Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ALWAYS PROGRESSIVE ; 
 
 BEING 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATES PUBLICATION 
 
 FOR THE YEAR MDCCCXXIX. 
 
 BY 
 
 HUGH JAMES ROSE, B.D. 
 
 CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR C. J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, 
 AND WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL. 
 
 MDCCCXXIX.
 
 MO/ 03 J LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY R. GILBERT, 
 8r. JOHN'S N1TARB. 
 
 .-oiff sd, 
 
 lo g83ijiqqr,rf if J ->-/i 
 
 Ho moltod ytl) inoii ^
 
 TO 
 
 J O H N, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF LIMERICK. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I VENTURE to address this work to your 
 Lordship, because I am anxious to record 
 my gratitude for the kind interest which you 
 have taken in it, and to enjoy the privilege 
 of thus publicly connecting my name with 
 one which, wherever it is known, is revered 
 and beloved. Let me trust that your Lord- 
 ship will pardon my boldness, in taking this 
 liberty without ^y our permission. 
 
 That your Lordship's life may be pro- 
 longed for very many years, in renovated 
 health and strength, is a prayer which, in 
 common with all who have the happiness of 
 knowing you, I breathe from the bottom of
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 my heart. Nor is that prayer uttered under 
 the influence of private feelings alone, but in 
 the certainty, that, whatever portion of years 
 and of strength it may please the Almighty 
 Disposer of events to bestow on you, all those 
 years, and all that strength will be con- 
 secrated to promoting His cause on earth, and 
 employed in rendering to His Church all 
 the service which can be rendered by lofty 
 and uncompromising principle, by piety and 
 by learning. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 With the utmost respect, 
 Your Lordship's obliged servant, 
 HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 Cambridge, Dec. 11, 1829. 
 
 teora oilt Ifo duo bsl* .;;,- io b-?/ >rm : -; jl
 
 si toft .trsatf 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
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 -flOO ; -,-j.t- ' : ":v:;*j ' il fi NIL .'*:\?Sf: 
 
 THE will of Mr. Hulse, while it directs the attention 
 of the Christian Advocate chiefly to such objections 
 to the Christian religion, or natural religion as are 
 ' most modern/ allows him, nevertheless, a discretion 
 on this point, and permits him to write against any 
 objection " whether the same be ancient or mo- 
 dern." I have gladly availed myself of this permis- 
 sion on the present occasion, because as far as I have 
 been able to collect, no persons have stood forward, 
 very recently, as the avowed opponents of Chris- 
 tianity, whose characters or whose works give them 
 any claim to consideration or reply. 
 
 The subject which I have chosen, viz. the objec- 
 tion made to Christianity on account of its want of 
 universality, is unquestionably an old one ; but not- 
 withstanding its importance, it has not been made, as 
 far as I am aware, the subject of any separate pub- 
 lication. It is, I am well persuaded, one of the most 
 usual as well as the most effectual arguments against
 
 VI 
 
 Christianity, and the reason is obvious. It is simply 
 that the objection is capable of being shortly and 
 pointedly stated, while every answer to it, whatever 
 path it may subsequently pursue, must be founded 
 on a comprehensive view of God's moral govern- 
 ment of the world, a subject embracing many very 
 extensive and difficult considerations. 
 
 In addition to my conviction of the frequency 
 with which this argument is alleged, I had another 
 reason for taking up the subject. One very impor- 
 tant part of the answer to the objection has been 
 almost wholly overlooked. I allude, first, to the diffi- 
 culties which, from the condition of human nature, 
 and of the world, must necessarily present them- 
 selves to the peaceable propagation of any religion, 
 and more especially of a religion which is the unal- 
 terable enemy of all the vices of mankind ; and 
 secondly, to the difficulties which will present 
 themselves from the interference of an overruling 
 Providence, which will often warn, punish, and 
 bring about great future benefits and advancement 
 to the religion, by means which, for the time, act as 
 serious hindrances to it. My meaning will be un- 
 derstood by a simple reference to the irruption of 
 the Barbarians on civilized Europe.
 
 Vll 
 
 The view taken of those difficulties, in the follow- 
 ing tract, is the only novelty to which it pretends. 
 Of course, in so brief a work, I can only give a 
 sketch of the subject. To develope it fully would 
 be to write an ecclesiastical History. I shall be 
 happy if I succeed in directing the anxious mind to 
 enquire for itself. 
 
 Since the tract was written, I have had an oppor- 
 tunity of consulting the works of two recent Church 
 historians, those of the pious and excellent Neander 
 of Berlin, and of Matter of Strasburg *. My views 
 have been much confirmed by these works, and I 
 have, therefore, in very many cases referred to them, 
 rather than to the older writers, on whom those 
 views were originally founded. 
 
 The reader who wishes to pursue the subject, will 
 find very much that is valuable, in Bishop Law's 
 Theory of Religion ; in Dr. Parr's Sermon on the 
 Fullness of Time, preached at Norwich, in 1780 ; 
 and occasional remarks of value in Worthington's 
 Essay on the Scheme and Conduct of Man's Re- 
 demption, in Edwards's History of the Work of 
 Redemption, and in Watts's Ruin and Recovery of 
 
 * I refer to Neander's General History ; and perhaps I should 
 add that neither of the works alluded to is completed.
 
 Vlll 
 
 Mankind. I have found too, just as the work was 
 coming from the press, that Dr. Chandler has treated 
 of a part of the subject in his Bampton Lectures, and 
 have been able, in the latter part of the notes, to 
 make a few references to his work. 
 
 The reader will find in the Notes an abstract of 
 the answers usually given to the objection to Chris- 
 tianity, on the ground of its want of universality. 

 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ordinary objections to Christianity on account of its want of 
 universality usual answers to them the question more dis- 
 tinctly stated Inquiry what it is reasonable to expect from 
 Christianity Statement of the obstacles necessarily opposed 
 to the propagation of all truth. 
 
 To the Christian, who is sensible of the inestimable 
 value of that vocation wherewith he is called, there 
 can be few recollections more fraught with the bit- 
 terness of regret, than that which recalls to him the 
 small proportion of mankind who are made partakers 
 of the same blessing with himself. He casts his eye 
 over the earth, and laments to see in how fair and 
 how wide a realm the Crescent triumphs over the 
 Cross, or Brahma usurps the honour which is due 
 to Jesus ; how extensive is the sway of superstitions, 
 yet fouler and more pernicious, in themselves, and in 
 their consequences ; and how vast the number of those, 
 who barely own the notion of a superior Spirit, who 
 are sunk in misery and ignorance, and little raised 
 above the level of the beasts that perish. 
 
 If there be a thought which can compare with 
 
 this in bitterness, it is that which arises from a 
 
 review of the moral state of the Christian world. 
 
 For it is a truth not to be denied, that, in the very 
 
 B
 
 2 STATE OF THE WORLD AS TO RELIGION. 
 
 kingdoms which glory in the name of Christian, and 
 among the people who call themselves the servants 
 of a crucified Redeemer, the heavenly principles 
 which he came to teach, that he might fit us for 
 happiness alike in earth and in heaven, bear but a 
 doubtful and an imperfect sway. It must undoubt- 
 edly be owned, that wars, bloody and relentless, rage 
 amongst those whom he has commanded to love as 
 brethren, heirs of the same hope now, and of the same 
 home hereafter. It must be owned that, in Christian 
 cities, vice prevails to a frightful extent. It must be 
 owned, that, among individual Christians, the pure 
 principles which their Master came to teach, are too 
 seldom retained in the memory, or visible in the prac- 
 tice ; while, in public life, the politician still prefers 
 the worldly wisdom, which bids him obtain the mas- 
 tery, by sowing divisions, and by fomenting jealousies 
 and resentments, to that Christian policy, which be- 
 stows on the peace-maker only the promise of a distant 
 and a future blessing. Well, too, has it been said, 
 that if they, who, in the early dawnings of Christi- 
 anity, expressed their wonder at the mutual love * 
 of the disciples of Christ, could now wake from the 
 dead, they would express, not only their regret, at 
 the prevailing degeneracy from the ardour of a first 
 love, but their wonder, that members of the same 
 
 Tertullian A p. c. 39. 
 
 7
 
 EFFECTS OF THAT STATE ON THE CHRISTIAN. 8 
 
 society should entertain such deep and bitter feelings 
 of animosity towards one another. 
 
 Yet the Christian's own sense of regret, at the 
 narrow dominion, and imperfect influence, of the 
 everlasting Gospel, is not the sole, nor even the 
 principal emotion, caused in his mind by facts which 
 he neither conceals nor denies. That such things are, 
 he must indeed bitterly lament; but not for these does 
 he question, or doubt, or murmur at, the decrees of a 
 righteous God. He remembers that his Master com- 
 manded the disciples, who gloried in their miraculous 
 powers, and in the conquests which those powers en- 
 abled them to achieve, to glory far more, that their 
 names were written in heaven * ; to rejoice, that the 
 inward gifts of the Spirit enabled them to achieve 
 the victory over their own evil natures, and the body 
 of sin within, far more than that the word of might 
 from their mouth conquered the power of Satan 
 without. He appreciates too justly the blessings 
 which he enjoys from the scheme of redemption ; he 
 has drunk too deeply of the living waters of salva- 
 tion ; he has too often tasted the comforts and the 
 consolations of the Spirit ; in a word, he is too sen- 
 sible of the burthen of sin, and of the necessity and 
 the blessing of a Mediator, to be removed from his 
 own faith in the religion which he professes. But 
 
 * St. Luke x. 17. 
 B 2
 
 4 INFIDEL ARGUMENTS FROM THE 
 
 he is grieved and wounded, when he finds that the 
 limited extent of Christianity, and the vices of the 
 Christian world, expose the cause he loves to the 
 reproach or the contempt of infidelity ; which here 
 takes up a position which it deems impregnable. The 
 infidel has in vain attempted to deny the facts on 
 which Christianity is founded, because their false- 
 hood would involve the loss of all ancient history ; 
 and yet more vainly has he attempted to elude the 
 force of that internal evidence, which establishes the 
 admirable adaptation of Christianity to the Being 
 to whom it is addressed, and which proves of a surety, 
 that its Author " knew what was in man *." But, in 
 addressing himself to this quarter, he seems to find 
 a point of defence in some of the best and brightest 
 attributes of his Maker, and a steady, though it may 
 be a reluctant ally, in some of the most pious and 
 devout feelings of the human heart. It is the limited 
 extent of Christianity, on which he builds his palmary 
 argument. He begins his assault, with a loud and 
 vehement profession of his belief in a God, the 
 Father and Creator of all mankind ; and with the 
 expression of his sincere conviction, that, in the high 
 and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, there dwell, 
 in union with every other perfection which the feeble 
 mind of man can picture to itself, a love as bound- 
 
 * St. John ii 25.
 
 LIMITED EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL. 5 
 
 less as the universe, and a justice as clear and as 
 unsullied as the morning light. It undeniably re- 
 sults, he argues, from these premises, that the great 
 Father of the universe beholds all his creatures with 
 a father's love ; that every real blessing sent by God 
 to his creatures must be sent to them all ; that he 
 who bestows the rain and the sunshine alike on the 
 just and on the unjust, will bound his spiritual gifts 
 by no narrower limit, than the limit of the creation ; 
 that wheresoever man, the weak, the sinful, and the 
 ignorant exists, there exists, also, in its fullest ex- 
 ercise, the plenteousness of the riches of the divine 
 mercy and goodness. 
 
 But neither is this all : the unbeliever alleges 
 against the religion by whose name we are called, 
 that it professes not only to be excellent, but to be 
 divine, and, like its Author, to have " come forth 
 from God *." If these lofty pretensions were founded 
 in truth, could it be possible, he asks, that, after the 
 lapse of almost two thousand years, a divine religion 
 should still reign with so contracted and so feeble a 
 sway ; that only a few nations of the earth should 
 know its name ; that so large^a portion of those who 
 are aware of its excellence should esteem it so little, 
 and disregard its threats and its sanctions, alike in 
 their public transactions, and in the retirement of 
 
 * St. John xvi. 30.
 
 6 USUAL REPLIES TO THE FOREGOING ARGUMENTS. 
 
 their private lives * ? These, I say, have been, these 
 are, the favourite arguments of the unbeliever ; and 
 they who, in the exercise of the endearing ties of 
 friendship, or the intercourse of daily life, have been 
 compelled to mourn over the prevalence of unbelief, 
 have observed how often it draws its most fatal and 
 most unerring weapons from this source. 
 
 In answer to these objections, much argument of 
 the soundest description has been offered, to which 
 we need only briefly advert. In reply to the first 
 argument of the unbeliever, that this partial distri- 
 bution of the blessing of light and knowledge is in- 
 consistent with the justice of God, reference has 
 been made to the analogy of nature : in which we 
 discover a system of beneficence, but not of opti- 
 mism ; and in which we clearly see, that God bestows 
 his gifts of health and strength, of capacities and 
 means for improvement, with the most promiscuous 
 variety. 
 
 He who might think it hard that gifts of an intel- 
 lectual and moral nature should be thus denied to 
 some, and bestowed on others, has been reminded, 
 that, on the one hand, on the supposition of a moral 
 Governor of the world, all will be equitably dealt 
 with at last, and no more required of any one than 
 
 * A fuller Statement of these several objections will be found 
 in the Notes and Illustrations to this Chapter, No. 1.
 
 USUAL REPLIES TO THE FOREGOING ARGUMENTS. 7 
 
 might be justly expected of him from the circum- 
 stances in which he was placed ; and that, on the 
 other, as a system implies variety, the difference of 
 physical constitution, of education, and of circum- 
 stances, must, without the constant and direct in- 
 terference of Providence, ever produce wide and mo- 
 mentous differences in the spiritual advantages of 
 mankind, and thus give the same opportunities for 
 cavil and objection to the unbeliever. Yet further, 
 it has been argued that we do not know the whole 
 of the case ; and that our present state, for example, 
 may possibly be the consequence of something past, 
 of which we know nothing. Besides which, the ap- 
 parent imperfections in the system of religion which 
 we profess, are of signal use as a trial of men's 
 minds; giving scope for a virtuous exercise, or 
 vicious neglect, of their understanding, in examining 
 or not examining the evidence offered them *. 
 
 I deem it wholly unnecessary to do more than 
 advert to those well-known arguments. There can, 
 I think, be little doubt, that, in the eye of candour 
 and of reason, they would be sufficient to defend 
 the moral government of the world, with respect 
 to the limited extent of revelation, on the supposi- 
 tion, that the facts assumed on the one side, and 
 admitted on the other, were rightly assumed, and 
 
 * I need hardly say that I am using the words of Bishop 
 Butler.
 
 8 PROPHECIES OF THE 
 
 rightly admitted. If Christianity had remained for 
 centuries without increase ; nay, if it were to in- 
 crease no more, these arguments, standing as they 
 do, on a base that cannot be shaken, would ever 
 satisfy the candid inquirer. He, indeed, who should 
 acknowledge the weight of the evidences of a revela- 
 tion ; who should perceive its adaptation to the wants, 
 the wishes, the passionate longings and fears of 
 human frailty ; who should feel its powerful energies 
 operating on his own heart ; who should remember 
 how little, at best, man can know of the dispensa- 
 tions or dealings with God, and yet, should reject a 
 revelation, because not offered to all, would act on 
 principles, which he could not carry into common life, 
 without incurring the imputation of folly or madness. 
 But it would seem, on a nearer view of the case 
 before us, that the facts are not entirely as they have 
 been assumed and admitted to be ; and that our holy 
 religion must submit to be tried by a somewhat 
 stricter and severer test. For, although a holy and 
 righteous God might have the strongest reasons for 
 withholding from one part of his creation that hea- 
 venly light which " makes a sunshine in the shady 
 place," and spreads a blessing wheresoever it shines ; 
 and though He might most equitably bestow his best 
 and choicest gifts on a portion, only, of that uni- 
 verse, which is, alike in all its parts, the work of his 
 Almighty hand, yet the advocate of revelation must
 
 UNIVERSAL DOMINION OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 admit, rather not admit, but exultingly proclaim, 
 that the revelation vouchsafed to us Christians, con- 
 tains promises and prophecies of its own universal ex- 
 tent and dominion. These promises and prophecies, 
 indeed, are scattered through the book of life with 
 no sparing hand, but greet us with their delightful 
 voices on every side ; and cold must be that heart, 
 and insensible that spirit, which does not often turn 
 with a trembling and almost feverish exultation, 
 from the ' dreary intercourse of daily life/ from the 
 present, where the Redeemer reigns with a divided 
 sway over careless and worldly hearts, to the fu- 
 ture, where his throne shall be established in righ- 
 teousness, over a redeemed, a happy, and a hea- 
 venly-minded world. We must, indeed, rejoice to 
 remember the direct and glorious promise, that the 
 light of the Gospel is to shine throughout the world ; 
 the direct and positive command, that every creature 
 should be baptized into the name of the Redeemer ; 
 the clear declaration, that it is the desire of the 
 Father, that every knee should bow at that holy 
 name, and that it is to his glory, that every tongue 
 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord*. We 
 have the sure word of prophecy to tell us, that the 
 knowledge of the Lord shall one day cover the 
 earth, as the waters cover the sea ; we have the ex- 
 
 * St. Matt, xxviii. 19. Phil. ii. 10.
 
 10 FURTHER STATEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY. 
 
 press and clear promise and prophecy of Him whose 
 word is truth, that the Heavenly Seed, which, at 
 first, was like the least of all the seeds, shall grow 
 into a mighty tree of shelter and of shade for the 
 nations ; that, though the little leaven was hid in 
 three measures of meal, the whole shall be ulti- 
 mately and visibly leavened; that, one day, there 
 shall be one only fold, of those sheep which alike 
 belong to the great and universal Shepherd *. 
 
 I am aware, it may be said and thought, that the 
 interpretation of prophecy unfulfilled, is a task of 
 too delicate and difficult a nature to be attempted 
 with advantage, or even with safety. But, while the 
 truth of this observation in the abstract is willingly 
 conceded ; while it is willingly conceded also, that 
 any particular interpretation of the prophecies, any 
 limitation of them as to time and space, would be 
 not only absurd but dangerous ; still, the sense and 
 bearing of prophecy, in the main, is too clear to be 
 mistaken, and too positive to be eluded. Howsoever, 
 and wheresoever, the prophecy is to be fulfilled, it is, 
 beyond all question, the sure word of Scripture, that 
 the Sun of righteousness is, one day, to spread his 
 glad and cheering beams over the farthest verge of 
 the earth. 
 
 The question then, it must be allowed, is some- 
 what different in its statement, from that to which 
 * St. Luke xiii. 1822.
 
 UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS OF UNBELIEVERS. 11 
 
 the sagacity of our divines has given an answer ; 
 the difficulty is of a nature somewhat different. It 
 may, perhaps, with more propriety be thus stated. 
 If Christianity really came forth from God, and if it 
 contain a promise and a prophecy that its light is 
 to shine on all, how comes it that that promise and 
 prophecy are yet unfulfilled ? and that a religion which 
 professes to be divine, should not at once establish a 
 resistless sway over the consciences of individuals, and 
 over the faith of nations ? If the knowledge of the 
 Lord is ever to cover the earth, can it be Christianity 
 which is to diffuse that knowledge, when, in so long 
 a period, it has done so little, towards effecting the 
 blessed and glorious purpose ? But yet further ; 
 can it be Christianity which is the desired, the 
 longed-for revelation from a gracious God to his 
 poor and miserable creatures ? Can that be the true 
 light, which is to enlighten every man that cometh 
 into the world, when, for many centuries, it obviously 
 declined in purity and in influence, and, in the middle 
 ages, lost so much of its brighter character, and ap- 
 proached so nearly to the character of a degraded 
 and degrading superstition ? When, in the words 
 of a valuable and recent writer on prophecy, " its 
 dominion, wide as it has been in ancient and mo- 
 dern times, and in regions rude or civilized, has 
 yet only shared the world with other powers of a
 
 12 UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS OF UNBELIEVERS. 
 
 gross heathenism unenlightened, and infidelity unre- 
 claimed * r 
 
 These are assuredly, at first sight, grave and seri- 
 ous questions; and, although, when further exa- 
 mined, their importance is diminished, yet they con- 
 tain so much likely to produce an impression on 
 weak and wavering minds, that they well deserve con- 
 sideration and reply. I shall, therefore, endeavour 
 to show, that the apparent importance of these argu- 
 ments is derived, not from their intrinsic value, but 
 from certain unreasonable expectations and assump- 
 tions connected with them, respecting the progress 
 of Christianity. It is always assumed, that that pro- 
 gress ought to be great and rapid f : whereas there is 
 nothing, either in Scripture or the nature of things, 
 which can justify us, in expecting any, but a slow 
 and laborious advancement of our religion ; and 
 a little reflection will show, that, though the leaven 
 is to leaven the whole three measures of meal, it is 
 doing a work as effectual and as necessary, when 
 completing its salutary operations on one portion, 
 as when commencing them on others. 
 
 The observations which I have to offer, will ar- 
 range themselves under two principal heads. 
 
 It will be my first business to show, what it is 
 
 * Davison on Prophecy. 
 
 f Notes and Illustrations to Chapter I. No. 2.
 
 DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. 13 
 
 reasonable to expect from Christianity ; and I shall 
 then inquire, whether those reasonable expectations 
 have been fulfilled. The more important, however, 
 of these questions, as regards the objections I have 
 noticed, is undoubtedly the first ; and it will be my 
 endeavour now, to set those objections in their true 
 light, by pointing out the obstacles, which, in a world 
 so constituted as ours, will ever be found ready to 
 retard the progress of religious and moral improve- 
 ment. The result of the statement will be, I think, 
 a conviction, that, in considering the claims of Chris- 
 tianity, it is our business to inquire, rather, whether 
 the tree of life is growing, than whether its growth 
 has been rapid, or whether it has as nearly attained 
 its full dimensions, as a hasty judgment may decide 
 that it should have done. 
 
 First of all, then, let us examine what it is right 
 to expect from Christianity, when regarded as setting 
 forth a claim to be considered as a divine revelation ? 
 For the greater share, of the perplexity of the be- 
 liever, and of the fancied triumph of the infidel, would 
 seem to arise from a mistaken, or rather an indefi- 
 nite, notion of the influence of the divinity of the re- 
 velation in its progress. 
 
 There appears to be a tendency on both sides, to 
 believe, that truth, if revealed by God, must, from 
 that circumstance alone, possess an extraordinary
 
 14 THE GOSPEL IS TO BE PROPAGATED BY HUMAN MEANS. 
 
 and unlimited power * of recommending itself to the 
 acceptance of those to whom it is offered. Now, 
 that the Almighty Ruler of the human heart might 
 arm any truths which he is pleased to reveal, with 
 these powers of winning or enforcing their own ac- 
 ceptance, is unquestionably certain ; but it must be 
 remembered, that such powers would be in fact mi- 
 raculous ; and that they would, therefore, supply a 
 decisive test, which must, at once, have closed or 
 prevented the argument. No real friend of revela- 
 tion, however, would ever urge such a claim on her 
 behalf, and no candid adversary can feel himself jus- 
 tified in requiring it f. 
 
 It is, clearly, not our business to inquire, what the 
 Deity might have done, but what he has done. And 
 when we inquire what he really has done, we find, 
 that the view presented to our consideration by the 
 advocates of Christianity is simply this ; that God 
 was pleased to make known to us certain truths 
 concerning our salvation ; to support them, at their 
 
 * Erskine, after noticing the various ways in which men escape 
 from the force of arguments brought against them, (as, for ex- 
 ample, inability or unwillingness to apprehend them) adds, very 
 justly, ' Thus it fares often with human arguments, nor do the 
 arguments of God escape a similar fate.' Evidences, p. 90. 
 
 t The reader will find in the Notes and Illustrations to Chap- 
 ter I. No. 3. some powerful reasons urged by various writers, 
 why Christianity could not be so well thus propagated.
 
 CHRISTIAN TRUTHS TAUGHT LIKE OTHER TRUTHS. 15 
 
 first promulgation, by such departures from the com- 
 mon order of nature, as were sufficient to establish 
 their truth and their divinity ; and, afterwards, to 
 leave them to work their own way, under his pro- 
 tection indeed, but wholly and solely by human in- 
 strumentality. It will not be supposed, that I speak 
 here in forgetfulness or neglect of that assisting and 
 illuminating grace of God, which will be given in 
 return to prayer; and without which, as we can 
 neither think nor do such things as be rightful, so 
 we can assuredly neither perceive nor accept the 
 great truths of the scheme of redemption. I speak 
 not of any aid of a supernatural kind which may be 
 obtained, but of a supernatural aid actually and neces- 
 sarily attached to the truths of Revelation. I deny 
 the existence of such aid; and, under that impression, 
 affirm, that the truths of Revelation are not in kind 
 distinguishable from any other truths addressed to 
 the acceptance or rejection of the human mind. 
 They are truths, not discoverable, indeed, by human 
 reason, but yet addressed, like other truths, to human 
 apprehension ; though many of them, as they regard 
 the operations of the Deity, must, like all specula- 
 tions on that awful and mysterious subject, far exceed 
 the limited comprehension of the human intellect *. 
 This, then, being the nature of the truths of Chris- 
 
 * See Notes and Illustrations to Chapter I. No. 4.
 
 16 IMPERFECTION OF HUMAN INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 tianity, and these being the circumstances under 
 which they were sent into the world, there can be no 
 reason to suppose that the knowledge of them can 
 be propagated in any other way, than that of other 
 truths of a different nature. The superior import- 
 ance, indeed, of the truths of religion, may ensure for 
 them a greater degree of attention, as their own 
 excellence may ensure for them a readier acceptance ; 
 but these differences are, in fact, only differences of 
 degree, and not of kind. If the truths of revelation, 
 then, are left to find their way into the world, by the 
 intervention of human instruments, it follows, at 
 once, that we must expect them, in the first place, 
 to be liable, in their course, to all the evils and disad- 
 vantages, which the imperfection, the frailty, and the 
 faults, of these instruments can entail upon them. 
 It would be unavailing, and it would be sinful, for 
 us to inquire, why the Almighty Ruler of the Uni- 
 verse chose to make use of an imperfect and frail 
 instrument ; why he did not proceed by other me- 
 thods ; why his system was not different. But if it 
 were not unavailing, and if it were not sinful, we 
 may yet feel a moral certainty, that the full deve- 
 lopement of his plans would be made in vain, to under- 
 standings weak and frail as ours. In the particular 
 case under consideration, all that we know is, that 
 which the word of God hath told us, that the truths 
 of Christianity are to shine one day throughout the
 
 IMPERFECTION OF HUMAN INSTRUMENTS. 17 
 
 whole of creation ; all that we see is, that the Great 
 Parent of creation has chosen man to effect his great 
 and glorious purposes. It is obvious, then, that he 
 who is inquiring, what it is right to expect from 
 Christianity, can never attain to a just solution of 
 the question, while he persists in considering only 
 the high pretensions of the system, and overlooks, 
 whether from prejudice or carelessness, the imper- 
 fections of the agents, selected for its propagation. 
 We do not expect, that the importance of the mes- 
 sage will expedite its progress, when we are com- 
 pelled to rely on the services, of an infirm, a tardy, 
 or a treacherous messenger ; nor can we, while con- 
 sidering the progress of Christianity, leave out of our 
 calculation, with any semblance of justice, the infir- 
 mity, the tardiness, and the treachery of man. We 
 must remember, not only the brief span of human 
 life, and all the changes and chances to which it is 
 subject, but the instability of man's firmest and 
 highest purposes : we must remember, to our shame 
 and confusion, how the very purest and loftiest spi- 
 rits have been seduced and polluted, by the temp- 
 tations and the splendour of earthly ambition or 
 earthly wealth : we must consider, how the best 
 and most righteous plans have been frustrated ; 
 sometimes, by failures arising from contingencies, 
 beyond the sagacity of man to foresee, and beyond 
 his power to remedy ; sometimes, by the baseness 
 c
 
 18 EFFECT OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON THE 
 
 and corruption of the agents and instruments them- 
 selves. 
 
 We must remember, next, that Christianity was not 
 at once to transform the face of the external world ; 
 but to take it as it was, and gradually to effect an 
 internal amendment. No miraculous interference of 
 Providence, was to put an entire, and eternal termi- 
 nation, to the ravages of war, the projects of am- 
 bition, and the schemes of avarice ; nor to pour the 
 light of civilization and of knowledge, on the unin- 
 structed savage. This consideration alone, would 
 show, that a Revelation must inevitably be subject, 
 and that in no small degree, to all the changes and 
 chances, which attend the lot of man : that it must 
 long be liable to injuries and retardation, from the 
 dispositions of the rulers of this world ; from the 
 prosperity, or the desolation of kingdoms ; and from 
 the ravages of barbarism. In the earlier stages of 
 the propagation of a religion, more especially, the 
 fate of empires, and the fortunes of war, must in- 
 fluence the fate and the fortunes, of the very revela- 
 tion of God. 
 
 When due weight is given to these considerations, 
 we shall understand, and admit without difficulty, 
 that the progress of a religion exposed to so many 
 hazards and contingencies, must, inevitably, be slow 
 and almost imperceptible *. Yet more, shall we be 
 See N. & I. ch. I. No. 4. 
 7
 
 PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. 19 
 
 impelled to the same conclusion, when we look at the 
 progress of truths, wholly unopposed by actual cir- 
 cumstances, and retarded, only by the incapacity, 
 or the indisposition, of the human heart to accept 
 them ; when we see, how ages and generations of 
 men wear away, while the prejudices and the super- 
 stitions which enthral and enslave them, remain, 
 almost, in the freshness of their first strength. Let 
 us turn our eyes, for a moment, to the history of that 
 nation, to which the earlier revelation was committed, 
 and see, how many generations of obstinacy, of per- 
 verseness, of miracles, and of sufferings, passed away, 
 before that truth, which would seem, of all truths, 
 to recommend itself most to the reason, the Unity 
 of God could be brought home to the hearts and 
 understandings, of the rebellious people whom he che- 
 rished and protected ; and before the very beings, who 
 owed their existence as a nation, to his guidance and 
 protection, could be prevented, from offering the in- 
 communicablehonours of the eternal God, to the beasts 
 of the field, or to the inanimate works of their own 
 hands. To assert, that the human mind is unable, in 
 its present state, to acceptor even to apprehend truth, 
 with ease and rapidity, is, I am aware, to assert a 
 doctrine little acceptable, in an age when men are 
 deluded to a degree, which, previous to experience, 
 would have been incredible, by the wretched absur- 
 dities of a low and mechanical philosophy ; and 
 c 2
 
 20 DIFFICULTIES WHICH RETARD CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 when they are persuaded by it, that, because they are 
 making progress in the knowledge of facts, their in- 
 tellects also are fast advancing to perfection, and 
 making rapid progress to the knowledge of all 
 truth. But it is the law, the melancholy law, by 
 which the society of the frail and blind race of man 
 proceeds, that the progress of truth shall be slow, 
 and laborious, and painful ; long obscured by preju- 
 dice, long opposed by violence, and then only, tri- 
 umphant, then only, universally acknowledged, then 
 only, shining with meridian lustre, when they who 
 hailed its morning beams, are passed away and for- 
 gotten, yea, when ages have rolled over their graves *. 
 And if this is the law, by which, even the truths that 
 concern the worldly and temporal interests of man, 
 shall alone make progress, have we any reason to 
 hope, that the general doom shall be reversed, for 
 those sublime and unearthly truths, to which man 
 ever turns the ear of coldness and indifference ? Can 
 we hope, that it will be reversed, for that revelation, 
 which does not soothe the fallen nature and heart of 
 the being whom it addresses, by any flattering appeal 
 to his power or his capacity ; which tells him, that 
 his heart is deceitful, and his understanding unable, 
 without assistance, to discern truth ; which, speaking 
 
 * ' Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a re- 
 jected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.' 
 Milton, Areopagitica, Works, Vol. i. p. 15. (ed. Birch.) See 
 Notes and Illustrations to chapter I. No. 6.
 
 SIN AN OBSTACLE TO THE GOSPEL. 21 
 
 with the voice of a master, demands implicit assent 
 to the doctrine that it teaches, on the authority of him 
 who reveals it ; and which addresses mysteries, deeper 
 than had ever entered into the heart of man to con- 
 ceive, to men, who own no higher guide than their 
 own limited intellect, and believe in no divine inspi- 
 ration ? Shall passion die away, shall prejudice be put 
 to shame, shall slander be silent, when the cause of the 
 great Enemy of passion, and prejudice, and slander, 
 is at stake ? Shall those holy laws which would bind 
 down the strong man, be received by him in patient 
 submission ? Shall the children of this generation go 
 forth, with festivities and joy, to hail the triumph of 
 her, who would banish ambition and sensuality, and 
 riches and pride, from her presence ; who, in a word, 
 would proclaim their shame and their condemnation ? 
 These latter considerations open upon us, at once, 
 a field of the most extensive and important reflec- 
 tion. They lead us to remember, that the doctrines 
 of the Gospel are not only to be taught by man, but 
 that they are addressed to man ; and that God's 
 holy and beneficent purpose,in revealing those blessed 
 doctrines, is the amendment of man himself. Consi- 
 dered in this view, how serious an aspect do the 
 frailty and the failings of the human heart assume ; 
 what almost invincible difficulties do they present ! 
 The hindrances to God's purposes, indeed, caused by 
 man's imperfection as an agent, shrink into nothing,
 
 22 PUNISHMENT OF APOSTACV A TEMPORARY OBSTACLE. 
 
 when compared with the resistance offered to them, 
 by his obstinacy as a sinner. Weighty, however, 
 and important, as this consideration is, it is one, on 
 which I feel it wholly unnecessary to dwell. It 
 must, surely, be sufficient to say, that the triumph 
 of Christianity is, in other words, the eradication of 
 sin ; and that they who complain of the slow pro- 
 gress and feeble influence of our holy Religion, must 
 speak in forgetfulness of the power of the fearful 
 adversary, with whom it has to contend. 
 
 But yet further : let it be remembered, that, while 
 the immediate propagation of religion is entrusted to 
 human hands, the great Governor of the world, who 
 has sent it forth, and who desires its advancement, will 
 so mediately direct the affairs of men, as to further 
 his great purposes. Nay, we are indeed persuaded, 
 that, in the words of a living prelate of our Church, 
 " the whole economy of the divine government, 
 whether it be viewed with reference to the character 
 and fate of nations, or the fortunes and duties of 
 ndividuals, is so regulated, that all the movements 
 of the vast machine, complex and intricate as they 
 may be to human eyes, are tending, in harmonious 
 concert, or due subordination, to the fulfilment of 
 that grand scheme of mercy, which was decreed be- 
 fore the foundation of the world *." No other be- 
 
 * See the present Bishop of London's Sermon before the So- 
 ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, in 1827, p. 14.
 
 MEN IGNORANT HOW TO EFFECT THEIR OWN OBJECTS. 23 
 
 lief, indeed, than this, can be entertained, with 
 respect to a divine revelation. Yet, if this be our 
 belief, will it not at once lead us to expect many 
 checks, many apparent failures, many heavy judg- 
 ments, many grievous afflictions ? The corruptions 
 which human wisdom will introduce into the doc- 
 trines of revelation ; the degeneracy from the first 
 purity and the first love ; the avarice and ambition, 
 which assume the garb of religion, and carry on 
 their own evil prospects of aggrandizement, under 
 its sacred name ; the indifference to eternal truths 
 which will, of a surety, be witnessed in the progress 
 of every religion, these all, must be visited with a 
 heavy and unsparing hand. It is punishment, and 
 privation, and suffering alone, which call nations and 
 churches, as well as individuals, to a sense of the du- 
 ties they have omitted, of the corruptions they have 
 introduced, and of the apostacy they have practised *. 
 And it must be a vain and a carnal mind alone, 
 which cannot see, in the affliction which follows 
 rebellion or indifference, the tender mercy of One, 
 who wounds only to save. Though " in a little 
 wrath, the Lord our Redeemer may hide his face 
 from his people for a moment," it is in order that, 
 " with everlasting kindness, he may have mercy upon 
 them f ;" that the " waste and desolate places, the 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. I. No. 7. f Isaiah liv.8.
 
 24 THE DURABILITY OF GOD*S PLANS. 
 
 land of destruction, may become too narrow, by 
 reason of the inhabitants *." 
 
 Last of all, (and it is with this reflection I close 
 the present chapter,) in the grandeur of a scheme, 
 which is to comprehend the universe, and endure, 
 for ever, in itself, or in its effects ; and in the acknow- 
 ledged and confessed inability of human wisdom, 
 to discern far beyond the present hour, or to pene- 
 trate into the mists of darkness that conceal the 
 future, we may find ample reasons, for expecting 
 much that will pain our feelings, and much that 
 will perplex our understandings. Yet there is 
 nothing new in this; nothing, which ought to 
 excite either wonder or dismay. For, the brief 
 experience of our own limited existence must have 
 shewn us, how often, not only the best laid plans 
 have been subjected to failure, but the very objects 
 we have warmly but ineffectually endeavoured to 
 accomplish, have been effected, by means, which, 
 at first sight, appeared most adverse and opposed 
 to themf. While the strong men perish in the 
 wilderness, in sight of the Canaan which they might 
 possess, and of the enemies whom they might 
 conquer, the little ones, who have no knowledge 
 of good and evil, go in and possess the promised 
 blessings. 
 
 * Isaiah xlix. 17. t See N. & I. ch. I. No. 8.
 
 PROVIDENCE NOT LIMITED TO TIME. 25 
 
 And if this be true in the petty concerns of time, 
 and visible even in our brief existence, shall we be 
 vain enough to imagine, that the vast scheme of 
 redemption shall be brought about by means, which 
 will not defy our sagacity, and transcend our com- 
 prehension ? God is not, indeed, a man, that he should 
 lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. 
 Hath he said ? He will assuredly do it. Hath he 
 spoken ? Of a truth he will make it good. But His 
 wisdom, and His power, are not confined to the nar- 
 row limits of means or of time ; nor is He concerned 
 to vindicate his truth and his honour, whensoever it 
 may please our folly or our frailty to demand it. He 
 desires not to dress forth the mimic garden of a child, 
 with plucked and broken flowers, that may feed a 
 depraved fancy for a moment, but to plant a para- 
 dise, whose everlasting flowers shall spring and bloom 
 in deathless beauty. While, with a perverse spirit, 
 we vainly question, or, in humble devotion, confid- 
 ingly believe, though we see not, he is effecting his 
 purposes in certainty and in silence. And when the 
 vain questioner, and the devout believer, shall have 
 been, for ages sleeping together in the dust, He, who 
 is for ever the same, and whose years fail not, shall 
 still in certainty and in silence work on. For, though 
 to the feeble and short-lived race of man, that which 
 is to be, only after they have long descended to the 
 silence of the grave, may seem to possess but a
 
 26 PROVIDENCE NOT LIMITED TO TIME. 
 
 faint and feeble interest, though we may vainly de- 
 sire, that all the complicated changes of an universe, 
 shall be effected in the space of an ephemeral exist- 
 ence, shut in by yesterday and to-morrow, though 
 we may think with indifference of the day, when the 
 Saviour's name shall be owned throughout the uni- 
 verse, and the choral voice of his redeemed shall 
 send forth one hallelujah of joy and of thanksgiving, 
 because that shout of extasy cannot pierce through 
 the silence of the tomb, nor sound on the dull cold 
 ear of death, yet, to Him, one day is as a thousand 
 years, and a thousand years as one day. And that 
 glorious plan, which he ordained before the founda- 
 tions of the world were laid, he will accomplish, 
 after they have crumbled into dust ; and a new hea- 
 vens, and a new earth, shall spring up, and shall 
 endure for ever !
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Review of the difficulties enumerated in the preceding Chapter 
 Appeal to history in confirmation of the view there offered 
 persecutions by the hand of power, and by the populace. 
 
 IN the preceding chapter, I endeavoured to enume- 
 rate the various impediments, which must necessarily 
 attend on the propagation of any revelation, effected 
 by human instrumentality. They were such, as would, 
 indeed, appear wholly inevitable, when we consider, 
 either, the order of the world in which the revelation 
 is to be made, the progress of that revelation, or the 
 frail and evil nature of those who are, at once, its agents 
 and its objects. The brief and transient existence of 
 man, the instability of his plans, the indifference with 
 which he too often regards the good of mankind, or 
 the base and unworthy objects which call him away 
 from it, arise, in formidable array, on the one side ; 
 and on the other, are, the course of human events, 
 the fall of empires and the fortunes of war, the slow 
 and painful progress of truth, the inveteracy of pre- 
 judice ; the open opposition of the evil ; the cold- 
 ness, or, at least, the slow apprehension, of the good. 
 The sad procession is closed, by the corruptions 
 which the pride of human reason introduces into the
 
 28 HISTORY SHEWS THE DIFFICULTIES 
 
 doctrines, or which the baseness of human avarice 
 infuses into the practice, of the best and holiest reli- 
 gion ; and by the tremendous but necessary severities, 
 which its Author inflicts on guilty churches and na- 
 tions, as a warning to others against similar pollutions 
 of the Truth, and, consequently, as the best means of 
 insuring its future progress and advancement. 
 
 These are evils, which, in a world like this, must 
 inevitably be attendant on the propagation of any 
 form of religion. They will prevent her most ardent 
 friends, from expecting her to make any rapid ad- 
 vances ; and they ought to prevent every candid 
 adversary, from hastily pronouncing against her the 
 charge of failure. Neither are these, in the case of 
 Christianity, the arguments of an advocate, to account 
 for faults which he is compelled to admit, or to palliate 
 reverses which he cannot deny ; nor are they the 
 mere speculations of the thoughtful, imagining in 
 their retirements what will be, but never turning 
 their eyes to the busy scenes of life, or to the page 
 that records the sins and the sufferings of humanity, 
 to see what has been. On the contrary, we may 
 appeal for the truth of all we have said, and of yet 
 more, to the eighteen centuries, during which the light 
 of Christianity has been struggling, to emerge from 
 the clouds of darkness that conceal her splendour, 
 and gradually to reveal her beauty to the nations. 
 
 It now becomes our business to engage in this in- 
 
 1
 
 WHICH BESET CHRISTIANITY. 29 
 
 quiry ; and, in illustration of our argument, to ex- 
 amine the obstacles which attended the early propa- 
 gation of the Gospel ; and this will complete the first 
 part of our proposed plan. 
 
 The field of our inquiry into actual facts will, how- 
 ever, be far wider, and will lead to consequences far 
 more important, than those suggested by the remem- 
 brance of evils necessarily attendant on any Divine 
 revelation. For, in addition to these necessary evils, 
 time and circumstances may have the most impor- 
 tant effects, in staying, as well as speeding, the pro- 
 gress of new opinions ; and it will be our business, to 
 point out the actual effect which they have had, on 
 the case before us. 
 
 The point, then, which I wish, at present, to main- 
 tain, is, that, when due regard is had to the instru- 
 ments selected for the propagation of Christianity, and 
 both to the inevitable and contingent obstacles to its 
 progress, the page of history affords sufficient proof, 
 that all has been done, which, under such circum- 
 stances, could be rightly or reasonably expected. But 
 if this be true, the whole difficulties of the case will 
 be reduced to one ; namely, to a difficulty in showing 
 why the particular period in which our Lord was 
 born, was selected by Providence for his birth ; a 
 difficulty hardly deserving the name, in the estima- 
 tion of those who admit a superintending Providence, 
 even if our own weak and limited understanding did
 
 30 NATURAL OBSTACLES OVERLOOKED BY SCEPTICS. 
 
 not suggest many forcible reasons for the choice *. 
 We should, therefore, be justified even in saying that 
 the real question is, why the world was ever brought 
 into a state so unfavourable for accepting the know- 
 ledge of the true God ; a question, which, connected, 
 as it is, with the unfathomable mystery of the origin 
 of evil, even the unbeliever will not require the ad- 
 vocate of revelation to answer. 
 
 We shall preface the view we are about to take, 
 with a single observation, in justification of our line 
 of argument. The Deist has, on all occasions, en- 
 deavoured to attribute the triumphs which Christi- 
 anity has won, to secondary causes. To such causes, 
 indeed, he has unhesitatingly ascribed even the rapid 
 and marvellous progress which it made in the first 
 ages ; but he has always forgotten to inquire, whe- 
 ther natural causes were not constantly operating 
 also against it ; and whether, subsequently, they 
 did not produce that unfavourable appearance, which 
 he alleges as an argument against its truth and its 
 divinity. He cannot, therefore, complain, if the 
 same argument which he has used, when it supported 
 his views, be brought forward to counteract and 
 oppose them. 
 
 In inquiring, then, into the principal causes which 
 have retarded the progress of Christianity, it is na- 
 
 * See Notes and Illustrations, ch. II. No. 1.
 
 PERSECUTION MAY RETARD THE TRUTH. 31 
 
 tural to advert, first of all, to the direct persecutions 
 by which its professors were assailed. It is often 
 said, indeed, that persecution rather fans, than ex- 
 tinguishes, the flame of religious zeal ; but the 
 maxim is not universally true, even as it regards 
 human alterations or arrangements in religion. It 
 is true, even there, rather of those persecutions, 
 where the hand of the persecutor is weak and 
 timid, than of those cases, where he is overwhelming 
 in force, and fully determined to exert that force to 
 the utmost *. No instance can demonstrate our as- 
 sertion more fully, than the various success of the 
 Reformation ; which established itself effectually in 
 some quarters, though assailed and partially op- 
 pressed, while it was entirely quenched in others, 
 by the bloody and remorseless persecutions of the 
 Roman See. It is needless to dwell on the causes 
 which accelerated its progress ; and which gave free 
 course to the word of God in England and Germany, 
 though persecuted and oppressed in both countries. 
 It will be sufficient to note, that the bloody and re- 
 morseless oppression practised upon it by the Papal 
 See, quenched the sacred flame effectually in Italy 
 and Spain, when the desolate victim of conscience 
 was consigned, in the stillness and solitude of mid- 
 night, to the waters of the Adriatic ; or when crowds 
 
 * See N. &I.ch.II. No. 2.
 
 32 EARLY PERSECUTIONS SEVERE. 
 
 of unoffending beings, of either sex and every age, 
 were hunted, like savage beasts, by the military 
 executioner, in the forests of Calabria*. But, besides 
 this, to extinguish and to retard are different things ; 
 and it is to retard only, which, in the case of Chris- 
 tianity, we believe to have been possible. The 
 counsel that is of God, cannot be overthrown by 
 those who fight against him ; although, in his wis- 
 dom, he may allow his adversaries some share of 
 success. Many a time they may afflict his righteous 
 cause ; but they will not prevail against it. Beaten 
 down by affliction, from affliction it will recover new 
 strength, like the giant from the earth ; and, either it 
 will rise in redoubled lustre, or it will depart from 
 the region which rejects the light, to spread itself 
 in other lands, where it may be cherished in a more 
 genial climate, till happier days. But for a time 
 it is afflicted, for a time it suffers ; and so it was with 
 Christianity, soon after her first outset. Though the 
 quick succession of monarchs f , and the consequent 
 and constant change of policy, prevented the entire 
 suppression of the Christian name, even in the impe- 
 rial city, yet, can it be doubted for a moment, that 
 the fury of a Nero, a Domitian, or a Decius, would, 
 but too often, put the timid to silence, confound the 
 wise, and destroy the bold and ingenuous worshippers 
 
 See N. & I. ch. II. No. 3. See N. & I. ch. II. No. 4.
 
 PERSECUTIONS BY THE POPULACE. 33 
 
 of Jesus ? The mistaken zeal, indeed, and piety of 
 later Christians, have induced them to magnify the 
 bitterness, and multiply the number of persecutions, 
 as well as of martyrs *. But ingenuity has been far 
 more perversely applied, in casting a veil over per- 
 secutions which actually took place ; and in dimi- 
 nishing the impressions, which they are calculated to 
 make f. No one can read the page of ecclesiastical 
 history, without feeling the force of the well-known 
 argument, respecting the sufferings of the Christians 
 in the apostolic age. Why these perpetual exhor- 
 tations to constancy and to patience, if they were 
 not called for by the pressure of actual and heavy 
 afflictions ? Whether we peruse the writings of Jus- 
 tin, or descend to the age of Cyprian, we find, in each, 
 the same just and reasonable remonstrance, against 
 consigning the innocent to death and to torture for 
 ,a name ; and the same assertion, that the Christians, 
 though their cause was disgraced by apostatizing 
 spirits, yet, in numberless instances, gloried to meet 
 the torture and the death, which frequently followed 
 the confession of the name of Christ J. 
 
 But the early Christians had to dread, not only 
 the opposition of thrones and dominions, but the 
 furious and sudden attacks of barbarous and infu- 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. II. No. 5. f See N. & I. ch. II. No. 6. 
 t See N. &I. ch. II. No. 7. 
 D
 
 34 OPPOSITION OF THE ROMANS A SERIOUS OBSTACLE. 
 
 riated multitudes *. In calamities of a public na- 
 ture, the evil was ascribed, by the popular voice, to 
 their impiety. The early writers are compelled to 
 defend themselves and their religion, by arguments, 
 against the charge of bringing down the vengeance 
 of the gods, on the nations who neglected them ; and 
 it would have been happy for them, if no other de- 
 fence than argument had been required, against these 
 dreams of blindness and ignorance f . Of the many 
 methods, in which persecution tended to repress or 
 retard the progress of Christianity, some are so ob- 
 vious, and have been so often dwelt on, as to require 
 no notice ; but it will not be without interest for us, 
 to turn away our eyes from the once celebrated seat 
 of empire, to the countries then considered as barba- 
 rian conquests. That "where the Roman conquered, 
 he inhabited," is the just remark of one of their 
 own philosophers t; and the civil colonization of these 
 distant countries, had introduced, if we may so say, a 
 factitious civilization into them, rapid in its progress, 
 and by possibility, at least, most important in its ef- 
 fects. The general use of the language of the con- 
 querors, and the facility of communication between 
 distant parts of the empire, would, indeed, have been 
 inestimable advantages in the propagation of the new 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. II. No. 8. f See N. & I. ch. II. No. 9. 
 Seneca Consol. ad Helviam. c. 6.
 
 CASE OF ROMAN COLONISTS. 35 
 
 opinions *. But, where the conquerors were in mili- 
 tary occupation of the country, no change of any 
 real extent or importance could be effected, in oppo- 
 sition to their wishes. Had the Roman government, 
 then, been friendly, nay, had it been indifferent, to 
 the doctrines of Christianity, the Roman settlers 
 might have sown the precious seed of the Word, far 
 and wide over the rich plains of Gaul, and on the 
 distant shores of Britain ; and, in return for the 
 earthly treasures, the liberty, or the wealth, of which 
 they robbed the Gaul or the Briton, his Roman 
 masters might have presented him with the pearl of 
 great price. That, in spite of opposition or perse- 
 cution, the truth, in some degree, insinuated itself, 
 we may gather from the acts of the churches of 
 Vienne and Lyons; which, at the same time, are a 
 sufficient proof of the capability of these countries to 
 receive itf . But, if we compare its progress here, with 
 its advancement in those countries, which, though 
 equally governed by the Roman arms, possessed a 
 civilization long anterior to their dominion, and 
 wholly independent of it, we cannot fail to perceive 
 the unfavourable effects of an adverse power, on the 
 propagation of the Gospel. In those happier realms, 
 to suppress the doctrine of Christianity, would have 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. II. No. 10. 
 t See N. & I. ch. II. No. 11. 
 D2
 
 36 CASE OF ROMAN COLONISTS. 
 
 been almost to reduce the country to a desert *. At 
 the seat of empire, again, when a moment's cessation 
 of persecution was obtained, there was a large body 
 of Christians to take advantage of it ; but the pul- 
 sation, which might be strong at the heart, would 
 be languidly felt at the extremities ; and time and 
 opportunities there lost, would never be regained. 
 The solitary Christian, who might have found his way 
 into these distant realms, would be compelled to exer- 
 cise his faith in silence and fear ; happy, indeed, if 
 even in silence he could exercise it ; and alike unable 
 and afraid to impart to others, the hope which he en- 
 joyed himself. That when Christianity became the 
 religion of the empire, it became also the religion of 
 Britain and of Gaul, is unquestionably true; but the 
 time which was allowed it to strengthen and expand 
 itself, was far too short for the effectuation of any 
 great purpose f . It may, perhaps, be deemed vision- 
 ary to conjecture, that, had an earlier and more effec- 
 tual door been opened to it, its effect in elevating 
 the moral habits and feelings of these northern na- 
 tions, and their sense of its inestimable value, might 
 have bound them in stronger ties of union, and in- 
 spired them with a more determined spirit of resist- 
 ance to the savage hordes, which poured in on them 
 when their Roman masters withdrew ; might have 
 
 See N. & I. ch. II. No. 12. f See N. & I. ch. II. No. 1 3.
 
 INTERNAL OBSTACLES TO CHRISTIANITY. 37 
 
 given them a yet stronger and holier incentive, than 
 even " the infant's eye, the wife's smile, or the dust of 
 them that were before them," to transmit to their 
 children " the land and the faith which they had 
 from their fathers*," or to die in their defence; and 
 might, thus, have changed the face of Europe. At 
 all events, it cannot be denied, that, by the hand of 
 power or of persecution, and not by any fault in the 
 religion itself, or its ministers, its progress into the 
 northern countries, which owned the dominion of 
 Rome, was stayed for ages and generations. 
 
 But the external circumstances of the Church 
 were not the only, nor the chief, impediment to the 
 progress of our holy religion. That religion, be it 
 remembered, though it contains a specific for the 
 evils of a fallen nature, contains nothing to insure or 
 necessitate its application. We may live in a Chris- 
 tian community, and live in profligacy ; we may live 
 in a Christian community, and live in mutual ha- 
 tred ; we may busy ourselves about Christianity, but 
 it may be only about its speculative truths, and not 
 about their application to our practice. The pride of 
 human reason may employ itself, in perverting what 
 is plain, and in degrading what is above its reach, 
 by its futile attempts at explanation ; or it may be 
 pleased to think, that it can perfect the work of God, 
 
 * Wordsworth's Sonnets to Liberty, Pt. II. Sonn. 9.ed. 1815.
 
 38 DIVISIONS AMONG CHRISTIANS. 
 
 and, by its superior knowledge of what is in man, 
 render the system sent to purify and elevate him, 
 more valuable both in theory and in practice. Nay, 
 yet further evils, baser in kind, if not more fatal in 
 degree, may seize on the hearts and minds of the 
 professors of a new religion ; worldly ends may be 
 concealed, and worldly advantages gained, by its pro- 
 fession, as soon as it is adopted, or even protected, 
 by the policy, or piety, of temporal power. He who 
 would argue, that the religion, which does not eradi- 
 cate all such evil dispositions, must be false, argues 
 on the absurd and mischievous notion, that, when God 
 deals with men, he deals with them as mere ma- 
 chines, and not as moral agents ; and that he leaves 
 them no power to reject the good, and choose the 
 evil. 
 
 The mischiefs which I have enumerated, were soon, 
 too soon, experienced in the Church of Christ : soon, 
 indeed, too soon, was it agitated by discordant opi- 
 nions, disfigured by earthly philosophy, and degraded 
 by worldly motives. At this painful picture, we are 
 now compelled to look. 
 
 Not only, did the Christians soon forget the advice 
 of St. Paul, that they should * all speak the same 
 thing */ but they alloyed the doctines of the Gospel, 
 with the dictates of an earthly and spurious philoso- 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 10.
 
 MR. GIBBON'S NOTION AS TO THE EFFECT OF HERESIES. 39 
 
 phy. Even before the eyes of the last apostle were 
 closed in death, he had cause to mourn, that, already, 
 many Anti-Christs and deceivers had gone forth from 
 among the Christians *. The sceptical historian, 
 indeed, with a strange and perverted ingenuity, 
 which defeats itself, expresses his belief, that the 
 success and the prevalence of various opinions in 
 the early Church, though they constantly disturbed 
 the peace, and too frequently disgraced the name, 
 of religion, contributed rather to advance, than to 
 retard, the progress of Christianity, by throwing 
 its doors open wider for the entrance of various, 
 and perhaps discordant opinions f. That Mr. Gib- 
 bon's hostility to Christianity, alone, led him to 
 adopt this opinion, in its full extent, cannot be 
 doubted. It requires only a very ordinary expe- 
 rience of human nature, to know, that mere increase 
 of numbers never can compensate for increase of 
 dissension ; that, where differences exist in any 
 society, its common interests are perpetually sacri- 
 ficed, to the advantages or passions of the parties 
 contending within its bosom ; and that, they are ever 
 more ready to struggle, for the petty points on which 
 they differ, than to join in a hearty endeavour, for 
 the advancement of those in which they agree. In 
 
 * 1 Johni. 18; iv. 1 ; ii. 7. 
 
 t Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. XV. p. 287, (Edit. 1820.)
 
 40 GNOSTICISM. 
 
 this respect, most numerous and most fearful were 
 the evils, which the Gospel had to encounter. It 
 would be as impossible, as it is unnecessary, to enter 
 at large into this wide subject. Suffer me, however, to 
 recall to your memory, the leading divisions and here- 
 sies, which have torn the Church of Christ, and 
 delayed the progress of the everlasting Gospel. 
 
 The first, and, perhaps, indirectly, the most en- 
 during perversion of the truth, as it is in Jesus, arose 
 from that perplexity, as to the origin of evil, which, 
 from the very earliest ages, exercised the intellects of 
 man. The fervour of oriental fancy had, from an 
 early period, not only accepted the doctrine of two 
 principles ; but, had exhibited that doctrine, in a 
 variety of details, fanciful and minute beyond con- 
 ception. It was in the fatal school of Egypt, ever 
 the nursing mother of superstition and heresy, that 
 these oriental tenets had been engrafted on some, 
 or, perhaps, on all the systems of Greek philoso- 
 phy ; and that a still stranger union was brought 
 about, between this compound, and the Mosaic reve- 
 lation. It needs hardly be said, that the disciples 
 of such a system, were not likely to receive any more 
 of the Christian revelation, or, indeed, of any scheme 
 of theology, than suited their own views. The 
 doctrines which they disliked, they unhesitatingly 
 rejected ; on the ground of possessing superior in- 
 formation, founded on early revelation made to the
 
 GNOSTICISM. 41 
 
 patriarchs, 'whose names they abused, and whose 
 writings they pretended to possess *.' It was the 
 Gnostic party, indeed, who first invented the plau- 
 sible, but pernicious, notion of an exoteric and eso- 
 teric doctrine ; it was the Gnostic party, which first 
 suggested doubts of the authenticity of some of the 
 books of sacred writ ; and it was the Gnostic party, 
 which first introduced the miserable substitutes for 
 those books, which are offensive alike to sense, to 
 taste, and to decency. Divided among themselves, 
 they failed to do all the harm to Christianity which 
 might have been expected : but there is sufficient 
 reason, to lament the mischief effected by the swarm 
 of heresies, which arose from the bosom of Gnosti- 
 cism, and which spread themselves through all the 
 churches of Asia and Africa, bringing in their train, 
 now the most debasing superstitions, and now the 
 most extravagant excesses of ascetic rigour. If 
 there be .any, who undervalue the effects produced 
 by speculative errors ; who doubt the overwhelming 
 evil which must arise to the cause of truth, from the 
 admixture of error, let them, at all events, remem- 
 ber, that, in many of the Gnostic sects, a corrupted 
 practice, was the consequence, or the companion, of 
 a corrupted doctrine ; and, that, it is the express 
 testimony of S. Irenaeus and of Justin Martyr, that 
 
 Gibbon.
 
 42 GNOSTICISM. 
 
 very many of the heathens, were unable to distin- 
 guish, between the true and the false members of 
 the Christian body ; and were thus taught, by the 
 just hatred which they had conceived for the false- 
 hoods and abominations of the Gnostics, to turn 
 away from the truths of the Gospel. We have it also, 
 from unquestionable authorities, that the fanatical 
 eloquence, the learning, and the show of piety, 
 among the Gnostics, were effectual means of seduc- 
 ing but too large a portion of Christians, unable to 
 combat the sophistry, or to detect the falsehood, 
 which lurked under these disguises *. 
 
 On the consideration of these strange opinions, 
 these mischievous and wide-spread errors, there is one 
 reflection, which impresses itself, with irresistible 
 force, on the mind, and which is closely connected with 
 our present subject. It is the gradual purification 
 of the mind of man, from long-cherished errors ; and 
 the extreme slowness, with which that purification is 
 effected. That these strange dreams and doctrines, 
 however mischievous, and however injurious, were, in 
 themselves, less degrading, than the coarser supersti- 
 tion, the debasing idolatry, which they succeeded, 
 cannot be denied. That idolatry, had borne sway 
 for countless generations ; and it could not, it would 
 
 For proof of the various assertions made in the preceding 
 paragraph, as to the Gnostics, see Notes and Illustrations to 
 ch. II. No. 14.
 
 SLOW PROGRESS OF TRUTH. 43 
 
 seem, at once, give way to the pure and simple truth. 
 It was enough, that some improvement should be 
 effected; that error, indeed, should succeed; but 
 error less widely removed from the truth. We look 
 back with pity, on those who could submit to its in- 
 fluence ; but let us remember, that they looked back 
 with equal pity and with equal justice, on the errors 
 of their forefathers *. But this is the slow and solemn 
 pace, with which, alone, the truth is enabled to make 
 the circuit of creation. Whatever may be the case 
 of gifted individuals, the multitude will still move at 
 its accustomed pace : and even the great, and the 
 good, and the wise, will, for the most part, be held 
 too fast by circumstances, to advance far beyond 
 their fellows. How, then, can we be unwise enough, 
 to listen to the dreams, that would persuade us of 
 miraculous advances, to be made in a single genera- 
 tion ; how, faithless enough, to question the truth of 
 revelation, because the improvements which it effects, 
 do not keep pace with our fancies or our desires ? 
 Though, in these latter days, the free course of the 
 Word is not impeded, by the dreams of a Cerinthus 
 or a Valentine, the eye of experience may still discern 
 enemies enough, to restrain and repress its progress ; 
 and ages may yet elapse, before the errors and cor- 
 ruptions, which still defile the face of Christianity, 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. II. No. 15. 
 
 7
 
 44 CONSTANT RESISTANCE TO TRUTH. 
 
 and disgrace the name of Christian, may be exhausted 
 and purified. Let the Christian, only, be careful to 
 remember, that, with every age, and every falsehood, 
 that passes away, there arises a proportionate call on 
 him, for a life corresponding to a clearer light. Hap- 
 py, indeed, are we, who live in an age, when, at least, 
 the coarser and fouler forms of falsehood and super- 
 stition have fled from the light : but most unhappy, 
 yea, of all men most miserable, if we voluntarily 
 adopt errors, which cannot be defended by the feel- 
 ings or belief of mankind at large ; or if, when the 
 light shines more clearly upon us, it produces no cor- 
 responding effect on our practice, no visible change 
 in our lives. 
 
 In the age of which we have been speaking, 
 little had been done, towards exhausting the errors 
 of false philosophy; and, in consequence, no opi- 
 nions seem to have been too wild, to obtain belief 
 and acceptance. When even the orthodox party, were 
 induced, by a false philosophy, too easily working on 
 the pride of human reason, to admit the fatal notion 
 of an esoteric doctrine ; and to adopt, at least, the 
 language, and extol the merit, of the Pagan philoso- 
 phy *, can we wonder, that wavering and ignorant 
 men should have been led astray, by the bold asser- 
 tions, the extravagant pretensions, and the fanciful 
 
 See N. & I. ch. II. No. 16.
 
 VARIOUS F.ARLY HERESIES. 45 
 
 dreams, of the various heresiarchs ? Can we wonder, 
 that even the dreams of the weak, and, perhaps, in- 
 sane Montanus, which could beguile a Tertullian, 
 should seduce numberless ignorant men ; and give 
 birth to a sect, which, spreading itself over the face 
 of Christendom, was not totally extinct even in the 
 fifth century * ? When the earlier years of even an 
 Augustine, were betrayed into the errors of Mani- 
 chasism, can we wonder, at the firm and lengthened 
 hold which that pernicious heresy gained, on minds, 
 less acute in detecting errors, and less resolute in 
 investigating the truth f ? When we know that the 
 Pagan philosophy busied itself perpetually, in vain 
 researches into the nature of the great Infinite, and 
 that that philosophy was warmly extolled, and eagerly 
 cultivated, by the orthodox and the heretic alike, 
 shall we wonder, however we may lament, that count- 
 less errors, and innumerable sects, sprang up, in the 
 vain endeavour to solve the mysterious doctrine of the 
 Trinity, and in the obstinate rejection of that voice of 
 wisdom, which says, " It is as high as heaven ; what 
 canst thou do ? deeper than hell ; what canst thou 
 know?" But, it were a tedious and an hopeless task, 
 to pursue the tale of error and of heresy ; to show, 
 with what ingenuity the positive declarations of 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. II. No. 17. f See N. & I. ch. II. No. 1 8. 
 Job xi. 8.
 
 46 MISCHIEF CAUSED BY THE EARLY HERESIES. 
 
 Scripture were set aside, by men who would be wiser 
 than God : to show, how the Sabellians endeavoured 
 to explain, or pervert, the distinctions of Persons in 
 the Godhead : how the Nestorian misrepresented the 
 union of the Divine and human natures : or how 
 many, with the Pelagians, fell into error in sounding 
 the depths of predestination ; and vainly attempted, 
 to reconcile the prescience of God, with the free-will 
 of man. It is our business, rather, to observe the evils 
 which these divisions caused to the Church of Christ : 
 and, when the page of history records, on the one 
 hand, the wide-spread triumphs of the Gnostic, the 
 Arian, the Nestorian, and the Manichasan heresies, 
 extending not to a single church, or a single city only, 
 but spreading over kingdoms and nations ; and, on 
 the other, presents to us the fierceness, the violence, 
 and the obstinacy, with which these unhappy contro- 
 versies were carried on ; can we entertain a doubt, 
 as to the mischief, the obstacles, and the delay, which 
 such things must cause to the propagation of the Gos- 
 pel ? Could the persecutor stop, in the midst of his 
 unholy vehemence, and his wicked cruelty, to preach 
 the gospel of peace, and his own condemnation, at 
 once? Could the persecuted rise, under the oppressive 
 weight of the arm of power, and come forth, in safety 
 and in confidence, from their hiding-places, to pro- 
 claim the triumph of the truth, by pointing to the do- 
 minion of falsehood ? And, even where the combatants
 
 INTERNAL SCHISMS. 47 
 
 desired an unbloody victory alone, and contended with 
 the pen rather than the sword, can we not learn, 
 from the experience of times nearer to our own, yea, 
 from the experience of our own day, what a false and 
 overweening share of attention, petty differences and 
 divisions excite ; and how fatally they prevent any 
 cordial unity, against the everlasting enemies of the 
 Gospel, the ignorance of the heathen, and the sins of 
 the professing Christian ? 
 
 But, it was not enough, that the whole head 
 should be sick, and the whole heart faint, with 
 divisions arising from a proud, but feeble, intellect. 
 The cause of Christianity was disgraced and in- 
 jured, still further, by the strife and violence of 
 men, who differed on no points of doctrine ; who 
 united in the same faith, and the same worship ; 
 and yet, by some fatal circumstance, some transient 
 occasion of difference, or some base contest for gain, 
 or for superiority, were betrayed into irreconcilable 
 hatred, contention, and bloodshed. Such, to take a 
 single instance, was the schism of Donatus : which 
 threw the African churches into utter confusion ; nay, 
 which separated the greater part of that country 
 from the catholic church ; and, which expired, only, 
 with expiring Christianity *. 
 
 But how many, were the evil men, the evil tongues, 
 the evil contentions, which alloyed the happiness she 
 SeeN. &'I. ch.II. No. 19.
 
 48 EFFECTS OF THE INTRODUCTION OF A REGULAR POLITY. 
 
 might have enjoyed, in that time of comparative 
 knowledge and civilization ; and which obscured the 
 fair light of Christianity, in sad anticipation, as it 
 would seem, of the darker night impending, in the 
 degrading superstitions of the Roman church, in the 
 triumphs of the barbarians on the one side, and of 
 the crescent on the other ! 
 
 Nor must we leave out of our calculation, the 
 necessary defects, which, in an imperfect world, ever 
 attend on the best and wisest measures. As early 
 as the second century, the Christian church was 
 endeavouring to gather strength by union and con- 
 centration ; and had gone far, in laying the founda- 
 tions of an ecclesiastical polity. Now, I refer, only, to 
 acknowledged principles of human nature and human 
 imperfections, when I say, that with establishment 
 and fixed system, comes, not, indeed, either positive 
 inability or unwillingness to make progress, but a 
 tendency, at least, to quiescence ; or, to speak more 
 justly, a necessary direction of the attention to what 
 is near, and will be heard, rather than to what is 
 afar off, and does not press its claims to attention*. 
 But, when, with solidity and strength came riches ; 
 and, yet more, when power consolidated the strength, 
 and insured the riches, all the baser passions of man 
 were, not enlisted on the side of Christianity, but, 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. II. No. 20.
 
 EMINENT AND EXCELLENT CHURCH RULERS. 49 
 
 necessarily admitted within her bulwarks, to pollute, 
 to debase, and to betray. Not that the genuine 
 page of ecclesiastical history presents the same ap- 
 pearance, as the caricatures of the infidel historian, 
 or the sneering ecclesiastic *. The martyrs and the 
 confessors, were not all evil : the prelates of the primi- 
 tive church, were not all proud, and deceitful, and 
 passionate, and covetous. Far otherwise. The 
 records of the primitive church present to us a pic- 
 ture, of suffering, and constancy, and courage, and 
 self-devotion, which can be equalled by no history 
 besides, since the creation of the world. But the 
 picture is, undoubtedly, the picture of humanity : its 
 beauty is debased, by that sad admixture of in- 
 firmity and evil, which characterizes the history of 
 man ; but, though the voice of truth may be sadden- 
 ing, and depressing, yet it is neither harsh nor grating 
 to the ear of faith f . 
 
 It is undoubtedly true, that, as Christianity 
 gained strength, the children of this world were, 
 more and more, ready to form alliances with her ; 
 in which all that they gained, from the fountain 
 whence they might have drawn the pure water of life, 
 was wealth and honour ; and all that she obtained, 
 was evil and disgrace. We, undoubtedly, do find, 
 and find too soon, evil-minded, and worldly, and rapa- 
 
 * See N.& I. oh. II. No. 21. f See N. & I. ch. II. No. 22. 
 
 E
 
 o s tf3>iiAJi3 aa 01 TOK aju'iun 3HT ':o rtj<jiT33<jas'HU 
 
 50 GOD'S CHOICE OF MEANS. 
 
 bflA .EoJsfoiq ^linTO'i ": iOi-j!:jT?b oifi bfii . ;; ohq 
 cious prelates and rulers in the church of God *. Nor 
 
 does the undeniable fact invalidate, in any way, the 
 claim to the providential guardianship of God, over 
 the Christian church. He gave, indeed, the seed of 
 life ; but its culture was left to human hands : it was 
 to be propagated, and established, by human means ; 
 by that mixture of good and evil, which is ever found 
 in man. In a word, God was pleased to take the 
 agents, which the world afforded ; and not to create 
 better ones. He could have prevented evil men, 
 and evil passions, from interfering, directly, or indi- 
 rectly, with his holy religion. With his own right 
 hand, and with his holy arm, he could have gotten 
 himself the victory. By constant miracles, he could 
 have guarded, and propagated, and established, his 
 doctrine. But he has chosen another way. He has 
 given a divine seed : he has left it to us, to culti- 
 vate; sometimes well, sometimes ill; now neg- 
 lected, now fostered with affectionate and anxious 
 care. To-day, an apostle plants it, and waters : 
 to-morrow, a worldling despises and forgets it ; and 
 the third day, it is trampled down, in some unholy 
 strife, for temporal, and sordid, and debasing, ends. 
 Yea, so it hath been ; we avow, we proclaim it. 
 We avow, that the church of God hath groaned 
 long, and often, under the ministry of worldly 
 
 ( ItxjgoO Jiij to 02-fjjoo -Jill ,fYi/nJt3i lirw fca ,/ ,-->?., 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. II. No. 23. 
 
 3
 
 IMPERFECTIONS OF THE AGENTS NOT TO BE CHARGED. 51 
 
 priests, and the dominion of worldly prelates. And 
 so it will be. Base men will still approach the 
 altar "of God, with hands defiled by corruption, and 
 with hearts that pant after gain. Even the shepherd's 
 staff may still be entrusted with those, who will abuse 
 it to lord over the flock, and to oppress it ; instead of 
 leading it forth, beside the green pastures, and the 
 still waters. And the dreams of fancied wisdom, and 
 the pride of human reason, and angry passions, and 
 worldly strife, have reigned, and shall reign, in the 
 church of Christ, till the Gospel hath done its per- 
 fect work ; and till anger, and till all the train of 
 evil passions, have fled from the presence of the clear 
 and searching light of truth. But shall we, there- 
 fore, arraign the Gospel of Christ, or the wisdom of 
 Him who sent it forth ? Shall we accuse the law, 
 for the venality of the advocate, or the corruption of 
 the judge ? Shall we charge the imperfections of 
 man, on their remedy ; and the sharpness of the 
 wound, on the balm that is to heal it ? Nay : rather 
 shall we not say, that, unless the Gospel of Christ, 
 were, indeed, the word of truth ; unless, indeed, it 
 were under the vigilant eye, and protecting hand of 
 God, instead of the mighty increase which he has 
 given it, it must long ago have sunk, under enemies 
 without, and careless or pretended foes within ? 
 These enemies have, assuredly, checked, and will 
 check, and will restrain, the course of the Gospel ; 
 E 2
 
 52 EVIL OF IMPERFECT AGENTS ONLY TEMPORARY. 
 
 ' all these things,' in the words of the patriarch, ' are 
 against us,' for a time. But that is all : they may 
 make the course of the Gospel slower, but not less 
 sure. In these efforts, they expend their force ; and 
 here, the proud waves of their little might are stayed. 
 The cloud that veils the face of the sun, from the na- 
 tions which he enlivens with his ray, passes away, 
 and is dispersed and forgotten : but the orb of day 
 rolls on, in his everlasting majesty. And, when evil 
 ministers and rulers of the church of God, are gone 
 to their own place ; when schism hath died away, and 
 heresy is silent ; when the kings of the earth and the 
 rulers, the proud sceptic and the scoffing wit, who 
 have taken arms, against the Lord, and against his 
 anointed, have faded away from the face of creation, 
 when they have sunk into nothing, at the bidding 
 of that Holy One, who sitteth in heaven, and laugh- 
 eth to scorn their furious rage, and the vain things 
 of their imaginations, then, the Gospel, whose bonds 
 they have endeavoured to break in sunder, shall hold 
 on its way, in its might, rejoicing. For the Son 
 hath desired of the Father, and the everlasting Fa- 
 ther hath given him, the heathen for his inheritance, 
 and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession. 
 His kingdom, is an everlasting kingdom ; and his 
 dominion endureth for ever. 
 
 lu'i; l>i*Ji.l '?.& i>'t\.!' -r ' 
 
 -ay jjtuoo ifgtfl noMpd
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Recapitulation Second part of the Subject Inquiry what 
 Christianity has effected Review of the state of the world 
 when Christianity was introduced Its progress through the 
 civilized world, before it was protected by the hand of power 
 Effects of the Irruption of the Barbarians Gradual 
 effects of Christianity on them. 
 
 WHILE the Christian rejoices to remember, that he 
 has the promise of Him, whose word is sure, that 
 the holy religion, which forms his refuge and blessing 
 in time, and his hope for eternity, shall, one day, be 
 accepted with joy, by every nation of the world, 
 and the distinctions of colour and country, shall 
 merge in the common name of Christian ; while he 
 willingly allows, that the truth of the religion, which 
 professes to convey the promise, must be tried by its 
 fulfilment, he yet has, too often, reason to complain, 
 that the test is applied, with an entire neglect of 
 candour and of reason. The adversary, I repeat the 
 observation, for it is most important, the adversary 
 asserts, that a revelation, because it professes to come 
 from God, ought to make a progress as rapid and 
 as certain, as the power of the Most High could un-
 
 54 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 doubtedly insure to it, if, in his wisdom, he saw fit. 
 The Christian has, too often, cause to wonder, that 
 the friends of Christianity shrink, with a careless and 
 unseasonable dismay, from the picture, which pre- 
 sents to them the actual state of the case ; and forget 
 to remind the gainsayer, that, though the seed is 
 sown by a divine hand, its culture is left to human 
 care, or human carelessness. They forget to remind 
 him, that, all truth, addressed to moral and rational 
 agents, must make progress by the same laws, slowly 
 and gradually; patiently defeating prejudice, and 
 triumphing over hostility and passion ; often neg- 
 lected, often forgotten, and often sacrificed to sordid 
 purposes ; partaking, in a word, of all the evils, which, 
 a connection with a being so frail and so imperfect 
 as man, must ever entail on the cause of truth. 
 
 It has been my endeavour, in the preceding part 
 of this discussion, to point out the nature of these 
 unhappy and necessary evils; and to exemplify them, 
 especially, in the first period of the history of the 
 Church of Christ ; that period, I mean, which pre- 
 ceded the irruption of the barbarians. It now be- 
 comes my duty to turn the reader's attention, from the 
 causes which prevented the religion of Jesus Christ 
 from doing more ; and to consider the conquests 
 which it has triumphantly achieved, in spite of all 
 these obstacles, achieved, in spite of difficulty and 
 opposition, at the price of incredible labour, fatigue,
 
 WHAT PROGRESS IT IS RIGHT TO EXPECT. 55 
 
 and perseverance, yea, often at the price of Chris- 
 tian blood, freely perilled, and profusely shed, in the 
 cause of that holy Master, to whose service it had 
 been pledged and consecrated at the font of baptism. 
 
 It will be my present object, to dwell especially, 
 on the progress which Christianity has made in ex- 
 tent ; and, after completing this portion of the sub- 
 ject, to direct attention to the yet more important 
 topic, of its gradual progress in moral influence ; and 
 to point out, at once, its present operations, and its 
 future prospects. 
 
 Before proceeding with this topic, however, it 
 appears necessary to define the extent, to which it is 
 reasonable to expect, that Christianity should have 
 advanced in past ages, and should extend at present. 
 It is a truth, which is proved by experience *, though 
 rejected by enthusiasm, that the purity of Christianity 
 cannot be apprehended, by savage ignorance, or by 
 brutal ferocity ; by man, in short, when reduced to the 
 level of the beasts that perish. Christianity is not fit- 
 ted, nor designed, by a gracious and benevolent God, 
 for such a state of things; or, to speak more definitely, 
 man, so far as we can presume to judge, was in- 
 tended to be ever a partaker of the blessings of society 
 and civilization. It is only the perversion and wilful 
 rejection of God's gifts, which reduces man, from a 
 
 luH- Vil> 
 
 * SeeN. &I.ch. III. No. 1.
 
 56 CIVILIZATION GOES HAND IN HAND WITH THE GOSPEL. 
 
 being, capable of knowing and loving his Maker, and of 
 benefiting his brethren, to a creature, raised above 
 his fellow animals, only by superior cunning and supe- 
 rior cruelty. We are not wicked enough, far from us 
 be the imputation, to depreciate or discourage the 
 pious labours of many zealous Christians, among the 
 savage inhabitants of continental deserts, or distant 
 isles of the sea. We are not weak enough, in the 
 vast variety of a system so complicated, to contend, 
 that all who want the arts of civilized life, are 
 alike degraded, or alike inaccessible to the sounds 
 of the Gospel : but, speaking generally, we maintain, 
 as a most important truth, that civilization must, at 
 least, go hand in hand with conversion, if not pre- 
 cede it *. History, indeed, presents to us the pic- 
 ture of a vast body of converts gained, by accom- 
 modating the Gospel to their capacities, and by 
 extending its pale wide enough to receive themf : it 
 exhibits a barbarous army, submitting, at the nod of 
 its leader, to the lustration of baptism, with the same 
 indifference, as it would have entered into the pol- 
 lutions of any false religion J. But, in either case, it 
 were vain to argue, that such converts were, in 
 reality, Christians ; vain, in a word, to expect, that 
 men can be Christians and barbarians at once. 
 
 See N. & I. ch. III. No. 2. f See N. & I. ch. III. No. 3. 
 t See N. & I. ch. III. No. 4.
 
 PREVALENCE OF THE GOSPEL IN THE EARLY AGES. 57 
 
 With this limitation, then, we are willing, that the 
 truth of Christianity shall be tried, first of all, by its 
 general prevalence, in the ages preceding the irrup- 
 tion of the barbarians. We are willing to resign all 
 the advantage, which, in argument, we might fairly 
 claim, from alleging, that, in looking, as we must 
 look, to the final establishment of Christianity, its 
 success, in a condition of society so soon to vanish 
 away, is no fair object of examination*. We will 
 allow, that, if Christianity were offered to the notice 
 of an enlightened, though a Pagan world ; and if, 
 in that world, living in a form of organized society, 
 and with some, though not with an adequate, know- 
 ledge and sense of moral obligations, it found no 
 acceptance from the wisdom of philosophy, the re- 
 search of learning, or the splendour of power ; if, 
 turning from these proud mansions, it were equally 
 spurned from the humble abode of the poor and the 
 unprejudiced ; if, I say, it made progress with no 
 class, undoubtedly, the argument from the external 
 state of the religion, so far as it availed, would be 
 against us. It might still be true ; for God might 
 have reasons, far beyond our puny powers to descry, 
 or even to comprehend, for allowing mankind to 
 
 * The early success of the gospel, however evanescent, might, 
 to be sure, influence its progress in the subsequent order of things; 
 and, with this object in view, the examination would be quite legi- 
 timate.
 
 58 ARGUMENT FROM THE 
 
 harden their hearts against the truth, for a season ; 
 but we could not then allege its acceptance, as a 
 proof of his protection, or of its veracity. But, if we 
 can show, that the reverse of this picture is, in fact, 
 the case ; that, whether fully received by a preju- 
 diced world, or fully practised by a corrupt one, its 
 mild sway was hailed and acknowledged in the an- 
 cient world, so far as civilization extended, and as 
 power did not interfere to suppress it; that its 
 progress was stayed, only by the barrier of barba- 
 rism ; that its holy flame ceased to burn, only where 
 fuel was denied it ; then, indeed, the ridicule and 
 contempt with which the worldly-wise regard, what 
 they deem, the credulity of the Christians, must 
 fall with greater justice on themselves. The argu- 
 ment, with which they have sought to confound us, 
 becomes, when the basis on which it rests is strictly 
 examined, an argument not against us, but in our 
 favour. And they will be reduced, either to deny 
 notorious facts, or to get rid of an argument for the 
 truth of Christianity, which, though not supported 
 by the fullness of scientific demonstration, recom- 
 mends itself to our reason, by those moral proofs, 
 which the unperverted moral sense of mankind must 
 ever accept. The facts are these. In a remote, 
 and inconsiderable country, a religion sprang up, 
 which, (whether differing from previous systems, in 
 its peculiar precepts, very widely or not,) is, at all
 
 EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 59 
 
 events, entirely novel *, in its earnest endeavour to 
 form mankind into one vast brotherhood ; and novel, 
 too, in possessing a regular and systematic spirit of 
 conversion, not in the ordinary way of migration or 
 conquest. The people of that country were cut off 
 from the rest of mankind, by their own prejudices, 
 and by the contemptuous feelings with which other 
 nations regarded them : they had no lead in policy, 
 in commerce, or in arms. Their own religious sys- 
 tem was, in many essential respects, very different 
 from the new one ; and a large proportion of the 
 people were inveterate against it f . When it escaped 
 beyond the boundaries of the countries in which it 
 first arose, it was frequently oppressed, and, for a 
 long period, never protected, by the temporal power ; 
 and was frequently liable to the sudden attacks of 
 the multitude : it was injured, by internal divisions, 
 among its adherents in general ; and by the admixture 
 of false and injurious philosophy, among its more 
 lettered followers. Yet, under all these great disad- 
 vantages, it had, in a short period, run nearly over 
 all the then civilized world ; and became co-exten- 
 
 * This striking feature of the gospel scheme is powerfully set 
 forth, in Reinhard's ' Versuch iiber den plan, den der Stifter uns, 
 religion zum besten der Menschheit eutworfen.' This work is 
 translated into French by Dumas ; and is called ' Essai surleplan 
 forme par le fondateur de la relig. Chretienne, pour le bonheur 
 du genre humain.' Dresden, 1799. 
 
 f See N. & I. ch. III. No. 5.
 
 60 STATE OF THE WORLD AT THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 sive with civilization, before the irruption of the 
 eastern and northern nations broke up the exist- 
 ing order of things, and plunged the civilized world 
 into a state of darkness, from which it emerged only 
 after a slumber of centuries. If such victories be 
 not deemed to go far in establishing the truth of the 
 religion, its adversaries have, assuredly, to account for 
 circumstances, wholly unparalleled in all their parts. 
 But, what is more immediately to our purpose, if the 
 facts are admitted, with what face can our adversa- 
 ries allege any want of universality, against the reli- 
 gion in its first period, unless they will avow, at once, 
 their expectation, that Christianity was to change the 
 face of the world by enchantment ; and, in an instant, 
 to transmute Tartary into Attica, to convert a horde 
 of barbarians, into a band of Christian philosophers * ? 
 We proceed, then, very briefly to notice the well- 
 known facts, to a part of which, a frequent, and, as 
 we believe, a just appeal, is made, for the establish- 
 ment of a direct and miraculous interference in 
 favour of Christianity, at its first outset; but to 
 which we appeal, at present, only for the purpose of 
 showing, how amply, the promise, that Christianity 
 should make progress among mankind, has been 
 realized and fulfilled. Not only was the world at 
 large divided, at the first rise of Christianity, into two 
 great portions, Roman and Barbarian, but the 
 * SeeN. &I. ch. III. No. 5*.
 
 TARDY PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL IN EUROPE. Gl 
 
 Roman world, itself, was, we must remember, divided 
 into two distinct parts. The one, consisted of coun- 
 tries, long enlightened by arts and learning ; which 
 had courted, or had been compelled to own, the 
 sway of Rome : the other, of regions, which could 
 boast of no other civilization, than that which the 
 arms of their conquerors had introduced. In the 
 latter class, were comprehended, not only our own 
 country, but Gaul, whatever parts of Germany were 
 civilized at all, and, in a lesser degree, even the 
 Peninsula of Spain. Into these countries, undoubt- 
 edly, the light of the Gospel did not penetrate quickly 
 or readily, for reasons which I noticed in the last 
 chapter. It could extend itself, only through the 
 Roman colonists ; and they would be under the in- 
 fluence of the government which had established, 
 and which protected them. The hostility, or the pru- 
 dential considerations, which, as we see in the present 
 day, so often render governments passively, if not 
 actively, enemies to conversion, would clearly act as 
 obstacles to the progress of Christianity in those 
 countries ; and will sufficiently account for the tardy 
 and partial advances which it made. Though ulti- 
 mately every where established, ere the Roman power 
 was broken, it was undoubtedly established in some 
 of these countries, at a later period, and only when 
 temporal power aided the cause of Christianity *. 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. III. No. 6.
 
 02 CHRISTIANITY DISSEMINATED IN ASIA, 
 
 But, when we turn from these countries, to the hap- 
 pier regions where learning and civilization dated their 
 birth, from a period far more remote than the rise of 
 the Roman power, how different a picture presents 
 itself! We have it from authority which cannot be 
 doubted, we have it, from pagan authority, that, in 
 the rich and civilized provinces of the lesser Asia, 
 within fourscore years from our Lord's death, such 
 was the increase of Christianity, among every order 
 and sex, as well in the cities as in the country, that 
 the fanes of the idol gods were well nigh desolate, 
 and their service consigned to oblivion or neglect *. 
 It is on the magnitude of the evil, indeed, that the 
 writer especially dwells, as an argument, with the 
 government, against resorting to those severities, 
 which his own humane temper led him to depre- 
 cate f . And, by a singular instance of good fortune, 
 we are enabled to ascertain, that the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity there displayed, was no accidental nor tran- 
 sient spirit ; for the same testimony is given, by an- 
 other pagan writer, to the state of the same country, 
 at the distance of a century J. In the lesser Asia, 
 then, we need hardly pursue our inquiries ; when we 
 remember, that the parts of it to which we allude, 
 were the most removed from the first scenes of 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. III. No. 7. \ See N. & I. ch. III. No. 8. 
 J See N. & I. ch. III. No. 9.
 
 
 
 IN GREECE, AND IN ITALY. 63 
 
 the Gospel history, and the least distinguished, by 
 the splendour or fame of their cities. The simple 
 and unpretending annals of apostolic history, indeed, 
 of themselves, teach us, that the sound of the Gos- 
 pel had been heard not only in the streets of the 
 splendid Ephesus, but had gone forth, to the ends 
 of the distant and unpolished Galatia. If we turn 
 our eyes to the learned and accomplished, but fallen 
 and humiliated, regions of Greece, to her ancient 
 cities, or her more recent settlements, there too, 
 the zeal and the courage of the great Apostle of 
 the Gentiles, had preached the glad tidings of salva- 
 tion. The very buildings consecrated to the worship 
 of Minerva or of Jove, had re-echoed the fervent 
 accents, and witnessed the vehement eloquence, with 
 which he proclaimed, to the philosophers and the people 
 of Athens, the eternal truth of the unity of the God- 
 head, and the great mystery of Christian redemption. 
 That the good providence of God, indeed, had blessed 
 his earnest endeavours for the conversion of the 
 heathen, would be sufficiently attested, by the Epistles 
 which he has addressed to the churches, existing, as 
 well in the very heart of Greece, as on her more 
 distant shores. If we direct our inquiries still fur- 
 ther westward, we find, that, even before Saint 
 Paul had bent his steps to Italy, the imperial city 
 possessed a church of no inconsiderable numbers 
 within her walls : and, in less than seventy years,
 
 64 EARLY SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL IN AFRICA. 
 
 their numbers were such, as to render them, in 
 the public eye, and in that of a cruel and relent- 
 less tyrant, no unworthy object of jealousy and 
 persecution *. Nay, it is the express. testimony of 
 the philosophic historian of these times, that there 
 was a vast multitude of Christians at Rome, when 
 the storm of the Neronian persecution burst upon 
 them f. 
 
 If, next, leaving the confines of Europe, our hasty 
 survey direct itself, to a country now almost lost in 
 barbarism, what striking testimony does the earlier 
 state of Africa bear, to the zealous efforts of the 
 apostles or their followers, and to the protecting 
 care of providence over the Christian religion ? We 
 have not the power of exactly determining, when it 
 was introduced into Africa; but we have a melancholy 
 testimony to the early existence of the church of 
 Alexandria, in the heresies of which it was the fruit- 
 ful parent J. But so rapid, and so wide, had been 
 the progress of Christianity, along all the civilized 
 part of Africa, that, even in the second century, there 
 is proof, that a very large portion of the population, 
 of one of the largest cities, were Christians . And, 
 if we descend to a later period, we find, that Chris- 
 tianity had spread itself over the whole face of the 
 
 See N. & I. ch. III. No. 10. f See N. & I. ch. III. No. 1 1. 
 I See N. & I. ch. III. No. 12. See N. & I. ch. III. No. 13.
 
 ARGUMENT FOK CHRISTIANITY FROM ITS PROPAGATION. 65 
 
 country ; and that a regular system of ecclesiastical 
 polity was recognized, in the various cities of the 
 coast *. Nay, when the schism of the Donatists broke 
 out, it appears, that above three hundred bishops se- 
 parated themselves from communion with the mother 
 church f . 
 
 But it is unnecessary to argue a point, so often 
 dwelt upon ; or to show the gradual extension of 
 the Christian religion, whether through the various 
 provinces of Spain or of Italy, or in its eastward 
 course through Asia : for the object at which we 
 are aiming, is not, in good truth, a matter of dispute. 
 It is the express admission, even of the infidel histo- 
 rian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 
 that the faith of Christ had been preached in every 
 province, and in all the great cities of that empire, 
 before the close of the third century . 
 
 This admission is, undoubtedly, one of extreme im- 
 portance. For we must remember, that, up to the 
 close of that century, Christianity had not ascended 
 the throne of temporal power. They who are the 
 most inclined to rest on secondary causes as explain- 
 ing its progress, and the most eager to extenuate 
 the persecutions to which it was subjected, mast yet 
 admit, that, up to that time, it had always been, at 
 best, an object of indifference to the powers that be ; 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. III. No. 14. f See N. & I. ch. III. No. 15. 
 J See N. & I. ch. III. No. 16.
 
 06 NO WANT OF SUCCESS CAN BE JUSTLY ALLEGED. 
 
 that it had, at least occasionally, seen their persecut- 
 ing hand lifted against it ; and that it had, still oftener, 
 been subject to the sudden and brutal attacks of 
 popular violence. The adversaries of Christianity, 
 then, can neither deny, nor conceal, the fact, that a 
 religion, unaided by power or by violence, and waging 
 direct war with all the forms of worship practised 
 by the wise and the great, wherever civility was 
 known was, within a few years after the death of its 
 Founder, preached extensively, through three con- 
 tinents, and received by multitudes in every quarter ; 
 that, in less than three centuries, it had reached the 
 extreme verge of the civilized world ; and that, in 
 the course of a fourth century, it had so entirely 
 supplanted the ancient and false religion, that a 
 Christian emperor had been able to suppress its 
 public exercise, and the Theodosian code expressly 
 states the conviction of the legislature, that the 
 pagans had wholly or nearly disappeared *. Our 
 opponents, then, may admit our inferences, or re- 
 ject them, as they please ; or they may endeavour to 
 account for these facts, by some peculiar hypothesis. 
 But we are justified, in first calling on them to con- 
 sider, what difficulties the word conversion, as applied 
 either to a nation or an individual, must, in all cases, 
 imply, and what difficulties and obstacles actually 
 did present themselves, in the early history of Chris- 
 
 * See N. & I. cli. III. No. 17.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AFTER THE IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARIANS. G7 
 
 tianity ; and we are further justified, in requiring 
 them, as men of candour, to declare, whether want 
 of success can reasonably be objected, to a religion, 
 which, from such small beginnings, became, by peace- 
 ful means alone, in less than four centuries, (during 
 the greater part of which, it was rather persecuted, 
 than assisted, by the rulers of the earth) the pro- 
 fessed religion of the whole thinking and cultivated 
 world. 
 
 The unbeliever may, in his weakness, question the 
 goodness of God, for allowing, any part of his creatures, 
 to be lost in ignorance and barbarism ; any intelli- 
 gences, to become unfit for the reception of pure and 
 lofty truth : but he cannot allege, that the religion 
 did not find acceptance, wherever it found hearts ca- 
 pable of accepting it. He must allow, that, in every 
 case, time is necessary to diffuse the knowledge of any 
 truth ; to overcome prejudice, and to struggle with 
 difficulties ; and, more especially, in a case, where new 
 opinions could find a foundation, only in the ruin of 
 prejudices of the most inveterate description : and he 
 surely, cannot, in candour, say, that, in the progress 
 of Christianity, any time was lost ; or that less was 
 done, than any reasonable estimate of the difficulties 
 of the case would suggest. 
 
 But we must now turn to a widely different state 
 of things : we must view Christianity, in what one may 
 venture to call, her second period ; doomed to strug- 
 
 F2
 
 08 EXTENT OF THE EVIL. 
 
 gle with difficulties of a far more formidable nature, 
 than any which she had encountered before. So far 
 as regarded her establishment among the nations of 
 the civilized world, she had done her work. But far 
 the larger portion of the world was still lost in bar- 
 barism. Nor was this the worst evil which presented 
 itself, as an obstacle to the progress of the Gospel. 
 The larger and barbarous portion of the world, set 
 itself in array, against the lesser and civilized division ; 
 and, after a short and ineffectual resistance, overcame it. 
 Thus, for a time, barbarism appeared to take possession 
 of the civilized world ; and darkness prevailed, for a 
 season, against light. This, we presume, will not be 
 alleged against Christianity as a crime. It was not her 
 fault, that mankind had gradually deserted the light, 
 which had been given them, by a gracious God, in ear- 
 lier days : and that sin and ignorance had, at last, sunk 
 them into a state of the most appalling degradation, of 
 mental faculties, and of moral habits ; deprived them 
 of the benefits of civilized society ; and made them, 
 rather like the beasts of the forest or the mountain, 
 than like the children of God, and heirs of immor- 
 tality. In a word, it was not the fault of Christianity, 
 that the larger portion of mankind stood in need of 
 the knowledge of God, and of salvation : and, if it can 
 be shown, that she has done all that could be ex- 
 pected of her, in bestowing that knowledge, it is not 
 to be alleged, as a crimination, that much yet remains
 
 EUROPE UNDER THE BARBARIANS. 
 
 to be done ; that the leaven has not yet leavened the 
 whole of the three measures of meal ; that the mus- 
 tard-tree, though advancing in strength and stature, 
 cannot yet bear the birds of heaven to rest upon it. 
 It was very shortly after the entire and formal extinc- 
 tion of paganism, through the Roman empire, that its 
 various provinces were visited by successive hordes of 
 barbarians ; moved by an impulse, which, beginning 
 in the remotest quarters of Asia, was felt to the ex- 
 tremities of the European world *. It would be as 
 remote from my purpose, as from our proper topic, 
 to enter into any historical view of the changes 
 effected in the state of Europe, by this great 
 movement : suffice it to say, that, although the 
 countries thus overrun, never relapsed into entire 
 barbarism, properly so called, yet they fell, immea- 
 surably, in the scale of civilization and of knowledge ; 
 and too plainly showed, in their manners, their vices, 
 and their ignorance, that the better was overcome of 
 the worse f . The ruin of literature, which, from 
 whatever cause, had been long declining, was com- 
 pleted, by the settlement of the barbaric nations in 
 Italy, in Spain, and in Gaul. The Goths, especially, 
 viewed the arts of learning with contempt. The 
 Latin language gradually disappeared ; and all access 
 to the treasures of learning, was shut up, from all but 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. III. No. 18. f See N. & I. ch. III. No. 19.
 
 70 TIME OF THEIR COMING FAVOURABLE TO CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the clergy *. The cities were comparatively neglected, 
 by the fierce barbarians, who delighted in private 
 wars, and established themselves, each in his own 
 distant fortress f . All facility of communication, be- 
 tween distant parts of the same country, ceased ; and 
 the disuse or contempt of the peaceful arts of agri- 
 culture, not only doomed some of the most fertile 
 regions of Europe, to neglect and sterility, but took 
 from the lower orders, all employments of a peaceful 
 and regular character. It is painful, indeed, to the 
 weakness of human nature, to compare what was, 
 with what, it fondly believes, might have been ; and to 
 see the civilized world fall back into darkness, igno- 
 rance, and cruelty. Yet, even here, the Christian 
 mind may learn a lesson of the highest importance ; 
 and here, assuredly, the believer may find ample rea- 
 son for recognizing the fatherly care of God, in the 
 steps taken, at once, for protecting Christianity, from 
 being overwhelmed in the common ruin ; for pro- 
 viding means, for the future civilization of so large 
 a portion of his creation ; and for certainly, though 
 remotely, extending the light of the Gospel, to re- 
 gions and nations, then sitting in darkness, and the 
 shadow of death. Whatever regret we may feel at 
 the scenes presented to us, yet, even the self-suffi- 
 ciency of human wisdom, will hardly venture to assert, 
 
 * See N.& I. ch. III. No. 20. f See N. & I. ch. III. No. 21.
 
 CORRUPTION REQUIRES CORRECTION. 71 
 
 or even pretend to see, that the salutary change, which 
 has converted the whole of Europe into a Christian 
 and civilized realm, could have been effected, by a 
 quicker process, or by less costly means, than the 
 overthrow of so much light, and beauty, and art, and 
 civilization. Nor, on the other hand, can that wis- 
 dom deny, that the steps actually taken have, fully, 
 and entirely, succeeded. But this is not all. For 
 the prospect before us, presents, to the eye of the 
 careful and candid inquirer, sufficient indications of 
 an ever-watchful guardian, presiding over the wel- 
 fare of Christianity. Such an inquirer cannot fail 
 to perceive, that, had these great movements in the 
 distant regions of Asia, taken place at an earlier 
 period ; had they occurred, before the Gospel had 
 taken root downward, and borne fruit upward, the 
 storms which successively burst upon Christianity, 
 must, humanly speaking, have swept it from the 
 face of the earth. Had they, on the other hand, come 
 later, the corruptions, which the evil mind of man 
 was daily introducing, into the pure truth com- 
 mitted to his care, would have effected a ruin perhaps 
 equally wide, and equally fatal. These corruptions, 
 too, let it be remembered, required a severe and mo- 
 nitory chastisement. When, within so brief a period 
 from the first promulgation of a religion, which so 
 especially inculcated peace and unity, and so strongly 
 and earnestly warned its followers against setting their 
 affections on the vanities of an evil world, when,
 
 72 CORRUPTION REQUIRES CORRECTION. 
 
 within so short a space from the time, when holy 
 men had promoted these truths by their example, and 
 sealed their faith in them with their blood, when, 
 within this small interval, the followers of Jesus 
 Christ were split into endless parties, and those par- 
 ties were too often animated by a fury against each 
 other, which would have disgraced barbarians right- 
 ing for plunder, can the necessity for correction be 
 denied, or can the ultimate advantages of that correc- 
 tion, to the cause of the Gospel, be doubted ? When 
 some of the leaders of the Church set the example, 
 of violence, of cruelty, and of greediness for tem- 
 poral power, and temporal riches ; when, too often, 
 the wild excesses of ascetic rigour were substituted 
 for interior holiness, and outward ceremonies usurped 
 the place of the service of the heart ; when the gold 
 thus became dim, and the fine gold dross, who will 
 deny, that it required to be brightened, even so as by 
 fire ? who will deny, that the sins of man cried aloud 
 for punishment ? or who will doubt, that to punish, 
 was, perhaps, the sole attainable way, to protect 
 and preserve ? 
 
 But the lessons of God to man, cannot be given sud- 
 denly, or shortly. The lessons, by which, an all-wise 
 Governor of the world is to speak to the whole human 
 race, for their good, in subsequent ages of this world, 
 and in the eternity of the world to come, must be 
 inculcated by slow means, and must be of an ever- 
 during character. He who sent Christianity into the
 
 THE MOST SINFUL NATIONS SUFFERED MOST. <O 
 
 world, best knew, by what alternations of progress and 
 apparent decay, by what admixture of encourage- 
 ment and chastisement, this everlasting religion 
 could be, most surely, and securely, propagated. It 
 pleased him, when he held direct intercourse with one 
 favoured nation, to warn, and to admonish, before the 
 blow came. But it would seem, that, when he judged 
 the education of his earthly family so far completed, 
 that any visible interference of his providence was 
 not needed, he left us to mark, or to neglect, as we 
 might, the still and silent, but ever discernible ringer 
 of his providence ; pointing out to us, the same les- 
 sons, as the Jews of old repeatedly heard, from the 
 voice of the inspired seer ; pointing out to us, that 
 the corruption of holy truth, the self-idolatry of 
 proud reason, the building up of strong-holds, 
 lead, assuredly, to ruin and to punishment. The 
 Christian world, then, already corrupted, received, 
 in the fourth century, from its divine Governor, 
 if charity must repress the thought of a judgment, 
 at least, a salutary lesson. And thus much, cha- 
 rity herself may venture to remark, that they 
 who had sinned most, suffered most; that from 
 Africa*, especially, tainted with heresy, and torn 
 by schism, the candlestick has been wholly withdrawn ; 
 and that the countries, which had most defiled the 
 beauty of Christian truth, were the first and the 
 
 * SeeN. &I. ch.III.No. 22.
 
 74 THE BARBARIANS CAME ON BY DEGREES. 
 
 readiest, to submit to the dominion of the crescent *. 
 Whatever, then, may be our regret, for the depression 
 of civilization and learning, we cannot fail to see, that 
 the storm, which, by the permission of Providence, 
 burst with irresistible fury, and destroyed much that 
 was good, and lovely, and fair, crushed also into 
 everlasting ruin, much that was evil, and destructive 
 to genuine Christianity. 
 
 Let us now, in pursuance of the plan marked out, 
 briefly consider the work, which, after the irruption of 
 the barbarians, Christianity had to perform ; and what 
 it has effected. As we pursue the inquiry, we shall 
 trace the finger of God, silently but manifestly ope- 
 rating ; his Spirit, moving on the face of the waters, 
 and reducing the chaos, and confusion, and evil, by 
 his slow, but certain operation, to harmony and peace. 
 Where, indeed, can we find more convincing marks of 
 his power, and his providential care, than in those dark 
 ages, in which, without his blessed influence, the gloom 
 which had gathered over the world, must have dark- 
 ened into the thickest night, instead of brightening 
 into the full and perfect day ; and where his power 
 converted the very errors, which had deformed his 
 religion, into instruments for its promotion ? 
 
 Barbarians, as we said, had overspread the face of 
 civilized Europe : and the first object was, to diffuse 
 
 * SeeN. &I. ch.lll. No. 23.
 
 THE CHURCH PROTECTS THE OPPRESSED. 75 
 
 and establish the knowledge of Christianity there. 
 The good providence of God, ever educing good 
 from evil, had been pleased to admit the barbarians, 
 only by degrees * ; at a time, when the Church 
 possessed the aid of riches and power, and was held 
 in reverence, and treated with distinguished honour, 
 by the imperial government. It thus presented itself 
 in an aspect, likely to enforce its claims to respect, 
 with savages, who regarded only externals. The 
 struggle, in a word, between barbarism and civiliza- 
 tion, was not a momentary struggle. The barbarian 
 did not overwhelm the men of former days, till he 
 had been, for a time, in contact with them ; and had, 
 by that contact, imbibed some portion of their habits 
 and their opinions. The leaders, from interested 
 and secular motives, frequently assumed the profes- 
 sion of the religion of the empire, to whose honours 
 they aspired ; and the followers, were always willing 
 to obey the chieftain, in a matter, which they evi- 
 dently regarded with entire indifference f . But the 
 miraculous legends, the unhesitating invocation of 
 supernatural assistance, then resorted to, by men 
 who thought themselves justified in advancing a 
 righteous cause by pious frauds, undoubtedly tended 
 to fix the religion deeper, in the minds of its new and 
 uncultivated adherents. Even to them, some little 
 
 * See N. & I. eh. III. No. 24. f SeeN. &I. ch. III. No. 2.5. 
 10
 
 76 CHURCH PRESERVES LEARNING AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 good was done; some deeds of cruelty were prevented ; 
 and the fierce and barbarian spirit was taught, that 
 there was an invisible Being, before whom he must 
 quail, an Almighty One, whom he must reverence. 
 But, whatever good might be done to our wild 
 progenitors, who first received Christianity, the 
 establishment of it among those, whose descendants 
 are the inhabitants of civilized and polished Europe, 
 was of incalculable advantage to us. As the bar- 
 barians spread, and settled in the various countries 
 of Europe, occasions perpetually arose, when, in in- 
 ternational questions, the clergy alone possesed the 
 requisite knowledge and cultivation, and thus gained 
 new strength for the cause they served *. But the 
 clergy and the power of the Church, rose in the affec- 
 tions of the people, from other and better causes. 
 They alone, were the defenders of the oppressed and 
 injured. The Church was the sole, but the secure 
 sanctuaiy, from the violence of the superior; and, at 
 her command, during a large portion of the year, 
 the truce of God proclaimed tranquillity and safety, 
 stopped the flow of blood, and hushed the din of 
 arms f . I do not speak in ignorance of the mon- 
 strous corruptions of the Church, or of the vices of 
 the clergy, but I speak only the sense of history, 
 in saying, that, by them, and by the aid of the reli- 
 
 See N. & I. cb. III. No. 26. + See N. & I. ch. III. No. 27.
 
 CHURCH PRESERVES LEARNING AND CIVILIZATION. <7 
 
 gion which they taught, was any thing of a better 
 nature preserved, in the midst of habits and man- 
 ners, eminently calculated to corrupt and degrade ; 
 any thing, which tended to tranquillize the turbulent, 
 and purify the sensual. They were the salt of the 
 earth ; the sole conservative principle, by which Eu- 
 rope was preserved from the lowest and most brutal 
 barbarism *. 
 
 Thus the leaven was at work ; almost, it would 
 appear to us, overcome by the large portion of 
 meal, and seeming to lose somewhat of its own na- 
 ture ; but still working on ; leavening the mass, by 
 the mingled influence of religion and learning, so 
 far as it was capable of receiving them. That the 
 leaven, indeed, was, in itself, for the time injured ; 
 that the pure precepts of Christianity could not be 
 fully enforced ; that its members were too often in- 
 fluenced, by the evil and ignorance which they saw 
 around them ; and that numbers fell into corruption 
 and ignorance, all this cannot be denied. But, let it 
 be remembered, that the voice of public councils of 
 the church, even in that corrupt period, was con- 
 stantly raised, to censure them for doing so ; and 
 that it was, in fact, obviously the interest of the 
 church, in a temporal point of view, to preserve 
 that superiority, which superior information and 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. III. No. 28.
 
 78 MONASTERIES AND CEREMONIES USEFUL. 
 
 learning gave her *. It is, undoubtedly, the praise 
 of Christianity alone, that a few sparks of ancient 
 learning were kept alive, in the wreck and ruin of 
 the former state of things. In the significant lan- 
 guage of a modern writer, ' Religion alone made a 
 bridge, as it were, across the chaos, and has linked 
 the two periods of ancient and modern civiliza- 
 tion f.' 
 
 Some of those very corruptions of Christianity, 
 which are loudly and justly complained of, served, 
 for a time, the most important purposes. In con- 
 sequence of the papal supremacy, a constant in- 
 tercourse was kept up between the various nations 
 of Europe ; which tended, materially, to diffuse in- 
 formation, to break the gloom, and prepare the 
 way for a better order of things J. By the es- 
 tablishment of the religious orders, the same end 
 was promoted ; and rich monastic establishments of- 
 fered, in those days, the only shelter for the learned, 
 and for learning itself . The studies of the school- 
 men, though we may be pleased, in our wisdom, to 
 despise them, yet, unquestionably, sharpened and 
 strengthened the mind ; and from the Scriptures, 
 and from the works of the earlier fathers, the solitary 
 student acquired, in those establishments, what he 
 could not have learned in the world, a knowledge 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. III. No. 29. t See N. & I. ch. III. No. 30. 
 t See N. & I. ch. III. No. 31. See N. & I. ch. III. No. 32.
 
 ALL EUROPE GRADUALLY RE-CHRISTIANIZED. 79 
 
 of the doctrines of genuine Christianity *. The 
 gorgeous ceremonies, the power, and the splen- 
 dour, of the church, gave it an influence over uncul- 
 tivated minds, both of high and low degree, which, 
 perhaps, over such minds, it could hardly, otherwise, 
 have acquired. By all these things, the notion of 
 the superiority, the certainty, and the truth of Chris- 
 tianity, lived, and grew up, and strengthened itself, 
 during the dark ages, in the minds of men; and pre- 
 pared them for clinging to it, with the fondest and 
 most invincible affection, in the storm and tempest, 
 which were to ensue in the days of purification. 
 
 For those days, a good and gracious Providence was 
 making preparation. While the kings of the earth, the 
 proud noble, and the humble peasant, were laying aside, 
 by slow degrees, under the influence of Christianity, 
 corrupted as she was, the violence and the ferocity 
 of their ancestors, and opening their minds to more 
 gentle influences, while they were listening to the 
 'monkish chronicler, or the minstrel's lay, the cell of 
 the solitary monk beheld him, too, rising above the 
 ignorance of his age and his profession. The learned 
 leisure which he enjoyed, afforded him time for inves- 
 tigation ; and, in better natures, devotional habits, 
 and retirement from the busy scenes of life, taught 
 the value of those sublime and holy truths, which that 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. III. No. 33.
 
 80 GRADUAL PR< 
 
 investigation revealed *. As time went on, men were, 
 more and more, roused to a sense of their real situation. 
 Evils, which had remained unnoticed in days of dark- 
 ness, became daily more perceptible ; as the world 
 emerged from gloom into light, under the gentle 
 influence of that religion, which unfolded, now the 
 page immortalized by pagan genius, to refine and 
 excite the intellect, and now, the deathless record of 
 sacred writ, to purify and elevate the heart. The 
 true ministers of religion became, daily, more and 
 more reluctant, to abet and aid the promulgation of 
 falsehood, and to advance or sustain the monstrous 
 domination of the Roman See, over the power of go- 
 vernments, and the consciences of individuals. Then 
 came the dawning of a brighter day. The corrup- 
 tions of Christianity, not useless as instruments, had 
 done their work ; and, when they were required no 
 longer, they became purely mischievous and evil. 
 Childish things were no longer fit for men ; the lame, 
 could throw aside their crutches ; the blind man, had 
 recovered his sight, and required no longer the hand 
 to guide or support him. 
 
 We have now, in some degree, seen the work, 
 which Christianity had to do in the middle ages : and, 
 when we remember, that it was her task, to establish 
 and strengthen her kingdom, in realms inhabited by 
 
 * See N. & I. No. 34.
 
 ALL EUROPE GRADUALLY CHRISTIANIZED. 81 
 
 barbarians, and over hearts sunk into sensuality 
 and ignorance ; that it was her office, to soften fero- 
 city, to repress passion, and gradually to pour in 
 light, as the eye was able to bear it ; when we re- 
 member, that she was left alone to do the work, and 
 that it has been done, fully and gloriously; that 
 Europe is now Christian, and, in a large part, Pro- 
 testant also, shall we still hear in silence, the re- 
 proach of having done so little, brought against her ? 
 Shall we think, that the hand of God was not in this ? 
 that the temporary oppression of the light, the 
 simultaneous pouring in of the many measures of 
 meal, on the prepared leaven, w r as not his work, 
 who ever educes good from evil ? Shall we deny, 
 that the mighty whole subsists ' with an ascent and 
 progress in the main*;' an ascent and progress, 
 indeed, disproportioned to the hopes of self-flat- 
 tering minds, but ever and easily discernible ; that 
 the cold pale dawn was advancing, gradually and 
 steadily, to the full and perfect day; and, that, 
 though the holy and beautiful house, where the 
 men of old time praised him, was burnt up with 
 fire, and the pleasant things were laid waste f , 
 yet he built up the old waste; he raised up the 
 former desolations ; he repaired the waste of many 
 cities, the desolations of many generations J. Yea ! 
 
 * Wordsworth's Excursion. f Seelsa.lxiv.il. 
 
 J See Isa. Ixi. 4. 
 
 G
 
 82 GRADUAL PROGRESS. 
 
 ' as the earth bringeth forth her bud ; and, as 
 the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to 
 spring forth ; so the Lord God,' by the same genial 
 influence of sun and shower, of the early and the 
 latter rain, was causing ' righteousness and praise to 
 spring forth before all the nations *.' 
 
 * Isa. Ixi. 11.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Progress of Christianity in extent before the irruption of the 
 Barbarians Since that period Its moral influence on pri- 
 vate and public life Its present prospects Duty of all 
 Christians to assist in propagating the Gospel. 
 
 THE last chapter was concluded by a rapid and 
 hasty survey of the progress of Christianity, after the 
 darkness, which had obscured religion and learning, 
 for so long a period, had melted away. But we 
 should do gross injustice to the argument, if we did 
 not take, however briefly, a survey far more exten- 
 sive both in time and space : and present a simple 
 picture, of what our holy religion has effected, from 
 its first entrance into the world ; and of its future 
 prospects, so far as they are connected with, and 
 dependent on, its present state. 
 
 And what does that picture present to our con- 
 templation ? Assuredly, a system, not only not to 
 be equalled, by the history of any other religion, 
 but one, to which, no other religion can offer 
 the slightest resemblance. I will not, again, dwell 
 on the apparently low origin of Christianity; nor 
 on the contempt in which it was held, by a large 
 portion of the nation where it arose ; nor on the con-
 
 84 EXTENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tempt of the rest of the world, for that nation. I will 
 not repeat the tale, of the persecutions, or the difficul- 
 ties, with which the religion has had to struggle 
 and contend. I will only say, that this religion, 
 esteemed so low and mean ; so despised, in a despised 
 country; so beset with difficulties and persecution, 
 has triumphed over every obstacle, and is, at this very 
 hour, the religion of the whole civilized world, and 
 of well nigh a fourth part* of the human race : that, 
 to the despised Galilean, who had not where to lay 
 his head, millions and millions of worshippers, on 
 every returning Sabbath, send up the pious thought, 
 the cry for pardon and for help, the earnest prayer, 
 the heartfelt thanksgiving : that nations bend before 
 his throne, and ' kings bow down to it.' 
 
 But this consideration, however important, is not, I 
 conceive, the most important part of the argument. 
 The advocates of Christianity have too often been 
 driven, by clamour, or by ridicule, from one of the 
 strongholds of their cause; too easily induced, to ac- 
 quiesce in a false statement, of the want of life and 
 action in Christianity, since its first age, and to 
 mourn over its comparative slumber and inefficiency 
 in these our days. 
 
 An inquiry, conducted on any candid principle, 
 and with any just regard to the difficulties of the 
 
 * N. &I. ch. IV. No.l.
 
 PROGRESS IN LATE TIMES. 85 
 
 case, would, I think, show, that, on the other hand, 
 from the very first hour of the existence of Chris- 
 tianity, to the present, there has been, a progress ; 
 sometimes indeed slow, but still a constant progress, 
 either in extent, or, what is of equal or greater im- 
 portance, in moral influence. The stream has been 
 sometimes stayed in its flow, by some tremendous bar- 
 rier ; sometimes, broken by more petty obstacles ; but 
 it has struggled over all, and holds its onward and ir- 
 resistible course, to the ocean. The characters of this 
 progress, during the first ages, as we have seen in 
 the last chapter, were, indeed, written so strongly 
 and clearly, that he who runs, may read ; and the 
 very enemies of the cross, are compelled to own the 
 undeniable truth. They endeavour, however, sub- 
 sequently, to wrest the argument from our hands ; to 
 use it, as a weapon against us ; and to infer positive 
 failure, from the comparative slowness, with which 
 the religion has advanced in later times. 
 
 But the progress of Christianity since its early ages, 
 is, in fact, almost equally wonderful. We are apt, no 
 doubt, to undervalue acquisitions already made, and to 
 underrate difficulties actually surmounted ; to think 
 nothing done, while any thing remains undone. But 
 this, however valuable as a principle of future action, 
 is no fit method of weighing past performances; and, 
 undoubtedly, no fit method, in this case, of consider- 
 ing the progress of Christianity. Let us look, for a
 
 86 PROGRESS IN LATE TIMES. 
 
 moment, to the period following that first age of 
 rapid expansion ; and let us consider the work to be 
 done. 
 
 Europe was barbarous, from the Rhine to Asia, 
 from the Danube to the Pole. Let us examine the 
 number of civilized kingdoms, which that wide realm 
 embraces ; kingdoms, at the present day, widely in- 
 fluential on the happiness of mankind. It would be 
 no mean list, which should enumerate Germany, 
 Russia, and Britain, alone. But, to that list, we 
 must add, in the remote North, Norway, Sweden, 
 Denmark, and Iceland ; and more towards the cen- 
 tre, Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, as well as the 
 minor states of Moravia and Transylvania. In these 
 kingdoms, it must be observed, that, not only single 
 churches have been planted, so as to justify us, in 
 saying, that the Gospel has been preached in these 
 countries, but Christianity has become the esta- 
 blished religion of the whole population. Let us, 
 then, consider all the difficulties of conversion ; the 
 prejudices, which prevent its progress with an indi- 
 vidual ; and the power, which opposes its introduc- 
 tion to a nation. Let us weigh with care, this long 
 and remarkable catalogue : let us refer, especially, 
 to the singular and curious history of the progress 
 of Christianity in the east of Europe ; let us survey 
 the difficulties which it there encountered ; and let 
 us view the weak and erring instruments, by which 
 7
 
 PROGRESS IN LATE TIMES. 87 
 
 the purpose was generally achieved. When this 
 survey has been taken, candour must compel the 
 adversary to renounce the charge of want of suc- 
 cess ; and must induce him to confess, that the work 
 to be effected, was a work of extraordinary difficulty 
 and danger. It was effected, however, before the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century ; and Christendom 
 was formed into a compact body, which, under God's 
 blessing, seems able to defy the force of external 
 enemies, and to supply ample and full means for 
 Christianizing the world *. 
 
 And, since that period, are we to confine our view 
 to Europe? Are we to take no note of a New 
 World, which has sprung into view ; to renounce 
 the triumphs, which our cause can claim there ; 
 and to forget, or pass over, the progress which 
 Christianity -\ has made, far and wide, over those 
 vast realms ? 
 
 Nay, are we to be confined, even within the pale 
 of the Christian name ? And is the religion of Christ 
 Jesus, to be robbed of all praise, for the degree of 
 truth, which it, and it alone, has infused into the 
 religion of Mahomet ; for the victory, which, by it, 
 and by it alone, this impostor has gained, over the 
 debasing idolatry of the olden times ? Did Bel, in- 
 deed, bow down, and Nebo stoop, before the decep- 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 2. f See N. & I.ch. IV. No. 3.
 
 88 HOPEFUL INTERNAL PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tions of the false prophet of Mecca, and not at the 
 word of power, which the Koran learned from the 
 Gospel * ? 
 
 But the adversary will bid the advocate of Chris- 
 tianity cease from his exultation ; he will press 
 upon him all the corruptions, which mark it, as 
 a public establishment ; and on these he will insist, 
 as a proof of weakness or of failure. There is, 
 indeed, enough to mourn for ; enough to be done. 
 In too many quarters of the Christian world, Chris- 
 tianity is still polluted : still degraded, by the pro- 
 fligacy and ignorance of multitudes of its teachers ; 
 still depressed, by the fatal consequences of impurity 
 in doctrine and in worship. But it is vain to deny, 
 that, in many points, the prospect is brightening. 
 Let it be permitted to the Protestant, not speaking 
 unchristianly, not uncharitably, not harshly, of that 
 ancient form, to which, he must be mindful, that, 
 under God's blessing, he owes his own, yet, let it 
 be permitted to the Protestant, to remember and to 
 rejoice, that the prospect is, in this respect, bright- 
 ening ; and that purer Christianity is tending to gain 
 a wider sway t- Here, indeed, we seem, with our 
 limited comprehensions, to trace and recognize the 
 characters of the same scheme of love and goodness, 
 which have marked the dealings of God with man, in 
 all ages of revelation. 
 
 See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 4. f See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 5.
 
 TRUTH REVEALED AS SOON AS MAN CAN RECEIVE IT. 89 
 
 The Jew, coming forth from the carnal Egypt, 
 was inclined to the grossest idolatry ; but yet, he was 
 just so far raised and elevated in mind, by former tra- 
 ditions and revelations, as to be able to comprehend 
 its evil and its danger; to approve the better, even 
 while he chose the worse : and, therefore, the better 
 was bestowed upon him, by a gracious God. The 
 leaven of truth was sent to work its way, and to ex- 
 tirpate the cureless evil of idolatry. The struggle 
 was long, and arduous : the rebellions great, the 
 punishments awful. But the work was done at last ; 
 and idolatry was, finally, and for ever, expelled from 
 the Hebrew commonwealth. 
 
 So it was, with the first introduction of Chris- 
 tianity, to the nations of the earth. Christianity, I 
 mean, was introduced, long before it could (hu- 
 manly speaking, and with reference to the state of 
 public manners and opinions,) be fully accepted. 
 The goodness of our Father and God sent it, so 
 soon as it could effect any good ; so soon, as the 
 spirit of the age could grapple with it at all *. 
 Then, the imperishable leaven was left to struggle 
 and work its way, and to leaven the nations as it 
 might. 
 
 So it was, again, with the barbarous nations of 
 Europe. Corrupted as Christianity was, when in- 
 troduced to them, it was too pure, for their low 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 6.
 
 90 THE PURER THE FORM THE MORE OBSTACLES TO IT. 
 
 nature fully to accept or understand. But still it 
 was able to work on them, though imperfectly and 
 slightly ; to sow its seed in fear, and so prepare the 
 way, for future generations to reap the fruit, in the 
 gentle and sanctifying influence of love. 
 
 So is it, in these latter ages. Fr6m the days of Lu- 
 ther, to this hour, pure Christianity has been making 
 progress. But we must remember, that, as the 
 purity of the doctrine increases, the difficulty of its 
 acceptance increases also : and that, therefore, in the 
 very nature of things, this most important part of 
 the great work of the regeneration and restoration 
 of mankind, must be the most slowly performed ; 
 and more ages, perhaps, than the religion has yet 
 seen, must be consecrated, to its gaining, not a wider 
 territory, but, a firmer grasp, and stronger hold. In 
 the better forms of Protestantism, we have the Chris- 
 tian doctrine in its greatest purity : purity, too great, 
 to meet with full acceptance at present, but not too 
 great, for the full apprehension of many ; not too 
 great, to shed infinite blessings now, and to pro- 
 duce effects inestimable hereafter. It is struggling 
 with a world of evil ; not ready, not glad, but still, 
 often able, to accept it. And thus, in the Christian 
 world, we have all the varieties of a system: in 
 one quarter, the pure truth triumphs ; in another, 
 it is maintaining an arduous struggle ; in a third, 
 it is marred and mutilated, by a carnal and sensual
 
 PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 91 
 
 form. But, under all these modifications, the leaven 
 is still working : Christianity is variously preached, 
 the valleys are exalted, the hills are made low, and 
 the way is preparing for that holier and better age of 
 the Gospel dispensation, whose shoe-latchet the pre- 
 sent race may be unworthy to loose. We can see, 
 if we will but watch the signs of the times, that some 
 of the regions which still suffer from an irrational 
 form of worship, are opening their portals, for the re- 
 ception of a purer system. The struggle will be often 
 severe, before that purer system can gain a footing ; 
 and long protracted, before it is established and trium- 
 phant. Nor must we shut our eyes to the sad warn- 
 ings, given alike, by revelation, by reason, and by 
 experience. That the love of many shall wax cold, 
 that iniquity shall abound, even in the latter days, 
 all Scripture teaches ; and the sealed book of pro- 
 phecy, with mysterious voice, warns of apostasy and 
 failure, even in the closing scenes of the Gospel. 
 Reason, also, and experience tell us, that man, the 
 agent of God, is still frail and peccable : that he will, 
 sometimes, be deficient in zeal for the propagation 
 of the Gospel, sometimes will sully its purity ; but 
 that, in the end, failure, and mismanagement, will 
 alike receive the chastisements of Him, who ruleth 
 over all ; who impels the heavenly scheme ; and who 
 forwards it to-day, by the powerful lessons which 
 the grief and the woe of yesterday supply.
 
 92 MORAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Such is the prospect, which a survey of the state of 
 the Christian Church presents ; and such reason for 
 joy and thankfulness, does it give. Nor have we less 
 reason to glow with exultation, when we look to the 
 influence of Christianity in the moral world. 
 
 I speak not in forgetfulness of, nor without a 
 deep and bitter mourning for, the yet wide reign, 
 and wasting power, of indifference and sin. I know, 
 and I lament, the snares of wealth, the enthralments 
 of luxury, the ravages of ambition. I behold, ar- 
 rayed against us, all the fatal adversaries of our pure 
 and holy religion. 
 
 Yet, over all these melancholy and mournful 
 thoughts, there arises, in triumph, the remembrance 
 of all that Christianity has done, and is now doing. 
 Of its most difficult conquests, indeed, a large por- 
 tion is overlooked by the human eye. While the 
 evil done in its name, is seen by all, and dwelt upon 
 in triumph by the adversary, its pure and holy con- 
 quests are often effected in stillness and silence ; in 
 the abode of poverty, in the obscurity of humble and 
 retired life. Who is there, that has seen a true Chris- 
 tian, in his life and his death? Who, that has seen 
 the holy calm that sheds itself over that soul, where 
 grace has triumphed over passion, where envy, and 
 hatred, and pride, are sounds unknown ? Who, that 
 has seen the bright and holy glow of devotion diffused 
 over the countenance ? Who, that has heard the fervid
 
 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON INDIVIDUALS. 93 
 
 accents of a Christian prayer? Who, that knows 
 the joy of a Christian's communion with his Maker, 
 the devout aspirations of a soul which is the temple 
 of the Holy Spirit, adorned and sanctified by his best 
 and richest gifts and graces ? Who, that has seen 
 the Christian struggling with the storms of life, 
 though cast down, not destroyed ; though perplexed, 
 not in despair; submitting, with humble resignation, to 
 the correction of his heavenly Father; and gathering 
 the peaceable fruits of righteousness, from the seed 
 which was sown in tribulation and tears ? And yet 
 more, who, that hath seen that sight, on which angels 
 look with joy ; that hallowed bed, where a Christian 
 renders up his soul, as to a faithful Creator ; where, 
 with no vain display, no idle rapture, the dying saint, 
 knowing, of a truth, that he is faithful who pro- 
 mised, relies, in the last awful scenes of life, with 
 humble confidence, on that hand, which has borne 
 him up through all the storms and struggles of his 
 earthly pilgrimage, and which will now cheer and 
 comfort him, in his passage through the dark 
 valley of the shadow of death ? This is, not what 
 Christianity can do, but what it does, day by day ; 
 not what it does, for the learned and enlightened 
 Christian only, but what it does, to shed light and 
 joy, over the humble abode of the lowly and ignorant. 
 I appeal to the conscience of many a minister of
 
 94 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON INDIVIDUALS. 
 
 God's word, to bear me witness, how often he has 
 stood beside the dying bed of feeble age, or of youth 
 in all the withered blossom of its beauty ; stood, not 
 to teach, but to learn ; not to offer comfort, or supply 
 confidence, but to gather strength, and hope, and 
 courage, against his own hour of need, and his own 
 great and awful change. This all, is the praise of the 
 Gospel : this all, is the triumph, the glory, of the re- 
 ligion of Christ. Of the countless thousands, who 
 have so lived and so died, what would have been the 
 fate, in life and in death, had the Gospel never visited 
 the world, had the Sun of righteousness never arisen, 
 with healing on his wings ? What but this, at best, 
 that the Christian graces of humility, of meekness, of 
 patience, should not have come to support, to purify, 
 to elevate, and to bless them, in life, and that in 
 death, the unspeakable pang of parting here, should 
 have been hushed by no hope of meeting hereafter ? 
 that, even if, at thatawful hour, no dismay of the Judge 
 and the judgment, crushed the sinner's heart to the 
 dust, yet, that, to the anxious question, the passionate 
 longing, the restless search and aspiration, after some 
 assurance of a future being, after a continuance or re- 
 novation of the feeble and expiring spark of life, no 
 voice should answer, and no hope should cheer ? 
 
 But I do not dwell, on the blessings of Christianity 
 to individuals ; nor do I send the adversary to search
 
 CHRISTIANITY TEACHES WITH AUTHORITY. 95 
 
 out his answer, in the shades of private life. I send him 
 to society, and bid him find it there. I stop not to 
 answer, truth disdains to answer, the wicked and con- 
 temptible sophistry, which charges the crimes of 
 Christians, or of Christian ministers, on that religion, 
 whose precepts they despise ; and with whose holy 
 name, they invest all the dictates of human passion, 
 and worse than human wickedness. It were useless, in- 
 deed, to reason with minds, perverted enough to invent 
 such arguments, or weak enough to be misled by 
 them. I turn, inindignation, or rather in pity,from them, 
 to survey the genius of Christianity, shedding its 
 holy influence over whole communities and nations. 
 Here, if I were debarred from any appeal to facts, 
 I might still gain, from all, who admit that any 
 system of motives can work on the mind of man, 
 the free admission, that, Christianity, must of ne- 
 cessity, have the most powerful influence of all. 
 For, whatsoever good it commands man to do, 
 whatsoever evil it bids him avoid, the order and the 
 prohibition come not from human thrones or powers : 
 they are not the crippled and starveling fruits of a 
 mean and debasing expediency ; but they come, 
 speaking, as never man spake, with the authority 
 and majesty of power, from the throne of God, 
 and from that will, which is essential holiness and 
 goodness. The views and contemplations, again, in 
 which the religion of Christ engages mankind, relate
 
 96 CHRISTIANITY COMPARED WITH HEATHENISM. 
 
 to high, and noble, and heavenly objects ; and, with 
 a voice, which, in the better moods of mind, man 
 cannot disobey, call him off from lower occupations, 
 as unworthy alike of his nature and his destiny ; and 
 thus tend, beyond all question, to the elevation of 
 every faculty, both of mind and heart. Nor does it 
 seem possible to over-calculate the moral change, 
 and the unspeakable advancement of mankind, no 
 longer taught to look up with veneration, to the 
 wretched creatures of the heathen mythology ; no 
 longer left to live, with nothing to love, and no- 
 thing to fear; with nothing to hope, to lean on, 
 to believe. Let us look to the lowliest village church 
 in this happy land ; to the humblest pastor, and 
 the simplest flock. Let us remember, as we see 
 them pouring forth from its humble portal, what 
 words have been on all lips, what thoughts in many 
 hearts ; what thoughts of majesty and holiness, what 
 love, what reliance, what confidence and then, if we 
 are not faithless to the dignity of that soul, which, 
 though deteriorated, still retains the stamp of its 
 Maker, let us believe, if we can, that no good has 
 been effected, no passion softened and checked, no 
 desire for the graces of a Christian temper implanted. 
 Let this sight be compared, not with the population 
 that collected, like our barbarous fore-fathers, or like 
 the savages of modern days, to perform their bloody 
 worship in the sight of the bright sun, or shining stars
 
 MORAL TEACHING OF CHRIST. 97 
 
 of heaven ; but, with the population, which poured 
 forth, from the lofty portals of some splendid temple 
 of the polished Athens, to join in the iniquities of 
 a Bacchanalian procession ; or with that, which, at 
 this very time, assembles in the distant realms of 
 Hindostan, sometimes, for deeds of cruelty and death, 
 sometimes, for services so revolting, that the very 
 Brahmin of better mind, hides his face for shame *, 
 and sheds the burning tear of anguish, over the in- 
 famy of that religion, of which he is the minister ; 
 let but this comparison be simply made, and then let 
 it be asked, what has Christianity done ? 
 
 Let us consider again, and the consideration de- 
 mands most earnest attention what must be the 
 necessary effect, of that conviction which Christianity 
 impresses, that an account must hereafter be ren- 
 dered, before One, who charges the very angels with 
 folly, and in whose sight the heavens are themselves 
 unclean ; before One, whose piercing eye looks into 
 the most secret chambers of the heart, and reads even 
 the guilty thought, before it has strengthened into 
 crime. Let us, again, look to the religions of ancient 
 times, and consider, what crimes they tolerated, or, 
 at least, marked by no proscription and no infamy, 
 and then, if we are not dead to all salutary convic- 
 tion of the force of moral influence, let us estimate, 
 
 * SeeN.& I. ch. IV. No. 7. 
 H
 
 98 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY OX SOCIETY. 
 
 what must be the efficacy of a religion, which, teach- 
 ing us a strict observance of all the social relations 
 of life, elevates the whole frame of morals ; which 
 teaches us, not to name the very name, of vices once 
 openly practised, and generally tolerated ; which 
 forbids the heart to conceive, as well as the lip to 
 utter, or the hand to execute, any evil purpose; 
 which proscribes every guilty passion, and urges on, 
 and cheers the human heart, to all that is lovely, 
 and pure, and gentle, and peaceable, and of good 
 report. 
 
 And if these things be so, it would be almost an 
 insult, alike to Christianity and to man, to inquire 
 into facts ; to ask, if a religion, possessing such moral 
 influence, and such powerful motives to forbid and 
 to command, has produced any effects. It would 
 be to ask, whether man be susceptible of elevated 
 thoughts, of cheering hopes, of ennobling joy, and of 
 salutary fear. The prophet's vision, indeed, the fervid 
 desires of the good man, and the sanguine anticipa- 
 tions of the imaginative one, may, doubtless, shadow 
 forth a picture of beauty and of excellence, which can- 
 not be realized in the Christian world. But can we live 
 in it with a knowledge, of what the boasted reason 
 and strength of ancient wisdom and morals could ef- 
 fect * ; of the recklessness of the holy claims of man on 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 8.
 
 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 99 
 
 his brother man ; and of the awful pollution, pervad- 
 ing the whole tone of ancient society, and casting her 
 accursed chains, even around the poet and the sage, 
 and then, can we look at the blessed effects of that 
 systematic charity, which owes its existence to Chris- 
 tianity ; at the purity and sanctity of domestic enjoy- 
 ments ; at the legible characters, in which, the sublime 
 truths inculcated by the Gospel, are impressed on 
 every institution of public life, and on the inter- 
 course of man with man, can we look at these 
 things, and not blush to question, for a moment, 
 the salutary and blessed operations of the Gospel * ? 
 But I desist and forbear. It were vain to present a 
 picture, to those, who cannot and will not regard 
 it ; to those, who, in this country, and at this day, 
 can require the office at our hands. 
 
 But if such be the present blessings which 
 Christianity confers, what are its future prospects ? 
 They would seem eminently calculated, to cheer the 
 spirits, and strengthen the hopes and the confidence, 
 of the believer. Let our thoughts transfer themselves, 
 from the lowly Jesus walking by the lake of Galilee, 
 with his few and simple followers, to the countless 
 temples now reared to his honour ; and let us know, 
 for our comfort, that, though there be worshippers 
 with hearts as cold as the walls within which they sit, 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 9. 
 H 2
 
 100 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 there are hearts, too, which rise in constant love to 
 their Redeemer's throne, and glow with ardent zeal, 
 for the dissemination of his name and his glory. They 
 cannot, indeed, boast the miraculous works of the first 
 apostles, to conquer and appal; but they have yet the 
 means, by which God ordained, that, in the latter days, 
 his holy work should be carried on. His protect- 
 ing care is still over them ; his Holy Spirit is still 
 with them ; and in the strength and confidence of that 
 might, they will go forth to victory. Not only are 
 the means and instruments in our hands ; but the 
 wide extent of Christianity, the power, the wealth, 
 the influence, and the opportunities, of the nations 
 which believe the Gospel, present a combination of 
 unbounded expectation and promise. 
 
 On this mysterious subject, it would be as repugnant 
 to the feelings of every considerate and Christian 
 heart, as it would be inconsistent with that deep and 
 soul-felt humility, with which alone it can become 
 beings like us to survey the operations of the Deity 
 to speak or think I say, not with confidence, but 
 with any thing approaching a feeling so irreverential ; 
 and to tread the holy ground, with our unhallowed 
 feet. 
 
 When God shall finish his work, and command 
 some future Isaiah to cry to his church, that her 
 warfare is accomplished, who can foresee, in what 
 manner he will be pleased to bring about his glorious
 
 MEANS BY WHICH CHRISTIANITY IS TO BE EXTENDED. 101 
 
 purposes ; what portion may be effected, by the con- 
 version of existing races of barbarians, and what, by 
 their gradual extinction and decay, before the ascend- 
 ing star of more favoured nations * ? Who may con- 
 jecture, what shall be the external form and fortune 
 of the church of Christ ; whether, perhaps, cut off 
 from all connexion with worldly pomp and power, it 
 may win its way to the heart of man, by gentler and 
 more holy influences, gathering strength from weak- 
 ness, and snatching victory from defeat ; or whether 
 the power of luxury, to degrade and corrupt mankind, 
 shall, by long and cruel suffering, be broken down ; 
 and so, at length, through evil, and struggle, 
 and storm, the Gospel shall win its way to vic- 
 tory and peace ? Who, if we descend to particu- 
 lars, can tell, whether any step towards the gradual 
 conversion of Hindostan shall be made, by awakening 
 in the many, and cherishing in the few, the cultiva- 
 tion of that almost forgotten philosophy, which still 
 exists among them : whether, with God's blessing, it 
 may pave the way, first, with the more enlightened, 
 and then, through their influence, with the multi- 
 tude, for the better and higher philosophy of the 
 Gospel, and make men ready, for the reception of 
 the pure light f; or, whether, when friends, andkin- 
 
 * See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 10. f See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 1 1 . 
 uonotti Sfi ' baasslq -3ij ilrw ad lorrnnrrr
 
 102 FACILITIES OF COMMUNICATION WITH HEATHEN NATIONS. 
 
 dred, and strangers, may have mingled their tears 
 over the graves of yet another and another Middle- 
 ton or Heber, that pure light shall win its way by 
 its own resistless energy. Who can yet discern, all 
 the importance of the part, which Mahometanism has 
 sustained, in the schemes of Providence ; who foresee, 
 how far more influential an office it may yet discharge, 
 in the conversion of the world * ? But, yet, presump- 
 tuous and useless as must be all endeavours to pene- 
 trate into the purposes of God, we must remem- 
 ber, that, wheresoever he has committed a duty to our 
 charge, it is for us, anxiously and constantly, to watch 
 the favourable occasion ; and, at our peril, neither to 
 neglect, nor overlook it. And when we contemplate 
 the signs of the times, with the anxious, but humble, 
 eye of inquiry, there are, beyond all question, things 
 which press and weigh upon us ; voices, which com- 
 pel attention, and will not be gainsay ed ; sights, 
 which force themselves on the vision of the most 
 reluctant eye. 
 
 Is it not the simple fact, that, if we look to this 
 country alone, there is neither tongue nor nation, 
 with which we have not an easy and ready inter- 
 course ? Is it not true, that this distant and petty 
 island, the offspring, as it were, of yesterday, the 
 
 See N. &I. ch. IV. No. 12.
 
 CONNEXION OF ENGLAND WITH HINDOSTAN. 103 
 
 child of barbarian and ignorant forefathers, is now 
 the mistress of well-nigh an hundred millions of 
 men, in the farthest East, where the sun of civi- 
 lization had arisen, centuries before our name was 
 written in the catalogue of nations ; but where its 
 beams have not yet dispelled the thick darkness of 
 idolatry, nor chased into everlasting night, the foul 
 orgies of a false and debasing superstition ? Is it 
 not the fact, that the very establishment of British 
 dominion in India, has removed that influence, which 
 alone preserved the purity of caste, by the severities 
 which it practised on its violation ; and has, thus, 
 prepared the way, for the gradual downfall of the 
 greatest bar and hindrance to the entrance of the 
 Gospel ? 
 
 In one word, for time would fail us, if we attempted 
 to descend to particulars, are there not, on every 
 side, marks to be discerned, which cannot be mis- 
 taken, that Europe is daily stamping her character 
 deeper on the East ; and that the East is daily yield- 
 ing herself, more and more willingly, to the salutary 
 impression ? Is it not undeniable, that a few years 
 of honest assertion of the truth, of apostolical zeal, 
 and of Christian love, have, in the subjugation of 
 hostile feelings, worked the most salutary effects; 
 effects, for which, even the lives of those saintly men, 
 who were called to their reward, far away from all 
 the endearing ties of kindred and country, and whose
 
 104 DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO PROPAGATE THE GOSPEL. 
 
 bones rest on the distant shores of Hindostan, is not 
 an offering too costly, a sacrifice too precious * ? 
 
 But look in a different, but assuredly not less im- 
 portant sphere ; look at the signal, the marvellous, 
 increase of facilities of communication, with almost 
 every tribe which can utter an intelligible sound, by 
 the extraordinary attention and diligence, which the 
 busy mind of man has directed, of latter years, to the 
 study of languages ; and mark the astonishing success, 
 with which that diligence has been rewarded : so that, 
 to almost every nation, a preacher might be sent, who 
 could speak, in its own tongue, the wonderful works 
 of God. And are all these indications nothing ? Are 
 they all, things of course ? Or are they, merely, some 
 of the wild efforts of the resistless activity of man, 
 aimless and purposeless, or, at best, seeking, by dis- 
 proportioned means, some evil or worthless end ; now, 
 hoping to rive the mighty oak, with an arm sinewless 
 as an infant's ; and now, collecting a giant's strength, 
 to crush an insect into dust f ? What, though deep 
 be thus calling to deep, and the face of the universe 
 already swell like the ocean, with the first breath of 
 the coming tempest, can our dull ear hear no loftier 
 voice among them, and discern no omnipotent hand, 
 compelling and controlling the storm ? 
 
 But what will Christian duty say to us, in this 
 brifi, bopidio $Ur. ^n-m*^:.'*' co , r,l 
 * See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 13. f See N. & I. ch. IV. No. 14.
 
 DUTY OF GOVERNMENTS. 105 
 
 matter ? Will she not demand of us, why we turn 
 away, as though they were nothing to us, from vi- 
 sions, splendid as those, which, in past ages, charmed 
 the eye of prophecy ; why we heedlessly pass by, 
 nor deign to look on them, even with the regard 
 which we commonly bestow on an unsubstantial 
 pageant ? Shall we be deaf, too, on the one side, 
 to the voice of humanity, still groaning under the 
 lash of superstition and idolatry ; on the other, to 
 the voice of God, urging us to relieve or to cheer 
 her? Shall all the concentrated energies, of the 
 most masterly minds, be devoted to the littleness of 
 commerce and of finance, and not kindle into extasy, 
 at partaking, and promoting, more lofty, and en- 
 nobling, and sanctifying designs ? The call of duty 
 is surely clear; the instruments are put into our 
 hands ; the conjuncture is favourable ; and shall we 
 be wanting, as a nation, and as individuals ? Shall 
 the day never come, when governments and nations 
 will feel their highest interest, will confess their 
 highest duty ; and hasten to give, at least, the weight 
 of their influence, and the impulse of their resources, 
 to the cause of God and man ? Shall England be 
 content, if her name be ever blotted out, and her 
 glory extinguished, to have no trophies in the East, 
 but the trophies of avarice, and of power ; no record, 
 but that ' wild and dream-like tale of blood and 
 guile,' which is written in the page, that com-
 
 106 DUTY OF INDIVIDUALS. 
 
 memorates her connexion with Hindostan ? Shall 
 the nation, which possesses a Church so pure and 
 apostolical, be content, for the sake of a little 
 earthly treasure, to leave it, helpless as it now is ; 
 to struggle on, to send martyr after martyr, 
 willing and happy, indeed, to die for their Master, 
 but unequal to a work, confessedly too great for the 
 single strength of any human being ? But the faults 
 and the neglect of nations and of governments, will 
 form no excuse, for the faults and the neglect of 
 individuals. We should all feel, whether as members, 
 or as ministers, of Christ's Holy Church, that, what- 
 soever our hand findeth to do, towards prospering our 
 Master's work, that we are bound to do ; bound, by 
 every motive, which the love of God, the love of our 
 fellows, and the fear of future judgment, can inspire. 
 Most of all, would I call on the young, to re- 
 member this great duty ; on those, who are just 
 entering into life, rich in hopes, in strength, in talent, 
 in station, in influence ; and, as yet, for their happi- 
 ness, not swathed nor wrapped in the intricate move- 
 ments of society ; not yet delivered up, bound and 
 helpless, to the prosecution of some scheme of 
 worldly interest or advantage ! Yet even of them, 
 it may be, many are going into life, only with 
 the indefinite hope, of advancing themselves, their 
 families, and their country ; a career, which they may 
 render high and honourable, by consecrating a due
 
 CALL ON THE YOUNG. 107 
 
 portion of their thoughts, and hopes, and desires, to 
 yet higher and more lofty purposes ; or which they may 
 make base and selfish, by confining it to the present 
 state of things alone, and by pursuing a course, merely 
 of worldly honour and of worldly glory. Let them 
 remember, that they are soon to sleep in the dust ; the 
 name of their families, perhaps, to perish and be for- 
 gotten; and the splendour and power of their country, 
 it may be, to fade away. And can they believe, that 
 all their high endowments, their rich gifts and graces 
 of intellect, were given them, only to build up for 
 themselves, and for men and things which may perish 
 with them, a glory and a power, as passing and as 
 ephemeral as themselves ? Do they not feel within, 
 the working of an immortal spirit, the spirit of an 
 immortal essence ; and, in that germ of immortality, 
 do they not read their own dedication to immortal 
 ends ? Can God have given it, and not intend 
 it to be used, in the promotion of plans and pur- 
 poses, which, when the world itself is crumbled into 
 dust, shall live, and grow, and be as immortal as 
 himself? Let them not defeat the gracious pur- 
 pose; or, rather, I would say, let them not de- 
 prive themselves of the honour, which awaits all 
 faithful instruments of its execution. Let them be 
 true to Him, and to themselves : to themselves, I 
 say ; for what is it, that generates so much misery, 
 what is it, that makes life sordid and mean, and 
 7
 
 108 FUTURE GLORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 robs it of all the joys, which a gracious Creator has 
 bestowed liberally what, but the want of some sanc- 
 tifying object, which shall divest, of all power to debase 
 and degrade, the daily duties of daily life ; and even 
 bestow on them an elevated, holy character ? What 
 is it, that makes the daily commerce of man with 
 man, a dreary intercourse, and robs life of its joys, 
 but this that there is in the world, a great and 
 beneficial plan, pervading the whole, and that we 
 shut ourselves out from participation in it ; that, 
 in our littleness, we will, for ever, be pursuing our 
 own individual schemes and objects, and thus put 
 ourselves out of harmony, with the universal spirit 
 of good and joy ? 
 
 To the young then, I would say, be not you so 
 deceived, so robbed of your happiness, so misled to 
 your ruin. Remember, I would fain beseech you, 
 that your heavenly Father, in calling you to promote 
 his works, calls on you to promote your own happi- 
 ness, earthly and heavenly. Give yourselves, then, 
 to this great object, each of you in his measure and 
 degree. I speak not to those, who are about to bind 
 themselves by a vow, to serve at the altar of God ; 
 and to give thoughts, hope, heart, yea, even life itself, 
 to his service. But I call on all, as Christians, to 
 join in the work ; to preach the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, by that most efficacious of all preaching, a 
 Christian life, and conversation ; and to answer, too,
 
 FUTURE GLORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 109 
 
 with solicitous and ready zeal, to every call which 
 the Church of Christ shall make on them, for counsel 
 and for succour. I will promise to those who do so, 
 all the happiness in return, which can arise from a 
 conscience satisfied, and God obeyed. 
 
 Would that I could set before you, also, the full 
 lustre and splendour of that plan, whose consumma- 
 tion you will hasten. But shall the feeble tongue of 
 feeble man essay to recount, or his mind to compre- 
 hend, the glorious fulness of that plan, on which the 
 angels of God look with wonder and awe ; which 
 subsisted in the eternal Mind, before the foundations 
 of the world were laid ; and which shall be accom- 
 plished, only when they are crumbled in the dust ; that 
 plan, by which He designs to elevate a ruined race, to 
 more than their original glory ; and to consummate 
 all the joy and peace of that scheme, which, in the 
 beginning, his wisdom devised, to bless and exalt an 
 universe ? Shall we endeavour, with the weakness of 
 mortal sight, to meet the full splendour of the beatific 
 vision; and not, with the lawgiver, hide ourselves 
 in the cleft of the rock, to see the skirts of the divine 
 glory ? Rather, let us, in solitude and prayer, lift up 
 our eyes to behold, our hearts to adore, our hands to 
 supplicate. Yet even here, be the earnest prayer of 
 the full heart uttered. Hasten thy coming, Lord ; 
 bring on the years, accomplish the warfare ; that we, 
 with all the vast assemblage of departed saints, and
 
 1 10 FUTURE GLORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 with all the countless multitudes, who shall, here- 
 after, be sanctified by thy Gospel, and shall depart 
 in the faith and fear of thy holy name, may have our 
 perfect consummation and bliss, in thy eternal and 
 everlasting kingdom ; and may there form one fold, 
 under one Shepherd ; there meet, and bow before thy 
 throne !
 
 i Uli 
 
 >rfi Ite rfirw 
 
 n 
 
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Note 1. Page 6. line 1. ' Their private lives.' 
 
 Infidel Objections on the ground of want of Universality) 
 Sfc. enumerated. 
 
 THE objections made on these grounds are, I believe, as 
 fully stated by Mr. Tindal, as by any other of the Infidel 
 writers of the last century. 
 
 I. The first, is summed up in a single sentence. ' If 
 the necessities of mankind have always been as great, and 
 the goodness of God always the same, would not these 
 oblige him to have prescribed an immediate remedy for 
 the disease, and not deferred it for 4000 years together * ?' 
 The same argument is alleged by Lord Herbert, Lord Bo- 
 iingbroke f , and others. 
 
 The answers to this first objection are, pretty generally, 
 as follow : 
 
 1. We cannot be expected to assign, or even to know, 
 the reasons for God's proceedings. Do we pretend, for 
 example, +o know, why he created the world no sooner ? 
 
 * Christianity as Old as the Creation. P. 401. (Ed. 1700.) 
 t Works, vol. V. p. 295. 
 
 1
 
 114 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 But, in the present case, we can see some reasons. For 
 
 2. If our Lord had come earlier, then it would have ' 
 been alleged, that he appeared in a barbarous and ignorant 
 age ; and his history would have been treated as fabulous. 
 
 3. If our Lord had come sooner, the sinfulness and 
 insufficiency of man by himself, and his need of Divine 
 assistance, would not have been so clearly perceived. As it 
 is, we know what human learning and wisdom can do by 
 themselves, and how utterly insufficient they are. 
 
 4. If our Lord had come sooner, we should not have 
 had the strong evidence, nor the admirable preparation for 
 his coming, arising from a succession of prophets ; who, in 
 different ages, conspired, with a wonderful harmony, in their 
 predictions concerning the Messiah to come. 
 
 5. If our Lord had come sooner, by so much as one, 
 two, or three thousand years, yet, would not the objection 
 be as strong as it is now ? And might not it be asked, with 
 the same justice, why the remedy was not applied, when the 
 wound was received ? why the coming of the Saviour did not 
 immediately follow the Fall ? The spirit of this objection 
 would tend to show, that we ought never to have been cre- 
 ated, or redeemed at all. 
 
 6. In what sense, is the word late used in this objection ? 
 Suppose the world to endure for thirty or forty thousand 
 years, for example, could it be alleged by a candid inquirer, 
 that the remedy for sin was introduced at a late period of 
 the world's existence * ? 
 
 * ' The few years of our infancy might be thought a very considerable time, 
 were the ordinary term of human life much shorter ; whereas, in the present 
 state of things, it appears otherwise. Let the season of the promulgation of the 
 Gospel be considered, as the infancy of the Christian state. In that view, no 
 sufficient objections can be raised, on supposition that it shall flourish for millions
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 115 
 
 The chief part of these replies will be found in Dr. Le- 
 land's Answer, to a book entitled, ' Christianity as Old,' 
 &c. * ; in the same author's ' View of the Deistical 
 Writers f ;' in the late Dean Hall's Bampton Lectures ; in 
 Dr. Parr's Spital Sermon ; and in Bp. Coneybeare's Defence 
 of Revealed Religion J. 
 
 But there are yet other answers, of no small weight, to 
 be given to this objection. The candid antagonist of Chris- 
 tianity, (if such there be) will allow, that, when evil has 
 made wide ravages, the application of a remedy requires, 
 in order to be successful, a happy choice of circumstances, 
 and a long course of preparation. That the circumstances 
 of the world were more favourable, though many difficulties 
 still existed, at the time of our Lord's appearance, than they 
 had ever previously been ; and that it required a long time, 
 and a superintending Providence, to effect that favourable 
 conjuncture, is shewn in a subsequent note. And the 
 proof of these points is, clearly, an additional answer to the 
 objection now before us. 
 
 II. The next of these objections is, that Christianity 
 is not discovered to all. This is stated by Mr. Tindal, in 
 the following words : 
 
 * What human legislator, if he found a defect in his laws, 
 and thought it for the good of his subjects to add new laws, 
 would not promulgate them to all his people ? Or what 
 parent would act in so partial a manner as the Doctor 
 (Clarke), in a self-confounding scheme, supposes the com- 
 mon Parent of mankind has done, and not let all his chil- 
 
 of ages, in full maturity ; none, but what may equally be urged against the state 
 of infancy, in the consideration of human life.' Coneybeare's Defence, p. 417- 
 
 * Vol. II. p. 453455. f Vol. I. p. 20 ; Vol. II. p. 210. ed. 1807 
 
 t P. 416, and foil. 
 
 i 2
 
 116 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 dren know, as soon as possible, what was for their common 
 good * ?' 
 
 The answers usually offered to this objection are, 
 1. A reference to the analogy of nature ; where, we find 
 that God ' hath made whole classes of beings vastly supe- 
 rior to others, in valuable gifts and endowments, and capa- 
 cities for happiness ;' and that, * in his dealings with the 
 human race, we may observe a very remarkable variety. 
 Some are, from the beginning, endued with much greater 
 natural abilities, and more excellent dispositions ; and are 
 placed in more favourable situations, and happier circum- 
 stances. Some whole nations, are eminently distinguished 
 from others, not only, with respect to many other advantages 
 of human life, but, with respect to the means of moral im- 
 provement; and are furnished with more excellent helps, for 
 making a progress in wisdom and virtue, and consequently 
 in true happiness.' 
 
 Even supposing that we had a right to inquire, why God 
 has done so, can we allege any injustice in his proceedings? 
 Is there any thing contrary to the strictest notions, which we 
 can form, of a just Creator, in the supposition, that he will 
 create beings endowed with various powers and qualifications 
 for enjoyment ? Is there any thing, which, even in our ap- 
 prehension, is unjust, in his not creating all beings exactly 
 alike, and all of the highest degree of excellence ? Is it un- 
 just, that he should have made some animals without reason, 
 because he has created some with reason ? If not, is there 
 any thing, in the possession of reason, which entitles all its 
 
 Christianity as Old, &c. p. 309, 400. The same line is taken, by Lord 
 Bolingbroke, Works, vol. V. p. 295; by the author of ' Deism fairly Stated.' 
 (See Leland, I. p. 283.) Mr. Chubb, it seems, did not think this argument good 
 for much. Post burnout tf'urhs, vol. I. p. 213 -219.
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 117 
 
 possessors, to an equal share of intellectual powers ? Is there 
 any tiling, in the possession of moral capacities, which 
 entitles all, to equal opportunities of cultivation, and those 
 opportunities the highest ? Is it unjust to have created man 
 such, that, for many years of his life, he has not the full use 
 of his powers ? 
 
 2. But, secondly, it is always to be remembered, that 
 mankind will, at the last, be equitably dealt with, by their 
 common Father ; that the Saviour of the world, though he 
 may not be revealed to all, died for all ; that, through him, 
 all in whom God sees a fit mind, will receive everlasting 
 salvation ; and that, finally, in judging of that fitness, respect 
 will be had to means and opportunities. It is a mere 
 calumny on the part of the infidels, to say, that, according 
 to the Gospel, all who do not believe in Christ will be 
 damned, whether they ever heard of him or not : damned, 
 as Lord Bolingbroke * expresses it, ' for involuntary igno- 
 rance.' ' The declarations,' as Dr. Leland rightly observes f , 
 ' made in the Gospel, of the necessity of believing in Christ, 
 and the punishment of those who do not believe, plainly 
 relate to those, who have an opportunity of being acquainted 
 with the Christian Revelation J.' 
 
 The sole difficulty in this case, is, undoubtedly, the diffi- 
 culty of supposing, that God will not give equal means of 
 improving moral capacities, to all those, to whom he has given 
 those capacities. But there are facts lying before us, which 
 we cannot get rid of. Whether we like it or not, the truth 
 is, that many and great nations are lying in barbarism and 
 savage ignorance; and that, among civilized nations, different 
 
 " Works, vol. V. p. 295. f View, vol. II. p. 210. 
 
 J See Hall's Hampton Lectures, p. 23, 24.
 
 118 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 individuals have different means of improvement. This 
 does not make us disbelieve that there is a great moral 
 Governor of all ; and, consequently, if we reason consist- 
 ently, the want of universality in a Revelation ought not to 
 make us doubt, that it comes from him *. 
 
 III. The third of these objections is built on the general 
 corruption of the Christian world. ' What impartial man,' 
 says Mr. Tindal, ' who hath compared the former and present 
 condition of mankind, can think the world much mended 
 since the times of Tiberius ; or, though ever so well versed 
 in church history, can, from the conduct of Christians, find 
 that they are arrived to any higher state of perfection, than 
 the rest of mankind, who are supposed to continue in their 
 degeneracy and corruption f ?' And again, ' What, in most 
 places, passes for the Christian religion, if not the chiefest 
 part of it, has transformed this social and benignant creature, 
 into one fierce and cruel J,' &c. &c. P. 406. 
 
 The arguments usually alleged in reply, are as follow : 
 (1) It is replied, that the allegation is absurd in theory. 
 
 * See Leland's View, vol. I. p. 20 ; vol. II. p. 210 ; Leland's Answer to 
 ' Christianity as Old,' &c. vol. II. p. 461, et seq. ; Hall's Hampton's Lectures, 
 128; Hartley ' Of the Truth of the Christian Religion,' (in Watson's Theo- 
 logical Tracts, vol. VI. p. 69) ; Coneybeare's Defence, pp. 394, et seq. 
 
 Bishop Coneybeare shows, clearly, that, if this infidel objection is held valid, 
 we may derive these four consequences from it : 
 
 (1) God ought to bestow on every man, all the happiness, of every kind, of 
 which his nature is capable. 
 
 (2) God ought to have bestowed on man, as high capacities for happiness, as 
 he has bestowed on any being. 
 
 (3) God ought to have made no distinction, of any kind, between his several 
 creatures. 
 
 (4) God ought to have produced all his creatures, from all eternity ; or, if this 
 were impossible, he ought not to have produced them at all. 
 
 t Christianity as Old,' &c. p. 404. ed. 1?30. 
 
 J So Lord Bolingbroke, Works, vol. V. p. Ill, and p. 258. 
 
 \ It may be right to notice the species of arguments, alleged by Mr. Tindal, in 
 
 3
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 119 
 
 For, as Christianity does not impair men's reason, and as, ac- 
 cording to the objector's own statement, it confirms whatever 
 reason points out in morals, it can therefore do no harm. 
 But it lays down yet clearer and stricter rules of morals, 
 and gives stronger motives to virtue : it must, therefore, so 
 far as it is accepted, do good, while man is a fit subject for 
 a moral dispensation at all ; and this, not even the infidel 
 himself has presumed to deny. 
 
 (2) It is replied, that the allegation is unfounded in fact. 
 For, though Christianity has not done all which it might, 
 or hereafter may do, it still has done much. If we look to 
 individuals, we are to look to real, not nominal Christians ; 
 and no man of candour will deny, that, cceteris paribus, a 
 good Christian is better than a good heathen. If we look 
 to bodies of men, it is clear, as well from the testimony of 
 enemies, as from that of friends, that Christianity produced 
 extraordinary effects on the morals of its first followers : and 
 that, even now, much is effected; for, though some real 
 Christians may have unhappily lapsed into sin, they are, 
 yet, in a much better moral state, than they would have 
 been, without that restraint on their evil natures, which 
 
 support of his reasoning. They consist, principally, of very strong and vehement 
 reprobation of the vices of Christians, by Christian writers ; as, for instance, the 
 following from Bishop Kidder : ' Were a wise man to choose his religion, by the 
 lives of those who profess it, perhaps Christianity would be the last religion he 
 would choose.' It is, precisely, in a kindred spirit, thai Roman Catholics, in 
 order to show that the Reformation did no good, regularly introduce from early 
 Protestant writers, strong declarations respecting the vices of Protestants. In 
 each case, much is, of course, to be allowed for declamation ; and much is to be 
 taken, as indignant remonstrance against those who are disgracing a good cause, 
 by their misconduct. It is to these writers, that Coneybeare (p. 422,) alludes, 
 when he says, that ' Several worthy persons have, in a heat of zeal, and to press 
 Christians to a greater circumspection, sometimes expressed themselves incau- 
 tiously.'
 
 120 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATION'S 
 
 Christianity affords *. Nor can it be doubted, that, both 
 indirectly and directly, Christianity has been productive of 
 very great advantages to society. See, on this subject, 
 chap. IV. note 9. 
 
 3. All, therefore, which, in fact, can be meant by the 
 argument, is, that Christianity aims at the complete correc- 
 tion and amendment of all ; but that it does not in all attain 
 its object. And when this argument is resolved into its com- 
 ponent parts, one would suppose, that the infidel ought to be 
 ashamed of it. What, in the first place, would he think of 
 a Divine Revelation, which did not forbid all vice, and ex- 
 hort to all virtue ; but which was contented to leave men in 
 a low condition of morality ? What would he say, next, of 
 man as a moral agent, if compelled, by miraculous interpo- 
 sition, to avoid vice, and practise virtue ? And, finally, by 
 what other, than a miraculous interposition, does he believe, 
 that vice can at once be banished from the world, while 
 human beings are liable to their present frailty and corrup- 
 tion? 
 
 There are some very valuable remarks in Dr. Macknight, 
 ' On the Truth of the Gospel,' on this subject. After point- 
 ing out the public benefits done to the world by Christianity f, 
 and observing, that much of the efficacy of Christianity is 
 to be sought for in private life, he asserts, and shows, that 
 the Christian is, in fact, better than the heathen world ; 
 although, according to the natural progress of things, fresh 
 temptations to vice are perpetually recurring, and the old 
 ones still remain, so that the task of religion becomes per- 
 petually harder. He adds, that any revelation from God, 
 
 See Bishop Gibson's Second Pastoral Letter. Enchiridion Theol. II. p. 192. 
 - See chap. IV. note 9.
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 121 
 
 implies the exercise of free will by man ; i. e. implies ' the 
 possibility, of its being perverted and resisted. Hence, the 
 desired effects will not always follow ; at least in such a 
 degree, as we may imagine proper.' (p. 52.) This resistance, 
 was foreseen and foretold by our Lord ; and is, therefore, a 
 proof of the truth of Christianity. In conclusion, he says, 
 that they who will not look at the tendencies of God's dis- 
 pensations, but will consider their effects, must, if they are 
 consistent, end in Atheism. At least, when they see how 
 the law of nature, manifested by reason, is perverted and 
 abused, they cannot or ought not to allow, that it can come 
 from God*, (p. 54.) 
 
 Note 2. P. 12. line 14. ' Ought to be great and rapid: 
 On the gradual Operations of Providence. 
 
 THE following observations deserve notice; and more 
 will be found, to the same purpose, in subsequent notes. 
 
 ' These questions imply an expectation, that, while human 
 works admit of preparation, the works of God will, in every 
 case, be done instantly. But it is manifest, that this ex- 
 pectation is contradicted by the whole course of nature. 
 For, although God may, by a word of his mouth, do all his 
 pleasure, yet he generally chooses, for wise reasons, some 
 of which we are often able to trace, to employ means ; and, 
 to allow such a gradual operation of those means, as admits 
 of a progress, in which one thing paves the way for another, 
 and gives notice of its approach. In all that process, by 
 which food for man and beast is brought out of the ground ; 
 
 For these arguments see Leland's View, II. p. 207 ; Answer to Christianity 
 as Old, &c. &c. II. p. 474; Coneybeare's Defence, p. 420; Hill's Lectures, 
 vol. I. p. 333.
 
 122 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 in the opening of the human mind, from infancy to manhood ; 
 and in those natural changes, which affect the bowels or the 
 surface of the earth, we profit very much, by marking the 
 slow advances of nature to its end ; and, therefore, we need 
 not be surprised, to find the steps of Divine Providence, in 
 the publication of the Gospel, very different from the haste, 
 which, in our imagination, appears desirable *.' 
 
 ' The circumstances of the world are such, that it is im- 
 possible to promulgate this religion universally, but by 
 length of time, and by slow degrees. The intercourse we 
 have with many heathen people, is small ; their languages to 
 us unknown, and perhaps so barren, many of them, as to 
 want improvement, for the conveyance of religious notions. 
 As the ignorance of the Heathen is great, so their prejudices 
 are great likewise ; and, as they are utterly unacquainted 
 with the credit of those histories on which the evidence of 
 the Christian faith is built, so, it cannot be an easy matter to 
 make a progress in this affair. The conversion of Heathens, 
 therefore, must be the Work of time. A more free inter- 
 course with them must be opened ; arts and sciences culti- 
 vated ; their languages known and improved f .' 
 
 ' Throughout the whole order of creation, and the whole 
 scheme of Providence, we observe marks of a progressive 
 advancement, and a gradual discovery of truth. In all the 
 operations of the human mind ; in the important discoveries 
 of art ; and in the improvements of law and government, 
 we go on step by step, as leisure and opportunities offer, or 
 as new wants are created, until, at last, we have completely 
 filled up the first rude outline, which necessity suggested. A 
 similar progress is to be observed, in the higher and more 
 
 * Hill's Lectures, vol. I. p. 324. f Coneybeare'* Defence, p. 418.
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 123 
 
 valuable truths of religion ; and God, in mercy and love to 
 his creatures, seems, always, to have proportioned his dis- 
 coveries, not only to the actual wants of mankind, but to 
 their capacity of receiving truth themselves, and their means 
 of communicating it to others *.' 
 
 Note 3. P. 14. line 13. ' Justified in requiring it.' 
 
 THAT Christianity could not have been propagated so 
 well by miraculous means, will be allowed by every one who 
 considers, that a constant miracle and an overruling con- 
 troul ' would have superseded the use of human reason ; 
 would have destroyed the free agency, and, consequently, 
 the responsibility, of man ; and would have taken away all 
 the merit of a rational faith, a faith founded on conviction f.' 
 I need hardly refer the reader to Bishop Butler's invaluable 
 observations, on the moral advantages, which may be derived, 
 from our not possessing such full evidence of the truth of re- 
 ligion, as we have, in many cases, in scientific researches J. 
 It is to be especially remembered, that, as he has remarked, 
 the very nature of religion shows, that God does not look 
 so much to external events, or to the fact, of things being 
 done, as to the motives on which they are done. We may 
 well believe, that God does not desire to make men religious, 
 in spite of themselves : and yet, this would be the case, if a 
 miraculous* interposition (and such alone could effect the 
 
 * Hall's Bampton Lectures, p. 17- The last topic is treated at full length in 
 Bishop Law's Theory of Religion ; in Coneybeare's Defence, p. 41 1 et seq. ; 
 Jeffery's Sermons (Complete Collection, vol. II. p. 195) called ' The Important 
 Differences,' &c, are worth attention ; and also Lord Barrington's Essay on the 
 Dispensations of God, in his Misc. Sacra, Vol. III. p. 1128. ed. 1770. 
 
 t Hall's Bampton Lectures, I. p. 21. 
 
 I See Analogy, Part II. chap. VI.
 
 124 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 object) were to bring the evidences of religion irresistibly 
 home to our minds. * Some consequences,' says Dr. Paley, 
 * would, it is probable, attend this economy, which do not 
 seem to befit a revelation that proceeded from God ; one is, 
 that irresistible proof would restrain the voluntary powers 
 too much ; would not answer the purpose of trial and pro- 
 bation ; would call for no exercise of candour, seriousness, 
 humility, and inquiry ; no submission of passions, interests, 
 and prejudices, to moral evidence and to probable truth ; no 
 habits of reflection ; none of that previous desire to learn 
 and to obey the will of God, which forms, perhaps, the test 
 of the virtuous principle, and which induces men to attend, 
 with care and reverence, to every credible intimation of that 
 will, and to resign present advantages and present pleasures, 
 to every reasonable expectation of propitiating his favour. 
 Men's moral probation may be, whether they will take due 
 care to inform themselves by impartial consideration ? and, 
 afterwards, whether they will act as the case requires, upon 
 the evidence which they have ? and this, we find by expe- 
 rience, is often our probation in our temporal capacity *.' 
 
 Bishop Law has shown very well, that a revelation must 
 be communicated, either, (1) as ours is, through the means 
 of human instruments ; or, (2) by immediate inspiration to 
 individuals ; or, (3) by a constant series of miracles. 
 
 In the second method, if the influence were not irresist- 
 ible, (i. e. so strong as to take away all freedom of thinking 
 and acting, and, consequently, to destroy whatever is valuable 
 in religion,) it would be insufficient. It must, as an illumi- 
 nation, either be distinguishable from the present effects of 
 reason, and from the ordinary operation of the Holy Ghost, 
 
 * Evidences, Part III. chap. VI.
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 125 
 
 or not. If the former, it must be, by working more infallible 
 conviction in our minds ; and precisely as much as it does, so 
 much is taken from the present choice and merit of believ- 
 ing : superseding all action and inquiry of our own, and 
 producing infallible conviction, it would be inconsistent with 
 the exercise of our best faculties. But if it was not distin- 
 guishable from the present use of our faculties, of what ad- 
 vantage could it be? Much the same observation will 
 apply, if we consider it as an impulse, exciting the mind 
 always to follow the determination of the judgment. Be- 
 sides which, since in either case, all must be transacted within 
 a man's own breast, if he retain any liberty at all, why 
 might he not stifle it, as he does the other good thoughts 
 suggested to his conscience, and accepted by it, as certainly 
 true ? Why might it not, on the other hand, be perverted, 
 to serve the purpose of enthusiasm and imposture ? 
 
 As to the third method, the continual exhibition of mira- 
 cles, would, in all probability, be as little regarded, as the 
 preaching of religion is now ; and in that case, constant 
 miracles would, in time, be no miracles at all *. 
 
 Note 4. P. 15. last line but one, ' of the human intellect: 
 
 1 THE consequence of a Divine illumination is, that the 
 whole doctrine must have been, not, indeed, obvious to the 
 human understanding, not within the reach of its unassisted 
 power to discover, but consonant to the highest reason, nor 
 
 * See Bp. Law's Theory, p. 1(J 28. (ed. 1820.) ; Bishop Blackall's Works, 
 II. p. 1038; Macknight (On the Truth of the Gospel, p. 62,) observes, that ' if 
 a scheme for the reformation of the world is really carried on by God, it must 
 leave the human mind in some degree free ; otherwise, it will destroy moral agency, 
 and, wnsequently, defeat its own end.' So Bishop Fowler, Lect. III. chap. XVI.
 
 126 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 too difficult, when propounded, for the human apprehen- 
 sion*.' 
 
 Note 5. P. 18. last line, ' almost imperceptible.' 
 
 THE reader will find, in the early f part of the fourth 
 section of Mr. Erskine's work on the Evidences, some very 
 valuable remarks, on the internal obstacles which the Gospel 
 finds ; the principal of which is, that a true belief in its doc- 
 trines, implies a change of heart and life, and involves the 
 most serious moral obligations. 
 
 Dr. Jortin has given, very fairly, some of the great ob- 
 stacles to Christianity. He observes, that the prejudices of 
 education, and stubbornness of superstition, make a change 
 of religion very difficult : that the worldly policy of rulers is 
 against it : that, in the case of Christianity, the mean cir- 
 cumstances of the first apostles ; the slanders circulated 
 against them ; the changes which Christianity required, from 
 indulgence to abstinence, from sin to righteousness; and 
 the prospect of suffering for their new profession, were all 
 most serious obstacles. It needs hardly be added, that 
 these obstacles, are so many arguments for the truth of that 
 religion, which has surmounted them J. 
 
 President Edwards suggests, on the other hand, some in- 
 teresting reasons, which may have induced Providence to 
 make the steps, for setting up Christ's kingdom, so long 
 in accomplishing ; especially, that, in this way, God's wis- 
 dom is made more visible to his creatures. * If it had been 
 done at once, in an instant, or a very short time, there 
 
 Bp. Horsley's Charge, p. 74. 
 
 f I say the early part ; for, with much, in the latter part of that section, which 
 is valuable, there is very much, to which I cannot at all assent. 
 J See Jortin's Discourses, ch. II.
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 127 
 
 would not have been such opportunities, for creatures, to 
 perceive, and observe, the particular steps of Divine wis- 
 dom, as when the work is gradually accomplished, and 
 one effect of his wisdom is held forth for observation after 
 another *.' 
 
 Note 6. P. 20. line 13. ' The slow progress of truth: 
 
 ' MANKIND are not, nor have been, capable of entering 
 into the depths of knowledge all at once ; of receiving a 
 whole system "of natural or moral truths together : but must 
 be let into them by degrees ; and have them communicated 
 by little and little, as they are able to receive and relish the 
 communication. In this manner, does every art and science 
 make its way into the world. And, though, now and then, 
 an extraordinary genius may arise, and reach, as it were, 
 some ages beyond that in which he lives, yet, how very few 
 of his contemporaries are able to follow him, or comprehend 
 the import of what he delivers ? The generality still go 
 step by step, in gathering up, and digesting, some small por- 
 tion of that stock of knowledge, which he poured out at once ; 
 and are, for a long time, in respect to him, but mere chil- 
 dren f.' 
 
 P. Malebranche, in his * Search after Truth,' has enu- 
 merated, with great diligence, all the obstacles which pre- 
 sent themselves to the progress of truth ; and has shown 
 how the senses, the imagination, the pure intellect, and the 
 inclinations and passions of men, lead them away from the 
 truth. This, too, is the case of those who are searching 
 after truth. But we must remember, that a large portion 
 
 * History of the Work of Redemption, p. 264. (fourth edition.) 
 f Bp. Law's Theory, p. 50.
 
 18 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 of mankind is not able, a large portion not inclined, to enter 
 on that search ; and a large portion, from their defects of 
 circumstance, opposed to it. 
 
 .nil* nr .orfw :*> >* w't .* ttfeuh o* fcwrriq uw.toi} 
 Note 7. P. 23. line 18. ' They have practised." 
 
 IT cannot be otherwise expected, than that human nature, 
 in its endeavours to recover from its fall, should meet with 
 frequent relapses ; which may be attended with this good 
 effect, to put them upon exerting themselves with greater 
 vigour, to maintain their ground better, for the future. The 
 way to perfection, is steep and arduous ; and man ascends it 
 with difficulty: when he has advanced a little way, he 
 makes a false step, and is borne down again ; and it costs 
 him much pains and labour, to regain the ground he had 
 lost. We are, as yet, advanced but a little way up the 
 hill ; we have had many hindrances, and many more we 
 must expect to meet with, before we gain the summit of it. 
 Moreover, as God's judgments are unsearchable, and his 
 ways past finding out, we are very incompetent judges, 
 what dispositions of things, in all circumstances, are best, for 
 bringing nature to perfection. As nothing happens in*the 
 world, but by his appointment or permission, and as he has 
 wise ends and purposes to serve, by every thing that doth 
 happen, so, we may assuredly conclude, he had in this, 
 however inexplicable it may appear to us. Human nature, 
 it should seem, required such a discipline ; and true reli- 
 gion was reduced to this low and distressed condition, that 
 it might rise out of it, more glorious and flourishing. It 
 was put into this furnace, to be refined and purified ; and, 
 having purged itself of its corruptions, it will better guard 
 against them, and preserve itself the freer from them, for
 
 TO CHAPTER I. 129 
 
 the future. For, the Popish tyranny, on the one hand, and 
 the Turks and Saracens, on the other, were the scourges 
 of Christendom, and continue too much so still ; wherewith, 
 God was pleased to chastise it, for its sins : who, in this, 
 as well as in other respects, makes use of the ministry of 
 wicked men and devils, in the government of his church *. 
 
 Note 8. P. 24. line 21. ' Most adverse: 
 ' IN this, we may see one difference between the methods, 
 of human wisdom, and of divine wisdom. Human wisdom 
 spares no pains and industry, in seeking out, and applying, 
 helps and instruments proper, in the ordinary course of 
 things, to bring about its designs. But divine wisdom often 
 chooses means, in all appearance unsuitable, and yet, in 
 reality, the most effectual ; which conduct of Providence, 
 St. Paul thus describes : ' God hath chosen the foolish 
 things of the world, to confound the wise ; and God hath 
 chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things 
 that are mighty ; and base things of the world, and things 
 which are despised, hath God chosen : yea, and things which 
 are not, to bring to nought, things that are ; that no flesh 
 should glory in his presence f.* 
 
 Mr. Keble has touched this subject, with his usual delicacy 
 and beauty : 
 
 He only knows, for He can read 
 
 The mystery of the wicked heart, 
 Why vainly oft our arrows speed, 
 
 When aim'd with most unerring art ; 
 While, from some rude and powerless arm, 
 
 A random shaft, in season sent, 
 Shall light upon some lurking harm, 
 
 And work some wonder, little meant \. 
 
 * Worthington's Essay on the Scheme and Conduct, &c. of Man's Redemp- 
 tion, p. 14C. 
 
 f Jortin on the Christian Religion, p. 105. I Christian Year, p. 324. 
 
 K
 
 J 30 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Note 1. P. 30. line 1. 
 
 ufr :oU: -c i>*-i.ii)iv.n II--K / T 
 
 MANY writers have shown, that the time chosen for our 
 Lord's coming was peculiarly favourable, for the introduc- 
 tion of a new religion ; and have shown, likewise, how the 
 delay was productive of great advantage, in the way of evi- 
 dence. 
 
 1. The long series of prophecies, which had foretold 
 our Lord's coming, tended much to prepare his way ; and 
 that invaluable evidence would have been lost, or lessened, 
 had he come sooner. 
 
 2. These prophecies had excited a general expectation 
 of Messiah's coming ; insomuch, that impostors frequently 
 arose, pretending that they were the Messiah. 
 
 3. The general dispersion of the Jews, and the transla- 
 tion of the Scriptures into Greek, had made the Gentiles 
 widely acquainted with the Scriptures ; and thus, led them to 
 a knowledge of the true God, and an expectation of the 
 Messiah, and of a more perfect dispensation *. 
 
 4. The age in which Christ was born, was a learned age. 
 It cannot be said, that the people of his time were so savage, 
 or so ignorant, that they would have been easily imposed on ; 
 nor, that the early reception of the Gospel is to be imputed 
 to credulity. 
 
 " Law's Theory, p. 115.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 131 
 
 5. The period at which our Lord came, was so late, as 
 to have afforded full time, for human reason and human phi- 
 losophy, to try their strength in guiding mankind ; and to 
 shew their insufficiency *. 
 
 6. The moral state of the world, both Jewish and 
 Gentile, at our Lord's coming, was such, as, eminently, to 
 require a great moral teacher. 
 
 7. The religious state of the world required it also ; the 
 Jews had corrupted a good religion, and dreadful superstition 
 prevailed among the Heathens. Some parts of that religion, 
 debased the people ; the best parts, had a very feeble sway. 
 Some philosophers laughed at all religion; and the best, 
 were in uncertainty. 
 
 8. The nations of the world being united in one monarchy, 
 when Christ came, and when the apostles went forth to 
 preach, did greatly prepare the way, for the spreading of 
 the Gospel. For, the world being thus subject to one 
 government, a ready communication was opened, from na- 
 tion to nation f. 
 
 The conquests of Rome, by causing this easy communi- 
 
 God was pleased, says Pres. Edwards, to suffer human learning to come to 
 such a height, before he sent the Gospel into the world, that the world might see 
 the insufficiency of all their own wisdom, for obtaining the knowledge of God, 
 without the Gospel of Christ, and the teachings of the Spirit. History of the 
 Work of Redemption, p. 346. 4th edit. 
 
 " An appeal," says Miller, " directed wholly to the better part of the spirit of 
 man, to motives, and hopes, and faculties, of a character altogether spiritual, re- 
 fined, and unseen, appears to have been reserved, until the ministration of death 
 and condemnation, put to proof and found wanting, might itself stand forth, in its 
 wreck and insufficiency, an additional and convincing argument, that, to live by 
 sight, is not the way to conquer the perverse will, nor to bring the heart of man 
 into that extent of obedience and of purity, of which, even in the present life, 
 God is pleased to make it capable." Bampton Lectures, p. 41. 
 
 t Edward's History of the Work of Redemption, p. 177. 4th edit.
 
 132 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 cation, and by tending to the introduction of a common lan- 
 guage, were surely an instrument in God's hands *. 
 
 9. Among the Jews, the opinions imbibed in the cap- 
 tivity, as to a future state, and the gradual decay of the 
 Mosaic system, were favourable. 
 
 Bishop Law puts the matter in the following light ; that 
 the period in which our Saviour came, was the fittest, first, 
 as that age appeared to want it most, both, in regard to 
 morals, and religion : secondly, as that age was the most 
 able to receive and propagate Christianity, both among 
 Jews and Gentiles, by successive series of instructions ; 
 being better qualified, than before, to value and comprehend 
 a purer system of religion and morals ; and the state of the 
 empire giving great facilities, for propagating a new opinion : 
 and, thirdly, as that age was the best qualified, to examine 
 its evidence, confirm its truth, and convey it down to future 
 ages ; the knowledge, abilities, learning, &c. &c. of that 
 day, enabling and inclining the men who lived in it, to 
 detect error and embrace truth. They had learned to des- 
 pise all the pretended sources of communication with the 
 Deity, by oracles and divination; and thence, to suspect 
 all pretensions to such communication. The number of 
 writers, and anxious inquirers, as to every object of curiosity, 
 made it certain, also, that every great event would be much 
 discussed. The Bishop adds, that all these circumstances 
 tend to fix the time of our Lord's coming, as especially 
 adapted for it : and that there is yet one more, which does 
 so in a still greater degree, viz. that the Jews had then lost 
 
 This preparation for the Gospel is noticed by Prudentius, in a passage worthy 
 of the reader's attention. See Prud. c. Symm. II. 577627.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 133 
 
 the power of life and death ; and that, if our Lord had come 
 while they retained it, they would have destroyed him, as 
 soon as they found that he was not such a Messiah as they 
 expected *. 
 
 The late Dean Hall has shown, in his eighth Bampton 
 Lecture, that these reasons divide themselves into two 
 classes. The one, showing why God would not send his Son 
 earlier : and these are the proofs, that, the time when our 
 Lord came, was that fixed on by the Holy Spirit beforehand: 
 the time when he was universally expected ; and when the 
 circumstances were favourable for him. The second class 
 of reasons, shows, why his coming was not deferred longer; 
 and consists of proofs, that the moral and religious state of. 
 mankind was such, as to require a better dispensation. 
 
 The reader may observe, that the extreme and general 
 corruption of morals, at the time of our Lord's coming, is 
 pleaded as a reason, why that time was a fit one ; while, on 
 the other hand, the improved state of opinion among the 
 Jews, and the many fruitless researches of the learned 
 Gentiles, indicating the insufficiency of human reason, are 
 also alleged as reasons, why the time was favourable. I 
 do not know, that there is even an apparent inconsistency 
 between these two statements, in this, their true form. 
 Nor would there be any such inconsistency, even if the 
 second statement were made stronger ; and if a very consi- 
 derable improvement were allowed to have taken place, both 
 in Jewish and Gentile opinion. For opinion and practice, 
 even under a better system, do not go hand in hand, as they 
 
 * Law's Theory, p. 131 163. These arguments will be found in Coney- 
 beare's Defence, p. 407 and following. Robertson's Sermon, in the Scotch 
 Preacher, vol. i. p. 73 108. Dr. Parr's Sermon, on this point. Jortin on the 
 Christian Religion, p. 158176. Leland's Advantages, &c. vol. i. p. 488.
 
 134 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 should. And, in the case before us, the opinions would 
 have been entirely speculative ; and not influential on the 
 practice. Had the Jew laid aside the rigorous observation 
 of the Mosaic law, and had the Gentile renounced his hopes 
 of improvement from philosophy, their morals would not, 
 therefore, have been ameliorated. I have, however, seen 
 statements, on this matter, ocasionally carried too far, or 
 not properly guarded, in Christian writers. Thus, Mr. West 
 says, that ' every thing which most strongly influences and 
 tyrannizes over the mind of man, religion, custom, law, 
 policy, pride, interest, vice, and even philosophy, were 
 united against the Gospel.' Now, that very many of the 
 philosophers were violent against the Gospel, is well known ; 
 but, it is equally true, that from its own insufficiency, having 
 been seen by many, and even felt by many, the state of phi- 
 losophy was, on the whole, favourable to the reception of 
 Christianity *. 
 
 I shall conclude the present note, with this observation ; 
 that the circumstances already recited, form, after all, only 
 as it were, the external part of the case. Providence, we see, 
 was disposing events and empires, so as to favour the intro- 
 duction of Christianity. And, if we will trace the moral 
 history of mankind in Scripture, we shall observe, in cor- 
 respondence with this, that there has been a gradual pro- 
 gress of light bestowed by God on man, from the early 
 revelations to the patriarchs, to the last revelation by Jesus 
 Christ. Thus, the two parts of the plan coincide : the de- 
 
 I am inclined to believe, that error in reasoning, in these cases, is often pro- 
 duced by a lax use of words. To say, that a conjuncture is favourable for a 
 particular purpose, may, perhaps, lead persons astray, and induce them to think 
 that there is nothing in it unfavourable : whereas, it is sufficient for our argument, 
 if we show, that the mosl favourable time has been chosen. 
 
 3
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 135 
 
 termination, I mean, to give more light to mankind, as they 
 could bear it ; and the disposition of events, to effect the 
 purpose. We have an opportunity of comparing two of the 
 dispensations fully ; I mean the Mosaic and the Christian, 
 And, assuming, as we must assume, the purposes of God, 
 towards man, to be ever the same, we see a striking differ- 
 ence in the character of the two dispensations. The natural 
 is first in order ; and served as our schoolmaster to bring us 
 unto Christ : and then followed the second, and spiritual 
 dispensation. We do not, therefore, from finding that 
 great preparatives existed, for a new dispensation, argue 
 that its importance must be adequate to such preparatives, 
 and its superiority over former dispensations, manifest 
 and paramount ; but, we establish that fact, from a com- 
 parison of the contents of the two dispensations themselves. 
 Mr. Miller has traced this part of the subject, in the most 
 admirable manner, in the second of his invaluable Bampton 
 Lectures. 
 
 Note 2. P. 31. line 11. 
 
 ' IT is to be observed, that these early persecutions were 
 not altogether the result of state policy, directed against the 
 growth of a political evil. Had it been so, the Roman 
 power was competent, without the intervention of some 
 signal miracle, to have, certainly, crushed the new sect *.' 
 
 I would beg, also, to refer to a remarkable passage, in 
 Jortin's Discourse on the Truth of the Christian Religion f. 
 
 * Hinds on the Rise and Progress, &c. vol. II. p. 269. 
 t Discourse II. 8.
 
 136 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 -31 rtdod *i{Broi,y.ivx> .:-ijob on .oven rarftjin' rn-v^ntorr* 
 Note 3. P. 32. line 5. ' Fon?*te of Calabria: 
 
 FOR some most interesting details, as to the cruelties ex- 
 ercised on the Protestants, at Venice and in Calabria, see 
 Dr. M'Crie's History of the Reformation in Italy, p. 231 
 237, and p. 257268. 
 
 Note 4. P. 32. line 20. ' Quick succession: 
 
 ' IT may be said that all these ten persecutions will not 
 prove, that Christians were all along in a state of persecution, 
 till the conversion of Constantine : for, the lives of some of 
 these persecutors were short ; and when they were dead, 
 their edicts were little regarded, and then peace might be 
 restored to the churches *.' The dates of the reigns are as 
 follows : - 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Claudius 41 
 
 Nero 54 
 
 Galba 68 
 
 Otho 69 
 
 Vitellius ......... 69 
 
 Vespasian . . . .,,..'. . 69 
 
 Titus. .' '. '*. -"^\ .... 80 
 
 Domitian r i . 81 
 
 Nerva . "V . ! ; 96 
 
 Trajan , ; > 'I " : ^'V , . . 98 
 
 Note 5. P. 33. line 4. ' as well as of martyrs.' 
 THESE exaggerations are found, especially, in the Mar- 
 
 Lardner, vol. VIII. p. 338. 8vo. ed. 1788; or vol. III. p. 340. first 4to. 
 ed. And so Jortin, Remarks, vol. HI. p. 302. first edition.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 137 
 
 tyrologies ; but they have, no doubt, occasionally been re- 
 peated by modern writers. For example, Godeau states, 
 that, in the tenth persecution, 17,000 were killed, in one 
 month, in Egypt; that 144,000 died there by violence, in 
 the persecution ; and 700,000 of banishment or ill usage *. 
 
 It may be well, just to present a short view, of the perse- 
 cutions of Christianity. 
 
 The reader is, doubtless, aware, that ecclesiastical writers 
 have commonly enumerated ten persecutions, viz. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 iTn^ v a- (Tac. Ann. XV. 44. Sueton. 
 
 UnderNero 60 -J Nerocl(J 
 
 p. 766. 
 
 2. Under Domitian 
 
 fTac. Ann. XV. 44. 
 
 W \ Nero. c. 16. 
 
 ... /Dion. Cass. LXVII. 
 
 lUan 90 I al.p. 1112. 
 
 o TT A v . fPHn. Epist. X. 97- Euseb. 
 
 3. Under Trajan 100 | H. E III. 33. 
 
 4. Under Adrian & Antoninus Piusl26 140. Euseb. H. E. IV. 8, 9, 13. 26. 
 
 5. Under M. Aurelius Antoninus 168 Euseb. H. E. IV. 15. V. 1. 
 
 {Sulp. Sever. II. 32. Euseb. 
 H. E. VI. I. Spartian Se- 
 ver. 1617- 
 7. Under Maximin 236 -f Su lP' | e * H ' 32 
 
 8. Under Decius 
 
 Euseb. H. E. VI. 
 Sever. II. 32. 
 
 9. Under Valerian 257 { Dionys. ^pud. E, 
 
 " Under Dioclesian 303 f . . . . ( 
 
 Mosheim says, that there were not so many as ten general 
 persecutions, through the extent of the Roman empire; but 
 that there were far more minor and provincial ones. The 
 number ten was, in his judgment, fixed on, about the fifth 
 
 * See Millar, on the Propagation of the Gospel, I. p. 373. Mr. Gibbon's 74th 
 note on bis sixteenth chapter, mentions a tale of 10,000 Christian soldiers cru- 
 cified in one day on Mount Ararat, and refers to Tillemont Mem. Eccl. voL II. 
 pt. ii. p. 438. and to Geddes's Miscellanies, vol. II. p. 203. 
 
 f St. Augustin omits Adrian's (the fifth) ; and inserts a persecution by Aure- 
 lian, between the ninth and tenth. De civ. Dei. xviii. 52. So, St. Jerome. See 
 Lardner, Testimonies, chap. XLI. vol. VIII. p. 33?. 2d ed. ; rol. III. p. 337, 
 4th edition.
 
 138 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 century ; from an idea, then entertained by the Christians, 
 that the Scriptures foretold ten persecutions, to the church 
 of Christ *. They conceived the ten plagues of Egypt f to 
 prefigure these persecutions ; and they referred to Rev. xvii. 
 14., for a yet more distinct anticipation of them J. Although 
 there is, doubtless, truth in this statement, it is equally true, 
 on the other hand, that some of these persecutions were 
 most severe ; and that, even when no general persecutions 
 were raging, individuals were constantly exposed to suffer- 
 ings for their Christian profession. Lardner says, that 
 Christianity was, all along, in a state of persecution, till the 
 time of Constantine : and although persecution was, as 
 Dr. Hey observes, often suspended ||, Christians were al- 
 ways liable to it. Thus, for example, Nerva's short reign 
 was, no doubt, favourable to the Christian cause ; as that 
 emperor forbad the accusations of slaves, to be received 
 against their masters : still, as Neander observes **, Chris- 
 tianity was still not a religio licita ; and the rage, which had 
 been suppressed in Nerva's short reign, would, probably, 
 burst forth, with greater violence, after his death. But it 
 may be well to look, for a moment, at the evidence which 
 history offers, with respect to the persecutions above enu- 
 merated, in order that their effects may be estimated. 
 
 1 . The first is that of Nero ; and of its severity and cruelty 
 at Rome, there is, \ believe, no question. Even Dodwell f f, 
 
 It would seem, that they did not quite agree, whether the final persecution 
 by Antichrist, in the end of the world, was to be the tenth or the eleventh. 
 f See Oros. VII. 37. 
 
 J Mosheim de Rebus Christianoruni, ante Constantinum, p. 97 10.1. 
 $ Testimonies, VoL IX. p. 334. 
 || Lectures, Book I. chap. XVIII. 13. 
 * Allg. G. I. 1. 139. 
 ft De Pauc. Mart. 13.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 139 
 
 is compelled to allow it fully. The difficulty is, to decide 
 whether it extended to the provinces. It must be allowed 
 that there is no direct evidence on the subject, except the 
 celebrated Lusitanian inscription *, (the authority of which 
 has been doubted by Scaliger and others f,) and the statement 
 of Orosius J, that the persecution went through the provinces. 
 Mosheim seems to think, that there is some weight to be 
 attributed to the expression of Tertullian ; in which, he 
 speaks of the decrees of Nero and Domitian against the 
 Christians, as importing a general attack on them ; and he 
 adds, that his opinion, on the whole, is, that the persecution 
 was general. For, though the pretence on which the per- 
 secution was grounded, was, not the religion of the Chris- 
 tians, but their having fired Rome, yet, for consistency's sake, 
 Nero could hardly have allowed the companions and rela- 
 tives of those, whom he had accused of such a crime, and 
 persecuted for it with such cruelty, in the city, to live unmo- 
 lested in the provinces. The fear of similar conspiracies in 
 
 Gruter. I. p. 238. No. 9. 
 
 f This was given by Gruter, ' Ex Schotti et Metelli Schedis,' but it could not 
 be found in Spain or Portugal. The phrase ' nova superstitio, ' is certainly sus- 
 picious ; but yet it is difficult to see, for what end it could be forged. It never 
 appears, I believe, nor was heard of, before Gruter ; and his work was not 
 written, with any views of supporting Christianity. Mr. Gibbon (Note 43, on 
 chap. XV.) says, that the inscription is a manifest and acknowledged forgery, 
 contrived by that noted impostor, Cyriacus of Ancona, to flatter the pride and 
 prejudices of the Spaniards. See Ferrera's Histoire d'Espagne, T. I. p. 192. 
 On looking to the Spanish, Ferrera Vol. II. p. 97, I certainly find, that he says, 
 that the inscription was published, first, by Cyriacus of Ancona ; but I confess 
 that I doubt it. Gruter gives it, as I have mentioned above. Besides which, I 
 doubt whether Cyriacus was ever in Spain. And as to the hard names which 
 Mr. Gibbon bestows on him, he is far from deserving them ; as has been amply 
 shewn by Tiraboschi, Storia, &c. vol. VI. p. 199. I am aware, that Cyriacus 
 was occasionally deceived ; but, in all my examinations of his fragments, I had 
 never any reason to believe, that he was a deceiver. 
 
 VII. 7- Apol. chap. iv.
 
 140 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 the provinces, would seem to justify, and call for, severe 
 edicts against men capable of such a crime *. This is, 
 surely, at least, of equal weight with Dodwell's flippant 
 remark f, that the people in the provinces could not be ac- 
 cused of setting fire to Rome. Mr. Hinds J agrees to 
 this ; and adds, that this persecution was ' long currently 
 believed to be general.' Neander says, that it must have 
 been prejudicial to the situation of the Christians, in the 
 provinces. It has always been understood, that it lasted 
 for four years ; when it was terminated, by the death of Nero. 
 Neander (ubi supra) observes, that the belief among the 
 Christians, that Nero was not dead, but gone beyond the 
 Euphrates, to return as Antichrist, shows the character of 
 his persecution, and the effect it had produced on the Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 2. Of the persecution under Domitian, little is known. 
 Hegesippus || says, that Domitian issued orders for the 
 destruction of the whole race of David ; and that the rela- 
 tions of our Lord, were, in consequence, submitted to exa- 
 mination. The story is not improbable : for, as Mosheim 
 justly remarks, some enemy of the Jews and Christians 
 might easily suggest the probability of a disturbance, on the 
 true ground, of the expectations of the Jews respecting a 
 future king ; and on a misrepresentation of the notions of 
 the Christians, as to their King **. This persecution was, 
 however, short ; nor is there any proof of its extent. Dod- 
 well says it lasted hardly a year ; which he seems to think 
 nothing ff. 
 
 Mosheim, p. 109. t DC Pauc. Mart. 13. 
 
 t Vol. I. p. 382. Allg. Gesch. I. 1. p. 137- 
 
 || Apud. Euscb. Hi. 19. See Justin M; Apol. ii.58. 
 ft D Pauc. Mart. 16.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 141 
 
 3. Little needs be said, on the persecution in Trajan's 
 time ; as it has been so often and so fully discussed. Suffice 
 it to say, that, although it is evident, that the emperor did 
 not thirst for the blood of the Christians ; yet, even he, gave 
 directions, that they were to be punished, if accused; an 
 event, as Neander observes *, which, in the then temper of 
 the popular mind would frequently happen f . And the 
 evidence we have, as to Bithynia, is sufficient ground, for 
 supposing the persecution to have been general. Dodwell 
 admits a persecution at Antioch ; in which, there is a record 
 that Ignatius, Zosimus, and Rufus were slaughtered ; that 
 in Bithynia; one in Syria ; one in the proconsular Asia J. 
 He argues, as usual, that there were very few martyrs, be- 
 cause we have not their names. Yet he cites, a passage 
 from Polycarp, , in which that author distinctly notices 
 others, besides those named. 
 
 4. It appears, I think, pretty clearly, that, in the time of 
 Hadrian, the priests induced the people to act as accusers of 
 the Christians ; in which case, the magistrates would feel 
 themselves compelled, to act on Trajan's law. That this 
 was the case, in the provinces, and to a considerable extent, 
 appears from the fact, that a letter was addressed by Serenus 
 Granianus, the Proconsul of Asia, pointing out to the Em- 
 peror the iniquity of these proceedings. Such tumultuary 
 measures as popular accusations, can never, as Neander ob- 
 
 " Allg. Gesch. vol. I. 1. p. 146. 
 
 f This, in fact, is Eusebius's account exactly ; for he says, as Mosheim ob- 
 serves, (De Reb.p. 231.) ' Sub Trajano, per singulas urbes, populari molu, passim 
 persequutio in Christianos excitabatur,' (H. E. III. 32. p. 103.) The Senate, 
 according to Mosheim, had abrogated Nero's laws, and Nerva those of Domitian 
 (see Lact. de Mort. Pers. c. 8.) ; which caused Pliny's difficulty, how to act. 
 
 J De Pauc. Mart. 1827. Ad Phil. p. 21. ed. Ush.
 
 14-2 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 serves *, be acceptable to right-minded governors ; and, in 
 consequence, Hadrian addressed a rescript to the successor 
 of Granianus, Minutius Fundanus, directing, that only such 
 Christians as were legitimately accused, and convicted, of 
 some crime, should be punished. Mosheim f conceives 
 that this law of Hadrian, did not differ much from that of 
 Trajan ; which, certainly, made perseverance, in adhering to 
 Christianity, after being brought before a magistrate, and re- 
 quired to renounce it, a crime punishable with death J. At 
 all events the law of Trajan was not abrogated, and great 
 latitude was given to governors . We may, I think, allow, 
 that this rescript of Hadrian was so far favourable to the 
 Christians ||, that it repressed tumultuary accusations ; and 
 allowed a magistrate well inclined towards them, to pro- 
 tect them, to a certain degree ; as Neander ^f shows, from 
 Tertullian **, was occasionally the case. We may add, that 
 it appears from Melitoff , that this rescript was addressed to 
 the other governors of provinces in Greece, as well as to the 
 governors of Asia ; that is to say, that there were persecu- 
 tions against the Christians, in other provinces, as well as 
 
 Allg. G. vol. i. 1. p. 147. f De Reb. p. 237. 
 
 J I say death ; for Mr. Gibbon seems to think death, the only severity worth 
 notice. When extolling the tender mercies of the heathens, he says (chap. xvi. 
 p. 111.), that they ' contented themselves for the most part with the milder chas- 
 tisements, of imprisonment, exile, or slavery in the mines.' It seems curious, that 
 Tertullian is his authority j who complains, very naturally, of this extraordinary 
 gentleness. Mr. Gibbon has been careful to omit the complaints, immediately 
 preceding these, and in the same chapter ; viz. that the Christians were burnt, 
 crucified, and thrown to wild-beasts, &c. &c. Apol. xii. 
 
 Some of the words are ' Si quis ergo accuset et ostendat quidpiam contra 
 leges ab iis factum, tu pro gravitate delicti statue.' 
 
 fl Dodwell argues, that there were no martyrs, because we have not their 
 names. Suppose that Pliny had put any to death, who was to record their 
 names ? Does any early writer affect, to give the names of the two Deaconesses, 
 whom he tortured? 
 
 U Vol. i. p. 140. "' Ad. Scap c. iv. ft A P ud Euseb. H. E. iv. '20.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 143 
 
 Asia. Soon after the death of Hadrian, many calamities 
 befell the empire ; and the popular fury, no longer repressed 
 by his law, burst forth with redoubled fury under his suc- 
 cessor. We know, that that remarkable person did much to 
 repress it; although there seems reason for doubting the 
 genuineness of the rescript, (Trpoe TO KOIVOV rrjc 'Aatae) 
 commonly ascribed to him *. 
 
 Justin Martyr's first apology, addressed to Pius Antoninus, 
 M. Antoninus, Lucius Verus, and the senate and people of 
 Rome, shows sufficiently, the state of persecution, under 
 which the Christians then laboured f ; and it does not ap- 
 pear necessary, to produce any farther argument. Men do 
 not address to governments, petitions and remonstrances, 
 against evils which do not exist. 
 
 5. Under M. Antoninus, the Christians suffered more, 
 than under his predecessor. Even Dodwell ventures only 
 to say, that there were not so many martyrs, as is commonly 
 supposed J. It appears, from Melito , that there were 
 many edicts unfavourable to the Christians ; and from Athe- 
 nagoras, that accusations were easily admitted. Then we 
 have the striking and affecting history of the Churches of 
 Vienne and Lyons ; which, in itself, is enough to show the 
 state of the case. Be it observed, that, in this case, the em- 
 peror himself directed, that ' they who confessed they were 
 Christians, were to be killed.' Dodwell allows ||, that there 
 
 * See Neander's Allg. Gesch. I. i. p. 152. Dodwell allows, that the various 
 rescripts of A. Pius, to various towns in Greece, show that popular tumults were 
 excited there ; but he thinks, there were not many martyrs made ; the Emperor's 
 rescripts came in time, as he says, to stop mischief. 
 
 t There is some doubt, whether the second Apology is addressed to Antoninus 
 Pius, or Marcus Antoninus. See the Bishop of Lincoln's Work on Justin Martyr, 
 p. 15. 
 
 t Sect. 36. Apud. Euseb. H. E. iv. 26. || Sect. 38.
 
 144 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 is no reason to doubt, that, as soon as the news of this con- 
 viction, by means of slaves, was known, ' the clamour of the 
 people, the zeal of the fanatics, and the avarice of the fac- 
 tions, would burst forth, as far as law would allow.' But he 
 thinks, that, probably, the prefects of provinces would not 
 have persecuted ; and that the persecutors would have been 
 obliged to resort to a class of magistrates, who had not 
 the power of life and death. However, some sort of a 
 persecution, though a very poor one, (the phrases I\avvto0ai 
 KCU 8toK<T0at, which he cites, not meaning much) he allows, 
 both in Greece and Asia Minor, as well as Gaul. It 
 was during this reign, that Polycarp was put to death at 
 Smyrna. 
 
 6. The persecution in the time of Severus, was of a still 
 more formidable nature: if we may trust the evidence of 
 those, who endured it. In fact, shortly after the death of 
 Commodus, we find from Clemens Alexandrinus, that ' he 
 saw, every day, martyrs burnt, crucified, or beheaded.' 
 Severus himself, was not, at first, ill disposed towards the 
 Christians ; but, from circumstances, he was induced to issue 
 an edict, in A.D. 202, making any conversion to Christianity 
 punishable. This gave rise to popular commotions against 
 the Christians : and, though not general, the persecutions in 
 some places, were most dreadful ; in Egypt, and the Procon- 
 sular Africa, especially. The history of the martyrdom of 
 Speratus and his friends, and that of the females Perpetua 
 and Felicitas, with three men, are full of interest ; and very 
 strongly show the spirit always felt, in some quarter or other, 
 against Christianity. 
 
 7. In the persecution under Maximin, his orders, Dod- 
 well thinks, extended only to the regiones suburbicana:, 
 and to Bishops. The other persecutions in his time, arose
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 145 
 
 from popular feeling ; and the Christians were allowed to 
 fly*. 
 
 8. It would seem, I think, that, from the death of 
 Severus in A.D. 21], with the short exception of Maximin's 
 reign, the Christians enjoyed tolerable peace and safety, till 
 the time of Decius, in A.D. 249. It is well known, that 
 Christianity had spread, and that, as a warm friend of 
 the old religion, Decius was the more anxious to suppress 
 it. His edicts were of the severest nature ; and he 
 called on all prefects and magistrates, on pain of being 
 severely punished themselves, not to spare the Christians. 
 
 The evidence of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, is sufficient 
 to show what the state of things was. In addressing a 
 heathen magistrate, he not only states, that the Christians 
 were subjected to death and torments ; but he says, that 
 short torments were not reckoned enough : Admoves 
 laniandis corporibus longa tormenta ; multiplicas lacerandis 
 visceribus numerosa supplicia; nee feritas atque immanitas 
 tua usitatis potest contenta esse tormentis ; excogitat novas 
 pcenas ingeniosa crudelitas f .' I do not see, that we need 
 make any allowances for strong expressions here. What 
 sense would there be, in addressing a complaint to a magis- 
 trate, against misconduct, of which he had not been guilty ? 
 But, again, we findj, that the weak Christians came in 
 such crowds, to renounce Christianity, that ' a magistratibus, 
 vespere urgente, dilati sunt.' Does this look as if they had 
 nothing to fear, unless they had done so ? 
 
 In the letters of S. Cyprian , we find, not only general 
 
 Dodwell, . 51. Neander, Allg. Gesch. vol. i. li p. 191. 
 Cyprian ad Demetrian. p. 190. Ed. Fell. J De Lapsis, p. 125. 
 
 See Letters 10, 20, 22, 39.
 
 146 
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 assertions, of torment and death being used, but records of 
 several, who underwent them. In letter twenty-two (Lucian), 
 it appears, that fourteen were starved to death in prison. 
 I do not know how many deaths Mr. Dodwell and Mr. 
 Gibbon would require, to make a decent persecution. It is 
 easy, to sneer at the idle stories, of thousands dying together. 
 But, for a moderate demand, fourteen deaths, by one method, 
 in one city, and at one time, would seem to be no inadequate 
 supply. The plain fact, at which we want to arrive, is, what 
 effect would such a persecution have, on the progress of 
 Christianity ? Did Dodwell and Gibbon really think, that 
 there was not sufficient ill-usage of the Christians, to pro- 
 duce a most unfavourable result to the progress of the 
 religion, for the time ? 
 
 9. The persecution under Valerian, does not seem to 
 have reached to such an extent, as the last. S. Cyprian, 
 however, was put to death ; and the edict of A.D. 258, 
 directed bishops, priests, and deacons to be killed ; senators 
 and knights, to lose their estates ; and, if they persevere, to 
 suffer death, &c. &c. 
 
 10. I am content, to refer the reader to Mr. Gibbon, for 
 the persecution under Diocletian. For, with all his desire 
 to mitigate the worst features, it will present sufficient 
 proofs, even in his representation, of what the Christians had 
 to undergo. I would only add, so fatal were the effects 
 of this persecution, that the Heathens thought they had 
 extirpated Christianity. 
 
 Note 6. P. 33. line 8. Calculated to make.' 
 
 THERE can be no doubt whatever, in the minds of those 
 who have examined the records of history with candour,
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 147 
 
 that they present full, and sufficient evidence, that the num- 
 ber of Christians who suffered for their religion, is very 
 great; as also, that their sufferings were most dreadful; 
 although indiscreet zeal may have exaggerated both numbers 
 and sufferings. Tacitus, himself, bears witness to the vast 
 multitude, who were seized in Nero's time ; as well as, to 
 the horrid cruelties exercised on them. See the last note. 
 
 On this subject, the recent historian, M. Matter, who is far 
 from disposed to give any undue preference to the Christian 
 party, makes a sharp and just remark: * On a dit quelque- 
 fois, que les Chretiens avoient exagere le nombre de leurs 
 martyrs ; et cela ne doit pas se nier, d'une maniere absolue : 
 cependant, les traites sur \epetitnombredes anciens Martyrs, 
 rappellent involontairement, ceux qui, dans les terns mo- 
 dernes, ont qualifie la S. Barthelemy d'echauffburee.' He 
 adds, ' L'histoire ne doit jamais excuser ceux qui versent 
 le sang de 1'innocence ; et la preuve que la persecution de 
 Neron fut terrible, se trouve dans la tradition Chretienne, 
 qui, apres sa mort, voulait qu'il fut retire en orient pour en 
 revenir un jour, en qualite d' Antichrist *.' 
 
 Note 7. P. 33. line 22. 
 
 A sufficient number of examples of these complaints, will 
 be found collected, in the later part of Cave's Primitive 
 Christianity, Part II. Chapter 7. See especially S. Cyprian, 
 de Lapsis, p. 122. 124. De bono pat. p. 219. Letters X. 
 XX. XXIV. ed. Fell. 
 
 * M. Matter, Histoire Univ. de 1'Egl. Chretienne, vol. i. p. 3o.
 
 148 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Note 8. P. 34. line 1. ' multitudes: 
 
 ON the persecutions of Christians by mobs, Mr. Hinds 
 has observed, with great justice, that much ill feeling 
 would be stirred up against the Christians, by those whose 
 interests they injured ; as ' the silversmith, the sculptor, 
 the seller of victims, or the expounder of oracles' : and 
 that these persons would, of course, affect to be influenced 
 by a sense of religion ; and would impute Atheism, and all 
 sorts of crimes, to the Christians, in order to furnish motives 
 with which men could sympathise. M. Matter has with great 
 acuteness summed up the reasons, which the people would 
 make, or find, for hating the Christians. They who did not 
 become Christians, he tells us, ' ne virent en eux, que des 
 hommes qui divisaient les families; qui mepiisaient les 
 Dieux, les lois, et les usages du pays ; qui ne se rendaient 
 pas aux memes autels, aux memes ftes, aux memes spec- 
 tacles ; qui refusaient de porter les armes, de partager les 
 charges communes ; et qui ne rendaient compte a personne, 
 si ce n'est a Dieu, des motifs qu'ils avaient pour exclure de 
 leur association, la majorite de leurs concitoyens. Certes, 
 il y avait la beaucoup plus qu'il n'en fallait, pour exciter la 
 haine, et alimenter la calomnie dans la populace. Bientot 
 dans son sein, circulerent, sur les reunions secretes des 
 Chretiens, les bruits les plus absurdes. On les accusait, de 
 celebrer des banquets d'Atride, et de se livrer a d'effroyables 
 egaremens. Mais ce qui desarme toutes les accusations du 
 Paganisme, c'est que la designation des vices, qu'il reproche 
 a ses adversaires, est empruntee a sa propre histoire *.' 
 
 M. Matter, Histoire Universelle de 1'Eglise Chretienne, vol. 1. p. 90.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 449 
 
 I translate a passage from Neander, which is excellent : 
 ' All the persecutions, however, did not proceed from go- 
 vernments. The Christians were often the victims of po- 
 pular fury. The people saw in the Christians, the enemies 
 of the gods ; and that was the same thing, as men without 
 any religion. ' The Atheists,' was the common name of 
 the Christians, in the mouth of the people ; and the most 
 horrible and incredible allegations against such men, easily 
 found credence. We find the same reports, about the Chris- 
 tians, spread among the people, as have been spread, at va- 
 rious times, about such religious sects, as became an object 
 of hatred and disgust, to popular fanaticism ; viz. that they 
 gave themselves up to unnatural lusts in their meetings ; 
 killed and eat children, &c. &c. The reports of ill disposed 
 slaves, or of those, from whom exactly such explanations as 
 were wished for, were extorted by tortures, were used as 
 grounds, for absurd accusations, and for palliations of the 
 popular rage. If, in hot countries, a long delay of rain 
 caused a drought, it was, according to S. Augustin, in northern 
 Africa, already become a proverb, Non pluit Deus, due ad 
 Christianas. If, in Egypt, the Nile did not fertilize the 
 fields ; if the Tiber overflowed, at Rome ; if an infectious 
 sickness raged ; on every earthquake, every famine, or any 
 other public calamity, the popular fury was easily roused 
 against the Christians. ' This,' it was said, ' must be 
 ascribed to the anger of the gods, against the growth of Chris- 
 tianity.' And how can we wonder at the people judging in 
 this way, when Porphyry, a man who pretended to 
 philosophy, alleged as the cause why a contagious disease 
 would not cease, that Esculapius would no longer exert 
 himself on earth. There were not wanting persons, who 
 
 1
 
 150 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 sought to excite the popular feeling against the Christians ; 
 priests, artificers, and others, who got gain from the service 
 of the gods, like Demetrius in the Acts ; magicians, who saw 
 their tricks exposed ; and hypocritical cynics, who saw their 
 hypocrisy unveiled by the Christians *.' 
 
 * In a large and tumultuous assembly, the restraints of 
 fear and shame, so forcible on the minds of individuals, are 
 deprived of the greatest part of their influence. The pious 
 Christian, as he was desirous to detain, or to escape the 
 glory of martyrdom, expected, either with impatience or with 
 terror, the stated returns of the public games or festivals. 
 On those occasions, the inhabitants of the great cities of 
 the empire were collected in the circus of the theatre; 
 where every circumstance of the place, as well as of the 
 ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion, and to ex- 
 tinguish their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators, 
 crowned with garlands, perfumed with incense, purified 
 with the blood of victims, and surrounded with the altars 
 and statues of their tutelar deities, resigned themselves to 
 the enjoyment of pleasures, which they considered as an 
 essential part of their religious worship ; they recollected 
 that the Christians alone abhorred the gods of mankind, 
 and by their absence and melancholy on these solemn festi- 
 vals, seemed to insult or to lament the public felicity. If 
 the empire had been afflicted by any recent calamity, by a 
 plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war ; if the Tyber had, 
 or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks ; if the earth 
 had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had 
 been interrupted, the superstitious pagans were convinced, 
 
 Neandcr, Allg. Gesch I. Fart I. p. 132, 133.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 151 
 
 that the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were 
 spared by the excessive lenity of the government, had at 
 length provoked the Divine justice. It was not among a 
 licentious and exasperated populace, that the forms of legal 
 proceedings could be preserved : it was not in an amphi- 
 theatre, stained with the blood of wild beasts and gladiators, 
 that the voice of compassion would be heard. The impa- 
 tient clamours of the multitude denounced the Christians, as 
 the enemies of gods and men, doomed them to the severest 
 tortures, and, venturing to accuse by name some of the most 
 distinguished of the new sectaries, required, with irresistible 
 vehemence, that they should be instantly apprehended and 
 sent to the lions. The provincial governors and magis- 
 trates, who presided in the public spectacles, were usually 
 inclined to gratify the inclinations, and to appease the rage, 
 of the people, by the sacrifice of a few obnoxious victims. 
 But the wisdom of the emperors protected the church from 
 the dangers of these tumultuous clamours and irregular 
 accusations, which they justly censured as repugnant both 
 to the firmness and the equity of their administration. The 
 edicts of Adrian and of Antoninus Pius expressly declared, 
 that the voice of the multitude should never be admitted, as 
 legal evidence, to convict or to punish those unfortunate per- 
 sons, who had embraced the enthusiasm of the Christians *.' 
 This last observation merits attention ; because Mr. Dod- 
 well f has chosen to say, that most of the tumultuary pro- 
 ceedings, arose from a wish to curry favour with the govern- 
 ment. This observation, is a specimen of the temper of his 
 essay. The assertion is, entirely a gratis dictum ; and evi- 
 dently hazarded, only for the purpose of favouring his cause. 
 
 Gibbon, chap. XVI. t De P uc - Martyr. 10.
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ' The popular attacks, were made to please governments ; 
 but very few of the emperors were ill disposed to the 
 Christians ; therefore, these popular attacks must have been 
 very few.' 
 
 Note 9. P. 34. line 1. ' blindness and ignorance. 1 
 
 THE extract from Neander, in the last note, will shew 
 what I mean here. It is Tertullian who says *, that if the 
 Nile did not fertilize Egypt, if there was an earthquake, 
 &c. &c., the cry was, immediately, that the Christians were 
 to be thrown to the lions. Cyprian, again, begins his trea- 
 tise, ad Demetrianum, with shewing the folly and injustice, 
 of charging all the evils, which occurred in the course of 
 nature, famine, earthquake, &c. upon the Christians f. 
 x 93fHirtw moil ; wi;w:4 ?<' m '^ 
 
 Note 10. P. 35. line 1. ' Opinions. 1 
 
 THE facility of communication between the distant parts 
 of the Roman empire, was extreme. There were roads 
 from the North of England to Jerusalem, viz. for about 
 3740 English miles, comprising the two passages from 
 Sandwich to Boulogne, and from Brindisi to Durazzo. 
 Mr. Gibbon observes, that they were, in the first instance, 
 intended to facilitate the movement of the troops, and, thus, 
 to confirm the Roman conquests. Post-horses were esta- 
 blished in relays, at easy distances ; by which the traveller 
 could go 100 miles a day J. 
 
 ' The easy communication in the enormous Roman em- 
 pire ; the connection of the Jews, dispersed in all countries, 
 
 Apol. 40. t See Cyprian, p. 185, et seq. ed. Fell. 
 
 J See Gibbon, Ch. ii. notes 85-92, or Bergier Histoire des Grands Chemins 
 dc 1'Empire Remain.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 153 
 
 with Jerusalem ; the connection of all parts of the Roman 
 empire, with the great metropolis ; the connection of each 
 province, with its own metropolis ; and that of the greater di- 
 visions of the Roman empire, with the greater capitals, which 
 were mediums of mercantile, political, and literary inter- 
 course, as Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, and Corinth; 
 which places were, also, main points for the propagation of 
 the Gospel ; in which, its first teachers lived longest ; the 
 commercial intercourse which, since old times, served for 
 the communication not only of earthly goods, but of the 
 higher mental treasures, might serve now as means for the 
 communication of the highest. On the whole, Christianity 
 was spread first in the cities ; for, as the object was, to 
 gain fresh places for the spreading the Gospels, its preachers 
 must have first proclaimed it in the towns ; from whence, 
 it might be spread more easily, through the country, by 
 native preachers *.' 
 
 Note 11. P. 35. line 18. 'To receive it: 
 
 THE exact time of the origin of the Churches of Vienne 
 and Lyons, is unknown; but the persecution there, took 
 place as early as A.D. 177. 
 
 Note 12. P. 36. line 1. ' Country to a desert: 
 
 PLINY'S well known letter to Trajan, states, that the 
 temples were almost deserted; that the sacred victims 
 scarcely found any purchasers ; and that Christianity had 
 spread, even into the villages, and open country of Pontus 
 and Bithynia. 
 
 Neander, Allg. Gesch. vol. i. p. 109.
 
 154 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ' We know,' says Neander *, ' from the account of Pliny 
 to Trajan, from the notice in Clemens f, and from the 
 relations of Justin J, that, in many neighbourhoods, there 
 were country communities of Christians, very earlyj and 
 Origen says expressly , that many made a point of going 
 through, not only the towns, but the icwjmi cat irravAac- 
 The great number of XtopeTrto-KOTrot, in particular neighbour- 
 hoods, likewise, prove this.' 
 
 From a passage in Lucian's Alexander ||, it appears, that 
 when that impostor, who, at first, had obtained great success, 
 was afterwards attacked, he said, that Pontus was full of 
 Atheists and Christians. This was about A.D. 180. 
 
 In the time of Theodosius, there were 100,000 Christians 
 belonging to the Church at Antioch ^[. 
 
 The early introduction of Christianity into Alexandria is 
 well known. Mr. Gibbon chooses to assert, that it was con- 
 fined to that city, till the close of the second century. But 
 we find (from Euseb. VI. 1.), that, at that very period, a 
 persecution of the Christians in the Thebais took place, 
 under Septimius Severus. And Tertullian sufficiently shows, 
 that the Church of Carthage was in a flourishing state, at 
 the very same period **. ' Obsessam vociferantur civitatem, 
 in agris, in castellis, in insulis Christianos, omnem sexum, 
 aetatem, conditionem, et jam dignitatem transgredi ad hoc 
 nomen.' Neander observes, that in the middle of the next 
 century, at a meeting at Carthage, there were 87 bishops 
 present f f. 
 
 Mosheim J$ points out, with great acuteness, the classes of 
 
 Allg. Gesch. vol. i. p. 111. t Ep. 1. ad Cor. c. 42. 
 
 } Apol. ii. 98. C. Cels. iii. p. 119. || C. 25. 
 
 f Chrysostom. op. vii. p. 658. 810. See Apol. c. 1. 
 
 ft Vol. i. p. 118. JJ De Rebus, &c. Sac. ii. iv. and notes.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 155 
 
 persons, who wish to diminish the power of early Christians, 
 and their reasons for wishing to do so. 
 
 Note 13. P. 36. line 18. ' For any great purpose: 
 
 WE find, that, at the final departure of the Romans from 
 Britain, Christianity was well spread through the country ; 
 and we have meetings of bishops, at that period, recorded. It 
 is said, that the Christians in England had suffered much, by 
 the persecutions ; but, at all events, it appears, that, on the 
 Saxon conquest, * Heathenism was the prevailing religion, 
 and kept pace with the Saxon conquest ; yea, almost over- 
 spread the whole land : the Church lost ground every where ; 
 and was driven, as it were, into a corner ; and no where was 
 visible, to any degree, excepting in Wales, Cornwall, and 
 Cumberland ; for, in these parts, the Britons had still some 
 footing *.' 
 
 Note 14. P. 42. line 12. ' Those disguises.' 
 
 For full satisfaction, I would refer the reader to the two 
 recent treatises, of Neander and Matter, on Gnosticism. 
 
 On the two principles, see Mosheim de Rebus, &c. Sec. i. 
 p. 61, 62. Matter, Histoire Univ. vol. i. p. 166. 
 
 On the esoteric, and exoteric doctrines, Mosheim, ubi 
 supra, 63. Neander, vol. ii. p. 629. 
 
 On the sects of the Gnostics, Mosheim ubi supra, 64 
 and following. Matter, Histoire Univ. vol. i. p. 166172, 
 where the subject is, clearly, though concisely, handled, 
 Neander f gives a longer, and fuller account. 
 
 On the bad morals of the Gnostics, Mosheim ubi supra, 
 
 .i^if ';; ' -ii/ .eteO .3 4 -8<J .ii 
 
 * Miller's Propagation, vol. ii. p. 76. t Allg. Gesch. vol. i. p. 627-
 
 156 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Sec. ii. 11 and 41. The place in Irenaeus alluded to, is, 
 1. adv. Hser. c. 25. ; those of Justin are, Dial. c. Tryph. 
 p. 101. 244. 249. ed. Jebb. 
 
 M. Matter, after noticing the minor sects which harassed 
 the outset of Christianity, and the attempts to unite Judaism 
 and Christianity, as shown in the Nazarene and the Ebionite 
 sects, observes, that mischievous as all these were, they 
 were but the prelude of a far more fearful defection ; which 
 showed itself, even at the end of the first century, and which 
 was foreseen by the apostles. When they saw, that Judaism 
 introduced into Christianity, such heterogeneous elements, 
 they must have foreseen, that Paganism, in its turn, would 
 endeavour to bestow on Christianity, its philosophy, its my- 
 thology, and its mysteries. They could, however, hardly 
 have imagined, that such an innumerable quantity of sects, 
 entertaining notions so absolutely opposed to each other, 
 would rise in the bosom of the same Church *. 
 
 The following remarks, by the same author, deserve at- 
 tention : 
 
 * Les associations gnostiques, se multipliant ainsi a 1'in- 
 fini, ne pouvaient que desoler les Chretiens. II est vrai, 
 que malgre toutes ses dissidences, il y eut encore, dans la 
 marche des deux societes, des analogies frappantes, tant est 
 puissant 1'element divin de la religion Chretienne ; cepen- 
 dant, si le mysticisme des speculations, et le rigorisme des 
 pratiques, marcherent souvent de pair dans les deux camps, 
 la profonde anti-moralite de quelques docteurs gnostiques, 
 dut remplir d'horreur les docteurs orthodoxes. Peut-tHre, 
 de leur part, un autre sentiment d'hostilite vint-il se reunir a 
 cette horreur. Les gnostiques, a la richesse, a 1'eclat de 
 
 Hist. Univ. vol. i. p. 166.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 157 
 
 leurs doctrines, a 1'enthousiasme qui les animait pour elles, 
 joignaient, encore, les ressources d'une profonde erudition, 
 les prestiges d'une thaumaturgie artificieusement combinee, 
 et, si nous en croyons le severe Irenee, les seductions des 
 intrigues galantes. Us acquirent, par tous ces moyens, une 
 telle influence, et se firent une telle foule des partisans, 
 qu'ils passerent souvent pour les Chretiens par excellence. 
 Us jeterent, cependant, par leur culte, leur moeurs, et toutes 
 leurs aberrations, une telle defaveur sur la societe Chre- 
 tienne, que Ton comprend facilement, la vehemence, souvent 
 injuste, avec laquelleles defenseurs de 1'Eglise orthodoxe les 
 combattent.' P. 171. 
 
 I have often, I confess, been inclined to think, that the 
 emersion of pure Christianity, so to speak, from errors so 
 very widely spread among those who should have been the 
 great supporters of the cause of gnosticism, and who were 
 so eminently calculated to corrupt and destroy, was, of 
 itself, a sufficient proof of the truth of the religion. 
 Some observations of Mr. Hinds may, also, be useful: 
 ' At this season, however, the church began to feel the 
 influence of a more powerful enemy, perhaps, than the 
 sword of persecution. It was not now, so much an adulte- 
 rous union between the Mosaic law and the Christian, as 
 between gentile philosophy and Christian truth, against 
 which, the defender of the faith had to contend. And here, 
 it might be expected, that, at least, the Judaizing portion 
 of the church, would have been firm resisters against this 
 most unnatural union : but they were, perhaps, the weaker 
 party ; and were even more readily seduced, than their bre- 
 thren of gentile origin. The reason was this: with the 
 Jews of Alexandria, and, through them, very generally
 
 158 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 with the Jews of all parts, the experiment which was now 
 to be tried on the Christians, had been made, and made with 
 eminent success. Long before the establishment of the 
 eclectic sect in Egypt, the principles on which it was formed, 
 had influenced the philosophical speculations at Alexandria : 
 and several tenets of the Greek wisdom, had been admitted 
 into the Oriental schools ; and still more of Orientalism, into 
 those of the Grecian philosophy. Plato's system, from its 
 fanciful assemblage of IDEAS, was the most readily identified 
 or amalgamated, with the Eastern theory of emanations. 
 But the peripatetic and stoic, were soon found equally pliant 
 and yielding, to the ingenuity of men, once practised in the 
 method of harmonizing and reconciling. Both, no less than 
 the academic, coincided, indeed, in the fundamental point of 
 theology, with the Eastern creed ; viz. that the Deity was 
 the soul of the world, or the universe itself. The Epicu- 
 rean system was the most stubborn ; but even this was gra- 
 dually tortured, until it was made to furnish some evidence, 
 to the shifting views of these theorists. Meanwhile, in this 
 rage for philosophic liberality, the ancient and august cha- 
 racter of the Mosaic revelation, and the reverence with 
 which it was observed, by so large a portion of the inhabi- 
 tants of Alexandria, especially, the great laboratory in which 
 all these experimentalists were at work, could not but 
 tempt them, to tamper with this institution also. Many of 
 the Jews were persuaded into a notion, that part of the 
 Gentile theories, must have been portions of patriarchal 
 revelation ; and worthy of being believed, and applied to the 
 elucidation of the Mosaic. The infection had spread, far 
 and wide, through the nation, at the period of the Messiah's 
 coming ; and many of those Jews who became converts to 
 
 2
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 159 
 
 Christianity, carried with them into the church the tenets 
 and spirit of gnosticism. Even during the ministry of St. 
 Paul, we recognize the use of the word gnosis, (yvwo-tc,) 
 applied, as it began to be, to an esoteric doctrine ; a refined 
 and cabalistic interpretation of the Gospel ; a system which, 
 in the apostle's own words, was " falsely called gnosis, or 
 knowledge" *. 
 
 ' Before the close of the first century, however, the 
 warning voice of (S.) Paul required the support, of the last 
 surviver of the apostles. The " foolish questions," and the 
 " endless genealogies," from which the former had sought 
 to divert the attention of the Christian inquirer, were be- 
 coming, more and more, objects of interest. Foolish ques- 
 tions or inquiries, into the absolute nature of God, led (as 
 they must ever lead men) to absurdity and impiety; to 
 those wild speculations, concerning the successive genera- 
 tions of Enos, the emanations of the Divine Essence and 
 all the metaphysical subtleties of Orientalism, which St. 
 John, briefly, and in the spirit of one dismissing idle discus- 
 sion, by a few authoritative assertions, adverts to, in the 
 commencement of his Gospel f .' 
 
 ' The artful founders of Gnosticism, in recommending 
 the Oriental philosophy to the Jews, originally, were sen- 
 sible of the difficulty ; they perceived, that it was not enough, 
 in this case, as in the attempts to reconcile their system 
 with that of Plato, or Aristotle, or Zeno, to make its several 
 parts harmonize, and represent those of the other. There 
 was one ingredient wanting, which neither Orientalism, nor 
 any human system of religion claimed or rested on ; an 
 
 '<'. itii . -.v-.h-iM ->.-b i-jjtoiliin -'ri} ih>uo-uf) <9biw Jbflfi 
 
 * 1 Tim. vi. 20. i. 4. Tit. ui. 9. Coloss. ii. 8. 
 
 f Hiuds's Rise and Progress, vol. ii. p. 4R. et se<j.
 
 160 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ingredient, peculiar to the truth, and that was, evidence. In 
 order to supply this want, it was found expedient, to chal- 
 lenge as authority, the very same source to which the Jews 
 themselves were accustomed to appeal. These secrets of 
 revelation, they pretended, had been given from the begin- 
 ning ; together with what was contained in the Jewish Scrip- 
 ture. Adam, they said, received it ; the Patriarchs received 
 it; and, through them, it was communicated to certain 
 ancient sages, the especial confidants and guardians of 
 holy wisdom. Whilst Divine faith was presented to man- 
 kind in a homely garb, suited to vulgar apprehensions, this 
 key to its real nature, was thus preserved in the keeping of 
 a few *; in short, this, according to their representation, was 
 the Esoteric doctrine of religion, as that contained in Scrip- 
 ture, had been the Exoteric. Recalled, for testimony, to an 
 early age, to names of whom a blind reverence made it 
 nearly blasphemy to doubt aught ; and, probably, so bewil- 
 dered in their view of the question, as to confound scepti- 
 cism, concerning the fact of these holy men having received 
 the communications pretended, with doubt as to the validity 
 of their evidence, if given to such a fact, what wonder that 
 many should fall into the snare ? The experience of every 
 age justifies the great historian of Greece, in the conclusion 
 to which he was led, by his attempts to ascertain the 
 grounds, on which, so much idle fable had been received as 
 truth, by his countrymen f. Men will not take the trouble 
 to search after truth, if any thing like it is ready provided 
 to their hands ; and from this fate, religious truth itself is not 
 exempted J. ' 
 
 Bruckeri. Hist. Philosophise, torn. ii. p. 924949. 
 
 t Lib. I. chap. 20. ' t Hinds, ubi supra, p. 58.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 161 
 
 t <-,.' j;,ri.j 
 
 Note 15. P. 43. line 8. ' Our forefatliers: 
 
 ' FROM all these idle and impious fancies, engendered as it 
 would seem, in the full sunshine of truth, we should turn 
 aside with little remembrance, if recorded of an individual 
 alone ; but the attention is detained, and reason is staggered, 
 at the record of numbers joining in a view of revelation such 
 as this ; combining through centuries, like the successful 
 builders of a spiritual Babel ; and so established in their 
 creed, as to branch out into subdivisions and sects, all 
 maintaining the great principles of Gnosticism. It is the 
 feeling of each age, to be amazed and scandalized at the 
 absurdity or impiety of notions worn out by time ; even 
 while it is itself, perhaps, affording matter for the repre- 
 hension and scorn of futu. e generations. Scarce less con- 
 tempt and censure do we pass on the Gnostics of old, than 
 did those Gnostics, on the idol-worshipers, from whose im- 
 purities and vanities they had extricated themselves. On 
 us, and on every age, the moral presses strongly and bene- 
 ficially. Other prejudices than those of a 'vain philosophy' 
 may betray the Christians of the 19th century, and of ages 
 more enlightened still, into errors equally unworthy of the 
 name he bears, and of the God whom he worships. Col- 
 lectively as a Church, no less than as individuals, we are to 
 the end of time in a state of trial ; and it is well to look 
 on these monstrous pictures of the past, if the retrospect 
 suggests to us, that the best safeguard which we now 
 possess, the aid of the Holy Spirit, was their's no less than 
 ourV*. 
 
 Hind's History of the Rise and Early Progress of Christianity, vol. ii. p. 56.
 
 162 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Note 16. P. 44. line 24. 
 
 M OSHEIM * observes, that in the course of the second 
 century, the study of the Pagan philosophy, which seems to 
 have been previously providentially kept from the Christians, 
 was pursued with great vehemence : that the philosophers, 
 who became Christians, retained their names, dress, and 
 way of living, and recommended the study to the young. 
 The catechetical school of Alexandria, perhaps, must be 
 esteemed the first and leading of the schools of Christian 
 Philosophy. Pantoenus, Athenagoras, and Clemens Alexan- 
 drinus, who were at the head of it, recommended this study 
 to all with whom they had any influence. 
 
 It appears from the passages from Clemens quoted in 
 Mosheim's note, that he had no hesitation in saying, that the 
 Greek Philosophy proceeded from God that it was (before 
 the coming of our Lord) the way to salvation that it was 
 to the Greeks what the Jewish law was to the Jews that 
 he was anxious to deliver Christian truth wrapped up in 
 Greek philosophy. 
 
 What contentions among the Christians these lessons 
 caused, may be seen in Mosheim, ubi supra, 26. 
 
 Note 17. P. 45. line 7. ' Fifth century: 
 
 THERE is some difficulty in determining exactly when 
 Montanism was first heard of, and the particulars of Mon- 
 tanus's own life are very scanty. It seems, however, that it 
 was soon after the middle of the second century f. Some 
 
 De Rebus, &c. Stec. ii. 25. 
 
 t See Neander's Allg. Gesch. vol. iii. p. 8?4. and his book on Tertullian, 
 p. 486. 
 
 7
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 163 
 
 notice of the establishment of Montanist communities, of 
 its opposers, and the Synods convoked respecting it, may be 
 found in the first of these works, p. 894897. 
 
 Not only did the Montanists last till the fifth century, 
 but they were in that century still of such importance, that 
 no less than five severe edicts were sent forth against them 
 in the earlier part of that century. Mosheim * refers to 
 the Cod. Theod. T. vi. p. 168. 177. 182. 186. 200. and 
 202. 
 
 Gibbon f says, ' at the end of 400 years the Montanists 
 of Phrygia still breathed the wild enthusiasm of perfection 
 and prophecy, &c. &c. On the approach of the Catholic 
 priests and soldiers' (he is speaking of Justinian's persecu- 
 tion, A.D. 519 560,) ' they grasped with alacrity the 
 crown of martyrdom ; the conventicle and the congregation 
 perished in the flames, but these primitive fanatics were not 
 extinguished 300 years after the death of their tyrant.' 
 
 Note 18. P. 45. line 12. ' Investigating the truth: 
 
 THE following passage from M. Matter % will probably be 
 sufficient : 
 
 ' Malgre ces variations, les Manicheens se repandirent en 
 Orient et en Occident avec une rapidite effrayante pour les 
 Orthodoxes. C'etait une epoque favorable a leur succes que 
 celle ou les generations les plus instruites professaient le 
 penchant le plus prononce pour les antiques theories de 
 I'Orient converties en nouvelles theosophies par les sages 
 
 De Rebus, &c. Saec. ii. 66. note 4. 
 
 t Ch. xlvii. vol. iv. p. 379. 4to. ed. 
 
 J Histoire Univ. I. p. 176. See also a concise account of them in Neander, 
 Allg. Gesch. I. 2. p. 813854. Of course, I need not mention the well- 
 known work of Beausobre. 
 
 M2
 
 164 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 de nos premieres siecles. La persecution si longue et, pour 
 ainsi dire, si universelle, dont les Manicheens ont ete 1'objet 
 de la part des Rois de Perse, des Empereurs de Rome 
 paienne et des Empereurs de la nouvelle Rome, ont pu 
 disperser cette secte, en paralyser les progres, en diminuer 
 les eleves, mais pendant des siecles rien ne fut assez puis- 
 sant pour 1'extirper elle-meme. Unie dans 1'Orient avec la 
 gnose Syrienne, en Occident avec la gnose de 1'Egypte, 
 elle se maintint, et en Orient et en Occident, tantot en 
 secret, tantot publiquement, et reparut souvent au moyen 
 age, tantot en Italic, tantot en France, tantot dans d'autres 
 pays/ 
 
 Note 19. P. 47. line 26. ' expiring Christianity: 
 
 A VERY good account of the schism of Donatus, (which 
 at first arose from a mere question of discipline, viz. whe- 
 ther Caecilianus, who had been named and consecrated 
 bishop of Carthage, without the consent of the Numidian 
 bishops, and consecrated by a person accused of having de- 
 livered up the Scriptures in the persecution of Decius, 
 should be received as bishop, being opposed by the Numidian 
 bishops, who elected Majorinus, and subsequently Donatus) 
 will be found in M. Matter, I. p. 399, and in Neander, Allg. 
 Gasch. II. 1. p. 387-463. See also Gibbon, chap. xxi. 
 This schism broke out A.D. 311, and in 330, the Donatists 
 held a synod, which consisted of 270 bishops, and in A.D. 
 394, one of 310* ! In A.D. 411, we find a conference be- 
 tween 279 Donatist and 186 Orthodox bishops. The schism 
 lasted down to the invasion of Africa by the Mussulmans. 
 
 Jortin IV. p. 137. (ed.,1773.)
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 165 
 
 ' It affected the provinces of Africa,' says Gibbon, ' for 300 
 years, and was extinguished only with Christianity itself.' 
 
 The schism of Felicissimus was of too short duration to 
 do any real harm *. The schism of Meletius was a more 
 serious one, and lasted above a century t. That of Nova- 
 tian (which originated also in a mere question of discipline,) 
 began in A.D. 261. It is known that there were congre- 
 gations of Novatianists, not only in Africa but in Asia, at 
 Constantinople, at Rome, in Spain and in Gaul, and that 
 they continued in some force till the fifth century J. 
 
 Note 19 *. P. 48. line 7. ' the crescent on the other: 
 
 LET me briefly recall the extent of some of the heresies 
 to which I have alluded in the last few pages. I need 
 hardly add, that I only profess to notice the principal of 
 them. 
 
 Arianism began at the commencement of the fourth cen- 
 tury. The first general council on it (that of Nice) was 
 held A.D. 325. It was embraced by the Emperor Con- 
 stantius in one of its many forms, and the power which he 
 possessed was exerted in its favour. The Goths, Visigoths, 
 Ostrogoths, Burgundians, Suevi, and Vandals, as well as 
 much of the ancient population of Christendom, embraced 
 it for a time, so that, as Matter , observes, it would almost 
 seem to have been the religion of the majority. Nor was 
 its reign a brief one. It was not till A.D. 524, that the 
 
 See Matter, Hist. Univ. I. p. 201, and foil. Neander, Allg. Gesch. I. 1. 
 p. 360387. Jortin, (II. 106) talks of their lasting 200 years. 
 
 f See Neander II. 1. p. 463471. 
 
 J See Mosheim, de Rebus, &c. saec III. 15. note 4. Neander ubi supra 
 p. 387407. 
 
 Vol. I. p. 336.
 
 166 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 churches in the empire were taken from them. The Bur- 
 gundians and Vandals were converted in 534- ; the Suevi in 
 559; the Visigoths in 589 ; the Lombards in 671. 
 
 Such a heresy, of such an extent, and such an endurance, 
 must, of necessity, have checked the progress of truth, and 
 it was in its progress that the spirit of religious persecution 
 was first shown, a yet more fatal clog to the propagation of 
 Christianity than heresy. Matter * has observed, with great 
 acuteness, (and the observation must interest those who are 
 inclined to speculate on the dealings of Providence in per- 
 mitting such a heresy,) that ' apres tout, ce n'est ni les pre- 
 lats, ni les princes, c'est bien moins la societe Chretienne, 
 qu'il faut accuser des graves aberrations de ces terns, c'est 
 la condition de la nature humaine, qui a besoin de s'essayer, 
 d'apprendre a passer des erreurs d la verite. En effet tout 
 est neuf dans 1'empire, au moment ou le paganisme cesse 
 d'y regner, ou commence la domination des Chretiens, de 
 leur clerge, ou les Goths et les Vandales se partagent les 
 conqutes des Scipion et des Cesar. Quel moyen que, 
 dans ce chaos, chacun reconnaisse sa competence; quel 
 moyen que la on discute les doctrines comme ferait un 
 areopage de philosophes, nes adorateurs des principes, et 
 esclaves des consequences ? La, au contraire, 1'episcopat 
 et 1'empire, le talent et le paradoxe, 1'erudition et 1'erreur, 
 doivent nous presenter le spectacle d'une lutte chaotique, 
 vive et rude, d'une lutte d'ailleurs aussi instructive pour la 
 posterite que desolante pour les contemporains. Telle est 
 en eflet Thistoire des doctrines de ces terns.' 
 
 Without a miraculous interference in the affairs of man, 
 error must work out its own cure ; and it is part of the 
 
 HUt. Univ. I. p. 328.
 
 .,. TO CHAPTER II. 167 
 
 scheme of a moral Government, that it should infallibly 
 do so. 
 
 We may observe, that Arianism showed on its face the 
 marks of falsehood, and nourished in its bosom the seeds of 
 decay. I allude to its constant variations of creed. ' Ce 
 qui perdit,' says Matter *, ' la cause des Ariens, ce ne fut pas 
 la seule legislation de Byzance, ou la colere de la cour, 
 cette perpetuelle variation de symboles, ce labyrinthe de 
 professions de foi, que leur reproche un ancien historien, et 
 dont ils porterent le nombre de onze a dix-huit en peu 
 d'annees ; ce fut enfin, la violence de leurs passions. D'ail- 
 leurs, si 1'impartiale histoire censure severement leurs aber- 
 rations, elle releve aussi les fautes du cote oppose, et rend 
 d'eclatans hommages aux talens, aux vertus, et a quelques 
 parties du culte des Ariens.' 
 
 Gibbon's remarks f are worth transcribing. * The sin- 
 cerity or the cunning of the Arian chiefs, the fear of the 
 laws, or of the people, their reverence for Christianity, their 
 hatred of Athanasius, all the causes human and divine, that 
 influence and disturb the counsels of a theological faction, 
 introduced among the sectaries a spirit of discord and incon- 
 stancy which, in the course of a few years, erected eighteen 
 different models of religion, and avenged the violated dig- 
 nity of the church. The zealous Hilary, who, from the 
 peculiar hardness of his situation, was inclined to extenuate, 
 rather than to aggravate, the errors of the Oriental clergy, 
 declares, that in the wide extent of the ten provinces of 
 Asia, to which he had been banished, there could be found 
 
 >" - ',,. ii.o/t fc-Juoii)! // 
 Vol. I. p. 334. t Chap. XXI. Vol. II. p. 254.
 
 168 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 very few prelates who had preserved the knowledge of the 
 true God.' 
 
 Before the death of Arius, or immediately after, there 
 were already three leading divisions of his followers. The 
 pure Arians, under /Etius and Eunomius, the semi-Arians, 
 to which Constantius belonged, publicly established A.D. 
 341, and the Acacians. Arius died A.D. 336 *. 
 
 The Macedonian heresy began about A.D. 351, and was 
 condemned in the council of Constantinople, A.D. 361. 
 
 Nestorius was made patriarch of Constantinople, A.D. 
 428. Council after council was called with respect to this 
 heresy, and frightful scenes of violence were exhibited by 
 the opposite parties. It is supposed that Nestorius died 
 about A.D. 451. From the school of Nisibis, established 
 by one of his followers, Barsumas, soon after the issuing of 
 the Henoticon of Zeno, missionaries went into Egypt, 
 Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary and Persia. In Persia, a 
 patriarchate was established by the Nestorians, in A.D. 
 489, which lasted for a very long period. 
 
 Gibbon says, that ' in Justinian's time, it was difficult to 
 find a church of Nestorians within the limits of the Roman 
 empire. But beyond those limits, they had discovered a 
 new world, in which they might hope for liberty, and aspire 
 to conquest.' After pointing out their entire mastery of 
 Persia, Gibbon goes on to say, that, ' in the sixth century, 
 according to a Nestorian traveller, the Nestorian faith was 
 successfully preached to the Bactrians, the Huns, Indians, 
 Persarmenians, Medes, Elamites: the barbaric churches 
 from the Gulf of Persia to the Caspian Sea, were almost 
 See F. Spanheim, IntrcxL ad. H. N. T. p. 410.
 
 TO CHAPTER II. 169 
 
 infinite ; the pepper coast of Malabar, and the isles of the 
 ocean, Socotera and Ceylon, were peopled with an increasing 
 multitude of Christians.' He then mentions the missionaries 
 going into Tartary and China ; and that under the caliphs, 
 the sect spread from China to Jerusalem, and with the 
 Jacobites, was reckoned to surpass the Greek and Latin 
 churches. There were twenty-five archbishops, dependant 
 on the Catholic or Patriarch of Babylon. They are now, 
 he says, reduced to the Elijahs of Mogul, the Josephs of 
 Anuda, (reconciled to Rome,) and the Simeons of Ormia, 
 and are reckoned at 300,000 *. 
 
 The heresy of Eutyches involved the church in confusion 
 for above thirty years, from A.D. 448, to A.D. 482 f. 
 
 Pelagianism arose in A.D. 405, and was condemned in 
 various councils in the course of that century. It seems 
 to have triumphed in the synods of Aries and Lyons, in 
 A.D. 472, and we find it in Provence in A.D. 529, and 
 in Britain in the fifth century J. Matter, in concluding 
 his remarks on this sect, adds, that ' the Predestinarians, 
 though their number was small, formed with the Arians, 
 Nestorians, Monophysites, and different parties which ema- 
 nated from these sects, divisions quite distressing enough to 
 afflict the Christian church very deeply, and consume in in- 
 ternal wars those moral forces , which, without them, 
 would have gone beyond the limits of Christianity, and 
 would have shed on the neighbouring nations the benefits 
 
 See Gibbon, chap. XLVII. Matter, Hist. Univ. vol. I. p. 345353. 
 
 t See Gibbon, chap. XLVII. Matter ubi supra, p. 354359. 
 
 t See Gibbon, chap. XXXI. Vol. III. p. 278. 4to. Matter, Hist Univ. vol. I. 
 p. 369. 
 
 Edwards observes, very justly, that all these heresies followed heathenism, 
 and were thus a fresh enemy. See p. 311.
 
 170 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 which their barbarous ignorance so loudly demanded.' He 
 adds, that sects of various kinds and orders existed in 
 different points of the empire, for a very long period ; that 
 the Gnostics expired only in the eighth century ; the Ma- 
 nichaeans still maintained themselves, and that in Spain, 
 there rose from the remains of the Gnostics and Mani- 
 chaeans, a new sect called the Priscillianists *. 
 
 1\: f- r\ , ' -. . < .'.i ' C, ?' 
 
 Note 20. P. 48. line 22. f claims to attention: 
 
 SEE some admirable remarks by Neander t, which I had 
 intended to give here, but I find my notes growing too 
 large. See too some remarks by Bishop Bradford, in his 
 Sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
 pel, page 23, and the whole of Campbell's 3d Lecture on 
 Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 46. 
 
 Note 21. P. 49. line 5. ' sneering divine.' 
 
 IT is painful to speak with severity of the dead. But I 
 think Jortin's work on Ecclesiastical History calculated to 
 do great mischief, by strengthening the habit, which pre- 
 vails among us, of searching out for what is base in fact 
 or purpose in the character and conduct of every person 
 under consideration, and by strengthening the miserable 
 taste, equally prevalent, of treating all subjects in a spirit 
 of flippancy. They who have read Jortin can hardly want 
 any citations in justification of these remarks. History, 
 especially the history of religion, should be written in a 
 spirit of love to mankind ; with a deep interest in their 
 
 Matter, vol. I. p. 3), 370. On the Priscillianists. See Gibbon III. 26. 
 Jortin IV. 8495. (ed. 1773.) 
 t Allg.GeKh.II. 1. p. 280.
 
 -/. TO CHAPTER II. 171 
 
 welfare, sometimes it may be with indignation at, but al- 
 ways with deep sorrow for their follies, and their faults. 
 Jortin's account of it is *, that ecclesiastical history, * like 
 other history, is for the most part a register of the vices, the 
 follies, and the quarrels of those who made a figure and 
 noise in the world.' He has only left out one particular in 
 this enumeration, their virtues. 
 
 But he seems in this work to have felt admiration and 
 love for no man. If men did what was wrong, he is mer- 
 ciless ; if what is right, he insinuates a mean or selfish in- 
 tention f- . In the thoughtful mind, the pain which would 
 be caused, if such representations were true, is supplanted 
 by the indignation which arises from the certainty that they 
 are false ; from the certainty that with the too prevalent 
 evil there was mingled much of redeeming good, if the 
 writer had not wanted the feeling to discern, for I will not 
 accuse him of wanting the candour, to express it. 
 
 But let us look at this work in another point of view, and 
 see the author's inability to grasp the features of the times 
 which he undertakes to describe. His great aim seems to 
 be, and no doubt it is a very laudable one, to recommend 
 toleration. But he never makes any allowance for difficult 
 circumstances, for barbarous ages, for temporary exasper- 
 ation, for the sometimes unwished for interference of secular 
 men, or of spiritual persons of secular minds, compelling an 
 unwilling union in their unholy purposes. He writes in 
 
 Close of the second volume, or in the edition of 1805, vol. II. p. 154. 
 
 f Thus when a high priest appointed by Julian, and other philosophers, 
 forbore to persecute the Christians, it was only because ' they foresaw, with- 
 out the help of magic, the revolution which might probably soon ensue. 
 These rats did not care to sail in a rotten ship.' Vol. iii. p. 13. Toleration 
 exercised by a Pagan would surely have been spared, if the writer could have 
 spared any thing.
 
 172 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 his quiet'study, as if every thing had been as quiet for 1700 
 years as the shelves around him ; and seems to think it as 
 atrocious and as surprising for a patriarch of Alexandria, 
 or a bishop of Rome, living in the fourth or fifth century, in 
 the midst of the most frightful and bloody civic turmoils, to 
 have got rid of a violent and dangerous enemy by exile or 
 imprisonment, as it would have been in himself as Arch- 
 deacon of London in the eighteenth. 
 
 The language again is such as is never used in decent 
 society ; nay ! the author seems to have had a pleasure in 
 using the coarsest words, and enforcing them often with the 
 most disgusting quotations *. Knave, fool, booby, ruffian, 
 and wretch, are the pearls which are cast with a lavish 
 hand over the pages of his work, mixed with coarse apoph- 
 thegms, expressed in the coarsest terms. 
 
 To gain an idea of the flippant spirit with which every 
 thing is treated, the perusal of any half dozen pages will 
 suffice. It may be enough to refer to what the writer says 
 about Simon Magus and Basilides, very near the com- 
 mencement of his work, about the Saints and Monks f , 
 and to his observations on Bossuet J. Being angry with 
 Bossuet for speaking against Grotius, he says, ' It is one 
 thing to be bishop of Meaux, and another to be Hugo 
 Grotius.' Never surely was flippancy more [misapplied. 
 Whether Bossuet were of as great abilities as Grotius may 
 be matter of dispute. But with all his faults (and he had, I 
 fear, many) he was a marvellous man. What learning, what 
 eloquence, what ingenuity, what industry, what acuteness in 
 his various works ! Who would have spoken with con- 
 
 See, as a single instance, what he says of Evagrius. Vol. ii. p. 252. 
 Vol. i. p. 263. (ed. 1805.) J Vol. Hi. p. 259 and following.
 
 i TO CHAPTER II. 173 
 
 tempt of the author of the Exposition, the Histoire des 
 Variations, the Sermons and Orations, and the Commen- 
 taries. 
 
 Note 22. P. 49. line 18. ' To the ear of faith: 
 
 THOUGH Jortin chooses * to call a good Bishop ' a great 
 rarity;' they who read with a more candid spirit, will not 
 confirm his remark. It is a singular fact, that within six 
 pages of that which I have referred to, and within 30 years 
 of the date 481, he himself enumerates two bishops of Car- 
 thage, a bishop of Constantinople, and of Alexandria, to 
 whom he allows that history gives good characters, and 
 against whom he finds nothing to allege, so that the case 
 is pretty clear ; and of one of whom (the first,) he speaks in 
 as strong terms of approbation, I think, as he ever uses. 
 Besides which we find, in the same space, a bishop of 
 Antioch quietly resigning his See, because the people dis- 
 liked him, and a ' learned and candid' presbyter.' 
 
 Let us call to mind, even after the age of the apostolic 
 fathers, the admirable and excellent men who adorned the 
 Church of God by their lives and often by their deaths. 
 Make what allowance must be made for their faults, and 
 then consider the characters of Origen, Gregory Thauma- 
 turgus, Cyprian, Theodoret f , and Chrysostom. A length- 
 ened enumeration is of course out of the question here. 
 
 We may observe, that Amm. Marcellinus J, when speak- 
 ing against Damasus, bears decided testimony to the humility 
 and piety of Provincial bishops. Jortin himself, speaks 
 
 * Vol Hi. p. 31. 
 
 t See his character of his clergy too in his Ep. 81 and 113, as quoted by 
 Jortin, II. 250. 
 
 t XXVII. 3. Vol. ii. p. 146.
 
 174 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 of ' many worthy and pious bishops' suffering martyrdom in 
 Dioclesian's persecution. 
 
 Note 23. P. 50. line 1. 'Rulers in the Church of God: 
 
 WE may surely note here that evil prelates are to be 
 reckoned among the serious evils to the cause of Christianity, 
 and the serious obstacles to its propagation. 
 
 Such seem to have been, for example, Paul of Samosata, 
 George of Cappadocia, Damasus of Rome, and Dioscorus. 
 
 fans faoaaald ori* ,)n
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 175 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Note 1. P. 55. line 16. ' Proved by experience.' 
 
 I AM most happy in being able to refer here to the authority 
 of my friend Mr. Forster, of Limerick, and to have this op- 
 portunity of offering him my public thanks for his invaluable 
 work called ' Mahometanism Unveiled ;' the first work (as 
 even they who may not agree in the theory which it de- 
 velops, must allow) which has looked fairly and fully at the 
 real phaenomena of Mahometanism, done justice to that 
 singular religion, and tracing (with equal beauty, ingenuity, 
 and learning) the benefits which it has bestowed on the 
 cause of civilization, supplied the pious and thoughtful 
 mind with ample materials for speculating on the dealings 
 of Providence, and tracing its beneficent operation in the 
 eduction of good from evil. 
 
 He observes, that ' the admission has been fairly made 
 by some of the ablest advocates of the Gospel, that a high 
 state of national culture and cilivization would seem es- 
 sential, in order to Christianity striking root, and becoming 
 permanently established among any people. It may be re- 
 marked in confirmation of this opinion, that the limits of 
 permanent Christianity have, in fact, being hitherto nearly 
 commensurate with the boundaries of Greek and Roman 
 civilization. It is very true that in the apostolic age, and 
 at its primitive announcement, the blessed and glorious
 
 176 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Gospel had penetrated into the savage climates, and among 
 the barbarian nations of the ancient world. The early 
 triumphs of Christianity in these quarters, are, however, 
 sufficiently accounted for, by the consideration that its first 
 preachers carried with them the sensible and visible sanction 
 of miracles ; of supernatural gifts and powers, perhaps the 
 only kind of appeal at once perfectly adapted to the capacity, 
 and peculiarly in unison with the religious instinct of uncivi- 
 lized men *.' Mr. Forster goes on to confirm these remarks 
 by observing, that ' the apostolical preaching left no lasting 
 national impression among the Scythians or other bar- 
 barians of the North,' that although the Pagan invaders of 
 the Roman empire became Christians, yet they were, in 
 fact, blended into one people with their civilized subjects ; 
 that the reduction of the North (of Germany) was effected 
 by force of arms, and that neither Tartary nor Arabia ever 
 admitted Christianity as the national religion. I recom- 
 mend to the reader's careful perusal Mr. Forster's notes on 
 this portion of his work. And I transcribe with pleasure 
 the sentiments which he has already transcribed from 
 Bishop Law : 
 
 * Christianity could not have been propagated otherwise 
 than in fact, it was and is ; namely, in a gradual, pro- 
 gressive, partial manner. Let it be proclaimed at first 
 ever so far and wide, yet the reception and continuance of 
 it must depend upon the dispositions of mankind, both 
 natural and moral. Some previous as well as concomitant 
 
 * So Hall, (Hampton Lectures, p. 266.) adding that the missionary has now 
 no extraordinary assistance ; and that we may surely thence infer that if the 
 task of instruction be left to human agents, and extraordinary help withdrawn, 
 some previous knowledge must be necessary to form the mind of the convert.
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 177 
 
 qualifications are requisite to the due exercise and influence 
 of it, as well in private men as public states and com- 
 munities; so that among a people sunk in barbarity and 
 ignorance, in places where there is no kind of good order or 
 government established ; no regular forms of education es- 
 tablished ; where there is an universal want of discipline, 
 and dissoluteness, there Christianity cannot subsist. Igno- 
 rant, uncivilized, slavish, and brutish nations are equally 
 incapable of receiving such an institution, as they are of all 
 those other sciences, arts, or improvements, which polish 
 and adorn the rest of mankind, and make life a blessing. 
 
 ' By being incapable of receiving it, I mean incapable of 
 receiving it with effect ; of retaining or applying it to any 
 valuable purpose, for which men do not seem properly 
 qualified, notwithstanding any natural capacity without aid 
 from the liberal arts, and other accomplishments, in some 
 degree. Most of the Indians are, I doubt not, capable of 
 understanding the main principles of our faith, at the first 
 proposal *, but scarcely qualified, I think, to make a right 
 use, and receive the salutary effects thereof, to let it sink 
 deep into the heart, and form the temper ; for want of some 
 farther pains being taken, to implant worthy principles of 
 civil government and social life amongst them ; without 
 
 Mr. Forster thinks that this may be questioned. The difficulty of course, 
 in all cases, is to draw the line beyond which positive barbarism commences. 
 Wherever it has commenced, I cannot but assent to Mr. Forster's remark. \Ve 
 are apt very often to bestow the name of savages on people who are very far 
 from actual barbarism ; as, for example, on the inhabitants of the Society Isle?, 
 who had a considerable knowledge of the arts of life, as appears both from Mr. 
 Ellis's Polynesian Researches and earlier works. I would recommend the 
 reader to refer to Capt. Basil Hall's late work on America, vol. iii. p. 233, and 
 following, for some very instructive remarks on the slow progress of instruction 
 among slaves. 
 
 N
 
 178 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 which all endeavours to introduce the purest and most 
 perfect system of religion seems preposterous.' 
 
 The bishop adds with equal justice, that * the exercise of 
 the senses by reason of use, the discerning good and evil, 
 the enlargement and improvement of the rational faculties, 
 and the cultivation and refinement of the natural genius, are 
 necessary to the reception of Christianity ; and that the ex- 
 treme absurdities, and childish ignorance of the Chinese in 
 many things, testify that this is not their state, notwith- 
 standing the fine things which have been said of them, and, 
 therefore, accounts for their not receiving the Gospel.' 
 P. 32, 33. 
 
 ' Upon no other supposition whatever,' (than that of a 
 constant miracle) c can we conceive the general diffusion of 
 the great truths of Christianity, without any preparation, 
 any previous moral discipline, or any foundation of know- 
 ledge. Follow the missionary into the hut of the Indian, 
 and observe what a fruitless task it is to preach the cross of 
 Christ crucified, to bid the savage repent, and confess his 
 sins, and be baptized into the faith of the blessed Jesus. 
 What impression can such a summons make upon a mind 
 that has never been taught to elevate its thoughts above the 
 sensible objects immediately before it ? From the teacher 
 of heavenly truth he turns with contempt to the objects 
 before him, to the glorious luminary, whose splendid orb 
 he contemplates with astonishment, or even to the shapeless 
 mass of wood or stone, which he conceives to be the resi- 
 dence of a Being superior in power to himself, who directs 
 all the wonderful operations of nature, and rides in the 
 storm and the whirlwind. And can we expect in such cir-
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 
 
 cumstances to find converts, rational and sincere converts 
 to the Christian faith ? Or is it any impeachment of the 
 authenticity of the truth of the Gospel, that, when its doc- 
 trines have been preached to such hearers, they have either 
 been unwilling to listen, or unable to comprehend them ? 
 
 ' We, who are Christians by education, who imbibe, in 
 our very infancy the first rudiments of our faith, who receive 
 it as an impression upon our minds, long before we are 
 capable of examining its evidences, and believing upon con- 
 viction, we are scarcely competent judges of the difficulty 
 of preaching the faith of Christ to those who have every 
 thing to learn, and who, in some instances, do not possess 
 even the great fundamental truths of natural religion*.' 
 
 What has been said here, will not, I trust, be misun- 
 derstood. If savages cannot receive Christianity, it may 
 not be our duty to offer it to them; but if there is any 
 meaning in our Lord's command, that we are to preach the 
 Gospel to all nations, it is unquestionably our duty to en- 
 deavour to make those who are yet unfit, fit for its recep- 
 tion. What I have said, therefore, releases us not from 
 our duty ; it merely alters the manner of performing it. If 
 we cannot Christianize certain nations, without civilizing 
 them, it is our duty to civilize them at whatever cost 
 of pains or expense, and it is a duty from which nothing 
 can release us. Our responsibility, as a commercial nation, 
 engaged in intercourse with so many nations, for our gain, 
 is truly awful, and our resolute and deliberate neglect of 
 it, as a nation, cannot fail to awaken the bitterest feelings 
 of fear and anguish in all Christian minds. 
 
 Since the above note was sent to press, I have had an 
 
 * Hall's Hampton Lectures. Lect.IX. 
 N 2
 
 180 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 opportunity of reading Mr. Ellis's Polynesian Researches, 
 containing an account of the conversion of the people of 
 Tahiti, and the neighbouring islands. Assuming Mr. Ellis's 
 statements to be strictly correct, I yet do not find in them 
 any contradiction of the positions here taken. Mr. Ellis 
 laments that none of those who were on the spot, while the 
 main efforts were making, have described those efforts, and 
 I join in his expressions of regret. For, with every dispo- 
 sition to afford full information, his work is deficient in 
 some very important particulars. The history of the process 
 is almost a blank. Yet we gather some particulars which 
 tend very much to corroborate what I have said. 
 
 It appears from Vol. I. p. 186, that the Gospel had been 
 preached for some years in Tahiti, and that * many of the 
 people had imbibed a tolerably clear speculative knowledge 
 of the leading doctrines,' before there was a single indivi- 
 dual, on whom the missionaries could look as benefited by 
 their instructions. When the missionaries, after a long 
 absence, during which one only remained with the king, 
 felt it safe to return, we find * that the king spent much of 
 his time in reading and writing, and soon after professed 
 Christianity. Some of his letters are given, page 195, and 
 following. 
 
 In page 216 (in 1814) we find, that the desire for in- 
 struction had increased so much, that there were 200 
 scholars in the school at Papetoai, and they were obliged 
 to send for elementary books to New South Wales. 
 
 Page 220, we find 300 scholars in Eineo. 
 
 Page 223, ' Between forty or fifty, principally adults, re- 
 gularly attended the mission school.' 
 
 " Vol. I. p. 18&
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 181 
 
 Page 242. Six or seven hundred pupils attended the 
 school, and ' want of books alone prevented its being very 
 considerably enlarged.' 
 
 Page 263. Where they had not printed books, the most 
 intelligent of the natives wrote out portions of Scripture. 
 
 Page 266. Not fewer than 3000 persons possessed a 
 knowledge of the books in their native language, which 
 were in daily use. Besides 800 copies of the abridgment 
 of Scripture, and many of part of St. Luke in manuscript ; 
 about 2,700 spelling-books had already been distributed 
 among the pupils at Eineo, or sent over to Tahiti. 
 
 P. 391. Many hundreds could read. 
 
 Thus, it appears, that there was a regular course of in- 
 struction in reading and writing, going on hand in hand 
 with instruction in Christianity. What led immediately to 
 a wish for this instruction does not appear. 
 
 Mr. Ellis, in commenting on the conversion *, seems to 
 think, that the whole which was done was the work of 
 the moment at which it happened. And he tells us, with 
 respect to one of the Moravian missions, at Greenland, 
 that after the missionaries had preached and inculcated 
 the great principles of religion, for five or seven years, with- 
 out effect, they found success by directing attention more 
 especially to the history of our Lord ; but in Tahiti, he 
 could not find that any alteration had taken place from the 
 beginning in the manner of preaching. Now, with respect 
 to the Moravians, it is, surely, not reasonable to say, that 
 the five or seven years preaching, because it had no visible 
 effect, had no effect in preparing the people's minds, and 
 enabling them to profit by a still more judicious mode of 
 
 Vol. I. p 271, and following.
 
 182 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 instruction. In Tahiti, we have seen, that many had a 
 clear speculative knowledge of the great doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity, and that many were in a regular course of education. 
 Are not these the proper preparations, and exactly such as 
 might be expected in due time, under God's blessing, to 
 produce the desired effect? And can they be overlooked 
 in considering the subject? The question is not, be it 
 remembered, whether the Lord's arm be shortened, but 
 whether he has not, for wise reasons, left the business of 
 conversion to human agents, with the promise of his bless- 
 ing on proper means and zealous exertions. We may add, 
 that Mr. Ellis observes *, that the skill shewn by the 
 natives in building houses, their size, and conveniency, 
 exhibits no small degree of invention, and skill, and shows, 
 that they were even then far removed from a state of bar- 
 barism ; and it is equally clear, from the whole of the work, 
 that the Missionaries feel the extreme necessity of intro- 
 ducing a more ample measure of civilization, in order to 
 keep up the salutary impression made on the islanders. 
 
 Note 2. P. 56. line 14. ' if not precede it: 
 
 ' WHEREVER,' says Mr. Forster, ' Christian missionaries 
 have produced any considerable effect among tribes wholly 
 uncivilized, as in the case of the Jesuit settlements in Para- 
 guay, and in that of Moravian missions at the Cape of 
 Good Hope, civil improvement has been made to go hand 
 in hand with religious instruction f .' 
 
 Vol. I. p. 390. t Mahom. Unveiled, vol. II. p. 520.
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 183 
 
 Note 3. P. 56. line 17. < to receive them: 
 
 -Eii^) ': ?onnrj. o v:u '-'.? ^ ;.>53b 
 
 ' THE prefacer' (to the translations of Le Comte's Letters) 
 
 * observes, that the Jesuits have adapted the systems of re- 
 ligion which they teach to the Chinese, according to the 
 philosophy of Confucius, seLlom teaching of Christ's cruci- 
 fixion, yea ! allowing them to worship their pagodas *.' 
 
 On the toleration of idolatry in China and Malabar by 
 the Jesuits, and their long controversy with the Popes on 
 the point, see a curious book called ' Reflexions of a Por- 
 tuguese/ or a full abstract of it in a work called History of 
 Jesuitism, (in two vols. Lond. 1817.) vol. II. p. 312333. 
 See also the same work, II. p. 151, and the Memoires His- 
 toriques du Pere Norbert, Part I. Book V., where there is 
 also an account of their toleration of Mahomedanism in 
 Chio. 
 
 Note 4. P. 56. line 20. ' any other religion: 
 
 SEE Gibbon, chap, xxxviii. ; and Walch's Treatise ' De 
 Clodovceo M. ex rationibus politicis Christiano.' 
 
 Note 5. P. 59. line 7. * inveterate against it: 
 
 THESE words are Mr. Davison's, in his work on Prophecy, 
 but I have lost the reference, and cannot procure the work 
 at this moment. 
 
 Note 6. P. 61. line 14. ' cause of Christianity: 
 
 MOSHEIM f conjectures that Christianity was probably 
 introduced into Britain by some of the same party from 
 
 * Millar's History of the Propagation. 
 f De Rebus, &c. saec. II. III. note 3.
 
 184- NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Asia Minor who took it to Vienne and Lyons. Neander * 
 agrees with him in rejecting the story of the conversion of 
 Lucius, a king of Britain, about A.D. 167 -J-, by missionaries 
 sent by Eleutherus, bishop of Rome, on the ground that 
 there is clear proof that the early English Christians had 
 not received their Christianity from Rome, as they disagreed 
 with the Romish Church in many particulars of ritual. On 
 these points, and the coming of St. Paul to Britain, the 
 reader must look to the regular works on the matter, Usher's 
 Antiquities, I. p. 7., Stillingfleet's Origines Britannicse, 
 p. 39., Goodwin on the Conversion, &c. &c., Jeremy Collier 
 and the other English historians. 
 
 Gildas J says, that though the precepts of Christ were 
 received lukewarmly by the inhabitants, yet that some 
 professed Christianity sincerely, and others partially, till 
 Dioclesian's persecution. 
 
 We find three British bishops at the council of Rimini, 
 A.D. 359, and Gibbon thinks, after Bingham ||, that when 
 Britain separated from Rome, i. e. A.D. 409, there might 
 be thirty or forty bishops, and an adequate proportion of the 
 inferior clergy. 
 
 Note 7. P. 61. last line. ' or neglect: 
 
 THE phrases alluded to are, Multi omnis aetatis, omnis 
 ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam vocanturinpericulumetvoca- 
 buntur.' Again, ' Neque civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam 
 
 k**- .t'TSi.'-** t***HiO 
 
 Allg. Gesch. I. l.p. 121. 
 
 t See Jer. Coll. Eccl. Hist, of Britain, Vol. I. p. 12. 
 
 J De Excid. Brk. in Biblioth. Pat. *. III. col. 580. 
 
 The slow progress of the Gospel in Gaul is observed by Gibbon, chap. XV. 
 where he is describing its propagation. 
 
 || Vol. I.I. ix. 6. p. 394.
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 185 
 
 atque agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est.' 
 Again, ' Certe satis constat prope jam desolata templa coe- 
 pisse celebrari, et sacra solemnia diu intermissa repeti, pas- 
 simque venire victimas, quarum adhuc rarissimus emptor 
 inveniebatur *.' 
 
 Note 8. P. 62. line 4. 
 
 Visa est mihi res consultatione digna, maxime propter 
 periclitantium numerum ? Pliny's conduct as to the Chris- 
 tians has been much canvassed. Lardner's chapter f is 
 acute and very interesting. But Gibbon still thinks Pliny 
 showed no bigotry in his language or his proceedings. If 
 Pliny had been a Christian, and the people Pagans, perhaps 
 the historian would have judged differently. Perhaps it 
 would be fair to say, that Lardner should have made a little 
 more allowance for circumstances, ignorance, heathen educa- 
 tion, &c. &c. I speak only of Pliny's general temper. 
 
 Note 9. P. 62. line 10. ' Of a century: 
 
 I HAVE already spoken of this testimony of Lucian, who 
 lived in the time of Commodus, A.D. 180. 'AOewv tfiirt- 
 Tr\fiaOat KOI Xpterrmvwv rbv Ilovrov, &c J. The production 
 of such hacknied citations almost requires an apology. 
 
 Note 10. P. 63. line 6. ' Of Ms persecution.' 
 
 GIBBON wishes to argue that as the phrase of Tacitus 
 in speaking of the number of Christians at Rome, is 
 
 * Plin. Epp. Lib. X. Ep. 97- 
 
 t Tlie ninth of his Jewish and Heathen Testimonies. 
 
 J Psendom, $ 25. bee next note.
 
 186 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 very much like that used by Livy when speaking of die 
 Bacchanals, and that as 7000 were considered as a very 
 large number in the one case, it may fairly be assumed as 
 correct in the other. Nothing surely can be more vague 
 than such calculations, but would not the historian feel any 
 wonder at finding 7000 Christians at Rome at so early a 
 period ? 
 
 The same clause contains another specimen of the same 
 style of calculation. It appears from Chrysostom * that in 
 the time of Theodosius, when the Christian Church at 
 Antioch consisted of 100,000, 3000 poor were supported by 
 the public oblations. Hence, as it appears from Euseb. 
 VI. 4. 3., that in the middle of the third, century, 1500 were 
 supported at Rome in the same way, he calculates the Chris- 
 tians at 50,000. It will be observed first, that to reason 
 from Antioch to Rome, (in short to reason without a larger 
 induction on such a point) can never lead to truth. Be- 
 sides, the times of comparison differ by above a century. 
 How impossible is it then to know whether a change of 
 manners in the Christians may not have increased the num- 
 ber of those supported by public contributions. Imagine 
 a calculation of the population in England in 1800, the 
 data being the population in 1700, and the number of per- 
 sons supported by the poor's rates in both cases. The 
 evident and early importance of the Roman See is quite 
 enough to overturn such a calculation. 
 
 Note 11. P. 63. line 22. ' Burst upon them: 
 
 INGENS multitude is the expression used by Tacitus to 
 describe the Christians at Rome in Nero's timef. 
 
 * Opp. T. vii. p. 658. 810. t See Ann. xv. 44.
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 187 
 
 Note 12. P. 64. line 7. ' Fruitful parent.' 
 
 f*f$V 
 
 IT has been said that St. Mark was the founder of the 
 Church of Alexandria. Neander observes *, that ' among 
 the early and zealous preachers of the Gospel, we discover 
 men of Alexandrian education, as Apollos, and, probably, 
 also Barnabas from Cyprus. The Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 that ascribed to Barnabas, the Gospel KCLT 'AryvTrriove, in 
 which we can trace the Alexandrian Theosophic taste ; and 
 the Gnosis in the early part of the second century are proofs 
 of the influence which Christianity had very early on the 
 Alexandrian Jewish mode of thinking. With respect to the 
 catechetical school of Alexandria, see Mosheim de Rebus, 
 &c. Saec. II. . 25. I know the great tendency to explain 
 away all testimonies alleged on the Christian side of the 
 question, as exaggeration, rhetorical flourish, &c. &c., but 
 I think it would be difficult for the candid reader of 
 Adrian's letter to his brother-in-law, Servianus, preserved by 
 Vopiscus in Saturnine, c. 7 and 8., and justly called by 
 Neander f a remarkable letter, to deny that that letter proves 
 the existence of a large body of Christians in Egypt at that 
 time, A.D. 134. ' Illi qui Serapim Colunt, Christian! sunt ; 
 et devoti sunt Serapi qui se Christi Episcopos dicunt.* 
 
 Note 13. P. 64. line 7. ' Were Christians.' (Carthage.) 
 
 THE passage here alluded to is found in Tertullian J, who 
 says, * Quid ipsa Carthago passura est decimanda a te, &c.' 
 The expression is probably rhetorical, but the argument in 
 
 * Allg. Gesch. I. 1. p. 11. f P. 150. 
 
 I Ad. Scap. 5.
 
 188 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 the whole passage is the impossibility of punishing a body so 
 numerous as the Christians. 
 
 Note 14. P. 64. line 15. ' Various cities of the coast: 
 
 SEE Bishop Munter's Primordia Ecclesiae Africanse, 
 c. 8, 9, 10, 11. 
 
 Note 15. P. 64. line 19. 
 GIBBON mentions 400. See Vol, II. p. 237. 4to edit. 
 
 Note 16. P. 65. line 3. 
 
 THESE are Gibbon's words in Chapter xv. at the part 
 marked ' Historical view of the progress of Christianity.' 
 
 Note 17. P. 66. line 3. ' Nearly disappeared: 
 
 GIBBON says, that ' so rapid, yet so gentle was the fall of 
 Paganism, that only 28 years after the death of Theodosius, 
 the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible to the 
 eye of the legislator.' His note is ' Paganos qui supersunt, 
 quanquam jam nullos esse credamus, &c. Cod. Theodos. 
 1. xvi. tet. x. leg. 22. A.D. 423.' He adds, however, that 
 the younger Theodosius was afterwards satisfied that his 
 judgment had been somewhat premature *. 
 
 This chapter is worthy of a very attentive perusal, for all 
 the writer's great talents and ingenuity cannot cover the 
 improbability of the statements which he is compelled by his 
 theory to present. His great aim is, for obvious reasons, 
 to represent Christianity not only as a minority, but as a 
 
 Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 93. ch. 28. 4to. edit. 
 
 i< <: 1 J &<i')S. 3;.- i-' ii: ; 19
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 189 
 
 totally contemptible minority. We have seen, for instance, 
 that at Rome in the middle of the third century, he has 
 insisted it was only one-twentieth of the population, and a 
 very little afterwards, by one of his singular calculations, he 
 has made out that this is a true proportion for the whole 
 empire * at the time of Constantine's conversion. What a 
 strange state of things, when nineteen-twentieths of the 
 world submit to persecuting edicts issued by the remaining 
 one-twentieth. In complaining of that persecution, Gibbon 
 observes, that the persecution of Christianity by Paganism 
 was a different thing, for the ' unjust suspicions which were 
 entertained of a dark and dangerous faction, were in some 
 measure countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid 
 conquests of the Catholic Church.' How can he call con- 
 quests, which at the end of three centuries amounted only 
 to one-twentieth of the population, rapid ? But he goes on ; 
 ' The same excuses of fear and ignorance cannot be applied 
 to the Christian emperors, who violated the precepts of 
 humanity and of the Gospel. The experience of ages had 
 betrayed the weakness as well as the folly of Paganism ; the 
 light of reason and of faith had already exposed to the 
 greatest part of mankind, the vanity of idols ; and the de- 
 clining sect, which still adhered to their worship, might 
 
 * I say singular calculations, for after stating, that at Rome the population 
 was one-twentieth, and at Antioch one-fifth, he says, that ' the most favourable 
 calculation that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome, 
 will not permit us to imagine that more than one-twentieth of the subjects of the 
 Roman empire had enlisted themselves, &c. &c.' Ch. xv. If he means to in- 
 clude the barbarous parts of the empire, the calculation may, indeed, be true, 
 but that is not hinted at ; and, undoubtedly, when he speaks of Rome and of 
 Antioch, one is led to think of the civilized portions. Then his calculation is un- 
 fair on the face of it, and if we look at the evidence as to Asia Minor and 
 Africa, it is quite against probability. M. Matter says, one fifth instead of one- 
 twentieth (Hist. Univ. vol. i. p. 120.). See Ch. xxvii. for the state of Milan, 
 which, I suppose, may be some guide for other cities in the North of Italy.
 
 190 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and obscurity, the 
 religious customs of their ancestors.' What is meant by 
 weakness here, I do not comprehend. History proves that 
 the Pagan populace were very frequently, nay, one may say, 
 uniformly, ready and anxious to persecute and torture Chris- 
 tians, and that the emperors had difficulty in restraining 
 them from running into disorder on this point. They 
 shewed, for example, no weakness, either physical or moral, 
 at Lyons. If, therefore, they were still so much superior 
 in numbers, they were surely to be feared. 
 
 But how were tney a declining sect ? A few pages back 
 the historian says, they had a majority in the senate at Rome, 
 and calls Ambrose absurd for saying the contrary. And a 
 very little before that, they had been nineteen-twentieths of 
 the whole population. The historian himself allows *, that 
 Paganism was tolerated and publicly exercised, not only 
 under Constantine, but ' during the whole reign of his 
 sons.' 
 
 I must add, in conclusion, that Gibbon's statement of the 
 Christians being only one-twentieth of the population, ap- 
 pears to me very inconsistent with Maximin's letter, in 
 which he declares that Dioclesian and Maximian had ob- 
 served, ' that almost all mankind were going over to the 
 sect of Christians.' After every allowance for exaggeration, 
 we must remember that it is not exaggeration, but gross 
 absurdity to make an entirely contemptible minority into an 
 overwhelming majority. 
 
 Dr. Hey observes, that ' on what motives Constantine 
 embraced Christianity, we may not perfectly know ; we are 
 sure he dared to embrace it, and he probably thought, that 
 
 Vol. ii. p. 303 and 308. 
 
 3
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 191 
 
 in the whole empire taken together, the superior force was 
 on the side of Christianity, taking numbers and steadiness, 
 and other principles into consideration, which would be pro- 
 ductive of fidelity ; the empire was less likely to be divided 
 if he put himself at the head of the Christian party, than if 
 he followed any other plan *.' Neander says, that ' it is 
 difficult to explain Constantino's conversion on political 
 grounds. If he saved the Christian party, he lost the Pagan, 
 and the Pagan party was, if not the most numerous, yet, then 
 still greatly in possession of power f .' 
 
 Note 18. P. 69. 1. 10. The European world: 
 
 In the words of Gibbon, ' the invasion of the Huns pre- 
 cipitated on the provinces of the West the Gothic nation, 
 which advanced in less than forty years from the Danube to 
 the Atlantic, and opened a way by the success of their arms 
 to the inroads of so many hostile tribes more savage than 
 themselves.' Chap. xxvi. In this chapter, Gibbon shews 
 how the Chinese conquest of the Huns led them to leave 
 their native seats, to fight and conquer the Goths, and to 
 force them first on the extremities, and then on the heart 
 of the Roman empire. 
 
 Note 19. P. 69. line 20. Of the worse: 
 
 I WOULD beg to refer to Mr. Hallam's History of the 
 Middle Ages, chap. ix. part i. See some excellent remarks 
 in Millar's Philosophy of Modern History, vol. i. p. 193. 
 
 Lectures, B- i. ch. xviii. . 15. t Allg. Gesch. II. 1. p. If).
 
 1 92 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Note 20. P. 70. line 1 . ' The clergy.' 
 
 I ALLUDE especially to the better class of the Monks. 
 See Mr. Hallam, ubi supra, p. 336. 3d edit. On the igno- 
 rance of the laity, see p. 329. On the decay of learning in 
 the latter part of the Roman empire, see Millar's Lectures, 
 vol. i. p. 195. 
 
 Note 21. P. 70. line 4. ' Distant fortress.' 
 
 SEE Mr. Hallam, ubi supra, p. 369. and ch. ix. pt. ii. 
 p. 416 and following. Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 277. 4to. I 
 would refer generally also to the conclusion of Fleury's 
 Mreurs des Chretiens, for a very excellent view of the 
 manners of the middle ages. 
 
 Note 22. P. 72. line 15. ' From Africa: 
 Note 23. P. 72. line 19. ' Of the crescent: 
 
 ' WHILE the Eastern Church was but a bad theatre for 
 the exhibition and collision of rival schisms and heresies, the 
 Western Church, however practically corrupt and supersti- 
 tious (a defection for which it is to receive its punishment in 
 kind), in all the great fundamentals of doctrine, had pre- 
 served its Christianity in substance Catholic. The contrast 
 is marked in the hour of providential retribution : as the 
 former community then reaped the full recompence of its in- 
 fidelity, so the latter received the due reward of its faithful- 
 ness. Heretical Asia was swallowed up as in a moment by 
 the Unitarian deluge ; but Catholic Europe, safe under the 
 shadow of her golden candlestick, sustained the Moslem 
 storm uninjured and unmoved. The tempest broke with
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 193 
 
 resistless force over the Churches of Syria and Palestine, 
 having inundated Egypt, the cradle of false doctrines, it 
 swept, without a pause, along the continent of Africa, laid 
 in ruin its altars, long polluted by the schism of the Dona- 
 tists, and by the Vandal heretics *.' 
 
 Mr. Foster quotes on this subject Fuller's striking phrase, 
 ' The sins of the Eastern countries, and chiefly their 
 damnable heresies, hastened God's judgments upon them. 
 In these Western parts, heresies, like an angle, caught 
 single persons, which in Asia, like a drag-net, took whole 
 provinces f .' 
 
 Among the causes of the success of Mahomet, Fabricius 
 mentions, ' inter Christianos ipsos jampridem degenerantes 
 a prima puritate, multitudine haeresium ac dissidiorum, et 
 vita parum digna Christianis, cultus adolescens imaginum et 
 sanctorum J.' His preceding chapter, in which he gives a 
 fuller account of the threat of withdrawing the candlestick, 
 and its accomplishment, is well worth reading. 
 
 Dr. Millar notices the schisms and the profligacy of the 
 Africans, as causes tending to the more easy subversion of 
 Christianity . 
 
 Law observes, that the general disposition of a people 
 will considerably affect their views of religion, that they 
 that are impure, will defile it, corrupt it with impious fables 
 and absurd traditions, or turn it into licentiousness and 
 carnal polity, as was the case under the Roman empire. 
 ' Thus,' he adds, ' did the Eastern nations, and were over- 
 whelmed with Mahometanism, and thus did a great part of 
 Africa||.' 
 
 " Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. i. Introd. p. 84. 
 
 f Holy Warre, book I. chap. 6. I Lux. Ev. chap. 25. p. 493. 
 
 Lectures, vol. I. p. 248. || Theory of Religion, p. 35. 
 
 O
 
 194 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Note 24. P. 75. line 4. ' o% by degrees: 
 
 THIS subject is treated very admirably by Dr. Millar, in 
 his * Lectures on the Philosophy of Modern History *.' 
 
 Note 25. P. 75. line 20. ' entire indifference: 
 
 I REFER especially to Clovis. ' It would be a fruitless 
 inquiry,' says Mr. Hallam, * whether he was sincere in his 
 change.' 
 
 Note 26. P. 76. line 14. ' they served: 
 
 SEE the extract from Mr. Hallam, in Note 29. ' The 
 ignorance of the laity compelled the clergy to prosecute all 
 kinds of studies. The first abbots of Clugni, were the most 
 learned men of the times ; and their erudition caused them 
 to be sought after by the bishops, the popes, and even by 
 princes. All the world consulted them, and they could not 
 avoid taking part in the most important affairs of church 
 and state f. 
 
 Note 26*. P. 75. last line. < uncultivated adherents.' 
 
 'THE religion by which they were addressed was not pure, 
 the motive which prompted the appeal was interested and 
 ambitious ; but still the language was that of a power inte- 
 rested in the general maintenance of peace, because its 
 
 iiojqift&S Hjxk g'lari.icii'J .i'J u-'i *& -. j < 
 Lect IV. vol. I. p. 197215. 
 f Fteury't Disc, (in Jortin's Discourses, vol. III. p. 288. ccl. 1806.)
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 195 
 
 authority was founded on another basis than military 
 power *.' 
 
 Note 27. P. 76. line 23. hushed the din of arms: 
 
 EVEN Mr. Hallam is moved to some commendation of 
 the Church on these points. ' We can hardly regret,' 
 says he, ' in reflecting on the desolating violence which 
 prevailed, that there should have been some green spots in 
 the wilderness, where the feeble and the persecuted could 
 find refuge. How must this rite have enhanced the ve- 
 neration for religious institutions ! How gladly must the 
 victims of internal warfare, have turned their eyes from the 
 baronial castle, the dread and scourge of the neighbourhood, 
 to those venerable walls, within which not even the clamour 
 of arms could be heard, to disturb the chant of holy men, 
 and the sacred service of the Altar ! The protection of a 
 sanctuary was never withheld f .' See too Southey's Book 
 of the Church, vol. i. p. 285. On the Truce of God, see 
 Southey's Book of the Church, vol. i. p. 286. Robertson's 
 Charles V. vol. i. note 21. Abrege Chronol. torn. iii. p. 34. 
 Millar's Lectures, vol. i. p. 299, and note. We may add, 
 that the clergy were active against slavery (Millar's Lectures, 
 vol. i. p. 519. Hallam, vol. i. p. 220. though, as usual, with 
 a sneer ;) we find councils (as that of Tours in 567) en- 
 forcing on the community the duty of maintaining the poor ; 
 and again (as that at Macon in 585) anathematizing any 
 great men who might deprive the poor of their houses. On 
 the encouragement of agriculture, and the reclamation of 
 
 * Millar's Lectures, voL I p. 299. See too Dr. Chandler's sixth Bampton 
 Lecture. Southey's Book of the Church, vol. 1. p. 58. 
 t Middle Ages, vol. iii. P . 367. 3d ed. 
 
 02
 
 196 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 waste lands by the monasteries, see Millar's Note (from Sir 
 F. Eden on the Poor, vol. i. p. 50.) vol. i. p. 327. Hallam, 
 vol. iii. p. 436. Southey's Book of the Church, vol. i. p. 61 
 and 62. 
 
 Note 28. P. 77. line 4. 
 
 SOUTHEY'S Book of the Church, vol. i. p. 98. The his- 
 torian is speaking of Christianity even as corrupted by the 
 Roman Church. 
 
 Note 29. P. 78. line 1 . ' which learning gave tier.' 
 
 THE reader will find in M. Matter's Histoire Univ. vol. i. 
 p. 436, and following, a sufficient account and abstract of 
 the endeavours of various councils, from the third to the 
 seventh century, to correct the faults of the clergy. Other 
 councils were equally strenuous in enforcing the necessity of 
 learning. 
 
 'The bishops acquired and retained a great part of their 
 ascendancy by a very respectable instrument of power, in- 
 tellectual superiority. They alone were acquainted with 
 the art of writing; they were naturally intrusted with 
 political correspondence, and with the framing of the laws. 
 They alone knew the elements of a few sciences ; the 
 education of royal families devolved on them as a necessary 
 duty. In the fall of Rome, their influence upon the bar- 
 barians wore down the asperities of conquest, and saved the 
 provincials half the shock of that tremendous revolution. 
 As captive Greece is said to have subdued her Roman con- 
 queror, so Rome, in her own turn of servitude, cast the 
 fetters of a moral captivity on the fierce invaders of the 
 North. Chiefly through the exertions of the bishops, whose
 
 TO CHAPTER HI. 197 
 
 ambition may be forgiven for its effects, her religion, her 
 language, and, in part, even her laws, were transplanted 
 into the courts of Paris and Toledo, which became a de- 
 gree less barbarous by imitation *.' 
 
 Jortin has pointed out some of the advantages gained by 
 the cause of literature from Christianity. 
 
 The Christians, says he, collected and preserved the ancient 
 versions of the Old Testament, especially the LXX pre- 
 served the works of Josephus, to them were due the Herapla. 
 
 The study of Scripture led the Christians to pursue 
 chronology, history, and astronomy, 
 
 The New Testament being in Greek, led Christians to 
 apply much to the study of that splendid language. 
 
 The opposition of Jews and Pagans led the Christians to 
 the study of Jewish and Pagan literature, especially the 
 latter, or what is called classical learning. 
 
 The Fathers, till the third century, were generally Greek 
 writers. Latin declined in that century, but the Christians 
 preserved it from barbarism. In the second and third cen- 
 tury the Christian fathers are not at all inferior to the Pagan 
 writers of the same time. And in the fourth and fifth cen- 
 turies were very many fair, and some excellent writers. 
 
 In the sixth century lived Boethius, who might deserve a 
 place even amongst classic authors. 
 
 During the dark ages, the Church produced very many 
 learned men, as Alcuin in the eighth century, Photius in the 
 ninth, Bruno in the tenth, and subsequently Eustathius of 
 Thessalonica, Cinnamus, Zonaras, Anna Comnena, William 
 of Malmesbury, Abelard, Saxo Grammaticus, Roger Bacon, 
 c. c. 
 
 Hallaro, vol. ii. p. 216. 3d ed.
 
 - 
 
 198 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 * Without Christianity, it is extremely probable that the 
 Latin and Greek tongues would have been lost in the re- 
 volutions of the empire, and the irruptions of barbarians in 
 the East and West ; for the old inhabitants would have had 
 no religious and conscientious motives to keep up their 
 languages. And then, together with the Latin and Greek 
 tongues, the knowledge of antiquities and the ancient 
 writers would have been destroyed. You may see some- 
 thing of this kind in the present state of Africa, where the 
 Latin tongue is absolutely unknown, though in the 5th cen- 
 tury it was spoken there as in Italy *.' 
 
 This is worth considering, as Jortin was the last person 
 to exalt the character of the Church and the clergy on any 
 point improperly. And this may, therefore, be set against 
 Mr. Hallam's charges against the Church, on the point of 
 literature f. Indeed, that writer's desire to inculpate the 
 Church and the clergy, frequently leads him to oversights 
 hardly pardonable in an historian. He mentions Alfred's 
 complaint of the ignorance of the clergy, but he does not 
 tell us that the greater part of that ignorance was caused by 
 the destruction of the monasteries by the Danes, and that to 
 repair the evil, Alfred sent for monks from France J. 
 
 Note 30. P. 78. line 7. ' civilization: 
 HALLAM, vol. iii. p. 335. 3d edit. 
 
 Note 31. P. 78. line 15. 'a better order of things: 
 
 FLEURY, in the Discourse on Ecclesiastical History from 
 
 i 
 
 Jortin's First Charge. Vol. yii. of his Sermons, 3d edit. p. 361 371- 
 
 t Vol. iii. p. 309 311. 
 
 J See Southey's Book of the Church, vol. i. p. 87.
 
 TO CHAPTER III. 199 
 
 A.D. 600 to A.D. 1100, translated by Jortin *, has shewn 
 the benefits of monasteries in these respects. 
 
 Note 32. P. 78. line 20. 'for learning itself.' 
 
 ' DURING the ignorance of those days of violence, the 
 literary treasures of antiquity were preserved in their (the 
 monastic) libraries, and some imperfect knowledge of them 
 cherished by the studies of their members f .' 
 
 ' The monasteries were subjected to strict rules of dis- 
 cipline, and held out, at the worst, more opportunities for 
 study than the secular clergy possessed, and fewer for 
 worldly dissipation. But their most important service was 
 as secure repositories for books. All our MSS. have been 
 preserved to us in this manner, and could hardly have de- 
 scended to us by any other channel, at least there were in- 
 tervals when I do not conceive that any royal or private 
 libraries existed J.' 
 
 The same points are very strongly put by Fleury in one 
 of his Discourses on Ecclesiastical History. See the trans- 
 lation in Jortin's Discourses, &c. vol. Hi. p. 285 and foil, 
 ed. 1825. 
 
 ' The monks were occupied in transcribing books ; and 
 though they preserved many homilies and theological tracts 
 of the later fathers, which we could well have spared, and 
 neglected some valuable authors whose loss we deplore, yet 
 they transmitted to us those Latin and Greek classics which 
 we now possess, and which would have perished had it not 
 been for their labours, and for the libraries contained in 
 
 " Vol. iii. p. 250296. f Millar's Lectures, vol. i. p. 303. 
 
 { Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 337.
 
 200 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 their monasteries. To them we owe copies of the Roman 
 laws, of the Theodosian and Justinian codes; and the 
 Roman laws being adopted more or less in Christian nations, 
 and the study of them being honourable and profitable, con- 
 duced greatly to the preservation of literature in general, 
 and the Latin language in particular *.' 
 
 Note 33. P. 79. line 1. 'genuine Christianity: 
 
 SEE Mr. Hallam's admissions as to the schoolmen and 
 the scholastic philosophy f. 
 
 The reader will find in the abridgement of Brucker, 
 (p. 492 530,) some useful information on the state of phi- 
 losophy from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, and on 
 the schoolmen in particular. 
 
 Note 34. P. 80. line 1. ' that investigation revealed.' 
 
 TAKE as instances St. Bernard, Thomas a Kempis, and 
 the venerable Bede. 
 
 * Jortin's First Charge. Sermons, vol. vii. p. 369. 
 f Vol. iii. p. 533 and 538.
 
 TO CHAPTER IV. 201 
 
 tin i;. -iiii 3 m >.:?: : - \;?u^l fe,v.{ ncrnoH 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 - : ' ' 
 
 = 
 
 Note 1. P. 82. line 8. ' of a fourth: 
 
 ACCORDING to Balbi's tables, the population of the world 
 is 737,000,000 and of these, accoVdiug to the same tables, 
 about 260,000,000 are Christians, i. e. considerably above a 
 fourth. In a table, published in some of the periodical 
 works, a year or two ago, and translated from the German, 
 the population is made to be 828,000,000, and the Chris- 
 tians only 234,495,000. This, however, is still above a 
 fourth. I subjoin the table, though I do not profess to 
 know on what authorities it is founded ; and, indeed, I can- 
 not but conceive it to be inaccurate in some respects. I 
 have seen, for example, the Jews stated to be nearer eight 
 than two millions ; and I have also seen a statement that 
 the Sunnite Mahometans do not much exceed 20 millions ; 
 an older writer * makes Christianity possess not above one- 
 sixth of the world. He says, that out of 30 parts, 5 are 
 Christian, 6 Mahometan, and 19 Pagan. But if either of 
 the above tables be correct, the number of Mahometans is 
 not nearly equal that of Christians. In the tables here 
 given, they are not as many by one-half. And from Balbi 
 it seems, that, besides the Mahometans in British India, 
 there are, at most, not 90,000,000 Mahometans. The 
 
 * As Brerewood, Inquiries into the Diversity of Language?, chap. XIV. 
 p. 203.
 
 202 
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 whole population of British India is given at 114,430,000, 
 in these tables. 
 
 Population of the earth fas to religion). 
 
 A. Monotheists 
 
 I. Christians 
 
 (1) Catholics 
 
 (2) Protestants . . . 
 
 (a) Evangelic (united) 
 
 (b) Lutheran . . . 
 
 (c) Reformed . . . 
 
 (a) Proper Reformed 
 
 (b) Presbyterians . . 
 
 (d) Anglican ... 
 
 (e) Various sects . . 
 
 (a) Independents . 
 
 (b) Methodists . . 
 
 (c) Quakers . . . 
 
 (d) Memnonites . 
 
 (e) Hernhutters . . 
 
 (f) Baptists , . . 
 
 (g) Unitarians . . 
 (h) Swedenborgians . 
 (i) Filippines . . 
 
 (3) Greek Christians - ,. 
 (a) Russia Greek . . 
 (6) Eastern Greek . 
 
 (4) Monophysites . . 
 (a) Jacobites ... 
 
 (a) Proper Jacobites 
 
 (b) Copts ..fjijfcfoto 
 
 .... 362,045,000 
 
 . . . 234,495,000 
 
 . . 129,550,000 
 
 . . 57,694,000 
 
 . 8,200,000 
 
 . 16,220,000 
 
 . 12,240,000 
 . 7,440,000 
 . 4,800,000 
 . 15,050,000 
 5,984,000 
 . 3,800,000 
 . 1,500,000 
 . 200,000 
 . 200,000 
 
 . 100,000 
 
 . 76,000 
 
 . . 60,000 
 36,000 
 12,000 
 
 . . 41,375,000 
 
 . 35,375,000 
 6,000,000 
 .p-* . 5,876,000 
 . . 3,526,000 
 . . 220,000 
 . 3,200,000
 
 TO CHAPTER JV. 
 
 (c) Thomas Christians . . 80,000 
 
 (d) John Christians . . 26,000 
 
 (A) Maronites 150,000 
 
 (c) Armenians ,' I ^^ . 2,200,000 
 
 (5) Nestorians 400,000 
 
 II. Jews 2,650,000 
 
 III. Mahometans 115,120,000 
 
 (1) Sunnites 72,000,000 
 
 (a) Proper Sunnites . . 65,000,000 
 
 (b) Wahabites .... 7,000,000 
 
 (2) Schiites 43,000,000 
 
 (3) Ismaelites 120,000 
 
 IV. Zoroastrians 780,000 
 
 V. Confucians 5,000,000 
 
 VI. Nankinists 4,000,000 
 
 B. Polytheists fc tO 
 
 (1) Lamaites . . ... . 58,000,000 
 
 (2) Brahmins 115,000,000 
 
 (3) Buddhists 169,000,000 
 
 (4) Fetiche-worshippers . . . 124,000,000 
 
 828 millions. 
 
 Note 2. 
 
 IT is abundantly clear, that Christianity was co-extensive 
 with civilization, at the end of the third century. Its 
 progress, afterwards, was something of this kind. During 
 the fourth century, it was completing its triumphs over 
 Paganism in the Old World. After this period, we begin 
 to find the effects of the admixture of the barbarians, in the 
 greater slowness and difficulty of conversions, from the 
 constant state of warfare in which the world was engaged,
 
 204 
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 the destruction of civilization, the interruption of commu- 
 nication, and the moral difficulty of producing an impression 
 on uncivilized men. During the fifth century, the Bur- 
 gundians, and the Franks under Clovis, were certainly con- 
 verted ; and there seems good ground for supposing, that 
 Ireland was, during this century, Christianized *. Chris- 
 tianity, however, was overwhelmed in England, by the 
 irruption of barbarians ; and we find, accordingly, that in 
 the sixth century, a part of the Anglo-Saxons, the Picts 
 and Scots, and in the East, the Armenians, and some neigh- 
 bouring people, were added to the list of Christian nations. 
 During the seventh century, the remainder of the Anglo- 
 Saxons, the Northern Germans, with the inhabitants of 
 Westphalia, and Switzerland ; in the eighth, the rest of the 
 Germans ; in the ninth, the Danes and Swedes, with some 
 parts of the Poles, Bohemians, Moravians, Huns and Bul- 
 garians ; in the tenth, the Muscovites and the remainder of 
 the Poles, and part of the Hungarians ; in the eleventh, 
 the rest of Hungary ; in the twelfth, Pomerania, Livonia, 
 Norway and Finland were converted. The reader will find 
 many particulars, and ample references, with respect to the 
 singular history of the conversion of Germany, in the nine- 
 teenth chapter of Fabricius's Lux Evangelii ; and chapters 
 21 24, supply information with respect to the east and 
 north of Europe. On the conquest and conversion of Prus- 
 sia, see the chapter on the religious orders of knighthood, 
 (the 31st,) p. 547. 
 
 I am compelled, very reluctantly, by want of space, to 
 omit all inquiry into the progress of Christianity in Asia and 
 Africa. The former deserves especial attention. Fabricius 
 
 See Neander, Allg. Gesch. II. p. 1. pp. 259, and following.
 
 TO CHAPTER IV. 205 
 
 has given us ample materials for studying this subject, as 
 well as the history of missions in chapters 32 46. 
 
 In Leo Sapiens's Notitia, which is referred to A.D. 891, 
 we have a list of about 1800 episcopal sees. Of the extent 
 of these it would be absurd to speak generally ; but we may 
 mention, that in the diocese of Egypt, (where there were, in 
 Augustine's time, 466 bishopricks,) that of Hippo was 40 
 miles long. The authorities for these statements will be 
 found in F. Spanheim's Introductio ; and in Bingham, book 
 IX. chap. I. 
 
 ''""< ;:- { 3 &: ,t, ,^:-.|,i<q rjahkOC 
 
 Note 3. P. 87. line 17. ' which Christianity has made: 
 
 IN a missionary point of view, it is hardly possible to es- 
 timate too highly the advantages of having so large a body 
 of Christians speaking the same language as ourselves. 
 With England and America, heartily united in that cause, 
 what may not be achieved ! On the progress of Christianity 
 in America, see Fabricius, p. 603, and chapters 48 and 49. 
 
 Note 4. P. 88. line 3. 'from the Gospel: 
 I NEED only refer to Mr. Forster's Mahomedanism Un- 
 
 Note 5. P. 88. line 23. ' a wider sway.' 
 
 THERE is ample proof that Protestantism is gaining 
 ground in France ; and they who have attended to the pro- 
 gress of things in Roman Catholic Germany, are aware, 
 that the religion of the Romanists is already wearing an 
 aspect there, little pleasing to the See of Rome. 
 
 .51 ,rt:O .^iA .wbiuiaVl 39?
 
 206 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ) V trisjfrtn 3"*"~> gin* fj t-.c-t'-ifc , , ^ % <>. m 
 
 Note 6. P. 89. line 21. 'grapple with it at all: 
 
 ' THROUGH the whole order of creation, and the whole 
 scheme of Providence, we observe marks of a progressive 
 advancement, and a gradual discovery of truth. In all the 
 operations of the human mind, in the important discoveries 
 of art, and the improvements of laws and governments, we 
 go on step by step, as leisure and opportunities offer, or 
 new wants are created, until, at last, we have completely 
 filled up the first rude outline, which necessity suggested. 
 A similar progress is to be observed in the higher and more 
 valuable truths of religion ; and God Almighty, in mercy 
 and love to his creatures, seems always to have proportioned 
 his discoveries, not only to the actual wants of mankind, 
 but to their capacity of receiving truth themselves, and their 
 means of communicating it to others *.' 
 
 ' I am far from imagining that Christianity is yet come to 
 its mature state ; that it is understood in the whole extent, 
 or held in its utmost purity and perfection by any one church. 
 But, as when it was first preached, men were fit to hear, and 
 profit by it, in a competent degree, as that was a proper 
 time to divulge it, in order to improve the world, which it 
 did very considerably, excelling all former dispensations, 
 refining the conceptions, even of those who did not formally 
 receive it, and yet was itself, for some time, but partially 
 communicated, and imperfectly understood, so now it is 
 of much greater advantage to the world in general, and yet 
 still capable of increase ; it waits for its own fulness ,- nor 
 shall mankind receive the proper influence of it, till their 
 minds be much farther opened and enlarged, their reason 
 
 Hall's Bampton Lectures, p. 17-
 
 TO CHAPTER IV. 207 
 
 more freely exercised, in this great mystery of Divine 
 love*.' 
 
 Note 7. P. 97. line 8. 'for shame.' 
 
 SEE Mr. Ward's View of the History, &c. of the Hin- 
 doos, vol. I., Introductory Remarks, p. xii., and Preface 
 to vol. III. p. xxxix. On the morality of the Hindoos, 
 see vol. III. p. 286313. 
 
 Note 8. P. 98. line 25. ' could effect.' 
 
 IT is impossible to give any satisfactory view of this matter 
 in the limits of a note. I would refer to Leland's Advan- 
 tages of Christianity, especially, on this point. 
 
 Note 9. P. 99. line 12. ' of the Gospel. 1 
 
 THE benefits conferred by the Gospel have been enume- 
 rated by many writers. The following observations may 
 deserve consideration. 
 
 ' The existence of such a rule' (as the Christian) ' and 
 far more the existence of persons urging it, has a general 
 influence extending even to those who might seem removed 
 beyond its reach. In this way, a general improvement of 
 habits has followed the progressive diffusion of the Gospel f .' 
 
 Through Christianity, ' The inhuman sports of the Ro- 
 man amphitheatre were gradually discontinued ; the most 
 savage features of war have been softened ; crimes of parti- 
 cular heinousness have become disgraceful in general opi- 
 nion ; the female sex has been raised to its just level in 
 society ; the duty of benevolence has been more commonly 
 
 * Law's Theory of Religion, p. 208, 9. f Sumner.
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 recognized and practised ; the severity of parental rule has 
 been controlled; infanticide abolished; the system of do- 
 mestic slavery has ceased * ;' a matter of no small moment, 
 when we remember the extreme cruelty practised by the 
 Romans, especially, to their slaves f. 
 
 Comparing the present with earlier times, Worthington 
 observes J, ' that we have not now such monstrous and dis- 
 gusting heresies and practices as were exhibited by the 
 Gnostics and other heretics of the early ages ; that where 
 early heresies have been revived, they have died away at 
 once, or have been proposed in less obnoxious forms ; that 
 Popery begins to be ashamed of some of its grosser errors ; 
 and its divines, of late, have been' (I presume he alludes, 
 especially, to Bossuet's Exposition,) ' forced to explain them 
 in a manner more agreeable to truth and Scripture ; that 
 controversy, in the present day, has lost some of the dread- 
 ful bitterness which it once had ; and that, in Protestant 
 countries, at least, as well as many Roman Catholic ones, 
 there is a general toleration for men to worship God in 
 their own way, without being persecuted for it.' He sub- 
 sequently notices the statements made against Christianity, 
 viz. that the ancient heathens, the present Mahometans, the 
 Chinese, and even the wild Indians are better than the ge- 
 nerality of Christians, and very properly denies the truth 
 of these statements ||. I have already observed, that many 
 of these statements are the declamatory arguments of Chris- 
 tian writers, endeavouring to shame Christians into a better 
 
 * Sumncr. 
 
 f See Jortinon the Truth of the Christian Religion, p. 134, note, 2d edition. 
 1 Essay, chap. VII. 
 
 For a full account of these heretics, I would refer the reader to Professor 
 Burton's learned and elaborate Bampton Lectures for the last year. 
 || So M'Knight, on the Truth of the Gospel, p. 49.
 
 = TO CHAPTER IV. 201) 
 
 way of life, by contrasting the vices of their practices with 
 the purity of their profession *. But, in good truth, the 
 matter will not bear an argument. Let the reader look to 
 the statements made respecting the corruptions of the ancient 
 heathen world, and of the Chinese and Mahometans in the 
 ' Cure of Deism,' vol. I. p. 108. ; or in Leland's Advantages, 
 &c. vol. II. chapters i xiii. (and especially chap, iv.) and re- 
 specting those of the present heathen world, in the abstract of 
 Millar's Propagation of Christianity, given by Bishop Gib- 
 son, in his second Pastoral Letter, and after making what 
 allowances he pleases, he cannot but see the absurdity of 
 denying, that the Christian world, with all its vices, is far 
 better than the heathen. As Bishop Gibson says, the de- 
 stroying idolatry, with all its attendant impurities of worship 
 and practice, and the establishing a pure form of worship, 
 with good moral instruction, is an unspeakable benefit, nor 
 can any candid man deny that to these means is to be attri- 
 buted the cessation of many of the cruelties and abomina- 
 tions commonly practised in earlier times, and even defended 
 and recommended by philosophers. He adds, with equal 
 justice, that although the world is bad enough even with 
 the controul of Christianity, it would be far worse without 
 that controul ; that the commission of excesses is less fre- 
 quent and more shameful among Christians than Heathens ; 
 and that it is, in some degree redeemed by the extraordinary 
 piety and purity of many Christians in every Christian 
 country. I would beg to refer also to Fawcett's Sermon on 
 Matt. x. 34 f, for a very pleasing view of this subject. 
 M'Knight (in his admirable work on the Truth of the 
 
 No one, perhaps, has gone to a greater length than Bishop Fowler, in his 
 Design of Christianity, sect. III. chap. XVI. 
 t Sermons, p. 73108. 
 
 P
 
 210 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Gospel,) has shewn with great force the inestimable value 
 of Christian education and instruction, observing, that now 
 the poorest Christians have higher and better notions of 
 God, his attributes, a future state, and of moral obligation, 
 than the greatest geniuses among the Heathen world. He 
 adds, with great truth, that even the professed enemies of 
 the Gospel derive improvement from it ; for their best no- 
 tions on moral subjects are, in fact, taken from the Gospel, 
 or have been modified by it. Worthington has observed, 
 very rightly, that the heathen philosophers taught a far 
 purer morality after the coming of the Gospel than before, 
 and became ashamed of their idolatry and gross corruption. 
 A curious instance of this, by the way, is afforded by the 
 anxious care of Julian to improve and amend the profession 
 and practice of that Paganism, which he preferred to the 
 Gospel *. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be observed with M'Knight (in 
 substance) that they who look to public life only for the 
 beneficial effects of Christianity, do wrong ; for the virtues 
 which it most endeavours to spread and recommend, are 
 virtues which must be cultivated and practised in silence 
 and retirement. Self-denial, self-abasement, kind thoughts, 
 charity, purity of desires and thoughts, these and many 
 others, are graces exercised mainly in private, and only 
 showing their effects indirectly on society. 
 
 Jortint observes, * that the corruptions of the Christian 
 world were foreseen and foretold by Christ and his apostles,' 
 which shews at least, that they were not mistaken, and did 
 not expect that more benefit should arise from the Gospel 
 than hath really been produced. 
 
 * See Julian Opp. p. 429. (Ess. 49.)andfragm. p. 288. 
 t In his First Charge, Sermons, vol. VII. p. 3oJJ. 3d edit.
 
 TO CHAPTER IV. 211 
 
 Mr. Forster refers to the testimony of Gibbon * ; adding, 
 that ' the religion which could extort concessions like these 
 from Mr. Gibbon's very imperfect sense of justice and 
 fairness, has little to apprehend from the shafts of his 
 scepticism.' 
 
 The reader will find a full view of the subject also in 
 Dr. Brown's Comparative View of Christianity, vol. IT. pt. 4. 
 ch. iv. and in Dr. Chandler's Bampton Lectures, Lecture IV. 
 
 Note 10. P. 101. line 4. ' of more favoured nations.' 
 
 * Is not the likelihood every day increasing, that the ex- 
 tirpation of Heathenism throughout North America, will be 
 completed only with the gradual decay and extinction of 
 the remaining native tribes f ?' 
 
 Note 11. P. 101. last line. ' of the pure light: 
 
 IN the Hindoo systems, spiritually and philosophically 
 considered, as we are taught that some of the better and 
 more enlightened Indians consider it, there may perhaps be 
 somewhat to elevate the mind. See Mr. Ward's view of it 
 in the preface to his third volume. Brucker's is superficial. 
 
 Note 12. P. 102. line 8. ' conversion of the world." 
 
 WITH respect to the conversion of the Mahometans, I 
 would direct the reader to the conclusion of Mr. Forster's $ 
 work on Mahometanism, and to Professor Lee's preface to 
 his publication of Martyn's tracts in controversy with the 
 Mahometans in Persia. 
 
 * Vo'. VI. p. 154, 275277, and vol. X. p. 2422-15 8vo. edit 
 t Foster's Mahometanism, vol. II. p. 520. 
 t Vol. II. p. 361380.
 
 212 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, &C. 
 
 Note 13. P. 104. line 2. 
 
 1 recommend the preface to vol. III. of Mr. Ward's work 
 on the Hindoos, as setting in a very striking point of view 
 our duties to Hindostan. 
 
 Note 14. P. 104. line 20. ' into dust: 
 
 THIS phrase is, I believe, De Maistre's, in his Soirees de 
 St. Petersbourg. ' 
 
 TI1K END. 
 
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