. the attention and excite the jealousy and bitter hatred of the emperor. This is the use I make of the passage now: other uses will arise as we proceed. The testimony of the younger Pliny relates to a period about forty years after the preceding passage from Tacitus.* It assures us, that the number of culprits brought before him in that distant province, (Bithynia,) was so great, as to call for serious consultation-that the religion had spread not only through cities, but even villages, and the country—that persons of all ages and ranks, women as well as men, were seized by it as by a contagion-that the temples were almost desolate -the sacrifices nearly intermitted, and the victims could scarcely find a purchaser.t * A. D. 105 or 107. I insert the whole letter in the masculine translation of Milner, as affording various important information to which we shall allude as we go on. The reply of Trajan is deserving of notice, as recognizing the monstrous principle which Pliny had laid down, that the mere profession of Christianity, without any moral crime, was a sufficient ground of conviction and punishment. C. Pliny to Trajan, Emperor. "Health. It is my usual custom, Sir, to refer all things of which I harbor any doubts to you. For who can better direct my judgment in its hesitation, or instruct my understanding in its ignorance? I never had the fortune to be present at any examination of Christians before I came into this province. I am, therefore, at a loss to determine what is the usual object either of inquiry or of punishment, and to what length either of them is to be carried. It has also been with me a question very problematical,-whether any distinction should be made between the young and the old, the tender and the robust ;-whether any room should be given for repentance, or the guilt of Christianity once incurred is not to be expiated by the most unequivocal retraction ;whether the name itself, abstracted from any flagitiousness of conduct, or the crimes connected with the name, be the object of punishment. In the mean time, this has been my method, with respect to those who were brought before me as Christians. I asked them, whether they were Christians: if they pleaded guilty, I interrogated them twice afresh, with a menace of capital punishment. In case of obstinate perseverance, I ordered them to be executed. For of this I had no doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, that a sullen and obstinate inflexibility called for the vengeance of the magistrate. Some were infected with the same madness, whom, on account of their privilege of citizenship, I reserved to be sent to Rome to be referred to your tribunal. In the course of this business, informations pouring in, as is usual when they are encouraged, more cases occurred. An anonymous libel was exhibited, with a catalogue of names of persons, who yet declared, that they were not Christians then, or ever had been; and they repeated after me an invocation of the gods and Tertullian and Origen, (from A. D. 130-230) describe the Christian doctrine, as "filling the cities, islands, towns, boroughs, the camp, the senate and the forum." They state And of your image, which, for this purpose, I had ordered to be brought with the images of the deities: They performed sacred rites with wine and frankincense, and execrated Christ,-none of which things I am told a real Christian can ever be compelled to do. On this account I dismissed them. Others, named by an informer, first affirmed, and then denied the charge of Christianity; declaring that they had been Christians, but had ceased to be so, some three years ago, others still longer, some even twenty years ago. All of them worshipped your image, and the statues of the gods, and also execrated Christ. this was the account which they gave of the nature of the religion they once had professed, whether it deserves the name of crime or error,-namely, that they were accustomed, on a stated day, to meet before daylight, and to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath, with an obligation of not committing any wickedness; but on the contrary, of abstaining from thefts, robberies and adulteries; also, of not violating their promise, or denying a pledge;-after which, it was their custom to separate, and meet again at a promiscuous, harmless meal, from which last prac tice they however desisted, after the publication of my edict, in which, agreeably to your orders, I forbade any societies of that sort. On which account, I judged it the more necessary to inquire, BY TORTURE, from two females, who were said to be deaconesses, what is the real truth. But nothing could I collect, except a depraved and excessive superstition. Deferring, therefore, any further investigation, I determined to consult you. For the number of culprits is so great, as to call for serious consultation. Many persons are informed against of every age, and of both sexes; and more still will be in the same situation. The contagion of the superstition hath spread not only through cities, but even villages and the country. Not that I think it impossible to check and to correct it. The success of my endeavors hitherto forbids such desponding thoughts: for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be frequented, and the sacred solemnities, which had long been intermitted, are now attended afresh; and the sacrificial victims are now sold every where, which once could scarce find a purchaser. Whence I conclude that many might be reclaimed, were the hope of impunity, on repentance, absolutely confirmed." Trajan to Pliny. "You have done perfectly right, my dear Pliny, in the inquiry which you have made concerning Christians. For truly no one general rule can be laid down, which will apply itself to all cases. These people must not be sought after:-If they are brought before you and convicted, let them be capitally punished, yet with this restriction, that if any renounce Christianity, and evidence his sincerity by supplicating our gods, however suspected he may be for the past, he shall obtain pardon for the future, on his repentance. But anonymous libels in no case ought to be attended to; for the precedent would be of the worst sort, and perfectly incongruous to the maxims of my government." that there was not “a nation, whether Greek or barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in tribes, or live in tents, where the religion was not triumphant"—they state that "the Moors and Gætulians of Africa, the people on the coast of Spain, several nations of France, the parts of Britain which had been inaccessible to the Romans, the Sarmatians, Dacians, Germans and Scythians,” abounded with Christians. Between seventy and eighty years after Origen, the Roman empire became Christian, under Constantine the Great, (A. D. 312,) and in twenty years more, heathenism was only like a relict. Let the testimony of Jerome, about ten years after this last date,* close this account: "Until the resurrection of Christ, ' in Judah only was God known, and his name was great in Israel.' The men of all the earth, from India to Britain, and from the cold regions of the north to the warm climates of the Atlantic Ocean, with the numberless people dwelling in that large tract, were no better than beasts, being ignorant of their Creator. But now, the passion and resurrection of Christ are celebrated in the discourses of all nations. I need not mention Jews, Greeks and Latins. The Indians, Persians, Goths and Egyptians philosophize and firmly believe the immortality of the soul, and future recompenses; which before the greatest philosophers had denied or doubted of. The fierceness of Thracians and Scythians is now softened by the gentle sound of the gospel; and every where “Christ is all in all."+ The question then is, whether this success does not form a triumphant argument in favor of the truth of the religion? Can it be accounted for on any other hypothesis? 3. For observe the nature of the doctrine thus propagated. It was no speculative theory, cradled in the retreats of philosophical inquiry. It was a practical and holy doctrine, demanding an entire change of heart and conduct, enforcing a pure and virtuous life, inculcating many awful and mysterious truths, and allowing of no compromise with idolatry or superstition. It taught the unity and perfection of God, the fall and alienation of man by sin, the condemnation and ruin in which he lay, the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ, the renewing influences of the Holy Spirit, the duties of prayer, faith, humility, spirituality of mind, mortification of the principles of evil in the heart, and universal purity, justice and benevolence to our fellow creatures. In short, it was Lardner, v. 396. * A. D. 342. diametrically opposed to all the theories of the philosophers, and all the passions and habits of the common people amongst the heathen; and to the pride, the fond notions of a temporal kingdom, the reliance on birth and external religious privilege, and the corruption of manners, amongst the Jews. Neither * the heathens nor Jews could understand, without a serious inquiry, the very terms chiefly used in the Christian doctrine, such as faith, righteousness, grace, salvation, the flesh and spirit, contrition, humility; whilst the things themselves were in contradiction to their whole intellectual associations and moral habits. Christianity was a new and spiritual religion, in a corrupt and idolatrous world. It is not the propagation of a religion merely that we have to consider, but the propagation of such a religion with such rapidity, and to such an extent as Christianity, which marks the immediate finger of God. But, proceed we to mark more particularly, II. THE OBSTACLES SURMOUNTED in this rapid diffusion of Christianity. 1. The persons by whom the religion was propagated, and propagated without human aid, were feeble and unknown. For who were the first apostles of Christianity? Were they sages of Greece and Rome, clothed with the reverence, and protected by the usages, of the nations to whom they came? Were they philosophers or augurs? Was it another Socrates, who proclaimed his intercourse with a guardian angel, and founded his doctrine upon the instructions of his celestial monitor? Was it another Numa, who asserted his communication with the deity of some sacred fountain?t No. The apostles were unaided, and for the most part unlearned, as well as unknown, men. Of all countries which could have been selected for the origin of a religion, Judea was the most inauspicious and improbable. The Jews were a nation contemned and hated by the whole Greek and Roman world. And what better hope had the apostles from their own countrymen, by whom the Galileans were as much despised as the nations generally were by the gentiles; and who saw the apostles, a poor, friendless, unconnected body, without education and without support, betrayed by their very dialect, VOL. I. Bp. Sumner's Reception of Christianity. 19 going forth to condemn them for the crucifixion of Christ, to abolish all their ceremonies and privileges, and admit the heathen to an equality with them in the new religion. Further, how do these despised apostles enter upon their hopeless errand? Do they begin the work by gradual insinuation, by imperceptibly introducing their religion to persons of authority and talent, by entering upon long disputations, and working their way by reasonings, confutation and human rhetoric? Do they come down into the arena of philosophic disceptation, and meet the "wise, and the scribe, and the disputer of this world," upon his own territory? Just the contrary: they proceed in a way of direct authority: they renounce all the craft and policy of former teachers; and, in the simplicity and openness of truth, assert the doctrines and duties of the Christian religion, resting their whole cause on the divine aid and power. Not only so. They had themselves no previous plan of converting the world. They had yielded to fear and pusillanimity at their Master's sufferings, they were filled with misapprehensions on the spiritual name of the gospel, they had strong prejudices against the admission of the gentiles into the church, they cherished false expectations of a temporal, and had no preparation for a spiritual, kingdom of Messiah. Their courage and fortitude were the effects of the descent of the Spirit. And their errors and prejudices were, at last, only dissipated by degrees, as new circumstances arose. It was, in fact, persecution which scattered them abroad, and led them to propose the gospel to the gentiles. And yet these men subdued the world. And observe, also, in their manner of preaching, their open appeal to the main facts of Christianity, and the immediate power of the Holy Ghost. Read St. Peter's discourses to the Jews, and St. Paul's to the gentiles. On what does the doctrine rest? Upon man or upon God? Can any thing be more artless, more unassuming, more evidently referring every thing to a divine operation, especially as to the resurrection of their Lord? How strong and unbending are their demands upon their hearers' faith and obedience? How uncompromising their condemnation of polytheism and vice, when addressing the heathen; and of the pride and misinterpretation of the prophecies, when addressing the Jews? They rely on a divine operation. Even in the records of their actions, they relate only a part of their wonderful successes, and those relations are |