that instituted by Jesus Christ. See CHRISTIANITY.

CHRISTIANITY, the religion of Christians. The word is analogically derived, as other abstracts from their concretes, from the adjective Christian. This again is derived from the name Xριστός, Christos, from the word Χριστός, I anoint. Christ is called the anointed, from a custom which extensively prevailed in antiquity, and was originally said to be of divine institution, of anointing persons in the sacerdotal or regal character, as a public signal of their consecration to their important offices, and as a testimony that heaven itself was the guarantee of that relation which then commenced between the persons thus consecrated and their subordinates.

The disciples of Jesus, after the death of their teacher, had for some time been called Nazarenes, from Nazareth in Galilee where he dwelt; which afterwards became the designation of a particular sect. They, who adopted the principles, and professed the religion which he taught, were first distinguished by the name of Christians at Antioch. That profession, and those doctrines, we now proceed to delineate with as much perspicuity as the limits of our plan will admit, yet with the conciseness which a work so uniform and extensive requires.

When a Christian is interrogated concerning the nature and foundation of his faith and practice, his ultimate reference, his last appeal, is to the facts, the doctrines, and the injunctions contained in the books of the Old and New Testament. From these, therefore, and from these alone, must every fair account, or the materials of which it is composed, be extracted or deduced. Other formularies, or confessions of faith, may, according to the Christian, deserve more or less attention, as they are more or less immediately contained or implied in the scriptures. But whatever is not actually expressed in, or deduced by fair and necessary consequence from, these writings, must be regarded as merely human; and can have no other title to our assent and observation, than what they derive from their conformity with the scriptures, with the dictates and feelings of a reformed and cultivated mind, or with those measures which are found expedient and useful in human life. But, as these books from whence the Christian investigates his principles of belief and rules of conduct, have been variously interpreted by different professors and commentators, these diversities have given birth to a multiplicity of different sects. It cannot, therefore, be expected, that any one who undertakes to give an account of Christianity, should comprehend all the writings and opinions which have been propagated and exhibited by historical, systematical, or polemical authors. There, if at all contained in such a work as this, should be ranged under their proper articles, whether scientific, controversial, or biographical. It is our present business, if possible, to confine ourselves to a detail of such facts and doctrines as, in the strictest primitive sense of the word, are catholic, or, in other expressions, to such as uniformly have been, and still are, recognized and admitted by the whole body of Christians.

We have already said that these, or at least the Account of greatest number of them, appeal to the scriptures of Christianity, the Old and New Testament as the ultimate standard, the only infallible rule of faith and manners. If you ask them, by what authority these books claim an absolute right to determine the consciences and understandings of men with regard to what they should believe and what they should do? they will answer you, that all scripture, whether for doctrine, correction, or reproof, was given by immediate inspiration from God.

If again you interrogate them how these books, which they call Scripture, are authenticated? they reply, that the evidences by which the Old and New Testament are proved to be the Word of God, are either external or internal. The external may again be divided into direct or collateral. The direct evidences are such as arise from the nature, confirmity, and probability, of the facts; and from the simplicity, uniformity, competency, and fidelity, of the testimonies by which they are supported. The collateral evidences are either the same occurrences supported by Heathen testimonies, or others which concur with and corroborate the history of Christianity. Its internal evidences arise either from its exact conformity with the character of God, from its aptitude to the frame and circumstances of man, or from those supernatural convictions and affinances which are impressed on the mind by the immediate operation of the divine Spirit. These can only be mentioned in a cursory manner in a detail so concise as the present.

Such facts as are related in the history of this relic How Christianity is each with itself, but likewise one with another. Hence it is, that, by a series of antecedents and consequences, they corroborate each other, and form a chain which cannot be broken but by an absolute fulmination of all historical authenticity. Nor is this all: for, according to him, the facts on which Christianity is founded, not only constitute a series of themselves, but are likewise in several periods the best resources for supplying the chasms in the history of our nature, and preserving the tenor of its annals entire. The facts themselves are either natural, or supernatural. Christianity By natural facts we mean such occurrences as happen or may happen from the various operations of mechanical powers, or from the intervention of natural agents without higher assistants. Such are all the common occurrences of history, whether natural, biographical, or civil. By supernatural facts, we mean such as could not have been produced without the intervention of Deity, or at least of powers superior to the laws of mechanism or the agency of embodied spirits. Among these may be reckoned the immediate change of water into wine, the instantaneous cure of diseases without the intervention of medicine, the resuscitation of the dead, and others of the same kind. In this order of occurrences may likewise be numbered the exertions and exhibitions of prophetic power, where the persons by whom these extraordinary talents were displayed could neither by penetration nor conjecture unravel the mazes of futurity, and trace the events of which they spoke from their primary causes, to their remote complections. So that they must have been the passive organs of some superior Being to whom the whole concatenation of causes and effects which operate from the origin to the consummation of nature, was obvious at a glance of thought.

It has already been hinted, that the facts which we have called natural, not only agree with the analogy of human events, and corroborate each other, but in a great many emergencies nobly illustrate the history of nature in general. For this a Christian might offer one instance, of which philosophy will not perhaps be able to produce any tolerable solution, without having recourse to the facts upon which Christianity is founded. For if mankind were originally descended from one pair alone, how should it have happened that long before the date of authentic history every nation had its own distinct language? Or if it be supposed, as some late philosophers have maintained, that man is an indigenous animal in every country; or, that he was originally produced in, and created for, each particular soil and climate which he inhabits; still it may be demanded, whence the prodigious multiplicity, the immense diversity, of languages? Is the language of every nation intuitive, or were they dictated by exigences, and established by convention? If the last of these suppositions be true, what an immense period of time must have passed? How many revolutions of material and intellectual nature must have happened? What accretions of knowledge, refinement, civilization, must human intercourse have gained before the formation and establishment even of the most simple, imperfect, and barbarous language? Why is a period so vast, obliterated so entirely as to escape the retrospect of history, of tradition, and even of fable itself? Why was the acquisition and improvement of other arts so infinitely distant from that of language, that the era of the latter is entirely lost, whilst we can trace the former from their origin through the various gradations of their progress?

These difficulties, inextricable by all the lights of history or philosophy, this more than Cimmerian darkness is immediately dissipated by the Mosaic account of the confusion of tongues; wisely intended to separate the tribes of men one from another, to replenish the surface of the globe, and to give its multiplied inhabitants those opportunities of improvement which might be derived from experiment and industry, variously exerted, according to the different situations in which they were placed, and the different employments which these situations dictated. Thus the time of nature's existence is limited to a period within the ken of human intellect. Thus whatever has happened might have happened during the present mode of things; whereas, if we deduce the origin and diversity of language from a period so remotely distant as to be absolutely lost, and entirely detached from all the known occurrences and vicissitudes of time, we must admit the present forms and arrangements of things to have subsisted perhaps for a much longer duration than any mechanical philosopher will allow to be possible. Other instances equally pregnant with conviction might be multiplied; but, precluded by the limits of our plan, we proceed to a single observation upon the facts which have been termed supernatural.

Of those changes which happen in sensible objects, sensation alone can be judge. Reason has nothing to do in the matter. She may draw conclusions from evidence to the telltale signs of sense, but can never refute them. If, therefore, our senses inform us that snow is white, Christians in vain would the most learned and subtle philosopher try to endeavour to convince us that it was of a contrary colour. He might confound us, but never could persuade us. Such changes, therefore, as appear to happen in sensible objects, must either be real or fallacious. If real, the miracle is admitted; if fallacious, there must be a cause of deception equally unaccountable from the powers of nature, and therefore equally miraculous. If the veracity or competency of the witnesses be questioned, the Christian answers, that they must be competent, because the facts which they relate are not beyond their capacity to determine. They must likewise be faithful, because they had no secular motives for maintaining, but many for suppressing or disguising, what they testified. Now the Christian appeals to the whole series of history and experience, whether such a man is or can be found, as will offer a voluntary, solemn, and deliberate sacrifice of truth at the shrine of caprice. But such facts as after a long continuance of time have been found exactly agreeable to predictions formerly emitted, must supersede the fidelity of testimony, and infallibly prove, that the event was known to the Being by whom it was foretold. In vain has it been urged, that prophecies are ambiguous and equivocal. For though they may prefigure subordinate events, yet if the grand occurrences to which they ultimately relate, can alone fulfill them in their various circumstances, and in their utmost extent, it is plain, that the Being by whom they were revealed must have been actually proficient of those events, and must have had them in view when the predictions were uttered. For this see a learned and ingenious dissertation on the Credibility of Gospel-history, by Dr M'Knight; where the evidences urged by the Christian in defence of his tenets, which appear detached and scattered through innumerable volumes, are assembled and arranged in such a manner as to derive strength and lustre from the method in which they are disposed, without diminishing the force of each in particular. See also the works Christianity works of Dr Hurd; consult likewise those of Newton, Sherlock, Chandler, &c. For the evidences of those preternatural facts which have been termed miracles, the reader may peruse a short but elegant and conclusive defence of these astonishing phenomena, in answer to Mr Hume, by the Rev. George Campbell, D.D.

It must be obvious to every reflecting mind, that whether we attempt to form the idea of any religion a priori, or contemplate those which have been already exhibited, certain facts, principles, or data, must be pre-established, from whence will result a particular frame of mind and course of action suitable to the character and dignity of that Being by whom the religion is enjoined, and adapted to the nature and situation of those agents who are commanded to observe it. Hence Christianity may be divided into credenda or doctrines, and agenda or precepts.

As the great foundation of his religion, therefore, the Christian believes the existence and government of one eternal and infinite Essence, which for ever retains in itself the cause of its own existence, and inherently possesses all those perfections which are compatible with its nature: such are, its almighty power, omniscient wisdom, infinite justice, boundless goodness, and universal presence. In this indivisible essence the Christian recognizes three distinct subsistences, yet distinguished in such a manner as not to be incompatible with essential unity or simplicity of being. Nor is their essential union incompatible with their personal distinction. Each of them possesses the same nature and properties to the same extent. As, therefore, they are constituent of one God, if we may use the expression, there is none of them subordinate, none supreme. The only way by which the Christian can discriminate them, is by their various relations, properties, and offices. Thus the Father is said eternally to beget the Son, the Son to be eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost eternally to proceed from both.

This infinite Being, though absolutely independent and for ever sufficient for his own beatitude, was graciously pleased to create an universe replete with inferior intelligences, who might for ever contemplate and enjoy his glory, partake his happiness, and imitate his perfections. But as freedom of will is essential to the nature of moral agents, that they may cooperate with God in their own improvement and happiness, so their natures and powers are necessarily limited, and by that constitution rendered peccable.

This degeneracy first took place in a rank of intelligence superior to man. But guilt is never stationary. Impatient of itself, and cursed with its own feelings, it proceeds from bad to worse, whilst the poignancy of its torments increases with the number of its perpetrations. Such was the situation of Satan and his apostate angels. They attempted to transfer their turbulence and misery to man; and were, alas! but too successful. Hence the heterogeneous and irreconcilable principles which operate in his nature. Hence that inexplicable medley of wisdom and folly, of rectitude and error, of benevolence and malignity, of sincerity and fraud, exhibited through his whole conduct. Hence the darkness of his understanding, the depravity of his will, the pollution of his heart, the irregularity of his affections, and the absolute subversion of his whole internal economy. These seeds of perdition soon ripened into overt acts of guilt and horror. All the hostilities of nature were confronted, and the whole sublunary creation became a theatre of disorder and mischief.

Here the Christian once more appeals to fact and experience. If these things are so; if man is the vessel of guilt and the victim of misery; he demands how this constitution of things can be accounted for? how can it be supposed, that a being so wicked and unhappy should be the production of an infinitely perfect Creator? He therefore infers, that human nature must have been disarranged and contaminated by some violent shock; and that, of consequence, without the light diffused over the face of things by Christianity, all nature must remain an infatuated and inexplicable mystery.

To redress these evils, to re-establish the empire of virtue and happiness, to restore the nature of man to its primitive rectitude, to satisfy the remonstrances of infinite justice, to purify every original or contracted stain, to expiate the guilt and destroy the power of vice, the eternal Son of God, the second person of the sacred Trinity, the Logos or divine Word, the Redeemer or Saviour of the world, the Immanuel or God with us, from whom Christianity takes its name, and to whom it owes its origin, descended from the bosom of his Father; assumed the human nature; became the representative of man; endured a severe probation in that character; exhibited a pattern of perfect righteousness; and at last ratified his doctrine, and fully accomplished all the ends of his mission, by a cruel, unmerited, and ignominious death. Before he left this world, he delivered the doctrine of human salvation, and the rules of human conduct, to his apostles, whom he empowered to instruct the world in all that concerned their eternal felicity, and whom he invested with miraculous gifts to ascertain the reality of what they taught. To them he likewise promised another comforter, even the divine Spirit, who should relume the darkness, console the woes, and purify the stains, of human nature. Having remained for a part of three days under the power of death, he arose again from the grave, discovered himself to his disciples, converted with them for some time, then re-ascended to heaven; from whence the Christian expects him, according to his promise, to appear as the Sovereign Judge of the living and the dead, from whose awards there is no appeal, and by whose sentence the destiny of the pious and the wicked shall be eternally fixed.

Soon after his departure to the right hand of his Father, where, in his human nature, he sits supreme of all created beings, and invested with the absolute administration of heaven and earth, the Spirit of grace and consolation descended on his apostles with visible signatures of divine power and presence. Nor were his salutary operations confined to them, but extended to all the rational world, who did not by obstinate guilt repel his influences, and provoke him to withdraw them. These, indeed, were less conspicuous than at the glorious era when they were visibly exhibited in the persons of the apostles. But Christianity though his energy is less observable, it is by no means less effectual to all the purposes of grace and mercy.

The Christian is convinced, that there is and shall continue to be a society upon earth, who worship God as revealed in Jesus Christ; who believe his doctrines; who observe his precepts; and who shall be saved by his death, and by the use of these external means of salvation which he hath appointed.

These are few and simple. The sacraments of baptism and the eucharist, the interpretation and application of scripture, the habitual exercise of public and private devotion, are obviously calculated to diffuse and promote the interests of truth and virtue, by superinducing the salutary habits of faith, love, and repentance.

The Christian is firmly persuaded, that at the consummation of things, when the purposes of providence in the various revolutions of progressive nature are accomplished, the whole human race shall once more issue from their graves; some to immortal felicity, from the actual perception and enjoyment of their Creator's presence; others to everlasting shame and misery.

The two grand principles of action, according to the Christian, are, The love of God, which is the sovereign passion in every perfect mind; and the love of man, which regulates our actions according to the various relations in which we stand, whether to communities or individuals. This sacred connection can never be totally extinguished by any temporary injury. It ought to subsist in some degree even amongst enemies. It requires that we should pardon the offenses of others, as we expect pardon for our own; and that we should no further reflect evil than is necessary for the preservation of personal rights and social happiness. It dictates every relative and reciprocal duty between parents and children, masters and servants, governors and subjects, friends and friends, men and men. Nor does it merely enjoin the observation of equity, but likewise inspires the most sublime and extensive charity, a boundless and diffused effusion of tender mercies for the whole species, which feels their distress and operates for their relief and improvement. These celestial dispositions, and the different duties which are their natural exertions, are the various gradations by which the Christian hopes to attain the perfection of his nature and the most exquisite happiness of which it is susceptible.

Such are the speculative, and such the practical principles of Christianity. From the former, its votaries contend, that the origin, economy, and revolutions of intelligent nature alone can be rationally explained. From the latter, they assert, that the nature of man, whether considered in its individual or social capacity, can alone be conducted to its highest perfection and happiness. With the determined atheists, they scarcely deign to expostulate. For, according to them, philosophers who can deduce the origin and constitution of things from casual encounters or mechanical necessity, are capable of deducing any conclusion from any premises. Nor can a more glaring instance of absurdity be produced, than the idea of a contingent or self-originated universe. When Deists and other sectarians upbraid them with mysterious or incompatible principles, they without hesitation remit such cavillers to the creed of natural religion. They demand why any reasoner should refuse to believe three distinct substances in one indivisible essence, who admits that a being may be omnipresent without extension; or that he can impress motion upon other things, whilst he himself is necessarily immovable. They ask the sage, why it should be thought more extraordinary, that the Son of God should be sent to this world, that he should unite the human nature to his own, that he should suffer and die for the relief of his degenerate creatures, than that an existence whose felicity is eternal, inherent, and infinite, should have any motive for creating beings exterior to himself. Is it not, says the Christian, equally worthy of the divine interposition to restore order and happiness where they are lost, as to communicate them where they never have been? Is not infinite goodness equally conspicuous in relieving misery as in diffusing happiness? Is not the existence of what we call evil in the world, under the tuition of an infinitely perfect Being, as infernal as the means exhibited by Christianity for its abolition. Vicarious punishment, imputed guilt and righteousness, merit or demerit transferred, are certainly not less reconcilable to human reason, a priori, than the existence of vice and punishment in the productions of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness; particularly, when it is considered, that the virtues exerted and displayed by a perfect Being in a state of humiliation and suffering, must be meritorious, and may therefore be rewarded by the restored felicity of inferior creatures, in proportion to their glory and excellence; and that such merit may apply the blessings which it has deserved, in whatever manner, in whatever degree, and to whomsoever it pleases, without being under any necessity to violate the freedom of moral agents, in recalling them to the paths of virtue and happiness by a mechanical and irresistible force.

It will be granted to philosophy by the Christian, that as no theory of mechanical nature can be formed as possible, without presupposing sacred and established laws from which she ought rarely or never to deviate, so in fact she tenaciously pursues these general institutions, and from their constant observance result the order and regularity of things. But he cannot admit, that the important ends of moral and intellectual improvement may be uniformly obtained by the same means. He affirms, that if the hand of God should either remain always entirely invisible, or at least only perceptible in the operation of second causes, intelligent beings would be apt in the course of time to resolve the interpositions of Deity into the general laws of mechanism; to forget his connection with nature, and consequently their dependence upon him. Hence, according to the dictates of common-sense, and to the unanimous voice of every religion in every age or clime, for the purposes of wisdom and benevolence, God may not only control, but has actually controlled, the common course and general operations of nature. So that, as in the material world the law of cause and effect is generally and scrupulously observed for the purposes of natural subsistence and accommodation; thus fulnesses and changes of that universal law are equally necessary for the Christianity the advancement of moral and intellectual perfection.

But the disciple of Jesus not only contends, that no system of religion has ever yet been exhibited so consistent with itself, so congruous to philosophy and the common sense of mankind, as Christianity. He likewise avers, that it is infinitely more productive of real and sensible consolation than any other religious or philosophical tenets, which have ever entered into the soul, or been applied to the heart of man. For what is death—to that mind which considers eternity as the career of its existence? What are the frowns of fortune to him who claims an eternal world as his inheritance? What are the loss of friends to that heart which feels, with more than natural conviction, that it shall quickly rejoin them in a more tender, intimate, and permanent intercourse than any of which the present life is susceptible? What are the fluctuations and vicissitudes of external things to a mind which strongly and uniformly anticipates a state of endless and immutable felicity? What are mortifications, disappointments, and insults, to a spirit which is conscious of being the original offspring and adopted child of God; which knows that its omnipotent Father will, in proper time, effectually assert the dignity and privileges of its nature? In a word, as earth is but a speck of creation, as time is not an instant in proportion to eternity, such are the hopes and prospects of the Christian in comparison of every sublunary misfortune or difficulty. It is therefore, in his judgment, the eternal wonder of angels, and indelible opprobrium of man, that a religion so worthy of God, so suitable to the frame and circumstances of our nature, so consonant to all the dictates of reason, so friendly to the dignity and improvement of intelligent beings, pregnant with genuine comfort and delight, should be rejected and despised. Were there a possibility of suspense or hesitation between this and any other religion extant, he could freely trust the determination of a question so important to the candid decision of real virtue and impartial philosophy.

Thus have we given what we hope will be esteemed a genuine, though short, account of those principles of faith and rules of action which are received by the generality of Christians. Such points as are either disputable or have been controverted by different sects, we have industriously endeavoured to avoid. But every man who profoundly reflects will easily see, that this plan, in its full extent, was impracticable. A more minute detail of its origin, progress, and establishment, is given under the article Messiah.

Christians, those who profess the religion of Christ. See Christianity, and Messiah.

The first Christians distinguished themselves in the most remarkable manner by their conduct and their virtues. The faithful, whom the preaching of St Peter had converted, hearkened attentively to the exhortations of the Apostles, who failed not carefully to instruct them, as persons who were entering upon an entirely new life. They went every day to the temple with one heart and one mind, and continued in prayers; doing nothing different from the other Jews, because it was not yet time to separate from them. But they made a still greater progress in virtue; for they sold Christians all that they possessed, and distributed their goods in proportion to the wants of their brethren. They eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. St Chrysostom, examining from what source the eminent virtue of the first Christians flowed, attributes it principally to their divesting themselves of their possessions: "For (says that father) persons from whom all that they have is taken away are not subject to sin: whereas, as whoever has large possessions wants not a devil or a tempter to draw him into hell by a thousand ways."

The Jews were the first, and the most inveterate enemies the Christians had. They put them to death as often as they had it in their power: and, when they revolted against the Romans in the time of the emperor Adrian, Barcochabas, the head of that revolt, employed against the Christians the most rigorous punishments, to compel them to blaspheme and renounce Jesus Christ. And we find that, even in the 3rd century, they endeavoured to get into their hands Christian women, in order to scourge and stone them in their synagogues. They cursed the Christians solemnly three times a day in their synagogues, and their rabbins would not suffer them to converse with Christians upon any occasion. Nor were they contented to hate and detest them; but they dispatched emissaries all over the world to defame the Christians, and spread all sorts of calumnies against them. They accused them, among other things, of worshipping the sun, and the head of an ass. They reproached them with idleness, and being an useless race of people. They charged them with treason, and endeavouring to erect a new monarchy against that of the Romans. They affirmed, that, in celebrating their mysteries, they used to kill a child, and eat its flesh. They accused them of the most shocking incests, of impudence, avarice, and sometimes of prodigality, and of intemperance in their feasts of charity. But the lives and behaviour of the first Christians were sufficient to refute all that was said against them, and evidently demonstrated, that these accusations were mere calumny, and the effect of inveterate malice.

Pliny the younger, who was governor of Pontus and Bithynia, between the years 103 and 105, gives a very particular account of the Christians in that province, in a letter which he wrote to the emperor Trajan, of which the following is an extract: "I take the liberty, Sir, to give you an account of every difficulty which arises to me. I have never been present at the examination of the Christians; for which reason I know not what questions have been put to them, nor in what manner they have been punished. My behaviour towards those who have been accused to me has been this: I have interrogated them, in order to know whether they were really Christians. When they have confessed it, I have repeated the same question two or three times, threatening them with death, if they did not renounce this religion. Those who have persisted in their confession, have been, by my order, led to punishment. I have even met with some Roman citizens guilty of this profanity, whom, in regard regard to their quality, I have set apart from the reli, in order to lend them to Rome. These per- sons declare, that their whole crime, if they are guilty, consists in this; that, on certain days, they assemble before sun-rise, to sing alternately the praises of Christ, as of a God, and to oblige them- selves, by the performance of their religious rites, not to be guilty of theft, or adultery, to observe in- viably their word, and to be true to their trust. This deposition has obliged me to endeavour to in- form myself still farther of this matter, by putting to the torture two of their women-servants, whom they call deaconesses: but I could learn nothing more from them, than that the superstition of these people is as ridiculous, as their attachment to it is prodigious.

There is extant a justification, or rather panegyric, of the Christians, pronounced by the mouth of a Pa- gan prince. It is a letter of the emperor Antoninus, written in the year 152, in answer to the flutes of Asia, who had accused the Christians of being the cause of some earthquakes which had happened in that part of the world. The emperor advises them to take care, lest, in torturing and punishing those, whom they accused of atheism, (noting the Chris- tians), they should render them more obstinate, instead of prevailing upon them to change their opinion; since their religion taught them to suffer with plea- sure for the sake of God." As to the earthquakes that had happened, he puts them in mind, that "they themselves are always discouraged, and sink under such misfortunes; whereas the Christians never disco- vered more cheerfulness and confidence in God, than upon such occasions." He tells them, that "they pay no regard to religion, and neglect the worship of the eternal; and, because the Christians honour and adore him, therefore they are jealous of them, and per- secute them even to death." He concludes: "many of the governors of provinces have formerly written to my father concerning them, and his answer always was, that they should not be molested or disturbed, provided they quietly submitted to the authority of the government. Many persons have likewise con- sulted me upon this affair, and I have returned the same answer to them all; namely, that, if any one accuses a Christian merely on account of his religion, the accused person shall be acquitted, and the accuser himself punished." This ordinance, according to Eu- sebius, was publicly fixed up at Ephesus, in an assem- bly of the flutes.

It is no difficult matter to discover the causes of the many persecutions, to which the Christians were ex- posed during the three first centuries. The purity of the christian morality, directly opposite to the corrup- tion of the Pagans, was doubtless one of the most powerful motives of the public aversion. To this may be added, the many calumnies unjustly spread about concerning them, by their enemies, particularly the Jews. And this occasioned so strong a prejudice against them, that the Pagans condemned them without inquiring into their doctrine, or permitting them to defend themselves. Besides, their worshipping Jesus Christ, as God, was contrary to one of the most an- cient laws of the Roman empire, which expressly for- bad the acknowledging of any god, which had not been approved by the senate.

But, notwithstanding the violent opposition made to the establishment of the Christian Religion, it gained ground daily, and very soon made a surprising pro- gress in the Roman empire. In the 3rd century, there were Christians in the camp, in the senate, in the pa- lace, in short everywhere, but in the temples, and the theatres: they filled the towns, the country, the islands. Men and women, of all ages and conditions, and even those of the first dignities embraced the faith; inasmuch that the Pagans complained, that the revenues of their temples were ruined. They were in such great numbers in the empire, that (as Tertul- lian expresses it) were they to have retired into another country, they would have left the Romans only a fruitful solitude.

The primitive Christians were not only remarkable for the practice of every virtue: they were also very eminently distinguished by the many miraculous gifts, and graces, bestowed by God upon them. "Some of the Christians (says Irenaeus) drive out devils, not in appearance only, but so that they never return; whence it often happens, that those, who are dispo- sessed of evil spirits, embrace the faith, and are re- ceived into the Church. Others know what is to come, see visions, and deliver oracles as prophets. Others heal the sick by laying their hands on them, and restore them to perfect health: and we find some, who even raise the dead.—It is impossible to reckon up the gifts and graces, which the Church has re- ceived from God—what they have freely received they are freely bestow. They obtain these gifts by prayer alone, and invocation of the name of Jesus Christ, without any mixture of enchantment, or superstition."

We shall here subjoin the remarkable story attested by Pagan authors themselves, concerning the Christian Legion in the army of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. That prince, having led his forces against the Quadi, a people on the other side of the Danube, was sur- rounded and hemmed in by the enemy, in a disadvan- tageous place, and where they could find no water. The Romans were greatly embarrassed, and, being prevented by the enemy, were obliged to continue un- der arms, exposed to the violent heat of the sun, and almost dead with thirst; when, on a sudden, the clouds gathered, and the rain fell in great abundance. The soldiers received the water in their bucklers and hel- mets, and satisfied both their own thirst, and that of their horses. The enemy, presently after, attacked them; and to great was the advantage they had over them, that the Romans must have been overthrown, had not heaven again interposed by a violent storm of hail, mixed with lightning, which fell on the enemy, and obliged them to retreat. It was found after- wards, that one of the legions, which consisted of Christians, had, by their prayers, which they offered up on their knees before the battle, obtained this fa- vour from heaven: and from this event that legion was nicknamed the thundering Legion. See, however, the criticism of Mr. Moseley on this story, in his Works, vol. ii. p.81—390. See also Moseley's Church His- tory, vol. i. p. 124.

Such were the primitive Christians, whose religion Christians has by degrees spread itself over all parts of the world, though not with equal purity in all. And though, by the providence of God, Mohammedans and Idolaters have been suffered to possess themselves of those places in Greece, Asia, and Africa, where the Christian religion formerly most flourished; yet they are still such remains of the Christian religion among them, as to give them opportunity sufficient to be converted.

For, in the dominions of the Turk in Europe, the Christians make two third parts at least of the inhabitants; and in Constantinople itself there are above twenty Christian churches, and above thirty in Thessalonica. Philadelphia, now called Ala-shahir, has no fewer than twelve Christian churches. The whole island of Chio is governed by Christians; and some islands of the Archipelago are inhabited only by Christians. In Africa, besides the Christians living in Egypt, and in the kingdom of Congo and Angola, the islands upon the western coasts are inhabited by Christians; and the vast kingdom of Abyssinia, supposed to be as big as Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, put together, is possessed by Christians. In Asia, most part of the empire of Russia, the countries of Circassia and Mingrelia, Georgia, and mount Lebanon, are inhabited only by Christians. In America, it is notorious, that the Christians are very numerous, and spread over most parts of that vast continent.

Christians of St John, a sect of Christians very numerous in Balbara and the neighbouring towns: they formerly inhabited along the river Jordan, where St John baptized, and it was from thence they had their name. They hold an anniversary feast of five days; during which they all go to the bishop, who baptizes them with the baptism of St John. Their baptism is also performed in rivers, and that only on Sundays: they have no notion of the third Person in the Trinity; nor have they any canonical book, but abundance full of charms, &c. Their bishops descend by inheritance, as our estates do, though they have the ceremony of an election.

Christians of St Thomas, a sort of Christians in a peninsula of India, on this side of the gulf: they inhabit chiefly at Cranganore, and the neighbouring country: these admit of no images; and receive only the cross, to which they pay a great veneration: they affirm, that the souls of the saints do not see God till after the day of judgment; they acknowledge but three sacraments, viz. baptism, orders, and the eucharist: they make no use of holy oils in the administration of baptism; but, after the ceremony, anoint the infant with an unction composed of oil and walnuts, without any benediction. In the eucharist, they consecrate with little cakes made of oil and salt, and instead of wine make use of water in which raisins have been infused.