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In the execution of my tafk, fays he, I can affirm with truth, that I have not been wanting in perfeverance, industry, or attention; and yet with all thefe, it is extremely difficult to avoid mistakes of every kind, as those who are acquainted with the nature of historical researches abundantly know. How far I have approached to that inacceffible degree of exactnefs, which is chargeable with no error, muft be left to the decifion of thofe whofe extenfive knowlege of the Chriftian history entitles them to pronounce judgment in this matter. That fuch may judge with the more facility, I have mentioned the authors who have been my guides; and, if I have in any refpect mifreprefented their accounts or their fentiments, I muft confefs that I am much more inexcufable than fome other hiftorians, who have met with and deferved the fame reproach, fince I have perused with attention, and compared with each other, the various authors to whose teftimony I appeal, having formed a refolution of trufting to no authority inferior to that of the original fources of hiftorical truth.'

The Doctor divides the hiftory of the church into two general branches, which he calls its external and internal history. The external hiflory comprehends all thofe profperous and calamitous events that have diverfified the external ftate and condition of the church; the internal comprehends the changes and viciffitudes that have happened in its inward conftitution, in that fyftem of difcipline and doctrine by which it ftands diftinguished from all other religious focieties.

He adopts the ufual división into centuries preferably to all others, because moft generally liked; though it be attended with difficulties and inconveniencies. In order to remove a confiderable part of these inconveniencies, however, befides this fmaller divifion into centuries, he adopts a larger one, and divides the fpace of time that has elapfed between the birth of Chrift and the present times into four periods, distinguished by fignal revolutions or remarkable events. Accordingly, he comprehends the whole of his hiftory in four books: the firft is employed in exhibiting the ftate and viciffitudes of the Chriftian church, from its commencement, to the time of Conftantine the Great. The fecond comprehends the period, that extends from the reign of Conftantine to that of Charlemagne,, which produced fuch a remarkable change in the face of Europe; the third contains the hiftory of the church, from the time of Charlemagne to the memorable period when Luther arofe in Germany, to oppofe the tyranny of Rome, and to deliver divine truth from the darkness that covered it; and the fourth carries down the hiftory from the rife of Luther to the present times.

The hiftory of each century is divided into two parts, viz. the external and internal history of the church. The interH 2

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nal history comprehends the state of letters and philosophy,―the doctors and minifters of the church, and the form of its government,-together with its doctrines, ceremonies, and he-,

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Such is the method purfued in this valuable work; in our account of which we must confine ourselves to fome of the most interesting parts, as it is impoffible to give a regular abstract of the whole.--The Author introduces his hiftory of the first century with a short view of the civil and religious state of the world at the birth of Christ, in order to fhew that mankind, in, that period of darkness and corruption, flood highly in need of fome divine teacher to convey to the mind true and certain principles of religion and wisdom, and to recall wandering mortals to the fublime paths of piety and virtue. The confideration of this wretched condition of mankind, he obferves, will be fingularly useful to those who are not fufficiently acquainted with the advantages, the comforts, and the fupport, which the fublime doctrines of Chriftianity are fo proper to adminifter in every ftate, relation, and circumftance of life. A fet of miferable and unthinking creatures, fays he very juftly, treat with negligence, nay, fometimes with contempt, the religion of Jefus, not confidering that they are indebted to it for all the good things which they fo ungratefully enjoy.'

He now proceeds to give an account of the civil and religious ftate of the Jewish nation at the birth of Chrift. After mentioning fome of the principal matters that were debated among the three famous Jewish fects, he tells us, that none of them seemed to have the interefts of real and true piety at heart, and that their principles and difcipline were not at all adapted to the advancement of pure and fubftantial virtue.

The Pharifees, he fays, courted popular applause by a vain oftentation of pretended fanctity, and an auftere method of living, while, in reality, they were ftrangers to true holiness, and were inwardly defiled with the moft criminal difpofitions, with which our Saviour frequently reproaches them. They alfo treated the commandments and traditions of men with more. veneration, than the facred precepts and laws of God. The Sadducees, by denying a future ftate of rewards and punishments, removed, at once, the moft powerful incentives to virtue, and the most effectual restraints upon vice, and thus gave new vigour to every finful paffion, and a full encouragement to the indulgence of every irregular defire. As to the Effenes, they were a fanatical and fuperftitious tribe, who placed religion in a certain fort of feraphic indolence, and, looking upon piety to God as incompatible with any focial attachment to men, diffolved, by this pernicious doctrine, all the great bonds of hugan fociety.

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The multitude, we are told, were totally corrupt in their refigion and morals; funk in the moft deplorable ignorance of God, and of divine things; and had no notion of any other way of rendering themselves acceptable to the Supreme Being, than by facrifices, wafhings, and the other external rites and cere monies of the Mofaic law.

Various caufes, he fays, may be affigned for fuch enormous degrees of corruption in that very nation which God had, in a peculiar manner, feparated from an idolatrous world to be the depofitory of divine truth. First, It is certain, that the ancef tors of thofe Jews, who lived in the time of our Saviour, had brought from Chaldæa, and the neighbouring countries, many extravagant and idle fancies, which were utterly unknown to the original founders of the nation. The conqueft of Afia, by Alexander the Great, was, alfo, an event from which we may date a new acceffion of errors to the Jewish fyftem; fince, in confequence of that revolution, the manners and opinions of the Greeks began to fpread themselves among the Perfians, Syrians, Arabians, and likewife among the Jews, who, before that period, were entirely unacquainted with letters and philofophy. We may, farther, our Author fays, rank among the caufes, that contributed to corrupt the religion and manners of the Jews, their voyages into the adjacent countries, especially Egypt and Phænicia, in purfuit of wealth. For, with the treafures of thefe corrupt and fuperftitious nations, they brought home alfo their pernicious errors, and their idle fictions, which were imperceptibly blended with their religious fyftems. Nor ought we to omit, he fays, in this enumeration, the peftilential influence of the wicked reigns of Herod and his fons, and the enormous inftances of idolatry, error, and licentiousness, which this unhappy people had conftantly before their eyes in the religion and manners of the Roman governors and foldiers, which, no doubt, contributed much to the progrefs of their national fuperftition, and corruption of manners.

Dr. Mofheim concludes what he fays on this fubject with telling us, that the Jews multiplied fo prodigiously, that the narrow bounds of Palestine were no longer fufficient to contain them. They poured, therefore, their increafing numbers into the neighbouring countries, and that with fuch rapidity, that, at the time of Chrift's birth, there was fcarcely a pr vince in the empire, where they were not found carrying on commerce, and exercifing their lucrative arts.

All this, fays our Author, appears to have been moft fingularly and wifely directed by the adorable hand of an interpoling Providence, to the end that the people, which was the fole de pofitory of the true religion, and of the knowlege of one Supreme God, being spread abroad through the whole earth,

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might be every where, by their example, a reproach to fuperftition, contribute in fome meafure to check it, and thus prepare the way for that yet fuller difcovery of divine truth, which was to shine upon the world from the miniftry and gofpel of the Son of God.'

After a fhort view of the life and actions of our Saviour, Dr. Mofheim proceeds to the external, hiftory of the church in the first century and here he enquires, how it happened, that the Romans, who were troublefome to no nation on account of their religion, and who fuffered even the Jews to live under their own laws, and follow their own method of worship, treated the Chriftians with fuch feverity. One of the principal reafons of this feverity, he lays, feems to have been the abhorrence and contempt, with which the Chriftians regarded the religion of the empire, which was fo intimately connected with the form, and indeed with the very effence of its political constitution, For though the Romans gave an unlimited toleration to all religions, which had nothing in their tenets dangerous to the commonwealth, yet they would not permit that of their anceftors, which was established by the laws of the state, to be turned into derifion, nor the people to be drawn away from their attachment to it. Thefe, however, were the two things which the Chriftians were charged with, and that justly, though to their honour. They dared to ridicule the abfurdities of the pagan fuperftition, and they were ardent and affiduous in gaining profelytes to the truth. Nor did they only attack the religion of Rome, but alfo all the different fhapes and forms under which fuperftition appeared in the various countries where they exercifed their miniftry. From hence the Romans concluded, that the Chriftian fect was not only infupportably daring and arro gant, but, moreover, an enemy to the public tranquillity, and every way proper to excite civil wars and commotions in the empire. It is, probably, on this account, our Author imagines, that Tacitus reproaches them with the odious character of baters of mankind, and ftyles the religion of Jefus a destructive supertition; and that Suetonius fpeaks of the Chriftians, and their doctrine, in terms of the fame kind,

Another circumstance, that irritated the Romans against the Chriftians, we are told, was the fimplicity of their worship, which refembled, in nothing, the facred rites of any other people. The Chriftians had neither facrifices, nor temples, nor images, nor oracles, nor facerdotal orders; and this was fufficient to bring upon them the reproaches of an ignorant multitude, who imagined that there could be no religion without thefe. Thus they were looked upon as a fort of atheists; and, by the Roman laws, thofe who were chargeable with atheism were declared the pefts of human fociety. But this was not all:

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the fordid interest of a multitude of lazy and selfish priests were immediately connected with the ruin and oppreffion of the Christian caufe. The public worship of fuch an immenfe number of deities was a fource of fubfiftence, and even of riches, to the whole rabble of priests and augurs, and alfo to a multitude of merchants and artifts. And as the progrefs of the gofpel threatened the ruin of this religious traffic, and the profits it produced, this railed up new enemies to the Chriftians, and armed the rage of mercenary superstition against their lives and their caufe.

Our Author introduces his account of the ftate of learning and philofophy in the first century with obferving, that if we had any certain or fatisfactory account of the doctrines, which were received among the wifer of the eastern nations, when the light of the gospel firft rofe upon the world, this would contribute to illuftrate many important points in the ancient history of the church. But the cafe, he fays, is quite otherwife: the fragments of the ancient oriental philofophy that are come down to us, are few in number; and fuch as they are, they yet require the diligence, erudition, and fagacity of fome learned man, to collect them into a body, to arrange them with method, and to explain them with perfpicuity.

Of all the different fyftems of philofophy, continues he, that were received in Afia and Africa about the time of our Saviour, none was fo detrimental to the Chriftian religion, as that which was ftyled gnofis, or science, i. e. the way to the true knowledge of the deity, and which we have above called the oriental doctrine, in order to diftinguish it from the Grecian philofophy. It was from the bofom of this pretended oriental wiidom, that the chiefs of thofe fects, which in the three first centuries perplexed and afflicted the Chriftian church, originally iffued forth. Thefe fupercilious doctors, endeavouring to accommodate to the tenets of their fantastic philofophy, the pure, the fimple, and sublime doctrines of the fon of God, brought forth, as the refult of this jarring compofition, a multitude of idle dreams and fictions, and impofed upon their followers a fyftem of opinions, which were partly ludicrous, and partly perplexed with intricate fubtleties, and covered over with impenetrable obfcurity. The ancient doctors, both Greek and Latin, who opposed these fects, confidered them as fo many branches that derived their origin from the platonic philofophy. But this was pure illufion: an apparent refemblance between certain opinions of Plato, and fome of the tenets of the eastern schools, deceived these good men, who had no knowledge but of the Grecian philosophy, and were abfolutely ignorant of the oriental doctrines. Whoever compares the platonic and gnoftic philofophy together, will eafily perceive the wide difference that there is between them.

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