*

contrary opinion, conducted his opposition with injudicious violence; he excommunicated ail who differed from him, and discovered, even thus early, the germs of papal arrogance. The mention of this controversy is important, at least on one account, as it gives us an additional proof of the very serious view in which Heresy was regarded by the Churchmien of those days, and the scrupulousness of their care to preserve the purity of the true faith.

We may conclude with some notice of the sect of the Novatians, who were stigmatized at the time, both as schismatics and heretics ; † Novatians. but who may perhaps be more properly considered as the earliest body of ecclesiastical reformers. They arose at Rome about the year 250 A. D.; and subsisted until the fifth century throughout every part of Christendom. Novatian, a Presbyter of Rome,§ was a man of great talents and learning, and of character so austere, that he was unwilling, under any circumstances of contrition, to readmit those who had been once separated from the communion of the Church. And this severity he would have extended not only to those who had fallen by deliberate transgression, but even to such as had made a forced compromise of their faith under the terrors of persecution. He considered the Christian Church as a society, where virtue and innocence reigned universally, and refused any longer to acknowledge, as members of it, those who had once degenerated into unrighteousness. This endeavour to revive the spotless moral purity of the primitive faith was found inconsistent with the corruptions even of that early age: it was regarded with suspicion by the leading prelates,¶ as a vain and visionary scheme; and those rigid principles, which had characterized and sanctified the Church in the first century, were abandoned to the profession of schismatic sectaries in the third.

From a review of what has been written on this subject, some truths may be derived of considerable historical importance; the following are among them (1.) In the midst of perpetual dissent and occasional controversy, a steady and distinguishable line, both in doctrine and practice, was maintained by the early Church, and its efforts against those, whom it called Heretics, were zealous and persevering, and for the most part consistent. Its contests were fought with the sword of the Spirit,' with the arms of reason and eloquence; and as they were always unattended by personal oppression, so were they most effectually successful-successful, not in establishing a nominal unity, nor silencing the expression of private opinion, but in maintaining the purity of the faith, in preserving the at

*This controversy resembles, in two points, that before mentioned, respecting the celebration of Easter. The Roman was right perhaps in the principle, but overbearing and insolent in the manner.

Cornel. ap. Cypr. Ep. 50 (or 48); Cyprian, Ep. 54. As to the latter charge, even their adversaries do not advance any point of doctrine on which they deviated from the Church. See Note 4, or p. 33. supr.

(Mosh. Gen. Hist. Cent. iii. end)—Especially, as it would seem, in Phrygia-where their rigid practices brought them into danger of being confounded with the Montanists. Lardner, Cred. Gosp. Hist. p. ii. ch. 47.

Euseb. H. E. L. vi. c. 43.-Jerom. de Vir. Illust. c. 70. He is believed to have been a convert from some sect of philosophy, probably the Stoic. Lardner perseveres in calling him Novatus; not, however, intending to confound him with an unworthy associate, presbyter of Carthage, also named Novatus-and severely censured by Cyprian.-See Tillem. Mem. H. Eccles. vol. iii. p. 433, 435, ad. ann. 251.

His followers called themselves Cathari-Puritans.

It should be mentioned that Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, the principal opponent of Novatian's opinions, had motives for personal enmity against that Ecclesiastic.

tachment of the great majority of the believers, and in consigning, either to immediate disrepute, or early neglect, all the unscriptural doctrines which were successively arrayed against it. (2.) The greater part of the early heresies was derived from the impure mixture of profane philosophy with the simple revelation of the Gospel. Hence proceeded those vain and subtile disputations respecting things incomprehensible, which would indeed have been less pernicious, had they only exercised the ingenuity of men, without engaging their passions; their bitter fruits were not fully gathered until a later age: but they served, even in their origin, to perplex the faith, and disturb the harmony of many devout Christians. (3.) No public dispute had hitherto risen respecting the manner of salvationfor the conclusions deducible from the Gnostic hallucinations are not worthy of serious consideration; the great questions respecting predestination and grace had not yet become matter of controversy, nor had any of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity been assailed, excepting the Trinity and the Incarnation. (4.) There was yet no dissent on the subject of Church Government. It was universally and undisputedly Episcopal; even the reformer Novatian, after his expulsion from the Church, assumed the direction of his own rigid sect under the title of Bishop; and if any dissatisfaction had existed as to the established method of directing the Church, it would certainly have displayed itself on the occasion of a schism, which entirely respected matters of practice and discipline.

As we have made frequent mention of the principal writers, commonly called Fathers, of the ancient Church, we shall subjoin to

this chapter a very short account of some of the earliest Early Fathers. among them. We do not profess any blind venera

tion for their names, or submission to their opinions; but we are very far removed from the contempt of either. For if we are to bend to any human authority (as in such matters some of us must always do, and all of us sometimes), those are assuredly the safest objects of our reverence, who stood nearest to the source of revelation, and received the cup of knowledge from the very hands of the Apostles. They were erring and feeble mortals, like ourselves; much inferior in intellectual discipline, and vitiated by early prejudices necessarily proceeding from the oblique principles and perverse systems of their day. Nevertheless they were earnest and ardent Christians; in respect at least to their religion they had access to infallible instructors, and the lessons which they have transmitted to us, howsoever imperfectly transmitted, should be received with attention and respect.

The Apostolical Fathers are those who were contemporary with the Apostles; some of whom are known, and all of whom may be reasonably believed, to have shared their conversation, and profited by their instruction. These are St. Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius and Polycarp. They were all (excepting probably Clement) natives of the east, and all originally wrote in the Greek language. The works which have reached us under their names are not numerous; and though the genuineness of some of them has been justly suspected, there is no reason to doubt the very high antiquity of all. They were composed with various objects, according to the dispositions or circumstances of their writers. The design of the epistle attributed to St. Barnabas was to abate the respect for the peculiar rites and institutions of the Jewish laws, and to shew that they were not binding upon Christians. The 'Shepherd of Hermas' consists of three books, in the first of which are four visions, in the second twelve commands, in the third ten similitudes. The first and

third parts are of course very fanciful, yet were they not perhaps unsuited to the genius of the countries and the age to which they were addressed; the second contains some excellent moral precepts; and all abound with paraphrastical allusions to the books of the New Testament. The epistles of Ignatius have sufered many obvious interpolations and corruptions; but learned and candid critics, who have distinguished and rejected these, still leave us much behind of undisputed origin. The author was Bishop of Antioch; he suffered martyrdom about the year 107 A. D., and the opinion that he invited, rather than shunned this fate, seems to be consistent with the ardour of his character. The genuineness of Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians has scarcely been questioned; it was written (soon after the death of Ignatius) in the spirit of sincere piety; it abounds with scriptural expressions and frequent quotations of the recorded words of Christ. Polycarp was Bishop of Smyrna on the appointment (as is asserted without any improbability) of the Apostle St. John; and he suffered martyrdom, as we have already described, in the reign of Marcus Antoninus. But the most important record of the apostolical age remaining to us is the Epistle of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth,' written about the year 96 A. D. by Clement Bishop of Rome. Its object was to allay some internal dissensions of the Corinthians, and it contains many useful and noble truths, flowing from a vigorous mind and purely Christian spirit, in language never feeble, and occasionally eloquent.

·

Those pious persons wrote before any association had taken place between philosophy and religion, and were better instructed in the knowledge of Scripture than in the lessons of the Schools; and their method of reasoning, no less than their style, attests the want of profane education; still it possesses a persuasive simplicity well suited both to the character of the writers, and the integrity of their faith. The fundamental doctrines of Christianity are clearly and scripturally incul cated by them; and these are every where so interwoven with the highest precepts of morality, as to prove to us that the belief of those men was inseparable from their practice, and that it had not ever occurred to them to draw any verbal distinction between these; they delivered the truths which had been entrusted to them, and associated their moral and doctrinal instructions as inseparable parts of the same scheme. This perhaps is the most peculiar feature in their compositions, and that in which they most resemble the inspired writings. Another is the utter neglect of formal arrangement in the display of their arguments, or the delivery of their rules of conduct; a neglect which unquestionably exposed them to the contempt of the philosopher, who sought in vain for a system in their lore, but which well accorded with the plain and unpretending character of truth. But that merit by which they have conferred the most lasting advantage on Christianity, (at least the three last of them,) and which will make them very valuable monuments, in every age, is their frequent reference to almost all the books of the New Testament, such as we now possess them. Thus they furnish us with decisive evidence of the genuineness of those books; and their testimony is liable to no suspicion, because it was not given with any such view.

The principal Greek writers, who immediately succeeded the apostolical Fathers, were Justin Martyr and Irenæus. Justin Martyr was a learned Samaritan, who, after having successively attached himself to the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, and the Platonists, discovered the insuffi

*Lardner. Cred. of Gosp. Hist. p. ii. ch. vi.

ciency and emptiness of philosophy. His attention was called to Christianity by the sufferings inflicted upon its profession, and the firmness with which he had beheld them endured. He inferred that men so contemptuous of death were far removed from the moral degradation with which they were charged; and that the faith for which they died so fearlessly must stand on some foundation. He examined that foundation, and discovered its stability. The sincerity of his conversion is attested by his martyrdom. He was executed by the Emperor, whose philosophy he had deserted; and he perhaps never was so strongly sensible of the superiority of that which he had preferred, as at the moment when he died for it. He wrote two apologies for Christianity, the first probably addressed to Antoninus Pius, the second to Marcus;-and a (supposed) dialogue with a Jew named Trypho. This last contains many weak arguments, and trifling and even erroneous interpretations of Scripture, mixed up with some useful matter. The two former are more valuable compositions; they were so in those days-because they contained the best defence of religion which had then been published, maintained by arguments very well calculated to persuade those to whom they were addressed; and they are still so, because we find in them many quotations from the same four Gospels which we now acknowledge; they relate many interesting facts, respecting the religious customs and ceremonies of the Christians of those times; and they prove the general acceptance of all the fundamental articles of our belief. As Justin flourished only one century after the preaching of Christ, (his conversion is usually placed at the year 133 from the birth of our Saviour,) we are not extending the value of tradition beyond its just limits, when we consider his opinions as receiving some additional weight from their contiguity to the apostolical times; and if it were possible to mark by any decided limit the extent of traditionary authority, we should be disposed to trace the line immediately after his name; for admitting that Irenæus, who presently succeeded him, by his oriental birth. and correspondence may have received some uncorrupted communications transmitted through two generations from the divine origin, we shall still find it very difficult to distinguish these from the mere human matter with which they may be associated; and this difficulty will increase, as we descend lower down the stream; so that we may safely detach the notion of peculiar sanctity or conclusive authority from the names and writings of the succeeding Fathers, though they contain much that may excite our piety, and animate our morality, and confirm our faith.

Irenæus was Bishop of Lyons, about the year 178 A. D. He is chiefly celebrated for his five books Against Heresies;' containing confutations of

*See Jortin-Remarks, &c. B. ii. p. i. A. D. 150. Also supra pp. 30, 31.

It has been often asserted, and we believe without contradiction, that no man ever died in attestation of the truth of any philosophical tenet. But those who lay much stress on this fact should show, that an opportunity for martyrdom has ever been afforded to any philosophical sect.

We might divide the first 313 years of the Christian æra into three periods, in respect to its internal history. The first century was the age of Christ and the Apostles, of miracles and inspiration inherent in the Church; the next fifty years we may consider as that of the Apostolical Fathers, enlightened by some lingering rays of the departed glory, which were successively and insensibly withdrawn; the third was the period of severe probation and bitter anxiety, unalleviated by extraordinary aids, and so far removed from human consolation, that the powers of the earth might seem to have conspired with the meanest of its progeny, in order to oppress and desolate the Church of Christ—yet even this was not without the Spirit of God.}.

most of the errors which had then appeared in the Church. Though the language which he employs in this contest is not always that best adapted either to persuade or to conciliate, his sincere aversion from religious dissension is not questioned. It is proved indeed by the epistle which he addressed to Victor, Bishop of Rome, on his insolent demeanour in the controversy respecting Easter, and which breathes a generous spirit of Christian moderation. And in good truth the individual exertions of Churchmen against the progress of unscriptural opinions were in those days the more necessary, and their warmth the more excusable, as there were yet no articles of faith to trace out the limits of orthodoxy, nor any acknowledged head, nor any legally established system of ecclesiastical government. The unity and purity of the Church were chiefly preserved by the independent labours of its most eminent and influential ministers, divided as they were both by language, and manners, and distance, and entirely unsupported by any temporal authority. So that, if we were still disposed to feel any surprise at finding such numerous forms of heresy, so very near both to the time and place where the Revelation was delivered, the above considerations would tend to remove it; while they certainly teach us, that such errors cannot permanently or generally prevail against scriptural truth, as long as they are steadily opposed by temperate and reasonable argument, and by no other weapon than argument only.

END OF PART THE FIRST.