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the affairs of the church. It is highly probable that the church of Jerusalem, grown considerably numerous, and deprived of the ministry of the apostles, who were gone to instruct the other nations, was the first which chose a president or bishop; and it is no less probable, that the other churches followed by degrees such a respectable example.

XII. Let none, however, confound the bishops of this primitive and golden period of the church with those of whom we read in the fol

These first deacons, being chosen from among the Jews who were born in Palestine, were suspected by the foreign Jews of partiality in distributing the offerings which were presented for the support of the poor. To remedy this disorder, seven other deacons were chosen, by order of the apostles, and employed in the service of that part of the church at Jerusalem, which was composed of the foreign Jews converted into Christianity. Of these new ministers six were foreigners, as appears by their names; the seventh was chosen out of the pro-lowing ages; for, though they were both disselytes, of whom there were a certain number tinguished by the same name, yet they differed among the first Christians at Jerusalem, and to in many respects. A bishop during the first whom it was reasonable that some regard and second century, was a person who had the should be shown, in the election of the dea- care of one Christian assembly, which, at that cons, as well as to the foreign Jews. All the time was, generally speaking, small enough to other Christian churches followed the example be contained in a private house. In this asof that of Jerusalem, in whatever related to sembly he acted, not so much with the authorthe choice and office of the deacons. Some, ity of a master, as with the zeal and diligence particularly the eastern churches, elected dea-of a faithful servant. He instructed the people, conesses, and chose for that purpose matrons or widows of eminent sanctity, who also ministered to the necessities of the poor, and performed several other offices, that tended to the maintenance of order and decency in the church.†

performed the several parts of divine worship, attended the sick, and inspected the circumstances and supplies of the poor. He charged, indeed, the presbyters with the performance of those duties and services, which the multiplicity of his engagements rendered it impossible for him to fulfil; but he had not the power to decide or enact any thing without the consent of the presbyters and people; and, though the episcopal office was both laborious and singularly dangerous, yet its revenues were extremely small, since the church had no certain income, but depended on the gifts or oblations of the multitude, which were, no doubt, inconsiderable, and were moreover to be divided among the bishops, presbyters, deacons, and poor.

XI. Such was the constitution of the Christian church in its infancy, when its assemblies were neither numerous nor splendid. Three or four presbyters, men of remarkable piety and wisdom, ruled these small congregations in perfect harmony; nor did they stand in need of any president or superior to maintain concord and order where no dissensions were known. But the number of the presbyters and deacons increasing with that of the churches, and the sacred work of the ministry growing more painful and weighty, by a number of additional XIII. The power and jurisdiction of the duties, these new circumstances required new bishops were not long confined to these narrow regulations. It was then judged necessary, limits, but were soon extended by the followthat one man of distinguished gravity and wis- ing means. The bishops, who lived in the dom should preside in the council of presby-cities, had, either by their own ministry, or ters, in order to distribute among his colleagues their several tasks, and to be a centre of union to the whole society. This person was, at first, styled the angel of the church to which he belonged, but was afterwards distinguished by the name of bishop, or inspector; a name borrowed from the Greek language, and expressing the principal part of the episcopal function, which was to inspect and superintend

term argos is also to be interpreted, not a young man
in point of age, but a minister or servant of the church.
St. Peter, having solemnly exhorted the presbyters not to
abuse the power that was committed to them, addresses
his discourse to the ministers: "But likewise, ye younger,
i. e. deacons, despise not the orders of the presbyters or
elders, but perform cheerfully whatsoever they command
you." In the same sense St. Luke employs this term,
Acts v. 6, 10. and his Tse and vivixo are undoubt-
edly the deacons of the church of Jerusalem, of whom
the Greek Jews complain afterwards to the apostles, (Acts
vi. 1, &c.) on account of the partial distribution of the
alms. I might confirm this sense of the words young men,
by numberless citations from Greek and Roman writers,
and a variety of authors, sacred and profane; but this is
not the proper place for demonstrations of this nature.
*Acts vi. 1, &c.

For an ample account of the deacons and deaconesses of the primitive church, see Zeigler, de Diaconis et Diaconissis, cap. xix. p. 347.-Basnagii Annal. Polit. Eccles. ad an. xxxv. tom. i. p. 450.-Bingham, Orig. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. xx.

Rev. ii. 3.

that of their presbyters, erected new churches in the neighbouring towns and villages. These churches, continuing under the inspection and ministry of the bishops, by whose labours and counsels they had been engaged to embrace the Gospel, grew imperceptibly into ecclesiastical provinces, which the Greeks afterwards called dioceses. But, as the bishop of the city could not extend his labours and inspection to all these churches in the country and in the villages, he appointed certain suffragans or deputies to govern and to instruct these new societies; and they were distinguished by the title of chorepiscopi, i. e. country bishops. This order held the middle rank between bishops and presbyters.

XIV. The churches, in those early times, were entirely independent, none of them being subject to any foreign jurisdiction, but each governed by its own rulers and its own laws; for, though the churches founded by the apostles had this particular deference shown to them, that they were consulted in difficult and doubtful cases, yet they had no juridical authority, no sort of supremacy over the others, nor the least right to enact laws for them. Nothing, on the contrary, is more evident than the perfect equality that reigned among the primitive

churches; nor does there even appear, in this first century, the smallest trace of that association of provincial churches, from which councils and metropolitans derive their origin. It was only in the second century that the custom of holding councils commenced in Greece, whence it soon spread through the other provinces.*

XV. The principal place among the Christian Doctors, and among those also, who by their writings were instrumental in the progress of the truth, is due to the apostles and some of their disciples, who were set apart and inspired by God, to record the actions of Christ and his apostles. The writings of these holy men, which are comprehended in the books of the New Testament, are in the hands of all who profess themselves Christians. Those who are desirous of particular information with respect to the history of these sacred books, and the arguments which prove their divine authority, their genuineness, and purity, must consult the learned authors who have written professedly upon that head.f

XVI. The opinions, or rather the conjectures of the learned, concerning the time when the books of the New Testament were collected into one volume, as also about the authors of that collection, are extremely different. This important question is attended with great and almost insuperable difficulties to us in these latter times. It is, however, sufficient for us to know, that, before the middle of the second century, the greatest part of the books of the New Testament were read in every Christian society throughout the world, and received as a divine rule of faith and manners. Hence it appears, that these sacred writings were carefully separated from several human compositions upon the same subject, either by some of the apostles themselves, who lived so long, or by their disciples and successors. We are well assured, that the four Gospels were formed into a volume during the life of St. John, and that the three first received the approbation of this divine apostle. And why may we not suppose that the other books of the New Testament were collected at the same time?

* The meeting of the church of Jerusalem, mentioned in the xvth chapter of the Acts, is commonly considered as the first Christian council. But this notion arises from a manifest abuse of the word council. That meeting was only of one church; and, if such a meeting be called a council, it will follow that there were innumerable councils in the primitive times. But, every one knows, that a council is an assembly of deputies, or commissioners, sent from several churches associated by certain bonds in a general body, and therefore the supposition above mentioned falls to the ground.

For the history of the books of the New Testament, see particularly Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Biblioth. Græc. lib. iv. cap. v. p. 122-227. The same learned author has given an accurate list of the writers, who have defended the divinity of these sacred books, in his Delectus Argumentorum et Syllabus Scriptorum pro verit. relig. Christianæ, cap. xxvi. p. 502.

See Jo. Ens, Bibliotheca S. seu Diatriba de librorum N. T. Canone, published at Amsterdam in 1710; as also Jo. Mill. Prolegomen. ad Nov. Test. sect. 1.

See Fricklus, de Cura Veteris Ecclesiæ circa Canon.

cap. iii.

This is expressly affirmed by Eusebius, in the xxivth chapter of the third book of his Ecclesiastical History.

XVII. What renders this highly probable is, that the most urgent necessity required its being done; for, not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by persons, whose intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all: productions appeared which were imposed upon the world by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy apostles.* These apocryphal and spurious writings must have produced a sad confusion, and rendered both the history and the doctrine of Christ uncertain, had not the rulers of the church used all possible care and diligence in separating the books that were truly apostolical and divine from all that spurious trash, and conveying them down to posterity in one volume.

Two

XVIII. The writer, whose fame surpassed that of all others in this century, the apostles excepted, was Clemens, bishop of Rome. The accounts which remain of his life, actions, and death, are for the most part uncertain. Epistles to the Corinthians, written in Greek, have been attributed to him, of which the second is deemed spurious, and the first genuine, by many learned writers.§ But even this seems to have been corrupted and interpolated by some ignorant and presumptuous author, who appears to have been displeased at observing a defect of learning and genius in the writings of so great a man as Clemens.||

XIX. The learned are now unanimous in regarding the other writings which bear the name of Clemens, viz. the Apostolic Canons, the Apostolic Constitutions, the Recognitions of Clemens and Clementina,§ as spurious pro

*Such of these writings as are yet extant have been carefully collected by Fabricius, in his Codex Apocryservations have been made on these spurious books by the phus Novi Testamenti. Many ingenious and learned obcelebrated Beausobre, in his Histoire Critique des Dogmes de Manichee.

After Tillemont, Cotelerius and Grabe have given some accounts of this great man; and all that has been

said concerning him by the best and most credible writers, has been collected by Rondinini, in the former of two books published at Rome, in 1706, under the following title, Libri Duo de S. Clemente, Papa, et Martyre, ejusque Basilica in urbe Roma.

J. A. Fabricius, in the fourth book of his Bibliotheca Græca, mentions the editions that have been given of St. Clements' epistles. To this account we must add the edition published at Cambridge, in 1718, which is preferable to the preceding ones in many respects.

See the ample account that is given of these two Greek epistles of Clemens, by Dr. Lardner, in the first volume of the second part of his valuable work, entitled, the Credibility of the Gospel History.

See J. Bapt. Cotelerii Patres Apost. tom. i.; and Bernardi Adnotatiunculæ in Clementem, in the last edition of these fathers of the church, published by Le Clerc. The learned Wotton has endeavoured, though without success, in his observations on the epistles of Clemens, to refute the annotations above mentioned.

Beside these writings attributed to Clemens, we may reckon two epistles which the learned Wetstein found in a Syriac version of the New Testament, which he took the pains to translate from Syriac into Latin. He has subjoined both the original and the translation to his famous edition of the Greek Testament, published in 1752; and the title is as follows: "Duæ Epistolæ S. Clementis Romani, Discipuli Petri Apostoli, quas ex Codice Manuscripto Novi Test. Syriaci nunc primum erutas, cum versione Latina ad posita, edidit Jo. Jacobus Wetstenius." The manuscript of the Syriac version, whence these epis

dicean library. The others are generally rejected as spurious. As to my own sentiments of this matter, though I am willing to adopt this opinion as preferable to any other, I cannot help looking upon the authenticity of the Epistle to Polycarp as extremely dubious, on

the whole question relating to the epistles of St. Ignatius in general, seems to me to labour under much obscurity, and to be embarrassed with many difficulties.*

ductions ascribed by some impostor to this venerable prelate, in order to procure them a high degree of authority. The Apostolical Canons, which consist of eighty-five ecclesiastical laws, contain a view of the church government and discipline received among the Greek and oriental Christians in the second and third centu-account of the difference of style; and indeed, ries. The eight books of Apostolical Constitutions are the work of some austere and melancholy author, who, having taken it into his head to reform the Christian worship, which he looked upon as degenerated from its original purity, made no scruple to prefix to his rules the names of the apostles, that thus they might be more speedily and favourably received. The Recognitions of Clemens, which differ very little from the Clementina, are the witty and agreeable productions of an Alexandrian Jew, well versed in philosophy. They were written in the third century, with a view of an-bably, lived in this century, and whose mean swering, in a new manner, the objections of the Jews, philosophers, and Gnostics, against the Christian religion; and the careful perusal of them will be exceedingly useful to such as are desirous of information with respect to the state of the Christian church in the primitive times.

XX. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, succeeds Clemens in the list of the apostolic fathers, among whom were placed such Christian doctors as had conversed with the apostles themselves, or their disciples. This pious and venerable man, who was the disciple and familiar friend of the apostles, was, by the order of Trajan, exposed to wild beasts in the public theatre at Rome, where he suffered martyrdom with the utmost fortitude.§ There are yet extant several epistles, attributed to him, concerning the authenticity of which there have been, however, tedious and warm disputes among the learned. Of these epistles, seven are said to have been written by this eminent martyr, during his journey from Antioch to Rome; and these the majority of learned men acknowledge to be genuine, as they stand in the edition that was published in the seventeenth century, from a manuscript in the Me

XXI. The Epistle to the Philippians, which is ascribed to Polycarp bishop of Smyrna, who, in the middle of the second century, suffered martyrdom in a venerable and advanced age, is considered by some as genuine; by others, as spurious; and it is no easy matter to determine this question. The Epistle of Barnabas was the production of some Jew, who, most proabilities and superstitious attachment to Jewish fables, show, notwithstanding the uprightness of his intentions, that he must have been a very different person from the true Barnabas, who was St. Paul's companion. The work which is entitled the Shepherd of Hermas, because the angel, who bears the principal part in it, is represented in the form and habit of a shepherd, was composed in the second century by Hermas, who was brother to Pius, bishop of Rome.§ This whimsical and visionary writer has taken the liberty of inventing several dia||logues or conversations between God and the angels, in order to insinuate, in a more easy and agreeable manner, the precepts which he thought useful and salutary, into the minds of his readers. But indeed, the discourse, which he puts into the mouths of those celestial beings, is more insipid and senseless, than what we commonly hear among the meanest of the multitude.

XXII. We may here remark in general, that these apostolic fathers, and the other writers, who, in the infancy of the church, employed their pens in the cause of Christianity, were neither remarkable for their learning nor for their eloquence. On the contrary, they express the most pious and admirable sentiments in the plainest and most illiterate style.¶ This, indeed, is rather a matter of honour than

tles were taken, was procured by the good offices of Sir James Porter, a judicious patron of literature, who, at that time, was British ambassador at Constantinople. Their authenticity is boldly maintained by Wetstein, and *For an account of this controversy, it will be proper learnedly opposed by Dr. Lardner. The celebrated pro- to consult the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabricius, lib. v. cap. i. fessor Venema, of Franeker, also considered them as For an account of this martyr, and of the epistle atspurious. See an account of his controversy with Wet-tributed to him, see Tillemont's Memoires, tom. ii., and stein on that subject, in the Bibliotheque des Sciences et Fabricii Biblioth. Græca, lib. v. des Beaux Arts, tom. ii.

* For an account of the fate of these writings, and the editions that have been given of them, it will be proper to consult two dissertations of the learned Ittigius; one, de Patribus Apostolicis, which he has prefixed to his Bibliotheca Patrum Apostolicorum; and the other, de Pseudepigraphis Apostolicis, which he has subjoined to the Appendix of his book de Hæresiarchis Evi Apostolici. See also Fabricius, Bibliotheca Græca, lib. v. cap. i., and lib. vi. cap. i.

Buddeus has collected the various opinions of the learned concerning the Apostolical Canons and Constitutions, in his Isagoge in Theologiam.

See Tillemont's Memoires, and Ittigius' Select. Hist. Eccles. Capita, sæc. i.

This now appears with the utmost evidence from a very ancient fragment of a small book, concerning the canon of the Scriptures, which the learned Lud. Anton. Muratori published from an ancient manuscript in the library at Milan, and which is to be found in the Antiq. Italic, medii Evi, tom. iii. diss. xliii.

We are indebted for the best edition of the Shepherd of Hermas, to Fabricius, who has added it to the third volume of his Codex Apocryphus N. Testamenti. We find also some account of this writer in the Biblioth. Græca of the same learned author, book v. chap. ix., and also in Ittigius' dissertation de Patribus Apostolicis, sect. 55.

See, for a full account of this work, Mosheim's Dissertation, de turbata per recentiores Platonicos Ecclesia, seet. 34. This Disssertation is in the first volume of All the writers mentioned in this chapter are usually that learned work which our author published under the called apostolic fathers. Of the works of these authors, title of Syntagma Dissertationum ad Historiam Ecclesias-Jo. Bap. Cotelerius, and after him Le Clerc, have pubticam pertinentium. lished a collection in two volumes, accompanied with their own annotations, and the remarks of other learned

See Tillemont's Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de l'Eglise, tom. ii.

VOL. 1.-6

men.

of reproach to the Christian cause, since we see, from the conversion of a great part of mankind by the ministry of weak and illiterate men, that the progress of Christianity is not to be attributed to human means but to a divine power.

CHAPTER III.

in that form which bears the name of the Apostles' Creed, and which, from the fourth century downwards, was almost generally considered as a production of the apostles. All, however, who have the least knowledge of antiquity, look upon this opinion as entirely false, and destitute of all foundation.* There is much more reason in the opinion of those who

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church think, that this creed was not all composed at

in this Century.

I. THE whole of the Christian religion is comprehended in two great points, one of which regards what we are to believe, and the other relates to our conduct and actions; or, in a shorter phrase, the Gospel presents to us objects of faith and rules of practice. The apostles express the former by the term mystery, or the truth, and the latter by that of godliness, or piety. The rule and standard of both are those books which contain the revelation that God made of his will to persons chosen for that purpose, whether before or after the birth of Christ; and these divine books are usually called the Old and New Testament.

II. The apostles and their disciples took all possible care, in the earliest times of the church, that these sacred books might be in the hands of all Christians, that they might be read and explained in the assemblies of the faithful, and thus contribute, both in private and in public, to excite and nourish in the minds of Christians a fervent zeal for the truth, and a firm attachment to the ways of piety and virtue. Those who performed the office of interpreters studied above all things plainness and perspicuity. At the same time it must be acknowledged, that, even in this century, several Christians adopted the absurd and corrupt custom, used among the Jews, of darkening the plain words of the Holy Scriptures by insipid and forced allegories, and of drawing them violently from their proper and natural meanings, in order to extort from them mysterious and hidden significations. For a proof of this, we need go no farther than the Epistle of Barnabas, which is yet extant.

III. The method of teaching the sacred doctrines of religion was, at this time, most simple, far removed from all the subtle rules of philosophy, and all the precepts of human art. This appears abundantly, not only in the writings of the apostles, but also in all those of the second century, which have survived the ruins of time. Neither did the apostles, or their disciples, ever think of collecting into a regular system the principal doctrines of the Christian religion, or of demonstrating them in a scientific and geometrical order. The beautiful and candid simplicity of these early ages rendered such philosophical niceties unnecessary; and the great study of those who embraced the Gospel was rather to express its divine influence in their dispositions and actions, than to examine its doctrines with an excessive curiosity, or to explain them by the rules of human wisdom.

IV. There is extant, indeed, a brief summary of the principal doctrines of Christianity

* 1 Tim. iii. 9; vi. 3. Tit. i. 1.

once, but, from small beginnings, was imperceptibly augmented in proportion to the growth of heresy, and according to the exigencies and circumstances of the church, from which it was designed to banish the errors that daily arose.t

V. In the earliest times of the church, all who professed firmly to believe that Jesus was the only redeemer of the world, and who in consequence of this profession, promised to live in a manner conformable to the purity of his holy religion, were immediately received among the disciples of Christ. This was all the preparation for baptism then required; and a more accurate instruction in the doctrines of Christianity was to be administered to them after their reception of that sacrament. But, when Christianity had acquired more consistence, and churches rose to the true God and his eternal Son, almost in every nation, this custom was changed for the wisest and most solid reasons. Then baptism was administered to none but such as had been previously instructed in the principal points of Christianity, and had also given satisfactory proofs of pious dispositions and upright intentions. Hence arose the distinction between catechumens, who were in a state of probation, and under the instruction of persons appointed for that purpose; and believers, who were consecrated by baptism, and thus initiated into all the mysteries of the Christian faith.

VI. The methods of instructing the catechumens differed according to their various capacities. To those, in whom the natural force of reason was small, only the fundamental principles and truths, which are, as it were, the basis of Christianity, were taught. Those, on the contrary, whom their instructors judged capable of comprehending, in some measure, the whole system of divine truth, were furnished with superior degrees of knowledge; and nothing was concealed from them, which could have any tendency to render them firm in their profession, and to assist them in arriving at Christian perfection. The care of instructing such was committed to persons who were distinguished by their gravity and wisdom, and also by their learning and judgment. Hence the ancient doctors generally divide their flock into two classes; the one comprehending such as were solidly and thoroughly

*See Buddei Isagoge ad Theologium, lib. i. cap. ii. sect. 2. p. 441, as also Walchii Introductio in libros Symii. p. 87. bolicos, lib. i. cap.

This opinion is confirmed in the most learned and ingenious manner by Sir Peter King, in his history of the Apostles' Creed. Such, however, as read this valuable work with pleasure, and with a certain degree of prepossession, would do well to consider that its author, upon several occasions, has given us conjectures instead of proofs; and also, that his conjectures are not always so happy as justly to command our assent.

instructed; the other, those who were acquainted with little more than the first principles of religion; nor do they deny that the methods of instruction applied to these two sorts of persons were extremely different.

VII. The Christians took all possible care to accustom their children to the study of the Scriptures, and to instruct them in the doctrines of their holy religion; and schools were every where erected for this purpose, even from the very commencement of the Christian church. We must not, however, confound the schools designed only for children, with the gymnasia or academies of the ancient Christians, erected in several large cities, in which persons of riper years, especially such as aspired to be public teachers, were instructed in the different branches, both of human learning and of sacred erudition. We may, undoubtedly, attribute to the apostles themselves, and to the injunctions given to their disciples, the excellent establishments, in which the youth destined to the holy ministry received an education suitable to the solemn office they were to undertake." St. John erected a school of this kind at Ephesus, and one of the same nature was founded by Polycarp at Smyrna:t but these were not in greater repute than that which was established at Alexandria, commonly called the catechetical school, and generally supposed to have been erected by St. Mark.§

ages, with the simplicity of that discipline which prevailed at the time of which we write.*

IX. The lives and manners of the Christians in this century are highly celebrated by most authors, and recommended to succeeding generations as unspotted models of piety and virtue; and, if these encomiums be confined to the greater part of those who embraced Christianity in the infancy of the church, they are certainly distributed with justice: but many run into extremes upon this head, and, estimating the lives and manners of all by the illustrious examples of some eminent saints, or the sublime precepts and exhortations of certain pious doctors, fondly imagine, that every appearance of vice and disorder was banished from the first Christian societies. The greatest part of those authors who have treated of the innocence and sanctity of the primitive Christians, have fallen into this error; and a gross error indeed it is, as the strongest testimonies too evidently prove.

X. One of the circumstances which contributed chiefly to preserve, at least, an external appearance of sanctity in the Christian church, was the right of excluding from it, and from all participation of the sacred rites and ordinances of the Gospel, such as had been guilty of enormous transgressions, and to whom repeated exhortations to repentance and amendment had been administered in vain. This VIII. The ancient Christians are supposed right was vested in the church from the earby many to have had a secret doctrine; and if liest period of its existence, by the apostles by this be meant, that they did not teach all themselves, and was exercised by each Chrisin the same manner, or reveal all at once, and tian assembly upon its respective members. to all indiscriminately, the sublime mysteries The rulers, or doctors, denounced the persons of religion, there is nothing in this that may whom they thought unworthy of the privileges not be fully justified. It would have been of church communion; and the people, freely improper, for example, to propose to those who approving or rejecting their judgment, prowere yet to be converted to Christianity, the nounced the decisive sentence. It was not, more difficult doctrines of the Gospel, which however, irrevocable; for such as gave unsurpass the comprehension of imperfect mor- doubted signs of their sincere repentance, and tals. Such were, therefore, first instructed in declared their solemn resolutions of future rethose points which are more obvious and plain, formation, were re-admitted into the church, until they became capable of higher and more however enormous their crimes had been; but, difficult attainments in religious knowledge.in case of a relapse, their second exclusion beAnd even those who were already admitted into the society of Christians, were, in point of instruction, differently dealt with according to their respective capacities. Those who consider the secret doctrine of this century in any other light, or give to it a greater extent than what we have here attributed to it, confound the superstitious practices of the following

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Eccles. lib. v. cap. xx.

The Alexandrian School was renowned for a

succession of learned doctors, as we find by the accounts of Eusebius and St. Jerom; for, after St. Mark, Pantanus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and many others, taught in it the doctrines of the Gospel, and rendered it a famous seminary for Christian philosophy and religious knowledge. There were also at Rome, Antioch, Casarea, Edessa, and in several other cities, schools of the same nature, though not all of equal reputation.

See the dissertation of Schmidius, de Schola Catechetica Alexandrina; as also Aulisius, delle Scuole Sacre, book ii. ch. i. ii. xxi. The curious reader will find a learned account of the more famous Christian schools in the eastern parts, at Edessa, Nisibis, and Seleucia; and, indeed, of the ancient schools in general, in Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. Vaticanæ, tom. iii. par. ii.

came absolutely irreversible.†

XI. It will easily be imagined, that unity and peace could not reign long in the church, since it was composed of Jews and Gentiles, who regarded each other with the bitterest aversion. Besides, as the converts to Christianity could not extirpate radically the prejudices which had been formed in their minds by education, and confirmed by time, they brought with them into the bosom of the

church more or less of the errors of their for-
mer religion. Thus the seeds of discord and
controversy were early sown, and could not
fail to spring up soon into animosities and dis-
sensions, which accordingly broke out, and di-
vided the church. The first of these contro-
versies arose in the church of Antioch.
It re-
garded the necessity of observing the law of

Many learned observations upon the secret discipline have been collected by the celebrated Christoph. Matt. Pfaffius, in his Dissert. poster. de Præjudiciis Theolog. sect. 13, p. 149, &c. in Primitiis Tubingensibus.

+ See Morinus, Comm. de Disciplina Poenitentiæ, lib. ix. cap. xix. p. 670.

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