Julian Period, 4799. Vulgar Æra, 96. III. The progress and triumph of the Church of Rome. I. The state of the Christian Church from the death of St. In closing the volumes which it was necessary to peruse, for Christianity is the completed revelation of those sanctions of, and motives to, virtue, which the unassisted reason of man could not have discovered. Its object is to promote the present and future happiness of the human race, which can only be effectually secured by virtuous principles and habits. One system of religion is distinguished from another, by the opinions it teaches, the conduct it enforces, the institutions it establishes, and the means which it adopts for its preservation. The fundamental opinions, or essential doctrines of Christianity, may be included in these three-that the nature of man is now different from that with which his first parents were created-that a Divine Being undertook to recover mankind from this state of degradation, by offering himself as an atonement, after a life of blamelessness and purity, and by rising from the dead, to demonstrate the certainty of our own resurrection-that divine assistance is afforded to all those who desire to be restored to that condition in which man was originally created. The conduct which Christianity requires, does not extend to outward morality only, but to internal purity of motive, to spirituality of disposition, and, as far as possible, to a change of nature. The Scriptural institutions of Christianity are the commemorations of the facts which prove the truth of its doctrines. They are few, but important. The observance of the first day in (the week) is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, and a declaration of the truth of our own. In haptism, we commemorate the descent of the Spirit, and assert the necessity of a Divine influence, to recover man from the fall. In the other sacrament, of the Lord's Supper, we commemorate the crucifixion, and profess our belief in the atonement. The observance of Easter is also mentioned in Scripture, as the time of the more solemn commemoration of our Lord's resurrection. The scriptural means by which the knowledge of the Christian religion is to be preserved in the world, are the perpetual observance of the institutions, and the right interpretation of the completed Scriptures. To secure these great objects, the divine Founder of Christianity appointed twelve teachers, and after them he appeared from the invisible state to appoint ano Asia Minor. 4 Jalian Pether, who should establish societies from among the mass of Asia Minor. riod, 4799. mankind, and set apart teachers to instruct the people, interVulgar Era, pret the Scriptures, and maintain the institutions of the new 96. religion. The apostles were equal among themselves. They Such was the Christianity which was established over the This view of Christianity enables us to form some criterion of truth, in the midst of all the discordant opinions of modern systems. Whatever doctrine has been invented by later writers, whether it be gradually established, as many of the corruptions of the Romanists have been, or proposed as a more correct interpretation of Scripture, as many of the Unitarian and German speculators have suggested their various novelties, is probably false, as it is certainly suspicious. If it was not once received by all Christians, in the primitive ages, in all their Churches, it is probably heretical. If it is not supported by some of the facts of Scripture it is suspicious. It is not generally remembered that the peculiar doctrines which characterize Christianity are all identified with facts. The facts are the foundation of the doctrine, and moral inferences are deducible from the doctrine which is thus sanctioned and established. The first creeds were very scanty, because controversies were few, and were decided by inspired or highly venerated teachers. They were enlarged, as the decisions of the Catholic Church, represented by its general councils, concluded the controversies which were commenced by the philosophy which wrongly explained, or wilfully rejected, the faith which was generally received. The general reception of an opinion among all Churches, was esteemed a proof that it had been originally taught by the apostles and their successors. Such was the new faith which at the closing of the canon of Scripture, had begun to leaven the whole mass of the subjects of the imperial dominion. Even where it was not fully embraced, it elevated the mind, and restrained the conduct of many who would not openly profess it. The very philosophy which opposed or corrupted it, inculcated in various instances the necessity of purity, the belief in one God, and the certainty of a future state. Churches had been founded in Rome, Corinth, Crete, the cities of Asia Minor, in Britain, Spain, Italy, Antioch, and many others. The nations of the world had been brought under the Roman yoke, that a free communication might be maintained between all parts of the civilized world. The usurpations of the Papacy had not begun, neither had the people proceeded to the opposite extreme of rejecting all government, as an infringement of their liberty. Every separate Church was a society complete in itself, governed through all its gradations of laity, and through the minor offices of the priesthood, the deacous, and the presbyters, by one episcopał dian Pe- head, who was liable to be deposed by the sentence of his own Asia Minor. od, 4799. order, if he violated the faith of Christ. Every ruler was con ulgar Æra, trolled by the rest of his brethren, while every independant hie 5. rarchy preserved its freedom under the empire of known law. The Churches of God in these early ages were opposed by every It was not only the menace and the torture, the rack and the Julian Period 4799. Vulgar Era, 96. scourge, the stake and the sword, which raised themselves Asia Minor. Though the philosophy of the Gnostics, the Docetæ, the The common opinion of any age may be known by the opposition which it has made to those who offer their own conclusions to general acceptance. The primitive ages were careful to preserve the scriptural doctrine of the twofold nature of Christ, and to assert his humanity while they defended his divinity. The various errors which the spurious philosophy of the three first centuries submitted to the approbation of the Churches, were generally founded on the attempt to exalt the divinity, at the expence of the humanity of Christ. The Gnos tics invented their notion of the Eons-the Docetæ their opinion that the form of Christ was not real, but a phantom only; and that the sufferings of Christ in his own persou, was an impossibility. The error of Arius was founded on the opposite extreme. This heresiarch endeavoured to introduce an opinion, which the Universal Church believed to be derogatory to the divinity of its founder, that our Lord was only the first, and greatest, and highest of all created beings. This opinion appeared to him to be more consistent with human reason; and it became, therefore, a part of his philosophy, and he rejected the plainer declaration of Scripture, and the evidence of antiquity both of the Jews and Gentiles. The Jews believed their Logos to be a divine being-the Christians received Christ as that Logos, because his own assertions and actions, as well as the testimony of St. John, appeared to demonstrate the truth. The sources of heresy with Arius, were the same as those which influ. ence so many at present. His private speculations were preferred to that interpretation of Scripture which had been uniformly adopted by the Universal Church. He did not, or would not, remember, that Scripture is superior to reason; and that the prostration of our intellect, which man cannot demand of man, is an act of worthy and reasonable homage to God. The vehement disputes which convulsed the whole Church Julian Pe- through these three centuries, and which respectively occasion- Asia Minor. riod, 4799. ed the calling of the first general councils, may be said to have ValgarÆra, originated in the innovations of Arius. The Councils of Nice, 96. Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, have confirmed the general opinions of the primitive Churches, and that also of the far greater portion of Christians at present, on the subject of the person of Christ, of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement. Our most eminent historian has expressed himself with the sarcastic bitterness so usual with him when Christianity is mentioned, respecting these councils. The faults of Churches and of Christians have always been the triumph of infidelity. Now, as well as formerly, the crimes and follies of David make the enemies of God to blaspheme. He has omitted, however, to relate the influence of these dissensions among Christians, upon the people of the East. The usual consequences of controversy, religious indifference, unscriptural error, contempt of the zealous maintainers of truth, and general carelessness of life, prepared the way for any bold teacher, who could triumph over the increasing ignorance, unite the broken fragments of truth and falsehood into one system, and arouse the dormant superstition of the age. There is a fulness of time for error as well as for truth. As the progressive improvement of the human race by knowledge and literature, and science among the heathens, by revelation among the Jews, and by universal peace among all nations, rendered the time of our Lord's incarnation the very fittest period for establishing a religion, founded on evidences which intreated the careful and deliberate investigation of all mankind, that they might be satisfied of its truth, and embrace it upon conviction; so did the progressive deterioration of the age, by the extinction of learning among the heathen in consequence of the political convulsions of the Roman empire, and the savage inroads of the barbarians, by the puerile attention to trifles among the Jews, by the general contempt in which they were held, and the almost universal mental debasement, render this the fittest period for the general establishment of the two great corruptions of Christianity; the apostacies of Rome, and of Mahomet, the predicted rival enemies of pure religion in the west and east. It would lead me too far from my object to relate at greater length the causes of the origin, progress, and suspension of the conquests of Mahomet; its subsequent temporary revival, the entire loss of its political power as the dangerous rival of its neighbours, and its present increasing weakness by the gradual separation and independance of its fairest provinces. Our writers on prophecy have shewn the great probability, that as these two masses of error arose together, their power will be also destroyed at the same time, when the prophetic period of 1260 years, which commenced in the year 606, will have elapsed. I am not willing, however, to rest any argument upon these interpretations. Time and history are the only certain interpreters of prophecy, and though the declining power of the Mohammedan apostacy may appear to sanction this hypothesis, the reviving influence of the unscriptural errors and political power of Romanism, excites at once our sorrow and surprise, and compels us to withhold our assent to the desired interpretation, till the veil is yet more withdrawn from the future. Our attention will be more usefully directed to the causes and growth of the western apostacy of the Church of Rome. The early Churches were united into one society by the observance of one common law, submission to episcopal government. A member of the episcopal Church of one country, was considered a member of the Catholic Church of Christ, in every |