TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, BY HENRY JOHN ROSE, B.D. RECTOR OF HOUGHTON CONQUEST, AND LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. DIVINITY SURGO LIBRARY. HARVARD UNIVEROL IN ONE VOLUME, CONTAINING THE INTRODUCTION; THE HISTORY OF THE PERSECUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY; AND FIFTH EDITION. Philadelphia: JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 98 CHESTNUT STREET. THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. THE history of the Christian Church, especially in the earlier periods of existence, is a cheering subject for the contemplation of a Christian heart. It supplies a commentary, which cannot be mistaken, on the promise of our Lord, that He would be with his disciples even to the end of the world. (Matt. xxviii. 20.) The difficulties against which Christianity had at first to struggle, only serve to prove the overwhelming might of the arm which sustained it. It was to be expected that an age of corruption should put forth all its powers to crush that religion which denounced and combated it. The progress which Christianity made in spite of this opposition, constitutes one of the chief points of interest belonging to the earlier periods of ecclesiastical history. The working of that leaven, which is destined in God's good time to leaven the whole lump, is seen most definitely at that season, when the world was exchanging its paganism for Christianity.* Let any man read the first sixteen chapters of Gibbon, and then turn from that melancholy record of blood and crime to the history of the Christian Church during the same period. He will then acknowledge that there was beneath that stormy tide of passion and ambition an under current silently advancing, whose calmer and purer waters came to light, when once that troubled tide had passed away. He will see principles of action, and rules of life, the strongest and the purest ever given to man, making their way against all the persecutions of power, by their own intrinsic worth, and by the power which sustained them from above. It is in this point of view, among many others, that the early history of Christianity is fraught with such deep interest to man, and it is to be considered one of the great aims of such an history to develope this progress of the Church clearly, and delineate it with accuracy. It would be foreign to the purpose of this Preface to discuss the merits or the demerits of other ecclesiastical histories, but it may be allowable to direct attention to this particular point, as connected with the work of Dr. Neander. To develope this progress of Christianity faithfully, requires that the historian should not only possess the learning and the impartiality which are needed for all historical inquiries; but that he should unite profound and extensive views of human nature with what is of even more importance, warm feelings for the higher parts of the Christian scheme, and an eye well practised to discern the dealings of God in the world. I cannot but think that the learned and amiable author of this history unites these qualifications in no common degree; and I believe that it would be difficult to become acquainted with his works without feeling reverence for the high qualities both of head and heart which adorn their author. The present portion of the history bears testimony to his candour and acuteness, his diligence and his fidelity. His judgment also in disentangling the historicalf from the fictitious in the Acta Martyrum cannot fail to strike any one, who will take the trouble to compare the details of this history with the original of the Acta Martyrum, as edited by Ruinart. To this meed of praise, high as it is, I think every impartial reader will consider the author to be entitled, but still this avowal by no means binds us to the acceptance of all the views propounded in this work. I feel it necessary to state, that in many of them I * Every man at all acquainted with the history of religion, will see at once, that the history of this period contains much that is interesting to all ages, because the controversies of all ages have been nearly the same in substance, though varied in form, and in this period the germ of most of them will be discerned. It has, however, been observed, that in another part of the subject, Dr. Neander has expressed far too favourable an opinion of Apollonius of Tyana a man, whose very existence is a matter of doubt, and whose life, as set forth to us by eulogists, is a tissue of impostures. See Leslie, Easy Method with the Deists. 3 |