MILMAN'S HISTORY OP CHRISTIANITY.

THE history of Christianity is a perilous subject in a literary sense. If treated too religiously, there is the risk of becoming ludicrously irreverent, from the nature of many of the alleged mira- cles, and the peculiar character of many of the early fathers. If the history were chiefly theological, it would be dry and repulsive to all save divinity students; and if truly written, not very edifying to anybody, from the absurdity of some of the disputes and the uncharitable spirit in which they were conducted. If the secular predominated, it would be difficult to avoid offence in ascribing too much or too little to Providential causes, according to the reader's preconceived opinions ; whilst the author would be sub- jected to the unavoidable disadvantage of a comparison with Gin- Bos,—an historian whose peculiar purpose may readily admit an author to attain novelty in comment, but whose skill in extracting the striking points of his original authorities has left little to be gleaned by those who may follow in his steps. These difficulties Mr. AILLMAN has in the main avoided with considerable skill. Without forgetting his own character as a clergyman, or the nature of the subject he is treating of, he dis- plays neither enthusiasm nor superstition nor fanaticism nor cant. He never has recourse to the direct interposition of the Deity when human causes are sufficient ; and instead of echoing the fierce declamations against the persecutions of the Christians, ex-

aggerating the numbers who fell and the tortures they endured, he investigates the subject with a philosophical calmness and an

enlarged sagacity, that, without yielding up the sacred right of freedom of judgment, can make allowances for the circumstances of the age and the passions of men, and can see sometimes a vulgar

vanity, or a motive not more respectable, assuming the character of the martyr.

The choice and division of his subjects is equally judicious. The work opens with a general view of the condition of philosophy and religion in the Pagan world immediately preceding the birth of Christ. It next touches upon the state of Judaea, the prevalent belief in a coming Messiah, the popular notion of the splendid character he was to assume, and the wonderful temporal objects he was to effect. The life of Christ follows ; treated at unneces- sary length—not by a wiredrawn narrative, but by an elaborate commentary, which no doubt adds clearness to the texts of the Evangelists, but appears to admit of compression without any " loss of facts or sentiments. A history of the Acts of the Apostles comes next ; with an examination of the manner in which Chris- tianity was in danger of degenerating into mere Judaism, from the narrow spirit of the Jewish converts, and the schism which, ensued from the less formal views of the great Apostle of the Gentiles in regard to the Mosaic rites. The episode of the destruction of Jerusalem is too slightly touched upon. A narrative of the growing progress of the new sect, a passing notice of the fabu- lous lives and deaths of the Apostles, and an account of the con- stitution of the Christian churches, bring down the history to the close of the first century. The remainder of the work is pretty equally divided between nar- rative, descriptive criticism, and exposition ; relieved, when needful, by biographical notices of the most eminent men. The progress of the new religion is described ; now gradually and covertly making its way in peace ; now attracting the notice and obnoxious to the penalties of the law, but neither vindictively nor furiously pursued, as by PLINY under TR AJAN ; and now exposed to the fanatic violence of the people and the cruelty of the magistrates, as during the great persecutions. The heresies that sprang up in the new thith—the risk it ran of corruption from the mystic speculations of the Greek and Oriental philosophies—the injuries it received from the idolatrous superstitions of the Pagan vulgar—and the controversies to which its own mysteries gave rise, until the triumph ot"frinitarianism pre- pared mankind for the final slumber of a thousand years under the authority of Rome,—each and all afford topics for varying the narration of events. At the close of the establishment of Christianity, Mr. MismAx skilfully takes the opportunity of reviewing its various results upon manners, laws, literature, public amusements, the arts, and that comprehensive idea of the social system which passes under the name of politics. Involved with these things, not in na- ture but in fact, is an account of the great prelates of primitive Christianity, and a sketch of the leading anchorites whose example eventually led to the establishment of monachism. The literary execution of the design is always very respectable, and frequently rises to eloquence ; lint it is scarcely equal to its plan. Part of this arises from a natural deficiency that cannot be supplied—the want of a penetrating acumen, which seizes the true characteristics of things, and, with due training, a consequent skill that states them in the most effective manner Mr. Mu.stszt though just and true in his perception, and in a certain sense com. f the fires of lust boiled up in the bode, which was alieady dead. Destitute of plete, is not profound; he does not as it were picture the times to all succour, I cast myself at the feet or Jesus, washed them with my tears, dried them with my hair, and subdued the rebellious flesh by a„smodntoleletismvecesk'Is afapspteina:'d' the mind, and enable the reader to enter into the full condition of After describing the wild scenes into which he fled, the deep glens and shaggy the past. At the same time, it must be admitted that this is a precipices--" The Lord is my witness," he concludes, high quality, rare even in writers of fiction, still rarer in historians, to be present among the ange-lie hosts, and sang t We will haste after thee for if indeed it is found in any who are not contemporary with the facts the sweet savour of thy ointments.' " For at times, on the other hand, gentle and more than human voices were heard consoling the constant and devout re- they relate. close; and sometimes the baffled daemon would humbly acknowledge himself to Butpart of the defect in execution seems to arise from a habit be rebuked before him. But this was in general after a fearful struggle. Des• of composing without long thought and close revisal,—which is the perste diseases require desperate remedies. The severest pain could alone vice of the present age ; and is not likely to be less displayed in subdue or distract the refractory desires or the preoccupied mind. Human invention was exhausted in self-inflicted torments. The Indian fits:orimtti hiere elsoruialns. a professional sermon-writer and quarterly reviewer. It is not rivalled in the variety of distorted postures and of agonizing exercises. Some looseness of style, but want of condensation. The weight of the lived in clefts and caves ; some in huts, into which the light of day could not sentiment might often be given in much less bulk. We have penetrate ; some hung huge weights to their arms, necl,,oerxlioliotstsed; well-turned periods conveying with clearness and sometimes with fined themselves in cages ; some on the tops of mountains, force the views of the author, but occupying a paragraph where and weather. The most celebrated hermit at length for life condemned himself a sentence would perhaps suffice. Hence the patience of the to stand in a fiery climate, on the narrow top of a pillar. Nor were these reader sometimes advances beyond the narrative of the writer, in a an always rude or uneducated iaties. St. Arsonists had filled, asul with universal respect, the dignified post of tutor to the Emperor Areadius. But Arsenius subject which is remote, and where, unlike a temporary topic, in- became an hermit ; nud, among other things, it is related of him, that employing terest is satisfied with a leading view instead of requiring the himself in the common occupation of the Egyptian monks, weaving baskets of details to be exhausted. But the work is clearly the best and pain-]Caves, he changed only once a year the water its which the leaves were most popular history we have of Christianity till the abolition of moistened. The smell of the fetid water was a just penalty thi the perfumes Paganism and the virtual subversion of the Western Empire ; and which he had inhaled during his worldly life. Even sleep was a sin ; an hour's unbroken slumber was sufficient for a monk. On Saturday evening, Arsenius one which will be found equally remote from the scepticism of the laid down with his back to the setting sun, and continued awake in fervent concealed Infidel and the blindness of the over-zealous Christian. prayer till the rising sun shone on his eyes ; so far had Christianity departed We think, however, that Mr. MILMAN may prepare for an outcry from its humane and benevolent and social simplicity. from the more vehement religionists, whether Catholic, Sectarian, As an example of the sound and discriminating judgment of or Evangelical. Mr. Mir.max, we may take an ingenious conjecture of the cause We have not stopped to examine particular passages, in which of the first persecution under Maio; when the odium of firing it is possible (and in some instances certain) that oversights or Rome was transferred to the Christians, and they suffered the omissions may be detected, but which never affected the permanent most horrible torments in consequence. To comprehend the standing of a work of this kind. We shall therefore at once close explanation, however, we must endeavour to possess ourselves with our notice with a few specimens of Mr. INImmax's history. Here the notions then prevalent respecting the millennium. The second is an eloquent account of the great founder of monachism,—for, in advent of Christ was daily expected, and was not only to be se- despite of Mr. MILMAN'S remark, we suspect that he is entitled to companied by the reign of the saints on earth in a sort of ecstatic the name. Socialism—a a city of gold and precious stones was erected [by the St. Antony is sometimes described as the founder of the monastic life ; it is stowed on the adjacent territory ; in the free enjoyment of whose clear, however, that he only imitated and excelled the example of less famous spontaneous productions, the happy and benevolent people were anchorites. But he may fairly be considered. as its representative. never to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property;' Antony was born of Christian parents, bred up in the faith ; and before he was but, " whilst the happiness anti glory of a temporal reign were pro. twenty years old, found himself master of considerable wealth, and charged with the care of a younger sister. He was a youth of ardent imagination, vehement mised to the disciples of Christ, the most dreadful calamities," impulses, and so imperfectly educated as to be acquainted Ivith no language but continues GIBBON, " were denounced against an unbelieving world." his native Egyptian. A constant attslidant on Christian worship, he had long • • . . " A regular series was prepared of all the moral and phy looked back with admiration on thiee; primitive times when the Christians laid sical evils which can afflict a flourishing nation. . . . All these all their worldly goods at the feet of the Apostles. One day lie beard the sen- tence, Go, sell all thou bast, n:, lgive to the poor, * • and come and follow were only so many preparatory and alarming signs of the great ca- me." It seemed personally addressed to 'himself by the voice of God. He tastrophe of Rome, when the country of the Seipios and Caesars returned borne, distributed his lai.ds among his neighbours, sold his furniture should be consumed by a flame from heaven, and the city of the and other effects, except a small sum reserved for Ids sister, whom he placed seven hills, with her palaces, her temples, and her triumphal under the care of sonic pious Christian virgins. Another text, " Take no arches, should be buried in a vast. lake of fire and brimstone." Let thought fin the morrow," tram:pierced his heart, and sent him forth for ever

from the society of men. Ile found an aged solitary who dwelt without the

city. He was seized with pious emulation, and from that time devoted him- self to the severest asceticism. There was still, however, something gentle snore excited than that of England during the Popish Plot, and we and humane about the asceticism of Antony. Ills retreat (if we may trust have a reasonable

the romantic life of St. Hilarion, in the works of St. Jerome,) was by no

means of the horrid and savage eheracter affected by some other recluses. It

was at the foot of a high and rocky mountain, from which welled forth a

stream of limpid water, bordered by palms, which afforded an agreeable shade.

Antony had planted this pleasant spot with vines and shrubs ; there was an enclosure for fruit-trees and vegetables, and a tank, from which the labour of Antony irrigated his garden. IEs conduct and character seemed to partake e, of this less stern and gloomy tendency. Inc visited the most distinguished anchorites; but only to observe, that ho might imitate, the peculiar virtue of each—the gentle disposition of one—the constancy of prayer in another—the superstition seized on the popular mind. Great public calamities can never be kindness, the patience, the industry, the vigils, the macerations, the love of study, the passionate contemplatliat of the Deity, the charity towards mat-

kind. It was his devout ambition to equal or transcend each iu his particular judgment had been inflicted, and sought thr vi tins to appease their yet per- austerity or distinctive excellence.

passions, its infirmities, its perils. The hermit could fly from its fellow men, f H and fervid temperament

but not from himself. The velientinit contributes still snore to blind the judgment and exasperate the passions. The Itlich drove him into the desert was not subdued ; it found new ways of giving loose to its other foreign religions, at which the Dative deities might take offence, had been long doiniciliated in Rome. Christianity was time newest, perhaps was teak- with worse enemies than mankind. Themonology, in all its multiplied forms, claimed with eager animosity by the Jews, among whom it originated; its was now an established part of tin: Christian creed, and embraced with the

greatest ardour by men in such a state of religious excitement as to turn her- mite. 'e trials, the temptations, the agonies, were felt and described as per- excited imagination of the hostile people might :Ill up with the darkest and sonal conflicts with hosts of impure, malignant, furious fiends. In the desert, most monstrous hems. We have sometimes thought it possible that incautious or misinterpreted ex- these brings took visible fonts and substance; in the day-dreams of profound pressions attic Christians themselves might hate attracted the blind resent- religious meditation, in the visions of the agitated and exhausted spirit, they

were undiscernilde from reality. It is impossible, in the wild legends which meat of the people. The minds of , the Christians were constantly occupied with the terrific images of the final coining of the Lord to judgment in tare;became an ess.mtial part of Christian literature, to decide how much is the the conflagration of the world was the expected consiumnation, which they disordered imagination of the saint, the self-deception of the credulous, or the

fiction of the zealous writer. 'lime very effort to suppress certain feelings has devoutly supposed to be instantly at band. 'When, therefore, they saw the a natural tendency to awaken and strengthen them. The horror of carnal in-

great metropolis of the world, the city of pride, of sensuality, of idolatry, of dulgence would not permit the sensual desires to die away into apathy. Men bloodshed, blazing like a fiery furnace before their eyes—the Babylon of the are apt to find what they seek in their own hearts ; and by anxiously searching West wrapped in one vast sheet of destroying flame—the more timatical, the for the guilt of lurking lust, or desire of worldly wealth or enjoyment, the Jewish part of the community, may have looked on with someilline of fierce conscience, as it were, struck forcibly upon the chord which it wished to deaden, hope and eager anticipation ; expressions almost triumphant may have burst and made it vibrate with a kind of morbid but more than ordinary energy. from unguarded lips. They may have attributed the ruin to the righteous Nothing was so lieeotious or so terrible as not to find its way to the jell attic vengeance, of the Lord ; it may have seemed the opening of that kingdom recluse. Beautiful women danced around him ; beasts of every shape, and which was to commence with the discomfiture, the desolation or Heathenism, monsters with no shape at all, howled and yelled and shrieked about him, while and to conclude with the establishment of the millennial kingdom of Christ. i he knelt in .prayer or snatched his broken slumbers. " Oh how often in the de- Some of these, in the first instance apprehended and examined, may have sect," says Jerome, " in that vast solitude, which, parched by the sultq sun, made acknowledgements before a passionate and astonished tribunal, which affords a dwelling to the monks, did I fancy myself in the midst of the luxuries of would lead to the conclusion that, in the hour of general destruction, they had Rome. I sate alone, for I wet, fall of bitterness. My misshapen limbs were some trust, sonic security, denied to the rest of mankind ; and this exemption rough with sackcloth ; and my 4:in was so squalid that I might have been from common misery, if it would not mark them out in some dark manlier as u taken for a negro. T w cc

ears and groans ere my occupation every day, and all

i the authors of the conflagration, at all events would convict them of tint day : f sleep surprised me unawares, my naked bones, which scarcely held hatred of the human race so often advanced against the Jews. together, clashed on the earth. I will say nothing of my food or beverage : ADVANTAGES OF MONKERY IN ITS ORIGIN. even the rich have nothing but cold water ; tiny warm drink is a luxury. Yet Amid the irremediable evils and the wretchedness that could not be averted, even I, who for the fear of hell had condemned myself to this dungeon, the it was almost a social benefit to raise some part of mankind to a state of serene ST. ANTONY AND HIS SUCCESSORS. imagination], and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was be- us, with Mr. alltrArAs, suppose fanatical mcn, possessed with these opinions, taken before authorities anxious to condemn, and a people EXPOSITION OF TUE rim PERSECUTION.

Though at first there appears something unaccountable in this proscription of a harmless and unobtrusive sect, against whom the worst charge, at last, was the introduction of a nee; and peaceful form of worshipping one lkity,—a lege which the Jew had always enjoyed without molestation,—yet the process by which the public mind was led to tide outburst of fury, and the manner m which it was directed against the Christians, is clearly indicated by the historian. Alter the first consternation and distress, an access of awe-struck referred to obvious or accidental cause.,. The trembling people had recourse to religious rites, endeavoured to ascertain by what offended deities this dreadful

kind. It was his devout ambition to equal or transcend each iu his particular judgment had been inflicted, and sought thr vi tins to appease their yet per- austerity or distinctive excellence.

baps unmitigated gods. But when superstition hes once found out victims to

But man does not violate 'mime with impunity ; the solitary ose guilt or impiety it may ascribe the divine anger, human revenge mingles ar state had its

itself' up with the relentless determination to propitiate offended .leaven, and

but not from himself. The velientinit contributes still snore to blind the judgment and exasperate the passions. The Itlich drove him into the desert was not subdued ; it found new ways of giving loose to its other foreign religions, at which the Dative deities might take offence, had been long doiniciliated in Rome. Christianity was time newest, perhaps was teak- with worse enemies than mankind. Themonology, in all its multiplied forms, claimed with eager animosity by the Jews, among whom it originated; its was now an established part of tin: Christian creed, and embraced with the prineiples and practices were obscure and unintelligible; and that obscurity the Th

excited imagination of the hostile people might :Ill up with the darkest and sonal conflicts with hosts of impure, malignant, furious fiends. In the desert, most monstrous hems. We have sometimes thought it possible that incautious or misinterpreted ex- these brings took visible fonts and substance; in the day-dreams of profound pressions attic Christians themselves might hate attracted the blind resent- religious meditation, in the visions of the agitated and exhausted spirit, they

were undiscernilde from reality. It is impossible, in the wild legends which meat of the people. The minds of , the Christians were constantly occupied with the terrific images of the final coining of the Lord to judgment in tare;became an ess.mtial part of Christian literature, to decide how much is the the conflagration of the world was the expected consiumnation, which they disordered imagination of the saint, the self-deception of the credulous, or the

fiction of the zealous writer. 'lime very effort to suppress certain feelings has devoutly supposed to be instantly at band. 'When, therefore, they saw the a natural tendency to awaken and strengthen them. The horror of carnal in-

great metropolis of the world, the city of pride, of sensuality, of idolatry, of dulgence would not permit the sensual desires to die away into apathy. Men bloodshed, blazing like a fiery furnace before their eyes—the Babylon of the are apt to find what they seek in their own hearts ; and by anxiously searching West wrapped in one vast sheet of destroying flame—the more timatical, the for the guilt of lurking lust, or desire of worldly wealth or enjoyment, the Jewish part of the community, may have looked on with someilline of fierce conscience, as it were, struck forcibly upon the chord which it wished to deaden, hope and eager anticipation ; expressions almost triumphant may have burst and made it vibrate with a kind of morbid but more than ordinary energy. from unguarded lips. They may have attributed the ruin to the righteous Nothing was so lieeotious or so terrible as not to find its way to the jell attic vengeance, of the Lord ; it may have seemed the opening of that kingdom recluse. Beautiful women danced around him ; beasts of every shape, and which was to commence with the discomfiture, the desolation or Heathenism, monsters with no shape at all, howled and yelled and shrieked about him, while and to conclude with the establishment of the millennial kingdom of Christ. i he knelt in .prayer or snatched his broken slumbers. " Oh how often in the de- Some of these, in the first instance apprehended and examined, may have sect," says Jerome, " in that vast solitude, which, parched by the sultq sun, made acknowledgements before a passionate and astonished tribunal, which affords a dwelling to the monks, did I fancy myself in the midst of the luxuries of would lead to the conclusion that, in the hour of general destruction, they had Rome. I sate alone, for I wet, fall of bitterness. My misshapen limbs were some trust, sonic security, denied to the rest of mankind ; and this exemption rough with sackcloth ; and my 4:in was so squalid that I might have been from common misery, if it would not mark them out in some dark manlier as u i the authors of the conflagration, at all events would convict them of tint day : f sleep surprised me unawares, my naked bones, which scarcely held hatred of the human race so often advanced against the Jews.

even the rich have nothing but cold water ; tiny warm drink is a luxury. Yet Amid the irremediable evils and the wretchedness that could not be averted, even I, who for the fear of hell had condemned myself to this dungeon, the it was almost a social benefit to raise some part of mankind to a state of serene companion only of scorpions and wild beasts, was in the midst of girls dancing. indifference, to resider some at least superior to the general calamities. Mo- My face was pale with fasting, but the Mind in my cold body burned with desires ; nachism, indeed, directly secured many in their isolation from all domestic ties, from that worst suffering inflicted by barbarous warfare, the sight of be- ioved females outraged, and innocent children butchered. In those times, the man was happiest who had least to lose, and who exposed the fewest vulnera- ble points of feeling or sympathy: the natural affections, in which, in ordinary times, consists the best happiness of man, were in those days such perilous in- dulgences, that he who was entirely detached from them embraced, perhaps, con- sidering temporal views alone, the most prudent course. The solitary could but suffer in his own person; and though by no menus secure in his sanctity from insult, or even death, his self-inflicted privations hardened him against the former, his high-wrought enthusiasm enabled him to meet the latter with calm resignation ; belied none to leave whom he had to lament, none to lament him after his departure. The spoiler who found his way to his secret cell was battled by his poverty ; and the sword which cut short his days but shortened ids painful pilgrimage on earth, and removed him at once to an anticipated heaven. With what different feelings would he behold, in his poor and naked and solitary cell, the approach of the blood-thirsty barbarians, from the father of a family in his splendid palace, or his more modest and comfortable private dwell- ing, with a who in his arms, whose death he would desire to see rather than that worse than death to which she might first be doomed in his presence ; with helpless children clinging around his knees ; the blessings which he had en- joyed, the wealth or comfort of his house, the beauty of his wife, of his daugh- ters, or even of his sons, being the strongest attraction to the spoiler, and irri- tating more violently his merciless and unsparing passions. If to some the mowed ie state offered a refuge for the sad remainder of their bereaved life, others may ha-:e taken warning in time, and with deliberate forethought refused to implicate themselves in tender connexions, wltich were threatened with such deplorable end. Those who secluded themselves from domestic relations from other motives, at all events were secured from such miseries, and might be en- vied by those who had played the game of life with. a higher stake, and ven- tured on its purest pleasures, with the danger of incurring all its bitterest reverses.