The former of these cautions will be briefly suggested in its proper place, but it may be as well to state it, here, somewhat more at length.

The art of Gibbon, or at least the unfair impression produced by his two memorable chapters, consists in his confounding together, in one indistinguishable mass, the origin and apostolic propagation of the new religion, with its later progress.

No argument for the divine authority of Christianity has been urged with greater force, or traced with higher eloquence, than that deduced from its primary development, explicable on no other hypothesis than a heavenly origin, and from its rapid extension through great part of the Roman empire.

But this argument--one, when confined within reasonable limits, of unanswerable force--becomes more feeble and disputable in proportion as it recedes from the birthplace, as it were, of the religion.

The further Christianity advanced, the more causes purely human were enlisted in its favor; nor can it be doubted that those developed with such artful exclusiveness by Gibbon did concur most essentially to its establishment.