CHAPTER XXXIV.

IDOLATROUS HEATHEN WORSHIP WAS WESTWARD: PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC WORSHIP, EASTWARD: ROMAN AND DISSENTING WORSHIP, IN EVERY DIRECTION. IN Chapter XIV., Section 3, of this volume,1 we have seen that (with exceptions due to special causes which do not affect the general principle) the whole of Heathen Idolatrous Worship, properly so called-that is, worship paid to idols or images-has been for thousands of years, and still is, fixed Westward Worship. From the dawn of history to the present day, the congregations in Heathen temples have worshipped as uniformly towards the West, as congregations of English Church people worship towards the East; and Heathen temples have been everywhere built due East and West, with their principal entrances at the East end, and the Altar and Idol-shrine at the West end,-in a word, they have been as regularly constructed for Westward Worship as English churches are for Eastward Worship.

The fixed Eastward Worship which has prevailed from time immemorial in England and in every other part of Christendom (Ultramontane Italy and Protestant Dissent alone excepted) has undoubtedly been of Primitive, and probably of Apostolic, origin. It seems to have been established in the Apostolic age, before the close of the first century, by the concurrent action

1 See above, pp. 164-174.

of at least three original and independent causes: viz., Ist, the influence of the ancient Synagogue worship; 2ndly, the influence of the Prophetical writings of the Old Testament and of corresponding passages in the New Testament; and 3rd, the influence of a strong and necessary reaction against the Westward Idolatry and Devil-Worship of the Heathen.

Ist, with respect to the influence of the Synagogue. In all the great countries West of Jerusalem-Northern Africa, Asia Minor, Italy, Greece, Spain, France, &c.— the worship in the Jewish synagogues was virtually Eastward Worship, being towards the Holy City. But these were the countries in which almost all the most important Christian churches were founded by the Apostles and their immediate followers; and in which, consequently, Christian Worship first became consolidated, and acquired its most ancient and permanent characteristics,-characteristics which, as we have seen, were derived by the closest and most direct historical descent from the worship in the neighbouring Jewish synagogues. In these countries, therefore, the worship in the Primitive Christian churches-or more correctly, in the Primitive Christian Synagogues (for such they were) was necessarily Eastward; and this Eastward direction, impressed by the influence of the Synagogue on early Christian Worship, was afterwards jealously maintained, on independent grounds, in all the quarters of the globe to which Christianity spread.1

2ndly. Jewish influence, as a producing cause in connection with Christian worship, was of course merely temporary. This must have been, in some measure, felt from the first. Our Lord had predicted the complete and final overthrow of the whole Jewish polity,

1 Vitringa, De Synagoga Vetere, pp. 178, 457. See on the subject of Eastward Worship my Hearty Services, pp. vii.-xvi., 145-164, 167-195.

and the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Even before the fulfilment of this prediction, and still more after its fulfilment in A.D. 70, the early Christian congregations must have perceived that old things were rapidly passing away, and that all things were becoming new. But meanwhile, the Eastward direction impressed upon Christian worship had drawn around itself the support of more Evangelical and permanent associations than those by which it had been originally produced. It was remembered that the inspired Hebrew Prophets had, centuries before, regarded the sun, rising in the luminous East, and rejoicing and blessing the world with his flood of glorious light, as a fitting type or symbol of Christ, the rising "Sun of Righteousness;" by whose bright beams of everlasting truth, and love, and purity, "all the families of the earth were to be blessed." "Arise, shine; for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy Light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." Also, in the New Testament Christ was clearly revealed as "the True Light," "the Light of the World," "the Bright, the Morning Star :" "the people which sat in darkness saw a great Light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did Light spring up." 3 With thoughts full of these glorious spiritual and Scriptural associations, the Primitive Christian congregations loved to worship, as Tertullian tells us, towards the radiant "East, that figure of Christ." 4

1 Mal. 4. 2.

2 Is. 60. 1-3.

3 Matt. 4. 16. Tertullian, Adver. Valentin., iii.,

Apolog., xvi.

66

John 1. 9; 8. 12. Rev. 22. 16.

Orientem, Christi figuram:" cf.

3rd. Probably the most powerful of the various influences which determined the Eastward direction of Primitive Christian worship, was a wise and necessary reaction and protest against the corrupt Westward Idolatry and Devil-Worship in the Heathen temples. The necessity of utterly abolishing the whole of this degrading Westward devotion appears to have been felt by the best spirits among the Heathen long before the coming of Christ. At least five centuries B.C., Zoroaster in Persia, and the original apostles of Buddhism in the far East, appear to have endeavoured to win men from the prevalent debasing idolatries by teaching them to worship towards the East; and there was a Heathen tradition, probably true, that in the earliest ages of the world, when religion was pure, all worship had been. Eastward.

We have just seen that Christ was revealed and worshipped as “the Light of the world," the rising " Sun of Righteousness." In harmony with this, His Kingdom was regarded as the Kingdom of Light; and His Saints as the "Children of Light," "believing in the Light," wearing the armour of Light,' "walking in the Light," "rejoicing in the Light."2 On the other hand, Satan was regarded as the Prince of Darkness; his Kingdom, as the Kingdom of Darkness; his servants, as Children of Darkness, dwelling "in Darkness," "loving Darkness," "walking in Darkness," "sitting in Darkness," "under the power of Darkness," "doing the works of Darkness;" and their destination hereafter, "outer Darkness," "the blackness of Darkness for ever." In the Western part of Heathen temples, as if

1 See above, pp. 172, 173.

Col. I. 13.

2 Luke 16. 8. John 5. 35; 12. 36. Eph. 5. 8, 14. 1 John 1. 7. 3 Matt. 25. 30. John I. 5; 3. 19. Rom. 2. 19; 13. 12. 1 Thess. 5. 5. Jude 6, 13.

emerging from the regions of Darkness, the terrible Devil-Idols appeared; and the Heathen bowed down and worshipped Devils, and "sacrificed to Devils," towards the West, "the region of sensible darkness," as S. Cyril calls it, the symbol of the Prince of Darkness, "that dark and gloomy Potentate," "the Prince of the Devils," the Lord of "the rulers of the Darkness of this world,"1

The first Christian converts from Heathenism transferred their allegiance from Satan to Christ. By repentance, faith, and holy Baptism, they were translated. from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light. They renounced Idolatry and Devil-Worship for ever. In short, they renounced their former master with his deeds; and they surrendered themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to Christ, to believe in Him, to love Him, to serve Him, to gladly do and suffer all things for His sake, and for the extension of His kingdom and glory. All this was beautifully symbolized, and the Church's protest against Westward Devil-Worship was solemnly formulated, in the primitive ritual of Holy Baptism. Before receiving Baptism, the converts were required to face towards the West;' and were then 'commanded to stretch forth the hand, and as if in the presence of Satan, to say, "I renounce thee, Satan This solemn and emphatic renunciation was repeated three times. Then turning their faces from the West. to the East, the place of Light,' and lifting up their hands and eyes Eastward and heavenward, they made their covenant with Christ: they surrendered themselves to Him Who had given Himself for them; and they thrice rehearsed the articles of their belief, the primitive Creed,2

1 Cyril, Catechetical Lectures, xix. 2. 4. 9. Lev. 17. 7. Deut. 32. 17. Ps. 106. 37. 1 Cor. 10. 20. Rev. 9. 20.

2 Cyril, Catechetical Lectures, xix. 2, 4, 9. Smith's Dict. of Christian Antiq., I. p. 160, Art. Baptism.