Page:New historical catechism (3).pdf/13

 A. There were many that had embraced the do«~ trine of the apostles and believed in Christ, in and about Jerusalem; but Lanctanties relates: That after they had put to death the two James’s, and banished both Peter and Paul and others, that Christ, who has always a care over his own, appeared to Peter and Paul at Rome, before their martyrdom, and declared, that within three or four years after their death, he would take revenge on the Jews by the utter destruction of Jerusalem, and that generation; which, he says, they revealed to the Christians in Judea, whereupon Eusebius said, they departed from Jerusalem, not long before the siege began, to build a town called Pilla, beyond Jordan, to which Jesus had directed them, it being under the government of Agrippa, who being in amity with the Romans would be safe.

Q. Who was the first Emperor that embraced the Christian faith, and proclaimed liberty unto them?

A. Constantine the Great was the first that established the Christian religion, died peaceably in his bed, which for 300 years before few or none escaped divine justice.

Q. Which was the first heathen country that embraced the Christian religion?

A. Of all other nations in the world, none earlier embraced the Christian religion with more readiness than the Egyptains, demolishing their idolatrous images before any other heathen nation, and giving example to other countries to do the same, so they were the first who, after the coming of Christ, returned to the worship of the true God.

Q. Do you mind the apology that Tertullian wrote to the Heathen Emperor, in the defence of the Christian religion, in the time of the fourth persecution?

A. In a few years Christianity was spread over all