d

was meant Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, who suffered in the time of that emperor. Huet gives credit to this story, and supposeth that thereby the death of Christ, who is the true Pan, the parent of all things, and the author of all nature, was notified to heathen people.

I shall now make two or three remarks, which are referred to the consideration of my readers.

1. The whole story is improbable, and has more the appearance of fiction than of truth and credibility.

2. The story is all over heathenish. If there be any truth in the account, when it was brought to Rome, and the affair was examined by the learned philologists at the court of Tiberius, their determination was, that the Pan, who was reported to be dead, was the son of Mercury and Penelope. Neither Thamus, nor Epitherses, nor Tiberius, nor the learned men whom he consulted, nor yet Plutarch and his company, who lived some good while after the death of our Lord, and the publication of his gospel, had any notion that this related to Jesus Christ.

That this story is throughout heathenish may be argued from what is said presently afterwards by Demetrius, another of the speakers in that dialogue of Plutarch: that ' most of the islands near Britain are desert, and consecrated 'to dæmons and heroes; and that, being sent by the emperor to take a survey of those islands, he landed on one of them which had a few inhabitants; and that, soon after his arrival, there happened a tempest, with terrible claps of thunder and lightning. When the tempest was over, 'the people of the island gave out that some one of the principal dæmons was dead. A candle, said they, when it 'burns is pleasant; but when it goes out it leaves a stink behind even so the deaths of great souls produce storms, ' and sometimes a pestiferous air.' To which Demetrius

6

fixus est. Et hunc credimus universæ naturæ et totius mundi Dominum et Formatorem. Vandale de Orac. p. 435.

Huic narrationi fidem creat circumstantia temporis. Incidit enim hæc res in tempus, quo Christus mortuus est. Estque verisimile, ejulationes dæmonum inde ortas, quod scirent, morte Christi satanæ regnum concidisse. Est enim Pan vox aptissima ad significandum Dominum universi, qui est omnia in omnibus, ut ait Paulus, 1 Cor. xv. 28. Petrus Mornæus, citat. a Vandale. ib. p. 437. d Ethnicis vero stupendo miraculo Christi Jesu significata mors est, quod in libello de desitis oraculis Plutarchus refert. Id, quanquam a vulgo scriptorum tritum est, minime tamen ob admirabilitatem rei pigebit hic adscribere-Narrat id apud Plutarchum Emilianus Rhetor, ut sibi a patre Epitherse, rei teste, traditum. Atqui id convenit in tempus mortis Christi Jesu, qui verus Pan est, rerum omnium parens, ac naturæ totius auctor, quam Panos symbolo Mythologi signatam voluerunt. Huet. Dem. Ev. Prop. ix. cap. 136. p. 630. See likewise Tillemont. Mem. Ec. J. C. art. 21. et note 31.

added, 'that in one of those islands Satan was bound, and guarded by Briarius, and that there were many dæmons 'attending upon him, as his slaves and ministers. All fiction surely; but representing, as may be supposed, the doctrine of credulous heathens concerning dæmons.

All which, however, is quoted by Eusebius from Plutarch, to prove the cessation or the declension of oracles soon after the coming of Christ.

His remark is to this purpose: So far Plutarch. But it • will be worth the while to observe the time when he says 'the death of that dæmon happened: it was in the time of • Tiberius. At that time our Saviour dwelt among men ; and it is written of him that he expelled all sorts of 'dæmons; and some of them fell down before him, entreating him that he would not send them into the abyss. Here then you have the true time of the expulsion of dæmons out of this world. A thing never heard of before. Nor was 'there an end put to human sacrifices, so common among ⚫ the Gentiles, till the evangelical doctrine had been preached ' to all men.' So Eusebius.

f

And though Colonia flourisheth mightily upon this story, he in the end finds it prudent to content himself with considering it as an argument, 'that the Gentiles themselves ' acknowledged the general downfall or declension of their 'oracles, after the time of Tiberius, and the coming of ⚫ Christ, and that two centuries before Eusebius.' A point about which I do not now particularly concern myself.

Before I conclude this article, I would observe, that Baronius did not fully rely upon the truth of the story told in Plutarch, concerning the pilot Thamus: and that the centuriators of Magdeburg consider it as an absurd and ridiculous fiction. So likewise does Basnage, who has offered more reasons in behalf of his opinion than need to be repeated by me here.

k

f La Réligion Chrétienne, &c. Tom. i. p. 124, &c.

§ P. 129.

h Hactenus de Pane Eusebius ex Plutarcho-Sane quidem si rei gestæ fidem adhibendam esse putamus, &c. Baron. Ann. 34. num. 130.

i Ubi et de Pane mortuo ridicula narrat. Centur. Magdeb. Sec. i. lib. 2. cap. xv. k Nobis vero propius est, hanc Epithersis narrationem esse fabulis apponendam: neque Christi passionem Panis morte significatam-Basn. ann. 33. num. 124.

CHAP. III.

A MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION CONCERNING THE
CHRISTIANS IN THE TIME OF NERO.

WHAT offers next is an inscription of the emperor Nero, on a monument found in Portugal.a

TO NERO CLAUDIUS CÆSAR,
AUGUSTUS, HIGH-PRIEST,

FOR CLEARING THE PROVINCE
OF ROBBERS, AND THOSE
WHO TAUGHT MANKIND

A NEW SUPERSTITION.

None can doubt that by the new superstition is here intended christianity. Some have questioned the genuineness of this inscription, because, say they, Nero's persecution extended no farther than Rome. The pretence for punishing them there was a charge of having set fire to the city. But it could not be so much as pretended that they who dwelt in remote countries were concerned in that fact.

If this be the only objection, the inscription may be reckoned very good. For if the christians living at Rome were charged with so great a crime, all of that sect in any place would share in the scandal, and might be judged a vile sort of people, fit to be destroyed. And indeed the christians at Rome were as innocent as they at the greatest distance. Besides, it will presently appear, from Tacitus, that the christians were then much hated, and that they suffered at Rome, not barely as guilty of setting fire to the city, but also for their supposed enmity to mankind. And Suetonius, in his account of the sufferings of the christians in this reign, says nothing of any concern in the fire; but only that they were a people of a new and pernicious, or magical, superstition.

• In ruinis pagi Marquosiæ in Lusitaniâ. Ap. Gruter. p. 238. 3.

NERONI. CL. CAES.

AUG. PONT. MAX.

OB PROVINC. LATRONIB.

ET. HIS. QUI. NOVAM
GENERI. HUM. SUPER.
STITION. INCULAB.
PURGATAM.

Which leads me to observe farther, that the style of the inscription is agreeable to that of Tacitus and Suetonius, some of the earliest heathen writers who have mentioned the christians.

If the persecution in Nero's time never became universal, it might take place in some of the provinces, particularly in that part of Spain which is now called Portugal. The christian writers, who speak of Nero's persecution, dob in effect, or expressly, say it was general; that from Rome it spread into the provinces, and was authorized by public edicts,

Though there remain this monument only, there may have been others of the like kind, which have been destroyed out of aversion to the memory of Nero, or by some of those many accidents to which all things are liable in a long course of years.

If this inscription be genuine, it is as early an heathen monument as we could expect to find remaining concerning christianity; especially so far off from Judea as Lusitania, now called Portugal. It must have been set up in the lifetime of Nero, who died in June, A. D. 68, or, at the utmost, before his death was publicly known; for after that no people paid him any honours.

I have shown that the style of this inscription is agreeable to early antiquity; and I have answered the objection taken from the supposed narrow limits of Nero's persecution. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged, that the genuineness of it is not assented to by all. Joseph Scaligerd doubted. Pagie and others have endeavoured to vindicate it. Some others still hesitate. This monument, they say, has been

f

b Consulite commentarios vestros. Illic reperietis, primum Neronem in hanc sectam, cum maxime Romæ orientem, Cæsareano gladio ferocîsse. Sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostræ etiam gloriamur. Tertullian. Ap. cap. 5.

Cum animadverteret Nero, non modo Romæ, sed ubique quotidie magnam multitudinem deficere a cultu idolorum-prosiluit ad excidendum cœleste templum, delendamque justitiam, et primus omnium persecutus Dei servos, &c. Lactant. vel Cæcilius de M. P. cap. 2.

c Hoc initio in christianos sæviri cœptum. Post etiam datis legibus religio vetabatur: palamque edictis propositis christianum esse non licebat. Sulp. Sev. Hist. 1. 2. cap. 41.

Primus Romæ christianos suppliciis et mortibus affecit, ac per omnes provincias pari persecutione excruciari imperavit. Oros. 1. 7. c. 7.

d Neque solum Romæ sævitum in christianos, sed etiam in provinciis. Exstat vetus inscriptio in Hispaniâ, loco Pisuerga vocato, in quo sine dubio hæc crudelitas tangitur, siquidem vera est illa inscriptio. Nam dubito. De Emend. Temp. p. 471. Pagi ann. 64. n. iv. J. E. I. Walchius De Persecutione Christian. Neronianâ in Hispaniâ.

e

* Exstat celebris hæc inscriptio apud Jan. Gruter. p. 238. n. 9. Ipsi vero præstantissimi Hispanorum viri auctoritatem hujus inscriptionis tueri non

seen by few or none: and the credit of the first publisher of the inscription is not established above all suspicion of falsehood and imposture.

I therefore must not insist upon it as certainly genuine and ancient; though I could not forbear to propose it to be considered nor do I think that any can dislike my placing it here before my readers.

CHAP. IV.

PLINY THE ELDER.

CAIUS PLINUS SECUNDUS, or a Pliny the elder, was born at Nerona, in the reign of Tiberius. He had divers public posts under the emperors Vespasian and Titus; notwithstanding which he redeemed a great deal of time for reading and writing, in which he was indefatigable. He was suffocated in the smoke and ashes of Vesuvius, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and the first year of the reign of Titus, in the year 79. His Natural History was published, and inscribed to Vespasian; or, as others think, to Titus, in the year of our Lord 77, before he was emperor.

In his History is a chapter concerning the origin of magic; where are these words: There is another sect of magi'cians, depending on (or deriving from) Moses, and Jamnes, and Jotapes, who were Jews, but many thousand years 'since Zoroaster. Still so much later is the Cyprian.'

audent, quippe quam nemo unquam vidit, et Cyriacus Anconitanus primus protulit, homo, quod omnes sciunt, fallax, et, si quis alius, malæ fidei, &c J. L. Moshem. Instit. Hist. Ec. p. 37.

Verum magni homines post Scaligerum dubitant, quid de fide et auctoritate monumenti hujus statuendum sit: et, ut arbitror, justissimas habent dubitandi causas. Nemo enim vel Hispanorum, vel Lusitanorum, lapidem hunc unquam vidit, quod ipsi doctissimi Hispaniæ viri non diffitentur. Is vero, si aliquando extitisset, magnâ certe curâ ob insigne pretium asservatus fuisset. Id. De. Reb. Christian. p. 109.

a Vid. Plin. Ep. 1. vi. 16. et 20. Voss. de H. 1. i. cap. 29. Fabr. Bib. Lat. 1. 2. c. 13. Basnag. ann. 77. ii. et 79. v. Tillem. H. E. Tite. art, vi. Crevier's History of the Roman Emperors. B. xvii. vol. 6. p. 291.

b Est et alia Magicis factio, a Mose, et Jamne, et Jotape Judæis pendens, sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem. Tanto recentior est Cypria. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. 30. cap. i. De Origine Magicæ artis, quando, et a quibus cœperat, &c.

VOL. VI.

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