a suspension of judgement is both allowable and wise. CENT. III, With respect to Gallienus, and some other emperors of this century, if they did not professedly favor the progress of Christianity, they did not oppress its fol lowers, or retard its advancement.

increased.

thereof part

IV. This clemency and benevolence, which the The number followers of Jesus experienced from great men, and of Christians especially from those of imperial dignity, must be placed, without doubt, among the human means that contributed to multiply the number of Christians, and to enlarge the bounds of the church. Other causes, however, both divine and human, The causes must be added here, to afford a complete and satis- ly divine, factory account of this matter. Among the causes which belong to the first of these classes, we not only reckon the intrinsic force of celestial truth, and the piety and fortitude of those who declared it to the world, but also that especial and interposing provi dence, which, by such dreams and visions as were presented to the minds of many, who were either inattentive to the Christian doctrine, or its professed enemies, touched their hearts with a conviction of its truth and a sense of its importance, and engaged them, without delay, to profess themselves the disciples of Christ. To this may also be added, the healing of diseases, and other miracles, which many Christians were yet enabled to perform by invoking the name of the divine Saviour. The number of miracles, however, we find to have been much less in this than in the preceding century; nor must this alteration be attributed only to the divine wisdom, which rendered miraculous interpositions less frequet in proportion as they became less necessary, but also to that justice which was provoked to

See, for an account of this matter, the following authors: Origen, lib. i. adv. Celsum, p. 35. Homil. in Lucæ vii. p. 216, tom. ii. op. edit. Basil.-as also Tertullian, de Animâ, cap. xiv. and Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. v.

f Origen, contra Celsum, lib. i. Euseb. lib. v. cap. vii. Cypriani Ep. i. ad Donat. and the notes of Baluze upon that passage.

CENT. III. diminish the frequency of gifts, because some did not scruple to pervert them to mercenary purposes.

partly hu

man.

Several countries

V. If we turn our view to the human means that contributed, at this time, to multiply the number of Christians, and extend the limits of the church, we shall find a great variety of causes uniting their influence, and contributing jointly to this happy purpose. Among these must be reckoned the translations of the sacred writings into various languages, the zeal and labors of Origen in spreading abroad copies of them, and the different works that were published, by learned and pious men, in defence of the Gospel. We may add to this, that the acts of beneficence and liberality, performed by the Christians, even toward persons whose religious principles they abhorred, had a great influence in attracting the esteem, and removing the prejudices of many, who were thus prepared for examining with candor the Christian doctrine, and, consequently, for receiving its divine light. The adorers of the pagan deities must have been destitute of every generous affection, of every humane feeling, if the view of that boundless charity, which the Christians exercised toward the poor, the love they expressed even to their enemies, the tender care they took of the sick and infirm, the humanity they discovered in the redemption of captives, and the other illustrious virtues, which rendered them so worthy of universal esteem, had not touched their hearts, dispelled their prepossessions, and rendered them more favorable to the disciples of Jesus. If, among the causes of the propagation of Christianity, there is any place due to pious frauds, it is certain that they merit a very small part of the honor of having contributed to this glorious purpose, since they were practised by few, and that very rarely.

VI. That the limits of the church were extended in this century, is a matter beyond all controversy. light of the It is not, however, equally certain in what manner,

receive the

Spencer, not. in Origen, contra Celsum.

by what persons, or in what parts of the world, this CENT. II. was effected. Origen, invited from Alexandria by an Arabian prince, converted, by his assiduous labors, a certain tribe of wandering Arabs to the Christian faith. The Goths, a fierce and warlike people, who inhabited the countries of Moesia and Thrace, and who, accustomed to rapine, harassed the neighbouring provinces by perpetual incursions, received the knowlege of the Gospel by the means of certain Christian doctors sent thither from Asia. The holy lives of these venerable teachers, and the miraculous powers with which they were endowed, attracted the esteem, even of a people educated to nothing but plunder and devastation, and absolutely uncivilised by letters or science; and their authority and influence became so great, and produced, in process of time, such remarkable effects, that a great part of this barbarous people professed themselves the disciples of Christ, and put off, in a manner, that ferocity which had been so natural to them '.

and Ger

VII. The Christian assemblies, founded in Gaul Among by the Asiatic doctors in the preceding century, were others, Gaul few in number, and of very small extent; but both many. their number and their extent were considerably increased from the time of the emperor Decius. Under his sway, Dionysius, Gatian, Trophimus, Paul, Saturninus, Martial, Stremonius, men of exemplary piety, passed into this province, and, amidst dangers and trials of various kinds, erected churches at Paris, Tours, Arles, and several other places. This was followed by a rapid progress of the Gospel among the Gauls, as the disciples of these pious teachers spread, in a short time. the knowlege of Christianity through the whole country. We must also place in

h Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xix. p. 221.

i Sozomenus, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. vi. Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Miscel. lib. ii. cap. xiv. Philostorgius, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. v. p. 470.

See the history of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, book i. ch, xxviii. Theodor. Ruinart, Acta Martyr. sincera, p. 109.

CENT. II. this century the origin of several German churches. such as those of Cologne, Treves, Mentz, and others, of which Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, and Clemens, were the principal founders'. The historians of Scot land inform us, that the light of Christianity arose upon that country during this century; but, though there be nothing improbable in this assertion, yet it is not built upon incontestable authority m.

The perse

Severus.

CHAPTER II.

Concerning the calamitous Events which happened to the Church in this Century.

I. IN the beginning of this century, the Christian cution under church suffered calamities of various kinds throughout the provinces of the Roman empire. These sufferings increased in a terrible manner, in consequence of a law made, in the year 203, by the emperor Severus (who, in other respects, was certainly no enemy to the Christians), by which every subject of the empire was prohibited from changing the religion of his ancestors for the Christian or Jewish faith ". This law was, in its effects, most prejudicial to the Christians; for, though it did not formally condemn them, and seemed only adapted to put a stop to the progress of the Gospel, yet it induced rapacious and unjust magistrates to persecute even unto death the poorer sort among the Christians, that thus the richer might be led, through fear of the like treatment, to purchase their tranquillity and safety at an expensive

See Aug. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, tom. i. dissert. i. p. 7. Jo. Nicol. ab Hontheim, Historia Trevirensis, tom. i. ubi Diss. de ærâ fundati Episcopatus Trevirensis.

m See Usher and Stillingfleet, Antiquit. et Origin. Ecclesiar. Brit. See also Sir George Mackenzie, de Regali Scotorum prosapiâ, cap. viii. p. 119.

Eusebius, Histor. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. i. Spartianus in Severo, cap. xvi. xvii.

rate. Hence many of the disciples of Christ, in CENT. HIP. several parts of Asia, also in Egypt and other parts of Africa, were put to death in consequence of this law. Among these Leonidas, the father of Origen, Perpetua and Felicitas (those two famous African ladies, whose acts are come down to our times), Potamiena Marcella, and other martyrs of both sexes, acquired an illustrious name by the magnanimity and tranquillity with which they endured the most cruel sufferings.

II. From the death of Severus to the reign of That under Maximin, the condition of the Christians was, in Maximin. some places, prosperous, and, in all, supportable. But with Maximin the face of affairs changed. This unworthy emperor, having animated the Roman soldiers to assassinate Alexander Severus, dreaded the resentment of the Christians, whom that excellent prince had favored and protected in a distinguished manner; and, for this reason, he ordered the bishops, whom he knew that Alexander had always treated as his intimate friends, to be seised and put to death ". During his reign, the Christians suffered in the most barbarous manner; for, though the edict of this tyrant extended only to the bishops and leaders of the Christian church, yet its shocking effects reached much farther, as it animated the heathen priests, the magistrates, and the multitude, against Christians of every rank and order 9.

consequence

elty of De

III. This storm was succeeded by a calm, in which Many Christhe Christians enjoyed a happy tranquillity for many tians, in years. The accession of Decius Trajan to the im- of the cruperial throne, in the year 249, raised a new tempest, cius, become in which the fury of persecution fell in a dreadful chargeable manner upon the church of Christ; for this emperor, tion. either from an ill-grounded fear of the Christians, or

Theod. Ruinart, Acta Martyr. p. 90.

P Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. xxviii. p. 225. Orosius, Hist. lib. vii. cap. xix. p. 509.

¶ Origen, tom. xxviii. in Matth. op. tom. i. p. 137. See also Firmilianus in Cypriani Epistolis, p. 140.

with defec