d by the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up their
devotions in the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, and
received both the Law and the Prophets as the genuine inspirations of
the Deity. The Gentile converts, who by a spiritual adoption had been
associated to the hope of Israel, were likewise confounded under the
garb and appearance of Jews, [25] and as the Polytheists paid less
regard to articles of faith than to the external worship, the new sect,
which carefully concealed, or faintly announced, its future greatness
and ambition, was permitted to shelter itself under the general
toleration which was granted to an ancient and celebrated people in
the Roman empire. It was not long, perhaps, before the Jews themselves,
animated with a fiercer zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived the
gradual separation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine of the
synagogue; and they would gladly have extinguished the dangerous heresy
in the blood of its adherents. But the decrees of Heaven had already
disarmed their malice; and though they might sometimes exert the
licentious privilege of sedition, they no longer possessed the
administration of criminal justice; nor did they find it easy to infuse
into the calm breast of a Roman magistrate the rancor of their own zeal
and prejudice. The provincial governors declared themselves ready to
listen to any accusation that might affect the public safety; but as
soon as they were informed that it was a question not of facts but of
words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish laws
and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriously
to discuss the obscure differences which might arise among a barbarous
and superstitious people. The innocence of the first Christians was
protected by ignorance and contempt; and the tribunal of the Pagan
magistrate often proved their most assured refuge against the fury of
the synagogue. [26] If indeed we were disposed to adopt the
traditions of a too credulous antiquity, we might relate the distant
peregrinations, the wonderful achievements, and the various deaths
of the twelve apostles: but a more accurate inquiry will induce us
to doubt, whether any of those persons who had been witnesses to the
miracles of Christ were permitted, beyond the limits of Palestine,
to seal with their blood the truth of their testimony. [27] From the
ordinary term of human life, it may very naturally be presumed that