nus, and Ardaleo, (I suppose it should he Ardelio,) their names, joined to their profession, make the account suspicious, the one being Saint Harlequin, and the other Saint Jackanapes: for it is not probable that these were names of men, though the one might act the part of a Gelasinus, and the other of an Ardelio. Gelasius indeed is a name common enough.

In the time of Diocletian, there was a whole legion of Christians, called the Thebean Legion, consisting of more than six thousand men, who suffered martyrdom by the orders of Maximian. Tillemont H. E. 4. 421. This story hath never wanted patrons, ancient and modern. It hath been defended by Tillemont, by Hickes, (who would have called any man an Atheist for deriding it) and by many others.

As it would not be fair to dissemble the evidence for it, let it be observed that it stands upon the authority of one Eucherius, Bishop of Lions, and a writer of the fifth century, who had it from the bishop of Geneva, who had it from Theodorus, another bishop, who had the honour and felicity to find the reliques of these martyrs by revelation, and perhaps by the smell of the bones. Thus it terminates in a miracle; but

Nil agit exemplum litem quod lite resolvit.

About the time of Diocletian's persecution, or a "little after, a council of the eastern churches was held at Seleucia, to reform the abuses which Papas, patriarch of Seleucia had introduced into Ecclesiastical discipline, to examine many heavy accusations laid against him, and to hear the complaints of the bishops, who were jastly offended at his insolence. Mikes, bishop of Susa, censured him for it with "much

"

"much freedom and gravity. Whence arises, said "he, this arrogance of yours, this contempt for your "brethren the bishops, who have done nothing to "merit such treatment? Do you then look upon the

precepts of Jesus Christ as upon fables? or know you not that he hath said, Let him who is chief among you be as though he were the servant of o"thers? Stupid animal, replied Papas, it becomes "thee truly to teach me what I know better than "thou dost! At these words Milles took the gospels "out of his breast, and put the book upon a cushion, "and addressing himself to Papas, said, If you are "ashamed to learn your duty from me, who am but "a mortal man, learn it at least from this gospel, "which you see plainly enough with the eyes of the

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body, but not with the eyes of the understanding. "Then Papas, like a man frantic and possessed, striking "the sacred book with his hand, cried out, Speak, "then, gospel; speak. Milles hearing these profane "words, took up the book, and turning himself to the "people who were many in number, he put it to his "mouth, and to his eyes, and then raising his voice, "O proud man, said he to Papas, the Angel of the "Lord will punish thy insult against the word of e

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verlasting life. One half of thy body shall wither "in a moment, that so sudden a punishment may be "a conspicuous proof of the just severity of God against the proud and the profane. But thou shalt not "die presently; God will continue thy life for some years, because he will make of thee an example for those who are like thee. On the instant Papas fell "to the ground, and was struck with a palsy which "took away the use of one side of his body; and in

"this condition he lived twelve years, and then died. "This happened A. D. 314.

*

Such is the relation which the Syrians have gi"ven us of Papas, primate of the east. Our age has little faith for the marvellous, and chuses rather to "ascribe such events to natural causes; and indeed "violent fits of anger have sometimes brought on palsies. But it is not unsuitable to Divine Provi"dence so to order second causes, that the punishment of a notorious sinner shall tread close upon "his crime, and that even the incredulous shall never "be able to determine that there is nothing miraculous "in it." Beausobre Hist. du Manich. i. p. 184.

Beausobre took this account from Asseman's Bibl. Orientalis, and refers the reader to it.

Milles, as Sozomen relates, was at first a soldier in the Persian army, embraced Christianity, and was made bishop of a city in Persia, where he was often cruelly used and beaten by the infidels. Finding that his labours amongst them were unsuccessful, and that he could not make one proselyte, he departed thence, having pronounced a malediction on the city, which not long after was destroyed by the king, together with its inhabitants. Setting out as a pilgrim, and carrying with him nothing but the gospel, he went to visit Jerusalem; thence he travelled to Egypt to see

the

*The death of Nerva and Valentinian the first, is ascribed to a violent fit of anger; and, to descend from emperors to lower persons, we read, that a master of Trinity College in Cambridge, scolded himself into a palsy but these are no objections to the story here related, according to which the distemper was foretold by a good man, and inflicted upon a bad man, and there is nothing in the account itself that should incline us to reject it.

the monks , and returning home he suffered martyrdom with many other Persian Christians in the persecution under Sapor, about A. D. 340. He is said to have wrought miracles.

14.

This account Sozomen took from Syrian writers, ii.

We are now coming to the age of Constantine, to the faint struggles of expiring Paganism, to Christianity by law established †, and to a church blessed, perhaps, with prosperity and virtue: but it is hard for men to join these two together in stable alliance, which so many causes concur to keep asunder. From the age of Constantine the divine providence so ordered it, that Christianity was the reigning religion in the Roman empire, under Christian emperors, a small interval excepted in the reign of Julian; and this seems to have been necessary for its support. In process of time it was so much altered and defaced, that without the protection of the civil magistrate, it might have been in danger, and Paganism, new modelled and refined by philosophers raight have found too many advantages over it. Thus things went on from bad to worse, till the Reformation rescued the gospel in some degree from the vile hands into which it was fallen. Such was the state of religion for many ages;

Nihil aderat adjumenti ad pulchritudinem, ut ni vis boni In ipsa inesset forma, hæc formam extinguerent.

• Perhaps to see whether the great things which fame reported concerning them were true.

+ The completion of the prophecies, in the establishment of Christianity, and in the destruction of the persecuting princes, shall be considered in another volume, Deo volente.

But Christianity, at the very worst, and under the greatest disadvantages, could not lose all her excellence, and undoubtedly produced good effects on thousands and ten thousands, whose lives are not recorded in Ecclesiastical History; which, like other history, is for the most part a register of the vices, the follies, and the quarrels of those who made a figure and a noise in this world.

The sacred writers foretold this fatal change and great apostacy, and thus the Divine Providence, which brings good out of evil, caused the very corruption of Christianity to be one proof of its truth.

Socrates at the close of his work observes, that if men were honest and peaceable, historians would be undone for want of materials.

APPEN