PARTI.

CEN T. people to be drawn away from their attachment I. to it. These, however, were the two things which the Christians were charged with, and that justly, though to their honour. They dared to ridicule the absurdities of the Pagan superstition, and they were ardent and assiduous in gaining proselytes to the truth. Nor did they only attack the religion of Rome, but also all the different shapes and forms under which superstition appeared in the various countries where they exercised their ministry. From hence the Romans concluded, that the Christian sect was not only unsupportably daring and arrogant, but, moreover, an enemy to the public tranquillity, and every way proper to excite civil wars and commotions in the empire. It is, probably, on this account, that TACITUS reproaches them with the odious character of haters of mankind [1], and styles the religion of JESUS a destructive superstition; and that SUETONIUS Speaks of the Christians, and their doctrine, in terms of the same kind [m].

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persecu

tions.

VII. Another circumstance that irritated the ses of these Romans against the Christians, was the simplicity of their worship, which resembled in nothing the sacred rites of any other people. The Christians had neither sacrifices, nor temples, nor images, nor oracles, nor sacerdotal orders; and this was sufficient to bring upon them the reproaches of an ignorant multitude, who imagined that there could

[1] Annal. lib. xv. cap. xliv.

[m] In Nerone, cap. xvi. These odious epithets, which TACITUS gives to the Christians and their religion, as likewise the language of SUETONIUS, who calls Christianity a poisonous or malignant superstition (malefica superstitio), are founded upon the same reasons. A sect, which not only could not endure, but even laboured to abolish, the religious systems of the Romans, and also those of all the other nations of the universe, appeared to the short-sighted and superficial observers of religious matters, as enemies of mankind, and persons possessed with a mortal hatred of all the human race.

I.

could be no religion without these. Thus they C EN T. were looked upon as a sort of Atheists; and, by PART I the Roman laws, those who were chargeable with Atheism were declared the pests of human society. But this was not all: the sordid interests of a multitude of lazy and selfish priests were immediately connected with the ruin and oppression of the Christian cause. The public worship of such an immense number of deities was a source of subsistence, and even of riches, to the whole rabble of priests and augurs, and also to a multitude of merchants and artists. And as the progress of the gospel threatened the ruin of this religious traffic, and the profits it produced, this raised up new enemies to the Christians, and armed the rage of mercenary superstition against their lives and their cause [n].

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broad a

VIII. To accomplish more speedily the ruin of The most the Christians, those whose interests were incom-lumnies patible with the progress of the gospel, loaded spread athem with the most opprobrious calumnies, which were too easily received as truth, by the credu-Christians, lous and unthinking multitude, among whom they were dispersed with the utmost industry. We find a large account of these perfidious and illgrounded reproaches in the writings of the first defenders of the Christian cause [o]. And these, indeed,

[7] This observation is verified by the story of DEMETRIUS the silver-smith, Acts xix. 25. and by the following passage in the 97th letter of the xth book of PLINY's epistles; "The

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temples which were almost deserted, begin to be frequented again; and the sacred rites, which have been long neglect"ed, are again performed.-The victims, which have had hi"therto few purchasers, begin to come again to the mar "ket," &c.

[o] See the laborious work of CHRIST. KORTHOLT, entitled, Paganus obtrectator, seu de calumniis Gentilium in Christianos; to which may be added, Jo. JAC. HULDRICUS, De calumniis Gentilium in Christianos, published at Zurich, in 8vo in the year 1744.

CEN T. indeed, were the only arms they had to oppose I. the truth; since the excellence of the gospel, and PART I the virtue of its ministers and followers, left its

The punishments

forms used

enemies no resources but calumny and persecution. Nothing can be imagined, in point of virulence and fury, that they did not employ for the ruin of the Christians. They even went so far as to persuade the multitude, that all the calamities, wars, tempests, and diseases that afflicted mankind, were judgments sent down by the angry gods, because the Christians, who contemned their authority, were suffered in the empire [p].

IX. The various kinds of punishments, both and judicial capital and corrective, which were employed against the against the Christians, are particularly described Christians. by learned men who have written professedly up

on that subject [q]. The forms of proceeding, used in their condemnation, may be seen in the Acts of the Martyrs, in the letters of PLINY and TRAJAN, and other ancient monuments [r]. These judicial forms were very different at different times, and changed naturally, according to the mildness or severity of the laws enacted by the different emperors against the Christians. Thus, at one time, we see the most diligent search made after the followers of CHRIST; at another, all perquisition suspended, and positive accusation and information only allowed. Under one reign we see them, upon their being proved Christians, or their confessing themselves such, immediately dragged away to execution, unless they prevent their punishment by apostasy; under another, wẹ

[p] See ARNOBIUS Contra gentes.

see

[9] See for this purpose ANT. GALLONIUS, and GASP. SAGITTARIUS, De cruciatibus martyrum.

[r] See BOHMER, Juris Eccles. Protestant. tom. iv. lib.v, Decretal. tit. 1. sect. 32. p. 617.

1.

see inhuman magistrates endeavouring to compel C E N T. them, by all sorts of tortures, to renounce their PART I. profession.

sors.

X. They who, in the perilous times of the Martyrs church, fell by the hand of bloody persecution, and confesand expired in the cause of the divine Saviour, were called martyrs; a term borrowed from the sacred writings, which signifies witnesses, and thus expresses the glorious testimony which these magnanimous believers bore to the truth. The title of confessors was given to such, as, in the face of death, and at the expence of honours, fortune, and all the other advantages of the world, had confessed with fortitude, before the Roman tribunals, their firm attachment to the religion of JESUS. The veneration that was paid to both martyrs and confessors is hardly credible. The distinguishing honours and privileges they enjoyed, the authority with which their counsels and decisions were attended, would furnish ample matter for a history apart; and such an undertaking might be highly useful in many respects. There was, no doubt, as much wisdom as justice in treating with such respect, and investing with such privileges, these Christian heroes; since nothing was more adapted to encourage others to suffer with cheerfulness in the cause of CHRIST. But, as the best and wisest institutions are generally perverted by the weakness or corruption of men, from their original purpose; so the authority and privileges granted, in the beginning, to martyrs and confessors, became, in process of time, a support to superstition, an incentive to enthusiasm, and a source of innumerable evils and abuses.

XI. The first three or four ages of the church Their num were stained with the blood of martyrs, who suf-ber. fered for the name of JESUS. The greatness of their number is acknowledged by all who have a competent acquaintance with ancient history, and

who

I.

CENT. who have examined that matter with any degree PART 1.of impartiality. It is true, the learned DODWELL has endeavoured to invalidate this unanimous decision of the ancient historians [s], and to diminish considerably the number of those that suffered death for the gospel. And, after him, several writers have maintained his opinion, and asserted, that whatever may have been the calamities that the Christians, in general, suffered for their attachment to the gospel, very few were put to death on that account. This hypothesis has been warmly opposed, as derogating from that divine power which enabled Christians to be faithful even unto death, and a contrary one embraced, which augments prodigiously the number of these heroic sufferers. Here, no doubt, it will be wise to avoid both these extremes, and to hold the middle path, which certainly leads nearest to the truth. The martyrs were less in number than several of the ancient and modern writers have supposed them to be; but much more numerous than DODWELL and his followers are willing to believe. And this medium will be easily admitted by such as have learned from the ancient writers, that, in the darkest and most calamitous times of the church, all Christians were not equally nor promiscuously disturbed, nor called before the public tribunals. Those who were of the lowest rank of the people, escaped the best; their obscurity, in some measure skreened them from the fury of persecution. The learned and eloquent, the doctors and ministers, and chiefly the rich, after the confiscation of whose fortunes a rapacious magistracy were perpetually gaping, these were the persons the most exposed to the dangers of the times.

XII.

[] See DODWELL's dissertation, De paucitate martyrum, in his Dissertationes Cyprianice.