Christianity, however, proceeded to increase in Jerusalem by a progress equally rapid with its first success; for, in the next chapter of our history, we read that "believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.' And this enlargement of the new society appears in the first verse of the succeeding chapter, wherein we are told, that, "when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected:"+ and, afterward in the same chapter, it is declared expressly, that "the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and that a great company of the -priests were obedient to the faith." This I call the first period in the propagation of Christianity. It commences with the ascension of Christ, and extends, as may be collected from incidental notes of time, to something more than one year after that event. During which term, the preaching of Christianity, so far as our documents inform us, was confined to the single city of Jerusalem. And how did it succeed there?tles wrote a public letter from Jerusalem to the The first assembly which we meet with of Christ's disciples, and that a few days after his removal from the world, consisted of "one hundred and twenty." About a week after this, "three thousand were added in one day ;" and the number of Christians, publicly baptized, and publicly associating together, was very soon increased to "five thousand." "Multitudes both of men and women continued to be added;"" disciples multiplied greatly," and "many of the Jewish priesthood, as well as others, became obedient to the faith;" and this within a space of less than two years from the commencement of the institution. By reason of a persecution raised against the church at Jerusalem, the converts were driven from that city, and dispersed throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.§ Wherever they came, they brought their religion with them: for, our historian informs us, that "they, that were scattered abroad, went every where preaching the word." The effect of this preaching comes afterward to be noticed, where the historian is led, in the course of his narrative, to observe, that then (i. e. about three years posterior to this,T) "the churches had rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." This was the work of the second period, which comprises about four years. Hitherto the preaching of the Gospel had been confined to Jews, to Jewish proselytes, and to Samaritans. And I cannot forbear from setting down in this place, an observation of Mr. Bryant, which appears to me to be perfectly well founded: -"the Jews still remain: but how seldom is it that we can make a single proselyte! There is reason to think, that there were more converted by the apostles in one day, than have since been won over in the last thousand years."** It was not yet known to the apostles, that they perform, they were willing to hope, that God would accept this, and that He would excuse and forgive the rest."-Jortin's Dis. on the Chris. Rel p. 91. ed. 4. Acts v. 14. ↑ Acts vi. 1. ↑ Vide Pearson's Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 7. Benson's History of Christ, book i. p. 148. § Acts viii. 1. ** 112. | Ver. 4. T Benson, book i. p. 207. Bryant on the Truth of the Christian Religion, p. were at liberty to propose the religion to mankind at large. That "mystery," as Saint Paul calls it,* and as it then was, was revealed to Peter by an especial miracle. It appears to have beent about seven years after Christ's ascension, that the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles of Cesarea. A year after this, a great multitude of Gentiles were converted at Antioch in Syria. The expressions employed by the historian are these:-" A great number believed and turned to the Lord;" "much people was added unto the Lord;" "the apostles Barnabas and Paul taught much people." Upon Herod's death, which happened in the next year,s it is observed, that "the word of God grew and multiplied." Three years from this time, upon the preaching of Paul at Iconium, the metropolis of Lycaonia, "a great multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed:" and afterward, in the course of this very progress, he is represented as "making many disciples" at Derbe, a principal city in the same district. Three years** after this, which brings us to sixteen after the ascension, the apos Gentile converts in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, with which letter Paul travelled through these countries, and found the churches "established in the faith, and increasing in number daily."++ From Asia the apostle proceeded into Greece, where soon after his arrival in Macedonia, we find him at Thessalonica; in which city, "some of the Jews believed, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude." We meet also here with an accidental hint of the general progress of the Christian mission, in the exclamation of the tumultuous Jews of Thessalonica, "that they, who had turned the world upside down, were come thither also."§§ At Berea, the next city at which Paul arrives, the historian, who was present, informs us that "many of the Jews believed." The next year and a half of Saint Paul's ministry was spent at Corinth. Of his success in that city, we receive the following intimations; "that many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized;" and "that it was revealed to the apostle by Christ, that he had much people in that city."¶¶ Within less than a year after his departure from Corinth, and twentyfive*** years after the ascension, Saint Paul fixed his station at Ephesus, for the space of two yearsttt and something more. The effect of his ministry in that city and neighbourhood drew from the historian a reflection, how "mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." And at the conclusion of this period, we find Demetrius at the head of a party, who were alarmed by the progress of the religion, complaining, that "not only at Ephesus, but also throughout all Asia (i. e. the province of Lydia, and the country adjoining to Ephesus,) this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people."SSS Beside these accounts, there occurs, incidentally, mention of converts at Rome, Alexandria, Athens, Cyprus, Cyrene, Macedonia, Philippi. This is the third period in the propagation of Christianity, setting off in the seventh year after the ascension, and ending at the twenty-eighth. Now lay these three periods together, and observe | in fact a history of the twelve apostles only during how the progress of the religion by these accounts a short time of their continuing together at Jeruis represented. The institution, which properly began only after its author's removal from the world, before the end of thirty years had spread itself through Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, almost all the numerous districts of the Lesser Asia, through Greece, and the Islands of the Egean Sea, the sea-coast of Africa, and had extended itself to Rome, and into Italy. At Antioch in Syria, at Joppa, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Berea, Iconium, Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia, at Lydda, Saron, the number of converts is intimated by the expressions, "a great number," great multitudes," "much people." Converts are mentioned, without any designation of their number,*gress of Christianity, he would undoubtedly have at Tyre, Cesarea, Troas, Athens, Philippi, Lystra, Damascus. During all this time, Jerusalem continued not only the centre of the mission, but a principal seat of the religion; for when Saint Paul turned thither at the conclusion of the period of which we are now considering the accounts, the other apostles pointed out to him, as a reason for his compliance with their advice," how many thousands (myriads, ten thousands) there were in that city who believed."+ salem; and even of this period the account is very concise. The work afterward consists of a few important passages of Peter's ministry, of the speech and death of Stephen, of the preaching of Philip the deacon; and the sequel of the volume, that is, two thirds of the whole, is taken up with the conversion, the travels, the discourses and history of the new apostle Paul; in which history, also, large portions of time are often passed over with very scanty notice. 39 66 Upon this abstract, and the writing from which it is drawn, the following observations seem material to be made: III. That the account, so far as it goes, is for this very reason more credible. Had it been the author's design to have displayed the early procollected, or, at least, have set forth, accounts of the preaching of the rest of the apostles, who cannot, without extreme improbability, be supposed to have remained silent and inactive, or not to have met with a share of that success which attended their colleagues. To which may be added, as an observation of the same kind, IV. That the intimations of the number of verts in several of the passages in which that notice now appears. All this tends to remove the suspicion of a design to exaggerate or deceive. converts, and of the success of the preaching of the apostles, come out for the most part incidentally; are drawn from the historian by the occasion; such as the murmuring of the Grecian converts; the rest from persecution; Herod's death; I. That the account comes from a person, who the sending of Barnabas to Antioch, and Barnawas himself concerned in a portion of what he re- bas calling Paul to his assistance; Paul coming lates, and was contemporary with the whole of it; to a place, and finding there disciples; the clamour who visited Jerusalem, and frequented the society of the Jews; the complaint of artificers interested of those who had acted, and were acting, the chief in the support of the popular religion; the reason parts in the transaction. I lay down this point assigned to induce Paul to give satisfaction to the positively; for had the ancient attestations to this Christians of Jerusalem. Had it not been for valuable record been less satisfactory than they these occasions, it is probable that no notice whatare, the unaffectedness and simplicity with whichever would have been taken of the number of conthe author notes his presence upon certain occasions, and the entire absence of art and design from these notices, would have been sufficient to persuade my mind, that whoever he was, he ac- PARALLEL TESTIMONIES with the history, are tually lived in the times, and occupied the situa- the letters of Saint Paul, and of the other apostles, tion, in which he represents himself to be. When which have come down to us. Those of Saint I say, "whoever he was," I do not mean to cast a Paul are addressed to the churches of Corinth, doubt upon the name to which antiquity hath as- Philippi, Thessalonica, the church of Galatia, and, cribed the Acts of the Apostles (for there is no if the inscription be right, of Ephesus; his miniscause that I am acquainted with, for questioning try at all which places, is recorded in the history: it,) but to observe, that, in such a case as this, the to the church of Colosse, or rather to the churches time and situation of the author is of more import- of Colosse and Laodicea jointly, which he had not ance than his name; and that these appear from then visited. They recognise by reference the the work itself, and in the most unsuspicious form. churches of Judea, the churches of Asia, and "all II. That this account is a very incomplete ac- the churches of the Gentiles." In the Epistle to count of the preaching and propagation of Chris- the Romans, the author is led to deliver a retianity; I mean, that, if what we read in the his-markable declaration concerning the extent of his tory be true, much more than what the history contains must be true also. For although the narrative from which our information is derived, has been entitled the Acts of the Apostles, it is *Considering the extreme conciseness of many parts of the history, the silence about the numbers of converts is no proof of their paucity; for at Philippi, no mention whatever is made of the number, yet Saint Paul addressed an epistle to that church. The churches of GaJatia, and the affairs of those churches, were consider. able enough to be the subject of another letter, and of much of Saint Paul's solicitude: yet no account is preserved in the history of his success, or even of his preaching in that country, except the slight notice which these words convey:-" When they had gone throughout Phrygia, and the region of Galatia-they essayed to go into Bithynia."—Acts xvi. 6. † Arts xxi. 20. preaching, its efficacy, and the cause to which he ascribes it," to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ." In the Epistle to the Colossians, we find an oblique but very strong signification of the then general state of the Christian mission, at least as it appeared to Saint Paul:-"If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;" which Gospel, he had letter in which this application is contained, was written not quite eighty years after Christ's ascension. The president, in this letter, states the measures he had already pursued, and then adds, as his reason for resorting to the emperor's counsel and authority, the following words:-"Suspending all judicial proceedings, I have recourse to you for advice; for it has appeared to me a matter highly deserving consideration, especially on account of the great number of persons who are in danger of suffering: for, many of all ages, and of every rank, of both sexes likewise, are accused, and will be accused. Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country. Nevertheless it seemed to me, that it may be restrained and corrected. It is certain that the temples, which were almost forsaken, begin to be more frequented; and the sacred solemnities, after a long intermission, are revived. Victims, likewise, are every where (passim) bought up; whereas, for some time, there were few to purchase them. Whence it is easy to imagine, that numbers of men might be reclaimed, if pardon were granted to those that shall repent." Tacitus, in delivering a relation, which has already been laid before the reader, of the fire which happened at Rome in the tenth year of Nero (which coincides with the thirtieth year after Christ's ascension,) asserts, that the emperor, in order to suppress the rumours of having been himself the author of the mischief, procured the Christians to be accused. Of which Christians, thus brought into his narrative, the following is so much of the historian's account as belongs to our present purpose: "They had their denomination from Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, It is obvious to observe, that the passage of was put to death as a criminal by the procurator Pliny's letter, here quoted, proves, not only that Pontius Pilate. This pernicious superstition, the Christians in Pontus and Bithynia were now though checked for a while, broke out again, and numerous, but that they had subsisted there for spread not only over Judea, but reached the city some considerable time. "It is certain," he says, also. At first, they only were apprehended who "that the temples, which were almost forsaken confessed themselves of that sect; afterward a vast (plainly ascribing this desertion of the popular multitude were discovered by them." This tes- worship to the prevalency of Christianity,) begin timony to the early propagation of Christianity is to be more frequented, and the sacred solemnities, extremely material. It is from an historian of after a long intermission, are revived." There great reputation, living near the time; from a are also two clauses in the former part of the letstranger and an enemy to the religion; and it ter which indicate the same thing; one, in which joins immediately with the period through which he declares that he had "never been present at the Scripture accounts extend. It establishes any trials of Christians, and therefore knew not these points: that the religion began at Jerusalem; what was the usual subject of inquiry and punishthat it spread throughout Judea; that it had reach- ment, or how far either was wont to be urged." ed Rome, and not only so, but that it had there The second clause is the following: "Others obtained a great number of converts. This was were named by an informer, who, at first, confessabout six years after the time that Saint Pauled themselves Christians, and afterward denied wrote his Epistle to the Romans, and something more than two years after he arrived there himself. The converts to the religion were then so numerJus at Rome, that, of those who were betrayed by the information of the persons first persecuted, a great multitude (multitudo ingens) were discovered and seized. it; the rest said, they had been Christians, some three years ago, some longer, and some about twenty years." It is also apparent, that Pliny speaks of the Christians as a description of men well known to the person to whom he writes. His first sentence concerning them is, "I have never been present at the trials of Christians." was a term familiar both to the writer of the letter, and the person to whom it was addressed. Had it not been so, 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. It seems probable, that the temporary check This mention of the name of Christians, withwhich Tacitus represents Christianity to have re-out any preparatory explanation, shows that it ceived (repressa in præsens) referred to the persecution at Jerusalem, which followed the death of Stephen, (Acts viii;) and which, by dispersing the converts, caused the institution, in some measure, to disappear. Its second eruption at the same place, and within a short time, has much in it of the character of truth. It was the firmness and perseverance of men, who knew what they relied upon. Next in order of time, and perhaps superior in importance, is the testimony of Pliny the Younger. Pliny was the Roman governor of Pontus and Bithynia, two considerable districts in the northern part of Asia Minor. The situation in which he found his province, led him to apply to the emperor (Trajan) for his direction as to the conduct he was to hold towards the Christians. The * Col. i. 6 Here then is a very singular evidence of the progress of the Christian religion in a short space. It was not fourscore years after the crucifixion of Jesus, when Pliny wrote this letter; nor seventy years since the apostles of Jesus 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, Christianity had long subsisted, and Christians were now in such numbers as to lead the Roman governor to report to the emperor, * C. Plin. Trajano Imp. lib. x. ep. xcvii. that they were found not only in cities, but in vil- | were confined to Greece, and to their particular lages and in open countries; of all ages, of every retainers; but the doctrine of the Master of Chrisrank and condition; that they abounded so much, tianity did not remain in Judea, as philosophy as to have produced a visible desertion of the did in Greece, but it spread throughout the whole temples; that beasts brought to market for victims, world, in every nation, and village, and city, both had few purchasers; that the sacred solemnities of Greeks and Barbarians, converting both whole were much neglected:-circumstances noted by houses and separate individuals, having already Pliny, for the express purpose of showing to the brought over to the truth not a few of the philoso emperor the effect and prevalency of the new in- phers themselves. If the Greek philosophy be stitution. prohibited, it immediately vanishes; whereas, from the first preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, governors and presidents, with their whole train, and with the populace on their side, have endeavoured with their whole might to exterminate it, yet doth it flourish more and more. * Origen, who follows Tertullian at the distance of only thirty years, delivers nearly the same account: "In every part of the world (says he,) throughout all Greece, and in all other nations, there are innumerable and immense multitudes, who, having left the laws of their country, and those whom they esteemed gods, have given themselves up to the law of Moses, and the reli No evidence remains, by which it can be proved that the Christians were more numerous in Pontus and Bithynia than in other parts of the Roman empire; nor has any reason been offered to show why they should be so. Christianity did not begin in these countries, nor near them. I do not know, therefore, that we ought to confine the description in Pliny's letter to the state of Christianity in those provinces, even if no other account of the same subject had come down to us; but certainly, this letter may fairly be applied in aid and confirmation of the representations given of the general state of Christianity in the world, by Christian writers of that and the next succeed-gion of Christ: and this not without the bitterest ing age. * every where, strove to depress them; so much the more have they increased, and prevailed exceedingly." resentment from the idolaters, by whom they Justin Martyr, who wrote about thirty years were frequently put to torture, and sometimes to after Pliny, and one hundred and six after the death: and it is wonderful to observe, how, in so Ascension, has these remarkable words: "There short a time, the religion has increased, amidst is not a nation, either of Greek or Barbarian, or punishment and death, and every kind of torture."t of any other name, even of those who wander in in another passage, Origen draws the following tribes, and live in tents, amongst whom prayers candid comparison between the state of Christiand thanksgivings are not offered to the Father anity in his time, and the condition of its more and Creator of the Universe by the name of the primitive ages: "By the good providence of God, crucified Jesus." Tertullian, who comes about the Christian religion has so flourished and infifty years after Justin, appeals to the governors creased continually, that it is now preached freely of the Roman empire in these terms: "We were without molestation, although there were a thoubut of yesterday, and we have filled your cities, sand obstacles to the spreading of the doctrine of islands, towns, and boroughs, the camp, the senate, Jesus in the world. But as it was the will of and the forum. They (the heathen adversaries God that the Gentiles should have the benefit of of Christianity) lament, that every sex, age, and it, all the counsels of men against the Christians condition, and persons of every rank also, are con- were defeated: and by how much the more emverts to that name." + I do allow, that these ex-perors and governors of provinces, and the people pressions are loose, and may be called declamatory. But even declamation hath its bounds: this public boasting upon a subject which must be known to every reader was not only useless but unnatural, unless the truth of the case, in a considerable degree, correspond with the description; at least, unless it had been both true and notorious, that great multitudes of Christians, of all ranks and orders, were to be found in most parts of the Roman empire. The same Tertullian, in another passage, by way of setting forth the extensive diffusion of Christianity, enumerates as belonging to Christ, beside many other countries, the "Moors and Gætulians of Africa, the borders of Spain, several nations of France, and parts of Britain, inaccessible to the Romans, the Samaritans, Daci, Germans, and Scythians ;" and, which is more material than the extent of the institution, the number of Christians in the several countries in which it prevailed, is thus expressed by him: "Although so great a multitude, that in almost every city we form the greater part, we pass our time modestly and in silence. § Clemens Alexandrinus, who preceded Tertullian by a few years, introduces a comparison between the success of Christianity and that of the most celebrated philosophical institutions: "The philosophers It is well known, that within less than eighty years after this, the Roman empire became Christian under Constantine: and it is probable that Constantine declared himself on the side of the Christians, because they were the powerful party; for Arnobius, who wrote immediately before Con stantine's accession, speaks of the whole world as filled with Christ's doctrine, of its diffusion throughout all countries, of an innumerable body of Christians in distant provinces, of the strange revolution of opinion of men of the greatest genius, orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, having come over to the institution, and that also in the face of threats, executions, and tortures.§ And not more than twenty years after Constantine's entire possession of the empire, Julius Firmicus Maternus calls upon the emperors Constantius and Constans to extirpate the relics of the ancient religion; the reduced and fallen condition of which is described by our author in the following words: "Licèt adhuc in quibusdam regionibus idololatriæ morientia palpi *Clem. Al. Strum. lib. vi. ad fin. t Orig. cont. Cels. lib. vii. tent membra; tamen in eo reo est, ut à Christianis | Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, founded a library omnibus terris pestiferum hoc malum funditùs in that city, A. D. 212. Pamphilus, the friend of amputetur:" and in another place, "Modicum Origen, founded a library at Cesarea, A. D. 294. tantum superest, ut legibus vestris-extincta ido- Public defences were also set forth, by various adlolatria pereat funesta contagio."* It will not be vocates of the religion, in the course of its first thought that we quote this writer in order to re- three centuries. Within one hundred years af commend his temper or his judgment, but to show ter Christ's ascension, Quadratus and Aristides, the comparative state of Christianity and of Hea- whose works, except some few fragments of the thenism at this period. Fifty years afterward, first, are lost; and, about twenty years afterward, Jerome represents the decline of Paganism in Justin Martyr, whose works remain, presented language which conveys the same idea of its ap- apologies for the Christian religion to the Roman proaching extinction: "Solitudinem patitur et in emperors; Quadratus and Aristides to Adrian, urbe gentilitas. Dii quondam nationam, cum bu- Justin to Antoninus Pius, and a second to Marbonibus et noctuis, in solis culminibus remanse- cus Antoninus. Melito, bishop of Sardis, and runt." Jerome here indulges a triumph, natural Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, and Miltiades, and allowable in a zealous friend of the cause, but men of great reputation, did the same to Marcus which could only be suggested to his mind by the Antoninus, twenty years afterward:* and ten consent and universality with which he saw the years after this, Apollonius, who suffered martyrreligion received. "But now (says he) the passion dom under the emperor Commodus, composed an and resurrection of Christ are celebrated in the apology for his faith, which he read in the senate, discourses and writings of all nations. I need not and which was afterward published.+ Fourteen mention, Jews, Greeks, and Latins. The Indians, years after the apology of Apollonius, Tertullian Persians, Goths, and Egyptians, philosophize, and addressed the work which now remains under firmly believe the immortality of the soul, and fu- that name to the governors of provinces in the ture recompenses, which, before, the greatest phi- Roman empire; and, about the same time, Minuosophers had denied, or doubted of, or perplexed cius Felix composed a defence of the Christian with their disputes. The fierceness of Thracians religion, which is still extant; and shortly after and Scythians is now softened by the gentle sound the conclusion of this century, copious defences of the Gospel; and every where Christ is all in of Christianity were published by Arnobius and all." Were therefore the motives of Constan- Lactantius. tine's conversion ever so problematical, the easy establishment of Christianity, and the ruin of Heathenism, under him and his immediate successors, is of itself a proof of the progress which Christianity had made in the preceding period. It may be added also, "that Maxentius, the rival of Constantine, had shown himself friendly to the Christians. Therefore of those who were contending for worldly power and empire, one actually favoured and flattered them, and another may be suspected to have joined himself to them, partly from consideration of interest: so considerable were they become, under external disadvantages of all sorts." This at least is certain, that throughout the whole transaction hitherto, the great seemed to follow, not to lead, the public opinion. SECTION II. Reflections upon the preceding account. IN viewing the progress of Christianity, our first attention is due to the number of converts at Jerusalem, immediately after its Founder's death; because this success was a success at the time, and upon the spot, when and where the chief part of the history had been transacted. We are, in the next place, called upon to attend to the early establishment of numerous Christian societies in Judea and Galilee; which countries had been the scene of Christ's miracles and minis try, and where the memory of what had passed, and the knowledge of what was alleged, must have yet been fresh and certain. It may help to convey to us some notion of the extent and progress of Christianity, or rather of the character and quality of many early Christians, of their learning and their labours, to notice the number of Christian writers who flourished We are, thirdly, invited to recollect the success in these ages. Saint Jerome's catalogue contains of the apostles and of their companions, at the sixty-six writers within the first three centuries, several places to which they came, both within and the first six years of the fourth; and fifty- and without Judea; because it was the credit four between that time and his own, viz. A. Ď.given to original witnesses, appealing for the truth 392. Jerome introduces his catalogue with the following just remonstrance:—“Let those who say the church has had no philosophers, nor eloquent and learned men, observe who and what they were who founded, established, and adorned it: let them cease to accuse our faith of rusticity, and confess their mistake." Of these writers, several, as Justin, Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Bardesanes, Hippolitus, Eusebius, were voluminous writers. Christian writers abounded particularly about the year 178. *De Error. Profan. Relig. c. xxi. p. 172, quoted by Lardner, vol. viii. p. 262. † Jer. ad Lect. ep. 5, 7. ↑ Jer. ep. 8. ad Heliod. § Lardner, Cred. vol. vii. p. 380. Jer. Prol. in Lib. de Scr. Eccl. of their accounts to what themselves had seen and heard. The effect also of their preaching strongly confirms the truth of what our history positively and circumstantially relates, that they were able to exhibit to their hearers supernatural attestations of their mission. We are, lastly, to consider the subsequent growth and spread of the religion, of which we receive successive intimations, and satisfactory, though general and occasional, accounts, until its full and final establishment. In all these several stages, the history is without a parallel: for it must be observed, that we have * Euseb. Hist. lib. iv. c. 26. See also Lardner, vol. Î1. p. 666. Lardner, vol. ii. p. 687. |