1. Departure from Moral Precepts of the Gospel.—There was as wide a departure from the moral precepts of the gospel among the Christians as there was from the doctrines, ordinances and government of the church. From the nature of the reproofs, the admonitions and warnings to be found in the epistles of the apostles to the churches, one may see that while they yet lived the saints were prone to wickedness, and great errors in regard to moral conduct crept into the churches. The writings of the early fathers of the church who succeeded the apostles also bear witness to the continuance and increase of these errors.

2. Double Rule of Life.—As early as the second century the idea became prevalent that messiah had prescribed a twofold rule of moral conduct; the one ordinary, the other extraordinary; one for those engaged in ordinary affairs of life, the other for persons of leisure and such as desired a higher glory in the future life. This led the early Christian doctors to divide whatsoever had been taught by the apostles in respect to Christian life and morals, into precepts and counsels. The precepts were those laws which were equally binding on all men the counsels were binding only on those who aspired to a closer union with God.

3. Of course there soon appeared a class of persons who sought to attain to this closer union; and they adopted the method of life practiced among the pagan philosophers who wished to excel in virtue. They considered many things forbidden to them which were proper for ordinary Christians to indulge in; such as wine, flesh, matrimony, and secular business. They thought the holiness of life they aspired to could sooner be attained by emaciating the body by fastings, watchings, excessive toil, hunger, insufficient and coarse raiment. In short, they "thought to merit heaven by making earth a hell." Those who engaged in this kind of life soom came to distinguish themselves by their dress as well as by the austerity of their lives. They soon began to withdraw themselves from association with their fellow Christians and the world and retire to the deserts and the wilderness, where by severe meditation they sought to abstract their minds from external objects and those things which minister to sensual delights. They sometimes lived alone but oftener in association with those devoted to the same manner of life.

4. When peace was assured to the Christian church, early in the fourth century, the number of those who became ambitious for this austere righteousness greatly increased, until vast multitudes of monk and sacred virgins spread with remarkable rapidity throughout Christendom. About the year 305, A. D., the practice of collecting these people into associated communities and regulating their mode of living by fixed rules was introduced. St Anthony of Egypt was the prime mover in this work. Thus monasteries and nunneries were established; and in a short time the east, especially, swarmed with persons who abandoned the conveniences, associations and business of ordinary life, to pine away in these institutions and hardships and sufferings, in order to attain a closer communion with God and a more excellent salvation.

5. Origin of the False Idea of Moral Life.—"The Christian church would have remained free from these numerous tortures of the mond and body," remarks Dr. Mosheim, "had not that great and fascinating doctrine of the ancient philosophy gained credence among Christians that to attain to happiness and communion with God, the soul must be freed from the influence of the body, and for this purpose the body must be subdued."^[100]

6. As a further evidence that these false notions of life and virtue came from the pagan philosophy rather than from the Christian religion, we quote again from Mosheim:

The causes of this institution [austere method of life] are at hand. First, the Christians did not like to appear inferior to the Greeks, the Romans, and the other people; among whom were many philosophers and sages, who were distinguished from the vulgar by their dress and their whole mode of life, and who were held in high honor. Now among these philosopher (as is well known), none better pleased the Christians than the Platonists and Pythagoreans [Pyth-a-go-re-ans]; who are known to have recommended two modes of living, the one for philosophers who wished to excel in virtue, and the other for the people engaged in the common affairs of life.^[101]

The Platonists prescribed the following rules for philosophers:

The mind of a wise man must be withdrawn, as far as possible, from the contagious influence of the body, and as the oppressive load of the body and social intercourse are most adverse to this design, therefore all sensual gratifications are to be avoided; the body is to be sustained or rather mortified, with coarse and slender fare; solitude is to be sought for; and the mind is to be self-collected, and absorbed in contemplation, so as to be detached as much as possible from the body. Whoever lives in this manner, shall in the present life have converse with God; and when freed from the load of the body, shall ascend without delay to the celestial mansions and shall not need, like the souls of other men, to undergo purgation.^[102]

7. It will be remembered that the Christians adopted the pagan philosophy—of which the teachings of Plato were the basis—and employed it to explain the Christian religion. It is not surprising, therefore, that they adopted its moral precepts, and by so doing corrupted that reasonable and healthy moral life enjoined upon all alike in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

8. Celibacy of the Clergy.—From the same source came the celibacy of the clergy. It was considered that those who lived in wedlock were more subject to the assaults of evil spirits than those who lived in celibacy; hence those who were appointed to teach and govern others were supposed to be all the better qualified for their work if they had nothing to do with conjugal life. It was a matter, however, which during the first centuries was not strictly enjoined by any formal regulations of the church; it was left for Pope Gregory VII in the eleventh century to bind such a wicked regulation upon the clergy by express law. In the third century the most shameful abuses arose out of this doctrine; for men sought to fulfill its requirements with the least violence to their inclinations, and many of those who had taken upon themselves vows of chastity, took to their houses and even to their beds some one of those holy females under like vows of chastity, yet maintained that there was no improper relations between them. It is but just to say that many bishops condemned this shameful practice but it was some time before the church was rid of it, and the scandal it created, and even when such practices did cease openly it may well be doubted if it really ceased among those forced into such unnatural conditions.

9. Deceiving and Lying Accounted Virtues.—Another evil which went far toward corrupting the church was the idea that to deceive and lie are virtues when religion can be promoted by them. This pernicious doctrine was accepted early in the first centuries and it accounts for the existence and circulation of that great mass of childish fable and falsehood respecting the infancy and youth of Messiah and the miraculous, wonder-working power of the relics of the saints and martyrs, from which the cause of the Christian religion has suffered so much. "If some inquisitive person were to examine the conduct and the writings of the greatest and most pious teachers of this century" [the fourth], writes Dr. Mosheim, "I fear he would find about all of them infected with this leprosy. I cannot except Ambrose, nor Hilary, nor Augustine, nor Gregory Nazianzen nor Jerome."^[103]

10. Immoral Condition of the Church in General.—The wickedness of the clergy in the last centuries, the ambition of the bishops and their imitating in their lives the voluptuousness of princes, we have already noted in section four of part II, and therefore little need be said here further than to remark that those vices very rapidly increased. As time rolled on worldly prosperity seemed to relax the nerves of discipline. "Fraud, envy and malice prevailed in every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which every day became an object more worthy their ambition. The bishops who contended with each other for ecclesiastical pre-eminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faith which still distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles was shown much less in their lives than in their controversial writings."^[104]

11. Sometimes these struggles for place and power resulted in war and bloodshed. Such was the case in the fourth century when a new pope was to be elected to succeed Liberius [Li-be-ri-us]. One party in Rome was for one Damasus [Dam-a-sus], and another party for Ursicinus [Ur-si-ci-nus]. The contest resulted in a bloody conflict, houses were burned and many lost their lives. In one church alone one morning after the conflict there were found one hundred and thirty-seven corpses to bear witness to the violence of the struggle for what was claimed to be the office of viceregent of God on earth.

12. Moral Condition of the Church in the Fourth Century.—In the fourth century—"If we look at the lives and morals of the Christians—we shal find, as heretofore, that good men were commingled with bad, yet the number of the bad began gradually to increase, so that the truly pious and godly appeared more rare. when there was no more to fear from enemies from without; when the character of most bishops was tarnished with arrogance, luxury, effeminacy, animosity, resentments, and other defects; when the lower clergy neglected their proper duties, and were more attentive to controversies, than to the promotion of piety and the instruction of the people; when vast numbers were induced not by a rational conviction, but by the fear of punishment and the hope of worldly advantage to enroll themselves as Christians, how can it surprise us, that on all sides the vicious appeared a host, and the pious a little band almost overpowered by them. Against the flagitious and those guilty of heinous offenses, the same rules for penance were prescribed, as before the reign of Constantine. But as the times continually waxed worse and worse, the more honorable and powerful could sin with impunity, and only the poor and the unfortunate felt the severity of the laws."^[105]

13. Moral Condition of the Church in the Fifth Century.—About the middle of the fifth century we have Salvian [Sal-vi-an] saying:

The very church which should be the body to appease the anger of God, alas! what reigns there but disorders calculated to incense the Most High? It is more common to meet with Christians who are guilty of the greatest abominations than with those who are wholly exempt from crime. So that today it is a sort of sanctity among us to be less vicious than the generality of Christians. We insult the majesty of the Most High at the foot of his altars. Men, the most steeped in crime enter the holy places without respect for them. True all men ought to pay their vows to God, but why should they seek his temples to propitiate him, only to go forth to provoke him? Why enter the church to deplore their former sins, and upon going forth—what do I say?—in those very courts the commit fresh sins, their mouths and their hearts contradict one another. Their prayers are criminal meditations rather than vows of expiation. Scarcely is the service ended before each returns to his old practices. Some go to their wine, others to their impurities, still others to robbing and brigandage, so that we cannot doubt that these things had been occupying them while they were in the church. Nor is it the lowest of the people who are thus guilty. There is no rank whatever in the church which does not commit all sorts of crimes.

14. It may be urged that we are at heart better than the barbarians who oppose us. Suppose this to be granted; we ought to be better than they. But as a matter of fact, they are more virtuous than we. The mass of Christians are below the barbarians in probity. True, all kinds of sins are found among them but what one is not found among us? The several nations have their peculiar sin; the Saxons are cruel; the Franks perfidious; the Gepidae inhuman; the Huns lewd. But we, having the law of God to restrain us, are given over to all these offenses. Then to confine ourselves to the single sin of swearing, can many be found among the faithful who have not the name of Jesus Christ constantly upon their lips in support of their perjuries? This practice coming down from the higher to the lower classes, has so prevailed that Christians might be deemed pagans. This, although the law of God expressly forbids to take his name in vain. We read this law but we do not practice it; as a consequence the pagans taunt us that we boast ourselves the sole possessors of God's law, and of the rules of truth and of what that law enjoins. Christians, indeed, to the shame of Jesus Christ! say they.^[106]

15. In book VI on The Providence of God, Salvian continues his arraignment:

We rush from the churches to the theatres, even in the midst of our perils. In Carthage the theatres were thronged while the enemy were before the walls, and the cries of those perishing outside under the sword mingled with the shouts of the spectators in the circus. Nor are we better here in Gaul (France). Treves [Trevz] has been taken four times, and has only increased in wickedness under her misfortunes. The same state of things exists in Cologne [Ko-lon]—deplorable wickedness among young and old, low and high. The smaller cities have been blind and insensible to the dangers threatening, until they have overwhelmed them. It seems to be the destiny of the Roman empire to perish rather than reform; they must cease to be, in order to cease to be vicious. A part of the inhabitants of Treves, having escaped from the ruins, petitions the emperor for—what? A theatre, spectacles, public shows! A city which thrice overthrown could not correct itself, well deserved to suffer a fourth destruction. * * * Would that my voice might be heard by all Romans! I would cry: Let us all blush that today the only cities where impurity does not reign are those which have submitted to the barbarians. Think not, then, that they conquer and we yield by the simple force of nature. Rather let us admit that we succumb through the dissoluteness of our morals of which our calamities are the just punishment.^[107]

16. State of Morals in Centuries Subsequent to the Fifth.—Such was the condition of the Christian church as to morals in the fifth century. It was no better in the sixth or the seventh or the eighth. Indeed the concurrent testimony of all authorities is to the effect that matters moral and spiritual grew gradually worse in these centuries until darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people. Of the ninth century Mosheim says:

The ungodly lives of most of those intrusted with the care and government of the church are a subject of complaint with all the ingenuous and honest writers of this age. In the east, sinister designs, rancor, contentions and strife were everywhere predominant. * * *

In the west, the bishops hung round the courts of princes and indulged themselves in every species of voluptuousness; while the inferior clergy and the monks were sensual, and by the grossest vices corrupted the people whom they were set to reform.^[108]

17. State of Morals in Tenth Century.—Of the tenth century Dr. Milner, who wrote his great history for the purpose of maintaining that there had been a succession of pious men since the founding of the church by Messiah, and to "trace the goodness of God taking care of his church in every age by his providence,"^[109] says:

The famous annalist of the Roman Church,^[110] whose partiality to the see of Rome is notorious, has, however, the candor to own that this [the tenth century] was an iron age, barren of all goodness; a leaden age, abounding in all wickedness; and a dark age, remarkable above all other things for the scarcity of writers and men of learning. Christ was then, as it appears, in a very deep sleep, when the ship was covered with waves; and what seemed worse, when the Lord was thus asleep there were no disciples, who by their cries, might wake him, being themselves all fast asleep. * * * Under an allusion by no means incongruous with the oriental abd scriptural taste, this writer [Baronius] represents the divine head of the church as having given up the church for its wickedness, to a judicial impenitency, which continued the longer, because there was scarcely any zealous spirits who had the charity to pray for the cause of God upon earth. * * * Infidel Malice has with pleasure recorded the vices and the crimes of the popes of this century. Nor is it my intention to attempt to palliate the account of their wickedness. It was as deep and atrocious as language can paint; nor can a reasonable man desire more authentic evidence of history than that which the records both of civil and ecclesiastical history afford concerning the corruption of the whole church.^[111]

18. The Church Destroyed.—Beyond this century it is not necessary to go. The church of Christ no longer existed in the earth. The persecution of the Jews and the Romans, coupled with the internal dissensions in the church; the rise of false teachers, who brought in damnable heresies; the changing of the character and spirit of the church government; the addition of pagan rites and ceremonies to the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel; the admixture of pagan philosophy with Christian theology; and, finally, the universal departure of the church from that moral life enjoined upon mankind by the precepts of the Christian religion—utterly subverted the religion of Jesus Christ, and destroyed the church which he founded. The apostasy of men from that religion and church was complete; and since they did not like to retain God in their hearts, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. [See notes 1 to 6, end of section].

NOTES.

1. Admission of the Great Apostasy by Christian Writers.—The church of England in its Homily on the Perils of Idolatry, says: "Laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects and degrees have been drowned in abominable idolatry most detested by God and damnable to man for eight hundred years and more."

2. In Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (page 163)—the work is endorsed by sixty-three learned divines and Bible scholars—the following occurs: "We must not expect to see the church of Christ existing in its perfection on the earth. It is not to be found thus perfect, either in the collected fragments of Christendom, or still less in any one of those fragments."

3. John Wesley said that the reason why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the church [in the dark ages] was "because the love of many waxed cold, the Christians had turned heathens again and only had a dead form left."—(Wesley's Works, Vol. vii, sermon 89, pages 26, 27).

4. Dr. Adam Clark commenting on the fourth chapter of Ephsians—treating church officers and the gifts bestowed upon them—says: "All these officers and the and graces conferred upon them were adjudged necessary by the great head of the church for its full instruction in the important doctrines of Christianity. The same officers and gifts are still necessary, and God gives them, but they do not know their places."

5. Roger Williams (Picturesque America, page 502) refused to continue as pastor over the oldest Baptist church in America on the ground that there was "no regularly constituted church on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinance; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the great head of the church, for whose coming I am seeking."

5. Alexander Campbell, founder of the sect of the "Disciples," says: "The meaning of this institution [the kingdom of heaven] has been buried under the rubbish of human tradition for hundreds of years. It was lost in the dark ages and has never, until recently, been disinterred."—(Christianity Restored, page 184).

REVIEW.

1. What may be learned from the reproofs and admonitions in the writings of the apostles and early Christian fathers?

2. About what time did the notion arise in respect to a double rule of life?

3. What great evil grew out of this erroneous idea?

4. From whence did Christians derive their ideas which demanded the austerities they practiced?

5. Give an account of the origin of monasteries and nunneries.

6. How did the celibacy of the clergy originate?

7. When did it become an express law of the church?

8. What shameful scandal arose from this doctrine in the 3rd century?

9. Under what circumstances were lying and deceiving accounted virtues? 10. What evil grew out of this wicked notion?

11. What can you say of the general moral condition of the church in the early Christian centuries?

12. State the moral condition of the church in the 4th century. In the 5th.

13. What of the moral state of the church subsequent to the 5th?

14. Give the substance of Dr. Milner's admission concerning the moral state of the church in the 10th century.

15. State what several circumstances led to the destruction of the church of Christ.

16. Recount the admissions which noted Christian writers make concerning the apostasy from the Christian religion. (Notes end of section).