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it may be there for a witness against thee; for I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord, and how much more after my death? For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you." Now I appeal to you whether any thing can be more pointed and express than this warning of the Hebrew legislator? And is not the truth of his prediction verified by every part of their history? Examine the writings of the prophets and you find them lifting up their voice like a trumpet, calling the Israelites to repentance on account of their departures from the law of their God, and for having corrupted their way before him. And if you will take the trouble to examine the matter—and I am sure it is every man's duty so to do -you will find the case to be precisely similar under the new covenant, the gospel dispensation. The king of the New Testament church has given his disciples, in the example of the first churches and the writings of his apostles, a clear revelation of his mind and will in all the affairs of his kingdom. The Acts of the Apostles are recorded for the purpose of showing us how his kingdom was set up at the first-the doctrine on which it was founded-what were its laws, institutions, and ordinances-who are the proper subjects of it—and how they should obey his will: and the writings of the apostles abound with cautions, admonitions, and warnings against either perverting the gospel, or departing from the laws and institutions which the Saviour has ordained. On this head it might suffice to remind you of the cautions which the apostles have given in their writings "not to be carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and their cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" to "mark such as cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which they had delivered to them”—and they are warned against "false teachers, who should privily bring in damnable heresies,” that is, they would slily introduce heresies of destruction. Does not Paul apprise the church at Thessalonica of an awful apostacy that was then hatching, even in his own day; and which, as soon as the heathen Roman emperor should be removed out of the way (an event which took place in the beginning of the fourth century, when the emperor

APOSTOLIC WARNINGS TO THE CHURCHES.

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Constantine embraced Christianity), should reveal the man of sin, the son of perdition, sitting in the church of God, and assuming divine honours-" whose coming was to be with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." 2 Thess. ii. We all know how arrogantly the church of Rome boasts of her connexion with the apostle Peter, as her founder and champion. But attend, I beseech you, to the language of that same apostle in reference to the point in hand :-"I will not be negligent," says he, "to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and are established in the present truth. Moreover, I will endeavour that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance."—"But as there were false prophets among the people (of old), even so there shall be false teachers among you, who shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction-and many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be reproached; and in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandize of you. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour. Even as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles speaking of these things. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye knew these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away by the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." We know that, in the grand apostacy, the church of Rome took the lead of all other churches; but, had she paid proper attention to these solemn admonitions and warnings and held fast the faithful word, that Antichristian apostacy never could have taken place. The Scriptures of the Old Testament, containing the words that were spoken before by the holy prophets, were the only rule of religion for the Jewish church, until the Messiah came to give them a new revelation, according to those very scriptures to which he constantly appealed from their tradition. The Holy Spirit interprets these Scriptures in the new revelation which is con

tained in the New Testament, setting forth the commandment of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour. And these writings of the Old and New Testament, thus taken together, are, according to the apostle Peter, the only rule of the Christian religion since the decease of the apostles. And, in like manner, as the writings of Moses and the prophets were kept among the Jews amidst all their corruptions, testifying against them, and were appealed to by Christ and his apostles, just as the Jews then had them, in opposition to the corrupt interpretation which they had received by tradition from the fathers—even so the language of Peter most plainly implies that the apostolic writings would be preserved after their death permanently among Christians, in the midst of all the aboundings of error and corruption which should take place, as a testimony against them-and such is demonstrably the fact.

Now we have only to apply these remarks to the case of the Novatianist churches, the first Protestant dissenters which are upon record, in order to exonerate them entirely from the charge of heresy and schism with which they have been so liberally assailed by the Catholic church in every subsequent age, and even by some Protestant writers of our own time. They were persecuted for their nonconformity, but the word of God fully countenanced their separation from a community which was every day becoming increasingly corrupt, and which, in a few centuries after, became, in the language of the Apocalypse, "the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird," Rev. xviii. 2,-while, to the churches of the Novatianists and their successors, it might be truly said, "Here is the patience of the saints-here are they that kept the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," ch. xiv. 12. The flood of light which has poured in of late years upon Christian society, on all questions connected with the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, will leave every church inexcusable, whether episcopalian, presbyterian, or nonconformist, which does not attempt to bring itself back from all its departures from the apostolic rule, whether of doctrine or discipline, to the great standard of primitive simplicity. Systems of ecclesiastical rule will no longer be judged of by their exterior recommendations of worldly pomp and splendour, but by their consistency with the word of God. All error must fall-all truth must prevail.

LECTURE XVI

Review of the Persecutions which took place during the Third Century-Dreadful State of the Roman Empire about the middle of the Century-Abounding Apostacy among the Christians-Testimony of Cyprian and Eusebius-Reflections—Controversy in the Churches respecting the Lapsed-Pamphilus of Casarea-his exemplary Character, Learning, and Martyrdom-Internal State of the Churches-Origin of Prayers for the Dead Fastings and Mortifications—Monks and Hermits, &c. A. D. 200 to 300.

ALTHOUGH I have had occasion in some late Lectures incidentally to mention several of the persecutions to which the Christians were exposed during the third century, while the government of the empire still continued heathen; yet there were others which I have scarcely adverted to; and as the fall of Paganism now approximated, when an end was to be put to the suffering state of the church from that quarter, I purpose to devote the present Lecture to a review of the entire subject:-a succinct account of the several persecutions as they occurred during this third century; after which I shall advert to some other matters connected with the subject of Church History and which belong to the same period.

At the beginning of the third century, the government of the Roman empire was vested in the hands of Severus, who had then swayed the imperial sceptre about thirteen years with great moderation, and his reign, upon the whole, had been favourable to the Christians. In the year 202, however, the scene changed, and the flames of persecution raged throughout all those coun

tries which were subject to the Romans. To check the progress of Christianity, a law was passed by which every subject of the empire was prohibited from changing the religion of his ancestors for that of either the Christians or Jews. This law, as Mosheim tells us, was, in its effects, most prejudicial to the Christians; for though it did not formally condemn them, and seemed only adapted to put a check to the further progress of the gospel, yet it induced rapacious magistrates to persecute, even unto death, the poorer sort among the Christians, that thus the richer might be led, through the fear of similar treatment, to purchase their safety at an exorbitant rate. Hence numbers of Christians were put to death, both in Egypt and also in several parts of Asia and Africa, in consequence of this law, among whom were Leonidas, the father of Origen, those two celebrated females, Perpetua and Felicitas,* with a long list of martyrs of both sexes. It was during this persecution that Irenæus of Lyons, and Victor of Rome, among vast numbers of inferior note, sealed their testimony with their blood. This persecution induced Tertullian to publish his Apology.

What is called the sixth persecution, the weight of which fell chiefly on the pastors of the churches, took place in the year 235, during the reign of the emperor Maximin, who had been instrumental in assassinating his predecessor, and consequently dreaded the resentment of the Christians, to whom he well knew such conduct must be odious, -the more so as the victim of his cruelty had favoured and protected them in a distinguished manner, treating the bishops as his intimate friends. During this reign the Christians suffered in the most barbarous way; for not only were the leading men among them seized and put to death, but the heathen magistrates and the multitude were goaded by the Pagan priests to exercise shocking barbarities on the disciples of Christ of every rank and order. It was during this period that the celebrated Origen so much distinguished himself by his zeal and energetic exhortations of the martyrs, intreating them to become examples of patience and constancy. The storm, however, in time, subsided, and was succeeded by a calm, in which the Christians enjoyed a happy tranquillity for several years.

* See p. 256.

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