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upon every plausible occasion to express their secret enmity, and their contempt both of it and of its friends.

In his account of the persecution of Christianity by the Jews, Dr. Ireland states one instance of it which is very remarkable, and is not, It is perhaps, generally known. mentioned by Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with the Jew Trypho; viz. an universal mission for the express purpose of counteracting the propagation of the faith of Christ! Justin declares that the high priests and teachers of the people had caused the name of Christ to be profaned and blasphemed through all the earth, and speaks of this anti-christian mission, as if the effects of it were felt in his time. May we not exclaim, on the statement of this singular fact, Surely, O Lord, "the wrath of man shall turn to thy praise!" The descendants of that infatuated people who thus attempted to check the progress of the Gospel, have for ages been scattered throughout the world, an astonishment and a by-word among the nations, and a standing monument of the divine origin and truth of that very faith which their ancestors laboured SO assiduously to destroy!

From the affecting view of the early difficulties and dangers of our holy religion, the learned author turns to the records of its patience and its triumphs. From a variety of interesting examples of this kind, we select that of Justin Martyr.

"He has amply stated," says Dr. Ireland, "the strange and various persecutions to which the Gospel was subjected by the Roman government in his age. But it is remarkable, that those very persecutions were the means of his conversion; for the manner in which he saw others bear them gave

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to his mind the first impulse of esteem for Christianity. I, a zealous follower of Plato,' says he,could not look upon the fearless manner in which the followers of the Gospel bore death, and whatever was most terrible to human nature, without the firinest persuasion of the innocence of their lives, and their superiority to all vicious in

dulgence."-And let our readers mark the powerful and happy result of his observation of these bright examples of Christian faith and patience. "Under the influence of this persuasion, he became a Christian, and gloried in the name, whatever was the derision or the danger which pursued it. And he sealed his testimony with his blood. He fell a joyful victim to the hatred of that philosophy which he had renounced for the sake of the Gospel.” pp. 24, 25.

After some further examples of Christian faith in the primitive times, Dr. Ireland pays an animated tribute of admiration to the labours and constancy of our own reformers under the persecution of Romish superstition.

"Whoever," says the eloquent writer "has admired the faith and heroic sufferings of Ignatius or Polycarp, must look with no less satisfaction on those

of Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, and Hooper. And whoever will sit down to the serious perusal of their history, must, I think, rise up the better Christian; better prepared to meet the common evils of life with resigns. tion, and to surrender life itself with joyfulness into the hands of God who gave it. It is impossible not to venerate their glowing piety, their profound humility, their pa tience under sufferings, their praises of God under distresses and privations of every kind, their prayers for their persecutors, their exemplary and triumphant death. And whoever has any feeling for learning and the powers of reason, must be particu larly affected when he sees them exerted under circumstances the most disastrous, the most calculated to depress courage, and to crush the resources of genius; when books were withheld from the imprisoned saint", when the memory alone was to supply its stores for the appointed debate, and when the removal to the place of disputation was but the first and certain step to the expect ing flames." pp. 32, 33.

We could with pleasure extract some excellent passages on the principles and motives by which the Christian is animated, and enabled thus to endure persecutious and trials, and ou his general happiness in the present life; but we have room only for the following, as specimens of the author's sentiments on these points.

*Both from Latimer and Ridley.

These, referring to the persecutions of the martyrs," are the extreme cases of human suffering; and in providing for these in the triumphant manner here displayed, the Gospel establishes, by consequence, in the hearts of believers, an effectual influence against the common evils of life." Under these," he experiences comforts and supports unknown to other men. His persaasion of a providence teaches him, that' whatever befals him is according to the

divine will. In the hands of God are the 'issues' of all things, because from him they had their beginning. He may take away, because he hath first given,' whatever we possess. He may kill, because

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be hath first made alive.' His name therefore, is to be equally the subject of our blessing,' under evil and under good; in the moment of death, as in the midst of

Ete itself. And that which thus invigorates the Christian is the happy influence of the Spirit of God. Hence he draws those prirate supports, and invisible consolations, which prevent him from sinking under this burden of evil. They silently and gradually raise his soul from its dejection; they dispose him to religious tranquillity, and at length impress upon him that settled rest and godly satisfaction, against which the 'changes and the chances of this mortal Efe' shall never more prevail."

"Nor is the superiority of the Christian seen only in the better principles through which he bears the unavoidable evils of life. He has a present happiness surpassing that of other men.-His enjoyments are more perfect; and therefore his portion of the blessings of this world is larger, while the satisfaction which he draws from them is of a more exquisite nature, and more delightful to himself. Nothing therefore is withheld from the Christian; nothing but sin. Meanwhile, pleasures the most ample, the most satisfactory which human lite can admit, are his portion and his recompencethe pleasures of innocence, of temperance, of thankfulness to God, who deprives us of nothing which does not also tend to deprive us of himself. The free use of this world is permitted to us, while God is the supreme object of our thoughts and affections; while we have that lore towards the Author of our happiness, which transcends the love of other things; and while we so pass through things temporal, as not to lose the tags eternal.'" pp. 37-39.

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Would not "sacred" have been a graver, if not a more appropriate epithet • this occasion?

But the Gospel has not been without a rival in these pretensions to present and future happiness. Paganism, the early enemy of Christianity, has laid claim to the same advantages; and the examination of this claim forms the subject of the remaining lectures.

Some of our readers may perhaps think, that such an inquiry at this time of day is by no means necessary. It may be said, that paganism has now but few, if any, grave and sincere votaries; and that, as Paley justly observes, the contest for divine authority is between the Christian religion and none. This is unquestionably true; and yet, an examination of the early claims of paganism, and its presumptuous competition with Christianity, may serve many interesting and useful purposes. It may remind us of the battles and the triumphs of the primitive soldiers of Christ; and while it exposes the meanness and imbecility of ancient superstition, and illustrates the necessity and superiority of our holy faith, it may even tend to furnish us with well-tried weapons against the present advocates of infidelity, or modern heathenism; and especially guard our younger students and admirers of classical mythology and philosophy, from being misled by the false lights which they exhibit; and it may establish their belief in the Gospel, on the solid ground of historical truth and sound reasoning.

To the early Christian writers we are chiefly indebted for our knowledge of the rivalship which paganism affected to maintain with the Gospel, as to the promise of happiness. It was the general profession of the heathen world, that to the practice of idolatry some benefit a considerable difference of opinion was attached. There was, however, as to the nature of this Lenefit, and on this point two parties were formed. The first of them sufficiently raised above the vulgar to despise their gross notions of fu

turity, yet so uninstructed, or so sensual, as to be fully satisfied with the gratifications which worldly objects could impart, professed to serve their idols with no other view than that of present prosperity. This comprehended both public and private welfare. Success in war, indulgences in peace, wealth, beauty, genius, honour, fame, and length of life, were therefore the only objects of their prayers*, The folly of importuning the gods for these purposes was indeed pointed out by many of superior name. But one general observation, says Dr. Ireland, may be made on the very best rules which pagan wisdom has prescribed to the piety of men. Particular requests for temporal advantages were sometimes forbidden, not from any genuine principle of self-denial, from distrust of the objects themselves, or fear of their pernicious influence; but because the gods best knew whether they were suitable to the circumstances of men, and where they should be bestowed. And it was concluded, that it was not safe to urge Heaven with importunate petitions, lest, in a vein of malignant indulgence, it should resolve to ruin its shortsighted worshippers, by granting the very objects of their desire. This, Dr. Ireland contends, is the amount of the celebrated prayer of Socrates himself. Xen. Mem. lib. i. cap. 3, which is expressly applied by Juvenal, in the well-known lines:

incident with revealed truth, would be lamentably lowered or disproved.

But there was a second class of persons, who approached the shrines of the gods from other motives. They had observed, that security from present sufferings was not the necessary consequence of their prayers; and as they still presumed that their worship was entitled to some recompense, nothing remained but to profess that they expected a benefit, however unknown or undefined, in another state of things that might succeed the present life. These were the two principal doctrines of the gentile superstition, and against both these false claims was successfully raised the voice of Christian antiquity.

The events which gave the most plausible encouragement to the claim in favour of the gods rewarding their votaries with temporal prosperity, were the invasion of Italy, and the capture of Rome, in the beginning of the fifth century, by the barbarians under Alaric. The impatient temper of idolatry was now particularly excited; and a spirit of revenge arose, the consequence of mortified pride and baffled superstition. Expiring paganism invidiously lamented the loss of qualities which it never possessed; and Christianity was charged with mischiefs not its own. To prove the truth of this statement, the learned author before us enters into a general view of the temper of heathenism. He shews that it was

« Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus, quid ever prone to impatience and out.

Conveniat nobis, rebusque sit utile nostris."

On these and similar passages we sometimes look with a Christian eye, and give them a borrowed sanctity. But in order to discover their real meaning and value, we must bring them to their own standard, and interpret them upon principles strictly pagan; a process, by which the pretensions of many a heathen sentiment, apparently co

* Juv. Sat.10.

rage against its own deities, before the propagation of the faith of Christ; and that it has been ready, in every age and country, to transfer its interested worship from one idol to another, as outward circumstances have suggested. Sometimes, in expectation of better treatment, the worshippers adopted the gods of more prosperous nations; upon which principle we are to interpret the admission, from time to time, of the deities or sacred rites of other

countries which the Roman history describes. But when the former deities were retained, notwithstand ing the recurrence of misfortune, they were commonly subjected to chastisement and insult on account of the failure of protection to their worshippers. Of this unceremosions treatment, Dr. Ireland men tions some curious instances.-Such was the disposition, at once superstitions and vindictive, which Christianity had to encounter at its first appearance in the Roman empire. Its unexpected success sharpened the hatred of the pagans, who now found the Gospel to be an object, on which every misfortune might be conveniently charged.. Accordingly, to the persons of the believers was transferred all the exasperation which had been commonly produced by the adversities of the state, and which had been occasionally directed against the temples and statues of the gods them selves. Idolatry was no longer answerable for untoward events, whether public or private. It was, on the contrary, declared to be the only and proper source of worldly happiness; and therefore all civil disasters, and all natural evils, were to be attributed to the pernicious introduction of the faith of Christ. "All evil," says Arnobius*, "is "Orusius carries the minds of his pagan supposed to come in the train of the Gospel; and inordinate blood-readers to the divine creation of man, and shed, drought, famine, and temendeavours to impress upon them the fall of Adam, as the point from which began to pests, to be its proper consequences. flow the miseries of the world; the first Christianity invited the swarms of chastisements of sin. Hence he infers the locusts. Christianity invited the continual superintendance of a Providence, late depredations of the vermin." which acts by judgments as well as mercies, This gives a view of the sentiments and executes its everlasting purposes on the of the pagans just before the civil establishment of Christianity. After that event their hatred was probably increased, while the outward expression of it was restrained. Of specimen is afforded in the pleading of Symmachus for the public restoration of idolatry; for an able and animated sketch of which, as well as of the arguments

of Ambrose and Prudentius, in answer to his declamation, we must refer our readers to Dr. Ireland's work.

It was in public refutation of the false and blasphemous accusations of the pagans against the Gospel, that the zeal of St. Augustine planned his memorable treatise "Of the City of God;" one of the most valuable works which the piety and learning of the early Christian writers have transmitted to us, and a brief but interesting ac count of which, as well as of the subsidiary history of Orosius, we subjoin in the words of our author.

"St. Augustine had now published the first ten books" of the City of God;" when, judging the Presbyter Orosius a fit assistant in his purpose, he enjoined him to form his collection of history against the pagans. The object of this work was to compile from all former histories and annals, whatever

calamities, common or extraordinary, natural or civil, were recorded in the experiences of mankind. Nor was this undertaken

this a

*Adv. Gentes, lib. i,

through the melancholy love of contemplat ing a mass of human evils; but for the sake of convincing the Roman people that the disasters, of which they complaimed as unexampled in their nature, or brought upon their own age and nation by the malignant influence of Christianity, were long since familiar, not only to the rest of the world, but to themselves.

sons of men, under all the circumstances of

life. Finally, he turns their attention to Christ, the Saviour of the world, and ex

horts them to look by faith towards him, in whom alone the sin of Adam could find its remedy; and to repent of the evils which the impious persecution of his church

upon earth had brought upon the Roman

Heaven.
empire, through the righteous vengeance of

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Augustine is a writer of an higher order. While he reverts to the former history of Rome, and of the world at large, he en

Counters the pagans with an animated and interesting discussion of the radical meanness and viciousness of polytheism; the equal folly of the popular mythology, and the philosophic religion of the Romans. This he accomplishes, with perfect success, in the first ten books. In the twelve which

follow, he proceeds to raise his Christian superstructure on the ruins of paganism. Beginning, therefore, from the situation of man in Paradise, he traces the progress of revelation through the succeeding ages, and its continued existence, notwithstanding occasional restrictions of its extent, till the appearance of Christ, in whom the world was to believe.

"From the accomplishment of the purposes of God upon earth, he passes to the final judgment of mankind at the last day; describes the condemnation and punishment of the enemies of God, and expatiates on the everlasting happiness of the blessed; when Christ shall have given up the kingdom of his mediatorship to the Father, and God shall be all in all.'" pp. 74-77.

It is only the first part of this elaborate work of St. Austin which applies to the subject before us, and of which Dr. Ireland avails himself in a very able and useful manner in his subsequent chapters; adding, in notes at the bottom of the pages, various quotations from the original treatise. In pursuance of his plan, the learned author proceeds to ascertain the real cause of those temporal evils which ended in the overthrow of the Western Empire, and which were falsely attributed to our holy religion. For this purpose he has recourse to the Roman history, which teaches us, that the seeds of the public misfortunes were sown by Rome herself, in a state of heathenism; and that, notwithstanding appearances, the strength of the empire was effectually broken before the government became Christian. Sallust, who seems to confess the existence of an earlier tendency to depravity, dates the extraordinary growth of the civil disasters of the state, from the overthrow of Carthage. A rapacious pursuit of wealth now took place; and the success with which it was unhappily attended, soon led to a profuse in dulgence of vicious pleasures. This

never ceased, but profligately grew. in proportion to the decay of the empire, to which it materially contributed. From private degeneracy necessarily arose public corruption. The unprincipled acquisition of immoderate riches was followed by the mad and insatiable love of power; and the common tranquillity was sacrificed to the desperate efforts of ambitious chiefs contending for the sovereignty of their country. Of the cruelty which marked three civil contentions, Dr. Ireland gives a brief but animated sketch, and contrasts them with the clemency which, in a subsequent age, distinguished the successes and victories of Theodosius. Out of the circumstances, however, of horror and desolation which accompanied the ambitious contests of Rome, naturally grew that form of government which was established in the em pire at the time chosen by the Divine wisdom for the appearance of our Saviour upon earth. Though the people of Rome had to lament the failure of their expectations of happiness from the imperial autho rity, the purpose of the Gospel was answered; and this is a circumstance on which the Christian

writers fondly dwell. The long and successful labours of kings and consuls were finally vested in the sole and undisputed sway of Au gustus; and in the settlement of the empire, and the wide extent of its territory, they hail the preparations divinely permitted in the kingdoms of the earth for the more free and effectual agency of the faith of Christ. Fierce, indeed, were the trials to which that faith was exposed, notwithstanding these preparations. Yet it was destined to succeed; and its influence finally reaching the seat of sovereignty, was to be the seal of the Christian triumph over the world at large. Meanwhile the imperial authority went on, unconscious of the sacred purposes attached to it by the Divine hand, and accomplishing jects those civil evils which resulted

on its sub

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