of too doubtful a nature to justify a positive decision CENT. I. on either side.

'rinthians.

XVI. There is no sort of doubt, that Cerinthus Cerinthus, may be placed with propriety among the Gnostics, and the Ce though the learned are not entirely agreed whether he belongs to the heretics of the first or the second century. This man was by birth a Jew, and, having applied himself to letters and philosophy at Alexandria, attempted, at length, to form a new and singular system of doctrine and discipline, by a monstrous combination of the doctrines of Christ with the opinions and errors of the Jews and Gnos tics. From the latter he borrowed their pleroma, their æons, their demiurge, &c. and so modified and tempered these fictions, as to give them an air of Judaism, which must have considerably favored the progress of his heresy. He taught " that the Creator "of this world, whom he considered also as the sovereign and lawgiver of the Jewish people, was "a being endowed with the greatest virtues, and "derived his birth from the Supreme God; that he fell, by degrees, from his native virtue and his

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primitive dignity; that God, in consequence of this, "determined to destroy his empire, and sent upon "earth, for this purpose, one of the ever-happy and "glorious æons, whose name was Christ; that this "Christ chose for his habitation the person of Jesus, "a man of the most illustrious sanctity and justice, "the son of Joseph and Mary, and, descending in "the form of a dove, entered into him while he " was receiving baptism from John in the waters of "Jordan; that Jesus, after his union with Christ, ❝ opposed himself with vigor to the God of the Jews, "and was, by his instigation, seised and crucified

◄ See Sam. Basnage, Annal. Polit. Eccles. tom. ii; and Faydit, Eclaircissemens sur l'Histoire Eccles. des deux premiers Siecles, cap. v. The opinion of these two learned men is opposed by Buddeus, de Eccles. Apostolicâ, cap. v.

• Theodoret. Fabul. Hæret. lib. ii. cap. iii.

CENT. I. by the Hebrew chiefs; and that, when Jesus

The Nazarenes and Ebionites,

properly be long to the second century.

became a prisoner, Christ ascended into heaven, "so that the man Jesus alone was subjected to the "pains of an ignominious death." Cerinthus required of his followers, that they should worship the Father of Christ, even the Supreme God, in conjunction with the Son; that they should abandon the lawgiver of the Jews, whom he looked upon as the Creator of the world; that they should retain a part of the law given by Moses, but should, nevertheless, employ their principal attention and care to regulate their lives by the precepts of Christ. To encourage them to this, he promised them the resurrection of this mortal body, after which was to commence a scene of the most exquisite delights, during Christ's earthly reign of a thousand years, which would be succeeded by a happy and never-ending life in the celestial world; for he held, that Christ will one day return upon earth, and, renewing his former union with the man Jesus, will reign with his people in the land of Palestine during a thousand years.

XVII. It has been already observed, that the church was troubled with early disputes concerning the law of Moses and the Jewish rites. Those, however, who considered the observance of the Mosaic rites as necessary to salvation, had not, in this first century, proceeded so far as to break off all communion with such as differed from them in this matter: therefore they were still regarded as brethren, though of the weaker sort. But when, after the second destruction of Jerusalem, under the emperor Adrian, these zealots for the Jewish rites. deserted the ordinary assemblies of Christians, and established separate meetings among themselves, they were numbered with those sects who had departed from the pure doctrine of Christ. Hence arose the names of Nazarenes and Ebionites, by which the judaizing Christians were distinguished from those who looked upon the Mosaic worship and ceremonies

as entirely abolished by the appearance of Christ CENT. 1. upon earth. We shall only observe farther under this head, that though the Nazarenes and Ebionites are generally placed among the sects of the apostolic age, they really belong to the second century, which was the earliest period of their existence as

a sect.

THE

SECOND CENTURY.

CENT. II.

PART I.

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened to the Church during this Century.

I. In this century, the Roman sceptre was, for The state of the most part, swayed by princes of a mild and the republic. moderate turn. Trajan, though too eagerly bent

The progress of Christi

upon the pursuit of glory, and not always sufficiently attentive to his conduct, or prudent in, his measures, was nevertheless endowed with many virtues; and the predominant lines of his character were clemency and benevolence. Adrian was of a more harsh and intractable temper, yet far from deserving the odious appellation of a wicked or unjust prince. He was of a mixed character, chargeable with several vices, and estimable on account of some excellent qualities. The Antonines were illustrious models of humanity, goodness, and sublime virtue. Severus himself, in whose character and disposition such an unexpected and disadvantageous change was effected, was, in the beginning of his reign, unjust toward none; and even the Christians were treated by him with equity and mildness.

II. This lenity of the emperors proved advananity in the tageous to those Christians who lived under the Roman en-Roman sceptre; it sometimes suspended their sufferpire. ings, and alleviated the burthen of their distresses;

for though, edicts of a severe nature were issued out CENT. 11. against them, and the magistrates, 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 toward 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 they had so often been perfidiously exposed to the greatest sufferings. Antoninus Pius went so far as to enact penal laws against their accusers; 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.

III. It is not easy to point out particularly the different countries on which the light of celestial truth first rose in this age. The ancient records that yet remain, do not give us information sufficient to determine that point with certainty; nor is it, indeed, a matter of high importance. We are, however, assured, by the most unexceptionable testimonies, that

a See Pliny's epistles, book x. let. xeviii. b Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. cap. xiii.

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 pertinentium. See also the dialogue between Justin Martyr and Trypho the Jew.

What counis we

tries were enlightened

with the

Gospel.