formed concerning Christianity, and that they understood nothing of it.

We read in the Acts of the Apostles, that Gallio, when the Jews brought St. Paul before him, would not give them an hearing.

He thought it unreasonable that Paul should be punished by him because he differed from his countrymen in matters of religion; and he thought right: but whether the doctrine taught by St. Paul were true or false, that he never considered for his own information, and therein he was very negligent.

When St. Paul pleaded his cause before Festus, his discourse was altogether to the purpose; but because it turned upon a religious subject, it presently tired the judge: he would hear no more about it, and he told St. Paul that much study and learning had made him mad.

When St. Paul preached to the Athenians he gained few proselytes. His auditors were men of learning and understanding: but they had more pride than knowledge, and more vanity than good sense; and therefore they left him, and neglected the opportunity of receiving further infor mation and instruction.

Another prejudice which the Gentiles entertained against the gospel, arose from the mean or bad opinion which many of them had of the Jews. For a considerable time they made little distinction between Jews and Christians, accounting Christianity to be only a particular sort of Judaism 9.

The Gentiles called the Christians atheists, because

a When therefore Nerva forbad to accuse any person of Judaism, it is probable that Christians came in for a share of the benefit. Dio lxviii. p. 769. Fabric. Luc, Evang. p. 222. The Christian religion in its beginning was persecuted more by the Jews than by the Romans. The Romans had granted the Jews liberty of conscience, and of observing their own laws, not only in Judæa, but in other countries where they were settled: which appears in many places of Josephus, as Ant. xvi. 10. xiv. 7. and in Philo. Indeed, in the time of Tiberius, laws were made and executed to check Jewish and Ægyptian superstitions. Tacitus Ann. ii. 85. Suetonius Tiber. 36. Seneca Epist. 108. Josephus Ant. xviii. 4. The Jews, probably, suffered little from these edicts, and insinuated themselves again into the emperor's favour. The like may be said of the edict of Claudius, mentioned Acts xviii. 2. See Grotius on Rom. xvi. 3. 18. and Pref. to Galat. and Whitby on Galat. vi. 12.

they taught that the Gods of the nations were either nothing at all, or dead men, or dæmons; because they worshipped a spiritual deity in a spiritual manner, and had no temples and no images'.

When the gospel began to spread in the world, the tares, as Christ foretold, sprang up along with the good seed several heretics arose, who both taught false and wicked doctrines, and led very vicious lives. The antient Christians complain frequently that the Gentiles would not distinguish between the heretics and the true disciples of Christs, and that they laid the crimes of these false brethren to the charge of Christianity; nor could the singular inno

Justin Martyr and other apologists.

* Justin M. See Tillemont, Carpocratiens, Hist. Eccl. tom. ii. Irenæus i. 24. edit. Oxon. observes that the Carpocratians brought disgrace on the Christian name by pretending to assume it, though they had nothing common with Christians either in opinions, or in morals, or in way of life; and then adds these words: Sed vitam quidem luxuriosam, sententiam autem impiam ad velamen malitiæ ipsorum nomine abutuntur.'

The passage is corrupted. Grabe gives it up, as a place which he could not correct, and two emendations of it are proposed, one by Massuet, the editor of Irenæus, the other by Le Clerc, Bibl. Chois. xxv. 237. which I shall not transcribe, because I think that they give us the sense indeed, but not the words. The likeliest way to discover where the fault lies, is, from this old Latin version to guess at the Greek, which seems to have been thus; ̓Αλλὰ τὸν μὲν βίον ἄσωτοι, τὴν δὲ γνώμην ἀσεβεῖς, πρὸς (or εἰς) ἐπικάλυμμα τῆς κακίας αυτῶν, dvduatı naтax pura. That is, literally, sed vitam quidem luxuriosi, sententiam autem impii, ad velamen malitiæ ipsorum, nomine abutuntur.--But they, luxurious in their lives, and impious in their doctrines, make a bad use of the name (of Christians) for a cloke of their wickedness.'

Irenaeus alludes to Pet. I. ii. 16. μὴ ὡς ἐπικάλυμμα ἔχοντες τῆς και κίας τὴν ἐλευθερίαν.

Some transcriber, who thought that the substantives and adjectives ought to have agreed, changed luxuriosi' and 'impii' into 'luxuriosam' and ́ impiam.'

6

So ii. 37.enanciare profunda et incredibilia mysteria prurientibus aures.' Irenæus wrote xvbopérois Try duony, from Tim. II. iv. 3. as others have observed. Prurientibus aures' has the same construction aş ¶ vitam luxuriosi :' which greatly confirms my conjecture. See Clemens Alex. Strom. iii. 1. p. 510, 511. 523. 532. who uses aqua in the same as Irenæus.

The old translation which we have of Irenæus is close and unpolite, and for that reason may often discover to us the original; as might easily be showed in a inultitude of places.

cence and piety of the Christians secure them from malicious and false accusations t.

Hence we may see why St. Paul says to Titus; A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself. For by the account which the sacred writers and the antient Christians have given us of antient heretics, we find that they were turbulent factious men, who wanted to make themselves heads of parties, or to sow dissension amongst Christians; that in effect they denied the authority of Moses, of the prophets, and of the apostles; that they blasphemed the Creator of the world, and that their morals were as bad as their belief. Such men could feign themselves Christians only for bad purposes; and it was fit that they should be rejected from Christian societies, especially after they had been admonished once and again. Self-condemned they were, either, first, because they must have known in their own hearts that they had not the same belief with those to whom they had joined themselves; or, secondly, because perhaps, when they had been formerly admonished, they had owned themselves inexcusable, and had promised a better behaviour. Thus the heretic Cerdo acknowledged his fault more than once, and was pardoned and received,till at last for repeated offences he was either absolutely rejected by the church, or left it of his own accord ".

V

If Tertullian be not mistaken, Marcion and Valentinus were excommunicated twice at least *, and Marcion repented at last, and would have been received into the church, but was prevented by death t.

There is no small difference between the heretics of whom St. Paul speaks, and those who, though they fall into errors, yet desire to know and to believe whatsoever Christ and his apostles have taught, and to do what they

* See Whitby on 1 Cor. v. 1.

"See Eusebius H. E. iv. 11. and Valesius there, and Tillemont H. E. tom. ii. Marcionites, art. 6.

▾ De Præscript.

See Tillemont, Marcionites, and Bayle's Dict. under that word; and Tillemont H. E. tom. iv. Sabelliens.

*Semel et iterum.

+ Morte præventus est.

require, and are not seduced from the right way by any apparent motives of vice or interest.

We should not trust too much to the representations which Christians after the apostolical age have given of the heretics of their times; proper abatements must be made for credulity, zeal, resentment, mistake, and exaggeration; and as you descend from the middle of the second century, the descriptions of this kind grow less fair and consistent, and more partial and improbable; till, at last, very little credit is due to them.

The Manichæans were far enough from being heretics of the better sort": yet Augustin, addressing himself to them, treats them with great lenity and compassion *. He had been one of them himself, and knew how hard it was to shake off inveterate errors and prejudices.

Because the Christians assembled together frequently, and that secretly and in the night, in time of persecution, the Pagans took occasion to forge a base calumny 2, and to affirm that they met in that manner to commit the most execrable crimes. This story, though no proof of it was ever produced, found credit amongst some; which indeed is the less wonderful, because wicked men are usually inclined to think others as bad as themselves; and the Gentiles

See the recantation of a Manichæan, before he could be admitted into the church, in the Patr. Apost. i. p. 543. ed. Cler. and 'The account of Manes, and of the Manichæan heresy,' in the Remarks on Eccl. Hist.

* Illi in vos sæviant, qui nesciunt cum quo labore verum inveniatur, et quam difficile caveantur errores. Illi in vos sæviant, qui nesciunt quam rarum et arduum sit carnalia phantasmata piæ mentis serenitate superare. Illi in vos sæviant, qui nesciunt cum quanta difficultate sanetur oculus interioris hominis, ut possit intueri solem suum,-Illi in vos sæviant, qui nesciunt quibus suspiriis et gemitibus fiat ut ex quantulacumque parte possit intelligi Deus. Postremo, illi in vos sæviant, qui numquam tali errore decepti sunt, quali vos deceptos vident. Contr. Epist. Manichæi.

This is talking like a man of sense and a Christian; but afterwards he changed his mind, and defended the vile doctrine of compulsion and oppression.

y Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.

* Justin and the Apologists. See Minuc. Fel. ix. and Davies.

a Ex nonnullis comperi, persuasissimum habuisse eum (Neronem) neminem hominem pudicum, aut ulla corporis parte purum esse: verum plerosque dissimulare vitium, et calliditate obtegere. Sueton. Neron. 29, Ut quisque est vir optimus, ita difficillime esse alios improbos suspicatur, Cicero Epist. ad Q. Fratr.

knew very well, that in some of their own religious assemblies, held in the night-time, all works of darkness had been committed.

But the blameless lives, and the shining virtues, and the patient sufferings of the Christians, dissipated by degrees these idle reports, and those Jews and Gentiles who had any candour and ingenuity thought them to be spiteful and ridiculous b.

The novelty of the Christian religion, and the antiquity of Paganism, was another prejudice of the Gentiles. Where was your religion a few years ago? said the Romans. We follow our ancestors, as they, with good success, followed theirs. We have experienced the profitableness of our sacred rites and ceremonies; the Gods whom we serve have protected and rewarded us, and raised our nation from small beginnings to a state of great wealth and power. This loose and popular argument they urged very gravely, as if it had been a sufficient defence of their foolish superstitions.

C

In opposition to this, Eusebius undertakes to prove that Christianity, in a certain sense, is as old as mankind: the emperor Constantined is of the same opinion, and had learned it perhaps from Eusebius; and Justin Martyr had said it before them.

The plainness of the gospel, and the artless simplicity with which the apostles and first teachers of it discoursed, was matter of offence to the Gentiles, and truth appeared foolishness to them because it was unadorned. They required a better choice of words, a more elegant manner of expression, more vivacity and fancy, more method and regularity, and more of the art of reasoning. Philosophy and oratory, of which they were so fond, had spoiled them; philosophy made them vain and conceited, and taught them to defend silly notions with captious and deceitful reasonings: and what was called eloquence at that time, though much studied and esteemed, had dege

b See Justin. Dial. p. 155.

d Apud Euseb. Vit. Const. ii. 57.

c H. E. i. 4.
e Apol. i, 69.

f The time of Nero. Petronius, who lived at that time, justly complains, adolescentulos in scholis stultissimos fieri, quia nihil ex iis quæ in usu habemus, aut audiunt aut vident; sed piratas cum catenis in