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AN 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, 
 
 JUSTE 28, 1854. 
 
 REV. ALVAH HOVEY, 
 
 I*rofessor of" Church History. 
 
 ^BOSTON: 
 J. M. II EWES, 8 1 CORN HILL 
 
 1854. 
 

 ^AStil 
 
 "GTON 
 
 ,o 
 
 Jt° 
 
 ^*y4** 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 Heretofore the officers of this Institution have been 
 wont, when elected, to enter upoii the performance 
 of their duties without the formality of a public address. 
 In deviating from this course, sanctioned by usage, and 
 altogether congenial to my feelings, I act in deference to 
 the opinion of others, and from a conviction that the 
 department of Christian study to which I am called, has 
 not been fully and generally appreciated by us. Vener- 
 ation, by no means too high or sincere, for the Scriptures 
 and the Apostolic Church, has led us, it may be feared, 
 to undervalue and in some measure neglect the record of 
 what Christianity has wrought in the world during the 
 lapse of these eighteen centuries. My discourse will 
 therefore be expected to treat of this great record ; and 
 the particular points which I propose to discuss, are the 
 character and value of a good history of our holy religion, 
 from the death of Paul to the present time. For thus 
 may be indicated with least obtrusiveness the aim and 
 the importance of instruction in the department entrusted 
 to my care. 
 
 And as to the character of such a history, it may be 
 said in general, that it must give a trustworthy account 
 of the progress and influence of Christianity among men. 
 
It must reproduce before the mind those scenes of trial, 
 conflict and victory, by which, in defiance of all enemies, 
 the truth has been preserved and "the household of 
 faith ' ' continued from age to age ; by which the friends 
 of Christ have been made pure and strong and joyful in 
 the midst of restless foes and seductive temptations. It 
 must recall and re enact, by the power of graphic lan- 
 guage, the successive campaigns of this grand warfare 
 and bring to light the Christian forces which have been 
 most efficient when set against " principalities and pow- 
 ers and spiritual wickedness in high places." It must 
 extract from the dead languages of the faded manuscript, 
 from the rusty coin and the huge mediaeval folio, words 
 of energy and light, to animate the drooping and inspire 
 the studious mind. It must break the crust which has 
 hardened over those old fountains of knowledge, and let 
 the waters of truth gush out in various and refreshing 
 streams. It must also guide those liberated currents into 
 appropriate channels, as the Egyptian gardener, with 
 skilful hand, turns the obedient rivulets whithersoever he 
 will to water his thirsty plants. In other words, it must 
 draw from the original sources of knowledge respecting 
 the Church, in each separate period of her history, suita- 
 ble and interesting facts, and then grouping them to- 
 gether with the eye of genius, form a series of truthful 
 portraits, giving at once the permanent and the varying 
 features of this Church. 
 
 To be more specific, we believe that such a history 
 must be extracted substantially from original documents. 
 Though not in words, it must be in thought and spirit a 
 transcript from the testimony of first witnesses and make 
 the same impression, weariness excepted, upon a discern- 
 ing mind, which would have been made by the perusal 
 
of their testimony in full. For history does not move in 
 the domain of fiction, but in that of fact. It has to do 
 with actual events, with the endurances and achieve- 
 ments and opinions of a real, not a Utopian Common- 
 wealth. It should be, no doubt, a sublime epic, reciting 
 the deeds of Immanuel with His host, and doing far 
 more than Milton's " great argument " to 
 
 " Assert Eternal Providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to men." 
 
 It is called to celebrate feats of moral heroism nobler 
 than imagination ever feigned, and to recount events 
 ordained of God for the accomplishment of His high 
 designs. But it must cling to the truth. It must intro- 
 duce no phantom upon the battle-fields of this holy war- 
 fare, no shadowy form to mingle with earnest combatants 
 in the army of Christ. It must be careful not to make 
 the oracle of divine Providence either ambiguous or 
 false, not to " extenuate, or set down aught in malice." 
 Professing to let the voices of the Past be heard afresh, 
 and pour their wisdom into the hearts of living men, it 
 may err as fatally by the omission of that which is im- 
 portant as by the fabrication of that which never occur- 
 red. But no analysis or summary or report of testimony 
 can be so reliable as the unabridged testimony itself. 
 For a slight error, admitted through prejudice or over- 
 sight by an investigator of the original evidence, is liable 
 to increase in magnitude and assurance when repeated 
 by another; — "mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo." 
 The second reporter is not checked by those countervail- 
 ing facts which tempered the language of the first, and 
 rendered it impossible for him to deviate unconsciously 
 so far from the truth. Accordingly whatever labor it 
 
may cost, a good history of the Church must be founded, 
 like the verdict of an enlightened jury, upon the earliest 
 and most direct evidence. Otherwise, moreover, it will 
 be deficient in clearness, precision and vivacity of style. 
 It may, indeed, display these excellencies, though rest- 
 ing upon derived testimony, but only at the sacrifice of 
 trustworthiness, a far more essential quality. For if 
 merely such facts are admitted as are considered authen- 
 tic, and reported alike by a large majority of those who 
 have examined the primitive sources, the narrative will 
 seem cold and bald and unattractive. Xo reader will be 
 greatly interested. The scenes of other days will not 
 rise up before his mind ; the moral atmosphere of the 
 past will not surround or enter his spirit. He will trav- 
 erse a barren waste, with but here and there a pile of 
 whitened bones or a solitary mound to attract his atten- 
 tion. If, on the other hand, that which is omitted, or 
 called in question, or variously stated, by investigators 
 of the original documents, be freely received, the work 
 becomes thereby unworthy of confidence. However 
 attractive, it forfeits the character of reliable history, and 
 assumes that of mingled fiction and fact. 
 
 Without pausing to justify this proposition by further 
 argument, we add, in the second place, that a correct 
 view of Christianity itself must underlie and pervade 
 every good history of the Church. This normal idea will 
 give unity, coherence, meaning and interest to details 
 otherwise impertinent and wearisome. It will effectually 
 prevent the intrusion of thoughts or facts alien to the 
 subject, and like the force of attraction, will seize and 
 hold with the strongest grasp that which possesses the 
 greatest affinity to it. Wisely to choose his materials 
 constitutes half the merit of an able historian. Even 
 
where all the facts spread out before his mind appear 
 self-consistent and reliable, a selection must be made ; 
 many must be examined, but few admitted. 
 
 It was unnecessary for the Evangelists to put on record 
 all the words of Christ in order to give us a true concep- 
 tion of His spirit and work. The immense labor of pre- 
 paring so minute and exhaustive an account would have 
 been worse than lost. For if by the special providence 
 of God the endless narrative had been saved from de- 
 struction, few persons would have been able to obtain or 
 peruse it, and still fewer would have made any consider- 
 able use of more than a fraction of its contents. Hence 
 the wisdom of God is manifest in the brevity of the Gos- 
 pels, even without urging the presumption, that a fuller 
 record would have merely re enforced, in other language 
 addressed to other hearers, the same fundamental truths 
 which we now have. 
 
 But if the Evangelists were compelled to omit a large 
 part of our Saviour's words, every one of which they 
 esteemed an oracle from heaven, lest their narrations 
 should be unduly protracted ; it is quite certain that a 
 still larger proportion of existing materials must be re- 
 jected by a historian of the Church. For the facts here 
 craving attention are beyond comparison more numerous 
 and of less intrinsic value. Every earnest historian, 
 therefore, remitted to his own judgment or taste in the 
 choice of all the minor events to be noticed, will be 
 guided in this delicate part of his work mainly by the 
 idea which he has formed of Christianity in its normal 
 state. This idea will also organize his chosen materials, 
 placing one historical personage in the fore-ground, and 
 another in the back-ground, letting a beam of light fall 
 upon this occurrence and a dim shadow upon that, sketch- 
 
8 
 
 ing with patient love the features of an approved doc- 
 trine, but giving in sharp outline the skeleton of a creed 
 which he firmly believes to be unchristian and pernicious. 
 Meanwhile the writer knows himself to be upright, and 
 believes himself to be impartial. His sole purpose and 
 effort are to represent the Church of Christ in all the 
 stages of its growth and activity. Provided, then, he 
 understands the nature of that church, and is able to 
 distinguish it readily from every counterfeit, all is well. 
 But an error at this point vitiates the whole perform- 
 ance ; a misconception in regard to the real character- 
 istics or constitutive elements of that kingdom, whose 
 history he professes to relate, must greatly mar the ex- 
 cellence of his work. 
 
 A genuine Komanist, who believes the invisible church 
 on earth is all contained within the visible, and who ex- 
 cludes from the latter those of every name who do not 
 submit to the Pope, and recognize his primacy in spirit- 
 ual concerns, can hardly with a good conscience notice 
 Protestants of any age, save in the language of anathema. 
 A fatal prejudgment separates them, as by a wall of ice, 
 from his sympathy ; denies them, with the sternness of 
 an infallible decision, any place or part among the faith- 
 ful, and requires him to pass them by in silence on the 
 other side, or call attention with the finger of warning 
 and accents of horror to their sad apostacy. 
 
 But on the other hand, whoever believes that Chris- 
 tianity is preeminently spiritual and internal, a divine 
 life and power, transforming the individual soul, and 
 dependent for its birth and growth upon no particular 
 ritual or sacrament, or human priesthood ; whoever be- 
 lieves, with Neander, that this new creation within may 
 reveal itself with equal clearness through many and 
 
9 
 
 diverse organizations adapted to the wants of each period 
 and people, will produce a far other and more compre- 
 hensive history of the Church. He will find true wisdom 
 in the cavern and white-robed innocence in the dungeon, 
 springs of water in the desert and flowers of piety on the 
 Alpine summit. The stroke of his pen, like the touch of 
 Ithuriel's spear, will change many a heretic into a mar- 
 tyr, and many a caricature into a likeness ; will restore 
 multitudes to their proper size and station in the religious 
 world, and give to living faith and love the place which 
 is often assumed by empty form and disguised hypoc- 
 risy. 
 
 Still, another historian may be convinced that Chris- 
 tianity is first personal, and then organic — first a new 
 life in the individual soul, and then a representation of 
 that life in fellowship with others ; that it neither de- 
 scends by inheritance, like an heir-loom, from genera- 
 tion to generation, nor is conveyed as balm into the 
 heart by holy offices and solemn rites, that it must rather- 
 be traced directly to the spirit of God and the word 
 of truth, and hence may exist notwithstanding many 
 changes in the polity and ritual of the church as planted 
 by the Apostles ; and yet with equal firmness may be- 
 lieve, that our Saviour cared for the order of His house, 
 and in due time, by the agency of inspired men, formed 
 the primitive converts of each city or district into a 
 model family ; that every departure from this original 
 and fraternal organization of believers is dangerous to 
 piety, and every attempt to improve it rash and sedi- 
 tious — like an attempt to improve the word of God — 
 tending either to secularize or to paganize the religion 
 of Christ ; he may believe that the whole process of 
 boasted development in the constitution of the Church, 
 
10 
 
 since the first age, has been revolutionary and injurious, 
 and all her sacramental and liturgical growth imaginary 
 — like modern advances upon the personal excellence of 
 Christ — or unnatural, obliterating more and more those 
 characteristics of true religion which were adduced by 
 Tertullian as manifestly divine, namely, the remarkable 
 simplicity of its rites and the inexpressible grandeur of 
 its effects. Now to the eye of such an author, that 
 stream of living water, issuing " from the fountain open- 
 ed in Judah," must appear to separate at length, like 
 the river of Eden, and flow on in many divergent chan- 
 nels ; — one of them sweeping heavily down through the 
 valley, and receiving from either hand a multitude of 
 turbid affluents, to swell its volume and vitiate its purity 
 and destroy its healing virtue, — while others, winding 
 their way along the hill-sides, amid rocks and trees, re- 
 tain their sweetness, and sparkle with transparent life 
 under every little patch of sky and every beam of his- 
 toric light to which they are exposed. Such a historian 
 would gladly lift the veil, whether of silence or slander, 
 from all of every name, who in their day ''fought a good 
 fight and kept the faith. " He would commemorate 
 with peculiar satisfaction the deeds of those who braved 
 death rather than swerve from the truth. And by a 
 proper arrangement he would suffer the events of history 
 to utter their emphatic protest against any deviation, 
 however slight, from apostolic doctrine or practice. 
 Oftentimes have these events failed to do this, simply 
 because writers, in the course of their narrative, have 
 given to them the color of their own false opinions, just 
 as rocks are said to impart their color to the clinging 
 polypus. 
 
 The instances now alleged show how greatly his own 
 
11 
 
 idea of Christianity must control a historian in the choice 
 and use of his materials, and establish our proposition 
 that a correct view of the Church as to its chief elements 
 must underlie every good history of it. The warmth of 
 honest zeal can be no substitute for this view, for zeal, 
 however sincere, if not according to knowledge, may but 
 clothe the form of error in robes of brighter hue, and 
 twist the face of truth awry with a more steady and re- 
 lentless hand ; it may call evil good, and good evil, with 
 the strong emphasis of real conviction, and this convic- 
 tion is a thing so fair and noble in itself, as to hide, 
 perchance, the ugliness of deformity and make the worse 
 appear the better reason. Nor can the cold equity arro- 
 gated to themselves by such as profess to study and 
 write, without the bias of any foregone conclusion as to 
 the nature of Christianity, prove a better substitute for 
 this view. To keep one's mind in perfect suspense 
 touching so great a matter, is clearly impossible ; but 
 were it not, — were this ignorant equipoise of judgment, 
 resting on a sublime indifference to all which speaks of 
 God and eternity, actually maintained by an ecclesiasti- 
 cal historian, how then could he distinguish the genuine 
 from the spurious ? How could he discover and honor 
 the true ship of the Church amid fleets of piratical craft 
 sailing under her colors ? 
 
 But whence shall a right conception of the Church be 
 obtained ? From the New Testament, and from that 
 alone. If, then, as we humbly venture to believe, 
 Christians of our denomination have turned to this sun 
 for light, and have received substantially correct impres- 
 sions respecting the faith and order of God's house, they 
 possess at least one qualification for the profitable study 
 and truthful delineation of its history. 
 
12 
 
 And further, special prominence must be given in such 
 a history to questions which still agitate the Church. It 
 must be penetrated throughout by spiritual earnestness, 
 and seek to elucidate the real problems of religion and 
 life. For these are of permanent and transcendent 
 interest They embrace every thing of supreme impor- 
 tance to the soul. Having claimed the deepest thought 
 of spiritual men from the first, by their weight or mys- 
 tery, they articulate and conjoin the past with the present, 
 and exhibit the most absorbing religious investigations of 
 each successive period in the Church, as belonging to 
 the identical web of Christian life or discipline which 
 men of God are now weaving. They are the strong, 
 benignant angels, with whom, by the wise providence of 
 God, the faithful have ever been called anew to wrestle. 
 Hence they must occupy a conspicuous place in every 
 well-executed history of our religion. 
 
 Whatever benefit may accrue to science, philosophy, 
 and literature, from the prevalence of Christianity, its 
 primary mission is to the moral nature of man. Its 
 chief purpose and work are to deliver the soul from guilt, 
 and crown it with eternal life. It may, indeed, have 
 taken heavy chains from the intellect, and strengthened 
 it for flight into higher realms of scientific investigation ; 
 it may have irradiated large spaces of the soul, which 
 were dark as midnight before, and brought to view 
 sources of good or evil, after which mental explorers had 
 groped in vain ; it may have established the only perfect 
 law of beneficence, and suggested to philanthropy her 
 best modes of action ; it may have invigorated the 
 reason, raised the imagination and refined the taste of 
 authors, thus enlarging the channels and purifying the 
 waters of literature ; and all this may deserve brief 
 
 I 
 
 
13 
 
 notice and delineation in a history of Christianity ; an 
 account of all this may be infused into the pores of the 
 body of the work, adding to its value, without augment- 
 ing its bulk ; — but the principal object for which the 
 Word was made flesh, and suffered upon Calvary, and 
 the principal office assigned to His Gospel and His king- 
 dom, were unquestionably to fulfil the counsel of Infinite 
 Love, " that whosoever believeth might not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." 
 
 And from the days of Paul until now, the true servants 
 of God have recognized this peculiarity of the Gospel, 
 have thought more of its saving than of its civilizing 
 power, have rather been anxious to ascertain the moral 
 attitude of man towards his Maker, and the appointed 
 means of reconciliation, than to learn the effect which 
 their religion has upon the temporal interests of society. 
 They have acknowledged no doctrines of theology or 
 polity to be cardinal, except those which go to answer 
 that tremendous question : " What shall we do to be 
 saved ? " And therefore must these doctrines, traceable 
 in every age of the Church, be employed as the unbroken 
 and continuous warp of her history. For the language 
 of the wise man is ever true : " As in water face answer- 
 eth to face, so the heart of man to man." Through all 
 time the general make and strength of human spirits 
 abide unchanged. In the search after truth much the 
 same path is trodden by the mind of father and son. 
 " The thing that hath been is the thing that shall be." 
 Theologians of to-day are working the old veins of 
 thought, and but casting into fresher and more approved 
 forms gold, or silver, or brass, taken from mines opened 
 long ago by the primitive explorer. 
 
 Nor do we by this language depreciate the labors of 
 
14 
 
 any. Even Christ himself chose for the most part to re- 
 assert known principles of virtue. His moral precepts 
 had been nearly all anticipated. Whether this pre- 
 ■ announcement of them, to a considerable extent, by 
 heathen sages, was owing to somewhat religious in the 
 structure of man's soul, causing it to light upon them in 
 its lucid moments, or to a touch of inspiration, a breath 
 from the Spirit, granted in mercy to thoughtful, earnest 
 pagans, or, as we imagine, to some dim tradition and 
 echo of early messages from God, may be doubtful ; but 
 of their presence, here and there, in the masses of classi- 
 cal literature, like solitary kernels of wheat in huge 
 mountains of chaff, there can be no doubt. And the 
 Messiah's chief work as an ethical teacher, was to unite 
 the dissevered members of truth into a living body, — to 
 present, in a compact, homogeneous system, those ex- 
 pressions of the divine law of right and benevolence, 
 which had before existed only in a fragmentary state, 
 remote from each other, and almost lost under the rub- 
 bish of human speculation. 
 
 But if Christ was content to reassert old principles, 
 because they were true and supremely important, it can- 
 not be thought strange that Christians do the same ; it 
 cannot be deemed surprising that nearly all the mighty 
 thinkers and doers in the Church, nearly all believers 
 characterized by downright honesty of purpose and ener- 
 gy of action, have been irresistibly drawn to a few cen- 
 tral, cardinal doctrines of the faith, and that a record of 
 their struggles from age to age, while endeavoring to 
 appropriate more fully, and use more efficiently these 
 great powers, may constitute the best and vital part of a 
 good history. 
 
 As doctrines of this class, may be specified those which 
 
15 
 
 pertain to the nature of God's law, the moral state of our 
 race, the person and work of Christ, and the way to 
 holiness in Him, — to the examination of which serious 
 men have ever been attracted by their infinite weight. 
 From the beginning, genuine Christians have wished to 
 know and defend the truth in relation to these matters ; 
 and so, too, have the foes of Christ striven with des- 
 perate rivalry to pervert or bedim this truth. In every 
 adequate record, therefore, of what Christianity has been 
 and has done, these principles must continually appear. 
 The earnestness and vigor with which men have often 
 met around them in spiritual conflict, must animate the 
 narrative, and make it well nigh tremble with emotion, 
 as air trembles under the glowing sunbeam. 
 
 Yet it is by no means enough thus to recognize topics 
 of enduring interest, and give them large space in the 
 account. They must also be treated with discrimination. 
 Studious attention must be paid to the relative impor- 
 tance of each for the several periods of history. For in 
 every distinct era of her existence, has the Church been 
 compelled to undertake some leading, urgent task. By 
 a wise foresight and arrangement of God the vital prob- 
 lems of Christian doctrine have come up in turn for 
 investigation ; as the humanity of Christ in one age and 
 His divinity in another, now the moral constitution of 
 man, and then the nature of the atonement, here the* use 
 of ordinances, and there the potency of faith ; and thus 
 every period has had its own high lesson to teach, and 
 its own deep impression to make. A failure to compre- 
 hend these characteristic lessons, and to imprint them on 
 the pages of his book, must be fatal to the success of any 
 historian. 
 
 Still more fatal, however, must be the error of intro- 
 
16 
 
 during, to any great extent, that which belongs exclu- 
 sively to the past, and has no representative or counter- 
 part in the land of the living. Questions, which long 
 ago lost their hold on the general mind, merit only a 
 rapid survey. Gratifying a mere antiquarian curiosity 
 in religion, they pertain rather to the history of mental 
 science than to that of Christianity. We must look upon 
 many speculations of the early Church as we look upon 
 the fossil remains of extinct races in the animal kingdom. 
 They lie before us cold and motionless, the relics of an 
 age and condition of the spiritual world, which have 
 passed away, never more to return. Several opinions, 
 vigorously advocated by scholastic writers in the middle 
 ages, now exist merely as rigid petrifactions, which no 
 eloquence of speech can resuscitate. They were shoots 
 from the philosophic willow grafted into the Christian 
 vine ; and while the vine still remains, deeply rooted 
 and perennial, those adventitious shoots have flourished 
 into sterile branches, and been cut off forever. And so 
 the historian can give them no conspicuous place in his 
 work. He must leave them to rest undisturbed, or else 
 must insert them in whatever crevices lie between his 
 larger and better materials, just as the skilful stone-layer 
 drops many a bit and fragment into the chinks of his 
 rising wall. Nor will such treatment necessarily deprive 
 the reader of some adequate knowledge of their peculiar- 
 ities. For the language of Irenseus is still a proverb : 
 Non oportet, universum ebibere mare eum, qui velit discere, 
 quod aqua ejus salsa est. " One need not drink the 
 whole ocean to learn that its waters are salt." 
 
 We may close this part of our subject by remarking, 
 that excellence of style must also characterize a good 
 history of the Church. It must not merely contain the 
 
17 
 
 truth, but display it. Events must neither be hidden by 
 cumbrous phraseology, nor outshone by splendor of dic- 
 tion. A glimpse of them will not attract or satisfy ; 
 they must be made to stand forth full, and clear, and 
 lifelike. Words in this case should serve, not to inter- 
 cept one's vision of great transactions, but to clothe them 
 instead as with a robe of " filmy gauze," and solicit a 
 reader's eye to look upon the reality again. He may 
 then be made to follow with intense sympathy the church 
 militant, and in spirit " fight all her battles o'er again." 
 If history be thus written, — if the facts are wisely cho- 
 sen, grouped, and set in strong, terse, graphic language, 
 — no species of human composition can be more interest- 
 ing or instructive. Loquitur in stilo . . . litter a omni 
 ore vocalior* " The author's pen will speak, and his 
 written word be more effective than any eloquence of 
 tongue." 
 
 Provided my attempt to describe a good history of the 
 Church has been at all successful, we are now prepared 
 to consider the value of such a history. And the pre- 
 sumption is altogether in its favor. For ' ' God is in 
 history," and especially in the history of His people. 
 His presence is their " cloud by day and pillar of fire by 
 night." His favor is their life, and His benediction 
 their pledge of victory. The story of their achievements 
 is the record of what God has wrought. And next to 
 the infallible Word, this record brings us nearest the 
 Holy One, and points out most distinctly His way among 
 men. 
 
 It shows, in the first place, that God has done great 
 things for the world by our holy religion, Whoever 
 
 * Tertullian, 
 
13 
 
 would appreciate the Church of Christ as a factor in the 
 history of mankind, let him obtain at the outset correct 
 views of the world when this factor was introduced. Let 
 him go back in spirit to the age of Tiberius Caesar, and 
 look into the houses and palaces, the schools and courts 
 of justice, the temples and theatres, the camps and pri- 
 sons of a people, who did "not like to retain God in 
 their knowledge," and were therefore " given over to a 
 reprobate mind." Let him hear the deep wail of Tacitus 
 over the degeneracy of Rome, and listen to the awful 
 confession of Seneca respecting the vices of his time ; 
 let him study the satires of Juvenal, and ponder the 
 words of Ovid, Suetonius and Dion, so illustrative of a 
 sinking world. Let him examine in detail the writings 
 of that period, till he feels in his deepest soul the utter 
 impotence of philosophy and science and art to save men 
 from the vilest passions and the lowest infamy. For we 
 must know the original depth as well as the present 
 height of an object, in order to measure the distance 
 which it has passed over in the ascent. And hence, to 
 see the ripe fruit of paganism ; — her sages drifting away 
 on a sea of doubt ; her moralists feeling in blind despe- 
 ration after the pillars of right ; her temples polluted by 
 nameless and multiplied crimes ; her princes reckless, 
 and her populace abject ; her simplicity and earnestness 
 and manhood clean gone forever : — And then to look upon 
 Israel, old and peevish ; her gold dim and her sceptre 
 departed ; her sanctuary a den of thieves, and her teach- 
 ers blind ; her law buried under the rubbish of tradition, 
 and her charity more contracted than her boundaries, — 
 to see that " darkness covered the earth and gross dark- 
 ness the people," and to hear ever and anon voices of 
 despair publishing the woe : this, alas ! must be the in- 
 
19 
 
 troduction to his study. The earth was then a broad 
 plain, on which rested a cold, dark mist. Scarce a hill- 
 top pierced this veil of fog and gloom to the sunlight 
 above. Scarce a solitary pilgrim could be discovered 
 here and there climbing upward to catch a gleam of the 
 cheerful day. 
 
 But now, in man's extremest need, the Word was 
 made flesh : He " who was the brightness of the Father's 
 glory and the express image of His person," took the 
 form of a servant, and walked lowly and gently among 
 men. His feet were upon earth, but his head was above 
 the mist and above the cloud, radiant with the glory of 
 heaven. All spiritual wisdom was concentrated in Him, 
 and superstition fled before His luminous teaching. He 
 knew all the tones and semitones of the scale of truth, 
 and all the divine harmonies ever to be evolved from 
 them. He could touch at once every string of the golden 
 harp of wisdom, and elicit gushing strains of melody and 
 life. Yet mindful of human weakness, He but linked 
 together in a few simple airs of " majestic sweetness " 
 the fundamental chords of holy science, and reserved the 
 more intricate and difficult combinations for another 
 world. 
 
 A little company of disciples were drawn to His feet, 
 listened to His sacred voice, opened their eyes to His 
 divine effulgence, and sprang upward from darkness to 
 day. And at length, after the Master had ascended on 
 high, and the Holy Spirit had come clown to inspire their 
 minds with supernatural insight and prevailing faith, 
 they were qualified to plant and train the Church of 
 Christ, and were enabled to put on record for later gen- 
 erations all necessary truth. At their departure inspira- 
 tion ceased. The well of salvation was large, deep, full, 
 
20 
 
 and men were henceforth invited to draw and be re- 
 freshed. The facts or elements of Christian truth were 
 given for all time. 
 
 But only an infinite mind could fully comprehend these 
 elements. They were, however, to be used by men, 
 faithful indeed, but not profound, by men nurtured in 
 the midst of paganism, and breathing its tainted atmos- 
 phere, accustomed to moral twilight, and half bound by 
 false philosophies. And so the Word of God was im- 
 perfectly understood, — the line of investigation floating 
 awhile on the surface of truth. Many errors crept into 
 the Church through the gate of bad interpretation. A 
 nimble, untamed fancy, which exulted in allegory, par- 
 able and paradox, was suffered to explain the Bible ac- 
 cording to its own license in the use of speech. Whole 
 cosmogonies from the East were bound, like the burden 
 of Bunyan's pilgrim, to a few passages of Scripture, and 
 thus brought within the fold. Regeneration was at 
 length taken to be a mere opus operatum, a change effect- 
 ed by the virtue of baptismal waters. The clergy in 
 certain places became powerful, and began to say, each 
 to his brother, " Stand by thyself, for I am holier than 
 thou." They grew more tenacious of authority and less 
 watchful for souls. Meanwhile kings undertook to pat- 
 ronize the faith which they once strove to quench in 
 blood. They waxed zealous for their own several ortho- 
 doxy. They set up one and cast down another in the 
 visible Church. They took part in general councils, and 
 facilitated the settlement of theological questions by 
 promptly adding to the gravity of argument the weight 
 of a drawn sword. Pagan temples, and shrines, and 
 festivals, and rites, were now consecrated afresh, and 
 
21 
 
 solemnly appropriated for holy use by a secularized 
 Christianity. Rome subdued her conquerers ! 
 
 But let us not be too fast. There were seven lamps 
 on the golden candlestick, and we may have watched but 
 one of them. The eclipse of nominal Christianity may 
 yet be merely annular. There may be a rim of light 
 still clear and warm, upon the outer circle of the orb, a 
 " silver margin to the cloud" which has grown so 
 black. And it is even so. Christ did not suffer his 
 word to fail. There were many then living and toiling, 
 of whom the world was not worthy. There were com- 
 munities little observed by the great and wise, who 
 nevertheless kept the faith. There were unpretending 
 believers, cast out as evil and laden with curses by the 
 dominant hierarchy, who never ceased to make cave, glen 
 and mountain height vocal with praise to God. And 
 these were the true succession. By meekness, endur- 
 ance and charity, by the "work of faith and labor of 
 love and patience of hope," they verified their priestly 
 lineage and calling. With an open Bible and a new 
 heart, they refused to amalgamate with paganism, even 
 when their refusal entailed the loss of all things, the giv- 
 ing of their bodies to be burned and of their memory to 
 reproach. 
 
 But these were not all. Some in the papal church 
 turned with fainting spirit to the Word of God, and 
 drank long and deep of its crystal waters. Refreshed 
 and invigorated, they began to labor also for others. 
 Whole sections of the Church wavered in attachment to 
 the see of Rome, and were hardly retained in her orbit 
 by sword and fagot. Men of strong intellect, liberal 
 culture and genuine faith, like Augustine and Pascal, 
 took up the massive links of truth given by inspiration, 
 
22 
 
 and welded them into mighty chains, binding the soul to 
 free grace for salvation, and breaking down by their 
 ponderous weight the arrogance of human pride and self- 
 sufficiency. As the work went on, better principles of 
 interpretation were adopted, reformation came, preaching 
 was resumed, Bibles were multiplied, and now truth is 
 entering into actual and earnest conflict with systems of 
 error all over the world. And this truth is the great 
 iconoclastic hammer of God Almighty, falling evermore, 
 stroke after stroke, with increasing frequency and force, 
 upon the stony head of idolatry ; a head, terribly jarred 
 and splintered already, which that hammer shall at length 
 beat in pieces and crush to dust and destroy utterly, that 
 Christ may " reign from sea to sea, and from the river 
 to the ends of the earth." 
 
 And by comparing the world of to-day with the world 
 at Christ's advent, it will appear that God has done 
 marvellous things for it by our holy religion. Homes 
 and schools, prisons and asylums, churches and benevo- 
 lent associations, all bear witness to a vast increase of 
 knowledge and a partial renovation of society. A his- 
 torical survey of the true Church will show that her 
 members have been all along a brotherhood of spiritual 
 noblemen, the best blood of our race, rejoicing in the 
 hope of eternal life, and contending manfully for the 
 faith once delivered to the saints. 
 
 And if, after such a survey, religion should still seem 
 to have made slow advances, and done very little for so 
 long a period, let us remember that " one day is with 
 the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as 
 one day." He is often pleased to elaborate, by means 
 of varied instruments and through slowly moving centu- 
 ries, those works which are in a signal manner to show 
 
23 
 
 forth His power and benevolence. And He will never 
 be straitened for time to carry fitly onward to its final 
 issue the plan of mercy devised before the foundation of 
 the world. Although we live in the " last clays," we 
 have nevertheless seen "only the beginning of the end." 
 Christianity has gathered in merely the first sheaf of her 
 rich and glorious harvest. Enough, however, has been 
 done to prove her divine parentage, and the presence of 
 God in her tents. Enough has been done to make her 
 history, fairly written, the most instructive, admonitory 
 and encouraging volume, apart from the Bible, which 
 men can be invited to read. 
 
 Such a history possesses great value, in the second 
 place, because it reveals the actual law of progress in 
 Christianity. It is something to know that the cause of 
 God has not been stationary since the close of the Apos- 
 tolic era, that there has been a constant ebb or flow of 
 tide in the spiritual world, a movement perpetual, and on 
 the whole, progressive. It is something for a thoughtful 
 Christian to find such words as " the righteous also shall 
 hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be 
 stronger and stronger," applicable, not only to the indi- 
 vidual believer, but to the entire body of Christ as well, 
 and to rejoice in the simple fact of growth on the part of 
 God's people in knowledge and virtue. But this is not 
 enough. We feel it to be equally desirable to under- 
 stand the law of spiritual action under which this grati- 
 fying change has been effected ; we deem it equally 
 important to discover the method adopted and the agen- 
 cies employed by our Saviour for the advancement of His 
 cause. For such knowledge will qualify us to enter into 
 His plans, and cooperate in their fulfilment. 
 
 Now, after the Bible, Church History is called to the 
 
24 
 
 office of furnishing this knowledge. It shows how inter- 
 pretation, biblical theology, and Christian ethics, have 
 come to be understood far better than in the second cen- 
 tury, how devout men of each successive generation have 
 entered into the labors of their predecessors, resuming 
 and carrying forward the investigation of God's unchang- 
 ing Word from the point where it had been left before, 
 and how every step in advance, taken by the faithful, is 
 nevertheless a step in return to the primitive, divinely 
 authorized belief and constitution of the Church, — the 
 stream never flowing higher than its fountain head. 
 
 For the Apostles, under the influence of a divine power, 
 did not for the most part write or speak mechanically, 
 but intelligently, appreciating better than we are yet 
 able to do the import of their own language, and its 
 bearing in each case upon other doctrines of their Master ; 
 and therefore it may be presumed, that no essential prin- 
 ciples of Christian truth or ecclesiastical polity were neg- 
 lected by them in teaching the Churches. The opinion, 
 that various types or schools of belief, — as the Petrine, 
 Pauline, Johannean, — were established by the Apostles 
 in the regions where they severally labored, and that in 
 the best of these schools, or in some later sample of the 
 Church, regarded as a mixture of them all, we are to 
 look for the ultimate and maturest form of Christianity, 
 is neither authorized by the New Testament, nor sup- 
 ported by analogy, nor deducible by fair interpretation 
 from the events of history. It is unreasonable to pre- 
 sume that parties and strifes were sown in the heart of 
 primitive Christianity by inspired teachers. God does 
 not thus introduce division and weakness into His own 
 household. It is also an error to suppose the first Chris- 
 tians incompetent to receive the leading doctrines of our 
 
25 
 
 faith, or unwilling to discharge the practical duties of it. 
 They were bold, earnest, self-denying, and ready to fol- 
 low Christ through evil as well as good report. In every 
 thing which pertains to the constitution and government 
 and ordinances of the Church, they were not a whit be- 
 hind the very chiefest of their successors. 
 
 But in regard to the deeper truths of divine revela- 
 tion and their manifold bearings upon each other and 
 the spiritual life of mankind, the early Christians were 
 but children. What the Apostles knew by virtue of a 
 special gift, must be evolved from their writings by ages 
 of study. One after another, men of powerful intellect 
 and great experience must be raised up to search the 
 Scriptures, bring to light, arrange, and apply their pro- 
 founder truths, and then pour them by the agency of 
 voice or pen into the bosom of Christian society,— there 
 to spread and work, silently perhaps, but swiftly, from 
 member to member, till the whole body feels their quick- 
 ening energy, and the Church springs forward in her 
 course of light. By a repetition of this process, alike 
 honorable to the Word of God and the dignity of regen- 
 erated, individual man, as well as encouraging to per- 
 sonal effort and a sense of responsibility on the part of 
 every disciple to his Master, has Christianity made all 
 her progress in the world ; each succeeding laborer hav- 
 ing the advantage of a higher starting-point than his 
 predecessors, and of all the knowledge deposited by them 
 in the common mind of Christendom, if not in books ; 
 while yet nothing is accomplished without the working 
 of intelligent, sanctifying faith upon the heart, and the 
 strenuous exertions of single-handed zeal for the truth. 
 In the army of believers Christ expects " every man to 
 do his duty." And whenever there has appeared in this 
 
26 
 
 army a true champion, wholly devoted to his King and 
 cause, others have caught the spirit of Christian heroism, 
 the standard of truth has been carried forward, and the 
 Word has been fulfilled, that " one should chase a thou- 
 sand, and two put ten thousand to flight." 
 
 Were there ample time for the purpose, it would be 
 suitable for me, in the next place, to indicate the polem- 
 ical value of such a history. It would be well to portray 
 the severe struggles which now engage or presently await 
 the friends of Christ. It would be proper to notice, for 
 example, the startling theories of inspiration and Church 
 development lately inaugurated, the fierce audacity of 
 disbelief, screaming out its challenge and defiance, the 
 servile prostration of credulity kissing the great toe of a 
 spiritual autocrat and clamoring for the restoration of ex- 
 pelled darkness, the weasel approaches of lithe Jesuitism 
 and the shameless polygamy of Latter Day Saints. And 
 then it would be desirable to show how the Providence 
 of Grod, as explained by the story of His people, would 
 teach us to encounter these foes of good, and how jet 
 after jet of historic light, cast into the very centre of this 
 dense, black cloud of impending evils, must reveal its 
 nature and fortify us against its violence. For existing 
 errors have their roots in the past. To understand their 
 nature, we must trace their growth by the light of his- 
 tory. They are old in spirit and substance, even if new 
 in name and form. Atheistic and pantheistic philoso- 
 phies are veteran enemies to the doctrine of Christ, and 
 in the course of their long hostility have put on number- 
 less disguises for the purpose of undermining the faith of 
 some. Formalism, skepticism and mysticism, are types 
 of error represented in every age, from the time of our 
 Saviour until the present hour. False theories of in- 
 
27 
 
 spiration, subverting the Word of God, were broached 
 before the days of Origen, and have vexed the faith of 
 Christians until now. Scarcely had the second century 
 closed, when the Montanists took their rise, professing to 
 enjoy new revelations and to introduce the final reign of 
 the Spirit. The heirs of their creed have reappeared 
 continually, and still flourish among us. And the same 
 strain of remark would apply to a multitude of current 
 errors. Indeed, whatever hostile views the Church is 
 now called to meet and overcome, are the result of con- 
 flicts reaching back to the first ages of Christianity, and 
 cannot be comprehended without knowing the history of 
 our holy religion. For the citadel of truth has been 
 often assailed, and by all imaginable foes. Her walls 
 have been tried at every point and by every species of 
 weapon ; by catapult and battering-ram, by haughty 
 summons and treacherous ambuscade, by patient siege 
 and desperate assault, by armies of Doubters and troops 
 of Bloodymen ; while the tactics of unbelief have been 
 varied till invention itself is weary, and every fresh strat- 
 agem proves but the repetition of an ancient failure. 
 Hence a faithful history of our religion, delineating her 
 conflicts and her victories, will disclose the elements, 
 whether of weakness or of strength, in those opinions 
 which now check her prosperity, and will teach us how 
 to withstand, confute and destroy them. For in almost 
 every system of belief there are certain doctrines which 
 may be brought into vital connection with human nature 
 as it is, certain points which have a sort of magnetic 
 sympathy with corresponding forces in the soul, and 
 which constitute the real power of their respective sys- 
 tems. By directing attention to the rise and growth of 
 religious opinions, Church History lays open to inspec- 
 
28 
 
 tion these central and attractive points, and thus indi- 
 cates both where and how theories, which are false and 
 pernicious, must be assailed, in order to effect their final 
 overthrow. 
 
 It would also be suitable for rne further to show the 
 value of such a history, as tending to foster a catholic, 
 charitable spirit. Men of shining virtue have appeared 
 in almost every division of nominal Christianity. How- 
 ever erroneous and hurtful a creed may be in the main, 
 it will generally embrace a few principles of truth, and 
 one or more of these principles may preoccupy the hearts 
 of a small number of individuals, working there nearly 
 alone, and transforming the moral nature. Hence Chris- 
 tian heroes have been associated with the worst perver- 
 sions of our faith, and we are called to honor integrity of 
 conscience where we shudder at errors of belief. Espe- 
 cially frequent are instances of this kind at the formation 
 of a new sect. The founder himself is oftentimes a man 
 of earnest character and purpose, but of narrow mind 
 and erratic judgment. Dissatisfied with existing opin- 
 ions as wrong or inert, and eager to accomplish suddenly 
 the reformation of mankind, he gives himself up to some 
 novel idea, without apprehending its deeper tendencies 
 or foreseeing its necessary results, when made the nucleus 
 of a logical system, developed by cooler heads and re- 
 ceived by worse hearts than his own. Moreover, an 
 infant society, struggling for existence in the face of 
 opposition, and yet boldly announcing the grandest and 
 most beneficent changes to be effected by its future ex- 
 pansion, offers many attractions to enthusiastic, noble 
 spirits. It appeals to every romantic sentiment and feel- 
 ing of which they are capable or proud. It presents to 
 them an open field for the exercise of chivalric gener- 
 
29 
 
 osity in defence of the weak, and makes them blind to 
 imperfections which they would at once perceive in a 
 different cause. History, therefore, in -view of these 
 and similar facts, teaches us to beware of the first and 
 slightest deviation from truth, as infinitely perilous, and 
 yet encourages us to look with charity upon some who 
 wade unconsciously into the shoreless sea of untruth, till 
 its waves break over their heads. 
 
 It would then be proper for me to insist upon the value 
 of our supposed history, as contributing to breadth of 
 mind and soundness of judgment upon religious questions 
 in those who should peruse it. It would be well to show 
 that this work would give to its readers a large prospect 
 and view, including the whole of Christendom from the 
 Apostolic age to the present time ; that it would place 
 them on the mountain top for observation, and enable 
 them to behold at a glance the main streams of nominal 
 Christianity throughout their entire course, to perceive 
 their principal windings, and the direction in which on 
 the whole, they have moved, and to ascertain with cer- 
 tainty the precise points to which they are severally 
 tending. Such a survey is the best safeguard against 
 those rash conclusions which men are liable to make from 
 current events, mistaking, not unfrequently, the feverish 
 and fitful energy of a dying cause for the vigorous action 
 of health. 
 
 And, lastly, it would be interesting to take note of the 
 spiritual bearing and worth of this history. It would be 
 in place to exhibit the influence of recorded example, 
 the power which good men are known to wield after 
 death, by the transmitted story of their faithfulness. 
 For a true history of the Church will abound in the facts 
 of Christian experience. It will often reveal the inward 
 
30 
 
 discipline which leads on to holiness. It will lay open 
 the heart of more than one disciple to our inspection, and 
 depict the fiery seas of trial through which men like 
 Augustine, Luther and Bunyan passed to the haven of 
 rest. It will testify of the new birth, of overcoming 
 faith, and of holy enterprise, and will beckon us to follow 
 the radiant pathway of those, in every generation, who 
 ' c washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
 of the Lamb." 
 
 But my discourse must be arrested midway, to relieve 
 your patience. This rapid glance at long trains of cumu- 
 lative argument must suffice. And may He in whom 
 there is light and no darkness at all, dwell in our hearts, 
 and lead us to a better knowledge of Himself by the 
 word of revelation and by the history of His people. 
 



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