number of proselytes from the lower than from the superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural circumstance has been improved into a very odious imputation, which seems to be less strenuously denied by the apologists than it is urged by the adversaries of the faith; that the new sect of Christians was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves, the last of whom might sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble families to which they belonged. These obscure teachers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are as mate in public as they are loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves into those minds whom their age, their sex, or their education has the best disposed to receive the impression of superstitious terrors. 184 with regard This unfavourable picture, though not devoid of a faint resemblance, betrays, by its dark colouring and distorted features, some the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith of Christ exceptions diffused itself through the world, it was embraced by several persons who derived some consequence from the advantages of nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent apology to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher.185 Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras, and of Plato, before he fortunately was accosted by the old man, or rather the angel, who turned his attention to the study of the Jewish prophets. 186 Clemens of Alexandria had acquired much various reading in the Greek, and Tertullian in the Latin, language. Julius Africanus and Origen possessed a very considerable share of the learning of their times; and although the style of Cyprian is very different from that of Lactantius, we might almost discover that both those writers had been public teachers of rhetoric. Even the study of philosophy was at length introduced among the Christians, but it was not always productive of the most salutary effects; knowledge was as often the parent of heresy as of devotion, and the description which was designed for the followers of Artemon may, with equal propriety, be applied to the various sects that resisted the successors of the apostles. "They presume to alter the holy Scrip **Minucius Felix, p. 8 [ed. Lugd. B. 1652], with Wowerus's notes. Celsus ap. Origen, 1. iii. p. 138, 142 [c. 49, tom. i. p. 479, ed. Bened.]. Julian ap. Cyril. 1. vi. p. 206, edit. Spanheim. 183 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 3. Hieronym. Epist. 83. [Ep. 70, tom. i. p. 424, ed. Vallars.] 16 The story is prettily told in Justin's Dialogues. Tillemont (Mém. Ecclésiast tom. ii. p. 384), who relates it after him, is sure that the old man was a disguised angel 66 66 with regard fortune. tures, to abandon the ancient rule of faith, and to form their "opinions according to the subtile precepts of logic. The science of "the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in measuring the earth. "Euclid is perpetually in their hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus "are the objects of their admiration; and they express an uncommon "reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are derived from "the abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidels, and they corrupt "the simplicity of the Gospel by the refinements of human reason."187 Nor can it be affirmed with truth that the advantages of birth and fortune were always separated from the profession of to rank and Christianity. Several Roman citizens were brought before the tribunal of Pliny, and he soon discovered that a great number of persons of every order of men in Bithynia had deserted the religion of their ancestors. 188 His unsuspected testimony may, in this instance, obtain more credit than the bold challenge of Tertullian, when he addresses himself to the fears as well as to the humanity of the proconsul of Africa, by assuring him that if he persists in his cruel intentions he must decimate Carthage, and that he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank, senators and matrons of noblest extraction, and the friends or relations of his most intimate friends. 189 It appears, however, that about forty years afterwards the emperor Valerian was persuaded of the truth of this assertion, since in one of his rescripts he evidently supposes that senators, Roman knights, and ladies of quality, were engaged in the Christian sect.190 The church still continued to increase its outward splendour as it lost its internal purity; and, in the reign of Diocletian, the palace, the courts of justice, and even the army, concealed a multitude of Christians, who endeavoured to reconcile the interests of the present with those of a future life. And yet these exceptions are either too few in number, or too recent in time, entirely to remove the imputation of ignorance and obscurity which has been so arrogantly cast on the first proselytes of Christianity. Instead of employing in our defence the fictions of 187 Eusebius, v. 28. It may be hoped that none, except the heretics, gave occasion to the complaint of Celsus (ap. Origen, 1. ii. p. 77 [c. 27, tom. i. p. 411, ed. Bened.]), that the Christians were perpetually correcting and altering their Gospels." 188 Plin. Epist. x. 97. Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ, cives Romani Multi enim omnis ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexûs, et jam vocantur in periculum et vocabuntur. 18 Tertullian ad Scapulam. Yet even his rhetoric rises no higher than to claim a tenth part of Carthage. a Origen states in reply that he knows of none who had altered the Gospels except the Marcionites, the Valentinians, and perhaps some followers of Lucanus.--M. 190 Cyprian. Epist. 79 [80]. This incomplete enumeration ought to be increased by the names of several Pagans converted at the dawn of Chris tianity, and whose conversion weakens the Christianity most favourby the poor ably received and simple. later ages, it will be more prudent to convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of edification. Our serious thoughts will suggest to us that the apostles themselves were chosen by Providence among the fishermen of Galilee, and that, the lower we depress the temporal condition of the first Christians, the more reason we shall find to admire their merit and success. It is incumbent on us diligently to remember that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future happiness; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge. eminent men and second We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters, which in our eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly present. The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human nature. They filled with glory their respective stations, Rejected either in active or contemplative life; their excellent by some understandings were improved by study; philosophy had of the first purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular super- centuries. stition; and their days were spent in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue. Yet all these sages (it is no less an object of surprise than of concern) overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Christian system. Their language or their silence equally discover their contempt for the growing sect which in their time had diffused itself over the Roman empire. Those among them who condescend to mention the Christians consider them only as obstinate and perverse enthusiasts, who exacted an implicit submission to their mys terious doctrines, without being able to produce a single argument that could engage the attention of men of sense and learning. 191 191 Dr. Lardner, in his first and second volumes of Jewish and Christian testimonies, collects and illustrates those of Pliny the younger, of Tacitus, of Galen, of Marcus Antoninus, and perhaps of Epictetus (for it is doubtful whether that philosopher means to speak of the Christians). The new sect is totally unnoticed by Seneca, the elder Pliny, and Plutarch. reproach which the historian appears to support. Such are, the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, converted at Paphos (Acts xiii. 7-12); Dionysius, member of the Areopagus, converted, with several others, at Athens (Acts xvii. 34); several persons at the court of Nero (Philip. iv. 22), Erastus, receiver at Corinth (Rom. xvi. 23); some Asiarchs (Acts xix. 31). As to the philosophers, we may add Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Hegesippus, Melito, Miltiades, Pantænus, Ammonius, &c., all distinguished for theu genius and learning.-G. It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers perused Their neglect the apologies which the primitive Christians repeatedly of prophecy; published in behalf of themselves and of their religion; but it is much to be lamented that such a cause was not defended by abler advocates. They expose with superfluous wit and eloquence the extravagance of Polytheism. They interest our compassion by displaying the innocence and sufferings of their injured brethren. But when they would demonstrate the divine origin of Christianity, they insist much more strongly on the predictions which announced, than on the miracles which accompanied, the appearance of the Messiah. Their favourite argument might serve to edify a Christian or to convert a Jew, since both the one and the other acknowledge the authority of those prophecies, and both are obliged, with devout reverence, to search for their sense and their accomplishment. But this mode of persuasion loses much of its weight and influence when it is addressed to those who neither understand nor respect the Mosaic dispensation and the prophetic style.192 In the unskilful hands of Justin and of the succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant types, affected conceits, and cold allegories; and even their authenticity was rendered suspicious to an unenlightened Gentile, by the mixture of pious forgeries which, under the names of Orpheus, Hermes, and the Sibyls, 193 were obtruded on him as of equal value with the genuine inspirations of Heaven. The adoption of fraud and sophistry in the defence of revelation too often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of cumbersome and brittle armour. and of But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were presented miracles. by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, dæmons were expelled, and the 192 If the famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks had been alleged to a Roman philosopher, would he not have replied in the words of Cicero, "Quæ tandem ista "auguratio est, annorum potius quam aut mensium aut dierum?" De Divinatione, ii. 30. Observe with what irreverence Lucian (in Alexandro, c. 13), and his friend Celsus, ap. Origen (1. vii. [c. 14] p. 327), express themselves concerning the Hebrew prophets. 193 The philosophers, who derided the more ancient predictions of the Sibyls, would easily have detected the Jewish and Christian forgeries, which have been so triumphantly quoted by the fathers, from Justin Martyr to Lactantius. When the Sibylline verses had performed their appointed task, they, like the system of the millennium, were quietly laid aside. The Christian Sibyl had unluckily fixed the ruin of Rome for the year 195, A. U. C. 948. cerning the the Passion. laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside General from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occu- silence conpations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any darkness of alterations in the moral or physical government of the world. Under the reign of Tiberius, the whole earth, 194 or at least a celebrated province of the Roman empire, 195 was involved in a preternatural darkness of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, passed without notice in an age of science and history.196 It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in a laborious work, has recorded all the great phenomena of Nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. 197 Both the one and the other have omitted. to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the globe. A distinct chapter of Pliny 198 is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and unusual duration; but he contents himself with describing the singular defect of light which followed the murder of Cæsar, when, during the greatest part of a year, the orb of the sun appeared pale and without splendour. This season of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the preternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already celebrated by most of the poets 199 and historians of that memorable age. 200 194 The fathers, as they are drawn out in battle array by Dom Calmet (Dissertations sur la Bible, tom. iii. p. 295-308), seem to cover the whole earth with darkness, in which they are followed by most of the moderns. 135 Origen ad Matth. c. 27, and a few modern critics, Beza, Le Clerc, Lardner, &c., are desirous of confining it to the land of Judea. 196 The celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely abandoned. When Tertullian assures the Pagans that the mention of the prodigy is found in Arcanis (not Archivis)" vestris (see his Apology, c. 21), he probably appeals to the Sibylline verses, which relate it exactly in the words of the Gospel. 17 Seneca Quæst. Natur. l. i. 15, vi. 1, vii. 17. 198 Plin. Hist. Natur. ii. 30. Plin. Hist. Natur. l. ii. 199 Virgil. Georgic. i. 466. Tibullus, ii. 5, 75. Ovid. Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 535. The last of these poets places this prodigy before the civil war. 200 See a public epistle of M. Antony in Joseph. Antiquit. xiv. 12 [§8]. Plutarch in Casar. [c. 69] p. 471. Appian. Bell. Civil. 1. iv. Dion Cassius, 1. xlv. [c. 17] p. 431. Julius Obsequens, c. 128. His little treatise is an abstract of Livy's prodigies. The reading preferred by Gibbon rests upon the authority of two MSS.; and on the whole, there appears to be, if not a preponderance, at least an equal amount, of evidence in favour of Archivis. See Wood ham's Apology of Tertullian, p. 78, note 26.-S. This "distinct chapter" contains only two lines. The expression of Gibbon might mislead.-S. |