orthodox believers, were in reality celebrated by the
Marcionites, by the Carpocratians, and by several other sects of
the Gnostics, who, notwithstanding they might deviate into the
paths of heresy, were still actuated by the sentiments of men,
and still governed by the precepts of Christianity. ^21
Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon the church by
the schismatics who had departed from its communion, ^22 and it
was confessed on all sides, that the most scandalous
licentiousness of manners prevailed among great numbers of those
who affected the name of Christians. A Pagan magistrate, who
possessed neither leisure nor abilities to discern the almost
imperceptible line which divides the orthodox faith from
heretical pravity, might easily have imagined that their mutual
animosity had extorted the discovery of their common guilt. It
was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the reputation, of
the first Christians, that the magistrates sometimes proceeded
with more temper and moderation than is usually consistent with
religious zeal, and that they reported, as the impartial result
of their judicial inquiry, that the sectaries, who had deserted
the established worship, appeared to them sincere in their
professions, and blameless in their manners; however they might
incur, by their absurd and excessive superstition, the censure of
the laws. ^23

[Footnote 20: In the persecution of Lyons, some Gentile slaves
were compelled, by the fear of tortures, to accuse their
Christian master. The church of Lyons, writing to their brethren
of Asia, treat the horrid charge with proper indignation and
contempt. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. v. i.]