Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part III

In consequence of this opinion, it was the first but arduous duty
of a Christian to preserve himself pure and undefiled by the
practice of idolatry. The religion of the nations was not merely
a speculative doctrine professed in the schools or preached in
the temples. The innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were
closely interwoven with every circumstance of business or
pleasure, of public or of private life, and it seemed impossible
to escape the observance of them, without, at the same time,
renouncing the commerce of mankind, and all the offices and
amusements of society. 40 The important transactions of peace and
war were prepared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the
magistrate, the senator, and the soldier, were obliged to preside
or to participate. 41 The public spectacles were an essential
part of the cheerful devotion of the Pagans, and the gods were
supposed to accept, as the most grateful offering, the games that
the prince and people celebrated in honor of their peculiar
festivals. 42 The Christians, who with pious horror avoided the
abomination of the circus or the theatre, found himself
encompassed with infernal snares in every convivial
entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable
deities, poured out libations to each other’s happiness. 43 When
the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced
in hymenæal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation, 44 or
when the sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the
funeral pile, 45 the Christian, on these interesting occasions,
was compelled to desert the persons who were the dearest to him,
rather than contract the guilt inherent to those impious
ceremonies. Every art and every trade that was in the least
concerned in the framing or adorning of idols was polluted by the
stain of idolatry; 46 a severe sentence, since it devoted to
eternal misery the far greater part of the community, which is
employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic professions. If
we cast our eyes over the numerous remains of antiquity, we shall
perceive, that besides the immediate representations of the gods,
and the holy instruments of their worship, the elegant forms and
agreeable fictions consecrated by the imagination of the Greeks,
were introduced as the richest ornaments of the houses, the
dress, and the furniture of the Pagans. 47 Even the arts of music
and painting, of eloquence and poetry, flowed from the same
impure origin. In the style of the fathers, Apollo and the Muses
were the organs of the infernal spirit; Homer and Virgil were the
most eminent of his servants; and the beautiful mythology which
pervades and animates the compositions of their genius, is
destined to celebrate the glory of the dæmons. Even the common
language of Greece and Rome abounded with familiar but impious
expressions, which the imprudent Christian might too carelessly
utter, or too patiently hear. 48

40 (return) [ Tertullian has written a most severe treatise
against idolatry, to caution his brethren against the hourly
danger of incurring that guilt. Recogita sylvam, et quantæ
latitant spinæ. De Corona Militis, c. 10.]

41 (return) [ The Roman senate was always held in a temple or
consecrated place. (Aulus Gellius, xiv. 7.) Before they entered
on business, every senator dropped some wine and frankincense on
the altar. Sueton. in August. c. 35.]

42 (return) [ See Tertullian, De Spectaculis. This severe
reformer shows no more indulgence to a tragedy of Euripides, than
to a combat of gladiators. The dress of the actors particularly
offends him. By the use of the lofty buskin, they impiously
strive to add a cubit to their stature. c. 23.]

43 (return) [ The ancient practice of concluding the
entertainment with libations, may be found in every classic.
Socrates and Seneca, in their last moments, made a noble
application of this custom. Postquam stagnum, calidæ aquæ
introiit, respergens proximos servorum, addita voce, libare se
liquorem illum Jovi Liberatori. Tacit. Annal. xv. 64.]

44 (return) [ See the elegant but idolatrous hymn of Catullus, on
the nuptials of Manlius and Julia. O Hymen, Hymenæe Io! Quis huic
Deo compararier ausit?]

45 (return) [ The ancient funerals (in those of Misenus and
Pallas) are no less accurately described by Virgil, than they are
illustrated by his commentator Servius. The pile itself was an
altar, the flames were fed with the blood of victims, and all the
assistants were sprinkled with lustral water.]

46 (return) [ Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 11. * Note: The
exaggerated and declamatory opinions of Tertullian ought not to
be taken as the general sentiment of the early Christians. Gibbon
has too often allowed himself to consider the peculiar notions of
certain Fathers of the Church as inherent in Christianity. This
is not accurate.—G.]

47 (return) [ See every part of Montfaucon’s Antiquities. Even
the reverses of the Greek and Roman coins were frequently of an
idolatrous nature. Here indeed the scruples of the Christian were
suspended by a stronger passion. Note: All this scrupulous nicety
is at variance with the decision of St. Paul about meat offered
to idols, 1, Cor. x. 21— 32.—M.]

48 (return) [ Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 20, 21, 22. If a
Pagan friend (on the occasion perhaps of sneezing) used the
familiar expression of “Jupiter bless you,” the Christian was
obliged to protest against the divinity of Jupiter.]

The dangerous temptations which on every side lurked in ambush to
surprise the unguarded believer, assailed him with redoubled
violence on the days of solemn festivals. So artfully were they
framed and disposed throughout the year, that superstition always
wore the appearance of pleasure, and often of virtue. Some of the
most sacred festivals in the Roman ritual were destined to salute
the new calends of January with vows of public and private
felicity; to indulge the pious remembrance of the dead and
living; to ascertain the inviolable bounds of property; to hail,
on the return of spring, the genial powers of fecundity; to
perpetuate the two memorable æras of Rome, the foundation of the
city and that of the republic; and to restore, during the humane
license of the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of mankind.
Some idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the Christians
for such impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous delicacy which
they displayed on a much less alarming occasion. On days of
general festivity it was the custom of the ancients to adorn
their doors with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown
their heads with a garland of flowers. This innocent and elegant
practice might perhaps have been tolerated as a mere civil
institution. But it most unluckily happened that the doors were
under the protection of the household gods, that the laurel was
sacred to the lover of Daphne, and that garlands of flowers,
though frequently worn as a symbol either of joy or mourning, had
been dedicated in their first origin to the service of
superstition. The trembling Christians, who were persuaded in
this instance to comply with the fashion of their country, and
the commands of the magistrate, labored under the most gloomy
apprehensions, from the reproaches of his own conscience, the
censures of the church, and the denunciations of divine
vengeance. 49 50

49 (return) [ Consult the most labored work of Ovid, his
imperfect Fasti. He finished no more than the first six months of
the year. The compilation of Macrobius is called the Saturnalia,
but it is only a small part of the first book that bears any
relation to the title.]

50 (return) [ Tertullian has composed a defence, or rather
panegyric, of the rash action of a Christian soldier, who, by
throwing away his crown of laurel, had exposed himself and his
brethren to the most imminent danger. By the mention of the
emperors, (Severus and Caracalla,) it is evident, notwithstanding
the wishes of M. de Tillemont, that Tertullian composed his
treatise De Corona long before he was engaged in the errors of
the Montanists. See Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. iii. p. 384.
Note: The soldier did not tear off his crown to throw it down
with contempt; he did not even throw it away; he held it in his
hand, while others were it on their heads. Solus libero capite,
ornamento in manu otioso.—G Note: Tertullian does not expressly
name the two emperors, Severus and Caracalla: he speaks only of
two emperors, and of a long peace which the church had enjoyed.
It is generally agreed that Tertullian became a Montanist about
the year 200: his work, de Corona Militis, appears to have been
written, at the earliest about the year 202 before the
persecution of Severus: it may be maintained, then, that it is
subsequent to the Montanism of the author. See Mosheim, Diss. de
Apol. Tertull. p. 53. Biblioth. Amsterd. tom. x. part ii. p. 292.
Cave’s Hist. Lit. p. 92, 93.—G. ——The state of Tertullian’s
opinions at the particular period is almost an idle question.
“The fiery African” is not at any time to be considered a fair
representative of Christianity.—M.]

Such was the anxious diligence which was required to guard the
chastity of the gospel from the infectious breath of idolatry.
The superstitious observances of public or private rites were
carelessly practised, from education and habit, by the followers
of the established religion. But as often as they occurred, they
afforded the Christians an opportunity of declaring and
confirming their zealous opposition. By these frequent
protestations their attachment to the faith was continually
fortified; and in proportion to the increase of zeal, they
combated with the more ardor and success in the holy war, which
they had undertaken against the empire of the demons.

II. The writings of Cicero 51 represent in the most lively colors
the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient
philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul. When
they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of
death, they inculcate, as an obvious though melancholy position,
that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the
calamities of life; and that those can no longer suffer, who no
longer exist. Yet there were a few sages of Greece and Rome who
had conceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster
idea of human nature, though it must be confessed, that in the
sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their
imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by
their vanity. When they viewed with complacency the extent of
their own mental powers, when they exercised the various
faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most
profound speculations, or the most important labors, and when
they reflected on the desire of fame, which transported them into
future ages, far beyond the bounds of death and of the grave,
they were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the
field, or to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they
entertained the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a
spot of earth, and to a few years of duration. With this
favorable prepossession they summoned to their aid the science,
or rather the language, of Metaphysics. They soon discovered,
that as none of the properties of matter will apply to the
operations of the mind, the human soul must consequently be a
substance distinct from the body, pure, simple, and spiritual,
incapable of dissolution, and susceptible of a much higher degree
of virtue and happiness after the release from its corporeal
prison. From these specious and noble principles, the
philosophers who trod in the footsteps of Plato deduced a very
unjustifiable conclusion, since they asserted, not only the
future immortality, but the past eternity, of the human soul,
which they were too apt to consider as a portion of the infinite
and self-existing spirit, which pervades and sustains the
universe. 52 A doctrine thus removed beyond the senses and the
experience of mankind might serve to amuse the leisure of a
philosophic mind; or, in the silence of solitude, it might
sometimes impart a ray of comfort to desponding virtue; but the
faint impression which had been received in the schools was soon
obliterated by the commerce and business of active life. We are
sufficiently acquainted with the eminent persons who flourished
in the age of Cicero and of the first Cæsars, with their actions,
their characters, and their motives, to be assured that their
conduct in this life was never regulated by any serious
conviction of the rewards or punishments of a future state. At
the bar and in the senate of Rome the ablest orators were not
apprehensive of giving offence to their hearers by exposing that
doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected
with contempt by every man of a liberal education and
understanding. 53

51 (return) [ In particular, the first book of the Tusculan
Questions, and the treatise De Senectute, and the Somnium
Scipionis, contain, in the most beautiful language, every thing
that Grecian philosophy, on Roman good sense, could possibly
suggest on this dark but important object.]

52 (return) [ The preexistence of human souls, so far at least as
that doctrine is compatible with religion, was adopted by many of
the Greek and Latin fathers. See Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme,
l. vi. c. 4.]

53 (return) [ See Cicero pro Cluent. c. 61. Cæsar ap. Sallust. de
Bell. Catilis n 50. Juvenal. Satir. ii. 149. ——Esse aliquid
manes, et subterranea regna, —————Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui
nondum æree lavantæ.]

Since therefore the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend
no further than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at
most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing,
except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence and
describe the condition, of the invisible country which is
destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from
the body. But we may perceive several defects inherent to the
popular religions of Greece and Rome, which rendered them very
unequal to so arduous a task. 1. The general system of their
mythology was unsupported by any solid proofs; and the wisest
among the Pagans had already disclaimed its usurped authority. 2.
The description of the infernal regions had been abandoned to the
fancy of painters and of poets, who peopled them with so many
phantoms and monsters, who dispensed their rewards and
punishments with so little equity, that a solemn truth, the most
congenial to the human heart, was oppressed and disgraced by the
absurd mixture of the wildest fictions. 54 3. The doctrine of a
future state was scarcely considered among the devout polytheists
of Greece and Rome as a fundamental article of faith. The
providence of the gods, as it related to public communities
rather than to private individuals, was principally displayed on
the visible theatre of the present world. The petitions which
were offered on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo expressed the
anxiety of their worshippers for temporal happiness, and their
ignorance or indifference concerning a future life. 55 The
important truth of the immortality of the soul was inculcated
with more diligence, as well as success, in India, in Assyria, in
Egypt, and in Gaul; and since we cannot attribute such a
difference to the superior knowledge of the barbarians, we must
ascribe it to the influence of an established priesthood, which
employed the motives of virtue as the instrument of ambition. 56

54 (return) [ The xith book of the Odyssey gives a very dreary
and incoherent account of the infernal shades. Pindar and Virgil
have embellished the picture; but even those poets, though more
correct than their great model, are guilty of very strange
inconsistencies. See Bayle, Responses aux Questions d’un
Provincial, part iii. c. 22.]

55 (return) [ See xvith epistle of the first book of Horace, the
xiiith Satire of Juvenal, and the iid Satire of Persius: these
popular discourses express the sentiment and language of the
multitude.]

56 (return) [ If we confine ourselves to the Gauls, we may
observe, that they intrusted, not only their lives, but even
their money, to the security of another world. Vetus ille mos
Gallorum occurrit (says Valerius Maximus, l. ii. c. 6, p. 10)
quos, memoria proditum est pecunias montuas, quæ his apud inferos
redderentur, dare solitos. The same custom is more darkly
insinuated by Mela, l. iii. c. 2. It is almost needless to add,
that the profits of trade hold a just proportion to the credit of
the merchant, and that the Druids derived from their holy
profession a character of responsibility, which could scarcely be
claimed by any other order of men.]

We might naturally expect that a principle so essential to
religion, would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the
chosen people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been
intrusted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incumbent
on us to adore the mysterious dispensations of Providence, 57
when we discover that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul
is omitted in the law of Moses; it is darkly insinuated by the
prophets; and during the long period which elapsed between the
Egyptian and the Babylonian servitudes, the hopes as well as
fears of the Jews appear to have been confined within the narrow
compass of the present life. 58 After Cyrus had permitted the
exiled nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra
had restored the ancient records of their religion, two
celebrated sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, insensibly
arose at Jerusalem. 59 The former, selected from the more opulent
and distinguished ranks of society, were strictly attached to the
literal sense of the Mosaic law, and they piously rejected the
immortality of the soul, as an opinion that received no
countenance from the divine book, which they revered as the only
rule of their faith. To the authority of Scripture the Pharisees
added that of tradition, and they accepted, under the name of
traditions, several speculative tenets from the philosophy or
religion of the eastern nations. The doctrines of fate or
predestination, of angels and spirits, and of a future state of
rewards and punishments, were in the number of these new articles
of belief; and as the Pharisees, by the austerity of their
manners, had drawn into their party the body of the Jewish
people, the immortality of the soul became the prevailing
sentiment of the synagogue, under the reign of the Asmonæan
princes and pontiffs. The temper of the Jews was incapable of
contenting itself with such a cold and languid assent as might
satisfy the mind of a Polytheist; and as soon as they admitted
the idea of a future state, they embraced it with the zeal which
has always formed the characteristic of the nation. Their zeal,
however, added nothing to its evidence, or even probability: and
it was still necessary that the doctrine of life and immortality,
which had been dictated by nature, approved by reason, and
received by superstition, should obtain the sanction of divine
truth from the authority and example of Christ.

57 (return) [ The right reverend author of the Divine Legation of
Moses as signs a very curious reason for the omission, and most
ingeniously retorts it on the unbelievers. * Note: The hypothesis
of Warburton concerning this remarkable fact, which, as far as
the Law of Moses, is unquestionable, made few disciples; and it
is difficult to suppose that it could be intended by the author
himself for more than a display of intellectual strength. Modern
writers have accounted in various ways for the silence of the
Hebrew legislator on the immortality of the soul. According to
Michaelis, “Moses wrote as an historian and as a lawgiver; he
regulated the ecclesiastical discipline, rather than the
religious belief of his people; and the sanctions of the law
being temporal, he had no occasion, and as a civil legislator
could not with propriety, threaten punishments in another world.”
See Michaelis, Laws of Moses, art. 272, vol. iv. p. 209, Eng.
Trans.; and Syntagma Commentationum, p. 80, quoted by Guizot. M.
Guizot adds, the “ingenious conjecture of a philosophic
theologian,” which approximates to an opinion long entertained by
the Editor. That writer believes, that in the state of
civilization at the time of the legislator, this doctrine, become
popular among the Jews, would necessarily have given birth to a
multitude of idolatrous superstitions which he wished to prevent.
His primary object was to establish a firm theocracy, to make his
people the conservators of the doctrine of the Divine Unity, the
basis upon which Christianity was hereafter to rest. He carefully
excluded everything which could obscure or weaken that doctrine.
Other nations had strangely abused their notions on the
immortality of the soul; Moses wished to prevent this abuse:
hence he forbade the Jews from consulting necromancers, (those
who evoke the spirits of the dead.) Deut. xviii. 11. Those who
reflect on the state of the Pagans and the Jews, and on the
facility with which idolatry crept in on every side, will not be
astonished that Moses has not developed a doctrine of which the
influence might be more pernicious than useful to his people.
Orat. Fest. de Vitæ Immort. Spe., &c., auct. Ph. Alb. Stapfer, p.
12 13, 20. Berne, 1787. ——Moses, as well from the intimations
scattered in his writings, the passage relating to the
translation of Enoch, (Gen. v. 24,) the prohibition of
necromancy, (Michaelis believes him to be the author of the Book
of Job though this opinion is in general rejected; other learned
writers consider this Book to be coeval with and known to Moses,)
as from his long residence in Egypt, and his acquaintance with
Egyptian wisdom, could not be ignorant of the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul. But this doctrine if popularly known
among the Jews, must have been purely Egyptian, and as so,
intimately connected with the whole religious system of that
country. It was no doubt moulded up with the tenet of the
transmigration of the soul, perhaps with notions analogous to the
emanation system of India in which the human soul was an efflux
from or indeed a part of, the Deity. The Mosaic religion drew a
wide and impassable interval between the Creator and created
human beings: in this it differed from the Egyptian and all the
Eastern religions. As then the immortality of the soul was thus
inseparably blended with those foreign religions which were
altogether to be effaced from the minds of the people, and by no
means necessary for the establishment of the theocracy, Moses
maintained silence on this point and a purer notion of it was
left to be developed at a more favorable period in the history of
man.—M.]

58 (return) [ See Le Clerc (Prolegomena ad Hist. Ecclesiast.
sect. 1, c. 8) His authority seems to carry the greater weight,
as he has written a learned and judicious commentary on the books
of the Old Testament.]

59 (return) [ Joseph. Antiquitat. l. xiii. c. 10. De Bell. Jud.
ii. 8. According to the most natural interpretation of his words,
the Sadducees admitted only the Pentateuch; but it has pleased
some modern critics to add the Prophets to their creed, and to
suppose that they contented themselves with rejecting the
traditions of the Pharisees. Dr. Jortin has argued that point in
his Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 103.]

When the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to mankind on
condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the precepts,
of the gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer
should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of
every rank, and of every province in the Roman empire. The
ancient Christians were animated by a contempt for their present
existence, and by a just confidence of immortality, of which the
doubtful and imperfect faith of modern ages cannot give us any
adequate notion. In the primitive church, the influence of truth
was very powerfully strengthened by an opinion, which, however it
may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has not
been found agreeable to experience. It was universally believed,
that the end of the world, and the kingdom of heaven, were at
hand. 591 The near approach of this wonderful event had been
predicted by the apostles; the tradition of it was preserved by
their earliest disciples, and those who understood in their
literal senses the discourse of Christ himself, were obliged to
expect the second and glorious coming of the Son of Man in the
clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished, which
had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and which might still
be witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or
Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed us
not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophecy and
revelation; but as long as, for wise purposes, this error was
permitted to subsist in the church, it was productive of the most
salutary effects on the faith and practice of Christians, who
lived in the awful expectation of that moment, when the globe
itself, and all the various race of mankind, should tremble at
the appearance of their divine Judge. 60

591 (return) [ This was, in fact, an integral part of the Jewish
notion of the Messiah, from which the minds of the apostles
themselves were but gradually detached. See Bertholdt,
Christologia Judæorum, concluding chapters—M.]

60 (return) [ This expectation was countenanced by the
twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, and by the first epistle of
St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Erasmus removes the difficulty by
the help of allegory and metaphor; and the learned Grotius
ventures to insinuate, that, for wise purposes, the pious
deception was permitted to take place. * Note: Some modern
theologians explain it without discovering either allegory or
deception. They say, that Jesus Christ, after having proclaimed
the ruin of Jerusalem and of the Temple, speaks of his second
coming and the sings which were to precede it; but those who
believed that the moment was near deceived themselves as to the
sense of two words, an error which still subsists in our versions
of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, xxiv. 29, 34. In verse
29, we read, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days
shall the sun be darkened,” &c. The Greek word signifies all at
once, suddenly, not immediately; so that it signifies only the
sudden appearance of the signs which Jesus Christ announces not
the shortness of the interval which was to separate them from the
“days of tribulation,” of which he was speaking. The verse 34 is
this “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till
all these things shall be fulfilled.” Jesus, speaking to his
disciples, uses these words, which the translators have rendered
by this generation, but which means the race, the filiation of my
disciples; that is, he speaks of a class of men, not of a
generation. The true sense then, according to these learned men,
is, In truth I tell you that this race of men, of which you are
the commencement, shall not pass away till this shall take place;
that is to say, the succession of Christians shall not cease till
his coming. See Commentary of M. Paulus on the New Test., edit.
1802, tom. iii. p. 445,—446.—G. ——Others, as Rosenmuller and
Kuinoel, in loc., confine this passage to a highly figurative
description of the ruins of the Jewish city and polity.—M.]