s neglected for the study of geometry,
and they lose sight of heaven while they are employed in measuring the
earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus
are the objects of their admiration; and they express an uncommon
reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are derived from the
abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidels, and they corrupt the
simplicity of the gospel by the refinements of human reason."

Nor can it be affirmed with truth, that the advantages of birth and
fortune were always separated from the profession of Christianity.
Several Roman citizens were brought before the tribunal of Pliny, and he
soon discovered, that a great number of persons of every orderof men in
Bithynia had deserted the religion of their ancestors. His unsuspected
testimony may, in this instance, obtain more credit than the bold
challenge of Tertullian, when he addresses himself to the fears as well
as the humanity of the proconsul of Africa, by assuring him, that if he
persists in his cruel intentions, he must decimate Carthage, and that
he will find among the guilty many persons of his own rank, senators and
matrons of nobles' extraction, and the friends or relations of his most
intimate friends. It appears, however, that about forty years afterwards
the emperor Valerian was persuaded of the truth of this assertion, since
in one of his rescripts he evidently supposes, that senators, Roman
knights, and ladies of quality, were engaged in the Christian sect. The
church still continued to increase its outward splendor as it lost its
internal purity; and, in the reign of Diocletian, the palace, the courts
of justice, and even the army, concealed a multitude of Christians, who
endeavored to reconcile the interests of the present with those of a
future life.

And yet these exceptions are either too few in number, or too recent in
time, entirely to remove the imputation of ignorance and obscurity which
has been so arrogantly cast on the first proselytes of Christianity. *
Instead of employing in our defence the fictions of later ages, it will
be more prudent to convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of
edification. Our serious thoughts will suggest to us, that the apostles
themselves were chosen by Providence among the fishermen of Galilee,
and that the lower we depress the temporal condition of the first
Christians, the more reason we shall find to admire their merit and
success. It is incumb