favorable calculation, however, that can
be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome, will not permit
us to imagine that more than a themselves under the banner of the cross
before the important conversion of Constantine. But their habits of
faith, of zeal, and of union, seemed to multiply their numbers; and the
same causes which contributed to their future increase, served to render
their actual strength more apparent and more formidable.

[Footnote 183: Origen contra Celsum, l. viii. p. 424.]

Such is the constitution of civil society, that whilst a few persons are
distinguished by riches, by honors, and by knowledge, the body of the
people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance and poverty. The Christian
religion, which addressed itself to the whole human race, must
consequently collect a far greater number of proselytes from the
lower than from the superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural
circumstance has been improved into a very odious imputation, which
seems to be less strenuously denied by the apologists, than it is urged
by the adversaries, of the faith; that the new sect of Christians was
almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and
mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves, the last of whom
might sometimes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble
families to which they belonged. These obscure teachers (such was the
charge of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public as they are
loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid
the dangerous encounter of philosophers, they mingle with the rude and
illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves into those minds, whom their
age, their sex, or their education, has the best disposed to receive the
impression of superstitious terrors. [184]

[Footnote 184: Minucius Felix, c. 8, with Wowerus's notes. Celsus ap.
Origen, l. iii. p. 138, 142. Julian ap. Cyril. l. vi. p. 206, edit.
Spanheim.]

This unfavorable picture, though not devoid of a faint resemblance,
betrays, by its dark coloring and distorted features, the pencil of an
enemy. As the humble faith of Christ diffused itself through the world,
it was embraced by several persons who derived some consequence from the
advantages of nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent
apology to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philosopher. [185] Justin
Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the schools of Zeno, of Aristotle,
of Py