expected from the right use of so original and powerful an author. He used frequently himself to say, the worst books are the best for a student, as they compel him to think. But if his own good productions can be incidentally turned to the same account, so much the better. And, as we have already sufficiently intimated by our objections to some things, we fear there is at least error enough, old and new, in this treasure, to keep open the eyes of every one who possesses power of vision to be his own eclectic. Though by no means Emmonites, yet it is with gratitude and admiration we look on the works he has left us; and it is with the ardent prayer, that all which he would now leave unblotted, were he again to visit our earth, may be imbibed and proclaimed by every preacher, in every denomination, who shall read his works, in this and in coming ages. ARTICLE III. TRAITS OF THE LIFE OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. Traits of the Life of the Early Christians. By Dr. AUGUSTUS NEANDER. Translated from the German, by the Editor. The design of the following pages is to show, from the testimony of the Fathers, the influence of Christianity on the lives of its early professors. The questions, how they understood their obligations, and how they fulfilled them, furnish matter for interesting investigation. The habits of those who lived near the apostolic age, may be regarded as involving the apostles' exposition of the claims of religion. The early disciples, doubtless, were such as the apostles taught them to be. Religion demands nothing less than they yielded to it. We trust the contemplation of these memorials of a consistent Christianity will prove both pleasant and profitable. Every one must admire the beautiful simplicity of the primitive saints; the strength of their faith; their stern adhesion to their principles; their mutual love; and the striking exhibition of their piety in their lives. With them, religion was not a profession; but a visible reality. It made them what they were. They could not be mistaken for men of the world. They led a higher life. The distinctive traits of the gospel might be discovered, from the manner in which they exemplified them. Their light shone, so that God was glorified. The church, as it is, may learn some useful lessons, by studying the pattern of the quiet but efficient holiness of its earlier stages.-TR. GENERAL INFLUENCES OF THE DIVINE WORD ON THE LIFE OF THE FIRST CONFESSORS. He who has compared his state, as he was, in blind heathenism, with what he has become, through Christianity, must be best able to speak from his own experience, of the influences of Christianity. Cyprian, afterwards bishop of Carthage, who became a Christian in advanced manhood, in writing to a fellow Christian, once a pagan, thus describes them: "I was in obscure night, in blind unconsciousness; estranged from truth and light. It then seemed to me impossible that we should be born again, and animated to a new life, as the divine mercy promised; that, with the same external nature, there should be a new inner man. How is it possible, I said to myself, that one should lay aside at once that which has become natural to him? Pride, avarice, ambition, lust, the love of pleasure, continually exert their influences upon man. How should he, at once, liberate himself from them all? Indeed, I was accustomed to regard that which was bad in myself, as my nature; and, despairing of reformation, I had ceased to strive against it. But when light from above flowed into my heart, when the Holy Spirit had created me a new man, that which before seemed to me doubtful, became, in a wonderful manner, certain. I saw light, where before I had perceived nothing but darkness. That which formerly appeared impossible, became easy. Hence, the conviction was forced upon me, that my past life, in the service of sin, proceeded from the earth and the flesh; but that my present life, animated by the Holy Ghost, proceeded truly from God. We speak not this boastfully; we only wish to give thanks to God for the gift of his grace. * Ep. ad Donat. That we begin now to sin no more is the effect of faith; as our former life of sin was the effect of human error. From God, yea, from God, is all our power. From him we have life and strength, and we trust in him for the future. If we remain true to the way of righteousness, if we direct our whole heart to God, we have constantly more and more power to do, as grace flows in upon us more and more abundantly. For heavenly blessings are not limited by measure, like earthly ones. Always, without measure, the divine Spirit. flows in, if our heart only thirsts, and is open to receive it. In proportion to our faith, are the rich communications of grace which we enjoy." Justin, the martyr, who lived in the first half of the second century, says: We, who were once slaves of lust, now have our chief joy in a pious life. Once, we loved gain above every thing else; now, we give our possessions for the common good, and distribute to every one who is needy. Once, we hated and murdered one another; we would not receive into our houses people of foreign climes, because they had different customs from our own. Now, since the appearance of Christ, we permit them to be our guests. We pray for our enemies. We strive to convince those who hate us unjustly; so that, living according to the glorious teaching of Christ, they may obtain the joyful hope of a participation in the blessings which are prepared for us by God Almighty." "Christ commanded us to use no violence, and not to return evil for evil. He exhorted us, by our patience and gentleness to convert all men. In many among us, we can show you that this has actually been done. They have been changed from violent and tyrannical men, and subdued, while they have either observed the steadfast endurance of Christian neighbors, or have become acquainted with the extraordinary patience of Christian travellers, suffering injustice, or have seen the conduct of the Christian under various circumstances, in the intercourse of life." Tertullian, who lived in the latter part of the second century and the beginning of the third, in his Apology to the heathen, † says: "Men wonder to see those, who were formerly idle and dishonest, reformed at once; but they are more disposed to wonder, than to imitate them. Some are 與 Opera, ed Colon., pp. 61, 63. Ad Nationes, Lib. I, cap. 4. Apolog., cap. 3. more taken up with their hatred of the Christian name, than with their own advantage. The husband, who no longer has occasion for jealousy, casts off his wife who has been made chaste by Christianity. The father, who formerly bore with the disobedience of his son, disinherits him, having become obedient. The master, who once endured patiently the bad servant, dismisses him, having grown faithful. In proportion as one is reformed by Christianity, he is hated." CHRISTIANITY A light for all MEN WITHOUT DISTINCTION.* 'Every Christian mechanic has attained to the knowledge of God, and reveals to you every thing which it is necessary for you to know of God,-notwithstanding Plato says, that it is difficult to come to the knowledge of the Creator and Father of the universe; and impossible, though one has done so, to reveal him to all." + THE CHRISTIANS' VIEW OF THEIR CALLING IN THE WORLD. They viewed their calling chiefly as a holy warfare for God and Christ (militia Dei et Christi), against all the powers of darkness, and their influences. Peace with God and contest in the world was their allotment. When, before baptism, they engaged to renounce Satan, and his authority, and his works, as members of the kingdom of God to avoid all sin and to strive against it, they called this their sacrament (sacramentum militare, soldier's oath). When the teachers and leaders of * Tertull., Apolog., cap. 46. The apologists appealed with good reason to this proverb of the most exalted of the ancient philosophers (Plat., Tim., p. 303), in order to show evidently that Christianity has effected among men, what no philosopher held to be possible. All the lawgivers and wise men of antiquity agreed with Plato on this point; so also do the enlightened heathen in India at the present day. Although they themselves clearly apprehend the doctrine of one God, they hold it to be impossible to raise the mass immediately to the conception of the one source of all being. And therefore they leave the common people to their idolatry and superstition. Christianity alone has abolished this pernicious separation between a religion of the learned and a popular religion, by leading all alike to exercise a filial trust in God and filial love to him. Rom. 8: 15. Gal. 4: 6. The apostle Paul, in Col. 3: 11, has expressed, in the most lively manner, the contrast to that separation which prevailed in the ancient world, and which was, under their systems, necessary. In regard to the new creation which Christ effects in our nature, there is no difference between the cultivated Greek and the rude Scythian, between bond and free. They are alike destitute of that true, inward holiness with which God is pleased. They all owe their redemption, in like manner, to the divine love, which interested itself in guilty man. They must renounce all that they were formerly, in the condition of the old man, in order to become new creatures only through Christ, to begin a new life, alone in and from his Spirit. Christ is all and in all. the church exhorted the Christians steadfastly to confess their faith, even in the face of death, to keep themselves from all practices of the heathen, and from the infection of the vices which prevailed in the heathen world, they reminded them of that first engagement of their Christian warfare.* "Even in the engagement which we made at our baptism, we were called to contend in the service of the living God." THE CHRISTIANS IN RELATION TO HEATHEN GOVERNMENT. In a period of slavery and of corrupt morals, when the fear of man ruled, instead of the fear of God, and fidelity and uprightness of life had vanished, the the Christians continued to distinguish themselves by the conscientious fulfilment of all duties to the government, and by a steadfast refusal of obedience in those things which were opposed to their conviction of the divine doctrine. Tertullian says:† "We must reverence the emperor, as one appointed by our Lord. I can with the more reason call him our emperor, because he is appointed by our God." To the complaint, that much was withdrawn from the revenues of the heathen temples by the Christians, he replies, how much the state gains by them, through the conscientious payment of taxes and customs, which others, by false testimony, keep back! No power on earth could induce the Christians to perform the religious rites of the heathen, according to the command of the emperors, in order to show to the latter those idolatrous marks of esteem, which a heathenish obsequiousness had invented. "I will call the emperor my lord," says Tertullian, "in the sense in which this word is used in common life; but not, if one would force me to apply this name to him as a proof of divine honor. Beyond this, I am free from him; for my Lord is only one, the almighty and eternal God, who is his Lord also." The Christians spoke thus, even in view of death: "We honor the emperor; but we can fear only the one God and Lord in heaven."§ The serenity and animation with which the Christians died for their faith, and their heroic courage under the most cruel tortures, were a phenomenon the more remarkable in that enervated age, when the impulses which had animated the * Tertull., ad Martyr., c. 3. + Apolog., c. 33. Act. Mart. Scillitan. Ruinart, p. 80. |