Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part IX

From this impartial though imperfect survey of the progress of
Christianity, it may perhaps seem probable, that the number of
its proselytes has been excessively magnified by fear on the one
side, and by devotion on the other. According to the
irreproachable testimony of Origen, 183 the proportion of the
faithful was very inconsiderable, when compared with the
multitude of an unbelieving world; but, as we are left without
any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it
is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of the
primitive Christians. The most favorable calculation, however,
that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome,
will not permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part of
the subjects of the empire had enlisted themselves under the
banner of the cross before the important conversion of
Constantine. But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union,
seemed to multiply their numbers; and the same causes which
contributed to their future increase, served to render their
actual strength more apparent and more formidable.

183 (return) [Origen contra Celsum, l. viii. p. 424.]

Such is the constitution of civil society, that, whilst a few
persons are distinguished by riches, by honors, and by knowledge,
the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance and
poverty. The Christian religion, which addressed itself to the
whole human race, must consequently collect a far greater 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 mute 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

184 (return) [ Minucius Felix, c. 8, with Wowerus’s notes. Celsus
ap. Origen, l. iii. p. 138, 142. Julian ap. Cyril. l. vi. p. 206,
edit. Spanheim.]

This unfavorable picture, though not devoid of a faint
resemblance, betrays, by its dark coloring and distorted
features, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith of Christ
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 Scriptures, 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

185 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 3. Hieronym. Epist. 83.]

186 (return) [ The story is prettily told in Justin’s Dialogues.
Tillemont, (Mem Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p. 384,) who relates it
after him is sure that the old man was a disguised angel.]

187 (return) [ Eusebius, v. 28. It may be hoped, that none,
except the heretics, gave occasion to the complaint of Celsus,
(ap. Origen, l. ii. p. 77,) that the Christians were perpetually
correcting and altering their Gospels. * Note: 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.]

Nor can it be affirmed with truth, that the advantages of birth
and fortune were always separated from the profession of
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 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 splendor 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 endeavored to reconcile the
interests of the present with those of a future life.

188 (return) [ Plin. Epist. x. 97. Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ,
cives Romani—-Multi enim omnis ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque
sexus, etiam vocuntur in periculum et vocabuntur.]

189 (return) [ Tertullian ad Scapulum. Yet even his rhetoric
rises no higher than to claim a tenth part of Carthage.]

190 (return) [ Cyprian. Epist. 70.]

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. 1901 Instead of employing in our
defence the fictions of 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.

1901 (return) [ This incomplete enumeration ought to be increased
by the names of several Pagans converted at the dawn of
Christianity, and whose conversion weakens the 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, al 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,
Ammenius, all distinguished for their genius and learning.—G.]

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, either in active or contemplative life;
their excellent understandings were improved by study; Philosophy
had purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular
superstitions; 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 condescended to mention the Christians,
consider them only as obstinate and perverse enthusiasts, who
exacted an implicit submission to their mysterious doctrines,
without being able to produce a single argument that could engage
the attention of men of sense and learning. 191

191 (return) [ 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.]

It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers perused
the apologies 1911 which the primitive Christians repeatedly
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 favorite 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 armor.

1911 (return) [ The emperors Hadrian, Antoninus &c., read with
astonishment the apologies of Justin Martyr, of Aristides, of
Melito, &c. (See St. Hieron. ad mag. orat. Orosius, lviii. c.
13.) Eusebius says expressly, that the cause of Christianity was
defended before the senate, in a very elegant discourse, by
Apollonius the Martyr.—G. ——Gibbon, in his severer spirit of
criticism, may have questioned the authority of Jerome and
Eusebius. There are some difficulties about Apollonius, which
Heinichen (note in loc. Eusebii) would solve, by suppose lag him
to have been, as Jerome states, a senator.—M.]

192 (return) [ 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 rænsium aut dierum?” De Divinatione, ii. 30.
Observe with what irreverence Lucian, (in Alexandro, c. 13.) and
his friend Celsus ap. Origen, (l. vii. p. 327,) express
themselves concerning the Hebrew prophets.]

193 (return) [ 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 Sybil had unluckily fixed the ruin of Rome for the year
195, A. U. C. 948.]

But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and
philosophic world, to those evidences which were represented 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 laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of
the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from
the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of
life and study, appeared unconscious of any 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 splendor. The
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 (return) [ 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.]

195 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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. * Note:
According to some learned theologians a misunderstanding of the
text in the Gospel has given rise to this mistake, which has
employed and wearied so many laborious commentators, though
Origen had already taken the pains to preinform them. The
expression does not mean, they assert, an eclipse, but any kind
of obscurity occasioned in the atmosphere, whether by clouds or
any other cause. As this obscuration of the sun rarely took place
in Palestine, where in the middle of April the sky was usually
clear, it assumed, in the eyes of the Jews and Christians, an
importance conformable to the received notion, that the sun
concealed at midday was a sinister presage. See Amos viii. 9, 10.
The word is often taken in this sense by contemporary writers;
the Apocalypse says the sun was concealed, when speaking of an
obscuration caused by smoke and dust. (Revel. ix. 2.) Moreover,
the Hebrew word ophal, which in the LXX. answers to the Greek,
signifies any darkness; and the Evangelists, who have modelled
the sense of their expressions by those of the LXX., must have
taken it in the same latitude. This darkening of the sky usually
precedes earthquakes. (Matt. xxvii. 51.) The Heathen authors
furnish us a number of examples, of which a miraculous
explanation was given at the time. See Ovid. ii. v. 33, l. xv. v.
785. Pliny, Hist. Nat. l. ii. c 30. Wetstein has collected all
these examples in his edition of the New Testament. We need not,
then, be astonished at the silence of the Pagan authors
concerning a phenomenon which did not extend beyond Jerusalem,
and which might have nothing contrary to the laws of nature;
although the Christians and the Jews may have regarded it as a
sinister presage. See Michaelis Notes on New Testament, v. i. p.
290. Paulus, Commentary on New Testament, iii. p. 760.—G.]

197 (return) [ Seneca, Quæst. Natur. l. i. 15, vi. l. vii. 17.
Plin. Hist. Natur. l. ii.]

198 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. ii. 30.]

199 (return) [ Virgil. Georgic. i. 466. Tibullus, l. i. Eleg. v.
ver. 75. Ovid Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 540. The
last of these poets places this prodigy before the civil war.]

200 (return) [ See a public epistle of M. Antony in Joseph.
Antiquit. xiv. 12. Plutarch in Cæsar. p. 471. Appian. Bell.
Civil. l. iv. Dion Cassius, l. xlv. p. 431. Julius Obsequens, c.
128. His little treatise is an abstract of Livy’s prodigies.]