THE NEW YORK ASTOR, LENOX AND "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by B. Waugh and T. Mason, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York." PREFACE. THE rise, progress, establishment, corruption, and reformation of the Church, are subjects of deep interest to mankind, and especially so to the friends of Christianity. But the voluminous works in which these subjects are exhibited, are to the great mass of community inaccessible. The want of means to purchase, or of time to read them, has restricted their use to a comparatively small number of readers. Hence the spread of the gospel, and the condition of the Church in different ages since the establishment of Christianity, are by many very imperfectly understood. The object of this work in its original form, as prepared by Dr. Gregory, was to furnish a comprehensive abridgment of ecclesiastical history; and thus to place this important branch of knowledge within the reach of multitudes that could not obtain it from larger works. In revising and preparing it in its present form, the same object has been kept in view. The work might have been swelled to a size much beyond its present limits; but a general history of the Church in a small compass was deemed preferable, especially in view of the use that may be made of it by the young and rising generation. The history by Dr. Gregory does not extend to the close of the last century. Although this is compiled principally from that, it is extended to the present time; has numerous additions and improvements, and is enriched with a view of missions, and other subjects of moral enterprise, exhibiting the present condition and prospects of the Christian world. In this compendious form it is offered to the public, with the hope that it may be found, in some degree, useful in advancing the great interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. Pittsburgh, Pa., March 3, 1834. M. RUTER. FEICH. 27 MAR. 1901 IREW THEOL. SEM. HISTORY OF THE SAP CHRISTIAN CHURCH. THE FIRST CENTURY. CHAPTER I. GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGION PREVIOUS TO THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. Two systems of religion prevalent from the early ages-Origin of paganism-Mistakes concerning the ancient traditions-Worship of the heavenly bodies-Applying the titles of the gods to the early monarchs-Local deities-Idolatry-Nature of the Jewish religion -State of the world at the birth of Christ-Social genius of polytheism-Grecian philosophy-Epicurean-Peripatetics-Stoics-Platonics-Oriental philosophy-Religious state of Judea-Pharisees-Sadducees-Essenes-Civil state-Herod-Profligacy of the nations. IN the great chain of history, every event is so closely connected with that immediately preceding, and so much governed by the contingent circumstances of manners, time, and place, that an account of any given period, with no retrospect whatever to past transactions, would afford a detail frequently unintelligible, and in general dry and uninteresting. It appears necessary, therefore, on the present occasion, to lay before the reader a short statement of the progress of religion from the first periods of society, in order to enable him to judge properly of the great importance of the Christian dispensation, and of the causes which impeded or accelerated its progress. The exuberance of human folly and superstition has branched out into innumerable ramifications; but it would be neither useful nor convenient to pursue, with a minute attention, all the meanders of absurdity. Such a history would be little more than a catalogue of names, or a dull recital of correspondent rites, and similar ceremonies. In this short abstract of religious history I shall, therefore, consider the subject under two divisions; the religion of the pagans, and that of the Jews. The former will serve to convey a general idea of the natural } deviations of the human mind from reason and truth; the latter will exhibit the miraculous foundations of that majestic structure which was completed in the Christian dispensation. The first principles of religious knowledge, imparted to the fathers of the human race, were few and simple. They were unsupported by the knowledge of letters, and were such as would easily admit of corruption, from the timid and credulous nature of man. One of the first deviations from the truth was, certainly, the worship of the heavenly bodies The first men had been accustomed to a direct communication with the Supreme Being; it was, therefore, not unnatural in their offspring to expect a continuance of the same indulgence. But, in looking around for the visible manifestation of the great Ruler of the universe, to what object would ignorance and superstition so naturally direct themselves as to that glorious luminary whose nature and phenomena must be necessarily so imperfectly understood, and who is the dispenser of light, of warmth, and of cheerfulness to the whole creation? The sun was, therefore, very early an object of worship with all nations but that singular people to whom the knowledge of the omnipresent God was revealed. From the adoration of the sun, the transition to that of the moon was the most natural that possibly could be imagined. Thus the Egyptians worshipped the SUN and MOON by the names of Osiris and Isis; the former of which, in the Egyptian tongue, signified many eyed, from the sun's overlooking all that passes in the world; the latter signified the ancient: Isis, moreover, was generally painted with horns, in allusion to the lunar crescent. When the traces of ancient tradition were become faint in successive generations, the human imagination sported in the wantonness of fiction. From the broken fragments of true history, the want of combination in hieroglyphic representations, and the mutilated remains of ancient records or language, innumerable superstitions were fabricated, and received with all the avidity of popular credulity. The deluge proved a most fertile source of error. The venerable patriarch Noah, from being revered as the father of men, came at last to be worshipped, under different names, as their creator. He is evidently the Saturnus, the Janus, the Poseidon or Neptune, the Thoth, Hermes, Menes, Osiris, Zeuth, Atlas, Prometheus, Deucalion, and Proteus of all the ancient fables.* Not only the patriarch himself, but all the circumstances of his history, have been strangely metamorphosed into divinities. The dove, the ark, even the raven and the olive branch, have all occupied different places in the mysteries of paganism, and with direct allusions to their derivation. (Bryant's Mythology, vol. ii.) In the same manner Men or Menes, one of the Egyptian divinities, (originally the patriarch Noah, ibid.,) was the same with the celebrated Minos of Crete, upon which island there was a temple or tower to this divinity, called Mentor, or the tower of Menes. To this temple the Athenians were annually obliged to send some of their youth to be sacrificed, in the same manner as the people of Carthage sent their children as victims to Tyre. (Diod. Sic. 1. xx.) From these circumstances arose the fable of the Minotaur; and as there was a Men-tor in Crete, there was a Tor-men, now Taormina, in Sicily, where the same brutal rites were also performed. These towers were commonly situated on the seacoast; they were peculiarly dreaded by mariners; wherefore, the same author supposes, with much probability, that the tremendous Scylla was no other than one of those fatal temples, where the shipwrecked stranger was inhospitably sacrificed. In the same temples the rites of fire were performed. Hence arose the celebrated fable of the Furies: as the term Furia is evidently derived from Phur, (fire,) the priestesses of which, being engaged in these inhuman and * See this decidedly ascertained in the second volume of Bryant's Mythology. |