BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Hetirs W. Sage 1S91 [^'A^hSIil., 3D^/<>.t. 9963 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924071175545 Early Christian Ethics in the West Early Christian Ethics in the West From Clement to Ambrose By H. H. S.cullard M.A. (Lond. and Camb.), D.D. (Lond.), Professor of Church History, Christian Ethics, and History of Religions in New and Hackney Colleges, London ; Author of "St Martin, Apostle of Gaul," "John Howard" London Williams & Norgate 14 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden 1907 PREFACE While pursuing a course of study in the history of Christian Ethics I soon made the discovery that much of the land remained still unoccupied, and the hope arose within me that perhaps I might make some part of it my own. This small volume represents the result of my first labours to collect and arrange the ethical thoughts of the early Church writers. If time and other things permit, I hope at some future date to resume the inquiry and deal with the ethics of writers in the Eastern half of the Empire. The friendly criticism which this little book may evoke, together with the experience of the lecture room, will, I hope, make me a little better qualified for any sub- sequent work ; but in the present dearth of fvill and satisfactory histories of Christian Ethics I have thought it right to make public this Imperfect attempt to partially fill a conspicuous blank. The substance of the book was considered by the Senate of the University of London of suflUcient merit to constitute their main justification in awarding the vi PREFACE degree of Doctor of Divinity ; but both in the preparation of the work and in its revision I have had a larger purpose in view, and have regarded it as something more than a merely academical exercise. In the task of revision I have had the generous and most valuable assistance of the Rev. Dr A. Caldecott, Professor of Moral Philosophy in King's College, London, who has read over the proof sheets and made many useful suggestions. For any mistakes and blemishes remaining, as well as for opinions expressed, the author must, however, ask to be considered solely responsible. It has seemed best to present the views of the Church writers as far as possible in their own words ; but for the sake of convenience, I have, in most cases, adopted the English renderings, from the Ante-Nicene Library (with the kind permission of Messrs T. & T. Clark), instead of simply transcribing the Latin (or Greek) texts. H. H. S. November 1th, 1907. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGE I Object of the Work. The Limits Imposed. The Idea of Chris- tian Ethics. The Methods of Christian Ethics. The Writers Included. PART I THE GROUNDWORK Chapter I. God and Man 37 The Heathen Writers. Aristotle. Epicureans. Stoics. Plato. The Eclectics : Cicero, Plutarch, Maximus of Tyre, Apuleius, ApoUonius of Tyana. Neoplatonism. The Christian Writers, represented by Arnobius, Minucius, Lactantius, Hippolylus, Novatian. Chapter II. Man and the World . . . 87 Christian and Heathen Views. Minor varieties of Opinion seen in TertuUian, Cyprian, Clement, Irenseus, Ambrose. Chapter III. The Old Man and the New Man . .104 Different Ideas of Redemption. The Philosophers. The Mysteries. Church Writers, as Justin, Tatian, Cyprian and Lactantius. viii CONTENTS PAGE Chapter IV. The God-Man iz8 Incarnation, Heathen and Christian. Justin, Minucius, Arnobius, Lactantius, Clement, Cyprian, Irenaeus. PART II THE ETHICAL IDEAS Chapter I. The Highest Good i47 Clement, Hermas, Justin, Tatian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius, Commodianus, Arnobius, Lactantius, Ambrose. Chapter II. Duty ....... 190 Clement, Hermas, Justin, Tatian, Irengeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius, Novatian, Commodianus, Arnobius, Lactantius, Ambrose. Chapter III. Virtue . . ... 239 Clement, Hermas, Justin, Tatian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius, Commodianus, Victorinus, Arnobius, Lactantius, Ambrose. Conclusion .... 279 Index of Proper Names . 284 Index of Subjects .... 289 MODERN WORKS REFERRED TO For the sake of convenience the full titles are given here, and the author's name only subsequently, except in the case of a reference to a second work. Allen, A. V. G. . Alston, L. . Anrich Aub£, B. Baltzer, E. . Benson, E. W. Bethune-Baker, J. F. Bigg, C. boissier, g. Brace, C. L. Broddrib, a. a. Bruce, A. B. Bruce, W. S. Buckle, H. T. Continuity of Christian Thought. Stoic and Christian in the Second Century. Die Antike Mysterienwesen. Les Chretiens de I'Empire Romain. Musonius Characterbild aus der romischen Kaiserzeit. Cyprian — His Life : His Times : His Work. Introduction to the Early History of Christian Doctrine. Art. "Ethics," in Cambridge Theological Essays. The Church's Task under the Roman Empire. The Christian Platonists of Alexandria. La Fin du Paganisme. La Religion romaine. Gesta Christi. Pagan and Puritan. Apologetics. Social Aspects of Christian Morality. History of Civilisation in England. MODERN WORKS REFERRED TO Bull, G. bushnell, h. Caird, E. Caldecott, a. Chastel, E. Cheetham, S. Church, R. W. Carl-Clemen Cruttwell, a. CUMONT, F. . Davidson, W. L. . Davies, J. Ll. Denis, J. Dill, S. dobschutz, e. von dombart, b. Dorner, I. A. Drummond, J. Ebert, a. Engelhardt, M. von Erbkau Ewald, p. . Fairbairn, a. M. Ffoulkes, E. S. . Forrest, D. W. . Defensio Fidei Nicense. Sermons on Living Subjects. The Evolution of Religion. The Philosophy of Religion. Etudes Historiques sur I'Influence de la Charite. The Mysteries Pagan and Christian. The Gifts of Civilisation. Die religionsphilosophische Bedeutung des stoisch-Christlichen Eudamon- ismus in Justins Apologia. Literary History of Early Christianity. Mysteries of Mithra. Eng. trans, by T. J. M'Cormack. Christian Ethics. Art. "Ambrose," in D.C.B. Histoire des Theories et des Idees Morales dans I'Antiquite. Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius. Christian Life in the Primitive Church. Commodiani Carmina in Corp. Script. Ecc. Lat. System of Christian Ethics. Via, Veritas, Vita. Allgemeine Geschichte d. Literatur d. Mittelalters im Abendlande. Das Christentum Justins d. Martyers. De Eth. Princ. Irenseni. Der Einfluss d. Stoisch-Ciceronian- ischen Moral a. d. Darstellung d. Ethik b. Ambrosias. Christ in Modern Theology. Art. " Lactantius," in D.C.B. The Christ of History and Experience. The Authority of Christ. MODERN WORKS REFERRED TO xi FORSTER, D. Th. . Francke, K. B. . Friedlander, L. . Gass, W. Gore, C. Grant, W. . Gr^ard, O. . Gwatkin, H. M. . HiRSCHER, J. B. VON Harnack, a. Hatch, E. . Hauschild, G. R. Hyde, W. de Witt Illingworth, J. R. Ireland, J. . Jansen, p. H. Kirn, D. O. Klussmann, E. . Knight, W. Kruger, G. . KUHN, R. Lacordaire, T. B. H. Ambrosius Bischof von Mailand. Die Psychologic u. Erkenntnisslehre d. Arnobius. Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms. Geschichte der Christlichen Ethik. The Mission of the Church. The Ethics of Aristotle. De la Morale de Plutarch. The Knowledge of God. The Church Past and Present. Christlich moral als Lehre von der verwicklichung des Gottlichen Reiches in der Menscheit. Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte. Eng. trans. Grundriss der Dogmengeschichte. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church. Die rationale Psychologie u. Erkennt- niss Theorie TertuUian's. From Epicurus to Christ. Christian Character. Divine Immanence. Paganism and Christianity. Lactantius in Bibliothek der Kirchen- vdter, Grundriss d. Theologischen Ethik. " Arnobius und Lucrez," Philol, vol. xxvi. Christian Ethics. Grundriss d. altchristlichen Literatur in d. drei ersten Jahrhunderten. Eng. trans. Der Octavius des Minucius Felix. Les Conferences de Notre Dame. xil MODERN WORKS REFERRED TO Laurent, F. Lechler, G. V. . Lecky, W. . LiGHTFOOT, J. Lipsius, R. A. LooFS, F. LUDWIG, G. . luthardt, c. e. . Mansel, S. . Martensen, H. . Martha, C. Matheson, G. Mayor, J. B. Monceaux, p. MouLE, H. C. G. MOZLEY, J. B. MULLER, J. . mullerus, j. g. k. mullinger, j. b. Naville, H. a. . Neander, a. Oakksmith, J. Qrr, J. Ottley, R. L. Etudes sur I'Histoire de la Humanitd. Das Apostol und nachapostol Zeitalter. Eng. trans. History of European Morals. St Paul and Seneca in Epistle to Philippians. Art. "Irenesus," n.C.B. Leitfaden, d. Dogmengeschichte. Tertullian's Ethik in durchaus objective Darstellung. Geschichte d. Christlichen Ethik. Eng. trans. Art. "Apologists," Z>.C.^. Christian Ethics. Eng. trans. Les Moralistes sous I'Empire Romaine. Etudes morales. The Growth of the Spirit of Chris- tianity. Ancient Philosophy. Histoire litteraire de I'Afrique Chre- tienne. Art. "Arnobius," ZJ.C.^. Theory of Development. Die Christliche Lehre von der Siinde. Eng. trans. Quaestiones Lactantianse. Art. " Apollonius of Tyana," in D. C.B. Juhen I'Apostat. Geschichte d. Christliche Ethik. Religion of Plutarch. Neglected Factors in Early Church History. The Christian View of God and the World. Art. "Christian Ethics," in Lux Mundi. MODERN WORKS REFERRED TO xiii Rainy, R. . Rashdall, H. Rauch, G. . Renan, E. . Reville, J. . RiTSCHL, A. RiTTER, H. . Sainte Croix A. S. and E. M. S. Schmidt, C. R. C. S. SCHWEGLER, A. SiDGWICK, H. Smyth, N. . SOHM, R. Stanton, V. H. Stearns, L. F. Storrs, R. . Strong, T. B. TiELE, C. P. Thierry, A. Thamin, R. . Trench, R. C. Ueberweg, F. Uhlhorn. G. The Ancient Catholic Church. The Theory of Good and Evil. Der Einfluss d. Stoischen Philosophie a. d. Lehrbildung TertuUianus. Origines du Christianisme. La Religion a Rome sous les Severes. Die Entstehung d. altkatholischen Kirche. Geschichte der Christlich Philosophie. Geschichte d. Philosophie. Eng. trans. Recherches hist, et crit. sur les Mysteres d. Paganisme. Memoir of Henry Sidgwick. La Societe d. 1. Monde remain et sa transformation par le Christian- isme. Eng. trans. In Dublin Review, cxxxiv. Geschichte d. Philosophie im Umriss. Eng. trans. Outlines of the History of Ethics. Christian Ethics. Kirchengeschichte im Grundriss. Eng. trans. The Province of Christian Ethics. The Evidence of Christian Experience. Divine Origin of Christianity. Christian Ethics. Elements of the Science of Religion. Recits de I'Histoire romaine au V siecle. Un Probleme moral dans I'antiquite. Christ the Desire of all Nations. Grundriss der Geschichte der Phil- osophie. Eng. trans. Die Christliche Liebesthatigkeit. Eng. trans. xiv MODERN WORKS REFERRED TO Warburton, W. Wassenberg, F. Wernle, p. . Westcott, B. F. WiLKINS, A. S. Workman, H. B. Wuttke, a. Zeller Ziegler, Th. Zockler, O. The Divine Legation of Moses. Qusestiones Arnobianae Criticse. The Beginnings of Christianity. The Gospel of Life. Art. "Philosophy," in Smith's Diet. of the Bible. Christ the Light of the World. Persecution in the Early Church. Handbuch der Christ. Sittenlehre. Eclecticism in Greek Philosophy. Eng. trans. Outlines of Greek Philosophy. Eng. trans. Geschichte d. Christlichen Ethik. Die Tugendlehre des Christentums. EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN THE WEST INTRODUCTION OBJECT It is the object of this treatise to give some account of the history of Christian Ethics in the West from the close of the Apostolic Age to the death of Ambrose in the year 397 a.d. That period of three hundred years presents many fascinating problems to the student of Christian thought, but there is none of them which is at once so fruitful and so little exhausted, as the first presentation and development of Christian ethical re- flection after its liberation from apostolic guidance, and on Graeco-Roman soil. In spite of the importance of the subject, and the many learned and successful attempts to deal with different aspects of this many- sided question, it has not yet been worked with the same fulness and thoroughness as the closely-related field of Christian doctrine. I am not aware of any work in English, French, or German which exactly covers the ground traversed 2 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS in the following pages. Some have attempted less, confining their thought to the ethics of one of the Fathers, as Ludwig in his Tertulliafis Ethik in durchaus objective Darstellung, or Erbkau in his De Ethicum Principiis Irenaei, or even to one aspect of the ethics of one of the Fathers, as Ewald in Der Einfluss d. stoisch-ciceronianischen Moral a. d. Darstellung d. Ethik h. Ambrosius ; some have attempted more, and have sought to give a general account of Christian ethics through a much longer period, as Neander, Wuttke, Luthardt, Gass, and Ziegler ; others, again, have taken one particular part of ethics and traced its fortunes from the rise of Christianity, as Zockler in his Die Tugendlehre des Christentums ; while many have given valuable notices of the ethics of individual writers in their monographs on the life and work of a particu- lar Father, as FOrster in Ambrosius Bischof von Mailand ; but I know of no work which deals with a definite period from a purely ethical standpoint, though I do not forget Dobschiitz ; but his principle of selection, method, and object are somewhat different. Much help, however, towards understanding the ethics of the period selected may be gained from such writings as those named. We have also valuable accounts of Christian and heathen thinkers in the histories of Ritter, Ueberweg, Zeller, and others. Books on Christian doctrine, especially Harnack's, contain much material for a history of Christian ethics likewise. Literary his- tories, notably those of Ebert and of Mr Cruttwell, are INTRODUCTION 3 also useful ; while the labours of Friedlander, Boissier, R^ville, Martha, Cumont, Mr Dill, and others have thrown a brilliant light upon the general religious and moral life of the empire into which Christianity was born. Quite a large number of writers have also attempted to deal with the influence of Christian ideas on the life of the time, especially in the matter of philanthropy, as Troplong, Chastel, Storrs, Brace, Uhlhorn, and specially Schmidt ; nor should Lecky and Dr Bigg be forgotten. A list of works which I have used will be found elsewhere. It would have been easy to make it longer, but I hope that as it stands, it may be some indication that I have tried to understand the point of view of different schools of thought. Davidson's The Stoic Creed would have been added to the foregoing listj had I seen it sooner. Long lists of earlier books may be found in Dorner's System of Christian Ethics, and elsewhere. Some idea of the extent of my obligation to modern writers will be seen as the work proceeds ; and as these writers must not be held responsible for opinions which they have not directly expressed, I have thought it fairer in many cases to quote rather than paraphrase their words. I should not like to pro- ceed, however, without expressing particular indebtedness to my former tutor, the Rev. Dr Gwatkin, the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge, and also, though in somewhat different ways, to the writings of Harnack. I am not able so often to agree with the 4 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS latter, but few men have the same power of provoking thought and suggesting fresh points of view. THE LIMITS IMPOSED Three remarks ought perhaps to be made regarding the limits we have laid down. I. Why should we start at the end of the first century with Clement, rather than with the first preachers and apostles of the faith ? The answer is that the object of this work is not to present a treatise on Christian ethics, but to trace the early history of Christian ethical thought in the West, and that for this purpose Clement is a convenient starting-point. Christian writings had already proceeded from Rome, notably some of the Apostle Paul's epistles, but a very real gulf separates Clement from the Apostolic Age. All the New Testament books were — at least it appears to me — practically composed before Clement wrote, and he himself is f uUy conscious of the great diiference which separates his own writings from, e.g., the works of Paul. He feels that he must not write in his own authority, nor lay claim to the same power of giving instruction as the "blessed Paul the Apostle."^ And this modest disclaimer is even more impressive than a detailed assertion of the grounds of the distinction would have been. Clement had evidently no dogma to enforce or false theory to refute. His sense of inferiority to the apostles was rather a spiritual dis- 1 £p., cc. I and 47. Cf. Ep. Polycarp, c. 3. INTRODUCTION 5 covery than a dogmatic inference from a theory of Holy Scripture. He felt himself constrained by the consciousness of spiritual disparity to confess what must be evident to all ; he could not write as the apostles wrote. In whatever way we may explain the diiFerence, we cannot fail to recognise it. Clement's work is " illuminated by the evening red of apostolic splendour,"^ and permeated by a beautiful Christian spirit ; but it reflects the light, it adds nothing to it. Though Eusebius could speak of the epistle as fieyaXi] Koi OavfjLaa-la, and many have admired its beauty, it is rather because it faithfully reproduces something of the apostolic teaching than because of any original or independent merit which it may possess. To those who do not think that any special inspiration attaches itself to the books of the New Testament, or who do not believe that the Christian consciousness of believers in the churches had any power to fix, or any council of bishops' power to ratify, a list of canonical books, the division either between inspired or uninspired or between canonical and uncanonical, may seem more or less arbitrary ; but at least it is a possible distinction, and could hardly have arisen unless the diiFerence between the two classes of writings had been very great. And further, even in the matter of style (and " qualities of style are qualities of thought ") Clement may be said to have inaugurated a new era. The style of Clement is not the style of the New Testament writers. There 1 See Lechler, ii. 340. 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS is truth in the contrast, so sharply put by Boissier, that the gospels and epistles alone of all Christian writings owe nothing to Greek art ; that the stream is subse- quently contaminated by foreign affluents ; that even in Clement the influence of rhetoric has made itself felt.^ II. A second question is, naturally. Why stop at Ambrose ? Beyond the fact that the first three hun- dred years is in itself a long period, and the material considerable, two other reasons have weight : {a) The first is that Ambrose's successor was the great Augustine, who inaugurated a new period, and also by the worth and volume of his writings demands larger space than can very well be given here. Not that the dividing line is an absolute one ; — such lines are not to be looked for in the history of thought : — anticipations of some of Augustine's leading ideas may be found in Ambrose ; but by his treatment of the question of free- will and grace, and by his more satisfactory classifica- tion of the virtues (to mention only two points), he may be considered an innovator in the science of ethics. {}) And the second reason is that Ambrose does himself mark an extremely important stage or point in the history of Christian ethics. His De Officiis Ministrorum became a favourite text-book for the Middle Ages. His writings are comprehensive enough to represent the convergence of two distinct lines of thought, so that Roman Catholics and Pro- testants have alike claimed him as an authority for 1 II. 498. INTRODUCTION 7 their particular views. He is the first also thoroughly to break through the reserve which all previous writers maintain, and which was shared even by Jerome in the fourth century, in their use of heathen sources and heathen models. His De Officiis Ministrorum is so manifestly fashioned after the pattern of Cicero's well- known work, that it has been looked upon not only as a notable instance of " the characteristic dependence of the Christians on the philosophers for the scheme of their ethical thinking," ^ but even as a surrender — stock, lock and barrel — to Stoicism. " It is Stoical," said Hatch, " not only in conception, but also in detail. . . . The victory of Greek ethics was complete." ^ I am very far from being able to arrive at this con- clusion, and hope to present some considerations to justify my dissent in the following pages ; but the publication by the powerful Bishop of Milan of a book on Christian ethics in a Ciceronian costume is suffi- ciently significant to mark an epoch in the history of Christian ethics, explain the fact as we may." III. A third question Is, Why limit the writers to the West of the Empire .'' Again a two-fold reason, beyond the reduction of the material, may be assigned. [a) In the first place, it is customary to distinguish 1 Rainy, p. 435. ^ Hatch, p. 169. ^ The literature of the subject is considerable. Forster, p. 175, mentions the works of Vohringer, Pruner, Bittner, Leitmeir, Hasler, Reeb, Draseke, and Ewald. Many other writers have also inci- dentally given their opinions on the relation of Ambrose to Cicero. 8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS East and West as possessing certain well-defined characteristics. These make their appearance from the first, and continue throughout the period, becoming more marked with the progress of thought. Clement of Rome already indicates the line along which the Western Church will develop ; the author of the Epistle to Diognetus shows us a line more congenial to the East. Differences broaden, and a number of very effective contrasts can be drawn — as, for instance, between TertuUian and Origen ; Cyprian and Diony- sius of Alexandria ; Ambrose and Gregory of Nyssa. There is a good deal of intermingling of these different streams of tendency. Several of the Western teachers had been born and had lived in the East. Irenaeus belonged to Asia Minor, and never forgot his ante- cedents. Justin, according to his own statement, came from Samaria, and though he taught for some time at Rome, has more affinities with the East, and in particular with the Alexandrians, than with the West as represented by Carthage. Tatian, though he became a scholar and writer at Rome, was an Assyrian by birth. Hippolytus wrote in Greek and to a large extent thought in Greek ways, even after Latin became the language of the Roman bishops. Victorinus, on the contrary, though a Greek, wrote in Latin. Ambrose, and to a larger extent Hilary, were influenced by Basil and other Greek writers. And sometimes, no doubt, we meet with a more Western strain in the Fathers of the East. But the distinction is generally to be seen. INTRODUCTION 9 Even politically the East never blended with the West. Theologically, it remained separated by characteristic differences.^ Western writers are less speculative than the Greek, and less able to understand the subtilties of abstract thought. Law rather than metaphysics, organisation rather than speculation, fitted in with the temper of the Western mind. Even in their rhetoric the Westerns had a more practical aim. Several of them had been successful pleaders, and could not throw off the influences of their past training when they became Christians. Training as well as mental and national characteristics had something to do in giving colour and form to ethical ideas. Tertullian is generally regarded as the founder or father of Latin Christianity. It has been said that " he was the first, distinctly and luminously, to embody the Western spirit." ^ He had, no doubt, the greatest influence in moulding the speech and forms of thought of Western Christianity in his own day, and for many generations. But for our purpose here it is important to remember that the Western spirit was distinctly manifest before Tertullian, in writers like Clement ^ and ^ " The distinction between the Greek and Latin theologies has been made by every recent writer of any importance in the field of Church History." Allen, p. 9. ^ Fairbairn, p. 95. ' Allen can even say, " If we compare the Epistle to Diognetus with the Epistle of Clement of Rome .... we may note the divergence between Greek and Latin Christianity as clearly marked as at any later stage in history" (p. 103). lo EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Hermas ; that, side by side with this distinctly Western spirit, Eastern influences made themselves felt through Justin, Tatian, Irenaeus, and others, and that even when the Western Churches became Latin, Tertullian and Cyprian, though they had a predominant influence, had by no means sole sway over the thought even of the West. It is important to remember these things. The fact that "posterity approved their sayings " and glorified their work must not make us forget the other influences which were active out- side the main stream of tendency. It will be necessary frequently to take our eyes off North Africa, if we would do justice to the varied life of the Churches in the West, from Clement to Ambrose. {b) A second reason is to be found in the fact that the Western writers are, for the most part, more ethical than the Eastern. They had not the talent, as we have seen, for speculative or abstract philosophizing, but they were attracted powerfully by the more practical human interests. This is true, not only of Tertullian, but still more of Lactantius and Ambrose. Concerning the latter Forster says : " Das der abendlandischen Kirche eigen- thumliche Charisma der Ethischen Vertiefung und nachternen Prasung und Schriftmassigkeit, welches schon bei Tertullian in den anthropologischen Prob- lemen beobachtet werden konnte, findet sich auch bei Ambrosius in besonderem Masse, und es verdienst dies mehr, als es geschieht hervorgehoben zu werden." ^ 1 P. 128. INTRODUCTION 1 1 THE IDEA OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS ADOPTED It wiU not be necessary to say much regarding the idea formed of the meaning of Christian ethics. This will best be explained, and explain itself, as we proceed. Two or three things may, however, be premised. It may fully be granted that philosophical and Christian ethics have much in common. The subject- matter may be regarded as in large part the same. Nothing need prevent us from adopting the usual philosophical divisions, the Highest Good, Duty, and Virtue, and from giving to them that extension and transformation of meaning which they ought to possess in any Christian scheme. It is indeed quite possible, and very instructive, to attempt to put the body of Christian moral teaching into this ethical framework, and compare the result with the conclu- sions of merely philosophical reflection. When we do so, we are at once conscious of great differences, but also of many coincidences. Christian teaching has points of contact with the teachings of " nature," as the Apostle Paul himself plainly indicated, but it goes far beyond the limits imposed by any merely philosophical way of regarding human nature. The contention of the Christian moralist is that man must not be treated simply in reference to his " natural " condition and " natural " powers. He believes that a radical change is possible in man, and 12 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS that until that change has taken place he has not come into the possession of a nature fully and com- pletely human. Sin is a foreign element. The purity of human nature has been destroyed, or at least impaired, by sin. All reflection, therefore, as to what constitutes the highest good for man, or as to what is his duty, or as to that in which virtue consists, is liable to be vitiated by the presence of this disturbing element. The affirmations of the unrenewed heart of man cannot be implicitly relied upon, still less can the enfeebled will of the sinner lay hold of that limited good to which conscience prompts him. Both illumination and power are needed before a man becomes the proper subject of Christian morality. The human nature, then, which the Christian philosopher contemplates is not whoUy the same as that which the heathen philosopher argues from. The former is not less mindful than the latter of the dignity and powers or capacities of fallen man. He may " infer the grandeur of human nature from its ruins," but he believes in the possibility of reconstruction, renewal, regeneration, and that only as a new creation in Christ Jesus does a man become either a competent exponent or a true example of Christian morality. The Christian view of man is therefore related to the merely philosophical, but is far from being identi- cal with it. A Christian writer like TertuUian can say with equal truth, " Fiunt non nascuntur INTRODUCTION 13 Christiani " and " Testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae." ^ It follows, however, from this that no merely psycho- logical treatment of human nature will furnish a sure basis for Christian ethics. It is not simply by the contemplation of human nature as it now appears, but as it also is in the thought of God, that we can form a Christian ethic. This assertion at once suggests the absolutely necessary assumption or presupposition of Christian ethics. It is that the thought of God regarding the origin, present condition, and possibilities of human nature has been made known to us in Jesus Christ. We cannot see what human nature is, till we turn to Him. We cannot "come to the full-grown man " till we interpret the ideal according to " the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." We are powerless to attain to the new and perfect manhood except in and through Him.^ Similarly it is true that no metaphysic of ethics, constructed in unmindfulness of the Christian facts, 1 "Part, if not the whole, of the idea of the moral truth of the teaching of Christianity must be its truth to our nature, its fitness to human nature and human life, its power to develop to the utmost the moral capacities of man." Stanton, p. r6. 2 This, I believe, was the conviction of every writer included in this sketch, and goes to the root of Gnostic as well as heathen self-sufficiency. And not simply were the Christian's hopes centred upon Jesus Christ, but Christ Himself was within them, e.g. Hermas, Afand., 12. 4; Cyprian, ad Don., 4— two writers little influenced by the Logos doctrine. 14 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS will furnish a foundation for ethics specifically Chris- tian. It is significant that Christianity arose at a time when men had discovered that the metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle would not bear the weight of the new moral aspirations for which they wished to find a foundation. Ethics took up a position of relative independence. It planted itself upon the truth of human nature, and then unfortunately the first thing that it did was to mutilate the very nature upon the truth of which it hoped to rest. Stoicism failed partly because of its bad psychology. But it failed also because it had a defective metaphysic. And as Christianity corrected the psychology, so also it was bound to put something in the place of the defective metaphysics. This something came in due course. As Christian morality largely displaced Stoic morality, so the Christian facts led men to new ways of ap- proaching the old problems of God, the world, and self. It will therefore be necessary first of all to see how the Church writers attempted to grapple with these xxltimate facts. As a man's thoughts are con- cerning God, the world, and self, so will be his moral views, as far as they have consistency. An attempt will be made in the first part of this work briefly to indicate the position of some of the Christian writers, especially those most influenced by heathen philosophy. We must inquire first how heathen and Christian writers regarded man's relation to God and to the World. Having done that, the more specifically INTRODUCTION 15 Christian presuppositions of the new birth and salvation through the God-man will find their place. The two former, however, are as necessary as the latter in any complete account of Christian ethics. THE METHODS OPEN TO THE HISTORIAN There are several methods which might conceivably be adopted by a writer on the history of Christian ethics. I. One very natural method would be to try to determine as accurately as possible the leading principles, features, and contents of Christian ethics as presented in the earliest classical documents, viz., those of the New Testament, and then to inquire how these things fared in the succeeding generations — what parts of them reappear unsuUied and uninjured, what parts appear radically or materially changed by contact with foreign influences, what parts do not seem to emerge at all, and what, if anything, has been added. This is a difficult inquiry, but, carefvdly undertaken, it ought to yield some sure results. In connection with our period it might be, for instance, argued that no one from Clement to Ambrose has fully understood what lies at the very heart of Pauline ethics, "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," or, if they have fully understood it, have not continuously and consist- ently applied it. Or, again, it might seem to another that no one has fully apprehended the Pauline idea of the Church, and so done full justice to the society in 1 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS which the Christian ethic is to be realised, Mr Crutt- wellj in reviewing the ante-Nicene authors, finds it ^ only once in its perfect purity even in Eastern writers, viz., in the Epistle to Diognetus ; and we know the special difficulty Western minds had in conceiving anything but a well-defined and visibly organised society. Or we might single out the Christian doctrine of for- giveness, a doctrine which powerfully influences the quality of Christian conduct, and ask whether it appears unsuUied, say, in the pages of Hermas, or Cyprian, or Commodianus. Hermas is fiUed with joy when he learns that God is so merciful as to give him opportunity to repent " but once," and feels that new life has come to him now he knows that he wiU be saved, if in the future he sins no more.^ There is something quite pathetic in the cheerfulness of this constitutionally melancholy man, when he receives the intelligence that God is not so hard and austere a Master as he had imagined. We can hardly help wondering whether he had ever seen a copy of the Gospels. Had he never heard of the joy in Heaven over the repentant sinner, and the forgiveness unto seventy times seven, which was required from man towards his fellows, because it was the way of God with His children .'' 1 I.e. the Church " as a purely spiritual society, an aggregate of elect souls held together by a common union with their Lord " (ii, 540). 2 Mand., 4. 3. INTRODUCTION 17 But Cyprian at least had his New Testament open before him. Did he teach the free forgiveness of God as he had received it from Jesus Christ and His apbsdes ? Did he add nothing to, or take nothing from, the fulness and richness of unmerited grace ? Commodianus was a stern and earnest preacher of righteousness and Christian beyond some of the Church writers in parts of his teaching, but he fails in not sufficiently grounding repentance on the redeeming love of God in Christ. The Gospel is a superadded law.^ Salvation and eternal life come through the righteousness of the law.^ It is the holy law of God which teaches the dead to live.* The Highest will be merciful to the penitent if he does not go far from his mother the Church, if he weeps openly, puts his head in the dust and wears sackcloth.* "We can notice throughout in Commodianus the influence of the institution of penance, that measuring tape of the extent to which Church and world are entwined." ^ Though Commodianus has some hard things to say against the Jews,® and against the half-Jews,'' he has not quite succeeded in emancipating himself from " the beggarly elements of the world." We are more than once reminded of the Judaizers in Galatia. Or we might take the idea of self-discipline, whether we call it asceticism * or austerity.* No one can doubt 1 Instr., c. 37. ^ Ibid., c. 21. ^ Ibid., c. 35. * Ibid., c. 49. * Harnack, iii. p. 79. * Intr., 38. ■^ Ibid., 37. * lUingworth, p. 60. ^ Gwatkin, i. 81. 2 1 8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS that both in the Gospels and in the Epistles the idea is prominent and well-defined. Yet it is equally certain that the idea, as it makes its appearance in TertuUian or Cyprian or Jerome, is not quite the same as it was for the apostles. It is not simply that its point of applica- tion is changed. That might be done without doing any violence to the original idea. It is that its proper meaning is obscured. Self-mortification acquires an independent value. Its motive is changed. And so we might go round the whole circle of New Testament ideas, and try to find them, changed or unchanged, in the writings of each of the Fathers. Very fortunate, and very exceptional in its good fortune, would be the idea which retains all its apostolic glory in each of the writers of our period. Separating our- selves for the moment as far as possible from the more dogmatic foundation ideas of Christian ethics, and looking simply at the manifestations of the moral life in the Christian, can it be said that even the three graces of faith, hope, and love always have the exact signifi- cance for Church writers that they have in the New Testament ? From the centre to the circumference of ethical doctrine fluctuations are common. It can hardly be maintained that we have a perfectly Christian ethic in any of the Fathers. , No doubt there may be many differences of opinion in estimating the Christian or non-Christian elements in any particular writer. It is hardly possible to be sure in every case that we have correctly interpreted the INTRODUCTION 19 spirit as well as the actual words of an author, especially if his works are of a fragmentary character. Dogmatic prepossessions are hard for the critic to eliminate from his own mind. But no one can harmonise all the con- flicting opinions of the Fathers either with one another or with Holy Scripture. Perhaps the divergence of opinion is greatest in the case of Cyprian. One class of writers is inclined to see in him the true type of Christian moralist. Monceaux, for instance, thinks that Cyprian always supported himself on Scripture texts and drew from them all rules of conduct, and sees in this practice a reason for rejecting the Cyprianic authorship of De Spectaculis and De Bono Pudicitiie. He further asserts that, of all the authors of early times, with the exception of the evangelists and apostles, Cyprian is perhaps the only one who always thought as a Christian.^ And yet concerning this same teacher, "who always thought as a Christian," it has been said : " Yet Cyprian it was who showed how to shape the Gospel by the principles of Roman religion. He was a practical man, who took his ideas from the air around him, without seriously thinking them out for himself ; and these ideas are mostly heathen " ; ^ and by another distinguished scholar : " A Church capable of being permanently satisfied with such doctrines (viz., the two Cyprianic doctrines of the extirpation of our common sinfulness by baptism, and the expiation of 1 II. no and 240. ^ Gwatkin, The Church Past and Present^ P- Qi. 20 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS post-baptismal sin solely by spontaneous acts of sacrifice under the guidance of kind Mother Church) would very soon have lost the last remains of her Christian character." ^ Yet divergences of opinion such as these will not prevent the earnest student from endeavouring to ascertain the facts. Nor is it any argument against the ethics of the Gospel to admit that they have been very imperfectly understood by some honoured names in the list of Church writers, and were very imperfectly applied in the new times and circumstances in which the Fathers found themselves. The spirit of the Christian morality is so different from that of the natural man, and so contrary to that of the schools in which the Fathers had been trained, and to the whole atmosphere in which their work had to be accomplished, that we should expect repeated misconceptions and misapplications. We should further remember that most of the Christian writers were "converts," and so likely to emphasise particular points of doctrine to the exclusion of others,* and associate them with some part of their past stock of ideas or former methods of apprehending truth. II. Another method would be to start from the supposed vantage ground of twentieth-century Catholi- cism, or scientific knowledge, and judge the products of all the centuries, including the first, as imperfect representations and partial expressions of the fuller truth that has been revealed to us. But whether that 1 Harnack, ii. p. 140. ^ Gwatkin, ii. 81. INTRODUCTION 21 method be adopted in the interests of an organised Church, or in the name of philosophy, it appears to the present writer unjustified. The theory of development associated with the name of J. H. Newman has been in my judgment sufficiently refuted from the historian's point of view to make further comment upon it needless here.^ And with regard to our supposed better position in regard to ethical knowledge, I do not see how it can be maintained that the twentieth century is more advanced than the first. Increased insight into the mean- ing of moral principles may have come in our day to the many rather than to the few ; new points of application may have been suggested by an advancing civilisation ; but, according to the general consensus of those best entitled to form an opinion on such a subject, we have not yet got beyond the moral teaching of the Christian writers of the first century. The ethical truths which the men of the first and second generation associated with Jesus Christ still hold the field. Jesus Christ is very generally acknowledged, as a moral teacher, to be supreme. This, at any rate, I take to be the Christian position, and one justified at the bar of history by the testimony of the most enlightened. In our knowledge of moral and spiritual truth we have not advanced beyond the point reached by the first immediate disciples of Christ, who received their teaching directly from Him, and under the enlightenment of His Spirit. 1 £.^. Fairbairn, p. 25; Gore, p. 325 Mozley; Gwatkin, ii. 267. 22 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS To them was presented, both in word and deed and living reality, the absolute ideal of morality. They recorded, of course, only as much as they saw of the infinite fulness of grace and truth in Jesus Christ. But have they left out anything essential ? Has any defect in the portrait been acknowledged by the most thoughtful and spiritual in any age since the first ? Jesus Christ (that is to say the Jesus Christ of the Gospels and Epistles) is supreme as teacher and example and ideal in the domain of morals. If not, belief in His Divinity vanishes, and with it the whole structure of the Christian faith, in which case there would be no history of Christian ethics to write. If some new and brighter ethical idea were to appear, like a newly-dis- covered star in the heavens, Christians would wish first of all to compare it with ideas already recognised as Christian. If it did not agree with the recorded teaching of Jesus, they would reject it, or at least hold judgment in suspense till further means of comparison came to hand. If it did agree, they would probably ascribe its appearance to the same Jesus who once spoke on earth, but now speaks to men from heaven. But the remarkable fact is that no such idea ever does seem to make its appearance. Is it possible to point to one moral discovery since the New Testament was written .'' The apparently stationary character of morality, as contrasted with other provinces of thought, is not a fact which meets the writer on Christian ethics only. INTRODUCTION 23 Philosophers have said the same. Buckle thought that the great dogmas of which moral systems are com- posed have been known for thousands of years, and drew therefrom the very inconsequential conclusion that the progress of civilisation was due to science rather than morals.^ Indeed, so striking is the apparent fixity and finality of the abstract principles of morality, as to lead us to ask, not simply whether there has been any progress during the last eighteen hundred years, but even whether Christianity itself introduced any novelty. Renan tells us that Christianity com- menced in the eighth century B.C., and that in one sense Isaiah rather than Jesus of Nazareth should be regarded as its founder.^ And in another place, not quite consistently with his Isaiah-theory, he expresses still more drastically his idea, " In religion and in morality invention is nothing ; the maxims of the Sermon on the Mount are as old as the world .... the essential thing is to realise the maxims, and make them the foundation of society " ; a thing which the personality of Jesus effected.^ We recall, too, the large place which the thought of " Christianity as old as Creation " once held in our own country. And it is not merely writers such as the above who reduce the novelty of Christ's ethical principles, or even deny that kind of originality. Men like Trench and Westcott were very far from claiming absolute 1 P. 102 ; cf. Sir James Mackintosh's well-known views. 2 Vol. vii., p. s, pref. ^ Vol. vii., pp. 511-2. 24 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS originality for the moral teaching of Jesus. "That which differences Christianity and aU other religions is not in its theory of morals ; this is a most real, yet, at the same time, only a relative difference, for there were ethics before there were Christian ethics." ^ And Westcott says of Christ : " He gathered into a brief compass and without admixture of alloy the noblest rules of life. He placed them in a natural connection with the fulfilment of the simplest offices of common duty. He gave them, so to speak, a natural univer- sality which man as man can at once acknowledge. He embodied them in an example which no lapse of time or change of circumstance can make less supreme in its attractiveness, but the Sermon on the Mount is neither the essence of His message to the world, nor, except incidentally, characteristic of it." ^ Our immediate point of consideration, however, is not the amount of new material, great or small, intro- duced into ethical science by the influence of Chris- tianity, but the comparatively stationary character of Christian morals. So far as the science of ethics is concerned, the world has not got beyond the first age of Christian teaching. Philosophers have discovered 1 Trench, p. 140. 2 P. 266. Something will be said later on the distinctive marks of Christian morals, and the comparative method made use of in the essay may suggest many of them to the reader. There is a list of six "distinctive features" in Davidson, pp. 4-1 1, but no mere list is quite satisfactory. See also W. S. Bruce, c. 2 and 10. Knight's Christian Ethics. INTRODUCTION 25 nothing new. The Christian Church has discovered nothing new. The principles of Christian morality have been brought into relation with the thought and culture of the ages, and have been variously applied, but they have not been transcended or superseded.^ There seems no reason, therefore, for adopting the second method in either of its forms. III. Another possible method would be to compare the moral ideas found in writings professedly Christian with the ideas as they appear in writers not avowedly Christian, or openly antagonistic to the Christian faith. And no doubt this is the better course to pursue. I propose, therefore, to pass briefly in review some of the principal moral ideas which confronted the Christian Church in the first four centuries, and compare them with the corresponding ideas found on Christian soil. From their resemblances and differences, their alliances and their conflicts, some conception of the course of Christian ethics in the West will be gained. There seems to be no reason why these two methods of studying the history of Christian ethics, the method of comparison with heathen ethics, and the method of comparison with the classical documents of the New Testament, which was first indicated, should not be 1 According to this view the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the meaning of the moral teaching of the New Testament in relation to the varied needs of men, in new circumstances and at different stages of their growth. For a careful treatment of the subject see Rashdall, ii. 180. 26 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS carried on at the same time. Christian writers of the second, third, and fourth centuries occupy a position between that of the apostoHc writers and that of current heathenism, though very much nearer to the former than to the latter. No attempt will be made here to carry out .either line of inquiry exhaustively. It would be tedious to challenge every statement of the Fathers, as it meets us, with the twofold question as to whether it was in accordance with New Testament teaching, and whether it differed from the corresponding asser- tions of Plato and Aristotle, the Stoics and the Epicureans. My object is rather to present the evidence from the Church writers with sufficient fulness to illustrate the different points, contenting myself with indicating some of those departures from New Testament teaching which seem to me most serious, and some of the contrasts with heathen thought which appear most radical. THE WRITERS INCLUDED In his History of Early Christian Literature, KrUger has drawn up a conspectus of the ante-Nicene writers, arranged according to place and date. Of these, omitting scriptural writings, he enumerates about twenty-five as belonging to the West, and six as uncertain or unknown. Even this list is not quite complete, as reference to the body of his work shows. But it is complete enough for our purpose. The writer with the greatest claim to be added is Victor INTRODUCTION 27 of Rome, if, as Harnack thinks, he was the author of De Aleatoribus. We may, however, very quickly reduce the list. And first with regard to the six uncertain authors. The three anti-heretical writers, Agrippa Castor (who wrote against Basilides), Musanus (who wrote against the Encratites), and Modestus (who wrote against Marcion), can be at once dismissed. For even if one or more of them should have any claim to be regarded as Western, they are practically unknown. Next, Athenagoras may be dismissed. He has sometimes been assigned to Alexandria, but most writers seem to have no doubt that he belonged to Athens. His doctrine of the resurrection and the use made of his writings by IVIinucius Felix are inter- esting if slight points of contact with the West ; but I am not aware of any reason for assigning him to the Western half of the empire. More might possibly be said for the author of the so-called second epistle of Clement. Harnack assigns this sermonic piece of literature to Rome. Lightfoot, however, decided in favour of Corinth. Commodianus is therefore the only one of the six uncertain authors who concerns us directly. He wrote in Latin, and belongs to the West. His works are very important in helping to fill in the picture of moral life and thought in the third century. With regard to the others — Victorinus of Petau represents the northern border of the West towards the close of the third century. Irenaeus may be taken 28 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS as sufficiently representing Gaul in the second century ; and possibly Lactantius should be mentioned in connec- tion with that part of the empire at the beginning of the fourth century.^ North Africa is well represented by TertuUian, Cyprian, Arnobius, and possibly Lactantius. This still leaves us with sixteen names associated with Rome or Italy. If the view taken of Christian ethics here be correct, we may dismiss from considera- tion the Gnostics, Marcion, Valentinus, and the two Italian scholars of the latter, Heracleon and Ptolemaeus. Again, we have only fragments of Rhodo,^ Cornelius, and Dionysius (the latter of fair size, but theological in character, being concerned with the generation of the Son by the Father). Hegesippus is important only indirectly, as along with Irenaeus settling the orthodox method of determining the substance of the apostolic faith. If Caius is not to be identified with Hippolytus, he may be dismissed with the remark of Eusebius that he was a most learned and orthodox man, and a vigorous opponent of Montanist and Millenarian views. The ante-Nicene authors who claim special notice 1 Ffoulkes, art. " Lact." Jansen, p. 7. 2 The fragment of Rhodo is a remarkable one. In it we find an apparently orthodox churchman laughing at a heretic, because he cannot say how "there could be one uncreated God," and that heretic, a follower of the Gnostic Marcion, saying that a man ought not to examine his creed, but that those who rested their hopes on the Crucified would be saved, provided they were found practising good works (Euseb., Ecc. Hist., v. 13). INTRODUCTION 29 in the history of ethical thought in the West will then be the following : — Clement, Hermas, Justin, Tatian, Irenseus, belonging to the second century ; Hippolytus, Novatian, TertuUian, Cyprian, Minucius Felix, Com- modianus, and Victorinus, to the third ; Arnobius and Lactantius to the early fourth. For the rest of the fourth century by far the most important name is Ambrose. Hilary's work lay in another direction, and Jerome lived on well into the fifth century, though he was a powerful influence at Rome before the close of the fourth century. Indeed, Thierry has said of him : " Plus qu'aucune de ses con- temporain Jerome est un homme du IV* sifecle " ; ^ but in ethics he represents an extreme tendency and cannot be regarded as the typical Western writer. Among other writers Zeno of Verona deserves mention,^ especially for his insistence upon love as the chief of the virtues and the highest duty. The Spanish poet Prudentius is to be remembered for his description of the soul's battle against sin, in which faith triumphs over infidelity, purity over lust, patience over anger, humility over pride, temperance over gluttony, alms- giving over covetousness, and concord over enmity ; but he takes us into the fifth century. Arnobius, Lactantius, and Ambrose seem therefore to be suffi- ciently representative names for the Western part of Christendom in the fourth century. As they have written at considerable length (especially the two last) 1 P. 33. ^ See Luthardt, pp. 203-4. 30 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS upon ethical subjects, we may content ourselves with incidental allusions to other writers and devote a little more space to these. Several remarks should be made upon the list ot writers now obtained. ORDER The order of the names is substantially that given above, though some of the dates — for instance, those of Hermas, Victorinus, and Commodianus — are variously given. The most serious question is as to the priority of Minucius Felix or TertuUian. I followed Massebieu, Monceaux, and others, as against Krttger, Ebert, and other scholars, in assigning the priority to TertuUian.'' There is little doubt in my own mind that TertuUian is the original and Minucius the imitator. Minucius was a man of letters, but not an original thinker. TertuUian, though he too knew how to borrow, was a man of much greater intellectual force. VARIETY More important is it to note the variety among the writers. We have different parts of the empire re- presented, and local influences help to determine a writer's attitude to moral questions. The birthplace or nationality of the writer introduces a further distinc- tion — witness, Tatian the Assyrian and Justin the Samaritan. Hippolytus and Victorinus were of Greek origin. Ambrose of Milan was very different in 1 See Massebieu, p. 3165 Monceaux, i. 484, etc. INTRODUCTION 31 temperament from the fiery Carthaginian, TertuUian. Social position and early training also count for much. Many of the writers had belonged to the professional or official classes. Quite a considerable proportion had been well trained in the principles and practice of Roman law. They are nearly all well-educated men, above rather than below the level of heathen culture around them, but significant differences are found. The " shop-keeper " ^ Hermas can hardly be placed side by side with the aristocratic Ambrose. Com- modianus wrote barbarous Latin verses, but probably to please his rustic audiences, for, as Dombart ^ has shown, he was acquainted with Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius, and possibly other Latin authors. Neither Lactantius nor Jerome seem, it is true, to have set a very high estimate upon the intellectual or literary powers of the writers who preceded them ; neverthe- less Cyprian (though he despised heathen rhetoric), and still more Minucius Felix, and Lactantius himself, are worthy of a place alongside the better Latin writers. ATTITUDE TOWARDS HEATHEN CULTURE One very important illustration of the variety which is to be found in the writers we are considering is their attitude towards heathen philosophy. The short letter of Clement does not reveal any philo- sophical interests. The object of the writing is a specifically Christian one, and the author plants himself 1 Dobschiitz, p. 313. ^ P. vii. 32 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS firmly on the Old Testament and the authority of Paul. Hermas does not trouble himself with heathen culture ; he is a seer and not a philosopher, still less a fine writer. Justin was very conciliatory towards the philosophers, especially Plato and the Stoics. Tatian was the champion of " barbaric " wisdom against that of Greece. Irenseus had seen enough of the influence of philosophy on the Gnostic writers to be cautious and distrustful. Tertullian expresses himself contemptuously, but had wide knowledge of current thought, and was deeply influenced by the Stoicism which he professed to despise. Hauschild ^ maintains, that under cover of Revelation Tertullian was willing to accept any conception of God or of things divine which could be made to support his own views. Towards the close of his career he adopted the philosopher's mande. He wished to be regarded in the light of a practical philosopher such as Epictetus. Christianity was to be considered in nowise inferior to Stoicism.^ Arnobius cannot find foundation for his faith in philosophy, but he has considerable knowledge of philosophical writers. The knowledge of Lactantius is also remarkably wide. Jerome, though he asks what Horace and the Psalms, Virgil and the Gospels, 1 P. I. See also Rauch, p. 7. 2 Boissier, i. 287, has a full discussion concerning the mantle. For TertuUian's views of the philosophers, see especially ApoL, 21, 42, 46, 47, and 48 ; De Anima, 2, 3, 20, etc. ; De Prmsc, 7 ; De Spec, 2 ; De Pallio, 6. INTRODUCTION 33 Cicero and the apostles have in common, and vows that he is willing to be regarded as a castaway if he opens another volume of Plautus or Cicero, cannot altogether escape from their influence.-^ Ambrose does not even attempt to do so. In this connection, too, should be mentioned the various ways in which the writers were led from heathen philosophy to Christianity. Justin, Tatian, Cyprian, and Arnobius, for instance, have shown us what it was in Christianity that specially attracted them. FRAGMENTARY AND UNSYSTEMATIC Another point to be kept constantly in mind is the fragmentary, occasional, and unsystematic character of many of the writings. We cannot expect to be able to construct complete systems of ethics from a letter of Clement, or a fragment of Victorinus, or a brochure of Minucius Felix. Even in the case of some of the more voluminous writings much is wanting. And in all, even in Lactantius and Ambrose, though the material is abundant and part of the work done for us, it is not systematically arranged. There is always the danger, therefore, that in rearranging the matter, we may slightly alter the sense. Yet it is natural to wish to put the scattered fragments into some kind of shape and order. We can at least collect some of the disjointed and often conflicting notions and place them alongside the ideas which form the foundation and contents of 1 Eps. 18 and 25. 3 34 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Christian ethics. As a New Testament Theology or a New Testament Ethics seeks to give an account of ideas contained in books which are occasional, fragmentary, and, from this point of view, unmethodical in form, so we may attempt a presentation of the varying and partially expressed views of ecclesiastic writers. RELATION TO ONE ANOTHER The relation of the writers or writings to one another is also a point of great interest. How far are they dependent upon one another .'' Sometimes the connections are very obvious. For instance, Irenaeus used Justin, or TertuUian made use of both. Cyprian had TertuUian constantly at his elbow, and though he introduces characteristic changes, he borrows whole sections from his master. Hippolytus is de- pendent on Irenaeus, and makes use of TertuUian. A similar remark may be made of Novatian. Minucius Felix borrowed largely from TertuUian. Arnobius seems to have had little knowledge of other ecclesias- tical authors, and his connection with Lactantius is not quite clear.^ Ambrose, Harnack thinks, had not read Cyprian." Other connections, as those between Com- modianus and Cyprian, or Commodianus and Hermas, are not quite so obvious. If there are many links of connection, there are also many indications of inde- pendence. There was no such thing as conscious co-operation towards a system of ethics. 1 See Ffoulkes, art. " Lact." 2 V. p, 48. PART I THE GROUNDWORK CHAPTER I GOD AND MAN In one of his brilliant orations at Notre Dame/ Lacordaire referred to the sterility of the imagination in the sphere of worship. All the religions of man- kind might be classified, he thought, according to three types, or regarded as springing from three chief trunks. These, neglecting Judaism, which is Chris- tianity without its crown, are Christianity, Islam, and Idolatry. The determinative idea in each case is the idea of the relation man sustains to God. In Idolatry the human and the divine are so confused as to be identified : in Islam they are so severed as to be con- sidered incompatible : in Christianity alone are they intimately associated, and yet absolutely distinct. The idol, the crescent, and the cross are symbols of all possible theologies. It is not necessary here to inquire whether the wider knowledge of the religions of the world, which has resulted from the keen interest with which the subject has been pursued since Lacordaire spoke, has 1 S4th. 38 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS tended in any way to modify this very simple and radical classification. But it is an eminently convenient one, and from the point of view of ethics is obviously of the greatest interest. To determine the relation between the human and the divine is the first task of anyone who wishes faithfully to describe the peculiarity of Christian ethics. The first remark which naturally occurs to one to make is that in the period under consideration Mohammedanism had not yet arisen. We have not that particularly aggravated instance of the isolation of the human and the divine to consider. But the type itself is found. It belongs to human nature rather than to Mohammed, and is not the exclusive posses- sion of an age or people. The transcendence of God was not a discovery of the Arabian prophet ; and transcendence is only too likely to carry with it the idea of the incongruity of the human and the divine. Similarly it may seem a somewhat harsh procedure to stigmatise, as this classification seems to demand, so much of the religious life of the Roman empire as sheer idolatry. For what we are chiefly con- cerned with here is not the religion of the crowd, but rather that of the best representatives of the religious and moral life of the empire. And yet it may be that truth demands it. The noblest of the Stoics in their noblest moods never completely emancipated themselves from the idolatry incident GOD AND MAN 39 to their way of regarding the truth of the divine immanence,-^ It may be desirable, therefore, to pass briefly in review the various ideas entertained by the principal heathen philosophers regarding this all-important relationship, before we proceed to state the views of Church writers on the subject. It will simplify the inquiry if we confine ourselves to the current systems of religion and morality which were most powerfully affecting the general life of the age. For other purposes it might be desirable to be much more minute and comprehensive. Many have rightly gone back to the beginnings of philosophical reflection in Greece, and traced the development of thought first on Greek and then on Roman soil. In his History of Christian Ethics, Wuttke thought it well to begin with ancient Egypt some thousands of years before the Christian era ; and Westcott, wishing to make clear the conditions of philosophical thought in the empire in which Christianity arose, included a sketch not only of Old Testament philosophy but also of the pre-Socratic schools of Greece.^ But we cannot always go back even to the seventh century B.C. At any rate much must be taken for granted here, and much left unsaid. The avowedly sceptical or atheistic systems do not concern us. If there be no God, or if nothing can be 1 Cf. lUingworth, Divine Immanence, p. 35. 2 Art. " Philosophy," Z>.^. 40 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS certainly known concerning Him, it is evident that man's relation to Him cannot be determined, and such denials and doubts need not be considered. What seems desirable is as briefly as possible to state the positive contributions to the solution of the problem, or to try and determine whether a sure foundation for ethics can be found in any philosophical conception of the relation between God and man as held by the philosophies then current. Aristotle There can be no doubt that Aristotle's philosophy, and in particular his ethics, had some influence on the thoughts of man both outside and inside the churches during our period. There continued to be a succession of teachers of the Peripatetic school, amongst whom we have records of Aspasius and Adrastus who flourished under Hadrian.^ Herminus was a contemporary of Irenaeus, Aristocles of Messene and Alexander of Aphrodisias were contemporary with Tertullian. But the two latter deviated considerably, though in difi^erent ways, from their master. In his doctrine of God Aristocles approximated to the Stoic view of God as the soul of the world ^ ; while Alexander, by identifying the higher part of man with the divine spirit operating on the world, and by denying the immortality of the soul, at once confused the divine and human and also reduced the value of the latter. Even earlier than 1 Zeller, p. 296. 2 /^^-^^ p ^gy. ARISTOTLE 41 these writers the Peripatetic author of De Mundo had tried to eiFect a compromise between his own school and Stoicism by assuming that while God is in essence outside the world, His energy is exerted within it.^ Pure Aristotelian doctrine is therefore difficult to find, though the school continued to flourish. At the beginning of the fourth century Lactantius could still speak of the Pythagoreans, the Stoics, and the Peri- patetics as " principes omnis disciplinae " or (according to a various reading) " principes omnium disciplinae." ^ But eclecticism was the spirit of the age. Foreign elements were introduced into the school, while, on the other hand, some parts of the Peripatetic teaching were appropriated by other schools. For the most part men did not take the trouble to master the system of Aristotle. Even Cicero was most imperfectly ac- quainted with it.^ The age was, in factj impatient of systematic and thorough philosophical construction. " Philosophers were content to assume that their first 1 Ibid., p. 284. ^ Div. Inst, ii. 9. ^ Grant (i. 372) has expressed himself strongly concerning the ignorance of Cicero. " When we come to Cicero, who may be regarded as a fair representative of the philosophical culture of the first century B.C., we find that he knows nothing about Aristotle's ethics." Ritter (iv. 128) thinks he did not sufficiently distin- guish between the views of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoa in their theories of knowledge. Zeller has referred to his misconception of Aristotle's view of the essence of God. Donaldson {New. Crat., 339) points out Cicero's confusion of hiriKs^ia. and evSe'Xexcta, in which he was followed by Arnobius (see note in Bryce and Campbell's translation). 42 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS principles of ethics were sufficientiy proved by the average opinion of the nations around them. . . . One part of the philosophy of Aristotle had nothing to represent it in that of the Stoics and Epicureans ; and unfortunately there was no possibility of thorough work without the missing part." ^ This being so, we should hardly expect to find many references to Aristotle in the writings of the Fathers of the Church. TertuUian refers to his view of the im- passibility of the divine principle in the mind," and to his idea that demons have power over men's dreams.' Tatian refers to his folly in limiting Providence, and making happiness consist in external things,* also to his disbelief in the immortality of the soul.* Arnobius speaks of him as a man of powerful intellect, but as though his own information were second-hand.® Hippolytus refers to Aristotle's doctrine of the mean.'' Lactantius claims his authority, though hesitatingly, for the unity of God.* He refers to his view of the eternity of the world,* and speaks at length on the Peripatetic doctrine of the affections and of the golden mean. Ambrose thinks that he cannot be compared with Abraham,^" notices his limitations of Providence,^* and refers to his doctrine of the soul.*" 1 Gwatkin, i. p. 302. '^ De ^n., 12 ; cf. 14. and 15. 3 IbiJ., 49. * Mv. Gi., 2. 5 jiij^^ 25. 8 j4dv. Gen., iii. 31. 7 fragment on Proverbs. 8 Div. Inst., i. 5. 9 /M., vii. i. ^0 De Jirah., li. 10, -JO. " iJe Qfi, i. 13, 48. ^^ Ep. ;i4. ARISTOTLE 43 But Aristotle was not a favourite with the Fathers we are specially interested in. No doubt they had good reason for their distrust, those of them at least who knew anything about his teaching. They did not like his theory of happiness, nor his views on Providence. But apart from this, as Mansel remarks, " His philosophy was so strongly physical as to lie in great part out of the Christian's range of thought." ^ We may regret this neglect of Aristotle, especially in the interests of ethics. A deeper sympathy with his view of the good things of the present life might have been a valuable corrective for the false asceticism and extravagances to which some of the Church teachers were liable. It might have taught them, in default of a full under- standing of the Gospel which Paul preached, that godli- ness has a promise of the life that now is as well as that which is to come. But the fact remains. Neither within the Church, nor outside of it, was the influence of Aristotle predominant. It is not, therefore, a matter of the first importance to determine the Aristotelian conception of the relation of the human and the divine, except as aflFording another contrast to the Christian conception over and above those which are furnished by the more prevalent philosophies of the time. And Aristotle's is too great a name to allow us to pass silently by it. Speaking generally, it may be said that Aristotle's Conception of God was non-human and non-moral, and 1 Art. "Apologists," D.R.B., i. p. 43. 44 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS therefore there could be no proper intercourse between God and man. Religion with Aristotle was only another name for metaphysics : man's relation to God was simply one of philosophical contemplation. There is nothing in Aristotle's conception of God to furnish a basis for moral obligation. Man does not stand in any well-defined, living, and personal relation to God. God is, no doubt, to him, in some sense, a person. We must not confound his doctrine with pure pantheism. But he is too vague and abstract to be of any service in the formation of a moral theory. God is the ground of all movement, the support of order and life : but He is above the world and does not interfere directly with it. No true contact and commerce between God and man is possible. The blessedness of the Divine Being consists in self-contemplation, not in active interest either in the world or in man. The only resemblance man has to God is in the power of think- ing. No other human attribute may be ascribed to the Deity, and thus no moral attribute whatsoever. The Epicureans There is abundant evidence of the prevalence and popularity of the Epicurean philosophy in the West. It was easily understood, and also made no lofty demands upon the self-denial of men. In the time of Cicero it was the favourite doctrine,^ and long con- tinued to be such. It was well known to the Church 1 Tusc. iv. 3. THE EPICUREANS 45 writers, and some of them — as Arnobius, Commodianus, and Lactantius, who were familiar with the popular Epicurean poets — may have been influenced by their style.^ But all alike no doubt recognised in Epicurus a powerful enemy of the Christian faith, Ambrose speaks of him contemptuously as " ebrium et voluptatis patronum." ^ Arnobius considered that his theory of the mortality of the soul was subversive of all phil- osophy,^ and Lactantius in many places and at great length refutes the " folly " of the " crazy " teacher.* From the point of view both of Theism and of Ethics the descent from Aristotle to the Epicureans may be considered a grave one. The abstract monotheism of the former may seem much nobler than the puerile polytheism of the latter ; and the moral theories of Aristotle, with all their limitations, are at least on a higher level than those of Epicurus. But from the point of view we are adopting here, it may be that there is littie to choose between them. If the first requisite for a stable and authoritative system of ethics is a true determination of the relations between the human and ^ Wassenberg quotes a number of verbal coincidences with Lucretius, and acquiesces in the statement of Jessen : " Es scheint dass Arnobius, bei dem der Rhetor bedeutend mehr als der Philosoph hervortritt, den Lucrez mehr als stilmuster als wegen des epikuraischen inhalts studirt hat." See also Klussmann, Arnobius und Lucrez, Philol, vol. xxvi. pp. 362-366 ; Dombart, p. vii. 2 De Abrah., ii. lo, 70. ^ Ad-u. Gen., ii. 30. * De Ira ce., 4. 8. 9 ; De Op., 6 ; Epit., 36 ; Dii). Inst., ii. 9, etc. 46 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS the divine, Aristotle breaks down as completely as Epicurus. It would be quite possible to maintain that a community of gods such as Epicurus contemplated is at least as favourable to morality as the abstract monotheism of Aristotle. A god who is wholly non- moral and remote from the interests of men cannot possibly be, or even suggest, a moral ideal for man, unless indeed it be the complete de-moralising of man. The gods and goddesses of Epicurus were more or less human, though they were not divine ; and an imperfect morality may be better than none at all. In both cases, however, the divine is too remote from men to be influential. Justice is done neither to God nor man, and the relation remains unrealised. No true theory of morals is possible on such a basis. The attribution of fine bodies of light to the gods, even of perfect happiness and immortality, does not obscure the fact that the gods of Epicurus are but men. The divine is lost in the human, and the result is rank idolatry. Transcendent so far as mere space-occupancy is concerned, they are not transcendent in the Christian sense of the word. The Stoics The Stoics must next be mentioned. In Stoicism we have the system of morality most congenial to Roman thinkers, and most powerfully influential in moulding the thoughts of the Christian writers of our period. TertuUian, who denounced all philosophy, is THE STOICS 47 not only in open antagonism to Stoicism, but also in secret sympathy with it in more points than one.^ Cyprian the scholar could not have been ignorant of the Stoical writers, and he refers to Stoic doctrine,^ but, by a " refinement of intellectual asceticism," abstains from quoting any Pagan author.* Lactantius and Ambrose are conspicuous examples of its influence in the Church. That influence was indeed so widespread that it is hardly necessary to give further proof. Some of the Fathers found it difficult to distinguish the teaching of the Stoic Seneca from their own. Lactantius could point out some of his mistakes,* but recognises in him a man of the greatest genius and one " who spoke many things similar to our own writers." ^ He attained almost to dfvine inspiration,^ and might have been a true worshipper of God if anyone had shown him the way.' TertuUian still more boldly speaks of him as " Seneca saepe noster," ® and Jerome repeats the identification. When the fiery Jerome could thus recognise in the " mild " Seneca his friend and ally, we can hardly restrain an exclamation of surprise. Extremes meet. What had they in common 1 For the causes of this, see especially Rauch, pp. 59-60. 2 Ep., 55. 16. ^ Monceaux, ii. 207. Is this quite so? Did not Benson find two lines of Virgil ? * Div. Inst., iii. 15. ^ Ibid., i. 5. « jn^^^ y. 23. ^ Ibid., vi. 24; cf. ii. 14: "Quid verius dici potest ab eo qui Deum nosset, quam dictum est ab homine verse religionis ignaro ? " 8 De An., 20. 48 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS save the self-sufficiency of the natural human heart ? The vehement protagonist of the faith of the lowly Jesus offers the right hand of fellowship to the mild representative of proud self-confidence.^ What help, then, does Stoicism give us in determining the relation of the human and the divine ? And here the question is far from simple : for Stoicism, if judged from successive exponents, is not a perfectly rigid system. It underwent development and modifica- tion. In the hands of its later Latin exponents it is not the same thing as it was in the days of Zeno or Chrysippus. If we were to adopt the same principle here as in the history of Christian thought, and regard the first expositions of Stoicism as the classical ones, we should have to describe as foreign elements much that is found in Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. If these writers have clearer notions of God or higher ideas of man than Zeno or Chrysippus, it may be due quite as much to the environment in which Stoicism developed as to the logical conclusions from Stoic doctrine. We shall certainly not judge Stoicism too harshly if we take Seneca and Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius as our guides to Stoic teaching on the relation of God to man ; for if they are not the most consistent 1 Asceticism, which Lightfoot suggests (p. 295) as a bond of union, hardly seems sufficient. The twice-married millionaire and the hermit of Bethlehem were curiously dissimilar prophets of asceticism. Perhaps Lightfoot's second reason, "ignorance," is better. THE STOICS 49 Stoics,^ they are the most religious. What, then, is the relation of the human and the divine in these later writers ? Concerning the intimacy of that relationship there can be no manner of doubt. God is not, at least with the later Stoics, so unlike man and so unconcerned about man as Aristotle taught. Nor is He a mere magnified copy of sinful man or men, living apart altogether from contact with the world, as Epicurus imagined. On the contrary, He is close to men, and even within them. " Nihil deo clusum : interest animis nostris et cogitationibus mediis intervenit." * God comes into men and His presence makes the mind good. " Deus ad homines venit, imo quod proprius est, in homines venit. Nulla sine deo mens bona est " {Ep., 73). "Prope est a te deus, tecum est, intus est ... . hie prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vir sine deo nemo est" (Ep., 41). So Epictetus speaks of men as " shrines and living temples" of Deity (Diss., 2, 8, 12), of God being conscious of every movement (Diss., i, 14, 6) and desire of the heart (Diss., 2, 14, 11). Nothing could be more explicit than this contact of God with man. 1 I cannot agree with Martha's judgmentj p. 156, that Epictetus is "le plus rigoreuse et plus consequent des Stoiciens." In his teaching on God he has advanced beyond Stoicism proper. Contrast Cotta's account of Stoicism in Cicero, N.D., iii. 39 : " Non curat (Deus) singulos homines. Non mirum : ne civitates quidem. Non eas ? Ne nationes quidem et gentes." ' £p., 83. 4 50 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS The interpenetration of the divine and human is a genuinely Stoic doctrine. And there is real affinity as well as juxtaposition. The two are not incongruous, but the one can act upon the other. They are alike in kind. Men, says Seneca, are the children of God {De Prov., i ; De Bene/., 2), beloved of Him as a father loves (De Prov., 2), like to Him and capable of His friendship (De Prov., i). The mind came from Him and aspires to Him (Ep., 92). Still more emphatically Epictetus speaks of man as a child or son of God (Diss,, i, 9, 2, 10) ; of God as his Creator and Father (iMd. \ cf. 1 c^, and 10). As the offspring or airotr'iraa-fi.a of God, he ought to be true to his noble birth (Diss., 2, 8) and to his place at the head of Creation (Diss., i, 9, 2, 8). But this is not all. God and man form together one comprehen- sive organisation (Epic, i. 9), continuous and homo- geneous (Epic, i. 14, 17, ii. 8). In one respect, indeed, God is superior to man : He is immortal. In all other ways the wise man is like to God.^ But we must note that this exceptional attribute is a non-moral or non-rational one. So far as his rational nature is con- cerned, man is in no degree inferior to the gods (Arr., i. 12). If there is any advantage it is on the side of man rather than of God. "The sage is superior to God, inasmuch as God owes it to His nature only not to fear, but the wise man owes it to himself." ^ And 1 Seneca, De Const, sap., 8 ; cf. De Prov., 6. ^ Seneca, Ef., 53. PLATO 51 as morality, according to the Stoics, consisted in rational and free self-determination, it is clear that man is, morally speaking, the equal, if not the superior, of God. So it would be a mistaken procedure to base morality upon religion. The Stoics had no God better than themselves to worship or imitate.^ It is necessary for us to look elsewhere to find a religious basis for morality. Plato Was there not one system of philosophy current in the world Christianity entered which could furnish a basis upon which to erect a theological ethic ? We turn, then, to Platonism. Does that find a firm foundation for morality in the relation between the human and the divine .? The nobility of Plato's teaching, and the fact that some Christian writers were power- fully attracted by it, might lead us to hope that at length we had found what we wanted. Justin Martyr and Augustine, Clement and Origen, and others, show how close was the affinity between the Academy and the Church. Here, if anywhere, we should expect to find that clear determination of the relation between God and man which would enable us to connect morality with religion. It is certainly a great advance on Aristotle when we find moral attributes assigned to the Deity. The ideas of God and goodness are synonymous. The good as the absolute ground of ^ " The Stoic finds the centre of his ethical system within him." Alston, p. 71. 52 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS all being is the same thing as the Deity.'' God is just and holy/ and man may become like God. The soul of man is divine and immortal, existing before it descended into the prison-house of the body, and destined, if it has lived a good life there, to regain its proper home in the world of the supersensible.* But, notwithstanding all this, we are soon compelled to doubt whether there is much to help us here. Lofty as the conception of God appears to be, and promising as man's affinity, at least on the intellectual and moral sides of his nature, with God may be, we cannot find the clear determination which we seek. For what does it mean ? Are either of the terms of the relation fully stated ? What is man according to Plato ? Certainly not the being known to us, compounded of soul and body. The soul alone is properly the man, and the essence of the soul consists solely in its intellectual nature. No ethic which rests upon this attenuated description of man can be adequate or complete. Then, further, who is God, the God whom Plato tells us we may strive to imitate ? We are checked at once, when we begin to inquire, by his own caution that what God is ought not to be the subject of inquiry, since it can neither be found out nor related.* But is God anything more than the idea of the Good ? ^ Is 1 Tim., 28 C, 37 A; FAi/ed., 22 C. 2 Theoct., 176 A. 8 /^i^ i La^g^ ^y^ ^ " The God of Plato, from whom all things proceed, is rather an ideal principle than the Supreme Being. He is sometimes PLATO 53 He a personal Being ? We look, in vain for an affirmative answer. The question is never raised.-' But until the question of the personality of God is decisively granted, we cannot have a religious basis for morality which is theoretically satisfactory. Platonic ethics, like ancient ethics generally, do not rest upon the will of a personal Being. They are rather grounded upon the nature of man, or upon that part of it which the philosophers are able to discover and describe ; or, at best, upon the nature rather than the will of God. The personality of God, and His consequent likeness to man, was not grasped by Greece and Rome. It may be, as Drummond conjectures,^ " the divine was looked upon rather as the essence of personality to all who participated in it than as itself a person .... that true personality emerged for the first time in finite and individual minds." It was otherwise in the Church. The proper canons for attributing human qualities to God were not definitely formulated till the time of Aquinas,^ but the called by the equivalent terms of the 'world,' 'Olympus,' and ' the heaven ' itself, and appears to be the constitution of the world instead of its governor. At the utmost He keeps Himself from man and refuses all communication with him lest He should be contaminated by the approach." Ireland, p. 281. 1 Zeller, p. 145 and p. 161. ^ P. 300. * The position of Aquinas is thus summarised in CaldeCott's Philosophy of Religion: (i) "predicates which connote no im- perfection, such as justice, wisdom, can be properly predicated of the Divine Being, those which connote imperfection, such as 54 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS formulation naturally arose only at a late period. The personality of God and His kinship with man were secured, as the possession at least of faith, centuries earlier, by the Incarnation. It was the conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was divine that enabled Christians to ascribe true personality to God, and which forced the problem on the attention of the ancient world. The Church Fathers were doing much more than is some- times admitted when constructing the creeds. They were making the personality of God a reality to thought as well as to feeling, by finding a place for Jesus Christ within the eternal Godhead. It was the Council of Nicea that secured the idea of the personality of God as well as that of the Deity of the Son. Neoplatonism might otherwise have become the creed of the world for centuries. Even Mohammed's defective idea of the personality of God would not have arisen apart from the teaching of the Church. The Eclectics None of the four leading systems of Greek thought furnishing an adequate answer to the question concern- space-occupancy, courage, not ; (2) such as are properly applied to Him are applied to Him in perfection, analogically there- fore in comparison with the way in which they are used for His creatures; for instance, goodness, power, wisdom; and (3) even predicates which cannot be properly applied yet may be metaphorically used, such as anger, repentance, sorrow " (p. 59). Naville, p. 137, has some interesting remarks on personality in the ancient world. See also Illingworth, p. 172. CICERO SS ing the relationship of the human and divine, we have next to ask whether we can find in the various combina- tions of the schools the basis we are in search of. Cicero As exercising great influence on Church writers like MinuciuSj Lactantius, and Ambrose, as well as on account of his wide reputation, Cicero should be mentioned first. Although a sceptic as to the possibility of absolute certitude in any field of thought, and even of moderate certitude in some, he was not a thoroughgoing sceptic. Knowledge sufficient for practical purposes was possible on the subjects of greatest importance, and in particular upon the relation of God and man. This knowledge is not capable of demonstration, but rests on the immediate and natural witness of the soul. It is innate. That which the natural heart of man affirms, and especially that which may be learnt from the child, who stands nearer to nature than the man, is sufficiently true to be followed in practice. The greatest degree of certitude belongs to that which is most widely recognised as true, and recognised by those who are best able to let the voice of nature be heard within them. God, then, according to Cicero, may be known with sufficient certainty to exist. Though he can argue in academic fashion even against this truth,^ we must regard it as one of those which are sufficiently sure to be followed in practice.^ And, though he speaks of the 1 I>e Nat, iii. 4. ^ De Nat, i. i ; Tusc, i. 16. 56 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS gods, he yet maintains the unity of God.'' High views are entertained with regard to man. He is an essence of supernatural origin, created by God and akin to God. Reason and other endowments testify to this descent.^ As man is immediately conscious of the existence of God, so also does he know his own great- ness, freedom, and immortality. This looks promising, provided only we are content to rely upon these innate or widely diffused ideas. But, when we inquire further into the matter, our hope of any satisfactory result grows dim. For first, with regard to God — some degree of probability, though apparently not the highest, is to be attached to the idea of the spirituality of God,* but spiritual in a sense which allows us to think of His essence in Stoic fashion as ether or fire or air.* He may in some inscrutable sense have moral attributes, but none of the four cardinal virtues, and not even the highest perfection of virtue which we can imagine may be ascribed to Him.^ With regard to divine provi- dence, the critics differ, Ritter,* for instance, maintain- ing that Cicero did not believe in it ; Zeller,'' and Dr Mayor ^ that he did. The practical value of Cicero's idea of God is much reduced by these considerations. Not only is it wanting in absolute certainty, but it is meagre and ill-defined. The idea of a God who lives " remote from man, sentient 1 Tusc, i. 23 ; Leg., i. 7. 2 Leg., i. 7, 8 ; Rep., vi. 17. 8 Tusc, i. 27. 4 Tusc, i. 26. ^ Xusc, i. 22. * IV. p. 139. ^ Eclecticism in Greek Philos., c. vi. ^ P. 230. PLUTARCH 57 and endowed with the power of eternal movement," is not one from which the morals proper for mankind can be deduced, nor the sanctions of duty derived. " Nee vero deus ipse qui intelligitur a nobis alio modo intelligi potest, nisi mens soluta qusedam et libera, segregata ab omni concretione mortali, omnia sentiens et movens ipsaque praedita motu sempiterna." ^ Even the exalted language which Cicero uses concerning man must not mislead us. Kinship with God as Cicero conceived Him is a very different thing from the divine like- ness in the Christian scheme. Man endowed with a moral disposition from his birth,^ may be able to fashion an ethic for himself; he can hardly find the foundation for it in the imitation of God. For political purposes Cicero is willing to fall back upon the popular polytheism. That is better than nothing for the crowd. It is not true, and the philosopher needs something else. But without religion of some sort all social life would be impossible.* Plutarch With regard to Plutarch there is much on the surface to encourage our hope that a religious basis for morals has been found. Zeller declares that the most characteristic mark of the Plutarchian ethics is their connection with religion. But with what religion — the poetical or the philosophical or the national, into 1 Tusc, i. 27; cf. Rep., vi. 17; Leg., ii. 4, etc. 2 De Fin., v. 21. ' N.D., iii. 2, i. 2, etc. ; Leg., ii. 7. 58 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS which Plutarch divides theologies, to /xvOikov, to (pva-iKov, TO TTokiTiKov ? No onc bcUeved more firmly that religion was necessary for the well-being of the com- munity. A city might live without walls, theatres, riches, science, but not without God, prayers, and sacrifices. toCto fxevroi to ovveKTiKov a.traa-ijs Koivaivias Koi. vo/uLoOea-lag epeurna Koi ^aOpov} But Plutarch is never able to supply a philosophically determined basis for morality in religion. He starts out with the highest confidence in the power of reason and the function of philosophy as the Mystagogue to theology. He suc- ceeds in exposing the absurdities of superstition. He makes heroic attempts to purify the national theology. " He displays considerable ingenuity in connecting Egyptian and Zoroastrian beliefs with the legends of Greek mythology and the principles of Greek philos- ophy." ^ He earnestly strives to harmonise all beliefs and demonstrate that there is one reason presiding over all. He applies the same method to the thoughts of the philosophers, and unites with his Platonic ground- work various views of Aristotle and even of the Stoics. But he does not construct a consistent system, and he cannot demonstrate its truth. As in the case of so many others who have overestimated the power of Reason, there are times when he doubts whether even a probable reason can be adduced in questions of the highest moment.^ The Supreme Deity is in 1 Jdv. Colotem, c. 31. 2 Oakesmith, p. 160. 3 De Sera Num. Find., 4, 14. MAXIMUS OF TYRE 59 Himself unknown to us. He did not create the world and cannot come into contact with anything that is subject to decay and death.^ We must come to His shrine with the single word, "et," "Thou art," upon our lips, thus expressing His true and pure and incom- municable virtue of absolute being.^ The blessedness of that eternal life which belongs to God consists in knowledge. There is no fellowship possible between man and God, at least in this life. Subordinate powers have been appointed over all things.^ Maximus of Tyre Two or three of the other eclectics may be briefly referred to. Maximus of Tyre, for example, was an ardent lover of Plato, and, like his master, laid the greatest stress upon the transcendence of God. Like the Stoics also, he could speak of man as the son of God.* He was indebted also to Aristotle.^ Yet even to Maximus, man is only akin to God through the purest and oldest element of the soul.® Though the Father and Fashioner of all things,'' God lives in a region of eternal calm, remote from men.^ The earthly life is beneath His notice. Temporal gifts are to be won by human eifort, or belong to the world of chance.® 1 Ritter, iv. 498. ^ Oakesmith, p. 160. * Oakesmith, p. 161. * Diss., 4, 7. See also 8, 9. 8 Dill, pp. 421-2. ^ Diss., 17, 9. ^ Ibid., 8, 9. 8 Ibid., 17, 10. 8 Ibid., ij. 27. 6o EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Apuleius Apuleius, another Platonist, and an ardent reformer, sought to unite the Aristotelian and Platonic systems, but without success. The Divine Being is stiU regarded in cold isolation from mankind, too dignified to care for worldly things, and performing everything through the Demons, whose presence in man hinders his free self-determination, and therefore impairs the purity of human nature. Neither the divine nor the human are worthily conceived, and they will not blend. As Augustine says, in speaking of Apuleius, " Nullus deus miscetur homini. Hoc praecipuum eorum sub- limitatis, ait, esse specimen quod nulla attrectatione hominum contaminantur." ^ Apollonius of Tyana In Apollonius of Tyana Platonic thoughts were grafted into a Neo-Pythagorean stem. Eastern ele- ments emerged, and stiU the aloofness of the divine was presupposed. The Platonic maxim, 0eoj §e avQpunru) ov fiiywrai, received a further illustration. Apollonius has been compared with Saint Theresa and Fdnelon for the spirituality of his prayers.^ Nothing so material- istic as the shedding of blood was to be allowed in the worship of the gods. Even sacrifice was too earthly an act to merit the favour of heaven. The Supreme 1 Civ. Dei, ix. i6. 2 Denis, ii. 271. APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 6i God does not desire to be addressed in human speech.^ And yet this spirituality, if that is the right word to describe this attitude of mind, led, as indeed we might expect, to " the most scrupulous pagan formalism and worship of oddities." " If the idea of God is deprived of its proper content, degeneration must speedily manifest itself in worship. Men may worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth, but an abstract conception of God can never lead to a worship in truth and in the proper sense of the word, not even in spirit. One thing, however, Apollonius, or rather his bio- grapher Philostratus, attempted to do — to present in a human form an example of the highest wisdom. Apollonius is made to yield in his own person, what it would be derogatory to represent the Divine Being as Himself supplying, a model for mankind. That model has often been admired. But the " temperate, self-contained, philosophical spirit, striking even in its dilution, and amid all the rhetoric and tawdry marvels with which Philostratus dressed it," ^ shows, by its absolute self-sufficiency, not only how different it was from the Christian ideal, but how independent of any overmastering religious conception that spirit was. 1 Euseb., Pr. Ev., iv. 13; Ritter, iv. 484. 2 Reville, p. 225 ; cf. the reference to allegorical and fantastic methods on p. 171 : "Le dernier mot de la science religieuse dtait de chercher midi quatorze heures.'' 3 MulUnger, art. "Apollonius," Z).C.5. 62 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Morality has litde connection with religion in ApoUonius. Neoplatonism The last efFort of the ancient world to determine the relation between the human and the divine was that of the Neoplatonists. It simply carried further the tendency, which lay behind the earlier systems, to obliterate the distinction between God and man. This may seem a strange thing to say, for the most obvious feature of Neoplatonism was that it still farther exalted and refined the notion of Deity. Higher than the cold abstraction which Aristode called God, higher than the Supreme Idea of Plato was the Original Essence of Plotinus. The two former might be reached by the philosopher, but the God of Plotinus was beyond all knowledge and all thought. Man, it might seem, was most effectually and eternally separated from God. The human and the divine could never unite. But this was not the consequence which Plotinus himself drew. How difficult soever it might be to attain to union with God (and, according to Porphyry, Plotinus was only able to do so four times in six years), this was the object aimed at ; and its consummation meant, not the perfecting of man by the full development of all his powers, but the absolute merging of the human, the personal, the moral, in the divine, the impersonal and non-moral. By a process of self-renunciation man might strip himself of all positive NEOPLATONISM 63 attributes, of everything, that is to say, which makes him different from the One, and pass out of the world of plurality into the divine, thus becoming not like God, but God Himself.^ Nothing must be predicated of God, neither thought, nor will, nor energy, nor life.^ The last effort of ancient philosophy was the fusion of human and divine, and the prohibition of any intelligible or moral attribute to either, God and man alike become unthinkable and inexpressible ideas. If in Stoicism God and man are confused by materialising God, and reducing Him to the level of the wise man, in Neoplatonism they are confused by the dehumanising of man and his exalta- tion to deity. Stoicism first strips man of affections and passions, and then deifies the rational and material- istic remainder. Neoplatonism empties the idea of God of all positive contents, material, emotional, rational, volitional, and' even of life, and then bids men worship and become like the Deity. Neoplatonism may be regarded, from one point of view, as the most violent attempt of the natural man to get God out of his thoughts, by resolving manhood into deity. Epicurus banished the gods, and recom- mended men not to think about them. Aristotle made his ethics quite independent of the idea of a moral God who will interfere in the shaping of man's character and in the control of his decisions. The Stoics deny to the Deity any emotion of wrath, and 1 See Wuttke, i. 148. * Schwegler, p. 141. 64 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS also desire and affection, and make the wise man superior to God in moral attributes. Plato raises the Supreme God far above contact with men, fails to face the question of the divine personality, and, though he emphasises human responsibility, yet he makes the essence of man consist in the intellectual part of his being, and the punishments of an ethereal and eternal spirit in the world beyond to consist in tortures which only a material and sentient being could feel.^ Neo- platonism goes farthest of all in removing from us God, by a process of abstracting everything intelligible from the idea of Him, and reducing man to a condition in which all positive distinctions vanish away. The Church Writers But how did the idea of the relationship between God and man fare in the Christian Church ? It will be necessary to distinguish a little between different schools or tendencies of thought among the writers. There is no dull uniformity in the way Church teachers approach this difficult subject. Some draw nearer the Stoic position, and others the Neoplatonic ; but none of them adopt either. Nor is the ecclesiastical . position fully described as a mean between the two extremes. Two most important considerations prevented Chris- 1 This was noticed by Arnobius, ii. 14; cf. Dill, p. 527. " Starting with the principle of the absolutely immaterial nature of the soul, the immortal part of man, it yet depicts its future in the warmest colours of the world of sense." ARNOBIUS 65 tians, both from going to either extreme, and from striking a rough average between them. The first of these was the belief that man was a creature and not an emanation of God. The second was the full conviction with which they grasped the truth that their Redeemer was both God and man. Something will be said later upon the second point. Here it is convenient to emphasise the first. Arnobius Man, they held, was not an emanation of the divine nature ; he was a creation of the divine will. The only partial exception to this rule was Arnobius. He stands absolutely alone amongst the writers we have mentioned in holding that man was not created by the Supreme Being. There is probably a sufficient explana- tion of the fact. It is an old tradition that Arnobius composed his lengthy work, Adversus Gentes, as a kind of entrance examination for the Christian Church. It was the work, it is said, of a catechumen, one as yet imperfectly instructed in the faith ; and the examiners might overlook even some gross errors in considera- tion of the philosophical learning of the candidate, and, above all, his enthusiastic devotion to Jesus Christ as the Supreme Teacher. With all the simplicity of a neophyte's faith, and with all the weariness of a dis- appointed philosopher, Arnobius throws upon Jesus Christ the responsibility of proving the truth of His own religion. He is himself an Agnostic, but he S 66 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS believes that Jesus knows. He is willing indeed to take Christ's authority upon questions which were never raised or answered by Him.^ And if in this he shows his ignorance, he also reveals the simplicity of his faith. Moreover, unUke other Church writers, Arnobius was apparently quite ignorant of the Old Testament ; ^ and it was the hearty acceptance of the Old Testament, as well as, if not as much as, their faith in the Incarnation, which saved Christians from confusing the human and the divine. The first chapter of Genesis was decisive both against any and every theory of emanation or of creation by a lower god. Man was a creature, created in the image of God, but still a creature, and therefore, apart even from sin, on a different plane of being from the Supreme. He was not a part of God, an eiBuence or aTroo-Trao-yua, or emanation. He was a creature, though a creature created by the Supreme and in His own image. This was wholly different from the heathen view. Man in his essential nature was not a creature according to the ancient schools of thought. Aristotle held that matter was eternal, and apparently that spirit also was, being at death depersonalised and returning to the God from which it flowed. Plato identified the mind (vovi) with God, and this was understood not only by TertuUian and Eusebius, but apparently also by Plutarch, to involve the idea of separation or emanation, and not creation. The Stoics spoke of man as being a part of 1 £:.g. ii. 36, ii. 14. 2 Moule, art. "Arnobius," D.C.B. ARNOBIUS 67 the Godhead, and this is true of the later as well as the earlier representatives of the school. The essence of man is eternal, a parte ante as well as a parte fost, decerptus ex mente divina.^ Arnobius did not, however, adopt the emanation theory, but creation by a lower being. He vehemently denies the divine origin of the soul,^ both against Platonism, which makes the highest part immortal, and against Stoicism, which emphasises the essential re- lationship of God and man. He considers the idea opposed to the majesty and eminence of God,* to His wisdom,* and to His goodness and righteousness.^ It is indeed blasphemy to assert that God is the Creator of so poor a thing as man.* But if God did not create man, who did .'' Arnobius rejects the Traduclan theory of the origin of man ; ^ also that of the Platonic cup in the Timaeus ; * and spontaneous generation.* In stating positively his views he proceeds with great caution, as Orelli thinks, to conceal his Gnostic tendencies ; but in truth they cannot be hid. Men have not been created by the Supreme God, but pro- duced by secondary beings ; ^^ by one far removed in rank and power from the Supreme, but of His court 1 Cicero, Tusc, v. 13, of De Div., i. 32 and 49 ; Warburton, pp. 484-488. 2 II. 15, 19, 25, 26, 31, 36, 37, 47, 62. I here follow closely Francke's excellent account of Arnobius. 3 II. 16, 36, 37, 46, 48, 52. * II. 37, 39, 46. 5 II. 39, 44, 45, 46. » II. 45, 46. 7 II. i(>, i. 38. 8 II. 52. 9 I. 38, ii. 22, 24. 10 II. S3. 68 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS and distinguished by his high birth.^ He adopts Creationism, and says that he had received it from revelation ; ^ and discards pre-existence more emphati- cally than Traducianism.^ Connected with Arnobius's view of the origin of man is his comparatively low estimate of human nature. Alone probably among the Fathers of the West, he denies the natural immor- tality of the soul, Justin, Tatian, and Irenseus not being real exceptions. He is impatient of the lofty claims made for the natural man and keenly conscious of his degradation, weakness, and nothingness. And yet all he says is apparently said to exalt God,* and give to Christ the glory due to Him. " It is the right of Christ alone to give salvation to souls and to bestow upon them everlasting life .... souls can receive life and salvation from no one except from Him to Whom the Supreme Ruler gave this charge and duty " (ii. 65), "We see that our nature has no strength and is overcome by its own passions in every strife for anything .... we have no certainty as to whether we deserve to receive life and be freed from the law of death. You suppose that without the aid of others you will return to the Master's palace as if to your own home, no one hindering you ; but we, on the contrary, neither have any expectation that this can be unless by the will of the Lord of aU, nor think that so much power and licence are given to any man " (ii- 33)- 1 II. 36. 2 I. 38. 2 II. 18, 26, 37, 39, 41. * II. 44. ARNOBIUS 69 As Arnobius expresses himself in the least satisfactory- way of any Christian writer on the kinship of the human and divine, it may be well to quote a few more passages which show how he looked at the two sides of the relationship. On the one hand was Neoplatonic mysticism, and on the other the vulgar idolatry of the people ; how did he attempt to steer his way between the two, or rise superior to both ? We should re- member that the object of his Adversus Gentes was to attack the current polytheism, and in polemical treatises a man is only too likely to overstate his own side of the question. We should not, therefore, be surprised if Arnobius swings over too far towards the Neoplatonic conception of God. This is what, to some extent, we find. Speaking first of all of the gods, he ridicules the idea of their having been born, having sex, being like men in countenance or in tastes (vii. 36). Ques- tioned as to what is a worthy opinion of the gods, he replies : " They neither have any likeness to men, nor look to anything which is outside of them .... have no anger .... no sensual pleasure .... cannot be injured .... nor rejoice in honours paid to them " (vii. 15 ; see also vii. 23, 41, 51). Elsewhere he says : "They must be without agitating and disturbing passions, hot be excited by any desire, nor moved by any grief, without respect of persons, and possessing all virtues in perfection" (i. 18, 19, 23, vi. 2, etc.). Such is his idea of the divine as exemplified in the gods, whose existence he is inclined to credit, especially the existence 70 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS of evil gods. As for the good gods {del boni), if they exist they are sufficiently worshipped when we worship the Supreme, for they are not rival beings (iii. 2), Concerning the Supreme, there are expressions which remind us of the Neoplatonic view. " O Thou who art Thyself unseen and incomprehensible .... whom no bodily shape may represent .... of virtues in- expressible, of greatness indefinable .... that Thou mayest be understood we must be silent" (i. 31). " The whole divine nature is devoid of bodily features" (iii. 12 ; cf. 17). "We are so far from attributing bodily shape to the Deity that we fear to ascribe to so great a Being even mental graces .... for who will say that God is brave, firm, good, wise } Who will say that He has integrity. Is temperate, even that He has knowledge, understanding, forethought, that He directs towards fixed moral ends the actions on which He determines ? These are good in man .... but who is so senseless as to say that God Is great by human excellences ? . . . . There is but one thing that man can be assured of regarding God's nature, to know and perceive that nothing can be revealed in human language concerning God" (iii. 19). But this is only one side of the case. More than once Arnobius, sceptic or agnostic as he is, so far as the possibility of knowledge not resting on experience is concerned, declares that God can be known, and not only so, but assigns to Him attributes and moral qualities. " Although no image can set Him forth as ARNOBIUS 71 He is, yet you may form some faint conception of Him .... and if, by knowledge, you have indeed been related to God, the head of the world, you have gained the true knowledge" (ii. 60). "Unless you give yourself to seek to know the Supreme God, a cruel death awaits you" (ii. 61). "For everyone who seeks to obtain an answer from any deity should of necessity know to whom he makes supplication " (iii. 42). " We have knowledge of heavenly mysteries through Christ " (i. 63). " He has shown us what God is, who He is, how great and how good .... and has caused us to hold converse in thanksgiving and prayer with the Lord of the Universe" (i. 38). Many things can be asserted concerning Him. It is " the mark of a true God " to assist the good and bad alike (i. 49). " Nothing proceeds from the Supreme God which is hurtful " (ii. ^^). " For this belongs to the true and mighty God to show kindness unasked to that which is weary and feeble aiid always encompassed by misery of many kinds " (iii. 24). " None but the Almighty God can preserve souls, nor is there anyone besides who can give them length of days and grant to them also a spirit that shall never die, except He who alone is immortal " (ii. 62). " To adore God as the highest existence, as the Lord of all things that be, as occupying the highest place among all exalted ones, to pray to Him with respectful submission, in our distresses to cling to Him with all our senses, so to speak, to love Him, to look up to Him with faith, is 72 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS this an execrable and unhallowed religion?" (i. 25). "We Christians are nothing else but worshippers of the Supreme King and Head under our Master Christ. .... He allows Himself to be at all times compre- hended in our thoughts " (i. 27). He is the supreme Creator .... the foundation of all things. ..." In virtue of Thy benign nature, forgive" (i. 31). This is sufficient to show here, even without referring to the characteristics of Jesus Christ, whom Arnobius regarded as " Deus re certa " ; " Deus homo tamen natus : Deus interiorum poteiitiarum : Deus sublimis,"^ how far he was from the Neoplatonic standpoint. Though he feels that no human attributes adequately set forth the divine, the Incarnation has taught him that human and divine are closely related though distinct. Minucius Felix Minucius Felix is another writer concerning whose Christian faith doubts have been expressed. Baehrens, his recent editor, suggests that, like Strauss and Renan, he was seeking to undermine Christianity while ap- parently defending it.* Boissier regards his religion as a rigorous mdnotheism, something like Islam, with- out dogmas and without a cult ; ^ and Monceaux says : " En somme, la vrai conclusion de I'Octavius serait, non point un conversion, ni m^me une affirmation de 1 Moule, D.C.B. ^ Dublin Review, cxxxiv. p. 118. » I. p. 328. MINUCIUS FELIX 73 la superiority du Christianisme, mais simplement un compromis, fondd sur le d6isme philosophique et sur une large tolerance." ^ Minucius is one of the most interesting of the writers we have to consider. He is a man of letters, but neither a philosopher nor a theologian. He is not an original thinker. " Quand Minucius Felix oublie de suivre les traces de TertuUian ou de Cic6ron, c'est qu'il est hant6 par des reminiscences d'un autre 6crivain, surtout de S^n^que ou d'Apul6e."^ But his interest is not on that account any the less for us. He writes in a charming style, and he shows us what the religion of a literary man was in his day. He has read the philosophers, or at least Cicero's account of them, but evidently he does not understand them, for, having spoken of their views of God, he says : " These are, in fact, our own doctrines." He then adds, to show his well-bred tolerance and inoiFensive Christianity : "We never publicly speak of them unasked." It is needless to say how very different this spirit is from the enthusiastic type of Christianity which pre- vailed in the earlier days of Christianity, when complete detachment and divine purity of sentiments reigned in the Church.^ The secularising process had gone very far when a fine writer like Minucius, relegating to a secondary place all the distinctive tenets of Christianity, could be regarded as a defender of the faith. Yet the theism of Minucius was a different thing 1 I. p. 500. ^ P. 490. * Aube, p. 497. 74 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS from that of the philosophers, as his own interpreta- tion of them suggests. Although at the end of his discussion he turns sharply round and calls Socrates the Athenian buffoon (c. 38), he thinks that the dis- courses of Plato would have been altogether heavenly but for his political prejudices, and he finds much to commend in the teaching of a long array of philos- ophers (c. 19). This over-rating of the philosophers must be regarded as an indication of his own Christian theism. He saw more in their words than they saw themselves, because he believed more. Here, then, is his view. Ignorance of the Father and Lord of all is sinful (c. 35). It is through reason that we recognise and feel and imitate God (c. 17), and all human beings are endowed at birth with this faculty (c. 16), though the demons are a disturbing cause (c. 26). Still man is free (c. 2^). We must first arrive at the philosophy of God before that of man can be determined (c. 1 7). Man himself is the image of God and no other image must be made (c. 32). He speaks of Providence after the manner of Cicero, but, we must add, with nothing in his philosophy to contradict it. God is not subject to fate, for fate is God's decision concerning us (c. 36). He rules all things by His wisdom and perfects them by His goodness (c. 17). The lightning and other forces of nature are manifestations of His power (c. 32). He is everywhere present and we live with Him (c. 32). He desires purity and holiness in His wor- shippers (c. 32). He is one, infinite and eternal (c. 17). LACTANTIUS 75 He is mindj reason and spirit (c. 15). Once or twice we find him tending towards an abstract conception of God. " Seek no name for God ; God is His name .... take away from the names all that they connote and you will perceive His essential nature" (c. 19). But these statements must not be pressed in view of his emphatic declaration that man is rightly regarded as the image of God. He is as far as possible also from the emanation theory of man's origin. Man was made by God and can again be raised from the dead by God. He was born from nothing and he can be renewed from nothing. All nature affords us for our comfort hints of a future resurrection. The body may become dust or dissolve into vapour, but it is in the safe keeping of God. That which has been created is never annihilated (c. 34).^ Lactantius Lactantius, like Arnobius and Minucius, occupies a position in general estimation below the greatest writers of the Church. Harnack groups him with Arnobius and Commodianus as holding the comparatively low level of Ciceronian monotheism, together with strong moralistic and chiliastic views.* Loofs, rather more cautiously, brackets him with Arnobius, Commodianus, and Victorinus of Petau, and on similar grounds.^ 1 The chapters are numbered according to Holden's edition. It is a pleasure here to refer to Brodribb's vigorous translation in Pagan and Puritan. ^ III. p. 79. ^ P. 139. 76 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Both positively and negatively, exception may be taken to some of the views of Lactantius, whether from an earlier or later standpoint. According to Jerome, he was stronger in attack than in defence.^ He speaks with an uncertain sound on the Holy Spirit. His view of the necessity of evil gave great oflFence in the Church and caused him to be considered Manichaean in his drift.'' He has only an imperfect appreciation of the meaning of the new sonship in Christ. His view of prayer is defective. And in other ways he oifends or comes short. Yet his doctrine of man is much higher than that of Arnobius, and his view of God is fuller, higher, and surer than that found in the De Natura Deorum of Cicero. If he was not a " theologian " or a " doctor of the Church," Bishop BuU hardly did him justice in speaking of him simply as " rhetor." ' His doctrine of God derives peculiar interest from the fact that he has himself given us what he calls the three steps which a man takes in his ascent from idolatry to the Christian conception of God. A man first for- sakes polytheism, and if he is able to maintain that step he recognises with the philosophers the unity of God ; if not able, he falls back on the worship of the heavenly 1 Ep., Ivii. "Utinam tam nostra affirmare potuisset, quam facile aliena destruxit.'' ^ Certain of the most objectionable passages were regarded as interpolations, partly on this ground. The question is discussed by MuUerus and S. Brandt. ^ Def. Fid. Nic, ii. 14, iii. 10. "Rhetor erat ille, non theo- logus : neque inter ecclesise doctores locum unquam obtinuit." LACTANTIUS 77 bodies. Those philosophers, then, who had grasped the idea of the unity of God, had gained, according to Lactantius, the first step. The second step is to conceive of the Supreme God rightly, and here all the philosophers, Stoics and Platonists, but not the Jews, go wrong. The third step is not gained by the Jews and others who do not receive Christ, or receive Him otherwise than the faith demands.^ It is therefore quite clear that Lactantius not only distinguishes his own position from that of the Jews and heretics, but this class again from that of the philosophers. No one would, therefore, have been more surprised than Lactantius himself with Harnack's association of his views with Ciceronian monotheism. He places himself at two removes from the philosophers. With all his admiration for Seneca and Cicero, Lactantius considered them as belonging only to the first stage, whereas he had gained the third. But do his writings bear out this way of estimating himself.'' It is extremely difficult, apart from his acceptance of the Incarnation and its necessary implica- tions (which even a " rhetor " like Lactantius must surely have perceived), to prove it. It is possible to compare many of his sayings with those from Seneca and Cicero. But what would such coincidences, drawn out at length, prove .'' There are remarkable coin- cidences of language between Seneca and the Apostle Paul ; yet it does not follow that the words had the 1 De Ira, 2. 78 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS same meaning to the two men. Even Lucretius asserted the Fatherhood of God, when he said that we were all sprung from a heavenly seed and all had the same Father. But did the Fatherhood of God mean no more to the Stoic Epictetus than to Lucretius ? And did it mean no more to Lactantius than to either ? The only fair way of interpreting an expression like the Fatherhood of God, which is common to the most widely different and contradictory systems of thought, is in the light of the particular system. Looked at from that point of view, the monotheism of Lactantius appears a very different thing from that of Cicero. Lactantius admits the importance of a correct idea of God. " It makes all the difference what you wor- ship, not how you worship " (iv. 28). As the god is conceived, so will the worshipper be (v. i o). " If men think that no God cares for them they wiU give themselves up to the indulgence of their passions" (ii. I). His idea of God is an exalted one. He is the " Father and Lord whose excellence cannot be esti- mated nor His greatness perceived, nor His beginning comprehended. . . . God of His own power made Himself" (i. 7). He is perfect and therefore one, for the highest power must be incapable of division (i. 3). He is not subject to necessity, corruption, or sufferings (ibid.). Yet it was not unworthy of God to assume a human body (iv. 22). He is an indulgent Father and an upright Judge (i. i). He is the Father LACTANTIUS 79 of all men (v. 6, 15, 16, 23, vi. 10). He loves the true worshipper (v. 20). He is strict to mark even light offences (v. 20), yet compassionate and forgiving (vi. 24) and propitious towards man (JDe Ira, 8). There is nothing so befitting God as beneficence : He shows pity ; even in His anger there is also con- tained a showing of kindness : He has no vicious affections, but affections nevertheless of His own order {De Ira, 17). He is eternally active, because eternal rest belongs to death alone (ibid.). He can pardon, since He Himself is the arbitrator and judge of His own law {De Ira, 19). He possesses righteous anger, but also perfect patience and perfect virtue : though His forbearance is very great and most useful. He punishes the guilty, and does not suffer them to proceed further when He sees that they are incorrigible {De Ira, 20). There is in Him the substance of all things, the principle of the virtues, and the source of all that is good. There is authority as well as anger with Him. We are bound to love Him as Father and reverence Him as Lord {De Ira, 23). He is greater than man (ii. 19, vii. 2). The truth cannot be obtained by our own ability and perceptions ; otherwise there would be no difference between God and man (i. i ; ^ iv. 24). Concerning man he holds similarly lofty views. " There is more in man than appears, and he should value himself highly" (ii. i). The upright position of man is frequently regarded as proof of his dignity 8o EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS (ii. I, etc.). It is religion especially that distinguishes man from the beast (ii. 3 and vii. 9). Without religion man is but a headless trunk (vi. 9). The frailty of man comes through the body (vii. 1 2). And here we notice how, in exalting the soul, Lactantius degrades the body. Man is properly spirit only, and not soul or spirit, and body (iii. 12). The body is the mere receptacle of man (ii. 3, v. 22 ; De Op., i). The soul is in itself consciousness and life, and cannot perish because it has received its origin from the Spirit of God (vii. 12). It is immortal, not however as an emanation from God, but because God, being Him- self immortal, willed that the soul also should be everlasting (iii. 9). We may notice in passing his curious fancy regarding the seat of the mind. " It appears to be placed in the highest part, the head, as God is in heaven ; but when it is engaged in any reflection, it appears to pass to the breast .... to draw forth counsel as it were from a hidden treasury " (De Op.y 16). He sees that there are reasons for and against Identifying the mind and soul (JDe Op., 18). He opposes Traducianism (De Op., 19). Man has a high destiny. He has been begotten for wisdom and produced for righteousness and that he may be united in a blissful relationship with God (De Ira, 23). He has been made for God's own sake (vii. 5 ; De Ira, 12), and to be a kingdom unto Him to all eternity (vii. 6). The relationship between God and man is thus set HIPPOLYTUS 8 1 forth : Man is the image of God (v. 8, vi. lo) : the son of God (v. 6, 15, 16, 23, vi. 10) : son and servant, bound that is by relations of love and fear (iv. 4) : the temple of God (vi. 25 ; De Ira, 23) ; and in his heart is the altar of God, which is very great, upon which must be placed the sacrifices which God loves — not blood, but righteousness, patience, faith, innocence, chastity and abstinence (vi. 24). He is akin to God through reason (De Ira, 7). He has knowledge in common with God from the soul, while ignorance springs from the body and the earth (iii. 6). It is perception and reason that show us we are descended from God {De Op., 2). We have the power of influencing God {De Ira, 8). Justice and kindness are as immortal as the soul, and their works enable us to attain to the likeness of God {De Ira, 23). The nature of man is social and beneficent, in which respect alone he bears a relation to God (v. 1 8). Hippolytus From the lower level of monotheistic thinking in Church circles, we may pass to the two Italian schis- matics, Hippolytus and Novatian. Mr Cruttwell has drawn attention to the fact that the only three writers in ante-Nicene times whom we can definitely connect with the Roman Church, Hermas, Hippolytus, and Novatian, all express the keenest dissatisfaction with it.'^ Moral resentment against the laxity and worldliness of 1 II. p. 624. 82 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS the Roman clergy is the obvious cause, whatever else may lie in the background. Hermas need not detain us in this connection ; but something should be said of Hippolytus and Novatian on account of their strong theological interests. What view of the relation of the human and divine was taken by these Puritan writers .'' They have much in common. Concerning Hippolytus, I think it must be said that he has not succeeded in making clear the radical distinction. He does not appear able to emancipate himself entirely from Platonic or Neoplatonic influence. His glowing, sensuous descriptions of the " rayless scenery of gloomy Tartarus, where never shines a beam from the irradiating voice of the Word," ^ reminds us of Plato. But what is of more importance is his almost Neoplatonic way of regarding the fusion of the human and divine as the final goal of the Christian. This has a close connection with his defective views on the Person of our Lord. Failing clearly to grasp the idea of the eternal personality of the Logos,^ he failed equally in his attempt to maintain the inalienable personality of man in relation to the Divine Being. Not that he denied the freewill of man. Far from it : he is emphatic in asserting it. The will of man is not crushed by divine omnipotence. It is rather on the ground of human freedom that the possibility of 1 C. 30. 2 For a clear description of the theological position of Hip- polytus, see Bethune-Baker, pp. 108-9. HIPPOLYTUS 83 confusion with the Divine arises. Had Hippolytus taken a lower view of man he would not have fallen into the mistake of supposing that he could ever be deified. When once the emphasis is unduly laid on human' freedom, it is only too easy to forget the dividing line which separates the human from the divine : witness the Stoics, as well as one so different in many ways from them as Hippolytus. As there is undoubtedly this tendency to obliterate the distinction between the human and the divine in Hippolytus, it is important to notice how it differs from the Neoplatonic. To begin with, man is a creation and not an emanation : he is man and not God or a part of God. In this respect he is different from the Logos. He might have been created a god or an angel, but he has been created a man. He may, however, become a god. Faithful in that which is small, i.e. in his human nature, he will be entrusted with what is great, i.e. he will become God. Deity is not the natural destiny of man, nor can man attain it ; it is conferred. When the crown of righteousness has been given, then man will have become God. When we ask more exactly what Hippolytus means by this deification of man, we find that immortality, freedom from the bondage of lusts and passions, and immunity from disease, are mentioned as involved in it. And then, in a very guarded manner, he adds, "But whatever (attributes) it is consistent with the nature of God (to impart), these God has promised 84 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS to bestow upon thee because thou hast been deified and begotten unto immortality" (x. 29 and 30). Novatian As we should expect, this Puritan teacher has a keen sense of the transcendent greatness of God. God is over all and contains all things, leaving nothing vacant beyond Himself, and leaving no room for a superior God (c. 2). " He is the Highest .... without any equal .... alone .... on whom nothing can be conferred, and One who has no peer, for there cannot be two infinites. . . . He can have no beginning or end. . . . He cannot change, for change implies death and imperfection .... but what He is. He always is, and what character He has, He always has. . . . He exists necessarily, always maintaining Himself by His own power " (c. 4). He is unbounded, extra- temporal, immortal, and without law (c. 2). What the essence of God may be, only God knows. " He is simple, without corporeal commixture, being wholly of that essence, whatever it may be, which He alone knows constitutes His Being" (c. 5). It is only with reservation that we can ascribe a name to God. With regard to the name "God" which He Himself prefers, "it is not so much the legitimate propriety of the appellation that is set forth, as a certain significance determined for it, to which, while men partake themselves, they seem to be able thereby to obtain God's mercy" (c. 4). "He cannot be NOVATIAN 85 perceived, otherwise He would be smaller than the conceiving mind. . . . He cannot be declared, otherwise He would be less than human discourse. We can in some degree conceive of Him in silence, but we cannot in discourse unfold Him as He is. Should you call Him light, you would be speaking of His creature rather than of Himself . . . . ; if strength, of His power rather than Himself; if Majesty, of His honour rather than of Himself. . . . We shall mentally grasp what God is, if we consider He is that which cannot be understood either in quality or quantity, nor indeed come even into the thought itself .... as the eyes are blinded by the sun .... so the mind by the light of the Divine " (c. 2). "Though God is called Love we are not to under- stand by this that the substance of God is love .... nor is light His substance .... nor does even the word spirit express all that He is, nor fire ; otherwise God would be a creature" (c. 7). Yet having thus shown how God transcends human thought and speech, he will not allow us to regard his position as one of blank agnosticism, "The whole mind of man is conscious of God, even if it does not express its consciousness. . . . He desired through Christ to come into our knowledge. Through Christ we know Him to be Father, and not merely God. His provi- dence extends to the individual as well as to cities and states, and even to every individual thing " (c. 8). " He is a certain mind generating and filling all things. 86 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS He is God and Parent of all the virtues, and if we cannot ascribe them to Him, it is only because He is greater than them all " (c. 2). He is therefore not so much the unknowable as the more-than-knowable. " Man was made in His image : mind and reason and foresight were implanted in man that he might imitate God. . . . He willed that man alone should be free" (c' i). In every man the soul is immortal, but immortality without forgiveness would be a punishment (cc. 2, 5, and i.). The resurrection of the flesh is to be looked for because, when it is written flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom, it is not the substance of the flesh that is condemned, which was built up by divine hands that it should not perish, but only the guilt of the flesh is rightly rebuked (c. 10). It is through the work of the Holy Spirit (upon which Novatian dwells with some fulness) that man becomes a temple of God " (c. 29). CHAPTER II MAN AND THE WORLD The relation of man to the world is one of the most important presuppositions of a complete scientific ethic : and Christian ethics ought to have some answer to the question, if it is to rank with the other sciences as endeavouring to systematise all the related facts within its purview. How is the moral being, created in the image of God and redeemed by Christ, related to the world in which he finds himself placed ? Some may consider it a mistake to regard this question as fundamental ; and if I understand Harnack aright, that is the position he adopts. " This placing of the scientific conception of the world behind the com- mandments of Christian morality and behind the hopes and faiths of the Christian religion, and the connecting of the two things in such a way that this conception appeared as the foundation of these com- mandments and hopes," is characterised as "intellect- ualism," and regarded apparently as placing Christian morality on a changing and unstable, or at least non- religious, basis. "The dogmatic theory which still 87 88 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS prevails in the Christian churches presupposes the Platonic and Stoic conception of the world long ago overthrown by science." ^ If thoughtful men can form a Christian ethic entirely satisfactory to themselves and sufficient to support hope and guide endeavour, without making any par- ticular conception of man's relationship to the world one of the foundation stones, it is open to them to do so. Able men in the past have dispensed with this particular part of the foundation. They have been content to receive theories of the world as parts of their creed rather than as foundations for it. Arnobius, for instance, was apparently willing to receive any theory of the world, if he could persuade himself that It was supported by the authority of Christ, but it was rather as an article of belief than as a help to faith. And in later times even non-moral theories of the world have been received as dogma. It isj of course, quite possible to argue that the moral and religious life of man does not require any theory of his relation to the world, either as foundation, or scaffolding, or part of the structure ; and to describe all the efforts of the intellect in this connection as non- religious. But does not history show something very different from this independence of morals and theories 1 II. p. 229 ; cf. Carl-Clemen on Justin's method, and also the Ritschlian literature there cited. See, however, Harnack's Grundiiss, i. i ; Orr's Christian View of God and the Worlds pp. 9 and 10. MAN AND THE WORLD 89 of the world ? The very persistency with which " the Platonic and Stoic conception of the world long ago overthrown by science" has attached itself to the thoughts of Christian men on religion and morals, seems to show that the majority of men desire some theory to help them to understand the reasonableness of the Christian facts and the Christian religion. It may be that the relation of man to God rather than to the world is the primary question, but there are many of us who cannot stop there. If God, the world, and self are ultimate and irre- solvable facts or ideas, no one of them can be properly understood without the other. We have no right, so at least it will appear to some, even in the sacred name of religion, to select only two of these terms and neglect the third. As a man's conception of the world is, so also will his conception of God and self be. If any " conception " of God and of man underlies a man's religious feeling or religious life, we should expect to find also some conception of the world there likewise. Indeed, it is not impossible that in some cases the conception of the world which a man has formed may influence his morals more powerfully than the ideas either of God or self. Views of the world have, as a matter of history, influenced, and do still influence human conduct. " As long as an opinion on any of the great mysteries of self, the world, and God is a reality for those who entertain it, and not a con- ventional phrase, it will be a moral power. . . . Again, 90 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS it may be true that we shall follow observed laws, as far as we have apprehended them, with a care pro- portioned to our knowledge, whatever may be our theory of the universe without us. But the effect of the world upon our imaginations, and through imagina- tion upon our character, will depend upon the view we take of its relation to ourselves and to God." ^ The Church writers, then, with the exception of Arnobius, regarded both man and the world as the creation of God, created directly or without inter- mediaries. Both as they issued forth from the creative hand of God were good.^ These considerations alone would have been sufficient to give a new tone to Christian ethics as compared with the heathen systems. There could be no necessary antagonism between man and the world if both were creations of the Supreme God. As a separate creation, man was distinct from the world as well as from his Creator, and his relations to it were determined by the God who created both. 1 Westcott, pp. 57 and 62. See also Bruce, p. 155. Criticising a view of Kaftan and Herrmann, he says : " If Christ's idea of God be true, there should be something in the world to verify it." We surely do little honour either to the Creator of the world or to the reason of man by minimising the moral and religious value of our thoughts concerning the world. 2 It is interesting to note the views of Tatian with his as yet undeveloped tendencies to Gnosticism, e.g. "Nothing evil has been created by God" (c. 11). "Matter is not eternal " (c. 4). " The spirit that pervades matter must not be honoured equally with the perfect God " (c, 4). MAN AND THE WORLD 91 In striking contrast to the general trend of heathen thought stands the Christian conception of the superiority of man to the world. This was shown in various ways. {a) Even in regard to duration, man had the advantage. It was he arid not the world that was immortal. The eternity of matter was the view of the ancient philosophers, who held that the world was fashioned out of pre-existing materials, and a perman- ence was given to the world which was in strong contrast to the life of the men inhabiting it. "Bien loin qu'il soit immortel, tandis que I'univers est p6rissable, c'est, au contraire, I'univers qui est Eternal, tandis que I'homme, en tant qu'individu du moins, ne fait qu'apparattre un instant sur ce th^^tre immuable et permanent. Le ciel et les astres avec leur fixitd, leur harmonie toujours la m6me, leur 6ternit6, sont cent fois plus divine que les hommes, ces ^tres p^rissable." ^ It was a very great advance ethically as well as theologically when men grasped the idea that the human personality, body, soul, and spirit, was more enduring than the world in which man lived. And it was the Christian writers that gave this thought to mankind. (b) Man belonged to a higher plane of life also because he was possessed of reason and free self- determination. He was not simply a part of the system of things around him. He was the head of 1 Naville, p. 191. 92 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS creation, but also of a different order from the rest of creation. The emphasis laid upon free-wiU by writers of all shades of thought is one of the most notable facts which meet us in the writings of the first three or four Christian centuries. The consciousness of re- demption gave to men a fresh sense of their inherent dignity, and acted powerfully on their view of the natural constitution of man. It was increasingly difficult to consider themselves, even so far as their natural endowments were concerned, as parts of the material universe ; and the very scorn with which they sometimes treated the good things of this life arose in many cases no doubt from this cause. (c) Christian writers are very explicit on the difference of man from the lower animals. It is not altogether a question of mere rationality or freedom. It is the capacity for God that constitutes the difference. Man was made in the image of God. " We recognise," says Tatian, "two varieties of spirit, one of which is called the soul, but the other is greater than the soul, the image and likeness of God ; both existed in the first men, that in one sense they might be material, and in another superior to matter " (c. 12). " Man is not, as the croaking philosophers say, merely a natural animal, capable of understanding and knowledge ; for according to them even irrational creatures appear possessed of understanding and knowledge. But man alone is the image and likeness of God. . . . Such is the nature of man's constitution ; and if it be like a MAN AND THE WORLD 93 temple, God is pleased to dwell in it by the Spirit, His representative ; but if it be not such a habitation, man excels the wild beasts in articulate language only ; in other respects his manner of life is like theirs, as one who has not the likeness of God " (c. 1 5). This view of man's superiority to the animals was in part, no doubt, an inheritance from Judaism. Even the Kabbalistic Jews who admitted human transmigra- tion, never allowed animal transmigration.'- The gap between the human and the animal was too great for that. Philo wrote a book to show that animals were not possessed of reason.^ But the Christian writers advanced beyond the position of Philo. It was not simply rationality, it was a deeper affinity with God that separated man from the rest of creation. {a) Another way in which the superiority of man to the world was demonstrated was in the idea which so often meets us in the early Fathers that the world was made for man, whereas man was made for God. The world as a creation has no Independent value.^ Justin regarded the world as preserved for the sake of Christians.* Commodianus thought that the creation would rejoice to see the " heavenly people," the "hidden, ^ Naville, p. 190. 2 Contrast the idea of Julian that the souls of men might be formed of the same substance as the souls of animals. Naville, p. 191. ^ Lactantius, Ep. Div. Inst., c. 69, and elsewhere, * 2nd Apol., c. 7. 94 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS the finalj the holy people " : mountains would subside before them and fountains break out. The bliss of the righteous is definitely connected with living again in happiness in this world/ The world would again be for the service of man. It was such considerations as these which prevented Christian writers from falling into the idolatry of nature as practised by the Greeks, or into the thoroughgoing dualism of the East, or even the non-moral monism of Neoplatonism.^ They neither deified the world, nor did they regard it as the work of an alien, or even inferior being. They believed that it was good, but strictly subservient to man and to man's higher interests. Yet within these limits we have a variety of opinions as to the Christian's attitude to the world. In general, we have two directions — one wider, the other narrower. To the former all nature was the province of the Christian, and to turn away with abhorrence from anything natural was looked upon as un-Christian.* To the latter " the corruption that is in the world through lust" had so altered the face of nature that earnest men found themselves unable to discern rightly between the good and evil. The two strains may even be found in the same writer. TertuUian, for instance, can say, 1 Instructions 42 and 2. * Yet as self-sacrifice rather than self-indulgence was nearer to the principle of Christianity, Neoplatonism was perhaps the greater danger. Caird, ii. 258. * Gass, p. 50, MAN AND THE WORLD 95 " Now nobody denies what nobody is ignorant of — for Nature herself is teacher of it — that God is the Maker of the Universe and that it is good, and that it is man's by the free gift of His Maker," and afterwards wisely adds, " We must consider not merely by whom all things were made, but by whom they have been per- verted " {De Sped., c. i). " Satan and his angels have filled the whole world " ; still, " It is not by being in the world that we lapse from God, but by touching and tainting ourselves with the world's sins" (ibid., 8). So, again, after dwelling on the prevalence of idolatry, he says : " Amid these reefs and inlets, amid these shallows and straits of idolatry. Faith, her sail filled by the Spirit of God, navigates safe, if cautious, secure, if intently watchful. . . . Let no one say .... we shall have to go out of the world " {De Idol., 24). Yet in his later works we meet with a much less sober judg- ment on the Christian's attitude to the world, and a much less innocent form of asceticism. If the dictum of Renan^ has any truth in it — that before the monastic life made its appearance towards the close of the third century the Church itself was already a monastery — TertuUian must bear his full share of the responsibility. Indeed, Monceaux' words are not too strong, " Le mariage, la famille, I'^tat, I'intdr^t m6me de I'figlise, il sacrifierait tout k son id^al Chretien de chastit6," ^ only, in that case, we should surely leave out the word " chr6tien." 1 VII. p. 558. 2 I. 394. 96 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS The ascetic or world-renouncing element in the writings of the Fathers has been so often dwelt upon that it is more needful to speak of the world-appro- priating spirit which in different forms and in various degrees is found alongside of the more severe views of the Christian's relation to the world. Cyprian is generally considered less of an ascetic than TertuUian, but even he leans unduly to the world- renouncing element in the Christian's faith. He enunciates the principle that everything that comes into being is God's work, but then adds that everything that is changed is the devil's. He does not teU us what he thought of Bezalel and Aholiab, but he evi- dently did not believe that as a rule "the inspira- tion of the Most High " gave men understanding for secular tasks. As God did not make scarlet sheep, it is a sin for a man to make use of dyed wools.^ God has created the human neck, so it is sin for women to put a necklace of pearls around it. This kind of reasoning, if it is to be taken seriously, makes Cyprian much more of an ascetic than is generally supposed. One large department of life, that of the arts, is handed over to the devil. And unfortunately this is not the gravest feature of the limitation of God's action through men. It was so with history too. Benson admits that Cyprian deliberately excludes providence from history. " Nations ^ De Hab. Virg., 14 and 15. MAN AND THE WORLD 97 rise and fall by some external indecipherable law of change, without conscience and without reward." Regna non merito accidunt sed sorte variantur {Quod. Id., 5. p. 12). We have previously referred to his "intellectual asceticism." For him the Christian has no need of heathen learning. But the crowning illustration of his failure to see that God was not only over all but in all spheres of human thought and action was his restriction of the Spirit's operation within a formal conception of the Church. The man who first of all renounced heathen learning, then the arts, then the study of history, was just the man to narrow the Christian conception of the Church. Benson found great difficulty in thinking, indeed thought it impossible to conceive, that Cyprian covdd have derived his theory of the Church either from the Jews or from the heathen. His intense repugnance to heathen vice would have prevented his borrowing and assimilating any heathen idea or rite. The difficulty, however, is not surely so great when we think of Cyprian's mental habits. The evidence in general seems to show the probability of borrowings from both sides — the heathen and the Church — though absolute demonstration is difficult. But even if probability falls short of due measure in particular instances, I do not see why we are shut up to the theory of direct and conscious borrowing. Cyprian's innovation was altogether in the line of his own temperament and 7 98 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS restricted way of conceiving the divine activity in men. It was highly probable, if not inevitable, that the man who practised the most rigorous method of dealing with heathen learning, who regarded the arts with suspicion, and excluded providence from history, should have limited also the sphere in which the Spirit manifests His regenerating and sanctifying activity. Unconscious of his own personal bias and of the heathenism of the natural man in him,^ Cyprian committed himself to a conception of the Church which befitted his narrow outlook upon the world and seemed to be demanded by the exigencies of the times. But this limitation of divine action in the world of men and things is by no means universal. We will not linger here upon Justin's familiar conception of the Logos and his wider outlook upon life. This in- evitably leads to a different view, not only of the Church, but also of the world, from that which we find in Cyprian. Nor will we gather evidence from the broadest school of writers, of whom Minucius may be taken as a type. Clement, Irenseus, and Ambrose will suffice. Clement For Clement the world is evidently good, as being the work of a good God, and every gift is to be re- ceived with thanksgiving. He seeks to provoke the ' Sohm, p. 35. "The natural man is a born Catholic." IREN^US 99 Christians at Corinth to love and good works, by reminding them of the wisdom, power, and love manifested in creation. "The Creator and Lord of all Himself rejoices in his works. . . . The Lord Himself, adorning Himself with His works, rejoiced " (c. 32), " Having, therefore, such an example, let us without delay accede to His will, and let us work the work of righteousness with our whole strength " {ibid.). " He who made us and fashioned us, having prepared his bountiful gifts for us before we were born, introduced us into His world. Since, therefore, we receive all these things from Him, we ought for everything to give Him thanks " (c. 38). Not to renounce the world but to use the world Is evidently the teaching of Clement. In what way he would have developed these views, and how he would have distinguished the world as God made it from the world of human art and invention and learning, we may not have sufficient evidence to say. Beneficence, harmony, and order were, however, among the marks of the divine. Irenaus Irenaeus Is, above all, concerned to vindicate the Christian view of man's relation to the world against the errors of Gnosticism, and in two directions — first against the unbridled licentiousness of the Carpocratlans and others, and secondly against the asceticism of the Encratites and other adherents of Gnostic principles. loo EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS The former, asserting that spiritual substance could never come under the power of corruption, and, further, that it was necessary for the perfect man to pass through all possible experiences of every kind, gave themselves up to unlimited indulgence of the flesh. " Even as gold when submerged in filth loses not on that account its beauty, retains its own natural qualities .... so they affirm that they cannot in any measure suiFer hurt or lose their spiritual substance, whatever the material actions in which they may be involved." A man who was in the world but not of the world might perform the most disgraceful actions without sin (i. 6. 2 ; i. 25. 4 ; i. 28. 2 ; ii. 14. 5 ; ii. 32. I and 2). On the other hand, Irenaeus condemns also the abuse of the world which consists in unnecessary or unlawful withdrawal from it. The Encratite Tatian comes in specially for his rebuke. " Springing from Saturninus and Marcion, those who are called Encratites preached against marriage, thus setting aside the original creation of God, and indirectly blaming Him who made male and female for the propagation of the human race. Some of those reckoned amongst them have also introduced abstinence from animal food" (i. 28. i). His long discussion on the spoiling of the Egyptians also throws light upon his views as to the Christian's attitude to the world. As the Israelites spoiled the Egyptians, so did the Christians spoil the heathen when they received property from heathen parents, or AMBROSE loi had such property preserved through the guardianship of a heathen state. God gives Christians property because He knows they will make good use of it, " redeeming as it were our property from strange hands. But this do I say, ' from strange hands,' not as if the world were not God's possession, but that we have gifts of this sort, and receive them from others in the same way as these men had them from the Egyptians, who knew ,not God, and by means of these same things do we erect in ourselves the tabernacles of God, for God dwells in those who act uprightly" (iv. 30). Irenaeus, too, it should be noted, does not simply take a temperate and broad view of the Christian's relation to the world, but directly traces the above errors of conduct to a faulty view of the universe. The universe, as against Marcion, is for him one, and the work of one God, the Supreme Being of justice and of love. More- over, the world is sacred since " our Lord acknowledged the bread to be His body, while He took it from that creation to which we belong " (iv. 33. 2). Amhrose In spite of some appearances to the contrary, Ambrose must also be placed among those who took the broader view of man's relation to the world. To live in accordance with the will of God is, for Ambrose, the same thing as living in accordance with nature (©£ Officio Min., i. 28, 133). And by nature he under- stood much more than the Stoic ; for he interpreted I02 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Nature by means of Revelation. As we shall see later on, the rule of moral conduct is to act continually in harmony with wisdom, i.e. in accordance both with natural reason and revealed wisdom.^ There is no contradiction between the two. The world is not evil but good in its origin and government. Creation and redemption are the work of the one good God.^ Ambrose has indeed some extravagant or at least highly eulogistic things to say on the subject of fasting and virginity. " Great is the virtue of fasting. It is reflectio animae, cibus mentis, vita angelorum, culpae mors, excidium delictorum, remedium salutis, radix gratise, fundamentum castigatis" (De EL et Juj., 2). But the motive for fasting is not contempt of the good creatures of God, but discipline (not, however, without the taint of " merit "). Similarly in the case of virginity. It is represented as the principal virtue, not to be praised because it is found in martyrs, but because it caused the Word to come down from heaven and has the fulness of its exposition in Christ Himself. He will not discourage marriage, but only enlarge on the benefits of virginity. " Dicet aliquis ; ergo dissuades nuptiae ? ergo vero suadeo, et eos damno qui dissuadere consuerunt. . . . Paucarum quippa hoc munus, illud (marriage) omnium." 1 Ewald, p. 28. * The "honestum" may be identified with the "schopfangs- massigen," the " decorum " with the " erlosungmassigen." Ewald, p. 84. AMBROSE 103 Marriage is less favourable to the spiritual life, but it is the more painful condition. His sister remained a virgin, but he used his influence with his brother Satyrus to dissuade him from a similar course. And when Satyrus would not yield, it was not on the ground that marriage was sinful, but through family affection.^ With regard to the use of wine, we may add, he tells the widows that it is lawful, but for the most part it is not expedient. With regard to the State and civic life, he believed in the divine and permanent ordainment of the State, and sought to penetrate the life of the people with Christian influence. Forster thinks that it was due to his early training and to the example of his sister that he was tempted to regard the world-renouncing life as KUT e^oj^iji/ religious.^ If he was drawn to that- view at times, we cannot say that it was the general tenour of his teaching. Extremely important in this connec- tion is the way in which Ambrose regarded the world itself as affected by the work of Christ. " Resurrexit in eo mundus, resurrexit in eo caelum, resurrexit in eo terra." ^ A man who took that view of the relation of Christ to the world could not consistently be an ascetic except in the sense of subordinating the material to the spiritual. 1 See especially De Virg., i. 3, 6. 2; De Viduis, iv. 23, xii. 72; De Exc. Sat., 53 and 59; Luc. Exp., vii. 12; Ap., 58; Forster, p. 150 j Davies, art. "Ambrose," D.C.B. 2 P. 187. 3 £)g JTiJg ^„.^ 102. CHAPTER 111 THE OLD MAN AND THE NEW MAN Having endeavoured to illustrate some of the char- acteristic ways of regarding man's relation to God and to the world in heathen and Christian writers, we turn to another question which lies at the foundation of Christian ethics ; and here the divergence becomes wider. Christian ethics start from the supposition that a profound change is possible in the moral subject, and until that change is effected there cannot be genuinely and perfecdy Christian conduct. The old man must be crucified, or transformed, or re-created before he becomes capable of true Christian morality. Christianity starts with the idea of redemption, renewal, re-creation. Christianity, it will be said, is not the only religion which speaks of redemption. Indeed, the idea of redemption of some kind is involved in all religions. Without the consciousness of suffering, limitation, or evil of some kind, men could hardly be religious at all, or, at least, their religion would probably take a very different form. It is the desire to escape from the evils THE OLD MAN AND THE NEW MAN 105 of life that for the most part makes men reflect upon the relation of the higher power or powers to himself. If by redemption we mean " release from the bonds and miseries of the finite, intellectual, and ethical, as well as physical," Tiele says that this is the aim, not of one class of religions, but of all.-^ In the Christian scheme, however, finiteness in itself is not considered an evil, and the bonds and miseries of the finite arise, not from the natural limi- tations of being, but from sin. Christianity does not contemplate the annihilation of the creature and of creaturely dependence upon the Creator. The new man in Christ Jesus is a new creature. He is always finite, and it is part of the glory and advantage of the new creature as well as of the old that he is finite.^ What Christianity proclaims first of aU is redemption from sin ; and it is this act of redemption which makes the old man into the new man. As sin is no necessary part of human nature, no violence is done to the human personality by its removal. On the contrary, it is only when sin has been removed that human nature can develop towards the perfect man. Under the old creation and in bondage to sin, man never becomes perfectly human.* 1 Part I., Lecture 3. ^ See Bushnell's striking sermon on The Advantage of being Finite, p. 329. ^ I do not, however, wish to assert that this is the only way of conceiving the purpose or purposes of the Incarnation. io6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS It is by no means sufficient to point to the use of such words as redemption and salvation in other religions as a reason for denying the distinctive character of Christian doctrine and ethics. " A super- ficial comparison may seem to find in some forms of heathen religion the same redemptive principles. But we have but to make the comparison in detail to see how fallacious this view is."^ The question is as to the meaning of the words in the different systems, and also very specially as to the power behind them,^ Does redemption from sin and the consequent renewal of man find any place in the religious life and thought outside the Church writers in our period ? We ought, perhaps, from the point of view of com- pleteness, to discuss the Gnostics first. The Gnostic systems certainly have an idea of redemption, but they have not the Christian doctrine. What we find is largely a union of heathen thought with Christian terminology. So it seems better to turn to the heathen views in their less adulterated forms and contrast them with the Christians. We turn first to the philosophers, and then to the Mysteries. The Philosophers Some writers have thought that they found in later Stoicism an approach to the Christian idea of sin and 1 Stearns, p. 263. 2 Trench, p. 140; Wilkins, p. 189; Forrest, Authority of Christ, p. 153. THE PHILOSOPHERS 107 the need of deliverance from it ; and it would be possible to collect a considerable number of passages which bear some resemblance to Christian sentiments, especially in Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Some of these sayings have been collected by Trench,^ Lightfootj* and others. Among the most remarkable are two passages from the 52 nd Epistle of Seneca : " Quid est hoc, Lucili, quod nos alio tendentes alio trahit, et eo unde recedere cupimus impellit ? quid coUuctatur cum animo nostro nee permittit nobis quid- quam semel velle ? . . . . Nemo per se satis valet ut emerget : oportet manum aliquis porrigat, aliquis educat."' In the 83rd Epistle, Seneca tells us that no one can be good without God ; but he adds, " What God I know not," and makes it clear that the divine help is shown in the giving of counsel rather than in communi- cating a new motive to the will or a new nature to the sinner. Marcus Aurelius* speaks of a change of " sentiments " without which men are but reluctant slaves or hypocrites, but by " sentiments " he too seems to mean "opinions." More profoundly than any of the Stoics, Marcus Aurelius felt the weakness and little- ness of man. His meditations breathe the spirit of " the gentlest and most touching modesty." In Marcus Aurelius the sense of sin is struggling to express itself. But it is evaded, unrealised, or misinterpreted. What 1 P. 190. « P. 280. ^ Cf. De Clem., i. 6 ; De Benef., iv. 27 ; Dt Ira, ii. 8. * IX. 29. io8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS comes to the surface is not penitence, but the sense of powerlessness, and not the longing for redemption so much as "a melancholy aspiration towards a sort of Buddhist annihilation," There is resignation but not hope. There is a sense of the vanity of earthly things, but not faith. There is emotion but not vigour. " The ' Meditations ' is to Stoicism what the last rose of autumn is to the rose-tree, exquisite in its paler tints, its head more inclined, its petals impregnated with moisture, and more beautiful to the eye, but you may look in vain for the perfume which breathes triumph- andy from the flowers of summer." ^ We have only to remember the fundamental differ- ences in the way of regarding both religion and morality to see what small value there is in any apparent coinci- dences. The Pantheistic groundwork of Stoic doctrine provides no foundation for the Christian sense of sin, and the independent basis of morality deprives moral offences of their proper religious significance. The foundation of ethics among the Stoics, as we have seen, is not to be found in the relation of man to God, but in the nature of man. Every man has in his own nature the possibility of virtue. All men have not the faculty of music, but all, old and young, weak and strong, can be good. We are so constituted by nature that we can live without sin. To Musonius and other consistent Stoics the truth of human nature is the foundation of 1 See Lecky, i. p. 246; Church, p. 214; and especially Reville, PP- i-S- THE PHILOSOPHERS 109 all ethics.^ If we take the Stoic school on the one hand, and the more legalistic of the Church writers on the other, there is much truth in a favourite saying of Lecky that "The eye of the pagan philo- sopher was ever fixed upon virtue, the eye of the Christian teacher upon sin."^ Sin has indeed not only a greater prominence in Christianity, it has also a different meaning. The more introspective character of later Stoicism reminds us, however, of another school of philosophy, which had some influence in modifying Stoicism and which carried out this practice of self-examination even more thoroughly — the Pythagorean. In one of his essays, C. Martha has traced the Pythagorean custom of self-examination, as formulated in the Verses of Gold, and shown how it made its appearance in Stoicism in the time of Seneca, and subsequently passed into the 1 Baltzer, pp. 9 and 10. The Christian conception of sin is quite foreign to their principles. Cf. Zahn, pp. 33, 34, on Epictetus : " Gerade das Wesentliche des EvangeUums war fiir ihm voUig un- anehmbar wahrend das Evangelium auf Grund der Voraussetzung einer durch Schuld des Menschen herbeigefiihren Depravation der ethische und auch der physischen Welt eine Erlosung durch Gottes Gnade verkiindigt, beharrt Epiktet trotz aller wider sprechenden Erfahrungen und Bekenntnisse bei seinen Dogma von der unverwiistlichen Gesundheit der grossen unter der kleinen, der ethischen und der physischen Welt, und legt die Entscheidung iiber Hail und Verderben dermassen in den Willensentschluss des eingelnen Menschen, dass der sich auf sichselbst besinnende Wille sein einiger Erloser ist." 2 II. 4. no EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Platonic schools, and also, he thought, into the Christian Church. So far as the Church is concerned, it seems hardly necessary to infer that the Pythagorean influence was widely felt. There is, it is true, comparatively little on the subject in the New Testament, and nothing in the nature of formal rules. But the practice was well known in Old Testament times, and the Psalms, together with the natural working of conscience under a legally conceived form of Christianity, such as widely obtained in the West, would be sufficient to account for this pious habit. But we are on much surer ground when we speak of the great difference between the Christian and Pythagorean practice. In the one case God is the examiner and judge, in the other the man himself. There are deeper depths in the heart than man can fathom, even though he were the most im- partial judge. But as a general rule among the ancients man is the director of his own conscience. Though he may be dependent upon the gods for his daily bread, he is dependent upon himself alone for his morals. " Det vitam, det opes, aequam mi animam ipse parabo " ; so said the Epicurean poet, Horace,^ "Atque hoc quidam omnes mortales sic habent .... commodi- tatem prosperitatem vitae a deis se habere, virtutem autem nemo unquam acceptam deo retutit " ; so said Cicero.^ 1 Ep., i. i8, 112. 2 De Nat. Deo., iii. 36 ; see Lecky, i. 197 ; Martha, Aiiules Morales, pp. 191-234. THE PHILOSOPHERS in The self-sufficiency of the natural heart of man is never fully overcome in heathenism. Neither the Stoic nor Pythagorean, nor, we may add, the Platonic theories will enable a man to surrender himself to a higher power and, freed from the guilt of the past, become a new creature. Repentance is not possible. Guilt is ignorance. Sin is a disease. Punishment is not penal. Death is not due to sin, but a law of nature. And with the absence of a true sense of sin and of the necessity of repentance, the philosophers part company with the Christians. The possibility of a Christian ethic implies repentance in the fullest sense, not merely a change of opinion or sentiment, or even of the decisions of the will, but of the whole man, a " penitence which places our entire personality, with its triple functions of reason, feeling, and will, in right relation to God." This is the foundation of Christian character, for without it there cannot be the all- important grace of Christian humility.^ If the philosophers do not give us anything similar to the Christian idea of the renewal of man, can we find it in the popular religions of the time ? It is useless to turn to the ancient religions of Greece, for sin was there an unrealised fact. It is equally useless to think of the old Roman cults, for they had nothing to do with morality. The due observance of formidae, which had no moral significance whatever, was the popular idea of religion. But in the second century ^ lUingworth, pp. 27, 28. 112 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS great changes were taking place in the ancient world. " De Cic6ron k Marc Aurelius la soci6t6 romaine a pass6 de I'incredulit^ k la devotion." ^ Something which at least reminds us of the sense of sin and the need of deliverance makes itself widely felt. "The old religion of nature which glorifies all natural forces without taking account of their moral worth is trans- formed by a new conception of nature in which a distinction is made between good and evil, the divine and that which is contrary to it. . . . For the ancient ideal of heroism, the religion of the third century substituted the ideal of holiness." ^ A new sense of mystery is everywhere diffused. The supernatural element in Christianity is no longer a stumbling-block. When Minucius Felix wishes to convince opponents of the truth of Christianity, he does not need to apologise for the miracles. He does not even mention them. Everybody takes that side of religion for granted. The distinctive mark of Christianity with him Is that Christianity teaches a higher morality and that Christians practise it. But in truth there is only a superficial resemblance between the supernatural ele- ments in Christianity and in the heathen cults. The transformation eflFected by the Mysteries is no redemption from sin, or a new birth, though it may be called so. The Idea Is rather one of ascetic purity, or Gnostic holiness, which leaves the heart unchanged. Apulelus, " the painter of the foulest scenes in ancient ^ Boissier, La Religion romaine, i. pref. v. ^ Reville, p. 151. THE MYSTERIES 113 literature," is a devotee of the Egyptian cult and prays like a saint in Church.^ The Mysteries It is not possible here to describe at great length the place which the Mysteries occupied in the ancient world. Their importance, however, for the moral ideas of the period makes it necessary to refer to them. Here, if anywhere, we find the idea of the renewal and regeneration of man. " They attempted to cover precisely the same ground which was in due time occupied by the Christian Church. They exhibit very strongly those yearnings of humanity which the Incarnation of the Son of God was to satisfy."^ There is a considerable measure of agreement amongst those who have written on the subject, upon the general teaching of the Mysteries. About a hundred and sixty- five years ago the learned bishop of Gloucester pub- lished his Divine Legation of Moses, containing, among other things, a most interesting account of the ancient Mysteries. In that work he describes the teaching as (i) the rise and establishment of civil society and the benefits of agriculture ; (2) the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments ; and (3) the error of polytheism and the principle of the unity of God.' Sainte-Croix also enumerated three points : (i) civil- isation introduced by agriculture ; (2) how to be happy in the world, in particular by the expiation of 1 Dill, p. 389. 2 Cheetham, p. 60. » i. p. 282. 8 114 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS sin ; and (3) the hope of happiness in the next. He also combated the idea that the error of polytheism was exposed — Warburton's third point, but one which he had confined to the Greater Mysteries, a secret therefore not made known to aU.^ It is interesting to find one of the latest English writers supporting Warburton's contention, though in a modified form. "The general tendency of the Mysteries, at least in their later forms, seems to have been towards monotheism ; the gods of popvdar mythology became no more than parts of one stupendous whole, or even mere appellations of the one only God." ^ In addition to the other points of Warburton and Sainte-Croix, he adds that " the suffering of a god, suffering followed by triumph, seems to have been the invariable accompaniment of the sacred drama." The two most influential of the Mysteries in the third century were those of Isis and of Mithras, the Egyptian and the Persian. Anrich says that the Isis cult was probably the most widely spread, and at all events the most important religion in the Roman Empire.^ The leading authority on Mithras worship has said, " If we consider the number of monuments the Persian religion has left us, one may easily ask whether in the epoch of the Severi Its adepts were not more numerous than the disciples of Christ. . . . Mithraism reached the apogee of its powers towards the middle of the third century, and it appeared for a moment as if the world was on 1 I. pp. 404-8. 2 Cheetham, p. 6z. s P. 43 j Orr, p. 210. THE MYSTERIES 115 the verge of becoming Mithraic." ^ As the resemblances to Christianity are most striking in the cult of Mithras, it may be sufficient to illustrate the idea of redemption contained in it. Cumont has shown that Mithraism was subjected to various changes in its victorious march from East to West. It was softened by contact with Greek art and culture, though in return it very slightly affected the Hellenic world. The influence of the Stoic teaching upon it was also profound, and there can be no doubt that it was modified through contact with Christian Churches.^ Thus changed, it presents many resem- blances to Christianity, notably in its insistence upon purification and new birth. The words " re-natus " and " renatus in eternum " are used to describe those who have been initiated into the Mithraic cult ; and the questions naturally arise, " how they got there, and what do they mean ? " Friedlander thinks that they were a survival of the old Persian belief in the resurrection of the dead ; ^ and that supposition at any rate points to the different significance the words have in the cult of Mithras. For we cannot help noticing how the idea of a physical ' Cumont, pp. 188 and 199. 2 Pp. 24, 25, 195, etc.; Bigg, Christian Plaionists, p. 240; Cheetham, pp. 146, 177. * " Wiedergeborene, auf ewig Wiedergeborene heissen die Eingeweihten des Isis und des Mithras-deinstes : des Kern des letztere war vielleicht der altperische Glaube an eine Auferstehung der Todten," ii. 617. ii6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS and non-moral rather than a spiritual resurrection predominates in the faith of Mithras. Not that the cult is immoral. " We have not a shadow of right to identify the precepts revealed in the Mysteries with those formulated in the Avesta, nevertheless it would appear certain that the ethics of the Magi of the Occident had made no concessions to the licence of Babylonian cults, and that it had still preserved the lofty character of the ethics of the ancient Persians. . . . Resistance to sensuality was one of the aspects of the combat with the principle of evil .... for them good dwelt in action. ... A religion of soldiers, Mithraism exalted military virtues above aU others. ... Its success was in great part undoubtedly due to the vigour of its ethics." ^ There is something to set over against this bright picture of the ethics of Mithras. If the virtues of the soldier were conspicuous, his vices were not altogether absent : and one blemish will appear unpardonable to the modern world. It was a religion for men only, and not for women. " Mithras forbade women to participate in the Mysteries. Among the hundreds of inscriptions which have come down to us, not one mentions either a priestess, a woman initiate, or even a donatress." ^ Nevertheless the ethics of Mithras were undoubtedly pure for the ancient world, and will compare favourably with those of Stoicism, with which it was congenially allied, though not with Christian 1 Pp. 141, 142, 147. 2 P. 173. THE MYSTERIES 117 ethics.^ In its ethics, quite as much as in its cosmology, we see its affinity with Stoicism, and its rapid extension throughout the Roman Empire is not remarkable. Like Stoicism, it fitted in with the Roman temperament, and it arrived when men, enamoured still of Stoic morality, were seeking something which Stoicism could not supply, and which Mithras professed to offer — Redemption. But this redemption is physically rather than ethically conceived. It is deliverance from the burdens of the finite rather than from sin. Purity was made a condi- tion for redemption, but it was not in itself the re- demption. Man had fallen, but it was not when he lapsed into sin, but when, compelled by hard necessity or by voluntary choice, he had left the celestial regions and dropped down to earth. His salvation consisted in getting back to his happy pre-existent state. To this end a ladder, consisting of eight gates, was set up from earth to heaven. " The initiates alone, to whom the formulas had been taught, knew how to appease the inexorable guardians of these gates. As the soul traversed the different zones, it rid itself, as one would of garments, of the passions and faculties which it had received in its descent to earth. It abandoned to the 1 Not only in proud self-confidence, courage, and apathy, did Stoicism resemble Mithraism, but in the disparagement of women. Epictetus, whose ethics are sometimes considered almost Christian, " speaks with the most acrid contempt of women, and children he dismisses as ' snivelling brats.' " Bigg, p. 70. ii8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS moon its vital nutritive energy, to Mercury its desires, to Venus its wicked appetites, to the sun its intellectual capacities, to Mars its love of war, to Jupiter its ambitious dreams, to Saturn its inclinations. It was naked, stripped of every vice and every sensibility when it penetrated the eighth heaven to enjoy there, as an essence supreme and in the eternal light that bathes the gods, beatitude without end." ^ The redemption thus conceived was apparently effected through the instrumentality of two methods — first the sacramental, and secondly the mystical. What Aristode says of the Mysteries in general was no doubt true in large part of the later Mysteries of Mithras : " What men gained in the Mysteries was not definite instruction, but impressions and emotions."^ It was by scenic appeals to the imagination, by ecstasy, and by the impressive use of sacraments and signs that redemption was secured. The Church Writers The similarity and difference both in idea and in method of redemption in the Mysteries and in Church writers open up a wide subject. Occasionally it may seem as if the idea of redemption was confused by the ecclesiastical authors with that of immortality, and presented in a way which reminds us rather of heathen than Pauline teaching. But so far as I know the distinction was never quite lost sight of by any Christian 1 Cumont, p. I4S. ^ Cheetham, p. 43. THE CHURCH WRITERS 119 writer. Redemption is always Conceived ethically, though some writers do not do full justice to the idea. As a rule, I think it may be said that the eternal life of the Gospels and not the immortality of the philosophers was the goal of the Christian redemption according to the Church writers. And if they often fail clearly to express the full meaning of the new creation, its con- nection with One whom they considered human and divine prevented it from being regarded either in the meagre or abstract or non-moral manner of the philosophers. They knew they had fulness of life in Christ Jesus, though they sometimes expressed them- selves in a faulty manner. So, too, with the method of redemption. The very fact that the redemption was brought to them not merely through, but in a divinely-human personality, prevented them from ever relapsing into an unspiritual sacramentarianism or a non-human mysticism. At times it seems as if some of the writers had struggled in vain against heathen influences outside, or the natural heathenism of their own hearts, and were simply calling by Christian names the methods of the world. But the Church was never submerged. Men like Tertullian and Cyprian and Ambrose, with all their faults, had got something which the heathen had not. The deeper Gospel view of redemption makes its appearance amid the mass of alien elements which seem to obscure and almost destroy it. The Christian method of redemption, however perverted, was never I20 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS identified with the heathen. This wiU appear again in the observations of the next chapter. We may draw this to a close by referring to a few descriptions of the Christian's initiation into the new life. Justin Martyr Justin says : " I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God, when we have been made new through Christ. ... As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and entreat God with fasting for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we ourselves were regenerated. . . . In order that they may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pro- nounced over him who chooses to be born again and has repented of his sins the name of God the Father. . . . And this washing is called illumination because they who have learned these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ .... and in the name of the Holy Ghost .... he who is illuminated is washed" (i ApoL, c. 6i ; cf. 6^ and 66). With this passage we should connect three or four sentences from another work of Justin's. JUSTIN MARTYR 121 " But pray that above all the gates of light may be opened to you : for those things cannot be perceived or understood by all, but only by the men to whom God and His Christ have imparted wisdom " {Trypho, c. 7). " Moreover, I would wish that all, making a resolution similar to my own, do not keep themselves away from the words of the Saviour. For they possess a terrible power in themselves, and are sufficient to inspire those who turn aside from the path of rectitude with awe ; while the sweetest rest is afforded those who make a diligent practice of them " {Trypho, c. 8). " If, then, you have any concern for yourself, and if you are eagerly looking for salvation, and if you believe in God, you may, since you are not indifferent in the matter, become acquainted with the Christ of God, and after being initiated live a happy life " {Trypho, c. 8). "Daily some of you are becoming disciples in the name of Christ, and quitting the path of error, who are also receiving gifts, each, as he is worthy, illumined through the name of this Christ " {Trypho, 32). We have here a pretty clear description of what Justin thought was involved in the new birth. (a) It was a translation from the sphere of necessity to that of choice. It was only a limited freedom that Justin, Irenasus, and others allowed to the natural man. That freedom was only finally secured and perfected in the new creation, that is to say, only then did man 122 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS become perfecdy human. He was not unclothed, as in the Mithraic notion of redemption, but clothed upon. (J?) It was a translation from the sphere of darkness into light. It was an illumination of the understanding. There was no artificial blaze of light as in the Mithraic ceremonies. It was the light of truth that brought freedom and new life. And in accordance with this, great stress is laid on the words of the Saviour. (c) It meant a new mode of conduct — a life accord- ing to the teaching, and not according to the habits of the past {cf. i ApoL, c. 14). {d) The definite breaking with the past was not only through a change of conduct, but through the remis- sion of sins. He who was illuminated was washed.^ With regard to the method of redemption or new creation, it should be noted : {a) That it was the work of Christ, and not of the water or the teaching. {h) That though Justin speaks of obtaining remis- sion of sins in the water, he says that the renewal had taken place before the candidate came to the waters of baptism. It was not the work of Christ through the water, but through the teaching that effected the renewal. (c) The remission of sins is connected with previous prayer and fasting. 1 For possible influence of the Mysteries on the idea of baptism, see Hatch, c. 10, and Cheetham, c. 4. TATIAN 123 Tatian It is noteworthy that Justin's disciple Tatian makes no reference to baptism, though there is a very explicit reference to the Mysteries and to Christian initiation. He thus describes his own conversion : " Wherefore having seen these things, and, moreover, also having been admitted to the Mysteries, and having everywhere examined the religious rites performed by the effem- inate and the pathic, and having found among the Romans their Latiarian Jupiter delighting in human gore and the blood of slaughtered men, and Artemis, not far from the great city, sanctioning acts of the same kind, and one demon here and another there instigating to the perpetration of evil — retiring by myself, 1 sought how I might be able to discover the truth. And, while I was giving my most earnest attention to the matter, I happened to meet with certain barbaric writings, too old to be compared with the opinions of the Greeks, and too divine to be com- pared with their errors ; and I was led to put faith in those by the unpretending cast of the language, the inartificial character of the writers, the foreknowledge displayed of future events, the excellent quality of the precepts, and the declaration of the government of the universe, as centred in one Being. And my soul being taught of God, I discerned that the former class of writings lead to condemnation, but that these put an end to the slavery that is in the world, and rescue us 124 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS from the multiplicity of rulers and ten thousand tyrants, while they give us, not indeed what we had not received before, but what we had received, but were prevented by error from retaining. Therefore being initiated and instructed in these things, I wish to put away my former errors as the follies of childhood." ^ Cyprian Cyprian's master TertuUian had more definitely connected the renewal with the waters of baptism. " Therefore when the soul embraces the faith, being renewed in its second birth by water and the power from above, then the veil of its former corruption being taken away, it beholds the light in all its brightness." ^ "All waters therefore in virtue of the pristine privi- lege of their origin do, after invocation of God, attain the sacramental power of sanctification, for the Spirit immediately supervenes from the heavens and rests over the waters, sanctifying them from Himself : and being thus sanctified they imbibe at the same time the power of sanctifying." ^ We may be inclined to characterise this at once as heathen formalism, and I certainly do not wish to defend it, although it is worth while noticing that the soul which is renewed in water has previously within it 1 Cc. 29 and 30. « -pg^t. Be An., 41. 8 Tert. De Bapt., z^; cf. 20. Tertullian's references to the Satanic laver of Mithras should be compared with De Prase, 40 ; Be Cor., 15. CYPRIAN 125 " seeds of good," so that the magical effects of the water are somewhat mitigated. I would rather let the passages above quoted stand as two which may be thought to approximate to heathen views as to the method of redemption. It is not remarkable that the disciple is not above his master in this respect, and that Cyprian also should lean to the magical or heathen notion as to the method of the new birth. " All indeed who attain to the divine gift and inherit- ance by the sanctification of baptism therein put off the old man by the grace of the saving laver, and, renewed by the Holy Ghost from the filth of the old contagion, are purged by a second nativity." ^ But there is something to put on the other side even in Cyprian. Christ " has renewed us by the quicken- ing of His blood." ^ After referring to the communion of the Church at Jerusalem, he can allow himself to say, " This is truly to become sons of God by spiritual birth." ' " Think of the heavenly kingdom to which the Lord does not admit any but those who are of one heart and mind. Consider that those alone can be called the sons of God who are peacemakers .... who respond to the likeness of God the Father and of Christ." * It is Christ who " redeems the believer with the price of His blood," who " reconciles man to God the Father," who " quickens our mortal nature with a 1 De Hah. Firg., 23. ^ De Op. et El, 26. 8 Ibtd., 25. * De Zelo et Livore, 18. 126 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS heavenly regeneration." We should be " registered in His Sacrament and sign," but it is not by baptism but by Him that we are " made children of God." We are " restored by His own blood." ^ But however defective Cyprian's treatment of the method of the new birth may have been, the spiritual change produced was a great reality to him. It was an astonishing moral change. " How, said I, is such a conversion possible, that there should be a sudden and rapid divestment of all which, either innate in us, has hardened in the corrup- tion of our material nature, or acquired by us, has become inveterate by long-accustomed use ?"^ " I used to indulge my sins as if they were actually parts of me, and indigenous to me. But after that, by the help of the water of new birth the stain of former years had been washed away, and the light fi-om above serene and pure had been infused into my reconciled heart — after that by the agency of the Spirit breathed from heaven a second birth had restored me to a new man ; then in a wondrous manner doubtful things at once began to assure themselves to me, hidden things to be revealed .... what had been thought impossible to be capable of being achieved. . . . You yourself assuredly know what was taken away from us by that •death of evil and that life of virtue. Anything like boasting is hateful. . . . All our power is of God. . . . The Spirit freely flowing forth is restrained by 1 AdDem., 25. 2 Ad Don., 3. LACTANTIUS 127 no limits. ... In the degree in which we bring a capacious faith, in that measure we draw from it an overflowing grace." ^ Lactantius Lactantius lays great stress on the moral character of the new birth and on the precepts of God as instru- mental thereto. " But what influence is exerted on the souls of men by the precepts of God because of their simplicity and truth is shown by daily proofs. Give me a man who is passionate, scurrilous and unrestrained ; with a few words of God I will render him as gentle as a sheep. . . . Give me a man who is unjust, foolish, an evil- doer ; forthwith he shall be just and wise and innocent, for by one laver all his wickedness shall be taken away. So great is the power of divine wisdom, that when infused into the breast of man, by one impulse it once for all expels folly, which is the mother of faults, for the effecting of which there is no need of payment, or books, or nightly study. . . . But a few precepts of God so entirely change the whole man, render him new, that you would not recognise him as the same." ^ 1 ^d Don., 4 and 5. * Div. Inst., iii. 26. For the "work of bounty" in blotting out sins, see ibid., vi. 13, and for the connection of healing with the Church, see ibid., iv. 30. CHAPTER IV THE GOD-MAN If we have found radically different views concerning God and Man, Man and the world, Man as created and as re-created, in Christian and heathen writers, we shall have little hesitation in assigning as the principal cause the fact and idea which is now to be considered, and which constitutes in itself the greatest distinction of all. All that is distinctive of Christian ethics may be traced back to the Incarnation and found illustrated there. " To arrive at the true differentiae of Christian morals we need to study more profoundly the character and purpose of Jesus Christ. In a word, His Person, His work, and His character form the central point of ethical inquiry and contemplation." ^ There is a very general agreement among writers of different schools that this is the proper way of regarding Christian ethics. The Christian type or types of character are inevitably connected with the historical presentation of the Gospel in the Person of Christ. 1 Ottley, p. 476 ; Bethune-Baker, Cambridge Essays, p. 541. 128 THE GOD-MAN 129 We must regard as exceptional, and possibly only as apparently exceptional, instances, sometimes to be met with, of men destitute of a distinctively Christian faith who seem to have attained a praiseworthy level of Christian morality. This is not the normal state of things. It will often be found that there is something in the most striking of these apparent exceptions which makes us hesitate on closer observation to speak of their morality as Christian. There is something wanting in the quality and tone of their behaviour which, however similar in appearance, is not quite what we associate with the redeemed of the Lord. Often, too, such persons may; have been more deeply influenced by Christian influence than they themselves are aware of. And even if wholly unconscious of the source of their strength, nothing prevents us from ascribing their conduct so far as it is Christian to One whom they ignorantly worship, the Logos whose presence is not confined to those who apprehend the historical Jesus of Nazareth.^ But for the most part Christian morality is the product of a definite Christian faith. Both in practice and in theory what is Christian in morals proceeds from Jesus Christ as its source, from Christ as mani- fested to men, and so from the fact and truth of the Incarnation. This view, however, may be developed in different ways. There are some who think that even the introduction of the word " fact " is unnecessary : that the "idea" of the Incarnation is sufficient to 1 Bethune-Baker, Cambridge Essays, p. 537; Forrest, pp. 352-5. 9 I30 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS constitute the distinction of Christian ethics. But the student of Church History is not able to divorce the ideas of the Christian religion from the facts and events which have given them their place in history. To him it is certain that the Gospel has a historical foundation, that nothing but the historicity of the Gospel has won its triumphs, and profoundly affected both the theory and the practice of morals : it is a historical fact. This being granted, it still remains open to ask more particularly what it is in the fact or idea which has given to Christian ethics their distinctiveness. Other religions have had a historical foundation, and other religions have also had ideas of incarnationes of the divine attached to them. One answer to the question is to confess at once that in neither of these respects is Christianity absolutely unique, and to place the distinction in the Cross rather than in the Incarnation. " It has been customary," said an interesting writer, "to seek for parallels between heathenism and Christianity, and these parallels have generally been found in such doctrines as the Trinity and the Incarnation. Yet neither the doctrine of the Trinity nor that of the Incarnation expresses the deepest essence of the Christian religion : there is something which lies beneath both, and that is the idea of the Cross." ^ And more recendy we have had the very important testimony, "The study of the Greek and Roman moralists of the empire leaves upon my 1 Matheson, i. p. 16. THE GOD-MAN 131 own mind the strong conviction that the fundamental difference between heathenism of all shades and Chris- tianity is to be discovered in the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice, that is to say, in the Passion of our Lord." Neither the Fatherhood of God, nor the immortality of the soul, nor the idea of revelation, nor of virtue making men God-like, nor of the Messiah, are the distinguishing marks of Christianity. "The Cross is the peculiar property of the Gospel. What the first Christians adopted as their emblem was not a portrait of Jesus, but the Cross. . . . The old Gnostics called the Cross ' Horos,' the boundary or dividing line." ^ Yet even when we lay the emphasis on the Cross, we are not prevented from seeking for something dis- tinctive in the Christian idea of the Incarnation, and we shall hardly be wrong in finding it in that thought of vicarious sacrifice which belongs also and specially to the Cross. If the sacrifice of the Cross contains some- thing distinct in kind from the suffering of a God which was a common element in the heathen Mysteries, so, too, does the Incarnation differ radically from all heathen ideas of Incarnation. That which separates Christianity from heathenism in the one case, does so also in the other. Indeed, it seems impossible to confine the distinctiveness of Christianity to any one idea or doctrine ; for all parts of Christian truth are so firmly knit together that we can take any one of them, and show, not only its homogeneity with the others, 1 Bigg, pp. xi-xv. 132 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS but also its distinctiveness from all that is non-Christian. Neither the Fatherhood of God, nor the immortality of the soul, nor revelation, nor Messiahship, nor even the idea of virtue making us God-like, has the same significance in Christianity that it has in heathen systems. Christianity transforms every idea which it claims as its own. Closely connected with the distinctiveness of the Christian idea of the Incarnation is the " historical character" of the Gospel. The Incarnation is not historical simply in the sense that the Lycaonians may have considered the visit of Mercury and Jupiter historical. " The personal and the final union of the Godhead and humanity" is the essential idea of the Incarnation, and so it is not only historical, as other events, but in a sense altogether unique. It is historical not simply because Christ appeared at a particular time and place, but because " He Himself was the revelation which He came to give." ^ The Incarnation, then, both in its idea of vicarious sacrifice and in its historical character, is different from anything with a similar name in heathenism. And this is the result of the peculiar and unique nature of the Person of Christ. It was only One who was united to God as well as to man who could in the proper sense of the word be a vicarious sacrifice for man. It was only One who was united to God as well as to man who could take His place in human history, and 1 Westcott, pp. 252-5. JUSTIN MARTYR 133 yet not cease to be before all and in all, the foundation as well as the subject of temporal relations. If behind the Incarnation there is the Cross, or behind the Cross the Incarnation, whichever we may conceive as primary in the order of thought, it is true that behind them both there was the Person, and it is the Person who gives the unique value to both. Justin Martyr Amongst the Fathers we are considering, Justin seems to have been most anxious to find analogies between Christian facts and heathen fables. In speaking of the birth of Jesus Christ he says : " We propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter" (i ApoL, 21) ; and, again, he compares the extraordinary generation of Christ to the fact that Mercury was called the angelic word of God, and also to the virginal birth of which the story of Perseus speaks (i ApoL, 22). In His crucifixion, Jesus Christ was " on a par with those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours," and in His life He did deeds similar to those of ^sculapius {ibid?). " I confess that I both boast and with all my strength strive to be found a Christian ; not because the teachings of Plato are different from those of Christ, but because they are not in all respects similar, as neither are those of the others. Stoics and poets and historians. For each man spoke well in proportion to the share he had of the spermatic word" (2 Apol.^ 13). 134 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Justin is careful to add that Christians have not borrowed their ideas from the heathen. They were older, and were not to be believed because they agreed with heathen fables, but because they were true. And if we think that Justin has spoken with less than his usual wisdom in regard to some of these resemblances, we should recall the unhesitating way in which he speaks of the uniqueness of Christ and His mediatorial work. " Jesus Christ is the only proper Son, who has been begotten by God, being His word and first- begotten, and power, and becoming man according to His will. He taught us these things for the conversion and restoration of the human race " (i Apol.^ 23). " For next to God we worship and love the Word who is from the unbegotten and ineffable God, since also He became man for our sakes, that becoming a partaker of our sufferings. He might also bring us healing" (2 Apol.^ 1 3). " And His Son, who alone is properly called Son, the Word, who was also with Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He arranged and created all things by Him. . . . He was made man also, having been conceived according to the will of God the Father, for the sake of believing men, and for the destruction of the demons " (2 Apol.^ 6 ; cf. I Apol.^ 13). Minucius Felix Minucius also looks for points of resemblance and finds that the Cross is a fact in nature and an element MINUCIUS FELIX 135 of the heathen religion. It did not fall within his plan to expound the meaning of the Incarnation or of the Crucifixion, but the inference from his single and ambiguous reference to Christ I take to be, " Christ, whom we worship, is more than an earthly being and mortal man." If Minucius were unable to find a place for the Christian doctrine of Jesus Christ in his purely- monotheistic system, and says nothing of particular Christological conceptions, such as the relation of Christ to the Father, because he does not understand them,^ it is the humanity rather than the deity of Christ which is lost. As belonging to a heavenly sphere Christ is God, and not of the earth. No place is found for His true humanity. But the view of Ktthn is far from finding universal favour. Many prefer to think that Minucius was silent not through ignorance, but of set purpose. He did not say more, because he reserved further discussion, as he himself says, for a future time ; or because, writing to those whose interest in Christianity was mainly a literary one, he did not wish to go beyond that monotheistic basis of Chris- tianity which would be intelligible to students of Cicero. He may even have wished to convince Caecilius that Cicero was a Christian and thus lead his readers through Cicero to Christ,^ But, from whatever reason, Minucius does keep in the background the distinctive features of Christian 1 Kiihn, pp. 37-41 J cf.^. 30. 2 Monceaux, i. 492-3; Dombart, p. viii; Boissier, i. 316, 333. 136 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS doctrine. Even the need of a Redeemer might be thought excluded by his assertion that all men can by themselves arrive at reason (c. 1 6), and that in order to know God it is only necessary to know and trust our- selves (c. 24). This certainly sounds more Stoical than Christian, but we must remember we have only a fragment to base our arguments upon. Considering the contradictory elements in other Church writers, it is not unlikely, that if Minucius had left us other writings, we should have found something to supple- ment or modify these statements, Arnobius The doubts that attach to Minucius' view of the Person and work of Christ do not belong to the other writers who occupy a lower position than the " Doctors of the Church." Arnobius speaks with no uncertain sound. Christ is everything to him. The speculative problem, how Christ can be God and man, does not interest him ; but he accepts both sides of the relation- ship, and insists with emphasis and with repetition on the mediatorial work of Christ. As teacher, Christ is the one authority, not only in religion and morals, but even in other subjects. " He is the good teacher, who has expressed Himself clearly and accompanied His promises with the guarantee of divine works. You believe in Plato, Cronius, Numenius, or any one you please ; we believe and confide in Christ " (ii. 1 1). " We Christians are nothing else than worshippers of ARNOBIUS 137 the Supreme King and Head under our Master Christ " (i. 27). " One born as men are and put to death on the Cross was God, who still lives and should be daily worshipped " (i. 36). " He is worthy to be called God because of His bounties. He has freed Christians from great errors by instilling the truth into them. He has shown them what God is, who He is, how great and how good. He has guided them from superstition to religion, the greatest of all gifts, and caused them to hold converse with the God of the universe in thanksgiving and prayer" (i. 38). "He is a god, and a god too of the inner powers. There is no greater proof thereof than the credibility of the acts done by Him, than the unwonted excellence of the virtues He showed and the abrogation of deadly ordinances (i. 42). It was by His own inherent might that He worked miracles (i. 45). He assisted good and bad alike, for this is the sign of a true God " (i. 49). " The Master of every power and destroyer of death itself, He suffered His human form to be slain that men might know that their hopes were safe about their soul's salvation, and that in no other way could they avoid the danger of death" (i. 6^y "There is no nation so rude and fierce that it has not been changed by His love " (ii, 5). " Christ has shown by His great virtues that His promise can be made good, and men escape a death of suffering and receive eternal life" (ii. 38). " It is the right of Christ alone to give salva- tion to souls and assign them everlasting life " (ii. 6^). 138 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS " By no efforts can the prize of immortality be gained unless by Christ's gift men perceive what constitutes this very immortalityj and have been allowed to enter upon the true life " (ii. 66). Lactantius Lactantius also, being a layman, had a layman's interest in Christological questions. Harnack speaks of it as a professional rather than a personal interest. He considers that Lactantius has expounded the doctrines of Christ as well as any Greek, but " almost in a light tone," as if they were " mere matters of course."^ But is it not rather true that Lactantius has approached the subject as a layman of culture might be expected to do, and especially a Western layman, in some impatience with the speculative side and warm interest in the practical and ethical .? Concerning Christ, then, he says : " He is a pure and incorruptible spirit begotten by God. He is the very Son of God" (iv. 6). " He is the speech and reason of God " (iv. 8). " He is the Logos (iv. 9). He is the God of the Jews who had assumed a body" (iv. 10). " He is the first begotten and maker of all things and the counsellor of God (iv. 11). By His first nativity begotten of the Father, by the second born of a virgin, bearing a middle substance between God and man. The power of God was displayed in Him from the works which He performed, the fraility of man from 1 III. p. 77. LACTANTIUS 139 the passion which He endured" (iv. 13). "He was sinless" (iv. 15). "He is Himself virtue and right- eousness, and on this account was able to be believed a God" (iv. 16). "He was the only one since the creation of the world who has been a perfect wise man " (iv. 23). "The Father cannot exist without the Son nor the Son without the Father. Both have one mind, one spirit, one substance. The Father is like the fountain and the Son the stream ; the Father the sun, the Son the ray. The mind and will of the one is in the other. That highest and matchless God cannot be worshipped except through the Son " (iv. 29). With considerable variety of expression and much repetition Lactantius dwells on the mediatorial work of the God-man, making it consist chiefly, but not ex- clusively, in His teaching function. " Jesus Christ is the anointed King" (iv. 7). "The Son of God descended to earth that He might build a temple for God, and teach righteousness. He died and rose again to bring to men, whose nature He had put on and represented, the hope of overcoming death, and that He might admit him to the reward of Immortality " (iv. 10). " He descended from heaven, that He might transfer the sacred religion of God to the Gentiles, and might teach them righteousness. He was a teacher of righteousness — a guide, companion, and teacher." He came to bring the crisis to men by giving them " a free opportunity to follow God, and to gain the reward of life, or incur the penalty of death " (iv. 11). " He I40 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS was sent to give a new law to new worshippers, to take this frail and weak nature of ours and raise it to immortality" (iv. 13). "As the builder of the great and eternal temple, the Church, He must also have an everlasting priesthood in it ; and there can be no approach to the shrine of the temple and to the sight of God, except through Him" (iv. 14). "He was sent as God's ambassador to men, that He might turn them from their impious and vain worship to the knowledge and worship of the true God ; and also that He might turn their minds from foolishness to wisdom, and from wickedness to deeds of righteousness. He received the dignity of everlasting Priest, and the honour of supreme King, and the authority of Judge, and the name of God" (iv. 14). "Being Himself virtue and righteousness. He descended that He might teach it, and mould the characters of men" (iv. 16). " He was the testator of the old and of the new cove- nants " (iv. 20). " He did not come to overawe men into obedience by divine power, but to set an example, and from a sense of shame to lead men to obedience " (iv. 23, 24). " He was a teacher sent by God, as it were a living law, to found a new name and temple, that by His words and example He might spread throughout the earth a true and holy worship. For this cause, therefore, a mediator came — that is, God in the flesh — that the flesh might be able to follow God, and that He might rescue man from death, which has dominion over the flesh. Therefore He clothed CLEMENT 141 Himself with flesh, that the desires of the flesh being subdued, He might teach that to sin was not the result of necessity but of (man's) purpose and will" (iv. 25). " This unspeakable power (of raising the dead) was the image of a greater energy, which showed that His teaching was about to have such might, that the nations throughout the world which were estranged from God and subject to death, being animated by the knowledge of the true light, might arrive at the reward of immor- tality. For God, as I have before explained, when He had determined to set man free, sent as His ambassador to the earth a teacher of virtue, who might both by statutory precepts train men to innocence, and by works and deeds before their eyes might open the way of righteousness .... an example in all the duties of life and in death " (iv. 26). " The Son is the ambassador, and messenger, and priest of the most high Father. He is the door of the greatest Temple ; He is the way of light ; He is the guide to salvation ; He is the gate of Life " (iv. 29). Clement Clement in his short letter speaks in warm language concerning Christ as Mediator. Not only the words (c. 13) and example of Christ (c. 16) are referred to, but Christians " are chosen through Christ, and receive virtues through Him as their High Priest and Pro- tector" (c. 58). They are " called by the will of God in Christ Jesus and justified by faith " (c. 32). " Jesus 142 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Christ is the High Priest of all our offerings, the defender and helper of our infirmity. By Him we look up to the heights of heaven. By Him we behold in a glass His immaculate and most excellent visage. . . . By Him are the eyes of our hearts opened. By Him our foolish and darkened understanding blossoms up anew towards His marvellous light. By Him the Lord has willed that we taste of immortal knowledge, o? lav airavyacf fjia T^y n.eya\oocriivrjs avTOv . . . . (c. 36). " God does good to all, but more abundantly to us who have fled for refuge to His compassions through Jesus Christ our Lord " (c. 20). "The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was given for us " (c. 21). " Redemption flows through the blood of the Lord to all them that believe and hope in God" (c. 12). "Let us look steadfasdy to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, that, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world " (c. 7). Enough has now perhaps been said to show how essential the work of Christ, as the Mediator between God and man, seemed to the Church writers who, like Arnobius and Lactantius, are generally supposed to have given inadequate or faulty presentations of Christian truth, or who, like the Broad Churchman, Minucius, or the evangelical Churchman, Clement, have only left us comparatively short works. As one purpose of this work is to show that a great gulf separates the Church teaching as expressed by any of its CLEMENT 143 representative teachers from the heathen, it seems best to illustrate most fully from the least satisfactory or minor writers, rather than from the " Doctors of the Church." The evidence would, however, be still more convincing were there space here to present the evidence in all its fulness from writers like Irenaeus or Cyprian, or even Tertullian. The last-named writer can say, " By whom has God ever been known without Christ ? By whom has Christ been explored without the Spirit ? " (De Jn.y i). The teaching of Cyprian may be gathered from such passages as the following : — Ep., 6. 4 ; Ep., 7. 5 ; Ep., 8 ; Ep., 51. 18 and 22 ; Ep; 54- 7 ; Ep., 59. 2 ; Ep., 62. 18 ; Ep., 76. 2 ; De Hab., 2 ; De Laps., 17 ; De Unit., i ; De Dom. Or., I, 3, 10, 15, 18 ; DeDemet., 16, 22 ; De Van. Idol., \o\ De Mart., 21 ; De Zel. et Liv., 17 ; Exhort, ad Mort., 6 ; De Test., 7, 2nd bk. And that of Irenaeus, which is perhaps the fullest of any, from the follow- ing : — ii. 20. 3 ; ii. 26. i ; iii. 5. 2 and 3 ; iii. 17. 2 and 3 ; iii. 18. i, 2, 6, 7 ; iii. 19. i and 3 ; iii. 20. 2 ; iii. 24. I ; iv. 14. 2 ; iv. 28. 2 ; iv. 33. 2 ; v. i. i ; V. 17. I ; V. 2^. Over against this teaching concerning Jesus Christ as the mediator of a new moral life there is very little indeed from heathen sources which could be put. The general tendency of philosophy, as we have seen, was to make man his own Saviour, and to construe the need of salvation in a way very different from the Christian. 144 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Even in the Mysteries, what we find is a very partial and superficial resemblance to the Catholic doctrines of the Church writers. In the Mysteries of Mithras we have the most successful attempt of the heathen world to produce a scheme of redemption from sin by media- tion, and to describe the moral life as flowing there- from. Yet Mithraism wanted the historical foundation of the Gospel, and if it " spoke of a divine mediator ascended up on high, and culminated in its promise of his present help from heaven ; on the other hand it was not even a clear monotheism, but made much confusion by allowing any amount of worship to strange gods. Hence, even its promise of another life was not enough to make it the strong ethical force in this life which Christianity was. Above all, between Christ and Mithras is the gulf of death. The Cross was wanting in Mithraism ; and it is historically evident that the chief moral power of the Gospel lies precisely in the story of the Cross of Christ. It is plain matter of history, that, whatever else the Gospel may contain, this tale of love divine is what has reached the hearts of men, and called out strength and purity of character far more abundandy than any philosophical teaching. It has been a mightier appeal than any doctrine of a future life. And just this is wanting in Mithraism. Can we wonder that the Unconquered Sun went down before the Galilean ?"^ ' Gwatkin, ii. pp. 149, 150. PART II THE ETHICAL IDEAS lO CHAPTER I THE HIGHEST GOOD The Highest Good is variously expressed in the New Testament. The kingdom of heaven, the state of blessedness, the life eternal, love, salvation, Christ Himself, are among the principal ways of stating the end of our faith, the supreme object of human desire and effort. In most heathen systems the final end is happiness, variously conceived, as pleasure, or the absence of pain, or apathy, or self-sufficiency, or harmonious energy, or contemplation of and absorption in the Divine. It is not possible here to give an exposition of the New Testament doctrine, or to treat more adequately the various philosophical conceptions. Nor does it seem necessary to do so, since the two things have been so often done before.^ It appears better to devote all our space to a more or less detailed examination of the views of the early Christian writers on this and the other two main ethical ideas, though some light, it ^ See Kirn, Wuttke, Martensen, and the other works on ethics referred to at the beginning of this volume. 148 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS is hoped, will be incidentally thrown upon the heathen systems and upon Scripture doctrine. The following are among the points specially worthy of note in regard to a particular writer's view of the Highest Good : — (i) Is it conceived as present only, or future only, or both ? (2) Does it pertain to the body, or to the soul, or to both ? (3) Does it exclude or embrace worldly goods ? (4) Is it open to all, or only to some ? (5) Is it individual or social in character ? (6) Is it something presented to the will or de- termined by the man himself ? Clement of Rome The epistle of Clement contains no discussion and indeed no formal presentation of the Highest Good. The motive of the letter was practical, not philosophical. Yet there are hints as to the way in which Clement would have treated the question had it fallen within his purpose to do so. (i) He would not have attempted to deduce the Highest Good from the constitution of man, but from the will of God revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. " Since we are struggling on the same arena let us give up vain and fruidess cares, and approach to the glorious and venerable rule of our holy calling." The Highest Good presented itself in CLEMENT OF ROME 149 the light of a holy calling, something which was "good, pleasing, and acceptable in the sight of Him who formed us " (c. 7). It was to be sought through the contemplation of His will and the imitation of divinely- given examples" (c. 19, etc.). (2) It was not something simply to be striven after, but something to be received. "All these, therefore, were highly honoured and made great, not for their own sake, or for their own works, or for the righteous- ness which they wrought, but through the operation of His will. For we too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart, but by that faith through which from the beginning Almighty God has justified all men " (c. 32). " Every good thing," and so also the Highest Good, " is the gift of God" (c. 38). (3) These good gifts are of diiferent kinds. " He who made us and fashioned us, having prepared His bountiful gifts for us before we were born, introduced us into His world, and we ought for everything to give Him thanks " (c. 38). But there are gifts which are specially worthy of the names of "blessed and wonderful " — " life in immortality, splendour in righteousness, truth in perfect confidence, faith in assurance, self-control in holiness " (c. 35). And there are other things yet to be revealed, for the Creator and Father of the ages alone knows the amount I50 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS and beauty of His gifts " {ibid^. It has not yet entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God has prepared for those that love Him. The Highest Good in the Christian scheme is something not fully intelligible to the natural man. (4) " While the blessedness comes to men in part upon earth (c. 50), the consummation of good, both for soul and body, is plainly in the future " (c. 27). (5) The Good is progressively realised on earth, " Compare yourselves to a tree, such as the vine. First of all it sheds its leaves, then it buds, next it puts forth leaves, and then it flowers ; after that comes the sour grape, and then follows the ripened fruit " (c. 23). The time, however, is short. " Ye perceive how in a little time the fruit of a tree comes to maturity. Soon and suddenly shall His will be accomplished " {ibid.). (6) The Highest Good is open to all. " Have we not all one God and one Christ ? Is there not one spirit of grace poured out upon us .'' And have we not one calling in Christ .'' " (c. 46) ; and, as will appear later, it is eminently social in that it is only realised through love (cc. 49, 51, 53-55). We have thus in this short letter indications of the ways in which the Highest Good presented itself to the first Roman writer, and though they may not be formally and perfectly stated, we have at least in oudine the main points which separate Christian from heathen reflection on the subject of the summum bonum. There is no indication anywhere that Clement is consciously sug- HERMAS 151 gesting these new points for subsequent Christian thinkers. They appear in his letter simply through his acquaintance with the sacred writers, and because they are looked upon as connected with the mediation of Jesus Christ, " the High Priest of all our offerings, the Defender and Helper of our infirmity" (c. 36). Hermas Concerning Hermas it has been said : " To construct his ethical system would be a task as thankless as it would be misguided," ^ and certainly we do not expect to find a rigid and perfect system in such an imaginative writer. The materials for constructing a system are also incomplete. But they are not altogether wanting. Concerning duty and virtue Hermas has a great deal to say, and if he says very little concerning the Highest Good, he allows us to see something of his point of view. (i) More emphatically than Clement, Hermas places the Highest Good and the good things of this life in opposition to one another. The righteous are to live in the world to come, for the coming world is the summer of the righteous, but the winter of sinners (Sim. 4). The servants of God dwell in a strange land, and their city is far away from this one. They do not obey the laws of the present city, and ought to be ready for the time when its master wiU cast them out on account of their disobedience. The possessions ^ Dobschutz, p. 320. 152 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS of this world are hindrances to life. Men should practise an expenditure _ of their own, and purchase such lands and possessions and houses as they will find in their own city, when they come to live in it (Sim. i). (2) The Highest Good was l^herefore not to be found in anything belonging to this world, but in the favour of God. It was as he was " rriagnifying the creatures of God and thinking how magiiificent and beautiful and powerful they were " that i the humbling visions came (Vis. i). " Those who are rich in this world cannot be useful to the Lord unless their riches be cut down " (Vis. 3. 6). It is the life " unto God," which is secured through penitence, the^ healing of the Lord, and the keeping of the commandments, which is the chief object of his desire (Sim. 8 ; Mand. 12. 3 ; Sim, 5. 6 ; Vis. 2. 3). It is this which gives him the greatest joy. Repentance brings life and hope. There is a luxury, too, which is beneficial to the servants of God, and gains life for such — tlhe luxury of doing good " (Sim. 6. 5). In the keepiAg of the command- ments there is great reward. \ (3) Very plainly, too, Hermas ennphasises the social character of the Christian ideal. TJne world was made for the sake of the Church (Vis. (2. 4). The building of the tower is an occasion^ for great rejoicing (Vis. 3. 3). Those who live fin solitude {nova^ovreg), not cleaving to the servants of Kiod, destroy their own souls (Sim. 9. 26). The rlw cleave with difficulty to / JUSTIN/ 153 the servants of God, and so haye difficulty in entering into the Kingdom of Heavea (Sim. 9. 20). Vusm The Highest Good is jfepresented by Justin in several ways. " The greatest Jof all good is to be free from sin ; the next to be j,4istified. The end contemplated by the philosopher is flikeness to God, so far as that is possible " (Frag, fronr-i Melissa). " As the good of the body is health, so tWe good of the soul is knowledge, which is indeed a ktmd of health of soul by which a likeness to God is ^attained " (Frag, from John Dam.). " We follow the or4ly Unbegotten through His Son " (i ApoL, 14). "Tu'hey who proved to God by their works that they f(?jjllowed Him, and loved to abide with Him, where ^tthere is no sin " (i ApoL, 8). " I reckon prosperity 'to consist in nothing else than in living according tc!^, truth, that is, understanding the nature of things "j| (Frag, from John Dam., but not indubitably Justin'f Vs). " Reason directs those who are truly pious and ph filosophical to honour and love only what is true" (r". ApoL, 2), and "nothing is more powerful than trutf^i " (Frag, from John Dam.). " And we have learned thi-rat those only are deified who have lived near to God in e, holiness and virtue" (i ApoL, 21). Freedom from sin]- ., likeness to God, the following of God, the knowledge^!\^f the truth, deification through communion with God, Si^d. th€ practice of virtue, seem to Justin the things mt27-. to be desired. And they 154 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS are included in the comprehensive expression, kingdom of heaven, or eternal life. , " The flesh indeed dies, but the kingdom of heaven liv^es" (Frag, from Metk.). " If we looked for a humaii kingdom we should also deny our Christ, that we mIghX not be slain, but, since our thoughts are not fixed on the present, we are not concerned when men cut us oiF :''', since also death is a debt which must at all events be paid " (i yipol., ii ; cf. 2 JpoL, ii). "To live eternai-lly free both from suff^erlng and want" (i JpoL,\ 57). "To expect immortality" (i y^pol., 42). "Tip earnestly long for incorruptlon and endure all things; In order to obtain what we desire from Him who ijs ^able to grant It " (i ^pol., 39). " Since we expect no receive again our bodies" (i ApoL, 18). "The samie joyful hope of a reward from God, the ruler of a|U" (i yipoL, 14). These expressions show how the [conception of the Highest Good belonged to the future; rather than to the present. Indeed, "we are persuadled that everyone who flees these things which seeiAi to be good, and follows hard after those things wAiIch are reckoned difficult and strange, enters into bles sedness " (2 yipol., 1 1). Whatever " blessedness " Is p/jsslble on earth can only be won by renouncing pleasulfre. Though Justin can say that God did not make the J world aimlessly, but for the sake of the human race (2.-^pol., 4), he evidently regards the world as no proper oJbject of the Christian's desire. He Is too much of a,'^" philosopher " to value highly the seen and tempore*/.' Yet one noteworthy JUSTIN iss concession is made to the world-appropriating spirit : " But I and others who are right-minded Christians on all points are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged " (Trypko, 80). Having done less than justice to the place that earthly happiness or the possession of the earth holds in the Christian scheme, Justin projects it into the future, where it serves as a complement to his somewhat abstract and Platonic conception of the life immortal.^ It will be seen from these extracts that Justin was deeply influenced by the Platonic philosophy though he had advanced beyond it. He had no sympathy with the Cynics. " It is impossible," he says, " for a Cynic who makes indifference his end to know any good but indiiference " (2 ApoL, 3). For Stoicism as an ^ The attitude of the different writers on the question of Millenarianism is very interesting to note. It is not surprising that those who beheved that every creature of God was good, and who were yet debarred by the hard circumstances of the times from the enjoyment of many of them, should imagine that the innocent pleasures of sense would one day be theirs. The belief lingered on in Church circles till Augustine overwhelmed it with his denunciation and made the spiritual reign of Christ the orthodox view. In either form, the material or the spiritual, it is a powerful witness to the vigour of the Christian hope. There was a good time coming. How different from the aimless outlook of the Stoics ! And the end was not far off. Even when the idea of the visible kingdom faded away, men still believed that the end of the world was at hand — and then the reward. See Laurent, iv. pp. 1 27-131. 156 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS attempt to interpret the world as a reasonable scheme of things he must have had a kindlier feeling, though his apology is something more than "a fulfilment of Stoicism , through an eudaemonistic presentation of Christianity."^ It is Platonism rather than Stoicism which has left the deeper marks upon his thought. Yet he is more Christian than Platonist. In particular his doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and his con- ception of sin and its cure, separate him far from the noblest philosophy of heathenism. The highest good is only secured through redemption from sin, and the body is ultimately to share in the glory of the redeemed. Tatian " In Tatian there are two or three points of interest in this connection. (i) He contrasts the aimlessness of Stoic philosophy with the progressive and final character of the Christian view. " One cannot listen to Zeno, who declares that at the conflagration the same men will arise again to perform the same actions as before .... and the bad wiU be found far more numerous than the good" {Adv. Gr., 3). " As the Stoics affirm according to the return of certain cycles, the same thing being produced and destroyed for no useful purpose, but we, a resur- rection once for all for judgment" {ibid., 6). The Highest Good is attained for the Christian at the Judgment, and comes through following the law of the 1 Carl-Clemen, p. 156. IREN^US 157 Father of immortality, and by rejecting everything which rests on human opinion {ibid., 38). (2) God is the Good, but human good is brought to perfection through freedom of choice (ibid., 7), and con- sists in union with God. " But, further, it becomes us now to seek for what we once had, but have lost ; to unite the soul with the Holy Spirit, and to strive after union with God " {ibid., 1 5). (3) The way to the Highest Good is open to all. " Not only do the rich among us pursue our phil- osophy, but the poor enjoy instruction gratuitously : for the things which come from God surpass the requital of worldly gifts" {ibid., 32). We recall his master's disappointment with the Peripatetic philosopher who was too anxious about his fees, and remember the aristocratic character of Stoicism and Platonism. Irenaus More definitely and fully than even Justin, Irenaeus regards the Highest Good as dependent upon redemp- tion through Christ. " For it was for this end the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of Man, that man having been taken into the Word and receiving the adoption, might become a son of God. For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality unless we had been united to incorruptibility and im- mortality" (iii. 19. i). Man must not suppose that incorruptibility belongs to him naturally as his own, as 158 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS though he were naturally like to God, comparing him- self with and judging himself equal to God. "This was the object of the long-suiFering of God, that man, passing through all things and acquiring knowledge of moral discipline, then attaining to the resurrection from the dead and learning by experience what is the source of his deliverance, may always live in a state of grati- tude to God for having obtained from Him the gift of incorruptibility, that he might love Him the more .... looking forward to the time when he shall be like Him who died for him, for He too was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, to condemn sin and to cast it out .... but that He might call man forth into His own likeness, assigning him as (His own) imitator to God and imposing on him His Father's law, in order that he may see God, and granting him power to receive the Father, (being) the word of God who dwelt in man and became the Son of Man, that He might accustom men to receive God, and God to dwell in man according to the good pleasure of the Father. . . . The good thing of our salvation is not from us " (iii. 20. I, 2, 3). " For as God is always the same, so also man, when found in God, shall always go on towards God .... the receptacle of His goodness and the instrument of His glorification is the man who is grateful to Him that made him " (iv. 11. 3). " But the Word set free the soul, and taught that through it the body should be willingly purified .... that he should follow God without fetters .... that the IRENJEUS 159 more we receive His grace the more we should love Him, and the more glory shall we receive from Him, when we are continually in the presence of the Father " (iv. 13. 2 and 3). "The friendship of God imparts immortality to those who embrace it" (iv. 13. 4). " (His) goodness is beyond expression, by which, having been seen. He bestows life upon those who see Him .... the means of life is found in fellowship with God, in knowing God and enjoying His goodness. Men therefore shall see God, that they may live, being made immortal by that sight, and attaining even unto God " (iv. 20. 5 and 6). " . . . . that man too might be a partaker of God" (iv. 28. 2). "Since the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood .... giving incorruptibility through the communion which is towards God " (v. i. i). " The gifts of the Holy Spirit which we receive prepare us for incorruption, render us spiritual and separate from carnal men " (v. 8. i). The Highest Good thus conceived is for the whole man. " God will bestow salvation upon the whole nature of man, consisting of body and soul " (v. 6, i ; cf. V. 21). Further, though the Highest Good is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, yet it would not be much sought after if it presented itself without our own proper endeavour (iv. 37. 6), but thus our good would be irrational because not the result of trial .... "having been rationally taught to love God that we may continue in His perfect love" (iv. 37. 7). i6o EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Man's Highest Good is also received or attained progressively, and " for this cause the Son of God passed through the state of infancy .... that man might be able to receive Him" (iv. 3. 7, iv. 38. i and 2). Even in the next world there will be " a gradation and arrangement of those who are saved," till the Son yields His work to the Father " (v. 36. i). Tertullian In passing from Irenaeus to the man who has most right to be considered the founder of Latin Chris- tianity, we are conscious of a violent descent. The broad stream of Western Christianity bifurcates, and one part, concentrating itself into a narrower channel, rushes headlong down the gorge. It is this stream we have now to follow. There is impetuosity and force and noise, but there is neither the purity nor the amplitude of the stream as we have traced it from Clement to Irenaeus. If it is a mistake to suppose that the whole river of water of life, which flowed from Christ through His apostles, passed undefiled and un- diminished through the channels which Clement and Justin and Irenaeus made for it, it is still less ex- cusable to identify the Christianity of Tertullian and Cyprian with the Christianity of Christ. With admir- able frankness Monceaux has described for us the Christianity of Tertullian : " A la base du systfeme, la Rfegle de foi. Puis la raison intervient pour justifier et explique le dogme. L'imagination complete I'ceuvre TERTULLIAN i6i par des tableaux r^alistes, dont le cadre est fourni par la foi, les lignes par la raison, les couleurs par la r6alit6." ^ We should expect from such a description as this that what we have now to consider is some- thing very different from the Christianity of the Apostolic Age. It is a work of the imagination, built upon the affirmations of reason, when confronted by the rule of faith. Is it at all probable, we may well ask, that the result will be, not simply a Christian edifice, but the one and only Christian temple which, when further adorned by Cyprian, will provide the only habitation of the people of God ? When we remember that the imagination is that of a fiery Carthaginian, and the reasoning that of an accomplished special pleader, and the subject-matter a rule of faith, we may well hesitate before expecting that the product will be genuinely and completely Christian. With the best intentions possible Tertullian could not give a faithful delineation of Christianity, especially when adopting such a procedure as this. The founda- tion of the Christian Church is Christ, and not a few stones cut from the rock, however skilfully selected and carefully chiselled. TertuUian's row of half a dozen or a dozen carefully hewn propositions is an impossible substitute for the one foundation which has been laid, which is Christ : and assent to them is a radically different thing from the living faith which unites the ransomed sinner to his Re- 1 I. 362. II 1 62 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS deemer and Lord. We shall have to notice in Its appropriate place how TertuUian adds another rule, the Regula Discipllnae to the Rule of Faith ; but the conception of Christianity not merely as a law (as, e.g., Hermas) but as a rule, the acknowledgment of which makes a man a Christian independently of any moral change, was a most serious perversion of the meaning of Christian discipleship. Harnack calls it " the most fatal turning-point in the history of Christianity." ^ But it would be contrary to fact to suppose that even such a disastrous mistake as this at once vitiated all Tertullian's thought. He had too many points of genuine sympathy with Christian truth to be un- Christianised by this grave error. Erratic as opinion and conduct might often be, the man was, more than any opinion or any line of conduct, suggested by his impulsive nature. So we shall expect to find Christian elements in his thoughts concerning the Highest Good. And, first of all, TertuUian strenuously main- tains that God and goodness are inseparable : that He alone is good, and all man's goodness comes through Him. A thing is good because God wills it. When we say, " Thy will be done," we are wish- ing well to ourselves in so far as there is nothing of evil in the will of God (De Oral., 4). The good is reasonable because it comes from God and not because it suits self-will and passion (^De Spec, 21).^ ' II. 3'- 2 De Fuga, 4, and other passages quoted by Ludwig, p. 1 9. TERTULLIAN 163 The Highest Good is that which " rests most with God, nor does any other than He who possesses it dispense it" {De Pat., i). It is sometimes spoken of under the conception of a kingdom. The desire for the advent of the kingdom is the spontaneous longing of the human heart, as well as a petition taught by Christ {De Orat., 5). "He cannot hope for the kingdom of the heavens whose finger or wand abuses the heaven " {De Idol., 9). This kingdom is generally regarded as future. " I argue on the ground of a joyful hope beyond our term of earthly life" {De Test. An., 4). " Only one thing in this life greatly concerns us, and that is to get quickly out of it " {ApoL, 41). Concerning martyrdom he says: "This victory gives us the glory of pleasing God and the spoil of life eternal .... we have obtained our wishes " {ApoL, 50). " Well, there is nothing eternal till after the resurrection " {Res. Cam., 58). Yet we should do TertuUian injustice if we took these sayings too literally. The Highest Good is not simply in the future, for God, the alone good, is a present reality. " One will not be permitted to love even life more than God" {Scorp., 14). "Why do you take offence at us because we differ from you in regard to your pleasures .>'.,.. we reject what pleases you. You, on the other hand, have no taste for what is our delight" {ApoL, 38). "For what more de- lightful than to have God the Father and our Lord at peace with us, than revelation of the truth, than 1 64 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS confession of our errors, than pardon of the sins so numerous of our past life ? What greater pleasure than distaste of pleasure itself, than contempt of all that the world can give, than true liberty, than a pure conscience, a contented life, and freedom from aU fear of death ? What nobler than to tread under foot the gods of the nations, to exorcise evil spirits, to perform cures, to seek divine revealings, to love God ? These are the pleasures, these the spectacles that befit Christian men — holy, everlasting, free " (De Spec, 29). Christians, moreover, have the truth. "The truth which philosophers .... merely a£Fect to hold and in so doing deprave, caring for nought but glory, Christians both intensely and intimately long for, and maintain in its integrity, as those who have a real concern for salvation " {ApoL, 46). " It becomes us to lay down not our soul for money, but money for our soul, whether spontaneously in bestowing, or patiently in losing " {De Pat., 7). " The will of God is our sanctification .... that good, sanctification I mean . . . . " {De Ex. Cast., i). " Happy is the sacrament of our water in that by washing away the sins of our early blindness we are set free into eternal life " {De Bapt., i). Salvation, eternal life, the kingdom, consummated in the future, pertain to the whole man. Man will be endowed again with the same sensitive body as he possessed in this life. This view TertuUian regards as " much nobler than the Pythagorean, as it does not CYPRIAN 165 transfer thee into beasts, more complete than the Platonic since it endows thee again with a body, more worthy of honour than the Epicurean as it preserves thee from annihilation " {De Test. An., 4). " But, you object, the world to come bears the character of a different dispensation, even an eternal one ; and there- fore you maintain that the non-eternal substance of this life is incapable of possessing a state of such different features. This would be true enough if man were made for the future dispensation, and not the dispensa- tion for man " {Res. Cam., 59). Lastly, Christ said, not "They shall be angels" in order not to repeat their existence as men ; but He said, " But they shall be equal unto the angels " that He might preserve their humanity unimpaired " {ibid., 62). The final awards wiU, however, differ. "Conse- quently, we who shall be with God shall be together ; since we shall all be with one God ; albeit the wages be various, albeit there be many mansions in the house of the same Father, having laboured for the one penny of the self-same hire that is of eternal life" {T)e Mofiog.y id). Cyprian It has been said that the two overmastering con- ceptions of Cyprian were the certainty that human nature could be changed, and that the new city had descended from heaven.^ They indicate the two indis- ■ Benson, pp. 523-5. 1 66 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS pensable conditions for attaining the Highest Good. It can only be gained by one who has been changed in the laver of regeneration, and continues to abide in the heavenly City or Church. And yet as much as most of the Fathers, and more than some, Cyprian transfers the blessedness of the Christian life to the other world. Though the divine society has been set up on earth, the earthly organisation is looked upon far more as an instrument for the attainment of future felicity than as a medium for revealing the kingdom of heaven upon earth. The Church is a present reality, but the kingdom and its rewards are mainly in the future. " We who have put off our earthly birth and are now created and regenerated by the Spirit, and no longer live to the world but to God, shall not receive God's gifts and promises until we arrive at the presence of God " ; and meanwhile we must propitiate God by prayer {Ad Dem., 20). " How great will be the glory of those who labour charitably, how great and high the joy when the Lord begins to number His people and, distributing to our merits and good works the promised rewards, to give heavenly things for earthly, eternal things for temporal, great things for small, to present us to the Father to whom He has restored us by His sanctification ; to bestow upon us immortality and eternity, to which He has renewed us by the quicken- ing of His blood ; to bring us anew to paradise, to open the kingdom of heaven in the faith and truth of His promise. . . . "These things are still in the CYPRIAN 167 future. Let them be purchased with the magna- nimity of our increasing labours " {JDe Op. et EL, 26). In one place the kingdom is not only regarded as future, but placed in direct contradistinction to the sphere of the Christian's present life. " If we who are always. to please Him in His kingdom, previously please Him in the world" (^e Zelo et Liv., 18). So the vision of God is still in the future {Ex. ad Mart., 13). Even the likeness of Christ is the future glorifica- tion rather than the present moral assimilation. " Who would not crave to be changed and renewed into the likeness of Christ and to arrive more quickly to the dignity of the heavenly glory ? " {T)e Mort., 22). The life eternal cannot commence unless we have first had the happiness to depart from this {Ep., 76). Even the evangelical precepts are the foundations on which hope is built, and instruct and support men in view of heavenly kingdoms yet to come, rather than open up the kingdom to all believers on earth {De Or. T>om., i). That which causes us always to abide in Christ and to live continually for God and to attain to heavenly promises and to the divine rewards is not love but disci- pline {T)e Hab., i). Love as the supreme factor or constituent of the heavenly life does not find adequate recognition in Cyprian. In two or three instances at least, where the companion graces of faith and hope occur, and where we should naturally expect to find love also, it is omitted {T)e Hab., i ; T>e Lap., 20 ; T^e 1 68 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Or. 'Dom., i). Once, indeed, we find it spoken of in Pauline manner as greater than faith and hope {De Pat.., i^\cf.T>e Zelo et Liv., 13), but it is as the support of patience and as excelling good works and martyrdom, which is not quite the way the apostle regarded it. Love is more than a work of incomparable excellence, more than a duty of pre-eminent importance, more than a means to an end ; and it is this thought which seems to fail us in Cyprian. Love is itself that eternal life which was the apostle John's equivalent for the kingdom of heaven. It is union with God. It is the likeness of Christ. It is the Highest Good. But it is not raised to this high position by Cyprian. Once he comes perhaps near to it when he says, " Nothing is to be preferred to the love of God in Christ" (Test., iii. 18) ; but he shows no appreciation of its unique importance when he regards it as simply one among a hundred and twenty precepts. It is not made a leading idea of his ethics. Yet in spite of all this, the consciousness of the life eternal was a present reality to Cyprian himself. He was speaking, no doubt, from a genuine personal experi- ence, though in a manner more rhetorical than is usual with him, when in glowing language he describes the result of the new birth {/id Dom., 3 and 4) ; it was a new sense of the dignity of sonship which led him to say, " He who is actually greater than the world can crave nothing from the world (Jd "Dom., 14), and to exhort his fellow Christians in the words ' respondere CYPRIAN 169 natalibus nostris' " (Pont. Fit., 9). The power of the heavenly life was already present in the man who wrote, " She is wealthy who is wealthy in Christ ; those are blessings which are spiritual, divine, heavenly, which lead us to God, which abide with us in perpetual possession with God " {De Hab., 7). In expounding the Lord's Prayer Cyprian gets nearer to the Christian conception of the kingdom, and passes beyond his customary restrictions. "We should prefer nothing to Christ, because He did not prefer anything to us, and adhere inseparably to His love " (T)e 'Dom. Or., 15). Not only is Christ the giver of immortality, but redemption, reconciliation, quickening, adoption, restoration, glorification and perpetual pleasure {Ad T)em., 25). Though no doubt Cyprian was thinking mainly of the future glory when in a noble passage he said, " What man is, Christ was willing to be, that man also may be what Christ is ... . what Christ is we Christians shall be, if we imitate Christ " (©^ Van-Idol., 1 1 and 1 5) ; yet it is natural to refer it to the present also. We conclude, then, that though Cyprian seems to separate too sharply the present from the future good, the eternal life of which he speaks is some- thing very much richer and fuller and more ethical than the immortality which all men spoke of in his day. It is reached only through a new birth. It is a life of holiness. It is a life in Christ. Though the present life presents itself too much under the lyo EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS aspect of discipline, and the future life under the aspect of reward, the consciousness of divine sonship prevented Cyprian from emptying the heavenly life on earth of its real significance as similar, and not merely preparatory, to the heavenly life beyond the; grave. Minucius Felix In contrast to Cyprian, Minucius starts from the idea of man's inherent dignity, rather than from the laver of regeneration and the new nature therein received. Man differs from the wild beasts which are born only to seek their food on earth. With his mind and reason he recognises, feels, and imitates God (c. 17). Man's natural constitution indicates the true end of life. It is to be rich towards God (c. 36). " For how can there be real happiness apart from God ? It slips away from us at death like a dream before it is grasped" (c. 37). Happiness implies fearlessness, absence of care, cleanness of soul. The life of the Christian is one of tranquillity. " Modesti, Dei nogtri liberalitate securi in spem futurae felicitatis fide pi-ae- sentis ejus majestatus animamur. Sic et beatii re- surgimus et futuri contemplatione jam vivimus" (c. 38). This goal is set before all, for aU are ^qual at birth, and the only real distinction is in yirtue (c. 37). Our destiny is indeed determined by God, but it is according to our deserts, for man is iree and is judged by his deeds (c. 36). COMMODIANUS 171 Commodianus For Commodianus the golden age is still in the future, but it is to be enjoyed on earth. " The goal of life is reached through death." The Christian becomes eternal and lives again in happiness in this world (c. 2). "The false gods promise nothing concerning life," so it is folly to worship them. Better dwell with the beasts than not know how to live (cc. 8 and 9 ; c/i c. 34). It is quite remarkable how persistently Commodianus clings to this one idea of living again. " Seek one God who will allow you to live after death " (c. 14). " If thou seekest anything healthy, seek rather the righteousness of the law that brings the help of salvation and says that you are becoming eternal .... withdraw thyself from these vanities if thou wilt rise again with Christ" (c. 21 ; cf. also c. 22 and c. 25). " This time is of no avail, but in the future you have hope without the craft of living" (c. 26). "Righteousness and goodness, peace and true patience, make to live after death" (c. 28). " Fie who made the sky and the earth and the salt seas decreed to give us back ourselves in a golden age " (c. 2.9). "Believe in the one God, that when dead thou mayest live, and mayest rise in His Kingdom when there shall be a resurrection of the just" (c. 33). " The golden age before spoken of shall come tp thee if thou believest, and again thou shalt begin to live always an immortal life " (c. 34 ; see also c. 35). / 172 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS " God Himself Is the life : He Himself was suspended for us" (c. 40). When the Lord says that a man should eat bread with groaning here, what art thou now doing who desirest to live with joy ? Thou seekest to rescind the judgment of God. ... Be thou such as Christ wishes you to be, gentle, and in Him joyful, for in the world you are sad .... wait for the repose to come in the passage of death" (c. 58). " On the way to martyrdom choose, like Abel, Isaac, and Stephen, the righteous life " (c. 62). " Do thou always look forward : when thy heart is conscious of God thou shalt be victor over all things " (c. 64. ; see also cc. 80 and 42). The future happiness is social and earthly. " From heaven will descend the city of the first resurrection .... we shall rise again to Him who have been devoted to Him .... already living without death .... marrying and begetting for a thousand years. There are prepared aU the revenues of the earth. ... In the city the sun and the moon shall shine .... he who is evil is hedged up ; in torments for the nourishment of the righteous " (c. 44, and cf. c. 80). The life after death, of which the thousand years' happiness is the prologue, is the one good which overshadows all others. The present life is of litde worth. Even righteousness is a choice made o'l the way to martyrdom. Yet there is another note r truck. " God Himself is the life." " If anyone is without God he is as sounding brass and a deaf adder ", (c. 50). ARNOBIUS 173 Once we read of the "grace of Christ," and the promised glory is connected with Christ and obedience to His wish (cc. 57 and 58). Good deeds are equivalent to martyrdom (c. 62). It is through the consciousness of God that the Christian overcomes (c. 65). The connection of a high morality with the life immortal, at least as a preparation thereto, and, above all, the connection of that life with Christ, prevent us from regarding the Highest Good for Commodianus simply in the manner of an unspiritual eudaemonism. But the defects are obvious. Arnobius According to Arnobius man's natural powers are not sufficient to reveal to him the Highest Good. " Since it is not in your power to say or to explain for what purpose you live beneath this vault of heaven, cease to believe that anything belongs to you," for the Highest Good of the individual may depend upon what is good for the whole, " since those things which take place are not brought about in favour of a part, but have regard to the interests of the whole" (i. 13). The fact that men define the highest good and the greatest evil difFerendy seems to him one indication among others that the soul did not spring from God directly (ii. 39). But what man could not find out himself Christ has revealed. He has declared " what salvation was being brought to them from God Supreme, what must be 174 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS done that they might escape destruction, and obtain the immortality they knew not of " (i. 6^). Immor- tality, of which man is naturally destitute according to Arnobius, is the great gift of God. " Men may be gifted with immortality if they rest their hope of so great a gift on God Supreme, who alone has power to grant such blessings by putting away corruption" (ii. 53). " Your interests are in jeopardy, I mean the salvation of your souls, and unless you give yourselves to know the Supreme God a cruel death awaits you, when freed from the bonds of the body, not bringing sudden annihilation, but destroying by the bitterness of its grievous and long-protracted punishment " (ii. 61). "By no means will you be able to reach the prize of immortality, unless by Christ's gift you have perceived what constitutes this very immortality, and have been allowed to enter upon the true life " (ii. 66). But what, according to Arnobius, does con- stitute this very immortality ? In the passage (ii. 61) above quoted the physical view of existence seems to be referred to. And this may also be so in a remark- able description of the knowledge of God as " a kind of vital leaven and cement to bind together that which would otherwise fly apart" (ii. 32 ; cf. ii. 14). But the connection of life with the knowledge of God seems to imply more than physical existence. To us, with the Gospel of John before us, it certainly does so, and perhaps we are justified from other sayings of Arnobius in inferring that he saw more also than mere existence ARNOBIUS 175 involved in immortality. Anyway, we must notice how a moral change as well as knowledge is presup- posed. " Let them lay aside their savage and barbarous natures and return to gentler ways, that they may be able to be ready for that which shall be given " (ii. 32) ; and he contrasts the Christian with heathen methods of redemption : " You do not abstain from vice and passion, but seek salvation by mystic rites " (ii. 13). Twice at least Arnobius rises to a higher strain, and, as though forgetting that immortality was the summum bonum, speaks of Christ as " having guided us from false superstition to the true religion, a blessing which exceeds and transcends all His other gifts ; who has raised our thoughts to heaven from brutish statues formed of vilest clay, and has caused us to hold converse in thanksgiving and prayer with the Lord of the universe " (i. 38). He also says that "Christians should prefer the friendship of Christ to all the things of the world " (ii. 5). Unfortunately, however, Arnobius cannot see that godliness has promise for the life that now is, nor that the body is included in the redemptive work of Christ. " For no hope has been held out to us with respect to this life, nor has any help been promised or aid decreed us for what belongs to the husk of this flesh — nay more, we have been taught to value lightly all the threats of fortune, calamity .... that we may more easily be released from the bonds of the body and escape from our darkness and blindness " (ii. 76). 176 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS " What are we men but souls shut up in bodies ? " (ii. 13). "Persecution leads to the light of liberty; freeing us from pressing and heavy chains and cutting our bonds, it makes us fly up to the light " (ii. 77). * Lactantius With Lactantius we arrive at the first formal and philosophical treatment of the Highest Good. Having enumerated the varying views of the philosophers, he proceeds to give his own. Nothing can be accepted as the Chief Good or Final End for man which does not possess the following marks : — (i) It must be the property of man only, and not of man and beast. The pleasure of the body is therefore excluded (iii. 8). (2) It must belong only to the soul (iii. 9). (3) It must not be a means to anything else. So knowledge is excluded, for men desire know- ledge for the sake of something else. Nor can it be virtue, which is rather the mother and contriver of the Chief Good (iii. 8). (4) It must not depend on anything external. So it can not be pleasure or the absence of pain, which are not in man's own power ; nor be contained in this bodily life (iii. 8). So Aristotle was wrong in associating honour with virtue. Further, it is not a natural con- sequence, but is acquired by desire (vii. 5). (5) It must not have an end (vii. 5). LACTANTIUS 177 (6) It must be proposed to all men, so that it cannot be riches, pleasure, or sovereignty (iii. II). (7) It must be unvarying and always the same (iii. 12). * (8) It must be a state of happiness (iii. 1 1). Lactantius thus separates himself decisively from the Stoics. Virtue is not the chief good, for it is a means to something else. Nor will it satisfy the other seven conditions. It belongs to the body, though then it is called fortitude (iii. 12). It belongs presumably also to the animals, though Lactantius does not himself expressly say so. But according to him the animals have reason, and it is neither reason nor even " living uprightly," but religion, that distinguishes man and beast (iii. 2). It is certainly not a state of " happiness," for its power and nature consist in endurance of evil (iii. 11). Nor could Virtue satisfy the conditions of independence, changelessness, and permanence, for it can only exist and manifest itself in the midst of the evils of life, and even Lactantius does not say that these are eternally present. At death man escapes from them, and therefore virtue, in the sense in which he uses the word, vanishes too. " It arises from knowledge," Lactantius further affirms (iii, 12). If so it cannot be independent. The only condition which " virtue " seems to fulfil is that it is proposed to all, provided we take it for granted that evil for- tune is likewise given to all. " Virtue " scarcely fares 12 178 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS better than " pleasure," if we test its qualifications to be the Final End by the canons of Lactantius. What, then, is the Chief Good ? It is immortality : immortality for the soul only, not for the body. "Although some philosophers have assigned the chief good not to the body, but to the soul, yet inasmuch as they referred it to this life, which has its ending with the body, they have gone back to the body .... but a man is only happy when the soul, being freed from the intercourse of the body, the man lives in the spirit only"(iii. 12). " The good things proceed from God, and have as their object to procure immortality which is the greatest good " (vi. 6). " We worship Him that we may receive immortality as a reward of our labours .... that being made like the angels we may serve the Supreme Father and Lord for ever, and may be to all eternity a Kingdom to God. This is the sum of all, this is the secret of God, this is the mystery of the world " (vii. 6). " He is not of sound mind who, without having any greater hope (i.e. the hope of immortality), prefers labours and tortures and miseries to those goods which others enjoy in life" (vi. 9). "The upright body shows that he was born to engage his thoughts upon the hope of everlasting life " (iii. 27). If we are inclined to regret that so great stress should have been laid upon the idea of immortality as the goal of man's efforts in this first discussion by a Western writer on the nature of the Highest Good, LACTANTIUS 179 we should remember two things— first, the unsettled and turbulent times in which our author lived ; and secondly, the fact that at the beginning of the fourth century the religions which still vied with Christianity for the allegiance of mankind laid a similar emphasis on immortality. The fulness and beauty of the earthly life was not likely to have adequate justice done to it in the dark days of Diocletian. Even an apostle in the first age had, " on account of the present distress," taken a lower view of the earthly life than he afterwards showed to be the ideal.^ And as for the immortality proclaimed in the Mysteries, was it not to be expected that Lactantius would oppose to it, and possibly too one-sidedly, what he himself regarded as the truth .'' But before passing on we should notice one or two things regarding this immortality. (i) It is not what is sometimes called natural immortality. It does not come in the course of nature. Lactantius makes that clear. It does not belong to the region of necessity, but of free choice, "Im- mortality, then, is not a consequence of nature, but the reward and recompense of virtue .... man does not 1 We should constantly bear in mind the influence of the Persecutions on the outlook of the Christian moralists. The wonder is not that it should sometimes be sombre but rather that it should so frequently be calm and triumphant. For an interesting treatment of the Persecutions Workman's book should be referred to, i8o EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS immediately after birth walk uprightly, which teaches us that man was born mortal, but that he afterwards becomes immortal, when he begins to live in conformity to the will of God ...."; and this takes place when man, purified in the heavenly laver, lays aside his infancy together with all the pollution of his past life, and, having received an increase of divine vigour, becomes a perfect and complete man " (vii. 5). It does not even come to men by a " Divine necessity." It is " proposed " to men. It is " given " to them. Yet it is " acquired," conferred as a reward for good conduct, " for otherwise there would be no difference between the just and the unjust, since every man who is born would become immortal " (vii. 5). (2) The connection between immortality and right conduct is even more intimate than the word " reward " suggests. " The chief good is produced from virtue " (iii. 12). In one place Lactantius speaks of the chief good not as immortality, but as justice. Referring to a question often discussed by the casuists, he says, " I am not unwilling to confess that he will rather die than put another to death. Nor wiU Justice, which is the chief good of man on this account, receive the name of folly. For what ought to be dearer or better to men than innocence ? " (v. 1 8). This passing identification of Justice with the chief good is noteworthy as illustrating the close connection between the moral life and the life immortal as conceived by Lactantius. For justice with him is the chief of the virtues, far wider in LACTANTIUS i8i significance than " virtue " itself, " for what is humanity itself but justice ? " (iii. 9). The immortal life is the life of humanity or justice. (3) It is more than that. It is the life of piety, of filial regard. It is as closely connected with religion as with morality. "What is justice but piety ? and piety is nothing else than the recognition of God as a parent " (iii. 9). Immortality is thus but another name for a religious life. When Lactantius called justice the chief good, he connected immortality with both aspects of this leading virtue, with piety as well as humanity, with religion as well as morality. Indeed, we can arrive at no other conclusion if we start from another main position of Lactantius. The chief good must be something peculiar to man ; but the only thing which man has, which the animals have not, is religion. "Religion is man's peculiarity and surpassing good." " The chief good of man is in religion only" (iii. 10). Immortality and religion are brought into the closest connection. Many passages might be adduced in support of this view of the life immortal, for it meets us repeatedly, but one ought specially to be singled out as containing many characteristic thoughts. "It is of great avail to our obtaining pardon, if we retain the worship and knowledge of Him ; if laying aside low and earthly affections and goods we meditate upon heavenly and divine things which are everlasting. And that we may be able to do this God must be followed by us, God 1 82 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS must be adored and loved ; since there is in Him the substance of things, the principle of the virtues, and the source of all that is good. . . . He begat us to wisdom, and produced us to righteousness. Vicious pleasures do not make happy .... but innocence and righteousness alone, the lawful and due reward of which is immortality which God from the beginning appointed for holy and uncorrupted minds which keep themselves pure. ... Of this heavenly and eternal reward they cannot be partakers who have polluted their conscience by deeds of violence. . . . Accord- ingly it is befitting that all who wish deservedly to be called wise, who wish to be called men, should despise frail things, and should look down upon base things, that they may be able to be united in a blissful relationship with God .... let us aim at being good and bounteous, if we have a supply of wealth and resources, let it not be devoted to the pleasure of a single person, but bestowed on the welfare of many. For pleasure is as short-lived as the body to which it does service. But justice and kindness are as immortal as the mind and soul which by good works attain to the likeness of God. . . . Let us cleanse this temple which is defiled, not by smoke or dust but by evil thoughts, which is lighted not by blazing tapers but by the brightness and light of wisdom " {De Ira, 23. With the last sentence compare Div. Inst.y v. 8, and Cyprian, Ad Dom., 1 5 ; and for other ideas, Div. Inst., v. 8, vi. 8, vii. 5, vi. 9, iii. 27). AMBROSE 183 Ambrose From Lactantius we may pass to the next great writer on the Highest Good, viz., Ambrose. Previous references will have advised the reader that he is not likely to find here the extreme view of Hatch, who regarded Ambrosian ethics as more Stoic than Chris- tian, or even the more cautiously expressed view of Ewald. With all their resemblances (and they are obvious and numerous), the ethic of Ambrose is neither Stoic nor Ciceronian. What the two treat- ments have in common results partly from the surface resemblances which Christianity (even with Paul the Apostle) has to Stoicism ; partly from the unrenewed instincts of the natural, and in particular of the Roman man ; pardy from the attempt which Ambrose makes to show the superiority of Christianity by comparing it with a recognised standard work of heathen ethics. That he does less than justice to Christian ethics in the attempt may .be freely acknowledged. But in spite of apparent betrayals and inconsistencies his own Christian faith was too real to allow him to force Christianity into a Stoic framework by ignoring radical differences. The Highest Good is for Ambrose also the life immortal, though the future rather than the present life. "But we measure nothing at all except that which is seemly and virtuous, and by the standard of things future more than things present, and we define nothing as useful except that which will aid us in 1 84 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS reference to the grace of eternal life " {De Off.., i. 9, 28). " Is he not unjust who gives a reward before the con- test is finished ? .... a reward future and not present, in heaven not on earth" {JDe Off., i. 16, 59). "Most, indeed, prefer the present to the future. They are fighting for the present, we for the future" (L 44, 217). "Scripture has expressly called that life which is blessed, eternal life " (ii. i , 3). But Ambrose does not consistently keep to this idea of the futurity of the life eternal. He can say, " For the blessed life is the fruit of the present, but the eternal life is the hope of the future " (ii. 5, 18): and yet there is also a blessedness to be enjoyed on earth. " The blessedness of individuals must not be estimated by their commercial standing, but according to con- science within. . . . The innocent man dies in the strength of his own simplicity, in abundantia propria voluntatis, having a soul filled as with marrow" (i. 12, 44 ; see also 46). " So great is the splendour of virtue that a tranquil conscience and quiet innocence produce a happy life " (ii. 1,1). " For it is not a blessed thing to be in suffering, but to be victorious over it " (ii. 5, 1 9). " How could he (David), from whom the author of blessedness sprang, be himself without blessedness .?" (ii. 5, 20). "Innocence, therefore, and knowledge make a man blessed .... a blessed life may be con- spicuously manifested in the midst of pain " (ii. 3, 9). " For as the Scripture declares, nothing is good but what is virtuous, and judges that virtue is blessed in every AMBROSE 185 circumstance .... and nothing is so blessed as the condition of freedom from sin, being filled with inno- cence and fully furnished with the grace of God " (ii. 3, 8). " Blessed plainly is that life which is not estimated according to the judgment of others, but is known as its own judge by its inner feelings," does not seek for any reward in popular opinion, but from God (ii. i, 2 and 3). " It is certain that the only and highest good is virtue" (ii. 5, 18). But why should Ambrose be accused of Stoicism even when he thus connects the blessed life with the present and finds the only and highest good in virtue ? Ewald fully admits that there is a religious element in the idea of " eternal life " and its blessedness which in no way originates from the Stoa.^ But if that is so, ought we not to interpret the passages which have a Stoic tinge in a way which does not conflict with that religious element } When Ambrose affirms, to take one of his principal Stoic expressions, " that the only and highest good is virtue," does he employ the words just as Zeno or Cicero might have done ? May there not also be a religious element implied even there, which in no way originates from the Stoa .'' I do not see how the group of passages just cited can be read without discovering that religious element. The blessed state of virtue is one of freedom from sin, of innocence, of being filled with the grace of God. There is here something which is surely very diiFerent 1 P. 24. 1 86 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS from the self-sufficient virtue of the Stoics. The " virtue " of Ambrose has a religious element in it, which is entirely wanting in the Stoic or Ciceronian idea of virtue. It is by the grace of God that the Christian becomes virtuous ; but " we boast justly of our virtue," said Cicero, " which we could not do if we derived it from the Deity, and not from ourselves." The con- trast between the two conceptions of virtue is very marked. Ambrose, when he speaks of the chief good as consisting in virtue, does not abandon its " religious character." " Sometimes," says Ewald, " he loses from view the thought of the transcendence of the highest good."^ But is that only transcendent which is altogether in the future ? Is not the Ambrosian idea of the religious character of virtue, as implying freedom from sin and as originating in the grace of God, as " transcendent " a quality as any which attaches to the idea of existence beyond the grave ? In whatever form Ambrose expresses his conception of the highest good it is essentially religious, and therefore transcendent and anti-Stoical. It is not without sufficient reason that Ambrose supports his views from the Sermon on the Mount and other Scriptures, for that is their proper basis ; though we could sometimes wish that he had expressed himself differently. It shovdd be further noticed that Ambrose does not regard the life eternal simply as the " reward of virtue," but as the " fruit " of virtue in the largest sense. " Scriptura antem divina 1 P. 29. AMBROSE 187 vitam aeternam in cognitione posuit Divinitatis, et fructu bonae operationis," both parts of which assertion rest on Scripture, viz., John xvii. 4 and Matt. xix. 29 (ii. 2, 5). It is hardly unfair to press the metaphor, and say that the eternity which belongs to the fruit belongs also to the tree, and that the virtuous life is also the eternal life. There is no essential opposition between the ideas of the present and the future life when religiously interpreted. They may both partake of the character of eternity, and it was only so far as the present life was the worldly life that Ambrose felt its antagonism to the future. The above passages have all been taken from the De Officiis Ministrorum of Ambrose, as that is the work in which the resemblances to the Stoics and to Cicero are most marked ; but, as Ewald shows, we have a different strain elsewhere. In De Isaac, vii. 8, and De Abr., ii. 21, God is represented as the Highest Good, and the whole effort and life of man is regarded as a striving of the soul after communion with God, as a life in Him through the Logos, so that the influence of Philo is suspected.^ As it is only Christ the Lord of Eternity who can give eternal life to men {De Off., ii. I, 2), so also elsewhere Jesus Christ is Himself regarded as the Highest Good. " Ipse est ergo dominus Jesus summum bonum .... ad ilium properemus in quo summum est bonum, quoniam ipse bonitas. Ipse est summum bonum, qui nullius indiget, et abundat omnibus " {Ad Iren., 29, 8 and 9).^ 1 p. 33, 2 Quoted by Forster, p. 179. 1 88 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Even when the end is regarded as future and under the idea of life, it is something very different from mere immortality. Ambrose was not satisfied with any of the philosophers, for at best they only "allow a partial redemption" (Dec. Satyr., 126). The social, universal, and unselfish character of the Highest Good is also emphasised. The kingdom of heaven is received by all, and in a perfectly similar way, though within the kingdom there are degrees of glory (Luc. Exp., iv. 4, vii. 200).^ The hierarchical aspect of the Church is in the background,^ but the social character of the Church is prominent. This is seen in the place intercessory prayer occupies in the teaching of Ambrose. The intercession of the more spiritual will avail for the pardon of sin. " Si gravium pecca- torum diffidis veniam adhibe peccatores ; adhibe ecclesiam quas pro te precatur" (Luc. Exp., v. 10 and 1 1).* It is seen also in the large place love has in his scheme and in the bright illustrations of it in his own life. He himself had proved how good a thing it is " to have our witness in the love of many," that we may be the better able to help the many (De Off., ii- 7> 39)- He writes his work on duties to his spiritual children, just as Cicero wrote his for his son : " For nature does not cause us to love more strongly than grace " (i. 7, 24). « He who is perfecdy wise does not know how to look to his own advantage, but strives with all his desire after what is eternal and 1 Forster, p. 310. ^ Harnack, v. 48. ' Forster, p. 312. AMBROSE 189 seemly and virtuous, seeking not what is useful for himself, but for all" (iii. 2, 12). This social and unselfish character of the kingdom of heaven is enforced by the example of Christ, by its conformity to nature, and as the only one suitable for the society of the Holy Church, " quae in unum connexum corpus atque compactum imitate fidei et charitatis assurgit " (iii. 3> 19)- CHAPTER II DUTY Martensen has pointed out the fact that the con- ception of duty does not find any direct expression in the Bible, though the apostle speaks of us as debtors, and the Saviour of a " must " in connection with His wiU.i Though the verb 6e Of., i. 8, 25 and 26. 190 CLEMENT 191 The absence of the word is significant of the con- trast between the biblical and the philosophical ways of approaching the subject. It is from the point of view of the objective idea of law rather than the sub- jective idea of duty that the inspired writers regard the question. They find the ground of the authority of duty not so much in the conscience of the individual as in the will of God objectively presented to the indi- vidual. Law as the expression of what God requires from man, rather than duty as the expression of what man feels he owes to God, is the prevailing idea of revelation.^ We shall not expect, therefore, to find the idea of duty so prominently displayed by the Church writers as by the philosophers. The more elaborate treatment which we find at the close of our period is another indication that Stoicism has been vanquished and that Christianity has entered upon its inheritance.^ Clement It is not accidental that the first Roman writer should have had something to say on the duties (Xeirovpyla) of those appointed to serve in the Church (c. 44) ; but more important than any enumeration of duties is the surer foundation provided for them by Christian writers. Not conformity to reason, or to nature simply, but to ' Miiller, i. 68. ^ Thamin has developed this view in connection with Christian casuistry. 192 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS the personal will of an Almighty and All-loving God, partially disclosed (for those who have eyes to see) in reason and in nature, but only fully revealed in Jesus Christ, was henceforth the rule and ground for human duty. The new, i.e. apostolic, note is struck in the opening lines, " To them that are called and sanctified by the will of God through our Lord Jesus Christ " (c. i). The will of God as the elective, sanctifying, and enabling power, historically revealed to men espe- cially in Jesus Christ, is the standard and authority for duty. "We should not leave the post which His will has assigned us" (c. 2i). "We should look steadfastly to the Father and Creator of the universe " (c. 19). "It is right and holy to obey God" (c. 14). " It behoves us to do all things in their proper order, which the Lord has commanded us to perform at stated times " (c. 40). We should be especially " mind- ful of the words of the Lord Jesus" (c. 13). " Now the faith which is in Christ confirms all these admoni- tions" (c. 22). And the strongest of all pleas is found in the redemption through Christ. " On account of the love He bore us, Jesus Christ our Lord gave His blood for us by the will of God : His flesh for our flesh, and His soul for our souls " (c. 49). " Seeing, therefore, we are the portion of the Holy One, let us do all those things which pertain to holiness " (cc. 30 and 58). We may find the duties of the Christian life very variously enumerated in the works of subsequent writers, and even the reason for their performance HERMAS 193 differently stated ; but the idea that the new law was given by Christ, and for those in Christ, made it something infinitely superior to a law of reason or of nature. Attachment to the law-giver, even when Christianity was looked upon in the light of a new law, made it " a yoke of grace " (c. 1 6). As at Sinai the law was prefaced by the declaration, " I am the Lord that redeemed thee," so the new law was given to men redeemed by the blood of Christ, and already accepted in the Beloved. Legalism and Stoicism, Roman law and Gentile ritualism, might do their best to transform Christianity into something like themselves. But they never quite succeeded. Duty could never be conceived in the light of mere subjective and changing human opinions, and never could be done simply " for Duty's sake," still less for an earthly reward, while the Cross remained the symbol of Chris- tianity, and the communion of the body and blood of the Lord the central act of worship in the Christian Church. Hermas The conception of Christianity as a new law we already find very clearly in Hermas, and it was doing its work in various directions. (i) It was deepening the sense of sin, a work greatly jieeded in the Roman world, and, so Hermas thought, in the Roman Church. His message is a call to repentance. Sins which might appear trifling to others 13 194 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS his sensitive conscience shrinks from. So impressed, e.g., is he with the duty of absolute truthfulness in speech, that he says, " I never spake a true word in my Kfe, but have ever spoken cunningly at all, and have affirmed a lie for a truth to all, and no one ever contradicted me, but credit was given to my word. How can I live since I have acted thus ? " (Mand. 3). Sins of desire, too, are exceeding sinful. " Is it not your opinion that a righteous man commits sin when an evil desire arises in his heart ? and the answer he receives is, "There is sin in such a case and the sin is great " (Vis. i. i \ cf.'i. 2). He gives a catalogue of the deeds that are most wicked in the life of men — adultery and fornication, unlawful revelling, wicked luxury, indulgence in many kinds of food, the extravagance of riches, boastfulness, haughtiness, insolence, lies, backbiting, hypocrisy, re- membrance of wrongs, and slander ; and further adds to these as sins from which the servant of God must restrain himself — " theft, lying, robbery, false witness, over-reaching, wicked lust, deceit, vain glory, boastful- ness, and all other vices like these " (Mand. 8). But these are not the only great sins. " How wicked is the action of anger " (Mand. 5. 2). " Doubt- ing is the daughter of the devil, and acts exceedingly wickedly to the servants of God " (Mand. 9). " Every double-souled man will be saved with difficulty even if he repent " {ibid.). Grief is " the sister of doubt and anger," and " is more wicked than all the spirits, HERMAS 195 and most terrible to the servants of God, and more than all other spirits destroys man and crushes out the Holy Spirit" (Mand. 10. i). From these and all other forms of sin the Christian man must abstain. And Hermas is very far from being content with lists of vices. The positive character of the new law is fully recognised. Action is as incumbent on the Christian as restraint. " Restrain yourselves in regard to evil, and do it not ; but exercise no restraint in regard to good, but do it " (Mand. 8). Then foUows a list of virtues regarded in the light of duties of a positive character. " First of all there is faith, then fear of the Lord, love, concord, words of righteousness, truth, patience. Than these nothing is better in the life of man. If any one attend to these, and restrain himself not from these, blessed is he in his life. Then there are the following attendant on these : — helping widows, looking after orphans and the needy, rescuing the servants of God from necessities, being hospitable, for in hospitality doing good finds a field, never opposing anyone, the being quiet, having fewer needs than all men, reverencing the aged, practising righteous- ness, watching the brotherhood, bearing insolence, being long-suifering, encouraging those who are sick in soul, not casting those who have fallen into sin from the faith, but turning them back and restoring them to peace of mind, admonishing sinners, not op- pressing debtors and the needy, and if there are any other actions like these" (Mand. 8). With such a 196 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS conception of the exceeding breadth of the divine commandments, Hermas calls men to repentance. (2) Another way in which the conception of Chris- tianity as a new law was doing its work besides reveal- ing sin, was by starting the question, " How shall I propitiate God in regard to my sins (Vis. i. 2)? A more complete view of Christianity would have prevented Hermas from asking that question, but unfortunately we shall find it again in TertuUian and Cyprian and other writers of the West, to whom the idea of Christianity as a new law was paramount. " You are saved because you did not depart from the living God, and on account of your simplicity and great self-control" (Vis. i. 3 ; c/^ Sim. 9. 12). From these and other passages we see how easy the descent might be to a thoroughgoing doctrine of salvation by works. It can hardly be maintained that such was the opinion of Hermas. He has not yet got the self-confidence of the Pharisee. " I do not know if these commandments can be kept by man, because they are exceeding hard" (Mand. 12. 3). They can be kept if a man lays it down as certain that they can, but it is by the man " who has the Lord in his heart." " Put, therefore, ye who are empty and fickle in your faith, the Lord in your heart, and ye will know that there is nothing easier or sweeter or more manageable than these commandments" (Mand. 12. 4). Of Christ he says : " He Himself, then, having purged away the sins of the people, showed them the paths of life by HERMAS 197 giving them the law which He had received from the Father " (Sim. 5. 6) ; and according to one reading (Sim. 8. 3) this law is identified with the Son of God Himself. Man cannot save himself, but there is One who is able to provide a cure " (Mand. 4. i). Though Hermas has not become a believer in justification by works of the law, he allows us to see the danger of the one-sided conception of Chris- tianity as a new law. (3) This idea of Christianity was dangerous in other ways. Confronted solely by a legal view of Chris- tianity, the partially renewed heart of man is only too likely to ask, " Have not I done something more than was commanded ? " If Christianity is regarded as an enactment or series of enactments, men are apt to lose sight of its infinitude and imagine that they can do more than is required of them. So, thus early in the history of the Church we see this fatal tendency of human nature evoked by the " new law." " If you do any good beyond what is commanded by God, you wiU gain for yourself more abundant glory " (Sim. 5. 3). In like manner the quantitative estimation of sins was only too likely to make its appearance, when Christianity was so regarded. The eighth Similitude, which describes so minutely though pic- torially the various classes of sinners and degrees of sin, foreshadows the whole Penitential system of later days. 198 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Justin Justin regards Christ as the absolute moral autho- rity, obedience to whose will is in complete harmony with what is rational. "To live conformably to the good precepts of Christ is the Christian's prayer " (i Apol.j 14). "So whatever the word forbids us to choose, the sensible man will not choose " (i ApoL, 12). " In order that we may follow those things which please Him, choosing them by reason of the rational faculties He has Himself endowed us with. He both persuades us and leads us to faith " (i ApoL, 10). He tells of one who, " being conscious of his duty and the nobility of it through the teaching of Christ, confessed his discipleship in the divine virtue" (2 ApoLy 2). " Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ " (2 Apol.y 8, and so also i ApoL, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17). Christ is also Himself spoken of as the new law. " Now law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it ... . and the eternal and final law, namely Christ, has been given us. . . . He is the new law and the new covenant, and the expectation of those who out of every people wait for the good things of God" {Trypho, c. 11). "Christ the ever- lasting law and the everlasting covenant. And we who have approached God through Him have not received the carnal but spiritual circumcision, which Enoch and those like him observed. And we have received it through baptism, since we were sinners. JUSTIN 199 by God's mercy ; and all men may equally obtain it " {Trypho, c. 43). There is a universal law : for " God sets before every race of mankind that which is always and universally just, as well as all righteousness, and every race knows that adultery, and fornication, and homicide, and such like are sinful " {Trypho, 93) ; and in this connection Justin refers to the comprehension of the law in the two precepts of Christ. Law is also dispensational, as in the case of the Jews. " We know that the ordinances imposed by reason of the hardness of your people's hearts contribute nothing to the performance of right and piety " {Trypho, 46). " For we too would observe the fleshly circumcision and the sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined you, namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your hearts. Wash, therefore, and be now clean, and put away iniquity from your souls as God bids you be washed in this laver and be circumcised with the true circumcision " (Trypho, 18). "For now the new law has come, which requires you to keep perpetual sabbath, and you because you are idle for one day suppose you are pious, not discerning only why this has been commanded you : and if you eat unleavened bread you say the will of the Lord has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances : if there is any perjured person or thief among you, let him cease to be so ; if 200 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS any adulterer, let him repent : then he has kept the sweet and true sabbaths of God" {Trypho, 12). Among the more specifically Christian duties enjoined by Justin we may mention, prayer for enemies (i ApoL, 14), and care for infant life (i ApoL, 27). He is care- ful also to state that God has given to women likewise the ability to keep the whole law {Trypho, 23). Tadan Justin's disciple, Tatian, need not detain us. The law is for him the law of the Father of immortality, as opposed to all mere human opinion : it can be kept by all, and does not interfere with freedom of choice. Irenaus The conception of Christianity as a new law is found again and prominently in Irenaeus : but even more than in the case of Justin it is counterbalanced by the idea of redemption. To neither of them is Christianity a way of duty rather than a way of life : and by neither of them, we may add, is that way of life conceived merely after the Greek idea of immor- tality. Irenaeus in particular has a deep sense of the significance and value of the redemption which the death of Christ has achieved. It is noteworthy what a conspicuous part the senti- ment of gratitude plays in the writings of Irenaeus. God is love rather than law. " We give Him names IREN^US 201 according to the love we bear Him " (ii. 53, 14). Love is the greatest commandment under both covenants (iv. 12. 3), The object of God's long-sufFering is that we may " always live in a state of gratitude to God ; and having obtained the gift of incorruptibility, love Him more, for he to whom more is forgiven loveth more .... continuing in his love and subjection and giving of thanks . . . . " (iii. 20. 2). We should continue in the love of God, and not fall away from "that love which is the life of men" (ii. i(>. \ \ cf.\\. 34. 3, iv. 10. 2, etc.). A man who thought in this way regarding the grace bestowed on men could not consistently take either a legal or non-moral view of salvation. But other influences were strong around him. The conflict with Gnosticism threw him back on the deeper views of Paul, yet he was hardly able to bring all parts of his thinking into proper agreement with those views. Christianity was a new law, when Irenaeus compares it with the old covenant, and it difi^ers from the old in being robbed of the ceremonial part and strengthened by other commands, articles of faith, and ordinances. Like James, he thinks of a law of liberty, but, unlike James, he does not think of the ceremonial of religion (Opija-Kela) as consisting in acts of morality, such as visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping oneself unspotted from the world. The Church and its ordinances take the place of the forsaken ceremonial law, as expressions of the religious life ; and perhaps what was more 202 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS unfortunate, as the " necessary and indispensable con- ditions " for the reception and growth of the divine life in the soul. As Lipsius says,^ "The Church as an outward visible institution became a prime necessity for human salvation .... the Church's faith is the only faith that is true and saving, so he alone is a Christian man who conforms to the Church's institu- tions and laws. The Church's sacrifices, the Church's prayers, the Church's works alone are holy." It remained for Tertullian and Cyprian to develop this external and legal way of regarding Christianity. Irenaeus is specially concerned to vindicate the divine origin of all law. Not only Church law, but civil law, the Mosaic law, and natural law are of God. Civil governments are ordained of God, though they are due to human sin. " For since man by departing from God reached such a pitch of fury as even to look upon his brother as an enemy and engage without fear in every kind of restless conduct and murder and avarice, God imposed upon man the fear of man, as they did not acknowledge the fear of God, in order that, being subjected to the authority of men and kept under restraint by their laws, they might attain to some degree of justice and exercise mutual forbearance through dread of the sword .... earthly rule therefore has been appointed by God .... not by the devil " (v. 24. 2). 1 P. 274. IREN^US 203 The Mosaic law, he argues at length, and with force as against Marcion, is the work of the Supreme God. Part of it, i.e. the decalogue, he identifies with natural law, or the law written on the heart, the other part he regards as good for the purpose it was designed to serve, but as temporary, and an accommodation to human weakness. The latter bears upon it the marks of inferiority. It was " suited for slaves who were as yet undisciplined" (iv. 9. i). "It was given in order to bondage " (iv. 9. 2). "It was to instruct the soul by means of those corporeal objects which were of an external nature" (iv. 13. 2). "It followed upon the sin of calf-worship and subjected them to the yoke of bondage, and in that sense God gave them statutes that were not good and judgments by which they should not live," Ezek. xx. 24 (iv. 15. i). " It was given on account of the hardness of their hearts" (iv. 15. 2). Irenaeus does not see anything derogatory to God in this lowering of the standard. The indulgences were granted for the benefit of the people. God would not force men. He "has always preserved freedom and power of self-government in man " (iv. 1 5. 2). The apostles under the new covenant did the same kind of thing (ibid.). " For there is one salvation and one God ; but the precepts which form man are numerous and the steps which lead man to God not a few. It is allowable for an earthly and temporal king, though he be a man, to grant to his subjects greater advantages at times : shall not this then be lawful for God .'' " 204 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS "Perfect righteousness was conferred neither by- circumcision nor by any other legal ceremonies, God gave circumcision not as a completer of righteousness, but as a sign." The sabbaths Irenaeus (if we adopt Harvey's reading) regards similarly to Justin. " They taught us that we should continue day by day in God's service" (iv. i6. i). All who lived before Abraham and Moses were justified independently of these things, and without the law of Moses. " Enoch too, pleasing God without circumcision, discharged the office of God's legate to the angels " (iv. i6. 2). The decalogue is the superior part of the Mosaic law. It contains " the most prominent and greatest commandments, without which salvation cannot be attained" (iv. 12. 4 ; so also iv. 15. i). It was really operative although unformulated before Moses. " The law was not established for righteous men, but the righteous fathers had the meaning of the decalogue written in their hearts and souls, i.e. they loved God, who made them and did no injury to their neighbours. Therefore there was no occasion that they should be cautioned by prohibitory mandates, because they had the righteousness of the law in themselves. But when this righteousness and love to God had passed into oblivion and became extinct in Egypt, God did neces- sarily because of His great good-will to men reveal Himself by a voice " (iv. 1 6. 3). This is the universal law, " diffused not throughout one nation, but over the whole world, given in order to liberty, written upon IREN^US 205 the heart " (iv. 9. 2). " All the natural precepts are common to us and the Jews. They had in them, indeed, the beginning and origin, but in us they have received growth and completion" (iv. 13. 4). This law, common to Jews and Gentiles, Jesus Christ has sanctioned and enlarged. " The Lord Himself did speak in His own person to all alike the words of the decalogue ; and therefore in like manner do they re- main permanently with us, receiving by means of His advent in the flesh extension and increase but not abrogation" (iv. 16. 4). "That the Lord did not abrogate the natural precepts of the law by which man is justified, which also those who were justified by faith, and who pleased God, did observe previous to the giving of the law, but that He extended and ful- filled them is shown from His words : " For it hath been said to men of old time .... but I say . . . ." For all these do not contain or imply an opposition to and an overturning of the precepts of the past as Marcion's followers do strenuously maintain, but they exhibit a fulfilling and extension of them as He does Himself declare : " Unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. . . ." Irenaeus explains this excess as consisting of (a) Faith in the Son as well as the Father ; (h) practice as well as profession ; and (c) abstinence from evil desire (iv. 13. i). This is a somewhat remarkable way of stating the enlargement which the law received at the 2o6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS hand of Christ. For with regard to the first point, Irenaeus admits that the law " did beforehand teach mankind the necessity of following Christ" (iv. 12. 6). With regard to the second, it must be acknowledged that the intention of the law was not merely pro- fession. And in respect to the third, even the deca- logue does extend to the desires of the heart. But Irenaeus took the Pharisee, and not the commandments themselves, as illustrating what the law was ; and if we regard the Pharisee as a necessary product of the law, Irenaeus was not far wrong. His exposition of the incident of the man in the Gospel who wished to inherit eternal life is in keeping with what is here said, for he had not sufficient faith to follow Christ ; he had profession only (" most likely he had not kept them ") ; and there was evil desire or " covetousness " which our Lord exposed (iv. 12. 5). The possibility of doing more than the law requires is not allowed by Irenaeus : and he reprobates those "who pretend that they do observe more than what has been prescribed" (iv. 11. 4). But according to him our Lord taught that there was a distinction among duties " setting as an ascending series the precepts of the law as an entrance into life " (iv. 12. 5). "We conclude with one more remark of this vindi- cator of the divine origin of aU law. " The law was spiritual, but merely made sin to stand out in relief and did not destroy it. . . . For it behoved Him who was to destroy sin ... . that He should be made man TERTULLIAN 207 .... so that sin should be destroyed by man, and man should go forth from death " (iii. 18. 6). Tertullian Like Irenaeus, Tertullian seeks to show, especially against Marcion, the unity and progressive character of divine legislation. Law is of God, and therefore it is good. Neither the Mosaic law, nor the law of nature is antagonistic to the new law of Christ. The teaching of Moses is in harmony with nature, and the " supplementary additions " made by Christ are " quite in keeping with the teaching of the Creator" {Adv. Marc, iv. 16). " Christ has called Himself Truth, not Custom." If Christ is always and prior to all, equally truth is a thing sempiternal and ancient. . . . The law of faith is constant .... but " nothing is without stages of growth .... the Paraclete's office is the direction of discipline. . . . Righteousness was first in a rudimentary state, having a natural fear of God; from that stage it advanced through the law and the prophets to infancy ; from that stage it passed through the Gospel to the fervour of youth : now through the Paraclete it is settling down into maturity" {De Virg. Vel., i). "God's Is Scripture, God's is nature, God's is discipline" (ibid., 16). Un- fortunately the " Discipline " of the Paraclete, which to the Apostle Paul meant a "kingdom of righte- ousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," — not fearfulness, but " power and love and discipline," 2o8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS — became to Tertullian the Montanist a harsh and contemptuous asceticism, and to Cyprian the priest a sacerdotal ordinance. The unity of the divine legislation, Tertullian saw, was threatened from another side. If Marcion taught that the Mosaic law or the natural law proceeded from a lesser God than the One declared by Christ, the Jews on the contrary believed in the inviolability of the Mosaic law and rejected the new law of Christ. Tertullian, therefore, had to reply to them. In his answer to the Jews he traces the history of law. God at the beginning, in accordance with His goodness and equity, gave to all nations the self-same law, which had to be obeyed simply on the ground that it was His wiU. The law given to Adam contained in embryo the Mosaic law. It was first given in Paradise, then reformed for the Patriarchs, and again for the Jews, at definite periods. " Let us not annul this power which God has, which reforms the law's precepts answerable to the circumstances of the times, with a view to man's salvation." God originated Adam uncircumcised and unobservant of the Sabbath. Abel, Enoch, and Melchisedek observed neither Sabbath nor circumci- sion. Abraham was accepted in uncircumcision. The temporal Sabbath is human, and the eternal Sabbath is divine. Even Joshua was commanded to break the temporal Sabbath. If the giver of the new law, Jesus Christ, has come, it is manifest that the old law's precepts are suppressed {Adv. Jud., 2-6). The " super- TERTULLIAN 209 inducing " of the Gospel has " obliterated " the whole ancient bygone system {De Or., i). But if the precepts of the old law have been sup- pressed by Christ, others have arisen. It is not simply that Jesus Christ has given a deeper meaning to the old law, and shown how it has to do with thought and desire as well as outward act {De Idol., 2) ; it is some- thing much more than this. Answerably to the cir- cumstances of the time and with a view to man's salvation, God has through the Paraclete imposed a stricter law whereby the moderation of Psychics or Catholics in the matter of fasting becomes gluttony (De JeJ., i), and second marriages a species of adultery (De Exh. Cast., 9). The permission, once granted by the " indulgence " of God's will, now gives place to the " pure volition " of God, and " the not-superior is rescinded by the superior " (De Exh. Cast., 3). The result of this method of regarding God's will is to bring every most trivial act into the domain of law. The Christian life is to be revealed as a new thing, not so much by the new spirit in which everything is done, as by doing things outwardly different from the conduct of the world. In this way, as Luthardt^ says, "the Christian life becomes the judgment of the world rather than the redemption of the world." When we inquire how the will of God, which is the foundation of duty, is to be ascertained, we get almost every variety of answer.^ The voice of Nature is the 1 P. 185. 14 2IO EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS voice of God : not to act in accordance with Nature is to act against God {De Cor., 5 and 6 ; De Sped., 2, 1 8, etc.). The voice of reason is also the voice of Nature, and so of God {De Cor., 2 ; De Poen., i ; De Test. An., 5). Scripture, too, is an authoritative declaration of God's will (De Prase, 6). Tradition also is authoritative (ibid., 20). Tertullian also considers the question whether in pleading tradition written authority should be required {De Cor., 2). Very significant is his observation : " If for these and other such rules you insist on having positive scriptural injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of these, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer" {De Cor., 4). There is one other means of ascertaining the will of God. " He has accordingly now dispersed all the perplexities of the past .... by the open and perspicuous explana- tion of the entire mystery, through the new prophecy, which descends in copious streams from the Paraclete " {De Res. Cam., 63). It is also characteristic of Tertullian to base the obligation of the Christian upon the will rather than upon the grace of God. We are to obey that will, not because it is good for us to obey, but because God commands. " I hold it audacious to dispute about the ' good ' of a divine precept : for indeed it is not the fact that it is good which binds us to obey, but the fact that God has enjoined it. To exact the render- ing of obedience the majesty of the divine power has TERTULLIAN 211 the prior right : the authority of Him who commands is prior to the utility of him who serves " (De Poen., 4). The antithesis is, of course, a false one. To one who, like TertuUian, believes in the absolute goodness of the divine will, there can be no opposition between autho- rity and utility, and the obedience rendered to good- ness is one with the obedience rendered to the divine power. But it is characteristic of TertuUian that the emphasis should be on the power rather than on the goodness of the will when he speaks of the obligation of obeying it. The "grace" of God is, in fact, not prominent at any time. It occurs quite incidentally sometimes (De Cor., 13 ; Jd Uxor., i. 8 ; De Idol., 18), but it never received adequate recognition. " Clemency ' ' there is, but not the grace of the Cross. God is both Father and Judge, but it is the latter that gives the tone to TertuUian's thoughts. We miss the grateful adoring love which meets us in Irenaeus. There is much, in fact, which is inconsistent with a firm grasp of the fact of redemption. Baptism, e.g., though not absolutely essential to salvation, can be dispensed with, not on the ground that the grace of Christ is wider than any ordinance, but because a man can make up for the omission by the shedding of his own blood in martyrdom (De Bapt., 16). So he can speak of a man's becoming " partaker of the fulness of God's grace, and obtain from God complete forgiveness, by giving in exchange his blood " [Apol., 50). The duty of imitat- ing Christ is not firmly based on the consciousness of 212 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS redemption, but, as in one conspicuous instance, on the example of slaves and beasts {De Pat., 4 ; see, however, De Idol., 18). God is to be appeased by works or suffering. " Fleshly mortification is a victim able to appease the Lord" {De Pat., 13). "By confession satisfaction is settled ; of confession repentance is born ; by repentance God is appeased " {De Poen., 9). So we have "to make satisfaction to the offended Lord" (^bid., 10, etc.). "A good deed has God as its debtor" {ibid., 2). What is most commendable in TertuUian is his earnest attempt to apply the new law, as he conceived it, to every department of life. His treatment of such a subject as war shows how hard he found his task {De Idol., 19 and 20). His observations on the difficult commandments of the Sermon on the Mount manifest shrewdness {De Fuga, 13). He nobly maintains that a Christian must be a Christian everywhere {De Cor., 1 1). He will not have it that Christians are " Indian Brahmins and Gymnosophists, who dwell in woods and exile themselves from ordinary human life. We do not forget the debt of gratitude we owe to God our Lord and Creator ; we reject no gift of His hands. . . . We sojourn with you in the world, abjuring neither forum .... nor any other place of commerce" (^0/., 42). And yet he failed, as every man is bound to fail, who conceives of Christianity in the light of a Rule, as a law of commandments contained in ordinances, rather than as a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. CYPRIAN 213 When later on in his career he adopted the philosopher's cloak, we see how through life he had protested too much. The very violence of his abuse of the "Philosophers" showed that there was really the making of a Cynic in him. Cyprian In Cyprian the philosophical interest sinks into insignificance and the ecclesiastical usurps its place. We are no longer invited to consider " the testimony of a soul naturally Christian." The life according to Nature or Reason is not correlated with the new life which springs up in the hearts of the Christians. Not Nature and not Reason, but the Church is the vehicle of the Divine life. Nay, more than that, the Church is " Mother." The new life only comes through her ; and as the new life is infinitely more important than the old, it follows that the Christian's obligation in the way of reverence, love, and obedience to his ecclesiastical parent is greater than all other obligations. It is, in fact, for the Christian the one obligation ; for in what other way than through the Church can the authority of God the Father make itself felt ? The two become identified in Cyprian's idea of the Church. AH parts of life not covered by the " Church " are handed over to the devil. God can only speak through the Cyprianic " Church." Duty, therefore, for Cyprian is obedience to God's will as expressed in and through the " Church." 214 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Every duty becomes an ecclesiastical one. The Divine Word, who according to Justin instructs all men, is heard only in the " Church," and though Cyprian's own religious life was too deep to allow him to ignore the authority of the Living Lord of the Church, it was very easy for the men of smaller faith, who came after hirn, to take the further step and attach greater importance to the " Church " as the exclusive sphere of Christ's influence than to Christ Himself. By first narrowing the conception of the Church, and then giving to its ministers vice-regal authority ; by making the priest for the time being "judge in the stead of Christ " {Ep.y 54), and denying that the impulse even to martyrdom was prompted by the Spirit, if it was felt by one outside the " Church " (Ep., 51. 4), Cyprian prepared the way for the complete dethrone- ment of Christ in His own kingdom. The authority of Christ for the individual conscience was gone, or at least endangered, when the voice of any duly-elected, however unspiritual, priest was preferred to the testimony of the soul to its Lord in a holy life or a heroic death. The thought that a priest might in the " Church " be made without the authority of God, and presumably act without that authority, is " sacrilegious daring " and " a proof of an abandoned mind." And when we ask for proof of this remark- able pretension, we are told that if God notices the fall of a sparrow, how much more does He appoint a priest ? {Ep., 68. 2). And this from the same CYPRIAN 21 s man who thought that kingdoms rose and fell by chance ! Yet in spite of this false limitation of the authority of Christ, that authority was, at least within the " Church," to Cyprian a personal as well as vicarious fact. The relation of the individual soul to Christ was a personal as well as vicarious one. It was a present reality, and the consciousness of it was sufficient to illumine and authenticate human duty. "And dares anyone now, who lives by and in this very one, lift up himself and be haughty, forgetful of the deeds which He did, as of the commands which He left us either by Himself or by His apostles ? " {Ep.y 6. 4). " He who according to Christ's precepts speaks things peaceable and good and just, daily confesses Christ " {Ep., 6. 5). " Let them (the martyrs) imitate the Lord, who at the very time of His passion was not more proud, but more humble " {Ep., 5. 2). " We ought to pray and entreat the Lord Himself, and then through Him make satisfaction to God the Father. We have an Advocate and intercessor for our sins, Jesus Christ. . , . The Father corrects and protects us, if we still stand fast in the faith both in afflictions and perplexities — that is to say, cling closely to His Christ " (Ep., 7. 5). " He who once conquered death on our behalf, always conquers it in us" {Ep., 8). " Christ is to be contemplated in our captive brethren. . . . He abides and dwells in us," and as we have been redeemed by Him, so we ought to fulfil His 2i6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Golden Rule (£/>., 59). " "Wherefore, if we wish to walk in the light of Christ, let us not depart from His precepts and His monitions, giving thanks that while He instructs us for the future what we ought to do. He pardons for the past, wherein we in our simplicity have erred. And because already His second coming draws near to us, His benign and liberal condescension is more and more illuminating our hearts with the light of truth" {Ep., 62. 18). "Since we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, let us obey and give furtherance to the empire of our Redeemer by all obedience of service, that nothing impure or profane may be brought into the temple of God, lest He should be offended and forsake the temple which He inhabits. The words of the Lord giving health and teaching, as well curing as warning are, ' Behold thou art made whole : Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.' He gives a course of life, He gives the law of innocency after He has conferred health" {De Hah., i). " We who desire to be Christians ought to imitate what Christ said and did. . . . ' He that saith he abideth in Christ ought himself also to walk as He walked ' " {Be Hab., 6). " Let the poor feel that you are worthy .... give food to Christ " {De Hab., 11). " We ought, therefore, to stand fast on His words, to learn and do whatever He both taught and did. But how can a man say he believes in Christ who does not do what Christ commanded him to do ? " {De Unit., i). "Christ is the bread of life, and this CYPRIAN 217 bread does not belong to all men, but it is ours " {De Or., 18; see also 1 5). " But we who live in hope and believe in God and trust that Christ suffered for us and rose again, abiding in Christ and through Him and in Him rising again . . . ." {De Mart., 21). "Let all bitterness which had settled within be softened by the sweetness of Christ" (De Zelo el Liv., 17). "That being redeemed and quickened by the blood of Christ, we ought to prefer nothing to Christ " {Ad Mart., 6). "That there is given to us an example of living in Christ " {Test., iii. 39). This catena of passages is sufficient to show how widely, in spite of the heathen elements in Cyprian, he departed from the merely philosophical or even legal view of duty. The paramount obligation springs from the fact of redemption by Christ, and the new birth arising therefrom, mediated by the " Church." Freedom from guilt is the first thing which makes the command- ments possible for us to obey. The word and example of Christ form the standard of duty for the Christian. Service rendered to the poor is rendered to Christ. The Christian lives in Christ ; and Christ resides in the Christian, bringing the needed strength for the performance of duty. The second coming of Christ is a further incentive to its discharge, and a reason for the light becoming clearer on the Christian's path. In such ways as these Cyprian's treatment of duty differs widely from that of the philosophers. It follows from this view of the Christian's duty 2i8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS that a new spirit is poured into the old commands, and that specifically Christian acts are enjoined. Cyprian does not develop this idea by way of direct contrast even to the extent that Irenaeus did, but he allows us to see wherein the will of Christ differs from that of other masters. In writing to the clergy he tells them that the law of Christ has been broken, by covetousness, pride, strife, duplicity, formality, and self-pleasing {Ep., vii. i), an essentially Christian view of the infractions of duty. Only once, I think, does he directly contrast his own views of duty with that of the philosophers, viz., where he says, "The principle of the philosophers and Stoics is different, who say that aU sins are equal .... but there is a wide difference between Christians and philosophers " (£/»., 41. 16) ; though once he also says, "We are philosophers not in words but in deeds, and do not put forward our wisdom in our garb " (De Pat., 3). Other indications of the changes in the way of regard- ing duty we see in his teaching on chastity, prayer, giving to the point of real sacrifice, visiting prisoners, caring for the sick and strangers, acting and teaching actors and praying for enemies {Ep., 35 ; D^ Or., 17 ; Ep., 60, etc.). On the other hand he is decidedly less than Christian in his treatment of good works, of merit and pro- pitiation. More than once language is used which implies that although the new birth is an act of God, the preservation of the new life is an act of man. CYPRIAN 219 "Faith itself and the new birth makes alive not by being received, but by being preserved" (£/»., 6. 2), " Whom the Lord exhorts to rise up again by his works, because it is writtten alms do deliver from death" (-E/>., 51. 22). "Every man in proportion to his wealth ought by his patrimony rather to redeem his transgressions than to increase them" {De Hab.^ 1 1). " Before their conscience has been purged by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest " {De Lapsis, 16). " Wear out nights in watching and weepings .... be earnest in right works, whereby sins may be purged : frequently apply yourself to almsgiving, whereby souls are freed from death" (De Lapsis, 35). "By alms- giving we may wash away whatever foulness we subse- quently contract" (De Op. et EL, i). "And therefore in baptism remission of sins is granted once for all ; constant and ceaseless labour following the likeness of baptism once again bestows the mercy of God " (ibid., 2). " With the deserts of mercy sins are cleansed " (ibid., 5). The idea of " merit " is further brought out in such places as the following : — " What do you ask from the Lord's mercy which you do not deserve to obtain ? you who have observed the Lord's commandments .... who in the glory of your virtue uncorrupted . . . ." (Ep., 15. 4). "By your righteous works you may commend your children to God " (De Op. et EL, 18). "We believe indeed that the merits of the martyrs and the works of righteousness are of 220 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS great avail with the Judge, but that will be when the day of judgment shall come" (De Lapsis, 17). The Christian "deserves well of Christ the Judge, and accounts God his debtor " {De Op. et EL, 25). "The Lord will never fail of giving a reward for our merits .... in peace a white crown for our labours, in persecution also a purple one for our pasgion " (ibid.). The idea of offering an atonement, satisfaction, or propitiation to God is frequent. "We feel the rods and stripes because we neither please God with good deeds nor atone for our sins" {Ep., 7. 2). "Through Him to make satisfaction to God the Father" {Ep., 7. 5). " Prayers and supplications whereby with long- continued satisfaction the Lord is to be appeased" (Ep., 39. 2). " That the Lord should be appeased through the bishops and priests " {ibid., 3). " But if any body refusing to repent or make satisfaction to God " {ibid., 7). " The Lord must be appeased by our atonement" {De Lapsis, 17). "Let him not cease to carry out his repentance and to entreat the Lord's mercy, lest what seems to be less in quality of his fault should be increased by his neglect of atonement" {ibid., 28). "While the satisfaction and remission made by the priests are pleasing to the Lord " {ibid., 29). " If anyone move Him stiU more by his own atonement" {ibid., 35). "Pro- pitiating and appeasing God by prayer " {Ad Dem., 20). " The remedies for propitiating God are given in the words of God Himself : the divine instruc- MINUCIUS 221 tions have taught what sinners ought to do, that by works of righteousness God is satisfied" (De Op. et EL, 5). It is perhaps hardly necessary to add that Cyprian's conception of duty falls short in two other ways : (i) All sins are not sins against God (Ep., 54. 16 ; Test., iii. 28). (2) All relations of life are not fully provided for. As Gass^ says, in commenting on his Summary of Heavenly Precepts : " Aus solchen Steinen Konnte man wohl fttr christhches Still leben und Gemeindeverband einen Temple zusammenfdgen, aber fast ohne Ausblicke in die grOsseren Weltverhaltnisse." Minucius There is little of special interest on this part of our subject in Minucius. He thus contrasts the heathen and Christian views of sin : " Vos scelera admissa punitis, apud nos et cogitare peccare est : vos conscios timetis, nos etiam conscientiam solam " (c. 36). Purity in speech and in person is another characteristic mark of the Christian. A Christian has either one lawful wife, or none at all. Continence, without boasting, is regarded as the highest state. Temperance in eating and drinking is also enjoined. On the duties of citizenship he says : " We are not disloyal, though some of us refuse the honours of public office." Christians are free also from the sins of gossip (c. 31). 1 P. 106. 222 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS Novatian The works of Novatian are mainly theological, but there are a few scattered remarks on duty (law and sin). " Every evil is a departure from God " {De Trin., 4). " Natural law is given to all, and under its yoke some things are restricted, others stimulated " {De Trin., 8). "The law is spiritual. So long as men had a good conscience they looked upward for their food and found it on the trees, afterwards they looked down and gathered grain from the earth, and subsequently the use of flesh was added " {Jewish Meats, ii.). " In the difference between clean and unclean meats under the law, it is the characters and doings and wills of men that are depicted." But another reason was to restrain intemperance {ibid., iii. and iv.). " Christ is the end of the law," under whom it is rightly said, "To the pure aU things are pure. . . . Yet there is no advan- tage at all of righteousness while we are recalled by a voluntary slavery to those elements to which by baptism we had died " {ibid., v.). This gives no permission to luxury, or to drunkenness, "though drunkards there are who do not so much run to the tavern, as carry the tavern about with them " {ibid., vi.). We ought not to approach what has been offered to idols, "for such food nourishes a person for the demon, not for God, by making him a feUow-guest with the idol " {ibid., vii.). COMMODIANUS 223 Commodianus Commodianus is a true representative of the West in his way of regarding duty. The ruling conception of all his thinking is the idea of law. Sin, right- eousness, immortality, resurrection, the Church, things present, and things to come, all are associated with law. Sin is lawlessness. "Adam was the first who fell, and that he might shun the precepts of God, Belial was his tempter by the lust of the palm tree. And he conferred on us also what he did, whether of good or evil" (c. 35), "The fugitive will wander vaguely without discipline, loosed from law to go about the defiles of the ways" (c. 54). "Ye are rejecting the law when ye seek to please the world " (c. 60). To the self-pleaser he says : " There is no law to thee, nor dost thou discern thyself in pros- perity. ... If thou hast not adored the crucifixion of the Lord, thou hast perished. . . . Bring thyself into obedience to Christ" (c. 32). The last quotation shows that Commodianus did not ignore the redemptive work of Christ. But even this is regarded under the idea of law. " On the tree depends the life that bears precepts. . . . The excellent law of the Lord which follows has issued from the tree. The first law is lost. ... If you wish to live, surrender yourselves to the second law .... turn yourselves to Christ, and ye shall be associates with 224 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS God" (c. 35). "The second law overcame the terrible law with peace " (c, 36). " He gave Himself to us by a superadded law " (c. 37). To the Jews he says : "Ye look upon the law which Moses dashed in pieces, and the same Lord gave to him a second law : in that he placed his hope : but ye half-hearted reject it, and .... ye shall not be worthy of the kingdom of heaven " (c.38). So, too, life and righteousness are connected with law. Even " in the law of Moses a hope of living in happiness again in the world" might be found (c. 2 ; cf. 25). " The righteousness of the law brings the help of salva- tion and says you are becoming eternal " (c. 21). " We shall be immortal when six thousand years are accom- plished. . . . Holy is God's law which teaches the dead to live .... all of you shun absolutely the law of the devil" (c. 35). "The birds are not restrained by law. Law is given to man and a doctrine of life .... translated by the laver, rather, have charity " (c. 47). The Church itself is regarded as the realm of law. " Of the seed of the tares who stand mingled in the Church .... they shall be separated at the harvest. . . . The law is our field : whosoever does good in it, assuredly the ruler himself will afford a true respose" (c. 55). In keeping with this idea of the Church and its ordinances is the advice given to catechumens — " Beware thou fall not into former sins. In baptism ARNOBIUS 225 the coarse dress of thy birth is washed. For if any- sinful catechumen is marked with punishment, let him live in the signs (of Christianity) although not without loss. The whole of the matter for thee is this, Do thou ever shun great sins " (c. 46) ; and to penitents — " Pray night and day ; yet from thy Mother do not far depart, and the Highest will be able to be merciful to thee. Confess faults .... weep manifestly .... clothed with sack-cloth " (c. 49) ; and to clerks at Easter, who withhold divine entertainments — " Since ye yourselves do it not, in what manner can ye persuade the righteousness of the law to such people even once a year ? " (c. 75). Amobius Unlike Commodianus, Arnobius does not refer the sin of man to the lawlessness of Adam, nor even to the will of man, but to the infirmity of human nature. " Since natural infirmity, and not the choice of his desire, or of his sober judgment, makes a sinner " (i. 49). We do not know whether God created evil (ii. ^^'). But one thing is certain, God did not create man (ii. 46). " If we had been produced by God, we should live unblamable and without sin ... . ration- ally and wisely, never swerving from duty, but abstain- ing from what is forbidden" (ii. 15-17). Sin therefore arises by natural necessity rather than from free will ; and on such a foundation no true conception of duty can be formed. Arnobius himself seems to be dimly IS 226 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS conscious of this. In the rebound from Gnostic ideas of natural ability and self-sufficiency, that men can by their own power become gods and return to the Master's palace (ii. 33), he swings to the other extreme and regards man as absolutely powerless. But he is still moving in the same circle of ideas. Man is constitutionally unfit, even as the Gnostics thought that some men were constitutionally fit, for the life eternal. It is the result of nature, not of will, of fate rather than of choice. But Arnobius cannot rest content with this. There is one fact which throws light on the dismal situation. " Christ could even overcome the decrees of fate " (i. 47). Then Christ can make men free. Having taken away freedom of choice with one hand, Arnobius brings it back with the other. It was " the duty of Christ to make the enjoyment of His bounty depend upon free choice. Plato says ' God does not cause any one to choose his lot in life.' . . . God com- pels no one, terrifies no one with overpowering fear. For our salvation is not necessary to Him. He neither gains if we become divine, nor loses when we become annihilated" (ii. 63). So possibly, after all, Arnobius was wiser than he knew himself to be. Starting with a metaphysical falsehood, he stumbled upon the most illuminating of truths, that the mystery of free-will or necessity is in the keeping of Christ, and that not until the Son shall make us free are we free indeed. LACTANTIUS 227 Lactantius Lactantius is much impressed with Seneca's teaching on conscience, but adds a distinctively Christian feature in the healing of the conscience by Christ : with Cicero's also on the law of duty, and he seems to wish what he says himself to be regarded as supplementary. " The force and purport of the divine law " had been clearly seen by Cicero. It remained for him to "explain in what the precepts of the law consist" (Div. Inst., vi. 8). " Cicero gives precepts not with reference to true justice but to a sketch and oudine of justice .... these works are specially ours since we have received the law, and the words of God Himself giving us instruction" (vi. 12). The filling in or description of the contents of the law was there- fore the first thing for the Christian philosopher to do. Lactantius does this under two heads : (i) Duties to God, and (2) Duties to man. (i) "The first head is to know God Himself, to obey Him alone, to worship Him alone, for he cannot maintain the character of a man, who is ignorant of God, the parent of his soul." If a man seeks to order his life by the law of the State, he will go sadly wrong, " for civil law is one thing, justice another." Or if he seeks to be guided by the law of nature, by natural or innate goodness . ..." all his goodness wiU resemble a human body without a head, destitute of life and sensation " (vi. 9). 228 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS But man cannot know God by philosophy, but only through revelation. So " when the affairs of men were in this condition God pitied us, revealed and displayed Himself to us, that in Himself we might learn religion, faith, purity, mercy : that having laid aside the error of our former life, together with God Himself we might know ourselves, whom impiety had disunited from Him, and we might choose the divine law which united human affairs with heavenly, the Lord Himself declaring it to us, by which law all the errors with which we have been ensnared, together with vain and impious superstitions, might be taken away " {Ep. Div. Inst., 66). (2) The second head is our duty to our fellows. "What we owe to man is prescribed by the same divine law which teaches that whatever you render to man is rendered to God. But the root of justice and the entire foundation of equity is that you should not do that which you are unwilling to suffer, but should measure the feelings of another by your own." But Lactantius is not content with his negative rendering of the Golden Rixle. It is only the " first step of justice not to injure any one, the next is to be of service. ... As a field must first be cleansed by rooting out thorns, so vices must first be thrust out from our souls, and then at length virtues must be implanted, from which the fruits of immortality, being engendered by the Word of God, may spring up" (Ep. Div. InsUy 60). LACTANTIUS 229 A second time Lactantius insists that every human obligation has a reference to God as well as to man. " This very thing which you shall give to man is given to God, for man is the image of God." Did Lactantius recall the words of James in his epistle ? " This second office of justice is termed mercy or kindness. It is the greatest bond of human society. Men, having one origin, are brothers in soul. Therefore they are to be accounted as savage beasts who injure man : who in opposition to every, law and right of human nature plunder. . . . On account of this relation of brotherhood, God teaches us never to do evil but always good. We do not deserve to be helped unless we help." And Lactantius goes on to say that there are no precepts of the philosophers to this effect, and that they sought for some other explanation of the origin of human society (vi. 10). This principle of conduct enables him to answer differently the questions of casuistry proposed by Cicero. The seller of a runaway slave or defective house ought to tell the would-be purchaser, and not be crafty like the dumb animals. "Wisdom is man's prerogative ; and wisdom teaches us to abstain from hurting others, to avoid the pursuit of gain, and to correct the errors of men (v. 18). " This humanity is to be preserved, if we wish righdy to be called men. But what else is this preservation of humanity than loving a man, because he is a man and the same as ourselves ; even as Cicero said, a man while obedient to 230 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS nature cannot injure man." Having further criticized Cicero's application of this principle, Lactantius gives the noble rendering of the Christian's duty, "Give especially to him from whom you hope for nothing .... because he considers you a man" (vi. ii). These are the two heads of human duty as Lactantius understands them. The second is as necessary as the first. The knowledge of God will not atone for a life of injustice towards men (vi. 9). And man wiU also be consulting his own best interests in doing good to others, for he is doing it to God as well as man. "Whatever a man has bestowed upon another he really bestows upon himself, for he will receive a reward from God" (vi. 12). Further, the precepts of Christianity rest on surer ground than that of the philosophers. Without withdrawing the high praise which he has given to Cicero's " True law, right reason, agreeing with nature, diflfused among all, unchanging, everlasting, whose provisions must never be altered," he says that "The precepts of the philosophers have no weight because they are human, and are therefore without greater, that is divine, authority. There is no certainty, because they proceed from conjecture rather than knowledge. . . . Therefore it is foolish for a man to obey the precepts of the philosophers " (iii. 27). But God has revealed to us not only the force and purport of the divine law, but also its precepts. Laws are necessary because man has sinned. The LACTANTIUS 231 law of God alone would have been sufficient for perfect innocence. But men are wicked through ignorance, or, as Cicero says, " They disagree through depravity. They have renounced the authority of God, the common parent of all " (v. 8). But the law is most holy and certain, and men cannot fail to live justly and lawfully if they obey it (vi. 24). This law is also exceedingly broad. We cannot get beyond it, because "the merits of our Master and Parent to whom we render service are * endless.' But it is of great avail to our obtaining pardon if we retain the worship and knowledge of Him " {De Ira, 23). But there are also weak points in the treatment of law by Lactantius. (i) The law is represented as taking away sin. "All the error by which we have been ensnared may be taken away by it" {Ep. Div. Inst., 60). "Examine your own conscience, and as far as you are able heal your own wounds. Nor, however, because offences are removed by bounty think that a licence is given you for sinning. For they are done away with if you are bountiful to God, because you have sinned " (Div. Inst., vi. 13), love, or rather liberality, being regarded, not as a sign, but as an instrument of forgiveness. (2) We have further the quantitative estimate of sin which we have met with in previous writers. Speaking of the future judgment he says : " Not all men shall be judged by God then ... - they who have not known God are judged already, and the wicked shall not rise 232 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS in the judgment. Therefore they who have known God shall be judged, and their deeds, that is, their evil works, shall be compared and weighed against the good ones : so, if those that are good and just are more and weighty, -they may be given to a life of blessedness : but if the evil exceed, they may be condemned to punishment " (vii. 20 ; cf. also Frag. Mur. Ant. Ital.). (3) There are three grades of morality, and the lowest is sufficient. " He who ascends the first step, i.e. abstinence from evil works, is sufficiently just." The second step is into perfect virtue, i.e. abstinence from evil words. The third step is likeness to God or abstinence from evil thoughts. " But if the condition of morality does not suffer a man to be pure from every stain, the faults of the flesh ought to be done away with by continual bounty" (vi. 13). (4) Knowledge, obedience, worship, liberality, service, rather than love are the words by which he usually explains our duties to God and man ; and they can hardly be said even in conj unction to amount to Christ's own summing up of the commandments. (5) But the most serious deficiency and the one which possibly explains other defects is the absence of a clear grounding of duty in the fact of redemption. The universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of men, rather than the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, is made the incentive to duty and the power of God unto salvation. AMBROSE 233 Ambrose As Ambrose more than others has been supposed to be influenced by Stoicism in his treatment of Duty, we may point to a few considerations of an opposite kind. And first of all the foundation of duty is not found in Reason or Nature, but primarily in the revealed will of God. Not that he regarded Reason and Nature as irreligious. The will of God is expressed in what is reasonable and natural as well as in what is scriptural. But the revelation he prefers is the one which has come along the lines of history — that contained in the Old and New Testaments. So far as the Stoics taught what was rational and natural they did weU, but Ambrose felt he had a surer guide than Cicero. The will of a personal God was best revealed in Scripture. Though he alludes to the works of Cicero nearly a hundred and fifty times in the three books of the De Officii Minis- trorum, the design seems to be to compare them with Scripture, to correct them by Scripture, and to show the superiority of Scripture. He refers in the same work to the Old and New Testaments more than five hundred and fifty times. Above all, he delights to instruct by means of examples taken from sacred history. " How can we employ those things which we do not find in the Holy Scriptures ? " {De Off., i. 23, 102). " Let us eat the bread of wisdom and be filled with the word of God" (i. 31, 164). "These things have I left you, my children, that you should keep them in 234 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS your minds .... for almost all the examples of the elders and many of their words are contained in these three books .... that they may afford instruction in small compass " (iii. 28, 138). If, then, Nature and the Revealed Will of God sometimes appear as co-ordinate authorities (i. 28, 135, and elsewhere), there can be no doubt as to which should be preferred. More distinctly still the Christian view of duty makes its appearance in the various references to Christ. " He who denies himself is just and worthy of Christ. So also Paul made Christ the foundation that we may place on Him the works of justice " (i. 29, 142). "The Lord does not want us to give away all our goods at once" (i. 30, 149). "Let us look for our authority. . . . Christ became poor" (i. 30, 151). "And why need I make use of other examples when the Lord Himself promises in the Gospel a more plenteous reward to the merits of the saints?" (i. 31, 162). "Wisdom is the foundation and justice the edifice which cannot endure without foundation. The foundation is Christ " (i. 50, 251). "The law of the Lord teaches us never to deprive another for our own advantage " (iii. 3, 20). " Let us therefore in like manner live our life according to the example of Christ, let us avoid boasting, let us not court publicity " (iii. 5, 36). "A friend pours forth his soul, as the Lord Jesus poured forth the mysteries of His Father" (iii. 22, 135). In these and other places Ambrose makes the words and example of Jesus Christ the rule of life. Even in AMBROSE 235 the case of a doctrine such as the resurrection of the body, Ambrose likes to see how far Reason will carry him. He will not neglect or despise it. "The reason, I take it, is complete and just " ; but he remembers that there is a higher authority, and so he adds, " But I do not require a reason from Christ. If I am convinced by Reason I cast away Faith" {Dec. Sat., 89). "The carnal Jews had the shadow, the likeness is ours, the reality theirs who shall rise again .... but all is Christ's and all is in Christ .... Christ is not the shadow, but the likeness of God .... the reality " (ibid., 109). "Let us therefore refer all our words and deeds to Christ, who caused life to spring from death and created light out of darkness" {De Virg., iii. 5, 24). The reason for referring everything to Christ is found not only in the fact that He will recompense us (ii. 25, 126), and that He alone can give eternal life (ii. I, 13), but in the fact that He has redeemed us. "It is just to serve Christ who redeemed us" (ii. 6, 24). " When God first made man .... He had not given him remission of sins. But afterwards He who came in the form of a servant .... put on Himself the glory of the redemption of men " (i. 45, 230). The supreme motive for abstaining from injuring another is not the injury to the whole body, or to the nature of mankind or even to the Holy Church, so much as to Christ Himself. " Wilt thou despoil him whom Christ has put on ? . . . . the Lord who died for 236 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS all will sorrow that the price of His blood has been made void" (iii. 3-15, 19). Similarly in one of his letters we have this aspect of duty beautifully described. " He who forgives the meanest their oiFences pours water on the feet of Christ .... so, too, he who cleanses his conscience from the pollution of sin for Christ walks in the breast of each" (-E/>., 41. 11-13). In such passages as these we have something which gives to the teaching of Ambrose a quality quite different from the Stoic-Ciceronian. Coincidences of language must not lead us to forget this. Ewald has carefully drawn out these coincidences, but they do not amount to proof of direct borrowing or borrowing in the real sense in which the Stoics used the phrases. One of the most noticeable examples of these coinci- dences is the division of duties into ordinary and perfect, which is illustrated by the Stoic distinction between KaOrJKov and KaropOwfia. But in the first place, as Ewald allows, Ambrose does not seem to understand the Stoic distinction correctly, for he makes the enjoy- ment of a pleasant meal and the desiring of other persons' property to be "ordinary" duties, because they are common practices 1 (iii. 2, 10)^ ; and in the second place, when he does seem to understand the distinction, he accepts it on the authority of Scripture passages, such as the advice of Christ to the rich young man, and the command to be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect (i. 11, 36 and 37). It is indeed 1 P. 86. AMBROSE 237 seriously open to question whether the distinction between the "ordinary" and the "perfect" morality was due to the influence of Stoicism. It is such a natural accommodation to human weakness, that Stoicism has no exclusive right to it. There is quite enough in the New Testament to make it plausible to the natural man. We find it as early as the Didache. In fact, it is almost everywhere. But the explanation of KaTopOwfia — that that only is perfect which proceeds from the disposition, or from the true fount of virtue, is thought by Ewald to be " genuinely Stoic." '■ No doubt it is so in form. But is it not also distinctly Christian .-' The single eye, the right motive, the perfect intention, the pure heart, belonged to Christianity before it left its native soil and came into contact with Greek culture. Ambrose saw and noted the resemblance, but that does not seem a sufficient reason for supposing that he was greatly influenced by Stoicism. In one place Ambrose even removes what is objec- tionable in the thought of a double standard by identifying the "precepts" with the law and the " counsels " with grace. " Prseceptum in subditos fertur, consilium amicis datur. Ubi praeceptum est, ibi lex est : ubi consilium, ibi gratia est" {De Viduis, 12). So that the highest standard becomes one for all those who are under grace and the lower for those under law. Harnack speaks of the distinction, so understood, as 1 P. 82. 238 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS " an advantage," because " specifically Christian virtues appear in the form of consilia." ^ But Ambrose was not always so successful. We meet with the quantitative and external way of regard- ing sins. Sins must be weighed in the balances. Lighter sins may be removed by good works {Apol. Dav.y 6, 24). He speaks of our redeeming our sins, of " venenum," i.e. money being excluded by " venenum " {De El. et JeJ., 20, 76) ; of purchasing everlasting joys by a little weeping (De Viduis, 6, 35) ; of the sacrifice of virginity appeasing God {De Virg., i, 7).^ How far these blemishes are due to careless thinking it is not possible to say, but the germs of later Roman doctrine are here. Perhaps, when we think of his predecessors, TertuUian and Cyprian, it will appear remarkable that Ambrose has kept as clear as he has done from alien and non-evangelical elements. We can join in the wish expressed by Forster, that his own beautiful sentiment, " Mandata dei nisi quis diligat implere non poterit" {Ps., 119 ; Exp., 6. 5) had been continually present as an ethical principle in his writings. 1 V. 49. 2 See other references in Forster, p. 192. CHAPTER III VIRTUE Virtue is here used in the larger sense of the com- plete and perfect ideal of character. In the Christian scheme it is more closely connected with the Highest Good and the fixlfilment of Duty even than in the Stoic, and its meaning is radically changed. The " wise man " of the Stoics has to become a fool if he would be wise in the Christian sense. The Stoic ideal of self-sufficiency is the direct opposite of the Christian, and that which has been shown to be the weakness of Plutarch's conception of Virtue, the constant regard to what is due to oneself,^ instead of what is due to man- kind, and still more to the Redeemer of men, is characteristic of heathen ethics generally. They are fundamentally self-regarding and egoistic,^ The ideal presented by the Christian writers not only includes features unacknowledged or disowned by the philo- sophers, but is in its essence radically different.' On 1 Greard, p. 149. ^ Schmidt, p. 5. ^ For the New Testament idea of Virtue, see^Zockler, p. i ff. For the Greek usage, see Strong, Lect. ii., note i. 239 240 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS the other hand, it contains in a transfigured form all the excellences of the earlier systems. It has the Epicurean gaiety in the truer form of "joy" ; the Stoic independence in the " liberty " wherewith Christ makes His people free ; the elevation of Platonism without its contempt for the body ; the practicality of Aristotle without its limitations.^ Clement At the beginning of his epistle Clement gives us his idea of " a thoroughly virtuous and religious life." It professes to be taken from real life, and to describe the condition from which the Corinthian Christians had fallen. It is a beautiful description of the ideal Christian character, and, if the Corinthians had ever approximately realised the ideal, it is a wonderful tribute to the power of the new faith. The picture is in such strong contrast with the highest representations of heathen virtue that it deserves to be quoted in full. Its leading points are as follows : — sobriety and moderation, hospitality, well- grounded knowledge, impartiality, obedience to proper authority, humility, unselfishness in giving, contentment, an insatiable desire for doing good, confidence in the mercy of God, anxious and loving care for the brother- hood, sincerity, forgetfulness of injuries, peaceableness, doing the will of God from the heart (cc. i and 2). Most of these virtues appear again separately ; for 1 This is drawn out in an interesting way by Hyde, pp. 269- 276. CLEMENT 241 example — sobriety (c. 4), hospitality (cc. 10, 11, 12), impartiality (c. 50), diligence (c. 34), humility (c. 16), peaceableness (c. 19). "We have also short lists, as — faith, fear, peace, patience, long suffering, self-control, purity, and sobriety (c. 58). In opposition to boldness, arrogance, and audacity, which belong to those who are accursed of God, we find moderation, humility, and meekness, which belong to such as are blessed by God (c. 30) ; and, in the same chapter, concord, humility, self-control, avoiding whispering and evil speaking. Humility, affection, purity, meekness, impartiality, honour to the aged, and the fear of the Lord are the virtues of the Christian family (c. 21). There is also a list of contrary vices — unrighteousness, iniquity, covetousness, strife, evil practices, deceit, whispering, and evil speaking, hatred of God, pride and haughtiness, vain glory and ambition (or want of hospitality) (c. 35). After the manner of the Apostle John, the sin of Cain, envy, is regarded as the deadly sin (c. 3), and after the manner of the Apostle Paul love is regarded as the chief virtue. " How great and wonderful a thing is love, and there is no declaring its perfection " (c. 50). " The height to which it exalts is unspeakable. What man is able to teU the excellence of its beauty ? Love unites us to God. By love have all the elect of God been made perfect : without love nothing is weU- pleasing to God" (c. 49). This love is described in characteristically Christian fashion as free from partiality, admitting of no sedition, i6 242 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS humble, preferring others to self, free from all baseness and arrogance. "Such, as live in fear and love would rather that they themselves than their neighbours should be involved in suiFering" (c. 51). "We know many among ourselves who have given themselves up to bonds, in order that they might ransom others " (c. ^5). "Blessed are we, beloved, if we keep the com- mandments of God in the harmony of love ; that so through love our sins may be forgiven us " (c. 50). This new idea of the virtuous life is traced to its proper source, and based upon the facts of the Christian redemption. Virtue is the product of faith, not of self-effort or knowledge, as the philosophers held. " For whoever dwelt even for a short time among you, and did not find your faith to be as fruitful of virtue as it was firmly established " (c. i). It springs from the consciousness of redemption, " Struggling on the same arena .... let us look stedfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of redemption before the whole world" (c. y ; cf. c. 12). It is due to the mediation of our High-priest (c. 36 ; cf. 48 and 58). It finds its support in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (c. 27), and in the example of our Lord (c. 16; cf. 49) ; in the thought also that Christians are the " portion of the Holy One " (c. 30), that there is " one calling in Christ, and one spirit of grace poured out upon us " (c. 46). It is customary to find indications that Clement had HERMAS 243 not fully appropriated the Christian doctrine of grace in such statements as these ; " On account of her faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved " (c. 1 2). " That so through love our sins may be forgiven " (c. 50). It is for us here rather to admire the beautiful picture of Christian virtue, and to notice how clearly and repeatedly Clement connects it with the Christian facts. Hermas Hermas, as we have already seen, is pre-eminently the preacher of repentance and righteousness. He tends to regard everything from the point of view of law, and so even the virtues are too exclusively looked upon as duties. Nevertheless Hermas has something to say about Virtue. It is possible to see how the Christian ideal presented itself to him. He gives us three lists of virtues : — (i) Faith, self-restraint, simplicity, guilelessness, chastity, intelligence, and love (Vis. 3, 8). (2) Faith, Fear of the Lord, Love, Concord, Words of righteousness. Truth, and Patience (Mand. 8). (3) Faith, Continence, Power, Patience ; and standing in the midst of these. Simplicity, Innocence, Purity, Cheerfulness, Truth, Understanding, Harmony, Love (Simil. 9. 15). In looking over the lists we notice first how Faith heads each, and also how Love is the only other virtue common to all. Further, the only virtues in any list 244 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS which seem to have nothing corresponding to them in the others are — Power, Cheerfulness, and the Fear of the Lord. The identification of some of the others is not quite plain. In the first place, for example, we find Self-restraint, in the second Patience, in the third not only Patience, but Continence and Power, which may- have something in common with it. Again, in the first list we have Simplicity and Guilelessness, in the second Truth and Words of righteousness, and in the third Simplicity, Innocence and Truth. Again, in the first list we have Intelligence, with nothing to corre- spond in the second, unless it be included in Truth, or in the third list unless Understanding or Truth. Again, Chastity in the first and Purity in the third have nothing to correspond to them in the second list. And lastly. Concord in the second and Harmony in the third have nothing corresponding in the first. The classifications are no doubt not meant to be scientific, but the various lists may perhaps be fairly merged into some such shorter one as the following : — Faith, Love, Temperance, Patience, Purity, Truthfulness, Cheerful- ness, and the Fear of the Lord ; where Love covers Concord and Harmony ; Temperance Self-restraint and Continence ; and Truthfulness stands for the related ideas of Simplicity, Guilelessness, Innocence, Truth, Intelligence, and Words of righteousness. " Power " is the most difficult to define. It is prob- ably more than self-control. We notice the absence of Hope, but we have Cheerfulness ; and, considering HERMAS 245 the prominence of Cheerfulness elsewhere in Hermas and the fact that it is a power of life to him, possibly Hope may be allowed to stand for Power and Cheer- fulness. This would give us the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love, together with the Fear of the Lord ; and four virtues — Temperance, Patience, Purity, and Truthfulness, which suggest comparison with the famous heathen tetrad of Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, and Wisdom. We have a list of four, however, directly given, as forming the four guardians of the other virtues, in the third of the long lists. Faith, Continence, Power and Patience, which may be contrasted with the four cardinal virtues of the philosophers. But we see better the difference between the Christian and heathen ideals by looking at the full list. Faith, Hope and Love have nothing to correspond to them in the lists of the philosophers. Nor has the Fear of the Lord. Temperance, Patience, Purity, and Truth- fulness take the place of the four cardinal virtues, and have a richer meaning. Patience, Purity, and Truth- fulness have little to correspond to them ; and if Justice seems to have inadequate representation in the Christian scheme, we should remember that Love has preceded, and recall the long list of its works already quoted (Mand. 8).^ 1 The vices corresponding to the longer list of virtues are — Unbelief, Incontinence, Disobedience (as against Power), Deceit (as against Patience), Sorrow (as against Simplicity), Wickedness 246 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS The imperfect types of character represented by the willow-branches should be noted, e.g. : "They who gave in their branches green and cracked were always faithful and good, though envious of each other about the foremost places" (Simil. 8. 7). "Those who gave in their branches half-green and half-withered are those immersed in business, and do not cleave to the saints " (Simil. 8. 8). "Those who returned their branches two-thirds withered and one-third green are those that were faithful indeed ; but after acquiring wealth, and becoming distinguished among the heathen, they clothed themselves with great pride, and did not cleave to the righteous" (Simil. 8. 9). "And they who gave in their branches green, but having the tips withered and cracked, these were always good and faithful, distinguished before God : but they sinned a very (as against Innocence), Wantonness (as against Purity), Anger (as against Cheerfulness), Falsehood (as against Truth), Folly (as against Understanding), Backbiting (as against Harmony), Hatred (as against Love). Some of these are unexpected. Anger is not the same thing as gloominess, though closely related ; nor is sorrow quite the same as the want of simplicity, though it is connected with doubt, which is our author's view of double- mindedness. Deceit as the opposite of Patience, and Disobedi- ence of Power, are noteworthy. For the connection of deceit and patience we may compare (Simil. 6. 4) : " The time of luxury and deceit is one hour, but the hour of torment is equivalent to thirty days ; and also (Simil. 6. 5) : " For luxury and deceit have no memories." For the connection of obedience and power (Mand. 7): "If you keep the commands of God you will be powerful in every action." JUSTIN 247 little through indulging smaU desires and finding little faults with one another " (Simil. 8. 10). These pictures of men who came short of the virtuous ideal in some one or more points help to complete the impression made by the list of virtues. The example of Jesus Christ does not play a leading part in Hermas. As Dobschtttz has pointed out, it is rather the apostolic life that is the pattern.^ Never- theless we should remember that it is through the Lord abiding in the heart that a man is able to keep the commandments (Mand. 12. 4). And in this last statement have we not also some compensation for the defect Wernle points out, viz., the want of connection between the virtues in Hermas ? ^ Their organic con- nection is not shown, as it was to be by Augustine, by bringing them all into definite relation to the supreme virtue of love. But the indwelling of Christ in the heart is the origin of all, and so also their point of connection. Justin Justin's doctrine of Virtue recalls the Stoic phraseology at more points than one, but he connects it definitely with his doctrine of God. " God is the Father of Righteousness and Temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity" (i Jpol., 6). "He accepts those who imitate the excellences that reside in Him, Temperance and Justice and Philanthropy, 1 P. 323. ^ II. 120. 248 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS and as many virtues as are peculiar to a God who is called by no proper name" (i Apol., lo). "All men are capable of virtue and of vice, because all are free to choose" (i Apol.^ 42). In their doctrine of morals the Stoic philosophers agree to this : but it is incon- sistent with their idea of God (2 Apol.^ 7). " Eternal fire is inflicted on those who do not live temperately and conformably to right reason " (2 Apol.^ 2). " A wise sober-mindedness and a pure and passionless life " drive back the assault of demons (2 ApoL, i). Once he speaks of " the virtuous and . those who live like Christ " (2 ApoL, i) ; but it is the latter part of the clause which determines the meaning of the former. Jesus Christ is to Justin " the blameless and in all things irreproachable Christ Jesus" {Trypho, 35). The following of God is through His Son, who taught us to love and pray for our enemies (i ApoL, 14). If there are reminiscences of Stoic teaching in parts of the above quotations, Justin will not disown them on that account, for " so far as their moral teachings went they were admirable on account of the seed of reason implanted within them " (2 ApoL, 8). But they do not go far enough for the Christian philosopher. " Our doctrines then appear to be greater than all human teaching, because Christ, who appeared for our sake, became the whole rational being, both body and reason and soul .... since they did not know the whole of the Word, which is Christ, they often contradicted themselves. . . . He is the power of IREN^US 249 the ineffable Father, and not the mere instrument of human reason" (2 Apol., 10). The Son, as the only One who lived perfectly the life according to Nature, must be united to that which had received corruption, before man could become virtuous (Frag, from Leontius). The fact of redemption through Christ, of which Justin so often speaks, and, in particular, redemption through His blood, gives quite a different meaning to Virtue from that which it had for Plato or the Stoics. Tatian One remark of Tatian's may suffice. God is the alone good, and the perfect goodness at which man hopes to arrive must come through freedom of choice (c. 7). Iren<£us In opposition to the Gnostics, Irenaeus is very insistent on the fact that virtue is a matter of wiU and not of nature or temperament or necessity. " If some had been made by nature bad and others good, these latter would not have been deserving of praise for being good .... nor would the former be repre- hensible " (iv. 37. 2). "Not only in works, but also in faith, God has preserved the will of man free " (iv. 37. 5). The sonship of God according to creation is one thing, but the sonship of obedience and doctrine another. So sonship with the devil is not a matter 250 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS of nature, but of imitation (vi. 41. i and 2), "The quality of the wild olive, but not the nature, is changed by grafting ; man without the Spirit is not capable of bringing forth fruit " (v. 10). " It renders us like to Christ if we experience the power of His resur- rection and the fellowship of His suffering. For truly the first thing is to deny oneself, and to follow Christ ; and those who do this are borne on to per- fection, having fulfilled all their teacher's wiU, becom- ing sons of God by spiritual regeneration" (v. 36). "Christ alone is able to teach us and to redeem us .... and in no other way could we have learned the things of God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had become man. . . . We could have learned in no other way than by seeing our Teacher, and hearing His voice with our ears that, "having become imitators of His works as well as doers of His words, we may have communion with Him, receiving increase from the Perfect One" (v. i. i). Through arrangements in which the Father, Son, and Spirit co-operate, " man makes progress day by day, i.e. approximates to the Uncreated One, and having recovered from the disease of sin is glorified, and at length sees his God, and becomes immortal" (iv. 38. 3). That immortality must be ethically conceived, for " love is the life of man " (ii. 26. i). " Faith, hope and love endure, for faith, which has respect to our Master, endures unchangeably, assuring us that there is but one true God, and that we should truly TERTULLIAN 251 love Him forever, seeing that He alone is our Father, while we hope to be receiving ever more and more from Him, because He is good and possesses boundless riches, a kingdom without end and instruction that can never be exhausted " (ii. 28. 3). Not only ought the Christian to love more than others, but to have more reverence (iv. 16. 5), inward purity of desire (ibid^, and gratitude (iv. 20. 2). Following the guidance of passages like these, we should say that the ideal character is one in which faith, hope, love, reverence, and gratitude predominate : that it is produced by the co-operation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but through the free choice of man : that it is progressively attained and illimitable : that, as they pertain to the quality rather than the nature of man, the changes from glory to glory do not inter- fere with individuality or personality. Further, in reference to Christ, He is not only the ideal of Virtue, but a living Teacher, whom we are to behold, imitate, and obey. There must, moreover, be communion with Him and fellowship in His life and experience before the ideal can be gained. All rests on the Incarnation and Redemption. TertuUian Tertullian, in considering the possibility of Virtue, allows to man as fallen something divine upon which grace may operate. He does not assert the total depravity of human nature : and Ueberweg's assertion, 252 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS " Like human thought, so also the human will is viewed by TertuUian as entirely corrupt," ^ is true in neither of its parts. " Still there is a portion of good in the soul, of that original, divine, and genuine good which is its proper nature. For that which is derived from God is rather obscured than extinguished .... even in the worst there is some good, and in the best there is something bad " (jDe An., 41). Sin attaches itself to the will, and the sinning will is amenable to penalty as the first in guilt. " If any sins are imputed to chance, or to necessity, or to ignorance, let them look to themselves " {De Poen, 3). Cleansing is therefore necessary, and this " washing away of the sins of our early blindness " and " setting free into eternal life " is accomplished in the sacrament of baptism, "for all waters in virtue of the pristine privilege of their origin, do, after invocation of God, attain the sacramental power of sanctification " (Z)e Bapt., I and 4). But the sanctification is not to be regarded as complete without faith, as we see from one of the few passages in which Tertullian speaks of the works of " Grace." " Stones also will become children of Abraham, if educated in Abraham's faith ; .... this will be the power of the grace of God, more potent indeed than nature, exercising its sway over the faculty that underlies itself within us — even the freedom of our will" {De An., 21). Tertullian does not attempt to harmonise those two methods of » I. 304. TERTULLIAN 253 regeneration. The sanctification through the waters of baptism stands side by side with the change produced by the grace of God through faith. But then he does not seem to have any proper appreciation of the gospel significance of Grace. He can even contrast the virgin who maintains her virginity through " Grace," with the widow who is prevented by "virtue" from marrying again. Always to keep to the good is a sign of grace, but to find the good for oneself when it has been lost is " virtue " (De Uxor., ii. 8). Only Christ is sinless (De An., 41). Only Christians are without crime {Apol., 45). " Taught of God Him- self what goodness is, we have both perfect knowledge of it, as revealed to us by a perfect Master : and faithfully we do His will, as enjoined on us by a Judge we dare not despise." On the contrary — " Your ideas of virtue you have got from mere human opinion ; and on human authority too its obligation rests : hence your system of practical morality is deficient, both in the fulness and the authority requisite to produce a life of real virtue" {Apol., 45). And again, speaking of heathen virtue he says : " For if any modesty can be believed (to exist) in Gentiles, it is plain that it must be imperfect and undisciplined to such a degree, although it be actively tenacious of itself in the mind up to a certain point, yet allows itself to relax its licentious extravagance of attire ; just in accordance with Gentile perversity in craving after that, of which it carefully shuns the effect " (D^ Hab., ii. i). 254 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS TertuUian's ideal of virtue may be almost sufficiently inferred from the titles of his books. Patience is the mother of all virtues, and every sin is due to im- patience. "The good of it, even those who are strangers to it, honour with the name of highest virtue" (De Pat., i). It is both subsequent and ante- cedent to faith (JDe Pat., 6). " It is the teacher and trainer of charity" {De Pat., 12). It is the foundation of all. " Faith which Christ's patience introduced, hope which man's patience waits for, charity which with God as Master patience accompanies " {ibid.). The principal crime of the human race is idolatry {De Idol., i). The three chief sins are arbitrarily derived from the apostolic decree, but they illustrate TertuUian's idea of virtue and vice as well as his peculiar exegesis. They are idolatry, fornication (adultery), homicide {De Pudic, 12). In connection with another fanciful piece of exegesis, the seven dippings of Naaman, we have the seven deadly sins of idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, fornication, false witness, and fraud {Adv. Marc, iv. 9).^ To complete his ideal character, other points should be added, e.g. love of the brethren {ApoL, 39), love of enemies {Ad Scap., i), spontaneity {Ad Scap., 2), respect to the lowly {ApoL, 39), calmness {De Spec, 15 ; De Or., 12 ; and compare the remarkable phrase, "zeal of equanimity," Z)(? Pat., 11), and joy {De Or., 12). 1 Other lists are found in De Fat., 5, De Pudic, 7 ; and see Zockler, p. 69. CYPRIAN 255 Comeliness of the body is not to be censured {De Hab.y ii. 2). The Christian is chaste as contrasted with Democritus, modest as contrasted with Diogenes, sober in desire as against Pythagoras, retains his equanimity unlike Lycurgus, trustworthy as con- trasted with Anaxagoras, sincere as contrasted with Aristotle, frugal as opposed to Aristippus. " So, then, where is there any likeness between the Christian and the philosopher ? " {ApoL, 46). In another place he speaks of the different character- istics of the various schools of philosophy, according as they received their impressions from the dignity of Plato, the vigour of Zeno, or the equanimity of Aristotle, or the stupidity of Epicurus, or the sadness of Heraclitus, or the madness of Empedocles " {De An., 3). The Christian type of character could not be represented by any of those. If any single quality could have been taken as sufficiently describing it, no doubt that quality would have been the virtue which he felt most lacking in himself, and yet which he most admired — the virtue of patience. Cyprian The word " virtue " is of frequent occurrence in Cyprian's writings, and we are left in no doubt as to the meaning it had for him. It generally occurs in conjunction either with faith or discipline, and even if each of these words should be absent, the idea is generally found in the context — 256 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS e.g. : " What is glorious to you .... ought to afford to me also an example of faith and virtue " {Ep., 3. i). " Standing fast in faith and virtue" (Ep. 5. i.) The martyrs afforded an example of virtue and faith con- tending in strife, until the strife yielded, being over- come " (Ep., 8). " You who have maintained the gospel discipline with the simple vigour of your faith, who in the glory of your virtue uncorrupted have stood bravely by your Lord's commands" (Ep., 15. 4). "Discipline .... the bond of faith .... the teacher of virtue causes us always to abide in Christ " (De Hab.y i). " Whose hope and faith and virtue are in Christ " (Z)^ Laps., 20). " That we must press on and persevere in faith and virtue " {Ex. Ad Mart., 8). " If persecution should fall upon such a soldier of God, his virtue, prompt for battle, will not be able to be overcome. Or if his call should come to him before, his faith shall not be without reward" (ibid., 13). "Thence {i.e. by faith) is given power with modest chastity, with a sound mind, with simple voice, with unblemished virtue that is able to quench the virus of poisons " {Ad Bon., 5). " Do you, however, whom the heavenly warfare has enlisted in the spiritual camp, only observe a discipline uncorrupted and chastened in the virtues of religion" {jbid., 15). This constant connection of virtue with faith and discipline shows at once the strength and weakness of Cyprian's position. It is characteristically Christian in the emphasis laid upon faith. " That now we sin not CYPRIAN 257 is the beginning of the work of faith, whereas that we sinned before was the result of human error. All our power is of God " {Ad Don., 4). " The Spirit flowing forth is restrained by no limits .... in the degree in which we bring to it a capacious faith, in that measure we draw from it an overflowing grace " {ibid., 5). But there is also the un-Christian (shall we call it Stoical, or heathen, or natural T) substitution of " discipline " for " love." Discipline rather than love is the bond of perfectness. By discipline rather than love we abide in Christ. A breach of " Church " discipline is necessarily a breach of love ; whereas love, to the point of martyr- dom, outside the " Church " is valueless. We may also add, " The foundation of hope and faith is fear " {Test., iii. 20). "The whole foundation of religion and of faith proceeds from obedience and fear " {De Hah., 2). This substitution of " discipline " for " love " bore evil fruit in two directions : — («) The ideal of virtue tended to be ascetic. Vir- ginity is better than marriage, second only to martyr- dom. " The first fruit for the martyrs is a hundred- fold, the second is yours sixtyfold" {De Hab., 19). " Only the things which belong to virtue and the Spirit remain in virgins. Virginity bears the image (of the heavenly), integrity bears it, holiness bears it and truth. Disciplines which are mindful of God bear it, retaining righteousness with religion, stedfast in faith, humble in fear, brave in all suffering, meek to 17 258 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS sustain wrong, easy to show mercy, of one mind, of one heart in fraternal peace. . . . Endure bravely, go on spiritually, attain happily. Only remember us at that time when virginity shall begin to be rewarded in you " (ibid., 23). {b) The ideal tends to be ecclesiastical rather than human, though this was fortunately in part counter- acted by insisting on the ideal of Jesus Christ Him- self. The " Church " became the minister of disci- pline rather than of love. There could indeed be no discipline, and, we may add, no love and no virtue outside the "Church." Minucius Minucius uses the word "Virtue" several times. " We are all born equal, we are distinguished by virtue alone" (37. 10; cf. 6. 3, 21. i, 36. 8). Tranquillity, hope, temperance, fortitude, patience, and the despising of wealth are regarded as Christian characteristics (c, 36). So also modesty. "We, therefore, who value morals and modesty, abstain from your wicked pleasures" (c, 38). Liberty also comes in for special praise, a liberty which wiU not yield to kings and princes, but only to God (c. 37). But the chief mark of the Christian is love. " We love one another .... we call each other brother, or being children of one father God, companions in faith, co-heirs in hope" (c. 31)- The moral ideal is one with the religious. "The COMMODIANUS 259 sacrifice well-pleasing to God is a good spirit, a pure mind, a sincere conscience. He, then, who cherishes innocence prays to the Lord ; he who follows after justice offers a libation to God ; he who abstains from deceits propitiates God : he who saves a man from danger offers the best victim .... with us, he is most religious who is most just " (c. 32). Commodianus The influence of the ideal is noticed by Commodianus. " Ye too will be what ye wish for and pray to as gods and goddesses " (c. 7). So Christians should take Christ as their model : " Now, therefore, take the likeness of your Lord. Raise upward your wild and roughened hearts " (c. 33). " Be such as Christ wishes you to be, gentle, and in Him joyful" (c. 58). "Make your- selves like to Christ your Master .... ye are flowers in the congregation ; ye are Christ's lanterns " (c. 67). Virtue is used in the sense of valour, "With all thy virtue thou must obey the king's command. . . . Be unwiUing to flatter thyself, absolutely put away sloth .... when thou seest war, take the nearest contest " (c. si)- As with Cyprian, the idea of discipline is prominent, and so that of virtue as submission to authority. " Thou rejectest, unhappy one, the advantage of heavenly dis- cipline, and rushest into death, while wishing to stray without a bridle " (c. 26). But the warfare is for Christ. " Do thou brave all things for Christ ; and, 26o EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS since thou hast known God, be a recruit good and approved" (c. 46). The Christian should engage in the " daily war against lust, wine, luxury, evil speaking, anger, contempt of inferiors, jealousy, roughness . . . . for not without labour can one raise a martyrdom to Christ " (c. S'^). The Christian should also " fight on behalf of others .... be pitiful .... give food even to the enemy .... give a dinner to a poor man on the Lord's day" (c. 61). The valour of the soldier or martyr is constantly in the thoughts of Commodianus, but he sees that the arena of daily life is the best. " Overcome the evil one with thy good acts by living well .... even now, if thou hast conquered by good deeds, thou art a martyr in Him. Thou, therefore, who seekest to extol martyrdom with thy word, in peace clothe thyself with good deeds, and be sincere " (c. 62). " Many are the martyrdoms made without shedding of blood. Not to desire other men's goods ; to wish to have the benefit of martyrdom ; to bridle the tongue thou oughtest to make thyself humble ; not willingly to use force ; thou wilt be a patient mind ; understand that thou art a martyr " (c. 48). Double-mindedness or want of entire consecration (c. 24), pride (c. ^6), indulgence in worldly pleasure, such as the circus (c. 57) ; injustice as shown in taking bribes (c. 30), extortion as in taking twenty-four per cent. (c. 6^), hypocrisy (" denounce the righteous obedi- ence of wicked men ") (c. 68), and hatred (c. 47), are amongst the vices singled out for special condemnation. VICTORINUS OF PETAU 261 Giving is urged, both into the Lord's treasury (c. 58 and 72) and to the poor. " Even as the elm loves the vine (possibly a reminiscence of Hermas), so love ye people of no account" (c. 30). "Be responsible for one poor man " (c. 72). " Rather give assistance to the lowest pauper and ye both shall be refreshed " (c. 77). " Look after a poor man who cannot feed thee again " (c. 79)- The motives given for the exercise of charity may not always be the highest — e.g. extinguishing Gehenna for oneself, or so as not to be thought proud. Com- modianus, like some other Church writers, looked upon almsgiving as a spiritual discipline rather than as a spontaneous act of love. But he untiringly enforces it. His ideal of virtue is intensely positive and practical : " O thou who art about to die, show thyself good to all " (c. 30). " Let it be a sin to thee to cease from unmeasured doing" (c. 52). Victorinus of Petau Victorinus has two or three passages bearing on Virtue. Virginity is the ideal, but associated with the keeping of the ten commandments. The decalogue is ten, the crown of virginity is a hundred. These multiplied together give the millennial number. " Who- ever perfectly fulfils the precepts of the decalogue, and destroys the untrained nature or impure thoughts within him, is the true priest of God, and accomplish- ing the millennial number reigns with Christ .... 262 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS the perfect saints are those in whom there is the glory of virginity in body and mind " (On Apoc..^ xx. 6). As opposed to Justin, Commodianus, and others, he rejects the idea of an earthly reign of a thousand years as Cerinthian. " For the kingdom of Christ is now eternal in the saints, although the glory of the saints shall be manifested after the resurrection " (On Apoc, xxi. and xxii.). He describes the four cardinal virtues, prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance — as the four sides of the City of God. The twelve gates are the twelve apostles, " who, shining in the four virtues as precious stones, manifesting the light of their doctrine among the saints, cause it to enter the celestial city." The squareness of the city " shows forth the united multitude of the saints, in whom faith could by no means waver." " The streets set forth their hearts, purified from all uncleanness, transparent with glowing light, that the Lord may justly walk up and down in them " {Apoc, xxi. and xxii.). Very unexpectedly we find this Platonic theologian commending the unlettered believer. "This class is the mode of life of the best election. The habit of the saints is set forth : of those, to wit, who are lowly in the world and unskilled in the Scriptures, and who hold the faith immovably, and are not at all broken down by chance, or withdrawn from the faith by any fear " {Apoc, iii. 2). But he has a horror of heresy {Apoc, XX. 6), and he knows that rich men discuss the Scriptures without understanding them {Apoc, iii. 12). ARNOBIUS 263 Amobius Arnobius does not express himself fully or very satisfactorily on the subject of Virtue, As we saw in considering his treatment of the highest good, the idea of immortality is conceived too exclusively as future existence, and the eternal life of the Gospel has not full justice done to it. It is not otherwise with Virtue. If the soul perishes with the body, it is not worth while, Arnobius thinks, to be virtuous. There would be "no reason for virtue, but it would be a great mistake and stupid blindness to curb innate desires, to restrict your mode of life within narrow bounds, not yield to your inclinations and do what passions demand, since no reward awaits you for so great a toil " (ii. 30). On the other hand, Arnobius is very clear in his defence of the Christian type of virtue. The vindica- tion of the Christian assemblies is that in them " prayer is made to the Supreme God, peace and pardon are asked for all in authority, for soldiers, kings, friends, enemies, for those still in life, and those free from the bondage of the flesh : in which all that is said is such as to make men humane, gentle, modest, virtuous, chaste, generous in dealing with their substance, and inseparably united to all embraced in our brotherhood " (iv- 36)- Further, Arnobius is satisfactory in stating the natural inability of man to attain to virtue. " You rest the 264 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS salvation of your souls on yourselves, and are assured that by your own exertions alone you become gods, but we, on the contrary, hold out no hope to ourselves from our own weakness, for we see that our nature has no strength, and is overcome by its own passions in every strife" (ii. 33). Lactantius Unlike Arnobius, Lactantius has much to say about Virtue, and the difficulty here is to condense his very copious remarks into a few short paragraphs. It will be remembered how, and on what grounds, Lactantius considered Immortality to be the chief good, and assigned a subordinate place to Virtue. " It cannot be denied that virtue is a good, and undoubtedly a good for all men .... but it is not the chief good .... though nothing is more beautiful than Virtue " (iii. 11). "The whole force of virtue consists in enduring evils," with a view to self-preservation, i.e. immortality (iii. 12). Lactantius shows that even Seneca and the Stoics did not remain faithful to the principle of virtue for virtue's sake, inasmuch as a happy life, present if not future, was connected with it. In opposition to Lucilius, he maintains that virtue does not consist in the knowledge of anything external, nor in assigning true value to riches, nor in seeking anything which is subject to uncertain chances (vi. 6). Virtue is not possible without pain. " Pain inflicted upon the body is the material of virtue, but the fruit LACTANTIUS 265 of virtue is immortality. That is its proper reward, and not the praise of men. Because they took away religion the philosophers saw only a 'certain shadow of virtue'" (iii. 27 and 28, v. 12 and 19). He distinguishes between the virtues which relate to this short life and those which relate to the heavenly life. " For to be frugal, or constant, or cautious, or calm, or grave, or severe, are virtues indeed, but virtues that relate to this short life. But we, who despise this life, have other virtues set before us respecting which philosophers could not by any means conjecture. Therefore they regard certain virtues as vices, and^ certain vices as virtues. For the Stoics take away from man all the affections, by the impulse of which the soul is moved — desire, joy, fear, sorrow, the two former of which arise from good things present and future, and the latter from evil things .... and because they think they can strive against the force and system of nature " (vi. 14). This opposition to the Stoic teaching on the affec- tions is strongly stated in other places. " Therefore I can only call mad those who deprive man, a mild and sociable animal, of his name, who, having uprooted the aifections in which humanity altogether consists, wish to bring him into an immovable insensibility of mind, while they desire to free the soul from perturbations .... as water which is always still and motionless is unwholesome and more muddy, so the soul which is unmoved and torpid is useless even to itself ; nor will 266 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS it be able to maintain life itself ; for it will neither do nor think anything, since thought itself is nothing less than agitation of mind " (vi. 1 7). So again : " But the skilful men do not understand that, when they take away vices from men, they also take away virtue .... where therefore there are no vices, there is no place even for virtue, as there is no place for victory where there is no adversary. And so it comes to pass, that there cah be no good in this life without evil. An affection is therefore a kind of fruitfulness of the natural powers of the mind. . . . Further, by substi- tuting inclination for desire, gladness for joy, caution for fear, the philosophers simply change the names of the affections, and regulate them. They do not take them away, for desire is perpetual inclination, and joy is immoderate gladness, and fear is caution in excess, and it is specially against nature to take away the affection of grief " (vi. 1 5). Lactantius opposes also the Peripatetic doctrine of Virtue. " The Peripatetics are wrong, who allow that the affections are vices to be regulated. They are born with us and are not necessarily evil ; but if we make a bad use of the affections they become vices, if we use them well they become virtues " (vi. 16). He shows also that the merely arithmetical way of treating the virtues is defective. To rejoice in the smallest degree may be vicious, while to be in transports need not be faulty. It depends upon the cause of the emotion. Wisdom consists in the regulation of the LACTANTIUS 267 causes (vi. 1 6). Fear, e.g., " Is not to be uprooted as the Stoics maintain, nor to be restrained as the Peripatetics wish, but to be directed in the right way. . . . The chariot of life, which is led by the affections as by swift horses, if it keep the right way, will dis- charge its duty" (vi. 17). He quotes Cicero's acknowledgment that the phil- osophers were not possessed of the real and life-like figure of true iaw and genuine justice, but only of delineations and sketches, and that there was not a really wise man to be found, but only those who through constant practice of the middle duties bore a certain likeness to the wise, and concludes : " If, there- fore, wisdom is taken away from the philosophers by their own confession, and justice is taken away from those who are just, It follows that all those descriptions of virtue must be false because no one can know what true virtue is but he who is just and wise. But no one is just and wise but he whom God has instructed with heavenly precepts " (vi. 6). " The knowledge of God Is the head, and aU the virtues are the body" (vi. 9)- This connection of religion and morality is constant in Lactantlus. He both explicldy assigns virtue to God, and makes virtue impossible without the know- ledge of God. Indeed, the later dictum, that the virtues of the heathen are splendid vices, is already found in substance in Lactantius. " For assuredly he sees, who has beheld with the eyes of his mind the 268 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS truth in which God is ; he hears, who imprints on his heart the divine words and life-giving precepts ; he speaks, who in discussing heavenly things relates the virtue and majesty of the surpassing God. Therefore he is undoubtedly impious who does not acknowledge God ; and all his virtues, which he thinks he has or possesses, are found in that deadly road, which belongs altogether to darkness " (vi. ^ ; cf. vi. 1 7). Lactantius contrasts the philosophical teachings on the Two Ways with his own. "They say that the Two Ways refer to frugality and luxury, the things of this life, we to heaven and hell. . . . They place on one side a teacher of good art ; we on one side God, and on the other the devil. They say only boys and young men enter, we say those of every age and sex and race may enter, upon this heavenly path, because God, who is the guide of that way, denies immortality to no human being." Moreover, the letter Y, which for them is the symbol of the two ways, does not describe the Christian idea. Virtue and Vice do not slant off from a common stem. They are as opposite as East and West (vi. 3). The list of virtues and vices belonging to the Two Ways is as follows : — Justice, Temperance, Patience, Faith, Chastity, Self- restraint, Concord, Knowledge, Truth, Wisdom, and other virtues, with which are associated the outward conditions of poverty, ignominy, labour, pain, and all kinds of hardships. Injustice, Cruelty, Pride, Perfidy, Lust, Avarice, LACTANTIUS 269 Discord, Ignorance, Falsehood, Folly, and other vices, with which are associated wealth, repose, pleasure, and honour (vi. 4). It is interesting to notice that the contrary of Temperance is Cruelty ; of Patience, Pride ; and of Self-restraint, Avarice. Otherwise the two lists present the natural opposites. The same chapter contains a shorter list of vices : Avarice, Anger, Lusts, Envy, Ambition, Superstition, Philosophy. A still shorter list meets us twice : Anger, Desire, and Lust (vi. 9 and vi. 19). Con- cerning anger he makes the curious remark that it is right to be angry with children, but not with persons of one's own age. Anger in its applicability to God is discussed in a separate treatise. We have already seen, in treating of the Highest Good, the unique place given to Justice. Patience, including forgetfulness of injuries, occupies almost as exalted a position. " And this restraining of oneself is rightly named patience, which single virtue is opposed to all vices and affections." It was commended by Cicero, who praises Caesar for forgetting nothing but injuries, but not consistently. "But if he thus acted — a man most widely removed not only from heavenly but also from public and civil justice — how much more ought we candidates for immortality ! " (vi. 18). The ideal virtuous life is thus described : " I should call him sound, who covets nothing at all, envies no 270 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS one, who is lowly, merciful, bountiful, mild, courteous, peace dwelling perpetually in his mind " (vi. 24). Ambrose As Ambrose in several places seems to identify Virtue with the Highest Good, it has already been necessary briefly to examine his idea of Virtue. Some- thing further must now be added from the ample information he has given us. We previously saw how firmly Ambrose had laid hold of the idea of the religious character of Virtue. Though he speaks of it so frequently in connection with Nature and Reason, it is only the man, who builds upon the one foundation Jesus Christ (i. 29. 139), and who is "rooted and grounded in grace" (i. 36. 185), who can attain to it. The examples of Virtue, though they are shown to be in harmony with nature, are drawn from Scripture, and Jesus Christ is made the supreme example as weU as authority for the Christian, In one passage already quoted the blessed state of virtue is represented "a peccato alienum, plenum innocentiae, repletum gratiae Dei " (ii. 3-8). Virtue is then not so much a human attainment as a divine endowment or gift. It is not the result of nature, though it is in harmony with nature. Ambrose can in deference to Stoical ideas speak freely and fre- quently of the life according to nature, just because he knows that the life according to nature is recognised in the New Testament, and Stoicism is no longer a serious AMBROSE 271 rival of Christianity. In his treatment of virtue and the virtues he chooses to follow Stoic phraseology and models, for the Porch had done much to popularize ethical terminology. "We may make this fourfold division," he says, in reference to the well-known tetrad of virtues, " Communis opinionis gratia," and so, while withdrawing from the subtle disputations of the phil- osophers, can follow "forensem usum ac popularem sensum " (ii. 9. 48). Starting, then, with the four virtues as firmly fixed in popular and philosophical usage, Ambrose proceeds to give them a Christian meaning. I. Prudence Prudence is exercised in the search for truth, and imparts a desire for full knowledge. Ambrose at once separates himself from the philosophers, and puts himself in line with Lactantius and others by saying, " No one is prudent who is ignorant of God." " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom." Even heretics, like Arius and Marcion and Eunomius, as they erred in their knowledge of God, had not this first virtue (i. 25. 117). "Our leading men have said that prudence consists in the knowledge of the truth " (i. 25. 118). In this investigation of truth we must observe what is seemly and not be so foolish as to discuss subjects like astronomy and geometry, and neglect the grounds of salvation (i. 26. 122). Reason is man's prerogative, and he should seek out the origin 272 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS of things, and especially should he search out the author of his being (i. 26. 124). Few excel in this pursuit, as it requires much labour to attain the blessed and virtuous life, and show it in our actions. For Ambrose will not allow us to forget the practical side of wisdom. " Nam studia scientiae sine factis, haud scio an etiam involvant magis " (i. 26. 125). This prudence or wisdom is nourished by the Bible. " Scriptura divina convivium sepientiae est : singuli libri singula sunt fercula" (i. 32. 165). In a rather later portion of the De Officiis Minis- trorum, where Ambrose is referring more particularly to the duties of the clergy, we find the four cardinal virtues mentioned again. There it is said of wisdom, that it is required to see the deep things of God (i. 50. 260). " These chief virtues," he continues, " they that are without have recognised, but they considered that the order resting on society was higher than that resting on wisdom : though wisdom is the foundation, and justice the building which cannot stand unless it have a foundation. The foundation is Christ."^ In this way Ambrose connects the first virtue, prudence or wisdom, and with it the whole group, with Christ as the foundation. And he adds faith as a sign of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. " The law of the Lord is to love Him with all the heart and our neighbours as ourselves. It is also ever most 1 Romestin's trans. Caillan omits this and the following passages. AMBROSE 273 seemly that thou shouldest give to God the most precious thing thou hast, i.e. thy mind. . . . When thou hast paid thy debt to thy Creator, thou mayest labour for men " (i. 50. 262). This may seem a somewhat crude way of showing what the first cardinal virtue, when interpreted in a Christian way, is, but the purpose is obvious. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that fear involves the keeping of the commandments of love to God and man. Faith is a sign of wisdom. We have here the elements of Christian morality present, though not arranged in an orderly way. Love, which is the fulfilling of the law, is traced back through the fear of the Lord to wisdom, and faith is regarded as a sign of that wisdom. IL Justice The religious character of Virtue is still maintained in the treatment of the second cardinal virtue. Justice. " Fundamentum ergo est justitiae fides ; justorum enim corda meditantur fidem " (i. 29. 142). "The piety of justice is first shown towards God, secondly towards one's country, thirdly towards parents, then towards all" (i. 27. 127). The fear of the Lord is the be- ginning of justice as well as of wisdom. "Hence springs love, which prefers others to itself, not seeking the things which are its own, and in this lies the glory of justice " {ibid.). Justice, on its manward side, is the virtue which 18 274 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS holds society together, and consists of two parts — justice in the narrower sense, and goodwill or liberality, "justitia mihi excelsior videtur, liberalitas gratior : ilia censuram tenet, ista bonitatem " (i. 28. 130). In this connection Ambrose shows the difFerence between the philosophical and Christian ideas. The philosophers say " that the first form of justice is not to hurt anyone, unless incited by injury received, a thing which the Gospel disallows, for Scripture wishes that the spirit of the Son of man should be in us, who came to confer grace, not inflict injury" (i. 28. 131). They also say that it is in accordance with justice to regard public things as public and private as private, but Christians are taught by Scripture and nature to allow all to share their advantages (i. 28. 132-4). The great enemies of this virtue are greed and the love of power (ibid., 136-8). "The Church is as it were the form of justice. She is the common right of all" (i. 29. 142). With regard to kindness, goodwill or liberality, which is the second aspect of justice, Ambrose has several things to say, e.g. it should be in good faith (i. 30. 146) ; it should be without boasting, for "afFectus tuus nomen imponit operi tuo" (ibid., 147) ; it should not neglect near relations (ibid., 150). Good- will is the light of the world. Its removal would be like the withdrawal of the sun (i. 32. 167). "It begins at home with children, parents, brothers, and goes on from step to step throughout the world" AMBROSE 275 (i. 32. 159). "Augetur benevolentia ccEtu ecclesiae, fidei consortio, initiandi societate, percipiendae gratise necessitudine, mysteriorum communione. . . . Multura igitur ad cumulandam spectat, benevolentiam neces- situdo gratiae " (i. 33. 170). "Tantum valet benevo- lentia, ut plerumque pignora vincat" (i. 34. 174). There are many kinds of liberality, such as giving food, advice, redeeming captives, caring for orphans and widows ; and active or personal help is better than money (ii. 15. 69). "Contempt of money is a form of justice " (ii. 27. 133). This treatment of justice, especially under the form of benevolence, occupies such a large place in Ambrose, that love, though not one of the cardinal virtues, receives ample recognition. III. Fortitude Fortitude, Ambrose regards as " loftier " than the other virtues. It is shown in war and in home affairs, in mind as well as body. Fortitude of mind is re- vealed in counting externals unimportant, and in striving after the highest with all might. It implies freedom of the mind from vexation and undue elation ; it is not severed from the other virtues, but fights along with them "against the vices." Especially does it fly from avarice, as from a plague that destroys all virtue, for nothing is so contrary to fortitude as to be overcome by gain. It also guards against the desire for glory (i. c 35-39)- 276 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS IV. Temperance In temperance or moderation we look especially for " tranquillitas animi, studium mansuetudinis, moderationis gratia, honesti cura, decoris consideratio " (i. 43. 209). " We must maintain a certain order in life, making modesty the foundation, for that is the ally and friend of peace of mind. Fleeing from frowardness, and opposed to all excess, it loves sobriety, cherishes what is honourable, and seeks that which is seemly" (i. 43. 220). "It is no small thing to preserve moderation in everything .... The seemly and the virtuous are so closely connected that they cannot be separated. What is virtuous may be likened to the good health of the body, and that which is seemly to its comeliness or beauty" (i. 45. 218-9). Seemliness is capable of a twofold division. " There is a general seemliness which pervades all that is virtuous, and is seen, as it were, in the whole body. There is also a special seemliness manifesting itself in some particular part" (i. 46. 221). Closely associated with the idea of Virtue is that of the useful or expedient, "What is virtuous is useful, and what is useful is virtuous" (ii. 6. 25). We must not estimate usefulness by monetary gain, but by godliness (ii. 6. 22). What others count expediency must never get the better of virtue, but virtue of expediency. Among things truly useful is friendship, and, if it is one favourable to virtue, it is AMBROSE 277 to be preferred to wealth, honours, and power. It must not, however, be set before virtue (iii. 21. 124, iii. 22. 125). He speaks in a qualified way of bodily beauty. " We certainly do not locate virtue in beauty of body, yet we do not exclude grace, such as the pleasing blush of modesty. For as a workman will do better work with more suitable materials, so comeliness heightens the effect of modesty. Only the comeliness of the body should not be affected, but natural and ardess" (i. 19. 83 ; cf. ii. 6. 27). Manly gravity, modesty, humility, sincerity, and simplicity, which are referred to in various ways, should also be added to the list of good qualities specially admired by Ambrose. They constitute, to- gether with the other virtues above mentioned, an admirable delineation of the Christian character, by one who saw what was good in the old Roman ideal, but had himself advanced beyond it. The impression conveyed by his treatment of the virtues is that for Ambrose as well as for the Apostle Paul the greatest thing is "love." The fact that it appears to be subordinated to "justice" ought not to mislead us as to its true place in the thought of Ambrose. We cannot read his exposition of "justice" without coming to the conclusion that "love," rather than anything we understand by "justice," is the fulfilling of the law. Nor must we forget the important place it occupies in his conception of wisdom or prudence. So far as the morality of the Gospel is concerned, the 278 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS present writer fails to see the wide chasm which some have discovered between the teaching of Ambrose and the Sermon on the Mount. The virtues specially commended by Christ are prominent in the writings of Ambrose. His ideal of perfection is the perfection of the Father, who causes the sun to shine on the good and on the evil (iii. 2. 1 1). We are to be imitators of Christ, who emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant (iii. 3. 15). "He who is perfectly wise does not know how to look to his own advantage, but directs all his desire to what is eternal, seemly, and virtuous ; seeking not what is useful for himself, but for the advantage of all" (iii. 2. 12). Those who hold that the teaching of Jesus Christ does not exclude every form of self-love, may think that Ambrose here overstates the altruistic character of Christian morality, so emphatically does he inculcate self-denial for the sake of others. The supreme object of all virtue is to minister to the spiritual needs of our fellow-men (De Poen., i. i). That such a man should have ever been regarded as more of a Stoic than a Christian, or as having "formulated the current-theory that love was no more the ' handbook of divine philosophy,' " can only have come about by overlooking some of the most important elements in his inching. CONCLUSION In looking back over the course of Christian thought in the West during the period we have chosen, two or three things can hardly fail, I think, to impress us. (i) The Fertility of Thought Displayed This is in part no doubt due to the fact that many of the early Christian writers were distinctly able men, and men trained too in the best secular learning of their day. Christianity attracted to itself some of the very ablest and best furnished thinkers of the period. But it is due also to the inherent fruitfulness of the Christian ideas with which these men had to deal. As contrasted even with Stoicism Christianity must have appeared peculiarly rich in its ethical teaching, when once men were able to approach the study of it with an open mind. The Gospel, having become to them the power of God unto salvation, shed a new and brighter light on every department of knowledge, and very specially on moral theory and practice. The wonderfully vitalising effect of its message of free 279 28o EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS forgiveness through the Cross of Christ was not fully realised, as we have seen, by all the writers we have considered, but it could not be apprehended even in part without giving to ethics a new quality and power. The standpoint was changed when Jesus Christ had become to these men wisdom, righteous- ness, sanctification, and redemption. Henceforth it was in Him that they found the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and in the following of Him became conscious that they had the light of life. Whatever we may think of the Christian doctrine of redemption in Jesus Christ, it can Hardly be denied that this and the closely related doctrines of the Faith gave a new direction to thought as well as conduct ; and so from the merely philosophical point of view Christianity added a new charm to the study of ethics. This charm has often been confessed. Quite recently, in our own time, we have had another acknowledg- ment of it from one singularly qualified to express an opinion — the author of The Methods of Ethics and Outlines of the History of Ethics. In connection with the latter work Sidgwick said that the account of Christian morality was the part which he found most interesting to himself, and expressed his surprise at being unable to find anything of the kind in any book which came in his way.^ To one so thoroughly accustomed to the study of philosophical ethics the history of Christian ethics seemed to be of surpassing 1 Memoir, p. 344. CONCLUSION 281 interest ; and many others entering deeply into the spirit of Christian morality have found the merely philosophical disciplines, not simply abstract and formal, but narrow and meagre. (2) Agreement in the midst of Difference In spite of diversities of treatment and of opinion there is a large measure of agreement among the writers we have been studying. With whatever admixture of foreign elements, and with whatever departures from New Testament doctrine on the part of individual writers, there is sufficient in each to enable us to characterise the teaching as Christian rather than heathen. The authors do not differ among themselves so widely or so essentially as they differ from those outside the Church. In the foregoing pages I have tried to do justice to the manifest differences as well as agreements. It is not likely that I have been wholly successful. There may be some points upon which greater emphasis should have been laid, and some divergences which ought to have been less sharply accentuated. Those who have been over the ground for themselves will know best the difficulty of maintaining a true perspective and proportion. But the diversities have not been inten- tionally minimised, though it is naturally more congenial to find points of agreement rather than of antagonism. I would also indulge the hope that I have not 282 EARLY CHRISTIAN ETHICS altogether neglected to notice the sounder elements of heathen learning. It is almost inevitable that in trying to bring out what is most distinctive in Christian thought, there should seem to be an undue disparage- ment of the philosophers, and of the apostles of other Faiths. It may be taken for granted that organised Christianity was not solely responsible for the great change which came over the religious sentiments of the Empire, and in particular for that longing for holiness which often sought to satisfy itself in such strangely unholy ways. Other influences were at work besides the preaching of the Cross in bringing about the marvellous awakening of the third century. Stoicism should have its due meed of praise for its share in turning men's thoughts to higher things. The Eastern religions were in part responsible for the movement from naturalism to supernaturalism. But Christianity alone could do justice to all the varied needs of men and present to the world an ethic at once complete and sure. It alone possessed an adequate idea of sin and of holiness : it alone provided for all the complex elements of human nature : and it alone rested upon the solid ground of a redemption historically achieved. " Christianisme et paganisme 6taient entraln^s par le mdme courant mais la barque du Christ 6tait mieux disposde pour une pareille navigation que le vaisseau du paganisme habitu6 k frequenter d'autres parages." ^ 1 Reville, p. 153. CONCLUSION 283 (3) The Nature and Cause of the Agreement The agreement among the Church writers and their divergence from heathen writers can best be seen by observing the central place which they gave to Jesus Christ. The authority of Jesus Christ as Teacher and Saviour and Lord is the meeting place of all theologies and of all ethical doctrines. Men as different from one another as Arnobius and Tertullian and Cyprian and Ambrose are all in complete agreement here. The authority of Christ was for them the final and supreme authority, though they may have arrived at this con- viction in rather different ways, and have sought to support it by means not always equally or completely Christian. It is a relief to turn from the scepticism of Arnobius or the heathenism of Cyprian to the deeper elements in their teaching, and to see how in relation to Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Lord there is such a large measure of agreement. It is the consciousness of a definite personal relationship to Christ which gave to the Christian writers a unity in the midst of much diversity, and which enabled them to impress upon their ethical writings a peculiar and distinctive mark. INDEX OF PROPER NAMES Abel, 208. Abraham, 42, 204, 252. Adam, 208, 223, 225. Adrastus, 40. ^sculapius, 133. Agrippa Castor, 27. Aholiab, 96. Alexander of Aphrodisias, 40. Allen, 9. Alston, 51. Ambrose, i, 6, 7, 8, 10, 29, 30, 31. 33) 34, 42, 45, 47, 55, 98, 101-3, iig, 183-9,233-8, 270-8, 283. Anaxagoras, 255. Anrich, 114. ApoUonias of Tyana, 60-2. Apuleius, 60, 73, 112. Aquinas, 53. Aristippus, 255. Aristocles, 40. Aristotle, 14, 26, 40-4, 45, 46, 49, 51, 581 59, 60,62,63, 66, 118, 176, 240, 255. Arius, 271. Arnobius, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 41, 42, 45, 64, 65-72, 75, 76, 88, 90, 136-8, 142, 173-6, 225-6, 263-4, 283. Artemis, 123. Aspasius, 40. Athenagoras, 27. Aube, 73. Augustine, 6, 51, 60, 155, 247. Baehrens, 72. Baltzer, 109. Basil, 8. Basilides, 27. Belial, 223. Benson, 47, 96, 97, 165. Bethune-Baker, 82, 128, 129. Bigg, 3, "5, "7, 131- Bithner, 7. Boissier, 3, 5, 112, 135. Brace, 3. Brahmins, 212. Brandt, 76. Brodribb, 75. Bruce, A. B., 90. Bruce, W. S., 24. Buckle, 25. Buddhism, 108. Bull, 76. Bushnell, 105. Caesar, 269. Cain, 241. Caird, 94. Caius, 28. 9S4 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 285 Caldecott, preface, 53. Carl-Clemen, 88, 156. Carpocratians, 99. Chastel, 3. Cheetham, 113, 114, 115, 118, 122. Chrysippus, 48. Church, 108. Cicero, 7, 33, 41, 44, 49, 55-7, 67> 73. 74, 75. 76, 77, 78, no, 112, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 227, 229, 230, 231, 233, 267, 269. Clement of Alexandria, 51. Clement of Rome, 4, 5, 8, 9, 29, 31. 33. 98-9. 141-2, 148-51, 160, 191-3, 240-3. Clement, Second Ep., 27. Commodianus, 16, 17, 27, 29, 30, 31. 34, 4S, 75. 93, 171-2, 223-S, 259-61, 262. Cornelius, 28. Cotta, 49. Cronius, 136. Cruttwell, 2, 16, 81. Cumont, 3, lis, ''''8. Cynics, 155, 213. Cyprian, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 28, 29, 33, 34, 47, 96-8, 119, 124-7, 143, 160, 161, 165-70, 182, 196, 203, 238, 255-8. 259, 283. Davidson, 24. Da vies, 103. Democritus, 255. Denis, 60. Didache, 237. Dill, 3, 59, 64. Diocletian, 179. Diogenes, 255. Diognetus, Ep. to, 8, 9, 16. Dionysius of Alexandria, 8. Dionysius of Rome, 28. Dobschiitz, 2, 31, 151, 247. Dombart, 31, 45, 135. Donaldson, 41. Draseke, 7. Drummond, 53. Ebert, 2, 30. Ecclecticism, 54-62. Egypt, 39, 58, 100, 113, 204. Empedocles, 255. Encratites, 27, 99, roo. Enoch, 198, 204, 208. Epictetus, 32, 48, 49, 50, 78, 107, 109, 117. Epicureans, 26, 42, 44-6, 49, 63, 165, 240, 255. Erbkau, 2. Eunomius, 271. Eusebius, 5, 28, 61, 66. Ewald, 2, 7, roi, 183, 185, 186, 187, 236, 237. Fairbairn, 9, 21. Fenelon, 60. Ffoulkes, 28, 34. Forrest, 106, 129. Forster, 2, 103, 187, 188, 138. Francke, 67. Friedlander, 3, 115. Gass, 2, 94, 221. Gnostics, 13, 28, 99, ro6, 112, 201, 226. Gore, 21. Grant, 41. Greard, 239. Gregory of Nyssa, 8. Gwatkin, 3, 17, 19, 20, 21, 42, 144- 286 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES Hadrian, 40. Harnack, 2, 3, 17, 20, 27, 34, 75.77,87,138,162,188,237. Harvey, 204. Hasler, 7. Hatch, 7, 122, 183. Hauschild, 32. Hegesippus, 28. Heracleon, 28. Heraclitus, 255. Hermas, 9, 12, 16, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 81, 151-3, 162, 193-7, 243-7, 261. Herminus, 40. Herrmann, 90. Hilary, 8, 29. Hippolytus, 8, 28, 29, 30, 34, 42, 81-4. Holden, 75. Horace, 31, 32, no. Hyde, 240. lUingworth, 17, 39, 54, in. Ireland, 53.. Irenaeus, 8, 10, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 40. 68, 98, 99-101, 121, 143, 157-60. 200-7, 218, 249-51. Isaiah, 23. Isis, 114. Islam, 37, 54, 72. James, 201, 229. Jansen, 28. Jerome, 7, 18, 29, 31, 32, 47, 76. Jessen, 45. Jews, 17, 37, 77, 93, 97, 205, 224. John, 174, 241. Joshua, 208. Julian, 93. Jupiter, 118, 123, 132, 133. Justin, 8, 10, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 51, 68, 88, 93, 120-2, 133- 4. 153-6, 157, 160, 198-200, 204, 214, 247-9, 262. Kaftan, 90. Kirn, 147. Klussman, 45. Knight, 24. Kriiger, 26, 30. Kiihn, 135. Lacordaire, 37. Lactantius, 10, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33. 34, 41. 42, 45. 47. 55, 7S-8i, 93, 127, 138-41, 142, 176-82, 227-32, 264-70. Laurent, 155. Lechler, 5. Lecky, 3, 108, 109, no. Leitmeir, 7. Lightfoot, 27, 48, 107. Lipsius, 202. Loofs, 75. Lucilius, 107, 264. Lucretius, 31, 45, 78. Ludwig, 2, 162. Luthardt, 2, 29, 209. Lycurgus, 255. Mackintosh, 23. Manichaeans, 76. Mansel, 43. Marcion, 27, 28, 100, 203, 205, 207, 208, 271. Marcus Aurelius, 48, 107, 112. Mars, 118. Martensen, 147, 190. Martha, 3, 49, 109, no. INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 287 Massebieu, 30. Matheson, 130. Maximus of Tyre, 59. Mayor, 56. Melchisedek, 208. Mercury, 118, 132, 133. Minucius Felix, 27, 29, 30, 31. 33. 34. 55. 72-5.98. 112, 134-6, 142, 170, 221, 258-9. Mithras, 114-8, 122-4, i44- Modestus, 27. Monceaux, 13, 30, 47, 72, 95, 135, 160. Montanism, 28, 208. Moses, 204, 207, 208, 224. Moule, 66, 72. Mozley, 21. Miiller, 191. Mullerus, 76. MuUinger, 61. Musanus, 27. Musonius, 108. Naaman, 254. Naville, 54, 91, 93. Neander, 2. Neoplatonism, 54, 62-4, 69, 82, 83, 94. Newman, 21. Novatian, 29, 34, 81, 82, 84-6, 222. Numenius, 136. Oakesmith, 58, 59. Orelli, 67. Origin, 8, 51. Orr, 88, 114. Ottley, 128. Paul, 4, II, 15, 32,43, 77, 168, 183, 201, 241, 277. Peripatetics^ 40, 413 42, 157, 266, 267. PerseuSj 133. Pharisees, 196, 205, 206. Philo, 93. 187. Philostratus, 61. Plato, 14, 26, 32, 51-4, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 67, 74, 77, 82, 88, no. III, 133, 136, 15s, 157, 165, 226, 240, 255, 262. Plautus, 33. Plotinus, 02. Plutarch, 57-9, 66, 239. Porphyry, 62. Prudentius, 29. Pruner, 7. Ptolemseus, 28. Pythagoreans, 41, 60, 109-11, 164, 255. Rahab, 243. Rainey, 7. Rashdall, 25. Rauch, 32, 47. Reeb, 7. Renan, 23, 72, 95. Reville, 3, 61, 108, 112. Rhodo, 28. Ritter, 2, 41, 56, 59, 61. Sainte-Croix, 113, 114. Saturn, 118. Saturninus, 100. Satyrus, 103. Schmidt, 3, 239. Schwegler, 63. Seneca, 47, 48, 50, 73, 77, 107, 109, 227, 264. Sidgwick, 280. Socrates, 74. Sohm, 98. 288 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES Stanton, 12. Stearns, 106. Stoics, 2, 7, 14, 26, 32, 38, 40, 41, 42, 46-51, 58,59,63.64, 67, 77, 83, 88, loi, 106, 109, "5, 117, 133, 155, 157, 177, 183, 185, 186, 187, 191, 193, 218, 236, 237, 239, 240, 248, 252, 264, 267, 270, 278, 279. Storrs, 3. Strauss, 72. Strong, 239. Tatian, 8, 10, 29, 30, 32, 33, 42, 68, 90, 92, 100, 123-4, 156-7, 200, 249. Tertullian, 8, 9, 10, 12, 18, 28, 29, 3°, 31, 32, 34, 42, 46, 47. 66, 73. 95, 96, 119, 124, 143, 160-5, 196, 202, 207-13, 238, 251.-5, 283. Thamin, 191. Theresa, 60. Thierry, 29. Tide, 105. Trench, 23, 106, 107. Troplong, 3. Ueberweg, 2, 251. Uhlhom, 3. Valentinus, 28. Venus, 118. Victor, 26. Victorinus, 8, 27, 29, 30, 33, 75, 261-2. Virgil, 31, 32, 47. Vohringer, 7. Warburton, 67, 114. Wassenberg, 45. Wernle, 247. Westcott, 23, 39, 90, 132. Wilkins, 106. Workman, 179. Wuttke, 2, 39, 63, 147. Zacharias, 190. Zahn, 109. Zeller, 2, 40, 41, 53, 56, 57. Zeno, 48, 156, 185, 255. Zeno of Verona, 29. Ziegler, 2. Zockler, 2, 239, 254. Zoroaster, 58. INDEX OF SUBJECTS Abstinence, 8i, 195, 225. Actors, 218, 260. Admonition, 195. Adultery, 194, 199, 209, 254. Affections, 42, 64, 79, iSx, 241, 265, 266. Aged, 108, 241. Almsgiving, 29, 127, 219, 261. Ambition, 241, 246, 269. Anger, 29, 54, 63, 79, 194, 246, 200, zop. Apathy, 117, 147, 248. Arrogance, 241. Art, 96, 97, 98, 99, 115, 271. Asceticism, 17, 43, 47, 48, 95, ^ 90,97.99, 103,112,208,257. Audacity, 241. Avarice, 202, 268, 269, 274, 275. Awe, 121. Backbiting, 194, 246. Baptism, 19, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 198, 211, 219, 224,252. Beauty, 150, 179, 256, 264, 276, 277. Beneficence, 8r, 98. Blasphemy, 254. Blessedness, 44, 59, 147, j^g^ 154 166, 184, 195, 232, 241. Boastfulness, 194, 221, 234, 247. I 289 Body, 52, 75, 78, 80, 81, 91, loi, 148, 153, 154, 156, 158, 159, 165, 175, 176, 177, 178, 182, 248, 263, 276. Bounty, 127, 137, 182, 231, 232, 234, 270. Captives, 275. Cardinal virtues, 56, 245, 262, 271, 272. Casuistry, 180, 191, 229. Chastity, 81, 95, 218, 221, 243, 244, 255, 256, 263, 268. Cheerfulness, 243, 244, 246. Children, 108, 117, 200, 274. Church, 15, 17, 73,95,97, 127, 152, 166, 188, 189, 195, 201, 202, 213, 215, 223,224,237, .257, 274. Circumcision, 198, 204, 208. Clemency, 211. Commerce, 212, 246. Communion, 44, 49, 59, 80, 17s. 187, 193, 250, 251. Concord, 29, 195, 241, 243, 244, 268. Confession, 164, 212, 215, 225. Conscience, 12, 95, 97, no, 103, 182, 184, 194, 219, 222, 227, 231, 236, 259. 19 290 INDEX OF SUBJECTS Constancy, 265. Contempt of inferiors, 260. Contentment, 240. Continence, 221, 243, 244, 245. Counsels, 237, 238. Courtesy, 270. Covetousness, 29, 206, 218, 241. Cross, 37, 130, 131, 134, 137, 144, 193, 211, 280, 282. Cruelty, 268, 269. Custom, 207-10. Debtor, 190, 195, 273. Decalogue, 204, 205, 224, 261. Deceit, 194, 245, 246, 259. Degrees of morality, 218, 232, 236, 257. Degrees of glory, 159, 163, 188. Depravity, 231, 251. Desire, 64, 69, 147, 152, 176, 194, 205, 209, 237, 247, 251, 255. 265, 266, 269. Development, 21-5, 150, 160, 206, 207. Dignity, 79, 240, 255. Diligence, 241, 259. Discipline, 17, 102, 167, 207, 223, 256, 257, 258, 259. Disobedience, 245. Double-minded, 194, 218, 260. Doubt, 194. Drunkenness, 222. Ecstasy, 118. Endurance, 154. Enemies, 200, 260, 263. Envy, 241, 269. Equality, 170, 258. Equanimity, 254, 255. Eternal life, 17, 59, 79, 119, 137, 147, 154. 163. 166, 167, 169, 172, 184, 185, 186, 206, 224, 252, 263. Extortion, 194, 260. Faith, 18, 29, 71, 81, 95, 108, 124, 127, 129, 141, 142, 147, 149, 161, 167, 168, 192, 195, 198, 205, 207, 219, 228, 23s, 240, 241, 243, 244, 245, 249, 250, 252, 254, 256, 258, 268, 272, 273. Falsehood, 194, 246, 254, 269. Family, 95, 241, 273, 274. Fasting, 102, 120, 122, 209. Fate, 24, 226. Fatherhood, 50, 57, 74, 78, 81, 83. 125. 131. 132. 168, 232. Fault-finding, 247. Fear, 81, 170, 195, 202, 207, 241, 242, 244, 245, 257, 262, 265, 266, 267, 271, 272, 273. Flattery, 259. Folly, 127, 246, 269. Forgiveness, 16, 17, 71, 72, 79, 86, 120, 122, 164, 181, 188, 194, 211, 231, 240, 269, 280. Formality, 218. Fornication, 194, 199, 254. Fortitude, 54, 70, 117, 177, 245. 257, 258, 259, 262, 275- Fraud, 254. Freedom,»6, 51, 56, 60, 68, 74, 82, 86, 91, 121, 139, 141, 156, 157. i63i 170, 179. 200, 203, 225, 226, 240, 249, 251, 252, 258. Friendship, 50, 159, 175, 276. Frugality, 265, 268. INDEX OF SUBJECTS 291 Gentleness, 127, 172, 175, 263, 270. Gluttony, 29, 194, 209. Golden age, 155, 171. „ mean, 42. „ rule, 216, 228. Goodness, 51, 54, 70, 71, 79, 98, 137, 158, 162, 171, 227, 249, 252, 253, 260. Gossip, 221. Grace, 6, 17, 127, 150, 173, 185, 186, 188, 193,211, 237, 242, 243, 251, 252, 253, 257, 270, 274. Gravity, 277. Grief, 194. Guilelessness, 243, 244. Guilt, 86, III, 217. Happiness, 42, 46, 94, 121, 147, iSS. 170, 171, 172, 177. 184, 224, 264. Harmony, 98, 147, 243, 244, 246. Hatred, 29, 241, 246, 260. Haughtiness, 194, 241. Health, 153, 269, 276. Heroism, 112. Heathen learning, 33. 97j i33> 135- History, 97, 98, 130, 132, 144, 233. Holiness, 74, 112, 149, 153, 164, 166, 169, 192, 224, 231, 252, 280, 282. Honour, 176, 241, 269, 276. Hope, 18, 108, 142, 152, 154, 163, 167, 168, 171, 178, 217, 224, 244, 24s, 250, 256, 257, 258. Hospitality, 195, 340, 243. Humanity, 181, 229, 263, 265. Humility, 29, 48, iii, 215, 240, 241, 242, 257, 262, 270, 277. Hypocrisy, 194, 260. Idolatry, 37, 69, 94, 95, 222, 254- Ignorance, 81, 120, 269. Illumination, 21, 120, 121, 141. Imagination, 90, 118, 161. Immortality, 40, 44, 45, 52, 64, 68, 80, 83, 84, 86, 91, 118, 138, 140, 149, 154, 157, 169, 171. 174. 178, 179-82, 200, 223, 228, 250, 263, 264, 268. Impartiality, 240, 241. Indifference, 155. Indulgences, 203, 209. Innocence, 81, 141, 182, 184, 185, 231, 243, 244, 246, 259- Insolence, 194. Intelligence, 243, 244. Jealousy, 260. Jesus Christ — Abiding in Him, 12, 103, 105, 141, 150, 167, 212, 217. Authority, 65, 136, 192, 193, 197, 214, 215, 216, 234, 239, 270, 283. Destroyer of death, 137. Example of, 22, 102, 141, 153. 169, 189, 211, 212, 234, 247, 248, 259, 270, 275- Freedom through, 226. Foundation, 370, 272. Fulness of life, 119, 137, 141, 169, 187, 235. 292 INDEX OF SUBJECTS Indwelling in us, 13, 212, 215. 23s. 236, 247. Highest Good, 147, 169, 187, 216. The Ideal, 13, 22, 128, 167, 251, 258, 259. The New Law, 198. The Logos, 13, 82, 98, 133, 138, 187. Mediator, 85, 134, 136, 139, 140, 141, 151, 215, 242. Saviour, 13, 28, 68, 134, 137, 158, 169, 196, 206, 223, 227, 23s, 250. Sinlessness, 139, 248, 253. Teacher, 21, 71, 121, 134, 136. 139. 140. 192, 197. 228, 250, 251. Unity in, 103, 242. Blood of, 125, 142, 159, 162, 192, 193, 216, 217, 236, 242, 249. Second coming of, 217. See also Millenarianism. Joy, 16, 166, 172, 240, 257, 265, 266. Justice, 53, 81, loi, 180, 181, 182, 202, 227, 228, 229, 234, 245, 247, 259, 262, 267, 268, 269, 272, 273-s, 277. Kindness, 71, 79, 81, 182, 229, 274. Kingdom of God, 80, 86, 125, 147. 152. IS4. iSS. t6o, 163, 164, 166, 167, 169, 171, 178, 188, 189, 214, 251, 262. Knowledge, 55, 59, 71, 81, 92, '53. i74i 176. 177. 181. 184. 230. 233. 240. 242, 267, 268, 280. Law, 9, 15, 17, 97, 140, 162, 171, 191-238, 267, 272, 273, 277. Liberality, 261, 263, 274. See also Bounty. Love, 17, 18, 29, 71, 79, 81, 85, 99, 101, 137, 147, 159, 163, 167, 168, 169, 182, 188, 189, 195. 20°' 207, 211, 224, 231, 232, 238, 240, 241, 242, 243. 244, 245. 246, 247, 250, 251. 254. 257, 258, 272, 273, 277, 278. Lust, 29, 194, 260, 268, 269. Luxury, 152, 194, 246, 260, 268. Marriage, 95, 100, 102, 103, 172, 209, 221, 257. Martyrdom, 102, 163, 168, 172, 173, 211, 214, 215,219,256, 257, 260. Mercy, 79, 84, 142, 228, 229, 258, 270. Merit, 102, 166, 218, 219, 231, 234, 238. Moderation, 240, 276. Millenarianism, 28, 75, 155, 172, 261. Modesty, 107, 253, 255, 258, 263, 276, 277. Monasticism, 95, 152. Murder, 199, 202, 254. Mysticism, 69, 118, 119. Nature, 11, 12, 13, 55, 68, 94, 95. loi, i79» 188, 189, 192, 193) 205, 207, 210, 213, 222, 226, 227, 230, 233, 248, 249, 250, 252, 264, 265, 274. Necessity, 75, 76, 78, 120, 121, 141, 252. INDEX OF SUBJECTS 293 Obedience, 152, 173, 192, 216, 232, 240, 259. Order, 99, 276. Orphans, 195, 200, 275. Passion, 83, 127, 162, 175, 248. Patience, 29, 79, 81, 171, 195, 241, 243, 244, 245, 254, 255. 258, 260, 268, 269. Peace, 125, 163, 171, 195, 240, 241, 270. Penance, 17, 197, 219, 225, 238. Perfection, 236, 241, 250, 262, 278. Perfidy, 268. Perjury, 199. Persecution, 176, 179, 256. Personality, 53, 62. Philosophy a vice, 269. Piety, 181, 199, 268, 273. Pleasure, 147. iS4, ^55. 163, 164, 169, 176, 177, 182, 258, 260, 269. ^ Poor, 157, 195, 216, 218, 234, 260, 261, 268. Power, 54, 126, 243, 245, 248, 257, 274, 277- Prayer, 44, 46, 49, 59, 61, 62, 71, 74. "3. 120, 122, 137, 175, 188, 200, 215, 218, 220, 225, 263. Precepts, 127, 197, 199, 203, 208, 227, 229, 230, 237, 268. Pre-existence, 67, 68. Pride, 29, 218, 241, 260, 268, 269. Propitiation, 166, 196, 212, 218, 220, 238, 239 Providence, 44, 49i S^, 59. 74. 83. Prudence, 262, 271-3, 277. Punishment, 64, 79, 86, 174, 225, 232. Purity, 29, 115, 117, 170, 180, 221, 222, 229, 237, 241, 243, 244. 245. 247. 251. 259. 262. Reason, 50, 56, 58, 74, 75, 81, 86,92,93,111,136,153,159, 177, 192, 193, 198, 210,213, 230. 233, 23s, 248, 270, 271. Redemption, 17, 92, 102, 104- 27, 142, 144, 146, 157, 175, 188, 192, 193, 200, 212, 219, 232, 235, 242, 249, 280, 282. See also Jesus Christ. Regeneration, 12, 15, 115, 120, 125, 126, 166, 217. Repentance, 16, 17, 54, 108, III, 142, 152, 193, 194, 196, 220, 243. Resignation, 108. Rest, 79, 121, 172, 265, 269. Resurrection, 75, 103, 115, 139, 15s. *S6. 163, 171, 223, 242, 250. Reverence, 71, 251. Reward, 97, 139, 154, 165, 170, 180, 182, 184, 186, 230, 234, 256, 263, 265. Righteousness, 17, 80, 81, 83, 139, 140, 149, 171,172, 182, 195, 199, 204, 205, 207, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225,243,247, 280. Sabbath, 199, 204, 208. Sacraments, 118, 119, 124, 126, 164, 208, 252. Sacrifice, 60, 69, 81. 294 Scripture, 4, 184, 186, 210, 233, 236, 262, 270, 274. Self-control, 149, 196, 241, 243, 244, 268, 269. Self-examination, 109, no. Self-sacrifice, 20, 40, 62, 94, 131, 132, 218, 229, 234, 240, 250, 259, 278. Self-sufficiency, 48, 51, 61, no, III, 117, 147, 186, 196, 226, 239- Sermon on the Mount, 23, 186, 212, 278. Simplicity,i96,243,244,24S,277. Sin, 12, 29, 105, 107, 108, 109, III, 112, 126, 141, 153, 158, 185, 193, 196, 197, 206, 218, 220, 221, 223, 225, 230, 231, 236, 238, 241, 250, 252, 254, 256, 257, 282. Sincerity, 240, 259, 277. Slavery, 123, 203, 212, 229, 242. Sobriety, 240, 241, 248, 255, 265, 276. Sociality, 81, 148, 150, 152, 172, 188, 189, 229, 23s, 263, 265, 274. Sorrow, 54, 245, 255, 265, 266. Soul, 42, 52, 67, 80, 81, 91, 92, 93, "7. i24i 148, 153. 159. 173. 174, 176, 178, 182,248, 263, 265. See also Immor- tality and Pre-existence. Speech, 194, 221, 241, 243, 244, 254, 260. Spirit, Holy, 21, 25, 76, 80, 86, 93i 95. 98, 120, 124, 126, i43> 157. 159. 166, 19s, 214, 25°, 257- State, the, 95, 103, 151, 202, 221, 227, 263, 273. INDEX OF SUBJECTS Suffering, 78, 104, 114, 131, 134. 137, 154, 250, 257, 264, 268. Superstition, 58, 175, 369. Temperance, 29, 221, 222, 244, 245, 247, 258, 262, 268, 269, 276. Temple of God, 49, 81, 86, 93, loi, 139, 182, 216. Thankfiilness, 99, 137, 175, 200, 201, 212, 251. Theft, 194, 199. Thoughts, 209, 232, 252, 261. Tradition, 210. Traducianism, 67, 80. Tranquillity, 170, 254, 258, 266, 276. Transcendence, 38, 46, 59, 60, 62, 64, 84, 186. Truth, 79, 122, 137, 149, 153, 163, 194, 195, 207, 216, 243, 244. 24s, 255, 268, 271. Unbelief, 243. Understanding, 243, 244, 246. Utility, 183, 211, 276. Vainglory, 194, 241, 275, 277. Virginity, 238, 253, 257, 261. Wantonness, 246. War, 118, 212, 275. Ways, the two, 268. Wealth, loi, 148, 152, 169, 172, 177, 182, 246, 258,264, 269, 27s, 277. Wine, 103, 260. Wisdom, S3, 54, 61, 70, 80, 102, 127, 182, 229, 233, 245, 266, s68, 271, 272, 277, 280. Women, 103, 116, 195, 200, 2531 275- PRINTED BY NEILL AND COMPANY, LIMITED, EDINBURGH. 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