Where, indeed, is character more imperatively required, and where do its proportions display themselves more effectively, than in the legislative halls of a great nation? On such a responsible scene, crowded with momentous interests, and overshadowed by awful temptations, character appears invested with a solemn propriety. And, as it stands at the stormy source of national action, with the perspective of history for its background, and the auroral gleam of Christian promise on its brow-moderating by its wisdom, and propelling by its energy, those counsels and interests that are to influence the destiny of ages-the world does not exhibit a sublimer spectacle.

E. W. R.

ART. XII.

Tertullian.

THE student of church history naturally cherishes a peculiar reverence for the names next in order upon the list of worthies after the apostles themselves, namely, the Apostolic Fathers. Nor is that reverence commonly limited to them. Even to their successors, the early Christian Fathers, though one step farther removed from the days of special illumination, we quite unconsciously transfer a portion of the glory of the New Testament times. As we grope our way through the conflicts and darkness of ages back to the earlier Christian times, and stand at less than a century's remove from the Apostle John, we seem to exchange friendly salutations with the "beloved disciple," and to catch the apostolic hue of Christian truth.

The reasons of this seeming may not be altogether obvious. It may be that "distance lends enchantment to the view." It may be that the scantiness of their personal history throws around them an air of mysterious dignity, and enhances in our minds their real greatness. And it

may be that our imaginations are inflamed by the simple proximity of the Fathers to the days of wondrous providences. But whatever may be the reasons of such investiture of greatness, the fact itself is undeniable on the one hand, and the lack of sufficient historical warrant therefor is equally undeniable on the other.

The Apostolic Fathers were in part cotemporary with the apostles themselves, and are supposed to have been instructed by them. Their writings, however, contrast most strikingly with those of the apostles in the New Testament, both in regard to their subject-matter, and the mode of its presentation. To account for this, is a problem, the solution of which requires a recognition of other than merely human influences. These writings fall within a period of about sixty years, reaching from A. D. 90, to A. D. 150. Had the Apostolic Fathers written with the same general and specific helps as were enjoyed by the apostles, qualified by those influences only which naturally arise in a changing, or even deteriorating, state of society, we might still have found change, but it would have been gradual change. We should not have seen a sudden dropping down from a heavenly altitude nearly to the level of earth-born philosophies.

Admit the hypothesis of the divine interposition, and the problem becomes easy of solution. The apostles, by the divine afflatus, were lifted far above the general level of their times. They were alike distinguished from those who went before them, and those who followed after. Deprived of this divine aid, the Apostolic Fathers, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of their times, were compelled to grapple with the great problems of Christianity as best they could. The claim of its simple facts became too manifest to be resisted by them. With the admission of those facts, there were introduced into human consciousness new moral forces which struggled continually for dominion. The guidance of inspiration having been withdrawn, it cannot be thought surprising that this struggle was but partially successful. It is the work of ages for the mind to perceive the full relations of a new thought to the mass of one's former ideas. And it is a still greater work, when that relation is perceived, to subject the whole soul to the sway of the new truth; to bring all

one's passions, affections, and aspirations, into loyalty to its power.

However feeble was the dominion of Christianity during the period immediately succeeding the apostles, such season of weakness was a necessary prelude to the fuller development of its power. Neander well remarks: "A phenomenon singular in its kind, is the striking difference between the writings of the apostles and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, who were so nearly their cotemporaries. In other cases, transitions are wont to be gradual; but in this instance we observe a sudden change. There are here no gentle gradations, but all at once an abrupt transition from one style of language to another; a phenomenon which should lead us to acknowledge the fact of a special agency of the Divine Spirit in the souls of the apostles. After the times of the first extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, followed the period of the free development of human nature in Christianity; and here, as in all other cases, the beginnings must be small and feeble, before the effects of Christianity could penetrate more widely, and bring fully under their influence the great powers of the human mind. It was to be shown first, what the divine power could effect by the foolishness of preaching."

Christianity having been thus established among the spiritual forces of the time, and its leading facts, which had thus far engrossed almost exclusive attention, being acknowledged, there soon grew up a necessity for defending the principles it involved. This work devolved in a large measure upon those immediate successors of the Apostolic fathers known as the early Christian Fathers.

Although the philosophy of Christian truth, previous to A. D. 150, had been comparatively little dwelt upon, yet the corrupting influence of Paganism had already begun to be felt. As Christianity won to itself admirers from the walks of philosophy no less than from the lower classes of society, it attracted proportionally the attention of men of learning from beyond the ranks of its professors. It was by no means unnatural that the subsequent development of Christianity should be largely moulded by the Pagan thought with which it was continually in contact.

1 Neander's History of the Christian Religion and Church. Vol. I. pp. 656 and 657.

Two circumstances, especially, would lead almost of necessity to such a result. Those Christians who themselves had been converted from Paganism, must have seen Christianity through Pagan eyes; and, while it won their honest admiration, it could but be more or less colored by the medium through which they saw it. But though the distortion of Christianity began here, it by no means ended here. A strong desire to make the new religion as acceptable as possible to their old companions, would lead the new converts, especially from the ranks of the philosophers, to employ Pagan formulas in the statement of Christian truths. Christianity would thus be made to wear more and more the hue of unsanctified philosophy. It is quite obvious that the kernels of most of the heresies which sprang up in the earlier times, were but Pagan ideas striving to palm themselves off as Christian verities. And the form of Christianity which at length gained general acceptance and became the orthodoxy of the Church, was far from being unaffected by the unhallowed contact.

While Paganism was thus moulding Christianity on the one hand, Judaism was exerting a similar influence on the other. And the divine sanction which had attended Judaism, gave it peculiar power. That power early showed itself in dissensions respecting Jewish ceremonies among the apostles themselves.

Notwithstanding Christianity was thus contaminated on either hand, its development was carried forward with surprising rapidity. In the double work, however, of defining Christianity as a system of truths, and of exhibiting its bearing upon existing religions, the wisest of the Fathers found an ample field for the exercise of their judgment, and abundant opportunity for the testing of their philosophical acumen.

As the work progressed, new controversies were continually arising, and new obligations of duty were supposed to be enjoined upon the professors of Christian truth. These requirements were represented to be more or less imperative, according to the temper and cast of mind of those who urged them. Hence there was no less controversy respecting Christian duty than there was respecting Christian truth.

The extent to which the corruptions of Christianity

might thus reach during the first century or two, may be proximately inferred from certain phenomena of our own time. Within a single century, the religious faith of Germany, for instance, has oscillated from a definite Bible foundation to the extreme of Rationalism, and back again. The sect of Mormons, also, planting themselves upon the baldest absurdities to which the human mind has ever assented, has risen within a quarter of a century, from the feeblest beginnings, and in spite of the severest reverses of fortune, to be a prosperous and influential community. But an illustration still more to our present purpose, is found in the revival of some of the earlier heresies of the Church-if those views can be called heresies of the Church, which had found previous place in the systems of Paganism. I allude to the supposed communications with spirits, and the gaining through them of a knowledge of divine things, which have taken such a hold upon the public mind within some half dozen years. Without entering into any criticism of these phenomena, we may be permitted to remark that the scholar will find them substantially anticipated in the pretensions of some of the heretical sects of the second or third century, and still earlier by the fanciful theories of some of the Pagan philosophers. Such rapid growth of errors in our own time, serves to illustrate what may have happened in the days of the Christian Fathers.

It will be seen, therefore, that in studying the most celebrated of the Christian Fathers, though we may be instructed by their style of thinking, by their forms of argumentation, and by their historic facts, we cannot surrender ourselves to their guidance. Not only must we deny them any portion of that authority which be longs to the apostles; but we cannot assume, à priori, that they are tolerable expositors of Christian truth.

Having thus glanced at some of the leading circumstances attending the early conflicts and development of Christianity, and thereby cleared the way for a dispassionate consideration of the subject more immediately in hand, we pass to a notice of the life and character of one of the most eminent of the Christian Fathers. If that life shall appear to lack the stirring incidents which mark the career of Constantine, or that character to be desti