in manners and piety from the death of Dionysius to the end of the century. In one instance there was a great difference, superstition was much stronger in the ancient church; but being enlisted in the service of self-righteousness, and the faith of Christ and the love of God being much buried under it, this diversity does not affect the general likeness.

God, who had exercised long patience, declared at length in the course of his providence, "Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee."*

But this scene, which introduced quite a new face on the church, and was quickly followed by several surprising revolutions, belongs to the next century.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Some Account of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Theognostus, and Dionysius of Rome.

THESE three persons are all whom I can find belonging to the third century, to whom sufficient justice has not been done already. Of the two last indeed I have scarce any thing to say. Of the first more is recorded. His life was written by Gregory of Nyssen, and though some allowance must be made for the growth of superstitious credulity in his days, yet that all the miraculous powers ascribed to Gregory are fictitious it would be unreasonable to assert. The concurrent testimony of antiquity and the very name of Thaumaturgus† evince the contrary. I shall endeavour to steer as clear of errors on both sides as I can, in putting down every thing that may seem valuable concerning this great man. A small account of him is in Eusebius. Cave and Fleury have also collected the most material things of him from

• Ezek. xxiv. 13. † Wonderworker.

+ Book 6, c. 29.

Gregory Nyssen's narrative, and from the former I shall chiefly collect the account.

He was born at Neocæsarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia; his father, zealous for paganism, took care to educate him in idolatry and the learning of the Gentile world. He lost his father when he was fourteen years of age. His mother took care to complete his education and that of his brother Athenodorus, afterwards a christian bishop, as well as himself. He travelled to Alexandria to learn the platonic philosophy, where he was equally remarkable for strictness of life and close attention to his studies. He afterwards put himself under the tuition of the renowned Origen, who then taught at Cæsarea in Palestine, with his brother Athenodorus, and Firmilian, a Cappadocian gentleman, with whom he contracted an intimate friendship. This is the Cappadocian bishop whom we have repeatedly had occasion to mention. With Origen the two brothers continued five years, and were persuaded by him to study the Holy Scriptures; and no doubt is to be made, but that the most assiduous pains were urged by that zealous teacher to ground them in the belief of christianity. On his departure he delivered an eloquent speech, in praise of Origen, before a numerous auditory, a testimony at once of his gratitude and powers of rhetoric.

There is still extant a letter written by Origen to him after he had left him, in which he exhorts him to apply his knowledge to the promotion of christianity. The best thing in it is, that he advises him to pray fervently and seriously for the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Being now returned to Neocæsarea, he gave himself much to prayer and retirement, and no doubt was in secret prepared and disciplined for the important work to which he was soon after called. Neocæsarea was large and populous, but full of idolatry, the very seat of Satan, so that christianity scarce could gain any entrance into it. Phædimus, bishop of Amasea, a neighbouring city, grieved to see its situation, and hoping much from the Origen Philocab. c. 13.

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piety and capacity of young Gregory, took pains to engage him in the work of the ministry there. Gregory, from pure modesty, took pains to elude his designs, but was at length prevailed on to accept the charge.

The scene was arduous. He had a church to found, before he could govern it, there being not above seventeen professors of christianity there. I do not believe the vision which his namesake of Nyssen tells of his receiving a creed from John the evangelist and the Virgin Mary. He seems to have been imposed on by the superstitious spirit, then too prevalent. But as he assures us the original, written with his own hand, was preserved in the church of Neocæsarea in his time, and this is a matter of fact of which any person might judge; as the creed itself contains nothing but what is very agreeable to the language of the fathers of the third century, and we have already seen the exact pains which they took in guarding the doctrine of the Trinity against heresies, I apprehend it to be really his; though when the reader has considered it, he will not be surprised at the industry* with which in our times its credit has been impeached. And the whole will deserve to be set down at length, because the orthodoxy of Gregory has been unreasonably called in question, against the express testimony of Eusebius, who, we have seen above, represents him as one of the opposers of Paul of Samosata, at the first council.

"There is one God the Father of the living Word, of the subsisting wisdom and power, and of the eternal express Image; perfect, the Father of the perfect, the Father of the only-begotten Son. One Lord alone of alone, God of God, the character and image of the Deity, the energetic Word, the Wisdom comprehensive of the system of the Universe, and the Power that made all creation, the true Son of the true Father, the Invisible of the invisible, the incorruptible of the incorruptible, the immortal of the immortal, the eternal of the eternal; and one Holy Ghost, having his subsistence of

* See Lardner's Credibility.

God, manifested through the Son to men, the image of the Son, the perfect life of the perfect, the source of life, the holy fountain, sanctification, and the supplier of sanctification, in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all; a perfect Trinity, in glory, eternity, and kingdom, not separated, not divided."

Notwithstanding the prejudices which his idolatrous countrymen must have had against him, Musonius, a person of consequence in the city, received him, and in a very little time his preaching was attended with so great success that he had a numerous congregation. The situation of Gregory, so like that of the primitive christian preachers, in the midst of idolatry, renders it exceedingly probable that he was, as they were, favoured with miraculous gifts: for these the Lord bestowed in abundance, where the name of Jesus had as yet gained no admission; and it is certain that miracles had not ceased in the church.

Gregory Nyssen lived himself within less than a hundred years after our Gregory; and both he and his brother," the famous Basil, speak of his miracles without the least doubt. Their aged grandmother Macrina, who taught them in their youth, had in her younger years been an hearer of Gregory. Basil particularly observes, that she told them the very words which she had heard from him, and assures us that the Gentiles on account of the miracles which he performed used to call him a second Moses. The existence of his miraculous powers, with reasonable persons, seems then unquestionable. It is only to be regretted that the few particular instances which have come down to us are not the best chosen; but that he cured the sick, healed the diseased, and expelled devils, and that thus God wrought by him for the good of souls, and to pave the way for the propagation of the gospel, as it is in itself very credible, so has it the testimony of men worthy to be believed.

Gregory continued successfully employed at Neocæsarea till the persecution of Decius. Swords and axes, fire, wild beasts, stakes and engines to distend the limbs,

iron chairs made red hot, frames of timber set up straight, in which the bodies of the tortured were racked with nails that tore off the flesh. These and a variety of other inventions were used. But the Decian persecution, in general, was before described. Pontus and Cappadocia seem to have had their full share. Relations, in the most unnatural manner, betrayed one another, the woods were full of vagabonds, the towns were empty, and private houses, deprived of their christian inhabitants, became gaols for the reception of prisoners, the public prisons not sufficing for that purpose.

In this terrible situation of things, Gregory considering that his new converts could scarce be strong enough to stand their ground and be faithful, advised them to, flee, and to encourage them in it he set them the example. Many of his people suffered, but God restored them at length to peace, and Gregory again returned to exhilarate their minds with his pastoral labours.

In the reign of Gallienus the christians suffered extremely from the ravages of barbarous nations, which gave occasion to Gregory's Canonical Epistle, still extant, in which rules of a wholesome, penitential, and disciplinarian nature are delivered. But there is no need to particularize them.

The last service of his which is recorded, is the part which he took in the first council concerning Paul of Samosata. He died not long after. A little before his death he made a strict inquiry whether there were any in the city and neighbourhood still strangers to christianity. And being told there were about seventeen in all, he sighed and lifting up his eyes to heaven, appealed to God how much it troubled him that any of his fellow-townsmen should remain unacquainted with salvation, yet that his thankfulness was due to God, that when at first he had found only seventeen christians, he had left only seventeen idolators. Having prayed for the conversion of infidels and the edification of the faithful, he peaceably gave up his soul to God.

He was an evangelical man in his whole life, as Basil says. In his devotion he shewed the greatest reverence.