In this number of 800,000,000, Deists and Atheists are comprehended, but not specified; as they are no where distinct, and as it is not possible to ascertain their numbers.

To give a view of these four general systems of religion, and of their various subdivisions, together with the two anomalies, Deism and Atheism, will be the object of the following work; and, for the sake of distinction, each system, denomination, sect, or party, will be considered, as far as the subject will admit, in the following order :

1. Definition of the Name or Names.

2. Rise, Progress, History, and Remarkable Eras.
3. Distinguishing Doctrines, or Tenets.
4. Worship, Rites, and Ceremonies.
5. Church Government, and Discipline.
6. Eminent Men, Authors pro et contra.
7. Countries wherein found, Numbers, &c.
8. Miscellaneous Remarks.

9. Sects.

Some of these heads will frequently be enlarged upon, and others wholly omitted, as occasion may require.

The grand subdivisions among CHRISTIANS are—
The Greek and Eastern Churches ;

The Roman Catholics, who acknowledge the authority
of the Pope; and,

The Protestants, or Reformed Churches and Sects, who reject it.

Their numbers may be thus,

The Greek and Eastern Churches,

The Roman Catholics,

The Protestants,

30,000,000

... 100,000,000

70,000,000

200,000,000

OF

CHRISTIANITY.
LIBRAR

GENERAL VIEW.

CHRISTIANITY, which is one of the four grand systems of religion, and the only true religion, is so called from its Divine Author, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world. At its first commencement, those who embraced it were known among themselves by the names of disciples, believers, elect, saints, and brethren; but about the year 43, when the disciples came to be joined by the uncircumcised at Antioch, and so could no longer be distinguished as any particular class of Jews, they were there called CHRISTIANS. This name, though it seems to have been first given to them by the world, was yet well received among themselves, being of the same import with the phrase o Xplore, "those that are Christ's."

RISE, PROGRESS, &c.

Christianity may be said to have begun with the preaching of the Baptist; but it made little progress during the short period of our Lord's ministry, notwithstanding he wrought many miracles, to convince the world of his divine mission and authority; and, when he withdrew his visible presence from the earth, his religion speedily experienced, according to his predictions, the increasing enmity of a world, whose forms of worship it superseded, and whose practices it condemned. The pure gold was to be tried in the furnace of adversity; and to this it was exposed for the first three centuries after its promulgation, during which time it had to contend with the malice of the Jews, the wisdom of the Greeks, and the power of the Romans. The persecutions which the Christians endured under the Roman emperors,

are usually enumerated as ten; a number not very accurate, as it exceeds in amount the persecutions that were general throughout the empire; and falls far short of those that raged at different times in particular provinces, and which arose sometimes from the fury of legal vengeance, at other times from the unauthorized but unrestrained outrages of the people*. But notwithstanding this violent opposition, their numbers increased daily; and their religion, upheld by the promised assistance of its Divine Author, and rising with augmented force from the bloody conflicts of persecution, soon made wonderful progress in the Roman empire, and overspread almost every part of the then known world. We learn from Tertullian †, that in the third century there were Christians in the camp, in the senate, in the palace, and, in short, every where but in the temples and in the theatres: they filled the towns, the country, and the islands. Men and women, of all ages and conditions, and even those of the highest rank and dignity, embraced the faith, insomuch that the Pagans complained, that the revenues of their temples were ruined.

By the time the empire became Christian," says the excellent Bishop Porteus, "there is every reason to believe, that the Christians were more numerous and more powerful than the Pagans."

Thus did the word of God go forth, and was glorified; and in the course of a few years after the expiration of the first three centuries, the Cross was waving in the banners of victorious armies, and many of the kingdoms of the world had become "the kingdoms of our God and his Christ." Constantine granted to the Christians the free and unmolested enjoyment of their religion, in the early part of his reign; and becoming, by degrees, more fully convinced that Christianity was true, and that every other religion must necessarily be false, he at last embraced it himself, and earnestly exhorted all his subjects, by edicts issued A. D. 324, to receive and embrace the Gospel; and thus he became the first Christian Emperor, and has the glory of establishing Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire.

The chief Gentile persecutions, for the first three centuries, and till the reign of Constantine, were those under Nero, A. D. 64; Domitian, A. 93; Trajan, A. 104; Hadrian, A. 125; M. Aurelius, A. 151; Severus, A. 197; Maximin, A. 235; Decius, A. 250; Valerian, A. 257; Aurelian, A. 272; Numerian, A. 283; Dioclesian, and Maximian, and Licinius, A. 303-313. This last is perhaps the only one of these persecutions that affected this island.

+ Apol. cap. xxxvii. p. 311, edit. Havercamp. I however agree with the learned Mosheim, &c., that this account must be taken cum grano salis. Evidences of Christianity, p. 62.