XV.

sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards c h a p. the funeral pile *; the Christian, on these interesting occasions, was compelled to desert the persons who were the dearest to him, rather than contract the guilt inherent to those impious ceremonies. Every art and every trade that was Arts. in the least concerned in the framing or adorning of idols was polluted by the stain of idolatry †; a severe sentence, since it devoted to eternal misery the far greater part of the community, which is employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic professions. If we cast our eyes over the numerous remains of antiquity, we shall perceive, that besides the immediate representations of the Gods, and the holy instruments of their worship, the elegant forms and agreeable fictions, consecrated by the imagination of the Greeks, were introduced as the richest ornaments of the houses, the dress, and the furniture, of the Pagans. Even the arts of music and painting, of eloquence and poetry, flowed from the same impure origin. In the stile of the fathers, Apollo and the Muses were the organs of the infernal spirit, Homer and Virgil were the most U 2

eminent

* The ancient funerals (in those of Misenus and Pallas) are no less accurately described by Virgil, than they are illustrated by his commentator Servius. The pile itself was an altar, the flames were fed with the blood of victims, and all the assistants were sprinkled with lustral water.

Tertullian de Idolatria, c. 11.

19..

See every part of Monfaucon's Antiquities. Even the re- that, t verses of the Greek and Roman coins were frequently of an idolatrous nature. Here indeed the scruples of the Christian were suspended by a stronger passion.

XV.

CHA P. eminent of his servants, and the beautiful mythology which pervades and animates the compositions of their genius, is destined to celebrate the glory of the dæmons. Even the common language of Greece and Rome abounded with familiar but impious expressions, which the imprudent Christian might too carelessly utter, or too patiently hear *.

Festivals.

The dangerous temptations which on every side lurked in ambush to surprise the unguarded believer, assailed him with redoubled violence on the days of solemn festivals. So artfully were they framed and disposed throughout the year, that superstition always wore the appearance of pleasure, and often of virtue †. Some of the most sacred festivals in the Roman ritual were destined to salute the new calends of January with vows of public and private felicity, to indulge the pious remembrance of the dead and living, to ascertain the inviolable bounds of property, to hail, on the return of spring, the genial powers of fecundity, to perpetuate the two memorable æras of Rome, the foundation of the city, and that of the republic, and to restore, during the humane license of the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of mankind. Some idea may

be

* Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 20, 21, 22. If a Pagan friend (on the occasion perhaps of sneezing) used the familiar expression of "Jupiter bless you," the Christian was obliged to protest against the divinity of Jupiter.

† Consult the most laboured work of Ovid, his imperfect Fasti. He finished no more than the first fix months of the year. The compilation of Macrobius is called the Saturnalia, but it is only a small part of the first book that bears any relation to the

title.

be conceived of the abhorrence of the Christians cHAP. for such impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous XV. delicacy which they displayed on a much less alarming occasion. On days of general festivity, it was the custom of the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a garland of flowers. This innocent and elegant practice might, perhaps, have been tolerated as a mere civil institution. But it most unluckily happened, that the doors were under the protection of the household gods, that the laurel was sacred to the lover of Daphne, and that garlands of flowers, though frequently worn as a symbol either of joy or mourning, had been dedicated in their first origin to the service of superstition. The trembling Christians, who were persuaded in this instance to comply with the fashion of their country, and the commands of the magistrate, laboured under the most gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches of their own conscience, the censures of the church, and the denunciations of Divine vengeance *.

Such was the anxious diligence which was re- Zeal for quired to guard the chastity of the gospel from Christian. the infectious breath of idolatry.

U 3

The supersti

tious

*Tertullian has composed a defence, or rather panegyric, of the rash action of a Christian soldier, who, by throwing away his crown of laurel, had exposed himself and his brethren to the most imminent danger. By the mention of the emperors, (Severus and Caracalla,) it is evident, notwithstanding the wishes of M. de Tillemont, that Tertullian composed his treatise De Coronâ, long before he was engaged in the errors of the Montanists. See Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iii. p. 384.

ity.

XV.

CHA P. tious observances of public or private rites were carelessly practised, from education and habit, by the followers of the established religion. But as often as they occurred, they afforded the Christians an opportunity of declaring and eonfirming their zealous opposition. By these frequent protestations, their attachment to the faith was continually fortified, and, in proportion to the increase of zeal, they combated with the more ardour and success in the holy war, which they had undertaken against the empire of the dæmons.

THE SE

COND

CAUSE.

trine of

the im

of the

soul a

mong the

phers;

II. The writings of Cicero* represent, in the most lively colours, the ignorance, the errors, The doc- and the uncertainty, of the ancient philosophers, with regard to the immortality of the soul. mortality When they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of death, they inculcate, as an philoso- obvious, though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the calamities of life; and that those can no longer suffer who no longer exist. Yet there were a few sages of Greece and Rome who had conceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of human nature; though it must be confessed, that, in the sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by their

In particular, the first book of the Tusculan Questions, and the treatise De Senectute, and the Somnium Scipionis, contain, in the most beautiful language, every thing that Grecian philosophy, or Roman good sense, could possibly suggest on this dark, but important object.

XV.

their vanity. When they viewed with compla- C H A P.
cency the extent of their own mental powers,
when they exercised the various faculties of me--
mory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most
profound speculations, or the most important la-
bours, and when they reflected on the desire of
fame, which transported them into future ages
far beyond the bounds of death and of the grave;
they were unwilling to confound themselves with
the beasts of the field, or to suppose, that a be-
ing, for whose dignity they entertained the most
sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of
earth, and to a few years of duration. With
this favourable prepossession, they summoned to
their aid the science, or rather the language, of
Metaphysics. They soon discovered, that as

none of the properties of matter will apply to the athutacand
operations of the mind, the human soul must
consequently be a substance distinct from the
body, pure, simple, and spiritual, incapable of
dissolution, and susceptible of a much higher de-
gree of virtue and happiness after the release
from its corporeal prison. From these specious
and noble principles, the philosophers, who trod
in the footsteps of Plato, deduced a very unjus-
tifiable conclusion, since they asserted, not only
the future immortality, but the past eternity of
the human soul, which they were too apt to con-
sider as a portion of the infinite and self-existing
spirit, which pervades and sustains the universe *.
A doc-

U 4

* The pre-existence of human souls, so far at least as that doctrine is compatible with religion, was adopted by many of the Greek and Latin fathers. See Beausobre, Hist. du Ma nicheisme, 1. vi. c. 4.