth of this, we have the most respectable and authentic testimonies in the writings of the ancients; testimonies, whose evidence and authority are every way superior to the vain attempts which some have made to obscure and weaken them [c]. III. It [a] See Pliny's epistles, book x. let. xcviii. [b] Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. cap. xiii. p. 126. [c] See Moyle's letters concerning the thundering legion, with the remarks which Dr. Mosheim has annexed to his Latin translation of them, published at the end of a work entitled Syntagma Dissert. ad Sanctiores Disciplinas pertinent. See II. III. It is not easy to point out particularly the CENT. different countries on which the light of celestial truth first arose in this age. The ancient records that yet remain, do not give us informa- What countion sufficient to determine that matter with cer- tries were tainty; nor is it, indeed, a matter of much import-enlightened ance. We are, however, assured, by the most gospel. unexceptionable testimonies, that Christ was worshipped as God almost throughout the whole East, as also among the Germans, Spaniards, Celts, Britons, and many other nations [d]; but which of them received the gospel in the first century, and which in the second, is a question unanswerable at this distance of time. Pantænus, the head of the Alexandrian school, is said to have conveyed to the Indians the knowledge of Christ [e]. But, after an attentive examination of the account which Eusebius gives of this matter, it will appear, that these Indians were certain Jews, inhabitants of the Happy Arabia, whom Bartholomew the apostle had before instructed in the doctrines of Christianity. For, according to the account of St. Jerom, Pantænus found among this people the gospel of St. Matthew, which they had received from Bartholomew their first teacher. the Ger IV. The Christian religion, having penetrated The conamong the Gauls, seems to have passed from version of thence into that part of Germany which was sub-mans. ject to the Romans, and from thence into Britain [f]. Certain German churches, indeed, L 3 are See also the dialogue between Justin Martyr and Trypho the [d] Irenæus contr. Hæres. lib. i. cap. x. Tertullian adu. Judæos, cap. 7. p. 212. [e] Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. book v. c. x. Jerome Catal. Scriptor. Eccles. c. xxxvi. [f] Ursinus, Bebelius, and others, have written learnedly concerning the origin of the German churches, which Ter tullian PART I. CENT. are fondly ambitious of deriving their origin from II. St. Peter, and from the companions of the other apostles. The Britons also are willing to believe, upon the authority of Bede, that in this century, and under the reign of Marcus Antoninus, their king Lucius addressed himself to Eleutherus, the Roman Pontiff, for doctors to instruct him in the Christian religion, and having obtained his request, embraced the gospel [g]. But, after all, these traditions are extremely doubtful, and are, indeed, rejected by such as have learning sufficient to weigh the credibility of ancient narrations. of the Gauls. Conversion V. It is very possible, that the light of Chris- tullian and Irenæus mention as erected in this century. Add [g] See Usher Antiq. Eccles. Britan. cap. i. p. 7; as also Godwin, De conversione Britan. cap. i. p. 7. and Rapin's History of England. [h] See the epistle of Petrus De Marca, concerning the first rise of Christianity in France, published among the dis sertations II. PART I. Transla ment. VI. The writers of this century attribute this CENT. rapid progress of Christianity to the power of God, to the energy of divine truth, to the extraordinary gifts which were imparted to the first Christians, and the miracles and prodigies that tions of the were wrought in their behalf, and at their com- New Testamand; nor do they ascribe almost any part of the amazing success that attended the preaching of the gospel, to the intervening succours of human means, or second causes. But this is carrying the matter too far. The wisdom of human counsels, and the useful efforts of learning and prudence, are too inconsiderately excluded from this account of things. For it is beyond all doubt, that the pious diligence and zeal, with which many learned and worthy men recommended the sacred writings, and spread them abroad in translations, which rendered them useful to those who are ignorant of the language in which they were written, contributed much to the success and propagation of the Christian doctrine. Latin versions of these sacred books were multiplied by the pious labours of the learned, with particular diligence, because that language was now more universal than any other []. Among these versions, that which was distinguished by the name of the Italic obtained universally the preference, and was followed by the Syriac, Egyptian, and Æthiopic versions, whose dates it is impossible to fix with certainty [k]. I 4 VII. sertations of that author; and also by Valesius, in his edition of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. See also Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. i. p. 223. Liron's Singularités Histor. et Literaires, vol. iv. [] See Augustin. De doctrina Christiana, lib. ii. cap. xi. p. 85. edit.. Calixt. [] See Jo. Gottlob. Carpzov. Critica sacra Vet. Test. p. CENT. VII. Among the obstacles that retarded the progress of Christianity, the impious calumnies PART I. of its enemies were the most considerable. The Christians persons, the characters, and religious sentiments defended, of the first Christians were most unjustly treated, and heretics and most perfidiously misrepresented to the cre refuted. dulous multitude [7], who were restrained by this [] Nothing more injurious can be conceived than the terms of contempt, indignation, and reproach, which the Heathens employed in expressing their hatred against the Christians, who were called by them atheists, because they derided the heathen polytheism; magicians, because they wrought miracles; self-murderers, because they suffered martyrdom cheerfully for the truth; haters of the light, because, to avoid the fury of the persecutions raised against them, they were forced, at first, to hold their religious assemblies in the night; with a multitude of other ignominious epithets employed against them by Tacitus, Suetonius, Celsus, &c. See Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, book i. cap. ii. p. 5. |