the fubordinate deities, and diftinguished by the title of Deus optimus maximus; would they, I

And Horace expreffes himself still more ftrongly: "Unde nil majus generatur ipfo,

"Nec viget quidquam fimile, aut fecundum."

In those myfteries into which almost all the Roman youths were initiated, nothing else was fung but the unity of God. See the noble hymn of Orpheus, and the letter of Maximus of Modarum to St. Auguftin, in which he says, "That none

but fools can poffibly deny a fupreme Being." Longinus, who was an heathen, writes also to St. Auguftine, "That God is one, incomprehenfible, "ineffable." Even Lactantius, who certainly cannot be charged with being too indulgent, acknow¬ ledges in his fifth book, "That the Romans fub"jected all the other deities to the one fupreme

God;" illos fubjecit & mancipat Deo. Tertullianalfo in his apology confeffes," That the whole em"pire acknowledged one God, ruler of the world,

and infinite in power and majesty :" Principem mundi perfecte potentiæ & majeftatis. Again, if we look into Plato, who taught Cicero his philofophy, we shall there find him thus express himself: "There

fay, have perfecuted fuch who professed to wor fhip one only God?

There appears little reafon to believe that there ever was an inquifition erected against the Chriftians under the Roman emperors; I mean, that they were ever judicially examined on the fubject of their faith; neither do we find, that Jew, Syrian, Egyptian bards, Druids, or phi lofophers, were ever troubled on this account. The primitive martyrs then, were men who oppofed the worship of falfe gods. But, however wife or pious they might be in rejecting the belief of fuch abfurd fictions; if, not content: with worshipping the true God in spirit and in truth, they offered a violent and public outrage to the received religion of the government under which they lived, however abfurd that religion might be; impartiality obliges us to confefs, that they themselves were the first perfecutors..

"There is but one God, whom we all ought to "love and adore, and labour to refemble him in integrity and holiness." Epictetus in a dungeon, and Mark Antoninus on a throne, tell us the fame in a hundred different paffages of their writings.

Tur-

:

Tertullian, in his apology †, fays, that the Christians were looked upon as a turbulent and feditious fect. This accufation is doubtless unjuft; but it serves to prove, that the civil power did not fet itfelf against the Chriftians purely on account of their religion. In another place t he fays, that the Chriftians refused to adorn the doors of their houfes with laurel branches on the days of public rejoicing for the victories of the emperors. Now this blameable particularity might not, without fome reafon, be taken. for difaffection to the government..

The firft juridical act of feverity we find ex-ercifed against the Chriftians, was that of Domitian; but this extended only to banishment, which did not last above a year: for, fays the author above quoted, Facile captum repreffit reflitutis quos ipfe relegaverat. Lactantius, fo remarkable for his paffionate and pompous ftile, acknowledges, that from the time of Domitian. to that of Decius, the church continued in a peaceable and flourishing condition. This long tranquility, fays he §, was interrupted by

+ Chap. 394 ↑ Chap. 35. §. Chap. 3,

that execrable animal Decius, who began to opprefs the church: Poft multos annos extitit execrabile animal Decius qui vexaret ecclefiam.

I fhall not here enter into a discussion of the opinion of the learned Mr. Dodwell, concerning the few number of martyrs; but if the Romans had been fuch violent perfecutors of the Chriftian religion; if their fenate had condemned fo many of its innocent votaries to perish by the most unheard of tortures, plunging them alive in boiling oil, and expofing their wives and daughters naked to the wild beasts in the Circus; how happened it, that they fuffered all the firft bishops of Rome to live unmolested? St. Ireneus reckons only one martyr among all these bishops, namely, Telefphorus, who fuffered in the year 139 of our vulgar æra; nor have we any pofitive proof of this Telefphorus being put to death.. Zephirinus governed the flock at Rome for eighteen years fucceffively, and died peaceably in the year 219. It is true, that in the antient martyrologies, we find almost all the first popes ranked as martyrs; but the word martyris there taken only in its original and true fignification, which is a witness and not a fufferer..

More

Moreover, we can hardly reconcile this rage of perfecution with the liberty granted the Chriftians, of affembling no less than fifty-fix councils in the courfe of the three first centuries, as is acknowledged by all ecclefiaftical writers.

That there were perfecutions, is doubtlefs; but if they had been as violent as reprefented, it is hardly probable that Tertullian, who wrote with fo much energy against the established religion, would have been fuffered to die peaceably in his bed. It is certain, that none of the emperors ever read his apology, as an obscure work compofed in Africa, can hardly be fuppofed to have come into the hands of the governors of the world; but then, it might have been fhewn to their proconfuls in Africa, and have drawn down their refentment upon the author: nevertheless, we do not find that he fuffered martyrdom.

Origen taught the Christian religion publicly in Alexandria, and yet was not put to death for it. And this very Origen himself, who spoke with fo much freedom both to the Heathens and the Chriftians, and who, while he taught Jefus to the one, denied the triple Godhead to the other,