and support. By consummate policy, he persuaded them that he had been miraculously converted to Christ, and assuming the cross for his standard, he rallied around him its numerous and powerful followers. He honoured and enriched them, and they elevated him to the throne, and received him as their sovereign, and ruler, and judge, in things spiritual as well as temporal. It is manifest that though many real Christians probably joyfully received his procla mation that Christianity alone was henceforth exclusively the reli. gion of the empire, yet if any society now existed that imitated the churches which, in Judea, were in Christ, it must have been deemed almost universally heretical, and hourly in danger of being dispersed by the roaring of the Roman beast of prey, if not consumed by his iron teeth. Divisions arose among Christians in the days of the apostles; and they had been scarcely removed from the earth before the churches planted by them departed from the simplicity of Christianity, as delineated by the inspired writers. Nevertheless, with the excep tion of those who made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, the great peculiarities of the gospel, in doctrine and practice, appear to have characterised all the societies that confessed Christ, and suffered for his name's sake, to the end of the second century. This is obvious from the statement of Irenæus in his work on heresy. He includes, under the name church, all the Christian societies scattered among the nations; and thus describes its sentiments: "The Church, spread throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received, both from the apostles and from their disciples, that faith which is in One God, the Father Almighty, who made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all the things which are in them; and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incar nate for our salvation; and in the Holy Ghost, who, by the prophets, foretold the arrangements and the advent of Christ, and that generation which was of the Virgin, and the suffering and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven, in the flesh of our beloved Jesus Christ our Lord, and his coming from heaven in the glory of the Father to gather together all things,' and to raise at last all flesh of the human race. That to Jesus Christ our Lord God, Saviour and King, according to the pleasure of the invisible Father, every knee may bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue may confess to him, and that he may perform just judgment on sil. And he is exalted, that he may send to eternal fire spiritual wickedness, the transgressing and apostate angels, and impious, unja t, iniquitous, and blasphemous men: That he may confer life on those who keep his commandments, and persevere in his love, as indeed Some have done from the beginning, and as others have done from repentance; and that he may bestow on them incorruption, and may surround them with eternal glory in the place of reward." The first large community of Christians, worthy of the name, who separated from the universal church, or societies that retained the form of sound words," taught by the apostles, appeared in the latter part of the third century. Their first leader, who may be de nominated the first Christian Reformer, was Novatian, a proselyte of the church in Rome. He was,' "Waddington remarks, "a man of great talents and learning, and of character so austere, that he was un willing, under any circumstances of contrition, to readmit those who had been once separated from the communion of the Church. And this severity he would have extended not only to those who had fallen by deliberate transgression, but even to such as had made a forced compromise of their faith under the terrors of persecution. He considered the Christian Church as a society, where virtue and innocence reigned universally, and refused any longer to acknowledge, as members of it, those who had once degenerated into unrighteousness. This endeavour to revive the spotless moral purity of the primitive faith was found inconsistent with the corruptions even of that early age: it was regarded with suspicion by the leading prelates, as a vain and visionary scheme; and those rigid prin. ciples which had characterised and sanctified the Church in the first century, were abandoned to the profession of schismatic sectaries in the third." The Novatians exceedingly multiplied in all the countries where the gospel was received, and flourished until the fifth century, when the clergy of the imperial Church succeeded in crushing the power of dissent, and compelled the faithful to withdraw as much as possi ble from public notice. The sacred scriptures, however, remained, and the authority of the Lord Jesus was reverenced by multitudes. Those most desirous and resolved to honour their Saviour and heavenly king found small favour with the majority of the Christian teachers or people. An Arian or Trinitarian Christianity sustained, at the pleasure or humour of Constantine's successors, the vast and gorgeous fabric of the imperial church, till Theodosius the Great, A.D. 380, established the latter, named the orthodox creed, and published the famous law, "that no one, of whatever rank, should slay a victim or present an offering, in public or private, to any senseless image or imaginary god." To martyrs, eminent departed saints, and especially to Mary the mother of Jesus, and to angels, were transferred the veneration and homage formerly cherished for idols; and all who refused to honour them as intercessors with God, or who maintained that to them there was but "one God and Father of all, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus," were more dreaded, despised, or abhorred, by the great teachers of the imperial church, than were idolaters, infidels, or profligates. Assemblies of bishops speedily assumed the authority and power of infallible guides, whose wisdom was not to be questioned, nor their influence with Heaven to bring down blessings or curses upon mankind, to be doubted. They gradually, having for their chief the bishop of Rome, acquired the supreme dominion in things spiritual, and at length sat on the throne of the church, and directed the civil government of the empire Emperors, kings, princes, and magistrates, were their servants to honour or protect those whom they pronounced blessed, and degrade or kill all whom they declared accursed. Thus the nominal ministers of Christians, united as one man, truly appeared "the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. Everywhere was heard the terrific voice of this demon-god. The worshippers of the Most High trembled, and retired from the busy haunts of men; the meek followers of the Lord Jesus fled to the wilderness, and there sojourned twelve hundred and sixty years. Fearful were the judgments which fell on the apostate race, who had prostrated their hearts and consciences to the self-made demongod. The inroads of barbarians spread universal desolation, famine, pestilence, and death; the mighty empire was broken up, and divided into many kingdoms, and ignorance, superstition, and every species of wickedness, established anew their throne in the world. But this dreadful termination of the eruptions of pagan nations only rivetted the chains by which " the man of sin," that wicked one, subjected to slavery the Roman empire. The savage conquerors transferred their reverence for the priests and rites of their bloody goda to the priests and rites of nominal Christianity, and consolidated the ecclesiastical despotism and tyranny, of whose natural and terrible power they were incapable of forming a correct estimate. The voice of the holy oracles was silenced, or only heard in solitary and impenetrable recesses. "Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." Charlemagne, the celebrated emperor of the West, in the eighth century, votary as he was of vice and superstition, attempted to adorn his reign by literature, and the Church by the study of the scriptures. This noblest of his enterprises failed. The chief rulers of the multitude hated knowledge, and they suc ceeded in the establishment of their dominion by extinguishing moral light. Many teachers of the people were more familiar with every art of deception than with the art of simply reading the few books which were not yet secreted from mankind. Divine long-suffering, however, came to an end; the time of just retribution arrived, and the Sun of Righteousness once more arose on the benighted nations. The throne of ecclesiastical power was cast down, its ministers were confounded, and its slaves exulted in the emancipation proclaimed by the noble heroes of "The Reformation." The principal nations were deluged with blood, whed in the tremendous contest between liberty and despotism, priestly domination and freedom of thought. The sacred scriptures were enthroned in the hearts of multitudes; Satan was bound, and the nations set free. The Christian captives were recalled; they e zak the voice of the angel in the midst of heaven proclaiming the tau of their chief enemy, and heaven and earth rejoiced. Many st u,gies they have had, and many perhaps they may yet have; but He wärɔ hath delivered them will complete their deliverance. They have laboured, and a goodly number of them have not fainted in con tending earnestly for the faith. By them Divine truth hath um nated many nations; in the remotest regions, where the Roman engle was never seen or known, thousands sing "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and mela us unto our God kings and priests: unto him be glory and don nion, for ever and ever. Amen." The stone cut out of the moun tain progressively fills the earth. Prayer is made to the Lord Jewis continually, in the farthest west, north, south, and east, and dur is he praised. All who love Him confidently and intensely low to hear the great voices in heaven re-echoed over all the earth: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." INDEX A Abdolonymus, king of Sardis, page 104. Abomination of desolation set up on the altar at Jerusalem, 180. Achæan republic, 148. Africa, Northern, events in, preparatory for receiving Christianity, Agrarian or Licinian laws, 265. Agricola, subdues the Britons, 526. Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, 318; appointed governor of Syria, 348. Agrippa, his son, succeeds his uncle, king of Chalcis, 454; appointed Agrippina, wife of Germanicus and mother of Nero, banished with Ahab, wickedness of, 29. Ahaz, wicked reign of, 28. Albinus, governor of Judea, 472, 498. Alcimus, chief captain, and afterwards high-priest of the Jews, 194, Alexander the Great, character of, 96, 99; conquests of, 99; defeats Alexander's Generals appointed governors over the provinces, 117. Alexander's four successors, 125. Alexander Bala ascends the throne of Syria, 205; death of, 206. Alexandra, wife of Jannæus, reigns over Judea nine years, 222. Altar purified at the end of three years and a half, by Judas, 189. Ananias, the high-priest, deposed, 472 Ananias appointed governor of Jerusalem, 508. Ananelius, an obscure priest, made high-priest by Herod, 342. Antediluvians, race of, 9. Antigonus Sochæus, first president of the Sanhedrim, 143. Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, leads an army into Judea, assisted by the Parthians, 229. Antiochus, governor of Asia Minor, assumes sovereignty, 125. Antiochus Theos wars against Egypt, 139. Antiochus the Great, 153; prohibits strangers from entering the Antiochus Epiphanes, an hostage at Rome, obtains the crown of Antiochus Sidetus, brother of Demetrius, becomes king of Syria, Antipas or Antipater, father of Herod. 224; appointed procurator Antipater, son of Herod, 353-5. Antonia, fortress of, pontificial dresses kept in, 431, 456. the Second Triumvirate, 312-15; dissipation and extravagance |