VIII.

CHAP. leave myself by a sudden change, and being melted am transformed into his likeness. The holy mind is disgusted with all things which it feels from the body, and desires to become altogether spiritual; and while sensual objects murmur around, it flies into spiritual things, and desires to hide itself in them. Therefore it desires the loving kindness of the Lord, because without that, it feels no power to approach him.”

On the words, "draw me, we will run after thee,” he observes, "Divine grace prevents us. He, who is drawn, runs, because being strengthened by divine love, he passes over all obstacles."

The defective taste and learning of his age forbid us to expect any very accurate and solid exposition of so difficult a prophet as Ezekiel. In fact, it is in occasional passages, independent of system, that Gregory shines. I single out a passage as an instance of this: "Generally those who most excel in divine contemplation, are most oppressed with temptation. By the first the soul is lifted up to God, by the second it is pressed down into itself. Were it not for this, the mind would fall into pride. There is, by the divine disposition, a wonderful temperature in this subject, that the saint may neither rise too high, nor sink too low."

Observe how divinely he speaks concerning the teaching of the Holy Spirit, in one of his homilies on the Gospels t. On the words in St. John's Gospel, he (the Spirit) shall teach you all things, he says, "Unless the Spirit be with the heart of the hearer, the word of the teacher is barren. Let no man attribute to the teacher what he understands from his mouth; for, unless there be an internal teacher, the tongue of the external one labours in vain. Why is there such a difference in the sensations of hearers, all hearing the same words? It is to be ascribed to this special teaching. John himself in his epistle

Tom. II. Homil. on Ezek. xiv. Tom. II.

p. 451.

teaches the same, the anointing teaches you of all things." It is plain that the Spirit of the Lord was not departed, as yet, from the Roman church, while his internal instructions, despised so fearlessly by the profane, and scrutinized so malignantly by many orthodox professors in our days, were regarded with so much simplicity and reverence.

His dialogues, if indeed they be his, or be not much interpolated, dishonour his memory by the excess of superstition.

Thus far of the first of the Gregories; it will not be saying enough in his praise, though it is a truth, that it would have been to the advantage of the reputation of the Roman Church, if he had been the last of that name.

CHAP. IX.

WRITERS OF THIS CENTURY.

IX.

FULGENTIUS adorned the beginning, and Gregory CHAP. the close of this century, which produced no other authors of equal merit. And the decay in learning and knowledge was so great, that I shall detain the reader a very little time on this article.

Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, wrote against those, who affirmed, that man could only choose evil. With gross ignorance of the connection and scope of St. Paul's argument, he quotes his words in the Epistlę to the Romans, ch. vii, as favourable to his views. "For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not:" thus ascribing to man as such, what the apostle evidently speaks of as descriptive of the regenerate. He maintains that man by nature has power to turn himself to God, and deduces from the contrary doctrine the consequences which the advocates for the doctrine of freewill in all ages have done from the days of Cicero,

CHAP. who, it is remarkable, reasons exactly in the same

IX.

manner.

On the other hand, John Maxentius, a Scythian monk, in company with a number of monks, his brethren, strenuously defended the doctrines of grace. In a confession of their faith is this sentence: "that free-will, since the entrance of sin, has of itself no other power but that of choosing some carnal good and pleasure*, and that it can neither desire nor will, nor do any thing for eternal life, but by the operation of the Holy Spirit.'

So remarkable a confession would seem to show some distinct knowledge of the depravity of the heart. Maxentius and his brethren were ill treated by Hormisdas, bishop of Rome, a bold and dexterous politician, of whose theological knowledge and practical piety I find no proofs. He accused them of turbulence and self-conceit, and after a year's attendance at Rome they were expelled thence by his order. I cannot find that Hormisdas gave any decided opinion on the subject himself; probably he had never studied it; but he acted imperiously and decisively. Maxentius wrote with vigour in defence of the doctrines of grace, and I wish I could gratify the reader with a larger account of a man, who was counted worthy to suffer shame for the faith of Christ. The controversy between the defenders of grace and of human powers was still alive, and the Western Church continued still divided upon it.

Facundus, bishop of Hermiana in Africa, deserves to be mentioned for the sake of one sentence: "The faithful, in receiving the Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, receive his body and his blood; not that the bread is properly his body, and the cup his blood; but because they contain in them the mystery of the body and blood of Jesus Christ." Though it makes no part of our system to confute the particular points of popery, I could

• Du Pin, Cent. 6th.

+ Du Pin. Facundus,

not omit so clear a testimony against transubstan- CENT. tiation.

The Western Church is indebted for historical information to Gregory of Tours, the Eastern to Evagrius. It must be confessed that they are inelegant and injudicious writers: they had the literary taste of this century.

VI.

Mascon.

585.

The truly evangelical second council of Orange has been already reviewed. The second council of The second Mascon held in 585 is worthy of notice. They were council of very zealous for the observation of Sunday. Let A. D. none follow any business on this day, say they: let none yoke oxen, or prosecute suits of law; but let all the world apply themselves to sing the praises of God. They decree penalties against sabbath-breakers. An advocate, who was guilty of the crime, was to be driven from the bar; a peasant or a slave to receive some stripes. They exhort Christians also to spend the evening of Sunday in prayers. They forbid bishops to keep birds and dogs for game. They ordain the celebration of a Synod every three years in a place appointed by the bishop of Lyons and king Gontranus. A proof may be drawn from hence that some spirit of genuine religion was still preserved in France.

CENTURY VII.

CHAP.

1.

CHAP. I.

THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

THE diversity of circumstances in different ages

of the Church constantly admonishes a historian, who loves method and perspicuity, to vary the. arrangement of his materials. No abstract rules, but the circumstances of each period should direct him in this matter. In the century before us, barren and unpromising as it is for the most part, Great Britain shone with distinguished lustre.As she was a world within herself, her ecclesiastical affairs were little connected with those of the Continent. Hence the propriety of reviewing them by themselves.-In this subject I shall closely follow the venerable Bede, whose narration extends to the year 731.—Though much of his history is fabulous and superstitious, it is still of the greatest value, because it is the only light which we have concerning the progress of the Gospel in our own country for several generations: and some rays of truth, piety, and good sense now and then break out in the historian amidst the clouds of legendary romance.

After the death of Augustine, the first archbishop of Canterbury, Laurentius, whom he had ordained, succeeded to that See. He trode in the steps of his predecessor, and laboured to promote the best interests of the English by frequent preaching of the word, and by a diligent and useful example. *Bede, B. II. C. 4.