with some respectful attention, and yet studiously avoid the cross of Christ, and the precise peculiarities of the Gospel, in order to preserve their credit in the world. We We may all have so much noticed this disposition in men, and the number of doubtful characters in consequence, that Mosheim's account cannot, I think, appear difficult of admission.

It was

Undoubtedly the appearance of persons of this sort is a sure symptom that the Gospel is raised to some degree of eminence and stability in the world. In the first century such an ambiguous character would have been a rare phenomenon. Philosophers found no desire to coalesce with a religion contemptible in their eyes in all respects. not till numbers gave it some respectability, that a coalition of that kind took place. Seneca would have thought himself sufficiently liberal in not persecuting, but only despising, the same religion, which Ammonius, a century afterwards, deigned to incorporate, in pretence at least, with his philosophy. It has been observed, that the attempt of the court of Charles the First to draw over some of the parliamentary leaders to their interest, was a sure sign of the diminution of regal despotism. Satan beheld the decay of his empire of idolatry and philosophy in the same light and it behoved him to try the same arts to preserve what remained. Melancholy and disastrous as was the evil we are contemplating, and even more decisively destructive to the progress of vital godliness than any other which had yet appeared, it was, however, an evidence of the victorious strength of the Gospel, and a confession of weakness on the part of paganism.

In carrying on these arts of seduction, the insidiousness of such middle characters consisted much in expatiating on the truths which lie in common, as of the greatest importance; and in reducing, as far as in them lay, the peculiar truths of the Gospel into oblivion. It was just in this manner, I remember, that a clergyman* speaks in a celebrated sermon preached on the accession of James the Second. While he deals out strains of fulsome adulation on the sovereign, he answers the objection against him drawn from his religion, by observing of what little importance opinions were; and that moral and practical matters were alone

The Vicar of Newcastle.

worthy of consideration. The conduct of James, in a little time after, showed the weakness of his reasoning and the effects of this philosophical evil, which, like leaven, soon spread in some faint degree over the whole Church, manifested too plainly that pure and undefiled sentiments of religion are of high importance.

We have hitherto found it no hard matter to discover, in the teachers and writers of Christianity, the vital doctrines of Christ. We shall now perceive that the most precious truths of the Gospel begin to be less attended to, and less brought into view. Even Justin Martyr, before the period of eclectic corruption, by his fondness for Plato, adulterated the Gospel in some degree, as we have observed particularly in the article of free-will. Tatian, his scholar, went bolder lengths, and deserved the name of heretic. He dealt largely in the merits of continence and chastity; and these virtues, pushed into extravagant excesses, under the notion of superior purity, became great engines of self-righteousness and superstition; obscured men's views of the faith of Christ, and darkened the whole face of Christianity. Under the fostering hand of Ammonius and his followers, this fictitious holiness, disguised under the appearance of eminent sanctity, was formed into a system; and it soon began to generate the worst of evils. That man is altogether fallen,

that he is to be justified wholly by the faith of Christ, that his atonement and mediation alone procure us access to God and eternal life,-that holiness is the proper work of the Holy Spirit on the heart of man, and that for its production Divine Grace is absolutely necessary;-these,and if there be any other similar evangelical truths, -as it was not possible to mix them with Platonism, faded gradually in the Church, and were at length partly denied and partly forgotten.*

St. Paul's caution against philosophy and vain deceit, it appears, was now fatally neglected by the Christians. False humility, "will-worship," curious and proud refinements, bodily austerities mixed with high self-righteous pretensions, ignorance of Christ and of the true life of faith in him,

The tenth article of our Church is remarkably precise and accurate on this subject. "We have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of Christ preventing us that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will."

miserably superseded by ceremonies and superstitions,—all these things are divinely delineated in the second chapter to the Colossians; and, so far as words can do it, the true defence against them is powerfully described and enforced.

Even the cultivation of the human mind, when carried on in the best manner, is apt to be abused by fallen man, to the perversion of the Gospel. Yet I would not place the mathematics and natural philosophy on the same footing as the Platonic or Stoical doctrines. In truth, philosophy is too respectable a name for these last: As they were managed in the school of Ammonius or of Antoninus, they displayed little that deserved the attention of a wise man: They were either romantic, or absolutely false. The philosophy of the moderns, when applied to abstract quantity, or to the works of nature, is, doubtless, possessed of truth and solidity, yet great care is requisite to keep even modern philosophy within its due bounds; and to prevent its encroachments on Christianity and the danger of being elated by pride, and of being made too wise for the teaching of God's Holy Spirit, is common to this with all other sorts of secular knowledge. In regard to what is called moral philosophy and metaphysics, these seem much more nearly allied to the ancient philosophical evils, and have ever been dangerous to religion: fatal mistakes have been made through their means; and in general, if we except a very small portion of natural truths which are agreeable to the moral sense and conscience of mankind, they appearat least, when conducted, as they have usually been, by unevangelical persons,-to be the very same sort of mischievous speculation and refinement against which the Apostle in writing to the Colossians speaks. Certainly his cautions against philosophy are equally applicable to THEM; for THEY have been found to militate against the vital truths of Christianity, and to corrupt the Gospel in our times, as much as the cultivation of the more ancient philosophy corrupted it in early ages. I would here be understood, in both cases, to refer to matter of fact, and not to imaginary suppositions. In fact, the systems of the moral and metaphysical writers have rarely been founded on Christian principles, and yet they have pretended to incorporate themselves with the Gospel. The effect of such combination must ever prove mischievous,

particularly when addressed to the reason of man, prejudiced by self-conceit and the love of sin.

And here we close the view of the second century; which, for the most part, exhibited proofs of divine grace as strong, or nearly so, as the first. We have seen the same unshaken and simple faith of Jesus, the same love of God and of the brethren; and, that in which they singularly excelled modern Christians,-the same heavenly spirit and victory over the world. But a dark shade is enveloping these divine glories. The Spirit of God is grieved already by the ambitious intrusions of self-righteousness, argumentative refinements, and Pharisaic pride; and though it be more common to represent the most sensible decay of godliness as commencing a century later, to me it seems already begun. The surviving effects, however, of the first Effusion of the Spirit, and also the effects of some rich additional communications of the same Spirit, will appear in the third century.

CENTURY III.

CHAP. I.

IRENEUS.

BEFORE we proceed with the orderly course of events in this century, it may be convenient to continue the account of authors who properly belonged to the last, though they survived the conclusion of it. We meet with four celebrated characters of this description; Irenæus, Tertullian, Pantænus, and Clement of Alexandria.

Of Irenæus it were to be wished we had a more copious account: The place of his birth is quite uncertain. His name, however, points him out to be a Grecian. His instructors in Christianity were Papias,* bishop of Hierapolis, and the renowned Polycarp. The former is generally allowed to have been a man of real sanctity, but of slender capacity. He, as well as Polycarp, had been a disciple of St. John; and with all the imbecility of judgment which is ascribed to him, might, under God, have been of signal service to Irenæus. The instructions of Polycarp, however, seem to have made the deepest impressions on his mind from early life.

A. D. 169.

The church of Lyons, we have seen, was a daughter of the church of Smyrna, or of the other neighbouring churches. Pothinus, the bishop, must have been a Greek as well as Irenæus; who, as presbyter, assisted the venerable prelate in his old age. After the death of Pothinus, about the year 169, Irenæus succeeded him. Never was any pastor more severely tried by a tempestuous scene. Violent persecution without, and subtile heresies within, called for the exertion, at once, of consummate dexterity and of magnanimous resolution. Irenæus was favoured with a large measure of both; and he weathered the storm. But heresy proved a more constant enemy than persecution. The multiplication of it, in endless refinements, induced him to write his book against heresies, which must have been at that time a very seasonable work. His [Hieron. Ep. 29, ad Theodorum. Euseb. v. c. 5.]

*