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Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

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236 THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.<strong>of</strong> the Christian doctrines which the emperor couldhave ; but these would be very far from conveyingto him the character <strong>of</strong> the Church as an institution.<strong>The</strong>y were intended to obviate the persecutionsarising o from the causes above described, 'to show the purity <strong>of</strong> Christian morality, the reasonableness<strong>of</strong> Christian belief, the fidelity <strong>of</strong> Christiansentiment to the imperial rule as establishedby a divine providence. <strong>The</strong>y were not in theleast intended to lay before him the ChristianChurch as a whole. Thus Justin, replying to theaccusation that they were expecting a kingdom,says, "You rashly conceive that we mean a humanone, whereas we speak <strong>of</strong> that with God. "We may then, it seems, conclude with certaintythat Antoninus was only partially aware <strong>of</strong> whatChristianity was. That discipline <strong>of</strong> the secret ,which was itself the result <strong>of</strong> persecution - <strong>of</strong> theChristian Faith having to make itself a place ina world utterly opposed to it, - became at onceits protection, and the cause <strong>of</strong> further persecution; <strong>of</strong> persecution, in so far as it put Christiansunder general suspicion, but <strong>of</strong> protection, inasmuchas it covered with a veil that complete moralrevolution to which the Christian Faith was tendingfrom the first, and towards which it was continuallyadvancing. Could Trajan have foreseen whatwas apparent under Constantine, his treatment <strong>of</strong>Christians would have had no forbearance or hesitationin it, his blows no intermission or doubt-/

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