OBJECTION TO MILITARY SERVICE.

163

take any active part in the civil administration or the military defence of the empire. Some indulgence might, perhaps, be allowed to those persons who, before their conversion, were already engaged in such violent and sanguinary occupations; but it was impossible that the Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes. This indolent or even criminal disregard to the public welfare, exposed them to the contempt and reproaches of the

102

101 Tertullian, Apolog. c. 21. De Idololatria, c. 17, 18. Origen contra Celsum, 1. v. p. 253, l. vii. p. 348, 1. viii. pp. 423-428.

102 Tertullian (de Corona Militis, c. 11) suggests to them the expedient of deserting; a counsel, which, if it had been generally known, was not very proper to conciliate the favor of the emperors towards the Christian sect.*

*There is nothing which ought to astonish us in the refusal of the primitive Christians to take part in public affairs; it was the natural consequence of the contrariety of their principles to the customs, laws, and active life of the Pagan world. As Christians, they could not enter into the senate, which, according to Gibbon himself, always assembled in a temple or consecrated place, and where each senator, before he took his seat, made a libation of a few drops of wine, and burnt incense on the altar; as Christians, they could not assist at festivals and banquets, which always terminated with libations, &c.; finally, as "the innumer"able deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circumstance of public and private life," the Christians could not participate in them without incurring, according to their principles, the guilt of impiety. It was then much less by an effect of their doctrine, than by the consequence of their situation, that they stood aloof from public business. Whenever this situation offered no impediment, they showed as much activity as the Pagans. Proinde, says Justin Martyr (Apol c. 17), nos solum Deum adoramus, et vobis in rebus aliis læti inservimus.- GUIZOT.

This quotation Dean Milman reminds M. Guizot is irrelevant, for it merely relates to the payment of taxes.- ENGLISH CHUCRHMAN.

Tertullian does not suggest to the soldiers the expedient of deserting; he says, that they ought to be constantly on their guard to do nothing during their service contrary to the law of God, and to resolve to suffer martyrdom rather than submit to a base compliance, or openly to renounce the service. (De Cor. Mil. ii. p. 127). He does not positively decide that the military service is not permitted to Christians: he ends, indeed, by saying, Puta denique licere militiam usque ad causam coronæ. - GUIZOT.

M. Guizot is, I think, again unfortunate in his defence of Tertullian. That father says, that many Christian soldiers had deserted, aut deserendum statim sit, ut a multis actum. The latter sentence, Puta, &c., &c., is a concession for the sake of argument: what follows is more to the purpose. - MILMAN.

Many other passages of Tertullian prove that the army was full of Christians, Hesterni sumus et vestra omnia implevimus, urbes, insulas, castella mu conciliabula, castra ipsa. (Apol. c. 37.) Navigamus et nos vobiscum et (c 42.) Origen, in truth, appears to have maintained a more rigid on Cels. 1. viii.); but he has often renounced this exaggerated seve necessary to produce great results, and he speaks of the profession honorable one. (1. iv. c. 218.)- GUIZOT.

On these points Christian opinion, it should seem, was much divid lian, when he wrote the De Cor. Mil., was evidently inclining to my opinions, and Origen was of the same class. See Neander, vol. i. par edit. 1828. MILMAN.

This passage was not included, even by Mr. Davis, in the "misrep ' of Tertullian," which he laid to Gibbon's charge, and Dean Mil: M. Guizot is "unfortunate in the defence" which he attempts. between telling soldiers "openly to quit the service." and sugge ent of deserting," is difficult to discern. - ENGLISH CHURCH † See Gibbon's Vindication, and answer to Mr. Davis, volume - E.

164 Pagans, who very frequently asked, what must be the fate of the empire, attacked on every side by the barbarians, if all mankind should adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of the new sect.103 To this insulting question the Christian apologists returned obscure and ambiguous answers, as they were unwilling to reveal the secret cause of their security; the expectation that, before the conversion of mankind was accomplished, war, government, the Roman empire, and the world itself, would be no more. It may be observed that, in this instance likewise, the situation of the first Christians coincided very happily with their religious scruples, and that their aversion to an active life contributed rather to excuse them from the service, than to exclude them from the honors, of the state and army.

ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN HIERARCHY.

THE FIFTH

CAUSE. The Christians

of the church.

V. But the human character, however it may be exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to its proper and active in the natural level, and will resume those passions government that seem the most adapted to its present condition. The primitive Christians were dead to the business and pleasures of the world; but their love of action, which could never be entirely extinguished, soon revived, and found a new occupation in the government of the church. A separate society, which attacked the established religion of the empire, was obliged to adopt some form of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of ministers, intrusted not only with the spiritual functions, but even with the temporal direction of the Christian commonwealth. The safety of that society, its honor, its aggrandizement, were productive, even in the most pious minds, of a spirit of patriotism, such as the first of the Romans had felt for the republic, and sometimes of a similar indifference in the use of whatever means might probably conduce to so desirable an end. The ambition of raising themselves or their friends to the honors and offices of the church was disguised by the laudable intention of devoting to the public benefit the power and consideration which, for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit. In the exercise of their functions they were frequently called upon to detect the errors of heresy or the arts of faction, to oppose the designs of perfidious brethren, to stigmatize their characters with deserved infamy, and to expel them from the

103 As well as we can judge from the mutilated representation of Origen (1. viii. P. 423), his adversary, Celsus, had urged this objection with great force and candor.

*

bosom of a society whose peace and happiness they had attempted to disturb. The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; but as the former was refined, so the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. In the church as well as in the world, the persons who were placed in any public station rendered themselves considerable by their eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by their dexterity in business; and while they concealed from others, and perhaps from themselves, the secret motives of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent passions of active life, which were tinctured with an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual zeal. The government of the church has often been the subject, as well as the prize, of religious con- Its primitive tention. The hostile disputants of Rome, of Paris, of Oxford, and of Geneva, have alike

freedom and equality.

**The learned," says the Rev. Robert Taylor, in Diegesis, p. 366," have reckoned upwards of ninety different heresies which arose within the first three centuries; **nor does it appear that even the most early and primitive preachers of Christianity, were able to keep the telling of the Christian story in their own hands, or to *provide any sort of security for having it told in the same way.

The very earliest Christian writings that have come down to us, are of a con"troversial character, and written in attempted refutation of heresies. These heresies must therefore have been of much earlier date and prior prevalence; "they could not have been considered of sufficient consequence to have called (as "they seem to have done) for the entire devotion and enthusiastic zeal of the "orthodox party to extirpate, or keep them under, if they had not acquired deep root, and become of serious notoriety- an inference which leads directly to the "conclusion that they were of anterior origination to any date that has hitherto "been ascribed to the gospel history.

"Tertullian speaks of only two heresies, that existed in the time of the Apostles, "i. e. the DOCETE, so called from the Greek Aoxudiç opinion, suspicion, appear"ance merely, as expressive of their opinion that Christ had existed in appear"ance only, and not in reality: and the EBIONITES, so called from the Hebrew "word abionim, in expression of their poverty, ignorance, and vulgarity. (Quoted in Lardner, vol. iv. p. 512.) 'Docetism,' says Dr. Lardner, 'seems to have de"rived its origin from the Platonic philosophy. For the followers of this opinion "were principally among the higher classes of men, and were chiefly those who "had been converted from heathenism to Christianity.' (Lardner, vol. iv. p. 628.) "Not only among the Apostles, but by those who were called Apostles them"selves, was the reality of the crucifixion steadily denied. In the gospel of the Apostle Barnabas, of which there is extant an Italian translation written in 1470, "which Toland (Toland's Nazarenus, Letter I. Chap. 5, p. 17.) himself saw, and "which was sold by Cramer to Prince Eugene, it is explicitly asserted, that 'Jesus "Christ was not crucified, but that he was taken up into the third heavens by the "ministry of four angels, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel; that he should "not die till the very end of the world, and that it was Judas Iscariot, who was "'crucified in his stead.'

66

"This account of the matter entirely squares with the account which we have of the bitter and unappeasable quarrel which took place between Paul and And the contention was so "Barnabas, in the Acts of the Apostles, (Acts xv. 39. "sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other.') We never "hear of their being reconciled again. We have no satisfactory account of "the ground of that quarrel; Paul lays a significant emphasis on the distinction "that he preached 'Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,' as if in marked opposition to "his former patron, Barnabas, who preached Jesus Christ, but not crucified."-E.

166

FIRST SCHEME OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

struggled to reduce the primitive and apostolic model to the respective standards of their own policy. The few who have pursued this inquiry with more candor and impartiality are of opinion 105 that the apostles declined the office of legislation, and rather chose to endure some partial scandals and divisions, than to exclude the Christians of a future age from the liberty of varying their forms of ecclesiastical government according to the changes of times and circumstances. The scheme of policy which, under their approbation, was adopted for the use of the first century, may be discovered from the practice of Jerusalem, of Ephesus, or of Corinth. The societies which were instituted in the cities of the Roman empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity. Independence and equality formed the basis of their internal constitution. The want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional assistance of the prophets, 106 who were called to that function without distinction of age, of sex,* or of natural abilities, and who, as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the Spirit in the assembly of the faithful. But these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an improper season, presumptuously disturbed the service of the assembly, and, by their pride or mistaken zeal, they introduced, particularly into the apostolic church at Corinth, a long and melancholy train of disorders. As the institution of prophets became useless, and even pernicious, their powers were withdrawn, and their office abolished. The public functions of religion were solely intrusted to the established ministers of the church, the bishops and the presbyters; two appellations which, in their first origin, appear to have distinguished the same office and the same order of persons." The name of presbyter was expressive of their age, or rather

107

101 The aristocratical party in France, as well as in England, has strenuously maintained the divine origin of bishops. But the Calvinistical presbyters were impatient of a superior; and the Roman Pontiff refused to acknowledge an equal. See Fra Paolo.

105 In the history of the Christian hierarchy I have, for the most part, followed the learned and candid Mosheim.

106 For the prophets of the primitive church, see Mosheim, Dissertationes ad Hist. Eccles. pertinentes, tom. ii. pp. 132–208.

10: See the epistles of St. Paul, and of Clemens, to the Corinthians.f

*St. Paul distinctly reproves the intrusion of females into the prophetic office. 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. 7 Tim. ii. II. — MILMAN.

The first ministers established in the church were the deacons, appointed at Jerusalem, seven in number; they were charged with the distribution of the alms; even females had a share in this employment. After the deacons came the elders or priests (pɛoßúrɛpot), charged with the maintenance of order and decorum in

THE EPISCOPAL OFFICE.

167

of their gravity and wisdom. The title of bishop denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of the Christians who were committed to their pastoral care. In proportion to the respective numbers of the faithful, a larger or smaller number of these episcopal presbyters guided each infant congregation with equal authority and with united counsels."

Institution of

presidents of the college of presbyters.

But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the directing hand of a superior magis- bishops as trate: and the order of public deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested at least with the authority of collecting the sentiments, and of executing the resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the public tranquility, which would so frequently have been interrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the primitive Christians to constitute an honorable and perpetual magistracy, and to chose one of the wisest and most holy among their presbyters to execute, during his life, the duties of their ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circumstances that the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above the humble appellation of Presbyter; and while the latter remained the most natural distinction for the members of every Christian senate, the former was appropriated to the dignity of its new president. The advantages of this episcopal form of government, which appears to have been introduced before the end

109

108 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 1. vii.

109 See Jerome ad Titum, c. i. and Epistol. 85 (in the Benedictine edition, 101), and the elaborate apology of Blondel, pro sententia Hieronymi. The ancient state, as it is described by Jerome, of the bishop and presbyters of Alexandria, receives a remarkable confirmation from the patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. tom. I. p. 330, Vers. Pocock,) whose testimony I know not how to reject, in spite of all the obections of the learned Pearson in his Vindicia Ignatiance, part i. c. II.

the community, and to act everywhere in its name. The bishops were afterwards charged to watch over the faith and the instruction of the disciples; the apostles themselves appointed several bishops. Tertullian (adv, Marium, c. v.) Clement of Alexandria, and many fathers of the second and third century, do not permit us to doubt this fact. The equality of rank between these different functionaries did not prevent their functions being, even in their origin, distinct; they became subsequently still more so. See Plank, Gesch. der Christ. Kirch. Verf., vol. i. p. 24.-G. On this extremely obscure subject, which has been so much perplexed by passion and interest, it is impossible to justify any opinion without entering into long and controversial details. It must be admitted, in opposition to Plank that in the New Testament, the words pɛOBUTEDOC and ETLOкOTOг are sometimes indiscriminately used. (Acts xx. v. 17, comp. with 28 Tit. i. 5 and 7. Philip i. 1.) But it is as clear, that as soon as we can discern the form of church government, at the period closely bordering upon, if not within, the apostolic age, it appears with a bishop at the head of each community, holding some superiority over the presbyters. Whether he was, as Gibbon from Mosheim supposes, merely an elective head of the college of Presbyters (for this we have, in fact, no valid authority), or whether his distinct functions were established on apostolic authority, is still contested The universal submission to this episcopacy, in every part of the Christian world, appears to me strongly to favor the latter view. - MILMAN.

The instructions which Paul gave to Titus for choosing bishops, or, more cor. rectly, "overlookers," were soon disregarded. - ENGLISH CHURCHMAN.