LECT. VII. blood of Christ; but when the Alexandrian Clement quotes the words of David, “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me," they are deprived of their force by this observation: "he says prophetically, 'Mother Eve.'” This puerile mode of interpretation is pronounced "most useful, contributing to right theology, and to piety, as well as to the demonstration of ingenuity."* Then follow some curious specimens of this art, among which, most appropriately is introduced the Sphynx. Allegorical interpretation. Tertullian's interpretations. As allegory enables the initiated to fetch anything out of anything, it empowered Clement to bring the doctrine of the Father and the Son out of the Verses of Euripides, the Mosaic Revelation from the Epicurean Philosophy, and the Creation from Homer's Iliad.+ That Plato should have been made a Nicene theologian will appear to many moderns quite natural and just; but Clement finds the Lord's-day, too, foretold the tenth book of Plato's Republic.‡ Tertullian makes the prince of Tyre, mentioned by Ezekiel, to mean the devil; and Joseph prefigured Christ; because it is said, His glory is that of a bull; the horns of a unicorn are his horns; with them he shall equally ventilate the nations even to the extremity of earth," or scatter them as by the wind. Then *Strom. v. 415. Strom. v. 437. † Strom., lib. v. 436. come the unicorn, the bicorn, and the mino- LECT. VII. the sacerdotal tunic of Aaron, and twelve stones set up in Jordan." But the reader will not think, with Tertullian, that we can never have enough of this. The superior sense of Augustine, who is here Augustine. a thorough Protestant, has cost him the good graces of a modern school, that prefers old wives' fables to inspired Scripture, or common sense. For though the Bishop of Hippo has been called one of the four great lights of the church, it is curious to observe how those who affect to be adherents to antiquity look askance at his theology. It is, however, consoling to hear one who was in so high repute utter a sentence so orthodox as to deserve to be repeated. "I believe all I find in Scripture; but in other writers only what they prove from Scripture or reason.' * Lib. iii. c. 18. † Apol. cont. Gent., c. 40. B B LECT. VII. The fathers must not be charged with a pretence to freedom from mistakes. Augustine seems to think, when commenting on the Epistle to the Romans,* that God chose men for the foresight of their faith; but he retracted when grown older and wiser; saying, "I had not yet diligently inquired, nor found out what is the election of grace, of which the apostle speaks: there is a remnant according to the election of grace, which certainly is not grace, if any merits preceded it."+ Such confessions, which are distasteful to many, are the best things to be found in the fathers; for, after reading Justin's argumentation on the Lord reigning from the wood, meaning the cross, as if it were veritable Scripture, we are relieved by hearing him say, Something may displease the Jew, not only because it is not understood, but not accurately spoken. Augustine's Retractions are more honourable to him than much that he never retracted. Of false interpretations these writers are lavish; as when Justin says, "dwelling under his own vine," is having but one wife. The follies of the fathers would make a volume more amusing than edifying; though it would be a good service to the church of God to expel them from the shrines where they have been too long adored. Would any of their idolaters venture to deliver to a Christian assembly all that the fathers have left on record? * Propos. 60. + Retract., lib. i. c. 23. $372. PART IV. Both adversity and prosperity, however they may have been ultimately overruled for good, operated injuriously on the theology of the early church. liberty. THOUGH Christians are captivated by Tertul- LECT. VII. lian's felicitous apophthegm, "The blood of the value of martyrs is the seed of the church," the Scriptures teach us to value freedom from persecution. When the storm rages without, attention is too much absorbed with events to admit of the cultivation of accurate principles. For if the Christian, who is driven to "wander in dens and caves of the earth, desolate, afflicted, tormented," is furnished with the mightiest motives for watchfulness over his own personal religion, he has neither opportunity, nor heart, nor occasion, for critical study. In the earliest ages, when a single book in manuscript occupied considerable space, the believer, who was driven from his home, could scarcely be said to possess the high advantage of having his Bible for his companion, counsellor, comforter, and friend. It was often torn from his grasp by the hand of the tyrant. Engrossed with distracting events, and deprived of the best opportunities for studying principles, the first Christians were necessarily LECT. VII. limited to the honour of intrepid confessors, Loss of the best men. leaving that of accurate commentators and divines to a more quiet and secure age. But if, in spite of the pressure of the times, any one rose to eminent learning and usefulness, he was sure to be marked for destruction when the demon of persecution was let loose on the church. The same qualities which induced the faithful to commit the care of their souls to a certain pastor, inflamed the enmity of the world, and prompted the cry, "To the lions! Destroy the leader, and the flock will be scattered, as sheep without a shepherd;" as Ignatius describes his flock at Smyrna, when he was condemned to fight with beasts at Rome. History shews the best men sacrificed first, and the pastors leading the way to the stake, just when their talents, graces, and acquirements, were about to produce ripe fruit. Deprived of its best elements, the church was left to the care of inferior men, often neophytes, whose distinction in society, or eminence as philosophers and rhetoricians, marked them out for office, while their religion was still immature. Nor was this the only injury that the church suffered from persecution. For when the most distinguished Christians were not killed, but sent to work in the mines, they retained the pastoral office. Cyprian, in his retreat, governed his flock by letters which are still extant, some of them addressed to ecclesiastics who were |