torn to pieces by wild beasts, or put to death in some ENT. I, such dreadful manner. This horrid persecution was set on foot in the month of November", in the 64th year of Christ; and in it, according to some ancient accounts, St. Paul and St. Peter suffered martyrdom, though the latter assertion is contested by many, as being absolutely irreconcileable with chronology". The death of Nero, who perished miserably in the year 68, put an end to the calamities of this first persecution, under which, during the space of four years, the Christians suffered every sort of torment and affliction, which the ingenious cruelty of their enemies could invent.

of this per

XIV. Learned men are not entirely agreed with The extent regard to the extent of this persecution under Nero. secution. Some confine it to the city of Rome, while others represent it as having raged through the whole empire. The latter opinion, which is also the more ancient *, is undoubtedly to be preferred, as it is certain, that the laws enacted against the Christians were enacted against the whole body, and not against particular churches, and were consequently in force in the remotest provinces. The authority of Tertullian confirms this, who tells us, that Nero and Domitian had enacted laws against the Christians, of which Trajan had, in part, taken away the force, and rendered

"See, for a farther illustration of this point of chronology, two French Dissertations of the very learned Alphonse de Vignoles, concerning the cause, and the commencement of the persecution under Nero, which are printed in Masson's Histoire critique de la Republique des Lettres, tom. viii. p. 74-117; tom. ix. p. 172-186. See also Toinard, ad Lactantium de Mortibus Persequut. p. 398.

See Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tom. i. p. 504.Baratier, de Successione Romanor. Pontif. cap. v.

This opinion was first defended by Franc. Balduin, in his Comm. ad Edicta Imperatorum in Christianos. After him Launoy maintained the same opinion in his Dissert. quâ Sulpitii Severi locus de primâ Martyrum Galliæ Epochâ vindicatur, sect. i. p. 139, 140; tom. ii. part i. oper. This opinion is still more acutely and learnedly defended by Dodwell, in the xith of his Dissertationes Cyprianicæ.

CENT. 1. them, in some measure, without effect. We shall not have recourse for a confirmation of this opinion, to that famous Portuguese or Spanish inscription, in which Nero is praised for having purged that province from the new superstition; since that inscription is justly suspected to be a mere forgery, and the best Spanish authors consider it as such 2. We may, however, make one observation, which will tend to illustrate the point in question, namely, that since the Christians were condemned by Nero, not so much on account of their religion, as for the falsely-imputed crime of burning the city, it is scarcely to be imagined, that he would leave unmolested, even beyond the bounds of Rome, a sect whose members were accused of such an abominable deed.

The persecution

under Domitian.

XV. Though, immediately after the death of Nero, the rage of this first persecution against the Christians ceased, yet the flame broke out anew in the year ninety-three or ninety-four, under Domitian, a prince little inferior to Nero in wickedness b. This persecution was occasioned, if we may give credit to Hegesippus, by Domitian's fear of losing the empire; for

y Apologet. cap. iv.

This celebrated inscription is published by the learned Gruter, in the first volume of his Inscriptions. It must, however, be observed, that the best Spanish writers do not venture to defend the genuineness and authority of this inscription, as it was never seen by any of them, and was first produced by Cyriac of Ancona, a person universally known to be utterly unworthy of the least credit. We shall add here the judgement which the excellent historian of Spain, Jo. de Ferreras, has given of this inscription: "Je ne puis m'empêcher (says he) d'observer que

66

Cyriac d'Ancone fut le premier qui publia cette inscription, "et que c'est de lui que les autres l'ont tirée; mais comme la "foi de cet ecrivain est suspecte au jugement de tous les sça"" vans, que d'ailleurs il n'y a ni vestige ni souvenir de cette "inscription dans les places où l'on dit qu'elle s'est trouvée, et "qu'on ne sçait où la prendre à present, chacun peut en porter "le jugement qu'il voudra."

a See Theod. Ruinart, Præf. ad Acta Martyrum sincera et selecta, f. 31, &c.

b Præf. ad Acta Martyrum, &c. f. 33.-Thom. Ittigii Select. Histor. Eccl. Capit. sæc. i. cap. vi. sect. 11. • Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. сар.

xix.

XX.

he had been informed, that, among the relatives of CENT. 1. Christ, a man should arise, who, possessing a turbulent and ambitious spirit, was to excite commotions in the state, and aim at supreme dominion. However that may have been, the persecution renewed by this unworthy prince was extremely violent, though his untimely death soon put a stop to it. Flavius Clemens, a man of consular dignity, and Flavia Domitilla, his niece, or, as some say, his wife, were the principal martyrs that suffered in this persecution, in which also the apostle John was banished to the isle of Patmos. Tertullian and other writers inform us, that, before his banishment, he was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil, from which he came forth, not only living, but even unhurt. This story, however, is not attested in such a manner, as to preclude all doubt".

d See Mosheim's Syntagma Dissert. ad Historiam Eccles. pertinentium, p. 497-546.

74

PART II.

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CENT. I.

The state of

CHAPTER 1.

Containing an account of the state of Learning and Philosophy.

I. IF we had any certain or satisfactory account of the doctrines which were received among the wiser philosophy of the eastern nations, when the light of the Gospel in the east first rose upon the world, this would contribute to ently known. illustrate many important points in the ancient his

not suffici

The phi

the Persians,

tory of the church. But the case is quite otherwise: the fragments of the ancient oriental philosophy that have come down to us, are, as every one knows, few in number, and, such as they are, they yet require the diligence, erudition, and sagacity of some learned man, to collect them into a body, arrange them with method, and explain them with perspicuity *.

II. The doctrine of the magi, who believed the losophy of universe to be governed by two principles, the one Chaldeans,' good, and the other evil, flourished in Persia. Their followers, however, did not all agree with respect to the nature of these principles f; but this did not prevent the propagation of the main doctrine, which was received throughout a considerable part of Asia and

and Arabians.

e The history of the oriental philosophy by Mr. Stanley, though it is not void of all kind of merit, is yet extremely defective. That learned author is so far from having exhausted his subject, that he has left it, on the contrary, in many places wholly untouched. The history of philosophy, published in Germany by the very learned Mr. Brucker, is vastly preferable to Mr. Stanley's work; and the German author, indeed, much superior to the English one, both in point of genius and of erudition.

f See Hyde's History of the Religion of the Ancient Persians, a work full of erudition, but indigested, and interspersed with conjectures of the most improbable kind.

Africa, especially among the Chaldeans, Assyrians, CENT. t. Syrians, and Egyptians, though with different modifications, and had even infected the Jews themselves. The Arabians at that time, and even afterwards, were more remarkable for strength and courage, than for genius and sagacity; nor do they seem, according to their own confession h, to have acquired any great reputation for wisdom and philosophy before the time of Mohammed.

of the Indians and

III. From the earliest times, the Indians were dis- The wisdom tinguished by their taste for sublime knowlege and wisdom. We might, perhaps, be able to form a judge- Egyptians. ment of their philosophical tenets, if that most ancient book, which they deemed particularly sacred, and which they called veda, or the law, should be brought to light, and translated into some known language. But the accounts which are given of this remarkable book, by those who have been in the Indies, are so various and irreconcileable with each other, that we must yet wait for satisfaction on this head. As to the Egyptians, they were divided, as every one knows, into a multitude of sects and opinions. Fruitless, therefore, are the labors of those who endeavour to reduce the philosophy of this people to one system.

properly so

IV. But of all the systems of philosophy that were The oriental received in Asia and Africa about the time of our philosophy, Saviour, no one was so detrimental to the Christian called. religion, as that which was styled gnosis, or science, i. e. the way to the true knowlege of the Deity, and which we have above called the oriental doctrine, in order to distinguish it from the Grecian philosophy. It was from the bosom of this pretended oriental

See Wolf's Manichæismus ante Manichæos.

See Abulpharagius de Moribus Arabum, published by Pocock. iSome parts of the Veda have been published; or it may rather be said that pretended portions of it have appeared: but, whatever may be alleged by oriental enthusiasts, these Brahminical remains do not evince the 'sublime knowlege or wisdom' which many writers attribute to the ancient inhabitants of India. EDIT.

* See Dr. Mosheim's Observations on Cudworth's System.