of access to this region, which has since proved so prejudicial to the advancement of knowledge among its inhabitants, was at that time a happy preservative to the infant church.* It was in vain, that Constantius laboured to poison it with his beloved Arianism. He gave orders that Frumentius should be deposed, and that an Arian successor should be appointed; but the country was happily out of the reach of his imperial bigotry.

The Iberians were a people bordering on the Black Sea, who, in some military excursion, took prisoner a pious Christian woman, whose sanctity of manners engaged the respect of these barbarians. Socrates mentions several miracles which God wrought by her means. The credi

bility of such divine interpositions much depends on the importance of circumstances. 'Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus,' is a rule of Horace full of good sense, and as applicable to theology as to poetry. What so likely to affect the minds of an ignorant people as miracles? The situation of things rendered it probable, that such divine interpositions might take place; but I shall mention only those, which may seem worthy of some credit. A child of the king's was sent to the women of the country to be cured, if any of them knew a proper method of treating it a well-known ancient custom. The case baffled the skill of them all, and the child was committed to the captive woman. "Christ, said she, who healed many, will also heal this infant." She prayed, and he recovered. In the same manner the queen herself was healed of a distemper some time after. "It is not my work," said she, "but that of Christ the Son of God, the maker of the world." The king sent her presents in token of his gratitude. But she sent them back, assuring him, that "godliness was her riches, and that she should look on it as the noblest present, if he would worship the GOD whom she adored." The next day the king was lost in hunting in a thick mist, and implored in vain the aid of his gods. In his distress, recollecting the words of the woman, he prayed to the GOD whom she worshipped. The mist was instantly dispersed,

*[Much interesting information respecting the present state of this country may be found in the Journals of the Missionaries Gobat, Isenberg, and Krapf, published by the Church Missionary Society.]

f B. 1. c. 20. [Soz. ii. c. 7.]

and the king found his way home. In consequence of this event, and of future conferences with the woman, both the king and queen embraced the Gospel, and exhorted their subjects to receive it. An embassy was sent to Constantine, to desire that pastors might be commissioned to instruct them. The emperor gave the ambassadors a very gracious reception.

It is proper to add here, on the authority of Philostorgius,* that Constantius sent ambassadors to the Sabeans of Arabia Felix, demanding that the Roman navigators and [any other of the inhabitants who had embraced the Christian faith, might be allowed to build] churches, and that he furnished them with money for the purpose. Theophilus, an Indian, who had long been with Constantine in the capacity of an hostage, was ordained bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia, and sent among the Sabeans; he erected churches, and spread at least the name of Christianity to a certain degree.

The ecclesiastical accounts of Britain are so fabulous, or at best so scanty, that it is a pleasure to be able to relate any thing that has the marks of historical authenticity. At the council of Ariminum, held on account of the Arian

heresy, the emperor Constantius gave orders to supply the expenses of the bishops out of the public treasury. While the rest accepted the imperial munificence, the bishops of Gaul and Britain thought it unbecoming the ecclesiastical character to receive secular maintenance, and bore their own expenses. Only three from Britain were so poor, that they were unable to maintain themselves. Their brethren offered by a contribution to supply their wants; but they chose rather to be obliged to the emperor's bounty, than to burthen their brethren. Gavidius, a French bishop, reproached them for this; but Severus, the relater of the story, thinks it was a circumstance much redounding to their credit. So I apprehend it will appear to the reader, and we regret that where there are such evident vestiges of primitive and disinterested simplicity, we should know so little of the lives and characters of men quite remote from the scenes of ecclesiastical turbulence and ambition. [Philostorgii Hist. iii. c. 4.] + Sulpit. Sev. b. ii. c. 67.

202

Probably in our island the Gospel flourished at this time in humble obscurity.

Christianity was spreading itself beyond the Roman empire. The nations bordering on the Rhine, with the remotest parts of France, were now Christian; and the Goths near the Danube, about sixty years before, had been civilized at least, by the Christian religion, through the bishops whom they had carried captive under Gallienus; and most probably the Spirit of God was with their labours. Armenia under its king Tiridates had embraced Christianity,* and by means of commerce had conveyed it into Persia, where Christians began to be numerous.

But there they sustained a very grievous persecution from king Sapor, in the time of Constantine; a long account of which we have in Sozomen.† The reader has seen many things of the same kind in former persecutions; I shall only observe therefore in general, that thousands chose rather to suffer for the name of Christ, than to pollute themselves with the worship of the sun; that the Magi and the Jews were peculiarly instrumental in this persecution; and that the people of God suffered here with so much sincerity and fortitude, as to evince that the Lord had many people belonging to himself in Persia.

CHAP. VII.

THE DECLINE OF IDOLATRY IN THIS CENTURY, TO THE
DEATH OF CONSTANTIUS.

It was the character of the ancient Romans to be excessively superstitious. While their arms prospered through Europe and Asia, they were vigilant and punctual in all the offices of their religion, and studious of adopting the gods of the nations whom they conquered, as well as their improvements in arts and sciences. This religious spirit was the nurse at least, if not the parent, of many social

* Armenia had probably long before been in some measure evangelized. It was not, however, till the commencement of this century that Gregory, surnamed The Enlightener, established the Gospel there. Through his means, Tiridates and all his nobles were brought over to the profession of Christianity. He was consecrated bishop of Armenia by Leontius bishop [of Cæsarea and metropolitan] of Cappadocia. Mosheim, Cent. iv.

f B. ii. c. 9, &c.

virtues ; industry, frugality, valour, and patriotism, coalesced with superstition. With the learning of Greece, at length, her philosophical scepticism and Epicurean profaneness were incorporated into the Roman commonwealth, and were attended with their usual vices of luxury and dissipation. The vulgar still believed as senators and equestrians were wont to do; the college of Augurs, the whole apparatus of idolatry, remained in all their pomp and formality; and the greatest noblemen thought themselves dignified by the priesthood, while they inwardly despised what they professed with fictitious reverence.

Little did they think, when a few fishermen and mechanics of Judea began to preach Christ crucified, that the Christian religion was destined to overturn the idolatrous establishment of ages. By our present familiarity with Christian usages, and by the perfect annihilation of Pagan phenomena, we are not prepared to admire so much the work of God in the propagation of his own religion, as it deserves. Were the matter fully considered, it would strike every mind with conviction, that the hand of the Lord hath done this. That zeal, which philosophy had cooled, revived in the minds of polytheists, and produced persecution, as Christianity spread through the nations. A superstitious temper in many of the great and the learned succeeded to the sceptical turn of mind, and mere philosophers themselves, through carnal enmity and political selfishness, aided the intolerant spirit with all their might. We have seen how the Gospel still triumphed without secular support, and have already taken notice of one strong symptom of the decline of Paganism toward the end of the second century, namely, that a new race of philosophers arose, who attempted to form an alliance with Christianity. These new Platonics all owned Ammonius for their master, who, as Eusebius tells us, professed the Platonic Gospel to the end of his life. So plainly did School of Satan feel his inability to crush the Gospel, that he was contented now with labouring to adulterate and undermine it. From this school proceeded Porphyry, born * [Euseb. vi. 19.]

*

The

Aminonius.

+ See Lardner's [Works] under the article Porphyry. From him I have derived information on this subject, though obliged to dissent entirely from his opinion. [vol. 4. c. 37.]

at Tyre, whose life is written by Eunapius. He studied six years at Rome under Plotinus, whose life he published. Socrates tells us, that in his early days he was a Christian; but having been beaten by some Christians at Cæsarea, through disgust he relinquished the Gospel. Its hold on his mind must have been extremely weak, when he could be induced to leave it because of the unworthy conduct of some nominal believers. But let Augustine's reflection be heard on this occasion, who thus addresses him:† "If ever you had truly and cordially loved divine wisdom, you would have known Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God; nor would you ever have revolted from his most wholesome humility, through the pride of vain knowledge." There remain only some fragments of his fifteen books against the Christians. He shows in them the same malignant spirit which Celsus did, but with superior abilities; for his capacity and learning were both very eminent.

In his old age he published a work on the Philosophy of Oracles, which has been denied to be his, because he speaks in it very honourably of Christianity, and utters sentiments which one would not expect from a man who had spent a long life in virulent animosity against the followers of Jesus. This enmity is often as strong where it is covered, as when it is open; and circumstances will dictate a great variety in men's ways of showing or concealing it. During the Dioclesian persecution, philosophers were not ashamed to persecute. Hierocles has been mentioned, who as a magistrate tortured the Christians, and as a philosopher wrote against them. If he lived to see Christianity established under Constantine, it is not improbable, provided he wrote at all on the subject, that he wrote as Porphyry does in the work before us. Worldly men are moved by good success to admire, by bad to contemn. Even their opinions are superficially swayed by these external things, and yet the latent frame of their spirits remains the same. Porphyry lived, we are told, to an advanced age; and as his work, styled the Philosophy of Oracles, points out the Gospel to be then the prevalent religion, it was probably his last production; and Eunapius owns he left sentiments in his last works different from the former. Yet he never *B. iii. c. 23. [Augustin. de civitate Dei. lib. 10. c. 28.]