In the first two centuries Christianity was in its purest and brightest condition, for proof of which assertion we need only turn to the early writers flourishing at that period.* According to these authorities they were then frugal, temperate, and moderate in all things: they were punctual to every word and engagement; and such lovers of truth, that, on being asked if they were Christians, they never denied it, though death might be the consequence. They loved each other as fellow Christians, and all men as brethren. They were kind, courteous, and charitable in the highest degree, abstained from all manner of violence, and prayed for those who persecuted them. They made no sacrifice of their conscience, and never refused to die for their religion.

In the third century, however, on which we are about to enter, this purity of conduct began to receive blemishes and stains of a lamentable character. Certain Christian casuists, of whom Tertullian speaks, had so far degenerated from the principles of their predecessors, as to believe, that many of the heathen customs might be complied with, though strictly prohibited by the church; in fact, that they might go any length without the just imputation of idolatry, provided they did not sacrifice to the pagan gods, or become heathen priests. To the ease which Christians enjoyed from the

* Clarkson.

death of Verus, to the tenth year of Severus, much of this corruption of manners is doubtless to be attributed.

Tertullian satirized, entreated, and reasoned against this occasional conformity of his brethren to pagan worship, and against the practice of several bearing the name of Christians, who now entered the Roman armies. And when the charge of being useless to the commonwealth was repeated against the Christians, he answered the accusation in part by a fact which he was obliged to acknowledge, "We serve with you, and your armies."*

But the corruptions were not even confined within these limits: the same writer furnishes us with instances of manufacturers of idols being admitted into the ecclesiastical order; and other authorst loudly complain of vices that were now creeping, like some deadly plant, over the fair flower of Christianity. Many indulged in luxuries, and began to be "envious and quarrelsome, and to dissemble, and to falsify their word." They had lost that character which Pliny had been obliged to give of them, and for which they had been so justly celebrated.

Hand in hand with these sins, and as a fit companion, came war; and it is an admitted fact, that about this period, there were soldiers in the Roman + Cyprian and Eusebius.

* Apol. cap. xlii.

armies who called themselves Christians, or had that name given to them by others. That they were real Christians, however, seems to be a question that admits of very little doubt; for, independently of the principles of real Christianity, and of the practice of the purer age, the idolatrous rites to be performed by every soldier, still remained. They must have been the casuists of Tertullian, or nominal and corrupted Christians.

Those who yet preserved the Christian spirit in its essential truth, still declared all war to be unlawful.

12. Origen. (A.D. 230.) Celsus, who lived at the end of the second century, attacked the Christian religion, and made it one of his charges against its professors, that they refused to bear arms for the emperor, even in the case of necessity, and when their services would have been accepted. He told them further, that if the rest of the empire were of their opinion, it would soon be over-run by the barbarians;* a charge that would hardly have been made, unless the fact had been publicly known. Origen answered this work,

* Gibbon, who seems to have hated the early Christians with as much zeal as Celsus displayed, brings the same charge. "Nor could their humane ignorance," he observes, "be convinced that it was lawful on any occasion to shed the blood of our fellow creatures, either by the sword of justice or that of war; even though their criminal or hostile attempts should threaten the peace and safety of the whole community."-Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chap. xv.

and did he deny or admit the charge?

He admits

the accusation as stated by Celsus, that the Christians would not bear arms in his time, and justifies them for refusing, on the principle of the unlawfulness of war. He says of himself and his brethren in general, "We no longer take up the sword against any nation, nor do we learn to make war any more. We have become, for the sake of Jesus, the children of peace." And he maintains that Christians are the most useful of subjects, because they pray for their monarch. "By such means," he says, (6 we fight for our king abundantly, but we take no part in his wars, though he urge us.”* "The more eminent any man is for piety and religion, he will be able to afford greater assistance to his prince than a great many armed soldiers that stand ready to fight for him, and to destroy his enemies."

13. Cyprian, (A. D. 250,) in his epistle to Donatus, speaks thus: "Suppose thyself with me on the top of some exalted eminence, and thence looking down on the appearance of things below. Let our prospect take in the whole horizon, and let us view, with the indifference of persons not concerned in them, the various motions and agitations of human life. Thou wilt then, I dare say, have a real compassion for the circumstances of mankind, and for the posture in which the view

* Οὐ συστρατευόμεθα μὲν αὐτῷ κἂν ἐπείγη.

will represent them. And when thou reflectest upon thy condition, thy thoughts will rise in transports of gratitude and praise to God for having made thy escape from the pollutions of the world. The things thou wilt principally observe, will be the highways beset with robbers, the seas with pirates; encampments, marches, and all the terrible forms of war and bloodshed. When a single murder is committed, it shall be deemed, perhaps, a crime; but that crime shall commence a virtue, when committed under the shelter of public authority: so that punishment is not rated by the measure of guilt; but the more enormous the size of the wickedness is, so much the greater is the chance of impunity." Exhorting his brethren to good courage, he says: "Those who have gone before never stirred in the hottest conflict, but maintained their ground, with a free confession, an unshaken mind, a divine confidence, destitute indeed of external weapons, but armed with the shield of faith." And alluding to the universal good-will inculcated by his religion, "We pray night and day," he exclaims, "not only for ourselves, but for all men."

Cyprian brings us to the end of the third century; and in the fourth, the church became more and more degenerate. Crimes, which appear most inimical to our faith, were openly practised; and many professing Christians took up arms without