Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/146

 128 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, and in the west, we shall •^^- now proceed to relate, without neglecting the real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the frontiers of the Konian empire, in the east. The rich provinces that extend from the Euphrates to the Ionian sea, were the principal theatre on which the apost'e of the gentiles displayed his zeal and piety. The seeds of the gospel, which he had scattered in a fertile soil, were diligently cultivated by his disciples ; and it should seem that during the two first centuries the most considerable body of christians was contained within those limits. Among the societies which were instituted in Syria, none were more ancient or more illustrious than those of Damascus, of Berea or Aleppo, and of Antioch. The prophetic introduction of the Apocalypse has desci'ibed and immortahsed the seven churches of Asia; Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thya- tira'i, Sardes, Laodicea, and Philadelphia; and their colonies were soon diffused over that populous coun- try. In a very early period, the islands of Cyprus and Crete, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia, gave a favourable reception to the new religion ; and christian republics were soon founded in the cities of Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens'". The antiquity of the Greek and Asiastic churches allowed a sufficient space of time for their increase and multiphcation ; and even the swarms of Gnostics and other heretics serve to display the flourishing condition of the orthodox church, since the appellation of heretics has always been ap- plied to the less numerous party. To these domestic testimonies we may add the confession, the complaints, and the apprehensions of the gentiles themselves. From the writings of Lucian, a philosopher who had 1 The Alngians (Eplphanius de Hasres 51.) disputed the genuineness of the Apocalypse, because the cliurch of Thyatira was not yet founded. Epiphaniusi! who allows the fact, extricates himself from the difficulty, by ingeniously supposing that St. John wrote in the spirit of prophecy. See Abauzit, Discours sur TApocalypse. >• The epistles of Ignatius and Dionysius (ap. Euseb. iv. 23.) point out many churches in A'^ia and Greece. That of Athens seems to have been one of the least flourishing.