THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 93 



where should an authentic series of these lives legi- 

 timately commence ? We have endeavoured to escape 

 rather than resolve this, by determining not to en- 

 ter on any that would induce us to confound what is 

 written in the sacred cause with matters of apochry- 

 phal, not to say fabulous, character. The holy re- 

 verence with which we are accustomed to turn to the 

 proto-martyr amd his sufferings, — the association of 

 all the best hopes of our calling, with the names of 

 Timothy and Titus, render us cautious how we ap- 

 proach what tradition (for there is little else) has 

 handed down to us respecting them. We feel com- 

 pelled to recede from within these holy precincts, 

 and our justification in so doing, shall be attempted, 

 in taking here, a name occurring in the sacred page, 

 that of Dionysius, the areopagite ; the following 

 comprises all that we may safely speak of him. 



That the parents of Dionysius moved in the higher 

 spheres of Athenian life, we may gather from the 

 celebrated orator, Isocrates, who tells us, that noble 

 birth was essential to the rank of an areopagite. 



The propagation of his faith became a Christian's 

 first duty, as it was the last charge left him by his 

 blessed Redeemer, and this charge had been so well 

 observed, that within a century, to quote the autho- 

 rity of Phny 's letter to Traj an, " it spread among many 

 of all ranks and ages, both men and women, not only 

 in circles, but in towns and country villages." 

 Of their vigilant attention to the rules of moral con- 

 duct we have the same unsuspected testimony. Pliny, 

 as proconsul of Bithynia, had summoned the Chris- 

 tians of that province before its tribunal : they 

 assured him, that, so far from being engaged in any 

 unlawful conspiracy, they were bound by* a solem 

 obligation not to commit any crime that can disturb 

 the peace of society, whether public or private. 

 How far we are borne out by facts in the propositions 

 which remain, will appear in the progress of these 

 researches. 



