in the language, and with many of the circumstances employed by the heathen poets. The righteous, on the contrary, were to be received into a heaven too nearly resembling the Elysian fields; and finally, at their request, the damned were to be admitted to the like happiness.

66

The following prophecy of the final conflagration may amuse, as a specimen of the author's descriptions :Elijah, "the Thesbite, shall descend from heaven, "drawn in a celestial car, and show the whole "world the three signs of the destruction of all life. "Woe unto them whom that day shall overtake op'pressed with the burden of the womb O; woe unto "them who shall nurse children at the breast, and unto "those who shall dwell near the waters. Woe unto "them who shall see that day; for from the rising to "the setting sun, and from the north to the south, the "whole world shall be involved in the gloom of a hide"ous night. A burning river of fire shall then flow "from the lofty heavens, and utterly consume the earth, "the vast ocean with its cerulean abyss, the lakes, riv"ers, fountains, the horrible realm of Pluto, and the ce"lestial pole. The stars in heaven shall melt and drop "down without form. All mankind shall gnash their "teeth, encompassed on every hand with a flood of fire, "and covered with burning cinders. The elements of "the world shall lie forsaken the air, the earth, the "heavens, the sea, the light, and nights and days be "confounded."

i All these particulars may be found in Lib. ii.

p. 201.

j Ditto. Lib. ii,

A. D. 150, to 162.

IV. We proceed to the writings of the renowned Justin Martyr, the first professed scholar of the Grecian philosophy, whose

productions in favor of the christian religion, have reached us. He was a native of Neapolis, the ancient Sichem, in Palestine. Having sought, as he says, for the knowledge of the true God, among all the sects of heathen philosophers, he was at length converted to christianity by the conversation of an old man; but he never laid aside the peculiar habit nor the profession of the Platonics. He engaged, however, with great zeal and boldness in the christian cause, for which he wrote two Apologies: one, addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius, about A. D. 150; and the other, about A. D. 162, to the succeeding emperor, Marcus Antoninus, and to the Senate and People of Rome. It was in this city, where he had resided for many years, that he sealed his testimony by martyrdom about A. D. 166.

His profession of philosophy, his extensive though cursory reading, together with his zeal and piety, secured him a great reputation and influence among the early fathers; who lacked the discernment to perceive his want of sober judgment, and to discover the frequent mistakes into which his carelessness and gross credulity betrayed him. His early heathen notions, so far from be

k Cave, Pagi, Basnage and Le Clerc date Justin's First Apology at about A. D. 140; Massuet, 145; the Benedictine Editors and Tillemont, Grabe, Du Pin, and Lardner, at 150. The Dialogue with Trypho was written certainly after the First Apology, but perhaps before the Second, which is generally placed at the year 162. Besides these three works, some attribute to him Two Orations to the Greeks, and The Epistle to Diognetus.

ing dispelled by the light of truth, were only modified to his new religion, and the more fondly cherished, as they now formed part of a system he deemed sacred. Angels, he supposes, once descended to the earth, became enamored of women, and in their embraces begat the demons. These demons, learning from the prophets the principal events in Christ's life and administration, fabricated in order to imitate them, the stories of the heathen mythology. They first instituted idolatry, and they still continue to allure mankind to practise it by the mysterious tricks they perform for the purpose ; and all this out of a desire to feed on the fumes of the sacrifices and libations'. It is astonishing what a varied part the demons perform in this world, according to Justin's representations. It would seem, however, that they labored under one essential disadvantage; for our author assures us that the christians, in his time, had the miraculous gift of exorcising them at pleasure, whatever shape they assumed, or wherever they concealed themselves". The reader cannot now be surprised that Justin applied and explained scripture without the least regard to rational interpretation.

His opinion concerning the future state of mankind was, that all souls, after death, are reserved in a certain place, probably the Infernum of the Latins, till the general resurrection and judgment; when the righteous, whether christians, or such heathens as Socrates and Plato, shall reign with Christ a thousand years upon

1 Justini Apolog, Prim. p. 61. Edit. Paris. p. 45, and passim.

mApol. Secund.

earth, and then be admitted to the celestial mansions"; while the wicked shall be condemned to a punishment which he frequently calls everlasting. In another place, however, he states his opinion upon this last point more particularly, and represents that the wicked will be, eventually, annihilated: "Souls," says he " are not im"mortal .. I do not say that all souls will "die. Those of the pious will remain [after death] in “a certain better place, and those of the unholy and “wicked in a worse, all expecting the time of judg66 ment. In this manner, those which are worthy to 66 appear before God, never die; but the others are “tormented so long as God wills that they should exist "and be tormented . . . . . . Whatever does, or ever "will, exist in dependance, on the will of God, is of a "perishable nature, and can be annihilated so as to "exist no longer. God alone is self-existent, and by “his own nature imperishable, and therefore he is God; "but all other things are begotten and corruptible. For "which reason, souls both suffer punishment and die." V. It was about this period, that the venA. D. 160, erable Polycarp closed an aged and pious -170. life, amidst the flock he had long cherished in the great city of Smyrna. Exhausted nature was not permitted to expire in quiet decay; the persecuting heathens apprehended the retiring saint, and crowned him with the honors of martyrdom. The Relation of his Martyrdom, written', if genuine, (of which there is

n Compare Dialog. cum Tryph. p. 223, 306. Apol. i. p. 71. Apol. ii p. 83, &c. Edit. Paris. 1742. o Apol. Prim. pp. 57, 64, &c.

P Dialog. cum Tryphone, p. p. 222, 223. a Probably very soon after the martyrdom it relates; which is placed by Pearson in A. D.

some doubt) by his own church at Smyrna, asserts that the martyrs hoped, by suffering the momentary torments of their cruel death, "to escape that fire which is eter"nal and shall not be extinguished." And Polycarp himself is represented, by these writers, as reminding the Proconsul before whom he was arraigned and tried, of "the fire of future judgment, and of that eternal "punishment which is reserved for the ungodly"."

This Relation, though apparently composed by plain, unlettered men, and manifestly free from the corruptions of the Greek philosophy, affords a moderate specimen of the hyperbolical genius of that age. When the flame, say the writers, had arisen to a great height around Polycarp at the stake, it made a sort of arch, leaving him untouched in the midst; while a rich odour, as of frankincense, proceeded from his body, and filled the air. The executioners, perceiving that they could not destroy him by burning, struck him through with a dagger; upon which, there came from him such a quantity of blood as extinguished the flames! so that it "raised an admiration in all the people to consider "what a difference there was between the infidels and "the electt."

VI. Tatian the Syrian, a convert from A. D. 170, heathenism, and the scholar perhaps of Justin Martyr, was a man of considerable Greek reading, and the author of several works; of

147; by Usher and Le Clerc, in 169; and by Petit in 175. Polycarp visited Rome while Anicetus was bishop there; to which office the latter is commonly supposed to have been chosen as late as A. D. 150. r Relation of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, § 2, Wake's trans. s Ditto. § 11. t Ditto. § 15, 16.