110 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. Instead of employintf in our defence the fictions of .. later ages, it will be more prudent to convert the oc- casion of scandal into a subject of edification. Our serious thoughts will suggest to us, that the apostles themselves were chosen by providence among the fishermen of Galilee, and that the lower we depress the temporal condition of the first christians, the more reason we shall find to admire their merit and success. It is incumbent on us diligently to remember, that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind, cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future happiness ; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this world ; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge. Rejected by We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us nem^men ^'^^' *^^^ ^°^^ °^ some illustrious characters, which in our of the first eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the hea- centuries. venly present. The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Phny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human nature. They filled with glory their respective stations, either in active or contemplative life ; their excellent understandings were improved by study; philosophy had purified their minds from the prejudices of the popular superstition; and their days were spent in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue. Yet all these sages (it is no less an object of surprise than of concern) overlooked or rejected the perfection of the christian system. Their language or their silence equally discover their contempt for the growing sect, which in their time had difiised itself over the Roman empire. Those among them who condescended to mention the christians, con- sider them only as obstinate and perverse enthusiasts_, who exacted an implicit submission to their mysterious
