^C«^i? /;C '^^y.e^^,^,,^,^ A' ' OF THE Theoibgical Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J. Case, *--^..z^.'~rt5.iyision STielf, //^.. C^I^.Seotj»n.^ Book, No, ,, A y:)0 n-at I O N .^^...^^l^..Z^z deceived -V^!" ^ l> \- THEOLOGICAL SEF Princeton, N. J. 7^ THE! HISTORY CHURCH OF CHRIST. FROM THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES, TO THE YEAR 155L ABRIDGED tROM THE FIVE TIRST tOIUMES OE / MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY. BY REV. JESSE TOWNSEND, A. B, UTICA> PUBLISHED BY CAMP, MERRELL fe CAMP, At their Theolegical Bookstore, one door west of the Post-OfSce, Geneset Utreet, KEaSEUi AKD CAMP, PSIHTEES: J\'ortLem District of .Yew York, to ivit : Be it remembered, thal^on the fifteenth day of Fcbrua?)', in the fortieth year of the Independence of the United Slates of Amei- ca, Talcott Camp, Ira Merkell & George Camp, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words follow- ing, to wit : *'The History of the Church of Christ, from theda>s of the Apostles, to the yeai" 1 651, abridged from tiie five first volumes of Milner's Church History. By Rev. Jesse Townsend, A B." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by secunrg- the copies of Maps, Charts and Bo{.k«, to the authors and proprietors of such cop.es, during ihe times therei.i mentioned," and also to an act entitled, "Au act su[ plementHiy to an act, entitled an act for tlie encouragement of ieain.ng, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and B>.'(k.s, to the authors and propr.etors of such copies, during the t.me therein mentioned, and extt^nding the benefits thereof to the arts of design, ng, engraving and etchnig historical an 1 otlier prints. RICHARD R LANSING, Cleric of tlie JVorthern District rf J\eno York. TO THE PUBLIC. The publishers are bound to offer an apology for some deby in the publication of the Abridgment of MiLNER. The onlyK)ne they can offer is, that the oc- currence ot events unforeseen and uncontrollable by them, has rendered ineffectual their strenuous exer- tions to ensme its earlier appearance. While they regret the necessity of any excuse, they trust, this, in the estimation of the candid and generous, will be sufficient. Histories of the church have always been re- garded as most interesting and valuable works. The multitude of marvellous events that have happened to it, its vicissitudes, its dangers and sufferings, its dis- asters and successes, its miraculous preservation and progress, cannot fail to excite the wonder and admi- ration of mankind, the poignant regret and grief of its enemies, the lively joy and gratitude of its friends. — To become acquainted with these facts must be an object of peculiar and earnest desire with all true be- lievers in Christianity. The size and expense of gen- eral histories of the church, have locked up their abundant treasures from many readers whose piety made them especially anxious to acquire a portion of those exhaustless riches. In this Abridgment, it has been a principal object to retain the material and mosf interesting facts, that the value of the original work might be preserved^ and the price and size so reduced that the former should not surpass the ability of those who are desir- ous to purchase, and the latter not require more time and attention in perusal than they can easily bestow. These objects they hope will be fully accomplished, and the work in its present form j)rove extensively useful. That it may be satisfactory to the public, and beneficial to the interests of religion, is the sincere desire of THE PUBLISHERS. RECOMMENDATIONS. X have examined Townsend's Abridgment, and in my opinion, it is executed in such a manner, as will render it an acceptable and useful work to the public. HENRY DWIGHT, Pastor of first Presbyterian Church Utica, JV. Y, From ray acquaintance with the Rev. Mr. Dwight, I most cheer- fully give my name, if it will aid in the more general diffusion of the Abridgment of Milner'§ Church History. AZEL BACKUS, D. D. President of Hamilton College. I have examined a part of Townsend's Abridgment, and cheerfully concur in opinion with the Rev. Mr. Dwight and Doctor Backus, ex- pressed in the above recommendations. ASAHEL S. NORTON, D. D. Pastor of the first Congregational Church, Clinton JV. ¥, PREFACE, THIS A^bridgment of Milner's Church History, is designed for Ibe use and benefit of such famines as may not feel themselves able to purchase, or may not have time to read the entire work. The principal facts there detailed, are here presented to the public in a condensed form, mostly in the language of the author. The progress of truth and its salutary influence on a world ruined by sin ; the consolations which result from a life of true holiness, and the faithfulness of Zion's King in the means used to support his cause in the world, are here exhibited. The saints are seen in sackcloth, with their hearts fixed, trusting in God : errors in their various forms and. deleterious nature, are noticed, and the blood of the martyrs is seen to be the seed of the church. May all, who shall read this abridgment, be excited, by the Holy Spirit, to live to the glory of Him, who has said to his church ,• <• Fear not, little ylock, it is yotjr Fa- ther's GOOD pleasure TO GIVE TOU THE KIXGBOM." J. T. Utica, Feb. 10, 1816. CENTURY I. CHAPTER I. A. SUMMARY VIEW OF THE CHURCH, SO FAR AS IT MAY BE COLLECTED FROM THE SCMPTUJIE. SECTION L Jerusalem. A HAT "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in the nanje of Jesus Christ, beginning at Jerusalem ;" is a text which shows what the chris- tian religion is;, and where we are to look for its com- mencement. We are to describe the rise of a dispen- sation, the most glorious to God, and the most benefi- cent to man. In Judea alone something of the wor- ship of the tRie God, and of the forms of the Mosaic economy subsisted, but greatly obscured and corrupt- ed with Pharisaic traditions, and Sadducean pro- faneness. Of that religion, which consists in repen- tance and remission of sins, they were totally igno- rant. The great body of the Jewish nation knew not that men need to be made new creatures, and to re- ceive the forgiveness of sins by faith in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Some there were, however, who implicitly rested on the God of Israel, and trusted in the Redeemer that was to come ; such were Zachari- as, Simeon and Anna. This dark season was chosen by Him "who hath put the times and seasons in his own power," for the exhibition of the Light of Life. 10 But few souls were converted during Christ's abode on earth. The five hundred brethren, who all saw him at one time, after his resurrection, seem to have been the sum total of his disciples. The first Christian Church was erected at Jerusa- lem. As repentance and remission of sins were the leading doctrines of Christ's religion^ the most ample room had been made for them by the completion of his redemption. He had offered, himself a sacrifice for the sins of men, "was risen" from the dead "for our justification," and in the sight of his disciples had just ascended up to heaven. That the gospel, the good news of reconciliation to God^ for penitent sin- ners, should begin at Jerusalem, the scene of so much wickedness perpetrated, and of so much gi'ace abu- sed, evinced the Divine goodness, and displayed the gland purposes of the gospel to be, to justify the un- godly, and to quicken the dead. By command from their Divine Master, the Apostles remained at Jerusalem waiting for the promised Holy Spirit, in mutual charity, and in the fervent exercise of prayer and siT}3plication. During this interesting crisis, they elected Matthias to fill the place from which Judas by transgression fell. The day of Penticost was the era of the Divine visit- ation. They were filled with the Holy Ghost, and be- gan to &peak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. By this they were prepared to propagate the gospel ; and this was an attestation of its truth. Jews^ devout men^ out of eveiy nation under heaven, then dwelling at Jemsalem, with araazemeni, heard these Galliieans speak, each in his own language. But some derided the apostles as intoxicated with new wine. The zeal of Peter was now excited to preach both to those who admired and to those who scoffed. The design of his sermon was to beget a conviction of sin in his hearers, and to bring them to look to Je- sus, through whom alone salvation m exhibited to sin- ful men. It pleased God to ci-own his preaching with success. Multitudes were pricked in their hearts,, found themselves guilty of having murdered the Christ H of God, and anxious to know what they should do. Peter's direction to them was ; " Repent and be bap- tized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the Ho- ly Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Thus the doctrine of repentance and remission of sins in the name of Jesus, began at Jerusalem. They, who gladly received the word which Peter preached, were baptized, " and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." These appear to have been fully converted to Chris- tianity ; for we are assured, " they continued steadfast- ly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Here we see the regular appearance of the 'first christian church. A church that understood and be- lieved the apostolic doctrine of repentance and remis- sion of sins in the name of Jesus Christ. A church that continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. They regarded their pastors as those whom God had made instruments of their conversion. They manifested their faith by their obedience to the command of Christ relative to the Lord's supper, and were devout and prayerful. f' And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Mutual charity proved how soon the operations of Di- vine grace had loosened their affections from a love of this world, and that they had chosen God for their portion. This was a happy season of religious revival, for "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Soon after this, a miracle, Avrought by Peter and John, on a lame man, a well known beggar, above for- ty years old, gave a further attestation to their doc- trine ; and prepared the way for Peter to preach to the admiring multitudes the same doctrine of repen- tance and remission, and to point them tp Jesus for 12 pardon and salvation. In this St. Peter exalts the Lord Jesus as the Holy One, and the Jqst, the Prince of Life ; shows them their guilt in their having prefer- red Barrabas, a murderer, to him, disclaims all merit in himself and his colleague in the miracle just wrought, and shews that God had glorified his Son Jesus, and that it was through faith in his name, the wonderful cure had been periormed ; exhorts them to repentance and conversion, and shows them that " there is none other name" than that of Jesus '^ under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," The signal for persecution was now raised by the magistrates of Jerusalem, who were enemies to all practical godliness. The two apostles were imprison- ed that evening ; but their examination was deferred until the next (Jay, To the interrogatories put to him by the court of ex- amination, Peter frankly answers, that the miracle had been " wTought in the name of Jesus, whom ye cru- cified, whom God raised from the dead," and boldly rebukes them for their contempt of him, who is the only Savior. The wisdom and boldness, of these two unlettered fishermen, struck the court with astonish- ment. But finding no present opportunity to gratify their malice, on account of the splendor of the miracle, they dismissed them with a strict charge to be silent iift future concerning the name of Jesus. With this charge the apostles ingenuously confessed they could not comply, because they must obey God rather thau. men. The apostles returning and reporting all these things to their company, they all with united supplication entreated the Lord to grant them boldness to perse- vere, notwithstanding the menaces of his and their enemies. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and enabled to proceed with calm intrepidity. At this season, brotherly love and the most perfect unanimity happily prevailed among the christians. Divine grace was largely diffused among them. The poor lacked nothing; the richer brethren converted their possessions into money, and left the distribution 18 of the whole to the discretion of the apostles. But the wheat among the tares now began to appear. There was one Ananias among the disciples, whose conscience had been so far impressed, as to respect that doctrine and fellowship to which he had joined himself; but whose heart was never divorced from the love of the world. A regard for his reputation in- duced him to sell his possessions with the rest; but the fear of poverty and the want of faith in God, dis- posed him to reserve a part of the price, while he brought the other to the apostles. Peter upbraided him with being under the influence of Satan, in lying to the Holy Ghost ; shewed him that the action w^as not committed against man, but against God, that the guilt of his hypocrisy was hereby aggravated ; that he was under no necessity of selling his property, or of laying it at the apostles' feet when sold, and that nothing could be said to extenuate his baseness. Im- mediately the unhappy man fell down dead; and about three hours after, his wife Sapphira, who had been partaker of her husband's guilt, was made a similar monument of Divine justice. Such a proof of the discernment of spirits, and of the power of punishing hypocrisy, resting in the gov- ernors of the church, filled all who heard these things with awe. The Lord had now^ shewn his holiness as well as his grace : and the love of the world, was a se- cond time punished by a signal interposition of hea- ven. Multitudes of both sexes were now added to the church, chiefly of the common people. At the progress which the gospel was thus making, the rage of the high priest and his party, all of whom were of the sect of the Sadducees, was greatly excited. Their first step was to imprison the apostles- But God by night, sent his angel and set them free, and bade them preach in the temple. The next morning, a full Sanhedrim was convened, and the apostles were sent for. They were not, however, found in con- finement, but preaching in the temple, and in a gentle manner were conducted before the court. The high priest upbraids tlicm wUh their disoliedicnce to his 14 former injunction of silence, to whom they again an- swer, "they ought to obey God rather than men." They bore witness to the resurrection of Christ, and declared that " God had exalted him with his own right hand to be a Prince and Savior, to give, repen- tance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins," and that " the Holy Ghost, whom God bestows on those who obey him, witnessed" the same thing. Thus these first christians did, with the most pungent plainness, lay open the gospel, and exhibit it as something extreme- ly different from a mere system of morals, though it included all good morality in its nature. The spirit of persecution was now about to burst forth in violent counsels. But Providence made use of the counsel of Gamaliel, a judicious, learned, res- pectable man, though as far as appears, a man of the world, and a hater of Christianity, to prolong the lives of the apostles. They were dismissed, but not with- out stripes, and a severe charge no more to preach in the name of Jesus. They ceased not, however, to " teach and preach Jesus Christ, and rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his name." The church was now much enlarged ; an increase of minist6iial labor devolved upon the apostles : dis- satisfaction in the mean time arose in the minds of some, from a supposition that, in the daily suj^ply of the poor, relief had not, by the apostles, been equally ministered to the widows. Seven coadjutors were chosen to see to an equal ministration to the poor, and the apostles were left free to give themselves continu- ally to prayer and the ministry of the word. The love of Christ then ruling in the hearts of his people, the multitude consented with pleasure. Many of the priests now obeyed the gospel, and Jemsalem saw con- tinually large accessions made to the church. The enemies of Christianity could not be at rest, Stephen, one of the seven who had been chosen to as- sist the apostles, in relieving them from the daily min- istration to the poor, a man most distinguished for his piety, was accused of blasphemy against Moses and - 15 against God ; and brought to make his defence before the Sanhedrim. In his defence, he boldly rebuked the Jews and labored to bring his audience to a deep conviction of their sin in having been the murderers of the Prince of Life, and to leave them no hope in their own righteousness. Behold the contrast between. the spirit of the world and the spirit of true Christianity ! His enemies " were cut to the heart, and gnashed on him with their teeth." He, " full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly to heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God," and what he saw, he openly confessed. Their malice burst into a flame. " They cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him," while he called upon his Divine Master, " Lord Jesus receive my spirit." He kneeled down, and cri- ed with a loud voice, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." And having thus shewn the constancy of his faith, and the ardor of his benevolence, " he fell asleep." Real faith in Christ, and real charity to men, were here a glorious exemplification of the true spirit of Christianity. Stephen was buried with great lamentation by the church, and a considerable num- ber soon after suffered. The spirit of persecution now raged with unrelent- ing fury. Saul of Tarsus, a young man of an active, am- bitious spirit, educated at Jerusalem under Gamaliel^ and pre-eminently versed in Judaical learning, distin- guished himself as a most bitter persecutor. He took care of the clothes of the witnesses employed in ston- ing Stephen, and made havoc of the church, entering into every house, " and haling men and women, com- mitted them to prison, and when they were put to death, he gave his voice against them." In truth the disciples seemed now to be left to the rage of men, disposed to shew them no mercy, and a superficial ob- server might have supposed, that the fate of Theudas and Judas, mentioned by Gamxaliel, was going to at- tend the christians. Men had not yet learned that Ihe " blood of the martyrs w as the seed of the church." 16 The religious Worship of the disciples must have suf- fered a grievous interruption. They were all in a perilous condition. The apostles alone stood their giound, and by the watchful care of their God, were preserved. The dispersed christians preached the :^ord wherever they went. And thus this persecution was the first occasion of the diffusion of the gospel through various regions, and what was designed to an- nihilate it, was overruled to extend it exceedingly. But we shall confine ourselves in this section to the church of Jerusalem. Saul, zealous for persecution, was vexed to hear, that a number of the christians had escaped to Da- mascus, an ancient city of Syria, and procured a commission from the high priest to bring them bound to Jerusalem. On his way, when near to Damascus, a sudden light from heaven, exceeding that of the sun, arrested the daring z-ealot, and struck him to the ground. At the same time, a voice called to him, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" And he said, Who art thou. Lord ; and the Lord said, " I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest : it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." The will of this bitter per- secutor was broken for the first time, and, "Lord, v/hat wilt thou have me do," was his cry. He was directed to go into Damascus, where, after having remained three days ^vithout sight and with- out food, by the particular direction of a vision from the Lord Jesus, Ananias, a disciple of Damascus, was sent to him with the tidings of peace. He receiv- ed his sight and was filled with the Holy Ghost, was baptized, and soon refreshed both in mind and body. From that time till his death, he was engaged in the ser\dce of Jesus Christ, in a course of labors in the church, wit-li unparalleled success. This is he who is commonly known by the name of St. Paul, and his memorial is blessed forever. Particularly commis- sioned to preach to the Gentiles, he entered with the greatest penetration into the nature of Christianity, became one of its most able advocates and zealous supporters, and travelled extensively for its propaga- tion. Having preached Christ for three years abroad, he went up to Jerusalem, not to join himself to his former friends in persecution, but to join himself to the church. The church, after receiving particular information of his genuine conversion, received him cordially. Gladly vrould he have remained at Jeru- salem ; but the Lord by a vision assured him that the Jews would not receive his testimony, and that the great scene of his labors was to be among the Gen- tiles. The unconverted Jews sought his life, but by the address of his christian brethren, he was safely con- ducted to his native city of Tarsus. The fury of per- secution now subsided, the Lord gave rest to his church and the disciples, both at Jerusalem and else-' where, " walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." Where these are united, excesses of all sorts are prevented, and inward joy and outward obedience demonstrate that there Christ reigns indeed^ Yet so slow are men to receive new divine truths, especially those which militate against old prejudices, that the christians of Jerusalem con- tended with Peter on account of his intercourse with the Gentiles of Caesarea. Peter with great meekness reasoned with his bigoted brethren, convinced them by evident proofs that the grace of God Was vouch- safed to the Gentiles, and that it was lawful to have communion with them. They glorified God, saying, " Th6n hath God, also to the Gentiles, granted repen- tance unto life." Even a converted Jew, now admits with difficulty, that the grace of God may visit a Gentile. The visits of Paul to Jerusalem seem to have been but short. In one of these the grace of God shone bright, in the alms of Gentile converts sent by him to the Jewish christians afflicted with a famine in the days of Claudius Caesar. His companion to Jerusa- lem was Barnabas, whose hberality in the beginning had been so eminent. Having discharged this ser- vice, they both returned to minister to the Gentile^. 18 The civil power of Judea was now in the hands of Herod Agrippa, a person of considerable talents, and full of specious virtiiej^ but a persecutor of the church of Christ. Of this persecution, James, the son Zebe- dee, was the first victim ; who was slain mth the sword, the first of the apostles, who departed from the church below, to join that which is above. Herod, finding this act popular, sought to despatch Peter also. But God had reserved him for more ser- vices. Though imprisoned and strictly guarded, with a view to his being publicly executed, after the pass- over, when the concourse of Jews at Jerusalem wasr very large, yet was he miraculously preserved. A spirit of earnest, persevering prayer, on his behalf was poured on the chttrch of Jerusalem, and on the night before his intended execution, an angel was sent for his deliverance from prison. He then gladly re- paired to his praying christian friends, who received him with great joy, and he informed them of the Lord's wonderful interposition in his favor. After this he retired to a place of concealment. Little did Herod apprehend that his own death should precede that of his prisoner. On a public oc- casion, in which he appeared in great splendor, he de- livered an oratioti, so pleasing to his audience, " that they shouted, it is the voice of a god and not of a man." That moment he was smitten with an incurable dis- ease by an angel, because he " gave not God the glo- ry." Thus he fell, a warning to princes not to seek glory in opposition to God. The next memorable circumstance in the mother church was " the first christian council." The many thousands, in whose hearts God had erected his king- dom, though in the midst of one of the most wicked nations in the world, had now lived about twenty years, in great unanimity and charity, "keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." But at leiigth their peace and harmony were interrupted by some christian Jews, who urged upon the Gentile con- verts the necessity of circumcision, and of obedience to the whole of the Mosaic ceremonial, in order to sal- 1^ vation. In this they practically averred, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, was not sufficient for man's salvation, that the favor of God was, in part at least, to be purchased by human works, and that they by their ritual observances contributed to their acceptance with God. In this an attempt was made to corrupt the simplicity of the faith, by which christiaas had hith- erto rested with complacency on Jesus alone, had en- joyed peace of conscience, and been constrained to obedience by love. This growing ev^il, the apostles Paul and Barnabas, g^fter no small fruitless altercation with the zealots, sought to counteract, by referring the full consideration of the question to a council of apos- tles and elders at Jerusalem. At the council Peter argued, that as God had select- ed him to preach to the Gentiles, and had given great success to his preaching among them, in purifying their hearts by faith, and in shedding down upon them the Holy Ghost, no less than upon the Jews, God had unequivocally decided, that the yoke of ceremo- nial observances was not to be imposed on them, as necessary to their salvation. Paul and Barnabas also gave full proof of the divine grace vouchsafed to the Gentiles. James, who seems to have been the stand-^ ing pastor of Jerusalem, confirmed the same argument, by the prophets of the Old Testament, agreeably to Peter's declaration of the mercy of God in visiting the Gentiles. He gave his opinion, that the Gentiles should no longer be molested with sentiments subver- sive of the grace of God, and tending to teach them dependance on human works, instead of the merits of Christ for salvation, Only he recommended, that the council should direct them to abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things stran- gled, and from blood. For the Jews^ dispersed through Gentile cities, and who heard Moses read every Sab- bath day, required these precautions. A letter was sent according to these vievv^s, nor does it appear there was one dissenting voice in the coun- cil. The result of this council among the Gentile converts, appears to have had a most salutary eiFegl.^ 20 The tenor of this result was, that none were required to live in Mosaic observances, as necessary to saU vation : that dependance for salvation was to be pla^ ced, solely on the atoning blood and justifying righ- teousness of Jesus Christ. From the Acts of the apos- tles, and from their epistles it appears, that they regulated their religious i^istryctions and practices agreefibly to this prudent and excellent result, where- ever they went. The inveteracy and self-righteous spirit of those who adhered to Mosaic observances, their opposition to the soul-humbling, apostolic doc- trine of justification by faith alone, and the zeal, faith- fulness and success of the apostles, we have stated in the Acts of the apostles, and in their epistles. To these the reader is referred for particular information. From the same source we learn too that the church at Jerusalem did not uniformly maintain its first love, but even in the apostles' day experienced a season pf declension. SECTION II. Judea^ Ckililee and Samc^ria, XHE holy land was divided into three provinces^ Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. In all these, christian churches were early planted. These, most probably, followe<^ the example of the parent church at Jerusa- lem, both in its first love and auspicious progress, and also in its unhappy declension. Samaria, though situated between Judea and Ga- lilee, was distinguished from them both in its polity and religion. Its inhabitants occupied a great part of the district which had belonged to the tribes, whom the kings of Assyria had carried into captivity.— They mixed the worship of Jehovah with, their idols, vainly boasted of their relation to Jacob, professed to regard the law of Moses, and depreciated the rest of th^ Old Testamenj^. 21 They were extremely corrupted in their religious views and practices. This people the divine Savior pitied, and visited them himself, when some sinners were converted. But the effusions of his kindness toward this unhappy peo- ple appeared most conspicu§ifis, in blessing the minis- try of Philip to their spiritual good. Philip, one of the eleven, spoken of in the sixth chapter of Acts, driven from Jerusalem by persecution, was directed to go to Samaria. There he preached Christ, and the gospel entered the hearts of many, so that " there was great joy in that city."- Though the inhabitants were a simple and ignorant people, yet when the spirit of God was greatly poured out upon them, under Phi- lip's preaching, none received the gospel with more cordial pleasure. Superstition and diabolical delu' sions vanished ; and numbers of both sexes were bap- tized. Simon, the sorcerer, who had for a long time de- ceived this people with his sorceries, though a stran- ger to the nature and power of Christ's religion, was convinced that Christianity in general was true, be- came an historical believer and was baptized. The apostles, hearing of the happy success of the gospel at Samaria, sent thither Peter and John, who prayed that the Holy Ghost might be imparted through the imposition of hands. Their prayer was answered. The Spirit was communicated, not only in extraordinary gifts, but also in an effusion of the same holy graces, which had appeared in Judea. — - By the former the attention of Simon was attracted. His avarice prompted him to attempt to purchase the power with money ; in expectation that if possessed of the supposed secret, he could soon acquire vast wealth, Peter, who at once saw his covetousness and ignorance, rebuking him ip the severest manner, as- sured him his heart was altogether wrong, and that notwithstanding his baptism and profession of chris^ tianity, his state was accursed, and exhorted him to repent and to seek divine forgiveness. Here we see |iovv singularly remote the religion of Je«us is from all 22 worldly plans and schemes, and what an awful difiei- ence there ever is between a real and nominal chris" ti^-n. The conscience of Simon felt the reproof: he begged the apostle's prayers, but it does not appear he ever prayed for himself. Peter and John preached through many Samaritan villages, and then returned to Jerusalem. Thus, converted Jews and converted Samaritans, who, while unregenerated, had disagreed in rites, were now united in Jesus, and while each felt the same obligations to grace, learnt for the first time the sweets and comforts of mutual charity. SECTION III. Ethiopia. X HE persecution which had driven many of the re^ al friends of Christ from Jerusalem, was overruled to the furtherance of the gospel. After Philip had fin- ished his work at Samaria, he was, by an extraordi- nary commission, ordered to travel southward toward the desert. He soon learnt for what intent ; he fell in with an Ethiopian eunuch, a minister of Candace^ queen of the Ethiopians, who had been worshipping at Jerusalem, and was returning home in his chariot, and reading the prophet Esaias. The adorable pro- vidence of God directed him, at that particular time, to the fifty-third chapter, which gives so clear a de- scription of Christ crucified. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading. The man, confess- ing his ignorance, desired Philip to come and sit with him. The evangelist took the opportunity of expound- ing the gospel to him through the medium of the pas- sage be Vv^as then reading, which at once lays open the guilty and miserable state of man, his recovery only by the grace of Jesus Christ, the nature, end and efficacy of his death and resurrection, and justification before God, by the knowledge of him. God gave ef- ficacy to the truths. explained, brought Wm to see andi feel his guilt and wickedness, to discover the remedy provided for divine acceptance, and as soon as he came to a certain water, he desired to be baptized. Phi- lip, assuring hmi there was no impediment, if he was sincere in the faith of Christ, the humbled applicant professed that he believed that the Jesus of Nazareth, whom Philip had preached to him, was indeed the Son of God prophesied of in Isaiah, and answered the character of Savior there given him. Philip then baptized him. Though Philip^ by the spirit of the Lord, w^as im- mediately taken from him, yet he went on his way^ to his own country rejoicing. This joy, had doubt- less, a solid and powerful cause, arising from a spirit- ual, internal work, humbling him for sin, and com- forting him, in a view^ of the truths which he had just heard explained, with forgiveness by Christ. The Eunuch, thus enlightened and rejoicing in God, when he returned home, did probably use his influence to plant the gospel among his own countrymen. We have, however, no scripture light on this subject. SECTION IV. Ccesarea, l^'^SAREA, situated in the confines of Syria Judea, was the residence of the Roman Governor, a city of great importance. PhiUp, after he was caught away from the Eunuch, was found at Azotus: "and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Csesarea." Here he was stationary many years. Toward the conclusion of the period of about thirty years, which takes in the history of the Acts, we find him still fix- ed in the same place, vrith four virgin daughters, where he entertained St. Paul in his last journey to Jerusalem. Here we- may well suppose he did not 24 spend his time in idleness and inactivity, but with zeal and engagedness for the good of souls. In this city the grace of God was displayed in the conversion of Cornelius ; the history of whom, and the method taken by the grace of God for his in- structioUj and the spiritual good of other Gentiles in that city, the reader may see at large in Acts, tenth chapter. In these instances of Gentile conversion, christian Jews were taught that Jesus had a chosen people among the Gentiles, whom he had come to seek and to save, and that Gentile converts were to be by them received as fellow-heirs of the grace of God. SECTION V. Antioch and some other Asiatic Churches. JlHE good effects which Providence brought out of Stephen's persecution were great. Many, who fled from persecution, disseminated the gospel in Gentile regions. Some travelled as far as Phenice, Cyprus and Antioch, still preaching only to Jews. At length, some Cypriot and Cyrenian Jews ventured to break through the pale of distinction, and at Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, preached the Lord Jesus to the Gentiles. These were called Grecians, -because the Greek langaiage here prevailed. The Lord, willing to overcome eff"ectually the reluctances of self-righteous bigotry, caused the idolaters to feel the sanctifying power of divine grace accompanying the gospel, and great numbers to turn to him. The mother church, hearing of this, sent Barnabas, whose piety and charity were renowned, to carry on and propagate a work, w^hich required more labourers. Salvation, by the grace of Christ, thus exemplified on persons, whose lives had hitherto been involved in Paganism, and ev- idenced in a manner hitherto unknown, cheered the benevolent heart of this devout missionary: with » 25 most pleasing prospect of usefulness. Finding many converts, he exhorted them to perseverance, and the addition of believers w^as still so large, that he began to look out for a coadjutor. He sought for Saul, then laboring at Tarsus, perhaps with no great success ; *^ for a prophet is not honored in his own country," and brought him to Antioch. This populous city em- ployed them a whole year. Christian societies, con- sisting in a great measureof Gentiles, were here regu- larly formed. And here the followers of Christ were first called christians. A name given them, probably, by tkeir adversaries, by way of contempt. But a name now honorable to all who maintain the real character of disciples of their divine Master. That the faith of the christians of Antioch was sig- nally operative, and that they rejoiced in the prospect of heavenly treasures, they manifested by contribut- ing cheerfully to the relief of their poor brethren of Jerusalem distressed by a famine. The Holy Ghost now called Barnabas and Saul to other labors ; and Seleucia, in the neighborhood, was their first destina- tion. Thence they passed to the fertile and pleasant island of Cyprus. From Sal amis, the eastern point of the island, to Paphos the western, they spread the glad tidings of the gospel. In this last place they found Elymas, a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet, with Sergius Paulus, the Roman governor of the island. Th^ governor being a man of sense and candor, sent for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. The good effects of their labors, the sorcerer endeavored to prevent 5 till Paul, full of holy indigna- tion at his diabolical malice, v/as enabled miraculous- ly to strike him blind for a season. Sergius was as- tonished " at the doctrine of the Lord," and com- menced a christian from that hour. The two apostles sailed now" to the adjoining con- tinent, and arrived iat Perga in Pamphylia. John Mark, who had thus far attended them as minister, here left them and returned to Jerusuiem. D 26 Antioch in Pisidia was the next scene of theif labors. There, on the Sabbath day, they attended the Jew- ish synagogue, and Paul, having been invited by the rulers to give a word of exhortation, addressed the au- dience with such instructions as tended to beaiiet in them a conviction of sinfulness, and to give testimony to Jesus, concluding with a remarkably plain decla- ration of the grand doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus only, and a solemn warning against the dreadful consequences of hardness of heart, and of contempt of the divine message. The Gentiles, powerfully im- jpressed with the news, desired to hear more ^>f the subject the next Sabbath. Many Jews and proselytes were converted ; and almost the whole city came next Sabbath to hear. The envy of the infidel Jews was hereby excited against Paul, and was manifested in most decided and virulent opposition. The two apos- tles boldly assured them, that though it was their du- ty to carry the news of salvation to them first, yet as they despised God's gift of eternal life, they would now turn to the Gentiles. The Pagans, feeling that they had no righteousness to plead before God, thank- fully embraced the gospel, and believed, in great num- bers. In Pisidia the apostles proceeded with vast success, till a persecution stirred up by the Jews, induced some self-righteous ladies, in conjunction with the magis- trates, to drive them out of their coasts. And they came to Iconium, the northern extremity of the coun- try. The disciples whom they left, though harrassed with persecution, " were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost." The ministry of these two apostles at Iconium, where they continued a long time, was bles- sed to the conversion of a great multitude both of Jews and Gentiles. The unbelieving Jews, who were Uni- tarians in sentiment, exerted their usual malevolence/ and filled the Gentiles with the strongest prejudices against the Christians. They labored, notwithstand- ing all their knowledge of the law of Moses and the prophets, to prevent their Pagan neighbors from being instructed in any thing which deserved the name of . 27 religion, and persecuted with unceasing acriraonj two of their own countrymen, who agreed with them in the profession of the worship of the one living and true God. They evidently preferred to have their Pagan neighbors remain buried in the depths of the most senseless idolatry in worship, and of vicious profliga- cy of life, rather than to have them brought over to the real christian religion, the hearty renunciation of their own righteousness, and an humble dependance on the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of Jesus Christ. In this they exhibited the practical na- ture of real Unitarianism, as it stands unconnected with the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. In this city, the preaching of Paul and Barnabas excited a variety of speculations. The Gentiles were dividedj and part ranged themselves with the Jew^s, and part wdth the apostles. The former, for the present, had the advantage, because they had the arms of vio- lence and persecution, which christian soldiers can- not use. The apostles av/are of their designs, " fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and into the re- gion that lieth round about : and there they preached the gospel." At Lystra, a poor cripple, who ne- ver had the use of his feet, with the most respectful attention heard Paul preach, and was brought to be- lieve there was virtue in the name of Jesus Christ to heal him. To confirm him in his infant views of the christian religion, to attest the truth, and to convince men that Jesus was both mighty and benevolent, Paul was enabled by a word to restore the man to th^ full use of bis limbs. Immediately these poor idola- ters concluded, that the gods were come down to them in the likeness of men. Through this whole country of Asia Minor, the Greek Literature, and with it the numerous fables of Hellenistic vanity, abound- ed. They had heard of Jupiter and Mercury, parti- cularly as visiting mankind ; and now^ Barnabas, whose figure of the two was the most majestic, must be Ju- piter, and Paul, as the more eloquent speaker, must be Mercury, the class^ical C'od of eloquence. The 28 priest of Jupiter brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. It was a grievous circumstance ; but an opportunity was hereby given to the apostles to demonstrate the Spirit of real godliness. The humble teachers of the gospel, rent their clothes, ran in among the people, and expostulating with them on the absurdity of their con- duct, assured them they were no more than men like themselves, and that the object of their preaching to them was, to turn them from their idolatrous practices^ to the worship of the living God, the maker of heaven and earth. Thus faithfully did they preach conviction of sin to the Lycaonians, and with difficulty prevented the actual performance of the sacrifice, which would have given them more pain than the persecution which followed, Jews, who came froni Antioch and Iconium, soon persuaded the fickle multitude to harbor the worst opinion of Paul and Barnabas, and to persecute them. In a tumult Paul was stoned and dragged out of the city, as dead; but while the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, miraculously restored, and came into the city, and next day departed with Bar- nabas to Derbe. There many were converted, and the persecuting spirit intermitting, they visited again,, in circuit the regions of Pisidia, and Lycaonia, en- couraging the disciples to persevere in the faith of Je- sus in confidence of divine support, and in Ml expec-^ tation of the kingdom of heaven, into which real chris^ tians must not expect to enter without much tribula- tion. Having ordained some of the brethren to minister in every church, and having solemnly recommended pastors and flocks to the care of that gracious Lord,, on whom they had believed, they returned through Pamphylia, preached again at Perga, and from Attalia, sailed to the great Antioch, whence they had been, by the prayers of the church, recommended to the ^race of God for the work which they had fulfilled. The christians of Antioch now rested on Christ alone, and^ manifested their faith and love by acts of filial olDedi- 29 ence. Here Paul and Barnabas spent some time, and were instrumental of great consolation to their chris- tian brethren ; afterward they were about to visit again the Asiatic churches. Barnabas proposed to take Mark wiih them, but Paul, remembering his former desertion, thought him unfit for the work. The con- sequence was Paul and Barnabas separated ; Barna- bas with Mark sailed to Cyprus. Paul took Silas for his fellow laborer, and went through Syria and Silicia confirming the churches. In Lycaonia he found the pious Timothy, whom he took as an associate, and confirmed the Gentile con- verts every where in christian liberty : thus were the churches established in the faith, and daily increased in number. SECTION VI. Galatia. XN this country the grossest idolatry had reigned ; but here the grace of God accompanying the ministry of Paul among them had a wonderful effect, to turn great numbers of vile idolaters from their vanities to the love of the truth in Jesus Christ. And several church- es were planted among them, formed almost, if not entirely, of Gentiles. These understood and received the apostolic doctrine, that justification is attainable only by faith in Christ crucified. They received the spirit of adoption, by which they rejoiced in God as their Father, and cheerfully sulfered much persecu- tion for the name of Christ. But on PauPs leavings them, with the most pleasing hopes of their spiritual groAvth and steadfastness in the great doctiines which he had taught them, certain Judaizing teachers sought to pervert them from the simplicity of the gospel Avay of life and salvation by faith in Christ's name, by urg- ing upon them circumcision and various other Mosaic rites, as necessary to their salvation. These teachers endeavored to alienate the affections of the G entile 30 converts of Galatia from Paul, and to foster among them a self-righteous spirit, by endeavoring to bring them not to depend on Christ alone for salvation. Paul having learned what was taking place at Gala- tia in his absence, addressed to them a very plain and affectionate letter, in which he warns them of their dan- ger from Judaizing teachers, and asserts that if they mixed circumcision, or any work of the law, with Christ, in the article of justification, Christ would be of no effect to them ; that Christ must be their whole Savior, if they were saved by him ; law and grace in this case being quite opposite. He urges that the doctrine they were embracing would but foster a self- righteous spirit, void of love to God and man, and make them no better, in their spiritual state, than they were while idolaters ; that if they cherished thii spirit, they would not experience the liberty of the gospel, but be mere slaves in religion, still unconvert- ed, and merely self-righteoys, and that the gospel is entirely distinct from any thing which mere man is apt to teach or ready to embrace. In the historical part of the epistle, he vindicates his own apostolic character, and with clear argument and strong dic- tion, inculcates the ail important article of justifica- tion, and presses the necessity of continuing in it, to be benefitted by it. He appeals to their own experi- ence of the happy fruits of the gospel, which they had felt, and represents himself as travailing in birth for them, till Christ be formed in them. From their readiness to listen to Judaizing teachers, he had just reason to be doubtful of their state, and therefore he manifests bis great desire to visit them, and give them, in their perilous condition, personal instruction. Their evil advisers were so mischievous to their souls, that he wishes them to be cut off, and assures them that the divine vengeance would overtake them. He in- forms them that the persecution, which he himself eii;* dured, was on account of this very doctrine, which he was defending; that this being lost, the gospel becomes a mere name, and Christianity is lost in the group of common religion?. 51 ' There is reason to hope that the best effects attend- ed this epistle ; for in his epistle to the Corinthians we find St. Paul exhorting his brethren of Corinth to use the same plan for the rehef of the poor saints, which he had suggested to the Galatians. From this it appears that he still had influence in Ga- latia, and that the Judaical perversion was over- come. . SECTION VIL PhilippL JL HIS city, though originally Macedonian, and nam- ed from Philip the father of Alexander, was then a Roman colony, inhabited by Roman citizens, and regu- lated by Roman laws and customs. Paul and Silas were determined, in their visit to this city, by a nightly vis- ion, in which there stood a man of Macedonia, before Paul, saying, " Come over into Macedonia and help us." Here, these two apostles spent a few days with little prospect of success. But on the Sabbath they went out of the city by a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made, and sat down, and spake unto the wo- men who resorted thither. One of them was Lydia, a person of some property. Her heart the Lord open- ed to attend to the things spoken of Paul. She was baptized, and her household, and with affectionate importunity prevailed on the apostle and his cornpan- ions to make her house their home in Philippi. Here we have the commencement of the Philippian church, Satan, vexed at the prospect, employed a girl posses- sed with a spirit of Python, a diabolical spirit, to bring, if possible, the gospel into contempt. She constantly followed the christian preachers, and bore them the most honorable testimony, " saying, these men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us tlie way of salvation." Paul was griev- ed, being fully sensible of the ill effect, v^hich a sup- 3^ posed union between Christ and Python must occa- sion in the minds of men; and was enabled miracu- louslj to eject the demon* The proprietors of the girl, who had made a traffic of her oracular powers, finding that she was dispossessed of the demon^ wreaked their vengeance on Paul and Silas, and by slanderous accusations induced the magistrates to scourge them severely, and to commit them to prison. The jailer thrust them into the inner prison, and fas- tened their feet in the stocks* iBut the enemies of the truth cannot prevent the consolations of the Holy Ghost, from being communicated to the people of God united in affliction. " At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God ;" and the Lord caus- ed a great earthquake, which opened all the doors of the prison, and loosed every one's bonds. The jailer " awaking out of sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. , . But Paul cried vv^ith a loud voice, saying. Do thyself^ no harm ; for we are all here." Struck with horror at the thought of the world to come, to which he had been hastening in all his guilt, he came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, " brought them out, and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved." The answer was plain and direct, such, as in every like case of en- quiry, ought to be given: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shaltbc saved and thy house." They then instructed him and his household in the nature of the gospel, and opened to him the doctrine of for- giveness by the blood of Christ. His conversion ap- Eears to have been sound. His ready submission to aptism, his affectionate treatment of those who had just before been the objects of his severity, and his joy in the Lord, evinced that he was turned from Sa- tan to God. His whole family shared with him in the same blessings. In the morning, the magistrates sent an- order for the dismission of the prisoners. But Paul thought it not inconsistent with Christian meekness, to demand fi'om them an apology for their illegal behavior to 53 Homan citizens ; for such it seems Silas was, as well as Paul. The magistrates, alarmed, came personally to make concessions, which were easily accepted. Being dismissed from prison, they entered into Ly- dia's house, comforted the brethren, and left Philippi for a season. Some years after, the apostle again visited this peo- ple, and found them still in a flourishing state. Such was the work of God at Philippi. A considera- ble number of persons, once worshippers of idols, de- voted to the basest lusts, and sunk in the grossest ig- norance, were bjought to the knowledge and love of the true God, and to the hope of salvation by his Son Jesus. In this faith and hope, they persevered amidst a severe persecution, steadily brought forth the fruits of charity, and lived in the joyful expecta- tion of a blessed resurrection. SECTION VIIL Thessalonica. LrF Amphipolis and ApoUonia, the next cities of Ma- cedonia through which St. Paul passed, nothing par- ticiilart recorded. But at Thessalonica, a city re-built by Philip of Macedon, and deriving its name from his conquest of Thessaly, a church was formed inferi- or, in solid piety, to none in the primitive times. Here Paul followed his usual custom of preaching first to the Jews in their synagogue, and spent the first three Sabbaths in pointing out the evidences of Christianity. The custom of the Jews, in allowing any of their countrymen to exhort in their synagogues, gave the apostle an easy opportunity of preaching to this peo- ple, till their usual enmity began to exert itself.— Some of the Jews were, however, converted; and a great multitude of devout Gentiles, who used to attend the synagogue, " and of the chief ^vomen not a few.'' E o4 The restless, unconverted Jews were not ashamed to join with the most profligate Pagans in persecuting the new converts to Christianity, and decent hypo- crites and open sinners were now seen united in op- posing the church of God. They assaulted the house of Jason, by whom, Paul and his companions were entertained. Precautions having been used to secrete them, Jason and some other christians were brought before the magistrates, and calumniated with the usual charge of sedition. The Roman governors were, however, content with exacting a security from Jason and his friends, for the peace of the state. — B*it the apostle knew too well the malice of the Jews to tnist to their moderation, and therefore was obliged abruptly to leave the infant church, which appears, however, not to have been without pastors, whom, he charges the brethren, in an epistle soon after address- ed to them, to honor and obey. The growth of this church in godliness was soon re- nowned through the christian world. Their persecu- tion appears to have been grievious, and hence the comfort of God their Savior, and the prospect of the invisible world, became more and more precious to them. The apostle made two attempts to return to them, but was as often disappointed by the malice of Satan. To strengthen and comfort them, he sent Timothy to them. From him, on his return, he learnt the strength and constancy of their faith and love, and their unshaken attachment to him, and affection- ate remembrance of him. They appear to have felt the love of God in the strongest manner, and to have exercised it towards all around them. To them the apostle wrote two affectionate epistles^ in which he gave them much important instruction. Afterward he visited them and gave them much ex- kortatioB. 35 SECTION IX. Berea and Athens. Jb ROM Thessalonica, Paul was conducted to Berea a city of Macedonia. Here also was a Jewish syna- gogue, and here the preaching of the cross was, for the first time candidly received by the Jews. " They re- ceived the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed : also ho- norable women which were Greeks, and of men not a few." The rage of the, Thessalonian Jews soon, however, disturbed this pleasing scene and stirred up a persecution, which obliged the christians to use some art to secure the apostle's life. His conductors, at first, took the road toward the sea, which might lead the persecutors to suppose he had quitted the continent. They then brought him safe to Athens, a city of Greece, renowned for taste and science, the school in which the greatest Romans studied philoso- phy. Here, while waiting for the arrival of Silas and Timothy, he beheld the monuments of the city with other eyes than those of a scholar and a gentleman. He saw, that even the excess of learning brought men no nearer to God : that no place was more given to idolatry. In the midst of classical luxury, he saw his Zvlaker disgraced, and souls perishing in sin. Com- passion for them, and indignation at their idolatry and refinement in sin, swallowed up all other emotions. He felt the worth of souls, and laid open the reasons of Christianity to Jews in their synagogue, and to Gen- tile worshippers who attended the synagogue, and daily to all persons whom he met in the forum. — Among the Pagan philosophers, the Epicureans and the Stoics, were two opposite sects. The former plac- ed the chief good in pleasure, the latter in virtue. These were correspondent to the two chief sects amon^ the Jews, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and 36 indeed to the dissipated and the self-righteous, who substitute their own reason and virtue in the room of Divine grace and influence. As these will in any age unite against the real friends of Jesus Christ, so it was here. To them the apostle appeared a mere babbler ; " a setter forth of strange Gods." Jesus and the res- urrection, which he preached, were ideas from which their minds were so abhorrent, that they took them for new gods. It belonged to the court of Areopagus to take cog- nizance of things of this nature. This court had un- justly condemned to death the famous Socrates for his having honestly rebuked vice and improbity. St. Paul's escape from condemnation here, was owing to circumstances. This court, under the tolerating max- ims of its Roman superiors, seems now to have had only the privilege of examining tenets as a synod, without the penal power of magistracy. Paul, in his defence before this court, diplayed the native greatness of his mind, and the sanctified good- ness of his heart. In language and by arguments strict- ly classical, he reproved their idolatry and announced to them so much of the gospel as was adapted to their very ignorant state. In this, though himself a prisoner at the bar, he labors to beget in the minds of the court a conviction of sin, and to prepare them to receive gospel mercy. A few believed in reality and with steadfastness, among whom was Dionysius, a member of the court, and a woman named Damaris. These, Paul having left to the care of that gracious God, who had opened their eyes, departed from a city as yet too haughty, too scornful, and too indifferent, concerning things of infinite moment, to receive the gospel. The little success at Athens evinces, that a spirit of literary trifling in religion, where all is mere theory, and the conscience is unconcerned, does effectually harden the heart. S7 SECTION X. Corinth. XHIS was at that time the metropolis of Greece. Its situation on an isthmus rendered it remarkably convenient for trade. It was the residence of the Ro- man governor of Achaia, the name then given to all Greece, and it was full of opulence, learning, luxury, and sensuality. Hither the apostle came from Athens, and labored both among the Jews and the Gentiles. Here Providence gave him the acquaintance of Aquila and his wife Priscilla, two Jewish christians, lately expelled from Italy, v/ith other Jcavs, by an edict of the emperor Claudius. With them he wrought as a tent maker, being of the same occupation : for every Jew, whether rich or poor, was obliged to fol- low some trade. After the arrival of Silas and Timo- thy, the apostle, with much vehemence, preached to his countrymen ; but the only returns he met with, were opposition and abuse. The apostle was un- daunted. He shook his raiment, told them he was clear of their destruction, would leave them, and ap- ply himself to the Gentiles in the city. With this de- nunciation, he left the synagogue, and entered into the house of one Justus, a devout person, well affected to the gospel. Crispus also, the ruler of the synagogue, with his whole family, received the truth. Though we hear of no more Jewish converts made here, yet many Corinthians were converted. And a gra- cious vision from the Lord, informing that he had much people in this city, encouraged the apostle to stay here a year and a half After his departure, Appollos, a zealous and eloquent Alexandrian Jew, came to Corinth, and was made a powerful instru- ment of building up this church, and of silencing the opposition of the Jews. We first hear of this man at Ephesus, speaking and teaching diligently the things qf the Lord, knowing no more of Christianity than 38 what was contained in the system of John the Baptist^ till instructed more perfectly in the way of life through Jesus Christ, by Aquila and Priscilla. From Ephe- sus he passed ©n to labor at Corinth; where "he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shew- ing by the scriptures, that Jesus was Christ." St. Paul appears, so far as circumstances admitted, to have kept up a constant correspondence with the churches. The care of them, as he says, came daily upon him. The Corinthians wrote to him to ask his advice on some cases of conscience, by which he learnt that a variety of evils and abuses had crept in among them. Perhaps no church was more numer- ous, and none less holy in the apostolic age. They were proud of gifts, contentious, self-conceited, and warm partizans for Paul, Apollos and other teachers, and by the indulgence of this spirit, shewed how little they had learnt of true wisdom. The apostle wrote them two faithful and pungent epistles, in which he endeavors by many weighty considerations to bring them to live and act in character as the affectionate friends and humble followers of Christ. Among the Corinthians, there was so much con- formity to the world, that they were very little expos- ed to persecution ; they were even invited by their idol- atrous neighbors, to partake of their idol-feasts, and there were some who complied. This wordly con- formity the apostle sharply rebukes. Among them were false apostles, who, by pretending to instmct gratis, sought to depreciate Paul as a mercenary per- son. Hence, while he rebukes the evils of this peo- ple, he observes, that he labored among them freely, which the false apostles pretended to do. He pro- ceeds to correct an abuse which obtained in their as- semblies, in the article of decency of dress, and an- other much worse, the profanation of the Lord's sup- per. He insists also, on the con-ection of their abuse of spiritual gifts, particularly those of languages. It appears that love among the Corinthians was low, and that they, in some respects, prized gifts more highly than grace itself. There were some in this outwardly 39 flourishing, but inwardly distempered, church, wh® even denied the resurrection of the body, which gave occasion to the apostle to illustrate that important ar- ticle of our holy religion. But notwithstanding all the corruptions which so much abounded in this church, the apostle mentions a very common effect which attended the faithful preaching of the gospel even at Corinth. If an igno- rant idolater came into their assembhes, he was so penetrated with the display of the truth as it is in Je- sus, that he could not but discover the very secrets of his soul, would ^prostrate himself in the worship of God, and report that God was in them of a truth. It appears that the two epistles which the apostle wrote them, had a happy effect ; that many of this church were truly recovered to a state of affection and practice worthy of Christianity. SECTION XI. Rome. Our first accounts of the Roman church are vefy imperfect. This church, however, at an early period, appears by no means insignificant, either for the num- ber, or the piety, of its converts. . Their faith was spo- ken of throughout the whole world. The epistle, which St. Paul addressed to them, will, while the world endures, be the food of christian minds, and the richest system of doctrine to scriptural theologi- ans. By the distinct directions which he gives for the maintenance of charity between Jews and Gen- tiles, it appears there must have been a considerable number of the former among them. Many of these, as persons of note, and eminent for real piety, in this epistle, he salutes by name, in the most kind and af- fectionate manner. Paul had long wished, and even projected a visit to tbi^ church. He did not^ however, expect that his 40 joufney thither should at last be at Caesar's expetlse. He tvas confident it should be " in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." And he entreats the prayers of the Romans, that he may be delivered from the infidel Jews, and be acceptable in his minis- try to his believing countrymen at Jerusalem, whither he was then hastening ; that " he might come to them with joy by the will of God," and be with them re- freshed. Thus did christians in those days entreat the prayers of their brethren throughout the world, and sympathize with one another. Their prayers were an- swered. Paul w^as saved from Jewish malice, was ac- ceptable to Jewish converts, " who had compassion on him in his bonds," and was conducted safe to Rome. His two years imprisonment at Rome, the apostle em- ployed in receiving and faithfully instructing, without molestation, all who came to him. On account of his imprisonment and examination, the nature of the gos- pel became a subject of enquiry in Nero's court, and some of the tyrant's family hopefully became chris- tians indeed. The indulgences granted to Paul as a Roman citizen, encouraged many preachers at Rome and its vicinity, to make greater exertions than before they had dared to do, for the good of souls. SECTION XII. Colosse. xHIS city ofPhrygia was in the neighborhood of La- odicea and Hierapolis, and all three seem to have been converted by the ministry of Epaphras the Co- lossian, a companion and fellow-laborer of Paul, who attended him at Rome during his imprisonment there, and informed him of the sincerity and fniitfulness of their christian profession. But the apostle, in his epistle to his brethren of Colosse, knowing some of the dangers of their station to which they w^ere expos- edj cautions them against philosophy and vain deceit, 41 against Judaical dependancies and rites, and against il- legitimate humility and self-righteous austerities, as carrying the appearance of wisdom and goodness, but really leading only to extravagant self-estimation ; cal- culated to draw the mind from that simplicity of de- pendence on Christy which is the true rest of the soul, and the right frame of a christian. For the entire beauty of this epistle the reader is referred to the epis- tle itself. ■^ SECTION XIIL The seveth Churches of Asia. \jN his departure from Corinth, Paul visited Ephe- 8us, one of the seven churches of Asia, and first ad- dressed by St. John in the book of Revelation. His stay was short, but the impression made on his hearers must have been remarkably great, as they pressed his longer continuance among them. He left, however, Aquila and Priscilla with them, whose labors were afterwards assisted by ApoUos. Paul himself, returning to Ephesus, baptized in the name of Jesus about twelve disciples, who had hither- to received only John's baptism. From this circum- stance we learn, that from the first preaching of the Baptist nothing had been done in vain. The imper- fect elements of that harbinger of Christ had paved the way for clearer discoveries, and a variety of prepa- ratory works had tended to ripen the Church of God into the fulness of hght and holiness. Paul preached three months in the Jewish syna- gogue at Ephesus,. till the usual perverseness of the Jews induced him to desist, and to form the new con- verts into a distinct church. One Tyrannus lent the apostle his school for two years, in which he daily ministered. And the whole region of Asia Projjer had at different times an opportunity of hearing the gospel. The word of God wonderfully triumphed at Ephe- sus. The work of conversion there was deep, vigor- r oiTS, and soul -transforming to a great degree. Man^fj; struck with horror at the recollection of former crimes^ made an open confession ; and many, who had dealt in the abominations of sorcery, now manifested their sincere detestation of them, by burning their book* before all men, the price of which amounted to a large sum. " So mightily grew the word of God, and pre- vailed," The spiritual powder of Jesus was never seen in a stronger light since the day of Pentecost ; and the venal priesthood of Diana, the celebrated goddess of Ephe- sus, apprehending the total ruin of their hierarchy^ with their devotees, made a violent effort to support their sinking superstition, and set the whole city inta an uproar. But the prudent and eloquent harangue- of a magistrate, called the town-clerk, was the pro- vidential instrument of PauPs preservation and de- liverance. He calmed the spirit of the Ephesians, and silenced the uproar ; after which Paul aflfection- ately embraced the disciples, and left Ephesus. He left pastors to superintend that and the neighboring churchesv But he foresavv^ with grief, as he afterward told these pastors in a very pathetic address, when he had sent for them to Miletus, that their present purity would not continue unstained. Wolves would enter among them, to devour the flock, and among them- selves heretical perverseness would find countenance, and produce a pernicious separation. To prevent these evils the apostle exhorted them to the persever- ing discharge of all the duties of a holy life and con- versation.. What the gospel really is, both as to doctrine, and duty, may be collected with the greatest certainty, in the excellent Epistle which Paul wrote to this churchy containing a most admirable system of divihity, suit- ed to the instruction of every church in every age. In Paul's absence from this church, Timothy ap- pears to have been the chief pastor. From the direc- tions which he gave Timothy concerning the regula- tion of public worship, and the character and conduct ©f church officers, it appears that ecclesiastical politj ^ad taken a firm root in this church. From the vise ion which St. John received in the isle of Patmos from the Lord Jesus Ghxist, and the several charges there given him to be addressed to the seven church- es of Asia, descriptive of their spiritual state at that time, and giving suitable directions to each of themj it appears, that the Ephesians were then still alive in the faith. This was near the close of the first century. They patiently bore the cross, ever attendant on the real faith of Jesus, and labored in good works with- out fainting. They had, however, declined from the intenseness of that love, which they had at first exhi- bited. Their hearts panted not after Christ with that steady ardour with which they had formerly been an- imated. Though they had still the marks of health remaining, their vigor had much abated. In this they justly deserved blame. True zeal and tnie charity should ever grow, as the understanding has opportu- nity to improve. The ill effects of this decline, grad- ually paved the way, by the influence of their exam- ple on the rising generation, to unchurch this people, and for the desolation in which this very region now remains under Mahometan wickedness and ignorance. The church of Smyrna was next addressed. It was ©nee in a state of great purity of doctrine, and holiness of heart and life. Though poor in wordly circum- stances, its members were rich in grace. Attempts were, however, now making to introduce Judaical cor- ruptions among them, by those who were of the syna- gogue of Satan. They were reminded that a severe persecution was soon coming upon them, which should last some time, and they were exhorted to continue faithful unto death, with the assurance that the crown of life should be the reward of their fidelity The church of Pergamus was approved of in gene- ral. They lived in the midst of a very impious peo- ple, who in effect worshipped Satan himself, and did all in their power to support his kingdom. Yet was the zeal of this church firm and steady. They did not, however, pass without some blame. There were some among them^, wh© acting like Balaam of 44 old, were employed, by Satan, to entice some of this church to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to com- mit fornication ; two evils often closely connected. — ^ Some went even into the abomination of the Nicolai- tans. These are exhorted to repent, from the fear of divine vengeance. On the whole, with a few excep- tions, the church of Pergamus was pure and lively, and upheld the standard of truth, though encircled with the flames of martyrdom. One from their num- ber received the crown of martyrdom while adher- ing to the truth as it is in Jesus. Concerning this church Christ testifies ; " I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is ; and thou boldest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith even in those days, wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Sa-. tan dwelleth." The churgh in Thyatira was also addressed, and re- presented in a thriving state. Charity, active serv ices,, patient dependance on God, and a steady reliance on the divine promises marked their works. Their last works are represented to be more than their first. But a few things are alleged against this church. They suffered an artful woman to seduce some into wicked practices. Her allegorical name was Jezebel, doubt- less from her near resemblance in practice to the wife of Ahab, who exerted all her influence to promote idol- atry in Israel. Our Lord informs them, that he gave her space to repent, but to no purpose, and there- fore now denounces severe threatenings against her and her associates, at the same time vindicating his claim to divine worship by the incommunicable title of Him who searches the hearts, and declaring that he would make himself known to be such in all the churches. On those, who had kept themselves unspot- ted from these evils, he declares he would put no other burden; only he exhorts them to hold fast what they already had to the day of judgment. The church of Sardis presents us with an unpleas- ant spectacle. They are spoken of as in a very droop- ing condition. They ha^ neglected that couirse of 45 prayer and watchfulness, which is necessary to pre- serve the divine life in vigor ; and their works were now only faintly distinguishable from those of persons al- together dead in sin. Some good things however re- mained in them, which yet were ready to die ; but their lives brought no glory to God, nor benefit to the cause of Christ, and could scarce prevent its being scandalized in the world. A few names, indeed, there were in Sardis on whom Jesus looked with complacen- cy ; they had not defiled their garments ; but most of the christians there were deeply stained by corrup- tion, probably by uniting with the world in their wick- ed practices. All here are called upon to live near to God, with the assurance that if they thus do they shall be crowned at last as the real friends of Christ. Philadelphia is highly extolled. They were a hum- ble, charitable, fervent people, deeply sensible of their weakness, and fearful of being seduced by Satan and their own hearts. To them, having a little strength, a promise of strong support is given, because they had maintained true patience in suffering. The religion of Christ bids us to be cool in our af- fections but only to worldly things ; the lukewarm state, therefore, of Laodicea is highly blamed. The Ijaodi- ceans were satisfied with themselves and desired no higher attainments. They had learnt to maintain, in easy indolence an orthodoxy of sentiment without any awakened and affectionate attention to the real activity of vital piety. Such was the situation of the seven churches of Asia. " He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spi= lit saith unto the chyrches." CHAPTER IL The remainder of the fist Century. A HE apostles in general appear not to have left Ju- dea, till after the first council held at Jerusalem. — Probably the threatening appearances of its desola- tion by the Romans, hastened their departure into distant regions. Before the close of tliis century the power of the gospel appears to have been felt through- out the Roman empire. I shall divide this chapter into four parts, and revievr, first, the progress and per- secution of the church. Secondly, the lives, charac- ters, and deaths of the apostles. Thirdly, the heresies of this period. And, lastly, the general character of Christianity in this first age. It was about the year of our Lord 64, that the city of Rome suffered a general conflagration. The author of this appears to have been Nero. He, however, en- deavored, by every measure, to fix the odium of this honid d«ed upon the christians at Rome, and thereby to excite against them a spirit of persecution. They, though actuated by the purest benevolence, by call- ing upon their neighbors to repent and believe the gospel, and thus to flee from the wrath to come, had excited the bitter resentment of the opposers of the gos- peL Thus the christians at Rome, by their exertions lor the spiritual and eternal good of their heathen neighbors, had incurred the hatred of Nero and oth- ers inimical to a life of holiness. When the city was burnt, the christians were charged by Nero with hav- ing been the incendiaries. The minds of the opposers of Christianity were hereby greatly exasperated against them, and a bitter persecution immediately ensued. The christians were seized, were covered with skins of wild beasts and torn by dogs, were crucified, and set on lire, that they might serve for lights in the night time. Nero offered his garden for this spectacle^ and exhib- 4t tied the games of the circus. It appears ftom well authenticated history, that Nero ordered some of the christians to be covered with wax and other combus- tible materials; and that, after a sharp stake was put under their chin^ to make them continue upright, they were burnt alive to give light to the spectators. It is probable that this persecution was not confined to Rome, but that it extended to other parts of the Ro- man empire. The church in Spain appears at this time to have had her martyrs^ Three or four years were probably the utmost ex- tent of this tremendous persecution, as in the year 68 the cruel tyrant was himself, by a dreadful exit, sum- moned before the Divine tribunal. He left the Ro- man world in a state of extreme confusion. Judea partook of it in an eminent degree. About forty years after our Lord's sufferings, wrath came on the body of the Jewish nation to the uttermost. But before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, the christian Jews, warned by a divine command, fled from that devoted city, to Pella, a village beyond Jordan ; where they were saved from the destmction which • soon after overwhelmed their countrymen. The death of Nero, and the destruction of Jerusa- lem would naturally occasion- some respite to the chris- tians from their sufferings ; and we hear no more of their persecuted state, till the reign of Domitian, the last of the Flavian family, who succeeded to the em-* pire in the year 81. He does not appear to have ra- ged against the christians, till the latter end of his reign. Indeed, in imitation of hi3 father Vespasian, he made enquiry for such of the Jews as were descended from the royal line of David. His motives were evi- dently politicaL But there wanted not those who were glad of an opportunity of wreaking their malice on christians. Some persons were charged with be- ing related to the royal family, who were brought be- fore the emperor. They appear to have been related to our Lord, grandsons of Jude the apostle, his cousin. Domitian asked them, if they were of the family of pavid^ which they acknowledged. He then enquired m what possessions they had. They laid open their po-^ verty, and owned that they maintained themselves by their labor. The truth of their confession was eviden- ced by their hands, and their appearance in general. Domitian then interrogated them concerning Christ and his kingdom, when and where it should appear. — They answered, like their Master, when questioned by Pilate, that his kingdom was not of this world, but heavenly ; that its glory should be at the consummation of the world, when he should judge the quick and the dead, and reward every man according to his works. Poverty is sometimes a defence against oppression, though it never shields from contempt. Domitian was satisfied, that his throne was in no danger from chris- tian ambition, and the grandsons of Jude had the hon- or of being dismissed with the same sort of derision, with which their Savior had been by Herod. Thus had the son of God provided for his relations ; they were poor in worldly circumstances, but rich in faith, and heirs of his heavenly kingdom. As Domitian improved in cruelty, toward the end of his reign, he renewed the horrors of Nero's persecu- tion. He put to death many persons accused of athe- ism, the common charge against christians, on account of their refusing to worship the Pagan gods. Among these was the consul Flavius Clemens, his cousin, who had espoused Flavia his relation. Some were spoil- ed of their goods, and Domitilla herself was banished into the island of Pandataria. These two noble per- sons, appear to have been genuine christians, distin- guished for eminent piety, and for their contempt of secular ambition, and the vices of the imperial court. In the year 96, Domitian was slain, and Nerva, the succeeding emperor, pubhshed a pardon, for those who were condemned for impiety, recalled those who were banished, and forbad the accusing of any person on account of impiety or Judaism. Others, who were under accusation, or under sentence of condemnation, now escaped by the lenity of Nerva. Domitilla, how- ever, still continued in exile, probably because she was a relation of the late tyrant. Doubtless she was not ibrsaken of h^r God and Savior. 49 n. 1 am now to review the lives, characters and <^re !" 78 Biblia«, a woman, who had denied Christ, was led to the torture, and though at first she accused the chris- tians of horrid impieties, yet in the midst of her tor- tures, being admonished by a temporary punishment of the danger of eternal fire in hell, she recovered from her apostacy, professed herself a christian, and was added to the army of martyrs. Many christians were thurst into the darkest and most noisome parts of the prison, where they suffered all the indignities which diabohcal malice could inflicts Many were suffocated. Others, though greatly afflict- ed, remained alive, strengthened by the Lord, and comforted and encouraged one another to constancy in the christain faith. Pothinas, bishop of Lyons, upwards of ninety years of age, very infirm and asthmatic, panting after mar- tyrdom, was called to suffer. After a great variety of abuse, both from the populace and the magistrates, he was thrown into prison, and after two days expired. Those, v/ho had denied Christ, were not by their de^ nial of him exempt from persecution. But in their sufferings they had not the supports which others, who stood firm in the faith, experienced. They went to execution with guilt depicted in their countenances, dejcctedj spiritless and forlorn. The heathen insulted them as cowards and poltroons, and treated them as murderers : thus seeking to save their lives they lost them, and failed of receiving the consolations of the religion which they had renounced. The heathen denied the rites of interment to those who suffered martyrdom. After having treated them with many indignities, they l^urnt themto ashes, and to prevent their resurrection, and to deter others from the hope of a future life, cast their ashes into the river JRhone ; adding, " Now let us see if they will rise again, and if their God can help them an4 deliver them out iof our hands." In all their great sufferings, those martyrs were humble, peaceable, meek and patient; evincing thaj; they felt the power of religion, ^nd that they loved th(> Savior, and had the special supports of hip spirits 19 CHAPTER VII. The ^ate of Chmtians under the reign of Coimnodus^ and the story of Pereginus. X HE reign of Commodus is remarkable for the peace granted to the church of Christ through the world. The means used by Divine Providence for this purpose are more maiTellous. Marcia, a woman of low rank, was the favorite concubine of this emperor. She had a predilection for the christians, and employed her interest with Commodus in their favor. Though Commodus was extremely vicious and profligate, yet under his reign God gave his church a breathing time of twelve years. The gospel now flourished abundant- ly, and many of the nobility of Rome, with their whole families, embraced it. The envj of the great was hereby excited. The Roman senate felt its dignity defiled by innovations, in their view, extremely con- temptible, and to support their injured honor, had re- course to persecution. Apollonius, a person renowned for learning and philosophy, at that time in Rome, was a sincere chris- tian. He was accused by an informer before Peren- nis the judge, a person of considerable influence in the reign of Commodus. According to thelaw of An- toninus Pius, which had been revived by Commo- dus, requiring that the accusers of christians should be put to death, Perennis, sentenced the accuser, and his legs were broken. In this, he obeyed the dictates of the law ; in what follows, he obeyed the dictates of his own malice, or rather that of the senate. — The prisoner was required to give an account of his faith before the senate and the court. He complied, and delivered an apology for Christianity, and by a de- cree of the senate was beheaded. This is perhaps the only trial we read of in which both accuser and accu- sed suffered judicially. Eusebius observes, that the laws, commanding christians, who had been present- fed before the tribunal, to be put to death, were stiUift force. But Adrian, or certainl}'^ Antoninus Pius, had abrogated this iniquitous edict of Trajan. Under MarcLis it might have been revived, for he was very bitter in his feelings against religion. Now Commo- dus, bv menacing persecutors with death, might have supposed, he had hereby sufficiently secured the lives t)f christians. Yet, if a formal abrogation of thie law against them had been neglected, one may see how Apollonius come to suffer, as well as his adversary. This distinguished man lost his life by vindicating that cause which is able to secure to hirn eternal life, and ad- hered to HIM who keeps by his power, through faith in his name, unto salvation, all who put their trust in him. There is a remarkable story of one Peregrinus, in the Vi'orks of Lucian, which, as it falls in with this cen- turyj and shows the character of christians, who then livedo deserves here to bie introduced. " In his youth he fell into shameful crimes, for which he was near loosing his life in Armenia and Asia. I will not dwell on those crimes ; but I am persuaded that what I am about to say, is worthy of attention. There are none of you but know, that being chagrined that his father Was still alive after being turned of sixty years of age, he strangled him. The rumor of so black a crime be- ing spread abroad, he betrayed his guilt by flight. He wandered about in divers countries to conceal the place of his retreat, till, upon coming into Judea, he learnt the admirable doctrines of Christianity, by con^ versing with pastors and teachers. In a little time he shewed them that they were but children com- pared with him ; for he became not only a proph- et, but the head of their congregation : in a word, he was every thing to them ; he explained their books and composed some himself; insomuch that they spoke of him as a god, and considered him as their law-giver and ruler. However, these people adore that Great Person who had been crucified in Pales- tine, as being the first who taught men that religioDr While these things were going on, Peregrinus wa» sipprehended and put in prison on account of his being a christian. This disgrace loaded him with hondi*, the very thing he ardently desired, made him more reputable among those of that persuasion, and furnish- ed him with a power of performing wonders. The christians, grievously afflicted at his confinement, used their utmost endeavors to procure his liberty ; and as they &aw they could not compass it, they provided, abundantly for all his wants, and rendered him all im- aginable services. There was seen^ by break of day, at the prison-gate, a company of old women, widows and orphariSj some of whom, after having corrupted the guard with money, passed the night with him ; there they partook together of elegant repasts and entertain- ed one another with religious discourses. They cal- led that excellent man the new Socrates. There came christians, deputed even from many cities of Asia, to converse with him, to comfort him, and to bring him supplies of money ; for the care and diligence Which the christians manifest in Ih^se junctures, are incredi- ble 5 they spare nothing in thesa cases; they sent therefore large sums to Peregrinus^ and his confine- ment was to hira an occasion of amassing great riches ; for these poor creatures are fiirmly persuaded they shall one day enjoy immortal life ; Therefore they dis- pise death with wonderful courage, and offer them- selves voluntarily to punishment. Their first Law- giver has jjut it into their heads that they are all breth- ren, since they separated from us, they persevere iu rejecting the gods of the Grecians, and worshipping that Deceiver, who was crucified; they regulate their manners and conduct by his laws; they despise, therefore, all earthly possessions, and enjoy them in common. Therefore if any magician or juggler, any cunnins: fellow who knows how to make his ad van- tage of opportunity, happens to get into their society, he immediately grows rich; because it is easy for a man of this sort to abuse the simplicity of these silly people. However Peregrinus was set at liberty by the presjident of Syria, who was a lover of philosophers and its professors, and who, having perceived that this man courted death out of yanily and fondoess for re- mwtij released himv despising him too much to hare ^ desire of inflicting capital punishment on him. Per- egrinus returned into his o^wn country, and as some were incHned to prosecute him on account of his par- icide, he gave all his wealth to his fellow citizens, who, being gained by this liberality, imposed silence on his accusers. He left his country a second time in order to travel, reckoning he should find every thing he wanted in the purses of the christians, who were punctual in accompanying him wherever he went, ^nd supplied him with all things in abundance. He isubsisted in this manner for some time ; but having done something which the christians abhor, (they saw him, I think, make use of some meats forbidden among them) he was abandoned by them ; insomuch that having not any longer the means of support, he would fain have revoked the donation he had made to his country." The native place of this extraordinary man was Pa- tium in Mysia. After his renunciation of Christianity he assumed the character of a philosopher. In that light he is mentioned by several heathen authors ; and this part he acted, till the time of his death, when, in his old age, he threw himself into the flames, probably because suicide was honorable in the eyes of the Gen- tiles, and because Empedocles, a brother philosopher, had thrown himself into the volcano at Mount ^tna. A remark or two must be made on the writer, the hero, and the christians of those times. It is to be remembered that the railleries, cavils and insinuations against them in this narrative, come from a rancorous enemy; from Lucian, a learned hea- then, who manifested a malignant hatred against chris- tians and their holy religion. Peregiinus is no uncommon character. His early life was nothing but evil, afterward he assumed, mere- ly for selfish purposes, something of the garb and appearance of Christianity, which he wore with con- summate address, and imposed on genuine chris- tians of undoubted discernment. The savage heart of Lucian seems to have rejoiced in the imposi- m tions of Peregrinus, and particularly that he was able to deceive so lon^ and so completely. He does not appear to have mourned over his superlative wicked- ness, but to have rejoiced in it. Peregrinus lived long enough to appear a complete impostor, and to be universally rejected by the breth- ren. He afterward became a professed philosopher. What is called philosophy is consistent with hypocrisy, and his dreadful end should be awfully instructive to mankind. Yet, what is there in all this account of the chris- tians, discolored as it is by ihe malignant author, which does not redound to their honor ? While Peregrinus ms-de a creditable profession of religion, they received him with cordiality ; they did not pretend to infallibi- lity. Their conduct toward this base impostor, surely deserved high applause, rather than censure. Their liberality, zeal, compassion, brotherly love, fortitude, and heavenly-mindedness, appear, from this narra- tive, to have been exceedingly great. It is also evi- dent that christians were then in morals much superi- or to the rest of mankind ; and it is lamentable that Lucian, who could relate this, had not the wisdom to make a profitable use of it for himself. CHAPTER VIII. Some account of Christian Authors who flourished i^i this Century. At may throw some additional light on the history of christian doctrine and manners in this century, to give a brief view of its eminent writers. Some of the most renowned have already been noticed ; a iew more of great respectability shall be deferred to the next cen» tury, because they out-lived this. Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, lived under the reign of Marcus Antoninus and his son Commodus. He wrote to the Lacedemonians concerning the doctrine «f the gospel J and an exhortation to peace and unity; 84 also, to the Athenians ; by his tegtimoiiy we learn that Dionysius, the Areopagite, tv^s the first bishop of Ath-. ens. Jn his letter to the christians in Crete he highly commends Philip the bishop, and guards them against errors. In his Epistle to the churches of Pontus, he directs that all penitents should be received who re- turned to the church, whatever their past Orimes may have been, even if guilty of heresy itself. From these Epistles we infer that Corinth was singularly blessed with the labors of so faithful and zealous- a, pastor, and that gospel-discipline was as yet admin-, istered with much strictness in the churches, and that purity of doctrine, as well as of life, and manners, wa^ still considered to be of high importance. From his Epistle to PInytus, bishop of the Gaossians, in Crete, advising him not to impose on the christians the heavy burden of the obligation to preserve their virginity, it appears that monastic austerities were be- . ginning to appear in the churches, and that the best men, after the example of the apostles, endeavored to control them.. Pinytus, in his reply, manifests his. knowledge of true godliness by requesting Dionysius to afford his people more solid nourishment, and to send frequent letters to him which might fill his congrega- tion^ lest being always fed with milk, they should re^ main in a state of infancy. In his letter to the Romans, addressed to Soter their bishop, he recommended to them a charitable custom, which, from their first plantation, they had always practised, which was to send relief to diverse churches throughout the world, and to assist particu- larly those who were condemned to the mines; a strong proof, both that the Roman church continued, opulent and numerous, and also that they still partook much of the spirit of Christ. Theophilus, of Antioch, w^as brought up a Gentile, w^as educated in all the knowledge then reputable in the world, and was a man of considerable parts and learning. His philosophic turnof mind long impeded his reception of the scripturaldoctrine of the resurrec-. tion, and consequently of the gospel itself. But the. Ijrace.of God, while it convinced him of his inability to dispel his own doiibls, effectually instructed his um derstanding. He was valiant against the fashionable heresies of the times in which he liYed. After having been bishop of the church of Antioch 13 years, he died in peace about the second or third year of Commodus, MelitOj bishop of Sardis, gives us a catalogue of the sacred books of the Old Testament. The most of his writings are lost. In one extant, he declares, that the christians do not adore insensible stones, but that they worship only one God, who is before all things and in all things, and Jesus Christ who is God before all ages. Melito died and was buried at Sardis. Bardasanes, of Mesopotamia, was renowned for learning and eloquence- A remarkable passage from him, preserved by Eusebius, shows the great pro- gress and energy of Christianity, in this century, " In Parthia," says he, " polygamy is allowed and practised, but the christians of Parthia practise it not. In Persia the same may be said with respect to incest. In Bartria, and in Gaul the rights of matrimony are defiled with impunity. The christians there act not^ thus. In truth, wherever they reside, they triumph^ in their practice, over the worst of laws and the wor^t, of customs." Miltiades distinguished himself by writing in de- fence of Christianity. He assures us that the mirac- ulous influences of the Holy Spirit had not ceased at that time, but were very common in the christian church. Athenagoras, toward the latter end of this century 5. wrote an apology for the christian religion. Hia testi- mony to the doctrine of the Trinity, in this apology expresses something more than a speculative belief of it, and that he considered it to be essential to practical, godliness. From his representation of the faith and practices of real christians, in his day, it appears, that they found, in their view of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of the truths of the gospel, which are so closely interwoven with the doctrine of the Trinity, something which warmed their hearts, and raisedAbt^ 107 Origen repaired to Palestine to his friends who had ordained him, followed by many disciples. Here the famous Gregory Thaumaturgus attended his theolo- gical lectures, which were still delivered in Origen^g usual, manner. Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, died, after having held that office 43 years. Heraclas succeeded him. In the year 235, the emperor Alexander was mur- dered, together with his mother, and Maximin the murderer obtained the empire. His malice against the house of Alexander disposed him to persecute the christians, and he gave orders to put to death the pas- tors of churches. Others suffered with them. The flame extended even to Cappadocia. Origen was obliged to retire. The tyrant's reign continued only .three years. Pupienus and Balbinus, the successors of Maximin, were slain m the year 238. Gordian reigned six jears, and was succeeded by his murderer, Philip the Arabian. That Origen's philosophy Had not obliterated his Christianity, appears from a letter addressed to his scholar Thaumaturgus, in which he exhorts him to apply himself chiefly to the Holy Scripture, to read it very attentively, not to speak or judge of it lightly, but with unshaken faith and prayer, which, says he, is absolutely necessary for understanding it. Philip began to reign in the year two hundred and forty four. He appears to have professed the chris- tian religion, but not to have been cordial in it ; for he conducted the secular games, which were full of idol- atry, and hereby manifested that he was unwilling to give up any thing for the sake of Christ. Philip's pro- fession merely shows that the progress of Christianity in the world was then very considerable ; but its origi'" nal purity had greatly declined. Philip reigned five years, and was succeeded by Decius his murderer. A little before his death, in the year two hundred and forty eight, Cyprian wa? chosen bishop of Carthage, 10^ CHAPTER VII. The Conversion of Cyprian. t-^YPpIAI^ was a professor of oratory in llie city of Carthage, and a man of wealth, quality and dignity, Caecilius, a Carthagenian presbyter, had the feHcity, under God, to conduct him to the knowledge of Christ, and in his gratitude Cyprian afterwards assumed the surname of Caecilius. His conversion was about the year two hundred and forty six. About thirteen years was the whole period of his christian life. But God Can do great things in a little time. He was, by the Holy Spirit, led on with vast rapidity, and in a great measure avoided the errors and delusions of false learning and self-conceit. Faith and love seem, in native simplicity, to have possessed him when an ear- ly convert. He saw iwitb pity the poor of the flock, and knew no method so proper, of employing the un- righteous mammon, as to relieve their distress. He sold whole estates for their benefit. There appeared in Cyprian a spirit at once so simple, so zealous, and so intelligent, that in about two years after his conver- sion, he was chosen presbyter and then bishop of Car- thage. His virtue was not feigned. The love of Christ ^evidently preponderated in him above all secular con- siderations. His wife opposed his christian spirit of liberality in vain. The widow, the orphan, and the poor, found in him continually a sympathizing bene- factor. It was with much reluctance that he observ- ed the designs of the people to choose him for their bishop. He, however, yielded to their importunate solicitations and accepted the painful pre-eminence. In him we see a man of business and of the world, ri- sing at once, a Phoenix in the <^hurch, no extraordina- ry theologian in point of accurate knowledge, yet 9, useful, practical divine, an accomplished pastor, flam- ing with the love of God and of souls, and with unre- mitted activity, spending and being spent for Christ 109 Jesus. To all this excellence, be was raised by re- newing and sanctifying grace, and made a happy in* strument of guiding souls to that rest which remains for the people of God. CHAPTER YIIl. The Beginnings of the Persecution of Deciits, and Cyp- rian^s Government till his Retirement, XiOW Cyprian conducted himself in his ministry, who is sufficient to relate ?" says Pontinus, his dea- con, and biographer. Some particular account, how- ever, might have been expected from one who had such ample opportunity of information. One thing he notices of his external appearance. His looks had a due mixture of gravity and cheerfulness, so that it was doubtfui whether he was more worthy of love or of reverence. His dress also was correspondent to his looks ; he had renounced the secular pomp to which his rank in life entitled him, yet he avoided affected penury. From a man of Cyprian's piety and good sense united, such a conduct might be expected. While Cyprian was laboring to recover that spirit of godliness among the Africans, which long peace had corrupted, Philip was siain and succeeded by Decius. His enmity to the former emperor conspired with his Pagan prejudices to bring on the most dread- ful persecution which the church had yet experienced. Jt was evident that nothing less than the destructiorj of the christian name was intended. The eventful period of Cyprian's ministiy extends from the year 248 to 260. Decius became emperor towards the beginning of this period. The persecu- tion raged with astonishing fury both in the east and in .the west. The latter is the scene before us at pre- sent. And in a treatise of Cyprian concerning the lapsed, we have an affecting account Of the declension trom the spirit of christianiry, which had taken plac^ 110 feefore his conversion, which moved God to chastise his church. "If the cause ^f our miseries," says he, ■" be investigated, the cure of the wound is foimd. — The Lord would have his family to be tried. And because the long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely revealed to us ; the heavenly chastisement hath raised up our faith which had lain almost dor- mant ; and when by our sins we had deserved to suf- fer still more, the merciful Lord so moderated all things, that the whole scene rather deserves the name of a trial than a persecution. Each was bent on im- proving his patrimony : forgetting what believers had done under tlie apostles, and what they ought always to do, they brooded over the arts of amassing wealth. The pastors and deacons equally forgat their duty, works of mercy were neglected, and discipline was at the lowest ebb. Luxury and effeminaey prevailed. Me- retricious arts in dress were cultivated. Fraud and de- ceit were practised among brethren. Christians could unite themselves in matrimony with unbelievers, could swear, not only without reverence, but even without veracity ; with haughty asperity they despised their ecclesiastical superiors ; could rail against one anoth- er with outrageous acrimony, and conduct quarrels with settled malice ; even many bishops, who ought to be guides and patterns to the rest, neglecting the peculiar duties of their stations, gave themselves up to secular pursuits ; deserting their places of residence and their flocks, they travelled through distant pro- vinces in questof gain, gave no assistance to the needy brethren^ were insatiable in their thirst of money, pos- sessed estates by fraud, and multiplied usury. What have we not deserved to suffer for such conduct ? — - .Even the Divine Word hath foretold us what we might expect, ''•If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, I will visit their offences ivith the rod, and their sin ivith scourges.'^'' These things have been de- nounced and foretold, but in vain ; our sins have brought our affairs to that pass, that while we despis- ed the Lord's directions we were obliged to undergo the correction of our evils and the trial of our faith by /severe remedies." That a tleep declension from christian purity had taken place, not only in the East, where false philoso- phy aided its progress, bat also in the West, where the common influence of prosperity on human depravity appears, is now completely evident, and it deserves to be remarlced, that the first grand and general declen- sion, since the first out-pouring of the Divine Spirit, should be fixed about the middle of this century. — For a time like this God raised up Cyprian, by a strong personal work of Divine grace on his own hearty and qualified him for great usefulness- to the church under her deep afflictions. In the early part of this persecution, vast numbers, from am^ng Cyprian's people, with whom avarice had taken such deep root, immediately lapsed into idola- try. Even before men were accused as christians, many ran to the Forum and sacrificed to the gt)ds as they were ordered, and the crowds of them were so large that the magistrates wished to de^Qx a number of them till the next day, but were importuned by the wretched suppliants to allow them, that night, to prove themselves heathens. At Rome the persecution raged with unremitting violence. There Fabian the bishop suffered, and for some time it became impracticable to elect a succes- sor ; and yet it does not appear that the metropolis- suffered more in proportion than many other places, since we find that the flame of persecution had driven some bishops from distant provinces who fled for shel- ter to Rome. Cyprian, however, having been regular- ly informed by the Roman clergy of the martyrdom of their bishop, congratulated them on his glorious eX' it, and exulted on occasion of his uprightness and in- tegrity. He expresses the pleasure he experienced that his edifying example had so much penetrated their minds, and owns the energy which he felt to imitate the pattern. Moyses and Maximus, two Roman presbyters, with other confessors were also seized and imprisoned. — • Attempts were repeatedly made to persuade them to r,elinqiiish the faith, but in vain. Cypriao found % 112 iiieans to write to them also a letter full of benevo- lence, and breathing the strongest pathos. He tells them his heart was with them continually, that he prayed for them in his public ministry, and in pri- vate. He comforts them under the pressures of hunger and thirst which they endured, and congratulates them for living now not for this life, but for the next, and particularly because their example would be a means of confirming many who were in a wavering state. — But Carthage soon became an unsafe residence for Cy- prian himself. By repeated suffrages of the people at the theatre he was demanded to be taken and given to the lions ; and it behoved him immediately to retire into a place of safety, or to expect the crown of mar- tyrdom. Cyprian's spirit in interpreting scripture was more simple^ and more accommodated to receive its plain and obvious sense, than that of men who had learnt to refine and subtilize. He knew the liberty which his Divine Master had given to his people of fleeing, when they were persecuted in one city, to another, and embraced it. Nay, he seems scarce to have thought it lawful to do otherwise. Even the last state of his martyrdom evinces this. His manner of enduring it, when it was providentially brought on him, sufficiently clears him of all suspicion of pusillanimity. To unite such seemingly opposite qualities as discretion and fortitude, each in a very high degree,- is a sure char- acteristic of greatness in a christian ; it is grace in its highest exercise. Pontius thinks it v/as not without a particular Divine direction that he was moved to act m this manner for the benefit of the church. Behold him, now safe, under God, from the arm of persecution, through the love of his people, in some place of retreat, for the space of two years, and let us next see how this time was employed. ii5 CHAPTER IX, ^he History of Cyprian and the Western Church duririg his Retirement oftvjo years, \jYPRIAN was never more active than in his retreat. Nothing of moment occurred in ecclesiastical affairs, ieither in Africa or Italy, with which he was not ac- quainted ; and his counsels, under God, were of the greatest influence in both countries. The clergy at Rome, having learnt what were the sufferings of the clergy at Carthage, and the retreat of Cyprian, and fearing lest his departure from his people, when they were in such an afflicted condition, might be attended with pernicious consequences, provided the pastors of the churches at Carthage imitated his exam- ple in flight, took measures to express to them the deep sense which they had, both of their own situation and that of the clergy of Carthage, whose duty it was to take care not to incur upon themselves the censure of faithless shepherds ; but rather to imitate their . Lord, the Good Shepherd, who laid down his own life for his flock, and who so earnestly and repeatedly charges Simon Peter^ as a proof of his love to his Mas- ter, to feed his sheep. " We would hot wishj dear brethren," say they, " to find you, mere mercenaries, but good shepherds, since you know it must be high- ly sinful in you not to exhort the brethren to stand immovable in the faith, lest the brethren be totally subverted by idolatry. Nor do we only in words thus exhort you, but, as you may learn from many who come from us to you, we have done, and still do, with the help of God, all these things, with all sohcitude and at the hazard of our lives, having, before our eyes, the fear of God and perpetual punishment rather than the fear of men and a temporary calamity ; not deser- ting the brethren, but exhorting them to stand in the feith, and to be ready to follow their Lord when call- N%- 114 ed ; we have also done our utmost to recover those who had gone up to sacrifice to save then- lives. Our church stands fast in the faith in general, though some, overcome by terror, either because they were persons in high life, or were moved by the fear of men, have lapsed, yet these, though separated from us, we do not give up as lost altogether, but we exhort them to repent, if they may find mercy with him who is able to save ; lest, by relinquishing them, we make them still more incurable. " Thus, brethren, we would wish you also to do ; as much as in you lies, exhorting the lapsed, should they be seized, a second time to confess their Savior. And we suggest to you to receive again into communion, any of these, if they heartily desire it, and give proofs of sound repentance. And certainly officers should be appointed to minister to the widows, the sick, those in prison and those who are in a state of banishment. A special care should be exercised over the catechu- mens, to preserve from apostacy ; and those, whose duty it is to inter the dead, ought to consider the in- terment of the martyrs as matter of indespensable ob- ligation. " Certain we are, that those servants, who shall be found to have been thus faithful, in that which is least, will have authority over ten cities. May God, who does all things for those who hope in him, grant that we may be all found thus diligently employed ! The brethren in bonds, the clergy, and the whole church salute you, all of us, with earnest solicitude, watching for all who call on the name of the Lord. And we be- seech you, in return, to be mindful of us also in your prayers." This letter breathes the very spirit of the gospel. — The christian tenderness, charity, meekness, zeal and prudence of Cyprian, toward the brethren of Carthage, in his exile from them, appear from the following let- ter which he sent to the clergy of that city. "Being hitherto preserved by the favor of God, I salute you, dearest brethren, rejoicing to hear of your safety. As present circumstances permit not my pres- 115 ence among yoti, I beg you, by your faith and by the ties of religion, to discharge your office, in conjunction with mine also, that nothing be wanting either on the head of discipline or of diligence. I beg that nothing may be wanting to supply the necessities of those who are imprisoned, because of their glorious confession of God, or v^o labor under the pressures of indigence and poverty, since the whole ecclesiastical fund is in the hands of the clergy for this very purpose, that a number may have it in their power to relieve the wants of individuals. I beg further, that you would use evey prudential and cautious method to procure the peace of the church; and if the brethren, through charity, wish to confer with and visit those pious confessors, whom the divine goodness hath thus far shone upon by such good beginnings, that they would however do this cautious- ly, not in crowds, nor in a multitude ; lest any odium should hence arise, and the liberty of admission be denied altogether; and while, through greediness, we aim at too much, we lose all. Consult therefore and provide, that this may be done safely and with discre- tion ; so that the presbyters one by one, accompanied by tire deacons in turn, may successively minister to them, because the change of persons visiting them is less liable to breed suspicion. For in all things we ought to be meek and humble, as becomes the ser- vants of God, to redeem the time, to have a regard for peace, and provide for the people. Most dearly be- loved and longed-for, I wish you all prosperity, and to remember us. Salute all the brethren; Victor the deacon, and those that are with us, salute you." During this persecution many of the common peo- ple and some of the clergy renounced Christianity. — This must have been a sore trial to so affectionate and pious a pastor as was Cyp.ian. When Cyprian was in his reth'ement he wrote many letters to his afflicted brethren at Carthage, in which he warns and exhorts them to stand firm in the faith and religion of Jesus Christ. In these he enjoins sub- ordination of the people to their pastors, and that they 116 should cultivate an humble, modest aid peaceable de- meanor; that m all their sufferings they should con- tinue mild and humble. He points out to them the use of good discipline in the church of God, the ben- efits of orderly subjection in the members, the danger of pride and self-exaltation, and the deceitfulness of the human heart. Much did he warn them against contentions and strifes, and exhort and entreat them to live in peace among themselves, and as far as pos- sible with all mankind. Deeply sensible that his people had, before the per- secution, greatly provoked the Lord to wrath, he ur- ges upon them abundantly the duty of repentance.— »• *' If the Lord see us humble and quiet, lovingly united, and corrected by the present tribulation he will deliv^ er us." The persecution at Carthage was dreadful on ac- count of the great number of apostates ; but christian faith, patience and magnanimity, in Cyprian, and a small remnant, were in strong and lively exercise. Discipline was at this time maintained with a good de^ gree of care and diligence in the church at Rome ; and the pastors of churches there carefully endeavored to strengthen the hands of the faithful in Carthage, to maintain the life, order and vigor of true piety in that church. It was a maxim of great importance, with all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in truth and sincerity, to consider that there was but one church of Christ in the world ; and that this was diffused through various provinces, and that all ought to watch and strive to keep it as free from heresies as possible, and in a state of life and gospel vigor. It was this unity and uniform- ity of the christian church which hitherto had preserv- ed it, under God, from the baneful infection of here- sies. The Roman clergy appear, at this time, to have been in general, men of real piety. Speaking of the Importance of not being hasty to re-admit the lapsed into the church, without having first obtained ample •satisfaction of their deep and genuine contrition, they 117 express theiirs^es in the following language ; " Let them knock at the doors, but not break them. Let them go to the thresk^ld of the church, but not leap over it. Let tlwiri watch at the gates of the heavenly camp, but with that modesty which becomes those who remember th^y have fe-een deserters. Let them arm themselves indeed with the weapons of humility, and resume that shield of faith which they dropped, through the fear of death ; but so that they may be armed against the devil, not against the church which grievei at their fall." While Cyprian was absent from his church at Car- thage, he was active in his retirement to revive a spirit of true gospel discipline among the people of his pas- toral charge ; but Felicissimus, who had long been a secret enemy of the bishop, and a person of a very exceptionable character, by many artifices and blan- dishments, drew away a party, and encouraged many not to observe ecclesiastical discipline taithfully and modestly.' This ambitious demagogue used his ut- most artifice to bring over to his views all the lapsed, to make his party sufficiently strong to prevent an ex- communication of himself from the church for the crime of adultery, of w^hich he was guilty. Under tbis state of affairs, Cyprian writes to the lapsed and all leaning to a schismatic spirit, " There is one God, one Christ, one church. Depart, 1 pray you, far from these men, and avoid their discourse as a plague and pestilence. They hinder your prayers and tears by affording you false consolations. Acquiesce, 1 beseech you, in our counsel, who pray daily for you, and de- sire you to be restored to the church by the grace of the Lord. Join your prayers and tears with ours. But, if any, careless of repentance, shall betake himself to Felicissimus and his party, let him know that his after- return to the church will be impracticable." Novatus, a presbyter of Carthage, was the prin- cipal actor in these disagreeable scenes. He was extremely scandalous and immoral. His domestic crimes had been so notorious as to render him not only no longer fit to be a minister, but even unworthy 118 to be received into lay communioilBNpie examina- tion of his conduct was jigt going to taji© place, when the persecution by Deci^iSpr£^||||ted it. The views of Felicissimns and his paify, he cnerish<(| and supported, and did much mischief in the, church. This dreadful persecution did not unite qbiis|ian projiusors in love. Novatus, either unwilling to»faCe the- bishop of Car- thage, or desirous to extend the mischiefs of schism, passed the sea and came to Rome. There he had the address to separate a priest named Novatian from the Roman church, and to bring him to associate with him- self. These jointly insistpd that it is wrong to receive those into the church who once had lapsed, though they give the fullest evidence of sincere repentance. At this time, sixteen bishops happening to be at Rome, ordained Cornelius, bishop of Rome, as the successor of Fabian. He was very unwilling to ac- cept the office ; but the election of a bishop to with- stand the growing schism appeared necessary, and the people who were present approved of his ordination. Novatian procured himself to be ordained bishop in opposition, in a very irregular manner, and vented calumnies against Cornelius, whose life appears to have been worthy of the gospel. The Novatians sep- arated from the general church, not on grounds of doc- trine, but of discipline. Their leader appears to have been sound in the doctrine of the Trinity. Novatus, conscious of scandalous crimes, fled from Rome and became bishop of the Novatians in Africa. We are not to believe that all his followers were men void of the faith and love of Jesus : but to refuse the re-admission of true penitents was an instance of Pharisaical pride. In justice to Novatian, it ought to be mentioned that he advised to exhort the lapsed to repentance, and then to leave them to the judgment of God. This denomination condemned second marriages, and denied communion forever to such as, after bap- tism, married a second time. At length Cyprian ventured out of his retreat and returned to Carthage. In w^hat manner he conducted himself shall be the subject of the next chapter. 119 ^ CHAPTER X. Cyprian's settlement of his Church after his return^ and the History of the tVestern Church till the persecution/ under Gallus, UiV the return of Cyprian to Carthage, he had much to do. Decius had left Rome to repel the incursion of the Goths, and the church in this distraction of public affairs had a respite from persecution, but malice against Christianity had not ceased. A council was held at Carthage by Cyprian and the other bishops of Africa. The ordination of Cornelius was recognized as legitimate : while that of Novatian was declared to be schismatical. Felicissimus was condemned. The case of the lapsed was determined. True penitents were to be restored ; doubtful charac- ters to be deferred, and yet every method of christian charity to be used to facilitate their return and resto- ration. The Novatians remained a long time after, a distinct body of professing christians. Though their secession could not be justified, the spirit of God ap- pears to have been with some of them, during their separation from the church. God is not confined to r^ny particular modes of ecclesiastical government, Decius lost his life in battle, in the year two hundred and fifty one, after having reigned thirty months ; his successor was Gallus, who, for a little time, allowed peace to the church. Cyprian watched for the good of souls as one who must give an account to God of his ministry, and strove hard to have all the churches perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judg- ment. Union, among the professed friends of Christ at Rome, was as much on his heart, as union at Car- thage, because he considered Christ's body as one. The appearance of a new persecution from Gallus now threatening the church, Cyprian, with the African 120 Synod, wrote to Cornelius about hastening the time of receiving penitents, that they might be armed for the approaching storm. CHAPTER XI. The Effects of the Persecution of Decius in the Easterrl Church. X HOUGH the Eastern and Western churches were divided by the Greek and Roman language, yet were they cemented by the common bond of the Roman government, and much more so by the common bond of salvation. In this persecution, Alexander, bishop of the church at Jerusalem, was cast into prison, and finally breathed out his soul under confinement. The renowned Origen too also suffered extremely. — Bonds, torments, a dungeon, the pressure of an iron chair, the distension of his feet for many days, threats of burning, and other evils, were inflicted by his ene- mies, which he manfully endured. All these things ended, at last, in the preservation of his life, the judge sohcitously taking care that his tortures should not kill him. This great man at last died in his seventieth year, about the same time as did the emperor Decius. At this time Dionysius was bishop of Alexandria, a person of great and desei-ved renown in the church ; for a few of his writings, we are obliged to Eusebius. In an Epistle to Germanus, Dionysius thus speaks : — " Sabinus, the Roman governor, sent an officer to seek me during the persecution of Decius, and I remained four days at home, expecting his coming ; he made the most accurate search in the roads, the rivers, and the fields, where he suspected I might be hid. A con- fusion seems to have seized him, that he should not find my house; for he had no idea that a man in my circumstances should stay at home. At length after four days, God ordered me to remove, and having 1^1 bpciied nie &, way^ Contrary to all exp^ctatioh, I and my servants and many of the brethren went together. The event shewed the whole was the work of Divine Providence. About sun-set, being seized, together with my company, by the soldiers, I was led to Tapo- ^iris. But my friend, Tiraotheus, by the providence^ of God^ was hot present, nor was he seized. But com- ing afterwards, he found my house forsaken, and min- isters guarding it, and that we were taken captive. — How wonderful was the dispensation ! but it shall be related with truth. A countrymen met Timotheus, flying in confusion, and asked the cause of his hurry ; he told him the truth 5 the peasant hearing it, went away to a nuptial feast ; for in them the custom was to watch all night. He infoilned the guests of what he had heard. At once they all rose Up, as by a sig- nal, and ran quickly to us, and shouted ; our soldiers, struck with apanie, fled, and the invaders found us as ^ve were, on naked beds. I first thought they must have been a company of robbers, and remaining on liiy bed in my linen, reached to them the rest of my iapparel, which was just by. They ordered me to rise and go out quickly. At length understanding their real design, I cried out entreating them earnestly to depart, and let us alone. But if they really meant any kindness to us, I begged them to prevent my per- secutors and take ofl" niy head. They compelled me to rise by plain violence, and I threv*^ myself on the ground. They seized my hands and feet, pulled me out, by force ; I w^as set on an ass, and conducted from the place." In so remarkable a manner was his use- ful life preserved to the church. We shall see it wa* tioi in vain. At Alexandria, in Egypt, a most bloody persecution i-aged for a year before that of Decian commenced^ There the Pagan Gentiles put the christians to the greatest distress, and multitudes to the most painftil and cruel deaths. Their design was to bring as ma- ny as they possibly could to renounce Christ, by sa- crificing to the heathen gods. But they stood firm, and God supported them under their sore conflicts,^-* Those who suffered for Christ, had eiitbraced hint a* their Redeemer, and they manifested that they loved him better than they did even their own lives ; and he as thfeir Savior granted them special tokens of his iovey by pecuhar supports in their expiring moments- In the Decian persecution, the instruments of tor- ture, were swords, wild beasts, red-hot chaia?^ v/heels to stretch the bodies, and talons to tear them. The genius of men was never known to have had more employment in aiding the savageness of the heart. — Life Was prolonged in torture, that impatience in suf- fering might, at length, effect what surprize and terror could not. See two examples of Satanic artifice. A martyr having endured the rack and burning plates, the judge ordered him to be rubbed all over with honey, and then exposed him in the sun, which was very hot, ly- ing on his back with his hands tied behind him, that be might be stung by the flies. Another person, young and in the flower of his age, was, by the orde/ of the same judge, carried into a pleasant garden among flowers, near a pleasing rivulet surrouded with trees ; here they laid him on a feather bed^ bound him with silken cords, and left him alone. Then they brought thither a lewd woman, very handsome, who began to embrace him and to court him with all pos- sible impudence. The martyr bit off his tongue, not knowing how to resist the assaults- of sensuality any longer, and spit it in her face. Shocking as these things were, Christianity appeared what it really is, true holiness ; while its persecutors shewed that they were at enmity with all godliness. Alexander, bishop of Comana, suffered martyrdom by fire. At Smyrna, Eudemon, the bishop, aposta- tized, and several unhappily followed his example. — - But all did not. Pionius, one of the presbyters, stood firm. In expectation of being seized, he put a chain upon his neck, and caused Sabina and Asclepiadeff to do the same, to show their readiness to suffer. Po- lemon, keeper of the idol-temple,, came to them with 4h^ magistrates-: " Don't you know^" says he^ " that 123 ihe eraperor has ordered you to sacrifice?" "We are not ignorant of the commandments," says Pioniiis^ '' but they are those which command us to worship God." " Come to the market-place," says Polemon, " and see the tmth of what I ha^^e said." " We obey the true God," said Sabina and Asclepiades. When the martyrs were in the midst of the multi- tude in the market-place, "you had better," says Po- lemon, "submit to avoid the torture." Pionius began to speak : " Citizens of Smyrna, who please yourselves with the beauty of your walls and city, and value your- selves on account of your poet, Homer, and ye Jews, if there be any among you, hear me speak a few words : We find that Smyrna has been esteemed the finest city in the world, and was reckoned the chief of those which contended for the honor of Homer's birth. I am informed that you deride those who come of their own accord to sacrifice, or who do not refuse when ur- ged to it. But surely your teacher Homer should be attended to, who says, that we ought not to rejoice at the death of any man. And ye Jews ought to obey Moses, who tells you, "Thou shalt not see thy broth- er's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thy- self from him ; thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again." And Solomon says, " Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth. For my part I had rather die, and undergo any sufferings, than contradict my princi- ples. Whence then proceed the laughter and scoffs of the Jews, pointed not only against those who have sac- rificed, but against us. They insult us wdth a mali- cious pleasure to see our long peace interrupted. — Though we were their enemies, still we are men. But what harm have we done them ? What have we made them suffer ? Whom have we spoken against ? Whom have we persecuted ? Whom have we compelled to worship idols ? Do they think themselves less culpable than those who suffer death from persecution ?" He then addressed the Jews on the grounds of their own scriptures, and solemnly placed before the Paojans the 4ay of judgment. 124 He spake long, was very attentively heard, and thei-e is reason to hope it was not in vain. The people, who surrounded him, said with Polemon, "Believe us, Pi^ onius, your probity and wisdom make us deem you worthy to five, and life is pleasant." Thus did con- science and humanity operate in their hearts. " I own," says the martyr, ^' life is pleasant, but I mean th^t which I aspire after. We will not, through a con- temptuous spirit, forsake these gifts ; but that which we prefer to thern is infinitely better. I thank you for your expressions of kindness. I cannot, however, but suspect some stratagem in it." The people continued entreating him, and he still discoursed to them of an hereafter, The well known sincerity and unquestion^ able virtues of the man, seem to have filled the Smyr- neans with veneration, and his enemies began to fear an uproar in his favor. " It is impossible to persuade you then," said Polemon. " I would to God / could persuade you to be a christian," says Pionius. Sabina had changed her name by the advice of Pio- nius, who was her brother, for fear of falling into the hands of her Pagan mistress, who, to compel her to re- nounce Christianity, had formerly put her in irons, and banished her to the mountains, where the brethren se- cretly nourished her. After this she called herself The- odota. '^ What god dost thou adore ?" says Polemon. " God Almighty," sl^ie answers, ''■'■ who made all things, of which we are assured by his Word Jesus Christ." — " And what dost thou adore ?" speaking to Asclepiades. " Jesus Christ," says he. ' • What ! is there another God ?" says Polemon. " No," says he, " this is the same whom we come here to confess," He v^ho wor- ships the Trinity in Unity will find no difficulty in re- conciling these two confessions. Let him who does- not so worship, attempt it. One person pitying Pioni- us, said, " Why do you that are so learned so resolute • ly seek death ?" Being put into prison, they found there a presbyter named Lemnus, and a woman named Macedonia, and, another called Eutychiana, a montanist. - 125 The prisoners were placed all together, and employ-^ ed themselves in pjaising God, and shewed every mark; of patience and cheerfulness. Many Pagans visited Pionius, and attempted to persuade him ; his answers struck them with admiration. Some, who bj compul- sion had sacrificed, visited them and intreated them with tears. " I now suffer afresh," says Pionius ; " me- thinks I am torn in pieces when I see the pearls of the. church trod under foot by swine, and the stars of hea- ven cast to the earth by the tail of the diragon, But our sins have been the cause." The Jews, whose character for bigotry had not been lessened by all their miseries, and whose hatred to Christ continued from age to age, with astonishing uniforniity, invited some of the lapsed christians to their synagogue. The generous spirit of Pionius was moved to express itself vehemently against the Jews. Among other things he said, ^' They pretend that Je- sus Christ died like other men by constraint. Was that man a common felon, whose disciples have cast out devils for so many years ? Could that man be forc- ed to die, for whose sake his disciples, and so many others, have voluntarily suifered the severest punis^i- ment ?" Having spoken a long time to them, he de- sired that they would depart out of the prison. The continuance of miraculous dispensations in fa- vor of Christianity in the third century, is here attest- ed. Pionius affirms, that devils w^ere ejected by chris- tians in the name of Christ, in the face of the apos- tates, who vyould have been glad of the shadow of an argument to justify their perfidy. The captain of the horse coming to the prison, orr dered Pionius to come to the idol-temple. " Your bishop Eudismon hath already sacrificed," says he. The martyr, knowing that nothing of this sort could ba done legally till the arrival of the pro-consul, refused, The captain put a cord about his neck, and drag- ged him along with Sabina and others. They cried. " we are christians," and fell to the ground, lest they should enter the idol-temple, Pionius, after much resistance, w^as forced in and laid on the ground before 126. the altar ; there stood the unhappj Eiidemoiij after having sacrificed. Lepidiis, a judge, asks, " What god do you adore ?" *'• Him," says Pionius, "that made heaven and earth." ^^ You mean him that was crucified ?" " I mean him "whom God the Father sent for the salvation of men." " We must," said the judges one to another, " compel them to say what we desire." " Blush," answered Pionius, "ye adorers of false gods ; have some respect for justice, and obey the laws ; they enjoin you not to do violence to us, but to put us to death." One Ruffinus said, " Forbear, Pionius, your thirst after vain glory." " Is this your eloquence ?" answer- ed the martyr. ^' Is this what you have read in your books ? Was not Socrates thus treated by the Atheni- ans ? According to your advice he sought after vain glory, because he applied himself to wisdom and vir- tue." A case thus apposite, and which doubtless bore some resemblance, as the philosopher's zeal for moral virtue exposed him to persecution, struck Ruffi- jjus dumb. A certain person placed a crown on Pionus' head, which he tore, and the pieces lay before the altar. The Pagans, finding their persuasions vain, remanded ihem to prison. Afew days after, the pro-consul, Quintilian, returned to Smyrna and examined Pionius. He tried both tor- tures and persuasions in vain, and at length, enraged at his obstinacy, sentenced him to be burnt alive. Pionius went cheerfully to the place of execution, and thanked God who had preserved his body pure from idolatry, Then he -stretched himself out upon the wood, and delivered himself to a soldier to be nailed to the pile. After he was fastened, the executioner said to him, " Change your mind, and the nails shall be taken away." "I have felt them," answered he. After remaining thoughtful for a time, he said," I has- ten, O Lord, that Imay the sooner be raised up again." They then lifted him up, fastened to the wood, and af- terwards one Metrodorus, a Marcionite, was placed in the same manner. They were turned toward the east, 127 Pioniiis oil the right hand and Metrodorus on the left* They heaped round them a great quantity of wood. Piooius remained some time motionless, with his eyes shut, absorbed in prayer, while the fire was consuming him. Then at length he opened his eyes, and looking cheerfully on the fire, said, " Ameo," and expired, say- ing, " Lord, receive my soul." Of the particular man- ner in which his companions suffered death, we have no account. In this narrative of the sufFerirfg of Pioniu'a and his companions, we see the spirit of divine charity triumph- ing over all worldly and selfish considerations. The zeal of Pionius deserves to be commemorated while the world .endures. What true religion is, in its sim- plicity, is exemplified in him aburidantly, and to the very last In Asia, one Maxiinus a merchant, was brought be- fore Optimus, the pro-consul, who enquired after his condition. " I was," says he, " born free, but I am the servant of Jesus Christ." "Of what profession are you ?" " A man of the world, who live by my dealings." " Are you a christian ?" "Though a sin- ner, yet I am a christian." The usual process was carried on of persuasions and tortures. These are not torntents which we suffer for the name of our LoM Jesus Chiist ; they are wholesome unctions." Such was the effect of the Holy Ghost shedding the love of God in Christ abroad in the human heart ! He was or- dered to be stoned to death. All this time the persecution raged in Egypt with unrefnitting fury. In the lower Thebais there was a young man named Paul, to whom at fifteen years of a^e, his parents left a great estate. He was a person of much learning, of a mild temper, and full of the love of God. lie had a married sister with whom he lived. Her husband was base enough to design an information against him, to obtain his estate. Pauly having notice of this^ retired to the desert mountains, where he waited till the persecution ceased. Habit, at length, made solitude agreeable to him. He found a pleasajlt retreat a-iid lived there ninety years. At IS8 the time of his retirisment he was twentj-three, and lived to be one hundred and thirteen years old. This is the first distinct account of an hermit in the christian church. None should doubt the genuine piety of Paul^ but he carried his love for solitude too far. With the return of peace, the return of social duties should have taken place. By the Decian persecution the Lord meant to chast- er! and to purify his church, not to destroy it. This was not a local, but universal persecution, and must have transmitted great numbers to the regions Where sin and pain shall be no more. The peace of thirty years had corrupted the whole christian atmosphere. The light- iiing of the Decian rage refined and cleared it. No doubt thfe effects were salutary. Without slich a Scourge, external religion might have spread, and in- ternal have languished. The survivors had an op- portunity to learn what the gospel is, in the faithfulness of the martrys ; and men were taught again, that he alone who strengthens christians to suffer, can make true christians. Yet the storm proved fatal to a num- ber of individuals who apostatized, and Christianity was cleared of many false friends. The formation of schisms and of superstitious solitudes, had theiv dat(? front the Decian persecution^ CHAPTER YIIl. The History of the Church during the reign of GaUics. tjrALLU^ soon began to disturb the peace of the church, though not with the incessant fury of his pre- decessor. One Hyppolitus, a Roman presbyter, had been seduced into Novatianism ; but his mind had not been perverted from the faith and love of Jesus. He was now called on to suffer martyrdom, which he did with courage and fidelity. Being asked in the last, scene of his sufferings, whether he still persisted in the communion of the Novatians ? Ho declared in ths! 129 most explicit terms, that he now saw the affair in a new light, repented of his having encouraged tlie schism, and died in the communion of the general church. In this persecution the Roman christians suffered severely, and behaved themselves with exemplary for- titude. Like good soldiers they stood resolute, armed for the battle by watchings, fastings and prayers. Their bishop, Cornelius, was banished, by the emperor, to Civita Vecchia, where he died in exile. The faith- fulness of his sufferings for Christ, clearly evinces the sincerity of his profession. The daily reception of the Lord's supper appears to have been the practice of the African church at that time. Lucius was chosen bishop of Rome instead of Cor- nelius, but was immediately driven into exile by the authority of Gallus. Cyprian congratulated him both on his promotion and sufferings. His banishment must have been of short duration. In the year 252, he was permitted to return to Rome. Soon after which he suffered death and was succeeded by Stephen. During the reign of Gallus, a dreadful pestilence ra- ged in Africa. The mortality was great. The pa- gans, alarmed beyond measure, neglected the burial of the dead through fear, and violated the duties of hu- manity. Many dead bodies lay in the streets of Car- thage. Cyprian assembled his people and expatiated on the subject of mercy. He pointed out to them, that if they did no more than others, the heathen and the publican, in shewing mercy to their own, there would be nothing worthy of their profession in that ; that chris- tians ought to overcome evil with good, and like their heavenly Father to love their enemies, since he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Why does not he, who professes himself a son of God, imitate the example of his Father ? We ought to answer to our birth, and those who appear to be born of God, should not de- generate, but should be solicitous to prove the gen- uineness of their relation to God by the imitation of his goodness. 130 The eloquent voice of Cyprian was attended to b^ the people with their usual alacrity. The christians ranked themselves into classes to relieve the public calamity. The rich contributed largely, the poor did what they could. Their labor was attended with ex- treme hazard to their lives. The Pagans saw, with admiration, what the love of God in Christ can do, and beheld their own seiiishness and inferiority. About this time, some Numidian christians were carried into captivity, by an irruption of barbarians, who neither owned the Roman sway, nor had the least acquaintance with Christianity. The active benevo- lence of Cyprian would not suifer him to be at rest. — He took measures to redeem them from captivity, wrote to them a most feeling, affectionate and sympa- thetic letter, and informed them ; " We have sent a hundred thousand sesterces,* the collection of our clergy and laity, of the charge of Carthage, which you will dispense according to your diligence. Heartily do we Avish that no such thing may happen again, and that the Lord m.ay protect our brethren from svich ca- lamities. But if, to try our faith and love, such affliC' tions should again befal you, hesitate not to certify us, assuring yourselves of the hearty concurrence of our church with you in prayer and in cheerful contri- bution." Soon after the appointment of Stephen to the office of bishop of the church of Rome, Gallas was slain, af- ter a wretched reign of IS months^ in the year 253. CHAPTER XIII. The imcific Part of Valerian'' s Reign. In Valerian, the successor of Gallus, the people of God found a friend and protector, for upwards of three years. His house was full of christians and he had a strong predilection in their favor. During this peace, a council was held in Africa by sixty-six bishops, with Cyprian at their head> to set- * About Ig 3900, 131 tie various matters relating to the churcli of Christ* We have an account of two points mentioned, Vt'hich particularly called their attention. One Victor, a presbyter, had been received into the church without having undergone the legitimate time of trial, and v»'ithout the concurrence and con- sent of the people. His bishop, Therapius, had done it arbitrarily and contraij to the institutes of the for- mer council for settling such matters. Cyprian, in the name of the council, contents himself with reprimand- ding Therapius ; but yet confirms what he had done, and warns him to take care of offending in future. We here see, that a strict and godly discipline, on the whole, now prevailed in the church, and that the wisest and most successful methods of recovering the lapsed, were used. The authority of bishops was firm, bat not despotic ; and the share of the people, in mat- ters of discipline, appears worthy of notice. What the other point was which called the atten- tion of this council, we learn from what Cyprian writes to Fidus ; " As to the case of infants, of whom you said that they ought not to be baptized within the sec- ond or third day after their birth, and that the ancient law of circumcision should be so far repeated, that they should not be baptized till the eighth day, we were all of a different opinion. The mercy and grace of God, we all judged, should be denied to none. For if the Lord says in his gospel, the son of man has not €0tne to destroy m.enls lives, hit to save them, how ought we to do our utmost, as far as in us lies, that no soul be lost. Spiritual circumcision, should not be impe- ded by that which is carnal. If even to the foulest of- fenders, w4ien they afterwards believe, remission of sins be granted, and none is prohibited from baptism and grace ; how much more should an infant be ad- mitted, who, just born, hath not sinned at all, except that being carnally born according to Adam, he hath contracted the contagion of ancient death in his first birth ; who approaches to remission of sins more easi- ly, because not his own actual guiltj but that of anoth- er, is remitted." 132 Here, in an assembly of sixty-six pastors, men of approved fidelity and gravity, who had stood the fiery trial of some of the severest persecutions ever known, and who had testified their love to the Lord Jesus Christ; who appear not to have been wanting in any of the essential characteristics of godliness ; a question is brought, not, whether infants should be baptized at all, none contradicted this, but, whether it is right to bap- tize them immediately, or on the eighth day. To a man, they all determined to baptize them immediate- ly. This transaction passed in the year 253. In what light the primitive christians viewed thea- trical entertainments, and stage players, may be seen by a letter from Cyprian to Eucratius his brother. As this shews the opinions and manners of the brethren of that age, the reader may be entertained and in- structed by a perusal. " Cyprian to Eucratius his Brother. Health. Your iove and esteem have induced you, dearest brother, to consult me as to what I think of the case of the player among you ; who still continues in the same infamous art, and as a teacher of boys, not to be in- structed but to be ruined by him, instructs others in that which he himself hath miserably learnt. You ask whether he should be allowed the continuance of christian communion ? I think it very inconsistent with the majesty of God, and the rules of his gospel, that the modesty and honor of the church should be defiled by so base and infamous a contagion. In the law, men are prohibited to wear female attire, and are pronounced accursed ; how much more criminal must it be, not only to put on woman's garments, but also to express lacivious, obscene, and effeminate gestures in a way of instructing others ! And let no man excuse himself as having left the theatre, while yet he undertakes to qualify others for the work. You cannot say that he had ceased from a business, who provides substitutes in his room, and instead ot one only, furnishes the play-house with a number ; teach- ing them, contrary to the Divine ordinance, how the male may be reduced into a female, and the sex be 133 changed by art ; and how Satan may be gratified by the defilement of the Divme workmanship. If the man makes poverty his excuse, his necessities may be reheved in the same manner as those of others, who are maintained by the alms of the church, provided he be content with frugal, but innocent food, and do not fancy that we are to hire him by a salary to cease from sin, since it is not our interest, but his own, that is concerned in this affair. But let his gains from the service of the play-house be ever so large, what sort of gain is that, which tears men from a participation in the banquet of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and leads them, miserably and ruinously, fattened in this world, to the punishments of eternal famine and thirst ? Therefore, as much as you can, recover him from this depravity and infamy, to the way of innocence and to the hope of life, that he may be content with a parsi- monious, but salutary maintenance from the church. But if your church be insufficient to maintain its poor, he may transfer himself to us, and here receive what is necessary for food and raiment, and no longer teach pernicious things out of the church, but learn himself salutary things in the church. Dearest son, I wish you constant prosperity." What, surely, would Cyprian have said, to see large assemblies of christians, so called, devoted to the im- purities of the theatre, zealously supporting them, and deriving from them their highest delight ? He would, at the same time, observe the same persons, as might be expected, perfect strangers to the joys of the Holy Ghost. Among the primitive christians, the clergy were looked upon as men wholly devoted to Divine things, and secular cares were taken out of their hands as much as possible : an instance of this we see in the decision of an African Synod, where Cyprian and his colleagues wrote to the church of Ternae a protest against the appointment of Faustinus, a presbyter, a guardian, by the will of one Germinius Victor. This shoAvs the happy effects produced upon the minds of the church by the spirit of God. 134 During this century the gospel had spread in France and Spain to a great degree. In Spain, two bishops, Basilides and Martial, were deposed for their unfaith- fulness during the persecution. A question arose, whether persons returning from heresies into the church ought to be re-baptized. — The active spirit of Cyprian was employed, partly by a council in Africa, and partly by his letters, in main- taining, that the baptism of heretics was null and void ; that even Novatian baptism ought to be looked up- on in the same light. But Stephen, of Rome, main- tained, that if they were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, it was sufficient to receive them into the church by imposition of hands ; and though nothing was at present decided, because no party had power to compel others, yet most christians have long since agreed with Stephen. But the church, while in worldly ease and quiet, is loo easily entangled in curious speculations, and loses the vigor of religious affection : but God, in infinite mercy, has a scourge for his froward children ; perse- cution low^ers again with re-collected strength, and christians are called on to forget their idle internal contentions, to humble themselves before him, and prepare for scenes of horror and desolation. CHAPTER XIV. The last Acts and Martyrdom of Cyprian. 1 HE change in the disposition of Valerian toward the christians, which now took place, is one of the most memorable instances of the instability of human characters. More than all his predecessors he was at first disposed to kindness toward them. His palace was fiill of the friends of Jesus, and was looked on as a sanctuary. But, after he had reigned three years, he was induced by his favorite Macrianus, to treat them with the most vindictive cjuelty, This man dealt 135 largely in magical enchantments and abominable sac- rifices ; he slaughtered children, and scattered the en- trails of new born babes. The persecution of chris- tians was an exploit worthy of a mind so facinated with diabolical wickedness and folly. In Valerian he found but too ready a disciple. It began in the year two hundred and fifty seven, and continued the remainder of his reign, three years and a half. Ste- phen, of Rome, appears to have died a natural death about the beginning of it. Sixtus was his successor. Cyprian, who had escaped two persecutions, was now made the victim of the third, though his sufferings were attended with circumstances of comparative lenity. He was seized by the servants of Paternus, the pro- consul of Carthage, and brought into his council cham- ber. "The sacred emperors. Valerian and Gallienus," says Paternus, " have done me the honor to direct let- ters to me, in which they have decreed, that all men ought to adore the gods whom the Romans adore, and on pain of being slain with the sword. I have heard that you despise the worship of the gods, whence I ad- vise you to consult for yourself and honor them." " I am a christian," Cyprian replied, " and know no God but the one true Gody who created heaven and earth, the sea, and all things in them. This God, we chris- tians serve ; to him we pray night and day for all men, and even for the emperors." "You shall die the death of a malefactor, if you persevere in this inclina- tion." Cyprian answered, " That is a good inchna- tion which fears God, and therefore must not be changed." " You must then, by the will of the prin- ces, be banished." "He is no exile," it was replied, " who has God in his heart, for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Paternus said, " Before you go, tell me where are your presbyters, who are said to be in this city." With much presence of mind, Cyprian reminded him of the edicts made by the. best Roman princes against the practice of informers. " They ought not therefore to be discovered by me^ but you may find them, and you yourselves do not approve of men offering theniselves voluntarily tcjs 136 you." " I will make you discover them by tortures.'' " By me," the intrepid Cyprian rejoined, " they shall not be discovered." " Our princes have ordered that christians hold no conventicles, and whoever breaks this rule shall be put to death." " Do what you are ordered," Cyprian calmly replied. Pateroiis was, however, not disposed to hurt Cypri- an. Ke respected his character. Having, in vain, attempted to work on his fears, he banished him to Curubis, a little town 60 miles from Carthage, situ- ate by the sea, over against Sicily. The place was healthy, the air good, and by his own desire he had private lodgings. During the eleven months he resided there, the citizens of Curubis treated him with great kindness, and he was repeatedly visited by christians. There he served his Divine Master in good works, and in the interim Paternus died. While he was there, nine bishops, all of whom had been present at the last council at Carthage, were seized, and a great number of the faithful, priests, deacons, virgins and children ; vfho, after having been beaten with sticks, were sent to work in the copper- mines in the mountains. To them Cyprian addressed a most affectionate let- ter, peculiarly calculated to support them under their sore trials ; an extract from this letter is in the follow- ing language : " Let malice and cruelty fetter you as- they please, quickly you will come from earth and its sorrows to the kingdom of heaven. In those mines the body is not refreshed by a bed, but Christ is its consolation and rest ; your limbs, fatigued with labors, lie on the ground ; but to lie down with Christ is no punishment. Filth and dirt defile your limbs, void of the cleansing bath ; but you are inwardly washed from all uncieanliness. Your allowance of bread is scanty ; but man doth not live by bread alone, but by the word of God. You have no proper clothes to fence you from the cold ; but he who has put on Christ is clothed abundantly." In the year 260, Cyprian, returning by permission from exile, lived iu a garden near Carthage, v.hich 137 iva^ riow providentially restored to biiii, though he had sold it at his first conversion. His liberal spirit would have inclined him once more to sell it for the relief of the needy, had he not feared to attract the eiivy of the persecutors. Here he regulated the affairs of the churchy and distributed to the poor what he had lefti Here he understood that the persecution, after a little interval^ had broken out afresh, and hearing various reports, he sent to Rome to gain certain information. He soon learnt, what he immediately communicated to the brethren, that Valerian had given orders^ that bishops, presbyters and deacoris should be put to death without delay ; that senators, noblemen, and knights should be degraded and deprived of their property, and if they still persisted to be christians^ should lose their lives ; that women of quality should be deprived of their property and be banished ; that all Caesar's freed- men, who should have confessed, should be stripped of their goods, be chained and sent to work on his estates* These were Valerian's orders to the senatfej and were sent to the governors of provinces. " These letters," writes Cyprian, "we daily expect to anive, stand- ing in the firmness of faith, in patient expectation of suifering, and hoping, from the Lord's help and kind- ness, the crown of eternal life." He mentions also th^ news he had heard of the martyrdom of SixtuSj the bishop of Rome, and the ferocity, with which the per- secution wa^ there daily carried on in all its horrorg. He begs that the intelligence may be circulated through Africa, "That we may all think of death^ not more than imrnortality, and in the fulness of faith, may rather rejoice atj than fear, the event." Ga- lerius Maximus had succeeded Paternus in the pro- cpnsulatej and Cyprian was daily expected to be sent for. In this awful crisis, a number of senators and others, considerable for Iheir office or their quality, came to him* Ancient friendship melted the minds of some of them toward the man, and they offered to conceal him in country places, but his soul was now athirst for martyrdom. He was conscientiously afraid^ pf sinning against God by throwing away his life, by* s courting martyrdom ; bnt he was not afraid of beine^ found in the discharge of duty. Still he continued at Carthage exhorting the faithful, desiring, that if calle({ to suffer, death might find him thus employed for God. However, being informed that the pro-consul, then at Utica, had sent some soldiers to bring him thither, he was induced to comply, for a season, with the ad- vice of his friends, to retire to some place of conceal- ment, that he might not suffer there ; but if his execu- tion was inevitable, he might finish his life among his own people at Carthage ; so he states the matter in the last of his letters to the clergy and people. " Here," says he, " in this concealment, I wait for the return of the pro-consul to Carthage, ready to appear before him, and to say what shall be given me at that hour. Do you, dear brethren, do you, agreeably to the disci- pline you have always received, and to the instruc- tions you have learnt of me, continue still and quiet ; let none of you excite any tumult on account of the brethren, or offer himself voluntarily to the Gentiles. He who is seized and delivered up ought to speak ; the Lord in us will speak at that horn*; and confession, rather than profession, is our duty. The pro-consul being returned to Carthage, and Cyprian to his garden, officers with soldiers came there to seize him. They carried him in a chariot between them to a place called Sextus, six miles from Car- thage, by the sea side, where the pro-consul lodged in a state of ill health. His trial was deferred till the next day, when vast crowds^ both of christians and infidels, who revered the virtue of the man, assembled. The chief of the officers guarded him, but in a cour- teous manner ; so that he ate with his friends, and had them about him as usual. The christians passed the night in the street before his lodgings, and the charity of Cyprian moved him to direct a particular attention to be paid to the young women who w^ere among the crowd. The next day the pro-consul sent for Cypri- an, w^ho went to the Prsetorium, attended by crowds of people. The pro-consul not yet appearing, Cyprian was ordered to wait for him in a private place, where 139 he sat down. Being in a great perspiration, a soldier, who had professed Christianity, offered him fresh clothes. " Shall we," says Cyprian, " seek for a reme- dy for that which may last no longer than a day." He was at length brought into the judgment-halt, where' the pro-consul sat. "Are you Thascius Cy- prian ?" " I am." " Are you he whom the christians call their bishop ?" " I am." " Our princes have or- dered yaii to worship their gods." " That I shall not do." " You will do better to consult your safety, and not despise the gods." " My safety and virtue is Christ the Lord, whom I desire to serve forever." " I pity your case," says the pro-consul, " and could wish to consult for you." " I do not wish," replies Cyprian, " that things should be otherwise with me, than that, adoring my God, I may hasten to him with all the ar- dor of my soul ; for the afflictions of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." The pro-consul, now redden- ing with anger, says, " You have lived sacrilegiously a long time, and have formed into a society men of an impious conspiracy, and have shewn yourself an ene- my to the gods and their religion, and have not hearken- ed unto the equitable counsels of our princes, but have ever been a father of the impious sect, and their ring- leader ; you shall therefore be an example to the rest, and they shall learn their duty by your blood. Let Thascius Cyprian, who refuses to sacrifice to the gods, be put to death by the sword." " God be praised," said the martyr, and while they were leading him away, a multitude of people followed and cried, " Let us die with our holy bishop." A troop of soldiers attended, and the officers march- ed on each side of him. They led him into a plain surrounded with trees, and many climbed up to the top of them to see him at a distance. Cyprian took off his mantle, and fell on his knees and worshiped his God ; then he put off his inner garment and re- mained in his shirt. The executioner being come, Cyprian ordered 26 golden denarii to be given him ; he himself bound the napkin over his eyes^ and apres-* hjter and deacon tied his hands for him, and the chris- tians laid before him napkins and hankerchiefs to re- ceive his blood. Then his head was cut off by the sword. Thus, after an eventful and important period of about 12 years from his conversion, after a variety of toils and exercises among friends, and open foes, and nominal christians, by a death more gentle than com- monly fell to the lot of martyrs, rested in Jesus, the magnanimous and charitable spirit of Cyprian of Car-^ thage. Before Cyprian*s time, Africa appears to have been in no very flourishing state with respect to Christianity. Within 12 years he was the instrument of most mate- rial service in recovering many apostates, in reforming discipline, and in reviving the essence of godliness, CHAPTER XT. Other Particulars of Valerian^s Persecution. JdY order of Valerian, Sixtus, bishop of Rome, and some others of the clergy were seized. While Sixtus was going to execution, Laurentius, his chief deacon, followed him weeping, and said, " Whither goest thou, father, without thy son ?" Sixtus said, " You shall foU Jow me in three days." After Sixtus' death the prefect of Rome, moved by an idle report of the immense riches of the Roman church, sent for Laurentius, and ordered him to delivr er them up. Laurentius, requested a little time to set every thing in order, and to take an account of each particular; three days having been granted, he collected all the poor who were supported by the Roman church, and went to the prefect and said, " Come, behold the riches of our God ; you shall see a large court full of golden vessels." The prefect fol- lowed him, but seeing all the poor people, he turned to Laurentius with looks full of anger." " What are you displeased at f" said the martyr ; ^' the gold you 141 so eagerly desire is but a vile metal taken out of the earth, and serves as an incitement to all sorts of crimes ; the true gold is that Light whose disciples these poor men are. The misery of their bodies is an advantage to their souls ; sin is the true disease ; the great ones of the earth are the truly poor and con- temptible. These are the treasures which I promis- ed you, to which I will add precious stones. Behold these virgins and widows ; they are the church's crown ; make use of these riches for the advantage of Rome, of the emperor, and yourself" Doubtless, had the prefect's mind been at a}\ dispos- ed to receive an instructive lesson, he would here have learned the nature of the liberality of christians, who maintained a great number of objects, and who look- ed for no recompense, but that which shall take place at the resurrection of the just. But as the persecu- tors would not hear the doctrines of Christ explain- ed, so neither would they patiently endure an exem- plification of his precepts. The prefect was cut to the quick ; " Do you mock me ?" said he, " I know you value yourselves for contemning death, and therefore you shall not die at once." He caused him to be stripped, extended, and fastened to a gridiron, and in that manner to be broiled to death by a slow fire.— ^ When he had continued a considerable time on one side, he said to the prefect, " Let me be turned, I am sufficiently broiled on one side." And when they had turned him he said, " It is enough, ye ttiay eat."— ^ Then looking up to heaven, he prayed for the conver- sion of Rome, and gave up the ghost! At Csesarea, in Cappadocia, a child named Cyril, ghewed uncommon fortitude. Neither threats nor blows could prevent him from owning Christianity. -^ He was driven from his home by his own father, find persecuted by many children of his own age. He was brought before the judge, who promised that he shouH be pardoned and be again received by his far- ther. He replied, " I rejoice to bear your reproaches ] God will receive me ; I am glad that I am expelled out «f our house ; I shall have a better mansion ; I fear pat 142 death, because it will introduce me into a better life." The judge ordered him to be bound and led to the place of execution, with secret orders to bring him back, hoping that the sight of the fire might overcome his resolution. Cyril remained inflexible. The hu- manity of the judge induced him still to continue his remonstrances. The young martyr stood firm ; " Your fire and your sword," said he, " are insignificant. I go to a better house and more excellent riches ; despatch me presently, that I may enjoy them." The specta- tors wept through compassion. " You should rather rejoice," said he, '' in conducting me to my punish- ment. You know not what a city I am going to inhabit, nor what is my hope." Thus he went to his death, and was the admiration of the whole city. Many others suffered with great christian meekness and fortitude. But after three years employed in per- secution. Valerian was taken prisoner by Sapor king of Persia, who deiained him the rest of his life, and made use of his neck when he mounted his horse, and at length had him flayed and salted. Valerian had known and respected the christians ; bis persecution therefore must have been a sin against light, and it is common with Divine providence to punish such in a very ex- emplary manner. Gallienus, son to Valerian, succeeded him, and was an emperor friendly to the christians ; he stopped the persecution by edicts, and gave the pastors of church- es licence to return to their respective charges. CHAPTER XYI. From the reign of Gallienus to the end of the Century. ▼ V E now behold christians legally tolerated under a Pagan government for forty years. The example of Gallienus was followed by the successive emperors to the end of the century, and was violated only in one in- stance; the effect of which was presently dissipated by the hand of Providence. This is not a season for the 145 g'rowth of grace and holiness ; genuine chrisfianitj, during this period, was very little manifested. Though Christianity, at this time was literally tol- erated, yet christians were not entirely exempt from persecution. At Csesarea, in Palestine, there was one Marinus, a soldier of great bravery, of noble fam- ily, and very opulent. The office of centurion being vacant, Marinus was called to it. Another soldier came before the tribunal, and said, that by the laws Marinus was incapacitated, because he was a chris- tian, and did not do sacriiice to the emjierors; but that he himself, as next in rank, ought to have it. Achseus, the governor, asked Marinus what was his religion ; on which he confessed himself a christian. The govern- or gave him three hours to deliberate. Upon this Theotecnes, bishop of Ceesarea, calls Marinus from the tribunal, takes him by the hand, and leads him to the church, shows him a sword that hung by his side, and a New Testament which he pulled out of his pock- et, and bids him choose which of the two he liked best. Marinus, stretching out his hand, takes the Ho- ly Scripture. " Hold fast then," said Theotecnes^ '^ cleave to God, and what you have chosen you shall enjoy, being strengthened by him, and depart in peace." After he had returned thence he was, by the crier's voice, ordered to appear again at the bar, the; time of three hours being expired. There he man- fully confessed the faith of Christ, heard the sentence of condemnation, and was beheaded. The greatest luminary in the church at this time, was Dionysius, of Alexandria. He took a decided stand against the Sabellian heresy, which confounded the persons of the Trinity. Paul, of Samosata, attempted, about the year 269y by many artful subtilties to depreciate, the real Divin- ity of Jesus Christ, and introduce into the church the doctrine of Socinianism. But he was, by the pastors, called to an account, deposed from office and excluded from christian fellowship. The doc- trine usually called Trinitarian, was universal in these limes. 144 Aurelian succeeded Gallienus, and Tacitus, Aureli-^ ^n, who, after a short reign, left the empire to ProbuSj in whose second year A. D. 277, appeared the mon- strous heresy of Manes, whose fundamental principle was to account for the origin of moral evil, by the ad- mission of two first causes^ independent of each other. This heresy continued long to infest the church. In the year two hundred and eighty four^ Dioclesian became emperor, and for about eighteen years was ex- tremely indulgent to christians. His wife^ Prisca, and daughter Valeria, the eunuchs of his palace and many of his important officers, with their wives and families embraced the gospel and made a public profession of their faith. In various parts of the empire, vast crowds attended religious service, so that the houses of worship were foilnd inadequate to their accommodation, and in all the cities, large edifices w ere erected for their use. The number of nominal converts now increased, but vital piety declined* The influence of philos()phers, with whom they were connected, was one of the causes. Toward the end of this century, Dioclesian, practi- sing the superstitious rites of divination, attributed the ill success of his sacrifices to the presence of a christian servant who made on his forehead the sign of the cross. He" ordered all present and all in his palace to sacrifice, or, in case of refusal, to be scourged with whips. He wrote also to the officers of his armies to constrain all the soldiers to sacrifice, and to discharge from service those who should refuse to comply with this rite of heathen superstition. Many resigned ra- ther then submit to the impious direction. Christian truth was not yet lost, and though its influence was di- minished, it was not yet perceptible. Very few were put to death on account of their religious profession. But Marcellus, the centurion, did not escape. At Tangier in Mauritania, w^hile every one was employ- ed in feasting and sacrifices, he took ofl" his belt, threw *lown his vine branch and his arms, and added, " I will not fight any longer under the banner of your emperor, or serve your gods of wood and stone. If the condi- tion of a soldier is such that he is obliged to sacrifice 145 to gods and emperots, I abandon the vine branch and the belt, and quit the service." Marcellus, having thus refused to partake in idolatrous worship, was ordered to be beheaded. These preliminaries to the persecution, with which the next century opens, did not affect the minds of christians in general j nor was the spirit of prayer ex- cited among them ; a certain sign of great declension in godliness. Justification by faith, hearty conviction of sin, and the Spirit's influences, are scarcely men- tioned all this season. God, who had exercised long suffering patience, de- clared at length in the course of his providence, " Be- cause I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon theey But this scene, which materially changed the condi- tion of the church, and was quickly followed by seve- ral surprising revolutions, belongs to the next century. CHAPTER XVII. Some Aecount of Gregory Thaumaturgus^ Theognostusj and Dionysius of Rome. vl^REGORY was born at Neacsesarea, the metrop- olis of Cappadocia, and early educated in idolatry and the learning of the Gentile world. He travelled af- terwards to Alexandria, and put himself under the tu- ition of the renowned Origen, by whom he was per- suaded to study the Holy Scriptures. Origen spared no pains to ground him in a firm belief of Christianity, and exhorted him to apply his knowledge to its pro- motion, advising him withal to pray fervently and se- riously for the illumination of the Holy Spirit. On his return to his native city, which was very populous and full of idolatry, the very seat of Satan, he gave himself much to prayer and retirement, and was in secret prepared for the important work to which he was soon after called. Tn this idolatrous city, Gregory commenced hi* public labors, when the church consisted of not more than seventeen members ; but his preaching was soon attended Avith so gfeat success that he had a nume- rous congregation. His ministry appears to have been accompanied with miraculous gifts, to prepare the way for the propagation of the gospel among his idolatrous countrymen. Here he continued till the Decian persecution, which Was most severe.- Considering that his new converts would scarce be strong enough to stand their ground and be faithful, he advised them to flee, and to en- courage them in ity set the example. Many of his people suffered, but God, at length, restored them to peace, and Gregory returned to exhilarate their minds tvith his pastoral labors. A little before his death, he made a strict inquiry, whether there were any in the city and neighborhood still strangers to Christianity, and being told there were about seventeen in all, he sighed, and hfting up his eyes to heaven, appealed to God how much it troubled him, that any of his fellow-townsmen should remain unacquainted with salvation, yet that his thankfulness was due to God, that when at first he had found only seventeen christians, he had left only seventeen idola- ters. Having prayed for the conversion of infidels and edification of the faithful, he peaceably gave up his soul to God. He was a man eminently holy and most exemplary in his life and conversation. In wor- ship most devout, in conversation chaste, he never al- lowed himself to call his brother fool ; no anger or bit- terness proceeded from his mouth. Slander and cal- umny, as directly opposite to Christianity, he pecuHar- ly hated and avoided. The wonderful success which attended his ministry, was owing to a marvellous out- pouring of the Holy Spirit. In no particular instance was the divine influence ever more apparent since the apostolic age. Tbeognostus and Dionysius, of Alexandria, were both firm in the great doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, During the first three hundred years, though this doc- 147 trine was variously opposed, yet the whole christian church constantly imited in preserving and maintaining it, even from the apostles' days, as the proper sphere within which, all the truth, and holiness, and conso- lation of genuine Christianity lie, and exclusive of which, one may defy its boldest enemies to produce a single instance of any real progress in piety, made in any place, where the name of Christ was known. CHAPTER XVIII. The further extension of the Gospel in this Century, XN the midst of the Decian persecution, about the year two hundred and fifty, the gospel, which had hitherto been chiefly confined to the neighborhood of Lyons and Vienne, was considerably extended in France. Churches were founded at Toulouse, Tours, Aries, Narbonne, and Paris. France, in general, was blessed with the light of salvation. The bishops of Toulouse and Paris afterwards suffered for the faith of Christ. In the course of this century Germany, especially those parts nearest to France ; also Great Britain and the adjacent isles, received the gospel. Many of the Goths, settled in Thrace, were, like wise, brought from a state perfectly savage, into the light and comfort of Christianity, through the instru- mentality of some teachers from Asia. The barbarians, who ravaged Asia, carried away with them into captivity several bishops, who healed diseases, expelled evil spirits in the name of Christ and preached Christianity. They were heard with respect and attention, and numbers Avere converted.— This is all that I can collect of the extension of the gospel among those savage nations. 148 CHAPTER XIX. Remarks on the state of the Romayi Empire^ and the ef- fect which a belief of the doctrines of Christianity had during this century. Xn the Roman empire, luxury and every abominable vice which can be conceived, had for three centuries greatly increased. Civil broils and distractions con- tinually prevailed, and increased the quantity of vice and misery. During this period Christianity, in its be- nign efficacy and power, was exemplified in thelives of God's people. Those, who were truly converted to the christian faith, believed heartily the truth of doctrines the most humiliating. They were poor in spirit, patient under the severest treatment and the most cruel injuries, not because they were not sufficiently numerous and pow- erful to have redressed the wrongs which they suffer- ed, but because they saw the sinfulness of their hearts, and were conscious that they deserved much greater evils than they experienced ; they were contented in the meanest circumstances, because they felt the beauty of his condescension, who, though he was rich, became poor for their sakes, and who has provided for them a sure and eternal inheritance. They were se- rene and confident in God, because they viewed him as their Father, through the grace of Christ ; full of charity, because they knew the love of God in Christ ; in honor preferring others to themselves, because they were ever conscious of their own depravity; in fine, they gladly endured reproach for Christ's sake, be- cause they knew his kingdom was not of this world. • The state of the empire was not deteriorated by the prevalence of Christianity within its limits, but the grace of God, in the gift of a Savior, was gloriously displayed, in the benign nature of true benevolence, as exemplified in the lives of the truly godly, as con- trasted with the real tendency of selfishness^ fostering 149 every passion which sets man at variance vi^ith man, and is in its very nature hostile to national and indi- vidual happiness. CENTURY IV, CHAPTER I. The persecution of Dioclesian, A HE fourth century opens with a persecution more systematically planned, and more artfully conduct- ed, than those which christians had ever before known, and the reason why the church survived the storm and rose triumphant after her losses was, because her PEFENDER is invincible. The church had long been in a state of ease and prosperity, and had deeply declined from the purity and simplicity of the gospel. God, for her declension, visited her with a rod. Besides the martyrdom of Mar- cell us, in Africa, an attempt was made, in a general, covert manner, to corrupt the army. It was put to the choice of christian officers to sacrifice and enjoy their dignity, or to refuse and be deprived. Many lost their preferments. Some few were put to death as a terror to the rest. Dioclesian had long favored the christians, but he had now contracted a prejudice against them. He first used artifice rather than violence. This emperor had a partner called Maximian. Un- der them were two Caesars, Galerius and Constantius. Constant! us had some probity and humanity. The other three were tyrants. The savageness of Gale- rius was the most ferocious. In the year 302 ho met Dioclesian at Nicomedia, in the 19th year of hi3 reign, and used every measure to instigate him to be more sanguinary and decisive against the christians, and urged to a general persecution. Dioclesian was for confining it to the officers of the court and the soldiers* 150 A council of a few judges and officers was called: it was determined that the oracle of Apollo, at Miletus, should be consulted ; the oracle answered in favor of a general persecution. The feast of the Terminalia was the day appointed to commence the operations against the church. — Early in the morning an officer, with guards, came to the great church at Nicomedia, and bursting the doors, found the Scriptures and burnt them, and gave every thing up to plunder. The two emperors, looking at the scene from the palace, were long in doubt, wheth- er they should order the edifice to be burnt. Diocle- sian, fearing a general conflagration, advised to its de- molition. The Pr^torian soldiers were therefore sent with axes and other tools, who, in a few hours levelled the buildhig with the ground. The next day an edict appeared, depriving all men jprofessing the christian religion, of all honor and dig- nity, exposing them to torture, and debarring them from the benefit of the laws in all cases whatever. A christian was found hardy enough, under the transports of indignation, to pull down and tear the edict. For his indiscretion he was burnt alive, and bore his suf- ferings with admirable patience. In Egypt many were beheaded, others were burnt. They suffered with the greatest faith and fortitude. — To their last breath they employed themselves in psaljus and thanksgiving. Phiieas, a man of great eminence, suffered at Thebais; being asked how he was persuaded that Jesus Christ was God, he replied, ^' He made the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, cleansed the lepers, and raised the dead.'^ When asked, " Is a crucified person a God ?'' he answered, '^ He was crucified for our salvation." The governor said, "You are rich, and able to maintain almost all the province, I spare you, and advise you to sacrifice." It seems that Pbileas was very liberal to the poor. — The governor added, " Thy poor wife looks on thee." Phiieas answered, Jesus Christ is the Savior of all our spirits, he hath called me to the inheritance of his glo- ry, and be may call her to it." A little before his ex- 151 ecution, "Mj children," said he, " you that seek Gocf, watch over your hearts. My dear children, stick fast to the precepts of Jesus Christ." This persecuting governor who treated the christians with the greatest cruelty and severity, added, " No care ought to be taken of these christians ; let all treat them as unworthy of the name of men." Some expir- ed under the cruel tortures inflicted upon them. Oth- ers, having been recovered by methods taken to heal them, and being reduced to the alternative of sacri- ficing or dying, cheerfully preferred the latter. One city in Phrygia, being generally christian, was besieged by armed men, and set on fire. The men with their wives and children were burnt to death, calling upon Christ, the God over all. All the inhabit- ants, magistrates and people, nobles and plebeians, professing Christianity, were ordered to sacrifice, and for refusing suff'ered in this manner. Some were slain by axes, as in Arabia ; some by breaking their legs, as in Cappadocia ; some, suspen- ded by the feet, with the head downward, over a slow fire, were suffocated, as in Mesopotamia ; some were mutilated, and ciit in pieces, as in Alexandria ; some were burnt to death, as in Antioch. Some despatched themselves, to prevent their falling into the hands of their enemies, by throwing themselves down from the tops of houses ; lamentable instances of impatience i But the reader will remember that the decline had been very great from christian purity ; and that so ma- ny should suffer like christians, in such a season, can scarce be accounted for, but on the idea of the Lord's reviving his work and ministering the Holy Spirit amidst their afflictions. The persecuting judges exercised ingenious malice in the daily invention of new punishments ; but wea- ried, at length, with murder, and affecting to praise the clemency of the emperors, as desirous to save life^ contented themselves with plucking out eyes, and cut- ting off one of the legs. The number of those wha suffered in this way was very great j and they were afterwards condemned to work in the. mines. 152 At Antioch, Romanus, a deacon, of the church of Csesarea, was martyred. He, happening to enter An- tioch at the very time when the churches were demo- lished, saw many men and women, most probably apos- tates from christianty, with their httle ones, crowding to the temples and sacrifices. The same spirit which moved Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees, on a like occasion, was felt by him, but exerted in a man- ner more agreeable to the christian dispensation. — He cried aloud, and rebuked their cowardice and per- fidy. But being seized immediately, and condemned to the flames, and fastened to the stake, while the ex- ecutioners expected the definitive order of the empe- ror then present, he asked cheerfully, " Where is the fire for me ?" Caesar, provoked at his boldness, or- dered his tongue to be cut out. This he put out with great readiness. After this punishment he was thrown into prison, and suffered there a considerable time. In the end he was dismissed from life by strangling. In the second year, when the persecution grew fiercer, imperial letters were sent into Palestine, com- manding all men, without exception, to sacrifice. At Gaza, Timotheus, after many sufterings, was consum- ed by a slow fire ; some were condemned to the wild beasts. While many apostatized to save their lives, six persons of Csesarea, with excessive forwardness, ran to Urbanus, the judge, and oflfered themselves for martyrdom. They suffered, in conjunction with two others, whose spirit and circumstances in the man- ner of their departure out of life, were more conforma- ble to the rules of the gospel. The governors of the different provinces being now authorized to punish the christians freely, did it as their tempers dictated. Some, for fear of displeas- ing, did more than they were ordered ; others indulg- ed a natural savageness of disposition ; while others considered that to shed blood profusely was the high road to preferment. Some, determining to torment and not to kill, studied those arts of torture, which might keep life in being amid the keenest sensations of pain. Many efforts were made to recover the tor- 153 tured, that they might be strengthened to endure fur-^ ther suiferings. A considerable part of Roman juris- prudence was then employed on this subject. There never before had been so systematic and la- bored an effort made to extinguish the gospel of Christ. Satan had great wrath 5 and when we consider how fiercely the enemies of Christianity set upon its pro- fessors, we have cause to admire the grace of God^ who raised such a noble army of martyrs, in a time of so great evangelical declension, and who more ef- fectually than ever baffledj in the end, the designs of the Prince of darkness. In France alone^ and its neighborhood, the people of God found some shelter. Yet was the mild Con- stantius, to save appearances with his superior Maxi- mian, induced to persecute, not only by destroying the temples, but also, by ordering those of his house- hold to quit the service, who would not retract Chris- tianity. By this means were the christians of his fam- ily tried. But the issue was contrary to their expecta- tions. Constantius retained the faithful, and dismis- sed the apostates, judging that those, who were un- faithful to their God, would also be so to their prince. It appears to have been the intention of the perse- cutors to have destroyed all records of Christianity. Felix of Tibiura, in Africa, being asked to deliver up the scriptures, answered, " I have them, but will not part with them." He was ordered to be beheaded. " I thank thee, O Lord," said the honest martyr, " that I have lived fifty six years, have kept my virginity, have preserved the gospel, and have preached faith and truth. O my Lord, Jesus Christ, the God of hea- ven and earth, I bow my head to be sacrificed to thee, who livest to all eternity." In Sicily, Euplius a martyr, being asked, " Why do you keep the scriptures forbidden by the emperors," answered, " because I am a christian. Life eternal is in them ; he that gives them up, loses life eternal." He suffered in the sa^me cause, and so also did many ©thers in Italy. 154 fn the year three hundred and five, Dioelesian re- signed the empire, and Maximian folJowed his exam- ple. They were succeeded by Galerius in the East, who ruled in the room of Dioelesian, and put Maxi- min his nephew, in his own place, and in the West hy Constantius. Maximin inherited the savageness and the prejudi- ces of his uncle ; and in Palestine and the more east- ern parts, over which Galerius had ruled, he still con- tinued the horrors of persecution. Apphian, a young man under twenty, who had re- ceived a very polite education at Berytus, and could not bear to live with his father and relations at Pagse in Lycia, because of their aversion to the gospel, left all his secular employments and hopes for the love of Christ, and came to Cjesarea; there he was so trans- ported with zeal as to nm up to Urbanus the gover- nor, then making a libation, to seize him by the hand, to stop his religious employment, and exhort him to forsake idolatry, and turn to the true God. The con- sequence was, he was arrested, ordered to sacrifice, and, after he had sustained most dreadful tortures, was thrown into the sea. His imprudence was great, and his zeal very irregular and extravagant ; but who will not admire the sincerity of that love of Christ, which carried this ardent youth through all hardships, and prefer his disposition, with all his faults, to the cowardice and love of the world, which, in our times, prevents such numbers from daring to show due re- gard for the divine Savior ? This Apphian had a brother called Edesius, who had advanced farther in the philosophical studies than himself, and who likewise embraced the faith of Christ. Having endured, in Palestine, with great for- titude and patience, prisons, bonds, and the drudgery of the mines, he, at length, came to Alexandria, and there saw the judge raging with frantic fury against christians, treating them with various abuses. Fired at the sight, he lost all patience, rebuked the magis- trate, and struck him. Upon which he was exposed to a variety of torture, and thrown into the sea. He 155 seems to have possessed both the excellencies and the faults of his brother. A remark or two may be proper in this place, before we proceed. 1. The persecution we are reviewing found the church in the lowest state in wisdom and piety. Con- cerning the behavior of Edesius, it should be observed, that amidst the great dearth of christian instruction, it is not surprising that he should so imperfectly know his duty. The piety of Apphian and Edesius resem- bles that of Jeptha and of Samson ; sincere, but irre- gular and injudicious. They lived under similar cir- cumstances, in times of ignorance. The Spirit of God, when he creates a new heart, or a new spirit, and disposes men to obedience, supercedes not the use of pastoral instruction. Where this is, to a great de- gree wanting, even Divine love itself, though strong, is, comparatively speaking, blind, and will continually mistake the rule of duty. In vain we look for judi- cious and discreet pastors, and for clear and evangel- ical views in all this period. No Cyprian or Dionysius the appeared, to check, to regulate, or to control the spirits of christians, and to discipline them by scrip- ture rules. The persecution found vast numbers per- fidious and cowardly; some chosen spirits, were hum- ble and faithful to death; but of these, many, it is to be feared, were partially informed of their duty, both to God and man, and mixed the intemperance and pre- cipitation of blind self-will, with the love of Christ. 2. In the story of these two brothers, we see the prevalence of the monastic and philosophic spirit ; that they knew too little of Christianity, and though sin- cere enough to become martyrs for Christ, yet they were greatly destitute of christian simplicity. The doctrines of Christ had ceased to be explicitly unfold- ed ; and it was chiefly in suffering, endured with pa- tient faith and cheerful hope, that we can now see, Christ had then a church in the world. The bush was indeed burning in a fire the most dreadful, but not consumed. In the fourth year of the persecution, Maximin Cas- sar, exhibited spectacles in honor of his birth-day. 156 Agapius, a christian, and a slave who had murdered his master, were both produced at the same time and condemned to the wild beasts. The emperor, to dis- tinguish his birth-day by an act of generosity, pardon- ed and gave freedom to the murderer. The whole amphitheatre rang with acclamation in praise of his clemency. But he, disposed to punish the innocent and spare the guilty, asked Agapius if he would re- nounce Christianity, promising liberty on that condi- tion. The martyr expressed his cheerful readiness to undergo any punishment, not for any crime commit- ted by him, but for piety toward the Lord of the uni- verse. He was condemed to be torn by a bear, was then carried back to prison ; and, after he had lived a day, with weights hung to his feet, sunk in the sea. In the succeeding year a Tyrian virgin, Theodocia, not quite 18 years old, was put to death for owning and countenancing some christian prisoners, The judge, Urbanus, afterward condemned them to the mines of Palestine. Silvanus, with some others, were condemned to labor in the brass mines, the joints of their feet having been first weakened by the applicat- ion of hot iron. Few persecutors exceeded Urbanus in malice and activity. He doomed three to fight with each other ; Auxentius, a venerable saint, he condemned to the wild beasts. Some he sentenced to the mines, after he had made them eunuchs. Others, after bitter tor- ments, he threw again into prison. This monster of savage ferocity, having been afterward convicted of crimes, was capitally punished in Cgesarea, the scene of his cruelties, and by the same Maximin, of whose imperial savageness he had been the minister. In the sixth year of the persecution, near 100 were sent from Thebais to Palestine, and were adjudged by Fermilian, the successor of Urbanus, to be lamed in the left foot, and to lose the right eye, and in that state to be condemned to the mines. At Gaza, some were apprehended for meeting tor gether to hear the scriptures read, and were punished with the loss of a limb, and an eye, or in a still mpre 157 cruel manner. One Paul, being sentenced to lose his head, begged a short space of time to be allowed him, which having been granted, he prayed with a loud voice for the whole christian world, that God would forgive them, remove the present heavy scourge of their iniquities, and restore them to peace and liberty; he then prayed for the Jews, that they might come to God, and find access to him through Jesus Christ. In the next place, that the same blessings might be vouchsaf- ed to the Samaritans. The Gentiles, who lived in error and ignorance of God, were the next objects of his char- itable petitions, that they might be brought to know God and to serve him : nor did he omit to mention the crowd about him, the judge who had sentenced him, the emperors and the executioner, and in the. hearing of all he prayed that their sin might not be laid to their charge. The whole company was moved, and tears were shed. The martyr composed himself to suffer, and offering his neck to the sword was be- headed. Divine grace appeared in him, in a manner worthy of the apostolic age. Soon after 1 30 Egyptian chieftains, having sufferod the same mutilations which have above been mentioned, were sentenced by Max- imin to the mines in Palestine and Celicia. Fermilian, after having trodden in the steps of Ur- banus in shedding christian blood abundantly, like him also suffered capitally by the Sentence of the em- peror. Toward the end of the seventh year, the multitude of confessors in the mines of Palestine enjoyed some liberty, and even erected some places for public wor- ship. The president of the province envied them the small cessation of their miseries, and wrote to the em- peror to their prejudice. Afterward the master of the mines having come hither, divided the sufferers into classes. Some he ordered to dwell in Cyprus, others in Libanus ; the rest he dispersed and harrassed with various drudgeries in different parts of Palestine. Four, he singled out for the examination of the military com- mander, who burnt them to death. Silvanus, a bish- op of great piety, John, an Egyptian, and thirty seven 158 others, were, the same day, beheaded by the order of Maximin. For eight years, the persecution in the East, con- tinued with little intermiBsion. In the West, it abated after two years. The poHtical changes in the em- pire account for the difference. Both in the East, and the West, Satan exerted his mahce in the keen- est manner, in this last of the pagan persecutions-. — The Divine power and wisdom, in still preserving a real church on earth, were never more conspicuously displayed, since the days of the apostles. The time, for its external triumph, under Constantino, was then at hand* Those, who look at outward things alone jnay be tempted to think how much more glorious it would have appeared, without the previous desola- tions of Dioclesian's persecution ; but when it is con- sidered how much christian doctrine ,had decayed, and how low holy practice had fallen, the necessity 4>f so sharp a trial to purify the church, and fit it for a state of prosperity, is evident. Othenvise the dif- ference between christians and pagans might have been little more than a name. Evangelical doctrines and practices, in their life and purity, had grievously declined from about the year 270. During this season of declension, Christ crucified, justification purely by faith, and the effec- tual influences of the Holy Spirit, together with humbling views of man's total apostacy and cor- ruption, were ideas very faintly impressed on christian minds. But in this low state of the church, there was much more moral virtue, than could be found any where else; and the charitable spirit of many in suffer- ing, shewed the existence and nature of real religion. The persecution, which was carried on against the christians, designed their total destruction ; it must, however, injustice to them be acknowledged, that they were, with all their faults, the most loyal, peaceable, and worthy citizens in the whole empire. God was then raising up a protector for his church. The emperor Constanlius lying at the point of death, desired Galerius, his partner in the East, to send him 159 his son Constantine. The eastern emperor, hav- ing delayed as long as possible, sent him at last, and the son arrived in Briton just in time to see his fa- ther alive, who was interred at Eboracum.* Con- stantine succeeding, gave the most perfect toleration to christians, so far as his power extended. Pro- vidence was still with him, that, like another Cy- rus, he might give peace and liberty to the church.-r- Rome and Italy were for some time under the power of Maxentius, the son of Dioclesian's colleague Maxi- mian. This prince, a tyrant of the basest character^ attempted the chastity of a Roman matron, who by suicide, prevented his base design. Her impatience gives further proof of the prevailing taste in religion. Constantine having come from France into Italy, sub- verted the kingdom of Maxentius, and became sole master of the western world. Maximian, whose daughter Constantine had married, after various at- tempts to recover the power, which by the influence of Dioclesian he had resigned, was put to death by his son-in-law for attempting his destruction. Galerius, in the year 310, was smitten with an in- curable disease; all his lower parts were corrupt- ed : physicians and idols were applied to, in vain : an intolerable stench spread itself over the palace of Sar- dis, where he resided : he was devoured by worms ; and, in a situation the most dreadful, continued a whole year. Softened at length by his sufferings, in the year 311, he published an edict, by w^hich he took oil the persecution from the christians, allowed them to re- build their places of worship, and desired them to pray for his health. Thus did God himself subdue this haughty tyrant. The prisoners were then released from the mines and the highways were full of christians returning to their friends, singing psalms and hymns to God. Christen- dom wore a cheerful aspect. Even Pagans were melted; and many, who had joined in the attempt to extinguish the christian name, began to be convinced, that a religion, which had sustained such repeated and formidable attacks, was Divine and invincible. * Now Yovk. 160 feoOn after the edict of Galerins, he expired, his body being altogether corrupted. Syria and Egypt^ ivith their dependencies, remained still under Maxim- in. Here he renewed the persecution with much ma- levolence and artifice. Under certain pretences, he forbad christians to assemble in their church-yards j and then privately procured petitions from various cities, praying that they might not be encouraged in their precincts. Great efforts were made to revive declining Paganism, and sacrifices were offered with great assiduity. Persons of quality filled the highest offices of idolatry, and pains were taken to prevent christians from building places of worship, or from practising the duties of their religion in public or pri- vate ; and the former methods of compelling them to sacrifice were renewed. Maximin, to render his idol- atrous priests more respectable, clothed them with white mantles, such as were worn by the ministers of the palace. Incited by the example of the tyrant, all the Pagans in his dominions strove to effect, if possible the ruin of the church, and human ingenuity was ex- erted to invent calumnies in support of the kingdom of darkness. When falshood and slander are paid for by a govern- ment^ they ivill not want propagators. Certain acts of Pilate and our Savior were forged^ full of blasphemy, which, by Maximin's approbation, were circulated through his dominions, with orders to facilitate their publication in all places, and to direct school-masters to deliver them to the youth, that they might commit them to memory. A certain officer at Damascus, also engaged some infamous women to confess, that they had been christians, and privy to the lascivious pactices which were committed on the Lord's day in their assemblies. These and other slan- ders were registered, copied, and sent to the emperor, as the authenticated confessions of these women, and he took measures to give them universal pubhcity. The officer who invented this calumny, destroyed himself sometime after by his own band. Maximin^ affecting still the praise of clemency, gave orders to ihe prefects, not to take away the lives of christians^ but to punish them with loss of eyes, and various amputations. A few persons of high christian renowa were deprived of life, the rest Were harrassed by oth- er kinds of suffering short of death, and no arts were left unemployed to eradicate Christianity out of the mind and to educate the next generation in a con- firmed aversion to it. Never were christians so dispirited and clouded, as during this period. Thus low did God suflter his church to fall, to try its faith, and to purify it, in the furnace. But man's extremity was the opportunity in which the truth and goodness of God appeared most conspicuous. A drought commenced, and an unex- pected famine oppressed the dominion of Maximin, lollowed by a dreadful plague and iniflamed ulcers. The plague and famine raged in the most terrible .manner, and multitudes lay unburied: numbers of Pagans were neglected by their own friends ; but christians were every day employed in taking care of the sick, giving the rites of burial to the dead, and ia distributing food to the famished poor. In this, they manifested the enlarged and disinterested philanthro- py, the pure characteristic and matchless benevolence of their holy religion. In the year three hundred and thirteen there was a War between Licinius and Maximin, who contended each for the complete sovereignty of the East. Before the decisive battle, Maximin vowed to Jupiter, that if he obtained the victory, he would abolish the christian name. Licinius, in a dreami, was directed to suppli- cate, with all jjis ?irmy, the Supreme God, in a solemn manner. He gave orders to his soldiers to do so, and they prayed in the field of battle, using the words which he had received in his dream. The contest, between Jehovah and Jupiter, was now at its height and drawing to a crisis ; victory decided in favor of Licinius. Maximin published a cautious decree, ju which he forbade the molestation of christians, but did not allow them the liberty of public worship. Li^ cinius published a complete toleratioa of christianty. w W2. Maximin, in the sad reverse of his aflfairs, slew many priests and prophets of his gods, by whose enchant- ments he had been seduced with false hopes of uni- versal empire in the East, and issued another edict granting full toleration to chistianity. So greatly were affairs now changed, that contending emperors court- ed the favor of the poor persecuted christians. After this, Maximin, struck with a sudden plague, over his whole body, pined away with hunger, fell down from his bed, his jflesh consumed and dropped off from his bones, his eyes leaped from their sockets ; and per- ceiving God thus executing judgment upon him, fran- tic with agony, he cried out ; " It was not I, but oth- ers who did it." At length, by the increasing force of torment, he owned his guilt, and every now and then implored Christ, that he would compassionate his mis- ery. He confessed himself vanquished, and gave up the ghost. Thus closed the most memorable of all the attacks of Satan on the christian church. The arm of God was lifted up in this wonderful manner, to chastise and to purify the church, and to demonstrate to the proudest and fiercest of his ene- mies, that the gospel was divine, and must stand in the earth invincible ; that the most high ruleth and will have a church in the world, which shall glorify him in spite of earth and hell united, and that this church contains in it all that deserves the name of true wisdom, of true virtue. CHAPTER 11. A view of the State of the Christian Religion on its Es- tablishment under Constantine. X HIS emperor from early hfe had some predilectioa in favor of Christianity. Marching from France into Italy against Maxentius, on an expedition, which was likely either to exalt or to ruin him, he Was oppressed 163 with deep anxiety. Some God he thought necessary to protect him. The God of the christians he was most inclined to respect ; with his true character he was unacquainted, but desired to learn it. He pray- ed with much vehemence and importunity. God left him not unanswered. While he was marching with his forces, in the afternoon, the trophy of the cross appeared very luminous in the heavens, higher than the sun, with this inscription, " Conquer by this." — He and his soldiers were astonished at the sight. At night Christ appeared to him when asleep, with the same sign of the cross, and directed him to make use of the symbol as his military ensign. Constantine obeyed, and the cross was henceforward displayed in his armies. Constantine asked the christian pastors who this God was, and what was the meaning of the sign. — They told him it was God, the only begotten Son of the only true God, and that the sign was the trophy of the victory, which he, when on earth, had gained over death. At the same time, they explained to him the causes of his coming, and the doctrine of his incarna- tion. From that time Constantine firmly believed the truth of Christianity. After this he began to read the scriptures, and zealously patronized the pastors of the church all his days. He succeeded in his w^arlike enterprize, and be- came master of Rome. He now set himself to build churches, and shewed great beneficence to the poor. He encouraged the meeting of bishops in synods, hon- ored them with his presence and employed himself in continually aggrandizing the church. In the mean time Licinius began to persecute the church, prohib- ited christian synods in his. dominions, expelled belie- vers from his court, forbad the women to attend the- public assemblies of men, and ordered them to fur- nish themselves with separate teachers of their own sex. He dismissed from his armies those who refus- ed to sacrifice, and forbad any supplies to be aiford- ed them in their necessities. He murdered bishops and destroyed churches. He commenced a war with 164 Constantine, and in the issue lost his empire and his life. — The spirit of godliness was now low. The external appearance of the church was splendid. — An emperor powerful, engaged for the support and propagation of Christianity, forbids sacrifices, erects churches, seeks with much zeal for the sepulchre of Christ at Jerusalem, and honors it with a most ex- pensive sacred edifice. His mother Helena fills the whole Roman world with her munificent acts, in support of religion, and after the erection of church- es and travelling from place to place to evince her zeal, dies at an advanced age, in the presence of her son. Nor is the christian cause neglected even out of the bounds of the Roman empire. Constantino; pleads zealously, in a letter to Sapor king of Persia, for the christians of his dominions, he destroys idol temples, prohibits Pagan rites, puts an end to savage fights of gladiators, stands up with respectful silence to hear the sermon of Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea^ furnishes him with the volumes of the scriptures for the use of the churches, orders the festivals of the martyrs, has prayers and the reading of the scrip- tures at his court, dedicates churches with great so- lemnity, makes christian orations himself, directs the sacred observation of the Lord's day, to which he adds that of Friday also, the day of Christ's crucifixion, and teaches the soldiers of his army to pray by a short form, made for their use. At this period external piety flourished, monastic societies in some places were al- so growing, but faith, love, and heavenly mindedness, appear very rare. — The doctrine of real conversiori was very much lost, or external baptism was placed in its stead, and the true doctrine of justification by faith, and the true practical use of a crucified Savior for trou- bled consciences, were scarce to be seen. There was much outward rehgion, but this could not make men saints in heart and life. True humility and charity were little known in the christian world, while su- perstition and self-right eou&ness were making rapid progress, and the real gospel of Christ wss hid from in en who professed it. 16a The schism of the Donatists arose from a contested election of a bishop at Carthage. Caecilian the dea- con had the suffrage of the whole church. Two dis- appointed persons who aspired to the office protested against the election, and were joined by Lucilla, a rich lady, who had been for a long time too haugh- ty to submit to discipline. One Donatus offered him- self as chief of the faction. A number of bishops co- operated with him, piqued that they had not been cal- led to the ordination of Cascilian. Seventy bishops met at Carthage, to depose Caecilian, who had the hearts of the people, and against whom they could not object any crime, nor support the least material accu- sation. Yet they persevered, and ordained one Ma- jorinus a servant of the factious lady, who, to support the ordination, gave large sums of money, which the bishops divided among themselves. This shows how corrupt many of the pastors of the African church were at this period. Pure doctrinal truth was then too commonly mere speculation. Men were ripe for a perversion of doc- trine. A bold and open assault was made against the Deity of the Son of God, to the grief of all who loved mMj and walked in his ways in godly simplicity. CHAPTER III. The Progress of the Arian Controversy till the death of Constantine, Jl ETER, bishop of Alexandria, had suffered martyr- dom under the DiocIesiai% persecution. At that time, numbers had recanted to save their lives, and among the rest, Meletus, an Egyptian bishop. This man was of a schismatical and enterprizing spirit, and having been deposed by Peter before his martyrdom, separat- ed himself, continued bishop on his own plan, and or- dained others, and thus became head of the Meleti- an party. This, however, was not the only person, ^\io disturbed the peace of the church, and tried tha 166 patience of Peter. Arius of Alexandria espoused the cause of Meletus. Afterward he left this party, be- came reconciled to Peter, and was by him ordained deacon. Arius, having exhibited a restless and fac- tious spirit, was again expelled from the church. Peter having been called to his rest by martyrdom, Achillas succeeded him in the bishopric, and from him Arius, by submissions again obtained favor. Un- derstanding and capacity will command respect, and these were undoubtedly possessed by Arius in a great degree. He was by nature formed to deceive. In his behavior and manner of life he was severe and grave ; in his person tall and venerable, and in his dress al- most monastic. In conversation, he was agreeable and captivating, well skilled in logic and all the improve- ments of the human mind, then fashionable in the world. Such was the famous Arius, who gave name to one of the jnost powerful heresies which ever afflicted the church of Christ. Achillas advanced Arius to the office of presbyter. Alexander, the successor of Achillas, treated him with respect, and he appeared backward to censure him for Iiis dangerous speculations in religion. Arius, through the pride of reasoning, asserted, that there was a time when the Son of God was not, that he was capable of virtue or of vice, and that he was a creature, and mu- table as creatures are. While Arius was insinuating these things, the easiness of Alexander in tolerating such notions was found fa,ult with in the church. Ne- cessity roused him at length, however unwilling, to contend, and in disputing before Arius and the rest of the clergy, he affirmed there was a union in the Trin- ity. Arius eagerly insisted, that " if the Father begat the Son, the begotten had a beginning of existence ; hence it was evident there was a time when he was not." Many persons of a grave cast, and able and elo- quent, like Arius, espoused and fostered the infant heresy. Arius preached diligently at his church, dif- fused his opinions in all companies, and gained over 167 matiy of the common people; and Alexander saw the ancient doctrine continually undermined. Lenient measures and argumentative methods having been tri- ed in vain, Alexander summoned a synod of bishops, who met at Alexandria, condemned Arius' doctrine, 9,nd expelled him from the church, with nine of his ad- herents. Arius maintained that the Son was totally and es- sentially distinct from the Father ; that he was the first and noblest of those beings whom God the Father had created out of nothing, the instrument by whose subordinate operation the Almighty Father formed the universe, and therefore inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity. To all humble and charitable christians, it appear- ed, that to persist in blaspheming God, was, at least, as practical an evil, as to persist in drunkenness and theft; and all who feared God, felt themselves obli- gated to join with Alexander against Arius. The christian world was now the scene of animosi- ty and contention. The orthodox and the heretical did each, their utmost, to support their several pretensions : practical religion was too much forgotten by both* The Pagan world beheld and triumphed. On their theatres they ridiculed the contentions of christians, to which, their long and grievous provocations of their God had exposed them. Alexander repeatedly, in let- ters and appeals, maintained his cause, so far as spec- ulative argumentation could do it, and proved his point from the scriptures, while Arius strengthened himself by forming alliances with various bishops ; particular- ly with Eusebius of Nicomedia, who supported Arian- ism with all his might. Near one hundred bishops in a second synod at Alexandria condemned Arius, who was then obliged to quit that place, and to try to gain supporters in other parts of the empire. Constantino sincerely strove to make up the breach. He wrcite both to Alexander and Arius, blamed both, expressed his desire for their agreement, and explain- ed nothing. He sent the letter by Hosius bishop of Corduba, one whoso faith and piety had been distin- 168 guished in the late persecution. Hosius endeavorcf^ to make up the breach ; but it was impossible. The two parties were formed, and were determined ; worldly motives were too prominent in both, to admit of an easy compromise ; and it was not in the power of those who loved both truth and peace, to sacrifice the former fof the latter, consistently with a good con- science^ however sincerely desirous they must have been of promoting both. The object of contention was not a trifle, but an essential principle in religion. Constantine summoned the aid of the whole chris- tian church ; and three hundred and eighteen bishops met at Nice, in Bithynia. According to Philostorgius, the Arian historian, twenty two espoused the cause of Arius ; others make the minority still less. Many pres- byters were there besides the bishops ; it is not pro- bable, that the whole number of persons assembled in the council was less than six hundred. They met in the year three hundred and twenty five, being transported to Nice, and maintained there at the emperor's expense. Before they entered on the immediate business of the Synod, their attention was engaged by certain Gentile philosophers who appeared among them ; of these, some wished to satisfy their own curiosity con- cerning Christianity itself; others, to involve the chris- tians in a cloud of verbal subtleties, that they might enjoy the mutual contradictions of the followers of Christ. One of these distinguished himself by the pomp and arrogancy of his pretensions, and derided the clergy as ignorant and illiterate. On this occa- sion, an old christian, who had suffered with magnan- imous constancy during the late persecution, though unacquainted with logical forms, undertook to con- tend with the philosopher: those who were more earnest to gratify curiosity than to investigate truth, endeavored to make mirth of him, while all the seri- ous were distressed to see a contest apparently so unequal. Respect for the man, however, induced them to permit him to engage. He immediately ad- dressed the philosopher in these terms: " Hear, philos- 169 Opher, in the name of Jesus Christ. There is one God the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, v^'ho made all thes6 things by the power of his Word, and confirmed them by the hoU^ ness of his Spirits This word, whom we call the Son of God, compassionating, the sons of men, involved in error and wickedness, chose to be born of a woman^ to converse with men, and to die for them; and he will come again, the Judge of all things which men have done in the body ; that these tjiings are so, we believe in simplicity ; do not then labor in vain^ seek^ ing to confute things which ought to be received by faith, and investigating the manner in which these things may or may not be : but if thou believest, an^- swer me, now that I ask thee." Struck with this plain, authoritative address, the philosopher said, " I do believe;" with pleasure owned himself vanquish- ed, confessed that he embraced the same sentiments with the old man, and advised the otheV philosophers to do the same, declaring that he was changed by a di* vine influence, and was moved by an energy he could not explain. Here it is evident that this successful espouser of the truthj stepped forth in its defence, in humble de- pendence on God to bless his own w^ord with victoria ous energy ; and it was evident by the issue, that the faith of the vanquished stood not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I fear we shall not find in the whole Nicene busi- hfess so instructive a natrative. The emperor himself came to the synod, and exhorted them to peace and unanimity. A number of mutual accusations having been presented to him, he threw them all into the fire^ protesting that he had not read one of them^ and char- ged them to forbear and forgive one another. He then gave them leave to enter directly on the business of the svBod. They canvassed the doctrine of Arius, extracted his propositions from his own writings, and argued the subject with great vehemence ; Constan- line himself acliiif? as moderator, and endeavoring to bnng them to perfect agreement. But it soon ap" 170 peared, that without some explanatory terms, decisire- ly pointing out what the scripture had revealed, it was impossible to guard against the subtilties of the Ari- ans. Did the Trinitarians assert, that Christ was. God ? The Arians allowed it, but in the same sense that holy men and angels are stiled gods in scripture. Did they affirm that he was truly God ? the others al- lowed that he was made so by God. Did they affirm that the Son was naturally God? it was granted : for even we, said they, are of God, of whom are all things. Was it affirmed, that the Son was the power, wisdom and image of the Father ? we admit it, replied the others, for we also are said to be the image and glory of God. What could the Trinitarians do in this situa- tion ? to leave the matter undecided was to do noth- ing ; to confine themselves merely to scripture termSy was to suffer the Arians to explain the doctrine in their own way, and to reply nothing. Undoubtedly they had a nght to comment according to their own judgment, as well as the Arians ; and they did so in the following manner. They collected together the passages of scripture, which represent the Divinity of the Son of God, and observed, that, taken together, they amounted to a proof of his being of the same SUBSTANCE WITH THE FATHER : That crcaturcs were indeed said to be of God, because not existing of themselves, they had their beginning from him, but that the Son was peculiarly of the Father, being of his substance, as begotten of him. The majority of the council was convinced that this was a fair explanation. The venerable HosiuSj of Corduba v/as appointed to draw up a creed, which, in the main, is the same that i^ called the Nicene creed to this day. This soon received the sanction of the council, and of Constantino himself, who declar- ed that v/hoever refused to comply with the decree^ should be banished. Here we have the testimony of nearly the vt^hole christian world, in favor of the doctrine of the proper Deity of the Son of God, a testimony free, unbiassed^ and unrestrained. How can this be accounted for but 171 hence, that they followed the plain sense of scripture and of the church in preceding ages ? Arius was deposed, excommunicated, and forbid- den to enter Alexandria. The minority at first refus- ed to subscribe, but being advised to yield, at length, by Constantia their patroness, the emperor's sister, 20 of the 22 Arian bishops consented. But by the omis- sion of a single letter they reserved to themselves their own sense, subscribing not that the Son is the same, but only of the like essence with the Father.* Arius and his associates were banished into Illyricum. The Meletian controversy was also settled. — Mele- tius was permitted to live in his own city, with the ti- tle of bishop, but without authority. His sect was in- Hclulged in some degree, and continued a long time af- ter in the church. The canons of this famous council forbid clergymen to make themselves eunuchs ; also the ordination of new converts ; and provided for the chastity of the clergy. These, with some other regulations for the govern- ment of the christian church, shew that the fear of God was by no means extinct. Discipline, which had been relaxed toward the close of the last century, was revived, and the predominant spirit of superstition carried it, as formerly, into too great an extreme. Liberty was allowed to the Novatians also to re- turn to the communion of the general church, nor was it insisted on, that they should be re-baptized, since they held nothing contrary to the fundamental princi- ples of godliness. With respect to the followers of Paul of Samosata, called Paulianists, some of whom still subsisted, it was required, that if they were ad- mitted again into the church they should be re-bapti- zed, because they did not baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So accurately did they distinguish between a heretic and a schis- matic, between essentials and circumstantials. Apos- tolical discernment and piety, in no contemptible de~ • It is remarkably,, that this duplicity is recorded by Philostorglus tlie 4risin historian. g^rec, animated the spirits of the Nicene fathers, not- withstanding the decline of piety from the primitive times.* Constantine, zealous for a pacific uniformity, having invited Acesius a Novatian bishop to the council, ask- ed him whether be assented to the decrees of the council concerning the faith. The council, said he, has decreed nothing new concerning these things. So I have always understood the church has received from the days of the apostles. Why then, said the emperor, do you separate yourself from our commun- ion? Because, replied Acesius, we think that to apos- tatize is the " sin unto death," and that those who are guilty of it ought never to be restored to the com- munion of the church, though they are to be invited to repentance, and to be left to God, who alone has the power of forgiving sins. Constantine, who saw that his views were impracticably severe, said, " Set up a ladder, Acesius, and climb up to heaven by your- self" From this testimony it appears that the church had^ from the days of the apostles, b^en in the belief of the proper Divinity of Jesus Christ. Three months after the dissolution of the council of Nice, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Theognis of Nice, were banished by the emperor's command, for at-r tempting still to support the Arian cause. Alexander, in five months after his return home died : having desired that Athanasius might be ap- pointed his successor. Alexandria, in general, joined in the same request, and he was ordained as a succes- sor to the zealous Alexander, He was then not above twenty eight years of age, and held the see forty six years, exposed, with little intermission, to persecu- tion, on account of his zeal against Arian ism. In this he manifested great constancy and firmness in sup^ port of the truth. • Nit a tew of theije bore on their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus. One, debilitated by the application of hot iron to both his hands ; some, deprived of their right eyes : others, deprived of their kgs, A cro^vd of martyrs collect^. Is m? body \ 175 After the death of Helena, Constantine shewed pe- culiar kindness to Constantia his sister, who was iii the Arian interest. She on her death-bed prevailed with her brother to do justice to these men. The emperor suffered himself to be imposed on by the Arian party, and wrote in their favor to the churches. Eusebius and Theognis, by owning the Nicene faith in words were restored to their sees. The former wrote to Athanasius, desiring him to receive Arius, now re- turning from banishment, to communion : but in vain, Athanasius had principle, and could not sport with subscriptions and bonds, as his adversaries di(|. The Nicene creed had still all the sanction which church and state could give it. It was not then pos- sible, by all the artifice of ingenious and unprincipled men, to persuade the christian world, that the scrip- ture held what it did not, or that their fathers had all along thought as Arius did. Even the chiefs of Arian- ism had been now restored, not as Arians, but as men well affected to the doctrine of the Trinity. And they attempted by subtilty and artifice to establish, at length, what was impossible to be done by fair argu- ment. Determined to ruin Athanasius, if possible, they united themselves closely with the Meletians, and infected them with their heresy. They procure^ the deposition of Eustathius of Antioch, an eloquent and learned professor, who was, on unjust pretences, banished from his see. This person, before his de-t parture, exhorted his flock to be steadfast in the truth, and his words were of great weight with that flourish- ing church. He and several priests and deacons werQ banished. The good man bore the will of God with meekness and patience, and died in exile at Philippic Thus while the truth was supported in fqrm, its friends^ by a variety of artifices, were persecuted, and its enet mies triumphed. Men void of principle had every secular advantage, while those, who feared God, chose rather to suffer than to sin. Among these, Athanasius was eminently distinguish-? ed. Rebellion, oppression, rape and murder, werq IBaljciously charged upon him. He wa? a(;ct|§ed wi^li, 174 liaving murdered Arsenius, a Meletian T bishop ; for proof of which the accusers produced a box, out of which they took a dead man's hand, dried and salted, affirming it to be the hand of Arsenius, preserved by Athanasius for magical purposes. The Meletians charged Arsenius to conceal himself till they should have effected their purpose. The party of Eusebius of Nicomedia, spread the report through the christian world, that Arsenius had been privately murdei'ed by the bishop of Alexandria, and Constantino himself, overcome by incessant importunities, was induced to •rder an enquiry to be made, Athanasius had learned by his ow^n experience, that any accusation against himself, how^ever improbable, was likely to find numerous and powerful supporters. But Providence wonderfully confuted this attempt. Arsenius had privately conveyed himself to Tyre, in- tending to be secreted there during the session of the Synod. Some servants, belonging to Archelaus the governor, heard a rumor whispered, that Arsenius was in town. This they immediately told their mas- ter, who discovered his retreat, apprehended him, and gave notice -to Athanasius. The Meletian tool, feeling the awkwardness of his situation, denied himself to be Arsenius. Paul, the bishop of Tyre knew the man, and deprived him of that refuge. The day of trial having come, the prosecutors boasted that they should give occular demonstration to the court of the guilt of Athanasius, and produced the hand. A shout of vic- tory rung through the synod. Silence having been made, Athanasius asked the judges, if any of them knew Arsenius ? Several having affirmed that they did, Athanasius directed the man to be brought into the court, and asked, " Is this the man whom I murdered and whose hand I cut off?" Athanasius turned back the man's cloak and showed one of his hands ; after a little pause, he put back the other side of the cloak, and showed the other hand. " Gentlemen, you see," said he, " that Arsenius has both his hands : how the accusers came by the third hand, let them explain.'-' Thus ended the plot to the shame of the contrivers.. 175 Those, who were concerned in this villanr, were op-' posed to the real faith of Christ ; and enmity to the doctrine of the Trinity produced this shameful plot. Notwithstanding the clearest proofs of Athanasius' innocence, and though the whole course of his life was extremely opposite to such crimes as he was charged with, yet his enemies so far prevailed, that commissioners were despatched into Egypt to examine the matters of which he was accused. Yet John the Mclitian bishop, the chief contriver of the plot, confes- sed his fault to Athanasius, and begged his forgive- ness. And Arsenius himself renounced his former connexions, and desired to be received into commun- ion with Athanasius. The Arian commissioners having arrived at Alexan- dria, endeavored to extort evidence against the accu- sed by draw^n swords, whips, clubs, and all engines of cruelty. The Alexandrian clergy desired to give evi- dence in favor of Athanasius, but were refused. They remonstrated to no purpose. The commissioners hav- ing returned with extorted evidence to Tyi'e, whither the accused^ who saw no justice was to be obtained^ had fled, passed sentence^ and deposed him from his bishopric. Athanasius came to Canstantinople, and desired jus- tice from the emperor, and a fair trial. Constantine ordered the bishops of the synod to appear before him, and to give an account of what they had done. The greatest part of them returned home. But Eusebius of Nicomedia, sticking at no fraud, and ashamed of no yillany, with a few of the synod, went to Constantino- ple, and waving the old accusations, brought a fresh one, alleging that Athanasius had threatened to stop the fleet that brought corn from Alexandria to Con- stantinople. Constantine was credulous enough to be moved by the report: the Arian arts prevailed at court : those, who used no arms but truth and hones- ty, were, for the present, foiled, and Athanasius was banished to Treves in Gaul. Arius, flushed with the success of his party^ return- ed to Alexandria^ and strengthened the hands of the beretics, who had long languished for want bf his abil- ities. The city being torn with intestine divisions, thd emperor ordered the heresiarch to come to Constanti- nople, and then to give an account of his conduct. — ■ That imperial citj had now become the chief seat oi contention, and Providence had given her a bishop not unequal to the contest* This was Alexander of Con- stantinople, a man of eminent piety and integrity. — - Eusebius of Nicomedia menaced him with deposition and exile, unless he consented to receive Arius into the church. He could not consent to admit a wolf among the sheep, who could agree in form to the Nicene faith, and yet gradually insinuate his poison into the church. Alexander betook himself to prayer, and spent several days and nights in his church, in earnest cries to God for help. The faithful followed his example, and prayer Avas made by the church without ceasing, that God would interfere on this occasion* Constantine himself was not to be prevailed on to admit Arius into the church, unless he were convinced of his orthodoxy. He sent for him to the palace, and asked him plainly, whether he agreed to the Nicene decrees. The heresiarch^ without hesitation, subscrib- ed : the emperor ordered him to swear : he assented to this also. Constantine, whose scruples were now overcome, ordered Alexander to receive him into the church the next day. Alexander had given himself to fasting and prayer, and renewed his supplications that day with great fervor, prostrate before the altar, at- tended only by Macarius a presbyter belonging to Athinasius. He begged, that if Arius was in the right, he himself might not live to see the day of contest ; but if the faith which he professed was true, that Ari- us, the author of all the evils, might suffer the punish- ment of his impiety. The next day seemed to be a triumphant one to the Arians : the heads of the party paraded through the city with Arius in the m.idst, and drew the attention of all toward them. When they came nigh to the forum of Constantine, a sudden ter^ lor, with a disorder of the bowels, seized Arius. He asked for a place^ where he might retire and ease him- 177 self, and being told there was one behind the forum, he h^ted thither, and fainted ; and his bowels were poured out with a vast eifusion of blood. Such was the ^xit of the famous Arius.—Thus God heard the prayers of his church and sent them deliverance, and confounded the adversaries of Zion. What effect this event had on Constantine, is not known. He died soon after, in the 65th year of his age, having first received baptism from Eusebius of Nicomedia. CHAPTER IV. The progress of the Arian Controversy during the Reign of Constantius, A HE great Constantine was succeeded by three sons^ Constantine, Constantius, and Constans. The first ru- led in Spain and Gaul, the second in the East, the third in Italy and Africa. The other relations of the- late emperor were put to death by the soldiers. Two sons alone of Julias his brother survived, Gallus and Julian. These were spared, privately educated, pla- ced among the clergy, and appointed readers in the church. The latter was born at Constantinople, was only eight years old at the time of his uncle's death, and was reserved to be a scourge to degenerate Chris- tendom, and a memorable instrument of Divine Pro- vidence. By Constantine the eldest, Athanasius was recall- ed from banishment, to his church at Alexandria, where he was received with general acclamations.-— Constantine was afterwards slain by the troops of his brother Constans. Constantius, with the empress his wife, was infect- ed with the Arian heresy, and did much to support the Arian interest. In the year three hundred and forty, died tlie famous Eusebius of C^esarea. He was the most learned of 178 all the christians ; but a man ofcoiirtiy manners, ancf one who associated with Arius in the condemnation of Athanasius. His case is one of the many which shew that learning and philosophy, unless duly subor- dinated to the revealed will of God, are unfriendly to christian simplicity. Alexander of Constantinople, the great and able op- poser of Arianism, died at this time, and was succeed- ed by Paul, a young man discreet and pious. Con*- stantius was displeased at the election of Paul, encour- aged an Arian council, directed its resolves, and Euse- bius of Nicomedia was translated to Constantinople, where, from this time, Arian government continued forty years. Thus the ancient usages in choosing bishops were altered, and a precedent was set of fixing in the hands of princes the government of churches in capital cities. A council, of 100 bishops of Egypt, with Alhanasius at their head, protested to the chris- tian world against these proceedings. Another council, convened at x4.ntioch, and support- by the presence of the emperor, undeitook to depose Athanasius, and ordain Gregory in his room. They prevailed on Constantius to direct Philagrius, the pre- fect of Egypt, to suppoit their proceedings by an arm- ed force. Gregory commenced a violent persecution against the friends of Athanasius, a number of whom^ he caused to be scourged and imprisoned. Athana- sius himself fled from the storm, and made his escaper to Rome. The church now found herself not free from perse- cution, even when Pagans had ceased to reign. — Gregory would not even suffer the Athanasians to pray in their ow^n houses, who in great numbers still refused to own the Arian domination. He visited Egypt in company with Philagrius, and inflicted on those bish- ops who had been zealous for the Nicene faith, the greatest severities. The means of defence which Athanasius used were solid arguments, patience and fervent prayers to God. The Arians must bear the infamy of being the first who secularized the discipline of the church. 179 Athanaslus continued an exile at Rome 18 months, under the protection of Julius the bishop. Eusebius, of Constantinople, one of the most memorable villians in history, died soon after in the fulness of that pros- perity, which his iniquity and oppression had procured him. A double election followed his death, that of Paul, and that of Macedonius. Hermogenes, master of the militia, was ordered by the emperor to banish Paul. He did so, and Paul's friends exasperated by persecution, forgot the character of christians and kill- ed Hermogenes. This happened in the year 342. Paul, however, was then banished the city, and his holy character exempted him from all suspicion of being concerned in the outrage. In the year 349 died Gregory, the secular bishop of Alexandria. Then it was that Constantius, intimida- ted by the threats of his brother Constans, wrote re- peatedly to Athanasius to return into the East, and as- sured him of his favor and protection. Complying at length, with the request, he travelled to Antioch and was graciously received by Constantius, who assured him with oaths, that he would for the future, receive no calumnies against him. While at Antioch, Athan- asius communicated with the Eustathians, who under the direction of Flavian, held a conventicle there. This Flavian was the first who invented the doxology. Glo- ry he to the Father^ the Son and the Holy Ghost. This is agreeable to the Nicene faith. Sabellians and Arians, at that time, opposed each other, and assaulted the truth which was at variance from what they both embraced. While those who were taught of God, sincerely worshipped the Trinity in Unity, and mourned over the abominations of the times. After the death of Constans, Constantius having be- come sole master of the empire, revived the persecu- tion. Paul, of Constantinople, was sent into Mesopo- tamia loaded with irons, and at length to Cucasus, on the confines of Cappadocia, where, after having suf- fered cruel hardships, he was strangled. Macedoniiis succeeded him, in Constantinople, by an armed force, with much effusion of blood. 180 The weak mind of Constantius was again prejudic- ed, by calumnies against Athanasius, and he joined with the Arians to effect his ruin, and to give asceu- dency as far as possible to Arianism ; he even attempt- ed to impose an Arian creed upon a council convened at Milan in the year three hundred and fifty five, from the consideration that God had declared in his favor by his victories. The people, attached to the doctrine of the Trinity, because they read it in their bibles, re- jected the creed of Constantius, and it was pressed no further. The condemnation of Athanasius, was, how- ever, insisted on, and Dionysius, bishop of Milan and some others, were most unreasonably required to sub- scribe to it. " Obey, or be banished,'^ was the impe- rial mandate. The bishops lifted up their hands to heaven, and told Constantius, that the empire was not his but God's, and reminded him of the day of judg- ment. He drew his sword on them in a rage, but con- tented himself with their banishment. The greatest part of the bishops, however, subscribed to the con- demnation of Athanasius : a few only testified that the grace of God was still as powerful as ever in support- ing his people, and in causing them to suffer gladly, rather than to sin. Those who did not subscribe were banished. The venerable Hosius, of Corduba, then one hundred years old, who had been a confessor un- der the Dioclesian persecution, who had presided six-> ty years in the church, and also in the Nicene coun- cil, was unsubdued. Flattery and menaces were both employed to prevail on him to condemn Athanasius : but he stood firm, and sharply rebuked Constantius for his unreasonable conduct toward him, and remind- ed him of his accountability at the day of judgment for what he was then endeavoring to effect. This persecution raged so violently, that Arianism seemed well nigh to have avenged the cause of fallen idolatry. Supported by the secular power, it then reigned and ghitted itself in blood. The pagans took courage and assisted the heretics in the persecution, saying, the Arians have embraced our religion. A bishop was found ba^ enough to support tfeose pro- 181 eeedings. It was George of Cappadocia, who began his usurpation in the year three hundred and fifty six. Through his influence, supported by the secular arm, the friends of the Nicene faith were cruelly beaten, and some died under the anguish. The greatest cruelties were exercised by that monster of the Arian faith. Constantius, in a letter to the people of Alexandria, represents this same George as one very capable of instructing others in heavenly things. Athanasius, hav- ing seen this letter, was deterred from his intended journey to the emperor, betook himself to the deserts, and visited the monks. Those were his most faithful adherents, who refused to discover him to his adver- saries, and who offered their throats to the sword with a readiness to die for the Nicene faith. The contest was evidently between truth and error. The opposing sects manifested, in their lives, the con- trary influence and tendency of the adverse doctrines which they respectively embraced. It must, however, be acknowledged that the Trinitarians did not attend, in the degree which they ought to have done, to the connexion which subsists between doctrine and prac- tice. Christian godliness continued very low in all this period. The persecution reached even to Gaul, which had yet happily preserved the simphcity of the apostolical confession unmolested. Hosius, above one hundred years old, having suffered scourges and tortures, sub- mitted, at length, to subscribe an Arian creed. He lived, however, to retract, protesting against the vio- lence with which he had been treated, and with his last breath exhorted all men to reject the heresy of Arius. Hosius remained in his heart true to his God, and proved that the Lord faileth not them that are his! The Arians made creeds upon creeds, expressed in artful ambiguities, to impose on the unwary : but the power of divine grace was displayed in preserving a remnant in this disastrous season. Athanasius, and a few faithful brethren stood firm. Constantius liberally supported the most expensive forms and ornaments of christian worship while he was 18f laboring with all his might to eradicate christian doc- trine. The Arians, then victorious, began to shew them- selves disunited, and separated into two parties. In these confusions, Macedonius lost the see of Constan- tinople, which was given to Eudoxius, who was trans- lated from Aniioch in the year three hundred and six- ty. Eudoxius denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. The adherents to this sentiment, by the advantage of sober manners, spread themselves among the monas- teries and increased the corruption which then perva- ded the christian world. To this error Athanasius showed himself a faithful and vigilant opposer. In the year three hundred and sixty one, Constan- tius died of a fever, having received baptism a Httle before he expired. He was a weak man, armed with despotic power, capable of doing incredible mischief in tlie churph of Christ, and died, as he lived, an Arian, CHAPTER V. /I Viei& of Monasticism and oilier Micellaneous Circum^ stances from the establishment of Christianity under Constantine to the death of Constantius, f f E are not to form an idea of ancient monks from modern ones. It was wrong in holy men of old to retire altogether from the world. But there is every reason to believe this practice originated in piety. — - The enormous evils of monasticism are to be ascrib- ed to its degeneracy in after-times, not to its first in- stitution. What could be better intended than the determination of Anthony to follow literally our Lord's directions ; " Sell what thou hast and give to the poor ?" Was he ignorant, and superstitious ? He was both. But he persevered to the age of 105 years in voluntary poverty with admirable consistency. It was a great disadvantage to Anthony's judgment, that he was unwilling to be instructed in literature. — He pushed the desire of solitude to rigors before un- us knowti : '^Though his faith in Christ was obscure, yet was his sincerity evident, and his love to Divine things ardent. He preached well by his life, and temper, and spirit, however much he failed in doctrinal knowledge. During the Dioclesian persecutioUy Anthony left his beloved solitude, came to Alexandria and strengthen- ed the minds of christian sufferers, exposing himself to danger for his love of the brethren, and yet was not guilty of delivering himself up to martyrdom. Thus, on some occasions, he appeared in the world. While the Arian heresy raged, he entered Alexan- dria, and protested against its impiety, observing, it was of a piece with heathenism itself, "Be assured," said he, " all nature is moved with indignation against those, who reckon the creator of all things to be a crea- ture." In conversing with pagan philosophers, Antho- ny observed, that Christianity held the mystery, not in the wisdom of Grascian reasoning, but in the power of faith supplied to them from God by Jesus Christ. — • He exhorted them to believe and know that the chris- tian art is not merely verbal, but of faith which work- eth by love. Anthony, however, sullied all his evangelical piety^ by a foolish attempt to make mankind believe that he lived without food, while he ate in secret, and by a vain parade concerning temperance, which savored more of Pythagorean fanaticism than of christian pie- ty. In his extreme old age he gave particular direc- tions, that his body should be interred, not preserved in a house, after the Egyptian manner of honoring deceas- ed saints and martyrs, and charged his two attendants to let no man know the place of his burial. " At the resuiTection of the dead, I shall receive my body," said he, "from the Savior, incorruptible." He expired with cheerfulness. The ancient heresies were now in a declining state. Imperial favors were extended to heretics, in pro- portion to the cordiality and ardor with which they embraced erroneous sentiments. The church of the^ holy .5epw/c/ire, at Jerusalem, was about this time, built with singular magnificence, and dedicated to Arian , 1S4 purposes with much pomp and ceremony. Splendor j however, excluded sincerity, and formality usurped the place of spiritual understanding. Thus that scripture was fulfilled concerning the hypocrisy of professors in the christian times, " your brethren, that hated you, and cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified." T CHAPTER Vi. The Extension of the Gospel from the Beginning of the Century to the Death of Constantius. HIS period is far more fruitful in ecclesiastical con- tentions, than it is remarkable for the extension of Chris- tianity. Abyssinia appears to have received the gos- pel and to have erected many churches in this century. The Iberians too, a people bordering on the Black Sea, received the gospel, about this time, through the exemplary life and conversation of a christian woman, whom they had, in a military excursion, taken prisoner. She is said to have wrought miracles among them. — I shall mention only those, which may seem worthy of some credit. A child of the king's was sent to the women of the country to be cured, if any of them knew a proper method of tf eating it — a well known ancient custom. The cause baffled their united skilly and the child was delivered to the captive woman. — " Christ," said she, "who healed many, will also heal this infant." She prayed, and it recovered.-^ In the same manner the queen herself was healed of a distemper some time after. " It is not my work," said the captive woman, " but that of Christ the Son of God, the Maker of the world." The king sent the captive presents in token of his gratitude. But she sent them back, assuring him, that " godhness washer riches, and that she would look on it, as the noblest present, if he would worship the God whom she ador- ed." The next day the king, while hunting, w as lost in a thick mist, and implored in vain the aid of his gods. I^ his distress, recollecting the words of the woman, 185 he prayed to the God whom she worshipped. The mist was instantly dispersed, and the king found his way home. In consequence of this event, and of fu- ture conferences with the captive, both the king and queen embraced the gospel, and exhorted their sub- jects to receive it. An embassy was sent to Constan- tine, to desire that pastors might be commissioned to instruct them. The emperor gave the ambassadors a very gracious reception. The gospel was introduced about this time into Ara- bia Felix. Probably it also flourished in humble obscu- rity in Britain, pu^ France. The nations bordering on the Rhine, were now christian ; and the Goths near the Danube, about 60 years before, had been civilized at least by the bishops whom they had carried captive under Gallienus : and most probably the Spirit of God attended their labors. Armenia had likewise embrac- ed Christianity, and by means of commerce conveyed it into Persia, where converts began to be numerous. There, because the christians would not pollute themselves with the worship of the sun, they under- went a very grievous persecution. In this the Magi and the Jews were peculiarly instrumental ; and the people of God suffered with so much sincerity and fortitude, as to evince that the Lord had many people belonging to himself in Persia. CHAPTER YII. The Decline of Idolatry in this Century to the Death of Constantius. A HE first measures of Constantuie, after his success in Italy, were to place Christianity on an equal footing with paganism by the laws, while he gradually pat- ronized the church more and more. He abolished the barbarous punishment of crucifixion. After he had become sole master of the empire, he forbad the pri- vate exercise of divination, the great bulwark of false religion. But he still allowed the public use of it at z 186 the altars and temples. Some time after, he prohib- ited the worst branches of sorcery and magic. He took particular care to secure the observation of the Lord's day, and ordered it to be set apart for prayer and holy exercises. He publicly declared, that he would not oblige men, to be christians though he ear- nestly desired they would be, nor did he abolish the rites of the temples. Finding, however, the pagans extremely obstinate in the preservation of their super- stitions, he publicly exposed the mysteries, which had hitherto been kept secret, melted down the golden statues, and caused brazen ones to be drawn by ropes through the streets of Constantinople. And some of (he temples, which had been scenes of horri- ble wickedness, he destroyed. In Egypt, the famous cubit, with which the idolatrous priests were wont to measure the height of the Nile^ was kept in the temple of Serapis. This, by Constan- tine's order, was removed to the church at Alexandria. The pagans beheld the removal with indignation, and ventured to predict, that the Nile would no longer overflow its banks. Divine Providence, however^ smiled on the schemes of Constantine, and the Nile the next year overflowed the country in an uncommon degree. In this gradual manner was paganism over- turned ; sacrifices in a partial manner still continued, but the entire destruction of idolatry seemed to be at hand. The temples for the most part stood, though much defaced, and deprived of their former dignity and importance. The sons of Constantine followed his example in aiding the progress of Christianity. — They made an express edict for the abolition of the sacrifices. Constantius at Rome, solemnly prohibited magic in all its various forms, took away the altar and image of victory which stood in the portico of the capital^ and manifested great zeal against idolatry. Such was the state of paganism at the death of Con- stantius. Pagans were, however, exceedingly numer- ous, and enjoyed with silent pleasure the long and sfeameful scenes of Arian controversy in the church. 1^7 Nor W€re they hopeless. The eyes of the votaries of the gods were all diri^ted to his successor, the warlike, the zealous Julian, a determined foe of the gospel. Great things had been done for the church ; but its rulers of the house of Constantino were weak and void of true piety. In the warm imaginations of many de- votees, even Jupiter himself seemed likely to grow ter- rible again, and be again adored. This last struggle of expiring paganism, marked as it is with signal instan- ces of Providence, deserves particular attention. CHAPTER VIII. Julian'' s attempt to restore Paganism. Jl he world in no age ever saw a greater zealot for paganism than Julian. Temper, talents, power and resentment, all conspired to cherish his superstitious attachments. He had seen nothing agreeable in the effects of the gospel on his uncle and his cousins. He- had seen the christian world torn with factions and de- formed by ambition. He had experienced many fam- ily wrongs from those who professed religion. Though he affected a zeal for the cause during the reign of Constanlius, yet it appears that he had not read the New-Testament with that close attention, which led him to see that the doctrines there inculcated, requir- ed a life very different from what he saw in the leaders of the christian world, both civil and ecclesiastical. He was a man of uncommon genius and capacity, and came into power under the full influence of a car- nal mind, which is enmity against God. All that the wit and prudence of man could do, he attempted, to subvert Christianity and to restore paganism. If he failed in his attempts, it was because his arms were levelled against heaven. From a youth, Julian practised dissimulation with consummate artifice. No person was ever more ad- mirably qualified to act the part which he did when he succeeded Constantius. 188 This happened in the year th^e hundred and sixty one. He ordered the temples Whe set open, those that were decayed to be repaired, and new ones to be built, where he deemed it necessary. He fined the persons who had made use of the materials of such as had been demolished, and set apart the money, in this way collected, to erect new ones. Altars were uni- versally set up, and all the rituals of pagan worship brought into use. Altars and fires, blood, perfumes and priests attending their sacrifices, were general, and the imperial palace itself had its temple and furniture. The first thing he did, every morning, was to sacrifice, and by his presence and example, he encouraged the prac- tice among all his subjects. Heathens exulted and christians were treated with contumely. He repealed the laws made against idolatry, and confirmed its an- cient honor and privileges. To reform paganism itself was his first object, and he issued precepts for its support. To maintain it on the old system of popular belief, Julian saw was im^ possible. Christian light had now rendered pagan darkness visible, its deformity digustful, and its absur- dity contemptible. With great importunity he ex- horted magistrates to correct the vices of men, and to relieve their miseries, assuring them that the gods would reward them for their charitable acts : that it is our duty to do good to all, even to the worst of men and our bitterest enemies ; and that public religion should be supported by a reverential adoration of the images of the gods, which were to be looked on as the symbols of the gods themselves. Priests, he said, should so live, as to be copies of what they preached by their own lives, and dissolute ones should be ex- pelled from their offices. Not only wicked actions, but obscene and indecent language should be avoided by them. No idle books and wanton plays, but divine philosophy, should be the object of their serious study ; they should learn sacred hymns by heart, should pray thrice or at least twice every day ; and when in their turn called on to attend the temple, they should never depart from it, but give up themselves to their office. 189 At other times, thej should not frequent the forum, nor approach the houses of the great, unless with a view of procuring relief for the indigent, or to dis- charge some part of their office ; that in no case they should frequent the theatres, nor ever be seen in the company of a charioteer, player or dancer. In every city the most pious and virtuous should be ordain- ed, without any consideration of their circumstances. The godly training of their own families, and their compassionate care for the indigent, would be their best recommendation. The impious Galilaeans, he observed, by their singular benevolence had strength- ened their party, and heathenism had suffered by the want of attention to these things. Such was the fire which the apostate stole from heaven, and such his artifice in managing it ! These rules he must have derived from the sacred scriptures, for they are not to be found in any of the heathen writers which he studied and admired. They are rules which well deserve the attention of christian pastors in all ages. In imitation of christians he established schools for the education of youth. He appointed lec- tures of religion, stated times of prayers, monasteries for devout persons, hospitals and alms-houses for the poor and diseased, and for strangers. These things he particularly recommended in a letter to Arsacius, the chief priest of Galatia. In this he tells him what it was that advanced the impious religion of the christians ; that it was their kindness to strangers, their care in bu- rying the dead, and their affected gravity. He bids him warn the priests to avoid play-houses and taverns, and sordid employments. Hospitals should be erected in every city for the reception of all sorts of indigent persons. The Galilaeans, he observes, relieve both their poor and ours. He certainly learnt this language fiom Christianity, which he ungratefully labored to destroy. It was not, however, in Julian's power to infuse that spirit into his partizans, which alone can produce such excellent fruits. It is in vain to think of destroying christian principles, and at the same time of preser- ving christian practice. But here i^ an additional 190 testimony to the virtues of christians, from their most determined and bitter enemy ; and a powerful illus- tration of the work of God in those ages. It must be confessed, at the same time, that the good sense and penetration of the emperor, are as conspicuous as are his malice and impiety. The arch-apostate knew that ridicule is a powerful engine with which to assail Christianity, and did not neglect to use this to render it odious, impossible, in the view of his subjects. The son of Mary, or the Galilaean, were the opprobrious titles which he gave to the bless- ed Jesus, and he ordered christians to be called Gali- Iseans. To render unpopular the truly godly, and to bring Christianity into disrepute, he made an act of sacrificing, the condition of preserving places of honor and authority. He used many methods to impoverish opulent christians, and otherwise to injure them, and when they complained, he sarcastically said to them ; " You know what directions of passiveness under in- juries your Christ has given you !" To this he added an affected encouragement of heretics and sectaries, and thus artfully embroiled the christian world with factions, by a toleration of them all, but a real want of -affection for any. Julian bad the sagacity, in a way of refined policy to abstain from open persecution himself, while he connived at it in others, who knew what was agreea- ble to their master. A number suffered for the gospel under his reign, though not by the forms of avowed persecution. If the gospel be indeed the light of heaven, which alone leads men to a holiness that fallen nature ab- hors, we see, why the public teachers of Christianity are abhorred by the proud and the mighty. These, Julian charged with sedition, seized their incomes, ab- rogated their immunities, exposed them to civil bur- dens and offices, and occasionally expelled them by fraud and violence. At Antioch, the treasures of the church were seized, the clergy obliged to flee, and the churches shut. In other places he found pretences for imprisoning and torturing the pastors. This vigilant emperor must have hated and despised the Jews : but seeing, that to encourage and advance them in their secular concerns, was an obvious means of depreciating Christianity ; he spake of them with compassion, begged their prayers for his success in the Persian wars, and pressed them to rebuild their tem- ple, and restore their worship. He himself promis- ed to defray the expense out of the exchequer, and appointed an officer to superintend the work. To strengthen the hands of such determined enemies of Christianity, and to invalidate the christian prophecies concerning the desolation of the Jews, were objects highly desirable in the mind of Julian. But the enter- prise was suddenly baffled, and the workmen were obliged to desist : horrible balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, with repeated attacks, rendered the place inaccessible to the scorched workmen from time to time, and the element resolutely driving them to a distance, the enterprize was dropped. No histor- ical fact, since the days of the apostles, seems better attested by credible writers than this. To keep the church in ignorance of the arts of reas- oning and philosophy, Julian suppressed learning among the christians, forbid christian school-masters to teach Gentile learning, lest being furnished, says he, with our armor, they make war upon us with our own: weapons. By this deep-laid plan, he designed to ef- fect ultimately, an entire extinction of Christianity. — To this end philosophers were liberally paid by him for their invectives against the gospel. He used ensnaring artifices to draw unwary chris- tians into compliance with pagan superstitions. He was wont to place the images of the heathen gods near his own statues, that those who bowed to the lat- ter, might seem to adore also the former. Those who seemed to comply, he endeavored to persuade into greater compliances ; those who refused, he charged with treason, and proceeded against them as delin- quents. He ordered the soldiers when they received their donatives, to throw a piece of frankincense into the fire in honor to the gods. Sorao few christian? 192 who had been surprized into the practice, rciurned to the emperor, threw back their donatives, and profes- sed their readiness to die for their rehgion. Disgrace, poverty, contempt, a moderate degree of severity, checked and disciplined by dissimulation, and every method of undermining the human spirit, were inces- santly employed to subvert Christianity. One cannot see how his schemes for this purpose could have failedj had Providence permitted this artful and subtile geni- us to have proceeded many years in this course : but what a worm is man, when he sets himself to oppose his Maker! CHAPTER IX. The Church under Julian. At this time the people of God were faint and lan- guid in Divine things. Arianism was baneful to ex- perimental piety and fostered pride and bitter animos- ity toward the truly godly. The pastors of churches were far from being intelligent or zealous, and were menaced with a most artful and malicious persecution. However low the state of Christianity was, yet we have grounds to believe there were then many real christians in the church amid all its corruptions ; for the most of the public teachers and professors of Chris- tianity chose to quit their offices, rather than to forsake their religion. Julian's partiality and prejudices in fa- vor of paganism urged him to adopt measures which filled the whole empire with confusion. At Merum, a city of Phrygia, Amachius, the govern- or of the province, ordered the temple to be opened and the idols to be cleansed. Three christians, infla- med with an ardent love of virtue, rushed by night in- to the temples, and broke all the images. The gov- ernor, in his wrath being about to chastise many inno- cent persons, the culprits very generously offered themselves to punishment. He gave them the alter- . native., to sacrifice or die. They preferred the latter. 193 and suffered death with excruciating tortures, more admirable iu their behavior for fortitude than meek- ness. At Pessinus, in Galatia, two young men suffered death in the presence of Juhan. I wish I could say it was for professing the faith of Christ. But one of them had overturned an idol. The emperor put him to death in a cruel manner with his companion, their mother, and the bishop of the city. At Ancyra, Basil, a priest, had in the former reign, opposed Arianism, and now with equal sincerity re- sisted idolatry. He went through the city, publicly exhorting the people to avoid polluting themselves with sacrifices. Once observing the Gentiles employ- ed in their religious rites, he sighed, and besought God, that no christian might be guilty of such enor- mity. The governor upon this apprehended him, charging him with sedition, and having tortiu'ed him kept him in prison. Julian himself coming to Ancyra, sent for Basil, who reproached him for his apostacy. Julian said, he had intended to dismiss him, but was obliged to treat him severely on account of his impu- dence. In the end Basil suiiered death by torture. It would be tedious to recite all the accounts of those who suffered from the insolent cruelty of pagans un- der the politic connivance and partiality of Julian du- ring his short reign. In the year three hundred and sixty two, George of Alexandria, the persecuting Arian, was murdered by the pagans of that city, to whom he had made him- self obnoxious, by exposing their ridiculous rites. All this time Athanasius was in concealment. Af- ter the death of George, he returned openly to his bish- opric; Athanasius treated his enemies wnth mildness, relieved the distressed without respect of persons, re- stored the custom of preaching on the Trinity, remov- ed from the sanctuary those who had made a traffic of holy things, and thus gained the affections of the peo- ple ; but he was not allowed to enjoy long the sweets of liberty. The Gentile Alexandrians represented to the emperor, that he corrupted the city and all EgVDl. ' 2a and that if he continued there, not a pagan would b& left. The consequence was, Julian ordered him to be expelled the city. Athanasius was obliged once more to seek safety by flight. All the faithful at his departure gathered around him weeping. " We must retire a little time^ friends," says he ; "it is a cloud that will soon fly over." He took his leave of them, and began his flight for the obscure parts of Egypt ; but finding his life in immi- rrent danger, from the persecutors who were following him, he directed his companions to return to Alexan- dria, and to meet his enemies. The pursuers asked them earnestly, " Have you seen Athanasius ?" " He is near," say they, "make haste and you will soon over- take him." They hasted. Athanasius secreted him- self, and soon returned privately to Alexandria, wher& he lay concealed till the end of the persecution. The active spirit of Julian was now bent on the dis- truction of the Persian monarchy ; but Divine Prov- idence was hastening his end. Toward the christian part of his subjects, Julian was a tyrant. He persecu- ted numbers at Antioeh ; there, as he passed by, he was provoked by the psalmody of the christians, par- ticularly by the chorus which they used ; " Confound- ed be all they that worship graven images." He order- ed them to be punished. Publia, too, a widow of great reputation, with a number of virgins over whom she presided, sang and praised God as he passed by. In particular they sung such parts of the Psalms as exposed the wickedness and folly of idolatry. Julian ordered them to hold their peace, till he had passed them. On another occasion Publia encouraged them to sing as he passed, " Let God arise, and let his ene- mies be scattered." Julian, in a rage, ordered her to be brought before him, and to be bufletfed on each side of her face. The effects of passion seem but too visible both in the emperor and the woman ; there is, however, this difl'erence ; the one had a zeal for God^ the other a contempt. God vouchsafed to his church a remarkable deliv- e^©ce; for Julian, in a skirmish, was wounded mor(gl-< 195 ]y by a Persian lance ; when, having filled his hand with blood, he cast it toward heaven, exclaiming, " O Galilean, thou hast conquered !" He survived this wound but a short time, and died after a reign of one year and eight months, in the 32nd year of his age. The interposition of Divine Providence is ever to be acknowledged in hastening the death of so formidable an enemy to his people, whose schemes seemed only to require length of time to effect the ruin of the church. But he was left to aim at too many objects at once-, the restoration of idolatry, the niin of Christianity^ the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the conquest of Per- sia. That he should have pursued this last with such avidity, is an instance of the opposition of two parties to each other, both equally bent on the ruin of the church, a thing very common in history, by which the Lord frequently saves his people. How much more prudent had it been in Julian to have made an alliance with the Persian monarch, who would gladly have ac- cepted it, and to have united with him in the destruc- tion of Christianity, against w^hich they were both equally incensed. Thus does God infatuate the coun- sels of his enemies, and lead them to quarrel with one another for the good of his church, rather than to unite for its ruin. CHAPTER X. The Church under Jovian. -I HIS prince succeeded Julian in the year 363, aged about 33 years. His reign w'as terminated by sudden death after a little more than seven months. In this short reign he manifested a strong attach- ment to Christianity, showed that in his conduct he was governed by christian principles, and a man of strict integrity. Convinced that conscience cannot be forced, and that a voluntary religion only is acceptable to God, he made a law, by w^hich be permitted the pagans to re-- 196 open their temples and freelj to enjoy their own mode of worship. Yet he peremptorily forbad witchcraft and impostures. He suifered the public sacrifices, but pot a stop to the overflowings of magic and enchantments, with which Julian had filled the empire ; in fine, he granted the pagans more jthan Constantius had allow- ed, and placed them in the same state, in which they had been left by the great Constantine. In the former reign christians found themselves only nominally free ; in the latter, pagans were really so. They were treat- ed with mildness, though not with confidence. Jovian declared Christianity to be the established religion, and replaced in the standard the figure of the cross, which Julian had taken away. He ordered the christians to be restored to their churches, recalled their exiles, and reinstated them in their privileges. Thus did Jovian prove himself the defender of Christianity as the established religion, and of tolera- tion at the same time. Athanasius had no sooner heard of the death of Juli- an, than he suddenly appeared again at Alexandria, to the agreeable surprise of his people. Jovian, by letter, confirmed him in his office in the most ample manner. When the Arians of Alexandria attempted to influ- ence him to set over them an Arian bishop, in opposi- tion to the claims of Athanasius, Jovian rejected their application, assuring them that Athanasius taught sound doctrine. This shows that in faith, Jovian was a Trinitarian. The care which he took of christian doctrine and piety, his integrity, and strict conscien- tiousness, manifested him to be a man of a sound un- derstanding, and promised the world a wise and pi- ous government. He seems to have been a character of the solid, not of the shining kind ; the wickedness of the times was unworthy of him. He was soon re- moved, and so suddenly, that it was suspected, he had not died a natural death. The christians sincerely wept, the pagans in general spake well of him ; the Arians soon endeavored to take advantage of his de- cease, and the church was once more involved in per- secution. 197 CHAPTER XI. The Church under Valens ; the Death, Character, and fVritings of Athanasius. J OVIAN was succeeded by two brothers, Valentinian and Valens ; the former governed in the West, the latter in the East. Valentinian followed the plan of Jovian in the affairs of the church. Valens, a man of weak capacity, favored Arianism, and ordered all the adherents to the Nicene faith to be expelled from Conr stantinople, and their churches to be shut. Athanasius was again attacked by the enemies of christian piety. Tatian, the governor of Alexandria, by an order from Valens, attempted to drive Athana- sius from that city. The good. bishop stood high in the affections of his people. The governor, for some time dared not to execute his orders. But by night he broke into his church with an armed force, where Athanasius generally lodged, and sought for him in vain. Athanasius had retired, and remained four months concealed in his father's sepulchre. Valens at length recalled him, and gave him no further dis- turbance. About this time, Valens received baptism from an Arian bishop who prevailed with him to swear that he would never depart from the Arian creed. Valens, being at a city of Scythia, near the mouth of the Danube, ordered Brettannio the bishop, to meet and communicate with him and his Arian attendant, who had come to the bishop's church for that purpose. Brettannio firmly refused, professing his regard for the Nicene faith, and leaving the emperor, he went to an- other church, and all his congregation followed him. Valens, with his attendants being left alone, was so en- raged that he ordered the bishop to be banished. The Scythians w^ere indignant at this, as he was a man re- nowned among them for piety and integrity, and Va- lens dreading their revolt, permitted him to return. Eudoxius, the Arian bishop of Constantinople, be- ing dead, the Arians chose Demophikis to succeed 1^ film, and Valens approved of Ihe election. The of- thodox elected, at the same time, Evagrius bishop of Constantinople. Valens, incensed, banished both him and the bishop who dared to ordain him. On this oc- casion eighty ecclesiastics were sent to the Emperor at Nicomedia to complain of his conduct. Enraged at their presumption, and yet afraid of a sedition, he gave private orders to Modestus his prefect, to murder them secretly. The execution of this order deserves to be known to all ages. The prefect pretended that he would send them into banishment, with which they cheerfully acquiesced. But he directed the mariners to set the ship on fire, as soon as they were gone to sea. The mariners did so, and getting into a boat which followed them, escaped. The burning vessel was driven by a strong west wind into the haven of Dacidizus, on the coast of Bithynia, where it was con- sumed, with the ministers. The intention of conceal- ing what was done was frustrated ; and the wicked- ness and inhumanity of the murder appeared more <»dious, by the meanness with which it was contrived. Athanasius died in the year three hundred and seventy three, after he had been bishop forty six years, and having been desired to nominate a successor, he mentioned Peter, an aged saint, and the faithful com- panion of his labors. Let us pause a little to view the writings and character of this great man. As a writer, Athanasius is nervous, clear, argument- ative, and every where discovers the man of sense, except in the life of Anthony the monk, and other monastic pieces ; the superstitions and follies of which unhappy perversion of piety, received but too liberal a support from his influence. But the true nature of the gospel was then greatly misunderstood. Opposition to Arianism absorbed his whole soul, and he keeps it constantly in view throughout the most of his writings. He represents Arianism, as thf^ unpar- donable sin. The incarnation of the Son of -God, he describes as essential to the recovery of fallen man, and speaks of the propriety of man's being taught by hij^i whp is 199 itie Wisdom of the Father. Redemption by his cross he speaks of in a manner perfectly scriptural i but little, however, is to be found in him of the expe- rience of these doctrines, and their application to the heart and conscience ; nor does he dwell much on the virtues and graces of the Holy Spirit. Real virtue, was however, the attendant of orthodox sentiments alone. In his defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, he guards it on all sides with great exactness, is not soli- citous to remove its mystery, and leaves it clear and exact only so far as the scripture has explained it. He asserts invaribly the Trinity in Unity. In his life, his conduct uniformly appears consis- tent and upright, sharpened too much by long and cruel opposition, yet never governed by malice, al- ways influenced by the fear of God. Though greatly persecuted himself, yet he never inflicted persecution on others. Peter was chosen as successor to Athanasius at Al- exandria, by the whole church ; but not without op- position from the Arians. Imperial violence prevail- ed ; and many who would not subscribe to Arian sen- timents, were, for their refusal, banished. Many of- fered their necks to the sword, rather than quit the Ni- cene profession. Numbers of godly men among the Goths, were murdered for the sake of their Redeemer, hy the cruelty of their king Athanarie, who appears to have been an Arian. Valens perished in a battle with the Goths in the year three hundred and seventy eight, after having reigned fourteen years,. CHAPTEHXil. The Church under Valeniinian — The beginnings of Ambrose. XjET us turn our eyes to a more cheering prospect in the West ; in the East the only comfortable circum- stance has been, that God left himself not without wit- ness^ but marked his real church by a mmxber of faith- 200 iul sufferers. Vaientiniarij in the beginning of hi? reign, passed a law that no man should be constrained in re- ligion. He was very indulgent toward the pagans, and treated them with lenity. The Arians were still ambitious to make proselytes to their faith, and were indefatigable in their opposi- tion to all who advocated the Divinity of Jesus, and they sought to support their creed by military and im- perial power ; but Providence, during the reign of Valentinian, raised up an able and successful opposer of this heresy. This illustrious character was Ambrose, who was born about the year three hundred and thirty three, and was first distinguished for pleading causes in the civil law. He was appointed a judge at Milan, where he resided for five years, and was renowned for pru- dence and justice. On the death of the bishop of Milan, who was an Arian, the bishops of the province met to choose a suc- cessor. The city was divided, the Arians labored vigorously to have one of their sentiment elected ; the contest was warm, every thing tended toward a tu- mult; the bishops were consulting, and Ambrose on hearing these things hastened to the church of Milan, and exhorted the people to peace and submission to the lavv'^s. His speech being finished, an infant's voice was heard in the crowd, " Ambrose is bisliop.^^ The hint was taken at once, the whole assembly cried out, ^^ Ambrose shall be the man." The factions agreed immediately, and he whom secular pursuits had seem- ed to preclude from the notice of either party, was suddenly elected by universal consent. Ambrose was aslonished, and peremptorily refus- ed ; nor was any person ever more desirous to obtain the office of bishop, than he was to avoid it. He even took unjustifiable measures to bring' his moral charac- ter into suspicion — his design in this was easily detect- ed. Finding himself unable to resist their urgent im- porluDiiy, he stole out of Milan at midnight, but mis- sing his way, wandered till morning and then found himself at the gate of Milan. A guard was placed 261 about his person till the emperor's pleasure should Be known because his consent was necessary to part with a subject in office. Valentinian sincerely consented ; and the consent of Ambrose alone was wanting. Again he made his escape and hid himself in the country- house of a friend. A menacing edict of the emperor brought him again to Milan, because he dared not expose his friend to imperial resentment. Ambrose yielded at length, and Valentinian gave thanks to God and our Savior that it had pleased him, to make choice of the very person to take care of men's souls, whom he had himself before appointed to preside over their temporal concerns. 'Valentinian received, the general admonitions of Ambrose with reverence ; and in particular hearing him represent the faults of some in authority with great plainness ; " I knew," said the emperor, "the honesty of your character before this time, yet I consented to your ordination ; follow the Divine rules, and cure the maladies into which we are prone to fall." " : v .<^-, - -> Ambrose was then about thirty four years old. Im- mediately he gave to the church and to the poor, all the gold and silver which he had. He gave also his lands to the church, reserving the income of them to his sister. His family he committed to the care of his brother. Thus disengaged from temporal concerns, he gave himself wholly to the ministry. Having read little else than civil authors, he first applied himself to the study of the scriptures. Whatever time he could spare from business, he devoted to reading*, and this he continued to do after he had attained a good de- gree of knowledge. His public labors went hand in hand with his studies* He preached every Lord's day. By his labors Arianism was expelled from Italy. — Simplician, a presbyter from Rome, eminent for learn- ing and piety, instructed him in theology. By this presbyter, it pleased God, to convey to Ambrose that fire of Divine love and genuine simpHcity in religion, which had very much decayed since the days of Cy- prian, and in this slow and effectual method, the Lord was preparing the way for another great effusion of 2b 2(^ Ms spirit. Ambrose now gave himself wholly to the Lord, and restored purity of doctrine and discipline. Valentinian died in 375, after a reign of eleven years, and was succeeded by his brother Valens, who surviv- ed him about three years. Valentinian was fierce and savage by nature, though possessed of an excellent Understanding, and when cool, of the soundest judg- ment ; a fit of passion, at length cost him his life. The best use to be made of his character is, to prove how^ very beneficial it is to human society, that princes should be men of religion. Without this check, Va- leiatinian might have been one of the worst of tyrants, but by the influence of religion, he passes for one of tile better sort of princes. GRi CHAPTER xm. Th^ Church of Christ under Gratian and Theodosius^. till the death of the former. lATIAN, the elder son of Valentinian, succeeded him in Gaul, Spain, and Britain. His younger son, an infant, succeeded in Italy, and the rest of the wes- tern world. And some time after, Gratian chose The-' odosius as his colleague, who reigned in the East. Gratian, from his early years, appears to have beea truly pious. One of his first actions demonstrates it The title of high-priest always belonged to the Roman princes. This he considered to be wholly idolatrous, unbecoming a christian to assume, and refused the habit, though the pagans still gave him the title. Gratian wrote affectionately to Ambrose, request- ing him to come and afford him religious instruc- tion, in which he thus expresses himself, " He will teach me, whom I do not deny, whom I own as my Lord and my God. I would not conceive so meanly of him as to make him a mere creature like myself, who own that I can add nothing to Christ. And yet while I seek to please the Father, in celebrating the ^©n, I do not fear lest the Father should envy the hoa- 205 #TS ascribed to the Son, nor do I, think so highly of mf powers of commendation, as to thinli I can increase the Divinity by my words. I extol him as I can, not as the Divinity deserves. With respect to that trea- tise which you gave me, I beg you would make addi- tions to it by scriptural arguments, to prove the proper Deity of the Holy Ghost." Ambrose with great sat- isfaction replied most respectfully, reminds Gratian that his arguments for the Divinity of the Son, are equally conclusive in p^oof of the divinity of the Holy Ghost, whom we ought not to think the Father to en- vy, nor ourselves who are mere creatures, to be equal with him. Ambrose, with all his piety, while teaching with soundness the essentials of faith and love, was not free from superstition, and abounded in his encomi- ums on virginity. His ignorance of the scriptures be- fore his ordination, and the influence of his sister, a zealous devotee, will account for this. Other parts of the conduct of Ambrose, were more worthy of his understanding. He applied the vessels of the church for the redemption of captives, and was indefatigable in the instruction of catechumens. In the year three hundred and seventy nine, Am- brose was sent for to attend the election of a new bish- op at Sermium, where their former bishop, an Arian, had caused a wide departure from the faith. The em- press Justina, mother of young Valentinian, w^as there, and being in favor of Arianism, endeavored by her authority and influence to expel Ambrose from the church : though insulted by the mob, Ambrose stood firm in his tribunal, and when an Arian woman laid hold on his habit, with a view to drag him out of the church, he resolutely said to her, "Though I am un- w^orthy of the priesthood, it does not become you to lay hands on a pastor, you ought to fear the judgment of God." It is remarkable that she died the next day^ They were struck with awe, and Artemius, an ortho- dox minister, was elected without molestation. The enmity^of .Justina afterward broke out against Ambrosfr in a remarkable manner. 204 Constantinople had now for forty years been sub- ject to Arian impiety and tyranny. Jn this great city few remained who understood the religion of the gos- pel : tmth and godliness had fled. Gregory, of Nazi- anzum was appointed to recover this wretched city, if possible, to the purity of the gospel. Theodosius co- operated with Gregory, and other zealous pastors for the revival of Christianity in the East, in the year three hundred and eighty. He published a law reprobating the Arian heresy, and warmly approbating the Nicei:^e faith. He gave notice to Demophilus, the Arian bishop of Constantinople, to embrace the Nicene creed, to unite the people,and live in peace. Demophilus reject- ing the proposal, the emperor ordered him to give up the churches. The heresiarch struggled to support his cause, but finding himself unsuccessful, retired to Be-r. raea, where he died six years after. Gregory being now confirmed at Constantinople^ at the call of the emperor, three hundred and fifty bish- ops came thither, to settle the distracted state of the Eastern church. The council was very disorderly and confused, little was done, except defiiiiog very accurately the doctrine of the Trinity, and enlarging a little on the Nicene creed. In the year 383, Amphilochus, bishop of Iconium, coming to court with other bishops, paid the usual respects to the emperor, but took no notice of his son Arcadius, about six years old, who was near his father. Theodosius bad him salute his son. Amphilochus drew near and laying his hand upon him, said, " Save you my child." The emperor in anger ordered the old man to be driven from court ; who with a loud voice declared, you cannot bear to have your son con- temned ; be assured, that God in like manner is of- fended with those who honor not his Son as himself. The emperor was struck with the justness of the re- mark, and immediately made a law to prohibit the assemblies of the heretics. In the same year Gratian fell by murder in the 24th year of his age. Chaste, temperate, benevolent, con- pcientiouSj he shines in the church of Christ ; but tal- # 205- ejlts for goyeriiing he seems not to have possessed,. Divine Providence gives in him a lesson that Christ's kingdom is not of Ihis world ; even a prince of unques- tionable piety is denied the common advantage of a natural death. When dying he bemoaned the ab- sence of Ambrose, and often spake of him. Those, who have received spiritual benefit from a pastor have often an affection for him, of which the world has no knowledge. In his last moments, the mind of Gratian was absorbed in Divine things, compared with which, the loss of empire weighed as nothing. CHAPTER XIY. The Heresy of PrisciUian—Tlie conduct of Martin — -. the Progress of Superstition^ T ERY little of the spirit of Christianity, during this period, is to be found. Evangelical purity had great- ly declined. The Priscillianists, an heretical sect, who seem to have combined all the most pernicious heresies of former times, had already appeared in the time of Gratian, and infected the greatest part of Spain. Their leader, Priscillian, was exactly fitted for the office which he filled : learned, factious, acute, of great powers both of body and mind, and by a spuri- ous n)odesty and gravity of manners, extremely well qualified to maintain an ascendancy over weak and credulous spirits. Idacius and Ithacius, applied to the secular power to procure, by the decrees of the magistrates, an expulsion of the heretics from the cit- ies. The Priscillianists endeavored to gain friends in Italy • but their corruptions were too glaring to pro- cure them any countenance either from Damasus of Rome, or from Ambrose of Milan. On the death of Gratian, Maximus the usurper, who had rebelled against Gratian, entered victorious into Treves. While Ithacius earnestly pressed him,, against^he Priscillianists, the heresiarch appealed to Maximus, who undertook the office, of deciding. Both 3oa parties were highly <^ulpable ; the heretics in spread- ing sentiments entirely subversive of Christianity, and their accusers in subserving their own factious and selfish views. In the mean time, Martin, of Tours, blamed Ithacius for bringing the heretics as criminals before the empe- or; and entreated Maximus to abstain from the blood of the unhappy men ; he said, it was abundantly suffi- cient, that they, having been judged heretics by the sentence of the bishops, were expelled from the churches, and that it was a new and unheard evil, for a secular judge to interfere in matters purely ecclesi- astical. To punish heretics with death, because they are seen walkina* in the broad road to eternal destruc- tion, and thus prevent their conversion by shortening their davs, is surely contrary to the spiiit of hui, who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them ! Yet there were riicn found at this lime capable of such eDormity, and it marks the degeneracy of the age. But Christ bad still a church in the West, and Martin persevered with such zeal in opposujg the horrid in- novation, and was himself so much respected for his piety and integrity, that he at first prevailed, and the lisurpen promised not to proceed to blood against the heretics. Afterward, however, he changed his pur^ pose, and Priscillian was put to death, with four other leaders of his sect, A few more were condemned to die, or to be banished. Christianity never received a greater scandal ; but the men, who feared God, and loved moderation and charity, wept and prayed in se- cret, despised and disregarded by the two parties, who trampled on all the rules of godhness. In the mean time worldly passions prevailed in Spain, and though the form of orthodoxy existed, it was evident, that its power was greatly weakened. Let us here endeavor to find the true church, if we can. We see it in Ambrose, v/ho, coming to Maxi- mus on an embassy from the younger Valentinian, re- fused to hold communion with his bishops, who had been concerned in the death of the heretics. Maxir inus, enraged^ ordered hira to withdraw. Ambrose 207 ^t6red on his journey very readily, having applied in vain to some of the courtiers to furnish hiai with conveniences. Several holy men who protested against these barbarities, were charged with heresy^ and among the rest Martin of Tours. Thus, while there were some in Gaul and Spain, who bore the christian name, to disgrace it with a complication of heresies, and formal orthodoxy, or who dishon- ored the gospel by a life of avarice, faction and am- bition, there were some who feared God and served him in the gospel of his Son. Martin, in his youth, had, against his will, served in the army under Constantius and Julius. His father, by profession a soldier, had compelled him. At ten yeara old, he went to the church and gave in his name as a catechumen. At twelve he had a desire to lead a mo- nastic life. But being devoted to military service he avoided its vices, and was liberal to the poor, reserv- ing nothing to himself out of the pay which he re- ceived, except what was necessary for daily food.— < At 18 he was baptized, and at 20 left the army.-^ Sometime after, falling into the hands of robbers among the .Alps, he was delivered bound to one of them, to be plundered ; who leading him to a retired place, asked him, who he was. He answered, " I am a christian." " Are not you afraid ?" I never was more at ease, because I linovv the mercy of the Lord to be most present in trials ; 1 am more concerned for you, who, by your course of life, render yourself unfit to partake of the mercy of Christ. Entering into the arguments of religion, he preached the gospel to the robber. The man believed, attended his instructor to the road, and begged his prayers. The new convert persevered in godliness, and this relation was takes from his account. It was with difficulty that Martin was at length prevailed on to quit his monastery, and become bishop of Toui^, to which office the universal voice of the people called him. He, however, still pre- served his monastic taste, and had a monastery two miles out of the city. There,. with eighty disciples" 20B who followed his example, he lived with extreme aus- terity. The celebrity of Yas supposed miracles had a mighty effect on the ignorant Gauls ; every common action of his was magnified into a prodigy : heathen temples were destroyed, and churches and monaste- ries arose in their stead. That Martin was pious, is imquestionable, but^ that his piety was disfigured with monastic superstition, is evident. This was not a fault of true religion, but of the times. Europe and Asia, then vied with each other in the promotion of false humility. CHAPTER XV. The Conduct of Ambrose, under the Emperor Valenii- nian, and the persecution which he endured from the emperor'^s mother, Justina. JUSTINA, the empress, a decided patroness of Ari- anism, after the death of her husband, began openly to imbue her son with her doctrine, and to induce him to menace the bishop of Milan. Ambrose exhorted him to support the doctrine received from the apostles. — The young emperor, in a rage, ordered his guards to surround the church, and commanded Ambrose to come out of it. Ambrose resolutely replied, " I shall not willingly give up the sheep of Christ to be devour- ed by wolves. You may use your swords and spears against me ; such a death I shall freely undergo.'^ Justina, knowing his influence in the city to be great, and fearing the people, had recourse to vexatious frauds and artifices, and exercised his mind with a series of trials. The Arians were not the only adversaries of the church. The Gentiles, taking advantage of the mi- nority of Valentinian, and scorning the innovations of Christianity, endeavored to recover their ancient estab- lishments, but were foiled in their attempts by the el- ""^quenceand influence of Ambrose, 209 In the year 386 Jiistina procured a law to be passed to enable the Arian congregations at Milan to assem- ble without interruption, and an Arian bishop was in- troduced under her protection into the city. At his request soldiers were sent to procure for himself the possession of the church called Basilica, and tribunes came to demand it, with the plate and vessels belong- ing to it, and all this under the specious idea that it was unreasonable the emperor should not be allowed to have one place of worship, in the city, agreeable to his conscience. Ambrose calmly answered the offi- cers, that if the emperor had sent to demand his house or land, money or goods, he would have freely resign- ed them, but that he could not deliver that which was committed to his care. He told his people, he would not willingly desert his right, that if compelled he knew how to resist. " I can," says he, "grieve, I can weep, I can groan. Against arms and soldiers, tears are my arms. Such are the fortifications of a pastor. I neither can nor ought to resist in any other manner. Our Lord Jesus is Almighty; what he commands to be done shall be fulfilled, nor does it become you to resist the Divine sentence." During the suspension of this affair, Ambrose em- ployed the people in singing Divine hymns and psalms, at the end of which there was a solemn doxology to the honor of the Trinity. The method of responsive singing had been generally practised in the East, and was introduced by Ambrose into Milan, whence it was propagated into all the churches. The people were much delighted, their zeal for the doctrine of the Trin- ity was inflamed, and one of the best judges in the world, then living, owns that his own soul was melted into Divine affection on these occasions. The demands of the court were now increased : not only the Portian church which stood without the wall, but also the great church newly built within the city, were required to be given up. On the Lord's day af- ter sermon, the chatechumens being dismissed, Am- brose went to baptize those who were prepared for that ordinance, when he was told that officers were 2c 210 sent from the court to the Portian church ; he went ou^ however, unmoved in the service, till he was told, that the people, having met with Catulus, an Arian presbyt- er, in the streets, had laid hands on him. Then with prayers and tears he besought God, that no man's blood might be shed but rather his own, not only for the pious people, but also for the wicked. And hav- ing sent immediately some presbyters and deacons, Catulus was recovered from the tumult. The court, enraged, sent warrants to apprehend several merchants and tradesmen ; some were put in chains, and vast sums of money were required to be paid in a little time, which many professed they would pay cheerful- ly, if they could enjoy the profession of their faith un- molested. The prisons were by this time full of trades- men, and the magistrates and men of rank were se- verely threatened ; while the courtiers urged Ambrose with the imperial authority ; whom he answered with the same loyalty and firmness as before. The Holy Spirit, said he, in his exhortation to the people, has spoken in you this day, to this effect: Emperor, we iNTREAT, BUT WE DO NOT FIGHT. The Arians, having few friends among the people, kept themselves with- in doors. Wearied and overcome at length with his resolution, the court, who meant to extort his consent, rather than to exercise violence, ordered the guards to leave the church, where Ambrose had lodged all night, the soldiers having guarded it so close, that none had been suffered to go out. The people confined there spent the night in singing psalms. The sums exact- ed of the tradesmen also were restored. The spirit of devotion was kept up all this time among the people, and Ambrose was indefatigable botli in praying and preaching. But notwithstanding his great piety, and though it is evident that he loved the 1. -d Jesus Christ supremely, and trusted in him for salvation, yet was he inclined, in some degree, to superstiiion ; for being called upon by the people to consecrate a new church, he told them he would, if he could find any relics of martyrs there. By this he encouragf^d the introduction of other intercessors be- side Jesus Christ, and the growth of superstition. m CHAPTER XVI. The Church under Theodosius. After the exaltation of this prince to the empire from a private life by the generous and patriotic choice Gratian, he reigned in the East, more vigorously sup- porting Christianity, according to his ideas of it, than any emperor before him. His sense of justice deter- mined him to order some christians to rebuild, at their own expense, a Jewish synagogue, which they had pulled down. This sentence Ambrose prevailed on him to set aside, from a mistaken notion of piety, that Christianity should not be obliged to contribute to the erection of a Jewish synagogue. But, if the Jews w^ere tolerated at all in the empire, the transaction ought certainly to have been looked on as a civil one. This is the first instance I recollect in which a good man was induced, by superstitious motives, to violate the essential rules of justice ; and it marks the growth of superstition. Theodosius was of a passionate temper, and on a particular occasion was led by it to commit a barbar- ous action; the circumstances of the story will be the best comment on the character of this emperor, of Am- brose, and of the times. At Thessalonica a tumult was made by the populace, and the emperor's officer was murdered. The news was calculated to try the temper of Theodosius, who ordered the sword to be let loose upon them. Ambrose interceded, and the emperor promised to forgive. But the great officers of the court persuaded him to retract, and to sign a warrant for military execution. Seven hundred were put to death in three hours with great cruelty, without trial, and without distinction. Ambrose wrote him a faithful letter, reminding him ©f the charge in the prophet, that if the priest does not warn the wicked he shall be answerable for it. " You dicover a zeal," says he, "for the faith and fear of God, I own: but your temper is warm, soon to be appeased iadeed; if endeavors are used to calm it ; but if not re- ■ 212 gulated, it bears clown all before it." He urges the example of David, and shews the impropriety of com- municating with him at present. " I love you," says he "I cherish you, I pray for you; but blame not me, if I give the preference to God." On these principles Ambrose refused to admit Theodosius into the church of Milan. The emperor plead the case of David. " Im- itate him," said the zealous Ambrose, " in his repen- tance as well as in his sin." Theodosius submitted and kept from the church eight months. On the feast of the nativity, he expressed his sorrow with sighs and tears in the presence of Ruffinus the master of the of- ficers. " I weep," said he, " that the temple of God, and consequently heaven, is shut from me, which is open to slaves and beggars." Ruffinus undertook to persuade the emperor. Ambrose urged the impro- priety of his rude interference, because Ruffinus, by his evil counsels, had been the author of the massa- cre. Ruffinus telling him that the emperor was coming, " I will hinder him," says he, " from entering the vesti- bule ; yet if he will play the king, I shall offer my throat." Ruffinus returning, informed the emperor : " I will go and receive the refusal which I desire," said he ; and as he approached the bishop, he added, " I come to offer myself to submit to what you pre- scribe." Ambrose enjoined him to do pubHc penance, and to suspend the execution of capital warrants for thirty days in future, that the ill effects of intemper- ate anger might be prevented. The emperor, pulling off his imperial robes, prayed prostrate on the pave- ment; nor did he put on those robes, till the time of his penance had expired. "My soul cleaveth to the dust," said he, " quicken thou me, accordmg to thy word." The people prayed and wept with him, and he not only complied with the rules of penance, but re- tained visible marks of compunction and sadness dur- ing the rest of his life. The discipline thus magnani- mously exercised by Ambrose, and humbly submitted to by Theodosius, appears to have been salutary. At Alexandria the votaries of the renowned temple of Serapis made an insurrection, and murdered a num- 215 ber of christians. The emperor, being informed of this, declared that he would not suffer the glory of their martyrdom to be stained with any executions, and that he was determined to pardon the murderers in hopes of their conversion, but that the temples, the cause of so much mischief, should be destroyed. In one of them was a remarkable image of Serapis, of which it had been confidently given out, that if any man touched it, the earth would open, the heaven be dissolved, and all things run back into a general cha- os. A soldier was hardy enough to make the experi- ment. With an axe he cleft him down the jaws, an army of mice fled out at the breach he made, and Serapis was hacked in pieces. On the destruction of idolatry in Egypt, it happened that the Nile did not overflow so plentifully, as it had been wont to do. " It is," said the pagans, " because it is affronted at the prevailing impiety : it has not been worshipped with sacrifices, as it used to be." Theodosius, being infor- med of this, declared, like a man who believed in God, and preferred heavenly things to earthly, " We ought to prefer our duty to God, to the streams of the Nile, and the cause of piety to the fertility of the country; let the Nile never flow again, rather than idolatry be encouraged." The event afforded a fine comment on our Savior's words, " seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." The Nile returned to its course, and rose above the highest mark, which at other times it seldom reached. The pagans made use of ridicule ; others, however, made a serious use of the remarkable Providence, and Egypt^ forsook the superstition, in which for so many ages it had been involved. Thus the country which had nourished idolatry more early and passionately than any others, was made the special scene of the triumphs of God and his Christ. Coming to Rome the zealous emperor in a deliber- ate speech endeavored to persuade the senate, very many of whom still patronized idolatry, to embrace the christian faith, as the only religion, which taught men how to obtain pardon of sin, and holiness of life.. 214. The" Gentile part of them declared, that they Would tiot give up a religion under which Rome had prosper- ed near twelve hundred years. Theodosius told them, that he saw no reason, why he should maintain their religionj and that he would not only cease to furnish the expense out of the exchequer, but would abolish the sacrifices themselves. The senators complained, that the neglect of the rites was the grand cause, why the empire declined so much : a specious argument, well calculated to gain upon worldly minds, and which, at that time, had great effect on many pagans. Theo- dosius was determined, and made it a capital crime to sacrifice, or attend the pagan rites ; he made it treason- able to offer sacrifice, or to consult the entrails of beasts. He also forbade incense and peifumes. Paganism never after this lifted up its head. This great prince expired at Milan in 395, about 60 years of age, having reigned 16 years. And the century before us nearly closes with the full estab- lishment of Christianity in the Roman empire. The religion which was of God made its way through all opposition ; that which was of man, supported only by power and custom, failed to thrive, as soon as it lost the ascendant, and within a generation it ceased al- most universally to exist. Theodosius possessed a noble character. His cle- mency, liberality and generosity, were admirable.— He was brave and successful in war: but his w^ars were forced upon him. While an enemy to drunken- ness he was a model of gravity, temperance and chas- tity in private life. Excess of anger was his predom- inant evil ; but he was taught, by having done great evil by yielding to this,the importance of governing hm temper and of studying to be humble. CHAPTER XVII. The private Life and Works of Ambrose. 1 HIS illustrious man died about the year 397, admi- red, regretted, and lamented by the whole christiaj^ fl5 world. His life not improbably had been shortened by the incessant activity of his mind, and by the mul- tiplicity of his employments ; for he was only 67 years old, and had been appointed bishop of Milan at the age of 34. His spirit was remarkably kind and sympathetic ; his benevolence extended to all, especially to the household of faith. His labors were immense. His temper was heroic and strong, and no dignity or au- thority could shelter oiTenders from his rebukes, where- he deemed it his duty to reprehend. The time he could spare from pastoral and charitable engagements, was devoted to study and meditation. Though Ambrose was called to teach before he himself had learned, yet was he a man of so much in- dustry in the acquisition of knowledge, and of so much real good sense, that his writings contain various things of solid utility. But he might have both preached and written better, had he always attended to the simple word of God, and exercised his own na- tural good sense in humble dependance on divine GRACE, and paid less regard to the fanciful writings of Origen, which exceedingly corrupted his understand- ing. Less of this, however, appears in his moral, thaa in his theological pieces. CHAPTEH XVIIL The Propagation of the Gospel among Barbarians — Heresies and Errors. XHE Saracens were at war with the Romans, under the conduct of their queen Maovia, who was a chris- tian. The emperor Valens made peace with her, one condition of which was, that Moses, a monk, who lived in the desert between Egypt and Palestine, should be appointed bishop of her nation. Valens ordered him to be carried to Alexandria, there to be ordain- ed by Lucius. Moses, who knew him to be an Arian, said before him and the magistrates, and all the 216 people, stay, I am not worthy to be called a bishop ; but if I am called to this office, unworthy as I am, for the good of souls, I take the Creator of all things to witness, that I will not receive the imposition of your hands, which are defiled with the blood of so many holy men. If you know not my faith, replied Lucius, learn it from my mouth, and judge not by reports. Mo- ses, however, was aware of the Arian subtilies, and chose to stand by the evidence of works. I know your faith, said he, the pastors exiled among infidels, condemned to the mines, thrown to the wild beasts, or destroyed by fire, testify your creed ; the eyes speak more strongly than the ears. Lucius was obliged to dissemble his resentment, on account of the situation of Valens, his master, and permit Moses to receive or- dination from the exiled bishops. His labors among the Saracens were crowned with success. The na- tion before his time, was chiefly idolatrous : that his work was blessed among them appears from his keep- ing them at peace with the Romans. But this is all the account we have of the fruits. Among the Goths, some captive bishops, during this century, labored with good success. And the work was of an abiding nature. This people, for some time, held the Nicene faith. In the time of Valens, many of them sufl'ered death from an idolatrous per- secuting prince of their own. By the subtilties of the Arians, however, the whole church of the Goths came by degrees into Arianism ; the consequences of which will be seen in the course of this history. Heresies, chiefly through the various ramifications of x^rianism, multiplied in this century. Monasticism continued to make rapid progress. CHAPTER XiX. Of Chrisitan Authors in this Century. A MID the thick mists of superstition which greatly abounded in this century, some cheering rays of Di- 217 Tine truth beamed npon the church to guide the truly pious in their way to heaven. Didymus, of Alexandria, though he lost his sight at the age of five years, became so vigorous and success- ful a student, that he was renowned for his skill in phi- losophy, rhetoric, and geometry. He filled the chair of the famous school of Alexandria with vast applause. Though Origenism was his favorite system, yet as far as appears, he continued always souad, humble and holy, in christian doctrine. His treatise on the Holy Spirit, which has come down t© us, is perhaps the best, the christian world ever saw on the subject. — Indeed, what has been said, since that time, in de- fence of the divinity and personality of the Holy Ghost, seems, in substance, to be found in that book. Gregory Nyssen, bish«p of Nyssa, wrote in defence of the incarnation of God. In this he shews that man is fallen, and corrupted, and can be recovered only by his Creator ; and hence, that the Word, who created him came himself to raise him again. He shews also, that to be born of a virgin, to eat, to drink, to die, and to be buried, are things not unbecoming the holy nature of God, because there is no sin in them ; and that the Divinity, united to man, lost not its perfec- tions, any more than the soul loses its properties by its union with the body. Ephraim, the Syrian, v\^s born of christain parents, and was educated with great care from his infancy. — His mind, from childhood, was devout, contempla- tive and studious, to an extreme degree. Though fond of solitude, he was, at length, induced to live in the great city of Edessa, for the sake of enjoying the benefit of christian assemblies, and of rendering him* self useful to his fellow men. He wrote much on the scriptures, and various devotional pieces, which were much admired by all the eastern churches. He nev- er was advanced farther than the office of deacon. Once, to avoid being preferred to the office of bishop, he feigned madness and escaped. In liis day, the pastoral character appeared to good men, awful be- yond measure, requiring little less than angelical virtue. 2d Love of gain was not the principal motive, and mere decency of character was not the principal quali6caiion. Ephraim, strictly sound in the essential requisites of the christian faith, composed christian hymns for the tise of the Syrians, which were sung in tunes, that Harmonius, an Arian, had composed with a desig^n to propagate x4rianism among them. He wrote also a discourse on the utility of psalmody, and exploded idle songs and dancing. Let this be regarded as a proof of his zeal and industry. Ephraim appears, by his wiitings, to have been a man of undoubted piety, and true humility, evangeli- zed both in the head, and heart ; not trifling with the light which he had^ nor living in sin^ because ha con- ceived grace to abound. I shall dismiss this saint, after having given a sketch of the character of Abra- ham, one of his companions : he, for fifty years, lived an Ascetic, in the strictest observation of monastic rules, and confined himself principally to his cell : but he- truly acted like a christian in those intervals when he left it ; in one of w hich, his zeal and piety were great- ly distinguished. Many presbyters and deacons had been sent to the idolatrous pagans in the vicinity of his retreat ; but being unable to bear persecution had returned unsuccessful. One day the bishop observed among his clergy, that he knew of no person so devoted to God as Abraham, and therefore he would ordain him as an evangelist of these pagans. At first he entreat- ed him, but in vain ; Abraham begged to be permitted to bemoan his own evils. The bishop, however, in- sisting on the obedience which he owed to authority^ and hov/ much better it was to be employed in the salvation of many, than of one soul only, Abraham at length submitted. He began his work with fervent prayer for the Divine blessing, and having erected a church, he supplicated in it the conversion of the people. His next step appears not to have been so proper; he threw down the idols and ahars of the pagans ; the consequence of which was, that, with much ill usage, he was expelled from the country. — He returned, however, and resumed his work of pray- 219 €r in the church, to the astonishment of the pagans* whom, as they from time to time came to him, he ex« horted to turn from idols to the living God, on which he was worse treated than before. — For three years^ he bore their insults, and a constant series of perse- cution. His patience and meekness were admirable, and at length the pagans began to be softened ; and comparing his preaching with his practice, they con- - eluded that God must be with him, and offered them- selves to receive- his doctrine. Abraham, rejoicing at the event, desired them to give glory to God, who had enlightened their eyes to know him. In fine he gath- ered them into a church, daily opening to them the scriptures. At length, when he saw them confirmed in the faith of the gospel, and bringing forth the fruits of it with steadiness, he abruptly retired from them to his former solitude. The work remained firm and strong; and the bishop visited and exhorted them, from the word of God, and ordained pastors from fimong themselves. How much better would it have been had Abra- ham thus employed the 60 years of his solitude? but such were the times. While the world proceeded in its usual wickedness, those, who were the best calculated to reform it, had a strong tendency to live a recluse life ; and false fear and bondage kept many from the pastoral office, who might have been its brightest or- naments.^ The mischief of this was inexpressible ; the extension of the gospel was checked ; and every circumstance shewed, that the spirit of God was no longer poured out, in its fullness among men. Hilary was born at Poictiers in France, was de-« scended from a very noble family, and was distinguish- ed by a liberal education. He seriously considered the folly and vanity of idolatry, and was led to con-^ cLude, that its professors could not possibly be com* petent to lead men to happiness. From the visible frame of things he inferred an Omnipotent, Eternal Being, as their Maker and Preserver. He observed^, that happiness consists not in any external things, nor rin the bare knowledge of the first principles of goo4 and evil, but irrthe knowledge of the true God. By reading the books of Moses and the Prophets, h^ found his mind enhghtened and his judgment con- firmed in these ideas. The short, but comprehensive account of God, in the book of Exodus, " I am tliat I am," affected him with admiration. When he wsls carried forward to the New Testament, there he learnt, that there is an eternal world, the Son of God toade man, who came into the world, to communi- cate to it the fulnessof grace. His hope of happiness was now enlarged : '^ Since the Son of God was made man, men may become the sons of God. A man who with gladness receives this doctrine, renews his spirit by faith, and conceives a hope full of immortal- ity. Having once learned to believe, rejects the captious difficulties, and no longer judges after the maxims of the world. He neither fears death, nor is weary of life ,and presses forward to a state of a blessed immortality." In such a manner does Hila- ry give us the history of his own mind in religion. — And his life was afterward according to such principles. His views of the three Persons in the Trinity are re- markably perspicuous and scriptural. In speaking of the Holy Spirit, he says, that he enlightens our under- standings, and warms our hearts ; that he is the author of all grace, and will be with us to the end of the world ; that he is our Comforter here while we live in expectation of a future life, the earnest of our hopes, the light of our minds, and the warmth of our souls. — He directs us to pray for this Holy Spirit, to cause us to do good, and to persevere in faith and obedience. From his conversion till his death, Hilary was a man of the most exemplary piety, and gave no countenance to the fashionable heresies. He died at Poicters about the year 368. Basil, of Csssarea flourished, as one of the distin- guished characters of this century. He was surnam- ed the Great on account of his piety and learning. — His christian ancestors suffered much during the Dio- ciesian persecution. His grandmother Macrina, a ©onfessorof the faith of Christ, and disciple of Grego- 2n tiV Thaumaturgas, was eminently useful to him, in su- perintending his education, and fixing his principles. After a course of instruction in Cappadocia, his na- tive country, he travelled for improvement in knowl- edge. It is certain, that he was possessed of all the secular learning of the age, and if he had chosen to give himself wholly to the world, he might have shown as much as superior parts, strong understand- ing, and indefatigable industry, united, can effect. — - But his mind was under a spiritual influence ; he found an emptiness in the most refined enjoyments of Kterature. He was led to seek for food to his soul,, and bent his studies to' obtain that most desirable ob- ject. In his travels into Egypt, Basil conversed with monks and hermits, and contracted that excessive at- tachment to the spirit of Ascetics, which afterward made him the great supporter and encourager of those superstitions. After some time, he lived in retirement at Neocassa- rea in Pontus, and by his example, concurring with the spirit of the times, he not only drew over his friend Gre- gory, but also great numbers, to embrace a retired life, and to employ themselves in prayer, singing of psalms, and devotional exercises. And here, these two friends formed the rules of monastic discipline, which were the basis of all those superstitious institutions, which afterward overran the church. The want of a more evangehcal view of doctrine, and of course, of that lively faith which would animate the christian to live above the world, though in the midst of it, was, doubtless the principal cause of the overflowing of this spirit among real good men in those times. To flee from society seemed to them the only possible way to escape the pollutions of the world, which they sincerely abhorred. Self-righteousness and ignorance fomented the evil, which, at length, became a vapid system of formality, and degenerated gradually into a sink of secret wickedness. But he who should, in these times, suspect the generality of monks of hy- pocrisy and profligacy, would injure them much. O^ the contrary, the flower of the flock of Christ, Is to be looked for among them. Basil was charitable in his attempts to relieve the poor and caused hospitals to be erected for that pm*- pose. After he was appointed bishop of Csesarea, he took a firm and determined stand against the Arian heresy ; and though in the utmost danger of banishment, yet he remained immoveable in the profession of the faith. Discipline in the church of Csesarea, had, before his time, been scandalously neglected. Church-officers, who were a disgrace to religion, ministered. He set himself to produce a thorough reformation, and took great care to examine the lives and manners of, the persons to be ordained. Having governed the church of Csesarea a little more than eight years, and being enfeebled with bodily disorders, he ordained some of his followers, and then was obliged to take to his bed. The people flocked about his house, sensible of the worth of such a pastor. He discoursed, for a time, pi- ously to those who were about him, and sealed his last breath with the ejaculation, "Into ihine hands 1 com- mend my spirit." His excessive austerities broke his constitution, and left him for years in a very imperfect state of health. He died in the year 379. Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, was not inferior to many in this century for unfeigned purity of faith and manners. It is proper to mention his zeal, in tearing a painted curtain which he saw in a place of public worship, in proof of his detestation of images and pic- tures in religion, and also of the weak beginnings of that superstition in the fourth century. His beneli- x:ence too was truly laudable. Numbers from all parts sent him large sums to distribute to the needy, in con- fidence of his charity and integrity. His steward one day informed him that his stock wasnearly exhausted, and blamed his profuse liberality ; but he still contin- ued as liberal as before, till all was gone ; when sud- denly he received from a stranger a large bag of gold. Another story, extremely well authenticated, deserves ^ be recorded as an awful warning. Twe beggars 223 o agreeing to impose on him, one feigned himself dead, while the other begged of Epiphanius to supply the ex- penses of his companion's funeral. Epiphanius grant- ed the request. The beggar, on the departure of the bishop, desired his companion to rise : but the man was really dead. To sport with the servants of God, and to abuse their kindness, is to provoke God himself, as the bishop told the survivor. CENTURY V> CHAP TEH 1. T John Chrysostom. HIS renowned man was born at Antioch about the year 354. His father having died soon after his birth, his education devolved upon his mother, who attended to it with great care and diligence. By her means he had the advantage that his early impressions w^ere in favor of Christianity, Yet, being naturally studious of elo- quence, he devoted himself to the care of that great master, Libanius of Antioch, who being one day asl^- ed, who would be capable of succeeding him in his school ? " John," said he, if the christians had not sto-* len him from us." So great was the idea he had form- ed of his powers of eloquence ! He predicted right. Having pleaded a little time in the Forum, Chrysostom began to find a vacan- cy in his mind, not to be supplied by secular arts and studies. The spirit of God seems from that time, to have drawn him to the study of the scriptures. By his master Diodorus, who was afterward bishop of Tarsus, he was taught to forsake the popular Avliims of Origen, and to investigate the literal and historical aoiise of the Divine word ; a practice, in which h.& differed from most of the fathers of his times. For some time he lived in monastic austerities ; af^ ler which Flavian, bishop of Antioch, promoted iiim 224 to the offic6 of presbyter. About the year 379, a sedi- tion broke out at Antiocb, on account of taxes, and the people dragged about the streets the statues of Theodosius, and of his excellent lady Flaccilla, and of their two sons, in contempt. But on finding the dan- ger of the emperor's resentment, this inconsistent and turbulent people were in great distress. Godliness among the christians of that city appears then to have been low. Chrysostom exhorted them to repentance, and made the awful suspense they then were in, an instructive emblem of our expectation of the day of iudgment. Hymns and litanies were composed to so- licit God to move the heart of the emperor to pity, and many who had never attended the house of God, but had spent their whole time in the theatre, then joined in Divine worship with much earnestness and assidui- ty. Flavian, the bishop, though aged and infirm, un- dertoo'k a journey to Constantinople to depricate the wrath of the emperor. Libanius the sophist did the same : but the generality of the philosophers hid them- selves in holes and corners, and did nothing for their country in danger ; while the monks left their cells, flocked into the city, and entreated the magistrates and judges to behave with lenity. Thus, even monks, who exhibited Christianity in a degenerate form, exceeded in benevolence and active virtue the boasted and boas- tmg sons of philosophers! .Chrysostom, while observing the serere proceeding^ of the courts, and the vain intercessions of relations for husbands and fathers, was led to reflect, how awful the day of judgment will be, when not a mother, sis- ter, or father can arrest the course of Divine justice, or give the least relief to nearest relations, and with much eloquence and pity pressed these considera- tions on a giddy, unthinking people. Pastors may hence take the hint to improve temporal scenes to the spiritual benefit of their audiences. The generous and good-natured Theodosius expos- tulated with Flavian on the unreasonableness and ingratitude of the citizens of Antioch to himself, who had ever been as a parent and benefactor to them.- ^25 Flavian, admitting the truth of his observations, and confessing the aggravated guilt of the city, pressed him with the Divine rule, if ye forgive men their tres- passes, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. And his pathetic and pious admonitions prevailed. Theodosius owned, that if the great Lord of the world, for our sake, became a servant, and prayed for his murderers, it highly became himself to forgive his fel- low-servants ; and with great tenderness he solicited the bishop to hasten his return, to deliver the citizens frotn their fears. Flavian returned with the joyful news that the city was fully restored to the emperor's favor. These are some of the triumphs of the gospel. Its mild influence on society, in the suppression of the fights of gladiators and other savage practices, and in the kind and liberal behavior of emperors toward their subjects, even in times when true religion was low, demonstrate, not only, that states do act unwisely, when they venture to reject Christianity altogether, and substitute mere ethics in its stead ; but also that it is the duty of governors and legislators, as much as in them lies, by positive institutions to promote th^ knowledge and influence of that Divine rehgion. In the year 398, Chrysostom was appointed, by the emperor Arcadius, bishop of Constantinople. On his appointment to this important station, he set himself to reform the clergy, censured their covetousness and luxury, retrenched the expenses of the bishop's table, and applied the surplus to the needy, built a large hos- pital for the infirm, and put it under the most salutary regulations. Such ministers as refused to reform their lives, he suspended from office, and the widows who were maintained by the church, were admonished to abstain from their gay manner of living, or else to marry. Also he pressed the laity, whose employ- ments filled up the day, to attend Divine worship in the evening. The common people heard Chrysos- tom gladly, as, for a time at least, they generally will hear, a preacher who speaks to the conscience, though he rebuke them severely, if he majiifest in his whole liianner, an earnest desire to do them sooql. The cler- 2e. ^'j" indolent and corrupt as thej were, opposed hiiH vehemently, and watched opportunities against him. The wealthy and the great, offended at his plain re- pi*oofs, were as ill-disposed as the clergy. By these things, however, he was not dismayed, but persevered ; nor did he confine his cares to Constantinople. To overcome the Arianism of the Goths, he ordained some persons of their country, and assigned them a church within the city, by whose industry he reclaim- ed many, and he himself often preached there ; and prevailed on many of the clergy to do the same. He made liberal and active attempts to spread the gospel among the barbarous nations, though the troubles, which afterwards befel him, must have checked both these and other christian designs. His qualities and labors excited enemies who strove to eflfect his destruc- tion. A synod, at length, held and managed by Theoph- ilus, bishop of Alexandria, his determined foe, and one of the worst ecclesiastical characters in history, sup- ported by the influence of the proud Eudoxia, the em- press, deposed him, and he was condemned, with ex- treme injustice, to be banished to a port in the Black Sea. No sooner was it known that Chrysostom was gone than the whole city was in an uproar ; many bla- fiied the emperoi^ who, in so weak a manner, had giv- en up the most upright of men to the malice of his wife and of Thfeophrlus. The tumult even became «o violent that Eudoxia herself, alarmed at the danger, pressed her husband to recall him, and even wrote to Ckrysostom a letter full of protestations of sorrow and respect. Chrysostom was therefore recalled and re- stored ; but the calm was not of long continuance. A silver statue of the empress was solemnly erected in the street just before the great church ©f St. Sophia. It was dedicated with many heathenish extravagan- cies, and the people used to meet there in sports and pastimes, to the destraction of the congregation. — Chrysostoni. impatient of these things, blamed them from the pulpit, and with great imprudence began his sBir^^oa after this manner; "Now again Herodias 227 raves and is vexed, again she dances, again sh^ de- sires John's head in a charger." The enemies of the bishop could not desire a great- er advantage. And they improved it to the utmost. Numbers were ready to gratify the resentment of Eu- doxia. And Arcadius, overcome by importunity, or- dered again his deposition. He was suspended and confined : his friends and followers were dispersed, ri- fled, killed, or imprisoned. Edicts were issued, severe- ly threatening all that refused to renouace commun- ion with Chrysostom. It was the season when the chatechumens, who had been instructed, were to re- ceive baptism. The friends of Chrysostom fled into the fields, to keep the festival. The emperor himself went out that day into a meadow adjoining the city, and espied a field covered with white. These were the chatechumens, who had been baptized the night before, and had then their white garments upon them, being near 3000 in number. The emperor, having been told they were a conventicle of heretics, ordered a party of soldiers to disperse them. Several women of quality were very rudely treated on this occasion, and numbers were imprisoned and scourged. Receiv- ing at length a warrant signed by the emperor to de- part, Chrysostom exhorted the deaconesses to contin- ue their care of the church, and to comnumicate with the bishop, who should be chosen by common consent, in his room, and once more retired, in the year 404. To Arsacius, the bishop appointed in his stead, the friends of Chrysostom refused to submit. They form- ed separate assemblies, and were severely persecuted. Among these was Olympias, an opulent lady, who had honored him abundantly, and had profitted much by his ministry. She had acted in the church as a dea- coness, and was now banished to Nicomedia, whence she supplied the exiled Chrysostorn with money^ There she lived many years an example of piety. Her beloved pastor w^as conveyed to Caucusus, a cold, bar- ren region, infested with robbers. There he preached frequently to a people, who generously treated and heard him gladly. In a time of grievous famine, whick S28 afflicted those parts, by the liberality of Olympias, he relieved the poor ; and also redeemed many captives from the Isaurian robbers. In the third year of his banishment, the suffering! of Chrysostom, from famine, pestilence and war, were great. His enemies, beholding him every where treated vvith respect, procured an order for his being removed even to the shore of the Black Sea. This order they set themselves to accomplish, but this faithful servant of Christ became so exhausted, that, before they had proceeded on their way four miles, he was extremely ill, and they were obliged to return with him. There, having received the Lord's supper, he made his last prayer before them all; and having con- cluded with his usual doxology, " glory be to God for all events," he breathed out his soul in the 53d year of his age, in the year 407, of the christian era. Behold, the Roman empire become christian ; idol- atry, with all the rites of heathenism, subjected to le- gal penalties ; the profession of the gospel exceeding- ly honorable ; and the externals of religion supported by the munificence of emperors, and by the fashion of the age, even with excessive sumptuousness ! And ask, why it was that the learned Chrysostom, eloquent be- yond measure, of talents the most popular, of a gen- ius the most exuberant, and of understanding the most solid and profound, magnanimous and generous in his disposition, of great liberality, sympathising with dis- tress of every kind ; of temper frank, open, ingenuous, and remarkably conciliatory, yet why was he persecut- ed with relentless hostility ? The answer is at hand. He was a determined enemy of vice, and his exem- plary piety and bold and pungent condemnation of iniquity, excited the hatred of the carnal mind. CHAPTER II. Augustine^s Confessions abridged. X ROM the latter end of the third century to the for- mer part of the fifth, we have seen a gradual declen- 829 sion of godliness ; and when we view, in the Wesit, the increase of monastic darkness and superstition ; in the East, the same evils to a still greater degree, attended with such an augmentation of iniquity, that even where all the formalities of godliness are preserved, the power of it is hated and persecuted in the same manner as by pagans; in fine, when the vestiges of christian truth are scarce discernible, we shall not be fat amiss in pronouncing, that, in such a state of religion, the wholesome effects of the first efifusion of the spirit of God are brought to a close. It is evident, that real Christianity, notwithstanding its nominal increase under christian emperors, must «oon have been extinct, if God had not interposed with a second great effusion of his spirit. He did so in the course of the fifth century, and the church arose again from its ruins in one part at least of the empire.* It behoves us to attend to this gracious display of divine goodness ; and for this purpose, we must look back into the last century, to trace the secret springs of this dispensation. They particularly involve the private Hfe of Augustine, bishop of Hippo. He was the great instrument of reviving the knowledge of evangelical truth. By a very remarkable work of di- vine grace on his own soul, he was qualified to contend with the growing corruptions. It is a happy circum- stance, that we have, in his confessions, a large and distinct account of his own conversion, — And who could relate it like himself ? I proceed to give an ac- count of these confessions : — the propriety and impor- tance of so long a detail will afterwards appear.f ♦The western, as will appear in the course of the narrative. j- The life of this great man was written by Possidius, sometimes called Possi- donius, a pious presbyter of his diocese, afterwards bishop of Calama. Though poorly written, yet it deserves to be mentioned, as it confirms the authenticity of the historical parts of the Confessions. Augustine was bom in the city of Tagas- ta, in Numidia, of creditable parents. His father, Patricius, continued a pagan till near his death; his mother, Monica, was renowned for christian piety. At the time of his full conversion to the gospel he was upwards of thirty year» (iage. PossiD. LiFfi OF August. BOOK I. Thou art great, O Lord, and m©st worthy to be prais- ed ; great is thy power, and of thy wisdom there is no end. A man, a portion of thy creation, wishes to praise thee, a man too, carrying about him his mortal- ity, carrying about him the evidences of his sin, and a testimony, that thou resistest the proud ; yet, even such a man wishes to praise thee. Thou excitest him,^ that he should delight to praise thee. For thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart is restless, till it rest in thee. Who shall give me to re«t in thee ? who ehall give me, that thou mayest come into my heart, and inebri- ate it, that I may forget my own evils^ and embrace thee, ray only good ? What art thou to me ? Pity me, that I may speak. What am I to thee, that thou shouldest command me to love thee, and be angry at mc, if I do not, and threaten me with the greatest mis- eries ? Is that itself a small misery, to be destitute of the love of thee ? Alas ! alas ! tell me by thy compas- sion, O Lord my God, what thou art to me ? Sat un- to MY SOUL, I AM THY SALVATION. So Spcak, that I may hear. Behold ! the ears of my heart are be- fore thee, O Lord ^ open them, and say . unto my SOUL, I am thy salvation. May I run after this voice, and apprehend thee. Hide not thy face from ME. May I die,* that I may see it, lest I die indeed. *The room of my soul is narrow, too narrow for thy en- trance. Oh ! do thou enlarge it. It is ruinous : O do thou repair it. It has what must offend thine eyes, I know and must confess. But who shall cleanse it ? or to whom shall I cry but to thee ? Cleanse me from TflY SECRET FAULTS, AND KEEP ME FROM PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. I BELIEVE, AND THEREFORE SPEAK. O Lord, thou knowestr Have not I confessed to thee my sins, and hast not thou pardoned the iniquity of my heart ? I will not contend in judgment with thee, who art truth itself ; for I would not deceive myself, lest my iniquity *He seems to -wish to undergo any mwtifieatiop, even loss of life iteelf, f^tU* «• thsm loose the enjoyment of his €led.«.. 231 Jae against itself. I will not contend in judgment witlht thee, for if thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, who can stand ?* But do thou suffer me to speak before thy mercy ; me, who am dust and ashes. Suffer me to speak, be- cause I address thy mercy, and not the scornfulness of proud men. Perhaps thou deridest the simplicity of my thoughts, yet wilt thou turn and exercise compas- sion upon me. What else would I say, O Lord, my God, than that I know not whence I came hither into this, — shall I call it mortal life, or vital death ? Thy compassionate consolations however received me, and and thou gavest me the aliment of infancy. Hear me, O God. Woe to the sins of men! And a man says these things, and thou pitiest him, because thou hast made him, and madest not sin in him. Who shall inform me of the sin of my infancy ? For none is clear from sin in thy sight, not even the infant, whose life is one day. Could it be a good thing, with tears to beg, w^hat it would be noxious to receive, to express vehement indignation against my elders and betters, if they did not comply with my will, and to endeavor, though with feeble blows, to revenge myself of them ? The imbecility of my infant-limbs was innocent, not 80 the spirit of the infant. I have leen and observed an infant full of envy, who could not yet speak : pale with anger he looked at his fellow-suckling with bit- terness in his countenance. But as I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother nourished me in her womb in sin, where, Lord, where, or when wa* I innocent ? But I pass by this whole time. For, what can I say of that, no traces of which I recollect ?t What miseries, Lord, did I experience, when I was directed, in the plan of my education, to obey my teachers, in order to the acquisition of that knowledge^ • It 18 obvious to observe, how a mind like Augustine's, altogether resting' •n grace, and free justification, i$ freed froiD t*ie Eolicitude of self-vindication in any part of his conduct: whereas, those who rest for salvation, in any degree, •r. themselves, we ever|teuipted to extenuate their sins. f The serious reader will not be inclined to pass over, in levity, these strik- ing proofe of the sinful propensity of nature exerting itself, antecedent to the growth of re«M* or tbe povvor of htibitr 232 which might be subservient to the attainment of false riches and honor? Yet, I sinned; O Lord, who or- dainest all things, except our sins ; I sinned in rebell- ing against the orders of parents and masters. That literature, which they wished me to acquire, with whatever intention, was yet capable of being applied to a good use. My disobedience arose, not from the love of better things, but from the love of play and a fondness for games and shows. Behold, Lord, these things with an eye of mercy, and deliver us who now call on thee ; deliver also those, who do not call on thee as yet, that they may call on thee, and experience thy deliverance. I had heard from childhood of the eternal life prom- ised imto us through the humility of the Lord our God, condescending to our pride. Thou sawest, when 1 was yet a boy, and seemed to be on the brink of death, through a sudden and violent pain of the stomach, with what eagerness I begged christian baptism from the charity of my mother and of the church. My mother, who travelled in birth for my eternal salvation, herself possessed of very lively faith and hope in thee, was hastening to comply with my desires, that I might wash away my sins, confessing thee, O Lord Jesus, when I was suddenly recovered to health. A relapse into pre- sumptuous sin, after baptism, being judged more dan- gerous, and the prospect of life admitting too great a probabihty of such relapse, my baptism was deferred. Thus did I at that time believe in Christ, my father being the only infidel in our family. My mother was sedulous, that thou shouldestbe my Father, rather than he, and in this she was favored with thy help : obedi- ent as she was to her husband by thy command, in this point she prevailed over him. Was the delay of my baptism for my benefit ? What is the cause, that we hear every where such sounds as Xhese, let him do WHAT HE WILL, HE IS NOT YET BAPTIZED. HoW mUCh better for me, had I been, in more early life, initiated into the fold of Christ ?* * The narrativej befoi'e ws may justly be called a history of the usu;* 1 opera* tions of the Spirit of God on his people. Convictions m early life, on retnarka* 23$ Yet, in childhood itself, though little dreaded by iiif mother, in comparison of the dangers of youth, I was indolent, and improved in learning only through ne- cessity. A false secular ambition was the only motive laid before me by my teachers; but thou, who num- berest the hairs of our heads, improvedst their error to my advantage, whilst thou justly punishedst the great sins of so young an offender by their corrections* The learning, which with no holy intention they taught me, was sanctified by thee, and my guilty laziness was scourged. So hast thou ordained, that a mind disor- dered by =^in, should be its own punishment. But why I hated Greek literature, in which I was instnicted when very young, I do not even yet suffi- ciently understand. For I was ibnd of Latin learning, not indeed the first rudimentSj but those things which classical masters teach. To read, and write, and learn arithmetic, would have been as severe drudgery to my spirit, as all the Greek literature. I lay this also to the account of my native depravity, which prefers the tvorse, and rejects the better* The uses of reading, writing, and arithmetic are obvious ; not so, the study of the wanderings of iEneas, which I attended to, while I forgat my own : — and of what use was it to deplore the self-murdering Dido ? while yet I could bear unmoved the death of my own soul alienated from thee in these pursuits, — from thee, my God, my life, O thou light of my heart, and bread of my in- ward man, and true husband of my soul, I loved thee not, I committed fornication against thee, and (such the spirit of the world) I was applauded with " well done" on all sides, and I should have been asham- ed to have been found otherwise disposed. Yet the friendship of the world is fornication against thee. This is the kind of literature, which has arrogated to itself the name of polite and liberal. Learning of re- Ijle occasions, are common among' these, and usually wear away, as in the case of Augustine. The examples of Cpnsiantine and Constantius deferring iheir bap- tism seem to have made the practice fashionable, not from any idea of the un- lawfulness of infant baptism, but from the selfish and pernicious notions, which be has stated. No wonder, that he, who justly thought that his own soul had, suffered much by the delay, was afterwaa'ds a strenuous asserter of the espec^' Qucy of more early bapiiMs. 2 F ^S4 a1 utility is lodkeGl on as low and vulgar. Thus, ia my childhood did I sin by a vicious preference. Two and two make four, was to me an odious sing-song; but the wooden horse, the burning of Troy, and the ghost of Creusa, were most enchanting spectacles of vanity. Yet why did I hate Greek literature, when employed on the same sort of objects ? Homer is most agreeably trifling ; to me, however, when a boy, he was. hj no means agreeable. I suppose Virgil would be the same to Grecian youths, on account of the ditHcul- ties of learning a foreign language. Discipline is need- ful to overcome our puerile sloth, and this also is a part of thy government of thy creatures, O God, for the purpose of restraining our sinful impetuosity. — From the ferulas of masters to the trials of martyrs^ thy wholesome severities may be traced, which tend to recal us to thee from that pernicious voluptuoua- ness, by which we departed from thee. Hear, O Lord, my prayer, let not my soul faint under thy discipline, and let me not faint in confessing to thee thy mercies, by which thou hast delivered me from all my own evil ways, that thou mayest endear thyself to me, above all the blandishments, which 1 was follow- ing, and that I may love thee most ardently, and em- brace thy hand with all my heart, that thou mayest free me from all temptation even to the end. For lo f my King and my God, may whatever useful thing I learnt when a boy, serve thee, may what I speak and read and number, serve thee, because while I wa^ learning vain things, thou gavest me thy discipline, and in those vain things forgavest the sins of my dehghts* For in them I learnt many useful words, though they mi2;ht have been learned, abstracted from this con- nexion with vanity, Alas! the torrent of human custom! who shall resist thee ? How long will it be, ere thou be dried up : how^ long wilt thou roll the sons of Eve into a great and tem- pestuous sea, which even they, who have fled for re- fuge to the cross can scarce escape ? Have not I read in thee of Jove, at once the thund^rer and the adulter- er ? What is this, but to teach men to call their crimen 235 no crimes, while they have the sanction pf gods, whom they imitate ? Terence introduces a profligate young man justifying his lewdness by the example of Jove, while he beholds a picture on the wall of Jupiter and Danae,* and excites himself to lust, as by divine tui- tion. Shall he do these things, who shakes hea- •V^EN WITH his thunder ? AnD MAY NOT I, A POOR MOR- TAL, DO THE SAME ? Yet I, my God, now indulged by thy grace, to behold thee in peace, learnt these things with pleasure, was delighted with them, and was call- ed a boy of promising genius. The motives of praise and disgrace then spurred on my restless heart to liter- ary exertions. What acclamations were made to a puerile exercise of mine on a particular occasion ! Were not all these things smoke and wind? Was there not another way of exercising my talents,— in cele- brating thy praise ? But, what wonder, that I departed from thee, my God, vvhen men w^ere proposed to me as objects of imitation, who would blush to be de- tected in a barbarism or solecism, in reciting their own actions though innocent, and at the same time might recite the story of their own lewdness, not on- ly with impunity, but even with commendation, pro- vided they did so with a copious and elegant flow of diction ? O thou God of long suffering, who permittest men thus to affront thee ! Wilt thou not deliver, from this horrible pit, the soul that seeks thee, that thirsts after thy delights, and says, thy face, lord, will I SEEK ? It w as by the darkness of libidinous aff'ection, that the younger sonf went to a great distance from thee, a gracious Father in bestowing on him thy gifts;, and still more gracious to him, when returning in indi- gence. How studiously exact are men in observing the rules of letters and of syllables, while they neglect the rules of eternal salvation ! Thou dwellest on high in inaccessible light, and scatterest penal blindness on unbridled lusts. A man shall seek the fame of elo- quence, while, before the crowded audience, he gujwds against the least false pronunciation^ and guards not at all against the fiercest malevolence of his own heait raging against his fellow^ creatures. * Terence an Eunuch: + Luke xr. 23S In this school did I wretchedly live. To please men was then to me the height of virtue, whilst I saw not the whirlpool of baseness, in which I was cast from thine eyes. For what more filthy than I, all this time, deceiving by innumerable falshoods both mas- ters and parents through the love of play, and amuse- ments ? 1 even robbed the storehouses of my parents, either from the spirit of gluttony, or to bestow things agreeable to my play-fellows, In my plays, I often sought to obtain fraudulent victories, overcome by the desire of vain excellence. Yet, what should I dread so much to suffer, or be so ready to accuse in another, if detected, as that very thing, which I did to others ; in which, however, if I myself was detected, I wai& more disposed to rage than to submit ? Is this puerile innocence ? far from it, O Lord. Change the scene only from pedagogues and masters, from nuts and balls, and sparrows, to prefects, kings, gold, and es- tates, and you see the vices of men, just as heaviejr punishments succeed to ferulas. Still, O Lord, in my childhood, I have much to praise thee for. Many, many were thy gifts ; the sin was mine, that I sought pleasure, truth, and happiness, not in thee, but in the creatures, and thence rushed into pains, confusions, and errors. I thank thee, O my Dehght and Confidence, for thy gifts ; but do thou pre- serve them for me, and the things which thou hast given me shall be increased and perfected, and I shall be with thee, because thou hast given me to be so*. * It is a very unjust sui-mise of Mr. Gibbon, to infer from Augustine's unwiU lingness to learn Greek, that he never attained the knowledge of that language ; when he tells us, ihat he was doubtless a person of uncommon quickness of parts. His sloth and other vicious practices in childhood were, I suppose, such as are common to children. But few are disposed to look on them as seri- ous evils, To Augustine's mind they appeared what they were, the mai*ks ot an apostate nature. Though, since the destruction of pagao idolatiy, there is by no means the same danger of reading classic authors, yet how justly blamable is the practice of leading boys so much to lewd poets, instead of acquainting them with the more solid excellencies of many prose authors!— A just selection of the most innocent and useful authors, and an insidious comparison of their senti- mcnts^with those of Christianity all along, will not only guard against the poison of the classics, but ijnstruct youth in the necessity and importance of revelation ; and school-masters, as well as children, may learn, in what we have seen, just 3T3att:er of rebuke for exalting literary above moral excellence. 237 BOOK II. I AM willing to record the scene of baseness and carnal corruption, which I passed through in my youth^ not that I may love them, but that I may love thee, my God. I do it with the love of thy love, recollecting my own very evil ways in the bitterness of memory, that thou mayest be endeared to me, O Delight that never deceives. Delight happy and secure, thou which collectest and bindest together the dispersed parts of my broken soul : while averse from thee, the only God, I vanished into variety of vanities If For I was inflamed in my youth to be satiated with infernal fires, and became as rottenness in thy sight, while I pleased myself, and desired to please the eyes of men. Love was my object ; but, by the excess of passion, the serenity of affection was lost in the darkness of lust. My weak age was hurried along through the whirlpool of flagitiousness. Thy displeasure was all the time embittering my soul, and I knew it not. " The noise of my carnal chains, and the punishment of my pride rendered me deaf to thy voice ; I went far from thee ; thou sufferedst it : I was tossed and agitated, and I overflowed with the ebullitions of lewdness, and thou wast silent, O my too tardy joy ! At that time thou wast silent, and I wandered deeply from thee among the barren seeds of woes, in a state of proud degradation, and restless weariness. Thy Omnipo- tence is not far from us, even when we are very far from thee ; I might have heard thy voice, recommend- ing a single life devoted to God, allowing indeed mat- rimony, and frowning on lewdness.^ But I burst all legal bonds, yet escaped not thy scourges ; — who of mortals can ? For thou wast always present, severely merciful, mixing all my unlawful delights with bitter alloys, that I might seek for pleasure without alloy or obstacle, and not be able to find the possibility of this, f The beautiful thought, thus diffusively expressed in our author's usual manner, is happily painted in a single word by the Psalmist, unite my heart t9 Ifear thy name. Ps. Ixxxvi. 11. * 1 Cor. vii. but in thee, tliee I saj, O Lord, who connectest pain with the breach of thy laws, and smitest that thou mayest heal, and slayest us, that we may not die from thee. Where was I, and how long did I live in ex- ile from thy house, in that sixteenth year of my age, when the madness of lust seized me altogether, and J willingly suffered the reins to be struck out of my hands ? To the disgrace of our nature, this species of lust is every where tolerated, though forbidden by thy laws.f My friends took no pains to bridle me by the wholesome restraint of marriage ; their anxiety was, that I should acquire the arts and graces of eloquence. That year I had vacation from my studies, being returned from Madaura, a neighboring city, where I had begun to learn oratory, at my father's house at Tagasta. He, with a spirit above his circumstan- ces, for he was but a poor freeman of the town just mentioned, determined to send me to Carthage, that I might have the greatest advantages for proficien- cy. Why do I relate these things before thee, my God, to my fellow creatures, the few of them, who may read these lines ? That both I and they may consider, out of how great a depth it behoves us to cry to thee. And what is nearer than thine ears, if the heart confide in thee, and the hfe flow from faith ? Who did not then extol the noble spirit of my father, laying out so much money on the education of his son; a spirit, so much superior to that of many much rich- er citizens, Avho had not the heart to send their sons to Carthage ? While yet he had no concern in what manner I grew up to thee. Whether 1 was chaste or not, cost him no thought, provided I was eloquent. In this year of vacation my passions were rampant without controul. This pleased my father, who, intox-- icated with liquor, expressed his pleasure on the occa- sion to my mother. She had lately begun to feel thy holy love, and had been washed in the laver of regen- t Would to God, that this were not the case in the christian countries, as well as pagan ! If the reader feel himself inclined to treat with levity the serious manner in which juvenile vices are treated by the author, he will, when better informed of the malignity of sin, condemn his own taste, not that of Aiigustise- 'J"he same contrast may be extended to the case of l?is th&ft which follows.- 250 eration. He was a catechumen in profession. Irt* stantiy, she conceived a pious trepidation on my ac- count. My God, thou spakest to me by her, and warnedst me strongly against the ways of vice. Thy voice in her I despised, and thought it to be only the voice of a woman, which made not the least impres- sion on my mind. So blinded was I, that I should have blushed to be thought less wicked than my com- panions, and even invented false stories of my sinful exploits, to obtain their commendation. My pious parent was prevented from encouraging me to marry, because she thought the usual studies, which I was now to enter upon, might be serviceable to promote in me the work of true religion. My father thought little of thee, much of his son, in vain expectations. Thus while they both were too anxious for my litera- rary improvements, I made progress in vice, and shut myself up in the darkness of sin,so as to bar up, against myself, the admission of thy truth as much as possible. Thy law certainly punishes theft, O Lord, and so does the /«?(;* writUn in the hearts of men. For what thief can bear another? Yet compelled by no want, I deliberately committed theft ; through the wantonness of iniquity and the contempt of justice. It was not the effect of the theft, but the sin itself which I wish- ed to enjoy. There was a pair-tree in the neighbor- hood of my father's vineyard, loaded with fruit, though not of the most tempting kind. At dead of night, in company with some profligate youths, I plundered the tree ; the spoil was principally thrown to the hogs ; for I had abundance of better fruit at home. Behold my heart, my God, behold my heart, which thou hast pitied in its deep abyss of sin. What did I mean^ that I should be gratuitously vvicked? I loved de- struction ilseif. In the common course of wicked- ness men have some end in view. Even Cataline him- self loved not his crimes, but something else, for the sake of which he perpetrated them. We are deceived by appearances of good, embracing the shadows, while we follow our own lusts, instead of seeking the sub- * H« meacB the roice of natural conscieace. See liora. ii. i5i 240 stance, which is only in thee. Th^s the soul commits fornication, when it is turned from thee, and seeks out of thee, that pleasure, honour^ power, wealth, or wis- dom, which it never will find in its genuine purity, till it return to thee. All, who remove themselves far from thee, and set up themselves in opposition, per- versely imitate some attribute of God ; though even by such imitation they own thee to be the Creator of the universe* This is the general nature of sin. It deceives by some fictitious shadow of that good, which in God alone is to be found. But what vicious or Ferverse imitation of my Lord, was there in my theft ? can conceive none, unless it be the pleasure of act- ing arbitrarily and with impunity against law ; a dark similitude of Omnipotence. O rottenness ! O mon- ster of life, and profundity of death ! Could I delight in what was not lawful, merely on that account, be- cause it was not lawful ? What reward shall I give to the Lord, that I can now recollect these things without fear of damnation ? will I love and bless thee. Lord, because thou hast pardoned such horrible evils. I im^^ pute it to thy grace that thou hast melted my sins as ice is melted. I impute also to thy grace my exemp- tion from those evils, which I have not committed. For of what was I not capable, who loved even gratu- itous wickedness ? I am sensiJDle, that all is forgiven^ not only the evils which 1 have actually committed, but also those evils which by thy guidance I have been kept from committing. He who, called by thee, hath avoided the evils which he hears me confessing, should not deride me a poor patient healed by the physician, since he himself is indebted to the same Benefactor for his health, or to speak more properly, for his being afflicted with a less degree of sickness. O the unsearchable seduction of pernicious friend- ship, the avidity of doing mischief from sport, the pleasure of making others suffer, and this without any distinct workings either of avarice or of revenge ! Let us go, let us do it, and we are ashamed to appear de- fective in impudence. Who can unfold to me the in- £41 tiicacies of this knot of wickedness ? It is filthy, I will pry no mere into it, I will not see it. Thee will I chuse, O righteousness and innocence, light honorable indeed, and satiety insatiable! With thee is perfect rest, and life without perturbation. He who enters into thee, enters into the joy of his Lord, and shall not fear, and shall be in the best situation in thee, the best. I departed from thee, and erred, my God, too devious from thy stability in youth, and became to myself a region of desolation. BOOK III. 1 CAME to Carthage surrounded by flagitious lusts. After thee, O my God, the true bread of life, I hungered not ; and though famished with real indigence, and longing after that which satisfieth not, I had no desire for incorruptible aliment, not because I was full of it; for the more empty I was, the more fastidious I grew. My mind was sickly ; having no resources within, she threw herself out of herself to be carried away by intemperate appetite. My sordid passions, however, were gilded over with the decent and plau- sible appearances of love and friendship. Foul and base as I was, I affected the reputation of liberal and polite humanity. I rushed into the lusts with which I desired to be captivated. My God, my mer- cy, with how great bitterness, and yet how kindly, didst thou mix that sweetness, by which I w^as miser- ably enslaved and beaten with ail the iron rods of en- vy, suspicion, fear, indignation, and quarrelling. The spectacles of the theatre now hurried me away, full of the images of my miseries, and fomentations of ray fire. The arts of the Forum noAv engaged my ambition 5 the more fraudulent, the more laudable. Pride and arrogance now elated my sou], though I was far from approving the frantic proceedings of the men called EVERSORES, who made a practice of disturbing modest pleaders, and confounding their minds by riots. — W2 Amidst these things, in that imbecility of judgment which attends youth, I studied the books of eloquence with the most ardent desire of vain glory, and in the course of my reading dipped into the Hortensius of Cicero, which contains an exhortation to the study of philosophy. This book was the instrument of effect- ing a remarkable change in my views^ I suddenly gave Up the fantastic hope cf reputation by eloquence, and felt a most ardent thirst after wisdom. In the mean time I was maintained at Carthage at my moth- er's expense, being in the nineteenth year of my age, my father being dead two years before. How did I long, my God, to fly from earthly things to thee, and I knew not what thou wert doing with me. And at that time, O light of my heart, thou knowest, though I was unacquainted with the apostolical admotiony TAKE HEED, LEST ANY MAN SPOIL YOU THROtJGH PHI- LOSOPHY AND VAIN DECEIT f that this was the sole ob- ject of my delight in the Ciceronian volume, that I was vehemently excited by it to seek for wisdom, not in this or that sect, but wherever it was to be found. — ■ And the only thing which damped my zeal was, that the name of Christ was not there, that precious name, which from my mother's milk I had learned to rever- ence. And, whatever was without this name, howev- er just, and learned, and polite, could not wholly carry away my heart. I determined, therefore, to apply my mind to the holy scriptures to see what they were ; and now I see the whole subject was impene- trable to the proud, low in appearance, sublime in substance, and veiled with mysteries ; and my frame of heart was such as to exclude me from it, nor could I stoop to take its yoke upon me. I had not these sensations when I attended to the scriptures, but they appeared to me unworthy to be compared with the dignity of Cicero. My pride was disgusted with their manner, and my penetration could not enter into their fneaning.f It is true, those, who are content to be little • Coloss, ii. f An excellent, description of the nsual effect of a little scriptural study ona proud mind, which, by the just judgment of God, is ^\\xn up to judicial infatua^ i^ and specious delusion in som© way or other: 243 children, find by degrees an illumination of their souls,, but I disdained to be a child, and, elated with pride, imagined myself to be possessed of manly wisdom. In this situation I fell in with the Manichees, men, who had in their mouths the mere sound of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and were always talking of the TRUTH, THE TRUTH, and yet formed the most absurd opinions of the works of nature, on which subjects the heathen philosophers far excelled them. O truth, how eagerly did I pant after thee, which they repeated con- tinually with their mouths, and in many huge vol- umes ! But they taught me to look for my God in the Sun and Moon, and also in a number of splendid phawtasies of their own creation.f I endeavored to feed on these vanities, but they being not my God though I supposed so, I was not nourished, but ex- hausted. How far did I wander then from thee, ex- cluded even from the husks which the swine did EAT ! For, the fables of the poets, which I did not be- lieve, though I was entertained with them, were pre- ferable to the absurdities of these lovers of truth. Alas! alas ! by what steps was II ed to the depths of hell ! — Panting after truth, I sought thee, my God, not in in- tellectual, but in carnal speculation ; but I confess to thee, who didst compassionate my misery, even while I was hardened against thee. The Manichees sedu- ced me, partly with their subtile and captious ques- tions concerning the origin of evil, partly with their blasphemies against the Old Testament saints.* I f The Manichees, so called from Manes their founder, had existed about au hundred years, it would not be worth while to notice them at all, were it not ibr their connexion with tlie life of Augustine. Like most of tlie ancient here- tics, they abounded in senseless whims not worthy of any sulicitious explanatiop. This they had in common with the pagan philosophers, that they supposed the Supreme Being to be material, and to penetrate all nature. Their grand peculiar- ity was to admit of two mdependent principles, a good and evil one, in order to solve the arduous question concerning the origin of eril. Like all heretics, they made a great parade of seeking truth with liberal impartiajity, and were thus qua- lified to deceive unwary spirits, who, suspecting their own imbecility of judg- ment the last thing in the world, and regardless of the word of God and hearty prayer, have no idea of attaining religious knowledge by any other method than by natural reason. *The Manichees objected to the characters of Abraham, Is^ac, Jacob, Moses, David, &c. on account of various actions allowed under the dispensation of their times, but forbidden under tlte New-Testament, and thence fonxied Jin argmnent against the divinity of the Old Testament. 244 did not then understand, that, though the divine rule of right and wrong be immutable in the abstract, and the love of God and our neighbor be ever indispensa- bly necessary, yet that there were particular acts of du- ty adapted to the times and seasons and circumstan- ces in which they were placed, which, abstracted from such considerations, would be unlawful. In much ig- norance I, at that time, derided thy holy servants, and was justly exposed to believe most ridiculous absurd- ities,- And thou sentest thy hand from above, and freedst me from this depth of evil, while my mother prayed for me, more solicitous on account of the death of my soul, than other parents for the death of the body. She was favored with a dream, by which thou comfortest her soul with hope of my recovery. — She saw herself standing on a w^ooden rule, and a person coming to her, who asked her the cause of her affliction, and on being answered, that it was on my account, he charged her to be confident, that where she was, there also I should be. On which she be- held me standing by her on the same wooden rule.— Whence was this but from thee, gracious Omnipo- tent ! who takest care of each and all of us, as of sin- gle persons ? When she related this to me, I endeav- ored to evade the force of it, by observing that it might mean to exhort her to be what I was ; without hesitation she replied, it was not said, where he is, there thou shalt be, but where thou art, there he shall be. Her prompt answer made a stronger impression on my mind than the dream itself. For nine years, while I was rolling in the slime of sin, often attempting to rise, and still sinking deeper, did she in vigorous hope per- sist in incessant prayer. I remember also, that she intreated a certain bishop to undertake to reason me out of my errors. He was a person not backward to attempt this where he found a docile subject. "But your son," says he, " is too much elated at present, and carried away with the pleasing novelty of his er- ror, to regard any arguments, as appears by the pleas- ure he takes in puzzhng many ignorant persons with his captious questions. Let him alone : only continue 245 praying to the Lord for him ; he will, in the course of his studj, discover his error. I myself, perverted by my mother, was once a Manichee, and read almost all their books, and yet at length was convinced of my er- ror, without the help of any disputant." All this sat- isfied not my anxious parent ; with floods of tears she persisted in her request, when at last he, a little out of temper on account of her importunity, said, "Be gone, good woman ; it is not possible, that a child of such tears should perish." She has often told me since, that this answer impressed her imnd Ijke a voice from heaven. BOOK IV. ,FoR the space of nine years, from the nineteenth to the twenty-eigth year of my age, I lived deceived and deceiving others, seducing men into various lusts, jopenly, by what are called the liberal arts, and secret- ly, by a false religion ; in the former, proud, in the latter, superstitious, in all things, seeking vain glory, even to theatrical applauses and contentious contests; and, to complete the dismal picture, a slave to the lusts of the flesh. So infatuated was I with the Ma- nichean follies, that I drew my friends into them, and with them practised the impieties of the sect. The arrogant may despise me, and all who have oever felt a salutary work of self-humiliation from thee, my God. But I would confess to thee my own disgraces for thy glory. What am I, left to myself, but a guide rashly conducting others down a precipice ? and when I am in a better state, what am I but an infant sucking thy milk, and enjoying thee, the bread that perisheth not? and what is any man, since he is flesh ? Let the proud and strong despise us 5 but we, weak and poor, would confess to thee. At this time I maintained myself by teaching rheto- ric ; and without fraud I taught my scholars, not how to oppress the innocent, but sometimes how to vindi- cate the guilty. I lived also with one woman, but 24& without matrimony. At this time I ceased not also to consult astrologers, nor could I be induced by the arguments of a very sensible physician, nor by the admonitions of my excellent friend Nebridius, to re- ject these follies. While I was teaching rhetoric in this manner in my native town, I enjoyed the friendship of a young man of my own age, a school-fellow and companion from in- fancy. Indeed there is no true friendship, except thou cement it among those who cleave to thee, through the love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. But it was a friendship too sweet, inflamed by the fervor of similar studies. For I had drawn him aside from the true faith, which he held not in a deep and genuine manner, into the Ma- nichean follies, on account of which my mother be- wailed me. And lo ! thou who pursuest thy fugitives, O God of vengeance and source of mercies, and con- vertest us to thyself by wonderful methods, lo ! thou removedsl him from this life, when I had scarce enjoy- ed his friendship a year, after my return to Tagasta. While he lay a long time senseless in a fever, and his life was despaired of, he was baptized without his own knowledge, a thing which I regarded with great in- difference, as not doubting but he would retain my in- structions which had been instilled into his mind rather than that which had been applied to his body, when he was ignorant of the matter. However, against all expectation, he recovered. As soon as I had an opportunity of conversing with him, I attempted to turn into ridicule his late baptism, in which I expected his concurrence. But he dreaded me as an enemy, and with wonderful freedom suddenly admonished me, that if I would be his friend, I should drop the subject. Confounded at this unexpected behavior, 1 deferred the conversation, till he should be thoroughly recovered. But he was removed from my madness, that he might be saved with thee to my consolation ; after a few days the fever returned and he died. How miserable was my life ! my country was a punishment, nay father's house a wonderful infelicity, and whatever I had enjoyed in common with him, without him Wa* torment itself. I found I could now no longer say, He will come shortly, as I was wont to do. If I said^ hope in God, my soul refused; for the man whom I had lost was an object preferable to the phantasm,* on which 1 was bid to fix my hopes. Weeping alone was sweet to me, and supplied the absence of my friend. Wretched I now was, and wretched is every soul that is bound by the friendship of mortal things. Be- hold my heart, my God; O my hope, who cleansest me from the contagion of such affections, and directest my eyes to thee, and pluckest my feet out of the net, O madness ! not knowing how to lov^e men as men ! 0 foolish man ! bearing with no moderation the lot of humanity ! The load of misery burdened me, which 1 knew thou alone couldst cure ; but I was unwilling and impotent, because when I thought of thee, I had only a shadowy idol before m€. If I attempted to throw my burden on thee, it returned upon myself, as I found nothing that would support it. I fled however from my country, and came to Carthage. Time, other objects, and other friendships, gradually lessened my sorrow. But happy is he who loves thee, and his friend in thee, and his enemy for thy sake. For, he alone loses no friend, to whom all are dear in him who is never lost, and who is he but our God, who made and fills heaven and earth ? None loses thee, but he who lets thee go ; and he who dismisses thee, whither does he fly, but from thee PROPixiouSy to thee AVERSE ? God of power! turn us, and shew thy face, and we shall be saved. For, wherever the soul of man turns itself, it fixes upon sorrow, except in thee. Be not vain, my soul, and deaf in the ear of the heart through the tumult of vanity. The word cries, that thou shouldst retuili, and there is rest. There with God fix thy mansion, there intrust what- ever thou hast, my soul, at least when fatigued v\ith fallacies. If souls please thee, love them in God, and carry them with thee (o him as many as thou canst, * He nveans the faiitastlc idea of God, which a!s a Man rhee be had em-- Ibraoed. 248 and say to them, let us love him^ he made these thingtj^ and he is not far off. The good J^ lo^^ is from him, but it will deservedly be bitter, if ye love it unjustly, deserting him. Ye seek a happy life: our life de- scended hither, and bore our death, and destroyed it from the abundance of his own life. After his descent will ye not ascend and live ? But why ascend, since ye are too high already ? Come down that ye may as- cend to God. For by rising up against him ye have fallen. Tell them these things, that they may weep, and so take them with thee to God, because thou say- est these things, from his spirit, if the fire of his love burn in thee. I made approaches to thee, and thou repelledst me, because thou resistest the proud ; and what was proud- er than to assert, that I was naturally what thou art ?* Alas ! of what avail was it, that I understood the logic of Aristotle and what are called the liberal arts, while I had my back to the light, and to those things w4iich really illuminate the face ? I had, it is true, a facility of comprehension, and acuteness in argumentation, thy gift, but I sacrificed not thence to thee. Hence they were to me a curse and not a blessing. Yet, all this time, I looked on thee as an immense lucid body, of which I myself was a fragment. How much better was it with thy children of more tardy genius, who did not recede from thy nest, but were fledged and grew up in safety in thy church, and nourished the wing of love with the aliment of sound faith! O Lord our God, let us trust in the shadow of thy wings. "Do thou carry us to hoary hairs."* When thou art our strength, we have strength ; our own is weakness. BOOK y. RECEIVE the sacrifice of my confessions, and heal all my bones, that they may say. Lord, who is like * In this blasplieiviy the Manichees followed the pag'un philr.socht-? s. They had no idea, alsr-, ihat God was a spirit. Hence our auiuov a ioiij^ conflict, be- fore he could fbim a spinluai .dea of God. f Isaiah xlvl, 4. t4B wnto thee ? The heart, that is shut against thee, ex- cludes not thine eje, nor does the hardness of men's hearts repel thine hand, but thou dissolvest it when thou pleasest, in compassion or in vengeance, and none can hide himself from thy flame. But may my soul praise thee, that it may love thee, and confess to thee thy compassions, that it may praise thee ! Let men be converted and seek thee, and behold, thou art there in the heart of those who confess to thee, and cast themselves upon thee, and in thy bosom deplore their evil ways ; and thou in mercy \A\t wipe their tears, that they may deplore still more, and rejoice in tears, because thou, Lord, refreshest and comfortest them. In the sight of my God I will give an account of the twenty-ninth year of my age. A Manichee bishop named Faustus, had now come to Carthage, a great snare of the Devil, and many were enchanted by his eloquence, which though I could not but commend, I yet distinguished from truth. Report had represented him as a very liberal and accomplished scholar. And as I had read many things of the philosophers, I com- pared them with the tedious fables of the Manichees, and found the former more probable. Thou regard- est, Lord, the humble; the proud thou beholdest afar oE No doubt the foretelling of eclipses, and other things that might be mentioned, demonstrate the truth of the philosophical sciences in secular things, though in their pride they departed far from thee. Unhappy is that man who knows all these things, and knows not thee ; but blessed is he who knows thee, though h« knows not all these things. But he, who knows both thee and them, is not happier on their account, but on account of thee alone is happy, if knowing thee he glorify thee as God, and be thankful, and be not vain in his imaginations. For, as he is in a bettei* situation, who knows how to possess a tree, and is thankful to thee for the use of it, though he knows neither its height nor breadth, than he who measures it, and counts ail its branches, and neither possesses it, nor knows nor has learned his Creator ; so the believer, whose property all the jriches of the world are, Ajsp Who HAVIPTG NOTHING, YET POSSESSES ALL I^Mt^fffSj- by cleaving to thee, whom all things serve, is indispu- tably better than the most knowing natural philoso- pher upon earth, who lives in the neglect of thee.* Yet the rashness of the Manichee writer, who undef- took to write of astronomy, though completely ignor- ant of the science, is inexcusable, especially as he Eretended that the Holy Ghost resided personally in im. The ignorance of a believer, in such subjects is very excusable ; even if he fancy his mistaken notions in natural philosophy to be branches of religion. But who can bear to hear a pretend^er to infallible inspira- tion venting absurdities on the works of nature ? Here then I had my doubts concerning the divinity of Ma- nicheism, and in vain proposed them to those of the sect whom 1 met with. " You must wait till the all- accomplished Faustiis comes to Carthage," was all the answer I received. On his arrival I found him an agreeable speaker, and one who could deliver their dotages in a more persuasive tone. But by this time I was surfeited with these subjects, and I had been taught by thee, my God, who hast instructed me mar- vellously, but secretly, that style and manner, however excellent, were not the same things as sound argu- ment. The address, indeed, the pathos, the propriety of language, and facility of expression in clothing his sentiments delighted me } but my mind was unsatis- fied. The proofs of ignorance in science, which I saw in Manicheism, connected with pretensions to infalli- bility, staggered my mind with respect to their whole system. On freely conversing with him, I found him possessed of all ingenuous frankness, more valuable than all the subjects of my investigation. He owned his ignorance in all philosophy, and left me convinced of it. Grammar alone, and some Ciceronian and other classical furniture, made up his stock of knowledge, and supplied him with a copiousness of diction, which received additional ornament from his natural vivacity • An excellent comparison between the state of an illiterate believer, wli»- feeds on Christ by faith, and that of an accomplished man of science, even of one skilled in speculative theology among other branches of knowledge, but destitut*? of spiritssal lite. 251