Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/145

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 127 work we have attempted to explain in what manner CHAP. the most civihsed provinces of Europe, Asia, and Africa were united under the dominion of one sovereign, and gradually connected by the most intimate ties of laws, of manners, and of language. The jews of Palestine, who had fondly expected a temporal deliverer, gave so cold a reception to the miracles of the divine ])rophet, that it was found unnecessary to publish, or at least to preserve, any Hebrew gospel**. The authentic his- tories of the actions of Christ were composed in the Greek language, at a considerable distance from Jeru- salem, and after the gentile converts were grown ex- tremely numerous P. As soon as those histories were translated into the Latin tongue, they were perfectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome, excepting only to the peasants of Syria and Egypt, for whose benefit - particular versions were afterwards made. The public highways, v.hich had been constructed for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain ; nor did those spiritual conquerors encounter any of the obstacles which usually retard or prevent the introduction of a foreign religion into a distant country. There is the strongest reason to believe, that before the reigns of Diocletian and Constantino, the faith of Christ had been preached in every province, and in all the great cities of the empire; but the foundation of the several congregations, the numbers of the faithful who com- posed them, and their proportion to the unbelieving multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or disguised by fiction and declamation. Such imperfect circum- Historical stances, however, as have reached our knowledge con- progress of cerning the increase of the christian name in Asia and ciuistianity ° The modern critics are not disposed to believe wliat the fathers almost unanimously assert, that St. Matthew composed a Hebrew gospel, of which only the Greek translation is extant. It seems, however, dangerous to re- ject their testimony. P Under the reigns of Xero and Domitian, and in the cities of Alexan- dria, Antioch, Rome, and Ephesus. See iNlill. Prolegomena ad Nov. Testa- ment, and Dr. Lardner's fair and extensive collection, vol. xv.