Crescens the Cynick Philosopher a Man proud and Ignorant and according to the humour of his Sect ill-natur'd and implacable and as Tatian who was very intimately acquainted with him and his manners describes him given up to all manner of Vice and Wickedness Now it hapned that Justin in publick Disputes had exposed the extream Childishness and Ignorance of this vain-glorious Pedant who to be revenged of him accuses him before the Prefect of the City who after he had in vain taken some pains to perswade him to renounce his Saviour and to Sacrifice to the Gods pronounced this Sentence against him and Six more They who refuse to do Sacrifice to the Gods and to obey the Imperial Edict let them be first Scourged and then Beheaded according to the Laws The Persecution at Lyons began at the Rabble as it is plainly described in the Epistle of that Church to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia In the first place say they they encountred with admirable courage and patience all the outrages and indignities of the promiscuous Rabble as Tumultuous Out-cries Scourgings Draggings Spoiling Stoning and Fettering and whatsoever else the Heady and Savage Multitude are wont to practise against their most hated Enemies And by them were they haled before the Governour 's Tribunal and by him deliver'd back to their fury which they Executed upon them with all the Arts and Circumstances of Fanatick Zeal and Barbarous Cruelty This I say was the usual Method to Sacrifice the Christians to the outrage of the Superstitious Rabble and if at any time any Prince engaged himself in the opposition of Christianity it was because that opposed the Pagan Religion But that was such an exorbitant contradiction to the common sense of Mankind and to all the first Principles of good and evil that it was impossible any Man could be in love with it after any fair and impartial enquiry about it So that what such Men acted against Christianity proceeded not from any rational and sober Counsel but meerly from vulgar custom and prejudice And therefore if M. Aurelius or any other Emperour that ought to have had more wit and temper than the Common People shewed any zeal against the Christian Religion their judgment is as little to be regarded in this case as that of the multitude because it is evident that they were acted meerly by superstitious zeal and folly If indeed they had opposed Christianity originally upon its own account the reasons of it might have deserved some consideration but when the ground of all their displeasure against it was founded upon their love of Paganism the meer absurdity of that cause is too great an exception against their understandings in this Controversie Thus supposing that M. Aurelius himself was as forward as the People in his zeal against Christianity it is evident that he was as wise too For whatever he was beside he was a great Superstitionist and to a degree of stupidity zealous for the Pagan Follies out of that vain affectation that had possest him to be accounted the second Numa of Rome which one conceit transported him to a more than childish zeal for the old Rites and Ceremonies of their Religion And this seems to have been the case of Decius and Dioclesian in setting on foot the eighth and tenth Persecutions to which they were hurried by a vehement and unlearned zeal for the Pagan Religion This in short is the truest account that I can find of all the Persecutions by which it plainly appears that Christianity was not so much opposed by its greatest Enemies for any thing they had to object against it self as because it so shamefully exposed the bruitishness of their Idolatry And yet as absurd as the Worship of the Heathen Gods was the giving Divine Worship to their Emperours was much worse For though their Gods were nothing better than dead Men yet having lived in Ages remote and almost unknown and thereby gain'd the advantageous reverence of Antiquity the common People were not aware of their Original but finding them in the possession of their Divinity they gave them the Worship due to that Title But to give Divine and Religious Worship to the Roman Emperours whose Deaths and whose Vices were so fresh in the memories of Men was such an unmanly piece of flattery as any Man that had any sense of Generosity ought not to submit to but every Man that had any sense of God or Religion ought to defie And yet so infinitely were those Men besotted with Pride and Insolence that they all had their Temples and Priests dedicated to their own Divinity excepting onely Tiberius who being a great dissembler himself chose to refuse so gross a flattery and would not so much as permit his Statue to be placed among the Images of the Gods but onely among the Ornaments of private Houses But as for all the rest they either took to themselves all the Titles and Dignities of Divinity or had them conferr'd on them by their Successours And when they were once advanced among the Gods all Men were required under pain of Death to pay them Divine honour Nay as Tertullian too truly upbraids them they were more religious toward their Emperours than their supreme Deity Majore formidine callidiore timiditate Caesarem observatis quà m ipsum de Olympo Jovem And all this though it were scarce a greater blasphemy against God than an affront to Mankind yet so base and degenerate were the spirits of Men at that time that they refused not to submit to so dishonourable a flattery Onely the Christians out of that serious regard they had to the honour of their Creatour unanimously scorn'd it with open and publick defiance And for their generous freedom herein they were as familiarly proceeded against as for the contempt of their Gods But now if this were another ground of the Heathens acting against the Christians it is so far from being any reasonable pretence that it is one of the greatest shames of humane Nature So that setting aside all that Evidence that is to be produced in behalf of Christianity the opposition made to it upon this or any of the foremention'd accounts cannot reflect the least shadow of disadvantage upon the truth or the goodness of its Cause § XLI These were the real Articles of accusation in their charges against the Christians but they were not so frivolous as their forged and counterfeit pretences were malicious For the Heathen Priests thought it not enough to enflame the rage of the People with fanatick Zeal unless they fed their Malice as all Impostors do with Lies and Calumnies But when Men are once reduced to this low and dirty Artifice in defence of any Cause it is a sign they are drawn down to the very dregs of Malice For it is onely for want of Argument that they are forced to make use of Slander which the natural ingenuity of Mankind would scorn if they could support themselves and their Party without
against the Christians was so contemptible that it was slighted as none of his own and made up altogether of borrowed Feathers out of other Mens Writings which he was not ashamed to transcribe word for word into his own Rhapsodie especially out of Celsus insomuch as Eusebius sticks not to affirm that there is but one passage in all his Book that was not answer'd aforehand by Origen And that was his parallel between our Saviour and Apollonius Tyanaeus but how evenly that runs we have already consider'd And therefore here I need say no more onely that from hence it appears that he did not so much as question much less deny our Saviour's Miracles but onely vyed the unvouched Stories of that pedantick Impostor with the so well voucht History of Jesus Nay he was so far from gainsaying their truth that he was forced to yield that he was a Divine Man and the onely thing for which he was so much offended against the Christians was that nothing less would serve their turn unless he might be reputed a God too So that his whole Opposition to the cause of Christianity amounts to nothing less than a clear confession of the truth of the matter of Fact and that is all that at present I am concern'd to prove And then as for the Emperour Julian as he was the fiercest of all the Enemies to Christianity so was he the most impotent too being too angry and passionate to make any just enquiry into the cause and withall of a strange lightness and vanity of Nature which those Historians that would most admire him remark as the most predominant principle in all his actions this hurried him according to the eagerness of his temper against the Christians because their Doctrine brought contempt upon all the old Constitutions of Greece of which he was so fond And this was the main of his Argument in his Book against the Christians that they disparaged the Heathen Gods and the Heathen Philosophers So that the bottom of all his zeal was nothing but pedantry and superstition For he valued himself not a little upon the Opinion that he had of his skill in the Grecian Learning and especially the mystical Philosophy of Plotinus lamblicus and the latter Platonists but much more upon his zeal for the old Superstition of which he was so childishly fond that it exposed him even to the contempt of the superstitious Rabble it self that flouted him as if he design'd the utter extirpation of Oxen as well as Christians And as he was so vain as to think himself Alexander the Great according to the Pythagorean Doctrine of the transmigration of Souls which put him upon his unfortunate Persian Expedition as not doubting to return with the same honour and success as he had done before so was he most ambitious of imitating Marcus Aurelius as he was of Numa in his zeal for the Worship of the Gods And it was this wild zeal lighting upon his temper that was naturally hot to a degree of madness that transported him into all his extravagant attempts against the Christians But as he was not naturally capable of any sober reasoning so much less in this case in which he was so much blinded with pride and passion And it is too evident with what little reason he opposed Christianity when the main thing that he always charged upon it was Atheism the very falshood and disingenuity of which charge is a manifest indication of his passion and partiality And as for his Book that he wrote against it with all possible keenness and indignation he dares not so much as come near the matter of Fact concerning our Saviour's Actions but plays aloof off against the Jews of old and the Christians of his own time But as for our Saviour's Miracles upon which the whole Controversie depends he does not so much as undertake to contradict them but onely says that it was no such wonderfull thing in him to cure the Lame and the Blind Seeing therefore he has not so much as meddled with the main Argument of Christianity the matter of Fact the evidence of that alone must of it self baffle all other Attempts At least till that is consider'd all other considerations are short of the Argument so that this alone may suffice as an answer to all his Cavils to refer him to the matter of Fact and if that prove it self true he can prove nothing but if it do not he need prove nothing it sinks of its own accord § XLIII However if they have any cavils that may seem to have any appearance of reason in them they are all raked together by Celsus the Epicurean who of all the Enemies to Christianity was both the boldest and the ablest as appearing with less folly and more malice For being an Atheist and so not at all tainted with their superstitious conceits he escaped all those disadvantages into which they run themselves by their fanatick zeal But being an Epicurean too he was the more exasperated against the Christian cause because that confuted all his wisedom by sensible experiment which was the onely proof of things that they would admit of in their Philosophy And therefore when they had so bravely deliver'd all wise Men that is themselves from the fear of a Divine Providence and the care of a future State it could not but be a very grating provocation upon Men of their proud peevish and ill-natur'd Principles to have so clear a baffle put upon all their wisedom and that in their own way And as this was the main motive of the peculiar displeasure of the Sadducees against the Apostles among the Jews so no doubt it wrought the same effect upon Men of the same Principles among the Heathens But of all others Celsus seems to have been most angry at the defeat and therefore lays about him to load it with all the cavil and calumny that wit or malice can invent And for the greater plenty of Objection he takes upon himself a double Person of a Jew and of an Heathen Though the truth is he personates the Jew full as awkerdly as the Ass did the Lion in the Lion's Skin his Epicurean Ears every where shew themselves through his Jewish Livery And he is so eager in his pursuit of Christianity that at every turn he forgets the Person he bears and falls as foul upon the Jews themselves as the Christians We shall engage him in both his shapes and leave it to any impartial either Jew or Heathen to judge of the reasonableness and validity of his Discourse His two great battering Engines that he plants in all parts of it we have already dismounted viz. His imputing our Saviour's Miracles to the power of Magick and his vying the Resurrection of others in Heathen Story with that of our Saviour And by this means we have already dispatched the greatest part of our business for being conscious to himself of the slightness of most of his Cavils he at every turn
and it requires onely eye-sight to observe that it could be contrived no other way but by Divine Providence But when I pretend to have routed all the mechanick Philosophers it is so far from presumption that there is no more glory in it than in the Conquest of an Infant And indeed nothing does more exactly resemble their wise contrivances than the little sports and works of Children for just as they make their Play-things so do these grave Philosophers make their Worlds In short the folly and non-sense of meer Mechanism or accounting for the nature of Things onely by Matter or Motion or any other second Causes is so notorious that all the Philosophers in the World never were nor ever will be able to give any the least account how so much as a Stone should fall to the ground without a Divine Providence This may seem a very odd challenge to be made to the great Wits and Virtuosi of Mankind but I make it not rashly and have throughly consider'd all their Attempts and more than enough demonstrated their Vanity and am sure upon the most diligent enquiry that it can never be done any other way than by resolving it into the force of Magnetism than which in all the Universe there is not a more amasing piece of Divine Art and Wisedom But here before I can proceed to what ought to have immediately followed I am forced to thrust in a kind of preposterous digression in answer to a very mean piece of disingenuity that I have lately met with from the Mechanick Philosophers viz. That I have made too bold with the reputation of great and famous Men and treat those that have been admired and renown'd for Wisedom and Learning in all Ages as if they were void of common sense And thus the late Authour of the Augmentation to Mr. Hobbs his Life when he has represented me as one of the keenest and unkindest of his Adversaries brings off his Master with this clean Complement that he has no reason to take it unkindly from one that sticks not to treat the greatest even of the ancient Philosophers after the same rate and gives the same correction even to the great Aristotle himself as to Mr. Hobbs and as for the famour de-Cartes he sticks not to chastise him like any School-boy But in the first place methinks this is a very poor and humble Objection and becomes not the due confidence of a Philosopher For it is this sort of Men that first upbraid us with the great and unanswerable Performances of Mr. Hobbs and tell us that till we can answer him we may preach what we please to the People but wise Men will be of his mind And yet when we not onely answer but plainly demonstrate the pitifull and even childish folly of his pretended Philosophy that is objected as an unpardonable rudeness to so learned a Man But I would fain know what is to be done in this case you will not be content till we undertake him and yet if we do you grow angry and our very attempting it is made our crime But yet if he be exposed 't is none of our fault but his own for 't is not in any Man's power to make his Notions better or worse than they are and if we represent them truly and they prove ridiculous we cannot help it but if we do not it would be somewhat to the purpose if they could convince us of so unmanly a piece of disingenuity but till then 't is at best but a very childish thing to complain either of unkind or uncivil Usage And therefore in the second place it was done much less like a Philosopher onely to give an account of my Assertions against Mr. Hobbs without taking any notice of our Reasons and Arguments For if I have charged any thing upon Mr. Hobbs and have not demonstratively prov'd it I am bound to give publick satisfaction to his memory But if I have then the severity of my charge is no fault of mine and for that I dare and do appeal to the judgment of all impartial Men whether I have not proved upon and against him all that I pretended to and if I have then it is evident that Mr. Hobbs has asserted a very wicked Cause very foolishly But lastly 't is done still much less like a Philosopher to load me with that invidious charge of traducing the greatest Worthies among the Ancients For I know no one quality more unbecoming a Man that pretends to letters and civility than an envious affectation of finding fault with the Performances of great Men. This has ever been the creeping artifice of small People to make themselves considerable onely by the greatness of their Adversaries and it is a practice that I detest as I do Slander or Perjury And if they could but assign one Instance in which I have in the least wrong'd any learned Man they should not be so forward to shew it as I would be to confess it But otheways to insinuate that I spare not the greatest even of the ancient Heroes is to say no worse but a sneaking way of encountring an Enemy and indeed an inward confession of the want of some better reply For if they thought they were able to overthrow Arguments in fair Combate they would scorn to betake themselves to such skulking Artifices For when all is done the whole merits of the Cause will rest upon the reason of the thing so that if I have opposed or confuted any of the ancient Philosophers upon good and substantial grounds I have done them no wrong in doing Truth right If otherwise I have not really injured them but my self and it is in these Gentlemens power that make the complaint to demonstrate the falshood or the folly of my Opposition But till then I think it becomes not the state and grandeur of a Philosopher to condescend to such poor topicks of Insinuation But if they will do so it is all one to me for my onely design is the pursuit of real Truth I mean not useless and barren Speculation but such as is serviceable to the Happiness of humane Nature and that is all the Learning or Wisedom that I care for And if any Man stand in my way though it be Aristotle or de-Cartes Epicurus or Mr. Hobbs Friend or Foe yea though it be M. Tullius himself yes though it be an Angel from Heaven I must on and if I am forced to justle them out of my way I cannot help it for I am resolved never to leave it my self However it is a vain thing for Mechanick Philosophers to complain of being a little derided when they so wantonly and affectedly expose themselves to it For how is it possible for the wittiest Men to come off with better success that when we see the whole World framed with such admirable Art and Wisedom shall undertake to teach the senseless Materials of which it is made to be their own Architect I will
easie matter the Law is forced to pass Judgment on the wrong side But beside the injuries of Fraud the greatest miseries brought upon Mankind by Injustice are supported by Power and Greatness and in such cases the Tyrant and Oppressour defies all discovery and though he cares not if all the World sees his Wickedness yet if any Man shall pretend to have his Eyes open he shall forfeit his head for the boldness of his Eye-sight So that if this were the onely state of things the Governour of the World has provided neither sufficient rewards for Justice and Honesty nor restraints from Fraud and Oppression And if he has not then he has laid no effectual obligation upon Mankind to be Just and Honest for the force of every Command depends upon its Sanction and therefore if he have injoin'd this Duty and have not backt it with sufficient motives of Obedience he has onely enacted useless and ineffectual Laws In short the onely difference between the Man that is Honest and the Man that is not is meerly this that the one prefers his Duty before his present Interest and the other his present Interest before his Duty For if he observe the Rules of Justice onely so far as they conduce to his own ends then whenever they happen to thwart he is obliged to quit his Duty rather than his Interest And when he does so he is so far destitute of all Principles of Honesty that he is entirely govern'd by the fundamental Maximes of Fraud and Oppression And if this be the onely difference that distinguishes Good and Bad Men I would fain know what motive or reason a good Man has to pursue his Duty when contrary to his Interest or a bad Man has to quit his Interest out of respect to his Duty if there be no other state of things than the present And therefore without Immortality Justice is so far from deserving our regard in all cases that in many it is a contradiction to the first Instinct of Nature that is self-love in that it obliges a Man to act cross to that without any reason or recompence for his so doing And therefore seeing the Providence of God has prescribed to us those many and plain Laws of Justice that I have discover'd from the Nature of Things in the precedent Discourse it unavoidably follows that upon that Supposition those Laws that he has prescribed must be abetted with the Rewards and Punishments of a future State because those of this if taken alone and separate from those of that are not of sufficient force and validity And as Justice the most necessary so Fortitude the most noble of all Vertues will have no Foundation upon the Epicurean Principles or rather will sink together with them For if there be no such thing as Justice to what purpose should any Man run himself into hazards and hardships for the sake of it and yet that is the onely Office of Magnanimity which when separated from a good Cause is no more than folly and fool-hardiness and in a bad Cause is no better than cruelty and oppression And beside this as every Vertue must have some Principle to warrant its Wisedom and Reasonableness so above all others Magnanimity because it puts us upon the severest and hardest Service and does more than any Vertue beside endanger our own Interest for the sake of Duty But if there be no other Interest than that of this Life it is apparent madness for any Man to hazard Life and Fortune and all that is dear to him here for any thing whatsoever when all other Motives that can be proposed to him are of less concernment to himself than his own Self-preservation Beside true Magnanimity bottoms all its Courage and Assurance upon no other Principle than the Conscience of its own Integrity It is that alone that gives a Man a sufficiency and satisfaction from himself that raises him to a contempt of all outward things that makes him searfull of all Assaults and Dangers and that supports him under all Losses and Misfortunes as esteeming all things whatsoever as mean and worthless Trifles in comparison to the Happiness of its own Reflections But then as Conscience is the onely support of Courage so is immortality of Conscience for that is nothing else but the Mind of Man acting with reference to the future Judgment of God And therefore from thence alone it derives all its Force and Authority and without that all seeming regard to it is nothing but Pretence and Pageantry For what comfort will a good Conscience afford a Man if he be to give no Account of his Actions Upon that Supposition the Guilty and the Innocent are upon equall Terms when the best Man is ne'er the better for all his Vertues nor the other the worse for all his Villanies If then Integrity of Conscience be the onely Principle of all Magnanimity and if the firmness of that depends meerly upon Immortality then that being taken away the one sinks into Crast the other into Cowardize In short there are but two Offices of Magnanimity either to doe or to suffer gallantly both which are manifest Contradictions to the Epicurean Principles For what Inducements can that Man have to put himself upon Hardships who knows no other Happiness but Ease and Lasiness And therefore upon their Supposition it was wise Advice of Metrodorus to his Brother not to concern himself in desence and preservation of his Country but to eat and drink with philosophick Wisedom and Discretion And then as for bearing up decently under Calamities I have already shewn that they have not one Principle wherewith to support themselves and without such Principles as can supply the absence of their present Happiness nothing else can relieve their Loss and therefore instead of bearing up with any chearfulness under Miseries and Afflictions they must for ever sink into insupportable Anguish and Despair And now from these Premises to mention no more Particulars because all the other Vertues depend upon these it is demonstratively evident that to root up the sentiments of Immortality out of the Minds of Men is to blast and put out the Sun and to overwhelm the World in eternal Night and Darkness Erasing all the Foundations of Happiness tearing up all the Roots of Vertue and laying wast all the Principles of humane Nature and humane Society And as Plutarch discourses where such Principles of Philosophy prevail as enervate the Laws of Vertue Men have nothing left to distinguish them from Brute-beasts but that they want the Claws of Lyons and the Teeth of Wolves the Stomachs of Oxen and the Backs of Camels In a word upon this single Principle of a future State depend all the differences of Good and Evil if this stand firm Vertue is secure but otherwise after all that care that the Divine Providence has taken to recommend it to us it is all no more than Craft or Folly § XXV And now having thus far and fairly
necessary upon reason of State and that he too well knew in his Court outweighed all other considerations And hence came that constant succession of Murthers in the Empire whereby all of his own Family were in the first place cut off and afterwards all his Kindred So imprudent a thing is it to think of disposing of Crowns against the Right of Inheritance it certainly entails Murthers upon the Royal Family and Civil Wars upon the Kingdom But to return to Nero these are the main Instances of Cruelty wherewith he is usually branded some others there are that I shall here pass by and onely concern my self in that he is charged with against the Christians Against whom it is evident that he proceeded not either from any enquiry into their cause or any voluntary cruelty of his own but deliver'd them up to the Peoples fury onely to deliver himself from it For the City happening to be destroyed by a sudden Fire Nero's Enemies to render him more odious cast reports among the People that he was the Authour of the mischief and the more to exasperate them add that he beheld the sad sight from Mecoenas his Tower with no small joy and pleasure singing the destruction of Troy Whether this report were true or false it matter'd not the People were ready enough to run away with any thing in their rage and anguish and though it was for any thing that appears altogether groundless and malicious it was then believed and is so to this day And therefore Nero to bring himself off transfers the Odium upon the Christians whom he knew to be sufficiently hatefull to the common Rabble as despisers of their Gods and their Religion and by turning them loose to their rage and cruelty diverted or at least somewhat asswaged their fury against himself Neither does this seem to have been Nero's own device but rather to have been first prompted by the People themselves for it is more than likely that the Idol Priests upon occasion of so sad a Calamity should blow the suspicion into the Peoples heads that it came from the Christians who as they hated their Gods hated their Temples too and so would not stick to set the City on fire on purpose to destroy them And such a suggestion as this being once kindled among the Common People it would quickly prevail like the flames themselves and in the extremity of their anguish transport them to the utmost excess of rage and indignation And therefore as the Historian observes they did not think simple punishment enough unless they added scorn to their cruelty and so would not suffer them to be put to death in the shape of men but worried them with Dogs in the skins of Wild Beasts But whether Nero fired the City or not or whether he contrived this device to save himself or onely made advantage of the folly of the People it is certain that neither he nor they proceeded against them upon any mature deliberation but that they were Sacrificed meerly to the outrage of the Rabble And this is the plain account of the Neronian Persecution in which the Prosecutors were so far from entring into the merits of the cause that it was wholly managed by popular Tumult that was raised by Calumny and enraged by Superstition So that the Christians in it suffer'd not as Christians but onely upon occasion of this accident the People fell foul upon them as Enemies to their Idol-Gods And that was natural for the blind and furious Rabble to doe whatever the Christian cause might be for without enquiring into that they were onely zealous for their old Superstition And therefore their Opposition to Christianity can be no objection against it for though we suppose its truth and Evidence yet notwithstanding that it could not have avoided their displeasure And yet in most of the other Persecutions it will appear that they were both set on foot and carried on onely by the folly and fury of the Multitude § XXXVIII The Second Persecution was raised by Domitian the Second to Nero for fierceness and cruelty though neither did he proceed in it upon any account of Religion but purely out of jealousie of State For as he exceeded all other Princes in suspicion and ill-nature so upon the least shadow of pretence he would never stick at any cruelty to secure himself Thus he Murthered Metius Domitianus for no other reason than because he was Born as the Astrologers affirm'd under an Imperial Horoscope And slew his own Unkle Flavius Sabinus because when he was chosen Consul the Clark whose Office it was to declare the choice to the People by mistake pronounced him Emperour instead of Consul And though it was commonly said that he slew his Kinsman Flavius Clemens whose two Sones he had adopted to succeed him in the Empire upon the score of Christianity yet it is much more probable that his displeasure was suddenly taken up upon some pretence of State as Suetonius expresly affirms Repentè ex tenuissimâ suspicione tantum non ipso ejus consulatu interemit And this as we have the Story from Hegesippus was the true Original cause of his troubling the Christians Against whom he did not proceed in general as Christians but onely against some of our Saviour's Kindred who were accused before him as descending from the Royal Line of David out of which the Messias or Universal Monarch was to come of whom Domitian sayes the Historian was not less jealous than Herod himself But upon Examination finding both the Poverty and the Innocence of the Persons he dismist them and by a Publick Edict for bad all farther Prosecution against the Followers of Jesus Thus far Hegesippus and it is one would think a plain and an easie Story and Recorded by a Person that lived very near the time in which it was Transacted and yet our great Scaliger in pursuit of that Scholastick Authority which he has taken to himself of correcting the Ancients but especially Hegesippus is pleased not to pass it for so much as credible and that with so much Confidence and so little Reason as too grosly discovers his affectation of finding fault For first he wonders that there should be no more than two of the Posterity of David left and those of the Family of Judas the Brother of our Lord as Hegesippus affirms Whereas Hegesippus affirms no such thing but onely sayes that two of the Posterity of Judas the Brother of our Lord were accused before Domitian But that they were all that were remaining of the Family of David he does not so much as intimate neither had Scaliger any ground for this surmise unless from thence to seize an Opportunity to give the World an account of his knowledge of the History of the Jews at Babylon where he tells us of many of the Posterity of David in great honour But granting the truth of his Story though all the Stories of the Jews after their dispersion are
illic reperietis primum Neronem in hanc sectam cum maximè Romae orientem Caesariano gladio ferocisse Sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostrae etiam gloriamur Qai enim scit illum intelligere potest non nisi grande aliquod bonum à Nerone damnatum Tentaverat Domitianus portio Neronis de crudelitate sed qua homo facile coeptum repressit restitatis etiam quos relegaverat If you search your own Records you will find that Nero was the first Emperour that imbrued his hands in Christian Blood but we glory in the hatred of such an Enemy as Nero for whoever knows the Man cannot but know that it must be some very great good thing that Nero hates And Domitian too a piece of the same cruelty made the same attempt but having in him either some little humanity or the inconstancy of Mankind for which of these Tertullian means by his qua homo is altogether ambiguous he desisted from his design and revoked his own proscriptions § XXXIX The Third Persecution hapned under the Reign of Trajan and was set on foot upon variety of designs all which were very remote from any fair Inquiry into the cause of Christianity it self The first was the old jealousie of our Saviour's Kindred and the Line of David and this as Hegesippus informs us was started by the Jews and the Gnosticks against Symeon the Son of Cleophas the Brother of Joseph then Bishop of Jerusalem and that at a time when all the Royal Family of Judah wer sought after and dispatched out of the way as pretended Rivals of the Empire And for this reason was this good Old man put to death in the Hundred and one and twentieth year of his Age. The Second motive of this Persecution was the Emperour's great jealousie of those Societies call'd Heteriae that had often created great mischief and trouble to the Empire and therefore for the prevention of such disturbances he strictly forbad all manner of associations and publick meetings and in this point of Government he was so peremptory that when Pliny moved him to erect a Corporation of Smiths at Nicomedia as a great convenience to the City he would by no means be induced to allow it Now the Assemblies of Christians being grown numerous they fell under the edge of this Law and it was accordingly executed against them by the Governours and Pro consuls in their several Provinces It is commonly supposed that this Edict against these Illegal Societies was published on purpose to ensnare the Christian Meetings and it is possible it might be so yet there is no ground for it in History but on the contrary it is manifest that this Emperour was possest with a particular jealousie against all kinds of Assemblies as appears in the foremention'd case of the Smiths of Nicomedia And that he had no particular design against the Christians is evident from his answer to Pliny's Letter by which he inform'd the Emperour how he had executed this Edict in his Province against them and what numbers he had punished for their obstinacy against the Law but having made enquiry into the design of their meetings he was sufficiently satisfied of the innocence of the men and therefore desires directions from him after what manner he should proceed against them or whether at all The Emperour upon this account that he received of the peaceableness of the Christians takes off the severity of his Edict against them and gives instructions that they should not be sought for as being really innocent yet if they were accused and Convicted they should be punished according to Law that is for the good example of Government This seems to have been all that Emperour's design in his Laws and Proceedings against the Christians otherwise certainly he would never have remitted the Execution of a Law of which he was so tender onely for their sakes But because this was the first Prosecution in which we meet with any thing like legal Proceedings against the Christians I shall give an account of all the unjust and unreasonable methods of procedure against them both in this and the following Persecutions and so without troubling the Reader with a distinct Narrative of every one give him a true State of the grounds and reasons of all and from thence it will evidently appear that they proceeded not upon any sober enquiry but were meerly driven on by brutish folly and madness The heads of their accusation then were either real or feigned the feigned were apparently the contrivances of malice and the real were as apparently the charges of folly as I shall shew in each particular The first and great charge of all was the Christians contempt of their Gods and Religion But here the cause of Paganism was so foul and brutish that it was the most dishonourable abuse that ever was put upon humane nature and were not the matter of fact undeniably evident it would have been incredible that Mankind should ever sink into such a senseless stupidity The Barbarous People whom the Greeks and Romans so much despised Worshipped onely the Heavenly Bodies but these Polite these Civilised these Philosophical Nations deified the worst of things and the worst of men and replenisht Heaven with such a rout of Deities as made it look more like a Jail full of Rogues and Villains than an Habitation of Gods and they relate such foul things of them that one would scarce believe such ill reports of the vilest of Men and if their Enemies would have set themselves to have contrived Stories that might render them odious and contemptible the blackest calumnies they could have fastned upon them must have fall'n short of the extravagance of their own Reports And as were their Gods such was their Worship too all lewdness and Debauchery and such things were acted in their Temples as were not allowed in the publick Stews The foulest uncleannesses were their highest Devotions How lascivious and obscene were the Ceremonies of Cibele Priapus Flora and Venus who were Worshipt with nothing but the vilest Lust and Wantonness So foul and beastly were the celebrated Mysteries of Bacchus that the Senate of Rome it self was at last forced to banish them out of Italy as the foulest example of Lust and Debauchery In short the prodigious Stories that they told of their greatest Deities Saturn Jupiter Ceres or the Mother of the Gods as much exceeded the wickedness of Mankind as Heaven is higher than the Earth Though the truth is they represented them much worse than they were whilst they made them work Miracles to compass their brutish ends for when all is done they were neither better nor worse than Mortal Men. Saturn and Jupiter were known Tyrants in Crete Apollo a common Fidler the Muses Servant Maids AEsculapius a Tooth drawer in Arcadia Venus a known Strumpet to Cinyras King of Cyprus not long before the Trojan War These and like these were the Gods they Worshipt and how this folly first
raised against Christianity but as for that private Opposition that it met with from Philosophers and pretendedly learned Men it was so very contemptible that it scarce deserves consideration For though one would expect to have found all the learned World engaged in a Controversie that concern'd the whole World yet they were very few that concern'd themselves against the Christian Cause and those that did so onely pelted at it with remote and far-fetcht cavils but never came up to the matter of Fact which is the onely pertinent subject in this Enquiry and if that stand firm all other Opposition falls short of the Argument and breaks its own force upon it self by endeavouring to disparage the truth of a thing that it cannot deny or to prove the same thing to be false that it cannot but confess to be true Nay so far were they from putting the matter of Fact to the question that they were all forced to take it for granted Porphyry and Celsus impute our Saviour's Miracles to Magick Hieroles and Trypho say onely that the Christians make too much of them by making a God of a divine Man Julian tells us that he did no such great matters but onely cure the Lame and the Blind So that it seems none of them were at that time hardy enough so much as to think of controuling the reality of our Saviour's Actions for fear of too much disadvantage in the Controversie Now after this it is easie to foretell with what trifling pretences they must satisfie themselves and they were so very trifling that it-will require but very little pains to shew their Vanity All the Opposition then that was made to it this way proceeded meerly either from gross Superstition or avowed Atheism The first is coincident with the former account of the publick Persecutions and was nothing else than a meer fanatick zeal for the old Pagan Idolatry And this was chiefly managed by the Pythagoreans the onely superstitious Sect among all the Philosophers who were all along so zealous of the Grecian Rites that they may properly be styled the Monks and Friers of that Religion This humour they derived from their first Founder Pythagoras himself who having learned that part of natural Philosophy from Thales and Anaximander that explain'd the mechanical contrivances of Matter and Motion to which alone those Philosophers pretended he quickly perceived either by the sagacity of his own Mind or the instruction of Pherecides that there was some intelligent Being in Nature that was the cause of the order and harmony of Things And it was this that so strongly possest him with the notion of a Deity whom he defined to be a Mind diffused through all Nature from whom all things receive their Life and Activity As not being able to understand how the natural effects that are constantly and every where visible in the World could be brought to pass but by the present and immediate assistance of such a power And now having his Mind thus throughly touched with a sense of the Divinity and finding the Orphean Rites and Constitutions at that time the most sacred Solemnities of Religion in the World he grew very zealous of them as the most religious Symbols of Divine Worship Neither was his zeal satisfied with the superstition of his own Country but he travel'd into all parts of the World to inform himself of their several ways of worshipping their Gods And then composed a Service of his own partly out of the Orphean partly out of the AEgyptian partly out of the Chaldean partly out of the Eleusinian and partly to mention no more out of the Samothracian Rites which together with his own theurgick Ceremonies must make up a compleat Rhapsodie of all the Superstition and Idolatry of the Heathen World And though some of his Followers Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus apostatised so far from his Institution as to fall into the rankest and most audacious Atheism yet all that persevered in their Master's Discipline were sure no doubt to be most of all strict in his Religion And it was onely this Sect of Philosophers who were Men rather devout than learned that all along gave authority and reputation to the old Heathen Idolatry And therefore when Christianity began to bear it away it could not be expected but that they should appear the most forward Champions to defend their Fanes and their Temples their Altars and their Oracles against the new and prevailing Religion The first and the ablest Champion was Porphyrie a Man at that time eminent for Wit and Learning but so entirely eaten up with fanatick zeal for his Religion that he had not patience so much as to hear of any thing that opposed it and this set him all on fire against Christianity For being by nature of a fierce and angry temper insomuch as he attempted to cut his own Throat as he describes himself in the Life of Plotinus and withall very much inclined to Austerity and Devotion for he was a very strict observer of the Pythagorean Rules this fixt him in his fanatick and superstitious zeal than which there is nothing more insuperable Though when this happens to be join'd with a natural eagerness of temper it grows into meer fury and outrage and so transports Men out of the use of their natural Understandings And this seems to have been the case of Porphyrie not onely from that description that he gives of himself and that account that his Friends give of his Life but also by that Character that is given of his Writings against the Christians which is described by the most impartial Writers as full of rage and bitterness Though how he performed what he undertook is not so certainly determinable in that not onely his own Book but all those that were written against it are utterly perisht But by those fragments that remain of it in the Writings of the Ancients it does not at all appear that he ever ventur'd to deny the matter of Fact of our Saviour's Miracles but granted them so far as to impute them to the power of Magick But how vain that pretence is we have already shewn at least the whole of the Controversie depends upon the truth of the matters of Fact that are recorded of our Saviour none of which I do not find that he ever undertook to controul and as long as that stands firm all other Opposition is but trifling However he was a Person so infinitely superstitious that his Opinion can be no prejudice against the cause of Christianity because he was at no liberty to make any enquiry into the truth of its pretences And of the same Kidney was Hierocles especially if he were of which there is little doubt the same zealous Person that was first Judge at Nicomedia and afterward Prefect of AEgypt under Dioclesian and a great Agent in his bloody Persecution however he was a zealous Orphean and extreamly addicted to the old Pythagorick Superstition But whatever he was otherwise his work