Julian Pe riod, 4799. Vulgar Era, 96. III. The progress and triumph of the Church of Rome. I. The state of the Christian Church from the death of St. In closing the volumes which it was necessary to peruse, for - Christianity is the completed revelation of those sanctions of, The conduct which Christianity requires, does not extend to nature. The Scriptural institutions ofChristianity are the commemorations of the facts which prove the truth of its doctrines. They are few, but important. The observance of the first day in (the week) is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, and a declaration of the truth of our own. In haptism, we commemorate the descent of the Spirit, and assert the necessity of a Divine influence, to recover man from the fall. In the other sacrament, of the Lord's Supper, we commemorate the crucifixion, and profess our belief in the atonement. The observance of Easter is also mentioned in Scripture, as the time of the more solemn commemoration of our Lord's resurrection. The scriptural means by which the knowledge of the Christian religion is to be preserved in the world, are the perpetual observance of the institutions, and the right interpretation of the completed Scriptures. To secure these great objects, the divine Founder of Christianity appointed twelve teachers, and after them he appeared from the invisible state to appoint ano Asia Minor. Julian Pether, who should establish societies from among the mass of Asia Minor. riod, 4799. mankind, and set apart teachers to instruct the people, interVulgar Era, pret the Scriptures, and maintain the institutions of the new 96. religion. The apostles were equal among themselves. They Such was the Christianity which was established over the This view of Christianity enables us to form some criterion of truth, in the midst of all the discordant opinions of modern systems. Whatever doctrine has been invented by later writers, whether it be gradually established, as many of the corruptions of the Romanists have been, or proposed as a more correct interpretation of Scripture, as many of the Unitarian and German speculators have suggested their various novelties, is probably false, as it is certainly suspicious. If it was not once received by all Christians, in the primitive ages, in all their Churches, it is probably heretical. If it is not supported by some of the facts of Scripture it is suspicious. It is not generally remembered that the peculiar doctrines which characterize Christianity are all identified with facts. The facts are the foundation of the doctrine, and moral inferences are deducible from the doctrine which is thus sanctioned and established. The first creeds were very scanty, because controversies were few, and were decided by inspired or highly venerated teachers. They were enlarged, as the decisions of the Catholic Church, represented by its general councils, concluded the controversies which were commenced by the philosophy which wrongly explained, or wilfully rejected, the faith which was generally received. The general reception of an opinion among all Churches, was esteemed a proof that it had been originally taught by the apostles and their successors. Such was the new faith which at the closing of the canon of Scripture, had begun to leaven the whole mass of the subjects. of the imperial dominion. Even where it was not fully embraced, it elevated the mind, and restrained the conduct of many who would not openly profess it. The very philosophy which opposed or corrupted it, inculcated in various instances the necessity of purity, the belief in one God, and the certainty of a future state. Churches had been founded in Rome, Corinth, Crete, the cities of Asia Minor, in Britain, Spain, Italy, Antioch, and many others. The nations of the world had been brought under the Roman yoke, that a free communication might be maintained between all parts of the civilized world. The usurpations of the Papacy had not begun, neither had the people proceeded to the opposite extreme of rejecting all government, as an infringement of their liberty. Every separate Church was a society complete in itself, governed through all its gradations of laity, and through the minor offices of the priesthood, the deacons, and the presbyters, by one cpiscopal Julian Pe- head, who was liable to be deposed by the sentence of his own Asia Minor. riod, 4799. order, if he violated the faith of Christ. Every ruler was conVulgar Æra, trolled by the rest of his brethren, while every independant hie96. rarchy preserved its freedom under the empire of known law. The world has not since beheld more union in the belief, or more perfection in the conduct of Christians. This was the plan which preserved the purity of the Christian creed against the first impugners of the Majesty of the Son of God. This was the polity which stamped the reprobation of the general body of Christians at Nice, upon the Arians, who denied the Godhead of Christ-at Constantinople against the Apollinarian heresy, which deny his humanity. It was this which condemned at Ephesus, Nestorius, who asserted that Christ was two persons, and condemned at Chalcedon the error of Eutyches, who confounded his twofold nature. At that time the ghost of imperial Rome was not seated upon the seven bills, to terrify the nations with the spiritual thunders of the Vatican, neither was every absurdity of doctrine, and every irregularity in discipline, defended as a proof of liberty, and freedom from prejudice. The Churches of God in these early ages were opposed by every weapon which the devices of an evil spirit, or the corruptions of the human heart, could suggest; and their conquests were made over its most inveterate foes. The civil and military powers of the idolatrous governments opposed them by ten sanguinary persecutions; and though the most eminent historian of the last century, in imitation of a learned critic (Dodwell Dissert. Cyprian), has endeavoured to diminish the number of the sufferers, the undeniable evidence which still remains, abundantly demonstrates the prejudice, hatred, and cruelty of the persecutors, and the singular union of holiness and zeal, of fortitude and patience, among the blameless sufferers in the cause of Christianity. We must pass over the cruel persecutions of Nero and Domitian, in which the chief of the remaining apos tles, with Timothy, Onesimus, Dionysius the Areopagite, and other illustrious names, were put to death. Neither were the more flagitious and abandoned of the Roman emperors, the sole imperial adversaries of the rising Churches. A religion which demands the homage of the heart, and permits no divided dominion, even with the least known evil, is no less detested by the mild and gentle liberality which pleads for the indulgence of the more general vices, than it is hated by the openly corrupt. The third persecution of the Christians under Trajan and Adrian, and the fourth by the Antonines and Marcus Aurelius, were even more extensive in their effects, and equally violent in their fury. The fierce hatred of Severus, which called forth the eloquent apology of Tertullian, and the indignant remonstrances of Clemens Alexandrinus, and Minucius Felix-the selfish bostility of Maximiu-the unsparing severity of Decius, who threatened death to the mitigators of the sufferings of Christians-the hypocritical opposition of Valerian, the murderer of Cyprian, who soothed before he slaughtered, his victims -the unrelenting efforts of Diocletian, to extirpate the very name and race, and Scriptures of the followers of the crucified Jesus-all these were borne by the despised and hated Christians, who conquered by patient endurance, and triumphed by unresisting submission. The heathen raged, and the people imagined a vain thing; and if the Christians had appealed to the sword, as from their numbers they might have done, their Master had been dishonoured by their service, and the world had lost the honourable and perfect witness they bore by their sufferings, to their conviction of the truth of the Gospel. It was not only the menace and the torture, the rack and the 96. Julian Pe- scourge, the stake and the sword, which raised themselves Asia Minor. riod 4799. against the members of the Churches of God. The ridicule of Vulgar Era, the satirist-the world's dread laugh-the scorn of the philosophical leaders of the public opinion-the reasoning of the learned-contempt, and wonder, and pity-all that could move the affections, or break the resolution-the fear of infamy, which shrinks from slander-the love of approbation, which excites to virtuous and useful actions, and leads men to honourable eminence-all of these, and more than these powerful motives of action, appealed in vain to the hearts of the primitive Christians. The more their spiritual enemies within, and the turbulent heathen without, oppressed the Churches of Christ, the more "they multiplied and grew," till the majority of the empire professed the faith of the Gospel, and the Emperor of Rome became the convert and protector of the faith of Christ. II. From the death of Constantine to the rise of the Papal power by the grant of Phocas. Though the philosophy of the Gnostics, the Docetæ, the Marcionites, and others, had corrupted in many instances the purity of Christianity, the two principal heresies which still divide the Universal Church, commenced at this period. One contaminated the doctrine, the other destroyed the government of the independant episcopal Churches. The error of Arius, and the usurpations of the Church of Rome, were the two principal sources of all the corruptions which have degraded Christians. Ecclesiastical history ought only to have related the progress of mankind in knowledge, virtue, and happiness: it tells the same sad and melancholy tale of human infirmity, and crime and folly, which profane history has given to the world. The common opinion of any age may be known by the opposition which it has made to those who offer their own conclusions to general acceptance. The primitive ages were careful to preserve the scriptural doctrine of the twofold nature of Christ, and to assert his humanity while they defended his divinity. The various errors which the spurious philosophy of the three first centuries submitted to the approbation of the Churches, were generally founded on the attempt to exalt the divinity, at the expence of the humanity of Christ. The Gnostics invented their notion of the Eons-the Docete their opinion that the form of Christ was not real, but a phantom only; and that the sufferings of Christ in his own person, was an impossibility. The error of Arius was founded on the opposite extreme. This heresiarch endeavoured to introduce an opinion, which the Universal Church believed to be derogatory to the divinity of its founder, that our Lord was only the first, and greatest, and highest of all created beings. This opinion appeared to him to be more consistent with human reason; and it became, therefore, a part of his philosophy, and he rejected the plainer declaration of Scripture, and the evidence of antiquity both of the Jews and Gentiles. The Jews believed their Logos to be a divine being-the Christians received Christ as that Logos, because his own assertions and actions, as well as the testimony of St. John, appeared to demonstrate the truth. The sources of heresy with Arius, were the same as those which influence so many at present. His private speculations were preferred to that interpretation of Scripture which had been uniformly adopted by the Universal Church. He did not, or would not, remember, that Scripture is superior to reasou; and that the prostration of our intellect, which man cannot demand of man, is an act of worthy and reasonable homage to God. The vehement disputes which convulsed the whole Church Julian Pe- through these three centuries, and which respectively occasion- Ásia Minor. riod, 4799. ed the calling of the first general councils, may be said to have Vulgar Era, originated in the innovations of Arius. The Councils of Nice, 96. Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, have confirmed the It would lead me too far from my object to relate at greater The early Churches were united into one society by the observance of one common law, submission to episcopal government. A member of the episcopal Church of one country, was considered a member of the Catholic Church of Christ, in every |