#^ ( PTMNCETOTSr. N. J. "^ Shelf.. BR 162 .W78 1881 Wordsworth, Christopher , 1807-1885. A church hi story to the Council of Nic a, A.D. 325 A CHURCH HISTORY TO THE COUNCIL OF NIC^A, A.D. 325. LONDON : GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. John's square. CHURCH HISTORY TO THE COUNCIL OF NIC^A A.D. 325 / CHR.^WORDSWORTH, D.D. BISHOP OF LINCOLN He went forth conquering and to conqvier." — Rev. vi. 2 ; and see Rev. xix. 11 — 17 JAMES POTT 12, ASTOR PLACE, NEW YORK MDCCCLXXXl \All rights reserved.] PREFACE It has long been the Author's wish to offer to the rising generation a view of the History, Doctrine, and Discipline of the Christian Church from the Day of Pentecost to the Council of Nic^a. This desire has been quickened by signs of the times at home and abroad. Many things seem to show that the Church ought to be preparing herself to live, as it were, again in the Ante-Nicene age. The predictions also of sacred Prophecy, which has foretold that the opposition, with which the Church had to contend in those earlier times after the first Advent of Christ, will reproduce itself, with more intensity, in the latter days, before His Second Coming, may now be deemed to be in course of fulfilment. In some countries, the Christian Church is sepa- rated from the State, as it was in the first three centuries of the Christian era. In other parts of the world, the temporal Power is withdrawing its support from the Church ; and in others, it is arraying itself in antagonism to it. These two latter cases differ widely from the former. In the former, many things may have made it diffi- cult for the State to ally itself with the Church ; in vi PREFACE. the two latter that Alliance, which may have existed for many centuries, is renounced by the State. Great and manifold are the evils, which may be expected to arise in these two latter cases ; evils pro- portioned to- the benefits which Nations have never failed to enjoy when they have made true Religion the basis of their Civil Polity. Whenever States have proposed to themselves the Divine Law as the rule of their temporal Legisla- tion, and have directed their public acts towards the promotion of the Divine Glory, and to the moral and spiritual welfare of their people, they have generally enjoyed that peace and prosperity, which are the gifts of Him Who is the Ruler of Kingdoms, and the Arbiter of their destinies. They have been usually blessed with Rulers who have been qualified to govern righteously, and with subjects who have been disposed to obey those who are set in authority over them, and whom they have regarded as Vicegerents and Deputies of God. " We agree," said Richard Hooker (when he uttered a prophecy which was fulfilled about fifty years afterwards, in the troubles ^ of the seventeenth century), '^that pure and unstained Religion ought to be the highest of all cares appertaining to public re- gimen ; as well in regard of that aid and protection which they who faithfully serve God, confess that they receive at His merciful hands ; as also for the force that Religion hath to qualify all sorts of men, and to make them in public affairs the more serviceable ; governors the apter to rule with conscience, and in- feriors for conscience' sake the willinger to obey." - 1 Hooker, V, Ixxix. 17. 2 Ibid. V. i. 2. 'PREFACE. vii But, on the other hand, little can be the hope of the Divine favour, and consequently of public hap- piness to Nations, if they imagine that they can prosper without obedience to the Divine Will, and without regard to the Divine Glory ; and if they subordinate the things of Eternity to the concerns of this present life ; and if they descend in a downward course so far as to rob God of His own property, and to sequester and secularize what has been solemnly dedicated to His worship and honour, and to the maintenance and advancement of the spiritual and eternal welfare of His people.^ Such a sacrilegious policy has usually received its retribution even in this world. When a Nation has withdrawn its allegiance from God, He rarely fails to chasten it by means of Rulers whose aims are mainly for their own private interest and personal aggrandizement ; and by means of a People which does not honour and obey its Rulers as representatives of the divine authority, and as entitled to reverence as such, but which considers itself as the source of power, and regards its own will as the measure of right, and proceeds to assert that will by physical force. And when such maxims as these have had due time to operate, and to permeate the masses of a population, by means of systems of primary and 3 This condition of things is described by the same author thus : "When the Kings of God's ancient people (some few excepted), to better their worldly estate, as they thought, left their own and their people's ghostly condition uncared for, then by woeful experience they both did learn that to forsake the true God of heaven is to fall into all such evils as men either destitute of divine grace may commit, or unprotected from above may endure. . . . We have therefore reason to think that all true virtues are to honour true Religion as their parent, and all well-ordered commonwealths to love her as their chief stay." Ibid. V. i, 4 and 5. viii PREFACE. secondary Education, which stimulate the intellect, but do not regulate the passions, or sanctify the will, by the teaching of Christian Truth, and by the influence of spiritual grace, then a generation of men will arise, wielding a tremendous force, impatient of con- trol, and arraying itself against whatever claims any prerogative, privilege, or pre-eminence, inconsistent with the predominance of popular Supremacy. At the same time, while this process of upheaving is going on in the masses of large populations in Towns and Cities^ there will be a gradual deterioration of the inhabitants of rural districts, demoralized, and almost paganized, by the drying up of those sources which flowed from the piety and bounty of former generations, and which were secured by law for the endowment and maintenance of a Christian Ministry, and for the promotion of Religion and Loyalty, and for the temporal and eternal welfare of the People. The National Revolutions which will thence ensue in forms of Civil Government are not difficult to foresee. But amid such political confusions and convulsions as these, there will be elements of safety and peace. When the foundations of Secular Institutions are shaken, and when anarchy prevails in Civil Society, then, in the wreck of Earthly Kingdoms, the minds of the faithful will be turned more earnestly to the Church of God, as alone possessing a permanence and stability, guaranteed to her by Him, but not promised to any earthly Society. Not indeed for worldly men will the Church of Christ have any attractions ; but in the eyes of those who are con- scious of the vanity of earthly wealth and honour, and of the instability of worldly dynasties, and of PREFACE. ix the fleeting fickleness of the things of Time, and of the momentous importance of the reahties of Eternity, the contrast of civil strifes and political turmoils will enhance her dignity and beauty. The Church of Christ is likened in the Canticles, or Song of Solomon,^ to a " Lily among thorns," by reason of the calm, silver light with which she shines in peace, in the dark shade, and in the midst of the briars and brambles of the manifold contradictions of earthly strifes. But in those last days of worldly trouble and confusion, she will be, if we may venture so to speak, like some noble Column or fair Temple stand- ing alone in a ruined City, or like a beacon Tower on a rock in the midst of a dark Storm, or like the Ark of God itself, riding in safety on the wild waste of the waters of the Flood. A remarkable illustration of the power of the Church to tranquillize troubled passions, and to har- monize contending parties, amid political strifes, has been presented to the admiration of Christendom in our own day. When about nineteen years ago, the greatest of modern Republics was agitated by an intestine warfare, which rent asunder for a time its Northern from its Southern States, and which was waged with intense vehemence for about four years, the Christian Church, which was common to both the belligerent parties, remained unhurt ; and exercised a conciliatory influ- ence over the minds of both, and was like a golden chain, which was never severed, and which bound them together in holy love. And when it pleased God to . assuage the violence of that terrible War, and to- restore peace to America, then the Bishops, Clergy, ■* Cant. ii. 2. X PREFACE, and Laity of her Northern and Southern States met in her Church-Coiincils as friends, and welcomed one another with a brotherly embrace, and greeted each other with a kiss of peace. This marvellous magnetic power, which the Bride of Christ has received as a precious dowry from the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love, and joy, and peace, will show itself with more energy and brightness in the latter 'days. True it is, that her temporal condition will be much affected by political changes and confusions in those days. It may be, that Almighty God in His wise providence intends to allow His Church to be chastened and purified by adversity, for placing too much reliance on the secular arm, instead of looking upward to Him for help ; and for bartering away some of her spiritual franchises for temporal advan- tages ; and for betraying sacred trusts, which ought to have been defended by her. He may purpose to. wean her from worldly things, and to teach her where her true strength lies ; and to exercise the faith and love of her members to their spiritual Mother by acts of kindness to her in her distress ; and to prepare her by the discipline of suffering and sorrow for her heavenly and eternal home. In such circumstances as these, the study of the divine dealings with the ancient Church of Christ will be fraught with spiritual comfort, instruction, and encouragement. That study will display the rise and growth of the greatest of all kingdoms, the Kingdom of Christ, which has already survived so many worldly Monar- chies, and will survive them all. Such a study will not limit itself to the times after the Coming of Christ. PREFACE. xi It will recognize, as a fundamental truth (taught by the greatest theologians of ancient Christendom), that there is only One Church of God, under different phases and conditions, from the beginning of the World to the end of Time. It will carry the thoughts back to Paradise, and to the preparations made for the building of the Church in this World by the creation of Adam, the figure of Christ ; * and by the formation of Eve, the Mother of all living, the type of the Church, from his side as he slept ; ^ and it will thus reveal a foreshadowing of the formation of the Church from the wounded side of Christ on the Cross. It will lead the student through a long succession of ages ; and he will see the Church of God — the City of God, the Kingdom of Heaven — existing in the family of the faithful, — in Abel, the shepherd of the flock, whose offering pleased God, and in Seth, and in Enoch, who walked with God, and was translated ; in Noah, the preacher of righteousness ; in Abraham, the father of the faithful ; and in all the Patriarchs, who saw Christ by faith ; in Isaac, the child of promise ; in Jacob, the father of the twelve Patriarchs ; in Joseph, in Moses, in Joshua, and in Samuel, and in all the prophets ; and in David the King, to whom God promised a perpetual Monarchy in his seed ; and in Daniel, the revealer of the two Advents of Christ, and of that Everlasting Kingdom which- will never be destroyed. He will see the Church of God in the Ark floating alone on the billows of the flood ; and in the Bush at Horeb, burning but not consumed ; and in the itinerant Tabernacle of the Wilderness, and in the stationary Temple at Jerusalem ; and in Sion itself, the City of God ; he will see the Church pre- announced in psalms, » I Cor. XV. 45—47. ^ Gen. ii. 21 — 24; "i- 20. xii PREFACE. and prophecies, and patriarchal histories, as the Queen at Christ's right hand, and as the Bride espoused from the heathen world (as Rebecca the wife from Mesopotamia, and Rahab from Jericho, and Ruth from Moab), and as represented, even as her Divine Lord was, " at sundry times and in divers manners," till at length, in the fulness of time, the promised Seed was born, and the " Desire of all Nations '^ came, in Whom all the families of the Earth are blessed, and Who purchased to Himself an Universal Church with His own most precious blood shed for her on the Cross. Such a study of Church History will show how the Church came forth from the wounded side of her Divine Lord, and was cleansed and sanctified by the sacramental streams of blood and water which flowed from that side, and was made the abode of God the Holy Ghost, sent down on the Day of Pentecost^ and was commissioned and empowered to preach the Gospel to all Nations ; and was ennobled and consecrated by the heroical magnanimity and patient endurance of Apostles, Evangelists, Martyrs, and Confessors, and other valiant men, and of hol)^ women ; and rose triumphant over all assaults of violent persecution from without, and over all the dangerous and subtle machinations of heresies and of schisms from within, till by the good guidance of God she attained such a position at the Council of Nicsea, as no power of the Enemy has ever been able to disturb. It may be, that Almighty God is reserving for the last age of the world the most severe trial of her faith, and the most signal proof and most glorious manifes- tation of the divine power of Christianity. PREFACE. xiii In the first three centuries, the might and love of Christ for His Church was seen in the grace and strength by which He enabled her to overcome the force of the Evil One, enlisting against her the arms of this world, and endeavouring to crush her by suc- cessive Persecutions. He then empowered her to win the Roman Empire to Christianity. But a still more illustrious evidence of the truth of Christianity, and of the abiding power and love of God to His Church, is in store for the last age. In the Apostolic and the sub- Apostolic age, heathen Nations, which had never known the truth, persecuted the Church, and she overcame them by suffering. But in the last age, Nations, which were once friendly to her, will apostatize from the truth, and will openly reject it ; and the Church will be like her Divine Lord on the day of His Passion at Jerusalem, when in the High Priest's Hall, and in the Praetorium of Pilate, and even when in that dark hour on Calvary He exclaimed, " Eli, Eli," on the Cross.^ In that last age, according to our Lord's sure prophecy, men will be slumbering in carnal security, and immersed in sensual indulgence, like the old World just before the Flood,* or like the inhabitants of the cities of the plain " on the eve of the divine judgment hanging over them. According to the same prophecy, " the abomination of desolation" ^ will be set up in the holy place ; and her condition will be like that of the Hebrew Church in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian Perse- cutor, the type of Antichrist ; and the state of the ' Matt, xxvii. 46. " Matt. xxiv. 37, 38. Luke xvii. 26, 27. " Luke xvii. 28 — 32. 1 Matt. xxiv. 15. Mark xiii. 14. XIV PREFACE. World will be, as Christ Himself has foretold, like the last days of Jerusalem/'' which rejected Him. But then, in that time of distress of Nations with perplexity,^ He, Who after His gift of the Holy Ghost to the Church, " went forth conquering and to conquer," "^ will again appear as a Conqueror,' triumphing over all His enemies and hers, and enabling all His faithful servants to be partakers of His victory ; and the Marriage of Christ and His Bride, purified from all mortal stain, will be celebrated, and the Church militant on earth will be transfigured into the Church glorified in heaven. Therefore to treat Church History aright, especially the Church History of the Ante-Nicene age, is a task which might seem fit to employ the pen of Inspiration. The Author of the present work is deeply con- scious how far it falls short of the idea which a reverent and intelligent student will have formed of the subject before him. The writer will only say that the design conceived in his own mind, was to write under the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost, impressing on his mind that leading idea, which animated and directed the minds of ancient Church Historians, such as Euse- bius and Theodoret, and especially S. Augustine*^ in his great work on the City of God, and which is un- folded by the Holy Spirit Himself in the Apocalypse of St. John, in the prophetic representation of the des- tinies of the Church from the first Advent of Christ to 2 Matt. xxiv. 3 — 42. ' Luke xxi. 25 ; see also Rev. vi. 12 — ^17. 4 Rev. vi. 2. * Rev. xix. 11— 14. « S. Axigustin.de Civitate Dei, lib. xv. cap. i, "Hoc universum tempus istarum duarum Civitatum excursus est ;" see the whole chapter, and indeed that and the following books of that work. PREFACE. XV the final consummation of all ^ things ; and to recognize, and to endeavour to display, in the History of the Church the progress of a great struggle between the two antagonistic powers of Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, the City of God and the City of the World ; and to show how, in all the successive stages of that great struggle, Evil has been overruled for good, and been made ministerial to it. And thence arises the sure hope, that, after the last Conflict, which will be the severest struggle of all, on the eve of Christ's Coming, the greatest good will ensue, — even everlasting glory and infinite felicity to all faithful servants of the Divine Head of the Church.^ Two minor matters, of a personal nature, seem to require notice. The Author has tried to give more life to the narrative by inserting extracts from ancient Christian Writers ; and it is due to the reader to explain, that he has not in all cases given a full and exact translation of those passages, but has sometimes been content with condensing or paraphrasing them ; he trusts, however, that in no case has he given them a meaning alien to that of their writers. He is obliged also to crave indulgence for the fre- quent occurrence of references in the following pages to some of his own writings, particularly to his Com- mentary on the Old and New Testaments, and to his volume on S. Hippolytus, and to some other of his works. His apology for this may be pleaded on the ^ See Rev. vi. and vii. 8 The circumstances of that last Conflict, and its results, are de- scribed by S. Augustine, de Civ. Dei xx. c.8, lo, ii, 13 — 21, andinxxii. c. 30, and in his letter to Hesychius "On the End of the World," Epist. 79. xvi PREFACE. ground that these references point to statements and authorities relevant to passages in the present volume, and that the insertion of those statements and authorities in it would have inconveniently added to its bulk. He trusts, therefore, that the reader will pardon those references. Lastly, he humbly commends this work to the blessing of Him Whose footsteps in the history of the Church he has endeavoured reverently to trace. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE On the Foundation, Constitution, Design, Office, History, and Consummation of the Christian Church . . . . i CHAPTER II. On previous Providential Preparations for the Work of the Church in the World, and on her Use of them ..... 12 CHAPTER III. On the Preparations for Christianity— Religious, Philosophical, Intellectual, Moral, and Social 17 CHAPTER IV. Apostolic Preaching— Its Principles, Method, Agents, and Progress 34 CHAPTER V. On the Constitution of the Christian Ministry— Bishops, Priests, and Deacons . . . . . . . ... 42 CHAPTER VI. On the Christian Sacraments— Baptism, Holy Communion (Obla- tion, Weekly Offertory) — Confirmation . . . .51 CHAPTER VII. Hostile assaults on the Christian Church — overruled for her good. First opposition fron\ the Jews. S. Justin ]\Iartyr's Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. Other Christian Apologies against Judaism . go a xviii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE Second assault against Christianity — from the Heathen. Also overruled for the good of the Church 77 CHAPTER IX. Persecutions of the Church continued — Popular Objections against Christianity — Apologies in behalf of Christianity — Tertullian . 88 CHAPTER X. Apologies continued — Epistle to Diognetus — Minucius Felix — Origen against Celsus . . . . . . . .105 CHAPTER XI. Persecution under Trajan — S. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and Martyr — His Epistles 122 CHAPTER XII. State of the Church under Hadrian — Apologies — Antoninus Pius — Justin Martyr — Persecutions under Marcus Aurelius — Martyrdom of S. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna . . . 148 CHAPTER XIII. The Rise and Growth of Heresies — Gnosticism — General Charac- teristics . . . . . . . . . .179 CHAPTER XIV. Schools of Gnosticism — Simon Magus, Menander, Cerinthvis, Ebionites, Carpocrates, Epiphanes, Naassenes, Ophites, Cainites, Sethites, Peratae, Saturninus, Basilides . . . . .187 CHAPTER XV. Gnostic Heresies continued — Tatian, the Encratites, Marcion ; the Clementines — the Elchasaites 197 CHAPTER XVI. Gnostic Heresies continued — Valentinus ..... 203 CHAPTER XVIT. Defenders of Christianity against Pleresy—S. Irenseus . . . 213 CONTENTS. xix CHAPTER XVIII. PAGE Defenders of the Church against Heresy — TertuUian . . . 234 CHAPTER XIX. Defenders of the Faith against Heresy — S. Clement of Alexandria 251 CHAPTER XX. Defenders of the Faith — Origen ....... 269 CHAPTER XXI. Defenders of the Faith — S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus Romanus, or Harbour of Rome — His Statue — His recently-discovered " Refutation of all Heresies " . 2S5 CHAPTER XXII. Tendencies of S. Hippolytus to Novatianism — Pleas urged in favour of that Schism — Occasion of its Rise and Growth — • Novatian at Rome — the first Antipope — against Cornelius — Novatus at Carthage against Cyprian — S. Cypiuan's Remon- strances— Action of S. Hippolytus — Intervention of S. Diony- sius of. Alexandria — Controversy on Baptism by Heretics — Carthage and Rome — Healing of the Schism— Inferences from it — Comments of S. Augustine and of Richard Hooker . . 308 CHAPTER XXIII. The Ethics of Christianity compared with those of Pleathenism — Lives of Christians ; Influence of Christianity oh Marriage ; Slavery ; Care of Sick and Dying ; Almsgiving ; Ransoming of Captives— illustrated from the life and writings of three ancient Fathers of the second and third centuries, TertuUian, Diony- sius of Alexandria, and S. Cyprian ; and by S. Laurence, Archdeacon of Rome — Acts and Martyrdom of S. Cyprian . 323 CHAPTER XXIV. Chronological Summary from a.d. 180 to Council of Nicaea, a.d. 325 — Persecutions and Martyrdoms — Benefits from — Proof of Truth of Christianity— Christ's Godhead— Inspiration of Scripture — Refutation of Infidelity — Infidel Writers — Christian Loyalty — Purification of the Church — Power of Divine Grace — Names of Martyrs— S. Alban 352 CHAPTER XXV. Councils and Creeds — General Remarks on Councils — Inferences from their History — What constitutes a General Council — a 2 XX CONTENTS. PAGE Ante-Nicene Councils — Council of Jerusalem — Councils of Carthage, of Antioch, Cirtha — Origin of Donatism— Council of Eliberis, or Elvira — Council of Rome — Council of Aries — Council of Ancyra — Council of Neo-Caesarea — Apostolic Canons (so called) and Apostolic Constitutions— General Reflections 387 CHAPTER XXVI. The Struggle of the Church with Arianism — Arius ; Constantine ; Hosius, Bishop ofCorduba ; Constantia ; Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia ; Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea ; Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria ; Athanasius ; Anthony, the Founder of Monasticism ; the Council of Nicaea ; the Nicene Creed and Nicene Canons — Inferences therefrom — Retrospect — Reflec- tions upon it— Conclusion 419 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Birth of Jesus Christ probably a. u.c. 749, four years de/ore the common era. See the Author's note on Matt. ii. 20. Our Lord's Presentation in the Temple, forty days after the Nativity. Visit of the Wise Men. Flight into Egypt. Herod's death, a little before the Passover, a. U.C. 750. Settlement at Nazareth. On the sequence of these events, see the note on Matt. ii. 9. A.D. 8. Jesus is catechized in the Temple at the Passover (Luke ii. 42—49). 14. Death of the Emperor Augustus (19th August). Tiberius succeeds. 26. Jesus Christ begins His Ministry (Luke iii. 23 ; cp. notes on Matt. ii. 9, 20). 30. The Crucifixion of Christ at the Passover. His Ascension, forty days after His Resurrection. The Descent of the Holy Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost fifty days after the Passover. 31, 32. The Events described in Chapters iii.— vi. of the Acts of the Apostles. 33. St. Stephen's Martyrdom (Acts vii.). Sail/ was then a j/oimg mail, veavias (vii. 58). St. Philip's Missionaiy Journey (Acts viii. 5 — 40). St. Peter and St. John at Samaria. Simon Magus (Acts'viii. 14— 24)- 34. Saul's Conversion (Acts ix. 1—22) : cp. Eztseo. H. E. ii. i ; and see note on i Tim. i. 13. Saul retires to Arabia (Gal. i. 17). 36. Pontius Pilate is recalled from his procuratorship in Judaea {yosep/i., Ant. xviii. 4. 2). Damascus occupied by Aretas, who appoints an Ethnarch there. xxii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. 37. " After many days " (ix. 25), Saul escapes from Damascus. Goes up to Jerusalem ; where he xo.vazxw.'i fifteen days, and sees Peter and James (Gal. i. 18, 19. Acts ix. 26, 27); and disputes with the Grecians ; Saul is sent to Tarsus (ix. 30). The Emperor Tiberius dies, 1 6th March ; Caligula succeeds. 38—41. " Rest of the Churches " (Acts ix. 31). St. Peter's Missionary Journey (ix, 32—43). He tarries at Joppa many days (ix. 43). Conversion and Baptism of Cornelius and other Gentiles at Caesarea (Acts x. i — 48). 41. The Emperor Caligula dies, 24th January, and is succeeded by Claudius. St. Matthew's Gospel written probably about this time (cp. Introdtution, pp. xlix — lii, and note on Acts i. 4). 43. Euodius, first Bishop of Antioch [Etiseb. Chron. ii. p. 269. Clinton, F. R. App. ii. p. 548). The Disciples first called Christians at Antioch (Acts xi. 26). 44. The Apostle St. James, the brother of John, is killed with the sword (Acts xii. 2), and St. Peter is imprisoned by Herod Agrippa, before Easter (xii. 4). Peter is delivered ; and Herod is smitten by an Angel, and dies at Csesarea (xii. 23). St. Peter departs from Jerusalem " to another place " (xii. 17). vSaul and Barnabas having been deputed by the Christians at Antioch (xi. 27 — 30) to bring supplies to the brethren in Judaea, on account of the anticipation of the famine foretold by Agabus, which "came to pass in the reign of Claudius • Csesar " (xi. 28), i. e. after January, A.D. 41, returned from Jerusalem to Antioch, with John Mark, who was connected with Peter (xii. 12), and with Barnabas. (See on xv. 39.) 45. The Ordination of Saul and Barnabas, at Antioch, to the Apostleship o^ t\i.e Gentiles. (See on Acts xiii. i.) Saul is henceforth called Paul. (See Acts xiii. 9.) St. Paul's "Visions and Revelations of the Lord" seem to have been vouchsafed to him about this time. (See on 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3.) T\iQ\\- first Missionary Jotirney to Cyprus (Paphos), and Pisidia, and Perga in Pamphylia (xiii. 4—13), whence Mark returns to Jerusalem. They visit Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra ; return to Perga in Pamphylia, and thence come back to the place of their ordination, Antioch, where they remain a considerable time with the disciples (Acts xiv. 26 -28). 49. A controversy arises at Antioch concerning the obligation of the Ceremonial Law (Acts xv. 1,2). CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xxiii A.D. 49. Paul and Barnabas, and some others, are deputed to go from Antioch to Jerusalem, " to the Apostles and Elders," ccn- cerning this matter (Acts xv. 2, 3). 50, 51. Council of Jerusalem, at which Peter and James, Paul and Barnabas, are present (xv. 6 — 29). Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch, where they remain some time (xv. 35, 36). Dispute of St. Paul and St. Peter at Antioch, concerning the Ceremonial Law, St. Peter is rebuked by St. Paul (Gal. ii. 11 — 13). The altercation and separation of Paul and Barnabas (Acts xv. 39)- Paul takes Silas (Actsxv. 40) on his second Missionary Journey, and afterwards Timothy also at Lystra (xvi. i). 52—54. St. Paul passes through Phiygia and Galatia to Troas (xvi. 6, 8). I'hence crosses over to Philippi (xvi. 12), Thessalonica (xvii. i), Beroea (xvii. 10); thence to Athens (xvii. 15). St. Lukes Gospel written probably about this time. See the Introduction to that Gospel, p. 168, and notes on i Thess. V. 2, 27, and 2 Cor. viii. 18 ; and cp. Clem. Alex, in Euseb. vi. 14. St. Paul comes to Corinth, where he spends a year and six months (xviii. I, li). Aquila and Priscilla come to Corinth. St. Paul writes his two Epistles to the Thessalonians . See the Introduction to those Epistles, pp. I, 2, and 25. St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians written probably about this time from Corinth. See the Introduction to that Epistle, pp. 36—41. St. Paul sets sail from Cenchre?e, the Eastern harbour of Corinth, in the spiing for Ephesus, on his way to Jerusalem, for the Feast, probably Pentecost (xviii. 18, 19). The Emperor Claudius dies (13th October, a. d. 54), and Nero succeeds. After a short visit at Jerusalem (xviii. 21), St. Paul returns by way o^ Antioch, where he spends some time (xviii. 22), and Galatia and Phiygia, v!\\qx& he confirms all the disciples (xviii. 23), and by the upper regions of Asia Minor (xix. i) to Ephesus; where he spends three years (xx. 31) — three months in the Synagogue, and tzuo years in the school of Tyrannus (xix. 8 — 10). 57- St. Paul's 7?;'^/ Epistle to the Corinthians. See Introduction to that Epistle, pp. 75—77. St. Paul, after three years' stay at Ephesus, quits it for Mace- donia (xx. i). XXIV CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. 57* ^i. Vq.\xVs secojid Epistle to the Corinthians, '^tt Introduction to that Epistle, p. 143. Comes into Hellas, and spends three mo7iths there (Acts xx. 3). 58. St. Paul's Epistle to the Ro?nans, written at Corinth or Cen- chrese. See Introduction to it, p. 203. St. Paul returns to Macedonia in the Spring, and arrives at Philippi for Easter (Acts xx. 6). Passes over to Troas (xx. 6). Touches at Miletus, where he bids farewell to the Presbyters of Ephesus, and gives them an Apostolic charge (xx. 17), and Tyre (xxi. 3), and lands at Coesarea (xxi. 8). Comes to Jerusalem after several years (xxiv. 17), for the Feast of Pentecost (xx. 16; xxi. 17), and brings with him the alms (Acts xxiv.) which he had been collecting in Asia and Greece for the poor saints at Jerusalem. (Rom, xv. 25, 26. I Cor. xvi. i ; see on 2 Cor. viii. 18; ix. I — 12.) He is accompanied by St. Lnke now and till his arrival in Rome, a=d. 61 ; see also below on a.d. 67. St. Paul is arrested by Jews at Jerusalem in the Temple (Acts xxi. 28). Is conveyed to Csesarea (xxiii. 23 — 33). 58 — 60. Remains two years in detention at Ccesarea (xxiv. 27). Epistle General of St. James. ^0.0. Introd. to it. St. Paul is sent by Festus, in the Autumn of A. D. 60, by sea toward Rome (xxvii. i); is accompanied in his voyage by St. Luke and Aristarchus. Winters at "Malta (xxviii. 1 1). 61. Spring ; St, Paul arrives, with St, Luke, at Rome. 62. Martyrdom of St. James the Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Pass- over. 62, 63. St, Paul is at Rome, where he writes the Epistles to the Ephe- sians'^ Colossians (see Introduction to Ephesians, p. 269), and to Philemon, in which he calls himself '■^Paul the aged''' (Philem. 9. See above on A.D. 33), and that to the Philippians at the close of his imprisonmejtt, A. D. 63. Is detained at Rome for " two whole yedrs," till the Spring of A.D. 63 (Acts xxviii. 30); where the History of the "Acts of the Apostles " concludes : cp, Euseb. ii, 22. 64. St. Paul, after his liberation from his first imprisonment at Rome, goes probably to Spain, and perhaps even to Britain. See on Rom. xv. 24, 28, and the Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles, pp. 418 — 421. Writes the Epistle to the Hebrews. The great burning of Rome by Nero, July 19. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xxv A.D. 64. In the Summer of A. D. 64, the first Persecution of the Chris- tians at Rome under the Emperor Nero begins. See Iti- troditction to the Epistles to Timothy, p. 417, note. St. Peter, at Babylon, writes his First General Epistle; and soon afterwards travels westward towards Rome. See the Introduction to St. Peter's First Epistle, pp. 36—44. St. Mark and Silvanus, or Silas, are with him, when he writes his First Epistle. See on i Pet. v. 12, 13, and pp. 43» 44- 65—67. St. Paul returns from the West in his way to Jerusalem, pro- bably with Timothy (Heb. xiii. 23). Perhaps leaves Titus at Crete in his way to Jerusalem ; and after his visit to Jerusalem performs his promise of visiting Colossse in Phrygia (Philem. 22). On his way to Macedonia, to visit Philippi, according to his promise (Phil. ii. 24), he commands Timothy to "abide ' at Ephesus" as chief Pastor there (i Tim. i. 3). St. Paul's /rj/^/z>//^/^ 7}'wt7%, Bishop of Ephesus. Seethe Introdjiction to that Epistle, p. 420. St. Paul's Epistle to Titus, Bishop of Crete. St. Paul passes a winter at Nicopolis in Epirus (Tit. iii. 12). Probably visits Corinth, where Erastus was left in charge (2 Tim. iv. 20). Comes to Asia, where he leftTrophimus at Miletus (2 Tim. iv, 20). Perhaps saw Timothy at Miletus. . St. Paul is arrested, probably near Miletus, and is sent a pri- soner to Rome. See the Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles, and notes on 2 Tim. i. 4, 13 ; iv. 13—17- Touches at Troas (2 Tim. iv. 13) in his way to Rome. St. Paul, in close custody at Rome, writes the Second Epistle to Timothy. St. Luke is with him, and he sends for St. Mark {2 Tim. iv. il). St. Peter's Second General Epistle written about this time. See Introduction to it, p. 69. St. Mark's Gospel written probably about this time. See Intro- duction to that Gospel, p. 112. 68. Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome. See the Intro- duction to the Epistles to Timothy, pp. 423, 424. The Emperor Nero dies on the 9th of June, in the thirty-first year of his age ; is succeeded by Galba. 69. The Emperor Galba dies on the 15th January, and is succeeded by Otho. The Emperor Otho dies on the 20th April, and is succeeded by Vitellius. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 69. The Emperor Vitellius dies on the 24th December, and is succeeded by Vespasian. 70. Jerusalem taken by Titus, the son of Vespasian ; the Temple burnt. Cp. notes on Luke xix. 43, 44 ; xxi. 20. 71. Triumph of Vespasian and Titus for the conquest of Judaea. 75. About this time Josephus writes his history of the Jewish War. 79. The Emperor Vespasian dies on the 23rd June, and is suc- ceeded by his son Titus. Eruption of Vesuvius, Aug, 24, buries Herculaneum and Pompeii. Pliny the Elder dies. 81. The Emperor Titus dies on the 13th September, and is suc- ceeded by his brother Domitian. 81 — 94. St. Judc^s General Epist/e, and i'/*. John'' s Gospel and Epistles written probably in this interval of time. 94. Josephus ends his "Jewish Antiquities." 95. Second Roman Persecution of the Christians. St. John writes the Apocalypse, or Revelation. See Intro- duction, pp. 156 — 15S. 96. . The Emperor Domitian dies on the i8th September, and is succeeded by Nerva, who rescinds many of his prede- cessor's acts. See Introdnction'\.o St. John's Gospel, p. 267, and to the Book of Revelation. 97. ^. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch ; Poly carp Bishop of Smyrna. The Epistle of S. Clement, Bishop of Rome, to the Corinthians written about this time ; and perhaps the ' ' Shepherd of Ha-mas. " 98. The Emperor Nerva dies at the end of January, and is suc- ceeded by Trajan. [oo. The Apostle and Evangelist St. John dies at Ephesus about this time (Iren. iii. 3). [03. Pliny the Vounger, Governor of Bithynia and Pontus, arrives in his province, Sept. 13. His correspondence with the Emperor Trajan on the judicial procedure to be adopted with regard to the Christians. 113, 114. Dedication of Trajan's forum and column at Rome. 115. Earthquake at Antioch in Syria early in this year; the Consul Pedo perishes in it. Trajan hurt by it— escapes through a window. S. Ignatius arraigned before Trajan at Antioch in the early spring of the year ; condemned to be sent a prisoner to Rome to be martyred by lions. He is at Smyrna with S. Polycarp in August ; writes Epistle to the Romans there, Aug. 24; passes through Troas, Neapolis, Philippi to Portus Romanus or harbour of Rome in the Tiber. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. 115. Seven Epir,tles of Ignatius. Ignatius martyred in the Colosseum at Rome, Dec. 20. 116. S. Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians. 117. The Emperor Trajan dies in Cilicia, Aug. ii. Hadrian succeeds. 119. Hadrian associates Q. Junius Rusticus with himself in the Consulship. Suetonius, the biographer of the Caesars, acts, it is supposed, as the Emperor's Secretary. Quadratus and Aristides present Apologies to Hadrian (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 19 and 20). 129. Earthquake in Bithynia. 132. Hadrian divinizes Antinous; plants a Roman Colony at Jerusalem, which exasperates the Jews to a rebellion. 133. Insurrection of Barcochebas (a false Christ) in Palestine. 134. Gnostic Heretics in succession,— Saturninus, Basilides, Me- nander, Valentinus. I3^_I37. More than half a million of Jews perish in the revolt. Jeru- salem destroyed by Hadrian, who calls it after his own name Ailia Capitolina. Jews forbidden to enter it. Mark the first Gentile Bishop of the Church there. 138. The Emperor Hadrian dies at Baiae, July 10, and is succeeded by Antoninus Pius, whom he had adopted on Feb. 25 before. Antoninus Pius had adopted M. Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Justin Martyr's first Apology (addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius) is assigned by some to this year. Herodes Atticus (of Marathon, Consul A.D. 143) the Rhe- torician and Sophist, and Cornelius Fronto, tutors of the two Caesars in Rhetoric ; Junius Rusticus and Apollonius (Stoics) in Philosophy. 144. Marcion's heresy in the time of Antoninus Pius (Tertullian, Marcioni. I9),when Justin wrote his first Apology (i. c. 70). Justin wrote a work against Marcion (Iren. iv. 4). 150. Celsus writes against Christianity about this time. 152. Hegesippus, the Church annalist, flourished. 155. S. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, comes to Rome, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, and in the Pontificate of Anicetus, and meets Marcion (Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 17). Valentinus had then propagated his heresy there (ibid.). Feb. 23. Martyrdom of S. Polycarp at Smyrna, according to some ; see A.D. 166, and below, p. 161, note. 161. The Emperor Antoninus Pius dies, March 7, and is suc- ceeded by Marcus Aurelius, who associates L. Verus (eight years his junior) in the Empire as Augustus. xxviii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. • i6i. Birth of Commodus, the future Emperor. 162. Justin Martyr presents his second Apology to Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 23). It is supposed by Borghesi to have been presented to Anto- ninus Pius ; see below, p. 152. Martyrdom of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas placed by some at this time ; see below, p. 152. Bologesus, King of Parthia, declares war against Rome. Parthian War. Campaign of Verus in the East. 163. Martyrdom of S. Justin Martyr. Apologies of Melito, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Miltiades, Apollinarius in this reign. Lucian de Morte Peregrin! about this time. . 165. Avidius Cassius pursues Bologesus, King of Parthia. 165, 166. A great Pestilence brought from the East. Galen practises Physic at Rome. 166. Feb. 23. Martyrdom of S. Polycarp by fire at Smyrna is placed by some in this year or in 165 (see A.D. 155). Commodus is made Casar, Oct. 12. 168. Death of Pope Anicetus (Euseb. iv. 19); succeeded by Soter. Apology of Athenagoras between 165 and 169, being dedi- cated to Verus, who died in A.D. 169. 1 69. Verus, having returned from the East, dies at Altinum. 172. Marcus Aurelius writes ^^ de Seipso " about this time. 173. Montanism — Tatian. 1 74. Victory of Marcus Aurelius over the Quadi. ' ' The Thundering Legion." Tertullian's Apology written after this, pro- bably about A.D. 202, and before he became a Montanist, as he did before A.D. 207. 175. Aristides writes his UpoX K6yoi about this time. 176. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius returns .to Rome after eight years' absence ; associates his son Commodus with him in the Empire. 177. Eleutherus Bishop of Rome. Smyrna almost destroyed by an Earthquake ; restored by the Emperor. Persecutions of Christians in Gaul. Martyrdoms at Vienne and Lyons. Irenasus at Rome ; he succeeds Pothinus (who died a Martyr at nearly ninety years of age) as Bishop of Lyons (Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 35). 180. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius dies at Vienne, March 16, and is succeeded by his son Commodus, who under the CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, influence of his concubine Maria is favourable to the Christians. l8i. Theophilus ad Autolycum. 185. Origen born. 187. S. Irenaeus "floruit sub Commodo " (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 35). 189. Clement of Alexandria. Victor Bishop of Rome. Tertullian. 192. Commodus assassinated ; he is succeeded on Jan. ist, 193. by Pertinax, who is killed on March 28th. He is succeeded by Julianus, who is killed on June 2nd, and is succeeded by Severus. Clemens Alexandrinus writes "Stromata" under Severus. "Floruit Severi et Antonini filii ejus temporibus" (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 38). 211. Tertullian ad Scapulam soon after this year. Severus dies at York, Feb. 4 ; succeeded by his sons Caracalla and Geta. Caius against Proclus in the time of Zephyrinus (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 59). 212. Geta killed by his brother Caracalla about Feb. 27 in this year. 213. Origen at Rome in the time of Zephyrinus. 216. Noetus the Patripassian heretic (Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 54). 217; Caracalla slain, April 8 ; is succeeded by Macrinus. 218. Callistus Bishop of Rome. Macrinus defeated and killed in June by Elagabalus, who succeeded him. Pope Zephyrinus is succeeded by Callistus. S. Hippolytus Bishop of Portus Romanus. 222. Elagabalus slain, March 1 1 ; succeeded by Alexander Severus. Paschal Cycle of S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus Romanus. 223. Urbanus Bishop of Rome. 228. Origen ordained to the Priesthood at Caesarea. 230. Pontianus Bishop of Rome ? S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, writes his "Refutation of all Heresies " between a.d. 230 and 240. 235. Alexander Severus slain in March, and succeeded by Maxi- minus, who persecutes the Church. Anterus Bishop of Rome. 236. Fabianus Bishop of Rome. 238. Maximinus killed ; succeeded by Gordian. 244. Gordian slain in the spring, and is succeeded by Philippus, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. who is supposed by some to have been a Christian (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 54). Peace of the Church during the five years of his reign. 248. S. Dionysius of Alexandria. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage. Origen against Celsus. 249. The Emperor Philip defeated and slain at Verona ; succeeded by Decius, who rages against the Christian friends of his predecessor (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 54). 2.50. Decius. Fierce and general Persecution of the Church. Babylas martyred at Antioch. Lapsi and Traditores. 251. Cornelius Bishop of Rome. Novatian Antipope. Cyprian and Felicissimus. Novatus. Decius is slain, and succeeded by Gallus. Persecution under Gallus. 252. Martyrdom of Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, Sept. 14. 253. Stephen Bishop of Rome. Cyprian de Mortalitate. Gallus slain, and succeeded by Valerian and his son Gallienus. Origen dies. 256. Persecution under Valerian at the end of this year, lasts three years. 258. S. Xystus, Bishop of Rome, martyred, Aug. 6 ; succeeded by Dionysius. S. Laurence, Archdeacon of Rome, martyr, Aug. 10. S. Hippolytus, martyr, perhaps Aug. 13 in this year. S. Cyprian martyr, Sept. 14. 259. Dionysius Bishop of Rome. 260. The Emperor Valerian taken captive by Sapor, King of the Persians. Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch. 263 — 268. Porphyry, scholar of Plotinus, at Rome. 264. First Council of Antioch against Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch (see chap. xxiv.). 268. Gallienus slain ; succeeded by Claudius Gothius. 269. Council of Antioch against Paul of Samosata, who is deposed, but is supported by Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra. Felix Bishop of Rome. 270. Gallus dies ; is succeeded by Aurelian. Porphyry writes against Christianity. 272. The Emperor Aurelian defeats Zenobia ; confirms the sentence of the Council against Paul of Samosata. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. 273. Longinus, the Author of the Treatise on the Sublime, and friend of Zenobia, dies. 275. Aurelian slain ; succeeded by Tacitus, who is succeeded liy Probus in 276. Eutychianus Bishop of Rome. 282. Probus slain ; succeeded by Carus and his sons. '2'^Z. Caius Bishop of Rome. 284. Diocletianusjovius succeeds, who 285. associates Maximinus Heraclius with himself as Augustus (Era of Martyrs.) 292. Constantius Chlorus' (father of Constantine) and Galerius are declared Caesars. 296. Marcellinus Bishop of Rome. 303. Edict for general Persecution of Christians throughout the Em- pire, published by Diocletian and Galerius at Nicomedia. 304. Porphyry writes Life of Plotinus. 305. Diocletian and Maximian abdicate. Comparative Peace of the Church. Council of Eliberis (Elvira) in Spain. 306. Constantius, father of Constantine, dies at York, July 15. 307. Constantine assumes the title of Augustus. Lactantius writes his Institutiones between 307 and 310. 308. Marcellus Bishop of Rome. 310. Death of Maximian. Eusebius Bishop of Rome. 311. Death of Galerius. Maxentius persecutes the Church. Miltiades (or Melchiades) Bishop of Rome. 312. Edict of Toleration of the Church published at Milan by Constantine and Licinius. Constantine marches towards Rome against Maxentius. " Vision of the Cross," Oct. 26. Oct. 27. Maxentius defeated and drowned in the Tiber. Constantine enters Rome in Triumph. 313- Edicts favourable to Christianity published by Constantine. Council at Rome. 314. Silvester Bishop of Rome to a.d. 335. Council of Aries. ,, Ancyra. .,, Neo-Coesarea (chap. xxiv.). 316. Csecilian, Bishop of Carthage, opposed by the Donatists. On the case of Ca^cilian, see chap. xxiv. 317—321. Laws favourable to Christians. Observance of Lord's Day (see below, chap. xxiv.). xxxii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. 319. Arianism Alexandria. 323. Licinius is defeated at Adrianople. 324. Constantine sole Emperor. 325. Other Laws favourable to Christianity. Council of Nic^a from the middle of June (perhaps June 19) to the 25th of August. CHAPTER I. Oil the Foundation, Constitntion, Design, Office, History^ and Consummation of the Christian Chnirh. There is One Church of God from the becrinnincf of the world to the end. In Paradise, after the Fall, under the Patriarchs, under the Levitical Law, after the Incarnation of the Son of God, even to His Second Advent, the Church has been, is, and ever will be, one. Ploly men before His Coming believed in Christ to come ; holy men after His Coming be- lieved in Him having come. The times of the Church have changed ; her faith is always the same. At the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Church acquired UniversaHty in time and space, and became partaker of the Divine Nature by her mystical union with Him as His Bride, and as Queen at His right hand, and was admitted to an inheritance and partner- ship in that kingdom which will never be destroyed. The Eternal Son of God, Who was made very Man, laid the foundation of the spiritual building of His Church on Himself. " Other foundation can no mart lay than that which is laid (or rather which lieth *) , which is Jesus Christ," says St. Paul. The Church was not built up during Christ's earthly ministry. He speaks of that building up as ' rhv Kdi^evoy, I Cof. iii. II. B 2 CHRIST'S PROMISES TO THE CHURCH. future. Having put the question to His Apostles, " Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am ? " and having elicited from St. Peter the good confession that He Who is Son of Man (that is, verily and really Man, with a human body, soul, and spirit) is also the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the promised Prophet, Priest, and King, and is also the Son of the Living Gody — Everlasting Son of Ever- lasting Father, — He declared that on this Rock, that is, on Hi^nself^- — confessed to be God and Man, and to be the Christ, — He Himself would build up His Church, — "On this Rock / will build My Church." The Church is My Church, not Man's ; its building up. He said, was still future, and He would build it up upon Himself. He revealed to His Disciples also at the same time that the Church would have many enemies, — Spiritual Powers, going forth from tJie Gates of hell to assail it ; and that though they were mighty, and their assaults would be violent and continuous, they would never prevail against it. He declared also that He would send the Holy Ghost the Comforter, to teach the Church all things, to guide it into all tnUh, and to abide zvith it for ever ; ^ and that He Himself would be with it always (literally all days) even to the end of the world.^ It might perhaps have been anticipated that the Church, having this constitution and these assurances, would have been preserved pure and holy without ad- mixture of error in doctrine, or viciousness of life. But her Divine Head warned her against such a 2 Matt. xvi. i8. The authorities for this exposition maybe seen in my notes on the passage. 3 John xiv. i6, 26 ; xvi. 13. •* Matt, xxviii. 20. HIS PROPHECIES CONCERNING IT. 3 supposition. He taught her that during the whole of her continuance on earth, evil would be mingled with good, and that not till the consummation of all things would the severance be made. This mixed and imperfect condition of the Church, the " kingdom of heaven " upon Earth ; and the endeavours of " the Enemy," the Devil, to gain dominion in it and over it, by taking advantage of the failings of men who would sleep when they ought to watch ; and the full, final, and eternal separation of the Evil from the Good at the end of the world, are represented by Our Lord in His Parables, especially in that of the Tares and the Wheat in the same field, His Field ; ^ and of the good fish and the bad fish in the same net;*^ and in His prophecy concerning the future Resurrection of all men, and of the universal Judgment at the Great Day, when He, Who is Son of Man, will come in His Glory, and as King will sit on the throne of His Glory, and will separate the wicked from the righteous, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and will consign the wicked to " ever- lasting punishment," and receive the righteous to life everlasting.^ For this Church, His Bride, He died upon the Cross : He cleansed her and purchased her with His own blood.^ Almighty God in Paradise formed (literally ^/^///, Hebr., Gen. ii. 23) Eve, the Bride of Adam, from the side of Adam as he slept, and she became " the mother of all living'' (Gen. iii. 20). So the spiritual Eve, the Church, the Bride of the Second Adam, " Who is the •^ Matt. xiii. 24 — 30, 36—43. ^ Matt. xiii. 47, 48. " Matt. XXV. 31 — 46. ^ Acts XX. 28 ; Eph. v. 25, 26 ; i Pet. i. 2 ; i John i. 7. B 2 4 CHRIST'S ACTS AND SAYINGS Lord from heaven" (i Cor. xv. 47), and the Author of the new, regenerate race, was formed from Christ, the Second Adam, sleeping in death on the cross, and she owes her Hfe ^ to the sacramental streams of Blood and Water which then issued from His side ; and by her union with Him, and by the ministry of the Word and Sacraments instituted by Him, she imparts the life to all which she receives from her Lord. Jesus Christ is the universal King to whom *' all power is given in heaven and in earth" (Matt, xxviii. 18), and His Bride, the Church, is the Queen at His right hand (Ps. xlv. 9). In the interval of forty days between His Resurrec- tion and Ascension into heaven, Christ did not abide with His disciples continually, but appeared to them from time to time, '* showing Himself to them alive,'' that is, assuring them of His real Humanity and per- sonal identity; while by His sudden appearances in the midst of them, and as sudden disappearing from them, He proved to them His divine power, and the spiritual nature of His. risen Body. At the same time, by that intercourse with them He trained them in all necessary knov/ledge concern- ing His mystical Body, " the kUigdom of heavc7i " (Acts i. 3), and prepared and qualified them to be His agents in building up His Church. All His acts in those forty days were conducive to these purposes. In His walk to Emmaus, and in His subsequent appearance to the assembled disciples in the upper room at Jerusalem on the evening of His Resurrection, He authenticated tJie Cano7i of the Holy ^ Her name (KwpiaKry) marks that her life is derived from her Lord (KiVtos), as Eve was called Is/ia/i, woman, because she was taken out of man [Ish), Gen. ii. 33. AFTER HIS RESURRECTION, 5 Scriptures of the Old Testament, — '* Moses and the Prophets," '* Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms " (see on Luke xxiv. 27, 44), and avouched their divine truth and inspiration. At the same time He gave to His disciples the key to the true i}itcrp7'etation of the Holy Scriptures as bearing witness to Himself, His sufferings, and His glory (Luke xxiv. 26, 27, 44—46). He also gave them 2. ministerial connnissio7i\.o x^m\\. and retain sins ; and by breathing on them, and saying, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He declared to them from what fountain the virtue of that Commission was derived, namely from Himself, Who would send to them the fulness of the gift of the Holy Ghost, to dwell in them and their successors for ever, and to enable and qualify them for their work (John xx. 22, 23). He also set His own Divine seal on the com- mission of the Apostolic Ministry appointed by Him to dispense the Word and Sacraments to every age, and in every clime, by saying, " Go ye and teach " — make disciples of — " all nations." And He declared that the appointed entrance for admission into His Church is by the Sacrament of Baptism into the Name of the Ever-Blessed Trinity in Unity, that is, by pro- fession of Faith and Obedience to One God, — One Name in Three distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you " (Matt. xxvdii. 19, 20). He spoke of the gradual extension of their mission, " Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon }ou, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jcrtisalcm, and ifi all Jjidcea, and in Samaria^ and unto the uttermost parts of the earth " (Acts i. 8). 6 CHRIST AND MOSES. He foretold the future success of that ministry by the miraculous draught of the Jmndred and fifty-three ' great fishes, drawn to the shore in an unbroken Ner; and representing the future bringing together of the Elect, in the Unity of the Faith of the Church, by the net of Apostolic preaching, to the shore of Everlasting Life. Under the Old Dispensation, after forty days and forty nights Moses had received in the mount the pattern of the Levitical Tabernacle and its furniture (Exod. xxiv. 1 8 ; xxxiv. 28. Deut. ix. 9), and was commanded to make all things according to that pattern ; and he gave instructions to its workmen, the Bezaleels and Aholiabs of the Sanctuary, for that purpose (Exod. xxv. 40 ; xxvi. 30. Num. viii. 4. Acts vii. 44. Heb. viii. 5). Similarly Jesus Christ, our divine Moses, after an interval of forty days, when He had ascended into heaven, received and delivered the pattern of His Church. And on the fiftieth day, the day fore- shadowed by the first Pentecost or fiftieth day which followed the first Passover, and on which the Law engraven on stones was given from Mount Sinai, He gave the Holy Spirit to write the Evangelical Law on the " fleshy tables of their hearts," and to ' The number 153 = 144 + 9. 144 is the square of 12, the Apostolic number ; and 9 is the square of 3, the number of the Persons of the Ever- Blessed Trinity. The number 153 may perhaps represent the per- fected number of the Elect, who hold the faith of the Ever-Blessed Trinity, and who have been gathered together by the Net of Apostolic preaching. So, perhaps, the nvunber 144,000 in Rev. vii. i — 9, the square of 12 multiplied by 100, represents the perfected number of those of all nations who hold the Apostolic doctrine and discipline. The Apostolic number itself, 12=3 X 4, may represent the doctrine of the Trinity preached everywhere to the 4 corners of the earth. THE CHURCH BUILT UP AT PENTECOST. 7 enable them to build up and to furnish the Tabernacle of the Universal Church. On the day of the first Christian Pentecost, the prophecy of the Lord was fulfilled, " On this Rock I will build My Church." On that day the Church Universal was built up. The Day of Pentecost was celebrated by the Apostles as the Coronation Day of Christ as King, and as the inauguration of His King- dom by acts of Divine Power and by royal gifts and largesses of Divine Love to men. " He ascended far above all heavens" (says St. Paul, Eph. iv. lo — 12), " that He might fill all things ; and He gave some (to be) Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,'^ i. e. for the building up of the Church Universal. In another passage which deserves careful attention, in his First Epistle to the Bishop of Ephesus, Timothy, St. Paul describes the character and office of the Church (i Tim. iii. 15). The Church, he says, is the House of God, wherein He dwells. It is the Church (not of any man, but) of the Living God. Its charac- ter as being always visible^ and as a guide to lead men to heaven, by being settled and grounded on Christ its Rock, is described by the Apostle's word cj-TuXo? {pillar), — the word always applied in the Greek Version to the Pillar of Cloud and Fire which led the Israelites through the wilderness to Canaan, — and as khpalwfiay not an independent foundation, but as a pedestal settled {ehpaaOh) on Him Who is the only Foundation, which is Christ (i Cor. iii. ii). And the Church performs these offices, in supporting, main- taining, and visibly displaying the true Canon of 8 CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT ScripUire, and also as setting forth the true inter- pretation of Scripture, in her Creeds ; and as ever guarding-, maintaining, and dispensing the Word of God and Sacraments by a visible Apostolic ministry. What, therefore, the Apostles did after the Day of Pentecost, when they were baptized with the Holy Ghost (Acts i. 5 ; xi. i6) sent down from heaven by Christ "to teach them all things, and to guide them into all truth," and to enable them to do the work He had given them to do, is to be regarded as the work of CHRIST Himself, and of the HOLY Spirit acting in them and by them ; and as a work, therefore, having Divine Authority. Such an act was the appointment and ordination o( the seven Deaeons (Acts vi. 3 — 7) for the completion of the Christian Ministry. Such an act was the Mijiistration of Confirmation by the laying on of Apostolic hands with prayer for the gift of the Holy Ghost to those who had been baptized (Acts viii. 14 — 17 ; xix. 5 — 12). Such an act was the extension of the Apostolate by the Consecration of Barnabas and Sanl as Apostles at the bidding of the Holy Ghost (Acts xiii. 2). Such an act was the assembling of a Co n^tcil o( the Apostles and Elders for the settlement of a contro- versy in the Church (Acts xv. 2 — 29). Accordingly, after the Day of Pentecost, we no loyiger read of the Church as a thing ////// ;r, but as in being and action, as the mystical body of Christ into which men are to be incorporated, and in which they arc to receive the means of grace and everlasting salvation. ** The Lord added " {ivas adding) " to the C/mrch daily such as should be saved " (such as were being saved, or saving themselves, aco^o/jievov^) by fleeing from the ACTING IN AND BY THE APOSTLES. 9 wrath to come, and by gladly embracing God's offers of salvation. The description given of such persons by the Holy Spirit in Holy Scripture is this, — let us mark it well, — " They that gladly received the Word, zvere baptized ; and they were contiiniing stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrme (i. e. in their teaching on matters of faith and practice and worship) ajid fellowship (i. e. in visible communion with the Apostles), aJid in the breaking of the bread (i. e. in the reception of the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ), and in the prayers',' i. e. the public Liturgy of the Church (Acts ii. 42). The future destinies of the Church from the As- cension of Christ to the time of His Second Coming to judge the world, and to put all things under His feet, and to receive her into His everlasting glory, are unfolded by Him in the Book of Revelation of the beloved disciple, the Apostle and Evangelist St. John. Jesus Christ is there seen as the Great High Priest walking amidst the seven Golden Candlesticks or Lampstands (seven being a number of perfection) which represent the Churches making up the Church Universal. He there describes Himself as knowing their works^' and as promising a future reward to every one that oiwrcometh (intimating the future struggle of all true Christians) ; and He there exhorts all to Jiear what the Spirit saith to the Churches. He reveals in the vision of the seven seals in the Apocalypse the various forms of enmity which will assail Himself, represented as the Rider on the White ' See on Revelation, chaps, ii, and iii., and the passages quoted in p. 172 of the Author's Commentary. 10 FUTURE CONFLICTS Horse, and His Church, in successive ages to the end. And in the seventh or last seal He displays the future everlasting glory of the innumerable company of the sealed, that is, the elect Saints of God from every age and clime (Rev. vi. and vii.). In the Twelfth Chapter of the Apocalypse (Rev. xii. I, 2) is a sublime and significant representation of the Church. She is displayed there as a woman, — the Spiritual Eve, the Bride of Christ. She is in heaven, for her origin and home is there. She is clothed zvith the Snn, because her light and glory is from Christ the " Sun of Righteonsnessl' in Whom she dwells by a perfect mystical union (Mai. iv. 2). She has the Moon tmder her feet, for she will survive all the changes and chances of this sublunary world. She has on Jier head a crow7i of twelve stars, for she wears visibly as her diadem of victory and glory the bright coronal of the doctrine and discipline delivered by Christ to His twelve Apostles, and by them to her. The various successive assaults of the Enemies of the Church are revealed in larger proportions and in minuter details, in following chapters of the Apocalypse, in order that the Church may be pre- pared for fierce oppositions and persecutions, especially as the world draws near to its close. The reader may here be invited to remember that the history of the conflict between the Kingdom of Light, the Church, and the Empire of Darkness, the World and the Evil One, from the beginning to the end of time, has been traced with a master's hand by the great African Bishop and Doctor of the Church, S. Augustine, in his last grand work " On the City of God," as opposed to the City of this World. AND FINAL GLORY OF THE CHURCH. 11 Long and hard will be the struggle. But the time will at length come, when the White Throne will be set, and the Judge will sit upon it, " and the dead will be raised small and great," and " the Books will be opened," and " every one will be judged according to his works, from those things that are written in the Books" (Rev. xx. ii, 12). Then the voice will be heard, " The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ" (Rev. xi. 15), and, "The Lord God Omnipotent reignetli, KING of kings and LoRD of lords " (Rev. xix. 6). Then Satan and Death and the Grave will have no more power over His people, but be subdued for evermore ; and the beauty and bliss of the heavenly City will be revealed, and the Church of the sanctified will rise up triumphant, and become the Church of the glorified ; and '' God will be all in all " (I Cor. XV. 2Z), CHAPTER II. On previojis Providential Preparations for the Work of the Church in the World, and on her Use of them. The prophet Daniel is described by St. Jerome (ad Paullinum, Ep. 103) as " conscious of all times, and as the historian of the whole world " (omnium temporum conscius et totius mundi polyhistor); and Daniel treats the World's history as preparatory to that of the Church of Christ, and as having its consummation in the future universal triumph of Christ and His Church. He does this in two visions ; that of Nebu- chadnezzar's dream in his second chapter ; and that of the four Beasts in the seventh chapter. In each of these two visions is a prophecy of four great successive Empires of the World, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman, to be followed and absorbed by a fifth, heavenly Monarchy, the Church of Christ, the kingdom which will over- throw all who oppose it, and the only kingdom which will be universal, and which " will never be destroyed " (Dan. ii. 35, 44 ; vii. 14, 27). The acts of these four great Earthly Empires, even those acts which seemed most unfavourable to the cause of divine Truth, were controlled and overruled by God to be providential preparations for the work of the Church of Christ. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of EARTHL Y EMPIRES PREPARA TOR V TO THE CHURCH. 13 the Jews by the power of Babylon, — Hke the previous dispersion of the Ten Tribes by that of Assyria, — were made ministerial to the diffusion and manifesta- tion of Divine Truth. These events were marvellous fulfilments of divine prophecies of Holy Scripture, and testified its truth and inspiration in the eyes of the world ; and confirmed the faithful in the hope that the other prophecies in the same Scripture, especially concerning the Coming of Christ and the universal extension of His Church, would be fulfilled likewise. The miraculous attestation to the True Faith by God's interference on behalf of the Three Children in the fiery furnace at Babylon, and of his faithful servant Daniel in the den of lions,— the prophet who testified of Christ,— these called the attention of the Eastern World to their testimony, and to the power of their God. The dispersion of the Jews necessitated the multi- plication of copies of the Hebrew Scriptures ; and this multiplication of copies secured \\\^ integrity of the Text of those Scriptures. Therefore the Jews (being every- where dispersed) are called by S. Augustine the guardians and transcribers and porters of the Scrip- tures for the future benefit of the Church (S. Augus- tine, ii. 6io; iv. 501,760; viii. 391). The Mosaic institution of the three yearly festivals, which — while the Hebrew Temple stood, and after it was restored by the instrumentality of the Second Empire, in the decree of Cyrus the Persian — drew the scattered members of the Hebrew nation periodically to Jerusalem from all parts of the world, on those Festivals, was a providential pre-arrangement for the spread of the Evangelical truths announced on the day 14 HEBREW AND GREEK INSTITUTIONS of Pentecost by the Apostles, and on other yearly festivals, unto all nations. The Temple of Jerusalem was mercifully spared for forty years after the commission of the sin of which its rulers had been guilty in the Crucifixion of Christ, in order to be a rallying-point for those periodical annual pilgrimages of devout Jews from all regions of the earth, who thus became pioneers and missionaries of Christianity. Among those devout men who listened to St. Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost, and were baptized (Acts ii. 5 — 41), the first mentioned are those who came from the neighbourhood of Babylon, the ancient enemy of God and His people, and from the countries where the Hebrew tribes were dispersed, " Parthians, Medes, andElamites^ and the dwellers in Mesopotamia !' The tribes flowed up from all countries in periodic tides to Jerusalem, and in their periodical ebb from it they bore the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ into all lands. The institution of a weekly Sabbath was a divine preparation for Christianity, especially where Syna- gogues had been erected for the weekly assembling of Jews-in all parts of the World on that Day. By their means the preachers of Christianity found an audience everywhere ready-made, and gathered together, and listening to the " voices of Moses and the Prophets read in those Synagogues every Sabbath Day " (Acts xiii. 27 ; xv. 21), and supplying, therefore, those very documents, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, on which they, the Apostles, and Apostolic Missionaries, grounded those Sermons on behalf of Christianity, which they preached in those Synagogues in those weekly assemblies (see Acts ix. 20 ; xiii. 14—44 ; xiv. I ; xvii. i, 2 ; xix. 8). PREPARATORY TO THE CHURCH. 15 The third great worldly Empire gave additional impulse to these preparatory provisions. That Empire, the Greek, diffused the Greek language in Asia and Africa by means of the conquests of Alexander the Great and his successors. One of these, Ptolemy Philadelphus (about B.C. 280), commanded a Trajisla- Hon to be made of the Five Books of Moses, a Trans- lation made by Hebrew Interpreters, and one, there- fore, to which, when quoted by Christians, the Jews could not reasonably take exception. And in process of time the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures were con- signed to the Greek Version, called the Septnagint, and thus became known to the Greek and Asiatic world. The diffusion of the Greek language, and of the Hebrew Scriptures in a Greek Version which was read on the weekly Sabbath in the Synagogues of Greece, Asia, and Africa, and probably in some of Italy, pre- pared the way for the readier circulation and reception of the New Testament, written in the same language, the Greek, the universal language of the civilized world. " The Roman tongue," says Cicero (pro Archia, c. 23), " is confined within comparatively narrow limits, but Greek is familiar to all." Other means of communication had been pro- videntially opened out for Christianity by the third and fourth Great Empires, the Empires of Greece and Rome. The Greek Empire, in its great commercial cities and colonies in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, had facili- tated national intercourse by sea. The Roman Empire, by its great military roads, accelerated that intercourse by land. Greece and Rome navigated and stratified the world ; Christianity profited by their acts, and evangelized it. The mention in the Acts of the two 16 GREECE AND ROME MINISTERIAL TO THE CHURCH. Alexandrine vessels, bringing St. Paul and St. Luke to Malta and Italy (Acts xxvii. 6 ; xxviii.), and the record of the Appia7i Way, the " Queen of Roads " (Acts xxviii. 15), bearing them on to Rome, are sugges- tive to the thoughtful reader, of pious reflections on God's designs, using the world's commercial enterprise and engineering skill for His own gracious purposes in Christianizing the world. The arms of Greece and Rome, subjugating other nations, and leading captive their deities, had also the effect of shaking their national faith in the power of their ow7i local gods to protect them against their assailants, and of undermining the foundations of Polytheism. It prepared them to accept the nobler and more rational belief in One Supreme God of all nations, when preached by the Apostles of Christ. The four Great Empires of the World were enemies of the true God, and yet, under His controlling and overruling power, they were made, unconsciously, to be instrumental, as we have seen, in preparing the way for the establishment and extension and final triumph of the fifth Great Monarchy, the only indestructible and universal Monarchy, the Kingdom of Christ. Here are evidences of God's wisdom and power in governing the universe, while He allows the exercise of liberty to man ; here are proofs that Christianity is the aim and end of His dealings with mankind ; here are assurances, that, whatever nations may devise for their own aggrandizement, and however forgetful they may be of His divine majesty and mercy, they will not be able to exalt themselves, or to maintain their own dominion, but will be made subservient to His purposes for the advancement of His glory, and for the eternal welfare of His people. CHAPTER III. On the Preparations for Christianity — Religious, PJiilosophicaly Intellectiialy Moral, and Social. We have been considering the providential prepara- tions for Christianity in the history of the four great Monarchies which preceded it. But while their acts were being exhibited in the great theatre of the world, many powers were at work in the inner life of men and nations which were ministerial to the same end. When Christianity appeared, the vital energies of the old religions of Greece and Rome were well-nigh effete, and had ceased to exercise their influence on the higher and more intelligent classes of Society. Greek literature and philosophy undermined the faith of Rome, and tended to diffuse scepticisrfi. The philosophical systems introduced from Greece had little influence on the multitude, and did nothing to improve their moral practice. And even among their own professors, they broke down under the trials of life. Stoicism was indeed the antithesis of Epicure- anism, in that it was an attempt to reconcile philo- sophy with religion, whereas Epicureanism divorced the one from the other. But it was equally fatal to Belief with Epicureanism. Epicurus banished the gods out of the world ; the Stoics identified the deity • C 18 MORAL FAILURE OF PHILOSOPHY. with the world, and shut him up there as in a prison, and bound him with the chains of fatalism. "Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunqiie moveris," said Lucan's Cato (i. 580)/ The Stoic Seneca, who ridiculed the "ignoble rabble of gods,"^ affirmed that his wise man was only inferior to Jupiter himself, the king of gods, in duration of existence. Such was his proud boast (Epist. 73). But how little effect had this upon practice. How pitiful are the moanings of Seneca in his exile in Corsica. What a contrast does he present to St. John in his banishment in Patmos. The Stoic and the Epicurean alike took refuge in suicide. Brutus the Stoic, and Cassius the Epicurean killed themselves at Philippi ; and Seneca, at Rome. The Stoicism of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius could not rescue him from abject superstition. Many of the Stoics who descanted eloquently on the dignity of ethical wisdom and virtue in public, were known by their private friends to live immoral lives.^ Scepticism was recognized as a consequence of the Athenian Embassy of Philosophers, — Carneades, Cri- 1 In that noble speech of Cato, which is a good specimen of Stoicism, is the following line, which is faulty both in syntax and prosody in the common editions, v. 568, — ** An sit vita nihil, et longa an differat setas ? " Various emendations have been proposed in it. Perhaps the true reading may be, "An sit vita nihil ? det longa an differat astas ? " i. e.,"Is life nothing? Does long life give good things to men, or postpone their fruition?" Compare Seneca, who says (Epist. 73), " Non est vita major, quce longior," and on this use oi diffciv^ to defer, cp. Horat. Ars Poet. i. 44: Z)c7?r and ^//^rri' are opposed to one another. * " Ignobilem Deorum turbam." Seneca in S. Aug. de Civ. Dei vi. 10. 3 Juvenal, ii. 3, "Qui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt," &.c. Cp. iii 116, " Stoicus occidit Baream." DION, HAL.— VARRO—FOLYBIUS. 19 tolaus, and others in B.C. 155. And even before it, the Poet Ennius had professed Epicurean opinions on the indifference of the gods to human affairs (Cicero de Divin. ii. 50). Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who wrote about the beginning of the Christian era, remarked that the old Roman reh'gion was purer and more healthful to morality than the Greek Mythology (Archseol. ii. 18); and Varro, who was somewhat earlier, has recorded that for 170 years from the foundation of Rome, no image-worship had been seen there ; and he expressed his opinion that there would have been more reverence for the deities if it had never been introduced (Varro in S. Augustin. de Civ. Dei iv. 31). Polybius (vi. 56) attributes the strength of Rome to its faith in the supernatural powers. That behef in supernatural powers regulating human affairs, and rewarding virtue, and punishing vice, exercised a healthy influence by means of those elements of truth which it contained,"' but not in any degree by its errors and superstitions which afterwards overlaid and corrupted the truth; and it produced in Roman history many noble examples of heroic valour, bold enter- prise, patient endurance, inflexible constancy, un- swerving integrity, patriotic self-devotion and self- sacrifice, strict justice, simplicity and frugahty, tem- perance and chastity. Such are commemorated by Cicero in his " De Officiis," and are celebrated by Virgil in the historic lay which he puts into the mouth of Anchises in Elysium (^n. vi. 756 — 854), and by Horace in one of his Odes to Augustus (i Od. xii. 32, &c.), and are recognized by S. Augustine in the * Compare Hooker's wise words, Eccl. Pol. v. chaps, i — 3, and Dean Church "on the Gifts of Civilization," pp. 157 — 165. C 2 20 CICERO'S A VO WAL : A UGUSTAN REFORMS. earlier Bcoks of his work on the City of God. But S. Augustine also quotes a remarkable sentence of Cicero on the degeneracy of Roman morals, public and private, which no religion or philosophy, known to them, could arrest (S. Aug. ii. 21). , He introduces Cicero, citing the memorable verse of Ennius, declar- ing that Rome's greatness rested on the foundation of its ancient Manners and Men, *' Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque." Cicero adds that this verse was like a divine oracle, for neither men without ancient manners, nor manners without such men, would have been able to found or maintain the State. " But our own age," says Cicero, " resembles those persons who have received from their forefathers the State like a beautiful picture dimmed by age ; but we not only have not renewed its. fading colours, we have not even preserved its form and out- line. What vestiges now remain of our ancient man- ners } They have passed away into oblivion, and they have vanished with the failure of men. We retain a Republic in name, but have lost the thing by our vices." The Emperor Augustus, conscious of this truth, endeavoured to restore belief to the national con- science ; and the Poets of the Augustan age lent their aid to the Imperial Policy. " In primis venerare Deos " was the precept of Virgil to his Italian Hus- bandmen (Georg. i. 338), and **Dis te minorem quod geris, imperas,'* was the wise utterance of Horace (3 Od. vi. i — 5), exhorting the Roman people to rebuild their ruined temples. But it was too late a day. Greek Art and Greek Philosophy had enervated the moral sense and FAILURE OF ROMAN RELIGION. 21 hardy virtues of Rome, and had sapped the founda- tions of her faith. Religion still held some sway over the hearts of women (Juvenal, vi. 510 — 555), and was regarded by some as useful on that account (Strabo, Geogr. i. 2). But such a religion was not a thing to be loved and obeyed as a living power ; it was an object of superstition inspiring gloomy fears (Horat 2 Sat. iii. 295); and it also consecrated vices by the examples of the gods themselves, and ministered to sensual licentiousness by making it to be a part of religious worship in the festivals of Aphrodite and Dionysus (Dionys. Hal. ii. 20 ; Clemens Alex, ad Gent. c. 2 ; Arnobius, lib. v.). The profligacy and cruelty produced by such m- fluences, in the theatre, the circus, and the gladiatorial shows of the amphitheatre, where women were spec- tators with men, are not only attested by sacred writers such as St. Paul (Rom. i. 28—32), but by heathen authors themselves, as will appear in a sub- sequent chapter (chap, xxiii.). The divinization of the Roman Emperor, not only of an Augustus, — to which unhappily Virgil and Horace contributed, — but of a Nero and Domitian, did much to degrade religion by canonizing vice. And this was carried still further in the apotheosis of an Antinous by Hadrian. Lucretius, while with some inconsistency conse- quent on a desire to conciliate the multitude, and to popularize unbelief, he dedicates his poem " On the Nature of Things " to one deity, Venus, and prays her to intercede with another deity. Mars, yet in the same breath declares that the main purpose of Philo- sophy is to emancipate the human mind from the tyranny of the fear of the gods (i. 79) ; — 22 LUCRETIUS, CICERO, VARRO, TACITUS, PLINY. *' Quare Relligio pedibus subjecta vicissim Obteritur, nos exa;quat Victoria ccelo ; " According to him, man might rebel against God and conquer ; and might raise himself to heaven by Atheism. He points also with bitter scorn to the evils wrought by that fear, and says, "Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum " (i. 107). This was not a poetical fiction. Cicero affirms that Philosophers were unbelievers. " Eos qui philosophise dent operam, non arbitrari Deos esse " (Cicero de In- ventione i. 29 ; pro Cluentio c. 61 ; de Nat. Deor. ii. 2). Cicero's friend Varro declares that the popular Mythology was only fit for the Theatre ; that the political religion, which served for State purposes, had a certain utility, but that the only true religion was the religion of Nature, by which he meant Pantheism (Varro in S. Aug. de Civ. Dei vi. 5 ; cp. ibid. v. 31). The grave and sententious Tacitus is more con- servative in his notions, especially when he comes to speak of Judaism as having no images of gods, and as treating the gods with contempt (Tacit. Hist. v. 5); and he acknowledges a divine power in the control of human affairs (Hist. iv. y^), but expresses doubts whether the world is ruled by fate or by chance (Annales vi. 22 ; cp. Juvenal, xiii. 87). His contemporary Pliny the Elder composed a vast Encyclopaedic work, still extant, on the Natural History of the World, and yet in a melancholy spirit of dreary agnosticism he cannot perceive any grounds of hope or joy for man ; indeed, the best that man possesses is the power of putting an end to his own life;"' and he disdains the notion that the world is * Cp. Neander, i. p. 14, who has been of much service in this chapter, and Friedlander's Sittens-Geschichte Roms, vol. iii. p. 427. QUINTILIAN, JUVENAL: CICERO. 23 governed by divine providence ; or that the gods, — if they exist, — trouble themselves about human affairs (Hist. Nat. ii. 4 ; vii. i). He laughs to scorn the popular belief and worship, and the whole system of Polytheism, and takes refuge in the acknowledgment of Nature as the ** Mother of all things," and divinizes her as such (Plin. N. H. xxvii. 8 ; xxxvii. 205). His friend Ouintilian took a middle course, and tried to reconcile the external forms of polytheism with an inner spirit of monotheism. As to a future state of rewards and punishments, the celebrated debate reported by Sallust (Catilin. 51, 52) between Julius Caesar and Cato, on the penalty to be inflicted on the Catilinarian conspirators, reveals the fact that, notwithstanding such poetic pictures as Homer has drawn of the future state in the Odyssev (lib. xi.), and Virgil in the ^neid (lib. vi.), it was quite safe to disavow publicly all belief in their reality. And when we come to the time of Juvenal, — ^con- temporary with St John, — we hear that this belief no longer lingers even in the minds of school-boys (Juvenal, ii. 149). What then was to be done by those who were raised above vulgar superstitions, and who desired to think with the wise t This question may be answered in part by a refer- ence to Cicero. His philosophical writings show that he had examined the tenets of all schools of thought. And the result was that, while he visited each school as a guest, he dwelt with none as in a home. He took up his abode in another school, — if school it could be called, — the Academic, which claimed the privilege of arguing /or, and against, all 24 CICERO— VIRGIL. schools ; and he did not profess to ascend to anything higher thdiXv probability. Not that he did not consider himself bound to be guided by probabiHty. At the same time he inclines, in what may be called his dog- matic treatises (as De Officiis, De Amicitia, De Senectute), to Platonism and Stoicism (see Bentley on Freethinking, liii.). His great ethical treatise " De Officiis" (on moral duty), which was composed for the use of his own son Marcus Cicero, sets forth with ability and clearness, as its fundamental principle, the rule " naturam sequi " (to follow nature) as the guide of life (De Offic. i. 4, 28. " Si naturam sequemur ducem, nunquam aberrabimus," i. 31 ; iii. 8), a rule explained and Christianized by Bp. Butler in his Sermons on Human Nature. But this rule, as far as motives to virtuous action are concerned, falls very far short of that which has been admirably illustrated and enforced by S. Augustine, in his work " De Moribus Ecclesise Catholicse,"— the Love of God (Tom. i. cap. 15, and cap. 22). The difficulty of making a choice among the conflicting schools of philosophy is illustrated by the utterances of the two greatest Roman Poets a little before the birth of Christ. In his Georgics, Virgil, — fascinated probably by his predecessor Lucretius, — aspires to take a place among the great physical inquirers of his age, and he looks to them as leading him to achieve a victory over the fears of Fate and of Acheron (Georg. ii. 475 — 492). But in his yEneid, the pious and devout poet, perhaps reflecting on the unhappy end of that prede- cessor, seems to have shrunk from his dreary creed, and takes refuge in the Platonic belief of a supreme VI R GIL— MORA CE. 25 spiritual essence, from which all vitality is derived, as from a primary source of being (^neid vi. 724— 734; see Heyne, Excurs. xiii.). And in his fourth Eclogue he had declared the belief, existing in the minds of pious heathens, that a brighter era would soon dawn upon the troubled world ; and he expresses devout longing for that glorious consummation, the Coming of the Great Deliverer. His friend Horace was more unsettled, for a while, in his religious and philosophical opinions. At one time he is a votary of the'' insaniens sapientia" of Atheism (i Od. xxxiv. 5) ; at another time he earnestly exhorts to belief, and writes Odes for the popular worship, and addresses hymns to the popular deities. At one time he is a votary of the easy versatility of Aristippus, at another of the rigid virtue and proud self-sufficiency of the Stoics ; and then he rallies himself with a playful banter, as if he were lapsing into the materialism and voluptuousness of Epicurus (i Epist. i. 18, 106; iv. 10). Horace may be regarded as one of the best repre- sentatives of the cultivated Roman of the Augustan age. He had been well trained in the study of Greek and Latin Literature ; he was endued with liveli- ness of fancy, not without the higher faculty of imagination ; he was gifted with extraordinary felicity and graceful elegance of language, with refined delicacy of taste, and courtesy of manners, which commended him to the favour of the Emperor of the world, and of his ministers and courtiers ; and he had free access to the full enjoyment of all intellectual delights, as well as of animal pleasures. And yet, with all his occasional vacillations, he is distinguished, perhaps above all Roman writers of his age, for 26 PENSIVE MELANCHOL V OF HORA CE. giving utterance to a pensive and melancholy con- sciousness of the hollowness of all earthly pleasures, and of the palling satiety, weary listlessness, and jaded exhaustion produced by them. He also bears testi- mony to the unsatisfactory character of human knowledge, and conflicting inconsistency of the schools of Philosophy, in which he drifted about in doubt and uncertainty. He also declares, especially in his later writings, that he concentrated all his thoughts and desires on the pursuit of what is true and lovely, and of solid and enduring happiness, and that he is impatient to discover it (i Epist. i. 11,23). He gives vent to intense craving for something be- yond himself,^ which he was sure existed somewhere, but which he tried in vain to find (see 2 Od. xvi. ; I Epist. i. 23 — 65; viii. 7 — 10; xviii. 95 — 100; 2 Epist. ii. 141 &c., 175 &c., 200 &c. ; 2 Sat. vi. 60 — 76) ; he utters serious and earnest words, in which he prefers true wisdom to all his poetical gifts, and much more to earthly wealth, honour, and pleasure ; and he can find no comfort in the popular religion (2 Epist. ii. 140 — 215). Let it also be remembered that amid the ruins of religion there was still ** the witness of the soul born by nature to be Christian," '^ testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae," as Tertullian calls it, crying out for help to the One God Who alone could save it from the abyss (Apol. 17 ; see also his treatise De Anima, p. 304, ed. Rigalt. ; compare St. Paul's words, Rom. i. 14, 15). In the first century of the Christian era there were thoughtful men, who were stretching out their hands in wistful earnestness to God, " if haply they might ^ This is well shown by Alexander Knox, Remains, i. pp. 7 — 17. PLUTARCH— L UCIAN—PA USANIAS. 27 find Him." Such, pre-eminently, was the learned, wise, virtuous, and devout philosopher of Chseronea, Plutarch. He had drunk deeply of the spirit of Platonism, which prepared the way for Christianity, by raising man out of himself and above the popular notions of religion, and above the other philosophical systems, and which excited him to struggle against the bondage of materialism, and elevated him to noble aspirations for union with the supreme Divine Existence, the Author and Ruler of all things. All Gentile Literature, philosophical, historical, and biographical, was familiar to Plutarch. He had meditated carefully on the religious systems of Paganism, Some heathen positivists were content to reject the supernatural, and to live only in the visible and palpable world. Others, like Lucian, — the Rabelais of his age, — regarded religion, as Aristo- phanes had done before him, as presenting ample materials for ribald wit, sceptical scoffing, and scurrilous buffoonery. Others, as Caecilius, the heathen interlocutor in the Dialogue of Minucius Felix, found no rest for their feet on the quicksands of philosophical systems, and were content to acquiesce in what they considered the wisest course, namely, to maintain the national religion on conservative principles., and in a spirit of reverence for illustrious ancestors, and for ancient traditions and usages ; and in patriotic, reverential veneration for deities under whose auspices Rome had achieved the conquest of the world. Such again was the Greek traveller Pausanias in the age of the Antonines, who abhorred the infidelity of his age, and described the temples and altars and other monuments of Greece ^with archaeological 28 THAUMATURGY ; MAGIC— PLUTARCH. accuracy, and with the devout admiration of pious enthusiasm (cp. Pausan. Arcad. viii. c. 2). Others were taking refuge in foreign thaumaturgy and in magical arts, in sorcery, necromancy, and astrology, and were sinking more deeply in the mire of a gloomy and fanatical superstition. Horace had warned Leuconoe against resorting to Babylonian Astrology. But the friend of Horace, Tiberius Csesar, is represented by Juvenal as sitting in his old age on the rock of Capreae, surrounded by Chaldaean diviners (Sat. X. 93). Tacitus says that such persons, who are called by him "Mathematici," will be always prohibited at Rome, and will be always patronized (Tacit. Hist, i. 21). But Plutarch took a wiser course. On the one side he recognized the evils of the popular religions ; the reptile deities of Egypt excited his abhorrence and his pity ; the images of gods, worshipped as gods, repelled him. But he would not therefore, by an excess of reaction, lapse into the opposite extreme of unbelief. No ; in his opinion, Superstition is better than Atheism (see his treatise De Iside et Osiride, c. 2, 23, 71 ; cp. Friedlander, Sittens-Geschichte, iii. pp. 43, 448, 642). He could not find satisfaction in the materialism of Epicurus, nor in the fatalism of the Stoics. He wrote a treatise against both. But his attempt to elicit a pure, spiritual belief in One Supreme Divine Essence, by a process of dis- criminating and exhaustive eclecticism, winnowing truth from error, did not supply any motive of love, or vital power, to human action. He tried to solve the problem of popular Poly- theism, to reconcile it with the human conscience, by inventing a subordinate class of ^/^;;/^;^i-,— afterwards THE CLEMENTINES— JUSTIN MARTYR. 29 adopted by Porphyry, — who were to be credited with the misdemeanours imputed by poets and the multi- tude to the deities of Olympus. But this ingenious and amiable process, while it was a witness to the failure of human systems of religion and philosophy among the most eminent men and nations of the heathen world, was a testimony also to the need of something beyond, which was not evolved from beneath, but revealed from above, and certain, because divine, — such as Christianity is ; and which could rescue man from Unbelief on the one side, and from Superstition on the other ; and by addressing itself to man in his composite and tripartite nature, in body, soul, and spirit, could emancipate, purify, and elevate his whole being, and redeem him from the guilt and consciousness of sin, by means of a perfect Atonement in his own nature, joined to the nature of God, in the Person of the Son of God, receiving man into union with God in Himself, and drawing man upward by love to God, revealed as infinite in power, love and wisdom, justice and holi- ness, and as giving him the gift of the Holy Ghost to sanctify and enable him to be like God, and to over- come all earthly suffering, and to ascend thereby to heavenly glory. The searchings after truth which were at work in the mind of Plutarch may be exemplified also by the experience of two celebrated persons, one of whom fell short of the truth, the other succeeded in attaining it. The former was the author of the Clementines ; the latter, Justin Martyr. The author of the Clementines, a fiction founded on fact, represents himself as a noble Roman who lived at the be^finninG: of the Christian era, and as 30 THE CLEMENTINES. distracted by doubts from his earliest youth concern- ing his own origin, and destiny after death.' He fell into a deep melancholy, and resorted to schools of philosophy for a solution of his difficulties. But they onl}^ puzzled him by their wranglings and inconsis- tencies. He then hears the story of Christianity, the miracles and teaching of Jesus Christy and resolves to travel into Palestine. In his way thither he comes to Alexandria, and meets Barnabas, and joins with him in a controversy with the Philosophers, whom he refutes. He attaches himself to Barnabas, who invites him to follow him to Caesarea, where he meets Peter. The result is that the author accepts in a certain sense the divine mission both of Moses and of Christ.^ But he does not arrive at the truth which Moses him- self taught, namely, that Moses was the divinely-sent forerunner of Christ, and that the Law has been fulfilled in the Gospel, which is the only true way of salvation. Justin, as we shall see hereafter, starting from the same point of doubt, arrived at a happier conclusion. Having been tutored in Schools of Gentile Philosophy, he became a Champion of Christianity against Jew and Gentile, and died a Martyr for the faith. On the whole, then, we may recognize similar phenomena both in Heathenism and Judaism, as declaring the need of some other faith, such as Christianity is proved to be, and as preparing the way for it. The Prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures, the heroism of such noble confessors and martyrs as the 7 See Clementina Homil. i. p. 621, ed. Coteler. ed. Amst. 1724. ^ Clementiu. Horn. viii. c. 7. THE WORLD'S NEEDS AND LONGINGS. 31 Maccabees in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, when the voice of prophecy was silent, the yearning of devout men, the Symeons and Nathanaels, for the coming of the " Desire of all Nations " (Hagg. ii. 7), and their patient waiting for " the consolation of Israel" (Luke ii. 25), had their counterpart in the aspirations of good and great men in the heathen world. The wreck of Judaism in the dead formalism and supercilious self-sufficiency and self-righteousness of the Pharisee, and in the Epicurean worldliness and low materialism of the Sadducee, had their parallels also in the complete failure of all heathen systems of religion and philosophy to educate and purify Society. The ascetic communities of Jewish Essenes on the west of the Dead Sea, and of the Therapeutae at Lake Mceris near Alexandria, were witnesses in the same way as some purer minds in Gentilism were, which dwelt as it were apart, and loved to live lives of spiritual contemplation in the hope of some better future. It was at this time, when Mankind had been fairly tried for many generations, and had been found wanting ; and when many were deeply conscious of the failure, and were looking earnestly for help from above ; and when it had been clearly proved by the experience of many centuries that "the world by wisdom knew not God" (i Cor. i. 21), and that it could not raise itself from the depths of shame and misery in which it was plunged ; and that the pride and presumption of the. human intellect had this only effect, — to sink it in a deeper abyss of despondency ; and that if Man was to rise, it could only be by humility, and by self-distrust and self-mortification, and by looking upward to God, that the Son of God 32. MAN'S MORAL PROBATION. appeared from heaven to gladden the eyes of the aged world, which, like the holy Symeon, embraced Him with the arms of faith, and said, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel "' (Luke ii. 29 — 32). The lateness of the appearance of Christianity in the world has given rise to many speculations and controversies. This is one of those '* deep things of God " on which it is true reverence and wisdom to confess our ignorance. We know that Christianity did appear " in the fulness of time," that is, at the right season. But it is not improbable, that humility and faith, tested and proved, are essential pre- requisites for God's favour and for future happiness in Eternity. And we may suppose that it is a part of man's moral probation in this world, as preparing him for a future state of everlasting union and com- munion with God, to learn his own weakness, and to be thus trained in humility, and in trustful and loving dependence on God. These lessons will be learnt by all who reflect on the debased and miserable condition in which the world was before Christianity, at a time when the human intellect was most active in the investigation of meta- physical and moral truth ; and how earnestly the best men longed for something which they did not possess, but which, we may confidently affirm, has now been supplied by Christianity. And also, if we look forward to what now remains of the world's duration, it may perhaps be a part of the divine plan for our probation a posteriori (now that Christianity has been revealed) MORAL PROBATION. 33 to try men whether they will humbly and thankfully accept Christianity, as a full and fmal revelation of God's will to mankind in its present state ; or will reject that revelation, and go back to other ethical and metaphysical systems in preference to it ; and will rely for guidance on human intelligence ; in a word, will trust to things which have been tried, and have been shown by experience to have failed. In either case this purpose will have been served, whether by acceptance or non-acceptance of Chris- tianity. And God's Judgment of the world will be justified hereafter,, in rewarding faith, and in punishing unbelief. D CHAPTER IV. Apostolic Preaching — It^ Principles, Method^ Agents ^ and Progress, " Ye shall receive power," said Christ, a little before His Ascension, to the Apostles whom He had chosen (Acts i. 2 — 8), " after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in Samaria, and unto the ntterniost part of the earths He then declared to them what their work was to be, and the order and method in which it was to be performed. They were to be wit- nesses to Him, God and Man, to Him, Very Christ, — dying, risen, ascended into heaven for men and for their salvation, and sending to them the Holy Ghost, — to Him the Lord of all, and future Judge of quick and dead. And this witness was to be delivered in regular order, first to Jerusalem, then to Judaea, then to Samaria, and finally to the whole world. If we refer to the Chronological Table at the begin- ning of this volume, we shall see that this divine com- mand was complied with. The first Apostolic preaching of which we read in the Acts of the Apostles was to Jews at Jerusalem (Acts ii. 14 — 47 ; iii. 12 — 26 ; iv. 8 — 12) ; and St. Peter, to whom our Lord had given the keys for the opening of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. xvi. 19), was specially JERUSALEM, THE MOTHER CHURCH: ST. PETER. 35 employed in this work. Jerusalem, the holy city, was the Mother Church of the World. It was regarded as such in primitive times. ^ " The law was to go forth from Sion, and the Word of God from Jerusalem " (Micah iv. 2, ii). There is reason to believe that the Apostles, by Christ's command, remained there twelve years after the Ascension.' At Jerusalem we meet with the first example of Diocesan Episcopacy in the person of St. James, " the Lord's brother," who is entitled Bishop of Jerusalem by early writers.^ At Jerusalem was held the first Council of the Christia?i Church (Acts xv. 2). Jerusalem was the fountain and well-spring of Christianity : from it the Church went forth to enfold the world in a spiritual Sion, — the Mother of us all (Gal. iv. 26). Devout men of Judaea heard St. Peter's preaching and were baptized (Acts ii. 9, 38) ; and he went with St. John from Jerusalem to Samaria to impart to believers there the gift of the Holy Ghost in Confir- mation (Acts viii. 14 — 19). He also used the keys given Him by Christ to open the door of the Church to the Gentiles in the person of Cornehus at Caesarea (Acts x. 28 — 48 ; and see his own statement. Acts xv. 7). The spiral, so to speak, of Apostolical preaching, which had its focus in Jerusalem, evolved itself outwards from that focus in an ever-growing curvature, till it embraced heathendom. Its first outline was, accord- ing to our Lord's direction, traced by St. Peter. St. Peter's teaching, by other means than those of oral instruction, was also framed and executed ' S. Jerome in Esai. ii., "In Hierusalem primum fundata Ecclesia totius orbis Ecclesias seminavit." Concil. Constant, in Theodoiet, E. H. V. 9, /iTjTTjp airacwv ruv iKK\r](Tiwi> r] 4u 'lepQaoKvfj.ois. ' Euseb. Hist. Eccl. v. 18. ^ Clement Alex. ap. Euseb. ii. I. Cp. Tillemont,i.p. 371, ed. Paris. 1701. D 2 36 ST. PETER'S FLAN; AND ST. PAUL'S. on the same plan. There seems no reason for doubting that \h^ Babylon from which he dates his first Epistle, was the literal Parthian Babylon (see on i Pet. v. 13), the Eastern Babylon, the ancient enemy of God's Church, — and not Rome. A metaphor in the date of a letter is out of place. Many Jews were then resident at Babylon, as well as heathens (see on Acts ii. 9). From Babylon then he wrote an Epistle to the Jews scattered in Asia (i Pet. i. i), and also to Gentiles (i Pet. iv. 3, 4). He bore witness to Christ and glorified God by his death (see on John xxi. 19) in the great Capital of heathendom, the Western Babylon, Rome.'' And it is stated by some writers that before his death he sent his son in the faith St. Mark (i Pet. v. 13) to preach to the Jews and Gentiles in the Capital of Egypt, Alexandria.^ His brother Apostle St. Paul, — the Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom. xi. 13), — traced a similar spiral of Apostolical preaching from the great heathen City Antioch of Syria, where, at the special command of the Holy Ghost, he, who had before been called by Christ at Damascus, was visibly ordained to the Apostleship (see on Acts xiii. i, 2). The student of the science of Missions and of Mis- sionary work cannot have a more interesting and use- ful employment than in examining the method employed by St. Paul in evangelizing the world. The following phenomena are observable in that method : — 1. He did not attempt to take in too large a field at once in his missionary journeys. 2. He proceeded slowly and carefully, and he made his ground good, and enlarged it by degrees. * TerLullian, Scorp. 5 ; Prascr. H?er. 36. Eiiseb, ii. 25. 5 Epiphan. Hceies. Ii. Euseb. ii. 16. ST. PAULS PLAN OF PREACHING. 37 3. He left persons behind him to continue and con- soHdate his work (Acts xiv. 23 ; xvii. 14, 15), and he visited them from time to time to see in what con- dition they were. 4. He began his missionary work in great centres of population, Antioch, Phihppi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, and so reached Rome. Similarly in his ^//j-Z/^j- he began with writing to Thes- salonica, the C-fT^/Z^^/of the Northern Province of Greece, Macedonia; he proceeded then to write to Corinth, the Capital oi the Southern Province of Greece, Achaia ; then he addressed Rome, the Capital of the world. Thus he showed his confidence in the truth of his cause, and enlisted fellow-labourers, who worked out- wards in circles from the centres of population chosen by him. 5. He ordered his Apostolic teaching according to a well-considered plan, which may be commended to the careful attention of all preachers of the Gospel, especially in heathen lands. He attracted and conciliated his hearers and readers by beginnifig with things in which they agreed with Jam; as in his great missionary sermon at Athens, — doubtless intended by the Holy Spirit Who inspired it and records it, to be a pattern for all missionary ser- mons,— where he wins his hearers by referring to one of their own altars, and to a verse of their own poets, and to the heavens above their heads (Acts xvii. 22 — 32). This will appear manifest also from his Epistles, when they are read, as they ought to be, according to the chronological order in which they were written. He began with laying down fundamental truths which are fij'st principles of the doctrine of Christ (Pleb. vi. I, 2). This he did in his two earliest 38 PLAN OF ST. PA UV S EPISTLES. Epistles, those to the Thessaloiiians. In them his first endeavour is to awaken the conscience, and to create a sense of human accountability, — such as was not unfelt by the wiser and better heathens, — by setting before his hearers or readers the doctrine of future Restirrcctioii and yiidgme7it^ and eternal Rewards and Punishvie7its {?>Q,^ i Thess. iv. 13 — 18; v. I — 10, 23, 24. 2 Thess. i. 7—10 ; ii. i — 8 ; iii. 5), and the moral practice grounded on belief in these doctrines, particu- larly by the " work of faith, the labour of love, and patience of hope " (i Thess. i. 3), and the sanctification of the body in holiness and purity of life (i Thess. iv. 3-7)- In his next Epistle, that to the Galatiaiis, he vindi- cates his own Apostolic Commission ; and in that Epistle and in the Epistle to the Romans he declares the universality o^ the need of a RedeemeVy by reason of the universality of human sinfulness ; and he pro- claims the universality of the Redemption provided by God in Christ for all, whether Jews or Gentiles, who accept the Gospel by Faith which worketh by Love (Gal. V. 6) as the only means of justification, apart from the Mosaic Law, which was preparatory to the Gospel of Christ (see on Galatians, p. 41, and Romans, pp. 189—201). In the two Epistles to the Corinthians he pro-» vided for the internal safety of the Church by de- claring the sinfdness of wilfnl schism, and the blessedness of Unity in the Faith, and of Charity or Love, without which nothing is profitable (see on Corinthians, pp. 73 — jC). He also delivered warnings against internal irregularities i7i ritnal, especially in the administration of the Holy Commu7iion (i Cor. xi. 17 — 33), and in the attire of women in the assemblies METHOD OF ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES. 39 of the Church (i Cor. xi. 3 — 16) ; and declared the duty o( providing competent maintenance for her Mi?iis- ters (i Cor. ix. 7 — 15 ; ibid., p. 73). He also further inculcated the duty of the sanctifi- cation of the Body y — a lesson greatly needed at Corinth, — by proclaiming with divine eloquence the doctrine of its Resurrection (i Cor. xv.), and the i7idzvelling of the Holy Ghost in all baptized persons, and their member- ship in the Body of Christ, the Holy One (i Cor. iii. 16, 17 ; vi. 15. 2 Cor. iii. 16). It was not till he had trained the Church by this preparatory discipline that he ventured to speak fully on the Incarnatioti of the Son of God, and on the means by which its benefits, earthly and heavenly, are communicated to those who are incorporated in His mystical Body ; and to dwell on the practical duties of Husbands and Wives (joined together in that holy union which symbolizes the mystical wedlock of Christ and His Church), of Parents and Children, Masters and Servants, united as fellow-members of the same Body, and fellow-heirs of the same heavenly and everlasting Inheritance in Christ. This he did in his Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians (see Introd. to Eph., pp. 275 — 278, and Coloss., pp. 309 — 312), and thus effected for Society in every age, what was in vain attempted by the Master of the Roman World, Augustus, for the repres- sion of Adultery, and other deadly sins, and for the purification of Marriage, and for the happiness of domestic life.^ In the short Epistle to Philemon,— ihe. satellite to the Epistle to the Colossians, — grounded on the Doctrine ^ May I be allowed to refer, for further remarks on this subject, to my "Miscellanies, Literary and Religious," iii. pp. 23 — 27? 40 ST. 'JOHJSrS GOSPEL AND EPISTLES. of the Incarnation, he did more for iha Abolitioji of the evils of Slavery so rife in the Heathen world, than has ever been accomplished by human Philosophy or by civil Legislation (see on Philemon, pp. 333 — 336). In the Epistle io the Hehreius, — for it may be probably ascribed to him,^ — he completed his labour of love for his own kindred, the Jews. He did for the Ceremonial Law in that Epistle what he had done in his Epistle to the Romans for the Moral Law, and showed that it also was ministerial to Christ, and was fulfilled in Him. St. Paul's Pastoral Epistles, — those to Timothy and Titus, — were naturally reserved to the close of his ministerial career. He was then about to leave the world, and would provide instruction for the govern- ment of the Church in all future ages (see on Timothy, pp. 432, 444, 445). This he has done by those Epistles to two of his sons in the faith, whom he had constituted to be Bishops, — Timothy at Ephesus, and Titus in Crete;" and in writing to them, and giv- ing them precepts for the ordination of Priests and Deacons, and for other matters in the regimen of the Church, he has left a pattern of Church constitu- tion and Church order, and has bequeathed a legacy to all Bishops and Pastors, and to all ministers and members of the Church even to the end of time. The " beloved Disciple," the Apostle and Evangelist St. John, the last survivor of the Apostles, has com- pleted the work of Apostolic teaching by his Gospel and Epistles, in which the doctrines of Christ's Eternal " Reasons for this opinion are given in the Introduction to it in my edition of the Greek Testament. 8 Eusebius, H. E. iii. 4, says that Timotliy was the first Bishop of Ephesus, and Titus the first Bishop of Crete. ST. JOHN'S APOCALYPSE. 41 Godhead and Incarnation are laid down as the foun- dation of faith and practice ; and of his teaching on the Holy Sacraments, deriving their virtue from the Godhead, Incarnation, and Passion of Christ. The Epistles to the Seven Churches in St. John's Revelation complete the Apostolic Teaching on the Ministerial character and duties. Therestof that Book (as already observed, pp. 9 — n) reveals the future destinies of the Church on earth, and her everlasting glory in heaven. CHAPTER V. On the Constitution of the Christian Ministry — Bishops^ Priests^ and Deacons. St. Paul's Pastoral Epistles differ from most of his Epistles in this respect, that they are not addressed to Churches, or Communities of Persons, but to indi- viduals ; two of them to Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, and one to Titus, Bishop of Crete. When we proceed to examine these three Epistles, we find that they consist mainly of directions addressed to Timothy and Titus, requiring them to discharge certain duties, and to exercise jnrisdiction over others, Timothy and Titus are regarded by St. Paul as in- vested with official authority, and as accountable for those who are under their rule ; they are required by him to restrain Pastors, in their respective charges, from preaching false doctrine ; to stop the mouths of those who are guilty of doing so ; to reject them from their cures ; to ordain Presbyters, or Elders, and Deacons, according to the need ; to receive accusations against them under certain conditions ; to rebuke delinquents among them openly and sharply, and with all authority (i Tim. i. 3. Titus i. 1 1 ; iii. 10 ; i. 5, 13. I Tim. V. 19, 20. Titus ii. 15). St. Paul charges them earnestly before Christ and the elect angels to do these things (i Tim. v. 21. 2 Tim. iv. i). PRIMITIVE WITNESS TO EPISCOPACY. 43 We do not find that he gave any similar charges to communities of persons, Elders or others ; and we may therefore conclude that, by whatever name they may be called, certain Persons, singly and individually (in these cases, Timothy and Titus), were recognized by St. Paul as having superior authority over all others, for specific purposes, within definite limits of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. It is observable that in the case of Timothy the special field of that jurisdiction was a great City — Ephesus (i Tim. i. 5)-; in that of Titus, an extensive Island — Crete (Titus i. 5); and the former was a young man (i Tim. iv. 12), and probably the latter (Titus ii. 15), and could not have been qualified to discharge the duties imposed on them unless they had possessed an official superiorit}^ In ancient Church History, Timothy is called Bishop of Ephesus, and Titus is called Bishop of Crete (Euseb. iii. 4). If we refer to the Book of Revelation, — the work of the last surviving Apostle, — we find, similarly, that the Seven Epistles in that Book (chap. ii. iii.) are not addressed to commimities of Presbyters, although we know that they contained many Presbyters (as, e. g. Ephesus did. Acts xx. 17, 28), but to individuals, who are called Angels^ and that these individuals are recognized by Christ Himself, Who dictates those Epistles to St. John, as responsible for the character and doings of those Churches, and as having authority and jurisdiction over the Pastors and Teachers in them, and other members of them (Rev. ii. 2, 6, 14, 15, 20 ; iii. 2). It is observable that in no case do the epithets in those Seven Epistles which describe the condition of 44 PRIMITIVE WITNESS TO EPISCOPACY. the Churches (such as Jiot, cold, poor, 7'ich, naked) agree m gender with the word CJmrcJi, which \s feminine, but in all cases they are masculine, and agree with the world Angel, and show that the Angel is regarded by Christ as the official head, and representative personi- fication, of the CJinrcJi. These Angels are described by Primitive Christian Antiquity as Bishops respectively of those several Churches, from the time of St. John.^ This then is evident, that in the Apostolic age Churches had Bishops. When we extend our view, we find that precisely the same thing that we have found done in Ephesus, in Crete, and in the Asiatic Churches of St. John^was done in other parts of Christendom in primitive times. We have catalogues, carefully preserved, of Bishops ruling in the Churches of Jerusalem, of Antioch,of Rome, of Alexandria, and others, in uninterrupted succession, from the days of the Apostles to the fourth century, and transcribed from the local registers by the his- torian of the Church, Eusebius, who wrote his history in that century, about A.D. 324- (Euseb. iii. 2, 22, 36; iv. I ; V. 2, 6; vi. 11, 21, 23, 29, 39; vii. 27, 30, 32). And more than a Century before Euse- bius S. Irenseus says, " We can enumerate those who w^ere constituted Bishops by the Apostles, and the successors of those Bishops even to our own time." ' • " We require you to find out," says Hooker (Preface), 1 Tertullian adv. Marcion. iv. 5," Habemus Joannis alumnas Ecclesias; ordo Episcoporiini ad originem recensitus in Joannem stabit auctorem." 2 See the names given in Blunt's " History of the Church," chap. iv. 3 Iren. iii. I, " Habemus enamerare eos, qui ab ApostoHs instituti sunt Episcopi et successares eorum usque ad nos." W/TNESS OF CHRIST AND THE HOL V GHOST. 45 " but 0/ie CJiurch upon the face of the whole earth that hath not been ordered by Episcopal 7^egimen since the time of the blessed Apostles." And ** let us not fear to be herein bold and peremptory, that if anything in the Church's government, surely the first institution of Bishops was from heaven, even of God ; the Holy Ghost was the Author of it " (VII. vi. i). Indeed, inasmuch as our Blessed Lord, as we have seen (above, pp. 2, 3) promised to be always with His Church " even unto the end of the world," and that He '* would send the Holy Ghost the Comforter to teach her all things, and to guide her into all truth, and to abide with her for ever," and remained on earth forty days after His Resurrection to speak to her concerning herself, we should be reduced to the necessity of saying that our Lord (Who is ''the Truth," "the true and faithful Witness," and Who came into the world " to bear witness to the truth ") either was Himself deceived, or that He had deceived His Church, if she was not duly taught what was the nature of that Government which He designed for her who is His Spouse and Body ; and if she was in error as to this matter for fifteen hundred years ; during which she knew of no other form of Church Government than that by Bishops ; and in which, when another form of Church Government, namely by Presb}ters, was presented to her for acceptance, — as it was by the Alexandrine Presbyter Colluthus, and by Aerius,— she rejected it as heretical."* Accordingly the Church of England says in the ^ Epiphan. de Hoeret. 66 or 75. S. Augustin. de H^eres. § 53. Leo M., *'Nunquam audilum est, quod Presbyteri Presbyteros aut Diaconos ordinaverint. " Cp. Cabassut. Concil. p. 44; Theophilus Anglicanus, Part i. chap. x. 46 A PRESBYTER SOMETIMES CALLED E PIS C OPUS. Preface to her Ordination Service, '' It is evident unto all men, diligently reading the Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been three orders of ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons ; " and she declares that none " shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon in the Church of England, or suffered to execute any of the said functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto according to the Form " in her Ordinal, '' or hath had formerly Episcopal ordina- tion." It is indeed sometimes said that a Presbyter or Priest is occasionally called an Episcopiis or Bislwp in the Pastoral Epistles written in Apostolic times, and that therefore a Presbyter and a Bishop are identical. But this is an erroneous conclusion. It has never been shown that a Presbyter could ordain^ in primitive times, or could exercise any Episcopal authority and jurisdiction over other Pres- byters. A Presbyter was sometimes called Episcopiis^ be- cause in Apostolic times the Apostles themselves were the proper Bishops in the modern sense of the term. * The thirteenlh Canon of the Council of Ancyra, a.d. 314 (to which some have referred as favourable to Presbyterian Ordinations), does not appear to have any bearing at all on the question of ordination by Presbyters, but to refer to the ordination ^Presbyters; see Labbe, Concilia i. pp. 1462, 1468, 1474 ; and the text is so uncertain and pre- carious that it can hardly be of any weight against the general testimony and usage of the Church. Cp. Routh, Reliquias iv. 121, 144, 157. The true explanation of that Canon of Ancyra is to be found in the tenth Canon of the Council of Antioch, A.D. 341, which evidently refers to the Ancyran Canon, and by which the Chor-Episcopi (Country- Bishops, or Bishops vSufifragan) are forbidden to ordain a Deacon or Presbyter without the sanction of the Diocesan Bishop. BISHOPS SUCCESSORS OF THE APOSTLES. 47 And when the Apostles passed away, the persons wJiom they set over the Churches, — such as Timothy and Titus, — were the successors of the Apostles in their power of order and jurisdiction. But in their modesty they would not assume to themselves the title of Apostles, which they reserved to those who had a direct divine mission ; and they called themselves Bishops, — a title which in the next ages was not given to Presbyters, but was restricted to those who have Episcopal authority in the Church. " It clearly appeareth by Holy Scripture," (says Richard Plooker, V. Ixxvii. 9,) "that Churches Apostolic did know but three degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical order ; at the first. Apostles, Presbyters, and Deacons ; after- wards, instead of Apostles, Bishops." The fountain of order and jurisdiction, under CHRIST the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls (i Pet. ii. 25), was in the Bishop of each Church. He consulted his Presbyters, but nothing was to be done without him.^ The best primitive example of this Primacy, coupled with Consultation, is to be seen in Acts xxi. 18, where St. James is represented as the principal person, being Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem, and '* all the Presbyters were present with him." And we may refer to Acts xii. 17, where St. Peter sends to St. ■ James as head of the Church there ; and to Acts XV. 13, where St. James pronounces a definitive sen- tence in the Council at Jerusalem. In early times Apostles and Bishops were some- times called Presbyters. Thus St. John and St. Peter (2 John I. 3 John i. i Pet. v. i) apply the title of Presbyter, or Elder, to themselves. And in the sub- Apostolic age Bishops sometimes had that designa- ^ S. Tgnat. ad Magnes. c. 7 j Trail, c. 2, 3. 48 BISHOPS SOMETIMES CALLED PRESBYTERS. tion7 This is not surprising. The functions of the Presbyterate, or the Priesthood, are in some respects of the highest dignity, namely, in consecrating the Holy Eucharist, in the exercise of the power of the keys in Absolution, and in preaching to the people. According to the words of the Prophet, " the Priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth " (Mai. ii. 7). Bishops were therefore often called Presbyters, as doctors of the Church. The Presbyterate was contained in the Episcopate. Every Bishop was a Presbyter ; but no Presbyter was a Bishop. The Order of Bishops was instituted by Christ Himself in the persons of His Twelve Apostles. And the Order of the Priesthood is generally supposed to have been founded by Him in the persons of the seventy disciples (or, as some Manuscripts have it, seventy-tivo, Luke x. i). " We very well know," (says Bishop Andrewes to Peter Moulin, Opuscula Postuma, p. 169,) ''that the Apostles and seventy-two disciples were two Orders, and these distinct ; and that everywhere among the Fathers, Bishops and Presbyters are taken to be after their example ; and that Bishops succeeded the Apostles, and Presbyters the seventy-two.'" Some ancient writers, expounding the history of the ancient Hebrew Church, have recognized a symbol of the former in the Twelve Wells at Elim, and of the latter in the Seventy Palm Trees (Exod. xv. 27).^ ' The evidence may be seen in my work on S. Hippolytus, p. 170. 8 S. Jerome, in his letter on the Forty-two Stations of the Israehtes in the wilderness, Epist. 127, Mans. vL, says, "Nee dubimn quin de d^iodecim Apostolis sermo sit, de quorum Fontibus derivatae aqua; totius nnmdi siccitatem rigant ; juxta has aquas Septuaginta creverunt PalmtE^ . quos et ipsos secundi ordinis intelligimus prceceptores, Luca Evangelista THE DIACONATE. 49 The completion of the Christian Ministry was an act of the Holy Spirit inspiring the Apostles to institute the third Order, that of Deacons. The crea- tion of this Order was due to an occasion similar to the Order itself. The Tables mentioned in Acts vi. 2, were not secular but sacred, being connected with the administration of the Holy Communion, and the distribution of Alms offered at it : and the Order of Deacons was not secular, though it had secular duties attached to it, especially that of distributing those Alms to the aged and widows, and sick and needy ; but it consisted of men chosen because they were " full of the Holy Ghost " [v. 3), and they were or- dained with prayer and laying on of the hands of the Apostles {y. 6), and they performed sacred duties in preaching and baptizing (Acts viii. 36, 38). The word Deacon is involved in the expression in the Acts, vi. 3, htaKovelv rpane^aL';. We find the office of Deacon recognized as an Order existing in the Church by St. Paul in his Pastoral Epistles ; and we do not find any other occasion of its institution than that described in the sixth chapter of the Acts ; and the persons there mentioned, such as St. Stephen, St. Philip, and Nicolas, are commonly called Deacons by ancient writers (S. Iren. iii. 12 ; i. 27. S. Cyril Hieros. capt. xvii. Cp. Tillemont, i. p. 141 ; ii. p. 65, ed. Paris. 1 701). After the institution of the Diaconate the Ministry of the Church was regarded as com- plete ; the offices of Subdeacon, Reader, Exorcist, Acolyte, were either temporary, or else, though con- venient, not necessary. testante (cap. x. i), fuisse XII. Apostolos et hXX. Disa'pu/os rnuioris g7'ad:is, quos et binos ante Se Dominus praemittebat. See also Tertullian contra Marcion. iv. 13, 24, and Origen in Niimeros, Horn. 27. E 50 THE THREE ORDERS NECESSARY. In and after the times of the Apostles, no Church was considered to be duly organized or to possess the essential requisites of a Church, which did not possess these three Orders, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.^ The organization of the Church in a system of Diocesan Episcopacy, and of groups of Dioceses in a Province under a Metropolitan, and of Provinces under a Patriarch, and of Patriarchates, with co- ordinate jurisdiction, so as to form the Catholic Church, was of later and gradual development, and was affected by local and temporal circumstances. But the following principles were of primitive, authority: — 1. That there could be only one Bishop with primary ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction in one and the same City and Diocese. A second Bishop was, in fact, no Bishop. This, as we shall see, was declared in the case of Novatian — the first Anti- pope (A.D. 251).^ 2. That Episcopal elections ought to take place in the cities where their sees are, and that Bishops of the same Province or Country (e.g. Spain), in case of delinquency, ought to be judged in that Province and Country, without appeal to foreign Churches, e. g. to Rome." ^ S. Ignatius ad Trallian, 3, x^P^^ rovrtoj' iKKXriala oh KaX(7rai. See ibid. c. 2 and c. 7 ; cp, ad Ephes. 2 and 20, ad Phil. 7, Magnes. 7. S. Clement (of Rome) ad Corinth, c. 40. Concil. Nicsen. can. 18, where that Council — the first general Council — describes the "Deacons as Ministers of the Bishop, and inferior to the Presbyters " or Priests. Cp. I Tim. iii. 13. ' S, Cyprian, Ep. 55 ad Antonian., and Ep. 67. Concil. Nicsen. can. 8. * See Concil. Carth. iv. a.d. 254; Cyprian, Epist. 6"]; Routh, Reliq. iii. loi. CHAPTER VI. Oil the Christiaii Sacrame^its — Baptism, Holy Commu- nion {Oblatio7i, Weekly Offertory), Confirmation. The virtue and efficacy of the Christian Sacraments are derived from Christ, the Eternal Son of God — God of God ; Very God of Very God— Who took our Nature in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and became Very Man, having a real human body, soul, and spirit ; and Who joined our Nature for ever to the Divine Nature in His own Person, and died for us on the Cross. From the pierced side of Christ, sleeping on the Cross in death, as from a divine fountain, the Life of the Church flowed in the streams of the two Sacraments. The Apostle and beloved disciple St. John, who declares in his Gospel more fully than any other of the Evangelists, the Godhead and Manhood of Christ, has also stated more clearly than any other the nature cf the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Com- munion, which receive their efficacy from the Incar- nation and Death of Christ, Very God and Man. St. John does not mention the Institution of either Sacrament ; and with good reason. The facts of their Institution had been already sufficiently recorded in the three preceding Gospels, and St. John's silence E 2 53 NECESSITY OF 77/ E SACRAMENTS. is an eloquent testimony to the truth and adequacy of that Evangelical record of their Institution. But he descends more deeply into the profound mystery of their nature and inner working. First he states their necessity wherever they may be had. He does this by reciting the same divine preamble Amen, Amen, or Verily, Verily, from the mouth of Christ, which ushers in His own solemn declaration concerning each of the two Sacraments, Verily, verily, I say tinto you, Except — (John iii. 5 ; vi. 53). In the one case, when speaking of the Sacrament of Baptism, Christ uses the singular number ("I say unto iheel' and " P>xcept a man be born of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God ''), because it is necessary for every one singly and individually to be regenerate, or born anew, by water and the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, if he is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven ; as it was needful for every Israelite singly to be circum- cised, if he would not be cut off from God's people (Gen. xvii. 1-4). And in speaking of the other Sacra- ment He uses the plural number, " Except j^ eat the flesh of the Son, and except ye drink His Blood, ye have no life in you (plural)," because that Sacrament is not to be received singly, but its reception is a federal act, to be done in society with others. It is a Holy Communion, in which the faithful are partakers (as in the Hebrew Peace-offering) with God, and with one another, and by which they dwell in Him Who is God, and He dwells in them. And it has an analogy also to the eating of the Passover, which v\ as an act of communion, and was necessary for every Israelite (Exod. xii. 3, 4, 24, 25). In Baptism every one is engrafted singly into HOLY BAPTISM— BETHESDA, SI LOAM. 53 Christ's mystical Body ; in the Holy Communion, His faithful members, having been already engrafted into that Body by Baptism, receive pardon, grace, refresh- ment, strength, pledges of resurrection and immor- tality by loving communion with Him Who is " the Resurrection and the Life" (John xi, 25 ; cp. John vi. 54), and Whose " Blood cleanseth from all sin " (i John i. 7). By two miracles, recorded in St. John's Gospel in connexion with two pools of water, — Bethesda and Siloam, — our Lord illustrates His own working in the Sacrament of Baptism. He shows by the miracle at Bethesda that not the element of w^ater, but His own divine power working in the element, is the energizing cause of the virtue in Baptism ; by His Divine Word He healed the impo- tent man at that pool of water^ without the water itself (John v. 8, ii). But at the other pool, that of Siloam, where He healed the blind man by means of the element of water in the pool, to which He sent the blind man, and to which the blind man went in faith, He showed that when He has been pleased to annex the virtue of re- generation to the element, as He has done in the Sacrament of Baptism by His own divine institution of the Sacrament, it is necessary to comply v^ith His appointment, and to resort with faith and obedience to that Sacrament which He has vouchsafed to appoint to be the means of regeneration to us, and which is therefore called in Holy Scripture the " laver of regeneration " (Titus iii. 5)/ ^ Baptism' was also called (puTiajxhs, or illumi)iatio7u See on Hebrews vi. 4, and S. Justin Martyr, p. 94 D. KaAelTat tovto rh Xovrphv (pwTicTfAhs, and p. 258 A. and 351 A. 5i CHRIST THE SOURCE OF SACRAMENTAL GRACE. St. John in his Gospel describes what he heard and saw when our Lord was hanging dead upon the Cross. One of the soldiers pierced His side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water (John xix. 34). The early Church, and the best Divines of our own Churchy and our own Church herself in her Baptismal Office ", invite us to rei^ard that act as representative of the streams of life, and of gracious pardon, love and cleansing, which flow, in the Blessed Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Communion, from the wounded side of Christ, God and Man, sleeping in death on the Cross. " The Church," (says Richard Hooker, V. Ivi. 7,) ** is in Christ, as Eve was in Adam, yea by grace we are every one of us in Christ and in His Church, as by nature we are in those our first parents. God made Eve of the rib of Adam; and His Church He formeth out of the very wounded and bleeding side of the Son of Man. His Body crucified, and His Blood shed for the life of the World, are the true elements of that heavenly being which maketh us such as He is of Whom we come." And this Life from Him is communicated to us by means of the Blessed Sacra- ments instituted by Him for that purpose. " Hsec sunt gemina Ecclesiae Sacramenta," says S. Augus- tine.' The earliest Christian treatise concerning the Sacra- ment of Holy Baptism is by Tertullian, writing about the close of the second century. He thus speaks,"* " Happy is the Sacrament of Water, in which we are 2 "Almighty and Everlasting God, Whose most dearly beloved Son for the forgiveness of our sins did shed out of His most precious side both l^Vater and Blood. " 3 In Joann. Tract. 120, and Sermon v. Cp. Bp. Andrewes' Sermon, vol. iii. pp. 345—360. * De Eaptismo, c. i. TERTULLIAN ON BAPTISM. 55 washed from our old sins, and are liberated into Eter- nal Life ! " '' Nos pisciculi secundum Ix^vv nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur ^ nee aliter quam in aqua salvi sumus." We are born in water, and are kept alive in it, i. e. by being faithful to our Baptismal Vow. " Nothing," he says, "so hardens men's minds as the visible simplicity of God's works, and the magni- ficence of their effects. So it is in Baptism. There is no pomp or pageantry in it, no sumptuousness. A person goes down into the water, and rises up from it not much changed in appearance, and therefore men will not believe that he has become an heir of immor- tality. Is it not marvellous (they say) that Death should be dissolved in the Font } Yes, certainly it is ; and let us believe it the more because it is marvellous. For what ought God's works to be, but beyond all marvel } We marvel, because we believe. Infidelity wonders and believes not. To Unbelief all simple things are vain, and great things are impossible." He then refers to the operation of God the Holy Spirit at Creation, moving on the face of the waters, which was the womb of the Earth. So it is in Holy Baptism (c. 3). The Holy Ghost broods over the Water in the Font, and imparts to it its regenerative virtue. After Baptism comes the Laying on of Hands, for the giving of the Holy Ghost. And he refers to the laying on of the hands of the Patriarch Jacob, in the figure of the Cross, on the heads of Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (c. 8). He refers also to the history of the Flood, and to • On the word t'x^yv applied to Christ, and formed from the initials of the words 'Itjo-ows Xpia-rhs @eov Tibs ScoTrjp, and thence applied to Christians, may I refer to the authorities quoted, and to the remarks on the ancient Autun Inscription, in my Miscellanies ? i. p. 92. 56 TER TULLIA N ON BA PTISM—LA Y BA PTISM. the admission of Noah and his family into the Ark,^ the type of the Church, and their salvation by water ; and the message of peace by the Dove, the figure of the Holy Ghost. He adverts to the deliverance of God's people Israel from Egypt and Pharaoh by passing through the Red Sea, the figure of Baptism.' " Nunquam sine aqua Christus : " Water was at His Baptism and First Miracle, and on the Cross, when Water flowed from His Side (c. lo). Tertullian does not say that the element of Water gives life and pardon and grace. No ; God alone does this ; but He is pleased to give them to the faithful and peni- tent by means of Water in the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, which Christ has instituted for that purpose, and which He commanded His disciples to administer to all Nations taught by His Word, Who said, " Except a man be born of Water and the Holy Ghost, he can- not enter the Kingdom of Heaven " (c. 13). We have One God, One Baptism (he says, c. 15), and One Church in Heaven. The ministry of Baptism is to be exercised by the " Summus Sacerdos, Episcopus," and by Priests and Deacons, but not without the authority of the Bishop. As to Lay Baptism, Tertullian adds (c. 17), " The Lord's Word ought not to be hidden by any one. And, in like manner, Baptism, which is God's muster-roll, may be dispensed by all ; but since the Laity ought to be distinguished by that modesty which is the mark of their superiors, let them not usurp the Episcopal Of^ce. Emulation is ^ Another figure authorized by St, Peter (i Pet. iii. 21), and adopted by our Church in her office for Holy Baptism, "Almighty and Everlasting God, Who of Thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the Ark," &c. 7 Also adopted by our Church in the same prayer. ^ INFANT BAPTISM. 57 the mother of Schism. Let it suffice them to exercise this ministry in cases of necessity, when the circumstances of place, time, or person re- quire it. Easter and Pentecost and the Lord's Day are most seasonable for Baptism. But every day is the Lord's ; every hour, every season is suitable for Baptism. Let adults, who are to be baptized, fast and pray, and confess their sins, and make reparation for them. After Baptism they will be tempted as the Lord was. Watch, therefore, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Pray — pray more fervently than before. And when ye pray, remember me, Tertullian, a sinner." Tertullian expresses his own private opinion that Baptism had better be deferred till after the time of infancy ; but S. Cyprian and the sixty-six Bishops in Synod with him, A.D. 253, were in favour of Infant Baptism,^ the necessity of which they grounded on the doctrine of Original Sin and on our Lord's words, Luke ix. 56, and by reference to the admission of Hebrew infants into covenant with God by circum- cision on the eighth day after birth. To pass from Baptism to Holy Communion. After the miracle at the Pool of Bethesda, our Lord crossed to the other side of the Lake, and fed the five thou- sand men, by the ministry of His disciples, with five barley loaves and two small fishes, which had been blessed by Him and distributed to His disciples, and were miraculously multiplied by Him so as to feed that great multitude, and to leave a residue of twelve baskets full, much exceeding the original supply. 8 Epist. 64. Routh, Rel. Sac. iii. 98. Cp. S. Augustine, Serm. 8 and Serm. 10, de Verbis Apostoli and de Peccatorum Meritis, i, c. 30, and Wall on Infant Baptism, Oxf. 1836. 58 HOLY COMMUNION, PREFIGURED BY CHRIST S MIR A CLE. This miracle was at the season of the Passover — of that Passover (it is most probable) which preceded by one year that Passover at which He instituted the Holy Communion, the evening before His Passion, when He said to His assembled disciples, '* Take, eat, this is My Body," *' Drink ye all of this," and thus explained the prophetic meaning of what He had done in the miracle. On the morrow after that miraculous feeding of the five thousand He preached a sermon in the Synagogue at Capernaum, and explained the spiritual nature and significance of that wonderful and merciful act. Making a retrospective reference to that Miracle, and also well knowing " what He would do " and would suffer at that same season in the next year, and having a divine prospect of it before Him, He declared the necessity of partaking of that Sacrament, by which His Death would be shown in all future ages of the Church till His Coming again (i Cor. xi. 26), and by which not only that Death would be commemorated, but the benefits of it be imparted to all penitent, faithful, and loving receivers of that which is the " Communion of His body and blood " (i Cor. x. 16). In that Sermon at Capernaum He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day ; for My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him " (John vi. 53 — 56). At the same time, while the reality of His presence in that Sacrament is assured to us by His own Divine Word, and the effects of that presence THE REAL PRESENCE: ITS MYS7ERY. 59 are declared to us, He appears at the same time to have guarded His disciples against inquisitive specula- tions as to the manner ot that presence. The men of Capernaum were staggered by His appearance, and asked, *' Rabbi, when camest Thou hither?" (John vi. 25.) He had come in the dark- ness of the night. He had come walking on the waves of the sea. No one could trace His footsteps in that night and on those waves. But His disciples did not inquire as to the manner of that coming, but gladly received Him into the ship, and then the storm ceased and the ship was at the shore. In this narrative we see therefore a divine warning against curious speculations as to the manner of Christ's presence in that Holy Sacrament, at the same time that we recognize the reality of the Blessing we receive, — Christ's Presence with us, — and perceive the duty and happiness of all faithful receivers. Therefore the faithful receivers do not pry into the mode of His coming and of His divine presence in that Holy Sacrament, but they believe His Divine Word, and resolve all into an act of faith and loving adoration ; " O Lord, Thou art powerful and merciful, faithful and true ; " and " O my soul, thou art happy, in union and communion with thy God " (cp. Hooker, Eccl. Pol. V. Ivi.). We have been considering the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ as the Communion oixh^ faithful with Him, and with one another in Him. But we must not forget that it is an Eucharist, a Sacrifice oi Praise and Thanksgiving ; and that it is so called by St. Paul (i Cor. xiv. 16), " How shall the layman say tJie Amen at thy Eucharist ? " i. e. at the 60 DOCTRINE OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH consecration of the Bread and Wine, and at the offering of them with thanksgiving to God. The ancient Church recognized a prediction of this Eucharistic offering in the words of God by the prophet Malachi (i. ii), "From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same My Name shall be great among the Gentiles ; and in every place incense shall be offered unto My Name, and a pure offermg." The sub-Apostolic Father S. Justin Martyr says (c. Tryphon. c. 41) that " this is a figure of the Bread and the Cup in the EticJiarist ;'' and S. Irenaeus, the Scholar of S. Polycarp the disciple of St. John, says (c. Haeres. iv. 32, ed. Grabe) that " Christ taught His disciples to offer to God th.^ firstfniits of His crcaUtres^ not as if the Creator needed anything, but that they might not be unfruitful and ungrateful ; and that He took Bread, one of His creatures, and gave thanks and said, 'This is My Body;' likewise the Cup, which is also one of His creatures, and owned it as His Blood, and thus taught us the new Oblation of the New Testament." S. Irenaeus also says that " the Church, having received this oblation from the Apostles, offers it up in all the World to God, Who giveth us nourishment ; and that she presents to Him tJic firstfndts of His owji giftSy according to the words of Malachi." " It is certain," says the learned Editor of Irenaeus, Dr. Grabe (p. 323), "that the Fathers of the Church, whether coeval with, or next succeeding to, the Apostles, regarded the Holy Eucharist as the Evan- gelical sacrifice offered on the altar, in the Bread and Wine " (the one as the chosen representative of all solid food, the other of liquid), " as sacred gifts to God ON THE EUCHARISTIC OBLATION. 61 the Father ; such offerings being, before consecration, the firstfruits of all His creatures, and being offered in recognition of His supreme dominion over all ; ^ and also being offered after consecration as the mystical body and blood of Christ, for the repre- sentation of the oblation of His Body and Blood upon the Cross, and for the imputation of the benefits of His death." ' S. Irencxus says (ibid. cap. 34, p. 327)» "The Bread which is from the earth, when it has received the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but an Eucharist, consisting of two parts, one earthly, the other heavenly ; and so our bodies, receiving the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but have a hope of the Resurrection " (cp. ibid. v. 2, p. 400). But while the Fathers recognized a real spiritual presence, they did not believe in a carnal Transub- stantiation of the elements.^ S. Chrysostom says (on Heb. X. 9), "We make a commemoration of Sacri- fice " (i. e. of the Sacrifice once offered by Christ on the Cross) ; and S. Augustine says (c. Faust, xx. 18), " Christians celebrate a memorial of the same past sacrifice," " Peracti ejusdem sacrificii memoriam cele- 3 The Priest humbly and reverently presents and offers the Bread and Wine as the firstfruits and representatives of the creatures to God, the Creator and Giver of all good to the body as well as to the soul ; and as afterwards to be consecrated in the Holy Eucharist. This action is very significant. It is a consecration of Creation to holy uses. The Rubric of the Church of England prescribes this oblation to be made by the Priest before the Prayer for the Church Militant. 1 See the authorities from S. Ignatius, vS. Irenaus, S. Justin Martyr, TertuUian, and S. Cyprian there quoted, p. 323, and see the learned treatise of Joseph Mede on the Christian Sacrifice, in his works, p. 373, where he says "the ancient Church first offered the Bread and \Vine unto God to agnize Him the Lord 0/ the Creatures, and then received tiiem again as the synbols of the Body and Blood of His dear Son." '^ See S. Justin c. .Tryphon. p. 296 E., wi^h Bp. Kaye's note, p. 94. 62 ANCIENT DOCTRINE ON THE EUCHARIST. brant ;" and in his Epistle to Boniface (xxiii. p. 267) he declares that "the Sacrament is called a Sacrifice be- cause it is a resemblance of the sacrifice offered by Christ" And Gelasius, Bishop of Rome (A.D. 492 — 496), says,^ " The Sacraments which we receive of the Body and Blood of Christ are a divine thing ; and yet there does not cease to exist in them the substance of Bread and Wine ;" and Theodoret (Eranist. ii. p. 126) says, *' The Bread and Wine even after consecration lose not their own nature, but remain in their proper substance, shape, and form.""* Let me here add two memorable passages from S. Justin Martyr, writing in the middle of the second century, and describing the administration of the Christian Sacraments, and the worship of the Chris- tian Church on the Lord's Day, when, according to Apostolic practice, the Christians came together ^'to break bread on the first day of the week '^ (Acts xx. 7). In his first Apology he says," "As many as are per- suaded and believe that what we teach is true, and undertake to conform their lives to our doctrine, are instructed to fast and to pray and to entreat from God the remission of their past sins, we fasting and praying together with them. " They are then conducted to a place zvhere there is ' De duabus naturis in Christo. Bibl. Patr. v. p. 67. * Compare Bishop Ridley (Life by N. Ridley, pp. 620, 681); Bishop Andrewes c. Bellarmin., p. 184; Archbishop Laud against Fisher, p. 256 ; Dr. Waterland " on the Service of the Eucharist considered in a Sacrificial view," vol. vii. pp. 34 — 39; Bishop Bull, vol. ii. p. 250, ed. Oxon. 1827, who says " the Eucharistical Sacrifice thus explained (as representative and commemorative) is indeed a AoyiKyj Bvaia, a reasonable sacrifice,^'' but he adds that it widely differs from the " sacrifice of the Mass taught in the Church of Rome." » P. 93 E. Bishop Kaye's translation, p. 84, is adopted here. ANCIENT DOCTRINE ON HOL V BAPTISM; 63 AND COMMUNION. luater, andaix regene^-ated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For they are there washed in the Name of God the Father, and Lord of the Universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit (cp. ibid. p. 94, on regeneration in Baptism). "After we have thus washed him who has ex- pressed his conviction and assented to our doctrines, we conduct him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer up earnest prayers together for ourselves, and for him who has been baptized, and for all others every- where, that having learned the truth we may be deemed worthy to be found walking in good works, and keeping the commandments so that we may ob- tain everlasting salvation. " Prayers being ended, we salute one another with a kiss. Bread is then, brought to the presiding brother, and a cup of wine mixed with water ; and he, taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the Universe, through the Name of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ; and continues some time to offer thanks to Him for having deemed us worthy of these gifts. The prayers and thanksgivings being ended, all the people present signify their assent by saying Amen, which in the Hebrew tongue answers to the word ^kvoiTo [so be it) in Greek. The President having given thanks, and the people having signified their assent, they whom we call Deacons give to each of those who are present a portion of the Bread and of the Wine mixed with water ^ over which the thanks- ^ On the primitive use of water mingled with wine in the Holy Com- munion, see S. Cyprian, Ep. 63, pp. 151, 154, 157, with Bp, Fell's note; S. Augustine de Doct. Christiana iv. 45 ; Bishop Wilson, Parochialia, vol. vii. p. 20, ed. Keble. 61 ANCIENT TEACHING ON CHURCH ASSEMBLIES ON THE LORD'S DA Y. g-Iving was pronounced, and they carry a portion to the absent. " This food is called by us Eucharist ; and no one is allowed to partake of it who does not believe what we teach to be true, and has not been washed with the laver (of baptism) for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who does not live as Christ has commanded us to do. For we do not receive it as common bread and common drink ; but in the same manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, being Incarnate through the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our Salvation, so we have been taught that the food having been blessed by prayer of the Word from Him (by which food our blood and flesh are nourished by transformation) is the flesh and blood of the Incar- nate Jesus. For the Apostles, in the records com- posed by them, which are called C'^j^^/j-, have declared that He gave them this command, ' Do this in remem- brance of Me.' ' This is My Body,' and in like manner having taken the cup and given thanks He said, ' This is My Blood,' and that He distributed the Bread and Wine to them only." S. Justin proceeds to describe the order of wor- ship and instruction in Christian assemblies on the Loi'd's Day. "On the day called Sunday there is a gathering together of all who dwell in cities or in the country. In them the records of the Apostles, or the writings of the Prophets, are read as long as circum- stances allow. When the Reader has finished, the Presiding Minister delivers a sermon, in which he admonishes and exhorts to an imitation of those good things. Then we rise up together and pray. Then (as was before said) Prayer being ended, Bread and Wine and Water are brought, and the President sends up THE L ORB'S DA Y— WEEKL V OFFER TOR V. 6 5 prayers and thanksgivings in like manner with all his might, and the People signify their assent by saying Ame?i. That upon which the thanksgiving has been pronounced (i. e. the Holy Eucharist) is distributed to every one, and every ojie partakes^' d^nd a portion is sent to the absent by the hands of the Deacons. "They who are rich and are willing give as much as they deem fit, and whatever is collected (at the offer- tory) is deposited with the President, who thence suc- cours the orphans and widows, sick and needy persons, and strangers ; in a word, takes care of all who are in want. " We meet together on Stmday because it is the first day ; on which God having made the necessary change in darkness and matter began to create the World. And on this day our Saviour Jesus Christ arose from the dead. He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday), and on the morrow, which is Sunday, having shown Himself to His Apostles and disciples. He taught them those things which we have now propounded to you." Let us now review the foregoing statements. It appears (i) that the celebration of the Holy Coin- mimion was an essential part of Christian Worship on the Lord's Day. This may be proved from primi- tive Apostolic practice (see on Acts xx. 7). (2) That the Holy Communion was accompanied with the Weekly Ojfertory. Our Blessed Lord joined Almsgiving with Prayer in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. vi. i — 16), and taught that habitual Almsgiving is as much a Chris- ^ A statement which deserves attention in reference to the question of what is called '•non-communicating attendance." F 66 WEEKL Y OFFER TOR Y— CONFIRM A TION. tian duty as habitual Prayer. And St. Paul there- fore inculcated it as an act of Christian Worship on the Lord^s Day (i Cor. xvi. i, 2). And S. Justin Martyr, as we have seen, in the second Century repre- sents it as such. In the Weekly Offertory rich and poor are united as brethren in offering to God,^ Who specially loves the " Widow's mites ; " and they are joined together in thus consecrating their substance to Him, by the reverent presentation of their gifts on the Holy Table to Him from Whom all receive whatever they have to give, and Who will bless them with abundant in- crease for what they offer to Him for His dear Son's sake. This act of Offering had therefore a special place in the Eucharistic Liturgies of the Ancient Church. The rite of Confiiination after Baptism has been disparaged by some, because it was not, like the two Sacraments, instituted by Christ Himself while upon earth. But it may be observed that whatever the Apostles did — being guided by the Holy Spirit sent by Christ Himself reigning in heaven — for the bestowal of spiri- tual grace, which is of perpetual and universal neces- sity for the faithful, was virtually done by Christ, acting in them and by them. Also, by reason of the special character of Con- firmation, it conld not have been instituted before Christ's Ascension into Heaven. Confirmation is the divinely appointed means for the plenary effusion of the gift of the Holy Ghost on those who have been baptized. And that gift s Compare Tertullian's account of the Christian assembhes, Apol. 39. CONFIRMA TION. 67 could not be bestowed before Christ was glorified by His Ascension into Heaven. As St. John says (vii. 39), " The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." The importance and dignity of Confirmation are further evident from the fact that it could not be ministered, as Baptism was, by a Deacon of the Church, St. Philip. The Apostles took care to send down two of their number, St. Peter and St. John, from Jerusalem to Samaria, to lay their hands, with prayer, on those who had been baptized by St. Philip, in order that they might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; in other words, that they might be confirmed. And it is affirmed that when the Apostles had done so, they, on whom they laid their hands, received the Holy Ghost (Acts viii. 14 — 17). In order that it might not be supposed that this act of Confirmation could be performed only by tzvo Apostles— Peter and John, — or only by Apostles who had been called by our Lord when upon earth, the Holy Spirit has thought fit to record in the Acts of the Apostles, that Confirmation was administered also by a single Apostle, — one who was not of the original twelve, — St. Paul (Acts xix. 4 — 6). It is rightly supposed that Confirmation is specified in the Epistle to the Hebrews (vi. 2) — after the men- tion of Baptism — in the words " laying on of hands^ as among the " first principles of the doctrine of Christ." Certain it is that the ancient Fathers speak of Confirmation as ministered by Bishops — as successors of the Apostles — for the bestowal' of the gift of the Holy Ghost on the baptized. " They who are bap- F 2 68 CONFIRM A TION. tized," says S. Cyprian^ Bishop of Carthage in the third century,^ '' are brought to the Chief Pastors of the Church, that by our prayer and the laying on of hands they may receive the Holy Ghost, and be completed by the seal of Christ." And S. Jerome* says, '* This is the usage of our Churches. The Bishop goes forth and makes a tour, in order to lay his hands and to invoke the Holy Spirit on those who have been baptized by our Priests and Deacons." This bringing of all under the hands of the Bishop, — as their Father in God, and the personal centre of unity in a diocese, — for his benediction, was a symbol of that unity of all, as spiritual children in Christ, which is a fundamental principle of the Church. Confirmation being the completion of Baptism, as S. Ambrose calls it," was termed the ''consummating unction " {^pL(fL<^ reXeLcoTLKi]).^ '■^ Epist. 73. Cp. Tertullian, De Baptismo c. 8. ^ Ad Lucifer, c. 4. 2 De Sacram. iii. 2. 3 See Bp. Taylor's Dissertation with that title, Works xi. 215; and Hooker, V. Ixvi. ; and Hammond's Treatise de Confirmatione, Works iv. p. 851 ; and the Canons of the Church of England of 1603, Canon Ix., where Confirmation is called " a laudable custom, continued from the Apostles' times." CHAPTER VII. Hostile assaults on the Christian Church — ovei-riiled for Jier good. First opposition from the Jezvs. S. Justin Martyr s Dialogue zvith Trypho the Jezv. Other Christian Apologies against Judaism. " I WOULD that ye should understand, brethren," says St. Paul to the PhiHppians (Phil. i. 12), "that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather jijito the fcrtherance of the Gospel!^ These words contain a truth which is illustrated by all Church History. In that History two things are ever manifest. First, the Evil One is always en- deavouring to destroy her by force or by fraud. Secondly, these attempts of the Evil One are made, by her divine Lord, to recoil upon him ; and to display God^s power and love, and to promote His glory, and to try His faithful servants, and to minister to the salvation of those who endure to the end in faith and love. The Crucifixion was a work of the Evil One, but by the Cross Satan was vanquished, and the world was saved. So it is in the history of the Church. Whether the Evil One endeavoured to assail her by means of the Jews, or of heathen Persecutors, or to deprave her by Heresies, or distract her by Schisms ; all things have been made by God to work together for good to them that loved Him (Rom. viii. 28). 70 FIRST PERSECUTION, FROM THE JEWS. The first assault upon the Church was from the Jews. St. Stephen was a victim of their mahce ; but unless he had been arraigned by them, the Christian Church would not have possessed the holy Martyr's exposition of Old Testament History, which is con- tained in his speech before the Hebrew Sanhedrim, and which may be called the germ and pattern of all future Christian Apologies against Judaism. She would never have had that perfect model of Christian Martyrdom, — traced on the lines of his Divine Master's example, — which is presented forthe imitation of the Church of every age by the history, written by the Holy Ghost, of the blessed Protomartyr's death. The imprisonment of St Peter and St. John for preaching the Resurrection, by the Sadducees who denied the doctrine of Resurrection and the existence of Angels, gave occasion to Almighty God to declare the truth of the doctrine of the Resurrection which they preached, by miraculous interpositions on their behalf, by the ministry of Angels who delivered them (Acts V. 19 ; cp. xii. 7). The vindictive rancour of the Jews against St. Paul (i Thess. ii. 14 — 16. Acts xiii. 50; xiv. 2) made his Christian love to them more manifest, in his practice of preaching to the Jews in the first instance in their synagogues (Acts xvii. 2 ; xxviii. 20), before he addressed the Gentiles ; and in his declaration that he was ready to suffer any loss for their sake (Rom. ix. 1—3). There was also another benefit accruing from the persecution of the Christian Church by the Jews. It enlightened the Heathen, who were disposed to con- found Christianity with Judaism, and to regard the one as only a sect of the other ; it disabused them of BENEFITS DERIVED FROM IT, 71 this error, and disposed them to look with more favour on Christianity. Judaism they never accepted, and they never would have received the Gospel, if it had been identified with Judaism. Another great and permanent blessing which arose from the persecution of the Church by the Jews was that it taught the world to understand the true nature of Judaism. The Mosaic Law, the Levitical Priesthood, the Mosaic Sacrifices, the Temple at Jerusalem and its Ritual, were from God : Christianity also claimed to be from Him. The Christian Church harmonized these two propositions, and proved that she was not an usurper, but the legitimate successor of Sion, and the heiress of all the prerogatives and blessings pro- mised to the Patriarchs, and announced by Moses and the Prophets to the People of God. " Novum Testa- mentum in Vetere latet ; Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet." " The New Testament is enfolded in the Old ; the Old Testament is unfolded in the New," said S. Augustine ; and this saying expresses what had been shown by our Blessed Lord and His Apostles in their interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and in their illustration of them by the Gospel. The Manna, the Brasen Serpent in the wilderness, — these had been Christianized by our Lord Himself (John vi. 48, 49 ; iii. 14). He had taught His Disciples to recognize in the Prophet Jonah a type of His own Death, three days' Burial, and Resurrection (Matt. xii. 39, 40). The Passover received an Evangelical interpretation from St. John (John xix. 36) and St. Paul (i Cor. v. 7), and had been shown to have been fulfilled in Christ. St. Paul, especially in his Epistles to the Galatians and the Romans, had taught that the Law of Moses 72 CHRISTIANITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Gal. iii, 24), and that Christ was the end of the Law for right- eousness (Rom. X. 4) ; and in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, that the Israelites, their Exodus and Passage through the Red Sea, the spiritual Bread from heaven, and the smitten Rock in the wilderness, were figurative of us and of our Christian privileges (i Cor. X. I — II) ; and in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that all the sacrificial Ritual of the Levitical Law, especially on the great Day of Atonement (Heb. viii. 2 ; ix. 2 — 28), were " shadows of the good things to come " (Heb. x. 2 — 10), which are realized in substance by the One Sacrifice on the Cross. Thus they had prepared the way for S. Clement of Rome and S. Barnabas, declaring the typical charac- ter of the Old Testament History, and the fulfilment of its prophecies and ceremonies in Christ (Clem. Rom. c. 12 ; Barnabas, caps. 5, 6, 7, 8), and for the work of the Christian Apologists, S.Justin Martyr, Ter- tullian, Cyprian, and others in their controversies with the Jews. In a like spirit S. Ignatius, the disciple of St. John, declared that *•' the Prophets lived a Christ- ward life " (ad Magnes. c. 8), and that " Christ was the Door, by which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Prophets, entered into the Kingdom of God " (ad Philadelph. c. 9). S. Justin Martyr in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, boldly assures him that the Christians worshipped the God Who had brought Israel from Egypt, and had given them the Law (p. 227) ; and that the Law, so far as it was ceremonial, was no longer binding, because it had been fulfilled in Christ, Who is the End of the Law (p. 259), and with- out faith in Whom none can be saved (c. 44); that the abrogation of the Law had been foretold by the JUSTIN MARTYR ON THE OLD TESTAMENT 73 Hebrew Prophets (c. ii); that Jesus of Nazareth had fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament by His birth from a Virgin (p. 262), and by His Crucifixion and Resurrection (p. 324, and c. 36, 37), and His Ascen- sion ; and especially that the Cross, the stumbling- block to the Jews, had been prefigured by the man- ner in which the Passover was to be roasted with fire, and by the Serpent of brass on the pole (c. 40, 91, 94); that Joshua was a type of Christ (c. 113); that the Prophets had foretold the conversion of the Gen- tiles (p. 335); that the Christians, and not the Jews, are now the true Israel of God, because they are the Seed promised to Abraham in Christ received by faith (pp. 347, 352) ; and because they are not slaves of the letter of the law, but fulfil it in spirit; and because they have the true circumcision of the heart, and off"er the true spiritual sacrifices which are alone now pleasing to God (pp. 342 — 347). He affirms that the Christian Church was prefigured by the Ark of Noah (c. 138), and by the marriage of Jacob with Rachel, the beloved wife, preferred to Leah, the type of the Synagogue (c. 134). S. Justin also no less boldly asserts that the Jews, who were no longer addicted to idolatry, — for which their fathers had been so severely punished, — must have now been guilty of some heinous sin, since God' (Who invariably dealt with them according to their deserts, punishing them when guilty of sin, and rewarding them when obedient to Him) had now given their City and Temple into the hands of the heathen, the Romans, to be destroyed by them ; and since He had scattered them as outcasts into all lands. He says that this their sin was no other than the rejection of His own beloved Son; and that their only hope of recovery was in their repent- 74 TERTULLIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE JEWS. ing of their sins, especially of that sin, and in em- bracing the Gospel of Christ (pp. 347 — 350)/ Tertullian wrote his Apology against the Jews about fifty years after Justin. He declares that the Jews, who were a jealous, separate, and exclusive race, could not be the people of God, inasmuch as God had promised that in Abraham's seed^ which is Christ, all nations should be blessed (c. i ) ; but that Christianity, which was preached to all, was the religion which God approved (c. 7). The Messiah must have appeared, because the time specified by Daniel within which He was to appear (Dan. ix. 25) has long since elapsed, and Christ was born at the time pre- signified by Daniel for the appearance of the Messiah (c. 8). He says that other prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah, especially con- cerning his Birth at Bethlehem from a Virgin (which was indeed a sign or wonder, c. 9), were fulfilled by Him ; that in His Name, Jesus or Saviour, and in His acts. He had been prefigured by Joshua the successor of Moses, the leader of Israel into Canaan, and the conqueror of their enemies (c. 10) ; that His death by Crucifixion had been foretold, especially by the type of Isaac carrying the wood (c. ii), and by ' This argument is further enforced by S. Chrysostom (i. p. 576, ed. Savile), who observes that ?/the Crucifixion was not a great jm, it must have been a very meritorious act, inasmuch as it was a punishment in- flicted on One Who claimed to be a Prophet sent from God, and to have a right to set aside the Law of Moses, and Who, if those claims were not just, ought by that Law tohave been put to death (Deut. xiii. i — 3). Consequently the Crucifixion would have been a praiseworthy act of national obedience ; and the Jews — living under a theocracy — would have been rewarded by God for it, instead of being punished, and of being outcasts, — as they now have been,— for eighteen centuries. But the Crucifixion was a heinous sin; and the Jews have no hope of resto- ration to God's favour till they have repented of it. TERTULLTAN—ORIGEN— CYPRIAN, ON JUDAISM. 75 Isaiah's prophecy (c. 13) ; that in Joseph, sold by his brethren into Egypt, Christ was typified ; that the dispersion of the Jews, in consequence of their rejec- tion of their Messiah, had been foretold also by their own Prophets (c. 11) ; that the cause of the error of the Jews in expecting only a glorious Conqueror in their future Messiah, and in rejecting Christ on account of His lowly condition, was in their blindness to the words of their own prophets, foretelling two Advents of Christ, the first in meekness, the second in glory (c. 14). Lastly, Tertullian shows that the Hebrew prophets declared that the Law, which the Messiah would come to teach, would be proclaimed to all nations. This prophecy was not fulfilled by Judaism, but it was in course of fulfilment, and would eventually be accomplished in the evangelization of the World by Christianity. Celsus, one of the first heathen writers against Christianity, derived many of his weapons from the armoury of Judaism ; his objections were refuted by Origen (as we shall hereafter see), who was stimu- lated by them to declare to the heathen the true character of the Mosaic writings, and of the rest of the Old Testament. S. Cyprian, in his treatise against the Jews_, pro- duces texts from their own Scriptures to show that in those Scriptures it had been foretold that the Jews would forfeit God's favour, which would be transferred to the Gentiles. Thus the opposition of the Jews to Christianity led the advocates of the Gospel to examine carefully the writings of the Old Testament ; to search into their true meaning, to declare that meaning to the world, and to show that from the first chapter of Genesis to 76 USES OF THE CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAISM. the last of Malachi the Old Testament bore witness to Christ. We cannot adequately appreciate the benefits which the Church has derived from that investigation forced upon them by the circumstances of the case. If there had been no such opposition on the part of the Jews, exciting Christian Apologists to apply themselves to the examination and interpretation of the Old Testa- ment, Christians might have read it with as little intelligence as many of the Hebrew Rabbis, "who knew not the voices of the prophets read every Sabbath day," and who fulfilled them in condemning Christ (Acts xiii. 27), and " who have a veil on their hearts in the reading of the Old Testament ; which veil is done away in Christ," and in Him alone (2 Cor. iii. 14, 15). CHAPTER VIII. Second assault against Christianity — -from the Heathen. Also overruled for the good of the CJiurcJi. In the Apocalyptic Vision of the Seven Seals, which unfold the future history of the Church, after the revelation of Christ in the first Seal as a mighty Warrior, riding on the white horse, the horse of light and victory, and holding a Bow in His hand from which He discharges His arrows against His enemies (Rev. vi. 2), — the Adversary of Chrisr and of His Church is revealed also as a Warrior, riding on another very different horse — red as fire {irvppo^) ; and as holding in his hand a great sword {^^ayaipa), the emblem of this World's sway, then wielded by Imperial Rome (Rev. vi. 4 ; cp. Rom. xiii. 4, ov 'yap elfcij fid-y^atpav (jyopec). This Vision began to be fulfilled in St. John's day by the persecution which raged against the Church, and which continued to rage at intervals for more than 220 years. It was first begun by the Emperor Nero, A.D. 64. Before his time Laws had been enacted prohibiting all religions which were not authorized by the State (religiones illicitae ; sacra peregrina. Cicero de Leg. ii. 8 ; Liv. xxxix. 8 ; Tacit, ii. 85), and Maecenas had warned Augustus against allowing their introduction at Rome (Dio Cass. lii. cp. Neander i. 118 — 120). 78 THE NERONIAN PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH. Nero went further. In July, A.D. 64, he, in a fit of frenzy, set fire to the City of Rome, a great part of which was consumed by the conflagration.^ In order to divert from himself the popular obloquy which was excited by that act, the Emperor imputed it to the Christians, who were objects of general aversion, and whom the people were willing to accept, without further inquiry, as authors of any crime, how- ever heinous, that might be laid to their charge, and even to exult in their sufferings. The Roman historians describe what those sufferings were. Nero threw open his own gardens to be the scene of their martyrdom. They were clothed in skins of beasts, and then worried by dogs ; others were crucified ; others were burnt alive, and were made to be bonfires in the streets to dispel the dark- ness of the night. In the meanwhile the Emperor celebrated the games of the Circus ; sometimes mingling with the crowd, at other times, in the habit of a charioteer, driving one of the cars on the race- course.^ The Emperor also published an edict making it a capital crime to be a Christian.^ By such acts as these greater notoriety was given to Christianity. Its divine power was shown, espe- cially in the martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Paul, who suffered at Rome in that persecution. St. Peter had forsaken Christ in the garden, and had thrice denied Him. St. Paul had been eminent as a perse- cutor of the Church. But such was the force of the 1 Tacitus, Annals xv. c. 44. - Tacit. Annal. xv, 44 ; cp. Sueton. Nero, c. 16. Juvenal, i. 156 viii. 235. Seneca, Epist. 14; cp. Tertullian,*Apol. 50. ^ Tertullian, Apol. 5 ; cp. Euseb. iv. 26. ST. PAUL AND ST. PETER— HIS WIFE. 79 truth of the Gospel, and such the power of the grace of the Holy Ghost, inspiring the heart with courage, faith, and love for Christ, that both Peter and Paul went of their own accord to Rome,— Peter from the far east, having a clear knowledge of the "fiery trial " that awaited him at Rome (see i Pet. i. 14; iv. 12) (such is the assertion of S. Athanasius '),— to glorify Him by their deaths in the Capital of the Heathen World. In that grandest of all earthly theatres they were ''made a spectacle to men and to angels" (i Cor. iv. 9) ; the one, St. Paul, as a Roman Citizen, being beheaded ; the other, St. Peter, being crucified, according to our Lord's prophecy concerning the manner by which he would glorify God (John xxi. 19),' and with his head downwards, as is said, from a feeling of humility, as if he were not worthy to die in the same attitude as his Master.^ Before his death his wife went to martyrdom, and as she was going, he encouraged her by the words " O woman, remember the Lord." ' What Bishop Latimer said to Bishop Ridley at Oxford, on their way 'to martyrdom, might much more have been said by either of these tw^o Apostles to the other at Rome. It has been supposed on good authority that they suffered there at the same time,^ if not on the same day. Their martyrdom was a bright example to the Church. S. Clement of Rome refers to it as a beacon- 4 De Fuga, p. 713. ^ Tertullian, Scorpiac. § 51. 6 See the authorities, Tillemont, i. 181. 7 Clemens Alexand. ap. Euseb. iii. 30. s S. Jerome, Scriptores Eccl. § 5. Euseb. ii. 25. The 29th of June is observed as the day of their martyrdom. Tillemont, i. 181. 80 PERSECUTIONS OVERRULED FOR GOOD. Hght.^ The remembrance of it inspired S. Ignatius ^ to desire death for Christ in the World's Metropolis. It was a chief glory of Rome in the eyes of Christen- dom that it had been consecrated by their martyrdom. " O' happy Church/' exclaimed TertuUian,- " into which the Apostles infused their teaching with their blood ! " Their tombs were shown to travellers — that of St. Peter at the Vatican, that of St. Paul on the Ostian Way — in the third century;^ and for nearly two thousand years Christian Bishops, Priests, and Laity, however differing in many things, have gone as devout pilgrims to the ** limina Apostolorum," and have thence derived refreshment for their faith and courage in doing and suffering for Christ. Such are some of the benefits which the Church has reaped from the persecution under Nero. St. Paul's saying to the Philippians, already quoted (Phil i. 12), " I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me," — i. e. my sufferings for Christ, — " have fallen out rather unto'the furtherance of the Gospel," was remarkably exempli- fied in his missionary career to the day of his martyr- dom. His arrest at Jerusalem led to his preaching to the Jews at Jerusalem from the stairs of the Castle (Acts xxi. 40; xxii. i — 12) ; then to the High Priest and Sanhedrim (xxiii. i — 16); then to Felix the Roman Governor and Roman officers at the Roman Emporium Caesarea (xxiv. 10 — 21) ; then to P'elix and Drusilla (xxiv. 24) ; then to the Roman Governor Festus and King Agrippa and Bernice, and the officers and Court there (xxv. 23 ; xxvi. 1—29'* ; then to the sailors and 9 Clem. R. c. 5. ' Martyr. 2 and 5. 2 Fraescript. Ileeret. 36. •* Euseb. ii. 25. Sr. PAUL— NERO. 81 passengers on the voyage to Malta (xxvii.) ; then to the Governor and people of Malta (xxviii. 7 — 10) ; then to the Jews and Romans in the Palace of Caesar at Rome (xxviii. 16 — 31. Phil. i. 13). His two imprisonments there gave him leisure to write Epistles (those to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, Philippians, Hebrews, in his first, those to Timothy and Titus in his second incarceration), by which he is ever preaching to the world ; and finally by his martyrdom, " being dead, he yet speaketh." Thus Almighty God was glorified, and the Gospel diffused, and the Church edified, under His controlling provi- dence, by those things which had been designed by the enemy to weaken and to destroy her. The Emperor Nero, the first persecutor of the Church, having murdered Britannicus (the son of Claudius) and his own mother Agrippina, his two wives Octavia and Poppsea, and his tutor Seneca, perished by the hand of a slave, at his own command, on the 9th of June, A.D. 68,— two years before the destruction of Jerusalem (which had crucified Christ, and had persecuted His Apostles) by Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian, about eight years after the martyrdom of its Bishop, St. James. For nearl}^ thirty years the Church enjoyed a breathing-time of peace ; the woes which fell on the Jews disabled them from doing her harm ; and the destruction of Jerusalem was a fulfilment of our Lord's prophecies, in reliance on which His disciples had migrated from Jerusalem to Pella, and an evidence of His divine foresight and power. By that destruction the minds of the faithful were weaned from doting on the material splendour of the temple, and on the august ritual of its services, and were raised upward to G 82 DOMITIAN. ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. \ the heavenly Jerusalem, and were taught to recognlz.e the true Sion of Hebrew prophecy in the graces arid glories of the Christian Church. The Emperor Domitian, the last of the twelve Caesars, was the second imperial persecutor of the Church. He is called by Tertullian (Apol, c. 5) " portio Neronis de crudelitate." Like him he wreaked his rage on some members of his own family. His cousin, Flavius Clemens, Consul of Rome A.D. 95, the year before Domitian's death, and. Flavia Domitilla, the wife of Clemens, were among his victims ; and there is reason to believe that they suf- fered on account of their profession of Christianity.'' This mention of Flavius Clemens the Consul, and cousin of Domitian, and put to death by that Emperor as a Christian, suggests a reference to S. Clement, Bishop of Rome, one of the Apostolic Fathers, the Author of the extant Epistle written in the name of the Church of Rome to the Corinthian Church for the healing of the divisions there, at a time when some of their presbyters had been ejected by the people of that Church from their office. Some persons have supposed that Clement, Bishop of Rome, the Author of that Epistle, was no other than Flavius Clemens the Consul and Martyr.^ But this is not probable. A Consul-Bishop and Martyr would have been too celebrated a person to have re- mained unnoticed as such in ancient Martyrologies.^ •♦ Dion. Ixvii. p. 766. Sueton. Domit. c. 15 ; she was connected with the " CcBmiterium Domitillce near Rome. Euseb., iii. 18, speaks of Flavia Domitilla, a niece of Clement banished to Pontia, but perhaps she was the same person. See Bp. Lightfoot, Philippians, p. 22, on S. Clement's Epistle, p. 257. 5 So Hilgenfeld ; and, doubtingly, Harnack, Patr. Apostol. p. Ixii. 6 Cp. Bishop Lightfoot's S. Clement, p. 261. ST. CLEMENT, BISHOP OF ROME. 83 It has also been conjectured that he may have been a Jewish freedman or son of a freedman of the Flavian family, and may have derived his name Clemens from Flavins Clemens or some other member of that family.^ This conjecture is ingenious. But on the whole there does not seem to be sufficient reason for aban- doning the opinion sanctioned by Origen, Eusebius, S. Jerome, and Chrysostom that he was the "Clement, the fellow-labourer" of St. Paul, " whose name was in the Book of Life." ' It is, I conceive, more probable that the Clement who was appointed Bishop of Rome, and was, it is said, ordained by St. Peter himself,^ and whose name appears in the Church of San Clemente at Rome as next to Linus and even before St. Peter, should have been the same Clement as the Clement who was " a fellow-labourer " of St. Paul, and " whose name was in the Book of Life," than that he should have been either a Jewish slave, manumitted by Plavius Clemens, who was Consul in A.D. 96, or a freedman or son of a ' See Bp. Lightfoot, pp. 264, 265, who supposes that the famous Alexandrine father Clement may have been called Titus Flavius for a similar reason. Josephus, the Jewish historian, adopted the name " Flavius" in honour of the same family, 8 Phil iv. 3. The ancient authorities may be seen in my note on that passage. It has been said that the Clement there mentioned was probably a Philippian, not a Roman ; but it must be remembered that Philippi was a Roman Colony (see on Acts xvi. 2, and on Phil, iv. 22). 5 Tertullian, Prsescr. Haer. 32, and S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 15. S. Irenaeus, ii. 3, says that Clement who wrote the Epistle had "seen the Apostles and conferred with them ; " he places Clement next in order to Anencletus, who succeeded Linus, who was placed as Bishop at Rome by St. Peter and St. Paul. Bishop Pearson, after a long dis- cussion on the chronology of the first Roman Bishops, arrives at the conclusion (Dissert, ii. cap. v. sect. 7) that S. Clement was Bishop of Rome from a.d. 69 to A.D. 83. G 2 84 ST. CLEMENTS EPISTLE. freedman of his family. The ordination of freedmen was discouraged by the Church (Concil. EHb. c. 80) ; though there are instances of slaves becoming Bishops. The Epistle of S. Clement to the Corinthians was first published in 1633 by Patrick Young at Oxford, from the Manuscript (called the Alexandrine Manu- script, containing the Old Testament in the Septua- gint, and the New Testament) given by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, to King Charles I. in 1628. A Photographic fac-simile of this MS. was published in London in 1856. In the year 1875 an edition of it was published at Constantinople from another more complete Manuscript discovered in the Library of the Most Holy Sepulchre at the Fanari there, by Philo- theus Bryennius, Metropolitan of Serrse. A Syriac Version of the Epistle has lately been recovered, and is now in the Cambridge University Library.^ S. Clement at the beginning of his Epistle mentions the sudden and successive calamities and disasters which had befallen the Church of Rome, and had prevented it from giving earlier attention to the questions in dispute at Corinth. This seems to be a reference to the attacks upon it under Domitian, and the fact that these had passed away, and that an opportunity was given for this correspondence, seems to point to A.D. 97 or 98 as the date of the Epistle. ^ For the Literature of this Epistle, and the so-called Second Epistle of S. Clement, see the Prolegomena of Bp. Jacobson (Patres Apostolici i. — xvii.ed. 4to. Oxon. 1863), Gebhardt and Harnack (Patr. Apost. Lips. 1876, pp. vii. — Ixxv.), and Bp. Lightfoot's two volumes of S. Clement (Cambr. 1869 and 1877). Both the latter contain an Analysis of the Epistle. The last named has an English Translation of it (pp. 345 — 379). Bp. Lightfoot with great probability supposes that the concluding chapters of the Epistle (chaps. 59 — 64) represent a published Form of Prayer or Liturgy used in the Church of Rome. ROMAN CLAIMS. DOMITIAN. SHEPHERD OF 85 HERMAS. It is remarkable that the name of S. Clement does not appear in it. The Epistle is written in the name of the Church of Rome. The Bishops of Rome did not then claim any Papal Supremacy, nor was any such supremacy ascribed to them by St. Paul, or after- wards by S. Ignatius, in their Epistles to the Romans. Domitian extended his cruelty from the nobles to the lower orders. Juvenal says " that " he perished when he had become formidable to them." Perhaps (as Tillemonthas suggested^) there may be a reference in these words to his Herod-like jealousy and malig- nity towards such persons as the grandsons of St. Jude, whom, as Eusebius relates'' from Hegesippus, he ordered to be brought before him, as being of the seed of David, and aspirants to his throne ; and who, being agricultural labourers, cleared themselves from this suspicion, by the poverty of their dress, and the callousness of their hands, and who declared to him the real character of the Kingdom of Christ. S. Clement^ speaks of many women as Martyrs for Christ, probably under Domitian.^ Hermas, the Author of the "Pastor," or " Shepherd,^' perhaps a contem- porary of S. Clement/ has a vision of impending per- secution ® in the form of a savage beast, coming from the Via Campana. He may have been the Hermas of St. Paul (Rom. xvi. 14. S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 10). Towards the close of Domitian's reign, which ended on the 1 8th September, A.D. 96, when he was mur- -. Juvenal, Sat. iv. 153. ^ Tillemont, ii. 20. •* Euseb. iii. 20. •'• Epist. ad Cor. c. vi., with Bp. Lightfoot's note, p. 50. ^ Bp. Lightfoot, ibid. p. 3. ^ Tillemont, ii. ill. Bp. Lightfoot on S. Clement, p. 2. ^ Pastor, Vision iv. p. 59, ed. Harnack. 86 ST. yOffN'S MARTYRDON IN WILL; OUR LORDS TWO PROPHECIES CONCERNING HIM. dered by his own soldiers and domestics, not with- out the privity of his own wife Domitia, he summoned St. John from Ephesus to Rome, where he was placed, it is said, in a caldron of boiling oil, near the Latin Gate ; ^ but having received no injury from it, he w^as banished to the Isle of Patmos " for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ," and was thus " a companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ" (Rev. i. 9), with confessors and martyrs of the truth. There he was comforted and cheered on the Lord's Day by visions of Christ in glory, from Whom he received the Apoca- lypse, containing exhortations to all Churches repre- sented by the Seven Churches in the Seven Epistles, and a revelation of the future destinies of the Church even till the end of time.^ There seems no sufficient reason to doubt this ancient testimony.^ Our Lord's prophecies concern- ing St. John appear to predict two things, which at first might seem hardly compatible. One prophecy was that he would drink of Christ's cup, and be bap- tized with His baptism of suffering (Matt. xx. 23). This prediction foretold anguish from some bodily violence, and this appears to have been fulfilled by his baptism in the fire at Rome. But there was another prophecy of Christ concerning him, namely that he would tarry in life till Christ came to take him to Himself by a natural sleep-like death (see on John xxi. 22, 23). This was fulfilled by St. John's ^ TertnUian, Prsescr. §36; S. Jerome in Jovinian. i. 14; and Tille- mont, i. 338. * See above, chap. i. p. 9 — 11. 2 More is said on this subject in my Introduction to the Apocalypse, pp. 156, 157. EMPERORS AND APOSTLES; PERSECUTION 87 AND ITS FRUITS. miraculous preservation and deliverance from his Martyrdom in will at Rome, and by the extension of his life for many years to be a witness of Christ, especially of His Godhead and Manhood, in his Gospel, and of Christ's Power and Glory and His Majesty and Second Advent to raise the Dead and judge the World, in the Apocalypse, — till at last His divine Lord came and took " the beloved disci- ple '"' to Himself in peace at Ephesus. Thus both these prophecies of Christ concerning St. John were fulfilled. History has described the evil lives and miserable deaths of the first two imperial persecutors of the Church, Nero and Domitian. History also displays the contrast between those two Masters of the Roman World, and the three Apostles who were persecuted by them, St Peter, St. Paul, and St. John. The cross, the sword, fire, and banishment, were instru- ments of the Enemy wielding the power of imperial Rome, the Mistress of the World, against the Church. But great benefits, under God's good providence, have accrued, and still accrue, and will ever accrue, to her from the sufferings inflicted by those two Emperors on those three Apostles, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John, whose names are blessed upon earth, and will be glorious for ever in heaven. CHAPTER IX. Perseciiticns of the Church continued — Popular Ob- jections against Christianity — Apologies in behalf of Christianity — Tertullian. " Sis tu felicior Augusto, melior Trajano," was the acclamation to newly-crowned Emperors of Rome. The goodness of Trajan was proverbial. Whatever he patronized might be presumed to be worthy of honour ; whatever he prohibited or persecuted might be supposed to be vicious. The Evil One having failed in his attempts to injure the Church by means of wicked Emperors, such as Nero and Domitian, endeavoured to enlist in his service against her those who were celebrated by human panegyrics for their virtues. Such was Trajan the Spaniard, the brave soldier whose victories are immortalized by his monumental Column still standing in his forum at Rome ; the sage Ruler panegyrized by the amiable Pliny the Younger. Such was the scientific and literary Hadrian, the enterprising traveller, the patron of Suetonius, the destroyer of Jerusalem, the builder of the " Picts* Wall " in Britain, the finisher of the Olympieum at Athens, which he adorned and made almost his own city,^ as he did Jerusalem. Such was the mild and * See the inscription on Hadrian's Arcli, still standing at Athens. PERSECUTIONS UNDER ''GOOD EMPERORS r 89 CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY. benevolent Antoninus Pius, the second Numa. Such was Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic, the scholar of Herodes Atticus and of Fronto. These were among the world's heroes and darlings ; and under all of them the Christian Church suffered persecution. The Edict of Nero, making it a capital crime to be a Christian, remained unrepealed in their days.' It might have been supposed that the virtues of Christians would have conciliated enemies like these, and have converted them into friends. Doubtless in course of time the Church took the World captive against its will. But the Divine Founder of the Church foresaw and foretold that His disciples should be hated of all men for His Name's sake (Matt. x. 22 ; xxiv. 9), and His Apostles declared that they who will] live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. iii. 12). The reasons of this were manifold. Christianity was exclusive. It would make no compromise. It claimed to be the only True Religion. It had no Pantheon. Rome, by the suffrage of the Senate, admitted the Deities of Greece and Asia and Egypt, with friendly condescension and liberal comprehen- siveness, into the society of her Jupiter and Juno. Not so Christianity. It not only proclaimed Mono- theism, but in tJiat Monotheism it preached a Trinity in Unity. It proclaimed also that this faith, new alike to Jews and heathens, was the only true faith, that all other religions were false, and that the reception of this faith was necessary for all who desired to live happily for ever. A religion, cradled in Galilee, a despised Province, in a petty and 2 Tertullian, Apol. c. 5 ; ad Natioues, c. 7. 90 CHRISTIANl TY— WHY HA TED. conquered country like Palestine, subject to the Roman sway, claimed for herself a right to dethrone the Gods of the Capitol, to whom Rome ascribed her victories, and her universal supremacy. Christianity came forth boldly to tread them under foot, and to trample them as refuse in the dust. The pride of the haughty masters of the World was wounded, and their wrath exasperated, by such bold assumptions as these, from such a quarter as that. " These men regard not thee, nor serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image." (Dan. iii. 12). The cry was repeated at Rome, and a fiery furnace was kindled for Christian Confessors in the Western Babylon. The Christians also were regarded as enemies of Trade and Commerce,'' especially of all Trade and •Commerce connected with Idolatry and Superstition. The wrath of the makers of silver shrines for Diana at Ephesus, and their attack on St. Paul on account of the tendency of his preaching to diminish their gains (Acts xix. 24), is a specimen of the passionate animosity which irritated the minds of idol-makers, chaplet-sellers, purveyors of victims, architects of temples, sculptors, painters, and decorators ^ ; and the charge brought against St. Paul at Philippi by the sorcerers, who made capital of the damsel possessed with a spirit of divination (Acts xvi. 16),^ for spoiling their trade, represents the prejudice created against Christianity in the minds of thousands in all parts of the heathen world, who trafficked in oracles, necro- mancy, soothsaying, augury, and witchcraft, and who derived their living therefrom. The bonfire at 2 " Homines infructuosi in negotiis dicimiir." Tertullian, Apol. 42. ** See Tertull. de Idololatria, throughout. ^ Cp. Prof. Blunt, Hist, of Early Church, chapter viii. CHRIS TIANITY— WHY HA TED. 91 Ephesus, in consequence of St. Paul's preaching, of the magical Books, valued at 50,000 pieces of silver (Acts xix. 10), may be regarded as an evidence of the com- bustion of such literature, and of its cognate materials, by the spread of the Gospel through the world. "■ Totam hodie Romam Circus capit," " All Rome is in the circus " or race-course, says Juvenal ; ^ and again he says, '' Duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et Circenses," " Rome craves only two things. Bread and the Circensian Games." But Christianity was an exception to all this. " We Christians have nothing to do/' says Tertullian (Apol. 38), "with the phrenzy of the circus, the immodesty of the Theatre, the atrocity of the Arena, or the vain show of the Xystus " (the exercise- school of athletes) ; and this singularity made them obnoxious. Among their enemies all those numerous classes might be reckoned ; charioteers, gladiators, pugilists, athletes, stage-players, actors of mimes and farces, singers and dancers, tavern-keepers and purveyors to still more gross pleasures, who received no patronage from them : even Schoolmasters and Lawyers could not look on them with complacency.' The heathen interlocutor Caecilius in Minucius Felix (p. 105) says to his Christian friend, '* You abstain from all honest pleasures ; you do not frequent any spectacles ; you take no part in our pomps and processions and in our public banquets ; you abhor our sacred games, and all meat and drink tasted at our altars." Still more formidable among their opponents were the professors of Philosophy, especially of the two principal schools, the Stoics and Epicureans. The pride, self-sufficiency and sternness of the former, and " Juvenal, xi, 195 ; ibid. x. 80. ' Tertullian de Idol. c. 10 ; de Corona, c. 11. 92 FALSE CHARGES AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. their pantheistic and fatalistic notions ; the scepticism, indifference, and self-indulgence of the latter, dis- qualified them for the reception of the Gospel, as may be seen, by way of specimen, in the almost total failure of St. Paul's preaching at Athens (Acts xvii. 1 8, 33). Such men turned away with scorn and disdain from the doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount, and of the preacher of " Jesus and the Resurrection." Two other causes of the antipathy to Christianity may be noticed. First, in the mind of heathens, even of such writers as Tacitus, Christians were confounded with the Jews, who were specially odious at Rome. Secondly, the teaching of the Church was not distin- guished by them from those Heresies which taught gross licentiousness by precept and example. Hence enormous crimes of cruelty and impurity ^ were com- monly laid to the charge of Christians, of which they were wholly innocent, but which were rife in heretical communities,^ and which were erroneously supposed by the heathen to be practised at the dim vesper services in the catacombs, and in the grey twilight of the morning, at the celebration of the Holy Com- munion of the Church. Other charges against the Christians were either that they had no temples and altars, and worshipped no deity at all, V or that they worshipped as a God a man who had been crucified," or that the object of their worship was grotesque and ridiculous, a " caput 8 Qv^aTCia. lit-nva, and OiStTroSetoi ixii,^is. See Athenagor. Apol. 3 ; Minucius Felix, pp. 75, 81 (p. 88 ed. Ouzel); Theophilus ad Autolycum, iii. p. 266, ^ See Eusebius, who gives instances of this, ii. 13, iii. 26, iv. 7. 1 Minuc. Felix, p. 91, ed. Ouzel. Arnob. i.25. Origenc. Gels. vii. 62. 2 See Minuc. Felix, p. 86. CALAMITIES ASCRIBED TO THEM. TEKTULLIAN. 93 asininum " on a cross.' The caricature found sketched on the cement of a chamber wall on the Palatine at Rome in 1857, and which represents a man with the head of an ass, the arms stretched on a cross, the feet resting on a transverse piece of wood, and on the right side of him a person in the act of adoration, and near him the inscription in Greek, 'AXefa^ei/09 aelBere (i, e. atPerai) 0eoi/, i. e. Alexamenos worships his God, is a striking testimony to the scoffs of the heathen, and to the Godhead of Christ.'* In the first and second centuries, after the death of Augustus, the Roman Empire was visited by many calamities, wars, pestilences, famines, floods, earth- quakes. Popular opinion ascribed these disasters to the anger of the gods of Rome, exasperated by the increase of those whom the heathen charged with Atheism,^ and by the diminution of the number of the votaries at their own temples, and the falling oft of oblations and sacrifices at their altars. The deities of Rome appealed, it was thought, to the people of Rome for the extermination of the Christians, and the people were not slow to respond to the appeal, especially when their passions were inflamed at the public games celebrated in the honour of their deities with festal processions, and with dance, song, and wine. Tertullian, in his Apology (or defence of the Christians) addressed to the governor of Proconsular Africa, which was written after A. D. 174,' and probably 5 Tertullian Apol. 16 ad nationes i. 1 1, 14 ; Minuc. Felix, c. 9, c. 28, 4 Described in my tour in Italy, ii., p. 142. * olpe Tovs a.94ovs, Tolle atheos, was the popular cry against tlie Christians. Euseb. iv. 15. ^ It mentions the victory gained by Marcus Aurelius in that year (c. 5). 94 CHRISTIAN APOLOGIES AGAINST HEATHENISM. TERTULLIAN. in the time of the persecution under Severus A.D. 204," represents this feehng with an outburst of that glowing eloquence which characterized him, and which recom- mends his works, and especially that Apology, to the admiration of all students of Christian oratory. Let me offer some extracts from it : ^ sometimes I will translate literally, at other times will only give a paraphrase. " Christianity," he says (cap. i), ''knows that she is only a pilgrim upon earth, and a stranger among foreigners, and is not surprised that she has enemies ; she has her family, her home, her hope, her favour, her dignity, in heaven. All that she asks for is that she may not be condemned unknown. You exclaim (he says to the heathen) that your city is besieged by us (c. i), your fields, your villages,^ ^ Bishop Kaye's Tertullian, p. 53. * Apologies for Christianity against the heathen, still extant. It may be well to enumerate them here. Greek. Justin Martyr — Two Apologies. Tatian, his scholar — Epistle to Diognetus — Athenagoras. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch — Ad Autolycum. Clemens Alexandrinus — ^0.70? irpoTpeiTTiKds. Origen, his scholar, against Celsus. Latin Apologists. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, the Address to the heathen at the close of his Refutation of all Heresies. Tertullian, Apologeticus — ad Nationes — ad Scapulam. Minucius Felix, Octavius. S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. To these may be added Arnobius c. Gentes Lib. vii., and Lactantius. 9 In both these and other passages (c. 37) he uses the word ^^ castella" which has been translated ^^ castles" and ^^ camps ^' by several recent learned writers ; but ' ' castellum " is the rendering of /cc^/x?/, a village, m the Vulgate, e.g., Bethany is called the "castellum" of Mary and Martha, John xi. i. The word /cwutj is used twelve times by St. Luke, and in all these cases except one, ix. 52, it is rendered by castellum in the Vulgate. RAPID GROWTH AND FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY, ^h your Islands, that both sexes, every age, and every condition and rank of life is passing over to Chris- tianity. We are only of yesterday, and we have filled every place, your cities, islands, villages, municipalities, guild-halls, the camp itself, tribes, decuries, the Palace, the Senate^ the Forum. We leave you only your Temples (c. 2>7)' He pleads in favour of Christianity that no one when accused of being a Christian is ashamed of it, or is sorry, except that he was not sooner a Christian. If he is informed against, he boasts ; if he is accused, he does not defend himself; if he is condemned, he gives thanks. He then animadverts on the incon- sistency of the Emperor Trajan's rescript to Pliny, the Governor of Bithynia, which will be noticed below. He complains (c. 3) of the strange prejudice of many who say, '' Such an one is a good man, only he is a Christian," and who never inquire whether he is not a good man because he is a Christian. Even husbands quarrel with their Christian wives, who before were faithless, and now have become chaste. When any one is reformed by being a Christian, he is a cause of offence. No virtue of a Christian can neutralize your hatred of Christianity. He explains to them the true principles of Chris- tianity (c. 17). We worship one God who made everything of nothing. He is invisible, though seen by His works, incomprehensible, though represented to us by grace. In His immensity, He is known only to Himself The human soul ^ bears testimony to Him, although she is confined in the prison-house of the body, and trammelled by depraved institutions, and enervated by lust, and a bond-slave of false ^ See this argument pursued in his treatise ** De Anima." 96 TERTULLIAN ON CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. gods ; yet when she respires from her surfeit and her stupor, and is restored to health from her disease, she appeals to God, and exclaims, " Good God," and " what God wills," and while she speaks thus, she looks up, not to the Capitol,. but to Heaven. O testi- mony of the soul, " a Christian by nature ! " But in addition to natural evidence, God, he says (c. 1 8), has given Revelation, in case men desire to search concerning Him, and to find Him when searched for, and to believe in Him when found, and to serve Him when believed. God sent forth just and holy men (Moses and the prophets), and filled them full of the Divine Spirit as with a flood, that by His help they might preach that God is One, Who made all things, and created man from the ground, and has displayed signs of His majesty by means of flood (at the deluge), and fire (at Sodom) ; and Who has appointed a definite system of discipline, by means of which men may gain His favour, and which you ignore or forsake ; and Who will adjudge to His wor- shippers the reward of life everlasting, and to the wicked everlasting fire, when He has raised both from the dead. The preachers of these truths are the Divine Prophets. TertuUian then declares their an- tiquity and the circumstances of the translation of their writings into Greek, at the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus. TertuUian asserts that Moses is far more ancient than any heathen writers (c. 19). He affirms that the calamities by which the world is visited had been foretold in Scripture ; and that the faith of Christians is confirmed by seeing the fulfilment of its pro- phecies. He says that the Jews were once the favoured people of God, and that as long as they TERTULLIAN ON JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 97 were loyal to Him, so long they prospered ; but that their own Scriptures foretold that they would fall away. These prophecies, he adds, have now been fulfilled. The Jews are dispersed, vagabonds, out- laws from their own soil and sky, without man or God as their king. The same prophecies foretold, that in the latter days God would choose for Himself, from every na- tion, people, and clime, other more faithful worshippers, to whom He would transfer His favour in richer abundance on account of the capacity of an ampler system of teaching." Of this grace and discipline, the Arbiter and Master, the Enlightener and Guide of Mankind, was announced as the Son of God. He then describes Christ's Miracles : how He cast out devils, gave eyes to the blind, cleansed the lepers, restrung the nerves of the paralytic, raised the dead, made the Elements to wait on Him as His servants, quelling the storm, walking on the sea, and showing Himself the Son of God. He obviates the objections raised from Christ's Passion and Crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. Christ Himself had foretold these things ; so had the Prophets. When nailed to the Cross, He breathed forth His Spirit by His own power. Tertullian then describes the supernatural dark- ness at the Crucifixion, and His Resurrection on the Third Day by His own might. He did not show Himself openly to all, but to a " Cap. 2 1 . The text has "in quos gratiam transferret pleniorem quidem ob disciplinge auctoris capacitatem." Instead of aiictoris, ought we not to read aiictioris, and to translate " on account of the capacity of a more enlarged discipline, or system of teaching ?" i. e. of the Gospel, dis- tinguished from Judaism, as being extended to all nations. I have ventured to render it so. H 98 CHRIS TIANITY AND HE A THENISM- CHRISTIA N LOYALTY. chosen few, in order that Faith, which was designed to receive a glorious reward, might be trained by- difficulty. He conversed with His disciples for forty days, teaching them what to teach ; and, having appointed them to their office of preaching to the world, He was taken up in a cloud into Heaven. He contrasts Christianity with Heathenism.^ Heathenism depends on the will of men ; Christianity is from God. Heathenism can do no good to its votaries. The God of the Christians can do all things, and answers their prayers. We can do more good to you than your gods can. We pray for you to our God. We invoke, for the safety of Emperors, our God, Who is Eternal, True, Ever-living, in Whose power all Emperors are, and from Whom they derive their power — the God of Heaven. If they doubt it, let the Emperor, if he can, conquer heaven with his arms, let him lead heaven captive in triumph, let him plant his sentries in heaven, let him levy taxes on heaven. He cannot do it. The Emperor is great by own- ing himself less than heaven ; he belongs to Him Who reigns in heaven. We Christians, looking up to heaven with outstretched hands and bare feet, pray for all Emperors ; we pray for them that they may have a long life and a secure Empire, a safe home, brave armies, a faithful senate, virtuous people, a quiet world, and whatever a man or a Caesar can desire. I cannot ask for these things from any one but from that God from Whom alone I know I can obtain them, because He alone can give them. And yet, while we do this, you torture us Christians, you 3 C. 29. WHY CHRISTIANS PRA YED FOR THE ROMAN 99 EMPIRE. transfix us with hooks, you hang us up on crosses, you plunge us in the fire, you stab us with the sworcl, you cast us to wild beasts. Be it so— the attitude of a Christian in prayer (with outstretched arms) is ready to receive every assault. Onward then, onward with your work, ye noble Governors ; torture the soul praying for your Emperor to God ! He shows them that loyalty to Civil Rulers is a part of Christianity ; that a Christian is commanded in Scripture to pray for his enemies and persecutors ; and expressly " for kings and all in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty" (i Tim. ii. 2). We have also another obligation to pray for Roman Emperors, and for the whole estate of their Empire, inasmuch as we know from our own prophetical Scriptures that great calamities will attend its fall, and that the rise of that great calamity is retarded by the continuance of the Roman Empire, and that on its removal, "the falling away" will appear (see on 2 Thess. ii. 2 — u). He then describes the character of Christian as- semblies in which they met for prayer (c. 39). We are a corporation formed from a common conscious- ness of religion, from oneness of discipline, and from the bond of hope. We come together to meet God, in order that as by an armed force we may assail Him with prayer. Such violence is pleasing to Him. We pray for kings, for their ministers, and for powers ; for the world, for public peace, for the delay of the End.^ We come together to be admonished by divine writings, whensoever the character of the pre- sent times either constrains us to premonish by prophecy, or to recognize any fulfilment of it. We H 2 100 PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH. feed our faith on divine words, we excite our hope, and stabhsh our faith. In the same assembhes are exhortations, penalties, and divine censure. Great is the weight of such judgments given in the con- sciousness of the presence of God. They are a re- hearsal of the Judgment to come, if any one has been guilty of such a sin as for it to be put out of com- munion in prayer and Church-assemblies, and all holy intercourse. Approved Presbyters preside in those assemblies, men who have gained their place not by money, but by merit. None of the things of God are sold with us for a price. We have a common chest, supplied by offerings, monthly or whenever any one wills ; for the offerings are voluntary, and none are compelled to make them. This is our bank of piety. It is expended in feeding and burying the poor and orphans and aged who are past work, and the shipwrecked, and those who are in the mines, or in banishment, or in prison for the faith's sake. These works of charity have brought on us a stigma from some. See, say they, how these men love one another ! for they themselves hate one another. See how these men are ready to die for one another, for they are more ready to kill one another. He de- scribes (c. 39), the Christian love-feasts [cf^aira^)^ and vindicates their character from heathen calumnies.'* We do not begin our meal without prayer. We eat and drink with temperance and sobriety, as those who remember that at night-time they must worship God. We converse with one another as those who know that God is listening to us. After the washing of our hands, and when the lights are brought in, the faithful are invited to join in singing hymns and ■* See above, p. 92. ' ' CHRISTIANOS AD LE ONEM ''—RE PL V. 101 psalms, according as every one is qualified, from Holy Scripture or from his own ability. All is con- ducted with modesty and purity : our meeting ends with prayer as it began. And yet, though all our assemblies have this character, we are objects of popular hatred. " Of every public calamity," he exclaims, " of every popular distress, ye say that the Christians are the cause" (c. 40). If the Tiber rises up to your walls, or if the Nile does not rise to your fields ; if the heaven is fast bound, if the earth quakes, if there is famine, if there is pestilence — "The Christians to the Lion !" is the cry.^ It is urged against us •^ that we are useless and unprofitable. But how can this be true of us who dwell with you, eat with you, dress as you do, and have the same means and needs as you have ? We are not Brahmins, nor Indian Gymnosophists, nor dwellers in woods, nor outlaws. We acknowledge what we owe to God, our Lord and Creator; we reject no fruit of His words ; in good truth, we practise temperance that we may not abuse His creatures. Therefore we dwell in this world with you ; we do not shun your forums, your shambles, your baths, your shops, your workshops, your inns, your fairs ; we sail with you, we serve in the army with you ; we travel into the country with you, traffic with you ; we interchange arts with you, and hire ourselves to your service. How can we be said to be profitless to you, with whom, and by whom, we live ? Though I do not frequent your religious ceremonies, still I am a man. Though we are persecuted by you, yet (he 5 "ChristianosadLeonem." Observe the w^/?t of the origina'Y" " " "V It was, no doubt, a popular song in the streets of Rome and elsewhere. 6 C. 41. 102 GL OR Y OF SUFFERING— E VOL UTION. says) we grow. We are of yesterday, and we have filled the world/ In vain does the populace exult in our destruction.^ What they demand against us is our joy. We prefer to die rather than to fall from God. Our battle is to be summoned to trial, in order to fight for the Truth at the hazard of life. It is Victory to gain that for which one fights. Our Victory is the glory of pleasing God ; our spoil is Life Eternal. We conquer by being killed. Call us, if you will, men of the faggot, or of the half-axle (in which we are burnt or racked) . This is our dress of victory, this our triumphal robe of conquest, this )ur chariot of triumph. Therefore, on, on with your work ! popular you will be, if you immolate us, torture us, execrate us, crush us ; your cruelty is the trial of our conscience ; God permits us to sufTer these things, in order that it may be seen by all that we prefer to suffer death rather than to commit sin. Your cruelty, even the most exquisite, is of no avail against us. It is rather that which is our hire ; it draws converts to us. We grov/ by being mown down. The blood of Christians is the seed of the Church. Therefore we thank God for what you do to us. When we are condemned by you, we are acquitted by Him. In chapter 48 Tertullian anticipates the modern theory of human evolution. Laberius tells us, he says, from Pythagoras, that a man may come forth from a mule, or a snake from a woman, and teaches men to abstain from animal food, lest by feeding on beef they should be dining on their grandfather. But the Christian believes that the man will rise hereafter in his identity ; that Caius will be reproduced out of 7 C. 37. See above, p. 94. s c. 49. RESURRECTION OF 7 HE BODY—'^ADSCAPULAM." 103 the grave from Caius ; and for saying this, we are pelted with stones by the populace. He argues for the resurrection of the body from the fact that the soul cannot do good or evil in this life without the body ; that therefore the body will rise to share in the soul's reward or punishment hereafter. But (you may ask) how can dissolved matter be re-united ? Consider, O man, what thou wast before thou wast born. Nothing. Cannot He who made thee from nothing re-make thee from the dust .? He appeals to the daily and yearly resurrections in the natural world. Day dies into night, and rises again ; the Seasons end and begin afresh ; the Fruits of the earth perish and revive. All things live by dying. And when all these things revive, is it possible that thou, O Man, — thou a creature of so great dignity, — thou the lord of all these natural things which revive, shouldst die in order to perish .'^ No, no ; into whatever matter thou art dissolved, merged, destroyed, abolished into nothingness, that matter will give thee up again ; that very nothingness belongs to Him Who is the Lord of all things. He then speaks of the future Judgment of the world by fire, and of everlasting rewards and everlasting punishments ; he declares that it is the belief in these things which makes Christians what they are. TertuUian's Apology was followed, after an interval of some years (certainly after A.D. 2 1 1 ^), by a short address to Scapula, Governor of a province of Africa. It would seem that persecution was then raging in that country (c. 4). He repeats much that he had already said in his Apology. He says (c. 2), It is no part of religion to force religion, which ought to be ^ See Bp. Kaye's Tertullian, p. 55. Tillemont, iii. 227. 104 TERTULLIAN'S ''AD SCAPULAMr embraced willingly. All true sacrifices are free-will offerings. He reiterates his assertion of Christian loyalty to kings, and declares that kingdoms will perish if they persecute Christianity, and that all who assail the Church will be called to a strict account at the Day of Doom. Take heed, he says (c. 4), to the future. We, who fear nothing, do not wish to terrify you, but we desire all men to be saved, and not to fight against God. He appeals to the Governor for mercy, and refers him to the examples of wise rulers ^ who were merciful to Christianity ; and pleads the benefits conferred on the Empire by the prayers of Christians ; and declares the blessings bestowed on society by their virtuous example. But, after all, we shall triumph over persecution. The fiercer our trial, the nobler our triumph. Your cruelty is our glory ; and we are too numerous for destruction ; we thrive by persecution. Consider the loss of population which Carthage would suffer by our decimation, and not only in numbers, but in the dignity of her citizens. Some of your noble and gentle friends are in our ranks. Therefore spare thyself, — if thou wilt not spare us ; spare Carthage, spare thy province. We have no master but God ; He is supreme over thee ; thou canst not hide thyself from Him, nor injure Him. This sect of ours will never fail ; nay, the more it is slain, the more it will grow. Men who witness our patience in suffering, will be staggered by it, and will ask the cause ; and when they have learnt the reason, then they will embrace the truth." Such is the language of Tertullian at the end of the second, and in the earlier part of the third century. ^' Cp, Apol. c. 5. CHAPTER X. Apologies continued — Epistle to Diognettis — Miniiciiis Felix — Origen against Celstcs. The foregoing description of Christian life by Ter- tullian may be appropriately followed by the repre- sentation given of it by the ancient Author— writing in Greek, — of the Epistle to Diognetus, usually printed in editions of Justin Martyr/ who was pro- bably contemporary with him ; and which anticipates Athanasius "on the Incarnation" (see below p, 107). " Christians (he says, cap. 4) are not distinguished from other men by country, language, or customs. They do not dwell in separate cities, or speak a special dialect, or lead any singular kind of life. They dwell in cities, Greek or barbarian, according as their lot in life is cast ; and accommodate themselves to national usages in dress and food, and in the rest of their manner of living. And yet the constitution of their citizenship is extraordinary and confessedly marvellous. They dwell in their own country, but as strangers. They are sharers in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. To them every 1 Tom. ii. p. 464, ed. Otto, Jena 1842, and p. 233, ed. Marau, Paris, 1742, in which are contained alsoTatiani Assyrii contra Graecos, p. 241 ; Athenagorse Legatio pro Christianis ad Marcum Aurelium, p. 279 ; de Resurrectione, p. 314 ; Theophilus ad Autolycum, p. 338 ; Quaestiones ad Orthodoxos, p, 440. 106 EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS: PORTRAIT OF CHRISTIANS. foreign land is a fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They are in the flesh, but do not live accord- ing to the flesh ; they dwell on earth, but are citizens of heaven ; they obey the laws, but live above the laws ; they love all men, and are hated by all. They are not known, and are condemned ; they are slain, and are made alive ; they are poor, and make many rich ; they lack all things, and abound in everything. They are disgraced, and are glorified by disgrace ; they are blasphemed, and are justified ; they are re- viled, and bless ; they do well, and are punished as evil- doers ; and when they are punished, they rejoice as being made alive ; they are assailed as aliens by the Jews, and are persecuted by the Greeks ; and they who hate them can give no reason for their hatred. In a word. Christians are in the world what the soul is in the body. The soul is difi"used throughout the members of the body ; so are Christians throughout the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body ; so Christians are in the world, but not of the world. The soul is in the body, but in- visible ; so Christians are in the world, but their reli- gion is not known to it. The soul is a prisoner in the body, and keeps the body together ; so Christians are kept like prisoners in the world, but the world is held together by them. The immortal soul dwells in the mortal body ; so Christians sojourn on earth in what is corruptible, and look for incorruption in heaven. Their religion is not an earthly invention or a mor- tal device, or a dispensation of human mysteries ; but has been received by them from above. The Almighty and Invisible God, the Creator of the Universe, has given the Truth from heaven, and has established and settled in their heart His Holy and CHRIST S GODHEAD— REASONS FOR THE ].07 INCARNA TION. Incomprehensible Word (the Logos). Not, as some may imagine, has He sent to men a Servant or an Angel, or earthly Prince or Potentate, or even one who is entrusted with heavenly ministries; but He has sent the very Artificer and Creator of the World, by Whom He made the heaven, and shut up the sea within its bounds ; He has sent Him Whose mysteries all the Elements faithfully keep ; Him from Whom the Sun has received the measures of the Day to observe ; Him Whose commands the Moon fulfils to shine by night ; Him Whom the Stars also obey in their com- panionship of the Moon in her courses ; Him by Whom all things were ordered and defined, and to Whom the heavens are subject, and all things in the heavens, and the Earth and Sea and all things therein, and Fire and Air, Depth and Height and Midst;— Him God hath sent to men, not in terror, but in equity and gentleness. As King He sent His Son— a King and God. He has sent Him in love to save ; but He will send Him hereafter to judge — and Who shall abide the day of His Coming ? For a time God left the World to itself, but when our wickedness had reached its greatest height, and the fulness of time was come for the showing forth of God's mercy and love and power, He Himself took our sins to Himself, and sent His Son as the price of our redemption, the Holy One for the lawless, the Sin- less One for sinners, the Just for the unjust, the In- corruptible for the corruptible, the Immortal for the mortal. For what could cover our sins but His righteousness ? How could we sinners be justified but by the Son of God t O sweet exchange ! O inscrutable handicraftship ! O unexpected benefits ! the iniquity of many swallowed up in One Who is 108 MAN'S DIVINIZATION. righteous ; and the righteousness of One justifying many who are sinners ! In the foregoing time He had convicted our nature of being unable to save itself, but now He has given us a Saviour Who is able to save the helpless ; and thus He has willed us to trust in His kindness, and to regard Him as our Father and Teacher, our Physician, Light, and Life. By imitating God, thou wilt be divinized ; thou wilt recognize Him as Lord of all things on earth, and thou wilt despise what is here called death, and wilt only fear that death — the death of everlasting fire which is reserved for those who will hereafter be con- demned to it. These things have been revealed to us by the Logos, Who was preached by the Apostles, rejected by the Jews, and believed by the Gentiles, — He who was from the beginning, and yet was manifested now ; He who is from everlasting, the Son, by Whom the Church is enriched and Grace abounds, and the fear of the Law is celebrated, and the Grace of the Prophets is recognized, and the Faith of the Gospel is established, and the tradition of the Apostles is kept, and the Grace of the Church exults. With us is both Life and Knowledge. Knowledge without truth puffeth up ; but Love edifieth, as the Apostle testifies (i Cor. viii. i). By these things salvation is revealed, and Apostles are taught, and the Lord's Passover goeth forth, and churches^ are gathered together, and are compacted 2 The Manuscripts and Editions have Kijpol— which is not intelhgible. Maran conjectures x^P*"'- Sylburg and Hefele Kaipoi. Ought we not rather to read KArjpoi ? cp. I Pet. v. 3. Churches are so called, being the Lord's heritage Khvpos. See Suiceri Lexicon in voce Kh^pos. MINUCIUS FELIX. 109 with decency and order ; and the Logos, Who teaches the Saints, rejoices, — He by Whom the Father is glori- fied, to Whom be glory for ever. Amen." Tertullian's assertion in his address to Scapula that many persons of intellectual distinction had in his day become converts to the Gospel, was justified by such instances in his own case, and in that of another contemporary Apologist, whose work is characterized by vigour of reasoning and elegance of style, MiNUCIUS Felix. The history of his Dialogue, Octavius, is remark- able. Its title gave rise to the opinion that it was only the eighth book — liber octavus — of Arnobius, who wrote seven books, still extant, against Heathenism. But its real author was discovered by an able lawyer, Francis Balduin, who, in the preface to his edition of the work published at Heidelberg in 1569, referred to passages of Lactantius and S. Jerome, who had men- tioned (together with Tertullian and Cyprian) Minu- cius Felix as a distinguished ancient Roman advocate, and as the author of a work called Octaviiis^ which was shown by Balduin to be identical with the Dialos^ue entitled Octavius from the name of its 3 The date of the composition of this work cannot be exactly deter- mined. One historical personage is mentioned in it, Fronto the rhetorician of Cirta in Numidia, an enemy of Christianity (p. 88 and p. 303), who is supposed by Balduin (Proefat. ) to be the same as the Fronto who was tutor to Marcus Aurelius. Minucius, especially if he was an African (as seems not unlikely), could hardly have been un- acquainted with Tertullian's Apology, if that work had then been extant ; and he would in that case have hardly supposed his own to be necessary. He would also have treated some of his topics with more energy and clearness (such as the allegation of the worship of the "caput asininum"), if he had had Tertullian's work before him. It is therefore probable that this Dialogue v^aspnor to Tertullian's Apology. 110 AGNOSTICISM. Christian interlocutor, who pleads the cause of Chris- tianity against a heathen lawyer, Csecilius, and wins him over to his cause, in the presence of Minucius Felix himself, who was appointed umpire in the debate. Octavius had been staying with his heathen friend Caecilius, a brother lawyer, at Rome, and they adjourned in the summer vacation to Ostia, for sea- air and sea-bathing ; and as one day they were walk- ing together on the shore, Octavius remonstrated with his friend for kissing his hand in adoration to a statue of the Egyptian deity Serapis. This led to further discussion. They sat down on the mole of the beach with Minucius placed between them as an umpire, and entered into a discussion on the rival claims of Christianity and Heathenism. Caecilius, the heathen advocate, professed Agnosti- cism, which would formerly have been termed dfcaTaXv-^la. He said that the discovery of truth was difficult, nay, it was impossible, as was evident from the multitude and diversity of philosophical sects, and from the inability of the human intellect to investigate it. With objections drawn from the school of Epicurus, he alleged that the condition of things in this world is one of so much imperfection, misery, perplexity, as to make it very doubtful whether it is under the care of Divine Providence, and subject to the rule of a moral Governor ; and that therefore the safest and wisest thing for a man in this busy life, is not to puzzle himself and waste his time on such questions as these ; but to acquiesce in the religion of his ancestors, especially when that religion had received such manifest tokens of the approval of the gods, — if there were any, — as that PLEAS FOR HE A THENISM A GAINST 111 CHRIS TIANITY. form of religion which was professed by the Empire of Rome, the noblest Dynasty in the world ; and that it was an intolerable and monstrous thing, that the claims of such an ancient and splendid Religion as that which had been accepted and practised for so many years by the most powerful Nation under heaven, should be disputed by raw upstarts of so miserable and despicable a faction as the Christians, dumb in public and whisperers in secret, Avho could only make proselytes from the ignorant and vulgar, and from credulous women, and who shrank from the light of day. And yet, strange to say (he exclaims), these men have the insolence to represent the Gentile tem.ples as tombs, and to despise our altars and sacrifices ; and they are so infatuated by pride and superstition as to encounter present and certain death, in order to escape future torments and death, which are altogether imaginary. He ridicules the Christians for preferring burial in the earth to cremation on a funeral pile.^ He denounces their practice of saluting one another with a kiss of peace, and their names of brotherhood and sisterhood, as pretexts and masks of most infamous crimes ; and he represents their worship as absurd. They have no temples, nor images, nor altars, but they adore (he says) the head of an ass, and worship a man who had suffered the punishment of a servile death— crucifixion ; and they even adore the cross itself (see above pp. 92, 93). Who is your God (he asks) } One, solitary, desti- tute ; one whom no nation on earth adores, except some wretched Jews ; a God who has been carried away captive in triumph from Jerusalem, with his « C. II. 112 PLEAS FOR HE A THE NISM— REPLIES OP CHRISTIANITY. worshippers, by the Roman People. And what deHrious dreams do you invent and propagate ! You tell us that the world will be consumed with fire, and that your bodies will be raised from dust and ashes, and that you will enjoy everlasting happiness after death. But if all this were true, why, let me ask, does not your God come and help you, now that you suffer tortures for Him .? And how is it that we Romans, who do not worship your God, and who destroy His worshippers, enjoy the greatest happi- ness, and possess the greatest power of any Nation in the world ? Why do you not come to us and join us } Why do you stand aloof from us ? Why do you shun our pleasures, our spectacles, our festivals, and our banquets, our sacrifices offered to our gods } Have a little good sense, and show a little modesty ; do not pretend to be wiser than all the world ; be content to leave the secrets of providence and of fate to take care of themselves ; be wise with the many, and be not fools with the few. Octavius, his Christian friend, replies that the wisest of men have been despised by the multitude ; that the existence and attributes of the One God are evident from His works. He exposes the absurdity and immorality of the heathen mythology and religion, and the miserable degradation of those who are idolaters of material things made by their own hands. He says that heathen oracles have been stricken dumb by Christianity. And he asserts that heathen gods, whom he calls demons, taking posses- sion of men, have shown themselves terrified by the adjurations and exorcisms of Christians. As to the worship of a " caput asininum " (c. 9), he says that this was a shameless falsehood, which none but a fool MINUCIUS FELIX. 113 could believe^ (c. 28). Octavlus says that heathens themselves appeal in common conversation to One God/ He explodes the groundless calumnies of the heathen against the Christians; he denies that they worship the Cross, "cruces nee colimus nee optamus." ^ "We neither worship crosses nor covet them." He who was crucified, and whom we adore (he says), is not a mere man. He declares the Unity and Omnipresence of God. The World is one house of God. We dwell not only in His sight, but in His heart. The Jews prospered as long as they obeyed Him ; they are outcasts now because they are rebels against Him. He says, as TertuUian does^ that Nature herself, in her cycle of seasons, preaches the doctrine of a Resurrection of the Body. He affirms that burial in the earth is more ancient than crema- tion.^ He says that the poverty of the Christians is their glory ; they are rich in God, and to God. God does not punish us by calamities, but He tries us, and purifies us, and glorifies us by them. He enables our boys and our maidens to endure the cross and torture and wild beasts and all the terrors of persecution with patience inspired by Himself. The rich in this world prosper, and are raised on high that they may fall to a deeper abyss. What true happiness can there be without the knowledge of God 1 We possess that knowledge, and being assured of happiness hereafter, we live by hope in the eternal future. " Non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus ; " " We do not talk great things, 5 The origin of it we know from TertuUian (Apol. c. 16), referring to Tacitus (Hist. v. i), and the charge was transferred to Christians from the Jews, as appears from Josephus (c. Apion. lib. ii.). 6 Cp. Tertulhan, Apol. above, p. 96. 7 C. 29. ^ C. 34. I 114 ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. but we live them." In fine Octavius disposes of the allegations against Christianity, as Tertullian does in his Apology, and does it with so much success that Csecilius at last says, " He has conquered me, and I have triumphed over my error. I yield myself to God, and acknowledge the truth of his creed ; but it needs further exposition, which we may hope for on another occasion." On this we all retired with joy (says Minucius). Octavius rejoiced that C^cilius had become a believer. Caecilius rejoiced that Octavius had been the conqueror. I rejoiced on both accounts, in the belief of the one, and in the victory of the other. One of the latest of the ancient Apologies for Christianity, and which shows that Christianity was then attracting the attention of philosophical Schools, and exciting the hostility even of that School which professed philosophic indifference, was the work of OriGEN, in eight books, against Celsus, an Epicurean and a friend of the sceptical scoffer Lucian, who addressed to him one of his works, his life of the magician Alexander of Abonoteichus. The work of Celsus was entitled X6709 aX?;^r/9, the tnce doctrine. In this work, although it has an Epi- curean groundwork, yet he not only adopts Jewish objections against Christianity, but sometimes per- sonates the Platonist, acknowledging the supreme Absolute Essence to which all higher intelligences should aspire ; and beneath Him who reposes in being, a secondary Essence, who reveals Himself in becoming. The World is the offspring of the Supreme God ; the celestial luminaries are divine Essences, animated by higher intelligences ; the ARGUMENT FROM PROPHECIES, MIRACLES 115 AND RESULTS OF CHRISTIANITY. national deities are lords of different parts of the world, to whom homage is due. Opposed to the Divine Essence is Matter, the source of Evil, existing by fatal necessity, and from it come forth Evil Spirits. Origen's work was written in his old age, about A.D. 249, not long before his death, which took place A.D. 251, in his seventieth year. It has a special interest and value, not only as a vindication of Christianity, but as containing a state- ment of Origen's mature and deliberate opinions on some important doctrines of the faith, and as being in a sounder condition as to the text than almost any other of his works, and particularly than that work — nvepX dpx^ov, now in a very imperfect state, — which has exposed him to the charge of heterodoxy. It is addressed to his friend and patron Ambrosius, who had requested him to answer the work of Celsus ; of which only portions how exist, quoted by Origen, and in which, as we have said, Celsus enlists argu- ments drawn from Judaism, which he despised, and presses them into the service of heathen philosophy, in opposition to Christianity (see p. 22, ed. Spencer). Origen grounds his argument for Christianity on the ancient Hebrew prophecies^ which foretold the Incarnation, Birth from a Virgin, acts, sufferings, and glorious Second Coming of Christ (p. 83) ; and on Christ's miraculous and merciful acts ; and on the practical y>7/zVj- of Christianity as seen in the lives of Christians, and in their stifferings for the faith. In these respects he shows that Christianity is a reasonable religion : at the same time he does not pretend to say that every Christian, especially in humble life, is, or can be intended to be, competent to refute all sceptical objections to his religion ; but I 2 116 ORIGEN ON FAITH ; AND PHILOSOPHY. still he has quite enough to induce him to believe ; and faith is what, after all, is mainly required of him. At the same time Origen repudiates the allegation of his adversary Celsus, that what Christian teachers demand of their hearers is only blind faith. No, says Origen (p. 241), this is what is done by some others, as jugglers and mountebanks, exhibiting their leger- demain in the streets, but not daring to face wise men, but only where they espy a group of children and slaves, and a mob of silly folk, there they intrude themselves and display their feats. But what (he asks) do we do like this 1 What do we do like many of your heathen philosophers } They are not scrupulous about their scholars ; any one who lists may come and enrol himself a votary ; but we, as far as we can, examine those who come to us, and we make them rehearse to us their lesson, before we admit them to our communion. We have two classes ; one, lately admitted but not yet baptized ; the other, such as have made a public profession, declaring that they will live and believe as Christians (pp. 142, 143). Celsus is also shown to be inconsistent with himself. In one place he says that Christians forbid inquiry. In another he points to the variety of Christian heresies — the fruits of restless inquiry — as an argu- ment against Christianity. Again, Origen says (p. 11), Celsus alleges that we say this world's wisdom is evil, and folly is good ; but he calumniates us, and he traduces St. Paul, who says, " If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise " (i Cor. iii. 18). But St. Paul does not say that wisdom is folly, but that this world's wisdom is foolishness. ON CHRIST'S MIRACLES. 117 Orlgen asserts the need and use of true wisdom and learning (pp. 140, 141), and says that false knowledge is ignorance (p. 155). Celsus alleges that we teach men not to examine, but to believe. But what is more rational than to believe in God ? And we have good grounds for our faith, much better grounds than your philosophers have for their opinions, which they require men to receive. The Miracles of mercy wrought by Christ entitle Him to be heard as a Teacher sent from God, and His Doctrines ought to be believed for His Works' sake. He observes that the existence of a variety of schisms and heresies among Christians is not an argument against the truth of Christianity, any more than the existence of a variety of different philo- sophical and medical schools is an argument against Philosophy and Medicine (p. 118). He asserts the Antiquity and Authority of the Hebrew Prophecies which testified of Christ ' (pp. 13, 25, 39, 62) ; he con- trasts them with heathen Oracles (pp. 6, 338), and observes that since the Coming of Christ the Jews have had no more prophecies, nor since they have rejected Christ have they had any mark of God's favour and grace, such as are vouchsafed by Him to Christians (p. 183). Celsus owns that Christ worked miracles, but he imputes them to Magic (pp. 7, 34, 55, 92, 93), which Christ (he says) had learnt in Egypt. Origen acknowledges that miracles, as such, are not a suffi- cient proof of divine Revelation (p. 89), but he shows the difference between Christ's Miracles and the 9 See the Abbd Fleury's analysis of this work. Hist. Eccles. ii. pp. 257—268, to which I am much indebted j and Neander, Church Hist. i. pp. 221—231. 118 ON EVIL— PHYSICAL AND MORAL; AND ON DIVINE GRACE. supposed Wonders wrought by Magicians, as to the manner of working, and their permanent moral effects on human society (pp. 54, 61, 144, 146). In opposition to the allegations of Celsus that evil must always exist, by a fatal necessity inherent in vki] or matter (iv. 62), and that no one can hope to change moral evil in man to good either by punish- ment or mercy (iii. 65) ; and that it is degrading to the Deity to suppose that it cares for single souls, as distinct from the Universe as a whole (iv. 81, 99); he shows that Christianity has a divine transforming power, by the working of the Spirit of love, and that Christ cares for every single soul. Christ came and died to redeem every one from the guilt and power of sin. Origen affirms that all men are sinners, and that all men may be made holy by ^God's grace ; and wherever Christianity in its genuine purity has been received, there the World has been reformed by it (pp. 21,68). He contrasts the character and acts of Christian churches with popular and pagan legislative as- semblies, in great cities such as Athens, Corinth, and Alexandria (p. 128). How different is the love, and peace, and holiness of the former, from the strifes, turbulence, and viciousness of the latter ! He shows the beauty of true Christian humility, which Celsus despised as a mean and degrading thing, and he declares at the same time the dignity of every true Christian, who is united to God in Christ (vi. 15). He refers to the good effects of Church discipline in maintaining the virtuous character of her members (p. 285). He proves the truth of the Gospel History (pp. 125, 138), and states the arguments for the reahty EVIDENCES FOR CHRISTIANITY. 119 of Christ's Resurrection (p. lOO), due to His own Divine Power (p. 130), and shows that it is impossible that His disciples should have been willing to do and suffer what they did for Christianity, unless they had been firmly convinced on sufficient grounds that it was true ; and that being, as they were, illiterate men with- out any earthly support, and chosen on that account by Christ (p. 135), and preaching a religion which ran counter to all other religions, and claimed a right to supplant and supersede them all, and which was opposed to all the received opinions, usages, and worldly interests of the most powerful and intellectual classes of society, and to the most energetic and violent passions of human nature, and which was resisted and persecuted by all the might of Satan himself wielding the power of the Roman Empire against it, and trying to crush it (p. 183), they could never have surmounted the difficulties, and achieved the conquests they did, and that the Church could never have grown by suffering, and have prospered by persecution, unless the Gospel had been grounded on truth, and assisted by grace from heaven (pp. 22, 48, 81, 185,265, 408). If Christianity were not true, it would never have been preached and propagated by such persons as were its first teachers ; and if it had been preached by them, it would soon have been extinguished by the violent persecutions which it had to endure (p. 6). He speaks of the missionary zeal of Christians stimulating them to go forth and preach the Gospel in foreign lands without reward ; and he appeals to the success which had crowned their efforts in that holy cause (p. 142). He affirms that Christianity even in his own day 120 THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST. was attested by miraculous cures, and by exorcisms of evil spirits (pp. 5, 20, 34, 133}. He answers the objections of Celsus concerning the difficulties of faith in Divine Providence ; and shows in a noble passage that all good things are difficult, and that Faith, being one of the best, must be attended with difficulty (pp. 214, 215, 217). God does not cause evil ; but, by His help, evil may be overcome by us with good, and is ministerial to our good. The objections of Celsus evidently imply that Christ was acknowledged by Christians to be God (pp. 46, 54, 61). Origen avows the truth of his adversary's assertion, and shows from the Gospels that Christ claimed to be God, as well as Man (pp. 51, 54, 64, 128, 170, 322). Origen says that prayers are to be offered to Christ (p. 395). We must pray to the Almighty God alone and to the Only-begotten Son, the First-born of every creature, the Word of God, and we must beseech Him that, as our High Priest, He would offer our prayers to His Father and ours, to His God and our God ; and Hymns are to be addressed to Christ (p. 422), Who is Lord of all (389). He speaks of the Eucharist as Bread offered to God the Creator and Giver of all benefits to our souls and bodies (p. 416). Celsus charged the Christians with inconsistency in that, while they denounced polytheism, they them- selves worshipped two Gods, the Supreme God, and Jesus Christ. Origen quotes our Lord's assertion that " I and the Father are One '"' (one substance, John X. 30), and *' the Father is in Me and I in Him" (John xiv. 10, 11), while he guards against the notion that the Father and the Son are one Person, He says, We adore One God, the Father and the Son, ORIGEN'S THEOLOGY. 121 (PP- 303, 322, 325, 327, 385, 388). He asserts also the Divinity of the Holy Ghost (p. 325; 337, 338). This may be said to be Origen's final testimony on the Unity of the Godhead, and the Plurality of Per- sons in that Divine Unity, and on the Godhead of the Son ;^ and he concludes with saying that the spiritual Rulers of the Christian Church are under a divine constraint to administer the affairs of those Churches well, in obedience to their Sovereign Lord and King, Whom we believe to be the Son of God, and God the Word. In governing their Churches they conform themselves to the Law of God, and they also pay respect to the laws of their country ; and they devote themselves entirely to the work of bettering the spiritual condition of those committed to their charge, and of evangelizing the Gentiles, in order that they may draw them to the true faith and virtuous living, so that all, by knowing and serving God, may become one with God, the Lord of all, by means of His Son, Who is God, and the Word and Wisdom, and Truth and Righteousness, and Who unites men to God in Himself. Also it ought to be observed — (as Origen's teach- ing on that point has been regarded as heretical) that in this his last work (p. 410, 412) he distinctly asserts that future punishments as well as future rezvards, are everlasting : and he declares the force of this doctrine to produce holiness of life. 1 Cp. Bishop Bull, Defens. Fid. Nic. sect. 2, c. 9, § 22. CHAPTER XL Persecution under Trajan — St. Ignatius, Bishop of A ntiocJi arid Martyr — His Epistles. Pltny the Younger, one of the most enlightened of heathens, was Governor of Pontus and Bithynia in A.D. 104, under one of the best of Emperors, Trajan. Pliny having been encouraged by Trajan to resort to him for advice in all matters concerning the administration of his Province, consulted him as to the course he should pursue with regard to the Chris- tians.^ He tells the Emperor (who was then engaged in his second Dacian war) that when any of the Christians were brought before him as such, he interrogated them whether they were Christians. If they acknowledged that they were, he repeated the demand with a threat of capital punishment, if they persisted in the avowal ; and he put to death those who pertinaciously ad- hered to it. He acted thus on the ground that such obstinacy rendered them guilty, whatever the charac- ter of Christianity might be. The laws of Nero^ still in force, made it a capital offence to be a Christian. The large number of persons who were brought before Pliny on that charge, caused him much em- barrassment. He tested them by requiring them to 1 Epist. X. 97. Tertullian, Apol. c. 2. PLINY'S DESCRIPTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 123 offer incense or libations of wine to the statue of the Emperor, in the presence of images of the gods, and to anathematize Christ. This, he adds, no one who was really a Christian could ever be prevailed upon to do. Some renounced their profession ; others said that they had been Christians some few years ago, or as many as twenty years since, but that they had ceased so to be ; and these complied with his require- ments. But they also said that the amount of their crime, — if crime it were, — consisted in this, that on a stated day^ they were wont to meet together before sunrise to sing hymns to Christ as God ; and to bind themselves by solemn pledges not to commit theft or adultery ; to speak the truth ; and never to embezzle any deposit entrusted to them : and that after- wards they partook of a repast in which there was nothing that was blamable. Being desirous of further information, Pliny arrested two Christian females, called ;;22;22>^r<^ (or deaconesses), and put them to the torture ; but he could extort nothing out of them but that their superstition was as ridiculous as their attachment to it was extra- ordinary. On the whole, therefore, he thinks it his duty to report to the Emperor, and to ask for his advice ; and the more so, he adds, " on account of the vast multi- tude of persons concerned, of every age, condition, and sex, and inasmuch as the poison of this supersti- tion has diffused itself, not only in the cities, but in the villages and in all the country.^ However," he concludes, " the evil is not incurable, and, since the 2 The Lord's day. See above on Justin Martvr, pp. 64, 65. 2 Observe the resemblance of Plmy's language on this subject to that of TertuUian, above, pp. 94, 95. 124 TRAJAN'S RESCRIPT— BITHYNIA—NIC^A. time that he had adopted measures for its repression, the temples, which had been almost deserted, had begun again to be frequented, and victims were again commonly bought for sacrifice, which very few persons had purchased before." The Emperor's rescript was in the following terms (Plin. Epist. X. 98): — " No search is to be made for Christians. No anonymous accusations are to be re- ceived against them. If they are delated, they must be punished, unless they disprove the charge by sacrificing to the gods." This episode on the Persecution in Bithynia affords a glimpse of what was taking place in other parts of the Empire. It is an interesting fact that in a little more than 200 years afterwards, another Roman Emperor, Constantine, summoned more than 300 Christian Bishops to Nicaea, in the same Province, Bithynia, to that Council in which the Doctrine of Christ's Eternal Godhead was proclaimed to the world in the Nicene Creed, which has now been received for 1500 years. How astonished would Trajan and Pliny have been, if they could have foreseen this ! Those holy men and women who met before daybreak to sing praises to Christ as God, and to partake of the Holy Communion, probably were comforted and cheered by visions of the future triumph of the Faith for which they were glad to die. Tertullian (Apol. c. 2), commenting on these facts, writes thus : " Plinius Secundus, when he was Gover- nor of a Province, having condemned some Christians to death, and driven others from their profession, being still alarmed by their multitude, consulted Trajan, who was then Emperor, what he should do, stating that, besides their obstinacy in not sacrificing TERTULLIAN'S COMMENTS ON TRAJAN'S 125 RESCRIPT to the gods, he had discovered nothing concerning their mysteries, except that they met in assemblies before daybreak to sing to Christ as God, and to con- firm one another in their discipHne, in which they proscribed murder, adultery, fraud, breach of trust, and other crimes. To which Trajan replied that no search was to be made for Christians, but when they were arraigned they must be punished." " O sentence," (exclaims Tertullian,) '' inevitably confounded by it- self! He forbids them to be searched for, as innocent ; yet he commands them to be punished, as guilty ! he spares, and yet rages ; he conceals, and yet punishes ! If you condemn them, why do you not search for them .^ If you do not search for them, why do you not acquit them .? Against traitors every man is a soldier ; and even their accomplices are hunted out. A Christian only is not to be sought for, and yet, if found, he may be arraigned. You condemn him when impeached, whom you order not to be inquired for ; it seems, therefore, that he deserves punishment, not because he is guilty, but because, when he ought not to have been searched for, he has been found out. Other criminals you torture in order that they may confess their crimes ; but Christians are tortured by you in order that they may deny that they are Chris- tians. A man exclaims that he is a Christian, and he speaks the truth ; but you desire to hear from him what is false : you, who in all other cases sit in judgment on malefactors in order to extort the truth, in our case alone endeavour by torture to elaborate a lie." These words of Tertullian were written a century after Trajan's rescript and they seem to show that his policy was confirmed by succeeding Emperors. 126 -5-. SYiMEON—S. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH. But those animadversions may help us to under- stand certain events in the history of the times which otherwise might be difficult to account for. In the persecution under Trajan, Symeon (who had succeeded St. James, " the Lord's brother," in the Bishopric of Jerusalem, A.D. 62) was martyred in A.D. 107, at the age of 120 years (Euseb. iii. 11, 32 ; iv. 22), being accused by Cerinthian and Nico- laitan heretics. After the destruction of Jerusalem, the Christians (who had quitted it before the siege, being warned of its coming doom by our Lord's prophecy) returned to the city ; and the Christian church there was governed by Bishops of Jewish extraction till the demolition of the city by the Emperor Hadrian, and the erection of a new city, called from his own name, in its place. The Martyrdom in the reign of Trajan which has deservedly obtained the greatest celebrity, is that of S. Ignatius, a scholar of St. John, a friend of Poly- carp, and Bishop of the Syrian Antioch, which then contained a population of 200,000 souls. In no Martyrdom, after those of the Apostles, have the divine power and grace, overruling evil for good, and enabling the servants of God to triumph over their enemies, and to promote His Glory and that of the Church, been more conspicuous. The date of this Martyrdom is doubtful. On the whole it seems most probable that it was at the close of A.D. 115.' In the year 1 14 Trajan's Column had been dedicated at Rome as a memorial of his Dacian campaign and conquests ; and he received from the Senate the title ^ See Clinton, Fasti Rom. A.D. 115 , Bp. Pearson in Bp. Jacobson's Edition of Patres Apostolici, pp. 564 — 569; Minor Works, ii. 304. TRAJAN A T ANTIOCH— EARTHQUAKE. 127 of '' Optimtis f' and the Emperor set forth for the East, and proceeded in the autumn through Athens and Seleucia to Antioch, where he wintered. In the early spring of A.D. 115, while he was there, preparing for his expedition to Parthia,^ a great earthquake did much damage to the city and other places in Syria, and imperilled the life of the Emperor. The consul Pedo perished in it. This catastrophe may have exasperated the people against the Christians, to whom they imputed such calamities as these.^ Certain it is, that at Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians (Acts xi. 26), there had been a long and violent struggle between the powers of darkness and the Christian Church. The priests and votaries of the heathen temples, — and it contained some of great celebrity, — and all who were connected with the vast system of paganism, would gladly avail themselves of the presence of the Emperor in their city, to endeavour to exterminate Christianity. They would represent to him that his success against the Parthians depended on his zeal for the gods of his country, and for that national ritual, of which he was officially the Chief Pontiff. They would remind him of his own recent edict, in reply to the Governor of Bithynia, Pliny, that Christians, when delated and convicted, ought to be condemned to capital punish- ment. They thought that if Ignatius, the Bishop of the Church, was condemned to death, the Church itself would be paralyzed. Ignatius was brought before the Emperor," and was interrogated by him. "Who is this man, possessed by an evil spirit, that dares to violate our 5 Dio Cass. Ixviii, 24. Clinton, Fasti Romani at A.D. 115. " See above, p. loi. ' Martyr. Ignat. c. 2. 128 IGNA TIUS ARRAIGNED BEFORE TRAJAN. commands, and to persuade others to do so?" Ignatius replied, " No one calls Theophorus^ an evil spirit. Evil spirits have departed far away from God's servants. Having Christ as my heavenly King I put to flight their attacks." " And who is Theo- phorus ? " " One who has Christ in his bosom." " And do not we seem to you to have gods in our minds, we who use them as our allies against our enemies ? " " You are wrong in calling the deities of the heathen by that name. There is only one God, Who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things therein, and one Christ Jesus, the Only- begotten, Whose kingdom may I enjoy ! " " Do you mean him who was crucified under Pontius Pilate } " " I mean Him Who has crucified my sin, and the author of it, and has condemned all demoniacal error and malice to be trodden under foot by those who bear Him in their hearts." '' Dost thou therefore bear the Crucified in thyself.? " "Yes ; for it is written, I will dwell in them, and will walk among them." Trajan then gave sentence: "We command that Ignatius, who says that he carries about with him the Crucified, be carried as a prisoner by soldiers to great Rome, to be food for wild beasts, for the diver- sion of the people." " I thank Thee, O Lord," said the holy martyr joyfully with a loud voice, " that Thou hast thought me worthy to be honoured with perfect love to Thee ; and to unite me in iron chains with Thy Apostle St. Paul." He then bound the chains '■' with joy around himself, having first prayed for the Church, and commended it with tears to the Lord. " Ignatius adopted this name Theophorus, signifying one vho bears God in him. 0 Which he calls his "spiritual pearls," ad Ephes. c. Ii. HIS JOURNEY FROM ANTIOCH TO SMYRNA. 129 Let us pause here and consider. The enemies of Christianity hailed Trajan's presence at Antioch as an opportunity for crushing- it. S. Chrysostom observes ^ that the Evil One directed his special attacks against the Bishops of the Church, in order that by the death of the Shepherd the sheep might be scattered ; but that he sometimes contrived to separate them from their flock, to be martyred elsewhere, in order that they might be deprived of the sympathy of their people, and be exhausted by jour- neys to a distance, and that so their faith might fail ; and that he employed this artifice against Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, for whose memory S. Chrysostom — one of the greatest teachers and brightest lights of the Church of Antioch in the fourth century — cherished a special regard. But these devices of the Evil One were controlled by God's providence for good, in the person of Igna- tius, as they had been in that of St. Paul." S.Ignatius was conveyed from Antioch to Seleucia; where he embarked for the voyage along the coast of Asia, being in the custody of ten soldiers,^ whose harsh treatment of him exercised and manifested his Chris- tian patience and charity. He arrived, in the month of August, at Smyrna, where S. Polycarp was Bishop, who is said to have been also a disciple of St. John, but was much younger than Ignatius ; and, many years afterwards, was a martyr at Smyrna. This was a happy event. Polycarp was instrumental in collecting and preserving the Epistles written at this time by S. Ignatius. The news of his arrival at Smyrna spread rapidly. ^ Tom. i. Orat. 42. 2 gee above, p. 80. 3 Epist. ad Rom. 5. K 130 EPISTLES OF S. IGNA TIUS A T SMYRNA. He was visited there by deputies from Ephesus, in the persons of its Bishop Onesimus, and of Burrhus the Deacon, and by others from the Church of Magnesia, represented by Damas, its Bishop, Bassus and Apol- lonius, its Presbyters, and Sotion the Deacon ; from the Church of Tralles by Polybius. Here then we have a specimen of the form of Church Government existing in those Churches at that time. Nor was this all. Being detained at Smyrna, Ignatius wrote Epistles, still extant, to each of those three Churches. At Smyrna he also wrote a letter to the Church of Rome, dated August 24, which he sent by the hands of some Christians of Ephesus. From Smyrna he was conveyed to Troas, being attended by Burrhus, the Deacon of Ephesus. At Troas he was visited by the Bishop of Philadelphia ; and from Troas he wrote Epistles to the Churches of Philadelphia and Smyrna, and to his friend Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. These three Epistles are also still preserved, making seven in all, written by him in his voyage from Antioch towards Rome. From Troas he was conveyed to Neapolis, in Macedonia, and thence to Philippi, thus following in the steps of St. Paul (Acts xvi. 11, 12). The Christians at Philippi received him with honour and joy, and they wrote a letter to Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, in which they desired him to send them copies of the Epistles of S. Ignatius ; a request with which he complied, as he states in his reply to them, still preserved (Polycarp. ad Philipp. c. 13). From Philippi Ignatius was carried through Mace- donia and Epirus, by the Egnatian Way, to Epidam- nus or Dyrrachium, where he embarked for the coast of Italy, and touched at Puteoli, near Naples ; EPISTLES OF S. IGNA TIUS. 131 thence he sailed to Portus Romanus,^ at the mouth of the Tiber about fifteen miles from Rome, and was thence conveyed to Rome. There he was martyred at the festival of the Saturnalia in the Colosseum on December 20th, probably A.D. 115. Let us review these incidents. The ancient Acts of his Martyrdom record that in this progress from Antioch to Rome, he was visited, in various populous places, by Bishops, Priests and Deacons, and others, resorting to him for spiritual communion and for spiritual graces from various Churches and Cities of Asia (Martyr, c. 3, ed. Jacobson, p. 585). In this respect that voyage was a Christian Mission to the Churches, and was conducive to the spread of the Gospel. The concourse of persons flocking to see him and pay him honour, and to derive religious benefits from intercourse with him, seem to have attracted much notice even among the heathen, and to have been made the subject of satirical parody from the pen of the scurrilous Lucian." The next great benefit of this missionary voyage was, that he was thus enabled and encouraged to write those Epistles^ which are of inestimable value as * May I refer for a description of Portus to my work on S. Hippo- lytus, Bishop of Portus, p. 255, 2nd ed. 8 De Morte Peregrini, 3, p. 336. Peregrinus in his way to his martyrdom wrote hortatory philosophic Epistles, perhaps, —as some suppose, — in imitation of S. Ignatius. Tillemont, ii. p. 184. 6 About thirty years ago and more, after tracing the history of the Ignatian controversy, I expressed an opinion in an article in the eighth Number of the English Review for 1845, PP- 309— 353» on Dr. Cureton's Edition of the Three Syriac Epistles, ascribed by him to Ignatius, and accepted by some as his only genuine letters, that those Syriac Epistles would be found to be only Epitomes of three of the Greek Epistles ; and I also gave utterance to a belief that the time would come, when the K 2 132 EPISTLES OF S. IGNA TIUS. bearing testimony of one who had conversed with St. John, and held the office of Bishop in one of the greatest cities of the world, and who wrote with the earnestness of a dying man to Christian Churches on momentous questions of Christian Doctrine and Dis- cipline, Church Unity and Government, Christian Sacraments and Ritual ; and in which he showed what is the power of Christ's indwelling Presence, and of the gift of the Holy Ghost infusing the graces of faith, hope, and joy into the heart of man, and enabling him to triumph over death, and to rejoice in suffering for the Cross. Let us therefore listen to his words. Taking the Epistles in order, we have first that to the Ephesians. " Ignatius, who is also Theophorus," such are its opening words. It therefore begins with a profession of Christ's Godhead. " Theophorus," the bearer of God^ is one who has Christ in his breast (Martyr, c. 2). In chapter 4 he describes the blessings of Unity. "Your estimable Priesthood," he says, " is harmoniously joined with the Bishop, as strings to a harp ; and Sevett Greek Epistles would be generally accepted as genuine. That time seems to have arrived. The latest German Editor, Theodore Zahn (Lips. 1876), thus speaks, p. v. " Brevissima ilia Epistularum Ignatianarum recensio, tres tantum Epistolas complectens, quam Guil. Cureto7i e versionis Syriaccc fragmentis tanquam genuinam harum Litte- rarum formam restituisse non soli sibi videbatur, quasi insomnium sicave tandem evannit. Nam postquam Denzingeri, Petermanni, Uhlhorni, Merxii laboribus mea accessit quantulacunque fuit disquisitio, plerique jam consentiunt Syrum ilium Curetonianum ex ampliore versione septem Epistolarum quas Eusebius enumeraverat excerpsisse quae exhibet." On Dec. 16, 1875, Bishop Lightfoot thus via-ote to Dr. Zahn : " I ought to explain that since I wrote the article (in the Contemporary Review) on Ignatius, I have been more and more strongly impressed with the unity and priority of the Seven Epistles, as representing the genuine Ignatius." (Zahn. Proleg. p. vi.) CHURCH UNITY— EPISCOPACY. 133 therefore by your concord and unison of love Christ is chanted, and ye all become a choir, so that, being attuned together, and receiving divine melody in one- ness of mind, ye may sing with one voice through Christ to God" (cp. Phil. i). In like manner he speaks to the Magnesians of the blessings of Unity of Bishop, Priests, and Deacons (c. 2 and 7) ; and to the Church of Smyrna (c. 8 and 9), "Avoid divisions as the origin of evil. All of you follow the Bishop, the Presbytery, and the Deacons. Let no one do anything that concerns the Church without the Bishop. Where the Bishop is, there let the people be. It is not lawful to baptize or celebrate the Holy Communion without the con- sent of the Bishop. He that honours the Bishop is honoured of God (c. 9)." Ad Magnes. (c. 4), " It is seemly not only to have the name of Christian, but to be one. Some acknowledge the Bishop, and yet in all that they do, they act without him ; such persons do not seem to me to be conscientious;" (c. 6) "I exhort you to do all your works in the unanimity of God, under the presidency of the Bishop, as God's deputy, and under the Presbyters in the place of the council of the Apostles, and the Deacons entrusted with the ministry of Christ. Let no one look on his neighbour according to the eye of the flesh, but ever love one another in Jesus Christ. Let nothing be able to separate you ; but be united to the Bishop and Presbyters as a fore- shadowing and discipline of life immortal." And ad Philad. (c. 7), " Attend to the Bishop, to the Presbytery, to the Deacons. I speak not this according to the flesh, but the Spirit preached it to me, saying. Do nothing without the Bishop. Keep your body as a temple of God. Love unity. Shun divisions. Be followers of Jesus 134 REASONS FOR HIS ADVICE. Christ, as He is of the Father." And (ad Trail, c. 2), " When you are subject to the Bishop as to Christ (i. e. in the Lord), ye appear to me to be living, not accord- ing to men, but unto Christ. It is necessary to do nothing without the Bishop, but to be subject also to the Priests, as to the Apostles of Christ our hope ; and the Deacons, who are ministers of Christ's mysteries, ought to be pleasing to all, for they are not ministers of food and drink, but of the Church of God." It may at first sight seem strange that Ignatius going to martyrdom should lay so much stress on this point — unity with the Bishop, Priests, and Deacons — in his farewell letters to the Churches. But it must be remembered that while Persecution was raging against the Church from without, the Evil One was stirring up Heresies within her, which were still more dangerous and deadly, as will be evident from the following extracts ; and this will be shown from other sources in a following chapter. And it will also be shown that the only real security to the Church in such times as those was in cleaving to the Holy Scriptures as inter- preted by the appointed Spiritual Guides of the Church; and to the primitive deposit of faith preserved in the Churches by them. This will be illustrated from the great work of S. Irenaeus against Here- sies. As to Unity in Prayer and Sacraments, Ignatius says (ad Ephes. c. 5), " Let no one deceive himself; whosoever is not within the Sanctuary lacks the bread of God. For if the Prayer of a single person has such power, how much more the Prayer of the Bishop and the Church." And (ad Trail, c. 7) " He who is within the Sanctuary is clean ; he that does anything with- out the Bishop, the Priesthood, and Deacons, is not CHRIST'S GODHEAD— INCARNATION— THE 135 HOLY EUCHARIST pure In his conscience." And (Ephes. c. 20) he says he will write again more fully, if the Lord will, in a second short treatise, of the dispensation (incarna- tion) leading into the new Man Jesus Christ, in His faith and love, in His Passion and Resurrection ; especially if the Lord reveals anything to him ; '' and he exhorts them thus : " Be ye all severally and collec- tively gathered together by grace in one faith and in Jesus Christ, Who is of the Seed of David according to the flesh, and is Son of Man and Son of God, so as to hearken to your Bishop and the Presbytery with an undistracted mind, breaking One Bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote against Death, and the food of Life through Jesus Christ for evermore."^ And (to Philadelph. c. 4), "Take heed to resort to the same Eucharist. There is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup of His Blood ; one Bishop, with the Presbytery and Deacons, my fellow- servants ; so that what ye do, ye may do it according to God's will." And (to Ephes chap. 18.) " Our God Jesus Christ was conceived of Mary, according to the dis- pensation of God, by the Holy Ghost : He was born and was baptized, in order that by His Passion He might sanctify water." On the necessity of holding and teaching sound doctrine, he says (ad Ephes. c. 15), " It is better to be silent and to be (i. e. not merely to seem to be) than to talk, and not to be. It is good for a man to teach, if he does what he teaches. He who truly has the word of Jesus can hear His silence, in order that he may be 7 See Zahn's note here, p, 25, ed. Lips. 1876. 5 Observe this statement concerning the Unity of True Faith in- separably linked to Unity of Apostolic Church Government, — a truth proved by the succeeding history of the Church. 136 ON HERESY— ON THE INCARNATION. perfect ; in order that he may act by means of what he says, and be known by what he does not say. Nothing is hid from the Lord ; our secret things are in His eyesight. Let us therefore do all things as those in whom He dwells, that we may be His temples, and that He maybe our God in us. Be not deceived ; they who corrupt their own house (i. e. their bodies) shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. If those persons are dead, who do such things according to the flesh, how much more he who corrupts with unsound teach- ing that doctrine for which Christ was crucified. Such a person being polluted will go into unquenchable fire ; and he likewise who hearkens to him " (c. i6).^ A solemn warning for all times in which false doc- trines and heresies are rife. On the Godhead and Incarnation of the Son, he thus speaks (ad Ephes. c. 19): "The Prince of this world was ignorant of the virginity of Mary and of her Child-bearing, and of the death of the Lord : " Three Mysteries of shouting " (i. e. not like heathen mysteries, such as the Eleusinian and others, which are kept secret ; the Christian mysteries are shouted to the whole world by Evangelical preaching), *' which were wrought in the silence of God. And how was He manifested to the world.?" He then speaks of the mystery of the Incarnation and Birth at Bethlehem; and of the Star proclaiming from on high amid a starry chorus the mystery to the Wise Men. By this manifestation all sorcery was dissolved, every chain of evil was broken, ignorance was demolished_, the old ^ "Whosoever," (says Ignatius, Frag, ix.,) "teaches Avhat is contrary to those things which have been commanded (by God), let him be accounted by thee a wolf in sheep's clothing and a destroyer of the sheep, although he fasts, and practises celibacy, and works miracles." BLESSED EFFECTS OF THE INCARNATION. 137 kingdom (of Satan) was destroyed. God being made manifest in Man for the newness of Life Everlasting, that which was perfected by God received its begin- ning. Everything (in Satan's realm) was shaken, because the dissolution of death was devised by God. And (to Ephes. c. 7) on Christ's two Natures, he says, " There is One Physician, fleshly and spiritual, born and unborn, God made in the flesh, true Life in death, born of Mary and of God ; passible, and then impassible." And (to Tralles c. 9), " Turn a deaf ear to any one who speaks to you without Jesus Christ, of the Seed of David, of Mary ; Who was truly born, did eat and drink, truly suff"ered persecution under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of earthly things and heavenly, and of things under the earth_, Who truly arose from the dead, being quickened by the Father, Who will raise us also who believe in Him, according to His likeness in Jesus Christ, with- out Whom we have no true Life." And to Smyrna he says (c. 3), *' I know and believe in Him existing in the flesh after His Resurrection, when He came to Peter and those who were with him, and said, ' Handle Me, and see that I am not a spirit without body ' (Luke xxiv. 39), and straightway they touched Him and believed, being convinced by His flesh and spirit : wherefore they despised death, and triumphed over it. And after His Resurrection He ate and drank with them, having really flesh, although united spiritually with the Father." He proceeds to state the practical effects of this faith in our Lord's real humanity (by way of protest against the Docetae, who said that our Lord's body was only an ideal phantom): *' I warn you against those who deny that doctrine, who are wild beasts in human shape^ whom you ought not to receive, 138 HOPES AND JOYS OF MARTYRS, nor even, if possible, to meet in the way, but only to pray for them that they may repent, which is hard. But Christ can do it, Who is our true Life. For if these things were done and suffered in appearance ^ only by our Lord, I also have been chained only in appearance. Why then have I given myself up to death, to fire, to the sword, to wild beasts .? Nay, but being near to the sword, I am near to God ; being in the grasp of wild beasts, I am in the hand of God. Only in the name of Jesus Christ do I endure all things, in order that I may suffer with Him, Who, by becoming Perfect Man, enabled me to do so." He teaches clearly the true character of the Old Testament as bearing witness to Christ, and to be interpreted by the New. To the Magnesians he says (c. 8)5 " If we Judaize, we imply that we have not received grace. The holy Prophets lived a Christ- ward life. Wherefore they suffered persecution, being inspired by His grace ( I Pet. i. ii),in order that unbelievers might be fully persuaded that there is One God, Who manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His SoUj Who is His Word Eternal, not coming forth from silence,^ Who in all things did what was pleasing to His Father's will." And again (c. 10), " It is unrea- ^ Cp. the prayer of S. Irenaeus for heretics at the close of his third book. 2 rb Sofce?)/, with aUusion to the AoKTjraf. 2 If we adopt the reading ^'' not coming forth," we need not be. alarmed by the allegation of some critics that here is a reference to the Valent'mian heresy, which was posterior to Ignatius, and that therefore this Epistle is not genuine. The fact is, that the theory of the pro- cession of the Word from Silence -wa.s prior to Valentinus, and as old as Simon Magus, contemporary with St. Peter ; see S. Hippolyt. Refut. Haer. lib. vi. p. 173. But there is good authority for expunging " not ;" and so Zahn, p. 36. CHRIST THE DOOR OF THE PATRIARCHS AND 139 PROPHETS. sonable to speak of Jesus Christ, and yet to Judaize. Christianity is not aproselyte to Judaism, but Judaism is a convert to Christianity, so that every tongue may be united by faith in God." And to the Philadel- phians he says (c. 9), "Good are the Priests of the Church, but a better thing is the High Priest Who has the charge of the Holy of HoHes, Who alone is entrusted with the secret things of God. He is the Door to the Father, by which Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, and the Prophets and Apostles, and the Church, all these, enter into the Unity of God. The Gospel has a special pre-eminence — the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Passion, and Ascension. The beloved Prophets were His heralds, but the Gospel is the perfection of incorruptibility." Such is an abstract of the teaching of S. Ignatius, in his Epistles to these Churches, on Christian Doc- trine and Discipline. The Epistle of the holy Martyr in the near prospect of death to his brother Bishop, Polycarp of Smyrna, by many years his junior, holds the same place in hortatory addresses, as the Pastoral Epistles of the holy Apostle St. Paul in foresight of martyrdom to the two youthful Bishops, Timothy and Titus. It is a valuable manual in this respect for Christian Bishops and Pastors. Let us make a few extracts from it. "I beseech thee," (he says,) "in the grace by which thou art clothed, to attend to thy course and to exhort all men, that they may be saved. Justify thy place (as Bishop) with all diligence, bodily and spiritual. Take heed to unity, than which nothing is more precious. Bear others, as the Lord bears thee ; bear with them in love, as thou doest ; attend to prayer without 140 S. IGNA TIUS TO S. POL YCARP. ceasing ; pray for more understanding than thou hast. Watch with a sleepless spirit ; speak to every one singly with the help of God. Bear the failings of all, as a perfect athlete ; the more pain, the more gain. If thou lovest only the good members of thy flock, this is not thankworthy ; rather win the froward by meek- ness. All sores are not healed with the same salve. Assuage acute pains by embrocations. Be prudent in all things as a serpent, and harmless as a dove. Be sober, as a wrestler of God ; thy prize is incorruptibi- lity and life eternal. Stand firm, as an anvil smitten. A good athlete is buffeted, and conquers. Be more earnest than thou art : watch for the season ; wait for Him who is above seasons,'* Him who is timeless, viewless, and yet made visible for our sakes ; Him who is impalpable and impassible, and yet suffered and endured all things for us. Let not the widows of the Church be uncared for ; be thou their care-taker with the Lord, Let nothing be done in the Church without thy mind, and do thou nothing without God ; but whatever thou doest,^ be steadfast. Let Church assemblies be more frequent. Search out every one by name (3 John 15). Despise not slaves, male or female. But let them not be puffed up ; rather let them serve to the glory of God, that they may obtain a better freedom ; and let them not crave to be manu- mitted from the public purse, lest they be slaves of evil desires. Exhort our sisters to love the Lord, and to keep themselves pure to their husbands in flesh and spirit ; likewise exhort our brethren in Christ to ^ i. e. Christ. Cp. Iren, iii. i6. 6, "omni tempore priorem." ^ C.4. The MS. has ovrep OTAE Trpdaaeis, evaTaOrjs, This is hardly in- telligible. I am inclined to think that the true reading is onep CT AE {av 6e), and the old version " quod operaris " confirms this, and I have translated the sentence accordingly. S. IGNATIUS' EPISTIE TO THE ROMANS. 141 love their partners as the Lord loves the Church. If any one can remain in continency ^ to the glory of the Lord of our flesh, let him do it without boasting ; if he boasts, he perishes ; and if he is thought more of' than the Bishop, he is depraved. It is seemly for men and women, about to marry, to contract that union with the approval of the Bishop, that it may be according to the Lord, and not for concupiscence. Let everything be done to the glory of God. Please Him whose soldiers ye are (2 Tim. ii. 4), and from whom ye receive your pay. Let none of you be a deserter. Let your baptism remain as your armour ; let faith be your helmet, love your spear, patience your panoply, your good works be deposits, that ye may receive a due reward. Be long-suffering to one another in meekness, as God to you. May I have joy of you for ever ! Fare ye well in the Lord." The Epistle to the Romans, though written earlier than the Epistles to Smyrna, Philadelphia, and Poly- carp, namely on Aug. 24th, at Smyrna, about four months before his martyrdom at Rome, yet in some respects may be regarded as the consummation of all his Epistles, because he there speaks in anticipation of that martyrdom. One preliminary remark here as to this Epistle. It will have been seen that S. Ignatius in his Epistles is very strict and explicit in his view of Church order " " Do not impose the yoke of celibacy on any," (says Ignatius, frag, vi.,) " for when it is compulsory, it is perilous and hard to be kept." 7 Who was perhaps married, says Zahn, quoting Clement, Horn. iii. 64, for this use of 7i'wcr0f)i/ai. The Council of Gangra, A. D. 325, can. 4, enacted, " If any of those who practise celibacy for the Lord's sake exalt himself over those who are married, let him be anathema." — Jacobson. 142 PRIMITIVE VIEWS ON ROMAN SUPREMACY. and government, and in his directions for the mainte- nance of due reverence for Episcopacy. If therefore the Bishop of Rome at that time had been — as his successors now claim to be — the supreme Head of the Universal Church ; and if this supremacy had been instituted — as they affirm — by Christ Himself, Whose Vicar on earth the Bishop of Rome now claims to be ; and if the Bishop of Rome had been — as he now professes to be — Infallible, and the Guide and Teacher of the Church in all matters of Faith and Morals, it is certain that Ignatius, who was so strenuous an assertor of the claims of Episcopacy, would have been no less a zealous champion of the Papacy. The Epistles of S. Ignatius are fatal to all the Papal pretensions, S. Ignatius writes an Epistle to the Church of Rome, but he does not even mention the Bishop of Rome. This is quite in harmony with what S. Clement, Bishop of Rome, represents as the Eccle- siastical organization of that Church. He writes in the name of the Roman Church ; but never mentions himself as Bishop, or claims any reverence on that account (see above, p. 85 ). There seems to be something almost of a providential dispensation in these cir- cumstances, and they supply a practical protest against all modern Papal encroachments and usurpations. S. Ignatius writes with Asiatic fervour concerning his own future martyrdom, but this was not the lan- guage of fanatical enthusiasm ; it was not a sudden outburst of a violent conflagration, but a calmly burn- ing flame of zeal and love for Christ, and of desire to be with Him. It burned brightly to the end ; it was not dimmed in the four months' interval between his letter to the Romans and his death at Rome. " Do not," he says, " intercede for me that I may be S. IGNA TIUS ON HIS 0 WN FUTURE MA R TYRD OM. 143 spared. I shall never have so fair an opportunity of winning God. If you hold your peace, I shall be His. If you are lovers of my flesh, I shall be a renegade.^ Do not grant me anything more than to be poured out as a libation to my God (2 Tim. iv. 6), while yet the altar is being prepared for me, in order that ye, being my chorus in love, may sing praises to the Father in Christ, that He has thought me, the Bishop of Syria, worthy to be seized (as a prey), having summoned me from the East to the West. Glorious it is for me to have a sunset from the world to God, in order that I may have a sunrise hereafter from the world to Him. Only pray for me that I may have strength both within and without, that I may not only be called, but be proved to be, a Christian. For if I am proved to be, then I shall be able to be called one, and to be faithful when I am no longer seen by the world. Nothing that is seen is eternal. ' The things that are seen are temporal ; the things that are not seen are eternal.' Our God Jesus Christ being in the Father is made more manifest (in us). Chris- tianity is not a thing of silence^ only, but of greatness. I am writing to the Church. I charge all ; since of my own free will I die for God, if you do not hinder me. I beseech you, be not to me like an unseason- able boon. Allow me to be the food of wild beasts, that by them I may win God ; I am God's wheat, and may I be ground by their teeth to be pure bread for Christ. Rather, caress the wild beasts, that when I am ^ Or " backslider, " cap, 2. On -naXiv rpexwr, starting back, may I refer to my note on S. Hippolytus, p. 124, TraXivSpo/x^lv? ^ Perhaps for (Tkott^s we may read (r/coTrf/s, of sight ; that is, Christianity is not a thing to be gazed at as a pompous spectacle, but a thing of solid grandeur. Some reasons for this conjecture may be seen in a note on Theocritus, xiv. 17. 144 LIFE IN DEATH. dead I may be a burden to no one. Then shall I be a disciple of Christ, when the world no longer sees me. Pray to Christ for me that I, by their means, may become a sacrifice to God. Forgive me ; I know what is good for me. Now I begin to be a disciple. Let nothing visible or invisible grudge me my winning of Christ. Fire, and the Cross, assaults of wild beasts, lacerations, divulsions, scattering of my bones, crush- ing of my limbs, the grinding of my whole body, the fiendish torments of the devil, — let them all come at once against me, only that I may win Christ. The pleasures of this world, and the kingdom of this world, will do me no good ; rather would I die ' into Christ Jesus, than be king of the ends ^f the earth. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul } (Matt. xvi. 26. Mark viii. 36.) Him I seek Who died for us. Him I desire Who rose again for us. My birthday is at hand. Brethren, forgive me ; do not hinder me from living ; do not wish me to die ; me, who long to be God's ; do not compliment me away as a gift to the world (cp. Acts XXV. II, yapLGadOaC). " Suffer me to gain the sight of the pure light. When I am there, I shall be a man of God. Suffer me to be an imitator of the Passion of my God. Whoever has Him (Christ) in him, let him consider what I desire, and feel with me, knowing what constraineth me. The ruler of this world desires to have me as his spoil, and to corrupt my resolve for God. Let none of you abet him in this ; rather, be mine (my friends), that is, be God's. Let no evil eye be in you. Even if I ask you (to pray for my reprieve) when I come to you, do not grant my request. Comply rather with ^ Note this, die into Him Who is the Life. LONGINGS FOR THE FUTURE LIFE. 145 what I now write to you. While I yet live, I write to you, longing to die. My Love- has been crucified (I desire to die with Him), and there is not in me any (earthly) fire that loves (material) wood, but a living spring of water which speaks within me and says, * Come away to the Father.' I have no pleasure in corruptible food, or in this life's joys. I long for the bread of God, heavenly bread, bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who was born of the Seed of David and Abraham ; and I long for the drink of God, which is His Blood, love incor- ruptible, and life everlasting (c. 7). " I pray you by this short letter, believe me, Jesus Christ will manifest to you that I speak these things in the truth : He Who is the Mouth that cannot lie, by Whom the Father spake in the truth. Pray for me that I may attain. I write not to you according to the flesh, but according to the mind of God. If I suffer, then ye loved ^ me ; if I am rejected (from suf- fering), ye hated me. " Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, which now has God for its Shepherd instead of me. Christ Jesus alone will be its Bishop, and your love. My spirit salutes you, and the love of the Churches which have received me in the Name of Christ, not as a mere passer-by : even the Churches which were not under my charge conducted me on my journey according to the flesh,'' city by city. I write this to 2 i.e. Christ, the " Desire of all Nations ; " see on Hagg. ii. 7. " Love crucified" is the subject of a poem by Ausonius, Idyl. vi. ; cp, Nitzsch, Mythol. i. 322. The other interpretation, " my earthly desires," seems to fall far below the loftiness of the original. ' The MSS. have rjO^hriaaTe. Perhaps we should read i(pi\r] Ignat. Martyr, c. 6. MARTYRDOM— COLOSSEUM— ARCH OF CON- 147 STANTINE. righteous shall be granted" (Prov. x. 24), "that he might not be a trouble to any of his brethren in the gathering together of his mortal remains, as in his Epistles he had expressed his wish that his consum- mation might be. Only the harder bones were left, which were conveyed to Antioch, and deposited in linen, a priceless treasure bequeathed to the holy Church by the grace which was in the Martyr." The Amphitheatre at Rome, in which Ignatius was martyred, and of which a large part remains, was the Colosseum, so called from the colossal statue of the Emperor Nero which stood near it. Its more proper ancient name was the " Flavian Amphitheatre," having been begun by one Emperor of the Flavian family, Vespasian, and com.pleted by another, his son Titus, who dedicated it, A.D. 80. In the arena of that Amphitheatre S. Ignatius, having been brought from Antioch to Rome that he might do honour to heathenism, being full of that holy courage which the grace of God alone could give, en- countered with calmness the wild beasts let loose upon him from the dens below the seats of the cavea ; and he preached, by his martyrdom, a sermon which will never be forgotten, on behalf of Christianity, in that enormous building, which would hold 8o,ooo persons. A little to the west of the Colosseum stands the Triumphal Arch of the first Christian Emperor, Con- stantine, a witness of the effects produced in the history of the World by such sufferings as those of S. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and Martyr. L 2 CHAPTER XII. State of the Church under Hadrian — Apologies — Anto- ninus Pius — Justin Martyr — Persecutions under Marcus A urelius. At Antioch, the city of S. Ignatius, the Emperor Hadrian succeeded Trajan on the 3rd of the Ides of August (Aug. nth), A.D. 117, and continued to reign till July loth, A.D. 138. Whether he himself was a persecutor of the Church is doubtful. Tertullian says he was not (Apol. 5). But that the Church was persecuted in his reign is certain from positive testimony (S. Jerome, Epist. 84 ; cp. Tillemont, ii. pp. 224 — 232), and from the fact that Apologies in defence of Christianity were written at that time, and were presented to him in order that he might be persuaded to restrain the violence of her enemies. An Apology for Christianity was written by Ouad- ratus, eminent for his piety, learning, and mis- sionary zeal, who offered his appeal to Hadrian, A.D. 126 (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. c 19; Euseb. iii. 37. Euseb. Chron.). Another Apology was composed by Aristides, first a philosopher by profession, and after- wards Bishop of Athens (S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 20). These Apologies have not been preserved. In conse- quence of them, the Emperor Hadrian addressed a circular letter to the Proconsul of Asia, Minucius HADRIAN'S RESCRIPT— ANTINOUS— JERUSALEM 149 DESTROYED. Fundanus, and other Rulers of Provinces, and ordered them to take care that if accusations are brought before them against the Christians, they are to be made according to the statutory provisions with regard to crimes forbidden by the laws, and not in a tumultuary and irregular manner, and that malignant calumniators of them should be visited by legal penalties (Justin, Apol. § 6Z. Euseb. iv. 8 and 9). The public acts of Hadrian were providentially made conducive to the repression of Paganism and the spread of Christianity. One of these acts was his divinization of his minion Antinous. This took place in A.D. 133. In this apo- theosis the grossest sin was consecrated. A temple was built, and altars erected to him by the Emperor ; Priests were appointed, and games celebrated to his honour (Euseb. iv. 8. Spartian. Vit. Hadrian, c. 14). Such public glorifications of vice put weapons into the hands of Christians against Paganism (Justin Martyr, Apol. i. § 29). Another act of Hadrian which was favourable to Christianity was the destruction of Jerusalem by him in A.D. 135, in consequence of the rebellion of the Jews under Barcochebas (" Son of a Star," Euseb. iv. 6). The Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, and were disabled from persecuting the Church. Five hundred and eighty thousand Jews are said to have perished in that war. Bishops, no longer of Jewish but of Gentile race, presided over the Christians there (Euseb. iv. 6). The Church is described by Eusebius as making great advances at that time (Euseb. iv. 7). It has been supposed by some that under Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius, A.D. 138— 161, the Church 150 ANTONINUS PIUS— MARTYRDOMS— JUSTIN MARTYR. did not suffer from persecution. What was true of Hadrian may be said of him. The Emperor himself was not a persecutor. Tertullian expressly affirms this (Apol. c. 5). But Christianity suffered from the populace. The most powerful and numerous classes were leagued against it ; and their rage, smouldering for a time, broke forth in fitful eruptions from what may be called a volcanic crater of violent passion. This appears from the fact that in the first year of his reign, Telesphorus, Bishop of Rome, was martyred (Iren. iii. 3. Euseb. iv. 10), and that Justin Martyr presented to the Emperor and the Roman Senate two Apologies on behalf of those " who are unjustly hated, and injuriously treated by all men " (Justin Martyr, Apol. i. i). Other Christians in Asia appealed to him for protection against the cruelties perpetrated against them (Euseb. iv. 12). And it is stated by Melito, Bishop of Sardis (in Euseb. iv. 26), that Antoninus Pius issued Edicts to various cities of Greece, among which he mentions Larissa, Thes- salonica, and Athens, prohibiting them from exciting tumultuary riots against the Christians. The Apology of Justin Martyr, to Antoninus Pius,^ is an interesting specimen of appeals to the Imperial Power on behalf of the Christian Church. The Author begins with a claim for bare justice. He attributes the persecution of Christians to the instigation of spirits of evil, — demons, — worshipped by the heathen, but not by Christians (c. 6, 9, 13), ^ As to its date, M. Waddington infers from the title Verissimiis given to M. Aurelius at the beginning of it, that it was written immediately after the death of Hadrian, a.d. 138, inasmuch as he then gave up the name Verissiinus assigned to him by Hadrian, and took that of Verus in its place. But Justin speaks of Christ's birth as one htcndred and fifty years ago, cap. 46, p. 228, Otto ; Bp. Kaye's Justin Martyr, p. 12. JUSTIN MARTYR'S FIRST APOLOGY. 151 who only adore God the Father, His Son, attended by a host of good angels," and the prophetic Spirit He argues that the true character of Christians is not to be inferred from some few who bear that name and live unchristian lives, but from those who die in the faith. Christians do not expect an earthly kingdom, but they promote the peace of all kingdoms. The goodness of Christianity is proved from its moral precepts as to Chastity, Charity, Kindness to the poor. Patience, Loyalty to Rulers. If Christians are persecuted, their persecutors will be called to an account at the Day of Judgment (c. i8), when all bodies will be raised from the dead, and those persons who calumniate the Christians will be cast with the Devil into everlasting fire (c. 17, 28). He declares his faith in Christ's (c. 21, 45), Incarnation, Passion, and Ascension ; and asserts that the fulness of divinely revealed truth is to be found only in Christianity ; he gives an example of the chastity of Christian young men, compared with Hadrian's favourite Antinous (c. 29). He shows that the Incarnation and the preach- ing of the Apostles of the Kingdom of Christ, His Death and Ascension, and the Destruction of Jerusa- lem, and the conversion of the Gentiles, and reproba- tion of the Jews, were foretold by the Hebrew Pro- phets (c. 30—41, 45—53). He protests against the doctrine of fatalism, and declares the freedom of man's ^ C. 6, tIv Trap" avTOv vihv iXOovTU, Kal didd^avra rj/xas ravra, Koi rhv rSiP aAXoji/ kirofx^vwv Kal i^oixoiov/jcevajv ayadwu ayyeXwv aTparhv, irvev/jLo. T6 rh irpocp-qTiKhv (Ti^6p.(:Qa. On this disputed, and perhaps corrupt, passage, see Bp. Kaye on Justin Martyr, p. 54, and Otto's note, p. 149, and Neander, Church History, ii. p. 372. Whatever may be the meaning of it, it is clear that Christians did not worship angels, from Apol. i. 13, where the Three Persons of the Trmity are mentioned as the only objects of adoration, and from Apol. i. 16, 17. 152 L ORD'S DA Y— BAPTISM— HOL \ EO CHAR] ST. will. He explains the purpose of Christian Baptism (c. 6i) ; he affirms that the Son of God appeared to Moses (c. 63), and describes the celebration of the Holy- Eucharist and Christian assemblies on the Lord's Day (c. 65 — 6y ; see above pp. 60—64). He ends by an appeal to the Emperor, and conjures him, if he cannot accept the doctrines of Christians, at least not to con- demn the Christians to death for professing them. He subjoins a copy of Hadrian's rescript on their behalf^ In his second Apology, which was also addressed to Antoninus Pius, and to the Senate,'* Justin repeats that the persecutors are instigated by evil Spirits, and exemplifies this by an account of three persons condemned to die, merely because they were Chris- tians ; and states his apprehension that he himself will be delated for his Christianity by Crescens, the Cynic Philosopher, and be crucified (c. 2, 3). He explains why Christians never commit suicide, and never deny that they are Christians (c. 4). 2 The other two documents annexed in the editions of this Apology, i.e. the Letters of M, Aurelius, are probably not genuine. See Otto, p. 274, and Heinichen on Euseb. iv. 12, and v. 5. ^ The prefecture of Urbicus referred to in Apology, ii. chap, i, 2, is determined by Borghesi to belong to the reign of Antoninus Pius (CEuvres, torn. viii. p. 547, Paris, 1872, in a letter written in 1856). It must have begun at latest befoj-e i^'j or 158, when Apuleius spoke his Apology, and have concluded some time before the death of Pius (161). Borghesi supposes him to have been succeeded as city prefect, by P. Salvius Julianus, author of the Perpetual Edict, under whom he places the martyrdom of S. Felicitas in 162; and he again, according to the same authority, was succeeded in 163 by Q. Junius Rusticus, under whom Justin was martyred in that year (Borghesi, 1. c; cp. tom. v. p. 56, note, Paris, 1869). That Rusticus was prefect towards the beginning of the reign of M. Aurelius is clear from a rescript of the Divijratres (M. Aurelius and Q. Verus), addressed to him, preserved in Digest, xlix. I, I, § 3. FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 153 He answers the objection that if Christianity were from God, God would defend the Christians against their enemies ; and he proves God's justice. The reparation of man and the remedy for all evils is (he says) in the Incarnation of the Son of God, Who exercises power over evil spirits, and gave that power to others ; and will eventually punish all demons. The world is preserved for the sake of Christians ; and their enemies the devil and his angels will one day be cast into everlasting fire, when the world will be burnt ; not by any agency of Fate, which leaves no place for the exercise of freedom and of virtue, but by God's command. The virtues of the Christians, who are hated by evil spirits, and who profess faith in the Incarnate Word, and denounce eternal doom on the powers of evil, are manifest by means of Persecution. Eternal Punishment is consonant with reason and God's justice and providence (c. 8, 9). Christians are also hated by evil spirits because Christ has endued the meanest of them with grace to despise earthly glory, and fear, and death. The constancy of Christians under persecution shows that they have attained true and eternal good things, and the express image of virtue ; and it also refutes the accusations of the heathen against them. For how could men so joyfully encounter death, if they were guilty of the crimes imputed to them by their enemies } He shows that Christian Philosophy is superior to that of Plato- and, much more, to licentious popular Literature — and requests the Emperor and the Senate to give a fair hearing to their cause. Antoninus Pius died on March 7th, a.d. 161, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and was succeeded by 154 MA RCUS A URELIUS— PERSE C U TION. his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic philosopher, who reigned nineteen years. He did not repress the popular outbreaks against Christianity, but issued new edicts against it, as Melito states in his Apology written at that time (Euseb. iv. 26). *' Shameless informers," he says to the Emperor, " men who covet the goods of others, taking occasion from tJiese edicts, openly commit brigandage, and spoil by night and by day men who hurt nobody," men whom Melito calls " a race of God-fearing persons." Another Apology for the Christians was presented to the Emperor by Athenagoras, a Christian philoso- pher of Athens (after A.D. 177 ; see Tillemont, ii. p. 321), which is still extant. A third Apology was composed by Miltiades (Euseb. V. 17. S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. c. 39). A fourth by ApoUinarius, Bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia (Euseb. iv. 26. S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. c. 26). Marcus Aurelius was much engaged in wars in Western Europe, especially in Germany ; and was absent from Rome for eight years together — A.D. 168 — 176. He must not therefore be held responsible for the persecutions in other parts of the Empire. The ethical work of M. Aurelius,^ concerning his own training and opinions, is certainly one of the most interesting productions, and is regarded by some as one of the noblest monuments, of pagan Philosophy. Though written by an Emperor of Rome, it is not in Latin, but in Greek. It is a portraiture of the Stoic " wise man " painted by himself The essence of Stoicism was exemption from passion {apathy). " It is a noble thing," said one of that school — Seneca — " to have the fragility of ^ M. Aurelius Antoninus de Seipso, ed. Gataker. Lond. 1643. STOICISM UNFAVOURABLE TO CHRISTIANITY— 155 JUSTIN MARTYR. man, and the security of God." He was to live free from passion, and above it, in the calm atmosphere of moral self-complacency, and intellectual self-suffi- ciency. The vanity of such professions was put to the test by Christianity. The Stoic could not bear a rival, least of all in ethical science. The claim of Christianity (such as we have seen stated by Justin Martyr) to be the sole depository of divine truth, chafed his pride, and excited his rancour and resentment. Marcus Aurelius, in his philosophical autobiography, dismisses with sarcastic disdain the patient resignation and hope and faithful joy of the Christians in persecution, as mere stupid obstinacy (lib. xi. c. 3). Let us turn to the counterpart of the Stoic, in the Christian philosopher contemporary with him. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue at Ephesus with Trypho the Jew, informs us that he had studied the philosophy of the Gentile Schools, and had com- menced with adopting that of the Stoics (c. Trypho. c. 2), but this did not satisfy him, and he espoused that of Aristotle ; thence he passed to the Pythagorean, and then adopted Platonism (c. 2). Finally, after a troubled voyage of restless empiricism, he found a harbour of rest in Christianity. He still retained the garb of a philosopher ; it does not appear that he was ever ordained to the Christian Ministry. He was a native of Neapolis in Samaria, and travelled in Asia, Egypt, and Italy ; after his conversion to Christianity, the principal place of his residence seems to have been Rome (Euseb. iv. 11). There he established a School of Christian philosophy, and trained many distinguished UQ y us 7 IN MARTYR'S PHILOSOPHICAL EXPERIENCES. pupils, one of whom was Tatian (S. Iren. i. 31. Tillemont, ii. p. 367). Heathen Philosophy was thus brought face to face with Christianity. Justin had weighed all heathen systems in the balance of a de- liberative judgment, and had found them wanting. He was not content that Christianity should take its place side by side with them. No ; it was an Aaron's rod which would swallow up all others. It was Daniel's " stone cut out without hands," which would grind all others to powder, and become a mountain, and fill the Earth. No wonder that under a Stoic philosopher like Marcus Aurelius on the imperial throne, the Philoso- phies of this w^orld should feel exasperated in being disturbed in their domain by an exclusive Philosophy, which claimed the right to dethrone them, and to reign supreme in their place. So it was. Crescens the Cynic, notorious for his reckless licentiousness,^ whom Justin anticipated as his own future assailant, attacked him (Euseb. iv. 16. Tatian, c. 19, p. 260, ed. Paris. 1742). Crescens had been described by S. Justin in his Second Apology (c. 3) as a noisy braggart — (^^Xo-v/ro^o? and (fnXoKo/jUTro^; rather than (piXoaocj^o^. Justin had put certain inter- rogations to him concerning Christianity, and his answers had shown that he censured and condemned what he knew nothing of. P2piphanius relates that Justin suffered martyrdom at Rome under Rusticus, Prefect of the City (Epiphan. Haer. 46. Digest. 49, t. i. 1. i. p. 1849. Acta Mar- ty rum, Ruinart, p. 58), who was the preceptor of the Emperor himself in Stoic Philosophy (Capitoli- ^ See the character of Crescens as described by Tatian, Orat. adv. Gr. c. 19. S. JUSTIN'S MARTYRDOM— S. POLYCARP. 157 nus, Vit. M. Aurel. 3. Dio Cass. Ixxi. 35. Frontonis Epist. i. 2. M. Aurelius de Seipso, p. 23). Justin suffered, probably, A.D. 163. The effect of the writings and death of S. Justin, styled pre-eminently the Martyr, was to show the con- trast between Christian and Heathen Philosophy, and to prove to the World that secular ethical systems are not tolerant and gentle, whatever they may profess to be (and Stoicism made the loudest profession to be dispassionate), and that genuine Christian Philosophy receives the gift of divine grace, which enables men not only to live holy lives, but even though persecuted and tortured, to die happy deaths. Let us pass to other martyrdoms which led to other triumphs of Christianity. One was a martyrdom of old age, the others of tender womanhood, girlhood, and boyhood : the former of S. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, the others of young men, matrons, maidens, and others at Lyons and Vienne in Gaul. The history of S. Polycarp is linked on to that of S. Ignatius, as we have seen (pp. 129, 139). They were fellow-disciples of St. John (Iren. iii. 3. Euseb. v. 24). Polycarp was probably placed as Bishop of Smyrna by him. Some have identified him with ' On this persecution see Tillemont, Empereurs, M. Aurele, c. 3. Some learned persons have endeavoured to throw back the martyr- dom of Justin from the reign of Aurehus to that of Antoninus Pius. But it is stated by Epiphanius (hgeres. 46) that he was martyred in the prefecture of Rusticus ; and it has been shown by Borghesi ( CEuvres, tom. V. p. 56, ed. Paris, 1869) that Rusticus was Prsefectus Urbis in the reign of Marcus Aurehus, and that the Martyrdom took place A.D. 163. See above, p. 152, note. Cp. Prof. Blunt, chap. xiii. p. 284. 158 S. POL YCARFS EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPFIANS. the Angel or Bishop of the Church of Smyrna in the Apocalypse (Rev. ii. 8). But this is not probable. In the month of August, A.D. 1 16, Ignatius, then on his journey from Antioch to his martyrdom at Rome, was, as we have seen, a guest of Polycarp at Smyrna. Polycarp, who was requested by the Philippians to send them copies of the Epistles of Ignatius, addressed a letter to them which is still extant. In it he con- gratulates them on having received Ignatius and his companions, " whose chains are divine diadems." He quotes the words of St. Peter (i Pet. i. 8, 13), and he mentions St. Paul's Epistle to them (Phil. ii. 10, and cap. 3), and cites numerous passages from the Gospels (Matt. vii. I, 2. Luke vi. 37. Matt. v. 3). He gives directions to laymen (c. 4), to Deacons (c. 5), Widows (c. 4), Virgins (c. 5), Priests (c. 6); and com- mands the faithful to submit to the Priests and Dea- cons. " Every one who does not confess Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh is an Antichrist (i John iv. 3); and he who does not confess the Martyrdom of the Cross, is of the Devil ; and he who wrests the oracles of God to his own lusts, and says that there is no resurrection of the body, or future Judgment, is the first-born of Satan ^ (c. 7). Therefore, shunning the vanity of the many and their false doctrines, let us turn to the Word which has been delivered to us from the beginning ; let us watch to prayer, and continue in fasting, and beseech with supplications the All-seeing God, not to lead us into temptations, as the Lord hath said (Matt. vi. 13), for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. xxvi. 41). Let us cleave unceas- ^ The reader will recognize here the same words as in S. Pol}xarp's reply to Marcion the heretic at Rome, S. Iren. iii. 3. Euseb. iv. 14. S. FOL YCARP COLLECTS THE EPISTLES OF 159 S. IGNATIUS. ingly to our hope^ and to the earnest of our righteous- ness, which is Christ Jesus, Who bore away our sins in His own Body on the tree ; Who did no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth (i Pet. ii. 22 — 24), but for our sakes bore all things that we might live in Him. " I exhort you therefore to obey the word of right- eousness, and to exercise all patience, which you saw with your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, Zosimus, and Rufus, but in others of your own body, and in Paul and the rest of the Apostles ; being per- suaded that they did not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they have arrived at their due place with the Lord, with Whom they suffered. "I am greatly grieved for Valens, who was ordained a Presbyter among you, that he so little knows the place that was given him. I exhort you to shun all avarice, to be chaste and truthful. Abstain from all evil. He who cannot govern himself in these things, how can he teach others } I greatly grieve for him, and for his wife. May God give them true repentance. Count them not as enemies, but restore them as suf- fering and erring members, that ye may save your whole body ; doing this, ye will edify yourselves. "I am persuaded that ye are well versed in the Holy Scriptures. . . . Pray for all Saints. Pray for Kings and Authorities and Rulers, for those who persecute and hate us, and for the enemies of the Cross, that your fruit may be manifest in all things, and ye may be perfect in Him. " Ye wrote to me, ye and Ignatius, that if any one goes to Syria (Antioch) he should also convey your letters, which I will see done, if I have convenient opportunity, either myself in person, or some one 160 S. POLYCARFS EPISCOPATE. whom I will send to be a messenger for you. I send to you the Epistles of Ignatius, which were sent to me by him, and as many other letters of his as I have, according to your wish. These are attached to the present Epistle ; and you may derive great profit from them. For they contain faith, and patience, and all edification appertaining to our Lord. And do you communicate to me what news you have concerning Ignatius, and those that are with him. " I send this to you by the hand of Crescens, whom I have commended hitherto to you, and do now com- mend. For his conversation with us has been blame- less, and with you likewise, as I believe. Receive his Sister, also commended to you, when she comes to you. Farewell in Christ Jesus. Grace be with you all. Amen." Polycarp continued in his see at Smyrna for many years after the martyrdom of his friend Ignatius, and governed the Church there. Irenaeus gives an in- teresting record of his own intercourse with him when he himself was young, and of Polycarp's clear testi- mony to the Gospel, and of his earnest and indignant protest against nascent heresies (Euseb. v. 20). To this we shall refer hereafter, when we come to speak of Irenaius. Polycarp visited Rome in the Episcopate of Ani- cetus, and was received by him with brotherly affec- tion, and was invited by him to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, although there was a difference then be- tween the Churches of Rome and of Asia as to the time of keeping Easter (S. Iren. iii. 3), the Asiatics celebrating the Paschal Supper on the 14th day of the moon, with the Jews ; and, three days later, the Feast S. POLYCARP'S MARTYRDOM. 161 of Easter, or Resurrection, which the Latins always kept on Sunday (Euseb. iv. 14, 15 ; v. 23, 24). It was probably during his stay at Rome that he met Marcion the heretic, who "held the doctrine of two Gods," and that the Law of Moses was contrary to the Gospel, and denied that Christ was the Son of the Creator, and who greeted him with the question, " Dost thou not recognize me ? " — *' Yes," was the reply of Polycarp, " I recognize thee as the first-born of Satan " (S. Iren. iii. 3, S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 17). Polycarp returned from Rome to Smyrna, and soon afterwards (as is probable) was crowned with martyr- dom there. It took place on a Saturday, Feb. 23rd, but in what year, is not certain.^ 5 Eusebius in his Chronicle says that Polycarp suffered in the fifth year of Marcus Aurelius, commencing March A.D. 165. If this is true, then, since he suffered in the early spring of the year, his martyrdom took place in A.D. 166 (Feb. 23; see below). Eusebius in his History (iv. 15) states that he was martyred in the reign of that Emperor. Eusebius is generally trustworthy as to events in the East. S. Jerome also (Scr. Eccl. 17) says that -Polycarp suffered "regnante Marco Anto- nino et L. Aurelio Commodo," and so Syncellus and Suidas (Clinton, F. R. ad a. 166). Eusebius also states that Anicetus, Bishop of Rome, died in the eighth year of Marcus (a.d. 168), having been Bishop for eleven years (H. E. iv. 19), and S. Irenseus affirms that Polycarp was at Rome in the Pontificate of Anicetus, which has been commonly placed between a.d. 157 and 168 (S. Iren. iii. 3. Euseb. iv. 13). If these premises are correct, S. Polycarp could not have suffered in the reign of Antoninus Pius, and so early as A.D. 155. But it has been affirmed by some, who have been convinced by the arguments adduced by M. Waddington in his learned dissertation on the life of the rhe- torician Aristides (Mem. de 1' Academic des Inscriptions, xxvi. pp. 203 —232), and in his Fastes des Provinces Asiat. i. 219), that S. Polycarp suffered in the preceding reign of Antoninus Pius, Feb. 23, A.D. 155. The arguments of M. Waddington have satisfied Zahn in his recent edition of S. Polycarp, p. 165, and Renan and Hingelfeld and other learned men, among whom may be mentioned Bishop Lightfoot {Con- temporary Review, May 1873, p. 827 and p. 838). Also M. Waddington, referring to Letronne and Borghesi, has given M 162 S. POL YCARP 'S MAR TYRD OM. The narrative of his martyrdom is contained in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to a Church in reasons for placing the Pontificate of Anicetus at an earlier date than that hitherto assigned to it ; and these reasons have satisfied Cav. De Rossi, Bullet. Anno v. pp. 49, 50. The principal reason for the opinion that Polycarp suffered in A.D. 155, is that in the ancient Acts of his Martyrdom, Polycarp is related to have suffered when Statins Quadratus W2i% Procojmil ; and M. Waddington is supposed to have proved from ancient inscriptions, and from the works of Aristides the rhetorician, that Quadratus was Proconsul A.D. 155. The opinion of M. Waddington is also confirmed by the fact that T. Statins Quadratus was Consul A.D. 142, and it would be according to ordinary usage that he should succeed to the Proconsulship of Asia about twelve years afterwards : see Marquardt, Romische Staatsverwal- tung, ii. 406. However, Marquardt quotes (ibid.) several instances of a seventeen years' interval, and one of nineteen, between the Consulship and Pro- consulate. And there seem to be some objections to the date of A.D. 155. In the month of January, and in the sixth year of the sickness of Aristides the rhetorician, as described by himself, Quadratus was Pro- consul of Asia (Aristid. p. 451 ; cp. p. 521 ed. Dindorf. Lips. 1829). Also at that time the Emperor was in Syria (p. 453). Also (p. 454) Aristides there refers to an interview he saw in a dream between the elder Emperor and Bologesus, King of Parthia, and adverts to the Parthian War, and to the prospect of peace between the two belligerents, Rome and Parthia. See Clinton, Fast. Rom. a.d. 165. But these chronological notes do not seem to tally with A.D. 1 5 5, or the time of Antoninus Pius. He resided constantly at Rome (Merivale's Hist. vii. pp. 500, 512), and there was no war in his reign with Bologesus, King of Parthia. Capitolinus (in M. Aurel. c. 8) distinctly states that there was no war between Bologesus and Rome before the time of Marcus Anrdiiis, who received the title of Parthicus on the conclusion of that war (ibid. c. 8, 9, 12). But these circumstances fit in with the time of Marcus Aurelius and A.D. 166. The Emperor Verus was then in Syria (Capitolin. in Vero, c. 7. Eutropius, viii. 10). And the Parthian War with Bologesus was then drawing to a close (Dio, Ixxi. 2. Orosius, viii. 10). Also Aristides relates that in the ninth year of his sickness he received an are'Aeia, or immunity from official service, from the Proconsul of Asia, Pollio, the predecessor of Severus in the Proconsulate (pp. 529, 530). This immunity was confirmed to him in the following year, when Severus was Proconsul, by royal letters "from the Emperor, koX tou MARTYRDOM OF S. POLYCARP. 163 Phrygia, at Philomelium, and to the other Churches of Christendom, which is preserved by Eusebius (iv. 15), ■nailhs, i.e. and ixomhis son"" (p. 524), He uses the word ttoTs and not vils for son, and this term seems to apply better to Commodus (who had been made Csesar in a.d. 166, and was born a.d. 161) than it would do to Marcus Aurelius, the adopted son of Antoninus Pius. And he would have used the plural number trouZwv, (i. e. including Verus) if he had been speaking oi Antoninus Pius. See Justin Martyr, Apol. I, init. And tov 7rat55s is precisely the phrase used by Melito (Euseb. iv. 26), speaking of M. Aurelius and Commodus. M. Waddington asserts that Quadratus was Proconsul in the year after Severus, who was the successor of Pollio (p. 529). This opinion rests on an ambiguous phrase of Aristides (p. 523, ed. Dind. ), 6 2e^f/pos ttjs 'Acrms ^p|ei/, oI/jlui, iviaurw -n-pdrepoj/ tov rjiuLerepov eraipov ; but " quis iste fuerit, vaticinari non datur," says Masson, p. cxxxi. There seems also to be a difficulty in placing with M. Waddington the Proconsulate of Quadratus after that of Severus, who succeeded Pollio. For (as we have seen) Aristides succeeded in obtain- ing from Pollio an areXeia, or exemption from public office ; and this areAem was made absolute, under Severus his successor, by an imperial rescript. But under Quadratus Aristides was elected to an onerous public office, *' the public priesthood of Asia " (6 o-o^io-ri) s— Quadratus — ov fiiKp^ Trp6ae€p ijxvi](Ter]v, ^px^", P- 530' ^^d to him he goes back in his nar- rative in a retrograde course as by a ladder upward to Pollio [ibid.); but he did not then plead that he had any areXeja, which he pro- bably would have done //this event had been after the time of Severus ; but he prayed the people to excuse him, in order that he might be reheved from so burdensome and expensive an office (cp. Masson, p. xcvi). These X^-^oi of Aristides were written many years after the events to which they refer (see 1. 465, 500, 505). But he could hardly have spoken so loosely as he does, " I think that Severas was the predecessor of our friend," if our friend " had been Quadratus the Sophist, of whom he has a lively recollection. In those royal letters Vei-us ■\\as not included, because he was not in Italy ; perhaps they were issued soon after his death (a.d. 169). Aristides says that these royal letters "came to him/;w// Italy,'''' and Marcus Aurelius was there at that time, and he there celebrated the funeral obsequies of Verus, who was buried by him in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Aristides also says that Severus was Proconsul of Asia soon after the great plague which raged throughout that and other countries. Severus was Pronconsul in the year after Pollio ; and there was a great M 2 164 S. POL YCARF 'S iMA R TYRD OM. and more fully in the Ancient Acts, published by Arch- bishop Ussher (Lond. 1647). S. Irenaeus had a copy pestilence in Italy in 167, which raged for some years (see Clinton, Fast. Rom. A.D. 167), Perhaps it may have appeared sooner at Smyrna, and may have led to the persecution there in which Polycarp suffered. Besides, the Martyrdom of Polycarp does not seem to be in harmony with the times of Antoninus Pius, but agrees very well with those of Marcus Aurelius. Polycarp's Martyrdom was not in consequence of a popular outbreak, but was accompanied with all the forms of a regular judicial process (see Acta Martyrii) before the Proconsul. Tertullian asserts that Antonmtis Phis gave no countenance to the putting in force of laws against the Christians (Apol. 5), And Melito, Bishop of Sardis, says in his Apology for the Christians to Marcus Aurelius (Euseb. H. E. iv. 26) that Antoninus Pius put forth letters to "the cities," and "all the Greeks," in order ^o prohibit persecution of the Christians. He also remonstrates with Marcus Aurelius for issuing '•^ new decrees,^'' such as "had not been known before," in consequence of which ''the race of God-fearing men is now suffering persecution throughout Asia^ It is, I think, hardly possible that Melito at Sardis should have written thus to Aurelius, if Polycarp had recently suffered martyrdom under Antoninus, a.d. 155, in the manner that he did at Smyrna, a fact which must have been well known to Melito ; but that statement is quite in harmony with such an event, if the martyrdom took place in the times of Marcus Aurelius. The pestilence which was brought from Babylonia in Parthia by the army of Verus, who marched through Syria to Rome, and which was one of the most terrible that ever raged in the Roman Empire, may have stimulated the popular fury against the Christians, and have led to such persecutions as that under which Polycarp suffered. I acknowledge that much is to be said for M. Waddington's assertion. I do not venture to pronounce a confident opinion on this difficult ques-. tion ; but on the whole I do not feel justified in abandoning the opinion hitherto received, that S. Polycarp suffered in a persecution under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius on Saturday, Feb. 23,— and perhaps in A.D. 166. For further evidence to this effect see the notes of Harles in his edition of Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vii. pp. 13—15 (the life of Aristides), and Clinton, Fasti Romani from A.D. 163 to A.D. 169. In the 'CipoXo-^iov /xeya of the Greek Church (p. 265, ed. Venet. 1868) it is stated that Polycarp suffered on Feb. 23rd, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 166, and in the 95th year of his age. In a.d. 166, Feb. 23 fell on a a-dfifiaTov, Saturday (Masson de Aristid. Vita, p. Ixxxix). S. POL YCARP IN PR A YER. 165 of this letter (see Martyr. Pole. 22), another evidence of its antiquity. In that Epistle the breaking out of that Persecution is ascribed to the Evil One, but it was overruled for God's glory. " The Enemy began with a young man, Germanicus, who was cast to a wild beast. The peo- ple, seeing his courage, cried out, 'Away with the Atheists ! Search for Polycarp ! ' A Phrygian Christian, called Ouartus, came forward to be mar- tyred ; but when he saw the wild beasts, he trembled and denied the faith. A warning," says the Epistle, "that none should rush into temptation. "Polycarp retired into the country, and there prayed. He had a vision, in which he saw his own pillow consumed with fire. ' I must be burnt alive,' said he to his friends. He then retired to another farm-house, to which his pursuers tracked him, having had notice of his abode from a boy, whom they tor- tured. The Irenarch (the Chief Constable) of Smyrna, whose name was Herod, was eager to have him conveyed to the race-course. " On Friday, at dinner-time, the pursuers came forth, and found him in the evening reposing in an upper chamber. He might have escaped, but he said, ' God's will be done.' Having heard of their coming, he went down stairs, and talked with them, and told the servant to set meat and drink before them, and asked them to give him some time for prayer. They were much struck by his venerable aspect and calm- ness, and allowed him to continue in prayer for two hours. He made intercession for all his friends, great and small, rich and poor, and for the Catholic Church throughout the world. When the hour was come for his departure, he was placed on an ass, and was con- 166 S. POLYCARP BEFORE THE PROCONSUL. veyed to the city, it being a great Sabbath (c. 8). The Irenarch Herod, and Nicetes the father of Herod, met him in a carriage, in which they placed him ; and as they sat by his side, they said to him, 'What harm is there in saying, '' Lord, Caesar ! " and in sacrificing, and in doing the other things, and thus getting off free ? ' " At first he made no answer ; but when they made a pause, he said, ' I am not going to do what you bid me/ At which they scolded him, and hastily took him down from the carriage, so that he bruised his shin ; but he took no note of it, and, as if nothing had happened, went on cheerfully to the race-course. " There was a great shouting when he arrived, and a voice was heard, ' Polycarp, play the man.' None of us saw the person who uttered it, but we heard it. The Proconsul said, ' Art thou Polycarp ? ' 'I am.' ' Then have pity on thine old age. Swear by the for- tune of Caesar, and say, " Away with the Atheists." ' Polycarp looked sternly around him, and beckoning with his hand, and groaning and looking up to heaven, said, * Yes, av/ay with the Atheists.' When the Pro- consul urged him, ' Swear, and I will let you go: Revile Christ ;' ' I have served Him (said he) for four- score and six years,^ and He never did me any harm. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour t ' When the Proconsul pressed him again, * Swear by the fortune of Caesar,' he said, ' If you imagine that I will swear by the fortune of Caesar, and 1 Probably from the time of baptism, not from that of his birth. He had been placed in the see of Smyrna by St. John, but may have been not more than thirty years old then, as Athanasius was when made Bishop of Alexandria. The tone of the Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp, A.D. 115, is that of a person Avriting to "x young man (c. i. 3). S. POLYCARP'S ANSWER TO THE PROCONSUL. 1G7 if you profess not to know who I am, hear now what I say plainly to you. I am a Christian ; and if you wish for an account of Christianity, appoint me a day, and give nie a hearing.' The Proconsul replied, ' Persuade the people.' Polycarp answered, * I deem you worthy of an account from me, for we have been taught to pay honour and what is due — so far as is not harmful — to Rulers and authorities ordained of God ; but I do not count them worthy that I should make my vindication to them.' '•The Proconsul said, ' Here are wild beasts, and I will cast you to them unless you repent.' * Be it so ; summon them ; for repentance from better to worse is not conversion ; but it is good to be converted from evil to what is right' ' I will have you consumed by fire, if you despise the wild beasts.' ' You threaten me,' he replied, ' with fire that burns for a little while, and then goes out ; for you do not know that there is another fire of the Judgment to come, and of Eternal punishment, which fire is reserved for the wicked.' " While he spake these and other words, he was filled with courage and joy, and his countenance became animated and full of grace, so that the Pro- consul wondered, and sent the herald to proclaim the third time on the race-course ' Polycarp has confessed himself to be a Christian.' " On this all the multitude of Heathen and of Jews shouted out, ' He is the teacher of impiety, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our gods ; he it is who teaches many not to sacrifice and worship our gods.' On this they raised a great shout, and asked the Asiarch ^ to let a Hon out on Polycarp. But he said that he could not, as he had now finished the 2 President of the Games. Cp. Acts xix. 31. 168 " LE T POL YCARP BE BURNT:' beast-hunting. Then they clamoured with one voice, * Let Polycarp be burnt aHve.' On which they rushed to the workshops and baths, and got together wood and faggots ; the Jews, as usual, being very helpful in this. When the bonfire was ready, Polycarp laid aside his outer garments, and unclasped his girdle, and was trying to un-shoe himself, a thing he was not wont to do, because the faithful were wont to vie with one another, who should first help him. "The instruments were now being got ready for the burning ; and when they were about to fasten him with nails to the stake, ' Let me alone as I am,' he said, ' for He Who granted me the gift to endure the fire, will give me grace to remain firm in it without the surety of your nails.' Therefore they did not rivet him with nails, but tied him. And he, having his hands bound behind his back, looked up to heaven and said, ' O Lord God Almighty, Father of Thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through Whom we have received the clear knowledge of Thee ; O Thou God of Angels and Powers, and of all creation, and of all the seed of the righteous who live in Thy presence, I bless Thee that Thou hast deemed me worthy of this day and of this hour, and to have part in the number of Thy Martyrs, and in the Cup (of suffering) of Thy Christ, for the resurrection to eternal life both of soul and body, in the incorruptibility of the Holy Ghost ; in which things may I be accepted before Thee this day in a well-favoured and accept- able sacrifice, as Thou hast prepared and pre-signified and fulfilled. Thou unerring and true God. Wherefore above all things I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, together with the eternal and heavenly Christ Jesus, Thy well-beloved Son, with Whom be glory to MARTYRS NOT WORSHIPPED. 169 Thee and the Holy Ghost, now and for evermore. Amen.' " When he had finished his prayer, they kindled the pile, and the fire formed a sort of alcove, like a sail of a ship filled with wind, and made a wall round his body. Then his flesh being burned was like gold or silver in the furnace, and a sweet perfume breathed forth from it, as of frankincense or precious aromatic spices ; but because his body was not consumed, they ordered the executioner to stab him with a short sword, and such a stream of blood flowed forth about the haft ^ as to extinguish the fire. " Nicetes, the father of Herod and brother of Alee, besought the Governor that Polycarp's body might not be given up for burial, ^ lest,' said he, ' the Chris- tians forsake the Crucified and begin to worship him.' * This he said at the instigation of the Jews, who were on the watch when we were trying to get the body from the pile ; and they did not know that we can never forsake Christ, Who suffered for the salva- tion of the faithful of the whole world, and that we cannot ever worship any other. Him we adore ; but we duly love the Martyrs as disciples and fol- lowers of the Lord, on account of their surpassing love to their King and Teacher, and we pray that we also may be partners and disciples with them. " The Centurion, perceiving our contention with the Jews, placed the body in the midst and burnt it. Whereupon we took up his bones, more precious than 3 As to the true reading here of the Greek Text, may I refer to Appendix C. in my work upon S. Hippolytus, p. 317, 2nd ed. ? The conjecture there proposed, 7rep2 arvpaKa, has been approved and received by La garde and Zahn. < Even the heathen knew that Christ was adored as God by Christians. See above, pp. 92, 93. 170 S. POLYCARP'S BIRTHDAY. costly gems, and more refined with fire than gold, and we laid them up in a seemly place, where the Lord will grant us to assemble together in gladness and joy, and to celebrate the birthday ^ of his Martyrdom, for the memory of those who fought the fight of faith, and for the discipline and training of those who come after them. " The Martyrdom of the holy Polycarp was on the second day of the month Xanthicus, on the seventh day before the Kalends of May,^ on a great Sabbath/ at the eighth hour.^ He was arrested by Herod, in the high-priesthood of Philip of Tralles, in the pro- consulate of Statins QiLadratus^ in the everlasting reign of Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory, and honour, and majesty, and an eternal throne from generation to generation. Amen." In reading the foregoing narratives of the Martyr- doms of S. Ignatius and S. Polycarp, we have seen that the fury of the persecution fell mainly on them, and that others were unharmed who were associated with them. The Christians who flocked to do honour to Ignatius in the various cities through which he pa'^sed do not appear to have been molested. The believers who came forward at Smyrna to gather ^ The Martyrs' death-days were their birth-days, i. e, to eternal life. Bingham, XX. vii. 2. S, Polycarp's birthday (by martyrdom) is cele- brated by the Greek Church on Feb. 23, * The true reading is not May, but March, i. e. Feb. 23. See the preceding note, and Ideler, Handbuch d. Chronol. i. 419; Zahn's edition of Polycarp, p. 164. 7 '■'■A great Sabbath-'^ on which see Bingham, XIII. i. 33. What this was, is uncertain. It could not have been Easter Even ; cp. above, c. 8. It may perhaps have been a Sabbath in the feast of Purim. s 2 P.M. ; or it may perhaps have been 8 A.M. ; see my notes on John i. 40 ; iv. 6, 52 ; xi.; xix. 14 : but this seems less likely. PERSECUTION IN GA UL, AT L YONS AND 171 VIENNE. up the remains of Polycarp do not seem to have been ill-treated by the heathen. In this and other similar cases, the Bishops of the Churches, such as Ignatius and Polycarp, and other successors of the Apostles, bore the brunt of the battle. The office of Bishop exposed him who held it to the rage of the storm of persecution ; and this well-established fact confirms the argument that Episcopacy was not a thing of man's device, but a divine institution. The next persecution, which broke out in the seven- teenth year of Marcus Aurehus, A.D. 177, — three years before his death, and at a time when there was a great earthquake at Smyrna, which may have led to the persecution, — extended itself more widely. Eusebius, in the preface to the fifth book of his History, asserts that it was stirred up by popular passion in various cities at once, in almost all parts of the Empire, and that it made numerous martyrs. He inserts by way of specimen a narrative of what took place in the province of Gaul, at Lyons and Vienne.^ That narrative, preserved by Eusebius (Euseb. v. i), was drawn up, like the record of the Martyrdom of S. Polycarp, by the Church of the cities in which the events ^ This persecution, unchecked by Marcus Aurehus, appears to contravene the assertion of some writers that he attributed to the prayers of his Christian soldiers the seasonable supply of rain by which his army was refreshed in his German campaign, and a great victory was gained, A. D. 1 74 ; and that in consequence he issued an edict, making it a capital offence to accuse them (Euseb. v, 5. See the notes of Valesius, and Heinichen, p. 196, there). The statements of heathens, such as Capitolinus and Claudian, and the Aurelian column still standing at Rome, render that statement still more doubtful. It is not, however, necessary to deny that there were Christians in his army ; and if there were, no doubt when they and their comrades were exhausted by thirst, they prayed to God for rain. 172 PERSECUTION IN GAUL UNDER MARCUS A URELIUS. occurred ; and it has been thought with good reason to have been composed by Irenaeus (Tillemont, iii. 2), the scholar of Polycarp/ then a presbyter of Lyons, and afterwards the successor of Pothinus in that See, and the author of the well-known work against the heresies — especially the Gnostic heresies — of that time. It was sent in the first instance to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia, but doubtless was generally circulated. This Epistle begins with ascribing the Persecution to the instigation of the Evil One. It states that the Christians in those cities of Gaul were treated as outlaws, cut off from society and intercourse with others, in baths, in private houses, and in shops. They were left to the mercy of the multitude, and were hooted at in the streets, pelted with stones, spoiled of their goods, and tortured ; and if they confessed themselves Christians, they were cast into prison by the soldiery, to remain there till the arrival of the Governor. The Epistle goes on to describe the courage and ability of a leading man among them, Vettius Epagathus, who boldly came forward to plead their cause, and died a Martyr's death. He was followed by others. Some, however, were alarmed, and fell away through fear. Heathen slaves of the Christians falsely deposed that they were guilty of the crimes laid to their charge, — " Thyestean banquets and GEdi- ^ It is observable, that, though written in the name of two Churches in France, Lyons and Vienne, it is not in Latin, but in Greek. This may be explained from the fact that it is addressed to Churches of Asia, whose language was Greek. But the Church of Lyons wrote also to Eleutherus, the Bishop of Rome, in Greek (Euseb. v. 4); and S. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, wrote his great work in Greek. The Autun Inscrip- tion (published by Cardinal Pitra), about the same date, is Greek. In a word, the Gallic Churches appear to have been colonies of Asia. SANCTUS AND BLANDINA. 173 podean incest," — "such as it is not lawful for us (^ays the Epistle) to speak of, nor think of, nor to believe to be possible to be done." Then was fulfilled the Lord's saying, " Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" (John xvi. 2). A Deacon of Vienne, Sanctus by name, and Maturus, lately baptized ; Attalus, a confessor of Pergamos ; and, above all, a holy woman, Blandina, feeble and tender in body, and of humble condition, being a slave, — for whom her Christian mistress was alarmed lest she should not be able to confess the faith, — were conspicuous in their sufferings, in order, says the Epistle, that it might be seen that God has chosen the weak and despised things of this world (i Cor. i. 27) to confound the strong. Blandina was tortured for a long time, so that her torturers were exhausted ; her body was racked, lacerated, and mangled ; but she received fresh strength from her confession of Christ, which was in few words, — " I am a Christian ; and with us no wickedness is done." Sanctus also endured fierce torments, and in answer to all questions made one reply, " I am a Christian." His persecutors, being exasperated by his refusal to answer, applied red-hot plates to the tenderest parts of his body, which were scorched by them ; but he remained inflexible, being refreshed by streams of living water from Christ. His body was torn and distorted by the rack, and seemed to have lost the form of a man ; but he was enabled to van- quish pain, and to show that there is no terror where the love of God is, and the glory of Christ. Indeed, when he had been reserved for some days for other torments, his persecutors, who thought that he must 174 BIB LIAS. POTHINUS, BISHOP OF LYONS. needs die under those renewed sufferings, were as- tonished to see that, on the contrary, he was restored to his former upright shape. BibHas, who had renounced Christ, was brought forth by the heathen in order that she might blas- pheme Him ; but she was restored by her torments, which made her think of the pains of hell reserved for the ungodly, and she died a martyr to the faith. Other less public forms of punishment were devised by the Enemy. Christians were cast into dark and noisome prisons ; their feet, arms, and neck were made fast and strained in the stocks, and many died there. The venerable Bishop of Lyons, Pothinus,^ more than fourscore and ten years old, was arrested, and carried by soldiers, amid shouts of the populace, to the tribunal of the Governor ; and being asked by him " Who is the God of the Christians .? " he replied, " If thou art worthy, thou shalt know." He was then dragged down and trampled on, and beaten and cast into prison, where after two days he died. Some who have been already mentioned, — Sanctus, Maturus, Attains, and Blandina, — were brought forth again to a fresh trial at the public shows, — celebrated, it seems, in the month of August, — in the Amphi- theatre, in order to be cast to wild beasts. Sanctus and Maturus were mangled, but survived ; and were then placed on an iron chair to be scorched alive by fire, and at length died. Blandina was suspended on a stake to be devoured by the wild beasts ; and then like one crucified she prayed and encouraged the other martyrs, who, look- ing upon her raised aloft, seemed to have a sight of the 2 Who was succeeded by S. Irenceus in the See of Lyons. BLAND IN A, HER BROTHER: AND ATTALUS. 175 Crucified One Who had died for them in order to teach those who believe in Him that whoever suffers for His glory has everlasting communion with the living God. On the last day of the Games, Blandina was again brought forth, together with her brother Ponticus, a lad about fifteen years old ; they were tortured, and were commanded to swear by the gods, which they refused to do. The young man, being encouraged by his sister, suffered valiantly, and at last died. She was scourged and exposed again to the wild beasts, and was set upon the iron chair, and was at last tied in a net and cast to a wild bull, to be tossed by him in the air ; but having firm faith and hope, and con- tinuing earnestly in prayer to Christ, she seemed unconscious of pain, and at last was despatched with a sword. On a previous day Attains was led round the Amphitheatre, in the presence of a crowd of spectators, with a placard carried before him, on which was written in Latin, " This is Attalus the Christian." The Governor, having heard that he was a Roman, ordered him back to prison, and wrote to the Emperor to inquire what was to be done with him. The interval between the question and the reply was spent by Attalus in prayer, which was blessed to him and to others, even to some who had lapsed, and they were restored to the Church. The Emperor signified in his rescript that they who confessed themselves Christians should be beaten on the rack,' and that those who recanted should be discharged. The Governor, therefore, brought the Confessors forth before the people in the Amphitheatre, and ordered 3 As to the word in the original see on Heb. xi. 35, irv/xirauiirerjaay. 176 MARTYRS BURNT, AND ASHES CAST INTO THE RHONE. those among them who were Roman citizens to be beheaded, and the rest to be cast to the wild beasts. By this pubHc confession of Christians greater glory redounded to Christ. Alexander, a Phrygian, who had encouraged the sufferers, and Attains before mentioned, were brought together on the next day into the Amphitheatre, and were tortured there. Alexander prayed to God and praised Him. Attalus was placed on the iron chair, and, when he was there scorched by the fire, said, " You thus devour men ; we do not devour men ; nor do we anything that is evil." Both were at last stabbed with a sword. After the martyrdom of Blandina, the corpses of those who had died in the prisons, or were not con- sumed by wild beasts, were left for a time unburied ; and we could not prevail on the heathen to allow us to commit them to the grave. They guarded their remains with soldiers, and exulted over them, and praised their gods, and ascribed the sufferings of the martyrs to their power. After six days they burnt them, and reduced them to ashes ; as if they were able to conquer God, and to deprive them of a resurrection from the dead. In order that they might have no hope of resurrection, in the faith of which they had introduced a new and strange religion, — for which they had cheerfully suffered torture and death, — they scattered their ashes into the river Rhone, which flows near the city, and they said, " Now let us see whether they will rise again ; and whether their God is able to deliver them out of our hands." " Out of weakness they were made strong " (Heb. xi. 34). This was very applicable to the tender women and others of Lyons and Vienne, who, as we SS. PERPETUA AND FELICITAS. 177 have seen, were enabled by God's grace to endure cheerfully cruel tortures ; and it was verified in Africa in a marvellous manner about thirty years afterwards m the persecution which broke out there under the Emperor Septimius Severus, A.D. 202, and which may here find an appropriate notice in connexion with that which has just been described. In the - Acts of the Martyrs " (published by the learned Benedictine, Ruinart) the sufferings of weak women, especially Perpetua, are fully and minutely chronicled/ She was a young and noble Christian lad)^, aged twenty-two, recently a catechumen, and had been left a widow, with an infant at the breast She was baptized, and in her baptism she fervently prayed for the grace of the Holy Spirit to endure suf- fering, and this was abundantly given her. She was cast into a dark and suffocating prison, where many others were confined ; but having her infant with her, she said, " The prison is to me a palace." She was there visited by her father, who implored her to have pity upon him, her child, and herself, and to save her life. Some visions are described in the Acts as having been seen by her, and giving her comfort ; in one she was prompted to pray for her young brother Dino- crates, who had died without being baptized. With her was associated another young woman, Felicitas a slave who was near childbirth. Three days before the day appointed for her martyrdom she gave birth to a child. When this female Christian slave was in the throes of childbirth, and cried out in her pangs some who were near her said, - If you cry out now so loud for pain, what will you when you are tortured in the Amphitheatre > " " Oh,'^ said she, - there will be a 4 Pp. 90—119, ed. 2, Amst. 713. 178 MARTYRDOM OF PERPETUA AND FELICITAS. great difference then. It is now /that suffer pain, but then it will be Christ Who will suffer in me and for me, because I suffer for Him." She gave birth to a little girl, whom a Christian woman adopted and brought up as a daughter. These women, with other martyrs, were brought forth to the Amphitheatre. The women were given up to be tossed by a wild cow. Perpetua seemed to be as in a trance^ unconscious of pain, and she asked, as if waking from a dream, "When shall we be brought out to be tortured 1 " The words of Felicitas came true. Christ enabled her to suffer with joy. The martyrs, companions in death, and inheritors of hfe through death, bade farewell to each other with a kiss of peace, and, after enduring many tortures, were despatched with the sword. Their names were celebrated by the Church ^ on the 7th of March, on which day S. Augustine and other holy men of old preached sermons in their memory, which is still preserved in the English Calendar. " See S. Augustine's three Sermons, Serm. 280, 281, 282, on that Festival, and on Ps. 47, CHAPTER XIII. The Rise and Gj^owtk of Heresies — Gnosticism- General Characteristics. After the death of Marcus Aurelius, and the succes- sion of his son Commodus, on March 17th, A.D. 180, there was a lull in the storm of Persecution. In this respect the reign of the profligate son was more favourable to the Church than that of the philosophic father. But a more dangerous enemy arose and assailed her ; — an enemy from within — Heresy. It had been revealed by Christ to St. John in the Apocalypse that such would be her destiny. The ancient Expositors of that Prophecy have interpreted it in that sense.' They all recognized Christ in the First Seal (Rev. vi. 2) going forth "conquering and to conquer." They all recognized the Enemy of Christ in the following Seals ; first, as a Persecutor, riding on a horse red as fire, and wielding a great sword. They recognized him next riding on a black horse, as the Author of Heresy ^^ and as such display- 1 As is shown in the authorities given in my notes on the Book of Revelation, chap. vi. 2 I do not mean that Persecution, as a whole, was followed by Heresy as a whole. No ; but as there was a succession of Persecutions in the C\im(^ixQ\\\ without, so there was a succession, alternating with it, of Heresies from within. Thus St. Peter the Martyr is connected with Simon Magus the Heretic ; St. John the Divine with Cerinthus the N 2 180 HERESY REFUTED BY ST. JOHN AND HIS SCHOLARS. ing a semblance of equity and fairness, with a balance in his hand (Rev. vi. 5); that is, weighing the super- naturally revealed doctrines of the Christian Faith in the scales of human Reason. But the heavenly Voice is heard, revealing his true character and intent, and declaring that under his influence the wholesome wheat of sound Doctrine would be rare and dear, and the coarser barley of Heresy would be plentiful and cheap,^ and forbidding him to do what he desires to do, namely, to injure the means of spiritual grace in the Word and Sacraments of Christ. It is observable that St John himself (to whom the prophecy was revealed), and his Scholars and succes- sors, were specially employed by God in repelling the attacks of this form of hostility to the Church. The Heresies which denied the Godhead and Manhood of Christ were refuted by the holy Evangelist himself in his Gospel and Epistles ; and by his Scholar S. Ignatius in his letters, and by S. Polycarp. The Gnostics met with their most formidable antagonist in the scholar of S. Polycarp, S. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, who succeeded Pothinus, the Epis- copal Martyr of that City, in A.D. 177, and composed his work against heresies between A.D. 182 and 188 ; and also in the pupil of S. Irenaeus, S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, the harbour of Rome, who wrote his "Refutation of all Heresies" after the death of Cal- listus, Bishop of Rome, which took place probably in A.D. 223. Let us note the words, Heresy, and Gnosis, whence Gnostics and Gnosticism derive their names. Heretic ; S. Polycarp, the Apostolic Bishop and Martyr, with Marcion the Heretic, 3 See notes on Rev. vi, 6, HERESY AND GNOSIS. 181 Heresy — that is, Choice — represents in theology the act of the human will, choosing for itself something independently of the divine tradition {irapaSoai^) of supernatural truth to be received by man, and to be kept by him as the means of his Eternal Salvation. St. John says (i John ii. 24), '' Let that abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in yon, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father." And St. Jude says {v. 3), " Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that y€ should earnestly contend for the faith once for all iaira^) delivered to the Saints!' Gnosis, literally knowledge, or the faculty of know- ing, in theology is the act of the human mind assum- ing for itself the faculty of hioiving by its own intel- ligence— paramount to divine revelation — supernatural truth ; and elevating itself by its own speculations above all those who received divine truth from God in the Holy Scripture, by faith. In a word ^vwai^, as an act of the mind, is opposed to iriarL^ ; as alpeai^ is opposed to faith, as an act of the zvill. According to the Gnostics, the Christian believer was a mere yp-vx^Ko^ [animal), their own votaries were irvevixaTiKoX (spiritical). Their vocation was not to believe, but to know. There is a silent reference to them in St. Paul's Epistles to that Church which boasted most of its gnosis: "I was determined to know nothing among you '^ (who vaunt that you know all things) " but Jesus Christ and Him crucified " (i Cor. ii. 2 ; cp. Phil. iii. 8 ; i Tim. vi. 20). There is a special signi- ficance in his words to the same Church, " Gnosis 182 TRUE GNOSIS. puffeth up, but Love buildeth up " (i Cor. viii. i). At the same time the Apostle did not abandon the claim of the believer to the possession oi true gnosis. No ; on the contrary he says, " Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect" (i Cor. ii. 6). In his Epistle to the Colossians, St. Paul show^s how this self-idolizing gnosis, which was often accompanied with a rigid asceticism and a spurious spiritualism, led not only to intellectual pride, but to licentious sen- sualism (Col. ii. 8 — 23). St. James writes against the dry, lifeless, miscalled faith, which bore no fruits of love to God or man ; and St. Peter in his second Epistle speaks of those who "bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them " (2 Pet. ii. i); and he and St. Jude condemn that proud, presumptuous gnosis, which vaunted itself as all- sufficient, and rebelled against civil and spiritual authority, and gave free reins to carnal indulgence (2 Pet. ii. 10, 14, 18. Jude 4, 8, 10, 16). It was the main purpose of such teachers as Clement of Alexandria to show that the Christian believer was the true Gjwstic} The appropriateness of the Apocalyptic symbolism in the Third Seal is manifest. The Enemy is opposed to Christ : he rides on a horse which is black, against Him Who is on the horse that is white, literally, white as light. He is the Author of darkness, moral and intellectual, as opposed to Him Who is the True Light, illuminating the human will and intelligence. He weighs all things in his own balance. He makes ^ In this respect (as lias been well observed by Dean Mansel on the Gnostic heresies, p. 11) Gnosticism anticipated the maxim of a dis- tinguished modern philosopher, Fichte (Werke, v. p. 48}, "Men are saved not by the historical, but by the metaphysical." ORIGIN OF GNOSTICISM. 183 himself the measure of divine truth. This is the Essence of Heresy and Gnosticism ; it is subjective, not objective ; it places human speculation above divine revelation ; it desires to hurt the corn and wine of Divine Grace given in Scripture and Sacraments ; and it produces " a famine of hearing the word of the Lord" (Amos viii. ii), a famine of the soul. All heresies were not Gnosticism, but all Gnosticism was heresy ; and with Gnosticism let us first deal, as having its origin in certain previous systems of Philosophy. Taking its stand on the principle that Gnosis is paramount to Faith, and has other sources of intelli- gence than Divine Revelation, it could have no fixed symbol or creed such as the Church has received from Primitive Tradition ^ and Holy Scripture. It ranged over the wide fields of Heathen Meta- physics and Theogonies — Greek, Asiatic, Persian, Indian. It was conversant with Hebrew and Christian forms of belief. It soared above them all ; and with a domineering sway of all-absorbing generalization, worthy of a better cause, like the imperial autocracy of Rome, it endeavoured to subject them to its own sovereign dominion. The earliest systems of Greece and Asia Minor were physical rather than ethical. Neither Plato, nor Aristotle, nor the Stoics, nor Epicureans busied them- selves with the question as to the origin of evil. The ^ I place Primitive Tradition first, because (as Richard Baxter has well observed, Introduction to Catholic Theology, 1675) there was the essence oi a Creed 'va. the Baptismal formula prescribed by Christ Himself before His Ascension, " Go and teach all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost " (Matt, xxviii. 18, 19). ** This (says Baxter) is the sum of the Creed, first made by Christ Himself." 184 ORIGIN AND PRINCIPLES OF GNOSTICISM. Platonic theory of an impersonal, unconditioned, eternal Essence, and its doctrine of ideas existing in the divine mind as types of things to be created, may have suggested some conceptions of Gnosticism. The Greek poets, such as Hesiod, in their Theogonies, did something for it, by familiarizing the popular mind with the idea of theistic developments. But its main sources were in the philosophical systems of the East. The Western World was not favourable to its growth. The Oriental Metaphysics of India, Persia, and Egypt were its main tributaries ; and by means of them it proceeded to manipulate the doctrines of the Old and New Testament^ and to accommodate them to its own speculations. The Oriental System of Metaphysics endeavoured to account for the existence of Evil, either by the dtialistic tJieory of two independent, antagonistic prin- ciples, the one good, the other evil, and which were called Ormuzd and Ahriman by the Persians, and Osiris and Typhon by the Egyptians ; or else by the theory of emanations from One first Cause. This latter theory assumed as its necessary postu- late a gradual deterioration by successive descents from the primitive source of good. In the former, an hypothesis of emanations is a consequence of pre- existent evil ; in the latter, it is the cause of the exist- ence of evil. All Gnosticism was opposed to the pure Monotheism of the Hebrew and Christian Faith. All agreed in recognizing an eternity in Matter, as containing the cause of evil ; all agreed in regarding the Old and New Testaments as coming from two different Beings ; all identified the Creator, or Demiurge, with the God GNOSTIC NOTIONS OF REDEMPTION AND OF 185 MA TTER. of the Old Testament ; and as inferior, — and some of them as antagonistic, — to the supreme God, the God of the New. The Gnostics also professed themselves wiser than Moses and the Prophets, who were agents of the Demiurge, and who, as they alleged, had been called " thieves and robbers " ^ by Christ Himself. They treated Christ Himself with as little respect, calling Him indeed a Redeemer, but not a Redeemer from the power and ginlt of sin (of which they made little or no account) ; but a Redeemer from the tyrajiny of the Demiin'ge or Creator. All of them asserted the inherent evil of matter and of the material body, and therefore rejected the doc- trine of the Incarnation, some of them asserting (as the Docetse) that our Lord's Body was a mere ideal visionary phantom ; others (as Cerinthus) that the man Jesus was a distinct Person from the Christ. They denied the Resurrection of the body ; and thus they opened the door, either to a spurious asceticism, condemning marriage and the use of meats and drinks (i Tim. iv. 3), or to a reckless licentiousness, asserting that it was the essential characteristic of the Gnostic to know empirically all forms of evil, by per- sonal familiarity with it, and to abuse the body by vicious indulgence. None of them would have joined in repeating the first words of the Creed, " / believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord.'' It is an interesting study for the Philosopher and the Christian to examine the attempts by which the Enemy endeavoured to deprive the Church of those words ; and also to trace c John X. 8. See Augustine, quoted in my note there. 186 GNOSTICISM NOT OBSOLETE. the merciful methods and providential dispensations^ by which God enabled her to maintain them. Gnosticism is not obsolete. The problems proposed by it are now presented again to the world. Most modern systems of Free Thought have been antici- pated by it, and were examined and refuted by ancient champions of Christianity.'' The Gnostic Systems are deserving of careful attention, as showing to what monstrous enormities and wild aberrations, moral and social, as well as spiritual, the hunian mind may wander,— even though it has Holy Scripture before it, and Apostolic Teachers preaching in its ears, — if it relies presumptuously on its own powers, and denies the need of divine Grace, and despises the guidance of that divine Revelation which is contained in Holy Scripture, as interpreted by the Ancient Catholic Church. 7 This has been well shown in the very valuable work, already referred to, of Dean Mansel. See there pp. ii, 107, 147, 165; and especially the seasonable warnings in p. 78 against those in our own day, ' ' who tell us in the spirit of the Gnostics of old, that dogmas and historical facts are no parts of the Christian religion." See also Canon Westcott's " Gospel of the Resurrection" on the value of the historic basis of Christianity. CHAPTER XIV. Schools of Gnosticism — Siino7i Magics, Menander, Cerint/ms, Ebionites, Carpocrates, Epiphanes, Naassenes, Ophites^ Cainites, Sethites, Peratce, Saturnimis^ Basilides. In taking a chronological view of Gnosticism, we trace a gradual series of concessions on the part of the Enemy ; and we may observe the Evil One driven from one stronghold and retreating to another, which seemed to be more tenable. The first form that Gnosticism assumed was that of open blasphemy in Sivton Magus. He is regarded as the father of heresy, and did not hesitate to announce himself as an incarnation of God (Acts viii. 9. S. Iren. i. 20. S. Hippol. Ref Haer. vi. 19). Simon Magus was a native of Samaria, and said that he had appeared to the Samaritans as the Father, to the Jews as the Son, to the Gentiles as the Holy Ghost. Thus he was a precursor of Sabellianism ; at the same time indirectly he announced the doctrine of the divinity of the Son and Holy Ghost. He said that the woman Helena, whom he led about with him, was the first conception of his mind, and that by her Angels were produced, who made the world ; but that she was ill-treated by her own creatures, and that he himself had come down to redeem her, and 188 SIMON MAGUS. restore all things (S. Iren. i. 20. S. Hippol. vi. 19, ed. Duncker), and to give salvation to man by the knowledge of himself, and that he himself had taken a human form, and was supposed to have suffered as the Christ in Judaea, but that he did not really suffer ; that the prophets prophesied under the inspiration of Angels, who made the world, and who had been produced by Helena, but had maltreated her ; and that man was to be saved by faith in him, and by his grace, and not by obedience to the Angels, who attempted to bring the world into subjection to moral laws, from which he had come to emancipate them. In this travesty or caricature of Christianity we have a specimen of the endeavours made by Gnosti- cism to undermine it in faith and practice. It would seem as if the first believers were severely tried by these attempts, assisted as we know (with God's per- mission for some wise purpose) by the sorcery and magic with which Simon, thence called Magus, " be- witched the people of Samaria" (Actsviii. 9 — 11). It would seem that he was a victim of his own pretensions, in accordance with the common law of penal retribution which is inflicted on such professors, who are judicially blinded by their own presumption, which recoils upon them to their destruction. Various stories were circulated of his death,^ but the earliest and most trustworthy account seems to be that of S. Hip- polytus. Bishop of Portus Romanus, that Simon, in fanatical self-confidence, ordered his disciples to bury him, saying that he would rise again the third day ; and that he perished in consequence of his own command (S. Hippol. Ref. Haer. vi. 20). 1 See Euseb. ii. 14; S. Cyril Hieros. cat. 6; Tillemont, i. 176; describing St. Peter's encounter with him at Rome. ST. PETER'S SECOND EPISTLE— CERINTHUS. 189 Simon Magus had been resisted at Samaria by St. Peter (Acts viii. 9) ; and was afterwards, it seems, encountered by him at Rome (see note p. 188) ; and gave occasion to St. Peter's Second Epistle.^ Simon Magus was followed by his disciple Menander^ also a Samaritan, and a pretender to magic, who put forth similar claims to divine power. He declared that the neophytes who accepted his baptism would be exempt from death (Iren. i. 21). Such a promise would soon be refuted by facts, and he who made them would be rejected as an impostor. St. John personally encountered Cerinthus (Iren. iii. 3 and II. Euseb. iii. 28), as well as refuted him in his Gospels and Epistles. Cerinthus, who was of Jewish origin, was the leader of the Nazarenes or Ebionites, 2 St. Peter's antagonism to Simon Magus, which is attested by Church history, reflects light on the question of the authorship of his second Epistle. Some critics have argued from the dissimilarity of its style — rhetorical and vehement — from that of ihQ first Epistle— quiet andunim- passioned — that it is not genuine. But tliis kind of Criticism seems to be superficial, and not of any weight against the claims of the writer himself to be St. Peter ( i Pet. i. I, and i. 16 — 18, and see my Introduction to it, pp. 74 — 7S). Be it remembered that in the Second Epistle the Author is writing against false Teachers— e. g. Simon Magus — "who brought in damn- able heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them " (2 Pet. i. 2). What wonder is it that the fervid Apostle, — glowing with love for his Divine Master, and burning with zeal for His outraged honour, and when thinking of the blasphemies of Simon Magus, which he himself had heard at Samaria, and which were probably repeated (after solemn warning) at Rome, and who had received a special Commission from Christ to feed and tend the sheep and lambs for which He died, — should burst forth in language of vehement indignation, such as characterizes the Second Epistle that bears his name ? On the whole there is a beautiful harmony between the two Epistles of St. Peter. Taken together they complete the work of the Apostolic Shepherd. In the First Epistle St. Peter quietly feeds the flock with sound doctrine; in the Second Epistle he takes up arms and pursues the wolf, who is trying to tear and devour it. 190 EBIONITES—CERINTHUS. SO called probably (not^ from Eblon, who seems to have had no existence, but) from the Hebrew word Ebion {poo7% Origen de Princip. iv. 22), and probably a term of reproach applied to those Christians who had migrated from Jerusalem to Pella, and thence given to the stricter form of Judaizers, who remained at Pella when others returned to Jerusalem and formed a Gentile Christian Church there, after its destruction by Hadrian, who excluded the Jews from the ^lian City, which he built on its ruins (Euseb. iv. 6). Cerinthus, like other Gnostics, separated the Supreme God from the God of the Jews, the Creator of the world; but was not hostile to Judaism, and attempted a compromise between it and Christianity. With the Jews, he denied the Divinity of Christ ; he represented Jesus as a mere man, the son of Joseph and Mary, and said that at His baptism Christ descended upon Him in the form of a dove, from the Supreme Ruler, and departed from Him before the end of His ministry, and that the Man Jesus only suffered and rose from the dead (Iren^us, i. 25). Thus he undermined the doctrine of the Incarna- tion and of the Atonement, and of the satisfaction made for sin by the death of the Son of God, and took away the main motives for love to God in Christ and of hatred for sin. ^ Eusebius (iii. 27) seems to have thought that Ebion was a real personage, and was so called on account of the poverty and meanness of his notions concerning Christ. Tertullian also believed in his existence (Proescr. cap. 33 and cap. 48), and Epiphanius (Hcer. 30 and Hser. 51), but he seems in c. 30 to confound him with Cerinthus. The Ebionites are said to have received only the Gospel of St. Matthew in Hebrew, of which they expunged' the first two chapters (Euseb. iii. 27. Epiph. Hser. 30. Theodoret, Haer. Fab. ii. i). Ebion's personality is doubted by Dean Mansel (Gnostics, p. 125). CARPOCRA TES—EPIPHANES. 191 Carpocrates was contemporary with Cerinthus, and in many respects resembled him in his teaching (Iren. i. 24. Hippol. vii. 32). But he went further in bringing out the immoral consequences of that teaching. He said that Jesus opposed the Jews and resisted their God, the Giver of the Law, and the Creator of the world, and that by antinomian antagonism He became the Redeemer. Accordingly, he said that those who desire to partake of the bene- fits of Redemption, and to enjoy true freedom, ought to rebel against the laws of the Creator and Ruler of this world, and the Giver of the Mosaic Code, and to make a personal experiment of every action that He has condemned as sinful ; and that they can never attain to perfection till after successive transmigra- tions they have sounded all depths of iniquity, and exhausted all forms of licentiousness. Eusebius says that the promulgation of such monstrous doctrines by these heretics exposed the Church, which was confounded by the heathen with them, to charges of flagrant immorality (Euseb. iv. 7 ; see above, p. 92). Epiphanes, the youthful son of Carpocrates — he died at seventeen — was deified by the inhabitants of Same (who erected to him altars and temples) in the island of Cephallonia, one of the Ionian Islands, where noble ruins of its walls are still visible. He is said to have carried the theories of his father Carpocrates to a more excessive extreme, and to have advocated communism in wives and property (Clemens Alex. Strom, iii. 22). Some benefits accrued to the Church from the practical evidence thus given of the immoral conse- quences resulting from the denial of the harmony of 192 OPHITES— CAINITES. both Testaments, and from the rejection of the doc- trine of the Godhead and Incarnation of Christ, and of the Passion of che Son of God for the sins of the world. Reverting to Simon Magus and Menander, and to the next succession after them, we are startled by the portentous names of Ophites and Naassenes, who derived their titles respectively from the word signify- ing Serpent, in Greek [ophis) and Hebrew [nachash), and who worshipped the Evil One. In Simon Magus and Menander, Satan had tempted men to worship man in the place of God, but in these Gnostic theories he tempted them to worship himself. This resulted from the fundamental principles of Gnosticism, which regarded Matter as evil, and viewed the Demiurge, or Creator of the Material World, either as an inferior Being or an evil one. Therefore, in their opinion, any resistance to the Creator, the Author of the Material Universe, was laudable. On this ground, the Tempter, the Enemy of the Creator, was entitled to praise as a Benefactor of mankind. And the Fall of Man, the result of disobedience, was, according to their theory, a work of human freedom. For a similar reason, Cain had his votaries in the Cainites ; and to the same family belonged the men of Sodom, Esau, and Korah. All rebels against the Creator, the God of the Old Testament, were canonized as Saints, divinized as Heroes, and beati- fied as Martyrs, in this Satanic family. Seth himself was enlisted by the Gnostics in their service ; he was represented as opposing the Demiurge, and his race were exhibited as engaged in a struggle against his material work, till Seth himself, as they professed, reappeared in Christ, who came, as they SETHIANI— OPHITES— PERAT^. 193 said, into the world to redeem mankind from the des- potism of the Demiurge. The Gnostics who adopted these opinions were called SetJiiani (Hippol. v. 19). The Ophite sects regarded as their first principle of all things a Spiritual Man, associated with a second, called the Son, and a third, called the Spirit ; thus bearing witness even by this irreverent mimicry to the primitive doctrine of the Trinity. From these three came a fourth, called the Christ, and a feminine prin- ciple, Sophia, Wisdom, or Protmikos, which means a procreative faculty, which is the connecting link between the Pleroma of Divine Principles and the Material world. Sophia gives birth to Jaldabaoth (perhaps meaning Son of Chaos), who is the Demiurge, or Creator, parent of six generations of Angels, who with him are the framers of the material World. The Serpent is his offspring, and is employed by Sophia to tempt Adam and Eve to disobey the Demiurge. Some of this school identified the Serpent with the Divine Son Himself. The PeratcB (probably passengers over the Euphrates) were given to Astrology, and were pro- bably of Chaldaean origin (S. Hippol. v. 13 — 18, ed. Duncker). They referred to the power of the Serpent in the rod of Moses_, and to the healing virtue of the Serpent lifted up by him in the wilderness, and to our Lord's comment upon that act of the Hebrew Legislator (John iii. 14), and they perverted those words into an authorization of their theory which identified the Serpent with Christ. The root of the mischief of these systems lay in the non-recognition of a Personal God, Who has estab- lished an eternal irreconcilable distinction between Good and Evil, and Who is the God of both Testa- O 194 THE ROOT OF THE EVIL— SATURN INUS. ments, and Whose Law is the only standard by which the acts of all men are to be regulated. They denied the Divine Personality, and they did not recognize that man has also a distinct personality, and possesses free will, the gift of God, and is accountable for his acts to God, and is not either a mere material atom in a Pantheistic system, or a creature of fatal neces- sity. These truths not being recognized (as they were not by these forms of Gnosticism, and as they are not acknowledged in some modern systems of meta- physics and ethics which bear much resemblance to Gnosticism), it follows that moral obligations dis- appear, human society is involved in confusion, and finally Satan himself may be worshipped in the place of God. The School of Simon and Menander gave birth to those of Satunmms and Basilides (Euseb. iv. 7). Sattirnimts, a native of Syrian Antioch, taught that Matter was evil ; that the material world was created by an inferior agent, antagonistic to the good Deity ; that Man, as to his body, was made by inferior Angels, but was animated by life from above. The God of the Jews, they said, is only one of the creating Angels, and an antagonist to Satan ; it was the work of Christ as Redeemer, — Who had no real humanity, — to deliver man from the dominion of the God of the Jews, and to save the righteous (S. Iren. i. 22, Grabe. S. Hippol. vii. 28. Epiphan. Haer. 23). In- asmuch as matter was evil, Saturninus condemned Marriage and the procreation of children, as from the Evil One. He asserted the prophecies to be partly from Angels, partly from Satan, whom he regarded as an BASILIDES. 195 angel, the enemy of those who made the world, espe- cially of the God of the Jews. Basilides, who resided at Alexandria, was contem- porary with Saturninus, probably about A.D. 117 — 138. According to him, adopting in some respects the doctrine of Plato (Rep. vi. p. 509), the Deity was an absolute existence transcending all existences (cp. Hippol. vii. 21). This impersonal Deity formed the seminal principle of a future world. His system was neither dualistic nor emanational, nor was it hostile to Judaism. According to him, all things are from an eternal abstraction. This absolute existence, or highest Ruler, called Abraxas, or Abrasax^ gave birth to a threefold Sonship. Together with his First or highest Son, who was wiser than himself, he formed the ethereal creation called the Ogdoad, or sphere of eight. In the next lower sphere, called the Hebdomad, or sphere of seven, is the second Archon, or Ruler, who is the God of the Jews, and who created all things below Him. In the third or lowest sphere, is the third Sonship, which represents those residents in the material world who are capable of purification and elevation by adoption to the highest sphere, by the process of Redemption under the Gospel, preached by the Son Who came down from the highest sphere, or Hebdomad, and enlightened the two lower spheres. This system is one of continuous and progressive development by a fixed law of evolution. It has * Abraxas, or Abrasax ; a mystical name = 365, according to the Greek numeration. It is connected with the days of the Solar year, and appears to signify his lordship over creation. The name is often found on ancient gems belonging to his votaries ; some however are supposed to be heathen. O 2 196 PANTHEISM AND FA TALISM. been well said ^ that it approaches to a Stoic pan- theism, and to a Stoic fatalism. There is no place for the special providence of God, or free will of man. It divests God of moral attributes, which alone can make Him the object of love and worship, or entitle Him to obedience from man. Consequently Basilides allowed his votaries to eat freely meats offered to idols, and to take part in sacrifices to heathen deities in time of persecution (Iren. i. 23. Euseb. iv. 7). 5 By Dean Mansel, p. 165, who shows that in many respects Hegel has been anticipated by Basihdes. CHAPTER XV. Gnostic Heresies contimied — Tatian, the Eiicratites, Marcion, the Clementines— the Elchasaites. We have seen how in Carpocrates, and in his son Epiphanes, the Gnostic doctrines of the evil of Matter, and of the separation of the Creator, the God of the Jews, from the Supreme God, and from the Author of Christianity, and the denial of the Doctrine of the Incarnation and Atonement of Jesus Christ, led some of their votaries to sensual indulgence and to antinomian licentiousness. The same doctrines car- ried others of a different temperament to the opposite extreme of rigid asceticism. If the material world is evil, the human body, as distinct from the spirit, is evil ; the propagation of the human race is evil ; Marriage is evil ; the use of meats and drinks is evil. In a word, a morbid spiritualism grew from the same root as that which produced a licentious sensuality.^ One of the principal representatives of the former system was Tatian, the scholar of S. Justin Martyr (Iren. i. 30, 31 ; iii. 39. Euseb. iv. 29. Tillemont, 1 St. Paul gave a prophetic warning of those consequences ; see on Col. ii. 21 — 23, where contempt of the body (d^eiSia aui^xa-ros) is, by a marvellous insight into the subtle inner working and full development of that principle, shown to lead to 7rAr?(r/iOJ/^ aapKhs {indulgence of the jL'sh). See verse 18, "vainly puffed up by \i\s fleshly mind:' 198 THE ENCRATITES—TATIAN—MARCION. ii. 411). He was the author of an oration against the heathen, still extant, and first compiler of a Diatessaron," or harmonious digest of the four Gospels (Euseb. iv. 29). After the martyrdom of his master Justin, Tatian returned to the East, and imbibed the opinions of Gnosticism, especially of Saturninus ; and being (says Eusebius) elated by spiritual pride and vain-glorious conceit of his own learning and ability and spirituality, founded the sect of the Encratites or Abstinentes. He condemned Marriage, and animal food, and the use of wine, for which he substituted water in the Holy Communion (Theodoret, Haeret. Fab. i. 20. Epiphan. Haer. 46). His hatred of matter led him to assert with the Docetae, that our Lord's Body was not real, but a visionary Phantom. He took upon himself to revise the Epistles of St. Paul (Euseb. iv. 29). The full development of these doctrines was after- wards displayed to the world in Manicheism, which was combated energetically and successfully by S. Augustine, who himself had once been one of its dis- ciples and advocates. Connected chronologically with S. Justin Martyr and with S. Polycarp, and in some of his doctrines with Tatian, was Marcion, of Pontus in Asia, the son of a Bishop, and excommunicated, it is said, by his father (Epiphan. Haer. 42). He came to Rome, and not being admitted to communion with the Church there, he became notorious for heresy. He is described by Justin Martyr in his first Apology (c. 26 ; cp. Euseb. iv. 11) in the following terms : — "A certain Marcion of Pontus is still living, who teaches 2 See Bishop Lightfoot's article in the Contemporary Review^ May, 1877. WHENCE IS EVIL1—MARCI0N AND RATIONALISMA^ his disciples to believe in a god, different from, and superior to, the Creator of the world ; and he instructs them to utter blasphemies against the Creator, and to profess their belief in the superior deity." S. Irenaeus states, as has already been men- tioned, that Marcion having come to Rome in the time of Anicetus, Bishop of that See (A.D. 157—168), met S. Polycarp there, and asked him, " Dost not thou recognize me ? " " Yes," the reply was, " I recognize thee as the first-born of Satan" (Iren. iii. 3, 6. S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 17). The problem as to the Origin of Evil which exer- cised the minds of heretics produced the dogmas of Marcion (see Tillemont, ii. 266). He did not distin- guish between KaKia and irovqpia {moral evil). He would not acknowledge with the Church that the mahim pcence, or pain of suffering, is not moral evil, but is a punishment for sin, and that the malum peccati, or evil of sin, is not a real, created substance,— according to S. Augustine's saying, that " sin is not nature, but a corruption of nature," and is due to the abuse of the free will of man, created by God a reasonable creature, but deviating from the law of his being given it by God (Tertullian c. Marcion, ii. 2—5). Marcion might be called a Gnostic, as setting up his own gnosis above the teaching of Holy Scripture and of the Church, but he was not so much a Gnostic as a Rationalist. He was the precursor of that so-called "higher criticism," which by the action of" its inner conscious- ness " subordinates Revelation to its own subjective notions, and rejects all those portions of the Holy Scripture which it cannot reconcile with the results of its own investigations. 200 MARCION'S CRITICISMS ON HOLY SCRIPTURE. Marcion rejected the whole of the Old Testament ' as inconsistent with his own conceptions of morality and with the New Testament/ and as containing state- ments irreconcilable with one another (TertuUian adv. Marcion, i. i8, 22, 24, 26). He applied a similar process to the New Testament itself. He did not indeed reject the whole, but he ascribed the greater part of it to Judaizing teachers who had depraved the primitive truth. He made an exception in favour of such portions of it as were in accordance with his own opinions, and congenial to his own temperament, such as some Epistles of St. Paul (Epiphan. Hser. 42) ; but he altered the text, and distorted their meaning by arbitrary interpreta- tions according to his own caprice, so as to accommo- date them to his own theories (Lardner's History of Heretics, chap. x. sect. 35). Not only did he reject the Old Testament, but he attributed its authorship to a deity different from, and opposed to, the author of the New : the former he characterized as the just, meaning thereby the stern, severe, and merciless ; the other, the good, that is, the benevolent and merciful God. As, in his system, there were two Gods, so were there two Christs ; the one the Messiah of the Hebrew Prophets, a military conqueror of the heathen, an earthly sovereign, a temporal and spiritual deliverer and restorer of the literal Israel ; the other the Christ of the Gospels, but not such an one as the genuine Gospels revealed, but a Christ of a mutilated and 3 See Iren. i. 29, and Tertullian's five hooks against Marcion, of which an analysis may be seen in Bp. Kaye's TertuUian, pp. 480 — 508. •* Marcion composed a work entitled Antitheseis, being an attempt to show the discrepancies between the Old and New Testament. MARCION ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 201 interpolated Gospel, grounded on that of St. Luke, — a Christ who, according to the theory of the Docetae, seemed to be born, and seemed to wear human flesh, and to suffer, — a Christ who went down into Hades to preach, not to the saints of the old dispensation who had been obedient to the Demiurge or God of the Old Testament and were left in Hades, but to deliver those who had rebelled against the Creator, the God of the Old Testament, such as Cain, the Sodomites, the Egyptians, and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Iren. i. 29. Theodoret, Haeret. Fab. i. 24. Epiphan, Haer. 42). Marcion condemned Matter as evil, and consequently reprobated Marriage and animal food. He denied the Incarnation, and rejected the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body ; and he promised salvation only to the souls of such persons as accepted his own teaching, and who were admitted by Baptism into his communion, with a vow of renunciation of the Demiurge and his works, and with a profession of faith in the doctrines of Marcion and of his school. Marcion has had, and still has, many followers in later times, probably unconscious of being so. To such, and to those who are likely to be influenced by them, the study of the five books of Tertullian against Mar- cion ^ will be very profitable. Attempts were made on the part of Judaizing Christians, — reviving the tenets of Cerinthus and the Ebionites, — to refute the heresy of Marcion. * Two of his principal fallacies were (l) non-recognition of man's feebleness, and ignorance, especially as to divine things, and his conse- quent need of Revelation ; and (2) the confusion of Christ's Two Advents. Cp. Bp. Kaye on Tertullian, pp. 487 — 507, and Dean Mansel on the Gnostics, pp. 211 — 213. 202 THE CLEMENTINES ; THE ELCHASAITES. This was done in the Clementines^ as they "are called, the Homilies, Recognitions, and Epitome of the Clemen- tines, so named from Clement, a noble Roman Citizen, — an anxious inquirer after truth. They con- tain letters and speeches ascribed to St. Peter and St. James, Bishop of Jerusalem ; but are probably not earlier than A.D. 163. With them may be classed the heresy of the Elchasaites, so called, it seems, from the Hebrew "' words signifying ^^ hidden power;'' and claiming to be possessors of a book inspired by an Angel, and which had come from heaven (like the Koran and Book of Mormon), in which was a revelation of secret mysteries.' These have little interest for us, except as showing that if Marcion had not been encoun- tered by other adversaries than such as those who reproduced Judaism in a mutilated form, and who anticipated v/hat is now known as Socinianism, he would have retained his influence over his fol- lowers ; but, as we shall see, other more powerful opponents of his heresy were raised up, and more victorious champions of the Truth. s Which may be seen in Cotelerii " Patres Apostolici," ed. 1672, and in Dressel's edition of " Patres Apostolici," ed. 1853. More will be said on the Clementines below, Chap, xxiii. ' i.e. cJieil power; and casah, to hide or cover. ^^ Epiphan. Hceres. 19. S. Hippolyt. ix. 14. Cp, Dean Mansel on Gnostic Heresies, p. 234. CHAPTER XVI. Gnostic Heresies continued — Valentinus. We have been considering the forms of Gnosticism, disdaining the Faith revealed in Holy Scripture and professed by the Catholic Church, and despising Divine Grace, and relying on the powers of human Intelligence. We have seen how, being swayed by the arbitrary exercise of human Will, it put forth two various and opposite principles, in order to solve the problem of the existence of Evil, and of the operation of a Divine Being in the creation of the material world. One of these two opposite principles was that of Dualism, which proclaimed the existence and opera- tion of two antagonistic Powers — one Good, the other Evil. The other principle was that of Emanations from One First Cause, and of successive Developments from it. We have seen also how these two principles led to two opposite results, both of them antinomian ; the one, of sensual Hbertinism and communism; the other, of morbid spiritualism. The former engendered such systems as that of Carpocrates ; the latter, that of Tatian and the Encratites. We are now brought chronologically to that system which was the most elaborate consummation of the 20i VALEN7INUS, theory of Emanations, and which seems to have exer- cised more influence than any other form of Gnos- ticism,— that of Valentinus. This system was also distinguished by its endeavour to take into account the phenomena of the facts and doctrines of the two leading forms of Religion then presented to its view, — Judaism and Christianity. Valentinus was probably a native of Egypt, and brought up in Alexandria, where he was trained in Greek Literature, especially in Platonism, and he is described as endeavouring to blend together, in a composite syncretism, the Platonic theory of Ideas, the Pythagorean mystery of Numbers, the Epicurean tenet of divine imperturbability, the mythological theogony of Hesiod and other heathen poets, with the Gospel of St. John, and other Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, interpreted, or rather distorted, according to his own principles.^ He appears to have been at Rome on various occa- sions, especially about the same time as S. Polycarp, namely, in the pontificate of Anicetus, A.D. 157 — 168, and probably before he is said to have apostatized from the Church when on a visit to Cyprus. The Scholar of S. Polycarp, S. Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, has examined fully the system of Valentinus, in his great work, written in Greek, about A.D. 184, '* The Refutation and Overthrow of Gnosis falsely so called," especially in its first chapter. According to Valentinus, the primary origin of all things was BytJms or Depth, sometimes called the Unutterable. To BytJms a consort was assigned, called Sige or Silence ; and from this original pair sprang ^ See Tertullian c. Valentin, c. 4; Prsescr. c. 30, 38 ; S. Iren. i. 32 ; S. Hippol. vi. 29. ^ONS—PLEROMA. 205 three other co-ordinate pairs, male and female, namely, Nous, or Mind ; Aletheia, or Truth ; Logos, Word ; and Zot\ Life ; A?ithropos, Man ; and Ecdcsia, Church : thus forming- an Ogdoad, or group of Eight in all. From one of these pairs of jEohs, Logos and Zoe, were generated four more pairs, male and female, thus forming a Decad, or group of Ten. From Logos and Zoe were also generated six other pairs, male and female, making a Dodecad, or group of Twelve. The three groups together formed the Pleromaj or fulness, or complement of thirty ^ons. The first group of ^ons,^ the Ogdoad, represents the Supreme Being,^ first in His absolute Self-existence, next in His relative, or generative and co-operative character. The Second and Third Orders of ^ons (viz. the Decad and Dodecad) represent generally by their masculine terms some attribute of the Deity, either absolutely, or in His relation to man, and by their feminine terms some gift or grace from Him. It may be mentioned as a specimen of the allegori- cal method of interpretation which Valentinus applied to Holy Scripture, that he said that his thirty ^ons were symbolized by the thirty years of our Lord's Life, the twelve ^ons of the Dodecad by the twelve Apostles ; the other two groups of ^ons, the Ogdoad and Decad, by the first two letters of Jesus, namely, iota, equalling te?i in Greek numeration, and eta, equalling eight. 7 The term ^ons — alcoves — as personifications and manifestations of Divine attributes, was a characteristic of the Valentinian nomenclature (S. Hippol. vi. 20). 3 Cp. Dean Alansel on Gnostic heresies, p. 1 73. 20S ^ONS—PLEROMA. The last of the thirty ^ons ^ — Sophia, or Wisdom — issued forth from the Pleroma, in a desire to know the Father of all, which it was impossible for her to do ; and she was brought back to the Pleroma by Horos (boundary), or Staiiros (Cross). Her desire to see the Father assumed a form called AcJiainoth (Hebrew plural for Wisdom). Then Notes, or Mind, produced another pair, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ taught the ^ons to know the Father as far as He was knowable ; and the Holy Spirit taught them to praise Him, and to enjoy peace. In the knowledge thus imparted, and in the peace thus enjoyed, the ^ons, with the consent of the Father, joined together in producing Jesus, to Whom each gave what each had most precious, so that He was, as it were, the flower of the Pleroma, and united in Himself the names of all the ^ons, especially of Christ and the Word, because He came forth from them all ; and this (said Valentinus) was the meaning of St. Paul's words (Col. i. 9), "All fulness dwelt in Him." They also at the same time produced the Angels as His guards. Achamoth (Wisdom) being in a state of misery, made an effort to return to the Pleroma ; and Christ sent her the Saviour, with the power of the Father and of all the Angels. They gave her knowledge, and released her from the tyranny of her passions, out of which an evil substance was formed. She, laughing for joy, made the light, and conceived a spiritual fruit by union with the Angels. Thus three substances were generated : the spiritual, incapable of corruption ; 9 See the first chapters of Irenaeus, and Abbe Fleury, H. E. iii. 27, 28, whose analysis will be found useful. VALENTINUS ON CHRISTIANITY. 207 the animal, which may either be saved or lost ; the material, destined to perish. Achamoth was the Spiritual Substance, but she formed the two others ; and from the animal substance she made the Demiurge, who is the Creator and God of the World outside the Pleroma. The Demiurge was not conscious of what was above him, and he imagined himself to be the sole god, and announced himself as such by the Hebrew Prophets. He was the Creator and Ruler of this world, namely, of the Evil One, and of evil spirits. The Demiurge or Creator was also the maker of the " earthy Man,^' into whom he breathed a soul, and made him after his own likeness. The " earthy Man " received the Spiritual Seed, which Achamoth had conceived from the Angels ; and this Spiritual Seed was the image of the higher Ecclesia, or Church which was within the Pleroma. The Saviour received the firstfruits of what He came to save. From Achamoth He received what was spiritual ; from the Author of the World He received the clothing of the animal body of Christ, so that His body was animal, and yet invisible and impassible. Some scholars of Valentinus said that the Author of the World produced a Christ of the same nature as Himself; and that this Christ passed through the body of Mary, as water passes through a funnel, with- out taking anything of her nature ; and that the Saviour issued forth from the Pleroma with the per- fections of all the ^ons, and descended on Christ at His Baptism, but quitted Him when He was brought before Pilate ; and that it was only the animal nature of Christ which suffered. 208 VALENTINUS ON THE FUTURE STATE— MORAL RESUL TS. They taught that at the consummation of all things, spiritual men will become pure spirits, and enter the Pleroma, into which nothing animal can find admis- sion, and will be espoused to the Angels who surround the Saviour. The material world will then be con- sumed by fire. In the celebration of their initiatory mysteries, some of the disciples of Valentinus dressed up a marriage chamber, and performed a nuptial ceremony, which they called spiritual wedlock, in imitation of the con- jugal union of the ^ons. Some of them administered Baptism in the name of the Unknown Father, and of Alethea the mother of all, and of Him Who descended on Jesus. Others said that redemption was wholly spiritual, and was accomplished without any external means ; but was effected internally by means of perfect knowledge. Their mysteries were enveloped in profound secrecy, and were revealed only to those who sought earnestly for initiation with urgent entreaty, and often with heavy payments of large sums of money.^ The moral consequences of these doctrines were, that spiritual men who profess Gnosis have no need of good works, because they have divine grace, which is indefeasible. As gold cannot be hurt by being plunged into the mud, so these spiritual men cannot be sullied, although they may wallow in the mire of fleshly lusts. In these respects Valentinus anticipated the tenets and practices of some Antinomians of later days. They denied themselves no carnal indulgence, and 1 Tertullian c. Valent. c. 1—3. RECAPITULATION. 20^- avoided Martyrdom. Christ, they said, had suffered for them, and they had nothing to do for themselves in order to be saved. ^ Valentinus added that mere animal men (by which he meant members of the Church) ought to do good works, being incapable of attaining true gnosis, and that it was right for them to have faith, practise self- denial, and suffer martyrdom, and that thus they might be saved ; but that these things were not neces- sary for the spiritual. In reviewing the system of Valentinus, we are led to consider the causes to which its popularity is to be ascribed. Some learned persons have regarded the system of Valentinus as " so replete with absurdity that they would be disposed to pass it over without notice." ^ But the investigation is instructive, as showing that an appeal to human frailties and passions, — however extravagant, romantic, and fantastic in some of its features that appeal may be, — is not unlikely to be successful for a time. In this respect it supplies salutary warnings for every age. Valentinus speculated on those elements of human nature which are susceptible of impressions from with- out, and he gained admission into the human mind and heart by the ingenuity with which he practised upon them. In a certain sense he made himself all things to all men. His system was eclectic and encyclopaedic, and adjusted itself with dexterous ingenuity and plastic pliancy to all. It alienated no one by wholesale ' Tertullian, Scorpiac. c. i. Irenasus, i. i. 3 So Bp, Kaye on Tertullian, p. 514, ed. 1826. P 210 VALENTINIANISM—ITS CHARACTERISTICS. rejections and direct negations. It openly offended no one ; it affronted no one. It could see good in all men and in all systems. With bland courtesy and amiable politeness it smiled on all, and won them by complaisant flattery and compromise. It had poetical and romantic legends for persons of imaginative tem- peraments ; it was accommodating to the mystic who was fond of diving into abstruse secrets, or enamoured of a solemn ritual with musical attractions, or allured by the charm of being initiated among the elect few, and admitted as a privileged neophyte to the revela- tion of divine mysteries. It had fascinations for the philosophic votary who was fond of paradoxes, and coveted a monopoly of knowledge. It had elements of heathenism for heathens ; of Pythagoreanism for Pythagoreans ; of Platonism for the Platonist ; of Aristotellanism with its esoteric teaching for the Peripatetic ; of Judaism for the Jew ; of Christianity for the Christian. It did not, like some Gnostic systems, reject the Holy Scriptures ; on the contrary, it patronized them, and it favoured its disciples with more enlightened and transcendental interpretations of them, like the Swedenborgianism of later days ; It professed that in the allegorical expositions of Valen- tinus, and in them alone, the true sense of Moses and the Prophets, of Christ and His Apostles, was to be found, — a sense hitherto hidden and unknown to the vulgar many, but discovered to Its favoured admirers. It treated Scripture, says Irenaeus (I. i), as the framers of Homeric centos treated Homer. It did not pro- scribe the orthodox. It said that the Church was a good thing for certain minds. It allowed her members to believe and to do good works, to fast and to pray and to suffer martyrdom. Such things would be VALENTINIANISM—ITS CLAIMS AND RESULTS. 211 useful to those who belonged to a lower grade of spiritual being. But to the illuminated disciples of Valentinus, to those who were exalted by the know- ledge which he imparted in the higher atmosphere of speculation and intelligence, such things were super- fluous. Temperance was a work of supererogation. Martyrdom would even be a sin for the elect saints. It would be a denial of Christ's all-prevailing merits and infinite love to these His special favourites. Whatever they did or did not do, they could not but be saved. It would be a sin to doubt it. They might live worldly lives, they might indulge in carnal lusts, they might commit adultery and incest, and frequent idolatrous banquets ; they might do any acts which in members of the Church would be criminal, but nothing could tarnish the essential purity and saintly brightness and pellucid lustre of their spiritual being. Its sunbeams could never be tainted by the mire of the foulest pool, which would be irradiated by them. Such was the teaching of Valentinus, and such were its moral results. It met with formidable antagonists, especially in Irenaeus and Tertullian ; and, above all, in the calm and steadfast action of the Church herself Before the end of the fourth century Valentinianism was almost a thing of the past.^ The reader will recognize in it, however, many elements which made themselves manifest in the theology of sectaries on the Continent and in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, some of which are still active ; and also in some speculations which are now put forth in some modern systems of metaphysics. But to those who carefully study the history of ^ Epiphan. Hoer. 31, c. 7. P 2 212 VALENTINIANISM— PRACTICAL INFERENCES FROM IT. Gnosticism and meditate upon it, the experience of the past will be a safeguard against such delusions, however specious and confident they may be, as being little better than revivals of obsolete and exploded hallucinations. That experience will also be an assurance to the faithful, that if they are true to their Divine Lord, and to the teaching of Holy Scripture, interpreted by the Church in her Creeds, and if they meditate upon the records of the Early Church, and upon what was done by the ancient Champions of the Truth, they will be preserved by His power and love from the malice and arts of the Enemy, who destroyed the faith of many by means of the heresy of Valentinus. CHAPTER XVII. Defenders of CJiristianity against Heresy — 5. IrencEiis. It is refreshing to turn from the speculations of Gnos- ticism to the defenders of Christianity. Error is various, shifting, and evanescent. Truth is one, uni- form, and permanent. However celebrated and popu- lar some of the founders of schools of Gnosticism were, — and great was the reputation and wide the influence of some of them for a time, — yet it is remarkable, that while their names remain, scarcely any writings or portions of writings of any among them (the Clemen- tines excepted) have come down to us. What is now known of their works is due mainly to their adver- saries, who have quoted extracts from them. Had it not been for Irenaeus, we should have known little of Valentinus.^ This is one among the many proofs of the unsound- ness of their teaching. And those documents which they rejected or misinterpreted, namely, the Holy Scriptures, have been preserved entire ; not a single chapter of them has perished in the lapse of centuries. The Creeds also, in which the Church, animated and enlightened by the indwelling presence of Christ, ^ Burke's remarks on the evanescence of the writings and names of the most popular EngHsh Sceptics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Chubb, Toland, Tindal, Collins, Morgan, Lord Shaftesbury, and Bolingbroke, may occur to the reader. 214 VARIATIONS AND EVANESCENCE OF ERROR ; UNITY AND PERMANENCE OF TRUTH. and by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, has deposited the Truth, as a sacred treasure, remain unchanged and unchangeable. The Scriptures and Creeds have been protected by Him Who is the Truth, and Who pro- mised to the Church that the gates of hell should not prevail against her. But this is not all. The treatises of Gnostic Teachers have vanished ; but the defences of Chris- tianity against them survive. Five principal vindica- tions of the Truth may be mentioned ; the one by the Bishop of Lyons in Gaul, vS. Irenmis ; the second by a person who was probably a presbyter of Carthage, Tertiillian ^ ; the third by a presbyter and doctor of Alexandria, vS". Clement ; the fourth by a presbyter and his scholar, Origen ; the fifth by vS. Hippolytiis, a scholar of Irenseus, and Bishop of Portus Romanus, the harbour of Rome. IrencBits, Bishop of Lyons in Gaul, where he suc- ceeded the Martyr Pothinus (above, pp. 174, 180), was probably by birth an Asiatic. Writing to a heretical teacher Florinus, he says (Euseb. v. 20), "When I was a boy, I saw thee in the company of Polycarp in Asia, when thou wast flourishing in the royal Court, and endeavouring to win his good graces. I remember better what happened then than I do what is more recent, for the teaching we receive in boyhood grows with our growth and knits itself to our souls ; so that I can describe the place in which the blessed Polycarp used to sit, and his going out and his coming in, and the manner of his life and the figure of his person, and the discourses he made to the people, and what he related of his intercourse with St. John, and the rest 2 He is called a presbyter by S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. c. 53 ; cp. Tillemont, iii. p. 200. S. IRENALUS— HIS REMINISCENCES OF S, POLYCARP. 215 of those who had seen the Lord, and how he recorded their sayings, and what things he had heard from them concerning the Lord, and concerning His miracles and His teaching; and how Polycarp, having received things from the Eye-witnesses of the Word, used to rehearse them, all in harmony with the Scriptures. These things I earnestly listened to at that time, ac- cording to the mercy of God to me, and I recorded them not on paper but in my heart, and I am ever, by the grace of God, genuinely ruminating upon them. And I can testify in the presence of God, that if that blessed Apostolic Presbyter ^ Polycarp had heard such things as are now broached by thee, he would have stopped his ears, and exclaimed according to his cus- tom, ' Good God, to what times hast Thou kept me alive, that I should endure to hear such things as these!'" As we have already seen (above, p. 164), Irenseus had a copy of the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna, in which the Martyrdom of S. Polycarp is described. Irenseus was commended by the Church of Lyons to the Bishop of Rome, Eleutherus (Euseb. v. 4), and was advanced to the See of Lyons on the death of Pothinus the Martyr in A.D. 177. Although he seems to have agreed with the Church of Rome as to the time of celebrating Easter, yet he expostulated with Victor, Bishop of Rome, for attempting to enforce that practice on others, and to excommunicate the Asiatic Churches who did not conform to the Roman rule for its celebration.'^ 3 Here is an example of what has been before noticed, pp. 47, 48, that a Bishop— especially in his capacity as a doctor of the Church— is sometimes called Presbyter by early writers. 4 Euseb. V. 24 — in which Irenaeus refers to the tolerant conduct of one of Victor's predecessors, Anicetus, to S. Polycarp in that matter. 216 s. irenje:us—his refutation of heresies^ HIS CHARACTER. His peaceable spirit, agreeably to his name Irenceus — pacific — is further shown in his prayer for the heretics (Iren. iii. 46 ; cp. ii. 22). His work entitled " A Refutation and Overthrow of the Knowledge falsely so called," in five books, was written about A.D. 184.* A considerable part of the original Greek is lost, but supplied by means of an old Latin Version ; and the recently-discovered work of S. Hippolytus, scholar of Irenaeus, on all heresies has enabled the Editors to make further restorations in it.« It has been well observed that S. Irenaeus, who had been educated in Asia Minor in the School of disci- ples of St. John, and was translated to the West, is a connecting link between the Churches of Asia and Rome (Neander, ii. 135). Distinguished as he was for the practical sobriety of a well-regulated Christian spirit, endued with sound judgment and discriminating tact in determin- ing what was essential ; profoundly impressed with a sense of the grandeur of God's works, and of the limited compass of human understanding ; deeply versed in Holy Scripture, and a faithful witness of Primitive Tradition, he was admirably qualified to confound the arrogant pretensions and wild specula- tions of Gnosticism. Irenseus begins his work with an address to a friend, and reminds him that the words of St. Paul (i Tim. i. 4} are: verified by the teaching of the Gnostics, especially of Valentinus, who promulgated "fables and ^ Cp. Iren. iii. 3, written in the pontificate of Eleutherus, which was, probably, from A.D. 177 to 189. They were not all published at once ; the first two were published first ; see Preface to Book iii. ^ This has been done in the Edition of Irenaeus by the Rev. W. Wigan Harvey, B.D., Cambridge, 1857. S. IRENJEUS—HIS WORK. 217 endless genealogies " (i. e. of ^ons) which ministered " questions rather than godly edifying that is in faith," and led away many captive, corrupting the oracles of the Lord ; and who were evil interpreters of words which were spoken well, and ensnared many by a pre- tence of knowledge communicated by Him Who had constituted and adorned the Universe ; and pre- tended that they had something higher and greater to reveal than the God Who made the heaven and earth and all things therein, and thus destroyed many by venting blasphemies and impieties against the Creator. He proceeds to show the need of some touchstone and criterion whereby to test error and discriminate it from the truth ; and therefore, having read the com- mentaries of the disciples of Valentinus, and having had conferences with some of them, he has thought it necessary to unfold to his friend their portentous and profound mysteries, which they say all men cannot receive because all have not their brains sifted ; ^ in order that he may be able to guard others from falling into their folly and blasphemy of Christ. He then apologizes modestly for the rudeness of his Greek style, which is due, he says, to long residence in Gaul ; and he requests his friend to accept what he has written with simplicity in compliance with his desire, and to enable it, by his own superior intellec- tual capacity, to bear fruit abundantly to God. In the first chapter,^ which is a long one, he gives a detailed description of the system of Valentinus. ^ On the reading of the text here, which appears to be corrupt, a conjecture has been offered in my work on Hippolytus, p. 217, note, 2nd ed. ^ I refer to Grabe's edition, the chapters of which are noted in the margin of other editions, of Stieren and Harvey. 218 THE ANCIENT CREED OF THE CA THOLIC CHURCH This chapter, in its old Latin Version, was used by TertulHan, and forms the substance of his work against Valentinus. We have already profited by it in the foregoing account of his system (above, chap. xvi.). But, says Irenseus, the believer who retains the unalterable Ride of Faith, which he has received at his Baptism, will not accept the counterfeit for the true ; and he therefore proceeds to set down the Ancient Creed diS held and professed by the Catholic Church. "The Church," he says (i. 2), " although disseminated throughout the world to the ends of the earth, holds one and the same Faith, which she has received from the Apostles and their disciples. She believes in One God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of the Seas, and of all things therein ; and in One Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who took our flesh, for our salvation ; and in the Holy Ghost, Who spake by the Prophets, and foretold the Incarnation and the Advents of the Beloved, Christ Jesus our Lord, and His Birth from a Virgin, and Passion, and Resurrection from the Dead, and Ascension into heaven in our flesh, and His Second Coming from Heaven in the glory of the Father to sum up all things in Himself (Eph. i. 10), and to raise all flesh of all mankind, in order that every knee, of things in heaven and earth, and under the earth, may bow to Christ Jesus, our Lord God, Saviour and King (Phil, ii. 10), according to the good pleasure of the Father Who is invisible, and that every tongue may confess Him, and that He may execute just Judgment upon all, and that He may send into everlasting fire the spiritual Powers of wickedness, and the rebel Angels, and those among men who have become apostates from THE ANCIENT CREED OF THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 219 Him, and the impious, and unjust and lawless ; and ^\WQ Immortality and eternal Glory, and freely grant Life to the righteous and holy, and to those who have kept His commandments, and have continued in His love from the beginning, and also to those who have repented of their sins." " The Church," he adds, " although disseminated in all the world, having received this Gospel preached to her, and this Faith, carefully preserves it, as if she dwelt in one and the same house ; and believes these truths uniformly, as having one mind and the same heart ; and she harmoniously teaches them, as having one mouth. "Languages in the world are divers, but the authority of her Tradition is one and the same. The Churches in Germany have no other Faith or Tradition (than this) ; nor those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those in the central parts of the earth. But, as the Sun, created by God, is one and the same in all the world, so the Word of Truth preached by her shines everywhere and enlightens all men who desire to come to the knowledge of the truth ; nor will the most eloquent man of those who preside in our Churches speak anything other than this, for no one is above his Master (Matt. x. 24) ; nor will the weak in speech minish aught from that which has been delivered. There is one Faith. The man who is able to say much doth not superabound, and he who can say little hath no lack." After wading through the troubled waters of heresy in the second century, it is refreshing to come to a peaceful harbour, and to plant the feet on firm ground, and to hear such words as these from the lips of Irenaeus, 220 DEVIATIONS FROM IT— IN FAITH AND MORAIS. Bishop of Lyons, the friend and pupil of S. Polycarp, the scholar of the beloved disciple St. John, who leaned at supper on the breast cf Christ, and drank divine wisdom from His mouth. And it affords no small spiritual comfort to find that this form of sound words which is deliberately set down by the hand of Irenaeus, as the clear and full profession of faith in the second century, is in perfect accordance with what is now professed among ourselves in the Church of England in the nineteenth century ; and that the Anglican and American Churches, at the present day, may join in saying Amen, with one heart and voice, to the Creed of Irenaeus. The deviations from this ancient Catholic Faith are then mentioned by him, as exemplified in the systems of Valentinus and his disciples, who, says Irenaeus, are not consistent with one another (c. 5, 6) ; and he narrates what the mode of living, produced by their teaching, is (c. 8, 9) ; and how they ground that teach- ing on speculations about numbers and figures (c. 10, II, 12), and misapply our Lord's Parables, and the Old Testament, and the New, and teach a system of Redemption invented by themselves (c. 18). In chapter 19 he makes a pause, and reviewing what he has stated, says, in opposition to those heresies, "We hold the rule of Truth, that there is One God, Almighty, Who made all things by His Word, and compacted them, and created them of that which before did not exist." Advertin^r to the Gnostic theories, he says, that God made all these things, not by means of Angels, not by any other Powers, but by His own Word and Spirit. He Who created Man, is the same God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, above Whom there is no SUMMAR V OF EARL V HERESIES. 221 other God, nor beginning, nor pleroma ; He is the Father of our Lord Jesu Christ. " This Rule of Faith we hold and maintain against all heresies, most of which profess indeed by words to believe in One God, but pervert that doctrine, and are ungrateful to the Creator, and despise His creation. But they will be raised in their bodies, and then be constrained to acknowledge His power, and will not be numbered among the righteous." He then proceeds in his enumeration and description of heresies, promulgated by Simon Magus (c. 20), Menander (c. 21), Saturnimcs (c. 22), Basilides (c. 23), Carpocrates (c. 24), Cerinthus (c. 25), the Ebionites (c. 26), the Nicolaitans (c. 27), by Cerdon and by his scholar Marcion (c. 28, 29), the Encratites and Tatian their Master (c. 30, 31), and by those, who, following Basilides and Carpocrates, taught that all actions were indifferent (i. e. not sinful), such as Polygamy, and incestuous Marriages, and eating of things offered to Idols (c. 32) ; and by other Gnostics with various names (c. 33, 34). Finally, by the Ophites and Cainites (c. 35).^ In the Second Book he proceeds to refute the theories of ValentiniLs on the difference between the God of the Universe and the Creator, and between both and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and to show that the Highest God was not unknown, but was worshipped by Angels, some of whom were expelled from heaven by Him ; and he explodes the Platonic theory of a creation from pre-existent ideas (c. I — 9) ; he exposes the inconsistencies in the Valentinian sys- tem, especially in their doctrine of Emanations (by ^ The original Greek of portions of these Chapters from Chap. xx. has been restored from the recently-discovered work of S. Hippolytus, and may be seen in Mr. Harvey's edition. 222 AGE OF OUR LORD-INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. JEons), and in the arguments by which they support . that system, and their false interpretations of Scrip- ture, especially of our Lord's Parables, and of their arbitrary use of numbers (c. lo — 43). In chapter 39 he states his opinion that our Lord was baptized when He was thirty years of age, and that He passed through every age of man, sanctifying every age ; and he asserts as a tradition that He remained upon earth till He was fifty years of age. This mistake of Irenseus shows the uncertainty of oral Tradition, unless guaranteed by Holy Scripture, or by some received usage of the Church. It reminds us that we have reason to be thankful that the facts and doctrines of Christianity were not left to be handed down from mouth to mouth, but have been recorded in the pages of Holy Writ by the hand of the Holy Spirit of God. In chapter 46 are some wise remarks on the duty of expounding Parables and Prophecies according to " the proportion of faith," and not according to arbi- trary preconceived notions. In chapter 49 he explains our Lord's saying that the last Day was known only to the Father (see on Mark xiii. 32). In chapters 50, 51, he shows the reasonableness of the doctrine of the Resurrection of the body, as well as of the Immortality of the soul ; and the unreasonableness of the doctrine of transmigration of souls (c. 58, 62). In chapter 56 he contrasts the immorality of the Gnostics with the moral virtues taught by the Gospel, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, and practised in the lives of faithful Christians ; and he shows that our Lord's moral and spiritual teaching was confirmed by His Miracles of might and mercy, such as no CHRIST'S MIRACLES— THE APOSTLES AND 223 EVANGELISTS. Teacher of heresy has ever been able to work. Christ not only wrought miracles, but enabled His Apostles to work them ; and some miracles (Irenseus says) were still performed by the power of Christ in the Church, and in the Church alone (c. 6y). In his Preface to the Third Book, Irenaeus says that in the two former he had displayed the succession of Heretics from Simon Magus, and their doctrines, and he will now proceed to show from Holy Scripture that their doctrines are repugnant to that one, true, life-giving Faith which the Church has received from the Apostles, and they from Christ, and which she delivers to her children. He then says, "We have not received the dispensa- tion of our salvation from any others than those from whom the Gospel has come to us. We are not, as the heretics profess to be, wiser than the Apostles. After our Lord rose from the dead, and they were endued with the power of the Holy Ghost coming down from heaven, they were filled with all wisdom in all things, and received perfect knowledge, and went forth into the ends of the Earth, preaching the good things we have from God, and announcing heavenly peace to all." S. Irenaeus knew nothing of the " Development of Christian Doctrine." Such a system is characteristic of Gnosticism rather than of the Primitive Church. He then specifies the origin and chronology of the composition of the Four Gospels, of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John, showing that these four Gospels and none other were then received by the Church, as true and divinely-inspired narratives of the Life and Ministry of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 224 ONE GOD IN BOTH TESTAMENTS— APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. "All these," he adds, "have delivered to us that there is One God Who is the Maker of heaven and earth, and is revealed in the Law and Prophets ; and One Christ the Son of God. Whoever does not hearken to them, despises Christ the Lord ; he despises the Father, and is self-condemned, resisting his own salvation ; and this is what all heretics do." Heretics (he says, cap. 2), when refuted from Scripture, fly to Tradition ; and when convicted from Tradition, they allege that they themselves are wiser than the Apostles, and that our Lord was not consis- tent with Himself, sometimes speaking from the Creator, sometimes from what was intermediate, and sometimes from the highest Power of all ; and that they themselves are the only persons who have unerr- ing and clear knowledge of the Mystery. In chapter 3 he goes on to say that they who desire to know the Apostolic tradition manifested in all the world, may find it in every Church. We are able, he says, to enumerate those who were ordained Bishops in the Churches by the Apostles, and to specify their successors even to our own day. These did not teach any such things as are now put forth, like delirious dreams, by these men, nor did they know any such things. If the Apostles had known any hidden mysteries, they would certainly have com- municated them to those persons to whose charge they committed the Churches. But inasmuch as it would be tedious in such a work as the present to enumerate the successions of all the Churches, I will indicate the tradition received from the Apostles, and the faith preached to men, which is held by the greatest and most ancient Church, and one which is known to all, and was founded and established at THE CHURCH OF ROME CHOSEN AS A SAMPLE OF 225 OTHERS, AS A REFEREE. Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul ; a tradition and faith which has come down to us through a succession of Bishops (of that See) ; and then we can refute all those who by any means, whether by evil self-complacency, or vain-glory, or blindness, or perverse opinion, gather together followers otherwise than is fit. For it is certain that all Churches (that is, believers on every side) agree with this Church, on account of its more august antiquity ; in which Church the tradition which is from the Apostles has been preserved by those who are on every side. Irenaeus means here to say, that it would be super- fluous for him to 'do, what would be irksome to do, namely, to refer singly and seriatim" to all Chicrches^ and that virtually by referring to one Church, the Church of Rome, as a sample of the rest, he does by implication appeal to all Churches which may be presumed, as a matter of course, to agree with her.^ He then enumerates the succession of Bishops in the Church of Rome from the time of the Apostles to his own.; and affirms that the Church of Rome does not teach what the heretics do, but what he has declared to be the Truth. He does not, however, rest on the tradition of the Church of Rome. He also refers to his own master S. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who had conversed with the Apostles and with many who had seen the Lord, and he says that he in his early years had seen Polycarp, and that Polycarp lived to a very great age, and was a glorious ^ That this is the meaning of this important passage, the sense of which has been misrepresented, I have endeavoured to show in my work on Hippolytus, pp. 281—291. The argument of Irenseus is (as there said) to be illustrated from a like passage in TertuUian, Q 226 ST. JOHN AND CERINTHUS ; POLYCARP AND MARCION—THE GOSPELS. Martyr for the truth, and that he taught what he had received from the Apostles, and what the Church now deHvers to the faithful. Polycarp, he adds, was a more credible witness than Valentinus and Marcion. And he relates an anecdote, narrated by Polycarp, that when St. John at Ephesus was going to a bath, and heard that Cerinthus, who denied our Lord's Divinity, was there, he said, " Let us flee hence, lest the bath fall on our heads, now that Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is in it." He relates also what Polycarp himself said to Marcion, who asked, " Dost thou not know me } " " Yes, I know thee, the first-born of Satan." ' Polycarp, he adds, wrote an excellent Epistle to' the Philippians (still extant; above, p. 158), in which they who desire it may see what his faith and teaching of the truth were. He then shows (c. 4) the comparative lateness of heresy, and declares what Christ and His Apostles had themselves delivered to their hearers (c. 5), and that no other God is acknowledged in the Scriptures but the One God the Father of all, and His Word. In chapter 1 1 he describes the four Gospels, and compares them to the Living Creatures in Ezekiel (Ezek. i. 5 ; X. 8, 15), and in the Apocalypse (iv. 7), and shows how those Living Creatures symbolize the Gospels respectively. He refutes those who alleged that there was a discrepancy between the teaching of St. Paul and the other Apostles. In chapter 14 he dwells specially on the charac- teristics of the Gospel of St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul, — a chapter which shows careful and discrimi- nating study of it, and of the Acts of the Apostles. This early testimony of Irenaeus to the existence • THE GOSPELS— PROPHECIES CONCERNING 227 CHRIST. and general reception of the Four Gospels (of St. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and of those four Gospels only as the divinely-inspired record of our Lord's words, works, and sufferings, may be accom- panied with a similar declaration from the ancient Martyrs of Carthage (a.d. 200) on their divine inspira- tion and canonicity. In answer to the question of the Proconsul, " What are the books, which, when reading them, you adore ? " their answer was, " The Four Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Fpistles of the Holy Apostle St, Paul are all divinely-inspired Script? ire? . To return to Irenaeus. He proceeds to speak of the One Person and Two Natures of Christ (c. 17, 18). He states the reason and reality of the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God, and of the Atone- ment for men.^ He says that by denying these truths, the Gnostics discourage Martyrdom. He vindicates the prophecy of Isaiah (vii. 14), and shows that the Septuagint rendering, adopted by St. Matthew, 97 '7rap6evo<;, the Virgin, is accurate (c. 24, 26, 32), and that the Blessed Virgin by her obedience was the antithesis of Eve, as Christ was of Adam (cp. V. 19 and v. 23) ; and explains why St. Luke in his Gospel connects Christ's Genealogy with His Baptism (c. 33). He confutes Tatian, who denied the salvation of Adam (c. 34 — 39). In chapter 40 he again pauses for a while, and declares the sin of those, who, as the heretics did, make a wilful schism in the Church, which is the 2 Ruinart, Acta Martyrum sincera, ed. 2da, p. 87. 3 The text here has "pro patribus." Ought it not to be "pro fratribus," for His brethren ? 2Q 228 SmFULNESS OF HERESY AND SCHISM. depository and witness of the true doctrine received from the Prophets and Apostles, and in which is communion with Christ by the Holy Spirit, which is the confirmation of our faith, the earnest of our incorruption, and the ladder of our ascent to God ; of which Spirit none are partakers who do not resort to the Church, but defraud themselves of life by perverse opinions and evil works. For where the Church is, he adds, there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is,- there is all grace, and the Spirit is truth. Therefore they who do not partake of the Spirit are neither fed from the breasts of their Mother the Church unto life, nor drink of the pure fountain that flows from the Body of Christ, but hew out for themselves broken cisterns (Jer. ii. 13) in earthly ditches, and drink putrid water from the mire, shunning the faith of the Church lest they be detected, and rejecting the Spirit lest they should be instructed. And being estranged from the Truth, they wallow in all error, and are tossed to and fro in a continual change, and have no stability of knowledge, and do not build on the one Rock, but on the sand (cp. iv. 62). He ends this book with a prayer for heretics. In the Preface to the Fourth Book he condemns the heresy of Valentinus, who said that the Demiurge or Creator proceeded from what is called an varepijfjba, " /ades," " defectio," or flaw ; and shows that our Lord acknowledged only one God and Father, and that this God and Father was proclaimed by Moses and the Prophets, and was believed in by Abraham, whose faith was directed to the same object as ours (c. 2, 3, 1 1 — 13, 15, 16, 21, 23 ; cp. iv. 38), and who will be saved by the same Christ as we are (c. 18). He shows that Christ confirmed the moral precepts THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 229 of the Law (which are of perpetual obligation), and that its ceremonies were manuductory to Christ, and were fulfilled in Him (c. 26—30, 31); and (c. 32) that even under the Levitical Law, God declared that He preferred what was moral to what was ceremonial, and would '' have mercy and not sacrifice " (Hos. vi. 6). He presents to the reader a very instructive and interesting view of the Holy Eucharist. He shows in chapter 32 the divine origin of Creation, in that under the Gospel (according to the prophecy of Malachi, i. 10) Christ commands us to offer in the Bread and Wine of the Holy Eucharist an oblation of the firstfruits and representatives of God's creatures to be conse- crated afterwards to be means of Holy Communion with Himself (cp. c. 34; v. c. 2; and see above, p. 60). In chapter 34 he declares that the acceptability of all sacrifice depends on the heart of the offerer ; and that the Church by offering God's creatures with thanksgiving in the Holy Eucharist offers a "pure sacrifice " to Him ; and that Heretics who do not acknowledge Christ to be the Son of the Creator can- not really participate in the Holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood ; and that they who deny the Resurrection of the Body cannot believe that the body is there nourished by Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ/ But the Church believes that after Consecration the earthly Bread is no longer only Bread, but becomes -* The Church of England in her office for the Holy Communion recognizes this truth, " The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life," and so in the ministration of the Cup; and thus recognizes the truth declared in our Lord's words, " He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up (i.e. as to his body) at the last day " (John vi. 54). 230 ITS EFFECTS— THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, AND THEIR MINISTRY. the Eucharist, consisting of two parts, an earthly and heavenly, and teaches that our bodies, by the recep- tion of the Holy Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but have a hope of a blessed resurrection and a glorious immortality ° (compare v. 2). In chapter 37 he describes the future glory of Christ's Kingdom as revealed by the Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel, and by the Apostle and Evangelist St. John in the Apocalypse, and the Universality of His Church, espoused to Him as a Bride from the Gentiles, and typified by Rahab of Jericho, and by Rachel from Mesopotamia. In chapter 43 he declares that the true interpretation of Scripture (he means as to articles of faith) is to be had only in the Christian Church ; and that it is the duty of all to hearken to those in the Church who have a ministerial succession from the Apostles, and have also the grace of true doctrine. He says that heretics are like Nadab and Abihu, who offered false fire on God's altar (Levit x. i) ; and that those who rise up against the Church are like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num. xvi. 16); and that they who make schisms in it will be punished with Jeroboam. He also (c. 44) declares the penalty due to vicious priests, and (c. 45) that three things are needful in a Teacher of the Church, namely. Apostolic Succession, sound Doctrine, holiness of life. In chapters 48 and 49, he refutes the objections derived from the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, and the spoiling of the Egyptians by the Israelites. As to the sins of the Patriarchs he interposes a 5 If the bread were carnally transubstantiated into Christ's Body, this argument would fail ; and our body would lose its identity at the Resurrection. Cp. above, p. 61, the passages from Gelasius and Theodoret. FAITH OF THE PROPHETS— RESURRECTION 231 OF THE BODY. caution (c. 50, 51), that we are not hastily to condemn, but to search for a spiritual meaning. In chapter 56 he declares that two Advents of Christ were foretold by the Prophets, and that in His Second Advent in glory, He will pronounce judgment on heresiarchs and their adherents (c. 57 — 62). He asserts that the Church alone has genuine gnosis, and perfect charity, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost (c. 63, 64) ; and that the Prophets were members of Christ, and that He fulfilled what they foretold (c. ^^.^j). He asserts the freedom of the human will (c 71, 72), and that man's true life depends on obedience to God's law (c. j6). In the Preface to the Fifth Book he recapitulates what had been said in the former ; he asserts that Abraham saw Christ by faith, that Christ took a real body from the flesh of the Virgin by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and that He makes us partakers of that Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist (c. i and 2 ; cp. iv. 34). In chapter 5 he illustrates God's power in giving im- mortality to the body, from the longevity of the Patri- archs, and from the translation of Enoch and Elias, and in the preservation of Jonah in the whale's belly, and of the three Children in the fiery furnace at Baby- lort ; and also in the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ (c. 7 and 13), and of Lazarus and of others who were raised from the dead by Christ. In chapter 9 he explains the meaning of the text, " Flesh and. Blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God " (see on i Cor. xv. 50). He declares (c. 15) that Isaiah and Ezekiel foretold the Resurrection of the body. He repeats (c. 20) that only those Teachers are 232 CHRIST THE SECOND' ADAM-THE ''LAST THINGS" —INTERMEDIATE STATE. to be listened to, who by Apostolic succession have the charge of the Churches, and who teach Apostolic doctrine. The Church is the seven-branched Candle- stick illuminating the world, and Christ is the Head of all things (c. 21). He contrasts the Fall of Adam, when tempted by Satan in Paradise, with the Victory of Christ, the Second Adam, when tempted by Satan in the wilder- ness. Adam fell by disobedience to God's word. Christ, when He was tempted by Satan, repelled him by sayings from God's Word (the Book of Deutero- nomy), and stood firm, and vanquished the Enemy. Adam was created on the sixth day of the week, and fell, and died, and brought death into the world. Christ died on the sixth day of the week, and rose again, and saved the World (c. 23). He describes the appearance, and working, and number, and name of Antichrist (c. 25, 28, 29, 30). He inclines to the word AATEIN02 as representing his number, because the last of the Four Monarchies of Daniel is Latin ; but thinks it better to wait patiently till the prophecy is interpreted by the event. He says that the Apocalypse of St. John was written at the close of the reign of the Emperor Domitian (a.D. 94 or 95). The dissolution of the Roman Empire will be the signal for the appearance of the Man of Sin (2 Thess. ii. 2). He describes the future Judgment, the con- summation of all things (c. 28), and seems to think that the world, which was created in six days, will last 6000 years. The intermediate state of the soul between Death and Resurrection (c. 31); the Resurrection of every one in his own body (c. 32), are described. S. IREN^US— CONCLUSION OF HIS WORK. 233 The Millennial reign of Christ upon earth ^ is described (c. 34, 35) ; after which will be, he says, the General Resurrection and Universal Judgment. Having referred to testimonies from Holy Scripture, he concludes by saying, " In all these the same God the Father is manifested. Who created Man, and promised an inheritance to the old Fathers, and Who fulfilled His promise in the Kingdom of His Son, and gives to His Children in His fatherly love such things as. ' eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man ' (Isa. Ixiv. 4. I Cor. ii. 9). For there is one Son Who performed the will of the Father, and one human race in which 'the mysteries of God are accomplished, and by God's wisdom the creature is perfected by being conformed to the Son, and engrafted in Him ; so that the First-begotten Word, His offspring, may descend into His creature, Man, and be received by it, and that His creature may receive the Word, and ascend up to Him, and surpass the Angels, and be made after the image and likeness of God." ' ^ Compare Justin Martyr c. Tryphon. c. 80 and 81 ; and S. Augustine de Civitate Dei, xx. 7 ; and may I be allowed to refer to my notes on the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation as to the doctrine of a Millennium? ^ The resemblance of this language of S. Irenaeus to the subsequent teaching of S. Athanasius in his Treatise on the Incarnation will be obvious to the reader; see below a summary of it, chap. xxvi. And compare the " Epistle to Diognetus," above, pp. 107, 108. CHAPTER XVIII. Defenders of the CJuLvch against Heresy — Tertiillia7i. The vehement and energetic Tertullian was to the mild and gentle, but steadfast Irenseus, what Luther was to Melanchthon. There was, however, this difference:' Melanchthon, as the saying was, followed Luther, as the Homeric Lite came after Ate. But in the other case it was Ate following Lite. Tertullian followed Irenaeus, and sometimes translates from him ; as in his treatise against Valen- tinus (see above, p. 217). Tertullian is the most ancient of the Latin Fathers ; and like many of the best classical writers, he was not .a native of Rome, nor of Italy. He was probably born in the City which was the ancient rival of Rome, — Carthage. He had much of African fervour and fire in his con- stitution and in his life and style. He describes him- self as " one of the most impatient of men." ^ This impatience, perhaps stimulated by laxity of discipline in the Church, hurried him into schism ; the schism of the stern, rigid, and enthusiastic Montanus. But in contemplating this grand, learned, ardent, and eloquent writer, we have more pleasure in regarding him as the revered Master of S. Cyprian, the Bishop and Martyr ^ See his portrait drawn by himself in his Treatise de Patientia, cap. I, and his beautiful description of Patience as a contrast to it, c. 14. TERTULLIAN—MONTANISM. 235 of Carthage, than the impetuous follower of Montanus, the sectarian fanatic of Phrygia. The errors of Montanus began to be propagated in Phrygia about A.D. 177 (Euseb. v. 3). Montanus represented himself as specially endued with extra- ordinary spiritual gifts, and as specially privileged to deliver new revelations to the Church from the Holy Ghost, or Paraclete, promised by Christ Himself; and such revelations, he said, were also imparted to his female votaries, Maximilla and Priscilla. Montanus does not appear to have held heretical opinions on the fundamental articles of Faith ^; and he received all the Old and New Testament ; but he was remarkable for the austerity of his disciplinarian system, in condemning second marriages, in prescrib- ing additional fasts, and especially in refusing absolu- tion and Church Communion to persons guilty of flagrant offences, however penitent they might be (Euseb, V. 18) ; and he and his followers separated themselves from the Church, and formed a Schism (Euseb. V. 16). It may at first cause surprise, that a person of Ter- tullian's masculine intellect and definite Catholic teaching should have been fascinated and ensnared by the extravagant reveries and wild rhapsodies of Montanus and his female associates. But his fervid temperament, his reckless impetuosity, and his unwavering self-confidence, taken together with ex- ternal circumstances, such as laxity of Ecclesiastical Discipline, exciting in his feverish temperament a strong feeling of indignation and exasperation, may suffice to explain it. He also regarded Montanus as a powerful ally raised up against Gnosticism. 2 See Hippol. Ref. viii. 19 ; and my work on Hippolytus, p. 22. 236 • TERTULLIAN—MONTANISM—SPIRITUALISM. Bishop Kaye (on Tertullian, p. 38) quotes as a parallel the case of the celebrated Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, captivated by the quietistic mysticism of Madame Guyon. And we may point to another example of such a psychological phenomenon in one of our own most vigorous logicians and acute con- troversialists, as well as most spiritual theologians, the Author of the Letters to Bp. Hoadley, and of the "Se- rious Call to a Devout Life," who did not escape the fanatical spells of Jacob Boehmen, — William Law. There were also some important truths underlying the errors of Montanism. Its acceptance was due in a measure to the consciousness of the existence of supernatural charismata in the primitive Church ; and it served to bring out the truth as to the nature of genuine Inspiration. The Montanists affirmed that a person under the influence of inspiration, and in a prophetic ecstasy, lost his identity, and was no more a free agent than a lyre struck by a plectrum (Epiphan. Haer. 48. Euseb. V. 16. Tertullian c. Marcion, iv. 22). But this notion was refuted by the orthodox teachers of the Church. And in the sphere of Church discipline and morals, the asceticism of Montanism as to the merit of celibacy and fasting, and the enthu- siastic desire of martyrdom, served to bring out more clear and sober statements from those who confronted it (cp. Neander, ii. 252). The history of Montanism with its ecstatic trances and strange supernatural phenomena, and pretensions to communion with the unseen world, and with oracular utterances from it, may also have a practical value for the present age, as showing that the spiritualism of later days has been virtually sub- TERTULLIAN'S WRITINGS. 237 jected to the judgment of the Catholic Church, and been condemned by it. TertuUian was originally a heathen ; was married, and addressed two Books to his wife ; and probably a Priest. He wrote in Greek as well as in Latin ; he was deeply read in heathen literature, skilful in Roman Law, as well as versed in the study of Holy Scriptures and Christian Theology. It is not easy to discriminate the Treatises written by him after he lapsed into Montanism from those which he composed previously. He died at a very advanced age. Perhaps we shall not be far wrong in saying that he was born about A.D. 1 60, lapsed into Montanism about A.D. 205, and died about A.D. 245.^* The Apologetic works of TertuUian against the heathen and against the Jews have been already noticed (pp. 93, 97). His ethical treatises do not now claim attention. We have examined his Treatise on Baptism (p. 55). We will limit ourselves here to those against heresy. And of these it is not necessary to describe that against Valentinianus, which is derived from the previous work of Irenseus. Nor need we deal with those against Marcion,^ to which reference has been already made. There will be another occa- sion for adverting to the Treatise against Praxeas the Patripassianist, when we have to speak of Noetus. That against Hermogenes is limited to the question of the 3 The following were certainly written after his secession : De Corona ; De Anima ; De Virginibus velandis ; De Resurrectione Carnis ; De Fuga in Persecutione ; De Monogamia ; De Jejuniis ; De Pudicitia ; Contra Praxeam ; Contra Marcionem. See Bp. Kaye on TertuUian, p. 43 ; ibid. 56. ^ Cp. Tillemont, iii. pp. 196, 232. * For an abstract of them see Bp. Kaye's TertuUian, pp. 480 — 508. 238 HIS " DE PRALSCRIPTIONE HyERETICORUlM." origin of matter, which Hermogenes affirmed to be eternal. The Scorpiace, an antidote to the scorpion-stings of heresy, is directed against the Valentinians and other Gnostics who deemed it a delusion to encounter Martyrdom. The Tract " de Praescrlptlone Haereticorum " (so called by a legal term prcEscriptio, signifying a de- murrer) is an admirable specimen of Tertullian's style and manner, and a characteristic production of his intellectual power and moral and spiritual tem- perament. In the following extracts from it some passages are translated literally, others are only paraphrased. The circumstances of the present times (he says, c. i) suggest to us this warning, that we ought not to be surprised either that heresies exist, seeing that they were foretold, or that they subvert the faith of some ; for they exist for this purpose, in order that Faith, being tried, may be approved. Heresies derive their power (he says, c. 2) from some men's weakness, and have no power at all if they encounter a strong faith. Weak brethren are accustomed to be edified to destruction ^ by the fall of certain persons into heresy. How happens it, they ask, that such or such a man, so faithful, prudent, and experienced in the Church, has seceded to a sect } If a man asks such a question as this, why does he not answer it himself by replying that no one is prudent or faithful or experienced who has been misled by heresy } Forsooth, is it a wonderful thing that a man, once approved, should fall 1 Saul, once eminent in 6 " /Edificari ad ruinam," " to be built up to a ruin," an oxymoron, paradox, or surprise, characteristic of Tertullian. HERESY FORETOLD', ITS MORAL DEPRAVITY. 239 virtue, became reprobate ; David, the man after God's own heart, was guilty of adultery and murder. Solomon, who was gifted by God with all grace and wisdom, was beguiled by women to idolatry. It was reserved for the Son of God alone to be without sin.' What then } If a Bishop, a Deacon, or Widow, or Virgin, or Doctor of the Church, or even if a Martyr has lapsed from the rule of faith, shall heresies there- fore become true } Do we test faith by men, and not test men by faith t No man is wise who is not faithful ; no one is a teacher ^ but a Christian ; no one IS a Christian who does not endure to the end. The Lord holds in His hand His fan to purge His floor. Let the chaff of fickle faith fly off as it likes from the threshing-floor of the Church with every blast of temptation, so much the more pure will be the heap of corn, to be stowed in the garner of the Lord. He then shows that Christ Himself in His earthly ministry was deserted by many of His disciples. What wonder then that His Apostle Paul should have had a Phygellus, an Hermogenes, an Hymenaeus, or an Alexander 1 The traitor was an Apostle. He shows also that Heresies and Apostasies from the Church have been foretold in Holy Scripture, and that Heresies are of use to prove the faith of the orthodox. St. Paul, he says, reckons Heresy among the works of the flesh (Gal. v. 20) ; and St. Paul says that a heretic who is obstinate after warning is self-con- demned (Titus iii. 10). The reason of which is, that ' Tertullian knew nothing of the dogma of the Immaculate Concep- tion of the Blessed Virgin. ^ The original is major. Ought we to read magr, i.e. magister, a teacher ? I have ventured to translate it so. 240 HERESY DERIVED FROM HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY. the word heresy signifies choice, and if a man chooses what is false (instead of receiving yN\vdX God reveals), he is condemned by himself in choosing it. But in matters of faith we are not permitted to choose anything, or to receive anything new that others have chosen. Our Teachers are the Apostles of the Lord, who chose nothing for themselves, but received and taught the doctrine which He delivered to them ; and therefore, " if even an angel from heaven were to teach us anything else, we should call him anathema " (Gal. i. 8). He affirms that most Heresies have sprung from heathen philosophy {c.j). The ^ons of Valentinus are from Plato ; the supreme God of Marcion is a reproduc- tion of the tranquil apathy of Stoicism. The denial of the soul's immortality is from Epicurus ; the dis- belief of the body's resurrection is from every school of Gentile philosophy. The eternal co-ordination of matter with God (by Hermogenes) is from Zeno. But what (he asks) have Christians to do with pagan philosophy ? (c. 7.) What has Jerusalem to do with Athens } What has the Church to do with the Academy } What have Christians to do with heretics .'' We have learnt Jesus Christ, and have now no need of curious search ; we are not inquisitive, for we have the Gospel. When we believe, we do not crave to believe anything beyond our belief ; rather, we believe that there is nothing more to be believed than what we believe (c. 8). Some persons say, quoting our Lord's words, " Seek, and ye shall find " (Matt. vii. 7) ; but this is not to be applied to articles of faith, which have been fully revealed already once for all.^ And if I am to 9 Tertullian, like S. Irengeus, knew nothing of the theory of the " De- TERTULLIAN'S CREED. 241 act on this advice, where am I to stop ? What is to be the end of my seeking ? If I stop at Marcion, Valentinus comes up to me, and seizes hold of me. If I pause at Valentinus, Apelles shoves me on, and says, " Seek, and ye shall find." Next, Simon Magus arrests me ; and so, when I am trying to meet them all, — I am nowhere. *'But if we are to seek, let us seek on our own ground, and from among our own friends. Let us seek that alone which may be sought without straying away from the Rule of Faith (c. 13)." He then sets down the Rule of Faith, which may be compared with the Creed already quoted from S. Irenaeus (see above, p. 217). Taken together, these Creeds, which are substantially the same, and yet have some circumstantial varieties, are strong and independent testimonies of the union of the Eastern and Western Churches in the same Catholic Faith. " We believe that there is One God, and none other than the Creator of the world ; Who made all things of nothing by means of His Word, Whom we call His Son ; Who appeared in the Name of God at various times and in divers manners to the Patriarchs, and Whose voice was always heard by the Prophets ; Who in the last days came down from the Spirit and Might of the Father into the Virgin Mary, and was made flesh in her womb, and was born of her, and in very act and deed was Jesus Christ ; and preached the new Law and a new Promise of the kingdom of heaven ; and worked Miracles ; and was nailed to the cross ; and rose again from the dead the third day ; and was taken velopinent of Christian Doctrine" as any part of the system of the Theology of the Catholic Church. See above, p. 222. R 242 TERTULLIAN'S PROFESSION OF FAITH. Up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father ; and sent in His own stead the power of the Holy Ghost to operate in the faithful ; and Who will come again in glory to receive to Himself His Saints to the fruition of life eternal and heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire ; and He will raise both the righteous and the wicked with their bodies, and with flesh and blood, from their graves." With this profession of faith, set down here by Tertullian, we may compare the similar Creed in his Treatise against Praxeas (c. 2). . " We believe in One God, but under the following dispensation or oeconomy, that is, we believe also in the Son of God, His Word, Who came forth from Him, by Whom all things were made, and without Whom nothing was made ; Who was sent by Him into the Virgin, and was born of her, being both Man and God, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and called Jesus Christ ; Who suffered, died, and was buried, according to the Scriptures, and was received again by the Father, and was taken up into heaven, there to sit at the right hand of the Father, and thence to come again to judge the quick and the dead ; Who sent from heaven from His Father the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Sanctifier of all who believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." "This Rule of Faith," he adds (c. 14), "being established by Christ, admits of no questionings among us, except such as are raised by heresies, or such as make heretics. Therefore let curiosity give way to faith, and let vain-glory give way to salvation. To know nothing contrary to the Rule of Faith is to know everything." ON APPEALS TO HOL Y SCRIPTURE. 243 He then enters on the inquiry whether heretics are to be admitted to dispute concerning Scripture. Here it is to be observed, that TertulHan does not demur to an appeal to Scripture generally, provided the appellants agree as to what is Scripture, and how it is to be interpreted ; but he takes exception against such an appeal in the case of heretics^ who do not agree as to wJiat is Scripture, but reject, in their own arbitrary caprice, any portions of Scripture that do not agree with their own preconceived notions ; and who reject the true interpretation of Scripture, and despise the Church, which is appointed by God to be its inter- preter, and pervert the Scripture to suit their own fancies. There is no end, he says, of controversies on Scripture with such men as these, and no good to be gained from such disputes. You will only lose your time and temper, and not convince them. Whether this is a sound statement may admit a doubt. S. Irenaeus, as we have seen, arguing in his books against heretics who perverted the. meaning of Scripture, explains what the true sense of the Scrip- ture, which they perverted, is. So did Tertullian him- self in his work against Marcion. So did Athanasius and the other Catholic Fathers ; they used Scripture, rightly interpreted, against those who misinterpreted it. This they did, not so much for the sake of the heretics themselves, as for that of those who were in danger of being led astray by their heretical misinterpretations. So did S. Augustine in his works against Faustus and other Manichaeans. So did a Greater than all of them, our Blessed Lord at the Temptation. He appealed to Scripture, rightly understood, in opposition to the Tempter who perverted it (see on Matt. iv. 6, 7). R 2 244 HOW HERETICS TREAT SCRIPTURE. But to return. " This or that heresy," he says, " does not receive certain Scriptures, or if it receives them, does not receive them in their integrity, but mangles them, and adds to them, in order to suit its own tenets ; and if it receives them in their integrity, it wrests them to its own purposes by arbitrary expo- sitions. The Truth is as much depraved by the false interpretation that adulterates Scripture, as by the amputating knife that mutilates it (c. 17). "Therefore with such men as these we must not appeal to Scripture, nor must we rest the issue of the controversy upon it. We must first decide the ques- tions, To whom do the Scriptures belong ? To heretics, or to the Church } To whom have they been committed ? Who is their Guardian } Who their Interpreter 1 Heresy, or the Church } Whereso- ever the truth of Christian discipline and faith exists, there also exists the Truth of Scripture, and of the right Interpretation of it, and of all Christian traditions ;" that is, in the Church. He then shows (c. 20) that the origin of the Church, and well-spring of the Faith is in Christ, Who chose the Twelve Apostles ; whom, when after His resurrection He was going to the Father, He commissioned to teach all Nations, and to baptize them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. After the election of Matthias into the place of Judas, the Apostles received the promised gift of the Holy Ghost, enabling them to work miracles and to preach, first in Judaea, where they founded Churches. Afterwards they went forth into the world and preached the same doctrine of the same Faith to the Nations ; and thenceforth in every city they planted Churches, from which the other Churches of the world have derived, like trees, the SUCCESSION OF CHURCHES AND MINISTERS. 245 suckers of their faith, and the seed of their doctrine ; and from which in succession other Churches con- tinually spring forth and derive their spiritual essence and their qualification to be C/mrches, and thus are recognized as Apostolic Churches, being the offspring and family of Apostolic Churches (c. 20). " Every generation," he says, " is to be traced back to its origin, and to be reckoned in the census of the parental stock. Therefore so many and so great Churches throughout the world, are virtually 07ie Church ; and are contained and included in that one primitive Church which is from the Apostles. All Churches are that one first Church ; all are Apostolic, as long as they can all prove their unity, by means of the communication of peace, and by the name of brotherhood, and by the mutual recognition and in- terchange of Christian intercommunion and spiritual hospitality. " Hence it follows (c. 21) that every Church, which agrees with those Apostolic Mother-Churches, and original sources of faith, is to be counted as true ; in that it holds without wavering that true faith which the Church received from the Apostles, and which the Apostles received from Christ, and which Christ received from God. " It follows also that every doctrine is to be pre- judged as false, which contravenes the truth that was taught by the Churches, by the Apostles, by Christ, and by God." He then combats two heretical allegations, that the Apostles did not know all necessary dogmatic truths ; or that they did not fully communicate to their disciples what they knew ; and he shows that both these allegations are false. 246 UNITY AND ANTIQUITY THE ESSENCE OF TRUTH: DIVERSITY AND NOVELTY, OF ERROR. "Who can imagine that the Apostles who were taught by our Lord Himself, and to whom He gave super- natural gifts, did not comprehend the truth ? But let us grant," he says (c. 28), " for argument's sake, that the Apostles were deceived, in rendering their testi- mony to the truth ; let us even admit, that the Holy Spirit, the Steward of God, the Vicar of Christ, failed in the discharge of His duty, to guide the Church into all truth, and to teach her all things, although He was sent by Christ according to His promise for this ex- press purpose, and was given in answer to Christ's prayer to the Father for the Gift of the Comforter that He might be the Teacher of all Truth. " Grant all this, if you please ; — what then ? Is it pro- bable, that all Churches should have erred into one and the same Faith f Unity is not the result of multiplicity. Error produces diversity. That which among many is found to be one and the same, is not an invention of error, but a tradition of truth. Did the authors of this uniform tradition err } Did Error prevail uni- formly in the Church, till Heresies arose to correct it } Did Truth sit patiently, like a captive in a dungeon, till some Marcionites or Valentinians arose ^ to release her .? In the mean while, before these heresies existed, was all Preaching a mistake } Was all belief a mis- take } Were all the thousands of Baptisms adminis- tered up to that time a mistake t Were all works of faith, and all miracles then performed in the Church a mistake } Were all gifts and graces a mistake t Were all ordinations, all ministrations abortive ? Were 1 The reader may feel constrained to apply these questions to religious societies of later days, deriving their names from human Founders. Was Truth in prison for 1500 years, till Calvin came to deliver her? Did she slumber in a trance till Wesley arose to awaken her ? PRIORITY OF TRUTH; NOVELTY OF HERESY— 247 APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. all Martyrdoms crowned in vain ? No : Heresy is proved to be false by its novelty. The" substance always precedes the shadow. Truth is always before heresy. And the Holy Scripture of Truth foretold the rise of heresies which would corrupt the truth." He proceeds to prove the comparative novelty of heresy (c. 30). The heresiarchs had not appeared in primitive times. " Where, he asks, was Marcion then, the mariner of Pontus, the votary of Stoicism } Where was Valentinus, the scholar of Plato } Nowhere. They did not exist till about the reign of the Emperor Anto- ninus ; ^ and were orthodox in the Episcopate of Eleu therus. Bishop of Rome, when they fell away from the Church, and were excommunicated by her. Priority of time as to Christian doctrine is an evidence of truth ; posteriority, a proof of falsehood. Our challenge there- fore to all heresies is this. Exhibit the origin of your Churches. Unroll the succession of your Bishops. Show us that the first in order in that succession was a person who was preceded by an Apostle, or by a man who had conversed with the Apostles. Such is the pedi- gree and census of all Apostolical Churches ; as, for example, of the Church of Smyrna, where Polycarp was placed as Bishop by St. John ; or of the Church of Rome, where Clement was ordained by St. Peter." In accordance with this principle, he proc<^eds by the same method as that employed by S. xrenaeus, as we have already seen (above, p. 223). "^xc tells the Christian believer that if he desires to exercise his love of inquiry in the work of his Salvation, he may take a survey of the different Churches of Christen- ' Cp. Justin Martyr's First Apology, addressed to Antoninus Pius, c. 26 and c. 58, where he speaks of Marcion as then broaching his heretical opinions. 248 APPEAL TO APOSTOLIC CHURCHES. dom in which the Chairs of the Apostles ^ still pre- serve their presidency, and where their authentic Epistles are read, uttering the voice and displaying the countenance of each Apostle. " Is Achaia near you ? You have Corinth (to which St. Paul wrote). If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi and Thessalonica. If you can visit Asia, you have Ephesus. If you are near Italy, you have Rome. Happy indeed is that Church (of Rome), into which the Apostles poured their doctrine with their blood, where Peter suffered by crucifixion like his Lord, and where Paul was crowned with the death of John the Baptist ; where John was plunged into the caldron of oil, and suffered no harm, and was banished to the Isle of Patmos. Let us see what that Church learnt, and what it taught, and how it symbolized with the Churches of Africa.^ It knew of only One God, the Creator of the World, and Jesus Christ the Son of God the Creator, from the Virgin Mary ; and the Resurrection of the Flesh. In its public assemblies it joins the reading of the Law and the Prophets with that of the Gospels and Apostolic Writings ; it drinks its faith from those Scriptures ; it seals that faith with Baptism ; it clothes that faith with the Holy Spirit (in Confirmation); it feeds that faith with the Eucharist ; it exhorts to Martyrdom ; and it receives no one in any other way than in accordance with these appointments." He proceeds (c. 40) to contrast this system of the Church as to doctrine and discipline with the arbitrary and variable teaching and practice of heretical com- 3 Tertullian therefore had no notion that in the Catholic Church there was only one "Apostolica sedes " — "Apostolic see" — at Rome. ^ TertulHan, it will be remembered, was an inhabitant — probably a presbyter — of Carthage. CONTRAST OF HERESY AND THE CHURCH. 249 munities. He charges them with idolatry. "They either make for themselves, he says, some other God in opposition to the Creator, or if they acknow- ledge the Creator, they represent Him other than He is. Every falsehood concerning God is idolatry. " The character of their religious assemblies is with- out gravity, authority, or discipline. You cannot tell who among them is a catechumen, and who a member of their Church. Their Church assemblies, their at- tendance at sermons, and their prayers, are all promis- cuous and indiscriminate. If a heathen comes among them, they give what is holy to the dogs, and they will cast pearls — though not real ones — to swine (Matt. vii. 6). Prostration of discipline is called by them simplicity ; our care for discipline is by them called pandering. They receive all to communion. They do not care how they differ among themselves, provided they agree in attacking the truth. Their women, how wanton they are ! they take on them- selves to preach, to dispute, to exorcise, to profess to heal, perhaps to baptize. Their ordinations, how rash, fickle, inconstant ! At one time they admit neo- phytes to the ministry, at another men engaged in worldly business, at another those who have fallen away from us, in order that they may bind to them- selves by vain-glory those whom they cannot unite by the truth. In no place is preferment so easy as in the camp of rebels. To be there, is merit. One man is a Bishop to-day, to-morrow another ; to-day a man is a Deacon, to-morrow he becomes a Reader ; to-day he is a Priest, to-morrow a Layman ; for they invest even Laymen with priestly functions. They do not care to convert the heathen, but they try to subvert us ; they had rather cause those who stand to fall, than enable 250 ON RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. the fallen to rise. They undermine our house, in order to build up their own. Not construction, but destruc- tion, is their work. Their bond of union is Schism. *' I have now," he concludes (c. 45), " dealt with heresies generally. If God will, I shall hereafter endeavour to refute them severally. In the mean time, to all who read this treatise I wish peace, and the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for evermore. Amen:''' The reader of the foregoing abstract of the work of TertuUian need hardly be reminded that it is applicable to the religious communities which have arisen in Christendom, especially in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and which now mar its unity. May they listen to the appeal of TertuUian, writing at the end of the third century. 5 This treatise of TertuUian is followed in the Editions of his works by a catalogue of heresies, which is probably not genuine. It has been supposed by some to be a translation of the "little book " on heresies, written by S. Hippolytus (see my Hippolytus, p. 192), and seen by Photius, but now lost. CHAPTER XIX. Defenders of the Faith against Heresy— S. Clement of A lexandria. It was providentially ordered, that in addition to S. Irenaeus and Tertullian, the Christian Church could number among her defenders against Heresy such persons as the learned Presbyter and Teacher of Theology, Clement of Alexandria. Heresy, as we have seen, was regarded by Tertullian as an offspring of heathen Philosophy. " The Philoso- phers, he said, are the Patriarchs of Heretics " (see Tertullian c. Hermogenem, c. 8 ; de Anima, c. 3, 23 ; de Praescr. Haeret. c. 7, 30). S. Irenaeus also was of opinion that many of the tenets of heresiarchs were derived from heathen Schools of Ethics and Meta- physics. The same opinion was entertained by the scholar of S. Irenaeus, S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus Romanus, and was made the groundwork of his lately-discovered " Refutation of all Heresies." But this view was an imperfect one ; and it was reserved to Clement of Alexandria and his scholars, especially Origen, to supply its deficiencies by a more enlarged, liberal, and philosophical treatment of theological questions. Alexandria may be called the Mother of systematic theological Science. The conquests of the Greek 252 SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA— CLEMENS ALEX- ANDRINUS. Monarchy under Alexander the Great had extended themselves to Egypt; and one of his successors, Ptolemy, had founded a Greek Dynasty at Alexandria. Thus the Philosophy, Poetry, and other Literature of Greece found a home in Egypt. A School of Hebrew Rabbis also existed there, rendered famous by the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, i. e. the Septuagint Version, entitled the Alexandrine. The traditions of Egyptian Wisdom, in which Moses himself had been trained (Acts vii. 2), wepe also preserved there. The School of Christian Theology which flourished there has been traced by some to St. Mark the Evangelist, the disciple of St. Peter, and probably Bishop of Alexandria.^ S. Clement of Alexandria, who succeeded Pantaenus in the headship of that School, declares his own view of his duties in that office. His desire was to gather from every quarter what would be useful to his pupils, especially Greeks ; for " the Earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" (p. 659, ed. Potter). All culture is profitable ; and, above all, the study of Holy Scripture, to enable us to prove what we teach (p. 660). He had four classes to deal with : ^ (i.) The seekers after wisdom, the Greeks who despised Christianity as a blind faith, shunning the light of reason. 1 Euseb. ii. 15, 16, 24; v. 10, II ; vi. 3, There is a full account of this School in the Treatise of H. E. F. Guerike "de Schola quce Alexandrise floruit catechetica" (Halis. 1824), and its Teachers, Athenagoras, Pantaenus, Clement, Origen, Heraclas, Dionysius, Pierius, Theognostus, Serapion, Peter the Martyr, (Arius ?) Didymus (the teacher of S. Jerome), Rhodon. 2 Cp. Neander, ii. 263. CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS. 253 (2.) The Gnostics, who also despised faith as only the religion of the many, and who promised to their own votaries an esoteric gnosis or knowledge far superior to faith. (3.) Those Christian Teachers who feared and hated human science and philosophy, as dangerous to the Faith, and even as an offspring of the Evil One. (4.) The Jews. He had to contend with all these, and, as far as he could, to conciliate and win them to the Church. He was well qualified for the work. He had travelled into Greece, Italy, and Egypt, and had conversed with learned and holy men of those and other lands (see p. 322, ed. Potter; Euseb. v. 11). He was (as we have said) the scholar and successor of the philosophical, learned, and devout Pantsenus, as principal Teacher of the Catechetical School at Alexandria (Euseb. v. 1 1 ; vi. 14. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. c. 38), and there he became the master of Origen, who succeeded him In the same theological chair. Clement appears to have held that position till the breaking out of the persecution of the Church In the tenth year of the Emperor Severus, A.D. 202. All Christian Teaching, according to his view, is derived from one and the same Divine Master, the Eternal A0709 or WORD, the Son of God, the Creator, God and Lord, and Judge of all. He delivers that teaching In three works ; 1. In his TrpoTpeirrLKo^;, or hortatory address to the Gentiles, that they may embrace Christianity. 2. In his TraLhaycoyo^, Pedagogue^ he represents the 3 St. Paul's use of this word will occur to the reader (Gall iii. 24). Let me refer to two valuable aids in the study of the life and works of S. Clement,— Bp. Kaye's " Account of the Writings of Clement of 254 HIS HORTATORY ADDRESS TO THE HEATHEN. Divine Master as initiating His Children into divine Sonship by Holy Baptism, the Sacrament of regenera- tion and adoption, the pledge of immortality (pp. 113 — 116). The Divine Master trains His converts in the practical duties of daily life ; and therefore in dealing with this subject S. Clement is led to deliver precepts on common things,* relating to food and drink, to furniture, music, conversation, costume and cosmetics, sleep, beds and bed-chambers, marriage, dress of men and women, shoes, rings and their Christian emblems (the dove, the fish, a ship, a lyre, an anchor, p. 289), jewels and chains of gold, domestic economy, true beauty, dyeing the hair, the beard, the bath, and athletic exercises of men and women, and women's household duties, the arrangement of their hair (p. 290), false hair, hair-dyes (pp. 291, 292), rouge, the gait and manners and the tone of voice of women (pp. 292, 296), female slaves, games of chance, going to the theatre (p. 298), giving attendance to sacred things, honesty in dealing, behaviour in church (pp. 299 — 301), prayer and fasting, and sacrifice (p. 305). S. Clement concludes with a Hymn of Prayer and Praise ^ in anapaestic and Iambic verses ; as follows — Alexandria," London, 1835, and Neander's Church History, vol. ii. 265 — 282, Edinburgh, 1 85 1. ■* This treatise, the Pedagogue, will be found very interesting and useful to the Archaeologist ; and may be compared with such Books as Becker's Callus, Leipzig 1863, and Boettiger's Sabina. 5 In the first verse of this Hymn (ed. Potter, p, 312) are the following words : — 1S,t6ij.iou TTwKoiv aZoMv Tlrephv opvidcav airXauwu tyla^ vtiTTicDV aTpiKr]5, the last line of which it is difficult to scan or construe. Archbp. Potter in his edition renders it " Verus clavus infantumi"' but for vrjirlwu S. CLE MEATS HYMN. 255 "Be propitious to Thy Children, O Father, Charioteer of Israel, Son and Father, both One. O Lord, grant that, obeying Thy commandments, we may perfect the likeness of the (divine) image ; and as far as in us lies may acknowledge (Thee) a good God, and merciful Judge. Grant that all we, living in Thy peace, translated to Thy City, sailing safely over the waves of sin, may be calmly borne along by the Holy Spirit, the ineffable Wisdom, and may sing praise with thanksgiving, day and night, till the perfect day ; rendering thanks and lauds to the only Father and Son, Son and Father, the Pedagogue and Teacher, with the Holy Spirit, all in One ; in Whom are all things ; through Whom all things are one ; through Whom is Eternity ; Whose Members we all are, Whose is the Glory, the Ages. " To the All-good, All-beautiful, All-wise, All-just, be Glory noAv and for ever. Amen." * 3. This Hymn, declaratory of Christian doctrine, is an appropriate introduction to the third work of S. Clement, the Stromateis, literally tapisseries, forming a variegated patchwork, quilt, or counterpane of many colours, so called from the miscellaneous "^ character of its contents, put together without any systematic arrangement. It consists of Eight Books. • Though there is little order in the adjustment of its we may conjecture v'(](av, of ships, and we may translate it " true ricdder of ships:' After writing this, I have found that this conjecture had been antici- pated by Klotz, p. 348, ed. Lips. 1832, who has arranged this beautiful Kymn in a much more metrical form than that in which it had appeared in former editions of S. Clement. ^ With this Hymn we may compare the " Evening Hymn " to Christ in Routh's Reliquiae, iii. p. 513, dating from the second or third Century. 7 Like the Erzcvin of rabbinical writers, and of the learned Dr. S. R. Maitland, Lond. 1850. Clement's work is also called Stroniata. 256 HIS STROMA! A. parts, yet the design of the whole is uniform and one. The Author proposes to show that the Gnostics did not deserve their name ; that their gnosis, or know- ledge, so called, is in fact ignorance, error, and false- hood, injurious to God and man ; that Christianity is the only true Gnosis or knowledge, and that the Christian is the true Gnostic ; and he proceeds to declare what are the real qualifications which constitute that character. The work therefore has a twofold design ; it is a Refutation of heretical error, and a Declaration of Christian Truth. He lays down as a fundamental principle that Heresies are to be refuted by two methods, namely, from Holy Scripture, and by an appeal to the primitive Church ; and that the true Theologian will show that heresies are defections from them both (p. 888), and that Truth is the only right uLpeai^ or choice, just as Christianity is the only true yvaxiL^ or knowledge. A person, he says, ceases to be a man of God and faithful to the Lord if he kicks against the tradition of the Church and lapses into heresy (p. 890) ; but if he obeys the Scripture, he recovers his relation to the Lord, Who is the origin of all true doctrine. S. Clement (like TertuUian, Prsescr. Hser. 30) argues from the novelty of heresies, that they are false (p. 891). The Gospel preached by Christ Himself, he says, began under Augustus and Tiberius, and was con- summated after the intervention of his time (p. 8 The Editors agree that the text here is corrupt. The words are ^ Tov Kvplov Karairapovaiav BidaffKaXia awh Avyovarov Kol Ttfiepiov Kai- aapos ap^ajxiv-T] iJ.i(TovvT(»i> twv AvyovcTTov xp^f^v TcXfiovrai, where for Avyova-rov I venture to read avTov, i.e. of him, namely Tiberius, and I HOW HERETICS QUOTE SCRIPTURE. 257 The preaching of His Apostles to the end of the niinistration of St. Paul was consummated under Nero. But the Heresiarchs arose under Hadrian, and continued till the elder Antonine (Antoninus Pius, Iren. iii. 4 ; see above, p. 246. Euseb. iv. 10). The true doctrine is that which is first in time ; and this is the doctrine of the Church. He also, like Tertullian, infers the falsehood of heresies from the diversity among them, as well as from \kv€\x posteriority to the Truth. " There is only One Church (he says) ; that which is from the beginning, that which is grounded on its own covenants with God, or rather, on One Covenant, which was revealed in various times, and which, by the will of One God, gathers together the faithful by One Lord, into the Unity of One Faith. But Heresies, which are numerous, divide this One Church into various sects, and corrupt this One Faith by diversities of doctrine." S. Clement states, as a characteristic of all Heretics, that in their appeal to the Scriptures they quote them piecemeal, and pick out such passages, and these often perverted by false interpretations, as seem to favour their own opinions, which they prefer to the plain words of our Lord, the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles (pp. 891, 892); and he charges them with vain-glory and ambition (pp. 892, 896), and says that while the heathen are in ignorance, and the Church has true knowledge, heretics are swayed only by their own private opinions (p. 894). The heresies against which his work is mainly directed are those of Basilides and Valentinus ; of Marcio7i and Carpocrates; of Tatian and the Encratites. have so translated it. As to this use of iii^aovvrt^v, cp. Irenrrus, iii. 4, " mediantibits Ecclesise Umporibus." ' S 258 BASILIDES- VALENTINUS. He shows that the tenets of Basilides and Valentinics are destructive of the doctrines of God's Justice and of Human Free-will. The disciples of Basilides, he says, assert that faith is a natural gift bestowed by God on the Elect, and that it reveals knowledge to them without any mental exertion on their part. The followers of Valentimis disparage faith. They say that the simple may have it and profit by it, but that they themselves, who are saved by nature and are predestined to salvation, enjoy knowledge which is far superior to faith, even -more superior to faith than spiritual persons are superior to mere animal ones. They affirm that all things are subject to fatal neces- sity (pp. 69—74,433). The disciples of Basilides assert that faith, and election together with faith,, are assigned to each person according to his degree in the scale of being, by a supermundane fatalism-; and that faith is not an act of the will, but a decree of destiny. Hence, according to them, argues S. Clement, no one can be responsible, no one is culpable, no one is liable to punishment ; for sin is an act of the will against a known law. Hence there is no room for repentance, or remission of sin, and Martyrdom is superfluous. The means of grace in the Church, Baptism and Confirmation, are lifeless forms ; God Himself, the Father and the Son, with their revealed attributes of Justice, Mercy and Love, Holiness and Purity, are reduced to abstractions and moral nonentities. God is only a necessary piece of mechanism ; the saving work of Christ's Redemption is a fable ; the com- mands of God are useless (see pp. 433, 467, 599, 603, 639, 644, 645). TEACHING OF THE CHURCH ON FAITH AND 259 • SUFFERING— MARC I ON. The Church (he says) asserts on the contrary the indispensable necessity of faith, and also declares it to be an act of the human will, enlightened by divine Grace ; and that it must show itself by confes- sion of God, and by works of love to Him and to men (pp. 640, 644, 645, 647), and by holiness ; in opposition to those heretics who lived immoral lives. He shows also (p. 601 J the duty of Martyrdom, which displays the perfect work of love (pp. 569, 570), and says that by death the Martyr lives (p. 582), and that Suffering for Christ is the road to Glory (pp. 587, 598). At the same time he censures those who reck- lessly expose themselves to persecution (p. 597), and declares that God overrules all the sufferings of His servants to His own glory, and the good of His Church, and to the salvation of those who suffer for Him (pp. 602 — 606). The other forms of heresy which are refuted by S. Clement, are specially those of the Marcionites, Tatian and the Encratites, and Carpocrates. Marcioii.w^ have seen (pp. 198 — 201), held the doc- trine of two Gods ; one just and severe, the Demiurge or Creator and Author of the Old Testament ; and the other a good and merciful God, the Author of the New (S. Clem. pp. 449, 515, 516, 645). Marcion maintained that the material world was evil, beinp; the work of the Demiurge, the antagonist of the good Deity ; and that it was a moral duty to oppose Him and His works ; and consequently that Marriage and the procreation of Children are to be condemned as works of the body, and tending to people this world, of which He was the Maker. Tatian and theEncratites took a similar view (pp. 186, 315). But Carpocrates, and Epiphanes his son, S 2 260 SPIRITUALISM AhW LIBERTINISM— S. CLEMENT ON ABSTINENCE AND TEMPERANCE. though they agreed with Marcion and the Encratites in their contempt of matter, and in their enmity to its Creator, ran into the opposite extreme of Hcentious- ness, as has been observed (above, pp. 191 — 197), and gave free reins to the passions, and to the abuse of the body by excesses of dissolute hbertinism (p. 529), and by communism in marriage, after " the manner of brute beasts, which have no understanding " (cp. 2 Pet. ii. 12 ; Jude 10). S. Clement takes the middle path, and while he extols the happiness of a celibate life, dedicated to God, he declares the sanctity of Marriage, and the love and comfort of the society of man and wife in a chaste conjugal union, and the blessedness of children and of a Christian family (pp. 502, 529, 530, 533/540- Our rule, he says, with regard to Marriage and Food and Drink, ought to be, not to condemn God's creatures, which is blasphemy against the Creator (p. 530), but to use His creatures and gifts, not in the slavery of concupiscence, but with soberness, chastity, and temperance, and with love and thankfulness to the Almighty Giver of all good. Men are at liberty either to marry, or to abstain from Marriage. Celibacy is not in itself better than Marriage. They who to avoid distraction have remained unmarried, have often become misanthropic and uncharitable ; while on the other hand other persons who have married, have given themselves up to sensuality (p. 541). Marriage and Single-life have each their peculiar duties. Let every one do his own duty in that state of life to which he is called ; that he may become free in Christ, and receive his reward from Him : he quotes St. Paul as confirming this opinion (pp. 546, 550, 551, 555). One part of S. Clement's design, as has been said. S. CLEMENT ON FALSE GNOSIS -AND TRUE, 261 was to refute heretics, and to show that their ^;^^i-/i- was ignorance, folly, and falsehood ; that it came under the Apostle's condemnation of "science, falsely so called" (i Tim. vi. 20), and "vain philosophy " (Col. ii. 8) ; and that it led to impious and immoral consequences. The other part of his undertaking was to vindicate and establish the truth, and to show that Christianity was the only trite gnosis, and that the Christian was the only gemdne Gnos'tic, and also to describe his character as such. In doing this, he takes a large and comprehensive view. He declares that all Knowledge is from God ; that He is the sole fountain and well-spring of all that is true, just, wise, noble, holy, and beautiful that ever existed in the Gentile World, as well as in the Hebrew Nation ; and that all the fair streams of truth and loveliness flowed forth from the LOGOS, the divinely appointed Teacher and Educator of Mankind. Clement had shown this in his other work, the " Paedagogus." He did not (with Tertullian, Irenseus, and Hippolytus) reject Gentile Philosophy as the source of evil, but he regarded it, especially Platonism, as having many elements of good, which ought to be filtered off from the evil, and applied to the use of the Church. In his view the " wisdom of the ancients was a part of God's plan in educating the world." The Gentile Philosophers and Poets were Prophets of a universal Humanity. They were not indeed such in all respects, — far, very' far from it. Indeed he displays their manifold failings and vices,® but so 9 He speaks (p. 487) of certain Powers alluring the animal man by- pleasures, as cattle are led on by green boughs. In Potter's edition, p. 487, it is QaXKovs irpocrUvTes. ,, The true reading is Trpoaeiovres, i.e. ** shaking boughs de/ore cattle in order to lure them on." It is a Platonic phrase, daWovs irpoaeUiy. See Ruhnken's Timseus in z/., p. 136. 262 S. CLEMENT AND RICHARD HOOKER ON KNOWLEDGE. far as they delivered what was true, just, wise, pure, lovely,^ and graceful, they were ministers of the Logos Himself,^ in Whom are hidden all the " treasures of divine wisdom," and Who dispenses them to Man. In this respect Clement anticipated the eloquent pleadings of our great philosophical theologian Richard Hooker,^ against the narrow-minded and rigid notions of the Puritans in his day, who contended that because St. Paul censured " science falsely so called'' and ''vain philosophy," the Apostle was there- fore an enemy to science and philosophy. To them Hooker rejoined in a noble Apology for God's infinite Wisdom and Love to men in every age. He affirms that to refute " vain philosophy," and to confound " false science," sound philosophy and true science are needed ; and he then says, in words which might be applied to describe the Alexandrine theology, — " There is in the world no kind of knowledge whereby any part of truth is seen, but we justly account it precious ; yea, that principal truth, in comparison whereof all other knowledge is vile, may receive from it some kind of light ; whether it be that Egyptian and Chaldaean wisdom mathematical, wherewith Moses and Daniel were furnished ; or that natural, moral, and civil wisdom, wherein Solomon excelled all men ; or that rational and oratorial wisdom of the ^ St. Paul himself, — who quotes heathen poets, Menander, Epi- menides, and Aratus, — seems to give countenance to this more liberal and generous Alexandrine view in Phil. iv. 8, rather than to the more stern and morose theory of some other schools. 2 Philosophy in his view was a handmaid to Christianity ; a Hagar to Sarah ; a Lamp kindled from the Light of the Logos (pp. 333, 335, 663). But Clement exercises a wise discrimination, and gives an excellent summary of the tenets of heathen philosophical Schools in his Second Book of Stromateis, and compares them with some Gnostic Heresies, pp. 488—500; see also pp. 514— 539' 5 Hooker, III. viii. 9. S. CLEMENT ON JUSTIFICATION. 263 Grecians, which the Apostle St. Paul brought from Tarsus ; or that Judaical which he learned in Jerusalem sitting at the feet of Gamaliel. To detract from the dignity whereof, were to do injury even to God Him- self, Who being that Light which none can approach unto, hath sent out those lights whereof we are capable, even as so many bright sparkles resembling the bright fountain from which they rise." In a like spirit Clement affirms that true Philosophy and genuine Science are necessary to arm the Christian Gnostic against the sophistry and subtlety of vain Philosophy and of Science falsely so called'' (pp. 278 ; cp. 338, 339, 655). But Clement went further than this ; he affirmed that the Gentiles were justified by their Philosophy so far as it was true, as the Hebrews were by the Law, and as Christians are by faith in the Gospel ; and that Gentile Philosophy as well as the Mosaic Law was preparatory to the Gospel. When however Clement speaks of justification to be obtained by Philosophy, he did not mean that Philosophy could lead men on to the perfection of their moral and spiritual being, and qualify them to attain everlasting life. No ; he held that Redemption by the Incarnate God was absolutely necessary for the restoration of their fallen nature to favour and communion with God, but that it might serve as a preparation for the attainment of these ultimate ends (pp. 282, 319, 636, 644. Cp. Neander, ii. 274, 275). According to him, the problem to be solved by the ^ It may lie suggested here, that a study of the method pursued by S. Clement, and developed in his writings, would be very serviceable to the Christian Missionary, who has to deal with the philosophical systems of India and the East. 1^^ KNOWLEDGE PERFECTED IN LOVE BY GRACE. true Gnostic was to transfigure Philosophy by Chris- tianity, and to consecrate natural gifts to the service of the. Gospel. " The wild olive," (he well says,) " is not lacking in sap, but it fails in the power of digesting the sap, which flows within it abundantly." Philosophy is a wild olive ; but whenever it receives the divine power of Faith grafted into it, the sap, being Christianized, makes it to become a noble, good olive- tree (p. 672). Gnosis, or knowledge, according to Clement, is not born with men (as some Gnostics asserted), but is acquired by an act of the human mind and the will, and it grows by nourishment of divine grace from above, and by virtuous habits, till it becomes divine Love (p. 779). It apprehends all Truth concerning good and evil, and understands the meaning of our Lord's sayings. But in this life it is not mere contemplation or barren speculation ; it is to be discerned, not by luxuriant leaves and bright flowers, but by the rich mellow fruits of a holy life. It is Death to what is evil, and Life to what is good and divine : so that knowing, living, and loving, become one and the same thing (pp. 444, 531, 874). The true Gnosis is derived from Christ, by Whom it was imparted to His Apostles, and by them to their successors in the Church (pp. 333, 348, 682, 736, 756,771). It appropriates and subordinates all human knowledge to itself (pp. 779, 780). Chris- tianity, derived from the Scriptures, is the leaven which leavens all human science. Gnosis is the perfection of Man, and is consummated by the science of divine things, and by being in union with itself, and with the Divine Word, in life and conversation. It is above Faith (p. 794). It is the superstructure of Faith (PP- ^39) 865). Faith is perfected through it; the FAITH TRANSFIGURED INTO LOVE— THE TRUE 2Q^ GNOSTIC. believer is consummated by it. Faith confesses and glorifies God (p. 599), and grows by His grace into Knowledge of Him, and is transfigured into Love of Him, and into union and communion with Him (pp. 864, 865, 883). It divinizes humanity. He held that the simple believer is impelled to good by the fear of punishment and hope of reward, but that the Christian Gnostic is stimulated to all his efforts by the free impulse of love, through which the future is made present to him, so that he lives a daily life in God (pp. 518, 519, 645, 652). At the same time he shuns the error of the Gn ostics, by whom it was said that there were originally different types of souls, some animal, others spiritual, predestined by fatal necessity to different ends. — No : in his system there were no such predestined oligarchies, and fatalistic aristocracies, in the world of Grace. All men were capable of Faith, and all men may be recipients of the true gnosis, which is spiritualized into love. The true Gnostic,^ being united to God through Christ, is described as living a life of Prayer to Him, that his sins may be forgiven, and that he may sin no more, and may be able to do good Works, and may understand the whole plan of the divine creation and dispensation ; so. that being pure in heart, through the perfect knowledge which is by the Son of God, he may be initiated face to face in that blessed contempla- tion ; and be like Moses, whose countenance shone brightly with divine irradiation from the vision of God (pp. 791, 792). The true Gnostic cherishes piety to God, equity and charity to man, chastity and purity in himself. He is ^ The whole of the seventh Book describing the true Gnostic, may be commended to the careful attention of the reader. 266 THE TRUE GNOSTIC— HIS DAILY LIFE. ever giving thanks to God for all things, and holding communion with Him by religious reading, and by hearing of what is divine ; by diligent search after truth, by holy oblations, and blessed supplications. He is ever praising God, and never separated from Him (p. 797). He is perfected by this communion with God through the Great High Priest, and by transformation to the likeness of God (pp. 835, 836, '^17. 8.39, 858). The Gnostic eats and drinks, and marries a wife, not for the sake of these things absolutely, but in loving obedience to God. Whatever the Logos prescribes, he does. He follows the example of Apostles, and shows that he is a man with human sympathies, not by choosing a monastic life (p. 874) ; but he surpasses man by being inseparable from the love of God. When he marries, and has children, and has a house- hold to care for, he exercises himself in these things,' without seeking carnal delight, and without anxiety, and overcomes the trials and temptations which arise from children, and from a wife, and from servants, and from earthly.possessions ; and he dwells calmly among them all without passion or perturbation, and desires only to be able to say to God, " O God, as Thou wiliest, so I will, and so I live." Every soul which abstains from sin, and waits for its Lord in love, is a chaste virgin. A widow becomes a virgin by temperance and holiness of life. The Gnostic is the true Athlete, crowned for havine gained true victory, the victory over his own passions, in the stadium of this beautiful world. God is the Agonothetes ^ (the Institutor of the contest) ; His ^ Compare the eloquent passages of Tertullian, ad Martyras, c. 3, THE GNOSTIC AN ATHLETE— A TEMPLE- A 267 WORSHIPPER— HIS TEMPERANCE. Only-begotten Son distributes the prizes ; the holy Angels are the spectators (cp. Heb. xii. I, 2). The contest is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual power of passions working by the flesh (P- 839)- The Gnostic is also a true temple ; his heart is a true altar (p. 848), and he offers thereon true sacrifices (p. 850). All time is holy to him ; every day a festival (p. 858). He is ever speaking to God in prayer (pp. 854, 875), and is united to the heavenly choir in singing hymns in his heart (p. 85 1 ). Angels are present at his prayers (p. 879). He remembers that God hears his thoughts (p. 852) ; he therefore always speaks the truth (p. 864). He knows that God is the Ear and Eye of the World (p. 853). His life is one holy-day ; he keeps a continual Lord's Day (p. '^yy) ; and yet he has special times for prayer and praise. He says grace before meals ; and sings psalms and hymns before bed-time, and when reposing ; he reads the Scriptures daily (p. 860), and keeps the appointed fasts of Wednesday and Friday (p. ^yj) ; above all, he fasts from sin. The Gnostic is temperate, not for the sake of worldly praise, or worldly advantage, as some are, who in fact are impelled to do good by bad motives ; he is not temperate for the sake of health, or for love of the body, or because he is insensible to temptation : such persons are not really temperate. Nor is he temperate under the influence of fear. But he is temperate because he loves God, and because he is the friend of God, and the child of God. '■* Bonum agonem subituri estis, in quo agonothetes Deus vivus est ; xystarches Spiritus Sanctus (i.e. qui ungit athletas sua divina unctione); corona teternitatis, brabium angelic£e substantias, politia in coelis j" and de Spectaculis, c. 29. 268 HIS CONDUCT TO OTHERS-HIS UNION WITH GOD. The true Gnostic forgives injuries (p. 88 1); he bears no mahce, and never retahates (p. 869). His principle being love, he does his duty cheerfully to all for the sake of God in Christ (pp. 542, 858, 8^4). He regards his enemies as brethren (p. 854), and prays for the salvation of all, and desires to instruct all (pp. 855, 862, 863) ; and having firm trust in God, he is not afraid of danger, disease, or death (p. 868) ; he is happy at the approach of death (p. 868), and gives God thanks.' He is ever a Confessor of God, and a Martyr in will (p. 570). Finally, he is the friend of God, and son of God (pp. 768, 882, 889) ; he is equal to the Angels ; he is an imitator of Christ (p. 157) ; he is a partaker of the divine nature ; and though dwelling in the body, yet being spiritually united to God, he even becomes god ^ (pp. 71, 88, 156, 484, 494, 792, 803, 816, 894). ^ Clement mentions (p. 869) St. Peter's saying to his wife going before him to martyrdom, " Remember the Lord." Such, he says, is the marriage of Saints. 8 This is strong language, but it is also used by contemporary writers of a different school : S. Irenseus, iv. 75, and v. 2 ; and by S. Hippolytus, see Refut. Hser. p. 339, ed. Miller, and the note in my Hippolytus, pp. 122, 123 ; and Psalm Ixxxii. 6, "I have said, Ye are gods;" and John x. 35; and S. Peter {2 Pet. i. 4), "partakers of the divine nature." And Athanasius says in his treatise on the Incar- nation, c. 54, that "the Word became flesh, W ^/ue?s 0eo7ro/7j0i^6i/ (that we might be divinized)." And our own Richard Hooker — in his marvellous Essay on the two Natures, and one Person, of Christ, and on the relation of the Sacraments to the Godhead and Incarnation of Christ (Eccl. Pol. V. li. — V. lix. ) — says that God in Christ has " deified our nature '» (V. liv. 5). CHAPTER XX. Defenders of the Faith — Origen. Between Clement and S. Hippolytus is Origen, the scholar of the former, and acquainted with the latter. He was born at Alexandria,^ A.D. 185 ; the eldest of eleven children of a faithful Christian father, Leonides, who brought him up in sacred and secular learning. He made the boy learn some portions of Scripture daily, and thanked God for giving him such a son. His father had a presentiment of his son's future career. He used to kiss his breast when he was asleep, as a temple in which the Holy Spirit deigned to dwell (Euseb. vi. 2). In the persecution that broke out in Africa under the Emperor Septimius Severus, Origen longed to be a martyr ; his mother took away his clothes_, and kept him indoors. But he wrote to his father, and exhorted him to quit himself like a man (Euseb. vi. 2). . Leonides suffered martyrdom ; and Origen was afterwards often in danger of death for the faith. Demetrius, his Bishop, invited him soon afterward (about A.D. 203 ; see Euseb. vi. 6) to the headship of the Catechetical School in Alexandria, where he had ^ On the biography of Origen see Huetii Origeniana, lib. i. chapters I — 4, and on his writings, ibid. lib. ii., and Dr. TheodorKeim, " Celsus Wahres Wort," Zurich 1873, p. 172. 270 ORIGEN—HIS TRAVELS AND TRAINING. been a scholar of S. Clement. As there was no salary attached to the office, he mortgaged some of his beautifully-written books for a daily pension of four oboli, about sixpence, on which he lived. He led a life of rigid self-denial (Epiphan. Hser. 64. S. Jerome, Ep. 41. Gregor. Thaum. in Origen. p. 6j)\ he walked barefoot, and slept on the ground ; and as he had female scholars as well as young men, and as he wished to avoid scandal and temptation, he, who after- wards was distinguished for somewhat fanciful and allegorical interpretations of Scripture, misapplied in his own person, and in the literal sense, our Lord's words in Matt. xix. 12 (Euseb. vi. 8. S. Jerome, Epist. 41 ad Pammach.). He attended lectures of the famous Teacher of Neo- Platonism, Ammonius Saccas, the master of Plotinus (Euseb. vi. 19), and was much influenced in his own theological views by that teaching. His proficiency in the study of Greek Philosophy is testified by an enemy of the faith. Porphyry (Euseb. vi. 19). In Alexandria he came in contact with Schools of Gentile philosophy and of Christian theology, especially Gnostics. He travelled to Italy, visited Rome in the time of Zephyrinus, heard there a sermon of Hippoly- tus ; made a tour in Greece, Asia, and Palestine, and thus acqyired that multifarious and encyclopaedic learning, which enabled him to make himself all things to all men, and to win over many to the faith. Fortunately for him and for the Church, he became acquainted with Ambrosius, a wealthy, munificent, and devout Christian of Alexandria, who by his pious libe- rality supplied him with the aid of secretaries, tran- scribers, and books, and enabled him to found a School of Biblical Criticism in the Church HIS STUDIES— AND ORDINA TION. 271 He gave himself to the study of Hebrew (S.Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 54, and contr. Rufin. i. 3) ; the history of his wonderful industry in collating Manuscripts of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures and their different Versions, and in compiling his Teirapla and Hexapla," a labour of twenty-eight }'ears, encouraged by the aid of Ambrosius at Ca^sarea in Palestine, and also by that of a Christian Lady, Juliana, at Caesarea in Cappadocia, will be found described in all works on Biblical Philology and Hermeneutics. Unhappily his Bishop, Demetrius, who held the See of Alexandria forty-three years (a.d. 189 — 232. Euseb. vi. 26), and who had formerly supported him, became jealous and suspicious of him, especially after Origen's journey to Jerusalem and Csesarea in Palestine, and on account ofhis connexion with the two Bishops of those cities, Alexander and Theoctistus, by whom he was ordained Presbyter, A.D. 228, in the forty-third year of his age ^ (Euseb. vi. 19, 23). Demetrius recalled him to Alexandria, summoned two Councils of some few Bishops and Clergy, in the latter of which he was censured for the rash act of his youth, and for his uncanonical ordination by an extra-diocesan Bishop. He was also deposed and excommunicated for heretical doctrines, perhaps 2 The Hexapla consisted of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament ; the same in Greek letters ; and the following Versions of it : Septuagint ; that of Aquila the Jew, probably made A.D. 130; of Symmachus, an Ebionite (under Marcus Aurelius) ; of Theodotion, A.D. 184; a fifth Version, found in a cask with other MS S. at Jericho by Origen, a.d. 217 (Euseb. vi. 16) ; a sixth found in a cask with other MSS. at Nicopolis by Origen, a.d. 228. He had a seventh Version containing only the Psalms. Euseb. vi. 16; cp. Epiphan. H^er. 64. '^ An irregularity in ordination afterwards prohibited by the Council of Niccea, canon 16. 272 CONTROVERSIES CONCERNING ORIGEN. contained in his work Trept apyjhv, then lately published but modified afterwards by him '' (see above, p. 121). In that treatise, TrepX ap^oiv (or, on the first princi- ples of theological teaching), he refutes the heresy of Valentinus and Marcion on the origin of the world, and in opposition to their two theories, either of development, or dualism and fatal necessity, he teaches that there is but one First Cause, perfectly good and wise and immutable, — God ; but that all creatures are liable to change, and that the evil of the rational creature is due to its abuse of free-will (i. 8 ; ii. 1,8; iii. i). But he asserts that God had created a definite number of pure spirits who have abused their free- will, and have been consigned to certain bodies, created as penitentiaries and prisons, for their correction, and being consigned to these prisons they have ceased to be pure spirits, and have become souls of angels, stars, or men. These spirits may become better or worse. Finally, he imagined that the devil and his angels, being chastened by this punitive and remedial process, will cease to be enemies of God ; and a succession of new creations will follow, and of new worlds (i. 6 ; ii. I, 3, and 6). These theories were perhaps derived from Platonism (Plat. Gorg. 478. Fleury, ii. 107). The Churches in Palestine, Phoenicia, Arabia, Achaia, and Caesarea in Cappadocia, sided v\ ith Origen. The Roman Church concurred with that of Alexandria and those of Egypt in condemning him (see the authorities in Tillemont, iii. 534, 535). A fact pleaded in favour of Origen is, that on the death of Denietrius a few months after Origen's con- demnation, A.D. 231, the friend and colleague of Origen, * Cp. Euseb. vi. 23, 36, 37 ; S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. c. 62, and contra Rufinum iv. p. 41 1; Ep. 29 ad Paulam, iv. p. 68, ed. Bened. 1706. OlilGEN'S LIFE AND WRITINGS. 273 Heraclas, head of the Catechetical School, was chosen to fill the vacant See of Alexandria, and the place of Heraclas in the School was filled by a pupil of Origen, the celebrated Dionysius, called the Great, who afterwards succeeded Heraclas in the Bishopric. At the same time, on the other hand, no effort seems to have been made to rescind the condemnatory sen- tence on Origen. He quitted Alexandria for Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he was received by the Bishop, FirmiHan, and where he was assisted by the liberality above men- tioned of Juliana, who sheltered him in the time of persecution under the Emperor Maximin the Thracian (a.d. 235 — 238). There he met with the Version of the Ebionite Symmachus, which he incorporated in his Hexapla. After the death of Maximin he returned to Caesarea in Palestine ; he also visited Nicomedia and Athens, where he resided for some time. He endured imprisonment and torture for the Faith in the persecution under the Emperor Decius, A.D. 250 ; and at length, worn out by labours and sufferings, he died at Tyre, A.D. 254, in the seventieth year of his age. In contemplating the work of Origen as a Theo- logical Teacher, we recognize a development of the system of his predecessor and instructor S. Clement. Like Clement, he desired to make all Literature and Philosophy, especially the Platonic, to be subservient and tributary to Christianity ; and by his wonderful many-sidedness and versatility he came into contact and sympathetic communion with minds of all classes, temperaments, and antecedents, and thus he won many to Christianity. T 274 O RIG EN'S SYSTEM OF TEACHING. His method and process were to begin with attract- ing them to himself by love of knowledge as such,— it might be secular knowledge and literature, in which he was thoroughly conversant, — and then to inspire them with a love of divine and eternal things ; and to show them the imperfection and inadequacy of all Gentile systems of Philosophy to satisfy the just cravings of human nature ; and to exhibit to them the doctrines of Christianity as alone corresponding to all its needs, and- realizing all its aspirations. He then initiated them in his system of Scriptural Interpreta- tion, which was threefold, literal, allegorical, and anagogieal''' (i. e. leading upward to the highest spiritual contemplation), and he prepared many of them, such as Heraclas his successor, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Gregory Thaumaturgus, to be eminent Teachers of Christianity and Bishops of the Church. He preached every Sunday and Friday.^ In a remarkable letter to the last mentioned, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neo-Caesarea, he unfolds his own system (Philocal. c. 13, p. 41, Spencer). He exhorts him to make himself master of every- thing in the cycle of Literature, Science, and Philo- sophy, that could be pressed into the service of the " See Philocalia, c. i in Mattli. tract. 12, horn. 25. The Philocalia of Origen is an Anthology culled from his writings by the affectionate care of S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Basil, and is one of the most interesting and instructive collections of the kind ; it is very valuable as placing in one view the opinions of Origen on the Divine Inspiration of Scrip- ture ; on its contents ; its style ; the necessity of continued and earnest study of it ; on its interpretation ; on some popular objections against Christianity, e. g. the existence of heresies and schisms in the Church ; the alleged simplicity of Christian believers ; on indififerentism ; on the true grounds and nature of Faith ; on the harmony of Divine Fore- knowledge and Grace, and Muman Free-will. <• Homil. 7 in Exod., horn. 5 in Esaiani. ON THE CONSECRATION OF SECULAR LEARNING. 275 Church. He tells him, that, as by God's command the Israelites appropriated the spoils of heathen Egypt, the gold and silver and raiment, and applied and dedicated them to the structure and adornment of God's own dwelling, the migratory Tabernacle in the Wilderness, so the true Israelite, the Christian Teacher, ought to adopt and consecrate the spoils of all heathen Learning to the building up and decora- tion of the Church of God. '' I exhort thee, therefore, my son, to study above all things the Holy Scriptures ; and study them earnestly. This is necessary, that we may not speak rashly, or form hasty opinions on their sacred contents. Study them with faith and prayer, with unw^avering faith and fervent prayer ; knock at the closed door of Scripture ; to such an one ' the porter openeth ' (John x. 3).^ Ask, and ye shall have ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." He declares that the teaching and hearing of Scripture, in order to be profitable, ought to be accompanied with the recep- tion of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ ; and that as the devout Communicant takes care not to let fall any part of the consecrated elements, so he ought to treat with equal reverence the inspired Word of God (Homil. in Exod. 11 and 13 ; and Rom. xvi. lib. 10). In Origen also we see the fruits of S. Clement's teach- 7 The reader may remember an interesting passage of S. Augustine (in one of his Sermons, Serm. 51) concerning his own practice as an expositor of Scripture at different times of his life : " When I was young, I approached the study of the Holy Scriptures with acuteness of dispu- tation, and not with piety of inquiry ; and thus by my moral perversity / closed the door of the divine Scriptures against myself ; I ought to have knocked at the door in order that it might be opened to m.e, but I made it more fast against myself, for I presumed to seek with pride what none can find but by humility. How much happier are you who are meek, than I was then, when I was proud. " T 2 276 HIS METHOD OF SCRIPTURAL INTERPRETATION. ing as to the true Gnostic, and genuine Gnosticism ; and as to the relation of Knowledge to Faith. Earnest as he was in his exhortations to the study of Holy Scripture ; uncompromising as he was in affirming the divine Inspiration and inestimable value of every part of it ; diligent as he was in examining, meditating, and commenting upon it, in homilies and other writings ; indefatigable as he was in his endea- vours to investigate and establish the genuine Text of Scripture, and its correct literal interpretation, by his Biblical labours for nearly thirty years in con- structing the Hexapla (representing the Text and Versions of the Old Testament) ; yet he carried his zeal for the allegorical exposition of Scripture to a point as yet unapproached in the Church. Doubtless he rendered great service by his protest against that servile literalism^ of Scriptural Interpre- tation which had been the bane of Judaism, and which (as St. Paul declares, when he says, " The letter," i. e. the letter taken alone without the illumination of the Spirit, " killeth, but the Spirit giveth life," 2 Cor. iii. 6) made it blind to the true meaning of its own Law, and of its own Prophecies, as the same Apostle affirms, " A veil is on their hearts in the reading of the Old Testament" (2 Cor. iii. 14). This servility of literalism had found its way into certain sections of the primitive Church, and did much damage to the faith in ancient times, especially in the rival school to that of Alexandria, the Biblical School of Antioch, which produced its baneful effects in a low and frigid theology, especially concerning the Nature and Person of Christ, and which in later days has ministered *^ See Origen, Philocal. c. i, c. 11, c. 15, 2. ALLEGORICAL LICENCE. 277 help to the deadly heresy of Socinus." A beneficial practical result of Origen's teaching on Biblical Exegesis, was seen in the dealings of his Scholar Dionysius, mentioned below/ with the followers of Papias and the Chiliasts (see Euseb. vii. 24, 25). And other good fruits were produced by it, when it was applied by wise and learned men. But unhappily Origen lent his support also to the wilder speculations of such Jewish writers as Philo of Alexandria, who, when they met with anything in Scripture which was not in accordance with their own preconceived notions of what was morally right, explained away the letter of Scripture, and stripped it of its historical reality, and dissolved it into metaphorical idealism, and transformed it into an allegory." It was for this reason that S. Jerome, who was not unfavourable to the spiritual method of interpretation, under reasonable restraints, did not hesitate to say of Origen, " He makes his own fancies to be sacraments of the Church " (" ingenium suum facit Ecclesiae sacramenta," S. Jerome^ Prsef in Esaiam). This disposition to allegorize carried Origen far beyond the limits prescribed by Clement in his views of the subordination of Faith to Gnosis, or Know- ledge. Clement based his theological system on the foun- ' See Newman's Arians, chap. i. sect. i. * Chap. xxi. ' See Huetii Origeniana, ii. cap. Ii, quaest. xiii. ; Rosenmiiller, Histor. Interp. Litt. Script, iii, 45 — 52 ; Dr. Waterland's Preface to Scripture Vindicated, vol. vi. p. 19. It must be confessed (says Neander, ii. p. 234, ed. Rose) that the Alexandrine principle, carried to the extreme, might lead to idealism, destructive of all that is objective and historical in Christianity. The balance between the literal and allegorical is admirably adjusted by S. Augustine de Civ. Dei, xv. 27. 278 OJV FA ITH A ND FA C TS— ON THE LOGOS. dation of Holy Scripture and Catholic Tradition ; but Origen was less careful to build on that solid foun- dation ; and the consequences were such as might have been anticipated. With much that was true, beautiful, and attractive in his teaching, he seems to have approximated to the mysticism which bore such evil fruits in later days of the Church. Faith, he said, is grounded on the facts of Chris- tianity, and cleaves to the letter, and is to knowledge what the body is to the spirit. But Knowledge soars above an historical Christianity, and is spiritualized by fellowship with the Divine Logos. It transfigures the past and present into the future. It is a life of divine vision, of divine love, of union with God, and by it the whole man is divinized (see Origen in Joann. T. XX. § 25, 27, 28 ; in Matt. x. § 9 ; Neander, ii. 285). The work of this spiritual transfiguration of what is human into what is divine, was wrought, according to him, by the Logos, the personal Word of God. What the NoO? was in Platonism, the bridge and isthmus between God and man, that, and much more, was the Logos in his system.^ The Logos, a real hypostasis, came forth from the one divine Essence (the avToOeo^) from Eternity. He was generated in a " timeless present, in an eternal now." He is to man " all in all." He is the concentrated manifesta- tion of the Divine Glory. He is the absolute, objective, universal Truth and Wisdom of God. And since we cannot conceive of God as otherwise than True and Wise, the Logos must have existed from Eternity. There is no other Way to the Father ; no other Truth ; no other Life, but in Him and by Him. Still however, in his view, the Logos was subordi- 3 Cp. Neander, ii. 340 — 344. ORIGEN ON THE SON OF GOD. 279 nate to the Father, not only in the orthodox sense of subordination, which, recognizing one Fountain {'Trr]'yr]v) and principle {dp')(r]v) of Divinity, namely, that in the Father ; and recognizing the Son as coming forth as Son by an eternal generation from the Father, acknowledged Him to be, in that sense, subordinate to the Father, and yet consubstantial, co-eternal, and co-equal with Him. But in Origen's vaew He was subordinate in dignity also, so that, according to him, though it was the duty of men to pray through Him to the Father, yet to the Father and not to Him absolutely their prayers were to be made (De Orat. c. 1 5 ; but cp. c. Celsum, v. 1 1 ; viii. 1 3) . Here were some of the consequences of a dereliction of the teaching of Holy Scripture, expounded by Catholic Tradition, according to which the Church offered prayers and sang hymns to Christ as God (see above, p. 124). We shall see the results of Origen's teaching in this respect in some of his Scholars, and shall not be surprised to find it alleged, that, though unconsciously, he had prepared the way for Arianism. We need not enter into the intricate metaphysical and ontological questions discussed in his book Trepl dp-ycov (or de principiis), which exposed Origen to the charge of heresy, and is now in an imperfect condi- tion/ Some of our own learned writers, such as Bishop Bull and Dr. Waterland,^ have been of opinion that his teaching on the doctrines of Christ's eternal Godhead, and of His true Manhood, and of the Blessed Trinity, was sound ; and that in consideration •1 A full statement of them may be seen in Huetii Origeniana, lib. ii. '" See Dr. Waterland's Works,' Defence of some Queries, vol. i. Qu. xii. and Qu. xvii., who refers to Bishop Bull. 280 ON FUTURE PUNISHMENT— ON ORIGEN AND TERTULLIAN. of the present precarious state of the text of most of his works, and in regard to the fact that they have been tampered with, it is hardly fair to pronounce a sentence, derived from certain passages in them ; and that almost the only solid groundwork for forming an opinion is his latest work, his work against Celsus, which is in a more perfect state, and in which he seems to have amended his teaching on these points (see above, pp. 120, 121). His subjective method of Scriptural interpretation betrayed him into erroneous teaching on future rewards and punishments (which latter he supposed to be remedial), and on the final salvability of Satan and his angels. But it must be remembered that such questions as these had not been discussed with the same care as was afterwards the case, when the opinions of Origen*^ upon them were examined and condemned by a Council of the Church — the fifth General Council, in the time of Justinian, A.D. 553/ On the whole, the history of Origen, like that of Tertullian, is fraught with warning and instruction. Both these great men have just claims to be admired and imitated for what was noble and good in them ; and let both be judged charitably for their failings. The benefits conferred by the goodness of God on the Church by the instrumentality of both were permanent ; and even their infirmities, though occa- sions of temporary mischief, have been made con- ducive to her welfare. Tertullian acknowledg-ed his o ^ Cp. Huetii Origeniana, pp. 227, 231, 321. " Concilia, Labbe, v. p. 783. S. Jerome in Jonam, c. iii. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, xxi. 17, 18, 20, 25; 'de Hares, c. 43. Origen himself seems to have modified his opinion on this question ; see above, p. 121. ORIGEN'S TEMPER AND LIFE. 281 own impatience (above, p. 234). Origen confessed that he was self-confident. He would not be restrained and guided by Catholic tradition and authority, but was swayed by his personal bias (see in Matth. torn, xvii. § 26). It was also his misfortune to be placed, when very young — eighteen years of age — at the head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria. He was justly admired for his courage, his holiness, his won- derful industry, his encyclopaedic learning, his rigid self-denial and asceticism, his sufferings for the truth, — things which sometimes, when idolized, engender spiritual pride in those who are distinguished by them. This ancient great Academic Professor, endued with marvellous gifts, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, and surrounded by admiring listeners, imbibing his opinions as oracular utterances, was in danger of mis- leading himself, as well as others. It would have been a happy thing for him, if he had been under the salutary influences of practical work, in inter- course with other not inferior minds, and in the exercise of the spiritual and ministerial duties of a Parish Priest, or in the administration of a Diocese. It was also Origen's misfortune to be placed under a Bishop of inferior ability and learning, of unsympa- thizing temper and narrow views ; and (not without some faults on his own side) to be for some time in antagonism to him. It is interesting to trace the difference in life and influence in the Church, between Origen and his cele- brated pupil (of whom something has been already said, and more will be said hereafter) S. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria. If Origen had been in a high position of practical usefulness and experience in the Church, he would probably have been an Augustine. 282 fV/SE REMARKS OF VINCENTIUS LIRINENSIS ON ORIGEN AND TERTULLIAN. Vincentius Lirinensis in his Commonitorium (i. 17), written A.D. 434, has given utterance to a truth, which has been exemphfied in the history of the Church, in ancient and modern times, " The Teacher's error is the people^s trial,^ and so much the more severe a trial, in proportion as the Teacher, who misleadeth them, is in higher position for dignity and learning." He then refers to the history and writings of Origen and TertuUian. He pronounces an eloquent eulogy on the extraordinary genius, profound learning, patient industry, strict and severe self-denial, various and valuable labours, and successful teaching of Origen ; and then adds in words of warning, " Origen, — great as he was, — abused God's grace presump- tuously, and indulged licentiously in his own conceits ; he relied too much on himself, and too lightly esteemed the pure primitive simplicity of Christ's religion, and imagined himself to be wiser than others, and despised the traditions of the Church, and the guidance of the ancients ; and interpreted some por- tions of Holy Scripture in a novel manner, and thus fell away into error, and led many astray." Vincentius then speaks of TertuUian. " As Origen holds the first- place among the Greeks, so does Ter- tuUian among the "Latins. Who more learned than he } All Philosophy, all its sects and their opinions, all varieties of History, were embraced in his vast and comprehensive mind. How eminent was he in energy, gravity, and acumen of genius, and in nervousness of style ; his almost every word an apophthegm ; his every thought a victory (' cujus quot pene verba, tot sententiae sunt ; quot sensus, tot victorise '). Here- 8 A sentence uttered by Hooker, V. Ixii. 9, without naming its author. See below on the histoiy of S. Cyprian, p. 317. GREGORY, BISHOP OF NEO-C.^SAREA. . 283 siarchs were thrown prostrate by the thunderbolts of his eloquence ; but he also fell into heresy, and became a severe trial to the "Church." The steadfastness of the Church in the truth was put to the test by the errors of Origen and TertuUian. But let God be thanked for whatever was true, noble, wise, pious, and devout in the one and the other, and for those lessons of humility, self-restraint, forbear- ance, charity, and constancy, which He teaches by them to all those. who have wisdom and humility to learn. Gregory (called Thaumaturgus from the miracles wrought by him). Bishop of Neo-Csesarea in Pontus, was one of the most celebrated among the scholars of Origen. He was appointed to the Episcopal See of his native city, which then contained only seven- teen Christians ; the rest were heathens. After his consecration to the Bishopric, he retired for a time in order to give himself to religious meditation and prayer, especially that he might be enabled .to refute the errors and heresies of the time, and to hold firmly and teach clearly the true faith. When he was thus engaged, he had a vision of a venerable man, who said that he had been sent by God in answer to his prayers, to declare to him the true faith. A beautiful woman, of superhuman dignity, accompanied him. The vene- rable man, as represented in the vision, was St. John the Evangelist ; the woman was the Blessed Virgin Mary. The former then uttered certain words, in which he delivered a profession of faith, which Gregory forthwith set down in writing, as follows : — ^ " There is One God, the Father of the Living Word, 9 S. Gregory Nyssen de Vita S. Gregorii Thaumaturg. p. 97S, ed. Paris. 1 61 5, 281.. HIS CREED. Who is His subsisting Wisdom, Power, and Eternai Impress {^apaKr-qp), He (the Father) is Perfect Gene- rator of Perfect Son ; Father of Only-begotten Son. " There is One Lord ; One only of One only ; God of God ; Impress and Image {eUcav) of the Godhead ; Energizing Word ; Wisdom, comprehensive of the system of the Universe ; and Power, the Maker of the whole Creation ; Very Son of Very Father ; Invisible of Invisible ; Incorruptible of Incorruptible ; Immortal of Immortal ; Eternal of Eternal. " There is One Holy Spirit, having His existence from God, and manifested through the Son, namely, to men ; the Image of the Son, Perfect of Perfect ; Life, the cause of those who live ; the holy Fountain ; Holiness, the Author of Sanctification ; by Whom God the Father is manifested. Who is above all, and in all ; and God the Son, Who is through all; " There is a Trinity perfect in Glory and Eternity and Kingdom, Indivisible and Unchangeable." S. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, who inserts this Creed in his life of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, adds this comment upon it (p. 979), " Therefore there is nothing that has been created or is inferior in the Trinity ; nor is there anything that has been introduced into it, as if it did not exist there before, and was afterwards admitted into it ; for never was the Father without, the Son, nor the Son without the Holy Spirit ; but the Trinity is ever the same, invariable and unalterable/' Gregory of Nyssa says that the original autograph of this Creed, written by S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, was preserved in the Church of Caesarea. This Creed may be compared with the Creeds set down by S. Irenaeus (quoted above, p. 217), and by Tertullian (above, p. 241), CHAPTER XXL Defenders of the Faith — 5. Hippolytiis, Bishop of Forties Romanus^ or Harbour of Rome. Between the appearance of the Works of S. Clement of Alexandria, and those of S. Hippolytus, was an interval of about forty years. S. Hippolytus 1 was a Scholar of S. Irenaeus. His name, like that of his master, is Greek. Like him, he composed his works in Greek ; like him, he came from the East to the West ; like him, he became a Bishop of the Church, and one of the most eminent Teachers in it. He was Bishop of Portus Romanus, the harbour of Rome, at the mouth of the Tiber, about fifteen miles from the City; the harbour at which S. Ignatius had landed in his voyage from his Episcopal See at Antioch to his glorious Martyrdom at Rome. Portus was frequented by foreigners, merchants, shipmen and soldiers, philosophers, physicians and astrologers, Greeks, Asiatics, Africans, as well as Italians, flocking to Rome. It was inhabited by a mixed population of various nations, partly heathen, partly Christian, partly Jewish, and was therefore a » The authorities for this and other statements in the present chapter may be seen in my work on " S. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome io the earlier part of the Third Century," especially chap. i. chap, iv., chap, xv., 2nd Edition, 1880, and need not be repeated here. 286 S. HIPPOL YTUS—HIS ST A TUE—HIS ' ' REFU TA TION OF ALL heresies:' very suitable place to be the Episcopal See of a person eminent for learning, eloquence, orthodoxy, piety, and zeal, like Hippolytus. In the year 1551 a marble Statue of a venerable figure seated in a chair was discovered at Rome, in excavations near the site of the ancient Church of S. Hippolytus in the eastern suburb of the city, on the Via Tiburtina,or road to Tivoli,not far from the Church of S. Lorenzo. On the back of the Chair of this Statue was inscribed in Greek a list of Works written by the person represented by the Statue occupying the Chair ; and on the sides was engraven a Paschal Calendar ; and from these and other indications it was rightly concluded that it was a Statue of S. Hippolytus. Nearly 300 years afterwards, in the year 1842, another discovery was made, having reference to Hippolytus. In one of the Monasteries of Mount Athos, a Greek Manuscript was found, originally con- sisting of Ten Books, — but of which a small portion has been lost, — entitled " Philosophumena, or a Refu- tation of all Heresies." It has now been proved, and is almost universally acknowledged, that this treatise was written by S. Hippolytus, Bishop ofPortus Romanus, in the third century. In one of the Books — the Ninth — of this work, the Author describes his own conflict with the Noetian heretics, who were abetted by two Bishops of Rome in succession, Zephyrinus and Callistus." It records also his own strenuous efforts in the defence of the true Faith. The work was written some time after the death of Callistus, which took place A.D. 223. In traversing the interval of less than half a century 2 See my work on S. Hippolytus, chap. vi. THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES IN HIS AGE AT 287 ROME. from S. Clement of Alexandria to S. Hippolytus, — who flourished in the first half of the third century, — we are struck by the change that has taken place in that time. The various forms of Gnostic heresy had lost much of their significance ; they had become matters of history, and are treated as such in the lately-discovered work of S*. Hippolytus ("The Refutation of all Heresies "), who regards them as the offspring of Gentile Philosophy (p. 3), and examines them in suc- cession with reference to that view. This change was due in God's providence to the influence of the writings of S. Clement himself, of S. Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen, against those Gnostic phases of false doctrine. But as S. Hippolytus tells us, a more dangerous crisis and severer struggle had succeeded (ibid. p. 65). Attention was now concentrated on certain great questions ; namely, the Personality and Divine Nature of the Son of God ; and, by consequence, on the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. This conflict was more formidable, because erroneous doctrines on these questions were abetted in that Church to which the Teacher of S. Hippolytus, S. Irenaeus (p. 38), had appealed as holding the true tradition of Christian Faith — the Church of Rome (p. 282), and were sup- ported by two Bishops of Rome in succession, Zephyrinus (a.d. 202 — 218) and Callistus (A.D. 218 — 223 ; see " S. Hippolytus " &c., chapters vi. and vii.). That this should have been so, will not seem surprising, when we consider the circumstances of the case. At Rome, Christianity had been preached, as reveal- ing divine Truth and pure worship, in opposition to 288 DOGMATIC DILEMMA AT ROME. the errors and idolatries of Heathenism. Those errors and idolatries were fruits of Polytheism. What wonder that Bishops of Rome should be zealous champions of the Divine Unity } It was their duty to be, in a certain sense, Monotheists; that is, to main- tain the doctrine of the one True God. To many at Rome the doctrine of the distinct Personality of the Son, of God, as Very God, in addition to that of the Father as Very God, seemed to be Ditheism; that is, to teach the doctrine of two Gods, To them the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as a third distinct Person, and also Very God, was Tritheisrn, or a doctrine of three Gods. And here we may observe, that if the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity were not true, it never could have prevailed under the difficulties by which it was beset. In defence of the divine Unity, or Monarchia, as it was called, two opposite parties laboured zealously at Rome, in the latter part of the second century, and in the earlier part of the third. Both of these taught dangerous errors, in order to support what was, in a certain sense, fundamentally true. The first was that of Theodotus and Artemon, who asserted that the Son of God was a mere Man, con- ceived indeed miraculously, and so they differed from the Ebionites ; but only a Man, eminently endued with the Spirit of God. This was their line of defence against Polytheism, and of maintaining the doctrine of One God. Artemon, who was distinguished for his bias to the Aristotelian philosophy (Euseb. v. 28), and to the study of logic, geometry, and mathematics, and had little reverence for the Holy Scriptures, which he wrested and warped to suit his own opinions, repre- TI^FO FORMS OF UNITARIANJSM—CALLISTUS, 289 BISHOP OF ROME. sented a class of minds, who, in their zeal for the claims of the human intellect, pay little regard to Divine Revelation, and elevate Reason above Faith. The other party was that of Praxeas, and, after him, of Noetus. They strenuously affirmed that they would never acknowledge two Gods ; and they referred to such texts as our Lord's words in John xiv. 9, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ;" and said that the Father was in the Son, and was even crucified in the Son, or at least suffered with the Son; and were thence called Patripassians. Thus there was at Rome one form of Unitarianism which saw in Christ little more than Man, and another form of Unitarianism which beheld in Him nothing but God. Leading champions of both these parties, such as Theodotus and Artemon on the one side, and on the other Praxeas and Cleomenes, came to Rome. And Sabelllus was there in the time of Callistus, Bishop of Rome. Callistus endeavoured to make a com.promise between the two opposite forms of Monarchianism prevalent there. He said ^ that the " Man Jesus only was the Son " (thus approximating to the theory of Theodotus and Artemon), " and that the Spirit in the Son was the Father, and that the Father suffered with the Son," thus inclining to that of Praxeas and Noetus. Callistus called Hippolytus a Ditheist, and he said, " I will never acknowledge two Gods." The least semblance of Polytheism was avoided by Bishops of Rome ; and the claims of Monarchianism were pow^erful ; if they would not side with Theodotus and Artemon, as in reverence for Christ they could not, 3 See further in my work on Hippolytus, p. 89. U 290 LACK OF THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE AT ROME- POPES ZEPHYKINUS AND CALLISTUS. they would be strongly attracted to Praxeas and Noetus, who pleaded that their own view was for the greater glory of Christ.'' Rome was not like Alexandria. Alexandria had eminent teachers, but Rome had no theological School. Since the days of S. Clement of Rome,^ the Church of Rome could not point to any Bishop or Priest distinguished by scientific culture in divine truth, except perhaps Caius, who is only known for his work against Montanism. Novatian was after Callistus, and would not have been acceptable to him. TertuUian was an African. Minucius Felix had indeed resided at Rome, but he was not an ecclesiastic, and was only an apologist against Heathenism. We need not therefore be surprised to see a good deal of vacillation among Roman Bishops at that time. A Roman Bishop had acknowledged the prophecies of Montanus, and Praxeas the Patripassian met with a favourable reception at Rome (TertuUian adv. Praxeam, c. i). It is not strange that Pope Zephy- rinus, who was " illiterate," and Pope Callistus, who had been a servant, should have been puzzled by heretics, and lapsed into heresy. Origen had indeed come from Alexandria to Rome in the days of Zephyrinus, and listened there to a Ser- mon of S. Hippolytus. But his stay there was short ; * See Hippol. c. Noet. c. i, and my Hippolytus, p. 13. * Bishop Pearson, Dissert, i. c. 13, contrasts the lack of theological learning in the Roman Church in that age with the superior erudition and literary and scientific culture of the Eastern. Neander, Ch. Hist. ii. 333, speaks of " ihe crude and undigested form of doctrine in the Roman Church;" cp. 337, where he says that it *'was not very precisely defined ;" and in other places he speaks of the Church of Rome as barren in theological science (p. 483). Hippolytus asserts that '* Pope Zephy- rinus was illiterate" (Hippol. p. 284, ed. Miller). ORIGEN'S THEOLOGY INADEQUATE FOR THE 291 CRISIS. and it may be doubted whether Origen's doctrine of the Logos, eternally existing as a divine Person, distinct from the Father, and exalted far above all creatures, yet subordinate in degree, so as not to be an object of prayer,® would have been of much use in extricating Popes Zephyrinus and Callistus from their troubles. Origen had no difficulty in confuting the error of Beryllus of Bosra, who took a middle and conciliatory course between the two opposite extremes of Monar- chianism, and could not satisfy either of them, nor give contentment to the more orthodox believer. Beryllus (who was a precursor of ApoUinarianism) taught that in the Person of Christ, after His nativity as Man, there was a certain efflux of the divine essence, so that He had no reasonable human soul (Euseb. vi. 20, 33) ; and instead of being God and Man, was neither God nor Man. But Origen, with his theory of subordination, though allied with a doctrine of the Logos higher than any- thing that Theodotus or Noetus or Beryllus between them had taught, could not have solved the pro- blem, and fully vindicated the true faith from the manifold errors which beset it. He certainly would not at that time have satisfied those who had been accustomed to pray to Christ, and to sing hymns ' to Him as God, and who held the truth, afterwards so well expressed by S. Augustine, ** Orat pro nobis Christus, ut Sacerdos noster ; orat in nobis Christus, ut Caput nostrum ; oratur a nobis Christus, ut Deus noster.'' fi Origen de Orat. c 15 ; and see Neander, ii. 347, 348. Origen after- wards modified that opinion in his latest work, that against Celsus ; see above, pp. 120, 279. 7 See the words of S. Hippolytus in Euseb. v. 28. Cp. with Theo- doret, Hasret. Fab. ii. 5, and my Hippolytus, p. 216. U 2 292 PROVIDENTIAL POSITION OF S. HIPPOLYTUS. The person raised up by God's Providence at this crisis to defend the faith was S. HiPPOLYTUS. 1. S. Hippolytus held and taught that "the faith had been once for all dehvered to the saints" (Jude 3), and that this faith is contained in Holy Scripture. " There is one God," he says (adv. Noet. § 9),^ " whom we know from no other source than the Holy Scriptures ; and we, who desire to exercise true piety, will not endeavour to do this except from the oracles of God. Let us therefore examine what the divine Scriptures declare, and let us perfectly know what they teach. Let us believe as the Father wills to be believed, and let us glorify as the Son wills to be glorified, and let us receive as the Holy Spirit wills to give ; not according to our own private prepossessions, nor according to our own minds, nor wresting the things which are given us by God, but, accordingly as He Himself willed to manifest them to us by the Holy Scriptures." 2. While S. Hippolytus thus affirmed that all supernatural truth, necessary for salvation, is con- tained in Holy Scripture, he knew also that it is requisite to guard carefully against those who, instead of expounding Scripture as a whole, and " according to the proportion of faith" (Rom. xii. 6), and "com- paring spiritual things with spiritual" (i Cor. ii. 13), pursue a different method ; and while they profess a zeal for Scripture, quote single texts of Scripture, without due regard to other texts which ought to be construed with them. This was what the Noetians or Patripassians did when in support of their heresy they ^ S. Hippolyti Opera, ed. J. A. Fabricius, Hamburg, 1716, torn. ii. pp. 5 — 20, The homily against Noetus is contained in Dr. Routh's Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Opuscula, pp. 49—80, ed. 3tia, Oxon. 1858. S. HIPPOLYTUS ON SCRIPTURE; ITS SUPREMACY, 293 SUFFICIENCY, AND RIGHT INTERPRETATION— referred to our Lord's words, John xiv. 9, 10, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. BeHevest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" and who thence argued, that the Father suffered in the Son, or with the Son. He protested against this practice of garbling and mutilating Scripture, quoting texts ^ovoKcoXa, or piecemeal ; and he said, " Whenever heretics wish to practise deceit, they amputate the Scripture; but," he added, "let them quote Scripture as a zvJioW (c. Noet. 3 and 4). 3. Proceeding on these principles, he declared — against the two opposite forms of Monarchianism at Rome — that the duty of the Christian Teacher is to examine and to co-ordinate the various texts of Scripture bearing on the subject in dispute, and to exhibit them in one harmonious whole. In the per- formance of this work he showed that the doctrine of the Unity of the divine Essence, in a Plurality of Three Divine Persons, is declared by the words of our Lord, when He had risen from the dead, and gave a com- mission to His disciples to go forth and preach the Gospel to all the World : " Go ye and teach all Nations, baptizing them into the NAME (not Names, but into the One Name) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost " (Matt xxviii. 19). This one- ness of THE Name proclaimed the Unity of the Divine Essence ; and since the Father is God, it followed that the Son and Holy Ghost, Who are joined with Him in the words of this Commission, cannot be less than God. The true doctrine of the Trinity in Unity was there- fore grounded on that divine declaration, and had been proclaimed in every Baptism that had ever been administered in the Church of Christ. Further, the distinct Personality of the Father, the 294 UNITY OF DIVINE SUBSTANCE IN THE TRINITY OF PERSONS. Son, and the Holy Ghost, had been declared at our Lord's own Baptism ; when the Father spoke from heaven, and said, " This is My beloved Son ; " and when the Son was baptized, and when the Holy Ghost came down upon Him. And the distinct Personality of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost was further mani- fested by St. Paul's words, "Through Him (the Son) we have access, by one Spirit, to the Father " (Eph. ii. 1 8). Also the distinct Personality and the divine Nature of each of the Three Persons were dis- played in the words of Apostolical Benediction (revealing the full meaning of the Priestly Benediction under the Law, with its triple repetition of " The Lord" constituting "My Name!' Num. vi. 23 — 27), "The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all" (2 Cor. xiii. 14). The Trisagion of the Apocalypse was also an echo of the "Thrice Holy 'V in Isaiah (Isa. vi. 3. Rev. iv. 8). The Text (John x. 30) " I and the Father are one " (not el?, but ev eafiev) , umim siimtis, one substance^ not one Person^ had been '^ already well explained and applied by Tertullian (c. Prax. c. 22) to prove the Plurality of Persons and Unity of Substance in the Trinity. 4. But together with these Scriptures S. Hippolytus took care to combine the manifold testimony of Holy Scripture, showing that the. Eternal Son of God, Very God of Very God, became Very Man at His Incarna- tion, in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so ^ S. Augustine said well on this text, " Ego et Pater iiman sumus,'' that our Lord destroyed two heresies by it at one blow. Per " U7ium " stravit Arium, per ^^ sutnus,^' Sabellium. CIIRJSrS TWO NATURES IN ONE PERSON—WORK 295 OF HIPPOLYTUS ON ALL HERESIES. that in His One Person, the two Natures, the Nature of God and the Nature of Man, were united, but not confused, and will remain united, and never to be separated, for eternity. 5. S. Hippolytus had profited by the teaching ot S. Irenaeus, whose scholar he was, and doubtless he had diligently studied the five books of S. Irenaeus, entitled " A Refutation of all Heresies." And it is not improbable that he had seen the work which Tertullian wrote against Praxeas early in the third century. In that book Tertullian says (c. 3) "that many simple-minded persons are startled at the doc- trine of the Trinity, because they think that it mars the Unity, and betrays them into Pagan Polytheism. They do not understand that in a Trinity of Divine Persons there is an Unity of substance." . We do not hear of Praxeas in the conflict which Hippolytus had with the Patripassians at Rome. Praxeas, who was an African (Augustin. Haer. c. 41. Philast. Haer. c. 54), left Rome for Carthage, where he was encountered by Tertullian ; and perhaps he was not only confuted, but converted, by him. S. Hippolytus had also carefully examined the heresies that had then been broached, as is shown by his lately-discovered work called " A Refutation of all Heresies." He was, therefore, well qualified to be a pilot of the Church, amid the storms of controversy, and over the shoals and quicksands of Error, and to steer her safely amid the reefs and rocks, and to guide her to the calm haven and secure anchorage of Truth. Those various Heresies had been overruled by the Divine Head of the Church for the triumphant vindi- cation, clearer manifestation, and firmer establishment 296 HERESIES OVERRULED FOR GOOD. of the true faith. " If the doctrine of the Church," says Origen (in Num. homil. 9), "had not been assailed by the opposition of heretics, our faith would not be so clearly manifest and well defined as it is. God allows the Catholic doctrine to be impugned, in order that our Faith may not be a languid Faith, but be stimulated by exercise." And S. Augustine observes (in Ps. 54), " Many things in Scripture were not fully understood. Heretics arose and agitated the Church from which they were cut off. And those things were then made clear, and the will of God was understood." Augustine goes on to remark that as Arianism was overruled for the clearer manifestation of the doctrine of the Trinity, so was Novatianism, for elucidating the truth concerning the efficacy of Repentance ; and Donatism, for illustrating the doc- trine of Baptism. And he says (in his Treatise de Civ. Dei, xvi. 2), " Many truths which appertain to the Catholic faith are weighed more diligently by its advocates, and are apprehended more clearly, and are preached more earnestly, in order that those truths may be defended against enemies who restlessly . impugn them. And thus the questions raised by our adversaries become occasions for learning the truth." In the same spirit Richard Hooker observes (V. xlii.) that " contentions with heretics occasioned the learned and sound in faith to explain such things as Heresy went to deprave." Samson, having slain the Lion, fed himself and others with the honey from the carcase ; so the champions of the Church, having prostrated Heresy, nourished themselves and others with the strong meat derived from its overthrow (see Judges xiv. 8, 9). EVIDENCE OF THIS IN THE TEACHING OF 297 HIPFOL YTUS ON THE PERSON OF CHRIST. In illustration of these statements, let us refer to the writings of S. Hippolytus. In his Homily against the Noetian heresy, then prevalent at Rome, he says (c. 12), "Christ is the Word by Whom all things were made, as St. John testifies at the beginning of his Gospel. " In Him we behold the Word Incarnate ; we know the Father by Him ; we believe the Son ; we worship the Holy Ghost." He then encounters the argument of the Noetians, charging the orthodox with a belief in two Gods, because they maintained that the Father is God, and the Son is God. " No," he replies, " I will not speak of two Gods, but one God and two Persons (c. 14). For the Father is one, but there are two Persons, because there is also the Son ; and the third Person is the Holy Ghost. We cannot otherwise acknowledge one God, except we believe truly in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. The Word of God, namely Christ, having risen from the dead, gave therefore this charge to His disciples (Matt, xxviii. 19), 'Go ye and teach all Nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' and thus He showed that whoever omits one of these does not fully glorify God. For through this Trinity the Father is glorified. The Father willed, the Son wrought, the Holy Ghost manifested. All the Scriptures proclaim this." In the eloquent peroration of that Homily he describes the human acts and sufferings, as well as the divine miracles of Christ, as follows (c. 17) : — "Brethren, blessed in the Lord, let us believe according to the tradition of the Apostles, that God the Word came down from heaven into the Holy Virgin Mary, in order that being Incarnate from her, 298 S. HIPPOLYTUS ON THE. DIVINE AND HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST and having taken a human, reasonable soul, and becoming in all things Very Man, but without sin, He might save man who had fallen, and might give incorruption to men who believe in His Name. "The true doctrine has been manifested to us in all things, that there is One Father, with Whom the Word is present, by Whom He made all things ; and Whom, in these latter days, the Father sent into the World for the salvation of mankind. His Coming into the World was pre-announced by the Law and the Prophets ; and according to that pre-announce- ment He manifested Himself, being born the new Man from the Virgin and the Holy Spirit ; having His heavenly Nature, as the Word, from the Father, and His earthly nature by taking our flesh from the old Adam by the Virgin. He came forth into the world, being God in a human body, perfect Man, not in appearance merely, nor by change of nature, but real and very Man." He then describes Christ as represented in the Gospel history. " Though He is manifested in the world as God, yet He does not decline what is human. He is hungry and weary, and being weary He thirsts ; and being in an agony He shrinks from death ; and when He prays. He is sorrowful ; aad He Who never slumbers, as God, is asleep as man on a pillow ; and He deprecates the bitter cup, though He came for that purpose into the world ; and He Who strengthens those who believe in Him, and Who teaches them to despise death. He when in an agony sweats drops of blood, and is strengthened by an Angel ; He is betrayed by Judas, He Who knew well what Judas was ; He is shamefully treated by Caiaphas the High Priest, He Who, in his time, had been before consecrated JESUS CHRIST, VERY GOD AND VERY 31 AN. 299 High Priest as God ; and He Who will judge the World is set at nought by Herod ; He is scourged by Pilate Who has borne our infirmities. He is mocked by soldiers, Who has thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand of Angels and Archangels waiting upon Him ; and He Who has fixed the vault of the heavens, He is fixed by the Jews to the Cross. He Who is inseparable from the Father, with a loud voice commits His Spirit to the Father ; and He Who said, ' I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again " (John X. 1 8), He bows His head and gives up the ghost. He is pierced with a spear in His side, Who gives life to all ; He Who raises the dead, He being wrapped in linen is laid in a tomb ; and He Who is the Resurrection and the Life, He after three days is raised from the grave by the Father. He did all these things for our sakes. He Who for us was made like to us. This is He W^ho was hymned at His Birth by Angels, and was seen by the Shepherds, and was waited for by Symeon, and was witnessed by Anna, and was sought for by the Wise Men, and was heralded by the Star, and resorted to His Father's House, and was pointed out by the Baptist, and was attested by His Father, ' This is My Beloved Son, hear ye Him,' and was crowned after His victory over the Devil. This is Jesus of Nazareth, Who was bidden to the Marriage at Cana, and Who changed Water into Wine ; and Who rebuked the Sea when tossed by the rage of the Winds, and Who walked on the Sea as on dry land, and gave sight to the man who had been blind' from his birth, and raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days ; and healed many diseases, and forgave sins, and gave like power 300 CHRIST GOD AND MAN— ON BAPTISM. to His disciples, and shed out of His side water and blood. For Him the Sun is darkened (at the Crucifixion), the day has no light, the rocks are rent, the veil is torn in twain, the foundations of the earth are shaken, graves are opened, dead come forth, and the Rulers are put to shame. He breathes the Holy Spirit on His disciples, and enters through closed doors into the upper room. " This is He Who ascends on a cloud into heaven in the sight of His disciples, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the quick and dead. This is He Who is God, and Who for our sakes was made Man, and under Whose feet the Father has put all things. To Him therefore, with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit, be glory and power in the Holy Church now and through all ages for evermore. Avieny In his Homily on Baptism, S. Hippolytus thus speaks (Hippol. ed. Fabric, i. 261):— "The Father of Immor- tality sent forth His immortal Son and Word into the world ; Who came to wash man with Water and the Holy Spirit, and having regenerated him to incor- ruption of soul and body, breathed into us the breath of life, having clothed us with the armour of immor- tality. If then Man has become immortal, he will also be divinized ; and if he is divinized through Water and the Holy Spirit, after the regeneration given in the baptismal font, he will also be fellow- heir with Christ after the Resurrection from the dead. Come ye, therefore, and be born again to the adop- tion of God. He who descends with faith into the laver of Regeneration, renounces the Devil, and dedi- cates himself to Christ ; he rejects the Enemy, and confesses that Christ is God. He comes forth a son S. HIPPOLYTUS AGAINST THE DENIAL OF 301 CHRIST'S DIVINITY. of God and fellow-heir with Christ. To Him be Glory and Power with His all-holy, good, and life- giving Spirit now and ever." Some passages have now been quoted from the Homily of S. Hippolytus against the Noetian, or Patripassian, form of Unitarianism ; he composed also a treatise against the humanitarian form of it, as broached by Theodotus and Artemon, some portions of which are preserved by Eusebius (v. 28).^ He there refers to the Holy Scriptures as testify- ing the Divinity of Christ ; and appeals to the writ- ings of Justin Martyr, Miltiades, Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, and others, declaring that Christ is "God and Man," and to the numerous Psalms and Hymns (aJSat)— and he himself had com- posed Hymns, as appears from the titles of his works on his Statue — " written by faithful men from primi- tive times, which celebrate in song the Word of God, Christ, as God." ^ He there speaks of Jesus Christ " as our merciful God and Lord," and condemns the Unitarian (or, as we should now call it, Socinian) heresy of Artemon as a " God-denying heresy." In his recently-discovered ''Refutation of all Here- sies," S. Hippolytus contended against the heresy of Theodotus (vii. 35 ; x. 23), and against Noetus, Zephy- rinuSj and Callistus (lib. ix. passim). He also wrote as ^ The proof that the words there quoted are words of Hippolytus may be seen in my work on S. Hippolytus, pp. 19, 20, 196, 210, 216. The writer says that he had composed a book '* on the Universe," which is claimed by Hippolytus in his Refutation of Heresies, and is ascribed to him in the titles of works on his Statue mentioned above. See also Heinichen's note on Euseb, v. 28. 2 As Pliny says in his letter to the Emperor Trajan was done in the Christian assemblies before daylight in his own Province, Bithynia. Plin. Ep. X. 97. See above, p. 123. 302 S. HIPPOLYTUS-HIS ADDRESS TO THE HE A THEN. follows in his Address to the Heathen at the end of the Tenth Book of that Refutation :— " The One and Supreme God generated the Word in His own Mind; He generated Him not as a Voice, but as the in- dwelling Ratiocination of the Universe; Him alone He generated out of what existed, for the Essence of things is the Father Himself, from Whom is the cause of generation to what is generated. The Word was in the Father ; and when the Father bade what was single to become a World, the Word executed that will, doing what was pleasing to the Father." "The Word alone is of God, of God Himself; wherefore He is God, being the substance of God. The Word of God administers all things, as the First- born Son of the Father ; the light-bearing Voice before the Morning Star. *' Subsequently good men were born, dear to God, and called Prophets, because they foretold the future.. To them the Word came. This Word the Father has sent in the latter days, no longer by a Prophet, but bidding Him be manifest face to face. He took a body from the Virgin, and fashioned the old Man by a new Creation ; Him we know to have been a Man of the same nature as ourselves. He underwent toil, and consented to suffer hunger, and did not decline thirst, and took rest in sleep, and did not refuse His Passion, and became obedient to Death, and manifested His Resurrection, consecrating His own manhood as the firstfruits in all these things, in order that when thou sufferest thou mayest not de- spond, owning thyself to be man of like nature with Christ, and waiting for the reproduction of that (the human body) which thou gavest to Him. Christ is the God over all, Who gave command to wash away SABELLIUS. 303 sins from men, making the old man to become new, and thus showing by a figure His love to thee ; and if thou hearkenest to His holy commandments, and becomest an imitator in goodness of Him Who is good, thou wilt be like Him, being honoured by Him." ^ During the pontificate of Callistus, Sabellius ap- peared at Rome ; an heresiarch superior in intellec- tual ability, theological science, and philosophical culture to Callistus^ or Noetus. He put forth a more consistent form of Monar- chianism than any of the Patripassians. He asserted the Divine Unity, but did not deny the Trinity. What He denied was a Trinity of Divine Persojts in the Unity. The three Names, Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, did not, according to him, represent three distinct Persons, but three different phases of the manifestation of the One divine Essence. In his view, the Monad unfolded became the Triad."* He did not indeed refuse the phrase Tpla irpoo-coiTa, three persons ; \>\it in his theory these three persons had no distinct eternal personality, but were only three varying personifications.^ It does not appear that Sabellius ventured to enter into the lists with Hippolytus at Rome. He seems to have shrunk from the conflict. He 3 If the reader desires to see further remarks on the theology of S. Hippolytus as to the Eternal Generation, and consubstantiality, and distinct personality of the Son of God, may I refer again to chap. xiv. of my work on Hippolytus ? ^ S. Athanas. Orat. iv. c. Arian. § 13. * Athanas. Orat. iv. c Arian. S. Basil, Ep. 210, Ep. 214, Ep. 235. Theodoret, Ha;r. Fab. ii. 9. Neander, ii. p. 354. In the time of Theodoret and S. Augustine the Noetians had disappeared, but the more specious heresy of Sabellius still sui-vived (Theodoret, Hter. Fab. ii. 9, II. S. Aug. Hser. 41). Noetianism was supplanted by Sabellianism. 304 SABELLIUS; DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA ; AND DIONYSIUS OF ROME. migrated from Italy to his own country Africa, and was there® encountered, about A.D. 257, by the cele- brated Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, who sent to Sixtus, Bishop of Rome, a copy of what he had written against Sabellius. It is a remarkable fact that the opposite form of Monarchianism, that of Artemon, having been driven from Rome, mainly, it is probable, by the efforts of S. Hippolytus, was re- produced in the East in a somewhat modified shape by the Bishop of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, of whom more will be said hereafter (chap, xxv.) ; and who taught that the Logos (or Word) — not a personal existence, but a divine influence — came down from God into the Man Christ Jesus, and made Him in a certain sense Son of God and divine, and thence returned to the Father (Euseb. vii. 30). But to return to Sabellius. It may be regarded as an evidence of the success of the teaching of S. Hippolytus at Rome, that whereas the arguments of Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria (who was a Scholar of Origen, and who issued a Pastoral Letter against Sabellianism), were liable to exception,^ inasmuch as in his zeal against SabelHus he represented the Son of God not only as a distinct Person from the Father, but by an excess of reaction carried the doctrine of subordination, which Origen had taught, too far, and displayed Him, as was generally thought, in a position of inferiority to the Father (so that in after-days he was said by S. Basil to have even sown the seeds of Arianism, S. Basil, Ep. ix.j, a Bishop of Rome arose, another Dionysius (who succeeded to the Episcopate in A.D. 259, in the place of the martyred Bishop ^ Theodoret, Haeret. Fab. ii. 9. Euseb. vii. 6. 7 See Athanasius de Sententia Dionysii, § 14. S. DIONYSIUS ON MILLENARIANISM. 305 Xystus), to remonstrate with him ^ for this inadequate doctrine concerning the Divine Logos. Dionysius of Alexandria gently, wisely, and charitably received the fraternal expostulation from his namesake of Rome, and wrote a full explanation of his meaning, which gave satisfaction to the Church.^ This seems the place for referring to another example of the conciliatory influence of Dionysius of Alexandria in reference to the Person and Divine Nature of Christ. He was of opinion that the doctrine of a personal Reign of our Lord upon earth for a Thousand Years after His second Coming, — a doctrine held by some learned and good men, such as Justin Martyr, Irenseus, and TertuUian, and grounded by them on their inter- pretation of the Twentieth Chapter of the Book of Revelation, — was not consistent with the general teaching of Scripture concerning Christ's Second Advent, or with the dignity and majesty of the Son of God. The Scriptures teach that the Saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (i Thess. iv. 7), and zvill reign zvitJi CJirist in Jieaven ; but the Scriptures do not, he thought, teach that Christ will return for a thousand years to reign here below with the Saints on earth. Dionysius therefore con- vened a Conference of Clergy and others, and after giving an entire day to patient and friendly examina tion of the subject (Euseb. vii. 24), he brought them to agree in the judgment, which was afterwards for * In his 'AvaTpoirri, Or refutation, portions of which are prcsei-ved in the work of S. Athanasius ^ de Decretis Synodi NicsenDe. See also Routh, Rehquice Sacrse, iii. 372—403 ; Epist. Rom. Pontif, p. 271, ed. Coustant. Paris, 1721 ; Tillemont, iv. pp. 237 — 242. '■* Euseb. vii. 26, S. Athanasiusde Sententia Dionysii, pp. 558, 561, 565. Fleury, Hist. Eccl. ii. 343 — 348. X 306 SABELLIANISM— RECOVERY OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. fourteen hundred years the generally-received opinion of the Church on that question.^ In reviewing the history of the Sabellian heresy, we recognize with great gratification a noble example of Christian zeal and courage on one side, and of Chris- tian meekness and humility on the other. Here also was a happy recovery of the Church of Rome from the erroneous and heretical teaching of two of her Bishops, Zephyrinus and Callistus ; and a restoration of her orthodoxy by another of her Bishops, Diony- sius of Rome. Here was a triumph of the true faith in the doctrine of the Godhead, Manhood, and distinct Personality of the Son of God ; and a declaration of the Glory of the Eternal Trinity, and of the Divine Majesty in the Unity. Here also was a blessed consummation of the work of S. Hippolytus ; and a signal proof of the divine grace and benediction vouchsafed to his efforts in the defence of the Truth. S. Hippolytus died a Martyr to the Faith. Reasons have been given elsewhere^ for believing that the Hymn of Prudentius, on his Martyrdom, is historically true ; and that Hippolytus suffered by being torn in pieces by wild horses at Portus,^ under the Emperor Valerian, on Aug. 13, A.D. 258, a few days after the Martyrdoms of the Bishop of Rome, S. Xystus, and of his faithful follower the Archdeacon of Rome, S. Laurence ; and about a month before the Martyrdom of the great Bishop of Carthage, S. Cyprian ; and that the mortal remains of S. Hippolytus were conveyed * For evidence of this may I refer to my notes on Rev. xx. 6, p. 268 ? 2 In chapter ix. of my work on S. Hippolytus. 3 Ibid. p. 161. MARTYRDOM OF S. HIP POL YTUS : HIS TOMB 307 AND ST A TUB. to Rome by his friends, and were honourably buried near those of S. Laurence in the crypt of a Sacred Chapel, in which Prudentius saw a fresco painting in which his martyrdom was represented, and to which, on the anniversary of that martyrdom, crowds of pilgrims resorted to visit the Martyr's grave. It was at that spot, near the present Church of S. Laurence, that the ancient Statue of S. Hippolytus was discovered in the year 1551 ; which is now in the Lateran Museum at Rome (above, p. 286). Perhaps that Statue was erected in his memory soon after his martyrdom, in the Episcopate of the great Roman Bishop Dionysius, by faithful and loving friends and admirers, who desired to express their thankfulness to Almighty God for delivering the Church of Rome, and other Western Churches, from dangerous and deadly heresy,'' and for the vin- dication of the True Faith, in the Godhead of His dear Son, and in the doctrine of the Ever-blessed Trinity, by the wisdom, learning, courage, and piety of His faithful Servant and Martyr, S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus. 4 A debt is also due to S. Hippolytus from Christendom for refuting— by anticipation— by his own teaching and practice, the modern heresy of Papal Infallibility, which is the root .of many other heresies, as is shown in the work above quoted, on Hippolytus, chap. xvii. X 2 CHAPTER XXII. Tendencies of S. Hippolytns to Novatianism — Pleas iirged in favour of that Schism — Occasion of its Rise and Groivth — Novatian at Rome — the first A ntipope — against Cornelius — Novatus at Carthage against Cyprian — 5. Cyprian s Remonstrances — Action of S. Hippolytns — Intervention of S. Dionysius of Alexandria — Controversy on Baptism by Heretics — Carthage and Rome — Healing of the Schism — Inferences from it — Comments of S. Augustine and Richard Hooker, In reading the life and writings of S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, we recognize salutary warnings, that no one, however eminent for piety, learning, and zeal, is free from human infirmities; and also, that, when the Spiritual Enemy of the Church is foiled in his efforts to deprave her by heresy, he resorts to another expedient, and endeavours to divide her by schism, especially by such schism as makes specious professions of superior zeal for holiness and purity. They who have studied the narrative which S. Hippolytus has given of his own proceedings at Rome, in the Ninth Book of his recently-discovered treatise, "The Refutation of all Heresies," will have noticed in it some questionable expressions on the true nature of Church Communion, and on the TENDENCIES OF HIPPOLYTUS TOWARD 309 NO VA TIANISM. administration of Church disciphne ; and they will have observed that those statements could hardly fail, if carried to their logical results, to cause such a division in the Church, as did in fact soon afterwards manifest itself at Rome in Novatianism. In that narrative Hippolytus appears to entertain a doubt whether the Church visible on earth is, and ever will be, a Society in which evil men are mingled with the good.^ He seems not to realize the truth, that the Ark of Noah, in which clean animals were contained with unclean, was in that respect a figure of the Church ; he appears not to have clearly recognized that our Lord's Parable of the Tares and the Wheat left to grow together in the field till they are severed at the day of harvest, was intended to be a divine lesson on the duties of patience, hope, and charity, to be practised by the true Christian, tolerating evil in this present world, and endeavouring to overcome it with good, and to change evil into good ; at the same time that he looks forward with faith to the Great Day of harvest, when the evil will be severed for evjer from the good, not by the hand of man, but of the Angel reapers, acting by the command of the Lord of the harvest, and when, the good will be gathered together for ever into the garner of heaven. We need not be surprised at this. The minds of pious and zealous men — even in proportion to their piety and zeal — are apt to be provoked by laxity of Church discipline, and by toleration of evil practices, such as Hippolytus saw in the Church of Rome. A perfectly pure and holy Church seems to them to be the only fitting Bride of Him Who is pure and holy. Such persons are impatient of any taint in her. 1 See on Hippolytus, p. 92, and the note there, and p. 147. 310 PLEAS FOR NOVATIANISM. Any "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," seems to be unworthy of her, and of Him Whose she is. They antedate the day of Harvest. They confound the Church visible here on earth with what she hopes to be when glorified with her Lord hereafter in heaven. S. Hippolytus may have profited by the work of the great African Father, TertuUian, against Praxeas the Patripassian ; and he may also have been deeply stirred by Tertulli^n's denunciations of the laxity of Church discipline, especially at Rome (De Pudic. c. i). He may have shared with TertulHan in his longings for unsullied purity, and in his rigid notions as to non-remissibility, by the Church, of mortal sin after baptism, which carried away that vigorous and energetic, but vehement and enthusiastic, Theologian into the sectarian ranks of Montanism. Hippolytus appears also to have had much sym- pathy in doctrine and discipline with another person, perhaps the ablest Roman (as distinct from African) writer of that time ; indeed, the only Roman eccle- siastic of that age who appears to have attained any celebrity in dogmatic theology,^ — Novatian. Novatian was a presbyter of the Roman Church ; he was employed as Secretary of that Church in her correspondence with the African, on the case of the lapsed (that is, those who had fallen away from the faith, in times of persecution), as to their re-admissi- bility to the Church ; and he distinguished himself in fighting the same battle of the faith as Hippolytus, by writing an excellent work in Latin — still extant — on the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, in which there are 2 It has been well remarked by Neander that the title o lo-^ixaTiCT^s (Euseb. vi, 43), applied to Novatian, shows how rare the character of a dogmatic theologian was at Rome at that time. NOVATIAN, THE FIRST ANTIPOPE. 311 many resemblances to the words of S. Hippolytus in his recently-recovered Treatise.^ Novatian, being tempted perhaps by the conscious- ness of his own superiority in sacred learning and intellectual ability, as well as by a conceit that he was promoting the purity and holiness of the Church by a rigid system of penitential discipline (on behalf of which he appealed to the well-known passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews'), set himself up in opposition to Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, and became the first A ntipope. The occasion of the schism was this. In A.D. 251, Novatus, a Presbyter of the Church of Carthage, who with others had formed a party against Cyprian (raised soon after his baptism, A.D. 247, to the order of Priesthood, and in A.D. 248 to the Episcopate of that City), came to Rome, and excited Novatian to follow his example, and to become the leader in a similar schism against Cornelius, recently elected Bishop of Rome/ The plea urged on behalf of that schism, was that Cornelius, who was of one accord with Cyprian, had lapsed from the faith in the time of the persecution under the Emperor Decius, A.D. 250 (in which Fabius, Bishop of Rome, had suffered martyrdom) ; and that he had relaxed the penitential discipline of the Church by readmitting to communion on easy terms those who had fallen from the faith ; and that, therefore, he ought not to be recognized as a true Bishop of the 3 The evidence of this is given in my Hippolytus, pp. 107, iii, 112. •» See on Heb. vi. 4—8, and Tertullian de Pudicit. c. 20. 5 See the full account in the Bishop of Truro's article on S. Cyprian (to be followed, it is hoped, by an edition of S. Cyprian), in Professor Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, pp. 743 — 74^- j 312 s: CYPRIAN ON NOVATIANISM. Church, and that a faithful Bishop ought to be elected in his place. Consequently, Novatian was chosen by some who held these opinions, and was consecrated Bishop of Rome by three Bishops/ S. Cyprian and the Church of Carthage protested against this invasion ; not so much, however, on the ground that Novatian's opinions on Church discipline were erroneous, as that his actw3.s one of schismatical usurpation. Cornelius, he said, had been duly elected and consecrated Bishop of Rome. A second Bishop of a see, when full, was no Bishop at all. The Unity of the Church is maintained by the Oneness of the Episcopate. . To set up Bishop against Bishop, and altar against altar, was to tear asunder the Unity of the Church — the Body and Spouse of Christ ; to rend His seamless Coat ; to be guilty of the gainsay- ing of Korah, and to be liable to his punishment ; to commit deadly sin, which could not be expiated by martyrdom.'' How did S. Hippolytus act under these circum- stances at Rome .'* Prudentius informs us, in the hymn concerning his martyrdom, that Hippolytus had " once nearly touched the schism of Novatus."* This, in truth, is evident from passages in his lately-discovered work.^ But Prudentius adds that Hippolytus renounced his error ; and it is certain that, however he might have * See S. Cyprian, Epist. 42, 46, 49, 52, 55, and his Treatise de Unitate Ecclesise ; Euseb. vi. 43 ; Theodoret, Haer. Fab. iii. 5. 7 These principles were strenuously asserted by S. Cyprian in his Epistles, and especially in his Treatise de Unitate Ecclesiae, written A.D. 251, pp. loJi — 113 (ed. Fell), where he says, "Esse martyr non potest qui in Ecclesia non est ; inexpiabilis culpa discordire nee passione purgatur. Occidi talis potest, coronari non potest." ^ The words may be seen in my Hippolytus, pp. 159 — 161. ^ See above, p. 309. ACTION OF HIPPOL¥TUS— INADEQUACY 01 313 CYPRIANS OPINIONS. approved Novatian's notions as to penitential disci- pline, he never would have carried them to the same result that Novatian did, and have set up a rival Bishop at Rome. We hear of no such attempt on his part, even in the evil days of the two Popes, Zephyrinus and CaUistus, whom he resisted face to face. Much less would he have joined in any such proceedings against such a faithful Bishop as Cornelius. In the full and circumstantial correspond- ence between the Churches of Rome and Carthage at that time, where the names of the opponents of Cornelius are given, there is no mention of Hippolytus. And how was the schism healed } S. Cyprian, with all his ability, eloquence, and piety, was not equal to the work. This is clear from his proceedings concerning *' heretical baptism," that is, baptism administered by heretics. His own notions on Church Communion needed revision. He was of opinion that the virtue, which Sacraments derive from their divine institution by Christ, was vitiated by lack of personal faith and holiness in their minister.^ Consequently, in some respects, he ap- proximated to the tenets of Novatian on penitential discipline, although he was vehemently opposed, as a Bishop, to Novatian's invasion of the Episcopal office, and to his violation of the Unity of the Church by such an usurpation. It is probable that S. Cyprian's theological opinions on penitential discipline had been warped by his enthusiastic admiration of Tertullian and of his writings.''^ " Da magistrum " was his saying when ^ See the full report of the controversy in Bishop Benson's excellent Article, in Prof. Wace's Dictionary, pp. 749— 753. 2 Tertullian rejected the baptism ministered by heretics ; see his Work de Baptismo, c. 15 and his Treatise de Pudicitia, passim. 314 PROVIDENTIAL ACTION OF DIONYSIUS. he asked his secretary to hand him his copy of Ter- tullian.^ But there was another person who was better quali- fied for the work. This was Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria. He was eminent for soundness in the faith, and for courage in maintaining it in persecution ; and not less so, for his large-hearted and far-reaching sympathies and universal charity. At the close of the Decian persecution in A.D. 251 (in the summer of that year), Cornelius had been elected Bishop of Rome. He wrote to Dionysius a letter concerning the state of his Church, distracted by the schism of Novatian. Novatian also addressed Dionysius, who wrote a reply, urging him in earnest and affectionate terms to heal the schism by resign- ing his Bishopric (Euseb. vi. 45). He also wrote several letters on the efficacy of Repentance, and remonstrated with the associates of Novatian, and prevailed on them to return to the Unity of the Church. Cornelius, with sixty Bishops in Synod at Rome, offered them terms of reconciliation and peace. Dionysius of Alexandria also wrote to the Romans a letter hi 'IttttoXvtou, " by HippolytiisT^ He expressed his disapproval of Novatianism as contravening the love and mercy of Christ (Euseb. vii. 8). Soon afterwards, in his letter on Repentance, he speaks of the schism as healed (Euseb. vii. 9). Dionysius was the greatest Bishop of the East at that time ; and Hippolytus was one of the most eloquent, learned, and able Bishops of the West. He may have been influenced by the letters of Dionysius ^ S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 53. 4 See Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 69 ; Euseb. vi. 46 ; and the remarks in my Hippolytus, p. 178. PROTEST OF HIPPOLYTUS— CYPRIAN' S ERROR— 315 STEPHEN, BISHOP OF ROME. to Rome — perhaps transmitted through himself — on Novatianism ; at any rate, we have reason to beheve from the testimony of Prudentius, that though he had once been incHned to its tenets, he pronounced a protest against them before A.D. 258, when, as is probable, he suffered as a Martyr for the faith, a month before the martyrdom of S. Cyprian. To return for a short time to S. Cyprian. His master, Tertullian, had said, '* There is One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of us all (Eph. iv. 5, 6). Yes, and this is only true of us who know and call upon the true God and Christ. But heretics have not this God and Christ ; this say- ing therefore cannot apply to them ; and they do not rightly administer it ; their baptism is the same as no baptism " (Tertull. de Baptismo, c. 15). Seventy Bishops in a Synod held at Carthage pronounced in this sense, but did not desire to impose their opinion on others as a term of communion. Stephen, Bishop of Rome, issued- a sentence of excommunication in A.D. 253 against Bishops of Asia Minor, Cappadocia, and Cilicia, who had adopted the same sentiments (Euseb. vii. 5. Firmilian in Cyprian, Ep. 75). Two Synods held by Cyprian A.D. 255 at Carthage (one composed of eighteen, the other of seventy-one Bishops) declared their judgment that the Baptism of heretics ought not to be regarded as valid, although they were aware that Stephen and the Church of Rome held a different opinion. Cyprian communicated the decision of the latter Synod with a conciliatory letter to Stephen (Epist. 72), who replied in the language of resentment and rebuke.^ Upon this, Cyprian convened in 256 a 5 Cp. S. Aug. de Bapt. v. 23. 316 POPE STEPHEN'S ACTS— CYPRIAN'S VIEWS AS TO P OMAN SUPREMA C V : larger Council of eighty-sevfen Bishops, who, notwith- standing the denunciations of Stephen, adhered to the judgment of the former African Synods. So little did they imagine that the Bishop of Rome was Supreme and Infallible Head of the Church. Cyprian in his turn (Ep. 71) condemned baptism by heretics as " sordid and profane," " treacherous and menda- cious," and said that there can be " no communion of Christ with Antichrist." "How (he asked) can a man cleanse others, who is not. clean, and with whom the Holy Spirit is not ? What prayer can a sacrilegious sinner offer over a baptized person ? " (Ep. 70.) At the same time it appears that Cyprian, although he held to his own opinion, yet differed in this respect from Stephen, in that he did not enforce it on otJiers as a term of communion, inasmuch as the question was one which had not as yet been decided by the Church.^ The Bishop of Rome, Stephen_, had the best of the argument, as to dogma; but the Bishop of Carthage surpassed him in charity. And a greater than both has said that a man may " have faith so as to remove mountains," and yet, if he has not charity, ** he is nothing" (i Cor. xiii. 2). S. Cyprian entered into correspondence with Asiatic Bishops, especially Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, who expressed their concurrence with their African brethren, g,nd some Asiatic Synods issued decrees' to that effect (Euseb. vii. 5 and 7). Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, comes here again before us as a peacemaker ; he expostulated with Stephen, Bishop of Rome, and his successor Xystus, and exhorted them to forbearance and brotherly love. ^ S. Aug. de Bapt. iii. 3 j v. 25 i in Petilian. c. 14 ; Serm. 37. ^ ON BAPTISM BY HERETICS— THE TEACHER'S 317 ERROR THE PEOPLE'S TRIAL. He congratulated the Bishop of Rome on the cessa- tion of the Novatian Schism/ and endeavoured to restore peace between Rome and Carthage. The persecution under Valerian, which united Xystus, Hippolytus, and Cyprian as Martyrs, put an end to the strife for a time. In the Eighth Canon of the Council of Aries, A.D. 314, it was decreed that Baptism administered by heretics, in the Name of the Blessed Trinity, was valid, and ought not to be repeated ; and in the Eighth Canon of the General Council of Nicaea, A.D. 325, the Baptisms administered, and Ordinations con- ferred, by Novatians were also declared to be valid. Many pleas were urged against S. Augustine in the fifth century by the Donatists, when, on pretence of zeal for the purity of the Church, and on the plea that heretics and traditcrs of the faith in persecution cannot give, in the Sacrament of Baptism, the Holy Spirit, Whom they have grieved, they set up Majorinus as Bishop of Carthage, in opposition to Caecilianus (A.D. 311), whom they accused as having been consecrated by a Ti^aditor, Felix Bishop of Aptunga. But none of those arguments was so for- midable ' as the appeal they made to the authority and practice of S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, whom Africa and all Christendom honoured as a Blessed Martyr. So true we find it by experience of all ages of the Church, that " the Teacher's error is the people's 7 Euseb. vii. 4, 5, 7 ; cp. Tillemont, iv. 142, 143, who thinks that while Dionysius disapproved the harshness of Stephen, he rather in- clined to his opinion, and that Dionysius succeeded in appeasing the strife, ibid. iv. 160. 8 S. Aug. de Bapt. i. 18 ; iii. 4 ; iv. 6 ; v. 17 ; vi. 2. 318 S. AUGUSTINE ON S. CYPRIAN'S ERROR. trial, harder so much the more to bear, as he is, in worth and regard, greater that mispersuadeth them." ^ In reply to his Donatist opponents, S. Augustine maintained, that the Baptism instituted by Christ is always holy, wherever it is. He said that although it may exist among those who are heretics or schis- matics, it is not derived from their heresy or schism, nor is any part of it ; and therefore those who have been baptized by heretics or schismatics in the name of the Trinity ought not to be baptized again when they come to the Church (De Bapt. i. 20). He asserted that Sacraments may exist -^.r^xovig schis- matics and heretics, but that they do not profit those who are in heresy and schism, inasmuch as (according to St. Paul, I Cor. xiii. i — 3) " nothing profiteth without charity," and no person can be rightly said to have charity, who breaks the unity of the Church. There- fore he exhorts the Donatists to come to the Unity of the Church, in order that the Sacraments, which they have received in schism, may begin to profit them in unity. ^ As to the plea grounded by the Donatists on the authority of Cyprian, Augustine replied that great and good men are men, and that, as men, they are subject to human infirmity ; and that by the errors of good men God tries His Church, whether she will follow human teachers, or Him Who is the Truth. He added, that Cyprian showed his humility, meekness, and charity by not breaking the Unity of the Church, and by communicating with those who differed from him ; and that the memory of his errors was effaced by the ^ Hooker, V. Ixii. 9. ^ S. Aug. c. Donat. i. 18 ; iv. 24 ; c. Crescon. ii. 12 ; c. Petil. c. 15 ; Ep. 89 ; de Bapt. i. 8 ; in Joann. vi. APPLICA TION TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 319 glory of his Martyrdom for Christ ; and that, after his time, it had pleased God to settle the question permanently by decrees of Councils of the Church ; and that therefore the Donatists could not be excused for disturbing the peace of the Church, especially by an appeal to Cyprian, who laboured earnestly to promote it ; and that God had permitted the question to be debated with earnestness on both sides, in order that both sides having been impartially heard, it might for ever be set at rest.^ The interest of this subject, for all members of the Church of England, will justify this enlargement upon it. " Where was your Church before the Reformation ? " is a question often put to us by Romanists. And there have been some English Protestants, and still are, who do harm to the cause of the Church of England, and who promote the interests of Rome, by denying that the Church of England, when she was corrupted by Roman error before the Reformation, was a Church of Christ ; and by representing Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, and even King Henry VIIL, as founders of the Church of England in the sixteenth century. Let such persons be requested to study the history of the Novatian Schism under Cornelius, arid of the controversy concerning heretical baptism under S. Cyprian, and the revival of that controversy by the Donatists under S. Augustine, and the arguments by which it was refuted by that great Theologian. Let them read the history of those controversies, illustrated 2 S. Aug. in Psal. 54, " Non perfecte de baptismate tractatum est, antequam contradicerent foris positi rebaptizatores." 320 S. AUGUSTINE AND RICHARD HOOKER. by the comments of one who had much of the spirit of S. Augustine — our own Richard Hooker — in his reply to the Puritans, in the Third Book of his Ecclesiastical Polity. They will then contemplate the Church of England in her true light, namely, not as a Church of human creation or of recent origin, but as essentially one and the same Church, though with different degrees of soundness, at different times, for eighteen centuries, from the days of the Holy Apostles to the present day. They will learn that a Church does not cease to be a Church, because she may have erring members, or even heretical ministers, in her communion. No Church has ever existed without such admixtures. They will learn, that wilful separation from a Church which has the Holy Scriptures, and a duly ordained Ministry, and the Christian Sacraments, is sinful, unless the said Church enforces on her mem- bers heretical doctrines, as terms of Communion ; and then the guilt of the Schism (and there is no wilful Schism without guilt) is with the Church which enforces such terms as make communion with her to be impossible, and is not with those, who do not accept^ and who cannot accept, those terms, consistently with their loyalty to Christ, Who is the Truth. Let me add some other portions of Hooker's comments,^ " For lack of diligent observing the dif- ference, first, between the Church of God mystical and visible, — then, between the visible sound and corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes less, — the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed. From hence it grew that the African Bishops in the Coiuicil of Carthage (a.D. 256), knowing how the administration of Baptism 3 Hooker, E. P. III. i. 9. HOOKER ON DONA TISM AND NO VA TIANISM. 321 belongeth only to the Church of Christ, and supposing that Heretics, which were apparently severed from the sound believing Church, could not possibly be of the Church of Jesus Christ, thought it utterly against reason, that Baptism, administered by men of corrupt belief, should be accounted a Sacrament." Hooker then quotes some of the allegations of the African Bishops to that effect. "I know of no Baptism," said one of those Bishops, " but one, and that in the Church only, none outside the Church, where he that doth cast out the devil hath the devil ; the faithless offers articles of faith. Antichrist signeth in the Name of Christ ;" and the like. " All this, he adds, was not sufficient to prove that heretics were in no sort any part of the visible Church of Christ, and that con, sequently their baptism was no baptism. This opinion was therefore afterwards condemned." Hooker applies this to the erroneous allegation of some, who ask us, " Where did our Church of England lurk, in what cave of the earth it slept, for so many hundreds of years before the birth of Martin Luther ? As if we were of opinion that Luther did erect a new Church of Christ ! No ; the Church of Christ, which was from the beginning, is, and continueth unto the end ; of which Church all parts have not been always equally sincere and sound." Our English reformers in the sixteenth century did not pretend to set up a new Church, or to destroy the old, but to remove its corruptions, and to restore it to its primitive purity. Hooker returns to the subject in his fifth book (V. Ixii. 5), and observes that Tertullian was the first who denied the validity of baptism administered by heretics (De Bapt. c. 15), and that Novatian was the Y 322 DOCTRINAL AND DISCIPLINARIAN USES OF CHURCH HISTORY. first that publicly began to baptize again those who had been baptized by those whom he regarded as unsound in doctrine and vicious in life ; and that in this respect his principles were adopted by some who were strenuously opposed to him in other things, namely, by S. Cyprian and the African Bishops; and that the Bishop of Rome (Stephen) upheld against their novelties the ancient and true Apostolic custom (Euseb. vii. 3), till they which unadvisedly before had erred (that is, the Bishops of Africa after the time of Cyprian) became -in a manner all recon- ciled to the truth,'' and saw that " heresy in the ministers of baptism could not evacuate the force thereof; such heresy alone excepted as by reason of unsoundness in the highest articles of Christian Faith presumed to change (and by changing to maim the substance of) the form of Baptism. For the baptism which Novatianists gave stood firm, whereas they whom Samosatenians (who denied Christ's Godhead, and consequently the doctrine of the Trinity) had baptized were re-baptized" (Concil. Nicaen. can. 19). Thus then the study of the Controversies of the third century had. its practical uses in the sixteenth, and it has its uses for us in the nineteenth. And the History of the Church will in this, as in numerous other respects, be found to be one of our best teachers in matters of Christian Doctrine and Discipline. 4 S. Jerome contr. Lucifer, ad fin. S. Aug. c. Crescon. iii. 2 ; Epist. 48. CHAPTER XXIII. The Ethics of CJiristianity compared with those of Heathenism — Lives of Christians ; Influence of Christianity on Marriage ; Slavery ; Care of Sick and Dying ; Almsgiving; Ransoming of Captives — illustrated from the life and writings of three ancient Fathers of the second and third centuries^ Terttdlian, Dionysins of Alexandria, and S. Cyprian; and by S. Lanrence, Archdeacon of Rome — Acts and Martyrdom of S. Cyprian. The principal arguments used by Christian Apolo- gists on behalf of Christianity were derived from the Prophecies of the Old Testament, especially in their controversies with the Jews ; from our Lord's Miracles ; from the fulfilment of His own Prophecies ; from the spread of Christianity, in spite of worldly opposition. The sufferings and martyrdoms of the Christians, their patience, joy, and exultation in dying for Christ, in the presence of many spectators, on the cross, in the flames, and in the arena of the Amphi- theatre,— these were also efficacious in attracting the attention of the Heathen, and of winning them to Christianity. But the operation of such arguments as these was only local and transitory. There was another evidence which was permanent Y 2 324 EVIDENCE FOR CHRISTIANITY, FROM THE LIVES OF CHRISTIANS. and general — the Lives of the Christians. It has been well observed by S. Chrysostom ^ that Christianity came into the world to wage war against the Vices of mankind at a time when they were most dominant. Christianity did not appear upon earth in the nobler days of Greek heroism, which displayed itself at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataese ; nor in the hardier times of the Roman Republic, prolific in such patriotic self-sacrifice as that of the Decii ; nor in the glorious epoch of the Scipios. But God ordered that it should wait till the World had become demoralized, and was desperately diseased, so as to be unable to '* bear its vices or their remedies." The heavenly Physician came into the world, as it were, to a " ward of incurables.'* - The vices of human Society were then embellished by Poetry, they had become inveterate by time, were popu- larized by usage, and were consecrated by Religion. St. Paul's dark description of the moral depravity of the heathen world (Rom. i. 20 — 32) is confirmed by the testimony of its own historians^ nearly con- temporary with the Apostle, such as Tacitus and Suetonius ; and by its Poets, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, Persius, and Martial. We may now turn to the contrast presented by Christianity. A testimony to the moral character of Christians is given by an impartial heathen, Pliny the Younger, in his letter to the Emperor Trajan.^ 1 Homilia in Titum iii, 7; cp. Cyprian, Epist. i. ; Clemens Alex. Pjedagog. lib ii. 2 "Omne in prjecipiti vitium stetit," and "Nil eri ulterius quod nostris moribus addat Posteritas," is the expressive language of Juvenal (i. 149) at the close of the first century. ' Plin. X. 97. PLINY'S TESTIMONY TO CHRISTIAN MORALS- 325 O THER TESTIMONIES— MARRIA GE. He reports that, after careful investigation, he found that the custom of the Christians was in their rehgious assembhes, held before daybreak, to sing praise to Christ as God ; to bind themselves by a solemn oath to abstain from s\ oUch as theft, robbery, adultery, fraud, and untruthfulness. Such is the testimony of a heathen. The ancient Author of the Epistle to Diognetus (above, p. io6 — io8), Tertullian in his Apology (above, p. 98 — 103), Minucius Felix in his Dialogue (above, p. 112), and Origen writing to the heathen philosopher Celsus, describe what their habits were (see above, p. 118). Let us consider the contrast between Heathenism and Christianity in some special respects. I . And first as to Marriage. Marriage is the foun- tain and well-spring of domestic and social happi- ness. When this source is sulHed and polluted, streams of vice and misery flow from it. The Roman Poet testifies this from his own experience ; •(Horace, 3 Od. vi. 7) " Foecunda culpse Secula nuptias Primum inquinavere, et genus, et domos : Hoc fonte derivata clades In patriani populumque fluxit." According to the Roman law, there could be no legal Marriage (matrimonium justum) except between Roman Citizens.' Consequently, for the great multi- tude of Romans, who, when the Empire was extended into all parts of the habitable world, went forth as colonists, as military and civil functionaries, and as farmers of public revenues, and resided in foreign countries. Marriage was almost impossible. Concu- 4 Adolph Becker's Gallus, Leipzig, 1863, Pt. ii. p. 8. 326 A TTEMPTS OF JULIUS AND A UGUSTUS TO REFORM SO CIE TY—HORA CE. binage, harlotry, and worse sins were the results. The offspring of the union of the sexes was illegitimate. At Rome, and in Italy generally, the condition of the lawful wife and matron was one of degradation; she was the vassal of her husband, and liable to be cast off by his caprice.^ Julius Caesar and Augustus exerted their imperial power to correct some of these evils by Legislation ; ^ and Horace endeavoured by his genius to commend the enactments of Augustus to general acceptance.^ But what the Master of the heathen World, aided by all human appliances, endeavoured in vain to per- form, and it would seem that the reign of Augustus v/as providentially prolonged for the purpose of show- ing the vanity and impotence of Literature and Phi- losophy and secular Legislation to regenerate Society — that was effected quietly and surely by Christianity, wherever it was accepted, at a time when Vice was at its flood. The virtues and blessings of Home are due to the Gospel of Christ. This is so remarkable a fact that 'it seems right to dwell longer on the evidences of it. Greece and Rome were honourably distinguished ' Becker's Gallus, ii. 50. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte, p. 463. On the frequency of Divorce see the examples below, p. 328. ^ Cp. Dean Merivale's Rome, iv. pp. 40 — 45. 7 I do not know whether the suspicion is well grounded that Horace's Ode (2 Od. iv.), " Ne sit ancillce tibi amor pudori, &c. Nescias an te generum beati Phyllidos flavee decorent parent es," was written with the charitable design of making marriage possible between Roman citizens and foreigners. Certainly such passages as 3 Od. xxiv. 25 ; 4 Od. v. 21 ; xv. 9. 22, do great credit to the poet's heart, as taking a serious and earnest view of the social vices of his own age, and of their possible remedies ; as it has been my endeavour to show elsewhere, in "Miscellanies, I^iterary and Religious," vol. iii. 19 — 28. CONDITION OF WOMANHOOD IN GREECE AND A T 327 ROME-^DEADLY SIN. from many — especially Oriental — nations, by not encouraging Polygamy. But Woman was never made by them to be a com- panion to Man, morally, intellectually, and spiritually, even in their best times. The interesting Dialogue of Socrates with Ischomachus/ described by Xenophon, concerning the relation and behaviour of the latter to his newly-married wife, -shows that Marriage was regarded as a useful institution for the bringing up of children, and for the government of a household of slaves, rather than for any mutual comfort in conjugal union. The minds of Women were left uncultivated, and they were rarely admitted into social entertain- ments. There was, however, an unhappy exception to this. The Aspasias and the Phrynes, who were far superior in literary and artistic accomplishments and attrac- tions, took the place that ought to have been occu- pied by Greek matrons and their daughters. Another worse consequence ensued. The deadly sin, for which the Cities of the plain had been consumed by fire from heaven (Gen. xix. Jude 7), poisoned the vitals of Society. Love itself was not symbolized by poets and orators and philosophers, as the bright flame of pure affection kindled in the chaste hearts of men and women, but was represented as the fire of passion which the Apostle describes in his terrible picture of heathen Society (Rom. i. 27).^ Scarcely any ancient author can be mentioned as denouncing that deadly sin.^ It was even lauded by Poets — 8 Xenophon, CEconom. capp. vii, — x. ' Xenoph, Mem. viii. 2. Plat. Amator. 138. Lysias, Apol. c. Simon. i. 191. 1 Dollinger, Heidenthum, p. 685. Socrates was an exception, Xen. Mem. I. ii. 29, and Plato in his later work, the Leges. 32S VICE CONSECRATED— DIVORCE— CONJUGAL . UNFAITHFULNESS. notably in the Greek Anthology, and by romance writers of the Erotic School. It was shamelessly practised by those who called themselves the Teachers of the World, such as Parmenides, Xeno- crates — even Aristotle. It was even consecrated by the examples of gods,^ whom Greece and Rome worshipped in their temples. These Vices assumed even a coarser form at Rome than in Greece, where a thin veil of spiritual and sesthetical disguise had been cast over them. From the debasement and demoralization of Woman- hood, trained in vice from their early puberty,^ fol- lowed detestation of Marriage by man and woman. Divorce, as Seneca and Tertullian say, was re- garded as " a fruit of Marriage." The most celebrated Romans put away their wives for frivolous causes, ^milius Paulus divorced his wife without assigning a reason. Cicero divorced Terentia because she did not show enough grief for the loss of his daughter, and married a young and wealthy wife in her place. The great ethical teacher of the Stoic School, Cato, put away his first wife, by whom he had two children, and married Marcia, whom he afterwards gave up to Hortensius. Pompey divorced one wife to marry Sylla's step-daughter, and another to marry Caesar's daughter. Augustus divorced two wives, Clodia and Scribonia. No wonder that women, thus treated by men, lost all natural affection for husbands and chil- dren. The consequences were that faithless wives brought in supposititious ■* children ; in other cases 2 Zeus and Ganymede, Poseidon and Pelops. Cp. Dollinger, pp. 685 —690, 718. 3 Horat. 3 Od.vi. 24. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms i. pp. 460 —466. * Juvenal, vi. 602. INFANTICIDE— FAILURE OF LEGISLATION- 329 CHILDLESSNESS. they resorted to abortion and infanticide.^ Hence we may explain the words of St. Paul (i Tim. v. 14), where he commands women to bear children (instead of killing them in the womb) and St. John's combination of poisoning with harlotry (see the original words in Rev. ix. 21). The celibacy and childlessness of the Romans were remarkable phenomena, produced by this absence of conjugal love. In the time of Augustus the number of unmarried male citizens greatly exceeded that of the married.^ It was in vain that the Emperor tried to compel men to marry. Both men and women pre- ferred the guilty liberty of single life. Among the poets and other writers of the time of the Caesars, Virgil and Horace do not appear to have had wives ; and many who had wives had no children, as Ovid, Lucan, Statins, Silius Italicus, Seneca, both the Plinys, Suetonius, and Tacitus. Martial ^ tells his readers that when he had gained the civil honour accorded to those who had three children, he had put away his wife. In all the amatory poems of the Caesarean age there is none which celebrates the joys of fatherhood and motherhood. The childlessness of the Emperors is equally remarkable. The only instances of a succession of a son to a father on the imperial throne of Rome, from Julius Caesar to Constantine (more than 300 years), are those of Titus and Domitian to Vespasian, Commodus to Marcus Aurelius ; Caracalla and Geta to Severus ; and Gallienus to Valerian. The Emperors resorted to adoption in order to obtain heirs for the Empire. 5 See Minucius Felix, Octavius, c. 30, 31 ; Tertullian, Apol. c. 9 ; nd the note in my Hippolytus, p. 95- 6 Dio Cassius, Ivi. i. " Martial, ii. 91, 92. 330 JIOIV CHRISTIANITY UNDERTOOK TO REFORM SOCIETY. Harlotry was hallowed by religion in temples and festivals ; and the sin which brought the divine wrath on Sodom paraded itself to the public gaze, not only in the Literature of the day, — even in Catullus and Horace, — but in trains of miserable ''exoleti," and in the camp of Julius Caesar in Bithynia, and in the imperial court of Tiberius at Capreae, and at the side of Nero in his car in the Circus Maximus, and in his infamous marriage with Sporus, and in the temple dedicated by Hadrian to Antinous. We turn with thankfulness from this description of domestic Society in the most celebrated Nations of the World, to consider the means by which Chris- tianity undertook to reform and purify it. Not by imperial edicts and legislative enactments, not by Literature and Science, but by the quiet influ- ence of the doctrines of the Gospel. The Eternal Son of God had by His Incarnation sanctified Womanhood, and consecrated Marriage to be a figure of His own mystical union with His Bride the Church. The Church preached that doctrine, and declared that the human Body becomes, by the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, a member of Christ, and a temple of God the Holy Ghost, and will be raised from the grave hereafter ; and that, if it has been kept in purity, and if when stained by sin it is cleansed by repentance, and by the Body and Blood of Christ offered on the Cross, and received by faith in the Holy Eucharist, it will be changed to the likeness of Christ's glorified Body. By these doctrines, and by this preaching, the Church wrought a moral purification of human Society ; and invested the Love and Marriage of Man and Woman with new beauty, dignity, and glory, and imparted to it hopes full of immortality. The mind is filled with A CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE DESCRIBED BY TER- 331 TULLIAN. delight, in passing from the plaintive tones of Horace, describing the foul pollution of Marriage in his own time,^ — a few years before the birth of Christ, — and from the sixth Satire of Juvenal, displaying the de- moralization and debasement of Womanhood, to such passages as that of the Christian father Tertul- lian, formerly a heathen lawyer, writing to his wife,^ and describing a Christian Marriage at the end of the second century. " What words (he says) can I find to express the happiness of that Marriage, which the Church knits together, and the Eucharistic Oblation confirms, and a Benediction seals ? The Angels report it in heaven, and their heavenly Father ratifies it. How happy is the yoke of two faithful Souls, joined together by one and the same hope, the same dis- cipline, the same service ! They are children of the same Father, fellow-servants of the same Master ; they twain are one flesh, and one spirit. They pray together; they fast together; they admonish each other, and exhort one another, and bear and forbear one another. They are together in church ; they are together at the banquet of the Lord ; they are toge- ther in distress, together in persecution and in joy. There is no concealment between them ; ^ no avoid- ance of one another, no irksomeness of one to the other ; they visit the sick together ; they give alms without mutual grudging, and they resort to the 8 E. g. 3 Od. vi. 21 — 32. ... ^ Ad Uxorem, lib. ii. c. 9. 1 He is contrasting their happiness with the vexations of other mar- riages ; either of two heathens and unbelievers, or of a Christian wife joined to a heathen and unbelieving husband ; see ibid. ii. 5. The same remarks might be applied to some modern marriages of persons of different Creeds, or of a believer with an infidel. 332 5. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA ON THE CHRISTIAN HOME. Christian Sacrifice without giving offence to each other ; they join together in psalms and hymns, and their only rivalry is, who shall best sing to God. These things Christ sees and hears, and rejoices, and gives them His peace ; where they two are, He is, and where He is, the Evil One cannot come." The heathens had their spousal ring.^ The Chris- tian holiness of Marriage was impressed on theirs. " Let our rings," says S. Clement of Alexandria (Psedagog. p. 289), "be a dove, a fish, or a ship in full sail, or an anchor — not any heathen emblem or symbol." After a description of the lawless profligacy and unnatural licentiousness and sensuality of heathen Society (Paedagog. iii. c. 3, p. 246), S. Clement of Alexandria, writing about the same time as TertuUian, proceeds to speak of the Christian's journey through life, in company with his wife and children. "The Christian traveller does not regard them as a burden ; a loving husband and a loving wife go happily on- ward, in their earthly pilgrimage, under the guidance of the Divine Word. Frugality and sobriety are their viaticum ; their pilgrim's staff is love, by which they travel together to heaven ; love to one another, love to God, and love shown liberally to all who need ; he who is rich in almsgiving is an inheritor of the King- dom of Heaven." He speaks also of the domestic virtues of holy wives, like Sarah, and of their domes- tic works (pp. 283, 293, 303) ; and in his Stromata (p. 506) he says, " Marriage is to be preserved like a holy picture, unsullied by anything that might pollute it. Married persons ought to rise from sleep with 2 " Annulus pronubus," Juvenal, vi. 27. Plin. N. H. xxxiii. 14. Tertull. Apol. 6. SLAVERY. 333 the Lord, and to retire to rest with thanksgiving and prayer, and to bear witness to Christ in their whole lives, with piety in their hearts, and holiness in their bodies." And he declares Marriage to be indissoluble, except for the cause of fornication. 2. Let us pass to another particular. We hear of no efforts of heathens to alleviate the miseries of Slaveiy, to elevate the minds and purify the hearts and reform the morals of the many myriads of Slaves with which the Roman Empire swarmed in the first and second centuries. Their growing power was sometimes restrained by legalized murder. They were sold without remorse ; ^ they were tortured and beaten and crucified without pity."* Even Cicero apologizes to Atticus for being affected by the death of his slave.' But the Christian Apostle St. Paul calls a runaway Slave, Onesimus, "whom he had begotten in his bonds," " a faithful and beloved brother " (Philem. 10. Col. iv. 9). And why .? because the Son of God had taken the nature of all men, and had joined them together as fellow-members of Himself; and therefore there was no difference between bond and free, but all were one in Him (Col. iii. ii). S. Clement of Alexandria, in the second century, shows that this teaching had borne fruit among Christians. "We ought," he says (Paedag. p. 307), " to treat our Slaves as ourselves ; they are men as we are ; and there is the same God of bond and free ; and we ought not to punish our brethren when they sin, but to reprove them. Whatever we do to the lowest and meanest of Christ's brethren, we do to Him.''' ^ Becker's Gallus, ii. 102 — 108; Bollinger, 706 — 712. * Juvenal, vi. 218; and see Becker's Gallus, ii. 139, 145, 153, * Ad Attic, i. 12. 334 CHRISTIAN REGARD FOR SLAVES— CARE OF THE SICK. Ancient Councils of the Church passed Canons against the ill-treatment of Slaves (Concil. Elib. A.D. 305, can. 5). It was believed in early times that Onesimus be- came a Bishop of the Church ; ^ and the statement to that effect seems to imply a belief that a slave was not disqualified from being a Chief Pastor. And we have seen that Callistus/ once a servant, was raised to the highest dignity in the principal Church in the third century — that of Rome. The martyrdoms of slaves, such as the female slave at Lyons, in the second century, Blandina, whose mistress sympathized with her (Euseb. v. i), and of Felicitas (Acta Martyrum, p. 93), and her fellow- slave at Carthage (about A.D. 202), show that Chris- tianity had touched the hearts of slaves, and had filled them with ardent love of Christ, Who had freed them from the bondage of sin into the glorious liberty of children of God. They prove that the Gospel had penetrated to the depths of human Society, and had invested the Christian Slave with noble franchises and privileges, and had raised him above Kings of the earth, and had inspired him with hopes full of immortality. 3. Let us consider also the care of the Sick. No record exists of the erection of a hospital at Rome in heatheh times. The first building of the kind, says S. Jerome,^ writing at the end of the fourth century, was founded by a noble Christian Matron, Fabiola, whose tender care of the sick, and personal ministra- tions to them, are described by him in glowing c Of Eerrhoea. Const. Apost. vii. 46. 7 Above, chap. xxi. He is, however, not called SoDAoy, but ot/ce'rTjs. ^ Epist. 84, ad Oceanum, torn. iv. p. 660. S. CYPRIAN ON CARE OF THE SICK IN TIME OF 335 PLAGUE'; AND ON ALMSGIVING. language. The heathen citizens of Rome carried their diseased friends and relations to the Temple of ^sculapius,^ on the island of the Tiber, to die there. The Emperor Julian^ says, in a letter to a heathen priest, Arsacius, that it is a shame that heathens should be relieved by the Christians, and left by their own friends to perish ; and he stimulates the heathen to philanthropy by a spirit of rivalry with Chris- tianity. S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (whose error with regard to a difficult theological question which had not been fully discussed in his age has been noticed in a former chapter), presents himself here before us as a bright example of Christian charity, in two treatises written by him on two moral duties of Christian practice ; the care of the sick and dying in time of pestilence,' and on almsgiving."^ We may premise here some remarks as to the wonderful change w^hich S. Cyprian himself declares to have been wrought in his own character, and whole moral being, by his conversion, in ripe man- hood, from heathenism to Christianity. He had been eminent as a teacher of rhetoric at Carthage, and had lived in luxury, honour, and power, and had always been attended in the streets of Carthage by a large retinue of clients. In an address to a lay 9 "T^edio medendi," says Suetonius, Claud. 25. The Temple is de- scribed by Nardini, Roma Antica, iii. 351. On which Casaubon notes, " Antiquorum hsec fuit diva humanitas, ut et liberos liceret et servos oegrotos exponere, taedio medendi." ^ Julian ad Arsacium Pontificem, Epist. xlix.; cp. Fragment i. p. 557. 2 De Mortalitate, p. 156, ed. Fell, Amst. 1691. Routh, Script. Eccl. p. 276. Bishop Fell's edition contains Bishop Pearson's Annales Cyprianici (thirteen years), pp. 1 — 72. 3 De Opere et Eleemosynis, p. 197, ed. Fell. Routh, Script. Eccl. p. 295. 336 S. CYPRIAN ON THE EFFECTS OF HIS OWN CON- VERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. friend, Donatus, associated with him by similar pur- suits, and who had retired with him, at the time of vintage, to a peaceful retreat in a garden embowered with festoons of vines, and forming a green arbour in which they were seated, he thus speaks : ■* — " After my regeneration by Baptism, I was trans- formed into another man. A flood of light was poured upon me. What had been doubtful before, became certain ; what had been closed was opened ; what had been dark became clear ; what before was hard became easy. It was to me a death to vice, and a birth to virtue. I am no longer my own ; all that I have and am now, belongs to God." He draws a picture of the heathen world, as in a panorama (p. 4). " Look around you, he says, as from the top of a high mountain, and behold the world beneath you : the roads beset with robbers ; the seas infested with pirates ; wars raging ; the earth bristling with camps, and flowing with blood. One death is a homicide, thousands are heroism.^ " Look now at our cities. The gladiatorial shows are exhibited there to slake men's thirst for blood. Men are slain to minister pleasure to men. Parents and sisters are spectators of the massacre of children and brothers. Spectators commit parricide with their eyes. ^ P. 3, ed. Fell. ^ " Homicidium cum admittunt singuli, crimen est; virtus vocatur, cum publice geritur ;" " One murder makes a villain, thousands a hero," has been much admired as an English verse ; but the thought, as we here see, had been anticipated by the Bishop of Carthage nearly 1500 years before ; and perhaps he may have read Juvenal's line, *'Ille cnicem sceleris pretium tulit ;— hie diadema" (xiii. 105), CYPRIAN'S SPECULUM OF HEATHEN SOCIETY AS 337 COMPARED WITH CHRISTIAN. He then passes to the vicious representations in the theatres, and their influence on Society ; and to the consecration of sins of harlotry and adultery and the grossest vice, which are taught by the examples of the gods and goddesses who are worshipped in the temples. He next draws a picture of private life, and of the sins committed in the night within closed doors ; and describes a heathen family, and the impurity which prevails there. He passes to the Forum ; its mockery of justice, its laws, its frauds, its tortures, its prisons, the wickedness of the advocates who plead, and of the judges who preside there, and who are guilty of the sins for which they condemn others to death. He concludes by a description of Christianity, con- trasted with Heathenism. There is, he says, only one sure and solid peace, — to pass from the storms of this world to the harbour of faith ; to lift up our eyes from earth to heaven, from men to God. How joyful it is to be released from worldly snares, and emerge from darkness into the pure light of immortality. The more we consider what we once have been here, the more we love what we shall be hereafter. This is not our own doing. It is the free gift of God and His grace. As the Sun in the heaven shines freely, and a Foun- tain refreshes us freely, and the Rain falls freely, so the heavenly Spirit infuses Himself into us freely. Now that the soul looks up to her Divine Author, she begins to be what she believes herself to be. Therefore, my friend, keep thyself pure. Be con- stant in prayer and in reading (the Scriptures ) ; speak to God in the one, and let Him speak to thee in the other. He will enrich thee with divine wisdom ; and then no one can make thee poor. Think of thy- z 338 CYPRIAN ON THE LAPSED, AND ON THE MARTYRS. self as the habitation of God. The Christian is the noblest Mansion. He is a temple in which the Holy Ghost deigns to dwell. This house will never fall ; it will exist for ever ; it will be made more glorious by t?ie resurrection of our bodies from the grave. Let us therefore, my dear friend, now, since we are here together in a quiet place, and the evening draws on, conclude our sober repast by joining our voices together in singing holy psalms and hymns to God. But to return to the two treatises written by him when a Bishop. Let it also be remembered that S. Cyprian is an impartial witness to the beneficial effects produced by Christianity. He does not disguise the failings of Christians. He informs us that many fell away ^ from the faith in time of persecution. And it was one of the most arduous and anxious cares of his Episco- pate so to administer discipline in their case, as to temper justice with mercy ; and not to encourage faithlessness on the one side by laxity, and on the other side not to drive any to despair and reckless- ness by excess of severity, and thus give counte- nance to the schismatical and heretical rigour of Montanism and Novatianism. This difficulty was increased by the officious inter- vention of the " Martyrs,^' as they were called, who had made a good confession and suffered nobly in the time of persecution, and who were prevailed upon by some, who had lapsed, to intercede for them that they might be restored to Church Communion. Many stood firm in persecution against fire and faggot, ^ The **lapl,'" ^^ sacrificati" and '^ libellaiici,^' who had received a ticket as a certificate of having sacrificed to heathen gods, and thus escaped persecution and death. MORAL REASONS FOR PERSECUTION. 33» who gave way to the subtler temptation of the Enemy who fell from heaven by pride. So hard is it for men to suffer persecution for the truth, and not to yield to the flatteries of men and of their ghostly foe, tempt- ing them to presume on their own holiness, and break the bands of Church discipline and order. In his admirable Treatise de Lapsis (pp. 121 — 138), Cyprian deals with their case ; he declares boldly the heinousness of the sin, and the necessity of a long and severe repentance for it, and then comforts them by God's promises of mercy to such a repentance ; he rebukes the vain-glorious presumption of the Martyrs in arrogating to themselves the office of God and of His Church, and in giving a premium to sin. In the course of his argument, he offers some wise remarks on the providential reasons for the recent persecution under Decius. " Why did Almighty God allow His Church to be so severely afflicted .^ If (he replies, p. 123) the cause of this calamity is ascertained, the remedy for the disease will be discovered. It was the Lord's will that His family should be tried, because a long period of tranquiUity (from A.D. 235 toA.D. 250) had corrupted the pure faith which we had received from Him. Therefore chastisement was sent from heaven in mercy, to arouse our prostrate and slumbering faith ; and though we then deserved to suffer more grievously than we did for our sins, the most loving Lord so tempered the visitation, that it might be called rather a divine trial than a human persecution." He then proceeds to enumerate the sins which, in spite of the doctrines and warnings of the Gospel, had crept into the Church, and had corrupted the lives of many of the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity. "The z 2 340 6- C YPRIAN ON PLA CUES AND MOR TALITY. IVHA T DEA TH IS— Persecution therefore was a justification of God, and a correction of His people." We may safely infer from such statements as these, and from some other of his writings," that in reading the works of S. Cyprian we have before us an unbiassed testimony concerning the beneficial effects of Christianity wherever it was received and maintained, and on the unhappy consequences of defections from it. Speaking " of the spiritual uses of such visitations as Plagues and Pestilences, he says, " Let us not murmur against God, brethren. He is now trying us. The faith and fear of God ought to prepare us for these calamities. Disease, the sudden loss of wives, children, and friends, ought not to be stumbling- blocks to us, but occasions of victory. There can be no conquest without conflict. The pilot is proved by the storm ; the soldier by the brunt of the battle. The tree rooted in the rock cannot be torn away by the tempest ; the wind sweeps the light chaff from the threshing-floor of the Church, but the solid grain remains upon it. How noble it is to remain firm amid the ruins of the world ! They who have no hope in God lie prostrate on the ground. Let those fear death, who have not been born again by water and the Holy Ghost ; let those fear death, who are not enfranchised by Christ's Cross and Passion ; let those fear death, who will pass through the gate of death to the eternal punishment of the second death (Rev. xx. 6, 14). But to us Death is freedom ' E. g. de Habitu Virginum, p. 92, which may also be regarded as a vindication of the Divine Wisdom, Justice, and Love in permitting the heathen to persecute the Church. ^ In his Treatise de Mortahtate; see above, p. 335. COMFORT IN DEATH TO THE CHRISTIAN. 341 from this world. The mortality by which we are now visited is a pestilence to the enemies of Christ, but we can interpret its true meaning. To us it is a healthful emancipation. Death comes alike to all ; but by death the righteous go to be refreshed, the wicked pass to chastisement. " By the fear of death the lukewarm are fired with zeal, the careless are aroused, the deserter is brought back to our ranks, the heathen are converted to the faith, the faithful are wafted to peace eternal. " The Pestilence is terrible in its aspect, but it has a divine message for us all. It is sent by God to explore our hearts, to scrutinize our lives, to try us whether we who are in health succour those who are sick ; whether friends and relatives love one another ; whether we have mercy on the fainting servants of the Lord ; whether physicians forsake the patients craving their ^ help ; whether the cruel become pitiful, and the proud become humble ; and whether the rich are bountiful to the dying. And thus these Plagues are to us not funerals of terror, but seminaries of virtue. " Our Christian friends, who are called away, and are released from the prison of this world by the Lord, are not to be lamented ; no, we know well that they are not lost, but are sent before, — * eos prceviitti, non amitti f we know that they who have receded from us have preceded us, — * recedentes pi'cecederel' as those who set forth on a journey, or embark on board ship. Therefore, though we regret their absence, 5 As the heathen physicians did in time of plague ; " Defessa jacebant • Corpora, mussabat tacito Medicina timore," says Lucretius, vi. 1176; cp. Thucyd. ii. 47, describing the plague at Athens. 342 YEAJ^NIA'GS FOR THE LIFE TO COME. we cannot weep for it ; we will- not put on black garments now that they are clothed in white. Remember St. Paul's words, ' I would not, brethren, that ye sorrow for those who are asleep, as the others who have no hope ; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again^ God will bring with Him those that sleep in Jesus ' (i Thess. iv. 13). And remember what our Lord said, ' I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall not die eternally' (John xi. 25). If we believe in Christ, let us trust His words, and let us go forth joyfully from this world to Him, in order that we may live and reign with Him for ever. Who does not desire to pass to a better state, and to be changed to the hkeness of Christ? As the Apostle says, ' Our conversation is in heaven, whence we look for our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will change the body of our humiliation to be made like to the body of His Glory' (Phil. iii. 20). Here on earth we are strangers and foreigners, our home is beyond and above. Who that is in a foreign land does not wish to go home .? Who, when he is hastening to sail to his friends, does not pray for a fair wind that he may see them the sooner } Paradise is our home. The Patriarchs are our friends. A large number of dear ones are waiting there for our coming to them ; parents, brethren, children, who are sure now of their own immortality, and are anxious for ours. How great will be our joy, theirs and ours ; what loving embraces, when we are with them ! How sweet will be the delight to be without fear of d)qng, and to have an eternity of living. We shall then enjoy the highest ever- lasting felicity. There will be the glorious chorus niOiVYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA ON A PESTILENCE. 34,3 of Apostles, the jubilant company of Prophets, the innumerable army of Martyrs, bearing crowns of victory, won by suffering and death ; Virgins triumphing in their conquests over the lusts of the flesh ; merciful men rewarded for their works of love in feeding and succouring the poor ; good men who have parted with their earthly substance to purchase a heavenly inheritance. To them, dearly beloved, let us hasten ; let us pray to be soon with them and with Christ. The more ardently we desire these things, the more richly shall we receive them from Christ our Lord." This treatise of S. Cyprian may be accompanied with a Paschal Circular Letter of his contemporary, S. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, written before Easter, probably in A.D. 261 (Euseb. vii. 22). It likewise affords a striking illustration of the practical working of Christianity as contrasted with Heathenism. " To the rest of Mankind the present may not seem a fit season to keep a festival. Nor indeed Is the present or any other time which they may con- sider most joyous, a season of festival to them (i. e. to the heathen), not only to those among them who are very sad, but to any of them, however jovial he may be. " Now, at any rate, all things are full of wailing, all are mourning, the city resounds with groaning, on account of the multitude of dead, and of those who are dying daily. As the Scripture says of the first- born of Egypt, so now, there is heard •' a great cry ' (Exod. xii. 30), 'for there is not a house in which there is not one dead ;' and would there were only one. 344 6-. DIONYSIUS ON THE PLAGUE AT ALEXANDRIA. " Great and terrible were the calamities which befell us before this visitation. First the heathen drove us away ; and yet we were the only persons who, though we were persecuted and killed, kept festival ^ even then ; and every place of our affliction, whether It was in the country, or wilderness, or on ship-board, or inn, or prison, became to us a place of joyful assembly. "And the most joyful festival of all was that which was kept by the Martyrs, consummated by death, and welcomed to a banquet of glory. " After this. War and Famine visited us, which we shared with the heathen ; but we suffered alone the evils which they Inflicted upon us. And yet we were made joyful by the Peace of Christ, which He gave to us alone. " When we had experienced a very short respite, this Pestilence broke In upon us, which caused a panic more terrible than any to them, and more grievous than any affliction, and, as one of their own histories related, far beyond the apprehension of any one. But it was not such to us, but rather an extraordinary test and exercise (of our virtue). It did not spare us, and it violently assailed the heathen. " Most of our brethren, by reason of their exceeding charity and brotherly love, took no care of themselves, but clave earnestly to one another, visiting the sick without any defence to themselves ; and lovingly ministered to them, and took care of them In Christ, and joyfully died with them, having caught the infection from them ; they attracted the disease from others, and willingly absorbed their sufferings into themselves. Many of them, having nursed the sick ' It being Easter. CHRISTIANS AND HE A THENS COMPARED. 345 and made them whole, died, having transferred to themselves the death of others, and fulfilling in very deed the popular saying which seemed to have only the character of good will (not of act), they departed this life as their scape-goat ^ (or vicarious piacular sacrifice). The best of our brethren, in good truth, thus departed out of this life, some of them priests and deacons, others laymen, being greatly honoured, inasmuch as this kind of death, by reason of its deep piety and valiant /aith, was nothing short of martyr- dom. They lifted the bodies of the saints on the palms of their hands and in their bosoms, and closed their eyes and. mouths, and bare them on their shoulders, and laid them out, and clasped and embraced them, and washed them and decked them with funeral attire ; and soon afterwards they received the same kind offices from others, the survivors treading in the steps of those who had gone before them. . " The heathen behaved in a totally different manner. They thrust out of doors those who had begun to fall sick ; and they fled from their dearest friends, and threw them down half dead in the streets, and cast the dead away unburied as dung, shrinking from the interchange or communion of death with them ; which, however, it was not easy for them to escape." Such was the language of S. Dionysius. Let us now revert to S. Cyprian. His words in the Treatise quoted above were not empty sounds. S. Cyprian practised what he preached. His deacon and biographer, Pontius, tells us that when he was converted to Christianity, he sold his lands and gardens, and gave all his goods, which 2 7rept»|/7j/io. Cp. notes on i Cor. iv. 13, and Bp. Jacobson on Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes. c. 8 and 18. 3-45 S. CYPRIAN'S EXAMPLE— TREATISE. ON ALMSGIVING. were considerable, to the poor.^ In grateful affection to the priest who converted him to Christianity, he took his name, Csecilius, and joined it to his other names, Thascius Cyprianus. Pontius relates"^ that when a terrible Plague raged, and they who could, took flight in alarm and consternation, and abandoned their friends to death, and the streets were full of un- buried corpses, Cyprian stood forth boldly and com- forted the people by his preaching and his acts ; he cheered them by exhortations from Holy Scripture, and by an appeal to the example of Christ ; and ministered to the Heathen as well as to Christians, and displayed to all men what the World owes to Christianity. In passing to his Treatise on Almsgiving,^ we may first observe, that of the two leading Schools of Gen- tile Philosophy in the earlier ages of Christianity, the one, the Stoic,^ by its doctrine of apathy discouraged mercy as a weakness ; the other, the Epicurean, by its denial of divine providence and future retri- bution took away the principal -motives to it. And even Cicero, the Academic, and the most generous of Roman philosophers, had no mercy for the unworthy.*^ Cyprian speaks of the virtue of Christian Alms- giving— that is, of Almsgiving in faith and love to Christ, and in dependence on His merits — as obtain- ing God's favour and pardon for sin. He declares the privilege and profit of Almsgiving. "You fear," he says, " that your estate may be impaired by it. But ^ S. Cyprian, Vita, pp. 2, 3. 4 Ibid. p. 5. 5 De Opere et Eleemosynis, p. 197, ed. Fell. ^ Cicero says, Mura^n. c. 13, " Hujus (Zenonis) sententiaest neminem misericordem esse nisi stultum et levem." Tusc. Quaest. iii. 10, *' Non cadit invidere in sapientem, ergo ne misereri quidem," ^ Cicero de Officiis, iii. lo, 15. ALMSGIVING— THE OFFERTORY. 347 you yourself are impaired, and your estate is injured by niggardly grudging, by which you are made a lover of mammon rather than of your own soul." He points to God's love for His meanest creatures, and to the duty of trust in Him. *'God feeds the fowls of the air, and will He not feed you who are Christians and dear to Christ } When you feed the poor, you feed Christ, Who is Lord of all ; ' and do you imagine that if you feed them, He will not feed you } " You say you must save your money. But your money, if saved, cannot save you : you are a captive of your money, you are bound in chains and fetters by it. You were loved and freed by Christ, but now you are enslaved by yourself. Why do you add to the weight of your money in order that it may crush you, and that the richer you. are in this world, the poorer you may be to God } " He exhorts them to make contributions at the weekly Offertory (see above, p. 65). "Thou art wealthy and affluent, and dost thou imagine it fit to cele- brate the Lord's Day,^ and not to regard the Corban ; to come into the Church without a sacrifice (of praise and offerings).? Consider the example of the poor widow who cast in all her living, and was blessed by Christ (Mark xii. 42, 43). Share your estate with Christ, and He will give you a part in His heavenly inheritance. What you give to God is the only wealth you will never lose. The State cannot seize it ; the Exchequer cannot confiscate it ; no quirk of law can filch it from you. You bring a blessing 8 P. 203, "Dominicum celebrare." Bishop Fell in his note here observes tjiat Dominiciim may signify any of three things, viz., I. The Lord's Day. 2. The Lord's House. 3. The Supper of the Lord. It may here mean specially the last. 3 18 BLESSIN-GS OF ALMSGIVINGS, LA URENCE OF ROME. on yourself and your family by giving to God. The Psalmist, says he, never saw the righteous for- saken, nor his seed begging their bread (Ps. xxxvii. 25). Consider the bounty of God. His sun shines on all ; His breezes blow upon all ; He sends sleep to all, and lights up the moon and stars for all. You are His children ; imitate your Father in Heaven. Give to Christ. Give raiment to Him in His poor, and He will give you a robe of heavenly glory. Give food to Him in the hungry, and He will invite you to His heavenly banquet, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (p. 208). Glorious is this work of beneficence to which you are called ; it is the comfort of believers, the defence of our hope and faith, a crown of peace, a true and precious gift of God ; needful for the weak, glorious to the strong ; by it we obtain spiritual grace, and win the favour of Christ, and become creditors of God. Let us run our race in this course gladly for the palm of victory. Let us not flag or be retarded in it by earthly desires. If we run with speed and without incumbrance, the Lord will be our reward ; He will crown us as conquerors with a snow-white "wreath for works of love in times of the peace of the Church, and with a purple coronet for martyrdom in days of persecution." S. Laurence, Archdeacon of Rome, suffered mar- tyrdom in the persecution under Valerian, on Aug. 10, A.D. 258, in which S. Cyprian also glorified God ; and he gave a practical illustration of the truth of S. Cyprian's words on Christian Almsgiving. The heathen Judge before whom S. Laurence was arraigned, ordered him to give up the treasures com- mitted to his care as Archdeacon. He informed the Judge that it was true that the Church had great treasures, and he promised to present them to him in S. LAURENCE ON THE TREASURES OF THE 349 • CHURCH- S. CYPRIAN ON CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES. three days ; and as those treasures were ponderous, he also asked him to send chariots and horses to carry them away with him. In the mean time the Archdeacon gathered toge- ther the poor who were dependent on the alms of the Church, and who amounted to more than 1500 inA.D. 251 (Euseb. vi. 43). He put them into the chariots which had been sent to him, and when the Judge arrived, he pointed to them and said, " See there the treasures of the Church ! " He was condemned to be roasted alive on a gridiron ; but by God's mercy he was not conscious of pain, and smiled in the flames.^ Another fruit of Christianity in producing sym- pathy and philanthropy for the suffering was seen in the redemption of captives. S. Cyprian's Episcopate displays also an example of this beneficent result. Some towns of Numidia were harassed by incursions of barbarians, who sacked them and carried away captives from them. Eight Bishops of those towns sent tidings to S. Cyprian of their sufferings. He says in his reply (Epist. 62) that he could not read without tears the letters they had sent him, announcing the captivity of his brethren and sisters. " In the words of St. Paul, ' If one member suffer, the other members suffer with it. Who is weak, and I am not weak V (2 Cor. xi. 27.) Their captivity is our captivity. We are all members in one body, and this unity constrains us to endeavour to ransom them. Besides, the Apostle says, ' Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you (i Cor. iii. 16), and as many 3 On'' the circumstances of the Martyrdom of S. Laurence see S. Ambrose de Offic. i. 41 ; ii. 38 ; S. Aug. Serm. 302 ; Homil. in Johann. 27; S. Leo, Serm. 83 ; and the magnificent hymn of Prudentius, Peri Steph. ii. p. 307, Dressel ; cp. below, pp. 382, 383. 350 MORAL CHANGE AV CYPRIAN'S LIFE. as have been baptizedinto Christ have put on Christ ? ' (Gal. iii. 7.) Therefore our captive brethren and sisters are holy : they belong to God. In ransoming them we do a work of love to God. In ransoming them we ransom Christ (p. 146). Such being the work to which you invite us by your letters, we give you hearty thanks for making us partakers with you in your labour of love to them, and for offering to us a rich soil in which we may sow the seeds of our hope, and from which we may reap hereafter a rich harvest of blessing. We therefore send you an offering of 100,000 Sesterces (about 781/.), collected in the Church here, in which by God's mercy we preside. And we send you the names of our brethren and sisters who have cheerfully joined in this offering, in order that you may remember them in your prayers. We heartily wish you farewell, dearly beloved brethren in the Lord." The Writer of these two Treatises, and of this Epistle, had grown up to man's estate in heathenism ; had dwelt long in a luxurious and profligate city, Carthage, such as he himself describes it ; and had enjoyed the earthly pleasures of wealth and honour. He tells us he had formerly lived a vicious life. Consequently, in reading what he has there written, we have seen a specimen of the practical effects of Christianity, working a moral change of the whole man ; regenerating human Society, wherever it is received ; and diffusing the blessings of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. v. 22). The life and writings of S. Cyprian, compared with the state of public and private life in his age, which enjoyed all the benefits of the influences of Philosophy, Literature, WffA T CAN SECULARISM DO ?~CYPRIAN'S 351 MARTYRDOM. and the Arts, and yet was plunged in the lowest depths of vice and misery, may be commended to the consideration of those who imagine that Society can afford to dispense with Christianity, and to rely on the human Will and Reason, and on Secular cul- ture and instruction. We have seen what Heathenism was, before Christianity ; but if Christian Nations apostatize from it, their condition will be worse than that of heathens, — even of Tyre, and of Sodom itself (Matt. xi. 21 — 24). The writer of these Treatises sealed his testimony with his blood in the eleventh year of his Episcopate, A.D. 258. In answer to the Proconsul asking his name and persuading him to be wise and not throw away his life, he replied, " I am Cyprian ; I am a Christian ; I am a Bishop ; I know of no gods but One True God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all therein. Him we serve ; to Him we pray day and night for ourselves and for all men, even for the. Emperors." And when the Proconsul pressed him to sacrifice, he said, " No, I cannot." " Be advised," said the Proconsul. " In so good a cause as ours, there is no need of further advice." When he heard the Proconsul's sentence, "Let Cyprian be beheaded," his answer was^ " God be thanked ! " He then took off his outer garment, gave a sum of money to the Executioner, and kneeled down, and prayed, and commended himself to God, and w^as beheaded. The historian of his Martyrdom adds, that " he suffered on the i8th day before the Calends of October (i. e. September the 14th), under the Emperors Valerianus and Gallienus ; but in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be honour and glory for evermore. Amen.-" CHAPTER XXIV. Chronological S^imniary from A.D. i8o to Council of Niccea, A.D. 325 — Persecntions and Martyrdoms — Benefits from — Proof of Truth of Christianity — Chris fs Godhead — Inspiration of Scripture — Refutation of Infidelity — Infidel Writers — Christian Loyalty — Purification of the Church — Power of Divine Grace — Names of Martyrs — 5. Alb an. It will be convenient to begin this chapter with a brief chronological summary from the death of Marcus Aurelius to the Council of Nicaea ; and then to revert to some of the principal events in that interval, and dilate more fully upon them. Under the Emperor Commodus (A.D. 180 — 192), and in the short reigns of Pertinax (A.D. 192), and Didius Julianus, and to the tenth year of Septimius Severus (A.D. 202), the Church enjoyed the blessings of peace (Euseb. v. 21). In that year a persecution broke out, which appears to have been general (Euseb. vi. i, 6, 7). That persecution is described by Tertullian in his Apology (Tertullian, Apol. c. 12, 30, 37, 50; Scorp. c. i), and probably by Minucius Felix (Minuc. Eel. pp. 338, 339. ed. Ouzel, 1672). In that persecution Leonides, the father of Origen, suffered, when Origen was in his seventeenth year. A.D. 211— A. D. 23S. 353 The martyrdoms of Perpetua and F^elicitas and their companions belong to that period ; and the persecu- tion appears to have continued till the last year of Severus, A.D. 211.^ Under Caracalla, his son (A.D. 211 — 217), and under Macrinus (A.D. 217), and under the sun-worshipper and sensualist Heliogabalus (A.D. 218 — 222), the Christians do not appear to have been molested by public authority, unless we may infer" that the Emperor was hostile to them, from a saying of Lampridius in that En.peror's life, that Heliogabalus desired " to extinguish all religions except the worship of himself" His successor, Alexander Severus (A.D. 222 — 235), one of the most estimable of Roman Emperors, and acting under the guidance of Mammsea his mother, the disciple of Origen when at Antioch, and with the advice of wise and learned counsellors, such as the celebrated jurisconsults Ulpian and Julius Paullus, was ' favourable to Christianity. His household is said to have contained many Christians (Euseb. vi. 28). He and his mother were murdered by a turbulent and rapacious soldiery in his campaign on the Rhine. He was succeeded (A.D. 235) by Maximinus the Thracian, of barbarian origin by both parents, a fierce and bold warrior, and a persecutor of the Church. In his time Origen wrote his work, " The Exhorta- tion to Martyrdom ;" and Pontianus, Bishop of Rome, was banished to Sardinia? This persecution continued for three years, till the death of Maximinus, A.D. 238 (Euseb. vi. 28. Rufin. Hist. vi. 19). He and his son were slain by their soldiers. 1 Ruiiiart, Acta Martyrum, Prcefat. p. 1. A a 35i A.D. 2Z'^—A.D. 2^1— DECIAN PERSECUTION. Under his successor Gordianus (A.D. 238 — 243), and Phllippus the Arabian, his colleague (a.d. 243 — 249), the Christians were not disturbed. Zonaras says that Philip was a Christian. In A.D. 246, Thascius Cyprianus, the teacher of rhetoric at Carthage, and afterwards Bishop of that City, and Martyr, embraced Christianity. Philip and his son fell in battle at Verona, when opposing Decius, who was chosen Emperor in his place. In his short reign (A.D. 249 — 251) a violeijt persecution raged throughout the Roman Empire (Lactant. de Mort. Persecut. c. 4. Euseb. vii. i. S. Cyprian, Epist. 10, ed. Fell, p. 12). In the persecution under the Emperor Decius, A.D. 250, Fabian, Bishop of Rome, Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem in A.D. 251, and Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, suffered martyrdom. Origen was put to cruel torture, and never recovered from its effects. His scholar Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, was marvellously rescued from the hands of the perse- cutors (Euseb. vi. 40, and vii. 1 1), and was preserved for the good of the Church. This was also the case with another of Origen's disciples, S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neo-Csesarea ; and with S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, both of whom retired for a time, and afterwards returned to their flocks, the latter to suffer death under Valerian. In the Decian persecution the Bishop of Smyrna lapsed frorn the faith ; but a Presbyter of Smyrna, Pionius, and others with him, stood firm, and he died joyfully for it, by fire, as S. Poly carp. Bishop of Smyrna, had done before him (Acta Martyr, sincera, PP- 139—151)- Maximus was first put to the rack, and thfen A.D. 2SI—A.D. 284. 355 Stoned to death (ibid. pp. 155-^157). A little before his martyrdom^ he said to the Proconsul, " If I refuse to sacrifice to your gods, I shall save my life (for eternity); if I consent to sacrifice to them, I shall lose it (for ever). Neither your wooden clubs, nor sharp iron, nor fire, will cause me any pain, because the grace of Christ abides in me, and will save me eternally." The persecution did not altogether cease under Gallus (A.D. 251 — 253. Euseb. vii. I. S. Cyprian, Epist. 59, p. 127). He was succeeded by Valerian (a.D. 253 — 261), under whom it broke out with redoubled fury in the fifth year of his reign (a.D. 257). Among the most conspicuous of the sufferers in it were S. Xystus, Bishop of Rome (Aug. 6) ; his deacon, S. Laurence (Aug. 10) ; probably S. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus Rorpanus (Aug. 13) ; and S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (Sept. 14). The son and successor of Valerian, Gallienus, restored peace to the Church (A.D. 261), which con- tinued under his successor Claudius (A.D. 268 — 270). Consequently the Bishops of the East were enabled to hold in their reigns two Councils of Antioch (A.D. 264, 269), in which Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, was condemned and deposed. With some fitful outbreaks of persecution, the peace continued under Aurelian (A.D. 270 — 275. Euseb. vii. 30. Lactant, de Mort. Pers. c. 6), and under Tacitus (A.D. 275),andProbus(A.D.276 — 282),andCarus (282— 284). The following is a brief summary of events in the •period from the accession of Diocletian, A.D. 284, to the Council of Nicaea, A.D. 325. A.D. 284. Diocletian (Covins), Emperor. The " Era of Diocletian, or of Martyrs " dates from this year. A a 2 356 EDICT FOR A GENERAL PERSECUTION. 285. Diocletian associates with himself in the Empire for the West Maximianus {Herculius). 293. Constantine had married Minervina before this year. 292. Constantius Chlorus (father of Constantine) and Galerius are declared Ccesars. Both are ordered to divorce their wives. Constantius puts away Helena (mother of Constantine), and marries Theodora, step-daughter of Maxi- mian, and is Caesar of the West. Galerius marries Valeria, daughter of Diocletian, and is Caesar in Illyricum. 297. Galerius conquers the Persians under Narses. 303. Diocletian and Galerius publish at Nicomedia, the royal capital, in Bithynia, Feb. 23, an Edict for the Persecution .of the Christians, which rages throughout the Empire, except where Constantius mitigates it. Constantine was then at Nicomedia ; and was there in B.C. 305 at the abdication of Diocletian. 305. Diocletian having suffered from severe sickness for more than a year, abdicates (March i) at Nicomedia. Maximian also reluctantly abdi- cates at Milan. Galerius and Constantius become Augusti, or Emperors. Severus and Maximinus become Ccesars. Comparative peace. Council of Eliberis (or Elvira in Spain — Granada). 306. Constantius, the father of Constantine, dies at York, July 25. Constantine becomes Ccesar against the will of Galerius. EDICT OF TOLERATION'— CONSTANTINE' S VISION. 357 Maxentius, son of Maximian, is made an Augustus by the praetorian soldiers at Rome, Oct. 27. Maximian, his father, emerges frorti his retirement and helps him. Constantine favours the Christians. 307. Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of Maxi- mian, and sister of Maxentius. Severus is declared an Attgustics by Gale- rius ; is deserted by his soldiers, and dies at Ravenna. Licinius is declared byGalerius an Augustus in his place. Constantine assumes the title oi Augustus. Maximinus (the enemy of Christianity) assumes the title of Augustus in the East. 310. Maximian, convicted of treachery against Con- stantine his son-in-law, dies at Marseilles. 311. Galerius having in remorse issued an Edict of Toleration of the Christians (April 30), dies in the month of May. Maxentius, the persecutor of the Church, subdues Africa by his generals. 312. Edict of Toleration of Christians published at Milan by Constantine and Licinius. Constantine marches toward Rome, and against Maxentius, Oct. 26. Constantine s Vision of the Cross. There are two contemporary accounts of this : — I. Lactantius (tutor of Crispus, the son of Con- stantine) says, that in the night before the battle with Maxentius, " Constantine was warned in a dream to imprint the heavenly sign of God on the shields (of his soldiers), and so join battle (with the enemy). He did as he was bidden, he imprinted Christ on th'eir 358 CONSTANTINE'S VISION. shields with the transverse letter X, the head of it being rounded off (P). His army, being fortified with this sign, took up their swords and encountered the enemy" (Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 44, tom. ii. 239, ed. Paris. 1738). 2. The other account is by Eusebius, in his Life of Constantine (i. 28 — 31), in which he says that Con- stantine, having resolved to liberate Rome from the tyranny of Maxentius, and having meditated on the unhappiness of those who worshipped a multitude of idols, as contrasted with the good fortune of his own father Constantius, who had favoured Christianity, resolved to worship the One True God ; and while he was engaged in prayer to God that He would reveal Himself to him, and stretch forth His right hand to succour him, he had a vision after midday, when the sun was declining, and saw the trophy of the Cross in the heavens, in a luminous form over the sun, and an inscription annexed to it, tovtw viKa'^ {by this conquer), and that at the sight of it he and all his forces were astounded, who were spectators of the miracle. Eusebius adds that in the following night, when Constantine was asleep, Christ appeared to him with that sign, which had been displayed to him in the heavens, and commanded him to make a standard ac- cording to the pattern of what he had seen, and to use it as a defence against his enemies ; and that as soon as it was day Constantine called together the 2 It has been objected (by Dean Milman and others) that it is incre- dible that a warlike motto on the Cross, converted into a military- standard, should be suggested by Him Who is Prince of Peace. But He Who is Prince of Peace, is also the Lord of Hosts ; and- Christ is revealed not only in the Psalms (Ps. xlv. -3 — 5), but also in the Apocalypse, as a Mighty Warrior going forth vikuv koX 'Iva vikvctti, Rev. vi. 2, and see Rev. xix. ii. THE LAB ARUM. 359 workers In gold and precious stones, and ordered them to fashion it accordingly. Eusebius then gives a description of the Standard, which, he says, " the Romans now call labarum ;" ^ it was a spear overlaid with gold, and a piece like a sail- yard laid across it— being a purple cloth inlaid with precious stones — so as to form a Cross ; above it was a crown of precious stones and gold ; in this crown were the two letters XP, representing the Name of Christ, the letter P being cut through in its midst. Eusebius states that Constantine, a long time after the event, affirmed with an oath (c. 28) the truth of what the historian himself has set down in his narra- tive ; and that after this vision the Emperor, being much impressed by it, sent for some Christian Bishops, and inquired of them Who the God was Whom he had seen, and what the vision of that sign (the Cross) meant, and they instructed him in the doctrines of Christianity ; and that, being so strengthened by their discourses, he went forth against Maxentius. There is, doubtless, some foundation of truth in this narrative. Whether it may have received any— and if so, ^c;/^^^— embellishment from the Emperor, or from the historian, it is now impossible to say. The conversion of the most powerful Empire in the World 3 The origin of the word Labartim is uncertain (Archbp. Trench, On Words, p. 228); but it had a general meaning before it was appropriated as a Christian symbol. As Bishop Pearson says (in one of his Academic Preelections, p. 427, ed. Churton), " Constantinus assuetum victorise Labarum in Crticem efformavit." It signified any upright pole, spar, or spear (palus, or hasta). Du Cange, Glossar. p. 190, thinks it to be a barbarous word derived from some ancient Teutonic tribe. May it not perhaps be connected with ^r^^^r, sometimes used iox ?i Mast {Albero Ital. , French arborer, to hoist a standard) ? The letters r and / are often interchanged, and a metathesis of letters is common: as ixopcp)] became forma; yivp^-t]^, formica, ; (Tcf)^^, vespa; '^pirw, repo ; o/)7ra|, rapax ; apnaCco, rapio, &C. 360 CONSTANTINE AND CYRUS. from Heathenism to Christianity was one of the greatest events that ever occurred in the history of Mankind, and it does not seem improbable that the Divine Ruler of the World, Who had pre-announced by name, more than a century before his birth, " Cyrus, His shepherd and -His anointed," the conqueror of heathen Babylon, and the deliverer of His people (Isa. xliv. 28 ; xlv. i), should have intervened to give a revelation of Himself and of His Will to Constantine, His chosen instrument for working one of the most extraordinary changes in the world's history, for the overthrow of Heathenism, for the declaration of His Truth, and for the deliverance of His Church.'' A.D. 312. October 27th. The troops of Maxentius were defeated by Constantlne at the Saxa rubra, near Cremona, and Maxentius himself in his flight, while crossing the Milvian Bridge (now Ponte Molle) near Rome, was drowned In the river Tiber. Constantlne enters Rome in triumph. Triumphal Arch of Constantlne at Rome . (still standing). ConstantinesoleEmperorofthe West (aged about thirty-eight). His edicts fa- vourable to Christianity. Th.Q Indictiojis (a cycle of fifteen years) date from this year (Sept. ist). 313. Constantlne goes from Rome to meet Licinius, who marries Constantia, the sister of Con- stantine, at Milan. Laws favourable to Chris- tians : immunity from civil offices. Licinius ^ On the narrative and various elements in the chai-acter and policy of Constantlne, see Neander, iii. pp. 7 — 37, and Canon Wordsworth's Article on Constantine in Professor Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, pp. 632 — 649, and Heinichen's Meletemata xxiv. in his edition of Eusebius, A.D, 1870, pp. 758 -780. EDICT OF TOLERA TIOiV. 361 favourable to the Christians. Edict of full toleration at Milan. Licinius pursues Maxi- minus (who had been induced also to issue an edict of toleration. Eusebius, H. E. ix. 9). Licinius has a dream which leads him to pray to the One True God for protection (Lactant. de Mort. Persecut. c. xlvi.) ; defeats Maximinus at Heraclea (30th April), who dies at Tarsus. Licinius sole Emperor in the East. 314. In this time of peace three Councils are held. Council of Aries (ist August) in Gaul sum- moned by Constantine. Council of Ancyra in Galatia. Council of Neo-Caesarea in Pontus. 315 (November i6th). Severe Law against Jews molest- ing those who were converts to Christianity. 316. Constantine at Milan (in November) decides in favour of Caecilian, Bishop of Carthage, against the Donatists. Abolishes the punishment of crucifixion. Augments the privileges of Churches. Allows reference of causes to Bishops in lieu of temporal Courts. 7th June. Law for facilitating emancipation of slaves in presence of a Bishop in a Church, and for enabling the Clergy to emancipate their slaves. Diocletian (the ex-Emperor) dies at Salona, Dec. 3rd. 317. Crispus, the son of Constantine (by Minervina, now dead), and Constantinus his brother (a child) are declared Ccesars. Lactantius, the Christian Philosopher and Rhetorician, Tutor of Crispus. Licinius (a boy), son of Licinius, also declared Ccesar. 362 A.D. T,2i ~A. D. Z2S—RECA PITULA TION. A.D. 321. Law for the observance of the Lord's Day: field labour allowed. Law for observance of Friday. Christian Churches and Councils permitted to receive legacies. Penalties on celibacy abolished. 322. Helena, mother of Constantine, and Crispus his son, at Rome. 323 (July 3rd). Licinius (who had prepared for battle with sacrifices to the gods) defeated by Con- stantine, who prepared for it by prayer, and gave as the watchword 0eo? acorrjp at Adriano- ple ; and Licinius is besieged at Byzantium by Crispus, and his fleet destroyed. 324. Constantine, at Thessalonica, sole Emperor, orders Licinius to be put to death. 325. A Law enacted to prohibit Gladiators. Also to forbid any further erection of heathen temples or altars. Constantine issues letters to Bishops, in which he encourages them to rebuild Churches, and to build new ones, and orders civil governors to assist them ; and exhorts all his subjects to desist from idolatry (Euseb. Vit. Const, ii. 45, 47). First General Council of the Church at NlC^A in Bithynia, in June. Let us now revert to the commencement of the reign of Diocletian, and dwell more at length on the principal events between that date and the Council of Nicasa. In the first nineteen years of Diocletian ^ ^ The name of Diocletian being afterwards identified with the perse- cutions of the Church, the ^^ Era of Martyrs" or "of Diocletian" dates from the beginning of his reign, A.D. 284. It was generally used PERSECUTION UNDER DIOCLETIAN. 363 (a.D. 284 — 305) the Church enjoyed quietness, and made great progress in the building of Churches, and in the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, and greatly increased "in the number of believers. Many mem- bers of noble families declared themselves Christians (Euseb. viii. i). But in the twentieth year of his reign, Diocletian, after long deliberation, was instigated and prevailed on by Galerius Maximianus (one of the Caesars), act- ing under the influence of his mother,^ who sacrificed daily to the deities of heathenism, to publish an edict at Nicomedia, A.D. 303, 'for the extermination of Christianity. After an inquiry as to the day which would be pro- pitious for its execution, the Roman festival of Ter- minalia, Feb. 23rd, A.D. 303, was fixed upon, "ut quasi tcnnimis imponeretur huic religioni." '' This edict was ordered to be promulgated in all provinces of the Empire (Lactant. de Mort. Pers. c. II and 16. Euseb. viii. c. 2 and 4), and the persecution was enforced by Maximianus and Gale- rius (Lactant. ibid. c. 19, 21 ; de Institut. v. 9 and 11. Euseb. viii. 14). This persecution raged in the Eastern portion of the Empire till the death of Maximinus, A.D. 313, having by Christians till the introduction of the Christian era in the sixth century. 6 ' ' Mater ejus deorum montium cultrix, mulier admodum superstitiosa ; dapibus sacrificabat pene quotidie, ac vicariis suis epulas exhibebat ; Christiani abstinebant : hinc concepit odium adversus eos, et filium suum non minus superstitiosum ad tollendos homines incitavit." Lactan- tius de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 11, where is a description of the deliberation with Diocletian. 7 Lactant. ibid. c. 12. For a fuller description of the persecution, see ibid. capp. 16—24, and the work of the Rev. Arthur James Mason, Canon of Truro, on this subject. 364 RE TR OSPE CT AND REFLE C TIONS— CHRIS TS GODHEAD— INSPIRA TION OF SCRIPTURE. continued for ten years in those regions. The West was more fortunate, especially after the partition of the Empire in A.D. 305, when Diocletian abdicated, and Constantius was declared a colleague in the Empire, and after him Constantine his son, A.D. 306. We may now pause and consider some general con- clusions which may be derived from a retrospect of the historical records of the martyrdoms of that period. First as to Christian doctrine. 1. Among the Articles of the Christian Faith which these records attest, the Godhead of Jesus Christ is conspicuous. The Martyrs sang praises and offered prayers to Him in the hour of death (Acta Martyrum sincera, pp. 164, 168). In explicit terms Sapricius, a martyr at Antioch, A.D. 260 (ibid. p. 241), said to the heathen Governor, " We Christians have Christ for our King. He is the true God^ and Creator of heaven and earth, and the sea and all therein." Felix, Bishop of Rome (who was martyred circ. A.D. 270), said, " We believe in Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, that He is the Eternal Son of God, not a man assumed by God, so as to be distinct from Him, but perfect God, made to be also perfect Man." « 2. Another important article of Christian doctrine was displayed by means of Persecution ; the doctrine of the Inspiration of Holy Scripture. The Scillitane Martyrs near Carthage, A.D. 200, were questioned as to the Books which they venerated, or as the Original has it, which they adored (Acta, ^ Acta, p. 248 ; cp. ibid. p. 277, "Christum Deum esse credimus." INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE— TRADITORS. 365 p. '^j) ; and their reply was, " The Four Gospels, the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle, and the whole of divinely inspired Scripture." Thus the assaults of the Enemy against the Truth were overruled for its clearer manifestation. This was exemplified also in the history of the Traditores, as they were called. In the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, the rage of the Enemy against the Old Testament Scriptures was controlled so as to declare what was Scripture, and to authenticate its divine origin. " When the heathen had rent in pieces the Books of the Lazu^ they burnt them with fire ; and whosoever was found with any Book of the Testament, the king's commandment was that he should be put to death" (i Mace. i. 54). So it was also in the persecutions of the Christian Church. The Enemy endeavoured to conipel the Christians to surrender their copies of the Scriptures of the New Testament as well as the Old, in order that they might be burnt (Euseb. viii. 2). They, who complied with that order and gave them up, were called Tradi- iores. The eagerness of* the heathen to destroy the divine books (" libros deificos" as they were called ^), and the indignation of the faithful against the treachery of those who betrayed those Books, pro- claimed the sanctity of those Books, and were prac- tical attestations to the Canon of Holy Scripture. It was notorious even to the Heathen that certain clearly defined Books were revered by the Christians, and that in them their religion was contained. 3. The Persecutions of the Church were also made ^ Passio S. Felicis in Baluzii Misc. ii. p. 77. S. Aug. Brevic. Col- iat. c. Donat. xv. 17. 366 EVIL OVERRULED FOR GOOD-INFLDEL WRLTERS —PORPHYRY. ministerial in another remarkable manner to the clearer manifestation and stronger confirmation of the Truth contained in the Holy Scriptures, even by means of the attacks which were directed against it. These Persecutions encouraged assaults upon her from Infidel writers ; and those assaults recoiled on their authors, and redounded to her benefit, and to the divine glory. The most eminent of these infidel writers was Porphyry, probably a native of Tyre, and called also Malcho^ or King, and in Greek Basileus. His character and acts have a special interest, as foreshadowing some elements and phases of that form of Anti- christianism which may be expected to display itself in thelatterdays, especially in intellectual and literary society. He was a scholar of Plotinus, who blended Platonism with Pythagoreanism, and with some tenets derived from the Stoics and Epicureans. Porphyry had been formerly a disciple also of the celebrated Longinus, the author of the Treatise " on the Sublime." Porphyry came to Rome A.D. 262, and when thirty years of age became a disciple of Plotinus, who resided there for twenty-six years. S. Augustine (de Civitate Dei, x. 32) states that Porphyry lived at a time " when the Christian religion was allowed by God to be attacked by worshippers of idols and demons, and by the kings of this world (Diocletian and Maximian), in order to the manifesta- tion and consecration of a number of Martyrs, that is, of witnesses to the truth ; by means of whom it might be shown that all bodily ills are to be endured for the faith of true religion, and for the commenda- tion of the truth. Porphyry was an observer of these events, and he supposed that Christianity must PORPHYR\. 367 soon perish under those persecutions, and that it therefore could not be the true method of liberating the soul (from its thraldom) ; not perceiving that those very evils which he shrank from suffering, by an acceptance of Christianity, tended rather to corro- borate the Faith, and to commend it the more." ^ Porphyry was the most formidable literary anta- gonist of Christianity.^ His enemies acknowledged his powerful intellect, his brilliant eloquence, his unwearied industry, his immense erudition, embracing the encyclopaedia of contemporary human science. He was also famed for supposed supernatural gifts, and for spiritual communion with the unseen world, as" well as for the sanctity of his life, and his rigid asceticismx. He was familiar also with the Holy Scriptures, and with some eminent Christian teachers. The noble aspirations of his Philosophy had peculiar charms ; it claimed the power to emancipate the Soul from earthly trammels, and to elevate it into union with God.^ Such a person cannot be supposed to have accepted the popular notions of Heathenism. His refined intellect — not to say his philosophical pride — revolted from the monstrous mendacity, coarse sensualism, and wild atrocities of the popular creed ; he would probably have said w^ith his master Plotinus, whose life he wrote, " The gods must come to me, not I to them.'"* And in his Epistle to Anebo, an Egyptian Priest, he declared himself as an adversary of some of ^ S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, xix. 22. Cp. Euseb, Praep. Evaiig. x. 9. 2 Holstenii Vita Porphyrii, c. I, 2. Eunapius de Vitis Sophist. c. 2, 3. s He wrote a Treatise on the Return of the Soul to God. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, x. 9, 32. 4 Porphyr. Vit. Plotini. 368 PORPHYRY. the heathen deities, such as Pluto and Serapis, whom he represented as demons/ But still he would en- deavour by a process of accommodation to symbolize its Mythology,^ by giving it a mystical meaning ; and he attempted to vindicate the dignity of the Gods, properly so called, in his Theology, by represent- ing them as superior to the lower class of gods and demigods, whom he stigmatized as demons delighting in blood and lust/ He also defended image worship ^ upon pleas similar to those used by some in later days in the Christian Church. He maintained the divine character of oracles.^ And he was ready and desirous to co-operate, though for different reasons, with a Diocletian and a Maximian in their endeavours to exterminate Christianity, which wounded his philosophic pride ^ by claiming to be alone able to effect, and with divine power and infinite success proved itself capable of effecting, what he imagined himself qualified to accomplish^ — the libe- ration of humanity, tainted and depressed, from the stains and slavery of evil, and the unification of man with God. Diocletian and Maximian waged war against the Church with fire and the sword. Porphyry assailed her with more dangerous weapons, drawn from the armoury of philosophy and metaphysics. Eusebius states that Porphyry composed a work in 5 Theodoret, Gr. Affect, pp. 775—777 ; cp. p. 893.^ <> E.g. in his works on Homer (on the Grotto of the Nymphs, on the Styx, &c.). Holsten. Vit. c. 6. Euseb. de Prgep. Evang. iii. 9, states Porphyry's apologetic pleas for idolatry. 7 Neander, i. p. 38. ^ Euseb. Prsep. Evang. iii. 7. 9 Ibid. iv. 7. 1 Cp. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, x. 27, 28. PORPHYRY: ON SCRIPTURE-ON ORACLES. 369 five Books against Christianity, in which he directed his assaults against the Old and New Testament which he had carefully studied.^ He affirmed that the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law could not be accept- able to God.^ His Pythagoreanism led him to abstain from animal food, and to condemn sacrifices of livin- creatures. He asserted that the prophecies of Daniel were written after the events they predict,^ namely in the times of Antiochus Epiphanes. He animad- verted on the dispute between St. Paul and St. Peter at Antioch,^ as betraying the failings and inconsisten- cies of those to whom Christians appealed as their principal Teachers. ■ He said that since Christianity had been preached, the World had derived no benefit from the deities whom it formerly worshipped, and that plagues and pestilences had become more rife since ^sculapius and other gods had ceased to visit the world ;« and thus, as Theodoret observes, he bore testimony to the effects of the Gospel in restraining the power of the Evil One and other demons, who, as bt Paul says, were worshipped as gods (i Cor. x. 20). In his book on Oracles, Porphyry relates that a heathen consulted Apollo, what god he should pro- pitiate in order to win back his wife to Gentilism from Christianity.? to which the Oracle replied that he might sooner write on the flowing stream, or on empty air, than turn her mind after she once had been demorahzed by that religion. The Oracle of Apollo also justified the Judges who 3 l^^f'^'^o' ^'* '^^''^- ^'^- ^''- P- S93, ed. Schulze. Ibid. p. 894. notetl'T.'r^"^^- "' ^'"^'^ ""''- ^^">' ^ ^' ^"°^^'^d to refer to my no^tes on that Chapter, and Introduction to the Book of Daniel ? Un M'hich T have said more on Galatians ii. 11. Thecdoret, ibid. p. 1040. B b 370 PORPHYRY ON CHRISTIANITY— REPLIES OF METHODIUS AND E USEE I US. had condemned Christ to an excruciating death, as rebelHng against Judaism ; " for the Jews," it said, "■ are more pious toward God than the Christians. The great Creator of all is adored by the holy Hebrews." ^ Indeed Apollo, as represented by Porphyry, was com- plimentary to Judaism at the expense of Christianity. In answer to the question whether Christ was a God, and might not be worshipped as a God, with other Gods, although He had suffered death, some oracular responses, especially of Hecate, adopted by Porphyry, were uttered in a tone of apologetic reverence for Christ. The body of the pious (they said) is subject to suffering, but his soul rises to heaven.^ Christ, though pious, could not deliver His disciples from error. Porphyry eulogized Christ at the expense of Chris- tians, whom he despised, pitied, and condemned.^ Christ was pious, they were impious. And even in his view of Christ, says Augustine, he did not rise above the heresy of the Photinians. The Arians were therefore called Porphyrians by Constantine.^ But we (says S. Augustine) " will not give credit to one oracle of Porphyry blaming Christ, nor to another praising Him. Porphyry's only wish is to prevent men from being Christians. And if his oracles were true, they would not be at variance with each other." S. Methodius, afterwards a Martyr in the persecu- tion under Diocletian, wrote a reply to Porphyry's allegations ; and Eusebius followed him in a " Augustine de Civ. Dei, xix. 23. This work of Porphyry is referred to by Theodoret (1. c. ), and especially by Eusebius (1. c). A newly- discovered fragment of it has been published by Cardinal Mai. ** Euseb. Demonst. Evangel, iii. 6. Aug. de Civ. Dei, xix. 23. ^Augustine de Civ. Dei, xix. 23, " Laudant Christum, vituperant Christianos." * Socrat. i. 9, Labbe's Concilia, ii. 258. PR A CTICAL REFUTA TIONS OF PORPHYR Y— 371 MANICH.F,A NISM. voluminous work of thirty (or rather, twenty-five) books.^ But these, with the work of Porphyry, have perished. His objections against Christianity have been dealt with by S. Augustine in the tenth book and nineteenth book of his work on the " City of God ;" by S. Cyril of Alexandria in his reply to Julian ; by Theodoret in his work on heathenism, and more fully by Eusebius " on Preparation for the Gospel." ' But after all, the most powerful refutation of Porphyry's attacks on Christianity was supplied by the lives of Christians and by the deaths of Martyrs, and by God's grace triumphing in them, by which it was shown that He can effect, what Porphyry pretended to do ; namely, can free men from earthly fears, and from the burden of the flesh, and the tyranny of the world, into the " glorious liberty of sons of God," and that He can unite them for ever to Himself. The history of the Platonist Porphyry, — like that of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius the Stoic before him, and of the Emperor Julian after him, — has left this salutary warning to the Church, that she must not look for better treatment from the contemptuous pride and rancorous spite of unsanctified Philosophy, than from the furious rage of infidel Persecution. Manes, from whom Manichseanism derived its name, was a contemporary of Porphyry ; he may be regarded rather as an heresiarch than a sceptic ; but he promoted the cause of scepticism by reviving the doctrines of some of the Gnostic Schools, especially the Marcionites, ascribing the Old Testament to the 2 S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. c. 8i ; Epist. 70. Cp. Bishop Lightfoot's Article on Eusebius, p. 329. ^ See Euseb. Prsep. Evang. v. 5. B b 2 372 MANICH^ANISM—HIER 0 CLES. author of Evil, whom he regarded also as the Creator of matter. He therefore denied the Incarnation of Christ, and proscribed Marriage." But the full develop- ment of his system belongs to a later age, especially to that of S. Augustine, who, having formerly been an advocate of IManichaeanism, became the ablest champion of Christianity against it. Lactantius relates^ that when the Imperial edict for exterminating Christianity was published at Nicomedia, the capital of Bithynia (A.D. 303), and when the Christian Church of that City (where he himself resided as a teacher of rhetoric) was destroyed, and there were few champions of the Gospel, who were qualified to defend it by eloquence and learning, two persons arose to insult the prostrate Faith. • One, whom he describes, was a celebrated Philoso- pher ; he does not mention his name. Some suppose that he refers to Maximus, who gave lectures at Nicomedia, and was the Master of Julian the Apostate; others, that he alludes to -Porphyry. This person, he says, put forth three books against the Christians, in which he professed to reveal the true light of genuine wisdom, and exhorted them to accept it, and not to expose themselves recklessly to torture and death in behalf of a ruined cause. He also eulogized the Persecutors, and encouraged them to persevere in their endeavours to restore and amplify the ancient worship of the gods, and to pro- pitiate their anger, and to procure their favour to the State. The other writer to whom Lactantius refers was Hierocles, who exercised judicial authority as President ^ See Epiphan. Hseres. 66. 5 Lactant. Divin. Institut. v. 2. ADDRESS OF HIEROCLES TO THE CHRISTIANS 373 of the Bithynian Magistrates, and who had been a pro- minent promoter of the Persecution. He was after- wards Governor of Alexandria. He proceeded in a more subtle and specious way. He wrote two books, says Lactantius, not against the Christians, but addressed to them, in which he professed to be anxious for their welfare, and to offer them salutary advice. These books were entitled " TriUh-loviug Words 'to the Christians^ ' In them he endeavoured to show that the Scriptures contradicted themselves. He directed his attacks specially against St. Peter and St. Paul, and charged the Apostles with having deceived and perverted multitudes by fraud and imposture ; while at the same time he scorned them as rude and illiterate men. He did not deny the reality of the Miracles wrought by Jesus Christ, but endeavoured to disparage them by contrasting them with those of Apollonius of Tyana, who lived until near the end of the first century, and whose life had been recently written by the rhetorician Philostratus, a favourite of the wife of Septimius Severus. Speaking of Apollonius, Hierocles says, " Notwithstanding his wonderful works, we do not regard him as God, but as a man favoured by the Gods; whereas the Christians assert that Jesus— who worked fewer and less illustrious miracles— is God." He also disparaged His words and works, as compared with those of Apollonius of Tyana, on the ground that the history of the latter had been written by wise philosophers, Maximus, Damis, and Philostratus ; whereas that of ''^iXaKriOeis \6yoi," or simply 6 <^«AaA7j07?y, as it is styled by Euse- bius in his reply. On Hierocles and his work see Lactant. Inst. v. 2 ; de Mort. Persecut. c. 16, and the reply of Eusebius ; and Bishop Pearson, Prolegomena in Hieroclem, Minor. Works ii. 583—604. Cp. Fleury, Hist. Eccl. ii. 579. 374 REPLY OF EUSEBIUS TO HIEROCLES. Christ had been composed by ignorant and ilHterate men, such as the Apostles and EvangeHsts. Eusebius composed a work, still extant, against Hierocles/ He deals with that portion of his argu- ments in which he pleads for the superiority of Apol- lonius. He says that the rest of his objections had been anticipated and answered by Origen against CelsUs. And he himself intended to deal with them in his answer to Porphyry. He is thus led to examine the eight books — still surviving — of the biography of Apollonius by Philostratus. He urges that Philostratus is inconsistent in representing Apollonius as a divine person, at the same time that he tells us the names of the different men by whom he was taught, and that he learnt much from the philosophers of India, and that in his journeys he was obliged to use the help of an interpreter in communicating with foreigners. He owns that he had some claims to be recognized as a good and wise man ; but he scrutinizes the evidence of his pretended miracles. At the same time he does not deny that some of them may have been wrought by magical arts or by demons. But the main point on which he dwells is that Jesus Christ was the subject of ancient prophecy for many centuries before His Advent. He affirms that the evidence of His miraculous works is clear and circumstantial ; and that His actions, His teaching, and His sufferings have been productive of the greatest benefits to Mankind, and that those effects are permanent and increasing ; and that His religion is advancing in a career of conquest, although the whole force of the Roman Empire, combined with the world's wisdom 7 Published by Dean Gaisford, Oxon. 1852 ; and see Bishop Light- foot's Article on Eusebius in Prof. Wace's Dictionary, p. 328. BENEFITS DERIVED FROM THE SUFFERINGS 375 OF THE MARTYRS— CHRISTIAN LOYAITY. and philosophy, and the self-interested endeavours of the most powerful and numerous classes of Society, has endeavoured to check and to crush it ; whereas in the •few years that elapsed since the death of ApoUonius, his philosophy, and his name itself, had almost vanished away. 4. Other benefits were derived from the sufferings of some of the INIartyrs in these persecutions. They were made occasions for the practical de- claration of the Christian Doctrine concerning the true grounds of Loyalty to Civil Rulers, and the true nature and limits of Obedience to secular Powers. We have already seen in the statements of Tertul- lian that even the fiercest persecution by civil rulers could not provoke the Christians to resentment and retaliation, and that they patiently submitted to cruel tortures rather than rebel against those Rulers under whom they were placed by the providence of God. They prayed foi' those who killed them. They re- membered and obeyed Christ's precept, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's " (Matt. xxii. 21), and St. Paul's words, "Let every soul be sub- ject to the higher powers. There is no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained of God. Who-, soever therefore resisteth the power, resistetJi the ordi- nance of God ; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation " (Rom. xiii.i, 2), and St. Peter's, " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake" (i Pet. ii. 13). They therefore were subject to the Civil Authority. They submitted to it, and did not resist it. And further, in all things that were not contrary to God's Law, they obeyed it. But in anything that was clearly repugnant to that 376 LOYALTY OF CHRLSTLANS—CHRISTLAN SOLDIERS. Law, they did not obey it. They obeyed the civil power as far as it was God's minister and vicegerent for God's sake ; but they would not disobey God for the sake of man. On the contrary, they imitated the example of the three Children at Babylon, who were content to be cast into the fiery furnace by Nebuchad- nezzar, rather than worship any but God (Dan. iii. 17, 18). They imitated Daniel, who was content to be cast into the lions' den by Darius, rather than omit his prayers a single day (Dan. vi. 10 — 16). They imitated the aged Priest Eleazar, ninety years old, who was content to be tortured on the rack by order of Antiochus Epiphanes, rather than disobey God, and eat unclean meats, forbidden by His Law (2 Mace, vii. 18 — 22). They imitated the faithful Woman and her seven sons, who were content to suffer torture and death by command of the same king, rather than break that Law (2 Mace. vii. i — 42)'. They imitated the Apostles, who commanded all men to obey civil rulers in all things that were not against God's Law, but who went to prison rather than desist from preaching the Gospel which Christ had com- manded them to preach ; and who suffered martyr- dom at the hands of those rulers, rather than violate God's Law by worshipping any other than the one true God. These principles were exemplified in numerous Martyrdoms, especially of Christian Soldiers in per- secutions in the third and fourth centuries. Take a notable instance of this. In A.D. 2S6, the Emperor Maximian, Colleague of Diocletian, summoned from the East a military Legion called the Thebaean,^ 8 Acta Martyrum siiicera, p. 274, in a letter from Eusebius, Bishop of Lyons, to a brother Bishop Salvias. NOBLE ANSWER OF CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS TO 377 MAXIMIAN. which consisted mainly of Christians, to Gaul, and commanded the soldiers to help him in exterminat- ing Christianity. ' The Emperor and his forces were stationed among the Alps, at the place now called Martigny, in the Valais, on the north of the Great St. Bernard. The Legion refused to obey his command to march against the Christians. The Emperor ordered the Legion to be decimated, once and again. Still the Legion remained steadfast in their resolve ; and they sent, at the advice of three of their officers, Mauricius, Exsuperius, and Candidus, the following Memorial to the Emperor: — "We are thy soldiers, O Emperor; but we are also servants .of God. We owe military service to thee ; but we owe innocency to Him. From thee we receive pay ; from Him we have life. We cannot obey thee, so as to deny God, Who is our Creator, and thine. If we are not commanded by thee to do any wrong, by which we may offend Him, we will gladly obey thee^ as we have done hitherto ; but if otherwise, we must obey Him rather than thee. We offer to thee our hands for warfare against any of thine enemies, but we cannot imbrue those hands in the blood of the innocent. We first took a baptismal pledge to God, we afterwards took a military oath to thee : thou canst not suppose that we shall be true to the latter, if we are false to the former. Thou commandest that Christians shall be brought to punishment by our means. Well then, we who are Christians must first be brought to be punished by thee. Here we are ; we confess God the Father to be the Creator of all things, and Jesus Christ His Son to be God. We have seen the deaths of our fellow-Christians, and we have not avenged them by rebelling against thee. Nay, we 378 ANOTHER CHRISTIAN SOLDIER. have rather rejoiced in their being counted worthy to suffer for the Lord their God. And now we, who are Christians, have not been induced to rebel against thee, even by despair of hfe. We hold our arms in our hands, and we do not resist thee. We desire to be killed ourselves, rather than to kill the innocent and to be guilty and live*. W^hatsoever tortures thou hast ready for us, we are ready to suffer them. We confess ourselves Christians, and we cannot persecute those who are Christians." The Emperor was infuriated by this refusal, and commanded them to be put to the sword by his heathen troops: One more example. In the Persecution in A.D. 298, Marcellus,^ a Cen- turion at Tangiers in Mauritania, was commanded to take his place in the sacrificial festivities on the Emperor's birthday ; he refused, and unclasped his military belt, and cast it on the ground, as a sign that he had thrown up his commission. He said, " I am a soldier of Jesus Christ, the Eternal King, and serve Him." He was brought before his com- manding officer, and was cast into prison ; and thence was sent for trial to the Propraetor, who commanded him to be beheaded. " Deus tibi benefaciat " was his reply, and the sentence of death was executed upon him. Before his death the Clerk of the Court, Cassianus, who was commanded to commit the sentence to writing, cast down with execration to the ground the tablets on which he had been taking notes, and the stilus with which he was writing : on which Marcellus smiled ; for he knew that Cassian would soon be his companion in ^ Acta sincera, p. 302. CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION— DUTIES TO HEATHEN 379 SUPERIORS. martyrdom. Cassian suffered for the faith not many days afterwards.^ The principle on which these Christian soldiers acted was well expressed in a later age by S. Augus- tine. " Sometimes the Powers of this world fear God ; sometimes they fear Him not. The Emperor Julian was an unbeliever, an apostate, an idolater ; yet Christian soldiers served under him. When in- deed a question arose as to their .obedience to Christ, they acknowledged Him only Who is in heaven. Whensoever the Emperor ordered them to worship idols, or to offer incense, they preferred God to him. But when he said, Draw out the line of battle, March against this or that nation, forthwith they obeyed their King." They distinguished the King Eternal from their temporal King, and yet they were subject even to their temporal King, on account of their King Eternal." The difference between siibmission and obedience is to be carefully noted. Christians sithmitted to tem- poral Rulers in all things ; they never rebelled against them ; and they obeyed them also in those things which were not contrary to the Law of God, but not in those that were against it. So much for Christians in military service. As to civil functionaries, Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria in the time of Diocletian, wrote an excellent letter,^ about A.D. 290, to Lucian, a Christian, who was Chamberlain to the Emperor, in which are some moral precepts concerning the duties of Christian officials to heathen Princes. " Every commandment of the Emperor," he says, 1 Acta, p. 304. 2 See it in Routh, Reliquice iii. 439—447. 380 OTHER BENEFITS FROM PERSECUTION. ''which is not repugnant to God's will, is to be re- garded by thee as coming from God Himself. Mandatum Principis, quod Deum non offendit, ab ipso Deo processisse putetis." 5. The cruelty of the Persecutors of the Church brought out in a clearer light the love of God which overruled that cruelty for her good. Whom the Lord I'oveth He chasteneth (Heb. xii. 6). We have seen S. Cyprian's remarks (p. 339) on the Persecution under Decius as a bitter but salutary medicine, administered by the hand of God to heal the spiritual diseases which, in a season of long tran- quillity, had infused a subtle poison into the hearts of some in the Church, — even her Bishops and Priests. The Church historian Eusebius makes a similar observation concerning the causes of the persecution under Diocletian after forty years' peace. His words are memorable, and may serve as a warning for other ages of the Church. " Nothing,^' he says, " could harm the Church, as long as God's arm protected her. But after that, from too much liberty, our condition was changed to one of vanity and carelessness, and Christians envied and reviled one another, and there were collisions of prelates with prelates, and of laymen with laymen. Hypocrisy and dissimulation prevailed among us. At first the hand of God arrested us gently by a per- secution of some of our brethren who were in the army. But when we were insensible to the correc- tion, and would not set our hearts to appease our merciful God, we brought on ourselves other calami- ties. Our Pastors rejected the ordinances of religion, and were inflamed with passionate strifes against each other, and did nothing but aggravate conten- MARTYRS TRANSFIGURED BY SUFFERING. 381 tions and menaces, jealousy, enmity, and hatred against one another, and indulged in love of pre- eminence, and affected a tyrannical despotism." He describes the consequences of these intestine strifes and confusions in the demolition and spolia- tion of Churches (Euseb. viii. i and 2). But God's justice is tempered with mercy, and Persecutions of the Christians exercised a corrective discipline, not only in penal visitations, but in lead- ing them to look up to God for that help, comfort, and joy which He never fails to give to the faithful in the hour of trial. The Church was purified by the fire, and came forth more bright and glorious from it. 6. Joseph Scaliger said ^ that he was transported with rapture when he read the records of ancient Martyr- doms, and that his heart glowed within him with the fire of faith and love and admiration. No wonder. Not only brave soldiers, and others in the prime of life, but aged men, and tender and delicate women,* and boys " out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in the fight " of faith (Heb. xi. 34), and were enabled by divine grace to endure cruel tortures with joy, and to triumph over them ; and their behaviour and outward appearance in the midst of those tor- tures gave practical proofs of the inner working of that grace, and of the almighty power and exceed- 3 " Ego nihil unquam in historia Ecclesiastica vidi a cujus lectione commotior recedam, ut non amplius meus esse videar." Jos. Scaliger, Animadv. ad Euseb. ad ann, 2183. The " Acta Martyrum sincera, " col- lected and edited by the learned Benedictine, Theodoric Ruinart, Amst. 1713, ed. 2nda, may well be called a "liber aureus." ^ " Pueri et mulieres nostrce cruces et tormenta, feras, et omnes sup- pliciorum terriculas inspirata patientia doloris illudunt." Minuc. Felix, p. 339. The "torti" were " torquentibus fortiores." 382 TRANSFIGURATION OF MARTYRS. ing love of Christ, Whose servants they were ; and have supphed to Christians in every age of the Church the strongest motives for courage in defence of the faith, and for reliance on His protection. Who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever (Heb. xiii. 8 ^). Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Ps. cxvi. 15). He was with them as with the three Children in the fiery furnace, and with Daniel in the lions' den. Some evidence of this wonderful transfiguration may be noted here. S. Polycarp, who was more than eighty-six years old, appeared as one restored to youthful vigour of body and soul in his Martyrdom,*^ and in the midst of the fire his body was irradiated with glory. The countenances of the Martyrs at Lyons '' shone with angelic beauty, like that of St. Stephen. They were tortured again and again, as if they had suffered nothing. Blandina, being sus- pended on a cross, and exposed to wild beasts, en- couraged others by her prayers ; and after many lacerations of her limbs, and having been scorched with fire, she was tied in a net and tossed by a Bull. All the while she was unconscious of what was done, and communed with Christ in prayer.^ Sanctus, having been scorched in the fire, and racked with violent contortions, was refreshed, as it were, bjj living water from Christ, and was restored to his former vigour. They were at length despatched by their tormentors, who were exhausted with torturing them. Perpetua at Carthage was placed in a net, and was tossed by a '' Compare Keble's Christian Year, 19th Sunday after Trinity. 6 Martyr. Polycarp. 13, 14. ' Acta Martyr, p. 66. Euseb. v. lo. •*' Ibid. p. 69. Euseb. v. 14. JOY IN MARTYRDOM. 283 wild Cow ; ^ and after some time she fell on the ground, and was lifted up by a catechumen called Rusticus ; and as if she had just awoke from sleep, she asked him, " When shall I be brought out to be tossed by the Cow ? " She did not believe what had happened till she saw the marks on her body where she had been crored. The countenance of S. Laurence, the Archdeacon of Rome, martyred A.D. 258, shone like that of Moses/ When he was on the gridiron, he said to his Roman Judge, " This side of my body is now roasted enough ; now turn it and roast the other^ and then, if thou wilt, devour it." ^ He then prayed for the conversion of Rome, and died. Flavianus, one of the African Martyrs in A.D. 259, saw a vision of the martyred Bishop S. Cyprian in a dream,^ and asked him whether a Martyr had the sense of pain in his death } To which the reply was; " When the mind is in heaven, the body has other feelings than those of torment : if the mind is wholly devoted to God, the body has no sense of pain." Claudius, the Lycian Martyr in A.D. 289, said to Lysias the Governor, who ordered him to be placed on the rack, and his feet to be burnt, and portions of them to be cut off and pre- sented to him, " Thy fire and tortures do no harm to them that fear God, but procure for them eternal life. Those tortures may destroy the body, but they save the soul. I count it great gain to suffer for God, and great riches to die for Jesus Christ." The youthful Porphyry, who was martyred at Csesarea A.D. 309, is described as going with a joyful coun- 9 Acta, p. loi. 1 Ibid. p. 1 93-. 2 Prudentius, Hymn, de S. Laurent., Stanza loi, 102. S. Ambrose de Oftic. i. 41. Acta Martyr, p. 194. 3 Acta, p. 237. 384 S. A LB A AT THE PRO TO MARTYR OF BRITALV. tenance to the stake, to which he was tied in order to be burnt. The cheerful beauty of his countenance did not fade away. He opened his mouth to draw in the fire, and then prayed with a loud voice, " Jesus, Thou Son of God, help me." ^ One more example may be quoted as showing the power of God's grace, not only in enabling the Martyrs to suffer joyfully, but as inspiring them with love for others, and exciting them to save their lives by their own death. S. Alban, the first Martyr of Britain, suffered in the Persecution under Diocletian. It has been sup- posed by some that Cohstantine's father, Constantius, who had the government of Britain, Gaul, and Spain from A.D. 292, protected the Christians from persecution,^' and some doubts have been cast 01 the record of S. Alban's Martyrdom in Bede's his- tory.^ But it must be remembered that as long as Constantius was only Caesar, he could not— however favourable to the Christians he might be — resist the orders of Maximian, who was the colleague of Dio- cletian in the Empire from A.D. 286 to A.D. 305 ; and that Constantius was only Caesar from A.D. 292 to A.D. 305, when he was associated with Galerius as Augustus. The persecution under Diocletian began P^bruary 23rd, A.D. 303. It is most probable that S. Alban was martyred in that or the following year. The place of his Martyrdom was Verulamium 4 Euseb. de Martyr. Palestin, cap. ii. Eusebius in that Book describes (ibid.) what he himself saw, especially the Martyrdom of his own patron and friend, the Presbyter of Coesarea, Pamphilus, from whom he derived this cognomen, " Eusebius Faviphili,'^ and who was the Master of the young Porphyiy. 5 Euseb. Vit. Const, i. 13. ^ Historia Eccl. Gentis Angliorum, i. 6, 7. S. ALB AN' S MARTYRDOM. 385 (St. Alban's) ; the day, June 22nd, as stated by Bedc. While yet a pagan, he received and entertained hos- pitably for some days a Christian priest' who was flying from his persecutors ; and he was so much im- pressed with his behaviour, and by his continual prayers and watchings, and with the teaching and example of his faith and charity, that he became a Christian. When the soldiers who were in quest of the Priest came to his house, Alban, dressed in the Priest's cas- sock (caracalla), presented himself to them, and was bound and carried before the Judge, who was offer- ing sacrifice at an altar ; and being enraged with him for allowing the Priest to escape, and for deceiv- ing his pursuers, required him to sacrifice to the gods. Alban, who had declared to the soldiers that he was a Christian, refused to obey, and said, ^' I worship only the true God Who created the Universe, but these your sacrifices are offered to demons who can- not do good to their worshippers ; but they who worship them will be punished eternally." The Judge ordered him to be beaten ; and when he was cruelly tortured, he suffered joyfully for the Lord, till the Judge, seeing that he could not shake the con- stancy of his faith, commanded him to be beheaded. Bede describes ^ with poetical feeling the beauty of 7 Called Amphibalus by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Giraldus Cam- brensis, Itin. i. 5. Cp. Ussher, Brit. Eccl. Antiq. vii. 8 As is remarked by Wordsworth in the note to his Sonnet on S. Alban's Martyrdom (Eccl. Sonnets, vi.). ' ' Thus was Alban tried, England's first Martyr, whom no threats could shake. Self-offer'd victim for his friend he died, And for the faith ; nor shall his name forsake That hill, whose flowery platform seems to rise By nature deck'd for holiest sacrifice." C C 386 S. ALB AN' S CATHEDRAL. the hill with its grassy summit embroidered with flowers, and sloping gently downward, and prepared by the hand of nature to be an altar for so precious a sacrifice as that of the Protomartyr of Britain. " The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church." This has been verified in S. Alban. In our own age he has given his name to a new Diocese ; and the noble Minster erected on the site of his Martyrdom has now become an English Cathedral. CHAPTER XXV. Councils and Creeds — General Remarks on Con nails — Inferences from their History — What constitutes a General Conncil—'Ante-Nicene Councils — Council of Jerusalem — Councils of Carthage, of Antioch, Cirtha — Origin of Donatism — Council of Eliheris, or Elvira — Council of Rome— Council of Aries — Council of Ancyra — Council of Neo-Ccesarea — Apostolic Canons {so called) and Apostolic Con- stitutions— General Reflections. Our Blessed Lord promised to His Disciples that wherever two or three are gathered together in His Name, there He would be in the midst of them (Matt, xviii. 20) ; and that He would be with them always, even to the end of the world (Matt, xxviii. 20) ; and that He would send to them the Spirit of truth to teach them all things, and to lead them into all truth, and to abide with them for ever (John xiv. 16 ; xvi. 13). The Church of Christ relied on these divine promises ; and when a question arose among the disciples at Antioch, — about twenty years after our Lord's Ascension into heaven, — whether the observ- ance of the Ceremonial Law was obligatory on Gen- tile Converts, the disciples resolved " that Paul and Barnabas should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles C c 2 388 COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM— INFERENCES FROM ' ANTE-NICENE COUNCILS— EPISCOPACY. and Elders about this matter " (Acts xv. 6). This was the first Council of the Christian Church. St. Peter was the foremost to speak in that assembly. He was followed by Barnabas and Paul. St. James, who was Bishop of Jerusalem, and who, as such, appears to have presided at the Council, closed the debate by pronouncing his judgment, which was adopted by the Apostles and Elders with the assent of the whole Church (Acts xv. 22, 23 ;^ xvi. 4), and was embodied in a synodical decree to be communicated to the Gentile Churches, by whom it was received with joy (Acts XV. 30, 31)- This Council of Jerusalem was a precedent and pattern for succeeding Synods of the Church. In examining their Acts and Records we arrive at the following results : — 1. Their history bears practical testimony to the existence of Episcopacy as the received form of Church Government in the ages next to that of the Apostles. The Ante-Nicene Councils of Carthage, Antioch, Eliberis, Ancyra, Neo-Caesarea, Aries, and others in divers parts of the world, Africa, Asia, Spain, Gaul, and elsewhere, all consisted of Bishops. They show that Episcopal Government was that form of spiritual regimen which was universally received by the Chris- tian Church, to which Christ had promised His own presence and the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 2. The history of ancient C-ouncils also shows that no one Bishop — such as the Bishop of Rome — was supreme over the rest, or was regarded by the Catho- lic Church as an Infallible Guide. If Christ had 1 The reading of the text xv. 23 is not quite certain, but this does not affect the question ; cp. xv. 22. NO ONE SUPREME, INFALLIBLE HEAD— THE 389 WHOLE CHURCH CANNOT FAIL— ANY PART MAY. appointed any such Supreme Head and Infallible Guide, the sub-Apostolic Churches mu^t have known the fact, and would have recognized such an ap- pointment. Their Bishops would have spared them- selves the time and trouble of long journeys for the purpose of coming together in Synods, and they would have resorted to him for direction ; and if they had met together in such assemblies, they would have acknowledged him as entitled to guide and govern their deliberations. But there is no evidence whatever of any such opinion or practice in the history of the Church in the first three centuries. 3. Although Christ promised His presence and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to the whole Church as His mystical body, and therefore it was a recognized principle that the whole CJmrch would never be so infected with error that any fundamental and neces- sary article of the Faith would ever be lost or dis- appear from it, yet it was never any article of the Creed of the Church that false doctrines might not be taught by leading persons in the Church, and the truth not be obscured in sundry parts of the Church. She was, however, fully persuaded, that whatever doctrines had been received as true by the whole mystical body of Christ, those doctrines are not false, but true. Also, whatever doctrine can be shown to have been unknown to the whole Church in the times of the Apostles or after them, and much more whatever doctrine can be shown to have been contravened and rejected by the whole Church, is not a true doctrine, but false. It cannot be affirmed a priori that any Person in the Church, however eminent, or any particular 390 THE RECEPTION OF A DOCTRINE BY THE WHOLE CHURCH PROVES ITS TRUTH. Council of the Church, however numerous, or any particular Church, however illustrious, is infallible and cannot err ; but we may, and do, affirm a poste- riori, that those doctrines which have been received as agreeable to God's Word by the whole Body of Christ, or Church Universal, to which He promised His pre- sence and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are not erroneous, bnt true, and are most surely to be believed by all men. Let us illustrate these propositions by examples. The decree of the Councils of Carthage, under S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage," A.D. 255, 256, which affirmed that the true Baptism of Christ could 7iot be administered by heretics, i. e. by persons who held some erroneous doctrine, was afterwards revised, and rejected by other Councils, and by the common con- sent and practice of the Church. But the decree of a prior Council under S. Cyprian, A.D. 253,^ affirming the duty of baptizing infants, was received by the Church as agreeable to Holy Scripture and ancient practice. The rejection of the former, and the reception of the latter, decrees by the Church Universal have decided the relative value of the two Councils. S. Augustine asks,'' " Who is ignorant that the Holy Canonical Scripture of the Old and New Tes- tament is of paramount authority to that of all Epistles of Bishops, which may be revised by other more wise and grave Epistles of other Bishops, and if they have swerved from the truth may be reproved ' See them in Routh's Reliquiae, iii. pjD. io8, 112. •^ Ibid. p. 98. ^ De Baptismo contra Donat. ii. 4, torn. ix. p. J83, ed. Paris. J857. WHAT CONSTITUTES A GENERAL COUNCIL? 391 by Councils ; and that Councils themselves, held in particular places or provinces, must submit to the authority of other plenary Councils convened from the whole of Christendom, and that even plenary Councils may be corrected by other subsequent Synods ? " 4. The question therefore arises. What is it that constitutes a General Council ? The answer to this inquiry is. No one can tell a priori whether a Council will be a General one or not. If a Council satisfy certain conditions, it is not necessarily a General one ; although on the other hand the non-compliance with those conditions is fatal to its claim to such an appellation. A Council is not necessarily a General Council, although it is summoned (as all the first Six General Councils were ^) by Christian Princes. Nor is it necessarily a General Council, although it professes to base its decrees on Scripture ; ^ at the same time the non-observance of that condition invalidates its claim to be a General Council. A Council cannot be a General Council, if it is merely from one Diocese or Province or Patriarchate ; nor is it necessarily a General Council, although it may consist of Bishops from almost all parts of Christen- dom. It is notorious, that in some Councils,' which no one regards as General, many more Bishops were present, than in other Synods which are universally ■ ^ See Bishop Andrewes^ Sermons, vol. v. 160, and Toitura Torti, pp. 193, 422 ; and Theophilus Anglicanus, Part iii. chap. vi. " An open copy of the Gospels was placed on a throne in the Council Chamber as a token of the royal authority of Scripture in governing the Synodical Decrees. S. Cyril Alexand. ad Theodos. Act. Concil. Ephes. Labbe, Concil. iii. pp. 175, 1044. So that, as S. Cyril says, they had "Christ Himself with them as their Head." ' Such as the Council of Constance as to some of its decrees. Ste Cardinal Beliarmine de Conciliis, ii. 7, 17. _&92 EXAMPLES OF GE.VERAL COUNCILS. acknowledged as General Councils. The Council of Rimini in A.D. 359, which was in favour of Arianism, contained many more Bishops than the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, by which Arianism was condemned. But the one, though larger, was not General ; the other, though smaller, was General, because its Creed has been received by the Church Universal, but that of Rimini is rejectedhy it. Nor can a Council be necessarily predicated to be a General one, even if all its Bishops are free agents ; although, if they are bound by an unrighteous and uncatholic oath to a human Power as supreme (as the Bishops in the Council of Trent in the sixteenth cen- tury, and in the Vatican Council of our own day were, who had all taken an oath of vassalage to the Pope), it camiot be called by that name. The only adequate proof that a Council is truly General or CEcumenlcal is, that its Decrees, being built upon Holy Scripture and Cathohc tradition, are subsequently received by the CJmrch Universal, which is the Body of Christ, to which He promised His perpetual presence, and the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Such were the Councils of Nicaea (A.D. 325), of Constantinople (A.D. 381), of Ephesus (A.D. 431), of Chalcedon (A.D. 451).^ They satisfied those conditions, and are rightly called General Councils. Remembering Christ's promises to His Church, and firmly believing that He Who is the Truth cannot ^ Also the Second Council of Constantinople, a.d. 553, against the "three chapters" as favouring Nestorianism. Also the Third of Con- stantinople, A.D. 680, against the Monothelites, in which Pope Honorius was condemned. To which, as confirming the two former Councils (which had not enacted any Canons), may be added Concilium Quinisextum (Concil. v. and vi.), or in TruUo, held under Justinian, A.D .692. A COUNCIL MAY BE GENERAL IN SOME RESPECTS, S93 AND NOT IN OTHERS. have failed to fulfil what He promised to perform, and that therefore He is proved by that general reception to have been present in those Councils, and that the Holy Ghost spake in them, let us not fear to adopt the reverential language, with which pious, holy, wise, and learned men of old described the doctrinal decrees of those Councils, and especially the CREED pro- mulgated by those Councils. They recognized those Decrees and that Creed as authentic utterances of the Divine Presence, promised and vouchsafed to them, and they did not hesitate to ascribe them to the operation of the Holy Ghost.^ 5. It follows that even in a certain sense the same Council may be called a General Council in some respects, and not General in others. For example, the Nicene Council, which put forth the Nicene Creed, also put forth a Canon on Rzhial (in a spirit of reverence for Christ's Resurrection), for- bidding any one to kneel in prayer in church on the Lord's Day, or between Easter and Pentecost (Canon 20). In the former Act the Council was a General one, in the latter, not so. And why } Because the former act was approved by the whole Body of Christ ; but 9 See S. Gregory the Great, saying "se quatuor Concilia suscipere et venerari sicut sancti Evangelii quatuor libros." Epist. i. 25 ; iii. lO ; iv, 28 ; V, 51. Cp, S. Ambrose de Fide, iii. 15 ; Epist. xxi.; S. Leo, Epist. cv. ; S. Augustin. de Bapt. vii. 53 ; and Vincent. Lirin. Com- mon. c. 2, on the general subsequent consent of the Church being the seal of conciliar authority. The Church of England in the Council of Calchuythe, a.d. 785 (Wilkins, Concil. i. 146), received the first six General Councils. See also Wilkins, i. 254, as to the first four Councils, and ibid. i. 52 as to the first five General Councils. The Realm of England, i Eliz. c. i. § 36, refers to the first four General Councils as authoritative in matters of doctrine. 394 RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS OVERRULED FOR GOOD. . the latter did not receive that sanction. The difference was in the reception of the one act, and in the non- reception of the other. 6. The present divided condition of Christendom renders it very improbable that another General Council of the Church Universal will be held for a long time to come. But this is not an unmixed evil. Great good may be derived from it. By reason of these divisions themselves, no power now exists, or is likely to exist, of sufficient authority to disturb or invalidate in the slightest degree the Catholic Creed (commonly called the Niceno - Constantinopolitan Creed), which has been received by the consent of united Christendom. No power now exists in Christen- dom of sufficient weight to affect the ancient Synodi- cal Decrees concerning the Christian Faith received by an united Christendom before the division of the East and West. Those Decrees have been now stereotyped for ever; and we may rest contented with them. The present divisions of Christendom may make us more thankful to the Head of the Church for the utterances which were prompted by Him before those divisions arose. 7. For three centuries and a quarter after- Christ the Church existed zvitJwttt any General Council. She was not able to summon Synodical Meetings in times of Persecution, and in her short breathing-times of Peace only a few local Councils were held. In that period the Apostolic traditions, received by a succession of Bishops from the beginning (as declared by S. Irenseus and Tertullian), were still fresh in her memory. Providentially, as time passed on, and as oral THE TRUE FAITH, DECLARED BY THE CHURCH 395 IN HER CREEDS. tradition became more faint and indistinct, the Canon of Holy Scripture had acquired clearness, and was firmly settled, and tradition was tested by it The Creeds of the primiitive Church, expanded from the Baptismal Formula or profession of Faith in the Blessed Trinity (Matt, xxviii. 19), and set down by S. Irenaeus (i. 2 and 3; see above, p. 217), and by Tertullian (Praescript. c. 13 ; de Veland. Virg. cap. i ; c. Prax. c. 2 ; above, p. 241), by Gregory Thaumatur- (Op. p. ly and apud Gregor. Nyssen. p. 979 ; above, p. 284), and the Apostolic Constitutions (vii. 41), and in the Roman Creed (commonly called the Apostles' Creed), though not derived from Scripture, for (as Richard Baxter observes ^) these Creeds were in substance prior to Scripture, yet were proved by Scripture. They were also a co-ordinate and inde- pendent witness to Scripture. The Tradition, thus proved, settled itself and was crystallized in the Creed promulgated in the First General Council, that of Nicaea, A.D. 325, and was completed in the Second General Council, that of Constantinople, A.D. 381. The Church of the first three centuries existed and prospered without any General Council, by the fresh- ness of Apostolic Tradition, and by the testimony of Holy Scripture. We who live now have the Canon of Holy Scripture firmly fixed and established, and the Apostolic Tra- dition embodied in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, and we may thankfully accept the work of 1 R. Baxter, in his " Catechizing of Families " and " Introduction to Catholic Theology," well says, tha;t "as Christ Himself was the Author of the Baptismal Covenant, so the Apostles were the authors of that exposition which they used, and taught the Church to use, in adminis- tering Baptism, and they did that by the Holy Ghost as much as their inditing of Scripture." 393 BLESSINGS DERIVED FROM THE WORK OF CHRIST AND THE HOL Y SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH Christ and of the Holy Spirit in them both. We do not now need any more General Councils to give additional stability to the Catholic Faith, which is unmoved and immovable, or to give more fulness to what is complete, or to impart more clearness to that which shines brightly like the noonday Sun. We are content and thankful for the inestimable benefits we possess in that sacred deposit of the Truth, which has been entrusted by Christ to the Church, and which, under the guidance and guardianship of the Holy Ghost, has been carefully preserved by her against the assaults of Heresy, and which can never be impaired' by any earthly Power, or be altered by any lapse of time. Let us now pass in review the Ante-Nicene Councils of the Church. They afford valuable instruction concerning ancient doctrine and discipline. Samosata, a royal city of Syria, acquired an unhappy notoriety by giving birth to two celebrated persons, Lucian, the Voltaire of the second century, and Paul, Bishop of Antioch, the Socinus of the third, who promulgated a heresy concerning our Blessed Lord's Person. A Council was held at Antioch, A.D. 264, to examine his opinions ; but before any synodical judgment was pronounced upon him, certain Bishops, especially the great Bishop of Alexandria_, Dionysius,^ and others,^ remonstrated with him by letters, in which they declared the true doctrine of the Eternal Godhead of Christ, and His distinct Personality and Incarnation, as revealed in Holy Scripture, and handed down by primitive tradition. 2 See his letter in Labbe's Concilia, i. p. 850. 2. Labbe's Concilia, i. 843, Ai\TE-yiCENE COUNCILS—COUNCILS OF ANTIOCH 397 —PRIESTS AND DEACONS AT COUNCILS. There are extant also ten questions propounded by- Paul to Dionysius, with the answers.'' Paul at first parried the attack upon him by artful evasions, but in A.D. 269 another Council was held at Antioch to deliberate more fully on his opinions. Two eminent Bishops were removed by death about this time, Dionysius of Alexandria (A.D. 265), and Firmilian of Caesarea (A.D. 269). Firmilian had been at the Council of A.D. 264 ; Dionysius had excused himself from attendance on account of old age. At the Council of A.D. 264 the celebrated Scholar of Origen, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neo- Caesarea, Avas present, and his brother Athenodorus, Helenus Bishop of Tarsus, Nicomas of Iconium, Hymenseus of Jerusalem, Theotecnus of Caesarea in Palestine, Maximus of Bosra, and many other Bishops, besides Priests and Deacons. Here it may be mentioned in passing, that the presence of Priests and Deacons in Councils, as well as of Bishops, is attested by many other ancient precedents, as at Carthage in S. Cyprian's time, and at Eliberis ^ and Aries. The Synodical Epistle of the Council of Antioch of A.D. 269, in which Paul was excommunicated and deposed, was written in the names not only of the Bishops there present, but of the Presbyters and Deacons, and Churches of God (Euseb. vii. 30). As to the right of voting at Synods, Bishops (who were liable to penalties for contumacy, if, when •* Labbe's Concilia, i. 858—893. 5 Concil. Elib, piooem. There were not only Bishops, but Presbyters, " adstantibus Diaconibus et omni plebe." Cp. Bingham, Antiquities, ii. 19, 20. 398 PAUL OF SAMOSATA. duly summoned, they failed to attend) had suffrages in all Councils. Presbyters were obliged to attend Diocesan Synods, and Deacons also were sometimes present ; but neither Priests nor Deacons (unless they were dele- gates specially commissioned by Bishops) appear to have had decisive voices for the framing of Synodical Decrees, although they were admitted to signify their consent to them ; as, in some cases, were laymen.^ But to return to Paul of Samosata. He regarded Christ as a mere Man, and as not having had any existence before His birth as such'; and he taught that the Divine Logos came down upon Him from God, and. imparted His influence to Him, and then returned to the Father. He held that the Divine Logos dwelt in Christ in a higher degree than in any other person, and that by reason of this indwelling He was called the Son of God, and that He was in a certain sense divinized by means of His moral and spiritual develop- ment.^ The character of Paul, as described by the Council, is rather that of a secular functionary, proud of his official dignity, like a vain-glorious rhetorician, fond of oratorical display, and of popular applause, than of a Christian Bishop (Euseb. vii. 30J. It is stated that "he abused his power with rapacious covetousness, and iniiulged in profligate libertinism. He enjoyed the *"' The Rev. Arthur W. Haddan has well stated the practice in Dr, Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, i. p. 481 ; and may I refer to my note on Acts xv. 23 ? " Athanasius de Synodis, t. 4. On the tenets of Paul see the Synodical Letter in Euseb. vii. 30, and Epiphanius, Hcer. c. 65 ; Theodoret, Hceret. ii. 8. Cp. Neander, ii. 364 ; Newman's Arians, pp. 4 — 6 ; Dorner on the Person of -Christ, Division i. vol. ii. pp. 10, 197, 347, 436. THE TERM HOMOOUSIOS. 399 favour of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who inclined to Judaism.^ He suppressed the hymns in his Church which were sung to Christ as God, and introduced others in praise of himself A specimen of his sophistry as a dialectician is cited, by which he gained an advantage over the Bishops of the Council. He alleged,^ that if Christ was not made God from out of a man. He is there- fore hornoousios or consiibstantial with the Father, and thence it would follow that there were three substances, viz. one pre-existing substance, out of which two Beings were produced, the Father and the Son, like two coins struck from the same metal ; and that there- fore, if that term was a correct one, the Father was not eternal. It is said that to avoid this consequence from the alleged premisses, the Fathers of the Council, perceiv- ing his subtlety, and considering that the word con- siLbstantial\N2.s> not to be understood in such a corporal sense as he adopted, and that the substance of the Father is the fountain and origin of Deity, and the Son is not a creature, but of the same nature with the Father, begotten from eternity of the substance of the Father, as the Son Himself says, ** I and the Father are one " (substance), — abstained from the use of the word homoousios, which was afterwards the essential test of truth in the Council of Nicaea, and the special symbol of Catholicism. But as S. Athanasius,^ and S. Hilary,^ and S. Basil ^ say, the Council of Antioch did not regard the term 8 S. Athanas. Hist. Arian. § 71. ^ Athanasius, i. p. 758, quoted by Bp. Bull, v. p. ^% ed. Oxf. 1S27. ' S. Athanas. de Synodis, § 45, 51. 2 S. Hilary, Liber de Synodis, § 81, S5. 3 S. Basil, Epist Hi. 400 PAUL OF S AMOS ATA CONDEMNED BY THE COUNCIL OF ANTIOCH FOR HERESY. homootisios in the same sense as the Council of Nicaea afterwards did. The Council of Antioch abstained from it because they rejected the heresy which alleged that there is One only Person in the Godhead ; the latter Council used it because they affirmed the oneness of substance in the Persons of the Godhead ; and both Councils agreed in the essence of the doctrine.'* To quote again the words of S. Athanasius, '' Inas- much as Paul of Samosata contended that the Son did not exist before Mary, but. received the beginning of His existence from her, therefore the Bishops assembled at Antioch condemned him as guilty of heresy, and did not apply themselves to a careful analysis of the word homoousios, being intent on one thing, to eradicate his false doctrine, and to declare the truth that the Son existed before all things, and was not made God from man, but that, having pre- existed as God from eternity. He took on Him the form of a servant." Paul was condemned by the Council of Antioch in A.D. 269, mainly by the help of the Presbyter Malchion, who was a skilful logician. Notaries were present at the Council, and wrote down the allegations of Paul, which were extant in the days of Eusebius (vii. 29). 4 See Bishop Bull, v. p. 81 ; Defensio Fidei JS'ic. ii. i, 9 — 13 ; S. Athanas. de Synodis, § 45. "The Council of Antioch," says S. Hilary (de Synod. § 81, 85), "rejected the term Homoousios when they condemned Paul of Samosata, because by his misuse of the word he made the Father to be the same Person as the Son. The Church regards this meaning as most profane, because it reduces the Father and the Son to a solitude of union and singularity, and denies the propriety of each as a distinct Person,^' Dr. Waterland (i. p. 330) says, " The Antiochene Fathers condemned the word Homoousion as it had been misapplied by Paul of Samosata, but they established the same doctrine with the Nicene Fathers." APPEAL TO AURELIAN— PERSECUTIONS— 401 COUNCIL OF CIRTHA. From these written evidences Malchion was enabled to refute him. But. although Paul was deposed, and Domnus was made Bishop in his place, yet he was still supported by Queen Zenobia till the year 272, when she was conquered by the Emperor Aurelian, who, though a heathen, awarded the Church and Episcopal Palace at Antioch to the orthodox Bishop, in accordance with the decision of the Church. Toward the close of his reign, in A.D. 275, Aurelian issued edicts of persecution against the Christians, and some Christians suffered martyrdom at that time,^ and after the succession of Diocletian and Maximian in A.D. 284.^ But it was not (as has been already said) till A.D. 302, Feb. 23rd, at Nicomedia, that an Imperial Edict was issued for a general persecution of the Church. This will account for the suspension of the Synodical action of the Church at that time. In A.D. 305, March 4th, after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, and the restoration of peace to the Church, a Council was held at Cirtha in Numidia, of eleven or twelve Bishops, in the house of Urbanus Donatus, the Churches being in ruins, to elect a Bishop to the vacant See. These Bishops were Traditores, but they did not hesitate to elect a Bishop to Cirtha. The Bishop Secundus who pre- sided at this Council took part ^ in the election and consecration of another Traditor, Silvanus, by other Bishops who were also Traditors, and who 5 See Hilary, ii. 376. 6 Ibid. pp. 391, 397, 399, 406. " S. Augustin. Brevic. Collat. die 3tio, c. 15, 17, and contra Crescon. iii. 26, 27 ; Epist. 162, 165. Optatus Milev. i. p. 39. D d 402 COUNCIL OF ELVIRA. afterwards joined the party against Caecilianus, the legitimate Bishop of Carthage, and opposed him on the plea (which was proved to be false) of his being a Traditor. This Council of Cirtha is therefore a memorable event in the history of the Donatistic controversy. Another Council met in the same year (a.d. 305), the Council of Eliberis^ or Elvira, in Spain. Nineteen Bishops were present, the principal of whom was Hosius, Bishop of Corduba {Cordova), the capital of Spain, a Confessor of the Church, and afterwards cele- brated as the friend and adviser of Constantine, and for the lead he took in the Council of Nicaea.^ Another valiant Confessor was present, Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa ; and twenty-six Priests, and many Deacons, who remained standing during the sessions of -the Synod ; and a large number of lay- men. The Council passed eighty-one Canons on Ecclesiastical Discipline.^ Those which occupy the first place are against idolatry, and against those persons who had taken any part in heathen worship or ceremonies ; and they inflict penalties upon them (see Canons i, 2, 3, 4 ; cp. Canons 40, 41, 55, 57). A civil Magistrate is exhorted to abstain from coming to Church during his year of office (c. 56), probably because during that year he was present ofiicially at idolatrous worship. This Canon was afterwards modified by the Council of Aries under Constantine, A.D. 314, Canon 7, which provided that members of the Church being appointed to be provincial Governors, were to be furpished with 8 See the memorable description of his character by. Hooker, V. xlii. ^ They may be seen in Labbe's Conciha, i. pp. 967—980; Bruns' Con- cilia, ii. p. I. CANO.VS OF THE COUNCIL OF ELVIRA. 403 commendatory letters to .the Bishop of the Diocese where they were going, and to be received to communion as long as they did nothing contrary to Church discipline. Other Canons were directed against acts of bodily violence (c. 6), against ill-treatment of slaves (c. 5), also against defamation and false witness, especially slander of any spiritual person (c. 7, 73, 74, 75). Many Canons deal with the sin of adultery (c. 47,* 65, 69, 70). A Bishop, Priest, or Deacon guilty of adultery is never to be admitted to communion (c. 18). Against abortion, and traffic in pandering, &c. (c. 12), and infanticide (c. 63), against divorce (which is forbidden, c. 8, 9, 10), against mixed marriages . with heathens and Jews (c. 15, 16, 17, 18), against marriage with a deceased wife's sister; a person who contracts such a marriage is to be excom- municated for five years, unless, for reasons of neces- sity, an earlier restoration is advisable (c. 6). He who marries his wife's daughter is guilty of incest, and is not to be admitted to communion while he lives (c. 6G). If a maiden has fallen into sin, she may be restored after a year's penance, in case she marries her seducer '(c. 14). Virgins dedicated to God who have fallen into sin are to be kept from communion during life (c. 13). As to Baptism, a faithful layman may baptize in case of necessity (c. 38), but he must take care that the baptized person be brought afterwards to the Bishop for the laying on of hands (c. ^%, JJ ; cp. above, p. 56). Nothing is to be received for Baptism (c. 48). As to Communion, the Bishop is not to receive offerings from those who do not communicate (c. 28 ; cp. above, p. 65, note). D d 2 40 1 • CAiVO.VS OF ELVIRA— RISE OF DONATISM. Persons who dwell in a town, and absent themselves from the public assemblies of the Church for three successive Lord's Days, are to be deprived of the privilege of coming to Church for the same number of Sundays (c. 2i). No Bishop may communicate with any who have been excommunicated by another Bishop (c. 53). What is adored and worshipped ought not to be represented by painting in a Church ; and paintings in. Churches are forbidden (c. 36). It has been supposed by some^ that this Canon was due to a fear that sacred things would be desecrated by heathens in times of idolatry ; and doubtless some of these Canons were produced by the consideration of the peculiar state of the Church at that time. Such, perhaps, is Canon 33, which for- bids the Clergy (when " positi in ministerio " -) to cohabit with their wives ; probably on the same ground as the Apostolic precept to Christians generally, for the present distress (i Cor. vii. 26), when everyone ought to be prepared for Martyrdom. With this general remark the Canons of this Council may be commended to careful consideration, as being the decrees of the earliest Council, as far as we know, on matters of Ecclesiastical Discipline. In the year 311, Mensurius, Bishop of Carthage, died ; and the Bishops of the Province of Africa, being assembled at Carthage, elected Caecilianus^ a Deacon of that Church, to be the Bishop of the vacant See. Donatiis of Casa Nigra, and others, amounting in ^ Fleury, Eccl. Hist. ii. p. 544. 2 The Clergy were not to put away their wives, unless their wives were guilty of adultery ; and then they were i-equired to do so, on pain of perpetual excommunication (c. 65). COUNCIL OF ROME. 405 number to sixty-six Bishops, among whom were the Bishops of the Council of CirtJia already mentioned (p. 401), being irritated at not having been summoned to his election, cited Caecilian to appear before them ; and when he declined to appear, they pronounced a sentence of condemnation upon him, as having been consecrated by Traditors, among wham they specially mentioned Felix of Aptunga. And they proceeded further to consecrate Majoriims to be Bishop of Car- thage in his room. Such was the origin of the schism of the Donatists, which derived its name from Donatiis of Casa Nigra, and from another more celebrated Donatus who suc- ceeded Majorinus in the See of Carthage.^ On Friday, October 2nd, A.D. 313, the contending parties met in Council at Rome, in the house of Fausta, in the Lateran, on the summons of the Emperor Constantine ; Caecilian with ten Bishops- on his side, and Donatus with ten Bishops of his communion, to be heard by a Council. The Bishop of Rome, Miltiades, presided. The Council consisted of three Bishops from Gaul, and fifteen from Italy, with the Bishop of Rome at their head. The Council sat three days. On the iirst day it heard the charges brought against Caecilian, which were dismissed as not proved. Csecihan then accused Donatus of having begun the schism by re-baptizing, and by laying hands on lapsed Bishops. On the second day other accusations were brought against Caecilian, but they were quashed also. On the third day an examination was made of the 3 For the history see S. Augustine, Brevicul. Collationis die 3, c. 12, 16 ; Epist. 43, 162 ; Hseres. 69 ; c. Epist. Parmeniani, i. c.3 ; in Crescon. ii. c. I. Optatus de Schismate Donat. i. pp. 40, 41. 403 APPEAL FROM ROME. acts of the seventy Bishops of the Council of Car- thage, who had condemned CaeciHan and those who ordained him. Those acts were declared to be null and void, because Cascilian had not been heard by the Council, and had been condemned unheard. This Council at Rome would not enter into the ques- tion whether Felix of Aptunga, one of the Bishops who ordained Caecilian, was a Traditor. Some of those who had taken part in condemning Caecilian and ordain- ing Majorinus were also Traditors ; and the Council held that the grace of the Episcopate in conferring Ordination, was not vitiated by the personal defects or delinquencies of him through whom that grace was conferred, so long as he was not condemned by lawful judicial sentence. They acquitted Caecilian, and declared his conse- cration to be valid ; but they did not excommunicate the Bishops who had condemned him at Carthage, or who accused him at Rome ; and they ordered that for the healing of the schism both parties should hold their Episcopal dignity, and that in whatever Sees there were two Bishops (one of one party, and one of the other), the senior by consecration should be Bishop of that See, and the other should be provided for with a Bishopric in some other City.** This Roman Council at which the Bishop of Rome, Miltiades, presided, appears to have had little effect. It settled nothing, and there was an appeal from it. There was no notion at that thne that the Bishop of Rome was Supreme and Infallible Judge in matters Ecclesiastical. ^ For the history of the Councils of Rome, see S. Augustine, Brevic. Coll. die 3, c. 12 ; Epist. 172 ; Euseb. x. 5, with the notes of Valesius ; Labbe's Concilia, i. 1402 — 1407 ; and Tillemont. vi. 31 —44. APPEAL TO CONSTANTINE— COUNCIL OF ARLES. 407 Caecilian was again accused, and again replied to his accusers ; he did not say that " Rome had spoken, and that the cause was at an end," but he appealed to Constantine, who, in A.D. 314, ordered Verinus, the praetorian Vicar of the Province of Africa, to examine into the question on the spot, which was accordingly done. Felix was acquitted ; Caecilian was again victorious, and his enemies were for a time con- founded.^ But this judicial sentence did not put an end to the strife ; and in order to conciliate the Donatists, who desired that a more numerous and authoritative Council should be summoned, and that it might meet in Gaul, Constantine convened a Synod, which met at Aries on August ist, A.D. 314.^ This Council con- sisted of thirty-three ' Bishops. Some Bishops (among whom was Silvester, Bishop of Rome) sent Presbyters and Deacons as their delegates. There were ten Bishops from Gaul, some Bishops from Italy (among whom was a Bishop of Portus Romanus), Sicily, and Africa, and three from Britain, whose names appear thus in the subscriptions to the decrees of the Council (p. 1430) : " Eborius Episcopus de civitate Eboracensi (York) provincia Britannice. Restitutus Episcopus de civitate Londinensi (London) provincia superscripta. Adelfius Episcopus de civi- tate Colonia^ Londinensium ; exinde sacerdos pres- 5 S. Aug. post Coll. c. 33. Tillemont, vi. 39—45. 6 Euseb. H. E. x. c. 5. Labbe's Concilia, i. pp. 1422 — 1456. Bruns' Concilia, ii. 107. "i Some other authorities assign a larger number, as many as 200. See Hefele's History of Councils, § 15. 8 Some suppose this to be Colchester, others Lincoln. See Bingham, IX. vi. 20. 408 CAiVOJVS OF THE COUNCIL OF ARLES. byter, Arminius diaconus."^ The Bishops at Aries examined the cause of Caecilian, and of Felix, both of whom were acquitted by them. They also enacted twenty-two Canons. Easter was to be observed on the same day throughout the world (c. i),and not on the fourteenth day of the moon_, according to the Jewish custom of observing the Passover. Deacons were forbidden to consecrate the Eucharist (c. 15). If a Bishop comes into a city from another Diocese, he ought to be invited to consecrate the Eucharist^ (c. 19). No Bishop may consecrate a person to be a Bishop without other Bishops, at least three, taking part in the Consecration (c. 20). No Bishop may admit to communion any one who has been excommunicated by another Bishop (c. 16). Christian Magistrates passing from one province to another ought to take commendatory letters with them. If they do anything contrary to Ecclesiastical dis- cipline, they are to be repelled from communion (c. 7). The following Canons relate to the Donatistic Schism, in which re-baptization was practised. " Concerning those of Africa who re-baptize, by a peculiar law of their own, the Council ordered, that if any one returns from heresy to the Church, let him be asked his creed (symbolum) ; and if it appears that he has been baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, let him only be admitted to the ^ The Bishop of Aries, Marinus, presided at the Council. 1 As Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, had been invited by Anicetus, Bishop of Rome, though differing from him as to the time of the ob- servance of Easter (S. Iren.; cp. Euseb. v. 24). ANOTHER APPEAL TO CONSTANTINE.. 409 laying on of hand?, that he may receive the Holy Ghost ; but if he has not been baptized in the Name of the Trinity, let him be baptized " (c. 8 ; cp. c. 28). " They (i. e. the Traditores) who have been found guilty by legal process of having given up the holy books or holy vessels (i. e. to heathen persecutors), or the names of their brethren, let them be deposed from the order of the Clergy ; but if they are found to have taken part in conferring holy orders on any persons who are blameless, let not any such ordi- nation be a prejudice to those who have been ordained by them (c. 13). " False witnesses against their brethren are to be removed from communion till the time of their death (c. 14). '* They who have convicted their wives of adultery, and are young and faithful, and forbidden to marry . another, are to be exhorted, as far as may be, not to take another wife during the lifetime of the other, although she be guilty of adultery" (c. 10). This, says Fleury/ is the advice of the Church. The law of the State allowed a second marriage in such cases after a divorce. The Council sent its decrees to Pope Silvester, " in order that all might know what those decrees were," — but not to wait for his approval before they were promulged. Some of the Donatists submitted to the decrees of this Council, and returned to the unity of the Church. Others appealed from it to Constantine in person. Having summoned the litigants, first to Rome in A.D. 315, and afterwards to Milan in November, A.D. 316, he acquitted Caecilian, and condemned his oppo- 2 iii. 43. 410 . • COUNCIL OF ANCYRA. nents, and banished their ringleaders, and deprived them of their Churches.^ These measures, however, were not effectual. A new leader of the Donatists arose in Donatus, the second of that name, the successor of Majorinus the schismatical Bishop of Carthage, a man of a haughty and violent temper, and of indomitable energy, who became the idol of his party. He limited the efficacy of the Sacrament of Baptism to his own sect, and held erroneous opinions on the doctrine of the Trinity, in which he taught that the Son was less than the Father and the Holy Spirit less than the Son."* The development of these tenets belongs, however, to a later period of the history. Let us return to the year 314, in which two other Councils were held. One was that of Ancyra, Metropolis of Galatia, of which Marcellus was Bishop ; with him were assembled seventeen other Bishops, principally from Asia Minor- and Palestine. Its canons are in Greek. The first portion of the Canons of this Council^ refers to those Priests and Deacons and Laymen who had lapsed in the preceding time of persecution, by idolatry or apostasy from the faith (c. i — 9 and 12). The words by which the functions of priests and deacons are described deserve notice. The priests are said irpoac^epeiv (to offer) and oiiCKelv (to preach) ; the deacons, dprov rj TroTr/pLov ava<^epeLv (to present the bread or cup), and Krjpvaaeiv, which seems to be dis- tinguished from ofMiXeiv. '•^ See Augustine, Brevic. Coll. d. 3, c. 19 ; Epist. 88, 162 ; in Parmen. i. c. II ; Labbe, i. 1407 ; Fleury, iii. 51 ; Tillemont, vi. 55. •* S. Aug, Hjeres. 69. On this history see Optatus, i. p. 45 ; iii. p. 64 ; S. Jerome, Scr. Eccl. 93. 5 For these Canons, see Labbe's Concilia, i. pp. 1455 — 1475. Bruns' Concilia, i. 66. CANONS OF ANCYRA. 411 If deacons at their ordination announce their intention of marrying, they may be permitted by the • Bishop to do so ; but if they marry after being ordained, without having made such a protestation, they are to be deprived (c. lo). Chorepiscopi (or rural Bishops) may not ordain .priests or deacons, nor even ordain priests of a city without a written commission from the Bishop (of the City) in each Diocese (c. 13).^ Priests or deacons who abstain from eating flesh, are commanded at least to taste it ; and if they refuse to do so, they are to be deprived (c. 14). They who violate their promise of celibacy are to be treated as digamists (c. 19). Whoever commits adultery, or allows his wife to do so, is condemned to seven years' penance, and after that maybe admitted to Holy Communion (c. 20)."' Women who fall into sin, and cause abortion, are condemned to penance for ten years. This, says the Canon, is a relaxation of the ancient discipline, which did not receive them to communion till the time of death (c. 21). ^ aXKa liiride. Being in the a'iy, he might be pTesumed to be acting under, the eye of the Diocesan Bishop, and in his stead, but even there l>e must have a commission in luriiing : much less may he ordain in the country without such a commission. The variations in the old Latin Versions of this canon seem to show that the original Greek text is not in a sound state. On this Canon see above (p. 46); cp. Canon 10 of the Council of Antioch, a.d. 341, where it is ordered that a Chorepiscopus may not presume to ordain a priest or deacon, but only readers and sub-deacons and exorcists, without the permission of the Bishop of the City to whom the Chorepiscopus and his x^P^- (or district) are subject. Cp. Concil. Laodic. c. 57. ' Gr. t5 reXeiou, i. e. the spiritual consummation — that which is perfect zxvdi perfective ; i.e. the Holy Eucharist. See Casaubon, Exerc. Baron, xvi. 48 ; Suicer, Lex. p. 1259. So in Can. 41. Here eA^etf in\ rh TeAetoj', to come to Holy Communion. 412 CAA'OiVS OF THE COUNCIL OF NeO-C^SAREA. Murderers are not to be admitted to communion • till the end of their lives. Involuntary homicide is punished by penance for five years ; according to the ancient discipline, it was for seven (c. 22, 23). They who resort to diviners and follow the customs of times/ or introduce persons into their house for the discovery of witchcrafts, or for lustration (or purifica- . tion) from them, are to be suspended for five years ; three years of (Ecclesiastical) prostration, and two of abstention from the oblation (of the Eucharist ; c. 24). The Council of Neo-Cczsarea in Pontus (the see which had been occupied by Gregory' Thaumaturgus about fifty years before) was held soon after that of Ancyra ; probably in the same year, A.D. 3 \\? It con- sisted of about eighteen Bi'shops, many of whom had been present at Ancyra ; most of them were of Asia Minor. The discipline of this Council is remarkable for its strictness. Its canons are in Greek. If a priest marries, he is to be deposed ; if he com- mits fornication or adultery, he is to be excommuni- cated (c. i). A layman whose wife is guilty of adultery cannot be ordained. If she is guilty of this crime after his ordination {yeipoTovia), he must put her away, or cease from his ministry (c. 8). There are two rigorous Canons against Priests and Deacons who have been guilty of carnal sin before ordination (c. 9, 10). Other sins (it is added) are sup- posed by some to be remitted by laying on of hands [y€.ipoQeGLOi) in ordination. No one, however worthy. Is to be ordained Priest ^ Another reading here is "heathens" for "times;" but it may- mean superstitious observances of times and seasons. 9 Its' Canons are in Labbe, Concil. i. 1479— 1490 ; Bruns, i. 71. APOSTOLIC CANONS AND CONSTITUTIONS. 413 before thirty years of age ; that being the age at which our Lord was baptized (c. ii). Whoever has received clinical baptism, i. e. been baptized {(f>a)T La Of}), in time of dangerous sickness, cannot afterwards be ordained priest, because he seems to have accepted baptism under the influence of fear ; but there may be exceptions to this rule (c. 12). Country Priests may not consecrate the Eucharist in the Church of a City in the presence of the Bishop or Priests of the City ; nor minister the bread or cup (C.13). Country Bishops are according to the pattern of the seventy disciples. There ought to be seven deacons in a city, whatever its size, according to the pattern in the Acts of the Apostles (c. 14, 15). A woman, if she marries two brothers, is to be ex- communicated till the tim.e of death. If in the pro- spect of death she promises that she will dissolve the marriage, she may in mercy be received ; but if either the man . or woman who has contracted this marriage dies, such reception can hardly be granted to the survivor (c. 2). A pregnant woman may be baptized whenever she will ; but her child is afterwards to be baptized sepa- rately (c. 6). Let not a Priest go to the Marriage Feast .of Digamists; for how can he afterwards give- absolu- tion to them, if he has thus connived at their mar- riage ? (c. 7.) Here are clear signs of a Montanistic bias. In a review of Ante-Nicene Councils, some refer- ence ought to be made to what are commonly called the Apostolic Canons, and Apostolic Constitutions. The Canons of the Apostles, as they are termed, are 414 APOSTOLIC CANONS. eighty-four in number.^ Some learned writers, such as Bishop Pearson (Vind. Ignat. i. 4) and Beveridge (Judicium in Coteler. i. pp. 432 — 441), though not ascribing them to Apostles, yet were of opinion that they represented Apostolic customs, and were framed in the second or third centuries, and were certainly Ante-Nicene. But more recent investigations of other learned men, especially of Von Drey and Bickell, have led to the conclusion that they belong to a later age. The almost total absence of reference to idolatrous practice, and to the question what was to be then done with those who had lapsed in persecution, ap- pears to point to a time when the Church was settled in peace. Many also of the Canons seem to have been formed on Nicene Legislation.' Canon XXX. on a presbyter separating from a Bishop " who is pious and righteous " is certainly not Apostolic, but savours of Novatianism or Donatism ; and Canon XLV., which condemns heretical, baptism, and which -pro- nounces sentence of deprivation on a Bishop who does not baptize one who has been polluted by (the baptism of) the ungodly, and does not distinguish true priests from false, may be a reproduction of some of the decrees of Councils of Carthage under Cyprian, but could have no catholic authority. If these Canons had existed in the times of Cyprian 1 They may be seen in Labbe's Concilia, torn. i. pp. 25 — 53 ; Cotelerii Patres Apostolici, i. pp. 442 — 454 ;.Bruns' Concilia, pp. 2 — 13. The earliest extant collection of them, or rather of fifty of them, appears to be that of Dionysius Exiguus (circ. A. D. 506), by whom they are described as " Canones qui dicuntur Apostolorum, quibus pluriini non facilem prcebuere conse?isuJ?i." 2 E.g. Canon I. compared with Canon IV. of Nicaea, on the Conse- cration of Bishops ; and Canon VIT. as to the observance of Easter, and Canons XXL— XXIV. on self-mutilation, compared with Canon I. of Nicaea. The references are to the numbers of the Canons in Bruns' Concilia. APOSTOLIC CANONS. 415 and Firmilian, they would certainly have been cited by them on behalf of their own opinions. Canons XXIX. and LXXX. ' clearly belong to times when the Empire was Christian. A direct claim is made in some of them to Apos- tolic authority, e. g. in Canon XXXVIlI.,in the words " of me, Peter ;" and in LXXXIV., " of us, the Apos- tles ;" LXXXI., "me, Clement," "our Onesimus," which, taken together with clear evidences of post- Apostolic origin^ suggest the suspicion that the framers of some of them did not scruple to attempt to im- pose their own opinions on others by spurious counter- feits commended by venerable names. ' They are not regarded as Apostolic by the Roman Church ; but having been cited in the Ouinisext Council, or the Council of Trullo, A.D. 692, they appear to be received by the Greek Church. There is a remarkable resemblance ^ between some of the first fifty of these Canons and those of the Council of Antioch, A.D. 341 . Some writers, as Bishop .Beveridge, suppose that the Council adopted them as already valid ; while others with more probability are of opinion that they are partly derived from that Council. If about twenty Canons (and so many of the so-called Apostolic Canons appear in substance in the Antiochene Code) had been authorized by Apostolic or very early authority, the Council would have appealed explicitly to that authority in support of its own legislation. On the whole then, though it is probable that some ancient ore may be mingled in them with more recent dross, yet the process of smelting the one from the other ^ Which may be seen marked in the margin of Labbe's Concilia, i. pp. 48—51- 416 APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS— COUNCIL OF LAODICEA. is too difficult to warrant any appeal to these Canons as authoritative documents. The same may be said of the much larger work entitled TJie Apostolic Constitutions, consisting of eight books.'* • The Council in Trullo at Constantinople, in its second Canon (A.D. 692), while it received the so- called Apostolic Canons, rejected the Apostolic hia- Tafet9, or Constitutions, as having been interpolated by heterodox persons, and as therefore not trustworthy ; but at the same time, in the same Canon, it implies that there are many things in them which are en- titled to reverential acceptance. Among these some of the most interesting materials are contained in the eighth book, which has been ascribed" to S. Hippoly- tus, and which is a Manual of regulations concerning ordination and spiritual gifts. The Council of Laodicea is supposed by some to have been held soon after that of Neo-Caesarea,® but from internal and external evidence it appears to have been half a century later. The Canons of the Ante-Nicene Councils which we have been considering, supply interesting records of ancient Church life and government, but we should fall into error were we to imagine that Canons con- cerning discipline and ritual, especially such as were "* They may be seen in Labbe's Concilia, i. 191 — 511 ; and Patres Apostolici, Coteler. i. 200 — 428. 5 By Bunsen, " Christianity and Mankind," ii. p. 412, and partly by others mentioned in my work on S. Hippolytus, pp. 143, . 144, 235, 236. 6 It is placed *' sub Silvestro," p. 1497, in Labbe's Concilia, and 73 ed. Bruns ; but it belongs to a later age ; see Concil. Quinisext. can. 2, where it is place'd after that of Gangra, A.D. 362, and before Constantinople, A.D. 381. GENERAL REMARKS ON CANONS OF COUNCILS; 417 AS TO DOCTRINE, AND RITUAL. enacted by Councils of a few Bishops of a particular district, and which never were universally received by the Church, were in any way to be placed on the same footing as those which were promulgated on articles oi faith and doctrine by General Cowicils, such as that of Nicaea, and have been sanctioned by subsequent reception of the whole Church. The former were alterable, and have been altered ; ' the latter have remained— and will ever remain — un- changeable.^ In the words of Richard Hooker (V. viii. 2), " The Church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time which at another time it may abolish, and in both it may do well. But that which in doctrine the Church doth now deliver rightly as a truth, no man will say that it may hereafter re- call, and as rightly avouch the contrary. Laws touch- ing matter of order are changeable by the power of the Church ; articles concerning doctrine not so." The wisdom of the Church, guided by reason and experi- ence, and enlightened by the Holy Ghost, is exercised from time to time in carefully reviewing, and it may .be in discreetly amending, the former, according to the circumstances of the times, and in steadfastly main- taining the latter. And while in matters of faith no national or particular Church can alter any article which has been received by the Church Universal every particular or national Church hath authority to change and abolish ceremonies or rites of the Church 7 This may be illustrated by the variation in Law and Practice as to second Marriages, and the Marriage of the Clergy. See the evidence of this in Bingham's Eccl. Antiquities, IV. c. v. vol. 1. pp. 381 — 390; xvi. II and xxii. I. ^ On the mutability of Laws, except those which are essential for the attainment of such ends as are of universal and perpetual importance and necessity, see Hooker, IIL x. , especially § 7. E e 418 VARIE TV IN RITES AND CEREMONIES COMMENDS AND DISPLA YS UNITY IN FAITH. ordained only by man's authority (and not of divine institution, such as the Holy Sacraments, Confirma- tion, Three Orders of Christian Ministers), so that all things be done to God's glory, and the edifying of His people, and with due reverence to Antiquity.^ It is even profitable that there should be some varieties of rites and ceremonies in different Churches, inas- much as, to quote the words of Irenaius,^ these varieties as to 7'iUial in different Churches bring out in clearer light the tinity of that faith, which ought to be main- tained inviolate by all Churches alike.^ 9 See the Articles of the Church of England, Art. XXXV. Hooker, V. viii, 2 — 5 ; Ixxi. 7. 1 See note, p. 254. 2 S. IrenDeus ap. Euseb. v. 2. The Siacfxvvia of ceremonies T7V hfjLovoiav TTjs iriaTeais (Tvui(rTV(n. On this point see the wise counsels of S. Augustine in his Epist. ad Januarium, liv. torn, ii. p. 186, ed. Gaume. CHAPTER XXVI. TJie Struggle of the CJwrcJi zuit/i Ariaiiisni — Arius ; Constantine ; Hositts, Bishop of Cordiiba ; Con- stantia ; Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia ; Eiisebius^ Bishop of Ccesarea ; Alexander, Bishop of Alex- andria ; A thanasius ; A nthony, the Founder of Monasticism ; the Council of Niccea ; the Nicene Creed and Nicene Canons, When Constantine had conquered Liclnius at Adrianople on July 3rd, in the year 323, and when Licinius was dead, in A.D. 324, and a Christian Ruler was seated on the throne of the World, the Church, after a series of persecutions, which had tried her faith for 250 years, seemed to have at last a breathing-time. She was free from external assaults, and hoped for a season of peace. A much severer conflict, however^ now awaited her from within ; but that conflict, like her sufferings in persecution, was controlled and overruled by. the good- ness of God for a noble victory, — a victory much more glorious and far more permanent in its results than any she had hitherto achieved. When Arianisrn first appeared at Alexandria, there seemed to be many probabilities in favour of its success. Its author, Arius, held a high position as priest of E e 2 420 ARIUS. an important parish in that City. He had been trained under Lucian of Antioch. He had, it is said, aspired to the Archiepiscopal throne (Theodoret, Hist. i. I, 2 ; Haeret. Fab. iv. i)^ to which Alexander succeeded, A.D. 313. He was skilled in dialectics. His moral character was unblemished ; his bodily presence was dignified ; he was tall in stature, and his address and deportment were winning and attractive ; his speech calm, measured, and persuasive. He wore a monastic garb, and had gained a reputation for piety and holiness by rigid self-denial and asceticism ; and he not only allured a number of disciples from among the clergy and laity, among matrons and young women, but he could reckon among his friends and allies some of the foremost Bishops of the Church, who enjoyed imperial favour ; especially Eusebius, Bishop of the royal city of Nicomedia^ the metropohs of Bithynia ; and the most learned Ecclesiastic of his age, Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea ^ in Palestine, after- wards justly celebrated as the first Historian of the Church. Nor was this all. Constantia, widow of Licinius, and the favourite sister of Constantine, who resided at Nicomedia, was prepossessed on his behalf, and continued her protection to him. In the year 327, two years after Arius had been condemned by the Council of Nicaea, and had been banished by Constantine, Constantia on her deach-bed earnestly recommended Arius to his favour (Philostorg. i. 8, 9). At the beginning of the struggle with his Bishop Alexander, the Emperor was not opposed to Arius. Constantine, having subdued his enemies, wished to unite his subjects under a peaceful and paternal sway. 1 See Theodoret, Hist. i. 3 — 5. CONSTANTLYE. 421 He regarded the God of the Christians with reveren- tial awe and gratitude, as having granted success to his arms, and he was desirous of establishing Chris- tianity as the national religion of the Empire. But he was only a neophyte. Perhaps he might be called at that time a Christian theist. He had not received Baptism, and though he greatly preferred the belief and worship of the Church to that of any form of Paganism, yet he was very imperfectly schooled in the distinctive doctrines of the Faith. He was weary of war, and the victories to which he now aspired were the conquests of peace. He wrote letters to the contending parties, Alexander the Bishop of Alexan- dria, and Arius the presbyter of that city, in which he expressed the deep sorrow that their disputes had caused him, and in which he earnestly entreated them to lay aside their strife, and to live as brethren in peace. He told them that the matters on which they were contending were supernatural heavenly mysteries which no human intellect could fathom ; and he assured them, that though they differed from one another in words, yet they were agreed in substance ; and he also expressed his opinion that the questions about which they contended were trivial and frivolous {kXay^iarai t;r]Tr]Geii) , and did not deserve to be debated with so much earnestness and warmth. He wished to hush up the controversy, and to bring about a truce. The authority of the Emperor of the Roman World, who had rescued the Church from the grasp of her persecutors, and had enriched her with princely favours and secular privileges, and was entitled to her fervent gratitude, was exerted against a conflict for the Faith, and in favour of concessions and compromises of Christian doctrine for the sake of peace. 422 HOSIUS OF CORDUB A— CHARACTERISTICS OF ARIANISM. Still further, in those Imperial expostulations and ex- hortations Constantine was supported by the authority of some of the most venerable Prelates of the Church. Hosius of Corduba, the capital of Spain, who had been a Confessor in Persecution, and was revered for his age, learning, and piety, and who afterwards took a leading part in the Council of Nicsea, was selected to be the envoy by whose hands the imperial ireni- c?iin was to be conveyed to Alexander and Arius at Alexandria, and he may be presumed to have been at that time a consentient party to its contents, if not a contributor to them. There appeared to be also much that was specious and alluring in Arianism itself. It studiously shunned an approach to the bolder heretical dogmas, which had shocked the faith of Christendom. It avoided the Dualism of Marcion on the one side, and the Valen- tinian theories of Emanationism on the other. It would not associate itself with any direct denial of the Divinity of Christ, such as had characterized the outspoken heresies of Cerinthus, Ebion, or of Paul of Samosata. It professed strong repugnance to Sabel- lianism. It claimed to be a safeguard of Monotheism against Paganism. It condemned Pantheism. It distinguished the Creation from the Creator. It pro- fessed reverence for Holy Scripture/ and for the traditions of the Catholic Church. It disclaimed novelty, and charged its opponents with heresy, and even with blasphemy. In a word, it was a new attempt ^ to combine the doctrine of the Divine Unity with 2 The principal texts to which it appealed were Prov. viii. 22 ; Matt. xix. 17 ; Mark xiii. 31 ; John v. 19 ; xiv. 28 ; I Cor. xv. 28. 5 The novelty of Arianism is asserted by Sozomen, Hist. i. 15, who says that '"no one before in the Church had ever taught it;" and by Athanas. de Decret. Nic. 27, who calls them '* new Jews." ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA. 423 that of a distinct hypostasis in the Son of God, Whom it professed to acknowledge as made in the Hkeness of the Logos and Wisdom of God, and as Creator of the World, and to Whom it conceded the titles of Son of God, and of complete God {irXi]pr]<^ 6eo<^)y and of the only-begotten Son of God. Arianism claimed also the merit, which in a learned City hke Alexandria was no slight one, of conciliating Greek Philosophy, and of attracting it to Christianity. It asserted a power to explain the profoundest mysteries"' of the faith. It appealed to human Reason, and magnified the claims of Logic and Metaphysics, and professed to enlist them in the service of Religion and the Church. The Bishop of Alexandria himself seems at first to have been perplexed and staggered, and at one time to have praised one party, and at another to have lauded their opponents (Sozomen, i. 15). Probably an ordinary observer of the phenomena of the times, and arguing from mere human considera- tions, would have foretold that Arianism would have become the Creed of the Church ; and many pious and amiable men, lovers of peace and popularity, but not versed in theological science, and not able to discern the real questions at issue, or to foresee the logical consequences of the Arian heresy, would not have thought that any great stir ought to have been made about it, or that any great harni would have been 4 S. Athanasius protests against the attempt of Arianism to eliminate mysteries from Christianity. See Hom. in Matth. xi. 22, and Hooker says (V. lii.), with his usual sagacity, " Whereas this Divine mystery of the Incarnation is more true than plain, divers persons (the Arians, &c. ) having framed the same to their. own fancies are found in their exposi- tions thereof to be more plain than true. The strength of our faith is tried by those things in which our wits and capacities are not strong." 424 ATHANASIUS. done to the Church, if Alexander, Bishop of Alex- andria, had listened to the appeal of the Emperor Constantine, influenced, as we have seen, by important political considerations, and backed by powerful Ecclesiastical allies and advisers, and had desisted from conflict with Arius, and had allowed him to remain unmolested in the communion of the Church, and had given him free licence to preach. Even at the present day some writers on Church History seem to be of the same opinion ; and it would be a searching question for Bishops and Priests of the nine- teenth century to consider, how they themselves would have acted under such circumstances. But there was a man in Alexandria at that time, who had been nurtured by Alexander as a spiritual son in the faith, and who held a position in the Church immediately under him as his Archdeacon, and who was endowed with singular gifts of holiness and wisdom, and with profound learning drawn from Holy Scripture and from Catholic tradition, and also from secular philosophy ; a man of masculine intellectual vigour, clearness of perception, and logical acumen, and also gifted by the Holy Spirit with the moral qualities of indomitable perseverance, patience, con- stancy, and courage in defending the faith, and who united (as S. Gregory of Nazianzus expresses it) masfnetic attractiveness with adamantine firmness.^ " See the eloquent tribute to Athanasius in S. Gregory Nazianzen's Oratiori, in his Orat xxi. pp. 386 — 411, ed, Paris. 1778, and in Hooker, V. xlii. It would be easy to multiply quotations from Anglican Divines, such as Hooker, Bishop Andrewes, Bishop Pearson, and Bishop Bull, and Dr. Waterland, testifying to the work of Athanasius as under God the defender and preserver of the faith. To their testimonies may be added the words of such authors as Neander and Dorner. The former says (iv. 51), "On the holding fast the hojnoousioji depended in his view the ATHANASIUS AND CONSTANTINE. 425 This was Athanasius, who was raised up at that critical time, and continued, through good report and evil report, to strive earnestly for the Faith, which he was in God's hands a chief instrument in establishing at the Council of Nicsea, and in maintaining for nearly half a century after it. Constantine's victory over her heathen enemies would have been of little use to the Church, if she had not had an Athanasius to protect her against the more dangerous assaults of Arianism. In contemplating the life of Athanasius, we should not duly appreciate the wonderful power of divine grace, showing itself in his courage and firmness, un- less we took into account the character of the age whole unity of the Christian consciousness of God, the completeness of the revelation of God in Christ, the reality of the redemption which Christ wrought, and of the Communion of God restored by Him to Man ;" and that this was a true view is clearly shown by Dorner on the Person of Christ, Div. i. vol. ii. pp. 248 — 260, 304. To cite on sentence, "The vital centre of Christianity (says Dorner, p. 248) i grasped by Athanasius with such intense fervour, and is treated in such 'a scientific spirit, that it gives us the groundwork of a grand system of speculative theology." And again (p. 248), " We shall esteem it a special favour of Divine Providence that the Conscience of the Church was appealed to for its testimony and confession (on the Eternal Godhead of the Person of the Son) while it still retained its direct certitude and simplicity, and that at the commencement of its voyage a beacon-fire was lit to mark its way over the stormy sea before it. But the hand of a firm and steady Pilot was also provided for the voyage, in the per- son of a man who was endowed with a superior, far-seeing, and no less speculative than Christian mind, and who through his power of en- durance and strength of character always remained master of the posi- tion. Athanasius the Great made it the work of his long and eventful life to defend the Creed put forth by the Nicene Council, with all the weapons of science and spiritual chivalry, against the vacillating and short-sighted on the one side, and the apostate on the other ; and to him was given the happiness of seeing that to which he had devoted his life attain ever-widening influence and recognition, and to sink into his grave crowned with honour, and laden with the fruit of his labours." 426 ATHANASIUS ON THE INCARNATION. and country in which he lived. The Greek character had then greatly degenerated. It had become frivolous, fickle, petulant, insincere, and dissolute. The description of it by Juvenal has been familiar- ized to English readers by Dr. Johnson's imitation of his third Satire. Juvenal also describes the re- ligious fanaticism of Egypt, from personal know- ledge, in his fifteenth Satire. And the letter of the Emperor Hadrian " to the Consul Servianus, in which he portrays the levity, turbulence, profligacy, and superstition, mingled with infidelity, of the popula- tion of Egypt, especially of Alexandria, the future scene of the labours and sufferings of Athanasius, presents by way of contrast a striking testimony to his heroic devotion and unflinching intrepidity and constancy in such a demoralized age and country.^ Athanasius was less than thirty years of age at the Nicene Council, but providentially for him and for the Church he had previously devoted himself to such theological studies as fully qualified him to en- counter Arianism with success, and to display to others its true tendency. His Treatise oil the hicarnation of the Soji^ of God, which was written before the Nicene Council, unfolds " " yEgyptum totam didici levem, pendulam, et ad omnia famas mo- menta volitantem. Genus hominum seditiosissimum, vanissimum, in- juriosissimum." Hadrian in Vopisci Saturnino, p. 960. Hist. Aug. Script., Lug. Bat. 1661. Strange is the account he gives of the religious condition of its people, Heathens, Jews, and Christians. 7 See Dean Church on Gifts of Civilization, p. 249. * This Treatise is in pp. 37 — 78 of Vol. i. of the Benedictine edition of S. Athanasius, Patav. 1777, and has been published separately by the late Rev. Charles Marriott, and by Canon Ridgway, Oxf. 1880. It is one of the best introductions to a study of the questions involved in the Arian Controversy, especially if combined with Dr. Dorner's remarks upon it, On the Person of Christ, Divis. i. vol. ii. pp. 248—258. ATHANASIUS ON THE INCARNATION. 427 the consequences of Arianism as undermining the foun- dations of the faith in that doctrine. In that treatise Athanasius does not mention Arianism. But it shows in what light he would have viewed it, and have led others to regard it. He does not start, as Arius did, from the question, " Since Christ is truly Man, how can men be persuaded to acknowledge Him as God ? " But building on Holy Scripture and Catholic tradition, he begins with the declaration of Christ's Godhead. He asserts His co-eternity and co-equality with the Father, and affirms Him to be supreme above Angels and Archangels, and to be the Very Image of the Father, and to be very Life (auro^ft)?;). He then states the reasons for which the Son of God became Man. Christ the Eternal Image and Brightness of the Father enlightens all things. He is the Eternal Word of the Father, and created all things, and He was the fittest Agent for the renewal or second crea- tion and restoration of all things, which had been ruined by the sin and fall of Man. He became Man, in order that He, God in Man, might do for man what man — albeit penitent for sin — could not do for him- self ; and also that man, by the Spirit in him, might come to the perfect knowledge and love of God, and be healed of his mortal sickness by the only Physi- cian who could restore him. Therefore God in Christ became Man, perfect Man, with a real human body, soul, and spirit. He, of His own free will, and perfect love and pity for us, and also in reverence for God's Law, took our nature. He did not join Himself to any one person already exist- ing, but assumed Humanity in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That which He assumed began to exist (by the operation of the Holy Ghost) at the 428 A THANASIUS ON THE A TONEMENT, AND ON REDEMPTION. very moment of His assumption of it. He became the Head^ Representative, andfProxy of Mankind, that by means of the union of the Godhead with the Manhood in His Person, and by suffering, wilHngly and joyfully, death (which as God He could not do), He might satisfy the Law of God's Justice by His obedience ; and that the penalty of death, due to the guilt of men, might be fully paid to God's Justice by Himself, a spotless Victim and vicarious Sacrifice ; and that the curse pronounced by the Law on disobedience might be taken away by His suffering the accursed death of the Cross, suspended in the air, the domain of the Prince of the power of the air, Eph. ii. 2 ; and that Man might be redeemed from death, the wages due to sin, by God in Man ; and Man be reunited to God, and become an heir of Resurrection and Life immortal by union with Him Who is the Resurrec- tion and the Life,^ and Who by His miracles showed Himself the Creator and the Lord of all created things, and the Conqueror of Death and of the Devil the enslaver and tyrant of the heathen World, and Who gave to' men, ay, even to children, and weak women and maidens,^ the power to overcome them, 9 The Word became mortal, that we might have immortahty ; He became Man (says Athanasius), that we might be divinized. Observe the marvellous and providential power of the Greek language, nowhere more clearly shown than in the writings of Athanasius, to express Christian Mysteries : o A6yos ivr]vQpu}Tn](Tev, 'Iva 7ine7s d€oiron]d(ii}fji.€v (c. 54). In Christ (says St. Peter, 2 Pet. i. 4) God hath given us pre- cious promises, that we might be partakers of the divine nature ; and therefore Hooker says (V, liv. 6), God hath (by the Incarnation) " deified our nature," and *' Man is an associate of Deity." 1 The words of S. Athanasius here, cap. 28 (cp. ibid. c. 29, ^TjAetwi/ Koi naiSwv uewv), speaking of the grace and power given by Christ to young maidens to be martyrs for Him, and to despise life and overcome death, ira7Ses Kal veai K6pai irapopSxri ri)V ivravda fiiop Kol ano- Qavetv fx€\eTU(Ti, seem to favour the conjecture proposed in mv note on THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRAMENTS 429 IMPERILLED BY ARIANISM. and Who will come again in glory, and put all things under His feet. This true, Scriptural, and Catholic doctrine con- cerning the Person of Christ, " God manifest in the Flesh," and concerning the guilt of Sin and the Atone- ment made by Christ, and His work of Redemption and man's Restoration by Him, was imperilled by the heresy of Arius. Since also the virtue and grace of the Christian Sacraments, as the divinely instituted means for imparting remission of sins through Him, and of uniting man to God in Him, and of giving to Man the pledge of a blessed resurrection and a glorious immor- tality, flow from God in Christ, becoming Man and dying on the Cross^ the Life which the Church derives from Him in them upon earth, and which she hopes to enjoy with Him for ever in Heaven, was endangered by Arianism. What profit could she receive in the Holy Sacraments, unless the Water of Holy Baptism is a Divine, regenerating effluence from the Side of Christ, Very God and VeryMan ? And how could she look for pardon and cleansing from sin in the other Sacra- ment,— how for spiritual strength and for the hope of Resurrection and Immortality there, unless the Food which she receives, and the Cup which she drinks, in the Holy Eucharist were, as St. Paul declares, the Communion of the Body and Blood of Him Who is God.? (i Cor. X. i6.) She knows that the Incarnation of the Son of God is an ineffable Mystery, which no human intellect can scrutinize. But she knows also that this Mystery is like the noonday Sun in the Theocritus xxvi. i, on that difficult passage in S. Clement of Rome, C 6, Sta f^Aoj ^t.(axQtt(ra.i bauaiSes Kal SipKai (qu. ueauiSes Kal TratSicr/cat?) aiKicrixaTa Seiva ira6ov(rai iirl rhuTris iri(XTeusSp6/xou KaT-fivTrj- aav. 430 S. ANTHONY. heavens, which dazzles the eye, but alone enables it to see. So this mystery of the Incarnation cannot be gazed at, but it enlightens all things ; the world would be dark without it. And if Arianism had prevailed, Egyptian darkness would have eclipsed the Faith. It would have blotted out the spiritual light in the firmament of the Church. Therefore the Controversy between Alexander and Arius was not, as Constantine described it, and as some represent it now, a trivial and frivolous dispute. In connexion with S. Athanasius, a man ought to be mentioned, whose name is not so much that of a person as of a power, — S. Anthony, the hermit ; ^ the father, as he is generally called, of Monasticism ; but not of such Monasticism as lives only for itself, but of such as trains many scholars, and seeks for spiritual strength by communion with God in solitude, and then goes forth in that strength from that soli- tude, in order to act upon Kings and People, and upon Cities ^ and Churches, in defence of the truth. In evil days of the Church, when some of her members and ministers fall away from the faith, through fear of persecution, and in other times when some of a different temperament are tempted to be- tray the truth by love of courtly favour, or of popu- lar applause, men have ever been raised up, who by spiritual communion with the unseen and eternal world, and by grace given from above to fervent prayer, and devout meditation on the Divine Word, and to self-denial, mortification, and holy living, have not 2 Born A.D. 251, died A.D. 356 : bom forty-five years before Atha- nasius, died seventeen years before him. 3 TToAAd/ftj ets 7r(5Aeis tf^oira, says Sozomen, i. 13. MONASTIC ISM. 43 1 only been enabled to resist error and maintain the truth, but also to rebuke sin in high places, and to confirm others in the faith ; and have been like per- sonifications of the energy and fervent zeal of the heavenly and spiritual Life, in contrast and antagonism to the tyranny, pride, and ungodliness of worldly Power. They represent the strength of holy quietness, which loves to dwell in a spiritual solitude, in opposition to that haughty Scepticism, which too often, in evil days, lifts up its head boldly in cities and palaces, and in popular assemblies. Such was Elias the Prophet, in the days of Ahab and Jezebel ; standing alone on Mount Carmel as a witness for God against idolatrous princes, priests, and people. Such were the priests, Eleazar and Mattathias, in the evil days of Antiochus Epiphanes, when time-serving high priests, Jason, Menelaus, and Alcimus, being won over by flattery and love of the world, surrendered God's holy places to the Syrian persecutor. Such was John the Baptist, at the Court " of Herod the Tetrarch. And such was S. Anthony, in the reign of terror, in the days of the Emperor Diocletian, when he came forth from the desert to minister to the martyrs at Alexandria ; and such he was, when in the days of Constantine he suddenly appeared in the same city to denounce the heresy of Arius, and to preach with a voice of power the Catholic faith; and such was he when Constantine himself had wavered and abandoned Athanasius to his enemies, and when his son Constantius persecuted that great Bishop and Confessor. Whether or no S. Anthony was permitted to behold heavenly visions and revelations, whether or no he was enabled by Divine influence to work 432 ANTHONY. miracles, and to cast out evil spirits, and to foretell the future, it might be presumptuous to affirm. At the same time, in such a crisis as that in which he lived and moved, when the great article of the faith concerning the Eternal Godhead of Christ was in jeopardy, and when, in S. Jerome's words, the w^orld was thunderstruck with astonishment at suddenly finding itself Arian (" obstupuit orbis et se Arianum esse factum miratus est "), and when Athana- sius stood almost alone in defence of the truth, it does not seem unworthy of the Divine Power and Love to have given attestation to the faith by miraculous interventions in its behalf. Certainly Athanasius believed that Anthony had supernatural gifts and powers, as appears from the life "* written by him of that extraordinary man. He was born, A.D. 251, of a noble family in Egypt, and being struck by the sound of the divine words he " sold all that he had " (and it was a large estate), and " gave to the poor," and " came and followed " Christ. He lived a life of continual self-mortification, subsisting on bread, water, and salt, with the addition, when old, of dates, olives, and herbs ; sleeping on the bare ground, in a solitary cell, or in company with a few scholars. He never learnt to read, but knew the Psalms by heart, which he ° sang daily, and other * The life of S. Anthony by Athanasius may be seen in the Benedic- tine edition of his works (Patavii, 1777, Tom. ii. 632 — 691). From that life all the incidents mentioned here are derived. The narrative of Sozomen, i. 1 3, is also interesting and valuable. More legendary accounts may be seen in Tillemont, vi. loi — 104, together with an abstract of the life by Athanasius. ^ Not only S. Athanasius bears testimony to S. Anthony, but S. Augustine in his Confessions, viii. 6, makes some memorable state- ments concerning him, '* Stupebamus audientes tam recenti memoria et prope nostris temporibus testatissima mirabilia Tua in fide recta et ANTHONY AND A THANASIUS. 433 parts of Holy Scripture. He spent many hours daily in Prayer, and communed continually with God and with the invisible world, and wrestled with the powers of darkness, and awed Kings and multitudes by his sanctity and courage, and converted crowds by his preaching, and confuted philosophers ; and yet was modest, and humble, and gentle, reverent in his speech and behaviour to Bishops, Priests, and Deacons ; and lived a life of industrious simplicity, labouring with his own hands, making mats of palm leaves, and tilling the soil ; and stood forth an uncom- promising witness of the truth against schism in the Meletians, against heresy in the Arians, against unbelief in the Manichaeans ; and yet was ever genial, calm, and cheerful, enjoying uninterrupted health and freshness of mind and body, for one hundred and five years ; and, in times when Bishops and Priests yielded to worldly influence, under the Emperors Constantine and Constantius, and denied the faith in the Incarnate God, which many of them had subscribed with their hands at Nic^a, and per- secuted Athanasius with mortal enmity, and drove the greatest Bishop of Christendom from his Epis- copal see, he remained loyal to his Lord, and true to that noble-hearted Confessor, Christ's faithful ser- vant, who found shelter and comfort in Anthony's society as in a calm harbour, when wearied with the storms of life, and to whom he bequeathed his Catholica Ecclesia ;" and speaking of Anthony's lack of literature, he says, c. 8, " Surgunt indocti et coelum rapiunt ; et nos cum doctrinis nostris sine corde ecce volutamur in carne et sanguine ;" cp. ibid. c. 12. And in the prologue to his " De Doctrina Christiana," S.Augustine says, ''Antonius sanctus et perfectus vir, ^gyptius monachus, sine ulla scientia litterarum Scripturas divinas et memoriter audiendo tenuisse et prudenter cogitando intellexisse prsedicaiur." F f 434 ARIANJSM AS REPRESENTED BY ARIUS ; HOW DEALT WITH BY ALEXANDER. blessing and his anchorite's robe with his dying breath. In contemplating therefore, as we do with wonder, the unflinching faith, courage, and patience of S. Athanasius, and the battle which he fought almost single-handed for the truth for forty years, we ought not to forget the moral and spiritual comfort and support which he derived from the saintly Eremite of Egypt/ In order that Arianism may not be misrepresented, it is right that Arius should be heard declaring his own opinions in his own words. We have two statements of his tenets from Arius himself, writing when he had time to consider care- fully what he had to say. . He had first been exhorted privately, with mildness and charity, by Alexander, his spiritual Superior, to weigh well his opinions ; ' he was then invited by him to a conference with the Clergy ; and when these efforts failed, he was summoned by him to appear first before a Synod at Alexandria, in which thirty-six Priests were present and forty-four Deacons, Athana- sius among them, and in which the heresy of Arius was condemned. When he was not induced by this act of his Bishop and of his brethren to retract or modify his opinions, Alexander convoked a Council of the Bishops of s Compare De Broglie, Hist, de I'Eglise, i. 372 ; Canon Bright on Athanasius, in Prof. Wace's Diet. p. 181. ' See the history in Epiphanius, Hseres. 69 ; Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. i. 2—6 ; Socrat. Hist. Eccl. i. 5—8 ; Sozomen, Hist. i. 15—17 ; S. Atha- nas. in Arian. i. 5, de Synod. 15; Hilar. Trin. iv. 12, vi. 5; Labbe's Concilia, ii. i, p. 25 ; Fleury, Hist. Eccl. iii. 70—112; Tillemont, vi. 218—230, 254 — 264; Newman's Arians, chap. ii. sect, v., and chap. iii. sect, i.; Neander's Church History, iv. pp. 24—47 ; Dorner, Person of Christ, Div. i. vol. ii. pp. 227-260, 286-299. EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF NICOMEDIA. 435 Egypt and Libya, amounting to a hundred, besides presbyters ; and when, having been interrogated, Arius refused to revoke any of his former statements, he was excommunicated and deprived. This was probably in the year 319, Arius, being thus condemned^ left Alexandria, and took refuge first in Palestine with Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, and next with Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia. Alexander remonstrated in letters with^ these Bishops, in which he refuted the errors of Arius, and stated the doctrine of Holy Scripture and of the Church. On the other hand, Eusebius of Nicomedia wrote a circular in behalf of Arius, and prevailed upon some Councils, held in Bithynia and Palestine^ to receive him to Communion. Some Bishops, such as Paulinus of Tyre and Euse- bius of Csesarea, allowed him (although excommu- nicated by his own Bishop) to preach in their Dioceses ; and Eusebius of Nicomedia induced these Bishops to join him in a remonstrance to Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and in a request to re-admit him to Communion. But to return to the statement by Arius of his own doctrine. Having been, as has been said, condemned by Alexander and by the Council at Alexandria, and having quitted that city, he wrote a letter^ to his ^ It is stated by Epiphanius (Hfer. 69) that Alexander wrote as many as seventy letters for this and similar purposes ; probably they were copies with some modifications. Only two are extant, one preserved by Theodoret, the other by Socrates, in their Ecclesiastical Histories ; they will be quoted hereafter. 9 It may be seen in Epiphanius, Haer. 69, p. 731, and in Theodoret, i. 4. F f 2 436 MANIFESTO OF ARIUS. friend Eusebius of Nicomedia, which may be regarded as an authentic profession of his faith, as follows : — " Arius, who is unjustly persecuted by Alexander the Pope ^ on account of the all-conquering Truth, of which thou art a champion, wisheth health in the Lord to his most desired Lord, and man of God, faith- ful and orthodox EUSEBIUS. " Now that our Father Ammonius is going to Nicomedia^ it appears to me to be reasonable and due, that I should address thee by means of him, and that I should remind the natural love and affection which thou bearest towards the brethren for the sake of God and His Christ, how that the Bishop (of Alexandria) mightily ravages and persecutes us, and leaves no " stone unturned against us, so as to expel us from the city, as if we were atheists, because we do not agree with him when asserting publicly ' Always God ;' ' always the Son ;' ' together the Father ;' ' together the Son' (with Him). 'The Son co-exists with the unbegotten Father ;' ' He is eternally begotten,' ' un- born-born ;' ^ ' neither by thought nor for a moment is the Father pre-existent to the Son ; always God ; always Son ; the Son is from God Himself " Since then Eusebius, thy brother in Caesarea, and Theodotus (Bishop of Laodicea), and Paulinus (Bishop of Tyre), Athanasius (Bishop of Anazarbus), Grego- ^ Tov TTaira. The term TroTras in Greek, and/^/a in Latin, was given in the fourth century, and down to the eighth, to all Bishops, especially of the principal Sees ; it is now applied in Greece to every Priest. It was not assumed by Bishops — not by the Bishop of Rome till Siricius, A.D. 385 (Vaines' Diet. ii. 162, Paris, 1774). It was limited to the Bishop of Rome by Gregory VII. in the eleventh century. "^ Literally iravra Kcihwu reiVei, stretches every cable — a nautical meta- phor, appropriate to an inhabitant of Alexandria. 3 There is some variation in the i-eadings here. See the note of Schulze in his edition of Theodoret, torn. iii. p. 749, Halle, 1769. DOCTRINAL STA TEMENT OF ARIUS. 437 rius (Bishop of Berytus), Aetius (Bishop of Lydda), and all the Easterns, who affirm that the Father, without a beginning, exists before the Son, are anathe- matized, with the exception of Philogonius alone (Bishop of Antioch), and Hellanicus (Bishop of Tripolis), and Macarius (Bishop of Jerusalem), who are heretics ^ and uncatechized, some of w^hom say that He is the eructation,^ and others that He is the projection of the Father, others that He is co- unbegotten ; and since we cannot bear to hear their impieties, even though these heretics threaten us with ten thousand deaths, (let me answer them as follows) : — " What do we ourselves say ? What are our opinions? What have we taught ? and what do we teach ? This, — that the Son is not unbegotten,^ nor any part in any wise of the unbegotten (Father), nor of any substance ; but that by the will and counsel (of the Father) the Son subsisted before the w^orlds, complete God, un- changeable ; ' and that He did not exist before He was begotten, or created, or was decreed (to exist), or established (by the Father), for He was not unbe- gotten. " We are persecuted because we say ' the Son has a beginning, but God has no beginning.' For this ■* " Arius called them heretics,''^ says Theodoret here (i. 4), " because they declared the Son to be co -eternal, co-equal in honour, and con- substantial with the Father." ^ Scoffing words, charging them with Valentinianism, ^ There is an ambiguity in the word ayewnros. The Athanasians did no^ say that He was unbegotten, but that He was not made ; they asserted, on the contrary, that the Son was God, but begotten of the Father, Who was God, but not begotten of any. ^ Arius changed his opinion as to this point ; he had before dared to say that the Son might have changed and degenerated even into moral depravity ; see Alexander's Epistle below, p. 444. And Arius afterwards re-asserted this opinion at Nicsea (Athanas. Orat. in Arian. p. 294 ; see below, in the history of the Council, p. 450)* 438 EUSEBIUS OF CMSARE A— LETTER OF ARTUS TO ALEXANDER, BLSHOP OF ALEXANDRIA. cause they harass us ; and because we say that the Son is from things that had no previous existence ; ^ which assertion we make, because He is no part of God, nor from any (pre-existing) substance. For these reasons they trouble us. — Thou knowest the rest. " I pray that thou mayest be in good health in the Lord ; and be mindful of our tribulations, O thou collucianist,^ and truly Eusebius" (pious). Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, approved this Epistle, and wrote a letter in accordance with it to Paulinus, Bishop of Tyre, in which he lauded Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea, for his defence of the Truth, that is, for his support of Arius^ and requested Paulinus to intercede with Alexander. Bishop of Alexandria, in behalf of Arius (Theodoret, i. 5). Arius made another profession of doctrine in a letter to his own Bishop ^ Alexander, which was written after the former, and when he was a guest of Eusebius at Nicomedia, and doubtless in concert with him ; and when, being patronized by him, .he was enabled to exercise influence over the mind of Con- stantia, ^the sister of Constantine, and also on the Emperor himself, who (as has been already stated, p. 421) endeavoured to adjust the differences between Arius and Alexander by a letter despatched to them by the hand of Hosius, Bishop of Cordova. ^ e| ovK oi'Twv, therefore not from the substance of the Father, and not consubstantial with Him. And yet they said that the Son created all things, and that there was a time (which could not be before creation, since time dates from creation) when the Son did not exist. ^ I. e. my former fellow-disciple under Lucian of Antioch. 1 This is quoted by Epiphanius, Haeres. 69, c. 5, p. 732 ; Athanasius de Synod, p. 885 ; Orat, iii. c. Arianos, p. 389 ; S. Hilar, de Trin. iv. 6. LETTER OF ARIUS TO ALEXANDER. 439 The letter of Arius to Alexander is as follows : the reader will observe that it is much more guarded in its language than his former Epistle to his friend Eusebius of Nicomedia (p. 436). " To the blessed Pope, and our Bishop, Alexander, the Presbyters and Deacons wish health in the Lord. "The faith which we have learnt from our fore- fathers, and from thee, O blessed Pope, is this, — We confess one only God, unbegotten, one only Eternal, one only without beginning, one only true, having immortality, one only wise, one only good, one Supreme Potentate, one only Judge of all. Governor and Dispenser of all things, invariable, unalterable, just, and good,^ the God of the Law and the Prophets, and of the New Testament.'^ " We believe that this God begat His only-begotten before all worlds ; by Whom also He made the Worlds and all things. We believe that He begat the Son not in appearance, but in reality, and that He constituted Him by His own Will to be invariable and unalterable^ a perfect creature of God, but not as one of the creatures ; begotten, but not like one of begotten things ; nor as Valentinus affirmed the begotten one to be a projection {irpo^o\r)v) of the Father ; nor as the Manichaean, who introduced the offspring by generation as a consubstantial part of the Father ; nor as Sabellius, who, dividing the Unity, called Him Father-Son {viOTrdropa) ; nor, as Hieracas says, a lamp from a lamp, or a lamp parted into two. Nor do we say that He, Who before 2 Arius thus shuns the heresy of Marcion, and of the Gnostics. A similar observation may be made with regard to otlier propositions in this profession of faith. 3 See note above, p. 437. 440 ARIUS TO ALEXANDER. existed, was afterwards begotten and created into a Son ; we deny these propositions, as thou thyself, O blessed Pope, in the midst of the Church and public assembly hast often refuted those who held those doc- trines ; but we assert (the Son to have been) created by the will of God before all times and worlds^ and to have received His being and life from the Father, Who at the same time constituted Him partner of His glory ; for the Father, Who made Him heir of all things, did not deprive Himself of the principle of unbegottenness in Himself. For the Father is the Fountain of all things. There are, therefore, three Persons (viroaTdaeL^) , P'ather, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Father being the Cause of all things, is alone without beginning, and only existing by Himself ; but the Son was begotten, intemporally,^ from the Father, and was created and established before the worlds. He did not exist before He was begotten, but being alone begotten intemporally, before all things, sub- sists from the Father alone ; for He is not eternal, or co-eternal, or co-unbegotten with the Father, nor has He His existence contemporaneously with the Father, as some speak of things which exist relatively, intro- ducing two unbegotten beginnings ; but as the monad and beginning of all things. God is before all things, and therefore He is before Christ, as we have learnt from thee, preaching in the midst of the Church. As, therefore. He has His existence from God, and His life and His glory and all His attributes, so God is His beginning, for He has principality over Him, as ■* How, therefore, could there be a time when the Son was not? ' He therefore implies that Time was created by the Son, and yet he said l\v Sre ovk ■t\v, i. e. " there was " (he oi7iitted the word xP^vo%, a time) "when the Son was not." MORAL QUALITIES OF ARIUS. 441 being His God and by being before Him, for He (the Son) is from Him ; for if the phrases of Scripture ' from the womb ' (Ps. ex. 3), ' I came forth from the Father, and am come' (John xvi. 28), are understood to mean that I am a part of the same substance, or as a pro- jection from something, then the Father would be composite, and divisible, and variable, and corporeal, according to them ; and, as far as they are concerned, then the incorporeal God would have suffered things which only appertain to what is bodily. I pray that thou mayest be in good health, O blessed Pope." This letter was subscribed by Arius, and by five other Priests, and six Deacons, and three Bishops, viz. Secundus, Bishop of Pentapolis, Theonas of Libya, and Pistus, who (says Epiphanius) was placed at Alexandria by the Arians. It will be observed that in the foregoing letter Arius claims Alexander the Bishop as agreeing with himself, and asserts that Alexander had publicly taught doctrines in accordance with his ozvn ; whereas in his letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, Arius had denounced Alexander and his allies as promulgating heresies and blasphemies, which he (Arius) could not bear to hear, even though " they threatened him with ten thousand deaths" for dissenting from them (above, p. 437). But besides disingenuousness and equivocation, there were in the character and proceedings of Arius other still more unhappy elements and charac- teristics which morally and spiritually disqualified him for treating aright the mysteries which were the subject of this controversy, and for arriving at a clear understanding with respect to them. He was deficient in two essential pre-requisites for such a task, namely, reverence and modesty. ^442 MORAL DISQUALIFICATIONS OF ARIUS. He was morally incapacitated by levity and flippancy. This was clear froi:n the fact that while he was engaged in dealing with these questions, he was composing ballads ^ upon them in ribald tunes and metres like those of the Egyptian Sotades/ whose songs were infamous for their indecency. He wrote other songs, such as were to be sung by millers, sailors, travellers, and others, and would. expose sacred things to the profane jests and merriment of revellers in low taverns. We need not be surprised to hear that the solemn truths of Christianity were travestied at the theatres (Socrat. i. 6). Some of these ballads were pub- lished by Arius in his Thalia, so called from the Muse of Comedy, supposed to inspire such ditties for popular entertainment at dances and banquets. Another serious disqualification was his vain- glory. " I, the famous among men " (thus he speaks of himself in his Thalia) ; " I, who have suffered much for God's glory." " According to the faith of God's elect, who know God's holy children, saved in their faith, gifted with the Holy Spirit of God, I have received these things from the partakers of wisdom, perfected, taught of God, and wholly wise."^ He then declares what he had learnt, and what he taught, namely, "The Son has no property of the Deity in His own Person, and the. Father is alien in substance from the Son." One who could venture to treat the holiest mysteries with familiarity,^ and could vaunt himself in such 6 Athanasius de Synod, p. 889 ; Orat. ii. c. Avian, p. 312. 7 Athanas. de Decretis Syn. Nic. p. 552 ; Orat. ii, c. Arian. pp. 308, 309. 316. 3 Athanas. Orat. c. Arian. ii. 310 ; de Synod, p. 883. ^ Dean Milman (Hist, of Christianity, ii. 362) is indined to reject the accounts of the Thalia, and of the songs, attributed to Arius, as irre- ALEXANDER'S REFUTATIOX OF ARIAXISM. 443 boastful terms, could not rightly hope to be illumined by the Holy Spirit, Who dwells with piety and meek- ness, and without Whose aid the mind is blind to spiritual things. Having seen what Arius himself stated as his own opinions, let us now review what was said in refutation of them by Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria. As has been already mentioned, he wrote circular let- ters, some ^ of which are preserved. " They affirm that there was a time when the Son of God did not exist, and that He was afterwards created and made, such as any other man ; for, say they, God made all things out of tilings that did not exist (e^ ovk, ovtcov), and they include the Son of God in these creatures ; to which assertion they consequently add, that He was of a changeable natnre, and capable of virtue and vice; and that not for any natural reasons, as having any singular gifts as Son of God (for they assert that no one is Son of God by nature), but because, being changeable by nature, He did not change in fact to worse, by reason of His own moral circumspection and exercise in virtue. Therefore, they say, God foreseeing His constancy chose Him to be His Son ; so that if Paul and Peter had taken the same pains, their filiation might have been equal to His." Alexander adds that Arianism is a reproduction of the doctrine of Ebion, and of Artemas, and of Paul concilable with his character for moral gravity and logical subtlety. But are these things incompatible ? Sanctimonious Puritanism allied itself with the ribald wit of Martin Marprelate. Hooker, T-ife, p. 63, ed. Keble, and sect. 6 of Hooker's Dedication of his fifth Book. ^ To Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople ; Philogonius, Bishop of Antioch ; Eustathius of Berrhnea, and others. Theodoret, i. 3. A summary of Arian doctrines may be seen in Athanasius de Decret. Nic. Synod. § 6, p. 167, and doubtless Alexander concurred with Athanasius in his exposition of them. 444 ALEXANDER'S STA TEMENT OF THE TR UE FAITH AS OPPOSED TO ARIANISM. of Samosata, who was ejected from the Church by a general Synod of Bishops at Antioch. He then declares his own faith ; and affirms that in all things the Son is God as the Father is God, but with this difference, that the Father is wibegotte7i, but the Son is begotten, not however in time, but from Eternity; for, says he, we ascribe to the Son a generation, without any beginning, from the Father. In another circular letter to the Churches, Alexander thus described the opinions of Arius (Socrat. i. 6). " God " (they say) " was not always Father ; the Son is a creature ; He is not like the Father in substance, nor is He His true Word or His true Wisdom ; but, by an abuse of terms, He is called Word and Wisdom, having been created by the true Word of God, and by the Wisdom in God. Therefore He is changeable and alien from the substance of God. He was made for our sake, being created in order to be the instrument of our creation. Arius and his followers were asked, Conld the Son of God change " as the Devil did .'' and they did not shrink from saying. Yes, He could." Alexander says that he had refuted them from the Holy Scriptures ; but complains of their versatility, and that they changed their hue like chameleons. " Having heard with our own ears their impieties," he adds, " we have anathematized them and ejected them from the Catholic Church ; and we exhort you, our dear and venerable brethren, not to receive them, if any of them ventures to present himself to you." I have placed these two letters here, although they were prior in time to those already quoted of Arius to Eusebius of Nicomedia, and to Alexander ; because ^ See above, p, 437. ARIANISM-ITS CONTRADICTIONS. 445 it seemed right that the reader should first see what Arius himself stated as his opinions, and in defence of them, and then should hear Alexander's comments upon them. On the whole, we may note the following incon- sistencies in Arianism : — I. Arius said, "If the Father begat the Son, He Who was begotten had a beginning of existence ; therefore there was a time when the Son did not exist, and therefore He was formed of what once had no existence " (Socrat. i. 5). But herein Arius abused the word Son, and wrongly applied to divine things what appertains to human. The Father has always been a Father, and the Son a Son, as God has been always good and wise, and Light has ever sent forth rays (Athanas. de Decret. Nic. Syn. §24). " Every beginning," says Hooker,^ " is a Father to that which cometh of it, and every offspring is a Son to that out of which it groweth. Seeing, therefore, the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not (for Christ is God by being of God), it followeth that whatever Christ hath common with His Heavenly Father, the same of necessity must be given Him; but natiLrally and eternally given, not bestowed by way of benevolence and favour, as the gifts of Union and Unction are ; and therefore, where the fathers give it out as a rule that whatsoever Christ is said to have received, the same we ought to apply only to the manhood of Christ, their assertion is true of all things which Christ hath received by grace, but to that which He hath received of the Father by eternal nativity or birth it reacheth not." 3 Hooker, V. liv. 9. That chapter deserves careful study, in con- nexion with the Arian controversy. 446 JiVCONSISTENCIES OF ARIANISM. 2. Arius having abused the word Son for a so- phistical purpose, next abandoned that word Son^ and asserted that Christ was made as a creature by the Father, and did not come forth out of the substance of the Father, but was made oitt of nothing (e^ ovK, ovTcov), and therefore was 7iot really a Son at all. 3. Arius alleged that his doctrine was a safeguard against Polytheism. But inasmuch as he asserted Christ to be a creature, and yet called Him God, " com- plete God," and consequently to be worshipped, that doctrine encouraged creature worship and polytheism. There is no such thing as a secondary God. It was rightly said afterwards by S. Augustine, " Quod Deo minus est, Deus non est." 4. Arius affirmed that " there was a time when the Son was not," and yet he asserted that the Son existed before all time,"* and all things were created by the Son ; consequently time itself (which dates from creation ^) was created by Him, and therefore came into existence after Him, and therefore could not have existed when He was not. As a shift to avoid this inconsistency, he said r}v ore OVK rjv, omitting the word ')(^p6vo<;.^ 5. In their quotations of'Holy Scripture the Arians dealt unfairly, by citing those texts which referred to Christ's humiliation as Man, while they ignored those which declare His glory as God. Hosius, Bishop of Corduba, having been despatched to Alexandria with the irenicon of Constantine to ■* See above, his letter to Alexander. '" " Tempus a creatura incipit " (says Augustine), " utrumque a Deo." ^ Cp. Dorner, Div. i. vol. ii p. 232. HOSIUS OF CORDUB A— PRESBYTERIAN ORDI- 447 NA TIOiV. Alexander and Arius, failed in his attempts to mediate between them/ But he was more successful in another respect. In a large Council assembled at Alexandria, he examined the case of Colluthus, a presbyter, who had usurped the Episcopal office by ordaining Ischyras and others to the priesthood. The Council condemned these acts of Colluthus, and pronounced those ordina- tions to be null and void, and declared the persons who had been ordained to be only laymen.^ This Council was probably held in the summer of A.D. 324. Hosius returned to Constantine at Nicomedia. Probably from personal intercourse, Hosius was now better enabled to form a correct judgment of the character and doctrine of Arius, and to inform Con- stantine accordingly. Certain it is that the attitude of the Emperor and Hosius towards the Arian con- troversy was now entirely changed. Hosius counselled Constantine to summon an CEcumenical Council to examine and determine that controversy. Accordingly the Emperor summoned the Bishops from all parts of the Roman Empire in Europe, Asia, and Africa ; — one came from Persia, another from Scythia ; and the public carriages and horses were placed at the disposal of the Bishops for their conveyance (Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 6, 7). The mili- tary roads of the Empire were made ministerial to the progress of the Gospel of the Prince of Peace. 7 Euseb. Vit. Const, ii. ad fin. * S. Athanas. Apol. ii. pp. 732, 794. There does not appear to have been any remonstrance against this decision. This case, and the his- tory of Aerius, show conclusively what the judgment of the ancient Church was concerning presbyterian ordinations. Compare above, pp. 42—48. 448 COUNCIL OF NIC^A. The Council met at Nicaea,® the ancient capital of Bithynia, on June 19/ A.D. 325 ; its sessions continued to Aug. 25. Three hundred and eighteen Bishops, besides many Priests and Deacons, were present ; ^ a number, as some have noticed, coinciding with that of Abraham's ser- vants born in his house (Gen. xiv. 14). S. Athanasius says that Hosius of Corduba took the lead in the Synod's proceedings, and ultimately framed the Creed.^ Among eminent Bishops were Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, attended by his deacon and successor in the see,"^ Athanasius ; Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch ; Macarius of Jerusalem ; Caecilian, the famous Bishop of Carthage ; and many Confessors of the faith in persecution,^ such as Potamon of Heraclea on the 9 Nicaea had been superseded by Nicomedia as the royal residence. 1 This seems the most probable date. See the authorities in Clinton, Fasti Romani, p. 378, ad a.d. 325 ; cp. Vales, in Socrat. Hist. i. 13 ; Acta Synodi Chalcedon, Concilia iv. p. 339, in the twentieth year of Constantine's reign ; Heinichen ad Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 10 ; Fleury, iii. p. 112. Hefele (Concil. § 26) places the opening on June 14. 2 S. Athanas. ad Afr. i. p. 932. Basil Caesar. Epist. 86. Ambrose de Fide, i. 3 and 5. The pious fancy of some others noticed that the Greek letters which form the number 318 are TIH, and regarded T as the Symbol of the Cross, and IH of 'Itjo-oCs. Ambrose de Fide, i. 3 and 18. 3 iri(TTiv €^49eTo. Athanas. i. 837. ■* Alexander died in less than five months (it seems) after the Coun- cil (Athanas. Apolog. c. Arian. c. 59, p. 140), and was succeeded by Athanasius, who held the See forty-six years. As to the exact date see the authorities in Canon Bright, Athanas. p. 182. •• For the history of the Council see Euseb. Vit, Const, iii. 5 ; Theo- doret, Hist. i. 7 ; Socrat. i. 7, 8 ; Epiphan. Haer. 69 ; Sozomen, i. 15 — 19 ; Tillemont, vi. 634 — 681 ; Fleury, Hist. Feci. iii. 102 — 145 ; New- man's Arians, pp. 254 — 276 ; Neander, Church History iv. 39 — 42 ; .Bishop Lightfoot's, Canon Bright's, and Canon Wordsworth's articles respectively on Eusebius.. Athanasius, and Constantine in Professor Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography. No official record of the CO UNCIL OF NIC^A . 449 Nile, who had lost an eye ; and Paphnutius, Bishop of the upper Thebais, who had suffered in the same manner, and had also been maimed in his left knee ; Paul of Neo-Caesarea, who had been burnt in his hand ; Spyridion of Trimithus in Cyprus ; James of Nisibis, famed for miraculous powers, and Leontius of Caesarea for gifts of prophecy. Silvester, Bishop of Rome, was prevented by infirmities of old age from attending the Council, but sent two presbyters, Vitus and Vincentius/ Constantine invited also a Novatian Bishop, Acesius, to the Council/ The number of Bishops favourable to Arius is variously stated ; by some they are said to have been only thirteen, by others to have amounted to twenty- two. The most eminent among them were Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Eusebius of Caesarea. Some Laymen, especially such as were skilled in dia- lectics^ and in metaphysical speculations, were ad- mitted, and some heathen philosophers (Socrat. i. 8. Sozomen, i. i8). The first meetings of the Bishops were held in a place of prayer (oIko^; evfCTjjpLO'^ Mairep etc ©eou irXarv- acts of the Church is extant; the preliminaries to it, its Creed and Canons, are in Labbe's Concilia, ii. i — 85 ; Bruns' Concilia, i. 14 — 20; and compare S. Athanasius de Decretis Synodi Nicaenrr, i. 164— 190, written twenty-nine years after the Council ; Domer, pp. 247 and 497. • ^ Some Roman Catholic writers say that they were sent by Silvester " to /;vj/£/(? at the Council." Others assert that Hosius presided as deputy of Silvester. But there is no credible evidence for either of these statements. It is much more probable that Hosius, who was revered for his age, sufferings, piety, and learning, and had been the confidential adviser of the Emperor in former negotiations with both parties, and who had exhorted him to summon the Council, was appointed by Con- stantine to preside in it. " Cp. Socr. i. 10 as to Constantine's repartee to this Bishop : " Set up a ladder, and mount alone by it to heaven." 450 STATEMENTS OF ARIUS~TBE EMPEROR CONSTANTIAE AT THE COUNCIL. vo^evo^, says Eusebius, Vit. Const, iii. 7)/ And in these preliminary conferences Arius declared his opinions to the following effect : ^ — " God was not always Father, and there was a time when the Son was not ; Who was created out of nothing. He was capable of change, and it was by the exercise of His own Free- will that He remained good ; and He may change again as other men. God foresaw that He would continue good, ar^d in consequence of that foresight gave Him the glory which He has. He is not truly God, except by participation of the Divine grace like other men ; He is not the true Eternal Wisdom and Word of God, but was created by it, of and by the action of God's Will ; and was made for us, and not we for Him." On the day appointed for the public sessions of the Council, the Bishops were seated in rows, on the two sides of a large Hall in the centre of the Palace (Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 10). When they had taken their places, some attendants of the Emperor ^ — not his military body-guard, but some Christian friends — entered it. They were followed by Constantine himself, attired in the imperial purple, resplendent with jewels and gold. The historians describe the loftiness of his stature, and the stateliness of his gait ; which was set off by his respectful bearing, and by a modest blush on his countenance, as he passed along through the opposite ranks of Bishops to the end of the hall, where « Sozomen, i. 19, says that they met in the palace (ets to. ^Sao-iAem), and so Theodoret (i. 6) in an oIkos jxi-yiaros eV ro7s fiaaiXeiois. It is pro- bable that the preliminary meetings of the Bishops were in a Church, and the subsequent public meeting of the Council was in a gi'eat Hall of the Palace. See Valesius and Heinichen ad Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 10. '•* Athanas. in Arian. p. 294. 1 Theodoret, i. 6. Socrat. i. 8. Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 10. Athanas. Orat. i. in Arian. p. 296. OPENING ADDRESSES— THE TERM 451 '' HOMOOUSIOS:' a low gilded throne had been prepared for him. He remained standing, till they made signs for him to take his seat. A short address was then delivered by Eusebius ^ of Cassarea, who held the first place in the rank on the right hand of the Emperor. Another address was spoken, it seems, by Eustathius, Bishop ofAntioch (Theodoret^ i. 6), who sat next to Con- stantine, probably on his left hand. Perhaps it was thought fair that a representative of each of the two contending parties should inaugurate the proceedings. The Emperor replied with a calm and gentle tone in a Latin speech,^ which was translated by an interpreter into Greek, in which he expressed his gratification at their presence, and his desire for their concord. Some time was occupied by interrogations and replies, in which Athanasius took a leading part."* No practical result ensued, until it appeared from writings of Eusebius of Nicomedia and the sayings of other Arians, that they argued, if the Son of God was allowed to be uncreate, then He must be acknow- ledged to be consiibstantial (homoousios) with the Father ; ^ and this assertion seems to have suggested a term which would probe the Arian heresy to the- quick. It is remarkable that Constantine ^ supported " See the Greek title to chap. .11 of his Life of Constantine, Book iii. ; Sozomen, i. 19. •'' Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 1*1—13. Constantine was well able to con- verse in Greek : he freely debated with the Bishops in that language ; but he spoke this speech in Latin, being more at home in that tongue, and for the maintenance of the Roman dignity. ■* Greg. Nazian. Orat. 21. Rufin. i, 14. Socr. i. 8. Theodoret, i. 25. * See the remarks in Tillemont, vi. 654 ; Fleury, iii. 1 14, referring to Theodoret, Hist. i. 7.; S. Ambrose de Fide, i. 19. ^ Eusebius, in his Pastoral to his Diocese after the Council (in Socrates, i. 8) asserts this, and says that the basis- of the Creed was one proposed by himself ; but Hosius was the principal person in framing it, G g 2 452 ARIAN ALLEGA TION THA T HOMOOUSIOS IS NOT IN SCRIPTURE, those who pleaded for the adoption of the term Jlodio- ousios or consubstantial. It was alleged indeed by the Arians, that Holy Scripture is an adequate rule of faith ; and that symbols of faith, or Creeds, ought to be expressed in the language of Scripture, and that the term Jioiiio- ousios, not being in Scripture, ought not to be used. But to this plea it was replied '' that the doctrine expressed by the term [Jwmooicsios) is in Scripture, and that therefore virtually the term is contained in Scripture ; and that the true sense of Scripture is Scripture ; and that, inasmuch as the Arians quoted Scripture, and perverted it by their own glosses and false interpretations, and as that term was the most effectual touchstone of their heresy, and best antidote for its poison, and the clearest exponent of the oppo- site truth, therefore it was most in harmony with Scripture, which condemns false doctrines and com- mands men to contend for the truth. The term homoousios was accordingly adopted.^ It was affirmed that the Son was from the sub- stance of the Father, and of the same substance with Him ; and it was also asserted that He was not a part of the Father. Ultimately the Creed of the according to Athanasius, who in his Treatise de Decret. 19—21, ascribes the result to the Bishops, and not to the Emperor ; cp. Vales, in Socrat. i. 8 ; Neander, iv. 44. ' Cp. Athanas. de Decret. Nic Syn. 19-^21, and as to the meaning and need of the term homoousios see de Decret. 20—24, de Synod. 39, 41—54- ** The two main propositions of Arius, (i) that the Son was begotten hi time ; (2) that He was created out of nothing, were met and rejecied by the term homoousios, with its two affirmations, which were united in the assertion that Father and Son have equally an essential being ; and being of one essence or substance are both co-existent and co-eternal. On the double force of d/jLOovaios see Athanas. de Decret. 19—21 ; Synod. 41, 48, 52 ;. Dorner, p. 498. THE NICENE CREED—THE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO IT. 453 Council of Nic^ea was set down in the following o jvords : ^ — '• We believe in One God {d^ eva 0eoz^), the Father Ahnighty, Maker of all things, visible and invisible. And in one Lord (et? eva Kvpior) Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Begotten of the Father, His only Be- gotten, that is, of t/ie substance {ovaia<^ ^) of the Father; God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God ; Begotten not made, being of one substance [oixoovaiov) with the Father, by Whom all things were made, both the things in heaven and the things on earth ; Who for the sake of us men, and for our salvation, came down (from Heaven), and was incarnate, and made Man {ivav6pwin](TavTa) ; Who suffered, and rose again the third day, and ascended into Heaven ; and Who will come to judge the quick and dead. And in the Holy Ghost. "And the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathe- matizes those who say that there was (a time) when the Son was not ; and that He did not exist before He was born ; and that He was made of what did not exist ; or that the Son of God is of a different hypo- stasis or substance (from the Father), or that He was created, or is variable and changeable." All ' the Bishops subscribed this Creed " with the exception of a few Arians ; these were reduced to five, and finally to two. Eusebius of Nicomedia him- ^ Socrat. i. 8. Theodoret, i. ii. Labbe, Concil. ii. 27. Bishop Bull, Def. Fid. Nic. p. 14. Hahn in Dorner, Div. i. vol. ii. p. 497. 1 Perhaps (as has been remarked by Bp. Kaye) the Greek word ovaia would be better represented in English by essence than by sub- stance. " Their subscriptions may be seen in Labbe's Concilia, ii. 50. The name of Hosius stands first ; then those of Silvester's tw o legates ; then that of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria. ■ 454 ON THE OBSERVANCE OF EASTER— MELETIAN SCHISM— EPISCOPAL ORDINATIONS. self subscribed it, and Eusebius of Caesarea, who at first had hesitated to do so. He explained His reasons for assenting to it, in a Pastoral to his Diocese ; ^ he seems to have been strongly swayed by the desire of peace. The Council agreed that Easter should be kept uniformly throughout the Church on the Sunday fol- lowing the full Moon next after the vernal equinox.'* It also endeavoured to appease the schism of the followers of Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis in the Egyptian Thebais, who had separated from Peter_, Bishop of Alexandria,^ about A.D. 301, having been condemned by him in a Council for having sacrificed to idols in time of persecution. The Council also enacted some Canons on Church discipline. The most remarkable were as follows : — Canon 4.—A Bishop ought to be ordained by all the Bishops of the Province, and, if this cannot be, by three Bishops at least, the rest signifying by letter their assent to the ordination ; and he ought to be confirmed by the Metropolitan. Canon 5. — No one who is excommunicated in one Diocese ought to be received to communion in another. In order that Bishops may confer on these matters and on others, two provincial Synods ought to be held every year, one before Lent, the other in autumn. Canon 6. — to, apyala eOrj KpareiTco. " Let the primi- 3 Which may be seen at the end of Athanas. de Decret. Nic. Syn., and in Socrates, Hist. i. 8, and Theodoret. i. ii. 4 Athan. de Synod, p. 873. 5 Theodoret, i. 8. Socrat. 1. 6. Epiphan. Haer. 68. O.V THE JURISDICTION OF THE BISHOP OF ROME 455 . —ON THE ORDINATIONS OF NOVATIANS. tive customs prevail." Let the Bishop of Alexandria have authority over all in Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, inasmuch as a similar usage exists with regard to the Bishop of Rome,*^ and also at Antioch. Also in the other provinces let their own privileges be re- served to the Churches. It is not lawful for any one to be a Bishop without the consent of the Metro- politan of the Province. If two or three Bishops, in a spirit of strife, contravene an election, which is reasonable and canonical, and ratified by the suffrages of all their brethren, let the vote of the majority prevail. Canon 8. — Let the Cathari (i. e. the Novatians) be reconciled to the Church by imposition of hands (i. e. not by a second Baptisrh), on their profession of conformity to the laws of the Church as to commu- nion with digamists, and with those who have lapsed in persecution. And if they are in Holy Orders, let their Orders be held good, if no other person duly ordained is in the same place with them ; but if any of them is a Bishop, and if there is a Catholic Bishop in the same place, the latter alone shall exercise Episcopal functions there, and the former .shall only act as a Presbyter or Chorepiscopus (a country Bishop), unless the Diocesan Bishop is pleased to admit him to a share in his Episcopal functions. " I.e. the Bishop of Rome exercised jurisdiction over "the subu?-- bicarian Churches" (i.e. the Churches near thei City, Rome), says Rufinus, expounding this Canon : see the quotations in Theophilus AngHcanus, Part i. chap. xii. pp. 99 — loi and 141. This sixth Canon of the 318 Bishops at the CEcumenical Council of Nicaea, who preface it with the preamble ra a.Qx°^^°'- ^^V KpaTeiTco {let the primitive acstoms projail), appears to be conclusive against the claims of the Bishop of Rome to spiritual supremacy; and the Canon is remarkable as not only excluding him from what he ought not to invade, but as defining the limits of his jurisdiction, and as including him within a specified juris- diction, i. e. over the snbtirbicarian Churches. 456 NOT TO BE TWO BISHOPS IiV THE SAME CITY— ON HOLY COMMUNION— ORDINATIONS. This is SO ordered that there may not be two Bishops in the same City. Canon 13. — The ancient Canon is to be observed, that no one " in articulo mortis^' be denied the "last and most necessary viaticum" {reXevTalou — some read reXelov, perfect ; see above, p. 411 — kol dvajKato- rdrov icf^oSiov), i.e. the Holy Eucharist, if after due examination he desires it to be administered to him. This Canon affords a striking evidence of the judgment of the Ancient Church on the necessity of Holy Communion. Canon 16. — If any Bishop presumes to ordain in his own Church a person who has seceded from another Bishop, to whom he is subject, without the consent of that Bishop aforesaid from \\hom he has come, let the ordination be deemed null and void. This Canon seems to refer to the case of Origen. See above, p. 271. Canon 18. — It has come to the knowledge of the Holy Synod that some Deacons administer the Eucha- rist to Presbyters, whereas no rule nor custom allows that they (the Deacons) who have not the power of offering (i. e. of consecrating the Eucharist) should give the Body of Christ to those who offer'' (i. e. the Priests). We hear also that some Deacons receive the Eucharist before the Bishops. Let all such prac- tices be taken away ; and let the Deacons remain within their own limits, remembering that Deacons are servants of Bishops, and inferior to Priests. Let them receive the Eucharist in their own order after "' Cp. Council of Aries, can. 15. In accordance with these Canons, it is penal for a Deacon in the Church of England to consecrate the Holy Communion. Act of Uniformity, 14 Car. II. c. 4, s. 10, and see Bingham, ii. 20, 7, 8. BAPTISM OF FAULT ANISTS. 457 the Presbyters at the hands of the Bishop or Priest, and let them not be allowed to sit among the Presby- ters. And if any obey not these rules, let them be degraded from the Diaconate. Canon 19. — If any Paulianists (disciples of Paul of Samosata) return to the Church, let them be baptized anew. If any of them have been ordained, let them, if they are of blameless conversation, be re-baptized and re-ordained by the Catholic Church. This Canon seems to be grounded on the presump- tion that baptism administered by those who denied our Lord's Divinity, and, by consequence, the doctrine of the Trinity, is 110 Baptism. Canon 20. — Inasmuch as there are some persons who kneel on the Lord's Day/ and in the days of Pentecost (i. e. between Easter and Whitsuntide), the Holy Synod orders that they should pray standing, in order that the same custom may be observed in all dioceses. As to the Marriage of the Clergy, It was proposed by some at the Council of Nicaea, that a " new Law," as Socrates calls it, should be Introduced, forbidding Bishops, Priests, and Deacons to cohabit with the wives they had married before their ordination. Paphnutlus '^ the Confessor* " Bishop of a See in the upper Thebais, arose in the midst of the assembly, ^ The attitude of standing was regarded as significant of our L ^rd's rising from the grave, commemorated on the Lord's Day and at Eastertide. * Socrat. i. 1 1. Sozomen, i. 23. The trutli of this narrative is questioned by Cardinal Baronius ; but it is accepted by such moderate and learned Roman Catholics as Fleury, iii. p. 125, and Tillemont, vi. pp. 677, 821. On the celibacy of the Clergy see Bingham's Anti- quities, iv. 5. 458 ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE CLERGY- EPISCOPAL ENCYCLIC. and protested with much earnestness that so heavy a yoke ought not to be imposed upon them, for (said he) " Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed un- defiled " (Heb. xiii. 4), and he exhorted them to take care not to hurt the Church by too much rigour ; for all men have not the gift of continency, and their wives would thus be exposed to the danger of losing the chastity which they have in marriage, for cohabitation with a lawful wife he called chastity ; and it was sufficient that they who had not contracted marriage before ordination should abstain from it after ordination. But no person, he added, ought to be separated from his wife. Thus spoke Paphnutius, who had always observed celibacy, and was famed for his holiness. The whole Council (says the historian Socrates i. 1 1) was persuaded to assent to what he said, and the question was set at rest." The Bishops before separating addressed a Synodical letter " to the Church of Alexandria, and to all other Churches under heaven," in which they rendered thanks to God for the refutation of heresy, and for the suppression of blasphemy against the Son •of God ; and in which they exhorted them to rejoice together with them in the Unity of the Catholic Church in the true faith, and to receive the Bishop Alexander with the honour due to him ; and they commended themselves to their Prayers. The Emperor Constantine also wrote letters, in which he published the decrees of the Council ; one addressed to all Churches, the other to the Church of Alexandria.' In the former he said that the question of the true Faith had now been finally settled ; also that Easter was to be observed by Christians every- 1 Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 17 and 18—20. Theodoret, i. 9. Socrat.i. 9. LETTERS OF CONSTANTINE. 459 where on the same day. In the latter he expressed himself with vehement language on the heretical blasphemies of Arianism, contrary to the divine Scriptures, and to our holy Faith in our Saviour, our hope, and our life. He ascribed these impieties to the instigation of the Evil One, and prayed that God would pardon Arius, whom in an Imperial Edict he compared to Porphyry the sceptic, and whom he condemned to banishment in Illyria, with his two Episcopal adherents, Secundus and Theonas.^ He exhorted them to receive the faith set forth by the Council, as no other than the sentence of the Son of God Himself, giving them the Holy Spirit to guide them, and to declare by them the Will of God. . Before we quit the Council of Nic^a, we cannot omit to observe, that it was memorable not only as declara- tory of the true doctrine on the Eternal Godhead of Christ, the Divine Head of the Church, but also as representing to the world what the Church herself had received from Him, and from the Holy Apostles, concerning her own form of Government and Polity. And ^ first negatively, as to zvhat her form of Government was not to be. The advocates of the Roman Papacy assert the following propositions : — I. That the Bishop of Rome is the Supreme Head of the Church, and her Infallible Guide. 2 Athanas. Orat. iv. in Arian. p. 468. Subsequently, Constantine banished Eusebius of Niconiedia, and Theognis of Nicoea (although they had subscribed the Creed), because they declined to sign the anathema against Arius : but there seem to have been political reasons for his antipathy to the former. Constantin. Epist. ad Nicomed, in Labbe's Concilia, ii. 283 ; cp. Theodoret, i. 19 ; Socr. i. 9 ; Sozomen, i. 21. Both of them, and Arius also, were recalled from exile in a.d. 328 or 329. 460 MODERN ROMAN ALLEGATIONS REFUTED BY THE COUNCIL OF NIC^A. 2. That to him, and to him alone, appertains the right of summoning Councils of the Church ; and also of presiding in them either personally or by his delegates. 3. That the authority of the decrees of all Church Councils depends entirely on his approval of them, and is derived from that approval.^ 4. That all Bishops, in all Councils, derive their authority from him ; and that they are what they are " by the grace of the Apostolic See." "* Such are the present claims of the Roman Papacy. But all these assertions are disproved by the Council of Nicaea, the first General Council of the Christian Church.^ The Nicene Council was not summoned by the Bishop of Rome, but by the Emperor Constantine. The Bishop of Rome did not preside at the Nicene Council ; he was not present at it ; nor did his legates preside in it. It is probable that Hosius, Bishop of Corduba, was president of it ; but it is certain that Silvester, Bishop of Rome, did not preside in it, either in person or by deputy. The decrees of the Council of Nicaea did not wait for the approval of the Bishop of Rome. They were •^ All these propositions may be seen in Cardinal Bellarmine's work de Su nmo Pontifice, where he says (lib. iv c. i — 3), " Tota firniitas Conciliorum est de Pontifice," and in his Treatise de Conciliis, lib. i. c. 12, 19, and lib. ii. c. 2, 17. These treatises may be found in the first two Volumes of his Dissertationes de Controversiis, ed. Colon. 1615. ^ Bisho Pearson, Academic Lectures, p. 434, says truly, " Unius Pontificis potestas reliquorum omnium Antistitum jus eripuit, — absorpsit. * They are likewise disproved by the following General Councils — of Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. The evidence of this may be seen in Theophilus Anglicanus, Part iii. chaps, v. and vi. WITXESS OF THE NIC EN E COUNCIL TO 461 EPISCOPACY. promulgated in letters of Constantine and of the Council itself to the various Churches, before they were received by the Bishop of Rome. In these letters announcing these decrees there is no refer- ence to the Bishop of Rome, or to any assent on his part to them.® The Council of Nicaea is therefore an autjientic protest of the ancient Church Universal against the present assumptions of the Roman Papacy. The Nicene Council is also important positively, as showing what form of Government the Church (which is the Body of Christ, and to which He promised His presence, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and which therefore could not have been in error in that momentous matter) believed herself to have received from her Divine Lord. That form of Government was Episcopal. The Council of Nicaea consisted of Bishops. Even the Presbyters and Deacons there present were wit- nesses to Episcopacy, for (as the case of CoUuthus, just before the meeting of the Council, showed ; see above, p. 447) they would not have been recognized as Presbyters and Deacons, unless they had been ordained by Bishops. They would have been regarded as laymen. The following facts are presented to us by the Nicene Council. We see there 318 persons, all Bishops, summoned by the Emperor of the Roman World, as representatives of their respective Churches, in every part of it. They came from Scythia, Armenia, Persia, and Mesopotamia in the north and ^ The so-called correspondence between Hosius and Silvester with the view to the Confirmation of the decrees, which is in Labbe's Con- cilia, ii. 58, is acknowledged by Labbe to be spurious. 462 THE COUNCIL A WITNESS AGAINST NON- EPISCOPAL ORDINA TIONS ; AND ERASTIANISM. east, and from Egypt, Arabia, Dalmatia, Calabria, Gaul, and Spain in the south and west. They alone were recognized as the Guides and Governors of the Church. No other persons were regarded as having any co-ordinate authority with them. The constitu- tion of the Synod itself — the subscriptions of names ' attached to its decrees — all prove that the form of Government of the ancient Catholic Church of Christ was Episcopal. Therefore the Nicene Council may be regarded as a witness against the novelties of the Papacy of the one side, and of Presbyterianism, Independency, Methodism, and all other similar modern forms of Church Government on the other. And it affords clear evidence in favour of the Antiquity and Divine Institution of Episcopacy. There is also another form of Church polity, com- monly called Erastianism^ Avhich subordinates the spiritual power to the temporal. This is likewise dis- proved by the Council ofNicsea. The Council was summoned by the Emperor Constantine ; and when the Roman Empire had become Christian, the right of convening General Councils was recognized as belong- ing to the Emperor. But the Civil Ruler had no part in the Consecration of those Bishops who were sum- moned to the Council,, and of whom the Council con- sisted. Also, the Creed which was framed at Nicaea was indeed promulgated by the Emperor, but it had ^ They may be seen in Labbe's Concilia, ii. pp. 50—54. 8 So called from Erastus, a physician at Heidelberg, whose work on Church Government appeared in 1589. " Censebant Erastiani " (says Buddeus, Isag. i. p. 828) " Ecclesiam Magistratui Christiano subjectam omnem auctoritatem ex mera Magistratus delegatione usurpare ;'" and cp. Hooker, Preface ii. 9. Hobbes of JNIalmesbury propagated the same opinions. REFLECTIONS ON THE NICENE COUNCIL— 463 RETROSPECT— CHRIST S PROMISES TO THE CHURCH. been framed and subscribed by the Bishops,^ and by them alone. It was their work. The Emperor's name does not appear in the subscriptions which are appended to the Nicene Creed.^ Not only then the Creed . and Canons of the first General Council, but also its Constitution, and the principles and rules of procedure in that Council deserve the careful attention of students of Church History and of Ecclesiastical Law. When taken together, they are clear and authentic exponents of the Doctrine and Discipline of the ancient Catholic Church. Here, then, we may pause for the present. We have been tracing the History of the Church for nearly three Centuries from the time when her Divine Founder said that He would build His Church upon Himself confessed to be the Christ, and to be God and Man, and that the Gates of Hell would never prevail against her ; and that He would send the Holy Ghost the Comforter to teach her all things, and to guide her into all truth, and to abide with her for ever; and that He Himself would be with her always, even unto the end of the world. We have seen how these words of Christ began to be fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost by the Coming of the Holy Ghost from heaven, and by the wonder- ful effects of Apostolic preaching on that day. We have seen how the Powers of Evil issued forth " from ^ The form of subscription was as follows : — " Osius Episcopus civitatis Cordubensis provinciae Hispaniae dixit. Ita credo sicut superius scriptum est." ' At some later Councils princes and nobles sometimes subscribed their names, ' ' Ego N. cojisentiens subscripsi. " The Episcopal formula was " Ego X. iL'ji7iuns subscripsi." See my note on Acts xv. 23. 464 FULFILMENT OF CHRIST S PROMISES TO THE CHUR CH—RE TR OSPECT—PERSE'C UI ION— MAR TYRS. the gates of hell/' and endeavoured to "prevail against" the Church, first by stirring up the Jews to persecute her, in the imprisonment of St. Peter and St. John at Jerusalem ; in the Martyrdom of St. Stephen and of St. James the Apostle, and afterwards of St. James the Bishop of Jerusalem, and in the sufferings of other Apostles at their hands ; and how all these attacks were overruled by Almighty God for the clearer dis- play of the power of Divine Grace, and for the mani- festation of the Divine glory, and for spreading forth the Truth ; and how He raised up Christian Apologists who interpreted the History of the Old Testament, its Sacrifices and Prophecies, and proved that they were ministerial' and manuductory to the Gospel of Christ, and had their fulfilment in it. We have seen how the sword of Persecution was next wielded by Imperial Rome, in order to destroy the Church of God. We have seen how the blood of her Martyrs was the seed of a spiritual harvest ; and how the fires Avhich were lighted up to consume her served only to display more brightly the truth of the religion for which they died, and which enabled them to rejoice in their sufferings. We have seen how the Church of Christ was next assailed by the more formidable attacks of Heretics rising up within her own Communion. Some of these false Teachers placed the God of the Old Testament in "antagonism to the God of the New, and obscured the love of the Redeemer by condemning the work of the Creator. Others separated Jesus from the Christ, -and severed both from God. Others claimed supernatural knowledge, superior to that which is imparted by Divine Revelation, and assumed for themselves and their votaries spiritual sufficiency and CHAMPIONS AGAINST HERESY-MORAL CHANGE A&h WROUGHT BY CHRISTIANITY. supremacy apart from faith in Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Catholic Church, and renounced all allegiance to the moral code of Christianity, and even of natural Religion. We have seen that these had the effect of raising up Champions to maintain the one true Faith, taught in both Testaments, and committed to the keeping of the Catholic Church, by unadulterated tradition in uninterrupted suc- cession from Christ and His Holy Apostles, and declared the true doctrine of the Holy Undivided Trinity, Three Persons and One God ; and of the two Natures of God and Man joined together for ever in the One Person of Christ, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God. We have seen also how the pleadings of Christian Apologists for the Faith against Jewish and Gentile opponents, and how the Sufferings of Christian Mar- tyrs— aged men, and weak women, as well as the youthful and strong, — and the fulfilment of Prophecies, were allied with the powerful and persuasive argu- ment of the moral, social, and spiritual influence of Christianity, as contrasted with Heathenism, in daily life and manners, in the purification of the Body, and in the sanctification of Marriage, and in the eleva- tion of Womanhood, and in the household charities of conjugal affection, and parental and filial love, and in the gradual abolition of Slavery, and in the ransoming of Captives, and in acts of mercy and love to the sick and dying in Hospitals, and in times of Plagues, Pestilences, and Famines ; and how these things preached the Divine Truth of Christianity with silent eloquence, and won for it a thousand hearts ; and how it evangelized towns and villages, and gained a H h 466 THE LAST PERSECUTION— DONA TISTIC SCHISM AND ARIAN HERESY. home for it In Camps and Palaces, and at last on the Throne of the Caesars. The last struggle of the Enemy against the Church, in the beginning of the fourth century, was the fiercest of all. The persecution under the Emperors Diocle- tian and Galerius, A.D. 303, was more general and violent than any other, and it was renewed under Maximinus and Maxentius. But it was quelled by the power of God, in a wonderful manner, cutting off the Authors of the persecution at a time when the Church appeared to be on the brink of destruction by their hands." When Constantine had quenched the fires of per- secution, and had inserted the Name of Christ, and had engraved the Cross, on the Standards of the Empire, the Church was distracted by one of the most plausible and inveterate of Schisms, that of Donatism, and by one of the most subtle and deadly of Heresies, favoured by potent advocates, secular, and ecclesias- tical,— that of Arianism. Both of these were restrained by divine power acting in the Councils of the Church, — Donatism at Aries (in A.D. 314), and Arianism at Nicsea (A.D. 325). And although it pleased God to allow the decrees of Aries, and the Creed of Nicaea, to be exposed to mani- fold perils in subsequent conflicts, yet these under God's good providence tended to exercise and strengthen the faith and patience of the Church, and were made ministerial to the edification of her people, and to the surer confirmation and clearer manifesta- tion of the Truth. 2 The Work of Lactantius (the tutor of Crispus, the son of Constan- tine) "de Mortibus Persecutorum," written soon after the events it describes,— however affected by some secular influences, — is an authentic record of providential interpositions at that crisis of the history of the Church. COUNCIL OF NIC^A—ITS PLACE IN CHURCH ^'ol ILIS TORY— ITS PROPHETICAL CHARACTER. Those conflicts led to noble conquests, and those trials were consummated in glorious triumphs. Dona- tism called forth an Augustine in Africa ; Arianism was confronted and routed by an Athanasius in the East, and by a Hilary and an Ambrose in the West. Let us look forward and reflect what followed the Council of Nicaea, and how what was there done by Christ, present in His Church, and by the guid- ance and teaching of the Holy Ghost, was after- wards maintained and amplified at the subsequent General Councils of the Church, at Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, and has remained unmoved in Eastern and Western Christendom for more than 1500 years to this day. When, therefore, we look at the Council-Cham.ber of Nicaea hallowed by the assembly of more than 300 Bishops, many of them Confessors of the Faith, and scarred with wounds received in its defence ; and when we behold that Council-Chamber adorned with the august presence of the Emperor of the Roman World, who had been raised up by Almighty God to be an instrument in His hands for the overthrow of Heathenism on the banks of the Tiber at Rome, and — like Cyrus on the Euphrates at Babylon — for the deliverance of His people, we may regard that Council-Chamber as a peaceful resting-place of the Church, after a weary journey, and_ as a. calm harbour after a stormy voyage. But that Council at Nicaea may be regarded as something more ; even as a typical image, and a prophetical foreshadowing, revealing bright gleams and glimpses of the final consummation of all things. The Church had then passed through the fiercest H h 2 468 THE SUFFERINGS OF THE CHURCH CONSUMMATED IN PEACE AND GLORY. conflict, and had come forth from the most terrible of all Persecutions. She had emerged from a tem- pestuous sea of rage and blasphemy against Christ. Such she may look for again, in the days of Anti- christ, on the eve of the Second Advent of Christ. Her perils by Persecution from without, before the Council of Nicsea, were aggravated by Schisms and Heresies from within. Such also will be the destiny of the Church in the latter days. It is even now at hand. Those events in the fourth century were over- ruled for her good. They led to the Creed of Nicaea, in which the Church declared her Faith, received from Holy Scripture and from Primitive Tradition, in the Eternal Godhead of Him Who had died for her on the Cross, and had redeemed her from her sins, and had purchased her with His own Blood, and had risen in power from the dead, and had ascended in triumph into Heaven ; and Who had gone to prepare an eternal mansion for her; and Who sitteth at God's right Hand in glory ; and to Whom all power is given in heaven and on earth ; and Who will put all things under His feet ; and Who will hereafter come again to receive her to Himself, so that she may be ever with the Lord. The course of the Church just before the Council of Nicsea was — if we may be allowed the comparison — like that of a troubled river dashing down headlong in the foam and spray of a rocky cataract, but soon to be received into the bosom of a calm and pellucid lake, reflecting in a mirror the beauty of the heavenly vault above it, and an emblem of the peace of Eternity. At the Council of Nicaea the Emperor of the VISION OF THE FUTURE. 469 Roman World received and professed the faith in God Incarnate, and he promulgated it throughout the Empire. And thus was revealed to the eyes of the iaithful a Vision of the future time when Jesus Christ will be acknowledged to be " King of Kings, and Lord of Lords" (Rev. xix. i6) ; and when "all Kings shall bow down before Him, all Nations shall do Him service " (Ps. Ixxii. ii) ; and when the Voice will be heard in Heaven, " The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ" iRev. xi. 15). The maintenance of that Faith unaltered and un- alterable for more than 1 500 years against all external assaults, and among all intestine strifes of the Church, amid the revolutions of States, and the wreck of Thrones, and overthrow of earthly Dynasties, and the passing away of worldly Empires, is a visible sign and witness of the fulfilment of the promise of her Divine Lord to her, and an unfailing source of in- expressible comfort and joy to all her faithful children, in all the troubles of this life, when they re- member His own Words, " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the End of the World" (Matt, xxviii. 20). Aofa Tct 0€63. INDEX. ^ONS (see Valentinus), 204, Agnosticism, 210. Alban, S., Martyrdom of, 384. Cathedral of, 386. Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, 423. his treatment of Arius, 434. Arius' Letter to him, 438. — - refutes Arianism, 443. states the true Faith, 444. Alexandria, Birthplace of Theological Science, 250. (see Clement of). (see Dionysius of). Council at, 447. Almsgiving, S. Cyprian's Treatise on, 346. Ambrosius, Patron of Origen, 270. America, Church of, ix. Ancyra, Council of, 411. Angels, a name for Bishops, 44. — Epistles to the seven, 43. Anicetus, 160, 161. Ante-Nicene Councils, Inferences from, 388. Anthony, S., The Hermit, and Atha- nasius, 431, 434. Antichrist, described by S.IrenKUS,23i. Antinous, divinized by Hadrian, 149. Antioch, Council of, 397. condemns Paul of Samosata, 400. Antipope, Novatian the first, 31 1. Antoninus Pius, The Emperor, 149. Apollonius, compared by Hierocles with Jesus Christ, 373. Apologists, Christian : Tertullian, 93, 124. Justin INIartyr, 105, 150. Apologists, Christian : Minucius Felix, 109. Origen, 1 14, Melito, 154. Athenagoras, 154- — Miltiades, 154. — Apollinarius, 154- raised up to maintain the true Faith, 465. Apostles, Commission to the, 5. Christ and the Holy Spirit acting in and by, sometimes called Presbyters, 47- Apostolic Preaching, The first, 34. Succession, 44,224, 231, 247. Canons and Constitutions (so called), 413, 416. Arian Controversy not a fi'ivolous dis- pute, 430. Arianism, first appearance of, 419. has much that is specious in It, 422. Doctrine of the Sacraments imperilled by, 429. as represented by Arius, 434. its contradictions, 445. and inconsistencies, 446. Arius, account of, 419. has many friends in high station, 420. how dealt wilh by Alexander, 434- Manifesto of, 436. doctrinal statement of, 437. Letter to Alexander, 438. INDEX. 471 Ariu.s, moral disqualifications of, 441. is banished to Illyria, 459. Alios, Council of, 407, 466, Artemon, Errors of, 288. Athanasius, S., 424. and Constantine, 425. on the Incarnation, 426. on the Atonement and Redemption, 428. and S. Anthony, 431. takes a leading part at Nicene Council, 451. Atonement, Athanasius on the, 427, 428. Athletes, The tme, 266. Attains of Pergamos, Martyrdom of, 173- Augustan Age, Poets of the, 20. Augustine, S., Bishop of Hippo, and the Donatists, 317. on Porphyry, 366. once an advocate, after- wards an opponent, of Manichaean- ism, 372. and S. Anthony, 432 (see note). Aurelius, Marcus, The Emperor, 154. Babylon, The literal, 36. Baldwin, Francis, 109. Baptism, Sacrament of Holy, 52. Types of, 53. Tertullian on, 55. Lay, 56, 403. Infant, 57. Ancient Doctrine on, 62. Plomily of S. Hippolytus on, views of S. Cyprian on, 313, and of Stephen, Bp, of Rome, Heretical, declared valid, 317, 315- 15. 408. Canons concerning, 413. Basilides, a contemporary of Saturninus, 195- Heresy of, 258. Bethesda, Pool of, illustrative of Bap- tism, 53. Biblias, Martyrdom of, 174. Bishops, Catalogue of Primitive, 44. Successors of the Apostles, 47. Institution of Order of, 48. Bishops, sometimes called Presbyters, 48. Delinquent, to be judged in their own Provinces, 50. Canons concerning, 403, 40S, 411, 413' 456. Blandina, a Christian Slave, Martyr- dom of, 173, 382, Body, Resurrection of the, 103, 231. Caecilianus, elected Bishop of Carthage, 404. his Consecration declared valid, 406. Cainites, 192. Callistus, Bishop of Rome, 289. Calvinism, some tenets of, anticipated by Valentinus, 207. Canons and Constitutions, The Apos- tolic, 413. of Councils, Remarks on, 417. Captives, Christian treatment of, 349. Carpocrates, The Gnostic, 191, 251. Carthage, Synods of, 315. Celibacy, S. Clement on, 260. why prevalent amongst the Romans, 329. Celsus, Oiigen's arguments against, 1 14. Cerinthus refuted by St. John, 1S9, 226. Childlessness amongst the Romans, .329- Christ and Moses, 6. Christian Assemblies, description of, 99. Home, A, S, Clement on, 332. Morals, Pliny's testimony to, 325. Soldiers, 377. Christian, Portrait of a, 106. Christianity, Lateness of appearance of, 32, 324- - Popular objections against, 89. 94. 95- False charges against, 92. Apologies for (see note). Rapid growth and fruits of, contrasted with Heathen- ism, Replies of, againstHeathen- ism, 112. Evidences for, 119. 472 INDEX. Christianity, Pliny's description of, 123. Valentinus on, 207. Defenders of, against here- sy, 213. ■ the only true gnosis, 261. Evidences for, from Chris- tians" lives, 324. Change wrought in Domes- tic Society by, 330. • Practical working of, as contrasted with Heathenism, 34-?, 350. " (^nristianos ad Leonem," loi. Christians, Charges against the, 92. Loyalty of the, 98, 376. Church, Christ's promise to the, 2. - Mixed condition of the, 2, 3. Christ's prophecies concerning, Holy Spirit given to build up the, 6, 463. Character and office of the, 7. Future destinies of the, 9. Future conflicts and final glory of the, Preface xi — xiv, 10, 467. Earthly Empires preparatory to the, 12. Hebrew and Greek Institutions preparatory to the, 14. ■ Greece and Rome ministerial to the, 16. Assemblies, 64, 100. Hostile Assaults on, overruled for good, 69, 87, 191, 339, 366, 375, 386. Persecutions against the, 70, 77, 82, 123. the true Interpreter of Holy Scripture, 243. Contrast of Heresy and the, 249. ' one only from the beginning, Pref. xi — xiv, 256. English Reformers did not set up a new, 321. ■ The whole cannot fail, any part may, 389. Blessings from the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the, 396. Struggle of the, with Arianism 419. Discipline, Canons on, 454. Government, Episcopal, 462. Church Histoiy, Retrospect of, 463. Uses of, 322. Churches and Ministers, Teriullian on, 245- — Apostolic Appeal to, 248. Cicero, 20, 22. Cirtha, Council of, 401. Civil Power, Obedience to, inculcated by Christianity, 375 Civilians, Christian, their relations to heathen Pi-inces, 379. Claudius, Martyrdom of, 383. Clement, S., Presbyter of Alexandria, 251—261. Defence of the Church against Gnosticism, 213, 255. Head of Theolot ical School, 252. Hortatory Address to the heathen, 254. Hymn of, 255. Strom ata of, 256. Inferences as to Heresy, 256. 259- — on the duty of Martyrdom, — on marriage, a1:)Stinence, and temperance, 260, 267. on true and false Gnosis 261. anticipates Hooker, 262. on Justification, 263, on the true Gnostic, 265. Daily Life of Christian Gnostic — an Athlete— a Temple, 266, 267. on the Christian's conduct towaids others, and union with God, 268. Clement, S,, Bishop of Rome, 82. Epistle of, 84. Clementines, The, 29, 202, 212. Cleomenes, IJisciple of Noetus, 146. Clergy, Marriage of the, 457. Colluthus condemned by Council of Alexandria, 447. Colosseum at Rome, Martyrdom of S. Ignatius in, 146. Origin of name, 147. Communion, Holy (see Eucharist), 57. Confirmation, Institution of, 66. Conjugal unfaithfulness, 328. Constantia, recommends Arius to her brother Constantine, 420. lADEX. 473 ConsLantine, Arch of, 147. his Vision of the Cross, 357- and Cyrus compared, 360. Appeals to, 407, 409. and Arius, 420. summons an Oecumenical Council, 447. — attends the Nicene Council, 450. his Address to those as- Creed, The Nicene, stated to have been framed by Husius, 448. subscribed by the Bishops, 453 sembled, 451 a supporter of those who plead for the term homoousios, 452. promulgates the true Faith, 458. compares Arius to Por- phyry, 459. — banishes Arius to Illyria,459. Controversies of the tliird century in- structive to us, 319. Theological, at Rome, 287, 322. Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, on the Novatian Schism, 314, Council, General, What constitutes a, 391- Examples of, 392. Christian Emperors had the right of convening, 462. Council of Jerusalem, 35, 'i,'^%. Antioch, 396, 400. Cirtha, 401. Eliberis or Elvira, 402. Rome, 405, Aries, 407. Ancyra, 411. Neo-Cassarea, 412. in Trullo (or Quinisext), 416. Laodicaea, 416. Alexandria, 434, 447. Nicaea, 448. Councils, General remarks on, 388, Ante Nicene, Inferences from, the Church's de- claration of Faith, ^68. Creeds, The Christian imperishable, 513. The True Faith declared in the, 395- Crescens, Attack on Justin IVIartyr, 156. Cyprian, S., Bishop of Carthage, on Montanism, 312. inadequacy of his opuiions on heretical Baptism, 313, 315. convenes Synods and Coun- cils, 3) review of the, 396. No one supreme infallible head in, 388. Priests and Deacons at, 397. on care of the Sick, 335. tl^e effects of his own con- version to Christianity, 330, 350. contrasts Chri.^tiai;ity with Heathenism, ^tZl- on the lapsed, and on the Martyrs, 338. moral reasons for Persecu- tion, 339. on plagues and death, 340. comfort in death to the Christian, 341. yearnings for the life to come, 342. Example of, 346. on Almsgiving and the Offertory, 346. on Christian captives, 349. moral chantre in his life. zi^, 350. his Martyrdom, 317, 351. Creed, The Ancient, as declared by S. Irenaeus, 218. \ by Tertulh'an, 240. — by GregoiyThau- maturgus, 2S3. Deacons, Canons concerning, 403, 40S, 411, 456. Death of Christians, the beginning of life, 341. Decian Persecution, 354. Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, inter- course with Origen, 269, 271. Development, Theory of, a character- istic of Gnosticism, 223. unknown to S. Irenaeus and Tertullian, 239 (note). Diaconate, The, 49. Diocesan Episcopacy, 50- Diocletian, Persecution under, 363, 466. 47-t INDEX. Diognetus, Epistle to, 105. I Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, his arguments against Sabellianism, 304. view of the Millennium, 305. on Novatianism, 314. — a peace-maker in the Bap- tismal controversy, 316. on a Pestilence, 343. death of, 397. Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, 304. Discipline, Canons concerning Church, 402, 454. Disestablishment of Church, Pref. vi — viii. Divinization, Man's, 108, Divisions, Religious, overruled for good, 394- Divorce, 328. decrees concerning, 403, 409. Doctrine, Christian, 364. The reception of a, by the whole Church, proves its Truth, 390. Domitian, The Emperor, 82, 85. Donatism, Rise of, 404. Hooker on, 321. Donatists, Canons concerning, 40S. Door, Christ the, 139. Dualism and Emanations, 202. Easter, Decree of Council of Nicaea on keeping of, 454. Ebionites or Nazarenes, origin of name, 189. Elchasaites, The, 202. Eliberis or Elvira, Council of, 402. Emanations, Theory of, 203, Emperors and Apostles, 87. Empires, The four great, 12. Encratites, The, 198. England, Church of, warnings for, 319. Epicureanism, 17. EpiphaneSi Son of Carpocrates-, 1 98, Episcopacy, S. Ignatius on, 133. Diocesan, First example of, 35- Divine Institution of, 462. Primitive witness to, 43. Witness of Councils to, 388. Witness of Council of Ni- ccea to, 461. Episcopal Elections, principles with regard to, 50. Erastianism, repugnant to the principles of the Council of Niccea, 462. Error, Variations and Evanescence of, 214. What is the Essence of? 240. "The Teacher's Error is the People's trial," 317. Eve, type of the Church, Pref. xi., 3- Eucharist, The Ploly, 57, 59, 152. Oblation in, 60. Primitive teachins: on the, 62, 135, 229. S. Irenoeus' view of, 228. Eusebius, Bishop of Cassarea, 420, 435. refutes Porphyry, 370. replies to Hierocles, 374. favours Arius, 420, 438. delivers the opening address at the Council of Nicsea, 451. subscribes to the Nicene Creed, 454. Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, 420, 485. approves Arius' Epistle, 438. but subscribes Nicene Creed, 454- banished by Constantine, 459 (see note). Evil, The root of, 194. whence is it? 199. overruled for good, 366. Faith, Articles of the, 364. The True, declared by the Church in her Creeds, 395. unaltered and unalter- able, 469. Faith and Gnosis, The relations cf, 255, 277. Felicitas, Martyrdom of, 177. Firmilian, Bishop of Ceesarea, 316, 397. Flavianus, his Vision of Cyprian, 383. Future State, Valentinus on the, 208. Gentile Philosophy, a preparation for Christianity, 261. Gladiatorial Shows, described by S. Cyprian, 336. Gnosis, Meaning of the word, 181. The true, 182. The Church has genuine, 230. its connexion with faith, 264, Gnostic Notions of Redemption and Matter, 185. INDEX. 475 Gnosticism, Origin of, i8o, 183. not yet obsolete, 1S6, 210. Schools of, 187. Moral results of, 208, Christian Defences against, 213. Gnostics, Few of their writings remain, 212. immorality of, 221, — The true, 261, 265. Godhead of Christ, 107, 120, 364. Gospels, The four, S. Irenaeus testifies to, 226. Grace, Christ the Source of Sacramental, Gi-eek Empire, The, a preparation for Christianity, 15. Gregory, S., Bishop ofNyssa, comments on the Creed of Gregory Thauma- turgus, 284. Gregory Thaumaturgus, a pupil of Origen, 274. Bishop of Caesarea, 283. sion of Faith, 283. his pro fes- Hierocles, account of his writings. 373. Hippolytus, S., Vindication ot Chris- tianity, 213. Scholar of S. Irenxus, Hadrian, The Emperor, '^Z, 148. Heathen, S. Hippolytus' Address to the, 302. Heathenism and Christianity contrast- ed, 324, 337. pleas for, 112. Heraclas, Bishop of Alexandria, 272. Heresies, Summary of early, 221. Heresy, S. Ignatius on, 136. foretold in the Apocalypse, 17*9. Rise and growth of, 179. refuted by St. John and his Scholars, 180. Meaning of the word, 181. Sinfulness of, 228. foretold, 239. Moral depravity of, 239. • derived from Heathen Philoso- phy, 240. Novelty of, 246, 247, 256. S. Hippolytus on, 295, 301. Hooker's observations on, 296. overnded for good, 296, 464. Hermas, Shepherd of, 85. Hermit, S. Anthony the, 430. Hexapla and Tetrapla, compiled by Origen, 271. 285. - Bishop of Portus, 285. ■ Discovery of his Statue, - his " Refutation of all Heresies," 286, 295. - Providential position 286. of, 292. Unity," 294. Christ, 295, 2C 297. on Holy Scripture, 293. on the "Trinity in on the Two Natures of 98. on the Person of Christ, on Baptism, 300. against the denial of Christ's Divinity, 301. Address to the Hea- then, 302. IVIartyrdom of — Pru- dentius' Hymn, 306. his Tomb and Statue, 307. tendencies to Nova- tianism, 308, 312. Holy Baptism (see Baptism and Sacra- ments). Communion (see Communion, Eucharist, Sacraments). Home, The Christian, described by S. Clement, 332. Homoousios, The Term, 399, 452. Hooker, Richard, on Heresy, 296. and S. Augustine on Donatism and Novatianism, 321. on Church authority, 417. on the Arian controversy, 445. Horace, 25, 26, 57, 326. Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, 402, 422. advises Constantine to sum- mon an CEcumenical Council, 447. said to have taken the lead in the Nicene Council, and to have framed the Nicene Creed, 44S. Ignatius, S., Martyrdom of, 126, 146. arraigned before Trajan, 1 28. Journey from Antioch to Smyrna, 129. 476 INDEX. Ignatius, S, Epistles of, 131. Letter to Polycarp, 140. Epistle to the Romans, 141. on his Martyrdom, 143. "Life in Death," 144. Longings for future life, 145. ■ goes from Portus Roma- nus to Rome, 146. his martyrdom there, 147. Incarnation, Reasons for, 107. affirmed by S. Ignatius, 136. denied by Marcion, 201. ■ affirmed by S.Irenreus, 226. Treatise of S. Athanasius True doctrine concerning. on, 426. 428. Infallibility, Papal, refuted by anticipa- tion by S. Hippolytus, 307 ; and by Nicene Council, 459, 460. Infanticide, 329. Infidelity, Assaults of, 366. Intermediate State, Irenasus on, 233. Iren?eus, S., Bishop of Lyons, 213. Reminiscences of S. Poly- Irenreus, S., on the Intermediate State, 232. Conclusion of his work, 233- James, St., Bishop of Jerusalem, 35. Jerome, S., on Origen, 277. Jerusalem, Council of, 35, 388. - Mother Church of the World, 35. Destruction of, 81, 149. Jews, Dispersion of the, favourable to Christianity, 13. expelled from Jerusalem by Hadrian, 149. John, St., Completed the Apostolic teaching, 40. is a Martyr in will, 86. - and Cerinthus, 189, 226. Judaism, The true nature of, 71, 75. Uses of the controversy with, carp, 215. 215- Refutation of heresies, ■- His character and work. 216. Statement of Ancient Catholic Creed, 219. Deviations from it de- scribed by, 220. - on the Four Gospels, 226. cerning Christ, 227. prophecies con- sin fulness of Heresy and Schism, 228. Holy Eucharist, 229. Holy Scriptures and Christian Ministry, 230. faith of the Pro- 76. Juliana assists Origen, 271, 273. Justin Martyr, 29. on the Old Testament, n- 155- Juvenal, 23. Apology of, 150. Dialogue with Trypho, Martyrdom of, 156. Labarum, The, 359. Lactantius' account of Hierocles, on the Vision of Con- phets, 231. the Body, 231. Christ, 23] Resurrection of Second Adam — "Last Things," 232. stantine, 357. Laodicsea, Council of, 416. " Last Things," S. Irenceus on the, 232. "Latter Days." Pref. xiii. — xv., ii, 468. Laurence, Archdeacon of Rome, 306. on the Treasures of the Church, 34S. Martyrdom of, 349, 383. Lay Baptism, 56, 403. Laying on of Hands (see Confirma- tion). Literatui"e, Greek and Roman, pre- paratory to Christianity, 26. Lord's Day, Primitive observance of, 62, 64, 152, 404. Supper (see Eucharist and Holy Communion). INDEX, 477 Loyalty inculcated by Christianity, 375. Lucian, 27. the Voltaire of the second cen- tury, 396. Lucretius, 21. Maccabees, Heroism of the, 31. Magic, 28. Majorinus, the Donatist Bishop of Carthage, 317, 405. Manes promotes Scepticism, 371. Manicheism, S. Augustine and, 198,372. Marcion, The heretic, 161, 198, 225, 259. and Rationalism, 199. has many fol- lowers now, 201. Marcus Aurelius, The Emperor, 154. Persecution under, 172. Marriage reprobated by Marcion, 201. S. Clement's rules concerning, 260. 402. under the Romans, 325. a Christian, described, 331. with Wife's Sister forbidden. Canons concerning, 403, 41 1, 413- Martyrdom, The duty of, 259. joy in, 383. Martyrs, Hopes and joys of the, 138. The, not worshipped, 169. ashes cast into the Rhone, 176. benefits derived from the suffer- ings of the, 375. The, Transfigured by suffering, 381- "Martyrs," ofificiousness of some, 338. Menander, a disciple of Simon Magus, 189. Methodius' reply to Porphyry, 370. Millennium, Judgment of the Church on the, 305. Ministiy, Constitution of the Christian, 42. Minor Orders, convenient, not neces- sary, 49. Minucius Felix, Dialogue of, 109. Missions, St. Paul's Method of, 36. Mixed Chalice, Primitive use of, 63. Monasticism, 431. Montanus, The Heresy of, 234. Neo-Ccesarea, Council of 412. Nero, The Emperor, 81. Persecution under, 77. Nicaea, Council of, summoned by Con- stantine, 447. Eminent Bishops present at it, 448. Hosius of Corduba said to have taken the lead in it, 448. A Novatian Bishop invited to it, 449. mitted to it, 449. some Laymen ad- Arius declares his opinions in the preliminary confer- ences, 450. Opening of the Coun- cil, 450. Constant ine attends It, 450. Eusebius of Csesarea delivers the opening address, 451. followed by Eusta- thius and the Emperor, 451. - framing of the Creed, 453, 466. Bishops, 466. subscribed by the on the keeping of enacts Canons on Church Disciphne, 454. Synodical letter to Easter, 454. the Churches, 458. why memorable, 459. Claims of Roman Papacy disproved by, 460- Facts presented by, 461. Lessons to be learnt from, 467. Noetus, The Patripassian, 289. S. Hippolytus' Homily agaizist, 297. Novatian, a Presbyter of the Roman Church, 310. iDecomes the first Antipope,3i I Novatian Baptism and Orders declared to be valid, 317. Hooker on, 32] Novatianism, Rise of, 309. Pleas for, 310. S. Cyprian on, 312. — Hooker on, 321. Novatians, Canons concerning the, 455. 478 INDEX. Novelty and diversity of Error, 246, I Perpetua, S., Martyrdom of, 177. 247, 256. Numbers in Scriptm-e, meaning of, 6. Obedience and Submission, 375, 379. Oblation in Holy Eucharist. 60. Offertory, The Weekly, Primitive Insti- tution of, 65, 347. Officials, Christian, their relations to heathen Princes, 379. Old Testament (see Testament and Scriptures), Onesimus, St. Paul's treatment of, 333. Ophites, The, 192. Oracles, Porphyry's Book on, 36S, 369- Orders of the Ministry, The Three, 50. Ordination, Presbyterian, 42, 45, 447. Origen, against Celsus, 114. on Eaith and Philosophy, 116. on Moral and Physical Evil and Divine Grace, 118. . Theology of, 121. . Defence of Christianity, 213. his travels and training, 270. Studies and Ordination of, 271. controversies concerning, 272. life and writings of, 273. his system of teaching, 274. on the consecration of secular learning, 275. method of Scriptural interpreta- tion, 276. allegorical licence of, 277. on faith and facts, 27S. on the Logos, 278. on the Son of God, 279. on Future Punishment, 121,280. his temper and hfe, 281. and Tertullian, 282. . his Theology inadequate for the crisis at Rome, 291. Pantheism and Fatalism, 196. Papacy, Novelty of the, 462. Papal Supremacy (see Roman). Pastoral Epistles, St. Paul's, 40, 42. Paul of Samosata, heresy of, 396, 398. Paul's, St., Method of Missions, 36. Plan of Epistles, 37. Martyrdom of, 79. Persecution first from the Jews, 70. and its fruits, 87. under "Good Emperors,' moral reason for, 339. General, Edict for a, 356. Benefits from, 375, 380,464. Persecutions under Nero, 77. Fomitian, 82. Trajan, 123. Marcus Aurelius, — Septimius Severus, Maxim inus, 353. F^ecius, 354, 382. ^ Valerian, 316, 34S, Diocletian, 356, 363, Aurelian, 401. ary of, from A.D. I So to Council of Niccea, 352, in Gaul, 171. Pestilence, Dionysius of Alexandria on a, 343- Peter, St., his plan of preaching, 35. Martyrdom of, 79. Martyrdom of his wife, 79. Second Epistle. Genuineness of, 189. Philosophy, Moral failure of, 18. • The genuine and false con- trasted, 261. Imperfection of Gentile 154, 171. 177, 352. 351. 355- 376. Pausanias, 27. Pentecost, The Church built up at, 7, 463- systems of, 274. Plagues and Pestilences, uses of, 340. Pleroma of yEons, 205. Pliny the Elder, 22. the Younger, Letters to Trajan, 122, 325. Plutarch's searchings after truth, 27, 28. Polybius, 19. Polycarp, S., Bishop of Smyrna, 157. his Epistle to the Phi- lippians, 15-^. — collects the Epistles of S. Ignatius, 159. Episcopate of, 160. Martyrdom of, 161, 382. in Prayer, 165. before the Proconsul, 166. INDEX. 479 Polycarp, S.,his Birthday, 170. Polygamy, not encouraged by the Greeks and Romans, 326. Pontius, Deacon and Biographer of S. Cyprian, 345. Porphyry, 366. on Scripture — on Oracles, 369 Christianity, 370. Practical refutations of, 371. Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons, Martyrdom of, 174. Praxeas, The Patripassian, 290. Prayer and Praise, S. Clement's Hymn of, 254. Presbyter, sometimes called Episcopus, 46. Also a Bishop sometimes called Presbyter, 47, 48. Presbyterian Ordinations, 42, 45, 447. Priesthood, Foundation of the, 48. Priests, Christian, Canons concerning, 403, 411, 412. Primacy coupled with Consultation, 47- Private Judgment, ^Vbuse of, by Here- tics, 256. Probation, Man's Moral, 32. Prophets, Faith of the, 231. Provinces, Ecclesiastical, and Patriar- chates, 50. Prudentius, Hymns of, 306, 312. Puritans, Hooker's Reply to the, 320. Quinisext Council (Council in Trullo), 416. Quintilian, 23. Real Presence, in Holy Communion, Redemption and Matter, Gnostic no- tions of, 185. Reformation, Where was the Anglican Church before the ? 319. Resurrection, Christ's Acts and Sayings after His, 4. — (see also Body, Resurrec- tion of the). Retrospect and Reflections, 364. Rewards and Punishments, Future, 153- Rings, Christian, described by S. Cel- ment, 332. Ritual, Advantages of variety in, 418. Rock of the Church, 2, 7. Roman Empire, Why the Christians prayed for it, 99 Religion, Failure of the, 21. Roads preparations for Chris- tianity, 15, 447. Supremacy, S. Cyprian on the, 316. not recognized by Tertullian, 248, nor by Primitive Catholic Church, 85, 142, 388, 406. disproved by Coun- cil of Nicrea, 460. Rome, Church of, S. Iren£eus' Refer- ence to, 224 (see note). Council of, 405. Appeal from, to Constantine, 407. Dogm.itic dilemma at, 2S8. Lack of 'J'heological Science at, 290. Recovery of Church of, from heresy, 306. Succession of Church of, 224. Rule of P'aith (see Creed). Bishopj Sabbath, The weekly, a preparation for Christianity, 14. Sabellianism, Rise of, 303. Sacraments, The Chri.-^tian. 51. Necessity of the, 52. Types of the, 54. Doctrine of the, imperilled by Arianism, 429. Sacrifice, The Eucharistic, 59, 229. Samosata, Paul of, the Socinus of the third century, 396, 39S. condemned by the Council of Antioch, 400. Sanctus,a DeaconofVienne, Martyrdom of, 173, 3S2. Satan tempts men to worship him, 192. Saturninus, a lollower of Simon Magus, 194. Scaliger, Joseph, on records of Martyr- dom, 381. Schism, Wilful, declared sinful by S. Irenneus, 227. Science and Philosophy, to be pressed into the service of the Church, 274. Scripture, HoIy.Marcion's criticisms on, 200. 480 INDEX. Scripture, Holy, The Church the True Interpreter of, 230, 243. • garbled by Heretics, 244, 257, 293. Tertullian on appeals to, 243. — Origen on, 275. ■ S. Augustine, as an expositor of, 275 (see note). — Inspiration of, an Article of Faith, 364. Secular Power, Obedience to the, taught by Christianity, 375, 379. _ Secundus, an adherent of Arius, 459. "Seek and ye shall find," not to be applied to Articles of Faith, 240. Septuagint, Origin of the, 15. Serpent Worship, encouraged by the Gnostics, 193. Sethiani, The, 193. Sick, Care of the, by Christians, 334. Treatise of S. Cy- prian on, 335. Siloam, Pool of, Typical of Baptism, 53. Simon Magus, The Gnostic, 187. Sin, Deadly, 327. Slavery, 333. Slaves, Christian regard for, 334. Society, Attempts of Julius and Augus- tus to reform, 326. How Christianity undertook to reform it, 330. Soldiers, Christian, Martyrdoms of, 376. Spiritualism condemned as Montanism, 236. Stephen, Bishop of Rome, Acts of, 315. Stoic, Portrait of the, 154. Stoicism fatal to faith, 17. Submission and Obedience, 375, 379. Succession (see Apostolic). Suffering, The glory of, 102. Sunday, Primitive observance of, 62, 64, 152, 404. Superiors, Duties to Heathen, 379. Supremacy, Roman, not acknowledged by the Catholic Church, 248 (see note), 316 (and see Roman). Symeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr- dom of, 126. Tacitus, 22. Tatian, The Gnostic, 197. ' 'Teacher's error, the people's trial, "317. Tertullian on Baptism, 55. Tertullian, Address to the Jews, 74. Apology of, 93. on Christian Evidences, 96. "ad Scapulam," 103. - on Trajan's rescript, 125. becomes a Montanist, 235. Writings of, 237. Creed of, 241, on appeals to Holy Scripture, 243- on the Essence of truth and error, 246. Appeal to Apostolic Churches, 248. on religious divisions, 250. • and Origen compared, 280. Testament, Old, Christianity in the, 72, 464. Marcion on the, 201. Typical character of, 276, New, Marcion on the, 201. Testaments, One God in both, 224. Thaumaturgy, 28. Theodotus, Errors of, 288. Theonas, an adherent of Arius, 459, Therapeutae, Communities of the, 31. Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, 42. Titus, Bishop of Crete, 42. Toleration, Edicts of, 357, 361. Tradition, uncertainty of Oral, 222. ■ Apostolic. 224, Traditores, origin of term, 365, 409. elect a Bishop to Cirtha,40l. Trajan, Column of, 88, 126. is consulted by Pliny, 122. Rescript of, 124. Ignatius is brought before, 127. Transubstantiation, Doctrine of, un- known to the Fathers, 61. Trullo, Council in, 416. Truth, Unity and permanence of the, 245. What is the essence of? 246. Priority of, 247. Assaults against the, overruled for good, Pref. p. xii, xiii. Chaps, vii., viii., xxvi. Trypho, Dialogue of Justin Martyr with, 155. Unitarianism, Two forms of, at Rome, 289. Homilies of S. Hippo- lytus against, 297, 301. INDEX. 481 Unity and Antiquity the Essence of , Virgil, 24. Truth, 246. i Visitations, Uses Church, S. Ignatius on, 133. \ Divine, 340. to be made of Valentinianism, 210, described by S. n?eus, 216. i Wife's Sister, Marriage with deceased, I forbidden by Council of Elvira, 403. ■ Womanhood, Condition of, in Greece S. Cle- ! and at Rome, 21, 327. Ire- nient, 258. Valentinus, System of, 203, 208. on Christianity, 207. Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa, 402, Varro, 19, 22. Vatican Council, not a General one. 392. Vices consecrated by Heathenism, 328. Vincentius Lirinensis on Tertullian and Origen, 282. World's, The, needs and longings, 31. Worship, Holy Communion an essen- tial part of Christian, 65. Xystus, Bishop of Rome, 316. Zenobia, Queen, favours Paul of Sa- mosata, 399, 401. Zephyrinus, Bishop of Rome, 286, 287, 290, 291, 306. THE END. GILBERT AND RIVING'J ON, PRINTERS, ST, JOHN S SQUARE, LONDON. I i T HE HOLY B I B L E, Willi Introductions and Notes by CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D.D., Bisiior of Lincoln. THE OLD TESTAMENT, In the Authorized Version, with Introductions, Notes, and Index. In Paris. In Volumes. PART .c s. cL VOL £ s. d. L Genesis and Exodus . o 14 0 I. The Pentateuch I 5 0 11. Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy . o 12 0 11. Joshua to Samuel . 0 15 0 HI. Joshua, Judges, Ruth . o 9 0 IV. Books of Samuel . o 7 0 in. 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