His first fentence concerning them is, "I have never been present at the trials of Chris tians." This mention of the name of Chrif tians, without any preparatory explanation, fhews that it was a term familiar both to the writer of the letter, and the person to whom it was addreffed. Had it not been fo, Pliny would naturally have begun his letter by informing the emperor, that he had met with a certain set of men in the province called Christians.

Here then is a very signal evidence of the progrefs of the Chriftian religion in a short fpace. It was not fourfcore years after the crucifixion of Jefus when Pliny wrote this letter; nor feventy years fince the apoftles of Jefus began to mention his name to the Gentile world. Bithynia and Pontus were at a great distance from Judea, the centre from which the religion spread; yet in these provinces Chriftianity had long fubfifted, and Christians were now in fuch numbers as to lead the Roman governor to report to the emperor, that they were found, not only

in

in cities, but in villages and in open countries; of all ages, of every rank and condition; that they abounded fo much as to have produced a visible desertion of the temples; that beafts brought to market for victims had few purchafers; that the facred folemnities were much neglected: circumftances noted by Pliny, for the exprefs purpofe of fhewing to the emperor the effect and prevalency of the new institution.

No evidence remains, by which it can be proved that the Chriftians were more numerous in Pontus and Bithynia tlian in other parts of the Roman empire; nor has any reafon been offered to fhew why they should be fo. Christianity did not begin in these countries, nor near them. I do not know, therefore, that we ought to confine the defcription in Pliny's letter to the state of Christianity in those provinces, even if no other account of the fame fubject had come down to us; but, certainly, this letter may fairly be applied in aid and confirmation of the reprefentations given of the general state

of

of Chriftianity in the world, by Chriftian writers of that and the next fucceeding age.

Juftin Martyr, who wrote about thirty years after Pliny, and one hundred and fix after the afcenfion, has these remarkable words: "There is not a nation, either of Greek or Barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in tribes, and ! live in tents, amongst whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the univerfe by the name of the crucified Jefus*." Tertullian, who comes about fifty years after Juftin, appeals to the governors of the Roman empire in these terms: "We were but of yesterday, and we have filled your cities, iflands, towns and boroughs, the camp, the fenate, and the forum. They (the heathen adverfaries of Christianity) lament, that every sex, age and condition, and perfons of every rank alfo, are converts to that name +." I do allow that these expreffions are loose, and

*Dial. cum Tryph. + Tertull. Apol. c. 37.

may

may be called declamatory. But even declamation hath its bounds: this public boafting upon a subject which must be known to every reader was not only ufeless but unnatural, unless the truth of the cafe, in a confiderable degree, correfponded with the defcription; at least unless it had been both true and notorious, that great multitudes of Chriftians, of all ranks and orders, were ta be found in most parts of the Roman empire. The fame Tertullian, in another paffage, by way of fetting forth the extensive diffufion of Chriftianity, enumerates as belonging to Chrift, befide many other countries, the "Moors and Gætulians of Africa, the borders of Spain, feveral nations of France, and parts of Britain inacceffible to the Romans, the Sarmatians, Daci, Germans, and Scythians*;" and, which is more material than the extent of the institution, the number of Chriftians in the feveral countries in which it prevailed, is thus expreffed by him; "Although fo great a multitude that in

Ad Jud. c. 7.

almoft

almost every city we form the greater part, we pafs our time modeftly and in filence *. Clement Alexandrinus, who preceded Tertullian by a few years, introduces a comparison between the fuccefs of Chriftianity, and that of the most celebrated philofophical inftitutions. "The philofophers were confined to Greece, and to their particular retainers; but the doctrine of the Mafter of Christianity did not remain in Judea, as philofophy did in Greece, but is fpread throughout the whole world, in every nation and village and city, both of Greeks and Barbarians, converting both whole houfes and feparate individuals, having already brought over to the truth not a few of the philofophers themselves. If the Greek philofophy be prohibited, it immediately vanishes ; whereas, from the firft preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, governors and prefidents, with their whole train, and with the populace on their fide, have endeavoured with their whole might to exterminate it,

Ad Scap. c. 111.

yet