An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, Form the Birth of Christ, to the Beginning of the Present Century, Volumen1

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E. Duyckinck, 1824
 

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Página 212 - Alexandria, a maD of vast and uncommon abilities, and the greatest luminary of the Christian world that this age exhibited to view.
Página 210 - ... examples of primitive piety and Christian virtue, yet many were sunk in luxury and voluptuousness, puffed up with vanity, arrogance, and ambition, possessed with a spirit of contention and discord, and addicted to many other vices that cast an undeserved reproach upon the holy religion of which they were the unworthy professors and ministers.
Página 290 - Mesopotamia, and the adjacent countries ; and their example was followed with such rapid success, that in a short time the whole east was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who abandoning all human connexions, advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a languishing and miserable existence amidst the hardships of want and various kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous communication with God and angels.
Página 214 - But the Christian doctors, who had applied themselves to the study of letters and philosophy, soon abandoned the frequented paths, and struck out into the devious wilds of fancy.
Página 215 - ... still gave an example to his disciples, the abuse of which could not fail to be pernicious, and under the authority of which they would naturally indulge themselves without restraint in every wanton fancy. And so, indeed, the case was; for the disciples of Origen, breaking forth from the limits fixed by their master, interpreted, in the most licentious manner, the divine truths of religion according to the tenor of the platonic philosophy. From these teachers the philosophical, or scholastic...
Página 282 - The reins being once let loose to superstition, which knows no bounds, absurd notions and idle ceremonies multiplied every day. Quantities of dust and earth, brought from Palestine and other places remarkable for their supposed sanctity, were handed about as the most powerful remedies against the violence of wicked spirits, and were sold and bought everywhere at enormous prices.
Página 94 - For, not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds, and fabulous wonders, were composed by persons, whose intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all : productions appeared, which were imposed on the world by fraudulent men as the writings of the holy apostles.
Página 222 - Long before this period an opinion had prevailed that Christ was to come and reign a thousand years among men, before the entire and final dissolution of this world. This opinion, which had hitherto met with no opposition, was differently interpreted by different persons.
Página 152 - They all attributed a double sense to the words of Scripture, the one obvious and literal, the other hidden and mysterious, which lay concealed, as it were, under the veil of the outward letter.
Página 283 - Constantine, and from the imprudent methods employed to allure the different nations to embrace the gospel. The brevity we have proposed to observe in this history, prevents our entering into an ample detail of the dismal effects which arose from the progress and the baneful influence of superstition [and of the dragon] now become universal.

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