If man had not vanquished the enemy of man, (the devil), this enemy would not have been rightly vanquished. But if, on the other hand, God were not the author of salvation, we should have no ground for assurance."*

Thus do we find, almost within ten years from the death of the eldest apostle, this doctrine of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, proclaimed by so many illustrious teachers, a doctrine of which Christ designed to establish in his Church universal, a perpetual memorial, by the institution of baptism. The chief teachers of Christianity earnestly defended the consoling idea of God become man. The farther we advance, the more are the testimonies to this mystery multiplied in the churches of the Lord. We every where find the eternal divinity of the Son of God deeply engraven in the warmest feelings and in the worship of the christian community. And even one of the wisest of pagans writes to the greatest of their Emperors, "They sing hymns to Christ as God."+

But if we ask: "What did those Christians of the period of Life, believe respecting man ?"-We shall not find them imagining, with the ancient pagans, and with many modern teachers, that evil results from the natural organization of man, and that this evil is not opposed to the holiness of God. The first man having by disobedience separated his own will from the divine will, human nature was abandoned to itself:-Such was their doctrine.

Let us now go back to the College of the Apostles, and interrogate those who were their companions or immediate successors. Barnabas, the fellow-traveller of St. Paul, (Acts XIII.) thus addresses us: "Before we believed in God, the habitation of our hearts was full of corruption and sin. Our heart was filled with idolatry, and was the abode of demons."-Justin,

*Iren. Adv. Haereses, Lib. III, Cap. 20.

Plin. Epis. ad Trajan. X. 96.

Barnabas, C. 16.-Some have called in question the authenticity of the letter of Barnabas. Their reasons seem to me unsatisfactory. Some Rationalists even, Bretschneider in particular, believe it to be authentic. We name Bretschneider, because his authority has great weight with Rationalists and Unitarians. We do not know, however, that his testimony, distinguished although he is, in many respects, is of much importance in a matter of ecclesiastical history. He places, for instance, Tertullian after Origen, and makes him live at the end of the third and the commencement of the fourth century; which is a century too late.

who had vainly sought, in all the different systems of philosophy, for the key of man's history, found it, at length, in the fall of Adam, effected by the seducing arts of the devil, disguised in the form of a serpent.*

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The simple and practical Irenæus likens the first man to one who, having become "a prisoner," propagates his race in prison. Already does the profound genius of Tertullian style the corruption which has insinuated itself into human nature, original depravity," vitium originis. "The first man," he says, "has infected the human kind which have proceeded from him, and has made them partakers of his own condemnation."+ Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, that great luminary of the Church, has the same idea of the origin of sin. "The newborn infant," he says, "has no sin, excepting that he is carnally born, according to Adam, and has, by his very birth, contracted the contagion of the ancient death."-And if we are asked to repair to the halls of the Alexandrian school, in the hope that its philosophical theologians will utter words flattering to human pride, we will conduct you thither also, and you shall hear Origen, thus addressing you;-" Adam turned aside from the straight path of happiness, and chose the evil ways of mortal life. In consequence of this, all his descendants have also gone astray, and have become like him, useless."-" Every man is corrupt in his father and mother. Jesus alone is pure by generation."" It is impossible for man, at the outset, to look to God; for it is necessary that man be, from the first, subjected to sin."¶

Thus did Egypt, as well as Gaul, and proconsular Africa, as well as Asia, recognize man only as a fallen and impure being.

But how was this polluted being to be reunited with a holy God? What was the belief of the primitive period respecting the divine method of human salvation? Let us again interrogate the companions of the Apostles. They will point us to those holy doctrines of grace, which were more fully developed at a later period. "The Son of God," says the apostolic Barnabas, "the Son of God has suffered, to the end that * Dial. cum Tryph. p. 306. Tertul, de testim, an,

his sufferings might give us life. He has offered the vase of his spirit, (his body,) a sacrifice for our sins. Having learned to hope in the name of the Lord, and having received remission of sins, we are become new men, and have been created anew." Hermas, the same, perhaps, of whom Paul speaks, (Rom. 16: 14.) thus writes :-"Before man receives the name of the Son of God, he is doomed to death; but when he receives this seal, he is freed from death and passes into life." "The law of God," says Justin, "pronounced the curse on man, because he could not keep it in its full extent. (Deut. 27: 26.) Christ has delivered us from this curse, by bearing it for us." Is not this the language of our times? Irenæus saw, in circumcision, a type of the saving blood of Christ; in the tree of life, a type of the cross of Christ. Furthermore, he declares that man must no longer seek to purify himself by sacrifices, but by the blood of Christ, and his death. The paschal Lamb, he considers a type of Christ, who saves believers by the sprinkling of his blood. The two goats, of which one, by the Mosaical law, was sent into the desert, and the other sacrificed to God, are types of the two-fold coming of Christ, the first to death, the second to glory. He sets the obedience of Christ, in opposition to the disobedience of Adam. "Christ," he says, "reconciles the Father to us, by compensating, in his perfect obedience, for the disobedience of the first man." And pursuing his comparison of man thrown into prison and the bondage of the devil, by sin, he declares, that "Christ has, by his sufferings, paid the ransom necessary for the deliverance of man from his captivity."

Origen also recognized, in the death of Christ, the power which redeems man from sín. The whole primitive Church contemplated, in the sufferings of the Lamb of God, the means by which the way to the Father is again opened to mankind. It was Faith, which constituted man a partaker in this redemption, and communicated to him, at the same time, a divine life. "Called by the will of God," says Clement of Rome, a disciple of the Apostles, whose name, St. Paul declares, is written in the book of life, "we are justified, not by ourselves, not by our own wisdom, nor by our own understanding, nor by our own piety, nor by works which we have done in purity of heart; + Hermas pastor. Lib. III.

Barnabas. VII. 16.

Dial. cum Tryph. C. 30.

but by faith, by which the Sovereign God has always justified men. Shall we, therefore, rest contented and cease from welldoing? On the contrary, we must do good with gladness, as God, who has called us to himself, acts without ceasing, and rejoices in his activity."*

Behold, then, this holy Church of the primitive period. Hear how she addresses us from the depth of her distresses, and, if I may so speak, from the height of her scaffolds. She confesses her wretchedness, and embracing the knees of Jesus, she calls him "her Saviour and her God." How can we forget the deep and unaffected tone of her sincere piety! And what sad business is that of some teachers of our day, who seek to strip her of her white robe and to clothe her with the sorry rags of their own unbelief! This profane attempt is, indeed, an act of homage to her. The first Unitarians had recourse to the same expedient. But vain are such efforts. The primitive Church will never cease to declare the immutable words of truth to whomsoever will lend an ear.

FORM OF Doctrine.

Although we have been able to gather only a few ears, here and there, from the immense harvest which was spread before us, yet we have enlarged upon the primitive period more than may seem to comport with the limits of this discourse. We have done it, because this is the only spot on which the enemies of Christianity may venture to intrude with some prospect of success from their ingenuity. They despair of other periods, or rather, they make the strong, common, and public profession of faith which is found in them, and which is so repugnant to themselves, the subject of reproach and virulent accusations. We shall put forth no great effort to secure a victory on a field of battle where our enemies have already proclaimed themselves vanquished; and which they have abandoned to us.

Here opens upon us the era of great teachers, the age of great truths and great heresies; a time when Christian theology, the elements of which were prepared during the period preceding, was carried by distinguished men of God, to a great height; the time of Athanasius, Hilary, Gregory, Basil, Ambrose, Je

* Clem. Rom. 1 Cor. 6:32.

rome, Augustine, and Chrysostom. It was the age of strong men; the mature age of the church. The last funeral-pyre of the Christian confessors is extinguished. The memorable council of Nice assembles. The form of life is at an end; the form of doctrine commences. Not, that life had entirely departed from the Church. God forbid! But doctrine had now become the predominating feature. The mature man loves to have distinct ideas, to give a reason for what he believes. So was it now with the Church. No longer compelled to struggle with foreign enemies, she could give more attention to the internal faith which she professed. The different tendencies of the primitive form now manifested themselves with more distinctness, and, by a remarkable transformation, were converted into opposing doctrines; just as the dormant tendencies of youth are developed in manhood, and transformed into determined and distinct traits of character, into positive vices or virtues. Great heresies made their appearance, headed by Arius and Pelagius. But these very heresies became the means, in the hand of God, of establishing the Christian doctrines with more clearness and power. The truths of Christianity being thus defined by the Church at that period, were faithfully transmitted to later times. They were preserved in the midst of the abounding disorders and ignorance of succeeding ages. The dogmatic form was, through divine grace, the cuirass which begirt those doctrines amidst great strifes and overturnings, or the hammer which effected an entrance for them into the hard and sensual heart of the rude and uncultivated. Still it must be acknowledged, that so great importance was then attached to them, even in their minor ramifications, that, for the sake of doctrinal forms, the very essence and life of Christianity were sometimes forgotten.

The East and the West still preserved their essential characters. The East continued the country of deep speculations; the West, of practical questions. The East contemplated God. The West busied itself with man. In the East, Arius and Athanasius appeared. In the West, Pelagius and Augustine. But, both in the East and in the West, the truth, though violently attacked, gained for itself universal and splendid triumphs. Having passed the season of its youth, the Christian doctrine, like the first man, must needs be tested. But there needed not to be a second fall. It resisted the temptation, and remained firm.

The doctrine respecting God was the first which was dis