Bad Advertisement? Are you a Christian? Online Store: | PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP (Persecutions threaten, p. 116.) We have reserved this heroic tract to close our series of the ascetic essays of our author because it places even his sophistical enthusiasm in a light which shows much to admire. Strange that this defiant hero should have died (as we may infer) in his bed, and in extreme old age. Great man, how much, alike for weal and woe, the ages have been taught by thee! This is the place for a tabular view of the ten persecutions of the Ante-Nicene Church. They are commonly enumerated as follows:1193
4. Under Hadrian (a.d. 118 and)——a.d. 134. 5. Under Aurelius (a.d. 177) and Severus——a.d. 202. 10. Under Diocletian (a.d. 284 and)——a.d. 303. Periods of Comparative Rest. 1. Under Antoninus Pius——a.d. 151. 3. Under Alexander Severus——a.d. 223. 4. Under Philip——a.d. 248. 5. Under Diocletian——a.d. 284 till a.d. 303. In thus chastising and sifting his Church in the years of her gradual growth “from the smallest of all seeds,” we see illustrations of the Lord’s Epistles to the seven churches of the Apocalypse. Who can doubt that Tertullian’s writings prepared the North-African Church for the Decian furnace, and all believers for the “seven times hotter” fires of Diocletian?
(Enormous gains from numbers, p. 124.) Christians were now counted by millions. The following tabular view of the Christian population of the world from the beginning has been attributed to Sharon Turner. I do not find it in any of his works with which I am familiar. The nineteenth century is certainly credited too low, according to the modern computists; but I insert it merely for the centuries we are now considering. Growth of the Church in Numbers. 7. Seventh century——24,000,000 11. Eleventh century——70,000,000 12. Twelfth century——80,000,000 13. Thirteenth century——75,000,000 14. Fourteenth century——80,000,000 15. Fifteenth century——100,000,000 16. Sixteenth century——125,000,000 17. Seventeenth century——155,000,000 18. Eighteenth century——200,000,000 19. Nineteenth century——400,000,000>
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