'No sooner had Constantine the Great abolished the superstitions of his ancestors, than magnificent churches3 were every where erected for the Christians, which were richly adorned with pictures and images, and bore striking resemblance to the Pagan temples, both in their outward and inward form. Of these churches some were built over the tombs of martyrs, and were frequented only at stated times; while others were set apart for the ordinary assemblies of Christians.Both of them were consecrated with great pomp, and with certain rites borrowed, mostly, from the ancient laws of the Roman pontiffs.' Frequent pilgrimages, the excessive multiplication of festivals in honor of the martyrs, an extravagant veneration for departed saints, absurd notions of a certain fire destined to purify separate souls, the imposition of frequent fasts, the celebration of the Lord's supper at the tombs of martyrs, whence originated masses, the holding up of the bread and wine to be reverenced by the people", a belief in the mysterious efficacy of relics, of holy water, and of the images of saints38, were practices and superstitions, all of which ex

35 The masterly historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, speaking of those erected by Constantine in its principal cities, says, 'the walls, the columns, the pavement, were incrusted with variegated marble; and the most precious ornaments of gold and silver, of silk and gems, were profusely dedicated to the service of the altar.' Voł. III. p. 293.

36 It is shewn at large in Sir I. Newton's Obs. on Dan. (p. 209-231), that the worship and invocation of saints became a common and authorised practice in the 4th century.

37 This practice, together with the language held in this century by some of the fathers, laid a foundation for the most absurd of all doctrines, the doctrine of transubstantiation. Thus Jerom, when speaking of the frugal manner with which Exuperius of Tholouse administered the Lord's Supper, says, he carries the body of Christ in a basket of osiers, and his blood in a glass-cup.' Hieronymi Epist. Rustico Monaco.

38 The sign of the cross also was used as a kind of charm, not only in the services of religion, but in the most indifferent actions of life. Sir I. Newton's Obs. on Dan. ch. xiii, and Bingham's Antiq. of the Chr. Ch. b. xi. ch. 10.

tensively prevailed in this century, and received the greatest encouragement39. Christianity was now indeed completely paganised. The religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very little in its external appearance from that of the Christians. They had both a most pompous and splendid ritual. Gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, waxtapers crosiers, processions, lustrations, images, gold and silver vases, and many such circumstances of pageantry, were EQUALLY to be seen in the heathen temples and the Christian churches". And it was in this century, that

39 The words of Vigilantius, as quoted by his antagonist Jerom, do, says Daubuz, demonstrate that the errors in the common practice of the people, were greater than what we find in the authors' of that time. Vigi. lantius opposed the invocation and worship of saints; prayers for the dead; the adoration of relics and images; the burning of tapers by day; and the celibacy of the clergy.' So far Daubuz (on Rev. p. 392). What was the consequence of his virtuous opposition to the tide of popu, lar superstitions? He was frowned upon as a person guilty of heresy, 'Vigilantius,' says Jortin, was insulted and reviled by Jerom.-It is really a wonder that he fared no worse, and that some zealous monk did not beat his brains out with the jaw-bone of a martyr. "It appears not," says Fleury, "that the heresy of Vigilantius gained ground, and that' there was occasion for any council to condemn it." It is true enough. His heresy slept till the Reformation awakened it; and since that time, all Protestants, all such, I mean, as have not renounced common sense, are of the same opinion about these things with Vigilantius.' Jortin, vol. IV. p. 225.

40 The custom of keeping the lamps lighted in the day-time, now so common in Roman Catholic countries, prevailed in the churches both of the East and West. See Bingham's Antiq. of the Chr. Ch. b. viii. ch. 6. sect. 21.

41 Faustus, an African prelate, who flourished according to Lardner in the year 384, in a book written in defence of the Manichæans, speaks of the orthodox, that is to say of the greater part of Christians, in the following terms. "You have substituted your Agape to the sacrifices of the Pagans, and to their idols your martyrs, whom you serve with the very same honors. You appease the shades of the dead with wine and feasts; you celebrate the solemn festivals of the Gentiles, their calends and their solstices; and as to their manners, those you have retained without any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the Pagans, except that you hold your assemblies apart from them.' Jortin, vol. II. p. 57. In these charges, says Dr. Jortin, there is somewhat of falshood and exaggera

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persons first arose, who worshipped the Blessed Virgin as a goddess, and judged it necessary to appease her anger, and seek her favor and protection, by libations, sacrifices, and oblations.'

With respect to fasting, 'it was considered, in this century, as the most effectual and powerful means of repelling the force, and disconcerting the stratagems, of evil spirits, and of appeasing the anger of an offended Deity. Hence we may easily understand what induced the rulers of the church to establish this custom by express laws, and to impose, as an indispensable duty42, an act of humiliation; the observation of which had hitherto been left to every one's choice.' The mode of fasting became also essentially different. Formerly those who submitted themselves to the discipline of fasting abstained from meat and drink; but now a mere abstinence from flesh and wine was by many judged sufficient for the purposes of fasting, and this latter opinion prevailed, from this time, and became universal among the Latins.-The quadragesimal or lent fast was held more sacred than all the rest, though it was not as yet confined to a certain number of days.'

The example of those who introduced into Mesopotamia and Syria the practice of monastic retirement, • was followed with such rapid success, that, in a short time, the whole East was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who abandoning all human connections, advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a languishing life amidst the hardships of want, and various kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous communion with God and angels. From the East this gloomy institution passed into

tion; but at the same time it must be confessed that there is also some truth, and that paganism had already begun to enter along with the Pagans into the church,' On the degree of credit which is due to the allegations of Faustus, M. de Beausobre has treated at great length and in a masterly manner. Histoire du Manicheisme, tom. 11. p. 629–700.

42 Men, however, were not to fast, but when the church pleased. The council of Gangra, convened about the year 370, in their 18th canon, anathematises him who presumes to keep a fast on a Sunday.

the West, and first into Italy and its neighboring islands;' and thence it extended gradually its progress through the other provinces and countries of Europe. If the enthusiastic frenzy of the monks exaggerated, in a manner pernicious to the interests of morality, the discipline that is obligatory upon Christians; the interests of virtue and true religion suffered yet more grievously by two monstrous errors which were almost UNIVERSALLY adopted in this century, and became a source of innumerable calamities and mischiefs in the succeeding ages. The first of these maxims that it was an act of virtue, to deceive and lye, when by that means the interests of the church might be promoted; and the second equally horrible, though in another point of view, was, that errors in religion, when maintained and adhered to after proper admonition, were punishable with civil penalties and corporal tortures.'

was,

With respect to the days, set apart for the commemoration of the martyrs, days which were so extravagantly mul

43 It was in Egypt, and in the year 306, that monks were first collected into societies. But, at the latter end of the 4th century, the number of Egyptian monks only, upon a moderate computation, is supposed to have been 76,000; and that of the nuns 21,000.-Constantine held in the highest veneration those who addicted themselves to the divine philosophy as it was called in those days, that is, to monkery; and the holy women who preserved a perpetual virginity, these he almost adored. So says Eusebius, who was carried away himself with the torrent, and overvalued this strange way of life.' Jovian, elected emperor in 363, decreed, that whosoever courted a nun, and enticed her to marriage, should be put to death. The council of Illiberis, assembled about the commencement. of the fourth century, in its 33d canon, prescribes celibacy to all orders of clergy. The Fathers of those times, as Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen,' (they both of them flourished and died in the 4th century) and who not, but particularly Chrysostom with his popular eloquence, contributed, to the utmost of their power, to encourage the superstitious veneration and invocation of saints, the love of monkery, and the belief of miracles wrought by monks and reliques.' The manner in which Jerom extolled celibacy and depressed matrimony was, says Jortin, fanatical and scandalous; and Ambrose, in his zeal for virginity, exhorted girls to enter into the monastic state, even against the will of their parents.' Jortin, vol. II. 2d ed. p. 156, 169; vol. IV. 1st ed. p. 18, 37, 104, 118, 168.

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tiplied, they were squandered away in indolence and in voluptuousness. Indeed the number of immoral and unworthy Christians began so to increase, that the examples of real piety and virtue became extremely rare.—When MOST OF THE BISHOPS exhibited to their flock the contagious examples of arrogance, luxury, effeminacy, animosity, and strife, with other vices too numerous to mention46; when the inferior rulers and doctors of the church

44 Gregory of Nyssa went to Jerusalem, to try whether he could pacify the quarrels there amongst the Christians. He tells us, that instead of finding the virtues which might have been expected from the inhabitants of the Holy Land, he found the place to be a sink of iniquity and debauchery, the seat of envy, malice, adultery, robbery, murdér, idolatry, poisoning, and bloodshed, where men assassinated others for a trifling re ward, so that in no place were murders so frequently and so easily committed. Such were the Christians of Jerusalem in the 4th century, a century so abundant in saints and miracles! Jortin, vol. IV. p. 69.

45 The bishops were no less servile than they were arrogant. Dr. Jortin, speaking of Constantius and the numerous prelates who composed the council of Rimini, says, the compliments paid to the emperor by these bishops were really scandalous.-It it strange that Christian emperors of the fourth and fifth centuries would suffer themselves to be called Your Eternity, Your Divinity, Your Godship.' vol. IV. p. 4. But they did not merely suffer this. The title nostrum numen Honorius and Theodosius did themselves impiously assume; whilst nostra divinitas and nostrum divinum præceptum were expressions employed by Theodosius and Valentinian Vossius de Idololatatria, lib. iii, c. 17.

46 Amongst the causes which made Gregory (Nazianzen) desirous of declining the office of a bishop or of a presbyter, he mentions the mean and scandalous manner by which many, unworthy as they were, endeavored to acquire those stations, and the multitude of competitors for ecclesiastical preferments. They consider this dignity, says he, not as a station wherein they ought to be a pattern of every virtue, but as a trade to get money; not as a ministry and a stewardship, of which an account must be given, but as a magistracy subject to no examination.' Le Clerc as quoted and translated by Jortin. Sulpitius Severus, who was himself a priest, and published an ecclesiastical history about the close of the 4th century, bestows a bad character upon MOST of the prelates of his time,' and censures their scandalous contentions and their vile practices.' Jortin, vol. IV. p. 90, 98. Scarcely have the most profligate of the Roman pontiffs, in any period, betrayed a greater want of decency in oppressing those who have been committed to their pastoral care, than George of Cappadocia, who was archbishop of Alexandria in the reign of Constantius,