.306 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



Letter of 

 A rn 



Pliny. 



Tortures in 

 flirted on 

 the Chris- 

 tians. 



asked them if they were Christians: if they pleaded 

 guilty, I interrogated them twice afresh, with a menace 

 of capital punishment. In case of obstinate p< 

 ranee, I ordered them to be executed. For <>t 

 had no doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, 

 that a sullen and inflexible obstinacy called for the ven- 

 geance of the magistrate." Strange conduct this for a 

 judge, and a very extraordinary mode of trial indeed ! 

 Vet such was the treatment of the Christians at the tri- 

 bunal of the younger I'liny ; a man whose character for 

 InMicvolencc, and even for justice, is perhaps the most 

 unexceptionable of any which pagan antiquity can fur- 

 nish. Tin- testimony, however, given by the same dis- 

 tinguished person to the simplicity and purity of the 

 Christian manners, must not be iiastilv pas-cd over. 

 ' And this," says he, " was theiraccount of the religion 

 which they professed, whether it deserves the appella- 

 tion of a crime or an error, namely, that on a stated 

 da}-, they were accustomed to assemble before sunrise, 

 and to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ in the 

 character of a God, (Cliristo quasi Deo,) and to bind 

 themselves, by an oath, not to commit any wickedness, 

 but, on the contrary, to abstain from thefts, robberies, 

 and adulteries; not to violate their promise or deny a 

 pledge: after which," continues the judge, " it is their 

 custom to separate, anil then to meet again, sitting 

 down to a harmless meal, of which all are invited to 

 partake." We arc proud of this testimony : it comes 

 from one who evidently believed the statement to be 

 correct; it comes from a man of education and discern- 

 ment, and it is to be found in a confidential letter from 

 this man to the emperor, acknowledging his inexperi- 

 ence, and begging to be informed how he should act in 

 so peculiar a case. And it puts to flight, for ever, all 

 the accusations which interest and malice have brought 

 again-t the tendency of the Christian doctrine, and the 

 purity of the Christian assemblies. The persecution, 

 however, with some restrictions, went on. " The 

 Christians," says the emperor in his reply, " are not to 

 br sought for ; but if any are brought before you, and 

 convicted, they are to be punished." 



Indeed the human mind revolts at the sufferingswhich 

 the followers of Christ were doomed in many places to 

 experience. They were publicly whipped till their bones 

 and sinews appeared ; their fle.sh was torn from them 

 with pincers; they were consumed in a slow fire, care- 

 fully prevented from reaching the vital parts ; they were 

 tortured in iron chairs, made rc;l hot, and kept glow- 

 ing to receive them. The aged and venerable Poly- 

 carp was put to death ; the excellent and learned Jus- 

 tin obtained the crown of martyrdom.. In the begin- 

 ning of the third century, Ireiiicus, bishop of Lyons, 

 sealed his testimony with his blood. Pontamisena, a 

 woman of great beauty, was condemned to suffer on 

 account of her religion, and, with Marcella her mother, 

 w as burnt to death, melted pitch having been poured 

 over their naked bodies. The time would fail us should 

 we attempt to enumerate the victims of superstition. 

 Neither age nor sex was spared. The arm of power 

 was lifted up ; the genius of man was exhausted in the 

 invention of tortures; and, to a hasty observer, it might 

 seem, that the hour was at length come when Christia- 

 nity,subdued and worn out with sufferings, would resign 

 her name and her place among men. 



This conclusion, however, would be the very reverse 

 (if the truth. The Christians had multiplied in a most 

 extraordinary degree. They filled the senate-house 

 and the army, and they were to be found in all situa- 

 tions and employments. Persecution had produced 



upon them its usual effects, it had not only united tin in ' 

 more . , -ther, but it had inflamed their y.e;d ami 



quickened their activity. Their opinions soon become """" 



general ; a virv great majority of the people embraced 

 and avowed them, till at length, in the . 

 stantine the Great was invested with the purple, a:,c: 

 the religion of Jesus became the religion of the empire. 

 From tins time Christianity WHS not only tolc;-.iu-d. but ' 

 protected and cherished. The number of the ediliei 

 consecrated to the worship of God was increased, and 

 the emperor himself was not ashamed to be seen enga- 

 ging in the exercises of religion, or in the devout ob- 

 servance of the ceremonies ordained by the church, 

 -been .-aid, that when Con- tantine was about to 

 engage in battle with his rival Maxentius, he saw in the 

 heave us a luminous cross, with the following inscrip- 

 tion, " by this overcome," and that in i ,ee of 

 the vision and the success which attended his arms, In- 

 embraced Christianity. We are aware that the storj 

 has been suspected, and perhaps not without reason ; 

 but whatever truth or falsehood there may be in it. we 

 have no hesitation in ranking the F.mperor Constan- 

 tine among the sincere professors of the Christian faith. 



The doctrine of the primitive church is to be learnt n iriiicrf 

 with the utmost certainty from the books f the New 

 Testament. These books were received by the leading 

 men in the Christian assemblies, and approved of by 

 the people at large ; they were publicly read, and care- 

 fully preserved and transmitted ; and having been col- 

 lectecl into a volume, towards the end of the ii.st cen- 

 tury, they became, to all the followers of Jesus through- 

 out the world, the only standard of faith, and the only 

 rule of righteous conduct. The primitive church be- 

 lieved that there is one God, uncreated and everlasting: 

 that the Logos, or word of God, ' who was in the be- 

 ginning with God, and was God," became " bum of 

 our bone and flesh of our flesh," and dwelt UJKHI thi> 

 earth : that he gave himself tor us, " an otic-ring and a 

 sacrifice ;" and that, " being justified by faith in him, 

 we have peace with God." That our present stalt 

 state of condemnation, corruption, and suiicring : that. 

 by the transgression of our first progenitor, ' sin en- 

 tered into the world, and deatll by sin;" and that "i 

 hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." 

 That the soul of man shall exi>t in a future and un- 

 changeable state of happiness or misery: that, by the in- 

 fluence of the Holy Ghost, our understandings arc en- 

 lightened in all heavenly knowledge, and our hearts 

 changed from all evil dispositions: that Jesus Christ, ha- 

 ving risen from the dead, will appear in the end of all 

 things as the judge of the whole world ; and that in the 

 great day of trial and of retribution, he will receive his 

 followers into "mansions" of happiness, where they shall 

 abide for ever, "beholding his glory, the glory which lie 

 had with the Father, before the world was." Such is the 

 sum of the doctrine maintained by the early chun 

 and it is this doctrine alone which they agreed in con- 

 sidering as " the faith once delivered to the saints." 



From the doctrine of the primitive church, we are : 

 naturally led to the consideration of the heresies with 

 which it WHS infested. Some of these henries appear 

 to have arisen very soon after the first promulgation of 

 Christianity ; nor is our religion, even at this moment, 

 and in the countries where it is professed in its great- 

 est purity, entirely free from their influence. M. 

 the heresies in question derived their origin from the, 

 union of philosophical speculation, or what was called 

 philosophical speculation, with the doctrine of the sa- 

 cred books. This wag particularly the case with the 



