f men
in Bithynia had deserted the religion of their ancestors. [188] 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. [189] 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. [190] 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.

[Footnote 188: Plin. Epist. x. 97. Fuerunt alii similis amentiae, cives
Romani---Multi enim omnis aetatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus, etiam
vocuntur in periculum et vocabuntur.]

[Footnote 189: Tertullian ad Scapulum. Yet even his rhetoric rises no
higher than to claim a tenth part of Carthage.]

[Footnote 190: Cyprian. Epist. 70.]

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. [1901]
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 incumbent on us diligently to remember, that the kingdom
of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted
by calamity and the contempt of mankind, cheerfully listen to the divine
promise of future happiness; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are
satisfied with the possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt
and dispute th