LIBRARY 
 
 OF THK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 oir^r OK 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALS WORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894. 
 Accessions No.<^. - 
 
CHRIST IN HISTORY; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE CENTRAL POWER AMONG MEN. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT TURNBULL, D. D. 
 
 " History, as a whole, is a successive revelation of God." SCIIELLIJTO. 
 
 " All the intractable and contradictory problems of philosophy find their 
 solution in Christ." VijfET. 
 
 " The gospel is the fulfilment of all hopes, the perfection of all philosophy, the 
 interpreter of all revolutions, the key to all the seeming contradictions of the 
 physical and moral worlds ( it is life, it is immortality." JOHN VON MULI.KI:. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 .PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, AND COMPANY. 
 
 LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND COMPANY. 
 1854. 
 
 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 
 ROBERT TURNBULL, 
 the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Connecticut. 
 
 8TKKEOTYPED AT TIIK 
 BOSTON S I K U E O T V 1 B F O U N i) II V . 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Owing to the author s distance from the press, a few typographical errors have 
 slipped into the work. The reader will please correct the following 
 
 E E K A T A . 
 
 p. 22, line 8 ; for are, read and. 
 
 p. 33, line 5 ; for Pure, read Practical. 
 
 p. 36, Note, line 11 ; strike out Histm re. 
 
 p 40, line 4 ; for Plato, read Pluto. 
 
 p. 101, line 5 ; after this, supply in. 
 
 p. liUl. line 13; fur \ et nature. Yes, nature. 
 
 multitudinous waves, chase each other over the 
 bosom of the deep, and are finally ingulfed in 
 a stormy sea. 
 
 Under the steady gaze of philosophic, and 
 especially, of Christian thought, much of this cha 
 otic aspect of society disappears. Order begins 
 to emerge ; principles and laws are recognized ; a 
 progress and a purpose are discerned. To attain 
 this, however, requires a lofty stand-point and a 
 
 (3) 
 
8TKRBOTVPKD AT TIIK 
 BOSTON S T E 1J E O T V r U F O U > l> H Y . 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 To unreflective minds history appears only as 
 an intricate or confused mass of details. Change 
 follows change, revolution presses upon revolution. 
 Now all is a dead level of monotonous usage, 
 then all is unaccountable and startling transition. 
 New forms of religion and politics, of customs 
 and manners, play their brief hour or age, then, 
 in their turn, grow old and vanish away. Em 
 pires rise, decline, and fall. Love and hate, piety 
 and atheism, justice and injustice, peace and war 
 contend for the mastery. At one time the world 
 is luminous with hope, at another dark with de 
 spair. Individuals, families, and nations, like 
 multitudinous waves, chase each other over the 
 bosom of the deep, and are finally ingulfed in 
 a stormy sea. 
 
 Under the steady gaze of philosophic, and 
 especially, of Christian thought, much of this cha 
 otic aspect of society disappears. Order begins 
 to emerge ; principles and laws are recognized ; a 
 progress and a purpose are discerned. To attain 
 this, however, requires a lofty stand-point and a 
 
 (3) 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 far-reaching vision. The whole domain of hu 
 man affairs, like a landscape from the summit of 
 a mountain, must lie in comprehensive unity be 
 neath the gaze. Inspiration, indeed, long ago 
 discerned, and in brief, pregnant utterances, indi 
 cated the true condition of humanity ; but ages 
 had to elapse before it could be comprehended, and 
 above all exhibited, in any thing like a philosoph 
 ical or coherent form. Indeed, the idea of univer 
 sal history, or of history as a unit and a system, is 
 the product of the seventeenth century. Even 
 now there are cultivated minds, and among them 
 a few distinguished historians, who can recognize 
 in it no central or all-comprehending force. It 
 is only occasionally, and as a compliment to re 
 ligion, that they acknowledge the presence of the 
 Deity ^dn the affairs of man. Some of them 
 would even eliminate all such conceptions from 
 history as mystical and irrelevant. It is a happy 
 circumstance, however, that the more profound 
 and philosophical historians are the most inclined 
 to recognize the divine element. Even those 
 metaphysicians who have sometimes been sus 
 pected of pantheistic infidelity, Vico, Fichte, 
 Schelling, and Cousin, have given this idea the 
 most distinct expression. Cousin, especially, has 
 recognized it in the fullest and most eloquent 
 terms. It may now be regarded as the settled 
 conviction of the leading thinkers of the world. 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 Bossuet, in his Universal History, was the 
 first to elucidate and apply this great thought. 
 Still his work is neither thorough nor philosophi 
 cal. It possesses the character of a grand histor 
 ical sketch, intended for popular impression. In 
 several respects its range is narrow and ecclesi 
 astical, being confined too much to the mere 
 theocracy of the Jews, and the hierarchy of the 
 Papal church. The state is absorbed in the 
 church, and the march of history is described 
 only from the Roman Catholic view. The his 
 torical details are meagre, and sometimes inaccu 
 rate. Still it possesses the great merit of recog 
 nizing the presence of God in the affairs of men, 
 and describing the succession of events with a 
 grave eloquence. 
 
 Much more profound and philosophical is the 
 sublime idea which runs through the New Sci 
 ence ( Scienza Nuova) of John Baptist Vico, that 
 singular Italian thinker, who united the brevity 
 and obscurity of Heraclitus to the depth and 
 force of Plato. He maintains that the divine ele 
 ment underlies humanity in all its phases, and 
 may be recognized even in the superstitions of 
 the heathen cultus. Still he gives undue promi 
 nence to the mere natural element, and falls into 
 some singular crudities and absurdities. Had 
 Jonathan Edwards been more familiar with gen 
 eral history, and in his History of Redemption 
 1* 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 applied the leading thought which pervades that 
 work to the general course of human affairs, he 
 would have created an era in historical, as he 
 has done in theological research. Herder, with 
 less depth of intellect or force of character, but 
 with a wider and more liberal range of study, 
 starts from the same fundamental position as 
 Bossuet and Vico, and shows how art, science, 
 language, poetry, and religion mingle in the 
 march of humanity towards ideal perfection. 
 His system, however, is too narrow and empirical 
 for a complete explanation of the phenomena of 
 history. F. W. Schlegel follows in the same 
 track, with considerable reach of thought, and a 
 distinct recognition of fundamental principles. 
 He does greater justice than his predecessors to 
 the influence of the remoter Oriental nations; 
 still his work strikes us as superficial and frag 
 mentary. Like Bossuet, he is too much under 
 the influence of Papal views, and fails to give a 
 complete or philosophical exposition of the sub 
 ject. 
 
 Bunsen, in the first volume of his Hippolytus, 
 presents, in aphoristic form, a comprehensive 
 sketch of the philosophy of history, in a manner 
 much more complete and satisfactory than 
 Schlegel. Marred by rationalistic fancies, and 
 obscure or incomplete ontological statements, 
 his view, upon the whole, is the most sat- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 isfactory we have seen. It distinctly recognizes 
 the great truth of God in manifested form, and 
 especially in Christ, as lying at the foundation 
 of all religious and historical development. 
 From his vast learning, Bunsen clearly sees 
 that humanity cannot permanently rise, except 
 through the influence of the new and supernat 
 ural force imparted by Christianity, 
 
 Of late years two or three works, chiefly of a 
 practical character, have appeared among our 
 selves, under the title of the Hand of God in 
 History, or, more briefly, God in History, one 
 an eloquent discourse by the Rev. Dr. Cheever, 
 with special reference to the history of the 
 United States ; another, of greater extent and 
 detail, by the Rev. Hollis Read. The object 
 of these is not, by a philosophical analysis, 
 to prove the presence of God in universal 
 history, but rather, by a citation of facts, in 
 connection with the teachings of Scripture, to 
 indicate his providential sway, or what they 
 fitly designate the " Hand of God in History." 
 In fact, the title " God in History," in the case 
 of Mr. Read s work, is an after thought, less 
 appropriate, perhaps, than the original title ; for 
 his sole object, as stated in the preface, is to point 
 out " the providence of God in the events of his 
 tory." This he discovers, especially in striking 
 junctures or turns of affairs, sometimes called 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "interpositions," rather than in the general 
 movement of universal history. He makes no 
 attempt to analyze the fundamental forces of so 
 ciety, and entirely omits the consideration of 
 ancient history. His work, though interesting 
 and profitable, breathing an excellent spirit, and 
 " vindicating the ways of God to man," cannot 
 be said to be an adequate exposition of " God 
 in history." 
 
 We have made these remarks upon the litera 
 ture of the subject to which the following work in 
 part belongs, in order to assist us in pointing out 
 its object and aim. And here, at the outset, we 
 beg distinctly to say, that it does not pretend to 
 be a philosophy of history, or to be strictly a philo 
 sophical or scientific work. Its form, in fact, is 
 rather popular than philosophical, though based 
 upon fundamental principles, and aiming to elu 
 cidate and apply essential elements. The title 
 " Christ in History " limits its character to an 
 exposition of the relations of Christ (here taken 
 as the highest expression or manifestation of 
 God) to universal history. 
 
 Hence it takes the Incarnation as the central 
 or " turning point " in the history of mankind, 
 and attempts to show how all the forces of soci 
 ety converge around it, how all preceding his 
 tory prepares for it, how all succeeding history 
 dates from it. In order to develop this fact, the 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 reader is taken back to central facts and princi 
 ples, in other words to the fountains of history 
 in the nature of God, and the nature of man ; 
 and the attempt is made to show that the history 
 of the world, ancient and modern, can be under 
 stood only with reference to Christ. This is not 
 assumed dogmatically, but evolved by an expo 
 sition of historical facts. 
 
 Many things which would naturally be dis 
 cussed in a complete philosophy of history are 
 omitted. Some also are taken for granted, as 
 known or conceded by the reader. Indeed, the 
 attention is necessarily limited to the specific 
 view which it is the design of the author to 
 vindicate. 
 
 In the course of the investigation, Christianity 
 is shown to be not only an historical reality, but 
 a divine and supernatural power, by which all 
 other realities and powers are explained and eon- 
 trolled. The theories of the sceptical rationalists, 
 to account for Christianity on natural, local, or 
 superficial grounds, are shown to be untenable. 
 The natural or human factor, of course, is not 
 denied ; another, however, is added, namely, the 
 supernatural or divine. In a word, Christianity, 
 in its interior relations and vital energies, is 
 shown to be nothing less than the presence of 
 God, through Jesus Christ, among men, reno- 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 vating the hearts of individuals, and preparing 
 the transformation of society. 
 
 The author has endeavored to conduct the in 
 vestigation in the freest and most liberal manner, 
 holding himself aloof as much as possible from 
 unproved preconceptions, and less anxious, there 
 fore, to favor or deny orthodoxy, heterodoxy, or 
 what Luther calls cacodoxy, than to establish 
 the simple truth. 
 
 On a theme so vast and comprehensive, his 
 work cannot be otherwise than imperfect. No 
 one can be more sensible of its defects than him 
 self. Though the labor of years, it is not offered 
 as any thing approaching a complete or scientific 
 view of the subject, but rather as a slight contri 
 bution, or preparation for such a view. Perhaps 
 he might venture to call it an introduction to 
 universal history, or at least an introduction to 
 the history of Christianity. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE CENTRAL TOWER, . . .... 13 
 
 II. THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE, OR CHRIST IN AN 
 CIENT RELIGION, 35 
 
 III. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 61 
 
 IV. THE CENTRAL IDEA, OR CHRIST IN ANCIENT 
 
 PHILOSOPHY, 83 
 
 V. THE CENTRAL RACE, OR CHRIST AMONG THE 
 
 HEBREWS, . 121 
 
 VI. THE CENTRAL RACE. PRELUDES AND PREP 
 ARATIONS, 158 
 
 VII. THE FULNESS OF TIME, ...... 179 
 
 VIII. THE ADVENT, 200 
 
 IX. THE DISCIPLINE, 225 
 
 X. THE INAUGURATION, OR JOHN THE BAPTIST, 252 
 
 XL THE MYTHIC THEORY, 270 
 
 XII. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST, 289 
 
 XIII. THE MIRACLES, 307 
 
 XIV. CHRIST IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, . . .346 
 XV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED, .... 371 
 
 XVI. CHRIST IN THE MIDDLE AGES, .... 398 
 
 (11) 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVII. CHRIST IN THE REFORMATION, .... 428 
 XVIII. CHRIST IN MODERN SOCIETY, . . . .473 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CENTRAL POWER. 
 
 THE farther science advances, the more clearly 
 is the great fact discovered that all things have 
 their centres of life and motion, and that they 
 belong to a single system. Acting and interact 
 ing, moving, now this way, now that, all at 
 last tend one way. The stars revolve around 
 their suns, and suns themselves, with attendant 
 planets, revolve around a central orb. Unity 
 and variety, as in a circle, with its starlike radii, 
 the unity ever passing into variety, and the 
 variety into unity, pervade the visible creation. 
 Nothing is insulated, nothing irregular. One 
 mysterious law comprehends and governs the 
 whole. All proceed from, and gravitate to, one 
 centre. 
 
 Not only the larger masses, suns, and constel 
 lations, gravitate thus, but the inferior parts, the 
 
14 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 minutest atoms, fibres, and crystals. All plants 
 and animals are organized around their centres. 
 By accretion, growth, and assimilation, they 
 form themselves, according to a fixed law, from 
 interior forces. The rose unfolds itself with pet 
 als and leaves, from a vital root. The dew is 
 globed by the force of gravitation. The bubble 
 which floats in the sunbeam, the joy of child 
 hood, obeys the same invisible power. It is 
 sphered like a star, and carries upon its bosom 
 all the splendors of the rainbow. A particle of 
 sand, the sport of every breeze, is formed on the 
 strictest mathematical principles. Scrutinized, 
 it will be found piled up in fair proportions, like 
 a huge crystal, with its lines, sides, and angles. 
 The down upon an insect s wing, scarce visible 
 to the naked eye, grows like a forest of palms. 
 All nature is vital and moving, even when it 
 seems to be still as the grave. Plants and ani 
 mals have a sort of double life, a life in common 
 with the rest, and a life in themselves, and all 
 therefore tend in one direction. Their move 
 ment is ever from, and to, centres of action and 
 development. The human body grows like a 
 germ, is fed and developed from an interior force. 
 It has its own centre, to which it gravitates, while 
 gravitating with all other things, earth, sun, and 
 stars, around a common centre. 
 
 Society also, in order to live and prosper, must 
 
THE CENTRAL POWER. 15 
 
 have an appropriate centre. It gravitates around 
 some vital force, being, or principle, which con 
 stitutes its life. Men may seem to be insulated 
 as individuals, but they grow together; and not 
 only so, but they intergrow. They are many, 
 yet they are one, like the myriad globules of 
 water that form the rushing stream. No two 
 are alike, yet all are alike. They move appar 
 ently in diverse orbits, and yet they move to 
 gether in a common orbit. One spiritual, all- 
 pervading force, or aggregate of forces, impels 
 them in the same direction. 
 
 Hence they rise or fall together, move in 
 peaceful order within the great sphere of duty, 
 or dash tumultuously into the abyss. Strange 
 varieties of costume, color, form, language, no 
 tions, prevail among the nations, yet " their 
 hearts are fashioned alike." Their blood is the 
 same ; their reason and their affection, their hope 
 and their fear, their origin and their end, are the 
 same. Free indeed, and thence capable, within 
 certain limits, of virtue or of vice, of holiness 
 or of sin, of religion or of atheism, they diverge 
 in their choice and destiny as individuals ; yet 
 they are formed on the same model, obey the 
 same impulses, may share the same destiny. 
 
 Those who have read history with any atten 
 tion know that society is always organized, if 
 organized with any degree of permanence, around 
 
16 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 some divine idea or force. No society can be 
 kept together without religion ; and for the sim 
 ple reason that man, imperfect, nay, more, 
 fallen, has his origin and his end in God. The 
 Deity, in other words, the true, the good, the holy, 
 what we fitly term " the divine," is our cen 
 tre and life. We gravitate harmoniously only 
 around this eternal force, at once centripetal and 
 centrifugal, attracting us to a centre, and at the 
 same time propelling us in beautiful order around 
 the orbit of duty. 
 
 This characteristic of man, like the cerulean 
 color of the ocean or atmosphere, may not in 
 deed be visible in detached fragments, but is 
 always obvious enough in the whole. Morally, 
 as well as naturally, the finite lies in the infinite. 
 God and man are bound together by mysteri 
 ous ties. 
 
 For the same reason, each individual soul has 
 its proper centre. As a divine product, a child 
 of the infinite Spirit, it belongs to God, and 
 finds its felicity in him. No matter if morally 
 severed, by disturbing causes, from its absolute 
 Source, the principle or fact remains the same. 
 The sun and its star, the centre and its radius, 
 wherever they may be, are made for each other. 
 Drawn oft into " the abysmal dark " by the de 
 structive influence of sin, the soul wretchedly 
 wanders in the void, seeking rest and finding 
 
THE CENTRAL FOWER. 17 
 
 none. If not restored to its source, it must 
 finally perish. To be pure, peaceful, happy, 
 each of us must find God, and in God attain 
 the true and the holy ; and thus drinking the 
 beams of the eternal Sun, revolve around him 
 in glory and in joy forever. 
 
 Thus, in all ages, we find lofty souls, even in 
 darkness and sorrow, " feeling after God." 
 Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Cicero, 
 Plutarch catch a glimpse of his glory, and pro 
 claim, with exultation, the stupendous thought. 
 Somewhat bewildered, and with only partial 
 views, they yet reach towards the Divine as 
 their centre and their end. Nay, the poor Afri 
 can, in a deeper night, feels the mighty fasci 
 nation, without knowing what it is. Said Se- 
 kesa, a native of Southern Africa, of the Bechu- 
 ana tribe, to a missionary from whom he had 
 been hearing of God and immortality, " Your 
 views, O white man, are just what I wanted 
 and sought for before I knew you. Twelve 
 years ago, I went, in a cloudy season, to feed 
 my flock along the Tlotse, among the Malutis. 
 Seated upon a rock in sight of my sheep, I 
 asked myself sad questions ; yes, sad, because I 
 could not answer them. The stars, said I, who 
 touched them with his hand ? On what pillars 
 do they rest ? The waters are not weary ; they 
 run without ceasing at night and morning alike ; 
 2* 
 
18 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 but where do they stop, or who makes them run 
 thus? The clouds also go, return, and fall in 
 water to the earth. Whence do they arise ? 
 Who sends them ? It surely is not the Barokas 
 (rain makers) who give us the rain, for how 
 could they make it? The wind what is it? 
 Who brings it or takes it away ? makes it blow, 
 and roar, and frighten us ? Do I know how the 
 corn grows ? Yesterday there was not a blade 
 to be seen in my field. To-day I return and 
 find something. It is very small ; I can scarcely 
 see it ; but it will grow up like a young man. 
 Who can have given the ground wisdom and 
 power to produce it ? Then I buried my head 
 in my hands. 
 
 " Again I thought within myself, and I said, 
 We all depart, but this country remains; it 
 alone remains, for we all go away. But whither 
 do we go ? My heart answered, Perhaps other 
 men live besides us, and we shall go to them. 
 But another thought arose against it, and said, 
 Those men under the earth, whence come they ? 
 Then my heart did not know what more to 
 think. It wondered. Then my heart rose and 
 spoke to me, saying, All men do much evil, and 
 thou, thou also hast done much evil. Woe to 
 thee ! I recalled many wrongs which I had 
 done, and because of this my conscience gnawed 
 me in secret, as I sat alone on the rock. I say 
 
TIT;; CENTRAL POWER. 19 
 
 I was afraid. I got up and ran after my sheep, 
 trying to enliven myself, but I trembled much." 
 
 Mofl at informs us that some of the tribes of 
 Africa are so degraded as, apparently, to have 
 no idea of a supreme power ; but this is the 
 exception, not the rule.* As intelligence and 
 civilization advance, the idea of " the Divine " 
 becomes, in all countries, more distinct and lu 
 minous. It rises with science and virtue, appro 
 priates to itself all beautiful forms, and "sits 
 enthroned on the riches of the universe." 
 
 It is owing to the depth and permanence of 
 this original instinct or intuition, blind as it 
 occasionally seems, and much .perverted by ig- 
 
 * Further investigations show decisively that the exception 
 scarcely exists, even among the most superstitious tribes of Af 
 rica ; the word Morimo, which means the Supreme Spirit, is found 
 as a relic of some better knowledge now lost. Mr. Livingston says 
 that the recently-discovered tribes in the interior of Africa have 
 an idea of a supreme God. This is corroborated by Mr. Bowen, 
 who says the people in Yarouba believe in one God, though the 
 national worship is directed to inferior deities, both benign and 
 malignant. They speak of him as " over all," and call him " the 
 Owner of heaven." Their language contains those terms which 
 enable the missionary to speak to them intelligently of the Deity, 
 of sin, guilt, moral obligation, &c. Some of their traditions 
 would indicate an Oriental origin. Every where the ark is an 
 object of reverence. Mr. Tanner, a half-breed Indian mission 
 ary, well acquainted with the Indians, says that those tribes who 
 have been secluded from intercourse with the whites have a dis 
 tinct idea of a supreme Spirit. They worship other spirits, but 
 especially venerate the Great Spirit, and recognize the eternal 
 distinction of right and wrong, with the doctrine of reward and pun 
 ishment. This is corroborated by Mr. Catlin and Mr. Schoolcraft 
 
20 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 norance arid lust, that the race, as such, espe 
 cially in its more active centres, has always 
 occupied itself with the problem of God, or the 
 gods, those supreme and eternal powers sup 
 posed to preside over the universe, and has 
 always organized itself, as we have said, around 
 some fundamental belief in reference to duty 
 and destiny. Thus Plato over and over again 
 affirms that a belief in God, or the gods, is a 
 natural and universal instinct.* " Examine," 
 says Plutarch, in his tract against Coletes, the 
 Epicurean, " the face of the earth, and you may 
 find cities unfortified, unlettered, without a reg 
 ular magistrate or distinct habitations, without 
 possessions, property, or the use of money, and 
 unskilled in all the magnificent and polished 
 arts of life ; but a city without the knowledge 
 of God or religion, without the use of vows, 
 oaths, oracles, and sacrifices to procure good, or 
 of deprecatory rites to avert evil, no man can or 
 ever will find." So also in his Consolatio ad 
 Apollonium, he declares, " it was so ancient an 
 opinion that good men should be recompensed 
 
 * See especially Do Lcgibus, (lib. x.,) Contra Athcos. Plato, in 
 deed, sees clearly enough that the instinct referred to is often feeble, 
 as well as subject to great perversion. In himself, it was not entirely 
 free from superstition ; yet Avho, with the slightest knowledge of 
 his works, will deny the strength and grandeur with which it de 
 veloped itself in his sublime speculations on the true, the beau 
 tiful, and the good, as eternal entities in the bosom of God ? 
 
THE CENTRAL POWER. 21 
 
 at death, that he could not reach either the 
 author or the origin of it." In his Tusculan 
 Questions, Cicero bears the same testimony. 
 " As our innate ideas," he says, " discover to us 
 that there are gods, [or a God; for Cicero often 
 uses the term gods, when he means simply 
 God,] whose attributes we deduce from reason, 
 so, from the consent of all nations and people, 
 we conclude that the soul is immortal." In 
 another place, he affirms that this, as well as 
 the sense of justice, must be " a law of nature." 4 
 Errors and superstitions of course mingled 
 with ancient myths and traditions ; but they 
 were based upon an original intuition, if not an 
 original revelation. In corroboration of this view 
 we find Aristotle averring that "it was an ancient 
 saying, received by all from their ancestors, that 
 all things exist by and through the power of 
 God, . . . who, being one, (el;,) was known 
 by many names, according to his modes of man 
 ifestation" a testimony as striking as it is pro- 
 found.f 
 
 * Tus. Disp. i. 30. " Omnis autem in re consensio omnium gen 
 tium lex natural putanda est." Compare De Natura Deorum, i. 43, 
 as also lib. ii. 12. Cicero, being an Academic, often presents his 
 opinions in the form of doubts ; but his real sentiments were un 
 questionably favorable to the doctrine of God and the immortal 
 ity of the soul. How striking, for example, is the following : 
 " Esse procstantem aliquam acternamque naturam, et earn sus- 
 piciendam admirandamque hominum generi, pulchritudo mundi 
 ordoque rerum ccclestium cogit confiteri." De Divin. lib. ii. 
 
 f Sec De Mundo, c. f>, 7. A. similar passage is referred to by No 
 
22 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 It need not surprise us, then, that the great 
 thinkers of the race, those who have gone be 
 neath appearances to grasp the reality of things, 
 have always tended to a common centre of spec 
 ulative thought. The absolute and eternal has 
 always swept them within its mystic circle. God, 
 the soul, and immortality ; the eternal past, the 
 eternal future, tyf. the all-embracing essence in 
 which they become one, are the majestic themes 
 which have occupied their lives. The old Chal 
 dean, Hindoo, and Egyptian sages, the Pythago 
 reans, the Sophists, the Socratists, Plato and 
 Aristotle, the Academics, the Stoics, the Neo- 
 Platonists, in fact every class of Grecian think 
 ers, as also the Roman philosophers, though 
 much inferior to the Grecian in vigor and com 
 prehensiveness of mind, took a more or less dis 
 tinguished part in the discussion of these subjects. 
 Among the questions which the ancients consid 
 ered as lying at the foundation of all science 
 and philosophical reasoning were the following : 
 1. Whether there was a creative power in the 
 universe ; 2. Whether this power was invested 
 with the attributes of wisdom, goodness, and 
 truth ; 3. Whether the mind of man formed a 
 
 ander, as quoted by Plutarch, (Dc Defectu Oraciilorum,} from the 
 Antigone of Sophocles ; but we have been unable to verify it in the 
 Antigone as now extant. Compare Plutarch, Advcr. Stoicos, c. 22. 
 Cicero, DC Lcyibm, lib. ii. 107. 
 
THE CENTRAL POWER. 23 
 
 part, or was made analogous to the divine mind, 
 or principle ; 4. Whether this intellectual part 
 of man was of an absolutely spiritual nature, and 
 was endowed with immortality ; 5. Whether there 
 is any thing absolutely true or absolutely good 
 in the nature of things ; 6. Whether the true 
 and the good relative to man be the same in the 
 essence as the true and the good relative to the 
 divine nature ; 7. Whether man was an object 
 of care or interest in the divine economy, and 
 whether he had any means of ascertaining the 
 fact. 8. Whether we have any definite meaning 
 in the mind when we make use of such words as 
 justice, power, existence, intelligence, benevolence, 
 virtue, vice, &c.* 
 
 Their methods of reasoning, somewhat vari 
 able, may be deemed" fallacious ; but the fact 
 remains that, even in their logical and philo 
 sophical investigations, these were the great 
 questions from which they started, and to which 
 they constantly returned. A few philosophers, 
 subtle and penetrating, but cold and sterile, like 
 Epicurus and Cornte, have lingered in mere 
 mechanism, never transcending the outward and 
 perishable. Others, like Aristotle and Hegel, 
 have lost themselves in abstractions, even while 
 recognizing absolute and eternal being ; and 
 
 * Blakey s History of Logic, pp. G6, 70. Sco Rittcr s Hist, of 
 Ancient Ph., passim. Compare Aristotle s Mctuphysica. 
 
24 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 others, like Pyrrho and Lucretius, driven by 
 doubt, arising from their limited natures, or 
 the disturbing influence of a chaotic era, have 
 plunged into the horrible abyss of atheism. But 
 the majority of profound thinkers, and still more 
 of great actors, in all ages, have recognized, with 
 more or less fulness, the supremacy of spirit, the 
 government of God, and the immortality of the 
 soul. 
 
 Nay, sometimes in the deepest labyrinth of er 
 ror, whole communities have longed after God. 
 Groping in the dark amid the monuments of an 
 cient superstition, or the deeper gloom of a false 
 philosophy, they have stretched themselves to 
 wards the divine, like confined flowers, instinc 
 tively seeking the sun. In Athens, with its thirty 
 thousand gods, we find an altar, if not several al 
 tars, to " the unknown God." The symbol wor 
 ship of ancient Assyria, with its vast and shadowy 
 forms, the mystic faith of Egypt, based upon some 
 vague but sublime idea of the unity of God and 
 the resurrection of the dead, although cold and 
 massive as its stony images, and especially the 
 gorgeous pantheism of India, at once monstrous 
 and impressive, were shadows of the sublime 
 reality. Zerdusht and Menu, as well as Py 
 thagoras and Plato, penetrated beyond exfernal 
 forms, and saw quivering beneath them those 
 eternal energies which they referred to being and 
 thought. 
 
THE CENTRAL POWER. 25 
 
 This accounts for the supposition of a golden 
 age, that era of religion simple and sincere. Then 
 the Divinity walked among men, and all nature 
 was glorified with his presence. Miracle was law, 
 and law was miracle ; for all was wonder and 
 worship. Harmony and joy pervaded the earth, 
 bathed, so to speak, in celestial sunlight. Re 
 fracted, indeed, through mythic and legendary 
 mists, after all " twas light from heaven." Its 
 origin was supernatural and divine. The first 
 Eden, or the reign of God upon earth, alone can 
 account for it. 
 
 Of some such age or state all the ancient na 
 tions have traditions more or less perfect.* It 
 gleams as a dim remembrance in all their poetry, 
 philosophy, and history. In some cases it may 
 be accounted for by the natural desire of all na 
 tions to glorify their origin and ancestry ; but this 
 will not account for it in all, and especially for 
 the peculiar traditional form in which it often 
 
 * The Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian mythologies recog 
 nize it with great distinctness, and describe the change which en 
 sued as " a fall from glory." In the Vishnu Purana of the Hin 
 doo tradition, we have the following : " The beings who were cre 
 ated by Brahma were at first endowed with righteousness and per 
 fect faith ; they dwelt wherever they pleased, unchecked by any 
 impediment. Their hearts were free from guile. They were pure, 
 and made free from soil by the observance of sacred institutes. In 
 their holy minds Hari dwelt, and they were filled with perfect wis 
 dom, wherewith they contemplated the glory of Vishnu." See a 
 quotation from Pausanias in Neander s Church Hist. V 1. i. p. 
 12 ; as also various references in Knapp s Theology, p. I )S. 
 
 3 
 
26 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 appears. It obviously supposes the existence of 
 some higher civilization, lost in the dim shadows 
 of the past, and not only so, but of a purer form 
 of religion, or at least a deeper sense of its divine 
 beauty and power. 
 
 The earlier and stronger communities, those 
 even which lapsed into symbol worship, Egypt, 
 Assyria, Persia, India, Greece, Etruria, and Rome 
 itself, in the palmy days of the republic, as 
 Strabo and Polybius distinctly testify, had a 
 strong and all-pervading faith.* The Hebrew 
 commonwealth was made prosperous and per 
 manent only as a theocracy, or divine republic. 
 When it ceased to be religious, it fell into imbe 
 cility, and became a reproach among the nations. 
 The great and good men of all times, around 
 whom society has clustered, the kingly spirits of 
 history, martyrs and patriots of by-gone days, all 
 have been distinguished for their piety. The 
 founders of states, the reformers of laws and man 
 ners, Moses, Menu, Zoroaster, Solon, Constan 
 tino, Mohammed, Charlemagne, Alfred, Wash 
 ington, derived their greatest force from the reli 
 gious element. " God and the right " has been the 
 battle cry of civilization throughout the world. 
 
 * Some may call it, and perhaps justly, a superstition; but tins 
 itself must have originated in the religious instinct. The univer 
 sality of superstition is a natural mystery, -which cannot be account 
 ed for, except by reference to the spiritual and immortal nature of 
 
THE CENTRAL POWER. 27 
 
 Tyranny, indeed, knowing the immense power 
 of this element, has often abused it ; but what 
 noble and generous thing has not tyranny abused ? 
 The diamond is a diamond still, though gleam 
 ing on the brow of pride. No abuse can deprive 
 religion of its original beauty, its inherent and 
 eternal power. 
 
 Hence, not only in ancient, but in modern 
 times, we find ample recognition of the indestruc 
 tible religious tendency of the race. " Whether 
 true or false, sublime or ridiculous," says M. 
 Thiers, " man must have a religion." The his 
 torian of the Consulate and Empire, quick, ver 
 satile, and well informed, but not profound or 
 philosophical, is far from seeing the reason of this 
 great fact ; but his testimony is none the less val 
 uable. It gives us a glimpse of the deepest se 
 cret of human nature. 
 
 Most instructive, as bearing upon this matter, is 
 the history of Benjamin Constant,* who, seduced 
 by the superficial materialism of Voltaire and the 
 Encyclopaedists, at first denied the reality and 
 validity of the religious sentiment, and conse 
 quently the existence and moral government of 
 
 * Born at Lausanne, in 1767. Ho was educated in Germany, and 
 became one of the greatest authors and most able orators of the 
 liberals, or constitutionalists, in the French Chamber of Deputies. 
 His great work on religion (De la Religion, considcrce dans sa 
 Source, ses Formes, ct scs Devdoppements) was published in Paris 
 in 1821. 
 
28 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 God. Of noble and generous impulses, and long 
 ing for the emancipation of his own mind and 
 that of his countrymen from the bondage of er 
 ror, he embraced, with eagerness, those views of 
 nature and society which promised this result. 
 The dominant faith of continental Europe, asso 
 ciated with tyranny and superstition, seemed the 
 greatest obstacle to its realization, and he sym 
 pathized with the powerful attacks made upon re 
 ligion by some of the most brilliant writers of his 
 time. His mind was too noble and aspiring to 
 bear the burden of doubt. He longed for cer 
 tainty and freedom. He was compelled, there 
 fore, to undertake a patient and thorough exam 
 ination of the whole subject. His great work on 
 religion, however, was commenced with a far 
 different aim from that which he actually reached. 
 He intended it, at first, as a contribution to the 
 cause of infidelity. He supposed that he could 
 show, by an appeal to history, that the religious 
 sentiment in man was always the product of a 
 delusive superstition, and that in all its forms it 
 was destructive to the best interests, and espe 
 cially to the progress, of society. But one after 
 another his prepossessions vanished. As his in 
 vestigations advanced, he found that religion was 
 a universal and indestructible principle in the 
 nature of man. Thence his inquiries took an 
 entirely different direction, and the issue was, the 
 
THE CENTRAL POWER. 29 
 
 production of a work which may be regarded as 
 one of the most striking testimonies to the valid 
 ity and worth of religion. " My work," says he, 
 in a letter to a friend, " is a singular proof of 
 the remark of Bacon, that a little philosophy leads 
 a man to atheism, but a great deal to religion. 
 It is positively in the profound investigation of 
 facts, in my researches in every quarter, and in 
 struggling with the difficulties without number 
 which they bring against incredulity, that I have 
 found myself forced to return to religious ideas. 
 I have done this most certainly in perfectly good 
 faith ; for I have not taken a single retrograde 
 step without cost. Even to this moment all my 
 habits, all my remembrances, are on the side of 
 the sceptical philosophy ; and I defend, post after 
 post, every spot of ground which religion gains 
 from me." * 
 
 Constant shows, by an analysis of the nature 
 and susceptibilities of man, compared with the 
 facts of history, that he is a spiritual being, and 
 has affinities and relations with infinite perfec 
 tion and immortal existence ; that, although 
 many things check and oppose this tendency in 
 the race, it lives and grows, ever longing for its 
 object, ever attempting its realization. He finds 
 the highest development of this principle in the 
 
 * Specimens of Foreign Literature, by George Ripley, vol. ii. 
 p. 273. 
 
 3* 
 
;30 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 theism of the Jewish faith, so far transcending 
 the people and age in which it is found, and 
 especially in Christianity, which " brings life 
 and immortality to light." Kant s Kritik of the 
 Pfei Reason, (Der Praktischen Vernunft,) after 
 the strictest analysis of the moral wants and 
 tendencies of the human soul, comes to precisely 
 the same result. Comte himself has recently 
 avowed the necessity of religion, and has given 
 an exposition of his views upon this subject, in 
 his " positive theory of human unity." * 
 
 Indeed, it must be obvious to every candid 
 thinker that the welfare of the individual as well 
 as the welfare of society depends upon the depth 
 and purity of their religious convictions. " The 
 first principle," says Lord Bacon, touching, in 
 his brief, expressive way, the very core of the 
 matter, " of right reason is religion." f On this 
 rests, as its lowest foundation, the entire super- 
 
 * Developed in the second volume of his " Systcme de Politique 
 Positive." 
 
 f The -whole passage in which this occurs is well worth atten 
 tion. " I had rather believe all the fables in the Talmud and the 
 Alcoran than that this universal frame is without a mind. God 
 never wrought a miracle to convert an atheist, because his ordinary 
 works confute atheism. A little philosophy may incline men to in 
 fidelity ; but a further proceeding therein brings them back to reli 
 gion. For when the mind looks on second causes scattered, it 
 sometimes rests in them ; but when it beholds them confederated 
 and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and to Deity. 
 After all my studies and inquiries, I dare not die with any other 
 thoughts than those of the Christian religion." 
 
TIi:: CENTRAL POWER. 31 
 
 structure of the social state. Without it, man 
 is nothing society nothing. Destroy religion, 
 and our very nature 
 
 " Sinks under us, bcstorms, and then devours." 
 
 The fact is, a community of atheists cannot 
 exist. Infidelity is essentially disorganizing. It 
 uniformly breaks up society, and rushes to ruin. 
 France, indeed, once proclaimed herself atheistic, 
 but it was in the rnidst of a revolution the most 
 appalling and bloody. The delusion lasted only 
 the briefest space. Reaction was instant and 
 decisive. Atheism, we grant, yet lingers in that 
 beautiful country, but only as an individual 
 opinion. Besides, that it is an element of dis 
 organization, even in this form, must be obvious 
 to the most superficial observer. If France ever 
 falls, as fell the old dynasties of the world, it 
 will fall through scepticism and lust. 
 
 Of course, religion, like all other things, 
 science, morals, literature, social life, govern 
 ment, &c., will represent the nature of those 
 who profess it. As men are imperfect beings, 
 in most cases ignorant, nay, more, positively 
 sinful, having suffered some fatal lapse, their 
 religion will rarely, if ever, rise to any thing like 
 perfection. Their creeds will often be crude, 
 visionary, superstitious ; nay, sometimes pos 
 itively degrading. For the well-known adage 
 
32 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of Horace is universally true, that the best 
 things abused always become the worst. Li 
 able to error and passion, our religion, perverted, 
 sometimes proves the direst curse. Hence, in 
 the matter of piety and morals, we find, among 
 men, strange action and reaction. For now, by 
 the force of what may be called their better 
 nature, they are attracted to God, and anon, by 
 the force of their evil nature, repelled from him. 
 They vibrate, like a pendulum, between holi 
 ness and sin, vice and virtue. After all, God is 
 their portion, perfection their true and eternal 
 destiny. 
 
 Hence superstition is the symptom of a deeper 
 want. It is the hunger of the soul feeding upon 
 husks, the thirst of the spirit drinking poison. 
 In its wildest vagaries, even idolatry is the shadow 
 of diviner worship. That young Hindoo mother, 
 who has thrown her first born into the Ganges, 
 has all the affection of a mother, and her heart, 
 torn with anguish, goes after her little one sink 
 ing in the waves; but she has made the sacrifice 
 (in her view, sublime) of that dearest treasure, 
 for the salvation of her soul. Nations set up a 
 Moloch or a Juggernaut, not because they love 
 cruelty for its own sake, but because a blind, but 
 irresistible instinct impels them to seek some re 
 lief to the terrible famine of the spirit. 
 
 The fact is obvious, that in all ages religion, 
 
THE CENTRAL POWER. 33 
 
 in some form, has been the central force of 
 society, the keystone of states and empires ; and 
 for this simple reason, that, being divine, it is the 
 only thing which controls the inner life. It is the 
 law which a community carries, not in its gov 
 ernment archives, but in its heart. It requires no 
 magistrate to pronounce sentence, no police to 
 seize, no executioner to punish. Its domain is 
 invisible and all comprehending, like the magnetic 
 forces which pervade universal nature. 
 
 A true history of the world, then, especially of 
 its civilization, its progress or decay, would be a 
 history of religion in its relations to society. This 
 every where is the pervading and abiding power. 
 This marks the degree of elevation or depression 
 in all. As this rises so rises society in prosperity 
 and strength. As this falls, so falls society into 
 barbarism and decay. Corrupted, abused, de 
 based, like government, law, organization, free 
 dom, every thing, in a word, which has power, it 
 is a reality the most sublime, a good the highest 
 and deepest of all. 
 
 It is on this ground we maintain that God, in 
 some manifested form, or an organized belief, and 
 especially in Jesus Christ and Christianity, to 
 which Judaism is an introduction, is the centre 
 of all history, past, present, and to come. So that 
 those who would know Christ must know history, 
 
34 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and those who would know history must know 
 Christ.* 
 
 But we must go back to primeval fountains, 
 and trace the central element or principle referred 
 to, namely, God as a personality, more espe 
 cially " God in Christ," either as a hope or a pos 
 session, in the great powers which ruled over an 
 cient society, in religion, philosophy, and what 
 men call the common, but in reality divine, suc 
 cession of events. 
 
 * " By him," says St. Paul, " all things consist, "(awfarriKev,) 
 literally, stand together ; that is, in him, and around him, all facts 
 converge. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE, OR CHRIST IN ANCIENT 
 RELIGION. 
 
 WE cannot here trace, with any detail, the his 
 tory of religion from the earliest times, but a brief 
 and comprehensive sketch, indicating its general 
 character, and especially its relations to Christ, 
 will be in place. 
 
 Leaving out of the account, for the present, the 
 teachings of the Scriptures as to the primitive 
 form of belief in the early ages of the world, we 
 begin with religion as it existed in the form of 
 nature-worship, symbol-worship, and idolatry. 
 The most eminent archaeologists and historians 
 give it as their opinion that these, in the elder and 
 more civilized nations, were the corruptions of a 
 purer faith ; or at least that the traditional influ 
 ence of a purer faith mingled with these in all 
 their successive transformations. " The more I 
 investigate the ancient history of the world," says 
 A. W. Schlegel, " the more I arn convinced that 
 the civilized nations set out from a purer worship 
 of the Supreme Being ; that the magic power of 
 nature over the imagination of the successive hu- 
 
 (35) 
 
36 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 man races, first at a later period, produced poly 
 theism, and finally altogether obscured the more 
 spiritual religious notions, while the wise alone 
 preserved within the sanctuary the primeval se 
 cret,* 
 
 Among all these nations, especially in the 
 writings of the poets, and in the primitive reli 
 gious or mythological traditions, scattered memo 
 rials are found of a belief in the existence and 
 moral government of God and the immortality of 
 the soul. Plutarch, in his treatise on the Isis and 
 Osiris of Egyptian worship, informs us, that " it 
 was a most ancient opinion handed down from 
 
 * Those who wish to investigate this subject are referred to 
 Cuclworth s Intellectual System, civ., passim ; the first part of 
 Warburton s Divine Legation of Moses, compared with Mosheim, 
 De Rebus ante Const, p. 17, et seq., (in Dr. Murdock s edition of 
 Vidal s Translation, pp. 20-48 ;) Neander s Church Hist. vol. i. pp. 
 5-34 ; F. W. Schlegel s Language and Wisdom of the Indians ; and 
 Mueller s Intro, to a Complete System of Mythology. With ref 
 erence to the Mysteries, see Creuzer s Symbolik ^^nd Mythologie, iv. 
 3, et seq. ; Limburg Brouwer s Histoire de la Civilisation des Grecs, 
 torn. 2, cxiv. ; Bryant s Analysis of Ancient Mythology, vol. iii. p. 
 400, et seq. Lobeck, in his celebrated A glaophcrmis JUttaiff has in 
 geniously defended a different view ; but the verdict of recent my- 
 thologists is against him. The arguments upon this subject are 
 summed up in an ingenious and eloquent article in Blackwood s 
 Mag. for February, 1853. On the opinions of the Ancient Egyp 
 tians, see Prichard s Analysis of Egyptian Mythology; as, also, 
 Kenrick s Ancient Egypt, particularly vol. i. pp. 302, 306. Meiners, 
 in his too highly-estimated work entitled Hist. Doctrine de Deo Vero, 
 has maintained that the heathen received their first idea of the true 
 God from Athanagoras ; but his reasoning is one-sided and unsat 
 isfactory. The views of Neander, Schleiermacher and the later Ger 
 man theologians arc much nearer the truth. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 37 
 
 legislators and divines to poets and philosophers, 
 the author of it entirely unknown, but the belief 
 of it indelibly established not only in tradition 
 and the talk of the common people, but in the 
 mysteries and sacred offices of religion, both 
 amongst Greeks and barbarians spread all over 
 the face of the earth, that the universe was not 
 upheld fortuitously, without mind, reason, or a 
 governor to preside over its affairs." 
 
 This is especially true of the Egyptians, Chal 
 deans, Assyrians, and probably the Hindoos, as 
 also, to some extent, of the elder Greeks and 
 Romans. Zeus himself, (from the verb signify 
 ing to live*) the head of the Olympian conclave, 
 is but a corruption, as the name imports, of the 
 one "living" and eternal Jehovah, the basis of 
 which undoubtedly is, the " I am that I am," or 
 Tlie Existing- One of Moses, " King of kings and 
 Lord of lords." Occasionally, in the Greek dra 
 matists and elsewhere, he is described as the One 
 Fountain of life, " the Father of gods and men." 
 
 * This derivation is given by Plato in the Cratylus, (28.) " For 
 in reality," he says, " the name of Zeus is, so to speak, a sentence, 
 and persons dividing it into two parts, some of us make use of one 
 part, and some another; for some call him Zfjv, and some A<j; but 
 these parts, combined in one, exhibit the nature of the God, which, 
 as we have said, a name ought to do. For there is no one who, in 
 a higher sense, is the cause of life, both to us and every thing else, 
 than he who is the Ruler and King of all. It follows, therefore, 
 that this God is rightly named, through whom life is imparted to all 
 living beings." 
 
 4 
 
38 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Thus, in the Troades of Euripides, we have the 
 following: 
 
 " thou who guid st the rolling of the earth, 
 And o er it hast thy throne, whoe er thou art, 
 Most difficult to know, the far-famed Zeus, 
 Or nature s law, or reason such as man s, 
 I thee adore, that, in a noiseless path, 
 Thy steady hand with justice all things rules." 
 
 In the CEdipus Coloneus we read, 
 
 " Thou power supreme, all power above, 
 All-seeing, all-performing Jove." 
 
 But in the Philoctetes of the same poet, the earth 
 is apostrophized as the mother of all things : 
 
 " O Earth, thou mother of great Jove, 
 Embracing all with universal love." 
 
 In the Prometheus of yEschylus, the most original 
 and powerful of the Greek tragedies, Jove is de 
 scribed as a usurper. Prometheus, the half-divine, 
 half-human Sufferer and Savior, (as it were a 
 dumb prophecy of Christ,) is the true friend of 
 man. It is only by glimpses and flashes that the 
 Greek poets* give any just conceptions of a su 
 preme, all-righteous Deity. Eusebius, for ex 
 ample, in his Preparatip Ev angelica, quotes from 
 a lost tragedy of Euripides these striking words : 
 
 " Thou self-sprung being, that doth all infold, 
 And in thine arms heaven s whirling fabric hold," 
 
 reminding us of Bryant s beautiful lines, 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 39 
 
 " Whoso love doth keep 
 lu his complacent arms the earth, the air, the deep." 
 
 It is well known, however, that in all these 
 dramatists, and in the popular Greek theogonies, 
 Jupiter, the apotheosis of a Phrygian tyrant, is 
 most frequently represented as the son of Chronds, 
 (Time,) as also of Gaea, (Earth,) as controlled 
 by the Fates, as actuated by base passions, as 
 (lie usurper of a throne held by a race of elder 
 gods, as subject to violent changes, nay, as in 
 danger, some time or other, of losing his domin 
 ions. But, alas ! what can be expected from minds 
 left to the sole guidance of nature and fancy? 
 Still we discern in them all the struggles of a better 
 faith, the faint traditional gleams of a purer era.* 
 To the same effect some of the Christian fathers, 
 especially Clement of Alexandria, and Justin 
 Martyr, quote several traditionary passages from 
 Orpheus, Musaeus, the Sibylline Oracles, and 
 other Greek poems, some of which may be sup 
 posed to be genuine. Of these we translate one 
 or two specimens : 
 
 " I adjure thee by heaven, the work of the wise and great God ; 
 I adjure thee by the voice of the Father." 
 
 * Plato, it is well known, excludes the poets from his ideal republic ; 
 not that he was averse to poetry, far from it, but because some 
 of them, by their prurient fancies had corrupted the spiritual truths 
 of religion, and, by consequence, injured good morals. Hesiod is 
 sometimes charged with inventing the gods. The Orphic hymns 
 are based upon a sort of pantheism, recognizing one supreme God, 
 from whom issue both gods and men. 
 
40 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Some doubt, however, may be thrown upon the 
 genuineness, or at least the absolute antiquity, of 
 
 this. More reliable is the following: 
 *v< t n 
 
 " One God, one PUfto, one Bacchus, 
 One God in all - . "* 
 
 That from the pseudo author of the Sibylline Or 
 acles, indorsed as Justin Martyr affirms, by Plato 
 and Aristophanes as a vates, could we rely upon 
 its genuineness, is peculiarly striking. 
 
 " One God there is, (Eif fa GtSj jioroj,) alone, great, uncreated, 
 Omnipotent, invisible, seeing all, 
 Himself unseen by mortal flesh." f 
 
 We will not, indeed, urge these as absolute 
 authorities upon the point in question ; still they 
 are fair specimens of many similar expressions 
 which were afloat in the current traditionary lit 
 erature of Greece. Of the authors of these the 
 profound Heraclitus, five hundred years before 
 Christ, had said, " Their unadorned, earnest 
 words, spoken with inspired mouth, reached 
 through a thousand years." The passages from 
 the elder Greek poets quoted in the DC Monar- 
 chia of Justin s works are equally striking, and 
 certainly more reliable, as most of them can be 
 
 * In striking correspondence with this was the ancient Greek in 
 scription on the Egyptian obelisk in the Circus Major at Rome : 
 Meya? O^oj Oloycvvi iro; trafi(piyyt]s the great God, the Bec/ottcn of 
 God, and the all-radiant One. 
 
 f Opera Justini Martyr is, (Otto s ed.) pp. 5&-5o. Compare what 
 he says in the De Monarchia, p. 125, et seq. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 41 
 
 verified by reference to the originals.* Cudworth, 
 who justly rejects a large proportion of the col 
 lection called the Sibylline Oracles, as " a useless 
 farrago," quotes the following as genuine, from 
 the works of Pausanias : 
 
 "Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be, great Zeus." f 
 
 In a word, it can be proved beyond a doubt, that 
 the Greeks, as well as some of the neighboring 
 nations, did occasionally recognize the existence 
 of some supreme Numen, Governor or Spirit of 
 the universe, and that the idea was taken up, and 
 in some cases vindicated, by their philosophers. 
 
 Xenophanes, one of the early philosophical 
 rhapsodists, and founder of what is called the 
 Eleatic school, exclaims, with wonderful clearness 
 and force, 
 
 * Most of the Orphic and Sibylline hymns are regarded by schol 
 ars as spurious. Many of them were undoubtedly invented by the 
 Neo-Platonists of Alexandria. It is certain, however, that some of 
 them, in a more or less perfect form, were afloat, as traditionary 
 fragments, in the common literature of Greece, and that several of 
 these were quoted or referred to by Greek classic writers as early as 
 the days of Plato. Orpheus is spoken of by them as a sort of 
 " inspired thcologcr." The best edition of the Orphic poems is that 
 of Hermann. The question of their antiquity has been thoroughly 
 discussed by Bode, in his prize essay on this subject. On the 
 Sibylline Oracles, an admirable article may be found in the Christian 
 Review for March, 1848. Compare Neander s Ch. History, i. 177. 
 
 f Works, vol. i. p. 382. The quotation from Pausanias reminds us 
 of the inscription on the temple of Tseitha in Egypt, as reported 
 by Plutarch, (De Isid. ct Osi.,) "Eyw tim nav TO -/eyovos xal ov KO. 
 taopoivov, etc. 
 
 4* 
 
42 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 " There s but one God alone, the greatest of gods and of mortals, 
 Neither in body to mankind resembling, neither in ideas.* 
 
 Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, though be 
 wildered by the duality of the universe, and the 
 apparent duality in the nature of the infinite mind, 
 yet taught that God, as essence, is one ; that he is 
 present in all things, governing the world ; and 
 that from him our souls derive their origin. They 
 taught also, though in the form of metempsy 
 chosis, the immortality of the human soul, as 
 well as the reality and eternity of virtue.f 
 
 It is a generally received opinion that the great 
 philosophical writers of Greece derived some of 
 their loftiest notions from Egypt and the East. 
 The philosophy of Plato, whatever its origin, is 
 but a combination of the Grecian and Oriental 
 minds. The acknowledgment of one Supreme 
 and eternal Deity, by him and others, is not so 
 much a speculation as an intuition, if not a tra 
 dition from India or Egypt ; perhaps from Judea 
 itself. Be this, however, as it may, the German 
 critics are right when they designate the philos 
 ophy of Plato as at once " speculative " and 
 
 * Hitter Hist, of An. Ph. vol. i. p. 432. The quotation is from 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, and is as follows : 
 
 E?j 0fo? tv TC Qtolai Kai ivQpianoifft [icyicros, 
 OVTI (^f^iaj di TjTotai OVCE voTj^a. 
 
 t Cicero, De Natura Dcorum, i. 11. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 43 
 
 " traditional." He himself demands assent to it, 
 mainly on the ground of its being aoytu Ofonugu- 
 doTo^ God-given wisdom. 
 
 Socrates, indeed, gives proofs from adaptation 
 and design, after the manner of Cicero and Paley, 
 for the existence and moral government of God ; 
 after all, it is evident that the idea existed in his 
 mind, and in the mind of Plato before the proofs 
 referred to were cited in argument* These rev 
 erent and lofty souls caught the grand idea as it 
 floated upon the stream of time, amid the frag 
 ments of a primeval revelation. They found it, 
 indeed, connatural to their own reason ; but they 
 did not claim it as an original or independent 
 thought, which had sprung up spontaneously in 
 their mind, or had been excogitated by specula 
 tion and argument.f 
 
 * In the Platonic dialogxies the existence of God is generally as 
 sumed, or based upon, an original intuition. Plato, if called upon 
 for a proof, wotild refer to the very nature of being and thought, as 
 essential, immutable realities. 
 
 Socrates, in Xenophon, refers to adaptation and design. See 
 Xenophon s Mem. lib. i. c. iv. 
 
 f The ancient fathers, Justin Martyr, Cyril, Tertullian, and 
 others, constantly affirm that Plato derived many of his ideas of 
 God from the writings of Moses. After having quoted the celebrat 
 ed passage from the Tiin&us, " that to know the Father and Maker 
 of all is very difficult, nor, having found him, is it safe to tell to all 
 persons," Justin Martyr (Cohortatio ad Graces, c. 22) adds, 
 " When Plato had learned these things in Egypt, and had been 
 greatly delighted with what was said concerning the one God, he 
 did not think it safe to mention the name of Moses, a teacher of the 
 one and only God, being in fear of the Areopagus." (Opera, vol. i. 
 j, r.\ -v TV*,, ^y.y v s taken for what it is worth ; we cite it as cupous. 
 
,44: CHKIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 The Deity, as recognized by the Stoics, though 
 frequently approaching the nature-divinity of pan 
 theism, had sublime attributes, as the well-known 
 hymn of Cleanthes strikingly testifies. It sounds 
 like the echo, or the refrain, of a purer faith.* 
 Yet, generally speaking, the God of the Stoics 
 is represented by them as "devouring his own 
 offspring," (a truly pantheistic conception,) and 
 thus assuming the character of a blind, inexorable 
 power, to whom, willing or unwilling, they must 
 submit. They doubted, sometimes denied, the 
 immortality of the soul, the consequence of which 
 often was a mournful despair, under the influence 
 of which Cleanthes himself committed suicide. 
 Others regarded themselves as equal to God. 
 and, like Prometheus, defied his power. A few 
 only submitted gracefully to their destiny, giving 
 back what they had received from the All. But 
 amid all their speculations gleamed the central 
 idea of the unity and eternity of God ; and it is 
 this which gives such grandeur to some of their 
 expressions, and its fine moral charm to the hymn 
 of Cleanthes. 
 
 A similar and perhaps more striking instance 
 of this primitive, perhaps foreign, element in the 
 religion of Greece is from the poet Aratus, as 
 
 * How grand and striking the commencement : 
 Kt 6ior aQavaTM, TroAuwviy/s xayxpaTf j alti, 
 
 XaTps. 
 
ANCIENT KliLIGlON. 45 
 
 quoted by St. Paul, in bis address before the 
 Athenian Areopagus, on which occasion the 
 great apostle recognizes the religious spirit in- 
 crusted by superstition, even in their heathen 
 cultus. He declares unto them "the unknown 
 God, whom," says he, "ye ignorantly worship." 
 It appears that Eudoxus of Cnidus, a contempo 
 rary of Plato, about 370 years before Christ, sent 
 forth a description of the face of the heavens, 
 containing the names and characters of the con 
 stellations recognized in his day. Though this 
 production has perished, a poetical paraphrase 
 of it was made by Aratus, a Cilician, and prob 
 ably a native of Tarsus ; and this is the poem 
 from which St. Paul quotes. It opens with a 
 statement of the dependence of all things upon 
 Zeus, whose children all men are, and who has 
 given the stars as the guides of agriculture: 
 
 " With Jove (Zeus) we must begin, nor from him rove, 
 Him always praise ; for all is full of Jove ! 
 He fills all places where mankind resort, 
 The wide-spread sea, with every sheltering port. 
 Jove s presence fills all space, upholds this ball ; 
 All need his aid, his power sustains us all ; 
 For we his offspring are,* and he in love 
 Points out to man his labor from above, 
 Where signs unerring show where best the soil 
 By well-timed culture shall repay our toil." 
 
 * The original expression is row yap KOI y/voj iffplv. Similar ex 
 pressions may be found in Plato. See the passage respecting the 
 creation of man, as translated by Cicero, quoted in Knapp s Theo. 
 p. 197. 
 
46 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 It is questionable, indeed, whether Aratus felt 
 the full force of his own words. They probably 
 convey to us a far sublimer conception than ever 
 dawned upon his mind. For the fact is, while 
 gleams of diviner light occasionally flashed upon 
 some of the Grecian intellects, most of them were 
 far from realizing the spiritual unity and su 
 premacy of the all-comprehending Spirit. Their 
 religion was only a poetical, often a very licen 
 tious nature-worship, in the form of polytheism. 
 Their gods were seldom better, often vastly 
 worse, than themselves.* 
 
 By a natural process of deterioration, the 
 primitive and purer worship, in all nations, was 
 gradually merged in superstition. Those unde 
 fined feelings which mankind naturally cherish 
 towards some superior power were transferred 
 either to symbolic representations, or to material 
 objects. The principles and forms of idolatry, at 
 first few and simple, were gradually multiplied. 
 The system was invested with greater pomp, and 
 modified by more numerous and elaborate cere 
 monies. The knowledge of the true God grew 
 dim, and was all but effaced from the minds of 
 men. Only its image or echo remained. A 
 vague but still sublime impression of " something 
 far more deeply interfused," a " motion" and a 
 
 * Sec Grotc s History of Greece, vol. i. pp. 3-19. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 47 
 
 " presence," vast and mysterious, dwelling in the 
 light of setting suns, whispering in hoary woods 
 and mountain solitudes, or residing, in supreme 
 but hidden grandeur, above the blue concave, 
 amid radiant suns and constellations, led them 
 to seek emblems of the Deity in the more bril 
 liant and magnificent forms of nature. Nature, 
 indeed, was substituted for God. The fragment 
 was taken for the whole ; the world for the 
 world s Creator and Lord ; the life, the beauty, 
 the motion for the great and eternal Spirit from 
 whom they spring. The motions and uses, 
 especially of the heavenly bodies, were observed. 
 They were supposed to exert a baleful or benig 
 nant influence not only upon the earth, but upon 
 the soul and destiny of man. They seemed the 
 very eyes of God, or of the Gods ; nay, more, the 
 very power and presence of uncreated glory, 
 burning, with unconsuming fires, in the depths 
 of " the eternal night." 
 
 Besides, it is natural to give outward form and 
 expression to inward feelings and conceptions, to 
 symbolize, in permanent shape and image, ab 
 stract principles and modes of being. Hence the 
 language of signs, of hieroglyphs, and emblems, 
 common to all the ruder nations. Hence the sym 
 bols even of the Holy Scriptures, the signs and 
 ceremonies of the old temple worship among the 
 
48 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 spiritual Hebrews.* Mr. Layard thinks that the 
 magnificent, winged, lion- headed, and human- 
 headed animals, excavated from the ruins of 
 Nineveh, were emblems of the attributes and 
 perfections of the old Assyrian deities. 
 
 " What more noble forms," says he, " could 
 have ushered the people into the temple of their 
 gods ? What more sublime images could have 
 been borrowed from nature by men who sought, 
 unaided by the light of revealed religion, to em 
 body their conception of the wisdom, power, and 
 ubiquity of a Supreme Being? They could find 
 no better type of intellect and knowledge than 
 the head of a man of strength, than the body 
 of a lion of rapidity of motion, than the wings 
 of a bird. These winged, human-headed lions 
 were not idle creations, the offspring of mere 
 fancy. They had awed and instructed races 
 which flourished three thousand years ago. 
 Through the portals which they guarded, kings, 
 priests, and warriors had borne sacrifices to their 
 altars long before the wisdom of the East had 
 penetrated to Greece, and had furnished its 
 
 * The Jews were not forbidden the use of symbols as such, but only 
 of idolatrous images ; that is, of idols or figures representing the 
 divinity. Their whole history, temple service, and even domestic 
 rites, were symbolic. The cherubim above the mercy seat symbolized 
 the divine attributes. It is not symbols, but symbol-worship, or 
 idolatry proper ; that is to say, the substitution for the eternal God 
 of outward forms, or created beings, which is so abhorrent to the 
 pure Theism of the Bible. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 49 
 
 mythology with symbols long recognized by the 
 Assyrian votaries." * 
 
 But man unregenerate has earthly and carnal 
 tendencies. He speedily loses the knowledge of 
 the spiritual and eternal. Thence, in process of 
 time, among all the ancient nations, the sign 
 assumed the place of the thing signified-! God 
 was forgotten, while his image remained. Prin 
 ciples were lost, but emblems and usages con 
 tinued. The outer aspects and forces of nature 
 were deified and adored. These, again, by an 
 easy descent into error, came to be considered 
 as separate powers ruling over the various de 
 partments of the universe. In this way the 
 primitive form of idolatrous worship was the 
 adoration of the earth and the blue concave with 
 its innumerable fires, and especially the sun, 
 moon, and brighter planets, perhaps as the sym 
 bols of the Divinity, then as the real aspects and 
 attributes of his nature, and finally as separate 
 gods. Artificial emblems of these, in their turn, 
 were formed, either by means of painted or of 
 sculptured images ; and thus, in succeeding ages, 
 the Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva of Hindoo 
 
 * Nineveh, vol. i., p. 69. 
 
 f- Doubtless there were, in all, individual exceptions. The influ 
 ence of tradition, of natural reason and conscience, and the secret 
 working of the divine Spirit, not entirely withheld from the heathen, 
 preserved in devout hearts the worship of the one true God. 
 
 5 
 
50 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 mythology the ancient Belus or Baal of Chal 
 dean and Phoenician worship the Moloch or 
 fire-god, Ashtaroth or Astarte, the moon-god, and 
 Remphan, the star-god of Canaan and the neigh 
 boring countries the Osiris or sun-god of 
 Egypt with the Jupiter and Apollo (Phoebus 
 or the sun-god) of Greek and Roman supersti 
 tion, took the place of the more simple and 
 beautiful objects of early adoration.* 
 
 If Layard has given us the true import of the 
 ancient Assyrian images, they had lost it as 
 early as the days of the Hebrew prophets, who 
 justly represent the Assyrians as abject idol 
 aters. Various monuments on the Assyrian 
 sculpture even now prove that they adored the 
 powers of nature and " the host of heaven." If 
 they had any conception of a supreme Divinity, 
 he was probably regarded only as the first among 
 many. The sun was the principal object of 
 Chaldean worship, originally, we doubt not, as 
 the symbol of Jehovah, but subsequently " in 
 and for itself," as Baal or Belus, whence the 
 Greek Apollo (inioc) or the sun-god, correspond 
 ing, in a remarkable degree, to the sun-god 
 of ancient Peru.f The magnificent bull-god 
 
 * Bitter, Hist. An. Ph. i. p. 81, and F. W. Schlegel s Ph. of 
 Hist. pp. 214-227. 
 
 t Sec Prcscott s Conquest of Peru. Introductory account of 
 Peruvian civilization. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 51 
 
 with human head and spreading wings, less 
 appropriate and beautiful than the sun-god with 
 streaming rays, or in the form of a majestic, 
 irradiated man, the Apollo of later times, was 
 probably the symbol of divine power ; but the 
 symbol itself, in the worship of the people, as 
 the calf in the Hebrew idolatry, doubtless, took 
 the place of the true and eternal Jehovah. 
 "These be thy gods " thy Elohim, or God, 
 symbols of thy God, " O Israel ! " In all the 
 tombs and temples of Assyria and Chaldea, and 
 even of Nubia and Egypt, are sculptured repre 
 sentations and inscriptions of these divinities 
 " the chambers of imagery " seen by Ezekiel in 
 his prophetic visions. 
 
 The process of change and deterioration to 
 which we have referred is strikingly developed 
 in Egyptian history. We find among them, in 
 the first place, some vague idea of a Supreme 
 Being, with attributes of omnipotence and eter 
 nity, to whom all things are referred, and who 
 was too holy to be named by any one except 
 the priests, finally figured on all the sculptures 
 as the Sun-god, whence the term Phre or Phra, 
 and thence Pharaoh, the emperor or Caesar of 
 Egypt, who derived his power from the Divin 
 ity, and who, in his absolute dominion, mirrored 
 the might and supremacy of the eternal Sun.* 
 
 * Sir Gardner Wilkinson says that the Hebrew Phra is taken 
 from the Egyptian word pire, or phre, signifying the sun, and rep- 
 
52 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 This supreme and " hidden " God was Amun, 
 afterwards called Zeus, or Jupiter Ammon, sym 
 bolically represented under the figure of a ram, 
 with the disk of the sun upon his head, to indi 
 cate that he is the God of the sun, as that lu 
 minary enters the sign of the Ram.* In Egyp 
 tian theogony, Amun is represented as manifest 
 ing himself through Phtha, the god of light or 
 fire, in the creation of the world, and thus form 
 ing gods and men. The government of the 
 universe, under him, is committed to twelve prin 
 cipal gods, each of whom has for his symbol 
 one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, with three 
 attendants or satellites, and these again with 
 their attendants, and so on in succession, until 
 the last class of subordinates amount to three 
 hundred and sixty. These, with various orders 
 of demons, good and bad, preside over the earth 
 and heavens, and so divide the year. Hence the 
 study of astrology, to which the Egyptians and 
 other ancient nations were so much addicted-! 
 
 According to this system men are the em- 
 resented in hieroglyphics by the hawk and globe, or sun, over the 
 royal banner. Egypt, &c., by Dr. Hawks, p. 101. 
 
 * Whence Heliopolis, the sacred city of the sun. 
 
 f We ought to state here that the latest authorities deny the 
 general prevalence of any one system of religion in Egypt. It 
 would appear that various gods were worshipped in different parts 
 of the country. Polytheism must have been prevalent at a very 
 early period. See upon this subject Kenrick s Ancient Egypt, vol. 
 j. p. 305. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 53 
 
 bodied spirits of a higher order of beings, who, 
 prompted by curiosity, formerly passed the bound 
 aries of the celestial spheres, and received cor 
 poreal frames from the god Hermes. Falling 
 into discontent and misery, they lost their prim 
 itive purity, and became a burden to the earth 
 and elements, who complained of them to their 
 creator. Pitying them, he sent Osiris and Isis 
 upon the earth to redeem them. 
 
 Hence followed the sensual worship of Osiris as 
 the sun, and Isis as the moon, generative powers 
 of nature, with Typhon, the serpent or destroyer. 
 Osiris was regarded as the tutelar deity of the 
 Egyptians, and his spirit or soul was supposed 
 always to inhabit the body of the bull Apis, a 
 black animal with a white spot like a triangle 
 on his forehead, another resembling a crescent on 
 his right side, and under his tongue a lump or 
 protuberance, somewhat resembling a beetle. 
 
 Thus beast- worship became universal in Egypt ; 
 for the symbolic meaning of the bull-god was 
 known only to the priests. 
 
 Such a system, of course, readily mingled with 
 the lowest forms of fetichism, springing spon 
 taneously from the soil, or introduced into Egypt 
 from the neighboring countries. So that we 
 finally find throughout the land a monstrous and 
 degrading worship of all sorts of gods in the heav 
 ens above, and in the earth beneath, and in the 
 5* 
 
54 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 waters under the earth cats, serpents and other 
 reptiles, plants and flowers, rivers and fountains 
 of waters, and especially the old prolific Nile with 
 its ibises and crocodiles. 
 
 " Among the Egyptians," says Clement of Al 
 exandria, " you find temples and porticoes, and 
 vestibules and sacred groves ; their halls are sur 
 rounded with numberless columns ; the walls are 
 resplendent with foreign stones and beautiful 
 paintings ; the temples are brilliant with gold and 
 silver, and amber and many-colored gems from 
 India and Ethiopia, while the adyta are curtained 
 with gold embroidered hangings ; but if you go 
 into the deep interior of the place, and eagerly 
 seek to see what you suppose will be most worth 
 your attention, the statue which occupies the 
 temple, a priest of dignified aspect, from among 
 those who offer sacrifice in the most holy place, 
 singing a paean in the Egyptian tongue, lifts the 
 veil a little aside, as if to show the god ; then you 
 find occasion for hearty laughter ; for instead of 
 the god you are seeking, you will find but a cat, 
 a crocodile, a serpent of the country, or some 
 other beast worthy only of some cavern, den, or 
 marsh, rolling upon purple coverlets!" 
 
 The vast and monstrous superstitions of the 
 
 * Psedagog. lib. iii. c. 2. For further information on the subject 
 of Egyptian superstition, see Pritchard s Analysis of Egyptian 
 Mythology, Iconographic Cyclopedia, vol. iv., art. Mythology; 
 
AXCIENT RELIGION. 55 
 
 Hindoo mythology are founded upon material 
 pantheism, or nature-worship. Brahm, the su 
 preme deity, written in the neuter gender to in 
 dicate his negative character, being simple exist 
 ence without consciousness or will, all at once 
 becomes prolific, and distributes himself " lying 
 on eternity and the stars." The gods Brahma, 
 Vishnu, and Shiva are the result, being the cre 
 ating, preserving, and destroying powers of Brahm 
 or the Universe, adored, however, as separate and 
 even contending divinities. Indeed, all things 
 are deified in the Brahminic faith, men and dev 
 ils, sun, moon, and stars, all mountains and val 
 leys, all seas and streams, all hills and groves, all 
 plants and animals, all insects and reptiles. These, 
 in fact, are but the natural development of the 
 supreme divinity. All the powers of nature, 
 male and female, are adored with appropriate 
 rites. Vice itself is deified and adored in end 
 less forms, and the result is universal superstition, 
 universal beast-worship ; we might add vice- 
 worship, for Kalee, the goddess of murder, has 
 myriad votaries. The Thugs or Stranglers are 
 her sedulous devotees. They murder as an act 
 of devotion. 
 
 In Brahminism the most hideous ceremonies, 
 
 Jablonsky s Pantheon JEgyptiorum ; Wilkinson s Manners of the 
 Ancient Egyptians ; De Pamv, Recherches Philosophiques sur les 
 Egyptiens et ks Chiiiois ; Kenrick s Egypt under the Pharaohs. 
 
56 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and even the most revolting crimes, are strangely 
 mingled with sublime imaginings and thrilling 
 fancies. God, as the absolute, is the beginning 
 and end of all, an echo and exaggeration of the 
 truth, but in this system a monstrous error. " His 
 oneness," say the Shastres, "is so absolute, that 
 it not only excludes the possibility of any other 
 god, coordinate and subordinate, but excludes the 
 possibility of aught else, human or angelic, mate 
 rial or immaterial." Thence he is conceived not 
 only as in all and through all, but as positively 
 and exclusively All, whether sun or star, weed or 
 flower, reptile or man, vice or virtue. " Possessed 
 of innumerable heads," says one of the Vedas, 
 written, according to Sir William Jones, 1500 
 years before Christ, and according to Mr. Cole- 
 brooke even earlier than that, " innumerable eyes, 
 innumerable feet, Brahm fills the heavens and 
 earth ; he is whatever was, whatever will be ; he 
 is the source of universal motion ; he is the light 
 of the moon, the sun, the fire, the lightning. The 
 Veda is the breath of his nostrils, the primary 
 elements are his sight, the agitation of human 
 affairs is his laughter, his sleep is the destruction 
 of the universe. In different forms he cherishes 
 his creatures ; in the form of air he preserves 
 them, in the form of water he satisfies them, in 
 the form of the sun he guides them in the affairs 
 of life, and in that of the moon he refreshes them 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 57 
 
 in sleep ; the progression of time forms his foot 
 steps ; all the gods to him are as sparks of fire. 
 To him I bow, I bow." 
 
 Hence a return to Brahm, the silent, the un 
 conscious, the eternal, becomes the dream and 
 desire of all. Utter absorption is the longing of 
 the Brahmin and the Soudra, the philosopher and 
 the peasant, the saint and the sinner. Through 
 countless migrations from body to body, he hopes 
 at last to reach the abyss.* 
 
 In Budhisrn the idea of the divine seems all 
 but lost ; but this, we doubt not, was its original 
 foundation ; though now the majority of its vota 
 ries deny the existence of an eternal, that is, of 
 a conscious, ever-living God, and long for abso 
 lute nigban, annihilation or absorption. Gauda- 
 ma, or Budh, was once on earth, but passing away 
 has himself reached annihilation, or the Burchan 
 state. Budh, indeed, is properly a generic term, 
 meaning the divinity, while Gaudama (among 
 the Burmans, particularly) is the name of their 
 last Budh, regarded by some of the Hindoos as 
 the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, the same, there- 
 
 * For a brief popular account of the Hindoo religion, see F. D. 
 W. Ward s India and the Hindoos, pp. 267-277. Those who de 
 sire more extended information must consult Colebrooke s Essay, 
 Miscellanies, &c., Sir William Jones s Works, Ward s View of 
 the Hindoos, and The Journal of the Asiatic Society. Compare 
 Van Bohlen s Das AUcIndien, and A. W. Sehlcgel on the Bhagavad 
 Gita. 
 
58 crnusT IN HISTORY. 
 
 fore, as Krishna, who is supposed to have lived 
 about the sixth century before Christ. Among 
 the Burmans and others, he is simply a deified 
 man, who has attained nigban. They expect 
 another Budh many thousand years hence; in 
 the mean while, they worship only images, and 
 literally have no god.* Here, then, amid forms 
 and beliefs, which at first sight appear atheistic, 
 we have the indestructible longing after absolute 
 and eternal Being, which, in its reality, is God. 
 The return to the All is but the dim shadow, per 
 haps the fatal corruption of the sublime idea of 
 the soul s return to the " Father of spirits." It 
 would seem, indeed, as if the entire Oriental mind 
 revolved around this idea, and longed, blindly 
 and instinctively, for this ineffable result. After 
 all, their Burchan state is not absolute extinction, 
 but impersonal repose in the bosom of God. 
 
 Another great element of the faith of the Orien 
 tals, which we find in many diversified forms, is the 
 possible coming of God to man, as well as the 
 
 * Malcora s Travels, vol. i. pp. 211-248. Mr. Malcom endeavors 
 to show that Budhism is older than Brahminism. But his arguments 
 are not satisfactory. The probabilities are all in favor of its being 
 the last result of material pantheism. It exists in different forms 
 among the nations of Farther India. The best axithorities represent 
 it as a branch or a shoot of Brahminism. Its essential principle, 
 namely, absorption, after endless changes, in Brahm, or the All, is 
 the same. See Hitter, Hist, of An. Ph. i. p. 93 ; see also the second 
 part of F. W. Schcgel s Language and Wisdom of the Indians ; 
 Icon. Cyclo. vol. iv. p. 233. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 59 
 
 possible return of man to God. The idea of God s 
 becoming man, and man s becoming God, is the 
 mystic circle in which all their thoughts revolve. 
 Nothing is more familiar to their minds than the 
 possibility of divine incarnations, and the con 
 sequent possibility of human transformations. 
 Somehow, God and man, the infinite and the 
 finite spirit, must become one. 
 
 Is not this, too, in reality, the basis of all our 
 western religions ? Nay, is it not the very essence 
 of all religion, as a spiritual power intended to 
 restore man to the lost image of God, and thus 
 make him one with God ? The western mind 
 indeed clings to the great fact of personality, 
 maintaining not only the personality of man, but 
 the personality of God ; but it recognizes the pos 
 sibility of interior and eternal unity, and conse- 
 cjuently easily adopts the doctrine of a divine 
 incarnation, and on the basis of this, the idea of 
 a human transformation. Hence " the incarna 
 tion" and "the new birth" are the fundamental 
 and most profoundly cherished truths of Chris 
 tianity. 
 
 In a word, from his very nature man longs for 
 some special manifestation of God, in such form 
 as he can appreciate, and on the ground of this, 
 for some sacred and eternal union with the Source 
 of being and happiness. He must have a Re 
 deemer and a heaven ; in default of which he 
 
60 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 invents his Brahmas, his Krishnas and Osirises, 
 his " lords many and gods many," his Nigbans 
 and Burchans, his Mount Merus and Elysian 
 Fields. 
 
 This, however, by the way, for our sketch is 
 not yet completed. What remains we reserve 
 for another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE, OR CHRIST IN ANCIENT 
 RELIGION. 
 
 ONE of the most interesting and well-devel 
 oped religions of the ancient world, the remains 
 of which yet linger in many parts of Asia, es 
 pecially in Persia, is that of the Zend-Avesta, 
 (Fire-kindler, or Living Word,) the sacred book 
 of the Parsees, or ancient fire- worshippers. Con 
 siderable dispute exists as to the primitive form 
 of this religion, and some apparently well- 
 grounded doubts have been cast upon the genu 
 ineness of the Zend-Avesta. Many learned men, 
 however, allow it, in the main, to be the work or 
 compilation of their great religious teacher, Zer- 
 dusht, or Zoroaster, who is supposed to have flour 
 ished before the time of Cyrus. Still the work 
 is fragmentary, consisting mainly of occasional 
 institutes, prayers, and other liturgical forms. 
 Those most competent to form an opinion say 
 that it has the appearance of a work consisting 
 of some original materials, with successive ad 
 ditions and emendations. It was brought origi 
 nally from India by Anquetil Du Perron, by whom 
 6 ( 61 ) 
 
64 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Existence without Bounds*) who, like the Brahm 
 of Indian pantheism, seems to be impersonal and 
 incomprehensible, and yet has some features akin 
 to the One Eternal Jehovah of the Hebrew Scrip 
 tures. He is represented as the great primal 
 Cause or Creator, but appears, as Gibbon and 
 others have observed, rather as a metaphysical 
 abstraction (like the celebrated Das Nichts of 
 Hegel) than as an active and presiding deity. 
 Hence the series of emanations, spiritual and 
 material, divine and demoniac, to which the 
 supposition gives rise. 
 
 It differs, however, from pantheism, in being a 
 system of dualism ; though, we confess, the 
 dualism is lost in what metaphysicians would 
 call the principle of a higher identity; so that, 
 as all things flow from unity and perfection, all 
 return thither again. From the original source 
 of existence, according to the Zend-Avesta, sprang 
 Ormuzd and Ahriman, the one representing the 
 principle of good, the other representing the prin 
 ciple of evil. These, though sometimes spoken 
 of as created by the Supreme Deity, after all are 
 but the development, as we understand it, of 
 absolute and eternal being. Both, indeed, at first 
 
 * Du Perron and Klcukcr translated it " Time without Bounds." 
 Van Bohlen says that it is analogous to the Sanscrit, Sarvam Aka- 
 ranam, the Uncreated Whole. Fred. W. Schlegel translates the 
 equivalent expression as Unum Indivisibi/e, Indivisible One. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 65 
 
 were good ; but Ahriman, through envy or some 
 other cause, fell into sin, and became the repre 
 sentative and agent of evil. Sometimes he is 
 spoken of as bad from the beginning, and only 
 suffered to come into existence ; but in a legend 
 ary system like this we must expect some in 
 congruities. The idea of the One God being 
 gradually lost, or retained as a mere metaphysical 
 entity, Ormuzd and Ahriman were worshipped 
 as the supreme divinities, from whom are all 
 beings and all things, good and bad. Hence the 
 dualism and contest of the universe ; but Ormuzd, 
 being regarded as superior to Ahriman weakened 
 by sin, Ormuzd will finally obtain the victory, 
 and introduce an eternal reign of righteousness 
 and peace. 
 
 Ormuzd is pure, eternal light, the fount of all 
 beauty and perfection. He created, through 
 Honover, from an ethereal substance, (like the 
 Hyle of Plato,) the source of air and water, the 
 whole universe, and completed his work in six 
 periods. At first he created his own dwelling, 
 the heaven of light, and the pure spirits who 
 occupy it. From him are the Amschaspands, 
 good angels and spirits, of whom there are dif 
 ferent orders, a sort of angelic or divine hierarchy, 
 of which Ormuzd is chief. One of these is lord 
 of the empire of light, king of the universe, and 
 dispenser of all happiness ; another is the genius 
 6* 
 
66 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of fire ; another the lord of splendor and metals ; 
 another the source of all fmitfulness ; another the 
 genius of water and of time ; and another pro 
 tector of the vegetable world, and the cause of 
 growth in all living things. 
 
 In the second class of spirits which he created 
 are the Izeds, of whom there are twenty-eight of 
 both sexes, presiding over the elements and all 
 pure things. Among, these Mithras, the Sun, is 
 the chief, being the source of all vivifying and 
 fructifying power. 
 
 All these, including Ormuzd, and all other 
 beings, as in the Platonic theogony, have their 
 Feruers, or types, being ideas or emanations of 
 the eternal mind embodied. These occupy the 
 world of light where Ormuzd dwells, where they 
 sparkle with ineffable light, and constitute the 
 fundamental idea of a perfect world. Every 
 emanation or creation of the great central being 
 is but the manifestation, in some palpable form, 
 of a new Feruer. Each, too, constitutes a sort 
 of divine messenger, with spreading wings, flying 
 to the protection of the good whenever invoked 
 by them. 
 
 The bad spirits, of which there are various 
 orders, superior and inferior, Devs and Archdevs, 
 the impersonations of vices, impurities, and all 
 noxious things, are from Ahriman, who created 
 a rival world, and opposed the reign of Ormuzd. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 67 
 
 In the mean while, Ahriman being confined in 
 the kingdom of darkness, Ormuzd continued to 
 create the outer world, with its suns and stars, 
 winds, clouds, and fire, mountains and seas, veg 
 etable and animal life. He created the bull 
 Abudad, from whose blood all living things have 
 sprung. 
 
 The good and happy spirits at first dwelt with 
 Ormuzd in light. All were created pure, and for 
 a long time (three thousand years) lived in happi 
 ness under Ormuzd. At last Ahriman, let loose, 
 attempted to storm the heavens, and being re 
 pulsed, attacked the earth, and killed Abudad; 
 but the body of the bull became the germ of all 
 kinds of animals and of the first man, whom also 
 the Devs put to death. Ormuzd then made a 
 plant, Reivas, " man and woman combined," 
 to grow out of the body, from which sprang, 
 at the end of fifteen years, fifteen pairs of 
 human beings, the progenitors of the present 
 race. 
 
 Disappointed in his previous failures, Ahriman 
 sought now to destroy the new-made creation. 
 He blackened the fire with smoke, formed various 
 kinds of noxious animals, and finally seduced 
 from their allegiance the human race. In course 
 of time, he gained such influence over them that 
 he led them wholly to forsake the worship of 
 
68 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Ormuzd, and join the Devs, or Devils, in all their 
 practices.* 
 
 Ormuzd, who pitied the human race, sent to 
 them his law, first by Horn, and then by Zerdusht; 
 but the people paid no regard to it, and so Ahri- 
 man remained victorious for three thousand 
 years. 
 
 Ahriman will thus continue to reign until the 
 expiration of time, when Sosiosh, the promised 
 Savior or Redeemer, will come and extinguish 
 the powers of the Devs, raise the dead, and pro 
 nounce judgment upon angels and men. A 
 
 * The following is a different form of the tradition, and striking 
 ly akin to the scriptural account of the origin and fall of man. 
 " The world itself was created dm-ing five succcessive periods, and 
 during a sixth man himself received his being. After his pro 
 duction, man enjoyed a period of innocence and happiness in an el 
 evated region, which Ormuzd had assigned him. But it was neces 
 sary to his existence in this state that he should be humble of heart, 
 and humbly obey the divine ordinances ; pure he must be of thought, 
 pure of word, pure of deed. And for a time the first pair were thus 
 holy and happy. But at last Ahriman, the Evil One, appeared and 
 beat down their good dispositions, and under the influence of his 
 glossing lies, they began to ascribe their blessings to him. Thus 
 Ahriman deceived them, and to the end will seek to deceive. Em 
 boldened by this success, Ahriman, the liar, presented himself 
 again, and brought with him fruit, of which they ate; and in 
 that instant, of a hundred excellences, which they possessed, all 
 but one departed from them, and they became subject to misery and 
 death." Another statement compresses the legend into this brief 
 myth : " Ahriman, after having dared to visit heaven, descended 
 to the earth, and approaching man in the form of a serpent, poi 
 soned him with venom, so that he died. From that time, the world 
 fell into confusion. The destroyer mingled himself with every 
 thing." 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 69 
 
 general conflagration, through the casting down 
 of the comet Gurzsher, will ensue, and the re 
 mains of the world sink downwards into Duzakh, 
 forming a place of punishment for the wicked. 
 After a long lapse of time, Ormuzd will have 
 compassion upon them, and admit to heaven 
 those who seek it by penitence and prayer. 
 Even Ahriman and the Devs, after a longer 
 period of punishment, and a proper submission 
 to Ormuzd, will be admitted to the regions of 
 eternal day. 
 
 " The kingdoms of Ormuzd and Ahriman," 
 says the Zend-Avesta, " are in continual contest 
 with one another ; but Ahriman will hereafter be 
 conquered ; the reign of darkness will be alto 
 gether at an end ; the rule of Ormuzd will be 
 universally extended ; and an all-embracing king 
 dom of light will alone remain."* 
 
 The night, with its innumerable stars, the 
 " old eternal night," as the Magians deemed it, 
 was the proper symbol of the great primal Cause, 
 and in early times, as we have seen, was an 
 object of religious homage. It was ever deemed 
 sacred by the Oriental philosophers, and was the 
 principal season of Magi an worship. But as 
 Ormuzd was the fountain of light, the sun was 
 his fittest symbol, and in the absence of the sun, 
 
 * The whole period over which the system passes is that of twelve 
 thousand years, subdivided into periods each of three thousand years. 
 
70 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the sacred fire, which they kindled and kept con 
 stantly burning under the open heavens. Other 
 symbols were used, as the chariot and horses of 
 the sun, which the ancestors of King Josiah, 
 after the example of the Mehestani, or follow 
 ers of Zoroaster, introduced into Jerusalem. The 
 sun was considered by the Mehestani the eye 
 of Ormuzd, and next to the Amschaspands, the 
 greatest of all divinities ; nay, they supposed 
 him to be the body or residence of one of them. 
 They described the chariot of the sun as being 
 of a white color, and wreathed garlands of 
 flowers. The sacred horses were white also, of 
 the Nisean breed, and four in number.* 
 
 In this way the worship of the sun, the sacred 
 fire, and other symbols, with a host of angels and 
 spirits, usurped the worship of the true God, and 
 must be recognized as a form of superstition, in 
 the end nearly as degrading as that of Jupiter 
 or Apollo. f 
 
 But how striking an image or shadow of the 
 truth this whole Magian system ! Blended with 
 errors, it yet reminds us of the great and eternal 
 principles recognized in the pure theism of the 
 Scriptures. But losing the proper conception 
 
 * Jahn s Bib. Archaeology, p. 521. 
 
 t See Hyde, Ilistoria Rdirj. Vet. Persariim ; Du Perron and 
 Kleuker on the Zend-Avesta; Rhode, Hcilige Sage der Zendvolks ; 
 Hitter s An. Ph. 1. p. 51, et seq. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 71 
 
 of the one supreme Jehovah, lapsing first into 
 nature-worship, and then into symbol-worship, 
 it serves to prove not only the indestructible 
 religious tendency of man, but his proneness to 
 idolatry, and through idolatry to sin.* Mingling 
 with astrology and magic, the religion of Zoroas 
 ter became as monstrous and bewildering as the 
 other Oriental superstitions. 
 
 Thus idolatry, with its equivalent, nature-wor 
 ship or demon-worship, was introduced and per 
 petuated among some of the most enlightened 
 nations of antiquity ; and it seems to be an ac 
 knowledged fact, that, once established in a com 
 munity, it becomes fixed there forever. Man 
 appears to possess no power to deliver himself 
 from its terrible domination. Hungering after 
 the divine, he knows it not. By a necessary 
 descent into error " he changes the glory of the 
 incorruptible God into an image made like to 
 corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed 
 beasts, and creeping things." 
 
 * By idolatry here, we do not mean the formal worship of idols, 
 from which the Parsees are free, but idolatry in its essence, which 
 is the substitution in the place of God, of any beings or things, as 
 objects of adoration. 
 
 j- The case of the Arabians under Mohammed is no exception. 
 Accepting the Old Testament revelation as to the unity of God, 
 and acknowledging the divine mission of Moses and of Christ, Mo 
 hammed availed himself of extraneous aid to banish idolatry from 
 his system. 
 
72 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 With the elements of superstition thus engen 
 dered, were mingled from time to time, both 
 among the nations of the east and of the west, 
 the ideals and fictions of poetry, the forebodings 
 of fear, and the delusions of oracular divination. 
 Every where man felt and acknowledged his 
 guilt, and longed for expiation and deliverance. 
 Victims bled upon ten thousand heathen altars. 
 Life was given for life, as an avowal of its for 
 feiture by sin. Designing men, of course, took 
 advantage of the popular belief, and dreams, 
 portents, prodigies, oracles, were rapidly accu 
 mulated. To gratify human pride, never extin 
 guished even by a sense of guilt, and yet meet 
 the natural longing for a godlike form of man, 
 as the most beautiful symbol, perhaps dwelling 
 of the divine, and especially to extend the influ 
 ence of the priesthood, heroes and sages were 
 elevated to the celestial regions and adored as 
 divinities. Nor was this so unnatural as many 
 suppose ; for who more likely to be transformed 
 into divinities than those who had done nobly 
 for their race ? Every hill, valley, and stream, 
 every house and craft, must have its tutelary god. 
 The woods were filled, as in Greece, where the 
 popular superstition was somewhat elegant and 
 cheerful, though profoundly sensual, with nymphs, 
 fauns, and satyrs ; the air was replenished with 
 genii, the ocean with nereids and tritons. All 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 1?) 
 
 nature throbbed with spiritual forms, some beau 
 tiful and good, but many dark and malignant. 
 Poetry and passion, selfishness and even lust, 
 venerable usage and the traditions of " eld," all 
 combined to consolidate and extend the bewil 
 dering error. The dim notions of a supreme 
 Numen, or Deity, to which we have referred, were 
 overborne by universal superstition. So that 
 neither in Assyria, Persia, India, Egypt, nor 
 Greece, during any historical period with which 
 the moderns are familiar, was any general or in 
 telligent worship paid to the eternal God. If 
 recognized at all, it was only as primus inter 
 pares, or as the changeless essence, the absolute 
 and incomprehensible fountain of gods and men. 
 With the single exception of " the chosen peo 
 ple," themselves at first idolaters, the whole 
 ancient world fell under the curse of idolatry, or 
 nature-worship, and instead of casting off the 
 baleful incubus, only sank, during the lapse of 
 ages, deeper and deeper into the abyss.* 
 
 Where a moral and prudential code was the 
 principal aim, as in the case of Confucius, (Con- 
 futse, or rather Chung-Tse,) the great religious 
 teacher of China, who seems to have cherished 
 but a comparatively feeble idea of an invisible 
 and eternal state, superstition elevated the master 
 to the place of God, and adopted him as " the 
 
 *" See Appendix, Note A, at the close of the volume. 
 
 7 
 
74 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 way, the truth, and the life." But Budhism, and 
 in many instances the lowest Fetichism, became 
 the prevalent superstition of the Celestial Empire.* 
 So that every where men " worshipped and 
 served the creature more than the Creator, who 
 is God over all, blessed forever." 
 
 Among the Oriental nations, grand, massive 
 and immovable, like the vast plains or lofty 
 mountain ranges of that part of the world, the 
 
 * The original religion of China was a sort of nature-worship, 
 based, as F. W. Schlegel thinks, upon the unity of God. Tian, 
 who represented the heavens, was their principal deity. Other 
 spirits, presiding over the earth, the stars, the winds, &c., with the 
 souls of deceased ancestors, were adored. Lao-Tse first reformed, 
 or perhaps corrupted, this religion, by a modification of Lamaism, 
 which he found in Thibet. He inculcated a sort of stoical indiffer 
 ence and serenity; but his system is Epicurean as a whole. It is 
 idolatrous, and yet it is sceptical. The higher classes in China arc 
 its votaries. But Chung-Tse, or Confucius, as we call him, is the 
 great teacher of the Chinese. He endeavored to bring back the 
 people to the religion of their fathers, but his chief object was to 
 inculcate moral principles, among which are sobriety, prudence, 
 reverence for superiors, justice, and obedience to the laws. He 
 recognized a great first Cause, but only as an impersonal principle, 
 or power, from which emanated Yang and Yen, the one the perfect 
 principle, and of the masculine gender, and the other the imperfect, 
 and of the feminine gender, from whom are all things. Confucius 
 forbade his followers to make images of the supreme Cause, and con 
 joined with his worship the adoration of the elements, which he 
 comprised under the name of Tien, heaven. But Confucius himself, 
 or his tablet, and deceased ancestors, are the chief objects of rever 
 ence among his followers. The great body of the people, however, in 
 cluding the emperor and court, arc Budhists. Foism, another name 
 for Budhism^ Lamaism, also a modification of Budhism, and Fetich- 
 ism, the lowest form of idolatry, are spread over the whole of India 
 bcvond the Ganges. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 75 
 
 forms of idolatry were more fixed and perma 
 nent. In Greece and Rome, and even in Egypt, 
 and some parts of Western Asia, they were quite 
 variable. The spirit of doubt and inquiry al 
 ways actuated the Grecian mind. Some of the 
 acutest intellects doubted the popular myths 
 even as early as the times of Plato and Aristotle. 
 Socrates, it is evident, though not entirely free 
 from the common influence, perhaps saw through 
 them, while recognizing their great underlying 
 truths.* He was averse, however, to the de 
 structive spirit of some of the sophists, who made 
 them a subject of ridicule. Feeling the necessity 
 of faith in a supreme Power, it was his aim, by 
 means of some of the more legitimate and beau- 
 
 O 
 
 tiful myths, to rise into a higher sphere. Plaio 
 frequently uses the vulgar superstitions as illus 
 trations of his grand and thrilling conceptions. 
 Aristotle says expressly, u It has been handed 
 down to us in a mythical form, from the remotest 
 times, that there are gods, and that the divine 
 (TO Oeiov, the divinity) compasses entire nature.f 
 All beside this has been added after the mythical 
 
 * Wo say perhaps here, for much, put into the mouth of Socrates 
 in the Platonic dialogues is to be ascribed rather to the scholar than to 
 the master. Socrates himself, as reported in Plato s Apologia, averred 
 his belief in the popular religion. In practice, he sedulously wor 
 shipped the national gods. He taught nothing inconsistent with 
 polytheism. 
 
 f The word Otiov here translated the divine, is elsewhere used by 
 Aristotle as equivalent to Oeoj, the supreme divinity. 
 
76 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 style, for the sake of persuading the multitudes, 
 and for the interest of the laws and the advan 
 tage of the state. Thus men have given to the 
 gods human forms, and have even represented 
 them under the figure of other beings, in the 
 train of which fictions followed more of the same 
 sort. But if we separate from all this the origi 
 nal principle, and consider it alone, namely, that 
 the first essences are gods, [divine,] we shall find 
 that this has been divinely said ; and since it is 
 probable that philosophy and the arts have been 
 several times, so far as that is possible, lost, such 
 doctrines may have been preserved to our times, 
 as the remains of ancient wisdom." 
 
 At last, both in Greece and in Rome, the popu 
 lar mythology lost its hold at once of the more 
 cultivated and the common intellect. The doubts 
 of the philosophers diffused themselves among 
 the vulgar. Although religion, as such, could not 
 altogether be abandoned, it is evident that the 
 people generally had outgrown the crude mytho 
 logical faith of their fathers. The conduct of 
 the gods, as well it might, became a standing 
 joke to the comic writers, and multitudes of all 
 classes fell into blank atheism. 
 
 Hence the great problem of serious and can 
 did minds was to find, either in connection with 
 
 * Quoted by Neandcr from Aristotle s Metaphysics. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 77 
 
 the myths, or back of them, some fundamental 
 ground of belief. The populace indeed fell into 
 vice, or hankered after new superstitions, but 
 thinkers and moralists longed for principles. 
 Some endeavored to rest upon the idea of a su 
 preme Cause and the immortality of the soul, 
 though both of these truths were only imperfectly 
 conceived, and not always fully realized even by 
 the best minds. Cicero himself, in his De Natura 
 Deorum, though believing in a supreme Power, 
 and affirming the necessity of religion, often 
 seems at a loss what to believe respecting the 
 gods, and refers to the perplexity of others upon 
 the same subject. His writings, while theistic 
 as a whole, abound in academic doubts. Quite 
 a number fell into a sort of natural pantheism, 
 and resigned themselves to The All, whence 
 they had come and whither they must return. 
 Stoicism, with its stern indifference, often as 
 sumed this attitude. Many strong minds lapsed 
 into despair. Denying the value of all religion 
 as superstition or fancy, they saw nothing in the 
 universe but an eternal cycle (xrfxAo.?) or circular 
 succession of changes, in which by and by they 
 must forever be ingulfed. Man appeared like 
 a vexed bubble upon the heaving tide, now in 
 sunshine, then in shadow, and anon broken 
 and forever lost. " All religion," says the elder 
 Pliny, with Epicurean scorn, " is the offspring of 
 7* 
 
76 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 style, for the sake of persuading the multitudes, 
 and for the interest of the laws and the advan 
 tage of the state. Thus men have given to the 
 gods human forms, and have even represented 
 them under the figure of other beings, in the 
 train of which fictions followed more of the same 
 sort. But if we separate from all this the origi 
 nal principle, and consider it alone, namely, that 
 the first essences are gods, [divine,] we shall find 
 that this has been divinely said ; and since it is 
 probable that philosophy and the arts have been 
 several times, so far as that is possible, lost, such 
 doctrines may have been preserved to our times, 
 as the remains of ancient wisdom." 
 
 At last, both in Greece and in Rome, the popu 
 lar mythology lost its hold at once of the more 
 cultivated and the common intellect. The doubts 
 of the philosophers diffused themselves among 
 the vulgar. Although religion, as such, could not 
 altogether be abandoned, it is evident that the 
 people generally had outgrown the crude mytho 
 logical faith of their fathers. The conduct of 
 the gods, as well it might, became a standing- 
 joke to the comic writers, and multitudes of all 
 classes fell into blank atheism. 
 
 Hence the great problem of serious and can 
 did minds was to find, either in connection with 
 
 * Quoted by Ncaudcr from Aristotle s Metaphysics. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 77 
 
 the myths, or back of them, some fundamental 
 ground of belief. The populace indeed fell into 
 vice, or hankered after new superstitions, but 
 thinkers and moralists longed for principles. 
 Some endeavored to rest upon the idea of a su 
 preme Cause and the immortality of the soul, 
 though both of these truths were only imperfectly 
 conceived, and not always fully realized even by 
 the best minds. Cicero himself, in his De Natura 
 Deomm, though believing in a supreme Power, 
 and affirming the necessity of religion, often 
 seems at a loss what to believe respecting the 
 gods, and refers to the perplexity of others upon 
 the same subject. His writings, while theistic 
 as a whole, abound in academic doubts. Quite 
 a number fell into a sort of natural pantheism, 
 and resigned themselves to The All, whence 
 they had come and whither they must return. 
 Stoicism, with its stern indifference, often as 
 sumed this attitude. Many strong minds lapsed 
 into despair. Denying the value of all religion 
 as superstition or fancy, they saw nothing in the 
 universe but an eternal cycle (fcrfxAog) or circular 
 succession of changes, in which by and by they 
 must forever be ingulfed. Man appeared like 
 a vexed bubble upon the heaving tide, now in 
 sunshine, then in shadow, and anon broken 
 and forever lost. " All religion," says the elder 
 
 Pliny, with Epicurean scorn, " is the offspring of 
 
 7 * 
 
78 CHItlST IN HISTORY. 
 
 necessity, weakness, and fear. What God is, if 
 in truth he be any thing distinct from the world, 
 it is beyond the compass of man s under 
 standing to know. But it is a foolish delusion, 
 which has sprung from human weakness and 
 pride, to imagine that such an infinite Spirit 
 would concern himself with the petty affairs of 
 men. . . . The vanity of man, and his in 
 satiable longing after existence, have led him 
 also to dream of a life after death. A being full 
 of contradictions, he is the most wretched of 
 creatures ; since the other creatures have no 
 wants transcending the bounds of their nature. 
 Man is full of desires and wants that reach to 
 infinity, and can never be satisfied. His nature 
 is a lie, uniting the greatest poverty with the 
 greatest pride. Among these so great evils, the 
 best thing God has bestowed upon man is the 
 power of taking his own life." 4 It was in this 
 temper, that Pliny was willing to perish under 
 the ashes of Vesuvius. 
 
 Others, however, could not be satisfied with 
 doub t ; and so they tried to solve, as best they 
 could, the strange enigma and contradiction of 
 human nature. They could not altogether be 
 lieve, neither could they altogether renounce reli 
 gion. Some, as Euemerus, resolved all mythology 
 
 * Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 4, apud Ncander, Ch. Hist. i. 10. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 70 
 
 into a poetical history of nature or of society ; while 
 others, like Plutarch, saw in it the corruption of 
 a purer faith, though without the power of real 
 izing fully their own grand and beautiful idea. 
 Many sought refuge in foreign opinions and 
 usages, though not with much satisfaction ; and 
 a few insisted, that, while superstitions ought 
 to be abandoned, religion, of whose divine beau 
 ty they had some conception, was good and true. 
 Seneca recommended his disciples to worship 
 the gods, as a thing due to good manners, but 
 to rely upon something else as a ground of con 
 viction and hope in reference to duty and destiny. 
 It thus came to pass that ingenuous inquirers 
 after truth hardly knew what to believe, or what 
 to disbelieve, in perusing the writings or attend 
 ing the teachings of the so called philosophers. 
 Some plunged irremediably into the prevalent 
 Epicureanism, and so lived for the hour. Others 
 committed suicide, or willingly lost their lives in 
 battle ; while others, like Clemens Romanus and 
 Justin Martyr, alternated constantly between 
 belief and unbelief, hope and despair. They went 
 from the Peripatetics to the Stoics, and from the 
 Stoics to the Platonics, but all seemed to them 
 confusion, contradiction, and doubt.* 
 
 * Is this wonderful when even Xenophanes, whose sublime ac 
 knowledgment of the one God we have already quoted, found in the 
 little he knew only doubt and difficulty ? His state of mind is strik- 
 
80 CHRIST IN HISTOIIY. 
 
 This, in fact, was the period of transition, when 
 paganism, incapable of emancipating itself, pro 
 claimed its vanity and weakness, and yet gave 
 incontestable token of " man s old eternal want." 
 
 For in all ages, amid error and superstition, cer 
 tain elder truths, certain instinctive convictions, 
 maintained their place with more or less per 
 sistence. The idea of worship, of dependence 
 upon spiritual powers, of obligation to the divine, 
 the hope or dread of a future state, figured under 
 the dream of Tartarus and the Elysian Fields, the 
 necessity of mediation and atonement, of reunion 
 and eternal life in the bosom of God, were never 
 altogether lost. Often the night was dark and 
 portentous ; but anon the everlasting stars were 
 visible in the heavens. Nay, the hope of some 
 spiritual deliverer, especially among the more 
 thoughtful nations, the longing for a divine 
 Teacher, to which reference may be found in 
 
 ingly described by Timon, the Sillograph, who puts into the mouth 
 of Xenophanes these words : 
 
 " O that mine were the deep mind, prudent, and looking to both 
 
 sides ! 
 
 Long, alas ! have I strayed on the road of error, beguiled, 
 And am now hoary of years, yet exposed to doubt and destruction 
 Of all kinds ; for, wherever I turn to consider, 
 I am lost in the One and All." 
 
 The difficulty with Xenophanes lay in his pantheism, or rather his 
 inability to distinguish between the oxi; and the ALL. See Hitter, 
 Hist, of Ph. i. 443. 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION. 81 
 
 Plato,* some mighty Redeemer, Son of God, or 
 Savior of man, developed itself, with more or 
 less significance, through the long lapse of ages. 
 The sun had not yet risen, but lights were gleam 
 ing at distant intervals, relieving the terrible 
 gloom of the long polar night, or heralding the 
 dawn of the approaching day.f 
 
 It might be desirable in this connection to trace 
 the origin and transmission of the great primeval 
 faith, scattered in " sporadic revelations," as Ne- 
 ander aptly calls them, or in traditional frag 
 ments, among all the nations, from the first Eden 
 down through the antediluvian believers, the 
 Seths and Enochs of that early time, and sub 
 sequently through the patriarchs and prophets, 
 with other saintly and priestly men of the post 
 diluvian age ; the Noahs, the Abrahams, the 
 Melchisedecs, the Jobs, and the Moseses of an 
 cient inspiration ; but this we defer for the pres 
 ent, which we do the more readily from the fact 
 that the subject is somewhat familiar to all. Our 
 knowledge of the Adamic and patriarchal ages is 
 derived exclusively from the Scriptures, whose 
 
 * In the Second Alcibiades and elsewhere. Sec Dr. Lewis s Pla 
 tonic Theology, pp. 367, 368. 
 
 f- Those who wish to see this idea carried out, and more amply dis 
 cussed, are referred to Trench s Hulsean Lectures, where the " un 
 conscious prophecies of heathenism" are cited and discussed with 
 much candor and ability. 
 
82 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 simple annals bring down the history of true re 
 ligion from its first revelation in Paradise to its 
 final establishment in the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 In the mean while we will devote a chapter to 
 the consideration of ancient philosophy, as culti 
 vated among the more enlightened heathen na 
 tions, as an element of progress, and a prepara 
 tion for Christ. 
 
CHAPTER IV.* 
 
 THE CENTRAL IDEA, OK CIIKIST IN ANCIENT 
 PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 THE human mind is under the necessity of 
 bringing all things into unity : it is itself a unit ; 
 nature therefore must appear to it as a unit, or 
 universe. Again, each man, as well as each so 
 ciety, and of course the entire race, stands, so to 
 speak, between two infinites, or two eternities ; 
 though these are only one, in which we are em 
 bosomed, like islands in a boundless sea. And 
 as nothing can happen without the supposition 
 of an adequate cause, mankind must ascribe their 
 origin to the One Supreme Power, whether named 
 Mind, Heason, Spirit, Creator, or God. 
 
 Thus man, the moment he begins to reflect 
 profoundly, finds himself pressed on all sides by 
 the idea of the Infinite and Eternal. Thought 
 presupposes and necessitates this idea. It be 
 gins with this, ends with this ; for it ever starts 
 from a limit, as it comes to a limit, beyond 
 which it must acknowledge the presence of 
 
 * This chapter, with some modifications, was published as an arti 
 cle in the January number of the Christian Review for 1853. 
 
 (83) 
 
84 CHRIST TX HISTORY. 
 
 absolute and eternal being ; precisely as a part 
 begins with a whole, ends with a whole. The 
 segment of a circle, nay, its slightest line or ra 
 dius, presupposes the existence of that circle ; 
 time presupposes eternity ; the mind of man pre 
 supposes the rnind of God. For if there be a 
 finite, there must also be an infinite mind. The 
 temporary thought of man necessitates the eter 
 nal thought of God. This is the mysterious cir 
 cle, within which, whether he sees it or not, all 
 the reasonings of man revolve. 
 
 There are those, indeed, who, in their investi 
 gations, keep assiduously within the fragmentary 
 and mechanical ; notwithstanding their inquiries 
 are always coming to a limit, beyond which may 
 be descried that infinite ocean into which they so 
 much fear to plunge. As finite rninds they lean 
 upon God and eternity, as all their science, else 
 limited and perishable, leans upon God and 
 eternity, even at the moment that they hesitate 
 to acknowledge the stupendous fact. Their 
 philosophy, however, is shallow and transient ; 
 and though liseful perhaps to material interests, 
 leaves them without any real beauty or grandeur 
 of thought. 
 
 But the great majority of thinkers will con 
 stantly transcend such narrow bounds, and press 
 the inquiry, Whence are we, and whither do ive 
 go? 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 85 
 
 This is the real origin of speculative philosophy, 
 especially in its higher range a philosophy ever 
 soliciting attention, ever attracting thinkers. The 
 ocean of thought, indeed, is boundless, and many 
 swift ships go down into its mysterious depths ; 
 nevertheless all human souls, freighted with any 
 great ideas, must sail thereupon. Shore or no 
 shore, they must adventure their all upon its 
 heaving billows. Hence one of the most interest 
 ing elements of ancient civilization, especially in 
 the more enlightened communities, is speculative 
 philosophy. Its relation to Christ, though hinted 
 at already, deserves our candid consideration. 
 
 The early fathers of the church, Justin Mar 
 tyr, Clement of .Alexandria, the author of the 
 Epistle to Diognctus, (sometimes ascribed to 
 Justin Martyr, but assigned, by Semisch and 
 Neander, to another,) Tertullian, Origen, and 
 others, while acknowledging its obvious defects, 
 allow that it embodied portions of the truth, and 
 formed a preparation for Christ. The apostle 
 Paul himself refers to the manifestation of God 
 in the mind of the heathen, as rendering them 
 "without excuse" in departing from the truth. 
 "Because that which may be known of God is 
 manifest in them ; for God hath showed it unto 
 them; for the invisible things of him from the 
 creation of the world are clearly seen, being 
 understood by the things that are made, even 
 8 
 
86 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 his eternal power and godhead ; so that they are 
 without excuse." * He affirms, indeed, in another 
 place, that "the world ,by wisdom knew not 
 God," that is, adequately and satisfactorily ; for, 
 after all, philosophy, especially in its later develop 
 ments, was a failure. It gave no rest to the weary 
 conscience of man, and left the way of life in the 
 greatest obscurity. Still it nourished a few great 
 characters, and produced a dim and often passion 
 ate longing for a higher light. Some pious and 
 learned men have even gone so far as to regard 
 Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, and some others, as a 
 sort of Christians by anticipation. So charmed 
 was Erasmus with the character of Socrates, that 
 we find him on one occasion exclaiming, Sancte 
 Socrates, ora pro nobis ! 
 
 This, doubtless, is carrying the matter too far; 
 nevertheless, it must be allowed that many of the 
 Grecian sages, considering their circumstances, 
 made some remarkable approximations to the 
 central truths of the divine unity and supremacy, 
 and the possibility, on the part of man, of union 
 and fellowship with God. In his Stromata, 
 Clement of Alexandria uses the following re 
 markable language : " Indeed, before the coming 
 of the Lord, philosophy was needful to the 
 Greeks, for the reformation of their lives; and 
 
 * Rom. chap. i. v. 19, 20. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 87 
 
 even now it is an aid to piety, supplying, as it 
 does, some rudimentary teaching for those who 
 subsequently may receive the faith upon convic 
 tion. For God is, indeed, the cause of all good 
 things, of some preeminently and directly, as of 
 the Old and New Testaments ; of others in 
 directly, by means of reason and argument ; as 
 philosophy, which he probably gave to the Greeks 
 before the Lord himself came, in order to call 
 them also to his service. For philosophy acted 
 the part of a schoolmaster to the Greeks, as the 
 law of Moses did to the Jews, for the purpose of 
 bringing men to Christ, and thus preparing the 
 way for such as were to be advanced by him to 
 perfection." * 
 
 It is well known that the philosophical systems 
 of the ancient world, often meagre, as well as 
 variant and contradictory, generally revolved 
 around the idea of the Infinite, and in their 
 higher forms recognized the existence of a 
 supreme Intelligence, and the immortality of 
 the soul.f It must not, however, be supposed 
 that speculative inquiry, in any age, grasped 
 fully these great truths, or held them for any 
 length of time with persistent consistency. 
 
 * Stromata, lib. i. c. v. 
 
 f The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, however, in their 
 view, was always associated with that of the metempsychosis. See 
 Hitter s History of Ancient Philosophy, i. p. 156. 
 
88 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 It is possible, however, that, in all ages, frag 
 ments of primitive revelation have been floating 
 about in the common mind. God has never, 
 in this respect, left himself without a witness ; 
 and who shall say that some special divine in 
 fluence may not have been exerted upon the 
 minds of certain thoughtful and virtuous men 
 among the heathen ? Still, ancient philosophy 
 never assumed any thing like a perfect or per 
 manent form, and certainly never discovered the 
 great truths of what is called " natural religion," 
 except by occasional glimpses and irradiations. 
 
 It will be allowed that the views of none ever 
 rose higher than those of Socrates and Plato. 
 In them, ancient philosophy gained its culminat 
 ing point. And yet Plato himself must have 
 regarded his inquiries as only the beginnings of 
 a speculative system. Every one, familiar with 
 his writings, must be struck with their variant 
 and fragmentary character. His modes of rea 
 soning arc far from uniform ; his opinions by no 
 means coherent. A thousand questions are started 
 without an attempt at solution. Many are left 
 purposely obscure, as if for the sake of confounding 
 inquiry.* Portions of his works are clearly myth- 
 
 * This is strikingly exemplified in the Thecctetos, where his at 
 tempts to define science seem to fail. It is true that with Flat<? 
 science is the real, the essential, the permanent; but the question 
 recurs, What is the real, the essential, the permanent ? 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 89 
 
 ical, yet how far believed by himself is an unset 
 tled question. At times he despairs of any but 
 a few philosophical spirits arriving at the truth. 
 He feels that none can reach the knowledge of 
 the absolute and ineffable Essence, from whom 
 are all things. Hence his mournful confession, 
 " To discover then the Creator and Father of 
 this universe, as well as his work, is indeed 
 difficult, and when discovered, it is impossible 
 to reveal him to mankind at large." * 
 
 Still, Plato did teach, in forms more or less 
 perfect, the existence of an infinite God, and the 
 immortality of the soul, insisting strongly and 
 often beautifully on its high capacity for virtue 
 and everlasting life. Socrates, as an interlocutor 
 in the Platonic dialogues, declares his belief of 
 this consolatory doctrine. In his last hours he 
 referred to it, and died, apparently, in the hope 
 of a better world. We say apparently, for he 
 certainly does not express the profound assur 
 ance and joyful expectation which a Christian 
 is permitted to cherish. On other occasions he 
 defends the immortality of the soul, as a specu 
 lative tenet; but here he admits the possibility 
 of a doubt. He seems like one "treading the 
 
 O 
 
 common path into the great darkness," hoping 
 to find a home, yet not knowing whether even " a 
 
 * Timeeus, c. viii. Compare Rcpub. vi. p. 508. 
 
 8* 
 
90 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 thread " of consciousness will remain " to tell 
 how still it is." 
 
 " We may hence conclude," he says, " that 
 there is great hope that death is a blessing. For 
 to die is one of two things ; for either the dead 
 may be annihilated, and have no sensation of 
 any thing whatever, or, as it is said, there is a 
 certain change and passage of the soul from one 
 place to another. And if it is a privation of all 
 sensation, as it were a sleep, in which the sleeper 
 has no dream, death would be a wonderful gain.* 
 For I think that if any one, having selected a 
 night in which he slept so soundly as not to 
 have had a dream, and having compared this 
 night with all the other nights and days of his 
 life, should be required on reflection to say how 
 many he had passed better or more pleasantly 
 than this, I think that not only a private person, 
 but the great king himself, would find them easy 
 to number, in comparison with other days and 
 nights. If, therefore, death is such a thing, I 
 say it is a gain ; for thus all futurity appears 
 only as a single night. But if, on the other hand, 
 death is a removal hence to some other place, 
 and what is said be true, that all the dead are 
 there, what greater blessing can there be than 
 this, my judges ? For if, on arriving at Hades, 
 
 * The Italics are oitrs. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 91 
 
 released from those who pretend to be judges, 
 one shall find those that are true judges, and 
 who are said to judge there, Minos and Rhada- 
 manthus, ^Eacus and Triptolemus, and such 
 others of the demigods as were just during their 
 own lives, would this be a sad removal ? At 
 what price would you not estimate a conference 
 with Orpheus and Musaeus, Hesiod and Homer ? 
 I indeed should be willing to die often, were this 
 true. Most admirable would it be for me to so 
 journ there, where I should meet those ancient 
 heroes w T ho died by an unjust sentence. The 
 comparing my sufferings with theirs would, I 
 think, be no unpleasant occupation. But the 
 greatest pleasure would be to spend my time in 
 questioning the people there as I have done those 
 here, and discovering \vho among them is wise, 
 and who not, except in fancy. . . . For surely 
 the judges there do not condemn to death ; 
 for in other respects those who live there are 
 happier than those that are here, and are thence 
 forth immortal, at least if what is said be true." 
 
 After remarking that all which happens to a 
 good man is wisely ordered, and forgiving his 
 judges for their injustice, thus giving evidence 
 of a noble and serene temper, he closes with 
 these memorable words : " But it is now time 
 to depart, for me to die, for you to live. But 
 
92 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 which of us is going to a better state is known 
 only to the gods." * 
 
 But it may be said that ancient philosophy 
 never went further than this ; nay, could never 
 afterwards be sustained at an equal elevation. It 
 rather deteriorated, now lapsing into scepticism on 
 the one hand, or materialism on the other, or, in 
 despite of these, into an unreasoning mysticism. 
 
 Among the Orientals, especially of India, it 
 never much transcended a sort of vasrue nature- 
 
 o 
 
 worship, or the acknowledgment of the Infinite, 
 as The All, from which the mystic thinkers of 
 those dreamy regions believed they had come, 
 and whither they expected to go. In one of their 
 schools, it assumed the form of atheistic materi 
 alism, f In another, it terminated in absolute 
 idealism. It readily blended with polytheism, 
 as an emanation from the fountain of life, and 
 cherished the hope, not of an individual con 
 scious immortality, but of complete absorption 
 in the Deity or Universe. J 
 
 Among the Greeks, speculative inquiry, with 
 inconsiderable exceptions, as in the case of Py 
 thagoras, Socrates, and Plato, a few of the 
 Academics and Stoics, was rarely practical in 
 
 
 
 * Plato s Works, Apologia, 32, 33. 
 
 f See Cousin s Hist, de la Philos., 2d series, tome ix. 5th Le9on, 
 La Sensualisme clans L Inde, p. 110. 
 J Hitter s Hist, of An. Ph. i. pp. 90, 93. 
 
ANCIENT rillLOSOPIIY. i)3 
 
 its results. The common people never received 
 it. Plato himself regarded them as incapable 
 of philosophy.* Nor did it ever thoroughly free 
 itself from polytheism. Occasionally it mingled 
 with popular superstitions, and modified the 
 character of the u Mysteries," especially among 
 the higher classes of society, giving to religious 
 rites a deeper significance, yet oftener divesting 
 them of all their power. Its most common and 
 popular effect among the patrician families was 
 scepticism and indifference, frequently downright 
 Epicureanism. 
 
 Its fundamental problems, too, were never 
 thoroughly solved. Even in modern times, few, 
 indeed, among the profoundest metaphysical 
 thinkers, consider them solved. A coherent 
 system of spiritual philosophy, or of absolute 
 science, does not exist. By many, indeed, all 
 ontology, as a positive science, is regarded as 
 impossible.! Perhaps all such inquiries, at least 
 in their higher relations, transcend the unaided 
 powers of the human mind. The relation of 
 
 * This was the sentiment of all the ancient philosophers. Their 
 feeling is well expressed by Horace, who says, " Odi profauum 
 vulgus, ct arceo." The idea of teaching the common people, as 
 such, rarely, if ever, occurred to their minds. 
 
 f Among them Sir William Hamilton, the first philosophical 
 critic of the age. See Morcll s History of the Philosophy of the 
 Nineteenth Century, p. 656. Compare Discussions, &c., by Sir W. 
 Hamilton, p. 31, ct scq. (Eng. cd.) 
 
94 CHlilST IN HISTORY. 
 
 matter to thought, or of thought to matter, the 
 origin and duration of matter, the origin and 
 duration of mind, the relation of the finite to 
 the infinite, the possible production of the finite 
 from the infinite, or of matter from thought, the 
 creation of the world, and the creation of man 
 these and kindred topics were debated con 
 stantly by the Grecian thinkers, without any one 
 reaching a solution which satisfied the whole, or 
 even any considerable number. With occasion 
 al flashes of light, and glimpses of beauty, radi 
 ant and eternal, the whole seems to most readers 
 an endless logomachy. One feels, while endeav 
 oring to follow them, as if he were revolving on 
 Ixion s wheel. 
 
 " In reviewing the history of Greek specula 
 tion," says Lewes, who has too much reason for 
 the remark, " from the Water of Thalcs to the 
 Absolute Negation of Plotinus, what a reflec 
 tion is forced upon us of the vanity of metaphys 
 ics ! So many years of laborious inquiry, so 
 many splendid minds engaged, and after the 
 lapse of ages, the inquiry remains the same, the 
 answer more ingeniously absurd ! Ah, truly 
 was it said that metaphysics was Vart de s egarer 
 avec methode" 
 
 Socrates was generally, though not always, 
 practical. He was really more of a moralist 
 than a metaphysician. Plato was speculative 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 95 
 
 and transcendent ; so much so that few have 
 ever pretended to understand him in all respects, 
 and it is highly questionable whether he thor 
 oughly understood himself. How God should 
 reveal himself, or create the universe, is a prob 
 lem he constantly suggests, but never solves. 
 He speaks of the Supreme Being, the original 
 absolute Essence or Idea, as inaccessible and 
 incomprehensible. He consequently supposes 
 the existence of another God in the outward 
 universe, the Alter Ego, so to speak, of the Deity, 
 the God manifested and embodied in finite forms. 
 Occasionally he seems to present this second or 
 manifested Deity, as a mere abstraction or ideal, 
 though generally as the soul of the universe, 
 embodied in the material whole.* His followers, 
 the Neo-Platonists of a latter era, retained the 
 distinction, and attempted to give it a more def 
 inite scientific expression. They departed, how 
 ever, essentially from the views of Plato.f 
 
 Indeed, the idea seems to be founded, in some 
 sense, in the nature of things, though inadequately 
 and even erroneously expressed by Plato, and in 
 volving his speculations in inextricable difficulty. 
 For now, he speaks of this cosmical Deity as if 
 
 * See the T imams, passim. Compare De Lcgibus, x. p. 897. 
 Philetnts, p. 30. Idem, pp. 170, 171. 
 
 f For an extended account of the views of the Neo-Platonists, on 
 the subject of the Trinity, see Ciidworth s Intellectual System, ii. 
 73-5-40. Compare Hitter s Ancient Philosophy, vol. iv. pp. 521, 692. 
 
96 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 he were uncreated and eternal, and thence equal 
 to the supreme Intelligence, nay, constituting the 
 supreme Intelligence, and then again as a sort 
 of created and subaltern God. Still we must 
 conceive of the absolute and eternal Essence, as 
 manifested in the external universe, and thence 
 limited, perhaps humanized. It is thus He dis 
 covers himself to us as a distinct personality. For 
 we might well ask, How can the finite ever reach 
 and comprehend the Infinite ? And how, more 
 over, can the Infinite, who for this reason is the 
 one absolute, unconditioned, and indivisible All, 
 create or produce the finite, the conditioned, the 
 many ? We believe the doctrine of course, nay, 
 we know from revelation, perhaps from intuition, 
 that the fact so exists ; but in philosophy, the ques 
 tion is How does it exist? nay, How can it exist? 
 How, in a word, (for thus the problem must pre 
 sent itself to the reason of a pagan philosopher,) 
 how can the absolute and unchangeable Essence, 
 who can never be more than he is, never less than 
 he is, pass into or produce the external or multi 
 form universe ? 
 
 Plato s solution, if it may be called such, for it 
 is only an hypothesis, involved him and his fol 
 lowers, both ancient and modern, in a sort of 
 ideal pantheism, which has taken the form some 
 times of a profound spiritualism, though more 
 frequently, perhaps, of an arid rationalism. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 97 
 
 We have said " a sort of ideal pantheism," for 
 it is only such by implication. His system may 
 be described as emanative ; for he has first the 
 Supreme Reason, the Everlasting God, then the 
 Ivosmos or Universe, which also is a God, with 
 soul and body, produced according to an eternal 
 archetype, and in this sense eternal also, though 
 in its present form a production of time ; then in 
 ferior gods, who in their turn are also creators, 
 and finally the souls and bodies of men.* He be 
 lieves that all things have their opposites ; so if 
 there be good there must be evil also, and so on, 
 in which sense his system perhaps may be styled 
 dualistic rather than pantheistic, though springing 
 from an absolute unity, in which mind and mat 
 ter, good and evil, are involved, and thus verging, 
 as the merest tyro can see, towards an ideal or 
 spiritual pantheism. Plato, however, vacillates, 
 both as to the origin of the material universe and 
 the origin of evil ; for sometimes he seems to de 
 rive evil from matter, while matter itself is rep 
 resented only as the grosser or more exterior form 
 of that ethereal substance or essence which forms, 
 so to speak, the body of God, or a kind of uni 
 versal and eternal plenum, from which he pro 
 duces all external things. 
 
 Souls or finite spirits also, according to Plato, 
 
 * Plato s Cosmogony is developed chiefly in the Tima>i"*. See 
 especially the 8th to the 17th chapters, inclusive. 
 
 9 
 
98 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 are not created, but rather projected into formal 
 or outward bodily existence, from which finally 
 ascending, they will return to the immortal state.* 
 
 Thus the genius of Plato, held in the fetters of 
 matter, yet tended to the spiritual and divine ; 
 and though his system, logically carried out, may 
 be termed ideal, perhaps pantheistic, it certainly 
 possessed this redeeming feature. His own lofty 
 spirit longed for the perfect, the beautiful, and 
 good, in their absolute and eternal archetypes. 
 God and immortality were the starting point, and 
 the goal of his reasoning and his life. Yet the 
 unsettled question ever recurs, How does God 
 come to us ? How do we come to God ? He is 
 ours, and we are his but how ? 
 
 To relieve his theory of its main difficulty, 
 Plato, as we have stated, in addition to the one 
 inaccessible and universal Reason, who forms the 
 root of all existence, supposed a God of this 
 world, a sort of divine Logos, as he is named, a 
 term given by St. John to Jesus Christ himself, as 
 the Word, or manifestation of the invisible Fa 
 ther. But Plato s god of the world, or external 
 universe, is a derived and limited deity, and can 
 not therefore be made to cohere with any just 
 ideas of the divine Unity. 
 
 This deity, however, in the Platonic philosophy, 
 
 * P/u?(to t 128. Compare F?u?dn<s, 51, 56, 61. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 99 
 
 is simply the embodied soul of the universe, rep 
 resented as a living creature. Plato s reasoning 
 upon this subject is curious. The world has 
 warmth, is composed of various elements, has 
 motion like a human body, &c., therefore it 
 must have a soul. " As soon as the soul, that 
 image of the eternal gods, or ideas, the vast 
 animal, began to move, God looked upon his work, 
 and was glad" Had Plato seen the Bible? 
 See the Timceus, cxiv. In the Phccdrus, (55,) 
 he uses this remarkable language : " But the 
 immortal derives its name from no deduction of 
 reasoning ; but as we neither see nor sufficiently 
 understand God, we represent him as an immortal 
 animal, possessed of soul as well as body, and 
 these united together through all time." Here 
 the idea is different from that in the Timceus, 
 which closes thus : " We are now at length to 
 say, that our discourse concerning the universe 
 has reached its conclusion ; for, not only con 
 taining, but full of mortal and immortal animals, 
 it has thus been formed, a visible animal em 
 bracing things visible a sensible (manifested?) 
 god of the intelligible, (spiritual?) the greatest, 
 the best, and most perfect this one only be 
 gotten universe" Plato s universe is thus a 
 created god, a god whom he worshipped, for 
 he begins the Critias with imploring, "that 
 God, (the universe,) long, long ago created in 
 
100 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 fact, to confirm " the truth of his recent discus 
 sion, &c. 
 
 On the same ground, and springing from the 
 same speculative difficulty, he cannot solve the 
 question of the soul s immortality. He thoroughly 
 believes it, and in the Phccdo, devoted to this 
 particular discussion, he presents many ingenious 
 arguments in its favor, though none of them can 
 be regarded as demonstrative ; and in the last 
 analysis he is compelled to base it on the doc 
 trine of the metempsychosis, including the prc- 
 existence and transmigration of souls.* Indeed, 
 Plato would seem to hold the past eternal 
 existence of the soul in God, whence he deduces 
 its future immortality. Its preexistence he en 
 deavors to prove by the doctrine or fact of 
 reminiscence, an idea hinted at in Wordsworth s 
 beautiful ode entitled Intimations of Immor 
 tality from Recollections of Early Childhood. 
 
 " Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; 
 The soul that rises with us, our life s star, 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
 And cometh from afar ; 
 Not iu entire forgetfulncss, 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 
 From God, who is our home." 
 
 Taken in some large poetic sense, all this is 
 doubtless true ; for we do come from God as the 
 
 * Pha>do, 47-49 ; Phadrus, 61, 62. See also Timeout, clxxii. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 101 
 
 fountain of our being; but evidently we are 
 creatures of time, so far at least as the past is 
 concerned. Our souls, grand and capacious as 
 they may become, have yet their specific, individ 
 ual beginning or creation ; and all back of 
 
 " That immortal sea 
 "Which brought us hither," 
 
 is unknown and ineffable. 
 
 Plato, however, is not satisfied to deduce the 
 immortality of the soul from its capacities and 
 possibilities, and especially from those deep and 
 beautiful harmonies and aspirations, of which he 
 so touchingly speaks; he must go further; he 
 must solve the problem philosophically; and 
 hence back of all a posteriori considerations, 
 back of all the facts of its present human exist 
 ence, he boldly assumes the fact of its eternity ; 
 in other words, its absolute existence in God, 
 from which its future immortality flows, as a 
 natural and eternal necessity. And yet he seems 
 to intimate the possibility of the destruction of 
 bad souls; one of those singular inconsistencies 
 into which the profoundest intellects not un- 
 frequently fall.* 
 
 Logically carried out, as every thoughtful 
 person must acknowledge, the doctrine of the 
 
 * P/ucdo, 1$). 
 
 9* 
 
iU2 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 eternity of the soul involves its divinity ; in other 
 words, its identity with God. And as God, the 
 infinite and immutable, cannot consist of parts, 
 and thence can neither be divided nor multiplied, 
 the identity of the soul with God would prove it 
 God, and so pantheism would be the necessary 
 logical result.* 
 
 The subject of the origin and duration of 
 matter, to which Plato frequently refers, is left, 
 as one might naturally suppose, in inextricable 
 confusion. As a substantial, external thing, with 
 its attributes* of extension, divisibility, form, color, 
 and so forth, he seems to regard it as simply 
 phenomenal ; and yet its basis, which he denom 
 inates Hyle, a sort of ethereal essence, contem 
 poraneous with God, is regarded not simply as 
 eternal, but occasionally as the seat of sin ; so 
 that on this ground he cannot successfully solve 
 the problem of human redemption, to us the 
 most immediate and thrilling of all problems. 
 He sees and laments the strange " necessity " 
 (dj ciyxT?) which gives rise to sin and misery, that 
 apparent duality and contradiction in the nature 
 of things, and especially in the nature of man, 
 which the Bible refers to the fall of the race from 
 its primitive integrity ; but his chief remedy is 
 
 * It was on this ground that Lessing, a Spinozist, held the doc 
 trine of the preexistence of souls. 
 
A:-CIEXT PHILOSOPHY. 103 
 
 the renunciation of the outward and bodily, the 
 contemplation of archetypal ideas, and a return, 
 if possible, to the original and eternal essence.* 
 These things, we know, are echoes of the truth, 
 as it were imperfect glimpses of the reality ; but 
 much was wanting which ancient philosophy 
 never supplied. Indeed, neither Plato nor any 
 of the old speculative thinkers apprehended fully 
 the nature of sin, as the voluntary lapse and 
 transgression of the soul. They seemed to 
 regard it as a natural and inevitable evil, for 
 which there was no adequate cure, except in a 
 return to absolute spiritual existence-! The idea 
 of redemption, by a divine transformation, or re 
 generation of the soul, in its present limited and 
 imperfect state, never dawned upon their minds. 
 Plato evidently struggles with the dread neces 
 sity, and longs for emancipation in the bosom 
 of the Infinite, but gives no distinct information 
 as to the method of its attainment. True, he 
 dwells upon the necessity of goodness, as the soul s 
 eternal life. He speaks eloquently of virtue, as 
 
 UF.ylaTrjv xai v.ullluii]i> rcof avfUfioi itiv, " the deepest 
 
 and most beautiful of all harmonies," and 
 vaguely hints at the means of reunion with 
 
 * Reptib. 1. vii. 1, 2. 
 
 j- In. the Timccus, (Ixix.,) he says expressly that the soul is " ren 
 dered morbid and unwise by the body," and that " no one is volun. 
 tarilv bad." 
 
104 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 God ; but perplexed with the fatal proclivity to 
 evil, in the very constitution of the external 
 world, and the physical nature of man, he fails 
 to answer those two great questions which are 
 ever pressing the race, How shall man be just with 
 God ? How shall man become sinless and happy ? 
 
 Plato sees clearly enough that nature is a 
 manifestation of God ; but he perverts, or alto 
 gether loses sight of the divine personality. His 
 only personal deity is the actual universe, as a 
 living creature, with its inner spirit and its ex 
 ternal form, or, as he terms it, its body and soul. 
 Thus he degrades the idea of the divine person 
 ality, making it commensurate, both in scope 
 and duration, with the created universe. Leaving 
 this, however, he naturally passes into the idea 
 of the infinite and absolute nature of God, and 
 here actually loses, as he must, all conception 
 of personality. His notions become abstract 
 and misty ; so that his eternal Essence, or God, 
 is found to be little more than an abstract idea 
 or power, absolute and inaccessible, whom no 
 man can know or love.* 
 
 The fact is, the great truth of the personality 
 of God, and the possibility of union and fellow 
 ship with him, as a distinct intelligence, and 
 
 * See upon this point Hitter s Hist. An. Ph. vol. ii. p. 287. Com 
 pare pp. 272, 273. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 105 
 
 especially as a Father and Friend, wanted, for 
 its full expression and confirmation, an actual 
 incarnation in some perfect, tangible form. This 
 while preserving the fundamental truth of the 
 divine unity and supremacy, would bring home 
 to the intellect and the heart the idea of a per 
 sonal God, distinct from the universe, with whom 
 we might enter into relations of fellowship and 
 love. 
 
 Yet Plato, as we see, clung to the fact of a 
 divine manifestation, while incapable of realizing 
 it in scientific form. It constituted, indeed, a 
 pervading element of his system, and entered 
 into all subsequent speculations conceived in his 
 spirit. Nay, whenever, in the history of the past, 
 any approximation was made, either in philos 
 ophy or religion, to the great truth of a First 
 Cause, the necessities of human nature uniformly 
 removed this primal deity beyond the sphere, not 
 only of the senses, but of the mere finite intellect. 
 The truth was held, as by a superior sense or 
 faculty, as a great and unutterable reality ; and 
 intercourse with such a being, either on his side 
 or on man s, was supposed possible only through 
 some kind of intermediate power. For the same 
 reason, the outward creation and government of 
 the universe were always ascribed, as among the 
 Oriental theosophers, to some emanating Essence 
 or Deity, or, as among the Platonists, to the di- 
 
106 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 vine Logos, the Wisdom or Reason of the great 
 Supreme, in the form, not only of an abstraction, 
 but of a personality. That is to say, a personal 
 God, the only conceivable God, to them ever was 
 but an image, reproduction, or manifestation of 
 the one absolute and eternal Being. 
 
 This was the doctrine, in some form or other, 
 of all the old religions, of all the Indian and Egyp 
 tian philosophies and mythologies, of Magianism 
 and of Platonism, though often appearing in a 
 most imperfect, and even degrading form. This 
 too was the doctrine of the Hebrew sa - es.* Nu- 
 
 o 
 
 merous passages might be cited from Philo Ju- 
 dseus, born at Alexandria, in Egypt, only a few 
 months before olir Savior, and par excellence the 
 philosopher of the Hebrews, on the impossibility 
 that the self-existent Deity should become cogni 
 zable to the intellect or senses of man, and con 
 sequently that there must intervene between him 
 and us some divine mediation, some eternal Lo 
 gos, Reason, or Word. Sometimes he speaks of 
 this intermediate divinity as the image, or still 
 more adequately as the shadow of God.f Nay, 
 he goes further, and maintains that as God is the 
 
 * For example, the Targumists, the earliest Jewish commenta 
 tors on the Scriptures. Lightfoot, Schoetgen, and others have col 
 lected numerous passages in which the Messiah is represented under 
 this idea. Sec some admirable remarks upon this point in the intro 
 duction to Tholuck a Commentary on John. 
 
 f Leg. AUc j. ii. The term here used is TrrtpoJeiy/ja ->>? tiKovos. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 107 
 
 prototype of the Word, so again the Word is the 
 archetype of other things, and of man among the 
 rest. It is on this ground that he describes the 
 Deity as alight, which not only illuminates him 
 self, but also emits ten thousand rays, which form 
 the supra-sensible world of his energies, the ple- 
 roma or " fulness of him that filleth all in all." * 
 So that the Messiah, or Word, would be, as the 
 Athanasian creed expresses it, God of God and 
 Light of Light, or, as St. Paul, more beautifully, 
 "^he effulgence of the Father s glory, and the ex 
 press image of his nature." 
 
 Philo does not carry out the idea quite con 
 sistently, neither does he conform, in all respects, 
 either to the Platonic or the Hebrew conception.! 
 He mingles with it some conceits and refine 
 ments which it is difficult to understand, and 
 proposes to reunite man to the Deity by means of 
 mental abstraction and theosophic mysticism.:]: It 
 is impossible also to say whether he derived his 
 ideas chiefly from Plato and the Oriental theos- 
 ophers, or from the ancient Scriptures. His meth 
 od of interpreting the divine Oracles is allegorical. 
 The literal and even natural sense he often re 
 jects, or modifies at pleasure ; and endeavors, like 
 Origen and Swedenborg, to find the real import 
 
 * De Chcnib. xxviii. L56. 
 
 f- lie rarely, if ever, gives the idea of a personal Messiah. 
 
 j Leg. Alley, iii. 9, p. 93. 
 
108 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 beneath external words, facts, or appearances. His 
 style is Grecian and Platonic ; his ideas are Ori 
 ental and mystical, though frequently beautiful 
 and affecting, fie pours contempt upon outward 
 things, the sciences, and even political affairs, and 
 dwells with infinite complacency on the excel 
 lence and happiness of a contemplative life.* He 
 praises especially the Therapeutae, or the Jewish 
 anchorites of Egypt, who despised society, mor 
 tified the body, and endeavored, by strange cere 
 monies and mystic contemplation, to reunite 
 themselves to the Deity.f 
 
 These notions exerted a great influence upon 
 the Jews of Egypt, who had multiplied there 
 exceedingly during the reign of the Ptolemies, 
 so as to amount to something more than a mil 
 lion of souls. In subsequent times they min 
 gled, to some extent, with Christian ideas, and 
 originated, probably, the monastic life of the 
 early Christian devotees, so numerous in that 
 country. 
 
 But the belief of Plato and Philo in regard to 
 the Logos was cherished in a somewhat different 
 form, perhaps, by the Jewish people, especially by 
 their more thoughtful, religious teachers. He was 
 
 * Sec De Vita Contemplativa. 
 
 f De Migra. Abrahah. 2, 3, 10, 11, compared with De Vita Con 
 templativa. In other places, however, Philo rebukes the extreme 
 asceticism and extravagant usages of the Theraputse. See Pro- 
 fuqis, 7. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 109 
 
 called, as in the Old Testament Scriptures, the 
 Messiah, or Anointed One, the Shiloh, or Peace 
 maker, the Divine Presence, or the Angel of His 
 Presence, who led them through the wilderness, 
 the Melatron or Mediator, though most frequently 
 the Memra or Word, for as a word is an outgoing 
 or utterance of mind, an embodiment or mani 
 festation of spirit, so they regarded the Messiah, 
 for whose incarnation in the fulness of the times 
 they constantly longed, as the embodiment or 
 manifestation of Jehovah as it were God per 
 sonified, that is, revealed, in such limited but ap 
 propriate form as mortals might understand. 
 
 And it is a curious fact, which we may state in 
 this connection, that this very appellation, Word 
 or Reason, is found not only in the Hebrew, but 
 in the Indian, the Persian, the Chinese, and Egyp 
 tian philosophies and religions. In the Indian 
 mythology, Vach, signifying speech, is the active 
 power of Brahma. In the Egyptian hieroglyph 
 ics, Amun is " the hidden God," while Phtha, the 
 god of light, or fire, by whom he produces the 
 world, (as in the Rosetta stone,) is " the Appar 
 ent " or Manifested God. Hence the sovereigns 
 of Egypt are styled " the beloved of Phtha.^ In 
 the Persian religion, Ormuzd, the good, creates 
 the universe by Honover, the Word.* Lao-tsue, 
 
 * Ormuzd is himself a manifestation of Zeruane Akherene, or 
 absolute Being. 
 
 10 
 
HO CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 one of the Chinese sages, teaches the creation of 
 the world by " the Primordial Reason." * 
 
 The same term may also be traced in some of 
 the most ancient poets a tradition doubtless of 
 some primeval revelation, if not an intuitive con 
 viction of the human mind. Passages of this 
 kind are cited by Justin Martyr, Clement of 
 Alexandria, and others, and though liable to 
 some suspicion on the score of genuineness, are 
 not to be utterly rejected. We do not indeed 
 urge them here as conclusive proof, for they re 
 quire to be sifted by a thorough and candid criti 
 cism. It is enough to say, that Philo-Judaeus, 
 as also the early Christian fathers, uniformly, and 
 with considerable plausibility, maintain, that amid 
 many errors of view, the ancient writers, poets, 
 and philosophers derived the knowledge of one 
 eternal God, and one eternal Word or Reason, 
 by whom the worlds were created, from the 
 sacred Scriptures, or from some original revela 
 tion, and thence, though bewildered by supersti 
 tion, bore testimony to the fundamental prin 
 ciples of religion.f The light shone upon them 
 as through broken clouds, often lost out of 
 
 * " La raison a produit un, un a produit deux, deux a produit 
 trois, trois a produit toutes choses." Memoirs sur la Vie et les 
 Ouvrac/es de Lao-tsue, par M. Abel Rcmusat. 
 
 f See Justin s Cohortatio ad Gr<r?os, 15. (Otto s ed.) vol. i. 
 p. 53. 
 
ANC1EI7T PHILOSOPHY. Ill 
 
 sight, but anon reappearing amid the drifting 
 shadows. 
 
 " Hence," says Clement, " if the truth be but 
 one, however numerous the modes of error, we 
 may suppose the different schools of philosophy, 
 barbarian as well as Greek, seizing on it as the 
 Bacchantes seized on Penthcus, and having torn 
 it to pieces, each bearing off a part, and then 
 boasting itself of possessing the whole. Yet I 
 think the dawn of that light in the east illumi 
 nated them all ; for it may be proved that all who 
 sincerely sought after the truth, whether Greeks 
 or barbarians, did in fact carry off, in some cases, 
 not a little of the truth which they sought, the 
 fragments of which being collected and reunited, 
 the perfect Logos (Reason) or truth is then fully 
 s.een and known ; for he who can with propriety 
 be called a Christian philosopher must be im 
 bued with all knowledge." * 
 
 Plutarch, one of the best of the ancient think 
 ers and moralists, at a later day than Orpheus 
 and Plato, in his treatise on the Osiris, or Sun- 
 god of Egypt, the symbol, as he deems it, of an 
 eternal Sun, has a similar conception. While 
 recognizing the superior and universal Reason 
 or Mind as the fountain of all existence, he 
 speaks of him as inaccessible and incomprehen- 
 
 * Stromata, lib. i. c. 13. 
 
112 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 sible, except through some external manifesta 
 tion, like that of the embodied Logos.* 
 
 Doubtless all the symbols and deities of the 
 ancient pagan sages and religionists were false, 
 or at least inadequate ; nay, many of them bestial 
 and bewildering, the fruit of superstition and 
 fancy. Perhaps none of them ever rose to the 
 true conception of the Divine Logos, or Reason, 
 and all were liable to lose sight of the spiritual 
 and divine in the carnal and terrene. Yet they 
 felt the need, as many now feel the need, of some 
 special manifestation of the Deity, over and 
 above that of nature, which might meet the 
 wants of man, and which, while bringing down 
 the Infinite to the level of the soul, might at the 
 same time lift the soul to the level of the Infinite. 
 
 And what can all this be but the general ac 
 quiescence of the human mind in the necessity 
 of some Divine Mediator, some celestial Mes 
 siah, or Son of God, who should reunite the 
 extremes of heaven and earth, of man and God, 
 and so bring the Deity, the great Father of us 
 all, within the sphere and compass of human 
 thought and affection ? f 
 
 But philosophy, both ancient and modern, has 
 only hovered around the problem, never solved 
 
 * Hitter s Ancient Ph. vol. iv. p. 497. 
 
 f A striking passage as to the necessity of a mediator, even on 
 natural grounds, may be seen in Bacon s Works, ii. p. 407. 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 113 
 
 it, and nothing can equal the bewilderment of 
 the heathen mind in regard to this and kindred 
 questions.* The difficulty, so far from being 
 diminished, was only deepened by time. Where 
 it did not find its issue in a sort of philosophic 
 stoicism, or in absolute scepticism, as it often 
 did, it became an agony of desire, which could 
 be satisfied only with the divine reality. 
 
 The supposed case of Clemens, a noble Ro 
 man, will illustrate what we mean, and show 
 how philosophy, with its high imaginings and 
 strange perplexities, was a means of preparing 
 the soul for Christ. In the commencement of 
 his book, entitled Recognitiones, he gives a most 
 interesting account of his mental struggles, and 
 subsequent conversion to Christianity, begin 
 ning, "Ego Clemens in urbe Roma nata," etc. 
 A considerable portion of his narrative may be 
 found in Neandcr s Church History, vol. i. pp. 
 82, 33, admirably translated by Professor Tor- 
 
 * The same bewilderment is visible among the philosophers of 
 modern Europe. The whole problem of the German and French 
 Ontology, developed in the writings of Leibnitz, Kant, Fichtc, 
 Hegel, Scheiling, and Cousin, is the relation of subject and object, 
 and, at a higher point, of the finite and the infinite. With them the 
 absolute Essence ever images or reproduces himself in the finite ; so 
 that they are compelled to believe in a certain Trinity. The idea is 
 brought out very strikingly by Scheiling and Cousin. Sec Schelling s 
 Philosophic und Religion, pp. 23-30. Cousin s llistoire de la PJiiios. 
 Intro., p. 9(5. 
 
 10 * 
 
114 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 rey. * All we can give here is a condensed ab 
 stract. From his youth he was haunted with 
 the questions, which had entered his soul, he 
 hardly knew how, -Will my existence termi 
 nate with death ? What will be my fate then ? 
 Will it be as if I had never been born ? When 
 and how was the world created ? What existed 
 before it ? Will it end, and if so, what will then 
 take place ? " Incessantly agitated by such ques 
 tionings and doubts, he grew pale and emaciated, 
 little aware, as he tells us, that he had a celestial 
 friend guiding him to truth and peace. He tried 
 to rid himself of his anxiety, but found it im 
 possible. He attended the schools of philosophy, 
 but without satisfaction. He saw nothing but 
 endless and ever-varying notions, "building up 
 and tearing down of theories." He was driven to 
 and fro, now hoping and then despairing, now 
 believing, and anon doubting the immortality 
 of the soul. His case grew worse. He then 
 resolved to visit Egypt, the land of mysteries and 
 apparitions, and hunt up a magician who might 
 summon for him a spirit from the other world. 
 The appearance of such a spirit would give him 
 demonstrative evidence of the soul s immortality; 
 
 * The genuineness of the Recognitioncs is called in question by 
 scholars ; but the case will serve for an illustration of what might 
 take place, and of what, indeed, has actually taken place in other 
 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. 115 
 
 and he should never again be permitted to doubt. 
 But a philosophic friend advised him against 
 this course, as unlawful and undesirable. In 
 this state of mind, full of doubts, undecided, in 
 quiring, agitated and distressed, he came in con 
 tact with the gospel of Christ, preached in demon 
 stration of the Spirit. His doubts were dispelled, 
 his mind was enlightened, his heart was renewed. 
 He found God and immortality in Christ, and 
 rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 Very similar to this was the conversion of 
 Justin Martyr, who though born in Flavia Neap- 
 olis, was educated in the religious belief of the 
 Greeks, to which his parents belonged. He was 
 fond of study, and especially attached to the 
 Greek poets and philosophers. In the beginning 
 of his dialogue with Trypho, the Jew, he de 
 scribes his hopes and disappointments in the study 
 of the Greek philosophy, and shows how he ob 
 tained certainty and truth only in the Christian 
 religion. He first joined himself to a disciple of 
 the Stoa, but soon left him with bitter disap 
 pointment, because his teacher could say little or 
 nothing of that Deity, whose nature he so much 
 longed to know. With a Peripatetic he had still 
 less success, for he found under the cloak of the 
 philosopher a sordid love of gain. This, however, 
 did not abate his confidence in philosophy, and 
 so he betook himself to a Pythagorean, who rang 
 
116 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 changes upon the glories of music, geometry, and 
 astronomy, as essential to all elevated spiritual 
 attainments, and finally excluded Justin from his 
 teachings, because he professed ignorance upon 
 these subjects. Justin almost despaired of attain 
 ing the truth in this way, when he learned that a 
 noted Platonist had opened a school in the place 
 where he was sojourning, with whom he resolved 
 to make one more attempt to attain the object of 
 his wishes. Here he was not altogether disap 
 pointed, for the conversations of the philosopher 
 furnished his mind with the richest materials of 
 thought. He was much impressed with the sym 
 metry and grandeur of the Platonic system, and 
 especially with its ideal and spiritual tone. His 
 philosophic knowledge increased daily, and he 
 thought himself on the verge of consummating 
 his Platonic attainments, by the direct intuition 
 of the Deity. 
 
 In this- state of mind, he was wandering, one 
 day, in a lonely spot by the sea shore, where he 
 was unexpectedly joined by a venerable man, of 
 gentle and imposing aspect, supposed by some to 
 have been a philosophically educated Jewish 
 Christian, by others the Bishop Polycarp. This 
 good man informed him, that he had come down 
 to the beach to wait for some absent relatives, 
 whose return he was anxiously expecting. Justin 
 could not resist the temptation of communicating 
 
ANCIEXT PHILOSOPHY. 117 
 
 his thoughts to the venerable man, informing him 
 that he had repaired to that spot for philosophical 
 speculation. " You are a lover, then, of discourse, 
 (#iP.dj oc,) but no lover of deeds, ( Mepyo?,) nor by 
 any means a lover of truth ; for you do not try to 
 be a practical man, but rather an ingenious dis 
 putant." To this Justin demurred, affirming that 
 nothing could be more worthy of a man than to 
 make it manifest that all things were governed 
 by intelligence, and to detect the undivine and 
 the erroneous in all other pursuits ; that philosophy 
 was the true source of wisdom, and ought to re 
 ceive the homage of all. 
 
 The aged man inquired how philosophy led to 
 happiness, and what was its proper definition. 
 Being told that it was " the science of being, and 
 the knowledge of the truth, happiness being the 
 reward of this knowledge and wisdom," he showed 
 that philosophy, when it depended upon its un 
 aided resources, could never solve the problem. 
 .Because the knowledge of God, the highest object 
 of all, and especially of Platonic speculation, could 
 never be acquired by an empirical or formal 
 method, or by discursive contemplation, like mu 
 sic, arithmetic, or astronomy. He proved that 
 God himself must teach us, through some divine 
 medium, to which philosophy could make no pre 
 tensions. Reason, indeed, might ascertain the 
 truth of the divine existence, and of moral princi- 
 
118 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 pies; but could not behold the essence of God. 
 Besides, according to a postulate of the Platonic 
 philosophy itself, only the pure and righteous can 
 attain to the actual vision of God ; so that the 
 reason or intellect plays but a subordinate part. 
 " The pure in heart shall see God." 
 
 He then dwelt upon the errors of the Platonic 
 philosophy, especially with reference to the doc 
 trine of the metempsychosis and the immortality 
 of the soul ; since the former was absolutely 
 useless, teaching that while wicked men passed 
 into the bodies of brutes, they had no con 
 sciousness of their former aberrations, nor any 
 sense of their present degradation. As to the 
 immortality of the soul, he showed that it was 
 founded by the Platonics, on the assumption of 
 its absolute and eternal nature, and involved not 
 simply its future but its past eternal existence. 
 The soul, indeed, created in the image of God, 
 is capable of immortality, and is thus suscepti 
 ble of future reward or punishment. Hence it 
 endures, in order to realize the idea of retribu 
 tion, not only from its own nature, but through 
 the will and power of him who gave it exist 
 ence. 
 
 Justin was profoundly impressed by the wis 
 dom and eloquence of the venerable man. He 
 began to lose confidence in his philosophical 
 speculations. " What, then, shall we do ? " was 
 
A?;CIKNT PHIL O SOPHY. 119 
 
 his exclamation ; " on what teacher can we rely, 
 and from what quarter derive infallible truth 1 " 
 He was directed to the prophets, " organs of the 
 Divine Spirit," and especially to " Christ, the 
 way, the truth, and the life." The old man then 
 left him, and he saw him no more. Eagerly he 
 sought the Scriptures, and the instructions of 
 those known as the friends of Christ. And 
 there he found what he sought truth and rest, 
 God and immortality.* 
 
 It may be concluded, then, that ancient phi 
 losophy was a longing and a preparation for 
 Christ. " For it appears to me," said Simmias, 
 in Phaedo, addressing himself to Socrates, who 
 concedes the correctness of the statement, " that 
 to know them (the truths pertaining to the soul 
 and its destiny) clearly in the present life, is 
 either impossible or very difficult : on the other 
 hand, not to test what has been said of them in 
 every possible way, to investigate the whole 
 matter, and exhaust upon it every effort, is the 
 part of a very weak man. For we ought, in 
 respect to these things, either to learn from oth 
 ers how they stand, or to discover them for our 
 selves ; or if both these are impossible, then 
 taking the best of human reasonings, that which 
 
 * For a more extended account of Justin s conversion, see Sem- 
 iscb s Life, Writings, and Opinions of Justin Martyr, vol. i. pp. 8-1 S. 
 
120 CEIRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 appears the best supported, and embarking on 
 that, as one who risks himself upon a raft, so to 
 sail through life ; unless one could be carried 
 more safely, or with less risk, on a surer convey 
 ance, or some DIVINE (Logos) REASON." 
 
 Hence, also, in the Second Alcibiades, we 
 have the still. more remarkable declaration, " That 
 we must wait patiently until some one, either a 
 god, or some inspired man, teach us our moral 
 and religious duties, and, as Pallas in Homer 
 did to Diorned, remove the darkness from our 
 eyes." f 
 
 * Plato s Phccdo, 78. f Alcib. ii. 150. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CENTRAL EACE, OR CHRIST AMONG THE 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 As in society at large we find a central power, 
 in religion a central principle, and in philosophy 
 a central idea, it may be presumed, that in the 
 succession of human affairs, we shall find, among 
 the nations, in a more or less perfect form, a cen 
 tral or a chosen people, whether named church, 
 theocracy, or kingdom of God. We may expect 
 not only a succession of divine facts, maintain 
 ing religion in the world, but a succession of 
 individuals, families, and communities, perhaps 
 some one community differing from all the rest 
 in gifts, attainments, arid usages, fitted to retain 
 and transmit to all generations, and finally to 
 the whole world, the principles and hopes of a 
 perfect religion. Other nations may not, on this 
 account, be proscribed, except for their vices. 
 Much of their ignorance and superstition maybe 
 " winked at," or overlooked, at least for a season. 
 In none of them will God leave himself without 
 a witness for the truth ; but the state of the 
 world may be such as to demand a chosen peo- 
 
122 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 pie, a religious or prophetic race, who shall stand 
 at the centre of history, and form a vehicle or 
 medium for the transmission of the truth to all 
 ages, and its diffusion among the nations. 
 
 This would be analogous to the divine pro 
 cedure in other cases ; for in all times we find 
 central communities, in the matters of science, 
 literature, refinement, arts, legislation, arms. So 
 also we find central families, and central individ 
 uals, great lights in the world, whose mission 
 and ministry have been a blessing to all. In 
 significant, sometimes, in position, personal at 
 tractions, and other gifts of an external kind, 
 often, too, great sufferers, and not always realiz 
 ing for themselves the good of which they are 
 the chosen depositaries, they have conveyed to 
 others, sometimes during their lives, but oftener 
 afterwards, vast and permanent benefits. Thus 
 good of all sorts is ever found radiating from 
 specific centres. In former times Greece was 
 the central nation of philosophy and art ; Rome 
 of political power and civil law. From Plato 
 sprang the speculative spirit ; from Homer that 
 of poetry and song. 
 
 If, then, we find in the Hebrew people the cen 
 tre of a pure religion for ages, it will not be a mat 
 ter of surprise; for if we study them thoroughly, 
 we shall find that, in early times at least, they 
 had the qualifications necessary for this purpose. 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 123 
 
 Or if this be denied them, as an original gift of 
 nature, it will be allowed that they were dis 
 ciplined for this end, and so successfully, that 
 they actually succeeded in maintaining a pure 
 and lofty Theism, and transmitting it to modem 
 times. 
 
 But let us go back a little, and see how this 
 thing was provided for in the very dawn of so 
 ciety. 
 
 Those who have studied human nature, and 
 the history of the race, with the greatest atten 
 tion, will not need to be told that it must have 
 suffered some terrible lapse. Under the suppo 
 sition the most natural that can be formed, that 
 man was created innocent and happy, with a 
 pure faith and a gentle discipline, it is clear that 
 he has since departed from God. " The gold 
 has become dim, the most fine gold is changed." 
 The first Eden, the peaceful reign of purity and 
 love, did not long continue. The knowledge of 
 the true God, as we have seen, was speedily tar 
 nished, and finally all but lost in universal idola 
 try. The ancient historical nations, with one, 
 perhaps two exceptions, were idolaters.* Evil 
 clung to the race. 
 
 * We have said perhaps two, the reference being to the Jews and 
 the Persians. The latter, however, were nature or symbol- worship 
 pers, adorers of the sun and fire , in this respect, therefore, to be 
 classed with the Peruvians. 
 
124 CHRIST IN HISTOHT. 
 
 All the ancient philosophers, as well as prophets, 
 felt this. Plato, who may be regarded as repre 
 senting the whole Oriental and Occidental worlds, 
 speaks of it in various forms, now as an ignorance, 
 then as a discord, then as a constitutional neces 
 sity, and sometimes as a fatal, eternal duality, 
 which he cannot understand. Some ascribed it 
 to matter. This was the notion of most of the 
 Oriental mystics, who thence mortified the body, 
 and longed for absorption in the divine. The 
 same view is taken by Proclus and most of the 
 Platonic philosophers. 
 
 It is evident, however, that they often felt it 
 to be a moral perversion, which had come upon 
 man, and which ought to be remedied. Nearly 
 all the mythologies recognize it as a fall; and 
 some of the philosophers describe it much as 
 the Bible describes it, as a fatal departure from 
 God. One of the most striking things in all 
 the works of Plato is that wherein he repre 
 sents the soul under the image of Glaueus, who, 
 having bathed in some fountain of life, had be 
 come immortal ; but losing the secret, could not 
 point out the fountain to others, and so threv 
 himself into the sea, to be swept around all 
 shores, by the violence of the waves. " We are 
 now telling the truth," says Plato, " concerning 
 it, [the soul,] such as it appears at present. In 
 deed, we see it in the same condition in which 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 125 
 
 they see the marine Glaucus, in whom they can 
 not discern his ancient nature ; because the 
 original members of his body are partly broken 
 off, while others are worn away, and altogether 
 he is damaged by the waves. Besides this, other 
 things are grown to him, such as shell fish, sea 
 weed, and stones ; so that in every respect he 
 resembles a beast, rather than what he naturally 
 was. In such a condition do we behold the soul 
 under a thousand evils." * He adds that it ought 
 to be restored to its original condition ; but alas! 
 Plato himself seems to despair of this, with refer 
 ence to the mass of mankind wholly sunk in igno 
 rance, superstition, and vice. How striking an evi 
 dence of the fact, too well known, and too well au 
 thenticated by all history, sacred and profane, 
 that, at a very early period of the world s career, 
 " all flesh had corrupted its ways ! " f 
 
 God, then, must provide for his own. Hence 
 he selected individuals and families to be recipi 
 ents of his truth, and its teachers to mankind. 
 There \vere those, in the antediluvian ages, who 
 were styled " his sons," and who preserved, from 
 
 * RepiibUca, c. xi. 
 
 f Even Theodore Parker says, " In the higher stages of polythe 
 ism man is regarded as fallen. He felt his alienation from his 
 Father. Religion looks back longingly to the golden age, when 
 GoxL dwelt familiar with men. It seeks to restore the links broken 
 out of the golden chain." Discourse of Religion, p. 79. See Ap 
 pendix B. 
 
 11* 
 
126 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 generation to generation, the great principles of 
 religion. A Redeemer was promised ; a sacrifice 
 of reconciliation was provided. Penitence and 
 prayer were found available, through the mercy 
 of God, for the redemption of the soul. Devout 
 men called upon the name of the Lord, and 
 worshipped at his altars. Enoch, the seventh 
 from Adam, is peculiarly distinguished as a 
 prophet and teacher. Subsequent to this we 
 find Noah a worshipper of the true God, and a 
 preacher of righteousness. Saved from the 
 flood, he became the father of a new race, the 
 type of a new redemption. For, the rescue 
 from water, in ancient times, might have been 
 regarded as a symbol of a higher deliverance 
 from sin. The bow which spanned the heavens 
 was a pledge of hope to the world. Whatever 
 view may be taken of this event, such is its 
 moral import and design, and hence its profound 
 impression, not only upon single families, but 
 upon all the ancient nations. Preserved, in its 
 most perfect form, among patriarchal and He 
 brew traditions, we meet with it in nearly all 
 the mythologies of the more ancient nations. 
 One of the most striking of these is the Chaldean 
 legend, as given by Berosus, among the frag 
 ments of his history, preserved by Josephus, 
 Eusebius, and others.* He gives first the mytho- 
 
 * Berosus, we are aware, is poor authority with many, in matters 
 gtrictlv historical. Even in this department, however, he has been 
 
T;IK CENTHAL KACE. 127 
 
 logical period of Babylonian history, consisting 
 of ten kings who reigned before the flood ; the 
 first of whom, Alorus, corresponds with Adam, 
 the last, Xesuthrus, corresponds with Noah. 
 With Xesuthrus commences the second or real 
 historical period. Of this Xesuthrus Berosus 
 gives the following legend: Chronus appeared 
 to him in a dream, and warning him that man 
 kind should be destroyed by a flood, commanded 
 him to build a ship, into which, having previous 
 ly stocked it with provisions, and introduced 
 into it a certain number of fowls and four-footed 
 beasts, he, with his friends and nearest relatives, 
 as also a band of pious men, should enter. 
 Xesuthrus did as he was ordered. He built a 
 huge ship, the dimensions of which are given, 
 stocked in the manner described, in which he 
 himself embarked with his family and pious as 
 sociates. By and by the flood came ; and when 
 it began to abate, he let fly some birds, which 
 soon returned to the ship. After a few clays he 
 sent them out again, and they came back with 
 their feet darkened with mud ; but when for a 
 third time he dismissed them, none of them ever 
 returned. The ark floated towards the moun 
 tains of Armenia, and when the waters had 
 
 too much undervalued. Niebuhr s estimate may be seen, Lectures 
 on Ancient Hist. vol. i. p. 43. In matters purely traditional, of 
 course, all will admit his validity. 
 
128 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 subsided, the just men there disembarked and 
 returned to Babylonia.* 
 
 A similar tradition is found in the religious 
 annals of India. It is related in the Padina 
 Puran that Satyarota, whose miraculous preser 
 vation from a general deluge is told at length in 
 the Mataja, had three sons, the eldest of whom 
 was called Jyapeti, to whom he gave all the 
 regions to the north of the Himalaya, in the 
 Snowy Mountains, which extend from sea to sea, 
 and of which Caucasus is a part ; to Sharma? 
 (corruption for Cham or Ham,) the countries to 
 the south of these mountains, &c. f We do 
 not present these legends as proofs of the scrip 
 tural account of the deluge, but simply as illus 
 trations of the wide-spread influence which 
 might have been exerted by Noah, as a preacher 
 of the truth, upon the more ancient nations. J 
 
 Later we meet with Abraham, styled the 
 
 * For an account of the Babylonian cosmogony and flood, see 
 Niebuhr s Lectures on Ancient History, vol. i. pp. 48-51. 
 
 f Asiatic Researches, iii. pp. 312, 313. 
 
 J The tradition of the flood must have spread far beyond the cen 
 tral nations of Asia. We find it even among the legends both of 
 the South and of the North American Indians. The Mexicans and 
 Peruvians have accounts of its occurrence in singular coincidence 
 with the main features of the Mosaic narrative. See Humboldt s 
 Researches, ii. 65; Clanigero, Hist. Mexico, i. 204; Thacher s 
 Indian Traits, ii. 1-18, 149 ; Kitto s Bible Illustrations, i. 152, 154, 
 where the reader will find some interesting citations on the subject. 
 See also Prof. Hitchcock, in the Biblical Repository for 1836 ; Icon- 
 ographic Cyclopaedia, art. Mexican Mythology. 
 
THE Ci:XTKAL KACL. 121) 
 
 "father of the faithful," recognized as such both 
 by Jews and Arabians, and by some of Hie 
 neighboring nations. He was called from " Ur 
 of the Chaldees," into the land of Canaan, 1 hat 
 as a prince, patriarch, and priest in his family 
 and among his dependants, he might found a 
 nation of worshippers, who should be numerous 
 as the stars of heaven, and a blessing to the world. 
 
 7 o 
 
 At this period, nature-worship, and perhaps idol 
 atry, was prevalent in Chaldea. The word /"/, 
 Abraham s native place, signifies fire^ and is 
 supposed to have been one of the seats of Sa- 
 bseari worship, a sort of Heliopolis, where the 
 " host of heaven " were adored with supersti 
 tious rites. Be this as it may, it is quite evident 
 that the family of Terah, Abraham s father, was 
 involved in the prevalent superstition, as we 
 learn from Joshua xxiv. 2 : " Your fathers dwelt 
 on the other side of the flood [the River Euphrates] 
 in old time, even Tera-h, the father of Abraham, 
 and the father of Nachor, and they served other 
 gods." It is even asserted by Epiphanius and 
 others, that Abraham s father and grandfather 
 were makers of idolatrous images ; but we have 
 no means of verifying such a statement. Around 
 the fact of Abraham s supposed conversion from 
 idolatry, and his assertion of a pi; re theism, have 
 gathered many striking Orient ; traditionary 
 fictions, one of the most beautiful of which is 
 
130 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the following. " As Abraham was walking by 
 night from the grotto where he was born, to the 
 city of Babylon, he gazed on the stars of heaven, 
 and among them on the beautiful planet Venus. 
 Behold, said he within himself, the God and 
 Lord of the universe ! But the star set and dis 
 appeared, and Abraham felt that the Lord of the 
 universe could not thus be liable to change. 
 Shortly after he beheld the moon at the full. 
 Lo, he cried, the divine Creator, the manifest 
 Deity ! But the moon sank below the horizon, 
 and Abraham made the same reflection as at 
 the setting of the evening star. All the rest of 
 the night he passed in profound rumination ; at 
 sunrise he stood before the gates of Babylon, 
 and saw the whole people prostrate in adoration. 
 Wondrous orb, he exclaimed, thou surely art 
 the Creator and Ruler of all nature ! but thou 
 too hastest like the rest to thy setting! neither 
 then art thou my Creator, my Lord, or my 
 God ! " * 
 
 The fact, however, is obvious enough, that 
 Abraham and his family were isolated from their 
 idolatrous kindred and people, and made the 
 vehicle for the transmission of a pure religion to 
 their descendants. From him came the hope of 
 a Messiah, or divine Deliverer, which formed the 
 polar star of the Jewish mind. 
 
 * Milman s Hist, of the Jews, i. p. 9. 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 131 
 
 Thus Abraham commenced a new era in the 
 history of mankind, among whom, at the time 
 of his birth, idolatry, or nature-worship, so far as 
 tradition can teach us, was prevalent, not only 
 in Chaldea, his native land, but throughout the 
 world. Nations were in process of formation ; 
 civilization advanced slowly ; the relations of the 
 sexes, the foundation of all permanent national 
 prosperity, were uncertain ; slavery was a com 
 mon evil ; multitudes of nomadic tribes, without 
 fixed habitations, roamed from place to place ; 
 religion, such as it was, gradually assumed a 
 more narrow and sensual character, while war 
 was conducted with extreme cruelty, prisoners 
 being tortured or enslaved, at the caprice of their 
 masters. In Egypt, the seat of ancient civiliza 
 tion, idolatry was becoming constantly more and 
 more gross, while caste and slavery were stereo 
 typing some of the deepest evils of its social and 
 political state.* Hence it was important that, in 
 some great centre, a counteracting power should 
 be established and perpetuated, from which it 
 might gradually diffuse itself among the nations. 
 Abraham and his family are chosen as its deposi 
 tary. Thus God enters into covenant relations 
 with -man. The unity of God, the hope of a 
 Messiah, the spirituality of the human soul, and 
 the beauty of virtue, are involved in this arrange- 
 
 * See the bas-reliefs in Wilkinson find Eoscllini 
 
132 CHRIST IN HISTO11Y. 
 
 ment. Idolatry is checked. The dawn of a 
 brighter day rises upon the world. 
 
 To the same era is referred Melchizedek, 
 (Melchi-Zedech, King of justice,) King of Salem, 
 which is interpreted " King of peace," who lived, 
 according to some, at Jerusalem, but according 
 to others, at a place of the same name near 
 Scythopolis, where a ruin, called Melchizedek s 
 palace, was shown in the time of Jerome. He 
 united in his own person the offices of prince and 
 priest, was a worshipper, and, of course, a teacher 
 of the one eternal God, in whose name he blessed 
 Abraham, when returning from the conquest of 
 his country s invaders. His priestly descent, as 
 well as succession, according to St. Paul, are 
 unknown. He stands alone in history, "without 
 father or mother, without beginning of [priestly] 
 days, or end of life, that is, of official succession, 
 a beautiful type of the one great" High Priest 
 of our profession, for whose advent all the ancient 
 believers longed. 
 
 Whether Job, or the author of the book which 
 bears his name, belongs to this era, or to one 
 subsequent, is an unsettled question. The book 
 itself bears unequivocal marks of a remote an 
 tiquity, and teaches a Theism of the purest char 
 acter.* In this sublime composition, God, as 
 
 * Its reference to the prevalent Sabteism, or nature-worship, the 
 simplicity of its diction, the peculiar social usages which, it de- 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 133 
 
 Creator, Judge, and Redeemer, is clothed with 
 all the attributes of boundless majesty and per 
 fection. His omnipotence, above all, his infinite 
 holiness and rnercy, are celebrated in strains of 
 the loftiest poetry.* It was much, in that early 
 
 scribes, the name of Job s friends, the absence of all reference to the 
 events narrated in the Pentateuch, with other circumstances, have 
 compelled the most judicious critics to assign it to an epoch ante 
 rior to the cxoclus, somewhere about two thousand years before 
 Christ. Its authorship has been ascribed to Moses, but this is a 
 mere conjecture, to which there are serious objections. Job him 
 self is more likely to have been its author. Even admitting that in 
 form and embellishment it is imaginary, its principal events must be 
 real occurrences. Job is universally recognized in the Scriptures as a 
 real character. See the testimonies in Ezekiel xiv. 14, and James v. 2. 
 
 * The late Daniel Webster, whose vast intellect and exquisite 
 taste fitted him to appreciate the sublimities of the old prophetic 
 writings, regarded the Book of Job as the first of all epic poems. 
 Referring to an interview with him at Marshfield, the editor of the 
 Boston Atlas says, " He talked of the books of the Old Testament 
 especially, and dwelt with unaffected pleasure upon Isaiah, the 
 Psalms, and especially the Book of Job. The Book of Job, he said, 
 taken as a mere work of literary genius, was one of the most won 
 derful productions of any age or of any language. As an epic poem, 
 he deemed it far superior to either the Iliad or the Odyssey. 
 
 " The two last, he said, received much of their attraction from the 
 mere narration of warlike deeds, and from the perilous escapes of 
 the chief personages from death and slaughter ; but the Book of 
 Job was a purely intellectual narrative. Its power was shown in the 
 dialogues of the characters introduced. The story was simple in its 
 construction, and there was little in it to excite the imagination or 
 arouse the sympathy. It was purely an intellectual production, and 
 depended upon the power of the dialogue, and not upon the interest 
 of the story, to produce its effects. This was considering it merely 
 as an intellectual work. He read it through very often, and always 
 with renewed delight. In his judgment it was the greatest epic ever 
 written. We well remember his quotation of some of the verses in 
 
 12 
 
134 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 day, to be able to say, " I know that my Re 
 deemer liveth." 
 
 Allowing this book, in the main, to be a real 
 history, and not simply a dramatic or epic fiction, 
 belonging to a remote epoch, we have, soon 
 after the age of Abraham, or a little later, a mag 
 nificent testimony to the fundamental truths of 
 religion, and a decisive evidence that groups of 
 individuals, here and there, worshipped " the living 
 and true God." In a word, Job, with Melchizedek 
 and Abraham, belong to that sacred succession, 
 through which flowed the stream of pure and 
 undefiled religion, till the advent of the Mes 
 siah and the preaching of the everlasting gos 
 pel. 
 
 Abraham, however, is the principal figure 
 among the patriarchs and teachers of the pa 
 triarchal age, and has left the impress of his 
 character upon much of the Oriental world. To 
 him it was announced, by a divine inspiration, 
 that from his loins should proceed a wondrous 
 race, through whom the one eternal Jehovah 
 
 the 38th chapter : Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirl 
 wind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without 
 knowledge ? Gird up now thy loins like a man ; for I will demand 
 of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the 
 foundations of the earth ? Declare, if thou hast understanding, &c. 
 Mr. Webster was a fine reader, and his recitation of particular pas 
 sages, to which he felt warm, was never surpassed, and was capable 
 of giving the most exquisite delight to those who could appreciate 
 them." 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 135 
 
 should manifest himself to mankind, and bring 
 them into a new and peculiar relation with 
 himself. The promise was renewed to Isaac, as 
 also to Jacob, who, in his dying hour, predicted 
 the coming " Shiloh," or Peacemaker, to whom 
 " the gathering of the people should be." * 
 
 Thence, as all our readers know, sprang the 
 Hebrew nation first nurtured and disciplined in 
 Canaan, as a patriarchal family ; then in Egypt, 
 as a peculiar people ; then in the wilderness, for 
 many years, as a wandering tribe ; then again in 
 the land of Canaan, as a settled nation ; and, 
 finally, in all lands, as a sacred race ; and all 
 for the purpose of maintaining and transmitting 
 to mankind the knowledge of one true God, one 
 almighty Redeemer, and one eternal life. . 
 
 This great fact in the history of the Jews, as 
 a peculiar or chosen people, is beautifully indi 
 cated in the language of Moses, just before his 
 death "Remember the days of old, consider 
 the years of many generations ; ask thy father 
 and he will show thee, thy elders and they will 
 tell thee. When the Most High divided to the 
 nations their inheritance, when he separated the 
 sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people 
 according to the number of the children of Israel. 
 For the Lord s portion is his people, Jacob is the 
 lt of his inheritance ; he found him in a desert 
 
 * Genesis xlix. 10. 
 
136 CHRIST 4X HISTORY. 
 
 land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; he 
 led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as 
 the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirrcth up her 
 nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad 
 her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her 
 wings, so the Lord alone did lead him, and 
 there was no strange god with him." (Deut. 
 xxxii. 8-12.) 
 
 The sacred writers do not disguise the imper 
 fections of their nation ; they dwell, with honest 
 indignation, on their frequent apostasies and 
 perversities, and describe them as "a stiff- 
 necked and rebellious race." The most terrible 
 judgments are denounced against them by the 
 prophets, on this very ground judgments liter 
 ally, inflicted in subsequent times, as all the 
 world knows; yet the fact of their high and 
 special destiny, as the chosen people, through 
 whom divine truth was to be communicated to 
 the world, is never, for a moment, lost sight of. 
 For this purpose they were formed into a theoc 
 racy, or priestly nation, governed by inspired 
 laws and sanctions ; nay, more, by the immediate 
 presence and guidance of Jehovah, symbolized 
 in the Shekinah, or luminous appearance called 
 the "glory of the Lord," which shone above the 
 mercy seat, between the cherubim, iirst in the 
 tabernacle, and then in the temple. 
 
 Well, indeed, they knew, as Solomon in his 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 137 
 
 prayer of dedication acknowledges, that the 
 " heaven of heavens " could not contain the in 
 finite Spirit, whom they worshipped as "the 
 living God ; " but they believed in the possi 
 bility of a divine manifestation, such as they 
 could understand, the visible outward symbol 
 of which was recognized in the supernatural 
 splendor, which illumined the " holy of holies." 
 In that shrine, too, were offered continually the 
 sacrifice and incense prescribed by Jehovah, 
 adumbrating, in no ambiguous form, the one 
 great sacrifice of atonement, by which the world 
 was finally to be reconciled to God. It thus 
 became a centre of hope, and " a house of 
 prayer," for all pious souls, whether in Palestine 
 or other lands, until the true Temple and the 
 true Shekinah were realized in the person of 
 Jesus Christ. Around it gathered the hopes of 
 the entire Hebrew race ; to this, even in far 
 distant countries, they directed their devotions ; 
 fulfilling, in this way, the remarkable words used 
 at its dedication " But will God, indeed, dwell 
 on the earth ? Behold, the heaven and the 
 heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; how 
 much less this house that I have builded! Yet 
 have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, 
 and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to 
 hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy 
 servant prayeth unto thee to-day, that thine 
 12 * 
 
Io8 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 eyes may be opened towards this house, night 
 and day, even towards the place of which thou 
 hast said, My name shall be there ^ that thou 
 mayest hearken to the prayer which thy servant 
 shall make towards this place. And hearken 
 thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of 
 thy people Israel, when they shall pray towards 
 this place ; and hear thou in heaven, thy dwell 
 ing-place, and, when thou hcarcst, forgive." 
 (1 Kings viii. 27-30.) 
 
 The Temple then taught to the Israelites, and, 
 through them, to the neighboring nations, this 
 great and thrilling truth, that Jehovah, though 
 the infinite and ineffable Spirit, " whom no man 
 hath seen, or can see," does manifest himself in 
 mercy to man, that he hears the prayer of the 
 penitent, and restores his erring child to his favor 
 and image. 
 
 With the same view, God raised up among 
 them a long succession of prophets, men of high 
 inspiration and saintly virtue, who, controlled by 
 the Spirit of truth, uttered oracles of divine wis 
 dom, denounced the judgments of the Almighty 
 against sin, and proclaimed, in grand and pas 
 sionate numbers, the advent of the Holy One, 
 the Redeemer of Israel and the hope of the 
 world. Moses announced him as " the Prophet, 
 like unto himself," whom all were bound "to 
 hear;" Jacob, as "the Shiloh," unto whom 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 139 
 
 should "the gathering of the people be;" Isaiah, 
 as "the Wonderful," "the Mighty God," "the 
 Prince of Peace," who, while " making his soul 
 an offering for sin," should yet " prolong his 
 days," and reign over his people forever ; Daniel, 
 as " the Ancient of Days," the " Messiah," or 
 the "Anointed and Princely One;" and Mala- 
 chi, the last of the ancient prophetic line, as 
 " the Sun of Righteousness," who should " arise 
 with healing in his wings." 
 
 They speak of him as gentle and lowly, " de 
 spised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief," and yet of kingly 
 might, " glorious in his apparel," " travelling in 
 the greatness of his strength," and " mighty to 
 save," as David s Son and David s Lord, the 
 Sovereign of the Temple, and the Messenger of 
 the Covenant; as u giving his back to the smi- 
 ters, and his cheek to them that plucked off the 
 hair," dragged as " a lamb to the slaughter," 
 " stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted," "num 
 bered with transgressors," and finally " cut off 
 out of the land of the living," by a premature 
 and ignominious death ; and* yet as living, reign 
 ing, triumphant, a God confessed, loved, and 
 adored by myriads, his power resistless, his reign 
 universal and everlasting contrasts the most 
 singular, and yet the most singularly fulfilled in 
 the person of him, who, ages after, was described 
 
140 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 by the last of the apostles as " the Root and Off 
 spring of David, the Bright and the Morning 
 Star." * 
 
 The physical or geographical position of the 
 holy people corresponds to their character and 
 destiny. They were planted in a goodly land, 
 in a singularly protected but fertile heritage 
 among the mountains, with Asia on the one 
 side, and Europe on the other, quite near to 
 Egypt and Ethiopia, and not far from Greece 
 and Rome ; with rivers, roads, and seas around 
 them, sufficient, when the time came, to link 
 them with the commercial, political, and religious 
 destiny of the world. 
 
 For the same end, they were made to pass 
 through a severe and peculiar discipline, until 
 their idolatrous tendency was completely burned 
 out, and the whole nation became as much dis 
 tinguished for their hatred of idolatry, as, in 
 former times, for their strange proclivity to this 
 very sin. 
 
 This was the true secret of the exode from 
 Egypt, and the peculiar circumstances in w^hich 
 that took place ; and this too was the principal 
 reason of their long captivity in "the far East." 
 
 Nothing could be better fitted than the exode, 
 and the splendid series of miracles by which it 
 
 * Sec Hengstenberg s Christology, passim, for admirable criticisms 
 and explanations of the Messianic predictions. 
 
TilK CKXTUAL HACK. 141 
 
 was preceded and accompanied, to cure their 
 idolatry, contracted from long residence and 
 bondage in Egypt, and train them for their pe 
 culiar destiny as a sacred race. The Sun-gods 
 of Egypt, the sacred- Nile, the holy priesthood 
 and animals of pagan adoration, were stultified 
 and conquered before the God of Israel. How 
 singularly, too, was Moses prepared for his high 
 destiny, nurtured first in Egypt, and then in the 
 far wilderness, alone with nature and with God, 
 a man of a simple, energetic mind, withjio pre 
 tensions to those oratorical gifts which .gain the 
 public attention, but a devout Theist, with an utter 
 abhorrence of idolatry, and a profound sense of 
 the all-pervading presence and spirituality of God. 
 He appears with his brother Aaron, more highly 
 gifted as a speaker than himself, in the presence 
 of his people, and calls upon them in the name of 
 God, from whom he had received his commission, 
 to cast off the bondage of Egypt, and return to 
 the land of their fathers. Reluctant and doubt 
 ful, they finally yield to what seems to be the 
 evident command of God. Application is then 
 made to the Emperor of Egypt, who, like other 
 Oriental rnonarchs, probably held open court 
 to hear ihe petitions and try the causes of 
 his people, for permission, at the command of 
 God, to pass into the wilderness, to offer a 
 solemn sacrifice. This is peremptorily denied ; 
 
142 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 new burdens are imposed upon the people, who 
 murmur against Moses and Aaron, as the cause 
 of these calamities. Then the contest between 
 Theism and idolatry, freedom and despotism be 
 gins. Moses had come from converse, in the 
 wilderness, with the ineffable " I am that I am," 
 and presented his claims to attention, in the 
 name of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
 Jacob, who appeared to him in the bush. He 
 must therefore vindicate his commission, and 
 prove, before all, the supremacy of Jehovah, in 
 whose name he acted. How this was accom 
 plished, the following extract from Milman s 
 History of the Jews will strikingly show. " Again 
 they [Moses and Aaron] appear in the royal 
 presence, having announced, it should seem, their 
 pretensions to miraculous powers ; and now com 
 menced a contest, unequal, it would at first appear, 
 between two individuals of an enslaved people, 
 and the whole skill, knowledge, or artifice of the 
 Egyptian priesthood, whose sacred authority was 
 universally acknowledged ; their intimate ac 
 quaintance with all the secrets of nature exten 
 sive ; their reputation for magical powers firmly 
 established with the vulgar. The names of the 
 principal opponents of Moses, Janne-s and Jam- 
 bres, are reported by St. Paul from Jewish tra 
 ditions ; and it is curious that in Pliny and 
 Apuleius the names of Moses and Jannes are 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 143 
 
 recorded as celebrated proficients in magical 
 arts. 
 
 " The contest began in the presence of the 
 king. Aaron cast down his rod, which was in 
 stantaneously transformed into a serpent. The 
 magicians performed the same feat. The dex 
 terous tricks which the Eastern and African jug 
 glers play with serpents will easily account for 
 this without any supernatural assistance. It 
 might be done either by adroitly substituting 
 the serpent for the rod, or by causing the ser 
 pent to assume a stiff appearance like a rod or 
 staff, which, being cast down on the ground, 
 might become again pliant and animated. But 
 Aaron s serpent swallowed up the rest a cir 
 cumstance, however extraordinary, yet not likely 
 to work conviction upon a people familiar with 
 such feats, which they ascribed to magic. Still 
 the slaves had now assumed courage, their de 
 mands were more peremptory, their wonders 
 more general and public. The plagues of Egypt, 
 which successively afflicted the priesthood, the 
 king, and almost every deity honored in their 
 comprehensive pantheon, which infected every 
 element, and rose, in terrible gradation, one above 
 the other, now began. Pharaoh was standing 
 on the brink of the sacred river, the great object 
 of Egyptian adoration, not improbably in the 
 performance of some ceremonial ablution, or 
 
144 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 making an offering to the native deity of the 
 land. The leaders of the Israelites approached, 
 and renewed their demand for freedom. It was 
 rejected ; and at once the holy river, with all the 
 waters of the land, were turned to blood. The 
 fish, many of which were objects of divine wor 
 ship, perished. Still the priesthood were not yet 
 baffled. The Egyptians having dug for fresh 
 and pure water in some of these artificial tanks 
 or reservoirs, the magicians contrived to effect a 
 similar change. As their holy abhorrence of 
 blood would probably prevent them from dis 
 charging so impure a fluid into the new reser 
 voirs, they might, without great difficulty, produce 
 the appearance by some secret and chemical 
 means. . The waters of the Nile, it is well known, 
 about their period of increase, usually assume a 
 red tinge, either from the color of the Ethiopian 
 soil, which is washed down, or from a number 
 of insects of that color. Writers who endeavor 
 to account for these miracles by natural means, 
 suppose that Moses took the opportunity of this 
 periodical change to terrify the superstitious 
 Egyptians. Yet that Moses should place any 
 reliance on, or the Egyptians feel the least ap 
 prehension at, an ordinary occurrence, which 
 took place every year, seems little less incredible 
 than the miracle itself. For seven days the god 
 of the river was thus rebuked before the God of 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 145 
 
 the stranger ; instead of the soft and delicious 
 water, spoken of by travellers as peculiarly grate 
 ful to the taste, the foetid stream ran with that 
 of which the Egyptians had the greatest abhor 
 rence. To shed, or even to behold blood, was 
 repugnant to all their feelings and prejudices. 
 Still the king was inflexible, and from the sacred 
 stream was derived the second plague. The 
 whole land was suddenly covered with frogs. 
 The houses, the chambers, even the places where 
 they prepared their food, swarmed with these 
 loathsome reptiles. It is undoubtedly possible 
 that the corrupted waters might quicken the birth 
 of these creatures, the spawn of which abounded 
 in all the marshy and irrigated districts. Hence 
 the priests would have no difficulty in bringing 
 them forth in considerable numbers. The sud 
 den cessation of this mischief, at the prayer of 
 Moses, is by far the most extraordinary part of 
 this transaction, in one day all the frogs, ex 
 cept those in. the river, were destroyed. So far 
 the contest had been maintained without mani 
 fest advantage on either side. But the next 
 plague reduced the antagonists of Moses to a 
 more difficult predicament. With the priesthood 
 the most scrupulous cleanliness was inseparable 
 from their sanctity. These Bramins of Egypt, 
 so fastidiously abhorrent of every kind of per 
 sonal impurity, that they shaved every part 
 13 
 
146 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 which might possibly harbor vermin, practised 
 ablutions four times a day, wore no garments 
 but of the finest linen, because woollen might 
 conceal either filth or insects, heard with the 
 greatest horror, that the dirt had been changed 
 into lice, and that this same vermin, thus called 
 into existence, was spreading over the whole 
 country. After a vain attempt, notwithstanding 
 their prejudices, to imitate their opponent, they 
 withdrew for the present from the contest. But 
 the pride of the king was not yet broken, and 
 the plagues followed in rapid and dreadful suc 
 cession. Swarms of flies, 
 
 in unusual numbers, covered the whole land ; by 
 the intercession of Moses they were dispersed. 
 Next, all the cattle, of every description, were 
 smitten with a destructive murrain, all but those 
 of the Israelites, who were exempt from this as 
 from the former calamity. This last blow might 
 seem to strike not merely at the wealth, but at 
 an important part of the religion of Egypt, their 
 animal worship. The goat worshipped at Men- 
 des, the ram at Thebes, the more general deity, 
 the bull Apis, were perhaps involved in the uni 
 versal destruction. Still this is by no means 
 certain, as the plague seems to have fallen only 
 on the animals which were in the open pastures; 
 it is clear that the war horses escaped. If this 
 plague reached the deities, the next was aimed 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 147 
 
 at the sacred persons of the priesthood, no less 
 than at the meaner people. Moses took the 
 ashes of the furnace, perhaps the brick kiln in 
 which the wretched slaves were laboring, cast 
 them into the air, and where they fell the skin 
 broke out in boils. The magicians, in terror and 
 bodily anguish, fled away. It is impossible to 
 read the following passage from Plutarch, with 
 out observing so remarkable a coincidence be 
 tween the significant action of Moses and the 
 Egyptian rite, as to leave little doubt that some 
 allusion was intended. In the city of Eilithuia, 
 as Manetho relates, calling them Typhonian, (as 
 sacrificed to Typhon,) they burned men alive, 
 and winnowing their ashes, scattered them in the 
 air and dispersed them. The usual objects of 
 these sacrifices were people with red hair, doubt 
 less their old enemies the shepherds. Had any 
 of the Israelites suffered in these horrid furnaces, 
 it would add singular force and justice to the 
 punishment inflicted on the priests and people. 
 It would thus have been from the ashes of their 
 own victims, that their skins were burning with 
 insufferable agony, and breaking out into loath 
 some disease. The next plague, though in most 
 tropical climates it would have been an ordinary 
 occurrence, in Egypt was an event as unusual 
 as alarming. All ancient and modern writers 
 agree that rain, though by no means unknown, 
 
148 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 falls but seldom in that country. It appears to 
 be rather less uncommon now than formerly. 
 According to Herodotus, it rained once at 
 Thebes, and the circumstance excited general 
 apprehension. There, at present, says Belzoni, 
 two or three days of moderate rain generally 
 occur during the winter. But lower down, in 
 the part of the valley where these events took 
 place, it is still an uncommon, though not an 
 unprecedented phenomenon. Hasselquist saw 
 it rain at Alexandria, and other parts of the 
 Delta ; Pocock saw even hail at Faiume. Or 
 dinarily, however, the Nile, with its periodical 
 overflow and constant exhalations, supplies the 
 want of the cool and refreshing shower. Now, 
 according to the prediction of Moses, a tremen 
 dous tempest burst over the country. Thunder 
 and hail, and fire mingled with the hail, l that 
 ran upon the ground, rent the branches from the 
 trees, and laid prostrate the whole harvest. From 
 the cultivation o"f flax, Egypt possessed the great 
 linen manufacture of the ancient world ; on the 
 barley the common people depended for their usual 
 drink, the rich soil of Egypt in general being 
 unfit for the vine. Both these crops were totally 
 destroyed. The rye and the wheat, being later, 
 escaped. This tempest must, therefore, have 
 tajken place at the beginning of March. By 
 this time the inflexible obstinacy of the king 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 149 
 
 began to fail ; on the deliverance of the country 
 from this dreadful visitation, he engaged to re 
 lease the bondmen. At the word of Moses the 
 storm ceased. Still, to deprive the whole land 
 of so valuable a body of slaves, seemed too great 
 a sacrifice to the policy, and too humiliating a 
 concession to the pride of the monarch. To 
 complete the desolation of the country, the corn 
 lands were next laid waste by other means of 
 destruction. The situation of Egypt usually 
 secures the country from that worst enemy to 
 the fertility of the Asiatic provinces, the locusts. 
 As these insects fly in general from east to west, 
 and cannot remain on the wing for any length 
 of time, the width of the Red Sea presents a 
 secure barrier to their invasions. Their dreadful 
 ravage is scarcely exaggerated by the strong 
 images of the prophets, particularly the sublime 
 description in Joel. Where they alight, all vege 
 tation at once disappears ; not a blade of grass, 
 not a leaf, escapes them ; the soil seems as if it 
 were burnt up by fire ; they obscure the sun as 
 with a cloud ; they cover sometimes a space of 
 nine miles, and thus they march on in their regu 
 lar files, till the land which was as the garden of 
 Eden before them, behind them is a desolate wil 
 derness. 9 Such was the next visitation which 
 came to glean the few remaining signs of the 
 accustomed abundance of Egypt, spared by the 
 13* 
 
150 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 tempest. A strong and regular east wind brought 
 the fatal cloud from the Arabian shore, or, ac 
 cording to the Septuagint translation, a south 
 wind from the regions of Abyssinia. The court 
 now began to murmur at the unbending spirit 
 of the king ; on the intimation of this new 
 calamity, he had determined to come to terms. 
 He offered to permit all the adults to depart, but 
 insisted on retaining the children, either as host 
 ages for the return of the parents, or in order to 
 perpetuate a race of slaves for the future. Now 
 he was for an instant inclined to yield this point ; 
 but when the west wind had driven these destroy 
 ing ravagers into the sea, he recalled all his con 
 cessions, and continued steadfast in his former 
 resolutions of resistance to the utmost. At 
 length, therefore, their great divinity, the Sun, 
 was to be put to shame before the God of the 
 slave and the stranger. For three whole days, 
 as Moses stretched his hand toward heaven, a 
 darkness, described with unexampled force as a 
 
 DARKNESS THAT MIGHT BE FELT, Overspread the 
 
 land ; not merely was the sun unable to pene 
 trate the gloom, and enlighten his favored land, 
 but they could distinguish nothing, and were 
 constrained to sit in awe-struck inactivity. The 
 king would now gladly consent to the departure 
 of the whole race, children as well as grown-up 
 men ; yet, as all the latter plagues, the flies, the 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 151 
 
 murrain, the hail, 1he locusts, the darkness had 
 spared the land of Goshen, the cattle of that 
 district, in the exhausted state of the country, 
 was invaluable ; he demands that these should 
 be surrendered as the price of freedom. ; Our 
 cattle also shall go with us, not a hoof shall be 
 left behind, replies his inexorable antagonist. 
 Thus, then, the whole kingdom of Egypt had 
 been laid waste by successive calamities ; the 
 cruelty of the oppressors had been dreadfully 
 avenged ; all classes had suffered in the undis- 
 crixninating desolation. Their pride had been 
 humbled ; their most sacred prejudices wounded ; 
 the Nile had been contaminated ; their dwellings 
 polluted by loathsome reptiles ; their cleanly per 
 sons defiled by vermin ; their pure air had 
 swarmed with troublesome insects ; their cattle 
 had perished by a dreadful malady ; their bodies 
 broken out with a filthy disease ; their early har 
 vest had been destroyed by the hail, the latter by 
 the locusts ;. an awful darkness had enveloped 
 them for three days, but still the deliverance was 
 to be extorted by a calamity more dreadful than 
 all these. The Israelites will not depart poor 
 and empty handed ; they will receive some com 
 pensation for their years of hard and cruel ser 
 vitude ; they levy on their awe-struck masters 
 contributions in gold, silver, and jewels. Some, 
 especially later writers, have supposed that they 
 
152 CHRIST IN 1IISTOIIY. 
 
 exacted these gifts by main force, and with arms 
 in their hands. Undoubtedly, though the Isra 
 elites appear to have offered no resistance to the 
 Egyptian horsemen and chariots which pursued 
 them in the desert, they fight with the Amalek- 
 ites, and afterward arrive, an armed people, on 
 the borders of Canaan. Josephus accounts for 
 this, but not quite satisfactorily, by supposing 
 that they got possession of the arms of the 
 Egyptians, washed ashore after their destruction 
 in the Red Sea. But the general awe and con 
 fusion are sufficient to explain the facility with 
 which the Israelites collected these treasures. 
 The slaves had become objects of superstitious 
 terror ; to propitiate them with gifts was natural, 
 and their leader authorized their reception of all 
 presents which might thus be offered. The night 
 drew on, the last night of servitude to the people 
 of Israel, a night of unprecedented horror to the 
 ancient kingdom of Egypt. The Hebrews were 
 employed in celebrating that remarkable rite, 
 which they have observed for ages down to the 
 present day. The Passover, the memorial that 
 God passed over them when he destroyed the 
 first born of all Egypt, has been kept under this 
 significant name, and still is kept as the memo 
 rial of their deliverance from Egypt, by every 
 faithful descendant of Abraham. Each family 
 was to sacrifice a lamb without blemish, to 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 153 
 
 anoint their door posts and the lintels of their 
 houses with its blood, and to feast upon the re 
 mainder. The sacrifice was over, the feast con 
 cluded, when that dreadful event took place, 
 which it would be presumptuous profanation to 
 relate, except in the words of the Hebrew annal 
 ist. And it came to pass, that at midnight the 
 Lord smote all the first bom in the land of Egypt, 
 from the first born of Pharaoh, that sat on the 
 throne, unto the first bom of the captive that 
 was in the dungeon, and all the first born of the 
 cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he 
 and all his servants, and all the Egyptians ; and 
 there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was 
 not a house where there was not one dead. 
 The horrors of this night may be better con 
 ceived, when we call to mind that the Egyptians 
 were noted for the wild and frantic wailings 
 with which they lamented their dead. Scream 
 ing women rush about with dishevelled hair, 
 troops of people assemble in tumultuous com 
 miseration around the house, where a single 
 corpse is laid out and now every house and 
 every family had its victim. Hebrew tradition 
 has increased the horror of the calamity, assert 
 ing that the temples were shaken, the idols over 
 thrown, the sacred animals, chosen as the first 
 born, involved in the universal destruction. 
 While every household of Egypt was occupied 
 
154 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 
 
 in its share of the general calamity, the people 
 of Israel, probably drawn together during the 
 suspension of all labor, caused by the former 
 calamities, or assembled in Gosh en to celebrate 
 the new national festival already organized by a 
 sort of discipline among the separate tribes ; 
 with all their flocks and herds, with sufficient 
 provisions .for an immediate supply, and with 
 the booty they had extorted from their masters, 
 stood prepared as one man for the signal of de 
 parture. Daring the night the permission, or 
 rather entreaty, that they would instantly evacu 
 ate the country, arrived, yet no one stirred before 
 the morning, perhaps apprehensive lest the 
 slaughter should be attributed to them, or in re 
 ligious fear of encountering the angel of destruc 
 tion. The Egyptians became only anxious to 
 accelerate their departure, and thus the Hebrew 
 people set forth to seek a land of freedom, bear 
 ing with them the bones of their great ancestor 
 Joseph." 
 
 Thus were the Jews organized, and fairly com 
 mitted before the world as the chosen people, and 
 submitted to that long train of change and disci 
 pline, by which they were fitted to be the vehicle 
 for communicating the truth of God, to the na 
 tions of the modern civilized world. 
 
 Hence their long sojourn in the wilderness, 
 their reception of the law from Sinai, their final 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 155 
 
 planting in Canaan, and the peculiar institutions, 
 rites, and usages by which they were distinguished 
 from all the world besides. The whole was in 
 tended to extinguish idolatry, and introduce both 
 among Jews and Gentiles the reign of God. 
 
 It is on this ground we may justify the com 
 mand to exterminate the Canaanites, inveterate 
 and even bestial idolaters, indulging as they did 
 in the grossest sensuality, and making their chil 
 dren pass through the fire to Moloch. It was ab 
 solutely necessary to the preservation among the 
 Jews of any thing like purity of character, or spir 
 ituality of worship. Nothing, indeed, but a spe 
 cial divine injunction could legalize the proce 
 dure ; but this given, it was found the strongest 
 protest against idolatry, and the most effectual 
 means of preserving the national virtue. Had it 
 been fully carried out, the Jews would have re 
 mained in their own land, a beacon light to the 
 surrounding nations. That many of the Ca 
 naanites were left in the country, and permitted 
 to form alliances with Hebrew families, and 
 finally, through the influence of Jeroboam and 
 others, " who made Israel to sin," to introduce 
 their pagan rites among the Jews, is a fact well 
 known. It is also the only one which accounts 
 for their final apostasy, from the fatal conse 
 quences of which they were saved only by foreign 
 exile. Their long captivity under the kings of 
 
156 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Chaldea and Persia, brought out more distinctly 
 the national character, and finally saved them 
 from idolatry. 
 
 Being separated at first, as was meet, from all 
 the nations of the earth, by a severe, and what 
 some have deemed a barbarous discipline, they 
 were subsequently, by a series of the most sin 
 gular dispersions, such as no other nation has 
 ever experienced without extinction war, mi 
 gration and commerce, intestine divisions and ex 
 ternal calamities scattered over the world in 
 Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, in Egypt and 
 the parts about Libya and Gyrene. They were 
 very numerous in Babylon, where they long re 
 mained, first through captivity, and then through 
 choice, and in that and many of the adjacent 
 countries, became the teachers of their conquerors. 
 They had synagogues in all the principal cities 
 of Asia Minor, in Persia, and even in India. 
 Temple worship was performed in Alexandria, 
 and thousands, both of Jews and Gentiles, in 
 Egypt, read in their own vernacular, the transla 
 tion of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint. 
 Many Jews lived in Arabia, and so spread their 
 Messianic hopes among the tribes of the wilder 
 ness, as well as among the more cultivated com 
 munities of the ancient world. Other nations 
 passed away ; but they remained, partly among 
 the heathen, partly in their own land ; their views 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 157 
 
 the same, their hopes the same. They had gained 
 numerous proselytes in heathen lands about the 
 time which preceded the advent of Christ. Hence 
 the universal expectation of this event, cherished 
 through the Oriental world. Hence, especially, 
 the existence of this hope among the sages of 
 Babylon, or Arabia, according to some, and its 
 final realization by the Magi, who came to Jeru 
 salem to worship the new-born King.* 
 
 * See Appendix, Note C. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CENTRAL RACE. - PRELUDES AND PREPARATIONS. 
 
 THAT the Hebrews, as " a peculiar people," pos 
 sessed the character and performed the functions 
 ascribed to them in the preceding chapter, can 
 admit of no reasonable doubt ; for the fact stands 
 before us, account for it as we may, that ancient 
 history, in its higher relations, revolved around 
 them, and finally converged at Jerusalem in the 
 cross of Christ. 
 
 The most inveterate sceptic, at all familiar with 
 the annals of the past, must allow that one of 
 the great purposes, served by this old Hebrew 
 stock, was the preparation of the world for the 
 Messiah, and his actual advent, in the fulness of 
 the times, from the very bosom of the race that 
 rejected him as their king. Strange that they 
 should reject him, and yet give him to the world. 
 Yet such is the actual fact. So that they and 
 all other nations have been " as clay in the hands 
 of the potter," for the production of this sublime 
 result. Let the rationale of the thing be as it 
 may in the view of speculative minds, the hand 
 of God is visible in the whole history of the Jews, 
 
 (158) 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 159 
 
 and of the neighboring nations, who actually do 
 homage to this politically insignificant race ; the 
 consequence of which is not only a Messiah, but 
 a pure and perfect religion, a new era in history, 
 a new power in the heart of society, a new life in 
 the soul of man. Great is Rome, on account of 
 her colossal power, complete organization, mar 
 tial energy, and legal force. Great also is Greece, 
 greater even than Rome, from the breadth and 
 grandeur of her philosophic thought, and, above 
 all, from the exquisite beauty of her poetry and 
 art. The power of law, and the grace of form, 
 are represented by these, the most highly culti 
 vated of all the ancient nations ; but all this, as 
 even the merest tyro knows, has been drawn into 
 the Christian civilization. Blending with the 
 idea of the divine, and the hope of a glorious 
 immortality, and especially the spirit of universal 
 charity, the purest product of faith, all that is 
 really valuable in ancient civilization has been per 
 petuated through Christ, and not only so, but 
 sublimed to higher use. Law now is recognized 
 as having its seat in the bosom of God, and 
 beauty shines upon us, radiant and immortal, 
 from the face of Jesus. Both are discovered to us 
 as eternal powers. 
 
 The character and position, then, of the Hebrew 
 race, are to be estimated with especial reference to 
 Christ, and the amazing influence thence exerted 
 
160 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 in the history of mankind. It is obvious, even 
 to the most superficial view, that the elementary 
 forces of modern society are derived from this 
 peculiar nation. Scattered and peeled as they 
 have generally been, and as they still, to some 
 extent, are ; often dispersed and trampled upon 
 by the nations, and, indeed, with many obvious 
 defects of character, which their own writers freely 
 acknowledge, they have done a work for the 
 world, the stupendous consequences of which can 
 be estimated only at the close of time. The old 
 forms of religion in the East are dead or dying. 
 All their civilizations are undermined, and totter 
 ing to their fall. Not one of the pagan nations is 
 making the slightest progress. To such progress 
 idolatry and polygamy, the power of caste and 
 the power of superstition, oppose effectual barriers. 
 All are stationary, or absolutely dying out. The 
 religion of the crescent, with some elements of 
 power, but more of weakness, has long since 
 reached its culmination. Its rapid decline is 
 obvious to the world. All Mohammedan com 
 munities are suffering from sterility and weakness. 
 A vigorous blow from without would dash them to 
 pieces. Judaism, shorn of its early strength, and 
 standing simply as the nominis umbra, the shad 
 ow of a reality, which has passed into Christianity, 
 is ready to vanish away. Christianity and the 
 Christian form of civilization, yet imperfectly 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 1G1 
 
 evolved, alone are strong and progressive. Every 
 where they penetrate with their new views, new 
 aspirations, and activities. Under their influence, 
 industry and the arts, science and social life pros 
 per. Especially is this the case in those nations 
 and communities which have formed the clearest 
 and loftiest conceptions of Christianity, as a liv 
 ing, practical power. God is in them, because 
 Christ is in them. - And where God is, there char 
 ity, freedom, and activity abound. 
 
 Now to whom, under God, do we owe all this, 
 but to that old Hebrew stock, or, at least, that 
 portion of it who arc "the true Israelites, to 
 whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, and the 
 covenants, and the giving of the law, and the 
 services of God, and the promises ; whose are 
 the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, 
 Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for 
 ever ? " (Rom. ix. 45.) And even if, by their rejec 
 tion of Christ, the modern Jews, as a nation, are 
 "cast away," have they not become, on this very 
 account, as St. Paul shows, "the riches of the 
 world ? " * 
 
 If, then, among the nations at large, we find 
 a general preparation for Christ ; if in this re 
 spect Jesus, as " God manifest in the flesh," is 
 proved to be the centre of a new spiritual sphere, 
 
 * In the eleventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 14* 
 
162 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and "the Desire of all nations," we shall find 
 among the Hebrews a special preparation, nay, 
 more actual " preludings," as one of the English 
 divines has called them, of his advent and in 
 carnation.* In the sphere of matter, shadows 
 follow realities ; in that of religion, they go be 
 fore them. 
 
 Hence the various theophanies, or divine man 
 ifestations in human form, granted to the patri 
 archs, the prophets, and the Jewish people gen 
 erally, recognized in the New Testament as ap 
 pearances of the divine Word, or the Messiah. 
 The Jews had the same idea of God, which has 
 approved itself to the profoundest speculative in 
 tellects, Plato, Philo, Anselm, Bacon, Leibnitz, 
 Newton, Kant, Schelling, and Cousin, namely, 
 that the absolute, invisible Jehovah, who is above 
 all things, and yet comprehends all things, can 
 never adequately reveal himself to the finite 
 intellect. All passing into the finite, on his part, 
 must be by limitation. At least, it must so ap 
 pear to our faculties. To us, then, God cannot 
 be known in himself, that is, in his infinite or 
 absolute perfection. He must appear in an 
 other self, the same, and yet not the same, that 
 is, in some divine Logos, Son, or Messiah, who, 
 as a definite personality, may reveal himself to 
 us in an august, but limited and shaded form. 
 
 * Bishop Bull. 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 163 
 
 Hence the more eminent Hebrew writers, and 
 among these the apostles John and Paul, ascribe 
 the creation of the world to Christ, " by whom 
 are all things," and " for whom are all things," 
 and " in whom all things consist." When God 
 creates, he goes forth, so to speak, into space 
 and time ; but this being impossible for an in 
 finite Essence, he must go forth as a Word or 
 Image of himself, in which sense only, can God 
 be regarded as a conceivable personality. So that 
 the Hebrew notion upon the subject is founded 
 in the very nature of things, and commends it 
 self to every thoughtful mind. It is only thus 
 that God can discover himself to us, only thus 
 that he can enter into personal relations with 
 his creatures. "In the beginning," then, "was 
 the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
 the Word was God." That is, the Word is the 
 manifested Deity, whether embodied in the out 
 ward universe, or incarnated in the person of 
 Jesus Christ. This is that Voice, or Word of 
 God, that appeared to our first parents in the 
 garden of Eden ; that discovered himself to 
 Enoch, walking with him as a friend ; that re 
 vealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as 
 their portion, being familiarly known as " the 
 God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," ap 
 pearing to them as a divine or angelic man, 
 often conversing with them, or performing on 
 
164 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 their behalf acts of benignity and help. This 
 was the Angel-God adored by Moses in the 
 bush, who discovered himself to the prophet as 
 the " I am that I am," that is, the manifested 
 form of the absolute and eternal ONE, in whom 
 all being is centred, and from whom all life for 
 ever flows. God in Essence is invisible, and 
 even inconceivable, as Moses well knew ; for he 
 never lost sight of his absolute spirituality; 
 Him, therefore, he could never behold " face to 
 face ; " but his Image, or Voice, could be made 
 manifest and conceivable to his finite reason. 
 This imaged or embodied Essence, then, is the 
 God who spoke to Moses, "face to face," as one 
 man speaks to another, by visible or audible 
 signs, and who, when the prophet stood in the 
 cleft of the rock, made his glory pass before him, 
 declaring himself to be " the Lord, the Lord God, 
 merciful and gracious," whose "face," that is, 
 whose direct and essential glory could not be seen, 
 but whose " back parts," more properly, whose 
 train, that is, the subdued and shadowed reflec 
 tion of his ineffable brightness, like the train of 
 burnished clouds which follow the sun, sinking 
 beneath the horizon, could alone be made visible 
 to mortal eyes. This was " the Angel of his 
 Presence," or simply the Divine Presence, the 
 Angel of the Covenant, in whom was " the 
 name," or nature of God, and who went before 
 
THE CENT11AL RACE. 165 
 
 the Israelites in their journeyings through the 
 wilderness; a fact distinctly recognized in the 
 dying address of St. Stephen, as well as in the 
 language of the Pentateuch.* This, too, was 
 " the Captain of the Lord s host," worshipped by 
 Joshua, and " the angel," or rather " the Lord," 
 who appeared to Manoah and his wife, and 
 " did wondrously " with the sacrifice on the rock. 
 This, in fact, is that " Lord of hosts," who 
 appeared to the prophets, sometimes in the tem 
 ple, sometimes in the wilderness, and sometimes 
 in their own humble dwellings, from whom they 
 received their commissions, and whose high be 
 hests they were ever willing to perform. " In 
 the year that king Uzziah died," writes Isaiah, 
 with solemn and thrilling words, " I saw also 
 the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, 
 and his train filled the temple. Above it stood 
 the seraphims : each one had six wings ; with 
 twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did 
 fly. And one cried unto another, and said, 
 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole 
 earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the 
 door moved at the voice of him that cried, and 
 the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, 
 Woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am a 
 man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a peo- 
 
 * Compare Exodus xxiii. 20-22 ; xxxiii. 14, 15, with Acts of tho 
 Apostles vii. 38, 39, and 1 Cor. x. 41 ; as also v. 9. 
 
166 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 pie of unclean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the 
 King, the Lord of hosts." * In a word, this was 
 the manifested Divinity, who, in shadowy form, 
 discovered himself to the chosen people, and who 
 finally, in actual human shape, became incar 
 nate as the Son of God, the Savior of the world. 
 Hence the peculiar phraseology of the Psalms, 
 in which this great truth is frequently recognized : 
 " The Lord said unto my Lord ; " in the Hebrew, 
 "Jehovah said to my Jehovah, Sit thou on my 
 right hand, till I make thine enemies thy foot 
 stool ; " a passage applied to himself by Jesus 
 Christ, who, when the Pharisees, had admitted 
 that the Messiah was the Son of David, put to 
 them this pertinent question : " How, then, 
 doth David call him Lord, [Jehovah, as in the 
 Hebrew,] saying, The Lord said unto my Lord," 
 &c. ? f 
 
 Indeed, the great truth was well understood by 
 the ancient Hebrew believers, and recognized in 
 their whole Talmudic literature, that the Messiah, 
 who should spring from the family of David, and 
 from the tribe of Judah, was to be at once David s 
 Son and David s Lord. " Rabbi," was the devout 
 confession of a true Israelite, when he discovered 
 
 * Isaiah vi. 1-5. Compare St. Johnxii. 31. " These things said 
 Esaias when he saw his glory." 
 f Matt. xxii. 42-46. 
 
TFIE CENTRAL RACE. 167 
 
 the Messiah, "thou art the Son of God; thou 
 art the King of Israel ! " * 
 
 The fact, then, is established, that it was 
 among this strange people that the true idea of 
 God, manifested as a distinct personality, through 
 the divine Word, was cherished and perpetuated, 
 and that religion, in its severe grandeur, received 
 its highest development in ancient times. When 
 Pompey entered the Holy of Holies, in the tem 
 ple of Jerusalem, he was astonished to find no 
 image there, such as all other nations worshipped. 
 But the Hebrews were a Heaven-instructed race, 
 who recognized the eternal Jehovah as an infinite 
 and ineffable Essence, revealed to them only " in 
 part," and thence longed for that more perfect 
 manifestation of his glory, in the coming Messiah. 
 
 Thus it is seen, that the dispensation of Moses, 
 in comparison with the higher form of religion 
 under Christ, is but the raw spring, to the reful 
 gent summer, or the crude and somewhat un 
 sightly root, to the resplendent flower. Nor is 
 this unnatural. For it is ever God s method, 
 both in nature and in society, to discover himself, 
 and accomplish his designs, by gradual steps and 
 processes. The first, indeed, is as vital as the 
 rest, but, in comparison, it seems narrow and 
 defective. For, in the dark root lies the stem, in 
 
 * The various theophanics of the Old Testament are given, in their 
 order, in the first volume of Hengstcnberg s Christology. 
 
168 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the stem the leaf and bud, and in the bud the 
 blushing rose. Cold winter, sterile as it may 
 seem, carries in its bosom the palpitating spring, 
 the spring the radiant summer and abundant 
 autumn. The child, too, with its crude sim 
 plicity, is " father to, the man ; " while the weak 
 and ill-formed society, governed, perhaps, as a 
 patriarchate or a nomadic tribe, is parent to the 
 free and prosperous commonwealth. We are 
 not, then, to judge of Judaism by its unsightly 
 root, or its rough and prickly rind ; not by the 
 accidental circumstances with which it was en 
 vironed, or the stormy changes through which it 
 passed, and by which it was developed ; not by 
 the faults of its early members, or the crimes of 
 those who succeeded them ; above all, we are 
 not to judge of it by the obvious imperfections in 
 legislation and social life, for a season permitted, 
 or rather overlooked, by Jehovah, in order to be 
 finally corrected or entirely extinguished ; but by 
 its interior spirit, its elemental powers, its grand 
 spiritual truths God and the soul, the union 
 of the human and divine, and the final marriage 
 of heaven and earth by the mediation of a divine 
 Messiah in a word, by the glorious flower 
 evolved through spiritual forces from its bosom, 
 expanding in the fair sunlight, and filling the 
 whole earth with its heavenly aroma. 
 
 Some persons, poorly informed upon the sub- 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 169 
 
 ject, or occupied with sceptical prepossessions, 
 have represented the God of the Jews as narrow 
 and local, like the god of the hills, or the god of 
 the vales, of whom the Canaanites dreamed.* It 
 is true, the Jewish conception of God, at times, 
 may have caught some such taint; but, in the 
 Scriptures, the God of Israel is represented ever 
 as supreme over all worlds and all nations ; the 
 All-mighty, the All-holy, the All-merciful, the 
 one, living, and true God, who created and who 
 sustains the heavens and the earth ; the I am that 
 I awi; as if all being, boundless and everlasting, 
 belonged to him ; the King of kings and Lord 
 of lords, " gracious and long-suffering, slow 
 to wrath, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and 
 sin." Thus was he revealed to Moses, and 
 thus to all the prophets. Thus is he represented 
 in the Psalms, those sublime lyrics, from which 
 poets, in all ages, have borrowed their loftiest 
 images of Him, who is " above all, through all, 
 and in all." f 
 
 So, also, it has been concluded that, in the Old 
 Testament, the immortality of the soul is not 
 
 * Goethe, for example, in the first volume of his Dichtung nnd 
 Wahrheit. It first appears, however, in Spinoza s Tractatus Thro. 
 Politicus. Of course it figures largely in the works of Strauss, Pur- 
 ker, and Newman. 
 
 f See Gen. i. 1 ; Exod. xx. 8-12 ; xxxi. 17 ; Deut. iv. 23. Compare 
 Gen. xiv. 18-20, xvii. 1-9, xviii. 16-25, xxxix. 9, 1. 20 ; Exod. vi. 3 ; 
 Deut. iv. 32-36 ; Deut. x. 14-18 ; Psalms ciii. and civ.; Isai. xl. 
 12-18, 25-31. 
 
 15 
 
170 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 recognized; whereas that great truth is neces 
 sarily involved in the spirituality of God, and 
 especially in the doctrine of his union and fel 
 lowship with man. Long after the patriarchs 
 were dead, Jehovah speaks of himself to Moses 
 as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, 
 whence our Savior deduced the doctrine of the 
 spirituality and consequent immortality of man, 
 or what he termed the doctrine of the anastasis, 
 or resurrection state, that is, the spiritual exist 
 ence of man subsequent to death, on which the 
 fact of a literal resurrection must ultimately be 
 based, saying, " God is not the God of the dead, 
 but of the living." And not only our Savior, but 
 all the ancient prophets, deduced from it the 
 same great truth ; so that the hope, not only of 
 the dying, but of the living Jew, ever passed the 
 precincts of mortality; while all the prophets 
 sang triumphantly of a spiritual and everlasting 
 kingdom beyond this world and time.* Long 
 before our Savior appeared, the doctrine of the 
 spirituality of the soul, and even of the resurrec 
 tion of the dead, was strongly held by the great 
 
 * We admit that the immortality of the BOU! is not specifically 
 taught by Moses. So far as this is concerned, Warburton is right 
 in his main position. It does not follow from this, however, that it 
 is not implied in the doctrine of the spirituality of God, and of the 
 consequent spirituality of man, formed, according to Moses, in the 
 image of God. It is taught plainly enough in other parts of the Old 
 Testament. For the proof texts, see Jahn s Bib. Arch. p. 397. 
 
THE CENTKAL KACE. 171 
 
 body of the Jewish nation. Dimly and imper 
 fectly realized, it is true, yet still known and 
 believed ; a circumstance which explains two 
 facts : first, that the Jews, in our Savior s time, 
 in their conversations with him, speak often of 
 the resurrection, or resurrection state, (e. g., " in 
 the resurrection whose shall she be ? " ) and, 
 secondly, that, in the flood of glory with which 
 Christ invested the doctrine, and in the vivid 
 realization which he gave it, by his own resur 
 rection, and final ascension, or return to the 
 spiritual sphere, he is justly said to have 
 " brought life and immortality to light." 
 
 As a people, whatever their faults and aber 
 rations, the old Hebrews lived under the govern 
 ment of the one eternal God, "the God of the 
 whole earth," a practical theocracy, or rather 
 divine commonwealth, and longed for the coming 
 of the Messiah. Amid all their corruptions and 
 dispersions, this was the polar star of their his 
 tory, their cloud by day and pillar of fire by 
 night. Among the hills of Canaan ; on the 
 banks of the sacred Nile ; in the beautiful Da 
 mascus ; by the ancient Euphrates, where they 
 hung their harps on the willows ; in Antioch 
 and Jerusalem ; in Babylon and Alexandria ; in 
 Corinth, and in Rome; wherever, indeed, they 
 were scattered in later years, this was the " conso 
 lation of Israel." Never did this heaven-inspired 
 
172 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 hope forsake them. In the strange vicissitudes 
 of their history, and even in their deepest debase 
 ment, cured forever of their idolatrous tendencies, 
 severed completely by fire and sword, by famine 
 and privation, by spiritual discipline and provi 
 dential dealing, from the corrupted mass of 
 heathenism then enveloping the globe, and thus 
 preserved, as the ark of truth and hope amid 
 the sullen waves, they never lost the idea of one 
 supreme Jehovah, or the hope of the coming 
 Messiah, who should set up an everlasting empire 
 of righteousness and peace. 
 
 That which in other nations was dimly and 
 imperfectly apprehended, associated with error 
 and idolatry, or taught only to the select few as 
 an esoteric doctrine, or a mere philosophical spec 
 ulation, was the common heritage of this singular 
 people, obviously under the inspiration and gui 
 dance of the Almighty. 
 
 It is clear, moreover, that neither the doctrine 
 of Gocl, nor of the immortality of the soul, nor of 
 the union of the human and the divine, and thence 
 of the reunion and restoration of mankind to their 
 common Father, sprang spontaneously from the 
 genius of the Hebrew people. These truths were 
 communicated to them from a higher source, nay, 
 drilled into them by long and peculiar discipline. 
 The Jews were not philosophers. They knew 
 nothing of metaphysical speculation. The idea 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 173 
 
 had never dawned upon their minds, till the time 
 of Philo, and scarcely then. Neither were they 
 given to historical research, or curious learning. 
 What they knew, they knew only as a tradition, 
 or an inspiration. They could give no account 
 of it, except that it came from heaven. This is 
 strikingly exemplified in their views of the per 
 fect spirituality of God, notwithstanding their ac 
 knowledged anthropomorphism, and constant pro 
 clivity to idolatry, as also in reference to the im 
 mortality of the soul, in which, all admit, the later 
 Jews thoroughly believed. Indeed, these great 
 truths are in absolute contrast with their singular 
 narrowness, bigotry, and fickleness, as a nation. 
 But God was their King, and disciplined them 
 into these high and immortal beliefs. At first 
 trained as rude children, under a theocratic gov 
 ernment, saying little of the far distant and invis 
 ible future, yet clearly holding it in reserve, they 
 were subjected to immediate reward and punish 
 ment. Quick, decisive, palpable, it came upon 
 them in waving harvests and joyful prosperity, or 
 in blighted crops and sweeping death. Obedience 
 was the uniform rule, the clear and infallible test. 
 The doctrine of immortality was safe enough un 
 der such a regimen. 
 
 The grand defect of all other extant religious 
 systems lay in their idolatrous and licentious 
 spirit. God, or, if he was forgotten, the gods were 
 15* 
 
174 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 materialized and degraded. Faith became fear, 
 worship superstition, happiness pleasure, if not 
 absolute lust,* Philosophy, too, even when it 
 reached the idea of the great First Cause, reached 
 it as a speculation which could not be taught to 
 the people. If God was supposed to discover 
 himself in the flesh, it was an incarnation, not of 
 purity and love, but of simple power, or human 
 wisdom ; nay, more, of brutal passion. Polytheism 
 clung to the systems of the best thinkers, Atha- 
 nagoras, Socrates, Plato, Plutarch. Even while 
 admitting the existence of a Supreme Being, it 
 was only as the source or creator of gods, demons, 
 and men.f Sin was not understood, and the im 
 mortality of the soul, sometimes taught, but as 
 often doubted, as Cicero, in De Natura Deorum, 
 over and over again informs us, was regarded sim 
 ply as the onward process in its eternal transmi 
 gration. Redemption was longed for, but never 
 thoroughly understood, never truly realized. Sin 
 was felt as a horrible discord, and a desire was 
 cherished, by a few, for that divine life, that pure 
 
 * Of all the gods of Greece and Rome, none were adored more 
 sedulously than Venus. Lust was sanctioned by deification. The 
 temples, in later times, were scenes of great impurity. 
 
 f- Plato declares that "no change" ought to be made in "any 
 established religion," and he "who thinks of it must have lost his 
 senses." De Legibus, v. Socrates gave it as a maxim, that every 
 one ought to follow the religion of his country. Xenophon s Memor 
 abilia, lib. i. When charged with denying the gods adored by the pub 
 lic, he defended himself from it as from a crime. Apologia, in 
 Plato. 
 
THE CENTRAL RACE. 175 
 
 and peaceful condition of the soul, which Plato 
 describes as the deepest and most beautiful 
 melody ; * but if some attained it, as charity 
 may hope, alas! the great mass of the heathen 
 did not even know what it was. 
 
 Blood flowed from innumerable pagan altars, 
 but it was a blind homage to the gods, or a sort 
 of dumb, instinctive confession of guilt, not a 
 reasonable and acceptable service, which exerted 
 upon the heart any high moral influence. 
 
 But among the pious Hebrews, with no phi 
 losophy, no literature, no arts, there existed a pro 
 found idea of the spirituality, eternity, justice, 
 and compassion of God ; a longing for a true rev 
 elation of him in the coming Messiah, who should 
 " restore all things ; " a definite conception of sin, 
 as a wrong against God and man ; and a clear 
 idea of redemption, through penitence and faith. 
 By their sacrifices and ablutions, they confessed 
 their guilt, acknowledged the great fact that life 
 was forfeited by sin, and if restored, must be re 
 stored by another and higher life. Their sym 
 bolic ritual prefigured the one great sacrifice, Je 
 sus Christ, " whose blood," in other words, whose 
 life, given for the redemption of the world, " cleans- 
 eth from all sin." So they believed in God, in 
 the soul, in immortality ; believed these things as 
 
 * DC Lerjibus, i. 3. 
 
176 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 divine and authoritative truths, believed them as 
 practical and eternal realities ; and through Christ 
 have given them to the world. Or rather, we 
 ought to say, God, through them and the Mes 
 siah, who came from them, has given these truths 
 to the world, for the enlightenment and salvation 
 of all. 
 
 For it came to pass in process of time, that 
 while retaining the great outlines of truth, per 
 manently embodied in the Old Testament Scrip 
 tures, the Jews gradually lost the true spirit of 
 their ancient faith. Their expected Messiah, 
 described in the prophets as a spiritual Redeemer, 
 came to be invested with temporal attributes, 
 foreign to his nature and dispensation. He was 
 still regarded as divine in his origin and resources, 
 but this belief was carnalized, by the narrow con 
 ceptions and political longings of worldly hearts. 
 Hence in the days of the Maccabees, and in the 
 age just preceding the advent of Christ, they 
 longed for the celestial and the divine, only that 
 the terrene and sensual might be consummated 
 and enthroned. 
 
 The sect of the Pharisees, derived from a word 
 signifying purity or separation, which sprang into 
 existence during the reign of the Asmonean 
 kings, for the sake of maintaining the worship of 
 God in its primitive integrity, grew proud and 
 ambitious, and finally controlled the nation. It 
 
THE CENTRAL KACE. 177 
 
 was only about sixty years before Christ 1 hat the 
 brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus made war 
 upon each other for the priesthood, to which 
 was attached the royal dignity. This was the 
 fatal moment when commenced the downfall of 
 the Jewish nation. From that resulted the in 
 terference of Pompey in the affairs of Syria ; and 
 Judea fell under the control of the Romans. 
 Through their influence the sovereignty of the 
 land passed out of the hands of the native princes, 
 and fell into those of Herod, a stranger and an 
 Idumean. Under his powerful and cruel domin 
 ion every thing was changed. The temple in 
 deed was rebuilt, with considerable splendor ; but 
 the principles and usages of Judaism were fatally 
 marred. Restive and unhappy, hating the usurper, 
 and longing for freedom, the nation was com 
 pelled to be the slave of Herod, while Herod him 
 self was the slave of Rome. 
 
 It was then that the great body of the people, 
 especially the Pharisees, longed, with deeper in 
 tensity than ever, for the coming of the Messiah ; 
 but it was a Messiah fierce and conquering, who 
 might destroy their enemies, and crown them 
 with earthly glory. Whence we conclude that 
 it was only by a true incarnation, a divine and 
 supernatural process, that Jehovah, through such 
 a people, could bring salvation to 1 he world. The 
 morning must come from the bosom of night; 
 
178 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 life itself must spring from the silence of the grave. 
 In a word, God, as of old, must say, Let there be 
 light! and the morning stars shall sing together, 
 and all the sons of God shout for joy.* 
 
 * Those who desire further information on the topics embraced in 
 the two preceding lectures are referred to Dean Prideaux, Connec 
 tion of the Old and New Testament, though this work is liable to 
 some slight critical abatements; Dr. VV. Alexander s (Edinburgh, 
 Scotland) Congregational Lectures on the same subject; Faber, G. 
 S., Treatise on the Genius and Object of the Pat., the Levit., and 
 the Christian Dispensations ; J. P. Smith s Scripture Testimony to 
 the Messiah ; Hengstenbcrg s Christoloyie ; Jahn s Hebrew Com 
 monwealth ; Jahn s Bib. Archaeology ; Knobel, Aug., Prophctismus 
 der Hebraer. Volhtttndig Darcjestellt ; Bahr, K. Ch. W. F., Symbolik 
 des Mosaischcn Cidtus ; Barnes s Commentary on the Book of Job ; 
 Pareau on the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul, as taught 
 in the Book of Job. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 HISTORY is like a river, or like a number of 
 confluent streams, proceeding from some high 
 table land, or lofty mountain range, rushing 
 through the plains beneath, now diverging, then 
 again approaching, finally flowing together in 
 some common channel, and by a single mouth 
 or mouths falling into the sea. One great prin 
 ciple or law predominates over the whole. All 
 tend one way, all find themselves together in the 
 ocean. Thus, from some common origin in the 
 depths of Asia, we find mankind diverging into 
 various communities and peoples, long separated 
 from each other, then mingled together, by means 
 of war, commerce, literature, religion, and other 
 causes, evermore tending in one direction, and 
 passing on to some common destiny. The hand 
 of God presides over the rushing millions, evolv 
 ing grand and benignant purposes, preparing 
 the world for new eras and revolutions, and 
 above all for the peaceful and eternal reign 
 of the Messiah. Thus history has two as 
 pects, the one superficial and gloomy, like a 
 
 (17 J) 
 
180 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 sea vexed with storms, the other clear and calm, 
 like the same sea in its profounder depths. It 
 has two movements, the one temporary and tu 
 multuous, setting in towards time, the other per 
 manent and majestic, setting in towards eternity. 
 Hence we find the ancient nations brought 
 together, revolutionized, thrown into new shapes 
 and positions, or utterly extinguished in the 
 process of human civilization. But amid all 
 changes, there is an onward movement. Truth 
 is preserved among men, and in the lapse of 
 ages, discovered in greater beauty, comprehen 
 siveness, and power. Religion, like a deeper life, 
 having its sources in the infinite, advances to 
 its goal, now apparently lost amid the heav 
 ing surges of human passion, then again reap 
 pearing with greater force, and evidently moving, 
 with the progress of events, to some august con 
 summation. So also the chosen people, with 
 whom it is mainly deposited, are preserved and 
 pushed forward, in connection with the truth, to 
 the same final issue. Dynasties rise and fall 
 with reference to this alone. It weaves itself, 
 like a supernatural agency, which it really is, in 
 all their affairs, and when these have served its 
 purposes, it leaves them for a new, and perhaps 
 wider career with others. Thus God used the 
 old Assyrians to punish his people, and convey 
 his truth into the remoter Oriental world ; so 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 181 
 
 that even in the courts of Nineveh and Babylon 
 he had witnesses for the truth ; he used the 
 Persians to provide them a congenial home, to 
 restore them to their native land, to rebuild the 
 temple and reestablish their ancient worship; 
 he compelled Alexander of Macedon and his 
 early successors, both in Syria and Egypt, to 
 protect them ; he permitted Antiochus Epiph- 
 anes, by bloody persecution, to try their faith 
 and test their devotion ; but he put " a hook in 
 his nose," and said, " Thus far shalt thou come, 
 and no farther ; " finally, he brought the Romans 
 to enslave them, yet, by this very means, to 
 maintain, within certain limits, their national 
 integrity, and above all to save them from the 
 vengeance of the kings of Syria, who longed 
 for their destruction. By these and similar 
 means he not only preserved them in the land 
 of Palestine, with their inspired books, sacred 
 places, and Messianic hopes, but he scattered 
 them also through the civilized world, in Rome, 
 Greece, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Babylon, and 
 even India, into which places they carried their 
 peculiar principles and expectations ; so that 
 great numbers of the heathen became their pros 
 elytes, and cherished, in form more or less per 
 fect, their peculiar hopes. 
 
 How singularly, in its external aspects, not to 
 speak of its interior forces, was the world pre- 
 16 
 
182 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 pared for the establishment and propagation of 
 Christianity ! 
 
 It was a time of transition and convergence, 
 such as the nations had never before seen. The 
 old dynasties were subdued, and Rome was 
 every where dominant. The languages of the 
 most intelligent and aggressive civilizations, the 
 Grecian and. the Roman, spread with the ad 
 vance of their conquering armies. Greece her 
 self had fallen into decay, but her language, from 
 a great variety of causes, had become almost 
 cosmopolitan. It was spoken not only in its 
 old native haunts, but throughout Asia Minor, 
 and in many parts of Syria, especially in all the 
 great centres of commerce and power, Rome, 
 Damascus, Babylon, Jerusalem, Csesarea, Anti- 
 och, and Alexandria. Thus the nations were 
 brought together. Thus the streams of history 
 were converging to some central issue. 
 
 Indeed, that was a most peculiar and critical 
 era, which closed, in some sense, the troubled 
 drama of the ancient world, and prepared man 
 kind for a new order of things. 
 
 The existing religions, and consequent civili 
 zations, all of which, with a single exception, 
 embodied the element of idolatry, and what is 
 worse, of selfishness and lust, had fallen into a 
 state of dotage. Their old fiery hearts ceased to 
 beat. A strange torpor seized them all. Indeed, 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 183 
 
 mankind, in consequence of their advancing intel 
 ligence, had outgrown their religions, while their 
 morals were becoming more and more corrupt. 
 The splendid visions of Grecian polytheism had 
 long been tarnished. Olympus was deserted. Mag 
 nificent temples, beautiful poetry, exquisite statu 
 ary remained, but all earnest worship was lost. 
 The whole was thoroughly penetrated by the spirit 
 of doubt and lust. The stronger, but equally 
 idolatrous faith of Rome gave signs of decay. 
 Like the civil polity which it supported, it was 
 tottering to its fall. Superstitions enough re 
 mained, but all profound and coherent faith, 
 even in idolatry, was breaking to pieces, and 
 vanishing away. The whole array of the priest 
 hood began to be contemned, nay, what is more 
 significant, began to contemn themselves. Phi 
 losophers, who despised the vulgar notions, often 
 spoke with contempt of superstition ; then again 
 urged a more rational veneration of the popular 
 divinities, but without the slightest success. 
 The awe-struck imagination of the elder pagans, 
 which prostrated itself in burning adoration be 
 fore the starry host, the sacred fire, or the 
 Olympian Jove, could nowhere be found. Sac 
 rifices enough were offered, especially by the 
 magistrates, but rather to appease the hunger of 
 the populace than to attract the favor of the 
 gods. Xenophon tells us that the common peo- 
 
184 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 pie regarded them only as a pleasant means of 
 securing a good meal.* The festivals and cere 
 monies of religion were observed for amusement 
 and pleasure. They did more to corrupt, than 
 to preserve the morals of the people. 
 
 A new era, in fact, was opening upon the 
 world ; but what it was to be could scarcely be 
 foretold, by reference to the existing state of 
 things. For idolatry was replaced by scepticism, 
 and scepticism resulted in anarchy and crime. 
 Atheism, in its practical forms, was stealing into 
 the halls of legislation, the cabinet of kings, and 
 the closets of philosophers, and with it the most 
 hideous crimes. " Darkness covered the earth, 
 and gross darkness the people." Abominable 
 vices, vices which we do not even name in this 
 age of the world, polluted every pagan country, 
 not as unfrequent and startling enormities, but 
 as common every-day occurrences. Indeed, this 
 taint always pervaded these countries, especially 
 Greece and Egypt, and to some extent Rome ; 
 for even Plato and Cicero, in their pages, refer 
 familiarly, and by way of illustration, to one of 
 the most detestable of these vices. Free them 
 selves from sensual indulgence, they speak of it, 
 in such easy terms, as would indicate its exten 
 sive prevalence.! But now vices of this kind 
 
 * In his Athen. Rcpublica, c. 2. 
 
 f See, in ihePh&drus, the illustrations of love in its various forms. 
 It is well known that both the Epicureans and Stoics allowed and 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 185 
 
 had increased to an amazing extent. Occasion 
 ally checked by civil penalties, as in the case of 
 the Bacchanals at Rome, they broke out again 
 with fresh energy. Every where, also, slavery, 
 in a form vastly worse than any thing in modern 
 times, pervaded the Roman empire, and entailed 
 upon all concerned the most fatal vices. Life 
 was cheap, chastity still cheaper ; and a man, 
 especially a patrician, might maim or murder his 
 slaves with impunity. Amid much exterior re 
 finement, the greatest brutality of manners pre 
 vailed. Justice was sacrificed, in the terrible 
 struggle of contending politicians, and the re 
 public, so long the boast and glory of Rome, 
 ignominiously fell. The most astounding de 
 baucheries were mingled with the most terrible 
 cruelties. 
 
 Egypt, never distinguished for its morals, and 
 Syria under wretched misgovernment, were sunk 
 in venality and crime.* Greece was effeminate 
 
 defended iraitepaaTia, as well as incest, reckoning these flagitious 
 crimes among things (aSidfopa,) indifferent. The classical reader 
 will remember Virgil s Cory don amabat Alcxin, as well as Horace s 
 numerous allusions to the same thing. Plutarch tells us that even 
 Solon practised this monstrous crime. Diogenes Laertius says the 
 same of the Stoic Zeno. 
 
 * We learn from Rosellini, Wilkinson, Bunsen, and others, who 
 have made Egyptian history a special study, that the Egyptians, 
 while eminently skilled in many of the arts of life, were coarse and 
 disgusting in their habits. Their very monuments furnish indispu 
 table evidence of their sensuality and cruelty. Their feasts end in 
 "bestial excesses," on the part of both sexes. Gentlemen are 
 
 16* 
 
186 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and powerless, hungering, as of old, after pleas 
 ure, but without the redeeming force and ele 
 gance of former times. The great Roman heart, 
 which swayed the world, grew gross and languid, 
 under the dominion of cruelty and lust. The 
 dream of heroic virtue and freedom had passed 
 away. Despotism, unprincipled and capricious, 
 ruled the nations. The morals even of those 
 called sages, with few exceptions, were rank and 
 bestial. The condition of the hungry masses, 
 in the Roman empire, grew more and more in 
 tolerable. What may be termed the higher phi 
 losophy, not yet entirely abandoned by thought 
 ful men, here and there shone, like a vessel on 
 fire, amid the fury and darkness of a tempestuous 
 night. At the best, it never reached the masses; 
 and hence the doctrine of God and of the im 
 mortality of the soul, which lingered in books, 
 and in the belief of a few lofty souls, left like 
 rocks amid the tide of corruption, exerted upon 
 the community no conceivable influence. Nay, 
 this higher philosophy, at the time of which we 
 are speaking, was itself becoming sceptical and 
 lewd. The reign of Epicureanism was all but 
 complete. A few philosophical spirits, like Cicero 
 in Rome, or Philo in Alexandria, admired Plato, 
 
 carried home in a state of insensibility, and even ladies give token of 
 their preceding intemperance. All know how licentious was the 
 worship of Isis. 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 187 
 
 and caught something of his generous spirit. 
 Remains of the Chaldean Magi, descendants of 
 those associated with Daniel, devoted themselves 
 to devout contemplation. But the majority, even 
 of thinkers, throughout the bounds of the civil 
 ized world, including Rome and Greece, por 
 tions of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, were the 
 followers of a sensual or sceptical materialism. 
 The better portion were Academics, whose dis 
 tinguishing feature, at this time, was a spirit of 
 universal doubt. While rejecting the grosser 
 materialism, and in some cases living a virtuous 
 life, they held themselves aloof from all fixed 
 opinions on the higher metaphysics.* The supe 
 rior orders of society were distinguished only by 
 an intenser corruption. Their motto was, " Let 
 us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Even 
 their females had often to be put to death secretly 
 for their crimes. The old Lucretian chastity 
 was lost. Once distinguished for their purity 
 of manners, the gentler sex were corrupted by the 
 coarse and sensual indulgences, which, with 
 foreign religions, and abounding luxury, had 
 
 * We learn from Sallust, in Catilina, c. 57, p. 309, that Julius 
 Caesar made no scruple in denying before the people that man had 
 any thing to hope or fear after death ; and even Cato, the stoic 
 philosopher, in this applauded his noble philosophical spirit. Cicero 
 informs us (De Invent ione, lib. i. c. 29,) that the majority of the 
 philosophers of his day were considered the enemies of the gods and 
 religion. 
 
188 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 infected Rome. Divorce and consequent licen 
 tiousness of manners were excessively prevalent, 
 especially among the higher classes. Cato the 
 Censor made desperate, but vain efforts to re 
 store the ancient simplicity of manners, and 
 check the progress of national demoralization. 
 The senate, once the pride of Rome, on account 
 of its stern integrity, was tainted with crime. 
 Rome, indeed, even in her palmiest days, was 
 relentless and cruel. But the gladiatorial exhi 
 bitions, of which even delicate females were 
 passionately fond, grew more and more bloody. 
 "Whole hecatombs of men were sacrificed, under 
 the eyes of pleasure-loving crowds. The young 
 patrician beauty, languishing on purple couches, 
 " by a sign of her jewelled finger," condemned 
 the poor gladiator to die, to amuse herself with 
 the sight of his expiring agonies. The banquets 
 of the wealthy were scenes of debauchery. As 
 the luxurious Egyptians placed a real skeleton at 
 their feasts, to whet the appetites of the guests, 
 and deepen the pleasure of the passing hour, so 
 the Greek and Roman epicures, on festive days, 
 placed upon their tables, at their orgies, (fit em 
 blem of intellectual and moral despair,) the skel 
 eton of ivory or silver, as a memento of the 
 rapidity of life, and the duty of " quick and un 
 limited enjoyment." So much was despair the 
 fashion of the times, that even Stoicism, the only 
 
THE FULXKoS OF TI3IE. 189 
 
 moral strength of this period, was much less an 
 heroic struggle than a mournful resignation.* 
 
 The very poets, rising occasionally in the 
 olden time to the character of prophets, laughed 
 to scorn, not merely the mythologies of bygone 
 times, but the doctrines of the existence of God, 
 and the immortality of the soul. The sublimest 
 of them all, Lucretius, born ninety-five years before 
 Christ, was an atheist, and his spirit only repre 
 sents the spirit of the age in which he lived,f 
 Virgil has no moral character. Horace is gay 
 and licentious. Lucian among the Greeks, and 
 Persius and Juvenal among the Latins, some 
 what later, joke and sneer, as, perhaps, was 
 natural in their circumstances, at all things, 
 sacred and profane. In some of these writers 
 the reader will find the most detestable affections 
 treated with much detail, as things of daily 
 practice, both among the vulgar and the refined. 
 The temples themselves were not free from pol 
 lution ; from which circumstance Ovid takes 
 occasion to advise those females who would 
 preserve their honor not to visit such places. In 
 the city of Rome, according to Valerius Maxi- 
 
 * For an aecoxint of the private manners of the Greeks and Ro 
 mans see Bekkcr s Charicks and Gal/us. See also Pericles, by one 
 of the authors of Small Books on Great Subjects. 
 
 f The ancients intimate that Lucretius was somewhat insane, 
 (they say from a love philter,) and that he wrote his work under 
 this influence. He committed suicide in his forty-fourth year. 
 
190 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 mus, there were seven thousand Bacchanals, 
 among whose mysteries prostitution and murder 
 found a prominent place. Opposed by the gov 
 ernment, and partially suppressed, they were 
 never wholly banished from the city. Crimes 
 without a name continued to be enacted in their 
 secret orgies. . A very few moralists, chiefly 
 Stoics, said fine things on the subject of virtue, 
 but could offer no resistless motives to enforce 
 it. The tide of popular corruption swept on 
 ward, in spite of their subtile theories and fine 
 spun imaginings. Their attempts at reform 
 were spider webs to bind Leviathan, straws to 
 stem the currents of the ocean. The later soph 
 ists and rhetoricians, a heartless and infidel race, 
 controlled the popular will, and gave law to so 
 ciety. In a word, " the foundations were de 
 stroyed." Old things were passing away. Night 
 and chaos were enveloping the moral world. 
 
 If any one should call this declamation, or 
 incline to think our picture too deeply colored, 
 let him read attentively the pages of Lucian and 
 Juvenal, or -let him visit, as we have done, the 
 disintornbed cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, 
 and especially the Bourbon Museum, at Naples, 
 in which are preserved, for the private inspection 
 of scientific gentlemen, some of the most secret 
 ornaments, sculptures, and paintings, found both 
 in private houses and in the temples of the gods, 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 191 
 
 and he will be satisfied that our statements are 
 literally correct. Indeed, persons not familiar 
 with the subject have no idea of the extreme 
 corruption of manners, which polluted the most 
 polished of the ancient nations. The revolution 
 effected by Christianity, in this respect, is im 
 mense. Imperfect as it still is, owing to partial 
 development, the change is one of the most 
 striking and benignant in the history of man.* 
 
 * The following, from a source not usually suspected of over 
 statement on such matters, will corroborate this : " While religious 
 scepticism was thus in the ascendant, morality, public and private, 
 had reached its lowest landmark. Those incitements to vice, of 
 which our laws prohibit even the sale, were, as Juvenal assures us in 
 a satire (Sat. ii., near the commencement) specially levelled 
 against the sensualism of the period, publicly paraded in every 
 street, and filled the infant mind with impressions that stifled the 
 development of its moral nature. The only part of their mythology 
 for which the people seemed to have any relish, was that which ad 
 ministered to the passions, so easily excited ; and the only temples 
 that could command a crowd were those of Flora and the Bona Dea. 
 At the festivals of those deities, before the Roman day had sunk to 
 its shortlived twilight, crowds, not only of courtesans, but of or 
 derly matrons, might be seen wending their way to the shrines of 
 these goddesses in the Via Sacra, not simply with unveiled breasts, 
 or with bodies negligently exposed, but in an absolute state of 
 nudity. In the spacious and magnificent baths which the prodigality 
 of successive emperors had reared in the imperial city, both sexes 
 were indulged, at the vile price of a farthing, in promiscuous bath 
 ing. In the crowded theatres, when the first scenes of the play had 
 been acted, and the minds of the auditors were inflamed with ob 
 scene verses, a sea of voices usually called out, Nudentur mima, 
 and the order was no sooner issued than obeyed. Valerius Maxi- 
 mus, lib. ii. c. 5. Obscenities far more polluting than any to be seen 
 in the worst penny theatre that attracts the dregs of our London 
 population, were enacted in the Flavian amphitheatre for the amuse- 
 
192 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Externally, however, the condition of the 
 nations, at the time of which we are speaking, 
 was favorable to the establishment of a new 
 system both of religion and civilization. The 
 larger portion of the known world was occupied 
 by a single empire, in whose bosom elements of 
 change and dissolution were at work. From 
 beyond the Pillars of Hercules to the Caspian 
 Sea, sweeping through the forests of Germany 
 on the one side, and the sands of the Libyan 
 desert on the other, about a hundred and fifty 
 millions of persons, of diversified climate and 
 character, were consolidated into one vast com 
 monwealth. Diverging from the city of Rome, 
 which might be called the metropolis of the 
 world, magnificent roads stretched in every di 
 rection, connecting, by social and commercial 
 ties, distant and flourishing cities. The old 
 separate kingdoms, most of them immobile and 
 stationary, governed by caste, and opposed to 
 progress, which once occupied this vast area, 
 were broken up, and a political brotherhood was 
 
 t of the emperor and the highest ranks of Rome ; and crimes at 
 which ice now shudder, as unnatural, cleave to the greatest names of 
 that epoch. Vice had attacked the foyers of society, and families 
 were expiring so fast that a premium was offered to the man who 
 should transmit a legitimate offspring to posterity. Human kind was 
 gradually dying out, and if the process of dissolution had continued 
 unchecked by the infusion of a purer blood and a chaster creed, 
 the race must have become extinct." Martial and his Times. 
 Westminster Review. 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 193 
 
 established throughout the bounds of the civilized 
 world. It was a colossal power, appearing to 
 grasp and control the whole destiny of man. 
 But it had long passed its meridian. The prev 
 alent civilization, based upon idolatry, polygamy, 
 and slavery, was about to find its issue. Inter 
 nal, ever-augmenting corruption was gradually 
 working its overthrow. In a word, the hand of 
 God, through natural agencies, seemed to be 
 preparing the way for some vast and glorious 
 change, or for some deep and universal catas 
 trophe. 
 
 The condition of the Jewish people, at this 
 time, differed little from that of the neighboring 
 nations, except in their hatred of idolatry, their 
 contempt of all other people, and their hope of a 
 conquering Messiah. The vital energy of their 
 ancient faith had given place to formalism and 
 superstition. For a hundred and fifty years 
 before the birth of Christ, their Mishna, in 
 which were embodied "the traditions of the 
 elders," had been growing in their esteem.* By 
 this they made void the law of God, now all but 
 obsolete. Hence their division into sects, the 
 Pharisees and the Sadducees, the one clinging 
 to traditions, the other rejecting them. The 
 Pharisees, however, were by far the most power- 
 
 * The Mishna was the title given to the collection of traditions 
 made by Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh, about B. C. 150. 
 
 17 
 
194 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 ful party in the state, both in religion and politics. 
 Ambitious and intriguing, they controlled the 
 popular will, and inflamed it with their bigotries. 
 Hence they yielded reluctant obedience to the 
 ruling monarch, Herod the Idumean, whose 
 ambitious and selfish character is well known. 
 The Sadducees, as much distinguished for their 
 national pride and intolerance of foreigners, 
 were equally disaffected to the government of 
 Herod, and longed to be delivered from what 
 they deemed a degrading servitude. The nation, 
 therefore, was ripe for rebellion and political 
 change. 
 
 In these circumstances, the religion of their 
 fathers, yet revered as a form, had become cold 
 and sterile, a mere engine of political strife. 
 Long had the Shekinah departed from the tem 
 ple. The voice of its oracles was dumb. More 
 free from the tendency to idolatry than in ancient 
 times, and preserved untarnished in the ancient 
 books, Judaism had lost all regenerative force. 
 The spirit of prophecy was extinct. No holy 
 seers predicted the glories of the Messiah s reign, 
 or denounced the judgments of God against the 
 workers of iniquity. No Deborah sang under 
 the palm tree, between Ramah and Bethel. No 
 Ezekiel thundered between the porch and the 
 altar. The word indeed remained ; br^c it was 
 a dead letter to the great body of the people. 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 195 
 
 The formalism of the Pharisee on the one hand, 
 and the scepticism of the Sadducee on the 
 other, paralyzed all pure and earnest feeling. 
 The people, subjected to the galling oppression 
 of a foreign yoke, were discontented and furious. 
 Unheard-of atrocities, which easily account for 
 the subsequent " murder of the innocents," no 
 more strange or monstrous than some of his 
 other crimes, had been perpetrated in the family 
 of the elder Herod, whose days of mingled 
 splendor and crime were about to close, in horror 
 and blood. 
 
 In addition to this, infidel and pagan notions, 
 introduced through the influence of the court, 
 began to prevail in some portions of Judea, par 
 ticularly in Cacsarea, the Roman capital of the 
 country ; while the mass of the people, especially 
 in the larger cities, were intoxicated with a sav 
 age fanaticism. Hence the origin of the sect or 
 clique, as it may be called, of the Herodians, who 
 saw no harm in mingling the rites of heathenism 
 with the pure ceremonial of their own worship, and 
 whose cringing sycophancy and easy submission 
 to a foreign yoke excited the disgust of their coun 
 trymen. Some holy hearts, here and there, in the 
 temple and among the mountains, consecrated by 
 the memories of the past, brooded over the prophe 
 cies, and longed for the reign of God upon the 
 
196 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 earth. The Essenes, the anchorites and mystics 
 of the Jewish faith, were distinguished for their 
 simplicity of manners ; but they lived in seclusion, 
 and took no part in public affairs. Separating 
 themselves from their fellow-men as unclean, and 
 making no attempt at the reformation of others, 
 they shut themselves up, in the profound solitudes 
 adjoining the shores of the Dead Sea. The same 
 may be said of their brethren, the Therapeutas, 
 in Egypt, yet more distinguished for their mystic 
 and ascetic habits. 
 
 But the great body of the people were ignorant 
 and superstitious ; and though free from idolatry, 
 narrow and sensual in their feelings. They cher 
 ished, indeed, the hope of a Messiah, but so min 
 gled with selfish and fanatical views, that it rather 
 exasperated than soothed their passions. 
 
 There prevailed, also, at this period, even in 
 the Roman world, a wide-spread expectation of 
 some august revolution, to be achieved by the 
 sudden appearance of a mighty and mysterious 
 personage. This dim idea was floating about 
 not only in Syria, but in Rome, in Egypt, and 
 Babylon. So familiar had it become, that it at 
 tracted the attention of the Roman poets and phi 
 losophers. Virgil is supposed to refer to it. 
 " Among many," writes Tacitus, " there was a 
 persuasion that in the ancient books of the priest- 
 
THE FULNESS OF TIME. 197 
 
 hood, it was written, that at that precise time the 
 East should become mighty, and that the sover 
 eigns of the world should issue from Judea." * 
 " In the East," says Suetonius, " an ancient and 
 consistent opinion prevailed, that it was fated 
 there should issue at this time those who should 
 obtain universal dominion." f This general ex 
 pectation is to be traced, doubtless, to the predic 
 tions of the Hebrew prophets. Daniel s " weeks 
 of years " were supposed to be on the point of 
 expiring. The sceptre, in some sense, had " de 
 parted from Judah," and therefore the Shiloh, or 
 the Peacemaker, was about to come. What he 
 was to be, few indeed understood. The views of 
 his character and mission were modified by the 
 dispositions of those who cherished them. Jose- 
 phus, a shrewd, selfish man, false to the hopes of 
 his nation, false even to the principles of honor, 
 subsequently pretended to recognize him in the 
 person of the Emperor Vespasian ! Some ex 
 pected a mighty King, a half divine, half human 
 conqueror ; others, but a comparatively small 
 number, a great Moral Reformer or Spiritual Re 
 deemer ; and fewer still, the Son of God, the Sa 
 vior of the world. But the majority of the na- 
 
 * In the language of Tacitus, the East means Syria. History, 
 T. 13. 
 f Suetonius, Ves. p. 4. 
 
 17* 
 
198 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 tlon looked only for a temporal deliverer, his foot 
 steps tracked with blood, and his long reign of 
 earthly power and splendor encircling the globe. 
 
 Hence the general state of the Jews, though 
 favorable enough to political change, was quite 
 unfavorable to the reception and acknowledgment 
 of a spiritual Messiah, whose peaceful reign 
 should be that only of righteousness and love. 
 Carnal and besotted, they were more likely to 
 crush than to honor the Son of God. 
 
 What mankind every where needed, was a di 
 vine transformation, a complete spiritual and in 
 terior revolution in the domain of religion and 
 morals ; a regeneration, in fact, of the heart and 
 the life of individuals and families ; and that con 
 sequent political transformation, on the basis of 
 which, might spring up a new and more perfect 
 form of civilization. But the idea had not even 
 dawned upon the Grecian or the Roman mind, 
 and though clearly predicted in the Old Testa 
 ment Scriptures, was utterly lost sight of by the 
 Jewish people. 
 
 Indeed, taking the world as a whole, it was a 
 dark and godless era. The race, as if abandoned 
 by Heaven, staggered like a crazy vessel amid 
 the gathering storm, and seemed on the point of 
 being forever ingulfed. 
 
 Yet there were watchers on the hills of Pales- 
 
Til;. FULNESS OF TIME. 199 
 
 tine, and far off, even in the depths of the Orient, 
 wise and good men were longing for the coming 
 of the Deliverer. Long years had they brooded 
 over the prophecies, and like Simeon and Anna, 
 hoped to see the Messiah before closing their 
 eyes in death. But all was still in the heavens 
 above. A deep and portentous gloom, unrelieved 
 by a single star, brooded over the world. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ADVENT. 
 
 WE can easily imagine the sceptic, at the era 
 referred to in the preceding chapter, pouring infi 
 nite scorn on the predictions of the Messiah s 
 reign, saying, Where is the promise of his com 
 ing ? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
 continue as they were from the foundation of the 
 world. The course of nature moves on as usual ; 
 the sun rises and sets, the stars circle in the heav 
 ens, spring, summer, and autumn come and go, 
 by an unvarying law. Divine advents are no 
 more. Miracles are a legend of the darker ages. 
 The season of faith in the supernatural is passed. 
 A religion other than instinct, or nature, is but 
 the dream of sick-brained enthusiasm. Prayer is 
 folly and presumption. The creation of the 
 world as a work of time, the first Eden, the fall 
 of man, the flood, the call of Abraham, the exode 
 from Egypt, the pillar of cloud by day and of fire 
 by night, the passage of the Red Sea, the giving 
 of the law from Sinai, divine revelations through 
 Moses and Isaiah, inspiration, miracles, and won 
 ders, are simple myths, or traditionary legends, 
 
 (200) 
 
THE ADVENT. 201 
 
 in which a few grains of truth are mingled and 
 preserved in a huge mass of error. But the time 
 for believing such things is gone by. This is the 
 eighth century from the foundation of Rome. 
 The age is too enlightened to be caught by fic 
 tions. And as for a new and special revelation, 
 of a grander and purer character than has ever 
 been dreamed of by saint or sage, and above all, 
 the advent from the spirit world of a divine mes 
 senger, whose kingdom is to be coeval with time, 
 and spread over the globe, reason must pronounce 
 it the most absurd chimera. 
 
 Yef nature moved on as usual ; and no sign or 
 promise of the new order of things so long ex 
 pected, and so much needed, was visible in the 
 earth or sky. Mankind were eating and drinking, 
 sinning and suffering, as usual. Millions were 
 rushing after vanity, and the weary nations were 
 sinking into deeper and still deeper night. 
 
 But as nature is often silent, intensely silent, 
 before the bursting forth of some grand or fearful 
 change, which is to affect, for weal or for woe, the 
 destiny of thousands, and as such change is of 
 ten like the sudden protrusion of a hand from the 
 dark, or a flash of lightning at midnight, so now, 
 the fulness of the times being come, Jesus was 
 bom into the world in a humble town, in the 
 hush of night among strangers who cared noth 
 ing for the event in a condition of lowliness 
 
202 CIIRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and poverty peculiarly striking and without 
 any general and imposing demonstrations. And 
 why ? Simply because he was to be a^spiritual 
 Teacher, a divine Redeemer, whose " still small 
 voice" of love and mercy was gently but irresist 
 ibly to penetrate the human heart, and transform 
 it into the divine image. 
 
 Natural, for it was only a birth ; supernatural, 
 for it was the birth of the Divine among men. 
 Natural, for he seemed to glide into the race, as 
 a new star glides into the heavens ; supernatural, 
 for a higher form of gravitation in the spiritual 
 sphere began to act upon society, fitted to change 
 and modify it forever. Natural, for no laws were 
 counteracted or suspended ; supernatural, for a 
 deeper and more comprehensive law controlled 
 them all. Indeed, it may be said, that in the 
 unity of a higher and more comprehensive law, 
 the natural and supernatural are one a fact of 
 which the incarnation is a proof and illustration. 
 
 Little is recorded of this unostentatious but 
 august event. It was proclaimed, as has been 
 often said, not in the streets of Jerusalem, or the 
 purlieus of the temple, but in the quiet scenes of 
 the country ; not to the Sanhedrim of the Jewish 
 nation, nor to the priesthood in solemn conclave, 
 but to a few pious shepherds, as they watched 
 their flocks by night on the plains of Bethlehem. 
 
 In all this we discern much of divine wisdom. 
 
THE ADVENT. 203 
 
 God, in creating and blessing, is not so much in 
 the " whirlwind and the storm," as in " the still 
 small voice." His mightiest changes are achieved 
 by invisible, and apparently trivial means. He 
 works not at the surface, but at the centre ; not 
 by mechanism, but by spirit. He comes rather 
 in the solitude and silence of night, like the dew 
 beneath the stars, than in the glare and tumult 
 of day. In this respect he reverses all the ex 
 pectations of man. " Without observation," like 
 his own reign of purity and love, he accomplishes 
 the designs of his grace. Not with the might of 
 kings, or the tread of armies, but with the quiet 
 majesty, the still, but resistless force of supreme 
 and all-pervading will. He taketh "the weak 
 things of the world to confound the mighty, and 
 things that are not to bring to nought things that 
 are, that no flesh may glory in his presence." 
 Evermore he magnifies purity and love over might 
 and display. 
 
 Moreover, the incarnation of Jesus Christ was a 
 veiling rather than a revealing of absolute power. 
 Indeed, every embodiment or manifestation of 
 God must possess this character. Properly speak 
 ing, the heaven of heavens cannot contain him ; 
 the entire visible creation, in magnitude, bears no 
 conceivable relation to his infinity. u In all," he 
 is yet " above all," transcendent and ineffable. 
 Further, it was love, rather than absolute or phys- 
 
204 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 ical might, which assumed the human form.* By 
 a new and peculiar manifestation, " grace and 
 truth " were to be discovered as the greatest pow 
 ers in the universe. Enthroned by the death of 
 the Son of God, they were to be proved resist 
 less and eternal. It was meet, therefore, that in 
 lowliness and poverty the birth of Christ should 
 correspond with his death, the beginning with 
 the end of his earthly career. 
 
 Indeed, we cannot judge correctly of the dig 
 nity or magnitude of any event, and especially 
 of the glory of any divine manifestation, by its 
 external aspects, or its immediate effects and 
 accompaniments. Its spiritual relations and 
 future results are the measure of its importance. 
 If it link itself with the affections and destinies 
 of unborn generations, turn the whole tide of 
 human affairs, and pass on in ever-deepening and 
 widening currents of influence, it proves itself 
 worthy of the infinite mind. Men, it is true, 
 from the narrowness and measreness of their 
 
 o 
 
 views, are more powerfully affected by brilliant 
 and imposing demonstrations; it would seem 
 natural to them, when the Divinity comes visibly 
 to earth, that the heavens should bow, and the 
 earth tremble to its centre. But how different 
 
 * We use the term absolute or physical here as equivalent to what 
 is sometimes called natural) in distinction from moral, though both 
 terms are imperfect and inadequate. 
 
THE ADVENT. 205 
 
 the reality, and, when duly considered, how 
 much more affecting and beautiful ! 
 
 " Thou wast born of woman ; thou didst come, 
 O Holiest, to this world of sin and gloom, 
 Not in thy dread, omnipotent array ; 
 And not by thunder strewed 
 Was thy tempestuous road, 
 Nor indignation burned before thee on thy way. 
 But thee a soft and naked child, 
 Thy mother undefiled, 
 In the rude manger laid to rest, 
 From off her virgin breast. 
 
 " The heavens were not commanded to prepare 
 A gorgeous canopy of golden air ; 
 Nor stooped their lamps the enthroned fires on high. 
 
 A single, silent star 
 
 Came wandering from afar, 
 
 Gliding unchecked and calm along the liquid sky ; 
 The eastern sages leading on 
 As at a kingly throne, 
 To lay their odors sweet 
 Before thy infant feet." * 
 
 * Milman s Fall of Jerusalem. The intelligent reader will 
 here call to mind the words of Milton, in the grandest of lyric 
 strains : 
 
 " But peaceful was the night, 
 Wherein the Prince of Light 
 
 His reign of peace upon the earth began ; 
 The winds, with wonder whist, 
 Smoothly the waters kissed, 
 
 Whispering new joys to the mild ocean ; 
 Who now hath quite forgot to rave, 
 While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. 
 
 The stars with deep amaze," &c. 
 
 Milman has given, in beautiful form, the general aspect of the case ; 
 but we are not to forget what, perhaps, ho has overlooked, that 
 
 18 
 
206 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 There was a profound spiritual significance in 
 the fact that Jesus should be " born of a virgin," 
 for then would it be seen that he was " the Holy 
 One of God." The unstained innocence of the 
 mother, her serene beauty and gentleness of 
 character, and the entire separation of Christ, by 
 means of his supernatural birth, from the corrupt 
 ed mass of humanity, would form a peculiar 
 attraction for all pure minds. Then, also, would 
 it be understood by the world that he u came 
 forth from God," the immaculate incarnation of 
 righteousness and love. It was meet, also, that 
 the advent of the Redeemer should be a sacred 
 mystery, around which the affections of his fol 
 lowers should linger with delight and awe. This 
 feeling, indeed, has been exaggerated and vitiated 
 both by the Greek and Roman churches ; but it 
 is a natural feeling, and not only so, but pro 
 ductive" of the best results. 
 
 For how could Christ corne into the world as 
 one of the race, except by a birth ? and how 
 could he be recognized as the Divine, except by 
 an immaculate birth? "That holy thing that 
 shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of 
 God." On this account, there is something 
 inexpressibly touching in the thought expressed 
 
 suddenly there was with the angel a multitude," perhaps more 
 than " a single choir" of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 
 " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men." 
 
THE ADVENT. 207 
 
 by Wordsworth, that in the virgin mother were 
 "blended and reconciled" those singular but 
 beautiful contrasts 
 
 " Of mother s love and maiden purity, 
 Of high and low, celestial with terrene." * 
 
 Rude minds have wondered that "the Highest" 
 was born of woman, especially that the Godhead 
 was enshrined in the person of a child. But more 
 thoughtful and spiritual minds have discerned, in 
 this very thing, a meaning and design which 
 awaken their profoundest awe. They cannot 
 allow that mechanical greatness, or material ex 
 pansion, though of suns and systems innumer 
 able, have aught in them akin to the nature of 
 God, or that adventitious circumstances, however 
 grand and imposing, can add any thing to his 
 infinite excellence! Indeed, they look beyond 
 all the depths of the starry heavens, and all the 
 immensities of the visible creation, to find his 
 indivisible essence, and his boundless majesty. 
 Not physical grandeur, or mechanic force, but 
 spirituality, purity, love, infinite and unutterable, 
 
 * The nations could never imagine how the Divine should come 
 into the world, and live itself into oiir historic existence, except by 
 an incarnation, and that too from a pure virgin. Budh, Hercules, 
 Zoroaster, Confucius, and others, considered divine men, were sup 
 posed to have virgin mothers, a fiction obvious enough, but a 
 natural one, so natural that the fact, or reality, when it docs come, 
 corresponds to it. 
 
208 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 constitute their idea of his glory. Hence they 
 can adore the indwelling and manifestation of 
 that glory, as well in the person of " the holy 
 Child," as in all the magnificence of the universe ! 
 God is a Spirit! God is love! And since man, 
 in his unstained innocence, was made in the 
 image of God, no fitter temple of the Deity can 
 be found than that of a sinless Messiah. 
 
 The true tabernacle of God is not so much 
 nature as man ; not indeed man fallen, but man 
 redeemed, or rather man the Redeemer. " Man," 
 says the celebrated Jean Paul Kichter, in one of 
 his transcendent nights, where he touches on the 
 very borders of the infinite, " man is the Isis-veil 
 of the Divinity." " Ye are the temple of the liv 
 ing God," is the clearer, more appropriate lan 
 guage of St. Paul. So that we rnay well affirm 
 that God is closer to man than most of us 
 imagine. 
 
 It will be admitted, we think, by all, that man 
 is greater than the whole material or visible uni 
 verse ; and yet God is in the latter, by a special 
 presence and manifestation. Here we behold his 
 glory. How much more intimately present must 
 God be in man, who is matter and spirit at once, 
 and thus the fittest vehicle for the divine mani 
 festation. "All religion," according to an erratic 
 but vigorous thinker, " stands upon this ; not 
 paganism only, but far higher and truer religions, 
 
THE ADVENT. 209 
 
 all religions hitherto known." Hence he says, 
 " Hero-worship, heartfelt, burning, boundless, for 
 a noblest, godlike form of Man, is it not the germ 
 of Christianity itself?" To which he adds, 
 " The greatest of all heroes is one whom I do 
 not name here." 
 
 This testimony is important ; it is an echo of 
 the deepest truth. The apparent pantheism 
 upon which it is founded, of course, we regret ; 
 but pantheism, in its better sense, that is, the 
 idea of God in all things, as their Creator and 
 Lord, and especially in man, as his highest and 
 holiest temple, we maintain, on the plainest 
 scriptural authority. God is "all and in all;" 
 not, however, as a simple, all-comprehending 
 force, or law, fyut as a personal agent, u in whom 
 are all things, and by whom are all things." So 
 that the great fact of Christianity, the incarnation 
 of God in the man Jesus Christ, is a truth the 
 most rational and conceivable. Even those who 
 doubt historical Christianity Hegel, Strauss, 
 Carlyle, Parker confess the fitness of Christ, 
 simply as a form, for the indwelling and mani 
 festation of the Deity. Indeed, an ideal or per 
 fect man, from Plato downwards, has been the 
 fascination of the world, the desire of all nations; 
 especially a godlike man, a son of God, a deliv 
 erer, in whom should be found blended all per- 
 
 * Hero- Worship, p. 13. 
 
 18* 
 
210 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 fection with all gentleness and love ; nay, more, 
 a divine man, a true Prometheus or Apollo, in 
 whose hands nature and his fellows should be 
 pliant as clay in the hands of the potter, has been 
 the longing of poetry and religion, even among 
 the heathen. This, in a still higher form, was 
 the polar star of the Jewish mind. Moses and 
 Isaiah, as well as the Talmudists, alike magnify 
 this mightier Prophet this super-angelic Logos, 
 or Revealer this divine Metraton, or Reconciler 
 of God and man. It seems to us, indeed, that 
 every heart, beating true to nature and its higher 
 instincts, must long for it. Dissatisfied with all 
 common men ; dissatisfied with all heroes, even 
 with the kingly spirits of history, for in beauty, 
 worth, and power we can always conceive some 
 thing beyond them ; nay, more, dissatisfied with 
 angels, whether the angels of the Bible, of Dante, 
 or of Milton, august and lovely as they seem, we 
 are still yearning for the perfection of man ; that 
 is, man sinless, infinite, immortal. It seems 
 an anomaly, an impossibility, a contradiction in 
 terms ; but we are made for it, as we are made 
 for God and glory. 
 
 Some of those who reject the supernatural 
 element in the Bible, and look upon the gospel 
 as a figment or myth of a darker age, sometimes 
 betray the instinct to which we refer; and, while 
 rejecting a divine Redeemer, describe just such 
 
THE ADVENT. 211 
 
 a being as "the want " of the world. Emerson, 
 for example, who, in his transcendental gyrations, 
 has long ago left Christianity behind him, thus 
 describes what he calls " the old want : " " There 
 is no man ; there hath never been. The intellect 
 still asks that a man may be born. The flame of 
 life flickers feebly in human breasts. We demand 
 of men a richness and universality we do not find. 
 Great men do not content us. It is their solitude, 
 not their force, that makes them conspicuous. 
 There is somewhat indigent and tedious about 
 them. They are poorly tied to one thought. If 
 they are prophets, they are egotists ; if polite and 
 various, they are shallow. How tardily men ar 
 rive at any result? . . . Thus a man lasts 
 but a very little while, for his monomania " [that 
 he has the secret of the universe] " lasts but a 
 very little while. It is so with every book and 
 person ; and yet and yet we do not take up 
 a new book, or meet a new man, without a pulse- 
 beat of expectation. And this invincible hope of 
 a more adequate interpreter, is the sure prediction 
 of his advent. .... 
 
 " We no longer hold it [nature] by the hand ; 
 we have lost our miraculous power ; our arm is 
 no more strong as the frost, nor our will equivalent 
 to gravity and the elective attractions." 
 
 * The Method of Nature. Addresses and Lectures, pp. 187-189. 
 
212 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 What does this imaginative, half pagan poet 
 or philosopher want? Turning away from Him 
 whom he acknowledges, in one place, as " the 
 true, prophet of nature," who, with " open vision," 
 looked upon "its secret," and called himself "di 
 vine," he yet longs for a perfect godlike man, un 
 der whose hands nature should be plastic as wax; 
 whose movements should be miracles ; whose 
 powers should equal the elective and attractive 
 forces ; whose great heart, of such " richness and 
 universality," should comprehend and control all 
 other hearts. 
 
 Such a man we find in Jesus Christ, whose 
 advent into the world, as a sinless child, we have 
 briefly described. Beyond him nothing can be 
 conceived, nothing can be desired. 
 
 Sensual and mechanical minds may doubt 
 here ; but pure and lofty spirits, who have caught 
 only Platonic fire, well know what we mean. 
 
 The truth is, man is from God, as to his origin, 
 and to God as to his end. We are apt to date 
 him from his fall, and think of him only as sev 
 ered from God and lost to perfection ; but he 
 dates from an era anterior to the fall. God is 
 the fount of our being ; so that in a close and 
 peculiar sense, we are the divine offspring. 
 ^Eschylus, the sublimest of the heathen poets, 
 had slight glimpses of this truth. So had 
 Euripides and others. Plato grasped it thor- 
 
THE ADVENT. 213 
 
 oughly, though exaggerating its import, and 
 thence inferring, though by no means unnatu 
 rally, the preexistence of souls. He shows, in 
 language of surpassing beauty, that they came 
 from God, and, though fallen into earthliness and 
 sin, yet becoming "winged," that is, as we un 
 derstand him, renouncing all sensual delight, and 
 longing for the pure and perfect, they rise again 
 into the bosom of God. He puts this refined 
 speculation into the mouth of Socrates, conversing 
 with a youthful friend, under the shadow of an 
 agnus castus, beyond the city walls ; whence we 
 infer that it is not impossible that the idea was 
 cherished by Socrates himself.* 
 
 Indeed, the idea of a divine paternity has been 
 recognized, with more or less distinctness, by all 
 lofty minds ; nay, has been descried as from afar 
 by the common heart of humanity. It runs 
 through the whole Bible, and finds one of its 
 most striking expositions in the address of St. 
 Paul before the Athenian Areopagus. " God, 
 that made the world, and all things therein, see 
 ing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth 
 not in temples made with hands, neither is wor 
 shipped with men s hands, as though he needed 
 any thing; seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, 
 and all things, arid* hath made of one blood 
 [nature?] all nations of men, for to dwell on all 
 
 * rhccdrus, 2-3. 
 
214 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the face of the earth, and hath determined the 
 times before appointed, and the bounds of their 
 habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if 
 haply they might feel after him, and find him, 
 though he be not far from every one of us ; for 
 in him we live, and move, and have our being ; 
 as certain also of your own poets have said, 
 For we are also his offspring" 
 
 Thus, then, from his origin, man bears the 
 impress of Divinity. The image, indeed, like 
 some beautiful statue, fallen into barbarous 
 hands, may be defaced, but it is extant in all. 
 For as God is a Spirit, so man, in his higher 
 nature, is a spirit also ; as God thinks and wills, 
 so man thinks and wills ; as God is the con 
 scious, the holy, and ever blessed, so man is con 
 scious, responsible, joyful, and, if " born from 
 above," holy and blessed forevermore. In fine, 
 as God lives, and loves, and acts, so man lives, 
 and loves, and acts, as his image or echo on earth. 
 Man dwells in God as the root of his being and 
 well- being. All the streams come from one 
 fountain, all are filled with the same life. Take 
 away God, and all the channels of human exist 
 ence are dry and desolate. Hence, every where 
 man "feels after God," longs, sometimes indeed 
 blindly and madly, but still longs for the perfect, 
 the boundless, and eternal. When pure and peace 
 ful, filled with love and joy, he stands the fairest 
 
THE ADVENT. 215 
 
 image of the Uncreated Beauty, like the great 
 ocean mirroring, in some clear and placid hour, 
 the everlasting heavens. 
 
 If God, then, should ever come to man, in 
 other words, reveal himself to us in closer con 
 tact, and with a deeper and more tender signifi 
 cance than in all suns and stars, he would come 
 in some godlike form of man, in some immacu 
 late, yet earth-born Messiah, through whose eyes 
 of love he might look upon us in pity, through 
 whose voice of strange power and pathos he 
 might speak to us, through whose unfathomable 
 heart he might love us, and through whose in 
 scrutable sufferings for sin he might expiate our 
 guilt, and reconcile us to himself. 
 
 Moreover, man had run down to the lowest 
 point, as we have seen, previous to the Christian 
 Epiphany. The fall had produced its bitter 
 fruits. Superstition and atheism had ripened, 
 and all base passions, all personal and na 
 tional lust and imbecility, were the result. A 
 new beginning, a new and stronger life, was 
 needed. Some divine power must be given : 
 but how given, except in a living form, such as 
 men could understand and feel, and to which, in 
 spiritual bonds, they might be personally linked? 
 
 The help must come from above, that is clear ; 
 and yet seem to spring from the bosom of hu 
 manity : in other words, it must be human and 
 
216 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 divine, in order to inspire sympathy, confidence, 
 and love, and thus impart a new and everlasting 
 life to the race. 
 
 That is to say, stating the matter in such 
 language as we possess, the divine Redeemer 
 must be born into the world, born of a pure 
 virgin, a holy, sainted spirit, born as the Son of 
 God, grow up by natural steps, develop him 
 self by a process akin to the workings of nature, 
 or the manifestation of God, in the advancing 
 spring, or the growing corn, till, matured and per 
 fected, he should once more pass, by a common 
 path, that is, death or dissolution, which is only 
 final change and transition, into the invisible and 
 immortal state. 
 
 Such an incarnation is by no means an unnatu 
 ral or unfamiliar idea among men. Nay, it is 
 one of the most natural and spontaneous. The 
 Oriental world, with its grand, though bewilder 
 ing conceptions, teems with incarnations, exag 
 gerations indeed, nay, caricatures, but still hints, 
 and, so to speak, shadows of the possible reality. 
 The Grecian mind, in lower forms, conceived 
 the divine, as born amid the hills and vales. 
 Mythical, we grant, but not unnatural, not even 
 irrational, except in the meagreness of the form, 
 and, above all, in the crude superstition and de 
 basing sensuality with which it was invested. 
 The immeasurable superiority of the Christian 
 
THE ADVENT. 217 
 
 .< 
 
 incarnation is seen at a glance ; for the former- 
 at best, were mythical incarnations of beauty 
 and power, sometimes of passion, carnal and 
 evanescent ; the latter is a real incarnation, a di 
 vine embodiment of purity and love. In Pro 
 metheus we see strength of will, in Apollo 
 beauty and wisdom ; but in Christ we see " all 
 the fulness of the Godhead." The former were 
 symbols and myths, the latter is " God manifest 
 in the flesh." 
 
 But what do we mean by an incarnation ? 
 Not the limitation, or humanization, (forgive the 
 word,) of an infinite Essence, for that is impos 
 sible ; but the special presence, energy, or mani 
 festation of that Essence, itself boundless and un 
 utterable, in an exterior human form. It is thus 
 that God reveals himself in all outward things, 
 though here in Christ, by a special impersona 
 tion. Each spring, however, is but a "renewing," 
 by means of a spiritual presence beneath the 
 surface, " of the face of the earth." The poor 
 Indian sees the Great Spirit in the thunder 
 cloud ; we ourselves devoutly acknowledge him 
 as the light and life of all we see. The heavens 
 and earth are. his garment, according to the 
 lyric poetry of the Hebrews, the outer costume 
 in which he robes himself.* The doctrine of 
 a presence in nature, belongs not merely to the- 
 
 * Psalm civ. 
 
 19 
 
218 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 ology, but to science. And what is that idea 
 of presence but the prelude, or intimation of a 
 more specific advent, or presence among men ? 
 Why should not the Deity become visible before 
 our eyes ? Why should not the infinite Spirit, 
 as well as the finite spirit, be capable of an em 
 bodiment? Certainly, with all our science and 
 mechanism, our outward notions and carnal 
 views, we cannot be averse to this ; for as a 
 matter of fact, the spiritual comes into this world 
 only as a birth the soul is born into the joys 
 and sufferings of this material sphere, of this 
 carnal and mortal life. Spirit is ever superior to 
 matter comes to it, not from it. It is a cause, 
 not an effect; a power independent and immor 
 tal ; an essential and vital force, created, indeed, 
 but still essential and vital, which wills and acts, 
 in and through the material organization. The 
 sensual philosophers teach that it is not primary, 
 but secondary, a mere product of mechanism, 
 or organization, evolved, as some of them say, 
 from the action of the body, like the electric or 
 magnetic forces from a common battery, and so 
 passes away with the organism which gave it 
 birth. But this is to confound cause and effect 
 and not only so, but it is to confound cause and 
 occasion ; for even the electrical or magnetic 
 machine may simply supply the occasion or me 
 dium through which acts that all but spiritual 
 
THE ADVENT. 219 
 
 force which we call electricity or magnetism. 
 But the soul is a productive cause a dweller in 
 the body, controlling that body, -and using it for 
 its purposes, by the force of its original will. 
 Besides, we are plainly taught in the word of God, 
 that the spirit was imparted to the bodily organ 
 ization, when formed and fitted for its dwelling- 
 place, and that the spirit through that body 
 communicates with the external world of forms. 
 Spirit, then, is superior, not inferior or posterior 
 to the body ; and thence is a proper incarnation* 
 Every man coming into the world, by birth, 
 comes into it just as Jesus did ; and the only 
 difference between them is, that the one comes 
 as a spirit finite and feeble, because created and 
 dependent, the other as a spirit infinite and im 
 mortal, because uncreated and divine. Besides, 
 that spirit of ours, made visible in human form, 
 though dependent and limited, is vastly more 
 than the body ; it is, so to speak, of grander 
 dimensions, of more stupendous powers. And 
 yet, there it gleams through its narrow dwelling, 
 there it loves and acts, grows and expands in its 
 
 * If any one prefers to say that the body is first created, or pro 
 duced, and that then the soul is given to it by a divine act, be it so ; 
 the force of the argument remains the same. But the vital force 
 and interior spirit one would think necessary to the very possibility 
 of organization and growth. Our own opinion is, that though cre 
 ated by God, spirit is first, and that it is necessary to human exist 
 ence. 
 
220 CHRIST IX IIISTOHY. 
 
 fleshly tabernacle, from which, by and by, sub 
 limated and glorified by the change which men 
 call death, it will pass, once more, into the spirit 
 ual and immortal state. 
 
 Why, then, should it be thought a thing in 
 credible that the Divinity should become incar 
 nate, that the eternal Spirit should take up 
 his dwelling, and perform his high work for 
 humanity, in the limited, but fitting form of 
 the man Jesus Christ? Nay, is not this the 
 most natural, the most credible thing in the 
 universe? What were a body without a soul? 
 and what were Christ without the indwell 
 ing God? What, on the other hand, were the 
 soul to us without the body ; and what to us 
 even the invisible God, without the manifesta 
 tion of himself in the man Jesus Christ ? We 
 might have known him dimly and distantly, as 
 the heathen know him, but never as we now 
 know him, the Father, the Friend, the Redeem 
 er of us all. 
 
 In the estimation of the sceptic and the world 
 ling, the advent of Christ may seem a small 
 event ; nay, more, a thing impossible and incred 
 ible. "Yet it was the turning-point of the world s 
 history," as Schelling, the greatest of the modern 
 German philosophers, cheerfully avows. Then 
 the " Day-star" from on high visited us. Then 
 the " Sun of righteousness arose with healing in 
 
THE ADVENT. 221 
 
 his wings." Then sprang to life a form of civil 
 ization, which was to penetrate the nations with 
 an invisible but resistless force, and which, at 
 the present time, as Jouffroy, one of the clearest 
 and profoundest thinkers of the French eclectic 
 school, has demonstrated, is the only thing ac 
 tive and diffusive in society, constituting, in fact, 
 what Vinet terms the gravitation of the moral 
 world.* 
 
 Thus the birth of Christ, insignificant in its 
 seeming, was inexpressibly great in its reality. 
 Apparently the advent of a simple child, it was 
 the incarnation of the Godhead. A mere inci 
 dent, in an obscure corner of the earth, which 
 disturbed neither the course of nature nor the 
 course of society, it was the origin of untold rev 
 olutions, the beginning of a new civilization and 
 a new religion, of a new world and a new heaven. 
 No wonder, then, that it was hymned by angels, 
 as was the creation of the world at first, when 
 the morning stars sung together, and all the 
 sons of God shouted for joy. Not only on the 
 plains of Bethlehem resounded the glad acclaim, 
 but in the realms of glory. For as soon as the 
 news was announced to the shepherds, " suddenly 
 there was with the angel a multitude of the 
 heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory 
 
 * See Jouffroy s Melanges Philosophiques ; Vinct s Essais do 
 Philosophie Morak, p. 189, 
 
 19* 
 
222 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 to God in the highest, on earth peace and good 
 will to men-." 
 
 Much of this has been styled a myth or legen 
 dary fiction by the sceptics of continental Europe, 
 and their imitators in this country ; after all, the 
 thing, the reality remains. No hypothesis can 
 explain it away. It is an effect of which some 
 adequate, and therefore divine cause must be sup 
 posed. If any fact in history is well established, 
 it is that of the extraordinary birth of Christ, 
 and the wonderful change thereby wrought in 
 the history of the world. But if the birth of 
 Christ must be conceded, as the first step, in the 
 series of stupendous facts connected with his mis 
 sion, then the mystery of the incarnation, the song 
 of the angels, the visit of the Magi, and the star 
 in the east, or the luminous appearance which 
 guided their steps to the place of his nativity, all, 
 in a word, connected with this event, natural, 
 or supernatural, may be allowed. The same 
 testimony which proves the one, proves also the 
 other. If the one is natural in the circumstances 
 supposed, so is the other. The miracle of 
 Christ himself, his very presence in the world, 
 with its vast influence among men, so clearly 
 divine, easily accounts for all the rest. The sun 
 in the heavens is not alone there, cannot be alone 
 there. Stars follow in his train. Planets and 
 satellites are his natural attendants. Light and 
 
THE ADVENT. 223 
 
 beauty supernal Hash along his pathway. If 
 Christ, then, be the Son of God, how natural and 
 becoming the angelic announcement! how beau 
 tiful " that soft hosanna s tone " from celestial 
 choirs ! how glorious that refulgent star, leading 
 on the believers of the Orient first fruits and 
 representatives of the Gentiles to Christ, and 
 standing like a thing of life over the place where 
 the young child lay ! how dignified and touching 
 the homage of the shepherds, and the adoration 
 of the Magi, with their gifts of gold, frankin 
 cense, and myrrh ! 
 
 Let us draw nigh, then, and behold this great 
 sight, this transcendent wonder, this true Sheki- 
 nah of the Godhead. Away with curious im 
 aginings and impotent speculations. The Word 
 is made flesh and dwells among us, and by faith 
 we behold his glory, the glory as of the only- 
 begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 
 Not by the vulgar senses, not even by the mere 
 formal intellect, but by that higher exercise of 
 the soul which discerns the true, the beautiful, 
 the good, absolute and eternal, palpitating be 
 neath the thin vesture of external forms and finite 
 existences, can we recognize and appreciate the 
 glory of God in the face of Jesus. Life only 
 can apprehend life. Souls echo to souls. Love 
 is their interpreter. It is only thus that God 
 himself can be known to man. Spirit answers 
 
224 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 to spirit, finite to infinite, the love of the believer 
 to the love of God. 
 
 Hence the incarnation is a sacred mystery, 
 to be known and cherished in the secret depths 
 of regenerate hearts. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DISCIPLINE. 
 
 NATURE is progressive. Principles and iorces 
 remain, but organic forms and living creatures 
 are gradually developed.* The powers beneath 
 the surface are often concealed from human ob 
 servation, and apparently restrained and limited 
 by an invisible hand ; but they are essentially, and 
 at all times, the same, as God is the same. 
 Working on, however, they give rise to the most 
 diversified appearances, and actually seem to 
 gather strength and volume as they proceed. The 
 change is generally from the less to the greater, 
 as the dawn advances to the perfect day. Thus 
 the stars are born, taking their place in the gal 
 axy of night. Thus the rivers rise, and the for 
 ests grow. Thus the earth itself is projected into 
 the realms of space, with its accumulating freight 
 of living beings. Hence in the Scriptures we 
 find " the beginning " of all things recognized, 
 
 * Of course we do not here indorse " the Development Theory " 
 of the author of " The Vestiges of Creation," i.mv pretty thoroughly 
 exploded. We maintain an original and perfect creation of distinct 
 and independent species. But when created, those, as well as other 
 organic forms, are gradually developed. Growth succeeds creation. 
 
 (233) 
 
226 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and as in the discoveries of geological science, 
 so here we behold the first creation of the great 
 masses, "chaos and elder night" succeeded by 
 the beautiful and all-penetrating day, then the 
 deep strata of the earth s foundations, the alter 
 nations of sea and land, the green herbage with 
 plants and trees, the old monsters of the deep and 
 of the wilderness, fishes and birds, in their order, 
 then the higher animals, and finally man, to crown 
 the whole ; the six days of successive change and 
 improvement, with the seventh of completion and 
 perfection, or, as some have it, the six great pe 
 riods and revolutions of time, figured under the 
 symbol of the common week, with its six periods 
 of social activity, and its seventh of sacred rest. 
 
 Man himself appears as a feeble beginning, first 
 as an individual, and then as a single pair, after 
 which follow families, communities, states, em 
 pires, that mighty and multiform thing which we 
 call mankind, or the race. In the individual man, 
 also, as now developed, we seethe same wonder 
 ful process ; for he first appears as an embryo, 
 and then as a child, feeble and dependent, with 
 the majestic soul within, wrapped up, so to speak, 
 in the tissues of the flesh, or in the secret cham 
 bers of the brain, but of vital and productive en 
 ergy, capable of all growth and enlargement of 
 thought, purpose, and will, expanding with the 
 , and finally arriving at the stature of a com- 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 227 
 
 plete and well-proportioned man, with his stal 
 wart limbs, clear eye, energetic hand, and all-com 
 prehending mind. Strange that a Newton, with 
 all the grandeurs and complications of scientific 
 thought, should lie in that little child. It would 
 seem impossible ; but there he is, as vital, as en 
 ergetic, as great, absolutely, as when gazing 
 through starry worlds into the very centre and 
 essence of things. 
 
 This, then, is God s method to work outwardly 
 and onwardly, as from a centre, gradually 
 evolving his beautiful creations, and although un 
 changed in all the energies and resources of his 
 nature, discovering himself in external things, by 
 a limited, but constantly expanding process. He 
 would seem thus to confine himself, to bring 
 down and compress his energies in finite forms 
 and forces, that an external universe, men and 
 angels, might come into existence, who, in 
 due time, should recognize him as "all and in 
 all." We -have called this the progress of na 
 ture ; but nature is nothing separate from God. 
 It exists by him and for him, with a view to the 
 outward and eternal development of his glory. 
 Hence Cowper is entirely justified in represent 
 ing what we call nature, as but " a name for an 
 effect, whose cause is God." It would seem, 
 then, that God, in outwardly revealing his nature, 
 voluntarily subjects himself to an apparent process 
 of limitation and development. 
 
228 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Now, in the incarnation, the second and more 
 perfect outgoing or embodiment of the Divine, we 
 should naturally expect something analogous ; 
 as first of all, the promise and the preparation, 
 then the birth of the Divine among men, in the 
 form of a wondrous child, pure as the opening 
 day, or the first effluence of light from its primal 
 fountain, penetrating the darkness of chaos, and 
 turning it into radiant gold ; a nature infinite and 
 transcendent, but hiding itself in this limited and 
 lowly shape, which grows and expands till the 
 Godhead shines refulgent through the whole. 
 So we find " the holy Child " passing into the 
 boy the thoughtful and spiritual boy, who, 
 true to his original nature, " must be about his 
 Father s business ; " then into the man, the man 
 active, and the man suffering, through all the 
 duties and exigencies of this mortal life, through 
 the family, the church, and the state, through 
 the garden, the cross, and the sepulchre, through 
 all, indeed, of joy and sorrow, of obligation and 
 attainment, which comes between the cradle 
 and the tomb, until, perfected, he ascends, by 
 inward force, "far above all principality and 
 power, and might and dominion." Strange, men 
 may say, that in that humble stable, in that 
 lowly manger, in that feeble child, though beau 
 tiful as a star in the gloom of night, should lie 
 concealed the divine Redeemer, with all the 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 229 
 
 depths of his unutterable love, and all the re 
 sources of his infinite power. But no more strange 
 than true ; no more strange than the dwelling 
 of a finite spirit, yet to become a seraph, with 
 vast power and eternal joys, in a similar form ; 
 no more strange than the dwelling of the in 
 finite Jehovah in the universe he has framed; 
 for, above all, he is yet in all. And so also the 
 gradual development of Christ as a child, a boy, 
 a man, the lowly life he led, and the sharp dis 
 cipline through which he passed, to the full per 
 fection of his nature and work, are no more 
 strange or anomalous than the course of creation, 
 through its various throes and changes, to the 
 full revelation of the creating God, in this fair, 
 harmonious world. Clearly did the high soul of 
 Milton discern the glory of the new-born child, 
 even in the manger of Bethlehem, as he sang, in 
 lofty numbers, that wonderful event, in which 
 all heaven and its angelic choirs sympathized 
 as a new creation, and in which hell, with all its 
 brood of demons, felt that its empire was 
 gone ; for he saw, as the angels saw, the mighty 
 change thence to be wrought not only in the per 
 son of Christ, but in the ejitire history of man. 
 
 " The oracles are dumb , 
 No voice or hideous hum 
 
 Runs through the arched roof, in words deceiving. 
 Apollo from his shrine 
 Can no more divine, 
 
 20 
 
230 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving ; 
 No nightly trance, or breathed spell 
 Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 
 
 Peor and Baalim 
 
 Forsake their temples dim ; 
 
 And sullen Moloch, fled, 
 Hath left in shadows dread 
 His burning idol all of blackest hue ; 
 
 Nor is Osiris seen 
 In Memphian grove or green, 
 Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud 
 
 He feels from Judah s land 
 The dreaded Infant s hand ; 
 
 The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyne ; 
 Nor all the gods beside 
 Longer dare abide, 
 
 Not Typhon huge, ending in snaky twine. 
 Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, 
 Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew." 
 
 Thus, in the principle of change and progress, 
 the " Holy Child " is recognized as embodying 
 "all the fulness of the Godhead," as much at his 
 birth as when enthroned in the heavens. But 
 the progress and development of the higher 
 manifestation or incarnation of the Divine must 
 be common and natural. It must take place in 
 such a land as Judea, under such a reign as that 
 of Herod, of Archelaus, and Herod Antipas, in 
 such a house as that of Joseph, in some humble 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 231 
 
 occupation or trade, and by such ordinary min 
 istrations as fall to the lot of mortals. Jesus 
 must be prepared for his great work, and in 
 every phase and form of existence, of trial and 
 suffering, discover to man the divine love and 
 pity. Thus he must be persecuted even when a 
 child, go down into Egypt to escape the wrath 
 of the king, wander about in lowliness and pov 
 erty, hold fellowship with nature and man, be 
 tempted even of the devil, pass through all stages 
 of change and fiery trial, and finally of agony 
 and death, for the redemption of the lost. 
 
 It is only thus he can make himself knoivn, 
 only thus he can fully discover to us his indwell 
 ing glory, and bring down to man, not simply 
 the absolute nature, but the very heart of the 
 great God, yearning for the return of his off 
 spring; only thus that he can sanctify for our 
 benefit, life, death, and the grave ; and so be 
 come our Forerunner to glory. 
 
 It is on this ground that one of the Christian 
 fathers (Irenoous) has remarked that Jesus 
 " came to save all by himself, all who through 
 him are regenerated unto God infants, little 
 children, boys, young men and old." Hence " he 
 passed through every age, and for the infants he 
 became an infant, sanctifying the infants ; among 
 the little children he became a little child, sancti 
 fying those who belonged to that age, and, at 
 
232 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the same time, presenting to them an example 
 of piety, of well-doing, and of obedience ; among 
 the young men he became a young man, that he 
 might set them an example, and sanctify them 
 to the Lord." * The thought is not only beau 
 tiful, but just and scriptural ; for our Savior did, 
 by means of his childhood, youth, and rnaturer 
 life, confer dignity upon all, and prove that all 
 may be made pure and happy. He thus fitted 
 himself to become, in our human affections, the 
 true brother and friend of man, in all possible 
 relations. How profoundly this single circum 
 stance has affected the sympathies of mankind, 
 all must be aware. Childhood and old age have 
 felt it alike. The mother, gazing upon her in 
 fant, has felt it through all the depths of her 
 being. The child itself has felt it when hearing 
 that mother sing of the Holy One, " cradled in a 
 manger," and " fed with the beasts of the stall." 
 All ranks and conditions have acknowledged it. 
 The poor man in his cottage, and the prince in 
 his palace, the wild Indian, converted to Christ, 
 and the polished European, consecrating himself 
 and his family to God. 
 
 " O, who, that feels the spell which Heaven 
 
 Casts round us in our infancy, 
 But, more or less, hath homage given 
 To childhood, half-unconscious why ? 
 
 * Neander s Church History, vol. i. p. 311. 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 233 
 
 A yet more touching mystery 
 
 Is in that feeling comprehended 
 When thus is brought before his eye 
 
 Godhead with childhood strangely blended." 
 
 The same fact has tended to impart a peculiar 
 dignity and worth to human nature itself, and to 
 the whole life of rnan, married thus to the ce 
 lestial and divine. The majesty of the Son of 
 God seems thereby to be veiled, and doubtless, 
 in some partial and relative sense, it really is 
 so. But how immeasurably exalted is our poor 
 humanity, and what treasures are thence in 
 store for us, when we, too, are made " partakers 
 of the divine nature ! " Certainly it was an in 
 finite condescension on his part to " take upon 
 him the seed of Abraham," and appear among 
 men, as one of the least and lowliest of all, go 
 ing down to the deepest deeps of human sorrow, 
 that he might lift us up to God. But the Divin 
 ity was not thereby degraded, as some have 
 rashly concluded, any more than a Howard or a 
 Fry in prison, and among thieves, is degraded. 
 Indeed, the Divine is equally glorified in descend 
 ing as in ascending ; so that we conclude that 
 the mysterious union between the highest Es 
 sence in the universe and the lowliest form of 
 men was at once natural and becoming. We 
 know of no shrine of the Deity so beautiful as 
 the spotless body of " a holy child." The in 
 finite lies nearer to the souls of children than we 
 20* 
 
234 CHRIST IN HISTORT. 
 
 are aware. Indeed, it is " all about us in our in 
 fancy." And when one is found absolutely 
 stainless, that child forms a temple of the Deity 
 more refulgent than all the starry spheres. Even 
 on the cross, marred and dying, there is a grandeur 
 in the person of the man Jesus Christ, for which 
 the presence of the indwelling Divinity alone 
 can account. 
 
 Let us not, then, be surprised if we find the 
 Son of God, who is equally the Son of man, 
 subjected to the will of his human parents, in 
 creasing in years and strength, and " in favor 
 with God and man," performing the accustomed 
 round of duties, secular and sacred, mingling 
 with his neighbors and kinsfolk in the humble 
 town of Nazareth asking and hearing ques 
 tions with the doctors in the temple, working at 
 the occupation of a carpenter, or celebrating the 
 rites of the Jewish faith. Let us not be sur 
 prised if we find him " a hungered," or " athirst," 
 or " weary " at the close of day, tempted of 
 Satan, " troubled in spirit," or rejoicing with 
 deep and peculiar joy, "weeping with those that 
 weep, and rejoicing with those that rejoice," 
 mingling in life s festal or mournful scenes, par 
 taking of common pleasure, and bearing, in all 
 things, the sorrows and infirmities of man. Se 
 rene and self-possessed in his higher nature, he 
 is yet linked to man, as the soul is linked to the 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 235 
 
 body, and while the union lasts, must sympathize 
 in all which is common to the race. " It be 
 hooved him in all things to be made like unto 
 his brethren." Why ? That we might be able 
 to recognize him as " a merciful and faithful 
 High Priest in things pertaining to God." "We 
 need not, then, be shocked, if we hear his towns 
 people speak of him contemptuously, as "the 
 carpenter s son," whose kinsfolk they know, or 
 if we find him "despised and rejected of men, 
 a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief." If 
 the life of man, is " a great and inscrutable mys 
 tery," if the life especially of a good man, in the 
 lowest walks of poverty and sorrow, has in it 
 something divine, let us not wonder that the 
 Son of God should pass through such a life, and 
 thereby make it unutterably sublime. 
 
 Night must come to reveal the stars. The 
 beacon shines brightest in the fiercest storms. 
 Love is the most intensely beautiful amid long 
 watchings and agonies. And so best is the 
 glory of God revealed in the poverty, lowliness, 
 and suffering of Christ. The love, too, of a long 
 and checkered life is better than the love of a 
 single act, or even of many detached acts ; and 
 thence Jesus must live and labor, and suffer 
 through many years, the vivid incarnation of the 
 infinite heart yearning for the restoration of the 
 lost. It is only thus that the overwhelming con- 
 
236 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 viction is brought home to our souls, that we must 
 and can be "regenerated unto God," and though 
 sinful, fitted for glory and immortality. 
 
 Little or nothing is recorded of the first thirty 
 years of our Savior s life ; and in this we see 
 the profound continence and wisdom of the 
 sacred writers. It was a season of preparation, 
 of common every-day duties, common every-day 
 trials. With a slight exception or two, it had 
 nothing in it of the strange or marvellous, such 
 as fictitious writers would have easily found. 
 And hence the " Gospel of the Infancy," as it is 
 called, an apocryphal Gospel of early times, dif 
 fers, toto ccdlo, from the inspired records, indul 
 ging, as it does, in all sorts of foolish stories and 
 extravagant figments, unworthy of the simple 
 grandeur and serene beauty of our Savior s char 
 acter. It represents him as a capricious, re 
 vengeful child, working the most preposterous 
 miracles, on the slightest and most insignificant 
 occasions. How superior to all this the sober 
 narratives of those who copied from the divine 
 original, and narrated only what they knew to 
 be fact and reality ! In boyhood itself, Christ 
 must "be about his Father s business," as he 
 told his virgin mother. Even then, the con 
 sciousness of an ineffable union with " the Fa 
 ther," of a high spiritual destiny, and of an ac 
 tual preparation for it, is indicated amid the 
 common cares and sympathies of his life. 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 237 
 
 An interesting question here presents itself, to 
 which we may profitably devote the remainder of 
 this chapter. How and where was Christ edu 
 cated ? Or rather, perhaps, was Christ educated 
 at all, in the ordinary sense of the term ? Among 
 what learned rabbis, or in what sacred school, 
 if any, was he trained as a teacher of righteous 
 ness ? The question has been debated chiefly 
 by the enemies of Christianity, who maintain 
 that Christ acquired his wonderful knowledge 
 by ordinary means, and that there is nothing 
 really original in his system, admirable, especial 
 ly in its moral aspects, as they are compelled to 
 acknowledge it.* The sublime truths taught by 
 our Savior, the spirituality, purity, and com 
 prehensiveness of his views as a Reformer of 
 society, and especially the simplicity, sublimity, 
 and perfection of his moral code, confessed alike 
 by infidels and Christians, must be accounted 
 for. There is no effect without an adequate 
 cause ; those, therefore, who deny the divine 
 origin and authority of Christianity, must ex 
 plain it on natural grounds. 
 
 Now. it may be allowed that Jesus had access 
 to the Old Testament Scriptures, which he tells 
 us he came " to fulfil," not to destroy ; and thence 
 doubtless might derive some of his grandest con- 
 
 * Strauss, Bruno Bauer, Newman, and others, represent him sim 
 ply as an extraordinary man, taught, probably, by the Essenes. 
 
238 CHRIST IN IIISTOIIY. 
 
 ceptions of God, of duty, and immortality ; but 
 this will not account for the whole, sceptics 
 themselves being judges ; for he left behind him, 
 in the old dispensation, all that was tempora 
 ry, local, and ceremonial, all that was narrow, 
 crude, and imperfect ; and not only so, but he 
 added certain peculiar principles and precepts, 
 organized the church, and thence society on a 
 new and wider basis, and gave the whole a 
 grandeur, force, and comprehensiveness utterly 
 unknown to Moses and the prophets. 
 
 Did he derive his information, then, from other 
 books and documents ? Alas ! there were none 
 from which he could derive them ; unless he 
 possessed that peculiar alchemy of heaven, of 
 extracting all the good out of every book and 
 system, leaving nothing behind but the poison 
 and the dross. Were this really the case, it 
 would prove him as much inspired as if the 
 whole proceeded from his unaided mind. It 
 would be collecting by a power which none 
 but God, or a God-inspired being, could pos 
 sess, the fragments of truth, scattered, as Milton 
 finely imagines, over the face of the earth, like 
 the mangled remains of the god Osiris.* Im 
 agine the broken parts of a magnificent temple 
 lying promiscuously over a wide and tangled 
 wilderness. What genius, but of that of a 
 
 * Works, vol. i. p. 185. 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 239 
 
 Michael Angelo, were it possible even for such 
 as he, could bring them together, and constitute 
 them into the fair proportions of an original 
 work ? That Christ should be fancied by scep 
 tics to have gathered all the good of Oriental 
 theosophy, Grecian wisdom, as well as Jewish 
 faith, into a fair and well-proportioned system, is a 
 tacit acknowledgment of his amazing superiority. 
 
 But there is not the slightest evidence" that he 
 ever studied these systems, or had the least 
 familiarity with philosophical speculations of 
 any kind. Indeed, nothing is clearer than his 
 decided rejection of all .. speculative theologies, 
 as well as the mysteries and symbols of the 
 ancient pagan faiths. 
 
 With the exception of a very short sojourn in 
 Egypt, at a time of life when he could form no 
 acquaintance with Egyptian literature and theol 
 ogy, he spent the most of his life at Nazareth. 
 This was the place of his preparation for his 
 public ministry. Remote from schools of learn 
 ing, he gave himself, so far as we know, to the 
 common duties of religion and of social life, and 
 passed, among his acquaintances, as one of the 
 common people. When the Jews listened to his 
 remarkable style of teaching, they expressed their 
 amazement, on the ground that he had never been 
 taught, like other learned and godly men whom 
 they revered. " Is not this the carpenter s son, 
 
240 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 whose kinsmen we know? " " How, then, hath 
 this man this wisdom, and these mighty works ?" 
 Some have maintained, that he might have 
 been familiar with the works of Philo, the cele 
 brated Alexandrian Jew, whose allegorical and 
 philosophical explanation of the Mosaic faith 
 presents some lofty and attractive features. But 
 Jesus is free from the errors and fancies of Philo. 
 His method of thought is entirely different. The 
 one is allegorical and speculative, the other sim 
 ple and spiritual. Philo speaks as a philosopher, 
 Jesus as a prophet. The one is an ingenious but 
 fanciful thinker, the other is a messenger from 
 God. Philo, indeed, claims to be inspired, as, 
 he believes, all wise and good men are, but 
 writes with the air of one who relies much on 
 his own philosophic genius. He allegorizes the 
 simplest facts, adding or retrenching, glossing or 
 explaining away, as he sees fit ; and thus, while 
 doing homage, apparently, to divine revelation, 
 he goes far to diminish its strength and under 
 mine its authority. Jesus never allegorizes the 
 facts and doctrines of the Old Testament ; but, 
 extracting its spirit, proceeds, both in his teach 
 ing and life, to fulfil it, or fill it out, that is, 
 complete and mature its teachings.* 
 
 * Philo seems to have no idea of a personal Messiah, especially 
 of a suffering Messiah, and makes redemption, as in Plato, to con 
 sist in a return to the absolute and infinite, without any proper 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 241 
 
 Could Jesus have been educated among the 
 Pharisees, or have derived from them the prin 
 ciples of his system ? They were the most learned 
 and rigid of the Jewish sects, and exerted a 
 preponderating influence in the nation. They 
 passed as the orthodox formalists of the times, 
 and laid claims to the highest sanctity and worth. 
 Venerating all the books of the Old Testament, 
 they were rigid in attending fasts and festivals, 
 and in observing all minute and ritual forms. 
 Our Savior s spirit was just the reverse. He 
 rejects all formalism and separatism, all assumed, 
 external sanctity, all vain and superstitious cere 
 monies. Hence, in language of fire, he denounces 
 the Pharisees as a generation of vipers whited 
 sepulchres hypocrites. Thus, then, while agree 
 ing with the Pharisees in their veneration for the 
 fathers, the sacred books, and the law of God, as 
 also with their views touching the spirituality of 
 God, and the resurrection state, he renounces 
 their spirit and aim as destructive to true religion 
 and virtue ! 
 
 Well, then, could the Sadducees, who rejected 
 the great mass of Jewish traditions, and clung to 
 the Pentateuch as the original and infallible reve- 
 
 conception of an atonement or a personal regeneration principles 
 which lie at the very foundation of Christianity. The Greek philos 
 ophy exerted upon him an immense influence. Hence it has been 
 said that " either Plato philonized or Philo platonized." 
 
 21 
 
242 CHRIST IN HISTOKY. 
 
 lation of God, have been the teachers of Christ? 
 Impossible; for their low and unspiritual views, 
 their Epicureanism, as well as their scepticism 
 touching the separate existence of spirits, and 
 the immortality of the soul, were his abhorrence. 
 The fact is, the Sadducees, a small but wealthy 
 and influential class, were the materialists of 
 Judaism. They denied the spiritual world, and, 
 consequently, made as much of the present as 
 possible ; living a free and Epicurean life, and so 
 caring little for man, or God, or immortality. 
 They are associated, in the denunciations of our 
 Savior, with the Scribes and Pharisees, as equally 
 the children of perdition. 
 
 A single supposition only remains, and that 
 will exhaust the subject, namely, that Christ 
 derived his peculiar views of religion and mo 
 rality from the Essenes, or Esseans, represented 
 by Josephus and Philo as the third sect of Jewish 
 religionists, or, as they choose to term them, philos 
 ophers, adapting their representations to Grecian 
 and Roman modes of expression. The extreme 
 anxiety of both these writers to recommend every 
 thing Jewish to their pagan readers has thrown 
 some doubt over their accounts. They vary 
 somewhat, though both have a slight air of 
 romance. Little or nothing is known, from 
 other sources, of these Essenes, though Pliny 
 speaks of them in favorable terms, and represents 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 243 
 
 them as very ancient. His account, however, is, 
 probably, borrowed from the Jewish writers, or 
 from hearsay. It is questionable whether Jose- 
 phus, or even Philo, knew much of them from 
 personal observation. Their statements are 
 rather vague and rhetorical. It is singular, too, 
 that no mention should be made of them in the 
 New Testament. So far as we can see, our 
 Savior never came into contact with any of 
 them. This, however, may be accounted for on 
 the ground of the smallncss of the sect, their 
 monastic and retiring habits, and their residence 
 at a distance from the principal scene of Christ s 
 ministrations. They avoided cities and places 
 of public resort ; took no part in the questions 
 or agitations of the times ; shunned promiscuous 
 intercourse, refusing even to eat with any but 
 their own order. The name, according to Jose- 
 phus, is derived from the Hebrew asah, because 
 they practised the healing art ; though Philo and 
 others have suggested a different origin. It is 
 well known that the Jewish high priest wore 
 upon his breast a splendid ornament, in which 
 twelve precious stones were inserted, represent 
 ing the twelve tribes of Israel, the appellation 
 of \vhich was the Essen. It was worn especial 
 ly when the high priest went into the holy of 
 holies, and bore an intimate relation to the mat 
 ter of divine communications. It was regarded 
 
244 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 as a means, or medium, of approach to the 
 Deity; or at least signified, as the Urim and 
 Thummim, a real fellowship, through the high 
 priest, between Jehovah and the twelve tribes of 
 Israel. Thus one mode of inquiring the mind 
 of God was by Urim and Thummim. The 
 society of the Essen, or the Essenes, then, ac 
 cording to this view, were a secret, mystical 
 fraternity, who professed to have direct and 
 peculiar access to the Deity, and thence claimed 
 a sort of prophetic inspiration. As the Phari 
 sees were the formalists, and the Sadducees the 
 rationalists, so the Essenes were the mystics of 
 the Jewish nation. 
 
 Their principal settlement was on the western 
 shores of the Dead Sea a region favorable, 
 from its lone and desolate aspects, as well as its 
 ancient and thrilling memories, to profound and 
 melancholy thought. From this they slowly 
 and secretly spread themselves through other 
 parts of Palestine, and, it may be, southward as 
 far as Egypt, where, according to some, they re 
 appeared in the Therapeutce^ or Jewish ascetics 
 of Egypt. 
 
 Both Philo and Josephus extol them for their 
 rigid morality ; their simplicity and purity of 
 life; their quiet and gentle temper; their hospi 
 tality and piety. They generally practised celi 
 bacy, regarding all women as unchaste, though 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 245 
 
 some of them did not altogether disapprove of 
 marriage ; paid great attention to the curative 
 properties of plants, practising medicine ; and, 
 when not engaged in contemplation or devotion, 
 spending their time chiefly in agriculture, or in 
 other simple and rural employments. 
 
 They formed a fraternity, separate, secret, and 
 exclusive a sort of Freemason, or Eleusinian 
 order admitting members only after a novitiate 
 of three years, and gradually passing them 
 through four different stages, or classes, till they 
 arrived at what they deemed the most perfect. 
 Though oaths were strictly forbidden on ordinary 
 occasions, no one was admitted to the society 
 without solemnly binding himself, by the most 
 awful oaths, to observe the rules of the order, 
 and to keep its secrets, particularly those in refer 
 ence "to the angels," about w r hom they cherished 
 some superstitious notions. At the close of the 
 first year, the candidate received a small hatchet, 
 a white apron, or girdle, and a white robe, which 
 had a mystical or symbolical meaning. They 
 lived upon the simplest fare ; held little converse 
 with each other, except at meals; the four dif 
 ferent classes really forming separate castes, who 
 regarded contact with each other as contamination. 
 They performed frequent ablutions, but held an 
 ointing with oil in abhorrence. Philo denies that 
 they offered any sacrifices, but Josephus affirms 
 21* 
 
246 CHRIST IN HISTOUY. 
 
 that they only declined offering them at the temple. 
 Among themselves they performed sacrificial rites, 
 with fasting and prayer,, at the dead of night, or 
 at early dawn. 
 
 Justice and charity were regarded by the 
 Essenes as cardinal virtues. Slavery among 
 them was absolutely forbidden. They were also 
 communists, having all things common in the 
 matter of property and food. 
 
 They believed in one God, whom they wor 
 shipped chiefly in the night, regarding that 
 season, in common with many of the Oriental 
 religionists, as peculiarly sacred. It is said that 
 they worshipped the sun, perhaps as the symbol 
 or image of the divine glory a circumstance 
 which would indicate some connection with 
 Oriental theosophy. At all events, they offered 
 prayer and sang hymns at the dawn, with their 
 faces towards the rising sun. 
 
 Their sacred books were kept secret, and used 
 in divination, or prophesying; somewhat, we 
 fancy, after the mode of the Sortes Virgiliance. 
 
 Rejecting the great mass of Jewish traditions 
 and ceremonial observances, the Essenes super- 
 stitiously observed some ritual usages of their 
 own, and were distinguished by their rigid man 
 ner of keeping the Sabbath. Abstemious and 
 ascetic, they despised and mortified the body, 
 believing it to be the seat of evil. Josephus says 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 247 
 
 that they wore their clothes till they fell to pieces. 
 Their notion was, that the souls of men had fallen 
 from the regions of purity and light into gross and 
 sinful bodies, from which, in due time, through 
 piety and penance, they would escape, and once 
 more rise into the pure and spiritual state. 
 Hence they rejected the resurrection of the body, 
 and longed for reunion with God, through absti 
 nence and death. 
 
 The Essenes have been divided into the theoret 
 ical and practical, the former being identified with 
 the TherapeutoB of Egypt, who, as their name 
 imports, devoted themselves, like the Essenes, to 
 the healing art ; unless we are to understand the 
 term symbolically, as having reference to the 
 health of the soul. Matter, the celebrated author 
 of the history of Gnosticism, and Neander, the 
 church historian, doubt the connection of these 
 two orders of ascetics, supposing, perhaps justly, 
 that the monastic tendency might develop itself 
 spontaneously in both countries, as it did in va 
 rious Oriental nations even among the heathen, 
 and, in the middle ages, among Christians.* The 
 Therapeutic had their principal settlement on 
 the tranquil shores of Lake Mceris, not far from 
 
 * Mosheim, in his Ecclesiastical Commentaries, also doubts the 
 propriety of the distinction. His observations upon the Essenes 
 are remarkably just and discriminating. Both he and Neander give 
 it as their opinion that considerable varieties obtained among them. 
 
248 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the brilliant capital of Grecian Egypt, where 
 they passed their lives in monastic seclusion, 
 shut up in separate cells, devoted to prayer and 
 contemplation. The sacred oracles formed the 
 basis of their studies ; but they interpreted them, 
 after Philo and other theosophic writers, allegor- 
 ically. Their usages were those of the anchoritic 
 life. They exercised themselves in fasting and 
 other ascetic practices, taking only one meal in 
 the evening, consisting of bread and water. In 
 deed, they sometimes spent whole days without 
 eating. They met together, in solemn assembly, 
 each seventh day and more especially on the 
 seventh week ; partaking together of fraternal re 
 pasts seasoned with salt and hyssop, listening 
 to theosophic lessons, singing in chorus ancient 
 traditional hymns, and performing certain mys 
 tic dances.* 
 
 The fact is, the Alexandrian Judaism min 
 gled too readily with the spirit of Oriental and 
 thaumaturgic mysticism ; and the usages of the 
 Therapeutse were but a mixture of Jewish and 
 pagan notions, reduced to practice, in monastic 
 seclusion and ascetic severity. Hence, while the 
 TherapeutsD, as well as the Essenes, clearly pos 
 sessed some noble and even beautiful traits of 
 character, they fell into errors and extravagances, 
 
 * The view of the Essenes and Therapeutic here given is based 
 upon the explicit statements of Philo or Josephus. See Appen 
 dix D. 
 
THE DISCIPLINE. 249 
 
 alien from the spirit, at once, of Judaism and of 
 Christianity. Infinitely superior as the Essenes 
 were, both to the Sadducees and the Pharisees, 
 and embodying in their creed some elevated 
 tendencies, their whole system was exclusive and 
 ascetic, just the contrary of Christianity, as 
 taught by our Savior, and exemplified in his life. 
 Undoubtedly there are some slight coincidences 
 in the two systems ; but there are, also, the most 
 obvious and striking differences. Christ was no 
 Essene, no monk, or ascetic, for he mingled 
 freely in society; approved of marriage, sanc 
 tioning it by his presence at the marriage in 
 Cana of Galilee ; partook of ordinary food and 
 drink ; so much so, that his enemies charged 
 him, falsely enough to be sure, but with an ap 
 parent plausibility, with being " a gluttonous 
 man, a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and 
 sinners." His system is not allegorical, or mys 
 tical, in the technical sense of these terms ; 
 neither is it narrow, monkish, and exclusive ; but 
 all-comprehensive, practical, social, and free a 
 religion for man in all the relations of life and 
 
 O 
 
 society. Like that of the Essenes, his kingdom 
 is not of this world; but, unlike theirs, it has no 
 tones provincial no peculiar garb no strange 
 Shibboleth, or oath no secret notions and 
 usages no worship of angels, or despising of 
 the body no superstitious reverence of the 
 
250 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 night no worship of the sun or stars no 
 castes, or orders no dread of society, or of com 
 mon every-day duties. Like theirs, the church 
 of the first ages often had a community of goods, 
 arid took special care of the poor, the sick, the sor 
 rowful, the dying; but, unlike the Essenic frater 
 nity, it was composed of all ranks and conditions 
 of men, and went forth among the unregenerate 
 and outcast, preaching a free gospel, and urging 
 them to press, without hesitation, into the fold 
 of the Redeemer. Like the Essenes, the primitive 
 Christians, following Christ, abandoned the dis 
 tinctions and vanities of the world, despised 
 suffering and death, and were preeminently 
 distinguished for their justice, veracity, hospi 
 tality, arid fortitude ; but, unlike them, were 
 actuated by a burning zeal for the spread of the 
 truth, and the salvation of the heathen. While 
 the Essenes shut themselves up in their secluded 
 settlements, the Christians went every where 
 preaching the word, and diffusing among men 
 the blessings of salvation. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to pursue the comparison 
 further. It is clear, not only from the absence of 
 the slightest historical testimony, but from in 
 trinsic evidence, that Christ and Christianity 
 could not have originated among the Essenes of 
 Palestine, or the Tberapeutoc in Egypt.* 
 
 * It is well known that Roman Catholic writers have claimed the 
 Essenes and Therapcutrc as Christian monks, in order to justify the 
 
THE DISCIPLINP:. 251 
 
 Christ, even in the commencement of his career, 
 was altogether peculiar and original. He does 
 not even seem to belong to his age. Who thinks 
 of him as a Jew at all ? He is as much superior 
 to his era, and his nation, as if he had descended, 
 full grown, from a higher sphere ; as if he had 
 sprung immediately from the bosom of God. 
 And indeed he did come forth from God, and, 
 while on earth, dwelt, so to speak, in the bosom 
 of the Father. " No man hath seen God at any 
 time ; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom 
 of the Father, he hath declared him." 
 
 monastic system as ancient and apostolical. But the whole is an 
 assumption, without historical basis. It is singular, however, that 
 De Quincey, in two articles contributed years ago to Blackwood s 
 Magazine, has defended this view, or at least a modification of this 
 viow, maintaining that the Essenes were primitive Christians, mis 
 taken or misrepresented by Josephus (whom he bitterly denounces) 
 as a Jewish sect. De Quincey, however, has presented no new facts 
 upon the subject. His reasoning is altogether hypothetical, and we 
 are compelled to say, fanciful. Indeed, De Quincey, with all his 
 learning, is not particularly reliable in questions of this sort. He 
 is not unfrequently carried away by his imagination, in opposition to 
 plain historical facts. The testimonies of Philo he has not even 
 considered. He makes no account of the deliberate, well-founded 
 opinions of suh historians as Mosheim, Neander, Hase, Matter, 
 Giescler, and others. Any one who will take the trouble of reading 
 his articles will find his reasoning conjectural from beginning to 
 end. We refer our readers once more to note D in the Appendix. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 INAUGURATION, OR JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 SOME time before the commencement of Christ s 
 public career, Judea was reduced to the condition 
 of a Roman province. Archelaus, after a weak 
 and disastrous reign, as ethnarch, for nine years, 
 was banished into Gaul. The country was sub 
 jected to the capricious despotism of Pontius 
 Pilate, the Roman procurator, who took every 
 opportunity of humbling the Jews, and breaking 
 their national spirit. He was the fifth. Roman 
 governor of Judea, and received his appointment 
 from Tiberius Ca?sar. He occupied that position 
 about ten years, and distinguished himself by his 
 spasmodic energy and cruelty. He is known in 
 history chiefly in connection with our Savior s 
 death. He introduced, not only into Cresarea, 
 his ordinary residence, but into Jerusalem itself, 
 the idolatrous standard of the Roman empire, 
 and attempted to suspend certain bucklers, bear 
 ing the image of the emperor, in the palace of 
 Herod. The Sanhedrim was still permitted to 
 exercise some jurisdiction, but was sadly checked 
 and degraded. This, as far as possible, they 
 
 (259) 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 253 
 
 endeavored, to conceal both from themselves and 
 the people. Their claims seemed as lofty as 
 ever ; and they guarded with an intense jealousy 
 the ancient institutions and usages of the nation. 
 Throughout the country, publicans or tax gath 
 erers, under the appointment of Rome, constantly 
 reminded the people of her subjection to foreign 
 domination. Galling burdens chafed them at 
 every point. Their very religion was subjected 
 to rude, pagan interference. The high priest 
 was displaced at the pleasure of the Roman proc 
 urator, and sometimes with insulting levity and 
 violence. No one could be initiated into that 
 office without the sanction of Rome. Religious 
 sects were inflamed against each other. The 
 Herodians, as they were called, were universally 
 hated. False to their ancient faith, they yielded 
 their necks to the conqueror, and were active in 
 modifying the spirit and institutions of their 
 country. The most fierce and sanguinary fanati 
 cism raged amongst the followers and imitators 
 of Judas, the Gaulonite, the leader of those who 
 attempted to throw off the yoke of Rome. There 
 was something, indeed, noble in their spirit of 
 self-sacrifice, for they contemned suffering and 
 death, and fought only for their country and their 
 religion. Judas and his followers, however, per 
 ished miserably. The nation every where was 
 agitated by treasons and tumults, often repressed 
 
 99 
 
254 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 by the iron hand of Pilate, who more than 
 once mingled the blood of the people with their 
 sacrifices. Indeed, the whole country was in 
 a ferment, resembling a volcano heaving and 
 dashing beneath the thin surface, previous to a 
 violent eruption. 
 
 John the Baptist, stern and majestic as a rock 
 of the wilderness, where, in devout meditation, 
 he loved to wander, was commissioned as the 
 messenger or herald of the Messiah. Coming 
 " in the spirit and power of Elias," according to 
 ancient prediction, it was his office to introduce 
 the Redeemer to the world, and so prepare the 
 way for his public ministry. He made his ap 
 pearance in the wilderness of Judea, by the 
 banks of the sacred Jordan. As a reformer and 
 preacher of repentance, John, though humble 
 and devout, was severe, and even ascetic. He 
 came to rouse the people from their spiritual 
 slumbers, and announce the approach of the De 
 liverer. In awful and thrilling tones, like a voice 
 from eternity, he proclaimed his coming and 
 kingdom. In anticipation of this august event, 
 he baptized, in the Jordan, multitudes who re 
 pented of their sins, and professed to receive his 
 teaching in reference to the speedy establish 
 ment of the new spiritual kingdom of the Mes 
 siah. Many, indeed, both among the Sadducees 
 and Pharisees, he rejected, discriminating thus 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 255 
 
 between the sincere and the insincere, the false 
 and the true hearted. His was not simply a 
 baptism of external form, but of " faith and re 
 pentance," a symbol of a true inward change 
 and preparation for the Redeemer, with his 
 higher baptism of fire and of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 But few, even of those who listened to the 
 teachings of John, understood the " spiritual 
 nature of the kingdom of God," and all, with 
 scarcely an exception, were expecting in the 
 Christ a mighty conqueror, a glorious, earth- 
 born king. That the great body of those who 
 were baptized by John, in anticipation of the 
 Messiah s coming, were sincere in their belief, so 
 far as it went, cannot be doubted. A great and 
 happy reformation of manners was the result. 
 The attention of the whole community was ex 
 cited. A strange thrill passed through them, as 
 they listened to this new Elijah, recalling the 
 long silent voices of the prophets. Then the 
 way was prepared for the public appearance of 
 the Messiah. The dawn of the new day was 
 visible on the hills. The star, which heralded 
 the approaching sun, shone bright and clear in 
 the horizon. 
 
 As it is important to understand the character 
 of John the Baptist, and his relations to Christ, 
 we will enter a little into detail respecting his 
 life and ministry. The son of Zachariah and 
 
256 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Elisabeth, of the tribe of Levi, and of the race 
 of the priesthood, he was born a little before 
 Christ, probably at Hebron, or Jutta, a sacerdotal 
 city, situated among the mountains, or " hill 
 country " of Judea. His birth had been foretold 
 to his father, and his name given him, in antici 
 pation, by an angel. He spent his early years, it 
 is presumed, in his native town, far from the 
 tumults of the world. It is said, in the sacred 
 narrative, that he was "in the wilderness of 
 Juclea," [called such because it was a region of 
 less fertility and population than the rest of Pal 
 estine.] until the commencement of his ministry, 
 or, as it is expressed, " his showing, or manifes 
 tation to Israel." Here, in retirement and hu 
 mility, he acquired, by grace divine, that purity 
 and force of character necessary to the fulfil 
 ment of his mission. His manners were primi 
 tive and simple ; his fare and his dress humble, 
 and even ascetic. What was his precise educa 
 tion, we are not informed. Some have supposed 
 that he must have received his peculiar views 
 and habits from the Essenes. Pie has, we admit, 
 somewhat the appearance and manners of those 
 simple-hearted ascetics; he possesses their purity 
 and love of solitude, their energy and dignity of 
 character. And as God works by means in pre 
 paring the agents and instrumentalities of his 
 will, it is not absolutely impossible that John may 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 257 
 
 have associated somewhat with those primitive 
 hermits, and acquired some of their views and 
 feelings. But this is a mere conjecture at best, 
 and, upon the whole, is not sustained by any facts 
 in the case. For, in the first place, John might 
 have possessed all his simplicity, self-denial, and 
 energy, without ever having seen an Essene, or 
 belonged to any of their fraternities. He could 
 not have been educated among them without a 
 regular novitiate, and, consequently, must have 
 renounced the peculiar views of his father, and 
 many of the usages of his immediate family and 
 connections. But of this we have not the slight 
 est hint. His food, "locusts and wild honey," 
 upon which he chiefly subsisted in the wilder 
 ness, was the common fare of many poor peo 
 ple in that part of the land, and would not seem 
 at all unnatural to them. Indeed, his life might 
 have been simply that of a Nazarene, a thing by 
 no means uncommon among all the Jewish sects. 
 The quiet and solitary scenes in which he spent 
 his youth, the simplicity, purity, and devotion of 
 many of the " hill people," especially of some 
 of the old sacerdotal families, would naturally 
 foster his contemplative and even ascetic turn. 
 His parents were pious and simple hearted, 
 " walking in all the ordinances and command 
 ments of God blameless." He was the promised-, 
 and, consequently, the cherished child, and thence 
 
 99 * 
 
258 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 their most precious offering to God. Like 
 Samson, or like Samuel of old, he was brought 
 up as a consecrated son, as a sacred Nazarene, 
 who one day was to perform a great work for 
 God and his church. We can easily understand 
 how his mind would dwell upon the usages of 
 the olden time, the simplicity and energy of the 
 ancient Jewish faith, the noble examples of hero 
 ism and self-denial among the prophets, recorded 
 in the sacred books, and how, consequently, he 
 would be fired with a noble enthusiasm to emu 
 late their example and fulfil his mission. His 
 entire training, so far as his parents were con 
 cerned, would be directed to this single end. 
 They knew that the herald of Christ was to 
 come in the spirit of Elijah ; and as that illustri 
 ous prophet spent much of his time in solitude, 
 and evinced a noble spirit of heroism and self- 
 denial, being very " zealous for the Lord God," 
 so would they encourage in their son similar 
 habits and modes of life. Then, who can tell 
 how early he felt the inspiration of God, moving 
 him to undertake the high mission to which he 
 was destined ; or how natural and easy he found 
 it, even without instruction, to emulate the purity 
 of the ancient seers ? 
 
 We have the highest proof of the correctness 
 of this view, in the prediction of the angel, upon 
 which, doubtless, his parents would act in his 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 259 
 
 education. His course is described by the celes 
 tial messenger as that of a Nazarene : " For he 
 shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall 
 drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall 
 be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his 
 mother s womb." Nay, further, his entire mode 
 of life, as the " forerunner of the Messiah," is 
 detailed a circumstance, which, known to his 
 parents, and in due time to himself, must have 
 shaped his entire character and habits. " And 
 many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the 
 Lord their God. And he shall go before him, 
 [the Messiah,] in the spirit and power of Elias, 
 to turn the hearts of the fathers unto the chil 
 dren, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the 
 just ; to make ready a people prepared for the 
 Lord." * 
 
 The same great truth is proclaimed by the 
 father, in the peculiar style of Hebrew devotion 
 and thanksgiving, at the birth of his son \ " And 
 thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the 
 Highest ; for thou shalt go before the face of the 
 Lord, to prepare his way ; to give knowledge 
 of salvation to his people, by the remission of 
 their sins, through the tender mercy of our God ; 
 whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited 
 us, to give light to them that sit in darkness 
 
 * Luke i. 15-17. 
 
260 CHKIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet 
 unto the way of peace." * 
 
 Thus it will be seen that it was absolutely 
 necessary for John to appear in the rude garb, 
 and with the severe manners, of the ancient 
 prophets, in order to be recognized by the peo 
 ple as the herald of the Messiah. So, also, it 
 was necessary for him to dwell much in the wil 
 derness, as Elijah did, for the sake of fortifying 
 his spirit, and preparing for his ministry. 
 
 As he advanced in years, he grew " strong in 
 spirit," acquiring clearer and profounder views 
 of his mission, and animated by a constantly 
 increasing zeal for its accomplishment. 
 
 The precise time of the commencement of his 
 ministry is uncertain.! The word of God came 
 to him in the desert, and instantly he traversed 
 the mountains and valleys of Judea, announcing 
 the baptism of repentance, and the remission of 
 sins. He took up his position especially at 
 Bethabara, one of the passages of the Jordan, 
 where he baptized those who became his disci 
 ples, and the disciples, by this means, of the com 
 ing Redeemer. To the questions which the 
 
 * Luke i. 76-79. 
 
 f It was in " the fifteenth year of Tiberius, Pontius Pilate heing 
 governor of Judea," &c., as we are informed by Luke, but in what 
 season of the year is a matter of conjecture. It is supposed, however, 
 to have been in the spring of the year. John was then thirty years 
 of age, six months older than Christ. 
 
JOHN Till-; BAPTIST. 261 
 
 people addressed him respecting their future 
 course, he replied in the most practical manner, 
 advising each class to attend to their respective 
 duties, to amend their lives, and in humble peni 
 tence, to anticipate the speedy ad vent of the Holy 
 One.* His preaching and mode of procedure, 
 are not those of a fanatic, but of a noble, self- 
 denying reformer. He cheers the contrite, di 
 rects the wayward, humbles the proud, and 
 exhorts all to reform their hearts and their lives. 
 To the Pharisees and Sadducees, whose haughty 
 spirit and whose sham religion he despised, he 
 addresses the severest rebukes : " O generation 
 of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the 
 wrath to come ? Bring forth fruits meet for re 
 pentance ; and think not to say within your 
 selves, We have Abraham for our father ; for I 
 say unto you, that God is able of these stones 
 to raise up children to Abraham." Thus John 
 announced the need of personal reform, and of 
 a new spiritual kingdom among men. His 
 views are elevated and comprehensive. Unlike 
 the Pharisees and Sadducees, he does not rely 
 upon outward forms and mere beliefs, and un 
 like the Essenes, he does not confine his teach 
 ing to a class, or attempt to form secret fra 
 ternities, but to reform the people, to benefit the 
 race. 
 
 * Luke iii. 11-15. 
 
262 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Lustration by bathing in water was long prac 
 tised before the time of John, by the Jews, and, 
 indeed, by all the ancient nations. The perform 
 ance, then, of the baptismal rite, as symbolic of 
 a new spiritual change, or a new and divine faith, 
 would naturally strike the Jews as an assumption 
 of high ecclesiastical authority. This especially 
 affected all ranks of the nation, and attracted 
 the attention of the Jewish council, who sent a 
 deputation to inquire into his claims. He dis 
 tinctly acknowledged that he was not the Mes 
 siah, nor Elijah, (in the sense they understood 
 it,) nor that old prophet, whoever he might be, 
 who, according to Jewish tradition, was to pre 
 cede thfe coming of the Messiah, and perform 
 certain wonderful actions in the temple and else 
 where. " No," said he ; " I am the voice of one 
 crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of 
 the Lord, as saith the prophet Esaias ; " thus dis 
 claiming all personal supremacy or independent 
 authority, especially disclaiming all design of 
 founding a peculiar sect, or setting up a new 
 system, yet clearly intimating that he was the 
 herald of the Lord, whose " baptism of fire and 
 of the Holy Ghost," that is, a complete and divine 
 transformation both of the individual and of the 
 church, was dimly typified by his inferior bap 
 tism in the waters of the Jordan. 
 
 What a beautiful and touching proof of the 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 263 
 
 profound humility and self-abnegation of this 
 greatest of the prophets ! No, he was not the 
 Messiah ; indeed, he was not worthy, as he tells 
 us, to stoop down and unloose the sandals of 
 that divine Messenger ; he would claim nothing 
 for himself; for, in his own esteem, he was nothing 
 separate from Christ. " / am only a voice," said 
 he, " an echo in the wilderness, proclaiming the 
 coming of the kingdom." He would stand 
 back, sink out of sight, for the Son of God was 
 at hand. 
 
 While John was thus engaged preaching the 
 kingdom, and attracting crowds of followers, 
 Jesus himself appeared, and asked baptism at 
 his hand. With respect and astonishment, John 
 hesitated ; for he probably knew him as one far 
 his superior in sanctity and worth. Struck, too, 
 with his appearance of dignity, and perhaps 
 inwardly suspecting that he was the promised 
 Messiah, though not yet "officially certified of 
 the fact," as he himself informs us, John, who 
 uniformly evinced the deepest humility, declined 
 the service, saying, " I have need to be baptized 
 of thec ; and comest thou to me ? " But, yield 
 ing to. the authority of Jesus, who replied, " Suf 
 fer it to be so now ; for thus it becometh us to 
 fulfil all righteousness," perform every duty, or, 
 as George Campbell translates it, " ratify every 
 institution," he went down with him into the 
 
264 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 water, and administered the sacred rite. It had 
 previously been announced to John, that the sign 
 of the Messiah should be the descent upon him 
 of the Spirit from heaven, in some special or 
 symbolic form, at his baptism. As Jesus then 
 ascended, a luminous appearance, in the form 
 or with the undulating motion of a dove,* (in all 
 ages the symbol of purity and gentleness, and, 
 in this instance, of the Holy Spirit,) descended 
 upon the head of Jesus, and a voice was heard 
 from heaven, recognizing him as the Son of God, 
 well pleasing to the Father, and his accredited 
 Messenger to the world. It was at this point 
 that John knew, for certainty, that Jesus was the 
 promised Messiah ; and from that hour he com 
 mended him to the people as " the Lamb of 
 God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 
 " For, although the Baptist had a glimpse of 
 him," says Jeremy Taylor, " by the first irradia 
 tions of the Spirit, yet John professed that he 
 therefore came baptizing with water, that Jesus 
 might be manifested to Israel ; and it was also a 
 sign given to the Baptist himself, that on whom 
 soever he saw the Spirit descending and remain 
 ing, he is the person that baptizeth with the 
 Holy Ghost. And God chose to actuate the 
 sign at the waters of Jordan, in great and reli 
 gious assemblies, convened there at John s bap- 
 
 * fLml TTintaTtpai, Matt. iii. 16. Ev ffco^arncw t"<5n, Luke Hi. 22. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 265 
 
 tism ; and, therefore, Jesus came to be baptized, 
 and, by this baptism, became known to John, 
 who, as before he gave to him an indiscriminate 
 testimony, so now he pointed out the person in 
 his sermons and discourses, and by calling him 
 the Lamb of God, prophesied of his passion, 
 and preached him to be the world s Redeemer 
 and the sacrifice for mankind." * 
 
 After his baptism, Jesus, it would seem, min 
 gled with the crowd, or retired from the scene. 
 John, doubtless, in private, announced to his 
 own immediate disciples the appearance of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto 
 him, and saith, " Behold the Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sin of the world. This 
 is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man 
 which is preferred before ine," &c. " This is the 
 Son of God." Again : on the day following, 
 John stood and two of his disciples ; and look 
 ing upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, " Behold 
 the Lamb of God ! " Thus John introduced the 
 Messiah to his disciples, in consequence of which, 
 several of them, immediately, or soon after, de 
 voted themselves, doubtless in accordance with 
 John s wishes, to the service of Christ. They 
 were prepared to follow him, as the Son of God, 
 the Redeemer of Israel. Among these were 
 
 * Works, vol. ii. p. 184, English edition. 
 
 23 
 
266 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Andrew, Simon, Philip and Nathan ael, the latter 
 of whom, receiving a convincing proof of the 
 amazing knowledge of Jesus, exclaimed, " Rabbi, 
 thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of 
 Israel." 
 
 The testimonies cited from John the Baptist 
 are important, as indicating his views of the char 
 acter and mission of Christ. They prove that 
 he regarded him as a spiritual and divine Re 
 deemer, " the Son of God " by preeminence, 
 "a name above every name," as St. Paul affirms ; 
 and not only so, but that he regarded his mes 
 sage as one not formal and local, or simply Jew 
 ish, but moral and universal. He designates 
 him the Lamb of God, reminding us of the 
 paschal lamb, the means of redemption to Israel 
 in that terrible night when the angel of destruc 
 tion passed ovr their houses, on which the blood 
 of the paschal lamb had been sprinkled, and in 
 all subsequent time offered in sacrifice, on the 
 day of the great annual passover, thus indicat 
 ing the character of Christ as a spiritual Deliv 
 erer, " our paschal Lamb" as he is styled by the 
 apostle of the Gentiles, " the Lamb of God, who 
 taketh away the sin " not the political degra 
 dation and bondage, but the sin of Israel, and 
 not of Israel only, but " of the world" How 
 lofty, spiritual, and comprehensive are these 
 views of John the Baptist! how much in 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 267 
 
 harmony with those of the ancient prophets, 
 of Christ himself, and of the whole Christian 
 church ! 
 
 John continued to preach these great doctrines 
 to the people, and in various places, in JBnon, 
 near to Salem, for example, by baptism, to pre 
 pare disciples for the Master. When a discus 
 sion arose between some of John s disciples 
 and those of Jesus, about purifying, (perhaps 
 the effect ascribed to baptism,) the Baptist de 
 clared his inferiority to the great Messiah, and 
 his consequent unwillingness to form a school or 
 sect separate from his. He avowed his mission 
 to be subordinate and preparatory. " He must 
 increase, but I must decrease." 
 
 Subsequently we find John cast into prison, 
 for his stern fidelity to duty, in reproving Herod 
 Antipas (who greatly respected him as a proph 
 et) for having Herodias, his brother s wife, a 
 fact referred to by Josephus. Here lingering in 
 confinement, his disciples, come to him, and ask 
 him about the Messiah, concerning whom they 
 began, under the circumstances, to cherish 
 some doubt. It is not, indeed, impossible, 
 though it would seem highly improbable, that 
 John, depressed in mind, might himself have 
 yielded to doubt. But the circumstances seem 
 to forbid such a supposition. And hence we 
 conclude that the difficulty lay in the minds 
 
268 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of his disciples, for whose satisfaction he sent 
 them to Jesus, with the question, " Art thou he 
 that should come, or do we look for another ? " 
 At the moment they arrived, Jesus was perform 
 ing some of his wonderful works. Instead of 
 answering them directly, he said, " Go and show 
 John again those things which ye do hear 
 and see : the blind receive their sight, and the 
 lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf 
 hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have 
 the gospel preached unto them."* Then follows 
 our Savior s beautiful testimony to John : "What 
 went ye out into the wilderness for to see ? A 
 reed shaken with the wind? But what went 
 ye out for to see ? A man clothed in soft rai 
 ment ? Behold, they that wear soft raiment 
 are in kings palaces ? But what went ye out 
 for to see ? A prophet ? Yea, I say unto you, 
 and more than a prophet. For of those that are 
 born of women, there hath not risen a greater 
 than John the Baptist." " Nevertheless," he add 
 ed, referring probably to the case of a disciple made 
 perfect in the kingdom of God, glorified in body 
 and in spirit, " he that is least in the kingdom 
 of God is greater than he " thus resolving 
 all greatness into purity and love.f There could 
 
 * Matt. xi. 3-G. 
 
 f Perhaps, however, the reference here is to a disciple in the 
 kingdom or church of God, fully established on earth, subsequent 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 269 
 
 be no diversity of opinion and purpose, then, 
 between Christ and John ; both fully under 
 stood that the deeper radiance of the kingdom 
 of heaven swallows up and absorbs all lesser 
 lights. The one as the Sun of Righteousness, 
 the other as the star which heralds his coming, 
 advance, joyously, into the unobstructed efful 
 gence of the eternal kingdom. 
 
 At length, John disappears from the scene. 
 He was beheaded at the instance of Herodias, 
 and thus entered glory, by a quick, though 
 bloody passage. His work was done ; Jesus 
 alone must appear on the scene, and occupy the 
 entire field of vison.* 
 
 to the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and so possess 
 ing higher views and enjoying greater privileges than John. Though 
 elevated, we are not to suppose the views of John to be as perfect, 
 or as clearly defined, as those of the early Christians, who lived after 
 the permanent establishment of the church. See Olshausen in loco. 
 * Some of John s disciples did not carry out the spirit of their 
 master, but forming a peculiar sect, lapsed into narrow Jewish 
 prejudices, and carnal usages. Hence the Ebiontes. 
 
 23* 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE MYTHIC THEORY. 
 
 WE have dwelt the longer, in the preceding 
 chapters, on the preparation of Christ for his 
 public ministry, as well as on the character and 
 mission of John the Baptist, because they sup 
 ply the materials for a refutation of one of the 
 most plausible and ingeniously supported theo 
 ries of modern scepticism to account, on natural 
 grounds, for the life and character of Jesus, as 
 the acknowledged Messiah. We refer to the 
 hypothesis of Strauss, developed in his Life of 
 Jesus, and adopted in its fundamental features 
 by the great body of sceptics in Europe and in 
 this country, among whom we may name Theo 
 dore Parker, who has reproduced it for the benefit 
 of American readers. We have already alluded 
 to this theory, but we wish to take some further 
 notice of it, as it is confessedly the boldest yet 
 proposed, to account for a life, which Rousseau 
 himself was compelled to consider a miracle. 
 
 It is based, we may premise, upon a funda 
 mental denial of the possibility of miracles a 
 prodigious assumption, as most persons will 
 
 270) 
 
TFi:- MYTttIC THEORY. 271 
 
 regard it, yet a perfectly natural one to Strauss, 
 who, philosophically, is a pupil of the pantheis 
 tic school, and, therefore, positively denies the 
 existence of a personal God. Nature and God, 
 in his theory, are confounded. He knows no 
 God but " the Absolute Essence, which comes 
 to consciousness in man." Nature, or the exter 
 nal universe, is but the necessary and eternal 
 manifestation of the divine. All, indeed, is 
 divine, as man is divine, and in its essence 
 changeless and eternal. What we call change, 
 or the relation of cause and effect, according to 
 this theory, is but the ebb and flow of the uncre 
 ated being, who reveals himself in nature and in 
 man. Under such a system, the idea of new 
 beginnings or creations, whether in the natural 
 or the spiritual worlds, of special interventions 
 and revelations, as ordinarily understood, and, 
 above all, of miracles and incarnations, is inad 
 missible. Such divine interpositions, beyond the 
 sphere of natural or ordinary causes, Strauss 
 pronounces impossible.* 
 
 Keeping this in mind, we present the follow 
 ing, as a fair statement of the substance of his 
 theory : 
 
 * It is on this ground that Neander designates the controversy 
 commenced by Strauss as " a struggle between Christian Theism 
 and a system of world and self deification. Preface to his Leben 
 Jesu. 
 
272 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 " All that is miraculous in the life of Christ, 
 as given in the gospel, and recognized by the 
 church, is mythical ; that is, it is the natural ex 
 aggeration of a credulous and superstitious age, 
 anxious to exalt its heroes into divinities. There 
 was such a man, such a teacher and reformer, as 
 Jesus, the principal natural events of whose life 
 are probably real historical facts ; but all else, 
 all especially that is supernatural, his birth from 
 a pure virgin, the song of the angels, the star in 
 the East, the miracles, the resurrection, the ascen 
 sion, &c., are legendary or fictitious. He was 
 a native of Nazareth, the son of Joseph and 
 Mary. Some exhibition of uncommon intelli 
 gence may have given rise to the story of his 
 sojourn in the temple, when twelve years old, 
 though this is doubtful. He probably had some 
 instructions from the Essenes or from the Jewish 
 Rabbins, and intelligent persons whom he met at 
 the feasts at Jerusalem. At about thirty years of 
 age, he became a follower of John the Baptist, 
 who appears to have belonged to the sect of the 
 Essenes, and to have proclaimed the popular 
 idea, very natural among an oppressed people, 
 that the great national deliverer was at hand. 
 Jesus probably remained a follower of John the 
 Baptist much longer than the partiality of tra 
 dition would allow us to believe. At length he 
 
 o 
 
 began to preach, at first the same doctrine with 
 
THE MYTHIC THEORY. 273 
 
 John the Baptist, that the Messiah was about to 
 appear. Gradually becoming conscious of his 
 extraordinary power, the idea occurred to him 
 that he was destined to fill that office. His con 
 ception of the Messiahship, at first probably 
 similar to that entertained by the Jewish people, 
 rose with his increasing experience, until, apply 
 ing to himself the prophecies of the Old Testa 
 ment, which speak of the Messiah as suffering, 
 he was convinced that a violent death, which 
 the malice of his enemies rendered probable, 
 was a part of his mission. Having exercised 
 the mission of a teacher and reformer of morals, 
 he was at length put to death. He did not rise 
 again, but the excited imagination of his follow 
 ers presented his form in visions ; a report spread 
 of his resurrection, which was believed among 
 his followers, and contributed chiefly to the suc 
 cess of his religion." 
 
 On this ground, Strauss and his followers 
 ascribe no fraudulent designs either to Christ or 
 his disciples. The whole conception of his 
 Messianic character is attributed to the force of 
 imagination. The myth, based upon a few frag 
 mentary natural facts, grew, so to speak, by ac 
 cretion, so that the church did not receive, but 
 gave itself a divine Messiah. The followers of 
 Christ, then, are in no sense impostors, but simply 
 enthusiasts, who, finding certain things predicted 
 
274 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of the Messiah in the ancient prophets, imagined 
 that they must have happened, as matters of 
 fact, in connection with the life of Jesus. 
 
 It hence follows, that the Christian records 
 were the gradually accumulated result of tra 
 ditions, hearsays, and imaginings ; and thence, 
 that they contain a few grains of truth amid a 
 vast accumulation of legendary fiction. 
 
 This theory, apparently ingenious as an hy 
 pothesis, and supported by minute and laborious 
 learning, is contradicted by the facts in the case. 
 At the best, it is a mere hypothesis. Its basis 
 is gratuitous. Its main positions are simple 
 historical guesses. Nay, its truth would seem 
 to be impossible in the nature of things. On 
 such a supposition the gospel is a production 
 without a producer, an effect without a cause. 
 
 It is inconceivable, for example, either that the 
 apostles, or Christ himself, with his vast intellect 
 and serene affections, could have thus imposed 
 upon themselves. His relations to John the 
 Baptist, with the teachings and aims of both, 
 are inconsistent with the supposition. 
 
 How, moreover, could the apostles, with their 
 peculiar views and prejudices, spontaneously form 
 and develop the idea of Christ s peculiar char 
 acter and life, so far transcending any thing which 
 had ever dawned upon their minds so far, in 
 deed, transcending the whole spirit of the Jewish 
 
THE MYTHIC THEORY. 275 
 
 people? But, even supposing that they could 
 have originated and sustained the idea, it is 
 incredible that they should have persuaded 
 themselves that it was actually realized in Jesus 
 of Nazareth. Were such the case, we must 
 conclude not only that their intellects, but that 
 their senses, were deceived. The events to which 
 they testify, in the most natural and deliberate 
 way, are of the most striking and stupendous 
 character. They happened, also, according to 
 their own accounts, beyond their expectations, 
 and often in opposition to their washes. How 
 is it credible, then, that they could have been 
 deceived as to their occurrence ? Would it be 
 likely, for example, that sane men would imagine 
 that they had witnessed the great events of the 
 American revolution the declaration of indepen 
 dence the battles of Lexington and Bunker s 
 Hill the crossing of the Delaware the surren 
 der of Burgoyne the inauguration of the first 
 president if they had never witnessed them, 
 above all, if these events had never occurred ? 
 Even supposing them superstitious and credulous 
 nay, more, looking for an American Messiah 
 could they be made to believe that they had found 
 such in the illustrious Washington ? that they had 
 seen him perform the most stupendous miracles ? 
 that, after his death, he had risen from the grave, 
 and held many conversations with them ? and, 
 
276 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 finally, at the end of forty days, had ascended, 
 in their sight, to heaven ? Above all, could any 
 man with the calm intellect, sound heart, and 
 generous nature of Washington, even if a" reli 
 gious enthusiast, be made to imagine himself the 
 Son of God a special divine messenger, who, 
 possessing supernatural powers, and performing 
 divine miracles, was first to die and then to 
 rise again from the dead and thus become 
 the founder of a new religion? After having 
 predicted his own death by violence, and his 
 resurrection on the third day, is it likely that 
 such a death, and, above all, such an imaginary 
 resurrection, should become the basis of a great 
 religious system, the most beautiful and compre 
 hensive the world has ever seen ? 
 
 After his death, " a report," says Strauss, 
 " spread of his resurrection." Is Christianity 
 founded upon a report ? To say nothing of our 
 Savior here, how could his apostles, who ever 
 bore a decisive and uniform testimony to his 
 miracles, especially the miracle of the resurrec 
 tion, as the foundation of their faith, and that, 
 too, immediately after the supposed occurrence 
 of the events, have done so, if such events had 
 never happened? By what strange device could 
 they make themselves believe that these great 
 and startling phenomena actually happened 
 under their eyes? They testify not to opinions 
 
THE MYTHIC THEORY. 277 
 
 or notions, but to facts facts never contradicted 
 by their enemies facts for which they were 
 willing to lay down their lives. 
 
 Moreover, if the Gospels were a mere collection 
 of traditions, hearsays, and notions, growing 
 spontaneously from the spirit of the age, or the 
 spirit of a self-constituted sect, based upon some 
 natural facts, as Strauss supposes, they would em 
 body all the prejudices of the times, and give us 
 a Messiah corresponding to the crude and fanat 
 ical views prevalent in such an age, and among 
 such a sect. The character of a Messiah, so 
 conceived, could not be coherent or symmetrical, 
 but one-sided and fragmentary. Rude peasants 
 would not be likely, by spontaneous effort, to 
 compose a Miltonic epic, or construct the dome 
 of St. Peter s. One would say, such a thing is 
 impossible. How then could an ignorant sect 
 of Jewish enthusiasts, long after the times of the 
 actual Jesus, for that is the real supposition of 
 Strauss, construct, out of the simple traditionary 
 relics of his career, the grand and beautiful edifice 
 of his Messianic character and life ? 
 
 The Gospels, we may say, are the basis of 
 Christendom. They are the fruitful germs of all 
 that is elevated and comprehensive in the morals 
 and civilization of our modern world. They have 
 accomplished the greatest, the most beneficial 
 revolution in the history of man. They reveal 
 24 
 
278 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the spiritual and paternal character of God, and 
 the true and equal brotherhood of man. Simple 
 they are, but of wondrous power and beauty. 
 Their teachings not only transcend the age in 
 which they appeared, but all ages they yet 
 transcend ours. They are far in advance of our 
 meagre policies and imperfect virtue. Their light, 
 even now, streams far into the future, revealing 
 a brighter and holier age to come, in which love 
 to God and love to man shall be the reigning 
 impulse. 
 
 In these wonderful compositions, the life of a 
 perfect being, at once human and divine, is car 
 ried successfully, and with singular dramatic 
 power, through the most exciting and tragic 
 scenes, to its sublime and triumphant close. The 
 genius of ^Eschylus or of Shakspeare is brought 
 out, especially in death scenes ; but what death 
 scene, real or fictitious, will compare with that 
 of Christ ? What great historian or tragic poet, 
 in his loftiest flights, has reached an elevation 
 making the slightest approach to this? Ah, 
 well might Rousseau say, " If Socrates died like 
 a philosopher, Jesus died like a God!" 
 
 It is incredible that the writers, some of them 
 eye witnesses of the events which they narrate, 
 with their natural and minute statements of facts, 
 written each from his own peculiar stand-point, 
 and without reference to tho others, should have 
 
THE MYTHIC THEORY. 279 
 
 cheated themselves by the mere force of imagi 
 nation. They state only what two of them at 
 least heard, and saw, and felt, and the others 
 knew to be true, from the testimony of compe 
 tent witnesses, as they themselves, over and over 
 again, affirm. 
 
 Take, for example, the Gospel according to 
 John, which Strauss, Bauer, and others have 
 made such fruitless efforts to set aside. Its gen 
 uineness has been triumphantly vindicated.* In 
 deed, we are justified in saying that it is as 
 certainly the composition of John as the Life 
 of Agricola is that of Tacitus. Well, then, could 
 John, with his pure character and clear intellect, 
 persuade himself, by the mere force of imagina 
 tion, that he had witnessed miracles which he 
 had never witnessed; especially could he per 
 suade himself that he had seen the empty sepul 
 chre of Christ, then Christ himself, subsequent 
 to his resurrection ; that he had conversed with 
 him in open day, had walked with him towards 
 Bethany, and seen him ascend into heaven, if 
 these things had never happened ? Would it be 
 possible for him to invent, not fraudulently, but 
 
 * See Tholuck on John, Olshausen on the Genuineness of the 
 Gospels, as also Norton on the Genuineness of the Gospels, partic 
 ularly the first volume of that able and elaborate work ; sec also 
 Bunscn s Hijqwhjtus, in which the theory of the Tabingen school 
 vs refuted, vol. i. pp. 40, 41, 87, 88, and vol. iv. pp. 105, 106. 
 
280 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 through the mere force of fancy, the entire Mes 
 sianic character, and ascribe it to one with whom 
 he had associated during the whole of his public 
 ministry, and must have known to be a mere 
 natural man like himself? Credat Judceus* 
 
 Again : a myth and mythic writings, such as 
 are supposed by Strauss, take a long time for 
 their formation. Religions do not originate in 
 myths. These are the growth of a subsequent 
 age. Even supposing it possible, a century or 
 two, at least, would be needed for the natural 
 growth of such a system as Christianity, and 
 the production of such writings as the Gospels 
 and Epistles. But Strauss himself does not 
 take the ground that they originated beyond the 
 latter part of the first century, or during the first 
 forty or fifty years after the death of Christ. 
 For which reason, we once more affirm that their 
 production, within that time, as myths or legends, 
 cannot be conceived; for the actors in the 
 scenes referred to, as well as their contempora 
 ries, many of them interested and bitter enemies, 
 were alive to prevent it. 
 
 Further : the testimony in favor of Christianity, 
 as a supernatural, yet historical manifestation, is 
 all on one side; there is actually no counter 
 
 * The same reasoning will apply, of course, to Matthew, and in 
 deed to all the primitive Christian witnesses. 
 
THE MYTHIC THEORY. 281 
 
 testimony. If such had existed, it would have 
 been produced. The next age at least would 
 have produced it. Celsus, Julian, Porphyry, the 
 Jewish and heathen adversaries of Christianity, 
 would have urged it. But all are silent. Hence 
 Strauss has drawn upon his imagination, rather 
 than his learning, in denying the genuineness of 
 the Gospels, and ascribing a mythic character to 
 Christianity. The legend, if any, is in his own 
 brain, the myth is woven from the tissues of his 
 own fancy. 
 
 So much is this the case, that among the truly 
 learned in his own country, Germany, the mythic 
 theory is regarded as an exploded error. 
 
 The fact is, in the life of Christ, as the merest 
 tyro must see, the supernatural or divine is so 
 blended with the natural or human, that they 
 cannot be separated, without destroying both. 
 Nay, the supernatural or divine greatly predomi 
 nates ; it is not simply the coloring, but the sub 
 stance of the whole. So that if you strike out 
 that, you leave nothing. The suri has vanished 
 from the heavens. Strauss, indeed, pretends to 
 leave a wonderful teacher and reformer, perhaps 
 a great philosopher, but only in his own imagi 
 nation ; for all the wonderful in his history has 
 vanished, and the teacher, whoever or whatever 
 he may be, is not the Messiah is not, in fact, 
 the historical character, acknowledged as the 
 24* 
 
282 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 founder of Christianity. When the foundation 
 fails, the superstructure must fall. 
 
 It is the supernatural which forms the origin 
 and basis of the Christian church. Without this, 
 its existence as an historical fact would be an ef 
 fect without a cause. But the Messiah, so tran- 
 scendant and wonderful, even as a conception, 
 a conception, for which, says an eminent Ger 
 man writer, one might consent to be branded and 
 broken on the wheel, is not the product of the 
 church ; the church is the product of the Mes 
 siah. To say that the church has given itself a 
 Savior, as Strauss maintains, is to invert the 
 pyramid, is to make the river run backwards. It 
 would be a greater miracle than the one sup 
 posed ; nay, rather, it would be an absolute 
 monstrosity. We can easily understand how 
 light illumines darkness, but how darkness gen 
 erates light is beyond our comprehension. The 
 primitive church of the New Testament, with 
 its lofty conceptions of God and immortality, its 
 simple institutions, its pure morals, and, above 
 all, its divine life, so superior to all Jewish, to 
 all Greek and Roman ideas, can be traced only 
 to Christ, and through Christ to God. The 
 fountain generates the stream, not the stream 
 the fountain. 
 
 Every religion fully represents its founder. 
 His image is mirrored there. It is thus with 
 
THE MYTHIC THEORY. 283 
 
 Islamisra. Mohammed is its inspiring genius. 
 You see nothing more, nothing less than Mo 
 hammed. It rises^no higher, falls no lower than 
 the prophet. It is human as he is human. His 
 knowledge, his genius, his enthusiasm, his mor 
 als, his aims, such as they were, all are mirrored 
 here. Hence every one sees at a glance what 
 he was, from what it is ; and the result is an in 
 delible conviction that it is good in some re 
 spects, but still human, and not divine. So also 
 in Christianity we see Christ. His life, his death 
 and resurrection, above all, his divine or super 
 natural character, majestic and beautiful as the 
 Godhead, all are here as in a mirror. God is 
 love Christ is love, infinite and immortal. 
 We behold "in this glass the glory of the Lord." 
 And the result is, in all those capable of appreci 
 ating it, an indelible conviction that it is divine, 
 as he is divine. In fine, Christianity does not 
 project Christ as its image or reflection, but Christ 
 projects Christianity. He is its cause and ori 
 gin, its animating spirit and life. If, then, Chris 
 tianity is a reality, Christ is a reality. It is the 
 one day which flows from the one sun. 
 
 The apostles themselves, the writers of the 
 Gospels, the first Christians, the early martyrs 
 are the product of Christ. Their existence, their 
 heroic lives, their triumphant deaths are impos 
 sible without him. The Christian records are but 
 
284 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 his echo, and whether absolutely or only relatively 
 perfect, they are authentic and true. One might 
 admit even their fragmentarj^character, and yet 
 maintain their integrity. Christ is mirrored in 
 them, as the serene heavens are mirrored in the 
 sea. And what, we ask, is seen in Christ him 
 self? All the fulness, all the love and pity of 
 the Godhead. 
 
 One might as well tell us that the sun and 
 stars do not shine in the heavens, as tell us that 
 Christianity is a myth, and the Bible a legend. 
 The owl-like spirit of infidelity may flap its 
 boding wings under the sunlight, and cry, Where 
 is it ? But yonder in the far depths is the king 
 of day, and here on earth we bask joyously in 
 his beams. 
 
 The author of the mythic theory, not fully 
 satisfied with it himself, has occupied the greater 
 portion of his ponderous work in commenting 
 upon the apparent discrepancies, inconsistencies, 
 and contradictions supposed to be found in the 
 four Gospels ; but in this department of inquiry 
 he has suggested nothing new. All may be re 
 ferred, without straining, to such omissions and 
 variations as might naturally be expected in the 
 depositions of four honest, independent witnesses. 
 Such variations, as Starkie (on Evidence) has re 
 marked, though furnishing the adverse counsel 
 with a copious subject of cavil, are perfectly 
 
TIIE MYTHIC THEORY. 285 
 
 consistent with substantial harmony. Nay, they 
 become a collateral proof of integrity ; for they 
 are precisely such as must necessarily be found 
 in the concurrent testimonies of frank and com 
 petent witnesses. Unity with variety is their 
 most distinguishing feature. Even allowing, for 
 the sake of argument, the occurrence here of oc 
 casional slight mistakes, in reference to matters 
 of time, plan, succession of events, and other 
 details, the fundamental integrity of these writ 
 ings is not thereby impeached.* They still re 
 main on the same platform of substantial au 
 thenticity with all other historical documents. 
 Those, indeed, who claim their plenary inspira 
 tion, will not, of course, admit the possibility of 
 such mistakes ; but this is a point which we are 
 not discussing now ; nor does it really enter into 
 the question either of genuineness or authen 
 ticity. All we need now to assert is the funda 
 mental historical verity of the Gospel narratives, 
 so consistent and harmonious, and yet so natural 
 and free. They are such, at least, as to satisfy 
 the keen, exhaustive criticism both of a Neander 
 and a Niebuhr.f So that we feel ourselves fully 
 
 * For a specific refutation of Strauss s objections, sometimes on 
 his own grounds, see Neander s Life of Christ. 
 
 T The critical and sceptical tendencies of Niehuhr, as well as his 
 boundless historical learning, are well known. He stands at the 
 head of all critical historical investigators, as Neander stands at the 
 head of all ecclesiastical historians. After a thorough examination 
 
286 CIIRIST IN IIISTO11Y. 
 
 justified in saying that, if the gospel history is 
 not authentic, there is no authentic history in 
 the world. 
 
 We conclude, then, that the theory of Strauss 
 is the production of his own imagination, based 
 upon false assumptions and erroneous state 
 ments, inconsistent with historical verity, incon 
 sistent especially with the genius of Christian 
 ity, and only plausible on the hypothesis that 
 there is no God, or that man is his own God. 
 It denies the possibility of the supernatural, the 
 possibility of an historical Christianity, nay, the 
 very possibility of a personal God, that is, of an 
 
 of the Christian records, at a time when his rationalistic doubts 
 were stronger than at a subsequent period, he says, notwithstanding 
 his admission of the fragmentary and even imperfect character of 
 the Gospels, "But here, as in every historical subject, when I con 
 templated the immeasurable gulf between the narrative and the 
 facts narrated, this disturbed me no further. He whose earthly 
 life and sorrows were depicted, had for me a perfectly real existence, 
 and his whole history had the same reality, even if it were not re 
 lated with literal exactness in any single point. Hence, also, the 
 fundamental fact of miracles, which, according to my conviction, 
 must be conceded, unless we adopt the not merely incomprehensi 
 ble, but absurd hypothesis, that the Holiest was a deceiver, and his 
 disciples either dupes or liars, and that deceivers had preached a holy 
 religion, in which self-renunciation is every thing, and in which there 
 is nothing tending towards the erection of a priestly rule, nothing 
 that can be acceptable to vicious inclinations. As regards a miracle, 
 in the strictest sense, it really only requires an unprejudiced and 
 penetrating study of nature to see that those related are as far as 
 possible from absurdity, and a comparison with legends, or the pre 
 tended miracles of other religions, to perceive by what a different 
 
THE MYTHIC THEORY. 287 
 
 actual divine Intelligence, who may interest 
 himself in man, and who, in the plenitude of 
 his love, may come to us as an incarnation, and 
 reunite us to himself. 
 
 As we proceed with our inquiries, we shall 
 find constantly accumulating evidence of the 
 absurdity of the mythic theory. The more we 
 investigate the life of Christ, and the history 
 thence resulting, the more we shall be satisfied 
 of his supernatural character and mission. 
 
 It will not be necessary, however, to enter into 
 any formal details in reference to the public min 
 istry of Christ, and especially the closing scenes 
 
 spirit they are animated." Life and Letters, i. pp. 339, 340. At 
 a later period of his life, when his views were more mature, he gives 
 us the following, as reported by Neander, (Life of Jesus,) who hailed 
 them as "golden words from one of the greatest men of modern 
 times." " In my opinion," says he, "he is not a Protestant Chris 
 tian who does not receive the historical facts of Christ s earthly life 
 in their literal acceptation, with all its miracles, as equally authentic 
 with any event recorded in history, and whose belief in them is not 
 as firm and tranquil as his belief in the latter ; who has not the most 
 absolute faith in the articles of the Apostles creed, taken in their 
 grammatical sense, who does not consider every doctrine and every 
 precept of the New Testament as undoubted divine revelation, in 
 the sense of the Christians of the first century, who knew nothing 
 of a theopheustia. Moreover, a Christianity after the fashion of the 
 modern philosophers and pantheists, without a personal God, with-- 
 out an immortality, without human individuality, without historical 
 faith, is no Christianity at all to me, though it may be intellectual, 
 very ingenious philosophy. I have often said that I don t know 
 what to do with a metaphysical God, and that I will have none but 
 the God of the Bible, who is heart to heart with us." 
 
288 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of his wonderful career, as these are presumed 
 to be familiar to our readers. We shall group 
 all we have to say, in reference to the whole, 
 under two heads, namely his Teaching and 
 Miracles. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TEACHING. 
 
 IF it be atheism to exclude God from the realm 
 of matter, it is equally atheism to exclude him 
 from the realm of mind. As a supreme and 
 universal Spirit, which the Scriptures teach him 
 to be, he is "all and in all." The "Father of 
 light," he is also the " Father of spirits," from 
 whom " cometh every good and every perfect 
 gift." Man, indeed, is endowed with reason 
 and will, and thence has the power of choice, on 
 w r hich account he may morally depart from God ; 
 still he lives in God, and God lives in him as the 
 essence of his being; so that, in order to be 
 happy, man must return to God in other words, 
 recognize God as the very fountain of his spirit 
 ual life. In this sense, existence is not life ; in 
 the latter lies the element of love, and thence of 
 happiness. Existence, indeed, may become the 
 deepest curse, for it may be burdened with 
 spiritual hate, which is death. In the world of 
 mind, then, God reigns through the free choice 
 and affection of each individual spirit. Har 
 mony, interior and indestructible, is possible only 
 through faith and love. 
 
 25 (^ 
 
290 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 This is the essential teaching of Divine Reve 
 lation, as it is the essential teaching of nature, 
 could we read it aright. It is the foundation 
 principle of Christianity. In Jesus Christ this 
 great truth is incarnated. It lives and glows in 
 his wondrous career, as the Word of God, the 
 Redeemer of men. " I in them, and Thou in 
 me." In this central unity, which is God, all 
 souls must converge. " This is the true God 
 and eternal life." 
 
 Hence we find our Savior equally at home in 
 the bosom of nature and in the bosom of God 
 in the inner and in the outer world. He is 
 "the light of the world." He is "the life of 
 man." In him dwelleth "all the fulness of the 
 Godhead bodily." He possesses "all power in 
 heaven and on earth." 
 
 So that Christ is ever found standing at the 
 centre of things, whether in the sphere of matter 
 or of mind, of history or of religion, " drawing 
 all men," and not only " all men," but all angels, 
 "unto him." By him "were all things created, 
 visible and invisible" he is "before all things, 
 and by him all things consist," as Paul expressly 
 teaches. That is, all things find their centre in 
 him, come to order and harmony in him.* 
 
 * This, as stated in a former part of this work, is the import of 
 the remarkable term consist, (Greek cwicriiKtv,} literally "in him all 
 things stand together." 
 
TEACHING. 291 
 
 Men often acknowledge the supremacy of God 
 in the world of external or material forms, but 
 deny it in that of interior and spiritual forces. 
 They discern the action of his creative and reno 
 vating spirit in the seasons. Joyfully they sing, 
 
 " God, tliou art the life and light 
 
 Of all this wondrous world we see ; 
 Its glow by day, its smile by night, 
 
 Are but reflections caught from thee ; " 
 
 but they frequently close against him, both theo 
 retically and practically, the domain of the soul, 
 and deny the very possibility of a new creation, 
 or renovation there. Hence their alienation and 
 irreligion, even amid the forms and symbols of 
 worship. Hence, also, their rejection of a pro 
 found spiritual religion, of real union with God, 
 and that interior life fitly called divine. 
 
 But our Savior aims, both by precept and 
 example, to bring men to the practical acknowl 
 edgment of God s supremacy, not only in nature, 
 but in the soul; so that, spiritually, they may live 
 in God, as God lives in them. 
 
 This is the true coming of the kingdom of 
 heaven, not with outward movement, or me 
 chanical force, but by inward life and spiritual 
 control. " The kingdom of God cometh not with 
 observation ; neither do men say, Lo, here ! or Lo, 
 there ! but the kingdom of God is within you." 
 
 Christ does not despise the outward, except 
 
292 CUEIST IN HISTO11Y. 
 
 when it is forced into competition with the in 
 ward. On earth, he seems imbosomed peacefully 
 in nature, which ever does him homage. Nay, 
 more, he imbosoms himself in society. It seems 
 his natural home. Rejected and despised by his 
 apostate countrymen, he yet comes to them as a 
 brother and a friend. His death itself does not 
 remove him from the race. He abides there by 
 his spirit. Through this means he organizes a 
 church, or spiritual family, in which he may 
 dwell, bound together by love, and observant of 
 all holy precepts. Being himself the embodiment 
 of the divine, he would ever give a beautiful body 
 to a beautiful soul; so that the church is anal 
 ogous to his body, and is even called by his 
 name. Thus he has enshrined the kingdom, in 
 its essential powers, in fair forms and usages, to 
 be observed by his followers to the end of* time. 
 In this way, the reality within expresses itself by 
 the image, or utterance without. But the interior 
 power is first, as the soul is first, or as God, who 
 is a spirit, is first. The spirit must generate the 
 form, as God creates the universe, or renews the 
 face of the earth, in the form of plants and 
 flowers. 
 
 Clearly, then, the kingdom of heaven is in 
 ward, spiritual, immortal ; and in that kingdom 
 God, " the Father of us all," must be " Alpha 
 and Omega, the beginning and the end." 
 
TEACHING. 293 
 
 This is only another mode of expressing the 
 fact,*that a religion, to be good for anything, 
 must be a religion of spiritual or vital force a 
 religion of inward light and love, all-comprehend 
 ing and imperishable. 
 
 Such a religion, however, must be taught both 
 by word and deed that is, by the word within, 
 and the word without for all action is a kind of 
 word. It must embody and exemplify itself in a 
 divine and human life. God and man must be 
 seen in company; the union, secret and inde 
 structible, must be exhibited at once in speech 
 and in action. 
 
 For this reason, Christ lives as the incarnation 
 or embodiment of God. The Son reveals the 
 Father. The one is the measure and manifesta 
 tion of the other. Through the Son, the Father 
 communicates his life to the world. Thus God 
 comes, as Christ comes. His reign is acted into 
 the historic life of man into the life of each 
 Christian soul. So that now "the tabernacle 
 of God is with men." We dwell in him, he 
 dwells in us. All are one, as God and Christ 
 are one. 
 
 A religion, then, which stops short of God, 
 and a true reign of heaven in the soul, has neither 
 truth nor power. That only is real and divine 
 which first brings God to man, and then brings 
 man to God. Harmony, deep and eternal, is 
 25* 
 
294: CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 found only in the God-man, and the ineffable 
 union thence secured between the soul of a 
 believer and the Spirit of God a result accom 
 plished by a reconciling and regenerating power 
 on the part of Christ, by a penitent and confiding 
 faith on the part of the Christian. " God is in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." 
 
 How plain, then, the proposition, already 
 hinted, that Christ presents himself to us as an 
 infinite central power, from which flows a spirit 
 ual influence to redeem the lost, and thus consti 
 tute a sacred organization, which may be the 
 light and glory of the world ! 
 
 All this is expressed by Christ in a few preg 
 nant sentences, which he uttered in the form of 
 supplication, just before his death. " That they 
 all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I 
 in thee, that they also may be one in us ; that 
 the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 
 And the glory which thou gavest me I have 
 given them ; that they may be one, even as we 
 are one ; Tin them, and thou in me, that they may 
 be made perfect in one" 
 
 The same great truth has been uttered in all 
 ages by the church universal, in that prayer 
 which Christ taught his disciples, the model 
 and form of all true supplication : " Our Father 
 who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. 
 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as 
 
TEACHING. 295 
 
 it is done in heaven." This, then, is the key 
 note of our Savior s teaching. 
 
 True to this grand conception, which, as a 
 conception, is original and perfect, like the sun 
 shining by its own light, Jesus Christ went forth 
 " to teach and to preach " amid the hills and 
 valleys, and in the cities and villages of Judea. 
 He addressed himself chiefly to the common 
 people, in language of marvellous simplicity and 
 force. He spoke to them respecting God and 
 the soul, sin and holiness, life and death, duty 
 and immortality, as man had never before spoken. 
 And not only so, but he looked all he said, acted 
 all he said ; so that he himself was a living 
 Word, an embodied, eternal Discourse. 
 
 So striking and authoritative was his teaching, 
 and yet so simple and clear, that all were com 
 pelled to acknowledge its force. Attracting to 
 himself a few childlike souls, mostly fishermen, 
 who longed for the coming of the kingdom, of 
 which they cherished only dim conceptions, he 
 made known to them gradually the design of his 
 mission, and the principles of his kingdom. The 
 terms used are so familiar and translucent, and 
 yet so perfect and full, that while, from our famil 
 iarity with them, they seem the merest common 
 places, they yet contain the grandest and deep 
 est verities. But they would never have become 
 commonplaces, even to us, had they not pos- 
 
296 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 sessed, at first, the most complete originality, as 
 well as the most touching simplicity. Like the 
 unchanging stars, familiar to us from childhood, 
 they are more than they seem. Their beauty is 
 of the infinite. Back of these luminous points 
 lie undiscovered worlds. 
 
 Indeed, the language of Christ is not that of 
 the schools, far less of the rhetoricians. It is 
 scarcely language at all. So transparent is it, 
 you see the things rather than the words. In 
 fact, it is only when you see the things rather 
 than the words, that you understand him. 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God." 
 " There is joy in heaven, among the angels of 
 God, over one sinner that repenteth." " Our 
 Father." " Take no thought [care] for the mor 
 row. Consider the lilies of the field, how they 
 grow. They toil not, neither do they spin ; and 
 yet I say unto you, that Solomon, in all his 
 glory, was not arrayed like one of these." 
 " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto 
 you." " In my Father s house are many man 
 sions ; if it were not so I would have told you. 
 I go to prepare a place for you." " He that hath 
 seen me hath seen the Father." " God is a 
 spirit." " Labor not for the meat that perisheth, 
 but for that which endureth to eternal life." 
 " Two men went up unto the temple to pray, 
 the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The 
 
TEACHING. 297 
 
 Pharisee stood by himself and said, < God, I 
 thank thee that I am not as other men are, un 
 just, extortioners, or even as this publican. But 
 the publican, standing afar off, would not so 
 much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote 
 upon his breast, and cried, * God be merciful 
 to me a sinner. " How simple all this, but how 
 full, how significant ! 
 
 The teaching of Christ is that of inspiration, or, 
 as we term it, of revelation, a revelation as rich 
 and varied as nature itself; new and strange, like 
 the well-known face of earth and sky, in which all 
 forms are blended with a familiar, yet mystic beau 
 ty. In a word, it is the utterance of that eternal 
 Wisdom (Logos) from which are all things, nat 
 ural and divine. " Never man spake like this 
 man." Sometimes in the synagogues, but 
 oflener in the open air, by the wayside or by the 
 well, on the mountain or by the margin of the 
 lake, in the shadow of the temple or in the 
 depth of the wilderness, he uttered his words of 
 life. Nothing could be more natural, nothing 
 more thrilling and impressive. 
 
 The originality, completeness, and imaginative 
 beauty of his parables, in which the highest, 
 most abstract, spiritual truths are embodied in 
 familiar forms, which have all 1 ho vividness of 
 life, must have greatly struck the minds of the 
 people. Containing unknown dept hs of spiritual 
 
298 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 truth, they arc yet simple and beautiful as the 
 falling dew, or the blowing clover. God and the 
 soul, in their mysterious relations, duty and hap 
 piness, sin and misery, the infinite and immortal 
 state, regeneration and resurrection, the renova 
 tion of society, the restitution of all things, the 
 everlasting life, the everlasting death, all are in 
 carnated in these marvellous inspirations. The 
 invisible world is made as patent as the visible; 
 mysterious, indeed, as all things are mysterious, 
 stretching away into the everlasting immensities, 
 yet real, palpable, glowing. Every thing exter 
 nal and internal is set in motion ; all around us, 
 within us, and above us, trembles with life. The 
 most delicate and affecting relations, the deepest 
 feelings, the most amazing facts and changes in 
 the realm of spirit, are bodied forth in shapes of 
 grace and power. 
 
 Indeed, all outward things, in the parabolic 
 and figurative language of Christ, are made to 
 symbolize and describe invisible realities. The 
 elder dispensations, the types and shadows of 
 the Jewish worship, the temple with its mystic 
 forms and magnificent ritual, all external changes 
 and usages, earth and sky, mountains and 
 streams, plants and animals, are made to range 
 themselves, in figurative beauty, around his mar 
 vellous revelations. 
 
 But what-is most peculiar in the teaching of 
 
TEACHING. 
 
 299 
 
 Christ is, that the whole is but an image or re 
 production of himself. All that is human, all 
 that is divine, meets in him, and thence utters 
 itself in his words and deeds. Here is all the 
 past, both of history and prophecy; here all the 
 present, whether of earth or heaven, of natural or 
 supernatural ; here all the future, with its amaz 
 ing changes, its restitutions and resurrections. 
 In him dwelleth all the fulness of the universe, 
 because " all the fulness of the Godhead ; " 
 power, purity, love, beauty, blessedness, in a 
 word, all the possibilities of the human and the 
 divine. 
 
 Hence it is only as we come into fellowship 
 with Christ that we come into fellowship with 
 God and the universe, and feel that deeper love 
 which is the harmony of all worlds. " I am the 
 way, the truth, and the life." " No man cometh 
 unto the Father but by me." "The Father 
 loveth the Son, and hath given all things into 
 his hand." " I in them, and thou in me." " I 
 give my life for the world." " I give unto them 
 eternal life." " Believe in God, believe also in 
 me." " My Father will love you, and we will 
 come and make our abode with you." " I and 
 the Father are one." 
 
 Hence the force of his own most significant 
 explanation : " This is life eternal, to know thee, 
 the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou 
 
300 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 hast sent." " This," says the apostle, as if re 
 peating the Master s words, "this is the true 
 God, and eternal life." 
 
 This leads us to remark, that the life of Christ 
 is a unit, as his character is a unit, or as God is 
 a unit. Hence his doctrine is a unit, also ; for 
 it has its great central principle, like the gravita 
 tion of nature, from which all other principles 
 diverge, and to which they all return. This cen 
 tral, all-comprehending truth is, that God is ALL 
 AND IN ALL ; and being such, that " HE is RECON 
 CILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF." 
 
 It may be viewed, however, as it is taught in 
 the words of our Savior and his disciples, who 
 derived iifrom him, in its various details and ap 
 plications. 
 
 What, in this view, then, are some of the lead 
 ing principles taught by Christ ? 
 
 1. The "atlncss" of God, including his abso 
 lute spirituality, supremacy, and eternity. 
 
 2. The personality and paternity of God 
 " Our Father who art in heaven" 
 
 3. The spirituality of man, as formed in the divine 
 image; the consequent possibility of his union 
 and fellowship with God, and his immortality. 
 
 4. The atonement; that is, reconciliation or re 
 union between God and man, through Christ as a 
 mediator ; thence the doctrine of "justification by 
 faith alone," faith being the link which unites the 
 
TEACHING. 301 
 
 soul to Christ, and through Christ to God " I in 
 them, and thou in me ; " whence spring the free 
 dom, strength, and joy of the Christian state* 
 
 5. Regeneration, or the new and eternal life in 
 God " born again " " born from above " " # 
 new [spiritual] creation in Christ Jesus." 
 
 6. The brotherhood of man, or the unity of the 
 church " one Lord, one faith, one baptism." 
 
 7. Eternity, or the tendency of all things to 
 fixed and permanent states; in other words, the 
 final, absolute issue of all thing s according to 
 their nature. 
 
 8. Responsibility, individual and common, in 
 volving the possible eternal divergence of charac 
 ter and doom, being the eternal life, or the eternal 
 death. 
 
 9. The resurrection of the dead, or the com 
 pleted perfection of the body and the soul ; that 
 is, of the whole nature of the renovated man 
 the earthly, carnal, and perishable being exchanged 
 for the heavenly, the spiritual, and immortal. 
 
 10. Grace, or the Holy Spirit, a modification 
 of the doctrine of the life in God, whence 
 
 * The atonement, or reconciliation, is made by intervention and 
 sacrifice. The sacrifice, of course, is voluntary and vicarious, that is, 
 it is the suffering of the innocent for the guilty, the sinless for the 
 sinful; not, indeed, as a quid pro quo, but as a prerequisite to union. 
 On this ground the doctrine of mediation and sacrifice is funda 
 mental. And, \vhat is singular, it is recognized in all religions. See, 
 upon this subject, Appendix, note E. 
 
302 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 prayer, or the communion of the finite with the 
 Infinite, the spirit of man with the Spirit of God. 
 
 11. Charity, or the doctrine of overcoming evil 
 with good, the method of Christ and of God. 
 
 12. The permanence of the church, or the or 
 ganization of believers in Christ, as their cen 
 tral animating spirit, made visible in holy uses 
 and worship. 
 
 13. The possible renovation of the race ; on 
 the ground of which we may cherish the hope of 
 universal peace, and the brotherhood not only of 
 individuals, but of nations. This would be the 
 triumph of God in society. Then, not only in 
 reference to himself, or his absolute nature and 
 eternal purpose, but in reference to the race, and 
 the actual condition of things, God would be all 
 and in all* 
 
 The sum of the whole is, consecration of all 
 things to God, and the restitution of all things in 
 God, a new law and a new life, a new body and 
 a new soul, new heavens and a new earth ; in 
 its practical, every-day application, briefly and 
 
 * It is on the ground that society ought to be regarded as a divine 
 institution, yet to be planted on its proper basis, and to subserve its 
 proper end. Under God, therefore, all righteous governments are 
 to be established, and all good and wholesome laws enacted. This 
 would not be the union of church and state, as ordinarily understood ; 
 but the church and the state, in their separate spheres, guarded and 
 governed by eternal principles, and thus aiding and strengthening 
 each other. 
 
TEACHING. 303 
 
 popularly expressed by Christ himself in his ex 
 position of the law, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as 
 thyself. On these two commandments hang all 
 the law and the prophets." 
 
 But the great truths taught by original minds 
 are not at first received and appreciated by the 
 mass of mankind. They are seldom thoroughly 
 understood even by their immediate disciples. 
 Thus, while the common people heard him 
 gladly on account of his simplicity, purity, and 
 force, such was the grossness of the age, such 
 the carnality of its views, that few, perhaps none, 
 adequately understood his doctrine, or his life. 
 Its elementary principles, however, were lodged, 
 as seed, in the hearts of a few thoughtful, Heaven- 
 guided men. Checking their carnal views, cor 
 recting their prejudices, winning their affections, 
 he gradually led them forth from the darkness 
 of corrupted Judaism into the pure light of 
 eternal truth. His public or more striking acts, 
 his miracles, as we call them, (of which more in 
 the next chapter,) at first few and unimposing, 
 though most significant, were just enough to 
 attract attention to his claims, and attest the 
 divinity of his mission. They were all distin 
 guished by their godlike and benevolent charac 
 ter. Like his parables, they were the expression 
 of his nature, and had a profound spiritual im- 
 
304 CHKIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 port. The poor, the maimed, the halt, the sor 
 rowful, the blind, the dumb, the paralytic, the 
 lunatic, the lost, followed him, and " he healed 
 them all." But while healing their bodily mal 
 adies, he never failed to administer to their spir 
 itual wants, thus teaching his disciples, in all 
 ages, that religion is intended for the redemp 
 tion of humanity, in all its aspects and interests, 
 being fitted to heal both the body and the soul, 
 both the church and society. 
 
 Christ counteracted no laws of nature, which 
 are laws of God, or the modes in which God 
 acts in nature and among men ; but he gave 
 them infinite force, and threw them into new and 
 marvellous combinations, the result of which w r as 
 calm, not storm, health, not sickness, life, not 
 death. Perhaps we may say that he introduced 
 new laws, or new modes of communicating the 
 central power, which is life. Thence we find him 
 healing, quickening, controlling, and blessing both 
 the bodies and the souls of men ; in a word, bring 
 ing out, in new and glorious manifestations, the 
 indwelling might of divinity. Thus he received 
 the testimony of unprejudiced witnesses, who 
 said, " He hath done all things well." But the 
 outward, in his case, is only the symbol and ex 
 pression of the inward ; for it is the inward re 
 demption, the inward health, the spiritual and 
 everlasting life, mainly, which Christ commu 
 nicates. 
 
TEACHING. 305 
 
 In this way he went about " doing good " a 
 mode of teaching the most impressive. The 
 Platonic philosophers call the great primal and 
 eternal Essence the First Good, while his Logos, 
 or Word, is the Son, or expression of the First 
 Good. We call it God, the old Saxon word for 
 good. Christ, then, is the embodied Good, 
 which is just the same as to say, the incarnate 
 God. And what else can he teach, what else 
 can he do on earth, but good, the highest proof 
 of divinity? Thus every where he preaches, 
 both by word and deed, righteousness, charity, 
 and peace, directs the attention of his followers 
 to the paternal character of God, the universal 
 brotherhood of man, and inspires them with that 
 holy love which unites them to God and to one 
 another, in eternal bonds. 
 
 Finally, Christ crowns his teaching by dying 
 upon the cross, dying, " the just for the unjust." 
 This is the triumph of divine goodness, this the 
 enthronement of disinterested love. In this mys 
 terious act, to use the language of a great poet, 
 " the divine depth of sorrow lies hid." * " Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do! " 
 There speaks the heart of infinite grace. 
 
 This is teaching, this is acting like a God. 
 
 Surely the world can never forget the lesson 
 of the cross. 
 
 * Goethe. 
 
 26* 
 
306 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 How the thought thrills us, thrills unnumbered 
 millions, who softly but exultingly sing, 
 
 " In the cross of Christ I glory, 
 
 Towering o er the wrecks of time ; 
 All the light of sacred story 
 Gathers round its head sublime." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MIRACLES.* 
 
 THE works of such a being as we suppose 
 Christ to be, will possess a special divine charac 
 ter and import. They cannot, therefore, be con 
 sidered apart from himself, or apart from each 
 other. They belong to a supernatural system 
 for the restoration of man to the lost image of 
 God. Hence, in our humble judgment, a serious 
 error has been committed in the discussion of 
 this subject, by isolating the miracles from the 
 essence of Christianity, as itself supernatural, 
 just as if miracles did not form an integral part 
 of the gospel dispensation, whose fair and mas 
 sive proportions can be estimated only when con 
 templated as a divine whole. The majority who 
 have written upon miracles have vindicated their 
 title to our respect, as the external defence of 
 Christianity, treating them simply as redoubts and 
 outposts of the sacred citadel ; on which account 
 they have seemed to reason in a circle, proving 
 
 * This chapter, with some additions, appeared in the July number 
 of the Christian Review for 1853. 
 
 (307) 
 
308 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Christianity by the miracles, and the miracles by 
 Christianity. They have admitted, on Hume s 
 own ground, that no amount of testimony will 
 establish a lying wonder, or what may be termed 
 an immoral miracle, that is, a miracle wrought 
 in defence of error and imposture, all of them 
 taking it for granted that such miracles may be 
 performed through satanic or other equivalent 
 agency. 
 
 Hence they have been compelled to defend 
 Christianity by that which Christianity alone 
 can authenticate as divine. Having courageous 
 ly fought the battle of miracles, and, as they 
 supposed, gained the victory, they have found 
 themselves obliged to fight it all over again in 
 defending Christianity itself. Thus it has come 
 to pass, in the estimation of some of the ablest 
 speculative thinkers, that, instead of being a de 
 fence to Christianity, miracles have proved its 
 greatest hinderance. For, without the essence 
 of Christianity, as a religion of purity and power, 
 miracles, as supernatural manifestations, would 
 be utterly indefensible. Some devout men have 
 been able to retain the miracles only by means 
 of the perfect and supernatural religion with 
 which they are associated ; a striking instance 
 of which may be found in the case of the elo 
 quent Schleiermacher. 
 
 For the same reason, sceptical writers, like 
 
MiKACLES. 309 
 
 Hume, Spinoza, Comte, Emerson, Parker, and 
 others, have readily disposed of technical and 
 isolated miracles as simple prodigies, or, as they 
 choose to call them, " violations of the laws of 
 nature." Standing alone, outside of Christiani 
 ty, they have easily swept them aside by the phi 
 losophy of " nature," or of immutable law, 
 whether material or ideal. Even those of them 
 who believe in a personal God, as Parker pro 
 fesses to do, have no hesitation in denying mira 
 cles, in themselves considered ; for God, in their 
 view, cannot be supposed to violate or even 
 suspend the law of his own universe, that is, the 
 common course and constitution of things. Mir 
 acles, even if admitted as possible, on the theory 
 of these men, stand alone, and require for their 
 establishment a peculiar kind and amount of 
 proof. Hence they set themselves to weaken 
 the force of that proof, often with apparent suc 
 cess, long before the gospel, as a system, is 
 touched at all. Their assumption, too, about 
 " the violation of nature," which, in some sense, 
 may be considered impossible, is made plausible 
 on the same ground ; so that the Christian faith 
 seems demolished before a single blow has fallen 
 upon its proper fabric. 
 
 Let us pass, however, into the heart of the 
 magnificent structure of our common Christi 
 anity, founded upon the Rock of Ages, and 
 
310 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 towering high towards the illuminated heavens ; 
 and even if we admit that the miracles, as such, 
 are its outer buttresses, we shall see, at a glance, 
 that they are a part of the whole, and only add 
 to its symmetry and strength. The materials, 
 too, are precisely the same, though jthe interior 
 portions may present a more delicate architectu 
 ral finish ; for they are all the product of a celes 
 tial hand. The whole, as supernatural and divine, 
 must stand or fall together. 
 
 Is there a personal God ? Has he a distinct, 
 productive, all-controlling will ? In other words, 
 is he, the all-creative One, a Spirit, immanent, 
 it may be, in nature, and yet superior to nature ? 
 Is man, too, though finite, a distinct, productive 
 will, a rational and responsible agent, formed in 
 the image of God ? Is the outer universe, then, 
 or what we call nature, with all its forces, dy 
 namic or mechanical, under God, a mere agent 
 or instrument ; and can God control it with the 
 sovereignty of a master ? If so, then creations 
 and re-creations, vital changes and transforma 
 tions, new species and new eras, renovations, 
 redemptions, miracles, as supernatural divine, 
 manifestations, are possible, are probable. The 
 spiritual, the supernatural, the religious, are all 
 possible and real. 
 
 Here we have a foundation on which to base 
 our reasonings in reference to Christianity, which 
 
MIRACLES. 311 
 
 we claim to be, tinder God, a supernatural sys 
 tem, a new beginning or spiritual creation, 
 through the medium of the Divine Logos, or in 
 carnate Word, in which miracles play a most 
 important part, not in violation of nature, but as 
 above and beyond nature, being the more direct 
 and tangible demonstrations of the life-giving or 
 creative power. 
 
 But " to the law and the testimony ; " for in 
 this matter we must correct and control all 
 speculative reasonings by a reference to the facts 
 in the case. How stands the matter in the 
 Christian records ? This is our first inquiry. 
 It is proper, however, to remark, that our word 
 miracles (which simply signifies wonders, though, 
 in the use we now make of it, involving the idea 
 of the supernatural or divine) is somewhat in 
 definite, and scarcely covers the whole series of 
 supernatural acts or works, by which our Lord 
 not only attested, but accomplished, his mission. 
 In the New Testament, quite a variety of terms 
 are used to designate them, not simply as won 
 ders, but as special divine acts, such as might 
 naturally constitute or accompany a divine mis 
 sion. They are called " signs," as it were di 
 vine signatures or seals, "gifts," "gifts of the 
 Holy Ghost," powers," " works," " mighty 
 works," that is, special divine operations, indi 
 cating the presence and sanction of the Deity. 
 
312 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 In brief, they are such " wonders " as might be 
 expected from the " Wonderful." 
 
 Though these may be represented as the signs 
 or attestations of a divine mission, they are not 
 exclusively such ; and hence, in the department 
 of Christian evidences, too much stress has 
 been laid upon their merely physical or external 
 aspects. They have been used as the main, and 
 sometimes as the exclusive, proof of divine reve 
 lation. "Whereas the character of Christ, who 
 in reference to the miracles is the sun amid the 
 stars, is the principal evidence. His very pres 
 ence among men, like a new sun in the heavens, 
 is sufficient proof of his divinity. The miracles 
 can only be a collateral evidence, and in many 
 cases, perhaps, chiefly useful to those who be 
 held them. They are parts of a great system, 
 whose divine grandeur and perfection must be 
 obvious to every well-constituted mind. 
 
 At any rate, they ought never to be regarded 
 as insulated facts, but rather as the natural ex 
 pression and accompaniment of a divine mission. 
 That admitted as a possibility, the miracles fol 
 low as a matter of course. 
 
 For what is it we naturally expect in such a 
 manifestation of God ? The godlike, of course ; 
 and if the godlike, the wonderful nay, far 
 more than the wonderful, the omnipotent, the all- 
 beautiful and good. 
 
MIRACLES. 313 
 
 Such miracles, though transcending nature, 
 would not be contrary to nature ; for nature, as 
 we use the term, is only God s method of acting 
 in the sphere and time with which we happen to 
 be familiar. In its philosophical sense, it is but 
 the aggregate of those natural forces or laws by 
 which the infinite Spirit acts in the visible uni 
 verse. Nature then is only a part. God is the 
 whole. While "in all," he is yet "above all." 
 Certainly his powers are not exhausted in na 
 ture ; over and above all its methods and all its 
 forces, he may possess infinite methods, bound 
 less resources. 
 
 Some inconsiderate theologians, and almost 
 all sceptics, as we have intimated, have repre 
 sented the Christian miracles as " a violation of 
 the laws of nature," whereas they are only " over 
 and above nature." It is only in the sense of 
 being divine, that we deem them transcendent 
 and wonderful. 
 
 If any thing is contrary to nature, it is sin. 
 That violates the divine law, that opposes the 
 course and constitution of nature, introducing 
 among men disorder and death. So terrible is 
 its influence, that it has become a power in the 
 world, having the force of a law, to which we 
 sometimes give the name of nature, because, 
 from the force of habit, it has become a " second 
 nature;" after all, it is most unnatural and ac- 
 27 
 
814: CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 cursed. It opposes God and goodness, darkens 
 and desolates the soul of man. 
 
 Sin, then, is disturbance, or anarchy, and in 
 this sense a violation of all laws, natural and 
 divine. For its removal, a counteracting force is 
 needed, a force above nature, and yet in accord 
 ance with nature, a force of renewal and regen 
 eration. It is a great and fatal mistake, how 
 ever, to confine the miraculous or divine to mere 
 physical or external manifestations. Its highest 
 sphere is the spiritual. Here its life-giving and 
 transforming energies are chiefly seen. Christ 
 himself, the truly divine, is the great miracle ; all 
 other miracles are streams from this fountain, 
 rays from this sun. 
 
 The whole subject, generalized, presents itself 
 to us in the light of the following question : 
 What may be reasonably expected in an incar 
 nation of the Deity, such as Christ claims to be ? 
 All, doubtless, which is peculiar to God, and 
 the great object to be served by his advent 
 among men. 
 
 God is the omnipotent Creator ; hence works 
 or manifestations of creative power. 
 
 God is the all-good; hence manifestations of 
 boundless love and pity. 
 
 God is the life-giver ; hence miracles of heal 
 ing, of revival and resurrection. 
 
 In a word, the whole mission of such a being 
 
MIRACLES. 315 
 
 would be a new moral or divine creation, and 
 thence a life-giving or transforming power. 
 Negatively, he would cast out the demon, the 
 incarnated, indwelling spirit of evil ; positively, 
 he would bring all heaven, with its love and 
 peace, into the soul. 
 
 In which case the inward and spiritual would 
 be symbolized and expressed by the outward and 
 physical. All nature would wait upon its God. 
 So that works of atonement, reconciliation, and 
 regeneration would naturally be associated with 
 works of physical control, of healing and resur 
 rection in the outer or material sphere. 
 
 Thus any kind of wonderful or supernatural 
 works would not be a proof of a divine mission ; 
 and many signs of a striking but mechanical 
 character would not be found in it. Such works 
 the Messiah might decline, even as proofs of his 
 divinity.* Besides, he would attach, as we 
 ought, more importance to his higher spiritual 
 works, which link themselves immediately to the 
 great end of his mission, than to any thing ex 
 ternal, however striking. He might even refuse 
 to work appropriate external miracles, when he 
 perceived that they would not subserve his great 
 
 * "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, [such 
 a sign as that referred to.] but there shall no [such] sign be 
 given it." 
 
316 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 spiritual design, or only minister to selfish appe 
 tites and carnal views.* 
 
 The main thing, then, in such a mission, would 
 be the new spiritual force or life, embodied in the 
 person of the Redeemer, and imparted to the 
 race the holy love, the eternal purity and joy 
 given by his incarnation and atonement to man 
 kind. 
 
 In fine, the mission of Christ, if divine, would 
 be a new spiritual beginning, of which the first 
 beginning, in the physical creation, supplies a 
 beautiful type or symbol. The miracles cluster 
 ing around it, illustrating or enforcing it, would 
 be only its outer garniture, or rather its natural 
 and graceful accompaniment, like the song of 
 the morning stars, which hailed the new-made 
 world. 
 
 An inquiry here suggests itself: Might false or 
 imaginary miracles mingle themselves in the mere 
 histories of such a life ? The thing is not impos 
 sible, but the proof of the fact must be given. It 
 is, indeed, quite conceivable how that, in subse 
 quent time, and as the mere human result of such 
 a mission, imaginary miracles might be sup 
 posed, and some natural events mistaken for 
 
 * Hence our Savior refused to gratify Herod in this respect. On 
 one occasion it is said, " lie did no mighty works there, because 
 of their unbelief." It would have been " casting pearls before 
 swine." 
 
MIRACLES. 317 
 
 miracles. We do not here say that such is the 
 case ; we only say that such is not impossible, 
 perhaps not improbable. But this would not 
 affect the argument in favor of the great life- 
 giving powers, the miracles of renovation and 
 resurrection, which form the substratum of Chris 
 tianity. 
 
 It is important here to remark, that all mira 
 cles, or all events claimed to be supernatural, are 
 not credible. In ordinary circumstances, they 
 might be regarded as positively incredible. For 
 then they are effects without an adequate cause. 
 On the other hand, it does not follow that all 
 miracles are incredible. Indeed, some events of 
 this sort, in themselves, may be highly credible ; 
 for they may bear the stamp of divinity on their 
 very front. So far from being effects without a 
 cause, they may be presumed to have the highest 
 cause in the universe, that is, God. The spuri 
 ous article, however abundant, by no means 
 proves that the genuine is not to be found some 
 where. Were all other religions mythical, mid 
 all other miracles false, the religion of Christ, and 
 the miracles of Christ, might be real and divine. 
 That they are real and divine is proved by the 
 facts in the case. They are altogether peculiar ; 
 they are such as might naturally be expected ; 
 they are worthy of their divine origin ; they are 
 such as must ever be found in connection with 
 27 * 
 
313 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 a. divine mission, nay, such as must ever consti 
 tute a divine mission. For we return here to 
 our fundamental position, namely, that Christ is 
 ki God manifest in the flesh," and his whole life, 
 from beginning to end, supernatural and divine. 
 It can be regarded as consisting of different 
 parts, and some of its elements, taken alone, may 
 be called natural and human ; after all, it is one 
 in its more interior characteristics, in which view 
 it far transcends any thing among men. As a 
 whole, it is supernatural and divine, and thence 
 the means of a new spiritual life in the world. 
 
 The whole question of miracles, in its funda 
 mental relations, thus turns on the possibility of 
 the supernatural. Such possibility the oppo 
 nents of Christianity generally deny, those of 
 them at least who make the slightest pretensions 
 to philosophical thought. 
 
 But the supernatural, as connected with Chris 
 tianity, is equivalent to a new creation, or the 
 exertion of a divine creative power. For exam 
 ple, the birth of Christ is a new beginning or cre 
 ation. He comes into the world as a divine or 
 supernatural agent. So also the changing of 
 water into wine, the restoration of sight to the 
 blind and of life to the dead, the feeding of five 
 thousand persons with a few loaves and fishes, 
 and the resurrection of Christ himself, are all 
 creative acts, or acts equivalent to creative. 
 
MIRACLES. 319 
 
 Now, the possibility of the supernatural, in 
 this view, can be denied consistently only by 
 those who deny the possibility of all divine cre 
 ations. If, for example, they deny the existence 
 of God, or a supreme creative Intelligence, or 
 if they maintain the existence of such a God as 
 cannot freely and intelligently create, they can 
 deny the possibility of miracles. This, in fact, : is 
 the position assumed by all the abler opponents 
 of Christianity as a supernatural scheme Spi 
 noza, Hume, Hegel, and Strauss. 
 
 Hence miracles have been rejected, first of all, 
 on the ground of atheism. Of course with the 
 class of theorists who take this monstrous posi 
 tion, we can have no discussion here, except to 
 remind them, that modern science has actually 
 proved the fact of successive creations. Geology 
 has set this matter forever at rest* We might 
 also remind them, that man, in some sense a 
 productive will, and so far capable of acting 
 above what we call nature, or the outward cre 
 ation, is capable of certain acts at least analogous 
 to the supernatural. And if a finite intelligence 
 can act thus, can interfere at certain points, in 
 the movement of nature, by means of new com 
 binations of power, and thus perform wonders. 
 
 * All the great geological writers maintain this Lyell, Agas- 
 siz, Brogniart, Buckland, Murchison. Mantell, Miller, Hitchcock, 
 and others. 
 
320 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 which appear to his fellows, as in the case of the 
 steam engine and the electric telegraph, all but 
 supernatural, why may not an infinite Intelligence 
 interfere, by miracles so stupendous and thrilling 
 as to be equivalent to the creation of worlds? 
 But atheists usually deny the freedom and spirit 
 uality of man, as well as the existence of a 
 supreme creative Power, making man the mere 
 machine of the universal machine which they 
 call nature. 
 
 For the same reason, miracles have been 
 denied on the ground of materialism. Reject 
 ing the existence of spirit, and even of thought 
 and volition, except as the production of matter, 
 such theorists maintain the absolute material 
 identity of all things, If there be a God, matter 
 is that God, universal matter, or aught else they 
 may choose to call it, governed by necessary and 
 eternal laws, consequently revolving in an endless 
 cycle, without the possibility of new beginnings, 
 supernatural changes, or creations. Perhaps such 
 men do not positively say what matter is ; they 
 speak only of its laws, and thence, as in the case 
 of Auguste Comte, refer all things to the uniform 
 and eternal action of necessary forces, in which 
 religion is a necessary, though temporary develop 
 ment, in the "hierarchic des sciences positives." 
 Of course, in such a system, there can be no place 
 for miracles. Both God and Christ, and even 
 
MIRACLES. 321 
 
 man, as responsible spiritual agents, are denied. 
 Man is but a link in the eternal chain, a bubble 
 on the surface of the ever-flowing: stream. 
 
 O 
 
 Is it not clear, however, that such persons de 
 ceive themselves by words ? Matter, they say, 
 is the whole. Then the question arises, What 
 is this matter of which they predicate so much ? 
 The question is not answered by calling it, as 
 most persons do, a substance, formal, limited, 
 tangible, divisible, &c. ; for these philosophers 
 say it is absolute and eternal, nay, that it is all 
 and in all. It is not an effect, but a cause, 
 or it is both. On this theory it is a power, an 
 omnipotent power, for it produces all things, does 
 all things. Is it not then intelligent, adapting 
 means to ends, working according to method and 
 law? Is it not, in fact, a conscious, self-control 
 ling agent, and may it not be holy, just, and good? 
 Substitute, then, the term God for matter, and 
 what have we but the old, eternal doctrine of the 
 Creator, supreme over all, as well as in all 
 whence the possibility of creations, revelations, 
 and miracles. 
 
 But Comte and his followers would say, We 
 do not refer the universe to matter, or call it 
 matter; we simply affirm that the whole consists 
 of necessary and eternal laws, from which come 
 all the changes or phenomena of the universe. 
 Laws! what are they? They must be either 
 
322 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 methods or forces. If methods or rules, they are 
 the methods or rales of some subject or cause, 
 that is, of God ; for they display infinite power 
 and intelligence. If forces, we ask again, forces 
 of what? for forces are attributes of a subject, 
 qualities of a being. 
 
 The fact is, we are so constituted as to be 
 under a necessity of referring all qualities and 
 changes to some Essence or Being in whom they 
 inhere, or from whom they proceed. Evidently, 
 the universe, as we know it, is a production, an 
 organization, or congeries of organizations, which 
 must have a beginning or cause. And, as we 
 know of no new changes or products among 
 men, which have not, back of them, an intelligent 
 agent, which we call mind, we are compelled to 
 conclude, that the universe, as an organism the 
 most complicated and beautiful, has, back of it, 
 an all-creative Mind. And if so, all sorts of cre 
 ations, and miracles among the rest, are possible. 
 
 But, thirdly, miracles are denied on the ground 
 of pantheism. 
 
 There are various forms of pantheism, but in 
 its proper, absolute character, it denies the per 
 sonality of God as well as the personality of 
 man, and thus represents the universe as God, 
 and God as the universe, without consciousness, 
 freedom, or intelligence.* Hence it views all 
 
 * As involving limitation and succession, personality cannot be 
 
MIRACLES. 323 
 
 things, and all beings, man among the rest, as 
 only parts of a whole, or rather as only limited 
 manifestations of a whole, which it calls Nature, 
 God, or Spirit, as it pleases. Thus Spinoza made 
 the universe to consist of Natura Naturans and 
 Natura Naturata. The Natura Naturata, or the 
 outward universe, according to him, is the neces 
 sary and eternal manifestation of the Natura 
 Naturans, or the absolute Substance, which has 
 two attributes, Thought and Extension. The 
 laws of such a nature, of course, are absolute, 
 necessary, and eternal. There can be no freedom 
 or choice, no new laws, or new applications of 
 old laws, no reserved forces, no new creations, 
 and no miracles.* 
 
 Pantheism, however, may be divided into 
 physical and spiritual. The physical, or grosser 
 form of pantheism, as in the Brahminism of 
 India, deifies and worships the visible universe, 
 sun and stars, earth and man, rivers and foun 
 tains, beasts and insects. In such a system 
 there can be no positive sin. Man is God, as 
 an insect is God. He proceeds from, and will 
 finally fall back into, the abyss. This kind of 
 pantheism, among the western nations, takes the 
 
 ascribed to God. But as involving freedom, consciousness, and rea 
 son, in their absolute perfection, it undoubtedly can. 
 
 * Opera, vol. i. p. 208 et seq. Spinoza s views of miracles are de 
 veloped in the sixth chapter of the Tractattis Thco., Opera, vol. iii. 
 p. 86, ct scq. 
 
324 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 form of materialism, already noticed. It recog 
 nizes only the outward and material, and, in our 
 mechanical age, refuses to worship. 
 
 The spiritual pantheism is that adopted by 
 some of the idealists in Germany and elsewhere. 
 It regards the outward universe, or the universe 
 of material forms, as simply phenomenal or ap 
 parent. God, or the interior, absolute cause of 
 the universe, is spiritual, consisting simply of 
 Being and Thought, or of Being and Thought 
 together, without conscious personality. Ac 
 cording to Hegel, all we can know is the rela 
 tions of things. God, as absolute, is an infinite 
 Abstraction, that is, the absolute and inconceivable 
 Essence, which he has called Das Nichts, (or 
 Nothing,) meaning by that, not an absolute Noth 
 ing, such as ordinary mortals would conceive 
 the word to mean, but an absolute Abstraction, 
 in other words, Being or Thought, from which 
 all conceivable relations and conditions are 
 abstracted. But in the process of thought, 
 according to Hegel, this Absolute passes into 
 reality, which is the universe. Both, indeed, 
 are eternal, for the All is only an everlasting 
 oscillation between the negative and the positive, 
 the absolute and the relative, the spiritual and the 
 concrete. God, as the eternal Thought, which 
 lies back of all change, comes to consciousness 
 only in man, on which ground man is divine. 
 
MIRACLES. 325 
 
 His development is the necessary progress of 
 all history, of all religion, and morals. On this 
 basis Hegel builds the vast superstructure of his 
 logical and philosophical system. 
 
 The apparent pantheism of Schelling, much 
 modified of late years, differs from this in many 
 particulars, and admits, whether logically or not 
 we do not now say, of a divine incarnation and 
 atonement, and, so far, does homage to Chris 
 tianity as a supernatural system. 
 
 It is clear, however, that the theory of Hegel, 
 adopted, in its fundamental principles, by 
 Strauss, Bauer, and others in Germany, and 
 in this country, to some extent, by Theodore 
 Parker, R. W. Emerson, and his willing pupil, 
 Mr. Henry James, strikes at the very possibil 
 ity of a supernatural religion, and especially of 
 miracles. It might admit, and indeed does 
 admit, of the existence of Jesus Christ as a neces 
 sary development of the divine, in the sense 
 understood by the Hegelians, but not more so 
 than any other good man. Hence these specu- 
 latists do not deny the reality of Christ, as a 
 remarkable character, and author of a beautiful 
 system of religion and morals. They only deny 
 him as a supernatural being, or as God incarnate.* 
 
 * This is eminently true of Emerson and James, who have inter 
 woven the Hegelian pantheism in their somewhat elegant, but su 
 perficial lucubrations. 
 
 28 
 
326 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 It would be out of place here to attempt a for 
 mal refutation of Hegelianisrn. Indeed, to most 
 sane persons it refutes itself. Its grounds and 
 conclusions are equally absurd, though, as a 
 system, distinguished by vast logical power, and 
 occasionally suggesting grand and comprehensive 
 views.* 
 
 If we ourselves are free agents, and not mere 
 machines, spiritual or animal, (and who at bot 
 tom can doubt this, that knows himself?) we are 
 compelled, by the constitution of our nature, to 
 regard God as a free agent, self-conscious and 
 self-controlled ; and if thus free, then creative, 
 freely creative ; and if freely creative, then capa 
 ble of intervention and miracle. It is not, indeed, 
 for us to say, what he may or may not do, in the 
 way of supernatural manifestation ; but, assured 
 ly, the idea of creation, of incarnation, and miracle, 
 ascribed to him, is neither impossible nor improb 
 able. Indeed, nothing would seem to be more 
 probable ; a consideration which accounts for 
 the universal expectation and impression on the 
 
 * Hegel professed to construct his system without assuming any 
 thing, whether matter or mind, thought or volition. But this was 
 impossible. Unconsciously to himself, he assumed his own powers 
 of thought. His "Das Nichts," though negative, involve the pos 
 itive, as a necessary idea. His abstractions, then, must involve re 
 alities, that is, man as an intelligent, voluntary thinker and actor ; 
 and if man, then God, as the free and intelligent Creator of the uni 
 verse. In this way his system refutes itself. 
 
MIRACLES. 327 
 
 subject. Admit the idea of a personal God, 
 interested in man, and you can admit easily all 
 the miracles of the New Testament. 
 
 In its more naked character, pantheism is a 
 monstrous and fatal error, and yet it is only the 
 exaggeration of a great truth, namely, that God, 
 while superior to his works, is not to be consid 
 ered as separate from them. While over all, he 
 is yet " in all," by a universal presence. Here 
 we behold him as the all-comprehending Power, 
 the all-pervading Wisdom and Beauty, a thought 
 which brings him close to the heart. But the 
 God of Hegel and Strauss, who comes to con 
 sciousness only in man, is a monstrosity, rejected 
 alike by reason and revelation. 
 
 But while we admit God as " in all," we in 
 stinctively feel, all instinctively feel, that we our 
 selves are distinct personalities, and though de 
 rived from God and even dependent upon him, 
 that we have a will and a purpose, a character and 
 a career of our own. So, also, we feel that the 
 external world is not only distinct from us, but 
 distinct from God, and consequently that God, 
 being himself a free and omnipotent agent, can 
 do as he pleases, in the matter of incarnation 
 and miracle. 
 
 Yet as nature is from God and under God, all 
 his actings, however strange and stupendous, 
 will be in harmony with those great laws through 
 
328 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 which he is wont to act. These, however, have 
 already admitted of creations, of new and won 
 drous beginnings, changes, and developments, in 
 organic forms and animals, as Hugh Miller and 
 others have shown ; so that no new creations or 
 beginnings, whether in the sphere of matter or 
 of mind, need occasion us any surprise. All we 
 want is proof of the fact. 
 
 We apprehend, however, that the philosophi 
 cal objection to miracles, as new creations, lies 
 in the attempt to conceive how something can 
 come from nothing. Those who believe this, as 
 a simple fact, of course will not feel the force of 
 the objection ; for however mysterious the thing 
 may be, they are compelled to suppose that all 
 created things are made from nothing. But this 
 cannot be strictly or absolutely true, God him 
 self being supposed as ultimate cause or ultimate 
 something; for of course there can be no effect 
 without a cause, in which sense the maxim is 
 true, Ex nihilo niliilfit. God creates all things, 
 say theologians, from " the word of his power ; " 
 he " speaketh and it is clone, he commandeth 
 and it standeth fast ; " on which ground miracles 
 are possible. The philosopher might prefer to 
 say that God creates all things from or out of 
 himself; but in saying this he throws no new 
 light upon the matter. It is simply admitting 
 the great principle of adequate cause. The 
 
MIRACLES. 329 
 
 mystery or the rationale of the fact remains con 
 cealed. 
 
 Now, it is on this ground we urge not only 
 the moral but the philosophical possibility of the 
 Christian miracles, including the birth and the 
 resurrection of Christ. It can never be shown 
 that they must necessarily be the product of 
 nothing, even on the lower ground of appear 
 ances. While supernatural power came in at 
 particular points, natural causes, and sometimes 
 preexistent materials and forces, were used. 
 The miraculous wine, for example, was a prod 
 uct from water, just as the wine of the grape 
 is a product from natural elements. 
 
 Christ, as a new creation, had two terms, the 
 human and the divine ; he was both natural and 
 supernatural, but not an effect without a cause. 
 So also the healing and restoring power, which 
 gave health to the diseased and life to the dead, 
 was in Christ as a cause. "Virtue went out of 
 him." His own resurrection was the effect of 
 his eternal divinity, or eternally divine and inde 
 structible life. Thence, while he died as to his 
 manhood, by the separation of the soul from the 
 body, or the human from the divine, he did not 
 die as to his spiritual and immortal nature. 
 The union only was suspended. When restored 
 on the third day, of course he rose again. So 
 28* 
 
330 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 that the maxim, that "from nothing nothing 
 comes," will not apply here. 
 
 We add, fourthly, that the miracles have been 
 rejected on the mythic theory. 
 
 Not content with metaphysical or even philo 
 logical objections, Strauss, Parker, and others 
 have endeavored to show that all the miracles 
 are only natural myths, clustering around the 
 few elementary facts which form the basis of 
 Christianity. Because the religions of most na 
 tions, as well as many historical facts and per 
 sonages, in the earlier period of their history, are 
 invested with myths or legendary fictions, it is 
 inferred that such also must be the case both 
 with Judaism and Christianity. We have al 
 ready considered this theory ; we will therefore 
 now limit ourselves to the remark, that though 
 the premises may be admitted, the conclusion 
 may be peremptorily denied. Because there have 
 been many false pretensions to freedom, are we 
 to conclude that there is no such thing, or that 
 there never can be such a thing, as freedom ? 
 Because many histories, especially in their earlier 
 periods, are fictitious and extravagant, must we 
 infer that all histories are of the same character? 
 Because religion has frequently appeared in the 
 garb of myth and poetic legend, must we ac 
 cept the conclusion that God cannot give us the 
 true religion without snch appendages? 
 
MIRACLES. 331 
 
 All the ancient nations, with the exception of 
 the Hebrews, were idolaters. If, then, all the 
 religions of such nations, in their mythical forms, 
 were false, may not that of the Hebrews be true? 
 If other forms of faith, growing up by a natural 
 process, and thence invested with much human 
 error, were associated with false or pretended 
 miracles, may not Christianity, based, as Strauss 
 and Parker are compelled to own, upon abso 
 lute and eternal truth, be associated with true 
 miracles ? 
 
 We might also inquire, How comes this uni 
 versal belief in miracles ? It is a fact to be ac 
 counted for. Why should all mankind, with 
 inconsiderable exceptions, cherish the indelible 
 conviction that they must be found somewhere ? 
 It seems to spring from an instinct, or an intui 
 tion, as deep and all-pervading as that which 
 gives them the idea of God and immortality. 
 Hence, instead of an argument against mira 
 cles, the mythic theory is a presumption in 
 their favor. Only we must be careful to distin 
 guish between the real and the spurious, the 
 divine and the human. Both have their char 
 acteristics. 
 
 But the whole is a question of fact ; and Strauss, 
 unconsciously dissatisfied with his theory, has at 
 tacked the Christian miracles,chiefly on historical 
 and philological grounds. He has gathered togeth- 
 
332 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 er all apparent discrepancies and contradictions, 
 to falsify their claims. After all, the great histori 
 cal verities, or fundamental facts, springing from 
 the supernatural character of Christ, and form 
 ing the essence or basis of Christianity, are left 
 untouched. No quibbling with particulars, or 
 even the citation of real difficulties, can affect 
 the history as a whole. It has woven itself, as 
 an historical reality, into the very fabric of soci 
 ety ; there it stands, in its divine and super 
 natural power, and there it will stand forever. 
 The source of a river may be far inland, and 
 much hidden among woods and hills, so that 
 some dispute may be indulged respecting the 
 localities of its origin, and particularly as to the 
 individual streams which have swelled its cur 
 rent ; but it has originated among those woods 
 and hills, and yonder it comes, rolling its mighty 
 tide of waters to the distant sea. 
 
 Finally, the miracles have been assaulted on 
 the ground of experience. 
 
 Assuming that a miracle is " a violation of 
 the laws of nature," which laws " are established 
 by a firm and unalterable experience," u there 
 arises," says Hume, " the contest of two oppo 
 site experiences, or proof against proof ; " so 
 that "the proof against a miracle from the nature 
 of the facts is as complete as any argument 
 from experience can possibly be imagined. On 
 
MIKACLES. 333 
 
 this ground he maintains that " no amount of 
 testimony can prove a miracle ; " which is pre 
 cisely the same thing as to maintain that a mir 
 acle is impossible in the nature of things. That 
 this was his real theory, can admit of no ques 
 tion. Speaking of certain alleged miracles, he 
 says, " What have we to oppose to such a cloud 
 of witnesses, but the absolute impossibility or mi 
 raculous nature of the fact." The sum total, then, 
 of Hume s argument is, that a miracle is to be 
 rejected because it is a miracle, assuming it to be 
 " a violation of the laws of nature," and thence 
 impossible. But he forgets his own principles, 
 and in the course of his argument, actually admits 
 that there may be miracles of such a kind as to 
 admit of proof from human testimony ; only he 
 will not allow them in connection with religion ; 
 and why ? Because " mankind have been so 
 frequently imposed upon by pretensions of that 
 sort ! " Thus he changes his ground and aban 
 dons his argument. 
 
 That miracles are possible, not as a violation 
 of the laws of nature, but as a special mani 
 festation of a Power beyond the resources of 
 nature, or the laws which control its movements, 
 must be conceded by every one who believes in 
 a God. Even Theodore Parker, who more than 
 once avails himself of Hume s sophism, admits 
 their possibility. He says, " Discourse of Mat- 
 
334 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 ters pertaining to Religion," p. 254, " There is 
 no antecedent objection nor metaphysical im 
 possibility in the case," namely, that a miracle 
 may be what he calls " a transgression of all 
 law known or knowable by man, but yet in con 
 formity with some law out of our reach." " Fi 
 nite man," he adds, " not only does not, but can 
 not, understand all the modes of God s action, 
 all the laws of his being. There may be higher 
 beings, to whom God reveals himself in modes 
 that we can never know ; for we cannot tell the 
 secrets of God, nor determine a priori the modes 
 of his manifestation. In this sense a miracle is 
 possible. The world is a perpetual miracle of 
 this sort. Nature is the art of God ; can we 
 fully comprehend it ? Life, being, creation, 
 duration, do we understand these actual things ? 
 How then can we say to the Infinite, Hitherto 
 shalt thou come, but no farther ; there are no 
 more ways \vherein thy being acts ? Man is 
 not the measure of God." 
 
 We will not stop here to remark upon the latent 
 argument against miracles, even in this conces 
 sion, by the ambiguous use of the expression, 
 transgression of the laws of nature, much the 
 same as Hume s " violation of the laws of na 
 ture," upon which Mr. Parker seems to argue, 
 in other parts of his book ; we will take the pas 
 sage as it stands, cordially thanking him for his 
 
MIRACLES. 335 
 
 important admission ; for now the only question 
 that remains touches the evidence of the fact.* 
 Mr. Parker himself momentarily sees this, and 
 immediately addresses himself to the evidence, 
 which he demolishes (in his own view) by a few 
 dexterous blows. But it is not so easily got rid 
 of. Mere assertions will not disprove it. Dec 
 lamation will not diminish its power. Pre 
 tended miracles, those, for example, of the dark 
 ages, may seem to have as much and even more 
 evidence ; but this is a fancy easily disposed of. 
 It is appearance only, and may deceive the un 
 wary, but not thoughtful, well-informed men. 
 No one in the slightest degree acquainted with 
 legendary or monkish miracles will, for a mo 
 ment, bring them, either as to their nature or their 
 evidence, into comparison with the miracles of 
 Christ. Fifty witnesses, in a court of justice, 
 may testify on one side, and their evidence may 
 seem to overpower and utterly extinguish the 
 testimony of two or three simple and candid 
 men, on the other side ; but the instant their 
 
 * After all, we apprehend that Mr. Parker s concession is a mere 
 logical or rhetorical ruse ; for he must ultimately base his denial of 
 miracles on their impossibility. Hence in his Two Sermons, 1852, 
 he makes the following bold statement : " I do not believe there 
 ever was a miracle, or ever will be; every where I find law the 
 constant mode of operation of the infinite God. I do not believe 
 in the miraculous inspiration of the Old Testament, or the New 
 Testament," &c. 
 
336 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 true character and the circumstances of the case 
 are fairly presented, the evidence of the fifty 
 vanishes into thin air, while that of the two or 
 three is established forever. Everything, in such 
 a question, depends upon character and circum 
 stances. The thousand and one stories, then, 
 of foolish monks or garrulous old women, nay, 
 more, the solemn depositions of learned and 
 dignified bishops, besotted by superstition, may 
 well be dismissed from the account. In nothing 
 but their name do they bear the slightest com 
 parison with the divine mission or supernatural 
 works of Jesus Christ. 
 
 But how is it with this matter of experience ? 
 There seems to be something in it, after all. 
 What are its nature and bearings on the ques 
 tion at issue ? If the word, as used by Hume, 
 means any thing, it must mean our individual 
 experience, or the experience of the race. If it 
 means our individual experience, then it makes 
 that which is necessarily limited and imperfect 
 the standard of all possible events an assump 
 tion utterly preposterous. If it means the expe 
 rience of the race, including that of the first 
 Christians, the apostles of Christ, and the writers 
 of the gospel histories, then it takes for granted 
 the very point to be proved. For we maintain 
 that miracles were matters of experience in the 
 days of Christ and his apostles. Hume, how- 
 
MIRACLES. 337 
 
 ever, was too acute to mean any thing more 
 than the general conviction of mankind, derived, 
 as he thought, from experience, with reference to 
 what may be termed the uniform action of the 
 ordinary laws of nature, in the case of miracles, 
 partly suspended or controlled, as we suppose, 
 by some higher power or law beyond our knowl 
 edge. But nature can never be contrary to God, 
 nor can God be contrary to nature ; consequently 
 an inferior law can never be contrary to the action 
 of that higher law by which it is controlled. Even 
 now the law of life controls, sometimes suspends, 
 the action of chemical laws ; but they are never 
 contrary to each other. In Christianity, life is 
 restored to the dead. Lazarus, for example, 
 rises from the tomb at the command of Christ. 
 That divine power, then, or power of life, by vir 
 tue of which this takes place, may be represented 
 as the higher, or unknown law, which, in this 
 instance, controls the ordinary laws governing 
 organized beings. But there is no real opposi 
 tion between them, no violation, transgression or 
 perversion of any thing. A new and stupen 
 dous power has intervened, and a new and stu 
 pendous phenomenon is the result. This is 
 ascribed directly to God himself, the great origi 
 nal Life-giver, who, when the darkness of prime 
 val night brooded upon chaos, said, " Let there 
 be light, and there was light." 
 29 
 
338 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Thus the uniformity and immutability of na 
 ture and its laws are not absolute, but relative ; 
 relative, we mean, to God, who presides over 
 them with the supremacy of a master. Their 
 uniformity for five thousand or ten thousand 
 years is no proof that, previous or subsequent to 
 that period, a change was or may not be possible. 
 In a word, it does not follow, from the general 
 uniformity of nature s laws, that God, " whose 
 they are, and whom they serve," may not inter 
 pose at specific eras, by means of new creations, 
 regenerations, and miracles. To deny this would 
 make matter eternal, and God a mere natural 
 and blind necessity, without freedom or choice. 
 
 Our experience, however, of the general uni 
 formity of nature s laws, leads us, of course, to 
 reject all pretensions to miracles, on ordinary or 
 frivolous occasions, or on such occasions as a 
 divine intervention cannot be supposed. " Lying 
 wonders," in the garb of miracles, are essentially 
 incredible ; for they are derogatory, not only to 
 the laws of nature, but to the character of God. 
 Their external evidence or testimony may seem 
 imposing, but it is never really adequate. Thor 
 oughly sifted, it will ever be found partial, selfish, 
 and contradictory. It may be allowed, then, 
 that no amount of such testimony can prove such 
 a miracle. A true miracle must have an ade 
 quate cause, and that cause God. And as it is 
 
MIRACLES. 339 
 
 fair to assume that God will always act consist 
 ently with himself, it follows that a true miracle 
 will only be performed for a sufficient reason, or 
 with reference to an adequate purpose. So that 
 mere portents and prodigies, monkish marvels, 
 and mesmeric wonders, whatever other character 
 they have, may be rejected as divine miracles, 
 without further examination. God, we repeat 
 it, will always act like himself; and although we 
 know little of his essence or mode of working, 
 we know enough of his character to be certain 
 that all his works will be holy, just, and good, 
 with a certain air of simplicity and majesty, 
 fitly styled " divine." Consequently, when he 
 does interpose by miracles, as in the first act of 
 creation, when " the morning stars sang together, 
 and all the sons of God shouted for joy," or in 
 the new spiritual creation ascribed to Jesus 
 Christ, the occasion is worthy of his infinite 
 majesty and grace, while the results are the most 
 stupendous and beautiful that can be conceived. 
 For once more the angels sing, " Glory to God 
 in the highest, on earth peace, and good will to 
 men." 
 
 Thus Hume s suggestion, misapplied and 
 abused, as an argument against the supernatu 
 ral character of Christianity, after all, has some 
 thing good in it, as it supplies us with this prac 
 tical rule, that our experience of the uniformity 
 
340 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of nature s laws ought to make us suspicious 
 of all miraculous pretensions on ordinary, inade 
 quate, or frivolous occasions. We ought never 
 to forget, however, that the spurious proves the 
 possible existence of the genuine, the false of the. 
 true. Shadows cannot last forever. Lux post 
 nubila. At last the morning of a heavenly day 
 dawns upon the nations. The kingdom comes. 
 The new creation, all aglow with the light of 
 God, bursts upon the world.* 
 
 To enforce our meaning, and bring the matter 
 to a practical issue, take the following illustra 
 tions : Were some one of ordinary credibility 
 to inform us that a person apparently dead by 
 drowning had been resuscitated by the means 
 ordinarily used to restore suspended animation, 
 we should believe it at once, without further in 
 quiry, for the thing comes within the scope of 
 ordinary experience, and is perfectly natural in 
 the circumstances supposed. Were the same 
 person to inform us that he had just seen, alive 
 and well, a friend known to be dead and buried 
 several days, we should probably be unwilling 
 
 * Parker and others lay great stress upon the assumption that 
 more evidence is required to prove a strange or miraculous event 
 than one of an ordinary kind. But that depends altogether upon 
 circumstances. In our humble opinion, it is not so much a question 
 of quantity as of quality. Something, too, depends upon the mind 
 to be convinced. All the evidence in the world will not satisfy some 
 
MIRACLES. 341 
 
 to credit the assertion. We should conclude 
 that there must be some mistake in the case, 
 for the dead cannot rise, under the action of 
 the ordinary laws of nature. For the produc 
 tion of such a result, the exertion of a divine 
 power, equal to creation, is needed, which can 
 not be expected, except at some grand or pe 
 culiar crisis. If, however, four, five, a dozen 
 honest and competent witnesses were to testify 
 to the occurrence of a similar fact, we should 
 deem it quite extraordinary ; still, we should sus- 
 pei\d our judgment till the matter should receive 
 a thorough investigation. There is, indeed, no 
 a priori impossibility in the supposition that God 
 should raise the dead, but certainly there is a 
 high moral presumption against the exercise of 
 such a power on ordinary occasions. Hence our 
 hesitation and doubt, justified alike by religion, 
 philosophy, and common sense ; on which 
 ground it may be assumed, that all pretensions 
 to miracles, on common or frivolous occasions, 
 are essentially incredible. Nay, we may go 
 farther, and maintain that, in all probability, 
 miracles, as special divine interventions, equal to 
 creative acts, can be expected only once or twice 
 in the history of the world, that is, at those pe 
 culiar and critical epochs when Jehovah must 
 interfere by special divine manifestations for the 
 29* 
 
342 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 establishment of a true religion, or the introduc 
 tion of a new moral creation among men. 
 
 We have supposed an imaginary case. Let 
 us now describe a real one. The world, by wis 
 dom, knew not God. The leading nations had 
 outgrown their pagan creeds, but could not re 
 place them with a higher and purer faith. They 
 were departing farther and farther from truth and 
 duty. Darkness covered the earth, and gross 
 darkness the people. New forms of scepticism, 
 or of superstition, were eating into their hearts, 
 yet they were longing madly and vainly for some 
 heavenly light. An obvious crisis or turning- 
 point had arrived in the history of the world. 
 The nations were expectant. All nature was 
 prepared for the advent of God. It had been 
 predicted in certain ancient books, that at such a 
 time a Redeemer should come, in lowliness and 
 meekness, yet with transcendent wisdom and 
 mighty power, to regenerate souls. 
 
 In these circumstances, a personage, claiming 
 the character and function referred to, makes his 
 appearance in the Holy Land. His aspect and 
 manners correspond to the idea of a divine 
 teacher. He speaks on the subject of religion 
 and morals, of life and immortality, as man has 
 never before spoken. His purity is unquestioned, 
 his benevolence expansive and wonderful. He 
 penetrates the secrets of nature, of man, and of 
 
MIRACLES. 343 
 
 God, as by an intuition, and develops in lan 
 guage of amazing simplicity and force a system 
 of absolute religion and morals. In every re 
 spect, he transcends his age, and indeed all ages. 
 Simple and august, gentle, yet severe and com 
 manding, he goes forth to do and to suffer the 
 will of God, supplying not only in his creed, but- 
 in his person, a splendid illustration of the power 
 of goodness, infinite and immortal. He performs 
 many wonderful works, and suffers much from 
 the persecution of the ungodly. He predicts his 
 own death, looking forward to it as a great spir 
 itual necessity, with a sublime and mysterious 
 confidence. At last he dies by the hand of the 
 public executioner, praying for his enemies, and 
 exclaiming, " It is finished ! " But previous to 
 this, he had predicted not only his death, but also 
 his resurrection, as the necessary completion of 
 his career on earth and the crowning proof of his 
 divinity. His disciples, indeed, are incredulous 
 of the fact, and give up all for lost. Their hopes 
 are buried in his tomb. His enemies, aware of 
 his predictions, secure his sepulchre by the gov 
 ernment seal and a guard of Roman soldiers. 
 But on the third day the sepulchre is empty ; the 
 body of Jesus is gone. He appears, however, to 
 some of his disciples, not once, but again and 
 again, and in circumstances admitting of no de 
 lusion. At first, some of them doubt, but subse- 
 
344 CHRIST IK HISTORY. 
 
 quently obtain ocular, nay, more tangible demon 
 stration of the fact ; so that all are entirely sat 
 isfied as to the fact of his resurrection. Such, at 
 least, is their testimony a testimony which they 
 bear before the judicial tribunals and people of 
 the Jews, and which they repeat in all conceiv 
 able circumstances to their dying day, in spite, 
 too, of persecution, contumely, and wrong. At 
 last they behold him ascend from the earth ; in 
 other words, pass into the spiritual and immor 
 tal sphere ; in parting, they receive his blessing, 
 filling them with unutterable peace. His spirit 
 of might and love takes possession of their 
 hearts, and they go forth in his name, to found 
 among men a kingdom of righteousness and 
 love. 
 
 Here every thing is natural and becoming. 
 The testimony is ample and satisfactory. It is 
 uniform and uncontradicted. The occasion is 
 the most august and thrilling in the history of 
 the world. The result is stupendous and beau 
 tiful. Life and immortality are brought to 
 light, 
 
 "The gates of paradise 
 Stand open wide on Calvary." 
 
 We have spoken of miracles. After all, Christ 
 and his gospel may be represented as but one 
 miracle, the miracle of eternal love, first em 
 bodied in Christ, and then embodied among 
 
MIRACLES. 345 
 
 men. He brought heaven to earth ; and it is 
 this which is now struggling for supremacy in 
 the world. The miracle stands before us now, 
 modifying the interior spirit and the historic life 
 of man, transforming individual hearts, and pen 
 etrating, as a leaven of regeneration, into the 
 great mass of fallen humanity. God has smit 
 ten the rock in the far wilderness, and the streams 
 are flowing yet to refresh the weary millions. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CHRIST IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 
 
 As a system, Christianity had not assumed a 
 complete form till after the resurrection of Christ. 
 Then all things were prepared for its full devel 
 opment and progress in the world. Rejected by 
 the mass of the Jews, it was lodged as a hidden 
 leaven in a few simple hearts, who, all at once, 
 show themselves bold, resolute, resistless, as if 
 inspired, as indeed they were, by a supernatural 
 power. Fifty days after the crucifixion, the 
 apostles began, with a commanding earnestness 
 to which previously they were strangers, to exe 
 cute the commission of their divine Teacher 
 " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
 to every creature." This they did, first at Jeru 
 salem, the very scene of our Savior s degrada 
 tion, and the last on earth, one would suppose, 
 in which such a commission could be executed 
 with success. But they claimed to be filled with 
 the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word with life- 
 giving eloquence. Fearlessly they charged home 
 upon their countrymen the guilt of crucifying 
 the Son of God, "the Lord of glory," at the 
 
 (346) 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 347 
 
 same time proclaiming to them the " glad 
 tidings " of reconciliation and eternal life. This 
 was the constant burden of their testimony, 
 the great end of their labors. It was as a 
 power of life, of renovation, reunion, and eter 
 nal joy that they announced Christianity to 
 the world ; the key note of which had been 
 struck by angel voices on the plains of Beth 
 lehem. Not as a philosophy, but as a fact ; not 
 as a policy, but as a power, superhuman and 
 divine, did they proclaim it to all. Calmly they 
 pointed, first to the crucifixion, and then to the 
 resurrection of Christ, universally known and 
 acknowledged as the ground of their testimony, 
 while affectionately and tenderly, as if angel 
 hearts had been given them, they besought men 
 to be reconciled to God. As a consequence of 
 this, no less than three thousand persons were 
 converted and added to their number in a 
 single day. Subdued by a power which they 
 ascribed to God, they repented, believed ; and 
 hence they were baptized in the name of the 
 crucified Redeemer. Soon their number was 
 swelled to five thousand ; and at the expira 
 tion of a year and a half, even while the labors 
 of the apostles were confined to Jerusalem and 
 its vicinity, multitudes, both of men and women, 
 had received the truth, and " a great company 
 of the priests were obedient to the faith." 
 
348 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 At this time the converts were scattered abroad 
 by violent persecution, and they went every where 
 preaching the word. Though " the Master " was 
 gone, so far as his bodily presence was concerned, 
 his divine spirit of love and power was with 
 them. As Christ died blessing his executioners, 
 so died the proto-martyr Stephen. Both con 
 quered agony and death by the might of a super 
 natural charity; and this was the Heaven-kindled 
 flame which the first disciples carried over Judea 
 and the neighboring countries. They travelled 
 as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch ; and in 
 less than three years, churches were established 
 in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. 
 
 During this time, however, Christianity had 
 been preached to none but Hebrews. Two years 
 afterwards it was proclaimed to " the Gentiles," 
 and before the thirtieth year from the death of 
 Christ, the triumphs of the cross had extended 
 to every part of Asia the Less, the isles of the 
 ./Egean Sea, to a large portion of Greece, and 
 even to Rome. At these places the converts are 
 described as " a great number," " great multi 
 tudes," " much people." They were especially 
 numerous at Antioch and Ephesus. During the 
 two years residence of Paul at the latter city, 
 " all Asia," it is said, " heard the word of the 
 Lord," meaning by the term " Asia," according 
 to the ancient, and especially the Roman use of 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 349 
 
 it, the beautiful and populous region, which lay 
 eastward from the Mediterranean Sea, and occu 
 pied a considerable portion of what has been 
 more recently designated Asia Minor. So nu 
 merous were the converts in Ephesus that a sin 
 gle class of them, who had dealt in magic, burned 
 their books and implements to the value of fifty 
 thousand pieces of silver, " so mightily grew the 
 word of God and prevailed." * 
 
 In Jerusalem alone there were " many myri 
 ads," or many " tens of thousands " of believers. 
 They multiplied there, and in the adjacent re 
 gions constantly, and no power of opposition or 
 persecution could retard their progress. Their 
 faith and joy struck the people. Their simplicity 
 and devotion, their freedom and liberality, gave 
 them power over the minds of serious and can 
 did men. Miracles of life, especially in the spir 
 itual sphere, every where indicated the presence of 
 the Divinity, once incarnated in the body of Jesus, 
 now enshrined as " Lord and King " in the bosom 
 of the church. Baptized " in the spirit," they were 
 one one in their faith and life, one in their or 
 ganization and action. When necessary, they 
 had all things common ; they loved one another, 
 they pitied the poor, they sought the salvation 
 of men, they conquered evil with good, and 
 
 * These statements, as will be obvious to all, are made on the au 
 thority of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 30 
 
350 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 went forth, at the hazard of life, to the moral 
 conquest of the world. 
 
 Thirty years from the day of Pentecost, or the 
 inauguration of the church by the baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost, Christians, during the persecution 
 under Nero, were quite numerous even in Rome; 
 for Tacitus says, that " a great multitude " of 
 them were seized.* In the days of Trajan, not 
 more than seventy years after, Christianity had 
 spread so extensively throughout the Roman 
 empire, that in many places the heathen temples 
 were deserted. Pliny the younger, governor of 
 Pontus in Bithynia, says, in his well-known let 
 ter to the Emperor Trajan, " that many, of all 
 
 * Tacitus obviously was ignorant of the character and claims of 
 the first Christians. His testimony to their numbers, however, is 
 clear and express. Narrating the facts of the burning of Rome by 
 Nero, which the tyrant charged upon the Christians, Tacitus, after 
 stating that they had derived their name from Christ, (or Chrestus, 
 as he writes it,) who, in the reign of Tiberius, had suffered death, 
 under the sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate, adds, " For 
 a while this dire superstition was checked ; but it again burst forth, 
 and not only spread itself over Judea, the first seat of the mischiev 
 ous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common asylum, 
 which receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever is atro 
 cious. The confessions of those who were seized discovered a vast 
 multitude (the expression is ingcns multitude) of their accomplices ; 
 and they were all convicted, not so much for the crime of setting 
 fire to the city as for their hatred to mankind." It will thus be 
 seen, not only from the expression " vast multitude," but also 
 from the expressions " dire superstition," " checked," " burst forth," 
 that the increase of Christians, even in Rome, must have been great 
 and striking. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 351 
 
 ages and of every rank, were accused to him of 
 being Christians ; " and adds, much in the style 
 of Tacitus, whose precision in the use of lan 
 guage is the admiration of scholars, "that the 
 contagion of this superstition " (as if it spread 
 with the rapidity of a pestilence) "had seized 
 not the cities only, but the smaller towns also, and 
 the open country ; " so that " few victims were 
 oilered for sacrifice, and the temples of the gods 
 were almost deserted." 
 
 There can be no question as to the fact that 
 about the close of the first century, say sixty or 
 seventy years from the ascension of Christ, 
 Christianity had penetrated, with more or less 
 success, into every part of the Roman empire, 
 the population of which could not be less than a 
 hundred and twenty millions. It was planted 
 in the cities of Rome and Carthage, in Athens 
 and Alexandria, in Ephesus and Antioch, in 
 Damascus, and even in Babylon ; nay, more, it 
 had reached, if we may credit the traditions of 
 the fathers, as far as Spain on the one hand and 
 India on the other. Christians were to be num 
 bered by thousands in Palestine and Arabia, in 
 Italy and Egypt, in Greece and Asia the Less. 
 Justin Martyr, who flourished in the first half of 
 the second century, describes the extent of Chris 
 tianity in the following terms: "There is not 
 a nation either of Greek, or barbarian, or any 
 
352 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 other name, even of those who wander in tribes, 
 or live in tents, among whom prayers and thanks 
 givings are not offered to the Father and Creator 
 of the universe in the name of the crucified 
 Jesus." So also Clemens of Alexandria, a little 
 later, says, " The philosophers were confined 
 to Greece, and to their particular retainers ; but 
 the doctrine of Christianity did not remain in 
 Judea, but is spread through the whole world, 
 in every nation, and village, and city, converting 
 both whole houses and separate individuals, 
 having already brought over to the truth not a 
 few of the philosophers themselves. If the 
 Greek philosophy is interdicted by law, it imme 
 diately disappears ; whereas, though, from the 
 first appearance of Christianity, kings and ty 
 rants, governors and presidents, with their whole 
 train, and the populace on their side, have en 
 deavored with their whole force to exterminate 
 it, yet doth it flourish more and more." The 
 following is the testimony of Tertullian, who 
 lived in the second century of the Christian era. 
 Addressing those who governed the Roman em 
 pire, he says, " We are but of yesterday, but 
 we have filled every thing that is yours, cities, 
 islands, castles, free towns, council halls, the very 
 camps, all classes of men, the palace, the senate, 
 the forum. "We have left you nothing but your 
 temples. We can number your armies; there 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 353 
 
 are more Christians in a single province. Even 
 if unequal in force, is there any war for which 
 we, who so readily submit to death, should not 
 be prepared and prompt, did not our religion 
 teach us to be slain rather than to slay ? Un 
 armed and without rebellion, should we only 
 separate from you, we might thus fight against 
 you, by inflicting the injury you might suffer 
 from divorce. If we; such a multitude of men, 
 were to break away from you, retiring into some 
 remote corner of the world, your government 
 would be covered with shame at the loss of so 
 many citizens, whoever they might be. The 
 very desertion would punish you. Without 
 doubt you would be terrified at your solitude, 
 at the silence and stupor of all things, as if the 
 world were dead. You would have to look 
 about for such subjects." It may be said that 
 this, from the fiery Tertullian, is the language of 
 rhetorical exaggeration. Be it so. After all, it 
 must have rested upon some basis of fact, to 
 give it even the semblance of force ; for as it has 
 been well remarked, " Tertullian was a writer of 
 too much acuteness and eloquence to suffer the 
 boldness and vehemence of his language to 
 pass those limits, beyond which their only effect 
 must have been to expose him to derision.*" 
 
 * Dr. Andrews Norton, who, in the first volume of his work on the 
 Genuineness of the Gospels, has discussed this subject, especially 
 
 30* 
 
354 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Nor is this the only occasion on which Tertullian 
 asserts the great fact here referred to. The fol 
 lowing, as it relates to specific facts, is, if pos 
 sible, more striking than the quotation already 
 made. He is addressing Scapula, the proconsul 
 of Africa. " When Arrius Antoninus undertook 
 to persecute the Christians, all of that persuasion 
 immediately presented themselves before his tri 
 bunal. Then he, after ordering a few for execu 
 tion, said to the rest, * Wretched people, if you 
 wish to die, there are precipices and ropes enough 
 to be had. If thou wert inclined to do this 
 here, [in Africa,] how wouldst thou dispose of so 
 many thousands, as well men as women, per 
 sons of both sexes, of all ages, of all ranks, pre 
 senting themselves to thee ? How many fires, 
 how many swords wouldst thou need ? What 
 would Carthage herself, now about to be deci 
 mated by thee, have to endure, when every one 
 should see among the sufferers his relations and 
 friends ; when he might see there, perhaps, and 
 by thy order, dignified men and matrons, and all 
 the principal persons of the city, the relations and 
 friends even of thy own friends ! Spare, there 
 fore, thyself, if not us ; spare Carthage, if not 
 thyself. Finally, those whom thou consider- 
 est as thy masters, are men, and they too will 
 
 in opposition to the views of Gibbon, with great candor and 
 ability. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 355 
 
 die : but this sect will not diminish, which thou 
 now knowest is but increased when it seems to 
 be in the course of being extirpated. For who 
 ever sees so much fortitude is tempted to inquire 
 into the cause, and when he sees the truth he 
 himself quickly embraces it." * 
 
 This language was used in Africa, within a 
 a hundred and fifty years after the first promul 
 gation of Christianity. 
 
 Unknown and despised, it was penetrating, 
 like the electric forces, silently and irresistibly, 
 into the hearts of mankind, in all quarters of the 
 world. It had seized all the great marts of com 
 merce and political power. Rome, long before 
 it was aware of the fact, felt its secret energy. 
 Judaism tried to crush it, but was itself crushed 
 in the encounter. Polytheism struggled with it 
 in deadly embrace, but finally yielded to its supe 
 rior force, and, with pagan philosophy, first gave 
 up the cities, then the smaller places, and at last 
 the country itself. Every where Christianity was 
 aggressive and triumphant. 
 
 How shall we account for this amazing power 
 and progress ? Gibbon has attempted the solu 
 tion by a reference to natural causes. The fol 
 lowing is his enumeration of these : 
 
 " 1. The inflexible, and, if we may use the 
 
 * Ad Scapulam,) c. 5. 
 
356 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, 
 derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion, but 
 purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit, 
 which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gen 
 tiles from embracing the law of Moses. 2. The 
 doctrine of a future life, improved by every ad 
 ditional circumstance which could give weight 
 and efficacy to that important truth. 3. The 
 miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive 
 church. 4. The pure and austere morals of the 
 Christians. 5. The union and discipline of the 
 Christian republic, which gradually formed an 
 independent and increasing state in the heart of 
 the Roman empire." * 
 
 We accept the facts, for they lie on the surface, 
 but the solution is not thereby found. The facts 
 themselves have to be accounted for. The in 
 flexible zeal the intense devotion the exclu 
 sive faith, infallible as light the lofty self-denial 
 the austere morality the all-comprehending 
 love the noble confession of the one God, and 
 the one immortal life the well-established 
 claim of miraculous powers, in a word, the 
 unity, purity, fidelity, and all-conquering force of 
 the great Christian republic, originally bound 
 together, as Gibbon himself confesses, only by 
 the ties of a common faith, are facts which do 
 
 * Hist, of the Decline and Fall of the Rom. Empire, ii. 264. 
 
THE PRIMIT1TE CHURCH. 357 
 
 not explain themselves, but need to be explained by 
 reference to some adequate cause. In matters 
 like these, true philosophy goes beneath the sur 
 face, and sees, in energies and results so stupen 
 dous, the might of a supernatural life. It is the 
 presence of the Deity among men ; in other 
 words, the presence of infinite love and pity in 
 the hearts of primitive believers. " The love of 
 Christ," says Paul, " constraineth us to live, not 
 unto ourselves, but unto him who died and rose 
 again." Hence, they " lived to Christ ; " hence, 
 also, they " died to Christ." Immortal, they re 
 joiced in shame, agony, and death. The death 
 of the martyrs was the life of the church. Their 
 superiority to all things outward, especially their 
 superiority to suffering, struck the heathen. This 
 it was which convinced the philosophers Justinus, 
 Pantaenus, Clemens, and Origcn. This it was 
 which conquered the Roman world. Their mot 
 to was, " Nothing for self, every thing for God." 
 Do we need proof of this ? Let the heathen them 
 selves inform us. All their writers, who refer to 
 this subject, speak of what they are pleased to 
 call their " obstinate contempt of death." Pliny 
 bears noble testimony to the purity of their 
 lives. " They affirmed," says he, injiis letter to 
 the emperor, " that the whole of their guilt or 
 error was, that they met on a stated day, before 
 it was light, and addressed themselves in a form 
 
358 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of prayer to Christ, as to some god, binding 
 themselves by a solemn oath, not for the purpose 
 of any wicked design, but never to commit any 
 fraud, theft, or adultery ; never to falsify their 
 word, nor to deny a trust when they should be 
 called upon to deliver it up ; after which it was 
 their custom to separate, and then reassemble to 
 eat in common a harmless meal." After receiv 
 ing this account, he adds, that he put two of 
 their number, whp were accustomed to serve in 
 their religious functions, to the torture, in order 
 to discover something more ; but he could find 
 nothing reprehensible, except their inflexible at 
 tachment to what he is pleased to designate their 
 absurd superstition. " We declare and openly 
 profess," says Justin Martyr, " in the midst of 
 all your tortures, even while torn and bleeding, 
 we proclaim that we worship God through Jesus 
 Christ." " Torment, rack, condemn, crush us," 
 says Tertullian, " the most exquisite cruelty you 
 can devise avails you nothing, but rather in 
 duces the more to become Christians. As often 
 as we are cut down by persecutions, we spring 
 up the more abundantly. The blood of Christians 
 is the seed of the church" Hence the author of 
 the Epistle to Diognetus, one of the earliest and 
 most touching fragments of primitive Christian 
 literature, unquestionably belonging to the early 
 part of the second century, could say, as if the 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 359 
 
 love of Christ were throbbing at his heart, and 
 dictating his language, " They live in the flesh, 
 but not after the flesh ; they dwell on the earth, 
 but have their mansion in heaven ; they obey 
 the existing laws, but in their lives are superior 
 to all law ; loving all men, they are persecuted 
 by all ; living unknown, they are condemned to 
 death ; they are slain, and behold they live ; 
 though poor, they make many rich ; in want of 
 every thing, they have abundance ; in dishonor, 
 they are but honored the more ; when defamed, 
 they are vindicated ; when reviled, they bless ; for 
 insolence, they return respect ; for well doing, 
 they are punished as evil doers ; and yet rejoice 
 in their punishments, as being made alive. Re 
 jected by the Jews, as aliens, they are persecuted 
 by the Greeks ; and, though hated by all men, 
 none can show cause of enmity against them." 
 
 He then proceeds to show how God sent his 
 Son to redeem the world from sin, and that, on 
 this ground, vast but delightful responsibilities 
 are laid upon Christians, and adds, " See you not 
 that those who are delivered up to wild beasts, 
 because they will not deny their God, are not 
 overcome, but only increase the more, the more 
 they are persecuted ? This is the work not of man, 
 but of God, and an evident token of his coming." * 
 
 * Episiola ad Diognetum. V. Hefcle s Patres Apostolici, p. 228.. 
 For a translation of the whole of the Epistola, see Appendix F. 
 
360 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Some may be inclined to diminish the force 
 of this testimony, by referring it to the partiality 
 of sectarian preference. It is corroborated, how 
 ever, by the heathen themselves, who, while ac 
 cusing the Christians of atheism, in rejecting the 
 false gods of the populace, are compelled, at 
 least indirectly, to acknowledge the superiority 
 of the Christian character. Thus Lucian, the 
 satirist, in giving the history of an impostor, by 
 the name of Proteus or Peregrinus, who deceived 
 the Christians, by pretending to wonderful sanc 
 tity and wisdom, incidentally gives the follow 
 ing account of their views and habits. 
 
 " About this time," says he, " it was that he 
 [Peregrinus] learned the wonderful wisdom of 
 the Christians, being intimately acquainted with 
 their priests and scribes. In a very short time 
 he convinced them that they were all boys in 
 comparison with himself, and became their leader, 
 prophet, and grand president, in short, all in all 
 to them. He explained and interpreted many 
 of their books, and wrote some himself; inso 
 much that they looked upon him as their legis 
 lator and high priest; nay, almost worshipped 
 him as a god. Their leader, whom they yet 
 adore, was crucified in Palestine, for introducing 
 this new sect ; and this very circumstance was 
 the foundation of all the consequence and repu 
 tation which he afterwards gained, and of that 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 361 
 
 glory, of which he had always been so ambitious. 
 For when he was in bonds, the Christians, con 
 sidering it as a calamity affecting the common 
 cause, did all in their power to release him, 
 which, finding impracticable, they paid him all 
 deference and honor. Old women, widows, and 
 orphans were continually crowding to him ; some 
 of the principal of them even remained with him 
 in prison, having, for the sake of doing so, bribed 
 the keepers ; suppers were brought in to them ; 
 they read together their sacred books, and the 
 noble Peregrinus for such he was then called 
 was dignified with the title of the new Socrates. 
 Some of the Christian deputies came from the 
 cities of Asia to assist in pleading for and com 
 forting him. It is incredible with what alacrity 
 these people support and defend the public 
 cause ; they spare nothing, indeed, to promote it. 
 Peregrinus being made a prisoner on their ac 
 count, they collected money for him, and he made 
 a pretty respectable revenue from it. These poor 
 people, it seems, had persuaded themselves that 
 they should be immortal and live forever." The 
 reader will notice especially what follows. 
 " They despised death, therefore, and offered up 
 their lives a voluntary sacrifice, being taught by 
 their lawgiver that they were all brethren, and 
 that, abandoning our Grecian gods, they must 
 31 
 
362 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 worship their own sage (sophist or rather phi 
 losopher,) who was crucified, and live in obedi 
 ence to his laws, in compliance with which they 
 looked with contempt on all worldly treasures, 
 and held everything in common a maxim which 
 they had adopted without just reason. If any 
 cunning impostor, therefore, who knew how to 
 manage matters, carne amongst them, he soon 
 acquired wealth, by imposing on the credulity 
 of these weak and ignorant men." 
 
 But we shall best illustrate the spirit of the 
 primitive church by giving one or two specimens, 
 among many that might be cited, of early Chris 
 tian heroism. 
 
 In the time of Marcus Aurelius, himself a phi 
 losopher, and upon the whole a good emperor, 
 though permitting, and in some instances sanc 
 tioning, great enormities, Christians were often 
 persecuted in an irregular way. Among these 
 Justin, surnamed the Martyr, was brought, on 
 some pretence, before the prefect, by Crescens, 
 a Cynic philosopher, whose unblushing vices had 
 been exposed by Justin, while defending Chris 
 tianity against the attacks of his enemy. The 
 name of the prefect was Rusticus, supposed by 
 many to have been the teacher of the emperor in 
 the Stoic philosophy. On this occasion, the fol 
 lowing conversation occurred : 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHUUC1I. 363 
 
 Ruslicus. First of all, offer sacrifice to the 
 gods, and do homage to the emperor. 
 
 Justin. He who obeys Christ is guilty of no 
 crime. (Meaning that he ought to be dis 
 charged.) 
 
 Ruslicus. Of what sect [of philosophers] do 
 you profess yourself? * 
 
 Justin. I tried all, and finally embraced that 
 of Christ ; though that is not agreeable to those 
 who profess what is erroneous. 
 
 Rusticus. Do you profess that doctrine, un 
 happy man ? 
 
 Justin. Yes ; for it seems to me to be true. 
 
 Rusticus. What is the doctrine ? 
 
 Justin. That we should worship the God of 
 the Christians, whom we believe to have been 
 from the beginning One ; the Creator and Maker 
 of all things, of all things seen and unseen, 
 and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who 
 was predicted by the prophets, as the future Sa 
 vior of mankind, their preacher and instructor 
 in excellent doctrine though I, being man, 
 cannot speak adequately of his infinite divinity, 
 that being only to be known by prophetic power. 
 For the prophets spoke long before of him whom 
 I spoke of as the Son of God, and of his pres 
 ence on earth among men. 
 
 * Justin, after his conversion, continued to wear the philoso 
 pher s cloak. He was known, therefore, as a Christian philosopher. 
 
364 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Rusticus. Where do you assemble ? 
 
 Justin. Wherever any one chooses.* Do you 
 suppose we all meet in one place ? Far from it. 
 As the God of the Christians is without limita 
 tion, and invisibly fills the heavens and the earth, 
 his faithful servants render him praise and wor 
 ship every where. 
 
 Rmticus. Tell me where you assemble, and 
 in what place your disciples are collected. 
 
 Justin. I live just above a certain man by the 
 name of Martinus. And up to this time I know 
 of no place of meeting but that. If any one 
 chooses to come to me, I communicate to him 
 the doctrine of truth. 
 
 Rusticus. Are you not then, after all, a Chris 
 tian ? 
 
 Justin. Assuredly I am a Christian. 
 
 [Here other Christians present, companions 
 of Justin, being addressed by Rusticus, avow 
 themselves on the same side. After which he 
 again addresses Justin as follows : ] 
 
 Listen to me, wise man, you who think you 
 know the doctrine. of truth. If you are scourged 
 from head to foot, do you suppose you shall then 
 ascend into the heavens? 
 
 Justin. I hope to enjoy the promise, if I suffer 
 these things; for I know that all who so live 
 
 * The reply was made to escape the law against Hetierhe. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 365 
 
 will partake of the divine gift till the consumma 
 tion of all things. 
 
 Rusticus. Do you imagine, when you ascend 
 into heaven, that some recompense will be award 
 ed to you? 
 
 Justin. I do not imagine, I believe ; nay, I am 
 certain of it. 
 
 Rusticus. Let us return, however, to the busi 
 ness before us. Come, then, all of you, and offer 
 incense to the gods with one accord. 
 
 Justin. No right-minded man falls from piety 
 into impiety 
 
 Justin is here cut short by the praefect, who 
 says, " If you do not obey, I shall punish you 
 without mercy." To which Justin replies, 
 
 " We give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ that 
 we, through suffering, shall be saved ; for this 
 will bring us freedom and salvation before the 
 dread tribunal of our Lord and Savior." 
 
 In which the other martyrs concur, saying, 
 
 Do what you will with us we are Chris 
 tians, arid will not offer incense to idols. 
 
 Whereupon the praefect pronounces the follow 
 ing sentence : 
 
 Those who will not offer incense to the gods, 
 nor obey the decree of the emperor, having been 
 scourged, shall be led away and punished capital 
 ly, according to the tenor of the law. 
 
 Such were the terrible tests to which the faith 
 31* 
 
3GG CHRIST JN HISTORY. 
 
 of the primitive Christians was subjected, and 
 such their mild but triumphant firmness. 
 
 " Swear," said the persecutors who had seized 
 the venerable bishop, or pastor, of the church in 
 Smyrna, " Swear by the genius of Caesar; retract, 
 and say, Away with the godless! " The old man 
 gazed in .sorrow at the frantic multitude, and, 
 with his eyes lifted up to heaven, said, " Away 
 with the godless ! " " Swear, and I release 
 thee," urged the heathen magistrate ; " blaspheme 
 Christ ! " "JBighty and six years have I served 
 Christ, and he has never done me an injury ; how 
 can I blaspheme my King and my Savior ? " was 
 the touching response. The proconsul again 
 commanded him to swear by the genius of Caesar. 
 Polycarp replied, that he was a Christian, and 
 requested a day to be appointed on which he 
 might explain, before the proconsul, the blame 
 less tenets of Christianity. " Persuade the people 
 to consent," replied the ruler, overawed by the 
 calm dignity of his prisoner. " We owe respect 
 to authority," said Polycarp ; " to thee I will ex 
 plain the reasons of my conduct, to the populace 
 I will make no explanation." The good man 
 well knew that it was useless to reason with the 
 passions of a ferocious multitude. The procon 
 sul then threatened to expose him to the wild 
 beasts. " Tis well for me to be released from 
 this life of misery," was the only reply. He 
 
TUT. PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 367 
 
 threatened to burn him alive. " I fear not the 
 fire that burns for a moment ; thou knowest not 
 that which burns forever and ever ! " His coun 
 tenance was full of peace and joy, even when 
 the executioner advanced into the midst of the 
 assembly and thrice proclaimed, " Polycarp has 
 professed himself a Christian." The multitude, 
 composed of Jews and heathen, replied with an 
 overpowering shout. They demanded that he 
 should be cast to the wild beasts. The Asiarch 
 excused himself, by saying that the games were 
 over. Then a general cry arose that Polycarp 
 should be burned alive. A hasty but capacious 
 funeral pile was gathered of the fuel of the baths 
 and other combustibles. He was speedily dis 
 robed ; he requested not to be nailed to the 
 stake ; he was only bound to it. In a dignified 
 and simple manner, he then offered the following 
 prayer : " O Lord God Almighty, the Father 
 of the well-beloved and ever-blessed Son Jesus 
 Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge 
 of thee, the God of angels, powers, and of every 
 creature, and of the whole race of the righteous 
 who live before thee, I thank thee that thou hast 
 graciously thought me worthy of this day and 
 this hour, that I may receive a portion in the 
 number of thy martyrs, and drink of Christ s cup, 
 for the resurrection to eternal life, both of the 
 body and the soul, in the incorruptibleness of 
 
368 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the Holy Spirit ; among whom may I be admit 
 ted as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, as thou, O 
 true and faithful God, hast prepared, and fore 
 shown, and accomplished. Wherefore I praise 
 thee for all thy mercies ; I bless thee ; I glorify 
 thee, with the eternal and heavenly Jesus Christ, 
 thy beloved Son, to whom, with thee and the 
 Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever." 
 
 The fire was kindled in vain, probably from 
 some natural cause, though the early Christians 
 deemed it supernatural.* Though the fire was 
 kindled again, an executioner was sent to de 
 spatch the victim, and the blood which flowed 
 from his side served to extinguish the flame. 
 His body was subsequently reduced to ashes. 
 
 " Such was the death of the blessed Polycarp," 
 says the Letter of the Church of Smyrna, "who, 
 though he was the twelfth of those in Smyrna 
 who, together with those from Philadelphia, suf 
 fered martyrdom, is yet chiefly celebrated by all 
 men ; insomuch that he is spoken of by the very 
 Gentiles themselves, in every place, as having 
 been not only an eminent teacher, but also a 
 glorious martyr; whose death all desire to imi 
 tate, as having been every way conformable to 
 the gospel of Christ." f 
 
 * Patres Apos., (ed. Hcfelc,) p. 216. 
 f Ibid. p. 219. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHUKCII. 369 
 
 The martyrdom of Polycarp took place in the 
 early part of the second century, when Chris 
 tianity was yet in the freshness and purity of its 
 first love. 
 
 At the close of the second century, Christian 
 ity, by the simple force of its inherent virtue, 
 was spreading far and wide in every direction. 
 It was felt as a power, not only in Rome, the 
 capital of the empire, but in Africa on the one 
 hand, and Gaul on the other. It had made its 
 way beyond the confines of Arabia and Syria, 
 as far as Hither India ; nay, more, it had pene 
 trated, with more or less success, among the 
 barbarians of the British Isles. We do not in 
 deed mean to affirm, that in these countries poly 
 theism was not the recognized and predominant 
 faith ; but we do mean to say, that Christianity 
 was gradually taking its place, undermining its 
 strength, and preparing its overthrow. The night 
 of superstition was still deep and portentous, but 
 the sunlight was piercing its depths, and glancing 
 upwards and afar amid its broken shadows. 
 
 This was the age of conversion and prosely- 
 tism, of struggle and self-sacrifice ; consequently 
 of simplicity, purity, and love. The might of 
 the gospel was felt in the hearts of men ; Jesus 
 Christ was recognized as " Head over all to the 
 church ; " pastors and people, united by fraternal 
 
370 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 ties, had one Lord, one faith, one baptism ; in a 
 word, freedom and brotherhood united the whole, 
 and made them one in Christ.* 
 
 * In the Appendix, note G, vrill be found some interesting testi 
 monies from Bunsen, Guizot, Ranke, Gibbon, and others, touching 
 the organization and government of the primitive church. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
 
 THE third century, in the history of Christian 
 ity, was one of struggle and transition, of partial 
 corruption and splendid triumph. Embodied 
 among men, it partook somewhat of their imper 
 fections, and of the imperfections of the age. 
 The times were evil, changing, and tumultuous. 
 Corruptions the most horrible invaded the heart 
 of Roman society. The old civic virtue was 
 entirely lost. Scepticism and cruelty, luxury and 
 lust, reigned among the patricians ; discontent 
 and greed, selfishness and disloyalty, among the 
 people. Rome grew weaker and weaker at the 
 centre, more feverish and disturbed at the extrem 
 ities. Now and then a good and able emperor 
 ruled well for a few years, but the good he accom 
 plished was obliterated by some weak or wicked 
 successor. The army ruled the state, controlled 
 the emperor, made arid unmade the laws. Oc 
 casionally the Christians were tolerated, but oft- 
 ener persecuted. Indeed, this was preeminently 
 the age of persecution. Blood flowed in torrents. 
 Thousands were thrown to the wild beasts, or 
 murdered by the frantic populace. 
 
 (371) 
 
372 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Christianity, however, made rapid progress. It 
 numbered nobles and philosophers among its 
 followers. It was preached among the Goths, 
 and, in some degree, softened their ferocity. In 
 Gaul and in Germany, far and near, churches 
 were multiplied. Tours, Aries, Treves, Paris, 
 Mentz, and other places, became the strongholds 
 of its power. It occasionally invaded the palace 
 of the Roman emperors, and exerted some influ 
 ence even upon its most furious persecutors. 
 When the monster Galerius was dying, he abated 
 his persecution of the Christians, and asked their 
 prayers on his behalf. 
 
 Christianity, however, in the hands of many, 
 had lost something of its simplicity. Supersti 
 tions were ingrafted on its simple usages. Power 
 was concentrated in the hands of metropolitan 
 bishops. Vain speculations were indulged by 
 some Christian philosophers. Philosopher, indeed, 
 with all its treasures, was rapidly flowing into 
 the bosom of the church. Plato and Philo were 
 incorporated into the Alexandrian school, and 
 much error was mingled with sublimest truth. 
 In Clement and Origen, the highest speculative 
 thought was combined witl\the profoundest piety : 
 but in the end, while philosophy was exalted, 
 piety suffered. All this, however, was inevitable, 
 in the process of human thought. Offences must 
 come, heresies and divisions, vain jangling, and 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 373 
 
 foolish speculation. The converts to Christian 
 ity were from all nations, of all sorts of educa 
 tion and temperament. Many of them were 
 men of vigorous intellects and rooted prejudices, 
 who, though converted to Christ, retained many 
 of their errors and defects. Hence, in their 
 views of the Deity, and of religion, they followed 
 their first, or their most popular instructors. Now 
 they were of one school of philosophy, then of 
 another. Few, if any, had just views either of 
 secular or of ecclesiastical government. All 
 were accustomed to centralization and despotism. 
 They misconceived the free, expansive genius of 
 Christianity. Hence, as Beausobre has remarked, 
 " An Epicurean who embraced the faith was 
 disposed to clothe the Divinity in a human form, 
 and to define it, like Epicurus, to be an immortal 
 and happy animal. A Platonist, on the contrary, 
 according to his master s views, maintained God 
 to be incorporeal* A Pythagorean, a follower 
 of Empedocles, or of Heracleitus, considered the 
 Deity as an intelligent fire or light," &c. 
 
 We may add that some of them were panthe 
 ists, and so represented the creation of all things 
 as an emanation, and thus confounded matter 
 
 * And yet Plato himself represented " the manifested God," or 
 the God of the outward universe, as " an animal ; " not an animal 
 in the inferior sense, sometimes attached to the term, but a liv 
 ing being, with a body as well as a soul. 
 
 32 
 
374 CHRIST IN HISTORY, 
 
 and mind. Temperament also combined with 
 these influences to deepen and extend the pe 
 culiarities of the Christian converts. Hence 
 the materialism of Hermas and Tertullian, who 
 believed in the regenerative power of water ; the 
 spiritualism of Justin Martyr, Clement, (of 
 Alexandria,) and Origen, with their Platonic 
 notions and symbolic interpretations ; as, also, 
 the various errors of the Gnostics and the Man- 
 ichees, who mingled the truths of Christianity 
 with their thepsophic dreams, their pleromas 
 and seons. 
 
 The age, too, was credulous and superstitious. 
 Freedom and independence in matters of govern 
 ment and discipline were almost unknown. Thou 
 sands of converts, among them many teachers 
 and preachers, were ignorant and superstitious. 
 Hence the multiplication of forms and ceremo 
 nies, and the vast importance attached to exter 
 nal acts, to chrisms and genuflections, amulets 
 and charms. 
 
 Nevertheless, the revolution in the views and 
 manners of the converted heathen was immense. 
 Idol worship was abandoned, and the one true 
 and eternal Jehovah was loved and adored. The 
 heart was cleansed of its idolatry and lust, the 
 life of its folly and crime. It is well known, 
 that among the heathen, a virtuous woman was 
 a great rarity ; among the Christian females, 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 375 
 
 continence was the rule, vice the exception. 
 Charity and chastity were the noble graces of 
 the primitive church. 
 
 The contrast between the manners of the 
 Christians and those of the heathen was obvi 
 ous to all. The following description, in a letter 
 of Cyprian, is by no means exaggerated. Writing 
 to his friend Donatus, he says, " Imagine your 
 self raised above the earth, and looking down 
 upon it, so as to perceive what is going on there. 
 Behold the roads obstructed by bands of robbers ; 
 the sea beset with pirates ; war every where ! The 
 very earth is wet with blood, and what is called 
 murder, when committed by a private individual, 
 is virtue when it is done by many ; impunity 
 being secured, not by the smallness, but by the 
 greatness of the offence. If you turn your eyes 
 to the cities, then you will find their very magni 
 tude more offensive than the most wretched soli 
 tude. There gladiatorial shows are exhibited to 
 gratify the lust .of blood. Man is slaughtered for 
 the pleasure of man ; he who best knows how to 
 kill is the most skilful ; it is a trade, an art. 
 The crime is not only perpetrated, but it is 
 taught. What can be more inhuman ? They 
 combat with beasts, not as criminals, but from 
 brute fury : sons behold their father, the sister 
 sees the brother, in the amphitheatre. 
 
376 CIIKIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 " Turn your eyes to spectacles of another kind, 
 not less repulsive and corrupting. In the theatre, 
 the most vicious representations, parricide and 
 incest reproduced in all their horror. Look 
 at the comic actor, the very schoolmaster of vice. 
 Adultery is learned by seeing it acted ! The 
 theatre panders to vice, and breaks down the 
 modesty of women. What an incitement to 
 vice in the gestures of the actors, who undertake 
 to represent the whole course of sensual indul 
 gence ! If, from this, you could look into the 
 retirement of the closed chamber, and see what 
 is there transacted ! But your eyes would be 
 defiled by beholding it." 
 
 Cyprian then proceeds, in deepening colors, to 
 depict still more horrible crimes, public and pri 
 vate, in the forum, the baths, the theatres, the 
 places of public concourse, to some of which we 
 have no parallel in modern times, crimes which it 
 is impossible for us to repeat, difficult for us to 
 conceive. Indeed, he describes that state of 
 society, to which St. Paul, in his Epistle to the 
 Romans, refers, as the most degraded and bestial. 
 
 All this, however, the early Christians re 
 nounced. Theatres, gladiatorial shows, popular 
 amusements, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
 eye, and the pride of life they abandoned in their 
 baptism. They deserted the temples of the gods, 
 and gave themselves to the cultivation of piety 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 377 
 
 and virtue. Tested by the most powerful temp 
 tations, sometimes by appalling deaths, some 
 yielded, but yielded reluctantly and with horror. 
 This is freely admitted by the Christian fathers 
 and church historians. But it is precisely what 
 might have been expected. But many repented, 
 while the great body of believers nobly stood 
 the test. They preferred death to dishonor. 
 Their purity, their fidelity, their triumphant faith 
 astonished even the heathen. They gloried in 
 the cross. Christ was in their souls, as strength 
 and peace eternal, and willingly, nay, cheerfully, 
 they passed through fire and blood, agony and 
 disolution, to the glory of martyrdom. " Your 
 cruelty," says Tertullian, addressing the heathen 
 ruler, " will be our glory. Thousands of both 
 sexes, and of every rank, will eagerly crowd to 
 martyrdom, exhaust your fires, and weary your 
 swords. Carthage must be decimated ; the prin 
 cipal persons in the city, even perhaps your own 
 most intimate friends and kindred, must be sac 
 rificed. Vainly will you war against God. 
 Magistrates are but men, and will suffer the 
 common lot of mortality ; but Christianity will 
 endure as long as the Roman empire, and the 
 duration of the empire will be coeval with that 
 of the world." Look, for example, at the sub 
 lime serenity and triumph of that youthful com 
 pany, Revocatus and Felicitas, Saturninus and 
 32* 
 
378 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Secundulus, catechumens, and Viva Perpetua, 
 a woman of good family and liberal education, 
 and honorably married, who turned away from 
 all human bribes, and gave themselves to the 
 fury of the wild beasts. Entreated by the prayers 
 and tears of an aged father to abandon her faith, 
 Perpetua clung to the cross, amid shame, agony, 
 and death. In prison and among the wild 
 beasts, with her young child in her arms, she 
 maintained her dignity and composure, as if she 
 were an angel rather that a* feeble woman. 
 "When taken out to execution, they declined, 
 and were permitted to decline, the profane dress 
 in which they were to be clad; the men that of 
 the priests of Saturn, the women that of the 
 priestesses of Ceres. They came forward in 
 their simple attire, Perpetua singing psalms. 
 The men were exposed to leopards and bears ; 
 the women were hung up naked in nets, to be 
 gored by a furious cow. But even the excited 
 populace shrunk with horror at the spectacle of 
 two young and delicate women, one recently 
 recovered from child birth, in this state. They 
 were recalled by acclamation, and in mercy 
 brought forward again clad in loose robes. Per 
 petua was tossed, her garment was rent ; but 
 more conscious of her wounded modesty than of 
 pain, she drew the robe over the part of her per 
 son that was exposed. She then calmly clasped 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCII. 379 
 
 up her hair, because it did not become a martyr 
 to suffer with dishevelled locks, the sign of sor 
 row. She then raised up the fainting and mor 
 tally-wounded Felicitas, and the cruelty of the 
 populace being for a time appeased, they were 
 permitted to retire. Perpetua seemed rapt in 
 ecstasy, and, as if awaking from sleep, inquired 
 when she was to be exposed to the beast. She 
 could scarcely be made to believe what had 
 taken place ; her last words tenderly admonished 
 her brother to be steadfast in the faith. All were 
 speedily released from their sufferings. Perpetua 
 guided with her own hand the merciful sword 
 of the gladiator which relieved her from her 
 agony." 
 
 Similar to this, in features of moral beauty 
 and heroism, was the martyrdom of Blandina 
 at Vienne, in Gaul.* 
 
 The charity of the Christians of this age is 
 beautifully illustrated, in contrast with the pro 
 found selfishness of the heathen, on the occasion 
 of the devastating plague which broke out at 
 Alexandria, as a consequence of the carnage 
 which followed the insurrection in that city. 
 The heathen fled, the Christians remained, and 
 were unwearied in their attendance upon the 
 sick and dying. Many of these perished in the 
 
 * See Milman s Hist, of Christianity, pp. 245, 2-iG. See also p. 237 
 of the same work. 
 
380 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 performance of their duty. " In this way," says 
 the good Bishop Dionysius, with affecting sim 
 plicity, " the best of the brethren departed this 
 life ; some ministers and some deacons." They 
 thus triumphantly disproved the slander of their 
 enemies, who were wont to call them atheists 
 and man haters. 
 
 A devotion similar to this was shown at Car 
 thage, when the plague reached that city. " All 
 fled in horror from the contagion, abandoning 
 their relations and friends, as if they thought 
 that by avoiding the plague any one might also 
 exclude death altogether. Meanwhile the city 
 was strewed with the dead bodies, or rather car 
 casses of the dead, which seemed to call for pity 
 on the passers by, who might themselves so soon 
 share the same fate ; but no one cared for any 
 thing but miserable pelf; no one trembled at the 
 consideration of what might so soon befall him in 
 his turn ; no one did for another what he would 
 have wished others to do for him. The bishop 
 hereupon called together his flock, and setting 1 
 before them the example and teaching of their 
 Lord, called on them to act up to it. He said 
 if they took care only of their own people, they 
 did but what the commonest feeling would dic 
 tate the servant of Christ must do more : he 
 must love his enemies and pray for his perse 
 cutors ; for God made his sun to rise, and his 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 381 
 
 rain to fall on all alike, and he who would be 
 the child of God must imitate his Father." To 
 this appeal the people cheerfully responded ; they 
 formed themselves into classes ; the rich gave of 
 their abundance, the poor of their poverty, and 
 no one quitted his post but with his life. 
 
 In the matter of government and discipline, 
 the church of the third century was gradually 
 yielding to a despotic, all-controlling unity. The 
 Bishops of Carthage, Antioch, and Rome, espe 
 cially the latter, exercised extensive influence and 
 dominion over the neighboring churches. Grad 
 ually a hierarchy of presbyters and bishops was 
 formed. Those who possessed talent and power, 
 or who had done and suffered much in the cause 
 of Christ, claimed a higher consideration. Epis 
 copal authority was enhanced ; and much bigot 
 ry and intolerance were developed. Heretics 
 and apostates were denounced ; the slightest 
 deviations from dominant usage was pun 
 ished with proscription and excommunication. 
 Speculative notions also, as already intimated, 
 began to prevail, and formal creeds were imposed 
 upon the people. The Roman emperors occa 
 sionally flattered the bishops and leading mem 
 bers of the church, and a spirit of pride and in 
 tolerance was beginning to invade its purity. 
 This, indeed, was often checked, if not alto 
 gether extinguished, by the terrible persecution 
 
382 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 through which they all passed ; and upon the 
 whole, the third century was one of remarkable 
 spiritual progress. Piety of the noblest, and 
 most self-sacrificing kind adorned the character 
 both of the pastors and their people. The gold 
 was somewhat tarnished ; nay, more, here and 
 there it was mingled with dross ; but it was gold 
 still. Christ was enthroned in the church, and 
 his peaceful reign extended among the heathen. 
 
 In two Christians especially, the one a bishop, 
 the other a philosopher, is the spirit of Chris 
 tianity at this era, both in its excellences and 
 defects, strikingly developed ; and to them, there 
 fore, we will devote the remainder of this chap 
 ter. We refer to Cyprian of Carthage, and 
 Origen of Alexandria, both of them great and 
 good, yet erring and defective men. 
 
 Thascius Cyprianus was born at Carthage, 
 of wealthy and influential heathen parents. He 
 was educated with great care, and gave evidence 
 of extraordinary talents. He paid much atten 
 tion especially to oratorical studies, and was dis 
 tinguished for his bold and fervid eloquence. His 
 temper was warm and imperious, his passions 
 quick and powerful. Yielding to the vices of 
 heathenism, and despising Christianity, it seemed 
 impossible that he should ever become a Christian ; 
 and indeed, he continued attached to the pagan 
 faith till twelve years before his death. When his 
 
TTIK PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 383 
 
 attention was called to the truth, he felt that in 
 his case the transformation demanded was im 
 possible. " Receive," says he in a letter to his 
 friend Donatus,* " what must be experienced be 
 fore it can be understood, not by external aids, 
 or mere knowledge, but by the transforming 
 grace of God. When I lay in darkness and 
 blindness, tossed hither and thither, in the dismal 
 night, amid the billows, wandering about with 
 an uncertain and fluctuating course, according 
 to my habits at that time, I considered it was 
 something difficult and hard that any one could 
 be born again, lay aside what he was before, 
 and although his corporeal nature remained 
 the same, become in soul and temper a new 
 man." 
 
 " How could a man," said he, " already at 
 mature age, undergo such a transformation, 
 change his whole life and habits, which through 
 constitution or the force of custom had become 
 a second nature ; learn economy and temperance 
 when accustomed to luxury and dissipation ; ex 
 change gold and purple for a poor or simple 
 dress ? . . . Thus I have often said to my 
 self. For as I was entangled in many errors of 
 my former life, and did not believe that I could 
 be emancipated from their control, I yielded to 
 
 * Epistola Prinia ad Don, 
 
384 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the vice which clave to me, and despairing of 
 reform, submitted to my evil passions, as if they 
 belonged to my nature." 
 
 After a long struggle with himself, and aided 
 by the pious counsels of Cecilius, a Christian 
 presbyter whose name he adopted at his baptism, 
 and whose wife and children he took into his 
 own charge, after the death of Cecilius, Cyprian 
 at length yielded to the overpowering evidence 
 of Christianity, and became a new man in Christ 
 Jesus. " Then," says he, " things formerly doubt 
 ful were confirmed in a remarkable manner; 
 what before was closed became open, and dark 
 things were illuminated ; power was given to 
 perform what before seemed difficult the im 
 possible was rendered possible; my former life, 
 carnal in its origin and spent in sin, was an 
 earthly life ; my new life, animated and controlled 
 by the Spirit, is a life in God." 
 
 Cyprian was reluctantly called, by the voice 
 of the people, in a time of trouble and distrac 
 tion, to the bishopric of Carthage. He nobly 
 justified their choice. Though urging the loftiest 
 claims to episcopal and church authority, and 
 occasionally betraying what may justly be termed 
 a vehement and intolerant spirit, he gave him 
 self to the work of God with singular energy 
 and zeal. His piety and benevolence, his charity 
 and patience, were celebrated throughout Africa, 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 385 
 
 wherever the Christian name was known. Per 
 secution assailed the church. He nobly breasted 
 the storm when necessary for the defence of his 
 flock, but retired before its vehemence whenever 
 by doing so he could best accomplish the ends 
 of his pastorate. He thus escaped death during 
 the persecution under Decius, and returned to 
 Carthage when the edicts against the Christians 
 were suspended by Valerian. He was soon, 
 however, called to bear testimony to the faith, at 
 the hazard of his life. All the bishops and 
 teachers of the Christian church were condemned 
 to death. It was a time of peculiar trial, and 
 Cyprian felt that he must put himself at the 
 head of his flock, and stand in the breach. He 
 exhorted all to patience and endurance. When 
 his sentence was about to be pronounced, he 
 quietly awaited what might befall him, at his 
 country residence near Carthage, which, in the 
 fervor of his first love, he had sold, in order to 
 assist the poor with the money, but which the 
 attachment of his church had restored to him. 
 In the former persecution he had yielded to the 
 dictates of prudence; but now, no entreaties 
 from friends, and even from men of note among 
 the heathen, who proffered him an asylum, could 
 induce him to decline that public confession 
 which he believed the Lord had called him to 
 make. But when he heard that he war to be 
 33 
 
386 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 taken to Utica, where the proconsul was then 
 staying, that he might be executed there, he 
 resolved to yield for a season to the advice of his 
 friends, "since," as he said, "it was fitting that 
 the bishop should confess the Lord before the 
 church over which the Lord hath placed him, in 
 order, by his confession, to do honor to the whole 
 church; for what the bishop utters at such a 
 time, by the inspiration of God, he utters as the 
 voice of all." 
 
 All at once Cyprian was seized by a guard, 
 and taken to the proconsul; but as long as the 
 proconsul remained in the country for relaxation, 
 Cyprian was not examined. Crowds of his 
 brethren, friends, and church members gathered 
 around him, and watched his prison during the 
 night, so that no evil might befall him. The 
 next morning, accompanied by a great multitude 
 of Christians and heathen, he was led to judg 
 ment. The place was at some distance, and, as 
 the proconsul had not yet arrived, he was permit 
 ted. to retire to a solitary spot, where, exhausted, 
 he lay down upon a bench that he found there. 
 A soldier, who had apostatized from Christianity, 
 offered him, from love and reverence, and from 
 a desire to secure his clothes as relics, (for the 
 passion for relics then began to be entertained ; 
 a passion natural, but easily perverted,) dry 
 clothes instead of his own, which were dripping 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 387 
 
 with sweat. But Cyprian answered him, " Shall 
 I be anxious to be free from discomfort, when, 
 perhaps, to-morrow I shall feel nothing at all?" 
 
 When at last brought before the proconsul, 
 the latter thus addressed him : 
 
 Are you Thascius Cyprianus ? 
 
 Cyp. I am. 
 
 Pro. You have suffered yourself to be made a 
 chief of these men holding sacrilegious opinions. 
 
 Cyp. I have. 
 
 Pro. The majesty of the emperor requires 
 thee to perform the ceremonies of our state 
 religion. 
 
 Cyp. That I cannot do. 
 
 Pro. Think of your own safety. 
 
 Cyp. Do what is commanded you. There is 
 no room for deliberation in so clear a matter. 
 
 To the same deputy, a year before, he had 
 replied, when commanded to perform idolatrous 
 ceremonies, " I am a Christian and a bishop. I 
 know no other deity than the one true God, who 
 made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that 
 therein is. This God we Christians serve; to 
 him we pray day and night for ourselves and all 
 other men, as well as for the safety of those very 
 emperors." 
 
 Thus he had no further explanations to make, 
 as the proconsul knew well the tenets of his faith, 
 and that there was only one alternative. Hence 
 
388 CHRIST IN IIISTOIIT. 
 
 Cyprian s simple reply " Do what is commanded 
 you" 
 
 The proconsul, after consulting with his coun 
 cil, pronounced the following sentence : " You 
 have lived a long time in impiety, and have 
 conspired to pervert other men constituting 
 yourself the enemy of the Roman gods so 
 that the pious and most sacred emperors have 
 been unable to recall you to the observance of 
 the holy ceremonies. Therefore, as you are the 
 author and leader of these flagrant crimes, you 
 shall be made a warning to those whom you 
 have conjoined with you in your wickedness." 
 
 Cyp. God be praised. 
 
 He was followed by a crowd of believers, who 
 wished to die with him ; but the orders of the 
 proconsul, it would seem, extended only to the 
 principal men. His friends and disciples, there 
 fore, were permitted to attend him to the place 
 of execution, where, with a serene courage, 
 springing from his confidence in God, after hav 
 ing presented the executioner with twenty pieces 
 of gold, he sealed his testimony with his 
 blood. 
 
 We now turn to Origen, whose genius and 
 virtue were as illustrious as his piety and devotion 
 to the cause of Christ. In him the philosophical 
 spirit developed itself in connection with the faith 
 of Christ, giving rise to some errors, and yet en- 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 389 
 
 riching the body of truth and the great stream of 
 civilization with elements of beauty and power. 
 Origen was born in Alexandria, the magnifi 
 cent capital of Grecian Egypt, in the year 185, 
 and was instructed by his parents in the truths 
 of the Christian religion. He received the best 
 education that Alexandria afforded, and in early 
 life gave indications of genius and strength of 
 character. The old Grecian philosophy, ex 
 tinguished by scepticism in its native haunts, 
 revived in Alexandria with augmented splendor. 
 As this prosperous city was the emporium of 
 trade and luxury, thither nocked all sorts of 
 persons, representatives of the different nations 
 around it, merchants, artisans, politicians, and 
 scholars. Learning and the arts were somewhat 
 fostered by the government, and many dis 
 tinguished thinkers were encouraged to open 
 schools of philosophy. Plato revived in Philo. 
 The theosophy of the east and the speculations 
 of the west were mingled in Ammonius Saccas. 
 In a word, Alexandria was equally eclectic in 
 population, religion, and philosophy. Chris 
 tianity came in as a new and all-comprehending 
 power, first making its way among the common 
 people, and then among scholars and philosophers. 
 Pantaenus and Clement were Christian instruct 
 ors, and felt the necessity of adapting their 
 teachings to the condition of the community. 
 33* 
 
090 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Well read in Grecian learning, as well as in the 
 writings of prophets and apostles, they discovered 
 points of harmony where others had seen only 
 discord and opposition. The grand ideas of the 
 Platonic school especially found a response in 
 their enlightened minds, and were easily blended 
 with the revelations of Christ. Indeed, they saw 
 in the fundamental principles of Christianity a 
 manifestation of the true God and the everlasting 
 life a higher philosophy, in whose comprehen 
 sive unity all other truth might find its place. 
 These were the teachers of Origen, in philosophy 
 and religion. These inspired in their susceptible 
 pupil the love not only of Christ, but of the 
 beautiful and true in nature and in man. In his 
 earliest years he evinced a certain grandeur of 
 thought and feeling. Leonidas, his father, while 
 he admired, had frequent occasion to check the 
 inquisitive and aspiring spirit of his son. Yet 
 he regarded him with a sort of reverence. It is 
 related, that, when leaning over his sleeping boy, 
 the father would reverently kiss that bosom as 
 the chosen temple of the Holy Ghost. When 
 his father was cast into prison, on account of his 
 religion, during the persecution under Severus, 
 Origen exhorted him rather to suffer martyrdom 
 than renounce his religion. 
 
 This persecution was a severe one. It raged 
 not only in Alexandria, but in the Thebais, and 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 391 
 
 throughout Egypt. Multitudes suffered martyr 
 dom. Ori:en himself burned to win a crown 
 
 o 
 
 similar to the one that now hung over the head of 
 his father. He could suffer as well as study for 
 Christ ! His mother besought him with tears not 
 to expose himself to the fury of the persecutors. 
 When this proved unavailing, she resorted to the 
 expedient of secreting his clothes, and thus forced 
 him to remain at home. It was then that he 
 wrote to his father not to permit any considera 
 tions of his family to shake his fidelity to Christ. 
 The good old man was led forth to death, and 
 sealed his testimony with his blood. His prop 
 erty was confiscated; and the youthful Origen 
 supported his mother and six brothers by teach 
 ing the Greek language and literature. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, the persecution was re 
 newed with increased violence. The teachers 
 of the Catechetical school sought refuge in flight. 
 Origen was asked by Demetrius, the bishop, to 
 supply their place. He did so, and nobly breasted 
 the fury of the storm. He stood by the side of 
 the martyrs during their trial, exhorting them to 
 fidelity, comforted them in their prisons, and 
 accompanied them to execution. His own life 
 was frequently in danger, but he contrived to 
 escape, as if aided by some miraculous power. 
 Six of his pupils, according to Eusebius, suffered 
 martyrdom; but he continued his instructions 
 
392 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 with a constant accession of students and hearers. 
 His labors night and day were immense. He 
 read and prayed alternately, fasted much, and 
 gave alms of all that he had. Every delicacy, 
 including wine, and even shoes, and sometimes 
 sleep itself, were abjured. Undaunted and self- 
 sacrificing, he became all things for Christ. 
 
 This feeling of ascetic severity, noble in its 
 principle and impulse, was exaggerated; and 
 Origen was led to mutilate himself, according to 
 what he deemed the command of Christ, and for 
 the sake of avoiding .scandal amid the crowd of 
 male and female pupils with whom he mingled 
 a sad mistake, yet indicating the iron energy 
 and lofty self-denial of the man. Well might he 
 be called by his contemporaries Adamantius; 
 and well might Eusebius say that " he taught as 
 he lived, and lived as he taught," 
 
 After the death of Severus, Origen went to 
 Rome, where he gained many friends and ad 
 mirers. After his return, he continued, at the 
 desire of the Bishop Demetrius, his catechetical 
 instructions. A popular tumult compelled him 
 to flee to Palestine, where he was held in such 
 esteem by the bishops, that they encouraged 
 him to preach in the assemblies. His profound 
 thought and persuasive eloquence won all hearts. 
 Moved with jealousy, as it is supposed, his own 
 bishop recalled him. Subsequently he was sent 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 393 
 
 to Achaia, to heal some divisions there. On his 
 way to Csesarea, in Palestine, he was ordain 
 ed a presbyter, which laid the foundation of 
 difficulties and controversies with the Bishop 
 Demetrius, who haughtily claimed entire juris 
 diction over the movements of Origen, and 
 finally degraded him from the ministry. But 
 Origen had a great mission to perform, and he 
 meekly continued to discharge his duties. He 
 was encouraged and sustained by the churches 
 in Achaia, Phoenicia, and Arabia. Denying the 
 errors laid to his charge, he went to live at 
 Coesarea, where he taught the truths of Chris 
 tianity with great success. In the year 231 his 
 persecutor died, and Origen now enjoyed in 
 tranquillity his well-deserved reputation. The 
 celebrated Gregory Thaumaturgus and his 
 brother Athenodorus employed him as their 
 instructor, looking up to him with affectionate 
 respect. 
 
 "When peace was restored to the church, after 
 the persecution under Maximin, during which 
 Origen had lain in concealment, he took occa 
 sion to travel to Athens. Thence he went to 
 Arabia, to which he was invited by the bishops 
 of that province, to refute Bishop Beryllus, who 
 denied the existence of our Savior s divine na 
 ture, previous to his incarnation. Origen spoke 
 with such candor and eloquence, that Beryllus 
 
394 * CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 renounced his errors, and thanked him for his 
 instructions. He was equally successful with 
 other heretics a circumstance which must be 
 ascribed to the wonderful modesty, gentleness, 
 and ability of the man. 
 
 In the new persecution under Decius, Origen 
 played a conspicuous part. He was regarded as 
 a pillar of the church, and thrown into prison, 
 where he was subjected to the cruelest suffer 
 ings, which he bore with a spirit of calm hero 
 ism and Christian resignation. Exhausted by 
 his sufferings, he died at Tyre, in the year 254. 
 
 Origen was a voluminous writer, but the most 
 of his productions are lost. The others are some 
 what mutilated, and, in all probability, interpo 
 lated. It is difficult, therefore, to form a just 
 estimate of his philosophical or theological opin 
 ions. He spent years on the study of the sacred 
 writings in the original tongues. He did much 
 to preserve the integrity of the Greek and Hebrew 
 text. His commentaries are often fanciful, and 
 yet profound and pious. He uses the allegorical 
 mode of interpretation, after the manner of 
 Philo, and finds meanings under the literal im 
 port, sometimes extravagant, sometimes rare 
 and beautiful. In this respect, however, he de 
 parted from the simplicity of Christ. In his 
 great work, Contra Cclsum y he vindicates Chris 
 tianity, as a divine, infallible religion. His own 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 395 
 
 soul rejoiced in Jesus Christ, as the " brightness 
 of the Father s glory, and the express image of 
 his person." Liberal and comprehensive, he 
 cherished large and generous views, and culti 
 vated a spirit of true Christian charity. Many 
 of his speculations are simply suggestions and 
 inquiries after the manner of Plato ; he never 
 pressed them as infallible dogmas. Not thor 
 oughly appreciating the limits of human inquiry, 
 and attaching too much importance to the 
 methods of philosophy, at that time ill denned 
 and variant, he allowed his thoughts to wander 
 into the untried regions of speculative conjec 
 ture. Enamoured especially of Plato, he revelled 
 amid the dreams of a profound, yet imaginative 
 theosophy. Passing from the outward, arid de 
 spising the body, he sought the essential and 
 eternal archetypes of things in the bosom of God 
 saw there the unchangeable essence, and finite 
 procession of the soul, and thus taught a dogma 
 akin to the Platonic transmigration. Like Plato, 
 he saw the spirit, once winged and holy, fallen 
 into materialism and sin, from which, struggling 
 upward, it must leave the body, and rejoin the 
 immortals. From the same view he deduced 
 the freedom of the human soul, and the final 
 restoration of all to purity and God. To him 
 all nature, as in the Platonic theory, was vital 
 and conscious the stars were the abodes, per- 
 
396 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 haps the bodies, of living souls, whose brightness 
 or dimness corresponds precisely with the moral 
 character of the spirits which occupy them. An 
 endless succession of worlds preceded our own, 
 and an endless succession will follow. The bad, 
 revolving, so to speak, through various cycles 
 and transformations, will yet, through the agency 
 of their free will, and the love of Christ, reach 
 new heavens and a new earth, prepared for their 
 eternal abode. 
 
 Origen, while holding the humanity of Christ 
 as an outer expression of his separate spiritual 
 existence, maintained his supreme divinity. He 
 saw in him the word or manifestation of the 
 one eternal Father. In his Contra Celsum, 
 replying to the objection of his opponent, founded 
 on the worship paid to Christ, who, in the view 
 of the heathen philosopher, was a mere man, he 
 says, " We worship, therefore, as we have now 
 shown, one God, Father and Son, and our argu 
 ment remains as impregnable as before. We do 
 not regard with an excessive veneration one who 
 has but lately appeared among men, as though 
 he had no existence before. We believe his own 
 word, when he tells us, Before Abraham was I 
 am, as also when he says, I arn the truth. We 
 are none of us so stupid as to think that the Es 
 sence of Truth had no existence before the time 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 397 
 
 of Christ s appearance."* Hence, in his 8th Hom 
 ily on Jeremiah, he says, " If the soul have not 
 God the Father, if it have not the Son, saying, 
 * I and my Father will come to him, and will 
 make our abode with him, if it have not the 
 Holy Spirit, it is desolate." 
 
 Thus Cyprian and Origen come together in 
 their love and reverence for Christ, as the Way, 
 the Truth, and the Life. This is the living stream 
 which mingles with the philosophy, the litera 
 ture, the politics, and the art of the modern 
 world. We shall find it in all the centuries, 
 coursing its way towards the grand consumma 
 tion of truth, freedom, and righteousness, yet 
 to come. 
 
 * Contra Cel lib. viii. 12. 
 
 34 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CHRIST IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 WE have seen how Christianity, thrown into 
 the crude mass of humanity, vitiated and en 
 feebled by idolatry and lust, won amazing tri 
 umphs. It partook, however, in its actual 
 embodiment and application, of the spirit and 
 tendency of the age. At heart, the Roman em 
 pire was corrupt, and destined to destruction, 
 and not even Christianity could finally save it. 
 Indeed, its dismemberment was a matter not 
 only of political, but of moral necessity. The 
 revolution and reconstruction of nations is one 
 of God s methods of elevating and purifying 
 society. Old forms pass away. New energies 
 are brought into free and generous play. Indeed, 
 society, in its best form, is an amalgam ; and it 
 required the Roman and the Teutonic elements, 
 moulded by Christianity, to give rise to the new 
 and vigorous organization of modern society. 
 
 Taken, however, into the embrace of the state, 
 first by Constantine, and subsequently by Char 
 lemagne and Pepin, as an organized belief, with 
 its hierarchy of forms and ministers, Christianity 
 
 (398) 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 399 
 
 necessarily lost much of its original purity and 
 power. Still, no amount of corruption could 
 divest it of its inherent, life-giving energy.* It 
 yet spread, after the disruption of the Roman 
 empire, in lines of renovation and blessing. 
 The idols of heathen worship were abolished, 
 and the worship of the true God was established 
 in many barbarous climes. Idolatry and slavery, 
 polygamy and gladiatorial shows, with the more 
 unnatural forms of lust, so common among the 
 heathen, disappeared from the civilized world. 
 
 The church, however, having become national 
 and hierarchical, was used as an engine of 
 political power. Whole nations were brought 
 into it by mere baptism or conquest, without the 
 slightest reference to their spiritual state. The 
 conversion of a warrior, king, or chief, insured 
 the conversion of his people. All must come 
 under the yoke of Christ, whether they under 
 stand the gospel or not. Some of the northern 
 barbarians, who overran the Roman empire, 
 were nominal Christians ; others were pagans ; 
 but all eventually submitted to the church ; some 
 from superstition, others from choice, and many 
 from policy and force. The consequences can 
 
 * It is of the greatest moment, in estimating the claims of Chris 
 tianity, to distinguish between the mere human form, in which it is 
 embodied, and Christianity itself, which never changes. The Chris 
 tianity of Christ, or of the Bible, is often a very different thing from 
 the Christianity of man, or of society. 
 
400 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 easily be foreseen. Paganism was mingled with 
 Christianity. The virgin mother was adored 
 as "the queen of heaven," temples were turned 
 into churches, and churches into temples, adorned 
 with images of the saints, and smoking with 
 incense. The supper of our Lord was made a 
 sacrifice, having a greater affinity with supersti 
 tion than with enlightened religion. The Catho 
 lic church, as it termed itself, with some grand 
 redeeming elements, became a mere external 
 organization, to which vast additions were con 
 stantly made, partly by persuasion, and partly 
 by violence. Abjuring the first element of our 
 Savior s kingdom, which is spiritual and divine, 
 and thence to be advanced only by the regenera 
 tion of true hearts, in a free, spontaneous man 
 ner, the Papal organization formed itself into a 
 hierarchy of material forms and despotic forces, 
 and insisted upon the submission of the world. 
 The Christian people were excluded from all 
 share in the government of the church ; and free 
 dom, even on the part of the inferior clergy, was 
 utterly excluded. The sword and the keys were 
 conjoined, and what could not be effected by 
 persuasion was effected by force. Racks and 
 gibbets, imprisonment and death, as well as the 
 preaching of the gospel, were the means em 
 ployed to secure this result. Undoubtedly, both 
 within and without the church Catholic, a con- 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 401 
 
 stant protest was uttered against all this ; and 
 here and there, during the middle ages, we find 
 multitudes of good Catholics, as well as Protest 
 ants or heretics, abjuring these anti- Christian 
 principles, and cultivating, as best they could, 
 the spirit of a pure Christianity. Rome, with all 
 her unity, has ever been a unity of compromises ; 
 and, as she still possessed the word of God and 
 the general theory of the gospel, as a system 
 of reconciliation and reform, she retained, not 
 withstanding her corruptions, some regenerative 
 power, some conservative social influence. 
 
 Hence, it has been well remarked, that " we 
 ought to distinguish between Catholicism and 
 Papacy." The Catholic church, in itself consid 
 ered, may be regarded as a different institution 
 from the Papal hierarchy. The latter is un 
 questionably anti- Christian ; the former, imperfect 
 and even corrupt, may yet embody, and undoubt 
 edly does embody, much true piety. Immense, 
 however, were the abuses of the Papacy, and 
 through that of the whole Catholic body, at the 
 time of which we are speaking. They had 
 grown to such enormity in the days of Petrarch 
 and Dante, that these two poets, Catholics both, 
 denounced the Roman hierarchy, popes, cardi 
 nals, and monks, with unmeasured severity. 
 Dante does not hesitate to put some of the popes 
 34* 
 
402 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 in his Inferno, and boldly designates Rome as 
 the Babylon of the Apocalypse, exclaiming, 
 
 " Ah Constantino ! to how much ill gave birth, 
 Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower 
 Which the first wealthy father gave to thee." * 
 
 Petrarch, who had seen, especially at Avignon, 
 the horrible corruptions of the Papal court, pours 
 upon it a torrent of invective.f 
 
 * See Inferno, cxix. Purgatorio, xxxii. 
 
 f The following verses will give an idea of the energy with which 
 Petrarch ordinarily so gentle in the style of his composition 
 attacks the Roman see : 
 
 " The fire of wrathful Heaven alight 
 And all thy harlot tresses smite, 
 
 Base city ! Thou from humble fare 
 Thy acorns and thy water rose 
 To greatness, rich with others woes, 
 
 Rejoicing in the ruin thou didst bear. 
 
 " Foul nest of treason ! is there aught 
 Wherewith the spacious world is fraught 
 
 Of bad or vile, tis hatched in thee, 
 Who revellest in thy costly meats, 
 Thy precious wines, and curious seats, 
 
 And all the pride of luxury. 
 
 " The while, within thy secret halls, 
 Old men in seemly festivals 
 
 With buxom girls in dance are going ; 
 And in thy midst old Beelzebub 
 Eyes, through his glass, the motley club, 
 The fire with sturdy bellows blowing." 
 
 Quoted from Lc Rime dfl Pctrarcha, (ed. Lod. Castelvetro,) torn, 
 i. p. 325 ; in Dr. McCries Hist, of the Refor. in Italy, p. 27. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 403 
 
 The wonder indeed is, that Christianity could 
 live in such a system at all, embarrassed by 
 superstition, checked by bigotry, enfeebled by 
 lust. But it certainly did, and this we regard as 
 one of the proofs of its divine origin, its inher 
 ent, indestructible energy.* Roman Catholicism, 
 while embodying pagan elements, was ever supe 
 rior to paganism, and in a barbarous age exerted 
 over society some conservative and reformatory 
 influence. Even Merle D Aubigne says that 
 " important services were rendered by Catholi 
 cism to the existing European nations, in the 
 age of their first formation." f All nationalities 
 had been dissolved in the destruction of the 
 Roman empire, and chaos brooded over society. 
 Christianity formed a centre to the whole, and 
 the old Teutonic nations crystallized around it. 
 Thence order sprung from confusion, and all the 
 vital elements of modern society were developed. 
 
 If the church, in consequence of her power, 
 became corrupt, and oppressed her subjects, she 
 did so to save them from the gulf of barbarism, 
 into which, inevitably, they must have plunged. 
 She was a severe and bigoted mother, but she 
 preserved her children from fatal anarchy and 
 absolute political destruction. 
 
 * This is what Bunsen (in Hippolytus) justly styles " the miracle 
 of the last fifteen hundred years." See Appendix, note II. 
 f- Hist, of the Reformation, vol. i, p. 8. 
 
404 CHRIST Itt HISTOKY. 
 
 Hence Ranke justly and strikingly remarks, 
 " However defective the civilization we have de 
 lineated," (the combination of the spiritual and 
 temporal elements, first in the Frankish empire, 
 under Charlemagne, and then in the Germanic 
 nations, Christianized and united under the Papal 
 sway, both of which were thus preserved from 
 destruction,) " it was necessary to the complete 
 naturalization of Christianity in the West. It 
 was no light thing to subdue the haughty spirits 
 of the north, the nations under the dominion of 
 ancestral superstitions, to the ideas of Christian 
 ity. It was necessary that the religious ^element 
 should predominate for a time, in order that it 
 might gain fast hold on the German mind. By 
 this, at the same time, was effected the intimate 
 blending of the Roman and Germanic elements. 
 There is a community among the nations of 
 modern times, which has always been regarded 
 as the main basis of the general civilization, a 
 community in church and state, in manners, cus 
 toms, and literature. In order to produce this, 
 it was necessary that the western nations should, 
 for a time, form, as it were, a single state, tem 
 poral and spiritual." * 
 
 By this means the institutions of the church 
 were preserved from destruction amid the gen 
 eral transition and change, while the church lent 
 
 * History of the Popes, vol. i. p. 40. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 405 
 
 its aid to the formation of national character 
 and virtue. The period indeed was abnormal, 
 and preparatory to something higher and better, 
 now partially developed by the reformations and 
 revolutions of modern times ; but it was neces 
 sary, under God, to the production of that form 
 of Christian civilization yet to triumph in all 
 lands. 
 
 It is for this reason that Macaulay speaks of 
 the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christi 
 anity, as "the first of a long series of salutary 
 revolutions," and adds, "It is true that the 
 church, had been deeply corrupted both by that 
 superstition and that philosophy against which 
 she had long contended, and over which she 
 had at last triumphed. She had given a too 
 easy admission to doctrines borrowed from the 
 ancient schools, and to rites borrowed from the 
 ancient temples. Roman policy and Gothic 
 ignorance, Grecian ingenuity and Syrian ascet 
 icism, had contributed to deprave her. Yet she 
 retained enough of the sublime theology and benev 
 olent morality of her earlier days to elevate many 
 intellects and to purify many hearts. Some things, 
 also, which, at a later period, were justly re 
 garded as among her chief blemishes, were in 
 the seventh century, and long afterwards, among 
 her chief merits. That the sacerdotal order 
 should encroach on the duty of the chief magis- 
 
406 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 trate, would, in our time, be a great evil. But 
 that which in an age of good government is an 
 evil, may in an age of grossly bad government be 
 a blessing. It is better that mankind should be 
 governed by wise laws well administered, and 
 by an enlightened -public piety, than by priest 
 craft, than by brute violence, by such a prelate 
 as Dunstan than by such a warrior as Penda. 
 A society sunk in ignorance, and ruled by mere 
 physical force, has great reason to rejoice, when 
 a class, of which the influence is intellectual 
 and moral, rises to ascendency. Such a class 
 will doubtless abuse its power ; but mental pow 
 er, even when abused, is still a nobler and better 
 power than that which consists merely in cor 
 poreal strength. We read in the Anglo-Saxon 
 chronicles of tyrants, who, when at the height 
 of greatness, were smitten with remorse, who 
 abhorred the pleasures and dignities which they 
 had purchased by guilt, who abdicated their 
 crowns, and who sought to atone for their of 
 fences by cruel penances and incessant prayers. 
 Those stories have drawn forth bitter expressions 
 of contempt from some writers, who, while they 
 boasted of liberality, were in truth as narrow 
 minded as any monk of the dark ages, and 
 whose habit was to apply to all events in the 
 history of the world the standard received in the 
 Parisian society of the eighteenth century. Yet 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 407 
 
 surely a system which, however deformed by su 
 perstition, introduced strong moral restraints into 
 communities previously governed only by vigor of 
 muscle and audacity of spirit a system which 
 taught the fiercest and mightiest ruler that he 
 was, like his meanest bondman, a responsible 
 being, might have seemed to deserve a more 
 respectable mention from philosophers and phi 
 lanthropists." . . . 
 
 " Even the spiritual supremacy arrogated by 
 the pope was, in the dark ages, productive of 
 far more good than evil. Its effect was to unite 
 the nations of Western Europe in one great 
 commonwealth. What the Olympian chariot 
 course and the Pythian oracle were to all the 
 Greek cities, from Trebizond to Marseilles, Rome 
 and her bishop were to all Christians of the 
 Latin communion from Calabria to the Hebrides. 
 Thus grew up sentiments of enlarged benevolence. 
 Races separated from each other by seas and 
 mountains acknowledged a fraternal tie and a 
 common code of public law. Even in war the 
 cruelty of the conqueror was not seldom mitigated 
 by the recollection that he and his vanquished 
 enemies were all members of one great federa 
 tion." * 
 
 If, in the view of some, this statement require 
 some slight modification, it must be admitted 
 
 * History of England, vol. i. pp. 6-8. 
 
408 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 that the institution of Christianity, in its funda 
 mental principles, was the means not only of 
 individual regeneration, but of social and politi 
 cal progress, and that it possessed this character 
 in spite of Papal assumption and superstition, 
 especially in the earlier periods of its history. 
 It was under the Pontificate of the second 
 Gregory, (A. D. 590,) who, with all his ambition, 
 was an honest, earnest man, that we see Chris 
 tianity grasping the dissolving elements of soci 
 ety, and constructing them into those permanent 
 forms from which Christendom has derived its 
 civilization. It was then, too, that the Bishop 
 of Rome acquired that dominion, which, benefi 
 cial in its first exercise, at last all but extin 
 guished pure religion, as well as political free 
 dom. Such was the desolation around him, 
 that Gregory felt that society had come to its 
 termination, and that the judgment was about 
 to ensue. " Every where," he says, " we behold 
 sorrow ; on every side we hear groans. Cities 
 are destroyed, fortresses are pulled down, the 
 fields are laid waste, the land is become desolate. 
 The villages are empty, and scarcely an inhabit 
 ant is left in the cities; and even thiVsmall rem 
 nant of the human race is daily and incessantly 
 massacred. The scourge of divine justice does 
 not rest, because no amendment has followed 
 under it. "We see how some are dragged to 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 409 
 
 prison, some are mutilated, others are put to 
 death."* 
 
 In these circumstances Gregory had not only 
 to preach the gospel, and administer its conso 
 lations, but, as a vassal of the Greek empire, to 
 take measures for the defence of the country, 
 " placed between the Longobards, thirsting for 
 conquest, the governors of the Greek empire, 
 often forgetful of their duties, and a court full 
 of intrigues." He was equal to the emergency. 
 His influence grew apace. Italy was saved, and 
 the northern barbarians were brought under the 
 yoke of Christ. 
 
 That Gregory II., and many others devoted 
 to the building up of the Roman church, and 
 the aggrandizement of the Papacy, such as Bon 
 iface the apostle of the Germans, who caused 
 his followers to swear allegiance to St. Peter 
 and the see of Rome, were disinterested Chris 
 tian men, cannot be doubted. Their influence, 
 in one aspect of the case, may seem to be bad, 
 as they sanctioned grievous errors and corrup 
 tions in the church of Christ; but in another, 
 and that the most important, it was good, and 
 only good. It gave Christianity and civilization 
 to the Germanic natioris.f 
 
 * Ncander s Memorials, &c., p. 387. 
 
 f Upon this subject consult the works of Guizot, Hallam, Mait- 
 land, and Sismondi. 
 
 35 
 
410 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 But it is in secret, and especially in the hearts 
 of individual men, that God accomplishes his 
 purposes of grace. It is the hidden leaven, 
 which, in the long run, regenerates society. In 
 the case of the church of the " dark ages," this 
 work was perpetuated, even by means of imper 
 fect institutions. And this is doubtless the 
 reason why the providence of God permitted 
 the Papal organization to exist, during this cha 
 otic and transitional era. The thorns which 
 grew up around the delicate flower of true re 
 ligion, while they diminished its beauty and 
 stifled its perfume, yet protected it from ruthless 
 invasion. The church, in the period of her deep 
 est degradation, was not all bad. Hence we 
 find in her bosom noble spirits, devout and 
 learned men, self-denying, and laborious mis 
 sionaries What beautiful details, for example, 
 are given by Neander, in his Memorials of the 
 Christian Life, Light in Dark Places, and the 
 Life of St. Bernard, as well as in his Church 
 History, of such men as Patrick and Columban, 
 of Fulgentius and Severinus, Germanus and 
 Lupus, Cocsarius of Aries, and Eligius, Bishop 
 of Noyon, the venerable Bede, Gallus the apos 
 tle of Switzerland, the Abbot Sturm of Fulda, 
 Martin of Tours, Anschar the apostle of the 
 north, (who in his dreams heard a voice urging 
 him to preach the gospel in Scandinavia, and 
 saying, " Go, and return to me crowned with 
 
THE MIDIMLK AGES. 411 
 
 martyrdom,") Otto Bishop of Bamberg, and that 
 strange, martyr spirit, mystic, philosopher, and 
 missionary, Raimund Lulli ! During the centu 
 ries designated by historians as preeminently 
 "dark ages," some faithful Christian men and 
 devoted missionaries were at work, in various 
 countries, sowing the seed of life " beside all 
 waters." All around them lay the thick shadows 
 of ignorance and superstition ; but by the bless 
 ing of Heaven, they kept the lamp of truth bright 
 and clear, until the day dawned, and the day- 
 star arose upon the nations. 
 
 Even monasteries, in early times the natural 
 resort of persecuted Christianity, liable as they 
 were to the grossest corruption, were frequently 
 the refuge of piety and worth. Thence issued 
 many of those self-denying men, who by their 
 toils and prayers made the wilderness to blossom 
 as the rose. Here, too, were preserved, Tor the 
 benefit of succeeding generations, not only the 
 word of God and the works of the Christian 
 fathers, but all the extant literature of the times. 
 " The church," says Macaulay, with reference to 
 this fact, " has many times been compared by 
 divines to that ark of which we read in the 
 Book of Genesis ; but never was the resem 
 blance more perfect than during that evil time 
 when she alone rode, amid darkness and tem 
 pest, on the deluge, beneath which all the great 
 
412 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 works of ancient power and wisdom lay in- 
 tombed, bearing within her that feeble germ 
 from which a second and more glorious civiliza 
 tion was to spring." 
 
 All must acknowledge that a certain moral as 
 well as political grandeur attaches to the half- 
 civilized Charlemagne and his Frankish kingdom, 
 and the generous but unsuccessful efforts which 
 he made to give unity and civilization to his 
 empire. It paved the way for the Germanic 
 confederation, and the civilization of France and 
 Germany. The monk Alcuin and the schools 
 which he founded, the mediaeval .philosophy, par 
 ent of modern speculative thought, and the tran 
 sition from the Greek and Alexandrine schools to 
 that of our more recent philosophy, were the fruit 
 of Christianity. Some, who know little of it, 
 affect to despise the scholastic philosophy ; but, 
 with all its faults, it marvellously disciplined the 
 human intellect, and prepared the way for the 
 high mental achievements of the present age. 
 Full of defects, and even absurdities, like the 
 age from which it sprang, ofter all, as Leibnitz 
 suggests, there was aurum in illo cocno. One of 
 its grandest features was its recognition of the 
 absolute Jehovah, not simply in nature, where 
 he seems an impersonal Power, but in Christ, 
 where he reveals himself as " the Father of us 
 all." This gave scope and strength to its specu- 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 413 
 
 lations upon the true, the good, the holy, which 
 all the efforts of Grecian genius could not reach. 
 It assisted in laying the foundation of a vast 
 structure, not only of speculative thought, but 
 of Christian morality. 
 
 The mediaeval church, as we call it, by which is 
 usually meant the church of the twelfth century, 
 a strange gothic structure of truth and error, 
 of barbarism and refinement, based upon the 
 highest truths and the most extravagant assump 
 tions, was thus not without some aspects of 
 beauty and worth. Beneath the magnificent 
 abbey or cathedral, which symbolized its spirit, 
 lay deep dungeons, and sometimes inquisitorial 
 halls, where the groans of the poor persecuted 
 heretic were heard at the dead of night; but the 
 cathedral itself was a thing of beauty, and 
 echoed a grand, and sometimes a heartfelt wor 
 ship. As in Dante s great poem, which has been 
 called the flowering of the middle ages, so here 
 we find puerile superstitions and atrocious big 
 otries, mingled with lofty sentiments and grace 
 ful forms. Besides, a power was yet at work in 
 the souls of men, and in the heart of society, 
 which all the folly of the times could not extin 
 guish. Truth struggled for supremacy, and kept 
 its hold of the secret conscience. God had his 
 chosen ones, both within and without the pale 
 of the Papal church. The world was not de- 
 35* 
 
414 CUBIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 serted by the Son of God. His spirit of love 
 yet throbbed in many penitent, believing hearts. 
 Here and there, in mountains and in valleys, and 
 even in the depths of cities, might be found clus 
 ters of holy confessors, and faithful Christians, 
 bound to God and to one another by eternal ties. 
 In the solitude of cloisters, with all their evils, 
 Christian scholars meditated upon divine things, 
 and sent forth into the world the light of eternal 
 truth. 
 
 Such thinkers as Anselm and Aquinas, the 
 one in England, the other in Italy, ranged through 
 the loftiest realms of thought, combining the 
 claims of reason and religion, and blending, 
 not only in their works, but in their lives, the 
 highest philosophy with the deepest piety.* The 
 night indeed, so far as our common Christianity 
 was concerned, seemed dark and portentous, but 
 ever and anon the stars appeared in the peaceful 
 heavens. The love of God, revealed in Christ as 
 a secret power, brooded over the troubled elements. 
 Angels of mercy visited the earth, in the persons 
 of self-denying men ; of devout, disinterested wo 
 men. The river of life was hidden amid gloomy 
 woods and precipices, but it kept its silent course, 
 
 * In Anselm, who may be called the Plato of the middle ages, 
 the philosophy of that day culminated. His Cur Dcus Homo gives, 
 in its germ, the great fact or principle yet destined to solve the 
 practical difficulties of " the higher philosophy." For some account 
 of Anselm and Aquinas, see Appendix, Note I. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 415 
 
 and in due time reappeared in the smiling land 
 scape. There were reformers before the Refor 
 mation, martyrs for truth and freedom in the 
 darkest days of bigotry and lust.* 
 
 Much fine character and many generous im 
 pulses were nourished by Christianity among the 
 Germanic tribes. Superstitious and somewhat 
 savage, but masculine and generous, the old Ger 
 man heart loved the truth, and, we may add, 
 loved God. This gave them nationality and 
 force of character. This nourished among them 
 many lofty, self-sacrificing souls. They suffered 
 indeed, a long night of despotism and bigotry, 
 but at last the fire of freedom and Christianity 
 began to burn. " The friends of God " ( Gottes- 
 freunde, as they called themselves) appeared. 
 These were partly laymen, partly priests or 
 monks, among whom were the mystics Eckart, 
 Suso, Tauler, and the anonymous author of 
 " The German Theology," all longing for purity 
 and freedom, loving God and the truth. These 
 uttered the first living word for evangelical 
 Christianity, and exemplified it in their lives. f 
 
 * See the works of Bonnechose and Ullmann on Reformers before 
 the Reformation. 
 
 f To the same class belong John Ruysbroek, Thomas a Kempis, 
 and John Charlier Gerson. At least they were animated by the same, 
 spirit and exerted the same influence. Luther refers to John Tauler, 
 called Doctor Sublimi-s et Illuminatus, in terms of affectionate venera 
 tion. Writing to Spalatinehe says, "Si te delectat puram, solidam 
 antiquae simillimam theologiam legere, in Germanica lingua effu- 
 
416 CIIKIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 A similar spirit animated many French divines 
 and Christians. The Huguenots date far back 
 for the first origin of their faith.* Peter Waldo 
 and the poor men of Lyons were not alone in their 
 attachment to the truth. It is well known that 
 an immense influence was exerted in later times 
 by Gerson, of Paris, the Doctor Christianissimus 
 of the schools, a true Christian philosopher, who 
 laid his vast learning at the cross of Christ, and 
 deemed all science as nothing in comparison 
 with the practical knowledge and love of God. 
 He wrote a profound treatise on spiritual the 
 ology, called Mystica Theologia. In his old age 
 he abandoned his literary and even ecclesiastical 
 honors, and devoted himself to the education of 
 little children, for whose benefit he wrote a re 
 markable treatise, De Parvulis ad Deum ducen- 
 dis, Of the art of leading little children to God. 
 Though he never left the Catholic church, and in 
 
 sam, sermones Johannis Tauleri, prsedicatorise professionis tibi 
 compare potes." The anonymous Little Book on German 
 Theology (Buchlein der Deutschen Theologie) was first pub 
 lished A. D. 1516, by Luther, with a recommendatory preface, 
 in which he says, " Next to the Bible and St. Augustine, I do not 
 know of any book from which I have learnt better what God, Christ, 
 man, and all things are." The true name of Thomas a Kempis was 
 Thomas Hamerken of Kempen. He was sub-prior of the Augus- 
 tinian monks on St. Agnes Mount near Zwoll, and died A. D., 1471. 
 His Imitation of Christ, however, has been ascribed by some (Cousin, 
 for example) to Abbot Gersen, or John Gerson. John Charlier 
 Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, died A. D. 1429. 
 
 * See De Felice s History of the Reformed Church in France. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 417 
 
 his earlier years defended some of its corruptions, 
 he was a Protestant at heart, as his writings tes 
 tify. His views were more conservative than those 
 of WiclifF, nay, in some respects, opposed to his, 
 yet, in the end, they exerted a similar influence. If 
 WiclifF was "the morning star" of the Reforma 
 tion in England, Gerson was such in France and 
 Germany. The latter country, in which his writ 
 ings advocating reform in the church were exten 
 sively read, received from Gerson a powerful 
 impulse in favor of evangelical religion. 
 
 How many followers had Arnoldo of Brescia, 
 and Savonarola of Florence, and what noble 
 sentiments of civil and religious freedom did they 
 promulgate, at the hazard of their lives. Black 
 ened as their characters have been by the emis 
 saries of the Papal church, both were men of 
 singular piety and heroic virtue. Born out of 
 due time, they sought for a freedom which they 
 could not realize, and so died for the truth. One 
 of his enemies, Tritemio, makes Arnoldo address 
 the following words to the pope and cardinals : 
 " I call heaven and earth to witness that I have 
 announced to you these things which the Lord 
 has commanded. But you despise both me and 
 your Creator. Nor is it wonderful that you are 
 about to put me, a simple man, to death, for 
 preaching to you the truth, siiu-o, if even St. 
 Peter were to arise from the dead this day, and 
 
CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 were to reprove your many vices, ye would by 
 no means spare him." * 
 
 In England, as early as the thirteenth century, 
 we find Grostete (Greathead) Bishop of Lincoln 
 protesting against the abuses of the Papacy, and 
 vindicating his allegiance to Christ. He died 
 rejoicing in the truth, having maintained his 
 integrity to the end, in opposition to the 
 power of Rome, and was recognized in that day, 
 by the voice of the community, " as a searcher 
 of the Scriptures, an adversary of the pope, and 
 the despiser of the Romans." Sewal Arch 
 bishop of York professed similar sentiments; 
 for "the more the pope cursed him, the more the 
 people blessed him." Thomas Bradwardine, in 
 the fourteenth century, chaplain of Edward III. 
 and subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury, one 
 of the most amiable and learned men of his day, 
 and a humble follower of Christ, bore ample 
 testimony to the fundamental doctrines of the 
 gospel.f. 
 
 The Scriptures, or portions of them, must have 
 been translated into Italian at a very early period, 
 and hence, under the very shadow of the Roman 
 see, the grace of God was found working in the 
 
 * Ego testem inroco ccelum, etc. Quoted from the North Brit 
 ish Review from Tritemius. 
 
 t Some interesting details with reference to similar characters 
 in England previous to the Reformation, may be found in the 
 fifth volume of Merle D Aubigne s History of the Reformation. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 419 
 
 hearts of humble and inquiring souls. Frag 
 ments of such translations appeared in the four 
 teenth century. In 1471 a version of the Scrip 
 tures, by Nicolo Malermi, or Malerbi, was pub 
 lished at Venice, and is said to have gone 
 through nine editions in that century, and twelve 
 in the succeeding. A better one appeared in 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, by Anto 
 nio Brucioli. His edition of the New Testa 
 ment was published at Venice for the first time 
 in 1530, and the whole Bible two years later. 
 Other versions rapidly followed. The revival 
 of learning introduced not only the Greek clas 
 sics, but editions of the Greek Testament and of 
 the Septuagint, which fell into the hands of 
 thoughtful scholars. "The works of Augustine 
 and other Christian fathers were also more or less 
 studied. Giovanni Pico, one of the greatest 
 scholars of his day, who had mastered twenty- 
 two languages before he was twenty-five, and 
 died in 1494, in the thirty-second year of his 
 age, was a true Christian. His spirit, breathed 
 through his writings, is remarkably evangelical. 
 Indeed he narrowly escaped being burned as a 
 heretic. Many valuable commentaries on the 
 sacred Scriptures were written by learned and 
 pious men, at a very early period, both in Italy 
 and elsewhere. The relation of Nicholas Lyra 
 to Luther was made the subject of a lively pun 
 
420 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 in the days of the latter : Si Lyra non lyrasset, 
 Lutherus non saltasset. If Lyra had not sung-, 
 Luther had not danced. 
 
 In the days of Tasso and Queen Renee, a 
 noble and pious woman, how many Italians 
 were found in Ferrara and other parts of Italy, 
 animated by the deepest piety, just at the break 
 ing forth of the Reformation ! It is true, the 
 works of the Reformers had reached Italy, but 
 they found in these Italian hearts a congenial 
 soil. Some of these were members of the 
 Papal church, and others were Protestants. Vit- 
 toria Colonna, the far-famed Marchioness of Pes- 
 cara, the friend of Michael Angelo and Olympia 
 Morata, was at heart a Protestant. After the 
 death of her husband, she devoted herself to 
 study and works of piety. Her poems and let 
 ters, some of them of great beauty, are imbued 
 with a profoundly religious spirit. Her corre 
 spondence with Olympia Morata and others 
 shows that her heart was given to Christ. How 
 touchingly does she console a friend for the loss 
 of her brother, " whose serene spirit had entered 
 into eternal peace ! " Thence she adds, that 
 " she ought not to lament, since she could now 
 converse with him ; his absences, once so frequent 
 could no longer hinder him being understood by 
 her." Nor was her piety of a monastic order ; 
 for Aretino thus writes of her, "that it was certain- 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 421 
 
 ly not her opinion that the muteness of the 
 tongue, or the casting down of the eyes, or the 
 coarse garment, availed any thing, but the pure 
 soul." 
 
 Even under the shadow of the court of the 
 polished but profligate Leo X. a few distinguished 
 men of Rome had established the " Oratory of 
 Divine Love " for their common edification. 
 " In the church of S. Sylvestro and S. Dorotea, 
 in the Trastevere, not far from the spot where 
 St. Peter was thought to have lived and to have 
 presided over the first meeting of Christians, 
 they assembled for divine worship, preaching and 
 spiritual exercises. They met to the number of 
 fifty or sixty. Contarini, Sadoleto, Giberto, 
 Caraffa, all of whom afterwards became cardi 
 nals, Gaetano de Thiene, who was canonized, 
 Lippornano, a theological writer of great reputa 
 tion and influence, and some other celebrated 
 men, were amongst them. Giuliano Bathi, the 
 priest of that church, served as a centre of the 
 circle." 
 
 Quite an interesting group of pious souls, 
 some of them men of considerable eminence, 
 might be found, about the same time, in Venice. 
 There the celebrated Benedictine monk Bernar 
 dino Ochino, one of the greatest preachers of 
 the age, vindicated the doctrine of justification 
 by faith, giving force, by the purity and elevation 
 36 
 
422 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of his life, to the impassioned appeals of his 
 eloquence. He was heard with delight by Bem- 
 bo, Caraffa, and Vittoria Colouna. Afterwards 
 persecuted as a Protestant, he delighted, by his 
 sincerity and fervor, multitudes, who were sub 
 sequently horrified by his open Protestantism. 
 " I opened my heart to him," says Bembo, " as 
 to Christ himself. It seemed to me I had never 
 beheld a holier man." 
 
 At the house of Pietro Bembo, subsequently 
 cardinal, which was open to all who chose to 
 attend, the conversation, though chiefly literary 
 and often frivolous, sometimes turned upon 
 more important matters. It assumed a deeper 
 and more pious tone at that of fne learned 
 Gregorio Cortese, the Abbot of San Giorgo 
 Maggiore at Venice. Marco of Padua was a 
 man of the deepest piety. It was from him 
 that Pole professed to derive spiritual nutriment. 
 But the most eminent of all was Caspar Con- 
 tarini, of whom Pole said that he was ignorant 
 of nothing that the human mind could discover 
 by its own research, and that he crowned his 
 knowledge with virtue. Contarini wrote a trea 
 tise on the doctrine of justification, of which 
 Cardinal Pole speaks in terms of the highest 
 praise. " You have brought to light," says he, 
 " the jewel which the church kept half concealed." 
 Would to God that Pole himself had carried out 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 423 
 
 his earlier and better views, for he speaks of this 
 doctrine as " holy, indispensable, fruitful truth." 
 " The gospel," says Contarini, in one of his 
 letters, " is no other than the blessed tidings, 
 that the only-begotten Son of God, clad in our 
 flesh, hath made satisfaction for us to the justice 
 of his eternal Father. He who believes this 
 enters into the kingdom of God ; he enjoys the 
 universal pardon ; from a carnal he becomes a 
 spiritual creature ; from a child of wrath a child 
 of grace ; he lives in a sweet peace of con 
 science." 
 
 In voluptuous Naples, then under Spanish 
 rule, the same great truth was taught by Valdez, 
 a Spaniard, secretary to the viceroy ; but unfor 
 tunately his writings are lost. In 1540 a book was 
 published entitled " Of the Benefits of Christ s 
 Death," breathing the soul of evangelical reli 
 gion, which, as a decree of the Inquisition ex 
 pressed it, " treated in an insinuating manner of 
 justification, deprecated works and meritorious 
 acts, ascribed all merit to faith alone : as this was 
 the very point which was at that time a stum 
 bling block to many prelates and monks, it ob 
 tained extraordinary circulation." This book 
 was written, as the decree of the Inquisition ex 
 presses it, by a monk of San Severino, a pupil 
 of Valdez.* It spread every where, especially in 
 
 * It has been ascribed to Aonio Paleario, another celebrated Ital 
 ian Protestant. 
 
424 CHRIST IN UISTORT. 
 
 Italy, and produced an immense sensation. Re 
 vised by Flaminio, it prepared the hearts of 
 many for the Reformation. Valdez, however, 
 founded no sect. His book was the fruit of 
 liberal study and Christian piety. He enjoyed 
 the quiet retreats of nature in the vicinity of 
 Naples, in profitable conversation with his 
 friends. " A portion of his soul sufficed," says 
 one who knew him, " to animate his frail, attenu 
 ated body ; the larger part of his clear, untroubled 
 intellect was ever raised aloft in the contempla 
 tion of truth." One of his friends was Vittoria 
 Colonna, already mentioned, who, after the 
 death of her husband, occupied a beautiful re 
 treat on one of the islands in the vicinity of 
 Naples, and spent much of her time in literary 
 and pious conversation with such persons as 
 Valdez. The Duke of Palliano, and his wife 
 Giulia Gonzago, reputed to be the most beauti 
 ful woman in Italy, adopted the same senti 
 ments, and took part in these conversations. 
 
 Indeed, many bishops and distinguished lay 
 men favored the doctrines which subsequently 
 entered the Reformation, and formed its animat 
 ing spirit. Those, indeed, who became open 
 Protestants in Italy \vere cruelly persecuted by 
 the Papal hierarchy. The prisons of Ferrara, 
 of Venice, and of Rome heard the groans of the 
 martyrs. Some, as the noble Carncssechi, were 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 425 
 
 v 
 
 beheaded or burned at the stake. Calabria was 
 deluged with Protestant blood. But the infer 
 ence is a legitimate one, that multitudes, in pre 
 ceding ages, must have loved the Savior, who 
 had neither the strength nor the opportunity, 
 perhaps not even the desire, to leave the Papal 
 church.* The churches of the Waldenses have 
 lived through a period of at least eight hundred 
 years. They date beyond the days of Peter 
 "Waldo, and derive their name rather from their 
 mountain home, than from any human teacher. 
 Stigmatized and persecuted by the dominant 
 church, like the Paulicians of the East, or the 
 Albigenses of the West, they clung to the word 
 of God amid all changes and trials. Number 
 ing even now thirty thousand, they have en 
 dured the most appalling persecutions. They 
 have passed through thirty wars, twelve of 
 which were intended to be wars of extermina 
 tion.! 
 
 The Catholic church in Germany, corrupt as it 
 was in the days of Tetsel, preserved some spirit 
 
 * For details respecting Protestantism in Italy, see McCries An 
 nals of the Reformation in Italy. See also Ranke s History of the 
 Popes, i. pp. 96, 101, and Baird s Protestantism in Italy. 
 
 f For information on the Waldenses, see Dr. Baird s Protestant 
 ism in Italy, Allix s Churches of Piedmont, Leger s Histoire des 
 Eglises Evangeliques, the Ancient Valenses and Albigenses, by G. 
 S. Faber, Morland s Hist, of the Evangelical Churches, &c., Hen 
 derson s " Vaudois," and Gilly s Waldensian Researches. 
 
 36* 
 
426 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 * 
 
 of freedom and of piety. Staupitz, the friend 
 and spiritual teacher of Luther, never left the 
 order of the Augustinians. It was from him, 
 as well as from the Bible, which Luther first saw 
 chained in the convent at Erfurth, that he re 
 ceived the doctrine of justification by faith. He 
 carefully studied the writings of Augustine, as 
 well as those of Occam and Gerson. It was an 
 old monk who enlightened him respecting the 
 doctrine of the forgiveness of sin, and by God s 
 blessing brought it home to his heart, in a season 
 of deep depression.* On another occasion we 
 find him referring with affectionate respect to 
 one of his old friends, John Braum, " holy and 
 venerable priest of Christ and of Mary." Ursula, 
 the wife of Conrad Cotta, both good Catholics, 
 and others of his old acquaintances, were truly 
 pious. Speaking of the former, he says, " There 
 is nothing sweeter than the heart of a pious 
 woman." Undoubtedly many such women might 
 have been found in the old German church, even 
 in the times of ignorance and superstition. 
 Claudius of Turin, Peter de Bruys, Gabriel 
 Biel, John de Wickliff, John Huss, Jerome of 
 Prague, John Knox, and Thomas Cranmer, all 
 received their training in the dominant church.f 
 
 * D Aubigne s History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 154. 
 f No thanks, however, to the Papal hierarchy, the whole endeav 
 or of which has been to crush and extinguish such men. Could the 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES. 427 
 
 In a word, there is abundant evidence to show 
 that Christ was in the church of the middle 
 ages, as a regenerative power, and that from 
 this source sprang the Reformation of the six 
 teenth century. 
 
 Catholic, and even the Roman, or Italian church, only throw off 
 this Papal incubus, and return to primitive simplicity, it might yet 
 bless the world. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CHRIST IN THE REFORMATION. 
 
 THAT a system, divine in its origin, and super 
 natural in its resources, should, in consequence 
 of its embodiment among men, be corrupted and 
 abused, is not only quite conceivable, but alto 
 gether probable. It cannot, however, in its 
 essence, either be tarnished or extinguished. It 
 lives, it struggles to be free, it eventually casts 
 off the tyranny and superstition of ages. Thus 
 one thing, and one alone, produced the Reforma 
 tion of the sixteenth century, though many things 
 concurred to aid its development. It was a natu 
 ral, it was also a supernatural movement; for 
 the Spirit of God, transforming the hearts of good 
 men, and controlling the actions of bad ones, is 
 visible through the whole. As usual, however, 
 in mighty revolutions, which change the current 
 of human affairs, and affect the welfare of 
 states and empires, all things were prepared be 
 forehand. In this respect, as of old, it was " the 
 fulness of time." Thence it was not an insu 
 lated event, but rather the result of many previ 
 ous events, and many invisible forces, working 
 
 (428) 
 
THE REFORMATION. i29 
 
 long and silently under the surface of things. 
 It has been said that the germ of the reformation 
 lay in the heart of Wickliff and Waldo. So 
 also it lay in the heart of Augustine, of St. Paul, 
 of Jesus Christ. Luther was its principal agent 
 in Germany : but it was not, as some have 
 designated it, Luther s Reformation. Nor was 
 Lutheranism its proper result. That was a 
 mere incident in its history. Its result is even 
 now revealed only in part. By and by the ages 
 will discover it. A free Bible a free church 
 a free Christianity love, purity, joy, activity, 
 hope in God and for God, in the world and for 
 the world that is its result. Its latent or ulti 
 mate cause is the presence of Christ among 
 men. The more obvious and immediate causes, 
 or what we call such, were various movements 
 and changes in the hearts of individuals, and in 
 the state of society which preceded the sixteenth 
 century. It is interesting, however, to see the 
 streams of history converge, to see the waters, 
 from various quarters, commingle and flow in one 
 resistless tide. 
 
 The civilized world began to awake from the 
 slumber of ages. The authority of the school 
 men was doubted or rejected. The superstitions 
 of the twelfth century were losing their hold of 
 reflective minds. Learning and science revived 
 together. A spirit of inquiry, blind, impulsive, 
 
4:30 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 irregular, but hopeful, diffused itself over Europe. 
 Kings and emperors were becoming impatient 
 of the Papal sway. They were casting off,. or 
 curtailing, one by one, its despotic interference 
 with their governments. They did not abandon 
 the church, but they were quite willing to aban 
 don the pope, whenever, at least, it suited their 
 ambitious views. The popes themselves seemed 
 struck with fatal blindness and imbecility. Even 
 Pope Leo X., "the Magnificent," as he has 
 been termed, failed utterly to check the Reforma 
 tion, or give security to the Papacy. He was at 
 the height of human prosperity. His troops had 
 entered Milan, and victory had perched upon his 
 standard. He was filled with exultation ; but in 
 that moment he died. " Pray for me," said he 
 to his attendants ; " I still make you all happy." 
 He loved life, he loved the world, but his hour 
 was come. He had not time to secure the viati 
 cum or extreme unction. " So suddenly, so early, 
 so full of high hope, he died as the poppy fadeth." 
 The historian adds, " The Roman people could 
 not forgive him for dying without the sacrament, 
 for spending so much money, and for leaving 
 debts. They accompanied his body to the grave, 
 with words of reproach and indignity. " You 
 glided in like a fox," said they, " you ve ruled 
 like a lion, you have died like a dog." * 
 
 * Ranke s History of the Popes, p. 70. 
 
THE REFORMATION. 431 
 
 Leo, indeed, had some generous qualities ; 
 his, too, was a great epoch in the advancement 
 of the race, to which, perhaps, he contributed 
 something, though vastly less than is generally 
 supposed. For, as Carlyle justly suggests, he 
 was but a splendid pagan. Passionately fond 
 of music, sculpture, and painting, he encouraged 
 these beautiful and humanizing arts. Ariosto, 
 neglected by him in old age, was one of the 
 companions of his youth. Machiavelli wrote 
 several of his productions at his suggestion. 
 Bembo revolved around him as one of the bright 
 est literary stars of his court; Raphael filled his 
 chambers, halls, and galleries with immortal 
 beauty ; and Michael Angelo, to whom he was 
 frequently unjust, erected for him the dome of 
 St. Peter s. His admirers speak of him as 
 learned and bountiful, and some of them (devo 
 tees of the Papal court) go so far as to call him 
 amiable and religious ! But Leo was a lover of 
 pleasure more than a lover of God. He in 
 dulged in feasting and sports, in luxury and sen 
 sual delights. " He spent the autumn in rural 
 pleasures ; he took the diversion of hawking at 
 Viterbo, of stag hunting at Corneto, and of fish 
 ing on the Lake of Bolsena, after which he passed 
 some time at his favorite seat at Malliano, where 
 he was accompanied by men of those light arid 
 supple talents which enliven every passing hour. 
 
432 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 In the winter he returned to the city, which was 
 in the highest state of [material] prosperity.* 
 Never was the court more lively, more agreeable, 
 more intellectual ; no expenditure was too great 
 to be lavished on religious and secular festivals, 
 or amusements and theatres, on presents and 
 marks of favor. It was heard with pleasure that 
 Giuliano Medici, with his young wife, thought 
 of making Rome his residence. " Praised be 
 God," Cardinal Bibbiena writes to him, " the 
 only thing we want is a court with ladies ! " The 
 historian might have added, that several of the 
 cardinals had sons and nephews to provide for ; 
 and the character of Leo himself was riot free 
 from the taint of impurity.f 
 
 * Ranke. 
 
 f- We append the testimony of Prescott, the historian, and Mari- 
 otti, a distinguished Italian writer, with reference to the character 
 of Leo. After showing the impropriety of calling him the Maece 
 nas of literature, and proving that he had less to do with the ad 
 vancement of the arts than is generally supposed, Prescott adds, 
 "Ariosto, his ancient friend, he coldly neglected, while he pensioned 
 the infamous Aretin. He surrounded his table with buffoon literati, 
 and parasitical poets, who amused him with feats of improvisation, 
 gluttony, and intemperance, some of whom, after expending on 
 them his convivial wit, he turned over to public derision, and most 
 of whom, debauched in morals and constitution, were abandoned, 
 under his austere successor, to infamy and death. He magnificent 
 ly recompensed his musical retainers, making one an archbishop, 
 another an archdeacon ; but what did he do for his countryman, 
 Machiavelli, the philosopher of his age ? He hunted, and hawked, 
 and caroused ; every thing was a jest, and while the nations of Eu 
 rope stood aghast at the growing heresy of Luther, the merry pon- 
 
THK REFORMATION. 433 
 
 The schools of philosophy, fostered by the pre 
 dominant taste, were infidel in their tendency. 
 The most distinguished philosopher of that day, 
 Pietro Pomponazzo, denied the immortality of 
 the soul. Erasmus expresses his astonishment at 
 the blasphemies he heard in Rome. An attempt 
 was made to prove to him, a foreigner, from the 
 works of Pliny, that there was no real difference 
 between the souls of men and of beasts. The 
 lower orders were degraded and superstitious, the 
 higher sceptical and. Epicurean. A few longed 
 for better things ; but even Bembo, the elegant, 
 the half religious poet and cardinal, never forsook 
 the beautiful Morosina ; and yet so nice was he 
 in his notions, that he was wont to speak of the 
 Holy Spirit as " the sacred or divine zephyr " ! 
 How amazed was the youthful Luther, when he 
 visited the Eternal City, (in the time of Pope 
 Julius,) to witness the impieties of the people and 
 clergy ! He informs us that, at the very moment 
 
 tiff and his ministers found strange matter of mirth in witnessing 
 the representation of comedies that exposed the impudent mumme 
 ries of priestcraft." Miscellanies, p. 522. 
 
 " The memory of Leo," says Mariotti, " as an Italian prince, is 
 disgraced by a system of irresolute, improvident, unprincipled poli 
 cy ; as a Itoman pontiff, by a lavish, venal, simoniacal abuse of his 
 sacred ministry ; as a private man, by a free indulgence in a w.-inton 
 and sometimes even vulgar epicurism. . . . The epoch of the 
 greatest triumph of letters . . . the age of Leo and Clement 
 was also that of the utmost depravation of morals." Ita;y, &c., 
 vol. i. p. 3o2. 
 
 37 
 
434 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the offering of the mass was finished, they uttered 
 words of levity and blasphemy which denied its 
 efficacy. Machiavelli, in his Dissertation on the 
 First Decade of Livy, says, "that the greatest 
 symptom of the approaching destruction of 
 Christianity (the Papal religion) is, that the 
 nearer we approach the capital of Christendom, 
 the less we find of the Christian spirit in the 
 people." ..." The Italians," he adds, " are 
 principally indebted to the church for having be 
 come impious and profligate." It was the tone 
 of good society at Rome to question the evidences 
 of Christianity. " No one passed," says P. Ant. 
 Bandino, " for an accomplished man, who did not 
 entertain heretical opinions about Christianity; 
 at the court the ordinances of the Catholic church, 
 and passages of holy writ, were spoken of only 
 in a jesting manner ; the mysteries of the faith 
 were despised." 
 
 The atrocities of Pope Alexander VI. and of 
 his son Csesar Borgia are well known, and need 
 not be detailed here. 
 
 Indeed, Rome was beginning to be recognized 
 by multitudes throughout Christendom as the 
 Babylon of the Apocalypse. It was worse than 
 in the days of Petrarch, who describes it as " im 
 pious Babylon," " avaricious Babylon," " the 
 school of error," " the temple of heresy," " the 
 foul nest of treason," "the forge of fraud," " the 
 
TIIE REFORMATION. 435 
 
 hell of the living." * Whatever it might have 
 been in- the early centuries, and whatever benefits 
 it might have conferred on society, it was now 
 "the visible Antichrist," sitting in the temple of 
 God, and calling itself divine, yet " drunk with 
 the blood of saints," and tyrannizing over the 
 bodies and the souls of men. This, therefore, 
 prepared the way for the great change that ensued. 
 Thousands, in England, Scotland, Germany, and 
 France, were longing for the rise of a better faith 
 and a purer morality. 
 
 Yet with all its vice, the pretensions of Rome 
 to supreme authority and infallibility were never 
 more lofty and clamorous. Poor Germany, hon 
 est at heart, but superstitious, was priest-ridden, 
 and fleeced to supply not only the extravagance 
 of her own clergy, but the rapacity of Rome. 
 Peter-pence and indulgence brought immense 
 sums into the Papal treasury; and if any sincere 
 soul, hungering for the bread of life, or disgusted 
 with the vices of the clergy, dared to utter a voice 
 of protest, he was branded as a heretic, and 
 dragged to imprisonment or execution. The 
 ignorance, superstition, and bigotry of the monks, 
 Dominican and Franciscan, were open to the day, 
 and excited the disgust of all pure and thought 
 ful men. Reuchlin and Erasmus, after WicklifY 
 and Huss, poured upon them unmeasured scorn. 
 
 * Pctrarchi Opera, torn. iii. p. 149. 
 
436 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Most decisive upon some of these points is the 
 testimony of Duke George of Saxony^ a mem 
 ber of the Papal church, and one of Luther s 
 most determined enemies, as given at the Diet of 
 Worms. Opposed to the Reformers, yet favorable 
 to the removal of abuses within the Church itself, 
 he made the following reply to the Papal nuncio, 
 who wished Luther and the Reformation to be 
 involved in the same sentence of condemnation. 
 " The Diet," said he, "must not lose sight of the 
 grievances of which it has to claim redress from 
 the court of Rome. How numerous are the 
 abuses that have crept into our dominions. The 
 annats, which the emperor granted of his free will 
 for the good of religion, now exacted as a due ; the 
 Roman courtiers daily inventing new regulations 
 to favor the monopoly, the sale, the leasing out of 
 ecclesiastical benefices ; a multitude of offences 
 connived at ; a scandalous toleration granted to 
 rich offenders, while those who have not where 
 withal to pay to purchase impunity are severely 
 punished ; the pope s continually bestowing re 
 versions and rent charges on the officers of their 
 palace, to the prejudice of those to whom the 
 benefices rightly belong; the abbeys and convents 
 of Rome, given in commendam to cardinals, bish 
 ops, and prelates, who apply the revenues to their 
 own use, so that in many convents, where there 
 ought to be twenty or thirty monks, there is not 
 
THE REFORMATION. 437 
 
 one to be found ; stations multiplied to excess ; 
 shops for indulgences opened in every street and 
 square of our cities ; shops of St. Anthony, of the 
 Holy Ghost, of St. Hubert, of St. Vincent, and I 
 know not how many more ; societies contracting 
 to Rome for the privilege of setting up this trade, 
 then purchasing from their bishop the right of 
 exposing their merchandise to sale ; and finally, 
 to meet all this outlay of money, squeezing and 
 draining the last coin out of the poor man s 
 purse ; indulgences, which ought to be granted 
 only with a view to the salvation of souls, and 
 procured only by prayer, and fasting, and works 
 of charity, sold for a price ; the officials of the 
 bishops oppressing men of low degree with 
 penances for blasphemy, or adultery, or drunken 
 ness, or profanation of this and that festival, but 
 never addressing so much as a rebuke to ecclesi 
 astics who are guilty of the same crimes ; pen 
 ances so devised as to betray the penitent into 
 the repetition of his offence, in order that more 
 money may be extracted from him, these are 
 but a few of the abuses which cry out on Koine 
 for redress. All shame is laid aside, and one 
 object alone incessantly pursued money ! ever 
 more money ! So that the very men whose duty 
 is to disseminate the truth, are engaged in noth- 
 
 O O 
 
 ing but the propagation of falsehood ; and yet 
 they are not merely tolerated, but rewarded ; 
 37* 
 
CHRIST IN IIISTORT. 
 
 because the more they lie, the larger are their 
 gains. This is the foul source from which so 
 many corrupted streams flow out on every side. 
 Profligacy and avarice go hand in hand. The 
 officials summon women to their houses on vari 
 ous pretences, and endeavor, either by threats or 
 by presents, to seduce them, and if the attempt 
 fails, they ruin their reputation. O, it is the 
 scandal occasioned by the clergy that plunges so 
 many poor souls into everlasting perdition. A 
 thorough reform must be effected. To accom 
 plish that reform, a general council must be as 
 sembled. Therefore, most excellent princes and 
 lords, I respectfully beseech you to give this 
 matter your attention." * 
 
 The word of God had been sought out of dirty 
 corners, and studied in the original tongue. It 
 was translated also to some extent, and made its 
 way into some homes and hearts. Copies here 
 and there, in Latin or in the vulgar tongue, fell 
 into the hands of thinkers, and opened their 
 eyes to the beauty of primitive Christianity, in 
 contrast with the errors of Rome. In Germany, 
 the writings of St. Augustine, Gerson, Thomas 
 a Kempis, and others were read and studied by 
 pious monks ; for happily amid the prevalent 
 corruption there were some sincere souls. When 
 these failed to convert them, they yet discovered 
 
 * Preserved in the archives of Weimar. 
 
THE REFORMATION. 439 
 
 the mournful condition of Christendom, and pre 
 pared the way for a better order of things. 
 
 Some attempts, too, had been made, but with 
 out success, within the bosom of the church 
 itself, to reform its abuses. This was the pro 
 fessed object of the Council of Constance. 
 Princes and electors, dukes and ambassadors from 
 all nations, with learned church dignitaries, doc 
 tors of theology, and representatives from the 
 universities, gave dignity and importance to the 
 occasion. But alas ! instead of reforming the 
 church, they gave Huss to the flames. A com 
 mission, however, was appointed, of deputies 
 from different nations, to propose a fundamental 
 reform. The Emperor Sigismund, who violated 
 his safe conduct to Huss, supported the proposi 
 tion with all the weight of his influence. The 
 council concurred unanimously. The cardinals 
 bound themselves by a solemn oath, that he 
 among them who should be elected pope, for 
 this duty, among others, had to be performed by 
 the council, which, in furtherance of its objects, 
 had deposed three popes, would not dissolve 
 the assembly, or leave Constance, without accom 
 plishing the desired reformation. The election 
 fell upon Colonna, under the name of Martin V. 
 With intense interest the members of the assem 
 bly awaited the result. " The council is at an 
 end!" cried Martin V., with startling Papal 
 
440 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 consistency, the moment he had placed the tiara 
 on his head. A cry of grief and indignation 
 arose from Sigismund and the clergy ; but it 
 was no more heeded than the idle wind which 
 fanned the flames of John Huss. " On the 16th 
 of May, 1418," says the historian, "the pope, 
 arrayed in the pontifical robes, mounted a mule 
 richly caparisoned ; the emperor was on his right 
 hand, the Elector of Brandenburg on his left, 
 each holding the reins of his palfrey ; four counts 
 supported over the pope s head a magnificent 
 canopy ; several princes surrounded him, bearing 
 the trappings ; and a mounted train of forty 
 thousand persons, composed of nobles, knights, 
 and clergy of all ranks, joined in solemn proces 
 sion outside the walls of Constance." Thus did 
 Rome laugh at reform, and fasten the fetters of 
 her tyrannous dominion. 
 
 " There are three things," says Vadiscus, a trav 
 eller introduced into the tract which Ulrich Von 
 Hiitten published, after his return from Rome, 
 "which we commonly bring away with us from 
 Rome : a bad conscience, a vitiated stomach, 
 and an empty purse. There are three things which 
 Rome does not believe in : the immortality of the 
 soul, the resurrection of the dead, and hell. There 
 are three things which Rome trades in : the grace 
 of Christ, the dignity of the church, and women." 
 
 These grievous moral and political wrongs 
 
THE REFORMATION. 441 
 
 stirred the hearts even of worldly men, and 
 awakened sometimes, in the breasts of kings and 
 rulers, educated under Papal influence, a longing 
 for redress and reform. " I will destroy the name 
 of Babylon," (Per dam nomen Babylonis,) were 
 the words stamped upon a medal issued by the 
 impetuous Louis XII. Maximilian of Austria, 
 grieved at the treachery of Leo X., exclaimed, 
 " This pope, like the rest, is, in my judgment, a 
 scoundrel. Henceforth, I can say, that, in all my 
 life, no pope has kept his faith or word with me. 
 I hope, if God be willing, that this one will be 
 the last of them." Similar sentiments were oc 
 casionally expressed by poets and historians, 
 among others by Machiavelli, who charges upon 
 them all the political difficulties of Italy, the 
 wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and the 
 destruction of Italian liberty and nationality.* 
 This acted, of course, to some extent, upon the 
 people, many of whom were weary of the Papal 
 sway. 
 
 But not all these causes combined could pro 
 duce the Reformation. That was effected by the 
 
 * In the first book of his History of Florence, after stating how 
 these difficulties had lasted from the days of Theodosius, he adds, 
 " So that all the wars which foreigners aftenvards made upon Italy 
 were chiefly owing to the popes ; and most of the several inunda 
 tions of barbarians that poured themselves into it, were, in a great 
 measure, occasioned by their incitement and instigation ; which 
 practices, being continued even to this time, have so long kept, and 
 still keep, Italy weak and divided." 
 
112 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 reproduction, among those who read and believed 
 the word of God, of the spirit of primitive 
 Christianity. Once more the Son of God took 
 possession of selected agents, great, generous, 
 courageous hearts, " born from above," who, 
 fired with the love of truth, went forth to oppose 
 error, and proclaim " glad tidings of great joy to 
 all people." The first great impulse in continen 
 tal Europe issued from Wittemberg, and thence 
 spread itself in successive waves to the remotest 
 parts of the Christian world. 
 
 The Reformation was not a speculation or a 
 theory, springing from some profound or original 
 intellect ; neither was it a preconcerted plan of 
 wise, far-seeing men ; above all, it was not a mere 
 social or political change. Those chiefly con 
 cerned in it, at first, thought nothing of the stu 
 pendous result to which they were irresistibly 
 conducted. Luther himself was as clay in the 
 hand of the potter. Long years intervened, after 
 he opposed indulgences, before he dreamed of 
 opposing the Papacy, or abandoning the Roman 
 church. It was the love of Christ, of truth, and 
 of the souls of men, which impelled him to the 
 sublime issue. Over and over again, Luther de 
 clares, that not " of choice, but of necessity," a 
 necessity which he could not resist if he would, 
 and would not resist if he could, he was 
 carried forward in his perilous career. " God," 
 
THE REFORMATION. 443 
 
 he says, on one occasion, " does not conduct, but 
 drives me, and carries me forward. I am not 
 master of my own actions. I would gladly live 
 in peace, but I am cast into the midst of tumult 
 and changes." 
 
 Gladly he would have retired from the comba% 
 if Rome would only permit him and other " poor 
 sinners " to live in peace and follow Christ. Nay, 
 he would never have entered into it, unless com 
 pelled for his soul s sake, and the truth of God. 
 To oppose the church of his fathers, and, above 
 all, to leave her, was agony and crucifixion, only 
 compensated by the thought that God was with 
 him, and that the gospel would stand forever. 
 " I began this affair," is his own testimony, 
 wrung from the depths of his heart, " with great 
 fear and trembling. What was I at that time ^ 
 a poor, wretched, contemptible friar, more like a 
 corpse than a man ? Who was I, to oppose the 
 pope s majesty, before which not only the kings 
 of the earth, and the whole world, trembled, but 
 also, if I may so speak, heaven and hell were 
 constrained to obey the slightest intimation of 
 his will ? No one can know what I suffered those 
 two first years, and in what dejection, I might say 
 despair, I was often plunged. Those proud spirits, 
 who afterwards attacked the pope with such bold 
 ness, can form no idea of my sufferings ; though, 
 with all their skill, they could have done him no 
 
444 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 injury, if Christ had not inflicted upon him, 
 through me, his weak and unworthy instrument, 
 a wound from which he will never recover. But 
 whilst they were satisfied to look on, and leave 
 me to face the danger alone, I was not so happy? 
 so calm, or so sure of success ; for I did not then 
 know many things, which now, thanks be to 
 God, I do know. There were, it is true, many 
 pious Christians, who were much pleased with 
 my propositions, and thought highly of them. 
 But I was not able to recognize these, or look 
 upon them as inspired by the Holy Ghost ; I 
 only looked to the pope, the cardinal^, the bishops, 
 the theologians, the jurisconsults, the monks, the 
 priests. It was from thence that I expected the 
 Spirit to breathe. However, after having tri- 
 .umphed, by means of the Scriptures, over all 
 opposing arguments, I at last overcame, by the 
 grace of Christ, with much anguish, labor, and 
 great difficulty, the only argument that still 
 stopped me, namely, that I must hear the church ; 
 for from my heart I honored the church of the 
 pope, as the true church, and I did so with more 
 sincerity and veneration than those disgraceful 
 and infamous corrupters of the church, who, to 
 oppose me, now so much extol it. If I had de 
 spised the pope, as those persons do in their 
 hearts who praise him so much with their lips, 
 
THE REFORMATION. 445 
 
 I should have feared that the earth would open 
 at that instant, and swallow rne up alive." 
 
 No, it was Christianity itself, rising from the 
 grave of superstition in which it was intombed, 
 taking possession of the hearts of Luther, My- 
 conius, Melancthon, and others, and going forth, 
 as of old, to regenerate the world. This was 
 the real secret, the true power of the Reforma 
 tion. No other religions have ever reformed or re 
 produced themselves, with fresh and living energy. 
 Divested of their original power by formalism 
 and corruption, they have ever remained so, or 
 passed away. Separate from Christianity, Juda 
 ism has no power of reproduction and revival. 
 Indeed, all other religions, even in their best 
 state, are local or national, and remain station 
 ary or die out altogether. But Christianity re 
 news itself, rises above the corruption with 
 which it is invested, and exhibits the same vital, 
 regenerative power as in the days of Christ and 
 his apostles. 
 
 The agents by which this was accomplished, 
 in the Reformation of the sixteenth centu 
 ry, were in themselves human and insignifi 
 cant. They derived their success, as they fre 
 quently and frankly testify, from an unseen 
 power, controlling events, and working mightily 
 in them and others. What had the son of the 
 poor miner of Mansfeld, born at Eisleben, as 
 38 
 
 tri J?IB> 
 
 . 
 
446 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Christ was born at Bethlehem, to do with ref 
 ormations and revolutions ? Nay, what had the 
 poor monk of Erfurt, groaning over his sins, and 
 despairing of the grace of God, to do with such 
 things ? What even had the humble Wittem- 
 berg professor, a submissive doctor of the Papal 
 church, lecturing on Paul s Epistles to the Gala- 
 tians, to do with them ? He wanted only to live, 
 to serve God, to confide in Christ, and teach any 
 pious souls, who might desire it, the way of life, 
 and this in connection with the church of his 
 fathers, of whose infallibility even then, he had 
 no doubt. In vain had learning and genius, in 
 vain had diplomacy and theology attempted 
 to reform the Papacy. It had wealth, talent, 
 numbers, organization, influence, all at its com 
 mand. It had burned John Huss, and it could 
 easily burn Luther. The Emperor Charles 
 V., was just as likely to yield to the power 
 of Rome, as Sigismund was when he delivered 
 up the Bohemian reformer. But Christ was 
 in the movement, as a spirit of wisdom and 
 power, transcending all calculations, overcoming 
 all obstacles, and bringing thousands of willing 
 hearts to the foot of the cross. It was through 
 Christ, and Christ alone, endowing him with a 
 matchless energy on behalf of the truth and the 
 souls of men, that the poor feeble monk became 
 the reformer of Christendom, 
 
THE REFORMATION. 447 
 
 All say, even the Papists say, that Luther had 
 power. " I cannot bear," said one of his oppo 
 nents, "those deep-set eyes." " He is possessed 
 of the devil," said others, " and nothing stands 
 before him." What was that power? Was it sin 
 cerity, simplicity, vigor of intellect, learning, cour 
 age, rough eloquence, resolution, perseverance ? 
 These, doubtless, are elements of power and 
 means of success, within certain limits. But John 
 Wickliff, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Peter 
 Waldo, Arnold of Brescia, all had these ele 
 ments of character ; but they failed as reformers. 
 Nay, some of the opponents of Luther, though 
 wrong, utterly wrong, had these qualities, in 
 more or less measure. Luther, however, had a 
 power beyond them all. What was it ? We 
 unhesitatingly reply, The power of God, through 
 Jesus Christ^ in large and abundant measure. 
 God, indeed, uses fit vehicles. He puts great 
 grace into great souls. Thus it was with Lu 
 ther. Christ was in him as a fit vehicle of his 
 divine might. 
 
 Hence Luther had no special theological dog 
 mas or quiddities to plead. If some of these 
 were embodied in the creed of the Reformation, 
 they were never used by Luther, in his grand 
 contest with the Papacy, or in preaching the 
 word for the comfort and guidance of " weary 
 souls." He believed, and he taught, with a 
 
448 CHRIST IIT HISTORY. 
 
 depth of conviction, and a force of eloquence, 
 unequalled since the days of Paul, the doctrine 
 of justification by faith ; for this was the doctrine 
 of grace, the doctrine of life, the only hope qf 
 the sinner, the only hope of the world. No, no ; 
 he who had rejected the doctrine of indulgences, 
 and consequently of all commerce and barter in 
 religion, could not introduce it into Christ s free 
 gospel. Not by purchase, not by works, but by 
 grace, free and boundless as the nature of the 
 God from whom it springs, can the sinner be 
 emancipated. He must believe, he must trust, 
 he must love, in order to obey. He is not a 
 slave ; he is a child, an erring child indeed, but a 
 child to be forgiven, to be taken to the bosom 
 of God, and thus to be redeemed and disin- 
 thralled forever. " Justified freely by his grace, 
 through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 
 Faith in Christ, after terrible struggles, had 
 emancipated his own spirit, and filled him with 
 the life of God, and Luther wanted the whole 
 world to enjoy the mighty blessing. But spe 
 cial dogmas of predestination, election, general 
 and particular atonement, &c., did not trouble 
 him. In themselves, too, he cared little for ex 
 ternal forms and usages. He observed them a? 
 decorous, but would neither abolish nor indorse 
 them. He might have remained a Catholic for 
 all this. Some one wanted a cassock to preach 
 
THE REFORMATION. 449 
 
 in, to which more scrupulous persons objected. 
 " Let him have three cassocks, if he wishes 
 .them ! " cried Luther. Perhaps he was not suf 
 ficiently enlightened about some things. Indeed, 
 he left many evils unreformed. He had some 
 false ideas and superstitions of his own. He 
 was not a perfect man. But he loved Christ. 
 He loved the truth. He loved the souls of men. 
 In a word, Christ was in him, as a great, strong, 
 loving, self-sacrificing, Christian heart. Hence 
 he was willing to die for Christ, to suffer for the 
 truth, to yield his life for the church. " I do not 
 refuse to die," said he over and over again, " if 
 it be God s will." " Take my life," said he to 
 the pope, " but . I must stand by the truth." 
 "What is about to happen," said he in a time 
 of danger, " I know not, nor do I care to know, 
 assured as I am that He who sits on the throne 
 of heaven, has from all eternity foreseen the be 
 ginning, the progress, and the end of this affair. 
 Let the blow fall where it may, I am without 
 fear. Not so much as a leaf falls without the 
 will of our Father. How much rather will he 
 care for us ! It is a light thing to die for the 
 Word, since the Word, which was made flesh, 
 hath himself died. If we die with him, we shall 
 live with him ; and passing through that which 
 he hath passed through before us, we shall be 
 where he is, and dwell with him forever." 
 38* 
 
450 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 jt 
 
 The Reformation had transpired in Luther him 
 self, before it transpired in Germany. A supersti 
 tious Catholic, bending beneath the burden of a 
 false and degrading faith, fearing " Christ himself 
 as a tyrant," ignorant of God s method of justifica 
 tion, macerating his body by penances, and his 
 soul by sorrows, he was led, insensibly, to the 
 word of God, and thence to the cross of Christ. 
 Gradually he discovered the " riches of grace/ 
 and found peace in believing. Still he clung to 
 the Papacy, to masses and pilgrimages, purgatories 
 and penances. From all these, however, he was 
 gradually emancipated by the word, the provi 
 dence, and the Spirit of God. Then he exulted 
 in the God of his salvation, and not all the 
 powers of pope or devil could move him from his 
 integrity. He became a Protestant ; say rather a 
 Christian, simple, sincere, devout, -noble-hearted, 
 and self-sacrificing. Then " to live was Christ, and 
 to die gain." " Though as a monk," says he, " I 
 was holy and irreproachable, my conscience was 
 still filled with trouble and torment. , I could not 
 endure the expression the righteous justice of 
 God. I did not love that just and holy Being 
 who punishes sinners. I felt a secret anger against 
 him ; I hated him, because, not satisfied with 
 terrifying by his law, and by the miseries of life, 
 poor creatures already ruined by original sin, he 
 aggravated our sufferings by the gospel. But 
 
THE KEFORMATION. 451 
 
 when by the Spirit of God I understood these 
 words when I learned how the justification of 
 the sinner proceeds from God s mere mercy by 
 the way of faith then I felt myself born again, 
 as a new man, and I entered by an open door 
 into the very paradise of God. From that hour 
 I saw the precious and Holy Scriptures with new 
 eyes. I went through the whole Bible. I col 
 lected a multitude of passages which taught me 
 what the work of God was. And as I had before 
 heartily hated that expression, the righteousness 
 of God, I began, from that time, to value and 
 love it, as the sweetest and most consolatory 
 truth. Truly this text of St. Paul was to me as 
 the very gate of heaven. " 
 
 Hence he taught this great truth, in all his 
 preaching and writings ; and because he was for 
 bidden to teach it, on pain of Papal condemna 
 tion, he opposed the Papacy by teaching and 
 preaching it the more. This was his great weapon 
 against all the errors and corruptions of Rome. 
 " I see," said he, at a critical moment, " that the 
 devil, by means of his teachers and doctors, is in 
 cessantly attacking this fundamental article, and 
 that he cannot rest or cease from this object. 
 Well then, I, Doctor Martin Luther, an unworthy 
 evangelist of our Lord Jesus Christ, do confess 
 this article, that faith alone, without works, justi 
 fies in the sight of God; and I declare, that in 
 
452 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 spite of the Emperor of the Turks, the Emperor 
 of the Tartars, the Emperor of the Persians, the 
 Pope, all the cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, 
 nuns, kings, princes, nobles, all the world, and all 
 the devils, it shall stand unshaken forever ! that 
 if they will persist in opposing this truth, they 
 will draw upon their heads the flames of hell. 
 This is the true and holy gospel, and the declara 
 tion of me, Doctor Luther, according to the light 
 given to me by the Holy Spirit. . . . There 
 is no one who has died for our sins but Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of God. I repeat it once more : 
 let all the evil spirits of earth and hell foam and 
 rage as they will, this is nevertheless true. And 
 if Christ alone takes away sin, we cannot do so 
 by all our works. But good works follow redemp 
 tion, as surely as fruit appears upon a living 
 tree. This is our doctrine; this the Holy Spirit 
 teacheth, together with all holy Christian people. 
 We hold it in God s name. Amen ! " 
 
 And thus he proclaimed it to the world, pro 
 claimed it to his dying day ; and the reforma 
 tion in Luther s heart reproduced itself, by the 
 power of Christ, in Germany, Switzerland, Hol 
 land, England, and Scotland. The word of God 
 had free course it ran and was glorified. 
 
 Some, unfriendly to the Reformation, have 
 denied the presence of Christ in the spirit and 
 work of Luther, because of his roughness and 
 
THE REFORMATION. 453 
 
 violence. Doubtless he was an imperfect, nay, 
 sinful man, and he himself was the first to con 
 fess it ; but this is not to be charged to Christ or 
 the Reformation. God commits the treasure of 
 his grace to earthen vessels. Our adorable Re 
 deemer condescends to dwell in sinful hearts. 
 Doubtless Luther, though at heart a gentle, lov 
 ing man, was often violent and impetuous ; but 
 such also is the lightning s flash, which cleaves 
 the atmosphere, and goes crashing through the 
 resounding heavens. A Luther, or a John Bap 
 tist, or a John Knox, is no puling sentimentalist. 
 At times the word of God is as fire shut up in 
 his bones. He is indignant at oppression and 
 wrong. He longs to strike the hoary lust from 
 its throne. His words, rough, vehement, jagged, 
 tumultuous, are " half battles." They go burn 
 ing and crashing amid the idols of superstition. 
 He must be honest, he must be true, and some 
 times he must be vehement, fearfully vehement. 
 And as he is only a man, sometimes he may be 
 imprudent, and both say and do things which 
 subsequently he regrets. But in the main he is 
 honest, terribly, gloriously honest. Let him then 
 speak out, let him lay stunning blows on the 
 head of despotic error and fiendish lust, Let 
 him trample in the dust the mean arguments and 
 meaner wiles of his opponents. Are they not 
 the enemies of God and man ; and has not the 
 
454 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Almighty made him the battle axe to grind them 
 to powder ? Men stood aghast when Luther 
 burned the pope s bull ; but to us it is a magnifi 
 cent sight. With what generous and beautiful 
 disdain he tears it to atoms, and commits it to the 
 flames as a weak and worthless thing, which it 
 behoves all honest men to despise ! " Too much 
 imprudence displeases men" replies Luther to 
 Spalatin, who had counselled him to sobriety, 
 " but too much prudence is displeasing to God. 
 It is impossible to make a stand for the gospel 
 without creating some disturbance and offence. 
 The word of God is a sword, waging war, over 
 throwing and destroying ; it is a casting down, 
 a disturbance, and comes, as the prophet Amos 
 says, as a bear in the way, as a lion in the forest. 
 I want nothing from them. I ask nothing. There 
 is One above who seeks and requires. Whether 
 his requirements be disregarded or obeyed affects 
 not me." " No," he continues, " I dare not 
 withdraw from the contest. I commit every thing 
 to God, and give up my bark to winds and waves. 
 The battle is the Lord s. Why will you fancy 
 that it is by peace that Christ will advance his 
 cause? Has not he himself, have not all the 
 martyrs, poured forth their blood in the conflict ? " 
 Yet Luther clearly distinguishes between what 
 is his own and what is the Lord s. The former 
 he was ever willing to yield, the latter never. 
 
TIIK REFORMATION. 455 
 
 He readily acknowledges his faults ; he acknowl 
 edges this very imprudence and impetuosity. In 
 his letter to Pope Leo X., and in his address be 
 fore the Diet of Worms, he is willing to retract 
 all this, any thing, in fact, which is his own ; only 
 he takes his stand on the word of God, and con 
 tends for the truth. Reform the church, preach 
 the gospel, or let the gospel be preached, and he 
 is satisfied. " I have attacked," says he, address 
 ing the pope, " it is true, some anti-Christian 
 doctrines, and I have inflicted some deep wounds 
 on my adversaries on account of their impiety. 
 I cannot regret this, for I have in this Christ for 
 an example. Of what use is salt, if it hath lost 
 its savor, or the sword blade, if it doth not cut ? 
 Cursed is he who doth the Lord s work coldly. 
 
 most excellent Leo, far from conceiving any evil 
 design against you, I wish you the most precious 
 blessings for all eternity. One thing only have 
 
 1 done. I have defended the word of truth. I 
 am ready to give way to every one in every thing; 
 but as it regards that word, I will not, I cannot 
 abandon it." 
 
 The facts and principles to which we have 
 referred, as lying at the basis of this great revolu 
 tion, are strikingly illustrated in Luther s appear 
 ance before the Diet of Worms, at which point 
 the Reformation seemed to culminate. It is 
 one of the sublimest passages in history, and 
 
456 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 deserves the study of all who would understand 
 the spirit of Luther and the Reformation. 
 
 Every one familiar with history knows the 
 nature and object of that august assembly or 
 Diet, which, under Charles V., of Germany, was 
 held at Worms, and before which Luther was 
 cited to appear and retract his heresies. He had 
 received a safe conduct from the emperor, but 
 his friends feared that it would not protect him, 
 and that his life would be endangered. Already 
 condemned by the pope, it was only necessary 
 for the secular authorities to execute the sen 
 tence. Every where his books were burned by 
 order of the Papal court, and although his friends 
 were numerous and powerful, his enemies were 
 yet more numerous and powerful. He was sick 
 and feeble, but he felt that he must appear at 
 Worms, and testify to the truth. His brethren 
 earnestly dissuaded him ; but he must go. A 
 few friends accompanied him on his journey. At 
 Weimar he heard of the condemnation and 
 burning of his books. The herald asked him if he 
 would proceed. " Yes," replied Luther, " though 
 I should be put under interdict in every town, 
 I will go on. I rely on the emperor s safe con 
 duct." 
 
 In some of the towns on the way, particularly 
 at Erfurt, he was welcomed with joy. Here 
 he preached, with vigor and comfort, on the great 
 
THE REFORMATION. 457 
 
 doctrine of salvation through Christ. He never 
 once alluded to the object of his journey; his 
 whole mind and heart were engaged on the glo 
 rious theme. At Eisenach he was taken sud 
 denly ill. Thgy bled him, and administered 
 cordials, and on the following morning he re 
 sumed his journey. 
 
 Crowds of the common people followed him, 
 in all the towns through which he passed. " Ah," 
 said some, " there are plenty of cardinals and 
 bishops at Worms. You will be burned alive, 
 and your body reduced to ashes, as they did 
 with John Huss." Luther replied deliberately, 
 " Though they should kindle a fire whose flame 
 should reach from Worms to Wittemberg, and 
 rise up to heaven, I would go through it in the 
 name of the Lord, and stand before them. I 
 would enter the jaws of Behemoth, break his 
 teeth, and confess the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 One day, as he was entering an inn, one of the 
 crowd, who pressed around him, made his way 
 to him and said, " Are you the man who has 
 taken in hand to reform the Papacy ? How can 
 you expect to succeed ? " " Yes," answered 
 Luther, " I am the man. I place my dependence 
 upon Almighty God, whose word and command 
 ment is before me." The officer, deeply affected, 
 gazed on him affectionately, and said, " Dear 
 friend, there is much in what you say ; I am a 
 39 
 
45S CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 servant of Charles, but your Master is greater 
 than mine. He will keep and protect you." 
 
 On Sunday, the 14th of April, Luther arrived 
 in Frankfort. The pope s emissaries were 
 amazed and alarmed. They had no idea that he 
 would obey the summons. They expected to 
 condemn him unheard. It was their intent, 
 therefore, to stop his progress ; and they did every 
 thing to effect their purpose. His own friends 
 were undecided. But the reformer never once 
 hesitated. He was going in the strength of God, 
 and, whatever might be the issue, he must honor 
 Christ before kings and emperors. It was inti 
 mated to him that the emperor s confessor, Gla- 
 pio, who had come on purpose to prevent, or, at 
 least, to retard his arrival, wished to see him. 
 " I shall go on," said he, " and if the emperor s 
 confessor has any thing to say to me, he will 
 find rne at Worms." 
 
 Spalatin, his friend and counsellor, and the 
 elector s chaplain, on whom Luther much de 
 pended for protection and aid, in case of diffi 
 culty, was himself filled with apprehension. The 
 elector was yet undecided, and might abandon 
 Luther to his enemies. He heard from all quar 
 ters that the safe conduct would be violated. 
 Alarmed, he despatched a servant to meet Luther 
 a little way beyond the city, with this message : 
 " Abstain from entering Worms." Luther fixed 
 
THE REFORMATION. 459 
 
 his eyes sternly on the messenger : " Go tell your 
 master" said he, " that though there should be as 
 many devils at Worms as there are tiles, on its 
 roofs, Iivould enter it." Thus rose the high spirit 
 of Luther, as he drew near the scene of danger 
 and trial. He felt himself " strong in the Lord, 
 and in the power of his might." The messenger 
 delivered the astounding message. " I was then 
 intrepid," said Luther, a few days before his 
 death; "I feared nothing. God can give this 
 boldness to man. I know not whether now I 
 should have as much liberty and joy." 
 
 Some young noblemen and others rode out of 
 the city to meet Luther, and escorted him within 
 the walls. The place was filled with excitement. 
 Nothing was thought of, nothing talked of, but 
 the arrival of the intrepid monk. At a late hour, 
 he rested in his hotel, the gates were shut, and 
 all was still. Whether he should ever go beyond 
 these guarded walls, God only knew. Luther 
 himself enjoyed perfect peace. He was filled 
 with a holy enthusiasm. It seemed as if Christ 
 was standing by him all the time. He calmly 
 awaited his citation before the Diet on the fol 
 lowing day. In the morning, however, his 
 strength suddenly failed him. His mind was 
 agitated by a profound and fearful struggle. 
 He seemed to drink of the cup of Christ. He 
 threw himself with his face upon the earth, and 
 
460 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 uttered, in broken cries and sobs, expressions 
 which God alone can appreciate, expressions 
 never to be interpreted literally, and which the 
 deep and terrible anguish of the spirit alone can 
 justify. In these, however, we discover the 
 complete sincerity and self-abnegation of the 
 man, and the simple, childlike faith he was wont 
 to exercise in God. They are the cry of a wound 
 ed spirit, dreading to be severed from God in the 
 hour of its deepest trial. " O God, Almighty 
 God everlasting ! how dreadful is the world ! be 
 hold how its mouth opens to swallow me up, 
 and how small is my faith in thee! O, the 
 weakness of the flesh, and the power of Satan ! 
 If I am to depend upon any strength of this 
 world, all is over. . . . The knell is struck 
 . . . Sentence is gone forth. . . . O God ! 
 
 God ! O thou my God ! help me against all 
 the wisdom of this world. Do this, I beseech 
 thee ; thou shouldst do this, ... by thine 
 own mighty power. . . . The work is not 
 mine, but thine. I have no business here. . . . 
 
 1 have nothing to contend for with these great 
 men of the world ! I would gladly pass my days 
 in happiness and peace. But the cause is thine, 
 . . . and it is righteous and everlasting ! O 
 Lord, help me ! O faithful and unchangeable 
 God ! I lean not upon man. It were vain ! 
 Whatever is of man is tottering, whatever pro- 
 
THE INFORMATION. 461 
 
 ceeds from him must fail. My God! my God! 
 dost thou not hear ? My God ! art thou no 
 longer living ? Nay, thou canst not die ! Thou 
 dost but hide thyself. Thou hast chosen me 
 for this work. I know it ! Therefore, O God. 
 accomplish thine own will! Forsake me not, 
 for the sake of thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, 
 my defence, my buckler, and my stronghold." 
 
 After a moment of silent struggle, he con 
 tinues : " Lord, where art thou ? My God, 
 where art thou ? Come, I beseech thee, I am 
 ready. . . . Behold me prepared to lay down my 
 life for the truth, . . . suffering like a lamb. For 
 thy cause is holy. It is thine own ! . . . I will 
 not let thee go! no, nor yet for all eternity! And 
 though the world should be thronged with devils, 
 and this body, which is the work of thy hands, 
 should be cast forth, trodden under foot, cut in 
 pieces, . . . consumed to ashes, . . . my soul is 
 thine ! Yes, I have thine own word to assure 
 me of it. My soul belongs to thee, and will 
 abide with thee forever ! Amen ! O God, send 
 help! . . . Amen!" 
 
 Here is revealed the secret of Luther s pow 
 er, and here the secret of the Reformation. If 
 Christ was not in it, Christ was never in the gar 
 den, or on the cross. 
 
 Four o clock arrived. All things were ready. 
 Luther set out, God had heard his prayer. 
 39* 
 
4> CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 Through a dense crowd he reached the town 
 hall; a passage was cleared by the soldiers. 
 The place was crowded; above, below, windows, 
 staircases, all were filled. As he drew near the 
 door which was to admit him into the presence of 
 his judges, George Freundsberg, a valiant knight, 
 seeing Luther pass, touched him on the shoulder, 
 and shaking his head, grown gray amid the din 
 of battle, said kindly, " My poor monk, my poor 
 monk, thou hast a march and a struggle to go 
 through such as neither I nor many other cap 
 tains have seen the like in our most bloody bat 
 tles. But if thy cause be just, and thou art sure 
 of it, go forward in God s name, and fear noth 
 ing! He will not forsake thee." 
 
 And now Luther stood in the presence of 
 Charles V., "whose kingdom extended across 
 two hemispheres, associated with electors, 
 dukes, margraves, archbishops, bishops, and 
 prelates, ambassadors from various countries, 
 including France and England, deputies of free 
 cities, and a great multitude of counts and 
 barons, the pope s nuncio, and other dignitaries. 
 
 His very appearance there, so dreaded by the 
 Papal court, was a victory. Some princes were 
 near him, one of whom, affected by his dignified 
 appearance, whispered, " Fear not them who are 
 able to kill the body, but cannot destroy the 
 soul." Another said, "When you are brought 
 
TI5K REFORMATION. 463 
 
 before kings, it shall be given you by the Spirit 
 of your Father what you shall say." 
 
 Luther was addressed, at the command of the 
 emperor, by the imperial counsellor Eck, who 
 said that he had been called before the imperial 
 Diet to answer these two questions : " First, 
 whether you acknowledge these books (a large 
 pile of which lay on the table) to be yours, or 
 not ; secondly, whether you will retract them or 
 not, or whether you will adhere to them still." 
 
 Before Luther replied, Schurf, his counsellor, 
 said, " Let the titles of the books be read." 
 Then the official read over the titles, among 
 which were Exposition of certain Psalms, Trea 
 tise on Good Works, Explanation of the Lord s 
 Prayer, and others, mostly of a practical char 
 acter. 
 
 Luther acknowledged that the books were his. 
 But " touching the next point," he added, with 
 noble simplicity and prudence, " whether I will 
 maintain these or retract them, seeing it is a 
 question of faith, and of one s salvation, and of 
 the word of God, which is the greatest treasure 
 in heaven and earth, and deserving at all times 
 our highest reverence, it would be rash and 
 perilous for me to speak inconsiderately, and 
 affirm, without reflection, either more or less 
 than is consistent with truth ; for in either case 
 I should fall under the sentence of Christ, He 
 
464 CIIKlbT IN HISTORY. 
 
 that denieth me before men, him will I deny be 
 fore my Father which is in heaven. Therefore 
 I beg of your imperial majesty time for reflec 
 tion, that I may be able to reply to the question 
 proposed without prejudice to the word of God 
 or to my own salvation." 
 
 Though it was intimated that he did not deserve 
 the clemency, it was granted by the emperor. 
 
 The gravity of the question at issue, and this 
 solemn suspense, only heightened the interest of 
 the occasion. 
 
 What were Luther s feelings at this time we 
 learn from one of his letters. After informing 
 his friend what had transpired, and that he had 
 asked time for deliberation, he adds, " This is all 
 the time I asked, and all that they would give. 
 But, Christ being gracious to me, I will not re 
 tract one iota." 
 
 His friends crowded around him with words 
 of cheer ; and he received from the warrior-poet 
 and reformer, Ulricvon Hutten, the following in 
 spiring letter, addressed to his " holy friend, the in 
 vincible theologian and evangelist :" " Fight cour 
 ageously for Christ, and yield not to wrong, but go 
 forth confidently to meet it. Endure as a good 
 soldier of Jesus, and suffer that the gift which 
 is in you may be called out, and be assured that 
 He on whom you have believed can preserve 
 what you have committed to him till that day. 
 
THE KEFORMATION. 465 
 
 I also will take strong hold of the work ; but 
 there is this difference in our undertakings, that 
 mine is human, while you, far more perfect, 
 cleave wholly to divine things." Von Hutten had 
 at other times proffered Luther the aid of "car 
 nal weapons," but Luther uniformly declined 
 all such help. His reliance was on the arm of 
 God. 
 
 On the succeeding day, in the afternoon, Luther 
 was again summoned to the Diet, when, after 
 waiting some time, the lamps being lighted, and 
 the immense crowd eager and expectant, the 
 official called upon him to answer to the ques 
 tion previously laid before him. Luther replied 
 with modesty and calmness, but with the utmost 
 clearness and decision. He classified his books, 
 saying that in some he had treated of works of 
 faith and piety with such Christian plainness 
 and simplicity, that even his enemies did not 
 deny their harmlessness, utility, and worth. To 
 retract these would be to condemn the truth 
 confessed by all. The second class of his works 
 were directed against the Papacy and the Pa 
 pists, as corrupting and injuring all Christendom 
 with their teaching and example. He urged 
 that by the laws and teachings of the Papacy, 
 souls are enslaved and injured, and that goods 
 and possessions, especially in Germany, are de 
 voured by their incredible tyranny. They them- 
 
466 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 selves have ordained by their own decrees, that 
 the laws and doctrines of the pope, which are 
 contrary to the gospel and the teachings of the 
 fathers, be regarded as erroneous. Were he to 
 revoke this class of books, he would but increase 
 the strength of tyranny, and leave open not 
 merely a window, but a door and a gate, to 
 wickedness, wider than ever. The third class of 
 his books were personal, and written against 
 those who had opposed reform, and vindicated 
 the tyranny of Rome. Against these, he had, 
 he acknowledged, been more violent than was 
 becoming. But even these books he could not 
 retract, because by this means he would give his 
 influence to Roman tyranny, which would crush 
 the people s rights more mercilessly than ever. 
 
 But as he was a man, and not God, he would 
 not do for his books otherwise than Christ had 
 done for his doctrines, who, when questioned 
 respecting them by Annas, and smitten on the 
 cheek by the servant, said, " If I have spoken 
 wrong, then show it to be wrong." On which 
 ground he respectfully urged them to cause plain 
 proof to be brought against them from the words 
 of Christ and his holy apostles, and he would 
 be the first to cast them into the fire. 
 
 When his address was ended, though exhausted 
 by the effort and the extreme heat, he was re 
 quested to repeat it in Latin, for the benefit of 
 
THE REFORMATION. 467 
 
 those who did not understand German. After a 
 slight hesitation, he complied with the request, 
 in a calm, clear, deliberate voice. 
 
 He was accused by the imperial orator of evad 
 ing the question, and urged to give a plain, cate 
 gorical answer, whether he would retract or not. 
 He replied, " Since your imperial majesty and 
 lordships desire a direct answer, I will give one 
 which has neither horns nor teeth ; and it is this : 
 Unless I shall be convinced by the testimony of 
 Scripture, or by clear and plain argument, (for I 
 do not believe either in the pope or in the coun 
 cils alone, because it is plain and evident they 
 have often erred and contradicted each other,) J 
 am held by those passages which I have cited, 
 and am bound by my conscience and the word 
 of God, and therefore I may not, I cannot re 
 tract, inasmuch as it is neither safe nor right 
 to violate my conscience. Here I stand, I can 
 not do otherwise, so help me God. Amen ! " 
 
 Thus nobly and courageously Luther clung to 
 the word of God. If that failed, he failed if 
 that stood, he stood. " Hier stehe ich Ich kan 
 nicht anders ! Gott helfe mir. Amen ! " 
 
 After much discussion, Luther was finally con 
 demned by the emperor ; but as he had a safe 
 conduct, which even Charles V. did not dare to 
 violate, he was permitted to go unmolested. 
 % Hundreds were ready to defend him; but he 
 
468 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 needed no defence, but the consciousness of right 
 and the protection of the Almighty. Much effort 
 had been made, before the final sentence, to in 
 duce him to retract. But he stood firm as a rock ; 
 " he had given his answer, he could not retract." 
 He was willing even to forego his safe conduct, 
 and "resign his person and life to the emperor s 
 disposal ; but as to the word of God never! " 
 
 In leaving Worms, Luther s heart was filled 
 with unutterable peace and joy. " Satan him 
 self," said he, " kept the pope s citadel ; but Christ 
 has made a wide breach in it, and the devil has 
 been compelled to confess that Christ is mightier 
 than he." 
 
 The Diet of Worms decided the fate of the 
 Reformation. Thenceforward the Elector of 
 Saxony, and many others, gave themselves to it, 
 heart and soul. The echo of that occasion re 
 sounded far and near, in Germany, France, and 
 Switzerland, and even as far as England and 
 Scotland. The word of God was more precious 
 than ever. Thousands, in the spirit of Luther, 
 exclaimed, "Here we stand we cannot do 
 otherwise. God help us. Amen ! " 
 
 On his arrival at Frankfort, Luther, rejoicing 
 in God, wrote the following familiar, energetic 
 letter to his dear friend Lucas Cranach, the paint 
 er, of Witternberg " My service to you, dear 
 Master Lucas. I expected his majesty would 
 
THE REFORMATION. 469 
 
 assemble fifty learned doctors to convict the 
 monk outright. But not at all. Are these books 
 of your writing ? Yes. Will you retract them ? 
 No ! Well, begone ! There s the whole his 
 tory. Deluded Germans, how childishly we 
 act! how we are duped and defrauded by 
 Rome ! Let the Jews sing their yo ! yo ! yo ! 
 But a passover is coming for us also, and then 
 we will sing Hallelujah ! We must keep silence, 
 and endure for a short time. A little while and 
 ye shall not see me, and again a little while and 
 ye shall see me, said Jesus Christ. I trust I may 
 say the same. Farewell. I commend you all 
 to the Eternal. May he preserve in Christ your 
 understanding and your faith from the attacks 
 of the wolves and the dragons of Rome. Amen." 
 Luther was shut up in the Castle of Wartburg, 
 in the depths of the old Thuringian forest, and 
 many thought him dead ; but the word of God 
 was not bound. Christ crucified, the hope of the 
 soul, was every where proclaimed and believed. 
 The movement spread on all the wings of the 
 wind. Great numbers deserted the Papacy, and 
 turned to the Lord. Luther reappeared, as faith 
 ful as ever, and maintained the long struggle. He 
 suffered much, and was willing to die. Indeed, 
 he was weary of the world, so full of contention, 
 oppression, and sin. But his trust was in God 
 his Redeemer. He departed in peace at Eisleben, 
 40 
 
470 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 the place of his birth. Three times quickly he 
 repeated the words, " Father, into thy hands I 
 commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, thou 
 faithful God." Then he was quiet. The attend 
 ants shook him, rubbed him, and spoke to him ; 
 but he closed his eyes, and made no reply. Jonas 
 and Coelius then spoke to him very loud, and 
 said, " Venerable father, do you die trusting 
 in Christ, and in the doctrine which you have 
 preached ? " and he answered distinctly, " Yes," 
 and turning upon his right side, slept a short 
 period, when, with folded hands, with one gentle 
 breath and sigh, he passed away.* 
 
 There were many obstacles to the progress of 
 the Reformation ; some confusion, some disorders 
 were the result ; but God raised up many great 
 and good men, in various places, to preach the 
 gospel of Christ, and the work of renovation ad 
 vanced. Christ was in it as a power of hope 
 
 * We have dwelt upon the Reformation chiefly as it developed 
 itself in the centre of continental Europe. We might trace, were 
 it necessary, the action of the same principles in England and Scot 
 land. In these countries the Reformation had an independent origin, 
 though vastly aided by the movement in Germany. For informa 
 tion upon the history of the Reformation in England and Scotland, 
 see Burnet s History of the Reformation, Blunt s History of the 
 English Reformation, D Aubigne s fifth volume of his History of 
 the Reformation, Neale s History of the Puritans, McCries s Life 
 of John Knox, Hetherington s History of the Church of Scotland. 
 For an admirable exposition of the spirt and aim of Knox, see the 
 Westminster Review for July, ISoS. 
 
THE REFORMATION. 471 
 
 and transformation to many souls and many lands. 
 It was as if the frosts of a long winter had dis 
 solved, and quickening spring was breathing 
 through the forests of Germany, and the moun 
 tains of Switzerland, and far off amid the plains 
 of England, and the hills of Scotland. The 
 waters of life, long pent up among frozen rocks, 
 let loose by the breath of God, were rolling and 
 flashing under the deepening radiance. The 
 wilderness and the solitary place were glad, the 
 desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose. 
 
 In all violent transitions, however, much evil 
 is developed along with the good. Human pas 
 sions and interests ever mingle with divine insti 
 tutions. Individuals, as well as churches and 
 communities, are only partially " sanctified." 
 Some are grievously defective, others are selfish 
 and tumultuous. Besides, action and reaction 
 ever correspond to each other ; if the pendulum 
 is held far in one direction, it will swing the far 
 ther in the other. Some tumult and irregularity 
 mingle in the grandest revolutions. 
 
 All this we see in the Reformation of the six 
 teenth century ; yet it was the revival of primitive 
 Christianity. It was a power of life and blessing 
 to the nations, and to myriads of individual souls, 
 who "justified by faith," had, in life and in death, 
 " peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 The word of God was emancipated. Noble re- 
 
4:72 CH11IST IN HISTOKY. 
 
 formed churches were established. Thence sprang 
 freedom and justice, activity and advancement. 
 Thence came Bacon, Newton, and Howard, John 
 Milton and Thomas Chalmers, with that high, 
 progressive civilization, yet destined to cover the 
 earth.* 
 
 * It might be interesting here to show how the Reformation 
 reacted powerfully on the Papal church, and, consequently, on all 
 Roman Catholic countries. Its spirit is diffused beyond Protestant 
 bounds. It is at work among all civilized nations. It is the leaven 
 which must leaven the whole mass. But the facts are obvious ; and 
 we leave the matter to the reflection of intelligent men. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CHRIST IN MODERN SOCIETY. 
 
 IN all ages, among the modern as well as 
 among the ancient nations, we find the influence 
 of two great elements, or factors the finite and 
 the infinite, the human and the divine. In the 
 finite and human is the tendency to imperfection, 
 consequently to division, disorder, and death. In 
 the infinite is the tendency to perfection, conse 
 quently to unity, order, and life. And as the 
 finite and the infinite, in their action, are blended 
 in the constitution and course of things, we find 
 the manifestations of the latter, in the moral 
 sphere, greatly modified by circumstances. Hence 
 the striking variations and contrasts in history, 
 the singular ebb and flow of society, its convul 
 sions and revulsions, its retrogression and pro 
 gression. In some ages, and among some 
 nations, we meet an apparent predominance of 
 evil, yet ever with a struggle and tendency to 
 good. God does not leave himself without a wit 
 ness, either in nature or in society. Every where 
 he works after the counsel of his own will. The 
 process is invisible and mysterious, and often to 
 
 40 * (473) 
 
474 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 our view, sadly checked and disarranged. Still 
 it advances, and, in due time, discovers its resist 
 less force. Individuals arise who recognize " the 
 divine," and endeavor to advance society in the 
 direction of God and perfection. Organs of the 
 infinite, certain institutions, and certain races, 
 are found better adapted than others for the re 
 ception and communication of the truth. Oppo 
 sition and difficulty exist among all, because 
 imperfection and sin exist in all. But the 
 divine element struggles onward and upward. 
 Its tendency is ever to unity and perfection. In 
 its higher development, as in Christianity, which 
 is only the infinite organized and embodied in 
 human forms, we see this great fact strikingly 
 revealed. Order and perfection are its law, but 
 opposing influences come into collision with it ; 
 and hence it is sometimes the cause, or rather 
 occasion, of disturbance and disorder. But its 
 movement is always in the right direction. Like 
 the pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, 
 before the Jewish army, it leads society in the 
 wilderness. Obstacles vanish, or fall into its 
 train, while the race is moved onward to its 
 goal. 
 
 Ages, however, are needed for the mighty evo 
 lution. The infinite is slow, but sure. It moves 
 through time, as if time were eternity. Indeed, 
 time is as nothing to the infinite. " One day is 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 475 
 
 with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thou 
 sand years as one day." But that which endures 
 conquers at last. Therefore the kingdom will 
 come, and the whole earth be subdued to God. 
 " The movements of Providence," says Guizot, 
 looking at the successive developments of human 
 civilization, "are not restricted to narrow bounds; 
 it is not anxious to deduce to-day the conse 
 quence of the premises it laid down yesterday. 
 It may defer this for ages, till the fulness of the 
 time shall come. Its logic will not be less con 
 clusive for reasoning slowly. Providence moves 
 through time, as the gods of Homer through 
 space ; it makes a step, and ages have rolled 
 away ! How long a time, how many circum 
 stances, intervened before the regeneration of the 
 moral powers of man, by Christianity, exercised 
 its great, its legitimate influence upon his social 
 condition ! Yet who can doubt or mistake its 
 power ? " Thus the Reformation of the sixteenth 
 century has come and gone ; and now all things 
 are preparing for a second and grander reforma 
 tion. Obstacles oppose it ; yet who doubts that 
 it will come ? Who doubts that the whole world 
 shall yet see the glory of God ? 
 
 We are not to be surprised, then, if in Christi 
 anity, and in the Christian form of civilization, 
 
 * History of Civilization, vol. i. p. 28. 
 
476 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 we find the constant, and even violent struggle 
 of opposing powers. But Christianity, like the 
 infinite factor, is never defeated, above all, never 
 extinguished. Cast down, and, to all appear 
 ance, fit only for the grave, it rises again, renews 
 its energies, augments its resources, and goes 
 forth among men conquering and to conquer. It 
 thus vindicates its title to the character of a su 
 pernatural power. It works together with God; 
 its tendency is to universal dominion. 
 
 Hence Christianity will generally be found as 
 sociated with the strongest races ; rather, perhaps, 
 it will assist in forming the strongest races. How 
 rapidly it allied itself with the Romans, the 
 strongest race on the globe ! but finding Rome, 
 with all its resources, debauched by vice, and 
 consequently imbecile at heart, it left it for the 
 Germanic and Anglo-Saxon tribes. It seized 
 upon those rude, muscular races, and brought 
 them into unity and order. It gave them laws 
 and civilization. At first, it seemed to oppress 
 them, but it finally lifted them up, giving them 
 freedom and power. And now they are the 
 central races, the strongest and most influential 
 of all. 
 
 The process, to our view, has been difficult and 
 slow, with many interruptions and convulsive 
 throes ; but its movement has now become more 
 clear and decisive. The Reformation was one step 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 477 
 
 in advance, much impeded we grant, and even now 
 only partially developed. The result however is 
 grand and beautiful, and so obvious, that he who 
 runs may read it. That result is nothing less 
 than the possession by Christianity, as a central 
 or supernatural power, of the most valuable por 
 tions of the globe, and the leading forces of 
 modern civilization. In some of the nations 
 professedly Christian, Christianity is developed 
 with greater purity and vigor than in others ; 
 but in all she occupies a position of influence 
 and command. Individuals, nay, whole masses, 
 may reject her claims, while others misapprehend 
 and misapply her principles ; but she keeps her 
 place notwithstanding, and by invisible influences 
 guides and controls even her enemies. Often 
 checked and abused, she only bides her time to 
 bring all into unity and submission. Those who 
 oppose her sometimes blindly fulfil her designs. 
 Yet Christianity is the very reverse both of scep 
 ticism and despotism. She will yet convert the 
 one, and extinguish the other. With this view, 
 and as by a natural instinct, she allies herself to 
 science and art, to literature arid commerce. She 
 works even through revolutions. They prepare 
 the way of the Lord ; they make straight in the 
 desert (of despotism) a highway for our God. 
 All improvements in mechanics, and the means 
 of locomotion through the world, aid her prog- 
 
478 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 less. She goes forth over all seas and lands, 
 on tours of exploration, takes possession of fa 
 vorable positions all along the lines of business 
 and travel, plants her colonies and schools here, 
 there, every where, and thus prepares herself, one 
 of these days, to occupy the whole. 
 
 Thus, after the fall of the Roman empire, and 
 the destruction of the ancient civilization, Chris 
 tianity took possession of Germany, France, and 
 Scandinavia, then of England and Scotland, 
 then of the United States of America, with 
 Canada and Australia. And now, especially 
 through Great Britain and the United States, 
 she commands an approach to all quarters of 
 the globe. Comparatively feeble in Russia and 
 France, she yet holds these two nations in her 
 grasp ; here, as in England and Germany, she 
 may yet reform the church and the people. 
 These nations can never become pagan or 
 Mohammedan. If they advance in civilization, 
 Christianity will advance also, or rather Christian 
 ity will advance in them as a power of civiliza 
 tion ; unless indeed, like Rome of old, through the 
 force of despotism and vice, they should break to 
 pieces, and give to Christianity, released from 
 the thraldom of tyranny, a wider and more glo 
 rious field. Among all the Anglo-Saxon races, 
 Christianity is strong, free, and progressive. 
 Should these races advance as they have done, 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 479 
 
 Christianity will advance with them to universal 
 conquest. Much of this is the direct result of 
 the Reformation of the sixteenth century, as the 
 Reformation itself was the direct result of primi 
 tive Christianity. By the singular changes as 
 sociated with that event, or resulting from it, we 
 find the purest and freest form of religion, at this 
 moment, occupying the most commanding posi 
 tions in both hemispheres, and wielding the 
 forces of the most vital, the most enterprising 
 extant civilizations. From England, the United 
 States, and portions of continental Europe, she is 
 planting her institutions in all pagan countries, 
 and acting powerfully upon the less advanced 
 nations around her. 
 
 She has thus, for the first time in the history 
 of the world, become closely and permanently 
 identified with the progressive races, and with 
 all those powers in society upon which their 
 advancement depends freedom, activity, com 
 merce, science, and education ; and as these, by 
 a necessary law, tend to unity and universality, 
 so Christianity tends to unity and universality. 
 
 But to make this clear, let us go back a little, 
 and view the actual state of the world. It has 
 obviously come into new positions and relations, 
 as Christianity has come into new positions and 
 relations. 
 
 Three forms of religion, or of civilization, 
 
480 CIIRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 divide the globe - the pagan, the Mohammedan, 
 and the Christian. The pagan and the Moham 
 medan civilizations are confined chiefly to the 
 Oriental world. They are found also in Africa, 
 but in a comparatively feeble, abnormal condi 
 tion. It is in the ancient and hoary East we 
 find the seat of their power. Here all things are 
 either stationary or decaying. Except in the 
 places invaded by the influences of Christian 
 civilization, all India, on this side and on that 
 side the Ganges, is old and decrepit. None of 
 the pagan nations advance. They make no dis 
 coveries, plant no colonies, secure no conquests. 
 They do not increase, but rather diminish, in 
 numbers. When spreading among other nations, 
 they seem to lose themselves like streams in 
 the sandy desert. Their resources, physical and 
 social, are gradually becoming exhausted. They 
 fall before the stronger and advancing races. The 
 religions of the heathen nations are antiquated 
 and puerile, stricken with a fatal imbecility, and 
 ready to vanish away. Budhism and Brahman- 
 ism, which divide the whole of India beyond the 
 the Ganges, already totter to their fall. Hindos- 
 tan is in the hands of England, and China is 
 convulsed with revolution, which, in that land, 
 may extinguish idolatry. 
 
 The Mohammedan form of civilization, once 
 so wide and powerful, has been gradually re- 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 481 
 
 stricted and weakened. At one time ready to 
 swallow and extinguish the whole Christian 
 civilization, both of Asia and Europe, it is now 
 in its turn ready to be absorbed or extinguished 
 by the advancing forces of European civiliza 
 tion. It is true that it gives some signs of re 
 viving life, but it is only galvanic life. The in 
 fluence which has excited, perhaps inspired it a 
 little, is European and Christian. The nations 
 under its sway do not advance. Their religion 
 has lost its ancient fire. It is feeble and effete. 
 Turkey can scarcely be called a power in the 
 world, except by the support or sufferance of 
 others. She has numbers, to be sure, and through 
 the force of Christian ideas, exhibits a com 
 mendable liberality in some things ; but she has 
 no vital unity, no coherent power. Her religion 
 cannot reform itself cannot, therefore, reform 
 the people. It must gradually yield to the supe 
 rior forces around it. These forces constantly 
 press upon it, nay, more, penetrate, as an ele 
 ment of dissolution, into its very heart. She has 
 made advances, politicians affirm. She is even 
 said to promote European tactics, railroads, and 
 electric telegraphs. In other words, she is put 
 ting new wine into old bottles. Her venerable 
 
 C3 
 
 sages shake their heads ; her sacred muftis de 
 clare that her glory is departed. Turkey has no 
 41 
 
482 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 living faith, no intensity of feeling, no capacity 
 of real and permanent advance. 
 
 The rest of the world, containing the richest 
 and most powerful nations, are more or less un 
 der the influence of Christianity and the Chris 
 tian form of civilization. Moreover, the most 
 of these are advancing, and that, too, with 
 amazing rapidity. Christianity, simply as a so 
 cial or civil power, may be said to control the 
 physical resources of the world. She exerts a 
 strange influence, even in pagan and Moham 
 medan lands. Hers are the ships, the roads, the 
 steam engines, the electric telegraphs, the lan 
 guages, the science and the literature of the na 
 tions. She can use them all, and does use them 
 all, for the accomplishment of her designs. 
 
 But Christian countries, as they are called, 
 themselves differ much. Some are far in advance 
 of the others. Two or three are feeble, almost as 
 feeble as Mohammedan countries. If not re 
 formed and elevated, they will grow feebler and 
 feebler, every day, and may finally become ex 
 tinct, like the empires of antiquity, which per 
 ished in their sins. " That nation that serveth 
 not me," saith God, " shall perish." Such are 
 dashed to pieces like a potter s vessel. Their 
 power and their glory pass away forever. Hence 
 all the revolutions and convulsions in the past 
 history of the world. Hence the volcanic con- 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 483 
 
 dition of some European, as well as Asiatic 
 states. " I will overturn, overturn, overturn," is 
 the declaration of the Almighty, by his prophet, 
 " till he come, whose right it is, and I will give 
 it [the dominion] to him." 
 
 But what is peculiarly striking in the present 
 condition of the Christian nations, with all their 
 imperfection, is, that Christianity is strongest in 
 the strongest of these. Leaving France, Spain, 
 and some other Papal countries out of the account, 
 which are growing weaker and weaker by the 
 force of despotism, or internal revolution, saying 
 nothing also of Russia, with its peculiar position^ 
 and semi-barbarous races, Christianity has taken 
 up her abode more especially in Great Britain and 
 North America, and through them reaches with 
 a controlling influence both the eastern and the 
 western hemispheres. To speak, however, with 
 more precision, England and the United States, 
 it is well known, have now nearly the one fourth 
 part of the globe under their control. England 
 sways her sceptre over a hundred and fifty mil 
 lions of the human race ; the United States gov 
 ern about twenty-five millions, so that these two 
 command for Christianity, and Christian uses, 
 one sixth of the population of the human race. 
 Both, too, are increasing in numbers and resources 
 beyond all former precedent. England is increas 
 ing rapidly, especially in her colonies, which are 
 
484 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 penetrating both Asia and Africa, while the 
 United States indulge in no extravagant expecta 
 tion, when they hope, at the close of the nine 
 teenth century, to have a population, within their 
 borders, of a hundred millions. 
 
 These two are the great commercial nations. 
 Every where they diffuse themselves, and plant 
 extensive colonies. Two thirds of all the roads 
 and railways, and nearly the whole of the oceanic 
 steam navigation of the world, at this moment, 
 are in their hands. Their language, their influ 
 ence, their usages, their ideas, are becoming all 
 but cosmopolitan. With the single exception of 
 France, and even in her case to a very limited 
 extent, Papal nations are planting no colonies, 
 and exerting little influence beyond their own 
 sphere, while all the Protestant nations, especially 
 England and the United States, are taking pos 
 session, we trust for Christ, of some of the most 
 interesting and influential portions of the globe. 
 
 The manner in which, by a long course of 
 preparation, Christianity has taken possession of 
 the German or Teutonic race, including the 
 Anglo-Saxon, which we maintain to be the 
 leading or central race, in modern times, is one 
 of the most singular and striking events in his 
 tory. The only other race that can compete with 
 this is the Slavonic, including the Bohemians, 
 Hungarians, Russians, and some others; but this 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 485 
 
 race is partly Protestant, and in the case of the 
 Greek church, not without hope of improvement 
 and reformation. Still, every one must allow, 
 that the Slavonic race, as a mass, is far inferior 
 to the Anglo-Saxon in freedom and education, 
 in science, art, and commerce. What is called 
 the Keltic or Celtic race is, in the judgment of 
 some of the most acute and learned historians, 
 Niebuhr, Thierry, Arnold, and others, entirely 
 lost.* The Latin races, as for convenience they 
 are designated, sometimes spoken of as Celtic, 
 are a mixed people, partly Teutonic, yet differing 
 somewhat from what we call the German or 
 Saxon stock, and deriving something of their 
 character and tendencies from the admixture of 
 the old Roman or Italian elements. In these wo 
 include the Italians, Spaniards, and to some 
 
 * " In the fourth, century before the Christian era, the Kelts or 
 Gauls broke through the thin screen which had hitherto concealed 
 them from sight, and began for the first time to take their part in 
 the great drama of the nations. For nearly two hundred yonri they 
 continued to fill Europe and Asia with the terror of their name; but 
 it was a passing tempest, and if useful at all, it was useful only to 
 destroy. The Gauls could communicate no essential points of hu 
 man character in which others might be deficient; they could nei 
 ther improve the intellectual state of mankind, nor its social and 
 political relations. When, therefore, they had done their appointed 
 work of havoc, they were doomed to be themselves extirpated, or to 
 be lost amidst nations of greater creative and constructive power ; 
 nor is there any race which has left fewer traces of itself in the 
 character and institutions of modern civilization." Arnold s Hislo 
 ry of Rome, vol. i. p. 499. 
 
 41* 
 
4:86 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 extent, the French, all belonging to the Latin or 
 Papal church. The south of Germany is par 
 tially occupied by people of similar affinities, 
 and may be spoken of in the same category. 
 By the German or Saxon race, we mean the 
 Germans proper, who came from beyond the 
 Rhine, who were never subdued by the Roman 
 empire, and who in all ages, whether pagan or 
 Christian, have exhibited singular energy and 
 independence of character.* To this class belong 
 the Saxons, Anglo-Saxons, and even Normans, 
 the inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, 
 the north of Germany, the English, and the 
 Scotch. All have a common origin, and com 
 mon characteristics. Even in a mixed state, 
 they betray their peculiar affinities and tenden 
 cies. Gazing beyond the Rhine, the ancient 
 frontier of the Roman empire, and the limit 
 therefore of two distinct worlds, and modes of 
 existence, Roman and Teutonic, Dr. Arnold 
 says, " Far beyond us lay the land of our Saxon 
 and Teutonic forefathers the land uncorrupted 
 by Roman or any other mixture ; the birthplace 
 of the most moral races of men that the world 
 has yet seen of the soundest laws, the least 
 violent passions, and the fairest domestic and 
 
 * Ger-nian means fyhting man. His is that old, tough, inde 
 pendent, indomitable race, admired by Tacitus, which subdued the 
 Roman world. 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 487 
 
 civil virtues. I thought of that memorable de 
 feat of Varus and his three legions, which forever 
 confined the Romans to the western side of the 
 Rhine, and preserved the Teutonic nation, the 
 regenerating element in modern Europe, safe and 
 free." * 
 
 " Our English race," says the same acute and 
 philosophical thinker, in his Lectures on Modern 
 History, developing the great fact to which we 
 have referred, " is the German race. And that 
 this element is an important one, cannot be 
 doubted for an instant. Our English race is the 
 German race ; for though our Norman fathers 
 had learned to speak a stranger s language, yet 
 in blood, as we know, they were the Saxons 
 brethren ; both alike belong to the Teutonic or 
 German stock. Now, the importance of this stock 
 is plain from this, that its intermixture with the 
 Keltic and Roman races at the fall of the Western 
 empire, has changed the whole face of Europe. 
 It is doubly remarkable, because the other ele 
 ments of modern history are derived from the 
 ancient world. If we consider the Roman em 
 pire in the fourth century of the Christian era, 
 we shall find in it Christianity, we shall find in 
 it all the intellectual treasures of Greece, all the 
 social and political wisdom of Rome. What was 
 
 * Life and Correspondence, App. No. iii. 1. Quoted in his Lec 
 tures, p. 59. 
 
488 ClIHIST IN UISTORY. 
 
 not there, was simply the German race, and the 
 peculiar qualities which characterize it. This one 
 addition was of such power that it changed the 
 character of the whole mass ; the peculiar stamp 
 of the middle ages is undoubtedly German ; the 
 change manifested in the last three centuries has 
 been owing to the revival of the older elements 
 with greater power, so that the German element 
 has been less manifestly predominant. But the 
 element still preserves its force, for good or for 
 evil, in almost every country of the civilized 
 world." 
 
 This German or Saxon element is becoming 
 more and more prominent and decisive in its in 
 fluence upon society. It has embodied itself in 
 books, laws, and institutions. It is increasingly 
 active, aggressive, and diffusive. It animates 
 especially the free enterprising portions of Chris 
 tendom. In a word, it has been enthroned by 
 Christianity, as a central and pervading power. 
 Emancipated by the Reformation, it has founded 
 institutions and empires. It has given to man 
 kind freedom and hope. From its favorite centres 
 between the great oceans and continents of the 
 east and west, it is spreading civilization, com 
 merce, and Christianity, over the world. 
 
 We shall here, however, be asked, whether the 
 race in Germany, especially in the north of Ger 
 many, has not forsaken Christianity for infidelity. 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 489 
 
 We reply most decisively, No ! A confused, 
 transitional state has occurred there, and some 
 vague, speculative infidelity has been evolved ; 
 but it is temporary. The heart of Germany is 
 sound, and will yet be given to Christ, with the 
 full fervor of its strength. The learned men of 
 Germany, the theologians and the philosophers, 
 are corning rapidly to the acknowledgment of 
 the supernatural character and claims of Chris 
 tianity, as the religion of God. Strauss is already 
 effete. The essence of faith is all but universally 
 acknowledged, and the rest, we doubt not, will 
 come in due time. " I say with Meier," says 
 Bunsen, " and with almost all German writers 
 of note, that the doctrine of the Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost is the fundamental doctrine of 
 Christianity, and that without it, Christianity, as 
 a theological and philosophical system, cannot 
 rank much above Rabbinism and Mohammed 
 anism." 3 Spiritual religion, too, is advancing 
 among students and thinkers. The common 
 people are joyfully receiving the gospel from the 
 lips of Oncken and others. A new reformation, 
 like that of Luther, seems on the eve of being 
 inaugurated among the whole German people. 
 
 But it is in England and North America we 
 see the Anglo-Saxon race in its glory and strength, 
 rejoicing in the truth, and giving the gospel to 
 
 * Hippolytus, vol. i. p. 303. 
 
490 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 mankind. Unconquerable, (for the old Teutonic 
 or German stock, neither in its native haunts be 
 yond the Rhine, nor in any other part of the 
 globe, into which it has emigrated, has ever been 
 subdued by a foreign power,) persevering, self- 
 reliant ; self-sacrificing, if need be ; loving free 
 dom, and contending for it as the heritage of all ; 
 enlightened and enterprising, covering all lands 
 and all seas with its science and commerce ; 
 venerating the Bible, which it has translated into 
 more than a hundred and twenty languages, or 
 nearly all that are spoken on the earth ; clinging 
 to Christianity, as the support of the soul, and 
 the hope of the world ; and disposed, by means 
 of her missionary army, to preach it to every 
 creature under heaven, we may well recognize 
 the Saxon race as the central and chosen people, 
 through whom Christ shall win the empire of 
 mankind. 
 
 We will not, however, confine ourselves to any 
 narrow or local view of this great subject. God 
 has his chosen ones in all places, centres of influ 
 ence and means of blessing, in all lands, and 
 among all races. Christ is every where. His foot 
 steps are seen in Burmah and China, as well as 
 in Germany and England. He is walking among 
 the churches of the Armenians and the Nestorians, 
 of the Sandwich and Polynesian Isles. Far away 
 in the depths of Africa, and on the bleak shores 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 491 
 
 of Greenland, on the plains of Australia, and 
 amid the golden fields of the Pacific slope, his 
 benign presence is felt and seen. 
 
 It has been intimated that, in the present day, 
 and especially in Christendom, the tendency of 
 all things is to unity and universality, and that 
 it is by their tendency we can predict their issue. 
 We are encouraged to do this, especially when 
 we find the various forces actually moving and 
 converging to a common result. Now, every one 
 will allow that such is the direction of Christi 
 anity. It is a universal religion, being adapted 
 to man as man, and therefore its resistless aim is 
 to spread over the world, and bring the whole 
 into spiritual unity. In the same line, and ap 
 parently under the same influence, like scattered 
 streams flowing into one vale, and so forming 
 one river, we see the other forces of society con 
 verging to a common issue. Thus commerce is 
 overleaping all its ancient barriers, spreading 
 over all seas and lands, and bringing the na 
 tions into commercial brotherhood. They are 
 finding out, in spite of themselves, that the in 
 terest of one is the interest of all. Thus, while 
 commerce diffuses and distributes its energies, it 
 also unites them in a common system. While 
 it spreads to the circumference, it attracts to the 
 centre. It links land to land, and sea to sea; it 
 gathers community to community, and tribe to 
 
492 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 tribe ; it calls to the remotest races, and invites 
 them to unity of interest and aim. It diminishes 
 the fierceness and frequency of war, gives facili 
 ties for the spread of common blessings, Christi 
 anity among the rest, and thus makes it the in 
 terest of one and all to live in harmony and 
 peace. 
 
 The same tendency may be seen in science. 
 All the particular branches of science have a 
 common tie, and are found to belong to one great 
 system. They have a tendency, therefore, among 
 all who cultivate them, though far separated 
 from each other by land or ocean, to produce 
 common ideas. They unite rival nations by the 
 ties of thought and interchange of discoveries. 
 In this way the science of one, in process of time, 
 becomes the science of all. Bigotries and super 
 stitions give way under the gracious influence 
 of extending knowledge, while an open field is 
 cleared for the conquests of the cross. 
 
 Such is the tendency also of modern speculative 
 philosophy. It seeks unity and order, and con 
 sequent universality. It recognizes, sometimes 
 produces, a common type of thought, and not 
 only this, but a common type of humanity. 
 Moreover its singular vacillations and contradic 
 tions find their centre in Christ, as the manifes 
 tation of the true God and eternal life. Thus, 
 in the present clay, philosophy is eminently 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 493 
 
 eclectic and free. It belongs to no class perma 
 nently, and in its higher spiritual relations aims 
 to recognize a common Christianity, producing 
 thereby a common life and destiny. It has not 
 reached this as yet, but such is its tendency. 
 
 The tendency even of politics, in all the en 
 lightened nations, flows in the same direction. 
 Gervinus, in his Introduction to the History of 
 Modern Europe, has, by a laborious analysis, 
 demonstrated this great fact. Through many 
 changes and struggles, an advance towards 
 equal, and consequently universal rights is visi 
 ble. How strikingly and beautifully is this de 
 veloped on the North American continents ! The 
 longing and the struggle for these rights is visible 
 enough in other lands. The end is universal lib 
 erty, a recognition of the rights of God and the 
 rights of man what the socialists dream after, 
 but for the want of solid Christian principle, and 
 the sure light of eternal truth, they cannot real 
 ize, equality, freedom, fraternity, that is, order, 
 unity, universality, under Christ and Christianity. 
 
 Thus, too, language, the great civilizer, with 
 all the elements of social life, is tending to unity 
 and universality. How the Saxon tongue and 
 Saxon literature, for example, are spreading over 
 the whole western hemisphere, and bringing dif 
 ferent peoples into unity and repose ! See, too, 
 how in the other hemispheres it penetrates vari- 
 42 
 
494 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 ous lands, pagan and Mohammedan. Such, 
 also, is the tendency of the French and the 
 German tongues, and with them, of course, their 
 knowledge and power. All seek unity and uni 
 versality. The German especially is beginning 
 to assert its rights ; it is spreading fast and far. 
 A new reformation in the fatherland will send 
 it, by the mouth of missionaries and preachers, 
 to the ends of the earth. 
 
 But it is the Bible and Christianity which are 
 exerting the greatest influence, through various 
 languages, in producing the sublime result of 
 which we speak. Distant and dissimilar com 
 munities are thus calling to each other China 
 to Europe and Europe to China ; Burmah to 
 America and America to Burmah, in the com 
 mon speech of Christianity. The prodigious 
 influence of this peculiar force can scarcely be 
 realized. Much of it is so delicate, and so far 
 removed from the domain of the senses, that it 
 will only be recognized, when it has produced 
 some stupendous result. 
 
 We are not, indeed, blind to adverse influences 
 even in the bosom of Christendom. But we 
 are not speaking now so much of Christendom, 
 defective, and far behind its ideal, as of Christian 
 ity itself, a force amid the forces of society, all 
 of which are rapidly converging to unity, and 
 consequent universality. 
 
MODERN SOCIETY. 495 
 
 Christianity, in its present form of embodi 
 ment in the world, is only partially developed. 
 It is still checked and hindered by many ob 
 stacles. But its real resources are boundless, 
 and will yet be discovered on a scale of gran 
 deur which will astonish the world. Like Christ, 
 Christianity is immutable and immortal, and 
 must prevail. Changes may come, dynasties 
 may rise and fall, revolution, as of old, may fol 
 low revolution ; but the gospel will survive as a 
 supernatural, self-existent mystery. Opinions, 
 too, may fluctuate, and many conflicting theories 
 be propounded among men, but Christ, as a 
 Life, divine and indestructible, will remain the 
 same. In all ages his empire of love is one. 
 It can no more be destroyed than God himself 
 can be destroyed ; for it is the embodied Divin 
 ity. The true church, then, or that which forms 
 the essence of the true church, is but his heart 
 of love beating among men. It already counts 
 its subjects by millions, millions who would die 
 for their Lord and King. It is secretly spread 
 ing among the nations. It is " gathering " men 
 of all times and of all lands to the cross. And, 
 as good must finally overcome evil, Christianity, 
 like an atmosphere of light, radiant and peace 
 ful, shall envelop the globe. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 42* 
 
 (VJ7) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 NOTE A. PAGAN RELIGION. 
 
 THE following estimate, though partial and one sided, of 
 the moral value of the religions of the ancient heathen world, 
 coming from one of the profoundest scholars of the age, de 
 serves consideration. " All the moral theories of [pagan] 
 antiquity were utterly disjoined from religion. The suppo 
 sition that the ancient pagan systems of religion were intro 
 ductory to some scheme of morals, is an anachronism. It is 
 the anachronism of unconsciously reflecting back upon the an 
 cient religions of darkness, and as if essential to all religions, 
 features that never were suspected as possible, until they 
 had been revealed by Christianity, [including Judaism.] 
 Religion, in the eye of a pagan, had no more relation to 
 morals than it had to ship building or trigonometry. But, 
 then, why was religion honored among pagans ? How did it 
 ever arise? What was its object ? Object ! it had no object, 
 if by this you mean ulterior object. Pagan religion arose in 
 no motive, but in an impulse. Pagan religion aimed at no dis 
 tant prize ahead ; it fled from a danger immediately behind. 
 The gods of the pagans were Avicked natures ; but they were 
 natures to be feared and to be propitiated ; for they were fierce, 
 
 (499) 
 
500 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and they were moody, and (as regarded men, who had no 
 wings) they were powerful. Once accredited as facts, the pa 
 gan gods could not be regarded as otherwise than terrific facts ; 
 and thus it was, that in terror, blind terror, as against power 
 in the hands of divine wickedness, arose the ancient religions 
 of paganism. Because the gods were wicked, man was 
 religious; because Olympus was cruel, earth trembled; 
 because the divine beings were the most lawless of Thugs, 
 the human being became the most abject of sycophants. 
 
 " Kad the religions , of paganism arisen teleologically ; 
 that is, with a view to certain purposes, to certain final 
 causes ahead ; had they grown out of forward looking views, 
 contemplating, for example, the furthering of civilization, or 
 contemplating some interest, in a world beyond the present, 
 there would probably have arisen, concurrently, a section on 
 all such religions devoted to positive instruction. There 
 would have been a doctrinal part. There might have been 
 interwoven Avith the ritual of worship, a system of economies 
 or a code of civil prudence, or a code of health, or even a 
 secret revelation of mysterious relations between man and 
 the Deity ; all which existed in Judaism. But as the case 
 stood, this was impossible. The gods were mere odious 
 facts, like scorpions or rattlesnakes, having no moral aspects 
 whatever ; public nuisances ; and bearing no relation to man 
 but that of capricious tyrants. First arriving upon a basis of 
 terror, these gods never subsequently enlarged that basis ; 
 nor sought to enlarge it. All antiquity contains not a hint 
 of the possibility that love could arise, as by any ray mingling 
 with the sentiments in a human creature towards a divine 
 one. Not even sycophants pretended to love the gods. 
 
 " Under this original peculiarity of paganism, there arose 
 two consequences, which I will mark by the Greek letters a 
 and (I. The latter I will notice in its order, first calling the 
 reader s attention to the consequence marked , which is 
 this : In the full and profoundest sense of the word believe, 
 
501 
 
 the pagans could not be said to believe in any gods ; but in 
 the ordinary sense, they did, and do, and must believe in all 
 gods. As this proposition will startle some readers, and is 
 yet closely involved in the main truth which I am now 
 pressing, viz., the meaning and effect of a simple cultus, as 
 distinguished from a high doctrinal religion, let us seek an 
 illustration from our Indian empire. The Christian mission 
 aries from home, Avhen first opening their views to Hindoos, 
 describe themselves as laboring to prove that Christianity is 
 a true religion, and as either asserting, or leaving it to be 
 inferred, that, on that assumption, the Indian religion is a 
 false one. But the poor Hindoo never dreamed of doubting 
 that the Christian was a true religion ; nor will he at all 
 infer, from your religion being true, that his own must be 
 false. Both are true, he thinks : all religions are true ; and all 
 gods are true gods ; and all are equally true. Neither can he 
 understand what you mean by a false religion, or how a reli 
 gion could be false ; and he is perfectly right. Wherever re 
 ligions consist only of a worship, as the Hindoo religion does, 
 there can be no competition amongst them as to truth. That 
 would be an absurdity, not less nor other than for a Prussian to 
 denounce the Austrian emperor, or an Austrian to denounce 
 the Prussian king, as a false sovereign. False ? How false ? 
 In what sense false ? Surely not as non-existing. But at 
 least, (the reader will reply,) if the religions contradict each 
 other, one of them must be false. Yes, but that is impossible. 
 Two religions cannot contradict each other, where both 
 contain only a cultus ; they could come into collision only by 
 means of a doctrinal or directly affirmative part, like those of 
 Christianity and Mohammedanism. But this part is what no 
 idolatrous religion ever had, or will have. The reader must 
 not understand me to mean that, merely as a compromise of 
 courtesy, two professors of different idolatries would agree 
 to recognize each other. Not at all. The truth of one does 
 not imply the falsehood of the other. Both are true as fads: 
 
502 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 neither can be false, in any higher sense, because neither 
 makes any pretence to truth doctrinal. 
 
 "This distinction between a religion having merely a 
 worship, and a religion having also a body of doctrinal 
 truth, is familiar to the Mohammedans ; and they convey the 
 distinction by a very appropriate expression. Those majestic 
 religions, (as they esteem them,) which rise above the mere 
 pomps and tympanies of ceremonial worship, they demon 
 strate * religions of the book. There are of such religions 
 three, viz., Judaism, Christianity, and Islamism. The first 
 builds upon the Law and the Prophets, or perhaps sufficiently 
 upon the Pentateuch ; the second upon the Gospel ; the last 
 upon the Koran. No other religion can be said to rest upon 
 a book, or even to admit of a book. For we must not be 
 duped by the case where a lawgiver attempts to connect his 
 own human institutes with the venerable sanctions of a na 
 tional religion, or the case where a learned antiquary unfolds 
 historically the record of a vast mythology. Heaps of such 
 cases (both law and mythological records) survive in the 
 Sanscrit, and in the pagan languages. But these are books 
 which build upon the religion, not books upon which the 
 religion is built. If a religion consists only of a ceremonial 
 worship, in that case there can be no opening for a book ; 
 because the forms and details publish themselves daily, in 
 the celebration of the worship, and are preserved, from age 
 to age, without dependence on a book. But, if a religion 
 has a doctrine, this implies a revelation or message from 
 Heaven, which cannot, in any other way, secure the transmis 
 sion of the message to future generations, than by causing it 
 to be registered in a book. A book, therefore, will be con 
 vertible with a doctrinal religion: no book, no doctrine; 
 and again, no doctrine, no book. 
 
 " Upon these principles we may understand the second 
 consequence, (marked ^,) which has perplexed many men, 
 viz., why it is, that the Hindoos, in our own times, but 
 
APPENDIX. 503 
 
 equally, why it is that the Greek and Roman idolaters of an 
 tiquity, never proselytized ; no, nor could have viewed such 
 an attempt as rational. Naturally, if a religion is doctrinal, 
 any truth which it possesses, as a secret deposit consigned to 
 its keeping by a revelation, must be equally valid for one 
 man as for another, without regard to race or nation. For a 
 doctrinal religion therefore to proselytize, is no more than a 
 duty of consistent humanity. You, the professors of that 
 religion, possess the medicinal fountains. You will not 
 diminish your own share by imparting it to others. What 
 churlishness, if you should grudge to others a health which 
 does not interfere with your own! Christians, therefore, 
 Mohammedans, and Jews originally, in proportion as they were 
 sincere and conscientious, have always invited or even forced, 
 the unbelieving to their own faith : nothing but accidents of 
 situations, local or political, have disturbed this effort. But on 
 the other hand, for a mere cultus to attempt conversions, is 
 nonsense. An ancient Roman could have had no motive for 
 bringing you over to the worship of Jupiter Capitolinus ; nor 
 you any motive for going. Surely, poor man, he would 
 have said, you have some god of your own, who will be 
 quite as good for your countrymen as Jupiter for mine. But 
 if you have not, really I am sorry for your case ; and a very 
 odd case it is ; but I don t see how it could be improved by 
 talking nonsense. You cannot beneficially, you cannot ra 
 tionally, worship a tutelary Roman deity, unless in the 
 character of a Roman ; and a Roman you may become, 
 legally and politically. Being such, you will participate in 
 all advantages, if any there are, of our national religion ; and 
 without needing a process of conversion, either in substance 
 or in form. Ipso facto, and without any separate choice of 
 your own, or becoming a Roman citizen, yon become a party 
 to the Roman worship. For an idolatrous religion to prose 
 lytize, would be not only useless, but unintelligible. De 
 Quincey. 
 
504 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 There is much of truth in all this ; although De Quincey 
 has not made sufficient allowance for the universal prev 
 alence in man of the religious element, which, in favorable 
 circumstances, infuses even into false religions a certain 
 amount of moral and political influence. This, and not fear 
 alone, is their true origin. Indeed fear is the natural 
 exaggeration of the religious element, in circumstances 
 of profound or general ignorance. The religious instinct 
 must satisfy itself somehow, even if it originate gods " whom 
 guilt makes welcome." It is true, however, that the 
 ancient pagan nations, even the most enlightened and pol 
 ished, for example the Greeks and the Romans, might be 
 described as "without God and without hope in the world." 
 Notwithstanding the traditional fragments of a better faith, 
 and the lofty imaginings of their philosophers, their public 
 culius was a gross, often an immoral nature worship. It was 
 sustained by no body of living truth, and exerted upon the 
 community at large no transforming moral influence. Indeed, 
 those who were virtuous were often virtuous in spite of their 
 religion. The chaste Lucretia, as Rousseau remarks, adored 
 the unchaste Venus. The popular Jupiter was a licentious 
 bandit, who, in modern times, would have deserved a place in 
 the jail or penitentiary. And yet who can fail to see, through 
 the whole, the strugglings of the great human heart, made 
 for God, for duty and immortality, the dim sense of the infi 
 nite, the consciousness of guilt, and the longing for redemp 
 tion ? The ancient religions, especially the elder, are not 
 absolute untruths ; they are only perversions and corruptions 
 of that which is highest in man. 
 
 NOTE B. ORIGINAL SIN UNIVERSALLY AC 
 KNOWLEDGED. 
 
 SPEAKING of "original sin," which Coleridge designates 
 "self-originating sin," that distinguished thinker remarks, 
 
APPENDIX. 505 
 
 " that it is no tenet first introduced or imposed by Christian 
 ity, and which, should a man see fit to disclaim the authority 
 of the gospel, would no longer have any claim on his atten 
 tion. It is no perplexity that a man may get rid of, by ceasing 
 to be a Christian, and which has no existence for a philosophic 
 Deist. It is a fact, affirmed indeed in the Christian Scriptures 
 alone, with the force and frequency proportioned to its con 
 summate importance ; but a fact acknowledged in every re 
 ligion that retains the least glimmering of the patriarchal 
 faith in a God infinite, and yet personal ; a fact assumed or 
 implied as the basis of every religion of which any relics 
 remain of earlier date than the last and total apostasy of the 
 pagan world, when the faith of the great I AM, the Creator, 
 was extinguished in the sensual Polytheism, which is inevi 
 tably the final result of Pantheism, or the worship of nature ; 
 and the only form under which the Pantheistic scheme 
 that according to which the world is God, and the material 
 universe itself the only Absolute Being can exist for a 
 people, or become the popular creed. Thus, in the most 
 ancient books of the Brahmins, the deep sense of this fact, 
 and the doctrine grounded upon obscure traditions of the 
 promised remedy, are seen struggling, and now gleaming, 
 now flashing, through the mist of Pantheism, and producing 
 the incongruities and gross contradictions of the Brahmin 
 mythology ; while, in the rival sect in that most strange 
 phenomenon, the religious atheism of the Buddhists, with 
 whom God is only universal matter, considered abstractedly 
 from all particular forms the fact is placed among the 
 delusions natural to man, which, with other superstitions, 
 grounded on a supposed essential difference between right 
 and wrong, the sage is to decompose or precipitate from tho 
 menstruum of his more refined apprehensions ! Thus, in de 
 nying the fact, they virtually acknowledge it. 
 
 "From the remote East, turn to the mythology of tho Lesser 
 Asia, to the descendants of Javan, who dwelt in tlic tents 
 43 
 
506 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of Shem, and possessed the isles. Here again, and in the 
 usual form of an historic solution, we find the same fact, and 
 as characteristic of the human race, stated in that earliest 
 and most venerable mythus or symbolic parable of Prome 
 theus that truly wonderful fable, in which the characters 
 of the rebellious spirit, and of the divine Friend of mankind, 
 (9eb$ <^il6ivdqu7iog^ are united in the same person ; thus, in 
 the most striking manner, noting the forced amalgamation 
 of the patriarchal tradition with the incongruous scheme of 
 Pantheism. This and the connected tale of lo, which is 
 but the sequel of the Prometheus, stand alone in the Greek 
 mythology, in which elsewhere both gods and men are mere 
 powers and products of nature. And most noticeable it is, 
 that soon after the promulgation and spread of the gospel 
 had awakened the moral sense, and had opened the eyes 
 even of its wiser enemies to the necessity of providing some 
 solution of this great problem of the moral world, the beau 
 tiful parable of Cupid and Psyche, was brought forward as 
 a rival of the fall of man ; and the fact of a moral corrup 
 tion connatural with the human race was again recognized. 
 In the assertion of original sin, the Greek mythology rose 
 and set 
 
 " But not only was the fact acknowledged of a law in the 
 nature of man resisting the law of God, (and whatever is 
 placed in active and direct oppugnancy to the good is, ipso 
 facto, positive evil,) it was likewise an acknowledged mys 
 tery, and one which, by the nature of the subject, must ever 
 remain such a problem of which any other solution than 
 the statement of the fact itself was demonstrably impossible. 
 That it is so, the least reflection will suffice to convince 
 every man, who has previously satisfied himself that he is a 
 responsible being. It follows, necessarily, from the postulate 
 of a responsible will." Jlids to Re/lection. 
 
APPENDIX. 507 
 
 NOTE C. INFLUENCE OF JUDAISM. 
 
 THE following passage, from A. Coqucrel s Christianisme, 
 will throw light on the relations of the Jews to the neigh 
 boring nations, and especially their influence upon the Ori 
 ental Magi. 
 
 " There are innumerable texts in the sacred writings of 
 both covenants, which express the idea of the mission or 
 privilege of the Jews, and of their title of people of God. 
 This mission may be summed up in four distinct, but closely 
 united points : the knowledge of the true God ; the promise 
 of the Savior ; the drawing up and preservation of the Old 
 Testament ; and lastly, the accomplishment of the redemption 
 in the very bosom of their nation. 
 
 " Abraham was called. Gen. xii. 1. By faith Abraham, 
 when he was called to go out into a place which he should 
 after receive for an inheritance, obeyed ; and he went out, 
 not knowing whither he went. Heb. xi. 8. On all the 
 great occasions of his life, it was said of him. In thee shall 
 all the families of the earth be blessed. Gen. xii. 3 ; xviiL 
 18 ; xxii. 18 ; xxvi. 4. And he [Abraham] believed in 
 the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness ; 
 that is, Abraham, with confidence, accepted his great destiny, 
 and devoted himself to his holy task, (xv. 6 ;) thus he became 
 the father of all them that believed, (Rom. iv. 11 ;) that is, 
 the first head of particularism, the first head or guardian of 
 religious truth. For I. know him, [said the Lord,] that he 
 will command his children and his household after him, and 
 they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judg 
 ment ; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which 
 he hath spoken of him. Gen. xviii. 19. * Now, therefore, 
 it is said to the contemporaries of Moses, if ye will obey my 
 voice indeed, arid keep my covenant, then shall ye be a pecu 
 liar treasure unto me above all people. Exod. xix. 5. ... 
 
508 CHRIST IN HISTOKY. 
 
 That thou mayst be a holy people unto the Lord thy God, 
 as he hath spoken. Dent. xxvi. 19. * For the Lord will no\ 
 forsake his people for his great name s sake ; because it hath 
 pleased the Lord to make you his people. 1 Sam. xii. 22. 
 He hath not dealt so with any nation ; and as for his judg 
 ments, they have not known them. Ps. cxlvii. 
 
 " * Unto you first, said St. Peter to the Jews, God having 
 raised up his Son Jesus, sent him. Acts xii. 2G. Who 
 are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the 
 glory, (Ex. xi. 34, 35 ; 1 Sam. iv. 22 ; 2 Chron. vii. 1, 2,} and 
 the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of 
 God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, and of whom, 
 as concerning the flesh, Christ came. Rom. ix. 4, 5. Now 
 I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for 
 the truth of God, to confirm the- promises made unto the 
 fathers. xv. 8. 
 
 " This divine commission, given to Israel, constituted par 
 ticularism, and made the Jewish religion a national religion. 
 
 " Yet Providence prepared afar off the return to universal- 
 isrn ; not only at the moment of the captivity, and by the dis 
 persion of the Jews over Asia, at a period when Greece and 
 Italy were comparatively barbarous ; but we may see the 
 light of universalism faintly dawning in some degree, even 
 in the age when Solomon erected the temple of a unique and 
 local worship, in the prayer of dedication, this prince says : 
 Moreover, concerning a stranger that is not of thy people 
 Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name s sake ; 
 . . . when he shall come and pray toward [in] this house, 
 hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to 
 all that the stranger callcth to thec for, that all the people 
 of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee. 1 Kings 
 viii. 4113 ; 2 Chron. vi. 32. Isaiah proclaims their rights, and 
 reasvsurcs the proselytes, and even eunuchs, (who, in whatever 
 manner they had become so, were not considered as Jewish 
 citizens.) Deut. xxiii. 1. Neither let the son of the stran- 
 
APPENDIX. 509 
 
 ger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, 
 The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people ; neither 
 let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree, (I shall be cut 
 off as a barren tree.) For thus saith the Lord : Those that 
 choose the things that please me, and take hold of my 
 covenant, even unto them will I give, in mine house, and 
 within my Avails, a place. Isaiah Ivi. 3, 4, 5. Ezekiel, 
 when he promises to the Jews a new division of the Holy 
 Land, meaning by this image to give them assurance of a 
 restoration after the captivity, does not forget the strangers 
 or proselytes who were soon to be more numerous than ever. 
 1 And it shall come to pass that ye shall divide it [the coun 
 try] by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers 
 that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among 
 you ; and they shall be unto you as born in the country 
 among the children of Israel ; they shall have inheritance 
 with you among the tribes of Israel. And it shall come to 
 pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall 
 ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord God. Ezck. 
 xlvii. 22, 23. 
 
 " A curious passage in Isaiah, the complete explanation 
 of which would require a separate dissertation, opened to 
 the Mosiac system a vast perspective of extension. In 
 that day, says the prophet, shall five cities [five several, 
 the definite for the indefinite number] in the land of Kpypt 
 speak the language of Canaan, [a figurative expression 
 the language of the worship of the true God,] and swear to 
 [by] the Lord of hosts. . . . And the Lord shall be 
 known to Egypt. ... In that day shall there be a high 
 way out of Egypt to Assyria, [there shall be frequent and 
 intimate communication,] . . . and the Egyptians shall 
 serve the Lord with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel 
 be the third with Egypt and Assyria. Isaiah xix. 18-24. 
 This whole passage, extremely poetic in style, is a prophecy 
 of the progress which should be made by the Jewish rcligior 
 43* 
 
510 CHRIST IN HISTOIIY. 
 
 under the Ptolemies, during which period there were a mil 
 lion of Jews established in Egypt, whose teaching and ex- 
 n mple must have greatly diffused the knowledge of the true 
 God and of revelation, and from whom even the nations of 
 the interior of Asia derived benefit. It was impossible more 
 effectually to undermine particularism than by placing Israel 
 as the. third with two strange nations in the service of the 
 true God. 
 
 "The intention of Providence of gradually preparing 
 universalism by diffusing among strange nations some hopes 
 of the advent of a Messiah, and the wisdom of the means 
 employed to this end, find a striking confirmation in the nar 
 rative of the arrival of the Magi at Jerusalem. Of these 
 Magi, tradition has made kings ; the first interpreters of 
 Scripture opened the way to these errors, by interpreting 
 literally some expressions of the prophets and of the Psalms, 
 and resting upon the ideas of the Jews, who expected a 
 temporal Messiah, the King of kings, before whom all men 
 should bow : the Psalmist, in describing the glory of Solomon, 
 says, The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring 
 presents ; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 
 Ps. Ixxii. 10. Isaiah, in one of his Messianic prophecies, has 
 said, in a more explicit manner, kings shall see and arise, 
 princes also shall worship. Isaiah xlix. 7. These passages 
 probably contain the origin of those legends of tradition 
 which has also endeavored to fix the number of kings, viz., 
 three, solely because three kinds of presents, gold, and 
 frankincense, and myrrh, are mentioned in the gospel. 
 These fables have not the slightest historical foundation, and 
 deserve no attention, notwithstanding the endeavors which 
 have been made to consecrate them, by erecting to these 
 imaginary kings in a cathedral (Cologne) a cenotaph loaded 
 with jewels. The word Magus is of Persian origin, and very 
 ancient ; it signified priests, wise men, philosophers ; it ap 
 pears that, from the earliest historical times in Asia, these 
 
API EIN DIX. 511 
 
 Magi formed sorts of colleges or institutions, which corre 
 sponded with one another, obeyed a supreme head, and were 
 principally occupied with drawing up calendars, consequent 
 ly, therefore, with astronomy, astrology, medicine, and phys 
 ics, and preserved the old traditions. Since the time of 
 Alexander, their credit, science, and numbers had been 
 greatly diminished ; the current of philosophy had flowed back 
 towards Europe, in consequence of the Greek and Roman as 
 cendency ; and the foundation of Alexandria had grcatlj 
 favored this change. It is, however, certain from the testi 
 mony of contemporary writers, or nearly so, with the gospel, 
 that men addicted to these studies, and known by this name, 
 were still dispersed in Asia, and especially in Persia and 
 Arabia. In the interval between the overthrow of the Jews 
 under Nebuchadnezzar, and their restoration under Cyrus, 
 Daniel, the author of the prophecy of the seventy weeks of 
 years which were to elapse between Cyrus and the gospel, 
 had been the head of these Magi. The recollection of this 
 remarkable prophecy would naturally be preserved among 
 them, and would be strongly awakened at the moment, when, 
 according to the impartial testimony of three Roman histo 
 rians, a rumor was every where diffused that a master of the 
 world was about to show himself in the East. The appear 
 ance of a meteor, perhaps of a comet, struck these Magi, who 
 were always occupied with astrology. They believed that 
 this phenomenon, coinciding with the date of Daniel s proph 
 ecy, announced its accomplishment; the personage whose 
 advent was predicted by Daniel, must, according to their 
 ideas, be a king ; some of them, therefore, following the 
 universal custom of the ancients, that of undertaking journeys 
 for the purpose of verifying facts of science, went into 
 Judea, not to a village like Bethlehem, but to the capital, 
 and inquired, Where is he that is born King of the Jews 
 tor we have seen his star in the East, Matt. ii. 2 ; that is, 
 according to the erroneous ideas of astrology, the star an- 
 
512 
 
 CI11U8T IN HISTORY. 
 
 nouncing his birth. This circumstance of the nativity, when 
 thus explained, far from presenting any difficulty, is a con 
 firmation, both of the fact that the expectation of the Messiah 
 was general, and of the meaning of the prophecy of weeks. 
 The presents offered by the Magi afford an example of the 
 ancient and universal usage of the Eastern nations, followed 
 even in the present day, never to approach princes or great 
 personages without bringing gifts, among which are always 
 some pieces of gold ; and it must be remarked that in the 
 Avholc conduct of the Magi there is nothing religious." 
 
 NOTE D. THE ESSENES. 
 
 THE following is Philo s account, in his book called 
 " Quod Omnis Probus Libe? " It is obviously exaggerated 
 and rhetorical. In other parts of his works he makes differ 
 ent and modified statements. " There is no lack, in Pales 
 tine and Syria, of practical virtuous men. Some of them 
 are called Essenes, on account of their holiness. Their 
 number is about four thousand. They are truly pious ; they 
 do not bring sacrifices, but arc striving after purity of heart. 
 They do not live in cities, but in the rural districts. They 
 avoid the former, that they may not be polluted by their 
 vices. Their daily occupations arc agriculture and mechan 
 ics ; but they neither deal in nor make instruments which 
 are used in war. They serve and aid each other. They do 
 not lay up money, nor care for riches ; these have no attrac 
 tions for them, and, therefore, they do not strive to secure 
 them. When they have sufficient to maintain themselves 
 with frugal meals, they are satisfied. Frugality is their only 
 treasure. They do not trade, and, therefore, they are not 
 tempted by avarice. They are free men, and serve each 
 other gratuitously. They reject nil employments in the 
 service of rulers, considering such service as inhuman and 
 
APPENDIX. 513 
 
 unjust, because it is opposed to the common law of nature 
 and of man. They say that nature lias not created us to be 
 nominal, but real brothers ; and that it is only avarice that 
 weakens the brotherly tie, changes unity and harmony into 
 discord and strife, and disunites friends. They are engaged 
 in the study of philosophy, to aid in the promotion of virtue, 
 but avoid all kinds of sophistry and display. From natural 
 philosophy they have selected only those departments which 
 treat of creation and the Creator; they cherish, however, the 
 idea that nature is above our comprehension. Morals are 
 with them a daily study, in accordance with the laws of their 
 fathers, which laws, they hold, cannot be interpreted with 
 out the aid of inspiration. They employ, for that purpose, 
 more especially the seventh day, which they keep holy, do 
 ing no common business in it. When they are in the temple, 
 or in the synagogue, the young men sit next to the old. and 
 listen to their teachings. They give instruction, not only in 
 the fundamental virtues, purity of manners, holiness and in 
 tegrity of life, but also in the art of performing public and 
 domestic duties. Their morals are based upon a threefold 
 foundation the love of God, of virtue, and of our neigh 
 bors. This is the test of their actions. Chastity, in their 
 view, is the first of the virtues, which they vow to ob 
 serve for life. They never tell a falsehood, swear, or take 
 an oath. They are not nominal saints ; this is proved 
 by their renouncing all earthly goods, which the human 
 heart desires, as riches, honor, and pleasure. Upon all these 
 things they look with contempt. They lead a life of toil, 
 but are temperate and free from cares. They make no show ; 
 they are humane, modest, and never deviate from their regu 
 lations, but exhibit a firm character. Thoir benevolence is 
 the best proof of their philanthropy. Their equality and 
 community are admirable. Their dwellings are open to any 
 stranger of their order. None of them has a dwelling 
 which he may call his own ; but all live and cat in common. 
 
514 CURIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 What any one earns daily he puts into the treasury for com 
 mon use. The sick are maintained from their common con 
 tributions. The youth cherish for the aged filial reverence 
 and submission, and support the grayheaded, when not able 
 to support themselves. Philosophy raises such heroes in 
 virtue. This philosophy, indeed, docs not boast of Grecian 
 high-sounding phrases, but proves its excellence by induce 
 ments to sublime acts, through which eternal freedom is ob 
 tained. 
 
 TIIERAPEUTJE, OR THEHAPEUTES. 
 
 In the DC Vila, Contemplativa, Philo thus describes the 
 Therapeuta), who, if not precisely the same as the Essencs, 
 were closely allied to them. Doubtless they had a common 
 origin. They were the monks perhaps we might say the 
 mystics of Judaism. "The institution or the philosophic 
 school of the Therapeutes is sufficiently explained by its 
 name. They call themselves Therapeutes, and Therapcu- 
 trides, that is, physicians ; but in a higher sense of the word, 
 because they are chiefly engaged in curing the maladies of 
 the soul, which men contract through their evil desires ; and 
 also because they have learned from nature and the Holy 
 Scriptures how to worship the only God. These Thera- 
 peutse will rise higher and higher in their contemplation of 
 that which is divine, when all visible things shall have passed 
 away. Their institute is founded neither on tradition nor on 
 proselyting ; but in the principle inherent in man, to yearn 
 after the supernatural ; or a kind of inspiration Avliich impels 
 them to the vision of God, for which they hope. From the 
 moment one enters their institute, lie is, so to speak, dead to 
 the world, and alive only to heaven and immortality. They 
 give their possessions to their children, friends, or relatives. 
 They leave father and mother, brothers, sisters, and children, 
 kindred, friends, and country ; they free themselves from all 
 those worldly ties, which, to them, are of no value. They 
 
APPENDIX. 515 
 
 leave the towns and retire into the country, where they live 
 in solitude, not from misanthropy, but that their manners of life 
 may be free from the corrupting influence of the conversation 
 of those not initiated. This order of men may be found in 
 many parts of the country above alluded to, and are tolerated 
 and owned by Greeks and barbarians. They exist also in 
 many parts of Egypt, and live chiefly in the neighborhood 
 of Alexandria. From their dwelling-places they send the 
 ablest of their men as emissaries, to choose the most con 
 venient place for settlement. They chiefly select the coun 
 try around the Lake Mceris, on account of its temperate 
 climate and safe situation, as it is surrounded by villas, 
 country seats, and villages. These settlements are uncom 
 monly productive, being exposed to neither great heat noi 
 cold. Their houses are neither too near nor too remote from 
 each other, in order that they may enjoy some kind of con 
 versation in their solitude, and have immediate assistance in 
 the case of necessity. Every one of them has his own 
 closet for prayer and devotion, which they call " ae^vElov^ 
 and " novaairiQlov." For use in these closets they have the 
 laws and the oracles of the prophets, hymns and ascetic 
 writings, as also scientific works. God is the only object of 
 their worship, to whose honor they perform their duties. 
 Their dreams, therefore, are always of an elevated character, 
 full of divine images. There are many instances of their 
 dreams explaining the most difficult problems of philosophy. 
 They pray twice a day, morning and evening. In the morn 
 ing they pray for protection and blessing during the follow 
 ing day, and for the illumination through the heavenly light ; 
 and in the evening they pray for divine assistance in their 
 meditations in the law, and ascertaining the truth in the San 
 hedrim. Before their prayers they endeavor to expel every 
 sensual thought. The remainder of the day they arc en 
 gaged in meditation and contemplation. As soon as the 
 book of the sacred writers is opened, it is expounded through 
 
516 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 * 
 
 the assistance of the traditional philosophy, allegorically ; as 
 they hold that in the literal sense is concealed a mysterious 
 one. They possess also many commentaries from the au 
 thors of their society, whom they strictly follow. They 
 write also hymns and songs for religious worship in various 
 metres." Compare Josephus, Antiquities xv. 10, 4. Jewish 
 Wars, lii. c. 8, 8 & 9. 
 
 It would appear, from all this, highly probable that Philo 
 was himself one of the Thcrapeutse, at least in theory. His 
 opinions correspond with theirs. He reveres the sacred writ 
 ings, but interprets them allegorically. His system is partly 
 philosophical, and his philosophy is partly traditional. He is 
 devoted, like them, to mystical contemplation ; he claims a 
 kind of inspiration. It is quite evident that he rejects the 
 ordinary view of sacrifices, if not their use, and spiritualizes 
 the whole Mosaic ritual. He believes in "the vision of 
 God," pours contempt upon government and policy, and 
 longs for the suprasensible and supernatural. His great aim 
 in all his books is to " expound the ancient lessons of holy 
 wisdom," and in fact his works are mainly "allegorical 
 commentaries " on the " law and oracles of the prophets." If 
 he admired the Platonic and Oriental philosophers, he ascribes 
 their origin to the legislation and writings of Moses. Hi3 
 classification of mankind corresponds to the notions of the 
 Tlierapcutae 1. The earthly, who are devoted to pleasure ; 
 2. The heavenly, who are occupied with human sciences ; 
 and 3. The divine priests and prophets, who are the true 
 " citizens of the world of ideas." In a word, he exhorts all 
 men to withdraw from external engagements, and lose them 
 selves in the universal reason. 
 
 We must acknowledge, however, that Philo vacillates 
 somewhat in the practical application of his views, and in oae 
 of his tracts (De Decalogo, 22) he attempts a conciliation 
 between the theoretical and the practical. In the De Migra. 
 .libra, he informs us that his own experience had taught 
 
APPENDIX. 517 
 
 him that he could not rid himself of himself, and attain to 
 the vision of God, by going into the wilderness and abandon 
 ing society ; that it is not " change of place which brings 
 evil or good," bat that "all depends upon that God who 
 steers the ship of the soul in the direction he pleases." Per 
 haps a more intimate acquaintance with himself and others 
 abated his lofty estimate of the Therapeutae ; hence we find 
 him, in the De Profugis, castigating those who pretended to 
 great interior sanctity, yet indulged in secret vice. He ex 
 horts men first to exercise themselves in the duties of com 
 mon life, before rushing into Therapeutic solitude. He 
 maintains (De Profugis, 6) "that human virtue should go 
 first, the divine follow after." 
 
 For information on the subject of Philo and the Philonic 
 philosophy, see Ritter s Anc. Hist. iv. p. 407, et seq. Ne- 
 ander s Church Hist. i. 52, GO. Dahne s Hist, of the Jew 
 ish Alexandrian Religious Philosophy, Halle, 1834. See 
 art. on Philo, by the same author, in the Theol. Studicn n. 
 Kritiken, p. 984, et seq., 1833. 
 
 NOTE E. SACRIFICES. 
 
 " THE idea of sacrifice is so much the natural and necessary 
 foundation of every religious worship, that it appears as 
 such, not only in the dispensation of God s revelations by the 
 Scripture, but in all pagan religions, from the Hindoo and 
 Greek down to the negro and the inhabitant of California. 
 The horrors and abominations which the desire of effecting 
 the sacrifice produced, for instance in the service of Moloch, 
 prove only how deeply the same is founded in human nature. 
 When man feels his indestructible connection with the Di 
 vinity, in consequence of that voice of conscience which 
 St. Paul mentions when speaking of the pagans, this con 
 nection appears to him either as that of a dependence upon 
 44 
 
518 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 an almighty and benevolent power, or as that of a separation 
 from a more intimate connection, a real union broken by 
 acts wtiich provoked the divine wrath. The first feeling 
 will prompt him to thank, the second to attempt to propitiate. 
 As his prayers will be those of thanksgiving or those of peni 
 tence, so the acts by which he feels the want to show and 
 manifest his feelings, will be attempts either to thank God 
 or soothe his wrath. All such acts fall under the denomina 
 tion of sacrifices, whicjbi implies that what is offered to God 
 as a gift is considered on the one side as our property, and 
 part of ourselves, and on the other as belonging to him. 
 
 " Now, it is a mere corollary from the first truth revealed 
 to us in Scripture on the fall of mankind, that man by him 
 self could neither effect such a real atonement for his sins 
 as might appease divine justice, nor that act of thanksgiving 
 which would answer eternal love. For in order to offer this 
 latter sacrifice, his mind ought first to be entirely relieved 
 and delivered from the consciousness of sin and the divine 
 wrath, that is to say, a perfect, everlasting, and all-relieving 
 atonement ought first to have been found ; and again there 
 being and remaining the fear and consciousness of the di 
 vine wrath in the mind of the natural man when approaching 
 the Deity, every attempt to find and effect such an atone 
 ment, by offering even the dearest thing or person, or by 
 excruciating himself, must only increase the despair of being 
 reconciled to God, or confirm men in external rights and 
 ceremonies. 
 
 " Only one way remained, therefore, for a divine revelation 
 which for ages would prepare what was once to be accom 
 plished, and this is the system of the Levitical worship and 
 sacrifice, as a type, and such a consoling promise and hope 
 of what was reserved to the people of God, and through the 
 same to all the nations of the earth. 
 
 " The sacrifices of tho Old Testament arc typical, and 
 
APPENDIX. 519 
 
 according to their peculiar character, all are sacrifices of 
 thanksgiving, with the exception of that great and awful sac 
 rifice of propitiation or atonement, which in its typical char 
 acter is so clearly described and explained in the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews. Christ was the real victim of propitiation, 
 his death the only all-satisfactory sacrifice of atonement." 
 Bunscji s Hippolijlus, ii. 200-202. 
 
 NOTE F. THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. 
 
 Tins fragment of Christian literature is published some 
 times in the works of Justin Martyr, and sometimes in those 
 of the apostolical fathers. Some ascribe it to Justin Martyr, 
 and others to an unknown author, who lived about the same 
 time with Justin, (the middle of the second century,) or perhaps 
 earlier. This is the opinion of Neandcr, who says " that the 
 Christian simplicity which reigns in the letter bespeaks its 
 high antiquity, which is further supported by this circumstance, 
 that the author classes Judaism and heathenism together, 
 and does not appear to deduce the Jewish cultus from a 
 divine origin ; and yet there is nothing properly Gnostic in 
 the treatise a phenomenon which could only exist in a 
 very early age." Semisch, who has written learnedly on 
 the life and times of Justin Martyr, concurs in this opinion. 
 So also does Hefele, who has published the letter in his 
 edition of the Patres Apostolici. Tzschirner (Fall des Hei- 
 denthums) says, " that, in all probability, it was written in the 
 days of Justin, as it has been ascribed to him, and does not 
 contain any thing which can with propriety be referred to a 
 later age. Its tone of elevated piety, and the picture which 
 it gives of the Christians, as a persecuted yet widely-spread 
 community, justify us in assuming that it belonged to an ago 
 when the new faith had begun to raise its voice with greater 
 boldness, and to make a more marked progress." 
 
520 (JURIST IN IIISTOHY. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. 
 
 I observe, excellent Diognetus, that you earnestly desire 
 to be informed respecting the religion of the Christians, 
 and are particularly careful to ascertain what God they 
 trust, and what may be their form of worship ; for while they 
 contemn the world and despise death, they deny the gods 
 of the Greek, and disregard the religion of the Jew, and 
 manifest a tender affection for each other. What, then, is 
 this new sect or institution; and why has it made its ap 
 pearance now, and not before ? To these questions, highly 
 commendable on your part, it shall be my happiness to in 
 quire ; beseeching God, who bestows the faculties of speech 
 and understanding, to grant that my reply may be a benefit 
 to you, and that you may never have occasion to reject the 
 instructions received. 
 
 Corne, then, after having freed your mind from prepos 
 sessions, and the force of delusive habit, and becoming, as 
 it were, an entirely new man about to listen, by your own 
 onfcssion, to a new doctrine, discern the true character of 
 your acknowledged gods. Is not one of them, like the stone, 
 trodden under foot ; another of brass, fit only to be wrought 
 into vessels for common use ; another of wood, ready to 
 decay ; another of silver, which one must guard lest it be 
 stolen ; and another of clay, not superior to that used for the 
 vilest purposes ? Are they not all of perishable materials, 
 and are they not forged by means of iron and fire ? Is not 
 one of them the work of the stonecutter, another of the 
 brazier, another of the silversmith, another of the potter ? 
 By such artificial skill they were moulded into their present 
 shape, previous to which they might be exchanged for each 
 other ; and even now may they not be thus exchanged ? 
 Nay, could not those very gods be changed into vessels ? 
 Are they not all deaf, and dumb, and blind ? Are they not 
 lifeless, insensible, and immovable ? Are they not all liable 
 to decay ? May they not all be destroyed ? Yet such you 
 
APPENDIX. 521 
 
 call gods, adoring and serving them, and so becoming alto 
 gether like them. For this reason you hate Christians, be 
 cause they refuse to worship such gods. After all, do you 
 not, even while you maintain their divinity, treat them with 
 yet greater contempt? Do you not contemn and wrong 
 them more ? Those of stone and earth you leave unguarded ; 
 while those of gold and silver you watch by day, and shut 
 up by night, lest they should be stolen. You rather punish 
 than honor them by your services, if you suppose them en 
 dowed with sense ; if not, you convict them of it, by wor 
 shipping them with blood, and the smoke of burning fat. 
 Who of you would allow this to be done to himself? In 
 deed, no rational man would voluntarily endure the infliction. 
 But a stone allows it, because it is without sense. Thus 
 you yourselves convict your gods of their senselessness. 
 From all such bondage Christians are free, of which I might 
 speak at greater length ; but it is unnecessary to enlarge. 
 
 I presume you wish to know the difference between the 
 worship of Christians and that of the Jews. Although the 
 latter may be free from the idolatry of which I have spoken, 
 and worship only one God, regarding him as the sole Ruler 
 of the universe, yet they greatly err when they pay their 
 worship even to him with heathenish conceptions. The Greek 
 shows his folly by offering sacrifices to dumb idols ; but the 
 Jew may well deem it equally irrational and impious to 
 present his sacrifices to the Deity, as if he needed them. 
 For the Creator of heaven and earth and all they contain, 
 and from whom we derive all our blessings, cannot need 
 from any of his creatures what he has himself given to 
 those who imagine they give to him. Those who offer to him 
 sacrifices, blood offerings, fat offerings, and burnt offerings, 
 supposing that by such means they do him honor, vainly 
 bestowing gifts upon him who needs them not, differ little, in 
 my opinion, from those who exhibit the same devotion to 
 senseless idols, unconscious of the homage paid them. 
 44 * 
 
522 C1I1UST IN IIISTOHY. 
 
 I need not inform you of the scrupulousness of the Jews 
 respecting meats, their observance of fasts, new moons, and 
 Sabbaths, or their boasted practice of circumcision. These 
 things are too ridiculous to be worthy of notice. For can 
 it be right to accept as good some of the things created by 
 the Deity for the use of man, and reject others as bad or 
 superfluous ? Is it not wicked falsely to accuse God of 
 having forbidden the doing of good on the Sabbath day ? 
 Is it not despicable to boast of the mutilation of the flesh, 
 as a mark of the special favor and choice of the Almighty ? 
 Who does not regard watching the stars, and the changes 
 of the seasons, and the appropriation of some to festivity 
 and others to mourning, with the superstitious observance 
 of months and days, as a stronger proof of folly than of 
 piety ? 
 
 Doubtless you have sufficiently learned that Christians 
 abstain from the common vanity, boasting, and pretension of 
 the Jews. But the secret (f^vcm\oioy} of their peculiar religion 
 you cannot hope to be taught by any man. For Christians 
 are not distinguished from other men by their place of resi 
 dence, their language, or their manners, for they do not dwell 
 in separate cities, use any peculiar kind of speech, or follow 
 any unusual mode of life. They propose no mysterious 
 system devised by man, nor any human dogma whatever. 
 They live in Greek or foreign cities, each where his lot is 
 cast, and in matters of food, clothing, and the like, comply 
 with the customs of the place. And yet they exhibit a life 
 and conversation of wonderful paradoxes. They inhabit their 
 native land, but only as sojourners. They take a part in all 
 things as citizens, but endure all things as foreigners ; every 
 foreign country is to them a native land, and every native 
 country a foreign land. They marry like others, and rear 
 children, but never expose their offspring. They have all 
 things in common, but rigidly observe their marriage vows. 
 They live in the flesh, but not after the flesh. They pass 
 
APPENDIX. 2<3 
 
 their time on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They 
 obey the existing laws, but in their lives transcend all 
 laws. They love all, and are persecuted by all. They live 
 unknown, and are condemned to death. They are slain, and 
 behold they live ; though poor, they make many rich ; in 
 want of every thing, they have abundance ; in dishonor, they 
 are crowned with glory ; when defamed, they are vindicated ; 
 when cursed, they bless ; for injury, they return kindness ; 
 for well doing, they are punished as evil doers ; persecuted 
 to death, they rejoice as being made alive. They are treated 
 by the Jews as barbarians and foes, and by the Greeks are 
 persecuted ; but their bitterest enemies can assign no reason 
 for hating them. In a word, what the soul is to the body, 
 that Christians are in the world. As the soul is diffused 
 through the whole body, so are these Christians scattered 
 through all the cities of the world. The soul, indeed, occu 
 pies the body as its dwelling, but is not of the body ; so 
 Christians dwell in the world, but they are not of the world. 
 The soul lodges unseen in the body; so Christians are 
 known as existing in the world, but their devotion to God is 
 unseen, unknown. The flesh hates and contends against the 
 soul, though the soul injures not the flesh, but simply hinders 
 it from indulging its pleasures. So the world hates Chris 
 tians, because they oppose the pleasures of the world. The 
 soul loves the body even when it opposes it ; so Christians 
 love those by whom they are hated. The soul sustains the 
 body in which it is detained; so Christians preserve the 
 world in which they are imprisoned. The soul, itself im 
 mortal, occupies this perishable tabernacle. So Christians 
 inhabit these dying bodies, looking forward to the everlasting 
 felicity of heaven. The soul, checked and impaired by sense, 
 only triumphs the more ; so the Christians, refined and disci 
 plined by persecution, only increase the more in numbers 
 and in elevation of character. God has appointed them to 
 tins important post, which they dare not and cannot forsake. 
 
524 CIIUIST IN 11ISTOKY. 
 
 For, as I have already stated, it is no earth-born invention 
 which has been committed to them. It is no mortal wisdom 
 which they so sedulously guard ; no human mysteries which 
 have been intrusted to their keeping. The almighty and 
 invisible God himself imparts from heaven, and establishes 
 in men s hearts the truth and the holy and incomprehensible 
 Word. His messenger to men is not, as some might imagine, 
 any servant of his, angel or potentate, intrusted with divine or 
 earthly power. But he has sent the Creator and Governor of 
 all things, who framed the heavens, and set bounds to the sea 
 that it cannot pass ; to whom all things are subject, the 
 heavens and all that are therein, the earth, the sea, and all 
 that in them is, fire, air, and the intermediate spaces of 
 immensity. This Being he sent to man. And was this 
 done, as some might imagine, to strike them with fear, or op 
 press them by tyranny ? So far from this being the case, lie 
 sent him in mercy and love, like a king sending his son 
 himself a king. He sent him to man as their Savior, whose 
 lips should speak words of gentleness, and not threats of vio 
 lence, for violence is not in God. In mercy, he has sent 
 him to fulfil the kind offices of invitation and of grace, not 
 to sit in judgment ; though he will yet commission him to 
 go forth in judgment, and who shall then be able to abide 
 his coming ! Do you not see that those who are exposed to 
 Avild beasts are not overcome, but only increase the more, 
 the more they are persecuted ? This is not the work of man, 
 but of God, and an evident token of his coming. 
 
 How miserable the condition of men before the advent of 
 Christ!. How could men form any just conception of God 
 before his coming ? Or do you confide in the vain and 
 frivolous speculations of the philosophers, some of whom de 
 clare that fire is God, (calling that God which they are 
 themselves rapidly approaching ;) and others water, and others 
 again some of the other elements created by God? Even 
 supposing any one of these opinions admissible, God mi ""lit. 
 
APPiilsDIX. 525 
 
 with equal truth, be predicated of every created tiling. But 
 they are all the lying wonders and impostures of jugglers. 
 None of these ever saw God, or had any knowledge of him. 
 But he has revealed himself to faith, by which alone God is 
 seen. For the supreme Creator and Governor of all things 
 ever was, and is, and will be merciful and gracious, true, 
 faithful, and long suffering. He alone is good. He formed 
 a great and unutterable purpose, known only to his Son. 
 Wrapped in secrecy, he seemed to neglect us. But when, 
 through his beloved Son, he began to reveal the things he 
 had from the beginning prepared for us, he unfolded to us 
 the whole, giving us all things freely to know and enjoy. 
 
 In time past God suffered us to be carried away by our 
 own passions; not that he delighted in our sins, hut be 
 cause he bore with them ; not approving of our unrighteous 
 ness, but thereby convincing us of guilt, and preparing us 
 for tho reception of his grace. By discovering our guilt 
 and inability, he would thus fit us joyfully to enter the king 
 dom and become partakers of his grace. But when the 
 measure of our sins was filled, and nothing but punishment 
 and death awaited us as our recompense, when the time 
 came for the disclosure of the divine mercy, and power, and 
 exceeding love for mankind, then he hated us not, nor cast us 
 off, nor remembered against us our iniquities ; but he was 
 slow to anger, and took upon himself our sins. He gave his 
 Son a ransom for us, the Holy One for the unholy, the sinless 
 for the sinful, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for 
 the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. What but his 
 righteousness can cover (hide] our sins ? And by whom, in 
 our guilt, can we be justified, but by the Son of God ? O the 
 unsearchable grace! O the unexpected blessing! that the 
 sins of many should be cancelled by one act of sacrifice, 
 that many should be justified by the righteousness of one! 
 Having shown us the impossibility of obtaining salvation 
 ourselves, and then having revealed an all-sufficient Savior, 
 
52G CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 he now calls for our faith and confidence in him as our sup 
 porter, teacher, physician, and counsellor, as our light, glory, 
 strength, and salvation, that we should be careful for nothing 
 pertaining to the present life. 
 
 Were you, Diognetus, only to receive this faith, then you 
 should know God as a Father! For God has loved us men, 
 for whose benefit he created the world, upon whom he be 
 stowed reason and intelligence, permitting us alone to aspire 
 to him. He formed us in his own image, and sent us his 
 only-begotten Son, and has promised, to those that love him, 
 a heavenly kingdom When you have known this, with what 
 delight will you be filled ! Plow will you love him who 
 first loved you ! And loving him, you will become an imi 
 tator of his goodness. Wonder not that man can become 
 like unto God. By the grace of God, this is attainable. To 
 acquire authority over others, to gratify ambition and oppress 
 the poor, that is not happiness. One cannot thus imitate 
 God ; such things are abhorrent to his majesty. But he who 
 loves, who bears his neighbor s burden, who helps those 
 beneath him, and imparts his goods to the poor, becomes, so 
 to speak, a god to those he benefits. Such a one is an imi 
 tator of God. Then, while yet on earth, you will behold Him 
 that reigns in^ heaven. Then shall you begin to declare the 
 mysteries of God. Then shall you admire and love those 
 who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Then shall you 
 rebuke the folly of the world, while you have yourself 
 entered into the enjoyment of the true heavenly life. You 
 will despise the horrors of death itself, while you fear that 
 eternal death, reserved for those who are condemned to final 
 and irrevocable destruction. 
 
 I am not here treating of matters unknown to me, or in 
 consistent with reason ; but having been a disciple of 
 the apostles, I am become a teacher of the Gentiles. The 
 things delivered unto me I minister to those who are sin 
 cere disciples of the truth. For who, that is rightly instructed 
 
APPENDIX. 527 
 
 in divine knowledge, does not desire to learn thoroughly what 
 was communicated clearly by the Word (Aoyog) to the disci 
 ples whom the Word enlightened, conversing freely with 
 them ; not comprehended by unbelievers, but explained to the 
 disciples ? Those accounted faithful have known the myste 
 ries of the Father. For this cause, he sent the Word, that ho 
 might be manifested in the world. He sent the Word, who, 
 despised by his own people, was preached by apostles, and 
 was believed by the Gentiles ; who was from the begin 
 ning, yet appeared and was found a new being on the earth, 
 and for the same reason is ever new bora in the hearts of 
 believers. By him the church is enriched ; through him grace 
 abounds in the saints, conferring understanding, unfolding 
 mysteries, discovering the future, conferring joy upon the 
 faithful, and even bestowing it upon them that seek to 
 be obedient to the rules of faith and heavenly wisdom. 
 Then is celebrated the dignity of the law, the inspiration 
 of the prophets is acknowledged, the faith of the gospel is 
 confirmed, the teaching of the epistles is defended, and the 
 grace and joy of the church made to abound. If you do not 
 grieve this grace, you shall know the communication of the 
 Word, when and by whom ho wills. For whatever we are 
 commanded by the will of the controlling Word to utter, 
 that we are impelled to utter, and share with you the things 
 revealed, in labor and in love. 
 
 When you have read and studied these with diligence, 
 you will find what God bestows upon those who sincerely 
 love him, w r ho become a delightful paradise, within each of 
 which springs up a beautiful and luxuriant tree, adorned 
 with various fruits ; for hero are planted the tree of knowl 
 edge and the tree of life. It is not knowledge, but disobe 
 dience that destroys. So that it is not without significance, 
 that the Scriptures declare that God, in the beginning, planted 
 the tree of life in the midst of paradise, revealing life through 
 knowledge; which our first parents not using lawfully, wore 
 
528 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 despoiled of their heritage through the wiles of the serpent. 
 With this view were the trees planted near each other, 
 because without knowledge there is no life, and no real 
 knowledge without true life. The apostle, perceiving this, 
 and wishing to condemn the knowledge which exists without 
 obedience unto life, declares that knowledge puffeth up, but 
 love buildeth up. Whoever thinks it possible to attain true 
 knowledge without obedience and life, is deceived by the 
 serpent. But whoever, with love and reverence, has knowl 
 edge, and seeks life, plants a life-giving fruit. May you 
 have the knowledge of the heart. May your life be the true 
 word of God inwardly received. From the tree of knowledge 
 growing up within you, you will always gather such fruits 
 as are desired in the presence of God, which the serpent 
 never troubles. Then Eve is not corrupted, but a virgin soul 
 believes ; salvation is displayed, the apostles are made wise ; 
 the feast of the Lord proceeds ; the praising multitudes 
 gather together, in beautiful order, praising the Lord ; and 
 the Word, instructing saints, rejoices, through whom God the 
 Father is glorified. To him be glory forever. Amen. 
 
 NOTE G. TESTIMONIES RESPECTING THE ORGAN 
 IZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PRIMI 
 TIVE CHURCH. 
 
 " The constitution of the Christian church, like the politi 
 cal constitution of the Germanic races, rested upon the 
 idea of a community freely submitting to a divine order of 
 society which calls mankind to freedom, and makes man 
 free. Christianity was a free, and in some sense a secret, 
 association. At a time when Egypt was suffering under the 
 most iron despotism, and when the Aramaic races of Asia 
 were in a state of the most revolting religious and moral 
 debasement, he formed a free people, and a people of God, 
 by organizing it at first as a secret religious community. 
 
APPENDIX. 529 
 
 It was, by this agency he threw off the bondage of an em 
 pire, mighty both in Africa and Asia, and united the tribes 
 of Israel, who were dissevered and trodden under foot, into 
 a nation of universal historical importance. Jesus and his 
 disciples formed a secret society first out of the children of 
 that nation, at the last turning-point of "its history, when sub 
 jected to the most cruel despotism of republican emperors, 
 and amid the despair of a highly-civilized but dissolute 
 world. This society Avas based upon the freedom of its 
 members from the Levitical law, on their equality as children 
 of God, on their brotherhood as men. It was this society, 
 established upon this freedom, this equality, and this frater 
 nity, which vdissolved the greatest empire in the world, and 
 led to the forming of a vast association, embracing the 
 whole human family throughout the world-wide dominions of 
 
 " Every U>wn congregation of ancient Christianity, the 
 constitution of which we have to delineate, was a church. 
 The constitution of that church was a congregational con 
 stitution. In St. Paul s Epistles, in the writings of Clemens 
 Romanus, of Ignatius and of Polycarp, the congregation 
 is the highest organ of the spirit as well as power of the 
 church. It is the body of Christ, the embodiment of the 
 person of Jesus of -Nazareth, in the society which was 
 founded by him and through faith in him. This congre 
 gation was governed and directed by a council of elders, 
 which .congregational council, at a later period, was presided 
 over, in most churches, by a governing overseer, the bishop. 
 Bat the ultimate decision, in important emergencies, rested 
 with the whole congregation. The bishop and elders were 
 its superintending members ; its guides, but not its masters. 
 
 "In most of the customs and ordinances transmitted to us, 
 
 we find this active interference on the part of the congrega 
 
 tion considerably weakened. Already a hierarchy has been 
 
 established. Nevertheless the congregation elects its bishop, 
 
 45 
 
530 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 and invites the bishops of the neighboring localities to in 
 stitute him into his office with prayer and the imposition of 
 hands. If the congregation is still to be formed, the 
 bishop names the elders, three at least, and inducts them 
 with prayer and a benediction. They form with him tho 
 congregational council. The bishop elects at least one 
 deacon, as his assistant, and appoints widows and young 
 women to take care, both spiritually and bodily, of the or 
 phans, the sick, and the poor. If the bishopric of a con 
 gregation, already formed, become vacant, the form of epis 
 copal election remains the same : the clergy elect with the 
 people, &c. . . . 
 
 " The hypothesis, therefore, of the Presbyterian divines 
 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that the bishop, 
 as the first of his peers, (primus inter pares,) sprang from the 
 elders of the congregation, falls to the ground as unhistorical. 
 But their idea of elders, as both an officiating and ruling 
 body, is quite correct. The ancient church knows no more 
 of a single presbyter than of clerical government and elec 
 tion. It was only in very small places, manors, (villa,) that 
 the collegiate form was not adopted. There, a single clergy 
 man, who, according to the use of the word bishop in the 
 Epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul, was called a country 
 bishop, (chorepiscopus, i. e., country curate,) managed the 
 small community in its ordinary emergencies. 
 
 " The Lutheran view, again, especially that of the Ger 
 man Lutherans, according to which the clergy formed the 
 order of teachers in the ancient church, is entirely erroneous. 
 The church was a government, and the bishops and elders 
 were magistrates ; they directed the congregation, but with 
 out legislative power. Teaching and praying were open to 
 every one in the church of the apostles ; every man acting 
 as a priest, and anointed of the Lord. . . . 
 
 "The nature of things, however, led, as early as the 
 second century, to collective congregations. The small 
 
APPENDIX. 531 
 
 village communities in the vicinity of the town, already, to a 
 certain extent, formed such an association with those of the 
 city. This, however, was only the first, and an imperfect 
 arrangement ; because the integral parts, with the exception 
 of the town, had no complete organization. The principal 
 towns in the then existing provinces of the empire (and all 
 the apostolic Epistles are addressed to these) formed central 
 points for the province or island, as mother towns or metrop 
 olises. The bishops assembled then in synod. Believers 
 had the liberty of attending the sittings, and hearing their 
 discussions. The first bishop, in age or importance, pre 
 sided. 
 
 " As to Homo, Alexandria, and Antioch, however, the 
 bishops had, in early times incorporated with them a more 
 considerable portion of the province. . . . 
 
 " The churches, which grouped themselves around a great 
 church, stood in an organized, but strictly hierarchical con 
 nection with it. It was natural that common interests should 
 be treated of in common, and decided upon under the presi 
 dency of the bishop of the metropolis. The other bishops 
 were joint elders in this council. They formed, with the 
 parish clergy of the capital, the presbytery of the chief 
 bishop. This is the origin of the college of cardinals. 
 
 " This second stage in the development of the church s 
 constitution is, therefore, already infected with the decay of 
 the times. There were no longer then any free nations, 
 but only municipal unions. The ancient world did not 
 know a free nation beyond the municipal limits, and there 
 fore had no representative government. Christianity pre 
 pared this by clerical senates and synods ; it could not create 
 nations. The congregation was free, and her life the only 
 living and free life of the age. But this free element in the 
 Christian community remains within the narrow limits of the 
 municipal constitution ; all beyond that is unfree, as regards 
 the congregation. Independent and autonomic in their paro- 
 
532 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 chial concerns, the congregations are excluded from tlie 
 general church affairs, . . . 
 
 " A century after Hippolytus, Christianity, became, under 
 Constantino, from a persecuted sect, a recognized religk>n, 
 and, with the passing exception of Julian, the religion of the 
 rulers and of the imperial army by which they were governed. 
 
 " Even before the end of the fourth century, it was the 
 dominant religion, and the Catholic church enjoyed exclusive 
 privileges. From the time of Theodosius downwards, the 
 emperors carried out a system of persecution^ and the bishops 
 rivalled them in an almost apocalyptic manner. Christianity 
 was from the very beginning admitted into the empire as an 
 episcopal and catholic corporation, which centred more and 
 more round the great imperial cities of Rome, (and New 
 Rome,) Alexandria, and Antioch. The protector considered 
 the bishops partly in the light of helpmeets, and partly in 
 the light of subjects ; and this is the point of a convivial 
 joke of the Emperor Constantino, which has been immortal- 
 - by Eusebius, comparing himself wkh the bishops as an 
 episcopus (overseer) of the external affairs of the state. 
 His system was despotic monarchy ; "so was theirs. It is, just 
 as rational to build upon this a right* of supremacy, as it is to 
 establish the theory of passive obedience, and the right di 
 vine of absolute princes, by referring to Christian govern 
 ment the words of the gospel and apostles, meant for Nero 
 and Neronian prefects. Constantino was the first, but already 
 a complete Byzantine despot, and would have remained so, 
 had he survived his baptism. The first result of the protec 
 torate of the Christian emperors, was that in their codes 
 they converted church ordinances (that about baptism, for 
 instance) into statute laws. . . . Evangelical and reli 
 gious freedom then received its death blow from the same 
 police crutch which was given it for its support." Bynserfs 
 Hippolytus. 
 
 " At first the church was governed according to rcpubli- 
 
APPENDIX. 533 
 
 can forms ; but these disappeared in proportion as the new 
 faith attained the mastery. Gradually the clergy separated 
 themselves altogether from the laity. 
 
 " It appears to me that this was the result of a certain inter 
 nal necessity. The rise of Christianity involved the libera 
 tion of religion from all political elements. From this fol 
 lowed the growth of a distinct ecclesiastical class, with a 
 peculiar constitution. In this separation of the church from 
 the state consists, perhaps, the greatest, the most pervading 
 and influential peculiarity of all Christian times. The spirit 
 ual and secular powers may come into near contact, may 
 even stand in the closest community, but they can be thor 
 oughly incorporated only at rare conjunctures, and for a short 
 period. Their mutual relation, their position with regard to 
 each other, form, from this time forward, one of the most 
 important considerations in all history. 
 
 " The constitution of the ecclesiastical body was necessa 
 rily formed upon the model of that of the empire. The 
 hierarchy of bishops, metropolitan patriarchs, arose, corre 
 sponding to the graduated ranks of the civil administration. 
 Ere long, the Roman bishops assumed preeminency above 
 all others. The pretence that primates, whose supremacy 
 was acknowledged by east and west, existed in the first 
 centuries of the church, is, indeed, utterly groundless ; but 
 it is unquestionable that they soon acquired a consideration 
 which raised them above all ecclesiastical authorities. Many 
 things contributed to secure this to them. 
 
 " If the importance of every provincial capital conferred on 
 its bishop a peculiar weight and dignity, how much more 
 must this have been the case in the ancient capital of that 
 vast empire, to which it had given its name ! Rome was 
 one of the most eminent apostolical seats ; here the greatest 
 number of martyrs had perished ; during the persecution, 
 the bishops of Rome had displayed extraordinary firmness 
 and courage ; their succession had often been rather to mar- 
 45* 
 
CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 tyrdora and death, than to office. But now, independent of 
 these considerations, the emperor found it expedient to favor 
 the rise of a great patriarchal authority. In a law which 
 became decisive for the supremacy of Christianity, Theodo- 
 sius the Great ordains that all nations who were subjects to 
 his grace should receive the faith which had been delivered 
 by St. Peter to the Romans. Valentinian III. forbade the 
 bishops, both in Gaul and in the other provinces, to depart 
 from ancient usages without the approbation of the venera 
 ble man, the pope of the holy city. From this time the 
 power of the Roman bishops grew up under the protection of 
 the emperor himself." Leopold Ranke, History of the Popes. 
 
 " In its primitive state, in its childhood, Christian society 
 presents itself before us as a simple association of men pos 
 sessing the same faith, the same sentiments and opinions. 
 The first Christians met to enjoy together their <5ommOn 
 emotions, their common religious convictions. At this time 
 we find no settled form of doctrine, no settled rules of disci 
 pline, no body of magistrates. 
 
 " Still it is perfectly obvious that no society, however young, 
 however feebly held together, can exist without some moral 
 power, which animates and guides it ; and thusf, in the vari 
 ous Christian congregations, there were men who preached, 
 who taught, who morally governed the congregation. Still 
 there was no settled magistrate, no discipline ; a simple as 
 sociation of believers in a common faith, with common senti 
 ments and feelings, was the first condition of Christian society. 
 
 "But the moment this society began to advance, and 
 almost at its birth, (for we find traces of them in the earliest 
 documents,) there gradually began to be moulded a form of 
 doctrine, rules of discipline, a body of magistrates, of m&gis- 
 trutes called TroeaHvieqot,, or elders, who afterwards became 
 riests ; fTr/oxoTio^, inspectors or overseers, who became 
 bishops ; and of diuxoi oi, or deacons, whose office was the 
 ^are of the poor, and the distribution of alms. 
 
 "it i:> -iiLn. .- i:i!j>ns.;i!>!:> to determine the precise fnnc- 
 
APPENDIX. 535 
 
 tious of these magistrates ; the lino of demarcation was 
 probably very vague and wavering ; yet here was the embryo 
 of institutions. Still, however, there was one prevailing 
 character in this sac-red epoch ; it was, that the power, the 
 authority, the preponderating influence still remained in the 
 hands of the general body of believers. It was they who 
 decided in the election of magistrates, as well as in the 
 ad option of rules of discipline and doctrine. No separation 
 had as yet taken place between the Christian government 
 and the Christian believers, who exercised the principal in 
 fluence in the society. 
 
 " In the third period, all this was entirely changed. The 
 clergy were separated from the people, and now formed a 
 distinct body, with its own wealth, its own jurisdiction, its 
 own constitution ; in a word, it had its own government, and 
 formed a complete society of itself a society, too, provided 
 with all the means of existence, independently of the society 
 to which it applied itself, and over which it extended its in 
 fluence. This was the third state of the Christian church, 
 and in this state it existed at the opening of the fifth century. 
 The government was not yet completely separated from the 
 people ; for no such government as yet existed, and less so 
 in religious matters than in any other ; but as respects the 
 relation between the clergy and Christians in general, it was 
 the clergy who governed, and governed almost without con 
 trol." Guizot, Histoj-y of Civilization. 
 
 " The societies which were instituted in the cities of the 
 Roman empire were connected only by the ties of faith and 
 charity. Independence and equality formed the basis of their 
 internal constitution." Gibbon, Decline and Fall, fyc. ch. xv. 
 
 To these testimonies from distinguished laymen we might 
 add the testimonies of nearly all, and especially the more 
 eminent, ecclesiastical historians and writers upon church his 
 tory. Soe, for example, Mosheim, De Rebus Ckrlstianorum, 
 Scec. i. Sect. 48. In his ecclesiastical history he uses 
 similar lanrrun/ie: "Through the greater part of this century 
 
536 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 [the second] the churches were as yet self-governed ; nor were 
 they united in any alliance or confederation. Each society was 
 a sort of little state, governing by its own laws laws either 
 introduced or approved by the people." Century ii. p. 2. 
 
 See also August!, Hist. Eccles. Epit, 21. " The form 
 of the Christian republic, as we detect it in the first and 
 second centuries, may be called, in a sense, democratic, be 
 cause with the entire assembly of the people lay the right 
 and power of choosing the presiding officers, teachers and 
 ministers. To the assembly, (exxA^orfo, church,) in the stricter 
 sense, belonged only the believers, (niawl,} those Christians who 
 partook of the sacraments," &c. 
 
 Compare Dr. George Campbell s Lectures on Church His 
 tory, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Lectures. Gieseler s 
 Ch. Hist., vol. i. 30 and 50. Neander s Planting and 
 Training of the Church, as also his Church History, (Torrey s 
 Trans.,) vol. i. p. 179, et seq. Whately s Essays on the King 
 dom of Christ, p. 138, et seq., 3d ed. Barrow on the Pope s 
 Supremacy, Works, vol. vii. p. 302. To these correspond the 
 views of Guericke, Bretschneider, Hase, M. J. Matter, and 
 others of equal eminence as theologians and church historians. 
 
 NOTE H. THE MIRACLE OF THE LAST FIFTEEN 
 HUNDRED YEARS. 
 
 " " TAKING this high ground, that Christianity is based upon 
 that which is eternally God s own, (reason and conscience,) 
 and, therefore, as indestructible and as invincible as he is 
 himself, I am truly thankful to find that there is visible and 
 traceable, in the history of Christianity, the overruling power 
 of the divine Spirit. This Spirit I believe to be infused into 
 the universality of the human conscience, which is identical 
 with the God-fearing and God-loving reason, and which 
 answers, in those sublime regions, to what, in things con 
 nected with the visible world, is called common sense. This 
 
APi ^XDIX. GO/ 
 
 divine power of reason and conscience, I find to have been 
 so great, that it had overruled all the imperfections and errors, 
 both of ancient communities and formularies. Any Protes 
 tant Christian, who, taking a Protestant view of the world s 
 history, and leading a Christian life, goes naturally and con 
 scientiously through the history of Christianity, can feel 
 himself in perfect communion with the churches of the east 
 and west, and see the working of the Spirit in the Scholastic, 
 and even in Tridentine definitions, if he will only interpret 
 the Scriptures honestly, and according to the general rules 
 of interpretation ; if he will only take the writings of the 
 fathers, according to the spirit, as a limited part of the de 
 velopment of Christianity, and judge their speculations, not 
 as aggressive dogmatism, but as philosophical explanations, 
 given in self-defence ; and, finally, if he consider the de 
 crees and formularies of these churches, not in the light of 
 his own system, but as they were understood by the mem 
 bers of those churches. - Hippotytus, i. 175, 176. 
 
 " If there is any manifest proof of a divine ordinance 
 [government ?] of human destinies, it is the history of the 
 chufrch. There were certainly many circumstances which 
 wonderfully facilitated the spreading and the maintenance 
 of Christianity. The ancient nationalities were worn out. 
 Judaism had merged into Rabbinism ; and the destruction 
 of Jerusalem had extinguished the sanctuary, with which, 
 since Ezra, the Jews had been identified. Heathenism had 
 also lost, its natural basis and local faith ; the unbelief of 
 th.e Romans was grosser than that of the Greeks ; so was 
 their remaining superstition. The human mind was yearn 
 ing after some high and restoring union and fusion of the 
 different nationalities ; and the idea of a common truth, born 
 out of Christianity, was the fulfilment of the world s deepest 
 longings. .But, then, look r.t the difficulties. First, thon, 
 was tho decaying civilization of an effete world ; and, on the 
 other side, the l):iib;irisin of a fresh and noble, but wholly 
 undeveloped, conquering race. There was no nation, no n:i- 
 
538 CHRIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 tional life, the only sound supporters of a pure and hallow 
 ing religion: there was a general decay in literature, in 
 learning, in philosophy ; there was a universal despair as to 
 the destinies of mankind. The world seemed to be actually 
 governed, not by God, but by the devil. Then look to the 
 inward difficulties. There was a very imperfect representa 
 tion of the Christian church in all the councils, to begin 
 with that of Nice a system excluding any action of the 
 laity, which means the Christian people, and representing 
 only a part even of the clergy. Then there were all the 
 intrigues of Byzantine emperors and empresses, imperial 
 aid-de-camps, and palace eunuchs. There were the pas 
 sions and ambitions of an uncontrolled clergy. There was 
 the odium theologicum of the doctors. Finally, there was 
 the rage of the ruling powers of the age for realizing Chris 
 tianity, not in social institutions, not in the duties and works 
 of love, but almost exclusively in hierarchical discipline, and 
 for making the sole test of communion with Christ and God, 
 consist in certain speculative formularies, which necessarily 
 brought their antagonistic principles, and, therefore, schism 
 and persecution, along with them. This rage was intimately 
 connected with the despair of the human mind, and with the 
 death of all nations, and of all national fcfe. Debarred from 
 such an existence, the end for which man was created, 
 (because the only means of realizing God s purpose with 
 the world,) having no fatherland to cling to, no national 
 institutions to defend, all the leading Christian minds were 
 seized with the appalling idea that this world was drawing to 
 its end, and shared, so far, the despairing feelings of the rest 
 of mankind. They looked to another world with faith ; but 
 they did not feel a vocation to make this world itself, with 
 its social and national institutions, the object of their Chris 
 tian thoughts and efforts. Now, the great miracle of the 
 history of the last fifteen hundred years is that the world 
 was renewed, notwithstanding all this, and that the funda 
 mental records and ideas of Christianity have been saved, 
 
and although very imperfectly developed, and preserved for 
 future development, in the whole of Christendom, as it ex 
 ists at present in the east and west" L 177, 178. 
 
 NOTE L AXSELM AND AQUINAS. 
 
 " THE true metaphysician of this period is St. Anselm, 
 born at Aosta, in Piedmont, Prior of Abbe and Bee, in 
 Normandy, and at his death Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 [Born 1034, died 1109.] To him was given the appellation 
 of the second Augustine. Among his numerous works are 
 two, the titles of which I will at least mention, for the titles 
 indicate their spirit, and reveal, moreover, a remarkable 
 progress. One is a monologue, wherein St. Anselm sup 
 poses an ignorant man who is seeking truth by force of his 
 reason only a very bold fiction for the eleventh century, 
 and the antecedent to the Meditations : [Cousin here refers 
 to the Meditations of Des Cartes, the father of mental 
 philosophy in modern times] it is entitled Monologium, sen 
 Exemplum meditandi de Ratione Fidti ; Monologue, or example 
 of the manner in which one may account for his faith. The 
 second work is called Proslogium, sen Fides qu&rens intel- 
 lectum ; Allocution, or the faith which tries to demonstrate 
 itself. In the first work, St. Anselm does not suppose him 
 self in possession of the truth ; he is seeking it : in the second, 
 he supposes himself in possession of the truth, and he tries to 
 demonstrate it. The name of St. Anselm is attached to the ar 
 gument, which draws from the idea of an absolute maximum 
 of greatness, of beauty, of goodness, the demonstration of the 
 existence of its object, which can be only God. Without cit 
 ing St. Anselm, whom he did not probably know, Des Cartes 
 has produced the same argument, &c. . . . Leibnitz, in 
 taking up the Cartesian argument, refers it to St. Anselm; 
 but he was able to go farther back; he had founds it in the; 
 genius of Christian idealism, and it w.is worthy of St. Antrim, 
 
f>40 CIIKIST IN HISTORY. 
 
 of Des Cartes, and of Leibnitz, to draw it from that source, 
 and diffuse it through modern philosophy." Cousin, Hist, of 
 Mod. Philosophy, Wight s trans., vol. ii. p. 21. 
 
 " St. Thomas Aquinas was born rich, and of an illustrious 
 family, [at Aquino, near Naples, in 1225,] who naturally 
 wished to give him a good position in the world. He refused 
 it, and entered quite early into the Order of the Dominicans, 
 in order that he might give himself wholly to philosophy. 
 He carried into his order the same disinterestedness ; he 
 constantly refused all dignities, and would consent to be 
 only a professor, and was called Doctor Angelicas, the Angel 
 of the School. He understood the importance of the Arabic 
 and Greek philosophers. He greatly encouraged the transla 
 tion of their works, and Europe is infinitely indebted for all 
 the translations he caused to be made. If Albert [Albert the 
 Great, called Albert of Bollstadt] was more learned, and, 
 above all, better acquainted with the natural sciences, St. 
 Thomas was a better metaphysician, and especially a better 
 moralist. He did not fall into asceticism as did his com 
 patriot, John of Fidanza, otherwise called St. Bonaventura, 
 who nearly brought theology to mysticism, thereby obtaining 
 the name of Doctor Scraphicus, the Seraphic Doctor. St. 
 Thomas Aquinas remained faithful to the philosophic spirit. 
 If he submitted reason to the rule of faith, he never miscon 
 ceived the extent and legitimate authority of our faculties. 
 The masterwork of St. Thomas is the famous summation, 
 Summa TlieologifB, which is one of the greatest monuments 
 of the human mind, in the middle age, and comprehends, 
 with profound metaphysics, an entire system of morality, and 
 even of politics, and that kind of politics, too, which is not at 
 all servile. Among other things, you find in it a defence of 
 the Jews, who were then persecuted, and were so serviceable 
 not only to commerce, but to science. He could not dream 
 of the civil equality of our days ; but as a Christian, he recom 
 mended humanity in regard to them, even as a matter of poli 
 cy. St. Thomas is particularly a great moralist." Iilem, p. 2(1. 
 
 
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