Chap. 6.

Epistle of Clement.

47

glory. Through envy Paul obtained at length the reward of his patience; having seven times been cast into chains, being scourged, stoned, having preached the gospel in the East and the West, he obtained a good report, through faith, preaching righteousness through the world to the utmost bounds of the West; and suffering martyrdom from princes, he left this world and reached the shore of a blessed immortality.-Through the godly conversation and labours of these men a great multitude of the elect was gathered together, who through envy were afflicted with cruel torments, and obtained a good report, through faith among us. Through the same evil principle even women among us have sustained the most cruel and unrighteous sufferings, and have finished in patient faith their course, and received, notwithstanding the weakness of their sex, the prize of Christian heroes." The views of this early father, on the Deity of Christthe atonement-the office of the Spirit-the election of grace are introduced in an artless and unargumentative way, chiefly for a practical purpose. "Our Lord Jesus Christ the Sceptre of the Majesty of God came not in the pomp of arrogance or pride, though who can understand the thunder of his power, but he was meek and lowly.Let us steadfastly behold the blood of Christ, and see how precious it is in the sight of God, which being shed for our salvation, hath procured the grace of repentance for all the world.-All these (speaking of the Old Testament fathers) were magnified and honoured, not through themselves, not through their works, but through his will. And we also by his will being called in Christ Jesus, are justified not by ourselves, nor by our wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or by the works which we have wrought in holiness of heart, but by faith, by which the Almighty bath justified all who are

48

Primitive Faith.

Cent. 1..

or have been justified from the beginning. If the earnests of the Spirit be so precious what must be the things which God hereafter hath prepared for them that wait for him. Let us go to him in sanctification of heart, lifting up holy hands to him, influenced by the love of our gracious and compassionate Father, who hath made us by his election, his peculiar people. Since therefore we are the elect of God, holy and beloved let us work the works of holiness."

The first records of the Christian church, both inspired and uninspired will enable the reader to determine at once, what was the faith of the primitive Christians. He cannot hesitate whether they were Trinitarian or Antitrinitarian. I do not assert, nor even insinuate, that the faith of the early church can be reduced to the artieles and expressions of the Athanasian and Nicene creeds, but historical verity obliges us to say, that the faith in question approaches much nearer to the spirit of these creeds (abating the damnatory clauses) than that view of the divine unity which is given in modern creeds, in opposition to the doctrine of Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit, creeds that assert the oneness of Christ's nature in opposition to the "Word made flesh"-who as concerning the flesh came of the fathers, but who is over all, God blessed forever: ereeds that declare the blood of Christ to be of no more value than the blood of a goat or of a lamb or of a martyr, in opposition to its being called "precious blood-the blood of propitiationthe blood of the everlasting covenant," or with Clement "blood precious in the sight of God." How these things can be, is not for the historian to say, he only records the fact and let Unitarians make good the denial of it if they can.

Upon these principles was established that "commu

Chap. 6.

The Church.

49

nity of the disciples of Jesus which was called His CHURCH-а word denoting no more than society or assembly and is sometimes used in the New Testament with evident analogy to the common use, to signify the whole community of Christians considered as one body, of which Christ is denominated the head, and sometimes only a particular congregation of Christians. In this general society, founded in the unity of their faith, their hope, their love, cemented, as it were, by a communion, or joint participation, as occasion offered, in religious offices, in adoration, in baptism, and in commemoration of the sufferings of their Lord, preserved by a most friendly intercourse, and by frequent instructions, admonitions, reproofs when necessary, and even by exclusion of those who violated such powerful and solemn engagements. In all this there was nothing" of this world "nothing that interfered with the temporal powers. They claimed no jurisdiction over the person, the liberty, the property of any man. And if they expelled out of their own society, and, on satisfying their conditions, readmitted those who had been expelled, they did in this only exercise a right which any private company may freely exercise; namely, to give the benefit of their own company and conversation to whom, and on what terms, they judge proper. The Christians every where acknowledged themselves the subjects of the state whether monarchical or republican, absolute or free, under which they lived; entitled to the same privileges with their fellow-subjects, and bound as much as any of them, to the observance of the laws of their country. They pleaded no exemption but in one case; a case wherein every man, though not a Christian, has a natural title to exemption; that is, not to obey a law which is unjust in itself, and which he is persuaded in his con

E

50

Review of the Century.

Cent.

science to be so. But in regard to rights merely of personal or private nature, over which the individu has a greater power, far from being pertinacious asser ers of these, they held it for an invariable maxim, that is much better to suffer wrong, than either to commit to avenge it."

Reviewing the history of the past hundred years, w are struck with a train of events forming the most m morable era the world ever witnessed. The revival ‹ the Spirit of prophecy, after a suspension of four hun dred years; the incarnation of the Son of God, Go manifest in the flesh; His life, miracles, ministry, an death; His resurrection and ascension; the endowmen of his apostles on the day of pentecost; their lives, la. bours, and the spread of the gospel, by their means, to the ends of the earth. Thus we have seen A CARPENTER They lose their lives in the enterprise, and yet are conquerors. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, and a the close of the century the system is established, and its ministers and confessors are in every city.

AND TWELVE FISHERMEN SUBDUE THE WORLD.

hath God wrought

What

SECOND CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

General State of the Church at the Commencement of the
Century.

THIS period exhibits the church, as to external circumstances, very similar to the former. In the year 98, His sucTrajan assumed the Roman purple: with his acts the history of the second century must commence. ressors, eight in number, will furnish the civil power The Jewish polity is now no more; during this era. their eity and temple destroyed, and the whole nation Persecution from this quarter, scattered and peeled. where it commenced, is at an end, and their cruelty returned upon their own heads. But Satan, the great enemy of Christ and his people, will take care, to the utmost of his power, to provide a supply of wrath. Pagan fury without, error and dissention within, fully demonstrate the vigilance of the powers of darkness.

The apostles, and probably all their coadjutors, the itinerant evangelists, had finished their career before this period. The great characters, presently to be considered, were doubtless some of them disciples of the last surviving apostles. The labours of the apostolic age having been so general and so, successful, the far greater part of the civilized world contained numerous converts to Christianity; hence the itinerant ministry ordained