CHRIST 
.Romans, as if affiamed of luiihah facrifices, trained up 
perfons to engage in voluntary combat, and to fight uri- 
til they killed each other at the tombs of the deceafed. 
This was the origin of thofe bloody fliows afterwards fo 
delightful to the people of Rome : thefe were the amufe- 
ments with which the principal magiftrates of Rome, 
and afterwards the eiripefors, entertained the citizens, 
and by which they acquired popularity among the people 
of that city. Julius Casfar prel'ented three hundred and 
twenty pair of gladiators; even the worthy Titus exhi¬ 
bited a ffiow of gladiators; and Trajan, though not cruel 
in other refpeCls, furnifned another difplay, where one 
thoufand pair of gladiators were exhibited on a theatre, 
for the entertainment of the fpe&ators. In all thofe l'pec- 
tacles, every pair of combatants was matched and pitted 
againft each other, and obliged to maim and murder, in 
cold blood, thofe who never had offended them. The 
paflion for thefe bloody encounters role to fuch a height, 
that fenators and knights turned gladiators; and even 
women engaged in them under Nero and Domitian. 
Chriftian divines foon exercifed their pens againft thefe 
practices; Conftantine the Great reltrained them by edicts, 
and the emperor Honorius entirely aboliflied them. 
The following inftances may evince the utility of Chrif- 
tianity in banilhing idolatry and barbarous practices from 
fome countries, even where it did not immediately pro¬ 
duce virtue, among converts to the gofpel. The Gauls 
and ancient Saxons employed various abi'urd methods of 
difcovering whether perfons fufpe&ed of any crime were 
innocent or guilty. Sometimes the perfon accufed was 
obliged to engage in Angle combat, to prove his inno¬ 
cence ; and both prieft and people prayed in filence, du¬ 
ring the combat, that the innocent might be victorious. 
Sometimes he was fotced to the fhoeking alternative of 
grafping red-hot iron, or of acknowledging himfelf guil¬ 
ty; fometimes to walk blind-folded and bare-footed over 
red-hot ploughfhares, placed at certain diltances; and 
fometimes, to thrult his arm into boiling water. In all 
thefe cafes, he was judged innocent-or guilty, according 
to the effe&s which thefe trials produced. In fome in¬ 
ftances, a perfon was flung into the river with a rope 
about his arms; if he ftaid at the bottom, until he was 
drawn up, he was looked on as innocent ; but if he 
floated, he was confidered as criminal. Thefe four forts 
of ordeal, a remain of heathen i'uperliition, lafted fora 
confiderable time after the introduction of Chriftianity, 
but were aboliflied by a decree of pope Stephen II. as 
impious and unjuft, and frequently expofing the innocent 
to tnanifeft hazard. It is generally admitted, that the 
Irifti were extremely fierce and barbarous before the time 
of St. Patrick, and that their ferocity was aftonifliingly 
abated after that primitive Chriftian preached the golpel 
among them. St. Jerome tells us, that the Scots adopted 
Plato’s community of wives, and had their appetites no 
better regulated than thofe of beads. That the Atticotti, 
a people of Britain, ate human flelh. Whether the Atticotti 
were a people of Scotland or not, let antiquarians deter¬ 
mine; out objeCt is only to prove, that lome nations of 
Britain were extremely barbarous before the Chriftian 
code, that foftener of manners, was publiflied among them. 
Gildas the Wife affirms, that the Britons, before they were 
civilized by the gofpel, were rude, barbarous, and impure 
in their manners, facrificed human victims, and that their 
idols were more numerous than the idols of Egypt. Collier 
is of opinion, that the inhabitants of Britain were ex¬ 
tremely cruel before the introduction of Chriftianity, and 
he founds his opinion on the following faCts. In Gaul, 
Before that period, the druids managed the facrifices, in¬ 
terpreted omens, and directed all matters relative to their 
fuperftitions. In times of public diftrefs they offered ani¬ 
mal faciifices, and in cafe of ficknefs or other calamity 
which befel individuals, they required human victims to 
appeafe their deities. Their idol figures were hollow and 
capacious, beingformed by wicker fticks fo interwoven as to 
hold together, and fo fhaped as to reprefeat the monftrous 
Vol. IV. No. zi6. 
I A N I T Y. 521 
form of a gigantic man. In them tliey placed wretched 
vi&irns, and burned them to death. They generally facri¬ 
ficed thieves, robbers, or other criminals ; but when they 
were not fupplied with a fufficient number of thefe, they 
facrifieed the innocent. Casfar gives this account of the 
Gallic druids, and acquaints us, that thefe borrowed their 
fuperftitions from thofe of Britain; whence the ecclefiafti- 
cal hiftorian fairly concludes, that the Britons were as fu- 
perftitious in their worlhip, and as barbarous in their man¬ 
ners, as the Gauls ; and ftrengthens his conclusion by the 
authority of Tacitus, who affirms, that'in the ifle of An- 
glefea druids ufed to facrifice prifoners taken in war, and 
put perfons of both fexes to death, for the purpofe of in- 
fpeCting their entrails, and prying into futurity. This 
rough people were foftened in their manners, and human 
facrifices were exploded in Great Britain, Gaul, and other 
places, by the promulgation of a code, whole fpirit is lo 
adverfe to cruelty and bloodlhed. 
As a demonftrative proof that the greateft empires of 
the world were to have a connection with the advance¬ 
ment of tiue religion under the difpenfation of Chfift, we.' 
need only appeal to the teftimony of the ancient predic¬ 
tions. Enlightened with the bright vifions of futurity, the 
prophet Ifaiah calls by name on the conqueror of Affy- 
ria, and the reftorer of Ifrael, two centuries previous to 
his birth. To the eye of Daniel the fucceffive monarchies 
of Perfia, of Macedon, and of Rome, were reprefented 
by the moft exaCt difplay of emblematical imagery. The 
different periods of the Jewiffi liiftory, when the Almighty 
raifed up the nations as the inftruments of his vengeance 
or his mercy, will fliew by what various modes they com¬ 
bined to execute, the divine decrees. Sometimes the 
daughter of Babylon mocked the forrows of her captives, 
whole negleCt of Jehovah had been the caufe of their 
chains; fometimes, when only humbled by their cala¬ 
mity, their conqueror permitted them to regain the feat: 
of their fathers, and to reftore the glories of the fallen 
temple. 
From the ruins of preceding ftates, arofe the ftupen- 
dous and auguft fabric of the Roman empire. Though 
long agitated by the ftorm of contending factions, it 
furvived every ffiock of domeftic tumult, and gradually 
extended its "dominion over the inoft populous arid war¬ 
like regions of the world. The nations of Europe, of 
Afia, and of Africa, which at prefent compole formida¬ 
ble kingdoms, were enrolled in the regiftcr of her tribu¬ 
tary provinces, and Rome became the metropolis of a 
vaft empire. On the advancement of Auguftus to the 
imperial throne, the violence of inteftine diforders was ex- 
tinguilhed, and the various parts of the empire enjoyed a 
degree of repofe unknown to former ages. The love of 
conqueft, which had for feven fucceffive centuries prompted 
the Romans to carry their arms into every country which 
acknowledged not their power, fubfided into fudden and 
lading peace; and the difpofition of the fir ft emperor to 
mark out the boundaries of dominion, and to filence the 
clamour of arms, produced a ftrong and aftonilhing con¬ 
trail to the fierce and ambitious temper of their ariceftors. 
In the tendency of ail thefe circumftances to fome mag¬ 
nificent event, we may clearly difcern the directing hand 
of the Creator of the univerle. To his difpofal alone, can 
properly be attributed that long and complex concate¬ 
nation of affairs which led the Romans by regular fteps 
to the fummit of dominion. The conflict of their paf- 
fions, the various refolutions of their government, the 
ingenuity of the wife, and the ambition of the valiant, 
co-operated for one tranfcendent purpofe. It was ulti¬ 
mately for this end, that the legifiators remedied the po¬ 
litical evils which threatened the deftruCtion of the Roman 
(late, and laid the firm foundations of general order. Fcr 
this her heroes fought with unparalleled advantage, and 
victory was ever ready to lead her armies to triumph. 
For this Scipio gloried in the fall of Carthage, Pompey 
returned with the fpoils of Mithridates, and Casfar bore 
his triumphant eagle from the plains of Egypt to thc- 
6 R fliorts 
