n.--Part I.

The Progress Of The Christian Religion, And The Sentiments,
Manners, Numbers, And Condition Of The Primitive Christians.
[101]

[Footnote 101: In spite of my resolution, Lardner led me to look through
the famous fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of Gibbon. I could not lay
them down without finishing them. The causes assigned, in the fifteenth
chapter, for the diffusion of Christianity, must, no doubt, have
contributed to it materially; but I doubt whether he saw them all.
Perhaps those which he enumerates are among the most obvious. They might
all be safely adopted by a Christian writer, with some change in the
language and manner. Mackintosh see Life, i. p. 244.--M.]

A candid but rational inquiry into the progress and establishment of
Christianity may be considered as a very essential part of the history
of the Roman empire. While that great body was invaded by open
violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion
gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and
obscurity, derived new vigor from opposition, and finally erected the
triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol. Nor was the
influence of Christianity confined to the period or to the limits of the
Roman empire. After a revolution of thirteen or fourteen centuries,
that religion is still professed by the nations of Europe, the most
distinguished portion of human kind in arts and learning as well as
in arms. By the industry and zeal of the Europeans, it has been widely
diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa; and by the means
of their colonies has been firmly established from Canada to Chili, in a
world unknown to the ancients.

But this inquiry, however useful or entertaining, is attended with
two peculiar difficulties. The scanty and suspicious materials of
ecclesiastical history seldom enable us to dispel the dark cloud that
hangs over the first age of the church. The great law of impartiality
too often obliges us to reveal the imperfections of the uninspired
teachers and believers of the gospel; and, to a careless observer, their
faults may seem to cast a shade on the faith which they professed. But
the scandal of the pious Christian, and the fallacious triumph of the
Infidel, should cease as soon as they recollect not only by whom, but
likewise to whom, the Divine Revelation was given. The theologian may
indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as