Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/170

 152 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, ancient heroes, who, in the infancy of the world, had ^^^ - invented arts, instituted laws, and vanquished the ty- rants or monsters who infested the earth ; in order to choose for the exclusive object of their religious wor- ship, an obscure teacher, who, in a recent age, and among a barbarous people, had fallen a sacrifice, either to the malice of his own countrymen, or to the jealousy of the Roman government. The pagan multitude, re- serving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone, re- jected the inestimable present of life and immortality, which was offered to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth. His mild constancy in the midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions and character, were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of success ; and whilst they refused to acknowledge his stupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and of the grave, they misrepresented, or they insulted^ the equivocal birth, wandering life, and ignominious death, of the divine author of chi'istianity". The union The personal guilt which every christian had con- and assem- j-j.^cted, in tlius preferring his private sentiment to the blies of the ' * . christians national religion, was aggravated in a very high degree asTdanger- '^y ^^^^ number and union of the criminals. It is well ousconspi- known, and has been already observed, that Roman policy viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any association among its subjects; and that the privi- leges of private corporations, though formed for the most harmless or beneficial purposes, were bestowed with a very sparing hand°. The religious assemblies of the christians, who had separated themselves from the public worship, appeared of a much less innocent " In the first and second books of Origen, Celsus treats the birth and character of our Saviour with the most impious contempt. Ihe orator Li- banius praises Porphyry and Julian for confuting the folly of a sect which styled a dead man of Palestine, God, and the son of God. Socrates, Hist. Ecclesiast. iii. 23. ' The emperor Trajan refused to incorporate a company of one hundred and fifty firemen, for the use of the city of Nicomedia. He disliked all as- sociations. See Plin. Epist. x. 42, 43. racy