CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library BR 145 .C554 Christ and the fathers; or, The reformer olin 3 1924 029 244 989 Cornell University Library The original of tliis 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/cu31924029244989 THE CHRIST AND THE FATHERS: OR THE REFORMERS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, BEING A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND OPINION DERIVED FROM THEIR LIVES AND LETTERS AS WELL AS FROM THE LATIN AND GREEK FATHERS OF ' THE EASTERN AND WESTERN EMPIRES UNTIL THE NICENE COUNCIL, WITH A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE CONTINUATION OF CHRISTIANITY UNTIL THE PRESENT DA V IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COMPARATIVE METHOD OF HISTORICAL SCIENCE. BY A HISTORICAL SCIENTIST. ' She {Wisdom) is the breath of the power of God^ and the image of goodness; and, being but one, she can do all thint^s ; and, reviaining in herself she ntaketh all things new ; and in all ages, entering i?iio holy souls, she maketh them friends of God, and prophets.' — The Wisdom of Solomon. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON AND FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH MDCCCLXXXVII All Riqkts Reserved. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface, . ix Chronological Chart, xvii Introduction , . 1 The Social Development of the Jewish People. Historical Science, or the Physiology of the Social Organism, . H 1. The Tribal Period, E.c. 1500-1100, . . . . 6 2. The Monarchical Period, B.C. 1100-588, . 8 3. The Provincial Period, B.C. 588 to a.d. 70, 16 Hebrew Literature from Malachi to Josephus. . 18 BOOK I. Lives, Letters, and Opinions oe the Reformers of Judaism and THE Roman Empire. CHAPTER I. The Lives and Opinions of Jehoshua (Greek, Jesus), the Prophet OF Nazareth of Galilee. The First Phase of Christianity— Galileanism, . . . 38 The Connection of Jesus with his Cousin, John the Baptist, . 44 The distinctive Characteristic of the Reformer of Ancient Judaism, . . . .... 46 CHAPTER II. The Opinions of Jesus. 1. The Sacred Books of the Jews, . . .49 The Parables, .... .50 2. The Deity, . . 52 iv Contents. 3. The Holy Temiile and Levitical Ritual, • 56 4. The Jewish Priesthood and People, . . • 39 5. The Jewish Sabbath, 60 6. Heaven and Good Angels — Hell, Evil Spirits and Demons. . 62 7- Previsions, ........ .68 CHAPTER III. Second Phask or Jewish Christianity under the Leadership or Peter and James. No Miraculous conception in Mark's Biography dictated by Peter, 71 The Spirit of God poured out on all Ranks, . . 74 Benevolence Committee, ... . . .75 Stephen's Martyrdom, ... .76 The Just Man belonging to all Races, . .76 Pure Religion, ... .78 The Revelation of St. John, . . . . 78 CHAPTER IV. Third Phase. — Oriental Christianity, — According to the Life OF THE Prophet of Nazareth or Galilee ascribed to John, THE Beloved Disciple, as well as his three Letters. The Spiritual Gospel, . . . . . . . .81 The Logos — Reason — the Light and Life of Men, . 82 Hellenic, Hindu, and Persian Elements, . . 83 God is a Spirit, . 84 God is Love, .... .... 85 Rejection of the Three Witnesses in the Revised Version, 86 CHAPTER V. The Fourth Phase. — Alexandrian Christianity according to the Letter addressed to the Hebrews. 1. The Rank and Honours conferred on the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, 89 2. The Jewish and Christian Sabbath, . ... 91 3. The Jewish and Christian Priesthood, . . 90 4. The Old and New Covenant or Law, 93 Contents. PAGE 5. The Temple of Solomon, and the Temple not made with hands, .......... 94 6. The Testimony of their Jewish Fathers and Forefathers to the Christian Faith, . 96 7. Concluding Counsels, ........ 97 BOOK II. CHAPTER I. The EEroRMATioN of the Roman Empire. The Eoman Reformers and Precursors of Christianity, . . 101 Cicero — The Religious and Moral Reformer of Rome, . . 102 1. Nature, or the Physical Government of the Universe, . 104 2. Human Nature, or Personal, Domestic, and Political Gov- ernment, ......... 105 3. The Nature and Character of Deity, or Divine Government, 110 4. Temple Ritual, or Religious Government, . . 112 5. Future Life, 113 6. Political Previsions, . . . ..114 Lucretius, ... . 115 1. Nature, . 120 2. Human Nature. . .121 3. Deity, . . . .124 4. Temple Ritual. . . 125 5. Future Life, . . .126 6. Previsions, . . .127 CHAPTER II. Fifth Phase.— Roman Christianity, according to Paul, the Reformer of the Roman Empire. 1. Nature, ... . . 137 2. Human Nature, . . ..138 3. God .... 145 4. The Old and New Temple, Law, Priesthood, Sacrifices, Sabbath, 154 The Terms " Christ " and " Christian," 156 The Old and New Temple — The Household of God— or the Church, . . 174 vi Contents The Christian Brotherhood, . . . 175 Spiritual Gifts, . . ... . . 176 The Levitical Law of Moses versus the Christian Law of Love, 189 Interpretation of the Sacred Books of the Jews, . . 190 The Patriarchal Period, .193 The Tribal Period, . . 195 The Monarchical Period, . . . . 197 CHAPTER III. Successive Phases of Jewish Wobship. In the Patriarchal Age, . . . 203 In the Tribal Age, . . . . 203 In the Monarchic Age, . . . 204 Sabbaths, Fasts and Festivals, .... . 209 Christian Citizens, Women and Slaves in Civil Society, . 223 Slavery, ... . . . . . 231 Woman, . . . . . . . 235 Legal Tribunal, . . . . . 242 CHAPTER IV. FuTUKE Life. Pharisaic Stage — " Abraham's Bosom," ... . 249 Galilean Stage — Ascension in the " Heavens," . . . 250 Cosmopolitan Stage — Ascension of the Sjiiritual Body, . .251 CHAPTER V. Recapitulation and Review of the Six Editions of Chris- tianity, . 257 BOOK III. CHAPTER I. The Rbfobmation of the Roman Empire — continued. Epictbtus, 1. Nature, . 2. Human Nature, 3. God, 4. Future Life, 273 274 275 277 280 Contents. vii PAGE Marcus Aukelids Antoninus, 280 1. Nature, .... . . . 282 2. Human Nature, . .... 284 3. God, . ... 286 4. Future Life, . . . 288 LuciAN, . . 290 Celsus, . . 293 CHAPTER II. Thk Development op Christianity by the Latin and the Grebe Fathers in the Eastern and Western Empire. Roman Clement, . . . .... 297 The Clementine Recognitions., . . . 298 Barnabas, . .... . 301 Diognetus, . .... . 304 Hermas, . . ... 305 Justin, , ... 307 Tatian, . . 312 TertuUian, . ... 313 Minucius Felix, . . . 319 Irenteus, . Theophilus, Athenagoras, Novatian, 324 325 326 328 CHAPTER III. The Development op Greek and Roman Christianity — continued. Alexandrian Clement, . . . 329 Origen, ... 334 Arnobiua, ... . . 342 Lactautius, . . . 350 Eusebius, . ... . . 355 Arius, . . ... . . 366 Athanasius, . . 367 CHAPTER IV. CONSTANTINE THE GbEAT — ThE NiOENB COUNCIL — AND THE CkEED op Roman Christendom. Nicene Council and Creed, ....... 370 Successive Opinions regarding the Founder of Christianity, . 381 Criticism of the Nicene Creed, . 384 viii * Contents. PAGE Canons and Conclusiou of the Council, . . 387 The Sabbath, ... . 388 Jerome, . 391 Auguatinus, . 391 EPILOGUE. The Full and Final Development of Christianity in Europe and Britain from the Nicene Council to the Present Day. Tribal Period — Romish and Anglo-Saxon Christianity, . 398 Feudal Period — Papal Phase of British Christianity, . 400 Constitutional Period — Papal and Protestant Phase of British Christianity, ...... . 402 Dissolution of Ancient Christianity in Protestant Sects, . . 402 Parallel between the " Augustan Age " of Rome, Europe, and Britain, ..." 402 Leaders of Religious Thought and Opinion during the last Three Centuries, ......... 404 Renunciations of the Reformers of the Sixteenth Century. . 406 Reformation of the Eastern or Greek Church in Russia extending, ......... 407 The New Religion of Poets, Philosophers, and Scientists, 407 PREFACE. I HAVE read the leading Lives of Christ, Histories of the Jews and Christianity, and the works on Biblical criticism which have appeared during the course of the last half century, with various degrees of satisfaction; but I am fully convinced that the clerical authors, at least, have misled their readers by the adoption of the systematic and dogmatic nomenclature of the old theology. At any rate, I have not yet met with any work which traces the historical development of the Jewish nation and religion during the successive periods of its social life ; and secondly, of its successor, the Christian religion, in the various centres of religious distribution in the Eoman Empire; in strict continuity, until the Nicene Council and the foundation of the first Christian State and Church under Constantine the Great.- Hence the present work has followed the Comparative Method of Historical Science, and attempted to point out the constituents borrowed by the Jews from the sur- rounding nations in the composition of their religion and ritual ; and secondly, the actual nature of the Eeformation of the Eoman Empire under Jesus, the Prophet of Naza- reth of Galilee, and Paul, the Eoman reformer, as well as X Preface. the Eoman philosophers included by the " Fathers," who tested the true religion by a belief in " the greatest and best of Gods," human goodness, and enlightenment, and not by faith in a mere name and " Divine conception," as modern ecclesiastics do ; and third, the successive pheno- mena and features of the Galilean, Jewish, Alexandrian, Oriental, and Eoman Christianity, moulded by the Fathers in the first Creed of the Nicene Council, which formed the basis of the European and British Creeds of Christendom. Protesting as I do, in common with the professional and literary classes of the age, against the adoption of the technical and antiquated style of mediaeval theology, I have carefully stripped the Hebrew, Greek, and dogmatic terms of their mummied garb, and restored them to their original appearance and " senses " in the usage of every- day life. Very little attention has been paid to the " signs and wonders " related in the lives and letters of the Christian reformers, (1) because the primitive Nazarites, Galileans or Ebionites, who believed the Prophet to be " a plain and common man," only used the biography of Matthew with- out any genealogy or miraculous birth ; (2) because the copies of the Sacred Scriptures were "corrected" and " corrupted " by various Christian sects for the purpose of adapting them to their peculiar theological systems ; (3) because the letters of James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, as well as the "Eevelation" were " disputed " in the days of Eusebius, the first ecclesiastical historian ; and the " Ee- velation " was not admitted into the sacred collection until Preface. xi the Council of Hippo, a.d. 390 ; (4) because the several forged " additions," such as the " Three Witnesses " and " The Mystery of Godliness," have been lately rejected in the Eevised Translation ; and lastly, because a consider- able number still remain which ought to share the same fate. But the clergy are held in bondage by the ancient Creeds, and are deterred from all honest criticism by the charge of unsettling the faith of the people brought against Eobertson Smith, whose ripe scholarship has been fully appreciated by the patrons of his Cambridge professorship. Several cautious and guarded concessions have been made by Bishop Temple in his Bampton Lectures on the " Eelations between Eeligion and Science " on this very head, e.g. " The supernatural in the form of miracles can never be the highest kind of evidence, can never stand alone; but it seems to have been needed for their first reception." But the very admissions which he makes regarding the miracles of the Old Testament, viz. " The times are remote, the date and authorship of the Books not established with certainty ; the mixture of poetry with history no longer capable of any sure separation into parts," are equally applicable to the miracles of the New Testament, which are said to have occurred eighteen centuries ago. At the same time, I trust the "larger hope," that as the belief of Christians " rests mainly on the voice within ourselves," according to him, the publica- tion of the Bishop's work will date " the beginning of the end " in the history of the English Church, coeval witli the commencement of the new British Constitution. xii Preface. Still later is Christ and Christianity, by the Eev. H. E. Haweis, M.A., the popular preacher of London, to be fol- lowed by four volumes carrying forward the development of Christianity to Constantino the Great, and closing with the " Light of the Nations," containing " a bird's-eye view of the religions of the world," for the purpose of proving that " God has never left himself without a witness in the heart of man, nor refused to impart a knowledge of him- self to the world, just whenever and wherever, and in whatsoever degree the world has been able to entertain it." I, for one, rejoice that the successor of Stanley, our modern Lactantius, has boldly ventured in the footsteps of Strauss, Baur, Eenan, and Matthew Arnold, adopted the Critical and Comparative Method of Historical Science, and provided the Anglican Churchmen with the pure and unadulterated religion of " the love of God and the love of man," " all that is vital for us to know about Christianity," — the very theodicy of Augustine and the Fathers, which " justifies the ways of God to man." I am fully aware that no systematic study of Historical Science or the physiology of the social organism has been introduced into our common schools, high schools, or Universities; but as "the youngest of the sciences" has made considerable progress in modern literature, I trust its application to the illustration of Jewish and Christian history will easily be rendered intelligible by the use of the Chronological Chart, p. xvii. The first novelty which will strike the student is the discovery of the germs of the New Eeligion which passed Preface. xiii under the name of Christianity in the works of the Hebrew prophets ; but the fact is fully recognised by the Christian reformers of ancient Judaism themselves, who asserted " The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophets." The second, I hope, will be the succinct and continuous account of the patriotic longings of the Jewish people for National Independence, taken from the later prophets, the Apocrypha, and apocalyptic literature of the Book of Enoch, witnessed in such conquered nations as Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and Egypt in the present day ; and designated in ecclesiastic realms " Messianic Prophecies," lately de- fended in the obsolete style in the Baird and Bampton Lectures. The third is the greatest novelty of all — the restriction of the mission of Jesus, "the minister of the circum- cision," to the Jews only, by Paul, while he declares him- self to be the reformer of the Eomau Empire (Eom. xv. 8, 16). The fourth is the successive stages of Paul's opinions, from " the straitest sect of the Pharisees " to cosmopolitan Christianity, according to the programme and historic method of Archdeacon Farrar in The Message of the Books. The fifth is the independent reformation of the Eoman religion effected by the Eoman poets and philosophers, from Cicero to Marcus Aurelius, which paved the way for Paul's universal Christianity. The sixth is the clear evidence derived from the Ante- Mceue Fathers of the growth and development of the xiv Preface. Alexandrian theory of the "Word," "Wisdom," or "Logos," applied to Jesus, and resulting, in common with the Eoman tendency to compare him with their own " Sons of God," in his substantial deification at the Nicene Council. And lastly, the striking historical parallel which exists between the reformation of the Eoman Empire and our own Protestant Eeformation in the sixteenth century, ought to prepare the minds of all historical students for the early dissolution of the aged and antiquated religious institutions of ancient Europe and Britain. Eight sure I am that thousands of the enlightened and " beautiful souls " {schone Seek), who place their confidence in the divine tendency which makes for righteousness in the " education of humanity," will meet with a glad sur- prise in finding themselves in communion with the "fathers of philosophy" and "rational theology," who renounced the hereditary faiths of time-worn antiquity, like their peers and predecessors in ancient Eome, as well as in the modern world during the last three centuries. One thing I do anticipate from the clear exhibition of the development of religious opinion both in the Jewish and Christian nations, viz. that ecclesiastics will not be tolerated to ramble over the history of two religions — the one of which repeals the other — and crown their favourite dogmas with texts selected from religious teachers, at any point during four thousand years; for it is really unpardonable to misinterpret and misapply passages in the Jewish sacred books, pervaded with the unity of God, in favour of a Christian "Trinity" formulated at the Preface. xv Nicene Council, A.D. 325, and not completed until the insertion of " Filioque " in a.d. 800. Moreover, I express the wishes of a large majority of minds animated by the " Spirit of the age " (Zeit Geist), and the desire of religious equality in common with the New World, that the " Grand Old Man " (as his consti- tuents call him), the ruling spirit of British policy, the veritable "king of men," presiding over the "Palinge- nesia, or new birth of society," in our New Era, dated by Carlyle at a.d. 1792, may be continued amongst us, for the purpose of carrying to a successful issue those political measures which have raised him above the posi- tion of his great prototype and predecessor, Theodosius the Great, who effected the disestablishment and dis- endowment of the old faith of the Eoman Empire, a.d. 380-390. In conclusion, I now avail myself of the present oppor- tunity of according my hearty thanks to all the " Leaders of Thought and Opinion " of past and present times, whose labours have enabled me to carry the present work into completion. The Authoe. HINT TO STUDENTS. This work will form a programme, at least, of the development of religious thought and opinion in Jewish and Christian nations {Bogmen-Gescli'khte). a « g « 05 a OQ ^ / \^ P5 -^ a s Eg --^i'^-.'s:jfi 01 £ ;s Ci tH o o n ,-J '^"'--^^1^2 pa ■*** eu « s o .--"^^-- — -.ijf_ ___ -U - tf ^ B^ n U o o PS .Ogg -'-1 - — ^ 5 » ^ pi :;3 --9i-;r INTEODUCTIOX. THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. " What is Christianity ? " still forms the burning question of the age nearly nineteen centuries after its birth ; and the answer varies in every region of Eastern and Western Christendom — in the Latin and the Greek Church, in Trinitarian and Unitarian Christianity, in the Old as well as in the New World. Witness the Lives of Christ — Leben Jcsid, Vic dc Jesus — the Ajite-Nicene Fathers, the Three First Centimes of the Christian Era ; not to men- tion the ecclesiastical histories, creeds, confessions, cate- chisms, and commentaries peculiar to the endless varieties of Christian Churches planted in every quarter of the globe. The Trinitarian carries us back to the foundation of his creed at the Mcene Council (a.d. 325), under the patronage of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of the first Christian empire ; while the Unitarian traces his faith to the manger of Bethlehem — the birth of the Jewish Eeformer (Heb.) Jehoshua, (Greek) Jesus, the Anointed (Maschach= Messiah) Deliverer. At this point, a.d. 1, the further question meets us : What is primitive Christianity, or rather Galileanism — the " sect everywhere spoken against " — founded by the Jewish Eeformer and his disciples, who were styled Christians (anointed) at Antioch after his martyrdom ? And the necessity for revising the traditional replies gave A 2 The Social Development of the yewish People. rise to the " Introductions to the Old and New Testament," Histories of Israel, and Hebrew Prophets, familiar to every student of theology. The net result of these learned inquiries carried on during the last century has been the inauguration of the historic method of investiga- tion, and the submission of the " Sacred Books of the Jews " to the same canons of literary criticism as the " Sacred Books of the East." What, then, is the nature of the historic method of inquiry which we propose to follow in attempting to give the Jewish Eeformer his proper place in the religious development of Oriental races ? Nothing more or less than the comparative method of historical science adopted by every school of modern criticism — the system- atic analysis of the religions of all the successive races which have conducted the "Education of Humanity" [ErzieJiung cles Menschengeschleclits ; Lessing). These races are the Hindu, Persian, Chaldee, Assyrian and Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Arabian, Hellenic, Latin, Teutonic, and Sclavonic. And their literature is more or less accessible to all the world since the transla- tion of the " Sacred Books of the East," under the editor- ship of Max Mliller. China we exclude in this place, because Confucianism evidently forms the indigenous product of an independent centre of civilisation. One most important step in these inquiries was the foundation of the Science of Language by Bopp, Grimm, Miiller, Sayce, etc. ; and the discovery of the common origin of all the langiiages of the Indo-European races in the Sanskrit. The Science of Eeligion, in the hands of Burnouf and Miiller followed in its wake, and the Hibbert Lecture has largely contributed to its further exposition. Given, then, the sacred literature of the Jews, the real Introduction. 3 problem at issue assumes the modern form, What is the historical genesis, structure, and development — (1) of the Jewish, and (2) of the Christian religion ? And the student is started at once in pursuit of Abraham, the " Father of the Faithful," from " Ur of the Chaldees," as well as of Moses, " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." What " divine conception " and rites were brought by Abraham into Egypt ? What is the nature of the divine worship and duty carried out of Egypt into Palestine ? Can we trace the religious elements borrowed from their Babylonian, Persian, Hellenic, and Eoman masters and conquerors ? and eliminate the religious dogma and practice of the primitive Christian reformers of ancient Mosaism and antiquated Judaism in the Augustan age of the Eoman Empire % Such is the series of questions absolutely necessary to be answered in the present state of historical criticism, in order to satisfy the demands of scientific inquiry. Let us now refer to the Chronological Chart drawn up for the purpose of illustrating the course of religious development ; and although the Science of Sociology is still in its infancy, the genesis, structure, and develop- ment of social bodies have, been investigated by the students of the physiology of the social organism, and determined by the laws of universal organisation. The life and history of Eome was selected by Vico, the founder of Historical Science, as the type of all social evolution ; and all that is meant by the selection is that the historical development of all social organisms must present a greater or lesser degree of conformity to the political type. The only nations whose genesis can be traced with historical exactness are the Christian and Moslem communities of modern Europe, for the origin 4 The Social Development of the Jewish People. of all Oriental races is veiled by the mists of ages and hoary antiquity. Ancient temples, tombs, pyramids, mummies, pillars, slabs, bricks, and papyri are extant in mouldering ruins and endless fragments ; and social resurrections and restorations are appearing along with their approximate dates and data. The true source of all the languages and religions of the Indo-European races has been found in India (Max Mliller's Sanskrit Literahire) ; and strata on strata lie buried beneath the surface of modern culture and civilisation. Buddhism sprang from the old Brahman stock, and spread over Thibet, Tartary, Burmah, and the Chinese Empire (B.C. 500). Zoroastrianism started into existence at the same period, and carried its conquests as far as Babylonia, Asia Minor, Judasa, and Egypt. The very cuneiform inscriptions on the brick libraries of Babylon and Nineveh have been dug from the ruins of Nimroud, and revealed the story of the predecessors of the Hebrew " Father of the Faithful." The mysterious veil of Isis still rests on the primeval pyramids and dynasties of ancient Egypt ; but the sacred mysteries and ritual of the gods have been wrested from the mummies and tombs of the Pharaohs. The Temple of Solomon was founded in the tenth century B.C. ; and Hebrew literature carries us back to the birth of Mosaism in Egypt, four centuries anterior to that era. The national existence of the Hebrew people ended at the Babylonian conquest (b.c. 588); and the land of Judsea successively formed only a single province of the Persian until B.C. 332 ; of the Macedonian until b.c. 70 ; and lastly of the Pioman Empire until the destruction of Jerusalem, a.d. 70. Hellenic culture culminated in the age of Pericles Inirodtiction. 5 (B.C. 444), and terminated at the Eoman conquest (b.c 146). The Augustan age of Eoman civilisation synchronises with the commencement of the Christian era (a.D. 1) ; while the actual foundation of the first Christian Empire was laid by Constantiue the Great in Eoma-Nova — Constantinople (a.d. 330), contemporaneous with the formulation of the Christian creed at the Nicene Council (a.d. 325) ; and the dictum of ISTiebuhr sums up the history of the long series of races and religions which preceded the Christian era : " The history of all nations of the ancient world ends in that of Eome, and that of all modern nations has grown out of that of Eome." The filiation of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism or Parsism from ancient Brahmanism may be held as proved ; and Hebraism was brought into close contact both with the Babylonian and Persian until B.C. 332. Mosaism expressly claims its " Exodus " from Egypt, and admittedly drew many of its religious elements from the land of the Nile. The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew sacred books, as well as the Books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, etc., betray the influence of Hellenic culture ; and a large class of apocalyptic, sibylline, and mystical books sprang up in various literary centres of the Eoman Empire anterior to the Christian era. ISTo doubt whatever exists regarding the offspring of Christianity from the bosom of the Eoman Empire. Hence the formulation of the social law of the birth of a New Eeligion at the attain- ment of national majority (PMlosophie der GescMchte, von Ernst von Lasaulx). All these successive and hereditary Asiatic religions formed the social " environment " of the genesis, structure, and development of primitive Mosaism and later Judaism and Christianism, and have been more or less subjected 6 The Social Development of the Jewish People. to critical analysis by philologists and theologians during the last century. Hence the preliminary historical ques- tion arises, Can we trace the religious sentiments and practice assimilated by the Jews during the successive phases of national development from their Asiatic environ- ment ? The reply to this question limits our attention to the "History of Israel" only— 1st, in the Tribal; 2d, in the Monarchical ; and 3d, in the Provincial Period. B.C. 1500 Tribal. B.C. 1100 Monarchical. b.c. 588 Provincial, a.d. 70. 1. The. Tribal Pariod (B.C. 1500-1100).— The striking historical parallel which exists between the Saxon eon- quest of England (a.d. 459), as well as of the New World (from A.D. 1492 to 1886), and the Hebrew conquest of Palestine recorded in Joshua, the Domesday Book of the history of Israel, has been specially noted by Freeman, in his Addresses to American Audiences. The Twelve Tribes of Israel found their counterpart iu the Saxon Heptarchy. Monarchy succeeds in both for several centuries ; and rival religions generate social dissensions, and terminate in the dissolution of the national faith. The symbolical style of the narrative, the turning of the Sun, the Supreme God, into darkness, the sacred Nile into blood, and the swallowing of the image of the sacred bull (Apis) ground to powder, produces the con- viction that Moses, the Hebrew Eeformer, rejected the national faith of Polytheism and adopted the monarchic Monotheism, inscribed, according to Herodotus, on the facade of the Egyptian temple — " I am he that was and is to be, and no man has lifted my veil." Moses assuredly assumed the role of the " Veiled Prophet," and no mortal can see Jahveh and live (Jahveh= Being or Life). One Introduction. 7 notice, moreover, has been found on a temple of an Egyptian king, who introduced the disc worship of the Supreme Deity, and rejected all others. The time-worn controversy regarding the Hebrew cos- mogony standing at the commencement of Genesis has now been set at rest by the discovery of the Chaldee account of the Creation, deciphered by George Smith, and the translation of the Btondahis, one of the Persian sacred books. Accordingly, the Mosaic account of creation forms only an adaptation derived from the cosmogonies of their national predecessors belonging to the Shemitic races. The creation of the universe took place in six periods or Gahanbars, during the course of 365 days, in the Persian sacred books : and the revolt of Ahriman, the Evil Spirit, against Ahura-Mazda, the Wise Spirit, did not occur until the end of 3000 years. " Light," which is said to have been created on the iirst day in Genesis, prior to the sun, is specially referred to in the Bundahis. " Ahura- Mazda produced light between the sky and the earth, the constellations, stars, and those also not of the con- stellations, then the moon, and afterwards the sun" — a positive contradiction of the scientific discoveries of modern times. The gods Lahmir and Lahamu of the Chaldee account are male and female personifications of motion and production, like the moving " wind " (ruach), or Spirit, of Genesis. Sar and Kisar represent the upper and lower " firmament," through whose " windows " the flood was poured down. And although the complete twelve tablets of the Chaldee account have not been dis- covered, the creation of the heavenly bodies and terrestrial animals corresponds to the statements of Genesis. More- over, a sacred tree, accompanied by a serpent, is repre- sented on the cylinders, which have lain in their graves 8 The Social Development of the Jewish People. until their present resurrection for the enlightenment of our own age. The extreme simplicity of the reformed religion and ritual at the Exodus is evident ; for it consisted merely of an ark common to the Egyptian gods (Wilkinson) contain- ing two tables of the law, surrounded by a tent, within whose precincts stood the table of shewbread, the altars of incense .and animal sacrifice. Such was the only Beth-el or House of God from the conquest of Palestine to the foundation of the national Temple of Solomon (B.C. 1000). One " Sabbath '' (Eest) only was prescribed by their legislator, Moses, who most probably abolished the holy days to the " other gods " (Josh, xxiv.) of their Babylonian ancestors and Egyptian contemporaries ; just as the Pro- testants rejected the festivals of the " saints," or deified Christians, at the Eeformation in the sixteenth century. 2. The Monarchical Period (B.C. 1100-588). — The foun- dation of the Temple dates from the age of Solomon, the culmination of the Hebrew monarchy. So also we find the Parthenon (House of the Virgin) rose in the age of Pericles, in classic Greece, and St. Peter's in Christian Eome, in the age of Leo x. But if the national prosperity was based on the conquests of David and Solomon, the morals of the palace, crowded with 300 wives and 700 concubines, corrupted the simplicity and purity of the pastoral life of the Hebrew people, and finally resulted in the disruption of the kingdom with two capitals, at Samaria and Jerusalem, at the death of Solomon (b.c. 976). The story of the gradual development of the Temple ritual, the full-blown sacerdotal hierarchy, sacrificial system, and sacred festivals, cannot be followed out in detail in this place. One fact is evident, that the worship of sacred fire, in the form of the seven-branched candle- Introduction. 9 stick, found a place in Solomon's Temple, and sacred festivals held on the periodical return of the new moon, in common with the Parsees, Chaldeans, Babylonians, and Assyrians; and we have just learned that the Sabbath, or rest of the seventh day of the week, was observed in ancient Babylon and Nineveh, the birthplace of Abra- ham, the " Father of the Faithful." N"o doubt the brazen bulls, on which the holy laver rested, as well as the " horns " attached to the altars of incense and sacrifice, were admitted in compliance with the sacred customs of the surrounding Asiatic people — religious phenomena which will not surprise the student familiar with the growth and development of the mediaeval ritual of the ancient Church of European Christendom. Our present object, however, does not require us to offer an exposition of Leviticus or Deuteronomy, the second edition of the Levitical Law, published in the days of Josiah (B.C. 610). But as we have arrived at that period of the history of Israel which runs parallel to the revival of learning in Christian Europe and Britain, the question arises — What is the nature of the religious reformation of ancient Mosaism accomplished by the prophets, seers, and censors of Judeea from the age of Solomon to the Babylonian conquest (B.C. 588) ? Here let the reader bear in mind that the declining period of the Hebrew monarchy corresponds to the same age in Europe from Dante and the Eenaissance to the present day, or from the age of Pericles to the abolition of the old religion by Theodosius the Great, in Greece as well as in Eome (a.d. 381). The first step in the social decomposition was the dis- ruption of the nation into the minor kingdoms of Judah and Israel, with the two capitals of Jerusalem and Samaria, I o The Social Development of the yewish People. the result of which was chronic civil wars and contests for the supremacy, as in Sparta and Athens. The former retained the religion of Judaism, while the latter reverted to the Egyptian worship of the sacred bull (Apis) ; and two schools of prophets date their origin from this epoch, the Prophets or Censors of Judah and Israel; and are more easily understood if regarded as the champions of the Popery and Protestantism of Hebraism. The study of the Chronicles and Kings shows that, over and over again, the accession of a new monarch was followed by the rejection or adoption of the foreign religions of their Asiatic environment, and reminds us of the Papal and Protestant tendencies of the supporters of the old and new faith during the last four centuries in Europe and Britain. The very Law of Moses itself was issued in a second edition — Deuteronomy (Seurepoy-z^oytio?, Second Law) — in the reign of the reforming king Josiah (B.C. 640), not one whit more surprising than the exposition of the Con- fessio Pidei of the Council of Trent, the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, or the Confession of Faith drawn up by the Westminster Assembly so late as the seventeenth century of our own era. But we are specially concerned in this place with the discovery of the germs of the New Religion — the reformed and purer faith which sprang from the stock of the old Mosaism ; and that germ is found in the bosom of the Second Law (Deut. vi. 4) — " Hear, Israel : The Lord our God is one Lord : And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" — the very heart and soul of the Mosaic law of the Ten Commandments planted in the social body of incipient Christianism by the Eeformer of later Judaism. Introduction. 1 1 The very same spirit might be found in the " essence floating free," which forms the intellectual atmosphere of the national collection of Hebrew poems (the Psalms). But the later poets and prophets formulated the protest- ing and reactionary spirit of the age during the religious contests and collisions carried on posterior to the epoch of the Second Law. Consequently we shall proceed to trace the development of Hebrew religious sentiment in their writings — 1st, Down to the Babylonish Conquest; and 2d, During the Provincial Period. 1. The liberal tendencies of the Samaritan prophets are found in the fragments of the writings of Jonah (B.C. 850), who flourished a whole century after the death of Solomon, when commercial and international relations were carried on from the shores of the Mediterranean to the banks of the Euphrates ; and from Tyre, Sidon, Joppa, Jerusalem, and Egypt to Babylon and Nineveh. The sole distinc- tion, in the Divine conceptions over the whole area, lay in the titles assigned to the sun and moon gods, the king and queen of heaven, and their brilliant suite of celestial attendants. The god " El " of the Jew was the very same god as the god II of Babylon, and Allah of the Arabs. So were Baal and Moloch of the Tyrians and Sidonians, the lord and monarch of the skies. So also were the Persian Ormuzd and Ahriman (Ahura-Mazda and Angro- Mainyus), the lord of light and darkness, good and evil ; and the Egyptian Isis and Osiris belonged to the same category. The commercial traveller from Spain to Paissia, from Madrid to Moscow, in Europe, meets with a similar medley of races, languages, and religions in the present day, overshadowed by the same Sun of Paghteousness shining with healing in his wings, in the social firmament. Hence the seer of Samaria who sailed from Joppa, the 1 2 The Social Development of the Jewish People. seaport of Jerusalem, and had travelled over the caravan route to Damascus and Nineveh, proclaimed the ever- lasting gospel of the day — "I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful ; slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil;" and put the unanswerable question to the penitent people in the mouth of Jehovah — "Should not I spare Nineveh that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand per- sons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? " The time was when the poets sang, " All the gods of the people are idols ; " but the God of Samaria is now identiiied with the God of Nineveh, and the penitence of the people proves an acceptable propitiation in his sight. The one thing needful in religious life, according to the Samaritan Hosea, who charges the people with the adop- tion of foreign religions, is " mercy and not sacrifice," the common phrase which played so important a part in the mouth of the Jewish Eeformers at the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem. And the sole desire of the seer's heart for the kingdom of Israel is the restoration of national unity — "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one, head." Such is the earliest form of the so-called " Messianic idea,'' the patriotic long- ing for the re-establishment of the Anointed (Maschach) King in Jerusalem, the old political centre of the kingdom of Israel. We shall see the national feeling growing in depth and intensity after the Babylonian conquest. The stormy tirades of the " herdsman Amos " close with the same prediction and expectation — " In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof. I will raise up his ruins. Introduction. 13 and I will build it as in the days of old." Again, when we turn to Isaiah the First (B.C. 753), as we may style him by way of distinction from the " Great Unknown " author of the second half of the combined work which passes under his name — the seer of Judah and Jerusalem a century later — " the whole land is full of idols," and, in his allegorical language, " the whole head " (of the daughter of Sion) is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." Can any student of religious phenomena be astonished that a Hebrew Puritan, with his tongue tipped with fire from the altar, should have scathed the traditional conven- tionalism and ecclesiastical ceremonialism in language familiar as household words to universal Christendom? " To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomi- nation unto me ; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Learn to do well ; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow (chap. i. 11-17). And when the frenzied prophet stripped himself of his mantle, and symbolised their future cap- tivity by his appearance amongst them as a naked slave for three long years, we must remember not only that chains of slaves were driven in such a guise by the great conquerors of the East, but that Oriental peoples were familiar with the lives of naked Yogis and Gymnosophists devoted hermits and ascetics — subjected to prohibition by the British Government in India in the present day. We need scarcely add that the brilliant peroration of Isaiah's terrible denunciations and personal illustration 1 4 The Social Development of the Jewish People. closes with the glorious vision of the future restoration of the kingdom of Israel in Jerusalem at the hands of " a root of Jesse," the father of the royal house of Judah. It is now agreed on all hands that the famous passage, " Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son," bore immediate reference to the contests and alliances of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel. " For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou abhorrest shall be for- saken," leaves no room for doubt on the subject. The whole soul of the fervid Micah (b.c. 730) must have been sickened with the soothsaying, sorcery, and witchcraft, revolution and counter-revolution, the bloody shambles and reeking incense of the clashing Temples, when he thundered out his burning question to the fiery controversialists of the age — "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? " In the next generation the whole land, suffering from the panic of approaching war, is summoned to a general fast by Joel : " Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them." And the passionate heart of the prophet melts with compassion, and paints his glowing ideals on the veil of futurity Introduction. 1 5 " And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." We shall see by and by the fermenting influence of these visionary ideals in the hearts of the future Eeformer of Galilee, and the transient character of their primitive political and religious effervescence. Can any student be astonished that Jeremiah (b.c. 640- 588), standing on his prophetic watch tower surveying the movements of the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian hosts on the eve of the siege of Jerusalem, burst into wailing lamentation and woe — " Oh that my head were waters, aiid mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people ! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men ; that I might leave my people, and go from them; for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men " — and swept the Temple of Solomon, and the whole sacerdotal and sacrificial paraphernalia from his sight : " I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt- offerings and sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people." Circumcise your hearts is the new order. " And behold the days come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel; I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their heart. And they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them." Still hopes of future restoration. The throne of David and Solomon was buried in the ruins of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem by Nebu- 1 6 The Social Development of the Jewish People. chadnezzar, the king of Babylon ; and the funeral knell of the kingdom of Israel was fitly rung out by the wail of the weeping prophet — the Lamentations of Jeremiah (B.C. 588). The fate of the kingdom of Israel was the common fate of all nations. And it has been truly said, " Ifations have no resurrection." 3. The Provincial Period (B.C. 588 to a.d. 70) — under the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Eoman Em- pires. The first seer who meets us after the Babylonian conquest is Ezekiel, seated on the banks of the river Chebar, outside the city, with dust on his head and sack- cloth on his loins — the true attitude of the widowed daughter of Zion in exile ; and the sole religion left to the people lately sunk in idolatry, and stripped of the paraphernalia and machinery of the national Temple, was purity of heart and life, subjected to the furnace of Babylonian suffering and persecution. " Hope springs eternal in the human breast ; Man never is, but always to be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come ! " Hence we find the pathetic seer of the Hebrew exiles pours promise after promise in the ears of his wailing countrymen : " And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David " (chap, xxxiv. 23). At this point also, during the desolation of Jerusalem, we encounter Isaiah the Second — the " Great Unknown," who drew the portrait of the " Ideal Israelite " — " the righteous servant of Jahveh," — the "despised and re- jected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised Introduction. 1 7 for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth" (chap, liii.), and uttered the "Everlasting Gospel," " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound " (chap. Ixi.) — which cheered the hearts of his captive countrymen, and formed the famous text and manifesto of the future Eeformer of Judaism at the Christian era. Nothing remained to the ideal seer of the Babylonian Captivity but the Temple of Nature — the cathedral of immensity, and the living temple of the heart of humanity : " Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth my foot- stool ; where is the house that ye build unto me 1 and where is the place of my rest ? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord : but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood ; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol " (chap. Ixvi.). The next step in our progress carries us back to Jeru- salem, with Ezra the priest and Nehemiah, the cup- bearer of the Persian monarch, who obtained permission to restore the Temple and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The canon of the Hebrew sacred books was completed by Ezra, according to the traditions of the Talmud. And B 1 8 The Social Development of the Jewish People. the rise of the village synagogue (o-vz'a7£U7?7= assembly), with its elders, is traced to the necessity of expounding the old and obsolete Hebrew dialect to the common people of a later age, which ultimately formed the model of the first Christian Churches. The first appearance of Satan (adversary), with the seven eyes of Jahveh, the seven-branched candlestick, and angels, betrays a new class of religious ideas bor- rowed from their Babylonian and Persian environments in the pages of Zechariah, posterior to the Captivity ; and triumphant shouts welcome the future king, according to the prophet's own imagination : " Eejoice greatly, daughter of Zion ; shout, daughter of Jerusalem : be- hold, thy king cometh unto thee : he is just, and having salvation ; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass " (Zech. ix. 9). The last seer who finds a place in the Hebrew canon still stands on the tip-toe of expectation and longing for the future consolidation of the kingdom of Israel : " Be- hold, I will send my messenger, and he shaU prepare the way before me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall sud- denly come to his temple" (Mai. iii. 1). Hebrew Liteeatuee fkom Malachi to Josephus. The body of literature belonging to this period com- prises twelve fragments of poems, prayers, legends, maxims, and chronicles, passing under the designation of Apocrypha (spurious or extra-canonical), received' into the canon by the mother Church, but rejected by the majority of her later and protesting offspring in modern Christendom ; while " Lessons " only are selected from them by the Church of England in her morning and Introduction. 1 9 The Book of Enoch, brought from Abyssinia in the present century, the Sibylline Oracles, the Psalter of Solomon, and the Book of Jubilees, as well as Philo and Josephus, form an important appendix, and yield the latest products of Hebrew thought and opinion prevalent in the age which gave birth to primitive Galileanism and Jewish Christianism. Chronology apart, the Book of Tobit is saturated with Babylonianism and Assyrianism ; the very atmosphere is full of good and evil angels wherever Tobit, the pious Jew and purveyor of the king of Mneveh, pitches his tent. No matter what happens, whether Asmodeus, the Evil Spirit, falls in love with a maid, or blindness to Tobit himself, the good angel Eaphael is sent to bind the one and heal the other. The very incense of the burning heart and liver of a fish in the presence of a man drives the Devil away ; " alms deliver from death, and purge away all sin," just as charity or loving-kindness covers a multitude of sins, according to Peter. The good counsel, " Do not that which thou hatest " (chap, iv.) is only the negative form of the royal law of love ; and the pious and persecuted Jew, torn from the land of Galilee under Persian rule, still closes his eyes in the vain hope of national resurrection. " They shall return from all places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem, gloriously, and the house of God shall be built in it for ever, with a glorious building, as the prophets have spoken " (chap. xiv.). Two additional works are ascribed to Ezra, but as they form only literary echoes of the earlier prophets, they do not call for any further remarks. Moreover, the glaring interpolations of later Christians denude them of all reliability. 20 The Social Development of the Jewish People. All the astounding visions of Daniel sprang from the same Babylonian and Persian environment, and reveal the symbolical scenery and hieroglyphics familiar to every student of the Assyrian bulls and brick libraries of Mmroud — the tree and serpent worship of the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates. All the critical evidences converge in fixing the age of Antiochus Epiphanes, who prohibited sacrifice in the Temple, as the epoch of its origin. The furnace through which the friends of Daniel passed unscathed, as well as the den of lions (Ari-el = Lion, or Prince of God) was Babylon itself, whose princes subjected the Jews to persecution ; the ram and goat were blazoned on the standards of the Macedonians and Persians, who claimed and contested the empire of the East ; and the conclusion winds up, as usual, with the future glories of the " Anointed Prince," " the Hope of Israel." For what reason we know not, the stinging satire styled " Bel (Belus) and the Dragon " was cut off from the end of Daniel and relegated to the Apocrypha. The Babylonian tyrant and conqueror of the Jews was brought on the stage eating grass like an ox in the former ; while the sacred god of the Temple of Belus, the serpent, was fed on " pitch, and fat, and hair," and exploded before his eyes, in the latter. And the series of legends is crowned with the report of the substantial dinner, and not mere celestial comfort, supplied by Habakkuk, carried by the hair of the head on an angel's wings, to Daniel in the lion's den ; while the Babylonian despot, overwhelmed by the miraculous evidence, cried out with a loud voice, " Great art thou, Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other besides thee ! " Such are samples of the legends and myths (fivdot^ Introduction. 2 1 tales) and pious frauds concocted by Hebrew belaudists to exalt the merits of the spiritual heroes who passed through the Babylonian furnace of affliction and perse- cution in the den of lions. The translation of the Hebrew sacred books into the Greek language at the request of Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 270), for the benefit of the Alexandrian Museum, forms an important epoch ; for it placed the Hebrew Monotheism and morals at the command of the Hellenic and Eoman philosophers, and was undoubtedly filtered into the Sibylline books in Eome, Athens, and Alex- andria. Out of that literary medium sprang the remarkable works passing under the title of the "Wisdom of Solomon," and " Ecclesiasticus," as well as many other minor products found in the Apocrypha. The literary form of expression is moulded on the sententious style of the Hebrew Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, but the new spirit which inspires them is the "Spirit of the Age," — the in- tellectual atmosphere of the Alexandrian Library ; in a word, Hellenic philosophy ((f)i\o-(Toia = love of wis- dom). Wisdom is the key-note of the new Platonic Hebraism which passed through the later phase of Philonism and Neo-Platonism, and gave a philosophical tone to the mediaeval systems of theology. " She is the breath of the power of God, and the image of goodness ; and being but one, she can do all things, and remaining in herself, she maketh all things new ; and in all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God and prophets. Moreover, by means of her I shall obtain immortality, and leave behind me an everlasting memorial to those that come after me " (chap. viii.). Sometimes Wisdom is indeed synonymous with the 2 2 The Social Development of the Jewish People. Word (A070?) of God, and personified over and over again in the Hebrew sacred books as well as Philo, and applied to Jesus in the N'ew Testament. The term, in short, sums up all the attributes of the Deity, and the happy possessor of the Spirit of Wisdom is honoured with the flattering titles of the " Son of God," the " Just man," etc. ; facts which must be carefully attended to in critical in- terpretation and exposition. The existence of death among mankind is traced to the malignity of the Devil. " Through the envy of the Devil came death into the world " (chap. ii.). And the doctrine of the flesh and spirit is as clearly enunciated as in Pauline theology. " For the corrupt body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things " (chap. ix.). In fine, the identity of the cardinal virtues — the heart and soul of Hellenic ethics and philosophy — with the moral law of the Ten Commandments, is fully recognised by the author of the Alexandrian Wisdom of Solomon : " And if a man love righteousness (the characteristic of the Hebrew " Just man "), his labours are virtues, for she teaeheth temperance and prudence (o-co^pocrw?;), justice {SUrj), and fortitude {avhpeia), which are such things as man can have nothing more profitable in this life" (ch. viii.). The long work of the Hebrew preacher (Ecclesiasticus) forms a rich fund of sententious sayings and shrewd maxims adapted to social life. And the omission of Daniel's name from his catalogue of spiritual heroes lends confirmation to the common opinion that the series of visions passing under his name appeared at a later period. The same key-note is struck as in the Wisdom of Solomon, and the whole literary atmosphere re- sounds with the praises of Divine Wisdom, the Almighty Introdtution. 23 Sovereign of the universe, and the Instructor of man- kind : " She is with all flesh according to his gift " (chap, i.), and " in every people and nation " (chap, xxiv.) The Jew is becoming cosmopolitan. So far as we can judge at this distance, the temple of nature (as in Isaiah the Second) has taken the place of the temple made with hands in the estimate of the Hellenic Jew of Alexandria : " He that keepeth the law bringeth offerings enough ; he that taketh heed to the command- ment offereth a peace-offering. He that requireth a good turn offereth fine flour ; and he that giveth alms sacrificeth praise. To depart from wickedness is a thing pleasing to the Lord ; [and to forsake unrighteousness is a propitiation " (chap. xxxv.). " Whoso hououreth his father and mother maketh an atonement for his sin " (chap. iii.). The whole of later Christianity lies in this nut-shell- The two books of Maccabees rank with Foxe's Martyrology, the stirring stories of the Huguenots, Puritans, and Cove- nanters of modern Protestantism, and record the revolt of Matthias and his five sons against the Macedonian Government (b.o. 165), and the attainment of temporary independence in the Asmonean family until the Eoman conquest under Pompey (a.d. 63). And just as we find all the striking events which attract special attention magnified into providences by our Protestant martyro- logist, the very clouds in heaven are transformed into horsemen running in the air on cloth of gold, and armed with lances like bands of soldiers in the feverish excite- ment of battle. " And there appeared unto their enemies from heaven five comely men upon horses with bridles of sold, and two of them led the Jews, and took Maccabeus between them and covered him on every side with their weapons, and kept him safe, but shot arrows and light- 24 The Social Development of the Jewish People. nings against the enemies " (2 Mace. chap. x.). Terrible emphasis is laid on the resurrection of the Hebrew martyrs ; for Eazis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, leapt from a tower rather than fall into the hands of the enemy, "plucked out his bowels, and, taking them in both his hands, he cast them upon the throng, and calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to restore him them again " (2 Mace. chap. xiv.). We shall find the spirit of the Maccabees take possession of Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth, who inspired his Galilean disciples with the watchword of national patriotism, "Call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father who is in heaven." Twelve books of Sibylline Oracles belong to the later Jewish apocalyptic literature which sprang into exist- ence from the age of Antiochus Epiphanes down to the Christian era, and perhaps even after it. But as they are pervaded with the same mystic and visionary char- acter in the hands of their classic, Jewish, and Christian authors, we may safely leave them in nubibus. They all, of course, breathe the same longing for the "Golden Age," as the Cumean Sibyl of the poetic idealist Virgil, the epic vates of Eome. The Psalms of Solomon (18) emanated from the same period, but the references might suit the age of Antiochus Epiphanes equally with the times of Pompey the Great. The date, however, is quite immaterial. They form only a poetic expression of the well-known " Hope of Israel," the longing for national independence through a son or descendant of David — a righteous king taught of God — the anointed of the Lord to rule over Israel, and to " judge the tribes of a people sanctified by the Lord his God." Introduction. 2 5 The Book of Jubilees was mentioned by Jerome as Little Genesis ; but an Ethiopian copy was only brought to Europe in 1844 by Krapff, the missionary. The title is derived from its chronological arrangement according to the year of Jubilee. The work forms a literary curiosity, and appears to have been written for the purpose of carrying back the Jewish culture to the Patriarchal period, and investing it with the sanction and authority of Abrahamic antiquity on the very eve of its dissolution. Tithes, as well as circumcision, is an everlasting ordinance ; the fallen angels are bound in the depths of the earth until the great day of judgment, just as in Peter's letters; and the golden age of one of the last " Fathers of Israel " merits special notice. " The days shall begin to increase, and the children of men shall become older from generation to generation, and from day to day, till their lifetime approaches 100 years. And there shall be none old or weary of life, but they shall be all like children and boys, and shall finish their days in peace and gladness, and shall live without a Satan or any other evil destroyer being present, for all their days shall be days of blessing and healing." Good old soul ! dreaming of future Utopias on the brink of his nation's grave ! Like the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Enoch also was found in an Ethiopian version, brought from Abyssinia by Bruce the traveller in 1773, and published in an English translation by Archbishop Lawrence in 1821. The original work was composed in all probability at the close of the Maccabaean war, in the latter half of the second century (b.c. 136-106); and some critics profess to point out the later interpolations. Standing on his watchtower, as the author did, near the close of his 26 The Social Development of the Jewish People. nation's existence, the entire history of the world, accord- ing to the Jews, from Adam to the last consummation, is arranged in a series of allegorical visions, regarding whose exposition commentators differ as much as in the inter- pretation of the Apocalypse of John. Thirty-seven kings of Israel before, and twenty-three after, the Babylonian Captivity, pass before us in the guise of shepherds of the people; but we need not puzzle our heads over the zoological hieroglyphs — dogs, eagles, kites, ravens, who tear and devour the sheep of Israel. The whole religious atmosphere is saturated and surcharged with the self- same spirit of the age, which burst in lurid lightnings and thunderbolts on the devoted Temple and holy city of Jerusalem until not one stone stood on another — in plain prose, the complete theology found in the lives and letters of the Eeformers of Judaism : The Lord of spirits ; the fall of man ; fallen and unfallen angels, who neither marry nor are given in marriage ; Paradise, Heaven, and Hell under the earth, with an unpassable gulf; the righteous becoming like angels; the Book of Life; the tablet of heaven; the last judgment; and the new heaven where dwelleth righteousness ruled by the Lord's Anointed (Messiah), with a robe brighter than the sun and whiter than snow, seated on an exalted throne canopied with lightnings, and stars, and blazing fire — all minutely described by the favoured seer from personal inspection in Paradise. But as we shall find it necessary to refer to these sources of primitive Christian theology in the sequel, no further remarks are called for at this stage. The grand discovery has scarcely dawned on the world, " blinded with the dust of creed." The next work which merits special notice at our hands is the production of Philo, an Alexandrian Jew, Introduction. 2 7 mentioned by Josephus the historian, who never appears to have heard of his great contemporary, the Gahlean Pro- phet and Reformer. All the leading distinctive doctrines passing under the title of Pauline Christianity, as well as in the treatise addressed to the Hebrews (and now generally assigned to Apollos of Alexandria), are found in the voluminous pages of the Platonic Philo — a fact which need not surprise us any more than the independent origin of German, Swiss, and French Protestantism under Martin Luther, Zwingle, and John Calvin. Most assuredly the religious elements of Hellenism and Hebraism com- pounded by the Platonic Philo sprang from an independent centre of religious distribution, and were embodied by Apollos in the earliest Christian " form of sound words." All traces of old Jewish nationalism and particularism vanish in the literary precincts of the Alexandrian Museum. And the only political Messiah required in Alexandria was fully secured by Philo's own mission to Eome, to plead the cause of his fellow-countrymen. Consequently he enrols himself, like the Eoman philo- sophers of the day, a citizen of the world, and boasts of a God who created the world in the beginning, and is " Father of all men." But although there is no existing being equal to God in Philo's theology, the first-born Word (A6709, reason) is the eldest of his angels, the great archangel of many names ; for he is called the Authority and the "Name of God," and the Word, and the Man according to God's Image (Plato's ideal "type" in heaven), and He who sees Israel. Not only so, "but he has about him an unspeakable number of powers, all of which are defenders and preservers of everything that is created." No one can fail to remark the development of Philo's celestial hierarchy, and angelology, which found its way 2 8 The Social Development of the Jewish People. into later Christian theology. In all probability the purity and profundity of his doctrines were partially due to the mystical teaching of the Therapeutae and Essenes of his Alexandrian environment. But the teacher whom he most delighted to honour was Plato, the great reformer of Hellenic religion and philosophy — "the sweetest of all writers," the very father of all his intellectual light and reasonableness. The world, as well as the soul, is regarded as the temple of the Divine Word (A6709), Eeason, or Wisdom. " There are two temples belonging to God : one being this world, in which the High Priest is the Divine Word (A670?), his own first-born Son. The other -is the Eational Soul, the priest of which is the real true man" (ii. 337). The very Moral Law written on two tables of stone by the finger of Jahveh is resolved into two commandments with as great subtilty as the Galilean Prophet : " Of the ten commandments engraved on these tables, which are properly and especially laws, there is an equal division into two numbers of five ; the first of which contains the principle of justice relating to God, and the second those relating to man" (ii. 126). The whole race of mankind is placed under the dominion of the flesh and spirit — the inferior and the better soul of Plato, just as by Paul, the Eoman Eeformer. The sacrifice of the whole mind to God, the Saviour and Benefactor, is declared to be the only genuine worship with as great distinctness by Philo as by the Prophet of Nazareth : " For what can be a real and true sacrifice but the piety of a soul which loves God ? " (iii. 96-216.) Hereafter we shall see that the Philonian corresponded in its main features both with the Pauline and Apollonian Eeformation. Contemporary as is Philo's Jewish theology Introduction. 29 with the origin of primitive Galileanism and Christianism, it is a thousand times more valuable than all the Targums, Mishna, Gemara, Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds put together. No reliance can be placed on such a chrono- logical conglomeration of commentators, whereas we can quote Philo word for word, and place him side by side with the discourses of the leaders of thought and opinion who laid the foundations of primitive Christianism. The nearest approach to the traditional belief is the sud- den and spontaneous restoration of the people scattered over the earth to " the ancient prosperity of their ancestors ; " " in one day, at a given signal ; to one place pointed out to them, being guided on their way by some vision " {On Curses). The last work which closes the literary development of the Jewish people — The Antiquities and Wars of the Jews — proceeded from the pen of the historian Josephus. It forms a second edition of Hebrew history ; and records the whole political, religious, and moral condition of the people at the birth of Christianity. The Wars of the Jews, or the Destruction of Jerusalem, appeared A.D. 75, only five years after the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. They are simply inestimable for the purpose of under- standing the rise and development of the Christian faith in the midst of dissolving and disintegrating Judaism. All the parties in Church and State pass before the spectator on the dramatic stage of the graphic and elegant historian. And minute descriptions of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Galileans are introduced in their proper place. The " Herodians " are not expressly men- tioned. Nevertheless, the speech put into the mouth of Herod, at the restoration of the Temple of Jerusalem, leaves no doubt on the mind that he claimed, in that 30 The Social Development of the Jewish People. very account, to be the expected " King of the Jews " ■who "had advanced the nation to a degree of happiness they never had before" {Antig. xv. 11, i; Hansrath's Times of Jesus, vol. ii. 22). But our modern critics still controvert the famous paragraph which makes only a passing allusion to the Messiah, or the " Anointed " Prophet of Nazareth and the Christians. And yet notice is taken of the stoning of James, his brother. Not a single word bears reference to any miraculous birth — not even to the massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem, nor to a resurrection from the dead, or ascension to heaven like Enoch or Elijah in a chariot of fire and horses of fire. Over and over again, the last war with the Eomans is stated to have arisen from the attempts of the " Zealots " to recover their national independence. And the whole country was overrun with the chiefs of bands of robbers and brigands, who assumed the title of " kings " for that purpose. So frenzied were the people, that Theudas, a magician, deluded them by promising to play the part of Moses and Joshua and divide the waters of Jordan, but the miracle failed in the execution. And the last signs, omens, and prodigies crowded round the destruction of Jerusalem — stars, comets, heifers giving birth to lambs, chariots and troops of soldiers rushing through the clouds of heaven, and the voice of a great multitude in the air, saying, " Let us remove hence " — form a singular class of social delusions which have not been frequently recorded in national history. But the most terrible and pathetic phenomenon to Josephus was the dying wail of the last of the Hebrew prophets, named Jesus, who persisted, in the midst of scoffs and stones, to cry — " ' Woe, woe to Jerusalem ! woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house ! ' And just as he added at the Introduction. 3 1 last, ' Woe, woe to myself also ! ' there came a stone out of the engines and smote him and killed him immediately, and as he was uttering the very same presages, he gave up the ghost." But we have no intention of offering a critical analysis of the Hebrew theology peculiar to Josephus in this place. We shall find occasion to refer to the popular beliefs, superstitions, and delusions mentioned by the historian in our future pages, such as, e.g., the conversation of God with men, prophetic inspiration, also claimed for himself, demons, and souls of dead men taking possession of living ones, miraculous signs, divine indications, etc. The primitive tabernacle, as well as the Temple of Solomon, formed symbolical types and representations of the universe and heaven, according to Josephus ; and the sum and substance of the Jewish religion is con- densed by the philosophical historian into simple justice towards men, and piety towards God. Singxilar to relate, Vespasian, the Eoman conqueror and Emperor of Judaea, was regarded by Josephus as the divine fulfilment of all the nation's long-lived aspirations. " But now what did the most elevate them, in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle, that was also found in their sacred writings, how ' about that time one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth.' The Jews took this prediction to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the "overnment of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judsea." (Josephus, Wars of the, Jews, b. vi. chap. 5, § 4). Josephus must be regarded as a favourable type of the philosophical Jew who adapted the Eoman and Hellenic culture of the age, and may enable us to form a proper 32 The Social Development of the Jewish People. estimate of his enthusiastic contemporary, Paul, the Jewish Pharisee, who expanded Galileanism into cosmo- politan Christianism, and took the leading part in- the reformation of the Eoman Empire. " In not one of the numerous works discussed by us," is the conclusion of Schiirer, in The Jewish People in the Times of Jesus Christ, "have we found the slightest allusion to a.n atoning suffering of Messiah. That the Jews were far from entertaining such an idea, is abundantly proved by the conduct of both the disciples and opponents of Jesus (Matt. xvi. 22 ; Luke xviii. 34, xxiv. 21 ; John xii. 34). Accordingly it may well be said that it was on the whole one quite foreign to Judaism in general " (Division ii., vol. ii. p. 187). Such, then, is the merest outline of the religious development of the Jewish people during the tribal, monarchical, and provincial phases of their national existence. And the special attention which we have paid to the last age of social and religious decomposition and recomposition, and the continuity of Jewish literary activity, should have prepared the mind of every earnest student to enter upon the future investigation and dis- cussion of the Lives and Letters of the Eeformers of ancient Judaism. N.B. — As this is a mere skeleton of the development of Jewish opinion, more especially regarding the restora- tion of National Independence, the student should take up each author separately, and acquire exact notions of the opinions belonging to his own age ; and reject the obsolete method of foisting the whole " Eeformed Opinions " of a later age into the work of every author. BOOK I. LIVES, LETTERS, AND OPINIONS OF THE EEFOEMERS OP JUDAISM AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTEE I. THE LIVES AND OPINIONS OF JEHOSHUA (GEEEK, JESUS) THE PROPHET OF NAZAEETH OF GALILEE. " The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." — Rev. xix. 10. Here, at the outset, the preliminary question arises : What account does the earliest extant Christian historian give of the genesis and development of " the new and strange religion " of the Eoman Empire at the era of its adoption by the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, and the formulation of the Creed at the Nicene Council, a.d. 325 ? For the reply given by Eusebius, in his Ecclesias- tical History, furnishes us with the information which determines the whole course of our future inquiries — we mean the nature of the genuineness, authenticity, and authority of the sacred books which formed the Christian canon (Kavcov) or rule of faith. For example, Eusebius states that Luke's biography of Jesus was founded on second-hand testimony, and that he was an " eye-witness " of the "Acts of the Apostles." But his statement is open to c 34 The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. question regarding the lives both of Peter and Paul ; and Luke, for aught we know to the contrary, may have borrowed some of his materials from the spurious " Acts " of Peter and Paul. " The Epistles of Paul are fourteen, are well known, and beyond doubt. It should not, how- ever, be concealed that some have set aside the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that it was disputed, as not being one of St. Paul's Epistles. Among the disputed books, although they are well known and approved by many, are reputed those called the Epistles of James and Jude ; also the two Epistles of Peter, and those called the Second and Third of John." His statements regarding the Eevelation of St. John, taken from Papias, are as follows : " It is here proved that the statements of those are true who assert that there are two of the same name in Asia ; that there were also two tombs in Ephesus, and that both are called Johns even to this day, which it is particularly necessary to observe. For it is probable that the second, if it be not allowed that it was the first, saw the revela- tions ascribed to John." Again, " Clement (Alexandrian) also gives the tradition respecting the order of the Gospels as derived from the oldest presbyters, as follows : he says that those which contain the genealogies were written first, and adds the following quotation from Origen : ' As I have understood from tradition respecting the four Gospels, which are the only undisputed ones in the whole Church of God throughout the world, the first is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a publican, but afterwards an apostle of Jesus Christ (anointed), who having published it for the Jewish converts, wrote it in Hebrew. The second is according to Mark, who com- posed it as Peter explained to him, whom he also acknowledges as his son in his general Epistle, sayinc, The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. 35 " The elect church in Babylon salutes you, as also Mark my son ; " and the third according to Luke, the Gospel commended by Paul, which was written for the converts from the Gentiles ; and last of all, the Gospel according to John.' " The only Gospel admitted by the Ebionites, Nazarites, or primitive Jewish Christians, who followed the Prophet of Nazareth, was Matthew, without the genealogy, as we learn from Irenseus. But this subject will come before us again. Such are the plain statements of Eusebius regarding the miscellaneous Christian literature which was soon placed side by side with the sacred books of the Jews ; and all the false gospels and patristic literature sifted from the collection, even after having been publicly read in the early Christian Churches, may be found within the boards of a single volume published in the library of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. Por example, the Pastor of Hermas was excluded according to Eusebius. " But as the same apostle, in the addresses at the close of the Epistle to the Eomans, has among others made mention also of Hermas, of whom they say we have the book called Pastor, it should be observed that this too is disputed by some, on account of which it is not placed among those of acknowledged authority. By others it is judged most necessary, especially to those who need an elementary introduction. Hence we know that it has been already in public use in our churches, and I have also understood by tradition that some of the most ancient writers have made use of it." So also was Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians. And we quote the following passage for the purpose of showing that great diversity of opinion existed amongst the early Christians at the date of their recognition by Constantine the Great. "Among the 36 The Lives and Opinions of Jestis. spurious must be numbered both the books called ' The Acts of Paul; and that called ' Pastor/ and ' The Eevela- tions of Peter.' Besides these, the books called ' The Epistle of Barnabas,' and what are called ' The Institutions of the Apostles.' Moreover, as I said before, if it should appear right, ' The Eevelation of St. John,' which some as before said reject, but others rank among the genuine. But there are also some who number among these the Gospel according to the Hebrews, with which those of the Hebrews that have received Christ are particularly- delighted," — with several additional gospels. Not only so, but the copies of the Mss. were liable to pious frauds, forgeries, and interpolations by the champions of every new sect that came into existence. Hence his indignant complaint : " But as to these men who abuse the acts of the unbelievers to their own heretical views, and who adulterate the simplicity of that faith con- tained in the Holy Scriptures, saying that they have cor- rected them, and that I do not say this against them without foundation, whoever wishes may learn ; for should any one collect and compare their copies one with another, he would find them greatly at variance among themselves." The most notorious instance of this practice of adapta- tion to the theological systematic development, was the " Three Witnesses " (1 John), foisted into the manuscripts after the Mcene Council, lately rejected in the new revision of the New Testament. And rival schools of criticism are as rife as ever, fifteen centuries after the foundation of the first Christian empire. So much for the literary documents containing the Christian " Eule of Faith." Our present object is not to discuss the present state of the received texts, collation of MSS,, various readings, surviving interpolations, and The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. 37 mistranslations. We trust our historical method will place us in a vantage-ground beyond all the petty questions of textual criticism. The net results regarding the Christian literature which formed the sources of the lives and letters of the Reformer of Judaism are: 1. The Ebionites, Nazarenes, Galileans, or Jewish Christians, who adhered, like the founder, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, to the national religion, and observed the Temple ritual in Jerusalem, only accepted the Gospel according to Matthew, with the omission of the genealogy, miraculous birth, etc. But even if it could be proved that the angelic announce- ment itself formed part of the first edition of Matthew's biography, the application of the title " Son of the Highest " is quite consistent with Jewish Christianity ; and the quotation of the famous passage regarding a virgin in Isaiah, which referred to the birth and growth of a child in that age, must have been foisted into the text like the " Three Witnesses," after the formation of the Nicene Creed, by some Eoman or Greek Christian, who believed in " Sons of God." 2. The second in order of publication was the Gospel according to Luke, the friend and physician of Paul. 3. The Gospel according to Mark was written at Peter's dictation. 4. The fourth and " Spiritual Gospel " was written by John, the beloved disciple. 5. Fourteen letters are ascribed to Paul. 6. The authority of James, Jude, the second and third letters of John, Second Peter, the Acts of the Apostles, the Hebrews, and the Eevelation were open to question. Here, we need scarcely add, there is scope enough for collation and correction of mss., critical analysis, and careful interpretation, and sufficient grounds for the great diversity of opinion which exists at the present day. 38 The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. The First Phase of Chkistianity. — Galileanisji. To begin with the first question : What is the nature of the Jewish Christianity — the Ebionitism (g&io?i=poor), Nazaritism, or Galileanism founded by Jehoshua (Jesus), the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee % And the full reply to the question invites an inquiry regarding (1) "The sect of Galileans everywhere spoken against;" (2) The connection of Jesus with his cousin, John the Baptist ; and (3) His independent mission as prophet and preacher to the poor — the champion of the neglected classes of the age, in accordance with his own announcement, " I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 1. " The, sect of Galileans everywhere spoken against." — All we know regarding the Galileans, from Matthew and his fellow-biographers, is that Jesus was the son of Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth, a town in Galilee ; that he started on his mission as prophet at thirty years of age, followed the standard of his cousin John until his death, and proclaimed the establishment of " the kingdom of God," with the prohibition, " Call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven." The fact is unmistakable that the new prophet served himself heir to the hereditary mission of all his prede- cessors—the restoration of national independence and the censorship of the priesthood and people. The peculiar form which the popular protest assumed at the outset of his career must have been determined by the Galilean sect founded by Judas of Galilee — a fact which we learn from Josephus the historian. After stating the doctrines of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, he says : " But of the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy, Judas the Galilean was the author. These men agree in all other The Lives and Opinions of J^esus. 39 things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only ruler and Lord. They also do not value dying any kinds of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends ; nor can any such fear make them call any man Lord." Hence the jubilant tone of his father at the birth and circumcision of John the Baptist : " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David ; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us ; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant ; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest : for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways ; to give the knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God ; whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." That splendid passionate outburst of patriotic feeling is only an echo of the old prophets, and was destined to disappointment. So also were the glorious hopes of the just and devout Simeon, in the presence of the root of the house of David in the Temple, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Hence, too, his cousin John, imprisoned by Herod Antipas, sent his disciples to put 40 The Lives and Opinions of Jestts. the question : " Art .thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" and the only reply was, "Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them; and blessed is he who does not find me a stumbling-block." Hence the Pharisees tested him with questions : " Is it lawful to give tribute unto Csesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites ? Show me the tribute-money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he said unto them, Whose is this image and super- scription ? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then said he unto them, Eender therefore unto Ceesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." His astute reply was sufficient for the purpose of silencing his enemies. But his private opinion was elicited in the course of a conversation with Peter, regarding the pay- ment of Eoman tribute — the prudent policy of compliance with the demands of the Eoman government. Once, indeed, when the spies of the priesthood put a question involving the discharge of civil and judicial functions — " Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inherit- ance with me " — he said to him, " Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you ? " He foiled his opponents by adopting the retort of the Egyptian taskmasters to Moses. The impression left on the minds of Peter, James, and John during his brilliant conversation regarding the reforming missions of Moses and Elijah must have deepened their belief in his revolutionary aims and tendencies. If not, what did he mean by the predictive assurance, " Ye shall not have gone over the cities of The Lives and Opinions of Jestis. 41 Israel till the ' Son of Man ' "be come " ? And why did the mother of James and John petition their leader for places in the future " kingdom " of Israel, and receive the response, veiled in oracular ambiguity, " It shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father " ? Why did he ride in a procession on an ass into Jerusalem, amidst popular demonstrations, and acclamations of " King of Sion " and " Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee " ? And why, above all, did he plait a whip of cords, and enter the holy Temple, and drive out the sheep and the oxen, and pour out the changers' money, and overthrow the tables, and say to them, " Take these things hence ; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise " ? Most assuredly multitudes of his followers not only cherished the fond expectation, the hereditary longing for national indepen- dence, in spite of the terrible repression of former insur- rections, but desired him to assume the royal office of the " Lord's Anointed " (Messiah), and fulfil the hope of Israel. " When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him king, he departed again into a mountain by himself alone." But the judicial opinion of the Jewish Sanhedrim, the "Fathers of Israel," who had tracked the steps of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee with spies, and digested all the reports, removes all doubts on this important point. " Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we ? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him : and the Eomans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that 42 The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. the whole nation perish not." We need not repeat the pathetic and harrowing details of his sudden arrest, trial, crucifixion, and burial. They are familiar as household words to universal Christendom. And the martyr's heroism has proved bones and marrow to suffering and persecuted Christians in every age and clime. The very " soldiers led him away into the hall called Prtetorium ; and they call together the whole band. And they clothed him with purple, and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews ! And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him." And an epigraph also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, " This is the King of the Jews." But if any student of these Christian memoirs entertains the slightest doubt that the fundamental hopes of his disciples were dashed to the ground by his sudden arrest and martyrdom, let him read the simple record : " And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three- score furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus him- self drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them. What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto him. Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass in these days ? The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. 43 And he said unto them, "What things ? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people : and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had hem he who should have redeemed Israel : and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done. Then said he unto them, fools, and slow of heart to believe all that .the prophets have spoken : ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight." Now, by way of testing this narrative by the historical method, we simply ask, what value would the student attach to such a report in the pages of Foxe, the martyrologist, at the epoch of our own Reformation ? We have thus attempted to give an harmonious account of the rise and progress of the " sect of Galileans every- where spoken against," according to the Gospel of Matthew (supplemented by the biographies of Mark, Luke, and John), of course without any reference to the genealogy and miraculous birth, rejected by the Nazarites and Ebio- nites. And it is consistent with the express statements of Matthew, "when the multitudes saw it they mar- velled, and glorified God, who had given such power to men ; " as well as of Eusebius, the first Christian his- torian, "These are properly called Ebionites {ebion = poor) by the ancients, as those who cherished low and mean opinions of Christ (the Anointed). For they con- sidered him a plain and common man, and justified only 44 The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. by his advances in virtue, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary by natural generation. With them the observance of the law was altogether necessary, as if they could not be saved only by faith in Christ, and a corre- sponding life" (Euseb. p. 102). Three centuries of Christianity in the hands of Paul, the Eoman Eeformer, and the Greek and Eoman "Fathers," clothed the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee with the halo and glories of apotheosis ; but the contemporary series of Eoman emperors, including Constantine the Great, was honoured with the same Eoman deification. 2. Tlia Connection of Jesus, the Prophet of Nazardh of Galilee, with his cousin, John the Baptist. — Why did the Galilean Jesus enrol himself in the discipleship of the popular prophet of the day, the son of Zacharias, the priest of Judah, with his raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat locusts and wild honey, preaching in the wilderness ? Both of them were ISTazarites, and "tasted neither wine nor strong drink." All the motives which swayed the young Gali- lean are beyond our reach. One thing is evident, the schools of the prophets were familiar to the minds of the Jewish people, and his cousin John started on his pro- phetic career at an earlier date than himself, in all pro- bability because he had received his theological education at the Temple and the traditional sanction of the Sanhe- drim of Jerusalem. Joshua (with whom he is compared in Hebrew) was prepared at the feet of Moses for the leadership of the people of Israel and the Land of Promise. Elisha followed Elijah before he caught his master's mantle, and both of their names were alluded to in his first discourse in the synagogue of Nazareth. Josephus the historian also mentions that he spent three years in The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. 45 attendance on one Barus, who lived in the desert and used no clothing. Be that as it may, the office which John assumed was the herald of the expected Messiah, "the very latchet of whose sandals," said he, " I am not worthy to unloose." And when Jesus did attach himself to his prophetic school, his complimentary assertion, "I have need to be baptized of you," was set aside by the defer- ential reply, " Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness." No doubt the " counsels of perfection," which the rigid moralist and ascetic addressed to the publicans, soldiers, and people generally, who con- fessed their sins, produced an ineffaceable impression on his susceptible soul. And when John laid his axe to the root of all the spiritual pride and haughtiness of the Pharisees, founded on their hereditary descent from Abraham, the "Father of the Faithful," we may be sure he never forgot them in his future denunciations of their sectarian animosities and corruption of the national priest- hood. John fell a victim at an early date to his own prophetic furore, and censure of Herod Antipas, on account of taking possession of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife ; while his cousin only gave expression to the popular feeling when he said, " Among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." At the same time he stamped the striking characteristic of the last of the prophets of the old Jewish and the first of the Chris- tian order with a single stroke of illustrative genius: " Whereunto shall I liken the men of this generation ? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the market-place, and calling unto one another, and saying. We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. 46 The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine ; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking ; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners ! But Wisdom is justified of all her children." 3. Wliat, then, fm-ms the distinctive characteristic of the religious, moral, and social Reformer of ancient Judaism ? — Apart from the political aspect of his native Galilean- ism, we reply, his independent mission as prophet and preacher to the poor, the champion of the neglected classes of his age, in accordance with his own announce- ment, " I am not sent, except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and the positive foundation of a social brother- hood — the nucleus of a new " kingdom of God " on earth, placed under the government of the spirit of the Moral Law of Moses — the love of God and man. The text of his first discourse was taken from Isaiah the Second as the ieau-id^al of the righteous servant of God (Luke iv. 18-21). "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," stands at the head of his reforming proclamation. "Sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven," was the test of discipleship. "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not ; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," were the missionary orders given to the twelve disciples sent to the twelve tribes of Israel ; and they were repeated to other seventy (borrowed from the legislative council of Moses) also, when he "sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come." The source of his own livelihood is ascribed to the generosity of some wealthy female followers, who " had been healed of evil The Lives and Opinions of yesiis. 47 spirits and infirmities :" " And certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered unto him of their property." And in all probability it was an annual provision, the voluntary offering of female gratitude and devotion. Accordingly, when he reminded an enthusiastic Scribe of his houseless condition during his prophetic pilgrimage, who came and said to him, " Master, I will follow you wherever you go ;" his pathetic reply is, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay his head," is chargeable with no inconsistency. Here the question arises. Has not the Galilean prophet and successor of John the Baptist next adopted the doc- trines and life of the Essenians, mentioned by Philo and Josephus, who devoted themselves to a coenobite life {kouvcx; /3to9 = common life or co-operative association) on the banks of Jordan as well as in Egypt ? Strange to say, the Essenes are never mentioned by name in the New Testament, but they must have been familiar to the Jews and his disciples, who travelled over the length and breadth of the land on their missionary tours. In fact, De Quincey devoted an essay to prove the identity of the Essenians and Christians, and his evidences were — (1) They formed a religious brotherhood based on a community of goods; (2) Eiches were therefore held in contempt; (3) Marriage was prohibited to the members, but one party adopted it with restrictions; (4) Swearing oaths was forbidden ; (5) No provision was made on travelling, but they practised hospitality; (6) Medicine was prac- tised ; (7) No animal sacrifices were offered in the Temple 48 The Lives and Opinions of Jesus. of Jerusalem ; (8) Prophets and interpreters of dreams were found amongst them; (9) Special rules were laid down for the regulation of praise, prayer, and preaching, and the permission of public speaking granted by turns to the members; (10) And all the members were sworn to keep their doctrines a secret from the rest of the world. No doubt there are strong points of likeness between the two sects — the Purists and Puritans of Palestine, and any one can trace out the details for himself; but their independent existence is an historical fact vouched for by Josephus the historian, and Philo of Alexandria. And if the Galilean reformer adopted a number of the Essenian doctrines and practices, he only trod in the footsteps of his prophetic predecessors. At the very outset of his career, his assurance to the people was : " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." And again, to his own dis- ciples : " Herein is that saying true. One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that wherein ye bestowed no labour; other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." So far as his esoteric or secret doctrines are concerned, his revolutionary aims were only mentioned to his fav- ourite disciples, Peter, James, and John, on Mount Tabor, in a conversation regarding his predecessors, Moses and Elijah; and the necessity of caution in the midst of the Herodian, Pharisaic, and Sadducean factions led him to clothe his social and religious reforms in the lan- guage of oriental fable or parable, which he privately expounded in detail to his own disciples (Mark iv. 33). The fulness of time was come, and the Augustan age of the Eoman Empire was ripe for reformation. The Opinions of Jesus. 49 CHAPTER II. THE OPINIONS OF JESUS. Let us now look a little more closely at the nature and development of Judaism in the hands of Jesus ; and for the sake of order we shall arrange his opinions under the following subjects : (1) On the Sacred Books of the Jews; (2) on the ISTature and Character of the Deity; (3) the Temple Eitual; (4) the Priesthood and People; (5) the Sabbath ; (6) Heaven and Good Angels ; Hell, Satan, Evil Angels, and Demons ; (7) Pre-visions regard- ing the Future Pate of the Jewish Church and State. 1. The Sacred, Boohs of the Jews are quoted by the Pro- phet of Nazareth of Galilee as " the law, the psalms, and the prophets;" and the only charge he brought against the Scribes and Pharisees of the day was the imposition of heavy burdens which they would not touch with one of their fingers ; and making the commandments of God of no effect through their traditions. The very " Father of the Faithful " himself, in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, re-echoes the popular belief from the depths of Sheol and the invisible world : " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead." At the same time the Sadducees, like the Samaritans who founded the kingdom of Israel at the death of Solomon, only accepted the Pentateuch or five books of Moses, and believed neither in angels, the immortality of the soul, nor " Abraham's bosom," the title given to the invisible world of the Hebrews. Accordingly, the most revolutionary speech uttered by the Jewish 50 The Opinions of Jesus. Eeformer was made at Jacob's Well in Sychar, a city of Samaria, and revealed his revolutionary tendencies towards the simple worship of the patriarchs : " The woman saith to him, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what : we know what we worship : for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith to him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ (Anointed) : when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith to her, I that speak to you am he." Copies of the Greek translation of the Hebrew sacred books were made under Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alex- andria, passed under the name of the Septuagint, and must have been in the possession of the wealthy classes. Quotations are given from it, at any rate, in the letters of the reformers ; and the very language of Jesus himself is borrowed from the mystic and visionary Book of Enoch, which gave expression to the future hope of the nation, as we shall see under future heads. But as the introduction of Parables formed a marked characteristic of the Prophet's popular addresses, we shall give a short summary of their general nature. The adop- tion of instruction by similes, likenesses, parables, or fables forms a distinctive feature of the teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, and was a practice common to almost all the great races and religions of the East, The Opinions of Jesti^s. 5 1 as we know from Pilpay's Fables in India, ^sop in Greece, and Pheedrus in Eome. Such similes were always taken from the ordinary and homely relations of social life, and served to attract the attention and impress instruc- tion on the mind of the listeners, and also to conceal, when necessary, the Prophet's assaults on the corruptions of the priesthood and the popular religion. The whole series arose out of the successive steps of his religious career and development, and may be classed under — 1. The destruction of the old faith — likened to an old garment and cracked bottle (sheep-skin) (Matt. ix.). 2. True and false teachers — likened to blind leaders, shepherds, and hirelings (Matt. xv. ; John x.). 3. Symptoms of negligence, decay, disaster, and pre- monition of future judgment on the old faith — likened to a householder and vineyard (Matt, xxi.) ; marriage-feast (Matt, xxii.) ; fig-tree (Matt, xxiv.) ; householder and thief (Matt, xxiv.) ; wise and foolish virgins (Matt, xxv.) ; supper to the poor (Luke xiv.). 4. The propagation of a new faith necessary — likened to a sower (Matt, xiii.) ; the fishing-net (Matt, xiii.) ; the householder (Matt. xiii.). 5. The essential nature of pure and undefiled religion — likened to food (Matt, xv.) ; lost sheep (Matt, xviii.) ; the king (Matt, xviii.) ; the householder (Matt, xx.) ; the two sons (Matt, xxi.) ; the talents (Matt, xxv.) ; the judgment- seat (Matt, xxv.) ; the debtor and creditor (Luke vii.) ; the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi.) ; the Pharisee and publican (Luke xviii.) ; the good Samaritan (Luke x.) ; the rich man and barns (Luke xii.) ; the banquet and the poor (Luke xiv.) ; the Pharisee and the penitent son (Luke XV.); the vine and branch (John xv.); washing the disciples' feet (John xiii.). 5 2 The Opinions of Jesus. 6. The value and importance of true religion — the treasurer (Matt, xiii.) ; the pearl (Matt. xiii.). 7. The gradual progress and development of religious and moral life in individuals and nations — the mustard- seed (Matt.- xiii.) ; the leaven or yeast (Matt. xiii.). Willing obedience to the law of the " kingdom of God," or the physical, moral, and social government of God in the world, is the beginning, middle, and end of all the Prophet's teaching ; but, like the founders of all sects of religion and philosophy, " faith " in your " rabbi " (great one), master (/cvpto?) or teacher (StSacr/caXo?), is required of every disciple. If the leading purpose of the parable, or the subject of instruction, viewed through the medium of the illustration, is kept in view, the interpre- tation could scarcely be mistaken : e,.g. take the " king- dom " or government of God, likened to mustard-seed. The germ of the new faith which he planted in the minds of his first disciples in Judsea — one hundred miles long by eighty broad — was carried into nearly every province of the Eoman Empire by Paul of Tarsus and his fellow-mis- sionaries, and overshadowed the Christian communities of Europe and Britain. And the period which transpired during the seed-time, bloom, and harvest was eighteen centuries. The idea was simple, but the time of its development was long. Jesus of GaUlee and Paul of Tarsus, however, were men of far-seeing minds, who glanced from the beginning to the end of the lifetime of the nations of Babylonia, Assyria, Chaldea, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Eome, and Judsea. 2. The Deity (Heb. Jahveh = Being or Life). What is the dominant idea which pervades the teaching of the Jewish Eeformer regarding the Divine nature and char- acter, according to his biographers ? " Eepent ye (or The Opinions of Jesus. 53 consider your conduct), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," was the leading announcement of John the Baptist ; and the very same phrase was taken up and repeated by his successor, Jesus, with slight variations. " Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand : repent ye, and believe the gospel " (good news). The phrase, in fact, formed the fundamental religious idea of the Jewish people ; the perpetual boast of all the patriarchs, poets, and prophets ; the distinctive principle of the " peculiar people," who protested against all the gods of the sur- rounding nations, the polytheism of the East. " Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth through all generations ; " and just because it was a popular phrase in everybody's mouth, it runs through all the speeches and conversations of the Eeformer and his disciples. But the old and worn-out formula of the ancient theocracy was displaced in the heart of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee by the favourite phrase, familiar to every father of a family — the sons of Abraham, the father of the faithful, and the highland home of his childhood — " Call no man Master : one is your Father in heaven." And when the enthusiastic Prophet stood on the Mount of Blessings, pointing contrast after contrast be- tween the old and new faith of the day : " You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbour, and hate your enemy. But I say unto you. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefuUy use you, and persecute you ; that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven : for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and o^ 54 The Opinions of Jesus. the unjust. Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." We need not wonder that a woman cried out : " Blessed is the womb that bare you, and the paps which you have sucked," when they felt themselves to be sons and daughters of such a Father in heaven. The homely (home-like) phrase comes naturally from his heart from his earliest childhood, and drops from his lips at the hour of death on the cross. The first words which fell on the ears of his anxious parents, who lost him in the caravan, and found him sitting amongst the doctors in the Temple, were, "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business ? " His Father in heaven is uppermost in every speech. The ruling senti- ment of his whole life was, " I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me." Such is the divine fatherhood, the spirit of Galilean independence and brotherhood, which lies at the basis of the reformed faith of ancient Judaism. Accordingly, when the announcement of his own mother and brethren was made in the midst of a public address, he stretched forth his hands towards his disciples, and said, " Behold my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." But the very simplicity and familiarity of his style laid him open to attack on more than one occasion. E.g., one day Jesus walked in Solomon's Porch. " Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt ? If you be the Christ (Anointed), tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not : the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. I and my Father are one " {ev), one in will and affection, as " Paul and Apollos are one," The Opinions of Jesus. 5 5 (1 Cor. iii. 8). Here the claim of possessing the same spirit as his Father was justified by a reference to a Hebrew poem (Ps. Ixxxii.), in which the poetic parallel renders " gods " by " children of the Most High." " I have said, You are gods," i.e. " all of you are children of the Most High." And the religious childlikeness of his character, deep- ened by the consciousness and responsibility of his divine mission, is specially recorded by his biographers. " And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God" (Luke vi. 12). "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Master, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. The "Form of Prayer" prescribed to the disciples of Jesus is referred to by his biographers (Matt. vi. 9, Luke xi. 1, John xvi. 23), in accordance with the common prac- tice of the age adopted by the leading Eabbis of the popular sects. Any one desirous of verifying the practice of the age may find the evidence by consulting the English translation of the " Blessings " (Berakhoth) of the Talmud, in which reference is made to such prayers, drawn up " in the name," or by the sanction and authority of, the Jewish Eabbis. N:B. — Nothing more than a simple contrast between the divine "Sovereignty"' and "Paternity," with their associated characters of "justice" and " generosity," the two fundamental ideas which dominated the religious sentiments of the old and new faith of Judaism, has been attempted in this place. The full consideration of Hebrew and Christian theology, the genesis and development of the " divine conceptions " during the tribal, monarchical, and provincial periods of the kingdom of Israel, would require a volume. But in spite of the great importance 56 The Opinions of Jesus. of the subject, we must content ourselves with the mere statement that the origin of our modern Calvinism and Arminianism, Theism and XJniversalism, sprung from the selection of the one in preference to the other metaphor. 3. The Holy Temple and Levitical Ritual. — What is the nature of divine worship — the right method of expressing the deep-felt sense of divine worth, the supreme majesty, reverence, and gratitude springing from the heart and soul of our common humanity ? is the fundamental, perennial, persistent, and ever-recurring question of all prophets, poets, and philosophers in every age and clime. And the soul of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee was saturated with the spirit of all the patriarchs, poets, and prophets recorded in their sacred books, from Moses to Gamaliel, and from Adam, the son of God, to Abraham, the father of the faithful, and friend of God. The style varies, but the question is always the same as in Micah's age : " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? " Accordingly, the standard of all his religious and moral judgments is based on the creed of creeds — " the loveliness of perfect deeds," done out of fel- low-feeling to suffering humanity : " Verily I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me " (Matt. xxv. 40). When he was taunted with sitting at meat with publicans and sinners in Matthew's house, the answer leapt to his mouth : " Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice : for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." When " he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said. The kingdom of God Cometh not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of The Opinions of Jesus. 5 7 God is within you.'' The divine government set up iu the heart was the true kingdom of God. Time after time every opportunity was snatched for the purpose of repeating the genial lesson of sympathy for sinning and suffering humanity to his fellow-men, distracted by the clashing sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. The woman caught in adultery was hurried into his presence by the crowds, ready to stone her to death by the law of Moses : " What sayest thou ? He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." The Pharisees and the female victim of society — types of the fortunate and fallen classes of every com- munity — stand face to face before each other, in the graphic picture of his biographers for Christian instruc- tion and example ; and not a single trait of the splendid original must be touched by a modern hand. We refer to Simon and " the woman in the city, who was a sinner " (Luke vii. 37). The only sacrifice required at his hand in every instance was the sacrifice of sin ; the sole worship, the love of righteousness (or justice), mercy, and humility. Conse- quently the poor widow who cast into the treasury of the Temple " all the living that she had " — two mites — is dowered with greater praise than the offerings of all the rich men who poured in the " tithe " out of their abund- ance (Luke xxi.). And the substitution of paternal generosity in the stead of sovereign justice — the royal law of love for judicial retribution and legal vengeance, which distinguished the old and new faith of Judaism — was taken from the heart of the second edition of the law of Moses (Deut. vi. 4). The narrative of Mark gives the grandeur and simplicity of the conversation which took place on the occasion with great vividness (Mark xii.). 5 8 The Opmions of Jesus. The ten words of Moses were reduced to two, justice to God and man, by his contemporary, Philo of Alex- andria. Justice and pity also summed up the religious doctrines of the 4000 Essenes on the banks of Jordan. All honour and gratitude to the reformers of ancient Mosaism and Judaism, who sprung from various centres of religious distribution ; took the heart and soul out of the costly and cumbrous ceremonialism of the Jewish Temple and ritual ; and, lastly, condensed the moral law, or law of human nature, as was done by Paul in one word — "Love is the fulfilment of the law" — for the inspiration of universal humanity. Such being the critical, analytic, and profound character of the lofty ideals of the religious reformation of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, can any student of human nature be surprised that his prophetic thunders burst on the head of the transparent hypocrisies and perfunctory performances of the traditional customs of Solomon's Temple and Levitical ritual ? Hear his own critical contrasts, scathing and satirical comments on the Pharisees of Jerusalem and every age : " When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites : for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Enter into your closet, pray to your Father which is in secret ; and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly" (Matt. vi.). And the terrific knell, " woe " on " woe " — the accumulated indignation of all the prophets, which was the death-warrant of the ghastly skeleton of dying Mosaism — will ring its threnody for ever and ever (Matt, xxiii.). Once, and once only, the temple of his body was com- pared to the Temple of Jerusalem by the Eeformer himself (John ii.). But the living altar of the heart of humanity, The Opinions of Jesus. 59 not made witli Lands, rose out of the ashes of the Temple of Solomon, and finally displaced the tedious and bloody Levitical ritual. N.B. — The growth of the Tabernacle and Temple ritual during the tribal, monarchical, and provincial periods has been already referred to ; and if the historical student follow the comparative method, and consider the prodi- gious accretions and corruptions of ancient Christianity borrowed from Eome, Greece, and the Orient, he will find no difficulty in comprehending the reformation effected by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. 4. The Jewish Priesthood and People. — " Like priest like people " was the saying of the prophet Hosea ; and the chronic state of political and religious faction — Herodians and Asmoneans, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenians and Gali- leans ; Eomans, Greeks, Jews, and Samaritans — had burst out in periodic insurrection since the time of the Mac- cabees (B.C. 165), and stained the Holy Land and the sacred Temple itself with blood and slaughter. But nothing less than the furious struggle of a desperate and dying people, written in blood by Josephus himself, can paint the deathbed scenes and burning of Jerusalem by Titus. The very arms of the Roman Government, the royal eagle of the standard, placed on the gate of the Temple, must be pulled down. Bands of robbers and brigands scoured the country, and the story of the good Samaritan, who poured wine and oil into the wounds of the traveller left in his blood by the wayside, was a common occurrence. Eight hundred men hung on crosses might have been seen at one time. The publicans who farmed the Eoman tribute tortured the last drachma from the Palestinian provincials. One Zaccheus, who joined the ranks of the Galilean Eeformer, under the consciousness of his past 6o The Opinions of Jesus. robberies, cried out: "Behold, Master, the half of my ;good3 I give to the poor ; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." The very mint, anise, and cummin of the common people were tithed and taxed by the greedy priesthood, who " strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel," and omitted the weightier matters of the law— judgment, mercy, and truth. The trembling parents who lived under such a reign of terror hesitated to give evidence regarding their own children before the tribunal of the rigid Pharisees, and said, " He is of age, ask him." And any man who confessed that the Galilean Eeformer was sent of heaven, and " anointed " of God, was thrust out of the synagogue. True, the priests and Levites sat on Moses' seat, but they had taken away the " key of knowledge ; " they entered not in themselves, and those that were entering they hindered. Just such times as in the age of Wicklif and his " poor priests," — peasants' wars, the publication of Par- liamentary Acts for the death and burning of heretics. The Smithfield fires and Bartholomew massacres of the Eoman Empire came later, at the burning of Eome under Nero. 5. The, Jewish Sahhath. — Like all Oriental nations, the social as well as the sacred festivals of the Jewish people were hallowed by the offering of sacrifices, and accom- panied by fasting, singing, and dancing, more or less of a religious character — banquets, in fact, in the presence of their national and tutelar Deity, Jahveh, the source of life and Lord of hosts (stars). The great festivals of the nation were : — (1) The anniversary of the Passover (April), which commemorated their emancipation from Egyptian bondage and the declaration of national in- dependence ; (2) the Feast of Pentecost (the fiftieth). The Opinions of Jesus. 6 1 seven weeks later (June), was the national harvest-home and day of thanksgiving ; and (3) the Feast of Taber- nacles or Tents (October) was the day of thanksgiving for the national vintage, and associated with the nomadic life of their forefathers before their settlement in the land of promise. Several other fasts and festivals connected with the history of the people were held annually : the Feast of Purim (lots), connected with the salvation of the Jews in the days of Queen Esther ; the feasts and sacrifices at the appearance of the new moons ; the fast in memory of the capture of Jerusalem, the burning and purification of the Temple, etc.; and the weekly Sabbath (rest) every seventh day. The sabbatical year of jubilee, of course, cOuld only be held at the close of fifty years. The traditional customs which had gathered round each of these national institutions gave rise to a compli- cated code of casuistry, more or less rigid or elastic, in accordance with the well-l^nown tenets of the popular sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenians, and Galileans. Endless permissions and prohibitions tripped up the tender conscience at every step from the cradle to the grave, as we learn from the Talmud — the great store- house of Levitical and rabbinical commentaries on, the law and ritual. The Sabbath-day's journey, so many furlongs, was laid down by measure. No fire must be kindled on the Sabbath, and therefore all cooking ought to take place on the day of preparation. The Temple service and sacrifice, of course, were placed under the special patronage of the King of heaven, and the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee boldly cut the puzzling Gordian knots with his relentless sword. Eubbing the chaff from the wheat, on the part of his disciples passing 62 The Opinions of Jesus. through a field on the Sabbath, was attacked by the rabbinical lawyers and casuists, and defended by their Master, by the citation of David satisfying his hunger by eating the sacred shewbread, which it was only law- ful for the priests to eat. And the fundamental doctrine which he laid down on that occasion — the lordship of mankind over all positive institutions appointed for their benefit in Church and State — is still controverted by modern Christians who cling to the letter of ancient or the spirit of reformed Judaism. " But if you had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the ' Son of man ' (man) is Lord even of the Sabbath day " (Matt. xii.). The sweeping power and influence of this fundamental principle was carried to its ultimate results by Paul, the Eoman reformer and his spiritual successor. The subject of sacred seasons, based on the lunar divi- sion of the month, and the seven planets worshipped in the East, will sink into insignificance as soon as the im- portant discovery lately made from the brick libraries of Babylon is generally known, that Abraham, the " Father of the Faithful," brought the worship of the seventh day along with him from " Ur of the Chaldees." 6. Heaven and Good Angels — Hell, Evil Spirits and Demons. — When Moses ground the Egyptian bull to powder, and turned the heaven of all the gods into dark- ness, he must also have rejected the " Hall of two Truths" in the under world; for total silence is pre- served in the Pentateuch regarding the existence and nature of a future life and world. "Enoch walked with God, and God took him." Glimpses, however, of some unknown and invisible world are given. The chariot of the Sun-god, horses of fire and chariot of fire, carried The Opinions of Jesus. 6 J off Elijah ; and the under world of Job is a " land of dark- ness, and the shadow of death ; a land of darkness, as darkness itself ; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." All the details of personal inspection, one would think, are crowded into the descriptions of the fantastic and visionary Book of Enoch. Here the visions are ascribed to Enoch the prophet, long before the birth of Paul, who was favoured with a visit to Paradise in a dream or ecstasy — whether in the body or out of the body, he could not say : " After this I beheld the secrets of the heavens and of paradise, according to its divisions ; and of human action, as they weigh it there, in balances. I saw the habitations of the elect, and the habitations of the holy. And there my eyes beheld all the sinners who denied the Lord of glory, and whom they were expelling from thence, and dragging away as they stood there ; no punishment proceeding against them from the Lord of spirits" (chap. xli.). And if we may judge from the similarity of style, and the mention of the division and the weighing of souls in balances, all these descriptions of heaven and hell must have been modelled on the Hall of two Truths, depicted on the Egyptian temples, where souls are weighed in scales, and rewarded or punished according to the deeds done in the body. The garden of the righteous and the tree of knowledge passes before his eyes (chap. xxiv.). But the magnitude and magnifi- cence of the palace of the King of heaven passed aU description : " Its floor was on fire ; above were hghtning and agitated stars, while its roof exhibited a blazing fire. Attentively I surveyed it, and saw that it contained an exalted throne. One great in glory sat upon it, whose robe was brighter than the sun, and whiter than snow ; 64 The Opinions of Jesus. no angel was capable of penetrating to view the face of him, the glorious and effulgent ; nor could any mortal behold him ; a fire was flaming round him " (chap. xiv.). And the horrors of " the furnace of blazing fire " were seen in " a deep valley burning with fire." "And there my eyes beheld the instruments which they were making, fetters of iron without weight, that the Lord of spirits may be avenged of them for their crimes, because they became ministers of Satan, and seduced those who dwelt upon earth " (chap. liii.). The bottomless pit — the great abyss prepared for the devil and all his angels, and the wicked children of men deluded by his wiles and stratagems on earth — lies on the other side. A spacious hall, built with stones of crystal, under the earth, the very " chasm by water, and by light above it " mentioned in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, appears in chapter xxii. His communications regarding the watchers of heaven, the holy angels and messengers of Jahveh, who were frequently sent to earth, and ate roast kid of the goats with the fathers of the faithful, are important. " But you from the beginning were made spiritual, possessing a life which is eternal, and not subject to death for ever. Therefore I made not wives for you, because, being spiritual, your dwelling is in heaven." For when the " elect One " — the future deli- verer of the Jews — shall " sit on his throne, the moun- tains shall skip like rams, and the hills shall leap like young sheep satiated with milk ; and all the righteous shall become angels in heaven" (chap. 1.). And we should not omit the existence of a " middle state," occu- pied by the souls of the dead until the great day of final judgment (chap, xxii.), which passed into the theological systems of ancient Christianity. The Opinions of Jesus. 65 Such, then, are the visions of the Future state of rewards and punishments, blended with the reign of a future deliverer of the conquered nation, floating before the minds of the Jews in the Augustan age of the Eoman Empire. And the whole series seem to have been adopted, in the teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Even when a thunderstorm burst out in the midst of his address, and the people said an angel spake to him, he appropriates the providential " sign " (re- garded as the voice of God — Job xL, Jos. Antig^. xviii. 8) as a sanction of his own doctrine, and replied, " This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." A few additional particulars regarding Jewish demonology, magic, and witchcraft, can also be gleaned from Josephus the historian, as well as the lives of the reformers of Judaism. When Herod Antipas heard that Jesus had succeeded to the mission of his cousin, John the Bap- tist, he at once said, " He is John the Baptist risen from the dead," — a popular superstition akin to the opinion of Josephus that "those called demons are no other than the wicked spirits that enter those who are alive, and kUl them, unless they obtain some help against them." And the specific root capable of driving out the demons is mentioned. Not only so, but he witnessed Eleazar, who enjoyed the benefit of Solomon's incantations and exorcisms, expel demons in the presence of Vespasian and his sons and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers, with the aid of that root in a ring, and verify their exit from the demoniacs by overturning a basin of water as deftly as in a modern spiritual stance. The common practice of the age was followed by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee ; and when they taunted him with the sneer, " This fellow does not cast out demons E 66 The Opinions of Jesiis. but by Beelzebub, the prince of demons," he rejoined, " By whom do your children cast them out ? " Several instances of dreams, ecstasies, ghosts, apparitions or epiphanies (6Vt-<^aj'6ta= appearance), and actual con- versation of God with man are also mentioned by Josephus. Accordingly we need not be surprised that similar occurrences are met with in the biographies of the Eeformer of Judaism. During the course of his narrative regarding the complicated plots, murders, and intrigues of Herod's family, " the ghosts of Alexander and Aristobulus go round all the palace, and become the inquisitors and discoverers of what could not otherwise be found out, and brought secrets as were freest from suspicion to be examined " ( Wars, xxxi.). The surrender of Josephus himself, the general of the Jewish army, to Vespasian the Eoman emperor, is ascribed to an " ecstasy " of divine inspiration ; and the prophetic announcement, " Thou, Vespasian, art Caesar and Emperor, thou and this thy son," uttered on the occasion, was duly verified. His encomium of John Hyrcanus is certainly extraordinary : " He it was who alone had three of the most desirable things in the world — the government of his nation, and the high-priesthood, and the gift of prophecy. For the Deity conversed with him, and he was not ignorant of anything that was to come afterward." But such special celestial favours could not well be questioned by a people who believed that Moses, their legislator, spoke " face to face with Jahveh as a man speaketh with his friend." When we turn from the consideration of these social phenomena, famUiar at least to the imagination if not the experience of the Jewish people of the age, we are not inclined to question the authenticity of the occurrence of similar phenomena — the epiphany, appearances or appari- The Opinions of Jesus. 67 tions, of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee to the minds both of his male and female disciples, in the ecstatic, hyper-Eesthetic, and hyper-magnetic state into which they must have been thrown by the saddening and harrowing events of his sudden arrest, trial, crucifixion, and hurried burial in the garden of Joseph of Arimathsea. Some of them, for aught we know, in spite of the literary form of representation, may have occurred in dreams or visions of the night. One thing is evident to all historical critics — aU their glorious hopes of a coming kingdom were dashed to the ground, and their minds thrown into a state of brooding fermentation. The terrible catastrophe is told, in his own style, by each of his biographers. Here is Luke's graphic account : " And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them. Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. . . . And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them." This is John's : " Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side," — and on another occasion to Thomas. If any reliance can be placed on these statements — and we have no counter-evidence — his biographers talk of their crucified. Master who had risen from the dead as if he had become " like an angel ; " was possessed of a " spiritual body " (TTvevfia acofiaTtKov) ; could enter a house with locked doors, and eat broiled fish as the angels ate kid in Abraham's tent. Be these facts or fables, dreams, visions, apparitions, or ecstasies, as they may, such optical illusions 68 The Opinions of yestis. or delusions still occur in our modern experience, and form the subject of psychological investigation ; and we have no intention of quarrelling with the poetic vesture of their final statement, any more than with the fiery chariot of Elijah. " And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight " (Acts i.). His disciples at least believed that the " spiritual body " of their Master ascended to his Father and their Father in heaven. Who can prove a negative ? 7. Pre-visions. — Given now the long perspective of the nation's life, dating from the "Father of the Faithful," down through Moses — the emancipation from Egyptian slavery — Joshua and national independence — the brilliant period of David and Solomon — the sunset in Babylon — the dark, stormy, and cloudy evening beneath the Persian, Mace- donian, and Eoman horizons, tormented by the boding spectres of visionary seers and martyred Messiahs — brooding over the ancient rolls of Daniel, penned in the age of the Maccabees (B.C. 165), and the Visions of Enoch, — kings starting up on every hand from the highlands of G-alilee to the lowlands of Jerusalem, in the Augustan age, when all the nations of the habitable globe — ^Europe, Asia, and Africa — were brought under the dominion of the Eoman Empire : — we ask. Can any historical student of the Augustan age, familiar with the chronic state of political insurrection depicted in the pages of Josephus, the Jewish historian, be surprised that Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, should have closed the parable of the vineyard (the favourite type and figure of the nation), crowned with the stoning and martyrdom of the prophets, with the deep-felt assurance, " Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" ? (Matt. ch. xxi.). The Opinions of Jesus. 69 His reported conversation with Peter, James, and John regarding Moses and Elijah, their early legislator and reformer, leaves no doubt of his thorough acquaintance with the chequered history of his own nation ; and if Josephus favoured Vespasian and Titus with a second edition of the history of the Jews in his Antiquities and Wars, and asserts in his address to his fellow-country- men on the walls of Jerusalem, during the progress of the last siege: " Evident it is on all hands that fortune is on all hands given over to them (the Eomans), and that God, when he had gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy." We have no hesitation in adding that the Galilean Prophet ultimately adopted the same decided opinion. All the glowing descriptions and imagery found in Matthew (chap, xxiv.) are borrowed from the well-known condition of a besieged city, as well as from Daniel and the Book of Enoch ; accordingly he appropriates the familiar proverb, "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together," — evidently referring to the Eoman standard — and concludes, " Verily I say unto you. This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." We do not pretend to lift the veil of the apocalyptic style of the mystical visions, blended from the Book of Enoch with his historical pre- visions, and repeated in Jude. Time after time, as he passed from town to town, tracked by the spies of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and observed the distracted state of the population, all the fond hopes of national independence, cherished in accordance with his native Galileanism, must have vanished in the storm and stress of his religious crusades. Viewed in this light, the single but pathetic notice of the sorrowing sacrifice of his early Galileanism is deeply impressive : " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 70 Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! " (Matt, xxiii., Luke xix.). And when we are reminded further of the incidental allusion made to his disciples regarding his future intentions — " I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now " — the question arises in our minds, If the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee had not been martyred, would he have continued his reformation in connection with the Jewish Church — persisted as Peter, James, and John did, in extending the sect of Galileans, or laid the foundation, as Paul did, of a new faith beyond the limits of ancient Judaism ? All such questions end in bootless speculation; accordingly we leave them among the insoluble problems of humanity. But we do know that Peter, James, and John persisted in connection with the Jewish Church ; and as we have no intention of drawing a '' Literary Portrait " of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, surrounded with the halo of all the conventional characteristics, we shall pass at once to the second phase of Jewish Christianity, under the leader- ship of Peter and James. John will follow under the third phase of Oriental Christianity. CHAPTEE IIL SECOND PHASE OF JEWISH CHRISTIANITY UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF PETER AND JAMES. Our authorities during this period are Mark's biography, written, according to Eusebius, at the dictation of Peter ; Second Phase ofyewish Christianity. 71 Peter's own letters, addressed to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; the letter of James addressed to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad; and the historian Josephus. The words of Eusebius regarding Mark are : " John the Presbyter also said this Mark, being the interpreter of Peter, whatsoever he recorded he wi;ote with great accuracy, but not, however, in the order in which it was spoken or done by our Master, for he neither heard nor followed our Master ; but as before said, he was in com- pany with Peter, who gave him such instruction as was necessary, but not to give a history of our Master's dis- courses. Wherefore Mark has not erred in anything by writing some things as he has recorded them ; for he was carefully attentive to one thing, not to pass by anything that he heard, or to state anything falsely in these accounts." Accordingly the biography of Mark com- mences without any genealogy or angelic announcement, but with the mission of John the Baptist, the discipleship of Jesus, his fasting and temptation by Satan in the wilderness, and the prophetic career of Jesus himself and his disciples from the moment of his cousin John's imprisonment and death at the hands of Herod Antipas ; and, if we can rely on the discovery of the Vatican mss., with the omission of the scenes of the resurrection in the last chapter (ch. xvi.). But in reality the omission is of no importance to the defenders of Jewish Christianity, for Peter believed that his " spiritual body " was exalted to an honourable seat at the right hand of God, along with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. Not a single word is said regarding the "Primacy of Peter," and the presentation of the keys of the kingdom 72 Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. of heaven, which formed the basis of the Eoman " Papacy," — the See of the Pope (Papa) and Father of ancient Christendom, crowned with a triple tiara, significant of dominion in heaven, earth, and hell. The directly con- trary doctrine, in fact, is laid down in Peter's own letter to his fellow-disciples scattered throughout Western Asia; for he carries their minds back to the Exodus (xix.) and emancipation of their fathers from Egyptian slavery ; and claims liberty, fraternity, and equality for the whole Christian brotherhood founded by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee : " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, an holy nation, a peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light " ; " You are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, according to his anointed (p^ptcTTo?) Jesus." The famous passage in Matthew (xvi.) then, containing the pun on the word Peter (TreTpo? and ireTpa = rock, and little stone), must be rejected as the interpolation of an ambitious ecclesiastic who wished the sanction of Scrip- ture in favour of the primacy of Eome asserted at a very early date (Matt. xvi.). Such pious frauds were quite common, according to Eusebius; and the false Donations of Constantine and the Decretals of Isidore, lately crowned with Papal Infallibility and the Immaculate Conception, have ended in ecclesiastical senility and the total loss of the usurped temporal sovereignty. The facilities for the perpetration of such literary frauds in the case of Matthew's biography were provided by the necessity of translation, as we learn from Eusebius : " Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew dialect, and every one translated it as he was able." Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. jt, Moreover, not one tittle of evidence for Purgatory can be derived from the allusion to the "spirits in prison/' the sons of violence and disobedience placed under the verdict of divine condemnation for 120 years during the preparation of the ark by Noah, who preached to them according to "the spirit of Jesus" (1 Peter ii.). The second letter ascribed to Peter was placed in the Index Expurgatorius for centuries, although well known and approved by many Christians. But as our rabbinical doctors still differ regarding the nature of the great con- flagration and the new heavens and new earth, we need not hesitate to relegate the mysteries — which were as "hard to be understood " by Peter himself as some of his beloved brother Paul's — to the class of apocalyptic visions found in the Book of Enoch. Be assured, Peter's hearty encour- agements and consolations imparted to his suffering and persecuted fellow-Christians in Western Asia lost not one whit of their fragrance under the mystic canopy of " the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- ness," destined for Christians " one day," — if not now, at least 1000 years hence — either on earth or in heaven — " Hope springs eternal in the human breast ; Man never is, but always to be blest." Again, not a single allusion is made to the controversy waged between Peter and Paul regarding the Law of Moses by the non-Jewish converts to the new faith, which gave rise to the first Christian Council at Jerusalem. The only references made to the subject are found in the Acts of the Apostles, ascribed to Luke, the physician of Paul, and Paul's own letters. But, to say the least of it, Luke's biography, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, in spite of his statement that he had made thorough inquiry into the origin of the Christian faith, must be received cum o' 74 Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. grano salis. Moreover, he was not one of the first dis- ciples—not an " eye-witness " — consequently his evidence is only second-hand. The first address to the people, delivered seven weeks (Pentecost) after the martyrdom of Jesus in the Temple courts by Peter, is thoroughly consistent with his previous exposition of the Galilean faith, the spiritual house and brotherhood founded by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And he rebuked the charge of drunkenness hurled by the mockers against his spiritual enthusiasm by the announce- ment that it was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel : " And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy." No plainer statement of the second phase of Christianity could be formed than the well-studied speech, supported by quotations from the Jewish prophets, which he poured into the ears of " Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaa, and Cappa- docia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libj'a about Cyrene, and strangers of Eome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians," the motley assemblage of home and foreign Jews who regarded the Temple of Solomon as the sole centre of their religious worship : " Ye men of Israel, hear these words ; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know: him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands Second Phase of yewish Christianity. 75 have crucified and slain : whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. . . . This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. . . . Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Master and Anointed" (%pto-T09, Acts ii.). And 3000 men forsook the ranks of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and enrolled themselves under the banner of the Galileans — the new sect " everywhere spoken against." The same fellowship and friendship symbolised by "eating bread together" — the common test of Oriental hospitality, peculiar to the first brotherhood of "the twelve" disciples — the same common fund, as in the days when Judas had carried the bag of the new-born sect, is con- tinued. But we have no reason to suppose that the 3000 souls added at the anniversary of the vintage formed themselves into a coenobite or co-operative association, like the 4000 Essenians on the banks of Jordan; we are told, however, that the distribution of the common fund was made " as every man had need," and that by deacons (Sta/coi/09 = servant) full of the spirit of holiness and wisdom. Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Mcolas, a proselyte of Antioch, were chosen for the purpose of preventing the dissatisfaction which sprang up amongst the recipients of Christian benevolence belonging to home and foreign races. The most distinguished member of this benevolence committee— Stephen by name — fell an early victim to the fiery passions of the Temple priesthood, and won the 76 Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. crown of the second martyrdom of the Galileans, on the charge of " blasphemy against Moses and against God, the holy place, and the law and the customs." The next time Peter appears in Luke's history is on the housetop of Simon the tanner, in prayer at Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem, and in presence of a vision of " heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth ; wherein were all manner of four- footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Eise, Peter ; kill, and eat. But Peter said. Not so. Lord ; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time. What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." But we need not quote the whole passage, including the angel sent to Cornelius, a Eoman military officer. The result of the double vision was Peter's conclusion, — " Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons : but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Such is the last notice of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles, and the reception of Galilean converts into the ranks of the Galilean sect ; and Cornelius the " just man," must have conformed to the Temple customs of the law of Moses, under the leadership of Peter, James, and John. Seventeen years afterwards, as we learn from his letter to the Galatians, Paul withstood Peter to the face in Antioch on the question of the perpetual obligation of the law of Moses and its imposition on the Eoman con- verts, ultimately referred to the Council of Jerusalem, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (chap, xv.) ; and the temporary compromise between Jewish and Eoman Chris- Second Phase of yewish Christianity. 77 tians was embodied in a letter and sent to Antioch. " It seemed good to the]Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things ; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication : from which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do well. Fare ye well." "We say temporary compromise, for the Second Phase of Chris- tianity perished at the destruction of the Temple (a.d. 70), and survived only in the petty Ebionite or Nazarite societies strewed over the land of Palestine ; and finally dwindled into an heretical sect, in the estimation of the " Broad Church " and cosmopolitan Christians of the Eoman Empire. No contradiction whatever to Peter's opinion is found in the letter of James, the brother of the Prophet, addressed to the twelve tribes, which Martin Luther termed an epistle of straw, because he could not reconcile it with Paul's theology. And for a very good reason ; James accepted, and Paul rejected the Levitical law of Moses,, as we shall see hereafter. The sole aim of the letter is to pour oil into the wounds, and new wine into the hearts, of his fellow-disciples — " the poor of this world" — oppressed by the rich men, who drag them before the judgment-seats on account of their new faith, and " blaspheme that worthy name by which they are called." And the delicacy of James is remark- able ; for he does not exalt his brother the Prophet to a loftier position than all his predecessors, but gives the simple counsel, "Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." 78 Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. The practical advice, " Confess your faults one to an- other," and " Pray for one another, that ye may be healed," was seized by the ambitious priesthood of the Eoman Church for the establishment of " auricular confession" — that terrible engine of torture and inquisition which dragged the secrets of personal, domestic, political, and religious life into the courts of the Church, and held the people in subjection and slavery to ecclesiastical caprice. Thank heaven, our modern Eeformers proclaimed liberty to the captives, and burst the fetters riveted on the souls of Christians for centuries. The simple faith of James needs no exposition. All the rabbinical and sectarian distinctions of the age are ignored and swept aside by the stern yet "good Samaritan." "Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him for righteousness," and he was called the " friend of God." The complete theo- logy of ancient and reformed Judaism was condensed by him into a terse and handy creed for the " poor of this world": "Pure religion, and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James too sealed his faith with his blood at the hands of Herod. The, Revelation {a-7roKd\v^i<;) of St. John. — The last work which sprang up under the influence of Jewish Christianity was the Apocalypse (unveiling), and belongs to the same class as Daniel and the Book of Enoch ; and, in common with Eusebius, we are inclined to ascribe it, not to John the beloved disciple, but to John the Pres- byter, both of whose tombs existed at Ephesus. The whole range of mystical scenery and imagery lay ready to his hands ; and the only originality of John's Apocalypse lay in the novel composition and arrangement of his Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. 79 series of visions. After all, the programme of what is " shortly to come to pass " is very simple, and the key to his Eevelations is furnished by John himself, when he declares that, " spiritually," the Great City (the centre of the government referred to) is Sodom, and Egypt, and Babylon. Accordingly, he buries the Eoman government, who crucified the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee and persecuted his followers, beneath the accumulated plagues — fire, brimstone, and blood — which fell to the lot of its political predecessors. The mystic procession of events which conducts the destruction of the old heavens and earth — i.e., the religion and government of the Eoman Empire — takes place under the guise of: (1) the opening of a roll sealed with seven seals ; (2) the sounding of trumpets ; (3) the outpouring of seven vials of God's wrath ; with seven episodes during the progress of the three successive periods. And the social and religious revolution, or the creation of a " new heavens and new earth," closes with the descent of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, like a bride adorned for her husband. All this splendid programme forms a mere piece of literary plagiarism, constructed like an old mosaic on the pattern of his apocalyptic models. The sealed roll was taken from Ezekiel : " And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me ; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein ; and he spread it before me : and it was written within and without." Trumpets sounding the onset of war could be found passim. So could the vials of oil, odours, or wrath ; and the bride is the well-known simile for the people of Israel, who lay their offerings before his throne in the Temple or house of God in the Holy City of Jeru- salem. Eome, the city of seven hills, of course was known 8o Second Phase of Jewish Christianity. to all the world, but the number of seven kings was not yet fulfilled. Five were fallen, and one is — fixes, most probably, the date of its composition — Augustus Csesar, Tiberius, Caius Csesar Caligula, T. Claudius Caesar, Nero Claudius Csesar (a.d. 54-68). Can any critic be astonished that a Jewish Christian, — dwelling in Ephesus, where the crowd bawled down Paul in the town-hall with the cry " Great is Diana of Ephesus " for a whole hour — swelling with hot indignation against the popular superstitions, should have combined the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as of their Egyptian and Babylonian oppressors, and predicted the same fate to the Eoman government which followed in their footsteps ; re-echoed the triumphant song of Moses and the shout of Israel, '' Babylon is fallen " ? Have not our modern Protestants adopted the same policy, and crushed their Popish perse- cutors beneath the whole series of Divine judgments ? Whatever be the opinions of our latest critics — and their name is legion — the lovely ideal of Paradise re- stored in a " new heaven and new earth " eclipsed the primitive tabernacle or tent instituted by Moses in accordance with the " pattern " received on Mount Sinai, cheered and charmed the hearts of Christians for centuries. But John the Presbyter saw no temple in it ; for the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee made all the Christian brotherhood " kings and priests to God the Father." The apocalyptic author was a true " Galilean," and still dreamed of the fulfilment of the " Hope of Israel," as Jews stni dreamed in the last days of the siege of the holy city of Jerusalem — a fact confirmed by Josephus. " Por a false Prophet," says he, " was the occasion of the people's destruction, who made a public proclamation in Oriental Christianity. 8 1 the city that very day, that God commanded them to get upon the Temple, and the city should receive miraculous signs of the Deliverer." ^ote.— The pun on Peter, referred to at page 72, ia not found in Tatian's Diatessaron, or Harmony of the Four Gospels, lately discovered. (See Prof. Harnack, Contemp. Rev., Aug. 1886.) CHAPTER IV. THIRD PHASE. — ORIENTAL CHRISTIANITY, — ACCORDING TO THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH OF GALILEE, ASCRIBED TO JOHN, THE BELOVED DISCIPLE, AS WELL AS HIS THREE LETTERS. The " Life " and " Light " of Jesus, according to John, belongs to a later stage of religious development, and reveals the powerful influence of its Oriental origin and environment — the renowned city of Ephesus, where the tomb of two Johns existed in the days of Eusebius, the historian of the Christian Church. And the source of the striking difference between the several biographers is accounted for in the following manner : " But John, last of all, that what had reference to the body in the Gospel of our Saviour was sufficiently detailed, and being encouraged by his familiar friends, and urged by the Spirit, he wrote a Spiritual Gospel." The Spiritual Gospel — good news, or welcome message — then forms the striking and salient characteristic of the fourth biography ascribed to John the beloved disciple — the exile of Patmos and Ephesus, martyred in boiling oil, who inspired his disciples with the purest essence and incense of the new faith — at once the pure religion of the holy heart and healthy (heilig) humanity. 82 Oriental Christianity. The head and front of it is inscribed with pure Alex- andrianism or PhUonianism, borrowed from the allegorical exposition of the Book of Wisdom, Philo, and the " sweetest of all writers," his Hellenic master, Plato — the Lover of Wisdom, and the Eeformer of Athens. " In the beginning was the spoken and unspoken Word (A070? — Ratio and Oraito =Eeasou, Intelligence, and Speech), and Reason was in God, and God was Eeason ; the same was in the beginning in God. All things were created by it, and without it was not any thing created that was created. Life was in it, and the Life was the Light of men ; and the Light shone in the darkness did not receive it." Such is the philosophical or mystic introduction — the spiritual genealogy of the Life and Light of men — the divine offspring of God (the source of life), who breathed into the nostrils of man, and he became a living soul, and endowed with understanding — "the Candle of the Lord," or Divine Light. " Accordingly, we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" — the members of the spiritual brotherhood founded by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Only a few words are spent on the career of his cousin, John the Baptist. But the high compliment paid to the Galilean Prophet by his predecessor is specially noted. " The next day John sees Jesus coming to him, and says. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" — the soul of innocence itself, like the lamb in the morning and evening sacrifice — without spot or blemish, which should be offered to God. But the express statement of the author removes all doubt on this sub- Oriental Christianity. 83 ject : "For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God ; for God gives not the Spirit by measure to him " (chap. iii.). All his future Life and Letters are consistently devoted to the exposition of this " Spiritual Gospel," specially adapted to " enlighten " the converts and disciples secured to the new faith from his Asiatic environment. And the special adaptation cannot be fully appreciated without some acquaintance with the state of religious and philoso- phical opinion in John's centre of religious distribution. "What then formed the peculiar state of religion and philosophical opinion round the city of Ephesus and Western Asia during the course of the Augustan age of the Eoman Empire ? To be brief — a motley com- pound and collision of all the Chaldean, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Hellenic, and Eoman religions and philosophies scattered over the surface of the Eoman Empire from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and from the Mediterranean to the Tigris and Euphrates — from Smyrna and Ephesus, the eyes of Greece, to Babylon and Nineveh, the " Gate of God " (Babel), concentrated in the famous museum of Alexandria, the noted em- porium of the science and commerce of the age, and specially sifted, analysed, and sublimated in the Platonic Eclecticism and Gnosticism of Philo's allegorical exposi- tions of the Law of Moses — we say Platonic Eclecticism and Gnosticism — the pure Theism and purified ethics strewed over the voluminous pages of Plato and Philo, and passing current in all the schools of philosophy in Eome, Athens, Alexandria, and Ephesus. And now since the sacred books of the East have come into our posses- sion, we find that the current religious phrases of Hindu Brahmanism and Parsism were blended with the Hellenic Philonianism of the age for the instruction of the " enlightened " disciples of " Spiritual Christianity." 84 Oriental Christianity. " You must be born again," or the " twice-born " Brah- man, was quite familiar to the minds of the Jewish merchants who carried on commerce with India by the ordinary caravan route through Damascus to the seaports of the Mediterranean. Light and Darkness were the well-known symbols of the divine and diabolic powers of Good and Evil, who ruled the world according to the Zendavesta, under the title of Ormuzd (Ahura-mazda=the Wise Spirit), and Ahriman (Angro-mainyus=the Evil Spirit) of the Parsis. Love (epw?) and Hate (velKo^) sat on opposite thrones for the adoration of the world, and carried on the battle of life according to Hellenic philo- sophy. Life and death formed the common antithesis, expressive of the state of souls " dead in sin " or alive to righteousness and G-od. Gnosticism, with its endless schools and systems, brooded over the East for centuries, and gave birth to hosts of " heresies " at a later date. Let us now approach the mysteries of Oriental Chris- tianity with our " open sesame," and reveal the " open secret " of the Christian Faith according to John. First, then. What are the conditions required of Nicodemus, a master in Israel, who privately inquired the Galilean Prophet regarding the tenets of the new sect ? The birth of the Spirit from above (dvco), not merely burial of the old faith beneath the "water" of baptism, but the resurrection from the dead to a new faith and life, and recognition of the Galilean brotherhood under the common Divine Fatherhood. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." What is the question put to Mary (the same Mary who anointed the Master with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair), the sister of Martha and Lazarus, his intimate friends at Bethany ? " Do you believe that Oriental Christianity. 85 I am the resurrection and the life? or (without the Hebraism), that I am a living resurrection ? " She saith to him, " Yes, Master, I believe that you are the Anointed Child of God who should come into the world " (chap. xi.). And we are inclined to regard the story of the resurrec- tion of Lazarus as an embodiment of this doctrine in a dramatic form. " My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself," is the style of his common arguments with his opponents — not an appeal to " signs," but good works. Hence he is the " Word of Life," i.e. the Living Word or Eeason, which they had seen with their eyes, looked on, and their hands had handled ; who resolved the Law of Moses, written on two tables of stone, into the love of God and man. " For the law was given by Moses, but favour and truth came by the anointed Jesus " (chap. i.). What is the nature of God the Father and true worship expounded at Jacob's Well to the woman of Samaria, according to John ? " Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what ; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." But the whole of his first letter should be compared with this passage — the sum and substance [of which is condensed in the statement, " He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." What is the divine temple not made with hands adorned with the true " Shekinah " (the Presence of God) ? 86 Oriental Christianity. The temple of the body, with its understanding, the " Candle of the Lord." And this Divine Light (A6709) or "Word, or Keason, styled TrapdKXTjTo^ by Philo, or spirit of holiness, which dwells in their hearts, will prove their Comforter and Consoler after his death (chap. xiv.). Hence the bold assertion which drove some of the timid literalists from his company : '' Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you ;" and his own interpretation, " It is the Spirit that gives life : the flesh profits nothing : the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life." All controversy has now ended regarding the three witnesses, " the Spirit, the water, and the blood," which a defender of the creed adopted at the Nicene Council doubled by the interpolation of " the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit," removed from the Eevised Version of the New Testament. Such is the nature of John's " Spiritual Gospel ;" and his life closes with the Epiphany or appearance of the " spiritual Body " of his risen Master, who had become " like an angel," neither marrying nor giving in marriage, on different occasions. But we must leave the interpre- tation of the " spiritual hopes " of John to our critical and " enlightened " readers ; for the disciples themselves were divided regarding the signification of the mystical and mysterious allusion : " Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus, Master, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith to him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you ? follow you me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die ; yet Jesus said not unto him. He shall not die ; but. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you?" "We have not discussed the question of the actual Alexandrian Christianity. 87 authorship of the " Spiritual Gospel," simply because it belongs to the sphere of " conjectural criticism." All pro- bability inclines us to believe that John's Oriental disciples acted as the amanuenses of the fishermen of Galilee, and blended the phrases and formulas of their religion and philosophy with the pure spiritualism of the Christian faith, stripped of the Levitical law of Moses, after the destruction of the Temple ; one thing is evident, however, that the Galilean coiisin of the Prophet was not acquainted with the royal genealogies and miraculous birth attached to the biographies of Matthew and Mark. CHAPTEE V. THE FOTJETH PHASE. — ALEXANDRIAN CHEISTIANITY, ACCORD- ING TO THE LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE " HEBREWS." The anonymous Letter addressed to the Hebrews is pure Alexandrian and Philonian ; and in all probability was written by ApoUos, a Jew of Alexandria, the friend of Paul, who headed a party in the Christian Church at Corinth. But the authorship was " disputed " in the age of Eusebius, who quotes the statement of Origen on the subject as follows : " The style of the epistle with the title to the ' Hebrews,' has not that vulgarity of diction which belongs to the Apostle, who confesses that he is but common in speech, that is, in his phraseology. But that this epistle is more pure Greek in the composition of its phrases every one will confess who is able to discern the difference of style. Again, it will be obvious that the ideas of the epistle are admirable, and not inferior to any of the books acknowledged to be apostolic." 88 Alexandrian Christianity. The reference to ApoUos in the Acts of the Apostles also merits quotation, because it throws light upon the shifting phases of opinion which took place during the planting and propagation of Christianity : " And a certain Jew named ApoUos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord ; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue : whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." Whether Apollos the Jew composed the letter or not, he first adopted the doctrine of John the Baptist, and finally regarded Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, as " anointed," or sent of God to reveal the " True Light " to mankind. And as it forms the most systematic trea- tise amongst the lives and letters of the reformers of ancient Judaism, we shall now proceed to analyse its con- tents. Of course we expect our readers will bear in mind the pure theism and ethics, divested of all Oriental sym- bolism, found in the works of Philo, the philosophical Jew of Alexandria, his master, and the contemporary of the Galilean Prophet. First, then, of the systematic order and arrangement of the letter addressed to the Hebrews. (1) At the outset the new convert never mentions John the Baptist at all, but lays the foundation of his new faith in the fulfilment of the prophets, and shoM's from the Scripture that Jesus was anointed or sent of God, and invested with a higher rank than angels or Moses the Jewish legislator (chaps, i.-iii) ; (2) that the Jewish Sabbath was a mere " shadow " of the spiritual rest appointed to all men who entered the Alexandrian Christianity. 89 Christian " kingdom of God " under Joshua (Greek, Jesus), the " Captain of Salvation " (deliverance) (chaps, iii.-iv.) ; (3) that the Jewish high priest was a mere shadow of the Christian order of Melchizedec, king of righteousness, and king of Salem (peace); (4) that the old covenant, the Leviti- cal Law of Moses, was annulled by the new and better covenant, and promise of the law written on the hearts of Christians; (5) that the temple of Solomon, with its ritual, services, and sacrifices, was a type or parable of the temple not made with hands (chaps, ix.-x.), the body and soul of the Christian required to do the will of God ; (6) that the fathers and spiritual heroes of the Jewish people bore testimony to this pure faith ; (7) and he con- cludes his exposition of the Christian faith by counselling his brethren to maintain the social and religious brother- hood by daily sacrifices of divine praise, brotherly love (cn<;) of ancient Mosaism and Judaism? No mention is made of angelic saluta- tions to welcome the Jewish reformer on his appearance on earth. No royal genealogy from David is claimed for the son of the humble carpenter of Nazareth. Only the simple statement stands at the commencement of his letter : " God, who in many portions of Scripture, and in many ways spoke in ancient times to the fathers by the prophets, has lately spoken to us by a child whom he appointed heir of all things, and of a more excellent name than angels." But his quotations, taken from the Jewish Scriptures in defence of his Alexandrian views, would not be deemed appropriate by scholars in the present day. Angels are found in the passage, " who makes the winds his messengers, and flaming fire his ministers,'' because he quoted from the Greek translation of the Scriptures (Septuagint). A second is taken from a poem (2) referring to the accession of King David to the throne. Another also refers to David. A fourth, forming the second member of a poetic parallelism, calling on the angels to worship Jahveh, is a mistranslation of the Greek Septuagint. A fifth seems also to refer to King David seated on the throne appointed by God. And a sixth, taken from the 110th poem, is also addressed to a king of Jerusalem. All these quotations are selected for the purpose of exalt- ing the rank of the Galilean Prophet above the angels of God : " ministering spirits sent to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation." And yet the author never claims him either as his royal descendant or spiritual son. Alexandrian Christianity. gi But the key to all his Alexandrian views regarding the Jewish Prophet is found in the quotation, that Jesus is the " ray of divine glory, and the impression of his sub- stance," made from the Alexandrian " Book of Wisdom." " Wisdom is the brightness of the everlasting Light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness ; and being but one she can do all things, and remaining on herself she maketh all things new, and in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh them friends of God and prophets." Almost the very same words are used by Philo regarding the human soul, which is " an impression of, or a fragment or a ray of, that blessed nature." And Abraham, the just man and friend of God, is " heir of all things." Moreover, all doubt on the sub- ject is removed by the foresaid statement that " it became him, from whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Captain of their salvation (deliverer) perfect through suffering. For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one nature : for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren " (chap. ii.). Such, then, is the Alexandrian idea of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, who was anointed or appointed by God for the purpose of accomplishing the reformation (Siopdaai^) of ancient Judaism, and therefore obtained a higher rank and " more excellent name " than Moses or the angels in heaven. 2. The Jemsh and Christian Sabbath. — ^What, then, is the nature of the Sabbath according to the Alexandrian critic, who regards Jesus as a second Joshua (chap, iv.) to lead the Christian brotherhood into a new " kingdom of God" on earth — "the coming world" or the "new heavens and new earth of the prophets " ? " We who 92 Alexandrian Christianity. have believed do enter into rest." " There remaiueth, therefore, a rest (o-a/S/SaTtu/io?) to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his" (chap. iv.). Here commences the thoroughgoing reformation of the old covenant — the Levitical Law of Moses — according to ApoUos (let us say), the terrible earthquake which shook the old heavens and earth of the Eoman Empire, and exploded the Temple ritual and religion of Eome, Athens, Alexandria, and Jerusalem. All the Sabbaths of the Law of Moses were mere " shadows " to remind the people of " resting " from the works of the " flesh," and entering into communion with the works of the " Spirit of God." Hence the whole calendar of Sabbaths and festivals peculiar to Eoman, Jewish, Hellenic, and Oriental reli- gions decayed, waxed old, and vanished away during the progress of the " conversion of the Eoman Empire." 3. The, Jewish and Christian, Priesthood. — What is the nature of the Christian priesthood conferred on the mem- bers of the Christian brotherhood according to the Alex- andrian School ? Under this topic, also, his radical reformation is effected by sweeping away the whole Levitical order established by Moses — Aaronic gene- alogies, tithes, sacrifices, etc. — " who served as an example and shadow of heavenly things ;" and investing his fellow- Christians with the primitive order of Melchizedek (king of righteousness), king of Salem (peace), priest of the most high God; while the Galilean Prophet is honoured with the title of High Priest and " Forerunner " within the veil of the heavenly temple, in strict consist- ency with the words of Peter, supported by the Mosaic doctrine taken from Exodus — " You are a chosen genera- tion, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, Alexandrian Christianity. 93 that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." " For there is verily an abolition of the former law on account of its weakness and unprofitableness." And perfectly conscious of the revolutionary doctrine unfolded in his announcement, Apollos acknowledges that the subject is difficult of interpretation. "For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you what are the very elements of divine instruction." But the drift of his reasoning is quite evident. When Apollos terms Jesus a second Joshua, he acts in the capacity of a " captain " to lead them into the new kingdom of God founded on the earth. And when he compares him to the high priest of the Temple of Jerusalem, he acts as the " forerunner " of the social and religious brotherhood who is not ashamed to call them brethren, who consider that " it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." 4. The Old and New Covenant or Law. — What is the nature of the new covenant or law binding on the hearts and consciences of the Christian brotherhood ? The direct fulfilment of the declarations of the Jewish prophets — the abrogation of the old law having "a shadow of good things to come " — the two tables of stone laid up in the Ark, and the reversion to the law of the living human heart, according to Jeremiah : " After those days I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and they shall be my people " (chap. xxxi.). So far as can be judged from the letters of Apollos, not one of the biographies of the Galilean Prophet had fallen into his hands. But we know that he visited Ephesus, the seat of John's school, and centre of Oriental Christianity, — " watered " the vineyard 94 Alexandrian Christianity. planted at Corinth by Paul, and adhered more or less closely to the liberal and advanced views of his friends, Aquila and Priscilla, who induced him to forsake the followers of John the Baptist. Be that as it may, they must have been " easy steps and lessons," for the disciple of Philo, who said, in almost identical terms with his Galilean contemporary, "of the ten commandments engraved in these tables which are properly and especi- ally laws, there is an equal division into two numbers of five : the first of which contains the principle of justice, relating to God, and the second those relating to man " (on " Who is the heir of all things "). In fact, the real aim of ApoUos is stated with far greater clearness and distinctness by Philo himself in his treatise, " On the unw-ritten laws, that is to say, Abraham." " For these men have been living and rational laws, and the Law- giver has magnified them for two reasons : first, because he was desirous to show that the injunctions which are thus given are not inconsistent with nature ; and, secondly, that he might prove that it is not very difficult or laborious for those who wish to live according to the laws established in these books, since the earliest men easily and spon- taneously obeyed the unwritten principle of legislation before any one of the particular laws were written down at all." The subject will come again before us in discuss- ing the controversy waged between Peter and Paul, the defenders of Jewish and Eoman Christianity. 5. The. Temple of Solomon and the Temple not made with hands. — What temple took the place of the temple of Solomon according to Alexandrian interpretation ? The temple not made with hands, a more perfect tabernacle than Solomon's temple, which was a mere " figure (parable) for the time then present " — the living temple and house Alexandrian Christianity. 95 of the Spirit of God, who descended from heaven into this " human form divine." And the living sacrifice offered by the High Priest of the Christian profession was himself (like the innocent lamb), without spot to God, to purge the conscience from " dead works," to serve the living God, i.e. for the purpose of abolishing the laborious symbolism of bloody sacrifices and incense employed to represent the religious sentiments and worship of the people. But the only distinction which exists between the High Priest and his brethren is only the foremost rank and dignity in the Christian " house of God." Accordingly, he concludes his exposition with the appropriate counsel : " Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God according to the teaching of Jesus, our anointed and appointed Lawgiver." Such js the allegorical method of exposition adopted by ApoUos, the Jew of Alexandria, in effecting the reformation of the Jewish, as well as of the Eoman, Hellenic, and Oriental religions of the age. And in doing so he draws all his arguments from the sacred writings of the Jews themselves. But, as we have already said, every article of his new theology could be found within the pages of his master, Philo, the Jew, and Platonic philosopher of Alexandria. One specimen may serve as an illustration on this subject. " There are as it seems two temples belonging to God : one being this world, in which the High Priest is the divine Word (Aoyo? = reason), his one first-born son ; the other is the rational soul, the priest of which is the real true man." Nearly four centuries, however, expired before the Edict of Theodosius the Great (a.d. 381) was issued for 96 Alexandrian Christianity. the total abolition of animal sacrifices. And after the lapse of a similar period since the Eeformation in the sixteenth century modern Christians are agitating for the final disestablishment and disendowment of the national religious institutions of ancient Christendom. 6. The testimony of their Jevnsh Fathers and Forefathers to the Christian Faith.— ysfhat is the nature of the faith in God required by the disciple of the Alexandrian School of Christianity ? The simple faith of the Fathers of the faithful, — the patriarchs, poets, princes, and prophets of the people, — that "God is the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him," — the God of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Eahab, Gedeon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David, Samuel, and the prophets (chap. xi.). Such is " the cloud of wit- nesses," the royal roll of Hebrew heroes, who protested against the polytheism and idolatry of the Oriental world, and proclaimed the faith in the sole and supreme Creator of heaven and earth, and the divine order and unity of the universe («:oo-/xo9), claimed by the Alexandrian apostles in support of the reformed faith of the Christian brotherhood, founded by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. But Adam, the first father of mankind, is omitted, as the father of all sin and evil, and the names of Solomon and all the kings of Judah and Israel who crushed the rights and liberties of the primitive tribes of Israel, " lilie the rulers of the nations " (1 Sam. i.), are also excluded from the royal roll of heroes who suffered for the true faith— in accordance with the spirit and language of the Galilean Reformer addressed to his disciples (Matt. xx.). Who can estimate the prodigious influence of the mag- nificent peroration on the minds of Jews distracted by Alexandrian Christianity. 97 the Eabbinical subtleties of the schools of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenians, peculiar to every corner of the Eoman Empire who lamented the corruptions of the patriarchic and Mosaic faith, commenced with the Temple of Solomon, the introduction of foreign religions, and the disruption of the kingdom, which facilitated and pre- cipitated the Assyrian and Babylonian conquest and captivity ? 7. Concluding Counsels. — Lastly, can the critical student place himself at the standpoint of the Jewish Protestant, hurl the burning and quaking mountain of Sinai, with all the fire, blackness, darkness, tempest, trumpets, and voices connected with the proclamation of the " Law of Moses," into the sea of oblivion, by faith ; and " come to Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly of the first-born written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator (Lawgiver) of the New Covenant, and the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel," — the living sacrifice of brotherly love {^aXfio<;= song) and prophets, i.e. the seers, censors, satirists, and moralists who produced the ripest and richest fruit of Hebrew literature and culture ; e.g. forty-seven passages are cited from the collection of Hebrew poetry, thirty- eight from the work of the " Isaiah the Second," and iive only from Jeremiah, in the lives and letters of the reformers. Partial reference has already been made to this subject in tracing the utterance of their patriotic longings for national independence. Not a single pre- 198 Roman Christianity. diction of such a national deliverer exists in the Davidic poems, simply because neither the disruption of the kingdom at the death of Solomon, nor the Babylonian conquest, had taken place. Profounder sentiments on religious subjects are strewn over the pages of the Hebrew prophets, but their exact dates cannot always be ascertained. The " right spirit " and the " new, broken and contrite heart " issued from the soul of a sorrowing poet of the Babylonian exile, as the last stanza shows (Psalm li.). The new portions of the " second law " (86i;Te/Do?-i'6/A09=Deuteronomy), belonging to the age of Josiah (B.C. 600), throw light on the prophets' desire to quash their political and religious dissensions (Deut. xviii. 15). The germs of a purer faith — love to God and cir- cumcision of the heart, make their appearance in the bosom of the second law (Deut. vi. 10). And the very words of the Second Isaiah, the nameless seer of the captivity, were appropriated and adopted by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee as the text of his first discourse to his own townspeople, with the remark, " To-day this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears." No notice is taken of the sceptical and satirical work of Ecclesiastes (The Preacher), and one can easily understand why the honest and illiterate fishermen of Galilee eschewed the voluptuous imagery and literary " nudities " of the " Song of Solomon." Let us now examine a few specimens of the reformers' manner of quotation and application of their own poets and prophets. The whole collection of Hebrew poetry falls into five divisions, ending with a Doxology — No. I. Pss. 1-41 ; II. Pss. 42-72 ; III. Pss. 73-89 ; IV. Pss. 92-106 ; V. Pss.' 107-150. And each division is marked with distinctive Roman Christianity. 199 characteristics. Jahveh, e.g., predominates in the first, and "Elohim" in the second. The Songs of Degrees, supposed to have been chanted by pilgrims on the road to the Temple of Jerusalem, are found in the fifth. Some are assigned to Moses. Some are composed after the Babylonian captivity, and seventy-three are ascribed to the pen of King David, " the sweet singer of Israel." Here we refer only to those composed on the " King of the Jews," and applied to the anointed Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, as the expected " King of the Jews." Three times the Second Poem, composed on the occasion of a royal accession (for " the powers that be are ordained of God "), is quoted by the disciples after the martyrdom of the Prophet (Acts iv. 25); by Paul, in a speech at Antioch (Acts xiii. 33) ; and by ApoUos, in his letter to the Hebrews (i. 5). The disciples, who were threatened by the priestly government of Jerusalem, charged them with persecution of the Lord's Anointed Prophet, in the words of the Hebrew poet. That is all. But we know that the powers who head social order and progress of the world come into constant collision, and carry forward " the struggle of existence " by " natural selection," and the " survival of the strongest" principles of civil and religious government. The passage appears in the speech of Paul to support his contention that Jesus fulfilled his mission according to divine approbation ; whereas it was cited by Apollos to prove his superiority to angels. The lofty style of a Hebrew laureate who penned an epithalamium, or bridal song on a royal marriage, was seized by Apollos, and applied in his allegorical fashion for the purpose of eclipsing the mission of Moses, their ancient legislator. " Thy throne, God, is for ever and 200 Roman Christianity. ever : a sceptre of justice is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : there- fore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Kings' daughters are among thy honourable women : upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir " (Ps. xlv.). But the throne of Jesus, according to the late disciple of John the Baptist, was only the seat (6p6vo<;) of the second Joshua, who led them into the Christian " kingdom of God " (Heb. iv. 8) ; the assembly of "just men " made perfect through suffer- ing, like the " Captain of their deliverance." Again, we are told in one of Matthew's anecdotes that the Prophet puzzled the Pharisees with the passage, " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son ? And no man was able to answer him a word ; neither durst any man, from that day forth, ask him any more questions." Now, did King David really call his future successor and descendant " Lord " in this passage ? Assuredly not. But Jesus evidently foiled his opponents with their own weapons, i.e. the current inter- pretation put on the passage by the Scribes and Pharisees of the day. The language really put into the mouth of Jahveh by the Hebrew poet was : " Jahveli said unto my Lord (the king), Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." As we have already adduced the special testimonies of the Prophets regarding the national patriot desired for the purpose of restoring their national independence, we shall only refer to a few quotations from their writings in this place. The most appropriate passage for the purpose of Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, was selected by himself as the public manifesto of his divine mission. Roman Christianity. 201 publislied in the synagogue of his own native town (Second Isa. Ixi.). And the reception which the living claimant of the prophetic mission, and fellowship with his famous predecessors, Elijah and Elisha, met with — the threat to hurl him from the rock — fulfilled the old saying that a " prophet is not without honour except in his own country." Can any student of human nature be surprised that the lives of his own peers, the Hebrew prophets, and specially " the nameless Prophet," in the school of suffering and furnace of affliction in Babylon, proved a perpetual source of instruction and consolation to the Galilean reformer? " I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, and he was reckoned with the trans- gressors," is his own method of application (Luke xxii. 37). " Do you understand what you are reading ? " was the question put by Philip, one of the first deacons and evan- gelists, to an Ethiopian eunuch and proselyte, who was reading the 53d chapter of Isaiah (the Second); and the eunuch replied : " I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet thus ? of himself, or of some other man ? " Philip claimed it for a prediction regarding Jesus, whom he recog- nised as God's Anointed ; and when the eunuch assented, he was immediately baptized, and received into connection with the " sect of Galileans " or Jewish Christians. The only other passage, indeed, which could be quoted from the lives and letters of the reformers of ancient Judaism implying the imposition of the sacred books of the Jews on the members of the Christian brotherhood, endowed with divine gifts and graces, and the law of nature written on their hearts by the Spirit of God, is taken from Paul's second letter to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith : " From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. 202 Roman Christianity. according to the faith of the anointed Jesus " (2 Tim. iii.). But the saving clause here inserted for the guidance of the Christian Church is, that all the doctrine, reproof, cor- rection, and instruction in righteousness must be received in accordance with the new faith founded by Jesus the Anointed (Xpto-To?) of God. We have deemed it necessary to refer to the Christian method of " interpretation " — the use which the reformers of ancient Judaism made of the sacred books of their own country, during the course of their religious reformation. But the Moral Law, or the " interpretation " and " revelation " of the " law of nature," was the only volume which Paul appealed to in his discussions with his Eoman disciples. And the critical investigation will form an appropriate prelude to the second part of our chapter on the Levitical Law of Moses versus the Christian Law of Love. If the complete Temple ritual, priesthood, bloody and bloodless sacrifices of Moses and Solomon were abolished by the reformers of ancient Judaism, the question now arises, What religious elements and institutions survived their destructive revolution? — (1) The religious brother- hood, founded, as we have seen, on the national synagogue, Eoman Senate, Comitia, and Greek assemblies established in the large cities of the Eoman Empire ; and (2) the moral law of " ten words " — the law of human nature, " written on the fleshly tables of the heart by the Spirit of God, " summed up by Jesus and Paul, the Eoman refor- mer, in one word : " Love is the fulfilment of the Law " (Eom. xiii. 10). It is this moral law, or law of human nature, the aim and end of which is social love and order, which has been wrested and misinterpreted by the legis- lators and system-builders of Papal and Protestant Chris- Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 203 tianism, which now requires exposition. Such, too, were the Levitical and rabbinical " heavy burdens " of nineteen hundred years, which crushed the souls of the Jews in legal and ceremonial slavery in the times of Jesus and Paul. And a cursory glance at them may pave the way for understanding " the simplicity of the gospel," which displaced them during the course of Paul's reformation of the Eoman Empire. CHAPTEE III. SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF JEWISH WORSHIP. What then formed the primitive mode of Hebrew wor- ship, according to the testimony of their sacred books ? 1. In the Patriarchal Age, nothing more or less than the sacrifice of an animal on a simple altar of rough or unhewn stone by the father of the family belonging to a nomad or pastoral tribe, under the open sky, in the pre- sence of the King of heaven. The only sacred custom of primitive Hebraism was circumcision, common to them with the Egyptians. "We are not concerned here with the " divine conception " ascribed by the Hebrew patriarchs to the Almighty God, who delighted in blood, burnt-offer- ings, and sweet-smelling frankincense, like all the gods (Elohim) of Chaldea, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, and Phoenicia, belonging to the " Shemitic race." 2. In the Tribal Age, the same divine worship was continued in the land of Palestine, with more artistic altars of burnt-offering, incense, and table with twelve loaves representing the tribes of Israel, in the presence of 204 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. the holy ark containing " the ten words " of Moses ; a pot of manna or angels' food; Aaron's rod that blossomed; by the Aaronic priesthood invested with sacred robes ; the Urim and Thummim; twelve glittering stones on the high priest's bosom ; and, if you believe it, the " Shekinah " (divine presence) and cherubim, where Moses held interviews with Jahveh, within a tent or tabernacle. Egyptian ideas and influences are as visible in the sacred services of the Hebrews of the Tribal age, as Eomish vestments, superstitions, and Gothic cathedrals in mediaeval Christianism. The new God of Moses, " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," was Jahveh (Being : Life) — " he who was, is, and is to be, and no man has lifted his veil," taken from an inscription on the faqade of the Temple of Heliopolis. 3. In the Monarchic Age the very same divine wor- ship was invested with all the grandeur and magnificence of the Temple of Solomon ; successive orders of the national priesthood ; morning, evening, and occasional sacrifices ; sacred songs and musical accompaniments ; anniversary fasts and festivals ; first and second Levitical codes ; seven-branched lamp and sacred fire, etc., borrowed from their Persian and Phoenician contemporaries; and the successive restorations under Ezra, Nehemiah, and Herod perpetuate the worship of Jahveh, under the Persian, Macedonian, and Eoman domination, and the alternate administration of Pharisees and Sadducees until the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, face to face with the burning question of the age as Paul the reformer was — What was the origin and mean- ing of sacrifices and incense in the minds of the Hebrew patriarchs, princes, priests, poets, and prophets ? Beyond all doubt, the first and foremost thought of every heart Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 205 was the desire of acceptance and favour in the sight of the King of heaven, and the natural expression of praise, gratitude, and thanksgiving in return for all the gifts of nature and human life conferred on the worshipper. Sin and thanksgiving offerings of every variety — bullocks, goats, sheep, turtle-doves, pigeons, grain, loaves, cakes, and wine — were minutely prescribed by the Levitical codes to suit all classes and occasions from birth to death. The mere contact with a dead body — a bone of it even — mouldy garments, tents, house, and furniture was leprosy ; diseases of every kind in males and females incurred sin and uncleanness, and required offerings for " purification." And the sole end and aim of the entire sacrificial system was to obtain an authoritative declaration of peace and friendship with the King of heaven. Place your hands on the head of the bullock, goat, or sheep, confess your sins, and " the blood, which is the life," is sprinkled round the altar of the door of the tabernacle or in the Temple courts of Jerusalem by the officiating priest, and it is " accepted for him to make atonement (or reconciliation) for him with God." The Hebrew worshipper parts from the priest " the friend of God " by faith in the Law of Moses. That is the heart and soul of every Hebrew sacri- fice offered in the Patriarchal, Tribal, and Monarchic age, and exemplified with all the solemnity, pomp, and circum- stance of Oriental gravity on the anniversary of national atonement, when the high priest laid his hands on two goats in the name and stead of the whole people, and the blood of the one was sprinkled on " the ten words " in the Holy of Holies, while the other was sent off to the desert, the home of devils, with all their sins on its shoulders (Lev. xvi.). No matter what the " divine conception " or character 2o6 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. was in the minds of the patriarchs, chieftains, or clansmen, the tribal warrior, or his warlike followers, the King of Israel, or the citizen of Jerusalem, in every successive age of "the peculiar people;" the Babylonian "El" who repented that he had made man, and destroyed the whole world with a flood ; the Palestinian " Jahveh," " the man of war," who taught their fingers to fight, and gladly accepted the offering of Jephthah's daughter, who mourned her virginity for a month on the mountains of Jerusalem prior to her inhuman devotion ; and the tutelar Deity of "the man after Jahveh's own heart," who laughs on his throne in the heavens, and holds all the heathen (nations) in derision (Pss. ii., lix.). Hence Abraham, the " Father of the Faithful," earned the title of the " Friend of God." Zacharias and Elisabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, were "in the eyes of the law blameless;" and Josephus, the latest historian of Judaea, records that David, the King of Jerusalem, was " without controversy a pure man, and guilty of no sin at all in his whole life, excepting those in the matter of Uriah." The civil and religious, moral and social standard of sin and crime, in one word, was " legal," according to the first and second Levitical codes of the Law of Moses. And this was the very ground of the " thundering '' pro- tests hurled against the religious conventionalism of the Law of Moses— the Pharisaic life and conduct of the Jews — first, by the school of the prophets ; secondly, by Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee ; and lastly, by Paul, the Roman reformer. Away with your Levitical and legal conventionalism, was the reactionary cry of the spiritual prophet Isaiah, a full century prior to the destruction of Jerusalem : " To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me ? Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 207 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomina- tion to me ; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; it is a grief, even the solemn meeting (Isa. i.). Learn to do well ; seek judg- ment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." The very spirit of Isaiah took possession of the Galilean Prophet : " Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! you blind guides, who strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. You make clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but within they are full of extortion and excess. You are like whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. You build the tombs of the pro- phets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous. Fill up the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you gene- ration of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt, xxiii.). And the prophetic protests are taken up by Paul, the Eoman reformer, and carried to their logical consummation in the systematic exposition of his own " Gospel," summed up in the conclusion : " The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to the Anointed, that we might be justified by faith ; even as Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness." The "just man" by faith in God, like Abraham, the "Father of the Faithful," who earned the title of the " Friend of God " 430 years before the publication of the Law of Moses on Sinai — that was the sum and substance of Paul's " Gospel " or welcome message ; and letter after letter issued from his fertile genius, crowded with argu- ment calculated to fortify his revolutionary doctrine. " Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we shall serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (Eom. vii. 6). 2o8 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. " Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith the Anointed has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say to you that if you be circumcised the Anointed will profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. The Anointed is become of no effect to you, whoever of you are justified by the law. You are fallen from favour. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in the Anointed Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which works by love " (Gal. v.). " By favour are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ; not of works, lest any man should boast " (Eph. ii.). But the crowning gift which exalted the power of faith and hope into union and harmony with the divine wiU was love, the fulfilling of the law. " Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Love suffers long, and is kind ; love envies not ; love does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up ; does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil ; rejoices not in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And now remains faith, hope, love, these three ; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. xiii.). What now is the posi- tion of the disciple of [the new faith delivered from the hereditary slavery of his legal tutors, governors, and schoolmasters, and invested with the titles of the Son and Friend of God ? " There is therefore now no con- demnation to those who are disciples of the Anointed Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 209 {■Trvevfia). For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God " (Eom. viii.), and animated by the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. v.). Of course his comprehensive reasoning applied to all the Eoman, Hellenic, and Oriental Christians who possessed no sacred books, but were placed under the universal law of human nature, ruled by the sovereign and dominant power of pure and healthy (lieilig) love. " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you pre- sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service " (Eom. xii.) is the final conclusion of the systematic exposition of Paul's " Gospel." Can any rational critic doubt that Paul, the Eoman reformer, raised the religious and moral standard of the Christians to a higher level than the legal and Levitical codes of Moses current in Judsea ? The exaltation of the cross, and the crucifixion and martyrdom of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, into the sole and single sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, belongs to a later period of doctrinal development. The heart and soul of human nature — faith, hope, and love in divine and human perfection — rising in incense to heaven, and diffused through every sphere of domestic and social life, was the only pure, living, and daily sacri- fices of the Eoman Christianity, according to Paul's own mind. Sabbaths, Fasts, and Festivals. — Was no exception what- ever made in favour of the Sabbaths (rests), fasts, and festivals peculiar to the Hebrew, Hellenic, and Eoman races, according to the Gospel of Paul, the Eoman re- former 1 Not so much as one. All the sacred persons, places, and periods common to the motley assemblage of races and religions of the Eoman Empire were swept away 2 I o Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. by the universal and spiritual character of the Christian reformation. Something nearly of the same nature took place at the Protestant Eeformation, in the abolition of the sacred festivals held in honour of the saints, apostles, and " Mother of God " and " Queen of Heaven," still lingering in the Papal and Prelatical Churches of the day ; while Christmas itself and New Year has been transformed into a scene of social festivity, dancing, and singing amongst Presbyterian and Independent Protestants. We say some- thing of the same nature ; for the Sabbaths (rests), fasts, and festivals of the Hebrew, Hellenic, and Eoman races and religions bore both a national, civil, social, and reli- gious character ; and only ended with their national existence. Six grand national festivals and six fasts were included in the Jewish anniversaries in the times of Jesus and Paul ; but we cannot pretend to number the sacred and civil fasts and festivals dedicated to the greater and lesser gods and goddesses, Jupiter and Juno, Apollo and Diana, Minerva, Mars, Ceres, Venus, Bacchus, etc., of the Hellenic and Eomau people. The first Sabbath (rest) of the Jewish year corre- sponded with the spring festivals (April) of the Shemitic races of Western Asia ; was associated with emancipation from Egyptian bondage and the declaration of national independence, and celebrated with the ordinary sacri- fices, feasting, dancing, singing, music, and merriment of Oriental festivals held in the present day. " Independ- ence Day " in the New World, storming along with a dis- play of flags, music, political grandiloquence, and ora- tory, and closing with luxurious banquets, patriotic toasts, songs of national sentiment, and dancing is the Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 2 1 1 nearest Western approach to it. And those enthusiastic patriots only, we fancy, could enter into the spirit of the Galilean Prophet, who would have rejoiced in the oppor- tunity to plunge these Roman Pharaohs into a Eed Sea of blood and slaughter. Songs of thanksgiving burst from the hearts of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron at the destruc- tion of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea (Exod. xv.). The song of Moses and the Lamb triumphant in heaven sounded in the seer's vision at the very idea of the destruction of Rome at the crisis of the Neronian persecu- tion. But the martyr's cross loaded with the prophet's bleeding form rose to heaven in the firmament of mediaeval Europe, surrounded with clouds of Christian saints ; while barbarous priests and monks mumbled their mummeries to empty stalls, and the people danced round their May- poles, or baited bears and bulls in the circus. All the joyous expressions of popular and patriotic feeling have been banished from the vernal and happy season by the Christian practice of dwelling on the harrowing spectacle of prophetic martyrdom, instead of rejoicing at their emancipation from the priestly yoke which neither Jews, Paul, nor their fathers could bear. The second was Pentecost — so called from being held fifty days afterwards, in June — the harvest-home of the Jewish people, the season of national thanksgiving, and the scene of social and domestic reunions from all quar- ters of the habitable earth ; for the Jews had been scattered over all the regions of the East and West by their civil wars and foreign conquests. It was on this national anni- versary that Peter and the followers of the Galilean Prophet addressed the Jewish crowds in the temple of Jerusalem, and exhorted them to wash their hands of the 2 1 2 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. divine judgment which their priestly rulers involved the people, by the martyrdom of their Master. Five days before the popular festival of sylvan booths, the whole nation fell on its knees as one man, before Jehovah, on the great day of atonement, with due fasting and solemnity ; and the high priest (after sacriiice for himself) laid his hands on one goat, sprinkled its blood on the Ark of the Covenant, containing the law of Moses, and sent off a second, laden with the sins of the people, to the waste and howling wilderness — the home of Satan and the demons who led them into temptation. The wholesale desertion of their houses by the Jewish people in towns and villages, and temporary residence in sylvan bowers reared with branches of the palm, olive, and myrtle, during the season of the vintage (October), must have presented a striking contrast to the late national solemnity ; but such picturesque scenes of pastoral inno- cence, feasting, and mirth were quite in keeping with their Oriental environment and tropical climate. Six additional anniversary fasts, arising out of their social history, were held during the course of the year. Three were connected with the siege of Jerusalem, and burning of the Temple of Solomon ; one with the assassi- nation of Gedaliah, the Babylonian governor who be- friended Jeremiah and the tributary " remnant " after the conquest ; another with the deliverance of the people in the days of Queen Esther, in the Persian court ; and the last, with the purification of the Temple in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (b.c. 167). All the new moons, as well as the seventh day of the week, moreover, during the course of the twelve months, were celebrated with blowing of trumpets and special sacrifices, in accordance with the civil and religious cus- Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 213 toms of their Chaldean, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Persian contemporaries. Not a single word is said regarding the celebration of the seventh day of the week during the course of the patriarchal and tribal periods ; and the stringent rules and restrictions which overloaded the observance of all the Sabbaths, fasts, and festivals, as well as the whole Levitical law of Moses, was the very ground of the protesting assaults of the reformers of ancient Judaism. Sacrifices, and their concomitant feasting, un- doubtedly formed the substantial rites on all these festal occasions. The popular exposition of the ancient laws in the Synagogue was not engrafted on their religious rites until after the national dissolution of the Babylonian conquest. But the twelve anniversary Sabbaths (rests or holidays) of the Jews, sank into insignificance in com- parison with the endless festivals, social games, and reli- gious spectacles (deapia) peculiar to the Hellenic and Eoman people, which were swept away by the cosmo- politan reformation of Paul, the reformer of the Eoman Empire. The four great Hellenic festivals were the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean, celebrated at stated annual intervals. The most famous of them all — the Olympic Games — ran back into the patriarchal and tribal ages of ancient Hellas, and were dedicated to the honour of Zev'i-TrdTrjp — (Dyaus-pitar = father of light) — father of Gods and men ; drew deputies from all the States, who vied with each other in the splendour and number of their offerings ■ at the temple of Olympia in Elis ; and only ended with the total abolition of sacred worship, at the edict of Theodosius the Great (a.d. 394). The Pythian rose one century after the first Olympian (B.C. 776), in honour of Apollo (the god of light, of the 2 1 4 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. Asiatic races), at the behest of the Amphictyonic Council of Eastern Greece, and witnessed the intellectual contests of ^schylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Herodotus, — the father of history, and the founders of the Hellenic drama — the popular prophets, and religious instructors of Greece. The two remaining festivals were held at Nemea, in honour of Zeus, and at the Isthmus of Corinth, in honour of Poseidon (the ruler of the ocean) ; and, like all the others, were distinguished by contests in poetry, music, gymnastics, running, wrestling, and chariot-racing. All these festivals, held under religious auspices, formed centres of political reunion amongst the independent States of Greece ; but we must leave the reader to form his own estimate of the distinctive features and character of the Hebrew and Hellenic religions, literary, moral, and social culture, on the opposite shores of the Mediterranean Sea. No similar national festivals found a place in Roman life; but the ordinary religious sacrifices and services, devoted to the honour of the greater and lesser gods and goddesses of the Eoman, as well as of the Hellenic people, provided them with numerous " fasts " and holi- days, of a semi-religious and festal character. Not only so, but the Ccesars, as well as the wealthy patricians and aristocracy, courted the popular favour by splendid exhi- bitions of wild animals, shows of gladiators, sham naval fights, etc., in the Circus and Colosseum. Such being the religious and social festivals occurring in every province of the Eoman Empire, what instructions did the reformers of the old faith — Jesus as well as Paul — give their disciples on this important subject ? The first rencontre between Jesus and the rigid sect of the Pharisees, arose out of his disciples rubbing the chaff Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 215 from some wheat in passing through the fields on the seventh day of the week ; and the charge brought against them of breaking the law of the sacred day gave him an opportunity of proclaiming the " spirit " of the Sabbath (rest), which ultimately emancipated them from all the Levitical distinctions between sacred days, meats and drinks : (1) The Sabbath was made for the good of man, and not man for the good of the Sabbath ; (2) The priests themselves slaughtered animals from morning until even- ing every Sabbath-day, and were held " blameless " in the performance of their sacred duties ; (3) The sacred shew- bread — the twelve loaves daily laid on Jahveh's table, reserved for the priests only — was shared with hungry David, because the law of Levitical " sacrifice " must yield to the moral law of "mercy" and hospitality; (4) The Son of Man (man) was created " Lord " of the Sabbath (rest), and entitled to exercise his own judgment regarding the performance of all acts which ministered to the neces- sity or convenience of domestic or social life ; and (5) The sanction and authority of God — who sends rain and sunshine for the support of all creation, plants^ animals, and mankind on the face of the earth, every day alike — is claimed for his religious instruction. " My Father is always working, and I work too, in the kingdom of God " (Matt, xii., Mark ii., Luke xiii., John v.). Given, then, these revolutionary germs, sown by the reforming " Sower," who went out to sow on the rocky, thorny, fertile soil, and beaten Levitical tracks of ancient Judaism, what phase do they present, thirty years later, in the hands of Paul and ApoUos, the reformers of the Eoman Empire ? According to the letter Apollos addressed to the Hebrews, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee is re- garded as a second Joshua to lead his disciples into the 2 1 6 Successive Phases of Jewish Wardship . " kingdom of God " on earth. And the " rest " which remains to Christians is the resting (o-o/3/3aTtcr/xo? = sab- bathism) or cessation from his own works, "as God did from his," and self-devotion to the will of God. The sabbath of the soul, in fact, is the " rest " of the " Spirit " — the peace which passeth all understanding in Paradise, Re- gained, delivered from the bondage and slavery of the Levitical law of Moses. According to the letter of Paul addressed to the Eoman Christians after the total abolition of the Levitical Law of Moses, as well as of Eoman Polytheism, and the establish- ment of the moral law of human nature, the reformer prescribes due subjection to the civil government of the Eoman Empire, but leaves the observance of their social festivals to the free and independent judgment of his own disciples. " One man judges one day sacred, and another common; a second man judges every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that observes the day, observes it in honour of God ; and he that does not observe the day, considers it unnecessary to do so. ... I know and am persuaded according to the doctrine of our anointed Jesus, that nothing is common (LeviticaUy ' unclean ') in itself, but to him that judges anything to be common (LeviticaUy ' unclean ') to him it is common." No reference is made to the Babylonian gods. Sabbaths, or festivals rejected by Abraham, who left " Ur of the Chaldees," and emigrated to "Western Pales- tine, or the survival of the seventh day dedicated to the worship of Jahveh, the "only living God." The whole Jewish ritual — holy persons, places, and periods — is swept away en masse. Several years later the fervid reformer found it neces- sary to transmit a special letter to the Colossian Christians Siiccessive Phases of Jewish Worship. 2 1 7 of "Western Asia, who were tantalised, like their Galatiau neighbours, with the opposition of Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, embodying the very same counsels regarding the sacred festivals of the Hellenic, Eoman, and Oriental people: "Let no man judge you in meat or iu drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days " (Col. ii.). " I know and am persuaded that there is nothing common (Levitically unclean) in itself, but to him who judges anything to be common, to him it is common," or in other words — " Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving '' — is the key to all Paul's legislation on sacred days. Meats and drinks were mere ordinances (807/LiaTa) — human distinctions and prohibitions, devised with a show of wisdom and will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. Accordingly he prescribes a prudential policy of social expediency, toleration, and Christian liberty for the guidance of his Christian disciples in everyday life. And trammelled as he was by the pro- hibition of blood, things strangled, and meat laid before idols by the Council of Jerusalem, practical difficulties met him at every point in the churches planted in the large cities of the Eoman Empire. " All things are law- ful to me, but all things are not expedient." How can we possibly distinguish the sacred animals laid before idols in the public market ? appears to ha^'e been the question put to the reformer on the subject, " Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no questions for conscience' sake. We know an idol is nothing in the world," was Paul's reply. What course shall we follow in a public temple at a social festival, or at a private entertainment ? " Whatever 2 1 8 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. is set before you eat, asking no questions for conscience' sake. But if any man say to you, This is offered in sacrifice to idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience' sake ; for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" (1 Cor. x.); i.e. abundance of food can be found for the entertainment of " weak brethren " who are scandalised by eating animals offered before idols, and holding fellowship and communion with gods whom they regard as " demons " or devils. Consequently the Pytha- gorean could retain his vegetarianism and "eat herbs" only. The Eechabites, the hermits, Nazarites, and dis- ciples of John the Baptist and Jesus might clothe them- selves in camel's hair and leathern girdle, live on locusts and wild honey, touch, taste, and liandle not " wine and strong drink ; " the Essenians from the banks of Jordan, and the Therapeutae in Egypt, could all find Christian liberty and toleration within the limits of the Christian Church, according to the "gospel" of Paul the Eoman reformer. " For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Juilig geisi), or sound mind. "Whatsoever therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God." What, then, is the nature of the feast held in anniver- sary of the Founder's martyrdom? First, amongst the Jewish Christians — "the sect of Galileans everywhere spoken against " in Judaa, and throughout the large cities of the Eoman Empire, Peter, James, John, and the Gali- lean brethren must have followed the ordinary practice of " eating the lamb," prescribed by the law of Closes, at the " Passover," under the shadow of the utter disappoint- ment of all their hopes of the restoration of the " kingdom of Israel " by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, accord- Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 219 iiig to the floating and fluctuating visions of his future reappearance, resting on the fulfilment of the words of the national poets and prophets for thirty years. And what are the feelings of Peter, James, and John, the pillars of the Church at Jerusalem, on listening to the reports of the rise and progress of the disorders of the new sects of Christians who had renounced the Levitical law of Moses at the Passover, in the year a.d. 57, the date of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians ? All we know for certain is that some Christians, new converts from the Eoman, Hellenic, and Oriental religions, came " hungry," and some Jewish proselytes came " drunk " from the celebration of their national festivals to hold the " love feast," appointed by the Christian brotherhood in memory of the Founder's martyrdom, in the Church at Corinth ; and the "survival" of the Jewish Passover, of "eating bread and drinking wine " is the only ceremony alluded to on the occasion. No prescriptions whatever are given by Paul on this subject to the Roman Christians (a.d. 63). Accordingly the mere survival of the Jewish " custom " connected with a national festival must stand or fall in accordance with the doctrine of Christian " liberty " laid down for the guidance of Paul's disciples on sacred days, meats and drinks. So also with the Jewish rite of circumcision renounced by the first Council of Jerusalem ; " for neither circum- cision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, biit faith, which works by love." Query — Did Paul, the Eoman reformer, attach any great value to the Jewish practice of immersion in the waters of Jordan — the mere symbol and shadow of religious initiation and adoption of the new faith ? We think not. " I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gains, lest any should say 2 20 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas, besides I know not whether I baptized any of you. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" (1 Cor. i.). All the mere "shadows" of Levitical rites and ceremonies pale, fade, and vanish away in presence of the glow and halo of divine and everlasting love which " never fails." " But whether there be prophecies they shall fail ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." Hence no Christian can quote a single passage in the lives and letters of the reformers of the Eouian Empire authorising the change of the Sabbath from the -seventh to the first day of the week. Not only so, but the fathers themselves are silent on the subject. Accordingly the only explanation which can be given rests on the different modes of calculating time amongst the Jews and Eomaus — the former counting the days from evening to evening, maintained by modern Jews as well as the Paissian Greek Church, and the latter from midnight to midnight, adopted by all the communi- ties of Western Europe. "Not many noble, not many mighty, not many wise " converts — the veriest slaves and outcasts of society in fact — were added to the early Chris- tian Church either in Judsea or in the Eoman Empire. And allusion is only once made to Paul preaching until midnight, and a young man falling from the gallery in his slumbers on the evening of the seventh day, i.e. the first day of the week (Acts xx.) — clear evidence that they met together at the close of their day's occupation. But when the Jewish worship was abolished at the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, and the Christians were first tolerated, and finally triumphant under the patronage of Constantine the Great, they assembled during the day- Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 221 time of the first day of the week, the hereditary ecclesias- tical custom which has been perpetuated to the present day. I append a quotation from the Reasonableness of Chris- tianity, written by John Locke, one of our profoundest philosophers, untrammelled by the theological systems imposed on the clergy, describing the abolition of the Jewish ritual by the first Christian reformers. " The outward forms of worshipping the Deity wanted a reformation ; stately buildings, costly ornaments, peculiar and uncouth habits, and a numerous huddle of pompous, fantastical, cumbersome ceremonies, everywhere attended divine worship. This, as it had the peculiar name, so it was thought the principal part, if not the whole of religion ; nor could this possibly be amended whilst the Jewish ritual stood, and there was so much of it mixed with the worship of the true God. To this also our Saviour, with the knowledge of the Infinite, Invisible, Supreme Spirit brought a remedy, in a plain, spiritual and suitable worship. Jesus says to the woman of Samaria, ' The hour cometh when ye shall, neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father : but the true worshippers shall worship the Father both in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him.' To be worshipped in spirit and in truth, with application of mind and sincerity of heart, was what henceforth God only required. Magnificent temples, and confinement to certain plans, were now no longer necessary for his worship, which by a pure heart might be performed anywhere. The splendour and distinction of habits, and pomp of ceremonies, and all outside performances, might now be spared. God, who was a Spirit, and made known to be so, required none of these, but the spirit only ; and 2 22 Sitccessive Phases of Jewish Worship . that in public assemblies (where some actions must lie open to the world) all that could appear and be seen should be done decently and in order, and to edification. Decency, order, and edification, were to regulate all their public acts of worship ; and beyond what these required, the outward appearance (which was of little value in the eyes of God) was not to go. Having shut indecency and confusion out of their assemblies, they need not be solicitous about useless ceremonies. Praises and prayers humbly offered up to the Deity was the worship he now demanded ; and in these every one was to look after his own heart, and know that it was that alone which God had regard to, and accepted." The next passage is taken from the Christian Doctrine of John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, referring to the same subject, including the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath. " Since, then, the Sabbath was originally an ordinance of the Mosaic Law, since it was given to the Israelites alone, and that for the express purpose of distinguishing them from other nations, it follows that if (as was shown in the former book) those who live under the Gospel are emancipated from the ordinances of the law in general, least of all can they be considered as bound by that of the Sabbath, the distinction being abolished, which was the special cause of the institution. . . . The law of the Sabbath being thus repealed, that no particular day of worship has been appointed in its place is evident from the same apostle (Eom. xiv. 5) : ' One man esteemeth one day above another ; another esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.' For since, it was observed above, no particular place is designated under the Gospel for the public Successive Phases of Jetvish Worship. 223 worship of God, there seems no reason why time, the other circumstance of worship, should be more defined. If Paul had not intended to intimate the abolition of all Sabbaths whatever, and of all sanctification of one day above another, he would not have added in the following verse : ' He that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it.' For how does he 'not regard the day to the Lord,' if there be any commandment still in force, by which a particular day, whether the Sabbath or any other, is to be observed?" (p. 605). Cliristiaii Citizens, Women, and Slaves in Civil Society. — What effect did the total abolition of the Levitical Law of Moses and the renunciation of Polytheism produce on the status of Christians in civil society, as well as the position of women and slaves in domestic and social life ? Such was the comprehensive question raised at the commencement of the Eoman Eeformation ; but as the full reply would involve the consideration of the reorganisa- tion of society on a Christian basis under Constantine the Great, we shall confine our attention at present to the commencement of the social revolution recorded in the lives and letters of the Eeformers of ancient Judaism. The life, mission, and martyrdom of Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, as well as of Paul, the Eoman reformer, stand pre-eminent as types of the founders of political and religious societies. Clouds of mystery hang over the death and burial of Moses : but he must have succeeded in laying the foundation of the Hebrew tribes after an Egyptian revolution. Not less hazy is the distant perspective of the Eoman senate and conscript fathers on the seven hills of Roma Antiqua; and their poetic annals leave us in doubt whether Eomulus was cut in pieces by the senate, or raised to heaven as a god. 2 24 Sitccessive Phases of yewisk Worship. Sacrifices and incense were still offered in his temple in the times of Jesus and Paul. But little is known of Numa Pompilius, the reputed founder of the Eoman religion. Three centuries, however, passed away before the Prophet of Nazareth was voted a god by the Christian Council of Nikaia, in the age of Constantine the Great. The startling story of 600,000 slaves marching to the conquest of Canaan throiigh the barren wilderness, in the midst of drought, famine, pestilence and portentous marvels is well known. So are the tribal feuds and hostilities, Sabine rape, adultery, and expulsion of the Tarquins in early Eoman social life. And the founda- tion of Christianity — the soul and body of the young nations of modern Europe and Britain, was laid in the midst of similar social and religious fermentation and commotions. The very first attempt to open the eyes of the Galilean people and deliver them from the captivity to the Levitical Law of Moses roused their indignation, and provoked the threat to hurl him over the rocks. Spies from the priests and Pharisees tracked his steps from time to time. Test questions on the religion and poKtics of the day were put to him for solution in his public addresses (Matt. xxii. 15, Luke xii. 13); and the very words which the Egyptian taskmasters taunted Moses with, on slaying their friend and fellow, baffled their transparent snare to involve him in the discharge of political functions. • But the popular procession of the Prophet on an ass into Jerusalem ; the decided expression of the people's wishes, " Blessed is the king of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord," in a country rife with insurrection, and men " setting up for kings," precipitated his martyrdom. And he died the victim of priestly government, the defenders Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 225 of social order, on the charge of treason and blasphemy, with the ironical inscription on his Eoman cross — " Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," in the full hope of the immortality of his prophetic genius. " Verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me '' (John xii.). The stun which his disciples received from the terrible blow to all their hopes of the restoration of national independence lasted apparently until tlie day of Pente- cost, fifty days after his death ; for they locked the doors for fear of the Jews. But the enthusiastic Galileans no sooner started on their missionary labours than they were arrested, threatened, and beaten by the government, and only answered, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than to God, judge you. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Stephen, the Greek deacon, filled with the Holy Spirit of the " sect," intoxicated with the honours of his new position, by the laying on of the hands of the disciples of the martyred Prophet, gloried in the exalted views of the Galileans, and died by stoning in the presence of Paul on the charge — " This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against the holy place, and the law : for we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered." The very first appearance of Paul, the Eoman reformer, after the thunderstorm which formed the turning-point of his life, provoked the bigotry of the Jews, threats of assassination, and drove him down the walls of Damascus p 2 26 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. in a basket, in flight to Arabia. And the fervour of his religious enthusiasm carried him by land and sea, and from city to city of the Eoman Empire, during the chequered and stormy course of liis reforming career for thirty ye^rs. At one time the storm howled round him for a whole hour, — " Great is Diana of the Ephesiaus," — in the town hall of Ephesus. At another he is left for dead by stoning outside the town. The people on the Temple stairs of Jerusalem threaten to tear him to pieces. The Jewish " zealots " swear an oath to murder the apostate. " We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes who has also gone about to profane the Temple " — was the accusation of TertuUus, the orator of Jerusalem, in Herod's judgment- hall at Cffisarea. And the long roll of his lifelong sufferings and indomitable heroism has nerved the souls of thousands of martyrs in every land and age (2 Cor. xi.). Surely if any poetical, military, or religious genius was entitled to recognise the future immortality of his intel- lectual labours, it was Paul the Eoman reformer, who could justly exclaim, "I have foaght a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; hence- forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them who love his appearing" (2 Tim. iv.). Such was the stormy state of social war and religious crusade roused by the founder of the religious and poli- tical societies of modern Christendom — we say political also, for Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, first adopted twelve according to the number of the tribes of Israel, and then seventy disciples like Moses after the Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 227 Exodus, and led the people to believe in his intention of restoring the kingdom on its original pattern ; whereas Paul followed the model of all the Eoman, Hellenic, and Jewish governments of the day in the foundation of the Christian Church {eKicK.-r\GLa). But we shall observe their assimilation to each other in the future course of their development. And when we look a little more closely into the social environment of the Jewish and Eoman reformers, after the death of the Galilean Prophet, the ringleader of the sect of Nazarenes was honoured only with a passing notice by Josephus, in the midst of the social convulsions and last agonies of the dying nation, and the brief remark, " The tribe of Christians is not extinct at this day." The Eoman historians themselves at first con- founded the Christians or Chrestians with the other Jewish sects ; and Tacitus mentions the banishment of 4000 Jews and Egyptians to Sardinia on account of religious tumults. But the Christians alone were charged with the burning of the city of Eome, and punished with the greatest severity by the Neronian government. The scanty details of domestic incidents and dissensions occasioned by the adoption of the new faith is remark- able. The relations of Jesus himself did not believe in him (John vii.), a fact which he adroitly availed himself of, when he announced in their presence that all domestic relationships must be sacrificed in the pursuit of truth. " My father and mother, sister and brother, are those who do the will of God." The strong patriotic feelings of the " Galileans " flash out in opposition to his Jewish opponents occasionally, and demand the whole burnt-offering of their common instincts and natural affections. " Master, suffer me first to go and 228 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. bury my father," was the request of a weak and humble disciple. But Jesus said, " Follow me, and let the dead (souls) bury their dead " (corpses). One blind man only, whose eye was anointed with spittle, is reported to have been cast out of the synagogue by the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem, because he openly confessed that the Prophet was sent of God. On turning again to the Acts of the Apostles, the first crusade started against the Galilean revolutionists, we find, ended prematurely with the conversion of the chief inquisitor, Paul himself ; but scarcely one domestic event is recorded which throws any light on the religious principles and passions brought into close collision ; one passing glimpse only of the risks and surprises of Paul and Peter's friends is obtained from the history of their missionary enterprises. E.g., here is an episode which could easily be matched from Poxe's Martyrology. Peter escapes from prison, no matter how, and knocks at his friends' door ; " and when Ehoda knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her. Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they. It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking : and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished. And he departed, and went into another place." An angel might save him from prison, but cannot guarantee his safety amongst the Jews. Take this other companion picture from the life and adventures of Paul, which proves at least that the natural affection of his " sister's son " was not deadened alto- gether by political and religious bigotry and fanaticism. " And when Paul's sister's son heard of the Jews lying in , Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 229 wait, he went and entered into the castle and told Paul." And the Eoman captain carried him off to Csesarea, with a military detachment of 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen. Once more, one gladly brings into the foreground the Christian " nocturne " of sympathy with suffering ; the scene of midnight earthquakes ; the shattered prison, and the gaoler drawing his sword in dread of death on account of his prisoners' escape ; and Paul singing " spiritual songs,'' smarting from the pain of his public scourging, and crying out, " Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." " And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all liis house." Undoubtedly the thrilling episode is an honour to our common humanity ; but the sudden resolution of the gaoler to join the rising Church of Philippi would probably not surprise his sceptical friends who had lost their faith in the " gods of Greece " during the course of three centuries posterior to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. From social scenes and domestic incidents such as these the reader may form some idea of the civU, religious, and moral condition both of Jewish, Eoman, and Greek society, and the stormy and tumultuous reception given to the Christian reformers throughout the Eoman Empire. But after all they only formed a fractional portion of the endless political and religious parties who carried forward the social struggle of existence on the surface of the European, Asiatic, and African continents, and ground the old faith and institutions into dissolution by inces- sant and gradual disintegration. Why, then, it has often been asked, did the Jewish, 230 Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. Galilean, Nazarene, and Eoman Christians encounter such strenuous opposition and obstruction ? First, in Judsea, because the Galileans openly professed to revolutionise the religion and government ; and second, in the Eoman Empire, because Paul and his fellow-missionaries, as well as the Jews, generally branded the gods of Greece and Eome with the title of " demons " and " devils." " My dearly beloved, flee from idolatry " (elSaXoXaTpeia = the worship of God by images), sums up the fervid style of the Eoman reformer. " I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils, and not to God ; and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils" (1 Cor. x.). This subject, however, will come up again under the regime of the Latin and Greek fathers. Let us now examine the civil, moral, and social code prescribed by Paul, the Eoman reformer, for the practical guidance of Christian citizens, women, and slaves. All religious legislation apart, the first law laid down by Paul for Christian citizens was loyalty to civil govern- ment : " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God ; the powers that be are ordained of God " (Eom. xiii., Titus iii.). The charge of treason and blasphemy, of setting up another king and religion, brought against the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, and his Galilean disciples, cannot be rebutted by any honest critic. And they paid the penalty of all re- formers, political and religious, who aim at revolutionising the civil and religious institutions of a nation. The posi- tion of Paul, however, was totally different ; the utmost liberty was admitted for the exercise of all the religions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Eoman Empire ; but the Jews and Christians exceeded all the bounds of legiti- mate toleration and philosophical discussion, and openly Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 2 3 1 assailed the national religion as demonolatry. Hence the expulsion of 4000 Jews and Egyptians at the order of the Senate, and the long series of Christian persecu- tions, or, as we prefer to say, " struggle of existence be- tween the old and new faiths." Oriental Protestantism displayed the same arrogance against Polytheism as their hereditary successors, Papalism, Prelacy, and Presby- terianism in modern Christendom. But no attempt whatever was made by Paul to revolutionise the Eoman government. The whole course of his argument, indeed, in the letter addressed to the Eoman Christians, incident- ally proves that he regarded the empire as the ftrue successor of the Jewish kingdom of God. Accordingly, all his political injunctions are enforced with the divine sanction and authority. And well he might, for the Eoman love of civil justice and social order was his only safeguard against the religions bigotry and fanaticism of his Jewish fellow-countrymen. Eoman slavery was therefore accepted as part and parcel of civil government, and Eoman political institu- tions, as well as in Judiea. " Are you called, being a slave i^ovKo'i) 1 Do not vex yourself on that score ; but if you can obtain your freedom, take advantage of it. For the slave who is called to be a Christian is a freeman in a brotherhood. The freeman also who is called to be a Christian becomes the slave of our anointed Master." Slavery, in fact, formed the "domestic service" of all Oriental, Jewish, Hellenic, and Eoman people, and was regulated by the civil laws of each independent state. The language of Paul himself only gave expression to the common opinion of all the jurists and philosophers of the age. Accordingly we do not feel called on to enter into its history, origin, nature, and development in the 232 Successive Phases of jfewish Worship. European, Asiatic, and African continents. Nothing would be easier than to furnish glowing and pathetic descriptions of slavery, — male and female, — concubinage inclusive, drawn from the patriarchal, tribal, and im- perial periods of Eastern and Western civilisation. The romantic adventures of Joseph, and his viziership in the court of Pharaoh ; the nursing and education of Moses, the foundling of the Mle, in the palace by Pharaoh's daughter ; the little captive Hebrew maiden in the house of Naaman, the leprous Syrian captain ; Esther the Queen in Ahasuerus's court ; and Abishag, the nurse and concubine of the aged David amongst the Jews ; .(Esop the fabulist, Epictetus the Stoic philosopher, Horace the poet and freedman's son, Poppeea the Jewess concubine of N"ero, and many others amongst the Greeks and Romans, would occur to the mind of the reader, — point a moral, and adorn a splendid series of tales and essays embellished with old saws and modern instances from the poets and philosophers, on the services and sacrifices, hardships and consolations of slaves and con- cubines. All these instances were familiar to Paul in his sacred books, Greek and Eoman story. Full well he knew that the whole Persian kingdom was scoured for virgins to fill the royal seraglio, and Esther the Jewess selected for the successor of fallen Queen Vashti, and that the same practice was followed in the kingdom of Israel for the harem of David, king of Jerusalem. " Now when King David was old and stricken in years, and they covered him witli clothes but he got no heat, his servants said to him. Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin : and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my Successive Phases of Jewish Worship. 233 lord, the king may get heat. So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coast of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunamite, and brought her to the king. And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him; but the king knew her not" (1 Kings i.). For aught we know to the contrary, the privilege of leaving the prison and living in a hired house in Eome may have been due to the favour of Poppsea, the Jewess and concubine of the Emperor Nero. The Passover itself was the anniversary of the emancipation of 600,000 slaves — the forefathers and founders of the Jewish nation — but that was ages ago. Slavery was a social institution, and loyalty to the social institutions of the Eomans was the prudential policy and political expediency adopted by Paul, the Eoman reformer. Accordingly slavery was tolerated in the Christian brotherhood. But all the exactions of his domestic and moral code are as appropriate to the domestic and cor- relative rights and duties of social service in the present day. " Slaves (servants in the English translation), obey in all things your masters, according to the flesh ; not with eye service, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven " (Col. iii., Ephes. vi., Titus ii.). We have said that Paul only gave expression to the common feeling of the age on the subject of slavery, and the opinion of Seneca, the statesman and philosopher, bears witness to its correctness. " To govern slaves with kindness (moS'. " My spiritual father, I hope I have not walked further than a Sabbath-day's journey to visit you. My father and mother were Jews, and joined the Christians some time ago ; and my mother told me that Paul, a great missionary who came to Eome, said that all the gods were demons, but that an idol was nothing in the world. Will you tell me whether the God of the Jews or Christians will be angry if I place the sacrifices before the Lares and Penates — the gods of my master's house ? — will he be jealous if I serve mother Venus and her little boy Cupid with flowers and incense, at their order ? " P. " My little daughter in the faith, I am very glad to see you. All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient. Our God angry at your master showing gratitude to divine beings who protect his house ? — ^jealous of him for desiring the spirit of love to unite the hearts of his children in marriage with their dear friends ? No, no ! you must not think so. Only believe that your master and mistress wish the blessing of heaven on their family, and that an image is only a representation of the ' Divine Power ' who rules over all the world. Did you ever read the story of a little captive maid in Naaman the 248 Successive Phases of yewish Worship. Syrian's house ? No ? Well, then, her master was cured of his leprosy by visiting the Hebrew prophet she men- tioned to him, and he believed in the Hebrew God, and bent his body in the Temple of Eimmon, along with the king who leant on him for support. If your mistress ask you any questions about your faith and practice, tell her you bow in a Temple of Eimmon, and yet believe in the Maker of heaven and earth only." S. " Thank you, sir. Can I go along with them, too, to see the games in the grand Colosseum — the emperor, Poppaea with all her jewels, the senate, consulars, knights, and all the rich folk at the spectacle ? " P. " Oh yes. The emperor knows right well that all the people enjoy the hunting of wild beasts as well as the aristocracy themselves, in their own forests and foreign countries." S. "Thank you again, sir." P. " Farewell ! and remember that the Sabbath was made for our good and enjoyment. We Christians are not bound by the traditions of the Jewish rabbis in Jerusalem." Mutatis mutandis fahula narratur de te. If the reader will only change the deities of the old Eomans for the "Divine conceptions" set up in Christian temples for worship and adoration by Papal, Prelatical, Presby- terian, and Independent ecclesiastics, and adapt the illustrations, he will meet " modern instances" and a ready- made and appropriate application. Future Life. 249 CHAPTEK IV. FUTURE LIFE. Like all the other articles of Paul's creed, his theory of a future life followed the lines of his mental, moral, and religious development. Accordingly, we must ascertain what it was — (1) in his Jewish and Pharisaic stage ; (2) at the commencement of his Christian legislation (1 Thess.) ; and (3) at the completion of his Eoman Christianity. 1. All discussion on this point is unnecessary; for the pupil of Gamaliel of Jerusalem, as Paul was, accepted the common speculations of the Jewish rabbis regarding the future lot of the " just man " in " Abraham's bosom," as well as of the " unjust " in the place of everlasting torment. 2. The real question at issue is, — Did his adoption of Galileanism modify his Jewish and Pharisaic speculations to any extent at the commencement of his Christian legislation? (1 Thess., a.d. 52) for even at that time he reminded his disciples that they were " followers of the Churches of God, which in Judaea were founded by the Anointed Jesus " (1 Thess. ii.), from which it appears that he still clings to the fulfilment of the " Hope of Israel," the restoration of the " Kingdom," the reappearance of the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, and the reign of the saints on earth ; else what does he mean by " the coming of our Master, the Anointed Jesus, with all the saints " ? But out comes a hidden " mystery " : "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. 250 Future L ife. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we who are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we be ever be with the Lord " (1 Thess. iv.). Meet the Master in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Master? Where did Paul obtain this new " mystery " ? Only on the wings of the classic Pegasus of the poets and philosophers of Greece and Eome — we mean the summit of cloud-capped "Olympus" — the throne of Zeus (Dyaus = the father of light and day) — the court of heaven and hall of heroes, according to Cicero's " Dream of Scipio ; " the original home of the human soul, according to Seneca, where the son of Marius was welcomed by his relations to receive initiation into the "mysteries" of the stars and universal nature. For " Abraham's bosom " was a subterranean region, according to Josephus and rabbinical tradition, as was also Elysium and Tartarus, of the Odyssey and J^neid. One thing is evident, the Thessalonian Christians were thrown into a panic at the first publication of the new " Gospel ; " and the soothing message despatched — " "We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Master, the Anointed Jesus, and by our gathering together to him, that you be not soon shaken in your minds, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, that the day of the Anointed is at hand. Let no man deceive you by Fuhire Life. 251 any means ; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition " (2 Thess. ii.). Now you know that the reign of the saints for a thousand years is not " at hand," although predicted by John in the Eevelation. But who reads John ? or knows by whom or when it was written ? 3. Turn now to his Corinthian letter, written a few years later, and what is Paul's doctrine on a future life now ? Still " waiting for the coming of our Master, the Anointed Jesus" (1 Cor. i. 7). But sceptical Greeks and Eomans who had renounced the " poetic fictions " of Homer and Virgil, the popular representations of a future life of rewards and punishments, posed him with ques- tions — " How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come ? " Out comes another " mystery " and " revelation " (aTroKa\.v\]rt.<;), literally buried beneath a mountain of similitudes taken from heaven, earth, and ocean, viz. the revelation of the resurrection of the " spiritual body " (awfia irvevfiaTiKov) ; for " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," and mortal things do not inherit immortality. " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twink- ling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed " (1 Cor. xv.). No ascension into the air this time, however ; and why ? Probably owing to the objections taken to his former " revelation," contradicting the parable of Dives and Lazarus issued by Jesus himself. At any rate the locality of the future life is left in perfect vagueness. And what is the nature of the " spiritual body " ? That is a ques- tion which met with various replies by all schools of theology down to the present day; but they may be 252 Future Life. classified under the lieads of literal and spiritual interpre- tation. His similes are taken from heaven, earth, and ocean — the sowing and springing ; the death and resurrection of grain ; the birth, life, death, and reproduction of beasts birds, fish, and mankind — " terrestrial bodies " : the rise and setting of sun, moon, and stars — "celestial bodies." But the single idea which he attempts to illustrate by this series of similes is the exalted and glorified nature of the " spiritual body," which alone enters into the kingdom of heaven. The mere reproduction of grain, animals, and men does not give full expression to the doctrine unfolded in the Pauline " mystery " of the re- surrection. The antithesis lies between the magnitude and glory of terrestrial and celestial bodies, as is evi- denced from his own series. "There is a natural (■ijrvxi/cov) body, and there is a spiritual body" {awfia -jTvevfiaTiKov). It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body ; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. As we have borne the image of the earthy {'xpiKov), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (iTrovpdvoiv). And if we bear in mind the Jewish dogma of the creation of the human soul by Divine inspiration, or breathing into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis), as well as the statement of Jesus himself, that men become as angels, neither marry- ing nor giving in marriage, we must conclude that Paul was only formulating the doctrine of the disembodied spirit — the "spiritual body" which the Jews carefully distinguished from the mere breath {■^vxn) and flesh (aap^), or the " earthly " flesh and blood common to man and animals. What, then, does Paul's theory of a future life amount to after all ? Nothing more or less than the common belief of all Oriental, Hellenic, and Future Life. 253 Roman religions and philosophies — the belief in the ' manes," genius, or thinking part — " divine particle,'' or ' vital spark of heavenly flame " — dreaded, fed, and in- censed by many after death at the tomb ; rewarded with the " happy islands," the abodes of the blessed, or con- demned to Tartarus and the flames of Phlegethon for ever and ever. And lastly, What phase did Paul's belief in the reappearance of Jesus, the Prophet of ISTazareth of Galilee, assume in his systematic exposition of Eonian Christianity ? " The hope of Israel," the restoration of national independence, is not once mentioned in all his letters to the Romans, which cannot astonish any one familiar with the political antipathies of the Jewish and Eoman people ; second, he utters the plain announce- ment that Jesus was the anointed minister of the circum- cision (Jews) only (Eom. xv. 8) ; third, claims to be his minister to the Gentiles (nations) of the Eoman Empire ; and fourth, accepts the Eoman Empire as the true successor of the Jevrs in the kingdom of God or government of the world. But this topic brings us now to the consideration of Paul's Historical Opinions and Political Pre-visions. — Where did Paul procure his exact historical dates of Jewish national life ? The patriarchal period, which ran from Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew nation, to the age of Moses, was 430 years in length, according to Paul (Gal. iii.) ; and the tribal period, under the " Judges,'' from Moses to Samuel and Saul, the foundation of the Hebrew monarchy, was 450 years, according to Stephen (Acts iii.). Accordingly, we must conclude that the domestic and national genealogies were kept with greater exactness than the copies of the sacred book which have survived the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem. Be that as it may, the radical and revolutionary character of 2 54 Future Life. Paul's reformation is based on a reversion to the sim- plicity of the patriarchal religion of Abraham, the " Father of the faithful, and friend of God," specially noted by Eusebius, the first Christian historian of the Church, after Luke in the Acts of the Apostles ; and the whole genea- logical tree of the Jewish people, embracing nineteen centuries in extent, is remorselessly cut down twenty years before the final destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, in A.D. 70. Now, did Paul's rejection of his Jewish nationality imply any greater political sagacity and pru- dence than Philo, the Jewish philosopher of Alexandria ; Josephus, the Jewish general and historian ; Seneca, the Spaniard and statesman ; Lucian, his nephew, the author of Pharsalia ; Martial, and hosts of celebrated men, who spent their lives under the auspices and protection of the Eoman Government ? Not in the slightest degree. PhiLo, the philosopher, stood pre-eminent amongst the Jews in Alexandria, acted as their deputy to deprecate the erec- tion of Caligula's statue in the Temple of Jerusalem ; and his son married the daughter of King Agrippa. Josephus, the Jewish general in the war against the Eomans, and the last historian of the Jews, surrendered to Vespasian and Titus, spent his life in philosophic leisure under their patronage in Eome, and left on record his own opinion — " that fortune is on all hands gone over to them, and that God, when he had gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy " (Jos. Wars, lib. v. 9, 3). Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, had said, " The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. xxL). Could anything be more natural, prudent, or expedient for Paul himself, who was a Eoman citizen of Tarsus by birth, familiar with the history of Greece and Eome, Future Life. 255 hunted from city to city of the Eoman Empire by Jewish " zealots " and bigots for thirty years, saved time after time from being torn to pieces by the Eoman Govern- ment, to shake the dust from off his feet and exclaim against the Jews " contradicting and blaspheming " — '• It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you ; but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles " (nations). Have we, then, reached the last word of Paul, the Eoman reformer, regarding the future fate and fortunes of the Eoman and Jewish people ? Not quite yet. Out comes a new " mystery " and final " revelation " (lest they should be wise in their own conceit). "I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery ; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the ' fulness of the Gentiles ' be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved : as it is written. There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob " (Eom. xL). Who is this later Deliverer ? Does any man dream that Paul refers to Constantino the Great, the founder of Roma Nova, Constantinople, at the " fulness of the Gentiles," and the formulation of the Christian creed at the Council of Nikaia (a.d. 325)? We rather think not. His language is borrowed from the Jewish prophet : "And all Israel shall be saved when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in." Were the Jews saved at the epoch of Con- stantine the Great? or at the destruction of Eome by the Barbarians ? Have they not been scattered, peeled, tortured, and fleeced by tithe, toll, tax, and statute in every Christian nation in Europe and Britain ? " Eem- nant " ? Yes, verily, there is a " remnant " ! as there is a remnant of five thousand Parsis at Bombay, a remnant of 256 Future Life. the ancient Britons in the mountains of Wales. But what are either races now ? Sharing in, and contributing to, the blessings and benefits of modern civilisation, culture, and science. " What shall we say, then " ? All we can say in con- clusion is, that Paul, the Eoman reformer, laid the founda- tion of Eoman Christianity — broad and deep on the con- stitution of human nature — the ]\Ioral Law, distilled into the finest quintessence of " love " ; faith, hope, and love, "these abiding three," and left it in the hearts of the Christian brotherhood, dowered with all the gifts and graces, rights and responsibilities, in full faith of its future dominion in the " kingdom of God " on earth. More than that we cannot say ; but eveiy Christian will be ready to concur with his own inscription on his monument more lasting than brass, in spite of all his fluctuations between the Eoman and Jewish faith, hereditary traditions, reli- gious and political aspirations : — " Sacred to the memory of Paul, the persecutor, who made havoc of the Church, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly and in unbelief : also called Paul, who, although born out of due time, was not one whit behind the very chiefe=t of the apostles : the minister of the Anointed Jesus to the Gentiles (nations"), as the Anointed Jesus was a minister to the Circxuncision (Jews), for the truth of God. 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing.' " But no man know; of his sepulchre to this day. J^fi'ifw of the Six Editions of Christianity. 257 CHAPTER V. KECAPITULATIOX AXD KEVIEW OF THE -SIX EDITIONS OF CHRISTIAMTT. What is Christianity ? -n-as the question started at the commencement of our investigation, and the first reply was given by Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee — the founder of Galileanism: the second by Peter and James, the defenders of Jewish Christianity: the third by the author of Oriental Christianity, according to the biography of John : the fourth by Apollos, the expositor of Alexandrian Christianity ; and the fifth by Paid, the Eoman reformer, the author of Eoman or Cosmopolitan Christianity, the religion of imiversal humanity. The ti amin g and fiery gospel of the Apocalypse ought perhaps to take rank as a sixth, while the Eomans gave birth to pure religion and morals in their own independent centre of religious distribution. Such, then, was the actual origin and nature of the reformation of Judsea and the Eoman Empire, stamped with the title of Christianity in its various centres of religious distribution in its European, Asiatic, and African environment. And these six editions form the six successive phases of its religious development. The heart and soul of the first phase was taken from the Hebrew prophets — love to God and man — planted in the breasts of twelve and seventy disciples by Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, and lasted during the lifetime of its author, three or four years. The second K 258 Recapitulation and Review of was fostered and continued under Peter, James, and John, and their successors, for thirty-seven years longer, until the destruction of Jerusalem (a.d. 70), still the " sect " of Galileans, Nazarenes, or Ebionites. The third resolved the whole religious machinery of the people into a symbol, shadow, and sacred allegory, and human life into a spiritual service and sacrifice. The fourth brought God from the mountains of Samaria and Jerusalem, transformed him into " a Spirit," the " "Word " (A070?), reason or understanding, which lightens every man who comes into the world. The fifth converted every man and woman into a mental and moral " autonomy," or " law to himself," under the dominion of the inseparable and immortal triad of " Faith, Hope, and Love ; " and the sixth, the vision of a Hebrew seer, boiling with holy indignation at the bloody and fiery baptism of^the " forlorn hope " of Christianity at the burning of Eome under E"ero, struck his harp with tremendous vengeance ; sounded the death-knell of the Eoman persecutor ; burst into the song of Moses and the triumphant Lamb, the martyred Prophet, at the prospect of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, and prepared as a bride (the symbol of the Church) for her husband — " To Him that loved us, and made us kings and priests to God and His Father.'' And the very same diversities and idiosyncrasies are observable in the Lutheran, Calvinistic, Zwinglian, Angli- can, and Socinian forms of modern Protestantism, which sprang into existence in the several communities of Europe, and Britain at the Eeformation in the sixteenth century. Eeconciliation of the diversified fortns either of Christianity or Protestantism, in the common sense of that term, is out of the question. The only conciliation ] ;Ossible is the recognition and acceptance of the common the Six Editions of Christianity. 259 law of social and religious distribution, in geographical environment. Can you reconcile the tenets of Socinian- ism and Calvinism, Trinitarianism and Unitarianism, Divinitarianism and Humanitarianism ? Decidedly not ; but these doctrines are more or less identifiable with the Galilean, Nazarene, Ebionite, Alexandrian, Oriental, and Pauline Humanitarianism and Cosmopolitanism of pure, philosophical, or adulterated Christianity. Let us look, then, a little more closely into the distinc- tive characteristics of the primitive forms of Christianity — (1) regarding the nature and mission of the founder, Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee ; (2) the nature of the new faith itself ; and (3) the future prospects of the several " sects " and parties of the Christian Church. 1. The Founder. — Who is Joshua (Greek, Jesus), accord- ing to the faith of the twelve and seventy disciples? The son of Joseph and Mary, the carpenter of Nazareth ; the Prophet who entered the synagogue, and read from the Prophet Isaiah the Second, " This day is this Scrip- ture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke iv.); who said, "Be not you called Rabbi (great), for one is your Master, the Anointed, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on earth; for one is your Father, who is in heaven" (Matt, xxiii.); who pointed to the Temple, saying, " There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down " (Matt, xxiv.) ; who sent out his disciples with the commission, " Verily I say anto you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the 'Son of man' be come" (Matt, x.); who talked in glowing language of the reformation of Moses and Elijah to Peter, James, and John on Mount Tabor; who drew the mother of James and John, his own cousins and favourite disciples, to his feet, with the petition for 2 6o Recapitulation and Review of an official position for her sons in the future " kingdom ;" who boasted of sending for twelve legions of angels from heaven, and died on the cross, on the charge of treason and blasphemy, with the closing prediction, "Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven " (Matt. xxvi.). Such is the faith of his own disciples regarding the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, according to the bio- graphies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke — the very GaHle- anism referred to by Josephus — " who agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions, but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Euler and Lord ;" — and after his martyrdom made the acknowledgment, " We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed (emancipated) Israel" (Luke xxiv.) — "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders and signs, which God did hy him, in the midst of you, as you your- selves know, whom God raised up, and exalted to sit on the throne of David at the right hand of God, until he make his foes his footstool." The angelic announcement, miraculous birth, and royal genealogy are mentioned by Matthew and Luke, but not by Mark, the amanuensis of Peter, or John. But primi- tive Galileanism and Nazaritism were buried beneath the ruins of Solomon's Temple and old Jerusalem; thrown into the background of Jewish life, and classified as Ebionitism (poor) and heresy by later Christian historians. The sole difference between them and the Oriental Christianity which sprang from the school of John is the spiritualistic and idealistic delineation of the Prophet's life and mission inspired by the Divine Word, wisdom, reason (Ko'^o';), which " in all ages entering into holy souls. the Six Editions of Christianity. 261 makes them friends of God and prophets." Accordingly no miraculous birth was necessary. The next time the Prophet appears on the scene, he assumes the rank of a Joshua (deliverer) of souls — a greater than Moses or angels — the Captain of salvation, and a second reformer who carried Christians into the kingdom of the heart, invested them with the regalia and insignia of kings and priests, under the " new covenant " on Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Joshua the Second, however, according to ApoUos, was not confounded with the God who gave him a higher appoint- ment than Moses or the angels, as was done by the Mono- physites and Monothelites of a later date; for he was appointed " heir of all things," in the very language of his Alexandrian master, Philo, the Jewish philosopher, and honoured with the flattering distinction originally bestowed on David, the royal favourite of the Jewish people. True to his Jewish Protestant prepossessions, no literal " Son of God " or miraculous conception is found in the letter to the Hebrews. The first stage of Paul's opinions regarding the coming Prophet rested on the Eabbinical interpretations and specu- lations of the Jewish doctors of Jerusalem and the Book of Enoch ; the second, held in common wiih Peter, James, and John, the pillars of the GaLdean " sect " in Jerusalem, hurled flaming fire and vengeance and everlasting destruc- tion on all his enemies, proclaimed the foundation of a glorious kingdom of the saints, with the aid of mighty angels from heaven ; the third deferred his return until the occurrence of some great apostasy ; the fourth calms down into a patient "waiting for the coming of our Master, the anointed Jesus ; the fifth announces the resig- nation of his divine commission to the Father ; and the 262 Recapitulation and Review of sixth reduces the Prophet to a minister of the circumcision (Jews) only, exalts himself as the minister of the Gentiles (nations), and founder of the Christian Church in the Koman Empire — in his name, and by his authority. " Jesus our Master was a descendant of David according to the flesh, and declared to be a child of God with power according to the spirit of holiness," is Paul's own designa- tion. Consequently, no miraculous birth is once men- tioned in all his letter. Will any rational critic undertake to reconcile the Galilean, Oriental, Alexandrian, and Eoman speculations regarding the mission, rank, and return of Jesus, the Pro- phet of Nazareth of Galilee ? The Prophet himself died a martyr in the midst of his unfulfilled mission. His favourite disciples clung to the hope of some future fulfil- ment of his prophetic predictions. The lingering hope had not died away near the close of the life of John the beloved disciple, about a.d. 100, according to tradition. No necessity whatever is found for such a return by the subtle Alexandrian Apollos, and his spiritual interpreta- tions ; for old Sinai, the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, blackness, darkness, and tem- pest, and the sound of a trumpet, the voice of words, with the law of Moses, and the Temple, has been utterly abol- ished, and " you are come unto Mount Sion, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." The Jewish hopes of national independence, through the medium of the re-appearance of the founder of Christianity, is never noticed in Paul's letter to the Eoman s; while the reign of the saints is " at hand," and shortly to come to pass, according to John, the presbyter of Ephesus, in his pictorial revelations. the Six Editions of Christianity. 263 We pass next to a review of the new faith, presented in the six separate editions published by Jesus and his primitive disciples. 2. "What is the nature of the new faith published by Jesus and his primitive disciples ? Eeformation, and not ritualism, deep and thoroughgoing reformation of the whole policy and people of the Jewish nation ; the restora- tion of the simple state of national civility under Moses and the " Judges," and regeneration (or new birth) of the whole body of the population, in childlike obedience to the moral law of love, and the recognition of the common fatherhood and brotherhood of mankind. The kingdom of God is not coming in civil state and royal splendour (outward show), neither shall they say, " Lo here ! or lo there! for lo! the kingdom of God is within you;" not civil justice merely, " An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth :" supreme and divine goodness and generosity, like the showers and sunshine of heaven, poured out on "just and unjust, the evil and the good;" not the stately splendour of the sainted Pharisee, " Stand aside, I am holier than you!" "Make haste and come down, Zaccheus, you publican, for to-day I must abide at your house ;" not the dumb dogs lying in the manger, not the wolves in sheep's clothing who sit in Moses' seat, and pass the lost sheep of ■ Israel, torn and wounded, by the wayside : the good Samaritan who pours oil and wine into the wounded and broken hearts of the people under the reign of Sadduceic, Pharisaic, and Mosaic ritualism and traditionalism. Apart from all speculations and theories regarding the rank and dignity of the founder — that is the kingdom of God, the reign of divine love and bene- volence — the heart and soul of the moral and social law proclaimed by Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, 264 Recapitulation and Review of during the course of his short-lived mission for three years only in the land of Judaea. 3. As well as by Peter, James, and John after his mar- tyrdom : " Forasmuch then as God's anointed has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind" (1 Peter iv.). "If you fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neigh- bour as thyself, you do well " (James ii.). " Beloved, let us love one another : for love is of God ; and every one that loves is horn of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God ; for God is love " (1 John iv.). Chapter after chapter might be written on the mental, moral, and religious personality, occupation, education, temperament, natural and acquired, idiosyncrasies and characteristics of Jesus and his favourite disciples. Our libraries are full of critical works devoted to their dissec- tion and analysis ; and all the world can easily detect the literary and moral tints and taints peculiar to the mental media of the several authors. The biography of Matthew was published in Hebrew, translated into Greek and Latin, interpolated, adapted, and edited by the later fathers, with additions and fictitious genealogies, miracu- lous conception, and borrowed by Luke for his own intro- duction. No such anti-Jewish " corruptions " and emen- dations are found in the lives of Mark, the amanuensis of Peter, or the spiritualistic exposition of John. Must we credit implicitly the mystic and universal ideals of the young Prophet at the commencement of his Galilean career, "Be you perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect," as well as the glowing Orientalism and stunted fanaticism of the long and dying speeches, " I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, the Six Editions of Christianity. 265 for they are thine " 1 For our part we prefer to ascribe his " last words " to the blended Hebraism, Alexandri- anism, and Orientalism of the school of John at Ephesus, a full century after the martyrdom of the Prophet. The stock phrases of the poets and prophets still ring in the ears of Galilean Peter, the Jewish Christian and precipitate mountaineer : " Be you holy, for I am holy ; and if you call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." Accordingly whole floods — fire and brimstone, from the age of Noah, Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah, bury the foes of his Master in everlasting destruction. " Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come on you. If there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment ; and you have respect to him that wears the gay clothing, and say to him. Sit you here in a good place ; and say to the poor. Stand you here, or sit here under my footstool : are you not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts % " — is the genuine style of James, whether cousin or brother of the Prophet, we know not — the Palestinian Swiss and revolutionist. " You be- lieve there is one God. You do well. The devils believe and tremble. Do you know, you vain soul, that faith without works is dead ? " " Master, is it your will that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans, as Elijah did ? " was the thundering spirit of " Boanerges," the beloved disciple, at the outset of his career, subdued and chastened, however, till at length it breathed the mild and childlike accents of the " old man eloquent " : " Little 266 Recapitulation and Review of children, love one another, and keep yourselves from idols." 4. Reformation without Eitualism — the complete con- version of every Christian into a " living temple " — the shrine and altar of the Holy Qieilig) Spirit, a " kingdom which cannot be moved," is pre-eminently the faith of Alexandrian Christianity — faith in " God that is," and is " the rewarder of them that diligently seek him " — the simple faith of the Hebrew patriarchs, from Abel to Saul and David, and the prophets, the stalwart heroes of the Hebrew people. Hence the sole commandments and counsels of Apollos are, " Let brotherly love (^iXaSe\(f>ia) continue. To do good and communicate, forget not ; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Our philo- sophical editor of Alexandrian Christianity knows nothing of angelic announcements and immaculate conceptions, any more than of " Papal Infallibility." They were Roman " accretions," well-meant " honours," borrowed from the " old wives' fables," which Paul warned his followers to avoid, but totally misspent on the founder of a new faith. 5. Can any rational critic doubt the tone and tendencies of the Cosmopolitan faith of Paul, the Roman reformer ? We mean, of course, in this place, irrespective and inde- pendent of all Jewish speculations regarding the mission and rank of the founder. Scarcely, we presume. Can any critical student of his letters doubt the total aboli- tion of the law of Moses — temple ritual, sacrifices, and Sabbaths — as well as of European, Asiatic, and African Polytheism, summed up in " one word love " as the uni- versal law of human nature, for his Roman and Christian disciples ? At his earliest stage (letter to the Thessa- lonians) his moral theism and theology are unmistakable : the Six Editions of Christianity. 267 " As touching brotherly love, you need not that I write to you ; for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another." In his mid career issued from his glowing soul the impassioned description of Christian love : "Love suffers long, seeks not her own, thinks no evil ; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." " Love is the bond of perfection," meets us later. And " the breadth and length, and depth and height " of Paul's " faith, hope, and love," " filled with all the fulness of God," is summed up in his closing prayer to the Eoman Christians : " I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Reformation without ritualism — reformation glowing with fervid and unconquerable love, adaptable and accom- modated to all races, ranks, and religions of mankind, which made itself " all things to all men " — was the peculiar product of the cosmopolitan soul and spirit of Paul, the Eoman reformer. 6. Who can fathom the mystic apocalyptic and vengeful Christianity of John, the fiery presbyter of Ephesus ? All the Hebrew seers, poets, and prophets would seem to have taken possession of his susceptible soul, and borne him off in holy rage and rapture against the Neronian persecution of his fellow-Christians and brethren. Ought he not to have prayed for them who used him and them despitefuUy ? Can we vindicate or justify his destructive criticism and announcement of retribution on his Roman opponents or not ? Yes or no ? To the Christian seer's eye Rome was Sodom and Gomorrah — Egypt, Babylon the Great, and all the oppressors of "just men "—the people of God anywhere and everywhere—" spiritually," i.e. in living reality and 268 Recapitulation and Revietu of experience. Could Eome, then — the living, crushing, and despotic power which opposed and exalted itself against the progress of the new faith — the very social and political " Antichrist " — escape the doom of her national predecessors ? Decidedly not. Hence the Christian prophet pronounces a long series of judgments and verdicts on the seven-hilled city, and all the Eoman civil and religious institutions. Can we vindicate the tone and spirit of retribution, we say ? — " Eejoice over her, thou heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great mill-stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." Yes or no ? Casuists everywhere still quibble over the moot point. Meanwhile, who does rejoice over the "glorious Eevolution" of 1688 in Great Britain? Who does rejoice at the " French Eevolution," and the de- struction of the tyrannic ancien Hgime of the French nobility, loaded with the responsibility of the Bartholo- mew massacre ? — Eadical, liberal, and conservative Pro- testants of every shade of political and religious opinions. At the same time we are not called on to revel in the ferocious passions of religious and national crusades and hostilities — the frenzied yet temporary and transient moods of social life. And if no tear moisten the eye, no thrill of tender pity over the dying pangs and death- throes of a dying nation move the soul of the seer, let us not forget that he was only a man " of like passions with ourselves," and in all probability stood a horrified spectator of the burning of Eome under ISTero, and the subsequent burnt-offering of Christian men and women — his nearest and dearest friends, and fellow-worshippers the Six Editions of Christianity. 269 of a new and ardent faith. Peace be to their ashes ! Christians and Eomans alike lie deep and quiet beneath the popular streets of modern Eome, and side by side in the catacombs and Appian way. Eeformation without Eitualism, according to their own hearts at any rate, they found in the arms and association of the Christian brotherhood — the spirits of "just men " made perfect through suffering, who met with a " kiss " of peace on the first Sabbath after that terrible spectacle. " Behold, the tabernacle (tent) of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things are passed away." Who can throw a stone at Christians who followed the footsteps of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron on the shores of the Eed Sea, and burst out into the Song of Moses and the triumphant Lamb over their friends who were sacri- ficed to propitiate the frenzy of the Eomans, standing like blackened shades in the midst of their ruined city ? E. I. P. Let them rest in peace ! What are the future fortunes of the new faith according to the founder himself ? Our reply to this question, of course, depends in the first place on the separate nar- ratives of his life edited by his four biographers ; and their narratives tally in the leading features in the biographies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, while John is silent on the subject. One thing is evident to all critics — the whole panorama of the future fortunes of the kingdom of God is depicted in the language of the Hebrew poets and prophets — Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Book of 2 70 Recapitulation, and Review of Enoch — the poetic and ideal " hope of Israel " — floating before the fevered and frenzied imagination of the people on the eve of national dissolution. On this point Josephus, the latest historian of tlie Jews, ought to be studied in ample confirmation of the fantastic and visionary character of the popular sentiment up to the very siege and burning of Jerusalem. The following , passage gives a fair summary of the poetic and allegorical ideals wrapt in thick clouds and veils of glowing imagery which formed the " hope of Israel " in the times of Paul and JesuS. " The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the ' Son of man ' in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the ' Son of man ' coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his ' elect ' from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other " (Matt, xxiv., Mark xiii., Luke xxi.). Let no critic dream of stripping the real from the ideal, and reducing these poetic illusions to plain prose and sober fact. What man or woman on the face of the earth lives without their illusions or delusions ? Are they not divine creations calculated to exalt the soul beyond the reach of the common battlefields, crosses, and crowns of thorns which subdue, purify, and prepare 'the mind for the paths of philanthropy, pathos, pity, love, mercy, sacrifice, and heroism ? " Where is the promise of his coming ? " cried the Jewish sceptics when Peter sent off his consolatory letter to the "strangers scattered through the East," with the warning ringing in their ears, " The end of all things is at hand. Seeing then that all the Six Editions of Christianity. 2 7 1 these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? Looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." " Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Master : sta,blish your hearts, for the coming of the Master draweth nigh," was the solemn and pious tone of " James the Just," the brother or cousin of the Prophet. The silence of John, or rather his disciples at Ephesus, regarding the future hopes of the Galileans, is somewhat startling. Did Matthew and Mark, the amanuensis of Peter, put the popular opinions of the Jews into the mouth of their Master ? Did Luke rely on their reports ? And did the school of John finally reject the rabbinical speculations of the Jewish doctors ? We cannot tell. Anyhow the only kingdom founded by the Prophet was the kingdom of truth (John xviii.). The Alexandrians had met with the fulfilment of all their hopes in the assembly of "just men " made perfect, under the peaceful rule of the Eoman government, and the quiet study of the Septuagint and sacred rolls in their splendid museum. That very kingdom which could not be shaken, referred to by his beloved brother Apollos, was attained also by Paul, the Eoman reformer, in his Christian brotherhood, placed under the law of love, and the social and moral code prescribed for their practical guidance in everyday life. Hence he cut off the Jews, and all their patriotic hopes of national independence, and enrolled himself as a perpetual citizen in the land of his adoption, the Eoman Empire — " the holy Eoman Empire," under Christian auspices. Who could possibly reconcile the successive opinions of 272 Review of the Six Editions of Christianity. the editors of the lives and letters of the reformers of ancient Judaism regarding the future fate and fortunes of their own faith? Martyrdom overtook the founder in the midst of his reforming career; but his immediate disciples still cherished the political hopes of their fellow- countrymen. So did Paul, at the outset of his reforma- tion ; but they vanished step by step during the course of thirty years, and we are inclined to think, with the aid of the subtle philosophy, of his beloved brother ApoUos of Alexandria. Be that as it may, the mystic seer of the Apocalypse, a thoroughgoing revolutionary Galilean, either in his " mind's eye " or in the brotherhood of his fellow- worshippers, saw the " tabernacle (tent) of God," the return of the primitive state after the emancipation from Egyptian slavery, the spiritual restoration of the kingdom of God amongst men. But what are the actual fortunes of the Christian faith and brotherhood ? in a word, what is the real history and development of the Christian Church ? That is the next question which requires an answer at our hands. Accord- ingly we pass now to the state of the Church under the regime, of the Eastern and Western Fathers, and the unquestionable influence which the six editions of Chris- tianity exerted on the new faith of the Eoman Empire. BOOK III. CHAPTER I. THE KEFOEMATION OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE — continued. " One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." — Eph. iv. We have seen that the Eoman reformation under Cicero, Lucretius, and Seneca — in fact the representatives of Eoman genius in the Augustan age — formed an inde- pendent centre of religious distribution; and we now intend at this stage to adduce the lives and opinions of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lucian, and Celsus, for the purpose of showing that it was continued on an inde- pendent footing, until the epoch of the earliest Christian " fathers, " apologists, defenders, and expositors of Chris- tianity. Epictetus. The iirst of these representatives of Eoman genius and contemporaries of Paul, the Eoman reformer, who has lately risen in a triple constellation, in the company of Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius, on our British horizon (Archdeacon Parrar's Seekers after God), was Epictetus, a Phrygian slave belonging to Epaphroditus, the courtier of Nero. Somehow or other, the lame slave was allowed to attend the lectures of Eufus, a Stoic philosopher in s 2 74 The Reformation of the Roman Em.pire. Eome ; and the born moralist, after the death of his patron and expulsion of the philosophers from Eome by Domitian (a.d. 89), obtained his freedom, opened a school of philo- sophy at Nicopolis in Epirus, and taught till the verge of old age. The very time of his death is unknown ; but Arrian, the historian of Alexander the Great, collected his discourses and Encheiridion (Manual), "in his own words as nearly as possible," delivered without preparation, in eight volumes, four only of which, with a few fragments, have been preserved. His versatility and volubility must have been something extraordinary ; and Arrian's notes of his colloquial style sufficiently prove that " he had no other purpose than to move the minds of his hearers to the best things." His works certainly are a treasure of Eoman morals, sound common-sense, and duty; and, as the " Galileans " were only known to him on account of their despair and " madness," in raising the insurrection which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Eoman armies, we have no reason to suppose that he was ac- quainted with the doctrines of Christianity. His leading opinions will fall under our preceding fourfold division. 1. Nature; or, the Physical Government of the Universe. — The whole universe {Natura Berum) fell within the scope of the Greek and Eoman philosophers. Scientific differ- entiation had not yet taken place, and every one selected his own field of investigation. Pliny took natural philo- sophy; Strabo, physical and political geography. But Epictetus was a born moralist, and paid little or no at- tention to the fantastic speculations of the rudimentary physics of Greece and Eome. " What do I care whether all things are composed of atoms or of similar parts, or of fire and earth ? for is it not enough to know the nature of the good and the evil, and the measures of the desires and The Reformation of the Roman Em.pire. 2 75 aversions, and also the movements towards things and from them; and using these as rules to administer the affairs of life, but not to trouble ourselves about the things above us ? " That was the short and easy method of dealing with the physical theories of the world, which formed the common topic of philosophical discussion adopted by the Stoic moralists and theologians. Who, in fact, did care for the old Hellenic cosmogonies and theogonies of Hesiod — the God and world-makers condemned by the later Greek philosophers ? Plato himself would not tolerate the divine improprieties of Homer, the Bible of Greece, in common schools ; and the immortal poem of Lucretius had already proved that the laws of nature were perfectly capable of performing the duties of the birth, life, death, and repro- duction of universal phenomena without a Deus ex machivA — the miraculous intervention of the immortal gods. "What is human life according to the law of nature?" was the only question which interested the Stoic philosopher. Human Nature; Personal, Domestic, and Political Government. — Here we meet with the notes, at least, of the lectures delivered during the course of a long life, on all the common topics of philosophical discussion — the mental, moral, theological, and political science of the day, with the ordinary comments and casuistry on the laws of life; the struggle with circumstances, natural affection, contentment, providence, constancy, courage, tranquillity, magnanimity, goodness, anxiety, friendship, sickness, purity, dress, etc. First, then, what is the nature of the human soul, according to Epictetus ? " You are a portion separated from the Deity ; you have in yourself a certain portion of him. Why, then, are you ignorant of your own noble descent ? Why do you not know whence you 276 The Reformation of the Roman Empire. came ? When you are in social intercourse, when you are exercising yourself, when you are engaged in discussion, know you not that you are nourishing a God, that you are exercising a God ? Wretch, you are carrying about a God with you, and you know it not. Do you think that I mean some god of silver or of gold, and external ? You carry him within yourself, and you perceive not that you are polluting him by impure thoughts and dirty deeds. And if an image of God were present, you would not dare to do any of the things which you are doing ; but when God himself is present within, and sees all and hears all, you are not ashamed of thinking such things and doing such things, ignorant as you are of your own nature, and subject to the anger of God " (p. 1 1 9). Satisfactory doctrine to any contemporary Jewish Christian. Again, "If a man should be able to assent to this doctrine, as he ought, that we are all sprung from God, in an especial manner, and that God is the father both of men and of gods, I suppose that he would never have any ignoble or mean thoughts about himself. But if Csesar (the emperor) should adopt you, no one could endure your annoyance ; and if you know that you are the son of Zeus, will you not be elated? Yet we do not so; but since these two things are mingled in the generation of man, body in common with the animals, and reason and intelli- gence in common with the gods, many incline to this kinship, which is miserable and mortal, and some few to that which is divine and happy" (p. 12). The very doctrine of the body and soul, flesh and spirit, the higher and lower soul, which renders man a " law to himself." " Stay, wretch, do not be carried away. Great is the combat, divine is the work ; it is for kingship, for freedom, for happiness — for freedom from perturbation. The Reformation of the Roman Empire. 277 Eemember God ; call on him as a helper and protector, as men at sea call on Castor and Pollux in a storm. For what is a greater storm than that which comes from appearances which are violent, and drive away the reason ? " — shouts Epictetus to all his disciples who are threatened with shipwreck on the sea of life (p. 161). And he was not the first to select some favourite hero or philosopher as an ideal to follow in everyday life : " Im- mediately prescribe some character and some form to yourself which you shall observe, both when you are alone and when you meet with men " (p. 394). Such were the steps which Epictetus took in rising from Human Nature, and the mysterious soul and intelligence of our constitution, to his " Maker, Father, and Guardian " — the divine sonship of universal humanity, claimed, on the authority of the hymn of Cleanthes ("We are his offspring") by Paul at Athens for all mankind made of one blood on the face of the earth. God ; or, the Nature, and Character of Deity and Divine Government. — Did Epictetus renounce the hereditary faith of Hellenic and Eoman Polytheism ? is a question which is more easily put than answered; but we are inclined to concur with the opinions of his admiring translator, Mr. Long, that the evidence preponderates in favour of his moral Theism — " that we are all sprung from God." Be that as it may, the very same arguments in favour of the existence and attributes of God are employed by Epictetus in his lectures on Divine Providence, as in Cicero's Nature of the Gods, and in modern natural theology. " God has introduced man to be a spectator of God and of his works ; and not only a spectator of them, but an interpreter." For this reason it is shameful for a man to beain and to end where irrational animals 2 78 The Reformation of the Roman Empire. do ; but rather, he ought to begin where they begin, and to end where nature ends in us : and nature ends in con- templation and understanding, and in a way of life con- formable to nature" (p. 21). What, then, is the divine nature and character, accord- ing to our Stoic interpreter? "From everything which is or happens in the world, it is easy to praise Providence if a man possesses these two qualities — the faculty of seeing what belongs and happens to all persons and things, and a grateful disposition " (p. 1 9). It is easy to praise Providence if you have a grateful disposition. Hence his contentment and tranquillity of mind in the conduct of life, sickness, and death itself. " I wish to be found practising these things, that I may be able to say to God, Have I in any respect transgressed your com- mands ? Have I in any respect wrongfully used the powers you gave me ? Have I misused my perceptions, or my preconceptions ? Have I ever blamed you ? Have I ever found fault with your administration? I have been sick, because it was your will, and so have others, but I was content to be sick. I have been poor, because it was your will, but I was content also. I have not filled a magisterial ofifice ; because it was not your pleasure that I shotild, I have never desired it. Have you ever seen me for this reason discontented ? Have I not always approached you with a cheerful countenance, ready to do your commands, and to obey your signals ? Is it now your will that I should depart from this assemblage of men? I depart. I give you all thanks that you have allowed me to join in this your assemblage of men, and to see your works, and to comprehend this your administration. May death surprise me while I am thinking of these things, while I am thus writing and reading " (p. 209). " If indeed they do exist and look after The Reformation of the Roman Empire. 2 79 things, still if there is nothing communicated from them to men, nor in fact to myself, how, even so, is it right to follow them ? The wise and good man, then, after con- sidering all these things, submits his own mind to Mm who administers the whole, as good citizens do the law of the state. He who is receiving instruction ought to come to be instructed with this intention : How shall I follow the gods in all things, how shall I be contented with the divine administrations, and how can I become free ? " (p. 42). Follower of God, divine fellowship and com- munion {Koivavia) ? one asks in surprise. Yes, " Let any of you show me a human soul ready to think as God does, and not to blame either God or man, ready not to be disappointed about anything, not to consider himself damaged by anything, not to be angry, not to be envious, not to be jealous, and — why should I not say it direct ? — desirous, from a man, to become a God, and in this poor mortal body, thinking of his fellowship with Zeus." That lively, lame Greek "lover of wisdom" is the finest fellow in the world — the fellow of John, the beloved disciple, when he says, " That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father." He will not even allow the existence of evil, " As a mark is not set up for the purpose of missing the aim, so neither does the nature of evil exist in the world " (p. 390). An outright Stoic optimist ! with " a mind natur- ally Christian," as the " fathers " said. And he, too, like the founder of Galileanism, and his followers the Jewish Christians, conformed to the " customs of his fathers," and the national mode of worship : " To make libations, and to sacrifice and to offer firstfruits according to the custom of our fathers, purely and not meanly, nor carelessly nor 28o The Reformation of the Roman Empire. scantily, nor above our ability, is a thing which belongs to all to do " (p. 393). Future Life. — " But now it is time to die. Why do you say to die ? Make no tragedy show of the matter (of the body) to be resolved into the things out of which it was composed" (p. 347), runs on Epictetus in his lecture on Freedom from Fear. "Go whither? To nothing terrible, but to the place from which you came, to your friends and kinsmen, to the elements ; what there was in you of fire goes to fire, of earth to earth, of air (spirit) to air, of water to water ; no Hades, nor Acheron, nor Cocytus, nor Pyriphlegethon, but all is full of gods and demons" (p. 230). Where has the good old soul,^who preached faith in the "Fathej- of all men" — peace, patience, contentment, and tranquillity of mind — gone to ? To the place from which he came — to his friends and kins- men — full of gods and demons, celestial geniuses, the home of the soul, according to Cicero's Dream, of Scipio and Seneca's Consolation. Are you any wiser ? Marcus Aueelius Antoninus (a.d. 121-180). Our next representative of Eoman genius is a royal soul, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the only philosopher who sat on the throne of the Eoman Empire, and in all probability he would have taken rank as one of the good emperors, along with Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus, his uncle, if he had not left his remarkable Contemplations behind him. Adopted as he was by his uncle, Antoninus " Pius," as his son and successor, the imperial pupil was placed under the first teachers of the day in law, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy. And the heir of the purple actually assumed the coarse garb of the Stoic philosopher and temperate The Reformation of the Roman Empire. 281 habits of life at eleven years of age. Eusticus, the Stoic philosopher, indeed, was retained as his adviser after he became emperor ; but we need not detail either the list of his teachers nor his acquirements, candidly acknowledged in his first book. Lucius Verus, a Eoman voluptuary, the other adopted son of his uncle, shared the imperial government with Marcus for eight years ; but the whole administration of the Empire, from Britain to Babylon, was laid on his own shoulders during the last ten years of his life. Parthian, Syrian, and German wars occurred during his philosophic reign, but the patriotic attempt to drive our Saxon ancestors — the future conquerors of Western Europe and Britain — beyond the Danube was fatal to M. Antoninus, for he died during the last campaign at Sirmium, in Lower Pannonia, a.d. 180, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and ascended to heaven as a " god " in the popular estimation, according to the imperial customs of the age. Strange irony of Eoman fate, the statue of St. Paul, the Eoman reformer, now stands on the capital of the column raised to his memory by his son Commodus, in the Piazza Colonna at Eome. Still more interesting than the earliest efforts of our barbarian Saxon ancestors to claim the future ^ttlements promised in the Book of Fate were the first Apologies or Defences of Christianity addressed by Tatian, Athenagoras, Melito, and Justinus the Martyr to Marcus and his uncle, Antoninus Pius. But, of course, we cannot affirm that they were read by either of them ;• and they will come before us at a later date. Open collision between the old and new faith had taken place at various dates since the first repression of the Christians under Nero ; and special orders had been sent by Trajan to Pliny, the prefect of Bithynia, at his own request, regarding their treatment. Consequently we are inclined, in the absence of reliable 282 The Reformation of the Roman Empire. evidence, to believe that Polycarp of Smyrna and the martyrs of Lyons were put to death in accordance with the legal " precedents " of his predecessors. So far as the story of the "Thundering Legion" is concerned, all authorities are agreed that the title existed in the days of Augustus, and that both Eomans and Christians claimed the showers of rain, accompanied by lightning, hail, and thunder, which saved their armies from perishing with thirst, in answer to their prayers. But, without dwelling further on the life and policy of the Stoic emperor, we shaU now pro- ceed with our brief rSsum^ of his religious and ethical opinions. Strange to say, the Christians, notorious for their " obstinacy," are only once mentioned, and no notice taken of their peculiar doctrines. nature ; en; the Physical Governynent of the Universe. — Special mention is made of his gratitude to his tutor, Eusticus, for introducing him to a knowledge of the discourses of Epictetus ; and, although M. Antoninus shows his familiarity with Hellenic and Eoman literature, we may safely say that his " Thoughts " and opinions were moulded to a great extent by the chatty and lively philosophy of the Stoic optimist. Now and again we' find a few notes of his speculations regarding the laws of the physical universe, but it is the beauty, unity, uniformity, and continuity of nature styled order (/coct/ao?) by the Greeks which claimed his special admiration. " Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul ; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being, and how all things act with one movement, and how all things are the co-operating causes of all things which exist : observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web" (p. 102). The Reformation of the Roman Empire. 283 Again, " Whether the universe is a concourse of atoms or nature is a system, let this first be established, that I am a part of the whole which is governed by nature : I am in a manner intimately related to the parts which are of the same kind with myself. For remembering this, inasmuch as I am a part I shall be discontented with none of the things which are assigned to me out of the whole ; for nothing is injurious to the part if it is for the advan- tage of the whole. Yet the whole contains nothing which is not for its advantage. And all natures, indeed, have this common principle, but the nature of the universe has this principle besides, that it cannot be compelled even by any external cause to generate anything harmful to itself. By remembering, then, that I am a part of such a whole, I shall be content with everything that happens. And inasmuch as I am in a manner intimately related to the parts which are of the same kind with myself, I shall do nothing unsocial, but I shall rather direct myself to the things which are of the same kind with myself, and I shall turn all my efforts to the common interests, and divert them from the contrary. Now, if these things are done so, life must flow on happily, just as you may observe that the life of a citizen is happy who continues a[course of action which is advantageous to his fellow-citizens, and is content with whatever the State may assign to him" (p. 172). Here we have the complete statement of his theory of the physical and moral government of the universe, and the happiness and contentment resulting from duties performed for the " common interest," practically identical with the Eoman Christianity of Paul, the Eoman re- former, — with the exception that there is nothing " harm- ful " in the whole world of Marcus Antoninus. " The nature of the All moved to make the universe. 284 The Reformation of the Roman Empire. But now either everything that takes place comes by way of consequence or continuity; or even the chief things towards which the ruling power of the universe directs its own movement, are governed ^by no rational principle. If this is remembered, it will make thee more tranquil in many things" (p. 143). Our royal preacher draws a practical moral at every step in his meditations, and his physical generalisations are worthy of a modern scientist. Human Nature; or, Perso7ial, Domestic, atid Political Government. — What is the true nature of the human consti- tution? formed the common topic of his physical andpsycho- logical researches, and his speculations, too, are tainted with the Oriental notion of the degradation of the human soul, by imprisonment in a mortal and fleshly body. He has no doubt whatever that every man's understanding and reason is the Deity within him — a portion of himself, the " Daimon " which Zeus gives to every man for his guardian and guide. " Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part. Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not allowed; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh : it is blood and bones, and a network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries. See the breath also, what kind of a thing it is — air, and not always the same, but every moment sent out and again sucked in. The third, then, is the ruling part ; consider thus : thou art an old man : no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or shrink from the future " (p. 78). The very same flesh, breath, and the ruling part— the animal, human, and divine powers, passions, and pro- perties, which form a human constitution and polity, according to Paul as well as Plato — are recognised by The Reformation of the Roman Etnpire. 285 M. Antoninus, and the royal legislation for his own " self- government " is worthy of all acceptation. " Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man, to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice, and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and pas- sionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy and self-love, and discontent with the posture which has been given to thee. Thou seest how few the things are, the which if a man lays hold of, he is able to live a life which flows on quiet, and is like the existence of the gods : for the gods on their part will require nothing more from him who observes these things" (p. 79). " What is the true nature of a political constitution ? " was also a question which must have engaged his attention from the date of his earliest studies in Eoman jurispru- dence, under his tutor Maecianus; and his logical con- clusions rest on the best authorities — Aristotle's Politics, Cicero's Eepiiblic and Laws, as well as on the most dis- tinguished jurists and philosophers of Eome. " If our intellectual part is common, the reason also in respect of which we are rational beings is common: if this is so, common also is the reason which commands us what to do, and what not to do : if this is so, there is a common law also : if this is so, we are fellow-citizens : if this is so, we are members of some political community : if this ^s so, the world is in a manner a state. For of what other common political community will any one say that the whole human race are members ?" (p. 95). Here we see the very steps which raised the minds of the Eoman people to the recognition of the " common citizenship " — 286 The Reformation of the Roman Em-pire. cosmopolitanism and common divine fatherhood — the paternal government of the universe. And the candid soul of M. Aurelius notes down his debt of gratitude to his teachers of these elevating and ennobling principles. " From my brother Severus, to love my kin, and to love truth, and to love justice ; and through him I learned to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, Brutus; and from him I received the idea of a polity in which there is the same law for all ; a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed." But we are only learning to extend political and religious equality to our Christian citizens. GoA ; or, the Nature and Character of the Deity and Divine Government. — What are the evidences of the divine existence, nature, and character, according to the natural theology of our royal preacher of the Eoman Empire ? " To those who ask, Where hast thou seen the gods, or how dost thou comprehend that they exist, and so wor- shippest them ? I answer, in the first place, they may be seen even with the eyes ; in the second place, neither have I seen even my own soul, and yet I honour it. Thus, then, with respect to the gods, from what I constantly experience of their power, from this I comprehend that they exist, and I venerate them " (p. 203). There you have in a nut-shell the sum and substance of the argument in favour of divine veneration, honour, and worship offered in endless forms by the complete family of mankind, made of one blood on the face of the earth — "the ex- perience of divine power.'' But the latest revelation and interpretation of the volume of nature only tends to enhance the sentiments of admiration and reverence which The Reformation of the Roman Evipire. 287 lie deeper in the heart of universal humanity. All Pyrrhonism and pessimism are only transient moods and phases of social educational development. Who could undertake to fathom the depths of the "feeling of dependence," the congenital and even unconscious faith in God, who "gives seed-time andharvest and fruitful seasons" — the stable unity and uniformity of nature — the God of order and not confusion, exhibited in daily and occasional prayer ? "A prayer of the Athenians : Eain, rain, dear Zeus, down on the ploughed fields of the Athenians, and on the plains. In truth we ought not to pray at all, or we ought to pray in this simple and noble fashion " (p. 108). Do royal souls mount on the pinions of genius, and scan the laws of universal truth and knowledge ? " God is in heaven and you are on earth, therefore let your words be few," was the counsel of the Eoyal Preacher in Jerusalem. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit," was the passionate cry of the Jewish king at the close of his satirical survey of human life : " Fear God, and keep his commandments, for that is the whole duty of man." " Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes or a skeleton, and either a name or not even a name ; biit name is sound and echo. And the things which are much valued in life are empty, and rotten, and trifling, and like little dogs biting one another, and little children quarrelling, laugh- ing, and then straightway weeping. But fidelity, and modesty, and justice, and truth are fled ' Up to Olympus from the widespread earth.'— (Hesiod). What, then, is there which still detains thee here ? if the objects of sense are easily changed, and never stand 288 The Reformation of the Roman Empire. still, and the organs of perception are dull, and easily receive false impressions, and the poor soul itself is an exhalation from the blood. But to have good repute amidst such a world as this is an empty thing. Why, then, dost thou not wait in tranquillity for thy end, whether it is extinction or removal to another state? And until that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate the gods and bless them, and do good to man, and to practise tolerance and self- government; but as to everything which is beyond the limits of the poor flesh and breath, to remember that this is neither thine nor in thy power" (p. 116), was the dignified, considerate, and benevolent moral of the royal preacher of the Eoman Empire. Pure Agnosticism. " Love God, and your neighbour as yourself ; on these hang all the law and the prophets " of Judaea, said the Son of David according to the flesh. "Follow God, love mankind" (p. 136), summed up the religion of M. Antoninus, the Eoman lover of wisdom. Was the " spirit of the age," then, really embodied in these representative men of the Eoman Empire ? or did they inspire their followers with a purer faith in proportion to " the measure of the gift" of divine genius imparted to them by the common " Father of all men "? — are questions which must be answered according to the standpoint of every reader. Future, Life. — Lastly, what is the future fate and destiny of the human soul, according to M. Antoninus ? The veriest scraps only of the controversial discussions on a future state, which must have been carried on with his philosophical friends, are met with in his Memorabilia. Time after time we can hear him thinking aloud in his leisure moments on the periodic cycles of Oriental con- flagrations and restorations of the world, after a perusal The Reformation of the Roman Empire. 289 of the Ionic philosophy and the multifarious and profound speculations of Plato, on the banks of the Danube. " If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from eternity ? But how does the earth contain the bodies of those who have been buried from time so remote ? For us here the mutation of these bodies after a certain continuance, whatever it may be, and their dissolution, make room for other dead bodies : so the souls which are removed into the air, after subsisting for some time, are transmuted and diffused, and assume a fiery nature by being received into the seminal intelligence of the universe, and in this way make room for the fresh souls which come to dwell there. And this is the answer which a man might give on the hypothesis of souls con- tinuing to exist" (p. 98). No light here. " The universe is transformation. Life is opinion." " Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature : a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same : and altogether not a thing of which any man should be ashamed, for it is not contrary to the nature of a reasonable animal, not contrary to the reason of our constitution." "What a soul that is which is ready, if at any moment it must be separated from the body, and ready either to be extin- guished, or dispersed, or continue to exist; but so that this readiness come from a man's own judgment, not from mere obstinacy, as with Christians, but considerately and with dignity, and in a way to persuade another, without tragic show" (p. 186). Who could transcend the child- like submission of the royal agnostic who has carried off the crown in the arena of human life, as his reward in the "art of goodness," ready to receive future life or annihilation at the nod and will of his Almighty Creator ? T 290 The Reformation of the Roman Empire. LuciAN (A.r>. 117-180). One of the last, but not the least, of the products of Eoman civilisation who embodied the spirit of the age characteris- tic of ripe and mellow Latindom, was Lucian, the offspring of the genial clime, on the western banks of the Euphrates, Samosata, who started on the career of a sculptor with his uncle, but ultimately entered the ranks of the rhetori- cians or advocates : devoted the earlier portion of his life to the practice of his profession from Gaul to Babylon, during the reigns of Hadrian, the Antonines, and Gom- modus, and gave birth to a voluminous series of essays and dialogues which combine the subtlety, versatility, geniality, and breadth of the cosmopolitan critic, satirist, humorist, philosopher, theologian, and moralist, in a single soul, saturated with the sentiment of modern Humanism, the rollicking humour of Aristophanes, the novelistic fabrica- tions of Boccaccio, the caustic satire of an Erasmus, a Cervantes, a Eabelais, or a Swift, and the revolutionary dis- cussions of a European encyclopsedist. Witness his candid manifesto, in the Angler, or Besuscitated Philosopher : " I am the declared enemy of all false pretence, all quackery, all lies, and all puffing, and hate, from the bottom of my heart, all and every one who belongs to that infamous tribe, including a mighty host, as you know full well." The very fact that Lucian was the contemporary of M. Antoninus and the earliest apologists and defenders of the faith, betrays the great progress of the popular opposition directed against the social and religious systems of the Eoman Empire, and the struggle of existence waged be- tween the supporters of the old and new faith. No men- tion indeed is made of any conspicuous author on the side of the new religion, but the allusion made in the Life's The Reformation of the Roman Empire. 291 End of Peregrinus to the second Socrates, the famous Magus, crucified in Palestine for having introduced novel mysteries into the world, who died like Heracles, the son of God ; and the severe satire upon voluntary martyr- dom, accompanying the delineation of the popular sect, at least reveals the opinions entertained by the literati of the age, who nominally adhered, like Erasmus, to the old faith of the Eoman people, and lashed the follies of the monks and the corruptions of the age in his witty and elegant Adages, Colloquies, and Praise of Folly. No surprise can be excited in the mind of any student familiar with Homer and Virgil that Lucian should have flung the doors of heaven wide open to the gaze of mortal eyes, and heaped all his ridicule upon the " Lie-Fancier," the Council of the gods — Jupiter Tragoedus, Divine con- versation, Charon, Conferences of the dead, and Sacrifices. Surely the old faith had come to a terrible pass when old Jove, who had dethroned his father Saturn, tragically laments in the prose drama : " Dear wife, the concerns of the gods are come to extremities, and, according to the proverb, it stands upon the edge of a razor whether we are any longer to be acknowledged and adored on earth as gods, or neglected by all the world, and accounted for nothing " — when, too, a member of the Olympian Senate lodges the complaint, that " in Crete they say what is still worse, they even show your tomb ! " — when the priest- hood are twitted with their inveterate love of old wives' fables beyond the grave : " How, Teresias, do you still preserve your old attachment to these lies ? " in that, however, you only act like other prophets : it is the general practice with you to say nothing to the purpose when sacrifices are declared not to be wanted by the dying gods. And the " Syrian goddess " was thrown into 292 The Reformation of the Roman Em,pire. a deadly sweat and shudder, premonitory of the incipient dotage of effete and superannuate Orientalism. The philosophers of Greece and Eome fare no better at the hands of the universal analyst of opinion and social microscopist, who detected, exposed, and sold by public auction the incompetent religious directors of souls and teachers of human and divine wisdom, in his witty and humorous Sale of Philosophical Sects. Bold and daring as the philosophical satirist was in rejecting the ancient and accredited sages of wisdom and masters in religion, the moralist furnished a solid and substantial substitute in the human sympathies and social affections, cherished alike by the child of nature and civilisation, in Toxaris, or the Friends, in which a Scythian and Athenian enter the lists of patriotic and chivalrous competition in favour of instinctive barbaric, or polished and conventional " friendship or philanthropy.'' No doubt whatever can be entertained regarding the "last word" of literate and liberal Latinism, the ever- lasting basia, of human fellowship and affection which cemented the domestic, municipal, provincial, and political institutions of cosmopolitan society. Ifenesippus, Athenian. — "For the ratification of our new league of Friendship we shall need neither blood nor scimitar. Our present conversation, and the harmony of our dispositions, give it more authority than that blood- bowl which you quaff together. In matters that depend on taste and sentiment, all constraint is superfluous and unnecessary." Toxaris, Scythian. — " To what you have said you have my full assent. Let us then be friends, and institute a mutual hospitality. Here in Greece I am your guest, and you shall be mine if ever you come to Scythia." The Reformaiion of the Roman Empire. 293 If there is a reference in this passage to the love-feasts of the Christians, as is most likely, the inference is plain that the Eoman gentlemen of the age considered the social hospitalities and amenities of their own tables a sufficient pledge of human friendship. His multifarious works are the strongest evidence we possess of the popular scepti- cism, and the free criticism of the Eoman religion tolerated in the age of the Antonines. Celsus. Who was Celsus, the Eoman author of the True, Bis- course (X6yo<; aXr]6-^<;), which drew forth the long and laboured reply of Origen (a.d. 202) of Alexandria in eight books? His name only was known to Origen himself, and rumour said that he had lived in the days of Nero or Hadrian. But as the Marcionites and Marcellians are mentioned by Celsus, it is supposed he must have com- posed his work during the reign of the Antonines. Be that as it may, those portions of his work which have been preserved in the body of Origen's reply Against Celsus, no doubt reveal the common objections raised against the " new faith " by the cultured classes in Eome, and the reasons why they rejected its claims. On that account, therefore, it deserves special attention in attestation of the unquestionable independence of the Eoman reforma- tion. The fragments of Celsus, moreover, are the relics of the only work written against the Christian faith by a Eoman author, and therefore quite a literary curiosity. Probably the nearest literary parallel to the work of Celsus is the Reasonahleness of Ghristianity by Locke — the British philosopher par excellence — adopting the same ground, and disputing the divinity of the Founder of Christianity a century after the Protestant Eeformation- 294 The Reformation of the Roman Empire. How did the cultured classes of Eome then regard the new faith? The question is particularly interesting to us in the nineteenth century on account of the resurrec- tion of the old controversy ; but we cannot undertake to collect and analyse the long catalogue of objections taken to the Christianity presented by the Eoman and Greek apologists and defenders of that age. The subject will be more fully treated in the sequel, under the " fathers." The Jews from whom the Christians sprang, according to Celsus, were sunk in barbarism and fanaticism ; indebted to the Egyptians for the laws of Moses and circumcision ; addicted to sorcery; rejected the oracles of the Greeks and Eomans, and yet received the "revelations" of the Hebrew prophets — the fables of Adam, Eve, the serpent, and the silly cosmogony and Mosaic account of creation ; consequently, it is highly improbable that God would heap special favours on the Hebrew race, for the same Almighty God was worshipped by all men under different names and titles. The style of Celsus, in speaking of God, is worthy of special note. His words are : " I make no new statement, but say what has long been settled. God is good, and beautiful and blessed, and that in the best and most beautiful degree " (o ^eo? wyad6<; dan koX Koko'i Kol evhaifiwv koX iv rm KaXXto-rw koI apiarm). The God worshipped by the cultured classes of Eome' in the age of the Antonines cannot be surpassed by the God of the Christians. The miraculous birth of Jesus from a virgin is a mere fable : he was the son of a soldier named Panthera; and after Mary was divorced from Joseph, the Nazarite car- penter, for adultery, she went to Egypt with her son where he learned magic and the expulsion of demons. He never did anything beyond human power ; met with the just punishment of his career of rebellion and insurrec- The Reformation of the Roman Empire. 295 tion against the Eoman government, and ought to have appeared to his judges in Jerusalem, if he wished the Jews to believe in his resurrection from the dead ; for phantoms or ghosts of dead men have frequently appeared to men after death. To worship him, therefore, is pure idolatry, like the adoration of Zamolxis by the Goths, and without temples, altars, and incense, and only following the prac- tice of the Persians. Moreover, their morals are not new, and were far better taught by Plato. And the " deadly superstition" (Tacitus) produced no effect whatever on the " lovers of wisdom " (philosophers). His controversial climax is reached on comparing the bigotry and arrogance of the Jews and Christians to " a flight of bats, or to a swarm of ants issuing out of their nest, or to frogs holding council in a marsh, or to worms crawling together in the corner of a dunghill, and quarrelling with one another as to which of them were the greatest sinners, and asserting that God shows and announces to us all things before- hand, and that, abandoning the whole world and the regions of heaven, and this great earth, he becomes a citizen among ourselves, and to us alone makes his inti- mations, and does not cease sending and inquiring in what way we may be associated with him for ever." Of course, we do not require to give the replies of Origen, not even regarding the adultery of the Virgin Mary, which was most probably a current story in the days of Celsus. Moreover, the retort was perfectly justified on his part, because the " fathers " charged the gods of the Eomans with the same crime. But the philosophic Eoman who considered human justice (BiKt]), temperance (a-oHmR, and by kindled frankincense — whom you yourselves allege to have been burned alive after his punishment, and to have been consumed on the fatal p_vi-es ? Further, Romulus himself, who was torn in pieces by the hands of a hundred senators, do you not call Quirinus Martins, and do you not honour him with priests and with spacious temples ; and, in addition to all this, do j'ou not affirm that he has ascended to heaven ? Either, therefore, you too are to be laughed at who regard as gods men slain bv the most cruel tortures ; or if 346 Greek and Roman Christianity. there is a sure ground for your thinking that you should do so, allow us to feel assured for what causes and on what grounds we do this" (i. 41). Allow Arnobius and the Christians to worship God, the supreme king and head of the universe, through their anointed Master, as you Eomans worship Eomulus, the founder of the Eoman State, and Hercules, tlie son of God ! Mutual toleration ! GaUienus the emperor does so. Eomans ! will you not resolve to pass a Senafus-consuUum, declare the Chris- tian faith a rcligio licita, and live together in peace and harmony ? One last fiery trial — another quarter of a cen- tury — and the successors of Arnobius will dictate their own terms to the defenders of the old faith of the Eoman Empire. The study of the remaining books of Arnobius would not only repay the student's labour, but furnish him with weapons to fight the old battle of the faith over again in the present day. Saving only the pecuUar notion of his new faith, Arnobius was a Eoman Agnostic, who refused to be fettered by the old cosmogonies and theogonies either of the East or West. " What business of yours is it, he (the ' Anointed ') says, to examine, to inquire who made man ; what is the origin of souls ; who devised the cause of evils ? I leave these things to God. Allow him to know what is, wherefore or whence ; whether it must have been or not ; whether something always existed, or whether it was produced at first ; whether it should be annihilated or preserved, consumed, destroyed, or restored in fresh vigour. Your reason is not permitted to involve you in such questions, and to be busied to no purpose about things out of your reach " (ii. 61). " Your interests are in jeopardy — the salvation, I mean, of your souls ; and unless you give yourselves to seek to know the supreme Greek and Roman Christianity. 347 God, a cruel death awaits you when freed from the bonds of body, not bringing sad annihilation, but de- stroying by the bitterness of its grievous and long-pro- tracted punishment." Demons there are who oppose the truth, and aid the sorcerers and conjurers of the age, and souls of every degree who never were created by the supreme God, nor made in his divine image — some Demiurgus or subordi- nate god, it might be. " Let this belief, so monstrous and impious, be put far from us — that God, who preserves all things, the origin of the virtues, and chief in benevolence, most wise, just, making all things perfect, and that per- manently, either made anything which was imperfect and not quite correct, or was the cause of misery or danger to any being, or arranged, commanded, or enjoined the very acts in which man's life is passed and employed, to flow from his arrangement, — these things are unworthy of him, and weaken the force of his greatness ; and so far from being believed to be their author, who ever imagines that man is sprung from him is guilty of blasphemous impiety, — man, a being miserable and wretched, who is sorry that he exists, hates and laments his state, and understands that he was produced for no other reason than lest evils should not have something through which to spread them- selves, and that there might always be wretched ones, with whose agonies some unseen and cruel Power adverse to man should be gratified" (ii. 46). Calamities inflicted on you by the supreme God on account of Christians ! " Would you venture to say that in this universe this thing or the other thing is an evil, whose origin and cause you are unable to explain and to analyse ? It is rather presumptuous, when you are not your own master — even when you are the property of 348 Greek and Roman Christianity. another — to dictate terms to those more powerful ; to wish that should happen which you desire, not that which you have found jkced in things ly their original constitu- tion." Could a modern scientist, armed with the knowledge of the stellar and solar system, according to Copernican astronomy, spike the enemy's guns with greater skill ? And we commend the concluding chapters, v. vi. and vii., to the special attention of all Broad Church, Noncon- formist, and Independent theologians, who devote their talents to the gigantic task of stemming the tide of modern tendencies towards the restoration and protection of sacred places, persons, and periods, abolished by Arnobius in his satirical and witty assault on the Eoman temples, images, and sacrifices. Eeally the battle-ground, strewed with the shattered relics and ruins of thousands of artistic edifices, old gods and goddesses, muses, graces, nymphs of every degree, and smoking incense, is rich in " morals," admo- nition, and instruction in righteousness. Can you really confound your celestial deities, male and female, with the images surrounded by aesthetic architecture ? Are you quite certain they have not taken flight on an amorous tour, or to a voluptuous banquet, on the heights of cloud- capped Olympus ? " This one thing I ask above all : What reason is there, if I kill a pig, that a god changes his state of mind and lays aside his angry feelings and frenzy ; that if I con- sume a pullet, a calf, under his eyes and on his altars, he forgets the wrong which I did to him, and abandons completely all sense of displeasure ; what passes from this act to modify his resentment ? or of what service is a goose, a goat, or a peacock, that from its blood relief is brought to the angry god ? Do the gods, then, make Greek and Roman Christianity. 349 insulting them a matter of payment ? and as little boys, to induce them to give up their fits of passion and desist from their wailings, get little sparrows, dolls, ponies, puppets, with which they may be able to divert them- selves, — do the immortal gods in such wise receive the gifts from you that from them they may lay aside their resentment and be reconciled to those who offended them ? And yet I thought that the gods — if only it is right to believe that they are really moved by anger — lay aside their anger and resentment, and forgive the sins of the guilty without any price or reward. For this belongs specially to deities, to be generous in forgiving, and to seek no return for their gifts " (vii. 8). Systematic doctrines of atonement have not yet found a place in patristic theology. But we cannot omit a patristic parable invented for the purpose of exposing the silly anthropomorphism of treat- ing the gods to smoking carcases, and holding communion with them in the sacred temples of Rome. " Lo ! if dogs — for a case must be imagined in order that things may be seen more clearly — if dogs, I say, and asses, and along with them water-wagtails — if the twitter- ing swallows and pigs also, having acquired some of the feelings of men, were to think and suppose that you were gods, and propose to offer sacrifices in your honour, not of other things and substances, but of those with which they are wont to be nourished and supported, according to their natural inclination — we ask you to say whether you would consider this an honour, or rather a most out- rageous affront, when the swallows slew and consecrated flies to you, the water-wagtails ants ; when the asses put hay upon your altars, and poured out libations of chaff ; when the dogs placed bones and burned human excre- 350 Greek and Roman Christianity. ments at your shrines ; when, lastly, the pigs poured out before you a horrid mess taken from their horrid hog- pools and filthy maws ? — would you not in this case be inflamed with rage that your greatness was treated with contumely, and account it an atrocious wrong that you were greeted with filth ?" And, of course, his triumphant conclusion winds up with the purity and perfection of Christian worship : " True worship is in the heart, and a belief worthy of the gods ; nor does it at all avail to bring blood and gore if you believe about those things which are not only far remote from and unlike their nature, but even to some extent stain and disgrace both their dignity and virtue." Query : Are the successors of Arnobius who have now attained the age of his Eoman contemporaries, intoning long prayers, with splendid organs, gestures, and genuflections in the name of Jesus, surrounded with the presence of stained saints in aesthetic churches and Gothic cathedrals, quite certain that Almighty God is well pleased with such services acceptable to the eyes and ears of mortal worshippers ? Anyhow, we cannot easily over-estimate the splendid service which Arnobius performed on the eve of their national recognition by Constantine the Great ; but we cannot even affirm that he won the martyr's crown in the last persecution under the reigning emperors — Diocletian and Galerius. Lactantius (a.d. 325). Lactantius, the pupil of Arnobius, acquired a brilliant reputation as a professor of rhetoric, settled in Nicomedia at the request of the Emperor Diocletian, acted as the tutor of Crispus, the son of Constantine the Great, and Greek and Roman Christianity. 351 died at Treves, in Gaul, about a.d. 325. These are the only incidents of the life of Lactantius known to his biographers ; and as he is the first apologist who followed in the footsteps of the Roman jurists and composed the Divine Institutes of Christianity, we must take some notiue of them, more especially as he complains of the deficiencies of the Defences of TertuUian and Cyprian, and professes to furnish " the substance of the whole system," with distinctness and elegance of speech, "in order that it may flow with greater force into the minds of men," which gained him the title of the " Christian Cicero." To him Cicero was " the greatest author of the Eoman learning," and philosophers were the " teachers of right living." But as they were at variance amongst themselves, he was determined " to put an end to deadly superstition and disgraceful errors." The Divine Institutes are divided into seven books — on the False and True Wisdom of Philosophers, the False and True Worship of God, Happy Life, etc. But as he founded his faith in the unity and providence of God on the same evidence and arguments as Cicero, Seneca, and the Eoman philosophers, no repetition is necessary. And his conclusion is as considerate and cosmopolitan as Cicero himself on the I^Tature of the Gods. "For whether it be nature or aether, or reason or mind, or a fatal necessity, or a divine law, or if you term it any- thing else, it is the same which is called God" (i. 5). " In express terms, our God is the God of all men." What, then, is the peculiar character of the philosophic Christianity of the tutor of the son of Constantine the Great ? " Some one may perhaps ask how, when we say we 352 Greek and Roman Christianity. worship one God only, we nevertheless assert that there are two — God the Father and God the Son — which assertion has driven many into the greatest error. For when the things which we say seem to be probable, they consider that we fail in this one point alone, that we confess that there is another God, and that he is mortal. We have already spoken of his mortality : now let us teach his unity. When we speak of God the Father and God the Son, we do not speak of them as different, nor do we separate each, because the Father cannot exist without the Son, nor can the Son be separated from the Father, since the name of the Father cannot be given without the Son, nor can the Son be begotten without the Father. Since, therefore, the Father makes the Son and the Son the Father, they both have one mind, one spirit, one substance. But the former is as it were an overflow- ing fountain, the latter as a stream flowing forth from it ; the former as the sun, the latter as it were a ray extended from the sun " (iv. 29). And again : " With good reason is he called the ' Speech ' and the ' Word ' of God, because God, by a certain incomprehensible energy and power of his majesty, enclosed the vocal spirit proceeding from his mouth, which he had not conceived in the womb, but in his mind, within a form which has life through its own perception and wisdom, and he also fashioned other spirits and angels " (iv. 8). His whole form of expression is taken from his predecessor, Tertullian — Alexandrian, of course ; but the " mortality " of the " second God " was the weak point in his system, according to the opinion of his old Eoman friends and philosophers, who had re- nounced all "hero worship." And he does not even remind them that it is " like one of their own " Sons of God. No critic of the present day would listen to the Greek and Roman Christianity. 353 evidence taken from the Jewish prophets, Tresmegistus, and the Sibyls. Otherwise a more philosophical aspect is given to his exposition of the Christian faith on the eve of the Nicene Council : " The object proposed to man is therefore plain and easy if he is wise, and to it especially belongs humanity. For what is humanity itself but justice ? what is justice but piety ? and piety is nothing else than the recognition of God as a parent " (iii. 9). No Eoman philosopher would carp at such a definition of piety and humanity. On the other hand, the Jews themselves would question his account of Creation — the Son and the Devil, two contradictory and opposing principles, much like Ormuzd and Ahriman, with a human soul made of " fiery elements." " But the soul cannot entirely perish, since it received its origin from the Spirit of God, which is eternal " — and at birth, too, and not from the parent. On one point the Divine Institutes are important ; no dogma of substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind has yet been formulated in the Christian Church. " Por that sacred and surpassing majesty requires from man nothing more than Innocence alone ; and if any one has presented this to God, he has sacrificed with sufficient piety and religion " (vi. 1). Pardon is the natural con- sequence of repentance in the eyes of the common Parent of all mankind (vi. 13): " Whoever, therefore, has obeyed all these heavenly precepts, he is a worshipper of the true God, whose sacrifices are gentleness of spirit and an innocent life and good actions. And he who exhibits all these qualities ofi'ers a sacrifice as often as he performs any good and pious action. For God does not desire the sacrifice of a dumb animal, nor of death and blood, but of man and life " — therefore upon the altar of God, which is z 354 Greek and Roman Christianity. truly very great, and which is placed in the heart of man, and cannot be defiled with blood, there is placed righteous- ness, faith, innocence, chastity, and abstinence. This is the truest ceremony : this is that law of God, as it is called by Cicero, illustrious and divine, which always commands things which are right and honourable, and forbids things which are wrong and disgTaceful, and he who obeys this most holy and certain law cannot fail to live justly and lawfully " (vi. 24). Delighted to the very last to find the " extraordinary and admirable " Cicero in his own company ! Like some of his predecessors, " a common place of confinement " is provided for disembodied souls. Whether the passage referring to the translation of the empire was based on " the coming event " of the foundation of Constantinople, or the apocalyptic vision of John and the Sibyls, we know not ; but the very idea of such an occurrence seems to have been overwhelming to the mind of the " Christian Cicero." " And the cause of this desolation and confusion will be this, because the Eoman name by which the world is now ruled (my mind dreads to relate it, but I will relate it because it is about to happen) wiU be taken away from the earth, and the government retire to Asia ; and the East win again bear rule, and the West be reduced to servitude." Be that as it may, one cannot resist an allusion to the striking historical parallel existing between the tutor of Crispus, the son of Constantine the Great, and the sweet- ness and light peculiar to the tutor of the son of the great and good prince, an adherent of the new faith, in our own day, three centuries after our Eeformation : — "To admire what is admirable, to adore what is Greek and Roman Christianity. 355 adorable, to follow what is noble, to remember any example of those graces, which have crossed an earthly pilgrimage, that have enlightened the darkness or cheered its dulness — that is the essence of religion. These bring before us the ideals of human nature. The perpetuation of these graces is the true apostolic succession ; is the true identity of spiritual life ; is the true continuity of the Christian Church ; the true communion of saints " (Stanley). EUSEBIXTS (A.D. 284-340). The name of Eusebius, the first historian of the Christian Church, the friend of Constantine the Great, is not ranked amongst the fathers strictly so-called ; but as he drew up the Creed of the Mcene Council, and was enrolled among the " saints," at least in the Galilean Church, we may safely regard him as a reliable authority on Christian theology at this period. His birthplace and bishopric was Caesarea, the seaport of Jerusalem, the home of Origen for several years, and the seat of the library of the fathers — specially of Origen, collected by Pamphilus, the philosophic presbyter, whose lifelong friendship he prized so highly — especially of Origen, we say, for his fast friend Pamphilus was the scholar of Pierius of Alexandria. And Eusebius wrote five books in defence of Origen — a fact which seems to account for his Alexandrian tendencies, and the adoption of the Logos-possession in his exposition of the mission of the Jewish " Anointed (Xpt ctto?) of God." If the Christi- anity of Eusebius is not genuine, it at least sprang from the land of its birth ; not only so, the whole Arian con- troversy was conducted beneath his very eyes. Theodotus 35^ Greek and Roman Christianity. of Laodicea and Paulinus of Tyre united with him in interceding for the restoration of Arius, after his con- demnation by Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria. He composed the formulEe of the creed ; he sat at the right hand of Constantine the Great, and addressed the emperor in the name of the Council ; sat at the imperial table in the palace of Mcomedia and Constantinople ; received the account of the vision of the Cross ; frequently delivered sermons and orations in his presence ; wrote the life of the first Christian emperor, who took the new faith under his imperial patronage and protection. No bishop, then, can speak with greater authority on the subject than Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea, the actual " father " of the creed of Christendom, which lies at the foundation of the national Churches of Europe and Britain. Hence Christians were entitled to speak of the standard of orthodoxy (the right opinion), and brand all departure from the Nicene Creed as heresy (personal choice) and heterodoxy (another opinion). Before the accession of Constantine, however, a number of Palestinian Christians fell victims in the Diocletian and Licinian persecutions : his own friend PamphUus lay two years in prison ; but they mitigated the pains and penalties of imprisonment by the composition of the defence of Origen. The other works of Eusebius are a refutation of Hierocles of Nicomedia (who maiatained that ApoUonius of Tyana eclipsed Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, in the performance of miracles), as well as of Sabellius and MarceUus; the Evangelic Pre- paration and Demonstration, a reply to Porphyry, the Neo- Platonist; but, above all, his Ecclesiastical History. Divided as the Christian Church was under the Eastern and Western Empire, speaking the Latin and Greek langua<^es. Greek and Roman Christianity. 357 into two great Arian and Athanasian parties, Eusebius could not escape from the charge of heterodoxy ; and Jerome, who detested Origen and his Alexandrian theology, stigmatises him as " a ringleader of the Arian faction." But the real opinion of Eusebius was stated in his work on Sabellius : " As not inquiring into truths which admit of investigation is indolence, so prying into others where the scrutiny is inexpedient is audacity. Into what truths, then, ought we to search ? Those which we find recorded in the Scriptures. But what we do not find recorded there let us not search after. For had the knowledge of them been incumbent on us, the Holy Spirit would doubtless have placed them there." The fact, moreover, of his hesitation in adopting the term Homoousian (o/iioovo-to? = consubstantial, of the same essence), defining the nature of the soul of Jesus, inserted in the Nicene Creed by the Athanasian party, is well known. But when the meaning of the word was explained to him by the majorit}' of the Council, he at last gave his consent, according to his o\vu relation, in a letter addressed to his own diocese at Caesarea. No wonder that Socrates, the historian, styled him ambiguous (SiiyXaiTTOv) : the task which both the Arian s and Atha- nasians undertook lay " beyond the limits of human thought " and genius — the logical definition of the nature of the divine and human soul ; a psychological problem now relegated to the region of insoluble and unknowable principles, ontology, and deontology — spiritual essence and ethical ideals. Who could reconcile Moses and Jesus, Hebrew and Christian literature and history ? Their hermeneutical method was faulty from the very foundation. Who could harmonise, by any possibility, the " Captain of the 358 Greek and Roman Christianity. Lord's host," the presiding genius of Palestine and Jahveh's people, common to Oriental faith, with Joshua (Jesus) the son of Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth ? And yet the false assumption runs through all the theological interpretation of Bishop Eusebius and the Christian teachers of the age. For what are the opinions of Bishop Eusebius regarding the sacred Scriptures, '■'■ the Christ of God," and Christianity ? But as reference has already been incidentally made to his evidence regarding the sacred Scriptures of the Christians, we shall only briefly allude to them in this place. The famous work from which we purpose to extract our replies to these questions is styled Ecclesiastical History — i.e. the history of the Christian Church from its foundation during the last three centuries ; " the calamities that swiftly overthrew the whole Jewish nation ; " the most eminent fathers and their writings ; the leaders in the propagation of false opinion, the hostility of the nations, the mart)Tdoms, the successive persecutions, including an account of the Christian relisrion itself, which is not " a new and strange reliafion," — not " a recent and foreign production," but " the most ancient religion known ; " that of the pious men that were connected with Abraham. The work is divided into ten books, and as his predecessor Hegesippus is lost, we are dependent on it for our knowledge of the state of the Christian Church at least, left unnoticed in the works of the "fathers;" e.g. (1) the accepted and disputed lives and letters of the Christian Eeformer are expressly mentioned in the body of Ecclesiastical History, and (2) the adulteration of the sacred manuscripts, we learn, was frequently practised by heretical sects. " For this purpose they fearlessly lay their hands upon the Holy Scriptures, Greek and Roman Christianity. 359 saying that they have corrected them. And that I do not say this against them without foundation, whoever wishes may learn, for should any one collect and com- pare their copies one with another, he should find them greatly at variance among themselves. For the copies of Asclepiades will be found to differ from those of Theodotus. Copies of many you may find in abundance altered by the eagerness of their disciples to insert each one his own corrections, as they call them — i.e. their cor- ruptions" (p. 203). Hence the necessity of the collation of scriptural manuscripts still further adulterated by monkish transcriptions, until the invention of the printing press — the successive recensions and emendations, trans- lations, and revisions of the Hebrew, Greek, and modern texts in the present day. One of the notablest facts recorded in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius is the notice of the Ebionites (poor), the original Nazarenes, or Galileans, " who cherished low and mean opinions of the Anointed " (K.piaTo<;). " For they considered him a plain and common man, and justified only by his advances in virtue, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary by natural generation. With them the observance of the law was altogether necessary, as if they could not be saved only by faith in the Anointed and a corresponding life" (p. 101). Some parties must have agreed with them, for they asserted that " all those primitive men, and the Apostles themselves, both received and taught these thiags as they are now taught by them, and that the truth of the gospel was preserved until the times of Victor, who was the thirteenth Bishop of Eome from Peter " (p. 200). All the patristic and glowing notions which had been attached to the coming Deliverer of the people by the 360 Greek and Roman Christianity. Jews — the second David who was to restore their national independence — sank into insignificance, and were buried in oblivion. No champion of the " lost sheep of Israel " was Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, now ; the " friend of publicans and sinners, winebibbers and gluttons," boasts of a long pedigree, and his wonderful achievements run through the whole history of the Jewish nation, long past the " genesis " of creation — the Word and Wisdom in the bosom of the Almighty God. And we too no longer burn nor behead the disciples of " the one true God — look back on our reformers as " products of the age'' of the renaissance and revival of learning, who entertained "low and mean opinions" of the Christian faith. But although actual apotheosis only survives in the canonisation of " saints " at Eome, hero worship is immortal ! The grand theme of Bishop Eusebius, however, was the triumphant ascension of the Christian faith to the throne of the Eoman Empire, under Constantine the Great, and its recognition as " the most ancient religion known " — that of the pious men connected with Abraham. Can any one be surprised that the soul of Bishop Eusebius, who spent day after day with his firm friend Pamphilus in prison, and ministered consolation to dying martyrs, should have burst into prose poems and panegyrics on the " splendour of our affairs," on their " liberation from the oppression from the tyrant," final victory and eleva- tion of the Christian faith? — so that now, what never liappened before, the supreme sovereigns, sensible of the honour conferred upon them by him, spit upon the faces of idols, trample upon the unhallowed rites of demons, ridicule the ancient delusions of their ancestors, and acknowledge only the one and true God, the common Greek and Roman Christianity. 361 benefactor of all and of themselves. They also confess the Anointed, the Son of God, as the universal King of all, and proclaim him the Saviour in their edicts, inscribing his righteous deeds and his victories over the impious with royal characters in indelible records, and in the midst of that city which holds the sway over the earth. " There was also one energy of the Divine Spirit per- vading aU the members, and one soul among all ; one and the same ardour of faith, and one song of praise to theDeity." But the trumpet-tongued panegyric on the building of the churches, addressed to Paulinus, Bishop of Tyre, should be recited aloud by any one who wishes to under- stand the powerful emotions which swayed the souls of the victorious Christians of the age. Their souls are the souls of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam on the shores of the Bed Sea, with the hosts of the Eoman Pharaoh at the bottom of the sea. The song is the Song of Moses and the Lamb, once slain, but now jubilant over aU the tyrants and persecutors of the Eoman Church ; and Eusebius is the very angel of God himself, who took up a stone like a mill-stone and cast it into the sea, saying, " Thus with violence has the great city Babylon been thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." The vision of the seer is fulfilled with a vengeance. Now for the Christianity of the triumphant bishop — what is it ? The very same religion proclaimed by Paul, the Eoman reformer, the faith of Abraham, the friend of God, dragged out of the Levitical institutions of Moses, which buried it out of sight 430 years later, and extracted from the hereditary and heterogeneous corruptions of the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenians of the age — no " new or strange doctrine," but, if the truth must be spoken, it is the " first and only true religion." 362 Greek and Roman Christianity. " That the nation of the Hebrews is not new, but honoured among all for its antiquity, is well known. The writings and literature of this nation concern ancient men, rare and few in number, but yet exceeding in piety, righteousness, and every virtue. And indeed, even before the flood there were some who were distinguished for their virtue ; and after this others, both of the sons and posterity of Noah, among whom we would mention Abraham, celebrated by the Hebrews as the founder and progenitor of their nation. Should any one, beginning from Abraham and going back to the first man, pronounce those who had testimony of righteousness Christians in fact, though not in name, he would not be far from the truth. For as the name Christians is intended to indicate this very idea, that a man by the knowledge and doctrine of the Anointed is distinguished by modesty and justice, by patience and a virtuous fortitude, and by a profession of piety towards the one and only true and supreme God ; all this was no less studiously cultivated by them than by us. They did not therefore regard circumcision, nor observe the Sabbath, neither do we ; neither do we abstain from certain foods, nor regard other injunctions which Moses subsequently delivered, to be observed in types and symbols, because such things as these do not belong to Christians. But they obvioiisly knew the Anointed of God, as he appeared to Abraham, communed with Isaac, spoke to Jacob, and that he communed with Moses, and the prophets after him, has already been shown. Hence you will find these pious persons honoured with the name of " anointed," as in the following expres- sion : " Touch not my anointed ones (my Christs) and do my prophets no harm." Whence we should plainly sup- pose that the first and most ancient religion known — that Greek and Roman Christianity. 363 of these pious men that were connected with Abraham — is the very religion lately announced to all in the doctrines of the Anointed " (p. 1 4). Spirit, tone, and tendency, all harmonising with long series and catena of the Founder and fathers of the Chris- tian religion, based on a profession of piety towards the one and only true and supreme God, by "a man dis- tinguished by modesty and justice, by patience and a virtuous fortitude." That is the Christianity of Bishop Eusebius, the father of the Creed of the Nicene Council, which must be borne in mind in approaching its interpre- tation. Again, what honours were conferred on the Founder of Christianity, the "Anointed (Kpt.aTO';) of God " ? According to Bishop Eusebius, " No language is siifficient to express the origin, the dignity, even the substance and nature of the Anointed." And wliy ? Because he and his bosom friend Pamphilus were lifelong students and defenders of Origen of Alexandria — the followers of Philo, and the Neo- Platonic Apollos and Clement, as is evidenced from the two chapters giving " a summary view of the pre-existence and divinity of our Master and Saviour, the Anointed Jesus." Hear himself on the incomprehensible nature of the " Word " and Wisdom of God, the very investigation of which he regarded as " audacity." " For who but the Father hath thoroughly understood that Light which existed before the world was — that intel- lectual and substantial Wisdom, and that living ' Word ' (A0709) which in the beginning was with the Father before all creation and any production, visible or invisible, the first and only offspring of God, the prince and leader of the spiritual and immortal host of heaven, the angel of the mighty council, the agent to execute the Father's 364 Greek and Roman Christianity. secret -will, the maker of all things with the Father, the second cause of the universe next to the Father, the true and only Son of the Father, and the Lord and God and King of all created things, who has received power and dominion, with divinity itself, and power and honour from the Father. All this is evident from the more abstruse passages in reference to his divinity — ' In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word (A0709) was God.' All these things were made by him, and without him nothing was made " (p. 3). And then follows the crowning of the Founder with all the glorious epiphanies (divine and angelic appearance), national genii, and guardian angels peculiar to the theology and history of the Jewish (as well as of the Persian) people. But the keen discussions of the subject at the Nicene Council led to the most exact definitions of the theological doctrine, as the following c[uotation from his letter explaining his conduct to the members of his Caesarean diocese shows : " In forming this declaration of faith, we did not neglect to investigate the distinct sense of the expressions ' of the substance of the Father ' and ' eon substantial with the Father,' whereupon much discussion arose, and the meaning of these terms was clearly defined, when it was generally admitted that ouo-ta? (of the essence or substance) simply implied that the Son is of the Father indeed, but not as a part of the Father. . . . Consequently he is no creature like those which were made by him, but is of a substance far excelling any creature, which substance the sacred oracles teach us was begotten of the Father by such a mode of generation as can neither be apprehended nor explained by any creature" (Soc. Ecclcs. Hist., B. i. chap. viii.). Granting that no exception was taken by the Eoman Greek and Roman Christianity. 365 Christians of the age of Constantine the Great to such a method of scriptural interpretation and exposition, are we bound to accept the Alexandrian speculations and theories regarding the " soul " of the Founder of Christianity ? Certainly not. I'hilo the Jew, their common master, would have scouted the very idea of such a misapplication and perversion of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as of his doctrine regarding the " Logos-possession." But the sub- ject comes before us once again at the Mcene Council. Apart from all these Platouising and Philonising " spiritual ideals," Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, was regarded as " the Head of the Church." That was the plain prose of the astounding religious pheno- menon of the age — the formulation of the Christian creed and the foundation of the Christian Church on a national or imperial basis. Why did Bishop Eusebius preserve silence on the his- tory of the Nicene Council itself % is a question not easily answered. According to all accounts, the furious passions which were roused on that grand occasion were never effaced from the minds of the members of the Council. One council was held to sit in judgment on the Sabellian heresy of Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, who was expelled from the Church ; another at Tyre, to try the cause of Athanasius of Alexandria ; and he himself refused to accept the episcopal throne of Antioch. Pro- bably the stormy state of the new heavens and new earth never allowed him an opportunity to photograph the turbulent scenes exhibited at the creation and genesis of the new Christian world. And we need not be sur- prised that the Bishop of Caesarea, who inherited the sacred literature both of the Jews and Christians, inter- spersed his Ecclesiastical History with a few questionable 366 Greek and Roman Christianity. Biiracles, signs, and wonders, accepted on the testimony of his predecessor. Most likely their total absence from liis History would have been regarded as a marked sign of a want of interest on the part of Divine Providence : e.g. water turns into oil at the prayer of Narcissus for the use of his lamps in a case of necessity ; a cow drops a lamb ; the soul of Polycarp, the martyr, takes flight in the form of a dove to heaven ; a dove lights on a bishop's head, in token of the divine call and election ; and the whole body exclaimed, with all eagerness and with one voice, as if moved by the one Spirit of God, that he was worthy (BigwiLS et justtis est). Dead men are still raised at the prayers of the saints ; and the " Sacred Bread " of the common table of the Christians exerts a magic in- fluence, and saves the soul of a dying saint. ISTotwith- standing the trifling credulity — perhaps the critical negligence — of the Bishop of Csesarea, our warmest thanks are due to him as " the first ecclesiastical historian of the Christian Church." Aeius (died A.D. 336). Arius, who led the opposition to Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria, in the controversy which bore his name, was a presbyter, about sixty years of age, at the Mceue Council (a.d. 325), and died at Constantinople A.D. 336. Only fragments of his writings have been preserved in Philostorgius, Theodoret, and Epiphanius ; but as his opinions are identical with those of Eusebius, and will be frequently referred to, no further notice of him is required at this stage. Greek and Roman Christianity. 367 Athanasius (a.d. 298-373). Athanasius, again, who assumed the leadership of the opposite party at the death of Alexander, was only a deacon, twenty-five years of age, at the Nicene Council, and owed his education to playing at baptism on the seashore, in front of the bishop's windows. The dwarf- ish deacon was a genuine Copt, with hooked nose, small mouth, short beard, large whisker, and light auburn hair, still found on Egyptian mummies, subtle and versatile, and gained distinction by his clever defence of his patron in the fierce discussions of the Council. The immediate consequence was his elevation to the See of Alexandria at that time, " the Head and Judge of the World." " At a distance from court, and at the head of an immense capital, the Patriarch of Alexandria had gradually usurped the state and authority of a civil magistrate; and the Prefects of Egypt were awed or provoked by the imperial power of these Christian Pontiffs" (Gibbon, chap, xlvii.). Athanasius thus stood at the head of the Coptic popu- lation, the national party in Alexandria, and was fortified by whole armies of the fanatical monks and hermits of his Egyptian diocese ; the friend, too, and biographer of the notorious Anthony, the Egyptian EHjah, the man of God who gloried in leading the ass of his " Papa," on his episcopal visitations, to the caves of the desert. Paul, his companion, wished to be buried in his mantle, presented to Anthony as an assurance of communion with the great Athanasius. Ammonius, the monk, followed him to Eome, and threw himself into ecstasies at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Greek language was foreign to them, whereas the party of Arius belonged to the Im- 368 Greek and Roman Christianity. perialists, the bishops of the court, the two Eusebiuses, and Hosius of Cordova. Soon after the decision of the Council, Constantine turned in favour of his old friends, the Euse- biuses. Five times Athanasius suffered exile in his turn. Twenty years he herded with the hermits in Upper Egypt, and composed his works, which have survived until the present day, and been honoured with translation and notes by Cardinal Newman. Shortly before his death, Julian, the Apostate, despatched a letter to the Alexan- drian prefect regarding the " meddling demagogue." " Though you neglect to write to me on any other subject, it is your duty to inform me of your conduct to Athana- sius, the enemy of the gods. My intentions have been long since communicated to you. I swear by the great Serapis, that unless on the Calends of December Athana- sius has departed from Alexandria — nay, from Egypt — the officers of your government shall pay a fine of one hundred pounds of gold. You know my temper ; I am slow to condemn, but I am still slower to forgive. The contempt that is shown for all the gods fills me with grief and indignation. There is nothing that I should see, nothing that I should hear with more pleasure, than the expulsion of Athanasius from all Egypt. The abominable wretch ! the baptism of several Grecian ladies of the highest rank has been the effect of his persecution." But he died in peace, and reigns in the Eomish heaven as Saint Athanasius, a Christian god ! His chief works are An Oration Against the. Ch'eelcs, The, Incarnation of the Logos, An Exposition of the Faith, and a Discourse against the Arians. Why, then, was he honoured with the title of the "Father of orthodoxy"? That title was conferred by Epiphanius, in his History of Heresies (a.d. 310-403). Greek and Roman Christianity. 369 Yet the Arian doctrine was professed by the imperial successors of Constantine until the death of Valens (a.d. 367-373). The fact is, however, that the Creed of the Nicene Council prevailed over all opposition, and all the subtle distinctions of the Alexandrian theology were buried in oblivion for ages. That subtle distinction which roused the Arian controversy was the definition of the "Logos-possession," so near akin to the opposite doctrine of " demoniacal possession " attempted by his Patristic predecessors ; and the single step taken by Athanasius was the affirmation of the " unbegotten " union of the Almighty God with his divine offspring — the Word (A670?) or Wisdom. But we must give his own " exposi- tion of the faith." " We believe in one unbegotten (a<^kvv'r)Tov) God, Almighty Father, the Maker of all visible and invisible things, who is self-existent, and is the only-begotten Word (A670?), Wisdom, Son, begotten by the Father without a beginning, and from eternity. The Logos, indeed, not brought forth nor internal (ov Trpo(f>opiKov, ovk ivBidOerov), not an efQuence from perfection, not a section of our suf- fering nature, not a projection, but a Son, self-perfect, living, and working, the true image of the Father, equal in honour and glory " (Sec. 1). That single epithet " unbegotten," applied to the Logos, is the turning-point of the whole Arian controversy — the new point of departure for Christian " orthodoxy ;" and the rejection of the terms applied by Philo the Jew to the divine Word or Wisdom demonstrates his advance beyond his predecessors. The new doctrine is defended and illustrated in his Oration to the Greeks (Sec. 41) ; On the Incarnation of the Logos (Sec. 8) ; and in his Discourse against the Arians, passim, with ■2 A 3 "JO Greek and Roman Christianity. the same amount of allegorical adaptation and rambling application of Scripture as the Alexandrian fathers generally. No further evidence is necessary on this point ; and all the epithets which religious rancour and polemical vehe- mence could muster were henceforth heaped on his Arian opponents ; — " devils, antichrists, maniacs, Jews, poly- theists, atheists, dogs, wolves, lions, chameleons, hydras, eels, cuttle-fish, gnats, beetles, leeches," — collected by Cardinal Newman himself. To crown all, the sudden death of Arius was a divine testimony directed against his "Monarchian" faith, according to the opinion of Athanasius ; but it reappeared in the Inquisitio de Fide of Erasmus of Eotterdam, at the Protestant Eeformation. We need scarcely add that the cursing creed of Atha- nasius, which retained the sting attached to the original Nicene Creed, and still disfigures the Anglican Prayer- Book, has been voted a forgery. CHAPTER IV. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT— THE NICENE COUNCIL — AND THE CREED OF ROMAN CHRISTENDOM. Having thus ascertained the opinions of the fathers of the Eastern and Western Church — the representatives of Roman, Alexandrian, and Oriental Christianity during the lapse of the second, third, and fourth centuries — the for- mulation of the creed of Roman Christendom at the Nicene Council, held under the auspices of the first Chris- tian emperor, Constantine the Great, now demands our Greek and Roman Christianity. 371 special attention ; — for the Council was summoned for the express purpose of harmonising the clashing and con- flicting creeds peculiar to the Christian bishops of Europe, Asia, and Africa, — Eome, Carthage, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople, Nicomedia, and the furthest East. And the scene of the Council; the person and character of Constantine the Great; the members drawn from every corner of the empire ; the long and stormy discussions ; the Christian creed itself, with all its phrases and f ormulffi, which moulded and determined the religious thoughts and delusions of the modern communities of Europe and Britain, merit careful and considerate criti- cism. The value of the creed depends, to a great extent, upon its authors. The city of Nikaia, in Asia Minor, was most probably selected on accoimt of its vicinity and convenience to Kicomedia, the palace of the emperor; and the large building, raised for the reception of the Council, stood in the central square, with doors open to the four gates — and therefore called Mesomphalos, " the navel." Latterly, however, the meetings were held in the large hall of the palace. The towering stature and majestic mien of Constantine the Great — the conqueror of the "tyrant," their saviour and protector — robed in purple, and dazzling with precious stones, crowned with the imperial diadem of pearls, was the admiring gaze of the members, "as though he were an angel of God descended straight from heaven ;" while on either side of the throne sat Bishop Hosius of Cordova, and Eusebius of Caesarea, his Eastern and Western counsellors. Let us take a glance at the first Christian emperor, the living and visible Head of the Church ; for the copy of the Holy Gospels was placed on a central throne, representative of the Founder himself. 372 Greek and Roman Christianity. What claim, then, has Constantine the Great as a religious authority ? Like Cromwell or Napoleon the Great, during the course of our modern transitional age, the army hailed him with acclamations at his father's death at York (a.d. 306). The opposition of Maxentius and Licinius, his brother-in-law, was decided on the field of battle ; the foundation of " a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion " was laid at Constantinople — Boma Nova ; but the domestic intrigues and jealousies of Helena, the empress-mother, Faustina, the reigning empress, and Minerva, his first wife or concubine, overshadowed the brilliant glories of his reign, and closed with the judicial death of his son Crispus, young Licinius, and Faustina herself. But these imperial tragedies defy all critical investigation. The very conversion of Constantine ; the vision of the flaming cross in the heavens, with the motto, " By this conquer ; " the imperial Labarum, or standard, constructed at the dictates of the " Anointed," who appeared in a dream, lies buried in the depths of tradition, legend, and superstition. His Edict of Toleration only extended the same right of existence to Christians as every other reli- gion in the Eoman Empire. The emperor was head of the Christian Church in Boma Nova (Constantinople) ; but he still retained the proud title of " Pontifex Maximus " in Boma Antiqxia, on the banks of the Tiber, and graced the public games with his imperial presence. His statue in old Eome carried the emperor's spear, but the spear bore the form of a cross : while his statue in the Hippo- drome of Constantinople was the image of his patron deity — the Sun-god, Apollo ; and the glory of the sun- beams was composed of the emblems of the crucifix, and beneath it a fragment of the true Cross, as well as of the Greek and Roman Christianity. 373 ancient Palladium of Eome. On one side of the imperial coinage was inscribeji the titles of the name of the " Anointed," while the obverse reflected the figure of the Sun-god, with the inscription, "Sol invictus." The eagle of Jupiter — " Optimus Maximus " — flew across the Bosphorus to point out the spot of Eoma Nova. Sopater, the Neo-Platonist, assisted at the ceremonies of the foundation and dedication of Constantinople; and the imperial founder followed his " Divine Guide " in marking out the walls of the future city of the Christian Caesars with his spear — " Juhente Deo!' His baptism was deferred to the very eve of his death, in accordance with the common Eoman and Christian belief in the magic influence of the eucharist and expia- tion ; and the first Christian emperor breathed his last in the " linen clean and white " of the saints. Saint, too, he was made by the Christians in Eoma Nova — styled Isa- apostolos (" equal to the apostles "), and his body buried in the mausoleum of the Church of St. Peter, the Church of the Apostles, or the " Heroon " (" sacred to Heroes ")■ Prayer followed him to heaven, and miracles were said to have been wrought at his tomb. But the Senate of old Eome enrolled him amongst the " gods," like the Csesars and his father, offered incense before his statue, and celebrated festivals in his honour. Such was the ambiguous personality, fortu,nes, and character of Constantine the Great at the dawn of Chris- tian civilisation in Europe — the founder of a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion. Constantine adopted the new faith of Eome, and remained the Pontifex Maxi- mus of the old Eoman religion., So Napoleon the Great sought the sanction of the old faith of Europe in Notre 'Dame, at Paris, and claimed the intellectual liberty of a 374 Greek and Roman Christianity. French encyclopsedist. Constantine preached in the most eloquent style to crowds in the palace of Constantinople ; so did Cromwell, the Puritan, and his warlike Ironsides, in the camp and court of modern England. The body of Constantine was surrounded with the twelve Apostles, the fishermen of G-alilee; the body of ISTapoleon rests in a sarcophagus in the Hotel des Invalides, surrounded by classic figures ; while the statue of Cromwell stands in the company of the crowned heads of England in the British Senate. What does the reader think of the first imperial and visible " Head of the Christian Church " ?^for we leave every student of history to form his own independent judgment. His new policy, political hierarchy, and legis- lation prove him to have belonged to a high class of organising minds. But we can only give his introductory speech in this place, which shows that he was grievously disappointed with the religious factions which tortured the living body of the Christian Church. " It has, my friends, been the object of my highest wishes to enjoy your sacred company, and, having obtained this, I confess my thankfulness to the King of all, that, in addition to all my other blessings, he has granted to me this greatest of all. Let, then, no envious enemy injure your happiness ; and after the destruction of the impious power of the tyrants, by the might of God, our Saviour, let not the spirit of evil overwhelm the divine law with blasphemies ; for to me, far worse than any war or battle, is the civil wars of the Church of God ; yes, far more pain- ful than the wars which have raged without. As, then, by the assent and co-operation of higher power, I have gained my victories over my enemies, I thought that nothing remained but to give God thanks, and to rejoice Greek and Roman Christianity. 375 with those who have been delivered by us. But since I learned of your divisions, contrary to all expectations, I gave the report my first consideration, and praying that this also might be healed, through my assistance, 1 called you all together without delay. I rejoice at the mere sight of your assembly ; but the moment I shall con- sider the chief fulfilment of my prayers will be when I see you all joined together in heart and soul, and deter- mining on one peaceful harmony for all, which it should well become you who are consecrated to God to preach to others. Do not then delay, my friends; do not delay, ministers of God, and good servants of our common Lord and Saviour, to remove all grounds of difference, and to wind up by laws of peace every link of controversy. Thus will you have done what is most pleasing to the God who is over all, and you will render the greatest boon to me, your fellow-servant." We add the following sentence, illustrative of the conception formed of the Deity by the Christians of the age of Constantine familiar with the assumption of animal forms — the bull, gander, etc. — by the Eoman " Father of gods and men," and the generation of sons and daughters 6f God : " A radiant dove alighted on the Virgin's bosom, and accordant with this impalpable union, purer than chastity, more guileless than innocence itself, were the results which followed." E"ext — Was the body of the Council, consisting of 318 members, summoned by the emperor from aU the leading races and languages of the Empire, entitled to great credit as religious authorities ? Each bishop was invited, with two presbyters and three slaves. Let us note the deputies from their respective regions. From Egypt came the aged Bishop Alexander, who pro- voked the controversy by his imprudent sermons, and bore T)j6 Greek and Roman Christianity. the title of " Papa " (Ab-aba =^afor pato-um) of Alexandria, at a time when his episcopal brethren were designated " Abba " (father). Along with him came the young and dimiautive Athanasius, only a deacon, at the commence- ment of his tempestuous career. The tall and slender form of Arius, the presbyter, with his tangled locks, long coat, with short sleeves, distinguished the rigid ascetic, and head of the Arian party, who had set his doctrine to music in his Thalia : " God was not always Father. Once he was not Father ; afterwards he became Father." Several of his fellow-presbyters and followers from Egypt accompanied him. To close the deputation from Egypt came a motley company of genuine Coptic hermits from the desert, the most famous among them, Paphnutius, from the upper Thebaid, like many of his fellows, with his right eye dug out with a sword, seared with a hot iron, and besides limping on his hamstrung leg. Syria sent Eustathius of Antioch, " the city of God ; " Macarius of ^lia Capitolina (Jerusalem) ; James of Nisibis, who browsed on roots and leaves like a wild beast, and like a wild beast clad himself in a shaggy coat of goat's hair, denned in a cavern of the mountains, and awed the people by rumours of turning a washerwoman's hair white, and raising an army of gnats against the Persians ; and lastly, " John the Persian " from beyond the frontier, styled the " Metropolitan of India." The Bishops of Nikaia, Chalcedon, and Ephesus were headed by Eusebius of Nicomedia, the friend and relation of Constantine, who administered baptism to him at the hour of death, and was credited with wonder-working — all able and determined defenders of Arius. Alexander and Acesius, "the Puritan," came from Byzantium, not yet christened Constantinople ; and Spyridion, the simple Greek and Roman Christianity. 377 shepherd of Cyprus, who defeated the tricks of his brethren to prevent his arrival, by miraculously attaching the de- capitated heads of his mules to the wrong bodies ! The Nicene Council was a Council of the Eastern Church ; but Spain, Italy, and Carthage also sent a few representatives of the Western Church. Hosius of Cor- dova, Nicasius from France, Marcus from Calabria, Capito from Sicily, Eustorgius from Milan. Domnus of Stridon in Pannonia, and Theophilus the Goth, the predecessor and teacher of Ulphilas, the translator of the Scriptures, from the north ; Caecilian of Carthage ; Victor and Vin- centius, in the stead of the aged Sylvester, from Eome itself. Ten members only out of "the 318" came from the Western Church, and the result of their deliberations was a Greek creed, and the creed of the Eastern, "the Greek Church," to the present day. Such were the leaders of religious thought and opinion who assembled from the Eastern and Western Church of young Christendom at the Nfceue Council. Little is known of Bishop Alexander, who provoked the contro- versy. Only fragments of Arius remain. The fiery and polemical treatises of Athanasius, however, are volumin- ous, and the ecclesiastical history and works of Eusebius of Csesarea are well known. These are virtually the " fathers " who created the creed of the Nicene Council. The mere presence of the nameless and motley assemblage of fanatical hermits, martyrs, confessors, and wonder- workers counts for nothing. I^ow for the Creed of Christendom. The grand topic of controversy requiring the mrediation of the Council was the rank and dignity of the Founder of Christianity, dis- cussed by the Arian and Athanasian parties in Alex- andria. For Athanasius assumed the leadership on the 378 Greek and Roman Christianity. death of Bishop Alexander, and no attentive reader of our historical survey can halt between the two opinions on this subject. " The wicked race that put the Saviour to death " was not represented. Accordingly Jewish Mono- theism, the pure and simple faith in one God, fell into the background. The very celebration of the passover on Sunday, in fact, like the Jews, was regarded as an " impious absurdity ," so strong was the detestation of the Jewish race in the minds of the Christian bishops ; and the Galileans, Nazarenes, or Ebionites were classed as " heretics " by Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian. Two presbyters came from Eome, but no record exists of their defence of the Eoman Christianity of Paul, Clement, or Minucius Felix. Csecilian hailed from Carthage, but, so far as we know, he never cried for Tertullian, " Give me the Master " {Ba magistmm), like his predecessor Cyprian. Hosius of Cordova stood high in the estimation of Oon- stantine, but we only know that common report credited him with theological learning. The consequence was the discussion of the controversy fell into the hands of the critical and speculative Alexandrian and Asiatic theo- logians. Worse still, the very report of their fiery debates is lost, and only scraps preserved in the pages of the later historians, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. How many hermits, martyrs, and confessors — Spanish, Scythian, Gothic, and Oriental — deserving of all honour on account of their sincerity and steadfastness in the faith, couM thread their slippery way through the psychological pro- blems of the schools of Alexandria and Antioch, "the city of God " ? Sometimes the simple-minded child of the desert, puzzled with the classic distinctions of the animal, (crap^) human {-^iixv), and divine eouls, ctowned with the " Logos-possession " ascribed to the Founder of Chris- Greek and Roman Christianity. 3 79 tianity, stood up with his sightless eye-socket and cried out : " The Anointed and the apostles left us not a system of logic nor a vain deceit, but a naked truth to be guarded by faith and good works." Sometimes roars of laughter greeted Spyridion of Cyprus, the shaggy shepherd, suffer- ing from deformity and mutilation during the persecution, and the simple Gospel burst from his heart : " In the name of the Anointed Jesus hear me, philosophers. There is one God, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, who made all things by the power of his ' Word,' and by the holiness of his Holy Spirit. This ' Word,' by which name we call the Son of God, took compassion on men for their wandering astray, and for their savage condition, and chose to be born of a woman and to converse with men, and he shall come again to judge every one for the things done in life. These things we believe without curious inquiry. Cease therefore the vain labour of seeking proofs for as against what is estab- lished by faith, and the manner in which these things may be or may not be ; but if thou believest, answer at once to me as I put my questions to you." And the irresistible power of simplicity and earnestness triumphed over all arguments and speculations. So it was with all the impenetrable "mysteries" of the Trinity, proposed and discussed for the first time in a public assembly of Christian bishops, and perpetuated in the pictures of the Council to this day. The simple soul took a brick — " You deny that three can be one. Look at this ; it is one, and yet it is com- posed of the three elements of fire, earth, and water." As he spake, the brick resolved itself into its component parts; the fire flies upwards in Spyridiou's hands, and the water fell to the gi-ound. 380 Greek and Roman Christianity. To such a pitch of fury and ferocity was the debate carried, that Nicolas, Bishop of Myra, dealt a blow at the face of Arius, and has been immortalised in that attitude in the pictures of the Council. But one version of the story brings down the " Captain of Salvation," " who was not ashamed to call them brethren," in the company of the sainted " Mother of God," to restore him the gospel and pall. One creed signed by eighteen Arians was torn to pieces, and Arius himself was removed from the assembly ; but the creed which was finally adopted was presented by Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea, as a creed which he had learned in his youth in Palestine; and the sole epithet on which the controversy turned— Homoousian (con- substantial, or of the same essence or substance) — was inserted at the instance of the Athanasian party, while Eusebius and his friends interpolated a single i (iota), and rendered it Homoiousian (of like substance). But the creed of Eusebius was not retained in its integrity. " The first-born of creation " — a Scripture phrase — was omitted altogether, and fixed in its latest form at the Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 431. Here is a copy of the creed adopted at the Council, with the omissions which have since taken place within brackets [ ] :— " We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, both visible and invisible ; and in one Lord (/cvpio? = master) the Anointed Jesus, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [only begotten, that is to say, of the substance of the Father, God of God] ; Light of Light^ very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made [both things in heaven and things in earth] ; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down, and was made Greek and Roman Christianity. 3 8 1 flesh, and was made man ; suffered, and rose again on the third day ; went up into the heavens, and is to come again to judge the quick and the dead ; and in the Holy Ghost. [But those that say, 'there was when he was not,' and 'before he was begotten he was not;' and that 'he came into existence from what was not ; ' or who profess that the Son of God is of a different 'person' or 'sub- stance,' or that he is created, or changeable, or variable, are anathematised by the Catholic Church]." Before passing to the creed, we shall take a summary view of the catena of the Christian " fathers " who fur- nished contributions to the ground-plan and basic skeleton of the Christian faith, carried into completion by their scholastic successors during the middle ages of Christen- dom. Two of their number, the Eoman Clement, and the author of the Clementine Recognitions, we claim as pure Jewish or Eoman Christians, who regarded the Founder of Christianity as the " True Prophet," anointed of God, for the fulfilment of his divine mission ; for Paul himself designated him " the minister of the circumcision only." Five more — TertuUian, M. Felix, Athenagoras, Arnobius, and even Augustine himself — we place in the catalogue of Eoman Christians who more or less candidly and decidedly declare the Founder of Christianity to be a " second God," like Hercules and other Eoman sons of Jupiter. And eleven — Diognetus, Hermas, Barnabas, Justin, Tatian, Theophilus, Alexandrian Clement, Origen, Eusebius of Csesarea, Lactantius, and Arius — we class as Alexandrian Christians, because they adopted the Alexandrian, Apol- lonian, or Philonian theory of the " Logos-possession " in speaking of the Founder of the Christian faith. The whole class are unanimous in maintaining the unity and supremacy of God — Monotheism — in common 382 Greek and Roman Christianity. with the Jews and Jewish Christians ; and the sole dif- ference which exists between the Eoman and Alexandrian " fathers " arises from adopting the theory of deification or apotheosis, or the " Logos-possession." Both parties recognise the Founder of Christianity as a new or " second God " in reply to the arguments of their opponents. The Eusebians and Arians defended the " Monarchian " theory, which yielded the first place to the Supreme God and Father, and only the second to the Son — or the " True Prophet," filled with the " Spirit of God above measure." But the majority of the votes in the Mcene Council was given in favour of the equality of the Father and the Son — or rather the " consubstantiality " of the " Spirit of God " and the Spirit of the Founder, by the insertion of the new term — "Homoousian" {ojjuoovaiov), of the same essence or substance. Now, then, what did the majority of the Nicene Council really mean by their vote? Eusebius of Ceesarea — a profounder scholar than the young deacon Athanasius — we know, remained a staunch supporter of the Alexan- drian theory; so did Constantine the Great, and the imperial family. The new term of Athanasius landed him in a pure contradiction and inconsistency — a belief in the " unbegotten " (ajewr^Tov) and " begotten " God : one thing is certain, the vote of his fanatical followers led to the compromise adopted at the Nicene Council, for both Homoousian and Homoiousian (ofioiovatov = of like substance) parties boasted of victory, and fought the battles of the faith over the " difference of a diphthong." Controversies waged on theological niceties, however, cannot surprise the student of " transubstantiation " and " consubstantiation " — delusions both of them, according to modern Protestantism. How many members of the Greek and Roman Christianity. 383 Nicene Council were familiar with the history and development of the Alexandrian theory of the " Logos- possession ? " Not one ecclesiastic in a thousand even yet can thread his way through the mystic mazes of this pro- found and complicated " mystery " of the faith. But the successive steps of the development of opinion on this theological topic may now be retraced with a fair amount of attention, and enrolled amongst the loci comniwies, the common-places of " dogmatic " theology. (1) The fundamental idea of the Galilean disciples was the restoration of national independence under the leadership of Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee ; (2) after his martyrdom they still cherished the hope of his return to accomplish his national mission ; (3) the adoption of the Eoman Empire as the successor of the Jewish "kingdom of God," or government of the world, however, led to the rejection of the restoration of Israel by Paul, the Eoman reformer ; (4) his beloved brother Apollos (Hebrews) arrived at the " city of the living God," Mount Sion — a " kingdom which could not be shaken " — the assembly of the spirits of just men made perfect in the Christian brotherhood ; (5) the first ex- pression of the Alexandrian idea was taken from the Hebrew " Proverbs " — " The Lord possessed me (Wisdom) in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, before ever the earth was " (Prov. viii.) ; (6) the next expression was employed by the author of the Alex- andrian " Book of Solomon " — the motto of this volume (vii. 26); (7) the same phraseology was freely used by Philo, the Jew of Alexandria, in his works ; (8) and applied by the Alexandrian Apollos to the Founder of Christianity (Heb. i. 3) ; (9) the disciples of the school of John, at Ephesus, placed it at the head of the " Spiritual 384 Greek and Roman Chj'istianity. Gospel" (John, chap, i.); (10) and the successive Alex- andrian " fathers " adopted the theory in their flattering- representations, which culminated in the final deification of the Founder of Christianity resting on the misapplica- tion of a metaphor — the personification of the divine '' Word " or Wisdom. The bare mention of a " second God " would have been branded as polytheism and idolatry by a pure Jew — Philo. The " fathers," in fact, were taunted with poly- theism on this very point. But " the wicked race who crucified Jesus " were excluded from the Mcene Council, and Athanasius charged the Arians with " shutting them- selves up in the belief of the present Jews," — a sure sign of divergence from pure Monotheism. The idea was no novelty to the Greek " fathers," who bowed before the image of divine " Wisdom " (tro^ia) in the Athenian Parthenon (Virgin's house) — Pallas Minerva, who sprang from the head of Zeus (Dyaus-piter = Father of light). The very same phrase could be adopted in the new faith and environment ; and the new Anointed (X/otcTTo?) of God became " the Light which lightens every man who comes into the world," — the " divine image " and reflection. Hence TertuUian can reason — " Even when the ray is shot from the sun, it is still part of the parent mass ; the sun will still be in the ray, because it is a ray of the sun, and there is no division of substance, but merely an extension. Thus the Anointed is Spirit of Spirit and God of God, as light of light is kindled," — the very words of the Creed of the Nicene Council. Much the same idea, also, was familiar to the minds of the Greeks and Eomans, as well as the Jews and Orientals, viz. the Divine Spirit which seized and " took possession " of the minds of the prophets in the utterance of the Greek and Roman Christianity. 385 " oraeles " and " will of God." Still further, the popular belief in " demoniacal possession " was the religious counterpart and complement of the Divine or " Logos- possession." Demons — nothing but demons, took posses- sion of men's souls — inflamed their passions, and tor- mented their bodies with endless diseases ; whereas the " Divine Wisdom " took possession of Jesus and his dis- ciples — drove out demons and diseases at his word. And all the speculations of the philosophers regarding the nature of " Souls " paved the way for their theological conclusions adopted at the Council. No slight diversity of opinion existed on the nature of the human soul amongst the Greek and Eoman fathers, and members of the Council. To the Eoman as well as the Greek, however, the soul was a " divine particle " — a " fiery element " — sether, or " vital spark of heavenly flame ; " and to any simple- minded Christian who read the " Word of God," in the " Genesis " of the Sacred Scriptures, it was a " living soul" breathed into the body by the Spirit of the Almighty Creator of the heavens and earth. " You yourselves ascribe such excellence to the intel- lectual soul, which is after all the human soul, that you maintain that it can become con-' substantial ' with the intelligence of the Father, which you believe in as the Son of God " — is the language of Augustine addressed to Porphyry and the Neo-Platonists, who claimed spiritual absorption, and transcendental union with the Deity. What incredible thing is it, then, if some one soul be assumed by him in an ineffable (unspeakable) and unique manner for the salvation of many " ? Very good pleading, Divus Augustinus, for an old Ehetorician ! If Porphyry, lamblichus, and Plotinus, the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria, can attain " consubstantial " union and 2 B 386 Greek and Roman Christianity. assimilation to the " Divine Intelligence " in their tran- scendental " ecstasies," — why should not the Christian God "assume" the Founder of Christianity into Homo- ousian union with his divine nature ? Why not ? But that is the very point at issue between the Eusebian, Arian, and Athanasian parties of the Nicene Council. The Eusebians were acute enough to remind the mem- bers of the Council (as we learn from a passage in Theo- doret) that the souls of all men were divine : " We are also of God — we are the image and glory of God," re- ferring to the Mosaic account of the creation of man (Theod. Ecdes. Hist., B. i. 8). The whole subject referred to the Nicene Council was a psychological problem regarding the nature of the divine and human soul, " beyond the limits of human thought," and the vote of the numerical majority a base- less blasphemy and daring assumption. What else could have been anticipated from a herd of fanatical monks " browsing on leaves and denning in the caves of the Egyptian desert " — simple shepherds and wonder-workers, flinging themselves at the tombs of the martyrs, and crying to them in heaven as Christian gods ! Surely, however, the reduction of the 30,000 gods and goddesses crowding the old Pantheon of Greeks, Eomans, and Orientals to three, deserves a hearty vote of thanks from modern Protestants ! Be it so, then : but leave us in possession of the pure creed of Christians, " without note or comment " — Love to God and man — " That God, which ever lives and loves — One God, one law, one element, To which the whole creation moves," preached by the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee and Paul, the Eoman reformer. Greek and Roman Christianity. 387 Twenty canons were also drawn up for the regulation of ecclesiastical government ; and one of these; on Mar- riage, shows that priestly celibacy had already crept into the Church. But when the proposal of separating the married clergy from their wives was made, Paphnutius, the Egyptian hermit and confessor with the one eye, roared out : " Lay not this heavy yoke on the clergy. ' Marriage is honourable to all, and the bed undefiled.' By exaggerated strictness you will do the Church more harm than good. All cannot bear such an ascetic rule. The wives themselves will suffer from it. Marriage itself is continence. It is enough for a man to be kept from marriage, after he has been ordained, according to the ancient custom ; but do not separate him from the wife whom once for all he married when he was still a lay- man." And the Eastern Church now almost enjoins marriage on all the clergy before ordination, without per- mitting it afterwards ; while the Western Church enforced clerical celibacy, with the well-known consequence of concubinage and Papal nepotism. The history of the Nicene Council could not have been written without the information derived from the three ecclesiastical historians, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret — two lawyers and a bishop — who continued the work of Eusebius during the following century ; and every reader ought to acquaint himself with the parts which the suc- ceeding emperors and ecclesiastics of the Eastern and Western Churches played in the development and expo- sition of the ISTicene Creed. For the examination of the conflicting creeds and councils will neutralise the slightest tendency to place any credit on the mere authority of the fanatical and superstitious defenders of ancient Christi- anity — only too necessary in an age which requires to 388 Greek and Roman Christianity. throw its old "idols" to the moles and bats of hoary antiquity; and the prodigious catalogue of astounding marvels and miracles, which start up at every step in the course of development, must ultimately produce a whole- some fit of laughter, and prove a source of amusement and efiicacious cure for the love of Patristic literature. Let every one read and ponder the state of mind of Con- stantine and the Christian people, who turned the nails of a cross found in the ruins of Jerusalem into bridle-bits for his horse ; practised the adoration of the sacred wood ; believed that the dying and dead leaped to life at its touch ; that demons and diseases were driven out at the tombs of the saints; that lions carried loads; celestial spirits guarded the walls of besieged cities; and burning fur- naces refused to burn boys with " the holy fragments of the immaculate body of Christ in theirstomachs," etc. (-E^wa^rms). We have already seen that the Sabbath, like all popular festivals, was kept as a day of rejoicing by the Christians ; and the considerate and beneficial legislation of Constan- tine on the same subject was no doubt consistent with the teaching of the Church. '' Let all the judges and citizens, and tradesmen of all kinds, rest on the day of the Sun. Let all men, however engaged in the cultivation of the soil in the country, freely and legally perform their duties, since it frequently happens that the seed cannot be sown, nor the vines, ... on any other day, and the opportunity provided by the kindness of heaven be lost " {Corp. Jur. Civ. Cod., lib. iii. tit. xii. 3). The very same spirit animated our Protestant Ee- formers in the sixteenth century ; for Cranmer (in his Visitation Articles) expressly declares that God would be grievously offended if the people abstained from their labours in the harvest season. And the law of Edward vi.. Greek and Roman Christianity. 389 drawn up under the reformer's superintendence, allows " all persons to work, ride, or follow their calling, in case of need." Accordingly, we can only ascribe the rigid rules of later practice to the Pharisaic Puritanism which " made the commandments of God of no effect by their traditions." Imperial banquets, congratulations, and farewell speeches wound up the tedious and stormy sessions of the memorable Nicene Council, which had sat from May to August, A.D. 325. James of Msibis saw angels round Constantine the Great, and Constantine saw angels minis- tering to James of Nisibis, in the midst of the concluding festivities. And the conversation of Constantine with old Acesius, " the Puritan " from Byzantium, clinches the moral of the religious assembly, whose members returned to the national churches in every city of the Eoman Empire, with a new creed of faith and good works wrapped in twenty canons and endless delusions. " Why do you still remain separate from the communion of the Church ?" " None," said Acesius, " who, after baptism, have sinned the sin which the divine Scriptures call the sin unto death, have a right to partake in the divine mysteries. They ought to be moved to perpetual repentance. The priests have no power to forgive them — only God, who alone has the right to pardon sins." " Ho ! ho ! Acesius ; plant a ladder and climb up to heaven by yourself," was Constantine's humorous reply. Thank heaven, the louder voice of Paul, the Eoman reformer, rises above the transient storm of the Nicene Council : " I speak to wise men, judge you. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." Cannot every modern Protestant plant his own ladder, and climb up to his own heaven ? 390 Greek and Roman Christianity. Subscription followed, and, mirahile dictu ! even by two dead members of the Council, who attached their names to the volume left at the tomb during the course of the night. Nay, more, some thought that the Holy Spirit himself was present to guide their deliberations, in the form of one of the bishops ; for, when they rose up to be called over, the numbers never would come right, and the last of the series always turned into the likeness of his neighbour ! The language of Athanasius gives ex- pression to the general satisfaction at the conclusion of the Council : " The word of the Lord which was given at the Ecumenical Council endureth for ever !" Tradi- tion adds that the sacred spot was commemorated by a spring which burst out in the centre of the building. But religious uniformity was not secured by the decrees of the Council. Eusebius of Nicomedia, as well as Arius and his Alexandrian friends, were deposed, banished, and recalled before the close of the Council, and actually attached their names to the creed — no doubt, like Euse- bius of Csesarea, with explanations and reservations. Arius himself was soon cut off, either by sudden death, disease, or poison; and Athanasius boasted of the fatal episode as a divine judgment, and a sufficient refutation of the Arian heresy. But Arianism survived until a.d. 600, and the nominal conversion of our Gothic ancestors ; burst out again in the form of Socinianism in Italy at the Eeformation ; inspired the Platonists and latitudinarians of Cambridge; and is now dissolving, in the light of modern criticism, into pure Theism, and Agnosticism peculiar to Pauline and Eoman theology. Greek and Roman Christianity. 39 1 Jeeome (a.d. 331-420). There are two fathers who bulked largely in the eyes of mediaeval theologians and system-builders, and lie at the basis of our fossil theology — we refer to Jerome and Augustine. But as the only work of Jerome worthy of notice is the Latin translation of the Scriptures termed the " Vulgate," we need not stir the dust of the patron of Monachism in his retreat at Bethlehem, in company with the wealthy ladies who fled from the luxuries and gaieties of the capital, and devoted the remains of their shattered lives to a round of penance and piety. AUGUSTINUS (a.d. 354-430). The foundation-stones of the theological system laid by " Divus Aurelius Augustinus," however, were accepted by our mediaeval " Scholastics," seized by John Calvin for the erection of his Institutes, and cannot be neglected in study- ing the future development of the Nicene Creed. His life is better known to us than any of his patristic predecessors, from his own autobiography, the Confes- sions ; but we cannot stop to compare his " Phases of Faith " with those of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Hume, Gibbon, Newman, Mill, and Eenan, given in their auto- biographies in our parallel period. Like the great majority of the later fathers, he sprang from North Africa, Thagaste, lectured on Ehetoric in Carthage, Eome, and Milan ; neutralised the doctrines of all the philosophers of Greece and Eome by exposing their endless contradic- tions ; adopted the new faith — the faith of his Christian mother, Monica — at the intimation of an incidental " voice," TolU et Lege — (" Take it and read it ") — and the 392 Greek and Roman Christianity. Virgilian lots, at thirty-three years of age. " Take it and read it " fell on his ears from a window as he was fluctuating between the old and new faith ; and he accepted the "heavenly voice," just as Paul did the thunderstorm, and confirmed it by opening the Scriptures at the passage, which he received as a condemnation and " divine judgment " on his conventional and fashionable life of Eoman concubinage (Eom. xiii. 13). His moral reaction in the laudation of Virginity betrays the unwhole- some influence of Oriental speculation and the popular tendencies to monasticism, so thoroughly alien to Roman common-sense and moderation. Three or four years were spent in preparatory studies with a few friends in retirement, at the end of which he was ordained presbyter, and afterwards Bishop of Hippo at forty-one, where he resided until his death at seventy- six years of age. The famous work — Civitas Dei (^'The City of God") — on which his fame chiefly rests, was commenced in a.d. 413, three years after the siege of Eome by Alaric the Goth, to defend Christianity from the popular charge of bring- ing down calamities on the Empire, and published by instalments until A.D. 426; and we can only refer to his voluminous commentaries on the Sacred Scriptures, sermons, and essays on Christian doctrine. His numerous works form a monument of Hebrew, Hellenic, and Eoman philosophy and religion — the rich and fertile mine, in fact, from which all later theologians extracted their scholastic systems of Christian doctrine. But what is the amount of their dogmatic value to us in the nineteenth century ? Father after father had demon- strated the folly of the Eomans ascribing the calamities of the Empire to the toleration of the Christians; and Greek and Roman Christianity. 393 Augustine found it a very easy task to repeat the stock arguments of his predecessors, and point to the endless dissensions of their own philosophers on religious topics. Ten books are devoted to these subjects, eight more to the history of the Jews, Greeks, and Eomans, and the four last to the future state of Christians as well as non- Christians. True, the whole train of thought adopted in the first ten can easily be adapted for the purpose of sUencing the presumption of Christians in the present day who profess to interpret the policy of the divine government of the world. "The gods are hard to reconcile." Still no Sociologist would venture to accept his philosophy of history, with all its allegorical and fallacious interpretations and expositions from Genesis to Eevelation ; and his Eschatology, or Last Things, fluc- tuates between the literal, allegorical, and spiritual in- terpretation of the irreconcilable array of the parables and apocalyptic visions of the Founder and fathers of Christianity. Inspired as he was by the lost Hortensius of Cicero, the philosophers of Greece, Eome, and Alexandria are treated with the greatest respect and admiration : " If Wisdom is God, who made all things, as is attested by the divine authority and truth, then the philosopher is the lover of God." Accordingly the most liberal definition of Christianity comes from Augustine. " Whatever philosophers therefore thought concerning the supreme God, that he is both the Maker of all created things, the light by which things are known, and the good in reference to which things are to be done ; that we have in him the first principle of nature, the truth of doctrine, and the happiness of life ; whether these philo- sophers may be more suitably called Platonists, or whether 394 Greek and Romati Christianity. they may give some other name to their sect ; whether we say that only the chief men of the Ionic school, such as Plato himself and they who have well understood him, have thought thus ; or whether we also include the Italic school on account of Pythagoras and the Pytha- goreans, and all who may have held like opinions ; and, lastly, whether also we include all who have been held wise men and philosophers among all nations, who are discovered to have seen and taught this, be they Atlantics, Libyans, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Chal- deans, Scythians, Gauls, Spaniards, or of other nations — we prefer them to all philosophers, and confess that they approach nearer to us (Civ. Dei. lib. viii. ch. 8). Faith in the supreme God — the source of intellectual light and moral goodness — approximates the most enlightened philosophers to the Christian faith ; and his contemporary, Jerome, admitted that the Stoics " agreed with the Christians in almost every respect." Further : the soul is not a part of God (xi. 22). No nature is evil in itself ; it is only a transient deviation of the will of man — a loss of goodness (amissio boni) — a defect, not an effect (de/ectio, non effectio). Every man is endowed with free-will — the very soul of human responsi- bility. Predestination is only the expression of his belief in divine providence. But he must be regarded as the father of the theory of hereditary original sin, converted into baptismal regeneration at a later date, and removed by the Christian rite of immersion (xxi. 1 6). The true altar is still the altar of the human heart. The living sacrifice and reasonable service of the whole life, de- manded by Paul, is still the " true and perfect sacrifice " (x. 6). Forgiveness of sins is stiU dependent on prayer and repentance (xxi. 27) ; and his doctrine of the Chris- Greek and Roman Christianity. 395 tian " incarnation " — the " Word " made flesh— does not differ one jot or tittle from his immediate predecessor (x. 29). The founder of Eome and the Christian " King- dom of God " are brought into close comparison, and the allowance of the apotheosis made in express terms : " The former city loved its founder, and therefore believed him to be a god ; the latter believed Christ to be God, and therefore loved him " (xxii. 6). Proportionate rewards and punishments are regulated for the heaven and hell of " Divus Augustinus." Some saints may be prayed for and some saints may be prayed to, and even saved by a " taste of fire " in the future state. But the souls of infants — he had only one boy, Adeodatus (" God-given "), who came by mistake, and contrary to his arrangement with his concubine — are only to suffer the first, and not the second and penal death. In conclusion : numerous miracles collected from the gossip of his own diocese — exorcism, paralysis, blind- ness, lameness, cancer, gout, stone, a suit of clothes in answer to prayer at the tomb of the martyrs, and even a resurrection — were repeated by the credulous and eloquent old man for the purpose of demonstrating the truth of Augustine's edition of the new faith. His critical commentaries and theological essays are only literary expansions of his magnum opus. It served its purpose during the " ages of faith." It is a theological fossil now. If any student wishes to meet with a type of the modern ecclesiastic fighting the battles of the faith with the shackles of " councils " on his soul, let him read and ponder his 67th Homily on the Founder lately voted of the "same substance" as God the Father — at one time asking his African flock, '' Pray for me," at another asserting the subject is " inexplicable," and twist- 396 Greek and Roman Christianity. ing and torturing the plain phrases of the Old and New Testament into new senses in support of the latest doctrine published by the Nicene Council. I have now concluded the analysis of the Eeformation of Judaism and the Eoman Empire, or the genesis of Christianity, as well as of the pure Theism and morals of the Eoman philosophers, and shown — (1) That six edi- tions of Galileanism and Christianity issued from several centres of religious distribution, according to the lives and letters of the Christian reformers ; (2) that various elements of the Jewish, Eoman, Alexandrian, and Oriental religions were blended in the works and systems of the Greek and Eoman fathers, during the course of three centuries posterior to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exclusion of the Jewish race ; and (3) that Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, was finally crowned with the honours of deification in common with the emperors, Constantine the Great himself, and the " Sons of God," peculiar to the Eoman religion, at the Nicene Council. But I have resolved to add a sketch of the full and final development of Christianity in Europe and Britain running parallel to the " Social Development of the Jewish People " (Introduction) from the Nicene Council to the present day, for the gratification of the scientific students who are unacquainted with the principles of modern historical science or the physiology of the social organism. In this manner they will be furnished with the complete evolution of the successive types of two religions — the Jewish and Christian, which sprang from Asiatic and European centres of racial and religious dis- tribution — for the purpose of illustrating our comparative method of historical investigation. Ultimate Development of Christianity. 397 EPILOGUE. THE FULL AND FINAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE AND BRITAIN FROM THE NICENE COUNCIL TO THE PRESENT DAY. " The history of all natioDS of the ancient world enda in that of Rome, and that of all modern nations has grown out of Rome." — Niehvhr. Will the reader now glance at our Chronological Chart, and recall the fundamental laws of the genesis and develop- ment of social organisms 1 The Patriarchal, Tribal, and Monarchic phases of the Jewish nation run parallel to the Tribal (b.c. 753-540), Consular or Eepublican (b.c. 540 to A.D. 1), and Imperial (a.D. 1-330) periods of the Eoman Empire, as well as the Tribal (a.d. 459-1066), Feudal (a.d. 1066-1530), and Protestant (a.d. 1530-1886) stages of modern Europe and Britain. And our immediate pur- pose is to show that Christian civilisation has arrived at the same point in its fulfilment as its Roman predecessor at the date of the Nicene Council. The reader ought to be pretty familiar with the corresponding series of reli- gious phenomena between a.d. 1 and a.d. 325, in the Eoman Empire, and the modern European and British nations from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The first Christian nation — the Greek or Byzantine Empire and Eastern Church, founded by Constantine the Great in a.d. 330 — ran its independent course contem- poraneously with the communities of Europe in connec- tion with the Western Church of divided Christendom, until the fall of Constantinople, a.d. 1453. And the 398 Ultimate Development of Christianity. Greek Church of the Russian and Turkish Empires in- herits the creed and canons of the Nicene Council, threatened with immediate annihilation — political and ecclesiastical " Nihilism." No historical student will find any difficulty in understanding the political and ecclesi- astical condition of Eussia, who recollects that her refor- mation commenced with Peter the Great, and is struggling through the storm of revolution, on the very eve of con- stitutional reconstruction. But although the dissemina- tion of the new faith amongst the nations of Europe requires a special history, uniformity in the development of doctrine was preserved throughout the whole body of the " one true, holy and Catholic Church " of Christen- dom. For the sake of distinctness, however, let us chiefly fix our attention on the genesis and development of our own British Christianity. 1. Tribal Period — Bomish and Anglo-Saxon Christianity. — What is the genesis and distinctive character of British Christianity during the Tribal period of our national his- tory ? The introduction of Eomish Christianity under Abbot Augustine, at the instance of Gregory the Great (a.d. 597), and its subsequent propagation amongst the Anglo-Saxon tribes until the Norman Conquest, are as well attested facts as the foundation of Eoma Nova by Constantine, still legible in the pages of our first eccle- siastical historian, the Venerable Baeda (a.d. 673-735), the sole chronicle which, like the Jewish " Joshua," de- scribes the conquest of old Britannia by the Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Danes, and Angles, as well as their con- version to the Christian faith ; bristling with monkish miracles and legends ; idols of Thor, Woden, Apollo, and Diana overthrown by militant missionaries ; blindness and diseases cured at the tombs of the martyrs ; storms Ultimate Development of Christianity. 399 raised by raging demons quelled with " holy water ; " the wood of the " holy cross " steeped in water dispelling disorders from men and cattle ; scrapings of sacred parch- ments proving an antidote to poison ; demons driven out at the touch of the linen of a virgin queen ; angels' visits to King Sigebert ; monks scourged by St. Peter in person — nay, a real case of resurrection on British soil ! Such was the naive simplicity, credulity, and crude superstitions of our Venerable Baeda, the Saxon monk of Jarrow, who monopolised the professorship of a whole university of literature, philosophy, and theology ; pro- duced The Six Ages of the World, a commentary on the Old and New Testaments, a martyrology, etc. ; reared the young successors of the apostles for the Anglo-Saxon Church of his day, and was crowned with the title of the " Father of English Literature " — we should add — " and Theology." Dogma after dogma, practice on practice, arrived from Eome and its Christian " Papa " and " Pontifex Maxi- mus," during the course of the following centuries. Saints, headed by the " Mother of God " (SeoTOKo^), rose to heaven, like the old gods and goddesses of Greece, for prayer and adoration, in presence of their images or idols. Prayer rose for the benefit of " dead souls " sent to Pur- gatory, midway between heaven and hell, followed by indulgences. The " procession " of the Holy Spirit through the Son, as well as the Father, in consequence of the vote of the Nicene Council, adopted by Augustiue, questioned by several of the fathers, sanctioned by the Council of Toledo (a.d. 598) by the addition of " Filio- que ; " and confirmed by the instrumentality of the British Bishop Alcuin, chaplain of Charlemagne, at the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (a.d. 809), completed the Trinitarian S' 400 Ultimate Development of Christianity. system in the course of eight centuries, and produced the disruption of the Eastern and Western Churches of Christendom which exists at the present dayJ But the greatest theological monstrosity of the Chris- tian Church imposed on human credulity (with the exception, perhaps, of the Hindu doctrine of metem- psychosis, or the transmigration of souls through the bodies of animals) was Transubstantiation, which grew out of the literal interpretation of the Scriptural meta- phor, " This is my body " {hoc est meum corpus, also con- verted into hocus pocus) in the hands of the fathers, and was formulated by Paschasius Eadbert, in his work On the Body and Blood of the Lord {Liber de Corpore et San- guine Domini), A.D. 830. But we have no intention of sketching the growth of the complete ecclesiastical system — ritual, Prayer-Book, convocation, tithes, and monasticism of the Anglo-Saxon phase of the Anglican Church. These are the religious opinions and practices which Young England received at the hands of the " Mother of us all " — Christian Eome. 2. The Norman, Feudal or Mediceval Period, and the Papal phase of British Christianity. — The first two Primates of Norman England — Lanfranc and Anselm — were Italians, brought across from Normandy by William the Conqueror, who laid the foundation of our Norman phase of the Christian creed, canon law, councils, and convocations. The battle of Investitures, involving the rights and duties of civil and ecclesias- tical jurisdiction, which raged throughout Europe be- tween the Pope and princes, was fought by Anselm and William Eufus, and ended in a compromise, by leaving the power of investiture, with the ring and the crosier, the symbol of spiritual authority, in the hands of Ultimate Development of Christianity. 40 1 the priesthood ; and homage tendered only for the tem- poralities to the king. His famous treatise, C%i,r Deus Somo (" Why did God become man ? ") formulated the sacrificial theory of Chris- tian salvation, borrowed from the Hebrew, Hellenic, and Eoman practice of expiation and atonement, and dis- cussed by the fathers for ages, but which had- been abolished by the " simplicity of the Gospel " (welcome message !) — Love to God and man, preached by Jesus the Jewish and Paul the Eoman reformers. Baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and marriage were classed as seven " sacraments " by Peter Lombard, the " Master of Sen- tences ; " and the publication of the Summary of Uni- versal Theology ot Alex&ndev Hales (A 1245), the "Irre- fragable Doctor," contemporaneously with the Siim of all Theology of Thomas Aquinas (a.d. 1224-1274), the " Angelic Doctor," announced the full maturity of the dogmatic development of Anglican theology, as well as of the British ecclesiastical organism. The Statute of Provisors and Praemunire, directed against foreign priests and Papal bulls, in a.d. 1351, gave full expression to the rising spirit of English patriotism and nationality ; and the rehearsal of the Eeformation enacted by Wicklif, the Lollards, and the " simple priests," in the fourteenth century, formed the prelude of our future Protestantism in the age of the " Babylonish captivity " at Avignon — Pope and anti-Pope, clashing councils, and loud demands for the " Eeformation of the Church in its head and members." The statute for the burning of heretics dates from a.d. 1401 ; but the fires of Christian persecution, lighted by the successors of the apostles, only blazoned the striking likeness to their Eoman pre- 2 402 Ultimate Development of Christianity. decessors ; and the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the new Church and faith throughout the length and breadth of Europe and Britain. 3. Constitutional Period : Papal and Protestant phase of British Christianity — Old and New Faith. — What are the salient characteristics of British Christianity from the six- teenth to the nineteenth century ?i Beyond all question, the repetition of similar social phenomena to the period running parallel to it from Caesar to Constantine (A.D. 1-325) in the Eoman Empire, at our accession to national majority, and the renunciation of the paternal Papal pupil- age to Eome ; the assertion of royal supremacy in the Church as well as in the State ; the formulation of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican, and the Westmin- ster Confession and Catechism of the Scottish Churches, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; succeeded by the gradual disintegration of the ecclesiastical organisms — Papal, Prelatic, Presbyterian, and Independent — in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In a word, the chronological decomposition of the Old and the recon- struction of the New faith — modern Science, exact know- ledge (the interpretation and exposition of the physical and moral government of the universe), Kational Theology, and Humanitarian Ethics. These twofold series of social phenomena must be accepted in spite of the denial of the uniformity of the fundamental laws of the genesis, evolution, and dissolu- tion of social organisms. The feudal polity of ISTorman England has been supplanted by the constitutional Parlia- ^ See " The Genesis and Development of the United States of America compared with the Rise and Progress of British and European Civilisation," in The New Atlantis. Ultimate Development of Christianity. 403 ment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire- land, contemporaneously with the political reorganisation of the Old and New World since the renaissance and re- vival of learning ; and the dismemberment of the " Eastern Empire" of Constantine and his successors, which fell into the hands of the Turks in a.d. 1453, is taking place before our eyes, and replaced by the resurrection of Greece and other nationalities. The " Holy Eoman Em- pire " ended at the fiat of the modern Alaric and " scourge of God," Wapoleon the Great (a.d. 1805). The " temporal authority " of the Pope, founded on the false Donations of Constantine, was swept away by Victor Emmanuel ; a "free Church in a free State" displaced the Head of mediaeval Christendom. Eight articles only compose the new creed of Gavazzi. A Christian republic, based on social "liberty, fraternity, and equality," has taken the place of the " eldest son of the Church and Galilean liberties ;" and a greater than Constantine laid the foun- dations of the United States, American independence, and federal constitutionalism in the New World in a.d. 1776. New worlds, in fact, are springing up all round — in Africa, Asia, and Australasia. Such are the undeniable political counterparts of the foundation of the Christian empires and nationalities at the destruction of the Eoman Empire ; and Carlyle fixes the commencement of the new era at the French Eevo- lution : — " In literature, too, the seeing eye will distinguish Apostles of the Gentiles, proto- and deutero-martyrs : still less will the Simon Magus or Apollonius with the golden thigh be wanting. But all is now on an infinitely wider scale : the elements of it are divine, far scattered, and still only striving towards union : whereby indeed it 404 Ultimate Development of Christianity. happens that to the most, under the new figure, they are unrecognisable." The actual dissolution of the old Koman religion took place between a.d. 325 — the date of the Nicene Council — and the last edict of Theodosius the Great, a.d. 390 issued for the purpose of closing the temples and abol- ishing animal sacrifices (Gibbon, ch. xxviii.) ; and the same process of ecclesiastical dissolution commenced with the abolition of the old Christian Church in France, a.d. 1792 ; in Ireland, A.D. 1871 ; and forms at this moment the subject of political agitation in Scotland, England, and Germany. In both instances the periods correspond very nearly in extent. We gladly quote the opinion of the profoundest Sociolo- gist of the age in confirmation of our conclusions. We refer to the Ecclesiastical Institutions of Spencer, lately published : — "That separation of Ecclesiastical institutions from Political institutions, foreshadowed in simple societies, when the civil ruler begins to depute occasionally his priestly function, and which in many ways, with many modifications, according to their types, societies have increasingly displayed, as they have developed — may be expected to become complete. Nowadays, in- deed, apart from any such reasons as are above assigned, the completing of it, already effected in some cases, is recognised as but a question of time in other cases" (p. 823). Who now formed the " Leaders of Eeligious Thought and Opinion" on the side of the old and new faith— the counter- parts of the old Eoman and Christian — during the same period ? And the whole of Europe may be included in our survey, to illustrate the independent centres of reli- Ultimate Development of Christianity. 405 gioTis distribution frequently referred to in the preceding pages. The poets and philosophers of Europe and Britain who renounced the old faith of Christendom corresponded to their prototypes in Eome, Athens, and Alexandria. We refer to such leading " representative men " as the Italian Dante, Cardan, Campanella, Bruno, Vanini ; Descartes, the "Father of Philosophy," Voltaire, Eousseau, Comte, and Eenan, in France ; Erasmus and Spinoza, in Holland ; Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Leasing, Goethe, and Strauss, in Germany ; Bacon, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Locke, Milton, Gibbon, Pope, Byron, Shelley, "Wordsworth, Tennyson, Spencer, and Seeley, in England; Hume, Burns, Mill, and Carlyle, in Scotland ; as well as Emer- son, Longfellow, and Freeman Clarke, in the ISTew World. Baronius, Bossuet, Fdnflon, Dollinger, Newman, of the Eomish; Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, Cranmer, Latimer, Eidley, Knox, Owen, Wesley, Chalmers, Maurice, Kings- ley, and Stanley, of the Eeformed ; the Socini, the Deists, the Cambridge Arians and Latitudinarians, Martineau, Edwards, Channing, Emerson, the Preacher of the Theistic faith — are the religious representatives of the old and new faiths, the antitypes of the defenders of Eoman reli- gion, and the " fathers " of Galilean, Jewish, Alexandrian, and Oriental Christianity. Such historical parallels are frequently alluded to in modern literature ; but no connected and comprehensive estimate of the united services of the " fathers " of modern faith and philosophy has yet been made, and we can do little more than refer to them on the present occasion. Look first at the services performed by the religious Eeformers in the sixteenth century— What really is the 4o6 Ultimate Development of Christianity. sum-total of their religious Eeformation ? The rejection of saint worship, sacred images, crosses, and crucifixes, purgatory, extreme unction, and transubstantiation, re- tained under the form of " consubstantiation " by Martin Luther, with the translation of the Sacred Scriptures into our modern languages — a goodly list of " delusions " brought in from the old faiths of Eome and Greece. But one-half of the population of Europe still cross themselves with " holy water ; " swallow " the body, blood, bones, and divinity '' of a " bloodless sacrifice " (which no old Eoman was guilty of), and pay adoration with as great reverence to Christian " heroes " as their predecessors in the age of M. Aurelius, in the Eomish temples of to-day. Most assuredly, then, these are like the hereditary worshippers of the gods and heroes of the old Eoman Empire ; and the Protestant offspring of them may be likened to the Galilean, Jewish, Alexandrian, and Oriental Christians who met together in their own " synagogues " and societies to worship God, according to their peculiar faith and customs. But the history of dogmatic decomposition from the Confessio Fidei of the Council of Trent, the Inquisitio de Fide and restoration of Monarchianism by Erasmus, " the father of rational theology " (according to Gibbon), Spinoza's theological treatise, the foundation of '' Biblical Criticism," to Newman's Phases of Faith, Mill's Essays on Nature, and Seeley on Natural Beligion, New- man's Apologia pro sud vitd, Eenan's Recollections of my Youth, Spencer's Ultimate Principles, and the Unknowable, Matthew Arnold's Anarchy and Religion, and Harrison's Ghost of Religion, must be left to some scientific and exact expositor of the evolution of religious thought and opinion. Ultimate Development of Christianity. 407 Our modern Lactantius is Dean Stanley, who distilled the quintessence of Christianity from the crumbling creeds of Christendom (see page 354). But the gigantic labours of a lifetime were spent in boring and mining the superincumbent strata and deposits of past mil- lenniums of Hebrew and Christian theology before he attained to the sweetness and light, culture and kindli- ness (kind-likeness) of divine and human nature. The " Broad Church " clergy follow at a safe distance, and the rank and file of working curates and vicars will probably halt in their theological mines for centuries to come. Starting late, as did the Eussian Eeformation, under the auspices of Peter the Great, at the commencement of the eighteenth century, three-fourths of her population now belong to the ranks of the Easkolniks (Dissenters). Social and religious " Nihilism," in fact, go hand in hand, and the terrible repression of political discussion, free thought, and censorship of the press must inevitably close with the same "revolution" and "toleration" ac- complished by ourselves in 1688, under the leadership of the Eussian Cromwells, Hampdens, Lockes, and Miltons. Viewed in this light, Christ's Christianity, by the emi- nent reformer. Count Tolstoi, merits special attention; and as the Nicene Creed, recited in her daily prayers, forms the basis of the Greek Church, we have no doubt whatever that the true history of its origin, growth, and composition will lead to the latest phase of the New Faith in the Eastern Church at a very early date. Look now at the services which our modern Poets and Philosophers have performed during the same period. The very same type and class of human genius who renounced the hereditary creeds of Eome followed in their footsteps in modern Europe and Britain, and dis- 4o8 Ultimate Development of Christianity. seminated the doctrines of pure Theism and Humanitarian Ethics— faith in the supreme God and the Supreme Grood. " In the resurrection of Science, Italy was the first that cast away her shroud," is the language of Gibbon. And the Titanic forces of Cardan, Campanella, Bruno, and Vanini, at least, dragged the ancient stores of classic literature from their dusty sepulchres at the dawn of European civilisation. The real fathers of modern Science — physical and psychological, as well as ethical and theological — were Bacon and Descartes — mutually complementary, and should be studied together. The Advancement of Science— the great Eestoration — the iVew Method (Organon) were given by Bacon ; and the Dis- course on Method and Meditations on the First Philosophy — the search after truth by natural light — were offered by Descartes. " The history of nature and experience should be composed with the most religious and sacred regard to truth in all particulars as being the volume of God's works, and, with due reverence to divine revelation, a second Scripture," is Bacon's announcement. " Man is the minister and interpreter of nature, and his knowledge depends upon the extent of his observation of the con- stitution and order of nature as well as of mind ; and any further sources of information or utility are beyond the limits of the human understanding " — restricted the inquiries of philosophers to our own world, — a method which has been followed by the unparalleled discoveries of the whole hierarchy of the modern Sciences. And Descartes' is like to it : — " The search of truth by natural light alone, and with- out the aid of religion and philosophy, determines the opinions which an honest man ought to hold on every- thing — the objects of all his thoughts, and penetrates UUimate Development of Christianity. 409 the secrets of the profoundest sciences — the science, too, which is necessary for the regulation of life." The laws of the human mind were reduced to sensa- tion and reflection by John Locke ; and the simplicity of the Gospel was restored in the Beasonahleness of Chris- tianity, in accordance with the views (details excepted) of the present volume. The Christian Doctrine of John Milton carried the world back to Paradise Regained, within the kingdom of the human soul — the everlasting kingdom and reign of human benevolence and goodwill to all mankind. If we may rely on the genuineness of the Christian Doctrine, discovered in the State Office, and translated by Arch- bishop Sumner (1825), Milton belonged to the theological school of Eusebius and Arius, for he expressly asserts that the Son is " not co-eval or co-essential with the Father." To Hume we owe the Natural History of Religion ; and Immanuel Kant woke from his intellectual slumber on studying his essays ; stripped the old words — God, Soul, and Immortality — of their hereditary draperies, and com- pelled the world to accept the divine laws of nature and human nature in their stead in the Critique of Pure Reason. The fundamental separation of the theological and political systems, which had been united since the foundation of the first Christian Empire by Constantine the Great, was announced with the utmost precision by Jean Jacques Eousseau, of Geneva, in his Social Contract {Gontrat Social): "Eeligion, considered in relation to society which is general or particular, can be divided into two species, viz. the religion of man, and that of the citizen. The former, without temples, without altars, without rites, limited to the purely internal worship of the supreme 4 lO Ultimate Development of Christianity. Grod and the eternal duties of morals, is the pure and simple religion of the Gospel — true Theism, and which may be called natural divine right ; the latter peculiar to a single country, gives gods to it — its own tutelary patrons ; its dogmas, rites, and external worship is pre- scribed by the laws ; all outside the nation which follows it is infidel, foreign, barbarous : the rights and duties of man extend only as far as its altars. Such were all the religions of the early peoples, to which may be given the name of civil or positive divine right " {Con. Soc. iv. 8). Lessing taught us to regard the literature of the Jews and Christians as mere " primers " and " introductions " employed in the course of the education of mankind {Die Urziehung des Menschengeschlechts), and to draw the distinction between the "religion of Christ" and the Christian religion. The systematic order and hierarchy of the modern Sciences came from the organising mind of Auguste Comte; Synthetic philosophy from Spencer, crowned with Ultimate Principles, and the Unknowable ; and the eyes of men were turned to the BUle of Universal History — the eternal Bible, and God's book — by Thomas Carlyle : " To each its believed history is its Bible, not in Judaea alone, or Hellas, or Latium alone, but in all lands and all times." Thousands of echoes reverberate through the social heavens, from every land on the face of the earth ; but the voice of the great transcendentalist of the New World rises above them all, and invites his disciples to worship the "nameless Thought" — the nameless and the super- personal Heart of hearts of universal being. "Nothing can exceed the anarchy that has followed in our skies. The stern old faiths have all pulverised. 'Tis a whole Ultimate Development of Christianity. 411 population of ladies and gentlemen out in search of religions. 'Tis as flat anarchy in our ecclesiastical realms as that which existed in Massachusetts on the Eevolu- tion, or which prevails now on the slopes of the Eocky Mountains or Pike's Peak. Yet we make shift to live. Men are loyal." And the first sketch of the Ten Great Religions, by Preeman Clarke, forms only the prelude of the universal religion and theology characteristic of the New World, composed of a social fusion of all the races of mankind. The great majority of the poetic Seers of Europe and Britain who enjoyed " the vision and faculty divine," and set their age to music, " touched a jarring lyre at first ; " but their saccessors struck their harps to clearer tones as we travel down the centuries from Dante, the " morning star " of song, to Goethe, Tennyson, and Longfellow — " And Freedom reared in that august sun-rise Her beautiful bold brow, When rites and forms, before her burning eyes, Melted like snow.'' The dark and dismal road through Inferno and Purga- torio under the guidance of Virgil, his " master of song," and Beatrice, on his way to the " beatific vision " on the summit of Paradiso, betray the religious revolt against the old " Papa " of ancient Christendom. The social amenities and mutual chivalry exhibited in the crusading scenes of Tasso rather leave the impression that Jerusalem was delivered from the curse of Christen- dom, than the Holy Sepulchre from the shadow of the Moslem Crescent. When the bard of Avon gauged the mystery of life in the revolutionary age of the Protestant Eeformation, 412 Ultimate Development of Christianity. crowded with dramatis personm from the Hebrew, Greek, Eoman, Danish, and British races, the only clear oracle uttered by that profound analyst of human nature, was — " There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, Bough hew them how we will." The very soul and substance of modern Agnosticism were sung in numbers and language paraphrasing the philosophical aphorism of Lord Bacon by Pope, in his Ussay on Man : — " Say, first of God above and man below, What can we reason but from what we know 1 Of man what see we but his station here, From which to reason, or to which refer ; Through worlds unuumber'd, though the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan ; The proper study of mankind is man." And the struggle of existence was resolved into harmony with the general order and moral law of the universe : — " Account for moral as for nat'ral things ; Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit ? In both to reason right, is to submit. Better for us, perhaps, it might appear. Were there all harmony, all virtue here : That never air or ocean felt the wind ; That never passion discompos'd the mind. But all subsists by elemental strife ; And passions are the elements of life. The gen'ral order, since the whole began, Is kept in nature, and is kept in man." The volcanic soul of the great French Encyclopaedist exploded the political and ecclesiastical superstition of the ancien regime in his startling life-pictures of Brutus Ultimate Development of CJiristianity. 413 and Liberty. The Fire- Worshippers, or Toleration ; Fana- ticism, or Mahomet, far " surpassed Luther and Calvin " (B^ranger) in his successive reforms, and proclaimed the new faith of social education and religious toleration: — " lis auraient du I'instruire et non la condamner Quils jouissent en paix de leurs droits et leurs biens, Quils adorent leur Dieu, mais sans blesser les miens." And the brilliant soul of his successor, the poetic and dramatic Titan — Victor Hugo — the very spirit of the French Eevolution and the new era, sits for ever, with his Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations, in the centre of the electric fulminations and radiant sunshine of the Religions and Legends of the Ages. The first expanding soul who burst the fetters of petty religious nationalism, and pointed to the " lights of the world " who shone as lode-stars in the social firmament of universal humanity, was the ethereal Shelley. " The Good and Mighty of departed ages Are in their graves, the innocent and free — Heroes and poets, and prevailing sages. Who leave the vesture of their majesty To adorn and clothe this naked world ; and we Are like to them : such perish, but they leave All hope, or love, or truth, or liberty, Whose forms their mighty spirits could conceive, To be a rule and law to ages that survive." Simultaneous illumination sprang from the centre of the old Saxon environment in Lessing's far-sighted and comprehensive Education of the Human Race ; the line of distinction was carefully drawn between the " religion of Christ" and the Christian religion loaded with the traditions of eighteen centuries of development and de- clension ; and the descendants of Martin Luther listened 414 Ultimate Development of Christianity. with applause to the genial toues of universal benevolence from the lips of Nathan the Wise—" Jew and Christian, and Mussulman and Parsi are all alike to him." Had our design admitted, nothing would have been easier than to have traced the development of Schiller's opinions with the assistance of his poems, dramas, and histories. The slightest comparison of the parody on popular preaching, put into the mouth of fiery Dominic in The Bobbers, with the " frightful images " of God stamped on the tender brain of the young Prince during the course of his " servile and bigoted education " in the " Enchanted Castle," must be accepted as a graphic description of his own experience. Accordingly we present the following quotation from his Geister-Seher as the most candid "Confession of Faith" emitted by any seer of modern times : — " ' What has already happened to me, and what may still follow, I look upon as two black, impenetrable curtains hanging over the extremities of human life, and which no mortal has ever yet drawn aside. Many hundred genera- tions have stood before the second of these curtains, casting the light of their torches upon its folds, specu- lating and guessing as to what it may conceal. Many have beheld themselves, in the magnified image of their passions, reflected iipon the curtain which hides futurity from tlieir gaze, and have turned away shuddering from their own shadows. Poets, philosophers, and statesmen have painted their fancies on the curtain, in brighter or more sombre colours, according as their own prospects were bright or gloomy. Many a juggler has also taken advan- tage of the universal curiosity, and, by well-managed deceptions, led astray the excited imagination. A deep silence reigns behind this curtain; no one who passes Ultimate Development of Christianity. 415 beyond it answers any questions: all the reply is an empty echo, like the sound yielded by a vault. Sooner or later all must go behind this curtain, and they approach it with fear and trembling, in doubt who may be waiting there behind to receive them ; quid sit id, quod ianfum morituri videni. There have been infidels who asserted that this curtain only deluded mankind, and that we saw nothing behind it, because there was nothing there to see ; but, to convince them, they were quickly sent behind it themselves.' " ' It was indeed a rash conclusion, said I, if they had no better ground than that they saw nothing them- selves.' " ' Tou see, my dear friend, I am modest enough not to wish to look behind this curtain, and the wisest course will doubtless be to abstain from all curiosity. But while I draw the impassable circle around me, and confine myself within the bounds of Present Existence, this small point of time, which I was in danger of neglecting in useless researches, becomes the more important to me. "What you call the chief end and aim of my existence concerns me no longer. I cannot escape my destiny. I cannot promote its consummation ; but I know and firmly believe that / am Aere to accomplish some end, and that I do accomplish it. But the means which nature has taken to fulfil my destiny are so much the more sacred to me — to me it is everything, my Morality, my Happiness. All the rest I shall never learn. I am like a messenger who carries a sealed letter to its place of destination. What the letter contains is indifferent to him ; his business is only to earn his fee for carrying it.' " Nothing less than a volume would suffice for the pur- pose of exhibiting the literary treasures of Goethe, the 4i6 Ultimate Development of Christianity. profound seer and scientist of the German fatherland. To him we owe the discovery of the Types of Universal Organisms, the modern science of Morphology, but above all, Fatist, the type of all mental, moral, religious, and social development, brilliantly illustrated by the Wandel Zehr, and Meister Jahre of Wilhelm Meisier, as well as in his own Wahrheit und DicMung. Eenunciation {Ent- sagung) of all animalism, self -culture, and self-government is the beginning, middle, and end of all his literary efforts. Witness the conclusion of Wilhelm Meister's education, and the revelations of a "Schone Seele," or Beautiful Soul. No more beautiful and dramatic expression has ever been given to the pure and unadulterated religion of the deep heart of humanity, which blends two souls in the everlasting union and communion of divine and immortal love, than in the following conversation : — " Cr. How is it witli religion in your mind 1 You are, 'tis true, a good, kind-hearted man ; But, I 'm afraid, not piously inclined. F. Forbear ! I love you, darling, you alone ! For those I love my life I would lay down, And none would of their faith or church bereave. (?. That 's not enough ; we must ourselves believe. F. Must we ? Q. Ah ! could I but your soul inspire ! You honour not the Sacraments, alas ! F. I honour them.