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IX. Many were the deceitful and perfidious stra- CENT. III. tagems by which this sect endeavoured to obscure Comparisons the lustre, and diminish the authority of the Christian drawn bedoctrine. None of these seemed to be more dan- tween the philosophers gerous than the seducing artifice with which they and Christ. formed a comparison between the life, actions, and miracles of Christ, and the history of the ancient philosophers, and placed the contending parties in such fallacious points of view, as to make the pretended sages of antiquity appear in nothing inferior to the divine Saviour. With this view, Archytas of Taren. tum, Pythagoras, of whom Porphyry wrote the life, Apollonius Tyanæus, a Pythagorean philosopher, whose miracles and peregrinations were highly celebrated by the vulgar, were brought upon the scene, and exhibited as divine teachers, and rivals of the glory of the Son of God. Philostratus, one of the most eminent rhetoricians of this age, composed a pompous history of the life of Apollonius, who was little better than a cunning knave, and did nothing but ape the austerity and sanctity of Pythagoras, This history appears manifestly designed to draw a parallel between Christ and the philosopher of Tyana; but the impudent fictions and ridiculous fables, with which this work is filled, must, one would think, have rendered it incapable of deceiving any who possessed a sound mind; any, but such as, through the corruption of vicious prejudices, were willing to be deceived d.

cious conse

X. But as there are no opinions, however absurd, The perniand no stories, however idle and improbable, that a weak and ignorant multitude, more attentive to the this compa

deducible in favor of Christianity, he was forced to have recourse to the absurd supposition, that these prophesies had been published under the name of Daniel by one who lived in the time of Antiochus, and wrote after the arrival of the events foretold. Methodius, Eusebius, and Apollinaris, wrote against Porphyry; but their refutations have been long since lost.

d See Olearius' preface to the Life of Apollonius by Philostratus; as also Mosheim's notes to his Latin translation of Cudworth's Intellectual System, p. 304, &c.

quences of

rison.

CENT. 1. pomp of words than to the truth of things, will not easily swallow; so it happened, that many were ensnared by the absurd attempts of these insidious philosophers. Some were induced by these perfidious stratagems to abandon the Christian religion, which they had embraced. Others, when they were taught to believe that true Christianity (as it was inculcated by Jesus, and not as it was afterwards corrupted by his disciples) differed in few points from the pagan system, properly explained and restored to its primitive purity, determined to remain in the religion of their ancestors, and in the worship of their gods. A third sort were led, by these comparisons between Christ and the ancient philosophers, to form to themselves a motley system of religion composed of the tenets of both parties, whom they treated with the same veneration and respect. Such was, particularly, the method of Alexander Severus, who paid indiscriminately divine honors to Christ and to Orpheus, to Apollonius, and the other philosophers and heroes whose names were famous in ancient times.

The attempts of the Jews

XI. The credit and power of the Jews were now against the too much diminished to render them as capable of Christians. injuring the Christians, by their influence over the

magistrates, as they had formerly been. This did not, however, discourage their malicious efforts, as the books which Tertullian and Cyprian have written against them abundantly shew, with several other writings of the Christian doctors, who complained of the malignity of the Jews, and of their sinister machinations. During the persecution under Severus, a certain person called Domninus, who had embraced Christianity, deserted to the Jews, doubtless to avoid the punishments that were decreed against the Christians; and it was to recall this apostate to his duty and his profession, that Serapion, bishop of

Hippolytus, Serm, in Susann, et Daniel. tom. i. op.

Antioch, wrote a particular treatise against the Jews. CENT. II. We may easily conclude, from this instance, that, when the Christians were persecuted, the Jews were treated with less severity and contempt, on account of their enmity against the disciples of Jesus. From the

same fact we may also learn, that, though they were in a state of great subjection and abasement, they were not entirely deprived of all power of oppressing the Christians.

f Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. xii. p. 213.

232

PART II.

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CENT. III.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy during this
Century.

I. THE arts and sciences, which, in the preceding The decay century, were in a declining state, seemed, in this, of learning. ready to expire, and had lost all their vigor and

lustre. The celebrated rhetorician Longinus, and the eminent historian Dio Cassius, with a few others, were the last among the Greeks, who stood in the breach against the prevailing ignorance and barbarism of the times. Men of learning and genius were still less numerous in the western provinces of the empire, though there were in several places flourishing schools, appropriated to the advancement of the sciences and the culture of taste and genius. Different reasons contributed to this decay of learning. Few of the emperors patronised the sciences, or encouraged, by the prospect of their favor and protection, that emulation which is the soul of literary excellence. Besides, the civil wars that almost always distracted the empire, were extremely unfavorable to the pursuit of science; and the perpetual incursions of the barbarous nations interrupted that leisure and tranquillity which are so essential to the progress of learning and knowlege, and extinguished, among a people accustomed to the din of arms, all desire of literary acquisitions .

See the Literary History of France, by the Benedictine monks, vol. i. part ii.

h

The state of

the Pla

II. If we turn our eyes toward the state of philo- CENT. III. sophy, the prospect will appear somewhat less desolate and comfortless. There were, as yet, in several of the philosophy, Grecian sects, men of considerable knowlege and Principally reputation, of whom Longinus has mentioned the tonic. greatest part But all these sects were gradually eclipsed by the school of Ammonius, whose origin and doctrines have been considered above. This victorious sect, which was formed in Egypt, issued thence with such a rapid progress, that, in a short time, it extended itself almost throughout the Roman empire, and drew into its vortex the greatest part of those who applied themselves, through inclination, to the study of philosophy. This amazing progress was due to Plotinus, the most eminent disciple of Ammonius, a Plotinus. man of a most subtile invention, endowed by nature with a genius capable of the most profound researches, and equal to the investigation of the most abstruse and difficult subjects. This penetrating and sublime philosopher taught publicly, first in Persia, and afterwards at Rome, and in Campania; in all which parts the youth flocked in crowds to receive his instructions. He comprehended the precepts of his philosophy in several books, most of which are yet extanti.

propagated.

III. The number of disciples, formed in the school His doctrine of Plotinus, is almost beyond credibility. The most universally famous was Porphyryk, who spread abroad through Sicily, and many other countries, the doctrine of his master, revived with great accuracy, adorned with the graces of a flowing and elegant style, and enriched

In his life of Plotinus, epitomised by Porphyry, ch. xx. i See Porphyrii vita Plotini, of which Fabricius has given an edition in his Bibliotheca Græca, tom. iv.-Bayle's Diction. tom. ii.—and Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophiæ.

Porphyry was first the disciple of Longinus, author of the justly celebrated Treatise on the Sublime; but, having passed from Greece to Rome, where he heard Plotinus, he was so charmed with the genius and penetration of this philosopher, that he attached himself entirely to him. See Plotin. vit. p. 3. Eunap. c. ii. p. 17.

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