my attention. I need add no further remarks; every reader, who pays the leaft attention to candour and common fenfe, fees the principles for which Marcellus fuffered.

It seems thefe preliminaries to the perfecution, with which the next century opens, did not affect the minds of chriftians in general; nor was the fpirit of prayer ftirred up among them, a certain fign of long and obftinate decay in godlinefs. Yet there must have been a deep fecret departure from the lively faith of the gospel. Origenifm and the learning and philofophy connected with it were extremely fashionable. We may juftly conclude then, that the fermons of chriftian paitors had more in general of a moral and philofophical caft, than any thing purely chriftian. In truth, juftification by faith, and hearty conviction of fin, and the Spirit's influences, I hear little or nothing of all this feafon. Morals, I doubt not, were preached; but chriftian men continued in life immoral and fcandalous. The ftate of the church of England from Charles the 2d, down to the middle of the laft reign, full of party and faction and animofities and love of the world, yet adorned with learning and full of morality in its public miniftrations, feems very much to refemble that of the chriftian church in manners and piety from the death of Dionyfius to the end of the century. In one inftance there was a great difference, fuperftition was much stronger in the ancient church; but being enlisted in the fervice of felf-righteoufnefs, and the faith of Chrift and the love of God being much buried under it, this diversity does not affect the general likeness.

God, who had exercifed long patience, declared at length in the courfe of his providence," Becaufe I have purged thee, and thou waft not purged,

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purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinefs any more, till I have caufed my fury to reft upon thee"

But this fcene, which introduced quite a new face on the church, and was quickly followed by several furprising revolutions, belongs to the next century.

CHAP. XVIII.

SOME ACCOUNT OF GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, THEOGNOSTUS, AND DIONYSIus of rome.

TH

HESE three perfons are all whom I can find belonging to the third century, to whom fufficient juftice has not been done already. Of the two laft indeed I have scarce any thing to say. Of the first more is recorded. His life was written by Gregory of Nyffen, and though fome allowance must be made for the growth of fuperftitious credulity in his days, yet that all the miraculous powers afcribed to Gregory are fictitious it would be unreasonable to affert. The concurrent teftimony of antiquity and the very name of Thaumaturgus evince the contrary. I shall endeavour to fteer as clear of errors on both fides as I can, in putting down every thing that may feem valuable concerning this great man. A fmall account of him is in Eufebius+. Cave and Fleury have alfo collected the most material things of him from Gregory Nyffen's narrative, and from the former I fhall chiefly collect the account. He

* Exek. xxiv. 13.

↑ Wonderworker.

+ Book 6, chap. 29.

He was born at Neocæfarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, his father, zealous for paganism, took care to educate him in idolatry and the learning of the Gentile world. He loft his father when he was fourteen years of age. His mother took care to complete his education and that of his brother Athenodorus, afterwards a christian bishop, as well as himself. He travelled to Alexandria to learn the platonic philofophy, where he was equally remarkable for ftrictnefs of life and clofe attention to his ftudies. He afterwards put himself under the tuition of the renowned Origen, who then taught at Cæfarea in Palestine, with his brother Athenodorus, and Firmilian, a Cappadocian gentleman, with whom he contracted an intimate friendship. This is the Cappadocian bifhop whom we have repeatedly had occafion to mention. With Origen the two brothers continued five years, and were perfuaded by him to ftudy the holy fcriptures; and no doubt is to be made, but that the most affiduous pains were urged by that zealous teacher to ground them in the belief of christianity. On his departure he delivered an eloquent fpeech, in praife of Origen, before a numerous auditory, a teftimony at once 2 of his gratitude and powers of rhetoric.

There is ftill extant a letter written by Origen to him after he had left him*, in which he exhorts him to apply his knowledge to the promotion of chriftianity. The best thing in it is, that he advifes him to pray fervently and seriously for the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Being now returned to Neocæfarea, he gave himfelt much to prayer and retirement, and no doubt was in fecret prepared and difciplined for the important work to which he was foon after

* Origen Philocab. C. 13.

called.

called. Neocæfarea was large and populous, but full of idolatry, the very feat of Satan, fo that christianity scarce could gain any entrance into it. Phædimus, bifhop of Amafea, a neighbouring city, grieved to fee its fituation, and hoping much from the piety and capacity of young Gregory, took pains to engage him in the work of the miniftry there. Gregory, from pure modefty, took pains to elude his designs, but was at length -prevailed on to accept the charge.

The fcene was arduous. He had a church to found, before he could govern it, there being not above feventeen profeffors of chriftianity there. I do not believe the vifion which his namefake of Nyffen tells of his receiving a creed from John the Evangelift and the Virgin Mary. He feems to have been impofed on by the fuperftitious fpirit, then too prevalent. But as he affures us the original, written with his own hand, was preferved in the church of Neocæfarea in his time, and this is a matter of fact of which any perfon might judge; as the creed itfelf contains nothing but what is very agreeable to the language of the fathers of the third century, and we have already feen the exact pains which they took in guarding the doctrine of the Trinity against herefies, I apprehend it to be really his; though when the reader has confidered it, he will not be furprifed at the industry with which in our times its credit has been impeached. And the whole will deferve to be fet down at length, because the orthodoxy of Gregory has been unreafonably called in queftion, against the exprefs teftimony of Eufebius, who, we have seen above, reprefents him as one of the oppofers of Paul of Samofata, at the first council. "There

*

* See Lardner's Credibility.

"There is one God the Father of the living Word, of the fubfifting wisdom and power, and of the eternal exprefs Image; Perfect, the Father of the perfect, the Father of the only-begotten Son. One Lord alone of alone, God of God, the character and image of the Deity, the energetic word, the wisdom comprehenfive of the Syftem of the Universe, and the Power that made all creation, the true Son of the true Father, the Invisible of the invifible, the incorruptible of the incorruptible, the immortal of the immortal, the eternal of the eternal; and one Holy Ghoft, having his fubfiftence of God, manifefted through the Son to men, the image of the Son, the perfect life of the perfect, the fource of life, the holy fountain, fanctification, and the fupplier of fanctification, in whom is manifefted God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all; a perfect Trinity, in glory, eternity, and kingdom, not feparated, not divided."

Notwithstanding the prejudices which his ido latrous countrymen muft have had against him, Mufonius, a perfon of confequence in the city, received him, and in a very little time his preaching was attended with fo great fuccefs that he had a numerous congregation. The fituation of Gregory, fo like that of the primitive christian preachers, in the midft of idolatry, renders it exceedingly probable that he was, as they were, favoured with miraculous gifts: for thefe the Lord bestowed in abundance, where the name of Jefus had as yet gained no admiffion; and it is certain that miracles had not ceafed in the church.

Gregory Nyffen lived himself within lefs than a hundred years after our Gregory; and both he and his brother, the famous Bafil, fpeak of his miracles without the least doubt. Their aged grandmother

Macrina