VIEW TAKEN BY CHRISTIANS OF THEIR CALLING. 51

given freedom to the pupil of the eye; so also we are freed by baptism from sin, which, like a mist, obstructs the rays of the divine light; and the eye of the mind, by which alone we can discern what is divine, is kept free from obstructions, when the Holy Spirit flows down upon us from heaven. That the faith of the gospel is the one universal remedy for all mankind is plainly declared by the apostle Paul, when he says (Gal. iii. 23), Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.' Do you not hear that we no longer stand under that law which is attended with fear, but under the teacher of freedom, the Son of God? Then he adds those words by which all distinction of persons is taken away: For ye are all the children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.' Therefore," he goes on to say, "there are not in Christianity some possessing a higher wisdom, and others of a carnal mind, but all true Christians are freed from the dominion of carnal desires; they are become like one another in the Lord, and a clerical body."

As the introduction of such distinctions affecting the universality and equality of the Christian calling tended on the one hand to foster spiritual pride, so on the other hand it lowered the requirements of Christianity in reference to the great body of its professors; the distinction, diametrically opposed to the genius of the gospel, of a higher Christian perfection, for which only a few persons withdrawn from the world were fitted, and a common Christianity which allowed of secular engagements, and the ties of domestic life,-this distinction made "the way that leadeth unto life" broad for the many, which our Saviour pronounces "narrow" for all without exception. We learn from Clement of Alexandria, that there were persons who evaded exhortations to greater earnestness in the Christian life by the excuse “that they were no philosophers, that they had not learnt to read, and could not even read the Bible." Clement says in reply, • If they cannot read, this will be no excuse for them, since they

can hear the word of God; the gospel is not the property of the worldly-wise, but of those who are wise towards God. The scripture of the gospel which is divine, and yet can be learnt by the illiterate, is love," (that is, the gospel must evince its presence in the hearts of all Christians alike in its divine power, vitally and efficaciously by love).

Moreover Christians regarded with joy their new condition as that of children in relation to the new life acquired through Christ, the new childlike relation to their heavenly Father, the holy filial devotedness to God, free from all selfishness and falsehood. Hence, in many districts in Africa, there was the symbolic custom of placing before the newly baptized a mixture of milk and honey, as a sign of Christian childhood, and of the childlike mind inseparable from it. Christ was the instructor of children, and condescended to all their necessities in order to draw them to himself. And Clement, in his hymn to Christ,† says, "Assemble thy simple children to praise piously, to sing hymns without guile, with mouths unknowing of evil, to Christ, the leader of children."

They were also pleased to regard themselves as free children in the kingdom of grace, in distinction from the servants under the law, or as slaves made free by the Redeemer. A Christian who was one of the slaves in the imperial service, and was brought before the tribunal with other Christians who were free citizens, in answer to the question who he was, replied: I am indeed one of Cæsar's slaves, but a Christian on whom Christ himself has bestowed freedom; by his beneficence and grace I am partaker of the same hope with those whom I here see before you."

We have already noticed how Tertullian allowed himself to

*The reading of the holy Scriptures occupied a principal part of the time in the public services of the Church; it was intended by this means to give those persons who could not read an opportunity of obtaining an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures.

Clem. Alex. Hymnus

p. 347. ed. Klotz.

† Τοὺς σοὺς ἀφελεῖς

Παῖδας ἄγειρον

Αἰνεῖν ἁγίως

Ὑμνεῖν ἀδόλως

̓Ακάκοις στόμασιν

Παίδων ἡγήτορα Χριστόν.

Christi, v. 5-10. (Pott. p. 312.) Opera, vol. i.

TERTULLIAN'S VIEWS OF SLAVERY.

53

be led away by a pious but one-sided extravagance of misdirected zeal to reject all crowning with garlands as something heathenish. As this led him to notice the various occasions on which this ceremony was performed, he mentions amongst others, the crowning of slaves on obtaining their manumission. He endeavoured to show that even this was no proper occasion for crowning Christians. Tertullian, by the constitution of his mind, was often impelled to push what was true in itself to an extreme, where it must mingle with falsehood; and in this particular case we cannot help perceiving, that while he justly appreciated the freedom bestowed by the Son of God as the highest, without which all other freedom is only a semblance, he fell into the error of undervaluing the importance of earthly freedom, which is a real good, though not the highest. Genuine Christianity, while it leads us to regard as nothing every thing else when compared with the highest good, the kingdom of God, acknowledges in other things, a due subordinate value; thus the Apostle Paul extols the freedom which the Redeemer gives, even to persons languishing in earthly bondage, as the highest and only true freedom, and yet says to the slave, "If thou mayest be made free, use it rather." (1 Cor. vii. 21.) Although we must make use of this to correct and limit what Tertullian says, according to the light in which the divine word instructs us to contemplate heavenly and earthly things, yet we feel ourselves carried away by the enthusiasm with which he speaks of the nature of that true freedom which is founded on internal dependence on the Lord. "Earthly freedom," he says, "gives crowns. But thou art already redeemed by Christ, and that at a great price. How can the world set free another's servant? Though it seems to be freedom, yet is it seen also to be servitude. In the world all things are imaginary, and nothing real. For even when according to civil relations thou wast a slave, thou wast free from man as redeemed by Christ; and now though made free by man, thou art Christ's servant. If thou thinkest that the freedom of the world is true liberty, so that thou even distinguishest it by a crown, thou hast returned to the service of man, which thou thinkest to be liberty; thou hast lost the freedom of Christ, which thou thinkest to be servitude."

"

But Christians were far from wishing to abuse that freedom

in which they gloried, by giving licence to the flesh; they knew, as appears from what has been said, that the true freeman was a servant of God, and that to serve him was their true happiness. They were conscious that the only true freedom consisted in being free to fulfil the law of love with delight and joy. "Not for this purpose," says Irenæus, “has he set us free, that we might forsake him (for no one who shuts himself out from the goods of his master, can himself obtain what is necessary for his happiness); but that the more we experience his grace, we may love him more."

CHAPTER V.

FAVOURITE EMBLEMS IN USE AMONG CHRISTIANS.

THE emblems which were in most frequent use among Christians in this age, show us the sentiments and ideas by which their inner life was animated. As yet, there were, indeed, no paintings and images in their simple places of worship, for they shunned the use of such embellishments as approaching too near the idolatry of the heathen, and we have already noticed that the absence of images made one ground of reproach cast upon their religion by the pagans. They did not, however, reject the use of the arts in domestic life. Here they saw walls, drinking vessels, seal-rings, covered with such images as were furnished by the heathen idolatry and mythology. But since these images could not harmonize with their Christian feelings, they felt compelled to substitute other images or emblems taken from the Christian life. A favourite figure on the goblets of Christians was the shepherd in our Saviour's parable, carrying a lamb on his shoulders: by this they expressed their constant gratitude to the Redeemer who had rescued them from a corrupt world, on whose grace alone they depended, while they rejoiced to consider themselves as sinners redeemed by him. On their sealrings they had most frequently such images as the following: -a dove, the well-known symbol of the Holy Spirit; a ship sailing towards Heaven, representing the Christian Church

INNER LIFE OF CHRISTIANS.

55

and the souls belonging to it; a lyre, signifying joy in the Holy Spirit, or the Christian living to the praise of God; an anchor, or the Christian hope entering within the veil; a fish or a fisherman, the spiritual draught of fishes (Matt. iv. 19); Christians as regenerated by baptism, as it were born of water (children whom the Redeemer has drawn out of the water, as Clement of Alexandria expresses himself); moreover, it so happens, that the Greek word for fish (IXOY) is composed of the frst letters of each word in the sentence Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Ocoû Yios, Zwτýp, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. In allusion to this, Tertullian says, "We little fishes (pisciculi) were born in water like our ixovv, Jesus Christ, and can only be saved by continuing in water;" i. e. only by fidelity to our baptismal covenant, and preserving the grace we then received. In these images with which Christians were most familiar, we perceive the direction of their thoughts to heaven, their childlike love to the Redeemer, and their consciousness that they could do nothing of themselves, but were indebted to him for everything; and thus we are led to speak of what was regarded as the animating principle of their inner life.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE INNER LIFE OF CHRISTIANS, AND ITS OUTWARD MODE OF MANIFESTATION.

Ir was the vital principle of Christianity, practically considered, that from fellowship with the Redeemer was derived the participation of his divine life, which gradually penetrated the whole nature of man, and manifested itself by a new and holy walk. "As the dry earth," says Irenæus, "when it is not moistened, brings forth no fruit, so we also-who were formerly only dry wood-can never bring forth the fruit of a divine life without dew from above." Man," the same writer observes, "having experienced from what misery he is freed, must be ever thankful to God; and after he has obtained from him the gift of immortal life, must love him so much the

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