least, seems to have been the proper limit of chrif tian conquefts. If an infidel or fceptic can produce any thing like this effected by other religions, he may with fome plaufibility compare Mahometanifin or any other human religion with christianity. But as the gospel stands unrivalled in its manner of subduing the minds of men, the argument for its divinity from its propagation in the world will remain invincible. And furely every difpaffionate obferver muft confefs, that the change was from bad to good. No man will venture to fay, that the religious and moral principles of Jews and Gentiles, before their conversion to christianity, were good. The idolatries, abominations, and ferocity of the Gentile world will be allowed to have been not less than they are described in the first chapter to the Romans; and the writings of Horace and Juvenal will prove, that the picture is not exaggerated. The extreme wickednefs of the Jews is graphically delineated by their own hiftorian, and is not denied by any. What but the influence of God, and an out-pouring of his Holy Spirit (the first of the kind fince the coming of Chrift, and the measure and standard for regulating our views of all fucceeding ones) can account for fuch a change? From the Acts of the Apoftles and their Epiftles, I have drawn the greateft part of the narrative; but the little that has been added from other fources is not heterogeneous. Here are thousands Indeed that France had any fhare in the bleffings of the gospel within this century, can only be inferred from the knowledge we have, that it was introduced into Spain. Whether our own country was evangelized at all in this century, is very doubtful. Nor can we be certain that any minifters as yet had paffed into Africa. The affertion therefore that the gofpel had fpread through the Roman empire, must be understood with a few exceptions, though I think fcarce any more than thofe which have been mentioned. thousands of men turned from all wickedness to all goodness, many very fuddenly, or at least in a short space of time, reformed in understanding, in inclination, in affection; knowing, loving, and confiding in God; from a state of mere selfishness converted into the pureft philanthropists; living only to please God, and to exercife kindness toward one another; and all of them, recovering really, what philofophy only pretended to, the dominion of reafon over paffion, unfeignedly fubject to their Maker, rejoicing in his favour amidst the fevereft fufferings, and ferenely waiting for their difmiffion into a land of blissful immortality. That all this must be of God, is demonftrative: but the inference which follows of the divine authority of Christ, and of the wickedness and danger of defpifing or even neglecting him, is not always attended to by thofe who are most concerned in it. But the chriftian church was not yet in poffeffion of any external dignity or political importance. No one nation as yet was chriftian, though thousands of individuals were fo, but those chiefly of the middling and lower ranks. The modern improvements of civil fociety have taught men however, that these are the ftrength of a nation, and that whatever is praife-worthy is far more commonly diffufed among them, than among the noble and great. In the prefent age then it fhould be no difparagement to the character of the first chriftians, that the church was chiefly compofed of perfons too low in life, to be of any weight in the defpotic fyftem of government which then prevailed. We have feen two perfons of the Imperial Family*, and one † of uncommon genius and endowments, but fcarce any more of the fame Clemens and Domitilla. † St. Paul. fort, fort, connected with christianity. We fhould not then be furprized, that chriftians are fo little noticed by Tacitus and Jofephus, intent only as they were on fublunary politics, and scarce deigning to think of any as exifting in an individual capacity. Nor is this itself a small exemplification of the genius of this religion, deftined to form men for the next life, and not for this. In doctrine they all worshipped the one living and true God, who made himself known to them in three perfons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft; each of these they were taught to worship by the very office of baptifm performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. And the whole economy of grace fo conftantly reminded them of their obligations to the Father who chose them to falvation, to the Saviour who died for them, and to the Comforter who fupported and fanctified them, and was fo closely connected with their experience and practice, that they were perpetually incited to worship the Divine Three in One. They all agreed in feeling conviction of fin, of helpleffnefs, of a state of perdition; in relying on the atoning blood, perfect righteousness, and prevalent interceffion of Jefus, as their only hope of heaven. Regeneration by the Holy Ghoft was their common privilege, and without his conftant influence they owned themfelves obnoxious only to fin and vanity. Their community of goods, and their love-feafts, though difcontinued at length, probably because found impracticable, demonftrated their fuperlative charity and heavenly-mindedness. Yet a gloomy cloud hung over the conclufion of the century. The first impreffions made by the out-pouring of the Spirit are generally the strongest and the * See Jude's epiftle. moft moft decifively diftinct from the fpirit of the world. But human depravity, over-born for a time, rifes afresh, particularly in the next generation. Hence the diforders of fchifm and herefy. Their tendency is to deftroy the pure work of God. The first chriftians, with the pureft charity to the perfons of heretics, gave their errors no quarter, and discountenanced them by every reafonable method. The heretics, on the contrary, endeavoured to unite themselves with chriftians. If the fame methods be at this day continued, if the heretic endeavour to promote his falfe religion by pretended charity, and the chriftian ftand aloof from him, without dreading the charge of bigotry, each act in character, as their predeceffors did. The heretics by weakening men's attachment to Chrift, and the fchifmatics by promoting a worldly and uncharitable spirit, each did confiderable mifchief; but it was the lefs, becaufe chriftians carefully kept themselves diftinct from the heretical, and thus fet limits to the infection. It has been of unspeakable detriment to the christian religion, to conceive that all who profess it, are believers of it, properly speaking. Whereas very many are Chriftians in name only, never attending to the nature of the gospel at all. Not a few glory in fentiments fubverfive of its genius and fpirit. And there are ftill more who go not fo far in oppofition to godlinefs, yet by making light of the whole work of grace on the heart, they are as plainly void of chriftianity. We have feen the first chriftians individually converted; and as human nature needs the fame change ftill, the particular inftances of converfion defcribed in the Acts are models for us at this day. National converfions were then unknown, nor has the term any any proper meaning. But when ideas of chriftians by wholefale grow fashionable, oppofites are mixed, the form of the gospel stands, and its power is denied. But let us not anticipate; these fcenes appeared not in the first century. CENTURY II. CHA P. I. The hiftory of Chriftians during the reign of Trajan. THE HE mafter of the Roman world in the beginning of this century was the renowned Trajan. His predeceffor Nerva had restored the christian exiles, and granted a full toleration to the Church. Hence the laft of the Apostles had recovered his ftation at Ephefus, and slept in the Lord, before the fhort interval of tranquillity was closed by the perfecuting spirit of Trajan. Whatever account may be given or conjectured of the cause of his diflike of chriftians, he had a confirmed prejudice against them, and meditated the extinction of the name; nor does it appear that he ever changed his fentiments, or retracted his edicts against them. There is an account of his perfecution in his correspondence with Pliny the governor of Bithynia, a man well known in claffical hiftory. The two epiftles between the mafter and the fervant deferve to be tranfcribed at length; they feem to have been written in 106 or 107. Pliny's Epiftles, x. 97, 98. C. Pliny |