le nature. Any particular society that has departed from
the great body of the nation, or the religion to which it belonged,
immediately becomes the object of universal as well as invidious
observation. In proportion to the smallness of its numbers, the
character of the society may be affected by the virtues and vices of the
persons who compose it; and every member is engaged to watch with the
most vigilant attention over his own behavior, and over that of his
brethren, since, as he must expect to incur a part of the common
disgrace, he may hope to enjoy a share of the common reputation. When
the Christians of Bithynia were brought before the tribunal of the
younger Pliny, they assured the proconsul, that, far from being engaged
in any unlawful conspiracy, they were bound by a solemn obligation to
abstain from the commission of those crimes which disturb the private
or public peace of society, from theft, robbery, adultery, perjury,
and fraud. [84] [841] Near a century afterwards, Tertullian with an honest
pride, could boast, that very few Christians had suffered by the hand of
the executioner, except on account of their religion. [85] Their serious
and sequestered life, averse to the gay luxury of the age, inured
them to chastity, temperance, economy, and all the sober and domestic
virtues. As the greater number were of some trade or profession, it was
incumbent on them, by the strictest integrity and the fairest dealing,
to remove the suspicions which the profane are too apt to conceive
against the appearances of sanctity. The contempt of the world exercised
them in the habits of humility, meekness, and patience. The more they
were persecuted, the more closely they adhered to each other. Their
mutual charity and unsuspecting confidence has been remarked by
infidels, and was too often abused by perfidious friends. [86]

[Footnote 84: Plin. Epist. x. 97. * Note: Is not the sense of Tertullian
rather, if guilty of any other offence, he had thereby ceased to be a
Christian?--M.]

[Footnote 841: And this blamelessness was fully admitted by the candid and
enlightened Roman.--M.]

[Footnote 85: Tertullian, Apolog. c. 44. He adds, however, with some
degree of hesitation, "Aut si aliud, jam non Christianus." * Note:
Tertullian says positively no Christian, nemo illic Christianus; for the
rest, the limitation which he himself subjoins, and which Gibbon quotes
in the foregoing note, diminishes the force of this assertion, and