CENT. the Mystical exposition of the book of the Revelation [g], which was imagined by the latter. VI. PART II. The me V. It would be needless to expect from the divines of this century, an accurate view, or a clear thods of and natural explanation of the Christian doctrine. explaining The greatest part of them reasoned and disputed tian doc- concerning the truths of the gospel, as the blind trine which would argue about light and colours; and imagined the Chris now pre vailed. that they had acquitted themselves nobly, when they had thrown out a heap of crude and indigested notions, and overwhelmed their adversaries with a torrent of words. We may perceive, however, in the writers of this age, some evident marks of the three different methods of explaining and inculcating the doctrines of religion, which are yet practised among the Greeks and Latins. For some collected together a heap, rather than a system of theological opinions, from the writings of the ancient doctors, from the decrees of councils, and from the Holy Scriptures; such were Isidore of Seville among the Latins; whose three books of sentences or opinions, are still extant; and Leontius the Cyprian among the Greeks, whose Locicommunes, or common-place book of divinity, which he had compiled from the writings of the ancients; have been much esteemed. These authors gave rise to that species of divinity, which the Latins distinguished afterwards, by the name of positive theology. Others endeavoured to explain the various doctrines of Christianity by reasoning upon their nature, their excellency and fitness; and thus it was, even with the weapons of reason and argument, that the most of the Christian doctors disputed against the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and the Pelagians. These metaphysical divines [g] Expositio Mystica in Apocalypsin. were were called schoolmen, and their writings were CENT. afterwards characterized under the general term of scholastic divinity. A third class of theological teachers, very different from those already mentioned, comprehended a certain species of fanatics, who maintained that the knowledge of divine truth was only to be derived from inward feeling, and mental contemplation. This class assumed the appellation of mystics. These three methods of deducing and unfolding the doctrines of the gospel have been transmitted down to our times. No writer of this century composed a judicious or complete system of divinity; though several branches of that sacred science were occasionally illustrated. VI. PART II. religion VI. Those who consecrated their pious labours The state to the advancement of practical religion and mo- of practical ral virtue, aimed at the fulfilling this good pur- and virtue. pose, partly by laying down precepts, and partly by exhibiting edifying examples. They who promoted the cause of piety and virtue in the former way, modified their precepts according to the state and circumstances of the persons for whom they were designed. One sort of precepts were addressed to those who had not abandoned the connections of civil society, but lived amidst the hurry of worldly affairs. A different set of rules was administered to those who aspired after higher degrees of perfection, and lived in a retirement from the contagion and vanities of the world. The precepts, addressed to the former, represent the Christian life, as consisting in certain external virtues, and acts of religion; as appears from the Homilies and Exhortations of Cæsarius; the Capita Paronetica of Agapetus; and especially from the Formula honestæ vitæ, i. e. the Summary of a virtuous life, drawn up by Martin, archbi shop CENT. shop of Braga [h]. The rules administered to the VI. latter sort of Christians, were more spiritual and PART II. sublime they were exhorted to separate, as far as The lives of the saints. was possible, the soul from the body by divine contemplation; and for that purpose, to enervate and emaciate the latter by watching, fasting, perpetual prayer, and singing of psalms, as we find in the dissertation of Fulgentius, upon fasting, and those of Nicetius, Concerning the vigils of the servants of God, and the good effects of psalmody. The Greeks adopted for their leader, in this mystic labyrinth, Dionysius, falsely called the Areopagite, whose pretended writings John of Scythopolis illustrated with annotations in this century. We need not be at any pains in pointing out the defects of these injudicious zealots; the smallest acquaintance with that rational religion, which is contained in the gospel, will be sufficient to open the eyes of the impartial upon the absurdities of that chimerical devotion we have now been describing. VII. They who enforced the duties of Christianity, by exhibiting examples of piety and virtue to the view of those for whom their instructions were designed, wrote, for this purpose, the Lives of the saints; and there was a considerable number of this kind of biographers both among the Greeks and Latins. Ennodius, Eugippius, Cyril of Scythopolis, Dionysius the Little, Cogitosus, and others, are to be ranked in this class. But, however pious the intentions of these biographers may have been, it must be acknowledged, that they executed it in a most contemptible manner. No models of rational piety are to be found among those pretended worthies, whom they propose to Christians as objects of imitation. They amuse their readers with gigan [h] See the Actor Sanctor. Martii. tom. iii. p. 86. tic VI. PART II. tic fables and trifling romances; the examples CENT. they exhibit are those of certain delirious fanatics, whom they call saints, men of a corrupt and perverted judgment, who offered violence to reason and nature by the horrors of an extravagant austerity in their own conduct, and by the severity of those singular and inhuman rules which they prescribed to others. For, by what means were these men sainted? By starving themselves with a frantic obstinacy, and bearing the useless hardships of hunger, thirst, and inclement seasons, with stedfastness and perseverance; by running about the country like madmen, in tattered garments, and sometimes half-naked, or shutting themselves up in a narrow space, where they continued motionless: by standing for a long time in certain postures, with their eyes closed, in the enthusiastic expectation of divine light. All this was saintlike and glorious; and the more that any ambitious fanatic departed from the dictates of reason and common sense, and counterfeited the wild gestures, and the incoherent conduct of an ideot, or a lunatic, the surer was his prospect of obtaining an eminent rank among the heroes and demigods of a corrupt and degenerate church. divinity. VIII. Many writers laboured with diligence to Polemic terminate the reigning controversies, but none with success. Nor shall we be much surprised, that these efforts were ineffectual, when we consider how they were conducted; for scarcely can we name a single writer, whose opposition to the Eutychians, Nestorians, and Pelagians, was carried on with probity, moderation, or prudence. Primasius and Philoponus wrote concerning all the sects, but their works are lost; the treatise of Leontius, upon the same extensive subject, is still extant, but is scarcely worth perusing. Isidore of Seville, and Leontius of Neapolis, disputed against the Jews, but with what success and PART II. CENT. dexterity will be easily imagined by those who are VI. acquainted with the learning and logic of these times. We omit, therefore, any further mention of the miserable disputants of this century, from a persuasion that it will be more useful and entertaining to lay before the reader a brief account of the controversies that new divided and troubled the Christian church. The con concerning his doc trine, renewed. IX. Though the credit of Origen, and his troversies system, seemed to lie expiring under the blows it Origen and had received from the zeal of the orthodox, and the repeated thunder of synods and councils, yet it was very far from being totally sunk. On the contrary, this great man, and his doctrine, were held by many, and especially by the monks, in the highest veneration, and cherished with a kind of enthusiasm which became boundless and extravagant. In the west, Bellator translated the works of Origen into the Latin language. In the eastern provinces, and particularly in Syria and Palestine, which were the principal seats of Origenism, the monks seconded by several bishops, and chiefly by Theodore of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, defended the truth and authority of the doctrines of Origen against all his adversaries with incredible vehemence and contention of mind [i]. The cause was, at length, brought before Justinian, who, in a long and verbose edict, addressed to Mennas, patriarch of Constantinople [k], passed a severe condemnation upon Origen and his doctrine, and ordered it to be entirely suppressed [1]. The effects of this edict were [i] Cyrillus, Scythopolis, in vita Saba, which is to be found in Cotelerius, Monumenta Ecclesiæ Græcæ, p. 370. Henr. Noris, Dissertat. de Synodo Quinta, cap. i. ii. p. 554. tom. i. opp. [k] This edict is published in Harduin's Concilia, tom. iii. p. 243. [] This edict was procured by the solicitation of Pelagius, who was legate of Vigilius at the court of Con stantinople, |