conclusion must be endured. To attempt to resist that conclusion, is to resist truth itself; to be afraid to do justice to the arguments that may lead to that conclusion, is to surrender it, without resistance. THE PAGANS THE CHRISTIANS 1. Apologised for all the apparent absurdities of their system, by pleading that nothing in it was to be understood according to the gross and revolting sense of the letter, but that the whole was to be explained conformably to a mystical allegorical meaning which conveyed the most sublime truths. 1. Use precisely the same argument in defence of their system, only denying the benefit of it, to their Pagan adversaries. 2. "For those who preside over the holy Scriptures, philosophise over them, and expounding their literal sense by allegory." Eusebius, concerning the Therapeutan priests. CICERO. Concerning the Pagan Augurs. 3. "No order of true religion passes over the law concerning the description of priests. 4. "For some have been instituted for the business of pacifying the Gods. 5." To preside at sacred ceremonies. 6. Others to interpret the predictions of the prophet. 7." Not of the many, lest the number should be infinite. 8." But that none beside the College should understand those predictions which had been publicly recognized. 2. God also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. (2 Corinth 3, 6.)— Which things are an allegory. (4 Gal. 24). St. Paul, concerning the Christian priests. THE NEW TESTAMENT. Concerning the Christian Bishops. 3. And God hath set some in the church-first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers.-1 Corinth. xii. 28. 4. O Lord spare thy people, and be not angry with us for ever.-Liturgy.* 5. Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge.-1 Corinth. xiv. 29. 6. And let one interpret.-1 Corinth. xiv. 27. 7. Let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course.-1 Corinth. xiv. 27. 8. Because it is given unto you (the College of Apostles) to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.- Matt. xiii. 11. This attribute of being angry for ever, is peculiar to the Christian God, and has become, in consequence, peculiarly characteristic of Christians. CICERO. 9." For augury, or the power of foretelling future events, is the greatest and most excellent thing in the republic, and naturally allied to authority. 10." Nor do I thus think, because I am an augur myself; but because it is absolutely necessary for us to think so. 11. "For if the question be of legal right, what is greater than the power to put away from the highest governments, their right of holding counsels, and issuing decrees; or to abolish them when holden? What more awful, than for any thing undertaken, to be done away, if but one augur hath said otherwise. NEW TESTAMENT. 9. For greater is he that prophesieth, than he that speaketh with tongues. Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophecy. He that prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation, and comfort.-1 Corinth xiv. 3. 10. Neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me.-1 Corinth. ix. 15.-Inasmuch as I am the apostles of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.-Rom. xi. 13. 11. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?-1 Corinth. vi. 3. If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man, and a publican.-Matt. xviii. 17. 12. What more magnifi- 12. Verily I say unto you, cent than to be able to decree, whatsoever ye shall bind on that the supreme governors earth, shall be bound in heaven; should resign their magistracy? and whatsoever ye shall loose What more religious than to on earth, shall be loosed in give or not to give the right of heaven.-Matt. xvii. 18. treating or transacting business with the people? What than to annul a law if it hath not been duly passed,—and for nothing that hath been done by the government, either at home or abroad, to be approved by any one, without their authority ?*-De Legibus, lib. ii. 12." *No wonder, then, that such a power was not allowed to be held in separation from the imperial dignity itself. The Jewish Messiah, or Christ, united in his own person the several offices of prophet, priest, and king. The figures of Romulus, the founder of Rome, represent him as clad in the trabea, a robe of state, which implied an ecclesiastical as well as a secular dignity. The lituus, or staff of augury in his hand, is still retained as the crosier of our Christian bishops. "This latter mark of distinction (the episcopal crosier) usually attends the representations of the heads of Julius Casar in old gems and medals, in signification that he was high-priest and king, by the same right as Romulus had been." Bell's Pantheon in loco quo. Augustus, Vespasian, Verus, &c. are in like manner accompanied with the insignia of augury. So sacred were these holy orders, that none who had -PHILO. 13." In addition to these circumstances, Philo describes the order of preferment among those who aspire to ecclesiastical ministrations, and the offices of the deacons, and the pre-eminency above all of the bishop."-See chap. 10. NEW TESTAMENT. 13. To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.-1 Philip. i. For they that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.-1 Timothy iii. 13. ROYAL PRIESTS. AMONG the ancient Greeks, the dignity of the priesthood was esteemed so great in most of their cities, and especially at Athens, as to be joined with that of the civil magistrate. Thus Anius, in Virgil, was king of Delos, and priest of Apollo*. In Egypt, the kings were all priests; and if any one who was not of the royal family, usurped the kingdom, he was obliged to be consecrated to the priesthood, before he could ascend the throne. At Sparta, the kings, immediately upon their promotion, took upon them the two priesthoods of the heavenly, and the Lacedemonian Jupiter; and all the sacrifices for the safety of the commonwealth, were offered by them only. SUBORDINATE CLERGY. BESIDES these royal priests, there were others taken from the body of the people, and consecrated to the service of religion. These were all accounted the ministers of the gods, and by them commissioned to dispense their favour to mankind. Whoever was admitted to this holy office, was obliged to be of the most exemplary and virtuous character. They were required to be upright in mind and pure in heart and life, as well as perfect (apɛλɛç) in body they were to live chastely and temperately, abstaining from those pleasures which were considered innocent in other men. After their admission into holy orders, though marriage was not altogether forbidden, they were obliged and expected to preserve the most rigid once been a member of the sacred college, could ever be degraded the commission of the greatest enormity was not held competent to affect their indefeasible sanctity of character, or to forfeit their title of THE REVEREND; which their descendants still retain, in a never-interrupted succession of inheritance from their Pagan ancestors. : • Rex Anius, Rex idem hominum, Phoebique Sacerdos.-Virg. Æn. 3, v.80. chastity. They endeavoured to weaken or overcome " all the sinful lusts of the flesh," by drinking the juice of hemlock, and by strewing the herb agnus castus, or chaste lamb under their bed clothes, which was believed to possess refrigerating qualities. THE PRIESTS OF CYBELE WHO held the dignity of Theotokos, Deipara, or Mother of God, which has since been transferred to the Virgin Mary, so conscientiously cut themselves off from the faculty of sinful sensations, as to deserve the commendation of Christ himself-Matt. xix. 12; and to be imitated in so unequivocal a proof of sincere devotion, by the most learned and distinguished of christian bishops, Origen, Melito, &c. PARASITES OR DOMESTIC CHAPLAINS. ANOTHER holy order of priests, was that of the Parasiti, or Parasites, whose office was to gather from the husbandmen, the corn that was to be set aside for the services of the ministry. It was at last an office of great honour; the Parasites being by the ancient laws reckoned among the chief magistrates. In every village of the Athenians, they maintained these priests at the public expense; but afterwards, to ease the commonwealth of this burden, the wealthier sort were obliged to entertain them at their own tables, whence the word parasite, in later times, has been put for a flatterer, who, for the sake of a dinner, conforms to every one's humour. This holy order of Parasites, is continued in our Christian Church, in precisely the same character and function, under the less invidious name of domestic chaplains, who, hanging about the establishment of princes and nobles, generally contrive to worm themselves into the most lucrative ecclesiastical benefices upon the well-known economy, "Non missura est cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo*." CONVERSION FROM PAGANISM ΤΟ CHRISTIANITY, BROUGHT ABOUT ENTIRELY BY A TRANSFER OF NOTWITHSTANDING the conversion of Constantine to the * The leech will not drop from your skin till it is full of blood.-Horace. gatives of sovereign pontiff were accepted without hesitation, by seven successive Christian emperors. Gratian was the first who refused the pontifical robe*, and threw off the badges of Paganism; for though he retained the title of Sovereign Pontiff, he performed no part of its functions. From motives no doubt of the most disinterested piety, "this emperor seized the lands and endowments which had been allotted to maintain the priests and sacrifices of the ancient Paganism, and appropriated them to his own use."+ A. D. 382. We have yet extant, and happily I have here on my table, the celebrated oration delivered by Julius Firmicius Maternus, to the Emperors Constantius and Constans, the sons and successors of Constantine the Great; calling on those holy Emperors, to seize all the remaining property of the professors of Paganism, which his father had spared, and thus by reducing them to beggary, to starve them into salvation. "Take away, take away, in perfect security, (exclaims this disinterested Christian orator.) O! most holy emperors, take away all the ornaments of their temples. Let the fire of the mint, or the flames of the mines, melt down their gods. Seize upon all their wealthy endowments, and turn them to your own use and property.§ And O! most sacred emperors, it is absolutely necessary for you to revenge and punish this evil. You are commanded by the law of the Most High God, to persecute all sorts of idolatry with the utmost severity: hear and commend to your own sacred understandings, what God himself commands. He commands you not to spare your son, or your brother; he bids you plunge the avenging knife even into the heart of your wife that sleeps in your * Gibbon, vol. 3. p, 409. Lardner, vol. 4, p. 455. § Tollite, tollite securi, sacratissimi Imperatores, ornamenta templorum. Deos istos, aut monetæ ignis, aut metallorum coquat flamma. Donaria universa ad utilitatem vestram dominiumque transferte, (p. 59.) Sed et vobis, Sacratissimi Imperatores, ad vindicandum et puniendum hoc malum necessitas imperatur, et hoc vobis Dei summi lege præcipitur, ut severitas vestra idolatriæ facinus omnifarium persequatur. Audite et commendate sanctis sensibus vestris quid de isto facinore Deus jubeat. Nec filio jubet parci, nec fratri, et per amatam conjugem quæ est in sinu tuo, gladium vindicem ducit: amicum quoque sublimi severitate persequitur, et ad discerpenda sacrilegorum corpora, omnis populus armatur. Integris etiam civitatibus, si in isto fuerint facinore deprehensæ, decernuntur excidia. Misericordiæ suæ vobis Sacratissimi Imperatores, Deus summus præmia pollicetur.-Facite itaque quod jubet, complete quod præcipit, (p. 63.) De Errore Prof. Rel. |