INSTITUTES

OF

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

UNDER THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

BOOK I.

CONTAINING

THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,

FROM

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST,

TO

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.

CENTURY FIRST.

PART I.

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE WORLD AT THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR.

§ 1. State of the Roman empire.—§ 2. Its evils.—§ 3. Its advantages. —§ 4. Then in peace. — § 5. Other nations.—§ 6. All were idolaters.—§ 7. They worshipped different gods.-§ 8. They were tolerant.—§ 9. Most of their gods were deceased heroes.§ 10. Pagan worship.-§ 11. It was confined to times and places.§ 12. The mysteries.—§ 13. Paganism not the parent of virtue.—§ 14. Its votaries sunk in vice.-§ 15. How supported by the priests. -§ 16. The Roman and Grecian religions.—§ 17. The mixed religions of the provinces.-§ 18. Religions beyond the Roman empire classed.—§ 19. Philosophers unable to reform the world. § 20. The oriental and Grecian philosophy.-§ 21. Some philosophers subverted all religion.-§ 22. Others debased it; e.g. Aristotelians.-§ 23. Stoics. -§ 24. Platonics.—§ 25. The Eclectics.—§ 26. Use of this chapter.

§ 1. GREAT part of the world, when God put on the man, obeyed the Roman people. They ruled remoter nations, either by governors and presidents sent from Rome, but not for life, or let them use their own kings and institutions, though in such a way as kept up respect for the majesty and supreme power of the Roman state. The Roman senate and people themselves, though all appearance of liberty was not lost, really served a single man, Augustus, decorated with the offices of emperor, pontifex maximus, censor, tribune of the people, pro-consul; in

a word, with every thing that had any degree of national dignity and importance.1

§ 2. The Roman government, if we regard only its form and laws, was sufficiently mild and equitable. But from the injustice of presidents and nobles, their eagerness to enrich themselves; the popular anxiety not only to preserve acquisitions, but also to make fresh ones; the avarice besides of publicans, by whom the state revenues were usually farmed 3, infinite grievances pressed upon the subjects. Those vices of magistrates and publicans despoiled the people of money and effects; while this anxiety not only occasioned many other evils, but also required numerous armies in the provinces, undoubtedly to the great oppression of their inhabitants, and stirred up almost perpetual wars.

§ 3. Still this widely extended dominion of one people, or rather of one man, was attended with several advantages. First, it brought into union a multitude of nations, differing in customs and languages. Secondly, it gave freer access to the remoter nations.4 Thirdly, it gradually civilized the barbarous nations; by introducing among them the Roman laws and customs. Fourthly, it spread literature, the arts, and philosophy, in countries where they were not before cultivated. All these greatly aided the ambassadors of our Lord, in fulfilling their sacred commission.5

§ 4. When Jesus Christ was born, the Roman world was much freer from commotions than it had been for many years. For, though I cannot agree with such as think, after Orosius, the temple of Janus to have been then shut, and all the globe at peace; yet it admits of no doubt, that our Saviour came down to men, in an age, which cannot be compared with its predecessor, without being called eminently peaceful. According to

1 See Aug. Campianus de Officio et potestate magistratuum Romanor. et jurisdictione, lib. i. cap. 1. § 2. p. 3, &c. Geneva, 1725, 4to. [Memoirs of the court of Augustus, by Thos. Blackwell, vol. i. ii. 4to. Edinb. 1753. Schl.]

2 See Sir W. Moyle's Essay on the constitution of the Roman government, in his Posth. works, vol. i. p. 1-48.. Lond. 1726, 8vo. Scip. Maffei, Verona illustrata, lib. ii. p. 65. [Pet. Giannone, Histoire civile du royaume de Naples, vol. i. p. 3, &c. Schl.]

3

[See P. Burmann, de Vectigalibus

populi Romani, cap. ix. p. 123, &c. Schl.]

4 See Nic. Bergier, Histoire des grands chemins de l'empire Romain, 2nd ed. Brussels, 1728, 4to, and Everard Otto, de Tutela viarum publicarum, pt. ii. p. 314. 5 Origen, among others, acknowledges this lib. ii. adv. Celsum, p. 79, ed. Cantabr. [See also Heilmann, Comment. de florente literarum statu et habitu ad relig. Christi initia. Schl.]

6 See Joh. Massoni, Templum Jani, Christo nascente, reseratum. Roterod. 1706, 8vo.

St. Paul himself, this peace was absolutely necessary to those whom Christ entrusted with his message to mankind."

§ 5. Respecting other nations, not under the Roman power, from want of monuments one cannot say much that is clear and ascertained. Nor is it very necessary to our purpose: it is enough to understand one thing. The nations facing the rising sun were oppressed by a severer domination of kings or tyrants; to bear which more patiently, softness of body and mind, and even the religion which they professed, much conduced. Such as were, on the other hand, in the northern regions, or not far from them, had far more liberty, which was protected no less by rigour of climate, and a habit of body sprung from it, than by their mode of life and religion.8

§ 6. All these nations were plunged in the grossest superstition. For, though the idea of one supreme God was not wholly extinct, yet most nations, or rather all except the Jews, supposed that each country and province was subjected to a set of very powerful beings, whom they called gods, and whom the people, in order to live happily, must propitiate with various rites and ceremonies.

See 1 Tim. ii. 1, &c.

Seneca, de Ira, lib. ii. cap. 16. Opp. tom. i. p. 36, ed. Gronovii: Fere itaque imperia penes eos fuere populos, qui mitiore cœlo utuntur: in frigora, septentrionemque vergentibus immansueta ingenia sunt, ut ait poëta, suoque simillima cœlo.

9

[See Christopher Meiners' Historia doctrina de vero Deo, omnium rerum auctore atque rectore. 2 parts, Lemgo. 1780, pp. 548, 12mo, where, from a critical investigation, proof is adduced, that the ancient pagan nations were universally ignorant of the Creator and Governor of the world; till Anaxagoras, about 450 years before Christ, and afterwards other philosophers, conceived that the world must have had an intelligent architect. Tr.]

["We conclude universally, that all that multiplicity of Pagan gods, which makes so great a show and noise, was really either nothing but several names and notions of one supreme Deity, according to its different manifestations, gifts, and effects in the world, personated, or else many inferior understanding beings, generated or created by one Supreme so that one unmade, self

:

These deities were supposed

existent Deity, and no more, was acknowledged by the more intelligent of the ancient pagans, (for of the sottish vulgar no man can pretend to give an account in any religion,) and consequently, the pagan polytheism or idolatry, consisted not in worshipping a multiplicity of unmade minds, deities, and creators, self-existent from eternity, and independent upon one Supreme; but in mingling and blending, some way or other, unduly, creature-worship with the worship of the Creator." (Cudworth's Intellectual System, Lond. 1678, p. 230.) Hence Faustus, the Manichean, branded both Jews and Christians as nothing better than schismatics from gentilism, maintaining that their doctrine of the divine unity was really derived from the heathens. Julian, the apostate, also maintained one common Creator, with inferior gods under him, each having to administer a province of his own. (Ibid. ' 231. 274.) In India, Bp. Heber was admitted into a small square court in the fort of Chunar, containing a large slab of black marble, holden in the highest veneration as the actual seat of the Deity during nine hours in every day. On the opposite wall was a rudely