our tortures are our consecration, and we are fit objects of your worship."

In

Finally, Tatian, shall bear his testimony, a testimony which, notwithstanding his other failings, is the more precious on account of his intimate knowledge of Grecian learning. vain do you advise me to consult my personal safety. That knowledge of God which the Scriptures have given me, I will not conceal. That contempt of death which you affect to derive from human philosophy, I will truly shew through the profession of my Christian faith. The Scriptures are more worthy of my regard than the philosophy in which I was bred. They are superior to it in all things; in antiquity, if we consider the late origin of Grecian knowledge; in authority, if we look at

Crucibus et stipitibus imponitis Christianos. Quod simulachrum non priùs argilla deformat cruci et stipiti superstructa? In patibulo primùm corpus Dei vestri dedicatur. Ungulis deraditis latera Christianorum. At in Deos vestros per omnia membra validiùs incumbunt asciæ, et runcinæ, et scobinæ. Ignibus urimur. Hoc et illi à primâ quidem massâ. In metalla damnamur. Indè cen sentur Dii vestri. Si per hæc constat divinitas aliqua; ergo qui puniantur, consecrantur, et numina erunt dicenda supplicia. C. 12.-The modes in which the Christians were tortured, are frequently pointed out by him in this indi rect way.

its errors. I am captivated by their style, free from Grecian inflation; the artless simplicity of the writers, the satisfactory account of cre ation, the impressiveness of the prophecies, the loftiness of the precepts, and the general government of God."* And in proportion to this zeal in the propagators of the faith, this sacred contempt of danger and death itself for the sake of Jesus Christ, was the actual extension of the Gospel. Justin Martyr states the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the growing conversion of the Gentiles from all nations, as the accomplishments of prophecy witnessed by that age.f These conversions are again mentioned in the dialogue, in which he labours to prove, that the benediction of Joseph by Moses was then fulfilling itself in the rapid abandonment of those idolatrous practices with which Satan had

Περινουντι δε μοι τα σπεδαια, συνέβη γραφαις τισιν εντυχείν Βαρβαρικαίς, πρεσβυτέραις μεν, ὡς προς τα Ελληνων δόγματα θειοτέραις δε, ὡς προς την εκείνων πλανην° και μοι πεισθηναι ταύταις συνέβη, δια τε των λέξεων το ατύφον, και των ειπόντων το ανεπίδηδευτον, και της τα πάνος ποιήσεως το ευκαταληπίον, και των μέλα λοντων το πεξογνωσικούς και των παραγελματων το εξαίσιον, και των όλων το μοναρχικόν. Orat. cont. Græcos, C. 46.

† Και έτως γενόμενα δρωμεν, γης μεν Ιεδαίων εξημωσιν, και της απο πανίος εθνός ανθρώπων δια της παρα των αποτόλων αυτά δίδακ χης πεισθέντας. Apol. 2. p. 88.

hitherto enslaved the Heathen nations. This went on with increasing success; till, through the force of the impression made on the government by these private conversions, and the irresistible credit obtained for the Gospel, the empire was induced formally to accept the faith; and, as Christ had foretold, the world believed on him.†

Such again were the triumphs of the Gospel, in its early encounter with the hostility of the world. Nor let it be imagined, that it was an imitation of the Heathen school, and the vanity of maintaining a novelty of doctrine which led those martyrs and confessors to brave the established Paganism by the confession of the faith of Christ. On the contrary, they exposed the unworthy motives of those who pretended to despise danger for the sake of philosophical opinions. There were some sophists, who in a trembling imitation of Anaxarchus, affected

* Εκ πανίων των εθνων δια τετε το μυςηρία εις την θεοσεβειαν ετράπησαν απο των ματαίων ειδώλων και δαιμονων. Dial. cum Tryph. ib. p. 318. Compare Deut. xxxiii. 17.

+ Totum orbem sibi creditaurum esse prædixit; et totus orbis, sicut prædictum est, credidit. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 12. c. 10.

* Πτυσσε τον Αναξαςχε θυλακον, Αναξαςχον δε ου πλητες Laert. in vit. Anax. lib. 9.

to maintain, that death was not an evil to be feared. Against the hollow pretensions of these men the Christian writers successfully argued, and either convicted them of secret cowardice under the show of magnanimity, or called upon them to die in a cause which alone could justify it. Tatian naturally infers the real fear of death in Crescens (one of these philosophists, and as impure as he was cowardly). from his attempts against the life of Justin and himself; since he must have regarded that as an evil which he wished to inflict on those whom he hated. On the other hand, it was justly concluded by him, that philosophical vanity is a miserable reason for the abandonment of life; and hence the Greeks were exhorted to that true fortitude which has its only foundation in the knowledge of God.* The conduct of the early Christians therefore was far removed from that of the Heathen schools. Indeed, our own history presents to us a brilliant proof of the same conscientious fidelity, the same resistance unto blood," in an age when such motives had no existence, when the question was not, whether

66

* Ει φατε μη δεν δεδιέναι τον θανατον, κοινωνώντες ήμων τοις δογμασι, μη δια την ανθρωπίνην δοξημανίαν, ὡς Αναξαρχος, απο θνησκετε χαριν δε της το Θεό γνώσεως, τε θάνατο κατι καταφρονηται YEEE. Orat. cont, Græc. C, 32.

a new faith should be introduced into the world, but whether the pure and primitive doctrines of the Gospel should be asserted and restored to the church of Christ, or whether they should remain for ever buried under the accumulations of that superstition which disfigured their beauty, and destroyed their salutary influence.* Nor were the labours and constancy of our reformers at all inferior to those of the early propagators of the Gospel. Whoever has admired the faith and heroick sufferings of Ignatius or Polycarp, must look with no less satisfaction on those of Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, and Hooper. And whoever will sit down to the serious perusal of their history, must, I think, rise up the better Christian; better pre

* Quòd si docemus sacrosanctum Dei Evangelium, et veteres Episcopos, atque Ecclesiam primitivam nobiscum facere, nósque non sine justâ causâ, et ab istis discessisse, et ad Apostolos, veterésque Catholicos patres rediisse, idque non obscurè, aut vafrè, sed bonâ fide coram Deo, verè, ingenuè, dilucidè, et perspicuè facimus; si illi ipsi qui nostram doctrinam fugiunt, et sese Catholicos dici volunt, apertè videbunt omnes illos titulos antiquitatis, de quibus tantoperè gloriantur, sibi excuti de manibus, et in nostrâ causâ plus nervorum fuisse quàm putârint, speramus, neminem illorum ita negligentem fore salutis suæ, quin velit aliquando cogitationem suscipere, ad utros potiùs se adjungat. Bp. Jewel's Apology, p. 28.