Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

324 THE THIRD AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.hitherto had suffered death for the Christian Faith,samples chosen by God as champions to encouragethe rest, while He prevented their whole nationfrom being rooted out : for it was His purposethat this nation should be firmly rooted and con-solidated, and the whole world be filled with itssaving doctrine and discipline.12 Thus it wasHis will alone that He scattered every plot directedagainst them, so that neither emperors, nor localgovernors, nor the people should be able to indulgetheir wrath beyond a certain point. Origen,when he thus wrote, could look back on a periodof thirty-eight years, during which, with the exceptionof the severe but passing storm raisedthe Emperor Maximin, peace had reigned: yearswhich * he had himself employed in unwearied la-bours of teaching, writing, and converting; inwhich he had directed and advised an emperor'smother, and seen a Christian emperor; in whichhe had witnessed a wonderful increase of the Christianpeople, and indeed of this increase his wordsabove cited convey a faithful picture. He knew12 K(*)\vovros rov ®eov rb Trap $Kr0\efM$r)Vai avr&V eOvos' ffwrrijycu yap avrbej8ov\¬To Kal 7rA7jpoj0^ai Traaxu' rfyv 7?)^ ri]S (rwrypiov ravrqs /ecu eucre5i5ao-Ka\ias. Cbw#. Cels. iii. 8. It must be remembered that Celsus in thepassage to which this is an answer had asserted that the Christians hadarisen out of the Jews through a sedition; which makes the train ofthought pertinent. For Origen is contrasting the losses which occurthrough exterminating i wars, such as a sedition, or civil war, excites,with the losses to the Christian body through martyrdom. The com-parison therefore lies between the whole number of Christians vieweden masse and the martyrs. Lasaulx remarks that this was written beforethe Decian persecution.