of the state

tion at this

model of a crucified Saviour; the humbleness; the self-sacrifice; the forgiving spirit; the obligation of remembering the poor; the enforced chastity of a redeemed body become the temple of the Spirit of God; the faith in a life to come, showing itself patient of tortures and of death.

§ 4. The wider yet far more searching analysis,' instituted since Gibbon wrote, of the causes which Analysis prepared the Greek and Roman civilizations for of civiliza- the infiltration of Christianity, has seen in the period. new spirit which stole upon the philosophy of the age, in its broader and more eclectic character under the cosmopolitan system of the Empire, in its introspective and subjective tone, a temper of thought not ill-suited to the announcement of Christian morality. But the increasing corrupIts corruption of the outer world, against which Stoicism need of re- spent its strength in vain, despite the wholesome

tion, and

storation

influences of daily duties and domestic intercourse, called for more drastic and intrinsic remedies. The need of a religion which might reconcile and

1 See Mr. Lecky's powerful, and in many respects adequate, inquiry into the moral causes which preceded the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.— H. E. M., I. c. iii. Compare also Dean Merivale (Hist. of the Empire, VI. 356 ff.); and especially Neander's (I. 6-117) masterly review of the religious state of the world at the coming of Christ; together with Döllinger, Gentile and Jew, I. 347, 370; II. 284-9.

2 See Prof. Lightfoot's learned disquisition on the relations of Stoicism to Christianity (St. Paul and Seneca), in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians. He shows that Stoicism itself was indebted to Oriental sources, and probably to Christian teaching.

in practice absorb the highest truths of conflicting philosophical systems was more and more felt. Its sanctions secured to the soul of man what centuries of argument and discussion had failed to effect. No closer relation than this needs to be sought between Pagan morality and Christian influence. The fixed idea of the religion of the time was that as to religious of a national Providence, addressed on the part of ideas. man by ceremonial observances.' The disintegration of social superstitions was due to their own inability to meet the wants of the period and the tendencies of the age. Credulity gave way before a real and growing anxiety to learn and know the truth-truth which would set men free from many a cruel and degrading practice. The same pro- The cirvidential arrangement which, having first created favourable the Macedonian Empire and ordained the Roman troduction Conquest, had prepared, against the promulgation tianity, of Christianity, a language common alike to East and West, had reserved for it an era markedly

3

2

1 It culminated in the Deification of Emperors. For an example of the declining condition of the old state-religion, see Tac., Ann., III. 58. 2 Thus Chrysostom writes (d. Babyla, Opp., II. 540): vπ' ovdévos ἐνοχληθεῖσά ποτε τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς δεισιδαιμονίας ἡ πλάνη ἀφ' ἑαυτῆς ἐσβέσθη, καὶ περὶ ἑαυτὴν διέπεσε, καθάπερ τῶν σωμάτων τὰ τηκηδόνι παραδοθέντα μακρᾷ, καὶ μηδένος αὐτὰ βλάπτοντος αυτόματα φθείρεται kaì diaλvőévta katà μikpòv åþavíčera. See ap. Gieseler, I. 321. Compare Plutarch (d. Superstit., c. xxxiii.). It was remarked that there were no martyrs for heathen doctrines. Quis eorum," says August., in Psalm. 141, § 20, "comprehensus est in sacrificio, cum his legibus ista prohiberentur, et non negavit?" "Paganism," writes Dean Merivale, "had no tap-root of moral renovation."

3 "Græca leguntur in omnibus fere gentibus," says Cicero, pro Archiâ,

cumstances

to the in

of Chris

but answering to

2

favourable for the introduction of the new doctrines, combining, as they did, a basis of historical facts with an appeal to personal religious consciousness. "No other religion," it has been truly observed, "had ever united so many distinct elements of power and attraction; so much ethical reality with a profound sympathy in human trials; so much feeling with so much truth." This, its distinc- however, must not lead us to forget that it is in the distinctive tenets of Christianity that we must look for the true causes of this very combination: in the spiritual convictions which it aroused and satisfied; in the religious emotions which it controlled; in the promises which it alone fulfilled.3 C. X. Plutarch considered it the mission of Alexander, τὴν ̔Ελλάδα σneiрa. Compare Neander, I. 67, and some remarks by Mr. J. S. Mill (Positivism, p. 24). See also Droysen (Gesch. des Hellenismus). It must not be forgotten that the tendencies of an age are only the consequences of its historical circumstances.

tive tenets.

1 66 Up to this time there had never existed among mankind any historical truth on which a religious faith could be based; nor yet any philosophic faith founded on a personal religious consciousness residing within man's own breast, and finding its credentials and interpretation there. What is truth?' asks Pilate. What can this barbarian teach us?' exclaims the Athenian."-Bunsen, God in Hist., III. pp. 66, 67, E. T. My line of thought in this Lecture leads me to contrast the permanent change of moral teaching, which accompanied Christianity, with the world as it found it. This was, however, fundamentally due to the miraculous element which was inherent in its enouncements. This course of reflection is most ably worked out by Dr. Mozley (Bamp. Lect., p. 170 ff.).

2 Lecky, H. E. M., I. 412-414.

If Christianity had been only or principally an intellectual movement consequent on previous phases of thought, it would not have commenced with the poor. Compare Neander, I. 9. Dean Milman, Latin Christ., I. 451, has some good remarks on the strangeness and originality of the fundamental Christian ideas to the Roman world, and the consequent difficulty of their reception.

In these and not in its moral worth, however highly estimated, lay the talisman of its triumph. The doctrine of salvation by belief, "which, then, for the first time, flashed upon the world," gave the real death-blow to philosophical scepticism.1 It was the new-born consciousness of sin, which, Instances. awakening remorse, lit up the sense of responsibility and turned it inward on the soul, that invested human life with a solemnity and import never before felt; which opened, as they had never before been stirred, the lips of prayer. Pliny had deemed it but a pollution to the Infinite Spirit of God to concern Himself with the petty affairs of men. It was the Christian's privilege of suffering for and with a suffering Redeemer (thus

1 "Apud Ciceronem et Platonem aliosque ejusmodi scriptores multa sunt acutè dicta et leniter calentia; sed in iis omnibus non invenio, Venite ad Me."-Augustin., in Matt. xi. 28. See Conf., VII. ix. 13. Carlyle remarks: "The old world knew nothing of conversion. Instead of an Ecce Homo, they had only some Choice of Hercules. It was a new attained progress in the moral development of man; hereby has the Highest come home to the bosoms of the most limited.”—S. R., p. 136. For individual examples of the manner in which Christianity wrought upon educated minds, see Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph.), Augustine (Conf.), Synesius, and the Recogn. Clement., I. sub init.

2 See M. Denis, Idées Morales, II. 234, and Döllinger, Gentile and Jew, II. 75-7. A true Roman prayer may be found in Cato, Re Rust., c. 41.

3 Hist. Nat., II. iv., VII. i.: “Irridendum verò, agere curam rerum humanarum illud, quidquid est summum. Anne tam tristi atque multiplici ministerio non pollui credamus dubitemusve?" Comp. Cic., Nat. D., II. ii.; Invent., I. xxix.; and Seneca, Epp., 41, 95. He thinks Providence sometimes cares for men.

4 Compare Clem. Rom., ad Cor. I. xlix., and Ep. ad Diogn., c. x. Prof. Lightfoot (u. s., p. 326) well observes: "The moral teaching and example of our Lord will ever have the highest value in their own province; but the core of the Gospel does not lie here. Its distinctive

This

influence wholly a spiritual

one,

no mere ascetic truth that pain is good, and no evil); the requital of love for love, of sympathy for man in return for the sympathy of God; ' which transmuted the dross of universal luxury into the fine gold of the noblest self-sacrifice and heroic self-control. And thus, lastly, it was far more the hope of eternal life than the fear of everlasting torment," which, to the Christian convert, dignified earthly sorrows and levelled worldly enjoyments.

§ 5. Thus the spiritual character of the hold exercised by primitive Christianity on the lives and consciences of its converts must be considered a fact beyond dispute. It is attested both by the

character is that in revealing a Person it reveals also a principle of life— the union with God in Christ, apprehended by faith in the present, and assured to us hereafter by the Resurrection. This Stoicism could not give, and therefore its dogmas and precepts were barren."

1 "The great principle of vicarious suffering, which forms the centre of Christianity, spreads itself through the subordinate parts of the system, and is the pervading if not the invariable law of Christian beneficence."-I. Taylor, Nat. Hist. of Enthus., p. 162. "The pre

cepts and examples of the Gospel struck a chord of pathos which the noblest philosophies of antiquity had never reached. For the first time the aureole of sanctity encircled the brow of sorrow, and invested it with a mysterious charm."-Lecky, Hist. Rat., II. 266.

2 In this matter M. Comte takes a truer view than Gibbon or Mr. Lecky. See Phil. Pos., V. 422. Christianity, he thinks, preserved to itself the advantage of leaving the nature of future pains and rewards open.-See also IV. 190. On the influence of immortality as a Christian motive, compare Lucian, Mort. Peregrin., § 13. On the current views of immortality, see Döllinger, Gentile and Jew, II. 143-6. M. Rio remarks that the carliest delineations of Christian art represent ideas of joy and felicity. Conceptions of Hell and Purgatory come much later, and from heathen sources. There were Roman philosophers who erected to their friends tombs dedicated "Somno æternali."-Orelli, I. p. 262.