PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY;

OR, TIE

RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIANS IN THE FIRST AGES OF THE GOSPEL.

Part First.

CHAPTER I.

Things charged upon the primitive Christians,
respecting their Religion.

No sooner did the SON OF GOD appear in the world, to establish the most excellent religion that ever was communicated to mankind, but he met with the most fierce and vigorous opposition ;-persecuted, and devoted to death as soon as he was born; followed all his life with fresh assaults of malice and cruelty; his credit traduced and slandered,-his doctrine despised and slighted,—and himself, at last, put to death with the most exquisite arts of torture and disgrace. And "if they thus served the master of the house, how much more them of the household? the disciple not being above his master, nor the ser

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vant above his lord:" therefore, when he gave commission to his apostles to publish this religion to the world, he told them beforehand what hard and unkind reception they must expect; that " he sent them forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, that they should be delivered up to the councils, and scourged in the synagogues, and be brought before kings and governors, and be hated of all men for his name's sake;" and so high did the opposition arise upon the account of religion, that men should violate some of the nearest laws of nature, "betray their friends and kinsfolk; the brother delivering up the brother to death, and the father the child; the children rising up against their parents, and causing them to be put to death." This he well foresaw (and the event proved it) would be the fate of its first appearing in the world. And, indeed, considering the present state and circumstances of the world at that time, it could not reasonably be expected that the christian religion should meet with a better entertainment; for the genius and nature of its doctrine was such, as was almost impossible to escape the frowns and displeasure of men. It was a doctrine which restrained their lusts and pleasures, and offered violence to their native inclinations,-that required the greatest strictness and severity of life, obliged them to deny themselves, to take up their cross, and follow the steps of a poor crucified Saviour, with little other encouragement than the invisible rewards of another world. It introduced new rites and ceremonies, unknown to those of former ages, and such as undermined the

received and established principles of that religion, which, for so many generations, had governed the world; it revealed and brought to light such truths as were not only contrary to the principles of men's education, but many of them above the reach of natural comprehension, too deep for the line of human reason to fathom or find out.

On this account, no sooner did christianity appear in the world, but it was everywhere spoken against. Princes and potentates, and the greatest powers and policies of the world, for some ages, confederated and combined together to extirpate it; and certainly, if arms and armies-if strength and subtilty-if malice and cruelty could have suppressed it, it had been wholly destroyed in its infancy and first delivery into the world. But notwithstanding all these oppositions, it lifted up its head in triumph, and out-braved the fiercest storms of persecution; and, as Tertullian told their enemies, "by every exquisite act of cruelty, they did but tempt others to join their party;-the oftener they were mowed down, the faster they sprang up again, the blood of christians making the soil of the church more fertile.”*

Upon this, the great enemy of mankind changed his ground, and endeavoured to undermine what he could not openly subdue, by influencing the minds of men with false and unjust prejudices against christianity, charging the christians with all those crimes which could render them, or their religion, infamous

* Apol. c. ult. p. 40.

and vile. The charges were such as, 1st, respected their religion; 2dly, as concerned their outward state and condition; and, 3dly, such as related to their moral carriage and behaviour.

The first charges against christianity were its impiety and novelty. With respect to the former of these it was called atheism, as an affront to their religion, and undermining the very being and existence of their gods. Julian, the emperor, seldom calls christianity by any other name. In answer to this charge, the christians pleaded especially to these three things:

First, that the gentiles were for the most part incompetent judges of these things, being wholly ignorant of the true state of the christian doctrine, and therefore unfit to pronounce sentence against it. Justin Martyr says of Crescens, the philosopher, that " he talked about things he did not understand, feigning things, to comply with the humour of his disciples, reproaching the doctrine of Christ, and discovering a wicked and malignant temper;—or, if he did understand its greatness and excellency, charging upon it what he knew to be false, and concealing his inward sentiments and convictions."

Secondly, they were induced to confess the charge, that, according to the vulgar notion which the heathens entertained of their deities, they were atheists, that is, strangers and enemies to them; that the gods of the gentiles were at best but demons and impure spirits," in whose worship there are many things that deserve to be laughed at, and others that call

for pity and compassion." No wonder that the christians were not ashamed to be called atheists, with respect to such deities, and such a religion as this.

Thirdly, in the strict and proper notion of atheism, they no less truly than confidently denied the charge, and appealed to their severest adversaries, whether those who owned such principles as they did, could reasonably be styled atheists?" Although we profess ourselves atheists," says Justin Martyr, "with respect to those whom you esteem gods, yet not in respect of the true God, the parent and fountain of wisdom and righteousness, and all other excellencies and perfections, who is infinitely free from the least contagion, or spot of evil: Him, and his only begotten Son (who instructed us and the whole society of good angels in these divine mysteries), and the Spirit of prophecy, we worship and adore, honouring them in truth, and with the highest reason, and ready to communicate these things to any one that is willing to learn them, as we ourselves have received them."

REFLECTION.

The primitive christians were censured by the heathen, among whom they dwelt, as atheists and unbelievers; let us take care, lest their descendants, the sceptics of the present day, should have occasion to retort upon us, modern christians, a practical atheism, no less offensive to the author of

*Ap. i. p. 56.