IV.]

SELF MORTIFICATION.

43

ience, to a height which it is scarcely possible to attain much less to preserve, in our present state of weakness d corruption. A doctrine so extraordinary and so sublime. ast inevitably command the veneration of the people; but was ill calculated to obtain the suffrage of those worldly losophers, who, in the conduct of this transitory life, sult only the feelings of nature and the interest of nety.*

There are two very natural propensities which we may stinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositionshe love of pleasure, and the love of action. If the former refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of cial intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest art of the happiness of private life. The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It ften leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it comes the parent of every virtue; and if those virtues are companied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an pire, may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to undaunted courage of a single man. To the love of leasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to he love of action we may attribute most of the useful and espectable, qualifications. The character in which both the ne and the other should be united and harmonized would eem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature. The insensible and inactive disposition which should be supposed alike destitute of both, would be rejected, by the common consent of mankind, as utterly incapable of prouring any happiness to the individual, or any public benefit to the world. But it was not in this world that the primi ive Christians were desirous of making themselves either greeable or useful.

The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of our reason or fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded conversation, may employ the leisure of a liberal mind. Such amusements, however, were rejected with abhorrence, or admitted with the utmost caution, by the severity of the fathers, who an account) imposed, for a long time, on the credulous simplicity of the Christians of Asia. * See a very judicious treatise of Barbeyrac sur la Morale des Pères.

4-4

CENSURE OF LUXURY:

[CH. GRATIOS

despised all knowledge that was not useful to salvation, who considered all levity of discourse as a criminal abus the gift of speech. In our present state of existencer body is so inseparably connected with the soul, that it se to be our interest to taste, with innocence and moderat two s the enjoyments of which that faithful companion is susce of tible. Very different was the reasoning of our devout a mi a decessors; vainly aspiring to imitate the perfection angels, they disdained, or they affected to disdain, ev earthly and corporeal delight.* Some of our senses inde are necessary for our preservation, others for our subsisten and others again for our information, and thus far it w impossible to reject the use of them. The first sensation pleasure was marked as the first moment of their abu The unfeeling candidate for heaven was instructed, not of on th to resist the grosser allurements of the taste or smell, b of the or even to shut his ears against the profane harmony of soun the perp and to view with indifference the most finished productia of human art. Gay apparel, magnificent houses, and elega of the ver furniture, were supposed to unite the double guilt of prose and of sensuality; a simple and mortified appearance more suitable to the Christian who was certain of his sin

to b

Se the

the

the young

306 stat

cretion was

of Christ

table eithe dauphie.

y; and th

and doubtful of his salvation. In their censures of luxurile purpos the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial;† an among the various articles which excite their pious dignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of an colour except white, instruments of music, vases of gold silver, downy pillows (as Jacob reposed his head on a stone white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use warm baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which according to the expression of Tertullian, is a lie agains our own faces, and an impious attempt to improve the work of the Creator. When Christianity was introduced among the rich and the polite, the observation of these singula laws was left, as it would be at present, to the few whe were ambitious of superior sanctity. But it is always easy as well as agreeable, for the inferior ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and pleasure

Lactant. Institut. Divin. 1. 6, c. 20-22.

dence ag the hon Since desi tolerated a ples to ea to the divi

that ancien

but

Padagog

+ Consult a work ofed to th

limetres de

Clemens of Alexandria, entitled the Pædagogue, which contains the stent,
rudiments of ethics as they were taught in the most celebrated of the
Christian schoola
Tertullian, de Spectaculis, c. 23. Clement

IV.]

TOLERATION OF MARRIAGE.

45

ich fortune has placed beyond their reach. The virtue of primitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, was frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance.

The chaste severity of the fathers, in whatever related to commerce of the two sexes, flowed from the same prinle their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might d the sensual, and degrade the spiritual, nature of

It was their favourite opinion, that if Adam had prered his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for er in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless ode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race innocent and immortal beings. The use of marriage as permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to continue the human species, and as a restraint, Bowever imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire. The hesitation of the orthodox casuists on this interesting abject betrays the perplexity of men, unwilling to approve an institution which they were compelled to tolerate. The enumeration of the very whimsical laws which they most rcumstantially imposed on the marriage bed, would force smile from the young and a blush from the fair. It was eir unanimous sentiment, that a first marriage was adenate to all the purposes of nature and of society. The ensual connexion was refined into a resemblance of the mystic union of Christ with his church, and was pronounced to be indissoluble either by divorce or by death. The pracice of second nuptials was branded with the name of a legal adultery; and the persons who were guilty of so scandalous an offence against Christian purity, were soon excluded from the honours, and even from the alms, of the church. Since desire was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated as a defect, it was consistent with the same principles to consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach to the divine perfection. It was with the utmost difficulty that ancient Rome could support the institution of six vestals,§ but the primitive church was filled with a

Alexandrin. Pædagog. 1. 3, c. 8.

*Beausobre, Hist. Critique du

Manichéisme, 1. 7, c. 3. Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustin, &c. strongly inclined to this opinion. + Some of the Gnostic heretica were more consistent; they rejected the use of marriage. + See a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to Jerome, in the Morale des Pères, c. 4, 6-26. § See a very curious Dissertation on the Vestals, In the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. iv, p. 161–227′

CHRISTIAN ASCETICS.

[сн great number of persons of either sex, who had dev themselves to the profession of perpetual chastity.* A of these, among whom we may reckon the learned Ori judged it the most prudent to disarm the tempter.+ S were insensible and some were invincible against the assa of the flesh. Disdaining an ignominious flight, the vir the warm climate of Africa encountered the enemylt closest engagement; they permitted priests and deacous share their bed, and gloried amidst the flames in their un lied purity. But insulted nature sometimes vindicated rights, and this new species of martyrdom served only introduce a new scandal into the church. Among Christian Ascetics, however (a name which they soon quired from their painful exercise), many, as they were 1 presumptuous, were probably more successful. The loss sensual pleasure was supplied and compensated by spirit pride. Even the multitude of Pagans were inclined to es mate the merit of the sacrifice by its apparent difficult and it was in the praise of these chaste spouses of Chri that the fathers have poured forth the troubled stream their eloquence.§ Such are the early traces of monast principles and institutions, which, in a subsequent ag have counterbalanced all the temporal advantages of Chri tianity.

The Christians were not less averse to the business tha to the pleasures of this world. The defence of our person and property they knew not how to reconcile with th Notwithstanding the honours and rewards which were bestowed o those virgins, it was difficult to procure a sufficient number; nor coul the dread of the most horrible death always restrain their incontinence * Cupiditatem procreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam. Minuci Felix, c. 31. Justin Apolog. Major. Athenagoras in Legat. c. 28. Ter tullian de Cultu Fœmin. 1. 2. + Eusebius, 1. 6, 8. Before the fame of Origen had excited envy and persecution, this extraordinary action was rather admired than censured. As it was his general practice to allegorize Scripture, it seems unfortunate that, in this instance only, he should have adopted the literal sense. Cyprian, Epist. 4, and Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyprianic. 3. Something like this rash attempt was long afterwards imputed to the founder of the order of Fontevrault Bayle has amused himself and his readers on that very delicate subject. § Dupin (Bibliothèque Ecclesiastique, tom. i, p. 195) gives a par ticular account of the dialogue of the ten virgins, as it was composed by Methodius, bishop of Tyre. The praises of virginity are excessive. The Ascetics (as early as the second century) made a public pro fession of mortifying their bodies, and of abstaining from the use of

CH. XV.]

AVE

ON TO CIVIL EMPLOYMENT.

47

atient doctrine which enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of at injuries, and commanded them to invite the repetition fresh insults. Their simplicity was offended by the use oaths, by the pomp of magistracy, and by the active contion of public life; nor could their humane ignorance be avinced, that it was lawful on any occasion to shed the od of our fellow-creatures, either by the sword of justice, by that of war; even though their criminal or hostile tempts should threaten the peace and safety of the whole Community.* It was acknowledged, that under a less peret law, the powers of the Jewish constitution had been ercised, with the approbation of Heaven, by inspired pro ets and by anointed kings. The Christians felt and conessed that such institutions might be necessary for the Present system of the world, and they cheerfully submitted o the authority of their pagan governors. But while they aculeated the maxims of passive obedience, they refused to ake any active part in the civil administration or the mili ry defence of the empire. Some indulgence might perhaps allowed to those persons who before their conversion ere already engaged in such violent and sanguinary occutions; but it was impossible that the Christians, without nouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character f soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes. This indolent, or

lesh and wine. Mosheim, p. 310. * See the Morale des Pères. The same patient principles have been revived since the Reformation the Socinians, the modern Anabaptists, and the Quakers. Barclay, apologist of the Quakers, has protected his brethren, by the autho y of the primitive Christians, p. 542-549. +Tertullian, Apolog. 21. De Idololatriâ, c. 17, 18. Origen contra Celsum, l. 5, p. 253; 7, p. 348; 1. 8, p. 423-428. Tertullian (de Coronâ Militis, 11) suggests to them the expedient of deserting; a counsel which, if had been generally known, was not very proper to conciliate the vour of the emperors towards the Christian sect. [Tertullian does ot suggest to the soldiers "the expedient of deserting;" he says, that hey ought to be unceasingly on their guard, so that while engaged in he service they might do nothing contrary to the law of God, and that they should suffer martyrdom or openly quit the service, rather han yield a cowardly conformity. He does not pronounce decidedly that Christians ought not to serve in the army; he even concludes by ying, "Puta denique licere militiam usque ad causam coronæ." (Apolog. c. 2, p. 127, 128). In many other passages, he shows that the Army was full of Christians. "Hesterni sumus, et omnia vestra imple vimus; urbes, insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa." Apolog. c. 37, p. 30). "Navigamus et nos vobiscum et militanium"