CENT.ing, and the dark subtilties of imaginary science. PART II. Acute researches were employed upon several II. This proved by an example. religious subjects, concerning which ingenious decisions were pronounced; and, what was worst of all, several tenets of a chimerical philosophy were imprudently incorporated into the Christian system. This disadvantageous change, this unhappy alteration of the primitive simplicity of the Christian religion, was chiefly owing to two reasons; the one drawn from pride, and the other from a sort of necessity. The former was the eagerness of certain learned men to bring about a union between the doctrines of Christianity, and the opinions of the philosophers; for they thought it a very fine accomplishment, to be able to express the precepts of CHRIST in the language of philosophers, civilians, and rabbins. The other reason that contributed to alter the simplicity of the Christian religion, was, the necessity of having recourse to logical definitions and nice distinctions, in order to confound the sophistical arguments which the infidel and the heretic employed, the one to overturn the Christian system, and the other to corrupt it. These philoso phical arms, in the hands of the judicious and wise, were both honourable and useful to religion; but when they came to be handled by every ignorant and self-sufficient meddler, as was afterwards the case, they produced nothing but perplexity and confusion, under which genuine Christianity almost disappeared. III. Many examples might be alleged, which verify the observations we have now been making; and, if the reader is desirous of a striking one, he has only to take a view of the doctrines which began to be taught in this century, concerning the state of the soul after the dissolution of the body. JESUS and his disciples had simply declared, that the souls of good men were, at their departure II. departure from their bodies, to be received into CENT. heaven, while those of the wicked were to be sent pART II. to hell; and this was sufficient for the first dis--ciples of CHRIST to know, as they had more piety than curiosity, and were satisfied with the knowledge of this solemn fact, without any inclination to penetrate its manner, or to pry into its secret reasons. But this plain doctrine was soon disguised, when Platonism began to infect Christianity. PLATO had taught that the souls of heroes, of illustrious men, and eminent philosophers alone ascended after death, into the mansions of light and felicity; while those of the generality, weighed down by their lusts and passions, sunk into the infernal regions, from whence they were not permitted to emerge before they were purified from their turpitude and corruption [s]. This doctrine was seized with avidity by the Platonic Christians, and applied as a commentary upon that of JESUS. Hence a notion prevailed, that the martyrs only entered upon a state of happiness immediately after death, and that, for the rest, a certain obscure region, was assigned in which they were to be imprisoned until the second coming of CHRIST, or, at least until they were purified from their various pollutions. This doctrine, enlarged and improved upon by the irregular fancies of injudicious men, became a source of innumerable errors, vain ceremonies, and monstrous superstitions. IV. But, however, the doctrines of the gospel Zeal for the holy Scripmay have been abused by the commentaries and tures. interpretations of different sects, yet all were unanimous in regarding with veneration the holy Scriptures, [] See an ample account of the opinions of the Platonics, and other ancient philosophers upon this subject, in the notes which Dr MOSHEIM has added to his Latin translation of CUDWORTH'S Intellectual System, tom. ii. p. 1036. II. CEN T. Scriptures, as the great rule of faith and man- The defects of the anci-. preters. tioned already the translations that were made of them into different languages, and it will not be improper to say something here concerning those who employed their useful labours in explaining and interpreting them. PANTENUS, the head of the Alexandrian school, was probably the first who enriched the church with a version of the sacred writings, which has been lost among the ruins of time. The same fate attended the commentary of CLEMENS the Alexandrian, upon the canonical epistles; and also another celebrated work [t] of the same author, in which he is said to have explained, in a compendious manner, almost all the sacred writings. The Harmony of the Evangelists, composed by TATIAN, is yet extant. But the Exposition of the Revelations, by JUSTIN MARTYR, and of the four gospels by THEOPHILUS bishop of Antioch, together with several illustrations of the Mosaic history of the creation, by other ancient writers, are all lost. V. The loss of these ancient productions is the ent inter- less to be regretted, as we know, with certainty, their vast inferiority to the expositions of the holy Scriptures that appeared in succeeding times. Among the persons already mentioned, there was none who deserved the name of an eminent and judicious interpreter of the sacred text. They all attributed a double sense to the words of scripture; the one obvious and literal, the other bidden and mysterious, which lay concealed, as it were, under the veil of the outward letter. The former they treated with the utmost neglect, and turned the whole force of their genius and application to unfold the latter: or, in other words, they [t] Viz. CLEMENTIS Hypotyposes. II. they were more studious to darken the holy Scrip- C EN T. tures with their idle fictions, than to investigate PART IL their true and natural sense. Some of them also forced the expressions of sacred writ out of their obvious meaning, in order to apply them to the support of their philosophical systems; of which dangerous and pernicious attempts, CLEMENS of Alexandria is said to have given the first example. With respect to the expositors of the Old Testament in this century, we shall only make this general remark, that their excessive veneration for the Alexandrian version, commonly called the Septuagint, which they regarded almost as of divine authority, confined their views, fettered, as it were, their critical spirit, and hindered them from producing any thing excellent in the way of sacred criticism or interpretation. VI. If this age was not very fertile in sacred of systema tic divinity. critics, it was still less so in the expositors of the doctrinal parts of religion; for hitherto there was no attempt made, at least that is come to our knowledge, of composing a system, or complete view of the Christian doctrine. Some treatises of ARABIAN, relative to this subject, are indeed mentioned; but as they are lost, and seem not to have been much known by any of the writers whose works have survived them, we can form no conclusions concerning them. The books of PAPIAS, concerning the sayings of CHRIST and his apostles, were, according to the accounts which EUSEBIUS gives of them, rather an historical commentary, than a theological system. MELITO, bishop of Sardis, is said to have written several treatises, one concerning faith, another on the creation, a third concerning the church, and a fourth concerning truth; but it does not appear from the titles of these writings, whether they were of a doctrinal or controversial nature. PART II. CENT.nature [u]. Several of the polemic writers, inII. deed, have been naturally led, in the course of controversy, to explain amply certain points of religion. But those doctrines which have not been disputed, are very rarely defined with such accuracy, by the ancient writers, as to point out to us clearly what their opinions concerning them were. And from hence it ought not to appear surprising, that all the different sects of Christians pretend to find, in the writings of the fathers, decisions favourable to their respective The controversial wri ters. tenets. VII. The controversial writers, who shone in this century, had three different sorts of adversaries to combat; the Jews, the Pagans, and those, who, in the bosom of Christianity, corrupted its doctrines, and produced various sects and divisions in the church. JUSTIN MARTYR, and TERTULLIAN, embarked in a controversy with the Jews, which it was not possible for them to manage with the highest success and dexterity, as they were very little acquainted with the language, the history, and the learning of the Hebrews, and wrote with more levity and inaccuracy, than was justifiable on such a subject. Of those who managed the cause of Christianity against the Pagans, some performed this important task by composing apologies for the Christians; and others by addressing pathetic exhortations to the Gentiles. Among the former were, ATHENA GORAS, [] MELITO, besides his apology for the Christians, and the treatises mentioned by Dr MOSHEIM here, wrote a discourse upon Esther, and several other dissertations, of which we have only some scattered fragments remaining; but what is worthy of remark here, is, that he is the first Christian writer that has given us a catalogue of the books of the Old Testament. His catalogue, also, is perfectly conformable to that of the Jews, except in this point only, that he has omitted in it the book of Esther. |
