A Concise History of the Christian Church: From Its First Establishment to the Present Time

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Preface

The rise, ; progress, establishment, corruption, and reformation of the Church, are subjects of deep interest to mankind, and especially so to the friends of Christianity. But the voluminous works in which these subjects are exhibited, are to the great mass of community inaccessible. The want of means to purchase, or of time to read them, has restricted their use to a comparatively small number of readers. Hence the spread of the gospel, and the condition of the Church in different ages since the establishment of Christianity, are by many very imperfectly understood.

The object of this work in its original form, as prepared by Dr. Gregory, was to furnish a comprehensive abridgment of ecclesiastical history; and thus to place this important branch of knowledge within the reach of multitudes that could not obtain it from larger works.

In revising and preparing it in its present form, the same object has been kept in view. The work might have been swelled to a size much beyond its present limits ; but a general history of the Church in> small compass was deemed preferable, especially in view of the use that may be made of it by the young and rising generation.

The history by Dr. Gregory does not extend to the close of the last centuiy. Although this is compiled principally from that, it is extended to the present time ; has numerous additions and improvements, and is enriched with a view of missions, and other subjects of moral enterprise, exhibiting the present condition and prospects of the Christian world.

In this compendious form it is offered to the public, with the hope that it may be found, in some degree, useful in advancing the great interests of the Redeemer's kingdom.

M. RVTER.

Pittsburgh, Pa., March 3, 1834.

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HISTORY

OF TBI

CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

THE FIRST CENTURY.

Chapter I. General View Of The History Of Religion Prsyious To The

BIRTH OF CHRIST.

Two systems of religion prevalent from the early ages-T-Origin <^ paganism — ^Mistake! concerning the ancient traditions — ^Worship of the heavenly bodies — ^Applying the titles of the gods to the early monarchs— Local deities — ^Idolat^ — ^Nature of the Jewish religion —State of the world at the birth of Christ — Social genius of polytheism-— Grecian philosophy — Epicurean — ^Peripatetics — Stoics — ^Platonics — Oriental philosophy — Religious state of Judea — ^Pharisees— Sadducees — ^Essenea — Civil state — ^Herod — Profligacy of the nations.

In the great chain of history, every event is so closely connected with that immediately preceding, and so much governed by the contingent circumstances of manners, time, and place, that an account of any given period, with no retrospect whatever to past transactions, would afford a detail frequently unintelligible, and in general dry and uninteresting. It appears necessary, therefore, on the present occasion, t^ lay before the reader a short statement of the progress of reUgion from the first periods of society, in order to enable him to judge properly of the great importance of the Christian dispensation, and of the causes which impeded or accelerated its progress.

The exuberance of human folly and superstition has branched out into innumerable ramifications; but it would be neither useful nor convenient to pursue, with a minute attention, all the meanders of absurdity. Such a history would be little more than a catalogue of names, or a dull recital of correspondent rites, and similar ceremonies. In this short abstract of religious history I shall, therefore, consider the subject imder two divisions yihe religion of the pagans, and tliaA of the Jews. ) The former will sferve to convey a general idea of the natural deviations of the human mind from reason and truth ; the latter will exhibit the miraculous foundations of that majestic structure which was completed in the Christian dispensation.

The first principles of religious knowledge, imparted to the fathers of the human race, were few and simple. They were unsupported by the knowledge of letters, and were such as would easily admit of corruption, from the timid and credulous nature of man. One of the first deviations from the truth was, certainly, the worship of the heavenly bodies

10 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CeNT. I.

The first men had been accustomed to a direct commmiication with the Supreme Being ; it was, therefore, not unnatural in their offspring to expect a continuance of the same indulgence. But, in looking around for the visible manifestation of the great Ruler of the universe, to what object would ignorance and superstition so naturally direct themselves as to that glorious huninary whose nature and phenomena must be necessarily so imperfectly understood, and who is the dispenser of light, of warmth, and of cheerfulness to the whole creation ? The sun was, therefore, very early an object of wcHrship with 9IL nations but that singular people to whom the ^owledge of the omnipresent God was revealed. From the adoration of the sun, the transition to that of

*

the moon was the most natural that possibly could be imagined. Thus the Eg3rptians worshipped the sun and moon by the names of Osiris and Isis ; the former of which, in the £g3rptian tongue, signified many eyed, from the sun's overlooking all that passes in the world ; the latter signified the ancient : Isis, moreover, was generally painted with horns, in allusion to the lunar crescent.

When the traces of ancient tradition were become faint in successive generations, the human imagination sported in the wantonness of fiction. From the broken fragments of true history, the want of combination in hieroglyphic representations, and the mutilated remains oi ancient records or language, innumerable superstitions were fabricated, and re* ceived with all the avidity of popular credulity. The deluge proved a most fertile source of error. The venerable patriarch Noah, from being revered as the father of men, came at last to be worshipped, under difierent names, as their creator. He is evidently the Satumus, the Janus, the Poseidon or Neptune, the Thoth, Hermes, Menes, Osiris, Zeuth, Atlas, Prometheus, Deucalion, and Proteus of all the ancient fables.* Not only the patriarch himself, but all the circumstances of his history, have been strangely metamorphosed into divinities. The dove, the ark, even the raven and the olive branch, have all occupied different places in the mysteries of paganism, and with direct allusions to their derivation. {Bryant^s Mythology, vol. ii.)

In the same manner Men or Menes, one of the Egyptian divinities, (originally the patriarch Noah, ibid.,) was the same with the celebrated Minos of Crete, upon which island there was a temple or tower to this divinity, called Mentor, or the tower of Menes. To this temple the Athenians were annually obliged to send some of their youth to be sacrificed, in the same manner as the people of Carthage sent their children as victims to Tjrre. {Diod. Sic, 1. xx.) From these circumstances arose the fable of the Minotaur ; and as there was a Men-tor in Crete, there was a Tor-men, now Taormina, in Sicily, where the same brutal rites were also performed. These towers were commonly situated on the seacoast ; they were peculiarly dreaded by mariners ; wherefore, the same author supposes, with much probability, that the tremendous Scylla was no other than one of those fatal temples, where the shipwrecked stranger was inhospitably sacrificed. In the same temples the rites of fire were performed. Hence arose the celebrated fable of the Furies : as the term Furia is evidently derived from Phur, (fire,) the priestesses of which, being engaged in these inhimian and

* See this decidedly ascertained in the second volume of Biyant's Mythology.

Cent. I.] hutoet ot the chvroh. 11

inliospitable rites, were not improperly conTeited into the tormentoiB y^ of the damned.

/>^ The next grand deprivation of the human mind, with respect to reli- ^ gion, proceeded from confonnding the names and characters of the ' early monarchs with those of the gods^ Perhaps the first legislators might be ambitious of asserting the Divine origin of their institutions ; pemaps they might assume to themselves a celestial character, and might find it no difficult matter to persuade their ignorant countrymen that the immortals had condescended to visit the earth in a human form. Or, perhaps, with more probability, they might only appropriate to themselves the appellations of the deities ; and the mistakes of future ages may have fabricated a mjrthology frmn this confusion of names. The names of Isis and Osiris, which I have already noted as the first of the Egyptian divinities, were soon applied to the early monarchs of that mythologic region ; and thus the original applications of these titles were soon forgotten. The history of these divinities is no longer that of the two heavenly bodies which they originally denoted, but that of a succession of princes, who assumed ^ose nigh denominations, and whom the unfaithful records of tradition have strangely converted into two celestial potentates, who continued to direct the affairs of men, but who formerly condescended to visit that favoured people in a human form. Where there is no exact register o( time, facts or histories traditionally preserved will naturally recede, and the distance of time be enormously increased. The tradition was, in the time of Herodotus, that no god in the form of man had reigned in Egypt for upward of 11,340 years — a period which the active genius of uieir priests had taken care to fill up with events suited to the capacity and the taste of their disciples. During that period of miracles, the sun had no less than four times altered his course ; twice rising where he now sets, and twice setting where he now rises. When, according to the same tradition, the gods reigned in Egypt, they reigned by turns, nor were they all at once upon earth. Orus, the son of Osiris, was the last who reigned among them ; and this Orus was the Grecian Apollo.

From these sources each nation, afler the dispersion of mankind, came, in process of time, to have its peculiar gods ; for after such concessions, the establishment of national and local deities seems no very difficult effort of the mind ; and if a plurality of gods be once admitted, it is an easy method of accounting for the suggestions of our own minds, to assign the difilerent passions and emotions of their tutelary deities ; hence a god of love, a god of war, &;c. The social genius of polytheism admitted to a free participation of celestial honours the gods of all nations, whether inimical or friendly. . Hencop at the period of our Lord's appearance, almost the whole civilized world acknowledged the same divinities, and the religion of Greece and Rome composed a bulky system, which embraced all the false deities that human folly or mistake had ever invented. {^>H[dolatry was the natural concomitant of such a system as this. The gods of the ancients were only men ; their fabulous history was wholly fabricated from the transactions of men who had assumed the names and titles originally appropriated to the heavenly bodies : to exhibit them therefore, in a human form, or by an allegorical application, in the form of that animal to whose nature their peculiar functions were

12 BISTORT OF THE CHURCH. [CeNT. L

m]qppo8ed to bear the. strictest analogy, was natural and easy. And if the idea of local deities be once generally admitted, it is no harsh sup* position to imagine, that the spiritual being might occasionally visit the shrine which was dedicated to his glory ; and thus adoration might easily be transferred from the Deity himself to his image or resem<>> blance.

Whoever attentively and seriously considers the religion of the Hebrews will find it totally different in every circumstance from that which has been described. By successive revelations, the knowledge of the one true Grod was carefully preserved among them. The abominations of paganism were frequently, indeed, introduced, but their progress was constantly retarded by some fresh interposition of miraculous power. The abstract and metaphyBical notions of the Divine attributes, so repugnant to human reason in an uncultivated state, were always regarded with veneration by this singular people. He is represented as infinite, eternal, unchangeable, invisible ; as omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent— characters which agree with none of the heathen deities. This was indeed the first revelation made to man ; it was the foundation of the Jewish institutions, and appears to have been consistent with no other system of religion.

There is no part of the Hebrew theology which can be traced from the perversions or misapprehensions of the human imagination. No part of their theology can be resolved into a mistaken history, a corruption of names, or a puerile allegory.

That at a period when the rest of £e world was immersed in barbarism and the grossest idolatry ; at a period when even the Jewish nation themselves appear to have made but little progress in human science, the most refined theological notions should prevail among them, united with a milder and more spiritualized system of morals* than was to be found in any other nation, can only be accounted for from a superior and more recent revelation. In such a state of civilization, or rather of barbarism, the peculiar providence of Grod was indeed ever necessary to preserve them in the path of rectitude. The miraculous interpositions of the Deity were, therefore, frequent ; and a number of inspired men appeared, from time to time, who served to recall the people to the knowledge of their Grod, and to invigorate the debilitated system with fresh portions of spiritual information.

But not only the general scheme of the Hebrew theology and ethics difiered from those of the heathen, and were superior to them ; but even those institutions which are accounted peculiar to the Israelites Mdll admit of a rational and consistent intepretation. The rites and mysteries of paganism were either corrupt and absurd allusions to the patriarchal history ,f or they were profligate and unmeaning.

The religious institutions of the Hebrews may all of ihem be consistently explained upon two principles only. They had either a retrospect to the past, or a reference to the future. They were intended either to preserve in the memories of the people the religion of their ancestors, and to fortify them against the contagion of idolatry ; or they bore so clear and decisive a reference to that great object of the wholo

* See the decalogue, the laws concerning slavery, the treatment of other animab, &c. ft^ t See that incomparable treasury of ancient learning, Bryant's Mythology, passim.

Cent. L] RisTOftY ov the ctiTTRCR. 13

Mosaical dispensation, the coming of the Messiah, that a considerable part of the Jewish ceremonies have been ever regarded by the learned of that nation as a great and standing prophecy ; and the application of them to the circumstances of Jesus Christ, by himself and his aposdes, was so striking and unanswerable, that it served to confound, to silence, and even to convert their most obstinate opponents.

Much might be added upon this subject ; but it is more the business of the divine than of the historian. I shall, therefore, hasten to exhibit a short sketch of the state of the two prevailing systems of religion at the time of our Lord's appearance ; from which I doubt not but it will evidently appear, that the period described by the Hebrew prophets as Xhib fulness of time, was now arrived ; in other words, that such a revelation as that by Christ Jesus was then absolutely necessary ; and farther, that this was the only proper season which apparently had occurred since the patriarchal ages for the promulgation of such a dispensation.

The victorious arms of Rome had, at the time of our Lord's descent upon earth, subjected to its sway a considerable part of the known world. Distant nations had either silently submitted to a power too mighty to withstand, or had been compelled to acknowledge the strength and the authority of their triumphant conquerors ; and governed either by Roman proconsuls, invested with temporary commissions, or indulged by the republic with the continuance of their own princes and laws, they were reduced to own its claims to supreme sovereignty, and all to enrol themselves in the number of its sons and subjects. The power, indeed, of the Roman people was at this time much abridged. The senate retained little of authority but the name, while the empire was in reality governed by the victorious, the crafty, the accomplished Augustus. This extensive empire, so extremely favourable to the ci^zation of barbarous and remote nations, together with the general difiusion of the Greek language, was particularly conducive to an easy propagation of the Grospel ; while a cessation from all the calamities of discord and war* tranquillized the mind, and prepared it for the reception of the mild and rational doctrines of Christ.

United in error, those nations which acknowledged not the Roman power agreed with its professed subjects in idolatry and superstition. Every country, as was already intimated, had its peculiar gods ; every people their particular manner of worshipping and propitiating their respective deities; and their religious homage, not confined to the natural world, to the memory of departed heroes, or the improvers of elegance or convenience, was extended to things inanimate, and to persons merely ideal. Mountains, groves, and rivers were the objects of religious adoration ; and even those vices, or those maladies, which are the most destructive of human happiness, were honoured with temples, and served with trembling awe and devout terror. To avoid the imputation of worshipping inanimate beings, many of the heathens pretended, that the deity represented by the statue was really resident in it ; and that every part of the visible creation was the residence of some superior being: but the generality, naturally more impressed with sensible than with invisible objects, easily transferred to the symbol

* Mosheim intimates his dissent from the opinion of general peace then prevailing in the world. The assertion ^f Orosius, that the temple of Janus was at this tune shot, is confirmed bf Horace in his Ist £p. lib. iL

14 HISTORY 07 THE CHURCH. [CbNT. I.

that homage which should have been offered to the god. The knowledge of what were called mysteries was imparted only to a few^ who, previous to their initiation, were compelled to exhibit midoubted proo& of their secrecy, fidelity, and patience, and to conceal, mider no less a penalty than the probable deprivation even of life, every circmnstance relating to those rites, which were generally subversive of good order, and even of external decorum. The teachers of error, and the base deluders of a wretched and ignorant multitude, the pontiffs or priests, represented the whole of reli^on as consisting in the performance of certain ceremonies, and the gods as superior to men only in their immortality and power.

Thus their deities, so far from being laudable objects of imitation, were rather examples of enormous but successful crimes; unjust, capricious, and paitial, whose vengeance was in general appeased, or whose protection was ensured, by animal offerings, though some nations supposed these ends could only be attained by 2ie horrible sacrifice of human victims. This absurd system of theology, unsupported by any decided belief of future rewards and punishments, their opinions of which were obscure, licentious, and often more calculated to administer indulgence to vice than incitements to virtue, was regarded by the more enlightened part of mankind as a subject of ridicule and contempt. Nor indeed could any, who were not totsdly bewildered in error, avoid discovering the absurdity of a religion which presented no dbcouragement to the most depraved propensities, and the perpetration of the most flagitious actions.

To those who have observed that intolerant spirit, which for a trifling difference in religious belief has persecuted wise and good men, and visited the earth with the calamities of war, it will appear extraordhiary, that so great a variety of religious systems, and of objects of religious worship, should produce neither dissensions nor war. This general moderation is not, however, to be ascribed to any superiority in the temper or character, but to a circumstance which has been already intimated, — ^to their considering the gods who presided over the earth as local deities, whose influence and jurisdiction extended only to certain countries, and their respective inhabitants ; who, it would have been absurd to expect, should leave their tutelary divinities for the worship of those whom they considered as affording them neither regard nor protection. The Romans extended their religious moderation so far, as not only to tolerate foreign superstitions, but even to naturalize ihe gods of every conquered nation : but though they granted to their citizens the right of privately adopting those religious tenets of other nations which were not inimical to their own interests and laws, yet they permitted no innovations to take place in the religion publicly professed, and gently insinuated their own peculiar rites and institutions into the religious worship of those whom they had subdued. Policy, no less than religion, prompted them to a step which added to mutual interest the strong tie of mutual faith. Thus their religion, with their cimquests, extended over a considerable portion of the globe, and incorporated with the sacred rites of every vanquished nation.

A ray of light faintly illumined this dark and dreary night of ignorance and error. The nordiem nations had so fap^ emerged from their stat» of barbarism, as to have made some progress in curious inventions and

Cent. I.] history or thb church. 15

vuieM arte ; but in the polished states of Greece and Rome, philosophy and learning were eagerly sought and pursued by all who aspired to elegance and refinement. The Roman youth, however distinguished for his attainmente in those arte which luxuriantly flourished in his own republic, could neither be esteemed an orator nor a rhetorician, without completing his studies in the Grecian schools, and imbibing, from the purest sources, attic grace and elegance. Hence, the philosophy of Greece found easy access into the Roman republic. Oratory, which was publicly taught in all the great cities by those who styled themselves philosophers, was a successful vehicle for conveying the peculiar opi* nions of its professors into the youthful and credulous heart: those, therefore, who visited Greece unbiased by the opinions of any philosophical sect, were not likely to continue insensible to argumente offered to them with eyery embellishment of eloquence, acuteness, and wit.

The doctrines of the Epicureans and Academics appear to have been eagerly received at Rome. They were, indeed, peculiarly calculated for that great and luxurious people. The followers of Epicuras asserted the fortuitous origin of the world ; the inability and indifference of the gods respecting human affairs ; the mortality of the soul ; and that the Uife which was most conformable to nature consisted in pleasure, of which they constituted sense the judge. While this sect offered to ite votaries a license for the most illicit pursuits, the Academics involved the most important doctrines in infidelity and skepticism, and questioned the existence of the gods, the immortality of the soul, and die superiority of virtue to vice.

Far from having attained to unpolluted knowledge, those sects, which boasted a superior purity of morals, were yet greatly defective, and involved in error. The Aristotelians represented the Supreme Being as indifferent to human affairs, and happy in the contemplation of his own excellence. The Stoics described him, indeed, as governing the world, and asserted, that the perfection of happiness consisted in the perfection of virtue ; they peopled the world with gods, genii, and demons,'" and supposed that every man had a tutelary genius assigned him, and that all virtue and happiness consisted in acting in concert with this genius, with reference to the will of the supreme director of the whole. But, however plausible and specious these doctrines may appear, several of their leading tenete were not less pernicious than erroneous. The Stoical belief, of the Deity being corporeal in his nature, was highly derogatory of his dignity, ^d destructive of their reverence ; while their opinions of the mortality of the soul removed the strongest incentive to virtue, and the most powerful restraint upon vice. The exalted genius and profound penetration of Plato had enabled him to discover whatever the mere light of nature could reveal. He taught to his followers the pure doctrine of the unity of God, who is perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient; that he is a being infinitely good, and desirous of rendering all his creatures happy ; that the perfection of morality consists in living con-

* The agency of genii, i. e., angels and demons, made an essential part of the Jewish popular creed ; and every thing in the administration of their peculiar Sjr&tem, as well as of the whole mundane system, is represented in the sacred writings, and hy Jesus Christ himself, as effected through the agency of such existences. It has often suzipiiaed me that divines have taken so little notice of this.

16 BISTORT OF THE CHURCH. [CbNT. I.

formably to his will ; that the soul is immortal, and that there is to be a future state of retribution.

These doctrines, however approaching to truth and perfection, were yet at a considerable distance. They were often obscurely expressed, and accompanied with some opinions calculated to cherish superstition, and others injurious to the omnipotence of God. The Platonists taught that the Deity was confined to a certain determinate portion of space, and that there was an invincihle mtdignity and corruption of matter, which the Dirine power had not been sufficient to reduce entirely to order.

Having noticed the principal sects of the Greek philosophers, it is unnecessary to enlarge upon those who, though called by other names, were separated from them by slight, sometimes imaginary, partitions. The oriental philosophy, though termed gnosis, or science, that is, the way to the true knowledge of the Deity, was the offspring and the parent of error ; the source of those pernicious opinions which in the first three centuries perplexed and afflicted the Christian Church. Its doctrines were fantastic, ignorant, and obscure, founded indeed, in many instances, upon just principles, but its deductions from them were false and absurd. They afiirmed, that as the eternal mind must be inaccessible to evil, perfect and beneficent in its nature, therefore the origin of evil cannot reside in him, but must be without him ; and as there is nothing without or beyond the Deity but matter, matter must be the source of whatever is vicious or evil. They asserted the eternity of matter, which derived its present form not from the will of the Supreme Grod, but from the creating power of some inferior intelligence who formed the world ; alleging that it was incredible that a being perfectly good, and infinitely removed from all evil, should either create or modify matter which is essentially malignant or corrupt, or bestow upon it any portion of his riches or liberality. Divided into many sects, each of which contended for some favourite error, the Gnostics agreed in acknowledging the existence of an eternal nature, in whom dwelt the fulness of perfection ; and represented him as a pure and radiant light diffused through all space, which they termed pleroma, or fulness. The formation of celestial beings they accounted for by supposing the Eternal, after having passed innumerable ages in solitude and happiness, to have produced from himself two minds of a different sex, perfectly resembling their Divine original, who peopled the pleroma with their celestial offspring. These they called JEons, or an eternal nature. They supposed the world to be created not by Grod, but by one of the inferior inhabitants of the pleroma, whom they described as being in many respects of an exalted character, but haughty and ambitious ; and this being they named Demiurge, the governor of the world, from the ruling of which they would have the l3eity utterly excluded. They believed that man was composed of a soul, which is of celestial origin, and which would aspire to worship the true God, wera it not that the other half of his nature, which is a corrupt body, super^ sedes all its more virtuous desires, and attaches it to the pursuits of sensuality. That the Supreme Being employs various means for the deliverance of his creatures from their bondage to sin, but is opposed by the demiurge, who tempts men to disregard these merciful designs, and to serve him. That those who rise superior to his artifices, and

CXMT. L] HISTORY OF THS CHURCH. 17

snbdae those coirapt affections which sinful matter excites in thenif shall at death ascend into the glorious pleroma, while die wicked shall pass from one body into another till they become purified. That the world will at length be destroyed by God, who will overcome all evil, release those souls which have been confined* in mortal prisons, and dwell with them and happy spirits in glory and happiness to all eternity.

If we advert to the state of the Jewish nation at this period, we shall find that they had introduced the most absurd superstition, and the grossest corruption into their worship. The whole of religion, according to their ideas, consisted in the rites appointed by their great lawaver, and the performance of some external acts of duty toward the Gentiles. Uncharitable upon system, they regarded the rest of mankind as excluded from the hopes of eternal life, and treated them with the utmost contempt, rigour, and inhumanity. To these corrupt and vicious principles were added several superstitious notions concerning the Divine nature, magic, invisible powers, Sic, which were either derived from the example of neighbouring nations, or imbibed during the Babylonish captivity. The inhabitants of Palestine, divided into Jewish and Samaritan, were rent by intestine commotions, and each regarded the opposite sect with aversion and abhorrence. Even the directors in religious concerns, whose superior knowledge should have exalted them above the ignorant multitude, contributed to their errors, by dividing into a great variety of sects; which, though generally agreed in the ceremonial part of the Jewish religion, were involved in continual disputes.