fg^t

THE

BAMPTON LECTUEES
FOR THE YEAR MDCCCXXXIX.

AN

ANALYTICAL EXAMINATION
INTO THE
CHARACTER, VALUE, AND JUST APPLICATION
OP
THE WRITINGS OF
THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS
DURING THE ANTE-NICENE PERIOD.
BEING THE
BAMPTON LECTURES
FOB, THE YEAR MDCCCXXXIX.

BY
W. D. CONYBEARE, M.A.
OF CHRIST CHUROH,
VICAK OF AXMINSTER.

OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PARKER ;
J. G. AND F. RIVINGTON, LONDON.
MDCCCXXXIX.

BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.

PREFACE.

In preparing to commit this series of Lectures
to the judgment of the public, the Author cannot
refrain from mentioning those circumstances con
nected with their composition, which may, in
some measure, claim for them a more indulgent
consideration. His name was not originally pro
posed as a candidate for the appointment which
has called them forth ; and was only suggested
at the moment of election. He was thus neces
sarily deprived of that time for deliberation, which
is usual before the final acceptance of such an
office, and which might very probably have re
sulted in the conclusion,
Perche alle spalle sue soverchia soma ».
On this unexpected call, the Author's choice
of a subject was naturally directed to a line of
" Milton, vol. iv. p. 183. ed. Oxford, 1824.

VI PREFACB.
enquiry, which engaged at the time his private
theological studies ; but he has since most sensibly
felt the disadvantage of the very short interval
allowed him for preparation, and has experienced,
to an extent far beyond what he had anticipated,
the difference between collections formed only
for private satisfaction, and those which he
could regard as sufficiently matured for public
notice. It appears the more necessary to submit the
above statement of the circumstances connected
with the Author's appointment to the office of
Bampton Lecturer, and his selection of the sub
ject here discussed, because a widely-circulated
periodical journal has given currency to an erro
neous impression, that the nomination was con
ferred and accepted with direct reference to
prevailing controversies. But it must be suffi
ciently obvious from what has been said, that the
Bampton Trustees could not, at the time of their
election, have possessed any intimation of the
intentions of a party, with whom they had had
no previous communication whatever : and it is
trusted, that the execution of the Lectures them
selves, however deficient in other respects, will
sufficiently manifest, that to engage in personal

PREFACE. VU
and individual controversy, is of all things the
most remote from the habits and intentions of
the Author.

P. S. In some of the earlier Lectures, references will
be found to articles in a proposed Appendix ; but the
bulk of the volume having exceeded expectation, it has
been judged expedient, as the articles in question were
in no respect of material consequence to the general
argument, to abandon the intention proposed in that
respect.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.
Page 1,
1 CoR. ii. 5.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of
men, hut in the power of God.
Introductory. On the opposition of the Anglican
and Tridentine rules of faith; The Bible, according to
our Church, the sole authoritative rule ; but Ecclesias
tical Tradition valued as an important subsidiary aid in
interpretation. Answer to objections commonly made
against the full sufficiency of the Bible as the rule of
faith; especially those derived from its immethodical
structure. Proposal to examine analytically the writings
of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, as the earliest and most im
portant witnesses to Ecclesiastical Tradition.
LECTURE II.
Page 51.
Rev. ii. 13.
Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied
my faith, even in those days in which my faithful
martyr was slain among you.
Examination of the Apostolical Fathers, Clemens
Romanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp.

X contents.
LECTURE in.
Page 119.
1 CoR. ii. 6, 7.
Howheit we speah wisdom among them that are
perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world; but
we speak the wisdom of God.
Examination of the earlier Philosophical Fathers,
Justin, Tatian, and Athenagoras.^

LECTURE IV.
Page 186.
1 Thess. v. 21.
Prove all things. Holdfast that which is good.
Examination of the Alexandrian Fathers, Clemens
Alexandrinus and Origen, with a preliminary sketch of
the Alexandrian Catechetical school.

LECTURE V.
Page 268.
1 CoR. xi. 19.
There must also he heresies amongst you, that they
which are approved may be made manifest.
Examination of Irenseus, with preUminary remarks on
the Gnostic Heresies.

contents. xi
LECTURE VI.
Page 329.
Rev. iv. 13, 14.
/ knoxv thy works, and that thou holdest fast my
name: hut I have a few things against thee.
Examination of TertuUian.
LECTURE VII.
Page 392.
1 Tim. iv. 12.
Be thou an example of the believers in word, in
conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in
purity.
Examination of Cyprian, and concluding observations
on the general introduction of Councils, with particular
remarks on that held on the errors of Paul of Samosata
and the Nicene Council.
LECTURE VIII.
Page 453.
Eph. iv. 11, 12.
And he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ;
and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and
teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ.
Concluding recapitulation on the character of the
several classes of Christian Fathers, and the bearing of
the testimony afforded by them on several leading points
of doctrine and discipline.

EXTRACT FROM
THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
OF THE LATE
REV. JOHN BAMPTON,
C.INON OF SALISBURY.

" I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to

" the Chancello)', Masters, and Scholars of the Univer-
" sity of Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and
" singular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to
" the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ;
" that is to say, I will and appoint, that the Vice-Chan-
" cellor of the University of Oxford, for the time being,
" shall take and receive all the rents, issues, and pro-
" fits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, and
" necessary deductions made) that he pay all the re-
" mainder to the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture
" Sermons, to be established for ever in the said Uni-
" versity, and to be performed in the manner following :
" I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday
" in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the
" Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room
" adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours
" of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to
" preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol-

XIV EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON S WILL.
" lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the com-
" mencement of the last month in Lent Term, and the
" end of the third week in Act Term.
" Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity
" Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of
" the following Subjects : — to confirm and establish the
" Christian Faith, and to confute all heretics and schis-
" matics — upon the divine authority of the holy Scrip-
" lures — upon the authority of the writings of the
" primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the
" primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord
" and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the
" Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the Christian Faith,
" as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divi-
" nity Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within
" two months after they are preached, and one copy
" shall be given to the Chancellor of the University,
" and one copy to the Head of every College, and one
" copy to the Mayor of the City of Oxford, and one
" copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ; and the
" expense of printing them shall be paid out of the
" revenue of the Land or Estates given for establishing
" the Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher
" shall not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue,
" before they are printed.
" Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be
" qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons,
" unless he hath taken the degree of Master of Arts at
" least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or
" Cambridge; and that the same person shall never
" preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

AN

ANALYTICAL EXAMINATION,
Src.

LECTURE L

1 CoR. ii. 5.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God.
That the voice which reveals to man
his relations to his Creator, his duties in
life, and his hopes in eternity, must be
indeed a voice from heaven, is a truth as
universally acknowledged, as if it did but
amount to an identical proposition. Even
those philosophers of the Gentiles, to whom
the high privilege of instruction from a
direct revelation was denied, have yet fully
and frankly avowed their sense of its neces
sity ; have desired to see the things which
we see, and have not seen them ; to hear
the things which we hear, and have not
heard them. He, especially, who may justly
be said to have pursued to their utmost
limits the natural anticipations of divine
B

2 LECTURE I.
truth implanted by the Creator in the hu
man breast, even the greater disciple of
Socrates himself, has most humbly and
explicitly confessed his own deep con
viction, that some divine word was neces
sary, which could alone afford a secure
vehicle, to enable us to prosecute in safety
our hazardous journey in the investigation
of truth*. The whole Christian world is equally
agreed, that this divine communication, so
long looked for with such general and
anxious expectation, was in due time fully
and finally vouchsafed, when He, who
was the desire of all nations, was made
manifest ; when God, who at sundry times
and in divers manners had spoken to the
fathers by the prophets, spake in the last
days of his dispensation unto all by his
Son. In these things all Christians are agreed ;
but, unhappily, some difference of opinion
has prevailed among the Churches, as to
the means appointed in the counsels of
Divine Providence, to guard and preserve,
Platonis Phaedo, ed. Serr. t i. p. 85.

LECTURE I. 3
through its descent to later ages, the com
pleted faith established by this final reve
lation ; and to perpetuate it in that single
ness and simplicity which must ever form
its distinguishing characteristic.
On every view of the subject which it is
possible for any Christian party to take,
it is indeed perfectly evident, that all au
thority in matters ecclesiastical and theolo
gical, must ultimately resolve itself into an
appeal to those divinely commissioned Apo
stles, whom Christ sent forth as his own
embassadors, armed with plenary powers,
that they might erect his kingdom and
Church on the earth ; and for this end
endowed in all fulness with the promised
gifts of the Spirit, to guide them into all
truth, that in all things their authority
might be infallible and indisputable. The
only question therefore must be, through
what channels the knowledge of these au
thoritative apostolical decisions has been
transmitted to us.
All are indeed equally agreed, that we
possess in the volume of the New Testa
ment the authentic writings of these emis-
B 2

4 LECTURE I.
saries of the Lord ; and that these, being
immediately dictated by the same Spirit
who guided them throughout the great
work committed to their charge, must
therefore be fully invested with his own
divine authority. Now, as the mind of the
Spirit cannot be supposed to contradict
itself, no one can for a moment imagine,
that any thing contrary to this acknow
ledged scriptural standard can by any
possibility be admitted as valid. No one
of the Christian name can dispute, that the
rule of the Scripture is, so far as it may
extend, certain and absolute ; the only
question which can arise must be, whether
this scriptural rule be also sole as well as
sure ; whether it be uniA^ersal, as contain
ing in itself all things essential to the faith,
and therefore exclusive ; or whether it may
not have left some points undetermined or
obscure, and thus admit, and indeed re
quire, addition and elucidation, from the
traditional memory of the oral instructions
originally delivered by the same inspired
teachers. This latter view the Church of Rome

LECTURE I. 5
strenuously maintains ; the Tridentine
Council expressly asserts, that the truths
essential to salvation are contained " in
libris Scriptis, et sine scripto traditionibus,
quse ipsius Christi ore et Apostolis acceptse,
aut et ipsis Apostolis, Spiritu sancto dic-
tante, quasi per manus traditse ad nos us
que pervenerunt''."
Our own Church, on the other hand,
dares not admit any other authoritative
rule or standard, as to the essential doc
trines of a saving faith, than the Canonical
Scriptures, the unquestioned and unques
tionable oracles of inspiration ; these she
regards as in themselves all-sufficient and
all-perfect, and therefore neither requiring
nor admitting any extrinsic addition what
soever. If any single point may be selected,
as forming the peculiar and distinctive
character, which the founders of our re
formed Church most earnestly desired, I
will not say, to impress on the structure
they were rearing, but rather to clear out
from the incrustations which had concealed
it on the ancient walls of the primitive
•> Cone. Trid. Sess. 4,

6 LECTURE I.
temple they were restoring, it is undoubt
edly this. This she has distinctly inscribed
in the first page of her Articles ; this she
most solemnly impresses on the conscience
of every Minister whom she fully commis
sions, when she directs her Bishops to
admit none to the priestly office until they
shall have first satisfactorily answered the
emphatic question, "Are you persuaded that
the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all
doctrine required of necessity for salvation
through Jesus Christ, and are you deter
mined out of the said Scriptures to instruct
the people committed to your charge, and
to teach nothing as required of necessity
to eternal salvation, but that which you
shall be persuaded may be concluded and
proved by the Scripture ?" O, my brethren,
let none of us who have once on this solemn
occasion deliberately answered to such an
appeal, that " we were so persuaded, and
had so determined through God's grace,"
let none of us seem in any way to swerve
from the obligation we have thus bound on
our souls.
Yet assuredly we should greatly mistake

LECTURE I. 7
the intention of our Church, did we
imagine that she called on us to neglect
the information which the venerable relics
of Christian antiquity have preserved to
us, in recording the sentiments of the
primitive ages of the faith. Our holy
mother would never encourage us to depre
ciate the high and honourable claims of the
first standard-bearers, and foremost cham
pions of our religion. The true line taken
by our Church appears to be this. She
knows nothing of tradition as an inde
pendent rule of faith ; but genuine and
primitive tradition she anxiously seeks to
discover, and when found she honours, not
indeed as a rival mistress, but as the faithful
handmaid of Scripture*'.
Many circumstances have of late con
curred to reawaken upon these subjects the
attention, too long it may be dormant, of
our own divines. The true nature and
<= Waterland has excellently expressed this sentiment.
" Antiquity ought to attend as an handmaid to Scripture,
to wait upon her as her mistress, and to observe her ;
to keep off intruders from making too bold with her, and
to discourage strangers from misrepresenting her." Doc-
trine of the Trinitxj, c. vii.

8 LECTURE I.
foundation of the Christian rule of faith,
the just value and application of the re
mains of the early ecclesiastical writers,
have again become the prominent topics
of theological controversy.
In these discussions the advocates of one
party have spoken as if the Church had
received as a perpetual possession " a tra
dition independent of the written word,
parallel to Scripture, and not derived from
it ; an unwritten word of God demanding
the same reverence from us, and for exactly
the same reasons, as that which is written ''."
^ See the Sermon on Primitive Tradition by the Rev.
J . Keble. The expressions indeed are there applied to
Tradition as preserved in the days of Irenasus and Ter
tuUian, but the whole argument, in order to apply with
any force to our own times, must imply that such
authoritative Tradition was not only a temporary but a
perpetual possession in the Church. Indeed this must
follow as a necessary corollary firom the statement itself;
for if the authoritative Tradition were thus continued to
the close of the second century, and certainly knovra
to the fathers of that age, how can we doubt but that
their writings, which are quite suflSciently voluminous,
must have transmitted it to us. I must profess myself
quite unable from these premises to deduce any con
clusion which I can at all distinguish fi-om the Tri
dentine rule. The amiable and excellent author, indeed,
appears in his own mind to have fully succeeded in

LECTURE I. 9
While these writers have loudly arraigned
what they call the presumptuous irreve-
reconciling such views, with the express reservation of
the Scripture as the sole and paramount rule of faith ;
but others will probably find no little difficxilty, if they
admit two parallel and independent sources of faith, an
unwritten as well as written word of God, claiming
equal deference as the revelation of his will, to assign
any reason for attributing to the one revelation any
paramount authority over the other. And the natural
tendency of such views, even in the very case of the
writer referred to himself, is sufficiently obvious in a
subsequent passage of his discom-se. " As long as it is
only doubtful whether any statement or precept is part of
the Apostolic system or no, so long a mind imbued with
true devotion will treat that statement or precept with
reverence, and will not rudely reject or scorn it, lest he
refiise to entertain an angel unawares. So long the
mere fact of its not being contained in Scripture cannot
he felt as a justification for casting it aside, any more
than its not being revealed in any particular book of
Scripture which ue might happen to value above the rest.
Although not in Scripture, it may yet be a part of their
rule, concerning whom the Son of God hath declared,
" He that heareth you hearetb me ; and he that de-
spiseth you despiseth me." p. 32. Is the idea, that there
may be such omissions in the Scripture of important
parts of the rule given by Christ to be proclaimed by his
Apostles, at all consistent vdth the reception of those
Scriptures as the sole and sufficient standard of faith >
Can the parity here stated between the absence of a
doctrine from one book of Scripture which may be con
tained in another, and the total absence from Scripture

10 LECTURE L
rence of disparaging the Fathers, under the
plea of magnifying the Scripture, may not
the language they have themselves some
times incautiously employed, seem liable
to the converse charge of disparaging the
Scriptures under the plea of magnifying the
Fathers ?
In the oscillations of human opinion, the
natural and necessary consequence of any
violent impulse towards one side of the
just equilibrium, is ever to create a re
action of equal violence in the opposite di
rection. When such sentiments therefore
have been avowed on the one side, we cannot
be surprised that other parties should have
been hurried into a contrary extreme, and
expressed themselves as if inclined utterly
to reject and despise the voice of Christian
antiquity ; and to treat with ridicule and
contempt the names on so many accounts
entitled to our regard and respect, the
venerable fathers of Christian faith, the
noble martyrs to Christian truth.
of that which nevertheless may be equally authorized
by Tradition, be so explained as not to place Tradition
and Scripture itself on exactly the same level of
authority ?

LECTURE I. 11
Is there then no via media ? May we not
even in these days, as the consistent sons
of our beloved Church, maintain with her
the full sufficiency and exclusive authority
of the holy Scripture, as the sole rule of
faith ; and yet, with her, avail ourselves
of every valuable aid, to be derived from the
venerable relics of primitive Christianity ?
These were the subjects which the circum
stances of the times necessarily pressed on
my own mind, when I received from the
Electors the sudden and unexpected call
which has placed me in this office : and
in complying with which, I have hoped that
I might perform a service not altogether
unacceptable in the present state of our
Church, by throwing together in such a
form, as might render them available for
the assistance of other and younger stu
dents, the collections I was employed in
making to guide my own mind in forming
a candid judgment. These will be princi
pally directed to an examination of the
general character, the true value, and the
just appHcation, of the early Patristical
remains ; for that appeared to me to con-

12 LECTURE I.
stitute the great cardinal point, on which
the whole discussion must eventually turn.
To these objects, then, I propose to dedi
cate the series of Lectures on which I am
now entering.
But first, in my present introductory
discourse, I shall desire to commence with
that which seems to lie at the foundation of
the whole argument, the providential design
evinced in the promulgation of the written
documents of the New Testament as the
sure and permanent depository of the faith :
and this will naturally lead me to the ex
amination of such circumstances connected
with the nature and structure of these
Scriptural, records, as may appear to affect
their competency to afford of themselves a
rule of faith full, clear, and self-sufficient,
and their relation to the subsidiary means
of interpretation.
In the following Lectures I shall proceed
to such an analytical and critical examina
tion of the remains of the principal Fathers
of the Ante-Nicene period, as I have found
most useful in imparting a more clear and
definite character to my own views on the

LECTURE I. 13
subject ; and I would therefore hope may
not be found altogether useless to others.
In the first place, in advocating the ex
clusive authority of Scripture as a rule of
faith, very few observations will be ne
cessary with regard to the earher division
of the sacred Volume ; for as this is entirely
confined to an introductory dispensation, it
can have only a very partial bearing on
the general question ; and here assuredly
no rival body of tradition is recognized^.
The full interpretation, indeed, of much of
its prophetical portion, and the clear eluci-
" It may, however, be perhaps said, that while all
Christians reject the absurd figments of Cabbahstic
tradition, it is still desirable to ascertain as far as we
can what portions of the prophetical writings were
originally considered by the Jewish Church itself as
applicable to the Messiah. Such an investigation may
undoubtedly be often found very useful, as affording
argumenta ad homines in controversy with the Jews
themselves in confutation of their later misinterpre
tation; but beyond this it can hardly lead to any
conclusions challenging a very firm confidence. The
inspired authority of the New Testament appears the
only very certain guide as to the latent application of
those earlier prophecies to the Christian scheme, either
by directly pointing out such an application, or in
directly by the general analogy inferred from that which
it does thus positively establish.

14 "Lecture l
dation of the spiritual realities shadowed
forth by its typical rites, do assuredly
altogether depend on the revelations of the
final dispensation; but few% I apprehend,
will be inclined to look for such an inter
pretation elsewhere than in the inspired
Scriptures of that dispensation themselves,
for none but the Spirit can be his own inter
preter in developing hidden meanings which
can be known to his mind alone ; few, I
repeat, will ascribe any similar authority
to the extravagances of allegorical inter
pretation introduced by the Alexandrian
Jews ; however seductive such a scheme
may have unhappily proved to the minds
of some of the Christian Fathers, too easily
betrayed into adopting and extending it, and
colouring it in accordance to their own
views. The real stress of the argument between
written and unwritten tradition, as the
channels of handing authoritatively down
the doctrines of the Christian faith, mani
festly depends on the circumstances under
which those doctrines were first communi
cated to the infant Churches ; and finally

LECTURE I. 15
embodied in writing by those divinely -
commissioned promulgators, the inspired
Apostles. The advocates of unwritten tradition are
constantly reminding us of the fact, (which
indeed none have ever questioned,) that the
primary instructions by which these Apo
stles built up the first Churches in the faith,
were originally conveyed by oral and cate-
cheticalinstruction; and that probably nearly
thirty years had elapsed, after the founda
tions of an extended Church were laid by the
Pentecostal descent of the Spirit, before the
earliest Scriptures of the New Testament
were published ; and more than double that
period before its canon was fully com
pleted. While the living voice of the
Apostles could be heard and known, there
can be no doubt but that that voice would
have formed a fully sufficient standard of
faith ; but this is quite a different thing
from admitting, that when its living testi
mony was once withdrawn, tradition of
any kind could be relied upon as a secure
and sufficient depository for its preserva
tion. We contend, that the uniform voice

16 LECTURE L
of experience and history altogether nega
tives such a reliance, and declares that the
edifice resting on such a treacherous and
scanty foundation, contains the principle of
its own destruction '. We contend that the
conduct of these first teachers in commit
ting their instruction (before they were
themselves withdrawn) to written docu
ments, always implies their anxiety in this
manner to preserve the certainty of the faith ;
and shews that they were unwilling to entrust
it to any other channel. Thus being dead
do they yet speak with a voice that cannot
be mistaken ; thus have they bequeathed to
the Church the charter of its faith as a
KTrj/j-a e'y del, in records imperishable and
immutable. We contend that the well-
known rule of legal evidence, which refuses
to admit for a moment any hearsay report
on subjects where original documents can
be produced in the court, is founded on
the justest views of human testimony,
and is strictly applicable to the present
case.
' See article A in the Appendix, on the experience of
history as affecting the principle of Tradition.

LECTURE I. 17
With regard to that which may be said
to constitute the prime material of the
Christian faith, the history of the whole
earthly ministry of its Divine Founder, the
care with which every essential circum
stance has been recorded in the written
G^Dspels is obvious. We need not indeed
assert, that every single word which he
ever spake has been so preserved^; but we
do assert with St. John, that all those
things which were necessary so to esta
blish our faith in Jesus Christ, that believ
ing we might have life through his name,
have been written. We do assert, that
tradition has not preserved a single credible
addition to the testimony of the inspired
penmen with regard to the discourses of
power by which he prepared the minds
of men for his faith, or the mighty works
by which he confirmed it. Yet it is not
that tradition has been altogether silent;
on the contrary, it has spoken abundantly
sufficient to confirm the extremest jealousy
" One single precept, indeed, " it is more blessed to give
than to receive," we know on the authority of St. Paul to
have been delivered, though the Evangelists have omit
ted to record it.

18 LECTURE I.
in refusing to listen to its voice, as possess
ing any concurrent authority with Scrip
ture. It is to tradition we owe the absurd
legends of the forged gospels ; and even
when the judicious Irenseus, in contradic
tion to his usual practice, in two instances''
allowed himself to lend too easy an ear to
its fallacious suggestions, the well-known
errors into which he was in both cases
betrayed may amply serve for an instructive
warning'. And we must especially regret
that this should have happened to a Father,
who had himself so explicitly and forcibly
stated, that the Apostles had been directed
by the wdll of God to deliver down to us in
the Scriptures the things which before they
had orally taught, in order thus to provide
a sure foundation and column to our
" See these cases considered in the Lecture on Irenseus.
' These will be particularly noticed in Lecture VI.
on that Father, The absui-d and disgusting legends
conceiving the preternatural and monstrous swelling
of the body of Judas, &c. attributed by Theophylact
to Papias early in the second century, might also be
cited. Routh (Rel. Sac. t. i. p. 24.) argues, that some
of the most gross circumstances were subsequent ad
ditions.

LECTURE I. 19
faith i." In forsaking for a moment that
foundation, he has sufficiently shewn, that
it is the only one on which it is safe to
depend. The account which one of the Evan
gelists has himself given us of his motives
in composing his written Gospel, and which
may well serve for all, sufficiently attests
his con-viction of the necessity even at this
early period of embodying the substance of
the previous catechetical instruction in a
written record, as the only effectual means
by which they could be transmitted and
preserved with the certainty of truth ; iVa
iTnyv&s Trepl mv Karrjxv^v^ Xoycov rrji/ da^dXetoM.
In every other case the very same anxiety
dictated the original composition of the
Gospels. Thus when St. Matthew^ was
about to withdraw from his ministry among
the Hebrews, he left with them his Gospel,
(originally published in their own lan
guage,) in order to supply by a written
document the loss of his own personal
J Iren. adv. Hser. 1. iii. c. 1.
* See Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ii.
C 2

20 LECTURE I.
instructions; a labour surely superfluous, if
he could have trusted to tradition.
Thus also St. Mark (generally called by
ecclesiastical antiquity the interpreter of
St. Peter) is said to have composed his
Gospel at Rome, in consequence of the
earnest request of those who had there
heard the preaching of his apostolic com
panion, that he would leave with them a
memorial in writing of the truths which had
been so delivered.
And last of all, the aged survivor of the
whole apostolical band, St. John, lest any
thing essential should remain uncertified to
future ages by a sure record, composed his
own Gospel with the obvious design of
completing the evangelical series, by a
document strictly supplemental to all those
which preceded it.
We may surely then conclude, that it was
the, providential design of God through the
inspiration of his Holy Spirit, to secure in
these written Gospels a complete and exclu
sive digest of all that was essential to be
known concerning the ministry and teach-

LECTURE I. 21
ing of his ever-blessed Son. Thus far
indeed I apprehend our positions will hardly
be disputed by any. And strict parity of
reasoning will I think enable us to extend
similar inferences to the remaining and
more doctrinal portions of the Christian
Scriptures. For with regard to the personal dis
courses of our Lord thus carefully pre
served, although every consistent Christian
must admit that they contain the full and
pregnant germ of all the articles of our
faith ; yet was that faith undoubtedly far
more explicitly developed, when the same
Lord, having led captivity captive and gone
up on high, poured down from his heavenly
throne the gifts of his Holy Spirit ; when
that promised Paraclete fulfilled his fore-
shewn office, by guiding the disciples into
all truth, concerning the great dispensation
which could only at that time be said
to have received its final completion.
If then we should regard it as already
proved, that it seemed good in the divine
counsels to provide a permanent written
record to secure the daffidXeia of our Lord's

22 LECTURE I.
introductory communications while on earth,
can we at all conceive it probable, that the
final revelations of the same Lord from
Heaven should have been left to repose on
those very traditional foundations, which
in the former case were confessedly re
jected as altogether inadequate to afford
the requisite security ?
But to turn from presumptive argument
to positive fact. We know that we have
preserved to us the genuine Epistles of
many of the Apostles to whom these
heavenly revelations were vouchsafed, and
we know that these Epistles are abundantly
rich in doctrine. We have only then to
enquire, do these undoubted apostolical
writings constitute the sole authoritative
standard of the truths they were commis
sioned to teach, which has been bequeathed
permanently to the Church ; or are they
such as tt) require some other concurrent
and supplemental rule of faith.?
These Epistles in themselves undoubtedly
claim as high an authority as any other
part of the Scriptural volume. St. Paul
appears fully to imply this equality, when

LECTURE I. 23
he concludes that which the best critics
have considered as the earliest of those
published by him, the first to the Thessa-
lonians, with the following charge, so re
markable from the very impressive solem
nity with which it is conveyed : "I adjure
you by the Lord, (opKL^co vjxds rov Kvpiov,)
that this Epistle be read unto the holy bre
thren." We know that from the beginning
the prophetical Scriptures were read in the
public assemblies of Christians, and it has
therefore been well observed on this pas
sage, that St. Paul here demands the same
respect to be paid to this Epistle, as to the
writings of the ancient prophets.
The design of the Apostles, to leave in
these compositions a sure and permanent
record of their doctrines, is fully expressed
in a very affecting passage in the intro
duction of the second Epistle of St. Peter;
" Knowing that I must shortly put off this
tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath shewed me, I will endeavour [that is,
by writing this Epistle] that ye may be able
after my decease to have these things in
remembrance, though ye now know them,

24 LECTURE I.
and be established in the present truth'."
And again, " This second Epistle, beloved, I
now write unto you, in both which I stir up
your pure minds by way of remembrance,
that ye may be mindful of the words which
were spoken before by the holy prophets, and
of the commandments of us the apostles of
the Lord and Saviour™." Here undoubtedly
this rock of the Christian Church distinctly
implies, that he considered such written
memorials as the true security for the pre
servation of genuine apostolical traditions;
and that to such means alone he trusted to
keep alive in the memory of his disciples,
when his own voice was silenced in death,
the truths that voice had once taught. And
well had it been if the Church, which espe
cially professes to be built on him as her
foundation, had more faithfully received the
spirit of these his words.
Many of these Epistles, it is true, were
originally suggested by the local and tem
porary circumstances of the particular
Churches to which they were addressed.
Neither do they profess to form regular
' 2 Peter i. 1 4, 15, compared with 11. "'2 Peter iii. 1, 2.

LECTURE I. 25
catechetical treatises, embodying all the doc
trines of Christianity, in a methodical and
digested system, such as might perhaps be
considered most appropriate to the pur
poses of elementary instruction, but they
rather allude to these doctrines as truths
already well known by those to whom they
were addressed, than propose them in the
form of matters to be learnt for the first
time. These circumstances of the occasion
and structure of the apostolical Epistles
have sometimes been urged as if they justi
fied the conclusion, that such documents
must of themselves be inadequate to consti
tute a full, perfect, and sufficient standard of
Christian doctrine. But I hope when we
proceed more fully to examine the case, we
shall find the juster inference to be, that
while they do indeed require the more care
ful comparative study of the several parts of
our Bibles, and the more diligent use of
every subsidiary means of interpretation,
yet the Bible itself is left after all as the
one original source and the sole authoritative
test of the whole and every part of Chris
tian truth.

26 LECTURE I.
We may farther observe, that these very
circumstances, sometimes almost imputed
in the form of objections, have given double
efficacy to the practical application of the
doctrines contained, and supplied some of the
strongest arguments on which our confidence
in the genuineness of Scripture reposes.
For all must feel how much more forcibly
the great Christian doctrines are brought
home in converting efficacy to the heart,
by being incidentally presented in their com
bined and applied state as connected with
the particular duties to which they afford
the strongest motives, than had they been
recorded in the abstracted form of a me
thodical digest"; a form more logical per
haps, but undoubtedly more dry, more
crude, more naked. And again, the struc-
° Thus in Phil. ii. 5. the inherent divinity of which
Christ emptied himself when he condescended to assume
the servile form of man, is brought forward as the great
argument for the production of the like mind of humility
and self-denial in his disciples. And in 1 Peter ii. 21.
the Atonement of him ' who himself bare our sins in
his own body on the tree' is introduced to remind us of
the great practical application of this doctrine, ' that he
thus suffered for us, leaving us an example that we
should follow his steps.'

LECTURE I. 27
ture of much of our Bible, as directly im
plicated with local circumstances and tem
porary occasions, could alone furnish those
most convincing proofs arising from unde
signed coincidences, which the sagacity of
a Paley has so acutely investigated and so
irrefutably enforced.
All the objections which have been
founded on such grounds, as implying any
incompetency in Scripture to form the sole
rule of faith, appear to me to err in this ;
they regard the separate books of Scripture
only in their individual and isolated cha
racter, and overlook them in their com
bined and collective capacity as united in a
single whole ; the true and just point of
view in which they ought ever to be con
sidered. We must remember, that these inspired
authors wrote not of themselves, but as
they were moved by the Spirit of God.
In order therefore to estimate aright the
providential design of the Christian Scrip
tures, we must consider them not merely
with reference to the particular intention
of the individual writers in each separate

28 LECTURE I.
composition, but we must view them in
the full integrity of their first completion,
as they must have appeared in the counsels
of Him, to whom " known are all his works
from their beginning"."
I am fully persuaded that such a com
prehensive and combined survey of the
Christian Scriptures will amply convince
us that they do thus contain in themselves
a summary of the whole body of Christian
doctrine, such as neither to require nor to
admit any extraneous addition whatsoever.
For I would at once specifically enquire,
what one article of essential doctrine is
there which the Catholic Church has ever
received from the beginning, which she
has not always been able distinctly to de
monstrate from this sacred Volume alone }
If we are told of references to ecclesiastical
tradition by Irenseus and Tertullian ; we
would reply, that the short and simple
doctrinal formularies which they themselves
propose as embracing the whole sum and
substance of that tradition, must at once
negative the supposition, that it contained
" Acts XV. 18.

LECTURE I. 29
a single point not written in characters of
light, neither to be overlooked nor mis
taken in the Scriptures themselves. They
are, in fact, nothing more than early copies
of that primitive Creed, commonly, from its
high antiquity, ascribed to the Apostles;
every syllable of which would be received
by biblical Christians of every denomina
tion, with the single and comparatively
unimportant exception of the Socinians,
whom we can hardly be required to include
in such a description.
Or if from these brief and early formu
laries we turn to the more copious and
complete digest of all the articles of the
Christian faith, which constitutes the con
fession of our own Church ; we have
already remarked, that she lays the found
ation of these by enforcing the Scripture
alone as the all-sufficient and exclusive
source and rule of faith ; and if we try by
this test all the other doctrines she em
braces, we shall find her uniform and con
sistent throughout. The institutions of this
cherished seat of our education, present

30 LECTURE I.
the most pregnant proof of this. A com
petent instruction in these articles of our
religion, here very properly forms an es
sential part of the discipline by which our
University would train the minds of the
youth committed to her charge. To what
sources then, I would ask, does she teach
her sons to look for the proofs they are
required to produce of the truth of the
doctrines they thus profess ? Does she not
always exact full scriptural authority for
every point ? Would she ever be contented
by answers resting only on ecclesiastical
tradition ? And has it ever yet been found
that the Scriptures were insufl&cient to
answer the call thus made on them ? and
that in order to produce more full and
satisfactory evidence of the truths ad
vanced, the respondent was ever reduced
to the necessity of an appeal to tradition ?
Our argument then, whether drawn from
the obvious design evinced in the provision
of a permanent scriptural record, or from
the practical result, will converge to the same
conclusion ; namely, that those documents

LECTURE I. 31
were intended in themselves to form, and
have formed, the full, perfect, and sufficient
source and rule of Christian faith.
But while we most strenuously maintain
this as the only secure foundation ; we
fully allow at the same time that it has
pleased the Almighty giver of inspiration
so to appoint the structure of his revealed
word, that it necessarily requires the most
diligent arid careful study rightly to extract
and combine the great doctrines, which
when so studied it will be found distinctly
and abundantly to contain. The Bible is
the rich, the only mine, of sacred truth;
but they who would produce in an available
form the precious ore, must not shrink from
labour, nor despise instrumental means ;
all the subsidiary aids which can conduce
to a just interpretation of the scriptural
record, must be eagerly sought and fully
applied. Hermeneutics must ever con
stitute an essential branch of Theology.
The faithful comparison of Scripture with
Scripture, the combined and collective
study of its various parts by which the
general harmony and analogy of the faith

32 LECTURE I.
is estabUshed, will undoubtedly form the
primary and pervading principle of sound
Hermeneutics. The Bible is ever its own
first and best interpreter ; and this will
furnish the sole test by which we should
try and examine every other professed
guide. But in due subordination to this, we
should gratefully avail ourselves of every
useful external aid which may present itself
to assist our interpretation ; and among
these external and subsidiary aids, we most
cheerfully concede the very first place to
those interesting remains of Christian anti
quity, which may best guide us in ascer
taining the genuine and general sentiments
of the primitive Church.
If difficulties should occur to the mind,
when it finds all this laborious process of
the analytical investigation of the Scriptures
necessary, to establish us fully in the right
understanding of the great truths they
reveal ; if we should rather have expected
to have found those truths ready drawn
up for us in a brief and clearly digested
system of doctrine, requiring neither study
nor assistance to exhibit them in that form;

LECTURE I. 33
it may be sufficient perhaps to remark, that
the means which God has been pleased to
supply for the acquisition of religious
knowledge, are thus placed in the strictest
analogy with those which are afforded as
the basis of every other branch of know
ledge ; with this only difference, that as the
science which alone maketh wise unto
salvation is the only one of general ne
cessity, in this case all the steps of the
process of investigation are level to every
capacity to which they are properly ex
plained, and sufficient means for their being
so explained have been provided from the
beginning, by the institution of the Chris
tian ministry. Nor does this intervention
of our ministerial office as Christian in
structors, in the least detract from the sole
sufficiency of the Bible as the rule of faith.
We must ourselves be taught by it, before
we can teach others ; it is our sole rule,
and we do but unfold it as such to those
committed to our charge. We do not claim
authority as the lords over their faith ;
but we proffer assistance as its helpers.
We require them to receive our doctrine.

34 LECTURE I.
not because we deliver it ; but w^e en
deavour to teach them, how to consult their
Bibles for themselves. We invite them to
try our representations by their agreement
with what they shall find to be there
written, when their minds are so far in
structed as to enable them to conduct such
an enquiry advantageously. In this, our
ultimate reference must of necessity be to
private judgment, but we sedulously en
deavour that it shall not be to unqualified
and uninstructed judgment. We would
first train and cultivate the faculty, and
place faithfully before it all the materials
on which it is called to exercise its decision ;
and then we trust we may frankly and
fearlessly appeal to that decision. Such
an appeal in fact must ever form the last
resort ; for even he who yields the blindest
submission to authority, does so simply
because he is convinced by arguments satis
factory to his own private judgment, that
there is some authority to which it is his
duty so to submit. It is indeed only an
identical proposition, that whatever any man
sincerely believes, he must believe entirely

LECTURE I. 35
on his own individual conviction. But for
the safe exercise of this private judgment,
most necessary is it that the public mind
should be trained and disciplined, prepared
and ripened ; and therefore from the begin
ning the Christian ministry has been ap
pointed, to attend on this very thing. God's
word as the great subject-matter of in
struction, and his ministers as its instru
ments, were concurrently given. It never
has been the will of Providence that this
divine word should go forth altogether
unaccompanied, to effect its work of con
version. Nothing has ever actually oc
curred in the history of the Church at all
resembling the romantic fiction of Bacon,
respecting the introduction of Christianity
into his Utopian Atlantic Island ; when a
column of flame, surmounted by a cross
of Hght, attracted attention to a cedar ark
floating on the waves, and containing a single
copy of the Bible ; and this heaven-sent
volume was alone, and without any external
assistance whatever, the effectual instru
ment of converting and fully establishing
these wise but simple-minded islanders in
D 2

36 LECTURE I.
the faith. Not such, however, has ever
been the case with any actual Church ;
but every successive age of Christianity
has found a regular system of Christian
doctrines delivered down to it by its pre
decessors ; and has been called only to
examine and certify these by careful com
parison with the inspired oracles, from
which they profess to have been derived.
But how is this comparison to be con
ducted? how are the instructors, appointed
to assist the people, to be themselves in
structed ? I have before suggested the ana
logy o^ the means provided, and the processes
required for gaining religious and other
knowledge. The profound remark of Ori-
gen, which suggested the most philosophical
of all theological treatises ; the great work
of Bp. Butler, as its complete development ;
may be here most justly applied; for he
who believes the Bible and nature to be the
works of the same Author, must necessarily
look for analogous phenomena in both.
Now in the book of revelation, considered
as the source of religious knowledge, we
find its structure such, as rather to com-

LECTURE I. 37
prise the several elements of that knowledge
disseminated throughout its several parts,
than to present them regularly embodied in
a systematic whole. And to this the book
of nature, considered as the source of
physical science, exhibits throughout the
strictest analogy. It does but present us
with scattered and isolated phenomena,
and these require to be developed by a
laJ)orious process of analytical investiga
tion, and to be combined and generalized
in their results, before we can succeed in
eliciting in any systematic form the great
truths they are calculated to yield. Those
who have exalted ecclesiastical tradition
at the expense of the Bible, have indeed
tauntingly urged this very analogy upon
us. The Bible Christian has been scoffingly
placed on a par with the sky astronomer*;
as if in either case the rational desire to
pursue the investigation of the phenomena
with our own eyes, involved the neglect
of the means calculated to assist the en
quiry. The parallel (thus as it should
seem objected to us) we most cheerfully
=• See Froude's Remains, p. 412, 413.

38 LECTURE I.
accept. We are quite willing to own, that
we do in the one instance assert the phe
nomena of the sky, and these alone, to be
the rule of astronomical faith, exactly in
the same sense that we maintain (in the
other) the Bible, and the Bible alone, to be
the rule of Christian faith ; the analogy is
just and close throughout. The volume
of the heavens presents phenomena hard
of interpretation, and seemingly incon
sistent ; we shall there assuredly find
Bva-epfjLrjvevTa and ivavrtocpdur) quite as nu
merous and difficult, and indeed far more
so, than any critic can point out in the
volume of His word who made those hea
vens. What path then is the intellectual
enquirer called to pursue ? is he to aban
don, as likely only to lead to error, the
examination of those phenomena, and seek
conveniently to fix his faith on some sup
posed infallible authority, some illustrious
name of old ? Is he to adopt an axiom
of Aristotle as the incontrovertible solution
of every difficulty.? Such we know was
long the course pursued in the middle ages,
by those who may be considered as the

LECTURE I. 39
genuine philosophical representatives of the
school of tradition ; but not such were the
processes by which Kepler securely laid the
foundations of true science, in the dis
covery of the laws which have immortal
ized his name ; or Newton, combining and
generalizing those laws, elicited from them
the great mechanical principle of the uni
verse. Such minds knew, that the appa
rent difficulties of the phenomena required
only, for their full and satisfactory solution,
a more careful and minute study of them,
and that careful comparison which might
educe their general analogy. And in the
very same spirit that they read the book of
nature, should the Christian student read,
mark, learn, and inwardly digest, his own
peculiar book, the book of God.
I am of course aware that it may be said,
that these illustrations are borrowed rather
from the original process of discovery, than
applicable to the most suitable method of
subsequently communicating the truth when
once ascertained. I may be told, that
while the inventive method is necessarily
analytical, the traditive method is more

40 LECTURE I.
properly synthetical, and proceeds most
eflfectually by the development of truth
from its systematic and integral form into
all its particular applications ; and I may
be reminded, that religion is a subject which
does not require the inventive process, and
can only properly admit that of inculcation.
But I would still observe, that to retrace
the process of analytical investigation, is
necessary not only for the original investi
gation of truth, but to convince our minds
that such truth has been correctly ascer
tained. When St. Paul proposed to the
Berceans Christ as the fulfilment of the law,
they were not checked but highly com
mended for searching the Scriptures daily
whether these things were so. Our re
ligion, it is true, is first presented to our
minds as a system delivered down through
successive ages of the Church, and chal
lenging on fair grounds of presumption to
be received as Scriptural truth ; but surely
to confirm our faith we are bound to com
pare that system with the source from which
it professes to be derived. And in this also
the parallel, Avhich I have before proposed.

LECTURE I. 41
will still hold, with the case of astronomy,
and every other mature science. For the
astronomical student of the present day is
certainly not at all in the same situation
with the earliest shepherd on the plains of
Chaldsea or navigator of Tyre ; ' Primus
qui stellis numeros et nomina fecit.' The
student has now a probable system pro
posed to his acceptance ; and it is most
likely that this system may have been
originally presented to his mind in the
synthetical method ; and so presented, may
have to a great degree won the assent of
his reason, by its obviously bearing those
characters of harmony and simplicity,
which belong to our natural anticipations
of truth, our 7rp6Xrj\j/eLS TTyy dXrjOeias. But
still I may appeal to every academical
hearer, whether any aspirant to scientific
knowledge is ever considered fuUy to have
mastered the subject, until he has learnt
to trace step by step the analytical process
on which it is founded. It is indeed mani
festly impossible to obtain any firm footing
in science without this; for if the mere
synthetical student were challenged to

;42 LECTURE I.
produce his evidence for the first princi
ples he assumed, it is obvious that every
satisfactory answer must ultimately resolve
itself into the analysis by which they were
originally established ; and if we refer to a
period when rival and plausible hypotheses
might offer conflicting claims to be received,
by what other process than this can a just
determination be possibly awarded ? In the
very same age, when the public mind was
distracted in religion by the opposite pre
tensions of Romanism and Protestantism
to be regarded as the pure and primitive
faith, it was equally disturbed in science
by the very analogous struggle between the
systems of Ptolemy and Copernicus ; the
former resting on long-established autho
rity, and capable of explaining to a great
extent the known phenomena; the latter
asserting its superior simplicity, demanding
a more extended analysis, and courting
investigation as its sure field of triumph.
And what but an appeal to the fullest
analysis of the celestial phenomena could
possibly have led to the establishment of
astronomical truth? What but a similar

LECTURE I. 43
analysis of the declarations of the Scripture
can promise justly to determine the theolo
gical debate ?
Will it be objected, that the few and in
structed alone can be considered competent
to conduct such a process ? We have all
along supposed that the assistance of quali
fied instructors is at hand, to unfold to
their people the nature of this Scriptural
appeal ; and we maintain, that when once
so unfolded, the people are fully competent
to follow out such an appeal, and to judge
of its justice ; as I have already observed.
The author of the Acts assumes the Berceans
to have been so; and in what can we
suppose them to have been superior to the
inhabitants of any EngUsh provincial town ?
If indeed the simple peasant be pronounced
quite incompetent for the just examination
of such evidence, I am anxious to be in
formed, in what manner it is supposed that
he can possibly arrive at truth in many
situations. In Ireland, for instance, the
peasant is beset on both sides by conflicting
claims of ecclesiastical authority. Now if
the Scriptural appeal be rejected as above

44 LECTURE I.
his powers, what more simple and easy
test can be substituted ? I would ask then,
is such an one, however sincerely and
candidly he may desire to ascertain the
truth, left destitute of the means ? Is his
choice between the two forms of Christi
anity a matter of absolute indifference ?
And here for the present I would will
ingly pause. It has been my endeavour
throughout this introductory Lecture to
exhibit the arguments most convincing to
my own mind as to the supremacy of the
Bible as the great standard to which the
ultimate appeal must always lie; but I
have been equally anxious to maintain, in
due subordination to this, the importance
of an educated ministry, as the faithful
guides to the people to qualify them for
making this appeal with advantage; and
I would strongly urge on that ministry the
necessity of preparing themselves for their
high office by every appropriate preliminary
study. Let the Bible itself be their first,
their great, their constant object of atten
tion ; but let them not neglect in their

LECTURE I. 45
diary means of interpretation; and least
of all, let them throw aside the judicious
study of Christian antiquity.
With these views, having thus laid the
foundation in the paramount authority of
the holy Scriptures, I shall endeavour in
the following Lectures, faithfully, I trust,
however imperfectly, to offer such assist
ance as I may to the younger student, who
may be desirous of undertaking for himself
the candid examination of the most inte
resting Christian remains of the first three
centuries. These I would class under
three leading divisions, as suggested by the
joint consideration of their age and schools.
I. The Apostolical Fathers, Clemens
Romanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp.
2. The Philosophical and Alexandrian
Fathers, Justin, Athenagoras, Clemens,
Alexandrinus, and Origen.
3. The more dogmatic Fathers of the
Western Church, Irenseus, Tertullian, and
Cyprian. I propose to conclude the brief and sum
mary survey, which alone my span will
allow, with the period when the estabHsh-

46 LECTURE 1.
ment of Christianity as the religion of the
empire allowed the Church to utter her
sentiments with her united voice in General
Councils, and it therefore remains no longer
necessary to educe those sentiments from
the collation of her individual writers.
I shall indeed be prevented, by the limits
I have thus prescribed to myself, from enter
ing into the rich field presented by the able
and eloquent writers who so richly adorned
the fourth century. But when the only
alternative must have been to treat the
subject altogether in a superficial manner,
or to confine my view to its earlier portion,
I feel that I have made the most judicious
choice in my power.
I am happy, however, to conclude the
present Lecture by a few quotations from
two of the most distinguished luminaries of
that century, which bear entirely on the
great subject which has now engaged our
attention ; and shew that no biblical advo
cate of the present day can possibly be more
deeply impressed with a sense of the
supreme importance of the Bible than were

LECTURE I. 47
" The Scriptures," saith the eloquent
Chrysostom, " are an epistle from God
himself, and to read them is to converse
with him\"
" The Apostolical writings," he adds,
" are the very walls of the Church'. Some
one perhaps may ask, What then shall I
do, I w^ho cannot have a Paul to refer to?
Why, if thou wilt thou mayest still have
him more entire than many, even with
whom he was personally present; for it
was not the sight of Paul that made them
what they were, but his words. If thou
wilt, thou mayest have Paul and Peter and
John, yea, and the whole choir of Prophets
and Apostles, to converse with thee fre
quently. Only take the works of these
blessed men, and read their writings assi
duously. But why do I say to thee. Thou
mayest have Paul; if thou wilt thou
mayest have Paul's Master ; for it is he
himself that speaketh to thee in Paul's
words'*."
'¦ T. iii. p. 73. and Horn. ii. in cap. L Gen.
' Hom. in 2 Tim. iii. 1.
' In Coloss. Hom. ix.

48 LECTURE I.
" Look not for any other teacher; you
have the oracles of God ; no one can teach
like them ; any other instructor may from
some erroneous principle conceal from you
many things of the greatest importance;
and therefore I exhort you to procure for
yourselves Bibles. Have them for your
constant instructors ; and in all your trials
have recourse to them for the remedies you
need." Chrysostom, therefore, most anxiously
recommends the constant study of these best
guides as of universal necessity to persons
of every class in society. " I always
advise, and shall never cease to advise and
call upon you all, not only to attend to
what is said here in the church, but also to
be diligent in reading the divine Scriptures
at home. Nor let any one allege the usual
frivolous excuses, ' I am engaged in public
afi^airs, or I have a trade, and a wife, and
children, to take care of; in a word, I am a
secular person, it is not my business to
read.' So far are these things from making
out a valid or even tolerable excuse, that

LECTURE I. 49
reasons, you have the more need to read the
Scriptures ^r"
Another contemporary of Chrysostom,
Basil of Caesarea, commonly surnamed the
Great, has many passages equally strong to
the same effect ; I need but cite three short
aphorisms. " It behoveth," saith he, " that every
word and every work should be accre
dited by the testimony of the inspired
Scripture"." " Let the inspired Scriptures ever be our
umpire, and on whichever side the doc
trines are found accordant to the divine
word, to that side the award of truth may
with entire certainty be given."
' De Lazar. Hom. iii. t. i. p. 737.
' These quotations from Basil appear to me so very-
important, that I think it best to give his own words in
the original. "On Set wav pij/xa, ig 7r§ayjj,a Tria-TOuaSai T^ fj-a^-
Tvgla TYjS ^someucrroM yga^ijj. Moral. Reg. 26. t. ii. p. 256.
OoxoDv ri fleoWvsucrTOj t)/*iv SiaiTrjcrarco y^ct^r]' xai Trag' oTj
otv sugsfl^ Toi liyfuaxa. cruvajSa raig is'toi; Xoyoi;, Itti toutooj
^^e, irdvTco; r^s uKri&sia; ij ^iri<po;. Ep. 189. t.iii. p. 277. "On
dsl Toov kicqoarm rov; TreTraiSsu/xlvooj rai ygafa; Soxi/ia^eii;
ra waga raJv 8iBa(rxaX«)v AEyo/xsva' xai ra /xek (ruja.$«)va rals
ygaipaTj, dex^a-^ai, roc Ss aM.OT§ta aiso^iXKeiv. Moral. Reg.
72. cap. 1. E

50 LECTURE I.
Lastly, " It is the duty of hearers, when
they have been instructed in the Scrip
tures, to try and examine by them the
things spoken by their teachers, to receive
whatever is consonant to those Scriptures,
and to reject whatever is alien ; for thus
they will comply with the injunction of
St. Paul, to prove all things, and hold fast
that which is good."
These last quotations form a complete
summary of all that I have myself wished
to inculcate on this important subject, and
I feel that I cannot better conclude than
by leaving the impression of so much
higher an authority on your minds. May
He, into accordance with whose will and
word we would bring every thought and
word of ours, graft his own truth inwardly
in your hearts.

LECTURE II.

Rev. ii. 13.
Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith,
even in those days in which my faithful martyr was slain
among you.
I HAVE already, in my Introductory
Lecture, proposed as the subject of the
present course, the analytical examination
of the remains of the earlier Christian
Fathers ; considering this as the only satis
factory mode of forming a correct estimate
of the real import and value of the vestiges
of primitive tradition which remain to us,
and of the just application of such materials
to the purposes of theological science.
In the Lecture of the present day, it is
my intention to commence this design, by
the consideration of the genuine remains
of those called the Apostolical Fathers ;
the actual companions and immediate suc
cessors of the inspired founders of our
faith. A description it is surely impos-
E 2

52 LECTURE II.
sible to repeat, without the associated
feelings of the most reverential regard.
The first of these whom we shall be
called to notice, Clement of Rome, must
especially claim these sentiments of the
deepest deference ; for St. Paul himself
has borne the strongest testimony to his
active merits and holy character, as his
own fellow -labourer, whose name was
written in the book of life''. The cotem-
porary of the Apostles in date, and their
unwearied coadjutor in evangelical labour,
he was no less closely connected with
them by identity of spirit. We have un
happily but one short Epistle which can
with any confidence be regarded as a
genuine work of this first and most vene
rable of the uninspired transmitters of our
faith. Small as it is in compass, Eusebius
has forcibly expressed the sense which the
primitive Church entertained of the mag
nitude of its interest and importance, when
he calls it MeyaX^ KOL Oavfiaaia ; and if we
turn from the earliest to one of the most
modern ecclesiastical historians, we find
' Phil. iv. 3.

LECTURE II. 53
the pious Milner ascribing to it "a won
derful depth of holiness and wisdom." In
the primitive times, indeed, it appears to
have been constantly read, not only in the
Church to which it was addressed, but in
many others also, as conducing to great
and general edification.
This valuable and interesting document
had, however, very nearly been lost to the
Church, for it is extant in one only MS.
being written at the end of the celebrated
Alexandrian Codex of the New Testament,
presented to our Charles I. by the then Pa
triarch of Constantinople ; and from thence
first published-, about two centuries ago,
in our own University, by the care of our
distinguished and general scholar Junius ''.
Some parties were, at first, inclined to
question the genuineness of this single
copy, brought to light at so late a period;
but it is now unhesitatingly and univer
sally received. It agrees exactly with the
fragments preserved in ancient quotations ;
and no one who has the slightest skill and
tact in appreciating internal evidence, and
" Oxonii 1633.

54 LECTURE II.
distinguishing between the affectations of
sophistical forgeries and the simplicity of
truth, can for a moment doubt, that the
Epistle as we now possess it is a genuine
production; for it bears in every respect
the most convincing marks of its early
origin. The whole composition, indeed, of
this Epistle so exactly tallies with the pecu
liar circumstances of the Church in that age,
and with those of the author, and these
coincidences are so obviously undesigned
and natural, that similar arguments to those,
by which the acuteness of Paley has placed
the genuineness of the Pauline Epistles
beyond the possible reach of scepticism,
might be readily applied to this.
The argument of the Epistle, directed
only to oppose the factious spirit of the
Corinthians, has nothing in it which could
in any way have been supposed to have
recommended itself to any forger ; for there
is nothing striking in the occasion, such as
might have captivated the fancy of a sophis
tical rhetorician ; nor is there any thing
which could have advanced the interest of
any party, or exalted the pretensions of

LECTURE II. 55
any order in the Church. It is throughout
only a plain and practical exhortation to
Christian peace and unity, occasioned by the
factious spirit which disturbed the Corin
thian Church. And, secondly, with reference
to the undesigned coincidences with the pe
culiar circumstances of the first age of the
Church; it is quite evident, that it must
have been written to a Church, of which
a considerable and influential portion of
the members had been Jews or proselytes
to that faith, since it throughout supposes
the most intimate acquaintance with the
Scriptures of the Old Testament ; for these,
and not the Scriptures of the New, are
universally quoted as the written authority
for the doctrines it contains. The author,
indeed, very properly refers to the dis
courses of our blessed Lord, as to an autho
rity of equal, and indeed still more especial,
weight; but he never expressly quotes these
from any particular written Gospel ; and
although he always exactly agrees with
these evangelical narratives in substance
and in sense, yet the verbal discrepances
will shew, that he does not transcribe from

56 LECTURE II.
them ; but, as Bp. Pearson has well ob
served, seems to have relied on a memory
previously familiar with our Lord's words,
from the oral communications of the Apo
stles or their disciples. Now this is exactly
the manner in which we should have sup
posed such references to have been made in
an Epistle, which was most probably written
before the publication of the last Gospel,
that of St. John, and when the very
earliest could not have obtained a circu
lation of more than a very few years. But
if we compare the form of these quotations
with those in Justin Martyr, we shall see
such a marked diflFerence, as must at once
induce us to refer these to a much earlier
period. With the Epistles of his revered asso
ciate in evangelical labours, St. Paul, the
mind of Clement appears to have been very
thoroughly imbued. Coincidences of thought
and expression are perpetually occurring,
which can admit no other explanation than
that particular passages of this Apostle's
compositions were directly present in his
thoughts, while he was framing his own

LECTURE II. 57
sentences ; Eusebius has particularly re
marked such coincidences with the Epistle
to the Hebrews. Yet Clement only ex
pressly quotes the particular Epistle of that
Apostle to the same Corinthian Church to
which he was himself writing*; and as this
circumstance would appear to indicate, that
at that early period the Epistles addressed
to any particular Churches were not gene
rally read in the services of other congre
gations, it may serve to afford another
mark of the probable date of the compo
sition. As we should thus conclude from the
mere internal evidence of the Epistle itself
that it must have been composed'' while a
° With reference to these allusions by Clement to
the New Testament, I would refer to Lardner's in
valuable collections. (Credibility, vol. i. p. 293.) He
quotes several passages parallel to the three first G ospels,
and the fourth was certainly not yet published. The
coincidences with the apostolic Epistles are far more
numerous, exceeding forty: they are referable to every
one of the Pauline Epistles, excepting that to Philemon,
and to those of Peter, James, and Jude.
" The exact date of the publication of this Epistle
is not certainly known ; but as it alludes to sufferings
recently endured by the Roman Church, it appears to
have been written soon after the close of some persecu-

58 LECTURE IL
large and influential portion of the members
of the Church had been originally members
of the Synagogue, and while the Canon of
the New Testament was only in the pro
cess of formation, so there are other indi
cations which would lead us to regard the
author as having been himself originally
a Gentile, and having had his mind pre
viously imbued with the associations of
Classical History and Mythology ; thus
in enforcing the sacrifice of selfish interests
to the general good of the Church, he urges
that the Gentiles" could bring forward many
examples of patriotic sovereigns, who had
devoted themselves to death to deliver their
people; and of statesmen who had em
braced a voluntary exile to relieve their
cities from the course of sedition ; to the
same effect we may cite the reference to
the Danaidae and Dirce"^ among the in-
tion. Certain critics have assigned that of Nero, A.D.
64 ; others that of Domitian 95 : as the author speaks
(c. 44.) of persons appointed to the ministry by other
eminent men after the time of the Apostles, and calls
Corinth an ancient Church, we must necessarily prefer
the later date.
' Chap. 55.
" Chap. 6.

LECTURE II. 59
stances of unjust oppression, and though
we may not entirely approve the taste
which has blended such mythological fables
with Scriptural examples, we are yet thus
assisted in individualising the author. I
think we may also trace to a similar source
his employing the fabulous legends con
cerning the Phoenix* as an illustration of
the great doctrine of the resurrection.
This instance of credulity in Clement has
been often severely animadverted upon;
but we must remember, that in justice he
ought to have as partners in the same
reproach, Tacitus the most philosophical
of historians, and Pliny the professed natu
ralist '.

' Chap. 25. The later Fathers, who employed the
same illustration, probably borrowed it from Clement.
' Tacitus gravely relates, that this bird had been seen
in Egypt ; though he certainly adds, that he believed the
accounts concerning it had been fabulis auctar (Annal. vi.
28.) ; and Pliny devotes a whole chapter to recite the
marvellous history of this bird, including its self-con
flagration and revivification as given by Manilius, whom
he praises as self-taught, yet illustrious for the highest
learning ; and Phny himself merely inserts a cautionary
baud scio an fabulose, (Hist. Nat. x. 2.)

60 LECTURE II.
Of the personal history of the author, we
gather very little additional information
from history, excepting that he was one
of the very early Bishops of Rome^, Some
later writers have asserted, that he sealed
his Christian testimony by martyrdom ;
but the silence of the earlier authorities,
although constantly careful to specify those
who were thus called to resist unto blood,
appears to negative this supposition.
His Epistle is written in the name of the
Roman Church over which he presided,
to that of Corinth, but it assumes no tone
of authority. It is written as from a sister
to an equal sister, not as from a mistress
to a dependent.
The style is well characterized by Pho-
tius, as simple and clear, and closely approx
imating to the natural and artless manner
of expression of the Apostolical compo
sitions.

^ The exact order of his succession to that See has
been disputed ; but Irenseus the earliest, and Eusebius
the most critically exact, authority, concur in assigning
to him the third place after the foundation of that
Church by the Apostles Paul and Peter.

LECTURE IL 61
It cannot be expected that a single Epistle,
not longer than the former of those of St.
Paul to the same Church, and of which the
leading design is not to establish its mem
bers in the faith, but to compose their
differences, should afford us any very im
portant assistance in the determination of
doctrinal questions. Valuable as it is, it assur
edly can advance no manner of claim to as
sume the office even of an interpreter as to any
points, conceived to be less explicitly laid
down in the writings which the Apostles
themselves have left us. It is in no respect
more methodical or more definite than they
are ; and there is scarcely a single Epistle
of St. Paul from which it would not be easy
to compile a still clearer and more copious
digest of Christian doctrine than we should
be able to extract from this ; yet both, as
we shall see, would be found in the most
harmonious accordance with each other.
For example, as to the divine nature of
Christ, Clement declares in the very words
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, " that he is
the effulgence of God's Majesty, and so
much higher than the angels, as he has

62 LECTURE II.
obtained a more excellent name than they**;"
and in another place describes him " as the
Sceptre of the Majesty of God."
In the following passages, Clement
strongly refers to Christ as the great source
of every spiritual grace; "through him
we are enabled to raise our view to the
heavenly height, and there behold his own
pure and sublime countenance ; through
him the eyes of our hearts are opened, and
our ignorant and darkened minds illumined
with his admirable light ; and thus are we
made to taste of immortal knowledge.
Christ is the high priest of our offerings,
the supporter of our weakness'."
Nor does this Father less explicitly direct
us to the sacrifice of the Atonement, as alone
having procured this grace. " Let us look
stedfastly at the blood of Christ, and see how
precious in the sight of God is that blood
which was shed for our salvation, and hath
brought in the grace of repentance for the
'¦ See the 36th chapter for all these declarations of the
divine power of Christ, excepting that which describes
him as the Sceptre of God's Majesty, which occurs c. 16.
' Chap. 36.

LECTURE II. 63
whole world*'. Through his love towards
us, Christ our Lord gave his blood for us '.
The whole fifty -third chapter"" of Isaiah,
with all its distinct prophetical declara
tions of the great doctrine of the Atonement,
is strongly insisted on in its application to
Christ by this Father.
He particularly dwells on those Scrip
tures which most pointedly inculcate the
universal and original corruption of our
nature, and strongly quotes the humiliating
confession of Job, though himself just and
blameless, true, and one that served God
and eschewed evil, that no one is free from
pollution, no, not though he should live but
for one day.
The doctrine of justification by faith is
also one of those to which he has borne the
fullest and clearest testimony. "The servants
of old"," he tells us, " were glorified and
magnified, not through themselves, or
through any work of righteousness that
• Chap. 7.
' Chap. 49.
'" Chap. 16, 17. and in chap. 18, he cites the whole
fifty-first Psalm, as strongly demonstrating the same
humiliating truth.
" Chap. 32.

64 LECTURE II.
they had wrought, but through God's only
will. And thus we also, being called by
his will in Christ Jesus, are not justified
through ourselves, neither through our
own wisdom or intelligence or piety, or
through the works we have done in any
holiness of our own hearts, but through
that faith by which the Almighty hath
justified all from the beginning of time.
It is written. Blessed are they whose
iniquities are remitted, and whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin ; and this blessed
ness is in the elect of God through Jesus
Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ever
and ever"."
Clement, however, carefully proceeds
to enforce in the most animated strain
the utter inconsistency of such views
with the gross abuse of Antinomianism p.
" What then, brethren, shall we do ? shall
we pause from good works ? shall we
abandon works of love ? Oh no, God will
never permit us thus to act. Rather let us
hasten with more intense eagerness of mind
to the accomplishment of every good deed.
° Chap. 50. p Chap. 33.

LECTURE II. 65
The Creator and Lord of all himself re-
joiceth in his own works. Having such an
example then before us, let us with all our
power enter on the performance of his
will, and obediently work the work of
righteousness." A Christian temper, therefore, in all
things, Clement copiously and emphatically
enjoins, and more especially (as required
by the contentions then agitating the Co
rinthian Church) a spirit of meekness, love,
peace, and unity. This he enforces, in the
first place, by precepts and examples drawn
from the Old Testament, which, as we have
observed, he most generally and directly
quotes' ; but he very impressively winds up
*¦ With reference to these frequent quotations from
the Scriptures of the Old Testament, we may observe,
that in the applications made of them, we find scarcely
any thing of that extravagant fondness for allegorical
interpretation, which so unhappily infected so many of
the subsequent Fathers, and which seems to have been
principally derived fi-om the Jewish Alexandrian schools.
One instance does, however, occur, which may shew
that Clement himself had not entirely escaped ; namely,
when he refers to the scarlet cord of Rahab as a type of
the Saviour's blood, c. xii. Justin, Irenseus, and Origen,
have the same application. F

66 LECTURE II.
bis exhortation, by entreating them " more
especially to remember the words of the
Lord Jesus which he spoke," and then intro
duces the greater part of those inimitable
lessons of Christian love, conveyed in our
Lord's discourses, recorded Matt. vi. and
Luke vii. but here repeated apparently from
memory. Besides these scriptural arguments, Cle
ment very eloquently enforces the duty of
harmonious order, in obedience to God, as
the great governing principle in the uni
verse. " In submission to his law, the hea
vens revolve in peace, and day and night
perform their appointed course without
interference ; by his ordinance the sun and
moon, and all the hosts of stars, roll on in
harmony, without deviation from their
allotted bounds ; in obedience to his will
the pregnant earth yields her fruit plenti
fully in due season to man and beast, and
to all creatures therein, not changing any
thing w^hich was decreed by him; the
ocean is restrained by the same commands,
and its waves pass not their prescribed
limits; spring and summer, and autumn

LECTURE II. 67
and winter, give place peaceably to one
another ; the winds, in their station, per
form their service without interruption,
each in his appointed season ; the perennial
springs, ministering both to pleasure and
to health, yield, as it were, their breasts
to our use ; nay, the smallest of living
creatures maintain their intercourse in peace
and concord. For God is good to all, but
above measure to us, who flee to his mercy
through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
and majesty for ever and ever. Amen*."
While we admire the genuine scriptural
spirit of such passages, it must yet be
quite obvious, that we cannot be said to
derive from them any accession of inform
ation as to Christian doctrine, beyond
what we may, with equal readiness, derive
at once from the inspired volume itself
We may, however, more naturally and
justly turn to such a quarter, in the hope
of obtaining farther light with regard to
the form of discipline then established in
the Christian Church; and on this point
the testimony of a contemporary of the
' Chap. 20.
P 2

68 LECTURE II.
Apostles might be considered as more
especially important. The occasion of this
Epistle necessarily leads Clement to many
incidental allusions to this subject ; for it
appears, that the Corinthians had been led
into such violence of faction, as to endea
vour to eject certain persons from the
ministerial office ^ In his argument to
prove the gross impropriety of such con
duct, Clement plainly deduces the authority
of a regular Church government, from that
which had been divinely instituted in the
elder covenant*. In the Christian Church
' Chap. 44. Sometimes \smvqyia., sometimes eTta-xoTr^,
is used to denote the offices of those against whom
these factious efforts were directed. Are we to consider
these as two distinct ofiices, or only different terms
describing the same ? It appears that in this, as in the
Pauline Epistles, l-aia-xoTioi and wgea-^urego; are em
ployed synonymously. The sedition clearly could not
have been directed against the Episcopal ofiice solely,
because Clement speaks in the plural ei/jouj fte-njyayeTe,
and there could not have been more than one Bishop
of the single city of Corinth ; are we to suppose that
there was a struggle to displace the Bishop, and a
portion of the Clergy who adhered to him ? Having no
other source of information concerning this dissension,
it must necessarily remain very obscure.
' In chap. 40, Clement insists, that as God has pre
scribed stated times to specific liturgical services, so

LECTURE II. 69
he there traces the regular succession of its
ministry from the Apostles. " Christ, he tells
us, was sent forth from God, and the Apostles
from Christ, both in due order ; and these,
having received their commission, went forth
in full assurance of faith ; and when they
had preached the Gospel through the coun
tries and cities, they constituted the first
fruits of their converts, (whom they judged
approved in the Spirit,) as Bishops and
Deacons ; and delivered an orderly appoint
ment (JiTLvoixri) for the future ; that when
they should sleep, other approved men
should succeed to their ministry, appointed
by themselves, or after their time by other
hath he ordained by what particular persons he willeth
them to be offered ; for specific ministerial offices were
assigned to the High Priest ; and others respectively to
the Priests and Levites ; but the Layman is confined to
the duties of the Laity. In the 43d chapter, Clement
especially refers to the designation of the house of Levi
to the priesthood, by the miraculous blossoming of
Aaron's rod, recorded Numbers xvii. The conduct of
Moses on this occasion, he says, was guided by his
foreknowledge, and, in order effectually to prevent the
divisions which otherwise must have arisen, the infer
ence Clement intended to draw is obvious, viz. that a
jregularly appointed ministry is equally necessary to
prevent divisions in the Christian Church.

70 LECTURE II.
men of high account (^eXXoyifxot) ; the whole
Church consenting to their appointment"."
Now as two orders only are here mentioned.
Bishops and Deacons, it has been often
urged, that the former title must here be
considered (as in some passages of the
Pauline Epistles) to include the order of
Presbyters ; but the real question is, surely
not one of name, but of office ; and we
shall soon see full proof, that each Church
was, at that time, under the superintend
ence of an Episcopal President. Indeed the
eXXoyifjLot mentioned in the above extract,
to whom the charge of selecting proper
persons for the Ministry was consigned,
clearly bore the functions peculiar to the
especial office of Episcopacy. From the
above passage we clearly learn, that the
assistance and consent of the general con
gregation at such ordinations was the
custom of the primitive Church ; and from
the Epistles of Cyprian we find, that the
same custom continued to prevail in its
full original vigour more than one hundred
and fifty years later, " Convocata tota plebe,
" Chap. 44.

LECTURE II. 71
ne quis ad altaris ministerium, velad sacer-
dotis locum, indignus obreperet."
I do not now propose to enter into any
examination of the other Epistles, the
Recognitions, the Homilies, and Digest of
what are called the Apostolical Constitu
tions, which have been ascribed to Clement;
none of them have any sufficient support
of internal or external evidence ; and the
spuriousness of most is palpable and gross.
Eusebius, with his usual critical discern
ment, decidedly rejects them ; and an en
quirylike the present must obviously be con
fined to documents, generally admitted as
genuine ; for it is quite clear that no one
would dream of ascribing a shadow of au
thority to any others.
The reason now stated, may also well
excuse me from detaining you by any scru
tiny concerning certain works which have
been ascribed to other companions of the
Apostles ; namely, a general Epistle said
to have been written by St. Paul's associate,
Barnabas, and a mystical treatise called
the Shepherd, attributed to Hermas". It is
' It should however appear, that the Hermas to whom
the Pastor was ascribed, though afterwards confounded

72 LECTURE II.
true that they were quoted as genuine by
Clement of Alexandria; but as he has
patronized other and extremely rank for
geries, his testimony can only prove that
they must have been published before the
close of the second century. And the
more careful enquiry and superior critical
intelligence of Eusebius, (every way the
most reliable early authority on such
subjects,) led him to reject these w^orks.
With his decision also the most judicious
modern scholars have, though not without
exception, concurred; from these, I need
now only mention one name, which in this
place will long be held rroXXav avrd^Los, that
of our late lamented Professor of Divinity.
" The writings," he observes, " which bear
these names demand some notice, as being
as old as the second century ; but if the

with the Hennas saluted by St. Paul, (Rom. xvi. 14.)
was in fact a later individual of the same name, a brother
of Pius the Roman Pontiff, in the middle of the second
century ; for we find that prelate appealing to his
authority on the quarto-deciman controversy, in terms
which clearly indicate the author of the Pastor. " Hermse
Angelus Domini in habitu Pastoris apparuit, et pre-
cepit ei, ut Pascha die Dominico ab omnibus cele-
braretur.

LECTURE II. 73
names of Barnabas and Hermas were given
to them that they might be received as
works of the first century, there must
have been an intention to deceive." And
he adds concerning one of them, the
Shepherd of Hermas, a remark which
might with equal justice be extended to
both, " that the sentiments of piety and
devotion which it contains are mixed up
with so much of puerility and mysticism,
as to detract considerably from its value."
The earliest writer of the second century,
whose remains we are called upon to ex
amine as the next important link in the
chain of Patristical testimony, is the
martyr Ignatius, an immediate successor
of the Apostles themselves, and reported
to have been a pupil of the beloved disciple
of our Lord. He was (probably by St.
John himself) consecrated the second
Bishop of the Syrian Antioch, the cradle
of the Christian name, and from the begin
ning one of the most important Christian
Churches. He suffered martyrdom in the
ninth year of Trajan. For that emperor,
(though in his rescript to Pliny he dis-

74 LECTURE II.
couraged the inquisition after Christians,)
yet declared his judgment, that, if con
victed, they were proper objects of punish
ment ; and he therefore would have acted
quite inconsistently with his own prin
ciples, had he hesitated to send one of their
chief leaders to execution, when brought
before his imperial judgment seat. This
we are told happened when Trajan was
marching through Antioch y, flushed with
his recent Dacian triumphs, and elate with
the hopes inspired by the Parthian cam
paign to which he was proceeding. At
such a moment, when, as we are told, he
was resolved to crush every thing that
opposed itself to his will, and especially
what he considered the insolent obstinacy
of the Christians, Ignatius was arraigned

y The account of the martyrdom, places this in the
ninth year of Trajan's reign, 107, the very year of his
correspondence with Pliny. But whatever reliance we.
may be able to place on this narrative in other respects,
it seems certain that this date must be erroneous ; for it
should appear, that Trajjan never visited Antioch before
112. Bp. Pearson, in his Dissertation on the subject,
assigns 116, (the 18th of Trajan,) as the most probable
date.

LECTURE II. 75
before him, in the light of all others the
most oflfensive to such a temper ; as not
only guilty of disobedience himself, but as
the teacher and instigator of disobedience
in others. Thus arraigned, he resolutely
confessed the faith of Christ, (whom he
boasted in accordance with his name Theo-
phorus to bear in his heart;) and when
interrogated, " Speakest thou of Him who
was crucified under Pontius Pilate," replied,
" I speak of Him who hath crucified my
sin, and the author of it." The sentence of
the emperor was such, as the rule he had
himself prescribed would require, "We de
cree that Ignatius, who hath confessed that
he carries in his breast Him that was cru
cified, shall himself be carried in chains by
soldiers, to be thrown to wild beasts for
the gratification of the people." For this
purpose he was transported to Rome. It
neither seems easy to account for the exe
cution being adjourned to so remote a
distance, nor for the somewhat circuitous
route adopted for the conveyance of the
prisoner thither ; he set sail from Seleucia,
and landed at Smyrna, where he remained

76 LECTURE II.
for some days. He does not appear to have
been so guarded, as in any manner to have
been precluded from the freest access of
his friends ; for, while at Smyrna, he was
in constant intercourse with Polycarp,
formerly his fellow -disciple under St. John,
and now Bishop of the Christians in that
city. Here also he received deputations
from three other neighbouring Churches^,
Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles, headed by
their Bishops ; and, during this interval,
he found leisure to write Epistles to the
three last-named Churches, and to despatch
another to Rome.
From Smyrna, Ignatius continued his
voyage to Troas, whence he wrote to the
friendly Church and Bishop he had just
left, and to the Philadelphians ; and thence
crossing to Neapolis, traversed Macedonia ;
again embarked on the Adriatic, and coasted
^ The Church of Ephesus was represented by its
Bishop Onesimus ; as Grotius conjectures the same for
whom St. Paul interceded with his master Philemon,
having " begotten him in his bonds ;" but, as Lardner
remarks, this rests on no sufficient authority. Demas
attended as Bishop of Magnesia, and Polybius as
Bishop of Tralles.

LECTURE II. 77
round to the port of Rome ; and being
there brought to the amphitheatre, on the
thirteenth calends of January, he first prayed
with the brethren, " that God, in mercy to
the Church, would cause the persecution to
cease, and make their love towards each
other abound more and more;" he was
then thrown to the wild beasts, and soon
removed from this scene of persecution, to
one where the oppressed find peace, and
the oppressor cannot enter.
Polycarp collected all these Epistles",
" We may in these instances, Ephesus, Smyrna, and
Philadelphia, compare the characters of these Churches,
which we should infer firom the Ignatian Epistles,
addressed to them, with those contained in the Apoca
lyptic messages to their angels, published about twenty
years previously. The Ephesians (Rev. ii. 2 and 6.) are
warmly commended for their firm rejection of heretical
teachers ; and Ignatius to the same effect (ad Ephes.ix.)
says, " I have heard of some who have visited you,
bringing erroneous doctrine whom ye would not suffer
to sow among you ; but stopped your ears that ye might
not receive the things which were sown of them." In
the other two cases, Smyrna and Philadelphia, the
character of the Churches is described both in the Reve
lation and these Epistles, in terms of high but general
praise, for the constancy of their faith, but without any
thing suggesting a more particular comparison ; unless

78 LECTURE II.
transmitted them, together with an Epistle
of his own, to the Philippians ; who had
requested him to procure for them these
documents, having themselves apparently
conversed with the Martyr in his passage
through their country. He adds, "that they
might hence derive much profit, as these
Epistles were full of faith and patience, and
contained much matter of edification."
This Epistle of Polycarp is still extant ; its
genuineness is undisputed, and appears
indisputable; it must therefore be consi
dered quite a sufficient guarantee to vouch
that the Epistles of Ignatius themselves
are genuine. They have also been recited
by Eusebius, and referred to by many
early Fathers ; the first copies of them,
however, published after the revival of
literature, were not the genuine originals,
but a mere diffusive paraphrase ; that
it should be thought that the hostile influence of the
Jewish party, (Rev. iii. 9.) may throw light on the
passage of Ignatius' Epistle, (ad Philadelph. c. 6.) in
which he cautions them against Judaizing teachers.
It is clear, that the prevalence of a Jewish party in the
district might operate in a double direction, by internal
con-uption, as well as external opposition.

LECTURE II. 79
original text was first recovered in a
Latin Version, by the admirable sagacity of
our own most learned countryman Usher ;
and the circumstances of its detection form
a most interesting piece of literary history''.
But this is not the place for such discus
sions ; and I shall only observe, that it is
gratifying to find that we owe the first ap
pearance of the two earliest Fathers of the
Church to Protestant England ; and as it
must be especially interesting to us in this
place to remember, to the press of our own
University ; for, as we have already noticed,
the Epistle of Clement Romanus was first
hence edited by our distinguished and gene
ral scholar Junius, and the genuine text of
Polycarp was likewise here pubhshed by
Usher, when driven by the disturbances of
the times from Ireland, he resided an illus
trious exile within our sheltering walls.
So that Oxford may fairly boast to have
restored to the Church her two most
ancient authorities.
The Epistles written by Ignatius, under
the circumstances I have described, must
'• See Appendix B.

80 LECTURE II.
at once recal to the mind acquainted with
the history of our own Church, the admir
able Epistles which are said so much to have
advanced the cause of our Reformation,
written by her first Bishops under the very
same circumstances of present confinement
and approaching martyrdom ; when in this
very city, they also were called to give a
witness unto death in the same sacred
cause, the truth of Christ ; and it may be
added by the same power, Rome, changed
indeed in title from Imperial to Papal, but
in persecution^ and idolatry semper eadem.
To the Epistles thus despatched from the
death journey of this earlier Martyr, we
cannot and ought not to look without the
reverence due to his apostolical age and
constant faith ; but we shall assuredly be
disappointed if we expect to find in them
any thing at all calculated to throw addi
tional illustration on the doctrines of the
Faith, as dehvered in the New Testament ;
or to supply us with any clue to unravel
the true meaning of the Scriptures which
they do not themselves as freely and as
fully afford.

LECTURE II. 81
The erroneous opinion against which
Ignatius appears most anxious to guard
those whom he addresses, was the heresy
of the Docetae ; a Gnostic sect, which ima
gined the body of our Lord to be a visionary
appearance rather than a real material sub
stance. In defending against these heretics
the reality of the circumstances of our
Lord's history, he necessarily himself
affirms the cardinal points of his incarna
tion, crucifixion, and resurrection *" ; and
he particularly points it out as a fatal
objection to the hypothesis he opposes,
that it virtually undermined the truth and
efficacy of Christ's atonement. He farther
expresses in a marked antithesis^ the
blended human and divine nature of Him
who was " God in the flesh, carnal and
spiritual ; create and uncreate ; eternal life
" See Epistles to the Magnesians, (c. 11.) to the
TraUians, (c. 9.) the Epistie to the Smyrnffians presents
the most continuous and sustained argument against the
Ddcetae. ' Ad Ephesos, c. 7. p. 13. Eif largo; l<rnv a-agicixo; t-
xai 7rveu;w.anx05 yevrjrog km dyevYiroi, Iv cragx) ysvS,j.evo; &so;,
iv $MaTu> ^ooii aXriSivn x«t Ix Magi'af xa) Ix &iov, Trg&rov ttu^yj-
TOi, xai TOTE. aTrafl))?. G

82 LECTURE II.
in death ; of the Virgin Mary and of God ;
of a nature passible and impassible."
These are the clearest doctrinal state
ments. Of the tone of his moral exhorta
tions, the following extract will afi^ord a
favourable specimen*^. "Pray for other men
without ceasing, that they also may attain
unto God ; for to all of them is the hope of
repentance given. Place then before them
the opportunity of deriving instruction, at
least from your works. To their wrath be
ye mild ; to their haughty discourse be ye
meek ; to their blasphemies oppose your
prayers ; to their error your stedfastness
in the faith. Be ye gentle as they are
fierce ; never imitating their example.
Let us be found their brothers by our kind
ness. Let us endeavour to be followers of
our Lord ; like him let each submit to
suffer wTong, to be defrauded, to be
despised. Let no plant of Satan be found
in you, but in all purity and temperance
abide in the Lord Jesus in body and in
spirit^ ; — the perfect faith and love which is
" AdEphes. c. 10. p. 14,
' AdEphes. c. 14. p. 15.

LECTURE II. 83
in him are the beginning and end of life ;
faith is the beginning, and the end is love,
and these two in their union are from God ;
and all other qualities which conduce to a
fair and good life follow in their train.
For no men sincerely professing faith can
abide in sin ; nor can he who hath gained
the spirit of love still hate. The tree is
manifest from its fruits, and true professors
of Christianity by their deeds. It is not
now a work of outward profession, but in
the power of genuine faith, if a man be
found faithful to the end ; apeivov iariv
cruoirav KoiX flvai, rj XaXovvra jxr] eivai. KaAoi/
TO oLoacTKeLV €au o Xeycov "Trotrj.
All Christians of every sect will agree in
admiring these sentiments ; but the great
point on which in every Epistle Ignatius
most strenuously and repeatedly insists, is
the necessity of a strict conformity to the
discipline of the Church, and a devoted
submission to Episcopal authority, which
he makes to rest on the same principles
with our obedience to our Lord himself.
It is needless to remark that such passages
have afforded the great reason why so
G 2

84 LECTURE II.
many writers of the Presbyterian party
have been so reluctant to admit the authen
ticity of these remains ; and we, while it is
most satisfactory to our minds to find so
early a testimony in confirmation of the
primitive and apostolical origin of the con
stitution faithfully preserved by our own
Church, yet even we ourselves shall pro
bably shrink from some of the language
employed in these Epistles, as seeming
excessive and overstrained. We do trust
indeed that our Episcopal authority is in
and through the Lord, and most suitable
for the edification of his body the Church ;
and we may hope that this was all that
Ignatius meant to imply ; but we must
regret, that in the somewhat overcharged
and inflated style of his rhetoric, he has too
often been betrayed into expressions, which
seem almost to imply a parity of authority
over the Church, between its earthly super
intendent, and its heavenly head ^ We must,
' Ad Ephes. c. 6. Tov ouv 'ETriVxoTrov SijXov ort cu; aurav
rov Kvpiov 8eT ¦Kgo^XsTreiv. ad Trail, c. 2. TaJ 'E7ri(rxo7ra>
imoTaa-a-EO-Ss oij 'l))(7oD Xgi<j-Tca.- ad Trail, c. 3. 'O/j-olco;
TravTEf ivTgETria-Sma-av rohg Biaxovouf ci; kvToXrjv 'Irjirov Xgicrrou

LECTURE II. 85
however, carefully keep in mind the pecu
liarly exalted character and importance of the
Episcopal office in that day, when the star of
the Church was rising amidst lowering clouds
and fierce tempests, the primitive Bishops
must indeed be considered as the imme
diate and likeminded successors of the
Apostles ; men identified with the princi
ples and progress of the faith ; faithful
shepherds, ready to lay down their lives for
their flocks ^ ; sound instructors, to have
deserted whose guidance would necessarily
have exposed the Churches committed to
their care to be betrayed into the most
dangerous spiritual error, by those who
were lying in wait to deceive. If we wish
to learn what was really the character of
these Bishops, whose authority this Father
so earnestly exhorts the Churches to regard
as sacred, we may turn to his Epistle to
his brother Bishop, and afterwards brother
x«( TOV 'Ett/o-xottov cof ovTO. viov Toij waTgo;, rob; Ss rigea-/3u-
rspov; ooi trovlSgiov ©eoti km ia{ (76vleorft.ov 'AttocttoAcov.
e Thus Ignatius repeatedly professes himself to be
'AvTi^uXos with the Churches in this high sense ; that is,
ready to give his life up for them. See Eph. 21.
Smyrn. 10. Polyc. ii. 6.

86 LECTURE II.
martyr, Polycarp. " Support all men, as
tiie Lord supporteth thee. Endure all men
in love, as indeed thou dost. Give thy
leisure to incessant prayers. Pray for a
still larger understanding than thou already
hast. Watch, having an unsleeping spirit.
Speak to each individual as God giveth
thee help. Bear the infirmities of all.
Strive as a well- trained wrestler ; knowing
that where there is greater labour, there is
greater gain. If thou lovest only thy good
disciples, what thanks are due to thee;
but rather endeavour to subdue the more
troublesome by thine own meekness."
If the faithful Pastors, in that age set
over their flocks in the Lord, were indeed
formed in heart and conduct on precepts
like these ; can we doubt that they would
be truly worthy of all observance for their
works' sake ; that the spiritual interests of
those flocks would of necessity be identi
fied with the respect and deference they
should pay to the counsels and admoni
tion proceeding from a source so pure and
holy? The only Christian ceremony expressly

LECTURE II. 87
mentioned by Ignatius is the Eucharist; and
here his language strongly inculcates the
real presence, but cannot require to be
understood in a corporeal and carnal sense :
thus he earnestly exhorts the Philadel
phians^ to partake this sacrament, " for
there is but one, of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and one cup in the unity of his blood, and
one altar." Again in his Epistle to the
Smyrnseans', he reproaches the Docetse for
abstaining from the Eucharist, " because
they confess not the Eucharist to be the
flesh of our Saviour Christ."
It would do little credit either to the
head or heart to be severe in animadvert
ing on the style of a writer under such
circumstances ; that style indeed, it must
be confessed, is too often turgid, inflated,
and extravagant'', as especially when writing
" Ad Philadelph. c. 4. He here proceeds, adverting to
his favourite topic, to compare this unity to that of
Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons.
> Ad Smyrn. c. 7.
" Cicero, in his rhetorical works, animadverts on the
marked difference between the simple elegance of the
Attic style, and the turgid phraseology adopted by the
Asiatic Greek writers; and certainly the compositions of
this Father present an eminent example of the contrast.

88 LECTURE II.
to the Romans, he bursts forth on the
subject of his martyrdom into expressions
far beyond the sober language of nature
and truth' ; and still more when he several
times appears to speak of his sufferings as
if they were expiations offered by himself
for the Church". But we must surely make
' Ad Rom. c. 6. " Suffer me to be the food of vdid
beasts, by which I may attain unto God. I am the
wheat of God, and by the teeth of wild beasts I shall
be ground, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ."
This passage is quoted by Irenseus, v. 28. And again,
c. 5. " I long to enjoy the beasts prepared for me. I
desire them to fall on me with their fiercest violence.
I will allow them to devour me, and not to abstain, as
from fear they have left some untouched. If they
should appear reluctant, I will myself force them to fall
upon me."
"¦ Eph. 8. YIsgl^rii/.a ujaaJv, xai dyvi>^cuj/.M Uficuv 'Eipe-
(Ticav 'ExxA))cr/aj. Cotelerius translates, Purgamentum
vestri sum, et piaculum efficiar pro vestra Ephesiorum
Ecclesia ; and Wake, " My soul be for yours, and I
myself the expiatory offering for your Church." But
the passage appears corrupt, and the paraphrastic edi
tion gives a totally different interpretation ; following
which, Ruchat proposes to read, Ilsgi'rJ/ijfta tipajv lx/3aA.-
Xete, xai dyvl^rjTM vfuov 'E.<p$(7'iuiv 'ExxAjjo-ia, ' Cast out your
offscouring, and let your Church be purified ;' a mean
ing perfectly free from all objection.
Again, Trail. 13. 'Ayv/^sTs ti/.(,cov to si/.ov %vrjfji.a., ou [juovov
vDv, aXKd xai oTav. ©sou Ittitu^o), This passage is unin-

LECTURE II. 89
every allowance for the unavoidable ex
citement of such moments ; and we know
in how many minds strong nervous ex
citement has a natural tendency to find a
vent in exaggerated language ; and he
himself tells us of his circumstances at
the time. " From Syria to Rome I fight
with beasts both by sea and by land, by
night and by day being bound to ten
leopards", that is to say, a band of sol
diers, who when kindly treated become the
worse." He appears also to have possessed
a natural vehemence of character, too often
betraying him into language which it is
impossible to acquit of violence and ex
travagance ; but how often does not the

telligibly corrupt ; Vossius reads the first word ayvvrfua,
and Wake translates, " My soul be your expiation not
only now, but when I shall have attained unto God."
I would suggest, however, placing a stop after dyvH^ere,
and referring it to the former sentence, which would
then stand, 'AXA^Xouj ayaTraTe, dyvl^sTs, Love and purify
each other. My soul is yours, &c. This would easily
correct the coiTuption both of sense and doctrine.
" A portion of the imperial guard appear to have borne
the device, and name, and not improbably fierce cha
racter also, of this wild animal.

90 LECTURE II.
precious gold of zeal for the truth become
dim from such alloys of human infirmity.
We should mention such things then with
regret and reluctance, and only lest silence
should seem to imply approbation.
Ignatius presents repeated allusions to
almost aU the books of the New Testament,
but only directly quotes the Epistle to the
Ephesians". Turn we now from Ignatius, to him
whom we lately heard the former so em
phatically addressing on his Episcopal
duties, to Polycarp. In his important
charge over the Church of Smyrna, we
have every testimony that Polycarp fully
realized the character of piety and benevo
lence thus chalked out by his martyred
friend; and he likewise, though not until
the close of a long life of usefulness, was
called to bear the last proof of faith at the
burning stake. Irenseus, a Father who
flourished half a century later than the
times of which I am now speaking, had
been in his youth intimately acquainted
° Lardner, Credibility, i. p. 316, exhibits fifty-five
of these quotations and allusions.

LECTURE II. 91
with Polycarp ; he tells us he had been " ab
Apostolis in Asia in ea quse est Smyrnis
Ecclesia constitutus Episcopus, quem et nos
vidimus in prima nostra setate^." Eusebius''
has preserved an Epistle from Irenseus to
Florinus, in which he gives us the following
most interesting and graphic description of
those early reminiscences. " I much better
remember the affairs of that time, than
those which have recently occurred. For
thus the things we learn in our childhood
grow up with the soul, and unite them
selves to it. Insomuch that I could now
tell thee the exact place where the blessed
Polycarp sat and taught, all the manner of
his life, and the very form of his person.
How he used to relate his conversations
with John and others who had seen the
Lord, and to repeat all their sayings, and
all that he had heard concerning the Lord,
his doctrines and his miracles, from them
who were eye-witnesses of the word of
life ; all which Polycarp related agreeably
p Irenaei 1. iii. c. 3.
1 Eusebii Hist. Eccles. 1. v. c. 26.

92 LECTURE II.
to the Scriptures." We may fully collect
from this last sentence, that it is this exact
coincidence with Scripture which was even
then considered as stamping the sure seal
to the testimony of this very early link in
the chain of tradition.
The only writing of Polycarp which
remains to the Church, is his Epistle to
the Philippians, with which, as we have
already seen, he transmitted to them the
collection of the Ignatian Epistles''. This
writing breathes throughout the most truly
evangelical spirit of holiness, gentleness,
and love, just such as we might expect
' It is clear from the expressions in c. 14. " What ye
know certainly of Ignatius and of those that are with
him signify unto us," that it must have been written
as soon as Polycarp had received intelligence of the
martyr's passage though Philippi, and before his arrival
at Rome, and its event had been announced to him.
From a passage in the commencement of the Epistle
we may also infer, that the Philippians had been prompt
to offer every service in their power to the holy captive.
" I rejoiced greatly with you in our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye received as ye ought the models of true love, and
accompanied those who were bound with chains, the
fitting ornament of Saints, the crowns of those who are
chosen of God and our Lord.

LECTURE II. 93
from the friend and pupil of the beloved
disciple of the Lord ; from him who had
drunk the pure stream of faith so freshly
from its sacred fountain head. It is written
in a style of dignified simpHcity altogether
worthy of its matter. With what unfeigned
amazement the mind of one so holy and
humble of heart, would have shrunk from
the idea that the time could ever arrive
when it should be attempted to place the
authority of himself, or any of his unin
spired brethren, on the same level with that
of the inspired Apostolical writings, we
may well judge, from the following quota
tion, which occurs very near the com
mencement of this Epistle. "These pre
cepts of righteousness I write, not as arro
gating any thing to myself, but because
you have invited me. But neither I, nor
any one else like me, is able to attain the
wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul.
If ye study the Epistles which he wrote
unto you, ye shall then indeed be able to
become edified in the faith given unto you.
That faith which is the mother of all ;
which is followed by hope ; and ushered

94 LECTURE II.
in by love towards God, and Christ, and
our neighbour'."
Polycarp repeatedly quotes several of
the Pauline Epistles, and expressly refers
to them as to the authoritative Scripture ;
for he thus prefaces one of his citations ;
" * I trust ye are well exercised in the Holy
Scriptures ; and in them it is said, Be ye
angry, and sin not ; let not the sun go down
upon your wrath"."
Like Ignatius, Polycarp exhorts those
whom he addresses, to obey the Presbyters
and Deacons * set over them, on the prin
ciple of their obedience to God and Christ ;
and, like him also, he lays down such a
character for the bearers of these spiritual

• Polycarpus ad Philip, c. 3.
' Ibid. c. 12.
" Lardner, i. has observed, that " the first words, Be
ye angry and sin not, are in the LXX version of Ps. iv. 4."
But as the latter advice. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, is no where found in the Old Testament,
and both these precepts are together in the Epistle to
the Ephesians, iv. 26. it seems to me that Polycarp does
expressly refer to that, and calls it Scripture.
' End of c. 6. he does not specify the Bishop, possibly
from a fearof appearing to magnify his own office.

LECTURE IL 95
offices, as must convince us how important
to the best interests of their flocks must
have been the influence of men, who at all
came up to the prescribed standard, " Let
the Presbyters be of tender bowels ; mer
ciful to all ; leading back whatever has
gone astray ; visiting all the infirm ; never
neglecting the widow, orphan, or poor ;
always providing that is good in the sight
of God and man. Abstaining from all
wrath ; from all respect of persons ; from
all unjust judgment. Far remote from all
covetousness ; not hastily giving credit to
evil reports ; not abrupt (diroropioi) in
judgment ; knowing that we all are debtors
through sin ; and, therefore, if we pray the
Lord to forgive us, ought ourselves to be
likewise forgiving."
This is indeed admirable, and truly
Apostolical. While then we are justly
anxious to establish the validity of our
ministerial commission, by tracing its de
scent through these immediate successors
of the Apostles, let us regard it as no less
important, that we should endeavour, by all
diligence and prayer, to conform our hearts

96 LECTURE II.
and lives to the high ministerial standard,
prescribed by the authority of these holy
men. Thus may we, indeed, under God's
grace and blessing, shew ourselves the ge
nuine inheritors of that sacred deposit, trans
mitted to us through these holy channels.
The true successor of the Apostles must
ever be approved to the Church, by doing
the works of an Apostle ; must be the heir
of their faith ; must be the follower of
their practice. Unaccom.pamed by this
Apostolical character, every other preten
sion were but vain in itself, ridiculous in
its assumption, destructive in its conse
quences. The mildness and gentleness of Poly-
carp's own disposition, (so exactly in con
formity with what he requires from others,)
is beautifully illustrated in his remarks on
the painful case of Valens, a married
Presbyter of the Philippian Church, who
appears to have fallen, as well as his wife,
into a double adultery. " I am greatly
afflicted," he declares, " for Valens, that
he should so little have remembered the
place that he held among you." He then

LECTURE IL 97
proceeds earnestly to exhort them to gather
from such a fall a lesson of warning, and
to learn the necessity of double watchful
ness, to guard their own hearts against the
inroads of the like evil passions ; but with
regard to the unhappy criminals themselves,
he thus concludes; " Wherefore, brethren,
I am exceedingly sorry both for him and
for his wife. May God grant them true
repentance, and be ye also moderate on this
occasion; and consider not such as enemies;
but call them back, as suffering and erring
members ; that ye may save your whole
body, for in so doing ye shall edify your-
selvesy." How beautifully does Polycarp here
exemplify the direction of St. Paul, " Bre
thren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye
which are spiritual restore such an one in
the spirit of meekness ; considering thyself
lest thou also be tempted ^"

y Chap. 11.
» Gal. vi. 1. I may observe, that we here find nothing
of the laborious circumstantials of penance so strenuously
insisted on by Tertullian a century later, and still less of
the theory that arose on such terms. The door of
H

98 LECTURE II.
This single and short Epistle can hardly
be expected to contain any important
addition of evidence or illustration to points
of Christian doctrine. It does, however,
present very distinct recognitions of the
eternal priesthood and atonement of Christ,
and of salvation through him by grace and
not by works ; but as in these acknow
ledgments he only copies the very words
of the apostolical Epistles, it is evident he
cannot afford any accession to their recorded
testimony; but undoubtedly, the copious
ness and exactness of his quotations from
so many portions of the New Testament, is
of very high importance ; because, in the
first place it sufficiently attests his opinion
that these inspired writings were the great
and all-sufficient standard of Christian faith
and practice ; and secondly, from the proof
thus offered, that these sacred documents
existed in his age under the same forms
which have descended to ours *.
readmission to the Church was but once open ; this,
however, may be traced in the apocryphal and mystical
work ascribed to Hermas.
"How completely this Epistle bears the character of

LECTURE II. 99
In this scriptural spirit, Polycarp enforces
various relative duties, and general habits
of patience, perseverance, and stedfastness
in the faith ; the whole of the Epistle may
a scriptural canto, may be seen by analyzing a passage
taken altogether at hazard. C. 12.
" Now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ',
and he himself, who is our everlasting High Priest*,
build you up in faith® and truth, and in all meekness and
unity, and in patience and long suffering*, and for
bearance and chastity ; and grant unto you a lot and
portion among the saints*, and tmto us with you, and
unto all that are under heaven, who shall believe in our
Lord Jesus Christ, and in his Father who raised him
from the dead ®. Pray for all saints '^ ; pray also for
kings and authorities, and princes*, and for those who
persecute and hate you^, and for the enemies of the
cross of Christ, that your fruit may be manifest unto all,
and that ye may be perfect in Christ *"."
In this short Epistle, which is only about the length
of that of St. Paul to the same Church, Lai-dner has
collected (Credibility i. 328.) at least fifty most distinct
references to the New Testament from the Gospels of
Matthew and Luke, from the Acts, fiwm the Epistles of
Paul to the Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and
1 and 2 Timothy, Hebrews, also from ] Peter, 1 John,
and Jude.
I Rom. XV. 6. 2 Cor. i. 3. xi. 31 . Eph. i. 3. 1 Pet. i. 3.
^ Heb. iv. 14. vi.20. vii. 3. ' Acts xx, 32. Col. ii. 7.
•» Gal. V. 22. Eph.iv. 2. Col. iii. 12. ^ Col. i. 12.
6Gal. i. 1. ' Eph. vi. 18. » 1 Tim. ii. 2.
9 Matt. v. 44. "> Col. i. 28.
h2

100 LECTURE II.
be said very closely to reflect that of St.
Paul to the same Church, and the passages
I have already quoted will, I trust, afford
sufficient specimens of its general style.
The services of this truly apostolical
character, were spared to the Church for a
long series of years after the martyrdom of
his friend. The only specific matter which
can challenge our particular attention in
this protracted course of Christian useful
ness, is one which at the same time illus
trates the high and general respect which
waited on this holy man of God, and proves
to us that even in this earliest age of the
Church, w^hile tradition was most fresh,
it did not prevent differences on cere
monial points, the very points which it
might have been expected most exactly to
have prescribed. It likewise displays in a
very gratifying manner the just and liberal
spirit in which the Church, accurately
distinguishing between the essentials of
faith and the externals of form, prevented
such discrepancies from growing into
schisms. The point to which I allude is
the well-known quarto-deciman contro-

LECTURE II. 101
versy, as it is called; that is, the question
on what day the festival in commemoration
of the resurrection of our Lord should be
properly observed; the one party main
tained that an exact correspondence with
the original passover should fix the precise
period to whatever day of the week this
should point'' ; the other party contended
that the first day of the week ought inva
riably to be adhered to in this commemo
ration, and therefore fixed on the Sunday
next following the Paschal full moon, (or
fourteenth of the Jewish month Nisan.)
The Eastern Churches held the former
'¦ The expressions would often seem to indicate that
this party celebrated the resurrection on the very day of
the Jewish passover ; but it seems more probable they
took this as the cardinal point only of their calculation,
and allowed the proper interval to the day of the
resurrection ; but this would open up another disputed
question, namely, whether the last supper of our Lord
was actually itself the passover, and celebrated on the
usual day, (the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first lunar
month of their year,) or whether he anticipated the
common observance; and the true Paschal sacrifice
was on the very day when its great antitype was himself
ofiered; on the first supposition an interval of three
days, on the second an interval of two, should have
been allowed.

102 LECTURE II.
opinion, and claimed to have derived their
practice from the Apostle John ; the
Western Churches embraced the latter,
and referred it to the Apostle Peter. When
Polycarp visited Rome during the prelacy
of Anicetus, this point was amicably dis
cussed between them, and both agreed that
each might safely follow the customs of their
respective Churches, on the avowed princi
ple, that variety on such minor points was
perfectly consistent with the essential unity
of faith, 7] Stacpcouia TTJs Nr)(TTe[as rrjv 6/xovoiav
Trjs "TTia-Tecos avvlaTrjai" ; and in proof that
the bond of unity could not be in the
slightest degree relaxed by such differences,
the Roman prelate allotted to his Asiatic
visitant the honour of presiding in the con
secration of the Eucharist in place of
himself We learn all these particulars
from Irenseus, the pupil of Polycarp, who,
about forty years later, wrote an Epistle on
a more angry revival of the same contro-
« See Epistie of Irenseus on this controversy addressed
to Victor, preserved in Eusebius, (Hist. Ecc. 1. v. c. 23.)
the authority for all these particulars ; they must have
occuned between the years 158 and 168, those of the
consecration and death of Anicetus.

LECTURE II. 103
versy to Victor, a later successor of
Anicetus, who, departing from the mo
deration of his predecessor, and in a
temper more resembling that which after
wards distinguished his see, proceeded to
excommunicate the Asiatic Churches ; here
then we see that the Bishops of Rome
already began to contradict one another ;
but there must have been less inconsistency
in this, in an age when as yet they had
not learnt to pretend to infallibility, and
when, as Eusebius informs us, sundry other
Bishops scrupled not sharply to reprehend
their brother of Rome for his uncharitable
conduct ; among these was Irenseus, who,
with this view, adduced the facts concern
ing Polycarp and Anicetus, which have
been above stated ^.
^ " Thus," says Eusebius, " did Irenaeus justify the
etymology of his name, and approve himself actually as
well as nominally a peacemaker to the Church. IrensBUS
appears himself to have followed the practice of the
Eoman Church, therefore his remonstrances to Victor
were not dictated by the spirit of self-defence, but of
general charity. A century later the Roman practice
was generally estabUshed by a decree of the Council of
Nice. It is known, however, that the early British and

104 LECTURE II.
But this subject has led us to anticipate,
and we must now return to Polycarp, and
accompany him to the triumphant, though
suffering, close of his long and valuable
career. His blameless life, with those of
many other pious Christians, fell a sacrifice
to the stoical pride of the self-styled philo
sopher, and really heartless persecutor,
Marcus Aurelius*. An interesting narrative
of his martyrdom remains written by the
members of his own Church, who were
spectators of the melancholy scene, to the
Church of Philomilium in Pontus. This
contains a most striking picture of his
firm yet calm demeanour throughout ; and
of the temperate yet persevering constancy
Irish Churches had embraced the Asiatic quarto-
deciman system, and retained it as late as the seventh
century. ' I here follow the authority of Eusebius and Jerome ;
it is generally placed in the year 167. Bp. Pearson
indeed argues in favour of its having taken place under
Antoninus Pius, and is inclined to assign a date as
early as 148 ; but as the evidence in favour of his
interview with Anicetus while Bishop of Rome, as
before cited, appears quite indisputable, and as this
Prelate was not consecrated till ten years after that
ewlier date, it appears quite inadmissible.

LECTURE II. 105
which always forms the character of true
courage, as manifested in his conduct ; and
this is placed in the stronger light, as con
trasted with the more presumptuous rash
ness, and less sustained purpose, of some
others, who with hasty enthusiasm threw
themselves at first unnecessarily forward, to
brave the danger, yet shrunk when the
hour of trial actually came. We find
Polycarp not disdaining to withdraw him
self for a while from the storm, first seeking
the retirement of a neighbouring farm, and
afterwards of a more remote village. But
when the party sent to arrest him sur
rounded his retreat, and he felt that the hour
marked by Providence w^as come, we see
the venerable old man meekly yielding him
self, and requesting only the indulgence of
an hour's private prayer. We are then
called to admire his resolute, but respectful,
answers to the interrogations of the Pro
consul; " How can I, saith he, ever deny
my King and my Saviour, whom I have
now served fourscore and six years, and
who has never yet treated me with un
faithfulness !"

106 LECTURE IL
We behold him enabled by the strength
of the Lord, in whom he trusted, to stand
immovably amidst the flames, when breath
ing forth his soul in the voice of praise and
thanksgiving, he uttered these last words,
" O Father of thy beloved Son Jesus Christ,
through whom we have known thee ; God
of all the angelic powers, of all creatures
that live here, and of all saints that shall
live eternally in thy presence; I thank thee
that thou hast graciously vouchsafed me
this day and this hour, and hast allotted
me a portion unto the resurrection of ever
lasting life, among the number of martyrs,
the people of Christ. Wherefore for all
things I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify
thee, through the everlasting High Priest
Jesus Christ, thy well-beloved Son, to
whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all
glory through eternity." The flames at
first, we are told, arched in a vault
around him, and the impatient, or perhaps
compassionate, executioner at once dis
patched him with a sword. We can well
enter into the feeling so full of affectionate
reverence yet so remote from idolatrous su-

LECTURE II. 107
perstition, with which the members of his
Church collected his remains'. When
taunted for this by the insulting Jews,
as though they were ready to forsake
Christ, and to fix on this martyr as a
new object of their worship, they forcibly
observe, " how ignorant was this, to be
lieve that we could ever forsake the
Saviour of the world, and worship an
other; him alone we worship, for he alone
is the Son of God ; but the martyrs we
love, as fellow- disciples, and followers of
the same Lord."
There are, indeed, intermingled in this
simple and affecting narrative, two or three
incidents, of signs vouchsafed for the warn
ing and encouragement of the martyr, to

' Their expressions are indeed warm and enthu
siastic, but yet when coupled with the explanation they
themselves subjoin, (as above quoted,) ought not surely
to expose them to the charges justly incuiTed by later
superstitions. They tell us that they collected his
bones as more precious than pearls and gold, and buried
them where in future times they might meet to celebrate
the day of his martyrdom, as that of his birth to a better
life.

108 LECTURE II.
which a supernatural colour is given s.
But although many perhaps may regard
s These supernatural interferences, as recorded in the
Epistie relating the martyrdom of Polycarp, are the
following. 1. A warning is said to have been given to him of
the manner of his death before his apprehension, by his
dreaming that his pillow was consumed with flames.
But similar dreams are assuredly of not uncommon oc
currence, whether they be considered as actual premoni
tions, or only coincidences to be accounted for from
the state of the mind at the time.
2. At his answer before the Proconsul, it was reported
that some heard, or imagined they heard, a voice from
heaven encouraging him, " Be bold, O Polycarp, and
act manfully;" but it is added, that this was heard only
by very few, because of the tumult. How easily then
might such an error, if error it must be esteemed, be
attributed to a perfectly innocent delusion.
3. When it is said that the flames arched as a vault
over his body, leaving it unhaimed and resplendent in
the midst, the reporters undoubtedly, from their manner
of relating it, convey the impression, that they considered
the circumstance as miraculous ; but how easily may a
perfectly natural configm-ation of the flame have worn
such an appearance to enthusiastic minds prepared so
to regard it ? How commonly, in the Marian persecu
tion, was it not very long before the flames attacked the
life ? and it would have been merciful had the sword
of the confector been at hand to dispatch the victim.
In these remarks, I have confined myself to the ge
nuine text of this Epistle, as preserved in the fourth book

LECTURE II. 109
as questionable the continuance of such
direct acts of intervention, even in that
early age ; still all these circumstances
may very easily admit of an explanation
as founded on real events, magnified and
coloured as viewed through the medium of
an excited imagination, without in the least
impugning the general fidehty of the nar
rative, which has the very strongest sup
port in the consistent tenor of its internal
evidence. The documents w^e have now considered
must, I conceive, to every candid mind,
appear of the very highest interest and
importance. It must be quite obvious, that
every system of theological education must
be regarded as altogether incomplete, which
does not include the study of these remains
of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, c. 15. where the
greater portion is transcribed ; and cited also by Ruf-
finus. A subsequent interpolation, introduced into the
text as usually published, represents a dove as having
issued from his wound together with his blood. Jortin
with much shrewdness attributes this corruption to the
mistake of the copyist, in reading iregta-Tigd. for ett' agia-Tsgd. ;
other conjectures are mentioned in the interesting note
on this passage in the excellent recent edition of
Mr. Jacobson.

no LECTURE IL
as an essential object ; for it is through
their means that we ascend, step by step,
to the original promulgation of the Aposto
lical Scriptures themselves ; and, without
such an investigation, we must remain very
imperfectly acquainted with the strength
of the historico- critical evidence, by which
the authenticity of these sacred oracles of
our faith is fully guaranteed. And, surely,
higher feelings than those connected with
any critical enquiry, however important,
must be kindled, when we look back,
through the mists of ages, to the men and
times we have been now considering. If
our first moralist could justly pity the cold
insensibility of a heart, dead to the asso
ciations of place and scene, how much more
of moral power must belong to the memory
of persons and of deeds. Had we lived in
those early days, how high a privilege
should we have esteemed it, could we have
obtained any opportunity of conversing
with men, who could repeat to us all that
they had themselves heard from the con
stant companions of our blessed Lord,
through his earthly ministry; from men

LECTURE IL 111
whose eyes had seen the glory of the only-
begotten, full of grace of truth ; whose
ears had drank in the words of life from
his divine lips ? Could we place ourselves
in the situation of Irenaeus, with what
delight should we have sat at the feet of
Polycarp, while he reported to us all the
lively recollections of the beloved disciple
John .'' Must we not enter into the feelings
so well expressed in a fragment of a Chris
tian of that age*'; "If by any chance an
elder presented himself to me who had
conversed with the Apostles, how eagerly
did I enquire from him all their sayings ;
but what said Andrew ? what Peter ? what
James ? what John ? what Matthew ? or
any other of the Lord's disciples .'' for I
did not conceive it possible that I should
derive so much profit from books, oaov
trapd ^a>aT)s (jxovrjs kolL p.evov<Tr]s." To US, in
deed, this living and abiding power of the
actual voice is lost; but surely we must
be indifferent to some of the best feelings
of the human heart, if we neglect the inter
course still permitted, through their works
" Papias, preserved by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 1. iii. c. 35.

U2 LECTURE IL
by which these companions of the com
panions of the Lord still speak to his
Church. Nor shall we find these remains interest
ing only from such associations; considered
in themselves, they are pregnant with edifi
cation ; the Epistles of Clement, and Poly
carp especially, breathe a spirit so truly
Apostolical, that we almost feel, that when
Paul was taken away, he left his mantle
behind him.
Such are the feelings of affectionate re
spect, with which we shall rightly use these
ancient and venerable writings ; but this is
far remote from the abuse which would
elevate them in any manner to that place of
authority, belonging of right to the records
of inspiration alone. If we properly study
these valuable writings, we shall see that
they principally claim our regard, from
their own agreement with the volume of
Scripture, or rather their entire dependence
upon it ; and that the minds of these
writers themselves were so thoroughly im
bued with their Bible, that its very words
appear to have entered as an essential ele-

LECTURE II. 113
ment into all their modes of thinking and
expressing themselves.
The study of these writings will also
remove the idea, that, because the "body of
truth contained in the Scriptures is dis'-
persed throughout the whole mass, instead
of being digested into a regular systematic
form, we ought to look for some more
systematic catechetical instruction in Chris
tian truth, from the records of Patristical
tradition ; since, in fact, far from finding
any thing of this kind in these early re
mains, we have seen only w^orks of a struc
ture, in this respect, exactly the same as
that of the Scriptures ; and from which the
task of eliciting the whole body of Chris
tian truth must be equally laborious, and
would assuredly be far less successful, the
documents themselves being so much less
copious. And farther, since we find these few and
brief undoubted remains of the first Chris
tian age floating amidst a vast sea of for
geries, this must add incalculable and
hopeless embarrassment to one who should
seek to build up his faith on such materials ;

114 LECTURE II.
nor can it be said, that these difficulties
need not affect the common Christian, who
may be well content to leave such questions
to the investigation of scholars, and acqui
esce in their judgment, as in a competent
authority ; for the scholar himself will, in
very many cases, be unable to arrive at
more than probability, far too weak a
foundation in matters of faith ; nor can
such questions, as to the authenticity of
particular writings, be by any means con
sidered as questions of curiosity only, for
they often affect the essentials of faith.
Thus a second series of Epistles, attributed
to Ignatius, and indeed the first published
and interpolated edition of the series gene
rally received, are considered to be deeply
tinted with the Arian heresy, and, on
this ground, found a zealous defender in
Whiston. Surely then it must be equally injurious,
on the one hand, to shut our eyes to the
just and high claims which these early
Christian documents must advance to our
regard ; and, on the other, to assign to
them a place to which they never them-

LECTURE IL 115
selves aspire, and for which they are alto
gether unsuited. And, as an attempt to
bend the standard of opinion violently on
one side, will always tend to produce an
effort of revulsion with equal violence in
an opposite direction, we cannot be sur
prised, that, while some appear to employ
language of almost superstitious veneration,
others have been betrayed into terms of
obloquy and contempt, still more painful
to the holy and humble mind.
But although we may not accept these
human writings as any sufficient foundation
for our faith, which can rest on the autho
rity of divine inspiration alone, still they
are most useful as preserving to us the
very form of the Church, as it first came
from the hands of its inspired architects ;
its original constitution, and its primitive
discipline. For all these things must (it
seems clear) come down to us from these
primitive sources, not indeed with an au
thority directly divine, but yet, surely,
stamped with a sanction so high and vene
rable, that Hghtly and wantonly to depart
I 2

116 LECTURE II.
from them, must ever be accounted the
part of an overweening and unjustifiable
presumption. It must therefore be most satisfactory to
us, to be able to ascertain with the clearest
evidence, from these early documents, that
our own tabernacle has been faithfully con
structed in exact accordance with the pat
tern, which may, without irreverence, be said
to have been once displayed in the mount.
The last point to which I would now
advert, is the striking illustration afforded
by the remains we have now been con
sidering, to the general unity of spirit
which animated the whole extent of the
Christian Church in that early age, and the
general intercourse and communion w^hich
prevailed between its several members.
Thus we have seen Clement of Rome
exerting his best endeavours to appease
dissensions prevailing in the Church of
Corinth. Thus we behold the Bishops and
other deputies, from many of the Asiatic
Churches, hastening to Smyrna to obtain
a last interview with Ignatius, on his jour-

LECTURE IL 117
ney to the scene of martyrdom, mutually to
exchange the consolations of Christian faith
and hope. And we found this candidate for
that glorious though agonizing crown, him
self in return evincing the warmest interest
in all these Churches, by his Epistles to
them; while he calculated on their mani
festing an equal concern for his own be
reaved Antioch, and therefore requested
them to send emissaries for its comfort and
edification. And the same spirit dictated
the Epistle which Polycarp himself, on the
same occasion, transmitted to the Philip
pians, with copies of the former Martyr's
Epistles, which they had so earnestly de
sired to see ; and when Polycarp himself
was ultimately called to breathe out his
soul amidst the flames, in accents of grate
ful praise to his God and Saviour, we
have heard the affecting account which his
own Church forwarded to the opposite
extremity of the Asiatic peninsula. The
general feeling of every member of every
Church appears to have been Christianus
sum Christianum nihil a me alienum p^to.
The Christian traveller was then eo nomine

118 LECTURE IL
secure of a reception, rather brotherly than
merely hospitable, in every city where
Christians were to be found ; and the let
ters of communion ypafifxara KOLVCOVLKO. which
he received from his own Bishop, were a
free passport to the religious privileges of
every other Church. Jerusalem was then
indeed built as a city at unity in itself;
and we have seen, that while the essentials
of the faith were guarded with the most
scrupulous strictness, no minor differences
of ceremonial observances were allowed to
interrupt that unity. As the good pro
vidence of our God has guided our own
Church so faithfully to preserve the exter
nal discipline of the primitive age, may
he also bless us with his internal Spirit of
love, enabling us ever to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace !

LECTURE III.

1 Cor. ii. 6, 7.
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet
not the wisdom of this world ; but we speak the wisdom of
God.
In the previous and introductory portion
of this course of Lectures, we have already
considered the earliest and most remark
able, but, alas ! few and scanty, monuments
of the first age of Christian antiquity. We
have examined the relics still preserved by
the Church of the compositions of the
friends and fellow- workers of the Apostles,
and their actual pupils and immediate suc
cessors ; and we have satisfactorily seen,
that these faithful followers were in all
respects likeminded with their inspired
guides and teachers.
We shall next be introduced to writers
of a very different class from these holy
and simple primitive advocates of the truth.
In the beginning of Christianity, it pleased

120 LECTURE III.
its divine Author to choose the weak things
of this world to confound the strong, and
its foolish things to triumph over those
which were accounted wise, that the excel
lency of the poAver might be more mani
festly of God alone. In these earlier
Christian writings, therefore, we were
called to look rather for the moral force of
truth than for any cogency of philosophical
argument ; but the natural tendency of the
flame of truth is, like that of physical flame,
upwards ; and in the early progress of
Christianity, its aseensive was no less
marked than its diffusive power. With
unparalleled rapidity it extended itself to
the remotest nations of the earth, and
through the various ranks of society ; from
the tents and waggons of Nomad barbarians,
even to the proud chambers of consular rank
and imperial connections of Clemens and
Domitilla*. Thus the new system soon
assumed a position far too prominent to be
overlooked by men who prided themselves
on the character of philosophical observers of
the moral phsenomena of society. If when,
° Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. iii. c. 17.

LECTURE III. 121
a century before, Paul from the Areopagus
so forcibly harangued the Stoics and Epi
cureans of Athens, the claims of an infant
and unheard-of sect might seem feeble to
arrest the notice of pride and prejudice,
yet now the expanding faith, animated
with a vigour of growth hitherto unknown
in the history of the world, challenged the
attention of these boasted schools with a
force which could no longer be thus easily
evaded. And we must have supposed
either that none of the disciples of these
various philosophical sects could have been
sincere in their professed search after
wisdom and truth, or that all must have
been incapable of apprehending them in
their highest and clearest forms, were we
not prepared to find that some members at
least of those schools had minds clear
enough to perceive, in the doctrines of
Christianity, " that first philosophy else
vainly sought," and resolution enough to
avow the conviction which forced itself on
their reason ; and we do find accordingly,
that the next Christian writers who claim
our attention, were called from the schools

122 LECTURE III.
of an earthly to those of an heavenly philo
sophy, and were enabled to employ in the
defence of the faith against its Gentile oppo
nents, the resources of minds enriched by
much previous literary and intellectual cul
tivation. Yet undoubtedly it must be
allowed, (and such from the infirmity of our
nature is the inseparable alloy of every
human advantage,) that this introduction
of secular learning was far from an unmixed
benefit to the advancement of spiritual
truth. The rising walls of the Christian
temple were but too often daubed with
untempered mortar, and the simplicity of
the Gospel became at length corrupted by
a false philosophy and vain deceit. A spirit
of unhallowed and unauthorized speculation
was too commonly fostered, seeking to be
wise above that which is written ; betraying
its followers into the most extravagant and
fanciful reveries, and indeed ultimately
merging Christianity itself into the mingled
philosophical and theological mysticism of
the Neo-Platonists. It must be acknow
ledged in justice however, that the earlier
examples of the philosophical Christian

LECTURE III. 123
writers are comparatively free from these
censures, and that for a time the wisdom
of men was generally taught by them to
know and respect its just relations to the
wisdom of God**, though unhappily we
must still observe even in them, with much
pain, some germs of the evils afterward so
fearfully developed.
Justin, whose name is always coupled
with the honourable addition which de
clares his Christian testimony even unto
death", is well known as the earliest philo-
" Thus it were impossible to refer to more forcible
statements, or rather exhibitions, of the inadequacy of
human philosophy as compared with revelation, than
are contained in all the introductory portions of Justin's
Dialogue with Trypho, including his narrative of his
own discussion with the aged stranger, which is more
particularly addressed to this point, (from beginning
to p. 225.)
' Justin certainly died, as this epithet denotes, a
martyr to the faith. In his second Apology he declares
that he expected this consummation from the arts and
instigations of Crescens, a cynic philosopher, opposed
to him in the bitterest controversy ; and his pupil Tatian
has informed us, that this anticipation was realized, and
that his antagonist succeeded in procuring his condemna
tion to death in the sixth year of Marcus Aurelius Anto
ninus. He was thus numbered together with Polycarp,

124 LECTURE III.
sophical advocate of Christianity. A
native of Samaria, though the child of
Gentile parents, he was probably early
familiar with the Jewish Scriptures ; but
the first devotion of his young intellect
was entirely to the philosophical schools ;
an initiation into which appears indeed
to have been regarded as essential to the
better education of that period ; and in
quest of this he is recorded to have visited
Alexandria, the city which, in rivalry with
Athens, may be considered to have formed
one of the great universities of that day ;
but of the influence of this leading semi
nary, there will be ample occasion to speak
in a future Lecture. In his Apology, Justin
has himself given us the following state
ments with respect to his conversion to
and the Martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, among the Chris
tian victims who must ever stain the memory of that self-
sufficient and bigotted stoic, the afi"ected imitator of the
ceremonial piety of his boasted ancestor Numa. The
acts of his martyrdom are in some respects of doubtful
authority, but are quoted with confidence by Cave and
Milner, as " probably sincere transcripts of primitive
records, that have for the main escaped the interpola
tions of later ages." Cave's Life of Justin, p. 150.

LECTURE III. 125
Christianity. " I myself, while I yet de
lighted in the doctrines of Plato, when
I beheld the Christians placed under accu
sation to be so fearless of death, and of
whatsoever else is commonly esteemed most
dreadful, I concluded in my mind that it
was altogether impossible that such men
should be sunk in vice and sensuality^."
Another, but not inconsistent account of
this his great change, is found in the com
mencement of his Dialogue with Trypho
the Jew ; he there relates, that, after long
and vain perplexities in the study of the
various philosophical sects, his mind was
at length opened to Christian truth, by
his solemn discourse with a remarkable
aged stranger^, whom he met during his
solitary rambles on the sea shores ; and he
adds, that when he was thus persuaded to
embrace the faith, ravrrju povrjv evpia-KOu

•^ Apol.
' Dial. p. 219. I am not, however, myself inclined to
consider his discourse with this mysterious stranger, as
intended to describe a real incident, but rather as intro
duced as a part of what may be called the machinery of
his Dialogue more Platonico.

126 LECTURE III.
^tXoao^iau d(r(l)aXi]T€ koL ovfKpopov^. Justin,
after his conversion, retained on his person
his ancient philosophical vest; and his
mind also still wore a clothing of the same
character, which occasionally perhaps en
veloped him in its folds more than might
have been consistent with the vigour of
his evangelical progress.
The writings unhesitatingly received by
the best critics as the genuine productions
of this Father s, are entirely of an apolo-
getical nature ; consisting of two defences
of the Christian cause presented to the
successive emperors, Antoninus, and Aure
lius, following the course of the earlier, but
now lost, addresses to Hadrian by Quadratus
and Aristides ; and an argumentative dis
cussion of the controversy between the
Christians and Jews, embodied in the form
of a dialogue, in which Justin himself and
the Jew Trypho are the interlocutors. In
' Dial. p. 335.
'' Seven articles, manifestly spurious or very doubtful,
are enumerated in the first chapter of Bishop Kaye's
work on this Father, which contains a full statement of
his reasons for including the Exhortation to the Greeks
in this list.

LECTURE IIL 127
this, it is much more probable that the
disciple of Plato imitated the form of
dialogue introduced by his master, than
simply recorded the report of a real discus
sion which had actually taken place ; to me
at least, all the internal evidence afforded
by the tract, appears decidedly adverse to
the latter supposition''.
In these treatises we find not only the
topics employed in that age in vindication
of the Christians against their fierce adver
saries, but a general summary of the evi
dences advanced in favour of the struggling
faith, and of the arguments by which its
advocates endeavoured to recommend it,
w^hether to Gentile or Jew.
'¦ We may compare this imitation of the Platonic
dialogues with the later and very spirited imitation by
Minucius Felix of those of Cicero. It consists of an
argument between the Christian Octavius and the
Pagan Caecilius ; the speech of the latter presents a
striking portrait of that desire to adhere to the tradi
tions of his ancestors, on subjects in which he sceptically
considered the real truth to be unattainable, so likely
to have characterised the mind of a philosophical Roman
in that day. It ends in the conversion of Caecilius,
supposed to have represented him who was afterwards
the instrument of converting Cyprian.

128 LECTURE IIL
Our present purpose will less require us
to dwell on the topics he employs for vin
dication, than on those more argumentative
portions, in which he exhibits his general
views of Christian doctrine, and parti
cularly of the Evangelical interpretation of
the prophecies of the Old Testament. We
may pass over therefore, with the briefest
notice, his spirited but not disrespectful
appeals to the imperial personages he ad
dressed, whose favourite titles were the
pious and the philosopher, and who courted
the general fame of the guardians of justice,
and lovers of truth'; distinctions which
they could little merit, should they persist
in condemning those who bore the Chris
tian name, on account of that name alone,
and without enquiring into their guilt or
innocence of the crimes alleged against
' The first Apology is addressed to Antoninus Pius,
Marcus Aurelius Philosophus, and Lucias Verus, to
whose cognomina he thus alludes. Its precise date has
been by different critics assigned (but on no very suffi
cient grounds) to various years between A.D. 130 and
150. Justin himself, speaking in round numbers, says,
(c. 61.) that 150 years had now elapsed from the birth of
Christ.

LECTURE IIL 129
them''. We need not now dwell upon his
indignant refutation of those atrocious
calumnies, invented by the foulest maUce,
and believed by the blindest prejudice,
which attributed to the secret meetings of
the Christians the scandal and the horror
of Thyestsean banquets, and the most
licentious profligacy. Nor shall we pursue
his pointed retorts ; how much more pro
bable it had been to believe such reports
concerning the accusers themselves, the
advocates of a corrupt and demoralizing
superstition; the very deities of whose wor
ship were themselves, in their mythological
history, the examples of the same and
worse crimes, and whose ritual ceremonies
were often of a character perfectly con
genial to such tales.
In reviewing the argumentative portion
of these treatises, we shall first be struck
with the observation, that Justin rests his
cause far less on the miracles wrought by
Christ, than on the accomplishment of the
prophecies of the Old Testament, in him
and in his ministry. " 1 Apol. c. 1—5. p. 53—56.
K

130 LECTURE III.
This comparative neglect of the evidence
of miracles in Justin, and some of the other
apologists, has been invidiously animad
verted upon by the enemies of our faith'.
We may however observe, that the very
earliest of those apologists, Quadratus,
(whose testimony, from his more nearly
coeval period with the events so attested,
is of all others the most valuable,) has left
us the most distinct and satisfactory recog
nition of those miracles. In a passage of
his Apology, addressed to the emperor
Adrian, which forms the only fragment
of a composition (which from its date
would have been so singularly interest
ing) preserved by the care of the his
torian Eusebius, we find the argument
from miracles thus strongly urged ; " The
works of our Saviour were a lasting proof,
for they were true. Such as were healed
and raised from the dead by him, were not
only seen to be so by the spectators at the
moment of their cure and revival, but more
permanently continued present among us,
and remained not only during our Saviour's
' Gibbon's Remains, c. xv.

LECTURE IIL 131
sojourn on earth, but for a sufficient time
after his departure ; so that some of them
survived even to our own days."
We may, in fact, easily assign a satis
factory reason why this argument from
miracles, which is to us the very keystone
of our faith, (while it must always have
possessed in itself the same cogency,)
yet had that cogency less felt in this early
age than in our own. Rightly to discri
minate works above nature implies a suffi
cient acquaintance with the actual limits of
the physical powers conceded to man, and
the true character of those applications of
science by which such powers might be
increased : hence we may readily account
for the easy credulity with which, in those
days of physical and scientific ignorance,
the pretensions of supernatural arts were
commonly received. Thus it does not ap
pear that the early opponents of Christi
anity at all questioned the truth of the
wonderful works reported as having been
wrought by Christ, but while they ad
mitted this, still ascribed them to the
imaginary influence of magical powers. It
K 2

132 LECTURE IIL
is expressly on this ground, that Justin
declares himself to have confined his ar
gument principally to the evidence arising
from the fulfilment of prophecy ; and his
having been obliged to take this view of
the subject, forms in effect the strongest
attestation of the reality of those miracles.
His express words are the following"". " But
least any one should thus argue against us,
' What hinders it but that he whom ye call
Christ, being in fact a mere man, and of
men, should have wrought by magical art
all these miracles recorded by you,' and
therefore have been falsely regarded as the
Son of God; we will therefore endeavour
to construct our demonstration, not by any
reliance on those who have thus reported,
but rather on that more constraining evi
dence which necessarily commands our
assent to those who have prophesied long
before they came to pass, the events which
we have beheld with our own eyes fulfilled
and fulfilling; for this as we apprehend
must prove to yourselves the greatest and
most convincing demonstration"." In his
¦" p. 72. ° 1 Ap. c. 37.

LECTURE III. 133
prophetical argument Justin also expressly
alludes to the miracles of Christ as exactly
fulfilling the predictions. Is. xxxv. 5, 6.
This argument from prophecy, on which
Justin so especially dwells, is moreover
essentially connected with one of the most
important features in the enquiry to which
I would wish in these Lectures particularly
to direct your attention ; namely, the degree
of authority which we may feel ourselves
justified in attaching to the Patristical
writers, as interpreters of holy writ. In the
first place, it is gratifying to be able with
perfect justice to assert, that this portion
of Justin's works will be found to contain
a very fair collection of the principal pro
phetical texts which the Christian Church
has in all ages held to be applicable to her
divine Head. The general features of these
prophetical citations he sufficiently indicates,
in the summary by which he introduces
them. "In these books of the prophets we
find expressly predicted the advent of Christ,
his incarnation and birth of a Virgin, his
healing every disease and infirmity, and
raising the dead, his being hated, rejected.

134 LECTURE III.
and crucified, his death, and resurrection,
and ascension ; he is also distinctly recog
nized as in truth the Son of God ; and the
mission of the Apostles to evangehze the
Gentiles is foretold °. But we need not pause
to remark how large a proportion of these
testimonies in the Psalms and Prophets,
which our blessed Lord had explained as
concerning himself to his Apostles, had
been previously recorded in their inspired
evangelical narratives and Epistles. Justin
therefore in very many of his prophetical
citations necessarily coincides with this
indisputable authority. Where the sure di
rection of these infallible guides is wanting,
he will, I apprehend, be judged by common
consent, to have exhibited an exact parity
with any other human commentator ; occa
sionally correct and judicious in his appli
cations, occasionally erroneous, and some
times extravagantly so.
Thus, in the very earliest prophecy cited
in his first Apology?, he most justly con
cludes, that the time predicted for the
° 1 Ap. c. 39. P 1 Ap. c. 40.

LECTURE III. 135
coming of him " for whom it is reserved'","
had been completed before the period
when he wrote, because the reduction of
Judea into the form of a Roman province
had then manifestly taken the sceptre from
Judah; but no sound interpreter, I con
ceive, will be found to agree with him,
when he applies also to the Messiah' the
next words of the blessing of Jacob, which
seem clearly to refer to the local circum
stances of the inheritance of the tribe of
Judah, viz. " Binding his foal unto the
vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine,
he washed his garments in wine, and his
clothes in the blood of grapes'." Here
Justin considers the first clause as prophe
tical of our Lord's entry into Jerusalem,
riding on the ass's colt, and the latter as
•i Genes, xlix. 10. Justin translates nb^a? Shiloh,
cS anoxeiTM.
' 1 Ap. c. 41.
' Tertullian also, adv. Marcion.l. iv. c. 40. applies this
passage to Christ, whom he considers as typified in Judah,
" Lavabit in quot in vino stolam ejus et in sanguine uvae
amictum suum stolem et amictam cernem demonstrans,
et vinum sanguinem ita et nunc sanguinem suum in
vino consecrabit qui tunc vinum in sanguine figuravit."

136 LECTURE III.
denoting that Christ washed with his own
blood the Church of the faithful, supposed
to be spiritually denominated his garment.
As few, I apprehend, will concur in his in
terpretation, when referring to the splendid
prophecy, (Is. ix. 6.) " Unto us a Child is
born, &c." he explains the clause, " the
government shall be upon his shoulders,"
as signifying the application of his shoulders
to the cross *. Or again, where he similarly
perverts the words of the same prophet,
" I have stretched forth my hands unto a
disobedient and gainsaying people," to the
attitude of crucifixion ". We also find some
singular misapplications of the Book of
Psalms. Thus, the very plain description
of the different characters and ends of the
just and unjust in the first Psalm, is cited
as having some not very intelligible pro
phetic allusion to the Messiah; and the
magnificent description in the nineteenth
Psalm" of the universal attestation to crea
tive wisdom and power, borne by the
glories of the heavens, the succession of
day and night, and the sun rejoicing as a
» I Ap. c. 45. " Ibid. C. 50.

LECTURE IIL 137
giant in his course, is quoted as an exact
prophecy of the progress of the missionaries
sent forth to announce the manifestation of
the Sun of righteousness. This we might
well accept as a poetical illustration, but not
assuredly as an express prediction.
In the ninety-sixth Psalm, Justin quotes
the tenth verse ^ with an addition, which
there can be no doubt is a spurious inter
polation, ' ' The Lord hath reigned from the
wood," i. e. from the cross. Justin, in his
Dialogue with Trypho, accuses the Jews of
having expunged the words from their
copies, but as they are absent from every
MS. of the Hebrew original, and from every
version, excepting only the Coptic, it is
quite impossible to refer to such a cause an
omission so nearly universal. In the same
Dialogue he also accuses the Jews of sup
pressing a passage in the prophet Ezra, in
which the passover was distinctly repre-
y C. 52. the Pseudo Barnabas is supposed to have
referred to this reading, (Ep. c. 8.) when he says, oti ^
/SacriXsTa toO 'IrjcroiJ Itti tw |uXco. But there is not here any
express reference to the Psalm. Tertullian thus quotes
it, however, adv. Jud. c. U. and adv. Marcion, c. 19.

138 LECTURE III.
sented as typical of the Messiah. But here
also the critical evidence is equally and
decidedly against him ; and the Jews there
fore might far more justly have retorted
his charge of the suppressio veri, by a
counter accusation of the suggestio falsi.
In the Dialogue on the Jewish contro
versy, we must particularly regret to find
that all Justin's defects as an interpreter
are more than usually prominent. Many
of the same misapplications we have before
noticed, and others equally palpable here
occur ; and the principle of allegorical
interpretation so familiar to the Jews of
the Alexandrian school, and especially to
Philo Judseus, and so eagerly embraced in
the forged Epistle of the Pseudo Barnabas,
is here too often carried to an excess, which
it were impossible to approve, and difficult
to palliate. The injury which such ble
mishes must have occasioned to the efficacy
of a treatise of this controversial description,
is too obvious to require notice. The occa
sional intermixture of arguments involving
such a complete ignoratio elenchi, must
have contributed far less to convince the

LECTURE III. 139
judgment, than to excite the cavils, of that
stubborn and gainsaying people ; and ma
terially detracted from the effect, which the
just and forcible reasoning, exhibited in the
greater portion of this Dialogue, might
otherwise have been expected to produce.
But enough has been said on this painful
subject ; for to every rightly feeling mind
it must be painful to dwell on instances of
weakness of judgment, when the faith was
so sincere and the zeal so ardent as in these
our first forerunners in the Christian course;
ready as they were to devote the best exer
tions of their lives to the advancement of
the cause of truth, and to sacrifice life
itself to its testimony. Nor should I have
held myself justified in the preceding re
marks, had I not judged it an imperative
duty to point out to the younger student
the necessity of due caution, before we
prepare to yield an implicit submission to
the guidance of such pilots in exploring the
sacred Volume.
I am far more happy, however, in being
able to add, that, notwithstanding these
incidental examples of departure from a

140 LECTURE III.
sound principle of interpretation, we shall
yet find Justin remarkably more free from
such errors, than many of the subsequent
Fathers, (those especially of the Alexandrian
school,) and even than any we meet, until
we arrive at the more judicious and critical
age of a Basil and a Jerome. It were,
indeed, most unjust, to hold out the mis
applications which have been alluded to,
as if they were fair average specimens of
Justin's usual mode of scriptural expo
sition ; for more commonly we may follow
him with pleasure and instruction, while
proceeding often in the exact steps, and
very generally in the spirit, of the inspired
Apostles, he satisfactorily brings forward
his arguments from fulfilled prophecy, as
a powerful accessory of evidence to con
vince the unbelieving heathen, or to remove
from the Jewish mind the prejudices that
rendered it so difficult to obtain their atten
tion to many of the Christian doctrines; such
as the calling of the Gentiles to the high pri
vileges once exclusively theirs'', and the ab-
• Dial, from p. 335 to end. This is the concluding
topic of the Dialogue.

LECTURE III. 141
rogation of their ceremonial law, or rather
its fulfilment in the establishment of those
spiritual realities, of which it was but the
type and shadow; the offence of a suffering
and crucified, in place of a triumphant,
Messiah *, and the existence of a Trinity of
Persons in the Divine essence of the one
Jehovah *=. On all these points, if we read
' Dial. p. 227—248.
" Dial. 349 et seq. The doctrine of the two advents
of the Messiah, one in humiliation, and the other in
glory, form the principal topic of Justin's answer to
such objections, and he returns to the explicit mention
of the ideas entertained by himself and some other
Christians, as to the glorious reign of the Millenium, in
the restored Jerusalem, 306. He endeavours more par
ticularly to obviate the scandal of the Cross, (310 et
seq.) by shewing, that it was the subject of prophecy,
and the appointed "means of atonement.
* The refutation of these objections extends fi:om
p. 274 to 289. On this point JustiA especially urges the
expressions of those portions of the Old Testament,
where the manifestations of the Divinity to the Pa
triarchs are ascribed to the Word or Angel of God; and
he agrees with the Chaldee Paraphrasts and Philo Ju
dseus, in considering all the patriarchal revelations to
have been made through this channel, the Nna'^a or
mn'' ^Nba, which terms he considers as denoting the
AOrOS, Christ, so that the Angel of the old and new
covenant was one and the same divine Being ; and to
him properly belong all the ascriptions of divine titles

142 LECTURE III.
rather for purposes of edification than
criticism, we shall find much to gratify us,
to the several manifestations recorded in the Old Testa
ment. The reader may find all these appearances fully
discussed in Allix's Judgment of the Jewish Church,
c. 13, 14, 15. Although we cannot perhaps affirm, that
this opinion is distinctly asserted in the New Testa
ment, yet it may be said to be strongly implied in the
declaration, " No man hath seen God at any time ; the
only -begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath declared him." (John i. 18.) It was unani
mously entertained by the Fathers, and the Lessons
appointed by our Church for Trinity Sunday suffi
ciently express her assent.
Such (though arranged in an extremely discursive and
digressive style, and with very little of method) are the
principal topics of the Dialogue with Trypho, each of
which is so fully illustrated by the most copious refer
ences to the prophetical Scriptures, as nearly to exhaust
the whole of this field. An excellent analysis of the
Dialogue will be found in the work of Bishop Kaye on
this Father; and his remarks on its character are at
once just and candid. " Although I am far fi-om wishing
to deny that there are in this treatise many weak and
inconclusive arguments, many trifling applications and
erroneous interpretations of Scripture, many attempts to
extract meanings which never entered into the mind of
the sacred writer, yet I cannot think deserving of the
contempt with which some later critics have spoken of
it- It proves a1 least, that the state of the controversy
was not essentially different in the days of Justin from
its present state, and that after the lapse of seventeen
hundred years, the difficulties to be encountered in dis-

LECTURE III. 143
in observing the manner in which Justin
applies his stores of scriptural knowledge,
to confute the gainsayer, or to confirm the
hesitating. We have thus far considered the argu
ments of Justin as derived from the Pro
phetical Scriptures of the Old Testament ;
his principal citations from the New are
made with a view to illustrate the internal
evidence of Christianity, as displayed in
the superior and singular excellence of the
moral precepts delivered in the Gospel.
He triumphantly appeals to the power
which that Gospel had so commonly ex
hibited, in reclaiming the profligate from
his vices, and converting him to a new
life of consistent purity, and general social
usefulness. On this subject he thus forcibly
addresses the supreme magistrate of the
State ^ ; " We in truth are above all other
men your most valuable coadjutors and
allies in preserving the peace of society.
puting with the Jews, the objections to be answered,
and the prejudices to be overcome, are nearly the
same." >> 1 Ap. c. 12.

144 LECTURE III.
We who firmly hold such doctrines as
these ; that none, whether virtuous or
vicious, can possibly escape the all-seeing
eye of God ; that all are hastening to his
tribunal, to receive an award of eternal
bliss or woe, according to their deeds ;
who," he adds, " really convinced of such
truths, vt'ould ever consent to embrace the
short-lived gratifications of vice, certain
that the necessary consequence were to
rush into the condemnation of eternal
flames ?"
To support his general commendation
of the morality of the Gospel, Justin
adduces very copious extracts from our
Saviour's discourses, especially transcribing
a large portion of that from the Mount.
And as we have already considered his
character as an expositor of the Old Testa
ment, we may now regard him as one of
the most important early links in that
chain of testimony, which has guaranteed
the safe and uncorrupted delivery of the
sacred records of the New, from the apo
stolical age to our own. He professes in
his numerous citations to quote generally

LECTURE IIL 145
the 'A'Trofj.vrjfxovevfjiaTa rmp ' AttocttoXcov* ;
and in his interesting account of the de
votional meetings of the primitive Christ-
tians on the Lord's day^ he informs us
that the first thing which took place in
such assemblies, was the reading of those
Apostolical Memorials, conjointly with the
prophetical Scriptures ; so that already
the practice faithfully retained by our Own
Church of alternate Lessons from the Old
and New Testament was fully established.
Thus within half a century of their first
publication we find the Gospels recognized
as an essential portion of the sacred oracles j
and constantly read in the Churches, in
imitation apparently of the previous usage
of the synagogues with reference to the
earlier volume of inspiration.
I am aware, indeed, that it has been
questioned, whether these Apostolical Me
morials were identical with the Gospels
which we receive ; but when we consider
that Justin's citations, as compared with the
actual Gospels, always agree closely in
<= Ap. i. et passim. ' Ap. i. c. 87. p. 98.

146 LECTURE III.
substance, and in words only exhibit those
occasional variations which would naturally
result from the common habit of quoting
such familiar documents partly at least from
memory, there seems very little room for
any reasonable doubt, as to the absolute
identity of these records. For the opposite
hypothesis must involve the very impro
bable supposition, that a double set of
documents existed not only of the same
general nature, but, as far as our informa
tion goes, precisely agreeing in their parti
cular contents ; and we must further ima
gine that these documents were habitually
and publicly read in the Christian Churches,
the earlier set in the second century ; while
the same place was unaccountably usurped
by the later set in the third century, when
we are absolutely certain our own Gos
pels were so read. Surely then it can
not be too much to say, that this theory
of the non-identity of those Gospels, and
Justin's ' Memorials,' bears on its very
face the plain mark of the highest impro
bability. We find only a few coincidences of ex-

LECTURE III. 147
pression, rather than actual citations from
the Apostolical Epistles, and these are
generally obscure.
In proceeding to advert to the writings
of Justin, as affording an evidence of the
doctrines which in his early day prevailed
in the Christian Church, doctrines which
that Church had then imbibed so freshly
from their original fountain head, we must
begin by taking into our account the nature
of the compositions he has left us. We
must remember, that in two of these, his
Apologies addressed to the Imperial go
vernment, the occasion itself naturally
precluded more than very general state
ments on doctrinal points ; and even in
his discussion with the Jew Trypho, we
can hardly expect the same fulness of doc
trine which would characterise writings
intended for internal circulation among
bodies already professedly Christian, and
instructed in the faith. Yet we find the
doctrinal notices of Justin far more nu
merous and extended, than under these
circumstances we should probably have
anticipated ; and such as, if extracted
L 2

148 LECTURE III.
and digested in a methodical form, would
yield a body of catechetical theology very
far from incomplete ; and indeed infinitely
more full than could be collected from all
the genuine fragments of an earlier age
put together. It must surely be most
satisfactory to find, that the body of faith
which we thus ascertain to have been em
braced by the primitive Church within a
century of the date of our Lord's ascension,
and only half that period from the removal
of the last survivors of his inspired Apo
stles, is in all essential points in the strict
est accordance with the confession pro
mulgated by our own Church; for the
fullest satisfaction on this subject, I need
only refer to the admirable collation by
Bishop Kaye of the doctrinal views of this
Father, with our own Articles. My own
present space will allow me only cursorily
to advert to the leading features.
With regard to the great fundamental
doctrine of the Trinity, Justin declares
that Christians generally worshipped and
adored the Almighty Father, the Creator
of the universe, in the first place ; his only-

LECTURE III. 149
begotten Son, in the second ; and in the
third, the Holy Spirit of prophecy s.
The Creator and Father of all things is
(he tells us) unbegotten and ineffable,
'Ay4vpr]Tos ^'ApprjTos, constantly abiding in the
highest heaven, and manifesting himself to
his creatures only through his Son, of whose
being and divine nature he was the first
source and cause, oLtlos re avrm tov elvai Koi
SvvaT^, Koi, l^vpim, /cat 0EQi .
His Son, the Word of God, was himself
also God, Aoyoy TrpmroTOKOs otv tov ©eo5 ncd
0EO2 uTrap^ei'.
He was originally coexistent with the
Father, p-wriv tw liarpX, from whom he was
begotten or emitted, 7r/30j8A?7^ei' 7eW77/.ta, before
all created things, and through his instru
mentality were' all things created'. He, as
the "AyyeAoy of the Father, conducted every
divine dispensation to the Patriarchs'*,
having thus in all things been ever the
guide and instructor of the human race.
e Apol. i. c. 16. p. 60.
" Dial. p. 358.
' Apol. i. c. 83. p. 96. Dial. pp. 2, 67.
J Dial. p. 285, Apol. ii. p. 44.
' See above note on p. 141 . and Dial. pp. 275, 281, &c.

150 LECJURE IIL
At length through the will of the Father,
and for the sake of that aUenated race, he,
through the Virgin, assumed our nature', yet
without spot of sin ™. Having endured to
suffer on the cross, he ascended into heaven,
whence he shall at the last again descend to
pronounce the judgment of the world ".
With regard to the Holy Spirit, Justin
speaks of him as the inspirer of the Pro
phets", and the common object of divine
worship with the Father and the Son^ ; he
also attributes actions and operations to
him clearly implying personality''. On a
review of his whole statements, we must,
I think, fully assent to the just and guarded
conclusion of Bishop Kaye. " We cannot
doubt that Justin maintained a real Trinity,
but whether he would have explained it
preciselyaccording to the Athanasian scheme
is not equally clear'."
' Dial. pp. 286, 291.
"' Dial. pp. 330, 337.
° Apol. i. p. 88.
» Dial. p. 341.
" Apol. i. p. 60.
^ Dial. pp. 255,-341.
" Some account of writings and opinions of Justin

LECTURE IIL 151
We trace the influence of his philoso
phical habits of thought in the language by
Martyr, p. 73. With reference to the imputation which
the Socinians have endeavoured to cast on Justin, that
he himself corrupted the simplicity of the primitive
Christian faith by borrowing and introducing the
Platonic dogma of a Trinity, I have in another work
examined as fully as I was able into these notices of a
supposed Platonic Trinity ; and I will only here repeat
my conviction, that all who have carefully gone through
such a process, must feel that Justin in truth distorted
the views of Plato by an injudicious attempt to bend
them into an imaginary resemblance to the truths of
Christianity, from a weak desire, the better to recom
mend those truths to the mind of the philosophical Gen
tiles. Of all unfounded objections to this doctrine, none
can be more so than the attempt to refer it to the dogmata
of the Academy. In the same publication, I had also
occasion to discuss the well-known passage of Justin,
from which Priestiy endeavoured to infer that a belief
in the simple humanity of Christ was common among
Christians in that day ; whereas the wordsreally imply the
very contrary. For Justin, in his Dialogue with Trypho,
where he mentions, " some tivsj, oI; ov^ <ruvTlisix,M oiiS'
cfv TrXsToToi TavTa ft-oi lo^aXfivrss e'tiroisv, to whom I myself
do not assent, no, not although a majority of the same
Christian sentiments with myself should thus speak."
The force of this negative conditional surely is equiva
lent to the assertion, that they actually were few. I need
only refer the reader to Horsley's convincing answer to
Paley. The subject also has been ably noticed in Heber's
Bampton Lectures.

152 LECTURE ill.
which he defines, and the comparison by
which he illustrates, the generation of
the Son from the Father; asserting this
divine power to have been generated from
the Father, " not by abscission or division of
the paternal substance, since things which
have undergone such processes are no longer
the same as prior to their sections." He
employs as an illustration the new fires
kindled from a former fire, which continues
undiminished by the operation, and remains
still the same ^
If it be objected, that in some passages
Justin appears to intimate an inferiority
of the Son to the Father, as in the several
tnstances in the Dialogue in which he asserts
his appearing to the Patriarchs as the
minister and messenger of the Father ; the
very context will sufficiently explain these,
as having relation only to the office borne
by Christ in the divine economy as the
Mediator of every dispensation.
With respect to the doctrines of grace,
as they are usually termed, we find in
Justin distinct recognitions of the fall of
• Dial. p. 358.

LECTURE III. 153
the whole human race through the trans
gression of its first parent *, and the conse
quent general sinfulness of our nature";
from this sinfulness and all its effects,
Christ, he tells us, purifieth through his
blood all them that believe". In his stripes
there is healing to as many as come to the
Father through him^; for the Father of all
willed that his own Christ should bear the
curse ^. Faith in his blood has ever been
the great source of our purification"; all
the sacrifices of the law were only the
types of his one-sufficient sacrifice'', and
thus also Abraham, being yet in uncircum-
cision, was justified by faith.
With regard to the more intricate ques
tion, of the conciliation of the foreknow
ledge of God and the free will of man, we
find Justin "" strongly maintaining both these
doctrines. Here his views decidedly favour
the Arminian, in opposition to the Cal-
vinistic, or rather Augustinian, hypothesis,
yet there is nothing in his mode of treating
'Dial. p. 316. " Apol. i. p. 58. " Apol. i. p. 74.
y Dial. p. 234. ^ Dial. p. 322. " Dial. pp. 241,
319. " Dial. p. 259. ' Ap. i. c. 5, 8.

154 LECTURE IIL
these difficult points which can afford just
cause of offence to any candid enquirer,
whatever conclusion he may himself be
inclined to adopt.
Justin is led into his discussion of this
subject from its connection with the argu
ment from prophecy. " When we thus
say" (he argues) " that future events are
the subjects of prophecy, we are far
from considering that these events happen
through any fatal necessity, elpapfiivrj dv-
dyKT] ; nor do we conceive this to be any
necessary consequence of the fact, that all
the actions of men must be subject to the
prescience of God." Justin strongly main
tains that the freedom of Trpoaipeai^ is the
necessary foundation of moral responsi
bility, and the great distinction which
raises the soul of man, as capable of
voluntary and moral agency, above the
vital principle of inferior animals and vege
tables^.
'' It is quite imnecessary to observe, how much in
these passages we find the disciple of the Academy
buckling on his old philosophical armour against the
•necessity of the stoics. They occur ApoLi. c. 54. p. 80.
et seq.

LECTURE III. 155
Though these sentiments will, of course,
meet with more favourable acceptance from
one than the other of those parties, which
in every age, since philosophical speculation
was first directed to such subjects, have ever
existed ; and, tiU in another state we finally
know even as we are known, will ever con
tinue ; still they are far too temperately
stated to give offence to any ; and the age
happily had not yet arrived, when the
Church was to be rent by angry discussions
on these abstruse points.
A still larger proportion of the Christian
Church, however, may be inclined to ques
tion the soundness of Justin's judgment,
when in common with one earlier* and

' This opinion had, forty years before the time of
Justin, found an advocate in Papias, one of the most
immediate successors of the Apostolical period, and
himself, according to Irenaeus, a disciple of St. John ;
but Eusebius (H. E. iii. 35.) very justly remarks, that
Papias himself, in a passage which he has there quoted,
(and which forms the only passage preserved of his
writings,) states very distinctly, that he had never en
joyed in his own person any intercourse with the
Apostles, but had sought his information from others
who had themselves possessed that advantage. More
over the John, from whom he had thus at secondhand

156 LECTURE IIL
many later Fathers* he deduced from a
literal interpretation of the Apocalyptic pro
phecies, and Isaiah Ixv. 1 7, the opinion of an
actual reign of the saints and of restored
Israel, for a thousand years, in an earthly
and material Jerusalem. This opinion hav
ing subsequently become intermingled with
much of extravagant and fanciful specula
tion, was ultimately rejected by the general
body of the Church^, By Justin, however,
received the tradition on which he rested his opinion of
the Millenium, does not appear to have been the beloved
Evangelist, hut another disciple of our Lord, whom
Papias distinguishes from the former as John the Elder.
The tradition itself appears to have ascribed a prophecy
clearly of rabbinical character concerning the extra
ordinary fertility of the Millenial period to, our Lord
himself. The whole internal evidence must induce us
to coincide with the sentence of Eusebius on this
matter: " that Papias, being a man of very narrow
judgment, (as by his books then extant plainly appeared,)
was deceived by his credulity to ascribe strange parables
to our Saviour, mixed with fabulous doctrine concerning
a corporeal Millenium, and was incapable of duly
weighing or properly understanding the true meaning
of the Prophecies in question." In the Article on
Papias in the first vol. of Routh's Rel. Sacrse, full
information on this subject will be found.
'' Especially Irenaeus and Tertullian.
t' Dionysius, a celebrated Bishop of Alexandria in
the middle of the third century, (who, in the general

LECTURE III. 157
it was very temperately held, and announced
by him with great moderation. In the
Dialogue'', when questioned what the opi
nion of Christians on this subject really
was, he begins his reply with the candid
admission, that many pious and pure Chris
tians differed from his views on this point ;
but that he himself, and those whom he
considered as most entirely correct in their
opinions, bpdoyvmfJLOves Kara ivdvTa, were per-
plague recorded by Cyprian, appears to have rivalled
" Marseilles good Bishop,") wrote a treatise " On the
Promises of God," expressly to confute these Millena-
rian opinions, as advocated by one Nepos, an Egyptian
Bishop, apparently of pious but enthusiastic disposition ;
they appear then to have assumed a grossly corporeal
and Judaical character. Dionysius also convened a
local council on this subject at Arstenoita, and, by
temperate and judicious discipline, succeeded in per
suading its advocates, and especially Coracion their cham
pion. (Euseb. H. E. vii. c. 22, 23.) Jerome stigmatizes
the notion of a Millenium as a Jewish fable, and calls
those who embraced it half Jews. (See Ezek. xxxvi. 38.)
And Augustin (Civ. Dei, xx. 7.) condemns the inter
pretation of the Chiliasts. Philostorgias enumerates
Millenarianism among heresies. The heresiarch Ce-
rinthus is said to have held out to his followers a com
pletely sensual Millenium. The Montanists also embraced
this notion, and carried it to the greatest extravagance.
" Dial. XXX. 6.

153 LECTURE III.
suaded that, after the first resurrection,
Jerusalem should be rebuilt, enlarged, and
adorned, and occupied a thousand years by
the triumphant Church'.
We are also constrained to notice another
weak and erroneous notion, far less defen
sible, because its claim to rest on an appa
rent though misconceived scriptural found
ation is so greatly inferior ; and which
yet was unhappily shared by Justin, with
many of the early Fathers. I allude to
what may be called their strange theories
of dsemonology. These theories may be
thus shortly stated. The sons of God, men
tioned Gen. vi. 1, were believed to have
' Having mentioned Justin's moderation and candour
on this subject, I would here observe, that we have an
equally gratifying example of the same qualities in
respect of those who differed from his own opinions on
the far more trying question concerning those Judaizing
sects, who, together with the profession of Christianity,
thought it incumbent to retain a strict observance of the
ceremonial law. In reply to Trypho's question, with
regard to the safety of those who held such sentiments,
his answer is altogether tolerant; admitting them freely
to retain their own views, and only requiring that they
should refrain from imposing the same yoke on others,
which it pleased themselves to bear.

LECTURE III. 159
been angels employed by God as ministerial
agents in the administration of this lower
world ; but who fell from their high sta
tions, being betrayed by their passions into
intercourse with the daughters of men.
The offspring of this connection were dae
mons, beings of a middle order, but of
greatly superior power and intelligence to
our own race, with which they maintained
a close intercourse, and deluded the nations
to ascribe to them divine honours ; thus
seeking to be fed by the odours of their
sacrifices. Thus these daemons became the
gods of the Gentile world. Justin supposes
that they had studied the prophetical Scrip
tures, and, in order to divert men's minds
from the reception of the truth by parallel
fictions, had derived a considerable portion
of the mythological fables which they spread
abroad, from their views of the things
foretold in the sacred prophecies, in which
however they were frequently mistaken.
It is quite painful to read many of the
strange parallels adduced by Justin in
illustration of these views'' ; for the religious
' Apol. i. p. 88—90.

160 LECTURE III.
mind cannot easily tolerate such an asso
ciation of the truths which it is accus
tomed to revere as most sacred, with ab
surdities rejected by it with loathing and
disgust. Much as we must lament that minds of
such sincere piety should have been betrayed
into superstitions so injudicious, we should
yet recollect, that the circumstances under
which these minds were originally trained
and formed will sufficiently account for, and
thus far extenuate, opinions w^hich to our
selves must appear equally extraordinary
and weak. Justin, in common with his
contemporaries, had his reasoning powers
only recently disenthralled from the mytho
logical fables of classical polytheism, and
his studies in the academy were in this
respect calculated rather to rivet more
closely than to disabuse him from the super
stitious notions to which I have alluded.
For all who are intimately acquainted with
the very mystical philosophy of Plato must
well know, that most of the essential
features of this theory of daemonology are
fully developed in more than one of his

LECTURE III. 161
Dialogues ''. Similar ideas, derived very
possibly through the channel of the Alexan
drian schools from this very source, had
deeply infected the later Rabbinical writings
of the Jews; and in the apocryphal book
of Enoch', we find the foundation of these
•^ See especially the Timseus (ed. Ser. t. iii. p. 41.)
and the Banquet, (same vol. 201, 203.) We here find
the whole theory of the administration of nature as com
mitted bythe supreme Deity to daemons delegated by him,
and the dependence of these daemons for their sustenance
on the sacrifices offered up, fully stated. I may refer to Note
20, to Burton's Bampton Lectures (p. 3 17.) on this subject.
' The passage of the Pseudo Enoch referred to may
be seen in the extract, and found in Grabe's Spici-
legium Patrum, i. 347. These angels are called 'Eygijyogoi,
watchers, and their numbers and names are distinctly
given ; their offspring by their human spouses were in
the first generation giants, in the second, Na^rjXeip,, in
the third, 'EXiouS. These watchers instructed mortals
in enchantments, astrology, metallurgy, &c. Philo
Judaeus explains Gen. vi. 1. as usual, by wild and unin
telligible allegories. The sons of God are made to typify
the souls of men ; and we are told that some of these hea
venly emanations, instead of choosing the daughters of
right reason, science, &c. became enamoured of the merely
mortal race of lusts and pleasures. Josephus, and most of
the Rabbis, agree M'ith the interpretation of the Pseudo
Enoch. The Chaldee Paraphrast, however, and Aben
Ezra interpret the text more soberly, and apply it to the
children of Seth, who retain the worship of God. The
Fathers who followed the daemonological opinions of
M

162 LECTURE IIL
legends, in the interpretation of Gen. vi. 1,
distinctly inculcated. On the whole then
we ought to ascribe such superstitions far
more to the genius of the age, than to the
intellect of the individuals who may have
entertained them ; and we rejoice to find,
that when Christian views had attained a
larger ascendancy over the human mind,
Jerome and Chrysostom, and the more
judicious Fathers of the fourth century,
very generally rejected these weak notions.
With equal want of judgment, perhaps,
but assuredly without equal offence, Justin
asserts"", that Plato derived his views of
creation from the Word speaking by the
Justin are, Clemens Alexandrinus, (Paed. iii. 2. and
Strom, iii. and vi.) Athenagoras, (Apol.) Irenseus, (iv. 70.)
Tertullian, (de Virg. Vel. et de Habitu Mul.) Cyprian, (de
Van. Idol.) Lactantius, (ii. 15.) and some others ; but
in the fourth century, the Fathers generally embraced
much more judicious views. Augustin indeed, (Civ.
Dei, XV. 23, 24.) merely considers the arguments on both
sides, and pronounces no definite conclusion ; but in his
questions on Genesis, he evidently inclines to regard the
sons of God as the descendants of Seth ; and Jerome,
Chrysostom, and many later authorities, entirely embrace
this interpretation. See a learned note by Feuardentius
on Irenaeus iv. 70. p. 371.
¦" Ap. i. 76.

LECTURE III. 163
Prophets, and especially by Moses, whose
writings were so far anterior to all the
boasted literature of Greece. Justin not
only supposed Plato to have carefully
studied the Mosaic writings, but also to
have derived a more direct knowledge of
theological truth, from the light commu
nicated to himself by the A0r02. For
under this title, as indicating the general
principle of reason, (originally in every
case imparted from the divinity,) Justin
appears to have conceived that Christ had
in every age acted on the souls of men, so
that all who had ever lived /xera Xoyov,
were in fact, unconsciously, Christians,
although they lived long before the Saviour's
manifestation in the flesh ". These opinions,
of which it must be quite unnecessary to
point out the dangerous and latitudinarian
tendency, he adduces in order to answer
the objections which might otherwise be
built on the late appearance of Christ to
reveal the truth to men. Hence Justin
supposes, that Socrates and Herachtus de
rived their more correct views of the divine
* Ap. i. 61.
M 2

164 LECTURE III.
nature ; and were on that account perse
cuted through the instigation of the
daemons whose false religion was threat
ened by the influence of their philosophy.
He therefore inclines to extend all the
benefits of the Christian scheme to the true
followers of right reason, and especially
to those w^hom that reason had conducted
to conceptions of the divine nature more
sublime and correct than the vulgar
notions. Now, although many may justly
scruple to consider themselves as author
ized to restrict the benefits of that only
name given to men for salvation, to those
alone who in this scene have been called
to its knowledge ; yet few probably will
consider the arguments and expressions
by which Justin has endeavoured to solve
this difficulty, either sound or satisfactory.
Of the soul of man, Justin speaks as
deriving its immortality, not from its own
essential nature, but from the good pleasure
of God alone". In the intermediate state,
the souls of the good and the wicked will
each (according to him) be located in their
" Dial. p. 222.

LECTURE III. 165
proper place, and after the judgment, the
former will enjoy their perfect consumma
tion in eternal life and bliss, and the latter
be reserved in punishment so long as God
shall will to continue this penal existence :
His language perhaps may be thought to
favour the idea, that a termination to all
misery may possibly enter into the divine
counselsP : but he hazards no express
assertion to this effect, and carefully guards
against the consequences that would seem
to hold out any encouragement to the
guilty. While therefore we may hesitate
to concur in sentiments on such a point,
which can rest on no better basis than un
authorized speculation, we are not called
upon to visit expressions so modest and
cautious with any extreme harshness of
critical censure''.
•* Yet in a passage of Apol. i. p. 57. Justin appears
to speak decidedly of the eternity of future punishment ;
T«Jv 8e aS/xcov [(r(ofji.a.Ta] Iv ala-^ri<rsi Muivia., el; to moiviov Tvg
TTSjM.vI'el. '' It should perhaps be here mentioned, that he enter
tained a fanciful notion, that the souls of the faithful
remained before the incarnation of our Lord subject
in some degree to the power of evil spirits; of which he

166 LECTURE III.
In practical morals, the views of Justin,
in common with those of most of the
Fathers, may probably be considered as
leaning to the extreme of a self-imposed
asceticism ; his language assuredly implies
an opinion of the superior merit of celibacy,
and he would clearly have favoured the
exactions of the monogamists'. Such in
judicious excesses we must always deplore,
and learn from them properly to estimate
the great superiority of the scriptural pre
cepts, equally holy and pure, and far more
practical and prudent. But, surely, since
the infirmity of human judgment is so prone
to run into extremes, the extreme adopted
by these pious Fathers of exaggerated re
straint is at least far more safe, than that
so much more common of unbridled in
dulgence. In regard to the ceremonies of the
Church, the often quoted sections^ towards
the conclusion of the first Apology state
alleges the evocation of the spirit of Saul by the witch
of Endor as an example.
' Dial. p. 333.
' Ap. i. c. 79. ad fin. p. 93—99.

LECTURE IIL 167
generally, but distinctly, the simple but
venerable forms which then obtained in the
administration of the two Christian Sacra
ments. Baptism he always speaks of, not
only as the sacramental sign of regenera
tion, but as absolutely conveying at the
time all the spiritual graces and illumina
tion which are implied in that compre
hensive term ; but then it must be re
membered, that many of his expressions
on this subject are such as will only bear
on application to the case of the baptism
of adult converts, having embraced the faith
with full conviction of their whole souls,
and thus becoming, as he says, the children
of deliberate election and knowledge. I
do not indeed mean to imply a doubt, that
the infants of the faithful were in that age
admitted to baptism^; but under the cir
cumstances of the time, it was natural that
the baptism of adult and perfectly in
structed converts should far more pro-
' This I think may fairly be inferred, from the nu
merous passages in his Dialogue, in which he speaks of
Baptism as having replaced Circumcision.

168 LECTURE III.
minently engage the mind, when that
sacrament was under discussion.
The language applied to the Eucharist is
such as strongly asserts the real, that is,
efficacious, presence" of the body and blood
of our Lord ; but cannot without force be
applied to the Romanist explanation of that
presence, by the hypothesis of transubstan-
tiation. And when Justin applies the term
Ova-id^ to this sacrament, it has been justly
observed, that as he expressly ^asserts prayer
and praise to be alone recognized in the
Christian religion as acceptable sacrifices to
God, this expression should fairly be con-
" I here as elsewhere use this expression in the sense
which I believe to belong to the adverbs " verily and
indeed," as applied to the same subject by our own
Church, namely, as denoting a true and efficient spi
ritual presence, by which all the graces obtained by the
sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ are actually
conveyed to the souls of the faithful in this sacrament.
This is quite distinct from any thing resembling the
doctrine of a carnal and corporeal presence. This view
of the subject is fully and explicitly set forth in the
important tract of Ratram, when in the ninth century
the present Romanist hypothesis made its first appear
ance. " Dial. p. 260. y Dial. p. 345.

LECTURE III. 169
sidered as including these essential accom
paniments. I have thus endeavoured to give a fair
and faithful view of the writings and opi
nions of this early Father without exagge
ration or extenuation^, and the impression
on my own mind is decidedly, that while
we have the greatest cause to be grateful
that our faith has not been left to the
guidance of w^ritings so mingled with hu
man error and infirmity of judgment, we
have still ample reason to cherish them as
a very valuable addition to our theological
stores, and to treat them with unfeigned
respect. I need not now detain your attention by
any particular examination of the scanty
remains of Tatian, the pupil of Justin, a
' It surely cannot be expected that I should here
enter into an examination of the chronological errors
attributed to him, or enter into the discussion, whether,
in reporting that the Romans erected on the banks of
the Tiber an altar to Simon Magus, simoni deo sancto,
he was or was not led into a mistake by the still extant
altar to a Sabine God, semoni sancto. Burton, in his
notes to his Bampton Lectures, defends Justin's accu
racy. Neither do I feel called upon to discuss the
references which Justin makes to the forged books of
the Sybil and of Hystaspes.

170 LECTURE III.
man of ambitious and irregular mind. He
was only kept stedfast in the paths of
orthodoxy during the life of his preceptor,
whose better influence checked his tendency
to extravagance; but after his death he
lapsed into the grossest heresies. His ex
cessive austerity of disposition having al
ways inclined him to regard matter as
essentially evil, he the more easily fell into
the errors of dualism like that of Marcion,
representing the Creator of the material
world as an evil principle ; and in con
formity with such views he enjoined on
his followers an entire abstinence from
every common use of life, as connected
with the service of this author of its
corporeal existence, and founded the here
tical sect denominated Encratites. It is
true that his address to the Greeks, his
only remaining work, was composed during
his earlier period of orthodoxy. But still
it is excursive in style and feeble in exe
cution ; and its only value appears to con
sist in the light which it is sometimes
calculated to throw on the sentiments of
his master Justin.

LECTURE III. 171
But I proceed with more gratification to
select, as the concluding subject of this
Lecture, Athenagoras, a native of Athens,
and, as his writings sufficiently attest, dis
tinguished by a considerable proficiency of
philosophical attainment. We are informed''
that he was originally opposed to Christi
anity, and had undertaken to write a treatise
in confutation of what he regarded as a novel
superstition. But he felt himself obliged
for this purpose to study the writings,
whose pretensions as a divine revelation
he designed to expose, in order that he
might proceed to his task with the advan
tages of accurate information ; and the
study so commenced in the prejudice of
scornful unbelief, concluded in the con
viction of a firm and humble faith. Thus
did he afford a most memorable instance of
" By Philip Sidetes, a writer of the fifth century. We
know no other particulars of his private history. He is
indeed said to have once presided over the Catechetical
School of Alexandria; but as Clemens Alexandrinus
and Origen never mention his name, as they do that of
Pontaenus and others connected with this institution,
I am not inclined to place any reliance on this state
ment.

172 LECTURE III.
genuine conversion, effected not by the
teaching of man, but by the power of the
word of God. He sat down to the perusal
of the Christian Scriptures the antagonist
of the religion they taught; he arose its
determined advocate ; and his proposed
refutation became exchanged for the Apo
logy which we have now to consider. It
is entitled npea-fiela, an embassy, and from
that name he is supposed to have presented
it as a deputy from the Christians of his
own city to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
and his son the degenerate Commodus*=.
In this Apology, Athenagoras employs
almost exactly the same topics which we
have already seen urged by Justin. Like
him he claims for Christians the ordinary
forms of justice, extended to every other
class of the accused; like him he repels,
with a natural burst of indignation, the
atrocious calumnies, thrown out against the
Christian assemblies; like him he appeals
to the sublime doctrines of Christianity, as
' Authorities are divided as to the exact date, varying
from 166 to 178; the latter has the strongest argument
in its favour.

LECTURE III. 173
placed in the strongest contrast to the ab
surd fables of heathen mythology; like him
he pleads the vast superiority of the moral
code of the Gospel above every other
system. But on all these topics he insists,
with an energy of eloquence and force of
argument far superior to the former advo
cate ; of which we are, perhaps, more
sensible, from the purely Attic style in
which those arguments are clothed. Many
of his appeals may fairly be cited as models
of this species of composition. The re
spectful yet manly firmness of his address
to Caesar, almost parallels that of St. Paul to
Agrippa ; and his exposition of the sublime
conceptions of the Divine nature, so pecu
liar to Christianity, and yet so agreeable to
the best reason of man, will bear a com
parison with the harangue of that Apostle
in the Areopagus. It is indeed most in
teresting to consider these arguments as
proceeding from a native of that very intel
lectual city, and from a member of those
very philosophical sects, to which the word
of truth had for the first been addressed
about a century previously, in a manner so

174 LECTURE III.
forcible and memorable. It is from a phi
losopher thus connected, that we now pro
ceed to cite the following just and sublime
views of the nature of that unknown God,
whom his ancestors so ignorantly wor
shipped. " I have already sufficiently shewn," he
observes, " how falsely the charge of
atheism is imputed to us, who declare unto
you the one supreme God, unbegotten,
eternal, invisible, impassible ; whom no
place can contain, and who can be com
prehended by the faculties of the mind
alone; whose essence consists in ineffable
light, and beauty, and spirit, and power ;
by whom all things were made, through
his word, by the which they were arranged
and established. For we also intellectually
apprehend the Son of God, who is the
Word of the Father in idea and energy ;
for by him, and through him, all things
consist ; since the Father and the Son are
one, so that the Son is in the Father, and
the Father in the Son, by the union and
power of the Spirit ''. For we thus assert
*' I have here omitted some sentences concerning the

LECTURE III. 175
the existence of God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost ; and thus
explain their unity in power, and distinction
in order." Athenagoras has likewise left us an
elaborate treatise on the resurrection ; for
that preaching of Jesus and the resurrec
tion, which once sounded so strange in the
ears of his ancestors, was now received by
him in all its parts. This treatise consists
of two divisions ; in the former the author
eternal existence of Christ, as the Ao'yoj eviiaSsTos of the
Father, and his procession forth for the work of creation
as the archetypal idea and perfection of the universe.
The whole passage is, I think, obscured by the intro
duction of Platonic language. This particularly affects
what he says of the work of creation, in which he seems
hardly to escape the great error of that and all the other
philosophical schools, and expresses himself so incau
tiously, that he almost appears to speak of matter as
if of itself pre-existent, and rather reduced into order
than originally produced by the Divine energy, in a
proper act of creation. In many of the statements of the
philosophical Fathers concerning the doctrine of the
Trinity, we assuredly often desiderate the simplicity of
the Apostolical enunciation of these mysterious truths.
Justin also (Apol. i. p. 92.) speaks in unguarded and
Platonic expressions of the creation of the universe, as
if from pre-existent but amorphous matter, vkijv S.fi.og-
<^<)y oWav Tgs^otVTx tov Qsov xoa'i^.ov Troiijcrai,

176 LECTURE III.
undertakes to refute the objections which
might be advanced against the resurrection
of the body from the universal dissolu
tion of every particle of the human frame
in the dust of death ; from the new, com
binations into which those particles con
stantly enter, and the circumstance that
human bodies occasionally become the prey
of carnivorous animals, and the like. All
such objections he meets by a reference to
that divine power, which can find no
greater difficulty in recollecting and recon
structing, than in originally creating the
substance of our frames. He also enters
into some more minute arguments, which
might well have been spared, as to the
process by which animals partially as
similate and partially reject the particles
of the substances by which they are nou
rished, in order to obviate the suspicion,
that by any cycle of successive appropria
tions, the same particles could ever enter
into the composition of two human bodies.
But surely the more philosophical view
of the whole subject is to consider, that the
true personal identity of man does not

LECTURE IIL 177
depend on the identity of the material par
ticles of his frame, always in a flux state, and
undergoing a total change in a limited num
ber of years ; but that even in our present
condition our only permanent identity is that
of the one and constant indwelling Spirit,
animating and occupying these variable
external integuments. Still less philoso
phical does it seem to require the replace
ment of the individual particles belonging
to any one of the many successive and
different corporeal frames we may have
possessed while on earth, in order to con
stitute the new body wherewith we shall
be clothed when the trumpet shall have
sounded, and we shall be changed ; when
this natural body shall have become a spi
ritual body, adapted in all its parts and
purposes to a mode of existence entirely
distinct from any which it has before
known ; when this corruptible shall have
put on incorruption, and this mortal im-
mortaUty ; when we shall no longer bear
about with us the image of the first man
of the earth, earthy, but of the second
N

178 LECTURE III.
man, the Lord from heaven, being made
like unto his glorious body, according to
the mighty working whereby he is able
to subdue all things unto himself. How
much more sublime, and how much more
consentaneous to our highest reason, is not
the language of the Apostle than that of
any human speculator, on this great sub
ject ; and if we consider them as philo
sophers only in their mode of treating it,
how infinitely superior does not Paul of
Tarsus appear, as compared with Athena
goras of Athens !
The second part of this treatise unfolds the
positive arguments in favour of the resurrec
tion of the body, principally founded on the
consideration, that as man is a compound
being consisting of body as well as soul, the
restoration of his material no less than that of
his spiritual portion is requisite, in order to
complete the integrity of his nature ; and
that as all his deeds have been done not by
the soul alone, but in the flesh, it were
inconsistent with the equity of God's final
judgment, if the award did not extend

LECTURE III. 179
to both the partners in the actions subjected
to it' ; to the whole man, in short, raised
to a new life for this very purpose.
In both these treatises of Athenagoras,
if we compare them with the writings of
Justin, we shall find numerous examples
of a coincidence of thought so very close,
and that often where the trains of reason
ing are far from obvious, that it is almost
impossible to resist the persuasion, that
the one must have seen the writings of the
other ; or that both must have borrowed
from the same common school of philo
sophizing Christians. We must regret to
find in both the same extravagant daemon
ological theories, the same exaggerated and
monastic notions of the superior parity of
a life of celibacy. Athenagoras expressly
condemns every case of second marriage,
though so decidedly sanctioned by St. Paul,
as no better than a specious adultery, ev-
Trpeirrjs fioixela.
In Athenagoras we find no explicit state
ments bearing on the atonement, or the
' Yet surely we cannot speak of matter as the subject
of any moral reward.
n2

180 LECTURE III.
doctrines of grace ; but we need not surely
ascribe this to any deficiency in his own
views on these all-important subjects, when
we remember that he was not addressing
an epistle of edification to those who ad
mitted the doctrines of Christianity, but a
vindication to the imperial government of
their heathen persecutors. In this he very
naturally insists rather on the excellence
of their morality as an exoteric topic, than
on any esoteric doctrines of the faith ; and
this argument he forcibly presses, by in
viting (as Justin had done before) atten
tion to our blessed Saviour's unrivalled
precepts of meekness, charity, holiness,
and purity. This topic he thus impressively
winds up, " Which of the philosophers,
engaged in all the subtleties of logical re
search, have ever inculcated precepts such
as these? With them indeed their pro
fession is a mere rhetorical flourish, not a
rule of life ; but among us you may find
common artisans, the poor, the illiterate,
and the aged; these, although they may
not eloquently declaim on the excellence of
their profession, display it in their practice ;

LECTURE III. 181
they do not seek to store their memory
with empty words, but to manifest by
their virtuous conduct the principles they
cherish." In this author we meet with no allusions
to the discipline or rites of the Church.
Passages occur in his writings from each
of the four Gospels, and we find many
coincidences with the Apostolical Epistles,
but only one express reference. (1 Cor. xv.)
In the hasty survey I have taken of these
Fathers, I especially trust, that both my
opinions and language have been preserved
from the slightest tendency to disrespectful
feelings towards the time-honoured names
of these our ancestors in the faith. I have
indeed felt it my imperative duty explicitly
to state the grounds on which I would sug
gest to the younger theological student the
necessity of due caution, before he proposes
to surrender his judgment, with a blind and
implicit submission, to authorities which,
being merely human, must of necessity be
fallible; deeply convinced, that thus to
exchange the pure well of Scripture unde-
filed, for streams tinctured by the infusions

182 LECTURE III.
of mere earthly channels, were to inflict a
grievous injury on the sound cause of
Christian truth. But little less injurious
should I esteem it, to flatter the false pre
tensions to enlarged views, of an age too
often bordering on the semi-sceptical, by
assuming a tone of scornful depreciation,
where dispositions of affectionate respect,
though not superstitious veneration, must
be so much more congenial to every breast
that feels rightly : and greatly should I
fear lest any random shafts, rashly aimed
against these Fathers in the faith, should
chance to lodge in the vitals of the faith
itself. We have not indeed attempted to
conceal that they had their weaknesses, and
even errors ; but we are surely bound to
take into our candid consideration the
degree in which these defects were the
natural results of the circumstances under
which they were placed. They were in
deed the honoured instruments through
which have been transmitted to us the
inestimable treasure of Christianity. But
the voice of inspiration itself has warned
us, that this treasure was necessarily con-

LECTURE III. 183
veyed in earthen vessels. Now it is the
common accident of such vessels, that they
may impart to that which they convey some
slight extraneous flavour, derived from the
infusion they may have originally imbibed ;
and the remark on the retentive conserva
tion of such original infusions, is trite to a
proverb. We should remember, therefore,
that these primitive converts had been
originally trained in a moral and intellec
tual state of society of a far different
character from that which has been gra
dually developed by centuries of what may
be called the educational process effected
by long- established Christianity. It cannot
therefore be surprising, that minds, having
imbibed their first ideas of religion from
the altars of them that were no gods, and
of reason from the schools of sophists
rather than philosophers, should occasion
ally exhibit views less exalted, less refined,
and less judicious, than ought to be familiar
to generations which have drawn in their
first breath in an atmosphere long pervaded
by the ethereal spirit of Christianity, and
have, it may be unconsciously to them-

184 LECTURE III.
selves, drank in some infusion of these
purifying principles almost with their mo
ther's milk. If then we make in behalf of
these early Christians this allowance for
some slight remaining tinge of the super
stitions familiar to their infancy, and the
empty philosophy in which their youth had
been trained, what more of error can be
imputed to them that is not altogether
innocent in its source, and comparatively
harmless in its effects ? What if any of
these Fathers, having Christ in their hearts
when they searched the Scriptures which
they valued chiefly as testifying of him,
imagined that they could detect such a
latent testimony in texts, which to a more
correct judgment may appear little capable
of such an application : — what if, glorying
like St. Paul only in his cross, they fancied
they discerned in many of the objects of
nature and art most foreign to such rela
tions the types of that image so deeply
impressed on their own breasts : — yet surely
an excess of this kind is far less faulty in
its principle, and far less fatal in its results,
than that dry, hard, and cold spirit, so

LECTURE III. 185
much more common, which cares for none
of these things, and which is secured from
all such errors of a warm and enthusiastic
imagination less by the force of reason than
by the calmness of indifference. I should
therefore esteem myself ill to have dis
charged an office which brings me neces
sarily into contact with so many young and
enquiring minds, were not the sentiments
I should anxiously wish to leave impressed
on them, after such a discussion, sentiments
which should fix their regards on the vast
improvements effected by Christianity from
its first appearance, rather than on the slight
blemishes which may still have adhered to
intellects but recently opened to its purify
ing influence; sentiments which should
teach them to love and honour all who
from the beginning have loved and honoured
our common Saviour.

LECTURE IV.

1 Thess. v. 21.
Prove all things. Holdfast that which is good.
The unity and natural connection of our
subject will be far better preserved, by
considering the early ecclesiastical writers
as arranged under the very strongly marked
classes to which their characteristic features
obviously refer them, rather than by pur
suing an exact chronological order. Our
last Lecture was devoted to the earliest
specimens of the philosophical class of
Fathers ; and I now therefore propose to
proceed to their successors of the Alexan
drian school, before I enter on the consi
deration of Irenseus and Tertullian, the
more dogmatical opponents of the early
heretics. The writers, who will thus demand our
present notice, were so closely connected
with the schools of Alexandria, and owed
so much of their distinctive character to
that connection, that we shall scarcely

LECTURE IV. 187
form a right apprehension of their true
position, without first bestowing a few mo
ments' attention on the circumstances of
the local institutions under which they were
formed. That mighty emporium of the
traffic of the ancient world, by its flourish
ing prospects from its very foundation, gave
the proudest attestation to the profound
political sagacity of the distinguished con
queror whose name it bore. Starting at
once into the general central depot of the
commerce of nations, it speedily became by
a natural consequence the centre also of
their science and learning, for these have
ever been found to follow in the train of
commerce. The philosophical schools of
Athens were soon transplanted, and flou
rished on the banks of Nile, with greater
vigour than even on those of Ilissus ; and
it was here that the science of Greece most
nearly rivalled that which forms the pride
of modern Europe. It was here also that
the philosophy of that intellectual people
first came into contact with the theology
derived from a higher and purer source.
The Jews of the dispersion were then, as

188 LECTURE IV.
now, scattered widely abroad ; and the
active habits of commerce, which already
distinguished them, drew them in crowds
to this great mart, the principal resort of
the nations, peoples, and languages. Under
these circumstances, the Jews were led into
a far more extended intercourse and closer
intimacy with the Gentiles than elsewhere ;
and thus became known by that new name
which well distinguished their blended
character, the Hellenists. For the Greek
became to them a tongue more familiar
than their native Hebrew; their sacred
books were studied rather in the Septuagint
translation than the original ; and all their
habits of thought became proportionally
changed. While in this intercourse they seem to
have persuaded many of the heathens
of the infinite superiority of the sublime
views of the divine nature presented by their
own Scriptures over the absurd mytho
logy of polytheism ; they themselves also
in return received a tinge from the philo
sophical schools which flourished around
them, especially from those of the Platonic

LECTURE IV. 189
sect. This, as has been well observed, may
be traced even in some passages of the
apocryphal books appended to our Bibles,
e. g. Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus ; but it
is more especially obvious in the writings
of Philo Judaeus, (who flourished in the
time of Claudius.) The purer faith became
thus blended with many extravagant meta
physical and psychological speculations,
and above all a most unwarrantable system
of scriptural interpretation was very com
monly introduced, according to which the
simple and literal meaning was, if not
plainly denied, ^J^et kept studiously in the
back ground, and the wildest license of the
most strained allegorical interpretation
substituted in its place. Such were the
circumstances of the Jewish schools of
Alexandria, when the Gospel was first
preached there, according to the most
general tradition, by the Evangelist Mark,
about A.D. 60.
The new faith must have found a protec
tion, to which it was generally a stranger, in
the circumstances of a city whose essentially
cosmopolitan character rendered the fullest

190 LECTURE IV.
toleration indispensable to its political in
terests. Here, as elsewhere, the Gospel
was first preached to the house of Israel m
the synagogue, and thence must probably
have drawn the larger and more influential
portion of its earlier converts. Those whose
bigotted attachment to Jewish forms had
been already somewhat modified by the in
fluence of philosophical views, would pro
bably have been in many instances the most
readily induced to embrace the new faith%
and such converts must have brought over

» It has been supposed by Eusebius, that the ascetic
sect of Therapeutae, very numerous in this district in
the reign of Claudius, were Christian converts. Philo
Judseus has left us a full account of their institutions in
his tract, llsg) Bioti QscogriTixoiJ. They assumed a regular
monastic organization, and subjected themselves to the
rules of a moral discipline, pure indeed, but exaggerated
to the most extravagant excess of austerity ; and as we
are told (Phil. Jud. 691.) that they were in the habit
of studying the Jewish Prophets and Psalms, which they
interpreted allegorically, it is clear they must have been
Hellenistic Jews. As to the hypothesis that they were
Christians, it rather appears that they had existed long
previously to the first promulgation of that faith. It is
however exceedingly probable, that many of these enthu
siastic aspirants after moral purity, may gladly have
received that pure religion.

LECTURE IV. 191
with them their previous philosophical
tastes, and their consequent fondness for
allegorical exposition ; their religion would
therefore now become in too many in
stances a sort of hybrid between Chris
tianity and Platonism, as it had before
betw^een the same school and Judaism. In
its extreme case this was the rank source
whence issued the numerous spawn of
Gnostic heresies.
So widely spread were the Hellenistic
views diffused from this centre, that we
may probably in part attribute to their
influence the philosophical character of the
writers we considered in the former Lec
ture. Justin we know had visited Alex
andria, and Athenagoras is even said, though
on very doubtful authority'', to have pre
sided in its catechetical schools.
At least, as early as the reign of Commo-
das, a very flourishing catechetical school
¦• Philip Sidetes tells us, that he was the instructor of
Clemens Alexandrinus ; but this seems contradictory to
the account of Eusebius, who tells us that Pantsenus
was the master of this Father. Philip's own authority
has ever been reckoned low, and is here supported by
no other evidence.

192 LECTURE IV.
of the Christians was here established.
Eusebius informs us, that Pantsenus, ori
ginally a stoical philosopher, whom he de
scribes as illustrious for his learning, at
that time presided over it, and became the
instructor of his far more distinguished
pupil Clemens Alexandrinus, who succeeded
him in its government', within the first
twenty years of the third century. We
may now proceed to consider the writings
of this Father.
As literary curiosities, these writings
undoubtedly possess the very highest in
terest ; and they also contain much matter
well entitled to higher and more Christian
praise ; many powerful statements of the
converting truths of the Gospel, and affect
ing exhortations to receive those truths in
their full powers, and to find in them holi
ness and salvation. But these sounder por
tions are too commonly alloyed with, and
even corrupted by, an incongruous mixture
" Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 1. vi. c. 6. Pantsenus after
wards became a Missionary in India ; but it is uncertain
whether India proper, or a nearer district sometimes
called by the same name, were the scene of his evan
gelical efforts.

LECTURE IV. 193
of extraneous and irrelevant matter ; frag
ments of multifarious literature, and crude
speculations of a diseased philosophy.
The principal extant works '' of Clemens
consist of three consecutive compositions,
intended for the use of persons considered
in three different stages of progress, with
regard to the Christian life.
1. Enquirers not yet decided converts.
" In one of his works which is now lost, entitled
Hypotyposes, Photius informs us, that many most here
tical opinions had become intermingled ; but it is fair to
add, that his expressions imply that these may possibly
have been interpolated by some other hand. " Ka)
aKKoi. fwpM ^X3ia-(prjix.si xai ipXyagei" eire aurof sits t)j sTsgo;
TO auTOu irgoa-miTov uTroxgi'flsif. The specimens he mentions
are many of them decidedly of a Gnostical tendency.
He particularly cites assertions of the eternity of matter;
of the non-eternity of the second Person of the Trinity ;
that the true Word was never actually incarnate ; but
that an inferior word or secondary emanation from the
former, being itself also a spiritual intelligence, per
vaded a human soul, and thus became manifest to man.
In the remains, however, still preserved, we assuredly
find nothing thus opposed to sound doctrine; though
even, in these, we are often obliged to acquiesce in
another sentence of the judgment pronounced by the
learned Bishop on the Alexandrian Catechist. "Ev rta-i
fjuiv opflaif Soxei Aeyeiv ev tio-i Se iravTsXcof eij ours^s'ii x«i
fiM^oihsii \oyov; sx^egsTai. O

194 LECTURE IV.
2. Catechumens, or the young in the
faith, requiring progressive instruction.
3. Confirmed, advanced, and, as it were,
adult Christians.
It is somewhat singular, that, in our
examination of these works, we shall find
comparatively little that will strike us as
objectionable in the earliest and most ele
mentary ; and that our favourable opinion
will probably decline in exact proportion
with our advance to those professing a
higher character.
The first of these is the Xoyos irpoTpeTr-
n/coy, or, as the author's conception of the
force of this title might be best expressed.
Call to conversion, addressed to the Gen
tiles. It is written in a style of earnest and
glowing eloquence, occasionally, perhaps,
defective in taste, too declamatory and dif
fuse, abounding in repetition, and alto
gether having rather the character of an
extemporaneous harangue, than a studied
written composition ; but the religious
mind will, I conceive, esteem these defects
to be more than compensated, by the
warmth of piety and depth of feeUng with

LECTURE IV. 195
which the author in so many places endea
vours to inculcate the spiritual application
of the principles of Christianity, and to
impress on the souls of those he addresses,
the converting and sanctifying influences
of that holy faith.
Having in the beginning contrasted the
power of Christ with their own mythical
fables of Orpheus and Eunomus, he thus
applies the subject, " My Eunomus indeed
singeth a new song Nrjirevdes dxoXovre KUKWU
eiriXrjdes airaurai', he moveth not the stones
of the earth and the beasts of the forest,
but the stony hearts and brutal passions
of men; for ' we ourselves also,' as the apo
stolic Scripturesaith, (Tit. iii. 3.) ' weresome-
time foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another ;
but after that the kindness and love of God
our Saviour toward man appeared, not by
works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his own mercy he
saved us.' Behold then this new song
what power it hath ; from stones, from
brutes, it hath transformed us into men ;
o 2

196 LECTURE IV.
and those who else were dead, and destitute
of any real vital principle, if once they
listen to this strain, rise to a new life." In
a similar style he proceeds endeavouring to
win their love to the Gospel by warm
representations of this eternal love which
had induced the Divine Word to assume our
suffering nature, and by his earthly min
istry to open the eyes of the blind, and the
ears of the deaf; to guide our feet in the
paths of righteousness ; to free us from sin
and death and hell, by imparting new
powers of leading heavenly lives on earth,
and opening to us the prospect of an
heavenly inheritance hereafter ; for thus
did God become like unto man, that he
might instruct man to become like unto
God^ We need not dwell on the pointed man
ner in which in the body of this treatise
he exposes the gross abominations and
• These passages are extracted from c. i. they are of
necessity very materially condensed ; it was my object
rather to give the essential spirit, than an exact tran
script, of the original ; to have aimed at more, would
have been incompatible with the necessary restrictions
of compositions like these Lectures.

LECTURE IV. 197
absurdities of the vulgar system of idol
atrous Polytheism'; nor follow him where
he insists how uniformly the purer views of
a more intellectual philosophy, and even the
sublimer passages of their poetry, had ever
tended to the inculcation of one supreme
God^. But I would particularly recommend
to your perusal and study, the forcible and
truly Christian exhortations to spiritual con
version which are dispersed through the four
last chapters ''. My present space will only
allow me to select and condense a very few
passages, exhibiting their general spirit.
" Thus saith the Holy Spirit, the mouth of
the Lord, ' Despise not, my son, the disci
pline of the Lord ;' observe, he speaketh not
as a master to his servants, he speaketh
f We may be forcibly reminded of the Suniassee
devotees of India in the following paragraph ; idolatry
has ever been the same. "ISstco ti; uftaJv tov; iragd toI;
elSaiAoij XaTpsvovTctg x6ix.r\ pUTrcuvTaf s<r6riTi Trivaga. km xarsppYj-
yvlu, xa6u/3gi(raftEvooj, KovTgm fj.sv ¦jravTomounv omsigaxov;,
Toi; 8e Tuiv ovv^o'V Scxfj-ciis sxTs6rjpicofji.svov;, TroXXouf Ss xai
Tmv aihiaiv a^jjgyjju-evous, "sgym dstxvuvTag tcov eTSmXojv Ta
Ts/AEvyj, Ta$ou; Tivaj ^ 8ecrjM.«)T^gia.
* This is illustrated by a variety of quotations both
from the extant and lost poetical works.
" Page 68, et seq.

198 LECTURE IV.
not as God to man, but as a father admo
nishing his dear children. ' Come, oh come
then as his children ; for remember, that
unless ye become children by a new birth,
the Scripture plainly testifieth that ye shall
never be able to recover your true Father,
nor to enter his heavenly kingdom, for
that is inaccessible to the stranger and the
alien ; and he alone who is enrolled and
made free of that city, and hath regained
his heavenly Father, shall there dwell in
that Father's house, receive his inheritance,
and enjoy communion with his true and
beloved Son. Such is the Church of the
first-begotten written in the heavens, and
rejoicing around the divine throne with
myriads of angels. Does God freely offer
so great salvation, and will you still blindly
persist to rush into destruction ? Yet does
not that merciful God lay aside his care ;
he is still urgent, encouraging, alarming,
awakening, converting. ' Awake,' saith
he, ' thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
To-day if ye will hear his voice harden not
your hearts ;' and this to-day shall last till

LECTURE IV. 199
that phrase can be used no more. For the
day of instruction shall endure until the con
summation of time itself ; until the real, the
unfading day of God shall be coextended
through eternity. Oh, if an entrance into
that blessed eternity could be purchased,
were not the whole of Pactolus too small a
price .'' yet to you it is freely offered, and
requires but the treasure of a living faith and
love placed in your own possession. Yet
how many cling to this world as the sea
weed to the rocks of the shore, and regard
not this glorious immortality ; but true
religion can be learned effectually from God
alone; he is the only perfect teacher; he
alone has power to renew in man the like
ness of his own image. His inspired word
alone, as St. Paul reminds Timothy, ' can
make wise unto salvation through faith in
Christ.' These are justly called the Holy
Scriptures, for they can indeed impart an
holy and divine nature, being, as the Apo
stle well adds, 'profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, and instruction in righ
teousness, that the man of God may be
thoroughly furnished to every good work ;'

200 LECTURE IV.
every other species of exhortation must ever
fail to move the heart of man, as the word
of God, his truest friend, has power to move
it\" How strongly is not the justice of this
" Extracted and condensed fi-om c. ix. p. 68, et seq.
There is an excellent analysis, or rather abridgment, of
the Xoyoi irgoTgstTTixo; in Bishop Kaye's account of this
Father, but I did not consult this volume till after I had
written the above ; and I find that while we agree in
our general estimate, the particular passages I have
selected and extracted are generally different from those
on which he has dwelt. This may enable those, who
may honour my Lectures by comparing them with this
very superior Dissertation, to form a more complete
idea of this treatise of Clement's, than if we had both
produced the same extracts. Bishop Kaye has some
admirable remarks on the general object of this work.
" The professed aim of Gentile philosophy was to ac
complish the amelioration of human nature ; to render
man superior both to external circumstances, and to his
own appetites and passions, by placing before him a
model of perfect virtue, of which he was never to lose
sight, and to which he was to conform his whole life
and conversation. The philosopher failed to effect his
object, because he was alike ignorant of the true source
of moral obligation, and of the true standard of moral
excellence ; and because he could supply no adequate
sanctions to ensure obedience to his injunctions. The
main design of the hortatory address is to shew, that
the Gospel possessed the recjuisites in which philosophy
was deficient.

LECTURE IV. 201
last remark brought home to our conviction
in study ing the writings of thepresent author,
when we thus find that they derive all that is
truly valuable in them, all their force and
efficacy in winning and converting the souls
of men, to such faithful applications as we
have just examined, of the very words and
spirit of the living oracles of God ! How
much must we not regret, that the mind
capable of so deeply apprehending, and so
earnestly expressing, such high truths,
should ever have quitted the secure guidance
of Scriptural instruction, and gone so widely
astray, wandering after its own inventions !
The second of Clement's three treatises
purports to be dedicated to the moral train
ing of what he esteemed the season of ado
lescence in the Christian life ; as his former
work had relation to its infancy in con
version. It is therefore entitled the TraiSa-
ycoyo9, the guide of youth ; for I must here
again paraphrase rather than translate the
title of the work, since the familiar version
would convey but an inadequate idea of the
significancy of the original term as employed
by Clement. In pursuing this plan, he tells

202 LECTURE IV.
us he imitated the successive steps adopted
by our Lord himself in conducting the
economy of his grace, YlpoTpeircov dvcodev,
€7retra iratbaycoyav , iirl Trao'LU eKSiSaaKoov.
The business of this second Christian
stage, he informs us, must always require,
as a necessary preliminary to the successful
inculcation of the precepts of future holi
ness, the antecedent remedial process of his
grace, " who forgiveth all our sins, and
healeth all our infirmities." The true
JJaiSayoDyof is therefore required to cure
before he can instruct the young of his
flock ; and Christ alone is sufficient for this
great work ; he who is God in the form of
man ; he who though man is yet without
spot of sin ; he who could say to the para
lytic, " Arise, take up thy bed, and walk,"
and to Lazarus, " Come forth from the
grave !" he alone has power to say to a
single sinner, " Thy sins are forgiven thee."
All his attributes combine for our encou
ragement and aid ; as God he pardons our
transgressions, as man he instructs us to
righteousness. Thus are we indeed enabled
to confide in the love of God ; for not only

LECTURE IV. 203
are we the creatures of his hand, into
whom he hath breathed a principle from
himself; but we have a far higher proof of
God's love, in that for us the only-begotten
Son was sent forth from his Father's
bosom. Clement then proceeds to observe, that
Christ, as the universal JJaiSaymyos, is
equally the instructor of every class, of
either sex, of the learned and the ignorant;
all alike stand in need of his instruction,
being all in one sense children'. Yet let
none esteem the doctrines of Christianity
as puerile, or Christians as childish in in
telligence. No ; far from such degrading
views, the quality of children of God, which
Christians receive in their baptism'', renders
¦' These remarks are principally directed against the
Gnostics, who stigmatized ordinary Christians as mere
children when compared with themselves, who alone
had attained the perfect growth of men in knowledge,
while the rest were fed only with milk fit for babes.
They perverted 1 Cor. xiii.' 11, and 1 Cor. iii. 2, to the
support of these arrogant pretensions.
'' Bishop Kaye, in reporting the further views con
cerning Baptism which Clement here introduces, justly
observes, " That the perfection of which he here speaks
as conferred by that sacrament is not so much actual
as prospective ; the commencement of that which is to

204 LECTURE IV.
them perfect in the knowledge of divine
truth, delivering them from their sins by
grace, and enlightening them by the illu
mination of faith. Thus are Christians
at once both children and men ; and the
pure milk wherewith they are fed, being
the word and the will of God, is the most
sustaining and invigorating of all nourish
ment'. Clement then" proceeds to prove,
be hereafter accomplished, in which God may be said
to anticipate the future, by the power of his will to
establish the grace which that will confers. Clement
proceeds to illustrate the subject, by compaiing the state
of a baptized person to that of one who has been couched
for a cataract ; so in Baptism, the sins which obscured
the eye of the soul being removed, the spiritual vision
becomes fi'ee and unobstructed, and open to the hea
venly rays of the Holy Spirit. He may not perhaps
have received the perfect gift reserved for the resur
rection of believers ; but he has passed the necessary
introduction, he has passed from darkness into light,
(for between these there is no intermediate step,) and
the darkness no longer comprehends him." Account of
Clement, &c. p. 52.
' Here Clement expatiates at length, and in a manner
sufficiently fanciful, on this figure. He here also intro
duces the sacramental food of the Christian, the Lord's
body and blood. As the introductory topic of discus
sion is purely figurative, every principle of parity of
reasoning must lead us to conclude, that he considered
the terms employed in the latter case as figurative also.
"¦ Cap. vii.

LECTURE IV. 205
that he who is our present instructor, even
Christ, hath acted in the same relation to
the Church in every preceding dispens
ation. It was he who of old guided
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and led his
chosen people, in all their weary pilgrim
age, through the wilderness.
The modes " by which the great in
structor disciplines his children are next
considered ; he constantly watches and
presides over them by the rod of discipline,
government, and power. Do any murmur
against this rod of discipline } Do any re
gard the threat and the terror, as calling
in question the divine goodness ? These are
in truth the best proofs of his tender and
solicitous care ; every correction he inflicts
is remedial in its design, and salutary in
its end; he does but correct us for our
good, that we may become partakers of
his righteousness, and be preserved in
safety to eternal life and happiness. But
while we recognize the necessity of these
sharp remedies to awaken repentance and
to restrain sin, how much more delightful
" Cap. viii.

206 LECTURE IV.
is it, not to reflect on those encouraging
texts, which represent our divine Instructor
as all gentleness and kindness ; as when he
pronounced the general and gracious invi
tation. Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.
Such is the substance of the first book
of the TraiSaycoyof, exhibiting the general
character of Christ in the various offices
of this relation, as the guide, guardian, and
instructor of his children °. In its general
spirit, as I trust the above condensed synop
sis will have sufficiently shewn, it is rich
in truly Christian sentiment ; although we
may regret, that the excessive amplification
and expansion of the original too often
attenuates its force, and occasionally the
images presented by the familiar circum
stances of this relation of Traidaycoyos are
'¦ A single sentence of the original may be quoted, as
presenting in itself a summary of the great subject of
this book. E'lXOTCog ago. Sair^gof [i-sv o\ voaoijvTs; dsOfjusSa.
01 7r;7rX«i/))/xEvot Se tov x«fl»)y>)a"a|U,evou' xcii oi ivifiXo) tov (pcoTtxyo)-
yijiTOVTo;' xai oi hi^aiVTs; rijf '!Tr)yrii Tvjf ^cuTix^f «<}>' ^f ol
jX6TaXaju./3avovTe;, ovxsTi SjvJ/ijo-ouin' xai ol vexgo) 8s t^; ^cori;
»v8s=T;' xa) TO J TroiiW-svoj Ta Trgo^ara' xai ol TaTSgf tov TraiSa-
yuiyov. p. 147.

LECTURE IV. 207
pursued in a manner calculated to bring
low and ludicrous ideas into association
with the holiest name.
The two remaining books are occupied
with the detail of the particular precepts
judged most necessary in this stage of the
Christian progress ; and these altogether
relate to the inculcation of the virtues of
temperance, sobriety, chastity, and frugal
modesty ; and the reprobation of the op
posite vices of luxury in meals, in apparel,
in baths, and the like indulgences. He
enters into the minutiae of these subjects
with much of the spirit and temper, and
sometimes even with the coarseness, of
a keen satiristP. We must respect the
high general tone of his Christian mo
rality, although we must regret that in
particular instances offence is sought out
with a morbid scupulosity ; and Christian
purity occasionally becomes exaggerated
into puritanical austerity ; while at other
^ These portions of the work preserve many extremely
curious illustrations of ancient manners, for he does not
consider even the details of a lady's toilette beneath his
notice.

208 LECTURE IV.
times he is animated by a more judicious
spirit, and ably argues against the ex
travagant excesses of the encratites in this
respecf. The third treatise, which Clement con
siders as addressed to more advanced
Christians, is of a strangely miscellaneous
character; he calls it on this account
iTpcopaTch, or carpet work, because it may
well seem a texture of complicated em
broidery.

¦I One of these sections relates to the practice of
wearing of chaplets of flowers on the head, which is
strongly condemned in Christians ; the arguments are
identical with those employed by Tertullian in his tract
De Corona Mil. the fifth and seventh sections of the
second book will probably most astonish the reader, as
occurring in a serious work. We are assuredly too
often reminded in these books of the spirit of our own
Prynne. Bishop Kaye has some most judicious reflec
tions on these books : " We have only to compare Cle
ment with St. Paul, in order to be convinced of the
superiority of that mode of moral instruction, which lays
down general principles, and leaves them to be applied
by the discretion and conscience of each individual
according to his particular circumstances, to that which
professes to regulate every single action, and by its
minuteness becomes at once burthensome and ridi
culous." Account of Clement, &c. p. 71.

LECTURE IV. 209
In this singular and rambling work we find
interwoven, without any regular method,
discussions on the use and importance of
philosophy, and its relations to revelation ;
on the faith, love, hope, and fear of the
Christian, of whom, under what he con
ceives his most perfect form, he intro
duces a very extravagant portraiture, desig
nating him the true Gnostic. He proceeds
to the topics of marriage, of martyrdom,
of heresy, and of the Catholic faith ; he
subjoins his own views on the correct ex
position of the Scriptures ; and we find
appended to the whole a completely irre
levant treatise on logical principles. As
to any merit of Christian edification, this
is as far inferior to a great part of his
former treatises, as it may perhaps be con
sidered superior to them in matters of
merely literary interest and curiosity. But
it is the part of the secular critic, and not
assuredly of the theologian, to institute a
parallel between this work, and the Dei-
pnosophist, of his compatriot and cotem-
porary Athenseus. It must be my task to
confine myself to matters of purely theo-

210 LECTURE IV.
logical investigation, and in this light I
oannot scruple to confess, that if such were
the food given to the more perfectly ini
tiated in the Alexandrian schools, it had
been far preferable to have remained in
the inferior classes of the catechumens and
most recent converts.
In order to form a correct estimate of
the tendencies of this work, we must com
mence by considering the nature of that
philosophical medium, which throughout
these pages colours, and often altogether
overclouds, the author's views of Christian
truth. He had embraced with all the devo
tion of his enthusiastic temperament the
tenets of the new eclectic sects', which
(founded chiefly on the school of Plato)
borrowed also from other sects sundry
fanciful speculations in metaphysics and
theology, and incorporated them into a
composite system, of which the prevailing
character was derived from an harmoniz
ing tint of mysticism spread over the
' '^Tgco. i. 7. <I>iXo(ro4iiai/ Ss ov tyjv Stcuix^v Ksyca, ouU t^v
nXaTcuvix^v r; TijV 'AgioroTsAix^v, aXX' otya s'lgrprai wag sxouyTf
Tuiv algscrsaiv toutcov xaXwg.

LECTURE IV. 211
whole. In the very first chapter Clement
professes in express words, that it was not
his intention to deliver the doctrines of
Christian truth pure and unmixed, but
shrouded, or indeed rather concealed, by
these philosophical dogmata, as the escu'
lent kernel of the nut lies hidden within its
shell. Firmly convinced of the utility and
substantial truth of this philosophical sys
tem, he argues, that it is absurd not to con
sider it as having originally descended to the
race of man from Him who is the Author
of all good, and the Father of all lights ;
he therefore considers Christianity rather
as the perfection of this system, than a
principle essentially distinct either in its
nature or its origin ; but he admits that
this Gentile philosophy was both in itself
imperfect, and that the adversary had sown
the tares of Epicurus among the good wheat
of the academy ; and therefore it required
to be purged, improved, and cultivated to
an higher perfection by such a special reve
lation as had been finally made by the
Eternal Word. Now while we admit with
the apostle, that God had never left him-
p 2

212 LECTURE IV.
self without witness in the hearts of men ; —
that the evidences of natural theology ex
hibited in his works, and the intellectual
powers which qualify us to apprehend those
evidences, and deduce their conclusions,
were undoubtedly designed by him to
enable all nations, whom he made of one
blood on the face of the earth, to seek
after him, if haply they might find him,
and thus fulfil the great end of their being ;
— yet I fear we must confess, that the views
of Clement are carried very far beyond
these rational and sober limits, and calcu
lated to lead, as they did in the hands of
his successors in the Alexandrian school,
first to the complete corruption, and after
wards to the final renunciation, of Chris
tianity ; and the substitution (under the
apostate Ammonius Saccas) of the most
truly latitudinarian system of combined
universalism in philosophy and religion ; in
which a fusion of every existing and almost
every possible sect and creed was attempted
on the principle, that all philosophers in
culcated one general system of truth, though
under different forms and modes of expres-

LECTURE IV. 213
sion ; and that all systems of religion, whether
recognizing Jehovah, Jove, or Lord, were but
different manifestations of one and the same
source of all divine power, accommodating its
various communications to man, to the cir
cumstances of different nations, and stages
of society. Although Clement himself care
fully recognizes the infinite superiority of
the true philosophy of Christianity over
every other, still we cannot acquit him of
having opened a wide door for the admis
sion of these subsequent excesses ; for he
himself very commonly uses language which
appears to describe the Gentile philosophy
as a direct revelation from heaven, given to
the Greeks as a peculiar domestic covenant,
(oLKeia BLaOrjKrj,^ by which they were to be
justified, even as the law was given for the
justification of the Jew'. He seems almost
' Stoco. i. 2. ^iAo(ro<piai', dXij^eiaj ovcav slxova hagyrj,
ielav icogedv "EXX))(ri SE8ojOt.ei/»)v. i. 5. *Vlv jnev oSv Trgo r^f tov
Kvgiou '!Tagov<r'ia; si; Sixaiocruvrjv "EXXijtriv avayxala (piXo<ro<p'ia.
vi. 8. T^v Se <piXo(TO(plav xa) fuaXXov "EXXyjo-iv olov AIA-
©HKHN OIKEIAN avTol; SsSoV^ai, wro^aSgov ovcrav Tr\;
xaTd.Xgi<rT0\i (piXo<ro<pla;. vi. 17. EIxotui; ovv 'lovdalov; jjlsv
NofJi.o;"EXXri(ri is <piXo(ro(pia i^sx§^ Tijf Tragouo-i'ay [tov XgiaTOv]
evTsiJhv 8s ij xXijcnf ij xaioXixi} si; Trsgiova-tov T^f ¦ Sixaioo-uvijf

214 LECTURE IV.
to consider both these as preliminary dis
pensations, standing very nearly on a foot
ing of parity, both having been originally
imperfect and subsequently corrupted, and
both therefore equally abrogated as obso
lete, in order to make room for the more

Xahv xara tvjv sx ttiVtecus SiSao-xaX/av. It were abundantly
easy to multiply similar quotations, (for whole chapters to
this purpose might be transcribed,) but the above speci
mens must be quite sufficient. The more orthodox (ogflo-
SofaoraJ, as Clement calls them, i. 9.) appear to have
been shocked at these notions, and running into an
opposite extreme, entirely repudiated human philoso
phy, (i. 1.) and attributed its invention to the Devil.
(i. 11.) Clement himself does not appear very clear
how philosophy was communicated from heaven to
earth, whether directly from the Deity, or indirectly by
a Promethean theft through the lapsed angels, (v. p. 650.)
In concluding this note I ought to state, that in the
twentieth chapter of the first book, the great superiority
of Christianity is distinctiy acknowledged. Mo'vij Se ^
xugi'a avTV) aXijhia y^v iragd. tcu vlw tov ®sox) 7rai8suo'/*sfl«,
He warmly denies that he had ever appealed to phi
losophy as a principal cause of our knowledge ; for he
maintains, he had ever represented it only as subordinate
and subsidiary ; and admits that many, uninstructed in
this philosophical and encyclopedical learning of the
Greeks, yet having through faith received the divine
Revelation, in the power of God became fully instructed
by a self-efficient Wisdom {(^vTovgyco "^oi^la).

LECTURE IV. 215
universal and perfect calling of both Jew
and Gentile by the Gospel, to form hence
forth one peculiar people by the instruction
of faith.
Surely we cannot read statements so
extremely rash and unadvised, without
being forcibly impressed by the sentiments
so eloquently expressed by the earliest
of the Latin Fathers, Quid Athenis et
Hierosolymis .'' Quid Academise et Eccle-
sise ? nostra Institutio de porticu Salomonis
est ; qui et ipse tradiderat Dominum in
simplicitate cordis esse colendum. Vide-
rint qui Stoicum et Platonicum Christianis-
mum protulerunt.
While the pure stream of Christianity
became corrupted by such extraneous ad
mixtures, we shall be little surprised that
the sacred oracles of divine truth in them
selves did not escape material perversion.
The extravagant system of allegorical inter
pretation, which we have before had occa
sion to regret when partially and sparingly
introduced by Justin, is by Clement laid
down as a regular and general canon of
exegesis. 'Sx^^ovv '"'daa wSeTrcosC^Si alviyfxdrtov)

216 LECTURE IV.
0€(nrl(€Tai rj ypa(})^^. And he maintains,
that the sacred text (in the Mosaical law
at least) bore no less than four distinct
meanings, the literal, the moral, the mysti
cal, and the prophetical. A division gene
rally recognised by the writers of this
school. It must be quite unnecessary to
insist on the evils of a system, which,
while it forces the w^ords of Scripture into
almost any and every signification which
the most capricious fancy can suggest,
leaves little room on which any sound
exposition can rely ; it must be far from
desirable to pause to collect specimens of
the many forced and far-fetched perver
sions of Scripture into which Clement was
necessarily betrayed, by his unreserved
adoption of a principle so extremely lax
and unwarrantable". The whole subject
has indeed been in a former course of Lec
tures from this place so fully treated, and
with powers so far superior to any which
I could myself bring to its investigation,
• ^Tgco. t. ii. et i. c. 28. p. 426. v. p. 661.
" Several arc given in Bp. Kaye's Account of Clement,
p. 374, &c.

LECTURE IV. 217
that it will be quite sufficient at present
thus briefly to allude to if*.
It ought, however, to be distinctly stated,
that this systematic misinterpretation is,
by an happy inconsistency, scarcely at all
applied to the Scriptures of the New Tes
tament. I will not indeed undertake to
assert, that no instances of fanciful expla
nation may even here occur, but they are
comparatively very few; and the great mass
of his commentaries on this part of the
sacred volume is characterised by the same
sound and pious spirit, which mark the spe
cimens presented in the previous extracts.
It seems clear that one great cause of this
application of the allegorical exegesis to
the Old Testament, was the same desire to
escape from the difficulties which occasion
ally appear to present themselves to a literal
interpretation, which has led so many of
the German theologists in a very similar
spirit to attempt to resolve so much of the
earlier Scriptures into Mvdoi.. Having men
tioned Clement's allusions to the books of
the New Testament, I may here observe,
" Bampton Lectures for 1834.

218 LECTURE IV»
that he distinctly quotes all those admitted
into our present canon, with only three
exceptions". This testimony to the general
canon, and to the accuracy of the readings at
present preserved, is valuable from its early
date ; but, as we shall see in the next Lecture,
the testimony of Irenseus, who flourished
a few years before Clement, is still more
copious. It is much to be regretted, however, that
Clement has likewise quoted, with unhesi
tating acceptance, many of the notorious
forgeries which were circulated in that age^.
We must next proceed to the more parti
cular examination of that remarkable con
ception of the highest and most advanced
and perfect Christian character, which it
was Clement's great object to embody in
' These exceptions, which after all are somewhat
doubtful, are the Epistles of James, 2 Peter, and one of
the smaller of St. John ; for he expressly quotes what he
calls the larger Episfles of that Apostle, which distinctly
shews that he must have known of at least one other.
y e. g. An apocryphal work, entitied. The Preaching
of Peter. He also agrees vrath Justin in quoting the
forged Sibylline verses as decidedly prophetical ; indeed
the verse of the well-known ancient hymn, Teste David
cnm Sibylla, is borne out by high patristical authority.

LECTURE IV. 219
this treatise ; a conception which, although
in some points just and judicious, is yet
unhappily characterized by many extrava
gances, and in its very foundation grossly
erroneous. This character is more parti
cularly delineated in the sixth and seventh
books, but the whole work has reference
to the means both of divine grace and
human philosophy, by which it was sup
posed to be formed, and the actions in
which being formed it displayed itself.
Clement always designates its possessor as
the true Vvcoo-tikos : and although in other
passages he reprobates the heretics who had
assumed this boastful title, the yJAevdavvpoc
rvcocrTLKol, it must yet be confessed that his
own portrait has but too many features of
resemblance, in addition to the name. In
the first place the whole system concerning
the Fi/cBo-iy, from the exclusive possession of
which this character is denominated, was
built by Clement on exactly the same hypo
thesis adopted by the heretics themselves,
an hypothesis which can scarcely be repro
bated in terms of indignation adequate to its
deserts, and which Irenaeus, in his work

220 LECTURE IV.
against those heretics, most properly stig
matizes and exposes". This supposition
libels Christianity, by most falsely repre
senting it to have adopted the distinction
of an exoteric and esoteric doctrine, (the
worst disgrace of the schools of Gentile
philosophy,) the former being the ostensible
teaching promulgated to the public, the
latter confined to the select and initiated
few. Thus it was asserted by Clement, that
this secret knowledge had descended to few
only, in regular successionfrom the Apostles,
being handed down by unwritten tradition*.
It was not indeed supposed to have been
originally communicated indifferently and
unreservedly to all the Apostles, but only to
those who were the witnesses of the transfi
guration, and by them gradually imparted
to the rest. To St. Paul also it was after
wards conveyed by peculiar and express
revelation ^.
' His argument will be particularly noticed in the
next Lecture.
" vi. 7. p. 767. 'H yvaxrt; xara hiaSoxov; si; oxiyov;
sx TOOV ' Awo(rToXaiv aypix<p(JO; ¦nagaSo^svra xaTsXy]Xv^sv.
" STgco/!i. i. 1. See also Bishop Potter's note in his
edition on this passage, in which it is illustrated by

LECTURE IV. 221
To the Gnostic, who is admitted to this
high and hidden wisdom, Clement ascribes
the most perfect, universal, and tran
scendental knowledge ; however numerous
be the objects, incomprehensible to man
kind in general, nothing can escape the
penetration of the possessor of such exalted,
spiritual, and intellectual privileges. He is
therefore thoroughly versed in every branch
of human philosophy and science, though
he properly regards them only as subsi
diary, and preparatory to his higher Chris
tian faith. The examples, however, given
of his objects and attainments, both in
divine and human learning, are far indeed
from being calculated to raise our respect
for these Gnostical conceptions, either of
the one or the other ; and indeed marked
by a puerility and mysticism almost incon
ceivable ".
being compared with a citation firom the Hypotyposes
preserved by Eusebius.
' They are altogether puerile, and exactly similar to
the pursuits and speculations which Irenseus so justly
criticises in the heretical Gnostics. In human philoso
phy, the arithmetical and musical sciences are repre
sented as consisting in the investigation of the occult

222 LECTURE IV.
The ethical characters, however, attri
buted to this Gnostical portrait of the ima
ginary perfection of the Christian character,
are generally conceived in a far better and
sounder spirit ; for it was quite impossible
to compose a moral portrait derived from
the perfect precepts of Christianity, with
out a strong reflection of the pure rays of
evangelical light; and very generally also
mysteries of numbers and harmonic intervals. The
specimen of the vaunted Gnostical theology presented
for our admiration, consists of the Gnostical exposition
of the Decalogue, expressly cited as the very foundation
of his religion ; in this, if we look for any moral or spi
ritual expansion or illustration of these precepts, we
shall be altogether disappointed. Such topics, Clement
probably would have addressed to the young Catechu
men, but they were far too elementary for the advanced
Gnostic. His attention is directed to the investigation
of matters far more profound and important ; he enters
on the analysis of all possible denary combinations, to
account for the mystical properties which have occa
sioned that number to be selected for the great precepts
of the Law ; and examines, in like manner, all binary
combinations to prove, that the number of tables neces
sarily ought to be exactly two ; and the precept, conse
crating the seventh day in commemoration of the Sab
batical rest from the work of creation, opens a still
richer field of investigation as to all the mysteries and
combinations of the number seven.

LECTURE IV. 223
we may discover a happy and judicious
tone of sobriety and moderation pervading
these portions of the picture ; for in his
course of life the Gnostic adopts the just
mean between unchecked indulgence, and
the total abstinence of an extravagant
asceticism, so using the things of the world
as not abusing them ; and, when exposed
to persecution, he assumes the firmest and
most resolute constancy in the unflinching
encounter of the trial which it may please
Providence to appoint for him ; but he
does not provoke Providence by rushing
blindly and rashly into dangers, into which
he is not called, nor neglect the legitimate
means of self-preservation. We have only
to regret, that the moral effect even of
these portions of the work, is occasionally
injured by the exaggerated refinements of
mysticism and quietism •*.
'' Like Madame Guyon and the modem Quietists. Cle
ment, however, requires in his perfect character the entire
extinction, not only of all violent passions, but of almost
every emotion of the mind — a total apathy. 'H xara-
a-Tairi; 8s tj TOmh AXIAQEIAN Igya^era/ ou METPIO-
HAGEIAN. See vi. 9. (pp. 776, 777.) Such a total
apathy he of course attributes in the first place to our

224 LECTURE IV.
The next name to which I ought to direct
your attention, must at once be anticipated ;
being by far the most conspicuous not only
of the Alexandrian school, but in many
respects of all the early Christian writers ;
Origen; conspicuous alike for the most
extraordinary powers, and too frequently
for his abuse of those powers ; of whom
the judgment of antiquity has become
almost proverbial, " Ubi bene nemo melius,
ubi male nemo pejus." He was trained
in the schools of Alexandria under Clement,
the nature of whose instructions we have
already sufficiently considered, and the
notorious Ammonius, who apostatized and
in the spirit of universal compromise
erected an amalgamated system of cor
rupted Christian philosophy and poly-
Lord himself, on which Scultetus most justly remarks ;
" Atqui, o Clemens, Christus siaxgvasv ad sepiilchrum
Lazari. (Iren. xi. 35.) Idemque ^lyaXXtaa-aTO tw ¦nvsv-
j«.aT». (Luc. X. 2.)" In the same spirit of an exaggerated
refinement, ill accommodated to the moral circumstances
of our nature, Clement observes, that his perfect ex
emplar of the Christian can require no stated time or
place for prayer ; for to him, every spot is a consecrated
temple, and his whole life a single and continuous holy
festival.

LECTURE IV. 225
theism. His pupil Origen, however, al
though in the extravagant wildness of his
speculations he often plunged into the most
serious errors, and although he cannot be
said to have reined in his daring genius
within the limits of a strict orthodoxy, even
on some of the most important articles of
the faith, yet never departed from that
faith at all to the same degree or in the
same spirit with his unfortunate instructor.
Although on some occasions the boldness
of his speculations may wear almost a semi-
heretical character, yet to his own views
of Christianity, which still included the
great bulk of the faith, he constantly and
consistently adhered with the firm resolu
tion of the most devoted attachment. De
scended from a succession of Christian
ancestors, originally converted at the first
propagation of the faith, he himself from
his earliest years embraced it with a
warmth of zeal characteristic of his ever
fervid temper^. And when, while yet a
youth, his father was dragged to martyr-
' Jerome, the most severe of his ancient critics, ad
mits that he was magnus Vir ab infantia.
Q

226 LECTURE IV.
dom under the persecution of Severus, it
required personal restraint, added to the
tears and entreaties of his mother, to
prevent his rushing forth to claim for him
self a share in what he esteemed so glo
rious a fate ; and while thus withheld by
force from partaking his father's prison, the
letters he transmitted to him there were the
strongest supports of his parent's courage;
in these he earnestly conjured him to
stand stedfast in the faith to the last,
and not to suffer his tenderness for his
family to betray him into any unworthy
compliance. When the storm of this persecution had
passed away, he was called in very early
youth to the presidency of the catechetical
school of Alexandria, which became under
him more than ever distinguished ; and
here he commenced that remarkable career
of theological literature, which was indeed
the race of a giant rejoicing to run his course.
The epithets constantly attached by anti
quity to his name ' A8afidvTLvos and XaXxev-
T€pos, will denote the opinion generally
entertained of that adamantine and brazen

LECTURE IV. 227
strength of mental constitution, which could
sustain such indefatigable exertion. Our
time will now allow us only very briefly to
touch on the most important features . of
these intellectual exertions ; but in this
instance any omissions will, I am certain,
be readily supplied by the previous inform
ation of many who now hear me, because
there can be scarcely any critical scholar,
and assuredly no student of theological
literature, who must not already possess at
least a general acquaintance with the extra
ordinary labours of this Father.
All must be well aware of the eminent cri
tical talents displayed by him in a line which
appears to have been scarcely attempted by
previous scholars, and which may well serve
as a model for all future undertakings of a
similar nature, his exact edition of the Old
Testament: in which the text was carefully
determined and indicated by all those marks
and methods which have since been so re
peatedly imitated; and the interpretation
was facilitated by the introduction of four
distinct versions, arranged for the purpose
of ready comparison in parallel columns.
Q 2

228 LECTURE IV.
As an expositor of Scripture, he was
no less laborious than as an editor; he
composed a most voluminous series of
Homilies and Commentaries on every por
tion of holy writ of both Testaments'.
He cannot, however, in this capacity claim
the praise so richly due to him as a critical
editor; for it is almost unnecessary to
observe, that in these expositions he rivalled
or rather exceeded all the extravagances of
allegorical interpretation, which his pre
decessors in the Alexandrian School had
borrowed from their great prototype in
this respect, Philo Judseus.
On this subject, however, I shall only
' As I have felt myself obliged in the following
remarks explicitly to point out the serious defects of
much of this Father's scriptural expositions, I have far
more pleasure in bringing forward on the favourable
side the candid testimony of Scultetus as to the value
and use which may yet be considered as belonging to
these homiletical compositions. " Etsi autem hsec inter-
pretandi ratio magnos in homilias errores invexit : non
sine fructu tamen homilise a theologiae studiosis, con-
cionatoribus praesertim, legi possunt. Est namque videre
in iis singulare concionandi artificium. Exordia homi-
liarum brevia: dictionis perspicuitas mirabilis: nihil
in eo ambitiosum, nihil affectatum." Medulla Patrum,
p. 158.

LECTURE IV. 229
again refer, as I have already done in the
case of Clement, to the full and satisfactory
account delivered some years back by a
former Lecturer, whose steps I must ever
trace with fond regret, and diffidently fol
low with the consciousness of powers so
far inferior. It could not however, under
any circumstances, have been requisite
to enter into any lengthened discussion, in
order to demonstrate the mischief of a
system of which (though it were most
unfair to impute this as its designed in
tention) the natural and necessary tendency
could be no other, than to remove from the
sacred narrative every character of histo
rical verity, and to substitute in its place
the mere shadow of a dream, the a-Kids
ovap of mythical allegory.
In his exposition of the New Testament,
the imagination of Origen equally delights
in subjoining the same spiritual application
to manyof the events recorded intheGospels;
but here I would submit, that the practice
assumes, from the different circumstances of
the case, a very different aspect. There is
evidently here no lurking desire to escape

230 LECTURE IV.
from the literal interpretation, as unworthy
of God, and unedifying to man ; but this is
evidently received with the warmest cor
diality of the full assurance of faith ; and
the pious mind only seeks to derive, from
viewing the adorable miracles which dis
tinguished our Saviour's earthly ministry
under every possible aspect, and with every
application of which they can be esteemed
capable, the fullest edification they are cal
culated to afford. The mind of man, all
whose recesses are chambers of imagery,
is naturally so constituted as ever to delight
itself in figurative representations ; and,
surely, in matters which relate to our spi
ritual improvement, no figures can be drawn
from a source so congenial as those derived
from miracles of mercy, wrought by him
who went about doing good equally to the
souls and bodies of men, and healing alike
the diseases to which both are liable. In
such instances, indeed, there appears so
very natural and obvious an analogy be
tween the literal interpretation and the
spiritual application, (for both result from
the same great principle of the Saviour's

LECTURE IV. 231
love,) that the pious mind seems scarcely
able to reflect on the actual narrative with
out that application forcibly suggesting it
self. But it must be acknowledged, that
Origen has often far exceeded the sober use
of these principles, when, not content with
thus generally tracing out the spiritual ana
logies suggested by such narratives, he seeks
for further mysteries in every minutest
action and even gesture of our blessed
Lord while performing these miracles.
For six centuries from his own age to
ours, the warmest debates have prevailed in
the Church concerning the true character
of the opinions held by Origen on the great
points of Christian doctrine '', and the tend
encies of the influence which his writings
were calculated to exercise on the progress
of that faith. Many distinguished names
have taken opposite sides in this contro
versy, from Jerome and Rufinus in the
fifth century, to Halloix and Mosheim in
" In Huet's Origeniana, p. 196, et seq. will be found
a detailed account of the repeated controversies con
cerning the works of Origen from their publication to
Huet's own times.

232 LECTURE IV.
the eighteenth ; his admirers ever extolling
the largeness of his views, and maintaining
that his expressions, if candidly interpreted,
are susceptible of a perfectly sound and
unobjectionable interpretation ; while his
opponents have repudiated many of his
sentiments as absolutely heretical ; and in
earlier days interposed their authority with
partial and local success to place his writ
ings on the list of prohibited works'.
When I reflect then on this long discus
sion, I cannot but feel how ill it would
become even a^ party far more entitled than
I can be, to place confidence in the stores
of his information, and the powers of his
judgment, to flatter himself that his indi
vidual opinion could materially influence
the librating scales. And under any cir
cumstances it were vain to hope, that a
controversy which has filled volumes, could
be satisfactorily adjusted in a few para-
' A. D. 399, Theophilus, Bp. of Alexandria, and A. D.
400, Pope Anastasian, held Councils in which the errors
of Origen were condemned. The violent and very ques
tionable conduct, however, of Theophilus throughout this
controversy forms a very painful chapter of early eccle
siastical history.

LECTURE IV. 233
graphs of a single Lecture. I can only
undertake the humbler task, of faithfully
and candidly submitting the impressions
which have remained on my own mind,
from carefully examining the very full ac
count of that controversy, in the Origeniana
of the learned Bishop of Arranches. I have
also found a most useful guide in the mas
terly sketch of Mosheim, given in his more
detailed history of the Ante -Cons tan tine
period of the Church, which contains an
able exposition of the general spirit and
bearing of the philosophilco-theological
views of this Father.
In the first place then it may be observed,
that it seems almost a self-evident conse
quence, from the statement which has just
been made, that it cannot be at all justi
fiable to attach any high degree of autho
rity to the writings of this Father ; for it
must be assuredly altogether unsafe to
take for our guide and instructor, in any
important matter, an individual, who has
written in such a style as could account for
the extreme discrepance of estimation to
which I have alluded. Nor can we, I

234 LECTURE IV.
f
think; hesitate to attribute with Mosheim
that discrepance to the inconstancy and
inconsistency of the opinions of Origen
himself, as to its principal cause.
As the great basis of his creed we shall
immediately see, that he very explicitly ac
knowledged all the great leading articles of
the faith, in the very words of the orthodox
confession ; though unhappily, even while
he recites these articles, he subjoins some
others of a very different origin, and very
questionable nature. Yet, as a general
introduction, he correctly states the great
principles of the fundamental doctrines of
Christianity; however he may have sub
sequently distorted them by his explana
tions, derived from viewing them through
the medium of that philosophy which he
had himself adopted, with all the unhesi
tating confidence of his warm temper, as
the highest perfection of reason, and surest
criterion of truth. Yet this very circum
stance may render his testimony still more
valuable as to the general tenets of the
Catholic Church in his age, when we thus
find him constrained to state the funda-

LECTURE IV. 235
mental doctrines of Christianity in all their
genuine simplicity. In the commencement
of that very treatise Trepiapxaiv, of which the
remainder is unhappily but little in accord
ance with such a beginning, Origen dis
tinctly acknowledges, that these doctrines
had been so plainly laid down by the
Apostles, as to be obvious even to the
meanest capacity, as to their naked cha
racter, and in their simple facts ; and we
shall hereafter see why such distinctions
were introduced.
These great doctrines he thus enume
rates''. I. The unity of God the Creator of the
universe. II. The mission of Christ to call the Jews
and Gentiles to the faith.
III. The eternal generation of Christ from
the Father, and his ministration in the work
of creation.
IV. The incarnation of Christ, by which
he, being himself God, took upon him a
body like our own, differing only in its mira-
" Usg) 'Agxm, §. 3. p. 47.

236 LECTURE IV.
culous derivation from the influence of the
Holy Spirit.
V. The association of the Holy Spirit in
the same honour and dignity with the
Father and the Son.
We must regret to find him adding
to these great primary articles respect
ing the Christian doctrine of the Divine
nature, which have ever been embraced
with the strongest catholicity of consent,
others in which similar truths of general
reception are mingled with matters con
cerning which many sincere and ortho
dox Christians may differ, and some even
which will be marked by general rejection.
Thus with the great truth, that all Scripture
is given by the inspiration of God, he
combines' a maxim which, thus generally
stated, is liable to the most dangerous
abuse, namely, that the Scripture always
contains a double sense, the one open, the
other abstruse and concealed, and to be
detected only by a gifted few, who have
attained a peculiar and transcendent know
ledge. ' In Art. X.

LECTURE IV. 237
Thus, although these articles are in them
selves for the most part strictly orthodox,
yet this last fatal doctrine, which he asserts
as of equal authority, opens at once the door
to the most erroneous interpretations ;
which may but too easily, if once received,
neutralise every thing of good and sound
which had before found admission.
Thus we find this dangerous principle
carried out to its most mischievous extent
in other places, where Origen more dis
tinctly explains himself". The literal sense
of the Scripture constituted, he tells us, only
its external body, but in the latent and
mystical sense consisted its living soul.
This was shrouded beneath the veil of
figurative expression and typical history.
The most assiduous study and contempla
tion of this latent soul of allegory could
alone elevate the powers of the mind to
discern the true causes and the philoso
phical connections of the whole scheme of
'" '^vvsa-TVjxsv Yj ygaipij sx <ra}iJ.aTO; |xsv tov /3Xe7rop.ei/oo
v|/o;^ii5 8e rijf Iv avTw voovfj-svij;, xa) xaTaXai^^avofjiSVYi;, xa)
Trvsufx-aTO; tov xaTa to. vizotsly^aTa, xm crxiav t5)v ivovgaviiav.
Ex. 2do in Leo Hom. ed. Huet. i. 26.

238 LECTURE IV.
Christian doctrine; and thus to exhibit
the exact accordance of the discoveries of
human reason and divine revelation.
The necessity of this philosophico-theo-
logical investigation, in order to detect the
true sense of the Scriptures, is thus insisted
on. The literal sense, it is urged, only sets
forth in the most naked form the general
fact of the existence of certain truths, but
conveys to us no information whatever as
to the causes and reasons of these truths.
This information is, however, considered to
be shrouded in the recondite and mystical
sense of the Scriptures, yet in such a manner
as to require the application of the light of
philosophy in order to detect it by the
general harmony which is thus established".
" I have here adopted the explanation given by
Mosheim (De reb. Christ. Ante Const. Mag. p. 619,
620.) of some very obscure passages in Rufinus's trans
lation of the lost treatise Usg) 'Ag^m. It must never,
however, be forgotten, that one of the harmonies
suggested by this powerful mind, always comprehensive
though often fanciful, afforded to Bp. Butler the germ of
the ablest example of the true application of philosophy
to religion; for in his Introduction he refers the foundation
of his argument from analogy to the following passage
from Origen ; x?^ fievroiys tov Sma.^ iTugah^a.ji,evov tov

LECTURE IV. 239
This light, however, he tells is, could be
gained by the favoured few alone admitted
to a peculiar and closer friendship with
God, and to more excellent gifts of know
ledge, to the Xoyos (To^ias, and Aoyoy yvotcrecos
by the Holy Spirit.
Thus, in their reasons and causes, the
whole body of scriptural truth could only
be justly apprehended through this mystical
mixture of allegorical and philosophical
interpretation; and there was also another
and important relation of these truths
narrated in the Scriptures as simple facts,
the investigation of which, so far as it was
in any measure capable of being pursued by
our present faculties, must be exclusively
consigned to philosophy alone, namely, the
mode of their subsistence. On this high
metaphysical question, the Scriptures were
entirely silent. It was indeed in its very na
ture so transcendental, as almost to exceed
the highest powers of all created intelligence.
xTKravTO; tov xo(rfUiv slyat, tuvtu; to.; ygapd; irsTrsltr^ai, oti Q(ra
TTsgi Tr\; xTicscu; aTravTo. to~i; ^iiToOci tov itsp) avTYj; Xoyov,
Tama xai irsgi Tmv ygd(pajv. E Comment, in Psalm, ed.
Huet. i. 40.

240 LECTURE IV.
It must be quite unnecessary to point
out the extreme dangers of a method
of interpretation, such as that which
has been above described, in which the
admission of every theological truth, as
being clearly revealed in Scripture, is
confined to the naked fact, and we are
allowed at our pleasure to invest these
naked facts with whatever speculative
garb may appear to our own minds most
agreeable to the theoretical system we may
be pleased to dignify by the name of phi
losophy. It must be evident that this
first admission of scriptural truth will be
practically confined to mere words, and
that the whole colour and true acceptation
of that verbal admission must be superin
duced from this so styled philosophy alone.
For though it professes to be partly checked
by a comparison with the latent and mys
tical sense attributed to the Scriptures, yet
it must be plainly seen, that this forced
sense is but excogitated purposely, in order
to facilitate the accommodation of that sacred
record to speculations derived from the
most extraneous sources ; and we need not

LECTURE IV. 241
pause to shew the perfect adaptation of this
process of allegorical and mystical inter
pretation, to extort from any given text
whatsoever any sense which might be
desired. And the philosophy so highly prized, and
considered as the perfection of human
reason, and the sure repository of truths as
clearly manifested to men by that heaven-
taught principle within, as were the
doctrines of scriptural revelation by direct
inspiration, was little indeed worthy of the
exaggerated confidence reposed in it. It
was a composite edifice, heaped together
principally by the master-builders of the
Alexandrian school, out of detached mem
bers selected from the Academy, the Ly-
cseum, and the Portico ; and, like many of
the architectural piles of the lower empire,
similarly decorated from the rifled columns
and capitals of a purer age, it wanted all
the simplicity, beauty, and symmetry, of the
original structures". It is, however, only
° It cannot be at all necessary here to enter into any
particular explanation of the philosophical character of
the schools of the Eclectics and Neo Platonists. All who
R

242 LECTURE IV.
the influence w^hich the doctrines of this
school were calculated to exercise on
theological questions, which can properly
engage our present attentionP. And this
will be sufficiently elucidated from the
observations, which it now becomes my
duty, in concluding this Lecture, to make
on the modifications which, resulting from
such sources, appear to have affected the
may be interested in such subjects may well be referred
to the pages of Brucker and Mosheim.
p The philosophical principles of Origen are princi
pally developed in his treatise Usg) 'Ag%aJv, of which the
original Greek has perished; and a Latin translation,
executed in a style extremely inelegant and obscure by
his admirer and advocate Ruffinus, has alone descended
to us. As before this was made, objections had been
urged by Jerome against the views of Origen, the
translator avows that he had suppressed some passages
and altered others in order to prevent misconception ; we
are therefore often unable to ascertain how far we are in
possession of the exact views of Origen himself. The
peculiar principles he adopted from the Neo Platonists,
principally relate to the following points. 1. The infinite
succession of worlds which had from eternity proceeded
from the Creator's power. 2. The nature of spiritual
intelligences of an higher order. 3. The origin, pre-
existence, condition, and future prospects of the human
soul. In teaching all these subjects it is unnecessaiy
to observe, that the concentrated essence of mysticism
imparted a general character to the whole system.

LECTURE IV. 243
views inculcated by Origen with regard to
the great doctrines of the Christian faith.
In the first place then, the great funda
mental point of every theological system,
namely, the power of God as the great eternal
first cause of all that has been made, su
preme over all things which he had called
into being, has assuredly never been main
tained with greater force and eloquence
than by Origen himself But numerous
are the vain and metaphysical subtleties,
which even on this great doctrine have been
permitted to intrude themselves where the
simplicity of an adoring faith is alone ad
missible. The question is discussed, how
far this creative power is absolutely infinite,
or whether it must not be considered as
having definite limits, and confined to the
actual creation ''.
¦> See Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 2. Quaestio i. p. 29.
Another charge, however, which has been made against
Origen, namely, that he did not consider the Divine nature
as absolutely incorporeal, must clearly have originated
from misconception; for he repeatedly and most unequi
vocally distinguished between the Deity and every other
mind, asserting that he alone is truly and absolutely
immaterial, while every other intellectual existence par-
R 2

244 LECTURE IV.
The mind of Origen appears also to have
embraced the Platonic doctrine of the co^
eternity of the world with the Deity himself
Since that world, the necessary emanation
of a necessary being, the body of which he
was the soul, could not (any more than its
divine source) know the trace of a beginning
or the prospect of an end. Origen appears
to have assented to these views, and to have
asserted, that the iravTOKpaTcop could never
have existed avev tS>v KpaTovp^vcov. Such
speculations were attempted to be reconciled
with the scriptural account of the recent
origin and destined destruction of our own
system by the stoical hypothesis of an infinite
series of such mundane systems, of which
our own constituted only a single term'.
The general doctrine of the Trinity, it
was by no means difficult for Origen to ex
hibit in perfect consistency with his Platonic
views: for as he conceived all things to
takes of matter, though in its most subtle and ethereal
form. ' Methodius distinctly cites these words from the
original treatise, usg) 'Ag^oSv, but tells us, that the
passage, I. ii. 2. had been non parum deformatum a
Ruffino.

LECTURE IV. 245
have proceeded in an eternal series of
emanations from the Divine nature, he
readily assigned to the Son and to the Holy
Spirit the first and highest places in this
series. Their procession* he compared
with the emission of rays of light from the
sun, and the derivation of rivers and their
streams from the sea; the smallest of
these divided portions being in nature and
substance one with the parent source.
It is easy to see, that either the Sabellian or
Arian might employ such illustrations quite
as effectually as the Catholic; indeed the
former will usually be found the most
partial to the employment of analogies, at
best irrelevant and vague ; while the more
strictly orthodox may well shrink from such
additions, and be most anxious on such
subjects to restrict their thoughts and
language to the exact declarations of Scrip
ture ; not seeking to explain these by meta
physical argument, but content to receive
them in the simplicity of faith. The vague
and inconstant language of Origen has given
almost an equal title to either party to claim
' Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 2. Qusest. 12. p. 45.

246 LECTURE IV.
him for their own". Some allowance, how
ever, ought properly to be made for the use
of less guarded language in this age, before
the ability and activity of Arius had given to
the errors which he advocated a definite
form, and had so strongly called the atten
tion of theologians to their examination;
£yid it should be admitted, that as the Sabel
lian views were then the most prominent
errors, a pardonable want of caution might
have betrayed minds engrossed with the
desire to guard against these into the use
" Bishop Bull, Def. Fid. Nic. sect. ii. c. 9. endeavours
partially to account for these phenomena from the
interpolations which have been effected in many of his
writings, and supposes that his work against Celsus is
the only one which has descended to us free from such
adulterations; and this also he more particularly refers
to as the latest and most mature of his productions ; but
the admission which follows is, perhaps, not much calcu
lated to benefit his apology in the view of a frank, honest,
and manly mind; Cseterum si omnia Origenis Scripta
eaque pura et incorrupta hodie extarent. hand omnia
tamen vera ac germince ejus sententice declarandm pariter
inservirent. .... Nam alia ad amicos secrete scripsit,
quae lucem nunquam visura speravit, in quibus libere ac
pene sceptice disseruit, . . . alia ipse in publicum emisit
.... in quibus via tritS, ac tut& incedens receptam in
Ecclesia Catholica doctrinam studiosius tradidit.

LECTURE IV. 247
f expressions tending to an opposite excess,
f which the injurious consequences were
ot at the time apprehended. Yet after
jading the vindications which have been
rged in his behalf, I must confess that I
m quite unable to satisfy my own mind
:iat the views of Origen did not far more
early approximate to high Arianism than
) any other system" ; although he is un-
" I would invite any one who may doubt the justice of
is opinion, to peruse carefully Origen's commentary on
e first chapter of St. John; (Huet's edition of the
;f))y))Tixa, t. ii. 56.) there appears no room whatever
r the suspicion of interpolation in this document.
ere in the exposition of the passage in which St. John
cribes the title &so; to the Ao'yoj, [xa) 6 Aoyo; ^\ ¦jrgo; TOV
sov, xa) &so; ^V 6 Aoyo;,'] Origen dwells largely on the
nission of the article before Qso; in the latter clause as
ntrasted with its insertion in the former; the word he
gues was a God, as distinguished from the supreme
od, with whom he was ; he represents his divine power
be entirely derivative from that of the Father, and his
[ency in creation (John i. 3.) to have been secondary,
ferior, and instrumental, si irdvTa. AlA tov Aoyov eysvsTo
X, TOO TOV Aoyov aXX' mo KPEITT0N02 KAI MEIZO-
Q2 'Jtagd. TOV Aoyov' ti; 8* av aXXo; ovto; Tvyx^^vr^ \ o YlaTtjg.
rigen also, when he speaks of Christ as the object of
ayer, often uses expressions which appear to imply that
considered him to be such only in an inferior sense,
d rather as an intercessor with- the Father. Prayer,

248 LECTURE TV.
doubtedly far remote from any of the
inferior grades of that multifarious sect.
With regard to the double nature of
Christ as incarnate, and what is called the
hypostatic union, the views of Origen
can still less be said to be based on any
system of scriptural interpretation; their
unsubstantial fabric being altogether de
rived from the dreams of his own mystical
psychology. This union he maintained to
exist between the divine word and human
soul alone of Jesus ; for he argued, that the
Divine nature could only be united with any
human nature, through the intervention of
some mediant principle like the human
soul, which he conceived to participate
both of a spiritual and of a more subtle
material nature. This association^ of the
Aoyoy and human soul of Jesus, he explains
he says, was offered KvgioXoyoi; to the Father, and xaTa
XgyicTixiu; to the Son. Contr. Cels. 1. 5. Again, 1. 8. We
must pray only to the God over all, [a phrase always
used by Origen to denote the Father, J yet we may pray also
to the only-begotten Word, first-born of all creation, and
request of him as our high priest to offer up our prayer,
which Cometh through him, unto his God and our God.
See Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 2. Qusest. 29.
' See Origeniana, 1. ii. Quaest. 3.

LECTURE IV. 249
in a manner and style of romantic mysticism,
which the sober criticism of doctrinal
theology can assuredly never recognize.
Assuming his favourite hypothesis of the
preexistence of all souls, he imagines, that
the Spirit destined to become the human
soul of our Lord, had, during this pre-
existent state, devoted all its faculties to
the warmest love of the second Person of
the Trinity, in whom it recognized the
divine Author of its being. To him there
fore it had inseparably attached itself, as to
the Word and Wisdom of God, the Truth
and the True Light. By the intensity of
this devotion it became entirely absorbed
in him, and in his light and spendour, so
as to be justly called one Spirit, becoming
identified with him, to whom it was thus by
love united. And through the persistence of
the same union, when this pre-existent Spirit
became the human soul of Jesus, the Word
still accompanying it jointly animated the
same fleshly tabernacle^.
^ The Aoyo; was also considered by Origen as the
universal source of reason, and in this capacity all rational
beings might be said to participate in him.

250 LECTURE IV.
It may perhaps be said, that this mystical
speculation, though it must be altogether
rejected as a most unwarranted and un
warrantable addition to the truths of reve
lation, yet does not appear calculated to
lead to any very injurious practical conse
quences affecting our reception of the great
doctrines of the Gospel. But we can hardly
so lightly pass over the representation of
Origen with regard to that great funda
mental point, the very sum and substance
of Christianity, the atonement offered by its
divine Founder. I shall not indeed insist
on the objections of Mosheim, that he
appears to have regarded that atonement
in the light of an expiatory sacrifice for the
sins of the world, rather than a vicarious
satisfaction made to Divine justice for the
guilt of our race. 1 shall not, I say, insist
at all upon this point, because I am fully
convinced, that where the former and un
doubtedly scriptural doctrine of the ex
piatory sacrifice of Christ is truly held, the
practical difference between the two views
will almost become evanescent : and the
discrepance will consist rather in the tech-

LECTURE IV. 251
nical phraseology and mode of expression,
than in the real substance of the doctrine
held as the hope of our souls. And so far we
may be well satisfied, that Origen with
true faith regarded the Lord Christ as the
Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of
the world; but yet we must lament, that he
has, even on this most important subject,
coupled with this great truth errors calcu
lated altogether to invalidate its force.
While he held that all sin required a propi
tiation by blood, he did not restrict this
efficacy to the blood of the one great sacri
fice. This he indeed esteemed the most
excellent and the only universal atonement ;
but yet he attributed a similar though more
partial virtue to the blood of every righteous
man", from Abel to Zacharias, ad expiandum
pro aliqua parte populum''.
' Hom. xxiv. He however adds, that the sacrifices of
the just availed only through their prayers, and Christ's
alone by its proper merits.
" Origen ('EJijyyjTixa, t. ii. p. 38.) has some strange
notions concerning the extent of the benefits of Christ's
sacrifice. He argues, that it is absurd to restrict such a
text as wrsg -rravTo; sysv(raTo davaTOv, to the redemption of
man alone, but that it must be considered as including

252 LECTURE IV.
In regard to the doctrines of grace",
Jerome has very forcibly charged him with
being the great source from whence the
Pelagians derived their errors, and it would
seem difficult to vindicate him satisfactorily
from this charge.
If in these more purely theological doc
trines we have already had occasion to
animadvert on the introduction of so much
of wild and mystical speculation, we shall
be less surprised in all the questions which
relate to psychology ^ and the doctrine of
spiritual natures, to find the great staple of
his opinions composed of the same fanciful
materials. In his theory concerning the
human soul of Christ, we have already seen,
that Origen believed all human souls to
have possessed a previous state of separate
existence before their descent on earth.
In this they had been endowed with the
power of free-will, and capable of using or
all beings whatsoever capable of sin ; perhaps even the
stars, since Job says the stars are not clean in his sight.
He adds, however, ei /x^ msg^oXixSi; Xeyoiro. See Orige
niana, I. ii. c. 3. QuBBst. 20.
' See Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 2, Quaest. 7.
* See Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 2. Quaest. 6.

LECTURE IV. 253
abusing that power ; according to the
merits or demerits thus contracted, they
were doomed to different conditions when
called by their junction with human bodies
to make their appearance in this state of
being. Fond fancies, principally borrowed
from the well known psychological specu
lations of Plato, and more congenial to the
metempsychosis which Pythagoras had once
imported from this very Alexandrian climate,
than consistent with any views of Christian
truth. With regard to the resurrection of the
body*, Origen has been reproached as not
believing that the soul was to resume the
same identical body which it had here
borne, but a changed and far more glorious
body; but such a censure must surely fall
equally on St. Paul himself, and we cannot
therefore consider it as requiring any other
remark. All punishment' was regarded by Origen
as remedial in its nature, and he therefore
* See Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 2. Quaest. 9.
' See Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 3. Quaest. 20. This doctrine of
the salvability of daemons is directly opposed by Irenaeus.

254 LECTURE IV.
looked for the final purgation and restor
ation of all the guilty, even including the
fallen Angels.
His theories of dsemonology, and specu
lations as to the angelic natures^, are wild
in the extreme, and almost Rosicrucian.
Guardian angels were assigned to nations,
to Churches, and to individuals ; and of
these the whole economy is described with
an assumption of precise information, which
on such a subject seems almost ludicrous.
According to these views, the associated
Spirit should sometimes appear to be rather
dependent on the man, than the man on the
angel; since the angelic patron is said him
self to make a spiritual progress coordinate
with that of his earthly client, and according
to the merits and virtues of the latter to
be admitted more or less intimately to the
vision of the heavenly Father, or by his
demerits excluded. Yet on the other hand
we are told, that the angelic intelligences
have themselves had their various earthly
relations assigned from their own qualities ;
the most holy being the honoured messengers
« See Origeniana, 1. ii. c. 2. quaest. 5.

LECTURE IV. 255
of the prayers of the saints, while some have
become so far degraded, as fitly to preside
only over the lower animals. To evil spirits
a similar intercourse with and influence over
the human race, was ascribed.
Strongly, however, as we are bound to
insist on the highly injurious influences
which must necessarily result from cor
rupting the sacred purity of Christian truth
by an alloy so base as these extravagances
of mystical speculation, it should yet in
fairness to Origen be stated, that he very
commonly himself has the modesty to pro
pose these things rather in the light of
mere speculative enquiries, than of posi
tive truth. But in any degree and under
any circumstances, it must be fearfully
perilous, thus to give a loose rein to the
caprices of a wild and fanciful imagination,
when we are studying in the very mount
of God; where the only frame that can
become our reason, must be to receive
with deep awe, implicit submission, and
simple faith, the divine communications
on subjects so far transcending all the
faculties not of ourselves alone, but of

256 LECTURE IV.
every other created and finite intelli
gence. But thus to indulge an exuberant fancy,
and in the pride of intellect, to refuse to
admit check or limit to its boldest and
most excursive speculations, is not the fault
of a single individual, or single school. It
is the common temptation of ardent, active,
and powerful minds ; and especially when
the mental faculties in all the freshness of
their early vigor, are trying their powers in
the season of youth, few probably have
been unconscious of some tendencies of this
kind. Let us not then rise from the sub
ject we have been now considering with
our attention fixed upon the intellectual
errors of an Origen alone; let us from them
learn to suspect and correct our own. Let
us remember, that the Neological specula
tions of the nineteenth century are to the
full as dangerous as the Alexandrian specu
lations of the third. Let us school our
minds to submit to that discipline and re
straint, to which our reasoning no less than
our moral powers are so reluctant. Let us
cast down imaginations, and every high

LECTURE IV. 257
thing that exalteth itself against the know
ledge of God, and bring into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ''. Let
us cherish that childlike simplicity and
humility, which our Lord so forcibly im
plied to be the only temper calculated effec
tually to embrace his Gospel, when he
exclaimed, *' I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes'."
' 1 Cor. X. 5. * Matt. xi. 25.

LECTURE V.

1 Cor. xi. 19.

There must also be heresies amongst you, that they which
are approved may be made manifest.
In the later Lectures we have been too
often called to consider the errors and
extravagances substituted for the sacred
simplicity of Christian faith, by the af
fectation of philosophical interpretation.
We shall probably, therefore, turn with
relief and satisfaction to the examination
of documents of a far more sound and
sober character, the writings of that class
of Fathers who may properly be called
dogmatical, inasmuch as they were con
tent to maintain in their strict and simple
form the great articles of their authorita
tive creed, the Kavav Trjs dXrjOdas, or regula
fidei, and were little anxious to seek for
refined explanations of those articles, in
the labyrinths of metaphysical speculation,

LECTURE V. 259
) shroud them in the fanciful veil of
;icism.le earliest and most important of the
ers of whom I am now about to speak,
sens and Tertullian, were principally
iged (the former indeed exclusively so)
le task of repelling, as it were from the
cradle of the faith, that strange and
entous brood of error, the various
jeny of the Gnostic name, which with
lubricity and venom of serpents clung
ind it ; it may therefore seem almost
ibsolute necessity, in order to enable
0 form a just estimate of the orthodox
ers opposed to them, to premise a few
iminary observations on these heretics
aselves.ince, however, this very subject was but
w years past copiously discussed by
late most lamented Regius Professor of
inity in a series of Lectures from this
)it, with an ability and learning which
leave nothing further to be desired, it
lot be again necessary to enter into
detail : I shall therefore confine myself
uch a brief statement of general prin-
s 2

260 LECTURE V.
ciples, as may be best calculated to intro
duce and explain the allusions which my
own peculiar subject may occasion.
It must be painful to all, and to some
may have appeared perplexing, that the
very same period selected by Providence
as that in which truth should spring from
the earth, should also have been productive
of such a luxuriant crop of error. But when
we look more attentively at the case, we
may see causes in operation which neces
sarily tended to favour this unhappy inter
mixture. Such is the condition of our present
state of probation, that the very same cir
cumstances which in one direction operate
for our good, may often under other modi
fications prove the occasions of falling ;
and we shall see this to have been especially
the case in the history of our faith. The
revelation of truth was made, we are told,
when the fulness of time was come ; and
this fulness of time was evidently marked
by the general concurrence at that particular
period, of all those predisposing causes,
which might best prepare the minds of men
eagerly to receive the new faith. The fields

LECTURE V. 261
of the earth were already white to the
harvest. No one who has studied the page of history
with a reflective mind, can have failed to
observe, that the different ages of human
society have been prevalently marked with
very different and peculiar moral and intel
lectual characteristics. The mind of man
has in one age bent all its powers with eager
ness in one direction, in another its bias has
become diverted into a course the most re
mote. As in the physical history of men we
notice the periodical appearance of epide
mical disorders, so in his mental history we
may trace the intervention of moral and in
tellectual epidemics. Nor need we in either
case have recourse for explanation to any
hypothesis of mysterious or occult properties.
But rather in both we shall find simple, na
tural, and analogous causes, quiteadequate to
afford a satisfactory solution of the pheno
mena; namely, the concurrence of predispos
ing circumstances, and the spread of that
contagion which may be diffused from mind
to mind, as readily as from body to body. In
the moral history of mankind we cannot».con-

262 LECTURE V.
sistently with our acknowledgment of a
superintending Providence, doubt but that
these circumstances are under the guidance
of that Providence, though we see it still
acting by such general laws as not of
necessity to preclude the possibility of some
evil consequences, which those general
laws may involve.
I might well exemplify my meaning, by
alluding to the great sera of the Reformation.
No one can overlook the features of the
mighty crisis of mind, which marked that
sera. No one can fail to observe, how all the
circumstances of that period were calculated
to arouse the intellect to emancipate itself
from the darkness and bondage which had
so long oppressed it, and to emerge exult-
ingly into the light of that truth which
should indeed make it free. Yet with
whatever gratitude we may look to the
noble effects of that day of deliverance,
must not our triumphs be saddened with
deep regret, when we see the sunshine of
that bright dawn chequered with lowering
and tempestuous clouds ; and the very same
condition of the moral atmosphere which

LECTURE V. 263
lighted a beacon to guide to his arduous
struggle the champion of Erfurth, kindling
also the flames of extravagant and criminal
fanaticism in Munster, and the dangerous
and deceitful glare of heresy in Cracow.
The mental and moral features of the
period of the revival of Christian truth are
sufficiently analogous, to afford an im
portant illustration to those of its original
promulgation. There appears in like man
ner to have been generally diffused at that
earlier day, a growing discontent with the
prevalent superstition, and an eager search
after new modes of faith, which might
appear of a purer, more intellectual, and
more availing character; there was an
eager and curious search into those philoso
phical points, which seemed most to con
cern the spiritual interests of man; such as
the existence and nature of God, and the
causes and remedies of moral evil. This
temper of mind, we cannot doubt, when
rightly directed, was most favourable to the
propagation of Christian truth : but we
might also have anticipated, even if history
had been silent, how liable such a dispo-

264 LECTURE V.
sition must also have been to perversion
and abuse ; allowing unbridled scope to
curious and unlearned questions, on points
altogether transcending human faculties
and human acquirements ; and throwing
wide the gate of ivory to the dreamy
fancies of mysticism. There was at this
period a stirring of the ground, espe
cially preparing it to receive the seeds
of Christianity, w^hich heaven was about
to shed into its bosom; but the adversary
was abroad, and preparing to sow his
own tares amidst the hopes of a better
harvest. It is evident that most, if not all, of these
early heresies, received their predominant
character from the philosophical views
adopted and promulgated by their founders.
Tertullian distinctly refers them to the
abstruser investigations of metaphysical
theology, on such questions as unde malum
et quare? et unde homo et quomodo? et
quod proxime proposuit Valentinus unde
Deus ? I am persuaded that we generally
entertain ideas far from adequate of the
very wide extent, and very great influence

LECTURE V. 265
of the philosophical schools and teachers of
that day. These philosophical Colleges
resembled much more the Colleges of the
preaching Friars of the middle ages, than
any thing else to which I can compare
them; for we must remember, that philo
sophy was then in effect the only reUgion
really received by any man of superior
station, or cultivated mind, and had there
fore all the pervading and penetrating in
fluence, which religion alone can exert over
the social mass. The history of the youth
of each of the philosophical Fathers whom
we have been lately considering, is sufficient
to demonstrate how essential to education
a complete training in these schools was
then commonly regarded".
" We may also draw the same conclusion from the
recognitions or autobiographical memoir attributed to
Clemens Romanus, which though assuredly a forgery, is
yet highly interesting in its real character of a religious
romance composed as early as the second century. In the
introductory chapters of this narrative, we find most gra
phically pourtrayed the early struggles of his mind, while
anxiously engaged in investigating the theological and
metaphysical questions, to which I have alluded; his
assiduous but vain attendance at the philosophical
Schools, in the hope of obtaining a satisfactory solution of

266 LECTURE V.
It has been often questioned, whether the
philosophical basis of Gnosticism ought to
be considered as claiming an oriental origin,
or as rather derived from the more cele
brated schools of Greece, to which their
orthodox opponents, as being themselves
most famihar with these, usually refer
them; but in truth many of the minor
provincial schools of philosophy appear
very generally to have interwoven indif
ferently into their systems tenets borrowed
from the Persian Zoroaster or Egyptian
Mercury, with those of the later Platonists,
and even with such portions of the local
superstitions, as they could conveniently
work together into a general system of
mysticism. To this general principle of
accommodation, the interests more espe
cially of these Heresiarchs would naturally
have led them; with objects and in a spirit
far different from those of the great Apostle,
they would corruptly adopt his prudential
the difficulties which perplexed him; and the delight
with which (his mind being thus predisposed) he listened,
during his visit to Rome, to the preaching of the Gospel
by Peter in that city.

LECTURE V. 267
maxim, and willingly become all things to
all men, if by any means they might gain
some. The theories, therefore, which have
variously traced these mystical systems to
the Oriental, the Egyptian, or the Platonic
philosophies, or the Jewish Cabbala, may
each contain partial views of the truth,
which if taken collectively they would
represent in its integrity ; indeed all these
several sources may have had originally
much in common with each other ; for we
know that the early remains of the science
and philosophy •" of Egypt and of the East,
present the clearest evidence of an intimate
original connection; we know also that Plato,
and before him Pythagoras, had explored all
the learning of Egypt; and the mystical and
false tradition with which the daughter of
Judah had latterly corrupted the divine faith
committed to her charge, was obviously a
foreign lesson which she had learnt, while
sitting a captive beneath the willows on the
banks of Euphrates.
From whatever source might have sprung
This is particularly obvious with regard to their
astronomical monuments.

268 LECTURE V.
the various sects included under the general
Gnostic name, we find the same common
principle pervading the w^hole, and that
principle developed under various forms
indeed, yet all having features of congenial
resemblance, though not of perfect identity.
This general fundamental principle consisted
in the endeavour to remove as far as possi
ble from the supreme and invisible God,
every participation in the production of a
material world so impregnated with evil
as our own system. The Creator of this
world, therefore, they ever regarded as a
Being altogether distinct from, if not opposed
to, the high God. It will be readily sur
mised that it must be far from easy intelli
gibly to trace out the various processes
which they imagined with this view ''.
'' There is not merely difficulty in reconciling the
opinions ascribed to the different leaders of these various
sects, for such a discrepance might naturally have been ex
pected ; but I have generally found myself quite unable
to combine the notices given by the Fathers of the views
of the same individual heresiarch into any thing like an
uniform and consistent system; nor need we by any
means attribute this altogether to the misconceptions
under which those unfriendly critics may have laboured ;
nay possibly, did we possess their original works, the

LECTURE V. 269
In general, this prevalence of evil was
ascribed in agreement with the schools of
Plato, to the influence of matter ; a prin
ciple regarded as instinct with a brute and
blind force of irregular and inordinate ap
petite and motion ; from this evil source
the sensitive and mere animal vitality of
our nature was derived, but the more
ethereal spark of the rational soul was
esteemed an emanation from the supreme
and good God, who dwelt in the highest
heaven, or as they termed it the Pleroma ".
difficulty would have been in no material degree
diminished; for any one who should attempt what might
appear an easier task, to extract from the Timseus or
Parmenides of Plato any definite, distinct, and intelli
gible system, will probably find himself under little less
embarrassment. I have been principally guided in the general account
I have given of these sects, by Lardner's essay on the
history of the early heretics, to which I am indebted for
most of the references in the following notes.
' The supreme and all-good God was represented as
dwelling in an heavenly sphere of inaccessible brightness
and glory called the Pleroma. This term, which naturally
recals the Scriptural expression, ' the fulness of him that
fiUeth all in all,' was not understood to include infinite
space, for the whole brute mass of matter was without its
pure and celestial limits.

270 LECTURE V.
From this great Supreme, it was imagined
that a long series of spiritual and intellectual
existences had from eternity originated ;
these were termed ^ons (Aiwi/ey), the first
were his immediate offspring, the rest had
been propagated in an extended line of de
scent from one another. In proportion as
they receded from the pure source whence
they originally sprung, they became them
selves less pure, and more tainted with the
corruptions of the outer regions of darkness
and matter^.
'' It seems quite clear that these .ffions, (at any rate
the lower race of them,) essentially correspond with the
daij/,ovs; whom Plato himself had probably borrowed from
the mystical East, which seems ever to have been the
prolific parent of such fanciful beings. I shall accord
ingly not scruple to speak of this portion of the Gnostic
system as its daemonology. In the theory of the creation
of the material world, however, there was a material
difference between the sentiments of the Platonists and
Gnostics ; for while Plato assigned a large share in the
administration of that world to his daemons as having
been delegated to them by the supreme God; yet he
ever attributed creation itself to the immediate demiurgic
energy of the great Supreme, who thus endeavoured
to reduce to a better state the inordinate material mass,
and to educe from it the greatest good of which it
was capable. For Plato evidently considered the power
even of the supreme Deity himself, as limited by the

LECTURE V. 271
The Gnostics usually attributed the crea
tion of this nether world to one or more
among the lowest of these ^Eons. For it
was imagined that the Supreme Goodness
was thus exonerated from any direct share
in the origination of its load of sin and
misery ; whether these arose from the
perversity of its material elements, or the
degeneracy and corruption of the creative
tEous. It is extremely difficult to ascertain
the exact moral character which any one of
the Gnostic sects really assigned to these
imaginary demiurgic powers. Sometimes
they speak of the Creator of this world
in terms which would seem appropriate
perversity of the materials on which he had to act.
Matter in this system was clearly regarded as a principle
coeternal and equally indestructible with the Divine
nature itself. Nor is it merely represented as an inert
principle, but as instinct with an irregular and disorderly
activity, by which it became the source of every perverse
appetite, and the general principle of evil. It must be
quite obvious, that such a system differs rather in expres
sion than in substance, from the Dualism of the East;
for in both we equally find two eternal principles, the one
of good and the other of evil ; and it surely matters very
little whether we call these antagonist powers 'O ©EOS
and 'TAH, or Ormuzd and Ahreman. See Timaeus,
ed. Ser. iii. 40. and Convivium, ed. Serr. iii, 202, 203.

272 LECTURE V.
only to the evil principle himself, at others
only as exercising over his creation a rule
of despotic and unmitigated severity ; and
as having with his associated ^ons claimed
to themselves in the arrogance of their
pride, those divine honours from their
creatures, which properly belonged to the
Supreme Lord of the Heavenly Pleroma
alone. Thus far then at least, these demi
urgic powers had already at the sera of
creation become rebels and apostates from
their great first parent. In this strange
mass of contradictions, however, we find
that the very same sects at one time main
tained, that the Supreme God had not been
consulted in the work, and at another that
the same Supreme had, more Platonico, him
self supplied the archetypal patterns of the
universe. And from him were derived in
some unexplained and inexplicable manner,
by all these systems, the rational and spi
ritual souls, conjoined in our nature with
the sentient and concupiscent mind of the
flesh, which men were supposed to inherit
from matter. The great end then of the high
philosophy of the true FNQSIS;, was to

LECTURE V. 273
deliver these celestial inmates from the
gross chains of their corporeal prison, and
to elevate them from the worship of the
creative but inferior ^ons, to that of the
unknown Supreme.
Thus far I have exhibited these views,
only as those of a mystical theism, which
was probably the form in which they were
first adopted by their original propagators ;
it remains to be explained, what modifi
cations their subsequent association with
Christianity produced. The Gnostics of
course identified the God of the Jews with
the principal of the demiurgic tEous ; and
considered the Mosaic law as delivered in
order to enforce the strict and harsh code
of his government, and his usurpation of
divine honours ; the other spiritual powers
associated with this chief became in like
manner the gods of the other nations. At
length the great and truly good Lord of
the Pleroma, regarding with compassion
the degraded state of the rational souls
which w^ere originally emanations from his
own nature, sent his Christ, represented as
the highest and most nearly alhed of all

274 LECTURE V.
the spiritual beings which had proceeded
from himself, to accomplish that general
spiritual deliverance which Avas the great
end of the whole system ; this he was to
effect, by overthrowing the power and
destroying the pretensions of the demi
urgic usurpers, by proclaiming the true
God, (before his advent totally unknown
to the world,) and by raising the soul in
baptism to this purer knowledge. If in
this it made due progress, it would on the
dissolution of the body become translated to
the bliss of the Pleroma; otherwise it would
be relegated afresh to a new series of pur
gatorial transmigrations, until this great end
should be sufficiently accomplished.
Many of the Gnostics, unwilling to admit
that Christ, the highest and purest emanation
of Deity, could in any way become associated
with a material frame, believed that the
apparent body of our Lord was altogether
visionary and immaterial, and were there
fore called Docetse'^ ; others believed that
' This appears to have been a very early opinion, as
we find Ignatius repeatedly arguing against it in the
very beginning of the second century.

LECTURE V. 275
the JEon Christ had descended on the
human nature of Jesus in baptism.
With respect to his death, it never ap
pears to have been considered by the
Gnostics in the light of an atonement for
sin ; but simply as the natural result of the
malice of the spiritual lords of this world,
who were provoked to conspire his de
struction by his mission for overthrowing
their dominion. Since, however, the JEon
Christ was in his own nature impassible,
it was supposed by some that this ^Eon
was previously withdrawn ; by others, that
Jesus did not himself actually suffer, but
that Simon the Cyrenian, who bore his
cross, was permitted to assume his outward
form, and to endure the death of that cross
in his steads The Docetse could not have
been embarrassed by these difficulties, for
according to their views the whole scene
was but an unreal vision.
' Most readers must remember the quotations from
the Koran, given in the note 88 to Gibbon's Decline and
Fall, c. 50. shewing that the Mahometans had adopted
similar views as to the crucifixion. The notion that
another had been substituted on the cross for Jesus,
occurs also in the forged gospel of the Pseudo Barnabas.
T 2

276 LECTURE V.
It must, indeed, appear truly difficult to
conceive how any sect, which professed in
any degree to receive the faith delivered
by Christ, could for a moment attempt to
reconcile with that profession their denial
of the supreme Deity of the great Creator
of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, whom Christ ever
honoured as his Father and his God ; or
how they could have hoped to represent
Christ himself as brought into the world to
overthrow the authority of that Jehovah,
whose will he expressly came to do.
How then did they attempt to reconcile
such tenets with the reception of any
portion of the Gospels ? In the first place
they mutilated these evangelical documents,
admitting only the general historical facts
there recorded. And they in like manner
set up a series of garbled extracts from the
Pauline Epistles, selecting such passages as
they could most easily pervert into a sense
which might appear altogether hostile to
the law of the Old Testament. But how
ever much they might mutilate these docu
ments, yet amply sufficient must have re-

LECTURE V. 277
mained to have refuted their system, while
a single section was permitted to stand,
had that section been admitted in its
obvious and literal sense. The doctrine of
a double sense was therefore strenuously
inculcated, and the Gnostic appealed to his
own fanciful interpretations, (which he
maintained to be hidden in the sacred text
beneath the veil of figure and allegory,)
as alone conveying the genuine mind of
the Spirit ; for h* insisted that our Lord
had ever taught two doctrines, the one
public and esoteric, and apparently ac
commodated to the prejudices of the
multitude, in order that he might gra
dually win them to the faith ; while that
truth itself was delivered only in private
and esoteric lessons to a chosen few,
deemed worthy of admission to this perfect
ri/c<jo-ty,andfrom them had been handed down
by perpetual tradition to fit successors s.
f Irenseus informs us (iii. 4.) that the heretics
when urged with Scripture appealed to tradition, quia
non possit ex his [Scripturis'] inveniri veritatem ab iis qui
nesciunt Traditionem, and had thus been admitted into
the participation of the true TNHSlS. They defended
this hypothesis of a secret and esoteric doctrine confined

278 LECTURE V-
We cannot but recollect how much of the
germs of these most pernicious doctrines
were held by the Alexandrian Fathers ;
and to what a fearful extent they were
developed by Clemens. We have the same
complicated dsemonology'', the same alle
gorical interpretation, the same esoteric
and secret doctrine, and the same hypo
thesis of its transmission through the per
fectly initiated few; and we are enabled the
more distinctly to perceive the genuine
character and tendencies of such unwar-
to the initiated by perverting the very same text of
St. Paul, Sofi'av 8e XaXou/xEV sv to~i; tsXsioi;, which Clemens
Alexandrinus also abused for a similar purpose.
'' The whole mystical and Platonical web of the two
systems appears to have been the same, only that in the
Gnostic woof we find interwoven their own peculiar
notions that their .Slons, otherwise the just representa
tives of the iai[/,ovs;, were not only the administrators, but
the creators of the material universe; that the Canon of the
Jewish Scripture was to be entirely rejected; and the God
there taught repudiated as an inferior if not evil prin
ciple. The speculations, however, of both parties on the
nature of Christ, and the nature and prospects of the
human soul, bore a near resemblance; and in both we
find the same passion for allegorical interpretation, and
the same perverted ingenuity in endeavouring to trace
out numerical mysteries, and the like dreams of a mor
bid fancy.

LECTURE V. 279
ran table notions, when we see them thus
naturally associated with the grossest and
most Anti- Christian heresies.
Surely, also, the appeals of these here
tics to tradition, may serve as an useful
warning ; for if tradition could, when un
supported by the warranty of Scripture,
have challenged a competent independent
authority, the question between the Catho
lic and the Gnostic would have reduced
itself to this sole enquiry, whose traditions
were the true and genuine stock. Yet
would I never so press this argument,
as to appear for a moment to forget the
essential difference between the tradition
alleged by the heretics, and that which
might be claimed by the Church ; for the
former was avowedly private, while the
latter derived its whole authority from its
constant and universal reception. Its ca
tholicity was its criterion.
The history of Simon Magus, who (by
the uniform testimony of Christian anti
quity from the days of Justin) is reported
to have been the first to associate the sys
tem we have been here considering with a

280 LECTURE V.
slight mixture of Christian truth, may well
serve to illustrate the views which first
suggested the attempt to form this strange
and incongruous compound.
It will, I think, materially clear our
way towards obtaining a correct under
standing of the case, if I premise a few
observations on the pretensions to super
natural and magical powers which we know
were advanced by this individual, and
which have been generally charged against
the other Gnostic leaders'. We know
' Lardner, it is true, in the excess of his candour to
wards the parties accused of heresy, is generally willing
to impute these charges of magic to the misrepresentation
of their opponents ; but a little attention to the character
of the philosophical schools to which they belonged, may
well induce us to question whether the parties themselves
would have been at all grateful for a vindication involving
the denial of what they probably themselves considered as
the proudest part of their pretensions. Plato himself
taught, that by habits of abstract contemplation the mind
could ascend to an intimate familiarity with the. great
first cause, and derive from this intimacy extraordinary
powers ' quod unum dogma,' as Brucker well observes,
' satis prodit quam fanatica sit Platonis philosophia, et
quod tota enthusiasmo faveat.' The extravagant notions
of theurgy which the later Platonists built on this basis
are well known ; they are sufficiently illustrated in the
marvellous legends circulated concerning ApoUonius of

LECTURE V. 281
how common such pretensions were in that
age, and indeed still remain in these oriental
countries. In those days, indeed, the mys
tical philosophy had closely allied itself with
magic ; and its favourite contemplative ab
stractions were supposed to elevate the soul
to a close intercourse with superior spiritual
intelligences, and to obtain from that com
munion a portion of their supernatural
power ; with such aspirations the later Pla
tonists were still more proud of their dis
tinction as theurgists, than as philosophers.
In such cases, what began in moody fanati
cism would probably soon end in interested
imposture ; indeed in the moral constitution
of our minds, the limits which separate the
two stages are seldom very definitely marked.
Simon Magus appears to have been him
self a pretender of a similar description ;
we read that he astonished the people by
his magical arts, and thus obtained so emi
nent a reputation for high spiritual inter
course and power, as to have acquired the
lofty title 7] 8vvapis Qeov rj peydXr). It seems
Tyana, who it may be remarked is said to have been
cotemporary with Simon Magus.

282 LECTURE V.
probable, that when he beheld the true
miracles of the Christians, he would, under
such circumstances, have very naturally
been led to consider them as having really
obtained a degree of theurgical power, to
which he must have been conscious that his
own pretensions, how^ever loudly advanced,
were in effect vain ; and it is evident that it
was his great object to acquire from them
by any bribe, a communication of their
peculiar secrets, as from more perfect adepts
than himself in a common science. The
Christ whom they served, and in whose
name these mighty works were wrought,
he would naturally from his previous im
pressions have regarded as one of the
highest and most mighty iEons, to whom
his own system had taught him to look as
the sources of the powers he sought.
We are now sufficiently prepared to turn
our attention to Irenseus, the great original
source of our information concerning the
heretical visionaries we have been consider
ing, and, indeed, (the work of Justin against
heresies having perished,) the author of
the earliest extant refutation of these

LECTURE V. 283
opinions. In our own age, indeed, simply to
state such fanciful dreams were abundantly
sufficient to refute them. We cannot
therefore now expect, in a treatise of
five books exclusively dedicated to such
an object, to find much applicable to the
edification of modern times. To such a
volume we must, from its very nature,
principally refer as to a document of
historical curiosity, and be contented with
the hope of gleaning a few incidental
allusions to topics of more permanent or
general interest. But I would observe, that
the very circumstance I have mentioned,
may well serve to demonstrate to us our
intellectual obligations to Christianity ; to
the influences, direct or indirect, of whose
long-continued teaching, that improvement
of the mind of man is principally to be
attributed, which now leads it at once to
reject absurdities, which in earlier ages
required for their confutation laborious
argument. Of Irenseus himself'', in his early inter-
' I hardly know whether, as in the case of Homer the
critical enquirer, might be now required in the first place

284 LECTURE V.
course with Polycarp, the disciple of St.
John, I have been already obUged to speak
in an earlier Lecture, with reference to the
discussions in which he followed the steps of
that illustrious instructor ; and I need not
now again advert to his anxious endeavours
to promote the peace of the Church, when
its disturbance was threatened by the
Paschal controversy.
We learn from Eusebius, that this
disciple of the martyred Polycarp, having
in after life passed into Gaul, settled in the
Church established apparently by oriental

to vindicate his personal existence, a similar task with
respect to Irenaeus may not be rendered incumbent on
the ecclesiastical critic by the strange sceptical hypothesis
of Semler, who, from certain coincidences which he has
alleged in their writings, brings forward the singular
supposition, that a large proportion of the Fathers of the
third century, viz. Justin, Irenaeus, Clemens Alexan
drinus, and Tertullian, were forgeries emanating from a
club of the Christian clerical body, principally established
in Rome. If we except the well-known sceptical paradox,
that all the classical authors of Greece and Rome were
similar forgeries by a school of grammarians in the middle
ages, I know not where we shall find another notion so
palpably opposed to all internal probability and external
evidence.

LECTURE V. 285
missionaries at Lyons'. The Bishop of that
Church, Pothinus, having been summoned
to martyrdom in the persecution which
afflicted the Christians of that district,
under the unfeeling and affected pretender
to philosophy, Aurelius, Irenseus was
called to succeed him in this post, then
emphatically that of Christian honour, be
cause of Christian peril. He shrunk neither
from its dangers nor its duties, and in the
discharge of those duties undertook the
composition of the five books which we
have now to examine, in refutation of the
Gnostic heresies, which from the oriental
connections of its commerce had probably
been early introduced there.
Although, as I have said, in our age there
can be no need of consulting elaborate argu
ments to confute absurdities which can now
only excite a smile or a sigh at human folly or

' It is probable that considerable commercial inter
course prevailed between the banks of the Rhone and
the shores of Asia Minor. Lugdunum was most favour
ably situated as an emporium for the traffic on this river,
and this will account for the eafly ecclesiastical connec
tion of the two districts.

286 LECTURE V.
human weakness ; yet the general principles
on which the contest against error is to be
carried on, and the quarters from whence
the best weapons in such a conflict must be
derived, will open out to us questions of
far wider application, and more permanent
interest. And here we shall find much to
demand and repay our careful attention in
examining the course pursued by Irenaeus.
This examination will bear with especial
force on our argument respecting the legi
timate use of tradition, and its due subordi
nation to the paramount authority of the
written Scripture, as the great judicial
standard of the faith.
Irenseus repudiates with just indigna
tion*", that most injurious hypothesis on
which the Gnostics, as we have seen,
rested their spurious edition of the Chris
tian faith ; wherein they dared to misre
present him, of whom it was foretold that
in his mouth should be the law of truth, as
if he could have abused his disciples with a
double sense, or could have accommodated
his public instructions to Jewish prejudices,
¦" iii. 4.

LECTURE V. 287
while he privately delivered another and
indeed contradictory Gospel ; which his
Apostles (or those at least of their body
who had been themselves thoroughly ini
tiated) transmitted in like manner to chosen
successors, whence it had descended by
continuous private tradition to the Gnostic
leaders. To this pretended private tradition,
Irenaeus very properly opposes the genuine
and catholic tradition of the Church, whose
authenticity was sufficiently guaranteed
by its unvarying preservation in those
Churches which could trace the regular
succession of their pastoral ministry, from
their Apostolic founders through an interval
which at that time little exceeded one
century". We must feel with how much
greater weight such appeals would be
made in that early age, and by an author
who could refer to the doctrines taught by
the beloved disciple of our Lord, as having
descended to himself, through but one
single intervening link in the chain of com-
" iii. 3. iv. 45. v. 20.

288 LECTURE V.
munication". Under such circumstances, I
repeat, we must all feel that he was most
fully justified in appealing, as he did with
assured confidence, to the general voice of
the Apostolical Churches, as uttering the
very language of the Apostles themselves;
and I shall with the greatest pleasure tran
scribe some of his strong, but perfectly just,
expressions with regard to the testimony
of the Church of that day; convinced that
when those expressions are properly ex
plained by what we shall have further to
observe, as to the practical character of his
own mode of conducting every argument
bearing on points of faith, the result can
only be to give if possible increased weight
• iii. 3. et Fragmentum Epistolae ad Florinium. These
most interesting juvenile reminiscences, recorded by
Irenaeus in this Epistle, of the narratives given by his
instructor Polycarp of his conversations with St. John,
have been already cited in the second Lecture in
speaking of that Apostolical Father.
To similar effect we find Irenaeus supporting his own
assertions by the statement '• thus I heard from a certain
elder, who had heard it from the associates and disciples
of the Apostles themselves," iv. 27, and 45. and yet on
two of these occasions, as we shall presently see, (so very
fallacious is the mere oral transmission of facts,) he
undoubtedly appears to have been misinformed.

LECTURE V. 289
to the supreme authority of the written
word. After a very brief recapitulation of the
cardinal points of the Christian faith,
Irenseus thus proceeds. " The Church
dispersed over the whole world, having
as we have said received this preaching
and this faith, carefully guardeth it. She
dwelleth as it were in one single home,
and she believeth this faith as having one
soul and one heart ; and as possessing but
one single mouth she teacheth it. The
dialects of the countries may differ, but the
power of the tradition is one and the same.
Neither do the Churches established in
Germany receive or deliver any other doc
trine ; nor those in Iberia and among the
Celts, nor in the East, nor in Egypt and
Lybia, nor in the middle regions of the
earth. But as the sun of God's creation
is one and the same in all the world, so
the preaching of the truth shineth every
where, and giveth light to all men that
desire to come to the knowledge of that
truthP."
p i. 3.
u

290 LECTURE V.
'* It befitteth not that [the Gnostic]
should seek from other quarters [such as
his own pretended private tradition] that
truth which it is easy to gather from the
Church; since the Apostles? have most fully
committed to her as to a rich depository
the w^hole truth, so that every one that is
willing may receive from her the cup of
life. This is the gate of life, and those
who enter by any other are but robbers
and thieves. If any question should arise,
must it not be proper to consult the
Churches of Apostolical foundation, and
thence to draw a certain conclusion''.''"
" The heretics of necessity tread various
p The testimony of this Father to the Episcopal govern
ment of the Church from the beginning is remarkably
explicit, and from his early date, and intimate connection
with the immediate successors of the Apostles, parti
cularly valuable ; thus he observes, " we can reckon up
those Bishops who were appointed by the Apostles and
their successors, all along to our own times." (iii. 3.)
Again, " We have a list of Bishops in succession, to
whom the Apostolic Church was in every place com
mitted." (iv. 63.) And to the same effect when arguing
as to the novelty of heretical opinions, " All these," he
says, " aire much later than the Bishops to whom the
Apostles delivered the Churches." (v. 20.)
1 iii. 3.

LECTURE V. 291
and devious paths of error, following the
uncertain and irregular footsteps of false
doctrine inconstantly and incoherently;
but they who follow the guidance of the
Church, tread securely on a broad cause
way, encircling the earth, and firmly based
on Apostolical tradition, and unity of faith.
The Church is the seven -branched candela
brum, supporting the light of Christ. The
Church is planted as a paradise in this
world, and the Spirit saith, " ye shall eat
of every tree of this Paradise," that is, of
every Scripture of the Lord. *' But ye shall
not with a presumptuous mind taste nor
touch the tree of knowledge, which the
Gnostics claim'." Of course, I do not
quote this passage, to express any appro
bation of the last very forced misapplication
of the text in Genesis ; but because it ex
plicitly states, that the wholesome fruit pre
sented for our nourishment by the Church,
(thus splendidly described as the earthly
paradise,) all grew on those trees of the
Scriptures, whose leaves are indeed for the
healing of the nations. ¦¦ V. 20.
TT 9

292 LECTURE V.
We shall find that the practical line pursued
by Irenseus himself throughout this work is
in strict accordance with this principle.
In illustrating these points, we have first
to examine, what was the real character and
extent of that fundamental body of Catholic
doctrine, which the primitive Church is here
asserted thus constantly and universally to
have preserved, as the precious legacy of
her Apostolic founders. Did it in fact con
tain any one doctrine whatsoever, or any
one explanation of doctrine, which was not
stated at least with equal explicitness, and
developed with equal fitness, in the written
word? Far from it. This authoritative
standard, which Irenseus names the Kavmu
Trjs dXrjdeias, merely comprehends the most
concise statement of the great articles of
the faith, corresponding entirely in sub
stance with the shorter and simpler creed,
which the Church professes to have re
tained to our own days, as agreeable to
the doctrine of the Apostles^
' These Articles express the belief of the Church.
1. In One God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth, the sea, and all therein.

LECTURE V. 293
We must at once then perceive, that
this truly genuine apostolical tradition, to
which Irenseus so earnestly and so justly
endeavoured to recal every one who would
profess the name of Christ, does not contain
a single word that is not written in the
inspired Scripture in characters of light,
which he who runs may read. It is indeed
2. In One Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate for
our salvation.
3. In the Holy Ghost ; who foretold by the Prophets
the various dispensations of God, and the advent of
Jesus Christ our beloved Lord, his generation from the
Virgin, his passion, and his resurrection from the dead ;
his ascension in the flesh to Heaven, and his coming
again from thence in the glory of the Father to consum
mate all things, and raise again all flesh of the human
race; that every knee may bow of things in heaven and
earth, and under the earth, and every tongue may con
fess Christ Jesus as our Lord, and God, and Saviour,
and King, according to the will of the invisible Fatherj
and that he may make a just judgment on all; dismissing
to eternal flames the evil spirits, the apostate, and trans
gressing angels, together with impious, unjust, lawless,
and blasphemous men ; but may bestow of his bounty
life and incorruption on the just and holy, who keep his
commandments and abide in his love; and that he may
clothe them with eternal glory.
We may compare this xavm tijs aXrfisia; with the Creed
preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus, see last Lecture;
and the Regula fidei of Tertullian, see next Lecture.

294 LECTURE V.
wholly confined to such cardinal points of
Christian doctrine, as every Christian sect
of the present day (unless indeed we should
include the Socinians in that name) would
unhesitatingly subscribe.
If we carry on our enquiry as to the
manner in which Irenseus proceeds to fill
up this general outline of the faith, we shall
find that he derives his materials professedly
and exclusively from the stores of the same
sacred volume, and that he does not rest a
single doctrine on any other support.
I have already in my first Lecture ad
verted to the forcible and just testimony he
has given to the principle, that it was from
the beginning designed in the counsels of
Providence to replace the preaching of the
Apostles by a far firmer foundation than
mere oral tradition could possibly afford :
Quod [Evangelium] tunc prseconiaverunt,
postea vero per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis
nobis tradiderunt ; fundamentum et columnam
fidei nostra futurum^.
' 1. iii. c. 1. I do not think that the passage so often
quoted by the advocates for the high authority of tradition,
from the fourth chapter of the same book, is, if candidly

LECTURE V. 295
Nor was this a single isolated declaration ;
but having built his faith and his hope on
this truly Christian basis, he often recurs
to the expression of similar sentiments.
Thus he remarks, with reference to the
study of that sacred word, " A man of
sound, safe, cautious, and truth-loving
mind will eagerly meditate on all those
things which God hath subjected to our
knowledge, and placed within our reach.
In these pursuits he will advance, rendering
the acquisition of this knowledge easy to
himself by daily exercise ; for all these truths
are placed beneath our power of sight,
weighed, at all inconsistent with the principles I would
deduce from the above statement. Irenaeus there argues,
that " even if the Apostles had not bequeathed to us the
Scriptures; it must still have been our (Juty to follow the
doctrines they had orally delivered to the Churches founded
by them." And he confirms this maxim by the example
of many nations of converted barbarians, " who had the
Gospel written in their hearts without paper and ink;
and although they remain barbarians in speech, have yet
become through faith truly wise in sentiments and
morals, and instructed so as to please their God." But
surely the strictest Protestant would never scruple to
employ language equally strong, with regard to the case
of the illiterate, who have received the Gospel from
faithful instructors.

296 LECTURE V.
being clearly and unequivocally discernible
by the simple perusal of the divine Scrip
tures "."
Again, in another passage, with exactly
the same spirit, he refers to the same in
spired documents as the great safeguard
against all heretical error; and assures his
readers in express terms, that by employing
the proofs derived from a general survey of
the Scriptures, they would, as he had shewn
by his own example, be always able with
ease to overturn the perverted explanations
which the heretics might have endeavoured
to affix to particular passages ".
He, indeed, more than once expressly
asserts, that the Holy Spirit, foreseeing the
errors which would arise, designedly dic-
" The original passage, I. ii. c. 46. p. 171. is conceived
in the strongest terms, and after a few sentences, followed
up by this general statement: Cum. itaque universae
Scripturae Propheticae et Evangelicae in aperto sint, et
sine ambiguitate, et simihter ab omnibus audiri possint.
ii. 46. p. 172.
' Utens etiam his ostensionibus quae- sunt ex Scripturis,
facile evertis, quemadmodum demonstravimus, omnes
eas quae postea affictae sunt haereticarum sententias.
V. 14. p. 422.

LECTURE V. 297
tated many texts, with a particular view to
guard against them y.
It is true indeed that he advises, and
surely most properly advises, the biblical
student, if he should find any difficulty
arise, carefully to consult the pastors of the
Church, as the appointed guardians of the
Apostolical faith * ; but the very source to
which he ascribed the authority they might
thus justly claim, was their own constant and
stedfast adherence to the word of God alone".
We shall find the practice of Irenseus, in
the conduct of the controversy which he
had himself undertaken, throughout con
sistent with the spirit of the above decla
rations. His refutations are ever built on
the words of Scripture as their only secure
foundation, and it would be impossible for
' Praevidens Spiritus Sanctus depravatores, et praemu-
niens contra fraudulentiam eorum; per Matthseum
ait ... . &c. iii. 18. p. 239.
'^ Post delude, et omnis sermo ei constabit, si et Scrip-
turam diligenter legerit apud eos qui in ecclesia sunt
Presbyteri, apud quos est Apostolica doctrina quemad
modum demonstravimus. iv. 52. p. -355.
¦* Nos autem unum et solum verum Deum doctorem
sequentes, et regulaw, veritatis habentes ejus sermones, de
iisdem semper eadem dicimus omnes. iv. 69. p. 368.

298 LECTURE V.
the best biblical divine of the present
day, to quote more largely or more fami
liarly every portion of the inspired volume.
When we consider that he must have
written within a century of the period
when that volume was closed, we must
attach the very highest importance to the
satisfactory testimony he thus affords, of
the undoubted reception by the universal
Church, at that early date, of every book
of the present canon, with the very trifling
possible exception of six of the minor
Epistles ; and that exception amounts only
to the negative fact of the absence of any
very certain citations ; and cannot therefore
warrant the positive inference of suspicion,
still less of rejection^
' Irenaeus quotes all the four Gospels, alleging
reasons (fanciful enough) why there can be only four.
(See note infra.) He also largely cites all the Epistles of
St. Paul, excepting that to Philemon, which he may well
have passed over from its brevity. He has many references
to the Epistle to the Hebrews, though he does not dis
tinctly ascribe it to St. Paul. We also find many and
certain quotations from I Peter, 1 and 2 John, also the
Apocalypse ; but none occur from the third Epistle of
John, the second of Peter, and those of James and
Jude.

LECTURE V. 299
Irenseus thus cites more than 900 texts
from the New Testament ; and as these
citations always accord in substance, and
generally in the very letter *=, with the
readings still preserved, so extensive a
testimony goes very far to prove not
only the authenticity of the books in
general, but even the genuineness of our
text in the detail. I need not observe, how
much is thus added to the comparatively
sparing references of the earlier Fathers,
Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, Polycarp,
and Justin.
° Some instances have been cited by Semler and
others, in which Irenseus appears to have followed the
readings of the Italic School of MSS. rather than the
more authentic Greek. The most important of these
occurs in the Acts, xv. 20, and 29. in the regulations
prescribed to the Gentile converts, as proposed by
St. James, and adopted by the Council of Jerusalem;
in these as cited, p. 232, Irenaeus, or rather his
Latin translator, omit am to5 itvixtov from among the
prohibitions, and add the positive precept, quaecunque
nolunt sibi fieri aliis ne facient. Clemens Alexandrinus
and Cyprian concur in this reading, which is also ex
hibited in the Codex Bezae preserved at Cambridge,
both as to the omission and the addition xa) oa-a ju.;^
SsXcod'iv havTo'i; ysvs(r^ai sTsgoi; ju.^ noislv, but this MS. is
very commonly accused of Latinizing.

300 LECTURE V.
We shall mostly find the use he makes
of these rich stores of biblical know
ledge, most favourably distinguished from
the practice of the Alexandrian Fathers,
(whom we last considered,) by the
soundness of his application, and the
judgment and sobriety of the rules of
interpretation which he generally follows.
We cannot indeed deny, that occasionally
we meet with some forced accommodations
of particular passages to purposes very
remote from their original intention; but
still we may observe, not in vindication
indeed, but in extenuation, that when the
mind is overflowing with the language of
Scripture, it is difficult, even for a far
more exact writer than Irenseus, to guard
himself from being led into the introduction
of texts, suggested merely by verbal paral
lelisms, and which can at best only form
ornamental illustrations, and never essen
tial portions of the argument. But although
he was not happy enough entirely to escape
the perverted taste for fanciful and alle
gorical interpretation, which so greatly
injured the ecclesiastical writings of this

LECTURE V. 301
age, his offences are comparatively rare ;
and he occasionally lays down very good
advice, and excellent rules for the exposition
of holy writ.
Thus he instructs us^ to seek a correct ex
planation of the more obscure and figurative
passages of Scripture, by comparing them
with those which are clear and unambiguous;
" for thus" (as he observes) " the general
body of scriptural truth, secured by the har
monious adaptation of its several parts, will
remain in its integrity, and free from all re
pugnancy. But if we should connect these
more dark and abstruse portions with para
bolical and figurative interpretations, such as
every one may invent after his own fancy,
there can be no certain standard of truth ;
and the result must be as many conflicting
expositions as there are expositors ; the
fabric will never be securely based on the
firm and solid rock, but piled up on the
treacherous foundation of the drifting sand,
and its subversion must be proportionably
rapid and easy."
In the same book he strongly exposes'
" ii. 46. p. 172. " ii. 45. p. 170.

302 LECTURE V.
the folly evinced by the Gnostics, and by
Clemens Alexandrinus, in seeking to deduce
from various passages of holy writ, vain,
idle, and absurd questions concerning
numerical mysteries ; instead of endeavour
ing to profit by the edification of the plain
sense, and thus growing in the love of God
and man.
When he himself appears strongly
tempted to expatiate on the more obscure
passages in the prophetical visions of
Daniel and the Apocalypse, concerning the
power of Antichrist, and the mystical
number of the beast, he most prudently
checks his curiosity as to unfulfilled pro
phecy, by the very just remark da^aXeaTepou
Kal dKivbvvoTepov to Trepip^eveiu ttjv eK^acriv ttjs
Trpo(pr)T€ias, r] to KaTaaTOXpL^ecrOai Kal KaTa/xav-
reveadai ovopaTos. It is far less dangerous
and fallacious to await the event of pro
phecy, than conjecturally to aim at divi
nation from a name'. To the same effect

' v. 30. p. 448. He therefore modestly concludes, that
as many names, e. g. ETAN0AS, AATEINO:^, might be
imagined capable of satisfying the number 166, every
proposed solution must be liable to error; and that if it

LECTURE V. 303
we read in another passage^, irda-a ydp irpo-
^rjTeia irpo rrjs iK^aaecos atviypa i<TTi /cat
dvTiXoyia toIs dvOpcowois, orav Se eXdy 6
Kaipos KOLL aTTofirj TO 7rpo(j)r]Tevdeu, Tore Trjs
dKpt^eaTaTrjs CTrtruxet e^y-qcrecos.
I may here also mention the caution, no
less wise than modest, with which Irenseus
sums up his explanation of those texts, in
which Christ speaks of his own economical
subordination (as it is termed) to the
Father; such as Mark xiii. 32. Here he
had been expedient to communicate the knowledge
sought to the age in which he lived, St. John, who had
died less than a century before, would undoubtedly
himself have plainly revealed it. Yet we find him
very fancifully himself remarking on the number 666,
that it may be thus made up. Noah was 600 years
old at the time of the deluge, and the dimensions of the
image set up by Nebuchadnezzar were 60 cubits in
height, and six in breadth : thus 600 + 60 + 6 = 666.
In the same spirit in exposing the absurdities of the
numerical mysteries on which the Gnostics were so fond
of dwelling, and of which, as we have seen, the principle
was fully countenanced by Clemens Alexandrinus, he
justly argues, that these numerical coincidences must
ever remain perfectly inconclusive, because whatever
number may be selected, it will always be abundantly
easy for any fanciful speculator to find many instances of
such coincidences, ii. 42. p. 166.
s iv. 43. p. 343.

304 LECTURE V.
earnestly warns us to remember, that as
yet we know in part only; and to resign
all such questions, as far transcending our
highest faculties, to the God whose secret
things we must ever be unable to search
out. " Ne forte quaerentes altitudinem
Patris investigare, in tantum periculum
incidamus uti quseramus an super Deum,
alter sit Dens'*."
His general argument as to such scrip
tural difficulties is sound and excellent,
" If," says he, "we are unable to discover
full solutions of every question which may
be proposed as to the Scriptures, we may
well yield such mysteries to the God who
has made us; most surely convinced, that
the Scriptures must themselves be perfect,
seeing that they are dictated by his own word
and Spirit. But we who are the lowest
creatures of that word and Spirit, cannot be
surprised to find ourselves destitute of the
faculties requisite for the full comprehension
of his mysteries. Nor can it seem strange
that we should remain subject to this
ignorance as to spiritual and heavenly
" ii. 49. 178.

LECTURE V. 305
things, which can only be known to us by
Revelation; since even of the very objects
which are before our feet, I mean the
natural works of creation which are subject
to our touch and sight, and which are ever
with us, there are many things which
escape our science, and which we can only
refer to God as to the great first cause'."
To proceed from these general principles,
to some examples of their particular appli
cation. Among the few topics of the
Gnostic controversy, which can be said to
have any bearing on the theology of the
present day, we may notice the attempts,
in which the modern Deist would readily
follow these ancient heretics, to stigmatize
the law of the Old Testament as altogether
imperfect and unworthy of the good God,
and at variance with the purer moral precepts
of Christianity. In his answer, which oc
cupies much of his fourth book, Irenaeus
principally confines his attention to the latter
' ii. 47. p. 173. Irenaeus adds some examples to illus
trate this just principle; but we cannot be surprised in
the then state of natural science to find these any thing
but happily chosen.

306 LECTURE V.
point, the alleged opposition between the
Law and the Gospel. His replies to this
objection will very generally be found satis
factory; but a short specimen given in an
abridged form may suffice to illustrate their
general character. " When our Lord, in his
Sermon onthe Mount, made his observations
on the seventh and eighth Commandments,
the spirit of these was not to contradict or
abrogate, but to fulfil and to extend. For
clearly, if he had intended to contradict the
Law, he would then have enjoined his dis
ciples to the performance of the very deeds
which it prohibits; but far from this, he
here requires from every one that would be
his disciple, not only most strictly to abstain
from the commission of these outward acts
themselves, but to keep in check the very first
secret desires of the heart which might lead
to them. The law as ordained for servants,
and forming merely a preparatory instruc
tion for the soul, requires in the first place
only a bodily service; but the Word having
accomplished the deliverance of the soul,
seeks, by first acting on that governing
principle, effectually to purify its instru-

LECTURE V. 307
ment the body; and the bonds of legal servi
tude are thus taken away, that men without
bonds may yield a willing obedience to
God. Yet the promulgation of these decrees
of liberty does but increase our subjection
to our King and Liberator; that we may not
by falling away shew ourselves altogether
unworthy of his goodness. For sons surely
owe no less of piety and obedience to the
head of the family, though sons have far
higher confidence than servants; and the
faithful works of liberty are indeed more
great and more noble, than the constrained
submission of slaves''."
To the same effect he dilates on many
other of theGospel precepts, of enlarged libe
rality, benevolence, forgiveness of injuries,
and the love of enemies; and shews them
in every instance to be not the contradic
tion, but the extension and more spiritual
developement, of the very same principles
inculcated in a more elementary form under
the elder law.
He proceeds very eloquently to argue,
that both dispensations throughout dis-
" iv. 27. p. 313.
x2

308 LECTURE V.
played the most manifest evidence, that they
proceeded from the same God of goodness
and love. For his free love in the beginning
created Adam, not as though he could be
in aught profited by any weak services
which man could render, but only that he
might have an object of his own unrequited
bounty; and from the very same love the Son
left the glory which he had with the Father
before the w^orld was, not to require our
homage, but to bestow on us salvation; for
though God is entirely independent on
man, man is entirely dependent on God,
and therefore saith the Lord, " Ye have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you'."
I can hardly select a more characteristic
example of the style of argument and sen
timents of this Father, than that portion of
his fifth book™, in which he is vindicating
the doctrine of the resurrection of the body
from the objections of the Gnostics; whose
fundamental tenet of the essential corruption
of matter, made them utterly revolt from
the idea, that it could in any manner par
ticipate in the glory, which, according to
' iv. 28. p. 315. "' V. 9.

LECTURE V. 309
their views awaited the disembodied spirit.
They boldly asserted that St. Paul entirely
agreed with them in this, when he declares",
that ' flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God.' Irenseus would obviate
any such difficulty, by distinguishing be
tween the corrupt and unrenewed state of
our whole nature, and that which it assumes
when renovated by the Holy Spirit of God.
St. Paul, he says, here speaks of it in its
former state, when the soul being destitute
of spiritual life, the flesh is also dead and
devoid of any true vital principle, and the
blood of life is altogether irrational, and
spilt as water on the ground. In this state
indeed he acknowledges that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the heavenly kingdom.
But he conceived, that the infusion of the
Spirit of God into the soul imparted to
that higher principle such new powers, as
to absorb, as it were, the infirmity of the
flesh, and to elevate and transform it to
an higher nature; ubi autem est Spiritus
Patris, Caro a Spiritu possessa oblita
quidem sui, qualitatem autem Spiritus
° 1 Cor. XV.

310 LECTURE V.
assumens, conformis facta est Verbo Dei ;
and in this state, the hope which nature
might seem to have denied, was bestowed
by grace. And as the wild olive, if it be
engrafted in the good olive, becomes par
taker of its richness, its quality though not
its essence being changed, so it assumes a
fruitfulness not its own ; and although it
must otherwise have perished in its wild
and barren state, it thus becomes capable of
being transplanted into the Paradise of God".
Even so, those who are in the flesh cannot
please God ; but you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you ; the flesh indeed is dead
on account of sin, but the Spirit is life on
account of righteousness ; and if his Spirit,
which raised Jesus from the dead, abide in
you, he who so raised him shall in like
manner quicken your mortal bodies by his
indwelling Spirit. In all these passages it is
evident, that by the flesh St. Paul clearly
denotes the works of the flesh'', which
he enumerates '», and states, they who
do such things, walk according to the
" V. 10. I' V. 11. " Rom. viii. 9.

LECTURE V. 311
flesh, and cannot possibly live to God ; and
adds, ' such were some of you, but ye are
washed, but ye are justified, in the name of
Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.'
We are thus washed not from the substance
of our corporeal nature, not from the image
in which we were created, but from our
former vain conversation; and in those
members in which we were before perish
ing, working the works of corruption ; in
the very same we are now quickened,
working the works of the Spirit ; for as
the flesh is capable of corruption, so also
is it of incorruption ; as of death, so also of
life. 'We must therefore put off the old
man with his deeds, and put on the new
man which is renewed in knowledge ac
cording to the image of him that created
him. But this renewal changeth not the
original substance of our nature ; for, as
the Apostle saith, ' when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb
and called me by his grace, to reveal his
Son in me, that I might preach his Gospel
to the Gentiles,' he who then preached the
' V. 12.

312 LECTURE V.
Gospel was not another, but the same
individual, who, in his former ignorance
persecuted the faith ; just as the blind, who
received sight from our Lord, retained the
substance of their eyes unchanged, though
their blindness was removed."
I have made this extract, which, though
greatly compressed and abridged from the
original, still extends to a greater length
than I have usually thought expedient in
such a general survey, in order that I
might convey a more faithful impression
of the style of Irenseus, and his extreme
copiousness of Scripture illustration. It is
also valuable as shewing the delight with
which he reverted to those passages of
St. Paul's writings which peculiarly incul
cate the doctrines of grace, and the neces
sity of spiritual renovation. When, indeed,
he extends the blessings of that renovation
to the whole of our compound natures,
and considers the associated flesh as so
intimately participating in the benefits of
its spiritual tenant, some persons may
perhaps be led to tax him with the
same tendency to views too nearly bor-

LECTURE V. 313
dering on materialism, which have often
been objected to many of the Fathers ; but
it may fairly be questioned, whether, in the
present state of our metaphysical science,
we really know enough either of matter or
spirit, or their relations, to presume to
press such an objection very closely.
It is needless to add, that we find in
Irenseus the most satisfactory attestations
to the great doctrines of the proper divinity
of Christ *, and his complete assumption of
our nature". We are not here, as in the
Alexandrian Fathers, perplexed by attempts
to explain the manner of the existence of
these mysterious truths in philosophical
phraseology; but they are expressed, as they
ever should be, in the simplicity of scrip
tural statement, and with a view to their
practical application. Thus, the divinity
of our Saviour is laid down as the sure
foundation of the confidence of our hope,
that having thus been admitted into union
with the immortal God, we shall ourselves
also receive immortality through him. And
again, his remission of guilt to the paralytic,
' iii. 21. V. 10. " iii. 20, 24, 32, 33.

314 LECTURE V.
is urged as the most forcible, as it is the
most affecting, argument of his possessing
the power which belongeth unto God alone.
The features which distinguished the
miracles of our Lord, are forcibly shewn
to be in the strongest contrast with the
pretended wonders of the Gnostic theur
gists ; and the argument will remind us of
those so forcibly employed by the author of
the Criterion. These impostors, we are told,
after a long and elaborate preparatory ma
chinery of magical forms and incantations,
produced only passing appearances, as fleet
ing as fallacious ; that abode not to endure
scrutiny, but vanished with a single drop of
the Clepsydra; but Christ performed his
mighty works, not by mystical invocations
of dsemons, but by simple prayers to the
Father; and the effects he wTought were
permanent and decided ; the complete re
moval of the most incurable disorders, and
the raising the dead to a life prolonged for
many years".
Irenseus entirely concurred with the
generality of the Fathers in his horror
' ii.57. p. 188.

LECTURE V. 315
of the Stoical fatalism; and maintained
the AvTe^ova-Lov as strongly as any of
the Platonic school ; attributing the intro
duction of evil to our abuse of the power of
free will. He has dedicated the conclusion
of his third book exclusively to this subject.
His views concerning it have of course been
censured by those of opposite opinions;
but I cannot myself perceive, that on this
difficult and delicate subject he has ever
expressed himself so incautiously as at all
to call in question the great doctrines of
grace; and it must be remembered, that
Augustine has himself cited his authority,
in opposition to the errors of Pelagius.
It has been far more gratifying to me to
dwell on so many excellencies, than to point
out the defects inseparable from human and
uninspired composition ; and which must
ever sufficiently warn us to refrain from
man, whose breath is in his nostrils, as the
guide of our faith. But lest just respect
should be exaggerated into superstitious
veneration ; lest, instead of taking sweet
counsel with such writers, as Christian
friends in the house of the Lord, we elevate

316 LECTURE V.
them into the oracular authorities of that
house; it becomes painfully incumbent
to point out distinctly the grounds which
must demonstrate their incompetency for
such a station; a station indeed from which
Irenseus himself would have altogether
shrunk, as not only offensive to his modesty,
but directly opposed to all his own senti
ments and principles.
On such grounds then, it should be
frankly stated, that, notwithstanding his
far greater caution, Irenseus himself occa
sionally lapses into somewhat of the same
license of allegorical interpretation, which
we have had so often cause to lament in
many other Fathers ; and we must be
especially pained to find him sanctioning
that most unfounded principle, which has
frequently led to the very offensive and
revolting conclusions, that the crimes re
corded of the Patriarchs are all typical,
and to be received only in a figurative
sense". Would that Irenseus had always
remembered his own more just application
of these humbling records of human weak-
° iv. 51. See also p. 34, 78, 156.

LECTURE V. 317
ness, as demonstrating the universal need
of a Saviour*.
' iv. 45. It may be necessary in this note to specify
some examples of the kind generally alluded to in the
text. He has given (v. 23.) a most fanciful and mystical
account of the circumstances of Adam's temptation and
fall; this he supposes to have taken place on the sixth
day (Friday) ; thus the sentence of death was incurred
by the first Adam, on the very same day that it was
removed by the death of the second Adam on the cross.
This also occurs in Justin's Dialogue. He has also given
extremely fanciful typical applications to almost all the
circumstances of Jacob's History, (iv. 38.) He likewise
deduces a singular type from the circumstance recorded
2 Kings vi. 6. concerning Elisha, when he recovered the
blade of the axe which, while the Prophets were hewing
wood for the- tabernacle, had been struck off on the
banks of the Jordan, and sunk in the waters ; but which
was regained by throwing in a stick, which assumed the
position of a handle, and buoyed it up. This axe, says
Irenseus, represents the word of God; (Jer. xxiii. 29.)
the axe was lost in felling the wood, as God's word was
lost to us through the wood of the forbidden tree, and
was recovered by the wood of the cross. Tertullian
exactly copies Irenseus in his treatise against the Jews ;
and Justin in his Dialogue had before given a similar
application of the passage, but less detailed. Irenaeus (v.
17.) has a very fanciful allegorization of the Levitical dis
tinction concerning the ruminant and cloven-hoofed ani
mals; their double cloven hoof, which g^Ye firmness to their
steps, he considers as typifying the stedfastness of the
Christian's faith in the two divine Persons of the Father
and the Son, and their rumination, his recollection and
meditation of the word of God. The Jews, though they pos-

318 LECTURE Y.
Although he has some expressions which
seem to imply that he concurred with Justin
sessed the latter, wanted the former. In this Irenaeus partly
follows the forged Epistle of the Pseudo Barnabas; which
however explains the cloven hoof somewhat differently,
as representing believers while living in one world, yet
having their conversation in another, and thus as it were
resting their footsteps on a double foundation. In 1. iii.
c. 10. Irenaeus explains the typical meaning he attached
to the presents offered by the Magi to Christ. In this he
agrees with Justin, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen.
Sedulius has thrown this exposition into a distich,
Aurea nascenti fuderunt munera Regi
Thura dedere Deo, Myrrham tribuere Sepulcro.
And Jerome quotes the Presbyter Irenaeus as having
summed them up in a single line ;
Thus, AurUm, Myrrham ; Regique, Hominique,Deoque.
Irenaeus also, with many other of the Fathers, held
the four Evangelists to be typified by the four beasts,
Rev. iv. 7. I. That like the lion represented St. John,
from his courageous assertions of Christ's divinity.
2. The calf designates Luke, because his Gospel begins
with the sacrifice of Zachariah, when the fatted calf was
preparing for slaughter, to welcome the return of the
prodigal. 3. That like a man represents Matthew, be
cause he began his Gospel with the genealogy of Christ,
according to his human nature. 4. Mark is designated
by the eagle, because he commences with the words of
prophecy winged from heaven by the eagle strength of
the Holy Spirit. Irenseus, I believe, was the first
inventor of this very forced interpretation, but it after
wards became very popular. A similar interpretation is
thus versified by Sedulius, but with a different applica'-
tion of the typical beasts :

LECTURE V. 319
and so many of the subsequent Fathers, in
their unhappy dsemonological hypothesis,
of the lapse of the angels seduced by the
daughters of men, yet he alludes to it so
very slightly and obscurely, that it is clear
his judgment shrank from dwelling on such
a subjecty. In conclusion of the fifth book"*, Irenseus
Hoc MatthiEus agens, hominem generaliter implet,
Marcus ut alta fremit Vox per deserta leonis.
Jura Sacerdotis Lucas tenet ore juvenci.
More volans aquilae verbo petit astra Johannes.
y iv. 70. p. 374. He only says, " Noah's flood was
brought in to extinguish a most wicked race of men,
who could no longer bear fruit to God, because the
transgressing angels had become intermixed with them."
' V. 28 to end. He conceived that the world was to last
in its present state for 6,000 years from its creation; viz.
as many Millenia, as there had been days occupied in that
creative work. Towards the close of these should occur
the tribulations of the last times, which he conceived to
have commenced in his own days, referring to the per
secutions as a proof. He expected that the dissolution of
the Roman empire, and its subdivision into the king
doms typified by th© ten horns, would shortly ensue, and
usher in the power of Anti-Christ and the beast ; this
should endure three years and six months, and then
Christ should descend,, and east them into the fiery lake,
and himself reign through the Sabbatical Millenium of
rest, which wus to succeed the six previous Millenaries
of labour and strife. Those who had part in the first

320 LECTURE V.
fully avows his belief in the earthly Mille
nium, and the two resurrections; he de
clares his conviction, that the prophetical
passages applied to these subjects were
altogether incapable of a figurative inter
pretation. Nor did he think they would
more justly admit of being explained with
reference to the final glories of the heavenly
kingdom. Yet he treats these subjects
quite in the tone of the most moderate and
sober writers, who have ever adopted
similar view^s; and we know that they have
been embraced by many, both pious and
able men, even in our own days.
Less excusable, however, we must, I fear,
consider the tone of the comparison which
Irenseus institutes between Eve and the
Virgin Mary, and to which he returns on
resurrection should at the commencement of this happy
period arise, and together with Abraham and his faithful
seed the true Church, should in the new Jerusalem reign
over the lands, from Euphrates to the river of Egypt.
We have, however, already noticed the modest and
prudent caution with which in the midst of these specu
lations, to which the temper of his mind naturally in
clined him, he checked himself by the recollection, that
it was not for man to speak positively on the subject of
unfulfilled prophecy.

LECTURE V. 321
two occasions". In the first of these
passages he observes, " As Eve by her
disobedience became the cause of death to
herself and the whole human race ; so
Mary the obedient Virgin, yet habens prce-
destinatum Virum, became the cause of
salvation to herself and all mankind."
And returning to the subject in another
book, he tells us, " that as Eve was
seduced to fly from God, so was Mary
persuaded to obey God. And thus the
Virgin Mary became the advocate of the
Virgin Eve." Now although we readily
acknowledge, that the Christian is alike
bound by duty and feeling with the highest
respect to call that holy Virgin blessed
among women; yet assuredly never has the
true Church learnt to look to her obedience
as the meritorious cause of man's salvation;
never can she recognize her as the advocate
of sinners.
Such instances of forced misinterpreta
tions, questionable speculations, and early
corruptions, even in a Father, the sober
quality of whose judgment, as we have seen,
" iii. 33. p. 200. and v. 19. p. 429.
Y

322 LECTURE V.
so generally deserves our commendation,
may well shew us how little safe it is to
rely on so treacherous a conveyance as
human tradition, for the preservation of
divine truth.
It has been often and very justly remarked,
that the only two instances in which he him
self professes to depend for any of the facts
he has mentioned on any other than scrip
tural authority, are both so palpably erro
neous, as to afford the most convincing proof,
how very little reliance can be placed on
any traditional basis.
In the first of these instances'^, Irenseus,
expressly referring to those who professed
to have received it from St. John, asserts,
that the ministry of Christ was prolonged
for some twenty years after his baptism,
and that he remained on earth till the time
of Trajan, not having been crucified until
nearly his fiftieth year; he also infers that
this must have been about his age from the
observation of the Jews, " Thou art not
yet fifty years old." He further argues,
that thus it became him who came to save
" ii. 39.

LECTURE V. 323
every age, himself to participate in each
successive condition of our ordinary life, in
its more advanced as well as in its earlier
stages ; and he thinks it dishonouring him
to conceive that he, our great Teacher, could
have been deprived of its senior and more
venerable portion, and that which was re
garded as alone competent to the office of an
instructor. Surely a weaker argument than
the above cannot well be imagined''.
It is probable, that the traditional autho
rity which thus misled him, was derived
through Papias, whose extreme imbecility
of judgment Eusebius has strongly exposed,
and whom yet Irenseus followed in his
Millenarian speculations.
The other instance in which, as I have
said, Irenaeus appears to have been betrayed
into a palpable misstatement by relying on
oral tradition, relates to those very specu
lations, and is avowedly borrowed from the
same Papias. In this, a strange prophecy,
evidently of Rabbinical fabrication, con
cerning the extraordinary fertility of the
Millenial period, is attributed, in violation of
' ii. 40.
Y 2

324 LECTURE V.
every mark of internal evidence and proba
bility, to the lips of our divine Lord''.
But such assuredly are not the topics
which I could wish to leave, as forming the
closing impression of the present Lecture.
Where so much matter of useful application
may by a judicious and candid examination
be found, it were an employment little pro
fitable to the mental discipline, either of
preacher or hearers, to pause in gleaning
defects ; necessarily magnified beyond their
real proportion by collective statement, and
thus made to assume the appearance of
general samples, whereas they are in fact
only rare exceptions.
In reverting then to the subjects which
have thus engaged our attention, now for
the first time called to those unhappy
•^ V. 33. p. 454. The prophecy is as follows : Venient
dies in quibus vineae nascentur, singulae decem millia
palmitum habentes, et in una palmite dena millia bra-
chiorum, et in uno vero brachio dena millia flagellorum,
et in unoquoque flagello dena millia botruum, et in uno-
quoque botro dena millia acinorum ; et unumquodque
acinum expressum dabit viginti quinque metretas vini ;
et cum apprehenderit aliquis sanctorum botrum, aliu^
clamabit : Botrus ego melior sum, Me Sume, et per me
Dominum benedic.

LECTURE V. 325
divisions, which so early began to rend
what should have been the seamless vest of
Christ ; the most profitable and appropriate
concluding topic which can be pressed on
our reflection, seems to me presented by
the enquiry, how far we can apply the
criteria of the true faith which we have
been now considering, to the present cir
cumstances of the Church.
The marks of the true Church, which
may be deduced from the lofty descrip
tions above quoted from this Father
with reference to that Catholic body as
it appeared in his eyes, are, I think, such
as will recommend themselves to our adop
tion, not merely from the sanction of his
authority, but from the deliberate approval
of our own best judgment. May we not
then fairly enquire, if Irenseus had been
required to select from among the Christian
bodies of the present day that which most
evidently displayed the features in his
esteem characteristic of the true Church,
in what direction it may seem probable to
us that the choice of his judgment would
have been determined ?

326 LECTURE V.
Let us suppose then, that among these
bodies he had found one, which without ele
vating the externals of form to an undue
equality with the essentials of faith, yet
should herself constantly and stedfastly re
tain the government and discipline, which
she is assured on the fullest evidence have de
scended from the Apostolic age. While she
also with equal faithfulness preserved what
must be considered as of infinitely greater im
portance, the true Apostolical succession of
the doctrine once delivered to the saints ; one
which might thus well claim in general appli
cation to herself, the eulogium pronounced
by Gregory of Nazianzen on Athanasius.
'Etti rov MdpKov Opovov dvdyeTai, ovk tJttov ttJs
'Etvae^eLas, rj ttjs wpoeSpias dtddoxos' Tfj pev
yap TToXXoa-Tos dir eKeivov, rrj 8e evOiis per
eKeivov evplo-Kerai, rjv 8e Kal Kvpicas inroXrjTTTeov
dtaSoxrjv. To pev ydp opoyvcopov koI 6p6-
dpovov, TO 8e dvTiSo^ov Kal dvTidpovov *,
Approving herself as a Church placed in
the seat of the Apostles, not less as the
successor of their piety than of their autho
rity; distant indeed in time, but directly
" Orat. 21. (Paris, p. 390.) in laudibus Athanasii.

LECTURE V. 327
connected with them in that religious faith
which constitutes the true idea of their
succession; for in this respect unity of
sentiment is unity of seat, and separation
from the former must be separation from
the latter. Had Irenseus thus found a
Church such as he himself described, offer
ing to her members those wholesome fruits
of doctrine, which she had herself gathered
from the sacred tree of God's word ; had
he found her freely offering of that fruit
to all; and with him maintaining that the
Scripture was the sole pillar and foundation
of the faith, and to be unreservedly and
universally communicated, because in all
essentials clear and unambiguous ; while
yet if to the weak any difficulty should
arise, she gratuitously offered the assisting
instruction of a learned ministry, devoting
its studies to this very end; at the same
time acknowledging that God was the sole
teacher, and claiming authority exclusively
from its own fidelity to his revealed
word. If Irenseus had found still on earth a
Church possessing all these features, would

328 LECTURE V.
he have failed to recognize that which he
had himself delineated; and which of these
features M'ould he not have found in the
Communion of the Church of England ?

LECTURE VL

Rev. iv. 13, 14.
/ know thy works, and that thou holdest fast my name ; but
I have a few things against thee .
The course pursued in these Lectures
will next conduct us to the earliest, and in
many respects most important, of the Latin
Fathers, Tertullian. Vincentius Lirinensis
indeed, in drawdng a parallel between
Origen and him, observes, Sicut ille apud
Grsecos ita hie apud Latinos nostrorum
omnium facile princeps judicandus est ". He
praises him in the highest terms for univer
sality of acquirement, for native vigour of
intellect, and for cogency of argument ;
and well describes the pithy sententious-
ness so characteristic of his style, cujus
quot pene verba, tot sententise. Yet he is
constrained to conclude this panegyric by
" Vincentius Lirinensis, cap. xvii.

330 LECTURE VL
the admission, that the very party so emi
nently gifted in himself, had still been
seduced by the fanatical pretensions of
Montanus to depart so widely from the
Catholic faith, that his writings, like those
of Origen, were no less a source of tempta
tion than of edification to the Church; and
he therefore fully concurs in the judgment
of Hilary, " Sequenti errore detraxit scrip
tis probabilibus auctoritatem." Lactantius
sketches his literary character much more
briefly, and dwells more severely on the
African harshness of his very powerful
but semi-barbarous diction. "Omni genere
literarum peritus; sed in eloquendo parum
facilis, et minus comptus, et multum ob-
scurus fuit''."
TertuUian was a native of Africa, being
the son of a centurion of one of the pro
consular legions stationed in that province.
His birth must be probably dated between
170 and 180. In his youth, as we may
gather from his own words, he had treated
with bitter scorn the faith he afterwards
embraced with ardent devotion. " Hsec
'' Lactantii Divin. Institut. lib. v. cap. 1.

LECTURE VL 331
nos etrisimusaliquandOjdevestris fuimus''."
Of his life before his conversion he himself
speaks severely; " Prsestantiam in delictis
meam agnosco,peccator omnium notarum'';"
but the expressions of an awakened con
science, and of a heart that knoweth its
own bitterness, must not be misconstrued
as implying any excess of immorality
above the general state of the unconverted.
It is much to be regretted, that no notice
has been preserved of the circumstances
which effected the conversion of a person
so remarkable. After he had embraced the
faith, he devoted himself to the ministry,
but appears never to have attained any
higher grade than the order of Presbyter ;
and his lapse into the errors of Montanism
has been sometimes ascribed to disappointed
ambition; but for this imputation there
does not appear any sufficient foundation.
The ardent temperament of his disposition
may be justly described as a fruit perfectly
congenial to the burning climate of his
natal soil ; for no one was ever more dis
tinguished by the perfervidum ingenium ;
' Apol. 18. " De PcEuit.

332 LECTURE VL
and his confessions in the tract De Patientia
fully shew how well he was aware of the
characteristic constitution of his own mind.
To this temper we must attribute much,
both of his merits and defects. Hence the
high courage and unbending principle of
his conduct, and the point, force, and
nervous though coarse eloquence, which
give so lively a vigour to his style. But
hence also an hot and intemperate zeal,
altogether refusing the reins of that Chris
tian sobriety of judgment, which a Paul
scrupled not to commend and to practise;
and hence an ill-regulated enthusiasm,
prompt to rush with easy credulity into
extravagant fanaticism.
His fall into the errors of the Montanists
must, in its general features, be well known
to every one at all acquainted with eccle
siastical history. But it may not be amiss
to say a few words as to the exact character
of that sect, with which his name is so in
timately associated. Montanus appears to
have been far more a fanatic than an
impostor. He beheved that the Charis
mata of the Spirit still remained with the

LECTURE VI. 333
Church, and that the revelations vouchsafed
to himself in particular were so abundant,
as to constitute him a peculiar depository
of the influences of the Paraclete. He
imagined himself the appointed instrument
for carrying to higher degrees of purity and
perfection the doctrines already indeed
partially revealed through the Apostles;
yet by their preaching only so far made
known as the world was able to bear at
the first introduction of the new faith; but
now destined to receive their perfect deve
lopment from the new prophecy which it
w^as his own high commission to proclaim.
Such pretensions Tertullian at first very
properly rejected as inadmissible, and in
his general treatise on heresies justly stig
matizes them as blasphemous*. Yet this
very blasphemous theory he himself after
wards fully embraced, and became one of
its most strenuous advocates. In a later
treatise he assures us, that religion had
^ De Praescript. Hxr. cap. 52. ed. Semi. tom. ii. p. 77.
Hi habent aliam blasphemiam  quia dicunt Para-
cletum plura in Montano dixisse quara Christum in Evan-
gelio protulisse, nee tantum plura, sed etiam meliora
atque majora.

334 LECTURE VL
many successive stages of growth; in its
embryo state it consisted merely in the
natural apprehension of a Deity ; it advanced
to infancy by the Mosaic law, and the
Prophets; the dispensation of the Gospel
formed its youthful developement; and it
ripened into full maturity through these
new revelations of the Paraclete'.
Yet we must remember, that these new
revelations were represented only as carry
ing out to their full and designed extent
the principles already indicated in the Gos
pel ; and to derive all their authority (as is
expressly stated in the passage to which I
have referred) from the Spirit, who spake
not of himself, but as commissioned by
Christ. This fanatical delusion did not
' De Virg. Vel. cap. 1. (tom. iii. p. 3.) Justitia primo
fuit in rudimentis, Natura Deum metuens ; de hinc per
Evangelium efferbuit in Juventutem ; Nunc per Para-
cletum componitur in maturitatem. Hie erit solus a
Christo magister dicendus et verendus, non enim a se
loquitur, sed quae mandantur a Christo. This new reve
lation was represented as necessary; " Ut quoniam
humana mediocritas omnia semel capere non poteret,
paulatim dirigeretur et ordinaretur et ad perfectum
perduceretur, discipline, ab illo vicario Domini Spiritu
Sancto." Ibid. p. 2.

LECTURE VI. 335
therefore, in any fundamental point, contra
vene the essential doctrines of Christianity ;
unless indeed in its arrogant and almost blas
phemous pretensions to add to a system, once
for all finally completed, and to improve that
which was already the perfect work of God.
Tertullian, therefore, at the same time
that he eagerly embraced this unwarrantable
supplement to the faith once delivered,
still firmly adhered to all the great truths
proposed by the Church, in her compendi
ous regula fidei^ ; which in this very chapter
he recites, declaring that he still held this
foundation to be in itself sola, immobilis,
irreformabilis. The additions introduced by the Monta
nists related principally to points of moral
discipline, on which they endeavoured to
impress the strictest characters of the
sternest asceticism. They enjoined an ex
travagant austerity of fasts. They abso
lutely prohibited second marriages, and
tolerated rather than sanctioned any de
parture from what they considered the
more perfect state of celibacy. In all
« Ibid. p. 2.

336 LECTURE VI.
these particulars, and in the fond faith
with which they dwelt on their visions of
Millenial glories, they did but agree with
enthusiasts in general ; and their only dis
tinguishing peculiarity appears to have
consisted in their pretension to a specific
and authoritative revelation, stamping a
directly divine sanction on the coinage of
their own heated brain. Some females of
ardent imagination appear to have been
their most active instruments in diffusing
these fanatical dreams. These maintained,
and probably themselves believed, (Tertul
lian'' also himself giving implicit credit to
their pretension,) that they were frequently
admitted in ecstatic visions to hold high
converse with angels and with the Lord
himself, and to see and hear the most sub
lime mysteries. They generally fell into
these trances after the services of the
Church ; and their visions usually related
to the subjects before impressed on their
'¦ See De Anima, c. 9. for a full account of one of
these visions, from which the particulars in the text are
taken. I shall have occasion, in treating on TertuUian's
Psychology, to return to this vision.

LECTURE VI. 337
minds by the Lessons, Psalms, Prayers,
and Discourses, to which they had just
been listening. After the dismissal of the
general congregation, these visions were
privately announced to the select members
of their own party, and carefully recorded.
We may probably form a sufficiently cor
rect idea of these fanatical delusions, if we
compare them with the very analogous
pretensions to a revival of spiritual Charis
mata, which have arisen among a portion
of the Christian world in our own days.
And perhaps no more exact parallel has
ever been drawn, than one which should
be instituted between Tertullian, and the
energetic and eloquent leader of that sect.
In neither case do the errors materially
affect the fundamentals of the faith; and
although in consulting the writings of the
parties implicated, they ought undoubtedly
to teach us extreme caution wherever these
peculiar opinions can in any manner influ
ence the argument, and must diminish to
the lowest point our reliance on any thing
depending on the private judgment of the
authors ; still they cannot destroy our ad-

338 LECTURE VI.
miration of their vigorous talent, nor de
prive us of the use of their really sound
defences of the common faith.
After these general preliminary observ
ations, I shall proceed to a more specific ex
amination of the character and value of the
different treatises which Tertullian has left.
To facilitate the more connected survey of
these treatises, I shall arrange them in such
distinct classes, as will naturally be sug
gested by the general argument and object
of each ; for there is scarcely any point of
Christian theology, to which this volumi
nous writer has not dedicated more than
one composition.
In the first of the classes, which conveni
ence will thus suggest, we may place those
treatises, of which the object is the vin
dication of the struggling faith against its
heathen adversaries. Three works of such
a description have descended to us from
this writer; his larger and more finished
Apology; his two books .ad Nationes, which
seem to have been a rough sketch of the
former; and his address to Scapula, a presi
dent of Carthage.

LECTURE VL 339
The principal of these, the Apology, has
been by some supposed to be addressed to
the Senate of Rome; but the more probable
view is that which considers it as an appli
cation to the Governors of the African
Province. The few allusions to the cir
cumstances of the times are not such as to
assign with certainty the precise date, but
that of A. D. 205 appears the most probable.
In its general topics it agrees so nearly
with the earlier Apology of Justin, that a
summary analysis of the one might almost
equally serve for the other ; only that these
topics are not arranged in exactly the same
order. In both we have a similar reclama
tion against the injustice and inconsistency
with which, in the case of accusations against
Christians, the legal principles applied to
every other species of criminal indictment
were violated; the same indignant refuta
tion of the abominable charges of canni
balism and licentiousness made against their
religious meetings ; the same exposure of
the impure absurdities of polytheism ; the
same unfounded fancy, that this idolatrous
system was introduced by dsemons, sprung
z2

340 LECTURE VL
from the intercourse of the lapsed angels
with the daughters of men ; and the same
arguments that the Christian doctrine of the
Unity of the Deity was agreeable to the
universal conclusions of right reason, as
especially evinced by the kindred views of
pure Theism entertained by the philosophers
of Greece'. We also find similar statements
and similar illustrations of the divinity of the
Son of God, and his emanation from the
Father ; and the arguments from the fulfil
ment of prophecy, and from the internal
evidence afforded by the perfect purity of
Christian morality, are pressed by both
apologists, though much more concisely by
Tertullian ; both also equally appeal to the
rapid progress of the faith, and the swelling
numbers of the Christian name. Many of
these topics, it is true, must necessarily have
suggested themselves to every advocate of
such a cause -, but yet I think a far closer
agreement will be found in the substance of
' The Greek philosophers, however, were supposed by
Tertullian partly to have borrowed and partly perverted
the doctrines which they had read in the far earlier
documents of the Jewish Scriptures.

LECTURE VI. 341
many of the arguments employed, (although
in manner and style the difference of the
two authors is sufficiently striking,) than
would have been likely to have occurred,
had not Tertullian very carefully studied
the Apology of his predecessor.
He has, however, many other topics pecu
liarly his own, and characteristic of his own
time. Thus, we may instance his being called
upon to argue against the popular outcry,
which ascribed all the public calamities then
pressing upon the empire, already beginning
to decline from its meridian height of power
and prosperity, to the neglect of the ancient
altars induced by the increasing grow^th
of the new faith. And here we may also
notice his anxiety to vindicate the Christians
from the charge of disloyalty to the Imperial
throne ; he forcibly argues, that their Chris
tian subjects were most unjustly subjected
to such a charge, because they refused to
offer prayers for their emperors to them
that w^ere, no gods ; to imaginary powers,
who, far from being able to accord pro
tection to the state, themselves owed
to its interference their very existence.

342 LECTURE VI.
" Such an idle homage indeed," he observes,
" Christians were forbidden to pay, but they
were expressly commanded by the only true
God to offer unto him the effectual prayer
of faith in behalf of kings and all placed in
authority ;" and he adds, that if Christians
were indeed not to be seen crowding the
idolatrous festivals in honour of their sove
reign, neither were such to be detected lurk
ing in the secret haunts of conspiracy, whet
ting concealed daggers to drink his blood.
One of TertuUian's peculiar arguments
must give rise to grave, and it may be
painful, enquiry, namely, his statement
that the dsemons mistaken for gods by the
Romans, on being evoked in the name of
the Lord " a quolibet Christiano''," were
^ Bishop Kaye argues with respect to this passage,
that so extensive an ascription of miraculous powers to
Christians generally, at once invalidates the authority of
the statement; as such powers appear to have been
confined to those individuals, on whom the Apostles
especially conferred the extraordinary gifts of the Holy
Spirit by the imposition of hands ; and he therefore con
ceives the powers, which could only flow from such a
source, to have necessarily expired on the decease of the
last of the immediate disciples of the Apostles who had
so received them.

LECTURE VI. 343
forced to confess their real nature. We
have here then, and that in a matter which
undoubtedly wears a somewhat suspicious
aspect, a full and direct assertion of the
continuance of miraculous powers in the
Church, to the close of the second century.
And the tone of the appeal appears as con
fident as if it were a common and notorious
fact. May we then in this case place reliance
on the authority of Tertullian? or is it pos
sible under such circumstances to imagine
that he might himself have been deceived }
The remaining alternative that he intention
ally sought to deceive others, is not only
painful in itself, but improbable ; as in
volving the supposition, that he could have
been sufficiently stultified to bring forward
assertions in argument, which he must have
known would admit so easy disproval, if he
indeed knew them to be false. But perhaps
we shall not greatly err, if we attribute a
somewhat easy credulity to the disciple of
the nova lipo^rjTeia of Montanus, and the
recorder of the ecstatic visions of his female
followers. This singular passage, however,
and the kindred dsemonological speculation

344 LECTURE VI.
to which we have before alluded, are almost
the only points which can raise a painful or
unfavourable impression, while we read
this most spirited Apology. In its general
character we must feel it to be one of the
most impressive and forcible appeals, pre
sented in the whole circle of literature. And
if we can for a moment put ourselves in the
situation of those to whom it was originally
addressed; and fancy ourselves to be perus
ing it with the feelings of an enquiring
Roman of that day, with eyes opened to
the absurdities of the vulgar mythology,
little satisfied with the authority of any of
the conflicting systems of philosophy, and
yet uneasy to remain in the comfortless
gloom of scepticism; we may well conceive
how very effectively the vivid and powerful
appeals of Tertullian must have operated
on such a state of mind. In all such cases,
we may be sure that this Apology would
have told with far greater weight than the
previous composition of Justin; for although
so many of the arguments are substantially
the same, yet they are always displayed by
Tertullian witl^ a far more consummate

LECTURE VI. 345
rhetorical skill ; and although on one or
two occasions this very art may have
betrayed him into the introduction of some
ornaments of rather questionable taste,
still it is generally most judiciously em
ployed to exhibit every topic touched upon
in the bearing best calculated to affect those
whom he addressed. If I were to select
any features as peculiarly characteristic,
I might mention the great sententiousness
of style, and the forcible but delicate em
ployment of irony, always pointed, yet
never bitter. But perhaps the portion of
his Apology which most dwells on the
mind, are his forcible appeals to the
general principles of toleration, in behalf
of this purest and most benevolent, but
yet most suffering, faith ; and his eloquent
exposure of the utter inutility as well as
injustice of a persecution calculated only
eventually to defeat its own ends, " Plures
enim efficimur quoties metimur a vobis, et
semen est sanguis Christianorum," expres
sions which have since become proverbial'.
' I cannot dismiss the subject of this Apology, without
mentioning a remark which struck me in perusing it,

346 LECTURE VL
The two books, ad Nationes, appear to
have been only a rough sketch of the
Apology ; and since they contain gene
rally the same arguments, often expressed
in the same words, cannot require any par
ticular notice.
The address to Scapula, a persecuting
governor of Carthage, (apparently after the
death of the Emperor Severus,) commences,
as the Apology closes, with a spirited ap
peal to the largest and most enlightened
principles of toleration. ' ' Tamen humani
and which I do not remember to have seen noticed else
where. Tertullian informs us, that a majority of those
who had the right of citizenship in most of the cities,
had embraced the Christian faith, ' pene omnium civita-
tum, pene omnes cives Christiani,' (cap. 37.) while yet
the mobs of those cities were among its most furious
opponents, ' nee uUi magis depostulatores Christianorum
quam vulgus.' It is interesting, therefore, to observe,
that it was principally among the middle classes, always
the chief repository of the virtue and intelligence of a
community, and morally superior to either its highest or
lowest extreme, that Christian truth found the readiest
reception. We know that the uncultivated peasantry of
the remote villages were the last to exchange their
ancient superstitions for a purer faith ; whence the ety
mology of the term Pagani, which has become synony
mous with Heathen.

LECTURE VI. 347
juris, et naturalis potestatis est, unicuique
quod putaverit colere ; nee alii obest aut
prodest alterius religio ; sed nee religionis
est, cogere religionem ; quae sponte suscipi
debeat non vi ; cum et hostise ab animo
libenti expostulentur." This is quite worthy
to be placed on the same shelf with Bishop
Taylor's liberty of prophesying.
Tertullian then proceeds with many of the
arguments before urged in his Apology,
respecting the irreproachable morality and
true loyalty of the Christian character. In
a more questionable tone he appeals to the
fears of Scapula, by a catalogue of retributive
judgments which he represents as having
fallen on notorious persecutors ; and recites
a wonderful cure effected on Septimius by
the Christian Proculus. He then turns to
an argument more likely to have produced
effect, by addressing himself to the political
prudence of the Roman governor, when he
assures him, that to attempt the extirpation
of the Christian name in the city over
which he presided, would be in effect
to decimate the people entrusted to his
charge.

348 LECTURE VI.
The very characteristic treatise of Ter
tullian de Testimonio Animse, may be re
ferred to this apologetical division of his
writings, because it is directed to the ad
vocacy of the great principles inculcated by
Christianity with regard to the Deity, in
opposition to the views of polytheism. For
this purpose he here appeals to those in
nate conceptions of truth, of which the
human mind appears to derive its consci
ousness from its very being ; arguing that
these inherent principles of our nature are
entirely consentaneous to the dictates of
revelation, concerning the one great and
good God. He prefaces this appeal by the
observation, that just and forcible as had
been the arguments drawn by some of the
more learned defenders of Christianity from
its agreement with the best conclusions of
the highest jjhilosophy; yet since so many
who delighted to follow that philosophy in
its wildest aberrations, still perversely re
jected its nearest approximations to truth,
such arguments must lose much of their
practical effect. He therefore himself in
tended to appeal to a new testimony.

LECTURE VI. 349
" omni Uteratura notius, omni doctrina agita-
tius, omni editione vulgatius," greater than
any other testimony of man, because it was
absolutely identified with the essential
principle of his very nature as man.
" Stand forth then," he eloquently pro
ceeds, " stand forth, 0 SOUL; whatever be
thy nature or thy origin ; stand forth, thou
sole principle of all human knowledge. I
summon thee, not as trained in the schools ;
not as exercised in the libraries, academies,
and porticos of Athens ; not as overflowing
with acquired learning: but I call thee to
record, simple and rude, unpolished and un
taught; even such as thou art possessed by
those who possess thee alone ; such as thou
art found in the cross ways, in the public
street, and in the workshop of the artisan.
I need thy want of skill alone ; for on thy
skill (small as it is at the best) men might
refuse to rely. I demand from thee that
alone which thou bringest with thee into
men. That in which thou art self-taught,
or canst only have learnt from the Author
of thy being, whoever that Author may be.
Thou art not yet to my knowledge a Chris-

350 LECTURE VI.
tian, for Christians are not born, but made
such. Yet Christians now demand testi
mony from thee a stranger, against thine
own party; that those who now hate and
deride us, for holding those very truths
which compel thine own conscious assent,
may be brought to blush before thee."
Had Tertullian followed up this spirited
appeal by dwelling on that witness of the
Spirit to our spirit, indelibly engraved on the
soul of man, by Him who has never left him
self wholly without testimony there; a con
scious evidence to which TertuUian's asser
tion addressed to the soul of man, [quse et
nunc te consciam detinent,] may so truly be
applied; how just and forcible an argument
might he not then have constructed. But in
place of this, he less happily appeals only to
those familiar proverbial and colloquial ex
pressions, by which in every language men
are habituated almost profanely to allude
to the existence and attributes of a God.
He contends that the common conceptions
which these untaught, and as it were
natural, exclamations indicate, uniformly
refer to one supreme and good God. But

LECTURE VI. 351
surely the appeal should not have been
confined to these the mere idle and cus
tomary phrases of the lips '", but directed
to the conscious feelings of the heart.
Next to his efforts in the advocacy of
the Christian cause against the heathen,
TertuUian's controversial support of that
cause against the prejudiced adherents to
the elder and introductory covenant may
claim our notice. But here we must, I fear,
be obliged to speak in far more measured
terms, of the ability and efficiency with
which the argument is conducted. All the
defects to which we were before con
strained to advert in reviewing Justin's
Dialogue with Trypho, are still more pro
minently exhibited in TertuUian's treatise
Adversus Judseos. He faithfully copies,
and even adds to all the unjustifiable alle
gorical misinterpretations we had then to
lament. And surely it cannot be now neces-
¦" TertuUian, indeed, anticipates the objection, that
these are only habitual phrases, and replies, " from
whence then were they derived by the persons who first
introduced that habit?" The argument from such
phrases was a favourite one with Tertullian, who intro
duces it also in the 17th chapter of his Apology.

352 LECTURE VI.
sary again to repeat our former remarks,
on the injury which such blemishes were
especially calculated to produce on the
practical effect of the argument, which was
to be maintained on such a subject and
with such a people; nor need we dwell on
the painful feelings which must be occa
sioned to every Christian mind, by the
intermixture of so many weak and fanciful
imaginations with the holiest truths to
which it can be raised".
In speaking of the typical ceremonies of
the elder covenant, superseded by their
fulfilment in the spiritual graces of the
new, Tertullian joins the ordinance of the
sabbath with those of circumcision and
sacrifice. He argues, that the sabbath itself
was but a similar typical rite prefiguring
the perpetual rest of the Christian, and his
abstinence from every spirituaUy servile
work; an abstinence not in his case re-
° The reader who requires proof of the justice of this
remark, may turn to the section of cap. 10. headed.
Item patriarchae ostendunt figuram crucis. From the
feeling expressed in my text, I do not myself wish more
distinctly to cite the passages.

LECTURE VI. 353
stricted to the seventh day, but equally
incumbent on every day. The sabbath he
therefore argued could not be considered
as of perpetual obligation ; neither in
deed had it, in his opinion, been thus
established in the beginning, for he ex
pressly denies that any satisfactory proof
could be adduced that it was observed by
Adam, or Abel, or Noah, or Abraham, or
Melchizedec. The theological student may
be aware, that the pious Baxter has main
tained very similar sentiments ; and that a
writer, whose abilities we all in this place
highly respect, has very recently adopted
the same side; which all who embrace may
well defend -themselves under the shield
of TertuUian's early authority. Still I
should feel myself to be betraying a cause
which I regard as involving very sacred
obligations, did I hesitate to express my
own dissent from the justice and soundness
of this opinion. And undoubtedly, the far
more general persuasion of the great au
thorities of our Church has ever been, that
the Christian appointment of the Lord's
day, being the allotment of an equally
A a

354 LECTURE VI.
septenary portion of our time to religious
exercises", is sufficient fully to maintain the
strictest analogy of the elder and newer
dispensations in this respect; and must
be considered not as an abolition, but
rather as a substitution ordained by the
Spirit through the Apostles; and therefore
resting precisely on the same divine au
thority with the original institution. Just
° It should be observed, that it is very satisfactory
to find, that Tertullian himself, in another place, warmly
urges the necessity of a strict abstinence from all secular
employments on the Lord's day; " Nos vero sicut acce-
pimus, die Dominicse resurrectionis ab omni anxietatis
habitu cavere debemus, differentes etiam negotia, ne
quem Diabolo locum demus." De Orat. cap. 23. tom. iv.
p. 22. In the same place, he remarks on a custom
which we know to have partially prevailed in the early
Church, of worshipping only in an upright posture on
this day, from regarding it as a festival of holy rejoicing;
while the outward act of ' humbly kneeling on their
knees,' was considered only appropriate to fasts. Ter
tullian says, however, that this practice was only ob
served, per pauculos quosdam qui Sabbato abstinent
genibus. He laments the injurious effect of such diver
sities, and prays that the Lord would give them grace,
ut autcedant, autsententiS, sua sine aliorum scandalo utan-
tur. His designation of the Lord's day as Sabbatum in
this passage, is remarkable as contrasted with his views
of the abolition of the Sabbath.

LECTURE VI. 355
as in a parallel case, we consider the ini
tiatory rite of Circumcision to be replaced
in its spiritual character by the substitution
of Baptism, as the sacramental seal of our
admission into the Christian covenant.
We have next to follow Tertullian in his
combats with those more distressing, be
cause internal, enemies of the Christian
Church, the heretics who usurped its name,
while they disregarded its authority, and
falsified its doctrine. The parties whom
Tertullian was called to oppose, were the
various divisions of the same Gnostic sects,
which had before engaged the animad
versions of Irenseus, and the principles on
which both these defenders of the faith
proceed are very similar.
But there are some points connected with
the particular application of these principles
by Tertullian, which strongly require an ex
amination at once careful and candid, to pre
vent their being seriously misunderstood.
These points are fully developed in his trea
tise, entitled, the Prescription of Heretics, a
term which he appears to use in its forensic
A a 2

356 LECTURE VI.
acceptation, as denoting prescriptive claims
of right.
In his introductory chapters, Tertullian
assigns the great causes which had given
birth to these heretical corruptions, and
imparted their prevalent characters ; these
he asserts to have been the desire to intro
duce the spirit of secular philosophy into
the investigation of the Christian mysteries ;
and the affectation of an unbridled range
of curious enquiry, ever searching after
novelty, and never content to repose in
ascertained truth. Against both these per
verse tempers he reasons powerfully and
judiciously, and he insists on the com
pendious creed of the Church, the Regula
Fidei p, of which I have already spoken, as
the sure and authoritative confession of the
faith once revealed ; adversus quam nihil scire
et omnia scire.
p A recital of this Regula Fidei is given, cap. 10.
(tom. ii. p. 17.) which, if compared with that before
cited from the treatise De Virg. Vel. cap. 1. will be
found substantially the same, but considerably amplified
in expression. It closely agrees with the xavm rijj aXy\-
flsi'aj cited in the last Lecture.

LECTURE VI. 357
After this introduction, Tertullian pro
ceeds to lay down, as his leading maxim
in the conduct of this controversy, a prin
ciple, which, broadly and unguardedly
as it is here announced, must undoubtedly
at first sight appear abundantly startling i.
I allude to his absolute refusal to enter into
dispute with these heretics, on the ground
of any appeal to Scripture. Hunc igiturpotis-
simum gradum obstruimus, non admittendi
eos ad illam de scripturis disputationem^
I am persuaded, however, that we shall
greatly misunderstand the force of Ter
tuUian's argument, if we believe that these
observations, which are expressed as
usual with all the incautiousness of warm
rhetorical declamation, proceeded from the
intention in any manner to undervalue a
fair appeal to the genuine Scriptures. But
in this case the copies of the Scriptures
referred to by the heretics were, as we have
before observed in our remarks on Irenseus,
"> e. g. Quoniam nihil proficiat congressio Scripturo-
rum, nisi plane ut aut stomachi quis ineat eversionem
aut cerebri. Cap. 16.
' Cap. 15. (p. 20.)

358 LECTURE VI.
mutilated to a degree of which the present
age happily afford us no example. If then
we were to compare his refusal to admit
an appeal to such Scriptures, to the very
just reluctance which an orthodox writer
of the present day might express to admit
a similar appeal to the Unitarian version
of the New Testament, we should state a
case similar indeed in its kind, but in its
degree so much weaker, as quite to destroy
the parallelism. " Ista hseresis non recipit
quasdam Scripturas ; et siquas recipit,
adjectionibus et detractationibus ad dispo-
sitionem instituti sui intervertit, et si recipit,
non recipit integras, et si aliquatenus inte-
gras prsestat, nihilominus diversas exposi-
tiones commentata convertit^" Tertullian,
therefore, very justly observes, that under
these circumstances, before an appeal to
the Scriptures could be prosecuted with
any prospect of arriving at a satisfactory
• Cap. 17. (p. 21.) In another passage (cap. 39. p. 51.)
he compares these mutilated Scriptural compilations to
mere centos constructed from the older classical poets.
" Quo jure hodie ex Virgilio fabulam in totam aliam
componi solet; materia secundum versus, versibus se
cundum materias concinnatis."

LECTURE VI. 359
conclusion, there was a preliminary ques
tion, which required to be first determined,
namely, which party was in possession of
the genuine copies of that original docu
ment, of which such different editions were
produced by both*. And here he forcibly
argues, that every prescriptive claim to the
possession of these documents, must be
fairly considered as vested in the orthodox
Churches ; because these, having been
founded by the Apostles themselves, had
been governed by a continual succession of
ministers originating in their appointment".
The uniform agreement of all these aposto
lical Churches, so numerous and often so
remote, he most justly insists upon as
the surest proof that they had all firmly
adhered to one and the same truth ; for
unity must ever prove great character of
truth, and variety of error. If then we
could imagine this Catholic doctrine to be
erroneous, he argues, we must suppose
the Holy Spirit to have deserted, not one
or a few, but all these Churches ; and we
should further have to account for the in-
' Cap. 19. " Cap. 20, 21.

360 LECTURE VI.
conceivable fact, that being so deserted,
they had all deviated into exactly the same
line of error". Nor was it less incredible,
that if the doctrines proposed by the
heretics correctly represented the truths of
the Gospel, the first full discovery of them
should have been reserved for the later age
of Marcion; that Christianity should have
been so long preached before the true
Christ was made known. Truth, he main
tains, can never be thus posterior to error,
for the substance must assuredly have
an anterior existence to its own shadow.
On such grounds then Tertullian asserts,
that the appeal of the heretics to their
Scriptures could never be allowed to have
weight ; inasmuch as this prescriptive argu
ment demonstrated with all the force of
legal evidence, that those who were alto
gether estranged from the Catholic Church,
could assert no just claim to the possession
of her inalienable property, the pure oracles
of Gody. He concludes this part of the
argument in language which must remove
all misapprehension of its real scope and
" Cap. 28. 5 Cap. 37. p. 47.

LECTURE VL 361
bearing, " Illic igitur et Scripturarum et
expositionum adulteratio deputanda est,
ubi diversitas invenitur doctrinse. Sicut
illis non potuisset succedere corruptela
doctrinse, sine corruptela instrumentorum ;
Ita et nobis integritas doctrina non compe-
tisset, sine integritate eorum per qu(E doctrina
tractatur. E quidem quid contrarium nobis
in nostris ? quid de proprio intulimus, ut
aliquid contrarium ei, et in Scripturis
deprehensum, detractatione, vel adjectione,
vel transmutatione remediaremus ? Quod
sumus hoc sunt Scriptura ab initio suo ; ex
illis sumus'." Here Tertullian most elo
quently shews, that he considered the
faithful agreement of the Catholic Church
with the pure and unadulterated records
of inspiration, as her great distinguishing
feature, as the sole guarantee of the
integrity of her own faith, and as exclu
sively constituting her real title to a just
authority. The Scriptures, he adds, formed
her title deeds, and it w^as therefore alike
her duty and her interest to preserve them
pure and uncorrupted. "¦ Cap. 38. p. 49.

362 LECTURE VI.
This work concludes with a catalogue of
the principal heretics, and a compendious
summary of their opinions ".
The polemical treatises of Tertullian,
which we have last noticed, were, as we
have seen, directed against parties who may
in truth be considered rather as having set
» From cap. 46 to 53. In the chapters which precede
this catalogue, (cap. 41, 42. p. 54, 55.) some remarks
occur 30 strikingly applicable to the conduct of the
political dissenters of the present day, that I cannot
resist here quoting them. " Nihil enim interest licet
diversa tractantibus, dum ad unius Veritatis expugna-
tionem conspirent. Et hoc est quod Schismata apud
Haereticos fere non sunt. Schisma est Unitas ipsa.
Quoniam et ipsum opus eorum non de suo proprio aedi-
ficio venit, sed de veritatis destructione ; nostra suffo-
diunt ut sua aedificent. Ita fit ut ruinas facilius operen-
tur stantium aedificiorum, quam exstructiones jacentium
ruinarum. Ad haec solummodo opera humiles et blandi
et summissi agunt."
I ought not to close my brief notice of this important
tract, without quoting the just and indignant refutation
which it contains of the fatal fiction of a double doctrine,
exoteric and esoteric, entertained in common by the here
tics and Clemens Alexandrinus; in this Tertullian closely
follows Irenaeus, Sed ut diximus, eadem dementia est
quum confitentur quidem nihil Apostolos ignorasse, nee
diversa inter se praedicasse ; non tamen omnia volunt
illos omnibus revelasse ; quaedam enim palam et uni-
versis, quaedam secrete et paucis demandasse. Cap. 25.

LECTURE VI. 363
up new religions of their own invention,
entirely contradictory to Christianity, than
merely as having introduced more slight
sectarian divisions in the same general faith •*.
Our attention will in the next place
be drawn by the tract against Praxeas, to
a controversy far more closely domestic;
and the first of which we have any extant
monument, concerning the important doc
trine of the Trinity". Praxeas, assuming
'' In the descriptive catalogue above referred to, Ter
tullian has mentioned all the sects animadverted upon
by Irenaeus, with one or two additions; and has left a
particular refutation of Marcion in five books, occupying
the whole first volume of Semler's edition; also a shorter
treatise against the Valentinians. Tom. ii. p. 143 — 188.
We have likewise a treatise (tom. ii. p. 79 — 142.) against
Hermogenes, an heretic not mentioned by Irenaeus, who
maintained the eternity and inherent evil of matter, to
which all the moral and physical disorders of nature
were to be attributed. Tertullian in this treatise justly
observes, that all such views must be considered as ulti
mately resolving themselves into the system of Dualism.
¦^ We have, however, notices of the earlier heresies of
Theodotus and Artemon ; the former seems completely
to have embraced the hypothesis, now called Socinian,
of the simple Humanity of Christ, Doctrinam enim in-
troduxit qua Christum hominem tantummodo diceret;
Deum autem ilium negaret. ( Tertull. de Praescript. Haer.
cap. 53. p. 78.) We may remember, that Justin, in his

364 LECTURE VI.
as the basis of his system the two great
doctrines of the orthodox faith, namely, the
Unity of the Godhead, and the Divine nature
of Christ, had yet combined them in an here
tical form, maintaining the absolute personal
identity of the Father and the Son. Thus,
as Tertullian begins his refutation, doth the
adversary of truth adopt the most various
stratagems in conducting his attacks, and
sometimes seeks the overthrow, by appearing
to defend it. And here it is curious to ob
serve, how singularly those extreme opi
nions, which at first sight appear most widely
opposed, will be found unexpectedly to glide
into each other. Praxeas maintained Christ
to be the very person of the most high
Father; Socinus pronounced him to be a
mere man ; yet we find in another passage**,
that in order to evade the difficulties of
their scheme, the followers of Praxeas
actually introduced a personal division in
place of the one person of Jesus Christ,
Dialogue, alludes to similar opinions as entertained by
some in his time ; he is considered as referring to the
Ebionites, a Judaizing sect.
" Cap. 26.

LECTURE VI. 365
maintaining the spiritual and divine nature
(the Christ) to be identical Avith the Father,
and the human nature to be the man Jesus ;
which w^ould virtually resolve the whole
scheme into the Socinian hypothesis, of a
mere man acting under the inspiration and
guidance of the one Father". These hereti-
' Thus he writes, (cap. 13.) " We define the Father
and the Son as two, and, including the Holy Spirit,
three, according to the scheme of the economy, as it is
called, which represents a numerical distinction ; yet
we never speak of two Gods or two Lords, though we
doubt not that the Father is God, and the Son God,
and the Holy Ghost God ; and that each one of these is
God." To give any thing like an analysis of the argu
ments by which these great truths are maintained,
would in itself occupy an entire Lecture. Nor can it be
at all desirable, after the very able manner in which
that task has been performed by Bishop Kaye : and I
cannot refer to this portion of his work, without par
ticularly inviting attention to his clear and excellent
exposure of those insidious notes, by which the German
editor has endeavoured to twist into a sense favourable
to Arianism every less guarded expression or illustration
into which, in that earlier stage of the Trinitarian con
troversy, it was so easy to fall. I shall here only observe,
that while Tertullian very justly maintains, (cap. 2.) Hanc
regulam ab initio Evangelii decurrisse, etiam ante priores
quoque Hereticos ; nedum ante Praxeam hesternum,
and considers this very novelty as in itself a sufficient
confutation ; his arguments are yet always built on the

366 LECTURE VI.
cal views have,however,indirectlyproduced,
an important advantage to the orthodox
faith, by calling forth from the pen of Ter
tullian by far the most valuable exposition
and defence of that faith which had yet
appeared. And we shall find the sentiments
here delivered concerning this great doc
trine in the very closest agreement with
the spirit, and often expressed almost in
the very words, of the more doctrinal
very words of Scripture, which are most copiously cited ;
nor does he ever find it necessary to resort to any tradi
tionary explanation distinct from their plain grammatical
sense. It must, however, be regretted, that he does occa
sionally appeal to a still more questionable source, the
fancied illumination claimed by the disciples of Mon
tanus ; " Nos enim et tempera et causas Scripturarum
per Dei gratiam inspicimus, maxime Paracleti non
hominum discipuli." Yet happily on this important
subject, the views of the Montanists do not appear to
have been either heterodox or injudicious. Tertullian
expressly borrows from this source his favourite physical
analogies, comparing the mysterious union of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, to that of the sun, the ray of light,
and the luminous point in which it terminates; or of the
root, the shrub, and the fruit; or of the spring, the
stream, and the river. Bishop Kaye has well observed,
that these, like all similar comparisons, may sufficiently
serve the purpose of illustration, but must fail if pressed
beyond this.

LECTURE VI. 367
Creeds subsequently adopted bythe Catholic
Church, and of course therefore with the
Articles of our own.
I may next pass to those treatises which,
though less controversial, relate to the
establishment of his views on points inti
mately connected with the very foundation
of every moral and intellectual question;
namely, in the first place, the nature, pro
perties, and prospects of the human soul;
and, secondly, the peculiar Christian doc
trine of the resurrection of its companion,
the body.
The treatise of Tertullian De Anima
must be regarded by those who are con
versant with the progress of metaphysical
enquiries, as an extremely curious and
interesting specimen of the state of such
discussions in that age. But to pursue
such investigations at any length were
altogether unsuited to this place; I shall
only briefly advert to such points as seem
to have the most direct bearing on theology.
I may first, however, observe, that the
work before us is evidently the production
of a mind in itself very powerful and acute.

368 LECTURE VI.
and deeply imbued with the philosophy
and science of that day. Tertullian in this
treatise very commonly enters the lists of
argument in opposition to Plato. And it
may fairly be stated, that in their strength
they do not appear very unequally matched;
and the occasional erroneous statements
and visionary speculations of the Christian
Father, are far from being without a
parallel in the pages of the founder of the
Academy. It is, however, very singular
to observe, with regard to the principal
point in dispute between them, namely,
the question whether the nature of the soul
be material or immaterial, that the African
Presbyter warmly embraces the side of
materialism', usually regarded as the hypo-
' It is not, however, quite clear, what is the real cha
racter of the material hypothesis as advocated by Ter
tullian, when he asserts the soul to be corpus sui generis;
for we find him in other places professedly employing the
term corpus as synonymous with substance, and denoting
real existence of any kind. " Omne quod est, corpus
est sui generis. Nihil est incorporale, nisi quod non est."
(De Came Christi, c. 11.) He therefore attributes the
term even to God, " Quis enim negabit Deum corpus
esse; etsi Deus Spiritus. It might therefore thus seem
to be a mere question of nomenclature, depending on

LECTURE VI. 369
thesis least favourable in its tendencies to
Christian views; whereas the Athenian
philosopher had defended the opposite
theory, in which he would number the
great majority of divines as his allies.
Yet Tertullian will probably himself again
reclaim the support of such divines, when
he proceeds to argue, that the soul is
essentially a single and simple principle,
and therefore indivisible; "it ministers
indeed to different operations and energies,
as in informing the several organs of the
different senses; but these," he contends,
" cannot be called component parts, for
distribution does not imply division^. Thus
the definition of the properties implied by the qualifying
phrase ' sui generis,' whether they were such as to con
stitute a material or immaterial substance. The general
scope of TertuUian's argument, however, undoubtedly ap
pears to imply, that he ascribed really material attributes,
though of a somewhat more refined quality, to the soul.
He was confirmed in his belief of the materiality of the
soul, by a vision which a Montanist lady reported to him ;
who, after hearing a discourse from him on this subject,
had fallen into a trance, and was permitted to behold an
actual soul. It was transparent, and of an ethereal colour,
palpable to the touch, but very soft, and in form and pro
portions resembling a man.
" c. 14.
Bb

370 LECTURE VI.
in the complicated machinery of the grand
hydraulic organ of Archimedes, the single
stream of air which pervaded and gave
breath to all the multitudinous rows of
pipes, was not itself separated into parts,
because it was administered through parts,
it was divided in operation, but in substance
continuous." Here we shall, I think, equally
admire the beauty of the illustration, and
agree in the justice of the conclusion. And
again, when, in opposition to Plato, he
maintains the credit due to the testimony
of the senses'', we must feel that he is
vindicating not a single truth, but the very
basis of all truth, and that which forms the
only barrier against the inroads of an
universal scepticism. Nor will he less
claim our assent, in his refutation of the
visionary Platonic theory, so eagerly em
braced by Origen, of the preexistence of
the soul, and the origination of its know
ledge in the reminiscences derived from
some former state; all which he justly
couples with the kindred speculation of the
Pythagorean metempsychosis. " c. 17.

LECTURE VI. 371
With reference to subjects more strictly
theological, Tertullian distinctly acknow
ledges the corruption of the soul, ex
originali vitio ; a corruption induced by the
author of evil, so as greatly to obscure, yet
not entirely to extinguish, the better and
divine principle derived from God. He states,
that every soul is thus reckoned in Adam,
until it is reckoned anew in Christ by baptism.
After an examination of the phenomena
of sleep, which he describes as an affection
of the body not of the soul, he concludes
by turning from this speculum mortis to
death itself, the temporary separation of
the soul from the body'. In this inter
mediate state he conceived the souls of
men to retain their conscious faculties; they
had no power to return, to revisit the scenes
of the middle earth, but were reserved in
distinct subterranean abodes, appropriate
' Cap. 55. The souls of martyrs alone were supposed
to be admitted to the heavenly regions immediately on
death; in proof of which, Revelations vi. 9. was cited,
where the souls of martyrs alone are represented as
being seen beneath the altar. All spectral appearances
were attributed to daemons, who assumed the form of
the deceased.
Bb 2

372 LECTURE VI.
to their several characters, until the final
judgment. From this treatise we should naturally
proceed to that de Resurrectione Carnis,
which consists of nearly the same argu
ments we have already considered when
examining the disquisition on that subject
by Athenagoras. The spirit and much of
the substance of this treatise will be found
transferred by Bp. Pearson to his explana
tion of the corresponding Article of the
Creed. Turning from the doctrinal to the prac
tical treatises of Tertullian, we have to
lament, that many of these are deeply tinged
with the extravagances of Montanism. The
first of these, however, which I shall now
mention, the tract de Patientia, is clearly
exempt from these censures, and was pro
bably written while he himself continued a
member of the Church.
The body of this work consists of an
examination into the various causes and
circumstances which most call for the exer
cise of this Christian grace, and which form
the usual temptations to an opposite temper.

LECTURE VL 373
The Christian consolations and remedies
applicable to each particular case are
povverfuUy and eloquently stated. The in
troduction is remarkable for a striking
example of Christian humility ; for the
author commences by the penitent con
fession of his own conscious deficiency in
the temper he so earnestly desires to re
commend to others. " In every destitution,"
he observes, "we may still find some solace
in discussing the goods we ourselves no
longer enjoy. Nor can those who languish
in sickness, refrain from discoursing on the
lost blessings of health. And even thus,
whUe myself a wretched sufferer from the
fever of impatience, I would give free vent
to my sighs and prayers for this grace,
which alone can restore to my soul that
health, otherwise unattainable."
In the conclusion, we are presented with
a very graphic portrait of the external
appearance of the patient man. " His coun
tenance is tranquil and serene, his forehead
open, and contracted by no wrinkle of wrath
or discontent, his brows smoothly bent in
unruffled cheerfulness, his eyes cast down

374 LECTURE VL
in humility, not in grief, his mouth stamped
with the silence of submission, his com
plexion beaming from an innocent and
secure heart; and the pure and stainless
vestment fitting closely to his breast typifies
the absence of defilement and inflation
within." The tract in which Tertullian has em
bodied his exhortations to constancy, amidst
the storms of persecution, which though
intermitted for a while, still threatened
the Church ever and anon, may next claim
our attention. Such exhortations have
often been accused of fanatical excess ; but
surely it is dealing most unjust measure,
so to stigmatize as an overheated enthu
siasm in the case of the Christian martyr,
the very same sentiments which we applaud
as most noble and elevated, when we find
them applied by the historians and poets of
classical antiquity to the heroical devotion
which would scorn to sacrifice truth to safety,
and to abandon from the love of life the causes
which impart to life its justvalue and dignity.
Never surely can such sentiments be asso
ciated with higher motives or with a nobler

LECTURE VI. 375
end, than when the Christian is called to
resist unto blood striving against sin. It
may be true indeed, that after Tertullian
had attached himself to the Montanists,
his zeal did in this, as in other points,
degenerate into extravagance ; but against
his earlier address Ad Martyres, there
appears no ground of objection; unless
indeed in point of taste, that it is far too
profuse in rhetorical ornament, where the
simplest and most unaffectedly solemn ap
peal to the certainty of the Christian's faith
and to the confidence of his hope, had been
the truest and most powerful eloquence.
Neither can any improper excess of
enthusiasm be justly objected against Ter
tuUian, when in his Scor place he reproaches
the mean and equivocating evasions by
which the Gnostics endeavoured to escape
the dangers attendant on the faithful con
fession of Christ before man ; by persuading
themselves, that merely to deny the fact
that they were Christians, was not to incur
the guilt of denying the Lord himself
In his tract De Fuga, we must however
acknowledge, that he cannot himself be jus-

376 LECTURE VI.
tified, when he condemns as guilty of de
sertion of duty those proper precautions
of self-preservation, expressly sanctioned by
our Lord's own positive direction, " when
they persecute you in one city, flee unto
another." It was not, however, alone to arm the
Christian against the extreme trials of
martyrdom, that Tertullian felt himself
called to exert his powerful eloquence.
He published equally warm and anxious
dissuasives against every instance of com
promise with the customs of our idolatrous
world, which must have formed in those
times the daily trial of the faithful. On
this subject the line he draws is undoubt
edly strict, and high ; and such as must
seem to a colder zeal exaggerated, and to
the maxims of a worldly policy imprudent;
but the real Christian will weigh things by
a far different standard, and in his view the
excess of an over-delicate conscience, in
avoiding every approximation to vicious
compromise, must ever appear far more
respectable than the insensibility which
would shrink from the grossest and most

LECTURE VI. 377
palpable offence alone. Every rightly con
scientious mind must therefore entirely ap
prove the general principle of this treatise ;
although the manner in which the author
carries out its application to all the minut
est points of the relations and commerce of
life may be regarded as over scrupulous,
and in one or two instances injudicious and
incorrect; but we must all agree in his
conclusion, " In this world faith navigates
amidst dangerous shoals and rocks, tuta
si cauta, si attonita secura."
In his treatise de Spectaculis, Tertullian
maintains, that these exhibitions should be
avoided by Christians, not only on account
of their partial connection with idolatry, and
of the cruelty of some of them, and the im
purity and immorality of others ; but he pro
ceeds much further than this, and enters fully
into the spirit of the arguments by which
the more ascetic have ever decried the
mingling in such secular amusements, as
inconsistent with our baptismal renuncia-
tionsJ.
¦• Cyprian has avowed equally strict principles on this
point in his Epistle to Eucratius. (Ep. 2. Fell.)

378 LECTURE VI.
The tract de Corona Militis is, from the
animadversion of the historian of the Decline
and Fall, much more familiarly known to
the general reader. It cannot, therefore,
be expected that I should now detain you
by any particular examination of the Mon-
tanistic arguments by which Tertullian here
defends the scruples of a soldier, apparently
of that party who refused to place on his
head the military wreath presented to him
on the occasion of a public donative''.
Obvious reasons will render it equally
unnecessary and undesirable, on an occa
sion like the present, to enter into any par
ticular examination of the several tracts in
which Tertullian enforces his favourite ar
guments on the subject of monogamy and
celibacy' ; neither can we here be expected
to pause to examine the precepts of this
' This tract should be compared with the arguments
employed by Clemens Alexandrinus in his Uai^aytayo;,
to condemn the use of garlands by Christians. TertuU
lian urges the authority of unwritten tradition on this
point ; and he also gives a list of many points of ritual
observance in Baptism, which he refers to the same
tradition. ' Viz. de Monogamia de Castitate de Pudicitia.

LECTURE VI. 379
Father de habitu muliebri or de cultu foemi-
norum, or the tract de Virginibus Velandis ;
yet, it were surely not the character of a
sincerely religious mind to ridicule as trifling
the application of the spirit of religion to the
whole of our outward conduct, and even to
the regulation of the propriety and modesty
of our apparel.
The last works of this Father which
remain to be noticed are those which relate
to points of Christian discipline and devo
tion ; and these undoubtedly require a
more careful and distinguishing examina
tion ; because, while they are strongly
marked by the ability and warm piety so
characteristic of their author, they yet very
frequently breathe a spirit of exaggerated
severity, and are, at least in one very import
ant point, (that of psedo-baptism,) directly
opposed to the judgment of the Church.
The treatise de Poenitentia is written
with all the force and pointedness of Ter
tuUian's most energetic style. A great
part of its subject-matter relates far more
to the well-known strict penitential dis
cipline of the Church of that day, in re-

380 LECTURE VI.
quiring the external confession, the e^opo-
Xoyrjats of repentance, in acts of public
penance, than to the inward workings of
the perdvoia of the heart. This discipline, I
need not now remark, was in later ages
very materially relaxed throughout the
whole Church, and is now in our own
practically abandoned. By Tertullian it was
upheld in its severest form ; but yet it may
be said, not more rigidly than it was en
forced by the Councils of the following
century. We must keep in mind also, that this
public discipline affected such only as for
graver and more notorious crimes had
incurred exclusion from the communion of
the Church; but for the lighter sins of
infirmity, for the negligences and igno
rances which the Christian will find daUy
occasion to deplore, the necessity of daily
mental repentance was ever inculcated as
quite distinct from this public discipline •».
¦" On this subject I would refer to that most copious
store of ecclesiastical information, Bingham, Antiq.
book xviii. chap. 4. From this source I borrow the
following quotation from Origen : In gravioribus crimi-

LECTURE VI. 381
If we confound the two cases, we shall fall
into serious error, and attribute to the early
Church principles and practices which she
was assuredly far from maintaining. As
to her public discipline, she can need no
vindication. For every society, viewed even
in its civil character alone, has an undoubted
right to exclude from its privileges those
whose offences are injurious to its consti
tution; and who shall blame the strict, and
it may be even severe, anxiety of the
Church, to preserve herself before her
Lord, ayia kou dpcopos, prj exovaa cririXov rj
pvTi8a, rj Tt Twv ToiovTcov, an attention more
especially required under the peculiar cir
cumstances of those trying times. With
regard to the conditions of external humi
liation, which she prescribed to those who
sought readmission, these must undoubt
edly be regarded as of no value in the sight
of the heart-searching God, excepting in
nibus semel tantum, vel raro poenitentiae conceditur
locus : Ista vero communia quae frequenter incurrimus,
semper poenitentiam recipiunt. While we do not recog
nise the Romish distinctions of venial and mortal crime ;
we do not surely, on the other hand, mainta,in the
Stoical maxim, omnia peccata esse aequalia.

382 LECTURE VI.
as far as they may be the genuine signs of
a sincere internal contrition of the soul.
And if regarded in any degree as a substi
tute for that deep and real feeling, they
will become perverted to the most danger
ous abuse. But yet the exemplary influence
of these open humiliations in the sight of
the brethren, may have been very availing
as a warning and safeguard; and it may
well be questioned, whether the cheerful
submission to these painful forms, must
not have afforded at last as good reason to
believe in the sincere repentance of the
heart, as we can have, where nothing of
the kind is required. As to the limitation
of this readmission by the Church, in her
earlier and stricter day, to a single instance
after gross lapse into such public scandals ;
we must never imagine that, although she
scrupled to restore members on whose
steadiness she could place no reliance to
her own visible communion, she yet by
any means considered them finally excluded
from the atonement of their Saviour, and
the mercies of their God ".
" The views laid down by Tertullian in this treatise

LECTURE VI. 383
The views of the early Church, and the
discipline to which they led, may indeed
concerning the penitential discipline of the Church may
be thus shortly stated.
After dwelling on the sacramental efficacy of Baptism
as conveying the remission of all former sins, he adds,
that if after the grace thus sought in Baptism, the pro
fessing convert should again lapse into gross transgres
sion, there was indeed ample cause for alarm, but not
for despair. For the threatenings of God against the
impenitent, clearly imply that he has mercy in store for
the penitent ; and the beautiful parables of Luke xv.
fully declare his joy in the repentance of a sinner; a
second door of repentance is therefore open to the
anxious penitent, by which he may be once more re
admitted into the Church : but yet, lest so much mercy
should be abused, Tertullian argues, that the profession
of heartfelt repentance, which had satisfied the Church
in the former instance of the candidate's admission to
Baptism, must now be joined with the most humiliating
acts of public confession and outward penance; hujus
igitur poenitentiae secundae tanto operosior probatio, ut
non solS, conscientiS, proferatur, sed aliquo etiam actu
administraretur. (Cap. 9.) This door of penitence also
the Church, as we have seen, then opened once, and but
once, to such gross and public delinquents. Collocavit
in vestibule poenitentiam secundam, quae pulsantibus
patefaciat : sed jam semel quia jam secundo ; sed
amplius numquam quia proxime frustra. (Cap. 7.)
But it seems impossible to conceive, that many of the
arguments by which Tertullian encourages the penitent,
should be restricted to one single opportunity of return
to the backsliding though baptized convert. Tertullian,

384 LECTURE VL
appear severe ; but vs'^e cannot fail to re
mark, how entirely irreconcileable they are
with any thing but the strictest holiness,
and how remote from that interested priest
craft, which, seeking to make a gain of god
liness, or rather a traffic of ungodliness,
contributed more than any other cause to
open a door to the Reformation.
The tract de Jejunio should here be
mentioned, as also relating to matters of
devotional discipline. But it cannot require
any particular notice, being in fact merely
an extravagant vindication of the extreme
austerities of theMontanists, directed against
the general body of Christians, whom the
assuredly, when he so strongly enforces them, " Hens tu
peccator, bono animo sis, vides ubi de tui reditu gaude-
atur," must have looked beyond the discipline of the
Church to infinitely higher purposes of Almighty mercy.
The principle of this seemingly severe limitation, is evi
dently to be traced to the fear, lest, by a greater laxity, any
encouragement should be held out to the very dangerous
idea, that men might safely go on professing repentance,
and yet returning to sin. " Absit ut aliquis ita inter-
pretetur quasi eo sibi etiam nunc pateat ad delinquen-
"dum : quia patet ad pcenitendum : et redundantia cle-
mentiae ccelestis libidinem faciat humanae temeritatis.
Nemo idcirco deterior sit, quia Deus melior est, totiens
delinquendo quotiens ignoscetur." (See capp. 6 and 8.)

LECTURE VI. 385
author here and elsewhere stigmatises as
yJAvxtKol, or men of a natural and unspiritu-
alized mind, in contradistinction to the
higher pretensions of his own party, who
are always called Spiritales.
The treatise De Baptismo is in every
way one of the least valuable of this author.
It is far more occupied by mystical specu
lations, on the figures supposed to have
typified the spiritual efficacy of water, than
by any practical remarks on the nature and
uses of the Sacrament. He then enters
into discussions on the distinction of the
baptism of Christ and John; on the reasons
why Christ himself did not baptize; and on
the question whether the Apostles in their
own persons had ever received baptism ; all
which as he treats them are far more curi
ous than profitable. In others of his tracts
we have far more real information on the
subject of baptism than in this ; thus in
the tract De Corona Militis, we find an
incidental detail of the forms in which it
was in that age administered; and in the
tract De Poenitentia", we find much clearer
o In that treatise we find the following observations
c c

386 LECTURE VI.
views of the spiritual preparations and
accompaniments of this Sacrament.
If, however, in this tract we see little to
instruct us, we undoubtedly meet with
enough to startle, in its direct opposition
to a practice which, with this single excep
tion, the Church ever appears to have
recognized as Apostolical, that, namely, of
infant baptism. While protesting against
the impropriety of too hastily conferring
this Sacrament without due examination of
the qualification of the parties offering
themselves, he expressly and especially
condemns the custom of bringing infants to
with regard to the sacramental efficacy of Baptism, as
appointed for the remission of sins. " The grace of God
cannot be brought under bondage to means, nor is his
promise pledged to such as unworthily partake in those
means." He adds, " that we do not receive this outward
washing in order to make us desist from sin, but that
our very desiring it ought to shew that we have already
desisted from sin, being first washed inwardly in our
heart." Not that he in any way doubted the efficacy of
the Sacrament, when worthily received. Neque enim
renuo divinum beneficium, id est abolitionem delictorum
inituris aquam, omni mode salvum esse ; sed ut ea perve-
nire contingat elaborandum est. Quis enim tibi tam
infidae poenitentiae viro, asperginem unam cujuslibet aquae
commodabit ?

LECTURE VI. 387
the font ; and we may have already perhaps
observed, that his remarks generally on
this Sacrament, are such as must appear
applicable to the case of adult baptism only.
It has, however, been justly remarked, that
his very objections appear to imply, that the
baptism of infants was then the common
usage ; and he informs us that the injunc
tion of Christ, Suffer little children to come
unto me, and forbid them not, was then as
now applied to justify this practice. Ori
gen, very nearly the contemporary of Ter
tullian, more than once attests it to have
been established in his time ; and within
half a century we find Cyprian convening a
general council of the very same African
district to which Tertullian himself belonged,
to discuss the proper time of baptism;
when it appeared, that the only question
which any of that provincial body con
sidered as open to doubt was, whether
from the analogy of circumcision this
Sacrament ought not always to be ad
ministered on the eighth day after birth, or
if it might be allowed in cases of necessity
to administer it still earlier.
c c 2

388 LECTURE VL
I have purposely reserved the considera
tion of the tract de Oratione for the closing
subject of the present Lecture. For it is
gratifying to turn from every harsher topic
to the holy peace of prayer ; and this se
lection will also enable us to take our leave
of an author, always pious though often
mistaken, in language of unqualified appro -
bationP. Tertullian justly adopts, as the
source and guide of all his reflections on
this subject, the perfect form in which our
blessed Lord, complying with his disciples'
request, instructed them how to pray ; " for
this," he observes, " in its comprehensive
brevity condenses in the fewest words the
most diffusive extent of meaning, and com
prises not only every due homage to God
and every needful prayer for men, but
combines instruction with every petition ;
ita ut revera in oratione, breviarium totius
Evangelii comprehendatur. It is therefore
I' I here intend to speak of the first thirteen chapters
of this treatise ; those which follow are reasonably be
lieved to be supposititious, and are wanting in many
MSS; they are altogether alien in matter and spirit
from the preceding, and principally relate to the same
points as the treatise De Virginibus Velandis.

LECTURE VI. 389
his object, by carefully analysing each suc
cessive petition, to expand it in all the
fulness of its just development, to point
out its true application and bearing, and to
illustrate it by the comparison with those
parallel Scriptures best suited to throw
light on its objects, and direct attention
to the duties it implies.
He executes this task faithfully, spi
ritually, and judiciously, and sums it up
with this recapitulation. " In the com
pendium of these few words, how many
declarations of Prophets, Evangelists, and
and Apostles ; how many discourses and
parables of our Lord ; how many ex
amples, precepts, and duties, are at once
inculcated ? The honour of God, in his
invocation as our Father ; the testimony of
our faith, in the sanctification of his Name;
the commemoration of our hope, in the
mention of his kingdom ; our dependence
on his providence in the petition for daily
bread ; our contrite sense of our debts,
in our supplication for his remission ; our
anxious watchfulness against temptation,
in our prayer for his safe guidance. Quid

390 LECTURE VI.
mirum," he exclaims in concluding this
summary, " Deus solus docere potuit, ut
se vellet orari."
"But prayer, "he adds, "to be acceptably
offered, must proceed from a faithful heart,
brought into obedience to the will of God.
" Memoria enim prseceptorum, viam ora-
tionibus sternit ad coelum. Every angry
temper, every unholy imagination, must
be extinguished. Nee ab ira solummodo,
sed omni omnino confusione animi libera
debet esse orationis intentio ; de tali Spi
ritu emissa, qualis est Spiritus ad quem
mittitur." And such are the reflections which in
conclusion I could most desire to leave
impressed on my own mind, and on those
which I am called to address ; for it is
in truth in such feelings that the sum
and substance of real religion must ever
consist; and while we are pursuing, and
properly pursuing, the more scholastic
investigations of theology, let us never
so pursue them as to lose sight of the
higher and holier feelings of spiritual re
ligion ; those feelings which indeed raise

LECTURE VI. 391
our souls to the great Spirit of heaven,
and bring our spirits in some degree into
conformity with his.

LECTURE VII.

1 Tim. iv. 12.
Be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation,
in charity, inspirit, in faith, in purity.
The reminiscences connected with the
history of the earliest Latin Fathers, whose
reputation and works have descended to
posterity, are necessarily blended with a
subject full of melancholy reflection, when
we consider the particular provincial Church
to which those Fathers belonged. Northern
Africa, long the fertile granary of Rome,
was then equally fruitful in supplying her
with those who administered of the bread
of life. The first of the Latin Fathers, Ter
tullian, whose works we surveyed in the
former Lecture, and Cyprian, who now
claims our next attention, were both lumi
naries of the African Church; a Church
whose lamp is now so entirely removed

LECTURE VII. 393
from its place. Alas ! how has all this phy
sical and intellectual culture disappeared
beneath the withering influences of Maho
metan tyranny and Mahometan imposture !
That country, once the most distinguished
^oil of the Western Church, has now the
sad distinction alone, that she is the
only land where Christianity has once flou
rished, in which it has been totally extin
guished. We cannot pass over a subject
which thus forces her fate on our minds,
without offering a prayer for her restoration,
without suggesting a caution to watch and
pray, lest our own high privileges be like
wise forfeited.
Cyprian fully rivalled his earlier com
patriot in his intellectual and theological
attainments, and was far happier in sound
discretion of judgment, which preserved his
faith unadulterated by any spurious addi
tions of fanatical delusion. Yet he ever
regarded the memory of his distinguished
predecessor with high respect; he was
frequent in the study of his works, and
always asked for them with the phrase,
" Give me my master."

394 LECTURE VII.
In Carthage, his native city, he early
attained high reputation in literature, and
became a distinguished professor of rhe
toric; but he is said in his youth to have
been free in morals, and was then a warm
opponent of the faith to which he afterwards
devoted his faculties and sacrificed his life.
The zealous labours of the presbyter
Csecilius, were blessed to his conversion,
and in his baptism he adopted the name
of this his father in the faith. The recep
tion of that holy rite under such circum
stances appears to have been usually accom
panied by the full development of that new
principle of spiritual life, of which it must
ever form the sacramental sign. In his
very interesting Epistle' to his friend Dona-
» This Epistle begins with a graphic description of the
scenery of the gardens in which he had enjoyed many
religious conversations with his friend. These gardens
were probably the same which are connected with the
history of Cyprian in a very interesting manner ; they
had been his own property, but some time after his con
version he sold this estate with all the fervour of primitive
charity, that he might have the means of distributing
more largely to the poor. They had, however, again been
restored to him, apparently by his Church after he became

LECTURE VII. 395
tus, who then presided over the Carthagi
nian see, the new convert has given a most
striking portrait of all the mighty change
which then passed over his soul. " Re
ceive," saith he, " that which must be felt,
before it can be learnt, and acquired not by
long and laborious study, but by the com
pendious process of ripening grace. While
Bishop of Carthage, and he was finally placed under
arrest in these very gardens by the proconsul Galerius
Maximus, previous to his martyrdom. In the passages
abridged and condensed in the text it will be seen, that
Cyprian speaks of his baptism as having conveyed not
only potentially the seminal principles of the Christian
graces, but as having been accompanied by their actual
and complete development ; but we must remember, that
he is speaking as to his own baptism as an adult, under
circumstances which implied real conversion of the heart.
He proceeds to offer a very striking picture of the sinful
and suffering state of the unconverted, by supposing his
friend and himself to ascend a lofty mountain, and
thence to cast a glance around over a world lying in
misery and guilt. He forcibly pourtrays the various
scenes they survey, the cruelty of the gladiatorial spec
tacles, the licentiousness of the dramatic exhibitions, the
immoral scenes presented in their domestic retirements,
the public abuses of the forum, the turmoil of the ambi
tious, the wealthy, and the powerful ; and with all this he
contrasts the true peace of Christianity, " una igitur
placita et fida tranquillitas, una solida et firma et perpe-
tua securitas."

396 LECTURE VII.
I yet lay in the dark night, tossed amidst
the waves of a worldly state, I con
ceived it hard and difficult to believe
that a man could be born again, and
animated to a new life at the salutary
font. Quid impossibilius aiebam quam tanta
conversio ; ut repente ac perniciter exuatur
quod vel genuinum situ materice naturalis ob-
duruit, vel usurpatum diu senio vetustatis
inolerit? But when washed in these
regenerating streams from the stain of
my former life, light shone from above
into my cleansed breast. A new faith
made me indeed a new man ; doubt forth
with settled into faith ; that which was
closed became opened ; that which was
dark clear ; that which was difficult easy.
Thou also well knowest and canst acknow
ledge from thine own experience, all that
this death to sin and new life unto righ
teousness hath removed from our souls and
all that it hath conferred. Nor is this boast-
ingly spoken of any virtue of our own, but
of the gift of God alone ; that we have now
ceased to sin is entirely of faith ; our human
weakness was shewn in our former sins.

LECTURE VII. 397
Dei est, inquam, Dei omne quod possumus.
In him we live, in him we are strong ; from
him we derive all our vigour, and while yet
placed here, gain some indications of our
future privileges."
The Carthaginian Church, observing the
ardour and ability of the new convert in
propagating the faith which had been so
effectually brought home to his own soul,
gladly admitted him into the ministry ; and
marked their sense of the manner in which
he discharged its functions, by elevating
him after no long interval to their Episco
pate''. But the star of his high eccle
siastical office rose and set amidst storms.
The Decian persecution" burst forth in all
its fury very shortly after he first assumed
a post, then rather of preeminence in danger
than in dignity ; and within eleven years
he fell a martyr under the sword of
Valerius''. Almost the whole interval was
a scene of perpetual difficulty and em
barrassment, for the storm of external
oppression produced waves of disturbance
within the haven where the vessel of the
" A. D. 247. <= A. D. 249. " A. D. 258.

398 LECTURE VII.
Church itself was riding, still more painful
to those who were charged with its guard
ianship and guidance. Placed under these
trying circumstances, Cyprian displayed vir
tues of mind fully equal to the arduous
duties which devolved upon him. In the
midst of these days of suffering and rebuke,
he was indefatigable in his endeavours to
alleviate every distress, and to reform every
disorder. Though forced by the violence
of the persecution to a temporary secession
from Carthage itself, thus shewing that his
religious system was free from the extra
vagant and suicidal notions of the Monta
nists ; yet the great motive of his retirement
appears to have been not his own personal
safety, but his persuasion that he should
thus best consult the utility of his Church,
by placing himself in a situation w^hence he
could most effectually minister to all its
exigencies. We find these motives fully
explained in a most interesting Epistle from
him to the Clergy of Rome, between whom
and the African Churches the warmest
sympathy appears to have prevailed. He
here assures them, that though absent in

LECTURE VII. 399
body, he was present with his Church, not
only in spirit, but in act. And thus we
shall indeed find him watching with an
eye of constant vigilance over all their con
cerns, supplying by his frequent letters
counsel to his clergy, encouragement and
comfort to those who endured the trial,
and admonition to those who were ready to
faint ; he also addressed the most affection
ate exhortations to those who had fallen
away but repented of their weakness, to
prepare themselves by a due course of
contrition and humiliation to be readmitted
to the privileges they had forfeited by their
denial of the faith.
Many of the Epistles which under these
circumstances he addressed to his Church
are still preserved"; and while we peruse

' Ep. 20. Fell ; 15. Pamel. ; 1. iii. E. 5. Erasmus. In many
of the Epistles addressed to his Clergy from his retire
ment, he expresses the most anxious desire to return to
them ; and ascribes his reluctant absence solely to his
regard for the common safety. Opportet nos tamen
paci communi consulere, et interdum quamvis cum taedio
animi nostri, deesse vobis, ne praesentia nostri invidiam et
violentiam gentiliam provocet." Ep. 7. Fell; 36. Pamel.;
iii. 24. Erasmus.

400 LECTURE VII.
them, we must feel carried back in a very
affecting manner to the primitive, and as
we may call them the heroical, ages of our
faith, and see laid open to us the very
expressions in which the actors in these
scenes communicated to each other their
trials and their consolations, their hopes
and their anxieties.
The most important and interesting
remains of Cyprian consist of his Epistles,
of which more than eighty have been
preserved. They are addressed not only
to his own Church and province, but also
to several successive Bishops of Rome, or
to the Presbyters of that Church, when
deprived, as in that season of persecution
occasionally happened, of an Episcopal
superior ; and to many other Churches,
especially of the Spanish and Asiatic pro
vinces. In the wide circuit of this corre
spondence we see equally illustrated the
diffusive sympathies which then so closely
united the most remote Churches, and the
extensive influence which belonged to the
personal character of Cyprian, who, we are
informed by his Deacon and biographer.

LECTURE VII. 401
was commonly denominated Christianorum
omnium, Papa. The Epistles themselves
are invaluable to the ecclesiastical histo
rian, as exhibiting the most exact image of
the form and pressure of the times. Con
temporary Epistles, indeed, must ever afford
the clearest and most interesting illustra
tions of historical records, for they are, as
it w^ere, the perpetuated living voice of the
actors themselves ; and the present collec
tion is rendered affecting and edifying to
the Christian scholar, by the deep tone of
piety which breathes throughout. Yet wUl
it be found too often as painful in one
point of view as gratifying in another ; for
we fondly cherish high imaginations in our
hearts, of the general purity and unmixed
piety of those early ages of the Church;
but a study of these Epistles will fearfully
dissipate these pleasing impressions. In
some of the parties, indeed, thus brought
before us, and especially in Cyprian himself,
we shall find all the genuine traits of true
and un defiled religion ; but we shall be con
strained to hear him in deep humiliation
lamenting, that the great and general declen-
Dd

402 LECTURE VII.
sion of his Church had fuUy required the
sharp corrections which its Lord, in permit
ting the sword of persecution to be un
sheathed, had seen it good to inflicts We
shall perceive, that a spirit of intrigue and
faction already infected too many of the
clergy themselves, and we shall see the most
serious attacks on the regular discipline
of the Church, not only made by the in
constant and lapsed, but sanctioned even
by Confessors, who permitted the con
sciousness of suffering in the cause of
righteousness, to inflate them with spi
ritual pride, and persuade them that they
had thus acquired a just influence to which
every other authority ought to succumb.
f De Lapsis, p. 123. Fell, and Ep. x. 13. Fell. It has
lately been fashionable with the opponents of Establish
ments, to attribute all the corruptions which insinuated
themselves into the Church to the patronage of Con
stantino; but it is impossible to read the Epistles of
Cyprian, (those especially which relate to the proceed
ings of Novatus Felicissimus and Novatian,) without
perceiving, that these moral taints had already fearfully
infected the atmosphere, even while the thunder storms
of persecution might have been expected to have puri
fied it, and long before the Imperial sword assumed any
other position, with regard to the Church, than that of
being directed against it in exterminating hostility.

LECTURE VII. 403
Othei^ and still worse enormities are re
corded in the Epistle to Pomponius, to
which I would now only thus distantly
allude. We can only say, that these un
favourable features, like the crimes of the
eminent men recorded in holy writ, at once
afford the strongest attestation to the un
corrupted fidelity of the record, and im
press us with an humbling sense of the
infirmity of our common nature.
The few separate Treatises Cyprian has
left us, partly relate to the same temporary
and local circumstances, affecting the state
and discipline of the Church which form
the subject of his Epistles ; and will be
conveniently included in our rapid survey
of the most important of those trans
actions. Of the Treatises which bear a more
practical and general character, many may,
undoubtedly, from their deep piety, afford
matter of edification, but can scarcely re
quire a detailed examination in a general
outline like the present ; for it would throw
little additional light on his character as an
important link in the chain of Patristical
authority, if we were to analyse his argu-
Dd2

404 LECTURE VII.
ments, while by the warm inculcation of
appropriate but yet familiar and obvious
Christian topics, he directs his Church, as
he saw most requisite in her various duties.
In this he closely followed the steps of his
forerunner and model Tertullian, and has
left us duplicates, as it were, of most of the
practical Treatises we have before noticed
of that Father. The mere titles of these
will sufficiently explain their character and
objects for our present purpose ; De Vani-
tate Idolorum, De Patientia, De Zelo et
Livore, De Eleemosynis, De Habitu Virgi-
num, De Exhortatione Martyrii, De calami-
tatibus, De Mortalitate, De Oratione Do
minica. The style of these writings has been
highly praised by Lactantius^ for its per
spicuity, facility, copiousness, elegance, and
persuasiveness. It is certainly far superior
to that of his master Tertullian in fluency,
but we desiderate the point and vigour
which in his writings so often shine forth
in the midst of his obscurity.
I now propose to submit to your notice
' Lactant. Institut. 1. v. c. 1.

LECTURE VII. 405
such a brief survey of the leading points
discussed in his Epistles, and more strictly
ecclesiastical Treatises s, concerning the his
tory and discipline of the Church'', as may
appear sufficient to illustrate the character
and influence of this Father, as one of the
leading authorities of that Catholic body
in the third century.
I have already noticed the different classes
of firm and lapsed or apostate Christians,
both of whom in this more ostensibly militant
age of the Church, equally called for the
attention of the Bishop who watched over
^ Viz. those de Lapsis, and de Unitate Ecclesiae.
" He most earnestly urges his clergy to supply his
place in these respects, and gives them most sensible
directions to join prudence with their zeal in the discharge
of an office, which might else have provoked a more
furious rage of persecution.
" Atque utinam loci et gradus mei conditio permitteret
ut ipse nunc praesens esse possem : promtus et llbens
solenni ministerio, cuncta circa fortissimos fratres nostros
dilectionis obsequia complerem; sed officium meum
vestra diligentia representet." Ep. 12. Fell. " Tamen
caute hoc, et non glomeratim, nee per multitudinem
simul junctam puto esse faciendum ; ne ex hoc ipso
invidia concitetur, et introeundi aditus denegetur; et
dum insatiabiles multum volumus, totum perdamus."
Ep. 5. Fell.

406 LECTURE VII.
them in the Lord. For the former class of
faithful and resolute confessors he had to
provide, that they should receive every
support from the constant visitations of
their clergy ; that every practicable means
should be resorted to, to relieve all their
necessities; and especially that the gloom
of their dungeons should be cheered by the
enlivening light of Christian consolation and
hope. Cyprian, by his letters, was eminently
successful in thus supporting and ani
mating the confessors not only of his
own Church, but also those of Rome, then
deprived by the persecution of their own
prelate ; and they in return acknowledge his
Epistles as their chief solace amid the
general desolation spread around them, and
the-great means, under the Divine grace and
providence, of encouraging them to persevere
in the hope of the destined crown '. Many
of these Epistles of Cyprian'' are still ex-
¦ Ep. 31.
" Ep. 6. addressed to Rogatian, Sergius, and other
Carthaginian confessors. Ep. 10. congratulating the con
fessors on the constancy of the martyrs. Ep. 31. and 37.
correspondence of Moyses and other Roman confessors.

LECTURE VII. 407
tant ; they breathe the earnest desire of his
soul that he could be personally present to
share and sooth their trials; and convey
the strongest assurances that he was ever
with them in heart and spirit, and never
forgot them on any occasion of prayer,
Ep. 58. ^addressed to the people of Thibaris, a city
of the African maritime district of Zeugitana. This
last is the most copious and interesting of these
Epistles ; he here urges, in consolation of those whom
the persecution had driven into solitary flight, " Solus
non est cui Christus in fuga comes est. Solus non
est, qui templum Dei servans, ubicunque fuerit sine
Deo non est." Another Epistle (76) was written to the
martyrs condemned to the mines. Cyprian also ad
dressed two of his Epistles, Ep. 60, 61. to two successive
prelates of Rome, Cornelius and Lucius, on their exile
and sufferings for the faith, to which shortly after they
bore testimony with their blood. Among the extant
Treatises of Cyprian, there is also one addressed to For-
tunatus, de exhortatione Martyrii. This is almost entirely
made up of a most copious collection of every passage in
Scripture which relates to the danger of being betrayed
into idolatry ; the claims of the Saviour on our entire
devotion; the perseverance which alone could win the
palm and the crown; the former examples of religious
constancy, and the infinite superiority of the glory to be
revealed to the sufferings of the present time. The
treatise de bono Patientise also contains much suitable
to such times. The subjects of these Treatises corre
spond with two of TertuUian's, but they are much simpler
in style, and more copious in scriptural illustration.

408 LECTURE VII.
whether public or private. He not only
encourages them by the most powerful ap
peals to the high motives of Christian hope ;
but he also faithfully performs the more
delicate task of warning them, that the glory
of the struggle in which they were engaged
could never dispense with the perpetual
obligation of the deepest humility, and that
the prize of martyrdom could never consist
with the slightest impurity of heart or life'.
From this consideration of Cyprian's in
tercourse with his brother soldiers in that
noble army of martyrs which he was so
soon himself to join, we have to turn to a
case every way involved in far more painful
considerations ; his anxieties with regard
to the proper treatment of those weaker
brethren who had bent before the storm,
renounced directly or indirectly the name
of the Lord who had bought them, and
poUuted themselves either by actual or
implied participation with the sacrifices
of the heathen"".
' Ep. 13.
" There were two classes of these lapsed brethren, the
Sacrificati, who had actually participated in the idolatrous
sacrifices; and the Libellatici, who had purchased certifi-

LECTURE VII. 409
Cyprian", when permitted to return from
his retirement, most feelingly contrasts his
gratitude for the restoration of peace to
the Church, and for the glorious constancy
of her martyrs, with the sorrow occasioned
by these timid desertions.
In those temporary calms, during which
the Church had rest for a season, many such
defaulters were most anxious to be restored
to the privileges of a faith, from avowing
which they had shrunk through infirmity
of resolution, not through weakness of
conviction. A painful controversy soon arose as to
the terms on which these lapsed brethren,
as they were called, were again to be ad
mitted into the bosom of the Church they
had forsaken in her hour of trial. Three
different lines of conduct with regard to
this question were recommended by as
many parties. Those who embraced the
cates from the corrupt magistrates, that they were un
suspected of the proscribed faith, and were thus ex
empted from the necessity of publicly assisting at the
sacrifices ; but these libels or certificates proceeded on
the ground of an implied denial of Christianity.
" Sermo de Lapsis.

410 LECTURE VIL
more liberal and indulgent extreme, advo
cated the immediate reception of such
penitents on their first professed desire to
return. The opposite extreme of severity
gave no place to repentance, though sought
earnestly with tears ; but considered a single
act of apostacy as incurring de facto the
sentence of irreversible exclusion. A middle
course (which in this as in the generality
of moral questions we may fairly esteem to
have been the discreetest and best) was
recommended by the counsels of the mild
and pious Cyprian". He held, that such a
" In his Epistle to the brethren of his congregation,
(fratribus in plebe,) E. 17. Cyprian pathetically ex
presses his anxious but tender feelings on this subject;
" Ingemiscere vos et dolere ruinam fratrum nostrorum
ex me scio, fratres carissimi, qui et ipse pro singulis
ingemisco pariter et doleo; et patior, ac sentio, quod
beatus Apostolus dixit. ' Quis infirmatur,' inquit, ' etego
non infirmor? Quis scandalizatur, et ego non Uror?'
et iterum posuit in Epistola sua dicens. Si patitur mem-
brum unum, compatiuntur et caetera membra. Com-
patior ego, et condoleo de fratribus nostris, qui lapsi, et
persecutionis infestatione prostrati, partem nostrorum
viscerum secum trahentes, parem dolorem nobis, suis
vulneribus intulerunt. Quibus potens est divina miseri-
cordia medelam dare; properandum tamen non puto,
nee incaute aliquid et festinanter gerendum; ne dura

LECTURE VIL 411
defection had indeed incurred a serious
crime; and required, as did all crimes in
that age of strict discipline, a due course of
penitential humiliation, before readmission
could properly be granted to the full
privileges of the holy society so weakly
deserted. Those who would submit to
this discipline were to be welcomed back
to the table of their Lord with all joy; and
should fresh persecution arise, Cyprian
urged in a synodical Epistle^, written in
his own name and those of his clergy,
that this probation should be abridged or
dispensed with; and that the spiritual food
which might best strengthen the returning
penitent against the future trials to which
he might be exposed, should at once be
again accorded to him.
In this age it is certain, that none will
approve the harsher extreme; but many
perhaps will incline to that of the most
temere pax usurpatur divinae indignationis offensa
gravius provocetur."
These principles are fully developed in the Treatise de
Lapsis. The Epistles, from 15 to 36, also principally
relate to this subject.
p Ep. 57.

412 LECTURE VII.
lax indulgence; and condemn even Cyprian
as having drawn the line too strictly. Yet
when we take into consideration the high
anxiety of the Church in that age, to pre
serve in its outward and visible communion
the same characters of purity and holiness
which essentially belong to its spiritual
nucleus; we cannot surely blame the scruple
to readmit such vacillating professors, with
out some previous trial, calculated to put
the sincerity and strength of their desire of
reunion to the proof Had such weakness
generally been tolerated, there would have
beenlittle hope, (so far as the instrumentality
of second causes is concerned,) that the
Christian Church would have been pre
served in that spirit of firm though calm
and passive heroism, so essential to its
coming out more than conqueror from that
great fight of afflictions which assailed its
early progress.
The conduct of Cyprian also in the whole
of this matter is marked by one feature
which cannot but speak most strongly
in its favour. He throughout scrupled
to issue any determination on the subject

LECTURE VIL 413
from his own judgment alone; and declared
his desire to remit its decision to the
public Synods of his Church, which appear
to have included its lay as well as clerical
members. He will take no step, he says,
sine petitu et conscientia plebis^.
The embarrassments arising from this
question were fearfully aggravated, as af
fording a convenient handle to a spirit of
schism, which then unhappily began to
intrude itself into the Church. From the
period of Cyprian's unsought elevation to
the Episcopate, the ambitious Novatus,
who had coveted that dignity, nurtured a
bitter jealousy, and sought every occasion
of vexatious opposition. He eagerly availed
himself of this discussion concerning the
readmission of the lapsed; and endeavoured
' Ep. 64. To the same effect in Ep. 14. " A pri-
mordio Episcopatus mei statuerim, nihil sine consilio
vestro, et sine consensu plebis, mea privatim sententia
gerere." Again, Ep. 19. " Hoc enim disciplinae omnium
nostrum convenit, ut Praepositi cum Clero convenientes,
praesente et adstante plebe quibus et ipsis honor habendus
est, disponere omnia consilii communis religione possimus."
And Ep. 34. " Cum haec tractanda sit et limanda plenius
ratio non tantum cum collegis meis, sed et cum plebe
ipsa universa."

414 LECTURE VII.
by advocating the cause of extreme indul
gence to secure popularity to his own
party. In these proceedings he found a
fitting associate in Felicissimus, an indi
vidual of the same disorderly temperament;
and these together entered into the most
seditious cabals against the authority of
Cyprian; they even gained such an ascen
dancy, as encouraged them to attempt to
procure the election of Fortunatus, another
member of their faction, to the see, as if it
had been vacated by the retirement of its
prelate. The principles which Cyprian laid down
for the regulation of his conduct under
these trying circumstances, while they were
marked by the proper firmness of a vigilant
ruler ofthe Church, were noless distinguished
by that mild temper which formed the pre
vailing character of his disposition. He was
ever ready to throw open the door to those
who could be made sensible of their error,
while he strenuously resisted every effort
to force a way into the Church by threats
and violence'. The advice which he gave
' Ep. 59. p. 138. (Fell.)

LECTURE VII. 415
to a brother Prelate, exposed to the same
schismatical annoyances, he ever practised
in his own person ; " We should prefer to
overcome the injuries we 'receive by pa
tience, than to avenge them by sacerdotal
power'." The same question which had thus dis
turbed the Carthaginian Church, led at the
same period to a similar but more formi
dable schism in that of Rome ; where, on
the occasion of filling up the see which had
remained for a short time vacant during
the late persecution in consequence of the
martyrdom of Fabian, a double election took
place. Cornelius was declared Prelate by the
majority who had embraced the same mode
rate views with Cyprian; but the party who
contended for the stricter extreme, refused
to recognise the validity of his appointment,
and proclaimed their own chief, Novatian,
as the rightful Pontiff. It is only necessary
for us to mention this schism, from the
anxious efforts which Cyprian made to
' Ep. 3. p. 7. (Fell.) Magis enim optamus et cupimus
contumelias et injurias singulorum, dementi patientia
vincere quam sacerdotali licentia vindicare.

416 LECTURE VII.
compose it. The majority earnestly sought
for the support of an opinion to which so
much weight was so justly attached ; and
his influence appears to have been warmly
and effectually exerted on the side of Cor
nelius*. Cyprian, whose notions on the subject
of ecclesiastical unity were, as we learn
from his Treatise on that subject, of the
highest order, held, that as there was one
Church, so also there was one Episcopate",
all the individual members of which ought
to regard themselves as the component parts
of a connected whole ; and should therefore
cooperate together with the closest sympa
thy and identity of purpose. He undoubt
edly appears to have considered the See
estabUshed by St. Peter at Rome, as the
central point of the unity of the Church *,
(I am not now advocating his opinions, but
merely stating them historicaUy;) and he

< See Ep. 44 to 55. ed. Fell.
" De Unitate Ecclesiae, p. 108. ed. Fell.
' See De Un. p. 106. compared with Ep. 59. p. 131.
Petri Cathedra Ecclesia principalis unde Unitas Sacer
dotali s exorta est.

LECTURE VII. 417
therefore readily conceded a primacy of
rank, but as steadily denied any thing ap
proaching to a supremacy of authority, to
the occupant of that see^. He indeed stre
nuously contends, that St. Peter himself
never claimed any such authority".
The absolute independence of the Episco
pate of every separate Church, was a point
strongly insisted on by Cyprian. " None
of us**," he declares in a speech to one of
his provincial councils, " ought to make
himself a Bishop of Bishops, or assume a
tyrannical authority over his brethren ; for
each individual Bishop is at liberty to de
cide according to his own judgment; and
as his judgment cannot bind others, so nei
ther can the judgment of others bind him.
Every- Bishop is free to conduct himself
as he sees fit in the administration of his

• Hoc erant utique et caeteri Apostoli, quod fuit Pe-
trus ; pari consortio praediti et honoris et potestatis. De
Un. p. 107.
" Nam nee Petrus, cum secum Paulus disceptaret,
vindicavit sibi aliquid insolenter, aut arroganter assum-
sit; ut diceret se primafum tenere. Ep. 71. p. 195.
i" See Annales Cypriani, pp. 54, 56.
E e

418 LECTURE VIL
own Church, for which he is accountable
to God alone."
These principles were strongly brought
out in some controversial discussions which
occurred between Cyprian and Stephen,
who succeeded to the see of Rome on the
martyrdom of Lucius. The present occa
sion will not require me to dwell on these
disputes. They partly related to the usurp
ation by Rome of an appellate jurisdiction
over other sees, as shewn by the attempt
to restore certain Bishops of Gaul and
Spain who had been canonically deprived
for heresy and misconduct. But the prin
cipal cause of dispute arose from the
question, whether Baptism administered
by heretics should be admitted as valid by
the Church, or whether in this case a repe
tition of the rite were requisite. It is some
what curious to find, that in this contro
versy the Church of Rome took the more
liberal side ; while Cyprian, supported
by those of Carthage and of Cappadocia,
warmly advocated the more harsh and ex
clusive opinion.
It is needless to add, that the general

LECTURE VIL 4l5
consent of the Western Church, at a later
period, confirmed the judgment of Rome.
Whatever our views may be as to the merits
of the question itself, it is impossible not to
feel, that the contrast between the conduct
of Cyprian and Stephen is altogether fa
vourable to the former; for the Carthagi
nian Bishop invites every member of his
Synod to declare his opinions freely, and
strongly discountenances every idea of se
parating from communion those who might
differ ; while the Roman Pontiff substitutes
authority for argument, and excommunica
tion for persuasion. This controversy
might possibly have proceeded to more
violent lengths, had not an imperial perse
cutor, Valerian, soon drowned it, by mingling
the blood of both the principal disputants
in the stream of common martyrdom''.
' It is somewhat remarkable, that Stephen was the
fourth successive occupant of the Roman see, who thus
clbsed a brief pontificate by laying down his life for the
faith, and his successor Xystus or Sixtus added a fifth
to this constellation of martyrs. The list and dates of their
martyrdoms stand thus; Fabian A.D. 251, Cornelius 253,
Lucius 255, Stephanus 257, Sixtus 259 ; all within eight
years. Although we must regret to find too plain symp-
E e 2

420 LECTURE VII.
By far the most interesting point con
nected with this controversy, is the strong
declaration which it called forth of Cyprian's
judgment on the subject of tradition.
Stephen, in support of his own opinion, had
alleged the authority of ecclesiastical tra
dition. To this Cyprian thus replies, " But
from whence is that alleged tradition
derived ? Doth it descend from the autho
rity of the Lord and of his Gospels ? or
Cometh it from the epistles and precepts of
the Apostles .'' For God attesteth, that the
things which are written are to be per
formed; and proposeth this rule to Joshua,
when he saith, ' ''The Book of this Law
shall not depart from thy mouth, but thou
shalt meditate in it day and night, and
observe to do all the things that are written
therein*.' Custom without truth is but
the antiquity of error."
toms of that haughty and encroaching spirit, which after
wards gained so fearful an ascendant in that Church,
already beginning to manifest themselves, yet it were
unjust to close our eyes to the high and holy constancy
which then distinguished its prelates.
" Josh. i. 8.
• Ep. 74. p. 211.

LECTURE VII. 421
" But there is a very compendious method
for religious and simple minds to lay aside
error and to detect truth; for if we return
to the head and original source of divine
tradition, all human error ceaseth, and the
analogy of the sacred and heavenly doc
trines being distinctly disclosed, whatever
lay hidden and obscured beneath mists and
clouds of darkness, standeth revealed in
the light of truth."
" If the canal which convey eth water,
and which once afforded a large and
liberal supply, should suddenly fail, must
we not ascend to the very fountain
head, there to ascertain the cause of the
defect? Whether from the drought of the
springs the stream is exhausted at its
source, or rather interrupted in its con
tinuous course by the defects of the leaky
and broken canal; in that case the canal
must be repaired, that the water may be
supplied for the use of the city in all the
abundance and integrity with which it
issues from its source."
" And even thus must the priests of
God now act and preserve the divine

422 LECTURE VII.
precepts, so that if in any point the
stream of truth fluctuates and vacillates,
we must return to trace it to its first
source, to the discourses of our Lord, and
to evangelical and apostolical tradition; "that
is, to the writings of the Evangelists and
Apostles, which are clearly thus designated.
" Thus must our practical rule be ever
drawn from thence, whence its order and
origin first took rise."
It is obvious, that in this case Cyprian
never for a moment suspected any failure
in the divine source of inspiration, and that
he would practically call our whole attention
to correcting the defects of the human
channels which conveyed its streams'.
' In his Epistle to Caecilius, (Ep. 63. Fell,) in repro
bation of a custom which had crept into some Churches
in employing water in the place of wine as one of the
Eucharistic elements, Cyprian strongly expresses his
disapprobation of traditions not resting on a scriptural
foundation, Quare si solus Christus audiendus est non
debemus attendere, quid alius ante nos faciendum puta
verit, sed quid, qui ante omnes est, Christus prior
fecerit. Neque enim hominis consuetudinem sequi
oportet, sed Dei veritatem. Cum per Esaiam prophe-
tam Deus loquatur et dicat « sine causa autem colunt
me, mandata et doctrinas hominum docentes; et iterum

LECTURE VII. 423
Cyprian's views, indeed, as to the complete
sufficiency of the Scriptures as the great
storehouse of Christian doctrine, are indis
putably evidenced by his three books entitled
Testimonium, which entirely consist of a
regular digest of biblical texts, so arranged
as to present a general summary of Chris
tian faith. These, as the title indicates, he
considered as forming the great testimony
to the truth.
Built on such a foundation, the faith of
Cyprian distinctly recognized the great
mystery of godliness, God manifest in the
flesh. " This," he exclaims, "is our God.
This is Christ, who, as the Mediator between
two, put on the nature of man, that he
might bring him to the Father s." On the
great subject of the Divinity of our Lord,
it were indeed sufficient to refer to the
second book of Cyprian's Scriptural Testi
monies. The principal argument of thewhole
Dominus in Evangelio hoc idem repetat,' dicens
' Rejicitismandatum Dei ut traditionem vestram statuatis.'
Cyprian in this Epistle quotes to the same purport all
the strongest texts, condemning the introduction of
another gospel beside that once for all delivered.
^ De Vanitate Idolorum.

424 LECTURE VII.
of that book is to demonstrate this doctrine
by the most copious accumulation of all the
texts which appear to have any reference
to it. Most assuredly no fault of omission
can be charged against this selection ; the
only objection to which it may appear
liable is quite the reverse of this, namely,
that we find some of the texts cited from
the Old Testament strained and forced
from their plain and literal interpretation,
according to that mode of typical ex
position which we have so often seen
reason to regret.
It may be added, that in very numerous
passages of Cyprian's Epistles, our blessed
Lord is expressly described under the title
" Jesus Christus Dominus et Deus noster."
Cyprian is equally explicit in his attesta
tion to the great doctrine of the Atonement,
" The Son of God disdained not to take
our flesh, that he might make us the sons
of God; and, sinless himself, might bear
the sins of others'". An access lies open to
the clemency of God, and to all that seek
and understand the truth that access is
'¦ De bono Patientiae, compared with de Eleemosyna,

LECTURE VII. 425
easy. Christ hath imparted to us this
grace, he hath bestowed this gift of his
mercy, by subduing death on the trophy of
his cross, by redeeming the believer wdth
the price of his blood, by reconciling man
to God the Father, and by quickening our
mortal nature through heavenly regenera
tion. He throws open to us the path of
life, he restores us to paradise, and will
conduct us to his heavenly kingdom. Made
by him the sons of God, with him shall
we live and rejoice eternally, as those that
are redeemed through his blood, as Chris
tians glorified together with Christ, and
as the blessed of God the Father'."
Cyprian strongly insists on the original
corruption of our nature, as forming the
necessity for infant baptism; he describes
it as a deadly contagion contracted by our
descent from AdamJ; and, in the citation
before given from his Epistle to Donatas,
we have already seen him adverting to the
' Close of Address to Demetrian, p. 196. Fell.
' Ep, 64, p, 161, Fell. Qui recens natus nihil peccavit,
nisi quod secundum Adam carnaliter natus, contagium
mortis antiquae prima nativitate contraxit.

426 LECTURE VII.
innate obduracy and pollution of our natu
ral constitution, no less than to the habitual
inveteracy of actual crimes long persisted in.
He dwells, however, more largely on the
effects of sanctifying grace than justify
ing faith ; yet he faithfully recites the texts
on which this doctrine reposes'', and those
which prove that we have nothing whereof
we can glory, since we have nothing of our
own, nor any power unless received from
above'. His doctrine of the Sacraments attributes
the highest importance to them as the effi
cacious means of grace. In the very com
mencement of our account of this Father,
we have seen the high spiritual efficacy he
attributed to the sacrament of Baptism in
his own case; and he generally defines it to
be the nativity of all Christians "", by which
' Testim, i. 5. De Mortalitate, p. 157. Ep, 63.
' Test. iii. 4.
"' See the whole argument of his Epistle to Pompeius
(Ep. 74. Fell,) on the invalidity of heretical baptism.
He, however, appears to consider the proper efficacy
of the sacrament to have consisted in the remission of
original guilt, and the actual gift of spiritual grace to
have been rather conveyed subsequently by the episcopal

LECTURE VII. 427
the new man is formed in their souls,
and they become fit to receive in Confirma
tion the gift of the Holy Spirit, Although
the language he has used, with regard to
his own experience of these renovating
graces, is such as can be justly applied only
to an adult and perfectly developed mind,
he yet bears the fullest testimony to the
general reception of infant baptism in the
Church, He has recorded, in a synodical
Epistle", the judgment of a council of
sixty-six African Bishops, over which he
presided, with reference to this point; from
this it appears, that the only doubt then
entertained on the subject was, whether
the administration of this rite ought not,
in pursuance of the analogy with Circum
cision, to be restricted to the eighth day,
imposition of hands. He mentions, together with many
of the rites of baptism which we retain, the practice of
unction, which the discretion of our own Church has
dropped. He also admits baptism by affusion instead of
immersion, when administered to those of infirm health;
this was called clinical baptism, as it was thus admin
istered only to those obliged to recline on their couches;
but the principle of admitting this variation on the score
of health, appears fully to justify our own practice.
" Ep. 64. Fell.

428 LECTURE VII.
This question was decided in the negative,
and an earlier performance of the ceremony
was allowed whenever it might be judged
expedient. I need not repeat, that Cyprian strictly
confined the power of conferring this sacra
ment to the orthodox Church alone.
Of the Eucharist he expressly declares,
that the elements were imago sacrificii
Christi in pane et vino scilicet constituta,
and his language almost uniformly implies
a figurative and symbolical representation
and commemoration of the sacrifice of our
LordP; he also explains the use of the ma
terial signs employed, by the analogy of
the physical effects they produce in nou
rishing the body, to the spiritual efficacy of
the grace they convey to the soul,
'' See particularly Ep, 63, to Caecilius, against the
corrupt custom of substituting water for wine in the
Eucharist, In this Cyprian adduces many fanciful paral
lels from the Old Testament, which he believed to pre
figure the Eucharist ; e, g, Noah drinking wine, Mel-
chisedeck setting forth bread and wine to Abraham, etc.
Few probably will agree in considering such passages as
typifying this sacrament; but it is obvious, that such
interpretations must proceed throughout on figurative
grounds.

LECTURE VII, 429
In my concluding Lecture, I shall have
occasion to remark on the custom of the
Church in the time of Cyprian, to admit
infants to the participation of the Eucha
rist. Thus far we have contemplated the cha
racter of Cyprian, as a governor and teacher
of the Church, As a bishop, we have seen
him firmly maintaining the just authority
of his order, as the surest safeguard against
destructive schisms ; but yet ever adminis
tering its powers with the most temperate
discretion ; resolute against the violent and
factious, but indulgent to the weak. Meekly
seeking on every important occasion the
assent and advice of the clergy and people
of his own Church; while the general Chris
tian body, even in its remotest provinces,
looked up to his name as to that of its
most distinguished leader, in that day of
difficulty and danger; and anxiously sought
his counsel with the most deferential respect.
In these more extended relations, Cyprian,
while he endeavoured to combine the entire
Catholic body in the unity of harmonious co
operation, was still ever careful to guard the

430 LECTURE VII.
just independence of the various members
which constituted its combined strength.
As an instructor, we find his doctrines
in satisfactory accordance with those era-
braced as orthodox by our own Church ;
and like her he builds them up not on any
uncertain tradition of men, but on the sure
testimonies of the word of God.
In some things we may have indeed been
pained to observe, that the ritual observances
ofthe Church, as described in these Epistles,
had already begun to decline from their
first venerable simplicity ; and that some
practices, which were but too weU calculated
to open an inlet to subsequent superstitious
abuses, had already crept in. Nor can Cy
prian himself be exonerated from all share
in these; but in that balance of advantages
and disadvantages, inseparable from a con
dition of imperfection, some luxuriant offsets
of more rank vegetation may spring forth
amidst the very growth of genuine religious
zeal ; and this will more especially be likely
to occur, when the minds of men are harassed
by constant alarm, anxiety, and danger.
Cyprian also repeatedly adverts to his

LECTURE VII. 431
conduct, as having been influenced by
visions and monitions, which he regarded
as supernatural intimations vouchsafed for
his direction ; but it may well be questioned,
whether it does not but too much savour of
a tendency to scepticism absolutely to deny,
that the faithful servants of God may still,
in that age of arduous struggle, have been
distinguished by some more direct mani
festations of a protecting Providence, than
are required in ordinary and tranquil
periods. At all events, the dwelling on such
impressions cannot be aggravated into any
more serious charge, than a natural and
common infirmity of judgment.
If we turn to the works of charity, which
Cyprian so warmly inculcated in others'", we
shall find him anxious practically to exem
plify his precepts by his own conduct. We
have an interesting illustration of this in
his Epistle to the Numidian Bishops', many
' See his tract de Eleemosynis. In one or two pas
sages, the language of this tract assumes an incautious
warmth, and seems almost to imply, that he considered
such acts as meritorious, and available to the atonement
of offences.
' Ep. 62,

432 LECTURE VII.
of whose flock had been carried into a
cruel slavery by an irruption of the fierce
barbarians, who bordered on that province ;
we here find recorded not only affecting
expressions of his deep sympathy, but we
see the sincerity of his feelings proved, by
the activity with which he collected large
and liberal donations throughout his Church,
to assist in procuring their ransom.
The wide wasting pestilence, which, in the
age of Cyprian, ravaged so large a portion
of the Roman empire, called forth all his
energy ; his biographer and deacon Pontius
has left us an interesting account of his in
defatigable exertions, in attending and con
soling the sick and dying throughout the
whole of this fearful visitation ; and he ani
mated his Christian brethren to follow his
example, in performing every office of piety
and charity not only to those of the house
hold of faith, but even to their heathen
persecutors. The Treatise de Mortalitate",
' Ed. Fell, p. 5.
" Ed. Fell, p. 156. The vulgar superstition attri
buted all these calamities, the pestilences which desolated,
the famines which wasted, and the wars which ravaged.

LECTURE VII. 433
which he wrote on this occasion to diffuse
the consolations of Christianity, must surely
be read with deep interest by all who are
capable of entering into the high and holy
feelings it persuasively expresses, when it
raises the dejected spirit to the prospect of
that heavenly home, " where a large band
of those who have preceded us, our fathers,
the empire to the wrath of the neglected Gods, whose
fanes were more and more deserted from the rapidly
increasing spread of the new faith. We have an inte
resting Treatise by Cyprian, in refutation of these opinions,
addressed as an answer to one Demetrian, who had been
active in propagating them. (Ed. Fell, 185.) Tertullian
very readily retorts the charge, that if such calamities
were indeed to be regarded as providential visitations,
they might be ascribed with much more justice to the
iniquities and cruelties of the heathens themselves ; and
although the Christians were indeed equally involved in
them, he argues in a high tone of moral feeling, that the
true measure of suffering must be drawn not from ex
ternal circumstances, but from the internal emotions
which these produced ; and that in this respect no com
parison could be drawn between minds fortified by a
Christian stedfastness of faith and strength of hope, and
the strangers to this heavenly support. " Viget apud nos
spei robur, et firmitas fidei, et inter ipsas seculi labentis
ruinas erecta mens est, et immobilis virtus, et nunquam
non laeta patientia, et de Deo suo semper anima secura."
Ad Dem. Ed, Fell, p, 193,
Ff

434 LECTURE VII,
our brethren, and our children wait to greet
our arrival. Secure in their own salvation,
they are still solicitous for ours ; but oh,
how great shall be our common joy in that
blessed reunion, in an eternal life that knows
no further fear of death, in felicity alike
supreme in degree and perpetual in dura
tion !"
Cyprian was soon called upon to give
proof in his own person of the same serene
confidence of Christian hope which he had
thus laboured to inspire in others; for in
the year 256, Valerian was, by the evil in
fluence of his infamous favourite, Macrianus,
induced to lay aside the more favourable
sentiments with which, in the earlier part
of his reign, he appears to have regarded
the Christian name, and to renew the edicts
of persecution. At first, however, the
storm fell more lightly on Carthage ; and
the proconsul, Paternas, was contented, after
ineffectual menaces, to inflict no harsher
sentence on its prelate than that of banish
ment to Curubis, a maritime viUage; and
at the close of a year he was permitted to
commute this exile for retirement, appa-

LECTURE VII, 435
rently unmolested, in his own beautiful
gardens, once sacrificed by his charity, and
restored by the affection of his people.
Hence, however, on the arrival of a new
proconsul, Galerius, he was again sum
moned to his tribunal ; yet the spirit of the
saint's own mildness seems throughout to
have diffused its influence even over his
persecutors ; and they appear to have dis
charged their office with reluctance, treating
him with unusual gentleness, and admitting
the free access of his friends. When the
proconsul's announcement, that the most
sacred emperors required him to join in the
ceremonies, extorted only a firm but tran-
quU negative, he still continued to expostu
late, " Oh, take better counsel to thyself"
The answer is a remarkable instance of the
brevity and calmness of Christian resolution,
" Do that which is appointed to thee : so
just a cause needs no counsel,"
The proconsul's sentence was remarked
by the Christians as unintentionally, but
accurately, expressing the merits of the suf
ferer, and the results of his suffering. It
described Cyprian as the standard-bearer
Ff 2

436 LECTURE VIL
of his own party, and the most powerful
opponent of the gentile polytheism ; and
declared, that he should be made to serve as
an example to his people, and that by the
sanction of his blood discipline should be
reestablished! effects which, although not
in the sense intended by his persecutors, his
Church long experienced". Weeping crowds
kept watch throughout the night in the street
of his confinement ; and when the morrow
of his martyrdom arose with an unclouded
brightness, like that of his own mind, they
still followed him, and pressed around with
melancholy eagerness, that they might be
edified by the last moments of their venera
ble and beloved pastor, whose life had been
consecrated to their service.
With this notice of Cyprian, we may close
our rapid, but yet I would trust not un
faithful, survey of the principal remains of
the Ante-Nicene Fathers ; for we cannot
be called upon to include in this class the
prolix Apologetical Treatises by Amobius
and Lactantius ^. It is indeed very doubt-
" See Cyprian's Life by Pontius, Ed, Fell, p, 10.
'' Jerome in his Chronicle has assigned the year 326,

LECTURE VII, 437
ful, whether these were published before the
sera of that celebrated Council ; and assur
edly they cannot have preceded it by more
than a very few years. In any general ar
rangement they will be most properly re
ferred to the period which followed the
establishment of Christianity by Constan-
tine ; and, indeed, Lactantius commences his
principal work by congratulating that em
peror on his adoption of the true faith.
Nor would the works either of the African
or Bithynian rhetorician, be at all calculated
to throw any additional light on the general
character of ecclesiastical doctrine and dis
cipline through the three first centuries ;
the object to which I have purposely li
mited these Lectures,
The Fathers of the following century are
by many considered as the most distin
guished ornaments of the Christian Church;
and assuredly the age which boasted of
Athanasius, of Basil, of the Gregories, of
(the next after the Council,) to the publication of the
work of Arnobius adversus Gentes ; and Lactantius does
not appear to have commenced his publications before
the year 320,

438 LECTURE VII.
Chrysostom, Jerome, and of Augustine,
need not shrink from a comparison with
the divinity of succeeding periods, either
in talent, learning, spirit, or piety; but
still these Fathers flourished after the
Church had grow^n up to the maturity of
complete establishment, and its doctrines
had been authoritatively defined by the
earliest of its oecumenical Councils. We
can no longer, therefore, consult the sub
sequent writers, as illustrating the gradual
progress of the Church towards the full
stature which she had already attained ; and
although we may study their works both
with interest and edification, we still can
read them only with the same sentiments
which would equally apply to the most
eminent theological writers of modern
times. The natural limits of our subject will,
therefore, obviously suggest the period at
which we have now arrived, as the most
appropriate for drawing to a close our
examination of those earlier documents,
from the collection of which alone we can
ascertain the state and sentiments of the

LECTURE VII. 439
Church in its first ages ; and I propose
to devote the following final Lecture to the
recapitulation of such general deductions, as
shall appear to arise from the survey we
have hitherto pursued.
The present Lecture I may most fitly
close, with a few remarks on the circum
stances which ushered in and accompanied
the authoritative and public declaration of
the genuine faith of the universal Church,
to which I have adverted.
It is sufficiently manifest, that such
authoritative declarations of the sentiments
of any extensive body, can alone be pro
mulgated by general conventions, in which
its several members are fully and fairly
represented. We do not, indeed, main
tain, that such ecclesiastical Councils
are privileged with any miraculous ex
ception from possible error. It is little
probable, that such a notion can be held
as a theory, by those who have sub
scribed our twenty-first Article, or as a fact
by those who are historically acquainted
with their often conflicting decisions ; and
we must therefore in every case regard

440 LECTURE VII.
those decisions as requiring to be carefully
tested, by a faithful collation with the sole
infaUible and inspired standard, the word of
God, to be proved, as our Article expresses
it, by sure warranty of Scripture.
Before the recognition of Christianity by
the State, it was manifestly impossible that
any such general synods could be convened;
but we have now seen, from the Epistles
of Cyprian, that in his time more limited
provincial synods were the ordinary instru
ments of ecclesiastical government. And
as the Churches of different provinces pre
served a strict union, and maintained a
frequent intercourse, it could at this time
have been easily ascertained, how far the
judgment of one Church was confirmed by
that of others, from the interchange of
their synodical Epistles. And even at an
earlier age, before we possess distinct
records of these provincial synods, we
may be well assured, when we find Irenseus
and Tertullian confidently appealing to con
fessions of the faith embraced by the whole
Catholic Church, that adequate means of
affording a demonstration of that general

LECTURE VII. 441
consent could not have been deficient;
indeed we have historical information, that
such Councils were held in the Roman and
Asiatic Churches before the close of the
second century. And as the Council of
Jerusalem, convoked by the Apostles, and
held under the regular presidency of St.
James, the first Bishop of that city,
afforded a sufficient model for such assem
blies, we may well believe them to have
prevailed from the very earliest times.
The matters discussed in the provincial
Councils we have lately been considering,
related, principally, to secondary points of
discipline ; but the next controversies which
called for such an interference were of an
importance infinitely higher, and such as
affected the very vitals of the faith.
As early as the close of the preceding
century, we have seen Theodotus and Arte
mon, on the one hand, giving birth to that
fearful heresy, which pronounces Him who
was in the beginning with God, and was
God, to be a simple man. We have also
seen Praxeas falling into the opposite ex
treme of error, by maintaining, that the

442 LECTURE VII.
divine nature of Christ was not only essen-
tiaUy, but also numericaUy and personally,
identical with that of the Father.
Opinions very similar to these last were,
during the progress of this century, advo
cated by Noetus and Beryllus in Arabia,
and by Sabellius in Egypt. Synods were
convened on these errors in the respective
provinces ; and we find Origen and Hippo-
lytus engaged in the confutation of the for
mer, and Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria,
is recorded as the most distinguished oppo
nent of Sabellius. But by far the most
important discussions on these points were
those which arose about the year 270, from
the heresies advanced by the notorious Paul
of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, a Plato-
nizing theologian, who maintained Christ
to be in his own nature a mere man, al
though he allowed that a portion of the
divine Spirit had descended upon and pre
sided in him.
The character of this Prelate must be
familiar to the general reader, because his
pride, luxury, and want of principle, have
been eagerly seized by the sceptical histo-

LECTURE VII. 443
rian of the declining empire ; who, in his
usual tone, would fain insinuate, that he
was in these points the fair representative
of his Episcopal brethren, although in
truth we are acquainted with his excesses
only because they are adduced by those
very brethren as the heaviest aggravations
of his guilt. Relying on the support of
Zenobia, the royal mistress of Palmyra,
whose masculine energy for a time suc
ceeded in converting her tributary rule
into independent sovereignty, he fearlessly
broached his heretical opinions, and defied
the censures of the Church ; but when
Aurelian succeeded in wresting the sceptre
of the East from the female grasp which
for a time detained it, the impediments
which had obstructed a just ecclesiastical
jurisdiction were removed''; and a Council
' The Christians appear, from the time of Valerian
to that of Diocletian, to have enjoyed the repose of a
perfect toleration, and to have been permitted publicly to
erect churches for their worship. On this occasion, we
accordingly find the Catholics of the district fearlessly
appealing to the equity of the heathen Emperor for the
restoration of their churches, from which Paul had
unjustly excluded their clergy, in contravention of their

444 LECTURE VII.
was convened at Antioch, the patriarchal
city of this province, to pronounce a regu
lar sentence. The Prelates there assembled
acted with equal calmness and firmness ;
and before they proceeded to his condemn
ation, addressed to Paul an Epistle still
extant, in which they demanded a cate
gorical answer. In this they present the
fullest and most precise declaration of the
Catholic faith of the Church, on the import
ant doctrine of the Trinity. It is a most
important and valuable document, and forms
a very appropriate introduction to the con
fession of the Nicene Fathers, with which
it entirely agrees in spirit, although a dis
crepance of expression occurs on one point,
which in a later stage of the controversy
acquired an importance not at first per
ceived to belong to it*.
general decision, Aurelian, in order to obviate the
suspicion of local partiality, transferred (to use a legal
phrase) the hearing of the cause to the clergy of Rome,
who at once confirmed the deposition of Paul, and the
election of his successor Domnus,
' This Epistle may be consulted in the second volume
of Routh's Rel, Sacrae, The discrepance from the
Nicene confession alluded to in the text is this. It

LECTURE VII, 445
As the Syrian Bishops transmitted their
decision to their brethren of Rome, and
received from them the warmest expression
of assent, we may consider this document
as equally conveying the sentiments of the
East and West, Passing over some inter
mediate Councils, held on matters of dis
cipline of minor importance, we will at once
proceed to close our survey with that of
Nice, which has ever been regarded as
forming one of the greatest seras in the
history of the Church.
About the year 315, Arius, a young,
speculative, and ambitious catechist of the
Alexandrian Church, began to disseminate
his peculiar opinions concerning the nature
of Christ ; which, while they do not in
words deny his divine character, yet de-
appears that in a part of those acts, not now preserved,
but referred to by Athanasius, Basil, and Hilary, that
the Council of Antioch scrupled to apply the term
ofx-ooua-io; to the relation of the Son to the Father, But
in reality that they were led to this, only as refusing to
admit certain metaphysical consequences, which the
sophistry of Paul attempted to deduce from the employ
ment of this term, and not from any objection to the
sense in which it is used by the Nicene Fathers,

446 LECTURE VIL
prive him in effect of many of those attri
butes, which appear essential to our first
conceptions of the idea of Deity. For surely
we cannot conceive of the Godhead as other
than eternal, nor of the Divine nature as
capable of division ; and if, therefore, we
assert the Son to be God, while we deny
him to be coeternal with the Father, and
partaker of one and the same Divine es
sence, (the true import of the term consub-
stantiaP,) we surely must regard the Father
and the Son as two distinct spiritual natures,
the one properly divine and supreme, the
other only so termed in a lower and im
proper sense. We then, in fact, suppose
two Gods, the one superior, and the other
inferior ; and by the addition of the Holy
Spirit, the Arian hypothesis wUl present
us with a complicated system of subalter-
nate Tritheism.
It may be said, indeed, that the terms

'' Much metaphysical discussion as to the sense in
which the term ifioova-io; was used, will be found in the
Epistle written by Eusebius from the Council to the
Church of Caesarea, of which he was Bishop, as pre
served in Socrates, i. 5.

LECTURE VIL 447
employed by the Catholics are introduced,
not from Scripture, but from questions of
transcendental metaphysics, which our fa
culties can never grasp. But when we
reflect on the consequences, which, as we
have seen, obviously result from the attempt
to evade such definitions, we must surely
perceive the necessity of adopting some
precise expressions of this nature, as inse
parable from the elemental conceptions of
our minds concerning the Divine nature ;
and as our only safeguard against conclu
sions, from which these conceptions teach
us to revolt. The general history of the
progress of Arianism, fully illustrates the
downward tendencies of that creed. Its
ever-varying shades are but as the uncer
tain hues of the chamelion. In some of
its highest phases, perhaps, its difference
from the Catholic doctrine may seem little
marked; and appear to consist in distinc
tions almost inappreciable, and in intangible
points of the most subtle and abstruse me
taphysics. But if we look practically at
the natural consequences and results of
once entering upon this line, how very

448 LECTURE VIL
few are the wandering steps, that are ever
seen to find ground on which they can
repose, at such a stage ; how seldom is the
career of declension at all arrested, until
the lowest levels of Socinianism, which at
first setting out perhaps would have seemed
the very valley of despair, are fully and
finally reached !
An indiscreet and intemperate opposition
to the Sabellian hypothesis of a merely
modal Trinity, was probably the leading
cause which first seduced Arius into this
contradictory extreme of error, A similar
predisposition may have prevailed at the
time in the minds of many other theolo
gians ; and these opinions, when promul
gated by the activity and talents of Arius,
soon gained a considerable number of ad
herents. The harmony of the Alexandrian
Churches was disturbed ; and the then
Bishop, Alexander, having first tried in
vain the effect of private admonition on
Arius, brought his opinions before a regu
lar synod of the neighbouring Bishops and
Presbyters, The sentence of the majority
decreed his expulsion from the Church, but

LECTURE VII, 449
a considerable minority seceded with him.
Bishop Alexander appears to have sus
tained throughout the character of a can
did, moderate, and impartial judge °.
Arius, encouraged by the numbers of his
party, maintained a congregation which
must now be considered as schismatical.
He even succeeded in persuading some of
the Bishops of Asia Minor and Syria to
embrace his cause, and their local councils
were prevailed on to interfere in his behalf.
The sensation thus excited soon spread to
Rome ; and there attracted the anxious
attention of the imperial convert to Chris
tianity'', It were surely to trespass on the province
of the ecclesiastical historian, were I in
these Lectures further to trace the steps by
which Constantine was led, in his solicitude
to appease the agitations, which could not
in that day convulse the Church without sen
sibly disturbing the empire, to convene the
celebrated Council of Nice, I will only, as
fully illustrating his motives and temper in
" Sozomen, i. 15,
'I Euseb. Vita Constant, ii, 64.
Gg

450 LECTURE VII,
this measure, briefly quote his inaugural
address in opening that assembly, " Pity
it were," said he, " that now our enemies
are subdued, we should differ and become
divided among ourselves ; and far less ex
cuse can there be for such disputes among
men, who have for their sure guide the doc
trine of the Holy Ghost himself recorded in
written documents. For the writings of the
evangelists and prophets, and the oracles of
the ancient prophets, clearly teach us how we
ought to think of God^." On concluding
this speech, the emperor is said to have
placed on the table in the midst, the sacred
volume, to which he so emphatically ap
peals as the only authoritative standard of
faith. All the historical circumstances connected
with this Council, will not, I think, permit
us to doubt, that the Creed it adopted
delivered to posterity a fair, faithful, and
unbiassed representation, of the faith which
a great majority of the Christian Churches
recognised,as having been established among
them from the beginning.
^ Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. i, 7,

LECTURE VII. 451
I need not dwell on the great import
ance, considered as a matter of simple tes
timony, of the decision so pronounced by
the voice of the united Church. It is not
that I would insist on that voice as possess
ing in itself any independent authority ; I
speak of it only as delivering the faith, which
the Church had herself first received, only
as attesting the sense, in which she had
from the beginning been taught to interpret
the Scriptures. I claim alone, that this her
interpretation shall be received, in propor
tion as it shall be found, by the strictest
examination, in perfect accordance with the
general harmony of the faith recorded in
the Scriptures of truth, the enduring oracles
of God, so remarkably placed before her
on this occasion as her only sure guide.
But when the most conscientious and scru
pulous comparison with the only sure word
of inspiration, has convinced us that these
things are indeed so ; then it is surely most
satisfactory to every holy and humble mind,
to enter into the full spirit of the ancient
and sublime Liturgical hymn retained by
our Church; and to know, that when we
Gg2

452 LECTURE VII,
acknowledge God the Lord as conjointly the
Father everlasting, his equally everlasting
Son, and the Holy Ghost the Comforter, our
confession is exactly the same in which
from the beginning the glorious company
of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of
the prophets, the noble army of martyrs,
and collectively the holy Church throughout
all the world, hath ever acknowledged him.

LECTURE Vm,

Eph, iv. 11, 12,
And he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and
some evangelists ; and some pastors and teachers ; for
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
and for the edifying oftlie body of Christ.
In the Course of Lectures now drawing
to its close, it has been my object to present,
for the assistance of younger theological
students, such a general survey of the prin
cipal extant ecclesiastical writings of the
three first centuries, as might afford my
hearers sufficient materials to form their
own judgment, with regard to the true
value and just application of these interest
ing and important relics. And assuredly the
Lecturer would escape the most delicate
and difficult portion of his task, could he
consider himself as having discharged the

454 LECTURE VIII,
whole of his obligation, by thus fairly and
faithfully placing the case before his au
dience ; leaving the just inferences to their
own decision. But he must feel, that some
thing beyond this is still due ; and that the
candid expression of his own general views,
and of the conclusions which this survey
has impressed on his own mind, will be
naturally and justly expected, and even re
quired, from him. I shall now, therefore,
endeavour to answer that call ; but assuredly
it will be with feelings of humble diffidence,
far remote from every thing like a hard
spirit of dogmatical assertion, that I must
enter on such a task.
The sacred truths of religion are, by all
of us within these walls, regarded as infi
nitely the most valuable, and most certain
portion of our knowledge ; and the subject
of discussion now before us, relates to the
media of proof which may be the best cal
culated to establish our faith, in those things
of which we feel ourselves most assured.
To intermeddle, therefore, rashly and pre
sumptuously with topics so intimately con
nected with the very foundation of our

LECTURE VIII. 455
faith and hope, were little consonant to the
dictates of a prudent judgment, and still
less to the feelings of a pious spirit.
These media of proof, from which we
collect the assurance of religious truth, may
be many and various ; some of them may
be considered as principal and self- autho
ritative, others as dependent and subsidiary;
but all are calculated to yield a mutual and
combined support to each other, and were
doubtless designed, by that Providence
which has supplied them all, to afford by
this union a more extended and conso
lidated foundation for the fabric of our
faith. If I may so apply my text, the inspired
apostles, first in place, and supreme in
authoritative mission, and as their faithful
dependents and disciples, the subsequent
evangelists, pastors, and teachers of the
Church, were in the counsels of the Divine
wisdom appointed for this very end, that
they might cooperate together towards per
fecting the saints, and edifying the body of
Christ. If we overlook these things; if we neglect

456 LECTURE VIIL
the strength accruing from the due com
bination of all our materials ; if we suffer
ourselves to be betrayed by that partial and
exclusive bias, so apt to intrude in every
controversial discussion, and proceed to
array the harmonious though varied ele
ments of truth, as if they w^ere the irrecon
cilable principles of contradictory systems ;
let us beware lest the edifice we are rearing,
being divided against itself, should be less
able to stand ; and we should thus incur
the risk of seriously injuring, by our un
advised dissensions, that great and sacred
cause we are all equally anxious to support.
This danger cannot be avoided, should
any fancy they can only establish in its just
rank some favourite class of proofs, by the
uncandid depreciation of all beside ; if, for
instance, the parties who would wish to
inculcate a high respect for the cherished
remains of the primitive Church, should in
judiciously and irreverently appear to assert,
that without appealing to these, it were
impossible to discern the truth of God by
the light of his own revelation ; or if, on the
other hand, a just jealousy for the suprem-

LECTURE VIII. 457
acy of scriptural authority, should induce
any of us to throw aside with contempt the
strongly corroborative evidences which may
be deduced from the diligent study of
Christian antiquity; the results will be, in
either case, such as must afflict the best
friends of truth, and can afford gratification
only to our common adversaries. Much,
therefore, must we lament, if any, in advert
ing to that holy band of saints and martyrs,
our first forerunners in the faith, should,
instead of striving to apply to edification all
that is excellent and sound in their remains,
delight rather to expose with scorn the
error and infirmity inseparable from any
work of man ; and permit themselves to
argue as if the instructors of the Church, in
the ages nearest to her origin, were more
likely to lead into error than truth ; who
must not see, that from a controversy so
conducted, the sceptic can alone derive the
probable advantage.-^ Who must not fear,
that in entering himself on such a subject,
he may be betrayed into some of those un
advised modes of expression, which he per
ceives to be the evTrepia-raTos dpapria of those

458 LECTURE VIII.
who engage in similar discussions. Deep
self-diffidence, and serious prayer for the
effectual guidance of the Spirit of truth, can
alone preserve our steps from the errors
and cavils we deplore.
It may seem extraordinary, perhaps, that
while we assert religious faith to be a sure
principle, and the truths which it embraces
to be those most certainly impressed on the
conviction of our reason, it should yet re
main in any degree a subject of controversy,
what are the media of proof by which
we become assured of those truths. But
if any think that the sceptic may erect
his batteries on this as on a formidable
vantage ground, it would be enough to
remind them, that even the most demon
strative portions of human science are by
no means exempt from similar contro
versies. The mathematician well knows,
that the exact nature and foundation of
the evidence, on which the first links of his
continuous chain of argument depend, have
been the subject of similar discussions.
And if these have attracted less notice, and
been conducted with less warmth, it is

LECTURE VIII. 459
only because the truths at issue were so
infinitely less calculated to bear upon any
important points, in which our highest
interests and dearest affections were con
cerned. In taking a general survey of the evi
dence we have been considering, I would
frankly avow, that every step in the his
torical enquiry has tended more and more
to convince me, that the only rock suf
ficiently firm for faith to anchor itself
upon is the Bible itself. To all uninspired
documents, however venerable, we may
apply the sound and discriminating judg
ment of Augustine, when, in speaking of
the works of Cyprian, he observes, " We
do them no injustice in placing a wide dis
tinction between them and the Canonical
authority of the Divine Scriptures ; for it
was not without cause that this apostolical
Canon was constituted, with so salutary a
caution ; that none of .us should dare to
judge of it, but that from it we should
freely judge of all other writings, whether
of infidels or of the faithful. In every
other instance we may esteem the author's

460 LECTURE VIII.
genius, we may draw delight from his
eloquence, we may admire his charity, we
may venerate his constancy in martyrdom ;
but if he has said any thing contrary to
this standard, we can in no way receive it","
It were indeed mere tautology to main
tain, that the mind of the Apostles can be
delivered through no other channel so
securely as by their own pens and under
their own signature. But although the
Bible be the sole primary source of our
faith, and the only absolutely authorita
tive ultimate standard of appeal, most
injudicious and self-sufficient should we
" Augustinus contra Cresconium Donatistam, lib. ii.
p. 430. Ed. Benedict. Nos enim nullum Cypriano faci-
mus injuriam cum ejus quaslibet literas a Canonica
divinarum Scripturarum auctoritate distinguimus. Ne
que enim sine causa tam salubri vigilantia Canon eccle
siasticus constitutus est, ad quem certi Prophetarum et
Apostolorum libri pertineant, quos omnino judicare non
audeamus, ei secunduin quos de cceteris Uteris, vel Jide-
lium, vel infdelium libere judicemus  Nunc
vero quoniam Canonicftm non est quod recitas; ea
libertate ad quam nos vocavit Dominus, ejus viri cujus
laudem assequi non valeo, cujus multis literis mea
scripta non comparo, cujus ingenium diligo, cujus ore
delcctor, cujus caritatem miror, cujus martyrium veneror,
hoc quod aliter sapuit non accipio.

LECTURE VIII, 461
shew ourselves in undertaking the office
of interpreters of that Bible, did we
neglect or undervalue the light to be de
rived from tracing out, so far as we may
be able, the doctrinal consent of the earlier
and purer ages of the Church, We cannot,
indeed, ascribe to our inferences from such
archaeological researches, the same primary
place or plenary authority that we yield to
scriptural testimony. But as secondary
and subsidiary means in the elucidation of
scriptural truth, we would pursue their
study with all diligence, and with all
gratitude for the valuable aid so afforded.
But the first foundation must still ever
be laid in Scripture ; and I cannot regard
as other than most injudicious, the argu
ments which have been sometimes adduced
against the adequate sufficiency of scriptural
testimony ; as, for instance, w^hen Vincentius
Lirinensis'', arguing from the difficulties
suggested by the sublime sense of the divine
oracles, and the often conflicting opinions
of their expositors, draws this conclusion,
" Therefore, under so great difficulties, and
'' Comm. c. 2, •

462 LECTURE VIII.
in such a perplexity of various error, I hold
it extremely necessary to apply the sense of
the Catholic Church as a rule to a line, and
as the clue to conduct us in this labyrinth of
opinions." It must ever be the great misfortune of
all similar arguments, that there is not one
of them which does not admit of being re
torted with far greater force against the
proposed substitute, ecclesiastical tradition.
I will appeal on this head to the very advo
cate of that tradition whom I have just
quoted. In what strong terms does he
himself describe its very general corruption,
as early as the reign of Constantius.
" Then"," he tells us, " the Arian heresy
had infected the whole Christian world,
and almost all the Bishops of the Latin
Church;" and he adds, that " the only
safeguard was to prefer the ancient faith
before the recently introduced corruption,"
But how may we ask could that ancient
faith be correctly ascertained ? Had an
appeal from the Latin Bishops, thus stigma
tized by Vincentius, been made to their im-
•= Coram, c, 6,

LECTURE VIII, 463
mediate predecessors, might not the party
appealed against have justly urged, that
those to whom the reference was made, stood
in no other line of authority as the witnesses
of apostolical tradition than themselves?
In order, therefore, to arrive at any safe or
satisfactory conclusion, must not the appeal
have been prosecuted upwards and upwards,
step by step, till it could securely rest for
its ultimate decision only in the original
apostolical documents, as received by the
common consent of both parties } In stating
this, I surely exactly agree with the senti
ments of Basil, already cited in the close
of my introductory Lecture, that the sole
award of religious truth is and ever must be
vested in the Bible itself
But in saying thus much, I would carefully
guard against being supposed to undervalue
the very important 5M&5i(?mry aid to be derived
from researches into the catholic opinions of
the primitive Church, Those opinions, if truly
catholic and primitive, must, of course, be
themselves of apostoUcal origin and autho
rity. It must be evident, however, that the
Bible, and the Bible alone, possesses these

464 LECTURE VIII,
characters of primitive antiquity and catho
lic reception in the highest degreee. In
every other case we must be left to depend
on the collection of probable arguments of
far inferior weight; still, nothing hinders
but that we may be able to arrive at a
degree of probability highly satisfactory to
a fair enquirer ; and I need not add, what a
powerful corroborative evidence maybe thus
afforded, to the conviction that our minds
are really reposing in the security of truth.
For if we have first carefully and candidly
examined the scriptural testimony, and if
in applying ourselves to such an enquiry,
we have sought by earnest prayer to be
guided into the truth, in such a case there
is undoubtedly much ground for an humble
trust, that we shall be graciously preserved
in a right interpretation of the mind of that
Spirit on whom we sincerely depend. But
still, we must ever remember, how much the
treachery of our hearts may even in these
things deceive us ; that all human judgment
must be fallible, and that although grace to
assist it is promised, still we are not entitled
to hope for any miraculous suspension of its

LECTURE VIII. 465
weakness in our own individual case.
Under such feelings, what a powerful and
comforting support to the mind anxious for
truth must it not be, to find that the inter
pretation of the scriptural record, which it
has been thus led to embrace for itself, is in
strict accordance with that which it sees
the best reason to conclude has been enter
tained by the Christian Churches, as early
as we are able to trace their sentiments.
Thus, two independent lines of enquiry
being found to converge in the same result,
our confidence, that we have rightly con
ducted both those enquiries, must on every
principle of evidence be most materially
increased. Our private judgment has,
indeed, been equally the instrument by
which we have conducted either enquiry ;
for this must guide us in determining genu
ine tradition, no less than in ascertaining
the correct sense of Scripture. But when
both trains of investigation evidently coin
cide, private opinion assumes the character
of catholic consent; and both must ever
coincide in fact ; for catholic and primitive
truth, as delivered from the beginning to the
Hh

466 LECTURE VIII.
Church, can never really differ from the
revealed record of that same truth; nor
can I believe, that any apparent discrepances
will be found, by any mind which has pur
sued such enquiries with candour and faith
fulness, at all calculated to excite embarrass
ment or distrust. I would never then dis
unite, but I would strenuously urge the
combination of both processes, I regard
scriptural authority as the sole foundation
of the fabric of our faith, but the study of
Christian antiquity as one of the supporting
buttresses on which its stability most ma
terially depends.
Before we proceed to consider more
particularly the principles which appear to
result from our previous investigations, I
may premise the following general remarks.
The true value and appUcation of the
Christian Fathers, whose remains we have
been considering, must be found not in their
individual character, but in the joint testi
mony which they bear as the general wit
nesses of the common consent of the Ca
tholic Church in their day ; but still it will
be impossible for us rightly to distinguish

LECTURE VIII. 467
between their private opinions, and those
which we may conclude them to have de
rived from the Church, without taking into
account all the circumstances of their cha
racter and history as individuals. At first
sight, for instance, a consent of many
Fathers, such as we find to the dsemonolo
gical theories of Justin, to the literal inter
pretation ofthe prophecies ofthe Millenium,
and the very extended application of an al
legorical system of interpretation to other
parts of Scripture, might seem to infer the
catholic consent of the Church (of their
day at least) in these views ; but when we
observe the wide influence of the Alexan
drian and Platonizing schools in dissemi
nating such principles, we are at once able
to account from other causes for their
prevalence, as the private opinions of a single
though numerous class ; and to consider
the silence of the Fathers of the apostolical
period, and the rejection of these views by
some of the ablest ecclesiastical writers of
the fourth and fifth centuries, as negativing
the idea of their general reception at any
period by the Church. Before, therefore,
H h 2

468 LECTURE VIII.
we can from such channels satisfactorily
ascertain the really catholic sentiments of
the Church, we have much and difficult
previous investigation which will demand
our attention. We must carefully examine
the individual character and position of
each witness whose testimony we examine.
We shall also, in many cases, have another
preliminary obstacle to surmount, in fixing
what that testimony really was, by the ac
curate distinction of genuine documents
from the forgeries so unhappily common.
I do not in the least wish to exaggerate these
difficulties, or to represent them to be such
as may not by proper diligence be so far sur
mounted, as to afford a very satisfactory
degree of probability to the results obtained.
But when we find, in the arguments against
the sufficiency of Scripture, similar diffi
culties (although in that case they assuredly
only exist in a very inferior degree) brought
against the hope of success in the direct in
terpretation of holy writ; we cannot but
feel, that it is injudiciously attempted to
exalt a weaker at the expense of a stronger
evidence, and that a fearful risk is incurred

LECTURE VIII. 469
of undermining the very foundations of our
faith. In summing up the general results which
the survey I have undertaken has left im
pressed on my own mind, I shall advert, in
the first place, to the character of the se
veral classes of Fathers we have reviewed,
as it bears upon the nature and value of
their testimony ; and, in the second place,
I shall mention the leading points to which
that testimony may be applied.
In the earliest Fathers, who immediately
succeeded the Apostles, we have seen in
deed the pure and unadulterated truths of
Christianity stated in all their native sim
plicity ; but the genuine remains of these
holy and venerable men are few and brief.
And they are not only conceived in the
very spirit of the evangelical Scriptures,
but contain little more than a repetition of
the very scriptural text; they enforce the
same truths in the same words, but far less
copiously than the original, so that they
can in no respect advance any thing like a
claim to be considered as independent or
additional authorities, nor can they be con-

470 LECTURE VIII.
sidered as affording any other aid towards
doctrinal exegesis than this ; namely, that
they shew, by the nature of the points to
which they most prominently advert, their
own impressions as to what was the most
important portion of Christian doctrine.
The next order, the philosophical Fathers,
present the doctrines of Christianity under
such a garb, as they would naturally as
sume in such minds. Without any inten
tion of wilfully colouring or adding to the
truths received, it is still almost impossible,
that those truths should not receive some
peculiar tinge from the general intellectual
habits of the mind embracing them. In
minds therefore trained in the schools, and
accustomed to invest all their ideas with
philosophical explanations of their causes
and modes of existence, the new truths
they imbibed from Christianity would ne
cessarily undergo a similar mental process.
It is quite unnecessary to add, that the
explanations thus suggested are always de
void of authority ; that they are mostly
misapplied to subjects, which it entirely
transcends the limits of our present facul-

LECTURE VIIL 471
ties thus intimately to comprehend, define,
and explain ; that they tend to encumber
the simple truths of the Gospel with incon
gruous additions ; and that, in proposing to
solve difficulties, they often introduce inex
tricable perplexity. We have also seen the
tendency of this school, before the close of
the third century, to degenerate into the
most serious corruptions.
Still, as these philosophical explanations
must, in the first place, have been of neces
sity accommodated to the doctrines of Chris
tian truth as generally received, they will
undoubtedly serve as a testimony to point
out what those acknowledged doctrines
were, however in other respects they may
or may not merit our approbation. Thus,
for example, the over curious speculations
as to the mode of the intercommunion of
the Divine nature between the Father and
the Son, must assume, as generally con
ceded, the fact, that some such communion
did really exist.
Of the more dogmatical Fathers of the
Western Church, Irenseus, TertuUian, and
Cyprian, I think it may be justly said, that

472 LECTURE VIII.
the most valuable result of their writings
consists in the very complete attestation
they have given to the scriptural canon.
Their quotations are so very numerous,
that if our Bibles were lost, and we were
to reunite the fragments preserved in these
three authors, we should from these alone
be enabled to form an idea, by no means
inadequate, of the detailed structure, and
all the most important contents, of the
sacred volume itself Neither can we hesi
tate to receive these Fathers as competent
and valuable witnesses of the sense in
which the Church generally received the
texts they thus cited. The prevailing sub
ject, however, of the works of two of these
Fathers, will preclude any very extensive
application of them to the controversies
which may agitate the Church in the pre
sent day ; since the works of Irenseus are
exclusively devoted to the refutation of the
delirious imaginations of the Gnostics,
which have long ago passed away from the
Church, like as a feverish dream when one
awaketh. And the greater part of the
writings ' of Cyprian relate to points of

LECTURE VIIL 473
discipline, which have mostly ceased to
have any direct bearing on the state of any
portion of the Church, in our own times.
The works of Tertullian are, undoubtedly,
far more discursive and general ; but still
we must surely hesitate, as to what degree
of reliance we can place on the fanatical
advocate of Montanism, and the strenuous
opponent of infant baptism.
Having thus considered the characters
of the great classes of writers, whose re
mains have descended to us from the three
first centuries, we may next examine the
principal theological points to which those
remains may be applied,
I have already noticed the great import
ance of their testimony to the canon of
Scripture. It has, indeed, often been re
peated, since the observation originated
with Augustine, that we receive the Bible
only through ecclesiastical tradition. And
this is indeed true with reference to the
external and historical evidence of its au
thenticity ; but in the same sense we
might likewise say, that we receive any
classical author only through classical

474 LECTURE VIII,
tradition. I do not, however, mean to
insinuate a doubt, that in the former in
stance a far higher and holier guarantee
is afforded; higher, because the structure
of the Churches and their wide dissemina
tion was in every way calculated to confer
on their testimony a degree of security almost
infinitely superior ; holier, because arguing
from the trust expressly declared to have
been vested in the earlier Church of Israel,
we cannot hesitate, by parity of reasoning,
to conclude, that to the Christian Church in
like manner the care of the oracles of God
was providentially committed.
With regard to the interpretation of
these Scriptures, much deference, although
by no means implicit submission, must
appear justly due to the authority of the
early Churches. We cannot, indeed, be
called upon to yield our assent to that
excessive system of allegorical exposition,
so generally applied to the Scriptures of
the Old Testament, although it may boast
the sanction of a numerous band of Fathers
from the second century downward, be
cause to this we may oppose the absence of

LECTURE VIII. 475
any such tendency in the genuine writings of
the earlier apostolical Fathers. And we
have seen full proof, that it originated not in
Apostolical, but in Judaical and Alexandrian
tradition. But in the exegesis of the New
Testament we have no similar deductions
to make, to diminish the value of the assist
ance which the early ecclesiastical writers
are calculated on so many accounts to
afford, in guiding us to a correct deter
mination. This we must, indeed, feel, even
if we regard that assistance merely in its
lowest light, and look upon it as only pre
senting to us the philological and historical
elucidations of early scholiasts, whose date
was nearly contemporary with that of the
original authorities, who spake the very
language in which the original documents
of the faith were written, and who were
familiarly conversant with all those peculiar
forms of society to which they allude. But
here, again, we must surely acknowledge,
that in the importance of the testimony it
affords, this early ecclesiastical tradition
rises far above that which we have deno
minated classical tradition. For we cannot

476 LECTURE VIII.
with any probability suppose, that the light
originally diffused from the beacons kindled
by the Apostles themselves, had become so
suddenly and so generally extinguished
through all the Churches, as not to have
reflected many a ray on the pages of their
successors, to the third and fourth genera
tion. Compared with the divines of later ages,
both parties will be found respectively to
have received different peculiar advantages,
balanced by peculiar disadvantages, from him
who divideth severally unto all, the gifts of
each as he will. The ancient Fathers claim,
indeed, a nearer proximity to the original
teaching of the Gospel, but then this very
proximity cast their lot in an age when
that Gospel was only commencing to
spread abroad its general improving in
fluences over the mental aspect of the
societies submitted to its operation. We
have, indeed, been thrown on a period
more remote from the first beams of the
Day-spring from on high, but then our own
later times have consequently been disci
plined and prepared by the long establish-

LECTURE VIII, 477
ment of Christian principles ; and it were
ungrateful to Him, whose bounty bestows
all our lights, to depreciate the superior
habits of judicious criticism, which under
these fostering circumstances have grown
up among us. Still were it little consistent
with the spirit of Christian meekness to
assume, that we, from our boasted supe
riority of intelligence, derive powers for
enabling us to judge of the mind of the
Spirit necessarily and greatly transcending
theirs, who received the words of that
Spirit so much more fresh from their
primary revelation ; and who were sup
ported by his power to witness a good
confession even unto death.
From the general principle of interpreta
tion, we may turn to some of the applica
tions of that principle. And first, with
regard to the great doctrine of the Trinity,
there I conceive we shall find the general
consent of the Fathers to amount to the
most direct and positiye refutation of every
thing tending to the most distant approach
to Socinianism, but applicable only inferen-
tially and indirectly against the higher

478 LECTURE VIII,
among the proteus forms of Arianism.
The apostolical Fathers were content simply
to hold that the Word was God, that he
was the giver of grace, and the object of
prayer"*. Their more philosophical suc
cessors, when they sought to illustrate the
more obstruse points connected with the
subject by various analogies, were apt to
be betrayed into illustrations, which might
easily be pushed into very questionable
consequences. The error they were princi
pally engaged in combating was the opi
nion of Praxeas and Sabellius, who ascribed
to the Son a personal identity with the
Father, and having never seen the anta
gonist heresy of Arianism developed in all
its character and consequences, they were

¦¦ The controversy concerning the procession of the
Holy Spirit, and the insertion filioque in the Latin
editions of the Nicene Creed, which afterwards divided
the Eastern and Western Churches, was long subsequent
to the period of which we have been treating ; although
it is quite certain, that this -expression was an interpola
tion in that particular Creed, yet the testimony of the
earlier Fathers will shew, that there was no innovation in
doctrine, for they often indifferently describe him as the
Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of God.

LECTURE VIIL 479
often so unguarded in their expressions, as
to leave too much opening for perversions.
On the whole we may well doubt,
whether if of two enquirers into this high
subject, the one were supplied from a
well-digested common place book of the
Bible, with all the scriptural texts bearing
upon it ; and the other, with a similar com
pilation of all the expressions of the Ante-
Nicene Fathers, such as might be readily
taken from Bishop Bull's great work ; the
former would not, in all probability, rise
from the enquiry with a faith much more
satisfactorily acquiescent in the truth, and
an understanding much less perplexed and
embarrassed by vain and frivolous specula
tions, than the latter.
With respect to those other doctrines,
which, together with the revelation of a
Trinity of Persons in the divine Unity, may
be considered as the most peculiarly cha
racteristic of our holy faith ; namely, the
alienation of our nature from its original
purity, the atonement by the sacrifice of
Christ, justification through faith in his
blood, and renewal to holiness by his Spirit;

480 LECTURE VIII.
it wiU hardly, I conceive, be maintained by
any, that these points are not much more
clearly laid down in the sacred volume itself
than any where else. And it has accord
ingly been uniformly found, that the simple
student of the Scriptures has ever been the
most deeply impressed with these truths,
and the most zealous in maintaining them.
It is, however, satisfactory to find, that the
same views which our own reformed Church
has embraced on these most important ar
ticles, were uniformly recognised by the
early ecclesiastical writers who have passed
in review before us, from Clemens Romanus
to Cyprian. Many of the citations, already
inserted in these Lectures, sufficiently evince
this agreement; and he who wishes for
farther satisfaction, has only to consult the
more full and explicit writings of St. Augus
tine, and to trace out the references he often
gives to his predecessors in the faith.
If the presumption and rash curiosity of
man would endeavour to search out the
first causes of the appUcation to the soul
of the saving graces thus defined, and
would seek to pry into the hidden purposes

LECTURE VIII. 481
of the Divine counsels, he will only find in
the earlier and Apostolical Fathers precisely
the same expressions which occur in the
writings of the Apostles themselves, and
nothing calculated to render what is there
left unexplained in any way more definite
or precise. In both, the same description
of the elect is bestowed on true Christians ;
in both that term is applied in the synec
doche of charity to the collective bodies of
whole Churches, just as are the terms de
noting other Christian graces, such as
' holy,' and ' faithful,' and the like. But
in both a designed silence appears to have
been studiously maintained, which should
discourage the unauthorized and unavailing
attempt to scrutinize the original causes,
known only to the secret counsels of God,
why some alone attain these high privileges,
while others fall short of them. Sufficient,
indeed, has been distinctly revealed to assure
us, (and this alone concerns us to know,)
that the whole of man's salvation must be
ascribed exclusively to the free mercy of
God ; but the whole of his condemnation
to his own perverse refusal of those gracious
I i

482 LECTURE VIII.
offers of mercy. Beyond this, revelation
hath not lifted the dark veil which shrouds
the whole subject.
From the publication of the writings of
Justin in the middle of the second century,
however, down to the close of the period
we have examined, and indeed until the
controversy between Augustine and Pela
gius in the fifth century, almost all the
Fathers, with one consent, strongly insist
on the freedom of the human will, and
pointedly argue against any opinions ap
proaching to the fatal' necessity of the
Stoics. Whether we may agree with or
differ from their arguments, yet I think it
must be admitted, that they afford quite a
sufficient negative evidence to prove, that
no contrary system could have been con
sidered as authoritatively established in the
Churches of that day.
From this consideration of the doctrines
of grace, as proceeding from God to man,
we may next turn to the sacramental means,
by which it has pleased the great Head of
the Church to supply those graces to its
members.

LECTURE VlII, 483
The Eucharist is undoubtedly represented
in strong language by all the Fathers as
the Sacrament of the body and blood of
Christ, and described as an unbloody sacri
fice ; but it seems equally clear, that their
meaning in all these expressions is spiritual
and not carnal. They appear, indeed, to
have considered this Sacrament, not only
as a symbolical commemoration of the
sacrifice of our Lord, but in a still higher
character as the effectual mean, through
his grace, of applying all the benefits of his
Passion to the soul of the faithful recipient.
But here the whole efficacy is obviously
spiritual, and addressed to spirit : they never
seem to have had any idea, that any material
change of the elements employed could be
required to produce this spiritual effect*.

¦^ I would particularly refer to the justly and highly
esteemed authority of the learned Bingham on this
point, as confirming the above statement. See his
great work on Ecclesiastical Antiquities, lib, xv. cap, 5,
sect, 4, He there makes the following observations :
" I shall content myself to say, that in fact the most
eminent of the ancient Fathers have declared, as plain
as words can make it, that the change made in the ele
ments of bread and wine by consecration, is not such a
ii2

484 LECTURE VIII,
The more phUosophical among them, in
deed, would probably have had little in
clination for the false metaphysics which
could maintain, that while all the external

change as destroys their nature and substance ; but only
alters their qualities, and elevates them to a spiritual
use ; as is done in many other consecrations, where the
qualities of things are much changed and altered with
out any real change of substance," The author proceeds
to give many citations from the Fathers to this effect,
but perhaps the strongest he quotes is the following
from Theodoret, Dial, I, t, iv, p, 18, 'O ydg S^ to ipuo-ei
(TcofjiM (tItov xa) agTOV 7rpo(rayogs6cra;, xa) av TTciXiv kavTOv
a.^'rrsXov ovo//,d(ra;, ovto; rd ogwjj.sva 2TMBOAA ri) tov
(Taifi.aTo; xa\ aifi.aTo; wgoa-rjyog'ia tsti[ji.yixsv, OT THN <J>TSIN
METABAAIIN, AAAA THN XAPIN TH »I>TSE1
nPOSTEQEIKfiS, For he that called his own natural
body wheat and bread, and on another occasion termed
himself a Vine, he also honoured the visible symbols by
the appellation of his body and blood, not changing their
nature, but adding grace to that nature.
The sentiments of the Galilean Clergy, as late as the
ninth century, are clearly expressed in the Tract of
Ratramn, lately republished from Mr, Baxter's press, and
are in strict accordance with those of our own Church,
This was in answer to the then moral views promulgated
by Paschasius Radbert, which appear to have been nearly
the same with those of the Consubstantialists, Transub-
stantiation can hardly be said to have assumed its defi
nite form before the Council of Lateran in the twelfth
century.

LECTURE VIIL 485
qualities, through which alone we are cogni
zant of matter, remain, the internal matter
itself has undergone a total transformation ;
an hypothesis as uncalled for as unphilo-
sophical ; since it appears obvious, that no
parties really intend to maintain, that the
elements receive in consecration any change
as to the relations they bear to, and the
effects they produce on, the material portion
of the human frame ; but all equally refer
the change of which they speak to the
spiritual grace, which they have acquired
the power of conveying to our own spiritual
portion, the human soul. For, as it is ad
mirably expressed in the striking passage
cited in our own Homily^ on the subject
from Eusebius Emissenus, " We are satis
fied with spiritual meats; we look with
faith upon the holy body and blood of our
God ; we touch it with our mind ; we receive
it with the hand of our heart ; we take it
fully with our inward man."
The Fathers on this subject rather repeat
than define or explain the words of Scrip
ture itself; their language is not such as
' 1 Hom, on this Sacrament,

486 LECTURE VIII.
can be considered as in any manner calcu
lated to afford supplemental information, in
addition to that which may be deduced from
the original text. With regard to Baptism,
the language of the Fathers is also in strict
accordance with that of holy writ; for
both concur in designating that sacramental
font as the laver of regeneration; perhaps,
some of the discussions which have agitated
the Church on this subject might have been
abated, if not avoided, had all parties suffi
ciently distinguished between the initiatory
admission into a state of covenant, and the
development of the graces belonging to that
covenant ; for it is obvious, that the very
moment of our admission into such a cove
nanted state, must challenge to itself the
original inchoation of all the privileges an
nexed to it ; and although many baptized
into Christ may yet, alas ! remain unconverted
to him in heart and soul, still, whensoever
any of them shall put off the death of sin
and become raised to a new life of holiness,
they will necessarily refer to the covenanted
mercies of God, the grace which thus be
comes effectual to their souls ; and of the

LECTURE VIII, 487
mercies included in this relation, they un
doubtedly became heirs when first numbered
among Christians at the font.
With reference to such expressions of the
Fathers, as may appear to identify Baptism
not only with the seminal germ, but with
the full growth of grace, I would again
observe, that the Fathers of the first ages
of the Church, while it was yet as a new
colony deriving its population rather from
immigration than birth, were necessarily so
familiar with the baptism of adult converts,
that this would be naturally the prominent
idea impressed on their mind, when speak
ing of this Sacrament. A great majority of
the Fathers ofthe three first centuries them
selves stood in this position, and even in
the fourth and fifth, some of the most emi
nent writers had been converts from other
creeds' ; and others, though the children of
parents, on one side at least. Christian, had
not received Baptism until full manhood^.
In all such instances, we cannot doubt
' Hilary, Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius, Arnobius,
Lactantius. ' Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine.

488 LECTURE VIII.
effectual conversion, and the full develop
ment of Christian graces, to have accom
panied the first moment of admission into a
religion, which could only have been em
braced from deliberate conviction.
It has been often, but I think rashly,
urged, that the Church must necessarily
ground her vindication of infant baptism,
rather on ecclesiastical tradition than on
scriptural authority. I must, however,
frankly confess, that to my own mind the
scriptural argument, derived from the close
analogy of the initiatory rites of the earlier
and later covenants, has ever appeared to
be by far the most convincing and satisfac
tory ; for Circumcision, like Baptism, was
an outward and visible sign, typifying an
inward and spiritual grace, the circum
cision of the heart, of which surely a babe
of eight days was no more immediately capa
ble, than is the baptized infant of the ful
ness of the graces to which he is admitted.
The parallel appears to me complete through
out ; and the express divine authority in the
one case, fully sufficient to imply a similar
sanction to the corresponding rite. Those

LECTURE VIII. 489
who should resist this argument, I should
despair of convincing by the appeal to early
tradition''; because here, I must be aware,
'' The following testimonies are cited in Wall's work
on this subject. Justin Martyr, in more than one passage
of his dialogue, establishes a parallel between Circumci
sion and Christian Baptism ; he also mentions many as
having been made disciples to Christ, ix TraTSwv.
Irenaeus, in the passage cited Lect. V. maintains, that
Christ must have borne every age of man, because
men of every age had been regenerated unto him,
infants, youths, adults, and old men. On this it is
argued, that infants, therefore, must have been baptized ;
but a sentence of general rhetorical declamation is no
very secure ground of proof. We have also other pas
sages, in which he strongly maintains the doctrine of
original sin as infecting the whole human race, (1. v.
c. 19, 21.) and describes all as being naturally debtors,
transgressors, and^enemies to God, (1. v, c, 16.) and as
being under the wound inflicted by the old serpent;
(1. V. c. 19.) these are adduced as inferring, that this
universal stain being common to infants, required in
them the same sacramental remedy as in adults. We
have many strong declarations from Origen. " Requi-
ritur quid causae sit, cum baptisma ecclesiae pro remis-
sione peccatorum datur, secundum ecclesice observantiam
etiam parvulis baptisma dari consuevit. Hom. viii. in 1, v,
c. 10. Parvuli baptizantur in remissionem peccatorum.
Hom. in Luc. xiv. And in another place, Comm, in Ep,
ad Rom, v, he adds, concerning this practice, pro hoc
et ecclesia ab Apostolis traditionem suscepit.
We have before cited the authority of Cyprian's coun-

490 LECTURE VIIL
they would object to the passages I might
cite from Justin and Irenseus, as affording
indirect, remote, and not very conclusive
inferences, rather than any positive testi
mony in favour of poedo -baptism, and con
tend, that the earliest direct allusion to the
practice was presented by the hostile argu
ment of Tertullian, And although I could
perfectly to my own satisfaction rely on the
earlier inferences, as supported by the posi
tive and repeated declarations of Origen,
within ten years after the objections of
Tertullian, that such was the habitual cus
tom of the Church, and might, in support
of this, appeal to the Councils held under
Cyprian less than half a century later ; I
must still feel the argument from tradition
by no means more exempt from the possi-
cil ; and although, as we have seen, the baptism of the
Fathers of the fourth century seems to have been so
generally postponed in their own cases, yet Basil repre
hends such procrastination. Gregory Nazianzen urges
parents to give to their infants the seal, and the Trinity as
the best i^vXaxTrjgiov : and Ambrose also mentions infant
baptism ; and some consider it a sin to withhold it. In
the controversy also of Augustine and Pelagius, both
parties speak of infant baptism as the received and esta
blished custom of the Church.

LECTURE VIIL 491
bility of plausible cavil, than that from
Scripture, And when I referred to the authority of
Cyprian, I might be reminded, that his
sanction would apply equally to the admin
istration of the other sacrament, of the
Eucharist, no less than that of Baptism, to
infants ; and that this also prevailed from
the third to the twelfth centuries, between
which and the fifteenth it was generally
abolished in the Western Churches. Now
I must confess, I should find myself em
barrassed in vindicating the consistency
of these Churches, in retaining infant
Baptism, while they rejected the infant
Eucharist, unless I felt the decision in
both instances to be supported by equally
strong grounds of scriptural argument.
And if we refer to Bingham', the great
' The practice of infant communion is repeatedly
alluded to in Cyprian's Treatise de Lapsis. Some of
the passages are mingled with particulars, over which, in
reverence to his memory, we would willingly throw the.
veil of silence. It was in the following century warmly
approved by St. Augustine and his contemporary. Pope
Innocent, who argued from the universal application of
the text, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and

492 LECTURE VIII.
authority on such points, we shall find him
to rest his defence on such grounds alone.
drink his blood, ye have no life in you," (John vi, 53,)
The custom, however, appears to have fallen into disuse
in the Galilean Church during the twelfth century, after
having prevailed about 800 years; and was formally
abolished under Odo, Archbishop of Paris, 1175, The
Council of Trent also condemned the practice, Sess. 21.
c. 4. yet allowed that the earlier Fathers might be
justified in enforcing it, as having ' probabilem cau-
sam pro illius temporis ratione.' Bingham's arguments
against it (1. xv.) are the following : 1 , Because it has no
firm foundation in the word of God. 2. Because infants
which are baptized, are in effect thereby partakers of the
body and blood of Christ. 3. Because infants cannot do
this in remembrance of Christ, which he required from
all who should partake of this Sacrament. 4. Because
there is the same analogy and agreement between the
Paschal Lamb and the Lord's Supper, as there is
between Circumcision and Baptism. And an infant
Israelite had a right to enter the covenant by circum
cision as the seal of it, but he was not to partake the
passover till he could ask his parents the meaning of the
mystery. (Exod. xii. 26.)
Waterland has left a discussion on this subject, which
can hardly be considered as equal to his general reputa
tion. In his work on the doctrine of the Eucharist, he
had acknowledged that his mind was altogether in a
, dubious state what side he should embrace on every
point connected with this question. But he subsequently
published a separate examination, in which he endeavours
to shew, that the earlier practice of the Church was re
stricted to the admission of children of seven or ten

LECTURE VIII, 493
Another custom will probably suggest
itself to us, which may be traced back to
the Ante-Nicene period of the Church, and
yet has been strongly discountenanced,
although not, perhaps, absolutely prohi
bited by our own Church, I mean, prayer
for the dead, which is well known to have
been fully sanctioned in the writings of

years to this Sacrament, and that the alleged necessity
that infants also should thus eat the body of Christ, as
an indispensable condition of salvation, was a corruption
not introduced earlier than the eighth or ninth century.
I must confess myself to be little satisfied, that this
explanation conveys the real views of the original writers.
It is perfectly evident, that the case mentioned by
Cyprian was that of an infant in the strictest sense of
that expression. With regard to the admission of chil
dren of any age to the Eucharist, Waterland concludes,
that " the ancients expressed their reverence for the
Sacrament in a way suitable to their circumstances ; but
the moderns may express no less reverence for the same
Sacraments in a way somewhat different, as circum
stances are likewise different. They had their pru
dential reasons for their practice in their times, and we
also have the like prudential reasons for a different
practice in ours." These Italics are copied from the
original; and surely we may well doubt how far it be
safe to admit the principles of an Utilitarian philosophy,
into the determination of such a question as the requisite
qualifications for the participation of a Sacrament.

494 LECTURE VIII.
TertuUian, and less distinctly by Cyprian •'.
The Anglican Church, however, has care
fully obliterated every trace of it from her
ritual, and never alludes to it otherwise
than in terms of- marked disapprobation ;
because she could discover no ground of
scriptural authority on which it might rest,
and had learnt from experience how natu
rally it introduced, and how inseparably
it became connected with, the delusive
figment of purgatory, so profitable for
priestcraft, and so unprofitable for Christian
morality.
" TertuUian de Monog. c. 10. describes the Christian
widow as offering oblations, for the peace of her hus
band's soul and his participation in the first resurrection,
" pro anima ejus erat, et refrigarium interim adpostulat
ei, et in prima resurrectione consortium; et offert an
nuls diebus dormitionis ejus." And in his exhortation to
chastity, addresses the Christian widower as exhibiting to
his deceased wife the same proof of posthumous affection.
Cyprian in many at least of the passages cited from him
on this subject, may rather be regarded as speaking of
offering commemorative oblations of praise and thanks
giving for the martyrs, than of direct prayer for the
dead; and this unobjectionable mode, of remembering
those who have departed this life in God's faith and fear,
our own Church has retained in the affecting conclusion
of the prayer of oblation, in her Communion service.

LECTURE VIII. 495
In reference to the rites of the Church,
however, there is one case w^hich has often
been pointed out, and with much justice,
as a good example of the proper applica
tion of traditional evidence, and of its real
value, when thus judiciously appealed to.
I refer to the observance of the Lord's day.
In this instance, we see the constant prac
tice of the universal Church, concurring
with and confirming the incidental notices
in the Acts of the Apostles, which repeat
edly describe the Christians as being as
sembled together on the first day of the
week. Yet, in the Nevy Testament itself,
we find no such direct injunction to main
tain the practice as a permanent institution,
as would have convinced us that it was so
intended, had not the uniformly continued
practice of the Christian Church from the
beginning, supplied the wanting link of the
argument ; had we not seen, from the tes
timony of Justin, that in the age next suc
ceeding that of the Apostles, the observ
ance was thus established in every Church
founded by them. But it must be unne
cessary to remark, that the traditional pre-

496 LECTURE VIII.
scription of a ceremony, and inculcation of
a doctrine, are quite different things ; a'
common and frequent ceremony has, in its
nature and circumstances, an obvious tend
ency to preserve itself unaltered ; whereas
doctrines, unless distinctly recorded in writ
ten testimonies, have an equally obvious
tendency to become corrupt.
From the rites of the Church, we may
proceed to her discipline and government ;
and on these points also, the voice of early
tradition will, on the principles we have
just considered, assert a well-founded claim
to our attention and respect. For it must
be obvious, that, with reference to such
practical circumstances, the general usages
which we observe prevalent in the Church,
from the earliest documents of its history,
must form the best, if not the only com
mentary, on the incidental aUusions to those
usages contained in the apostolical writings.
In the New Testament itself, indeed, we
find the distinct orders of Presbyters or
Deacons, set apart for their ministry by
the imposition of hands ; and we find the
title 'ETria-Koiros employed, but yet without

LECTURE VIII. 497
distinct evidence of its yet having acquired
that restricted sense, which we find at
tached to it in the next age, as denoting
the ecclesiastical head of districts, compris
ing many presbyters. All the proper func
tions, however, ofthe episcopal office, taken
in this acceptation, we find expressly com
mitted to Timothy and Titus, in the Epis
tles addressed to them. Hence we might
naturally have inferred, that when these in
dividuals were withdrawn, the same wants
ofthe Church, which required their appoint
ment, would have rendered it equally de
sirable that others should be substituted in
their place. Still it might have been ob
jected, that the premises were scarcely
sufficiently positive and extensive, com
pletely to establish our conclusion. But
here the undeviating practice of the Catho
lic Church' takes up the cause, and assures
' The testimonies of Ignatius and Irenaeus, as stated
in the second and third Lectures of this Course, must
carry the fullest conviction on this point. The earliest
question, indeed, moved in the Church concerning the
official superiority of the Episcopate, appears to have
been that agitated by the disappointed ambition of
Aerius, fifty years later than the period to which these
Kk

498 LECTURE VIIL
us, with a weight of evidence which no rea
sonable mind can resist, that the episcopal

Lectures have been restricted ; viz. in the middle of the
fourth century. We are acquainted with his opinions
from their refutation by his contemporary Epiphanius,
who, on this account, includes him in his catalogue of
heretics. (Adv. Haeres. Ixxv. p. 906.) It must be
acknowledged, however, that one of the most accredited
Fathers of the same fourth century, Jerome, speaks on
this subject in a manner, not indeed calculated to
shake our confidence in the apostolical antiquity of the
institution, but yet to moderate the more excessive
views, which have been advanced by some of its less
judicious advocates. This Father, who, in his fondness
for monastic seclusion, himself never accepted any higher
office than that of Presbyter, vindicates the high claims
of that order, as having been, in original institution, on
the same level with Episcopacy, He thus writes in his
Commentary on Tit. i. 5, xa) xaTaa-TYjO-ri; xaTa mXiv
Ylgea-^vTsgov;. (See ed, Paris, t, vi, p, 198.) Idem est
ergo Presbyter qui et Episcopus, Et antequam diaboli
instinctu studia in religione fierent et diceretur in populis,
« Ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego autem Cephse,' com
muni Presbyterorum concilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur ;
postea vero , , , in toto orbe decretum est ut unus de
Presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris, ad quem
omnis Ecclesiae cura pertineret ut schismatum semina
toUerentur, He proceeds, in order to prove the original
identity of order, to cite all the texts of the New Testa
ment, in which the titles 'ETrio-xoVof andngso-jSyTEgos appear
to be indifferently applied.
He has also given the same statement and citation in

LECTURE VIIL 499
superintendence of her congregations was,
throughout the early ages of the faith, ever
an Epistle to Euagrius, (ed. Par. t. ii. p. 623,) against
certain Deacons who wished to place their own order on
the same level with the Presbytery, He there adds,
that in the Church of Alexandria, from its foundation
by St, Mark till the prelacy of Dionysius, about the middle
of the third century, the Presbyters had always insti
tuted to the Episcopal office by election from their own
number. He, however, fully concedes to the Episcopal
office its preeminence of authority, and its peculiar
functions of Ordination and Confirmation ; and although
he certainly ascribes its origin rather to the consuetude
Ecclesiae than any immediate Dominica dispensatio,
still he never denies, that its original institution, from
whatever motive, proceeded from the Apostles themselves.
This subject will be found fully and candidly discussed
in that equally learned and liberal work, the Irenicon of
Bishop Stillingfleet.
On the whole we may conclude, in the words of one
of the most excellent Primates of our Church, so ex
pressive at once of confidence in the justice of our own
cause, yet of charitable allowance to others, " Optarem
equidem regimen Episcopale bene temperatum, et ab
omni injusta dominatione sejunctum, quale apud nos
obtinet, et, siquid ego in his rebus sapiam, ab ipso Aposto
lorum eevo in Ecclesia receptum fuerit, et ab iis omnibus
[Ecclesiis reformatis, scilicet] fuisset retentum 
Interim absit ut ego tam ferrei pectoris sim, ut ob ejus-
modi defectum (sic mihi absque omni invidia appellare
liceat) aliquas eorum a communione nostra abscindendas
credam ; aut cum quibusdam furiosis apud nos Scrip-
Kk 2

500 LECTURE VIIL
regarded as an institution universal and
permanent. We may notice also, with reference to
this subject, a striking instance of the light
which the history of the Church is occa
sionally calculated to throw on points in
the scriptural narrative, there briefly ad
verted to, rather than distinctly explained.
Thus in the account given in the Acts, of
the proceedings of the great Council of the
Apostles at Jerusalem"", we might be per
plexed at observing the presidency conceded
to St. James above the other members of
that body, many of whom might have
appeared to us more generally distin
guished ; but the seeming difficulty will
at once vanish, when we find it established,
by the fullest historical testimony, that he
bore the authority of Bishop in that city,
and therefore must have claimed officially the
station of president within his own diocese.

toribus, eas nulla vera ac valida sacramenta habere,
adeoque vix Christianos esse pronuntiem." Letter from
Archbishop Wake to Le Clerc, Mosheim's Eccl. Hist-
Append. III. No. xix.
" Acts XV.

LECTURE VIIL 501
Still we cannot fail to recognize many
minor differences between the earlier dis
cipline of the Church and that which still
remains ; and this is particularly striking
in the more direct interference during the
primitive ages, of the lay members of the
congregation, in the elections of Bishops
and Presbyters. We have already noticed
allusions to this effect in the writings of
Clemens Romanus and Cyprian ; but we
would refer any one who may wish to see
a complete collection of the evidence bear
ing on this subject, to that invaluable store
house of ecclesiastical antiquity ", the Ori-
genes of Bingham.
" Bingham, 1. iv. c. 11. sect. 2, 3, 10. Bingham here
produces many authorities to shew, that the power of the
people on such occasions was not barely testimonial, but
judicial and elective ; that in the appointment of Bishops
they exercised exactly the same consent, suffrage, veto,
election, and choice, as the inferior Clergy ; and the
same privilege was likewise on some occasions conceded
to them in the designation of Presbyters.
The testimony of Cyprian is very important on
these points. In the sixty-seventh Epistle, p. 172, he
strongly insists, that the whole analogy of the appoint
ment of the priesthood under the older covenant, and
every order of ministers under the new, demonstrated

502 LECTURE VIII,
Thus has the survey, proposed as the
subject of these Lectures, been conducted,
however imperfectly, to its destined close.
A brief summary of the general impression
derived from it may occupy our concluding
observations. The writings we have examined assert
their principal claim to our regard and
study, not merely from the deference due
to the individual characters of their authors ;
although high deference to the piety of
saints, and constancy of martyrs, can never
surely deserve to be stigmatized as the
symptom of a sickly aud superstitious en
thusiasm; but we do not desire to look
on these writings, as we have already ob
served, so much in their individual as in
their collective capacity ; in order that we
may endeavour to elicit from the careful
collation of their concurrent testimony, the
ordinationes sacerdotales non nisi sub populi assistentis
conscientia fieri oportere ; ordinatio justa et legitima est,
quae omnium suffragio et judicio fuerit examinata; and
he himself apologises (Ep. 33,) for having been under
the pressure of the times of persecution obliged to
ordain a very meritorious individual by his own single
authority, without having had an opportunity thus to
consult the Church.

LECTURE VIII. 503
general sentiments of the primitive Church.
In proportion as we may hope that we
have succeeded in this research, and have
recovered under its authentic form the doc
trinal system attested by this early and
catholic sanction, we shall be entitled to
demand for the results obtained, the fullest
and most attentive examination.
For the doctrinal system presented to us
under the authority of this early testimony,
must of necessity carry on its front the very
strongest prima facie presumption, that it
does indeed form a genuine portion of the
faith once delivered to the saints. Thus
far, early tradition may be considered to
perform a very important office, as suggesting
forms of doctrine to our attention ; but it
is one thing to suggest, and quite another
to decide as judge, on the validity of those
suggestions. And this higher office we
regard as competent to the inspired Scrip
tures alone. The Fathers propose to us
certain doctrines ; we should listen with
humility, but yet not so as to abandon our
bounden duty of examining for ourselves the
Scriptures, whether these things be so or no.

504 LECTURE VIIL
Early ecclesiastical tradition may illus
trate and explain particular passages in the
Bible, but the Bible itself must ever remain
the original, supreme, and only authorita
tive teacher. No subsequent tradition can
be the test of Scripture, for that very Scrip
ture must itself be the test of every subse
quent tradition ; since in itself it forms the
only absolutely indisputable record of apo
stolical tradition, and must ever assert its
own priority both in time and rank, as the
great standard ; from agreement with which
alone can any thing else be esteemed as
truly primitive and catholic. All our de
pendence on the chain of tradition must fail,
unless we have full reason to rely on the
continuity of its connections, and the se
curity of its first links ; and how can this
be determined, unless we can satisfactorily
ascertain, that those first links are firmly
attached to the sure support, which the
Apostles themselves have rivetted, in the
very key-stones of the Church they were
rearing to the Lord, as the compacting
bonds of its imperishable structure.
Keeping this connection and dependence

LECTURE VIII, 505
constantly in our view, we shall be guided
to the best use of every other record of
Christian antiquity which has descended to
us, and be preserved from the danger of
abuse. Comparison with the spirit of the
Bible will at once shew how far we may
safely depend on them, and how far human
infirmity may, even at an early period, have
introduced any seeds of error and corruption.
With these feelings then, with respectful
reverence, but not with indiscriminate sub
mission, would we listen to such autho
rities ; we would give our best attention to
the doctrines they propound, but entirely
refer the decision of every point to an higher
and more competent tribunal ; we would
gratefully accept their very valuable subsi
diary aid in illustrating, explaining, and
corroborating the rule of our faith, but
never for a moment so mistake their nature
and station, as to place them on the same
level with that rule, or concede to them any
independent or coordinate jurisdiction.
But it must be ever most satisfactory to
sum up our concluding observations in the
very words of our own venerated Church ;

506 LECTURE VIIL
and that I may leave her judgment and her
practice finally impressed on your minds, I
wiU now cite from her Homilies the passage
which most expressly illustrates that judg
ment and practice °.
" Although our Saviour Christ taketh
not and needeth not any testimony of men ;
and that which is once confirmed by the
certainty of his eternal truth, hath no more
need of the confirmation of man's doctrine
and writings, than the bright sun at noon
tide hath need of the light of a little candle,
to put away darkness and to increase his
light ; yet, for your further contentation, it
shall be declared, that this truth taken out
of the holy Scriptures was believed and
taught of the old holy Fathers, and most
ancient learned Doctors, and received in the
old primitive Church, which was most un-
corrupt and pure." And such a satisfaction
it must surely afford to every well-consti
tuted mind, to find its own best judgment
of scriptural doctrine corroborated and con
firmed by the concurrent interpretations of
that doctrine by those who were among its
° Part II, Hom. against Idolatry.

LECTURE VIII, 507
first promulgators, and who subscribed
their testimony to its truth with their life's
blood. But I would not thus conclude a theolo
gical discussion, without remembering, that
theology is the science of religion ; a science
which, to be pursued properly and profitably,
must ever be entered upon in a truly religious
spirit; and so as to keep our hearts as well
as our minds, not only in the knowledge but
in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ill
shall I have discharged my duty to the
Church, if in addressing on such subjects
so large and so influential a body of her
rising sons as are collected within these
walls, I shall have led any to consider these
things as affording the materials of hard
and unfeeling dogmatism, or captious criti
cism. While with our Church we justly
maintain the supreme and sole jurisdiction
of Scripture in matters of faith, let us never
imagine, that we shew a sincere regard for
that Scripture, if we content ourselves with
dryly and unconcernedly upholding its au
thority as a mere topic of controversial argu
ment; but let us receive it into the inmost

508 LECTURE VIII.
recesses of an honest heart. Let us shew
that we indeed prize the glorious light of
the divine Gospel, not by mere profession,
but by the devotion of our best intellectual
powers to its contemplation, and of all our
moral faculties to its effectual reception.
And in the same spirit let us survey the
venerable remains of those who were the
Fathers of our faith, the eldest among
many brethren in the Church of our Lord.
Let us look back with respectful gratitude
on these our first forerunners in the
Christian course, who having received
when newly kindled the lamp of evangelical
light, have through a long succession
handed it down to ourselves p. Let us
not fancy that we evince a due respect for
such holy men, and the works they have
bequeathed to the Church, merely by
magnifying their importance as objects
of literary and antiquarian research ; but
let us rather endeavour so to pursue their
study, that we may rise from it having
derived the full benefit of their spirit
'' KaSdrrsg Xafi^Trala TtagalilovTa; dxXoi; If aXXcov. Plato
de Legg. VI.

LECTURE VIII. 509
and example, desirous to become fol
lowers of them even as they were fol
lowers of the Lord ; animated by the same
devotion, supported by the same faith,
heirs together with them of the same
hope. And seeing that we also are en
compassed with so great a cloud of wit
nesses, let us be encouraged to pursue with
greater patience the race set before us,
whether of moral or intellectual exertion,
whether of religious endurance or religious
investigation. Yet let us not rest on these
human witnesses alone, but let us rather
be directed by their testimony, to fix a
stronger and steadier regard on their Lord
and our Lord. Ever, as in all things, so
especially in those studies which have his
truth for their object, looking unto Jesus,
the Author and Finisher of our faith.

THE END.

KAXTER, PKINTEE, OXPORU.

ERRATA.
Page 117. line penult. /or peto read puto
 169. — 6, notej/or semoni sancto reac? semoni sanco
— • 397. — 5, from bottom, far Valerius read Valerian
— — 434. — 6, from bottom, /(W Paternaa read Paternus

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A GRAMMAR OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE.
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STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH.

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GODLY MEDITATIONS
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MEMORIALS OF OXFORD,
BY JAMES INGRAM, D.D.
PRESIDENT OF TRINITY COLLEGE.
The ENGRAVINGS by J. LE KEUX, from ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
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" We have, placed at the head of this article, one of the most
beautiful and interesting illustrations which has yet been published
of the external appearance of the University of Oxford. It contains
some valuable historical sketches by the President of Trinity College,
and will supply a very useful and pleasing introduction to that more
serious consideration, which in the present state of the country that
University well deserves." Quarterly Review, January 1838.
" Most persons who fall in with this work would but consider it
as a collection of beautiful prints in illustration of one of the most
beautiful cities in Europe. In consequence they will be disposed to
place it on their drawing-room table; a position which seems to
confirm the impression which the first view of it creates. And it
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letter-press, will find a kind of matter there of a very different com
plexion from the running accompaniment, in large type and small
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volume, without hurting its character. Dr. Ingram, however, the
learned writer of the letter-press, is evidently not a man to figure as
a mere chevalier aux dames, or to serve as an elegant appendage to
the fashion of the hour. Judging by the work before us, we should
say he was as little like a writer in an annual or album as any
author we ever read. He is apparently one of the race of men now
almost extinct, who used to live all their days both in and for th«
University." British Critic, July 1838.

' ii',,,"1

fiii.