Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/148

 130 THE DECLINE AND FALL C H A P. in the earthquake which afflicted Antioch under the ' elder Justing are so many C(jnvincing proofs that the whole number of its inhabitants was not less than half a million, and that the christians, however multiplied by zeal and power, did not exceed a fifth part of that great city. How different a proportion must we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant church, the west with the east, remote villages with populous towns, and countries recently converted to the faith, with the place where the believers first re- ceived the appellation of christians ! It must not how- ever be dissembled, that, in another passage, Chrysos- • torn, to whom we are indebted for this useful information, computes the multitude of the faithful as even superior to that of the jews and pagans ^. But the solution of this apparent difficulty is easy and obvious. The elo- quent preacher draws a parallel between the civil and the ecclesiastical constitution of Antioch ; between the list of christians who had acquired heaven by baptism, and the list of citizens who had a right to share the public liberality. Slaves, strangers, and infants were comprised in the former ; they were excluded fi-om the latter. In Egypt. The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its proximity to Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the new religion. It was at first embraced by great num- bers of the Therapeutae, or Essenians of the lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which had abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The austere life of the Essenians, their fasts and excommunica- tions, the community of goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and the warmth though not the purity of their faith, already offered a very lively image of the primitive discipline ''. It was in the y John Malela, torn. ii. p. 144. He drav^s the same conclusion with regard to the populousness of Antioch. ^ Chrysostom. torn. i. p. 592. I am indebted for these passages, though not for my inference, to the learned Dr. Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel History, vol. xii. p. 370. the most critical accuracy the curious treatise of Philo, which describes the
 * Basnage, (Histoire des Juifs, 1. ii. c. 20, 21,22, 23.) has examined with