Macrina, who taught them in their youth, had in her younger years been an hearer of Gregory. Bafil particularly obferves, that she told them the very words which he had heard from him, and affures us that the Gentiles on account of the miracles which he performed used to call him a fecond Mofes. The existence of his miraculous powers, with reasonable perfons, feems then unquestionable. It is only to be regretted that the few particular. instances which have come down to us are not the best chofen; but that he cured the fick, healed the diseased, and expelled devils, and that thus God wrought by him for the good of fouls, and to pave the way for the propagation of the gofpel, as it is in itself very credible, fo has it the teftimony of men worthy to be believed.

Gregory continued fuccefsfully employed at Neocæfarea till the perfecution of Decius. Swords and axes, fire, wild beasts, stakes and engines to diftend the limbs, iron chairs made red hot, frames of timber fet up ftraight, in which the bodies of the tortured were racked with nails that tore off the flesh. Thefe and a variety of other inventions. were used. But the Decian perfecution, in general, was before described. Pontus and Cappadocia feem to have had their full fhare. Relations, in the most unnatural manner, betrayed one another, the woods were full of vagabonds, the towns were empty, and private houses, deprived of their chriftian inhabitants, became gaols for the reception of prifoners, the public prifons not fufficing for that purpose.

In this terrible fituation of things, Gregory confidering that his new converts could fcarce be ftrong enough to ftand their ground and be faithful, advised them to flee, and to encourage them in it he fet them the example. Many of his people

fuffered,

fuffered, but God restored them at length to peace, and Gregory again returned to exhilarate their minds with his paftoral labours.

In the reign of Gallienus the chriftians fuffered extremely from the ravages of barbarous nations, which gave occafion to Gregory's Canonical Epiftle, ftill extant, in which rules of a wholesome, penitential, and disciplinarian nature are delivered. But there is no need to particularize them.

A

The last service of his which is recorded, is the part which he took in the first council concerning Paul of Samofata. He died not long after. little before his death he made a ftrict enquiry whether there were any in the city and neighbourhood still strangers to chriftianity. And being told there were about feventeen in all, he fighed and lifting up his eyes to heaven, appealed to God how much it troubled him that any of his fellow-townsmen should remain unacquainted with falvation, yet that his thankfulness was due to God, that when at first he had found only feventeen christians, he had left only feventeen idolators. Having prayed for the converfion of infidels and the edification of the faithful, he peaceably gave up his foul to God.

He was an evangelical man in his whole life, as Bafil fays. In his devotion he fhewed the greatest reverence. Yea and nay were the ufual measures of his communication; how defirable that those who profefs to love Jefus, uniformly practifed the fame. He never allowed himfelf to call his brother fool; no anger or bitterness proceeded out of his mouth. Slander and calumny, as directly oppofite to christianity, he peculiarly hated and avoided. Lies and falfehood, envy and pride, he abhorred. Zealous he was against all corruptions, and Sabellianifm, which long after in Bafil's time.

reared

reared up its head, was, he tells us, filenced by the remembrance of what he had taught and left among them.

On the whole, the reader will with me regret, that antiquity has left us fuch fcanty memorials of a man fo much honoured of God, fo eminently holy, and little inferior in utility among mankind to any from the Apostle's days to his own times. For it is not to be conceived that fo great and almost universal a change in the religious profeffion of the citizens of Neocæfarea could have taken place without a marvellous out-pouring of the Holy Spirit in that place. And how inftructive and edifying would the narrative have been were we diftinctly informed of its rife and progrefs! Certainly the effentials of the gofpel must have been preached in much clearness and purity. In no particular inftance was the Divine influence ever more apparent fince the apoftolic age.

Theognoftus of Alexandria is an author whofe time it is not eafy to fix with precifion, though it be certain that he is later than Origen, and must belong to the third century. He platonizes after the manner of Origen, in fome parts of his writings, yet is he cited by Athanafius as a witness of the Son's confubftantiality with the Father. "For as the Sun is not diminished, fays he, though it produces rays continually, fo likewife the Father is not diminished in begetting the Son, who is his image." It is certain that this is Trinitarian language, and though neither Theognoftus nor Gregory, nor fome others of the ancient fathers fpake always of the perfons of the bleffed Trinity, with fo much exactness as afterwards was done, it would be an extreme want of candour to rank him with Arians, Sabellians, or the like, when there is clear proof that the foundation of their

doctrine

doctrine was really Trinitarian. It cannot be expected that men fhould fpeak always with the fame care on a point, before there be an urgent call for it, as afterwards when contrary herefies were formed. The want of attending to this juft diftinction has nurfed feveral unreasonable cavils in those who eagerly catch at every ftraw to fupport heretical notions. Nothing is known of the life of this man; of his eloquence and capacity the proofs are clear and strong*.

The injuftice of the attempts made to invalidate the proofs of the antiquity and uninterrupted prefervation of the doctrine of the Trinity within the three first centuries, require me to mention one inftance more, which, added to the many already mentioned, will, I think, authorize me to draw this conclufion, that during the firft three hundred years, though the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity was variously oppofed, yet the whole chriflian church conftantly united in preferving and maintaining it, even from the Apostle's days, as the proper Iphere within which all the truth, and holiness, and confolation of genuine chriftianity lies, and exclufive of which one may defy its boldest enemies to produce a fingle inftance of any real progrefs in piety, made in any place, where the name of Chrift was known.

We have before obferved that Dionyfius of Alexandria, for his zeal against Sabellianifm, was fufpected of Arianifm, and that he fully exculpated himfelf. A Roman fynod had been convened on the account, and Dionyfius of Rome ‡, in the name of the Synod, wrote a letter in which he proves, that the Word was not created, but begotten of the Father from all eternity, and diftinctly explains the mystery of the Trinity. Such

*Du Pin, 3d Century.

Du Pin, ibid.

Such extreme nicety of caution in fteering clear of two rocks like thofe of Sabellianifm and Arianifin, in which it must be confeffed the road is very narrow and very ftrait, demonftrates that the exact doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, which with fo much clearness as to the thing, though neceffarily with perfect obfcurity as to the manner of the thing, difcovers itself every where in the fcriptures, was even then understood with precifion, and maintained with firmnefs throughout the church of Chrift.

CHAP. XIX.

THE FURTHER EXTENSION OF THE GOSPEL IN THIS CENTURY.

I

T would fall exactly within the defign of this work to explain this at large. The power of real chriftianity is alway the ftrongest and the cleareft in the infancy of things. Exactly contrary to the procefs in fecular arts and sciences, the improvements of following ages are fo many depravations. But we must be content with fuch materials as we have, and let the reader fupply, from his own meditations, as much as he can, whatever he may think defective in the following fcanty account.

In the reign of Decius, and in the midst of his perfecution, about the year two hundred and fifty, the gofpel, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to the neighbourhood of Lyons and Vienne, was confiderably extended in France. Saturninus was the first bishop of Toulouse, and at the fame

time