OR, THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIANS IN THE FIRST AGES OF THE GOSPEL. TO WHICH IS ADDED AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF PAGANISM UNDER THE BY WILLIAM CAVE, D.D. Chaplain to King Charles II. IN TWO VOLS.-VOL. I. Ουκ ἐν λόγοις, ἀλλ ̓ ἐν ἔργοις τὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας θεοσεβείας πράγματα. Nos non habitu Sapientiam, sed mente præferimus; Just. Mart. Parænes. ad. Græc. p. 33. Non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus. Minuc. Fel. Dial. pag. 31. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY. ESSAY, AND NOTES, BY THE REV. WILLIAM TROLLOPE, M. A. A NEW EDITION. MDCCCXXXIX. no JOSEPH RICKERBY, SHERBOURN LANE, KING WILLIAM STREET, CITY. M-5412 C1966, 72, 12 WULLEGE APR 25 1888 LIBRARY John Harvey Treat. LONDON: PRINTED BY JOSEPH RICKERBY, 45-107 3077 14 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. In a perusal of Dr. Cave's PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY, the attention of the reader is constantly directed to the gross and unfounded calumnies which were cast upon the character, the morals, and the religion of the first believers. While some of the terms of reproach which were used against them, originated even in the miseries to which they were exposed by their enemies; there were others of a more gross, though much more harmless nature, inasmuch as the well-known purity of their morals, both in public and in private life, affords a full refutation of the crimes alleged against them. Indeed it appears wonderful how such unfounded reports, to the detriment of the Christian cause, could gain credit, when we observe that, upon the most strict inquiries, their conduct was universally found to be unimpeachable. Pliny bears the most decisive testimony to their virtues; a fact which Tertullian brings forward as the most solid proof of b |