them to leave all their substance, and promised to conduct them through the sea, as on dry land, and bring them into the land of promise. Numbers were so infatuated, as to neglect their business, and leave their possessions to any who chose to seize them. On the day fixed by the impostor, he went before them, and they followed with their wives and little ones. It was a memorable instance of that "blindness* which has happened to Israel till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in," and fulfils the Scripture account of their penal folly. When he had led them to a promontory, he ordered them to throw themselves into the sea. None of them, it seems, had the caution, to insist on his setting the example. Those who were at the brink of the precipice leaped down, many of whom perished, partly dashed against the rocks, and partly drowned; and many more would have perished, had not a number of fishermen providentially been present, who saved their lives. These, enlightened at length by experience, prohibited the rest from taking the leap. And they all now sought the impostor, in order to destroy him but he had made his escape. Many of the Cretian Jews were on this occasion brought over to the Christian faith. Two controversies shook the churches of the East in this reign, on which far more has been written than tends to edification. The first was the Nestorian, which was occasioned by the obstinacy of Nestorius, in objecting to a common phrase of the orthodoxy, namely, "Mary the mother of God." He seems to have regarded the union between the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ rather as moral than real, and to have preferred the idea of a connexion between the two natures to an union. As the last century had been remarkable for heresies, raised on the denial of the union of the three Persons in the Trinity, so this was disturbed by heresies, * Rom. xi. CENT. V. XII. CHAP. raised on the denial of the union of the divinity and humanity of the Son of God. Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, the opposer of Nestorius, seems, on the whole, to have expressed no more than the faith of the primitive church. But the serpentine wits of the East, favoured also by a language of exquisite subtilty and copiousness, found no end in cavilling. Eutyches, the monk, raised a second heresy, which denied the existence of two natures in the person of Jesus Christ. This extreme is opposite to that of Nestorius. How indecently and fiercely these controversies were agitated, how very little of practical godliness was applied to them by any party, and how much the peace of the church was rent, is well known. It belongs only to my purpose, and it is all the good which I can find in general to have resulted from the contests, to mention, that the doctrines of Scripture were stated by the two councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, and by the writings of those who were most esteemed in the church at that time. Such was the provident care of Christ over his Church, in the preservation of the fundamental truths relating to his person, and the union of the two natures in it, that all attempts to remove them from the mind by explaining them according to men's own imaginations, were subverted ; and the doctrine was transmitted safe to the Church in after ages, as the food and nourishment of humble and self-denying souls. The writings of Leo, bishop of Rome, are deservedly admired for their strength and perspicuity in clearing up this subject. A. D. 450. Theodosius died in the year 450. His sister Pulcheria remaining sole mistress of the Eastern empire, gave herself in marriage, for political reasons, to Marcian, whom she made emperor; nor does it appear that her religious virtues suffered any diminution till her death. Both Marcian and Pulcheria were as eminent for Christian piety as a superstitious age permitted persons of their exalted stations to be; and Marcian, who survived, died at the age of sixtyfive, in the year 457, renowned for his services to religion. The preservation of orthodoxy, the encouragement of good morals, and the destruction of idolatry, were his favourite objects. CENT. V. A. D. 457. A. D. Of his successor Leo, it is remarkable, that he forbad any judiciary proceedings on the Lord's day, or any plays and games. This law bears date 469. 469. At so late a period did the full observance of the most ancient of all divine institutions receive the sanction of human authority*! The same year he made a law against Simony, requiring men to be promoted to the episcopal office without their own choice, and declaring those, who are active in their endeavours for the promotion, to be unworthy of the office. Gennadius, archbishop of Constantinople, died about the year 473. The most remarkable thing I find in him is, that he never ordained any clergymen who could not repeat the Psalter without book. But I am disgusted with the prospect. It grows worse in the East to the end of the century. Doctrinal feuds and malignant passions involve the whole. Possibly in the view of some private and obscure scenes in the next Chapter, the reader may find something more worthy of his attention. A. D. 473. CHAP. XIII. CHRISTIAN WRITERS OF THIS CENTURY. THE great luminary of the fifth century has been copiously reviewed. The greatest praise of some of the rest is, that they illustrated and defended the evangelical views of faith and practice through him revived; yet amidst the gloom of superstition we See Genesis ii. CHAP. XIII. CHAP. Paulinus of A. D. may discover several rays of godliness, even among persons who had never read the bishop of Hippo. MARK*, the hermit, lived about the beginning of this century. He wrote on the spiritual life, and describes the conflicts and labours of men truly serious for eternity. Many of the ascetical or mystic writers are tarnished with Semi-Pelagianism. Mark is in the main an humble advocate for the doctrines of grace, and feels the depravity and helplessness of human nature. He describes views of the spirituality of the Law and the grace of the Gospel; and, amidst all his care to promote practical godliness, he protests against the idea of our being justified by our works, as a very dangerous notion. I regret that I can communicate no more of such a man. Even of his country I can find no account, except that he belonged to the Eastern church. THEOPHILUS, bishop of Alexandria, the unrighteous persecutor of Chrysostom, does not deserve a place in this list, on account of his writings, which are futile, and breathe a worldly spirit. But a reflection he made at the hour of his death may merit the attention of political and ambitious dignitaries of the church. "How happy, said he, art thou, Arsenius, to have had always this hour before thine eyes!" which shows, said a writer of that time, that monks who retire from the world to mourn in the wilderness, die more peaceably than bishops, who go out of their dioceses to disturb the peace of the church by caballing at court. It seems, Theophilus had lived, as if he were never to die. PAULINUS, of Nola, if not one of the most learnNola, born, ed, was one of the most humble and pious writers of his time. He was born at Bourdeaux about the 453. year 453. He had a classical style and taste, and being of an illustrious family, had advanced to the greatest dignities of the empire. He married The *See Du Pin, from whom I derive particular information on subjects of this nature. Therasia, a rich lady, by whom he obtained a great estate. It pleased God to inspire his wife with the love of heavenly things, and she had great influence in inducing her husband to prefer a retired life before the grandeur of the world. In the prosecution of this scheme there was as much of genuine piety, and as little of superstition as in any saints of these times. He gradually parted with his wealth, and observed in one of his epistles, that it was to little purpose for a man to give up his worldly wealth, except he denied himself; and that a man might renounce the world heartily, who did not part with all his riches. The people of Barcelona in Spain, where he lived in retirement, conceived so great an esteem for him, that they insisted on his ordination. He writes thus on the occasion to a friend: "On Christmas-day, said he, the people obliged me to receive the order of priesthood, against my will: not that I have any aversion to the office; on the contrary, I could have wished to have begun at the porter's order, and so have gradually risen into the clerical; I submitted, however, to Christ's yoke, and am now engaged in a ministry beyond my merit and strength. I can scarcely yet comprehend the weight of that dignity; I tremble, when I consider its importance, conscious as I am of my own weakness: but he that giveth wisdom to the simple, and out of the mouths of sucklings perfects praise, is able to accomplish his work in me, to give me his grace, and to make me worthy, whom he called when unworthy *." *This humble and serious language is the obvious effect of a spirit truly conscientious, deeply sensible of the holiness of God, and its own unworthiness. There is not any thing, in which primitive piety appears to more advantage, when compared to modern religion, than in a review of men's conduct with respect to the pastoral office. In our times it frequently happens, that youths, who have really a religious cast, fancy themselves adequate to the most important of all offices, before they have attained the age of twenty. Parents also too often look ou their dullest children, as competent to the sacred function; and it is much to be feared, that worldly lucre is the spring that CENT. V. |